Datasets:

GonzaloA

/

fake_news

like 13

BOMBSHELL: Obama Ensured Uranium Exportation…Ignored National Security Fears [Video]

Sean Hannity was on fire with bombshell after bombshell last night. The entire video is so full of reports on scandal after scandal but the one towards the end is most disturbing. Here s the one that is most important as it relates to Obama:Please go to the 23:55 point for the information on the uranium sale:HANNITY: Barack Obama purposely manipulated the process to allow this trucking company to be the conduit by which they got the uranium out of the country. Tell us what you found. JOHN SOLOMON HAD THIS SHOCKING REVELATION:SOLOMON: Yeah, there wasn t just one decision, we look at Uranium One and say we let them buy the mine and 20% of the ore that was being mined at that time under there control. But there was a series of decisions made by the Obama administration time and time again, between 2010 and 2012 that are incredibly favorable to Russia s ROSATOM, the state owned nuclear energy industry, time and again these decisions are being made while the FBI knowns that there criminality going on by that company s executives HANNITY: The bribery, exhortation, money laundering, the racketeering, and so on. SOLOMON: Yeah, Kickbacks. And theres a second thing that I m just starting to report on now. There we concerns in the Obama administration that where very specific concerns that Russia was engaged in a Uranium scheme that it was going to get enough control of uranium, dump it on the market, drive all the prices down HANNITY: Wow!SOLOMON: And put all the other people out of business. Those are two legitimate national security concerns that don t seem to have had an effect on all these give aways.

Trump Supporter Uses Patton Oswalt’s Dead Wife To Attack Him And Gets Righteously FIRED From His Job

Again, when will conservatives learn that their hateful social media activity can cost them their employment?Because a real estate agent in Peoria, Illinois learned that the hard way this week after he viciously attacked comedian Patton Oswalt on Twitter for posting in support of former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates after Yates was fired by Donald Trump for refusing to enforce an unconstitutional Muslim ban.Trump: You leave this White House now! Sally Yates rides bus to city. Becomes a taxi dancer. Leads dance revolt against pimp. Triumphs. Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) January 31, 2017Apparently, that was enough to set off Trump supporter Tony Brust, who proceeded to attack Oswalt with a series of tweets that have since been deleted. I Tweeted out a very positive, very benign Tweet in support of Sally Yates, and her risky stand on principle, which cost her her job, Oswalt recounted on Facebook. The realtor s response Tweet was along the lines of, Oh, the nasty little troll has another opinion. Stick to show business and shut up. I m paraphrasing. Another person who hates my Twitter feed s content who nevertheless follows me. I Tweeted out something in support of someone. He reacted with immediate disgust and offense. Fine, whatever. Oswalt has dealt with hateful Trump supporters before so he is used to ignoring them. Except this time, Brust decided to make things incredibly personal and actually used Oswalt s deceased wife to attack him. I m a psychic and I m channeling his wife s opinions, Brust wrote in response to one Twitter user who asked everyone to stop having opinions.Needless to say, the remark was a deep stab to Oswalt, who was not having a good day.His wife Michelle McNamara had passed away not even a year ago and he is still dealing with the pain of his loss.As soon as Brust posted his comment he had made a serious mistake as Twitter users were quick to inform Brust s employer of how nasty he was being on social media. Not only was this Twitter exchange very public, Brust was using his professional Twitter account to do it.Would ve happily ignored Tony Brust if he hadn t sent THIS Tweet. But he did and it caught me at a dark moment: pic.twitter.com/yflAMuSAqo Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) January 31, 2017At that point, Oswalt began trolling Brust, and at some point, he noticed that Brust had removed his social media accounts. And then Oswalt discovered that Brust s employer had posted a notice on the company website making clear that they did not want to be associated with him and the nasty things he said.I saw that other people were giving him shit about the dead wife joke. I figured it was going to blow up in the poor slob s face without zero help from me. In the morning, his account was gone. He d closed it down (I assume). He d also closed down his Facebook profile and professional page. And then the realty company he worked for posted a message to their website about how Mr. Dead Wife Joke did NOT represent their company and that he was no longer employed by them.Indeed, the Chicago Tribune tracked down Michael Maloof, owner of the real estate agency, and learned that Brust had been fired. We were made aware that this had gone on and we parted company, Maloof said.So here we are once again. Another Trump supporter/racist/conservative has been fired and he only has himself to blame. Rather than just simply disagree with Oswalt and move on, Brust chose to publicly harass a celebrity. He attacked Oswalt in a way that threatened the reputation of his employer. Because while businesses don t really care about the political affiliations of the employees, they definitely care about what their employers say and how they say it in public. The Internet is forever and while Brust deleted most of his tweets, he wasn t able to erase every one of them. And now he is unemployed for being a total dick.Conservatives have previously been fired for publicly attacking Michelle Obama using racist remarks, which cause all sorts of problems for businesses because business owners care about their reputation and image. How employees represent themselves can have positive or negative effects on the business.But since Donald trump took office, his supporters have been emboldened to say and do things that disgust the rest of civilized society. And they actually believe they can get away with it without consequences just because Trump has taken over the White House.As Oswalt concluded in his Facebook post, Trump supporters are wrong to think that way.The main thing that Trump supporters are excited about, now that he s president? Is that finally, at LOOOOOONG LAST, all of the awful things they want to say, that used to lose them friends and jobs and marriages? They re EXCITED about potentially getting to say them with ZERO repercussions. Just like Trump did. All the way into the White House. All the way into unlimited, forever power to spew any awful shit that comes to your head and no one dares correct you, rolls their eyes, or punches you in the nose.But I m afraid Peoria Realtor is going to be the first in a long line of Trumpers who will realize, on the other side of firings and divorces and black eyes, that Trump s Teflon Umbrella covers Trump and no one else.Featured image via YouTube

Obama moves to lock in vehicle greenhouse gas rules

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday said it will push to lock in fuel efficiency standards central to outgoing President Barack Obama’s climate policy before the Trump administration takes over in January. Automakers had appealed to President-elect Donald Trump, who has been critical of Obama’s climate policies, to review the rules requiring them to nearly double fleet-wide fuel efficiency by 2025, saying they impose significant costs and are out of step with consumer preferences. The EPA under law had to decide by April 2018 whether to modify the 2022-2025 model year vehicle emission rules requiring average fleet-wide efficiency of more than 50 miles per gallon. Instead, the agency said it will end the public comment period by Dec. 30, and could move to lock in the rules after then and before the Obama administration leaves office on Jan. 20. The EPA in a statement said it concluded after a lengthy review that automakers can meet the 2025 standards. Janet McCabe, EPA acting assistant administrator, told reporters the technical record could “arguably support strengthening the 2022 through 2025 standards,” but the EPA believes it “is not the time to introduce uncertainty by changing the standard.” She denied the impending administration change prompted the decision, but the EPA website previously showed a timeline that suggested a decision on mid-term review was not expected until mid-2017. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co, Toyota Motor Corp, Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) and others, blasted the decision, saying “this extraordinary and premature rush to judgment circumvents the serious analysis necessary to make sure the (vehicle) standards appropriately balance fuel efficiency, carbon reduction, affordability and employment.” The group said it looked forward to working with the Trump administration on revisions and that “the evidence is abundantly clear that with low gas prices, consumers are not choosing the cars necessary to comply with increasingly unrealistic standards.” It had previously asked Trump to review the automotive greenhouse gas rules, and other Obama administration actions that enable California and certain other states to mandate sales of electric vehicles. Environmental groups applauded the administration move and said they expect the EPA to finalize the rules by Jan. 20. “What’s not to like about a plan, agreed to by the automakers, that cuts oil use, saves money at the pump and reduces pollution?” said Daniel Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign, a Washington-based group that supports strong climate action. The Republican U.S. Congress or the Trump administration could seek to reverse or modify the rules. However, if the current EPA rules are locked in, it could make doing so more difficult and time consuming. Auto lobbyists said the next administration will have a variety of ways of reversing the EPA action, including reopening the technical assessment report. They also said the Obama administration’s move could backfire by bringing more attention to the issue early in the Trump administration. Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In 2011, Obama announced agreement with major automakers to raise fuel efficiency standards to 54.5 mpg, which the administration said would save motorists $1.7 trillion in fuel costs over the life of the vehicles but cost the auto industry about $200 billion over 13 years. In July, EPA said because Americans are buying fewer cars and more SUVs and trucks that they now estimate the fleet will average 50.8 mpg to 52.6 mpg in 2025. The agreement included a mid-term review to decide whether the 2022-2025 model year requirements were feasible. The California Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols said the EPA decision “provides solid support for continuation of the single national program to produce a new generation of clean vehicles.”

THE FEDS $146 BILLION DOLLAR MISTAKE: Bad Things Happen When A Government Prediction Is Way Off

Let s face it, Obamacare had been a nightmare since it began. We have the website failure and then the corruption with the state set ups where millions went unaccounted for. Yes, we have the Gruber episode that should have buried the whole damn Obamacare debacle. So now we have a HUGE miscalculation on the part of the Congressional Budget Office this is big:What does the future of Obamacare hold now that its total cost is expected to be 11% higher between 2016 and 2025 than initially expected?There are mistakes, and then there are big mistakes. What the Congressional Budget Office s latest report on federal subsidies revealed was a mistake of monstrous proportions on the part of the federal government.Here s what a forecasting error looks like The Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, has been making projections on the future of Obamacare, and healthcare in general, for years. Initially, the CBO had projected that up to 21 million people would sign up for private health insurance using Obamacare s transparent marketplace exchanges by 2016. However, that estimate has been substantially reduced to just 12 million. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, Obamacare enrollment totaled about 12.7 million as of the end of third enrollment period (Jan. 31, 2016). Ultimately, the CBO foresees private health enrollment via Obamacare topping out at between 18 million and 19 million people between 2018 and 2026.Why such a huge difference in actual enrollment versus initial projections? To begin with, the government appears to have overestimated just how many people would sign up on private exchanges versus being enrolled via their employer. The data has thus far shown that nowhere near as many people as expected dropped out of employer-sponsored insurance to sign up on Obamacare s marketplace exchanges, meaning there was a considerably smaller uninsured pool than initially anticipated.The other possibility is that the shared responsibility payment (SRP) isn t working as initially expected. The SRP is a penalty charged to consumers who fail to purchase health insurance and who don t have a qualified exemption. The average SRP in the first year of Obamacare (2014) totaled $190, according to H&R Block, with the Kaiser Family Foundation predicting an average penalty of $661 for 2015 tax returns and $969 in 2016. Despite this increasing penalty, young adult enrollment is still well below initial expectations, most likely because the cost of the penalty is still much less than the annual cost of purchasing health insurance.By itself, this 9 million-person enrollment shortfall on Obamacare s exchanges is pretty substantial. Health-benefit providers had been licking their chops with the expectations of adding 20 million-plus enrollees within the first three years following implementation. However, that bubble has been popped, with only a few insurers truly benefiting.But this mistake is far from the worst.Now, here s what a monstrous forecasting boo-boo looks like As noted by the CBO report, the biggest boo-boo comes the federal governments estimate of how many people would enroll for Medicaid and Children s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).Initial estimates from back in 2010 pegged Medicaid and CHIP combined enrollment at about 52 million in 2016. The actual figures? How about 68 million current enrollees in 2016, or a difference of 16 million. The report notes that total Medicaid/CHIP enrollment grew by 3 million last year, and it s expected to swell to 74 million by 2026.How did the federal government miss so badly? The CBO believes that fewer people than expected enrolled in employer-sponsored plans because they were eligible for free healthcare under the expanded Medicaid program. Traditional Medicaid fully covers consumers making up to 100% of the federal poverty level. Obamacare s expanded Medicaid program, which 31 states and Washington, D.C., took advantage of, covers people earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level. The federal government appears to not have understood the magnitude of the lure to drop out of employer-sponsored care and be covered by Medicaid.What s even more egregious is that this estimate in 2010 was done before a Supreme Court decision in 2012 that allowed states the right to choose whether or not they wanted to expand their Medicaid program.When President Obama initially signed the Affordable Care Act into law in March 2010, Medicaid expansion was mandatory. However, a ruling of 7-to-2 by the Supreme Court allowed individual states to make the decision of whether or not to expand. Ultimately, 19 states have chosen not to. Their reasoning? The federal government offered financial assistance to all expanding states between 2014 and 2016 but fully plans to pare back its assistance to just 90% from 100% between 2017 and 2020. The holdout states simply felt that they would be left on the hook for too much additional revenue generation to cover these new Medicaid members. If Medicaid expansion was mandatory, the CBO estimates another 4 million people would be enrolled.This 16 million-person shortfall is far from insignificant. In fact, the CBO estimates that the federal government s failure to accurately forecast how many people would be enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP to be $146 billion over the next decade. When taking into account factors like the estimated $46 billion the federal government will save by paying out less than expected in subsidies for marketplace exchange enrollees, as well as the $28 billion less it s expected to collect in revenue because the Cadillac Tax will be suspended for an additional two years, Obamacare is now expected to cost $136 billion more than originally forecast over the long-term.Is Obamacare sustainable? It s anyone s guess at this point What does the future of Obamacare hold now that its total cost is expected to be 11% higher between 2016 and 2025 than initially expected? That s really anyone s guess, as major changes could be on the horizon like elect a Republican President who ll scrap the entire thing!Read more: fool.com

Trump budget on the menu as U.S. senators lunch with Tillerson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee will meet with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to discuss the administration’s proposed budget, the panel’s chairman said on Wednesday, after heated opposition in Congress to President Donald Trump’s plan to slash funding for diplomacy and foreign aid. “I’ve let Secretary Tillerson know there’s a lot of concern about the budget issue,” Senator Bob Corker, the committee’s Republican chairman, said at a hearing on the global humanitarian crisis. Members of the Senate panel will have lunch with Tillerson at the State Department on Thursday, he said. Corker also made clear that when Congress takes up agriculture-related legislation next year he would push to reform current rules for distributing U.S. food aid, which make it more expensive and time-consuming to provide assistance after international crises. “We could feed 4 to 6 million more people each year,” he said, saying some interest groups pushing to keep current rules are “extorting us.” Yves Daccord, director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, South Sudan, northeastern Nigeria and Somalia, plus Ethiopia and Kenya, may be among the worst in recent history. “We’re talking about 20 million directly affected, plus ... several other dozen millions possibly affected,” Daccord told the hearing. The ICRC said on Wednesday the world has just a few months to save millions in Yemen and Somalia from starvation, as war and drought ruin crops and block deliveries of food and medical care. Many of Trump’s fellow Republicans, as well as Democrats, objected to his first budget outline last week, which boosted military spending and cut international programs by 28 percent. They said humanitarian assistance and diplomacy are at least as important to security as weapons. “It’s essential that we maintain our international affairs budget, from this senator’s perspective,” Republican Senator Todd Young told the hearing. The budget as presented by Trump is unlikely to pass. Congress, not the White House, determines government spending. Corker told reporters on Tuesday that he supported efforts to make State Department programs more efficient, but wanted a more thorough review of various programs. “I think every department of government should be looked at continuously, and so I’m all for us looking into that,” Corker said. “But I would like to walk through some of the areas that he (Tillerson) feels he wants to stress and obviously Congress ultimately will have the say (on the budget).”

Briton pleads guilty to weapons charge over Trump rally incident

(Reuters) - A British tourist who caused a security scare at a Donald Trump campaign rally in Las Vegas in June by trying to grab a gun from a police officer pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges of illegal weapon possession and disorderly conduct, court papers showed. Michael Steven Sandford, 20, admitted as part of his plea deal with prosecutors that he had approached a policeman at the event, saying he wanted an autograph from the presidential candidate, then tried to pull the officer’s gun from his holster with both hands, the papers said. Sandford, who had by then overstayed his tourist visa by about 10 months, was immediately arrested and removed from the rally. He also acknowledged having visited a Las Vegas gun range the day before the June 18 incident at the Treasure Island casino-hotel, to take shooting lessons with a rented Glock handgun, firing 20 rounds at a paper target, court papers showed. No mention was made in the plea agreement about whether Sandford intended to harm Trump, then the presumptive Republican nominee in the U.S. presidential race. In the initial June 20 criminal complaint stemming from the incident, prosecutors said Sandford had told a U.S. Secret Service agent he had driven to Las Vegas from California with the aim of shooting Trump. On June 29, Sandford was charged with felony counts of being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm and disrupting government business, but he was not accused of plotting to kill Trump. At Tuesday’s hearing in federal court in Las Vegas, Sandford pleaded guilty to those two charges, each of which carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 13. Brenda Weksler, one of Sandford’s federal public defenders, declined to comment.

CRITICAL! HERE’S WHY HILLARY 2016 Comes With Sharia Law And The Loss Of Free Speech [Video]

Because of what Hillary Clinton agreed to with the UN, we are at the mercy of Islam in a BIG way! If you watch and read nothing else today, THIS needs to be your focus because if Hillary is elected we go down this path in a BIGGER way! THE 10 YEAR STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN TO COMBAT THE DEFAMATION OF ISLAM THAT HILLARY CLINTON AGREED TO: Islamic World Tells Clinton: Defamation of Islam Must be Prevented in AmericaThis brilliant article by Clare M. Lopez goes into much greater detail but I tried to give you the main part of the argument that Hillary is in cahoots with the OIC/UN to stifle our freedom of speech when it comes to Islam:As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomes Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu to Washington this week, it is critical that Americans pay attention to what these two leaders intend to do. From 12 to 14 December 2011, working teams from the Department of State (DoS) and the OIC are going to discuss implementation mechanisms that could impose limits on freedom of speech and expression.The OIC s purpose, as stated explicitly in its April 2011 4th Annual Report on Islamophobia, is to criminalize incitement to hatred and violence on religious grounds. Incitement is to be defined by applying the test of consequences to speech. Under this twisted perversion of falsely yelling fire in a crowded theater, it doesn t matter what someone actually says or even whether it is true or not; if someone else commits violence and says it s because of something that person said, the speaker will be held criminally liable.The OIC is taking direct aim at free speech and expression about Islam.Last March, the State Department and Secretary Clinton insisted that combating intolerance based on religion can be accomplished without compromising Americans treasured First Amendment rights. But if that were so, there would be no possible excuse for engaging at this level with an organization like the OIC that is openly dedicated to implementing Islamic law globally. This is why it is so important to pay attention not only to the present agenda, but to a series of documents leading up to it, issued by both the U.S. and the OIC. From 12 to 14 December 2011, the DoS and OIC working teams will focus on implementation mechanisms for Resolution 16/18, a declaration that was adopted by the U.N. Human Rights Council in April 2011.Resolution 16/18 was hailed as a victory by Clinton, because it calls on countries to combat intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization based on religion without criminalizing free speech except in cases of incitement to imminent violence. But if the criterion for determining incitement to imminent violence is a new test of consequences, then this is nothing but an invitation to stage Muslim Days of Rage following the slightest perceived offense by a Western blogger, instructor, or radio show guest, all of whom will be held legally liable for causing the destruction, possibly even if what they ve said is merely a statement of fact. The implications of such prior restraint on free speech would be chilling (which is precisely the point). Clearly, the OIC feels some sense of urgency to get the rest of the non-Muslim world, and especially the U.S., on board with these objectives.In this same document is the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers Resolution No. 1/38-LEG On Follow Up and Coordination of Work on Human Rights, which makes reference to the OIC s new Independent Permanent Commission on Human Rights and stipulates that it shall promote the civil, political, social, and economic rights enshrined in the Organization s covenants and declarations and in universally agreed human rights instruments, in conformity with Islamic values. [Emphasis added.] This wording alone should set off alarm bells in view of the OIC s 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (CDHRI), which explicitly declared that when the Muslim ummah (as represented by the OIC) uses the term human rights, what is meant is Islamic law (sharia). Universally agreed or not, the CDHRI was served as an official document to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in 1993, thereby creating an established instrument of reference on the Islamic definition of human rights. The foundational documents upon which the Muslim ummah the OIC now relies to undergird its sharia agenda were drafted years ago. The 1966 U.N. Commission for Human Rights International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which entered into force in 1976, was based firmly on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and preceded the 1969 creation of the OIC by just a few years. The ICCPR s Articles 19 (3) and 20 nevertheless foreshadow sharia Islam s demand for restrictions on free speech in an explicit and chilling way.Clearly, the OIC is trying to exploit these international standards, as shown in its April 2011 4th Annual Report on Islamophobia posted at its online Islamophobia Observatory. Given the ICCPR s assertions, the OIC s objective has long since been entered into official U.N. language. It required only a narrowing of the focus from the generality of the ICCPR down to the OIC s exclusive interest in protecting Islam from discrimination. It also required bringing the U.S. on board with the program to enforce Islamic law on slander. With the willing participation of the Obama administration, the OIC has tackled both of these challenges. In Section 6 of the Islamophobia Report, Conclusions and Recommendations, the language references the OIC goal of removing the gaps in international legal instruments to force the non-Muslim world to comply with its plan to criminalize slander of Islam.Those gaps in implementation and interpretation refer to U.S. objections to criminalizing free speech (in violation of the First Amendment), and the structured multilateral framework would appear to be the agenda in Washington, D.C. from December 12 to 14 at the meeting between Clinton and OIC Secretary General Ihsanoglu. It would not be overreaching to conclude that the purpose of this meeting, at least from the OIC perspective, is to convince the Obama administration that free speech that rouses Muslim masses to fury as defined by the test of consequences must be restricted under U.S. law to bring it into compliance with sharia law s dictates on slander.Clinton s own statements reflect the OIC language on the gap (emphasis added): together we have begun to overcome the false divide that pits religious sensitivities against freedom of expression, and we are pursuing a new approach based on concrete steps to use some old-fashioned techniques of peer pressure and shaming, so that people don t feel that they have the support to do what we abhor. It may be recalled that the Obama administration claimed, obviously incorrectly, that defamation was no longer part of these agreements. The language of these resolutions instead stresses the importance of expediting the implementation process of its decision on developing a legally binding international instrument to prevent intolerance, discrimination, prejudice and hatred on the grounds of religion, and defamation of religions[.] The Department of State is not the only U.S. government agency committed to achieving compliance with the OIC s Islamophobia censorship agenda. The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security both have committed publicly to an overhaul of their training materials to ensure that nothing in the curriculum gives offense to Muslim Brotherhood affiliates such as the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) or the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), with which both departments maintain close relationships. Instructors who previously taught the intrinsic connection among Islamic doctrine, law, and scripture and Islamic terrorism henceforth will be blacklisted by the U.S. government. As documented by the intrepid columnist and author Diana West, the Department of Defense also has made its obeisance to Islam, with troop instructions on how to handle the Qur an and avoid spitting, urinating, or sleeping with feet pointed in the direction of Mecca.Capping the administration s campaign to align U.S. national security policy within the parameters of Islamic law, the White House published Strategic Implementation Plan for Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States in December 2011. The plan makes clear that violent extremism, not Islamic terrorism, is the primary national security threat to the homeland. According to this strategy, the solution is partnership with local communities the term used for the administration s favored Muslim Brotherhood front groups, which already are using such relationships to silence their critics, both inside and outside government. These new rules of censorship state that the term violent extremism can no longer be used in combination with terms like jihad, Islam, Islamist, or sharia. And these new rules are already being taught to U.S. law enforcement, homeland security offices, and the military nationwide.The agenda of this week s Department of State/OIC meetings may mark an important milestone, as Sayyed Qutb might put it, on the pathway to sharia in America. If under the test of consequences those who speak truth about Islam, sharia, and jihad may be held criminally responsible for the violent actions of those who say they find such truth offensive, then, in the future, violent extremists could be just about anyone anyone the government, in obedience to the sharia dictates of the OIC, decides they are.Further, if the rubric is to be based on this test of consequence, then it creates a real temptation to any administration so inclined to create consequences that will justify a change in America s free speech rights. By way of example, analysts have suggested that the motive for the Department of Justice s Fast and Furious scandal, now under congressional investigation, may have been to create a crisis a consequence caused by U.S. guns shipped across the border to Mexican drug-dealers (and used in multiple homicides, including an American Border Protection officer) to nudge public consensus to expand gun control laws.Even if Obama s State Department seems fully enamored with a test of consequences on speech critical of Islam, most Americans across the political spectrum will realize that this perverts the traditional understanding of the First Amendment. It is to be hoped that dedication to the Constitution rather than to the OIC s definition of slander of Islam or the test of consequences will prevail among the ranks of our national leadership. Regardless of what s going on behind closed doors at the State Department this week, Americans should be aware and outraged. An informed citizenry, as always, remains the final defense of the Republic.Clare M. Lopez is a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy and also at The Clarion Fund.Read more: American Thinker

Texas congressman will not seek re-election in wake of nude photo

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Representative Joe Barton of Texas will not seek re-election, his office said in a statement on Thursday, in a decision he made after a nude picture of him appeared on the internet earlier this month. Barton’s announcement reverses his Nov. 2 announcement of plans to run for an 18th term in the U.S. House. He was first elected to Congress in 1984 and had been considered a favorite to win re-election in his heavily Republican district until the photo surfaced on Nov. 22. Barton, 68, has told media the nude photograph came when he was separated from his second wife, prior to a divorce, and was part of a consensual sexual relationship. Barton’s genitals were obscured in the version of the photo that was posted on the internet. Barton, who belongs to the party’s right-wing Freedom Caucus, issued the statement saying he would not seek re-election on Thursday shortly after an exclusive interview with the Dallas Morning News in which he went into more detail about his decision. “There are enough people who lost faith in me that it’s time to step aside and let there be a new voice for the 6th district in Washington, so I am not going to run for re-election,” he told the newspaper. The source of the photo and how it appeared on the internet are still unknown. Some Republicans in the state have called for Barton to step down and many criticized him for his behavior. “Ellis County Republicans are deeply grieved and embarrassed by the conduct of Congressman Joe Barton,” Randy Bellomy, the head of the party in the county that borders Dallas and is Barton’s constituency, said in a statement on Wednesday. Barton, vice chairman of the House Energy Committee, has shown strong support for the energy industry and drawn the ire of environmentalists for his dismissive views on climate change. “We’re thankful that Representative Barton chose to not seek re-election after reports of his deeply inappropriate actions and disturbing display of judgment,” Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Crystal Perkins said in a statement. Barton has not been accused of sexual harassment.

Three-quarters of Australians vote in same-sex marriage poll so far

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Nearly 12 million Australians, or 74.5 percent of eligible voters, have voted so far in a postal ballot on whether same-sex marriage should be legalised, the Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday. The poll, which began last month, is non-binding, but the government has said it will put a proposal to parliament to make Australia the 25th nation to permit same-sex marriage, if a majority of voters are in favour of it. The postal survey closes on Nov 7.

White Grievance Queen Tomi Lahren Compares Beating Of White Teen To Murder Of Nine Black Churchgoers

Tomi Lahren literally thinks the beating of a white teen in Chicago is the equivalent of nine black churchgoers who were MURDERED in Charleston, South Carolina.In yet another example of racism and how right-wingers sabotage themselves, conservative darling Tomi Lahren lost her shit over a hate crime that was committed in Chicago this week by four black assailants.The four suspects kidnapped and tortured a white disabled man and streamed the crime on Facebook Live.But while her anger is understandable and shared by a vast majority of Americans, including Black Lives Matter and President Obama, Lahren went several steps too far by comparing the beating to the killing of nine black parishioners who were shot to death by white supremacist Dylann Roof. Chicago police aren t sure if it was politically motivated, Lahren claimed. Are you freaking kidding me? This is the definition of a hate crime, and these four sick individuals deserve a seat on death row right next to Dylann Roof. And Lahren totally lost all credibility right there with that single statement. In her mind, a white teen who lived through a beating is worth nine black people who were murdered. Basically, she is saying one white life is worth nine black lives. And the white teen survived. Plus, she thinks the four black suspects should be sentenced to death. Again, while their actions are horrible, we don t sentence people to death for committing assault. Nor do we sentence people to death for kidnapping. If they had murdered the victim, Lahren would have a case for putting the death penalty on the table. But they didn t.Then Lahren went on to question parenting in inner cities, which is her code for black people. Times like these, we have to wonder, where are the parents? Not just (Wednesday), but when these four were growing up? Because the breakdown of the American family has left young people especially in the inner cities with no role models. That s why they turn to celebrities and rap stars who chant eff Trump for guidance and leadership. Seriously, only racists like Lahren push these stereotypes about black people. And then she whined and claimed that if the disabled man had been black and the suspects were white it would have been a bigger story. If the race roles were reversed here, can you imagine the coverage? The race of the assailants would be plastered on every headline from here to Timbuktu, but if it doesn t fit the race-baiting agenda of the left and their cohorts in the mainstream, it doesn t quite get the same attention. If this thing wasn t paraded on Facebook Live, the mainstream would have likely diluted, dismissed or outright ignored it, she said. If it bleeds, it leads but only if it s the right color, huh? Except the media widely covered this story across the nation and both President Obama and Black Lives Matter even condemned the actions of these four individuals.Here s the video via Facebook.Predictably, the racists were quick to chime in with their own comments.The bottom line here is that these four suspects should be punished for their crimes, which are inexcusable and indefensible. But Lahren should not have compared this incident to the mass shooting in Charleston. A brutal beating is nowhere near as bad a crime as nine counts of murder. She should apologize for that and to the families of the victims she just insulted.Featured image via screenshot

In another blow to Zuma, South African top court orders influence-peddling inquiry

PRETORIA (Reuters) - South Africa s High Court ruled on Wednesday that President Jacob Zuma must set up a judicial inquiry into state influence-peddling within 30 days, the latest in a series of judicial blows to his scandal-tinged administration. Upholding a recommendation by South Africa s corruption-fighting Public Protector, High Court Judge President Dunstan Mlambo said an application by Zuma challenging the inquiry was ill-advised and reckless and an abuse of the judicial process. The ruling comes days after the same court dealt a stinging rebuke to Zuma by ruling that his appointment of a state prosecutor to decide whether to reinstate corruption charges against him was not valid and should be set aside immediately. Zuma had challenged the right of the Public Protector to call for a judicial inquiry and the appointment by the chief justice of a judge to head it, saying it was the president s prerogative whether to set up such an inquiry. It was not immediately clear if Zuma would appeal against Wednesday s ruling and his spokesman was not immediately available to comment. The 75-year-old president has faced and denied numerous corruption allegations since taking office in 2009 and has survived several votes of no-confidence in parliament. In October, the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld an earlier High Court decision reinstating nearly 800 corruption charges relating to an arms deal that were filed against Zuma but shelved before he ran for president in 2009. The revival of the charges could increase pressure on Zuma to step down before his term ends in 2019. Several judicial setbacks have undermined Zuma s authority and some analysts say it could diminish his influence over who succeeds him when the ruling African National Congress (ANC) chooses a new leader this month. Political instability, including questions over who will replace Zuma has been cited by credit rating agencies as a major factor behind their decision to cut South Africa to junk . Africa s most industrialized economy has grown lethargically over the last six years and the jobless rate stands near record levels. Analysts say the political crisis is making it hard to reform the economy, improve social services and fight crime. The influence-peddling inquiry was recommended in a report released a year ago by the Public Protector, whose job is to uphold standards in public life. Zuma also sought to block the release of the report, entitled State of Capture , which focused on allegations that Zuma s friends, the businessmen and brothers Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, had influenced the appointment of ministers. Zuma and the Guptas have denied all accusations of wrongdoing. Ordering Zuma to pay the costs of the latest court challenge, Judge President Mlambo said the South African leader s conduct was clearly objectionable ... and amounts to clear abuse of the judicial process . A judicial commission was best suited to investigate the allegations against Zuma, Mlambo said, adding: The allegations ... detailed in the report are extremely serious. The court ordered that once the inquiry is set up, it should complete its task and present its report to Zuma within 180 days. The president would then have to inform parliament within 14 days of what action he planned to take based on the inquiry s findings, the court said. In a statement, the ANC some of whose lawmakers are critical of Zuma said a judicial inquiry was crucial in verifying the allegations in the watchdog s report. We therefore trust President Jacob Zuma will implement this judgment without delay in the interest of our country, it said. Opposition leader Mmusi Maimane, who was at the court, welcomed the ruling. The judgment lays out a timeline ... we hope to get to the bottom of this, Maimane said, adding that his party would oppose any appeal in the case should Zuma launch one. Thuli Madonsela, the report s author, who was also at the court, said: An allegation that the state has been captured in the interests of the president and his friends is an allegation that needs to be investigated immediately. Her 355-page report stopped short of asserting that crimes had been committed, saying the watchdog lacked the resources to reach such conclusions and that they should be investigated by a judicial inquiry. Zuma has said he will appeal against the High Court s ruling on Friday that his appointment of a state prosecutor was not valid and that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa should instead appoint a new public prosecutor within 60 days. Ramaphosa, the main rival for the ANC leadership to former African Union chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is Zuma s favored candidate and ex-wife, has recently stepped up criticism of Zuma s scandal-plagued government.

CNN Just TORPEDOED Donald Trump With Facts To PROVE He Lied About Them Again

CNN is definitely sick and tired of Donald Trump calling them fake news. During an interview with Erin Burnett on Friday, Bernie Sanders jokingly referred to CNN as fake news to mock Donald Trump. Sanders even made sure to let Burnett know that he was just joking and Burnett acknowledged that Sanders was just joking. Soon after, a technical difficulty arose as Sanders could no longer hear Burnett. CNN then went to commercial, and Burnett apologized to the audience and to Sanders for the issue and resumed the conversation.Here s the video via CNN.Well, Fox News claimed that CNN cut off Sanders in retaliation for his fake news joke. And then Donald Trump tweeted about it several minutes later and made the same claim.While on FAKE NEWS @CNN, Bernie Sanders was cut off for using the term fake news to describe the network. They said technical difficulties! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 12, 2017That s when CNN proceeded to strongly fire back as Brian Stelter set the record straight by linking to the full video of the interview and call Trump out for lying.Untrue. Sanders was *criticizing Trump* for calling CNN fake news. You can see for yourself, all 11 minutes, here: https://t.co/qhtlb5Wo6Q https://t.co/AcwOiNHi0j Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 12, 2017Stop me if you ve heard this one before. But @FoxAndFriends covered the Bernie technical difficulties thing at 6:40. Trump tweeted at 7:14 https://t.co/AcwOiNHi0j Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 12, 2017And then CNN Communications issued a transcript of the interview as further proof that Trump is lying.@realDonaldTrump False. Transcript from @ErinBurnett intvu w @SenSanders. He was not cut off. Those are the facts. https://t.co/NzJNgdYSIX pic.twitter.com/AOFKLHUlGk CNN Communications (@CNNPR) February 12, 2017Clearly, Donald Trump once again got alternative facts from Fox News and repeated them as his proof that CNN is fake news. But if he had simply taken ten minutes to watch the actual interview, he would know that Sanders was only joking, and that CNN did not cut Sanders off. It really was a technical difficulty and Sanders was able to continue the interview after the issue was fixed. But Trump didn t bother to do that, and he got his ass handed to him for it.Last week, Trump claimed that CNN host Chris Cuomo failed to ask a guest a specific question, only to get skewered by Cuomo and CNN Communications again for lying. Had Trump watched the very beginning of the interview, he wouldn t have humiliated himself.. @ChrisCuomo did address that point at the start of his interview. Those are the facts: https://t.co/JWJEAshv1y CNN Communications (@CNNPR) February 9, 2017Donald Trump won t bother to do simple research before he runs his mouth on Twitter, and that means he probably doesn t bother to do any research before making decisions as president. That s not only scary, it s stupid.Featured image via Scott Olson/Getty Images

Conservative website only media on Tillerson plane to Asia

SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson flew to Asia accompanied by only one journalist on his aircraft, a reporter from a website founded by former Republican political operatives, in a departure from decades of practice. Tillerson, who became the top U.S. diplomat under Republican President Donald Trump in February, traveled to Mexico and Germany last month with a small contingent of journalists, including a “pool” reporter who informed colleagues of Tillerson’s statements or actions. The journalist on Tillerson’s plane that arrived in Tokyo on Wednesday, Erin McPike of the Independent Journal Review (IJR), was not acting as a pool reporter. State Department Acting Spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement that there was only one seat available on Tillerson’s plane for media. The department had previously told reporters covering Tillerson’s trip to South Korea, Japan, and China that he would not be taking reporters on his plane and that they would have to fly commercially, breaking with decades of precedent stretching back to Henry Kissinger. “It was decided to take a journalist from an outlet that doesn’t normally travel with the Secretary of State, as part of an effort to include a broader representation of U.S. media,” Toner said. “We will also make every effort to include a contingent of media on the Secretary’s plane going forward.” The State Department originally said that Tillerson could not accommodate the usual contingent of reporters because of space constraints. It also said the decision to travel without reporters was intended to cut costs. News organizations pay the U.S. government for the cost of their travel. The journalists who reported Tillerson’s landing in Tokyo on Wednesday evening traveled there on commercial flights. Depending on the number of staff Tillerson chose to take to Asia, the Boeing 737 he traveled on could likely have accommodated more than one reporter. The conservative-leaning IJR said in a statement late on Tuesday that the State Department last week offered the seat on Tillerson’s plane. McPike is a White House correspondent for IJR, and previously reported for CNN, Real Clear Politics, NBC News, and National Journal, according to IJR’s website when she joined in February. She was also briefly part of the team that covered the 2016 election campaign for Reuters. “We don’t take this opportunity lightly and recognize the controversy surrounding press access for the trip,” IJR founder and chief executive Alex Skatell said in a statement. In 2014, Skatell told The New York Times he wanted to start a site after observing a gap in reaching “a more mainstream center-right audience.” The State Department Correspondents’ Association said in a statement that it was “disappointed” Tillerson chose to travel to Asia without a full contingent of media “or even a pool reporter” and called for access to Tillerson equal to that given by the reporter on the plane during his trip to Asia. Tillerson, a former chief executive with the Exxon Mobil oil company, faces a tough first trip to Asia seeking to reassure nervous allies facing North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threat and press China to do more on perhaps the most serious security challenge confronting Trump. For decades, secretaries of state have nearly always invited media to travel with them. In rare cases, particularly late in a secretary’s tenure, some news outlets have declined, such as former Secretary John Kerry’s December 2016 trip to Saudi Arabia. Republican secretaries of state Alexander Haig, George Shultz, James Baker, and Condoleezza Rice routinely took 10 or more journalists on their overseas trips, even to war zones. Before founding IJR, Skatell worked for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and for the Republican Governors Association, according to his LinkedIn profile. Another founder, Phil Musser, was once executive director of the Republican Governors Association and worked in the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the administration of George W. Bush.

Obama Just SCHOOLED Trump On How To Act Presidential In Louisiana (VIDEO)

Ever since Trump first seized on the flooding in Louisiana as an opportunity to pretend he s presidential, it has been abundantly clear that he has no idea what the f*ck he s doing. Though Gov. John Bel Edwards specifically asked Trump to volunteer or donate rather than show up for a photo op, The Donald has the biggest hands, the best brain, and the hugest ideas, so he popped by anyway to spend about a minute handing out Play Doh and other items to flood victims who were much in need of water, food, clothing, and other items typically needed by people who just lost everything in a natural disaster.Trump has spent a good deal of time whining that President Obama did not immediately rush off to Louisiana, but Obama was simply respecting the wishes of the Governor, who said he d rather he give us another week or two. And then he can visit. President Obama complied, while Trump showed up anyway. After all, he was busy crafting a narrative that Barack Obama hates flood victims. Isn t that more important?Trump, facing criticism for failing to donate money to help, ultimately gave $100 million to a church run by a hate group leader.On Tuesday, after respecting the Governor s wishes and the needs of the people, President Obama toured the flood-damaged areas. To him, this wasn t a photo op. To him, this was a tragedy whose victims needed as much support as they could get. We are heartbroken by the loss of life, Obama told reporters after surveying the devastation that left 13 dead, more than 60,000 homes damaged, and more than 106,000 residents in a position that they applied for aid through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. I think anybody who can see just the streets, much less the inside of the homes here, people s lives have been upended by this flood. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told CNN that $120 million in aid has already been approved. But President Obama made it clear that the effort to fix the damage is only just beginning: Sometimes once the flood waters pass, people s attention spans pass. This is not a one off. This is not a photo-op issue. This is how do you make sure that a month from now, three months from now, six months from now, people still are getting the help that they need. I need all Americans to stay focused on this. If you re watching this today, make sure that you find out how you can help. You can go to volunteers.louisiana.gov, or you can go to fema.gov, or you can go to whitehouse.gov. We ll tell you. We ll direct you how you can help. President Obama is correct. A natural disaster, especially of this scale, is not an excuse to rush there for a photo op. It s a reason for the community and the country to come together to fix things. It s a time for the President to step up and focus on the long-term response rather than looking good for the media and it s especially not the time to pander to Donald Trump s wishes.Let s hope Trump learns something about acting presidential from this. Watch the video below, and be sure to take the President s advice about helping:Featured image via screengrab

Conservatives Are Going BONKERS Over the Indictment Of The Fake ‘Baby Parts’ Video People (SCREENSHOTS)

In case you haven t heard, after Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered an investigation into Planned Parenthood after disingenuous, heavily-edited videos were produced by the deceptively-named Center For Medical Progress. The videos, which claimed the women s health organization sold baby parts to the highest bidder, launched a wave of investigations nationwide all of which turned up absolutely no wrongdoing on the part of Planned Parenthood.One such investigation in Texas involved Planned Parenthood of the Gulf Coast. Though a grand jury cleared the much-maligned institution of any and all wrongdoing, two indictments were handed down against the producers of the anti-Planned Parenthood fabrications.David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt were both indicted for Tampering with a Governmental Record. In addition, Daleiden received an indictment for Prohibition of the Purchase and Sale of Human Organs an incredibly serious charge. We were called upon to investigate allegations of criminal conduct by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, said Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson. As I stated at the outset of this investigation, we must go where the evidence leads us. All the evidence uncovered in the course of this investigation was presented to the grand jury. I respect their decision on this difficult case. The people behind this fraud lied and broke the law in order to spread malicious lies about Planned Parenthood to advance their extreme anti-abortion political agenda, Planned Parenthood said in a statement. As the dust settles and the truth comes out, it s become totally clear that the only people who engaged in wrongdoing are the criminals behind this fraud, and we re glad they are being held accountable. Nothing about today s announcement in Harris County impacts the state s ongoing investigation, said Governor Abbott, who promised to continue to waste state money in fruitless attempts to smear the women s health group. The State of Texas will continue to protect life, and I will continue to support legislation prohibiting the sale or transfer of fetal tissue. The horrific nature of these videos demand scrutiny and investigation. The Senate Committee on Health and Human Services will continue to examine the practices of abortion providers and whether state law adequately protects the sanctity of life, Lt. gov. Dan Patrick added. I will never be deterred from standing up to fight to protect the unborn. Daleiden s supporters similarly don t care about the facts, with many demanding an investigation into the grand jury because they can t possibly think that laws were broken when the Center for Medical Progress illegally recorded privileged information and slopping edited clips together to give the impression of wrongdoing no matter what the evidence says. On Fox News Facebook page, they let their thoughts (we use that word loosely) be known: It s important to remember that these people will be voting in November.Featured image via screengrab

Factbox: Trump turnover - Tillerson would be latest to leave administration

(Reuters) - The revolving door at the Trump White House was ready to spin again as senior administration officials said on Thursday there is a plan to replace U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Central Intelligence Agency chief Mike Pompeo within weeks. The following is a partial list of officials who have been fired or have left the administration in the 10 months since President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, as well as people who were nominated by Trump for a position but did not take the job: * Stephen Bannon - Trump’s chief strategist, who had been a driving force behind the president’s anti-globalization and pro-nationalist agenda that helped propel him to election victory, was fired by Trump in mid-August. He had repeatedly clashed with more moderate factions in the White House. * Philip Bilden - a private equity executive and former military intelligence officer picked by Trump for secretary of the Navy, withdrew from consideration in February because of government conflict-of-interest rules. * James Comey - the Federal Bureau of Investigation director, who was leading a probe into possible collusion between the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Russia to influence the election outcome, was fired by Trump in May. Richard Cordray - the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s first director resigned on Nov. 24. Trump designated White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney as acting director, but Cordray named a deputy director as his replacement, triggering a political and legal battle. Four days later, a federal court ruled in Trump’s favor. * James Donovan - a Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) banker who was nominated by Trump as deputy Treasury secretary, withdrew his name in May. * Michael Dubke - founder of Crossroads Media, resigned as White House communications director in May. * Michael Flynn - resigned in February as Trump’s national security adviser after disclosures that he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office and had misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations. * Mark Green - Trump’s nominee for Army secretary withdrew his name from consideration in May. * Gerrit Lansing - White House chief digital officer, stepped down in February after failing to pass an FBI background check, according to Politico. * Jason Miller - communications director for Trump’s transition team, who was named by the president-elect in December as White House communications director, said days later that he would not take the job. * Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned under pressure from Trump on Sept. 29 in an uproar over Price’s use of costly private charter planes for government business. * Reince Priebus - the former chairman of the Republican National Committee was replaced by John Kelly as Trump’s chief of staff in July. A confidant of the president said Trump had lost confidence in Priebus after major legislative items failed to be approved by Congress. * Todd Ricketts - a co-owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team and Trump’s choice for deputy secretary of commerce, withdrew from consideration in April. * Anthony Scaramucci - the White House communications director was fired by Trump in July after just 10 days on the job after profanity-laced comments to The New Yorker magazine were published. * Walter Shaub - the head of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, who clashed with Trump and his administration, stepped down in July before his five-year term was to end. * Michael Short - senior White House assistant press secretary, resigned in July. * Sean Spicer - resigned as White House press secretary in July, ending a turbulent tenure after Trump named Scaramucci as White House communications director. * Robin Townley - an aide to national security adviser Flynn, was rejected in February after he was denied security clearance to serve on the U.S. National Security Council, according to Politico. * Vincent Viola - an Army veteran and a former chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange, nominated by Trump to be secretary of the Army, withdrew his name from consideration in February. * Katie Walsh - deputy White House chief of staff, was transferred to the outside pro-Trump group America First Policies in March, according to Politico. * Caroline Wiles - Trump’s director of scheduling, resigned in February after failing a background check, according to Politico. * Sally Yates - acting U.S. attorney general, was fired by Trump in January after she ordered Justice Department lawyers not to enforce Trump’s immigration ban.

Australian PM's support falls to new lows amid citizenship crisis

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull slumped to a new low in a poll released on Monday as his government cobbled together a deal with the main opposition party to stem a citizenship crisis that has left his government hanging precariously to power. Turnbull has been heavily criticized for failing to act decisively in a crisis that has so far seen his deputy, along with six other lawmakers, ejected from parliament because they were dual citizens, leaving Turnbull presiding over a minority government. In the latest twist in a drama that has played out over several months, independent lawmakers threatened over the weekend to use their new-found power in the lower house to push through controversial legislation that has been blocked by the government, including a Royal Commission into the banking sector. The latest Newspoll, published by The Australian, showed the main opposition Labor Party leading Turnbull s Liberal-National party coalition on a two-party basis, marking a 23rd consecutive loss since Turnbull ousted Tony Abbott to become prime minister in September 2015. Turnbull, then riding high in the polls, cited the fact that Abbott lost 30 consecutive Newspolls to justify the spill. On a personal basis, Turnbull s support crumbled from 41 percent to 36 percent. At the time of becoming prime minister, his support was at an all-time high of 55 percent. He s probably had one of the fastest falls in personal standing in our history, former Liberal Party leader John Hewson told Australian Broadcasting Corp television. And worse still, no outcomes that really matter to the average voter. The citizenship saga has overshadowed Turnbull s attempts to turn the domestic agenda to voter-friendly issues like tax reform, infrastructure and housing affordability. A contentious national survey on same-sex marriage and a checkered rollout of a multibillion dollar broadband network have added to perceptions of chaos in the country s leadership. With Turnbull in Vietnam for a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders, his foreign minister and acting prime minister Julie Bishop told reporters the polls were not surprising and the government had a plan to resolve the dual citizenship issue. Dual citizenship is banned for members of parliament under Australia s constitution in a bid to prevent split allegiances. But adherence to that rule has only come under the spotlight in the current crisis, with the High Court confirming a strict interpretation of the law. With both sides of politics threatening to out lawmakers from the other side as dual citizens, the government and opposition agreed on Monday to a deadline of Dec. 1 for all politicians to disclose the birthplace of their parents and grandparents.

Ted Cruz Bashes Michelle Obama In Lame Attempt To Be Student Body President (VIDEO)

You know things are getting bad on the campaign trail when you have to appeal to the child in everyone by offering French fries for everyone. Well, that s exactly what happened at a rally in Iowa over the weekend while presidential hopeful Ted Cruz was apparently trying to appeal to the future voters of America. This is the stuff you have to do when you don t really have any accomplishments to speak of besides shutting down the government and pissing people off.In a lame attempt at throwing First Lady Michelle Obama under the bus, Ted Cruz decided healthy food is for suckers, we need to bring back all the stuff that makes our kids fat and lazy, so Cruz says: Let me say something to the school-aged kids here. When Heidi s first lady, French fries are coming back to the cafeteria The last I checked the cardboard was supposed to be on the tray and not in the food! Yeah! When Ted Cruz is president, it ll be French fries and sugary soda for everyone!! Yeah!! Then recess all day! And no more homework!Cruz honestly sounded like he was running for student body president of the 6th grade. Which probably isn t completely dumb, considering that the average Republican voter hasn t gotten past that reading and maturity level.So, everyone a vote for Cruz is a vote for French fries YEAH!Video/Featured image from Vine

Watch Mitch McConnell Admit He’s Lying About Why He Obstructed Obama’s SCOTUS Nominee (VIDEO)

We all heard the reasons why Republicans, mainly Mitch McConnell, swear that they will not confirm President Obama s SCOTUS nominee. It s all about the process or about rules that don t actually exist. That s what Mitch keeps saying anyway. It turns out he s nothing but a damned liar, and the hard evidence is in the video below.Do you remember what Mitch has been saying about why he s blocking the nominee? It s up to the next elected president to appoint a replacement. These were literally his exact words for weeks. He and other Republicans claim it will give the American people a voice by voting for president, allowing them to determine what side gets to pick a replacement on the Supreme Court.With McConnell s exact words in mind, CNN host Dana Bash asked Mitch if Hillary or Bernie won in November, would Republicans then concede to the will of the people and vote on and/or confirm Merrick Garland during the final months of the Obama presidency?The context is obvious. If Democrats retain control of the presidency and the nominee was content with Garland, then the people have spoken and a Democratic nominee should get a hearing and be confirmed. It would be the will of the people, as Mitch keeps saying.This is the part where Mitch forgot what he was doing and accidentally spoke truthfully.Mitch s answer to Dana was a total contradiction to every reason he s been giving about why he is holding up the confirmation process. Mitch flat out said that Republicans would NEVER allow President Obama s nominee to be placed on the Supreme Court, even if Democrats won the presidential election in November. He literally went from saying if Democrats win they get their pick, to saying even if they won Republicans would not confirm their appointment. McConnell s lame excuse was that the NRA opposed Garland. Great.. Here we go with the NRA again.At this point, it s hard to say if this is a personal grudge McConnell has with Obama, or if this is really the will of the Republican establishment. Mitch has been working very hard for 8 long years to sabotage the president while Obama just keeps handing him defeat after defeat. Now, Mitch s irrationally racist obsession with soiling the legacy of our first black president will officially extend beyond Obama s second term in office.One thing s for sure. Mitch just proved what a total liar he is, that Republicans do not actually care about the will of the voters, and that nobody can ever trust a Republican for any reason.Watch Mitch McConnel prove what a liar he is below:Featured image via screen capture

CIA Claims of Russian Intervention in US Election Fall Flat

21st Century Wire says How seriously can we take a secret CIA assessment that Russian intervention in the U.S. Presidential election played a role in the victory of President Elect Donald J. Trump when it comes from an organization that has intervened extensively in so many countries sovereign governments?The Anti-Media The Daily SheepleAccording to a secret CIA assessment, Russia intervened in the U.S. election to undermine confidence in the electoral system and boost support for Donald Trump.The president-elect has already rejected this notion, though the implications of claims regarding Russian involvement are still unclear.Once again, this kind of pro-Clinton/anti-Russian-based narrative has already been completely debunked. For example, in his recent article, Anonymous Leaks to the WashPost About the CIA s Russia Beliefs Are No Substitute for Evidence, Glenn Greenwald brilliantly explains why this story does not merit our attention. He astutely notes: There is still no such evidence for any of these claims. What we have instead are assertions, disseminated by anonymous people, completely unaccompanied by any evidence, let alone proof. As a result, none of the purported evidence still can be publicly seen, reviewed, or discussed. Anonymous claims leaked to newspapers about what the CIA believes do not constitute proof, and certainly do not constitute reliable evidence that substitutes for actual evidence that can be reviewed. Continue This Story at The Daily SheepleREAD MORE RUSSIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Russia Files

CONGRESSMAN SOUNDS ALERT TO CYBER SNOOPING LAW SNUCK INTO BUDGET BILL

Here s one of the few true PATRIOTS in Congress! Justin Amash is always doing the right thing with the best interests of the American people in mind. We can t say that about many of our RINO Congressman! Thank goodness Amash is calling attention to The Cybersecurity Act of 2015 it s not what you think it is!Congressman Justin Amash (R-Mich.) plans to introduce legislation to undo a cybersecurity law that critics say secretly allows the federal government to spy on Americans.The Cybersecurity Act of 2015 was included in Congress year-end spending bill, a piece of must-pass legislation known as the omnibus. Many of my colleagues remain unaware that a massive surveillance bill was snuck into the omnibus, Amash said in a statement provided to the Daily Dot. And if they are aware, they may have been misled into believing this bill is about cybersecurity. On Dec. 18, the House passed the end-of-year omnibus bill, a $1.8 trillion catch-all that included everything from repeals of oil export bans to increased funding for the International Monetary Fund. Two days before its inevitable passage, lawmakers updated the bill to include language from the Cyber Information Sharing Act (CISA), a bill that makes it easier for companies to share details of cyberattacks with the government but is universally loathed by privacy advocates.The Cybersecurity Act of 2015 allows companies like Facebook, Google, or Visa to share cyber threat data digital evidence of a cyberattack with the Department of Homeland Security. It also grants American firms immunity from prosecution for sharing data that may include customers personal data. Ultimately this will be fairly embarrassing for Congress. Proponents of the bill say it will help protect companies and their customers from data breaches and other cyberattacks. Critics believe the new law would allow government agencies to more easily access Americans personal information and share it with the National Security Agency. An analysis by the Open Technology Institute found citizens privacy would be more adversely affected by the final language of the omnibus bill than by CISA drafts. Just like the Patriot Act, [Congress] re-wrote the final [omnibus] bill in secret and snuck it through Congress before most people could even read it, Nathan White, Senior Legislative Manager at Access, an Internet freedom-supporting nonprofit, told the Daily Dot. And just like the Patriot Act, the bill will be used for far more than what Members of Congress think that they are authorizing. Ultimately this will be fairly embarrassing for Congress. Amash opposed CISA s language in the bill before it passed, going so far as to circulate a letter citing tech companies opposition and calling it anti-privacy legislation, but to little avail. Amash is part of the House Freedom Caucus, which, citing the omnibus s large price tag, had already vowed to oppose the bill anyway, forcing House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) to find votes elsewhere.Read more: Daily Dot

Blast hits Afghan capital near Shi'ite mosque, killing at least one

KABUL (Reuters) - Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide attack near a large Shi ite mosque in the Afghan capital on Friday that killed at least one person and wounded five others. The blast hit the Qala-e Fatehullah area of the city, near the Hussainya mosque, and came as security forces were on alert for possible attacks during Ashura, the holiest celebration in the Shi ite religious calendar. President Ashraf Ghani issued a statement saying that the attackers would not be able to shake the unity of the Afghan people with their inhumane and irreligious attacks. A statement from Islamic State, which has claimed a string of attacks on Shi ite targets over the past two years, said its fighters had carried out the attack. Afghanistan, a mainly Sunni Islamic country, has mostly avoided the sectarian violence that has devastated countries such as Iraq, but there have been increasing numbers of attacks on Shi ite targets in recent years. Security officials said at least two attackers had been killed as they carried out the operation, apparently intended to hit the mosque, just a month after 20 people were killed during prayers at another Shi ite mosque in Kabul. A hospital run by the Italian aid group Emergency said five wounded had been brought in following the blast but a witness at the scene said eight or nine people had been wounded or killed. The local affiliate of Islamic State has claimed several attacks on Shi ite targets in Kabul in recent years and the government has allowed the Shi ite community to place armed guards near mosques ahead of Ashura. No reliable census information exists on the size of the Shi ite community in Afghanistan, but estimates range around 10-20 percent, with most coming from the Persian-speaking Hazara and Tajik ethnic groups.

polizei fasst mann der seit jahrzehnten deckel von gläsern zu fest zuschraubt

was für ein speckdackel fettleibiger jagdhund bleibt in dachsbau stecken händeringend verein der fingerhakler sucht mitglieder br dicht regionalsender konnte nicht mehr am leben erhalten werden wir paffen das kanzlerin holt noch mehr schwarze afghanen erhält zeitarbeitsvertrag kuckuck in wanduhr in pombärjacke chipsvertreter geht bei neonazis hausieren da platzt ihm der kragen islamist regt sich über fehlfunktion von sprengstoffweste auf stvber tsc tom kli kal tei sod jetzt bestellen der postillonnewstickerkalender nur der postillon newsticker artikel teilen

Images suggest North Korea 'aggressive' work on ballistic missile submarine: institute

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Satellite images taken this month of a North Korean naval shipyard indicate Pyongyang is pursuing an aggressive schedule to build its first operational ballistic missile submarine, a U.S. institute reported on Thursday. Washington-based 38 North, a North Korea monitoring project, cited images taken on Nov. 5 showing activity at North Korea s Sinpo South Shipyard. The presence of what appear to be sections of a submarine s pressure hull in the yards suggests construction of a new submarine, possibly the SINPO-C ballistic missile submarine - the follow-on to the current SINPO-class experimental ballistic missile submarine, 38 North said in a report. The report said that throughout 2017 there had been continued movement of parts and components into and out of two parts yards adjacent to the constructions halls in the center of the shipyard. It said the Nov. 5 images showed two large circular objects that could be sections of a submarine s pressure hull. It said these appeared larger than those for North Korea s ROMEO-class attack submarine. Images of a test stand indicated continued testing of a mechanism for ejection launch of missiles from a submarine. However, the report said no activity could be seen suggesting preparations for a new test of a submarine-launched missile. North Korea has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the United States, sparking a major international crisis in which U.S. President Donald Trump has said that all options are under consideration, including military ones. North Korea is also thought to be working on a solid-fuel missile for submarine launches. Last month, The Diplomat magazine quoted a U.S. government source as saying U.S. military intelligence had detected a new diesel-electric submarine under construction at Sinpo and dubbed it the Sinpo-C. It said the submarine was likely a larger successor to North Korea s single experimental ballistic missile submarine. North Korea has conducted dozens of missile tests this year and its largest and biggest nuclear test on Sept. 3. The past two months have seen a relative lull and it has not tested a missile since firing one over Japan on Sept. 15. Another article in The Diplomat last month quoted a U.S. government source as saying that North Korea had tested a new solid fuel engine sometime between Oct. 15 and Oct. 21. U.S. intelligence officials have declined to comment on this.

Highest Canadian Court CONFIRMS Trump Scammed Investors (DETAILS)

Donald Trump, the businessman who conservatives thought would be an ideal choice to become president of the most powerful country in the world, has scammed a lot of people along the way. As president-elect, Trump had to fork over $25 million to settle three lawsuits over his now-defunct Trump University and after he was sworn in, lawsuits are still coming in.The newest lawsuit alleges that the former reality show star and a real estate development firm misled investors, and that has now been upheld by Canada s highest court.The Independent reports:Sarbjit Singh and Se Na Lee alleged they were sold units in Toronto s, Trump International Hotel, under false pretenses.The pair claimed they were misled to believe their investments would see returns ranging from 7.7 per cent to 20.9 per cent. Instead, they said they lost a combined C$1.2m ( 732,810).Instead of the promised returns, the two investors lost a combined $1.2 million, according to the decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal last year, which sided with the plaintiffs in their case against Trump, Talon International Development and former executives of that firm.The Supreme Court of Canada backed that decision which upheld the lower court s ruling and decided it will not hear an appeal from the defendants.Justice Paul Rouleau wrote in a document outlining the case that, neither Mr Singh nor Mrs Lee were sophisticated investors, in real estate or otherwise and both had to borrow heavily from family to finance their purchases .Justice Rouleaus continued to write that the cornerstone of the plaintiffs claims was a document that was presented to each of them outlining the estimated return on investment .Rouleau stated that as it turned out, the estimates bore no relation to financial reality. The motions judge found as a fact that the estimates were deceptive documents and replete with misrepresentations of commission, of omission, and of half-truth .The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled last October in favor of the plaintiffs, ordering that the sale of the unit must be rescinded for Singh and damages must be paid to Lee for negligent misrepresentation. That order stands. With Trump University, promises were made and not kept. There was no education at the alleged university. It was a scam. People lost tens of thousands of dollars, most of them thinking that if Trump s name was tied to it, then it s a worthwhile investment. That s sort of what conservatives thought when they voted Trump into power on election day. Trump is plagued with scandals but yeah, he s a businessman, they said. Meanwhile, he s profiting greatly from his presidency.Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

California demands details of Trump administration immigration arrests

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - California legislative leaders on Monday demanded detailed information from the Trump administration on immigration arrests and raids in the most populous U.S. state, amid growing concern that agents are targeting non-criminals for deportation. Citing reports that agents for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, had gone to churches, schools and courthouses to find and arrest illegal immigrants, the legislature used the federal Freedom of Information Act to request all records of enforcement actions taken or planned since Republican Donald Trump was sworn in as president on Jan. 20. “Despite saying he’d only target dangerous criminals, President Trump’s executive orders target practically every undocumented person in California,” said Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, who signed the request along with Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. California is home to nearly 3 million illegal immigrants among a total non-citizen population of 5.4 million, according to the legislature and the Public Policy Institute of California, making the state a crucible for Trump’s new get-tough immigration policies. Trump recently broadened the categories of people who could be targeted for immigration enforcement to anyone who had been charged with a crime, removing an Obama-era exception for people convicted of traffic misdemeanors. He has also proposed faster deportation for illegal immigrants who cannot show they have been in the country for more than two years. But Trump has also said agents are targeting dangerous criminals, not ordinary people, and that he will not take action against those protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which protects young people brought to the United States as children. Earlier this month, immigration officers nationwide arrested more than 680 people in the country illegally in a broad enforcement action that alarmed many immigrant groups. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said on Feb. 13 that the operations, conducted in at least a dozen states, were routine. But immigrant rights advocates said the operations were more sweeping than those conducted during the administration of former Democratic President Barack Obama. Protests erupted in several states over the raids and other arrests. Among those arrested were an Arizona mother who was detained when she went in for a meeting with ICE, and a 23-year-old man detained near Seattle who held a work permit under DACA but who agents said had gang affiliations. In their letter, de Leon and Rendon said that 74 percent of California’s non-citizens live in households with citizens, meaning mass deportations could separate spouses from each other, or children from their parents. “All of these parents and children are potentially at risk of separation at the hands of ICE,” the lawmakers wrote.

New Orleans “Club” Advertises “Meet And Greet” For Dem Gov Candidate: FREE Drinks And “Performers” And Party Bus To Polls For “Early Voters” [VIDEOS]

Wow it looks like Dem candidate for governor, John Bel Edwards has some friends who really know how to throw a party for early voters. The stripper poles on the purple party bus are a special feature that goodness knows, every early voter requires Yesterday, the Hayride exclusively reported on gubernatorial candidate John Bel Edwards campaign rally at the New Orleans night club known as Lyve New Orleans.Lyve New Orleans is a night club on Tulane Ave. and yesterday, the night club posted a couple of photos of their John Bel Edwards event, in which they promised a Meet and Greet with Edwards and a party bus that would take voters to go early vote.Today, the Hayride has obtained all of the videos from the night club campaign rally for Edwards, in which a party bus is seen covered in Edwards campaign signs, blaring Missy Elliot beats accompanied by strobe lights.The Edwards campaign was invited to a Family Forum yesterday to discuss social issues with his opponent Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), but skipped out on the event. Vitter, however, did attend.The videos below (caught by America Rising) show Edwards and his wife Donna Edwards meeting with voters before entering the club. Following the meet and greet event some of the attendees hopped on the party bus to City Hall for early voting, and the bus illegally parked in front of City Hall and had to be moved.Here s a copy of the invitation to the rally for John Bel Edwards for Governor of LA: Take a look at all of the footage from Edwards campaign rally below:Here is John Bel Edwards arriving at Lyve Nite Club:Here s an inside look at the John Bel Edwards purple party bus that was apparently to be used for transporting voters to the early voting polls. The bus is complete with stripper poles, a wall of speakers and strobe lights:After parking illegally, the John Bel Edwards Party/ride to early voting precincts bus was made to move:The photos obtained by the Hayride yesterday via Lyve New Orleans Facebook and Instagram account can be seen below, depicting Edwards invite (bottom left) among the rest of the night club s featured performers and rappers:After the Hayride posted the exclusive story, multiple Facebook users and Twitter users quickly attempted to shoot down the story, claiming the story was intellectually dishonest and that Edwards was not associated with the night club event.Via: The Hayride

Donald Trump Jr Posts Disgusting Lie About London’s Muslim Mayor Minutes After London Terror Attack

This morning, a man drove his car into a crowd near the UK s parliament building and began attacking bystanders with a knife. Across the ocean, America s conservative handled the scary situation with characteristic boorishness. At the forefront of this despicable behavior was President Trump s own son. British police hadn t even confirmed the number of dead before Donald Trump Jr used the attack as a pretext to promote Islamophobia on Twitter.While emergencies workers worked on the injured and police began piecing together what happened, Don Jr. decided his contribution would be to spread a vicious and pathetic lie about London s mayor. Why would he focus on this man while the city was still in shock? Because Mayor Sadiq Khan is Muslim.In a tweet, Don Jr. implied Khan was somehow sympathetic to terrorists, inaccurately quoting him as having said Terror attacks are part of living in big city [sic]. Don commented: You have got to be kidding me?! You have to be kidding me?!: Terror attacks are part of living in big city, says London Mayor Sadiq Khan https://t.co/uSm2pwRTjO Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 22, 2017Like clockwork, other conservative Trump-clingers began running with the quote as well.Will London's Muslim mayor, @SadiqKhan, once again say that Muslim terror attacks are just "part and parcel" of living in a major city? Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) March 22, 2017Can't wait for London s Muslim Mayor to lecture us about how terror attacks are part and parcel of urban life again. Faith J. Goldy ?? (@FaithGoldy) March 22, 2017The problem: The quote and the link used in Don Jr. s tweet are ludicrously wrong. The real quote paints Khan as a man not sympathetic to terrorism but vigilant about stopping terrorism. Here s the full quote given in 2016 to the Evening Standard: What I do know is that part and parcel of living in a great, global city is that you ve got to be prepared for these sort of things. You ve got to be vigilant. You ve got to support the police who do an incredibly hard job. You ve got to support the security services and I think speculating when you don t know the facts is unwise. In other words, Khan is doing all the things every mayor in every major city in the world is doing: Working to stop terrorism while knowing that a big city s size and landmarks make tempting targets. Nowhere does he accept that terrorism is part and parcel of urban life. Fighting it is.Don Jr has yet to express any condolences to the families of the victims. He s so far tweeted exclusively about Muslims (including this lie about London s mayor). The lack of basic decency seems to run in the family. Don Jr. s dad once commented on the mass shooting in Orlando by infamously saying appreciate the congrats. It s like every tragedy is seen not as a horrifying moment of pain and suffering for the victims but something to be exploited to further an agenda. Don Jr desperately wants to smear Muslims and if it means lying about the mayor of the city that was just attacked, then that s what he ll do.Featured image via John Sommers II/Getty Images

trump cuts off fundraising events for republican party

email the daily ibdtipp tracking poll updated sunday shows republican presidential nominee donald trump leading challenger hillary clinton percent to percent in a race that also includes thirdparty candidates in a headtohead matchup trump leads clinton percent to percent with percent unsure men back trump over clinton percent to percent with women supporting clinton percent to percent whites back trump over clinton percent to percent white men back trump percent to percent and a majority of white women also support trump over clinton percent to percent fifteen percent of blacks and hispanics back trump over clinton while she earns percent of those blocs support broken down percent of blacks support trump and percent of hispanics support him taking a look at income likely voters making or less each year favor trump while those making more than a year favor clinton of those earning between and percent support clinton while percent support trump a statistical tie among independents trump leads clinton percent to percent among republicans trump gets percent support with eight percent backing clinton this while only percent of democrats support clinton with nine percent saying they plan to vote trump ibdtipp tracking pollsters questioned likely voters from oct to oct the margin of error is plus or minus percentage points the ibdtipp tracking poll has been billed as the most accurate presidential election tracking poll

Arnold Schwarzenegger DESTROYS Trump For Muslim Ban, Making America ‘Look Stupid’ (VIDEO)

Donald Trump s disgusting Muslim ban is being criticized far and wide, as protests and petitions against it have sprung up not only all over the country, but all over the world.One of Trump s own peers, Celebrity Apprentice host Arnold Schwarzenegger, has just weighed in on Trump s ban, and it s particularly brutal. Schwarzenegger himself was once in immigrant as many of us were and he added his thoughts about what is truly an unjust, vile way to express hatred and xenophobia.In an interview with Mario Lopez, Schwarzenegger bashed Trump and his administration s incompetent and humiliating rollout of his executive order on immigration, which only led to chaos and public outcry. Schwarzenegger, the former governor of California, stated that Trump s ban was vetted badly and that there is another way to going about it to do it the right way and accomplish all of the goals. I think they were hasty with it. Schwarzenegger then gave his own personal experience of immigrating to the United States in 1968 and shamed Trump for his clumsy delivery. He said: To go and to ban people that have a green card that means that the United States of America has given you permission to work here permanently in this country and you are on the way to permanent citizenship I was in that position It s crazy, it s crazy and makes us look stupid when the White House is ill-prepared to put these kind of executive orders out there. Schwarzenegger said he hoped Trump and his moronic helpers would learn from this incident and use it as a wake-up call . Judging from the amount of protests and outcry that was generated from Trump s Muslim ban, America will only stand for more inclusive policies. You can watch Trump get blasted below:Featured image via Pool and Ty Wright / Getty Images

Assad sets sights on Kurdish areas, risking new Syria conflict

BEIRUT (Reuters) - With Islamic State near defeat in Syria, Damascus is setting its sights on territory held by Kurdish-led forces including eastern oil fields, risking a new confrontation that could draw the United States in more deeply and complicate Russian diplomacy. President Bashar al-Assad and his Iranian allies appear to have been emboldened by events in Iraq, where Kurdish authorities have suffered a major blow since regional states mobilised against their independence referendum, analysts say. Rivalry between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by the United States, and the Syrian government backed by Iran and Russia is emerging as a fault line with their common enemy - Islamic State - close to collapse in Syria. Syria s main Kurdish groups hope for a new phase of negotiations that will shore up their autonomy in northern Syria. Assad s government, however, is asserting its claim to areas captured by the SDF from the jihadist group, known in Arabic by its enemies as Daesh, in more forceful terms. On Sunday, Damascus declared Islamic State s former capital at Raqqa would be considered occupied until the Syrian army took control - a challenge to Washington which helped the SDF capture the city in months of fighting. And the eastern oil fields seized by the SDF in October, including Syria s largest, will be a target for the government as it tries to recover resources needed for reconstructing areas it controls, according to a Syrian official and a non-Syrian commander in the alliance fighting in support of Assad. The message is very clear to the SDF militants and their backers in the coalition, headed by America: the lands they took from Daesh are rightfully the Syrian state s, said the non-Syrian commander, who requested that his name and nationality be withheld. Regarding the resources of the Syrian people in the east - oil and so on - we will not allow anyone to continue to control the country s resources and to create cantons or to think about self government, added the commander, who is part of a military alliance that includes numerous Iran-backed Shi ite militias from across the region. The Syrian official said the SDF could not keep control of oil resources. We won t permit it, said the official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity as he was giving a personal view. The United States has not spelt out how military support for the SDF will evolve after Islamic State s defeat, a sensitive point due to the concerns of its NATO ally Turkey. Ankara regards Syrian Kurdish power as a threat its national security as its forces are fighting Kurdish PKK rebels over the border in Turkey. The U.S.-led coalition, which has established several military bases in northern Syria, has been helping the SDF shore up control of the recently captured al-Omar oil field in Deir al-Zor province. Many people will say that will help them with (political) negotiations, but only if the United States remains with them, otherwise they are going to get clobbered, said Joshua Landis, an expert on Syria and head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. I think the Syrian government is going to push on some of these oil wells, in the same way as Iraq just pushed to get Kirkuk oil, and in the same way the Iraqi push is going to embolden the Syrian army, he said. Iraqi Kurds took control of large areas outside their autonomous region during the fight against Islamic State. However, last month s independence referendum prompted Western opposition and fierce resistance from Baghdad, Ankara and Assad s Iranian allies, and the Kurdish authorities have since lost much territory to Baghdad, including oil producing areas around the city of Kirkuk. The Syrian official said this should serve as a lesson for the Kurds in Syria, so they think about the future . Regional sources say the U.S. unwillingness to stop Iraqi government forces, backed by Shi ite militias, from recapturing Kirkuk sent an encouraging message to Assad and his Iranian allies to retake the SDF-held oil areas in Syria. With critical military support from Russia and the Iran-backed militias, Assad has recovered swathes of central and eastern Syria from Islamic State this year, having defeated many anti-Assad rebel factions in western Syria. The Kurdish YPG militia, the dominant force in the SDF, controls the second largest chunk of Syrian territory - around a quarter of the country. Syrian Kurdish leaders say they are not seeking secession. The YPG and Damascus have mostly avoided conflict during the Syrian civil war, setting aside historic enmity to fight shared foes. Kurdish-led regions of northern Syria have meanwhile focused on establishing an autonomous government which they aim to safeguard. Moscow has called for a new congress of Syrian groups that may start work on a new constitution. The Russian Foreign Ministry published on Tuesday a list of 33 groups and political parties invited to a meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Nov. 18. A Syrian Kurdish official told Reuters the administration in northern Syria had been invited to the congress. Kurdish officials said they discussed their political demands with the Russians as recently as last month. A senior Kurdish politician said government statements directed at the Kurdish-led regions of northern Syria were contradictory, noting that the Syrian foreign minister had said in September that Kurdish autonomy demands were negotiable. One day they say we are willing to negotiate and then someone else denies this or puts out an opposing statement, Fawza Youssef said in a telephone interview with Reuters. One of them declares war and the other wants to come negotiate. What is the regime s strategy? Dialogue or war? After the final defeat of Islamic State in Deir al-Zor, the situation will drive all the political sides and the combatants to start the stage of negotiations , Youssef said. The SDF has also pushed into Arab majority areas, including Raqqa and parts of Deir al-Zor, where it is working to establish its model of multi-ethnic local governance. Analysts believe the Syrian Kurdish groups could use the SDF-held Arab areas as bargaining chips in negotiations with Damascus. There is no other option than to negotiate, Youssef said. Either a new stage of tensions and attrition will start - which we are 100 percent against - or a stage of dialogue and negotiations will start.

Would a Hillary Clinton Presidency Mean More Wars?

Special Report: Savvy neocons see Hillary Clinton as their Trojan Horse to be pulled into the White House by Democratic voters, raising the question: would a Clinton-45 presidency mean more wars, asks Robert Parry Robert Parry Consortium NewsThe Democratic Party establishment seems determined to drag Hillary Clinton s listless campaign across the finish line of her race with Bernie Sanders and then count on Republican divisions to give her a path to the White House. But if she gets there the world should hold its breath.If Clinton becomes President, she will be surrounded by a neocon-dominated American foreign policy establishment that will press her to resume its regime change strategies in the Middle East and escalate its new and dangerous Cold War against Russia.If Bashar al-Assad is still president of Syria, there will be demands that she finally go for the knock-out blow; there will be pressure, too, for her to ratchet up sanctions on Iran pushing Tehran toward renouncing the nuclear agreement; there are already calls for deploying more U.S. troops on Russia s border and integrating Ukraine into the NATO military structure.President Clinton-45 would hear the clever talking points justifying these moves, the swaggering tough-guy/gal rhetoric, and the tear-jerking propaganda about evil enemies throwing babies off incubators, giving Viagra to soldiers to rape more women, and committing horrific crimes (some real but many imagined) against defenseless innocents.Does anyone think that Hillary Clinton has the wisdom to resist these siren songs of confrontation and war, even if she were inclined to?President Barack Obama, who for all his faults has a much deeper and subtler intellect than Hillary Clinton, found himself so battered by these pressures from the militaristic Washington playbook that he whined about his predicament to The Atlantic s Jeffrey Goldberg, himself a neocon war hawk.The Washington foreign policy establishment is now so profoundly in the hands of the neocons and their liberal interventionist sidekicks that the sitting President presumably couldn t find anyone but a neocon to give those interviews to, even as he complained about how the U.S. capital is in the hands of warmongers.Given this neocon domination of U.S. foreign policy especially in the State Department bureaucracy, the major media and the big think tanks Clinton will be buffeted by hawkish demands and plans both from outside of her administration and from within. ARCHTECTS OF WAR: Neocon war hawk and Israeli advocate Robert Kagan and his wife Victoria Nuland are hoping for a Clinton win n November.Already key neocons, such as the Brookings Institution s Robert Kagan, are signaling that they expect to have substantial influence over Clinton s foreign policy. Kagan, who has repackaged himself as a liberal interventionist, threw his support to Clinton, who put him on a State Department advisory board.There is also talk in Washington that Kagan s neocon wife, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, another Clinton favorite and the architect of the regime change in Ukraine, would be in line for a top foreign policy job in a Clinton-45 administration.Neocons Back in ChargeSo, Clinton s election could mean that some of the most dangerous people in American foreign policy would be whispering their schemes for war and more war directly into her ear and her record shows that she is very susceptible to such guidance.At every turn, as a U.S. senator and as Secretary of State, Clinton has opted for regime change solutions from the Iraq invasion in 2003 to the Honduras coup in 2009 to the Libyan air war in 2011 to the Syria civil war since 2011 or she has advocated for the escalation of conflicts, such as in Afghanistan and with Iran, rather than engaging in reasonable give-and-take negotiations.Though her backers tout her experience as Secretary of State, the reality was that she repeatedly disdained genuine diplomacy and was constantly hectoring President Obama into adopting the most violent and confrontational options.He sometimes did (the Afghan surge, the Libyan war, the Iran nuclear stand-off) but he sometimes didn t (reversing the Afghan escalation, finally negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran after Clinton left, rejecting a direct U.S. military assault on the Syrian government, and working at times with the Russians on Iran and Syria).In other words, Obama acted as a register or brake restraining Clinton s hawkishness. With Clinton as the President, however, she would have no such restraints. One could expect her to endorse many if not all the harebrained neocon schemes, much as President George W. Bush did when his neocon advisers exploited his fear and fury over 9/11 to guide him into their regime change agenda for the Middle East. After Bush s Iraq invasion in 2003, Washington s neocons were joking about whether Iran or Syria should come next, with the punch line: Real men go to Tehran! But the Iraq War wasn t the cakewalk that the neocons had predicted. Instead of throwing flowers at the U.S. troops, Iraqis planted IEDs Continue this story at Consortium NewsInvestigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 Files

Violent street protests break out in Haiti over tax hikes

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Protesters in Haiti damaged commercial buildings in the capital city and set cars on fire on Tuesday, angered by government tax hikes that come at a time when foreign aid is declining. The Port-au-Prince protest, called by former presidential candidate Jean-Charles Moise, took many by surprise and represents the biggest outcry against the administration of President Jovenel Moise since he took office earlier this year. The revolution has just started. Jovenel Moise will have to retract his taxes or he will have to leave immediately, said Jacques Menard, a 31-year-old protester. And this is a warning because the next phase can be very violent. Protesters took to the streets in separate groups in several districts in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, erecting flaming barricades, blocking traffic, and confronting riot police, who fired tear gas and warning shots in the air. Several people were arrested, the police said, but there were no reports of any deaths or serious injuries. Lawmakers last weekend approved an unpopular budget that raises taxes on products including cigarettes, alcohol and passports. At the same time, foreign aid to Haiti is slowing. The country is one of the poorest in the Americas and suffered a devastating earthquake in 2010 and the worst of hurricane Matthew last year. If Jovenel Moise is intelligent, he should refrain from publishing the budget, otherwise he will have to face a series of street demonstrations that will further complicate the situation, Jean-Charles Moise said on local radio. Government officials were not immediately available for comment, but Economy and Finance Minister Jude Alix Patrick Salomon defended the budget over the weekend. There are people who are blaming many things on the budget that are not true, Salomon told reporters shortly after the spending plan was approved. There are people manipulating the public opinion.

Online bettors see Donald Trump as odds-on Republican nominee

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s chances of winning the Republican nomination for the White House shot to a record high at online betting sites around the world on Wednesday after his latest victory in voting in Nevada. Betting venues in Britain, Ireland and New Zealand show the online wagering community coalescing around Trump, once considered a rank outsider attracting long-shot odds of 200/1. Following his double-digit margin win in Nevada’s Republican caucuses on Tuesday, his third victory in the first four early nominating contests, odds have tightened all the way to 1/2 in some cases. “Mr Trump has triumphed yet again, despite political analysts almost unanimously writing him off as a serious presidential contender,” said Graham Sharpe from William Hill, adding one customer stood to collect at least $100,000 if Trump was elected to the White House on Nov. 8. William Hill and Betway make Trump 1/2 favorite to get the Republican nod, while Ladbrokes cut his odds to 4/9, the same as those shown on Ireland’s PaddyPower. His nearest rival, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio from Florida, featured odds of 6/1 on Ladbrokes. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who has been battling with Rubio for the No. 2 spot in the early voting states, has sunk to a deep longshot. Paddy Power gives Cruz odds of 33/1, its site shows. Bettors also markedly cut the odds on Trump becoming president, although he still trails Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, who won Nevada’s Democratic caucuses on Saturday. Jessica Bridge from Ladbrokes said Trump was on a roll heading into Super Tuesday on March 1, when several U.S. states hold nominating contests. On PredictIt, a site operated by Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, Trump’s chances of winning the Republican nod were the highest since it started tracking the race in October 2015. A Trump bet there, on a scale of $0.00 to $1, stood at 72 cents, up 4 cents, while Rubio tumbled 7 cents to 24 cents and Cruz sank a penny to 4 cents, matching a record low. (Reporting by Michael Holden in London and Dan Burns in New York; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Howard Goller) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.

PRESIDENT TRUMP Gets Cheers From CIA Officers When Criticizing The Media [Video]

It didn t take long for Democrats and a bitter former CIA Director John Brennan to criticize the president:Brennan s assistant released a statement from him: Brennan is deeply saddened and angered at Donald Trump s despicable display of self-aggrandizement in front of CIA s Memorial Wall of Agency heroes. Trump should be ashamed of himself. Sour grapes?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7vZWcj_IPMPRESIDENT TRUMP EXTENDS AN OLIVE BRANCH TO THE INTEL COMMUNITY: President Trump visited the CIA on Saturday in a conciliatory bid to end a feud with the intelligence community a dispute he suggested was overblown by the media while making clear one of his top priorities will be to destroy Islamic State terror groups. We have to get rid of ISIS. We have no choice. Radical Islamic terrorism, it has to be eradicated, said Trump, on his first full day in the White House and his first official agency stop of his presidency.Trump s decision to travel to CIA headquarters so quickly after taking office was seen as an attempt at a fresh start with the intelligence agencies he will now rely on for guidance as he makes weighty national security decisions. Following his private meeting with top CIA leaders, Trump said the U.S. had been restrained in its efforts to combat terrorism, calling the threat a level of evil we haven t seen. Read more: FOX News

Pakistan's long-persecuted Ahmadi minority fear becoming election scapegoat

RABWAH, Pakistan (Reuters) - Crammed into buses and mini-vans, more than 10,000 Pakistanis traveled to a mosque on the outskirts of the small Punjabi town of Rabwah, for the sole purpose of denouncing followers of the minority sect based here as infidels and enemies of the state . For members of the long persecuted Ahmadi community, who are forbidden to call themselves Muslims and face discrimination and violence over accusations their faith insults Islam, the open vitriol on display at the Oct. 20 rally was not new. But this year, they say, anti-Ahmadi rhetoric has also re-entered mainstream Pakistani politics, as politicians seek to shore up support among religiously conservative voters after surprise gains by two new Islamist parties. We are an easy community to scapegoat for political opponents to target each other, said Usman Ahmad, who moved to Pakistan from Britain to work as a community activist. With a general election due in 2018, politicians from both the religious fringe and established parties have had the Ahmadis in their sights. In the past six weeks, a row over proposed changes to the election law that would have eased some of the barriers on Ahmadis participating in elections has seen the group denounced on the floor of Pakistan s parliament, while one of the new Islamist parties has held street protests. The government has since taken out ads in major newspapers reaffirming a religious oath requiring elected officials to vow that they do not follow anyone claiming to be a prophet after Mohammad and nor do I belong to the Qadiani group , using a common derogatory term for Ahmadis. The Ahmadis consider themselves to be Muslims, but their recognition of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who founded the sect in British-ruled India in 1889, as a subordinate prophet is viewed by many of the Sunni majority as a breach of the Islamic tenet that the Prophet Mohammad was God s last direct messenger. The Ahmadi sect has 10-20 million followers worldwide who face discrimination in a number of Muslim-majority nations such as Indonesia and Algeria, as well as being ostracized by large parts of the Muslim community in Britain. There are about half a million Ahmadis in Pakistan, local leaders say, though other estimates have put the number at 2-4 million. Ahmadis are some of the most common defendants in criminal charges of blasphemy, which in Pakistan can carry the death penalty. By law they cannot call their place of worship mosques or distribute religious literature, recite the Koran or use traditional Islamic greetings, measures that they say criminalize their daily lives. The legal restrictions began in 1974, when the then-Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto passed a constitutional amendment declaring Ahmadis non-Muslim. A decade later military dictator General Zia ul Haq barred Ahmadis from identifying themselves as Muslim. Community leaders say these moves laid the groundwork for a sectarian divide that has since seen many violent attacks on Ahmadis and birthed multiple militant organizations, including many that are now linked to Islamic State. In the past four years, the Punjab government has also targeted Ahmadis under the country s anti-terrorism laws, filing at least eight cases against Ahmadis on charges of producing hate literature, including the sect s own holy texts. The offices of an Ahmadi magazine in Rabwah were raided in December 2016 by police, who arrested seven people and confiscated papers and hard drives. They stormed the office, it felt like a group of terrorists had come in, said Amir Fahim, who worked at the magazine and was held for 65 days. They said the religious language you use belongs to us and the things you write offend the sensibilities of Muslims. Community leaders say the use of anti-terrorism laws marks a new phase in the targeting of Ahmadis. Here, to be an Ahmadi, through state laws, is a crime, Pakistan s Ahmadi community spokesman Salimuddin said. There are restrictions on our annual gatherings, our annual games ... If the state did not persecute us, we would not be persecuted. Punjab government spokesman Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan said the authorities were not using the anti-terrorism laws to target any particular minority group. The Punjab Government arrested thousands on charges of hate speech during the last three years, he told Reuters. Anti-Ahmadi groups were also included in them. Many Ahmadis in Pakistan say they only truly feel safe in Rabwah, a town of more than 60,000 in eastern Punjab that is 95 percent Ahmadi. Most of the town s infrastructure is maintained on contributions made by the community, including free hostels and food for visitors and a community organized garbage clean-up. But on the edge of Rabwah lies a small settlement and a mosque run by a right-wing Islamist organization that openly professes hatred for Ahmadis. The organization, Khatm-e-Nubuwwat (Finality of the Prophet), built the mosque on land the Punjab government ordered confiscated from Ahmadis in 1975 for low-income housing. Khatm-e-Nubuwwat has been at the forefront of initiating blasphemy allegations against Ahmadis. Every year for 36 years, the group has held an anti-Ahmadi rally at the mosque. Qadianis are the enemies of the prophet, said Aziz ur Rehman, an organizer of the Rabwah conference, adding: A country that was made in the name of the prophet cannot accept Qadianis. Always volatile, political atmosphere in Pakistan has been especially tense since the Supreme Court removed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from office in July over corruption allegations, which he denies. The calculations of the mainstream parties have been complicated by the formation of two new Islamist political groups that garnered more than 10 percent in two recent by-elections and could become spoilers in a close election. One of the new parties, Tehreek-e-Labaik, launched a political furor last month after lawmakers from Sharif s party, which still holds a parliamentary majority, approved apparently small changes to the country s election law. The changes eliminated a requirement for Ahmadi voters to declare they are not Muslim and turned a religious oath for elected officials declaring belief in the Finality of the Prophet and affirming they are not Ahmadi into a simple declaration of belief. Tehreek-e-Labaik quickly termed any concessions to Ahmadis to be blasphemy and threatened mass protests. The government, still controlled by Sharif s party, quickly retreated and reversed the changes. A week later, speaking before Pakistan s National Assembly, Sharif s son-in-law, lawmaker Muhammad Safdar Awan called for Ahmadis to be barred from employment in the government, judiciary, and military. Sharif himself later distanced himself from Safdar s statement. The climbdown did not appease Tehreek-e-Labaik, which last week launched street protests blockading roads into Islamabad and demanding the law minister be sacked. The protests are ongoing and have paralyzed traffic in the capital. Saadia Toor, author of State of Islam said it s likely that anti-Ahmadi rhetoric will continue up to next year s elections, due by the end of August. Anti-Ahmedi sentiment is widely held across the Pakistani Muslim mainstream, even among moderate Sunnis, she said. So using them as scapegoats for political purposes is easy.

Racist White Football Player Goes Free After Raping Black Disabled Teen With Coat Hanger (VIDEO)

A white Idaho teen was facing life in prison for a horrific sexual attack on a black teammate with mental disabilities that makes the butter rape scene in Last Tango in Paris seem downright tame.On October 23, 2015, 17-year-old John R.K. Howard and two teammates, Tanner Ward and an unnamed 16-year-old student, pretended to give their African-American teammate a hug, then held him down and raped him with a coat hanger in the locker room. According to a lawsuit filed by the victim s mother, this is the culmination of months of race-based harassment. KTVB reports:According to prosecutors, the sexual assault happened Oct. 23, 2015 in the high school locker room. The lawsuit describes one teammate pretending to offer the victim a hug, then holding him down as another boy inserted a coat hanger into his rectum. A third attacker then kicked the coat hanger several times, forcing it farther into the victim s body and causing rectal injuries that required treatment at a hospital, lawyers say. The Plaintiff screamed and cried out but no staff member came to his assistance or even attempted to investigate the clamor from within the locker room, attorneys R. Keith Roark and E. Lee Schlender wrote in the filing.The attorney general s office filed charges against three students in March after a months-long investigation. John R. K. Howard and Tanner Ward are both charged as adults with forcible sexual penetration, and could face up to life in prison if convicted. The third student is charged as a juvenile.According to the lawsuit, the victim was regularly called Kool-Aid, chicken-eater, watermelon, and the classic n*gger by teammates for the better part of the year leading up to the attack. Several teammates would regularly jump on the victim s back and hump him during practice and he was forced to endure painful wedgies. Howard personally posted a Confederate flag on the victim s Facebook profile and demanded he learn and recite the song, Moonman Notorious KKK, which makes a reference to lynching. They even drew this adorable little picture of him sitting in the back of a bus:On Friday, Howard whom the lawsuit notes is a relative of prominent individuals in the community managed to escape jail time and even registering as a sex offender by pleading guilty to a lesser crime. We don t believe it s appropriate for Mr. Howard to suffer the consequences of a sex offender, Deputy Attorney General Casey Hemmer said of the attack, noting that he doesn t feel the egregious attack was a sex crime no matter how much coat hanger rape was involved. But he still needs to be held accountable. After completing 300 hours of community service, Howard will likely be able to have his conviction dismissed and he will be allowed to maintain his innocence despite the evidence against him. In other words, not only does he manage to avoid any form of actual punishment, but he can now torment his victim by telling everyone that he is innocent of the crime and nothing can be done about it. Now that s accountability right there!Watch a report on the attack below:Featured image via screengrab

New Poll Shows Clinton Crushing Trump In Key Swing States

A recent poll from Quinnipiac University has stunned the political world when it showed Hillary Clinton losing serious ground against Donald Trump in key swing states like Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania.However, what the media isn t reporting on is an even newer poll that shows Clinton s strong numbers against Trump in swing states (including Florida).A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows Secretary Clinton crushing Donald Trump in Florida, Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia.In Colorado, she beats Trump by eight points, 43-35. In Florida (which the Quinnipiac Poll had Trump beating her by 3 points), Clinton is beating the Republican nominee by seven points, 44-37. Then there s north Carolina, where the former secretary is beating Trump by six points. It should be important to remember that President Obama lost North Carolina in 2012 after winning it in 2008.Finally in Virginia, in which the state s senator, Tim Kaine, is rumored to be a V.P. pick Clinton beats Trump by nine points, 44-35, her biggest lead in a swing state.All these states make up 66 electorate votes, a sizeable chunk in the electoral tally.Not only does Clinton lead Trump in these states, she is also more well liked than their billionaire blowhard. The only thing Trump leads in is in unfavorability.While the media continues to harp on and on about Clinton being an unfavorable and disliked candidate, they somehow ignore the fact that Trump is losing in key battleground states because he is even more disliked.For someone who describes themselves as the king of polls, Trump has certainly been quiet about his losing edge against Clinton in the states that matter the most. The Clinton campaign has not brushed off the Trump campaign. They expect a close race. Remember, there s only one candidate who said they ll be so great they ll win California: hint, it wasn t Clinton.Democrats need to quit freaking out. No one is underestimating Trump. This is a presidential race. It s still four months until election day. A lot can happen and will happen.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images

Obama Shows Why Trump Is Too Much Of A Hothead To Be President

Donald Trump has constantly involved himself in one silly feud after another, going ballistic on a series of individuals and institutions in a childish tantrum style, often about topics that have absolutely nothing to do with being elected president.Trump has done this so often, Hillary Clinton referenced the behavior in her speech accepting the Democratic nomination in Philadelphia this summer, noting, Imagine him in the Oval Office facing a real crisis. A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons. The current occupant of the White House, President Obama, recently showed off the stark difference in temperament between himself and someone like Trump in how he responded to poor treatment by Chinese authorities.The Chinese prevented a set of stairs from being used to allow Obama to walk off of Air Force One, forcing the White House to eventually scrap the process even though it is a key element in the imagery of the President arriving for a diplomatic event like the G20. Obama could have chosen to complain and whine and moan about it. Instead Mr. Obama played down the incident, saying it was part of the normal give-and-take over security and media access that the United States has with many foreign countries.He noted that foreign delegations often feel bruised by their treatment when they visit the United States. And he acknowledged that the White House places a lot of demands on countries he visits because of the size of his entourage and his security demands.Can you imagine Donald Trump letting a violation of protocol or more importantly in his egocentric eyes allowing an opportunity for a photo-op to pass him by? No doubt a raft of Chinese officials, including the stair operator, would be subject to aggressive Trump tweets. He might even come up with one of his childish nicknames.Instead, Obama let it slide, going on to sign a major agreement with the Chinese president in order to fight global climate change a real problem, not an optics one.That s a big difference.Featured image via Flickr

U.S. offers new dates when Tillerson could attend NATO meeting

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday it offered new dates for a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson could attend after officials on Monday said he would skip the scheduled April 5-6 gathering in Brussels. State Department spokesman Mark Toner also told reporters during a conference call that the United States remained “100 percent” committed to the 28-member Western security alliance.

Mexico politicians fear flunking quake test before 2018 vote

(This version of September 20 s story corrects to change political affiliation of senator in paragraph 12) By Gabriel Stargardter MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Less than a year before a presidential election, Mexico s politicians are fearful they could be punished by voters for any misstep in responding to two major earthquakes that killed more than 300 people this month. With tolerance low after years of violence and corruption, the tremors could further undermine voters confidence in the ruling party of President Enrique Pena Nieto and the entire political class. We re clearly aware that this is a test we cannot flunk, said Senator Miguel Angel Chico of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. Pena Nieto sprang into action this month after an 8.1 magnitude earthquake on Sept. 7, the strongest in nearly a century, leveled parts of southern Mexico and killed at least 98 people. On Tuesday, when a 7.1 tremor struck, he aborted a trip to the first quake s disaster zone to return to Mexico City, where 38 buildings collapsed killing scores of people, including more than 20 children at a school. Pena Nieto went to the school as rescuers searched for children and adults trapped inside. The death toll from Tuesday s quake, which struck the capital and nearby states on the anniversary of a devastating 1985 tremor, has reached 230. Politicians from all sides called for solidarity and praised how Mexicans, many of whom volunteered to help climb through rubble and search for survivors, had come together. Nonetheless, one figure loomed large over the fallout from the quakes and any instability it may generate ahead of the July vote: leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, long the bete noire of Mexico s political establishment and the frontrunner in many polls. Lopez Obrador, or AMLO as he is known, enjoys widespread support in the left-leaning capital, home to about 20 million people. The former Mexico City mayor, who narrowly lost the two previous presidential elections, won praise from supporters after the first quake when he proposed donating 20 percent of his party s federal campaign funds for victims. On Wednesday, volunteers across Mexico flocked to help remove debris and donate supplies in a grass-roots effort that opposition National Action Party (PAN) Senator Daniel Avila said was symptomatic of widespread distrust of the political class and the government s ability to deliver. I think voters could look to punish those currently in government if they don t manage this situation well, Avila said. The PRI, which ran Mexico for an uninterrupted 71 years and currently places third in the polls, knows the political damage that earthquakes can inflict. PRI President Miguel De La Madrid led the country during a powerful 1985 quake, which killed thousands in Mexico City exactly 32 years to the day before Tuesday s tremor. De La Madrid was widely criticized for his response, worsening already broad discontent with the party s corrupt, authoritarian rule at the time. After the quake, the PRI gradually lost support and was voted out in 2000. Now, party supporters hope that a swift response nationwide can avoid a repeat of that loss. Governors from the PRI and its coalition partner the Green Party are in office in Oaxaca and Chiapas, the states hardest-hit by the first quake this month. And the PRI narrowly won a recent gubernatorial race in the State of Mexico, a longstanding party bastion where at least 12 people had died by Wednesday. There have been accusations that aid has disproportionately benefited wealthier areas. In the capital, fashionable districts like Roma and Condesa received most of the organized assistance. With a glut of people arriving to help and little guidance on how to best use resources, volunteers struggled, said 34-year-old art professor Camila Morales, adding that in poorer districts there had been insufficient help. On the outskirts in the south of the city ... there is no help arriving, they still don t even have power, said Morales, who was part of a large volunteer group from a local university. On social media, a campaign emerged to prevent politicians from capitalizing on the earthquake. Following Lopez Obrador s lead, one petition sought to get the federal government to divert electoral funds for political parties to helping victims. Quickly, other politicians jumped on board. Enrique Ochoa, the PRI chairman and one of the leftist s fiercest critics, on Wednesday Tweeted: I ask that the parties get together to resolve ... how we can donate campaign money, without pretense or opportunism.

Military option must remain on the table with North Korea: Johnson

LONDON (Reuters) - A military option must remain on the table in dealing with North Korea s nuclear program, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Monday, adding that nobody wants tensions in the Korean peninsula to be resolved in such a way. I don t think anybody could conceivably want a military solution to this problem, Johnson said at a speech in London. And yet clearly... the possibility of some kind of military option... that possibility must at least theoretically be maintained on the table.

EU's Barnier paints gloom and doom for post-Brexit Britain

BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Union s chief Brexit negotiator told German industry on Wednesday that it was his responsibility to help European companies weather the exit of Britain from the EU, and he warned Britain that its economy had much to lose. In a series of speeches, Michel Barnier also said work remained to be done on how much Britain would pay the EU to cover its share of the EU budget after it leaves. British newspapers have reported his team has broadly agreed on a payment of around 50 billion euros ( 44 billion). The EU has given Britain until Monday to make an acceptable offer for a financial settlement, agree on the rights of EU citizens in Britain and ensure no hard border is set up with Ireland. Only then will it start talks on a future trade pact. German business is worried about the impact of Brexit - Britain is Germany s third-largest export destination and its fifth-biggest overall trading partner. The future of the EU is more important than Brexit, Barnier told the BDA employers association and the BDI industry group and DIHK chambers of commerce. Barnier said he wasn t sure if the whole truth had been explained to British business on the impact of Brexit. My responsibility before you and everywhere in Europe is to tell the truth to European businesses, he said in the speech to the BDA employers association. A trading relationship with a non-EU member inevitably involved friction, he said. Whatever the outcome of the current negotiations, there will be no business as usual, he said. Some politicians in Britain have argued that German companies depend on them for business, so Berlin under Chancellor Angela Merkel may help London get a deal. But only about 6 percent of Germany s trade in goods is with the United Kingdom, compared with 56 percent with the other EU countries, Barnier said - making it clear Britain had the most to lose. Barnier also pointed to value-added tax returns and the imports of animals and animal projects that are subject to checks at the EU s borders as potential problems. And he warned there was no guarantee that judgements by UK courts on trade disputes would automatically be recognised across the EU after Brexit. The BDI industry association and DIHK chambers of commerce stressed that the onus was on the British government to shift in its negotiations. The British government must move so that the EU can give the green light in two weeks for phase two of the talks, said the BDI and DIHK groups. There can be no cherry picking for London. It is clear: our priority is to strengthen the EU and develop it further, they said, stressing that the freedoms of the internal market would not be diluted for Britain during any transition phase. Barnier also warned that companies should prepare for a possible no deal , which implies returning to trade tariffs under World Trade Organisation rules, and border controls. That scenario would lead to higher transport and storage costs, hitting companies operating on a just-in-time basis, he said. The no-deal scenario is not our scenario, but since it cannot be ruled out, we have to prepare for it, he said.

Trump Kills Michelle Obama’s Girl Education Program, Right-Wing ‘Feminist’ Ivanka Silent

Trump has been relentlessly attempting to scrub the government of any program associated with President Obama and an extremely popular program meant to help educated girls and young women around the world has become the latest victim.Characteristically, Trump s administration gave zero defense for cutting the program, just a flat announcement that it was finished. Moving forward, we will not continue to use the Let Girls Learn brand or maintain a stand-alone program, read an email sent to Peace Corps employees this week by the agency s acting director Sheila Crowley.Despite the self-created obstacles, the Peace Corps promised to continue attempting to educate young girls around the world through other means. It doesn t seem likely that they will get much input from Trump, who has not signaled that he cares about girls education one way or the other.One person not involved in this mess is Ivanka Trump which is weird. Republicans and pundits have spent months insisting that Trump s daughter is a rebel feminist working to push her father and his administration into a more pro-woman direction. The evidence for this take on Ivanka is nonexistent. And Trump s dismantling of a program meant to educate girls seems like a perfect opportunity to put up or shut up. Her big moment to stand up for women and she is dead silent.Ivanka s imaginary check on her father didn t prevent him from going after Michelle Obama s efforts to improve school lunches, either. Obama s initiative was meant to combat America s obesity program and help kids have better access to healthy options while in school. Those reasonable goals were savaged by Republicans who by that time had spent so long hating everything the White House did that they rarely stopped to ask themselves whether the things they were after were bad.Trump inherits that knee-jerk opposition to Obama, but now as president he has the ability to actually act on it. And the one person who might have the influence to stop him proves she s all talk.Feature image via Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images

Maine voters passed measure legalizing marijuana use: official

BOSTON (Reuters) - Maine voters have made the state the eighth in the United States to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, state officials said on Wednesday, following a recount of votes on a ballot initiative. The measure passed by 3,995 votes with the support of 381,768 people, Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said in a statement. That was a slightly narrower margin of victory than the 4,073 vote gap reported following the Nov. 8 election. The measure now goes to Governor Paul LePage, who has 10 days under Maine law to issue a proclamation of the vote results. It would take effect 30 days later, setting the stage for the drug to become legal for adults over 21 beginning late next month. The result makes Maine the second state in the northeast to legalize recreational use of the drug, as voters in nearby Massachusetts approved a similar measure last month. Marijuana became legal to use and posses in limited quantities, but not yet to buy, in that state last week. LePage, a Republican, said earlier this week during a radio interview that he intended to seek legal advice before signing the proclamation, since the drug remains illegal under federal law. President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has sent mixed signals about his views on it. During the campaign, Trump, a Republican, said that marijuana legalization was best left to the states. His pick for attorney general, U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, has criticized Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration for not enforcing the federal ban aggressively enough. An October opinion poll by Gallup showed that 60 percent of Americans now support the legalization of recreational use of marijuana. Even more approve of the idea of legalizing marijuana for medical use, a step that 28 states have taken. In addition to Maine and Massachusetts, voters in Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon, California, Nevada and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational use of the drug.

Putin praises Trump, says U.S. spies may have faked hacking evidence

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Donald Trump had run a better presidential campaign than Hillary Clinton and that U.S. intelligence agencies could have easily faked what he said was false evidence that Russia had hacked the Democratic Party. U.S. intelligence officials have said Russia tried to interfere in the U.S. election by hacking Trump’s opponents, a charge that has deepened a political scandal which has focused on whether Trump had improper ties with Moscow, something he flatly denies. Putin, addressing the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, said on Friday that the hacking accusations were nothing more than “harmful gossip” which he complained was damaging international relations and the global economy. He said he had personally reviewed the U.S. intelligence reports which made the hacking allegations against Russia, and that they contained no meaningful evidence. “I have read these reports,” said Putin. “Even in these reports there is nothing specific but only assumptions and conclusions based on assumptions.” The idea that the hacking had reportedly been carried out from Russian IP addresses which constituted meaningful evidence of anything was absurd, he said. “Where are the finger prints? IP addresses can be faked. Do you know how many specialists there are who can make it look as if your children sent something from your home IP address? They can fake anything and then accuse anyone. It’s not evidence.” Putin, who is keen to repair battered U.S.-Russia relations and is expected to meet Trump for the first time at the G20 in Hamburg in July, said Trump had simply run a better campaign and better connected with voters than Clinton. He said her supporters were now trying to blame Russia for their failure. “But the problem is not with us, the problem is inside American politics,” said Putin. “The other (Clinton) team miscalculated. They don’t want to admit their mistake. It’s easier for them to say that they are not guilty, that the Russians are the guilty ones for interfering in our election. It reminds me of anti-Semitism.” Visibly irritated by having to discuss the matter, Putin was equally forthright about denying separate accusations that there had been some kind of secret deal between Moscow and the Trump team before his inauguration. “There was nothing concrete, zero. It’s just hysteria. Should I give you a pill?” Putin said to a moderator who asked him about the matter.

Senate leader McConnell says wait on replacing Scalia

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Saturday that the next U.S. president should be the one to nominate a justice to fill the vacancy left on the Supreme Court by the death of Antonin Scalia. “The American people‎ should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president,” McConnell said in a statement.

Trump warns 'rogue regime' North Korea of grave danger

BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in China on Wednesday seeking help to rein in North Korea, telling the reclusive state s leader he was putting his country in grave danger by developing nuclear weapons. Trump used some of his toughest language yet against North Korea in a wide-ranging address in Seoul that lodged specific accusations of chilling human rights abuses. He called on countries around the world to isolate Pyongyang by denying it any form of support, supply or acceptance. Do not underestimate us and do not try us, Trump told North Korea as he wrapped up a visit to South Korea with a speech to the National Assembly before heading to Beijing, where he was making his first official visit. Trump painted a dystopian picture of the reclusive North, saying people were suffering in gulags and some bribed government officials to work as slaves overseas rather than live under the government at home. He offered no evidence to support those accusations. Trump s return to harsh, uncompromising language came a day after he appeared to dial back the bellicose rhetoric that had fueled fears across east Asia of the risk of military conflict. On Tuesday, Trump had even offered a diplomatic opening to Pyongyang to make a deal. He went mostly on the attack in Wednesday s speech but did promise a path to a much better future if North Korea stopped developing ballistic missiles and agreed to complete, verifiable and total denuclearization something Pyongyang has vowed never to do. We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction. We will not be intimidated, he told South Korean lawmakers. And we will not let the worst atrocities in history be repeated here, on this ground we fought and died to secure. The North defends its nuclear weapons and missile programs as a necessary defense against what it says are U.S. plans to invade. The United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean war, denies any such intention. The world cannot tolerate the menace of a rogue regime that threatens it with nuclear devastation, Trump said, speaking as three U.S. aircraft carrier groups sailed to the Western Pacific for exercises - a rare show of such U.S. naval force in the region. STATE VISIT-PLUS In Beijing, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping resumed their bromance struck in April at Trump s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, making small talk as they toured the Forbidden City - which was shut down to tourists - with their wives before taking in a Chinese opera performance. While the sprawling palace complex in the political and cultural heart of Beijing is a regular stop for visiting dignitaries, it is rare for a Chinese leader to act as a personal escort, confirmation of the state visit-plus treatment that China had promised for Trump. Trump has threatened action over China s wide trade surplus with the United States and called on Beijing to do more to rein in ally and neighbor North Korea, but has expressed admiration for Xi and held off on imposing trade measures. During his two-day visit, Trump will ask China to abide by U.N. resolutions and cut financial links with North Korea, a senior White House official said on the plane from Seoul. He also plans to discuss with Xi the long-contentious trade imbalance, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said at a ceremony with U.S. business leaders where $9 billion worth of deals were signed. The White House expects to announce deals in China this week worth more than $250 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing an administration official. Trump believes any talks with North Korea would require it to reduce threats, end provocations and move toward denuclearization, and that no deal can be achieved without denuclearization, the official added. Trump and Xi were scheduled to hold formal talks on Thursday. Before leaving for Beijing, Trump cited China as one of the countries that must fully enforce international sanctions against Pyongyang and downgrade diplomatic and commercial ties. To those nations that choose to ignore this threat or, worse still, to enable it, the weight of this crisis is on your conscience, he said. While Trump will try to convince Xi to squeeze North Korea further with steps such as limits on oil exports and financial transactions, it is not clear if Xi, who has just consolidated his power at a Communist Party congress, will agree to do more. China has repeatedly said its leverage over Pyongyang is exaggerated by the West and that it is already doing all it can to enforce sanctions. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that China fully and strictly implements U.N. Security Council resolutions on North Korea, but will investigate if there have been any contraventions. During his speech in Seoul, Trump directed his words at North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The weapons that you are acquiring are not making you safer, they are putting your regime in grave danger, he said. Every step you take down this dark path increases the peril you face. However Trump, whose strategy has stressed sanctions and military pressure instead of diplomacy, did not spell out any new approach. North Korea has made clear it has little interest in negotiations at least until it develops a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, something U.S. intelligence officials say it may be just months away from achieving. North Korea is a country ruled by a cult, Trump said in a speech that was interrupted several times by applause and ended with a standing ovation. He stopped short of repeating the derisive nickname little Rocket Man that he has used to describe the young North Korean leader. Kim, for his part, has called Trump mentally deranged. The speech came after Trump s attempt to make an unannounced visit to the heavily fortified border separating North and South Korea was aborted when dense fog prevented his helicopter from landing, officials said. A visit to the DMZ, despite his aides earlier insistence he had no plans to go there, would have had the potential to further inflame tensions with North Korea. Arriving in Beijing on Wednesday, Trump and his wife Melania descended from a red-carpeted staircase rolled up to the main door of Air Force One. That was in contrast to a 2016 visit to China by his predecessor, Barack Obama, who was forced to exit his plane from a lower door in what was seen as a snub. And while in China, Trump will not be deterred from using Twitter, his favored form of communication, despite its being banned there, according to an administration official. The president will tweet whatever he wants, the official told reporters on Air Force One. I m sure we ve got the gear aboard this airplane to make it happen.

Trump will get wake-up call when he takes office, Obama says

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump is in for a quick wake-up call and will have to adjust his temperament when he confronts the realities of his new job on Jan. 20, President Barack Obama said on Monday. In a news conference at the White House, Obama said the freewheeling Trump could not be as outspoken as he was during the long and bitter campaign that ended last week with the Republican’s surprise win over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Subdued and carefully choosing his words, Obama gave what appeared to be dispassionate advice to his successor free of much of the partisan rancor that marked the election campaign. “This office has a way of waking you up,” Obama said. “Those aspects of his positions or predispositions that don’t match up with reality, he will find shaken up pretty quick because reality has a way of asserting itself.” The two men met in the Oval Office last week to begin the transition of power. Obama said on Monday he believed Trump would be pragmatic in office and not approach the country’s problems from an ideological perspective. “There are going to be certain elements of his temperament that will not serve him well, unless he recognizes them and corrects them,” Obama said. “Because when you’re a candidate and you say something that is inaccurate or controversial it has less impact than it does when you’re president of the United States. Everybody around the world is paying attention. Markets move,” he said. Obama declined to wade into a controversy over Trump’s appointment of right-wing firebrand Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist, saying it would “not be appropriate” for him to comment on Trump’s appointments. But Obama, who criticized Trump’s temperament during the campaign, said it was important for Trump to send signals of unity after the hard-fought campaign. He said the political gifts that allowed the Republican to upset Clinton would be put to good use in the White House. “I’ve been encouraged by his statements on election night about the need for unity, his interest in being president for all people,” Obama said. “In an election like this that was so hotly contested and so divided, gestures matter.” The president-elect, a businessman who has never held public office, and his transition team are working on picking members of his Cabinet and the heads of federal agencies. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has emerged as a leading candidate for secretary of state, a source familiar with the process said. John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is also being considered for the job of the nation’s top diplomat, the source added. Giuliani became one of Trump’s closest advisers during the campaign, functioning as his most vocal defender on cable news programs and introducing him at many rallies. Giuliani has also been mentioned as a possible attorney general or homeland security secretary. A Trump transition team official denied media reports on Monday that Trump was seeking security clearance for three of his children and his son-in-law. Such clearance would allow Trump to discuss matters of national security with his daughter Ivanka, sons Eric and Donald Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner. Federal law prohibits him from hiring family members to serve in his administration, but all four played key advisory roles through the campaign. Trump has insisted that to avoid conflicts of interest, his children would run his sprawling business operations once he assumed the presidency. Democrats, civil rights groups and even some Republicans slammed Trump for choosing Bannon as a key aide, saying it would elevate the white nationalist movement into the top levels of the White House. Making his first appointments since last week’s upset win, Trump picked Bannon as his chief strategist and counselor, and Washington insider Reince Priebus as his chief of staff on Sunday, saying the two would share the task of steering his administration as “equal partners.” The choice of Priebus was seen as a conciliatory signal of Trump’s willingness to work with Congress. But critics blasted the selection of Bannon, who spearheaded a shift of the Breitbart News website into a forum for the “alt-right,” a loose online group of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites. “There should be no sugarcoating the truth here: Donald Trump just invited a white nationalist into the highest reaches of the government,” said Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who called on Trump to rescind the choice. The Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said Bannon’s appointment sent “an alarming signal that President-elect Trump remains committed to the hateful and divisive vision that defined his campaign.” Even some conservatives and Republicans voiced dismay on Bannon. Evan McMullin, who ran as a conservative independent presidential candidate, wondered on Twitter if any national Republican leaders would condemn the pick of “anti-Semite” Bannon. John Weaver, a top strategist for Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich, tweeted that the “racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office. Be very vigilant America.” Kasich was one of 16 Republican presidential hopefuls Trump defeated in the party primaries. Priebus defended Bannon on Monday, calling him a wise and well-educated former naval officer and saying he had not encountered the sort of extremist or racist views that critics are assailing. “He was a force for good on the campaign,” Priebus said on Fox News, adding they were in agreement on “almost everything” in terms of advising the president-elect. Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s former campaign manager and a senior adviser, told reporters in New York she was offended by the reaction to Bannon, describing him as a “brilliant tactician.” Police in New York on Monday were investigating two cases involving swastikas drawn or painted in public spaces, as civil rights activists said there had been a surge in hate crimes following last week’s election. Local media reported hundreds of students walked out of a high school to protest Trump on Monday in Silver Spring, Maryland, and students gathered at the University of Washington in Seattle to protest Trump.

Obama to issue new offshore drilling rules on Thursday: source

(Reuters) - The Obama administration will announce Thursday safety regulations for offshore oil and natural gas drilling to prevent the kind of explosion that happened six years ago on a BP rig in the Gulf of Mexico, an official told Reuters. The Department of Interior will unveil the final version of its well control regulations, which will require more stringent design and operating procedures for well control equipment used in offshore oil and gas operations, said the official, who is close to the rulemaking process. The agency first released the proposal last April to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the deadly Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The Macondo well blowout and the fire on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on April 20, 2010 killed 11 workers. BP agreed in October to pay more than $20 billion in fines to resolve nearly all claims from the oil spill, marking the largest corporate settlement of its kind in U.S. history Last year, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said the rule would build on industry standards for blowout preventers and reform well design, well control, casing, cementing and real-time well monitoring.

wikileaks th batch released

why i wont vote for hillary clinton evan edinger but then he changes his mind on that to close evan edlinger will vote for hillary against trump because he thinks that whereas hillarys actual trackrecord of policies not mere statements in public office have been horrific trumps bad statements and lack of any trackrecord in public office at all make trump even worse thats what he thinks i think it makes trump better the better choice as opposed to the proven evil and catastrophically harmful public official hillary clinton edlinger is preferring an evil record as a public official to no record as a public official edlinger fails to make two crucial distinctions one is that he fails to distinguish between mere political statements versus actual political policies carried out as a public official which show hillary to be a proven neocon and tool of wall street and the other is his failing to distinguish between a bad record in a persons private or business affairs versus a bad record as an actual public official only the bad record as a public official should be absolutely disqualifying and thats clinton not trump who has a horrific record as a public official trump has no record at all as a public official edlinger at in his video says that when he contemplates voting for hillarytheres always one thing that comes in the way and thats trust he says he doesnt trust her but what he doesnt actually trust is her words when he says hell vote for her hes simply ignoring her actions hes ignoring the real personasapublicofficial the person who is shown and displayed beyond any reasonable doubt whatsoever proven selfishness in ones private life is bad but proven selfishness and evil in ones publicoffice policies such as we came we saw he died ha ha is utterly disqualifying i argued in my im a bernie sanders voter heres why ill vote trump that trump could possibly turn out to be a progressive president but even if he turns out to be a bad president he wont on balance be as horrific as will a president hillary clinton with trump there is reason to have some hope for the future of the world with clinton there is reason to expect unprecedented horrors

Trump greets Netanyahu with smiles, handshakes and a jolt or two

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a couple of jolts when they met for the first time on Wednesday as leaders of the United States and Israel. If there were differences, the two men – each immersed in political turmoil on the home front - did all they could to mask them during a White House news conference brimming with smiles, asides and efforts to show how much they like each other. “Bibi and I have known each other a long time — a smart man, great negotiator,” said Trump, referring to the 67-year-old Israeli leader by his nickname. Netanyahu was equally effusive in response: “There is no greater supporter of the Jewish people and the Jewish state than President Donald Trump,” he said, referring to the 70-year-old U.S. president who took office on Jan. 20. Trump went some distance to embrace Netanyahu’s views, upending decades of U.S. Middle East policy by dropping insistence on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Netanyahu sought to demonstrate personal chemistry with the American property-mogul-turned-politician, an acquaintance since the 1980s, especially after eight years of awkwardness and tensions with his predecessor, President Barack Obama. But Trump caught Netanyahu off-guard, at one point saying that if a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was going to be reached, “Both sides will have to make compromises.” Turning to Netanyahu, he said, “You know that, right?” Netanyahu looked momentarily startled and replied, chuckling, “Both sides.” Later, while responding to a question about settlements, a particular point of tension during the Obama years, Trump said, “I’d like to see you hold back on settlements for a little bit.” Again, Netanyahu’s face registered surprise before he offered an ironic smile. “We’ll work something out,” said Trump, who has appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner as his special adviser on the Middle East. “I think we’re going to make a deal. It might be a bigger and better deal than people in this room even understand. That’s a possibility. So let’s see what we do.” “Let’s try it,” Netanyahu said. Studying his reaction, Trump quickly interjected: “That doesn’t sound too optimistic, but he’s a good negotiator.” In a play on the title of Trump’s 1987 best-selling book, Netanyahu responded, “That’s the art of the deal,” drawing laughter from the audience. Near the end of his comments, Netanyahu sought to show how well he knows Kushner, whose father, Charles Kushner, has donated generously to Israeli causes. “Can I reveal, Jared, how long we’ve known you?” said Netanyahu, looking to Jared Kushner, 36, who was sitting in the front row, next to his wife, Ivanka Trump. “Well, he was never small. He was always big. He was always tall,” Netanyahu said, implying he had known Kushner since he was a baby.

DEM CHAIRMAN GOES HARDCORE HATE: Curses and Says Trump is ‘Most Dangerous POTUS Ever’ [Video]

Potty Mouth Perez is at it again with his hate and vulgarity. He s repeatedly gone low when it comes to President Trump. His manner of speaking is so crude and hateful that it s pretty shocking to hear his speeches. We ve reported on them before and have spoken about how Perez is a former La Raza guy who is a radical from a way back. He fights dirty and is one of Obama s minions. If this is the direction the Democrats are going in It s pretty ugly. OUSTING ACTIVISTS Trying to quell accusations that he is ousting activists from the party s left flank, Democratic Chairman Tom Perez told fellow Democrats on Saturday that unity is crucial in the fight against President Donald Trump, whom he lambasted as an existential threat to the nation. MOST DANGEROUS We have the most dangerous president in American history and one of the most reactionary Congresses in American history, BERNIE SUPPORTERS OUSTED FROM PARTY LEADERSHIPPerez said as he addressed the first Democratic National Committee gathering since his February election. The former Obama Cabinet official blistered a culture of corruption that he said extends to Trump s Cabinet, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, but he warned that internal ruckuses over party priorities and leadership would distract from the goal of winning more elections to upend Republicans domination in Washington.Those who have been pushed out include:Ray Buckley, the New Hampshire Democratic chairman and longtime DNC official who ran against Perez for chair before backing Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. Buckley lost his spots on the Executive Committee and DNC Rules Committee.James Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute and prominent Sanders backer, is no longer co-chair of the Resolutions Committee and is off the Executive Committee, a spot he has held since 2001.Alice Germond, the party s longtime former secretary and a vocal Ellison backer, who was removed from her at-large appointment to the DNC.Barbra Casbar Siperstein, who supported Ellison and Buckley, was tossed from the Executive Committee.POTTY MOUTH PEREZ If someone ever asks you which wing of the party you belong to, tell em you belong to the accomplishment wing of the Democratic Party, he said, because you re trying to get s done. That s what we re trying to do here, folks. We re trying to move the ball forward. ERIC HOLDER ON THE SCENEEric Holder has been making comments and appearances recently raising questions about what he s up to. He has bashed President Trump on Twitter and is now involved with the Democrat Party and voting rights. The left claims that Republicans used gerrymandering to win states He goes way back with victimhood he s always a victim. He s another one who is a radical from way back.It looks like the Democrats are pulling out all the stops to win elections. If they only focused on policy and not constant hateful rhetoric pitiful Read more: Daily Mail

Russian lawyer says Trump son offered to return to issue of sanctions law: Bloomberg

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian lawyer who met Donald Trump Jr. during the 2016 election campaign said the U.S. president’s son told her his father, if elected, could return to the issue of a U.S. law which imposes sanctions on Russian officials related to the death of a Russian lawyer, Bloomberg reported. New York attorney Alan Futerfas, who represents Donald Trump Jr., did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A representative for the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, did not answer calls seeking comment.  The June 2016 meeting in New York between Veselnitskaya and Donald Trump Jr, along with other senior Trump campaign officials, has become part of an investigation into allegations Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential election. Trump has denied his campaign colluded with Moscow. Bloomberg quoted Veselnitskaya as saying in an interview in Moscow that she was lobbying against the so-called Magnitsky law, adopted by Washington in response to the 2009 death of Sergei Magnitsky, a whistle-blowing lawyer and auditor. Supporters of Magnitsky say the Russian state murdered him by denying him adequate medical care while he was in prison on tax evasion charges. The Kremlin denies the allegation.  In the interview with Bloomberg, Veselnitskaya quoted Donald Trump Jr as saying during their meeting, in reference to the Magnitsky law: “Looking ahead, if we come to power, we can return to this issue and think what to do about it.” According to Bloomberg, Veselnitskaya also recalled the future president’s son as saying: “I understand our side may have messed up, but it’ll take a long time to get to the bottom of it.” Veselnitskaya said that at their meeting she offered to pass on information pertaining to alleged tax evasion by wealthy Democratic Party donors. She said Trump Jr. Had asked for documents proving the tax evasion, that she did not have any such documents and described the 20 minute meeting as a failure.

Israel says Hezbollah runs Lebanese army, signaling both are foes

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said on Tuesday that the Hezbollah guerrilla group, its most potent enemy in neighboring Lebanon, had gained control over that country s U.S.-sponsored conventional military, signaling both would be in Israeli gunsights in any future war. Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman s remarks were a hard tack from more measured recent Israeli estimates that the Lebanese army maintained autonomy even if some of its troops cooperated with the better-armed, Iranian-aligned guerrillas. Outlining potential threats in Lebanon, where Israel last fought a war against Hezbollah in 2006, Lieberman said in a speech: We are no longer talking about Hezbollah alone . We are talking about Hezbollah and the Lebanese army, and to my regret this is the reality. The Lebanese army has turned into an integral part of Hezbollah s command structure. The Lebanese army has lost its independence and become an inseparable part of the Hezbollah apparatus, Lieberman said. There was no immediate response from Lebanon, which is formally in a state of war with Israel, nor from the U.S. embassies in Beirut and Tel Aviv. The Lebanese army has previously said it operates independently from Hezbollah, most recently during an operation against Islamic State militants at the Lebanese-Syrian border, during which the army said there was absolutely no coordination with Hezbollah fighters who attacked IS from the Syrian side. Hosting Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri in July for aid talks, U.S. President Donald Trump praised Beirut s efforts to stem the spread of Islamic State and pledged continued help from Washington. America s assistance can help ensure that the Lebanese army is the only defender Lebanon needs, Trump said. The Pentagon said Washington has provided Lebanon with more than $1.5 billion in military assistance since 2006, and that U.S. special forces have been providing training and support for the Lebanese army since 2011. Strengthening the LAF (Lebanese Armed Forces) also advances a range of U.S. interests in the Middle East that includes not only countering the spread of ISIS (Islamic State) and other violent extremists but also stemming the influence of Iran and Hezbollah in the region, Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon said. While welcoming U.S. action against Islamic State, Israel sees Iran, Hezbollah and their allies as the greater threat and worries about their entrenchment in Syria as they help President Bashar al-Assad beat back a more than six-year-old rebellion. Lieberman said Israel sought to avoid going to war again on its northern front, which, he predicted, would include Syria. In anything that transpires, it will be one theater, Syria and Lebanon together, Hezbollah, the Assad regime and all of the Assad regime s collaborators, he said.

UK's Brexit minister says today is a big step forward in delivering EU exit: Twitter

LONDON (Reuters) - Brexit minister David Davis said Britain had taken a big step forward in delivering the country s departure from the European Union on Friday, commenting on a deal with the EU Commission to move to the next stage of negotiation. Today is a big step forward in delivering Brexit. Been a lot of work but glad the Commission have now recommended that sufficient progress has been reached, Davis said on Twitter.

Fmr. DNI James Clapper: Trump’s Russia Scandal Is Worse Than Watergate (VIDEO)

James Clapper was the Director of National Intelligence during the Obama Administration. He has been interviewed many times over the Trump Administration s troubles with Russia and his latest statement is sure to make the Trump White House furious that s to say nothing of how Donald Trump himself will react when he gets wind of these comments.During remarks he was making at Australia s National Press Club, Clapper said of Trump s scandal-ridden White House: I lived through Watergate. It was a scary time, I have to say though that I think, you know, compare the two, that Watergate pales in my view compared to what we re confronting now. Apparently, Clapper continued to go all in on Trump, as Australian reporter Paul Karp tweeted out the contents of what Clapper was saying:Clapper is absolutely shirtfronting Trump at #NPC #auspol pic.twitter.com/avN2VxKlOR Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) June 7, 2017This is not the first time Clapper has openly spoken of Trump with contempt; in fact, he recently suggested to Jake Tapper, host of the CNN news shows The Lead and State of the Union, that Trump is a threat to the very fabric of the republic, saying: I think in many ways our institutions are under assault both externally and that s the big news here is the Russian interference in our election system and I think as well our institutions are under assault internally. When Tapper pressed Clapper about what he meant about the institutional danger from the inside, Clapper said he meant Trump.Of course, Clapper is correct. Donald Trump makes Richard Nixon look like a boy scout. There has never been such an assault on our Republic from within the very top levels of government, and certainly we ve never had a president who was in the pocket of the Russians the way Trump is. No, this is far, far worse than Watergate, and that is why we must find a way to remove the entire Trump Administration from office as soon as possible.Watch Clapper s remarks below:Featured image via Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images

Venture capitalists sue Trump admin over foreign entrepreneur rule delay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A national association of U.S. venture capitalists filed suit against the Trump administration on Tuesday, claiming it illegally delayed a policy that would have allowed foreign entrepreneurs to stay in the United States to build their companies. The suit, filed in Washington, D.C. District Court by the National Venture Capital Association, argues that the Trump administration did not go through proper procedures when it delayed the Obama administration’s “International Entrepreneur” rule, which was due to go into effect in July and would have allowed some foreign start-up founders to stay in the United States for up to five years in hopes of growing their businesses. Instead, in July the Trump administration pushed back implementing the new rule to March 2018, and said it was “highly likely” the administration would ultimately rescind the rule. In delaying the program’s start date, the Department of Homeland Security did not engage in the standard “notice and comment” period government agencies typically go through when changing regulations, or a delayed effective date. The DHS argued in July that doing so while the agency was likely to abolish the rule would be contrary to the public interest because it would sow confusion and waste resources and mean the immigration agency would have to expend limited resources to implement the rule. The suit claims that the administration’s actions violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires advance notice of new rules, and asks the court to stop the government from delaying the new rule and instead require it to begin accepting applications from foreign entrepreneurs. “The process followed by DHS in deciding to delay the effective date of the rule was the polar opposite of the careful, deliberative process DHS used to formulate the rule itself,” the suit argued. A DHS spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit. The NVCA was joined in the suit by several tech start-ups active in the United States but founded by foreign entrepreneurs who wanted to be able to stay in the country and work with their businesses through the entrepreneur rule but are now unable to. The Obama administration estimated fewer than 3,000 entrepreneurs would be eligible for the program each year. The rule would have applied to start-up founders who own a large portion of their companies. To qualify, the companies have to have already received significant investment from American investors or government grants.

Trump attacks civil rights leader who questioned his election win

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump began a long holiday weekend that honors slain black civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. by attacking another rights activist and politician who had said he does not see Trump as a “legitimate president.” U.S. Representative John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, said on a segment of “Meet the Press” released by NBC on Friday he thought hacking by Russians had helped Trump, a Republican, get elected in November. Lewis said he does not plan to attend Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, the first time he would miss such an event since being elected to the House in 1986. On Saturday Trump tweeted that Lewis had falsely complained about the election results and instead “should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested).” “All talk, talk, talk - no action or results. Sad!” Trump tweeted. During the campaign, Trump said Democrats had failed African-Americans and Hispanics. “What the hell do you have to lose? Give me a chance,” he said at a rally last year in Ohio. Trump won the presidency with less support from black and Hispanic voters than any president in the last 40 years, only 8 percent and 28 percent, respectively, polling data showed. The 76-year-old Lewis, who has been a civil rights leader for more than half a century, was beaten by police during a march he helped lead in 1965 in Selma, Alabama, drawing attention to hurdles for blacks to vote. He protested alongside King that day and on other occasions. “I believe in forgiveness,” Lewis said in the NBC segment about Trump. “I believe in trying to work with people,” he said. “It’s going to be very difficult. I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president.” At least 10 other Democratic U.S. politicians have also said they plan to skip the inauguration, including Representatives Raul Grijalva, Lacy Clay and Mark Takano. Supporters of Trump see him as a brash person who tells things as they are. His comments about Lewis came ahead of an anti-Trump march in Washington headed by the Rev. Al Sharpton. The protest by about 2,000 marchers kicked off a week of rallies planned by dozens of groups against Trump before, during and after the inauguration. DisruptJ20, which is working with Black Lives Matter and other protest groups, said they are planning to disrupt balls celebrating the inauguration in Washington. Several of Trump’s fellow Republicans also criticized his tirade against Lewis. Michael Steele, who served as the first black chairman of the Republican National Committee until 2011, said Trump’s tweets were unfortunate. “John Lewis has a walk that very few people in this country, least of all Donald Trump, have ever walked, so you have to respect that,” Steele said on MSNBC. If Trump is looking to fix a bridge to black voters, their expectation is he “will do so in a way that shows respect for our leadership,” Steele said. Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska tweeted that “John Lewis and his ‘talk’ have changed the world.” Conservative critic Bill Kristol tweeted “It’s telling, I’m afraid, that Donald Trump treats (Russian President) Vladimir Putin with more respect than he does John Lewis.” Some 12 hours after his first tweets against Lewis, Trump came back with one more recommendation for the black leader. “Congressman John Lewis should finally focus on the burning and crime infested inner-cities of the U.S. I can use all the help I can get!,” Trump tweeted late in the day.

Nigeria President Buhari plans to expand his cabinet

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria s cabinet will be expanded to bring in more people and fresh ideas, for the ultimate benefit of the people of Nigeria , President Muhammadu Buhari said on Tuesday. Government officials have privately raised the prospect of Buhari reshuffling his cabinet since he returned from medical leave in Britain in August, but the presidency had not discussed any changes until Tuesday s comments on Twitter. However, Buhari did not immediately provide any further details, nor mention any potential reshuffle of ministers current portfolios. The president s relationship with his cabinet has at times been tense. It took him six months to appoint his initial team after he was inaugurated in May, 2015. Ministers have struggled to get access to Buhari since then and some are unhappy with their portfolios, according to people familiar with the situation. A letter from Nigeria s oil minister to Buhari, leaked at the beginning of this month, said he had failed to secure an appointment with the president despite many attempts to do so.

Factbox: Humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh as 313,000 Rohingyas flee Myanmar

(Reuters) - At least 313,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar in the past two weeks and sought shelter in Bangladesh, a Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG) report released on Monday stated. At least 400,000 hungry and traumatized refugees have sought refuge in Bangladesh since October 2016. The exodus has put pressure on aid agencies and communities, which were already helping hundreds of thousands of refugees from previous violent episodes in Myanmar. Following are a few details gathered from United Nations sources working in Cox s Bazar district of Bangladesh, situated on the Myanmar border. - The refugee influx on Sunday was observed to be lower compared with other days. - The district administration conducted a site visit to discuss the allocation of 1,500 acres of land adjacent to the Kutupalong Makeshift Settlement in order to accommodate more refugees in the Kutupalong/Balukhali area. People have already settled in some parts of this proposed land. - According to reports, the local administration plans to start biometric registration of the new arrivals from Monday. - At least 3,989 households were provided rice on Sunday, the second day of rice distribution. - The majority of referred medical cases comprised lower respiratory tract infection, skin diseases and acute diarrhea. - An estimate of 883 refugees received psychological first aid. - Until Sunday, a total of 925 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have been identified in registered refugee camps. (This story corrects paragraph 2 figure of refugees since Oct. 2016)

Sarah Palin’s Latest Anti-Obama Tweet Just Got Her Smacked HARD By Twitter (TWEETS)

Sarah Palin is stupid. Really stupid. Imagine generations upon generations of inbreeding among heavy meth users and she s basically the embodiment of that. So unsurprisingly, when she tweeted out what seems to be a mandatory daily nonsensical attack on the President, the Internet was there to do what it does best and kick her teeth in metaphorically, of course. Merry Christ er scratch that, she tweeted, linking to an article on Young Conservatives We Are the Obamas and It s Some Random Holiday! "Merry Christ er scratch that. "We Are the Obamas and It's Some Random Holiday!" https://t.co/lyXGK4woql Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) December 11, 2016The article references the Obama family s latest Christmas card, which features a photo of the family smiling with a happy holidays expression of gratefulness for the friends we ve made, the joy we ve shared, and the gifts of kindness we ve received. It s exactly the kind of family Christmas (it s one of the aforementioned holidays, idiots) card that brings a smile to someone s face unless you re a member of the Stupid Part of America. The picture features the immediate family of four Barack, Michelle, Malia, and Sasha but makes no mention of Christmas , John S. Roberts writes in his nonsensical screed against the idea that there are more than one religious holidays that fall in the month of December. It s basically a Holiday card, because writing the word Christmas would hurt too many feelings. Is it January 20th yet? he writes, adding that it is right around the corner. Naturally, the denizens of Twitter did not take kindly to Palin s usual war on Christmas rhetoric.@SarahPalinUSA Isn't there a job you should be not doing somewhere? Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) December 11, 2016@SarahPalinUSA Video of Obamas saying Merry Xmas over and over. https://t.co/rI6R1v5fmI Nell Scovell (@NellSco) December 11, 2016@SarahPalinUSA Still struggling for relevance, eh? Go back to Alaska. Maria Langer ? (@mlanger) December 11, 2016@SarahPalinUSA Christmas was a pagan holiday. Jesus has nothing to do with Dec 25. Christmas tree, yule log, wreath, all pagan symbols. ibrahim sapien (@IbrahimSapien__) December 11, 2016@SarahPalinUSA So if you want America to go back to its Christian fundamentalist purity, ban Christmas! ibrahim sapien (@IbrahimSapien__) December 11, 2016@SarahPalinUSA We've been cyber invaded by Russia and you're still stuck in the war on Christmas? Our concerns are way beyond that. DudeDiligence (@DudeDiligence) December 11, 2016@SarahPalinUSA I was thinking the Obamas were wishing everyone an enjoyable holiday season? Holidays are only for Christians? Gus Studer (@Gus_Studer) December 11, 2016@SarahPalinUSA Nobody cares if you say Merry Christmas for Happy F**king Holidays. Get over it already. Ocular Nervosa (@ocularnervosa) December 11, 2016@SarahPalinUSA oh Honey, you're jealous cause the #ObamaLegacy won't have a single drunken brawl or knock up kid. Plus they can read. Entropygrl (@Entropygrl) December 11, 2016@SarahPalinUSA If I were you, I'd shy away from criticizing other families. Especially ones with class. Cathy (@covcat) December 11, 2016If there s one thing we can count on Sarah Palin for it s a virtually assured laugh every year as she pivots from hating on Muslims to whining that other holidays besides Christmas exist. At least she s fun to mock.Featured image via screengrab

Leader of China's $9 billion Ezubao online scam gets life; 26 jailed

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Beijing court on Tuesday sentenced the architect of the $9 billion Ezubao online financial scam to life imprisonment, and handed down jail time to 26 others, marking the close to one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in modern Chinese history. The ruling comes at a time when the government is stepping up efforts to crack down on risky and illicit behavior in the country s financial sector, including the unruly peer-to-peer industry that continues to attract high volumes. Beijing First Intermediate People s Court sentenced Ding Ning - chairman of Anhui Yucheng Holdings Group that launched Ezubao in 2014 - to life in prison and fined him 100 million yuan ($15.29 million) for crimes including illegal fundraising, illegal gun possession and smuggling precious metals. Ding Dian, the chairman s brother, was also sentenced to life, while Zhang Min, Yucheng s president, and 24 others were sentenced to imprisonment for 3 to 15 years, according to an article on the Beijing Courts social media account. Ezubao, once China s biggest P2P lending platform, folded last year after it turned out to be a Ponzi scheme that collected 59.8 billion yuan ($9.14 billion) from more than 900,000 investors through savvy marketing. By the time police made arrests in early 2016, the company had failed to repay 38 billion yuan. The incident sparked a crackdown on the freewheeling online financial services market and led to new regulations to control China s P2P industry - where monthly volumes are above $50 billion, statistics published by industry portal P2P001 show. Ezubao s excesses also became a cautionary tale following its collapse. Ding collected a monthly salary of 1 million yuan, and admitted on state television to spending an estimated 1.5 billion yuan in Ezubao funds on himself. We fabricated projects to raise money, Ding said, according to a Xinhua report published last year, and then used fabricated project companies to re-circulate cash back into accounts linked to his companies. Ding also asked dozens of his secretaries to dress only in Chanel, Gucci and other luxury branded clothing to make the company appear highly successful. He told Zhang, the group president, to buy up everything from every Louis Vuitton and Herm s store in China. (reut.rs/2xsfaHH)

Britain declines to comment on reported death of 'white widow' jihadist

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May s spokesman refused on Thursday to comment on a newspaper report that a British jihadi who recruited for the Islamic State militant group has been killed in Syria by a U.S. drone. I ve seen the reports, I don t have any comments to make in relation to this specific case, the spokesman said. He repeated government advice warning against all travel to Syria. Sally Jones was killed along with her 12-year-old son, The Sun newspaper reported.

Boris Johnson gives PM May advice on Brexit while parading loyalty

MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson offered Theresa May unsolicited public advice about how to make Brexit a success on Tuesday, delicately testing the extent of the prime minister s weakened authority while pledging overt loyalty. Alongside public proclamations of backing for May, he used media articles and interviews ahead of the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester to offer up his own vision of a bold Brexit. After praising May for winning a snap June election which lost her party its majority in parliament, Johnson used his main speech to say that her top ministers were united behind every syllable of her Brexit plans set out last month in Florence. The whole country owes her a debt for her steadfastness in taking Britain forward, as she will, to a great Brexit deal, based on that Florence speech on whose every syllable, I can tell you, the whole cabinet is united, Johnson said. Just hours later, though, the man who led the main leave campaign in the 2016 referendum on Britain s EU membership told activists at a separate event that there was far too much gloom surrounding Brexit. He then sketched out his own views on how Britain s exit would look and how Britain might need different regulations on everything from data to bioscience. I campaigned on a slogan of... Take Back Control .... I think that s what the prime minister also believes in very strongly, Johnson told the gathering. If you re going to do this, do it well. Do it in such a way as to get a great result for the UK, he said. We want an arrangement that means we are not just locked in strict rotational orbit around the EU. Johnson, widely regarded in Britain as concealing a fierce political ambition behind a clownish exterior, has overshadowed the party conference which May had hoped to use to claw back some authority after her election gamble went so wrong. Arriving with his trademark blonde hair tousled and rummaging through a suit jacket pocket, Boris enthused Conservative members but was careful to make no explicit pitch to replace May. Ahead of Johnson s speech, May had repeatedly faced questions from reporters about whether she would sack Johnson after he appeared to undermine her Brexit strategy by setting out his own vision. She has sidestepped those questions. The European Parliament savaged the British government s handling of Brexit negotiations on Tuesday, voting against opening talks yet on future trade and condemning disarray in May s team. A German ally of conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, Manfred Weber, said British cabinet in-fighting was putting a deal at risk and called on May to sack Johnson. But Johnson also provided a rare spark in Manchester where Conservative ministers lined up to cast the opposition Labour Party as dangerous Marxists while failing to offer any striking new policies. To me, that was real leadership: motivating, inspirational. What s a good leader? It s somebody who can do that, said Vanessa Churchman a local government official from the Isle of Wight in the south of England. Everybody who goes away from here will feel inspired. At previous party conferences, Boris, as he is widely known in Britain, also repeatedly upstaged then-prime minister David Cameron, though after the referendum sank Cameron s career, Johnson dropped out of the race to be leader when a colleague broke a pact to back him. While Johnson is popular with party members, many Conservative lawmakers are angry that he has overshadowed May with what they say were unhelpful and disloyal interventions. May, the staid daughter of a vicar, has a presentational style that is in many ways the polar opposite of Johnson s swashbuckling on-stage persona. She is due to close the conference on Wednesday.

Green Party files for vote recount in Wisconsin: state election commission

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The organization behind the presidential campaign for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, along with one other group, on Friday filed a petition with the Wisconsin Elections Commission for a recount of votes in the Nov. 8 election, the commission said. “The Commission is preparing to move forward with a statewide recount of votes for President of the United States, as requested by these candidates,” Commission Administrator Michael Haas said in a statement.

FATHER OF STUDENT Released From N. Korean Prison Slams Obama…Uses ONE WORD To Describe President Trump That Will Make Liberals Cringe [VIDEO]

Another consequence of weak leadership NYP The father of the American who was recently sent home from North Korea praised the Trump administration on Thursday after his son was released and said the Obama administration s results speak for themselves. Fred Warmbier spoke to the media about his son Otto s comatose state and imprisonment by the North Korean regime.After thanking Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio) for his support and assistance, Warmbier recounted how his son was freed. When Otto was first taken, we were advised by the past administration to take a low profile while they worked to obtain his release, Warmbier said. We did so without result. Earlier this year, Cindy and I decided the time for strategic patience was over, and we made a few media appearances and traveled to Washington to meet with Ambassador Joe Yun at the State Department. He said it was his understanding that Ambassador Yun, at the direction of President Donald Trump, aggressively pursued resolution of the situation. They have our thanks for bringing Otto home, he said.He described his son s return as bittersweet. Relief that Otto is now home in arms of those who love him and anger that he was so brutally treated for so long, he said.Warmbier also said he received a phone call from President Trump late Wednesday that he described as kind. The last thing liberals want to hear the father of Otto Warbmier is that he was grateful for President Trump s help in bringing his son home or that he would describe him as being kind. WFB Warmbier had this to say about the North Korean regime at a news conference at Wyoming High School where Otto graduated in 2013 as class salutatorian: They are a pariah regime They re brutal and terroristic. The University of Virginia student returned to Ohio late Tuesday and hospitalized after being detained for 18 months in the Hermit Kingdom after being convicted of stealing a propaganda poster from a hotel.His father said he is stable, but has suffered a severe neurological injury. Warmbier took questions from the media, including from one reporter who asked more about the Obama administration s handling of Otto s imprisonment. You thanked President Trump and then you also said that the past administration didn t do enough, so do you feel like then-President Obama should have been doing more to help? the reporter asked.After restating the question for other reporters who could not hear it, Warmbier gave a quick answer. The question was, do I think the past administration could have done more? I think the results speak for themselves, Warmbier said.Watch:

ACTRESS JODIE FOSTER Weighs In On The Phony ‘War On Women’…Hillary Won’t Like This!

Jodie Foster gives a dose of common sense to set the record straight on the phony war on women being pushed by the left: I don t think there is a big plot to keep women down Jodie Foster said she s tired of people oversimplifying the issue of gender equality in Hollywood, declaring that there isn t some major plot in the industry to keep women down. The 53-year-old Money Monster director made the comments Wednesday during a panel at the Tribeca Film Festival with fellow director Julie Taymor, Variety reported.Ms. Foster said, I feel like the issue is way more complicated than saying, Why aren t women making big mainstream franchises? There are so many reasons, she continued. Some of them are about our psychology, some of them are about the financial world, some of them are about the global economy. There are so many answers to that go back hundreds of years. It would be nice to be able to have a more complex conversation and to be able to look at it more than just a quota or numbers. I don t think there is a big plot to keep women down, she added. It is neglect really, and a lot of people that weren t thinking about it, and a lot of female executives who have risen to the top, who have not really made a dent of bringing many women into the mainstream world. Money Monster, Ms. Foster s fourth feature film which premieres next month at the Cannes Film Festival, tells the story of a failed investor who holds a television commentator hostage on live TV, Variety reported. Though it comes at a time when Wall Street is at the center of debate in the Democratic presidential race, Ms. Foster insisted the film isn t meant to be political. For me really it is a character film, she told the magazine. The backdrop of technology is really interesting to me. Technology is making us closer and we have this virtual intimacy that sometimes feels closer than real intimacy. Via: WT

Texas official to retire after criticizing Planned Parenthood cuts

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A senior Texas health official who co-authored a report that criticized the state’s funding cuts to Planned Parenthood for reducing access to reproductive healthcare will retire from his post next month, a Texas commission said on Friday. Rick Allgeyer, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s director of research, faced criticism from the state’s Republican leaders over the report published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine this month. The report said state funding cuts to Planned Parenthood and its affiliates had an adverse effect on family planning for lower-income people. Allgeyer is eligible to retire and decided to do so effective on March 31, the commission said. Allgeyer, who has been at the commission for 16 years and was one of the study’s five listed authors, declined to comment. In 2011, the Texas state legislature cut Planned Parenthood out of one family-planning program and revamped the way another program hands out funds, placing it and other private clinics at the bottom of the list. Top Texas political leaders have said after cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood that the state has been able to rebuild its safety net. Independent health experts dispute the claim, saying Texas still has a long way to go before it can provide the level of service it did when Planned Parenthood was an integral part of its family planning efforts. The Texas plan has garnered attention among Republicans in the U.S. Congress who are looking to defund the nation’s largest family-planning provider at the national level. The study said the cuts appeared to lead to an increase of unintended pregnancies among lower-income residents and a decrease in access to long-acting reversible contraception. It also said the cuts appeared to increase the rate of childbirths covered by Medicaid. Some Texas Republicans said it was inappropriate for a state employee to be involved in such a study and that its results were flawed, putting political pressure on Allgeyer.

Ohio violated voting rights by reducing early voting: U.S. judge

(Reuters) - A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that Ohio violated voters’ rights in 2014 by cutting the number of days in which people were allowed to cast early ballots to 28 from 35. Judge Michael Watson of U.S. District Court in Columbus ordered Ohio to reinstate the 35-day period and also to grant residents a week-long opportunity to register and cast a ballot at the same time - a period known as “Golden Week.” If the ruling stands, voters in Ohio will be able to vote a full 35 days before the general election on Nov. 8. Watson said the earlier changes violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and were unconstitutional. Ohio’s Republican-controlled legislature changed the system two years ago. The move was challenged by the state’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union. The two groups argued that the limited opportunities for early voting directly affected minorities. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican, said in a statement on Tuesday: “It is disappointing that a federal judge would again change the election rules after the current laws were upheld in the same federal district court by a settlement agreement we reached with the NAACP and the ACLU.” Husted said in a statement. The settlement between Husted and the organizations allowed residents to vote on multiple Sundays leading up to a presidential election and gave access to additional evening voting hours, according to ACLU documents. Husted said he plans to consult the leaders of the state Senate and state House of Representatives before deciding how to proceed.

Tech firms' encryption foe struggles for U.S. Senate re-election

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. senator seen by Silicon Valley as one of the technology industry’s main foes in Congress is fighting for his political life as Donald Trump’s slumping poll numbers threaten to damage Republican candidates across the board. Senator Richard Burr from North Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is facing a strong and unexpected challenge from Democrat Deborah Ross. Though tech policy is unlikely to decide the race, a Burr defeat would remove from the scene a lawmaker who has feuded with U.S. tech companies over digital privacy and encryption. Ross, a former head of the state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, is fighting an uphill battle. North Carolina has voted Republican in every presidential election from 1980 until 2008, when it backed Barack Obama by a thin margin. The state went for Republican Mitt Romney in 2012. Burr, 60, was not expected to face a challenge this year, in what he has said will be his last congressional campaign. But Republican presidential candidate Trump’s numbers have slumped nationwide and in North Carolina, a battleground state in the Nov. 8 presidential election. Declining support for Trump, a property developer and television personality who has never held elected office, has put Burr, who endorsed Trump, and other Republicans in jeopardy, said Carter Wrenn, a Republican consultant in North Carolina. “We’re not sure it’s a wave here for Democrats, but it’s beginning to look that way,” Wrenn said. “Any Republican running down here ought to be very concerned about Trump’s impact.” A poll from NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist in early August showed Ross leading Burr 46 percent to 44 percent, though other polls have given Burr a narrow edge. Burr has been in Congress for more than 20 years and is distantly related to Aaron Burr, U.S. vice president in the early 1800s. If Burr were to lose, Democrats would be one seat closer to reclaiming a Senate majority from Republicans. The concerns of companies such as Apple Inc, Google and Facebook are not a key issue for North Carolina voters, but the race’s outcome could affect future handling of data encryption and privacy matters. For a year, Burr has been crafting legislation that would force Apple and other companies to weaken the security of their products in a way that would give U.S. law enforcement access to encrypted devices and communications. [uL2N18L28M] The FBI has said that the growth of strong default encryption makes it more difficult for investigators to access communications of criminal suspects, even with a warrant. Silicon Valley, cyber security experts and civil liberties advocates say strong encryption is essential to ward off hackers and maintain the overall security of the Internet. The encryption debate is decades old, but it boiled over earlier this year due to a dispute between Apple and the FBI over unlocking an iPhone linked to one of the shooters in a San Bernardino, Calif., rampage in 2015. Several U.S. tech companies and privacy groups, asking not to be named because they do not typically take public positions on candidates, told Reuters they are eager to see Burr lose. His efforts to require encryption backdoors in U.S. technology products are the main reason. While other lawmakers have been critical of Silicon Valley in the encryption debate, none has been as antagonistic as Burr, the sources said. Andrew McLaughlin, a former White House technology official who now is head of content at the publishing site Medium, tweeted in May: “Trump’s win endangers GOP Senators. America’s tech community should rally to defeat Richard Burr, for his idiotic war on Internet security.” McLaughlin declined an interview request from Reuters. Burr spokeswoman Becca Glover Watkins said the senator had worked closely with California Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the intelligence panel on the encryption issue. She said the two had worked on a “number of bipartisan national security issues including their encryption proposal” and Burr planned to continue engaging with tech companies “on the challenges posed by encryption and cyber threats.” Ross, a lawyer and former state legislator, has not clarified whether she sides with Apple in its dispute with the FBI. In a statement to Reuters, she said that “protecting our law abiding citizens’ privacy doesn’t mean sacrificing our security.” Tech interests, so far, have not donated sizeable amounts of money to Ross, according to a review of contributions. However, Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, in June made an unspecified donation to Ross, according to U.S. Federal Election Commission records. The political action committee that supports Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat, vocal defender of encryption and frequent opponent of Burr, gave $5,000 to Ross this year. Burr’s PAC later gave $5,000 to Wyden’s Republican challenger in Oregon. At a national level, Apple CEO Tim Cook and other tech executives have helped raise money for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Silicon Valley has almost universally shunned Trump, troubled largely by his rhetoric on immigration and his stated desire to shut down the Internet to fight extremists.

Two hawkish anti-immigration groups say consulted by Trump

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two groups that support far-reaching curbs on legal immigration to the United States and ideological screening of would-be immigrants to test their beliefs say Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has consulted them on his immigration policy. NumbersUSA and the Center for Immigration Studies, which for years have denied accusations they harbor radical views on immigration, told Reuters they had met or had telephone calls with either Trump or senior members of his campaign over the past year. Trump’s campaign declined to confirm the meetings. Trump, the Republican nominee, has won over millions of supporters with his calls for a wall on the Mexican border and a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country. But the calls have also drawn an outcry from immigrant rights groups and condemnation from abroad. While Trump’s immigration proposals push the Republican Party sharply to the right, NumbersUSA and CIS also want to slash legal immigration, going beyond the New York businessman’s call to keep it “within historical norms.” NumbersUSA says on its website that immigrants are the main driver of population growth, take jobs that should go to U.S. workers, and fuel urban sprawl that threatens farmland and wildlife habitats. “The aim should be to halt all immigration possible,” NumbersUSA head Roy Beck wrote in a blog in March. NumbersUSA wants to cut legal immigration to 500,000 a year immediately, said Chris Chmielenski, the group’s director of content and activism. About a million immigrants obtain legal permanent residence status in the United States every year, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Around 11 million undocumented immigrants were living in the United States in 2014, down from a peak of 12 million in 2007, according to the Pew Research Center. The head of CIS, Mark Krikorian, has argued against legal immigration extensively. Last year he wrote in the National Review that mass legal immigration would end U.S. conservatism, because immigrants tend to have more liberal views on issues like gun rights. Beck told Reuters he had met with Trump in New York and had also spoken with people “at the top” of his campaign repeatedly since last autumn, when NumbersUSA accepted invitations to meet several Republican presidential hopefuls. Much of the contact was by phone and email. Beck would not provide details of what was discussed or say who took part in the discussions. In early August, NumbersUSA shared a 10-point immigration plan with the Trump campaign. Of the 10 points, six were echoed by Trump in a major immigration speech on Aug. 31. Those points included calls for the immediate deportation of undocumented immigrants with criminal records and the mandatory use of the “E-verify” system to check a job applicant’s legal status. The Trump campaign declined to comment on the apparent overlap. The policy was written with input from Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents. Beck said the overlap showed the “convergence” of ideas between his group and the campaign but he acknowledged he had “no indication that they sat down and looked at our 10 steps and said let’s take six of them.” Based in Arlington, Virginia, NumbersUSA describes itself as the “the nation’s largest grassroots immigration-reduction organization with more than 5 million participants.” It is credited with helping block immigration bills in 2007 and 2013 that aimed to make it easier for undocumented immigrants to become citizens. Krikorian, of CIS, whose slogan is “Low-immigration, pro-immigrant,” said his group had also received requests for research and studies from the Trump campaign for months. In an Aug. 15 speech, Trump outlined his plan for “extreme vetting” of immigrants, calling for an ideological test to gauge their views on things like religious freedom, gender equality and gay rights to ensure the country only admits people “who share our values and respect our people.” CIS was an early proponent of ideological screening - widely criticized as discriminatory and a violation of freedom of thought - to protect U.S. culture and national security following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but it was unclear if Trump consulted CIS on the idea. The Department of Homeland Security already requires people seeking legal status in the United States to show they adhere to the principles of the Constitution. Krikorian took part in a roundtable of national security advisers at Trump’s New York headquarters in August, after which he said he was asked by Trump’s campaign to be a “surrogate.” A surrogate can act on behalf of a campaign, by speaking at rallies and other events. Krikorian said he turned down the Trump campaign’s request. Hate watchdog groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have accused NumbersUSA and CIS of attempting to use mainstream arguments to sell proposals aligned with white nationalism. “These are the organizations that are the leading edge of the nativist movement in this country,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of immigrants’ rights group America’s Voice. Both organizations reject the claims. “We’re absolutely opposed to nativism,” said Beck, adding that NumbersUSA’s recommendations come from a desire to protect American workers. His group stresses that it blames bad immigration policy and not immigrants themselves. Krikorian said CIS wants “an ethnically neutral policy that lets in fewer people in the future and does a better job of welcoming those people we do legally admit to our country.” (Adds dropped word, “plan,” in paragraph 14.)

“COMEDIAN” GEORGE LOPEZ Who Said About Trump Supporters: “There Are Enough Racists In This Country To Get Him Elected” Goes On Vile Rant Against Woman…Makes Racist Comments [VIDEO]

When a woman in the audience objected, Lopez went off on an unbelievable, vile rant against her ***WARNING***Strong language*** There are only two rules in the Latino family. Don t marry somebody black, and don t park in front of our house, Lopez said during his set, which prompted a woman in the audience to put up her middle finger.In a clip of the incident obtained by TMZ, Lopez is seen responding to the woman s gesture by calling her a bitch and telling her, Sit your f**king ass down or get the f**k out. Sit your f**king ass down, Lopez repeated three times. I m talking, bitch. You paid to see a show. Sit your ass down. You can t take a joke, you re in the wrong motherf**king place. Sit your f**king ass down or get the f**k out of here. You have two choices, he continued. Shut the f**k up or get the f**k out. I ll tell you what. I ll make the choice for you. Get the f**k out of here. I ll make the choice for you. Bye. Bye. Bye. Watch: Via: Huffington Post

U.S. envoy Haley makes emotional visit to Congo displaced camp

KITCHANGA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley was moved to tears on Thursday after visiting a nearly decade-old camp for Congolese displaced by violence in the country s east, and insisted there has to be a way to hold safe and fair elections. Haley, the most senior member of President Donald Trump s administration to visit Democratic Republic of Congo, traveled by helicopter to Mungote camp in Kitchanga, home to some 15,000 displaced people. Dozens of excited children waved as Haley left on a U.N. peace-keeping helicopter to return to the provincial capital of Goma. She was visibly upset. The reason I got emotional today was the hundred-plus kids that were chasing our cars and seeing us off, Haley told reporters after the visit. All I kept thinking was, what s going to happen to them? The sad reality, as it looks now, is that they are going to end up just like their parents. A single mother named Angelique told Haley she had been raped twice. It s hard for her when she sits in the kitchen with her seven children because they watched her getting raped, Haley said as she recounted what Angelique told her. She doesn t know what to say to them, Haley said. No one should live like this. We can t turn a blind eye to all of this, Haley said. Congo is the final stop on Haley s week-long Africa visit, which has also taken her to Ethiopia and South Sudan, where she met with President Salva Kiir. On Friday she is due to meet with Congolese President Joseph Kabila, who has been in power since 2001 when he took over from his father. Congo has never had a peaceful transition of power, and Kabila refused to step down when his second elected term ended in December, fueling insecurity in a country where millions died in conflicts between 1996-2003, most from hunger and disease. Under an accord struck on Dec. 31 between Kabila s representatives and opposition leaders, Kabila is barred from trying to change the constitution to stand for a third term. We have to find a way to have a peaceful situation, Haley said. We have to find a way for them to have safe and fair elections, so we that we can get some leaders that know how to handle this situation and get these armed groups to stop. The Congolese electoral commission said earlier this month that an election to replace Kabila cannot take place before April 2019, a delay that the opposition said would cause an impatient population to take matters into its own hands. The largest U.N. peace-keeping mission is deployed in Congo, costing more than $1 billion annually. Haley is reviewing all operations in a bid to cut costs, as the United States is the largest contributor, paying 28 percent of the budget. The 193-member U.N. General Assembly agreed in June to a $7.3 billion peace-keeping budget, a cut of some $600 Million. The Congo operation has to cut $93 million. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that any further budget cuts could harm the U.N. mission in Congo. The state is still absent from many parts of the country and all too often preys on the citizens it is meant to protect, Guterres wrote in a report to the 15-member Security Council last month Peace-keepers kept watch while Haley was at Mungote camp in Kitchanga, where she also visited a small bakery started by 50 women. They re making a profit and they just bought a sheep with the profits that they made, she said. So it s inspiring to see they re not just sitting here complaining, they re trying to make the best of the life that they have.

Republican disarray deepens as Trump attacks rebel conservatives

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump lashed out on Thursday at Republican conservatives who helped torpedo healthcare legislation he backed, escalating a feud within his party that jeopardizes the new administration’s legislative agenda. Trump threatened to try to defeat members of the Freedom Caucus - a bloc of conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives - in next year’s congressional elections if they continued to defy him. “The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!” Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday morning. He later singled out three Freedom Caucus members by name, U.S. Representatives Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan and Raul Labrador. “If @RepMarkMeadows, @Jim_Jordan and @Raul_Labrador would get on board we would have both great healthcare and massive tax cuts & reform,” he said in one tweet. “Where are @RepMarkMeadows, @Jim_Jordan and @Raul_Labrador? #RepealANDReplace #Obamacare,” he asked in another. House conservatives fought back. Labrador, one of the founders of the Freedom Caucus, urged Trump in a tweet to “Remember who your real friends are. We’re trying to help you succeed.” “Most people don’t take well to being bullied,” said Representative Justin Amash, who compared Trump’s approach to what a child does when he wants to “get his way.” Trump’s deteriorating relationship with Republican House conservatives could make it harder for him to pass his legislative agenda, which includes rewriting the U.S. tax code, revisiting a healthcare overhaul and funding construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. Trump, a New York businessman who touted his skills as a dealmaker in his bid for the White House, has repeatedly criticized Freedom Caucus members, blaming them for the defeat of legislation to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law. Freedom Caucus members said the bill did not go far enough to dismantle the 2010 Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. Asked during a briefing whether Trump’s tweet about the Freedom Caucus was a “divide-and-conquer” strategy, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said: “No, it’s a math strategy, which is to get to 216,” the number of votes currently needed to pass House legislation. The discord following the healthcare debacle was not limited to tensions between Trump and the Freedom Caucus. In recent days, the president has been out of sync with the two highest ranking Republicans in Congress, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Trump and his aides have suggested reviving the push for a healthcare bill. While Ryan expressed openness to the idea, McConnell said he thought doing so would be futile. But Ryan publicly disagreed with Trump when the president offered to work with Democrats on new healthcare legislation. “I don’t want that to happen,” the speaker told CBS in an interview aired on Thursday. More than healthcare legislation was at stake. Republican lawmakers still await key details on what Trump’s priorities are in the monumental tax reform effort they want to launch. Passing a budget for next year could also prove challenging. Trump and the Freedom Caucus want to dramatically shrink domestic programs. Moderate Republicans are aghast at proposals to cut popular programs that fund environmental cleanup and meals for senior citizens. Most pressing is an April 28 deadline for approving new funding to keep the government running. “The GOP (Republican) House is riven by factions that are quite ideological. Trump is not,” said University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato. “And let’s throw in the fact that Trump is unpopular and weak and has no Democratic support in Congress. “Add all this up. Neither Trump nor congressional Republicans are in an ideal position to govern, and that’s an understatement,” Sabato said. There are about three dozen members of the House Freedom Caucus, comprising about 15 percent of the 237 House Republicans. But their clout is larger, as Trump and Ryan cannot afford to lose too many House Republicans if they want to try to pass bills, like the Obamacare repeal, that attract zero Democratic support. Dan Meyer, a legislative affairs chief to former Republican President George W. Bush, said that with the Freedom Caucus threatening Trump’s agenda, the White House either had to find a way to work with the conservatives, or tack to the left. Some Republicans were so furious they were publicly saying things usually reserved for closed-door meetings. Representative Chris Collins, a Trump ally and part of the “Tuesday Group” of moderate Republicans, told reporters his group was so angry with the Freedom Caucus that it would “never” meet with it. He accused its members of trying to shift blame for the healthcare failure to moderates. Senate Republicans expressed alarm and urged efforts at consensus. Senator John McCain, who ran for president in 2008 and was defeated by Obama, said that if he were sitting in the White House, he would try to ease intraparty tensions rather than stoking them. “But that’s the president,” said McCain who sometimes is at odds with Trump. He added this advice to Trump: “Sit down with them and say this is an emergency situation.” Senator Cory Gardner, a Republican who served in the House from 2011 to 2014, said his former colleagues needed to quit arguing and come to a consensus “sooner rather than later.” A senior House Republican aide distanced Ryan from Trump’s strategy of upbraiding conservatives. “Ryan ... is never going to intentionally alienate a large swath of his caucus,” said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Publicly, Ryan said he understood Trump’s frustration. The speaker also said he was encouraging Republican lawmakers “to keep talking to one another.” Republican Senator Bob Corker chided Ryan, however, for his views about courting Democrats on healthcare reform. “We have come a long way in our country when the speaker of one party urges a president NOT to work with the other party to solve a problem,” Corker wrote on Twitter.

Hillary’s Response To Trump Tweeting He Won The Debate Is Pure Comedy Genius (TWEET)

It s not an exaggeration to say that Donald Trump has Narcissistic Personality Disorder. He has pretty much every characteristic to classify him as such:Sorry, not pretty much every characteristic absolutely every characteristic.So, when Trump tweeted out that he won the last presidential debate, one where Hillary Clinton clearly wiped the floor with his haystack of hair, this only confirmed his delusional thinking.Trump tweeted out: The results are in on the final debate and it is almost unanimous, I WON! Thank you, these are very exciting times. The results are in on the final debate and it is almost unanimous, I WON! Thank you, these are very exciting times. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2016Knowing that this is an utter fallacy, yet still not making a big deal of it, Hillary Clinton opted for responding with humor.Hillary s simple, yet very accurate and hilarious response? Where was this kind of comedy last night? Where was this kind of comedy last night? https://t.co/71JhLG55G5 Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 21, 2016Of course she s referring to the Al Smith dinner, where not only was Trump not funny, but actually got booed.Trump seems to need to live in the fantasy he s created in his own head where he s actually winning. However, reality will slap him in the face on November 8th when he loses, and in his own words, loses big league. Featured Photo by Justin Sullivan via Getty Images

INSANE VIDEO: IT’S GRADUATION TIME…AND THAT MEANS IT’S TIME FOR OUR RACIST FIRST LADY To Spew Hateful Lies And Rhetoric About Racist White America And The Mistreatment Of Blacks

GET OVER YOURSELF! MOOCH PLAYS THE RACE CARD AGAIN This woman loves to stir it up and fabricate things because it does exactly what she wants. It further divides us as a nation. Why else would she (a lawyer) not know that in both highly charged police abuse cases in Ferguson and Baltimore, racism was not the cause of death for either of the criminals who died.https://youtu.be/4w3eFiVUHQQSooo .instead of standing up to Mooch s claims that all Whites are racists and that clearly we, as a nation have made no progress in race relations since the 1950 s, the CBS hosts choose to applaud her courage and ability to speak the truth. Perhaps they missed the memo, but our so-called First Black President (who could have just as easily called himself white) and his racist wife have spent the last 6 years living in our White House and occupying the most important job in our nation.But you know, it s not about reality for these people, it s about stirring the pot and dividing the nation, and the mainstream media is more than happy to help them accomplish that goal. They don t even have the common sense to know they re being called racists right along with the rest of the majority of Americans who seem to be okay with Barack and Mooch s ignorant labels.CBS host Norah O Donnell closes her segment by saying: That is a speech worth reading from beginning to end. Everyone should take a look at that.

German prosecutors accuse former far-right party leader of perjury

BERLIN (Reuters) - German prosecutors said on Wednesday they were pressing perjury charges against Frauke Petry, former leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), who last week quit the party and will sit in the national parliament as an independent lawmaker. Lorenz Haase, senior public prosecutor in the eastern city of Dresden, said it was unlikely the case against Petry would proceed quickly as Dresden s regional court would need to apply to lift her immunity as a member of the national parliament. Petry has been dogged by allegations that she lied under oath to a committee of the Saxony parliament about how the party s campaign for the 2014 election in the state was financed. She has denied the allegations. In August the regional parliament of the state of Saxony lifted Petry s immunity from prosecution. But now that she is due to take up her seat in the Bundestag, the lower house of the German federal parliament, she will be granted immunity there. A majority of lawmakers in the Bundestag would have to vote to lift her immunity. The first session of the lower house is expected to take place by Oct. 24 at the latest. Petry, long considered the face of the anti-immigrant AfD, had for months been on the losing side of a dispute between the party s warring wings. She had advocated a more moderate course while others shifted further to the right and wanted the party to focus on a role in opposition rather than trying to govern. Some AfD members have followed in Petry s footsteps to quit the AfD and she now plans to set up a new party. The AfD won 12.6 percent of the vote in the Sept. 24 federal election, making it the first far-right party to enter the Bundestag in more than half a century and the third largest parliamentary bloc.

India using chilli sprays, stun grenades to dissuade Rohingya influx

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has stepped up security along its largely porous eastern border with Bangladesh and is using chilli and stun grenades to block the entry of Rohingya Muslims fleeing from violence in their homeland of Myanmar, officials said on Friday. Border forces in Hindu-majority India, which wants to deport around 40,000 Rohingya already living in the country, citing security risks, have been authorized to use rude and crude methods to stop any infiltration attempts. We don t want to cause any serious injury or arrest them, but we won t tolerate Rohingya on Indian soil, said a senior official with the Border Security Force (BSF) in New Delhi. We re using grenades containing chilli spray to stop hundreds of Rohingyas trying to enter India ... the situation is tense, added the official, who declined to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to media. More than 420,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when a coordinated attack by Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar security forces triggered a counteroffensive, killing at least 400 people, mainly militants. The United Nations has called the assault a textbook example of ethnic cleansing . Densely populated Bangladesh is struggling to shelter all the refugees desperate for space to set up shacks, sparking worries in India that the influx could spill into its territory. R.P.S. Jaswal, a deputy inspector general of the BSF patrolling a large part of the border in India s eastern state of West Bengal, said his troops were told to use both chilli grenades and stun grenades to push back the Rohingya. A chilli grenade makes use of a naturally-occurring compound in chilli powder to cause severe irritation and temporarily immobilize its target. Prime Minister Narendra Modi s Hindu nationalist government is growing increasingly hostile towards the Rohingya in India, with Home Minister Rajnath Singh calling on Thursday for their deportation as illegal migrants. Seeking to get legal clearance for the deportation plan, the home ministry told the Supreme Court this week it would confidentially provide it with intelligence information showing Rohingya links with Pakistan-based militants. Most of the peaceloving refugees had no link to criminal activity, two Rohingya men protesting against the deportation move told India s top court on Friday. An official of India s federal investigations agency said it was seeking help from Muslim religious leaders to step up surveillance of the Rohingya. Police have arrested a suspected al Qaeda member they believe was trying to recruit Rohingya in the country to fight security forces in Myanmar. More than 270 Rohingya have been in Indian jails since 2014. Our investigations have revealed that Al Qaeda wants to use India and Bangladesh as their base to start a religious war against Myanmar, said New Delhi police official Pramod Singh Khuswah. Clearly they are a threat to our security.

Trump says hurricane does not look good, eyes debt ceiling debate

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the hurricane moving toward Florida and Puerto Rico looks to be record-breaking and said a meeting with congressional leaders would show whether they could work out challenges the country faced. We have many many things that are on the plate. Hopefully we can solve them, he said during a meeting with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders. Maybe we won t be able to, he said. Asked if he would accept a three-month debt ceiling increase tied to disaster relief funding, Trump said: We ll see.

WATCH: Mike Pence Went To See ‘Hamilton’ And Got Booed By The Whole Theatre

Mike Pence took time off from organizing Trump s transition efforts to catch a musical on Broadway but if he thought he would have a relaxing evening, he was wrong.As the vice president-elect made his way to his seat Friday night, he was greeted with a loud chorus of boos. As he waved to the crowd, there was a smattering of applause but the majority present made it clear that he was not welcome. Naturally, the internet didn t let him live this down:At #Hamilton. Mike Pence is here and the entire theater just booed him. Shannon (@TheStagmania) November 19, 2016Mike Pence getting lustily booed at "Hamilton" is obviously the endpoint for this goddamn election cycle Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) November 19, 2016Just heard from friend in NY that Mike Pence is seeing Hamilton tonight and was BOOED by the theatre when he walked in Marc Snetiker (@MarcSnetiker) November 19, 2016Unreal scene here Mike Pence walks in and there's a massive mix of cheers and boos. pic.twitter.com/GVZ5L67mA3 Noah Coslov (@NoahCoslov) November 19, 2016Pence, I feel ya. If a homophobe who wants to electrocute gays can't go to musical without getting booed, nothing's sacred anymore #Hamilton Eric John (@EricJohnThe1st) November 19, 2016So apparently Pence was booed when he showed up at Hamilton and uh what did he expect? Mario (@TomatoGrandpa) November 19, 2016Reminder that the current star of Hamilton is the incomparable Javier Mu oz, an openly gay, openly HIV-positive actor. Pay attention, Pence. Marc Snetiker (@MarcSnetiker) November 19, 2016Mike Pence got booed at a performance of Hamilton. Weird, it's like gay people don't love raging homophobic bigots. Who'da thunk it? Charisma Black Hole (@MichaelMcGurran) November 19, 2016The best part of Pence's Hamilton experience being ruined for me is knowing that I, a brown queer, have better seats than he does. Delete 2016 (@twittysuch) November 19, 2016According to reports, the crowd spent the entire night trolling our future vice president:I'm at #Hamilton and so is Mike Pence. Crowd booed him like crazy, and gave a standing O at the line "immigrants we get the job done" 1/2 Christy Colburn (@christymoose) November 19, 20162/2 Crowd went NUTS at King George's lines "when people say they hate you" & "do you know how hard it is to lead?" He had to stop the song. Christy Colburn (@christymoose) November 19, 2016During "You'll Be Back (Reprise)" they had to keep pausing the song while people jeered Pence on every line. https://t.co/ZSIG7qnfiM Shannon (@TheStagmania) November 19, 2016Pence, easily one of the worst people to be elected Vice President in our nation s history, can expect tonight to become the norm. With his administration filling its ranks to the brim with white supremacists, Islamophobes, and other assorted bigots and pushing Muslim bans and other terrifying policies, it is a virtual certainty that neither Pence nor Trump will be able to step foot in public without being met with some form of opposition,Watch him get booed below:#Hamilton. Mike Pence Booed #TrumpProtest #NotMyPresident pic.twitter.com/bFqUpksY4h MOURNING IN AMERICA (@irise4u2c) November 19, 2016Featured image via getty Images/Steve Pope

Europe dodges Trump's defense spending ultimatum

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump sent top U.S. officials to Europe with a familiar warning from Washington that allies must spend more on defense, this time with the ultimatum “or else”. But Europeans have tried to deflect the threats with the argument that a commitment to security is not just about spending targets, which diplomats said that U.S. officials did not challenge, suggesting that the stand-off will continue. “Things look very different if we add up our defense budgets, our development aid budgets and our humanitarian efforts all around the world,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told the Munich Security Conference last week. By current standards, Washington funds about 70 percent of NATO spending. Standing beside U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Monday at the Commission, Juncker called for another measure of what counts. “We want ... a broader understanding that the word ‘stability’ in the world means defense expenditure, human aid and development aid,” said Juncker the EU’s chief executive, adding he was against Europeans being “pushed into” the targets. Allies who do not meet NATO targets to spend 2 percent of GDP on military budgets set out to show Pence and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis how Europeans are dealing with crises they trace back, in part, to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. “France has a readiness to deploy that is hard to match. Spain was leading NATO’s new spearhead force last year. Italy is in Afghanistan,” said one senior European NATO diplomat. “That isn’t already reflected by spending targets.” While Germany says Trump has a point about Europe’s drop in defense spending since the fall of the Soviet Union, Berlin and the European Commission also say Washington should take note that the EU is the world’s biggest aid donor, spending some 56 billion euros ($58.99 billion) a year. The United States spends about 1 percent of its federal budget on foreign aid, or about $50 billion, but that also includes running diplomatic missions and giving academic grants, according to the U.S. State Department. The European Union says most of its aid goes to the world’s poorest countries. Germany deserves recognition for the 30 to 40 billion euros ($32 to $42 billion) it is spending to integrate over a million refugees, many of whom were displaced as a result of failed Western policy, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said. At a NATO summit in Wales in 2014, months after Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, allies agreed to end years of defense cuts that left Europeans without vital capabilities, such as refueling airborne fighter bombers. They agreed all allies should reach the target of spending 2 percent of economic output on defense every year by 2024, although the goal is not legally binding. It aims to reverse a trend that saw defense research spending in the European Union fall by a third, or more than 20 billion euros, since 2006. Only the United States, Britain, Poland, Estonia and Greece met the target in 2016, although the cuts have stopped and Latvia, Lithuania and Romania are close, NATO officials say. NATO’s 22 European allies and Canada will spend almost 4 percent more, or some 10 billion euros, on defense this year and Germany’s increases account for some 20 percent of that. There is no European push to change the NATO target and NATO officials say the 2 percent target will remain politically useful, if not economically viable. Reaching the 2 percent target could cost NATO’s European members $96 billion per year, according to think tank Bruegel. U.S. governments have been pressing Europeans to increase spending on their armed forces for decades, but Trump signaled a much tougher approach, suggesting on the campaign trail to make U.S. support conditional on meeting NATO commitments. He has since given his full support to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but complained this month that Europeans have “been very unfair to us”, for not spending more on defense. Pence maintained the pressure at NATO on Monday, telling allies they had until the end of this year to show “real progress” on spending. Pence cited his spending message as one of the successes of his debut Europe trip, diplomats said. Europeans say the biggest issue is how money is spent. Spurred on by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, Germany and France are leading plans to build a so-called European Defense Union that would allow countries to develop and share military assets together, as well as deploying troops. Collectively the European Union is the world’s second-biggest military spender. But fears in Britain of an EU army held back collaboration. Governments spent in isolation and missed out on savings worth 25 billion euros a year, according to EU data. Trump’s ultimatum is also still “hypothetical”, Pence said. Asked what if Europeans did not spend more, he said: “I don’t know what the answer is to: ‘or else’. But I know that the patience of the American people will not endure forever.” ($1 = 0.9493 euros)

McConnell says all need to stand against hate and violence

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday “messages of hate and bigotry” from white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups should not be welcome anywhere in the United States. “We can have no tolerance for an ideology of racial hatred. There are no good neo-nazis, and those who espouse their views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms. We all have a responsibility to stand against hate and violence, wherever it raises its evil head,” McConnell said in a statement.

Australia same sex marriage survey draws 78.5 percent response rate

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Around 12.6 million Australians, or 78.5 percent of eligible voters, have voted so far in a postal ballot on whether same-sex marriage should be legalized, the Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday. The poll, which closes later on Tuesday, is non-binding, but the government has said it will put a proposal to parliament to make Australia the 25th nation to permit same-sex marriage, if a majority of voters are in favor of it. The final results will be announced on Nov. 15.

Top Democratic senator probes SWIFT, NY Fed about Bangladesh heist

(Reuters) - The Senate Homeland Security Committee’s top Democrat sought information Thursday from global financial network SWIFT and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on steps being taken to bolster cyber security in the wake of the theft of $81 million from the central bank of Bangladesh. Senator Tom Carper of Delaware requested that both answer questions and brief his staff by June 17 on how they were handling issues following the February heist, during which hackers wired money out of an account at the New York Fed held by Bank Bangladesh, as well as how they were safeguarding against other potential cyber threats. “These cyber attacks raise important questions about the security of the SWIFT system and the ability of its members to prevent future attacks,” Carper wrote in his letters. The inquiry comes as policymakers, regulators and financial institutions around the world increase scrutiny into the heist at Bank Bangladesh and a separate attempt to use fraudulent SWIFT messages to steal from a commercial bank in Vietnam. The Association of Banks in Singapore told Reuters it had invited SWIFT for a meeting in June to discuss the latest cyber attacks. The Bank of England last month ordered British banks to provide documentation on SWIFT security measures. In his letters, Carper said there appeared to be no evidence the Federal Reserve systems were penetrated or compromised in the Bangladesh attack. The New York Federal Reserve has denied responsibility for the intrusion, which some security researchers have said was due to a flaw in the SWIFT bank messaging network. The identity of the Bangladesh hackers remains unknown. Brussels-based SWIFT is a cooperative owned by some 3,000 global financial institutions. A representative for SWIFT could not immediately be reached for comment. The New York Fed plans to respond, a representative said. Carper asked SWIFT how it shares information about cyber security threats against member banks, whether there were consequences for members who did not follow security standards and if it plans to revise its cyber security policies in response to the Bangladesh attacks, among other questions. He requested similar information from the Federal Reserve, including steps it has taken to coordinate with SWIFT, Bangladesh Bank, the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Treasury since the heist. Major U.S. banks are scrutinizing security of the SWIFT messaging network following the cyber attacks, according to media reports.

WATCH: GOP Leader Won’t Call Trump’s Attack On Latino Judge Racist

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump s bizarre accusation that the judge overseeing the lawsuit about Trump University can t be impartial because of his Mexican heritage has been rebuked and slammed from multiple angles. But the most senior Republican in the United States Senate refuses to call the attack racist.Appearing on Meet the Press, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) would not be moved despite the mountain of evidence against his fellow Republican.Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Sunday criticized Donald Trump s recent attacks on a California judge but would not call the presumptive Republican presidential nominee s statements racist. I couldn t disagree more with a statement like that, McConnell said on NBC s Meet the Press in an interview that aired Sunday morning, referring to Trump s comments. I couldn t disagree more with what he had to say, he added, when pressed on whether Trump made a racist statement.Trump has refused to back down from his anti-Latino statement, perhaps sensing that the Republican base nominated him in the first place based on Latino-bashing.Other Republicans, even Newt Gingrich, who is apparently in the running to be the vice presidential nominee, have slammed the Trump argument. Current Speaker of the House Paul Ryan also voiced disagreement with Trump s attack, but did not rescind his endorsement of the nominee.Trump compounded the issue by singling out a black man at a rally as my African-American, and then retweeted a photo of what was supposedly a family of black supporters. In reality, the picture was stolen from a news report of a black family reunion from 2015. Reached for comment, the family in the story denied supporting Trump and described his use of their photo as propaganda. The racial litmus test proposed by Trump for federal judges has also been rejected and denounced by Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and other prominent Democrats.Featured image via YouTube

Trump Sticks To Racist Birther Conspiracy Theory, Won’t Admit Obama Born In USA

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump refused to admit that his belief and promotion of the racist and inaccurate birther conspiracy theory was wrong. The candidate doubled down on the false idea that has been promoted by conservatives for almost a decade now in an interview with the Washington Post:In the interview, conducted late Wednesday aboard his private plane as it idled on the tarmac here, Trump suggested he is not eager to change his pitch or his positions even as he works to reach out to minority voters, many of whom are deeply offended by his long-refuted suggestion that Obama is not a U.S. citizen. Trump refused to say whether he believes Obama was born in Hawaii. I ll answer that question at the right time. I just don t want to answer it yet, Trump said.When asked about claims in the media from campaign manager Kellyanne Conway that he is no longer a birther, Trump told the paper, It s okay. She s allowed to speak what she thinks. I want to focus on jobs, I want to focus on other things. He added, I don t talk about it anymore. Trump has been promoting the birther conspiracy since 2011, and has never renounced it in the ensuing 5 years. He is on the verge of 2,000 straight days of supporting the conspiracy.President Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961. His birth there has been certified at the federal level when he was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004 and when he was elected President of the United States in November 2008.Despite this, as the first black president in U.S. history, conservatives have consistently pushed the idea that Obama is not a natural-born citizen and instead was born in Kenya, where his father is from. The story is completely false, but has been a running theme in conservative politics.Trump was the most prominent and well-known person pushing the conspiracy theory, and even since running for president, has never renounced nor condemned it.Featured image via Flickr

HILLARY THROWS HER WEALTH AND STATUS Into The Faces Of Hard Working Americans

Hillary Clinton has said a lot of things that stick deep in the craw of honest, hardworking Americans before but this time she may have actually gone too far. In a seemingly innocent remark about how staying home and resting has brought her closer to the American people.Apparently laying in bed in one of many mansions with a staff to take care of her every need, and absolutely no worry of how she is going to pay her rent next month equals what it is like for a normal citizen to be suffering from illness in this day and age. I certainly feel lucky when I am under the weather, I can afford to take a few days off. Millions of Americans can t. They either go to work sick or they lose a paycheck. They toss back some Tylenols, chug some orange juice and hope the cough or the virus goes away on its own. I have met so many people living on a razor s edge, one illness away from losing their job, one paycheck away from losing their job. That goes against everything we stand for as Americans, because some things should not come down to luck. So while she was being pampered and waited on hand and foot we are supposed to believe that she was honestly contemplating that her situation in any way matched that of any hard working American going through being sick? All I heard was her throwing her wealth and status back into our faces.Maybe she realized that her diatribe wasn t working so she decided to quickly change focus and throw her own campaign staff under the but to deflect. You know, my campaign has said they could have been faster and I agree with that. I certainly expect them to be as focused and quick as possible, but I have to say from my perspective, I thought I was going to be fine and I thought that there wasn t really any reason to make a big fuss about it. So I should have taken time off earlier. I didn t, now I have, and I m back on the campaign trail. Hillary also dodged a question about whether she ever bothered to tell her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine, that she was sick.Clinton responded by saying that her senior staff knew, and the information was provided to a number of people, but she did not say whether Kaine was one of those people. When a second reporter asked about why Kaine was not informed, and whether that has hurt their partnership, Clinton said she was not going to go into our personal conversations. Will this woman ever answer anything with a straight answer? Probably not, but we can all continue to be amused that she actually thinks any of us believe what she says.Keep powering through, Hillary.H/T [ Info Wars ]

Trump’s Hollywood Walk Of Fame Star Bashed To Bits With Sledgehammer

Donald Trump s Hollywood star on the Walk of Fame was utterly destroyed early this morning by a man wielding a sledgehammer and a pick ax.Trump s star has been the site of vandalism before. Earlier this year, a nazi swastika was spray painted on his star and at one point a tiny wall was built around his star. It has also become a popular potty spot for passing dogs and the occasional human. For this reason, the Hollywood Historic Trust even considered removing Trump s star from Hollywood Boulevard altogether.But things went to a new level on Wednesday morning. At approximately 5:45 A.M., a man disguised as a construction worker demolished Trump s star with a sledgehammer and a pick ax.James Otis has taken responsibility for the early morning destruction of Trump s Walk of Fame star. He told Deadline that he had originally planned to remove the star in one piece and take it to New York City to be auctioned off.Otis wanted to sell the star to raise funds for the 11 women who have come forward to accuse the GOP nominee of sexual assault. During a rally last week, Trump vowed that after the election he would sue all the women who have said he assaulted them and called them liars.Although, the LA hotspot is usually packed with tourists, at this particular time of day the site was nearly deserted except for a few bystanders. No police were present at the time of the star s desecration. A cruiser reportedly arrived around 6:15 A.M., but Otis was long gone by then.The Chamber of Commerce has refused to remove Trump s star, despite repeated requests to do so via petitions. At the moment, the tattered remains of Trump s Hollywood star is covered by a small tent. There is no word yet on how the Chamber plans to respond to this latest act of vandalism.Deadline has obtained exclusive video of the star being destroyed, which you can find here.Featured image via video screen capture

WATCH: Trump Executes His Post-RNC Pivot…Toward Getting Revenge On Old Primary Opponents

Just when Donald Trump has his biggest opportunity to act in a truly presidential manner, he decides instead that what needs to happen is more attacks on people who no longer matter much to the race. Speaking for the first time following the RNC, he went on the offensive against both Ted Cruz and John Kasich, and then confirmed rumors that he will try to destroy them in two years, when they re both up for re-election.Laying into Cruz first, he said: You know, [Cruz will] come and endorse over the next little while.He ll because he has no choice. But I don t want his endorsement. What difference does it make? And I don t want his endorsement. I have such great I don t want his endorsement. Just Ted, stay home, relax, enjoy yourself.Again, I don t want his endorsement. If he gives it, I will not accept it. Just so you understand. If he gives it I will not accept it. That s the equivalent of children saying, Fine, I didn t want you to be my friend anyway. But anybody who doesn t pay King Trump proper homage will find themselves the subject of his wrath, and making sure they pay for their crimes is more important than proving he ll be a good president. Cruz will no doubt find this about as heartbreaking as a hangnail.That s not all His Royal Trumpiness said, though. He also blasted Ohio governor John Kasich, another primary opponent of his, for not coming to the RNC at all: See, to me, that s dishonorable. To me, not signing a pledge is dishonorable, okay? It s dishonorable. Not a nice thing to do. And I talk this way, because we re all together. Watch below:As if that s not bad enough, Trump s plans to destroy Kasich and Cruz involve funneling millions of dollars into a super-PAC that works against their re-election bids in 2018, because that s totally more important than running the country.Maybe he thinks Mike Pence is presidential enough for the both of them.Thin-skinned Trump, whose narcissistic tendencies mean he d rather take individual people down even when they no longer matter, will spend his entire presidency getting revenge for every slight imaginable. Yet another reason that he s ridiculously unqualified to be our president.Featured image by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

WATCH Barry Lose His Cool During Interview About Putin: “He’s Challenging Your Leadership Mr. President”

Wow! What s more shocking the fact that a member of the mainstream media finally crossed Obama s imaginary red line or that we have a sitting president who acts like a petulant toddler when confronted with his weak leadership?60 Minutes Steve Kroft is not letting Barack Hussein Obama off the hook when it comes to his failed leadership in the Middle East. Barry Soetoro, aka Barack Hussein Obama answers his questions much like a toddler would if confronted with misbehaving.Watch embarrassing interview here:The interview can be seen in its entirety on 60 Minutes, Sunday evening 7:30 pm EST.

Trump says he will bring down the price of wall on Mexico's border

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump pushed back early on Saturday on assertions that the wall he wants built on the U.S. border with Mexico would cost more than anticipated and said he would reduce the price. Trump made his comments in two Twitter posts but did not say how he would bring down the cost of the wall. Reuters on Thursday published details of an internal report by the Department of Homeland Security that estimated the price of a wall along the entire border at $21.6 billion. During his presidential campaign Trump had cited a $12 billion figure. “I am reading that the great border WALL will cost more than the government originally thought, but I have not gotten involved in the ... design or negotiations yet,” Trump tweeted from his Florida resort, where he is hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “When I do, just like with the F-35 FighterJet or the Air Force One Program, price will come WAY DOWN!” Trump, who took office on Jan. 20, said in late January that his administration had been able to cut some $600 million from a deal to buy about 90 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters from Lockheed Martin. Defense analysts and sources downplayed news of those cuts, saying the discount hailed by Trump was in line with what had been flagged by Lockheed for months and would apply to other countries committed to the program. A border wall to stem illegal immigration was one of Trump’s main campaign promises. He has vowed to make Mexico reimburse the United States for its cost but Mexico has repeatedly said it will not do so. Trump also tweeted on Saturday about another aspect of his immigration policy - the legal battle over the presidential order banning entry to the United States by refugees and citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries. “Our legal system is broken! ‘77% of refugees allowed into U.S. since travel reprieve hail from seven suspect countries.’ (WT) SO DANGEROUS!” he said. The tweet was in apparent reaction to a Washington Times story saying 77 percent of the 1,100 refugees who have entered the United States since Feb. 3 are from the countries covered by Trump’s ban. A federal judge in Seattle blocked Trump’s executive order on Feb. 3, lifting the ban while litigation proceeds. Trump has been steadily critical of the ruling from Seattle and a subsequent appeals court ruling upholding it.

YOU’LL NEVER GUESS WHAT’S PREDICTED FOR OBAMA’S GLOBAL WARMING PROMO TRIP TO ALASKA

Summer snow is coming to Alaska just in time for Obama s visit! Yes, it must be the Gore Effect that brings cold weather when the feds are pushing the junk science of global warming.Summer snow is expected in Alaska this week as Barack Obama visits the 49th state. Obama is expected to push global warming junk science during his trip.The president also will officially rename Mt. McKinley during his visit.Former NASA scientist Dr. Roy Spencer reported:When President Obama visits Alaska this week to campaign for a new international agreement to fight global warming climate change, Alaska will be experiencing colder than normal weather and forecast summer snows, as seen in this WeatherBell.com graphic of forecast total snowfall by Friday:Via: Gateway Pundit

Republican Favorability Of Putin Goes Through The Roof Because Russia Helped Trump Win

This is disgraceful and totally un-American.Ronald Reagan is rolling in his grave after a new poll revealed that Republicans now see Russia as our friend and admire Vladimir Putin far more than we did just two years ago.A YouGov/Economist poll released in December shows that Putin s favorability has soared by 56 points among Republicans, likely bolstered by the fact that Russia helped Donald Trump win the election in November. Clearly, Republicans can be bought by murderous dictators as long as that dictator helps their party seize power.Trump specifically asked the Russians to continue meddling in our political process and they did. Trump has since stacked his cabinet with pro-Russia nominees and Republicans have joined Trump in defending Russia despite a CIA assessment concluding that Russia did interfere in our election to help Trump.Putin s net favorability among Republicans now stands at -10 percent, up significantly from the -66 in 2014. Democrats, meanwhile, still despise Putin.Um, wow Net favorability of Putin:Democrats July 2014: -54 Dec 2016: -62Republicans July 2014: -66 Dec 2016: -10(YouGov/Economist) Will Jordan (@williamjordann) December 14, 2016Here is Republicans and Democrats on Vladimir Putin since July 2014. pic.twitter.com/s4I6FY5cbt Will Jordan (@williamjordann) December 14, 2016In addition, Republicans now see Russia as a friend. Again, apparently it is easy to draw Republicans to the dark side. If Russia had rigged our political process decades ago, that whole Cold War thing would not have happened because Russia would have had a puppet in the White House long before now.It s not just Putin.Here are perceptions about whether Russia is a friend to the US or not, since 2011. pic.twitter.com/CrtVEB4Vws Will Jordan (@williamjordann) December 14, 2016As a net rating, the friendly rating for Russia among Republicans has swung from low of -75 in 2014 to -21 today. https://t.co/PrbOLQFY5a Will Jordan (@williamjordann) December 14, 2016That s also a 54-point swing from two years ago.It is absolutely deplorable to watch the Republicans Party bend over for Putin just because Russia helped their party win the election. If anything, Republicans should be outraged and concerned.Trump will now be a puppet who owes Russia favors. Trump has since chosen a close friend of Putin s as Secretary of State and wants to end sanctions against Russia. Trump also expressed his intention to possibly abandon NATO, which would open the door for Russia to be more aggressive toward Europe with no United States to challenge them.The only reason why Republicans are fawning over Russia and Putin is because they would not have won the White House without their assistance. This is a sad time for our country. The political party that once saw Russia as our mortal enemy is now happy to be in Putin s pocket. And that means we can expect more Russian meddling in 2020 unless the GOP and Trump face consequences.Featured image of Donald Trump by Joe Raedle/Getty, image of Vladimir Putin by Thierry Chesnot/Getty

Trump says he and China's Xi to try to end opioid crisis

BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping would be focusing very strongly on the U.S opioid crisis, which he has declared a public health emergency. Trump said shortly before arriving in Beijing he would discuss as a top priority stopping the flood of cheap and deadly fentanyl manufactured in China when he meets Xi. Every year drug trafficking destroys millions and millions of lives, Trump said in Beijing, standing next to Xi at the end of formal talks between the two. Today President Xi and I discussed ways we can enhance coordination to better counter the deadly drug trade and to stop the lethal flow of poisonous drugs into our countries and into our communities, he added. A special emphasis will be placed on the new phenomenon - fentanyl - destroying lives by the millions. We re going to be focusing on it very strongly, the president and myself, Trump said, without elaborating. Speaking later to reporters, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Trump and Xi agreed to take new steps. On the critical issue of opioids, we made some good progress to curb the flow of harmful narcotics into the United States in order to save American lives, Tillerson said. The president committed to taking new actions including agreements to control the export and movement of fentanyl precursors, sharing intelligence on drug trafficking, and exchanging trafficking information, he added, referring to Xi. China s drug control agency last week disputed Trump s claim that most of the synthetic drug fentanyl at the heart of the U.S. opioid crisis was produced in China. Opioids include prescription painkillers, heroin and fentanyl, a highly addictive synthetic drug 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. The Centers for Disease Control estimated that 20,000 Americans were killed by fentanyl last year, surpassing common painkillers and heroin for the first time. American law enforcement agencies and drug control experts say most of the fentanyl distributed in the United States, as well as precursor chemicals, originate from China. While Chinese officials dispute these claims, Beijing has taken steps to crack down on the production and export of synthetic drugs, and has placed fentanyl and 22 other related compounds on its list of controlled substances.

U.N. seeks urgent medical evacuation of 500 from Syria's eastern Ghouta

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations called on world powers on Thursday to help arrange the medical evacuation of 500 people, including 167 children, from eastern Ghouta, saying the besieged Damascus suburb has now become a humanitarian emergency . Nine people died in recent weeks waiting for permission from the Syrian government for the sick and wounded to be evacuated from the rebel-held area to hospitals less than an hour drive from the capital, said Jan Egeland, the U.N. humanitarian adviser on Syria. Russia and Iran, as well as the United States and France, pledged to help during the weekly humanitarian meeting, he said. It would be incredible if they cannot deliver a simple evacuation of mainly women and children, a 40-minute drive to Damascus city, Egeland told a news conference in Geneva. We are convinced that we can do the evacuation if we get a green light from the government. We can then negotiate calm with both sides. Dozens of mortar bombs landed on Ghouta, the last major rebel stronghold near Damascus, on Wednesday, a war monitor and a witness said, despite a 48-hour truce proposed by Russia to coincide with the start of peace talks in Geneva. Eastern Ghouta, next door to Damascus, is the eye of the hurricane, it is the epicentre of this conflict. At the moment there are 400,000 people there, Egeland said. In the past two months, U.N. convoys have delivered supplies to only 68,000 of the 400,000 trapped civilians, he said. Our not being able to reach eastern Ghouta for many months in most of areas has now led to an undoubtedly catastrophic situation, Egeland said. Acute malnutrition rates among children there is nearly 12 percent, above the 10 percent emergency threshold, and a five- or six-fold increase since January, he added. In general I would say that no, there is no calm in this de-escalation zone, there is only escalation in this de-escalation zone, Egeland said. That has ended in eastern Ghouta except for (a pause of) two days only, there has been massive loss of civilian life, hundreds and hundreds have been wounded. We need sustained calm to be able to feed 400,000 people who now beyond doubt are in a humanitarian emergency , he said. Civilians in Damascus have also been killed or wounded by mortars coming from eastern Ghouta, he added. In Hassakeh, in northeastern Syria, U.N. aid workers found a desperate situation, Egeland said. They told about children walking around barefoot, recently displaced children, barefoot in the snow and the cold. He hoped that the U.N. Security Council would agree on a resolution allowing cross-border aid to continue to enter Syria, supplying 2.7 million people in rebel-held areas. It is my clear understanding from all members of the Security Council that none wants a break of the pipeline.

Trump Kills MASSIVE Infrastructure Project That Would Have Created Thousands Of Jobs

The project was set to begin on March 1st and would have brought environmentally friendly high speed rail to California.But that project is in serious jeopardy after Donald Trump s Transportation minion Elaine Chao, who also happens to be Mitch McConnell s wife, ordered an audit of the $647 million grant awarded to CalTrain to help cover the costs.Despite promising to support infrastructure programs and create more jobs in America, Trump has apparently decided to break that promise in the name of petty partisan politics.Trump has threatened California in recent weeks with funding cuts because U.C. Berkeley canceled a Milo Yiannopoulos speech. Yiannopoulos is a Trump supporter and was recently exposed as an advocate of pedophilia.Trump also threatened to defund California in retaliation of the state continuing to offer sanctuary to immigrants. If we have to, we ll defund, Trump said. We give tremendous amounts of money to California. If they re going to have sanctuary cities we may have to do that certainly that would be a weapon. And Trump apparently pulled the trigger of that weapon on Friday by pulling the plug on the high speed rail project.The project would have converted the rail system running between San Jose and San San Francisco to run on electricity, which would have helped fight climate change. It also would have created nearly 10,000 new jobs. It would also have increased the number of people who use the system and would have cut operation costs.Trump made the decision after 14 California Republicans sent him a letter asking him to kill the project. That s only 14 out of a delegation of 55, 40 of whom are Democrats. That means Trump willfully sided with the minority party in California on this project.Here are the names of the Republicans the people of California can blame for losing out on this major infrastructure project. They are each up for re-election in 2018.Dana Rohrabacher Darrell Issa David G. Valadao Devin Nunes Doug LaMalfa Duncan Hunter Edward Royce Jeff Denham Ken Calvert Kevin McCarthy Mimi Walters Paul Cook Stephen Knight Tom McClintockAn audit of the project would certainly be a partisan witch hunt that would take months to complete, thus killing a project that California needs and wants.It would help fight climate change, create thousands of jobs, and start America on the path to catching up with the rest of the world when it comes to bullet train transportation. This project shouldn t be canceled, it should be demanded across the country.Featured image via Wikimedia

Israel strikes militant targets in Gaza after mortar barrage

JERUSALEM/GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli tanks and aircraft struck militant positions in the Gaza Strip on Thursday soon after Palestinian militants fired mortar shells at an Israeli military post close to the territory, the Israeli army said. A Reuters witness in Gaza said he saw smoke rising from at least two targets struck by Israel, one belonging to Hamas and another to Islamic Jihad militants. Witnesses in the southern Gaza Strip said two Islamic Jihad posts was hit there. No casualties were reported initially on either side. Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus said the militants mortar barrage was aimed the Israeli army post and at construction crews working close by on the Israeli side of the Gaza border. Israel has been constructing a sensor-equipped underground wall along the 60-km (36-mile) Gaza border, aiming to complete the $1.1 billion project by mid-2019. Conricus said Israel was not looking to escalate the situation but any further Israeli action would depend on what Gaza militants did. At least three rounds of airstrikes had taken place by dusk, the Reuters witness said. We remain ready with the tools necessary and the capabilities at hand should Hamas or the Islamic Jihad act aggressively again... We are not looking to escalate the situation or to initiate hostilities, Conricus said. The train service between the Israeli town of Sderot close the Gaza border and Ashkelon to the north was briefly suspended but resumed later in the evening. The mortars were fired exactly a month after Israel blew up an attack tunnel that led from Gaza into Israeli in which 14 militants were killed. Following the tunnel demolition, Islamic Jihad vowed to retaliate but Thursday s action was their first significant reaction. During the last Gaza war, in 2014, Hamas fighters used dozens of tunnels to blindside Israel s superior forces and threaten civilian communities near the frontier, a counterpoint to the Iron Dome anti-missile system that largely protected the country s heartland from militant rocket barrages. Israel and the United States have called for Hamas to be disarmed as part of the pact between it and the Palestinian Authority, so Israeli peace efforts with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which collapsed in 2014, could proceed. Hamas has rejected the demand. On Wednesday, Abbas s Fatah and Hamas agreed to delay the final transfer of power of Gaza from Hamas to the Western-backed Palestinian government by 10 days to Dec. 10 to allow time to complete arrangements, officials said.

Hungary calls EU court's refugee ruling 'appalling'

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary said on Wednesday a ruling by the European Union s highest court that member states must take in refugees and asylum-seekers was appalling and unacceptable, flagging further legal battles with European authorities over the matter. The Hungarian government considers today s decision by the European court to be appalling and irresponsible, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told a news conference. This decision jeopardizes the security and future of all of Europe. Szijjarto said the decision was made based on political rather than legal or professional considerations. Politics has raped European law and values, he said.

cognition and true islam a book review

kingdoms energy minister says move would risk damaging the us economy shares saudi arabia has warned donald trump that the incoming us president will risk the health of his countrys economy if he acts on his election promises to block oil imports over the course of the twoyear american election process republican nominee trump promised on the campaign trail to divest us interests from our foes and the oil cartels referring mainly to the organization of petroleum exporting countries opec of which the ksa is the largest producer and de facto leader at his heart presidentelect trump will see the benefits and i think the oil industry will also be advising him accordingly that blocking trade in any product is not healthy khalid alfalih chairman of aramco and saudi aramco oil minister told the financial times in marrakesh where world leaders are currently negotiating the nuts and bolts of the landmark climate change agreement saudi arabia is the us largest middle eastern oil supplier though the north american country gets most of its energy from domestic and canadian sources alfalih added that the free trade energy culture currently in place benefits the united states because it has created a refining industry and ignited a jobhungry shale revolution more setting the method to probe ussaudi wars how the occupied mentality syndrome works will a page congressional report on unravel us foreign policy the occupied mentality syndrome the us is sort of the flagbearer for capitalism and free markets according to alfalih the us continues to be a very important part of a global industry that is interconnected that is dealing with a fungible commodity which is crude oil so having equalization through free trade is very healthy for oil during presidential race donald trump had blamed saudi arabia for the terrorist attacks and in march the real estate magnate said he would consider stopping us oil purchases from saudi arabia and other arab allies unless the saudi government provided ground troops to fight isis ny daily news revealed trump sold the th floor of trump world tower to the kingdom of saudi arabia for million in june according to a city finance department spokeswoman in the apartments became part of the saudi mission to the united nations records show the reports emerged back then revealed the reality of trumps relations with the riyadh regime but mr trump has not always expressed a positive view of the middle eastern country