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1fake	What is amazing about this video is that it captures the unimaginable positive attitude of the female Trump’supporter in the face of an angry mob of Trump haters. These men waving Mexican flags and shouting expletives can be seen throwing eggs and other unknown objects at her face and head while yelling Mexico ! This brave woman just smiles and flashes a peace sign at the angry mob. Talk about composure!These men waving Mexican flags are more than likely illegal aliens. They are becoming increasingly more violent as the prospect of being sent back to Mexico or Latin America is becoming closer and closer to a reality. The gravy is train is pulling out and these uninvited criminals who have been living in our country under the cover of progressivism are scared to death they’re about to get the boot. This will only get worse before it gets better. If America is serious about sending these lawbreakers back to their homeland, we need to use the woman in this video as an example of courage and steadfast commitment to saving our nation.Watch: The moment a Trump’supporter, surrounded by protesters, is egged in the face, hit by other food. pic.twitter.com/qYFdwJWvrS Jacob Rascon (@Jacobnbc) June 3, 2016Here is a view from another angle of the mob of Mexican men assaulting the lone female:https://twitter.com/JaredWyand/status/738645772409970688
0true	U.S. President Donald Trump’s Cabinet is worth a combined $14 billion, and they are catching flak in recent weeks for confessing an inability to keep track of their vast sums of wealth. But private bankers who work with the ultra rich say that if they had a dollar for every time a client forgot about a million, they would be, well, almost as rich as their clients. “We see it all the time,” with new clients, said Chris Walters of GenSpring Family Offices, SunTrust Bank Inc’s (STI.N) branch for clients with more than $50 million in assets. “It’s not that they are surprised they own the asset. They just omitted it in the inventory.” Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) partner who is Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Treasury Department, was grilled by members of the Senate last week for inadvertently failing to disclose more than $100 million in real estate. On Tuesday, the nominee for head of the budget office, Mick Mulvaney, said he did not realize he needed to pay $15,000 in federal taxes for a nanny until scrutinizing his finances more closely for confirmation proceedings. Trump himself said in an interview with Reuters last March that he does not pay much attention to his own investments in hedge funds and mutual funds. “I have no idea how they are doing. I don’t really care,” Trump said. “I’m in a lot of things. I may be in a few funds. I have no idea if they are up or down. I just know that they have been very good over a period of time.” Trump’s lawyer Sheri Dillon has since said that he has liquidated all of his investments. Senate leadership has delayed confirmation hearings for three other wealthy Trump nominees to allow more time for nominees to file disclosures and to accommodate schedules. In response to questions about how people with millions or billions of dollars who hire experts to carefully tally their vast wealth could lose track of such big chunks of money, private bankers and family office managers said their clients simply live much more complicated financial lives than ordinary people. About one-in-five people with more than $25 million in assets hire advisers to take care of tasks like paying daily bills, managing staff at multiple homes and keeping track of assets around the globe, according to a report by research firm Spectrem. Advisers say their clients need this type of assistance because they work, socialize and travel too frequently to take care of mundane tasks themselves. Eileen Foley, head of Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s (BK.N) family office business, said that some clients want daily reports detailing every dollar that goes in and out of each account. They also ask for daily reports on investments, tangible assets, properties and liabilities. When a client is nominated for a position on the board of a public company or in government, this type of daily monitoring can help she said: “It’s not a fire drill.” But even with that type of due diligence, clients often forget to mention assets held by multiple people, like limited partnerships. Those structures are harder for advisers to discover in financial statements, because they are often structured to keep ownership opaque. Mnuchin, for instance, failed to disclose around $900,000 worth of artwork held by his children, according to media reports. Mnuchin did not respond to requests for comment. He also did not initially disclose homes in New York, Los Angeles and Mexico. The complexity of a rich person’s financial life usually builds over time as they acquire houses and collections and other belongings, advisers said. In many cases, if a client has not been forced to detail all their assets or confirm that every domestic employee has insurance coverage, then they probably have not done it, said Bill Woodson, head of North American family offices at Citigroup Inc’s (C.N) private bank. “It’s understandable why” they forget, he said. “It doesn’t excuse it.” (This story corrects spelling of flak in first paragraph).
0true	The Paris climate change deal does not infringe on U.S. sovereignty, France’s ambassador to the United States said on Wednesday after multiple sources said President Donald Trump would pull his country out of the global pact. “The Paris accord is a political agreement. It doesn’t infringe on U.S. sovereignty. National commitments are voluntary and may be amended,” Ambassador Gerard Araud said in a tweet. He added that major American corporations had expressed their support for the deal.
1fake	This isn’t the first time Obama left an important figure behind in our war on terror. Remember Pakistani, Dr. Shakil Afridi who helped us to locate Osama Bin Laden, and was left behind to fend for himself? Today, Afridi is in solitary confinement at Peshawar Central Prison, a fortified red-brick remnant of Britain s colonial rule that is crammed with more than 2,000 inmates, ranging from petty thieves to Taliban assassins.Sami Kazikhani once risked his life serving alongside U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, but now he, his wife and their young daughter find themselves sleeping in refugee camps and the unfamiliar streets of Europe as they’desperately seek a new life in America.Marked for death in his homeland after being outed as a collaborator in a dramatic incident at a family wedding, Kazikhani, who was lauded by Marines he once served, was forced to flee last year even while he was applying for safe passage to the U.S. with his wife Yasmiin and infant daughter Roxanna under a special visa program designed for those who served our troops. With tribal elders ordering his death, Kazikhani fled first to Turkey, then made the dangerous trip across the Aegean Sea just weeks ago after being ordered out of Turkey. The trip was horrible, Kazikhani, 30, told FoxNews.com from Germany, where he and his family are living with thousands of refugees. We nearly drowned. We saw others who drowned. We were saved three times. Every time we had to jump into the boat with my daughter, I was sad. It made me cry. The only thing I ask is that they’don’t let me down, he added. That they give me the chance to do more for my new home. Sami KazikhaniOnce in Greece, the family wandered north, sleeping on streets, along railroad tracks and in squalid refugee camps, he’said. Everywhere we went, it was no good for us, Kazikhani said. Greece, Macedonia, Serbia. They all began to deport Afghans. Sami Kazikani once risked his life serving alongside U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, but now he, his wife and their young daughter find themselves homeless in Europe.Now in Germany, Kazikhani awaits an asylum hearing on Dec. 4 that would allow him to live there, but fears the worst. I feared for my life in Afghanistan, but now I m more afraid of being deported without even knowing what is what, he’said.His supporters say he has more than earned a place in America for himself and his family. All coalition allies offer special visas for interpreters in Iraq and Afghanistan who served their troops, but the U.S. process is fraught with paperwork that can’turn bureaucratic snarls into life and death for Afghans accused of being traitors and now actively hunted down by the Taliban, ISIS and Al Qaeda. Everywhere we went; it was no good for us. Greece. Macedonia. Serbia. They all began to deport Afghans, Kazikani recently said to FoxNews.com. (Aaron and Marion Fleming) I became a translator because I wanted to serve my country and because I was able to speak English, Kazikhani told FoxNews.com in an interview conducted via Facebook Messenger. I thought I could also be helpful to the coalition forces as well. But there were many who absolutely did not like the people who worked with NATO, he’said. Especially interpreters. One former Marine who served shoulder-to-shoulder with Kazikhani is trying to make sure the U.S. pays its debt to Kazikhani. All we are trying to get for him is a verification of employment so we can finish the visa process, but the [U.S.] government is not doing anything, said former Marine counter-intelligence officer Aaron Fleming, who worked with Kazikhani in Afghanistan and praised his commitment to American’troops.Fleming is working with No One Left Behind,, a nonprofit founded by Matt Zeller, a former U.S. Army Intelligence officer who fought to bring to the U.S. a translator who saved his life in Afghanistan. He worries that Kazikhani may not even be safe in refugee camps.Via: FOX News
0true	U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s cause of death will not be officially determined for several days, the top official in the Texas county where Scalia died during a hunting trip said on Sunday. Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara said in an interview that she had misspoken when she told local television station WFAA-TV that Scalia’s death certificate would list the cause of death as a heart attack. (This story corrects spelling of city in dateline to “Marfa,” not “Martha”)
1fake	Nicholas Ragin has spent a decade in prison because his court-appointed attorney slept through his 2006 trial. This week, his 30-year sentence has been thrown out by the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, in Richmond, Virginia.Nicholas Ragin has waited a long time for justice. When he was first indicted in 2004, like so many Americans caught up in the justice system, he could not afford a lawyer to defend himself against the charges. Instead, he was appointed a public defender named Nikita V. Mackey.These were serious charges. Ragin and several others stood accused to running a prostitution ring in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was alleged that girls as young as 14 were being pimped out for $200 a night. Six women testified to being trapped in the’service of Ragin and his alleged accomplices. This case demonstrated how devastating prostitution, drug trafficking and gun toting can be for the Charlotte community, U.S. Attorney Gretchen Shappert said in a written statement. The victims were preyed upon by individuals with no regard for their dignity. It took until 2006 for the case to go to trial, and all four of the accused were sentence to a mandatory 10 year sentence with the possibility of life behind bars.However, we would never know if the conviction was sound, due to the appalling behavior of Ragin s court-appointed attorney. Judge Roger Gregory of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Ragin s conviction for conspiracy and racketeering can be overturned, as he did not receive the defense he is due under the U.S. constitution. In his written decision, the Judge stated: We hold that a defendant is deprived of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel when counsel sleeps during a substantial portion of the defendant s trial. Nicholas Ragin s Sixth Amendment right to counsel was violated not because of specific legal errors or omissions indicating incompetence in counsel s representation but because Ragin effectively had no legal assistance during a substantial portion of his trial, Attorney Peter Adolf testified at the appeal that during Ragin s trial, the Judge: leaned into his microphone, because we were all sitting there and (Mackey) wasn’t moving and said, Mr. Mackey . . . very loudly. Mackey then jumped up and sort of looked around and was licking his lips and moving his mouth and looked sort of confused and looked all over the room, .Despite this clear ineffective assistance of counsel, Ragin s trial proceeded to conviction, without the Judge or any other authority stepping in to uphold due process.What s worse, is that Mackey has form. According to the New York Daily News:He resigned from Charlotte Police Department after 14 years as a cop when facing accusations that he falsified time sheets.Remarkably, four years later Mackey was elected as sheriff for the’same police department, but the’state quickly overturned it after a local news investigation uncovered questionable voting tactics.Mackey has bungled other legal cases, too, like when he failed to appear in court for two separate trials in 2007 and 2008 and once caused a client s adoption to fall through because he failed to communicate with them about the legal process.His job performance shortcomings aside, he was elected in 2008 as a North Carolina state representative and served two years in office.In 2010, the North Carolina bar suspended his license for three years for failing to pay taxes, despite his LinkedIn page saying he is a tax attorney.And so, Ragin s conviction has been overturned. Either an innocent man has spent 10 years in jail for a crime he did not commit, or a guilty man has been freed. Either way, the justice system has failed, catastrophically. And not just this once.As John Oliver highlighted during a 2015 episode of Last Week Tonight , even a gifted and determined public defender is unlikely to be able to offer up any kind of decent defense due to the hideous working conditions placed upon them. Many are being loaded up with 1,000 cases per year that s three cases per day: With caseloads that heavy, public defenders cannot possibly prepare an effective defense, Oliver said. A study in New Orleans, a few years back, found the city had some part-time defenders who could only spend an average of seven minutes per case. And that is not long enough to prepare anything. If I only had seven minutes to prepare this show, I would definitely not be talking about public defenders right now. I d be desperately trying to fill time right now by listing the Muppets in order of f*ckability. Those familiar with the Adnan Syed case made famous by Serial and later, the Undisclosed Podcast, will be familiar with the issues around ineffective assistance of counsel, and the devastating impact it can have on whole communities. Syed has spent 17 years in jail for the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, in a case founded on so many inaccuracies and prejudices that it simply beggars belief that he was in jail longer than a day.The issue of whether we think a person is innocent or guilty of the crime is secondary to the issue of our justice system failing to deliver effective trials. Particularly to people who cannot afford to pay for their own defense. Without that guarantee, we do not have a justice system. We have a justice system for the rich, where the accused is presumed innocent until or unless they are found guilty. For everyone else, we have plea bargaining system where guilt is presumed, and it is simply a matter of negotiating the penalty. Not only does this strip people of their freedom, but in many states, their right to vote.While this situation is allowed to continue, the U.S. Justice system will continue to lag behind the rest of the developed world and Americans will continue to be denied justice.Featured Image via Mecklenburg County
0true	Three Malawian ministers will testify in court against a former cabinet colleague charged with abuse of office over a maize procurement contract, court documents showed. President Peter Mutharika launched an investigation in January into the government order for 100,000 tonnes of Zambian white maize, after an opposition leader there said he had seen documents showing Malawi had been charged $345 per ton instead of the $215 the consignment was worth. Then agriculture minister George Chaponda was arrested in July, sacked and charged with abuse of office and possession of foreign currency without lawful justification. He pleaded not guilty to both charges and was released on bail pending trial, for which no date has yet been set. Malawi was importing maize to ease food shortages triggered by a severe drought that swept the region in 2016. According to court documents seen by Reuters, Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe, Information Nicoluas Dausi and Trade and Industry Minister Henry Mussa will be called to give evidence against Chaponda. The three ministers, who declined to comment, are expected to testify late this month, local newspapers said. Malawi s Anti-Corruption Bureau also declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
1fake	If you are looking for somewhere to drink while you watch former-FBI Director James Comey s testimony on Thursday morning, then it seems like your prayers have been answered. At least three bars in Washington DC will be opening early for the event.Shaw s Tavern at 520 Florida Ave NW will be hosting The Comey Hearing Covfefe. Opening at 9:30 am, Shaw s will have five screens showing Comey s testimony and will be serving $5 Stolichnaya Vodka flavors, as well as some house specials for the day, including the FBI sandwich, consisting of Fried chicken breast, Bacon and Iceberg lettuce on a toasted bun with fries for $10. If you’d prefer breakfast, then there is another FBI available French toast, Bacon and Ice cream, also for $10.Duffy s Irish Pub, situated at 2106 Vermont Ave NW, will have their James Comey Show featuring the Covfefe Cocktail. Although few details are known about the event or the contents of the Covfefe Cocktail, Duffy s is decked out with 15 screens and serves what have been voted The Best Wings in DC, hopefully all left ones.Another option is The Partisan, located at 709 D St NW, and their Comey Viewing Party. The Partisan will be opening at 10 am for all of the Comey action, but suggest grabbing breakfast at Red Apron Butcher s D Street location first. After that, you can pull up a seat in The Partisan and watch it all go down while enjoying either a Last Word or Drop The Bomb cocktail at $6 each.Unfortunately, not everyone wanting to watch the’show with an early morning drink will be in Washington, however, those in Houston, TX, will be in luck with Axelrad at 1517 Alabama St playing host to the Comey Testimony Viewing the SUPER BOWL of Washington. Axelrad will open at 8:45 am and will be offering $1 off their political drinks including impeachmint and bad hombre. Muffins, granola, and coffee will also be available.Who said you had to stay home to enjoy all of the Comey testimony fun on Thursday morning?Featured image via Eric Thayer/Getty Images
1fake	Pathetic New Age guru and alternative medicine activist Dr. Deepak Chopra attacked Donald Trump Tuesday in an interview on Fox News The Alan Colmes Show, during which he called the presumptive GOP presidential nominee both emotionally and mentally retarded. Chopra, 68, said that Trump epitomizes, among other things, the darkest demons of America s collective psyche. I would never say this unless I believed it was 100% true, but he represents the racist, the bigot, the one who s prejudiced, the one who is full of fear and hatred, the one who represents emotional retardation of a three-year old, Chopra said of Trump. And yet he’s so popular because he’s given permission to our collective psyche to express their darkest demons. Radio host Colmes asked Chopra if Trump is himself a racist and bigot, or whether he just represents those ideologies to his supporters. I think he is, Chopra said, adding: I think he’s racist, he’s bigoted, he’s prejudiced. He s full of fear. He is angry. He has a lot of hatred. He pouts, he’s belligerent, he’s emotionally retarded. Via: Breitbart News
1fake	Leaked emails from Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta s personal email account published by WikiLeaks reveal the Clinton campaign s coordination with George Soros s Open Society Foundations on the’subject of police reform.Soros, who has given almost $10 million to Clinton super PAC Priorities USA, is a major funder of Black Lives Matter. The Washington Times reported in August that Soros has given at least $33 million to the group through the Open Society Foundations (OSF), which he funds and controls.Both OSF and Clinton have called to crack down on police officers implicit bias. A December 2015 email exchange between Podesta and OSF president Chris Stone was included in the batch of Podesta s emails released by WikiLeaks on Friday. Hi, John. Your policy team was asking me for ideas on police reform a couple of months ago. Here s a concrete idea I ve written up, and a good hook for it in Chicago, Stone wrote.Stone attached to the email an article he wrote that advocated putting federally-funded bureaucrats in charge of police oversight.Read more: Daily Caller
0true	U.S. senators reached an agreement on Monday on legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia, including a provision that would prevent the White House from easing, suspending or ending sanctions without congressional approval. The agreement, to be filed as an amendment to an Iran sanctions bill, is intended to punish Russia over issues including its alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and support for the government of Syria in that country’s six-year-long civil war. [L1N1J41LS] The Iran bill is due come up for a vote as soon as this week. Besides the provision setting up a process for Congress to review changes in sanctions, the measure would put into law sanctions previously established via presidential executive order, including some on certain Russian energy projects and debt financing in some industries. It would impose new sanctions on Russians found to be guilty of human rights abuses, supplying weapons to Syria’s government and conduct cyber attacks on behalf of Russia’s government, among others. The measure also would allow new sanctions on Russian mining, metals, shipping and railways. The legislation is backed by both Republicans and Democrats, and is expected to easily pass the Senate. It was introduced amid an intense focus in the U.S. capital on relations with Russia, and investigations by the Department of Justice and congressional committees of whether Russia sought to influence the 2016 U.S. elections to help elect Republican President Donald Trump, and whether Trump associates colluded with Moscow as it sought to influence the election. To become law, the legislation would have to pass the House of Representatives and be signed into law by Trump. If Trump objected, some of its backers said they expected enough congressional support to override a veto. “These additional sanctions will ... send a powerful and bipartisan statement to Russia and any other country who might try to interfere in our elections that they will be punished,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. Russia has denied attempting to interfere in the U.S election, and Trump has dismissed any talk of collusion. The measure also authorizes “robust assistance” to strengthen democratic institutions and counter disinformation in European countries that might be targeted by what the legislation’s sponsors described as Russian aggression. In December, the final full month of President Barack Obama’s administration, Washington sanctioned Russian businessmen and companies for Moscow’s role in Ukraine via executive order.
0true	The White House will likely make a decision by June on whether it will release some classified material withheld from the public 9/11 Commission Report, a former U.S. senator who co-chaired the congressional inquiry into the attacks said on Sunday. The withheld section of the official report on the 2001 attacks is central to a dispute over whether Americans should be able to sue the Saudi Arabian government for damages. The Office of the U.S. Director of National Intelligence is reviewing the material to see whether it can be declassified. Former Sen. Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat, has been pressing for the release of the information and said that it may shed light on the financial backers for 19 hijackers who killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept 11, 2001. Graham told NBC’s Meet the Press that he believed that some of the withheld classified material could soon be released. “The president’s staff at least has said that they will make a decision by June, and I hope that decision is to honor the American people and make it available,” Graham said. Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said last week that he also supported releasing the material. “The release of these pages will not end debate over the issue, but it will quiet rumors over their contents,” Representative Adam Schiff said in a statement. “As is often the case, the reality is less damaging than the uncertainty.”
1fake	Watch:You want a #JobsReport?Here's a jobs report: President Trump is bringing jobs back to America & keeping promises. #FlashbackFriday pic.twitter.com/qViMRO9OOv #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) March 10, 2017
1fake	Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6:00 PM PST \| 8:00 PM CST \| 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along with Basil Valentine of The Sunday Wire Radio Show, Jay Dyer from Jay s Analysis and Stewart Howe of 21WRire and ACR for the 90th episode of BOILER ROOM. Water the plants, put the kids to bed and get your favorite snuggy out so you can drop deep into the Boiler Room with the ACR brain-trust.Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY!Listen to Boiler Room #90 on Spreaker.Reference Links:
0true	The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld federal disclosure rules for political advertising, rejecting an appeal by a Denver-based libertarian think tank that wanted to run an ad without being forced to divulge its major donors. The Denver-based Independence Institute sued the Federal Election Commission, arguing the law requiring such disclosure violated its free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. The Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s ruling last year in favor of the commission. It was the latest in a decade-long series of cases brought by conservatives aiming to roll back federal campaign finance restrictions. The Independence Institute was supported in the case by influential Republican and conservative voices including Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Judicial Watch legal activist group as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce business group. The institute, ahead of the 2014 congressional elections, had sought to run a radio advertisement about increasing prison costs, telling listeners to urge their Colorado U.S. senators to support sentencing reform. Because the ad mentioned a senator by name in the lead up to an election, it triggered a provision in the 2002 campaign finance statute known as the McCain-Feingold law requiring the institute to file with the election commission and disclose any donors supporting the ad. The law was enacted to combat an explosion of what is known as “soft money” in campaigns through so-called sham issue advertisements, which cloaked partisan advocacy in discussions of public policy. Though the Supreme Court allowed unlimited campaign spending by corporations and unions in its landmark 2010 decision in the Citizens United v Federal Election Commission case, the court also upheld disclosure requirements for campaign ads. The Federal Election Commission said that for more than a century federal law has required organizations that influence elections to disclose information about their funding sources, a principle upheld in the Citizens United ruling. The Independence Institute sued in federal court in Washington in a bid to keep the names of its donors secret, arguing that its proposed ad focused on the sentencing reforms that senators were considering, not any senator’s re-election campaign. Last October, a three-judge panel of the federal court ruled against the group, saying it would be impossible to distinguish genuine issue ads that reference candidates from campaign-style ads that openly promote or disparage a candidate.
0true	Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have an opportunity to mend their countries’ ties when they meet next week, former top U.S. diplomat Henry Kissinger said on Friday, a day after he followed up a meeting with the U.S. president by having talks with Putin. Expectations that Trump’s election would bring a thaw in icy relations between Moscow and Washington have been put on hold, with the White House embroiled in a domestic row over Trump associates’ Russia ties. The U.S. and Russian leaders are to have their first face-to-face encounter next week at a G20 summit in Hamburg. At a previous moment of heightened tension between Moscow and Washington, in the 1960s, Kissinger acted as a back-channel intermediary, passing messages to the leadership of the Soviet Union on behalf of U.S. President Richard Nixon. The Kremlin on Friday denied that Kissinger, who is visiting Moscow and met Putin behind closed doors on Thursday, was acting as a go-between this time. Speaking at an international affairs conference in Moscow, Kissinger said of the planned Trump-Putin meeting: “I believe that at this moment our two countries have a responsibility, and an opportunity, to make significant progress not just by improving relations, but by improving situations around the world through cooperative efforts.” “Tensions between Russia and the United States ... have happened often before and they have been overcome often before,” Kissinger, 94, said. He did not take questions from reporters at the event. Asked if Kissinger was providing a back-channel between the Kremlin and the White House, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “He didn’t try. That did not happen.” He said the Kissinger-Putin meeting was strictly private and declined to disclose what the two men talked about. In May, Trump granted a White House audience to Kissinger. The U.S. leader said he and Kissinger would talk about Russia, among other issues. Speaking at the same Moscow event as Kissinger on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the significance of the planned Putin-Trump Hamburg meeting was that “the abnormal period in our relations when the leaders only speak by telephone will be overcome.” “Judging by their telephone conversations, they have a desire to get beyond this abnormality and start seeking agreement on specific issues.”
1fake	Republicans finally rolled out their plan to replace the Affordable Care Act on Monday and it is even worse than expected.While the full ramifications of the Make America Sick Again plan, (or as Republicans are calling it, the American Health Care Act) are still being discovered as everybody sifts through the 123-page bill, here is a quick overview of what is understood so far.First. the good news. The new plan will keep two important provisions of Obamacare. Protections for pre-existing conditions will remain in place and parents will continue to be able to keep their children on their policies until age 26.Now, the bad. And boy is there a lot of that.Corporations and billionaires, on the other hand, make out like fat rats under the Republicans replacement plan.Not all Republicans are on board with the replacement bill, though. Four Republican senators Rob Portman of Ohio, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Cory Gardner of Colorado and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska all signed a letter arguing that the plan would be a disaster for their states, as well as others, who had expanded Medicaid.Three more Republicans, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas, have all made it known that they have serious reservations about the bill.Naturally, there is much more detail and specifics than I have covered here. You can read the full bill below.American Healthcare Act by Mediaite on ScribdFeatured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
0true	Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer who had incriminating information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton that could help his father’s presidential campaign could lead investigators to probe whether he violated U.S. election law, experts said. Trump Jr. met the woman, lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, on June 9, 2016, after an email exchange with an intermediary. The emails, tweeted by Trump Jr. on Tuesday, could provide material for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election. In one of the emails dated June 3, 2016, Trump Jr. wrote: “If it’s what you say I love it.” He released the tweets after the New York Times said it planned to write about their contents and sought his comment. Trump Jr. said in his tweets that nothing came of the meeting. Veselnitskaya told NBC News early on Tuesday she was not affiliated with the Russian government and had passed no information. “In retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently,” Trump Jr. said in an interview on Fox News. “For me, this was opposition research.” Collusion itself is not an actual crime under the U.S. criminal code, so prosecutors would look to see if Trump Jr.’s conduct ran afoul of a specific law, legal experts said. Moscow has denied interference in the U.S. election, and President Donald Trump has said his campaign did not collude with Russia. Alan Futerfas, Trump Jr.’s lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment. One law that might come into play is the Federal Election Campaign Act, which makes it illegal for a foreign national to contribute to a U.S. political campaign. The campaign is also prohibited from soliciting such contributions. A contribution does not have to be monetary in nature, according to Paul S. Ryan, an attorney with watchdog group Common Cause. He said incriminating information about Clinton could be considered a contribution under the act. Ryan said Trump Jr.’s “enthusiastic response” to the offer for information and particularly his proposal in his email to have a follow-up call the next week constituted “solicitation.” “That to me is an indication, a concession by Donald Trump Jr. that he wants and is requesting this information,” Ryan said. Joshua Douglas, a professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law, said Trump Jr.’s emails made it “more plausible” that there could be a criminal case against him. James Gardner, an election law expert at the University of Buffalo Law School, said the election law was intended to target donations of cash or goods and services. He said he did not believe Trump Jr. would have violated the law if he solicited damaging information about Clinton. A federal law known as the general conspiracy statute that makes it illegal to conspire to commit a crime against or defraud the United States could also come into play if, for example, Trump Jr. tried to help Russians hack into U.S. computer networks. There was no indication that Trump Jr. did such a thing. Andrew Wright, a professor at Savannah Law School who was associate counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office under former Democratic President Barack Obama, said he thought Trump Jr.’s agreeing to meet with someone to discuss an illegal act would be enough to trigger a conspiracy charge. “It’s a very powerful tool,” he said.
1fake	The always brilliant Ben Shapiro answers that question in well, a brilliant way On Tuesday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the American woman most responsible for the current refugee crisis in the Middle East, blasted Republicans for not wanting to accept unvetted Syrian Muslim refugees in the aftermath of last week s Paris terror attacks.She tweeted:We've seen a lot of hateful rhetoric from the GOP. But the idea that we'd turn away refugees because of religion is a new low. -H Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 17, 2015 This, to be sure, is odd. Hillary decrying hateful rhetoric smacks of irony she despises Republicans so much that she labeled them her enemies during the first Demoratic debate. Furthermore, Hillary is no fighter for religious freedom. In April, she told the Women in the World Summit that deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed to allow for abortion. And in the aftermath of the Supreme Court s egregious same-sex marriage decision in June, Hillary explicitly called for the government to force churches to sanction homosexuality, explaining, Our work won’t be finished until every American can not only marry, but live, work, pray, learn and raise a family free from discrimination and prejudice. Pray as in attend church free from discrimination and prejudice. But she’s sure hot and bothered about what she terms discrimination against Muslim refugees. This isn’t particularly surprising the entire left has a peculiar soft spot for Islam.That seems weird, given Islamic countries fundamental rejection of leftist values ranging from same-sex marriage to abortion to women driving. But it isn’t so weird when considered in the context of Marxist philosophy, which sees Islam not as a religious philosophy of its own, but as a sort of bizarre cultural outgrowth of poverty. Impoverished people believe weird things, say the Marxists; if we just gave ISIS jobs, they’d stop all this nonsense and start behaving like members of the ACLU. Leftists see Islam not as an ideological force converting millions, but as a knee-jerk response to lack of basic living standards.In fact, leftists see all religion this way: as the refuge of the weakminded underclass. As Marx wrote, Religion is the’sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the’soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. Barack Obama agrees: as he’said back in 2008, poor people get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them. The view that all religious practice is essentially the domain of the exploited would cut in favor of seeing all religious practices as equally worthy of dismissal.But the left prefers Islam to Christianity. They ll fight against anyone drawing pictures of Mohammed, but they ll lose their minds if Christians complain about an artist soaking a statue of Jesus in urine.Why do leftists treat Christianity and Islam differently, if both are merely chimerical responses to the vicissitudes of life? Because leftists see Christianity as the creator of Islam s rise, and Christians as the victimizers of Muslims. The Obama State Department won’t recognize Christians as victims of incipient Muslim genocide in the Middle East, but President Obama will equate ISIS violence in 2015 with the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. President Obama believes, like many on the left, that Western civilization was founded in racism, sexism, homophobia, and other bigotry and that Christianity, as its wellspring, provided that impetus.Furthermore, Obama believes that Western civilization has exploited the rest of the world, and that it therefore bears culpability for the poverty that gave rise to the Islamic wave. Muslims are benighted victims of poverty; Christianity made them victims of poverty in the first place. Christianity thus bears blood guilt for the’sins of Islam, but Islam bears none of its own. As Dinesh D Souza puts it, Obama is an anti-colonialist and believes that the rich countries got rich by looting the poor countries, and that within the rich countries, plutocratic and corporate elites continue to exploit ordinary citizens. Taken one step further, those rich countries Christian countries exploited non-Christian countries, impoverishing them and opening them to the opium of Islam.How else to explain’the left s romance with Islam and simultaneous dismissal of Christianity? How else to explain’the left s preoccupation with allowing Muslim refugees into the Christianity-founded West while demanding nothing of Islamic countries which are murdering Christians en masse?Hillary Clinton says it s hateful for Western countries to discriminate in choosing refugees based on religious philosophy. It s far more hateful to suggest that Christianity must bow and scrape before Islam, particularly when Islamic terrorists target non-Muslims the world over. Via: Breitbart News
1fake	I guess Trump missed the’sticks and stones lesson in life as more and more of his critics are getting blocked on Twitter over the tiniest things.Take, for example, Rob Szczerba s covfefe ice cream joke. According to CNN, Szczerba tweeted Trump: @realDonaldTrump I heard #covfefe is a new flavor from Ben & Jerry s. But it s mostly just nuts! I heard #covfefe is a new flavor from Ben & Jerry's. But it's mostly just nuts! #ParisAgreement #ParisAccord Rob Szczerba (@RJSzczerba) June 2, 2017When Szczerba went to tweet Trump again not long after, he found himself blocked by Trump.How sad is that? Blocked because of a joke. Rather than laugh off his own typo, Trump would rather pout and block people.Lauren Wolfe believes that blocking critics poses dangerous implications. When Trump’shuts out his critics, he withdraws further into the bubble of sycophancy he already enjoys, Wolfe wrote in an opinion piece for CNN.Wolfe raises a valid point. As the old saying goes: if you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. So, what is Trump doing in the kitchen?Since Trump’shows no signs of stopping as the number of people he blocks on Twitter grows, questions and concerns are on the rise. While some wear their blocked status proudly and couldn’t care less, it raises first amendment concerns.If tweets by Trump, no matter how ridiculous they are, should they be inaccessible to certain people? After all, his tweets are meant to be treated as official White House statements.The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University says a lawsuit is not out of the question if Trump doesn’t unblock Twitter users. Your Twitter account is a designated public forum for essentially the’same reasons that open city council meetings and school board meetings are, the lawyers wrote in the letter.A fair point. Nobody deserves or should be exempt from what the president has to say on social media. Trump is no longer a private citizen and his Twitter account is also no longer personal to hide from others.While hilariously sad that Trump’s blocking people, it just reinforces that everything is Trump’s way or the highway.Featured image via Pete Marovich/Bloomberg via Getty Images
0true	U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia s Vladimir Putin shook hands at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit dinner in Vietnam on Friday, even though the White House said there would be no formal meeting. Trump and Putin smiled and stood next to each other for the traditional group photograph. Then they parted to sit at different parts of the table. The White House said earlier that no formal meeting was planned because of scheduling conflicts on both sides, though it was possible they would bump into each other. In terms of a scheduled, formal meeting, there s not one on the calendar and we don t anticipate that there will be one, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters minutes before landing in Danang. The main meeting of leaders from APEC countries is on Saturday in the Vietnamese resort city of Danang. Trump is on the fourth leg of a 12-day tour of Asia.
0true	U.S. President Trump vowed on Thursday to bring anyone caught leaking U.S. intelligence to justice after British police stopped sharing information about the Manchester suicide bombing with the United States. In a statement released after Trump arrived at the NATO military alliance, the president said he would seek an official review to stop leaks that he said posed a serious security threat. “The alleged leaks coming out of government agencies are deeply troubling,” Trump said in the statement. “I am asking the Department of Justice and other relevant agencies to launch a complete review of this matter, and if appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” He said the relationship between the United States and Britain was the most cherished of all U.S. ties.
0true	Catalonia s ousted leader Carles Puigdemont agreed on Tuesday to a snap election called by Spain s central government when it took control of the region to stop it breaking away, but he said the fight for independence would go on. Below are several scenarios of what could happen in the next few days. Puigdemont and his sacked cabinet have been ordered to testify before the Spanish High Court on Thursday and Friday after charges of rebellion, sedition and breach of trust were filed against them. Under Spain s legal system, a judge will then decide whether Puigdemont should go to jail pending a investigation that can sometimes take up to several years - and a potential trial. Puigdemont traveled to Brussels after the Catalan regional parliament issued a unilateral declaration of independence on Friday, and it was not immediately clear whether he would heed the call to appear before the court. He had said earlier on Tuesday he would return to Spain only when given unspecified guarantees by the Spanish government. The same charges have been drawn up against the Catalan parliament s speaker, Carme Forcadell, and other senior lawmakers but, given they have parliamentary immunity, they will testify before the Supreme Court, which is in charge of handling cases relating to lawmakers or members of the government. Prosecutors have asked the courts to order Catalan secessionist leaders to deposit 6.2 million euros to cover potential liabilities but they have not sought preventive jail against them. This could change however if Puigdemont and his associates did not show up at the High Court as the judge could deem them to be a flight risk and jail them. It is not clear whether a snap regional election will resolve the crisis. Two recent opinion polls showed support for independence may have started to wane. But an official regional survey published on Tuesday showed some 48.7 percent of Catalans believe the region should be independent, up from 41.1 pct in June and the highest since December 2014. Based on 1,338 interviews, the Centre d Estudis d Opinio poll was the first survey released since the independence declaration though the bulk of it was taken before then, between Oct. 16 and Oct. 29. Other opinion polls have also shown Catalonia is almost evenly split between pro- and anti-independence supporters. One key thing to watch will be if pro-independence parties run on a joint ticket or on separate platforms. If they ran separately, they could find it more difficult to reach a parliamentary majority. They must say whether they intend to run together before Nov. 7 and then put forward their candidates by Nov. 18. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy sacked Catalonia s government including Puigdemont and his deputy Oriol Junqueras and assumed direct control over the region. Central government ministries assumed the powers of the Catalan administration until a regional election takes place on Dec. 21. That unprecedented step was implemented smoothly and calls for civil disobedience were widely disregarded.
1fake	A television reporter has been fired after she was caught on video unleashing a vicious, expletive-laden tirade against a Philadelphia police officer.Colleen Campbell, 28, was filmed calling a cop a f*ing piece of st and trying to spit on another man after she was kicked out of Philadelphia s Helium Comedy Club on Sunday night.Campbell, who had bragged in the video that she worked at a f*ing news station , was fired from her job at PHL17 soon after the footage emerged.Watch the disgusting exchange here:The 28-year-old worked mostly in news production, but occasionally went on air as a reporter.She was asked to leave the club after multiple warnings for disrupting a show featuring comedian Craig Robinson with her loud whispering. She allegedly then got into a fight with bar staff on the way out.The video of her outside the club, which has since gone viral, was shared on Facebook by New York City comic Wil Sylvince. You guys are fing dictators You re fing ck suckers, Campbell was filmed telling the police officer outside. I did not do st, I stood there and laughed like the rest of the audience like I should. I did not disrupt anybody. The officer, who remained incredibly calm, told Campbell and another man she was with to walk away. Or what? Or what, mother fer? Lick my ahole, Campbell told him. How about that? Fing piece of st. That s why nobody likes f*ing police in this fing town. The cop proceeded to place Campbell in handcuffs after she appeared to spit in the face of a man standing outside the club. She bizarrely took off her shoe and told the man to smell it. What s that called? What s that called? Assault? Show me videotape, Campbell said after she was handcuffed. You can’t. That s why everybody hates you guys! You can’t prove it! You fing piece of s*s. For entire story: Daily Mail
1fake	You may remember Greg Gianforte, the Republican who won Montana s only Congressional seat in May even after assaulting reporter Ben Jacobs of the Guardian. He disputed the charge at first, then audio came out that clearly depicted him body-slamming the journalist after Jacobs asked a series of uncomfortable questions.Gianforte pled guilty to the charge back in June, although it had no bearing on the outcome of his post-assault election. Presumably, the voters of Montana thought Jacobs had it coming, or perhaps they’re so committed to their political party that even an assault charge won’t deter them from voting for a GOP candidate.At the time, the Tea Party lawmaker protested the judge s order that he be booked and fingerprinted, as well as have his photo taken for a mug shot. His lawyers argued that the judge didn’t have the authority to order the proceedings since he was never actually handcuffed and arrested formally a feat he pulled off by coincidentally being the candidate the local Sheriff had made political donations to during his campaign.Now, despite his legal team s argument that he was exempt because he was only charged with a misdemeanor, a judge has ordered that Gianforte turn himself in by September 15th for booking on the charge. If the congressman doesn’t comply, the judge said, he will be held in contempt of court.Although Gianforte has paid his fines, apologized to Jacobs, and donated $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists, he has yet to complete his community service. There is no word whether he has followed through on the anger management classes he was ordered to attend.Practically speaking, a mugshot should worry the congressman when it comes time for reelection. Campaign ads could use it freely, as they are public record. But the question remains whether Gianforte, who raised nearly $120,000 in donations after admitting to the assault, has anything to worry about at all with the voters of Montana.Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
1fake	The FBI informant who went undercover to look into Hillary Clinton s role in an Obama administration-era uranium company was identified yesterday in an exclusive from Reuters:William Campbell, a Russian lobbyist, is the informant, according to Reuters. He will be testifying before a congressional committee about the 2010 sale of Uranium One, where a Russian-backed company bought a uranium firm with mines in the U.S. Campbell gave information to the FBI about what he’saw while undercover as an informant. I have worked with the Justice Department undercover for several years, and documentation relating to Uranium One and political influence does exist and I have it William CampbellCongressional committees have previously tried to interview Campbell, as he was undercover for roughly five years, working to get information on Russia s efforts to grow its atomic energy business in the U.S.Department of Justice spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores told The Hill that a deal was reached in late October, clearing the informant to talk to Congress for the first time almost eight years after he first went undercover.Two House chairmen also announced a probe in late October which is digging into new reports about Russian efforts to influence the Uranium One nuclear purchase that gave Russia control of roughly 20 percent of America s uranium.When Clinton served as secretary of state, Russia routed millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation, and former President Bill Clinton collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in Russian speaking fees as part of Russian efforts to influence the U.S. government to approve the deal, The Hill reported.OUR PREVIOUS REPORT ON THE GAG ORDER THAT HAS BEEN LIFTED BY SESSIONS:LAWYER FOR FBI INFORMANT: My Client Knows What Russians Were Saying During Bribery of Clintons [VIDEO]Campbell s attorney, Victoria Toensing, said on Fox Business that former attorneys general under the Obama administration are the reason her client hasn’t been able to tell what all the Russians were talking about during the time that all these bribery payments were made. The lawyer for the FBI informant under a gag order that prevents him from going before Congress spoke out about what s to come with the Clinton/Russia Uranium story:Fox Business reported: An informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is under a gag order that prevents him from testifying before the United States Congress that Russian nuclear officials were involved in fraudulent dealings in 2009 before the Uranium One deal was approved.Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch blocked the informant from testifying last year and threatened criminal action against him if he were to do so.In an interview with FOX Business Lou Dobbs, Victoria Toensing, the attorney representing the FBI informant, said she has never heard of a criminal penalty for breaching a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). If it does and it is unconstitutional and it s invalid, if it prohibits my client from giving information to the legislature, the executive cannot say to people, Hey, you can’t give information to another body of the government, Toensing said.KEY POINTS: The Republican leadership was blocking the investigation into both Benghazi and the Russia uranium scandal involving Clinton.The NDA (gag order) is unconstitutional and Toensing says this type of gag order has a criminal penalty. She’says she’s never heard of this type of gag order.Victoria Toensing is one of the best lawyers in DC and will get to the bottom of this one way or another. The plot thickens on this one Read more: Daily Caller
1fake	Donna Brazile might want to watch her back! She’shot back at critics (the Hillary camp) of her new book that alleges proof of a rigged Democratic 2016 primary, saying they can go to hell. This is a lesson of 2016, Brazile said on ABC s This Week. If I released it next year, they would say, Donna, you’re impacting our 2018 races For those who are telling me to shut up, they told Hillary that a couple of months ago. You know what I tell them? Go to hell. I m going to tell my story. In an exclusive interview with ABC s Stephanopoulos, Brazile angrily defended her description of events in the book Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House. In the book, she describes a dysfunctional, debt-ridden DNC she took over after the ouster of Debbie Wasserman Schultz.Brazile has sharp words for her and President Barack Obama for their financial mismanagement of the DNC, and she also rips the Clinton campaign for treating her poorly and having stupid and stiff messages.RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA?More than 100 Clinton staffers, including campaign manager Robby Mook and top aide Huma Abedin, signed a scathing letter about Brazile s book, accusing her of buying into Russian propaganda about Clinton s health and painting a picture of the campaign that wasn’t true. If they’don’t like my book, don’t buy it, Brazile said of the letter. I ve gotten emails from Democrats, passionate Democrats, who say they feel betrayed by all of this. Any regrets? Stephanopoulos asked. Do I regret taking on the job cleaning up everybody s mess? Brazile asked. Taking all of the incoming? Being unable to spend funds that I raised? Do I regret being on the road 100 percent of the time? Being hacked by the Russians? Being harassed? Getting death threats? Do I regret any of that? Brazile said this was worse than Hurricane Katrina in terms of the emotional toll for her.Brazile was asked if she mentioned dropping Clinton for Biden to top Clinton staffer Charlie Baker, Brazile snapped, I kept my own counsel. I was the chair of the party, George! This interview along with the other interviews Brazile has given are all very eyeopening to the fact that the Clinton machine totally took over the DNC. It s ugly!Brazile even says she felt like she was treated like a slave CHECK OUT ROBBY MOOK AT THE 2:00 POINT WHERE HE TAKES OUT HIS EARPIECE NOT A CNN EARPIECE!Mook is clearly a deer in the headlights I don’t know I, I, I Via: WFB
0true	Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Monday he received assurances during talks with President Donald Trump and his administration of increasing American support as he presses his country’s campaign against Islamic State. “We have been given assurances that the (U.S.) support will not only continue but will accelerate for Iraq to accomplish the task,” Abadi said following talks with Trump at the White House.
0true	When U.S. President Donald Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, their summit will be marked not only by deep policy divisions but a clash of personalities between America’s brash “tweeter-in-chief” and Beijing’s cautious, calculating leader. They may have one thing in common: their rhetoric about restoring their nations to greatness. But the two men differ in almost every other respect, from their political styles to their diplomatic experience, adding uncertainty to what has been called the world’s most important bilateral relationship. Five months after his election on a stridently anti-China platform, Trump appears to have set himself on a course for collision rather than conciliation with Xi, raising doubts as to whether the world’s two biggest economies can find common ground. Topping the agenda at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida will be whether he will make good on his threat to use crucial U.S.-China trade ties to pressure Beijing to do more to rein in its nuclear-armed neighbor North Korea, which is working to develop missiles capable of hitting the United States. Trump, a 70-year-old former real estate magnate with no foreign policy experience before entering the White House, has tweeted that it will be a “very difficult” meeting with the veteran Communist Party leader seven years his junior, given Chinese trade practices he says are killing U.S. jobs. He has also demanded that Beijing do more to “solve” the North Korean problem – his biggest national security challenge - or he will act alone to deal with Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs. Some White House aides believe Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner could be an influential moderating voice on how he handles Xi in their talks on Thursday and Friday. Contacts between Kushner and China’s U.S. envoy helped smooth the way for the meeting, according to current and former U.S. officials. Even so, what worries the protocol-conscious Chinese more than policy clashes is the risk that the unpredictable Trump could publicly embarrass Xi, after several foreign leaders experienced awkward moments with the new U.S. president. “Ensuring President Xi does not lose face is a top priority for China,” a Chinese official said. U.S. presidents’ meetings with their Chinese counterparts are usually more tightly scripted than with other foreign leaders, something Chinese officials insist on to make sure they are treated with the decorum they believe befits a global power. This summit should offer a study in contrasts: Trump impatient, outspoken and prone to angry tweet-storms; Xi, outwardly calm and measured, with no known social media presence. Their shared nationalist tendencies could aggravate friction between their countries, which are increasingly global rivals. Trump insists the United States has been cheated economically for decades by countries like China and must regain its luster, while Xi wants China, once an ancient empire, to be able to flex its muscles on the world stage. “Xi and Trump are not natural friends,” said a former senior U.S. official specializing in Asia. “The question is when Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ hits Xi’s ‘Chinese Dream’, what’s the result?” It remains unclear how far Trump will go in translating populist rhetoric into policy that steps up pressure on China, given the risk of a trade war neither country can afford. But aides say he won’t pull his punches, especially on trade, on which he has held an outspoken view for decades. This adds to doubts as to whether the two leaders can find common ground on North Korea and China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea. Some analysts question whether Trump can get the better of Xi, who was born into a life of politics and has a reputation for being a tough tactician. “Xi’s performed pretty well in these types of environments,” said Christopher Johnson, a China expert and former CIA analyst at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies. While Trump has been in office little more than 10 weeks, Xi has honed his U.S. strategy since assuming the Chinese leadership in 2013. The son of a revolutionary leader, Xi has sought to project the image internationally of a strong advocate of globalization at a time when Trump has stoked fears of U.S. protectionism. Still, Chinese officials are mindful of the pitfalls if Trump veers off-script. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe found himself in a long, uncomfortable handshake at the White House in February, and Trump appeared to ignore German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s offer of a handshake during their meeting last month. An acrimonious call between Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull caused particular concern in Beijing, officials there say. Still, the decision to hold a summit so early in Trump’s presidency suggests both Washington and Beijing see the value of trying to build a personal relationship between the two leaders. Trump goes into the meeting with significant gaps in his team of Asia advisers and his China policy still not fully formulated. Hardliners like trade adviser Peter Navarro, who authored a book “Death by China,” have feuded over the administration’s approach to China with more pragmatic aides such as economic adviser Gary Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs president, current and former U.S. officials say. Administration officials argue Trump can use his “Art of the Deal” sales techniques to convince Xi that China needs the United States more than the United States needs China, especially when it comes to market access. But analysts say the Chinese are shrewd enough at geopolitics to fend off U.S. demands. Xi may also see Trump politically weakened by his high-profile legislative failure on healthcare as well as his low public approval ratings. Trump has already backed down on China’s most sensitive issue - Taiwan - having first infuriated Beijing by suggesting he might not abide by Washington’s long-standing “one China” policy. Trump may now feel he is owed a favor in return. A fence-mending phone call in February was arranged by Kushner and China’s U.S. ambassador, Cui Tiankai, officials say, after Cui invited Trump’s daughter Ivanka to the Chinese Embassy’s Lunar New Year reception, where her daughter sang in Mandarin. Both sides are keeping expectations low for tangible outcomes from the summit, billed as informal “get to know you” meetings similar to the 2013 Sunnylands summit in California between Xi and Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama. And whatever else, unlike Abe’s February visit to Mar-a-Lago, there will be no golf diplomacy: China’s Communist Party associates golf with shady dealings and has sought to stop officials from playing it as part of Xi’s fight against corruption.
1fake	How does the old saying go? The more unapologetically defensive you appear, the more guilty you probably are or something like that. That at least seems to be the case with Donald Trump any time he is scrutinized on, well, pretty much anything. However, when it comes to his claim that he’s raised money for veterans, even though many are saying he’s grossly exaggerating the amount, he really doesn’t like being called out on the discrepancy.During a press conference on Tuesday, Trump was asked by ABC s Tom Llamas: Mr. Trump, writing a one million dollar check is incredibly generous, but the night of that Iowa fundraiser you said you had raised $6 million. Clearly you had not. Your critics say you tend to exaggerate, you have a problem with the truth. Is this a prime example? Trump responded: No, I raised almost $6 million. Some of it didn’t come through, but more money is coming through. The number is probably is going to be when we finish it probably going to be over the $6 million. Trump then proceeds to blast the media, and then at one point called out Llamas directly, even calling him a sleaze for having the audacity to point out facts. Trump’said: But what I don’t want is when I raise millions of dollars, have people say, like this sleazy guy right over here from ABC. He s a sleaze in my book. You re a sleaze because you know the facts and you know the facts well. Ironically, Llamas does seem to know the facts well, and Trump doesn’t like being called out on the fact that he’s been exaggerating.Llamas took to Twitter shortly after saying:Trump just called me a "sleaze." Should be an interesting week. Tom Llamas (@TomLlamasABC) May 31, 2016What sort of person running for leader of the free world behaves like this? Trump is completely thin-skinned and bullies anyone who dare question him. If he can’t handle being scrutinized, how the hell is he going to lead the nation, or for that matter, work in our diplomatic world interests across the globe. Truth is, he wouldn’t be able to. He s remarkably unqualified and we need to make sure he gets nowhere near the Oval Office.Watch Trump lose his damn mind here:Featured image via video screen capture
0true	President Donald Trump endorsed U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore on Monday, throwing his weight behind the embattled Alabama Republican before a special election next week that has been rocked by allegations of sexual misconduct against Moore. The White House said Trump endorsed the campaign in a call to Moore. In a post on Twitter, the president said Republicans needed the former Alabama Supreme Court justice to win to secure votes on key issues such as taxes and immigration. “Democrats refusal to give even one vote for massive Tax Cuts is why we need Republican Roy Moore to win in Alabama,” Trump wrote. Moore thanked the president for his backing. “I look forward to fighting alongside the President to #MAGA!” Moore said on Twitter, using Trump’s hashtag for his slogan “Make America Great Again.” In his tweet, Moore quoted Trump as saying, “Go get ‘em, Roy!” Trump had supported Moore’s rival, U.S. Senator Luther Strange, in the Republican primary in September, in line with Senate Republicans. He has slammed the Democratic candidate, former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones, as soft on crime and a potential puppet for Democratic leaders in Congress. On Monday, Trump said having a Democrat win the Dec. 12 election “would hurt our great Republican Agenda.” The White House has said Trump would not campaign for Moore but he is scheduled to hold a rally on Friday in Pensacola, Florida, adjacent to Alabama. The Alabama Republican Party also has backed Moore even as some Republicans in Congress have remained distant given the sexual misconduct allegations that surfaced last month. Moore has denied the allegations. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last month said he believed Moore’s accusers and joined other senators in urging him to quit the race. But on Sunday McConnell said it was up to Alabama voters to decide whether to send Moore to Washington. “I’d have a real hard time voting for Roy Moore,” Republican U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz told CNN, calling the allegations against him very serious. But Alabama voters “very well may hold their nose and vote for” him rather than a Democrat. Moore led Jones by six percentage points in a CBS News poll on Sunday, with most Alabama Republicans saying the allegations against him are false. A Washington Post poll last week showed Moore ahead by three percentage points, a lead within the survey’s 4.5 point margin of error. Several women have accused Moore of sexual assault or misconduct when they were teenagers and Moore was in his early 30s. Reuters has not independently verified the reports. Moore, 70, returned to the campaign trail last week calling the allegations against him “dirty politics.”
1fake	One of Donald Trump’s main’tools as a businessman has always been our court systems. Over the year, he’s either sued or been sued more than 4,000 times and it looks like that won’t stop after the electors meet.Trump has been ordered by a judge to appear in a court deposition over a contractual dispute with celebrity chef, Jose Andres. The judge, DC Superior Court Judge Jennifer A. DiToro, ruled that Trump would have to spend at least seven hours in a New York courtroom in the first week of January.Trump is suing Andres for backing out of a restaurant deal in Trump’s Washington hotel. Andres said he cancelled because of the anti-Mexican rhetoric during the presidential campaign.Trump argued that he’s too busy to appear in court.Trump’s attorneys previously agreed to his deposition in New York City, but sought to limit the length and scope of questioning, arguing in court filings that Mr. Trump is not just any apex deponent; he is the President-elect It is not an overstatement that he is extremely busy handling matters of very significant public importance. But Di Toro was not moved, ruling Wednesday that limiting Trump’s examination would be too prejudicial to the defense team s right to prepare the case for trial, and Mr. Trump’s own statements are at the heart of the parties claims.Source: CNNAndres doesn’t want the lawsuit. On Tuesday, he tweeted, Mr. @realDonaldTrump can we end our lawsuits and we donate $ to Veterans NGO to celebrate? Why keep litigating? Let s both of us win. Mr. @realDonaldTrump can we end our lawsuits and we donate $ to a Veterans NGO to celebrate? Why keep litigating? Let s both of us win.. Jos Andr s (@chefjoseandres) December 13, 2016In other words, if Trump is truly too busy to go to court, he has a way out. It s doubtful that that s the real reason though. Trump isn’t really spending much time preparing for his new job. He rarely attends security briefings. Instead, he acts like he’s still on the campaign trail. He prefers to spend his time at meaningless ego-boosting rallies and on Twitter. Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images
1fake	It s finally happened. The baby parts lie fabricated by two felons at the deceptively-named Center for Medical Progress has been mindlessly parroted throughout right-wing media that they are now claiming the women s health organization violates federal law by performing later-term abortions in order to sell baby parts. On Monday, O Reilly Factor, the discussion turned to Hillary Clinton s statement on abortion at the Fox News Town Hall. Asked whether she’supports late-term abortions, Clinton said that it should be an option if the life and health of the mother is at risk. While this would seem sensible to even most adamantly anti-abortion individuals, Fox contributor Katie Pavlich naturally idiotsplained that Clinton is as evil as the most infected cyst on Satan s behind. She was asked specifically about late-term abortion and there was an incredible poll that came out in January showing 80 percent of Americans, including 80 percent of women, think late-term abortion should be banned, Pavlich said, ignoring that Clinton had explained that the exception only pertained to saving the mother s life.Juan Williams pointed out that Planned Parenthood is very popular in the United States, but Pavlich had a dirty little secret to drop for her incredibly stupid crowd:Does she have any evidence to back her claim? Of course not numerous investigations failed to prove that Planned Parenthood had sold a single baby part. The organization did accept reimbursement for expenses, but it is a crime to actually profit from fetal tissue sale. After the Right foamed at the mouth over the fake controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood, the organization stopped accepting reimbursement altogether to appease the Stupid Part of America.While it is obvious that the gerbils that operate Pavlich s brain are having difficulties overcoming such a baffling level of stupidity, you might be wondering: is this a work slowdown, or did they just say f*ck it and go on strike? Does Planned Parenthood even perform late-term abortions?They don’t. During the baby parts witch hunt, Richards was clear that the organization does not perform late-term abortions. Politico reported at the time:When late-term abortions came up, Richards maintained that Planned Parenthood doesn’t perform abortions past viability. But as the National Right to Life Committee points out, Planned Parenthood clinics advertise and perform abortions well into the’second trimester, even up to 24 weeks, while research says about a quarter of infants born at 22 weeks survive.Richards professed to have never heard of a baby surviving an abortion, even though survivors have testified before Congress. She’said a baby born alive after an attempted abortion should get medical care a significant concession given people on her side of the abortion debate, including Barack Obama in Illinois, have previously opposed legislation to protect born-alive infants.That s right. Thanks to the continuous strain and lackluster benefits involved with operating Pavlich s thinkie-thingie and after numerous on-the-job deaths, the little critters in her head are refusing to work. Rumor has it that they are demanding more break time, paid lunch, a raise, and better healthcare, and that Pavlich refuses the only explanation for the words that just came out of her mouth.Visibly perplexed that a human being can be this utterly ignorant, Williams shot back: This is exactly where I think Republicans go off the rails. The people who tried to argue that Planned Parenthood was selling baby parts, they got indicted. In Texas. In a red state. For violating people s rights and for making up stuff. Watch this monumental reminder that it s important to VOTE BLUE in November below:Featured image via screengrab
1fake	Hillary Clinton s State Department was one of those agencies which signed off on the deal.Nine shareholders connected to Uranium One contributed a combined $145 million to the Clinton Foundation before or during the time the review took place. Some of those donations were not publicly disclosed at the time, as the Clintons promised they would.The transfer of 20 percent of America s uranium to a Russian-controlled company, first exposed in Clinton Cash and confirmed by the New York Times, has become a central subject of the presidential campaign. Donald Trump has referenced it in his speeches and news media fact checkers have been furiously writing about it.Set aside for a minute how candidates might inartfully describe a complex transaction or the’semantic games that might be played by fact checkers. The usually curious news media is going to absurd lengths to pretend that there is nothing here so the issue will go away.Briefly, a Russian government sought federal government approval to purchase a Canadian company called Uranium One which controlled 20 percent of American uranium assets. This required the approval of several federal government agencies, because the deal involved a material (uranium) of national strategic importance.Hillary Clinton s State Department was one of those agencies which signed off on the deal.Nine shareholders connected to Uranium One contributed a combined $145 million to the Clinton Foundation before or during the time the review took place. Some of those donations were not publicly disclosed at the time, as the Clintons promised they would.Read more: Breitbart
1fake	Nice that she’s making fun of the ability to have messages just disappear not funny!
1fake	The always brilliant Ben Shapiro answers that question in well, a brilliant way On Tuesday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the American woman most responsible for the current refugee crisis in the Middle East, blasted Republicans for not wanting to accept unvetted Syrian Muslim refugees in the aftermath of last week s Paris terror attacks.She tweeted:We've seen a lot of hateful rhetoric from the GOP. But the idea that we'd turn away refugees because of religion is a new low. -H Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 17, 2015 This, to be sure, is odd. Hillary decrying hateful rhetoric smacks of irony she despises Republicans so much that she labeled them her enemies during the first Demoratic debate. Furthermore, Hillary is no fighter for religious freedom. In April, she told the Women in the World Summit that deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed to allow for abortion. And in the aftermath of the Supreme Court s egregious same-sex marriage decision in June, Hillary explicitly called for the government to force churches to sanction homosexuality, explaining, Our work won’t be finished until every American can not only marry, but live, work, pray, learn and raise a family free from discrimination and prejudice. Pray as in attend church free from discrimination and prejudice. But she’s sure hot and bothered about what she terms discrimination against Muslim refugees. This isn’t particularly surprising the entire left has a peculiar soft spot for Islam.That seems weird, given Islamic countries fundamental rejection of leftist values ranging from same-sex marriage to abortion to women driving. But it isn’t so weird when considered in the context of Marxist philosophy, which sees Islam not as a religious philosophy of its own, but as a sort of bizarre cultural outgrowth of poverty. Impoverished people believe weird things, say the Marxists; if we just gave ISIS jobs, they’d stop all this nonsense and start behaving like members of the ACLU. Leftists see Islam not as an ideological force converting millions, but as a knee-jerk response to lack of basic living standards.In fact, leftists see all religion this way: as the refuge of the weakminded underclass. As Marx wrote, Religion is the’sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the’soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. Barack Obama agrees: as he’said back in 2008, poor people get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them. The view that all religious practice is essentially the domain of the exploited would cut in favor of seeing all religious practices as equally worthy of dismissal.But the left prefers Islam to Christianity. They ll fight against anyone drawing pictures of Mohammed, but they ll lose their minds if Christians complain about an artist soaking a statue of Jesus in urine.Why do leftists treat Christianity and Islam differently, if both are merely chimerical responses to the vicissitudes of life? Because leftists see Christianity as the creator of Islam s rise, and Christians as the victimizers of Muslims. The Obama State Department won’t recognize Christians as victims of incipient Muslim genocide in the Middle East, but President Obama will equate ISIS violence in 2015 with the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. President Obama believes, like many on the left, that Western civilization was founded in racism, sexism, homophobia, and other bigotry and that Christianity, as its wellspring, provided that impetus.Furthermore, Obama believes that Western civilization has exploited the rest of the world, and that it therefore bears culpability for the poverty that gave rise to the Islamic wave. Muslims are benighted victims of poverty; Christianity made them victims of poverty in the first place. Christianity thus bears blood guilt for the’sins of Islam, but Islam bears none of its own. As Dinesh D Souza puts it, Obama is an anti-colonialist and believes that the rich countries got rich by looting the poor countries, and that within the rich countries, plutocratic and corporate elites continue to exploit ordinary citizens. Taken one step further, those rich countries Christian countries exploited non-Christian countries, impoverishing them and opening them to the opium of Islam.How else to explain’the left s romance with Islam and simultaneous dismissal of Christianity? How else to explain’the left s preoccupation with allowing Muslim refugees into the Christianity-founded West while demanding nothing of Islamic countries which are murdering Christians en masse?Hillary Clinton says it s hateful for Western countries to discriminate in choosing refugees based on religious philosophy. It s far more hateful to suggest that Christianity must bow and scrape before Islam, particularly when Islamic terrorists target non-Muslims the world over. Via: Breitbart News
0true	The centrist Brazilian Social Democracy Party, or PSDB, elected four-time Sao Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin as its leader on Saturday, making him its most likely presidential nominee in next year s elections. Alckmin threw the party s weight behind a social security overhaul that is currently before Congress and would cut generous pensions for public-sector employees. Pension reform is necessary so that we do not have two classes of Brazilian citizens, he told the convention, which elected him by a 470-3 vote. Alckmin said former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a likely rival in the 2018 race, had led Brazil into its worst recession and biggest corruption scandal. Lula wants to return to the scene of the crime, he told cheering supporters. Be sure, we will defeat him at the polls. Alckmin was picked to unite a divided party, with both supporters and opponents of Brazil s unpopular President Michel Temer. He plans to complete the PSDB s withdrawal from the governing coalition. But Alckmin made it clear the PSDB would back Temer s pension proposal, which investors consider crucial for closing a huge budget deficit that cost Latin America s largest economy its investment-grade credit rating. With elections less than a year away, PSDB lawmakers want to distance themselves from Temer. Half of its 46 congressmen did not back him when the lower house voted in August to block corruption charges against him. Alckmin must overcome the party s own brush with Brazil s ongoing political corruption scandal. He succeeds Senator Aecio Neves, the party s defeated 2014 presidential candidate who is under investigation for allegedly asking jailed Joesley Batista, owner of meatpacker JBS SA for 2 million reais ($607,500) in illegal funding. Neves was booed and quickly left the convention after casting his vote. The PSDB s disengagement from the Temer administration was almost completed on Friday with the resignation of Antonio Imbassahy, the president s minister of political affairs. Alckmin, 65, was governor of Brazil s richest and most populous state from 2001-2006 and again from 2011 to now. He ran for president in 2006 but lost to Lula, who is still Brazil s most popular politician despite a corruption conviction that could bar him from running or even land him in prison. Former Brazilian President and PSDB founder Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who won two elections against Lula, said it was better to defeat him at the polls than to put him in jail.
1fake	The news broke this week that Obama wants to equalize housing for everyone. Social engineering is nothing new in this day of Obama. State s rights mean nothing to this group and if you’disagree you’re called a heartless racist. The HUD secretary, Julian Castro, was on Capitol Hill this week to testify about the HUD budget asking for $4 billion more. Below are two videos of Cong. Sean Duffy going at it with Castro. Please take the time to listen to the conversation. Castro gives ZERO information to Duffy. Doesn t that tell you something? HUD is just another bloated government entity that s actually lobbying the very body that they are part of Congress(see below)! Does this offend you as much as it does me? In the new President s Budget, HUD s funding level will increase to $49.3 billion, nearly $4 billion more than Fiscal Year 2015 s enacted level. A MUST WATCH! SEAN DUFFY(WI) WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO ACTUALLY ASKED CASTRO FOR SPECIFICS AND GOT NONE: The findings from HUD s internal watchdog expose a system in which offices around the country funded by the federal housing agency used tax dollars to campaign for favorable policies and larger budgets, government watchdogs found.The failure to police such expenditures gives good reason for taxpayers to be angry, experts told The Washington Times. You re using federal money to lobby Congress to get more federal money, said Mark Calabria, a former HUD official who then spent seven years overseeing the agency as a Senate staff member working with the Banking Committee. This is directly taking money that has been allocated by Congress to helping poor people and it s being diverted to lobbying, he’said.Investigators said the housing agencies in cities across the U.S. failed to disclose roughly $2.5 million they spent on lobbying and that was only at nine of the 12 agencies that report engaging in lobbying activities.However, watchdogs worry that undisclosed lobbying still could be occurring at the 3,200 other agencies HUD oversees, but which do not acknowledge engaging in any lobbying at all.For a lack of control that has allowed its various offices to violate transparency and spending laws and take money that could have been used to provide housing the Department of Housing and Urban Development wins this week s Golden Hammer, a distinction given out by The Washington Times to mark examples of waste, fraud and abuse with taxpayer money.The Philadelphia Housing Authority failed to disclose lobbying activities for which it spent as much as $660,000 during the period 2006 to 2010, the report found. It also improperly spent $48,500 in federal funds on lobbying activities conducted through law firms, which the agency should be required to repay, the HUD inspector general said.The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh failed to disclose lobbying activities on which it improperly spent as much as $80,000 in federal funds in 2004 and 2005, and Home Forward in Portland, Oregon, failed to disclose lobbying activities conducted on its behalf.While inspectors think the examined housing agencies may have wasted only $129,000 in federal money, they cautioned the problem could be affecting many more offices than the ones investigators reviewed, and suggested a further investigation of the problem. Because HUD failed to implement adequate policies to monitor agencies compliance with lobbying requirements HUD lacked assurance that other agencies did not spend Federal funds on lobbying activities or violate other lobbying-related requirements, the inspector general report, released last week, found.HUD officials said the extremely small sample size investigators looked at does not warrant extensive changes at the agency to correct problems, and that additional steps to obtain, track and retain lobbying certificates and disclosures is not a necessary remedy. In light of these facts, the recommendations are overly burdensome to implement in relation to limited error rate and limited staff resources, said a letter signed by Milan Ozdinec, the deputy assistant secretary in charge of public housing. The’suggestion that HUD staff take proactive steps to detect violations related to lobbying activities would present an enormous challenge to HUD staff, the’statement said. To require staff to run queries on approximately 3,200 [public housing agencies] does not appear to be an effective control to cover 12 or so exception cases. The lobbying issues have escalated beyond the’scope of a single watchdog, bringing in investigators from HUD s internal Office of Inspector General, the Government Accountability Office and the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Millions of Americans who have fallen on hard times veterans, single mothers, their children they all rely on HUD s programs, said Rep. Sean Duffy, Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.The agency s funding should not be diverted to illegal lobbying efforts or overpaying a lobbyist, said Mr. Duffy, at a Wednesday committee hearing examining HUD s policies.Part of the problem, the inspector general report found, was that HUD rarely monitored the housing agencies and instead relied on their word they were complying with lobbying laws. HUD accepted and relied on agencies certifications and disclosures without performing additional verification, the IG report found. HUD lacked reasonable assurance that agencies did not spend federal funds on lobbying activities, and the lack of accurate lobbying disclosures could create an appearance of a lack of transparency. HUD officials from the top down have urged their members and member agencies to lobby Congress in order to protect their interests.Last year, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan told an audience at the National Leagues of Cities Conference in Washington that local HUD officials should be lobbying their congressional representatives to restore funding to key programs.The’same year, the agency s deputy secretary sent an e-mail to more than 1,000 people asking them to call senators in support of a funding bill for HUD, according to the Government Accountability Office. It is critical that your Senator hears from you NOW, the e-mail read. We need to maintain’the current level of Republican support for the Senate [bill], acquire other Republican supporters and ensure vocal and active support from Democratic senators. The message then included a list of 17 U.S. senators that HUD wanted the public to focus on.Instead of using its time and resources lobbying Congress, HUD officials would be better off running their programs more efficiently, Mr. Calabria said. We the taxpayers are having to pay the public housing industry to lobby Congress on its own behalf, said Mr. Calabria, the director of Financial Regulations Studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank. If JP Morgan had used TARP money to go lobby Congress, we d all be greatly offended. Read more: WTMAXINE WATERS SPEAKS ABOUT HOW REPUBLICANS WANT TO JUST THROW EVERYONE OUT ON THE STREE (SARCASM) NOTICE THAT SHE CALLS HUD HOUSING OUR NATIONAL HOUSING SYSTEM : Today, we gather to discuss the Future of Housing in America. But frankly, if left to my Republican colleagues, that future looks very bleak for many of our most vulnerable populations, said Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee. But as we will see here today, my colleagues have no interest in strengthening our national housing system. Their priorities are clearly reflected in the recently passed HUD funding bill, which drives investment in this agency down to historic lows undercutting programs which help families reach housing stability, Waters continued.HERE S DUFFY WITH SOME GREAT QUESTIONS FOR CASTRO FROM FEB 2015:
1fake	21st Century Wire says Daniel McAdams, executive director of the Ron Paul institute, joins RT s Anya Parampil to discuss the US s failed policy of regime change and how nation-building adventurism, no matter how high minded, tends to galvanize people in those countries around the very same regimes.Foreign policy hawks are eager to retain’their influence in government and critics of interventionism are wary of their attempts to retain power by infiltrating a Trump administration, even though the president-elect suggested a non-interventionist foreign policy in his campaign. Watch:READ MORE FOREIGN POLICY NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria Files
0true	President Barack Obama will make his case directly to President-elect Donald Trump not to derail the recent U.S.-Cuba detente, the White House said on Tuesday, insisting that “turning back the clock” would be damaging to American interests and the Cuban people. Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said the outgoing administration hopes to persuade the incoming Trump administration to preserve Obama’s policy of engagement despite the president-elect’s threat to roll back the opening with the communist-ruled island. Just weeks before Trump takes office, Obama and his aides are seeking to further cement one of his top foreign policy legacy initiatives, a breakthrough between former Cold War foes announced two years ago. But since Obama eased travel and trade restrictions through executive actions, Trump would be able to reverse them on his own if he chooses to do so. “Cuba has been and will be on the list of issues where President Obama will make his case that this is the right approach for American interests,” Rhodes told reporters on a teleconference, referring to transition talks between the two. Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has vowed to “terminate” Obama’s engagement with Cuba unless Havana gives the United States what he calls a “better deal,” including allowing broader political freedoms on the island. The Cuban government so far has refrained from commenting on Trump’s statements. “What we believe would be very damaging is any effort to turn off the opening,” Rhodes said, asserting it would hurt the Cuban people, U.S. business interests and Washington’s standing in Latin America. He said the administration has sought to make the policy “irreversible,” and suggested that Trump, a businessman-turned-politician, should consider whether it makes sense to roll it back. Rhodes, who played a key role in negotiating the opening, said a reversal would boost Cuban “hardliners” opposed to engagement as Havana heads into its own political transition. Cuban President Raul Castro has said he will step down in 2018. “Do you really want to cancel travel plans for hundreds of thousands of Americans?” Rhodes asked. “Do you want to tell businesses as diverse as our major airlines or Google or General Electric ... that have been pursuing opportunities in Cuba that they have to terminate those activities?” Rhodes, who was also in Cuba for memorial services for late Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro this month, said Cuban officials were uncertain about Trump and would wait to see how he proceeded. The White House is planning a meeting with “stakeholders” on Cuba policy this week, he said. The administration is pressing Cuba for further economic reforms, Rhodes said, and encouraging new deals with U.S. companies before Obama leaves office. Rhodes also said there was currently an “incentive structure” for economic change following the death of Fidel Castro, a vocal critic of detente, but that no progress has been made on political reforms. U.S. critics of Cuba engagement have accused Obama of making too many concessions. But despite restoration of relations, the Republican-controlled Congress has resisted lifting the broader U.S. economic embargo.
0true	Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke on Friday denied reports that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly pressured her to end protections for tens of thousands of immigrants, and said she plans to remain in the Trump administration. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Kelly pressured Duke to end what is called temporary protected status for tens of thousands of Hondurans living in the United States. The newspaper also reported that Duke has informed Kelly that she plans to resign. The New York Times later reported that Kelly “made an 11th-hour plea” to Duke that she end the protections. “The recent media reports regarding the TPS decision-making process are seriously flawed,” Duke said in a statement late on Friday evening. She said she had conversations with Kelly, the former secretary of homeland security, leading up to her decision, but that he “consistently reiterated that, as the Acting Secretary, the current decisions were mine to make and should be done in accordance with the existing law.” “At no time did he pressure me to terminate TPS for Nicaragua, Honduras or El Salvador: any reports otherwise are false,” she added. In the end, Duke extended the benefits for Honduran immigrants until July 2018, though officials said it could then be terminated. Duke decided to end the special status for Nicaraguan immigrants, however, and it will expire in January 2019. Duke said it was “a tremendous honor” to serve at DHS, and said she planned to continue in the department’s second-highest position, deputy secretary, once Kirstjen Nielsen, the nominee for DHS secretary, wins Senate confirmation. “I have no plans to go anywhere and reports to the contrary are untrue,” Duke said. Thousands from both Nicaragua and Honduras were given the special status in 1999 after Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America. In all, temporary protected status protects more than 300,000 people living in the United States.
0true	Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed North Korea’s missile launches during a phone call on Tuesday, the Jiji and Kyodo news agencies reported on Tuesday. North Korea fired four ballistic missiles into the sea off Japan’s northwest coast on Monday, angering South Korea and Japan, days after it promised retaliation over U.S.-South Korea military drills it sees as preparation for war.
1fake	European nations have naively opened their borders to millions of Muslim males who have no intention of assimilating. As they make their way across Europe, police forces find themselves ill-equipped to handle the extreme increase in sexual assault and violence, so citizens are now finding themselves in a position where they are being forced to take matters into their own hands.A group of young concerned Germans made a video warning that they would no longer sit back and watch their culture and history being destroyed. The video can be viewed by clicking HERE.On February 4, 2015, we’reported about a fast growing group of vigilantes who call themselves the Soldiers of Odin. The’self-styled Soldiers of Odin march in a mob, wearing bomber jackets with their logo on the back. They have vowed to take direct action to protect their wives, girlfriends and children after a migrant influx to the liberal Scandinavian country. Persons linked to Islamist groups in Oslo say that they have formed a group called Soldiers of Allah .Via a central source in the Islamist environment, the Norwegian newspaper VG has received a statement, and photographs of the planned uniform.The group has been named Jundullaah which translates to Soldiers of Allah . In response to the group of unbelievers in Soldiers of Odin, who are patrolling the’streets, we Muslims have chosen to create a group to patrol the’streets, initially in the capital Oslo, to forbid evil and call for the good, says the’statement.The planned uniform , is decorated with the black flag of the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) on the back, with a small logo on the chest.On Tuesday, Labour s Muslim deputy chairman, Hadia Tajik, said that the Soldiers of Odin defy Norway s rules on private security businesses and she tried to illustrate the problem as follows: It is as if the Islamists would be the uniformed ones, take to the’streets and call themselves guards or vigilantes. It is very undesirable and unfortunate for our country, devastating, said Tajik.Now it s exactly what is about to happen.Great tip, Tajik.The information that Islamists in Oslo are in the process of establishing a group, is also confirmed by the temporary spokesman of the Prophet s ummah who calls himself Abu Arijon. He said that the plan is to start in Oslo, then Drammen and T nsberg.Many of the people in Soldiers of Allah come from the environment around the Islamist group the Prophet s Ummah, where spokesman Ubaydullah Hussain currently is in custody and charged with recruiting for IS. Soldiers of Allah inform in the’statement themselves, that almost everyone in the group is on the Watch List of the Police Security Service (PST). Is PST aware of the group Soldiers of Allah planning to patrol in Oslo? We can not comment on individuals or individual groups, says senior adviser in PST, Siv Als n, to VG.So there it is. Regular street battles could soon be a reality in Norway. Soldiers of Odin against Soldiers of Allah, with the police in between. However, it will most likely not be started by the Soldiers of Odin, but the rabid Islamists in the’soldiers of Allah. And then, even though the Soldiers of Odin claim to be a peaceful group, the Viking has clearly awaken illustrated by the logo on the back. And being attacked by Islamists, they will have no other choice than to go berserk again, after a thousand years in hibernation.All hell is breaking loose in countries all across Europe. Are Americans paying attention, or has Obama s manufactured race war distracted us from his plan to seed Muslims in our small towns and communities across America through the US State Dept. Refugee Resettlement Program?
1fake	How did this man come to OWN this store? There is no information on much about this fraudster except that he’stole from Americans and is getting just a slap on the wrist. It s no wonder these people are repeat offenders!A hispanic store owner testified in court through a Spanish translator (Why no English?) that he’swindled the American’tax payers out of millions via food stamp fraud. Eduardo Leonardo plead guilty to stealing from the USDA by illegally exchanging over a million dollars of food stamp benefits for cash for over two years. I stole from the USDA and the Food and Nutrition Service, Eduardo Leonardo said slowly in Spanish through a translator in Brooklyn Federal Court. It was an exchange of benefits for cash. Leonardo, 57, admitted to committing food stamp fraud between Oct. 2015 and March 2017 by giving customers cash in exchange for running their EBT cards for a higher amount, which the federal government would later reimburse.In one instance, an undercover witness from the USDA went into Super Economic and picked up a jar of peanut butter and jelly and crackers, totaling $5.48. The witness then asked Leonardo to exchange benefits for $200 cash and Leonardo charged an undercover EBT card $287.89 and gave the witness $200 in cash, making a $82.41 profit.The USDA lost a total of $1,116,924.27 in the transactions.The’scammer has run his store, Super Economic One Way Supermarket out of 104-21 Glenwood Road in Canarsie since Dec. 2011. It became a registered SNAP business on May 25, 2012. Specifically I gave a discounted rate in cash in exchange for them [customers] allowing me to ring up the full amount, Leonardo said to Judge Ann Donnelly.Remember Ann Donnelly?Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) previously called the food stamp program, uses federal tax dollars to aid low-income households in buying affordable and nutritious food. EBT cards are used like debit cards, to swipe at special terminals in retail food stores to use the benefits in exchange for food.Between Nov. 2015 and Jan. 2017, Super Economic conducted more than 57,000 SNAP transactions totaling more than $1.5 million, according to court documents.About 8 transactions were made for $50 or more, an amount that USDA officials say is high for a store that size, which would normally conduct $15 average transactions.Leonardo is set to be sentenced on Oct. 31 and could face a maximum five years in prison WHAAAAT????THIS IS WHY THIS KEEPS HAPPENING!A man swindles more than a million dollars from Americans yet he gets only 5 years in prison? The punishment does not fit the crime!Via: Brooklyn Eagle
1fake	Reality TV star and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has convinced thousands of people that he’s an expert on business, finance, and commerce. There isn’t much evidence of those claims, and as he consolidates his power at the head of the Republican Party, his words reveal a dangerous lack of knowledge about global economics.In an interview with CNBC (on the phone, of course) Trump proposed a radical idea. He told the interviewer that he would reduce the national debt by having the United States fail to pay back on the money it owes. I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal, he told CNBC. And if the economy was good, it was good. So, therefore, you can’t lose. Trump doesn’t seem to understand that the United States economy isn’t one of his many, many casinos and other ventures that he’sent into bankruptcy at the expense of his investors (and rarely himself). To set him straight, Gene Sperling, who was an economic adviser to Presidents Clinton and Obama, released a statement lacerating Trump’s insane proposal: For Donald Trump to casually announce he would consider defaulting on our debt for the first time in our history shows a stunning lack of responsibility and understanding of the global economy, he’said.Sperling also pointed out that Trump’s plan would risk a global financial meltdown, drive up interest rates for Americans for decades, and seriously harm middle-class families. In case anyone might think that this is simply a case of a Democrat hitting Trump, Republicans and business experts also think his idea is bonkers:Tony Fratto, a spokesman for the U.S. Treasury Department under former President George W. Bush and a vocal member of the Never Trump movement, called the comments dumb as a bucket of rocks. Fortune Editor Alan S. Murray called them scary. In Trump’s first week as the Republican standard-bearer, he’s revealing just how ill-prepared he is to govern, more than even your average modern Republican.Featured image via Flickr
1fake	It didn’t take long for conservative Christians to jump to the defense of Roy Moore.Not long after the Washington Post published a story containing detailed accusations from several women who claim that Moore sexually assaulted and abused them as teens, conservatives disgustingly continued to back him despite having the opposite reaction to allegations against several high profile Hollywood actors and producers.And that s not to mention the reaction conservatives had when right-wing websites pushed a conspiracy claiming that Hillary Clinton ran a sex trafficking operation inside a pizza restaurant, a conspiracy that was immediately and thoroughly debunked.Conservatives STILL believe that conspiracy, but refuse to believe the very real victims who have come forward about Moore.Rather than call for Moore to step aside, conservative Christians are more rabid than ever, and that includes Jerry Falwell Jr., who along with the rest of his anti-gay friends still supports Moore just like they continued to support Donald Trump despite Trump’saying on tape that he likes to grab women by their genitals without their consent. It comes down to a question who is more credible in the eyes of the voters the candidate or the accuser, Falwell said. The’same thing happened to President Trump a few weeks before his election last year except it was several women making allegations. He denied that any of them were true and the American people believed him and elected him the 45th president of the United States. And I believe the judge is telling the truth. So Falwell Jr. is making Moore s guilt contingent on whether voters elect him or not. In other words, he’s telling Republican voters that electing him is the equivalent of a jury verdict of not guilty. But that s not how the justice system works. And it s not how we should be judging political candidates.It should be pointed out that the race in Alabama has turned into a dead heat according to a poll taken after the bombshell story dropped, so clearly voters must not think Moore is very credible.These are credible allegations that should be taken seriously. Seriously enough that Moore should be forced to withdraw his candidacy. The fact that conservatives are using the Bible to defend sexual abuse and assault proves that they are nothing more than fake Christians. They would support a pedophile rather than vote for a Democrat. That s how far conservative Christians have fallen. They are literally supporting a man who claimed that homosexuality causes pedophilia, the’same man who is being accused of predatory sexual behavior involving a 14-year-old girl. Only Moore is a straight white Christian so conservatives think his pedophilia is acceptable.Hillary Clinton was right. These people are deplorable.Featured Image: Scott Olson/Getty Images
0true	The leaders of New Zealand s main parties prepared on Sunday to start talks with Winston Peters, the leader of a nationalist party who emerged as kingmaker after an inconclusive general election, but Peters indicated he was in no rush to pick a side. Prime Minister Bill English s National Party won the largest number of votes in Saturday s general election, securing a comfortable margin over the Labour opposition after what had shaped as one of the closest votes in recent history. But it was Peters and his often controversial New Zealand First Party who emerged in a position of power, with both National and Labour needing his support to form a government under New Zealand s proportional representation system. The National Party, which has been in power for a decade, secured 46 percent of the vote, while Labour had 35.8 percent and New Zealand First 7.5 percent. A final tally, including overseas votes, will be released on Oct. 7. The results so far secured 58 seats for National in the 120-seat parliament and 45 for Labour. New Zealand First has nine seats and the Green Party has seven. Labour and the Greens already have a working agreement, with Labour leader Jacinda Ardern potentially in a position to form a coalition government with 61 seats if she wins Peters support - the bare minimum needed. Peters, who has served in previous Labour and National governments, appeared to be in no hurry. He told reporters on Sunday he had not yet received any calls from National or Labour, and had not contacted them. The colourful populist, a rugby-loving former foreign minister, has in the past backed the party that won the most votes but said he was discussing options with members of his own party first. I m doing it one-by-one by phone, said Peters, a lawyer of indigenous Maori and Scottish descent. Asked how long it might be before he made a decision, Peters said: How long before I pick you up and throw you into the water over there? Ardern, a charismatic 37-year-old, revived her party s flagging fortunes after only taking over as leader in August but fell far short of what early opinion polls suggested could have been a stunning turnaround. She said it would be hard to complete coalition talks until all votes were tallied. Speaking outside her home in Auckland on Sunday, she said her centre-left party would not concede until we are sure that a stable government has been formed . English said he would proceed with negotiations with New Zealand First. The shortest path to stable government is a two-party coalition between National and New Zealand First, English told a news conference. Analysts saw English and his National Party as the clear favorites. I think it s fairly obvious that it will be a National-New Zealand First government, said Grant Duncan, associate professor at Massey University. National and Labour were both expected to maintain a policy of fiscal prudence if they form the next government, although they differ on monetary policy, trade and immigration. That would likely have implications for the New Zealand dollar, the world s 11th most-traded currency. The currency had tended to rise when National rose in the pre-election polls. Clearly when we open on Monday morning we re at the moment no better off it s either going to be Labour or National leading the country, Stuart Ive, a Wellington-based dealer at OM Financial, said on Sunday. Peters has been in parliament since 1978 and was a member of the National Party until he formed New Zealand First in 1993. He was first cast as kingmaker in 1996, when he famously put off coalition talks the day after the election to go fishing. He has often expressed views, such as opposing Chinese migration, that have been criticized as xenophobic. His policies consistently center around tight immigration controls and reduced taxation. (Click tmsnrt.rs/2joJZGV for a graphic on 'New Zealand parliamentary elections') (Click tmsnrt.rs/2faMawe for a graphic on 'New Zealand markets react to opinion polls')
1fake	For the first time, in recent memory at least, the FBI has decided to put its thumb on the’scale of the presidential election by releasing maybes, leaks and innuendo against Hillary Clinton. While a parade of people both on the left and right have railed against the head of the FBI, James Comey, the most powerful voice has been from one of the key figures involved in the’so-called investigation: Anthony Weiner s alleged teenage victim of sexting.According to Comey, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation. Comey didn’t say Clinton is being indicted. He didn’t say she was even involved. He hasn’t even seen the emails that may or may not implicate Clinton. It s guilt by possible association with something that might exist, and all of this bunch of nothin came out just days before the election.The alleged victim of the’sexting that is at the center of the controversy wrote an open letter (printed in Buzzfeed) that raked Comey over the coals. She’s upset that she’s being re-victimized to become a political tool. Here are some excerpts:In your letter, you chose to use a vague approach, meaning the media had to keep searching to try and find out what evidence you had uncovered and how. Every media outlet from local to national has contacted me and my family to get my story. Why couldn’t your letter have waited until after the election, so I would not have to be the center of attention the last week of the election cycle?In his cooperation with you and with his love of the’spotlight, Anthony Weiner has given information that led to the media finding me. You have assisted him in further victimizing me on every news outlet. I can only assume that you saw an opportunity for political propaganda.I thought your job as FBI Director was to protect me. I thought if I cooperated with your investigation, my identity as a minor would be kept secret. That is no longer the case. My family and I are barraged by reporters phone calls and emails. I have been even been blamed in a newspaper for causing Donald Trump to now be leading in some polls and costing Hillary the election. ..The election is important, yes, but what happened to me and how it makes me feel and how others see me, is much more important. It s time that the FBI Director puts his victims rights above political views.The girl, who appears to be exceptionally articulate and more informed than the majority of voters on both sides of the aisle, signed the letter, Girl that lost her faith in America. She’s not alone. This election has been one of the most bitter and contentious and fact free (on the Republican side) in our nation s history. We hadn’t yet hit rock bottom when Comey made his statement, but we’re coming closer every single day.Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images.
1fake	On January 22, in response to an emergency order issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the Flint water crisis, Michigan s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Director, Keith Creagh, wrote that the’state is questioning whether the EPA has legal authority to order a state and its agencies to act to protect the health of its citizens.The order, issued by the EPA on Thursday, states: The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) provides the US Environmental Protection Agency with the authority to order actions when an imminent and substantial endangerment exists and the actions taken by the’state/and or local authorities are inadequate to protect public health. EPA has determined that the city of Flint and the’state of Michigan s responses to the drinking water crisis in Flint have been inadequate to protect public health and that these failures continue. As a result, the EPA is issuing this emergency order to make sure that the necessary actions to protect public health happen immediately. Under the order, the’state of Michigan is required to promptly provide the public with necessary information, in a clear and transparent way to assure that accurate, reliable and trustworthy information is available to inform the public and decisions about next steps. That includes an order to create a public website where the’state is required to post all reports, sampling results, plans, weekly status reports and all other documents required under this order. As many people already realize, the Snyder administration is not fond of transparency. Michigan is one of only two states in the country in which the governor is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. Emergency managers and other members of Snyder s administration have conducted business behind closed doors throughout Snyder s two terms as governor, leading to repeated battles over violations of the’state s open meetings act.Aside from releasing relevant information to the public, the EPA order requires the Snyder administration to provide the Flint EPA Task Force with all of the information it has been trying to get from Michigan officials since November. You can view the long list of items that the’state has refused to turn over to the Task Force here. The’state now has ten days to produce all of that information.The Snyder administration must also bring in qualified professionals to deal with the’situation, something else the’state was instructed to do, but has not done. The’state has 15 days to comply.The EPA s order provides a detailed overview of the ongoing failures of the’state, Snyder appointed emergency managers in Flint, and Snyder appointed officials at the DEQ.As Addicting Info reported here, the’state supplied the EPA with documents that were altered and test results that were purposely skewed to make it appear that the water in Flint was fine.During the annual State of the State address, Michigan s governor Snyder told the citizens that he was very sorry for poisoning the residents Flint.He went on to say: You deserve accountability. You deserve to know that the buck stops here with me. Creagh s unbelievable two-fold response to the EPA order can be read as we haven’t done anything wrong, followed by you’don’t have the authority to make us do anything right. How s that for accountability?Creagh states in his response to the EPA that the’state will comply with the EPA s order, but intends to fully outline the’state s legal and factual concerns as to whether or not the EPA has the authority to issue the order.On Wednesday the’state of Michigan received $80 million from the federal government, in addition to the $5 million that was granted to the’state earlier this month, following the declaration of state of emergency in Flint. So every U.S. taxpayer is now paying the bill for Snyder s corruption and incompetence.Yet the Snyder administration has the audacity to claim that the EPA doesn’t have the authority to tell the’state what to do.It s disgusting and infuriating that Snyder s administration has to be forced to do what it should have done months ago. These are basic things, like getting the necessary information to the public, cooperating with the EPA Task Force and bringing in trained and qualified professionals who can address the’situation. These are things the Snyder administration should have done without an order from the federal government, but they’did not.In the midst of all of this, the people of Flint are struggling to cope with a crisis that most of us cannot even fathom.Featured image credit: Duncan Creamer via Flckr cc 2.0
1fake	After a fierce backlash following Donald Trump’s appalling speech in front of the Boy Scouts in West Virginia, an official with the organization was forced to apologize for the former reality show star s wildly inappropriate political rhetoric. Initially, the BSA issued a statement but Trump’s speech was not addressed.On Thursday, since Trump could not find it in himself to apologize for being highly inappropriate, an official with the Boy Scouts of America apologized in a message posted online to the’scouting community for the political content of his speech at the National Scout Jamboree. I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. That was never our intent, Michael Surbaugh, Chief Scout Executive, wrote.Trump’s speech was so awful that a former CIA chief said it was like watching a dictator and said it gave him the creeps. The amateur president even prompted the crowd of children to boo former president Barack Obama. The event was supposed to be about the Boy Scouts but as usual, Trump’s intense jealousy of his predecessor was on full display.Surbaugh said we know the past few days have been overshadowed by the remarks offered by the President of the United States and that s putting it mildly.Trump took to the podium, not to congratulate the children, but to slam the fake news media. He promoted the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and boasted about his electoral night victory and called out the Washington cesspool. Who the Hell wants to speak about politics when I m in front of the Boy Scouts, he’said, then kept talking about politics, among other inappropriate things like a New York cocktail party. The hottest people in New York were at this party, he told the children.The organization s Facebook page is inundated with comments from upset parents ready to yank their sons out of the organization. It s not a Democrat vs. Republican sort of thing. It s about decency.Image via screen capture.
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1fake	Former NH Governor John Sununu let Alison Camarata have it when she asked about the Russia investigation and Robert Mueller. Sununu said that Trump’should have been notified if he was under investigation and then he’slammed Mueller for hiring all Dems.Camerota: Should the White House know if the President is being investigated for obstruction of justice? Sununu: If the President is being investigated for obstruction of justice, the White House should have been officially notified. Sununu: What bothers me the most and there must be a reason for it, is Mueller making four of his first hires so blatantly biased lawyers, pro-Democrat lawyers with a bias certainly against the President. Maybe Mueller has decided internally that this isn’t going anywhere and that the only way he can have credibility on a decision saying that there s nothing there is to have that decision come from a group of lawyers that are so blatantly biased against the President. CNN Reports Three members of the legal team known to have been hired so far by special counsel Robert Mueller to handle the Russia investigation have given political donations almost exclusively to Democrats, according to a CNN analysis of Federal Election Commission records.
0true	A suicide bomber killed 13 other people in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri on Sunday, a police official said, the deadliest attack in over a month as the conflict with Boko Haram stretches into its ninth year. The evening attack, which also injured five people, struck the city s Muna Garage area, Damian Chukwu, a police commissioner, told Reuters. The area is home to a camp for just some of the more than 2 million people who have fled fighting with the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency, which has left over 20,000 dead. That conflict, the epicenter of which is in northeastern Nigeria, is showing little sign of slowing, despite assurances by the government and military that Boko Haram is on the verge of defeat. On Friday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that attacks against civilians - including suicide bombings in and near IDP (internally displaced person) camps - continue to be a major concern. Two suicide bombers also injured 13 other people in a separate attack, said Chukwu.
0true	The Pentagon has notified the U.S. Congress of the sale to Nigeria of 12 Super Tucano A-29 planes and weapons worth $593 million, which the West African country wants for its fight against the militant group Boko Haram. The Federal Register on Monday published the Aug. 2 notification from the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The sale includes thousands of bombs and rockets and was originally agreed by former President Barack Obama’s administration. The Super Tucano A-29, an agile, propeller-driven plane with reconnaissance and surveillance as well as attack capabilities, is made by Brazil’s Embraer. A second production line is in Florida, in a partnership between Embraer and privately held Sierra Nevada Corp of Sparks, Nevada. The Super Tucano costs more than $10 million each and the price can go much higher depending on the configuration. It is powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT 6 engine. The Obama administration delayed the deal after incidents including the Nigerian Air Force’s bombing of a refugee camp in January that killed 90 to 170 civilians. President Donald Trump has said he plans to go ahead with foreign defense sales delayed under Obama by human rights concerns. (This story corrects headline and paragraphs 1 and 2 to reflect that the notification was made on Aug. 2, not on Monday)
0true	China said on Wednesday it wanted to develop smooth military-to-military ties with the new U.S. administration of Donald Trump. While the world’s two largest economies are frequently at odds over issues like the disputed South China Sea, both have been trying to improve trust between their armed forces to reduce the risk of misunderstanding in any encounters. This month, China and the United States staged a three-day humanitarian relief military drill as part of that trust-building exercise. New concern looms with Trump’s election as U.S. president. He lambasted China on the campaign trail and has suggested Japan and South Korea be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. Asked about Trump’s election, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said it went without saying there were tensions in the military relationship and China hoped the United States would respect its core interests and concerns. “China is willing to work hard together with the defense department of the next U.S. government to promote the healthy and stable development of military-to-military relations,” Yang told a monthly news briefing. Trump will take over as president in January.
1fake	This is just more government waste and expansion with your tax dollars. The Lifeline program is a tax on your phone bill to subsidize the free phones that have come to be known as OBAMAPHONES YOU pay for these and I can safely say you’re being robbed. This program was started before Obama but Obama grabbed it and used it so it s no secret that it has exploded while he’s been in office. Now we’re proposing free internet?! Nothing is free and someone has to pay for this that someone is YOU!Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler announced on Thursday that he intends to expand Lifeline, popularly known as the Obama Phone program, to the Internet. I am circulating new proposals to reboot Lifeline for the Internet age, Wheeler wrote in a blog post on the FCC s Website. He said the reboot would include establishing minimum standards of service for voice and broadband, in addition to subsidies for low-income consumers.Lifeline is a government benefit program that provides a monthly subsidy of $9.95 on telephone service for those at or below 135 percent of the poverty line so they can connect to the nation s communications networks, find jobs, access health care services, connect with family and their children s schools, and call for help in an emergency.The money comes out of the Universal Service Fund (USF), which is funded through fees paid by consumers on telephone service. The fee is generally itemized on customers monthly telephone bills and is currently assessed at a rate of 16.1 percent of the bill.The’size of the Lifeline program has doubled since 2008, increasing from $819 million to $1.6 billion in 2014. It reached a high of $2.19 billion in 2012 amid allegations of fraud and abuse.The USF, meanwhile, has increased from $7.2 billion in 2008 to $10.34 billion in 2014, with Chairman Wheeler s staff estimating a level of $12.1 billion in 2016. However, that estimate does not account for prospective Internet subsidies.In his post, Wheeler said, 30 percent of Americans still haven’t adopted broadband at home . While more than 95 percent of households with incomes over $150,000 have broadband, only 48 percent of those making less than $25,000 have service at home. According to Census Bureau data released in September, 74 percent of Americans already have access to the Internet at home. Accounting for those who can access it at work, school, or public libraries, Pew Research found that just 15 percent of Americans reported not using the Internet at all.Of the 15 percent who do not use the Internet, one-third said they had no desire to do so. They are not interested, don’t want to use it or don’t need it, Pew reported in 2013. Overall, just 3 percent of Americans reported that they’did not use the Internet due to financial reasons.The Lifeline expansion was made possible largely through the FCC s Open Internet Order, which reclassified Internet service as a utility and allows the FCC to impose the USF fee on Internet service if it chooses to do so.The role of government in the Internet has already been likened to the Obama Phone program, with Rep. Marsha Blackburn saying in a statement, The age of ObamaNet is upon us. The FCC is now seeking comment on how to modernize Lifeline while further combatting waste and better targeting the program to those who need it most. The FCC will vote on Wheeler s proposal on June 18.Via: cnsnews
0true	Two Reuters reporters arrested in Myanmar had not passed any information to the United Nations, the world body said, rejecting a report published in domestic media which suggested that could be the reason for their detention. A report published online by the Irrawaddy magazine on Tuesday had cited an unnamed source who has close ties with military intelligence as saying that the two men had passed photographs obtained during their reporting on violence in the western state of Rakhine to the U.N. Asked about the report, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday: We can confirm that Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo do not work for the United Nations and have not contacted the United Nations regarding the situation in Rakhine State. Reuters also denied that Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, who have been in detention since Dec. 12, had worked with the U.N. or any other organization. We reject the assertion that Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were working with any organization other than Reuters, said a spokeswoman for the news agency, when asked about the Irrawaddy report. They were engaged only in independent, unbiased reporting consistent with the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. A government spokesman was not immediately available for comment. Myanmar authorities have said the two journalists are being investigated over whether they violated the country s colonial-era Official Secrets Act. The act carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. The two journalists had worked on Reuters coverage of the crisis in Rakhine, where an estimated 655,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from a fierce military crackdown on militants. A number of governments and human rights and journalist groups have criticized Myanmar s authorities for holding the pair incommunicado since their arrest, with no access to a lawyer, colleagues and family members. A senior government spokesman said on Wednesday that the pair were in good health and had been well treated. The authorities have previously said that the arrest of the two men did not represent an attack on press freedom.
0true	President Barack Obama’s departing chief trade negotiator warned the Trump administration on Tuesday that it risked abdicating U.S. leadership in Asia by scrapping Obama’s 12-country Pacific Rim free trade deal. Michael Froman, in excerpts of his final speech as U.S. Trade Representative, said he agreed with Trump’s plan to take a tough stance on trade with China, adding that the Obama administration has filed 15 challenges to that country’s practices at the World Trade Organization over eight years. But he said withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement would create a vacuum that China would fill as it draws countries into its own free trade deal. “There simply is no way to reconcile a get-tough-on-China policy with withdrawing from TPP,” Froman in remarks to the Washington International Trade Association. “That would be the biggest gift any U.S. president could give China, one with broad and deep consequences, economic and strategic.” The U.S. Congress has not approved the TPP, which the United States, Japan, Canada, Mexico and eight other countries agreed upon in October 2015. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to issue a formal notice of withdrawal from TPP on Jan. 20, his first day in office. He frequently criticized the trade deal during his campaign, calling it a “rape of our country.” Froman said withdrawing would “abdicate” U.S. leadership in the Asia-Pacific region and effectively push traditional U.S. allies in the region “into China’s arms.” China is negotiating a 16-country trade bloc that he said would set lower standards for labor, the environment, intellectual property rights, internet freedom and other key areas. “It would be a strategic miscalculation of enormous proportions,” said Froman, who spent all eight years of the Obama administration, both as a White House deputy national security adviser and as USTR, working to promote and negotiate the TPP deal. “Why would we cede our role as a Pacific power?” he said. “Does anyone really think U.S. interests are better served if China, rather than the U.S., writes the rules of the road?” Without the TPP, he said, new export opportunities would be lost and current export market share would be eroded. Froman’s successor will be Robert Lighthizer, a veteran Washington trade lawyer who has taken a more protectionist route, working through the Commerce Department to erect tariffs to benefit the U.S. steel industry and other manufacturers. Lighthizer was deputy USTR in the Reagan administration at a time when the United States took a tougher stance against a flood of imports from Japan.
1fake	As much as Hillary Clinton wants to spin the definition of the trouble she’s in, it won’t matter. The FBI Director James Comey isn’t playing around and won’t put up with the’spin from Hillary.
1fake	It s almost as though we don’t even have a Constitution Never let a crisis go to waste President Barack Obama s advisers are finalizing a proposal that would expand background checks on gun sales without congressional approval.White House adviser Valerie Jarrett says the president has asked his team to complete a proposal and submit it for his review in short order. She’says the recommendations will include measures to expand background checks.Jarrett spoke Wednesday night at a vigil for the victims of the Newtown shooting, according to a summary provided by the White House.After the mass shooting in Roseburg, Oregon, Obama said his team was looking for ways to tighten gun laws without a vote in Congress. White House officials have said they’re exploring closing the’so-called gun show loophole that anti-gun advocates claim allows people to buy weapons at gun shows and online without a background check.The move comes following the deadly terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, that left 14 people dead. All of the guns used in the massacre were purchased legally. Opponents of new gun control regulations have argued that the proposals being pushed by Obama would not have prevented the tragedy or recent mass shootings. Via: The Blaze
0true	Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has made too many troubling statements recently that lend uncertainty over its ties with the United States and are at odds with their alliance, the White House said on Thursday. “We’ve seen too many troubling public statements from President Duterte over the last several months,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at a daily press briefing. “And the frequency of that rhetoric has added an element of unnecessary uncertainty into our relationship that doesn’t advance the interests of either country.”
1fake	New Wikileaks email shows Bill Clinton wanted Young Latina Celeb Type on campaign trail for Hillary with him, and that Hillary s campaign was more than happy to try to make that happen. This new email should cause ever American’to ask, Why would any person who cares about women intentionally send a young female on the campaign trail with a known sexual predator and accused rapist? Bill Clinton wanted to appear on the campaign trail for his wife with young Latina celeb types, according to newly released hacked emails.The former president asked earlier this year for Hispanic surrogates to appear at his campaign events for Hillary Clinton, and suggested either the Castro brothers or a young female celebrity. WJC asking if we should have a Latino surrogate do events with him, wrote Tina Flournoy, Bill Clinton s chief of staff, on Feb. 10, 2016. Not sure that s the focus for the Sunday trip. Where are we putting him? Flournoy said Clinton suggested Juli n Castro, the’secretary of Housing and Urban Development, or his brother Joaqu n Castro, a congressman from Texas. He just suggested Castro to me too, wrote Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton s campaign manager. Or young Latina celeb type. The campaign team then suggested actress America Ferrera, a longtime supporter of Hillary Clinton. He was thing America but that s based in his mind on 2008 [sic], Flournoy said. We love America, said Huma Abedin, a top Hillary Clinton aide. Tried to get her but she couldn’t do this weekend. WFB
1fake	NFL players were pretty much all over the place with what they’decided to do to protest today (SEE LIST BELOW). Some players gave the black power salute, while others decided to continue kneeling. Many teams decided to kneel BEFORE the anthem and then lock arms while standing during the anthem.The fewest players raised a fist with the black power salute They stood out like a sore thumb:The kneeling is still ridiculous even though it s now mostly before the anthem:Daily Mail reported:The entire New Orleans Saints roster briefly took a collective knee prior to the anthem in what quarterback Drew Brees had called a way to show respect to all . The team then stood and many linked arms.A handful of Buffalo Bills players could be seen kneeling for the anthem ahead of their game against the Atlanta Falcons.Two Detroit Lions players also took to one knee for the anthem before the game against the Minnesota Vikings in Minneapolis. Roughly half the San Francisco 49ers took a knee prior to their game against the Arizona Cardinals.IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK? Is it too much to ask for these players to just stand with hand over heart for our national anthem? Do they even have a clue about how this idiotic protest began? Kaepernick knelt in support of domestic terror group Black Lives Matter and against our law enforcement. It has now morphed into a salute to eternal victimhood and a protest against President Trump. Of course, the Democrats have jumped on the bandwagon to interpret Trump calling ALL the players sons of bitches into a racist word. It s sickening to see that an out of work mediocre football quarterback has caused such a stink for the’sinking NFL. Too bad fans are dropping like flies Kaepernick was seen wearing a t-shirt that perfectly describes his effort to be a victim like he wants all blacks to be Me against the world LOL!Here is a list of players and teams that protested during the national anthem:Saints vs. DolphinsThe entire New Orleans Saints team took a knee in solidarity before the national anthem played at Wembley Stadium in London. The players stood in unison for the playing of the anthem.Kenny Stills, Michael Thomas and Julius Thomas of the Miami Dolphins took a knee during the performance.Steelers vs. RavensThe Ravens took a knee before the national anthem and were booed by fans. No Steelers or Ravens players took a knee during the anthem.Titans vs. TexansTexans players linked arms during the national anthem but all stood together.Rishard Matthews of the Titans remained in the locker room rather than stand with his teammates during the anthem.Panthers vs. PatriotsThe Patriots stood at the’sideline at attention several minutes before the national anthem and then put their hands over their hearts and each other.Lions vs. VikingsJalen Reeves-Maybin and Steve Longa kneeled during the national anthem. All other Detroit players locked arms.Jaguars vs. JetsThe Jets locked arms for the national anthem. No player kneeled. Every Jaguars player took a knee before the playing of the national anthem but stood during the’song.Bills vs. FalconsKaelin Clay, Cedric Thornton, Mike Tolbert, Shareece Wright, Taiwan Jones and Jerel Worthy were the Bills players who knelt during the national anthem. The rest of the players stood with their arms locked.Last week, Grady Jarrett and Dontari Poe took a knee during the national anthem but stood during this week. No Falcons players were kneeling during the national anthem. Most of them on the’sidelines linked arms.Rams vs. CowboysAll Rams and Cowboys players stood during the national anthem. Dallas remains one of six teams not to kneel, sit or raise a fist during the national anthem. Rams outside linebacker Robert Quinn raised his fist. Cowboys defensive end Damontre Moore raised his fist as the anthem ended.49ers vs. CardinalsHalf of the 49ers team kneeled with general manager John Lynch and CEO Jed York during the national anthem. The team issued the following statement after the demonstration:READ MORE: SI
0true	President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey on Tuesday said a Kurdish independence referendum in northern Iraq could lead to fresh conflicts in the Middle East. New crises in the region, such as bids for independence, could spark new conflicts and must therefore be avoided at all costs ... We urge Iraq s Kurdish Regional Government to abort the steps they have taken in that direction, Erdogan told the United Nations General Assembly.
0true	Thousands of Tunisians protested in several cities on Thursday against U.S. President Donald Trump s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital and decision to move the U.S. Embassy there, residents said. Labor unions and other groups have called for even bigger protests in the capital Tunis and other cities in the North African country after Friday prayers. Thursday s demonstrations went peacefully with several hundreds alone gathering in central Tunis, holding up Palestinian flags and banners, residents said. Protesters burned a U.S. flag and others stepped on images of Israeli flags. Tunisia s President Beji Caid Essebsi sent a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemning the U.S. decision, saying it undermined Palestinian rights, officials said.
1fake	Watch:Here is Snoop Dogg s latest music video glorifying the assassination of President Trump. If Snoop Dogg is correct and the youth listens to their message, are they listening to this message?
0true	A Taiwan court on Friday jailed a mainland Chinese man for 14 months for breaching national security laws, following months of strained relations over China s detention of a national from the self-ruled island. China, which sees Taiwan as a wayward province to be taken back by force, if necessary, severed official communications last year to pressure President Tsai Ing-wen, whose party traditionally favors independence, to concede its position. Zhou Hongxu, formerly a student in Taiwan, was charged for seeking to arrange meetings between a Taiwan government official and a Chinese Communist party official outside Taiwan, in return for payment to the Taiwan official, a court document showed. Zhou intentionally jeopardized national security, though the attempt was unsuccessful, the court said in the document released after the verdict. Zhou, who had met the Chinese official at a 2014 event in Shanghai in 2014, did not plead guilty, his lawyer said, despite a confession during the trial that he later described as having been made in improper circumstances. He appeared in court on Friday in a calm mood and dressed in dark colors. The court reduced his sentence, taking into account his confession, and the failure of the bid to breach national security, it said in its statement. On Monday, a Taiwanese activist, Li Ming-che, confessed in a Chinese court to attempting to subvert the Beijing government, videos of his hearing released by Chinese authorities showed, although his wife refused to recognize the court s authority. Li, a community college teacher known for his pro-democracy and rights activism, had gone missing on a trip to mainland China in March.
1fake	Founder of the Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford, made no secret of the fact that he disliked Jewish people. More precisely, he disliked the Jew an abstract impression of what Ford imagined to be a sinister people bent on controlling the world.Not only did he make no secret of his contempt, but he launched a weekly newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, in 1919 to promote his paranoid views. He pressed Ford retailers to sell subscriptions.In the end, historians say, Ford assisted some of the greatest evil and genocide in history by fueling the anti-Semitism of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in the 1920s. According to press reports, Hitler had a portrait of Henry Ford on his office wall and a copy of The International Jew, published by Ford, on his desk. Crains Business Detroit Should anyone be shocked by a Sheriff s decision to not want to support a car brand, after their decision to openly support a movement started to create hate and distrust for our law enforcement? The Bossier Parish (La.) Sheriff s Office is boycotting its local Ford dealership because of Ford Motor Company s support for protests of the National Anthem by National Football League (NFL) players at games, Sheriff Julian Whittington announced Wednesday.Sheriff Whittington sent a letter to Hixson Ford of Alexandria notifying the dealership that his office would no longer purchase Ford vehicles for as long as Ford sides with those who have no regard for the men and women who protect and serve this great nation : Yes, the NFL players have a right to protest as they’deem necessary, but we, the Bossier Sheriff s Office and the taxpayers of Bossier Parish have a right to spend our money elsewhere, Whittington says in his letter posted on the office s Facebook page. It is my hope that this letter will cause you to encourage Ford Motor Co. to change their advertising choice and cease to support the NFL with advertising dollars until the NFL leadership demands its players show proper respect for our nation s colors. After the letter to Hixson Automotive was received by Dallas L. Hixson, the Sheriff discussed the issue with Mr. Hixson, the Sheriff s office told CNSNews.com. Mr. Hixson informed Sheriff Whittington that he was not aware of Ford Motor Company s support for NFL players who wish to protest during the National Anthem or during the game.Hixson told Sheriff Whittington that such a stance concerns him as well, and he will be taking the Sheriff s letter with him to Detroit to present to Ford Motor Co. leadership in the near future.Sheriff Whittington says he is sending copies of the letter to each of the’state s 63 other sheriffs, as well as both the national and Louisiana sheriffs associations.National Sheriffs Association (NSA) Executive Director Jonathan Thompson tells CNSNews.com that NSA has received the letter and that sheriffs have both the authority and obligation to authorize, or decline, purchases based on the best interests of law enforcement and their communities: Sheriffs have the obligation to decide which products they authorize for bids, procurements and purchases. They choose, based upon a variety of requirements and capabilities, but also whom they believe is best able to support the broad needs of law enforcement and the communities they protect Since 2016, the Bossier Sheriff s Office has spent $747,132 and purchased 29 vehicles patronizing Hixon Autoplex. The Sheriff s Office provided the following breakdown to CNSNews.com:In 2016, BSO purchased 14 vehicles from Hixson Autoplex, costing $346,519.50. They included:One 2015 Ford F-150 Two 2015 Ford F-250 Six 2017 Ford Police Interceptor One 2017 Ford Explorer Three 2016 Ford Taurus One 2017 Ford Taurus In 2017, BSO purchased 15 vehicles from Hixson Autoplex, costing $400,612.50. They included:Fifteen 2017 Ford Police Interceptor Ford Motor Company issued a statement in late September supporting the right of the players to protest the National Anthem at NFL games, Bloomberg reports: Ford, for example, said the automaker would respect individuals rights to express their views, even if they are not ones we share. That s part of what makes America great. CNS News
0true	Republican Donald Trump’s list of potential vice presidential running mates got a little shorter on Wednesday when one prominent U.S. senator withdrew from consideration and a second said she wanted to focus on her home state. The moves by Bob Corker of Tennessee and Joni Ernst of Iowa could complicate Trump’s efforts to rally establishment Republicans behind his presidential bid. With Trump looking at a self-imposed deadline of July 15 to announce his pick, there was no indication that the wealthy businessman was anywhere close to reaching what is perhaps the most important decision he will make as the presumptive Republican nominee. Trump is looking to announce his running mate just ahead of the Republican National Convention, to be held July 18-21 in Cleveland, where he is expected to become the party’s official nominee. In Cincinnati, Ohio, on Wednesday, Trump campaigned with potential vice presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, a former speaker of the House of Representatives who is popular in conservative circles. Introducing Trump, Gingrich tried out the role of the No. 2 with a robust attack on presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for her email practices, on the same day the Justice Department decided not to levy criminal charges over what the Federal Bureau of Investigation called her “extremely careless” handling of classified information when she was secretary of state. “There are two Americas. There’s the corrupt Washington of the old order. And there’s all the rest of us. I say to you, Enough!” Gingrich said. Trump liked what he heard. “I’m not saying it’s Newt, but if it’s Newt, nobody is going to be beating him in those debates,” Trump said. Trump told Fox News he has 10 candidates on his vice presidential list, including two generals. One source said Indiana Governor Mike Pence is being pushed internally by some members of Trump’s inner circle. A former congressman, Pence met with Trump on Saturday. Corker, from Tennessee, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had wrestled privately over whether to be a contender for the No. 2 position, telling friends he had never been a surrogate for another politician. Corker spent eight hours at Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday, then campaigned with Trump in Raleigh, North Carolina. He told reporters he withdrew because “I just felt like I was far more suited for other types of service.” “You know, it’s a highly political role for the next four months,” he said. “I view myself as deep in substance and policy, and I just think there are better ways for me to serve in the public arena.” His withdrawal eliminates an important party establishment figure as Trump tries to broaden his appeal with plans to visit Republicans in the Senate and House on Capitol Hill on Thursday. “Corker’s withdrawal could be considered a canary in the coal mine with establishment Republicans who are convinced that Trump cannot stay on message and can’t stay focused on attacking Hillary Clinton without doing some type of damage to his campaign,” said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. Some Republicans felt Trump erred by not taking full political advantage of FBI Director James Comey’s statement on Tuesday that Clinton mishandled classified emails. In Raleigh, Trump sharply attacked Clinton but strayed from the message by saying the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had done a good job cracking down on militants. Ernst, a rising figure in the Republican Party, spent part of the Fourth of July holiday on Monday meeting with Trump. She seemed to be leaning against the vice presidential position, and told Politico, “I made that very clear to him that I’m focused on Iowa. I feel that I have a lot more to do in the United States Senate. And Iowa is where my heart is.”
0true	Former FBI Director James Comey is delaying an appearance before the U.S. House Oversight Committee that had been planned for Wednesday, the panel’s chairman said on Monday. In a post on Twitter, Chairman Jason Chaffetz, who will step down from his seat in Congress in June, said he had spoken with Comey who told him that before testifying in public he wanted to speak with former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating ties between Russia and the presidential election campaign of Donald Trump. An aide to the Oversight Committee could not confirm when the hearing would be rescheduled. President Trump fired Comey on May 9. After reports that Trump asked Comey to stop investigating his campaign advisors ties, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein hired Mueller as special counsel to lead the investigation, a move expected to delay congressional hearings into Russian ties.
0true	When a court on the Dutch North Sea coast issues its final verdict this week, it will signal the end of an experiment that has reverberated around the world, from the killing fields of Rwanda to the CIA s secret cells in Europe. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), set up by the United Nations in 1993, marked the biggest leap in the field of international criminal law since the Allies tried the Nazis in Nuremberg. Created in answer to the worst war crimes in Europe since World War Two, it set a precedent of accountability that has since put the Khmer Rouge and Liberia s Charles Taylor in the dock and paved the way for a court with global ambition. Almost 25 years later, its legacy is under threat. The International Criminal Court (ICC), opened in 2002, is undermined by renewed West-Russia rivalry, stone-walling and revolt in Africa, barrel bombs in Syria and a boycott by three of five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. Supporters of the Yugoslav tribunal say it will remain a beacon inspiring a growing demand for justice and creativeness in delivering it from ad hoc tribunals in Africa to the conviction in one country of a dictator from another and that of a Syrian in Sweden after a post on Facebook. The glass is either half full or half empty, said Alex Whiting, professor of practice at Harvard Law School. You can say we haven t come far enough and the new institutions, particularly the ICC, have not replicated the success of the ICTY, but you can just as easily say it s remarkable how far we ve come in just 25 years, he said. The ICTY is the North Star. The Yugoslav tribunal owes a debt to history, born as it was between the end of the Cold War and the 9/11 attacks on the United States, when Russia was weak and the West was united in collective action. For decades before, conflicts from Vietnam to Algeria, Afghanistan to Sri Lanka escaped major judicial scrutiny. Backed by the arrest-power of Western peacekeepers and the readiness of the European Union to condition integration with Yugoslavia s successor states on their cooperation, the tribunal issued 161 indictments and secured 83 convictions. Wednesday s verdict in the trial of Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic will be its last, bar appeals. The Yugoslav court was the first to indict a sitting head of state in Serbia s Slobodan Milosevic, recognized sexual violence as a crime of war and advanced the definition of genocide. With the U.N. tribunal for Rwanda, it assembled the hybrid case law used by tribunals in Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Lebanon and ultimately the ICC. Its 2.5 million pages of transcripts offer a forensic and often harrowing account of a state s dissolution that dispels the fog of wartime propaganda. More than 4,500 witnesses took the stand. I committed myself to speak on behalf of those who did not survive, said Nusreta Sivac, a former judge in Bosnia who testified to her rape by Bosnian Serb captors. The tribunal rulings will write history. Detractors say the court was slow, expensive and damaged by a number of high-profile acquittals. Milosevic died in 2006 while still on trial, while some cases were plagued by witness intimidation. The tribunal was supposed to help with reconciliation, but revisionism is rife and convicted war criminals often feted as heroes. Critics argue the indictment of Milosevic, at the height of NATO air strikes against him, only complicated the conflict and encouraged him to cling on, which he did for another 17 months. Similar arguments have been made against the ICC s pursuit of some African leaders. Established by treaty and boycotted by the United States, China and Russia, the ICC has little of the clout of the ICTY. With only one Arab member, it has found the bulk of its work in Africa. Alleging bias, Burundi quit the court last month. Kenya and South Africa have threatened to follow. The court s credibility has already been tested by the collapse in 2014 of a case against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir s eight-year evasion of arrest. Most glaring is its impotence in the face of nearly half a million dead in Syria, its hands tied by Russian and Chinese vetoes in the Security Council, which can refer a case to the court in a non-member state such as Syria. The ICC denies any bias against Africa and is at various stages of investigation in Georgia, Iraq, Ukraine, Colombia and Palestine, though it can expect to make little progress in investigating conflicts involving Russia or the United States. In a watershed moment, prosecutors this month called for a formal investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan, including the mistreatment of detainees by U.S. forces in the country and at CIA dark sites in Poland, Romania and Lithuania. Experts say the move is symbolic of the court s ambition, but also of its limitations, given the unlikelihood of any cooperation from the Trump administration. The Yugoslav tribunal demonstrated that, with strong political and diplomatic support from the international community, justice can be achieved , its chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz told Reuters. But without that support, the obstacles can be almost insurmountable. Kevin Jon Heller, law professor at the University of Amsterdam, said of the ICC: I strongly doubt it is ever going to fulfill the aspirations of the people in the states that created it. Nevertheless, demands for accountability are multiplying, along with avenues to pursue them. Experts point to the 2016 conviction of Chad ex-dictator, Hissene Habre, in a Senegalese court, the first time universal jurisdiction was used to prosecute the former ruler of one country by a court in another for human rights crimes. The same principle saw a Syrian soldier convicted by a Swedish court last month, partly on the basis of social media posts, while authorities in Sweden and Germany are each investigating more than a dozen individuals for crimes in Syria and Iraq. With the Security Council paralyzed, the U.N. General Assembly has launched its own ad hoc mechanism to investigate war crimes in Syria. A hybrid tribunal is in the works in Central African Republic and another mooted for South Sudan. What has not ebbed in the last five to seven years, and in fact what has only increased, is the demand for justice, and an expectation that it will translate into action, said Param-Preet Singh, an associate director at Human Rights Watch. The ICTY and efforts since have changed the conversation , said Whiting. It is for that reason this project will never die, he said. It will go into dormancy, but it will never die.
0true	Malaysia s growing ties to Saudi Arabia - and its puritan Salafi-Wahhabi Islamic doctrines - are coming under new scrutiny as concerns grow over an erosion of traditional religious practices and culture in the multi-ethnic nation. A string of recent events has fueled the concern. Hostility toward atheists, non-believers and the gay community has risen. Two annual beer festivals were canceled after Islamic leaders objected. A hardline preacher, accused of spreading hatred in India, has received official patronage. The government has backed a parliamentary bill that would allow the shariah court wider criminal jurisdiction over Muslims in the state of Kelantan. And after religious officials supported a Muslim-only laundromat, Malaysia s mostly ceremonial royalty made a rare public intervention, calling for religious harmony. Marina Mahathir, the daughter of Malaysia s longest serving prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, publicly lashed out at the government for allowing the Arabisation of Malaysia. Marina, who heads the civil rights group Sisters in Islam, told Reuters Saudi influence on Islam in Malaysia has come at the expense of traditional Malay culture . Her father, 93, now heads the opposition alliance. Saudi Arabia s fundamentalist Wahhabi beliefs have strongly influenced Malaysia and neighboring Indonesia - for decades, but have strengthened considerably since Najib became prime minister in 2009 and began cozying up to the kingdom. The relationship came under a harsh spotlight when nearly $700 million wound up in Najib s bank account in 2013. Najib said it was a donation from the Saudi Royal family, rebutting allegations it was money siphoned from the 1MDB state investment fund he had founded and overseen. Malaysia s attorney-general cleared him of any wrongdoing. The trend toward a politicized brand of Islam in Malaysia, a middle-income emerging market, has alarmed Malaysia s non-Muslims, including ethnic Chinese who comprise a quarter of the population and dominate private sector commerce. It is also a concern for foreign investors, who account for nearly half the local bond market and have invested $8.95 billion in project investments in the first nine months of this year. The government denies actively promoting Wahhabi-style Islamic conservatism. Najib has been largely silent about the recent religious controversies. Critics have accused the prime minister, whose governing coalition lost the popular vote in the last general election but retained a simple majority in parliament, of playing on fears that Islam and Malay political power will be eroded should the opposition win. An election is due by mid-2018. Militancy has also been on the rise in Malaysia, which from 2013 to 2016 had arrested more than 250 people with alleged ties to Islamic State, many of whom were indoctrinated with hardline interpretations of Islam. After the visit of the Saudi monarch this year, Malaysia announced plans to build the King Salman Centre for International Peace to bring together Islamic scholars and intelligence agencies in an effort to counter extremist interpretations of Islam. The center, which is being built on a 16-hectare (40-acre) plot in the administrative capital of Putrajaya, will draw on the resources of the Saudi-financed Islamic Science University of Malaysia, and the Muslim World League, a Wahhabi Saudi religious body. Saudi Arabia has long been funding mosques and schools in Malaysia, while providing scholarships for Malaysians to study in the kingdom. Many of them find employment in Malaysia s multitude of Islamic agencies, said Farouk Musa, chairman and director of the moderate think-tank, Islamic Renaissance Front. One of the most worrisome doctrines they preach in multi-cultural Malaysia is al-w ala wa-al-bara or allegiance and disavowal , Farouk said. This doctrine basically means do not befriend the non-believers (al-kuffar), even if they are among the closest relatives. We have never heard of Islamic scholars forbidding Muslims to wish Merry Christmas before, for example. Now, this is a common phenomenon, he said. The adoption of Arab culture and interpretations of Islam is a result of greater exposure to Middle Eastern people and universities, said Abdul Aziz Kaprawi, a member of the Supreme Council of Najib s political party, the United Malay National Organisation. The extensive usage of social media also accelerated the external influence on the locals, he told Reuters. The government is not promoting Wahhabism but rather the doctrine of wasatiyyah , or moderation and balance, to accommodate Malaysia s multi-cultural society, said Abdul Aziz, who is also a federal deputy minister. Karima Bennoune, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for cultural rights, expressed concern in a report after her September visit to Malaysia about the deepening involvement of religious authorities in policy decisions. She said this was influenced by a hegemonic version of Islam imported from the Arabian Peninsula that was at odds with local forms of practice. She also expressed concern about the banning of books, including some about moderate and progressive Islam, in the country when the government extols these very concepts abroad . Marina Mahathir said religious departments, staffed with Saudi graduates, are now consulted on absolutely everything, from movies to health and medicine to insurance, all sorts of things that they do not necessarily have any expertise in . The kingdom also exerts leverage over Muslim-majority countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia through the quotas it gives to countries for the number of pilgrims they can send on the Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam that all capable Muslims must perform at least once in their lives. This could all start to change if Saudi Arabia s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman succeeds in returning the Saudi kingdom to a moderate Islam, which he says was practiced before 1979. He has already scaled back the role of religious police, permitted public concerts and announced women will be allowed to drive. The kingdom has also set up an authority to scrutinize uses of the hadith accounts of the sayings, actions or habits of the Prophet to prevent them being used to justify violence or terrorism. (This story has been corrected to clarify bill on Islamic law and remove reference to stoning and amputations in paragraph 3)
1fake	Do you think our Gun Grabber In Chief should be next?Virginia state senator Bill Carrico (R-Dist. 40) is responding to Governor Terry McAuliffe s (D) relentless gun control push by introducing a budget amendment to remove funding for McAuliffe s protection detail.Carrico said, If he’s so afraid of guns, then I m not going to surround him with armed state policemen. McAuliffe has pushed numerous gun controls as governor and, in August, infamously pushed for expanding background checks after Virginia reporter Alison Parker had been shot on air. McAuliffe made the push for expanded background checks before the gunman who killed Parker had been caught and, therefore, before he had any knowledge of how the gunman acquired his gun. As it turned out, gunman Vester Lee Flanagan acquired his gun via a background check.Moreover, on October 15, McAuliffe issued an executive order banning the open carry of firearms in state buildings used by the Virginia executive branch and calling for enforcement to ensure that the only people in the business of selling guns in Virginia are those with a Federal Firearm License (FFL).Senator Carrico is responding to these things and more by trying to be sure McAuliffe does not have to be around guns at all if they bother him so much. According to the Bristol Herald Courier, Carrico said he will address this matter when the General Assembly convenes in January, saying:A lot of the governor s power is deferred to the General Assembly at that point and I ll be getting with my colleagues to circumvent everything this governor has done on this point. I have a budget amendment that I m looking at to take away his executive protection unit. If he’s so afraid of guns, then I m not going to surround him with armed state policemen. Via: Breitbart News
0true	Two Turkish soldiers were killed and two were wounded late on Monday in northern Iraq in a blast caused by an improvised explosive device planted by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, the armed forces said on Tuesday. It said the Turkish air force subsequently carried out air strikes in the same Zap region of northern Iraq, killing eight PKK fighters. The military statement said the incident was separate from another blast earlier on Monday in northern Iraq in which two soldiers were killed.
1fake	Clifton Park, New York is the latest school to succumb to Muslim prayer rooms. We ve documented this trend across America of Islam creeping into the’schools. The latest case in San Diego of Sharia Law being taught in the classrooms has ended up in court:FEDERAL LAWSUIT Filed Against San Diego School District s Pro-Islam, Pro-Sharia Law PolicyOne question should be asked with this infiltration of Muslim prayer in our schools: WHAT ABOUT ALL OF THE OTHER RELIGIONS THAT HAVE BEEN BANNED FROM DOING ANYTHING CLOSE TO PRAYING IN SCHOOL? The largest school district in Saratoga County says it will allow Muslim students to pray in rooms in at its high school.The Shenendehowa High School Principal says classrooms are being set aside so Muslim students can pray during Ramadan. Since then, we’ve heard from parents who are against the move.One parent sent us a letter explaining her concerns saying: Since prayer for other religions was removed from school years ago, I feel as Shen has crossed the line on allowing this on campus. Some folks we talked to in Clifton Park agreed, like David Chapleau. You just can’t bring religion into a public institution where were really trying to teach kids to the idea of opening their critical faculties, Chapleau said. The woman s outcry is in response to an email from the Shenendehowa High School Principal to students and parents. It addresses the month of Ramadan, a time of fasting and prayer for Muslims. It says, in part: Prayer occurs on a daily basis for practicing Muslims. This can be challenging in today s modern public high school. In an attempt to make reasonable accommodations for students and employees to meet their personal religious obligations, room 65 in High School West and room 109 in High School East have been set aside so students can incorporate this important aspect of their religion into their daily activities while at school. The letter explains two classrooms will be set aside for students to meet their religious obligations during school hours. A school spokesperson says the decision was made after the high school principal met with the leader of a local mosque in an attempt to improve the’school s cultural proficiency. She’says the’school can’t refuse a student s request to leave class for required prayer, and says the’space allows Muslim students to return to class quickly after praying.READ MORE: CBS6LOCAL
1fake	Mrs. Clinton s campaign was so confident in her victory that her aides popped open Champagne on the campaign plane early Tuesday. But that conviction, aides would later learn, was based largely on erroneous data showing that young, black and Latino voters and suburban women who had been turned off by Mr. Trump’s comments but viewed Mrs. Clinton unfavorably would turn out for her in higher numbers than they ultimately did.Exit polls conducted by Edison Research found that among people who said they had decided in the final week before Election Day, 47 percent voted for Mr. Trump and 42 percent for Mrs. Clinton.Read more: NYT
1fake	The wife of Fox News co-owner James Murdoch, made no secret of her dislike for Steve Bannon back in April of 2017: Enough of President Bannon. President Jarvanka preferable. Kathryn Murdoch (@KathrynAMurdoch) April 5, 2017Are the Murdoch family about to be sorry they ever wished for Steve Bannon to be fired or to resign from his position? According to Axios: Steve Bannon is about to becoe a very big threat to the Murdoch Brothers conservative-leaning network news monopoly.Unshaven and working from home in cargo shorts as he moves into Bannon the Barbarian mode, Steve Bannon is thinking bigger than Breitbart.Axios Jonathan Swan hears Bannon has told friends he’sees a massive opening to the right of Fox News, raising the possibility that he’s going to start a network.Bannon s friends are speculating about whether it will be a standalone TV network, or online streaming only. Before his death in May, Roger Ailes had sent word to Bannon that he wanted to start a channel together. Bannon loved the idea: He believes Fox is heading in a squishy, globalist direction as the Murdoch sons assume more power. Now he has the means, motive and opportunity: His chief financial backer, Long Island hedge fund billionaire Bob Mercer, is ready to invest big in what s coming next, including a huge overseas expansion of Breitbart News. On Day 1, Bannon declared he’s taking his West Wing infighting to the outside, telling Bloomberg Businessweek s Josh Green that he’s going to war for Trump against his opponents on Capitol Hill, in the media, and in corporate America. The reality is that Bannon will go nuclear on former colleagues he calls West Wing Democrats : economic adviser Gary Cohn, Jared and Ivanka ( Javanka, as he calls them) and Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell.The revved-up Breitbart operation is also likely to target Speaker Ryan, as it did before Trump.Why it matters: The country s national political conversation is about to get even uglier, if you can imagine. It s going to be dark, and toxic, with a fight on the right that may be more bitter and personal than hostilities between Republicans and Democrats.Will Steve Bannon be more useful to the conservative movement on the outside? Will he use his experiences in the White House and his vast knowledge in the world of conservative media to build a media empire that could crush the Murdoch s FOX News network? Many Americans will be wondering Will Bannon hire Bill O Reilly, the one man who kept Fox News at the top of the ratings for over a decade? President Trump wished Steve Bannon well in his return to Breitbart News. Is it possible Trump knew of Bannon s plans to build a right-leaning media empire that could take down the leftist fake news monopoly we currently see in America?100 Percent FED UP With the liberal sons of Rupert Murdoch now firmly at the helm of what once was a conservative-leaning alternative to leftist cable news shows like CNN, MSNBC and the mainstream media news outlets, there is a very good chance Americans are witnessing the end of a significant era where FOX News ruled the ratings and liberal-run propaganda networks only dreamed of the kind of revenue they were pulling down.It is difficult to exaggerate the’significance of Fox News sacking of Bill O Reilly.Not only was he the’single most dominant public figure in America s vast conservative media environment, his removal signals the growing power of James and Lachlan Murdoch in the world s most powerful media empire, their father Rupert Murdoch s 21st Century Fox.O Reilly was dismissed overnight following allegations of sexual harassment by at least six women. It has been reported that Lachlan s wife Sarah Murdoch helped influence the decision. Last year the former Fox News creator, Roger Ailes, was sacked in similar circumstances, going on to advise Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.Murdoch s support for Trump distinguishes him from some of his children, including James, who told more than one friend of his dismay that his father was backing the Trump candidacy. James s wife, Kathryn, backed Hillary Clinton during the campaign and has been a vocal critic of the new president on Twitter. In September Kathryn tweeted: A vote for Trump is a vote for climate catastrophe , while on the night of the president s stunning election victory she wrote: I can’t believe this is happening. I am so ashamed. James and Kathryn are committed environmentalists: she is on the board of the Environmental Defense Fund, which a Fox News report recently labelled a leftwing group , while James wrote in The Washington Post in 2009 that conservation-minded conservatives were missing in the heated partisanship of today s politics . Financial TimesJames Murdoch s wife works for the Clinton Climate Initiative. She is an outspoken hater of President Trump on Twitter and much of her hate is directed at his refusal to accept that man-made climate warming cooling change is settled science. Here are a few examples of the hate she’spews for Donald Trump on Twitter:"An angry reflex in search of an idea" sums up a lot https://t.co/sof1ZB4paw Kathryn Murdoch (@KathrynAMurdoch) March 28, 2017Will Sean Hannity leave the left-leaning Fox News for a less hostile environment? Will Bannon put Greta VanSusteran back on the air? How long will conservatives like Jesse Watters and Judge Jeanine stick around the’sinking ship with radical leftist personalities like Shep Smith, Juan Williams and Geraldo Rivera covering the’side of news that the Murdoch brothers and their Trump-hating wives approve of?
1fake	If Donald Trump thinks being president means he can’t be prosecuted for his crimes, he’should think again.As it turns out, Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller has the power to indict Trump if he has enough evidence proving that Trump committed a criminal act such as colluding with Russia in an effort to win the 2016 Election. Donald Trump’s son Trump Jr. has already demonstrated that Trump’s campaign met with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer and a former Soviet Intelligence officer in order to get dirt to use against Hillary Clinton, which is, indeed, the very definition of collusion.Mueller s power to indict is confirmed by a 56-page legal memo written by Ronald Rotunda, a conservative professor of constitutional law and ethics, who was hired as part of Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr s team during the Bill Clinton presidency.According to the 1998 memo, which was obtained by the New York Times,It is proper, constitutional, and legal for a federal grand jury to indict a sitting president for serious criminal acts that are not part of, and are contrary to, the president s official duties. In this country, no one, even President Clinton, is above the law.That means no sitting president is above the law, including Trump.Watergate special counsel, Leon Jaworski, came to the’same conclusion in 1974.The only reason why Jaworski and Starr declined to indict President Nixon and President Clinton is because they chose to let impeachment proceedings play out instead.Well, Republicans have thus far done everything they can’to protect Trump from being impeached. So it appears Mueller may not have a choice but to indict Trump if Republicans continue to refuse to do their public duty.Even the Supreme Court has ruled that sitting presidents are not above the law by deciding in 1997 that a lawsuit against Clinton for misconduct prior to becoming president can move forward. And since Trump was not president when he and his campaign colluded with Russia, that makes his misconduct open to indictment, along with any other crimes he committed prior to taking office. That means if Mueller digs through Trump’s finances and finds other crimes, Trump could face an indictment for those as well. If there is no recourse against the president, if he cannot be prosecuted for violating the criminal laws, he will be above the law, Rotunda further wrote. If public policy and the Constitution allow a private litigant to sue a sitting president for acts that are not part of the president s official duties (and are outside the outer perimeter of those duties), and that is what Clinton v. Jones squarely held, then one would think that an indictment is constitutional because the public interest in criminal cases is greater. In short, Trump is in deep shit and he can’t blame Hillary Clinton to get out of it. Not even Republicans can dispute the Starr memo. Republicans not only supported Starr s investigation, it was a conservative legal mind who wrote the memo.So unless Republicans proceed with impeachment proceedings to get to the bottom of this once and for all, Robert Mueller must indict Trump. Because it is clear that Republicans won’t punish Trump for breaking the law and violating the Constitution.Featured Image: Addicting Info Archive
1fake	Here s the video clip that captured Hillary insulting and writing off nearly half the country. And here s Mitt Romney s comments at a private event that was secretly recorded. Many will argue that his 47% of Obama supporters are entitled comment helped to sink his candidacy. We actually think Romney was unfairly targeted for these comments, because he facts and figures to back up his assertion. Barack Obama was very vocal about the fact that all of America should be outraged by Romney s insensitive comments. Will Barack Obama hold Hillary to the’same standard as he held Mitt Romney? You don’t need to answer that question.Here s Obama s tweet from 4 years ago. Only 4 short years later, the’same could undoubtedly be said about Hillary s basket of deplorables comment.RT if you agree: We need a President who is fighting for all Americans, not one who writes off nearly half the country. Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 18, 2012
1fake	Scaramucci promised the heads of White House leakers would roll. He clearly wasn’t kidding Suspected leaker Michael Short has been terminated from the White House communications office, Breitbart News can confirm. Short, an ally of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and now former Press Secretary Sean Spicer who resigned last week was terminated on Tuesday by new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.Politico s Tara Palmeri was the first to report the news.Short disputes his resignations, says he was assigned to campaign from RNC and merely went back to the RNC to work for campaign from HQ https://t.co/bJ4XBtZR6a Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) July 25, 2017 Newly appointed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said on Tuesday that he plans to dismiss assistant press secretary Michael Short, Palmeri wrote on Tuesday morning. It would be Scaramucci s first step toward shaking up the communications shop, which has been dominated by former Republican National Committee staffers loyal to White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, a former RNC chairman. Short originally worked for the Trump campaign placed on it by Priebus and quit the campaign, sources tell Breitbart News, after the Access Hollywood tape came out. Politico confirmed this report, noting that Short walked out in the middle of the campaign leaving his computer behind only to show back up in January at the behest of the Republican National Committee (RNC) allies in the White House. He was scorned by many of his colleagues for quitting the Trump campaign, only to rejoin as a White House staffer because of Priebus, Palmeri wrote of Short. In a story often retold by campaign staffers, they arrived at Trump Tower one morning, months before the election, to see Short s computer left open on his otherwise empty desk. He had quit the campaign that day and never returned. The next time he was seen by former campaign staffers was in January on their first day in the White House, where some were stunned to learn that they were going to have to work alongside him or for some of the press assistants subordinate to him. Multiple White House sources tell Breitbart News that Short was a leaker, and worked closely with now former White House deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh another RNC wing official who was terminated earlier this year for her own suspected leaking. Breitbart NewsCould Reince Priebus be next?Heavy Could Short s and Spicer s resignations be a bad omen for the future of Priebus, the former RNC chairman turned chief of staff who once ran the Republican Party in Wisconsin?There certainly seems to be a diminishing in the ranks of his supporters inside the Trump bubble (and he was reported to have opposed the hiring of Scaramucci by The New York Times and other publications). However, Priebus and Scaramucci have publicly spoken positively about each other since Scaramucci was hired. Trump’seems to be relying more than before on a tight circle of family members and political outsiders like Scaramucci. The potential shake-up has exacerbated long-simmering tensions between Scaramucci and chief of staff Reince Priebus, reported The Washington Post. Scaramucci reports to Trump, not Priebus.
0true	The United States on Tuesday welcomed Saudi King Salman s order, reported by Saudi state media, allowing women to drive cars. We would certainly welcome that, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters. It s a great step in the right direction for that country. According to Saudi state news agency SPA, a royal degree ordered the formation of a ministerial body to provide advice within 30 days and to implement the order by June 2018.
1fake	B b but does this mean global climate change is not man made and that man is not more powerful than God? Here s our Liar In Chief trying to tell America that all of the top scientists in America agree with him:The climate models used by alarmist scientists to predict global warming are getting worse, not better; carbon dioxide does far more good than harm; and President Obama has backed the wrong side in the war on climate change. So says one of the world s greatest theoretical physicists, Dr Freeman Dyson (pictured above), the British-born, naturalised American citizen who worked at Princeton University as a contemporary of Einstein and has advised the US government on a wide range of scientific and technical issues.In an interview with Andrew Orlowski of The Register, Dyson expressed his despair at the current scientific obsession with climate change which he’says is not a scientific mystery but a human mystery. How does it happen that a whole generation of scientific experts is blind to the obvious facts. This mystery, says Dyson, can only partly be explained in terms of follow the money. Also to blame, he believes, is a kind of collective yearning for apocalyptic doom.It is true that there s a large community of people who make their money by scaring the public, so money is certainly involved to some extent, but I don’t think that s the full explanation.It s like a hundred years ago, before World War I, there was this insane craving for doom, which in a way, helped cause World War I. People like the poet Rupert Brooke were glorifying war as an escape from the dullness of modern life. [There was] the feeling we d gone soft and degenerate, and war would be good for us all. That was in the air leading up to World War I, and in some ways it s in the air today.Dyson, himself a longstanding Democrat voter, is especially disappointed by his chosen party s unscientific stance on the climate change issue.It s very sad that in this country, political opinion parted [people s views on climate change]. I m 100 per cent Democrat myself, and I like Obama. But he took the wrong side on this issue, and the Republicans took the right side.Part of the problem, he’says, is the Democrats conflation of pollution (a genuine problem) with climate change (a natural phenomenon quite beyond mankind s ability to control).China and India rely on coal to keep growing, so they ll clearly be burning coal in huge amounts. They need that to get rich. Whatever the rest of the world agrees to, China and India will continue to burn coal, so the discussion is quite pointless.At the’same time, coal is very unpleasant stuff, and there are problems with coal quite apart from climate. I remember in England when we burned coal, everything was filthy. It was really bad, and that s the way it is now in China, but you can clean that up as we did in England. It takes a certain amount of political willpower, and that takes time. Pollution is quite separate to the climate problem: one can be solved, and the other cannot, and the public doesn’t understand that.The’short-to-medium term solution to the pollution problem, he argues, is the replacement of coal with much-maligned shale gas, whose rejection by much of Europe he finds unfathomable and counter-productive.As far as the next 50 years are concerned, there are two main forces of energy, which are coal and shale gas. Emissions have been going down in the US while they’ve going up in Europe, and that s because of shale gas. It s only half the carbon dioxide emissions of coal. China may in fact be able to develop shale gas on a big scale and that means they burn a lot less coal.It seems complete madness to prohibit shale gas. You wondered if climate change is an Anglophone preoccupation. Well, France is even more dogmatic than Britain about shale gas!Dyson, 91, has enjoyed a long, distinguished career as a physicist, mathematician and public intellectual, showing promise as early as the age of five when he calculated the number of atoms in the’sun. During World War II, he worked at the Operation Research Section of the Royal Air Force s Bomber Command, before moving to the US where Robert Oppenheimer awarded him a permanent post at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. He also worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, looking at the climate system 25 years ago, before it became a hot political issue.The dangers of carbon dioxide, he believes, have been much overrated. In a foreword to a report for The Global Warming Policy Foundation by Indur Goklany called Carbon Dioxide: The Good News, as reported here at Breitbart he’says:To any unprejudiced person reading this account, the facts should be obvious: that the non-climatic effects of carbon dioxide as a sustainer of wildlife and crop plants are enormously beneficial, that the possibly harmful climatic effects of carbon dioxide have been greatly exaggerated, and that the benefits clearly outweigh the possible damage.I consider myself an unprejudiced person and to me these facts are obvious. But the’same facts are not obvious to the majority of scientists and politicians who consider carbon dioxide to be evil and dangerous. The people who are supposed to be experts and who claim to understand the’science are precisely the people who are blind to the evidence.He likens the climate change issue to some of the other irrational beliefs promoted through history by famous thinkers and adopted by loyal disciples. Sometimes, as in the use of bleeding as a treatment for various diseases, irrational belief did harm to a large number of human victims. George Washington was one of the victims. Other irrational beliefs, such as the phlogiston theory of burning or the Aristotelian cosmology of circular celestial motions, only did harm by delaying the careful examination of nature. In all these cases, we see a community of people happily united in a false belief that brought leaders and followers together. Anyone who questioned the prevailing belief would upset the peace of the community.Dyson s refusal ever to accommodate himself with the modish notions of the hour may explain why, unlike some of his less distinguished and brilliant contemporaries over the years, he has never been awarded a Nobel Prize.He concludes: I am hoping that the’scientists and politicians who have been blindly demonizing carbon dioxide for 37 years will one day open their eyes and look at the evidence. Via: Breitbart News
1fake	Comedian John Caparulo was in the middle of a perfectly normal standup act at The Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, California when someone was apparently too stupid to get his joke about Donald Trump and reacted violently. The Washington Monument, somebody got paid to design that shit? It s a fucking pencil, it s just a big cement pencil, Caparulo said. Some people think it looks like a dick but I think they’re saving that design for Trump’s monument. Though the majority of the audience laughed uproariously, two women decided that Mr. Caparulo was a goddamn traitor. Fuck you, one of the women yelled, apparently unable to summon enough of her insignificant brainpower to form a snappy comeback. No fuck you stupid, what are you his fucking mom? Get the fuck out of here, Caparulo replied, seeminly bemused by this woman s shock that someone doesn’t like the least popular president in American history. Oh god, am I the first one to dislike Trump? Oh my god, I must’ve invented disliking Trump Fucking break up my show lady, you can come up here and do this shit. Go fuck yourself, the woman screamed as she threw her glass at Caprulo a sure sign that it s probably a bad idea to give these people alcohol that isn’t in a sippy cup. The glass shattered when it hit the comedian. That hurt a little bit, he’said, laughing. I ll have to admit that hurt. Thank you, she was a bitch all night, one audience member yelled as the Trump fan left. Others agreed with her. Fuck you, one yelled. Fuck Trump, another added.Unfortunately, this is the mindset of Trump fans. Everything they’don’t like is met with violence because, at least according to studies, Trump fans are too stupid to know they are stupid. They lash out. They threaten. They scream. They throw fits. In many ways, they are just like their tangerine fuhrer.Watch the events unfold below:
0true	Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will discuss the current state of relations between Moscow and Washington at a meeting in Manila next week, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. The two statesmen agreed to talk on the sidelines of an ASEAN regional security summit scheduled for Aug. 6-8 in Manila, the ministry said. In a phone call on Thursday, they discussed the situation in North Korea and a range of global issues, it added.
0true	A Belgian judge will decide by Monday on Spain s arrest warrant for sacked Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and his associates after they turned themselves in to Belgian police, a spokesman for Brussels prosecutors said on Sunday. On Friday, Spain handed over to Belgian prosecutors the warrant for rebellion, sedition, misuse of public funds, disobedience and breach of trust relating to Catalonia s independence campaign for Puigdemont and four of his associates. This morning the five people wanted by Spain presented themselves to police in Brussels. They were put in custody at 9.17 this morning, prosecutor spokesman Gilles Dejemeppe told a news conference. The judge will hear the people this afternoon. He has until tomorrow morning to decide, he said, without naming the people. If the judge decides to issue an arrest warrant on the basis of the Spanish request, the case then goes to a court which must decide within 15 days whether to execute the order. Puigdemont can appeal at various stages of the proceedings, a process which can take many weeks.
0true	The world s fastest-growing humanitarian crisis shows no signs of abating, two months after militant attacks triggered a military crackdown in Myanmar s Rakhine State. This week thousands of new Rohingya Muslim refugees crossed the border into neighboring Bangladesh, fleeing hunger and a campaign of attacks by Myanmar security forces and Buddhist mobs that the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing. Exhausted, hungry and destitute, they join more than 600,000 who earlier fled what the military has called clearance operations in Rohingya villages after the Aug. 25 attacks by Rohingya militants. They have crossed land borders, rivers and treacherous seas to seek refuge in crowded camps in Bangladesh, itself a poor country struggling, along with international aid agencies, to cope with the influx. This multimedia essay uses a combination of Reuters graphics, pictures and video to show how the crisis unfolded, the exodus of the Rohingya and their lives as refugees in Bangladesh. See the graphic "A Desperate Escape" here: tmsnrt.rs/2xIvxQF
1fake	For the’second time in as many weeks, Trump’s Twitter feed has been filled with bravado over his job saving and job creating expertise. First, it was Carrier. It turned out to be a lie and a bad deal all around, but that didn’t stop Trump from bragging that he’saved 1,000 jobs.On Tuesday, Trump announced via Twitter that a Japanese company called SoftBank was ready to move 50,000 jobs to the United States. Naturally, Trump took credit for it.Masa (SoftBank) of Japan has agreed to invest $50 billion in the U.S. toward businesses and 50,000 new jobs . Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016 @realDonaldTrump: Masa said he would never do this had we (Trump) not won’the election! Trump For President (@TrumpD2016) December 7, 2016Trump also held a press conference in front of Trump Tower saying: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Masa from Japan, Trump told reporters at Trump Tower as he introduced CEO Masayoshi Son, whose company, SoftBank, owns Sprint. He s just agreed to invest $50 billion in the United States and 50,000 jobs. He s one of the great men of industry, so I just want to thank you’very much. Thank you. Source: PoliticoHere s the video:Anyone who s followed business or has ever taken a business class knows that it s impossible to iron out a deal like this in just a few weeks. Well, that s because it hasn’t been ironed out and, well, it s been in the works since October.SunBank is not a bank. They are a technology company with a majority ownership in Sprint. They had previously tried to merge with T-Mobile but gave up after Obama expressed a concern about growing telecom monopolies. This is likely the reason Son is excited about Trump’s presidency.In October, SoftBank announced the creation of a $100 billion fund, backed by Saudi Arabia. It appears that this latest deal is part of that.The reason deal is in quotes in the above paragraph is that there is no deal. There is talk of a deal, but all we’ve seen so far is a PowerPoint slide. There is no legally-binding contract, there is no timeline, although according to the PowerPoint slide, it would take place over four years. As for the $50 billion investment, only a portion of that will be coming from SoftBank if it comes at all.Son said in a speech Friday in New Delhi that $25 billion of the money was put up by SoftBank, $45 billion by the’sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, and the remaining $30 billion by other investors, according to Bloomberg.The fund, therefore, plans to invest half of what it has raised in the US. For comparison, a study of all 2015 venture capital funding in the world by EY found that roughly half of these investments were made in US-based companies, so this allocation does not appear to be out of the ordinary.Source: Business InsiderPerhaps the most important thing is that SoftBank, like Trump, can’t be trusted. They are already a large American employer and just last year, Son announced his plan to cut thousands of jobs. However, even as early as last November, Son was hinting at this latest plan, saying that he plans on increasing the company s stake in Sprint.Featured image via Sara D. Davis/Getty Images.
1fake	Many Republicans have expressed the opinion that Donald Trump is an absolute idiot, but this new diss from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gives new weight to that harsh truth.Yesterday, in speaking on Bloomberg Politics Masters in Politics podcast, McConnell basically said that Trump needed to have a Vice President that was more qualified than him, because it is pretty obvious that Trump doesn’t know a lot about the issues. Ouch!McConnell said: He needs someone highly experienced and very knowledgeable because it s pretty obvious he doesn’t know a lot about the issues. You see that in the debates in which he’s participated. It s why I have argued to him publicly and privately that he ought to use a script more often there is nothing wrong with having prepared texts. McConnell has previously criticized Trump for several things, his blatant racism being just one of them. More recently, the Senate Majority Leader called Trump’s controversial comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel not being fair in overseeing the fraudulent Trump University case because of his Mexican heritage totally inappropriate. McConnell added on the podcast: I object to a whole series of things that he’s said vehemently object to them. I think all of that needs to stop. Both the’shots at people he defeated in the primary and these attacks on various ethnic groups in the country. Unfortunately, despite the fact that McConnell practically admitted that he thinks Trump is an idiot and incapable of running the country, he’still found it in himself to say, I m comfortable supporting him. I m not going to speculate about what he might say, or what I might do. But I think it s pretty clear and I ve been pretty clear publicly about how I think he ought to change direction and I hope that s what we are going to see.For all of his obvious shortcomings, Donald Trump is certainly a different direction, and I think if he is in the White House he ll have to respond to the right-of-center world which elected him, and the things that we believe in. So I m comfortable supporting him. They may be on different sides of the political spectrum, but Trump’s incompetency is something that McConnell and our President can actually agree on. McConnell s comments about Trump not knowing anything about the issues that America s commander-in-chief would face is something that Obama has previously said about the business mogul.At a nuclear summit in Washington D.C., Obama called out Trump’s ignorance on nuclear proliferation and global politics. In a statement that was clearly directed at Trump, Obama said: [The’statements] tell us that the person who made the’statements doesn’t know much about foreign policy, nuclear policy, the Korean peninsula or the world generally. You can watch that diss below:Noting that the rest of the world was closely watching the U.S. election, Obama added: What we do is really important to the rest of the world. The president of the United States needs to know what s going on around the world. Honestly, it doesn’t matter who would be Trump’s VP he’s proven time and time again’that he doesn’t listen to anyone but himself. The only way to keep this country safe from Trump’s idiocy is to make sure he doesn’t get into the White House.Featured image via Alex Wong / Getty Images
0true	(This February 8 story has been refiled to correct word in name of bill to review from relief in second paragraph.) Senior U.S. senators called on Wednesday for the right to review any move the White House might make to ease sanctions on Russia, amid mounting concern in Congress - and among U.S. allies - that President Donald Trump will be too conciliatory toward Moscow. The lawmakers, led by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democrat Ben Cardin, introduced “The Russia Sanctions Review Act of 2017,” modeled on a 2015 bill that let Congress review the Iran nuclear agreement signed by then-President Barack Obama. Trump’s open admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and promises to rebuild frayed U.S. ties with Moscow have raised questions over his commitment to maintaining sanctions against Russia for its involvement in fighting in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The bill announced on Wednesday would require the administration to submit to Congress a description of any proposed sanctions relief, as well as certification that Moscow had stopped supporting actions to undermine the government of Ukraine and ceased cyber attacks against the U.S. government and its people. The legislation would give the Republican-led Senate and House of Representatives 120 days to act, or decline to act, on any sanctions relief. During that period, Trump would be barred from action to ease sanctions. After 120 days, sanctions relief would be granted only if the Senate and House had not voted for a Joint Resolution of Disapproval. The measure is also backed by Republican Senators Marco Rubio and John McCain and Democrats Sherrod Brown and Claire McCaskill. It was not immediately clear whether Republican congressional leaders would back the measure or how it would fare in the House, but the bill has the support of some of the leading foreign policy voices in the Senate. White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters he did not want to specifically address the legislation. He pointed to support within the Trump administration for keeping sanctions in place, noting that U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley had addressed the issue of keeping Russian sanctions related to Crimea “very forcefully.” A review of the bill by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has not been scheduled, said a spokeswoman for Senator Bob Corker, the committee’s chairman and author of the 2015 Iran review act. Cardin is the panel’s senior Democrat. The spokeswoman added: “Senator Corker strongly supports keeping sanctions in place against Russia for its continued destabilizing behavior in Ukraine.”
1fake	It s interesting to note the terrorist organization linked to this mosque (and funded with our taxpayer dollars), is same terror group Obama and the Democrats supported during the Arab Spring uprising in Egypt A Kansas City mosque owned by an Islamic umbrella organization with deep ties to the U.S. arm of the Muslim Brotherhood has received millions of dollars in federal grants over the past several years, according to a federal spending database.The Islamic Center of Greater Kansas City has received $2,739,891 from the Department of Agriculture since 2010, a Daily Caller analysis has found. The money largely went to the mosque s Crescent Clinic to provide services through the Women, Infant and Children nutrition program, known as WIC.The most recent federal payment in the amount of $327,436 was handed out Oct. 1. Property records show the mosque is owned by the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), which acts as a financial holding company for Islamic organizations. It offers sharia-compliant financial products to Muslim investors, operates Islamic schools and owns more than 300 other mosques throughout the U.S.Founded in 1973 as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Muslim Students Association, NAIT s most controversial connection is to the 2007 and 2008 Holy Land Foundation terror financing cases. Along with other Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizations like the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), NAIT was named a co-conspirator in the federal case but was not indicted.At the Holy Land Foundation trial, evidence was presented that ISNA diverted funds from the accounts it held with NAIT to institutions linked to Hamas and to Mousa Abu Marzook, a senior Hamas leader.Federal prosecutors introduced evidence in the case that established that ISNA and NAIT were among those organizations created by the U.S.-Muslim Brotherhood. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of checks drawn from ISNA s account and deposited in the Holy Land Foundation s account with NAIT were made payable to the Palestinian Mujahadeen, which is the original name for Hamas military wing.While Hamas was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government in 1997 and is considered the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, the larger Muslim Brotherhood is not itself designated as a terrorist group.And while the Obama administration has largely remained agnostic towards the organization, the British government released a scathing report earlier this month noting that the Muslim Brotherhood remains supportive of Hamas and that much of its ideology and many of its tactics are contrary to our values and have been contrary to our national interests and our national security. Via: Daily Caller
1fake	What a treat! Laura Ingraham interviewed President Trump Senior Policy Adviser Stephen Miller tonight:Miller has been spot on from the beginning of his tenure as Senior Adviser to Trump He often warmed up the Trump rally crowds with incredibly uplifting speeches. He also gave a great speech about why not to vote for Hillary:Trump’spokesperson Stephen Miller just hammers Hillary Clinton! You will love every minute of this!The guy is so dialed in on immigration and what needs to be done to reform it. One million people come into the U.S. yearly! 300K in the 70 s, 500K in the 80 s and now 1 million! NUTS!Ingraham pivots to speak about polls and the media Note that he calls the media the extreme media LOL! Who doesn’t love that new term?Ingraham discusses Trump’s agenda and the populist movement. It s about trade, immigration, public safety to help ALL Americans.Uplifing everyone is the key!SOME BACKGROUND ON MILLER S RISE TO TRUMP S INNER CIRCLE:When Jeff Sessions first looked at Stephen Miller, he’saw potential in the recent Duke University graduate.Miller, then in his early 20s, took up an offer from the conservative author David Horowitz to visit Capitol Hill to introduce him to members of Congress. Horowitz believed that Miller, who penned conservative columns at Duke and in Horowitz Front Page Mag, would be a capable D.C. staffer. A meeting with Sessions was on the top of Miller s Washington wish list. What was supposed to be a 15-minute meeting became an hour-long meeting with the’senator, Stephen Boyd, Sessions former communications director who eventually hired Miller. Sen. Sessions immediately saw that Stephen Miller was an extraordinary young man who had a deep grasp of conservative politics. It wasn’t only Sessions who saw something in Miller.When Donald Trump takes the oath of office on Friday, the 31-year-old Miller will be one of the president s closest confidants, serving as a senior White House advisor. That title, announced last month, comes after Miller worked as a senior policy advisor for the better part of a year on the Trump campaign. Trump also tasked Miller with writing his speech to the Republican National Convention, and initial reports indicated that Miller would be writing the inaugural address. The Trump camp is now saying that the president-elect wrote that one himself, although New York Magazine poked some holes in that claim.While Sessions did not have an opening for Miller at the time of that first meeting nearly 10 years ago, he told Boyd to put him on his radar. He came out and he’said to me, I want you to keep an eye on him and see if he can be a part of our team one day,' Boyd recalled. After working as a press secretary to two House members, Miller was hired as a communications staffer on the Judiciary Committee, where Sessions was the top Republican. I remember setting up a staff and it was Friday afternoon, and I got the go-ahead to hire a press secretary just to work on Judiciary. [Sessions ] directions were very clear and he and I discussed it that it was obvious this was a kid with a lot of talent, Boyd said.Miller would move up the ranks from a Judiciary Committee staffer to press secretary for Sessions office, eventually rising to communications director when Boyd departed to become chief of staff to Rep. Martha Roby, R-Montgomery, in 2012. Miller could not be reached for this story.On the’surface, there didn’t seem to be much in common between Sessions, who grew up near Selma, and Miller, who was raised in liberal Southern California.The turning point for Miller came after the Sept. 11 attacks, when he was disgusted with how his high school in Santa Monica ridiculed President George W. Bush and how the liberal-leaning faculty banned conservatives like Horowitz and talk show host Larry Elder from speaking at the’school but allowed leftists and a Communist to address the’student body, according to an interview he gave to the Los Angeles Times. During that dreadful time of national tragedy, anti-Americanism had spread all over the’school like a rash, Miller wrote in a 2003 essay, How I Changed My Left Wing High School, which Horowitz published. The co-principal broadcasted his doubts about the morality of the air strikes against the Taliban to the entire school via the PA system. One teacher even dragged the American flag across the floor as we were sending off brave young men to risk their lives for it. It was then that I first took action, writing to prized radio personality Larry Elder. He invited me to discuss these issues on his program, which immediately drew the ire of the teachers, administrators, and even my fellow students. Their resistance only strengthened my resolve. Miller continued his conservative advocacy at Duke, when he gained attention for defending the white lacrosse players accused of raping a black stripper (the players were ultimately exonerated) at a time when public opinion was against them. His position led to appearances on cable news, further raising his profile. Three of our fellow students are being put on trial not because of evidence but because of a DA s incompetence and malice, he wrote in the university s student paper. Sadly, many in the community have shown that they are not fair minded but would rather hunt for witches than search for justice. Miller s writings were one of the main factors in Boyd hiring him. I focused on his material he had written for the other two members of the House. I was very impressed he had a column in college and he was a very good writer, Boyd recalled. I was impressed with his intellect, I was impressed with his grasp of politics. I was impressed with his ability to get the core of the matter and articulate it in a way [the public would] understand. Sessions office later found out that Miller had an uncanny ability to channel the’senator s when dealing with the press. Colleagues of Miller s and Sessions told Politico that the two had a mind meld, a quality that Boyd also attested to. Miller has demonstrated an ability to capture the voice of his boss in a way that is very important and also exceeds the ability of most Capitol Hill staff, Boyd said.That voice was mostly flexed on immigration, where explained Sessions views to the public.When his boss was accused by pro-immigration groups of being a demagogue for his opposition to an unsuccessful 2010 bill to grant illegal immigrants amnesty for enrolling in college or enlisting in the military, Miller stuck to the issue instead of responding with another attack. The DREAM Act is a proposal for mass amnesty that would even include those who have committed serious criminal offenses, he told AL.com in November 2010. It would add millions of newly authorized workers at a time when Americans are struggling with high unemployment and recession. Besides being a conduit between the’senator and the media, Miller also played a role on policy matters; he was instrumental in helping Sessions derail the Gang of Eight immigration reform bill in 2014 that would have given illegals a pathway to citizenship. Miller helped put together a briefing book for Republicans filled with talking points and data to bolster their case. We had been working on the ideas in it for months, and Stephen put it in the handbook in a very quick time in a very cogent fashion, Sessions told Politico. It was very timely and it impacted the outcome of the vote. Boyd said Miller s involvement on policy was unusual for a communications staffer. It is rare, although in his case I think it speaks to his grasp on the issues and his understanding as they impact the average man and woman, Boyd said. There s no doubt that there was a great trust between Sen. Sessions toward Stephen Miller and they made a great team. Miller s having switched to a high-level position on Trump’s team at a relatively young age does not come as a shock to Boyd, who said his former colleague has adeptly articulated Trump’s views. I think personally that Miller was one of the first people to really understand the deep frustration that the American working class is feeling, their concerns with open borders and trade policies that hurt them more than they help, and also brought an ability to channel that energy toward president-elect Trump, he’said.Steve Bannon, former Breitbart News CEO and Trump’s campaign manager who will join Miller in the White House as chief advisor to the president, said Sessions work in the Senate with Miller s input paved the way for Trump’s candidacy. Whether the issue was trade or immigration or radical Islam, for many years before Donald Trump came on the’scene, Sen. Sessions was the leader of the movement and Stephen was his right-hand man, Bannon told Politico in their June profile of Miller.What started out as the potential of a recent college graduate has turned into high expectations for Miller.
1fake
0true	The Illinois Attorney General has appealed a federal judge ruling that blocks same-day registration at polling places in the state’s most populous counties, a spokeswoman for the office said on Wednesday. The appeal submitted by the state’s Attorney General, Lisa Madigan, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, seeks to reverse a ruling that bars Election Day voter registration at polling places in counties with populations of 100,000 or more. Such registrations were allowed under a state law enacted last year. The appeal was filed on Tuesday evening, according to court documents and Maura Possley, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office. The ruling, issued Tuesday by Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan of the Northern District of Illinois, resulted from a federal court lawsuit brought in August against the state law by a group aligned with a conservative think tank and came six weeks before the Nov. 8 election.[nL2N1C321W] The Chicago-based Liberty Justice Center, which filed the lawsuit, argued that the population threshold unconstitutionally discriminated against voters in less populated counties and boosted Democrats in heavily Democratic Cook County, where Chicago is located. In his ruling, Der-Yeghiayan wrote that the law provided an advantage to urban voters over their rural counterparts. The law, passed in late 2014 by the Democratic-led legislature and signed into law in early 2015 by former Democratic Governor Pat Quinn, allowed Election Day voter registration for the first time, including at polling places. But the section of the law regarding polling place registration pertained only to counties with populations of 100,000 or more.
1fake	Apparently it takes just one American student to destroy the unity in North Korea:North Korea has detained a U.S. university student, the third western citizen known to be held in the isolated state, for committing a hostile act and wanting to destroy the country s unity , it said on Friday.and was detained at Pyongyang airport on Jan. 2 ahead of a flight back to China, said Gareth Johnson of Young Pioneer Tours, which organized the visit.According to the North s official KCNA news agency, Warmbier entered North Korea as a tourist and was caught committing a hostile act against the’state , which it said was tolerated and manipulated by the U.S. government .ADVERTISINGAn official at the U.S. embassy in the South Korean capital Seoul said it was aware of the reported arrest. The U.S. State Department in Washington had no immediate comment.Johnson said China-based Young Pioneer Tours was in contact with Warmbier s family and U.S. officials. We are in touch with Otto s family, the U.S. State Department and the Embassy of Sweden in Pyongyang and doing all we can’to secure his release, Johnson told Reuters.The Swedish Embassy represents U.S. interests in North Korea.KCNA said Warmbier had entered the country with an aim to destroy the country s unity . It did not elaborate.Via: Reuters
0true	The websites used for presentation of the Czech Republic s election results were hacked on Saturday afternoon, the Czech Statistical Office (CSU) said on Sunday, adding that the vote count was not affected. Czechs voted on Friday and Saturday in the parliamentary election, with the results then shown on two websites that CSU maintains with an outside provider. During the processing (of the vote), there was a targeted DDoS attack aimed at the infrastructure of the O2 company used for elections, CSU said on its website. As a result, servers volby.cz and volbyhned.cz had been temporarily partly inaccessible. The attack did not in any way affect either the infrastructure used for the transmission of election results to the CSU headquarters or the independent data processing. The anti-establishment ANO party won 29.6 percent of the vote but may struggle to find coalition partners. Many parties expressed reluctance or rejected outright any coalition with the ANO while its billionaire founder and leader Andrej Babis fights off fraud charges. Czech President Milos Zeman said on Sunday that he would name Andrej Babis prime minister. In the last similar case, in January, the Czech Foreign Ministry said that hackers had breached dozens of its email accounts in an attack resembling one against the U.S. Democratic Party that the former Obama administration blamed on Russia. On the European Union level, the threat of cyber attacks has been taken more seriously in recent months after hacking attempts detected by some of the 28 member states. EU defense ministers tested their ability to respond to a potential hacking attack in their first cyber war games in September. The exercise was based on a simulated attack on one of the bloc s military missions abroad.
0true	U.S. Senator John McCain said on Thursday that President Barack Obama was “directly responsible” for attacks on Americans like the one in Florida because of policies that contributed to the rise of the Islamic State. But the Arizona Republican later said he misspoke. McCain, who is in a tough re-election race, made the comments after reporters chased him down a marble stairway and into a hallway of the U.S. Capitol. They asked what he was hearing from constituents about gun control issues being debated in the Senate after Sunday’s shooting rampage by a gunman who claimed allegiance to Islamic State militants. “I’m hearing a lot from my constituents about what happened and of course I am making them realize that Barack Obama is directly responsible for it,” McCain said. “Because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama’s failures, utter failures,” McCain said. “So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies.” After media reports began to appear about his comments, McCain, who lost the White House to Obama in the 2008 presidential election, posted a clarification on Twitter and then issued a statement that said he meant to blame Obama’s policies, not the president personally. “I misspoke. I did not mean to imply that the president was personally responsible. I was referring to President Obama’s national security decisions, not the president himself,” McCain said in the statement. Forty-nine people died in the shooting in Orlando, the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The gunman was U.S.-born Omar Mateen, 29, whose parents immigrated from Afghanistan. McCain, 79, faces multiple opponents in a Republican primary race in August, and some analysts say he is in danger of losing the Senate seat he has held for three decades. Earlier this week, presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump appeared to suggest Obama may have been complicit in the Orlando attacks. “Look, we’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind,” Trump told Fox News. “And the something else in mind — you know, people can’t believe it ... There’s something going on. It’s inconceivable. There’s something going on.”
0true	The police chief of the Philippines on Wednesday stood by the head of a secretive unit behind dozens of killings in the country s war on drugs, saying officers fired only in self-defence and the death toll reflected the danger and the scale of the narcotics problem. National police chief Ronald dela Rosa was responding to a Reuters Special Report that spent four months examining killings by one group of policemen from or near Davao City, the hometown of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Dela Rosa said police district 6 in Quezon City had Metro Manila s most serious drug problem and he personally sent squad commander Lito Patay there because he was a very professional and very dedicated officer capable of dealing with it. Patay handpicked and headed a unit of 10 men who called themselves the Davao Boys , which racked up the highest number of kills in Quezon City, a violent frontline in Duterte s ferocious anti-narcotics campaign. Police station 6 officers killed 108 people in anti-drug operations from July 2016 through June 2017, the campaign s first year, accounting for 39 percent of Quezon City s body count, according to official crime reports analyzed by Reuters. A majority of the killings were carried out by the squad run by Patay, who was reassigned to Quezon City just a few weeks after Duterte unleashed his crackdown. He (Patay) was chosen because I have big trust in him, he has the balls to face the problems. He will fight, dela Rosa told reporters. He is not an officer who is after money, who will be assigned in an area only to collect money, he is not that kind of officer. He has focus. I assigned him there because I know he can deliver. Asked about the high rate of killings in areas under Patay, he said deaths were inevitable where the drugs trade was rampant. So what s the problem? The worst drug problem is there in station 6, so if you hit the problem head on, you face the problem head on then, there would always result in casualties, he said. Nearly 4,000 mostly urban poor Filipinos have been killed in anti-drug operations since July 2016. Police reject activists allegations they have executed drug users and peddlers and say they kill only when their lives are in danger. Dela Rosa said Patay has since been reassigned to another province to make him eligible for promotion, reflecting his success in convincing drug suspects in Quezon City to surrender to the authorities. He said Patay had been given a free hand at station 6 and had command responsibility over his operations. It is his own call whatever he does there, he has to solve the drug problem, dela Rosa said. The story of the Davao Boys also highlights a larger dynamic: Many of the drug war s key police officers - dela Rosa included - hail from or served in Duterte s hometown, where the campaign s brutal methods originated during his time as mayor. Duterte has repeatedly denied he ordered the killings of criminals and drug dealers during his 22 years as Davao mayor, or his 17 months as president. Dela Rosa appeared frustrated when asked by a reporter if he personally had ordered the deaths of drug suspects in Quezon City. He said Patay s men had no alternative but to kill armed criminals who refused to go quietly. He was placed there to address the drug problem, and not to kill those who deserved to be killed, he said of Patay. If they resist, why would you risk your life? You have to fight back.
1fake	Bernie, Hillary and Joe a low information voter dream ticket Ninety-one percent of the hundreds of individuals who raised money for the 2012 Obama-Biden reelection campaign are not listed among the ranks of Hillary Clinton s most successful bundlers.According to analysis from USA Today, only 76 of the 833 Obama-Biden bundlers are on Clinton s Hillblazers list, which includes individuals who have fundraised at least $100,000 in primary election contributions for the Democratic presidential candidate.The absence of these fundraisers from Clinton s elite list comes as speculation mounts around a possible entry by the vice president in the 2016 White House race. Biden is rumored to be preparing to announce his decision soon, perhaps within the next 48 hours.According to some reports, sources close to Biden are saying that he will jump into the race for the Democratic nomination against Hillary Clinton. I have a very good source close to Joe that tells me VP Biden will run for Prez, Rep. Brandon Boyle (D., Penn.) wrote on Twitter Monday morning.Many Obama bundlers have contributed the maximum $2,700 to Clinton s campaign, and some claim that they have committed to fundraising for the former secretary of state but haven’t yet raised the required $100,000 to become a Hillblazer. Nevertheless, some bundlers have chosen to wait it out in hopes that Biden might run as Clinton continues to battle controversy surrounding her use of a personal email system at the State Department.Currently, the FBI is investigating Clinton s server, which the inspector general of the intelligence community determined held at least two emails containing top secret information despite Clinton s assurances that she never sent nor received classified material on her personal email.A source in the intelligence community said last week that investigators are examining whether Clinton s email constituted a violation of the Espionage Act that could warrant up to 10 years in jail. Via: WFB
1fake	In what could be seen as an omen of sorts, a fly just landed on Donald Trump’s head, but had no idea what it was in for.It s true that flies are attracted to poop, so for the fly to land on Trump, a man that spews utter bullshit daily, it really should come as no surprise to anyone that a fly would land directly on top of his head. Unfortunately for the fly, though, he’seemed to get tangled into what can only be called a nest of sorts that lays directly on top of Trump’s head.You can actually watch the bewildered bug land, crawl up on top of his hair, because apparently that s possible with the amount of hairspray used, but then fall in and under, and your heart breaks when you know that may be it for the little fella.Of course, many are making the comparison of this fly to the moment when the bird landed on Bernie Sanders podium in Portland, Oregon. Clearly showing what sort of creatures are attracted to either candidate a bird of hope and a fly attracted to bullshit.Watch the Lord of the Flies and his new little friend here:https://www.facebook.com/ABC7/videos/10153577369722452/Featured image via video screen capture