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VIELHA, Spain (Reuters) - If Catalonia declares independence from Spain this week, one community in the region s mountainous north might declare independence from Catalonia. Most people in the picturesque Aran Valley - a semi-autonomous community nestled among the Pyrenees - want to stay with Spain, and the area has the right to self-determination under a law passed in 2015 by the Catalan parliament. We re a little spot on the map and often we re not taken into account, said Maria Verges Perez, the deputy mayor of Aran s capital, Vielha, a cluster of stone-and-slate houses on the valley floor ringed by autumnal forests. But we will exercise our right to decide our future. Catalan President Carles Puigdemont is expected to declare independence on Tuesday in Spain s worst constitutional crisis since the return of democracy in the 1970s. The roughly 10,000 people of Aran, on the border with France, have a language and culture distinct from the rest of Catalonia, which itself differs from the rest of Spain. The valley s economy is heavily dependent on winter sports tourists from Spain and the EU. Their politicians say the 2015 law gives them the right to vote on whether they want to break away with Catalonia - something which Catalan officials do not dispute. The Spanish government has vowed to prevent Catalonia seceding. Losing the region would deprive the country of 16 percent of its people and a fifth of its economic output. But while Madrid insists Spain is indivisible under its constitution, the Aran Valley underlines the complex nature of nationhood in such a culturally diverse country. Ever since Spain s return to democracy in the 1970s, Madrid has struggled to balance the country s patchwork of regional identities, including its decades-long fight to quell separatism in the northern Basque Country led by violent militants ETA. Few in the medieval villages along the Aran Valley doubt the community would opt to stay with Spain if asked to vote. The people here feel very far away from what is going on in Barcelona, said Carlos Barrera, head of the Aran government, at a rural festival in Salardu village where locals judged stocky Pyrenean horses and handed out racks of blood sausages. The valley had the lowest voter turnout by far in Catalonia s Oct. 1 independence referendum, which had been declared illegal by Spain s constitutional court. Across Catalonia there was a 43 percent turnout, with most people who wanted to remain in Spain staying home, and 90 percent of those who voted backed secession. In Aran, just 24 percent voted, with 84 percent of those backing independence. The valley traces its political allegiances back to pacts drawn up in the 13th century with the Crown of Aragon, a monarchy that would join with the Crown of Castille two centuries later to form what became Spain. Many locals speak Aranese, a dialect of the Occitan language still spoken in pockets of the Pyrenees and southern France. Two years ago, the Catalan parliament approved the Law on Aran s Special Status , giving it control over its culture, language and administration and recognizing the right of the Aranese people to decide their future . A Catalan government spokesman said Catalonia would respect the Aranese people s decision in any future referendum. A Spanish government spokesman declined to comment on whether Aran could remain part of Spain, saying Catalonia would never become independent. Aran s residents are some of the sternest critics of the Catalan government which they say is ignoring those people who want to stay in Spain and charging toward independence at any cost. In Vielha, a lone red and yellow Catalan independence flag hanging from an apartment block was the only evidence last Saturday of the separatist fever sweeping many parts of the region, where cities convulse with protests triggered by Madrid s violent crackdown on the referendum. Many people in Aran fear Catalan independence would destroy its tourism economy which revolves around Baqueira-Beret, Spain s most popular ski resort. About two-thirds of the population in Aran depend on the ski resort for jobs. In the winter, the population triples with the influx of skiers drawn to the same slopes used by Spain s royal family. Since the referendum, Verges Perez, the Vielha deputy mayor, said potential visitors had canceled almost 30 percent of hotel reservations for next week s local holidays. And if an independent Catalonia was no longer part of the European Union, Aran s reliance on agreements to use French hospitals for medical emergencies would be jeopardized, she added. That s the trap. Nobody has explained the price that independence like this would have, she said. Many of Catalonia s largest businesses have already said they are transferring their headquarters out of the region due to the political turmoil. Insurance firm Catalana Occidente, owned by the same family that owns Baqueira-Beret, is reportedly considering doing the same, although it has not confirmed it. The valley ranks as one of Catalonia s wealthiest regions, thanks to a tunnel that opened it up to the rest of Spain in 1948. Before then, it was a poor area only accessible by an often snow-covered mountain pass. The valley s politicians say holding their own referendum could be the only way to defend the local economy. But Jaime Geli, Salardu s 72-year-old former mayor and one of the few independence supporters here, said locals shouldn t be so quick to throw their lot in with Spain instead of sticking with Catalonia. Catalan authorities had protected the Aranese culture and language from a central government hostile to the idea that Spain is made up of different nations , he said, sat by the valley s river. In Madrid, when you talk to them about different languages, it makes their hairs stand up on end.

Once again, Republican front runner Donald Trump resorted to acting like a moody 5-year-old by threatening not to take part in CNN s Republican town hall scheduled for Tuesday night. Having seen Trump engage in this childish behavior more than once before, rival candidate Ted Cruz trolled the business mogul relentlessly, explaining that Our friend Donald finds debates very, very stressful. They make his hair stand on end. It all started on Tuesday morning, when Trump tweeted out a whiny message to his followers that suggested he might skip the town hall because CNN had treated him unfairly by not given him enough airtime and supposedly favored his opponents by giving them more interviews:TwitterSure enough, this tweet only got the spotlight for two hours because soon word of Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski s arrest for assaulting a female reporter would make headlines and overshadow Trump s complaints.According to an analysis done by RealClearPolitics, both Cruz and Trump are tied in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the town hall is being held. Cruz was clearly up for the challenge when he said that it s neck and neck. Donald Trump and I are effectively tied in the state of Wisconsin. That means any candidate running for president owes it to come in front of the state and actually debate. Cruz insisted that Wisconsin residents deserved to see a debate between the two candidates but that he was unsure it would take place. Still, the Texas senator continued to challenge Trump to a one-on-one standoff: We re in the same location. They got the TV cameras; they got the moderators the one thing they re missing is The Donald. Donald prefers to communicate in 140 characters or less. Cruz s renewed vigor comes just after having received an endorsement from former presidential hopeful Gov. Scott Walker (R), who said Cruz was a principled constitutional conservative who can win. Featured image via Getty Images / George Frey

SANT PERE DE TORELLO, Spain (Reuters) - As Spanish police wielded batons and fired rubber bullets at crowds attempting to vote in Catalonia s banned independence referendum on Sunday, the region s own police force gave many voters a much gentler reception. In Catalonia s pro-independence heartland, among the farming towns of Osona county north of Barcelona, the Catalan force made little attempt to remove people from polling stations despite being tasked with the same court order to shut them down. Local courts received several complaints on Sunday against the Catalan police accusing them of inactivity and failing to close polling stations, despite the court order, the region s High Court said in a statement. In Sant Pere and Osona s capital of Vic, crowds waited in orderly queues and cast their ballots in school halls, though the mood was jittery as photos of bloodied voters circulated via social media from the cities of Barcelona and Girona. More than 840 people were injured during Sunday s police crackdown, Catalan officials said. Spain s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, however, praised the police for carrying out their duties and upholding the law. In Sant Pere, children ran along the street playing tag, young people passed around barbecued kebabs and flagons of red wine, and pensioners at a retirement home nearby sat by windows and waved Catalan flags. If we don t win today, we will never be able to do it. This is the opportunity, Ramon Jordana, a 92-year-old former taxi driver said as he dropped his vote into a ballot box that organizers had smuggled into the town in the dead of night. At the polling station in Sant Pere, a town of some 2,500 people close to the Pyrenees which symbolically declared independence from Spain in 2012, voters arrived before sunrise and Jordana cast the first vote at 9 a.m. Officers from Catalonia s regional police, the Mossos d Esquadra, had tried to enter Sant Pere and Vic s polling stations before voting began but crowds clustered around the entrances to stop them. They withdrew to applause and cheers. We won t use force to enter, but we ll stay outside all day in case at some point we can, one of the officers in Sant Pere told Reuters afterwards. He asked not to be identified. The two officers in Sant Pere chatted casually with locals outside the polling station, and one of them posed with a child for a photo. After a second attempt to enter the voting center, the crowd resisted and they retreated around a street corner. In Osona s overwhelmingly separatist-controlled municipalities, opinion polls show support for independence tops 80 percent on average, around double the overall support among Catalonia s 7.5 million population. The referendum has been declared illegal by Rajoy s central government in Madrid, which says the constitution states the country is indivisible, and it has dispatched police across Catalonia to seize ballot boxes and prevent people voting. However, national police and the Mossos have taken very different approaches, despite Spain s state prosecutor telling Mossos recently that they had been put under a single chain of command reporting directly to the interior ministry in Madrid. The Mossos are held in great affection by Catalans, especially after they hunted down Islamists accused of staging coordinated attacks in Barcelona in August which killed 16 people. In contrast, the Civil Guard national police were branded Rajoy s thugs on Twitter on Sunday. National police unions said officers had carried out an impeccable intervention to preserve the constitution and called the Mossos inaction scandalous . The national police are disappointed and indignant ... The Mossos presence has been insufficient, deliberately weak and embarrassingly neutral, the unions said in a statement. In Sant Pere, before voting got underway, the town s mayor, Jordi Fabrega, asked a crowd of about 200 people to guard the booth s entrance all day and to resist peacefully any attempt by police to enter. The moment we leave it unguarded, they will come, Fabrega said. The first count of Sant Pere s vote showed 80 percent turnout with 97 percent of voters supporting independence. High turnout will be key to legitimizing a yes vote, which the Catalan government says would lead to a declaration of independence from the regional parliament within 48 hours. Locals blocked streets with vans and construction trucks as word spread that national police, who have been drafted into Catalonia in their thousands, were en route to raid the polling station. If the police really want to get the ballot boxes, they will get them, said one Sant Pere voter, 66-year-old Carles, who declined to give his surname as he was worried the Spanish government would come after him. In the end, no national police turned up. Organizers said it had been no easy task to get to this point. Joan Vaque Casas, Sant Pere s head coordinator, said he had received a text message at about 2 a.m. to meet at a secret location to pick up the ballot box and voting papers.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton, under questioning by federal investigators over whether she had been briefed on how to preserve government records as she was about to leave the State Department, said she had suffered a concussion, was working part-time and could not recall every briefing she received. Clinton, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, raised the health scare during her 3-1/2-hour interview with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department prosecutors on July 2, according to an FBI summary released on Friday. Besides the 11-page interview summary, the FBI also released other details of its investigation into her use of an unauthorized private email system while running the State Department, in which it concluded she mishandled classified information but not in a way that warranted a criminal prosecution. Clinton told investigators she could not recall getting any briefings on how to handle classified information or comply with laws governing the preservation of federal records, the summary of her interview shows. “However, in December of 2012, Clinton suffered a concussion and then around the New Year had a blood clot,” the FBI’s summary said. “Based on her doctor’s advice, she could only work at State for a few hours a day and could not recall every briefing she received.” A Clinton campaign aide said Clinton only referenced her concussion to explain she was not at work but for a few hours a day at that time, not that she did not remember things from that period. The concussion was widely reported then, and Republicans have since used it to attack the 68-year-old candidate’s health in a way her staff have said is unfounded. The FBI report, which does not quote Clinton directly, is ambiguous about whether it was her concussion that affected her ability to recall briefings. The FBI declined to provide further comment on the report. Clinton, who is challenging Republican Donald Trump for the White House in the Nov. 8 election, has been dogged for more than a year by the fallout from her decision to use an unauthorized private email account run from the basement of her Chappaqua, New York, home. Republicans have repeatedly attacked Clinton over the issue, helping drive opinion polls that show many U.S. voters doubt her trustworthiness. Trump’s campaign issued a statement immediately following the FBI report’s release saying the notes from the interview “reinforce her tremendously bad judgment and dishonesty.” Clinton has said that in hindsight she regretted using a private email system while secretary of state. According to the report, Clinton told the FBI that she did not set up a private email server to sidestep the law requiring her to keep her business communications a matter of public record. At least one federal judge is examining whether this was the case as part of a lawsuit against the State Department concerning public access to Clinton’s government records, which the U.S. government said it had no access to in response to requests from members of the public. The documents also show that Clinton contacted former Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2009 to ask about his use of a personal BlackBerry phone. In his reply to Clinton via email, Powell told Clinton to “be very careful” because the work-related emails she sent on her BlackBerry could become public record. “I got around it all by not saying much and not using systems that captured the data,” Powell said, according to the summary. After her use of a private email system became public knowledge in March 2015, Clinton repeatedly said she did not use it to send or receive classified information. The government forbids handling such information outside secure channels. The FBI has since concluded Clinton was wrong to say that: At least 81 email threads contained information that was classified at the time, although the final number may be more than 2,000, the report said. Some of the emails appear to include discussion of planned future attacks by unmanned U.S. military drones, the FBI report showed. “CLINTON believed the classification level of future drone strikes depended on the context,” the FBI’s interview summary said. The U.S. government requires that military plans be classified. The FBI released its report on Friday afternoon before the Labor Day holiday weekend, a time many Americans are preparing to travel. State Department spokesman John Kirby said he would not comment on the FBI’s findings because the department “does not have full insight into the FBI’s investigation.” He declined to say whether State Department officials still discussed the planning of future attacks using drones in unclassified emails. “I’m not going to speak to past email practices,” he said. “We trust State Department employees to use their best judgment when conveying sensitive information, taking into account a range of factors.” The Clinton campaign released a statement welcoming the report’s release. “While her use of a single email account was clearly a mistake and she has taken responsibility for it, these materials make clear why the Justice Department believed there was no basis to move forward with this case,” Brian Fallon, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement. Some Republicans saw the files as confirming their belief that the Department of Justice should have prosecuted Clinton. “These documents demonstrate Hillary Clinton’s reckless and downright dangerous handling of classified information during her tenure as secretary of state,” Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said in a statement. “This is exactly why I have called for her to be denied access to classified information.”

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian supporters of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili freed him from a police van on Tuesday after his detention on suspicion of assisting a criminal organisation led to clashes with police in Kiev. Once freed, Saakashvili raised a hand in a V-for-victory sign a handcuff still dangling from his wrist as he stood in a melee of supporters. He then led protesters towards parliament, where he called defiantly for President Petro Poroshenko to be removed from office. Prosecutors said they would make all efforts to regain custody of Saakashvili but the chaotic scenes of his detention and escape are likely to undermine the image of stability that Ukraine s leadership are keen to present to foreign backers. Ukrainian prosecutors suspect Saakashvili of receiving financing from a criminal group linked to former president Viktor Yanukovich which planned to overthrow the current government. He could face up to five years if found guilty. Saakashvili is also wanted in Georgia on criminal charges which he says were trumped up for political reasons. Masked officers had earlier dragged Saakashvili, 49, from an apartment in the Ukrainian capital. But his supporters prevented the police van from moving off, hemming it in and eventually freeing him by breaking its windows and back door. Protesters also started assembling a barricade of tyres, wood and stones ripped up from the street in scenes reminiscent of Ukraine s 2013-14 pro-European Maidan uprising. Today you maybe saved me from death, therefore my life belongs to you, Saakashvili told a crowd at a makeshift camp outside parliament built by opposition supporters in September. The people of Ukraine must assemble and force the Ukrainian parliament to remove from power the criminal group led by the traitor to Ukraine, Poroshenko, he said. General Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko said Saakashvili had a 24- hour deadline to present himself to the state security service, but subsequent comments by his press office suggested he could be detained earlier. All legal grounds for his detention have been established, spokesman Andriy Lysenko said. The detention was the latest twist in a prolonged feud between the Ukrainian authorities and Saakashvili, who was invited by Poroshenko to become a regional governor after the Maidan protests ousted a pro-Russian president in early 2014. The two quickly fell out and Saakashvili turned on his one-time patron. It is unclear if Tuesday s events will lead to wider unrest, as Saakashvili enjoys limited support in Ukraine. Only 1.7 percent of voters would support his party, the Movement of New Forces, in elections, according to an October survey by the Kiev-based Razumkov Centre think-tank. In a response to a request for comment on the case and on Saakashvili s comments on Poroshenko, the president s administration said law enforcement had found evidence to back up the claims against Saakashvili. These facts clearly demonstrate the true price of all the political and incriminating statements, which were recently made by Mikheil Saakashvili, it said in a statement. Georgian prosecutors said they had not been informed of Tuesday s developments by their Ukrainian counterparts. Saakashvili made a dramatic return to Ukraine in September, barging his way across the border from Poland despite having been stripped of Ukrainian citizenship and facing the threat of possible extradition to Georgia. He wants to unseat Poroshenko and replace him with a new, younger politician. His supporters have camped in tents outside parliament and launched sporadic protests since his return. We have been waiting for it (the arrest) for months, of course, and especially in the recent weeks, Saakashvili s wife Sandra Roelofs told Georgian TV Rustavi 2. It s illegal and outrageous. Saakashvili received Ukrainian citizenship when he reinveted himself as a Ukrainian politician. He was made governor of the Odessa region in 2015 on the strength of the reforms he carried out in Georgia. But he fell out with Poroshenko, accusing him of corruption, while Poroshenko s office said Saakashvili was trying to deflect from his own shortcomings as an administrator. He was stripped of his citizenship by Poroshenko in July and is now stateless. Saakashvili s supporters see him as a fearless crusader against corruption but critics say there is little substance behind his blustery rhetoric. In his homeland, where he took power after a peaceful pro-Western uprising known as the Rose Revolution in 2003, his time in office was tarnished by what critics said was his attempts to monopolise power and exert pressure on the judiciary. He was president at the time of a disastrous five-day war with Russia in 2008, a conflict that his critics argued was the result of his own miscalculations.

He clarified that protesting in the United States is a right, but he also challenged the players taking a knee: If there s somewhere better, why don t you leave?Broncos defensive end Derek Wolfe explained Sunday why he stands for the national anthem, referencing the troops and the ideal vision of America. Wolfe, who is white, did not reference whether he agrees with the basis of the protest that gained steam Sunday following President Trump s condemnation: to object to the treatment of minorities in the United States.Entering Sunday, only one white player, Seth DeValve of Cleveland, had joined the movement. I stand because I respect the men who died in real battles so I have the freedom to battle on the field, Wolfe, 27, told ESPN in a statement. Paying tribute to the men and women who have given their lives for our freedom is why I stand. But everyone these days likes to find a reason to protest and that s their right. It s America and you are free to speak your mind. I just feel it s disrespectful to the ones who sacrificed their lives and it s the wrong platform. But like I said to each their own it s AMERICA! The greatest country in the world and if you don t think we are the greatest country in the world and you reside here, then why do you stay? A lot worse places in the world to call home. Proud to be an American. Several of his Broncos teammates took a kneel Sunday, days after Trump urged owners to kick the son of a bitch who protests off the team. Wolfe s teammate Brandon Marshall knelt throughout last season.Wolfe, in his sixth NFL season, grew up in Ohio and played at the University of Cincinnati. He skipped visiting the Obama White House following the Broncos Super Bowl win in 2016, saying, I just had a lot of stuff going on, things to do. NYP

The apple never falls far from the tree, and Trump s kids do everything they can to prove that saying true. Donald Trump Jr. took a page straight out of rape culture in an interview on the Opie and Anthony Show, where he said that women who can t handle sexual harassment in the workplace don t belong in the workforce. If you can t handle some of the basic stuff that s become a problem in the workforce today, like, you don t belong in the workforce. Like, you should go maybe teach kindergarten. I think it s a respectable position.You can t be negotiating billion-dollar deals if you can t handle, like, you know. Now, why didn t anybody think of that before? It s so stupid it s positively brilliant!Or maybe the men who are likewise negotiating that deal Trump Jr. talks about above should, you know, maybe keep their mouths shut and their eyes and minds focused on the negotiations. But hey, Trump and his son will say what they want. Boys will be boys, right? Right. Because men can t control themselves and their base instincts so it s always on women to make sure men stay off of us.And you just have to love that implication that teaching kindergarten (and by extension, teaching anything at all) isn t a real job in the workforce, so it s okay for women to have those jobs. Trump Jr. clearly sees women as second-class citizens people to be seen and not heard (and in some cases, probably not seen, either, just like his disgusting father thinks).To make matters worse, the whole interview sounds like they think they re doing nothing more than harmless locker room talk, with the hosts saying things like: That s the problem with women. They complain and they fuck it up. Like I don t like being around just men, I love when women are around, but they complain, Oh it s harassment, and that s why we hate them around because they stop us from doing what we want to do. Which is, in part, talking about women in a disgusting, derogatory manner, no doubt. They re blaming women for having the audacity to demand to be treated like human beings.Trump s mini-me of a son also implied that the primary reason women complain and sue for harassment is to get rich: Wouldn t it be funny if we showed tits and then Donald sued? one asked. I d feel harassed! Trump Jr. joked. This is my get-rich-quick scheme. I m now suing you guys because I feel uncomfortable.' It s not just the GOP candidate for president. It s his whole family who thinks this way. Anyone who thinks that Donald Trump would be a good example, a good role model for children need only look at his own children to know that s not true.Listen to the whole interview segment below:Featured image by John Moore via Getty Images

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former FBI Director James Comey will testify next Thursday before a U.S. Senate panel investigating Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, in a hearing that could add to difficulties facing President Donald Trump. In his first public appearance since Trump fired him on May 9, Comey will address the Senate Intelligence Committee in both an open session and behind closed doors, which would allow him to discuss classified information, the committee said on Thursday. Comey was leading the FBI’s probe into the allegations, and his firing sparked a political uproar. Facing rising pressure, the Justice Department last month named Robert Mueller, another former FBI chief, as a special counsel to investigate the matter. The Justice Department and multiple U.S. congressional committees are investigating Russia’s actions in the 2016 presidential election and questions about possible collusion between Russian officials and Trump campaign associates. At next week’s hearing, Comey is expected to be asked about conversations in which Trump is reported to have pressured him to drop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, whose ties to Russia are under scrutiny. Controversy erupted again this week after the Republican head of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, approved subpoenas to the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency for information relating to the “unmasking” of the names of Trump campaign advisers inadvertently picked up in top-secret foreign communications intercepts. The White House and Nunes have alleged that former Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration eavesdropped on Trump’s campaign, an assertion that Comey has disputed and current U.S. officials dismiss as absurd. Four current and former U.S. officials who have reviewed the materials told Reuters there was no evidence that political motives drove Obama’s aides to request the names be unredacted. “There is no substance to this, so the only way to look at it is as an attempt to distract the headlines and the public from Comey’s public testimony and Mueller’s investigation, both of which are serious,” said one of the U.S. officials familiar with the information Nunes subpoenaed. Committee aides complained Nunes had acted unilaterally, and the top Democrat on the panel, Representative Adam Schiff, said Nunes’ actions violated his earlier decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe. Democratic Representative Jackie Speier said it appeared that Nunes was “more concerned with pushing the White House narrative than seeking the truth.” Trump on Thursday renewed his allegation, without citing evidence, that his campaign communications were monitored, saying in a tweet: “The big story is the ‘unmasking and surveillance’ of people that took place during the Obama administration.” Nunes followed suit hours later, tweeting: “Seeing a lot of fake news from media elites and others who have no interest in violations of Americans’ civil liberties via unmaskings.” The names of U.S. citizens mentioned in foreign communications intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies are normally redacted, or “masked,” in intelligence reports. The requests to unmask the names of Trump associates underwent the same stringent evaluations that U.S. privacy laws and intelligence regulations require for all such applications, and they produced nothing out of the ordinary, said the four officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. At most, only one of the requests related to Russia in any way, and the rest pertained to other countries, two of them said. The requests involved between 30 and 40 top-secret reports on intercepted communications in which foreign officials outside the United States mentioned the Trump campaign and people involved in it, the officials said. The reports contained no evidence that any Americans were targets of U.S. eavesdropping operations, they said. Russia has repeatedly denied any effort to interfere in the U.S. election, but Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday some Russians might have acted on their own without their government’s involvement. Trump has denied any collusion between Russia and his campaign. He has repeatedly questioned the U.S. intelligence finding that Putin directed an operation that included computer hacking, fake news and propaganda intended to swing the election in Trump’s favor against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The religion of peace and tolerance strikes again A shopkeeper was murdered by a fellow Muslim after he wished his Christian friends a peaceful Easter.Asad Shah, who was stabbed up to 30 times at his shop, had praised both the life of Jesus and his beloved Christian nation . Left lying in a pool of blood, the 40-year-old died in hospital. Police, who were questioning a 32-year-old suspect last night, said the killing was religiously motivated.Mohammad Faisal, a family friend, said a bearded Muslim wearing a long religious robe entered Mr Shah s shop and spoke to him in his native language before stabbing him in the head with a kitchen knife.Mr Shah s brother, who was working next door, rushed out to find the killer laughing while sitting on the Glasgow newsagent s bleeding chest. The brother dragged Mr. Shah away but the guy continued attacking with the blade, said Mr Faisal. They struggled up to the bus stop where Asad collapsed. It was just a clear-cut revenge attack. For posting messages about peace, messages about greeting fellow Christians and Jews. Here is the video Asad Shah posted that inspired his brutal murder by a fellow Muslim: Before his death, Mr Shah had wished his friends a Good Friday and a very happy Easter, especially to my beloved Christian nation .In his final post, he wrote: Let s follow the real footstep of beloved holy Jesus Christ and get the real success in both worlds. Mr Shah also appeared to use his Facebook page to speak out over the attacks in Brussels. Via: Daily Mail

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was way out of line and way too political last night when he showed his cards BIGTIME on President Trump. He followed the latest leftist line that Trump isn t fit to serve Yes, the loony left has a new play book that makes the false claim that somehow Trump is unfit to be president.We ve reported on clapper before but his not wittingly comment before the Senate is legend. Remember when he was asked if the NSA spies on Americans and he replied not wittingly ? Yes, well, that was perjury.More recently Clapper bashed President Trump during a discussion on national security and the Trump/Russia fake scandal.It s clear that Clapper is a political pawn who is out to try and make our president look bad. This is serious Deep State stuff.We re sure this isn t the end of James Clapper s involvement in the opposition to President Trump.

Ever since Donald Trump lost the popular vote in the general election by nearly 3 million votes, he hasn t been able to let it go, even though he won the Electoral College.Even on Wednesday, he was still announcing that he thinks the election had voter fraud and let us all know via his medium of choice Twitter. He tweeted:I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and . Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time). Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017Nothing in those tweets is backed by evidence or facts no matter how many times he says it to try to get us to believe it.Yet, in reaction to Trump being so adamant about their being voter fraud, The View s Joy Behar came up with a brilliant solution hold a new election.Reiterating what she said on The View earlier in the day, Behar tweeted out: If there was voter fraud, I say let s do it over again! If there was voter fraud, I say let's do it over again! Joy Behar (@JoyVBehar) January 25, 2017Which is a very honest suggestion that should, in a logical world, make everyone happy. If Trump thinks there was fraud (there wasn t) then he should be in complete agreement with the suggestion of a new election. And you best be sure Hillary Clinton supporters will more than happily get behind the idea.So, what say you, Donald? Let s do it!Watch the video here:Featured image via video screen capture HT Sarah Burris

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Four people were killed and several injured when a train crashed into an army truck during a military exercise in southern Finland on Thursday, police and the armed forces said. The accident occurred at an unguarded railway crossing near the city of Raasepori, 90 km (56 miles) west of the capital Helsinki, when two military vehicles were crossing the tracks on their way to a training site. The train and one of the vehicles collided, killing three soldiers aboard the truck and a passenger on the train, officials said. Road conditions were bad in the morning due to rain and snowfall. Inspector Ilkka Kantola told Helsingin Sanomat newspaper that the train had hit the truck at a speed of around 100 kilometres per hour. According to Kantola, the train driver had seen the truck but thought that it would stop as it was driving very slowly. The train put on the break but the speed did not necessarily slow down at all ahead of the collision, Kantola was quoted as saying. The soldier who had driven the truck will face charges for endangering traffic safety and manslaughter, he added. Four people were taken to Helsinki with severe injuries and seven others were treated at a local hospital for minor injuries. All patients were said to be in stable condition. Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila and President Sauli Niinisto both offered their condolences to the victims and their families. The young conscripts were there for their country. That their journey ends in many deaths and in serious injuries is a true tragedy, President Niinisto said in a statement. Military service is obligatory for men in Finland.

CNN political analyst just spent her Thanksgiving Day so consumed with hate for President Trump s White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, that she removed any doubt her Twitter followers may have had about the possibility of having an objective bone in her body.CNN political analyst and American Urban Radio Networks White House correspondent April Ryan suggested, without any evidence, Friday that White House press secretary Sarah Sanders actually didn t actually cook the pecan pie Sanders said she did.Here is Sanders tweet that got under April Ryan s skin:I dont cook much these days, but managed this Chocolate Pecan Pie for Thanksgiving at the family farm! pic.twitter.com/rO8nFxtly7 Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) November 23, 2017Ryan responded by actually demanding that Sanders do more than post a picture of the pie with a white background, and that she show Twitter users the pie on her table!Show it to us on a table. https://t.co/ifeSBlSZW7 AprilDRyan (@AprilDRyan) November 24, 2017Ryan then took it a step further and doubled down, letting her Twitter users know that the legitimacy of Sanders claim that she baked the pecan pie was no laughing matter.I am not trying to be funny but folks are already saying #piegate and #fakepie Show it to us on the table with folks eating it and a pic of you cooking it. I am getting the biggest laugh out of this. I am thankful for this laugh on Black Friday! https://t.co/ifeSBlSZW7 AprilDRyan (@AprilDRyan) November 24, 2017Ryan is frequently praised by liberals for being a nuisance in the White House press briefing room, but she failed to present any evidence Friday, except for the claims of random Twitter users, that Sanders faked the pie. Ryan did not respond to this reporter when asked for proof.A reverse image search did not find any other pictures of the pecan pie that Sanders posted.The White House press secretary responded to Ryan s criticism and said that she will make the journalist a pie of her own.-Daily CallerDon t worry @AprilDRyan because I m nice I ll bake one for you next week #RealPie #FakeNews https://t.co/5W3mGbKs4J Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) November 24, 2017While hundreds of liberal Twitter users jumped on Ryan s thread, as a way to drum up hate for the brilliant and witty conservative Press Secretary, Sanders definitely got her fair share of support. Conservative actor James Woods didn t make any secret about how he is thankful on Thanksgiving Day for Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the best thing to happen to modern American journalism. One final reason to be thankful today: @SarahHuckabee She is the best thing to happen to modern American journalism. The #CNN and other liberal minions melt before her intelligence, her wit, and her sheer fortitude like snowflakes in the desert. James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) November 24, 2017Twitter user, Vanessa Vega nailed it with her tweet in response to Sanders reply to Ryan s ridiculous claim:It burns them up. That a graceful intelligent woman like you holds the WH positions, rocks at it, is an amazing mother and baked a pie during a traditional American Holiday. keep doing you @PressSec !! We are grateful for you & the haters are entertaining to watch Vanessa Vega (@EscbrRoX2017) November 25, 2017

Today, Donald Trump and his team pissed off the Anne Frank Center over his pathetically late condemnation of anti-Semitic crimes while visiting the National Museum of African American History.Earlier today, Trump tried to denounce hate crimes targeted against Jewish people, and the Anne Frank Center correctly pointed out that Trump should have denounced those attacks far sooner, especially since Trump and his administration s actions have perfectly reflected anti-Semitism. The Center said: His statement today is a pathetic asterisk of condescension after weeks in which he and his staff have committed grotesque acts and omissions reflecting anti-Semitism, yet day after day have refused to apologize and correct the record. Make no mistake: The Antisemitism coming out of this Administration is the worst we have ever seen from any Administration. It was a powerful statement, and it was 100% true. Unfortunately, the way Trump s team has chosen to handle that feedback is disgraceful. Later that day, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer threw a fit and complained that Trump was never good enough for human rights organizations like the Anne Frank Center. Spicer said: I saw the statement. I wish that they had praised the President for his leadership in this area. The president has made clear since the day he was elected, and frankly going back to the campaign, that he is someone who seeks to unite this country. He brings a diverse group of folks into his administration, both in terms of actual positions and people who he sought the advice of. And I think he has been very forceful with his denunciation of people who seek to attack people because of their hate, because of their religion, because of their gender, because of the color of their skin. And it s something he s going to continue to fight and make very, very clear that [it] has no place in this administration. But it s ironic that no matter how many times he talks about this, it s never good enough. Today, I think, was an unbelievably forceful comment by the President as far as his denunciation of the actions that are currently targeted towards Jewish community centers. But I think that he s been very clear previous to this. Spicer pretty much serves as Trump s little attack dog, jumping on anyone who criticizes him and calls it like it is. Here s a news flash, though people treat Trump as if he s not good enough because he s NOT good enough! He s incompetent, ignorant and has no idea what he s doing and it shows. For Spicer to go after the Anne Frank Center in defense of Trump is absolutely unforgivable. You can watch Spicer come unhinged below: Featured image via Win McNamee / Getty Images

Hillary Clinton just made the claim that she beat President Trump in the 2016 election. The bitter and delusional Clinton is a woman who can t let the loss go In a lengthy interview in New York Magazine, Clinton made the claim that she beat both Sanders and Trump in the 2016 election: I beat both of them, she said, evidently referencing her popular vote win over Trump.British politician Nigel Evans has message for anyone, including Hillary, who is in denial. He defends Donald Trump and his supporters in this must-watch video! The fact is, there were 61 million people who voted for Donald Trump, and when we stand up in this country and attack him, we are actually attacking the American people. Bravo! Thank you Mr. Evans!

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala s top court on Tuesday ruled definitively against President Jimmy Morales internationally criticized push to expel the head of a U.N.-backed anti-corruption unit probing his campaign financing. The decision by the Constitutional Court ratifies a provisional ruling that the government could not expel Ivan Velasquez, a veteran Colombian prosecutor who leads Guatemala s International Commission against Impunity, known as CICIG. Morales on Sunday ordered the expulsion of the prosecutor, who has been a thorn in the president s side by investigating his son and brother, and then seeking to remove his own immunity from investigation over more than $800,000 in potentially unexplained campaign funds. He has denied any wrongdoing. Within the United Nations, Velasquez has the rank of assistant secretary general. He is widely respected and the president s moved unleashed a series of resignations from his cabinet and a storm of criticism from Western nations. Earlier in the day, Morales, 48, said he would respect the court s decision, stepping back from brinkmanship he displayed at the weekend when he said the court had overstepped its mandate by ruling on the case. He has sought support from Guatemala s mayors, possibly to try to counter the diplomatic pressure and street protests by activists calling him corrupt. I am not defending corrupt people, I am not against the anti-corruption fight, I am not even against the CICIG. Is a machete good or bad? It depends on who is wielding it, said the former comedian at a meeting with mayors. Morales won office in 2015 running on a platform of honest governance after his predecessor Otto Perez Molina was forced to resign and imprisoned in a multi-million dollar graft case stemming from a CICIG investigation. The United Nations on Tuesday said it was disturbed by Morales moves against Velasquez, while the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists said failure to comply with the Constitutional Court ruling could constitute obstruction of justice , a criminal offense. The president s decision to declare Ivan Velasquez as non grata and ordering his immediate removal from the country is in clear breach of international law, the ICJ said in a statement. Hundreds of Guatemalans took to the streets on Monday in support of Velasquez, some shouting Take Jimmy Morales to court! Some groups came out in support of the president and against foreign interference. The U.S. ambassador to Guatemala, Todd Robinson, told Reuters the president s moves could put at risk a U.S. development plan in Central America to reduce poverty and crime. There will probably be consequences from the president s decision, Robinson said, while emphasizing that any U.S. measures would have to be carefully thought through so as not to affect the economy or migration to the United States. Many politicians in Guatemala consider the foreign-led body, which is unusual among U.N. bodies for its powers to bring cases to prosecutors, to be a violation of national sovereignty. Anti-corruption activists credit it with cleaning up government.

Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6 PM PST | 9 PM EST every Wednesday. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Randy J of 21Wire, Andy Nowicki from Alt Right Blogspot and Daniel Spaulding of Soul of the East. Tonight the Boiler Gang brings the internet show with more twists and turns than Space Mountain! Listen in as we discuss the absurd social agendas rampant in universities that project the concept of inanimate objects being racist. We break down Andy Nowicki s hypothesis that the Ted Cruz sex scandal could actually be a PR stunt to improve his alpha male cred and talk about the CIA influence in movements like the 60s counter culture and a thought provoking conversation about the perils of 3rd wave feminism. If you want to participate, bring something interesting to throw into the boiler Join us in the ALTERNATE CURRENT RADIO chat room.BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY! REFERENCE LINKS:

Fox News commentator Charles Krauthammer wrote a column discussing Donald Trump s mental health on Thursday and he did not hold back.Krauthammer, who happens to be a board-certified psychiatrist, strongly rebuked the Republican nominee for viciously attacking Khizr Khan and his wife Ghazala, who lost their son Humayun when he sacrificed his life to save his fellow American soldiers in Iraq. It reveals a shocking absence of elementary decency and of natural empathy for the most profound of human sorrows parental grief, Krauthammer wrote. It wasn t a mistake. It was a revelation. Krauthammer then put his psychiatry skills to work, slamming Trump s narcissism and thin skin. Trump s hypersensitivity and unedited, untempered Pavlovian responses are, shall we say, unusual in both ferocity and predictability.This is beyond narcissism. I used to think Trump was an 11-year-old, an undeveloped schoolyard bully. I was off by about 10 years. His needs are more primitive, an infantile hunger for approval and praise, a craving that can never be satisfied. He lives in a cocoon of solipsism where the world outside himself has value indeed exists only insofar as it sustains and inflates him. Krauthammer went on to say that Trump is struggling to pass the threshold test for acceptability, comparing this year s election to the 1980 Election in which Reagan defeated incumbent President Jimmy Carter. Trump badly needs to pass that threshold, he wrote. If character is destiny, he won t. Indeed, Trump is definitely no Ronald Reagan. Reagan spoke positively about America and the future while Trump is all gloom and doom and doesn t know when to keep his mouth shut.Krauthammer is not the only mental health professional who has talked about Trump s mental health status either.Dr. Drew Pinsky appeared on CNN earlier this week and expressed concern about Trump s temperament and impulsiveness. The question, though, is, are some of the reckless qualities that everyone is getting so disturbed about on the campaign going to be translated into office should he get elected? That s a pretty hard thing to predict. I don t know if this is just somebody playing politics, or is this somebody who really can t contain their impulses? When I hear people that are impulsive with their speech, I worry about hypomania and bipolar types of conditions. Pinsky went on to question the mental stability of Trump s supporters.Clearly, there is something wrong with Donald Trump and he is not fit to be president of the United States at a time when there is so much conflict and upheaval in the world. We need a steady hand at the helm, not a hand that lashes out over every little slight and criticism, especially when that hand belongs to a man who is obsessed with using nuclear weapons. Mental instability and access to the nuclear codes would be a dangerous combination.Featured Image: John Moore/Getty Images

In an apparent attempt to prove to the world that he is the devil himself, George Zimmerman recently decided to auction off the gun he used to murder Trayvon Martin. The move has been universally condemned by everyone who is not a heartless monster.Fortunately, some brilliant individuals decided to hijack the online auction for the weapon, mocking the gun s sale with fake bids. The top bid for the gun was made by someone named Racist McShootface in the amount of $65 million dollars. As hilarious as the monkey wrenching shenanigans are, it is saddening to know that there is money to be made, so the gun will eventually be sold and Zimmerman will go on living his new life of luxury and infamy.However, one individual released a plan to turn this terrible event in history into an opportunity to do some good in the world. Shane Claiborne, a Christian activist released a post on his Facebook page where he writes that he and others had planned on attempting to win Zimmerman s gun in the online auction. From there, they would work with RAWtools, a company that turns firearms into tools.The idea of turning weapons into tools come from the biblical verse Isaiah 2:4:He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.Some Christian peace activists live by this verse, encouraging nations and individuals to lay down their weapons and work towards creating world peace.As Claiborne points out in the post, there is one major flaw with this plan. There has been a Twitter-storm of folks suggesting we should acquire the gun and beat it into a plow with our friends at RAWtools, Claiborne writes. Initially, that seemed like a powerful idea to destroy this horrific icon of injustice, and make sure it doesn t take another life. We even had some donors offering to buy it. But then we heard the money was going to be used to fight many of the groups and movements we believe in, like Black Lives Matter. Claiborne then writes that a new plan was eventually formed. I have to say, as far as B plans go, it s a pretty good one. We are going to take a 9mm pistol identical to Zimmerman s, beat it into a plow, auction it off, and donate the money to Trayvon Martin s family foundation. Last night we sent out the invitation to donate handguns and just got the news that we have had 6 guns donated overnight (thanks to Benjamin L. Corey and all who donated so far).And all 6 of the guns are 9mm pistols. (by the way, keep em coming email here to donate: [email protected]) My friends at RAWtools, Inc. will be transforming the pistol. And will start the bidding within the next week or so. What a great idea. This just proves that no matter how much hatred and misery some people put out into this world, there are others willing to push back with acts of love and compassion.Here is the original Facebook post.https://www.facebook.com/ShaneClaiborne/photos/a.10150112918376371.279881.100500271370/10153375689991371/?type=3&theaterFeatured image from Rawtools via Facebook

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will have “substantive, hard” talks with U.S. partners in Asia on next steps in dealing with North Korea, but his visit this week is not likely to produce an immediate specific response, the State Department said on Wednesday. “I wouldn’t predict that there’s going to be concrete action out of his trip,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told a briefing on Wednesday when asked if Tillerson expected firm commitments on moving forward against North Korea. “I think this is a chance for him to have a lot of substantive, hard discussions with our allies and partners in the region about possible next steps, again recognizing that the threat of North Korea, frankly, is only growing stronger,” Toner said. Tillerson is visiting South Korea, Japan and China on his Asia trip. Asked what Tillerson would tell Asian trading partners following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the multilateral Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal negotiated by his predecessor, Toner said the secretary’s message would be that trade is a vital U.S. stimulus. “We want to pursue trade, we believe in trade,” Toner said. “Trade is good for American workers, it’s good for American companies, but we want to do that on a bilateral basis and ... we want to ensure a level playing field for U.S. workers and U.S. companies.”

THIS MAN IS A GREAT PATRIOT! Retired General Ace Lyons rips into the Obama regime like no other and it s honestly pretty frightening.

It s gotten to the point where if Donald Trump doesn t fire Sean Spicer for his egregious remarks about the Holocaust, Assad and Syria, he should be seen as agreeing with Spicer s sentiment as well as condoning it.It s disgusting, to say the least, and the legendary Dan Rather just released a statement that should summarize what every person with a decent moral compass is thinking right now.Rather wrote: It is with sadness that I do not know where to begin. Today in a briefing, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer issued a statement that is so far beyond the pale, so tone deaf and blind to history and our precarious moment in world affairs, that it is with only a heavy heart that I even bring attention to it. There can be no joy in such incompetence.In trying to make the case for the Administration s policy in Syria and vis a vis Russia which is confused to be generous, and wildly chaotic to be more precise, Mr. Spicer said, We didn t use chemical weapons in World War II. You know, you had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn t even sink to using chemical weapons. He continued, So you have to, if you are Russia, ask yourself: Is this a country and a regime that you want to align yourself with? When asked to clarify, Mr. Spicer said, I think when you come to sarin gas, he (Hitler) was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing. Mr. Spicer went on to mention Holocaust centers, in an apparent reference to the Nazi concentration camps.This line of rhetoric is so unhinged, so amateurish, so lacking in the context and perspective necessary for statesmanship and diplomacy that I do not see how Mr. Spicer can be allowed to continue in his current position. But in the end, this is less about him and more about an Administration that is inserting itself in a civil war and now is plunging into a drastic reformulation of American foreign policy without any clear sense that they have a plan. When you try to explain such a situation, it is understandable that your words don t make sense.A bar, already set low, continues to drop. If Trump doesn t fire Spicer then he is fully condoning Holocaust denial within his administration. This shouldn t only outrage America, but cause a massive resistance against the current administration that has never been seen before. This must not be condoned or accepted. It is not okay.Featured Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images for SiriusXM

QUETTA, Pakistan/JAKARTA (Reuters) - Christmas church services and other celebrations are being held this weekend under the gaze of armed guards and security cameras in many countries after Islamic State gunmen attacked a Methodist church in Pakistan as a Sunday service began. Majority-Muslim countries in Asia and the Middle East were particularly nervous after U.S. President Donald Trump s recent announcement he intends to relocate the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a decision that has outraged many Muslims. In Indonesia, the world s biggest Muslim-majority country, police said they had stepped up security around churches and tourist sites, mindful of near-simultaneous attacks on churches there at Christmas in 2000 that killed about 20 people. Muslim volunteers in Indonesia are also on standby to provide additional security if requested. If our brother and sisters who celebrate Christmas need ... to maintain their security to worship, we will help, said Yaqut Chiolil Qoumas, chairman of the youth wing of the Nahdlatul Ulema, one of the country s biggest Muslim organizations. In Cairo, where a bombing at the Egyptian capital s largest Coptic cathedral killed at least 25 people last December, the interior ministry said police would conduct regular searches of streets around churches ahead of the Coptic celebration of Christmas on Jan. 7. Egypt s Christian minority has been targeted in several attacks in recent years, including the bombing of two churches in the north of the country on Palm Sunday in April. At the Heliopolis Basilica, a Catholic cathedral in northeastern Cairo, security forces had set up metal detectors at the main doors and police vehicles were stationed outside ahead of masses on Dec. 25, which marks Christmas Day for Catholic and Protestant Christians. German police brought in experts and an explosives robot to investigate a suspicious package at a Christmas market in the city of Bonn late on Friday. Germany is on high alert a year after a failed Tunisian asylum seeker killed 12 people when he hijacked a truck and drove it into a Berlin Christmas market. BOMBED-OUT CHURCH In the Pakistani city of Quetta, members of a Bethel Memorial Methodist Church were repairing the damage done by a pair of suicide bombers who attacked during a service last Sunday, killing 10 people and wounding more than 50. Broken pews and damaged musical instruments were still strewn around church grounds on Thursday, with about a dozen police standing guard. We re making efforts to complete repairs and renovation before Christmas, but it seems difficult in view of the lot of damage, said Pastor Simon Bashir, who was leading the service when the attackers struck. He was not hurt. The government of Baluchistan province, of which Quetta is capital, plans to deploy 3,000 security personnel in and around 39 Christian churches this Sunday and Monday. Provincial police chief Moazzam Jah Ansari told Reuters volunteers from churches were also being trained to conduct body searches and identify worshippers entering churches. Pakistan s Christian minority, which makes up about 1 percent of the population of 208 million, has been a frequent target, along with Shi ite and Sufi Muslims, of Sunni Muslim militants. In the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, where an Easter Day bombing in a park last year killed more than 70 people, police Detective Inspector General Haider Ashraf said every church would be monitored with CCTV cameras as part of security measures. Christian Kaleem Masih lost his aunt in the Easter attack, which was claimed by Islamic State, and his wife was wounded, but he said they would be attending Christmas services. Christmas is our holy day, Kaleem said. We will fulfill our religious duty by celebrating it with smiles on our faces. In Malaysia, a police official said Trump s decision on Jerusalem increased worry about attacks. We are concerned not only with safety at churches and places of worship but also any threats by Islamic State or any other security threat following the Jerusalem issue, said Malaysia s Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun. Jerusalem, revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, is home to Islam s third holiest site and has been at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades. Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it in an action not recognized internationally. Protests across the Muslim world in Asia and the Middle East have largely been peaceful. In Jerusalem itself, an Israeli police spokesman said there were no new security measures but police would deploy forces as usual around Christian holy sites including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and also secure convoys of worshippers from the West Bank city of Bethlehem, traditionally known as the birthplace of Jesus Christ and run by the Palestinian Authority. Many Palestinian Christians oppose Trump s announcement and say they have no fear of attacks. Trump s decision offended all Palestinians, be they Christians or Muslims. Why would we feel threatened by Muslims? said George Antone, a Catholic who lives in Gaza, which is run by the Palestinian Hamas group.

President-elect Donald Trump loves bragging about two things: things he doesn t deserve and things that aren t true. He kills two birds with one stone when he boasts about his landslide win, which is technically a loss when you consider that Hillary Clinton beat him by millions of votes.Despite how much Trump feels he deserves the presidency, many Americans disagree and we re seeing direct proof of this resistance as Trump is finding it impossible to get people to perform at his inauguration in January. With only a few weeks to go and no A-list entertainers up for the task, Trump had hoped he could turn to his longtime pal, opera singer Andrea Bocelli. It was reported: Trump has a long-standing relationship with Bocelli, and wants to ask him in person to perform. The plan is to have acts at the inauguration that are meaningful for Trump, and he s a huge fan of Bocelli. But unfortunately for Trump, this too is falling apart. Despite being friends with Trump for years, Bocelli has chosen to bail on him due to the intense backlash the singer faced on social media. Some threatened to Boycott Bocelli , while other fans warned him, You will lose millions of fans. According to another close source: Bocelli said there was no way he d take the gig . . . he was getting too much heat and he said no. As time runs out, so are Trump s options. He s already faced multiple rejections from artists such as John Legend, Adam Lambert, and Elton John. Trump became so desperate that he started to offer U.S. ambassadorships to talent agents if they could find him someone to perform, but that hasn t worked either.But Trump still has one more option. Considering that Trump ditched a critical press conference to have a meeting with artist Kanye West last week, perhaps Trump might consider asking him. It would only make sense to have an artist just as egotistical and narcissistic as Trump perform at his inauguration.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

From the Civil War to Jim Crow to George Wallace, to the Confederate Flag that hung over the Statehouse until just last year, the state of Alabama has always been synonymous with racial struggle and with just plain ole racism.Things might be changing from an official level, but to many Alabamans, African-Americans are still second class citizens, and to some, just criminals. That seemed to be the idea behind an 8th grade test called the LA Math Proficiency Test, that portrayed black people and Latinos as prostitutes, drug dealers and drive-by shooters. Hardly appropriate for any eighth grader, even without the racism.The first question involves someone named Ram n, who performs drive-by shootings with an AK-47. Then, there s Leroy, who sells cocaine to Juan. The test goes on to talk about children who steal, all of whom have ethnic sounding names. There s even one about Tyrone, who knocked up 4 girls in the gang, out of 20. Students are asked to figure out the percentage. My son, he took a picture of it in class and he texted it to me. I couldn t believe it, Erica Hall said.Hall said her son sent her a text photo of the quiz his eighth-grade language arts teacher passed out Friday. Hall said even the kids thought it was some kind of joke. They took it as a joke, and she told them that it wasn t it a joke, and they had to complete it, and turn it in, Hall said.Source: Fox10Here s the video:FOX10 News | WALAIf you can t see the questions, here are some. All of the 10 questions follow this theme:Dwayne pimps 3 ho s (sic). If the price is $85 per trick, how many tricks per day must each ho turn to support Dwayne s $800 per day crack habit?Raul wants to cut the pound of cocaine he bought for $40,000 to make a 20% profit. How many one ounce bags will he need to make to obtain the 20% profit?LaShaunda is a lookout for the gang. Lacuna also has a Boa Constricter that eats 5 rats per week at the cost of $5 per rat. If LaShaunda makes $700 (sic) week as a lookout, how many weeks can she feed the Boa on one week s income?Some of the students thought the test was hilarious, but parents did not. Even racist parents likely objected to the very adult themes.The teacher, who appeared to lazily pull this test off the internet, has been suspended, although their name has not yet been released. This isn t the first school to give that test, though. Many across the country, mostly in Southern states, have given either this test or something similar.Featured image via video screen capture.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers on Tuesday called for more information after reports that President Donald Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to drop an investigation of former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn. The White House said a memo written by Comey after he met with Trump in February was not an accurate portrayal of the conversation. Details of the memo were first reported by The New York Times and were confirmed by a Reuters source. Last week, the Republican president fired Comey, who had been leading an investigation into the Trump 2016 presidential campaign’s possible collusion with Russia to influence the election outcome. Flynn resigned in February after disclosures that he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office and misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations. Media reports of the Comey memo prompted members of Congress to renew calls for an independent investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible connections to Russia and for Comey to testify before Congress. Here are reactions from Capitol Hill: “@GOPoversight is going to get the Comey memo, if it exists. I need to see it sooner rather than later. I have my subpoena pen ready.” - Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on Twitter. He later sent the Federal Bureau of Investigation a letter asking for all memos, notes and recordings between Comey and Trump by May 24. “What we’re seeing ... is an obstruction of justice case unfolding in real time. And I’m still stunned that more of my Republican colleagues are not standing strong and speaking out.” - Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal to CNN “I have to say yes simply because obstruction of justice is such a serious offense. And I say it with sadness and reluctance.” - Independent Senator Angus King, asked on CNN if Congress was getting close to impeachment proceedings “We’re a long ways from a conviction - the fact that we simply have a headline in The New York Times.” - Republican Representative Trey Gowdy on Fox News “We need to have all the facts and it is appropriate for the House Oversight Committee to request this memo.” - AshLee Strong, spokeswoman for Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, in a statement “I don’t want to read a memo. I want to hear it from him (Comey).” - Republican Senator Lindsey Graham in an MSNBC interview “This is an explosive allegation and it appears like a textbook case of criminal obstruction of justice. We need to hear testimony immediately from Director Comey - in public. ... We also obviously need to get Director Comey’s memos immediately, as well as all associated records, including any audio tapes, and notes, if they exist.” - Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings in a statement “If true, this is yet another disturbing allegation that the president may have engaged in some interference or obstruction of the investigation. I think we know enough now. There’s been enough alleged publicly to want to bring the director back to testify, ideally in open session, either before our committee or the Judiciary Committee.” - Democratic Representative Adam Schiff to reporters “Country must have answers. It is clear former FBI Director Comey should testify before Congress.” - Republican Representative Frank LoBiondo on Twitter “If these reports are true, the president’s brazen attempt to shut down the FBI’s investigation of Michael Flynn is an assault on the rule of law that is fundamental to our democracy. At best, President Trump has committed a grave abuse of executive power. At worst, he has obstructed justice.” - Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi in a statement “I’m shocked and surprised by this development and would like to discuss it with Chairman Grassley and look forward to doing so. The Judiciary Committee is the appropriate place to hold a hearing and get to the bottom of exactly what was said and by whom.” - Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein in a statement “The stories of the last week raise serious questions about whether the president respects the independence of the FBI and law enforcement authorities. It is vital that Congress obtain these memos and hear public testimony from former Director Comey. ... The American people deserve answers about President Trump’s conduct.” - Democratic Senator Bob Casey in a statement

A bunch of the NRA s responsible gun owners in Florida rang in the new year with gunfire something that had a very negative impact on at least one little girl s ability to enjoy herself. As she was leaving an Orlando church just after midnight, a massive amount of gunfire rang out. Was ISIS attacking? Nope. Was there yet another mass shooting happening? Negative. Was the American Taliban celebrating New Year s Day by wildly firing their weapons? Bingo.As the girl was exiting the service at a church on the 800 block of South Kirkman Road, the was struck in the right arm by a bullet, according to police. Law enforcement says that the girl was not targeted the bullet came from one of many individuals who were wildly firing their self-defense weapons into the air in celebration of the holiday. There are many ways to enjoy the New Year, but firing random shots in the air should not be among them, Orange County Sheriff Demings in a statement. Unfortunately, police do not think a suspect can be found because the round that struck the little girl seemed to be from the voluminous amounts of gunfire happening at the time of this senseless shooting.Firing a gun in public or on a residential property is a crime, and can range from a first-degree misdemeanor to a third-degree felony. Unfortunately, the nation s ammosexuals do not care much about laws regarding guns, with many demanding that gun sellers ignore Obama s planned executive action to keep these dangerous weapons out of the hands of people who should not have them a group that probably includes every single person who felt the appropriate way to ring in the new year is by randomly firing their guns and almost killing a child.The little girl was treated on the scene by the Orlando Fire Department, and is expected to recover from her injuries fortunately.Watch a report on this senseless shooting below:Featured image via Guns.com

(Reuters) - Jagmeet Singh, an Ontario provincial lawmaker and practicing Sikh, was elected on Sunday as leader of Canada s left-leaning New Democrats, becoming the first non-white politician to head a major Canadian political party. The 38-year-old lawyer, whose penchant for colorful turbans and tailor-made three-piece suits made him a social media star, was elected on the first ballot to lead the New Democratic Party into the 2019 federal election against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau s Liberals. Thank you, New Democrats. The run for Prime Minister begins now, Singh tweeted. Singh secured 54 percent of the vote, defeating three rivals to become the new head of the NDP, succeeding Thomas Mulcair. The results of the vote, conducted online and by mail, were announced at a party meeting in Toronto. The Toronto-area politician, who led in fundraising since joining the race last May, had been touted by supporters as someone who could bring new life to the party, which has struggled since the death of charismatic former leader Jack Layton in 2011. Singh s profile was boosted in early September after a video went viral showing him calmly responding with words of love to a heckler who interrupted a campaign event to accuse him of wanting to impose Islamic Shariah law in Canada. His skill, in being able to diffuse the situation, it understandably appealed to a lot of people who ended up supporting him, said Christopher Cochrane, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto. Cochrane added that Singh s ability to connect both with young people and ethnic minorities would make him a force to reckon with when competing against Trudeau in 2019. Trudeau congratulated his new political rival on Twitter on Sunday, saying: I look forward to speaking soon and working together for Canadians. The NDP is the third largest party in the federal Parliament, with 44 of 338 seats. The party lags well behind the centrist Liberals and right-leaning Conservatives in political fundraising this year, according to Elections Canada data. Singh will now focus on rallying supporters and targeting center-left voters who helped propel Trudeau s Liberals to a decisive victory in 2015. There are hurdles ahead. Singh does not have a seat in the federal parliament and will have to win one in a special election. He also needs to persuade voters that his party can form a government, although it has never held power federally. There are also questions over whether he will have success in Quebec, Canada s mainly French-speaking province, where overt signs of faith are frowned upon.

There s a lot of uncertainties in this election, but one thing is crystal clear: Donald Trump is liar. Now, whether or not he believes in anything he says remains to be seen. No one has been able to crack the Republican presidential nominee (he even bragged that people can t) so who knows.But there is some telling evidence that Trump is a pathological lying, walking contradiction. Look at his Politifact file. Over 77 percent of the things that come out of his mouth have been lies.Then there s the obvious stuff: he use to support gay marriage and abortion, now he doesn t. He use o think Hillary Clinton was terrific and now she s crooked. He opposed the Iraq War from the beginning but actually he didn t. The list goes on and on.But instead of reading a list, the Democratic Coalition Against Trump has made a video documenting, chronicling and highlighting dozens of Trump s biggest lies and contradictions.Republicans thought they were clever with their Hillary Clinton Lying For 13 Straight Minutes video until it was picked apart and debunked by Politifact, Reddit, Daily Kos and so forth. But when it comes to political hogwash and making mountains out of mole hills, Republicans are professionals.But with Trump as their nominee, they have no room to speak.Posted on their Facebook, the organization, which runs a website dedicated to exposing Trump s lies, wrote:This is incredible watch Trump contradict himself on Iraq, abortion, Hillary Clinton, profanity, universal health care, the Libyan Intervention, illegal immigration, nuclear weapons, neo-Nazism, minimum wage, Bill Clinton, integrity, his tax returns, and his own political leanings.It is truly incredible to watch a man who has duped millions of Republicans into believing he is an authentic, conservative, pro-American counter to Hillary Clinton.Here s the video in all its glory, watched by over 3 million people:Trump supporters claim they back to bloated narcissist because he says what he means and he tells it like it is. Only he doesn t say what he means just what s expedient and he doesn t tell it like it is, he tells it based on what his supporters want, and that certainly isn t the truth.Featured image via Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

MIDDELBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - Two white South African farmers who were filmed pushed a wailing black man into a coffin were sentenced to jail on Friday for attempted murder, assault and kidnapping. The 20-second video, widely circulated on social media last year, shows the victim, Victor Mlotshwa, cowering inside a coffin as one man pushes the lid down and the other threatens to put petrol and a snake inside. The defendants - Theo Jackson, sentenced to 14 years, and Willem Oosthuizen, sentenced to 11 years - had pleaded not guilty. They said they had caught Mlotshwa trespassing on their farm in possession of stolen copper cables. The case, heard at a court in Middelburg, about 160 km (100 miles) east of the capital, Pretoria, has caused outrage in a country where deep racial divides persist 23 years after the end of apartheid. When she handed down the sentences, Judge Segopotje Mphahlele said she was appalled that the accused had put Mlotshwa into a coffin. The evidence before court indicates that the seriousness of the offence far outweighs the mitigating factors and the personal factors of the offenders, she said. The conduct of the accused fueled social division and racial tension. The defense immediately requested that it be allowed to appeal the sentence, but Mphahlele dismissed their application. The defense then said it would lodge their appeal directly to the Supreme Court of Appeal, saying that the sentence was too harsh, since no one had been killed. South Africa s Justice Minister Michael Masutha said the sentence could serve as a deterrent to others. South Africa is no longer prepared to treat racism with kid gloves and we are ready to act, Justice Minister Michael Masutha said in an interview with eNCA. A large crowd formed outside the packed courtroom. The police presence around the court was heavy. What they did was painful to us, Qgoga Mnyamezeli said outside the court. Hundreds of members of the country s main political parties, including the ruling African National Congress and the main opposition Democratic Alliance party, gathered outside carrying placards, some which said Black Lives Matter! , and shouting slogans in support of Mlotshwa. Black people make up 80 percent of South Africa s 54 million population, but most its wealth remains in the hands of whites, who account for about 8 percent of the population.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Jordan s King Abdullah on Wednesday rejected any attempt to change the status of Jerusalem or its holy sites, and said peace would not come to the region without a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. All violence... is a result of a failure to find a peaceful solution to the Palestinian issue, he told an emergency summit of Muslim leaders in Turkey. King Abdullah s Hashemite dynasty is custodian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, making Amman particularly sensitive to any changes of status after the Trump s administration s decision to recognize it as Israel s capital.

Military veterans are expressing extreme concerns about the behavior and reaction of Donald Trump to the revelation that hackers under the employ of Russia stole information from Democrats and passed it on to WikiLeaks in an attempt to influence the result of the election. While Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have down played this information, veterans are now pushing back.Retired Major General Paul D. Eaton, senior adviser to VoteVets.org, has released a statement blasting the Trump/Republican reaction to this dangerous moment:When you see a President-elect of the United States so enamored by the Russian regime, as well as are his National Security Adviser and potential Secretary of State, and then find out the Russian government interfered in our election to help that side, it is cause for alarm.We join Senator Wyden and other Intelligence Committee members in calling for materials on Russian hacking that can be declassified to be immediately released to the public. We also join the group of 10 electoral college members that recently asked for all materials to be turned over to them, on this matter. We do not need an investigation to tell us what evidence and information the CIA found. The American people deserve to see those materials right now.General Eaton also asks, Did anyone in the Trump campaign, or anyone connected to the campaign know about this plot? The Russian campaign to manipulate the outcome of the 2016 election continues to induce fear in millions of Americans, and it is very telling that veterans are now among those expressing concern about the actions of Russia, Putin, and Trump in such dire terms.Congressional Republicans, fresh off of the partisan Benghazi investigation largely whipped up to attack Hillary Clinton, have slow-walked their responses to Russian hacking, with some actively opposing any sort of investigation that could harm Trump s public image.Featured image via YouTube

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would accept a corporate tax rate of 21 percent and would sign a bill with that number. The White House has previously said it preferred a 20 percent tax rate for corporations, down from 35 percent at current levels. “If it got down to 21 ... I would be thrilled,” he said. “We haven’t set that final figure yet.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A political fight over the federal government’s role in Michigan’s water contamination crisis spilled onto the U.S. Senate floor on Wednesday as Democrats threatened to block a bipartisan energy bill if it fails to include immediate aid for the city of Flint. Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan told reporters that a “solid agreement” that appeared to be in hand on Tuesday now seemed to be falling apart. “As a senator from Michigan, I intend to make it very clear that they can’t ignore the families of Flint,” Stabenow said when asked about prospects for the energy bill.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The state of Hawaii said it will ask a federal court on Wednesday for an emergency halt to President Donald Trump’s new executive order restricting travel from six Muslim-majority countries, becoming the first state to challenge the ban in court. In a court filing on Tuesday, Hawaii said it would seek a temporary restraining order against the new travel ban. Hawaii’s suit against the original executive order was put on hold. The Trump administration this week issued the new executive order that supplanted an earlier, more sweeping one which had been challenged in court by several states in addition to Hawaii. The new order is much more narrowly tailored than the first one issued in January. It keeps a 90-day ban on travel to the United States by citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen but excludes Iraq, and applies the restriction only to new visa applicants. “To be sure, the new executive order covers fewer people than the old one,” Neal Katyal, one of the lead attorneys for Hawaii, said in an interview with CNN. He said the new travel ban still “suffers from the same constitutional and statutory defects.” “We are confident that the president’s actions are lawful to protect the national security of our country,” the Justice Department said in a statement. In a joint filing, Hawaii and the U.S. government asked for oral arguments in the case to be held March 15, a day before the new travel order is set to take effect. Separately, in a case brought by Washington state against the first Trump travel order, the Justice Department on Tuesday said it would voluntarily dismiss its own appeal of a Seattle federal court ruling that had suspended the order. Washington state did not oppose the administration’s request to end its appeal, the filing said. Immigration advocates said the new ban still discriminates against Muslims and fails to address some of their concerns with the previous directive. Legal experts said the new ban would be harder to challenge because it affects fewer people living in the United States and allows more exemptions to protect them. Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Monday said his office was evaluating whether it would challenge the new order and would likely decide this week. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month had blocked Trump’s first order, saying Washington state would likely be able to prove that it violated constitutional protections. That appeals court ruling has not been withdrawn and its legal reasoning can still be cited as precedent in future cases, Washington attorney general spokesman Peter Lavallee said on Tuesday.

A few days after Christmas in 1992, Felicia Houston, 16, and two of her cousins were walking in an apartment complex when she was murdered by a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Monroe, North Carolina. Now, her murderer wants to be released from prison because he found Jesus.Russell Hinson was angry that a black drug dealer stole $70 from him on that fateful day. He told a friend that he was going to get revenge, I m going to shoot a n****r through the heart. So, he and a friend, Guy Brown, drove around the apartment complex where the drug dealer was living, when he came upon the group of girls. The Charlotte Observer explained what happened next:Hinson and Brown heard their laughter. Then they saw them. Hinson reloaded and stuck the crossbow out the window. Don t shoot, Brown said. They re only girls.I don t care, Hinson said, One of them is going to pay.He fired.Felicia fell to her knees, her cousin testified, hollering, I m shot, I m hurt! I m shot, I m hurt! Felicia died sixteen hours after she was shot and Hinson was arrested shortly after. The white supremacist went on trial for first-degree murder and it took an all-white jury just two and a half hours to convict him. Now, twenty-three years after shooting a child with a crossbow, he wants to be released from prison early.Dennis Long, Hinson s uncle, claims that prison changed him. He told the Observer his nephew found the Lord about six years ago and has expressed remorse about killing Felicia. The North Carolina Parole Commission will be reviewing his case soon and deciding whether or not he deserves release.It s always humourous to me that murderers like Hinson murder someone, go into prison and then claim to have accepted Jesus into their lives. As if picking up a Bible suddenly absolves them of the horrific crimes they committed. What s even more ironic is that this guy, a former leader of an organization that believes in white superiority, would probably spit on Jesus if he appeared before him. After all, Jesus was a Middle Eastern Jew.Hopefully, the parole board denies his request and sends him back to his cell where he belongs.Featured image via Charlotte Observer

(Reuters) - New Zealand s two main parties are neck and neck in opinion polls after the appointment of a charismatic leader boosted the opposition Labour Party, threatening the governing National Party s decade-long hold on power. The election is on Sept 23. Below are the main parties positions on key issues: ECONOMYNew Zealand s once booming economy is facing some capacity constraints. Unemployment is at an eight-year low and a labor shortage, most noticeably in construction, threatens to curb growth. Both main parties plan to be fiscally prudent and maintain a budget surplus, but would differ on monetary policy. National plans to cut net debt to 10-15 percent of GDP by 2025, while Labour and the Green Party both plan to cut it to 20 percent of GDP within five years of taking office. Labour proposes adding full employment to the existing inflation mandate of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, which economists say could lead to easier monetary policy and fuel longer-term inflation. To form a government, National may be more dependent on New Zealand First, which favors greater currency intervention - something New Zealand has been reluctant to do in the past. National is planning to adjust tax thresholds, or effectively deliver tax cuts, from April 2018 to boost family income. Labour wants to do away with National s planned tax cuts and boost tax credits and subsidies. New Zealand s house prices have risen more than 50 percent in the past decade as the construction industry failed to keep up with demand from a growing population, fueled by record migration and an increasing number of New Zealanders staying home. Labour criticizes National for leaving the housing crisis unresolved after nine years in government. It wants to ban overseas buyers from purchasing existing homes and build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 years. It also plans to create a housing authority to speed up residential development. National questions Labour s ability to build so many houses while curbing immigration. It plans to make NZ$1 billion available to speed up the development of 60,000 houses. New Zealand First wants to ban foreign non-residents from owning a home in New Zealand, except in particular cases, and to provide government assistance for first-home buyers. The Green Party wants to provide 10,000 new houses over 10 years for low-income groups through a rent-to-buy scheme. The National Party tightened eligibility criteria this year for immigration and believes current levels of immigration are about right to meet the economy s needs. Labour plans to reduce net immigration by up to 30,000 from record levels of over 70,000 annually and to charge every visitor a NZ$25 fee, which would be ring-fenced for a NZ$75 million infrastructure fund. The Greens want to review immigration policy to make sure migrants match the skills employers need, in line with Labour s policy. New Zealand First wants to curb immigration by ensuring New Zealand workers have the first chance at jobs and by capping the number of older migrants. National wants to expand New Zealand s international trade. Among other plans, it wants to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, launch a free trade deal with the European Union and Britain post-Brexit and upgrade its free trade agreement with China. Labour wants to reconsider New Zealand s role in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact if provisions on foreign investment are not changed to allow the New Zealand government to restrict investment into the country. New Zealand First wants to renegotiate the TPP.

It was just a simple tweet but Stephen King s latest post about Donald Trump turned into something so much more with help from his devoted fans.With Halloween just around the corner, horror author Stephen King wrote out a couple lines from what he calls his newest horror story, and it s all about the Republican nominee. My newest horror story, King began. Once upon a time there was a man named Donald Trump, and he ran for president. Some people wanted him to win. My newest horror story: Once upon a time there was a man named Donald Trump, and he ran for president. Some people wanted him to win. Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 21, 2016As most fans often do, they wanted more of the story from King. So they responded by helping him find some inspiration by making suggestions and using covers, scenes, and characters from King s books and films.@StephenKing pic.twitter.com/TVsOSvJwva Jeffrey Kalmikoff (@jeffrey) October 21, 2016@StephenKing @realDonaldTrump #ChucktTrump Chucky: I am Chucky, the killer doll! And I dig it! pic.twitter.com/3APjqMGg1K Alejandro Vigilante (@VigilanteArtist) October 22, 2016@StephenKing Call it The Whining . edgarwright (@edgarwright) October 21, 2016.@TJ800 @StephenKing Trumpkin. pic.twitter.com/4mac1dDYBC HeppCat (@the_heppcat) October 21, 2016@Dr_Conzelmann @StephenKing Trump is a tangerine Leland Gaunt, peddling nuggets of pyrrhic hatred to angry bigots in need of validation Craig (@KuangEleven) October 22, 2016@StephenKing Pls write this. It will be the scariest book you ve ever written. I ve even done the cover art for you. pic.twitter.com/ttVVMUz4Mm Anna Brooks (@Anna_Brooksie) October 22, 2016@StephenKing In the end, it was really his evil toupee that had tendrils going into his brain. Martin Heavy Head (@mheavyhead) October 21, 2016@StephenKing can it be a Langoliers crossover where the sane people wake up and find the deplorables gone? Vanessa Carmona (@CollaredGreens) October 21, 2016@CollaredGreens @StephenKing I always figured the presidential candidate who triggered WWIII in The Dead Zone was a prediction of Trump! RoboUnicorn (@nicholashorwood) October 21, 2016@StephenKing He was not-so-secretely a pumkin who had long planned to squash humanity as a revenge for all his fallen pumpkin brothers RacletteBagarre (@Jessyfer_Goguet) October 21, 2016@StephenKing And then, on Election Day Eve, a singularity opened underneath Donald s home, and their was much rejoicing. Chuck Toporek (@chuckdude) October 21, 2016@filmbuffbaker @StephenKing Similar ending to The Mist, except Trump kills all of America and feels good about it. Josh Barton (@bartonj2410) October 22, 2016? @StephenKing #DonaldTrump real life movie even bigger horror. Grabs female audiences by the .! 2 tiny thumbs down! Now imagine #TrumpTV IMRAN (@ImranAnwar) October 22, 2016@ImranAnwar I already have! @StephenKing pic.twitter.com/Sct8GpCFjR #McMullinFinn2016 (@ImFarToTheRight) October 22, 2016Stephen King really should write this book. Because Donald Trump is a true nightmare.Featured Image: Twitter

***LANGUAGE WARNING***I admittedly (and intentionally) haven t seen too many Ben Affleck movies, but watching this rabid defender of Islam, Ben Affleck go off the rails over the deflate gate controversy left me wondering about this belligerent Hollywood leftist. Does Affleck typically slur his 4-letter words while appearing to be cross-eyed during interviews?Here is Affleck defending Islam in an over the top response to leftist Bill Maher s comments:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a move to bolster support among veterans, Republican Donald Trump joined a leather-jacket-wearing, motorcycle-riding crowd in Washington on Sunday to honor fighters who served in foreign wars and advocate for those still missing in action. Riders from across the country converged on the National Mall near the Lincoln Memorial for the annual “Rolling Thunder” rally and to listen to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who hopes to be commander in chief next year. “We’re going to rebuild our military and we’re going to take care of our veterans,” Trump told the crowd of thousands, many of whom wore leather vests, veterans’ hats and biker insignia. Trump, the billionaire businessman who has promised to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico if he becomes president, said illegal immigrants in many cases got better care in the United States than military veterans. “We’re not going to allow that to happen any longer,” he said. Trump, 69, who did not serve in the military, upset veterans last year when he said Senator John McCain of Arizona was not a war hero. McCain, a Navy fighter pilot who went on to become the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, was imprisoned and tortured after being shot down during the Vietnam War. Trump made no mention of McCain during his remarks on Sunday, and the crowd cheered him enthusiastically, with some waving signs including “Bikers for Trump” and “Make America Great Again.” Supporters cheered when Trump mentioned veterans and booed at the mention of Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. “I don’t know if he can fix (veterans’ issues), but he’s the only one I think will try,” said Leonard Westberry, 68, of Richmond, Virginia, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Vietnam in 1967. Westberry said he planned to support Trump in the Nov. 8 election. “It’s awesome that Trump is here. ... That’s a good thing,” said Ralph Giannola, 65, who said he had not decided whether to support Trump in November. “I just don’t want to see any rioting. I mean, protests are OK. I don’t want to see anybody get hurt,” he said. There were no protest interruptions during Trump’s nearly 20-minute address on Sunday, a rarity for similar events. “I know one thing, you’re going to all behave yourselves, right?” Trump said to positive affirmations from the crowd. “And I know another thing - there won’t be any paid agitators in this group,” he added to cheers.

This video is so disturbing but is a great example of ZERO PARENTING! The kids were riding the subway attacking different passengers. Patrick Coyle started recording after the kids slapped a lady. They then turned on him: (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Please show this to the right personPosted by Patrick Coyle on Thursday, 24 March 2016

Hello Jeff Sessions! Where is the DOJ s leader these days? Something tells us the Trump Dossier will end up being the bombshell that exposes Comey, Brennan and Clapper and all of the other criminals who used this dossier to spy on Trump. Obama used the dossier to spy on Trump!Anyone who followed the Obama White House intel policy outcomes will know that DNI Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan were the two primary political operatives weaponizing intelligence.But it gets better Comey comes into play:Remember the bombshell testimony of the Hermitage Capital CEO where the origin of the Fusion GPS Russian Dossier was discussed? CEO Browder stated the Russian government paid Fusion GPS to create the Steele propaganda dossier on candidate Donald Trump. That same dossier was used by the FBI in June/July 2016 to generate the FISA surveillance warrants against the Trump campaign. BOMBSHELL: Comey was using propaganda commissioned by Russia, funded in part by the FBI, to attack Trump, as the framework to launch his FBI investigation into candidate Donald Trump and Russian collusion.CEO BROWDER S ADMISSION BELOW:This is getting good.What does Nunes do now after several attempts at getting documents related to the dossier?After two previous deadlines came and went, House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes has set a new date for the FBI and Justice Department to turn over documents relating to the Trump dossier.Nunes originally subpoenaed the FBI and Justice on Aug. 24, demanding dossier documents by Sept. 1. When none were produced, Nunes agreed to extend the deadline to September 14. During that time, arrangements were made for intelligence committee investigators to visit the Justice Department to make sure officials on both sides understood precisely which documents the committee seeks.No documents were produced by Sept. 14, and now Nunes, apparently unsatisfied with the results of the staff meeting, has sent a new letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In it, Nunes set a deadline of this Friday for the documents to be produced. If the documents are not produced by then, Nunes directed that Wray and Sessions appear in an open committee hearing Sept. 28, to explain why they did not hand over the materials.The document request in the original Aug. 24 subpoena has not changed. It focuses on the FBI s relations with Christopher Steele, the former British spy retained by the American opposition research firm Fusion GPS to dig dirt on Donald Trump in Russia as part of an effort funded by wealthy supporters of Hillary Clinton. Among other things, the original subpoena demanded all internal FBI reports incorporating, relying on, or referring to information provided by Steele, his sources, or Fusion GPS.The original subpoena also asked for any information, if it exists, provided by Mr. Steele as an informant/source (confidential or otherwise) or in any other capacity, as well as any documents relating to whether the FBI paid or offered any benefits to Steele. The subpoena also asked for all documents relating to FBI and Justice efforts to corroborate, validate, or evaluate information provided by Steele.Finally, the original subpoena requested any court applications for surveillance that included any information provided by Steele, plus any court orders, if there were any, that were based in any part on Steele s information.So far, the FBI and Justice Department have not provided the information. Now, they have a new deadline.Read more: WE

The Dem Convention has been a crazy event so far Meryl Streep screaming and Bernie supporters walking out Now we have pop star Kesha ranting about gun control at a Gabby Giffords event who the heck are these people? Democrats are definitely not having a good week! We can control is who we give the f**king weapons to. KeshaKesha was playing a late night concert coinciding with the Democrat National Convention in Philadelphia, at an event sponsored by Gabby Gifford s gun control group, Americans for Responsible Solutions.According to The Hill, Kesha played a four song set. Halfway through the set she stopped and said she needed to say something. She then said:We as a nation, we can t control who feels hurt, we can t control who feels pain. You can t control every single person and know how they re going to deal with things and know if they re going to pick up a weapon you don t know that. But what we can control is who we give the f**king weapons to.She added, I think the universe is screaming at us that there needs to be a change, and we have to f**king listen. Kesha then launched into a song titled, Dirty Love. Read more: Breitbart News

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia respects the desire of Iraqi Kurdistan to assert its identity but this must be done in dialogue with the Iraqi government, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday at talks with his Iraqi government counterpart. Relations between Iraqi Kurdistan and the central government in Baghdad have been in crisis since the region held an independence referendum last month. The Iraqi military took back the oil-rich Kirkuk area from Kurdish forces last week. We understand the hopes of the Kurdish people as it concerns their striving to strengthen their identity, their self-awareness, Lavrov said at a news conference with Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. However, we believe it is correct to realize those desires, those hopes exclusively via the Iraqi government and taking fully into account the significance the Kurdish question has on a regional scale, and taking into account the need to avoid additional sources of instability in the region. Lavrov was meeting Jaafari days after Russian state oil major Rosneft agreed to take control of Iraqi Kurdistan s main oil pipeline. Iraqi oil minister Jabar al-Luaibi said on Saturday he had sought clarification from Rosneft. Lavrov said Russia would continue its economic ties with Iraqi Kurdistan, as it does with other constituent parts of Iraq. He said Russia was not closing its consulate in Erbil, the main city in Iraqi Kurdistan, but said the mission was subordinate to the Russian embassy in Baghdad. (This version of the story corrects paragraph four to show Lavrov said instability , not stability )

There s an old saying: pot, meet kettle. Republicans have become renowned for their absolute hypocrisy in recent years, especially their vile, hateful rhetoric towards anyone who isn t a white, straight Christian. But now that Donald Trump is the party s de facto leader and presidential frontrunner, Republicans all across the country are now distancing themselves from him and his hateful remarks.But Nancy Pelosi is not letting Republicans get away with their pathetic softer image shtick. Saying there isn t a dime worth of difference between Trump and the other Republicans, Pelosi blasted the GOP leadership for stoking racial demagoguery: Some Republicans, including members of their leadership, have said they cannot support the vile rhetoric and radical proposals of the Republican front-runner. Today, we have gathered to ask, since when? Since when have the House Republicans been so concerned about intolerant statements and discriminatory ideas? She then added, Year after year, Republicans have enthusiastically turned their intolerance and their discrimination into legislation. Pelosi then lambasted the GOP for their constant attacks on women s reproductive health, which has become synonymous with Trump s call to punish women who get abortions.Along with Reps. Jim Clyburn and Xavier Beccara, both Democrats, the minority leadership went all in on the GOP, and rightfully so.Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer echoed the Minority Leader s words, saying: The Republicans have created an environment in radicalism, fear and exclusion. The presumptive nominee is the result of their work, and what they have sowed is what they are reaping. Pelosi and Hoyer, as usual, are on the money.While Republicans are working overtime trying to soften Trump s vile image, the Democrats are doing their job of reminding the American people that there really is no difference between the new leader of the GOP and those in current power.With Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi revving up their attacks on the GOP frontrunner (and indeed the whole party), 2016 may be the year of women in politics.And if that s the case, Donald Trump and Senate Republicans should be very afraid.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images

North Carolina, which is still butthurt over the Supreme Court s decision not to allow their voter suppression law to go into effect before the election, is getting a touch creative with their reasons not to allow early voting. What if a person votes, and then dies?We wish we were making this up.Alas, though, we aren t. Dallas Woodhouse, North Carolina s GOP executive director, tried his best to sound extremely worried about this non-existent crisis when he spoke to Fox 8 about it: We have a situation here where you have to be alive on Election Day. If you vote early, you still have to be alive in a very close race you could literally have dead people voting. We have a situation here. Har de har har. Dead people voting has been one of the GOP s drumbeats regarding voter fraud for a long time, and, of course, on their planet, voter fraud actually only occurs when Democrats are able to vote. Early voting is one of those areas, but absentee voting, for some reason, isn t.Gee, could it be because the majority of people who cast absentee ballots in North Carolina are white, elderly and Republican? The majority of people who cast ballots during early voting are primarily minority and Democrat. From a reasonable perspective, if North Carolina were really worried about dead people voting, they should be targeting absentee voting, not early voting.North Carolina does have a law requiring that voters be alive on Election Day for their votes to be counted, even if they cast an early or absentee ballot. There are, however, contingencies in effect should someone who voted early die before Election Day. They re outlined by North Carolina Board of Elections general counsel Josh Lawson, below: All early voting is done on retrievable ballots, he said. If a person dies, the county board of elections is notified by the Social Security Administration or the Registrar of Deeds. They have a pretty good system for tracking deaths. When we become aware of it, we remove that ballot.' North Carolina is busy what-iffing itself off the edge of the sanity cliff here. With each comment, they increasingly prove that their voter suppression law was all about suppressing the minority vote.Featured image by Sara D. Davis/Getty Images

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A CIA operative told a jury on Tuesday about the terror he experienced in 2012 when militants attacked the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, and described how he recovered the body of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens. The operative, who testified in what the judge described as light disguise under the pseudonym Alexander Charles, was the latest witness to appear in the trial of Ahmed Abu Khatallah, who is accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2012, attack that killed Stevens and three other Americans. Charles said all hell broke loose shortly after he arrived at the CIA annex in Benghazi, which came under mortar fire. The mortars killed Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, and gravely injured two other Americans. You could feel the whole ground shaking, Charles said, describing the attack. Big blocks of cement (were) falling. He added that he thought it would be his last night on this Earth. Had the attacks continued, he said, he and the others would have been buried alive. Khatallah was captured in 2014 in Libya by a team of U.S. military and FBI officials and taken to the United States aboard a Navy vessel. The charges he faces include murder and providing material support to terrorists. Prosecutors say he helped organize the attacks, though he did not physically participate himself. He has pleaded not guilty. Since the trial opened last week, jurors have heard emotional testimony from State Department and CIA officials, offering a detailed behind-the-scenes look at what happened that night. A Bureau of Diplomatic Security agent last week told a harrowing story of how he tried to save Stevens and State Department staffer Sean Smith as they crawled on their bellies through thick black smoke. On Tuesday, Charles talked about how he helped put Doherty and Woods bodies onto a truck waiting outside the annex, and how they worked to save State Department staffer David Ubben, whose leg was nearly blown off. Because he spoke Arabic, Charles was also able to recover another American s body, after he said that by divine intervention, he overheard a Libyan security official who was standing nearby ask other revolutionaries: Should we tell him about the dead American in the hospital? Charles said he approached the man and asked who he was referring to. About 15 minutes later, a body was delivered via ambulance in a body bag. Charles said he unzipped the bag, looked down and saw the ambassador s face.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday the United States is “deeply concerned” that China’s new law on management of the activities of foreign non-governmental organizations will narrow the space for civil society in China. China’s parliament passed a law governing foreign NGOs, state news agency Xinhua reported. The law is part of a raft of legislation, including China’s counterterrorism law, put forward amid a new push to crack down on dissent by President Xi Jinping’s administration. The White House urged China to respect the rights and freedoms of human rights defenders, journalists, business groups, and others, “including by protecting the ability of foreign NGO’s to operate in China,” Ned Price, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in a statement.

It would be a real shame if that hot coffee was made by some horrible war-mongering veteran or evil gay person .A Marine veteran who spilled coffee on Westboro Baptist Church protesters last weekend admits he lost his temper, but says defending the U.S. flag is worth possible jail time. So many people have died in defense of that flag. I don t care who you are, you are not going to disrespect the flag. And if I have to go to jail to defend that flag, I m going to do it, said Richard Pierce, 64, The News Journal of Delaware reported Wednesday.The veteran was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after the June 6 incident. He has a July 20 hearing in the Court of Common Pleas, the newspaper reported.Mr. Pierce, who served in Vietnam, said he wasn t expecting to cause trouble on Saturday while watching the presidential motorcade for Vice President Joseph R. Biden s son head for Wilmington. The funeral for 46-year-old Beau Biden, who died after a two-year fight with brain cancer, was held at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church. When I saw the young lady walking across the highway, dragging our flag under her feet, I lost my temper and the only way that I could demonstrate that is spill my coffee on them, Mr. Pierce said, the newspaper reported.The Marine veteran s coffee soaked two of the three members who picketed the motorcade with anti-U.S. and anti-gay signs.Via: Washington Times

On Sunday, former CNN host Soledad O Brien appeared on CNN s Reliable Sources, where she claimed that CNN and the mainstream media in general, have helped Donald Trump normalize white supremacy through their coverage of his campaign. If you look at Hillary Clinton s speech where she basically pointed out that what Donald Trump has done actually quite well has normalized white supremacy. I think she made a very good argument, almost like a lawyer. Here are ways in which he has actually worked to normalize conversations that many people find hateful.I ve seen on-air, white supremacists being interviewed because they are Trump delegates, and they do a five-minute segment, the first minute or so talking about what they believe as white supremacists. So you have normalized that. O Brien continued to voice her objections to the type of coverage the press has given Trump over the course of his campaign run, saying: Donald Trump will say, Hillary Clinton, she s a bigot. And it s covered, the journalist part comes in, They trade barbs. He said she s a bigot and she points out that he might be appealing to racists. It only becomes he said, she said. When in actuality, the fact that Donald Trump said she s a bigot without the long laundry list of evidence, which if you looked at Hillary Clinton s speech, she actually did have a lot of really good factual evidence that we would all agree that are things that have happened and do exist. They are treated as if they are equal. O Brien is voicing critiques of the media that have come up recently regarding the way media organizations handle their bias towards objectivity. Similar criticisms of mainstream media companies have arisen in the past over a wide variety of issues most notably, when covering issues relating to climate change. For example, in an effort to appear objective, news and editorial shows will have a climate scientist come on their program as well as a climate change denier.It isn t at all fair to have a climate change denier be given airtime when they represent an incredibly small fraction of the population of experts. Especially when you take into consideration that their views are generally considered to be demonstrably false by all available scientific evidence.The same goes for Trump and those involved with his campaign. They represent an overall tiny segment of population keep in mind that less than 10% of the eligible U.S. population voted for any candidate in the presidential primary and they generally have put out views that are hateful and even bizarre.You can watch the video of the exchange below:Featured image via video screen capture

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May is outraged by North Korea s firing of a missile that flew over northern Japan on Friday and Britain will keep pressing China to increase the pressure on the state, her spokesman said. North Korea fired a missile that flew over Japan s northern Hokkaido far out into the Pacific Ocean, South Korean and Japanese officials said, deepening tension after Pyongyang s recent test of its most powerful nuclear bomb. The prime minister is outraged by North Korea s continued reckless provocation and she strongly condemns the regime s illegal tests, the spokesman said. Our key focus now is continuing to press China to keep up the pressure on North Korea to change course.

We reported about a Trump protester who grabbed him during a rally today in Dayton. Click HERE for video.Trump congratulate USSS (United States Secret Service) on Twitter: excellent job stopping the maniac running to the stage Trump then said He has ties to ISIS. He should be in jail! See tweet here:Here s the video that Donald posted with his tweet:USSS did an excellent job stopping the maniac running to the stage. He has ties to ISIS. Should be in jail! https://t.co/tkzbHg7wyD?ssr=true Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2016

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday described as bizarre the legal process used by companies to challenge competitors’ patents as the Supreme Court heard a case involving a vehicle speedometer that alerts drivers if they are driving too quickly. The eight justices heard an appeal filed by Cuozzo Speed Technologies LLC, whose speedometer patent was invalidated in a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office review board procedure after being challenged by GPS device maker Garmin Ltd in 2012. The issue before the justices during a one-hour argument in the case was whether the U.S. government has made it too easy for companies to pursue challenges to the patents of other companies. New Jersey-based Cuozzo challenged the board’s action in federal court, and an appeals court last year upheld the agency’s action. Cuozzo then asked the Supreme Court to reverse the appellate decision. Garmin is no longer involved in the case. Roberts was the most outspoken critic among the eight justices of the current system in which companies can adopt a dual-track strategy by challenging patents simultaneously in federal court and through the agency review board. Roberts described the system as a “bizarre way to ... decide a legal question” and a “very extraordinary animal in legal culture to have two different proceedings addressing the same question.” Justice Stephen Breyer appeared more sympathetic to the patent office. He said the 2011 law that set up the review board procedure may have intended to counter criticism that the patent office issues “too many patents that shouldn’t have been issued in the first place.” So-called patent trolls, entities that hold patents only for the purpose of suing firms seeking to develop new products, have benefited from that generosity. Breyer indicated that the patent office views the law as allowing a second bite at the question of whether a patent should have been issued. Breyer called it a “partial-Groundhog Day statute,” referring to the 1993 film “Groundhog Day” in which Bill Murray’s character repeatedly re-lives the same day. Companies that are frequent targets of patent suits, including Apple Inc and Google Inc, have turned to the patent office procedure, known as “inter partes review” (IPR), to try to fight off patent challenges. Google and Apple joined court papers backing the patent office. Cuozzo told the justices that in nearly 85 percent of cases some or all of the patents challenged were canceled. A ruling is due by the end of June.

ANKARA (Reuters) - The European Union does not share Turkey s view that the network of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen is a terrorist organization and would need to see substantive evidence to change its stance, the EU s counter-terrorism coordinator said. The comments by Gilles de Kerchove are likely to infuriate Ankara, which accuses Gulen of masterminding a failed military coup last year, in which more than 250 people were killed. Gulen has denied the charge and condemned the coup. Turkey has long accused its NATO allies, including the United States and Germany, of failing to condemn the abortive putsch strongly enough, saying they appeared more concerned by Ankara s ensuing crackdown on suspected supporters of the coup. As for FETO, we don t see it as a terrorist organization, and I don t believe the EU is likely to change its position soon, Kerchove said, using the Turkish government s acronym for Gulen s network. You need not only circumstantial evidence - like just downloading an app - but concrete substantive data which shows that they were involved..., he told Reuters in an interview cleared for publication on Thursday. Turkish authorities have detained some 50,000 people, including teachers, police officers, journalists and U.S. consular staff for alleged links to Gulen s network. Some 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from their jobs. Some have been detained for having downloaded ByLock, a messaging app the government says was used by the coup plotters. Others have been detained for having had telephone calls with ByLock users. Human rights groups and some EU officials accuse Erdogan of using the crackdown to muzzle dissent in Turkey, a charge Ankara denies. It says the scale of the clampdown is justified because the Gulen network threatens national security. Gulen was once an ally of Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party and his movement ran schools, banks and media outlets in Turkey until the two men had a public falling-out in 2013. Germany s BND spy agency has said it is not convinced that Gulen was behind the failed coup, in which rogue soldiers used tanks and helicopters to attack Turkey s parliament and other key targets. Turkey has also sought, so far unsuccessfully, Gulen s extradition from the United States, where the cleric has lived in self-imposed exile since 1999. U.S. officials say their courts require sufficient evidence to order his extradition. As of July, Turkey had supplied 84 boxes of documents to the United States for evidence, Ankara s envoy to Washington has said, although he has acknowledged that more concrete evidence of Gulen s direct involvement has remained elusive. Germany, which has sharply criticized the mass arrests in Turkey, has refused to extradite people Ankara says were involved in the plot or linked to Gulen s network. The decision on extradition is in the hands of all member states, and most of the time the judiciary, the independent judiciary, and they need hard evidence, Kerchove said.

PRISTINA (Reuters) - Two Kosovo men pleaded guilty on Wednesday to planning attacks at a World Cup soccer match in Albania against the visiting Israel team last year. Kosovo police arrested 19 people in November 2016 on suspicion that they had links with the Islamic State militant group and were planning attacks in Kosovo and neighboring Albania. Nine of them were charged. The state prosecutor said some of them were in contact with Lavdrim Muhaxheri, Islamic State s self-declared commander of Albanians in Syria and Iraq , who ordered them to attack. Police said Muhaxheri was killed in June this year. ... I accept guilty plea, defendant Kenan Plakaj said in court. He is accused of making explosives, after police found half a kilo of explosives at his house, the indictment said. The other defendant, Besart Peci, also pleaded guilty. Sentences were not announced. Another defendant facing trial had kept in his basement 283 grams of self-made explosives. The same triacetone triperoxide explosive was used in attacks in Paris and Brussels and has been found in various foiled bombings in Europe since 2007. No militant attacks have been staged in Kosovo, whose population is largely ethnic Albanian Muslim. But at least 200 people have been detained or investigated over offences related to Islamic State, and a total of 300 Kosovars have gone to Syria to fight for Islamic State. More than 70 have been killed. International and local security agencies in Kosovo are worried that many of those returning from combat zones will pose a security threat. In 2015, Kosovo adopted a law introducing jail sentences of up to 15 years for anyone found guilty of fighting in wars abroad.

Did America really expect this racist, Community Organizer In Chief to go out quietly? Barack and Mooch have played Americans like fools for 8 long years. No wonder Mooch was never proud of her country before Barack became President. The white man had not yet been sufficiently punished for the crimes of his ancestors against the black man. If America knew this is what it would take to make Mooch and her radical husband proud, would they have still voted for him? Thank goodness for Barack, he s got Hillary to unashamedly keep the torch of hate lit, in order to keep the Democrats dependent upon them to even the playing field. A Ballwin Police officer was in critical condition after he was shot in the neck during a traffic stop late Friday morning, police said.The male officer had stopped the car for speeding on northbound New Ballwin Road about 11 a.m., police said. As the officer went back to his car, the driver got out, advanced quickly and fired three shots at the officer, police said.Said St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar: Make no mistake, we believe that Ballwin officer was ambushed. St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch agreed. It was clearly an ambush, an attack, he said. There was no confrontation, no argument, no nothing. He also said it appeared that one of the shots might have been fired after the officer fell.The gunman fled north on New Ballwin Road and was captured in Manchester several miles northeast of the shooting scene, after jumping out of the car and running, police said.A semiautomatic handgun was recovered, according to St. Louis County Police, who are taking over the investigation.The suspect, identified as Antonio Taylor, 31, of the 1200 block of Tower Grove Avenue, was charged with first-degree assault of a law enforcement officer, armed criminal action and unlawful possession of a weapon. Bail was set at $500,000.Belmar, the St. Louis County chief, said his department has gone to 12-hour days throughout the weekend as result of heightened sense of alert after all that has happened nationally and now locally. We need somebody out there to meet us halfway, because it is very difficult for police officers to do their jobs now, Belmar said. At some point we need to tone down the rhetoric. The officer had radioed in that he was stopping a car about 11 a.m., police said. Then 911 dispatchers began getting reports of an officer shot.A woman living in the 300 block of New Ballwin Road near the scene of the shooting said she heard two gunshots and ran out her front door to see what happened. After seeing the wounded officer, she grabbed a towel to put on his neck to try to stop the bleeding. I tried to help the officer, the witness said. I just hope he s OK. The woman who helped the officer said she isn t trained as a nurse or first responder. I m just a mom, she said.She said her friend called 911 while a nurse performed CPR.Other residents living near the scene of the shooting said they heard gunshots but didn t know what they were at first. I thought it was kids or firecrackers or something, said a resident on the street. I m looking outside at many, many police officers. They all need our prayers. A camera in the police car caught the shooting on video, Scott said. He urged anyone else with any video of the incident to call police.Criminal historyIn 2006, Taylor was charged and convicted in Beck County, Okla., on charges of second-degree robbery and unauthorized use of a vehicle, online records from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections say. He was sentenced to five years in prison and was released in 2009.That same year, St. Louis prosecutors charged Taylor with unlawful possession of a firearm for a July 7, 2009 incident.He pleaded guilty, but his prison sentence was suspended and he was placed on probation by St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Mullen, online court records show. Mullen also ordered him to have mental health and substance abuse evaluations.Taylor then faced federal and state charges after being caught with a gun on June 14, 2010.Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Mehan, who prosecuted the case, said that on June 14, 2010, Taylor was caught with a gun in car that had been carjacked the day before.When he pleaded guilty to the charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, Taylor admitted running when stopped by police and discarding a handgun.U.S. District Judge Jean Hamilton sentenced him on Jan. 14, 2011, to 30 months in prison.He received a two-year sentence in St. Louis Circuit Court for a gun charge and resisting arrest, to run concurrent with the federal sentence.In June of 2013, Taylor wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge Jean Hamilton asking to be released from supervised release early. Taylor wrote that he wanted to pursue an acting career. He said he had been working, had been free of violations and had not failed any drug tests.But later that month, his probation officer said that Taylor had repeatedly failed to show up for those drug tests, failed to report to the probation office, left eastern Missouri without permission and had been accused of assaulting his girlfriend when she refused sex.She also said that Taylor had contact with the police in Los Angeles on June 20, 2013.In that incident, Mehan said that Taylor was the passenger in a car that was stopped for not having license plates. Taylor was the passenger, and became extremely agitated after the stop, screaming and waving his hands around. After he was arrested, police found a loaded 9 mm pistol, Mehan said.In April of 2014, Taylor admitted violating his supervised release and Hamilton sentenced him to 15 more months in prison.He was released in March of 2015.McCulloch said police work is 99 percent routine and there s no way to predict that something like this is going to happen. Via: St Post-Dispatch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Friday blocked new exploration for oil and gas in Arctic waters, in a win for environmental groups that had fought development of the ecologically fragile region. The Department of the Interior released a 2017 to 2022 leasing plan that blocked drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off northern Alaska. It also limited petroleum development in the Cook Inlet off south-central Alaska. Environmental activists have battled drilling in Alaska to protect whales, walruses and seals, and as part of a broader movement to keep remaining fossil fuels in the ground. The Interior Department said the plan was “balanced,” and left 70 percent of economically recoverable oil and gas resources open to drilling, mostly in the Gulf of Mexico. The plan focuses on the best areas “with the highest resource potential, lowest conflict and established infrastructure - and removes regions that are simply not right to lease,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said. President Barack Obama, who last year became the first sitting president to cross the Arctic Circle, has made fighting climate change and protecting the Arctic priorities in his administration. But President-elect Donald Trump, a Republican who takes office on Jan. 20, 2017, has vowed to open resources to petroleum development and could take steps to reverse the decision. Oil interests have pressured the administration to explore for energy in the Arctic. Jack Girard, the head of the American Petroleum Institute industry group, said the decision “puts the U.S. at a serious competitive disadvantage.” Russia and Norway have also explored the Arctic, though Exxon Mobil wound down drilling in the Russian north in 2014 due to U.S. sanctions over Moscow’s aggression in eastern Ukraine. Fierce winds and frigid waters make the Arctic treacherous for drilling equipment. After spending billions of dollars to explore the Alaskan Arctic, Royal Dutch Shell retreated in 2015 after suffering a gash in one of its ships and environmentalists had uncovered details of an old law that forced the company to cut exploration there by half. The U.S. Coast Guard complained when Shell was drilling off Alaska that it had been forced to divert resources, including a vessel that fought cocaine trafficking, to keep operations in the region safe. (reut.rs/2g4yHSW) Environmentalists applauded the new lease plan, which built on a similar decision in March when the government removed much of the Atlantic ocean from oil and gas leasing for five years. “This is excellent news for our oceans, from the Arctic to the Atlantic,” said Jacqueline Savitz, deputy vice president for U.S. campaigns of Oceana, an international advocacy group.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will propose new cabinet level U.S.-Japan talks on trade, security and macroeconomic issues, including currencies, when he meets U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday, a Japanese government official involved in planning the summit said. Abe heads to Washington later on Thursday hoping promises to help create U.S. jobs and bolster Japan’s military will persuade Trump to turn down the heat on trade and currency and stand by the decades-old alliance. “In a situation in which security relations in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly severe, it is very important to demonstrate the unshakeable U.S.-Japan alliance at home and abroad,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. “This is the most important theme of the U.S.-Japan leaders summit,” he said, adding it was also vital to have constructive discussions on how to create a “win-win” relationship by further strengthening U.S.-Japan economic ties. Trump has lumped Japan with China and Mexico as big contributors to the U.S. trade deficit, targeted its auto trade as “unfair” and accused Tokyo of using monetary policy to devalue its currency to boost exports. “We use monetary easing, fiscal policy and structural reform in order to escape from deflation. We don’t engage in competitive currency devaluation or target specific levels,” Masahiko Shibayama, an adviser to the premier, told Reuters. “We’ll explain based on the fact that Japanese automakers are contributing to U.S. jobs through their local subsidiaries.” During his election campaign, Trump complained Tokyo was not sharing enough of the cost of the U.S. security umbrella although his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, assured Japan the alliance was firm when he visited the country last week. Abe, who will be accompanied by Finance Minister Taro Aso and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, will bring a package of steps Tokyo says could create 700,000 U.S. jobs through private-public investment in infrastructure such as high-speed trains, government sources say. Trump, who abandoned the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact championed by his predecessor Barack Obama and Abe as a counterweight to a rising China, has made clear he wants a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with Tokyo instead. Abe has left the door open to FTA talks but Japanese officials worry such negotiations would boost pressure on politically sensitive sectors such as agriculture while yielding few economic benefits for Japan. The new cabinet level talks, the government official told Reuters, would be a way of buying time rather than opening FTA talks at an early stage. Tokyo and Washington already have a cabinet-level mechanism for security talks, the so-called “2-plus-2” meetings of defense and foreign ministers. The new economic framework will be headed by Aso, who is also deputy prime minister, and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, and would address a range of issues, with a focus on crafting trade policies and measures to bolster U.S. employment, said a report in the Nikkei business daily. Abe is likely to propose crafting highly liberal rules for trade and investment in areas such as intellectual property protection, rules of origin, regulations on state-owned companies and e-commerce, the Nikkei said. Japan hopes such bilateral rules would be similar to those agreed upon in the TPP and could be extended to cover the Asia-Pacific region to counter China’s growing clout, it added. The two nations are also preparing statements regarding economic cooperation and security to be issued after the summit meeting, the Nikkei said. Abe and Trump will also play a round of gold in Florida this weekend after the meeting at the White House on Friday and Trump said he will make sure the Japanese leader is his partner in the game, rather than a competitor.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If Mike Pence had any doubts about what life would be like on the 2016 Republican presidential ticket with Donald Trump, the past week will have erased them: He is the damage control guy. The Indiana governor who swore off political mudslinging years ago heard Trump call Democratic rival Hillary Clinton “the devil” and watched him fan the flames of a feud with the parents of a Muslim soldier who died saving U.S. troops in Iraq. Unlike many vice presidential running mates, the mild-mannered Pence was not tapped as the attack dog in the Nov. 8 presidential election. Trump has that part down pat. Pence’s job is harder: softening Trump’s rough edges and limiting the fallout from what many Republicans see as the nominee’s self-inflicted wounds. A week ago, for example, Pence rowed back on Trump’s blacklist of some media outlets, saying the campaign is discussing changing course. Last Sunday, as Trump’s dispute with the parents of slain U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan boiled over, Pence issued a statement praising the soldier as an “American hero” and saying that his family “should be cherished by every American.”     On Wednesday, Pence offered his own endorsement to House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, the top U.S. elected Republican, after Trump infuriated many party leaders by declining to endorse Ryan in his re-election bid. Pence, who swore off negative campaigning after losing a vituperative congressional race in 1990, eschews name calling. Trump, by contrast, delights in using monikers such as “Crooked Hillary” and “the devil” to describe Clinton. Trump has made clear he values Pence, telling a rally on Thursday in Portland, Maine, that he and his running mate have a “great relationship.” But Pence must walk a fine line. Even as he defuses Trump’s verbal bombs, Pence must be careful to show he knows who is boss. He also has to stick to his own principles while not appearing to be trying to undermine the man who chose him as his No. 2. Should Trump win, Pence, a former congressman, could serve as a conduit to the U.S. Congress. But if Trump loses, Pence could emerge as a possible White House contender for 2020. Republican strategist Charlie Black said Pence has shown some political deftness. “He should have expected he would do some of this and provide more of the even-tempered, articulate, measured responses,” Black said. But Republican strategist Ryan Williams said Pence is in an “impossible spot” and said that Trump’s missteps could cast a shadow over his running mate’s political future.     “Mike Pence is a good Republican but unfortunately he will be associated with the controversies that have ensnared the Trump-Pence ticket and will be tied to whatever the consequences of this election are,” Williams said.     Trump’s off-the-cuff insults and controversial proposals, such as a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States and a plan to build a wall along the Mexican border to keep illegal immigrants out, have made many in the party establishment uneasy. The Republican nominee’s feud with the Khan family made for an awkward moment for Pence at a campaign event in Carson City, Nevada. A military mother asked Pence how could he tolerate Trump’s disrespect for the armed forces, which prompted boos. Pence admonished the crowd to tone it down. “Folks, that’s what freedom looks like and that’s what freedom sounds like,” he said before calling Humayun Khan an American hero. Pence was asked on Thursday by an 11-year-old boy at a North Carolina rally if his role was “softening up” Trump’s policies and words. Pence replied that he and Trump were “shoulder to shoulder” in the campaign. Christopher Devine, co-author of the book “The VP Advantage” and an assistant political science professor at the University of Dayton in Ohio, said that if Trump loses the November election, Pence may try to position himself as a conservative bridge between Trump supporters and traditional Republicans. That may be an added reason for Pence’s cautious approach. “He has to be very careful about how he handles the defense of Donald Trump,” Devine said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates has told Justice Department lawyers not to defend President Donald Trump’s order temporarily banning travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, CNN reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources. Yates was named deputy attorney general by then-President Barack Obama in 2015 and asked to stay on as acting head of the Justice Department by Trump.

MADRID/BARCELONA (Reuters) - Catalonia s leaders said on Saturday they would not accept direct rule imposed on the region by the Spanish government, as a political crisis that has rattled the economy and raised fears of prolonged unrest showed no signs of easing. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced earlier on Saturday he would invoke special constitutional powers to fire the regional government and force a new election to counter the region s move towards independence. Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who made a symbolic declaration of independence on Oct. 10 after a referendum to secede, called Rajoy s moves the worst attacks against the people of Catalonia since Spain s military dictatorship. It is the first time since Spain s return to democracy that the central government has used its powers to seize control of a regional administration. Rajoy said it was necessary to end a crisis that has fractured the country and prompted Spain to reduce growth forecasts for the euro zone s fourth-largest economy. After taking party in peaceful demonstration, Puigdemont expressed his rejection of Madrid s move, but stopped short of saying he would make good his threat to push ahead with the independence bid before direct rule takes effect. I ask the (Catalan) parliament to meet in a plenary session during which we, the representatives of the citizens sovereignty, will be able to decide over this attempt to liquidate our government and our democracy, and act in consequence, Puigdemont said in a televised address. Rajoy, who acted with backing from the main opposition party in Madrid and King Felipe, needs the authorization of Spain s upper house of parliament to impose direct rule. Our objective is to restore the law and a normal cohabitation among citizens, which has deteriorated a lot, continue with the economic recovery, which is under threat today in Catalonia, and celebrate elections in a situation of normality, he said. The Senate vote that would give Madrid full control of Catalonia s finances, police and public media and curb the powers of the regional parliament for up to six months is scheduled for next Friday. That could give the independence movement room to maneuver. The regional parliament s speaker, Carme Forcadell, said she would not accept Madrid s move and accused Rajoy of a coup. Prime Minister Rajoy wants the parliament of Catalonia to stop being a democratic parliament, and we will not allow this to happen, Forcadell said in a televised speech. The assembly is expected to decide on Monday whether to hold a session to formally proclaim the republic of Catalonia. Catalan media have said Puigdemont could dissolve the regional parliament and call elections by next Friday. Under Catalan law, those elections would take place within two months. That would enable Puigdemont to go the polls earlier than envisaged by Rajoy, who spoke of a six-month timetable, and to exploit the anti-Madrid sentiment running high in the region. Pro-independence groups have previously mustered more than 1 million people onto the streets in protest at Madrid s refusal to negotiate a solution. Puigdemont and his cabinet colleagues joined a demonstration in Barcelona, wearing yellow ribbons in support of two senior independence campaigners who have been jailed on charges of sedition. Freedom! Freedom! tens of thousands of protesters chanted as they waived independence flags and signs reading Defending our land is not a crime, and Let s proclaim the republic. (Rajoy) triggering this article will not resolve anything, said 38-year-old builder Abel Fernandez, attending the demonstration with a pro-independence flag tied around his neck. They won t be able to keep quiet the half of Catalonia that is in favor of independence and those who favor the right to decide. Catalan authorities said about 90 percent of those who took part in the referendum on Oct. 1 voted for independence. But only 43 percent of the electorate participated, with most opponents of secession staying at home. The independence push has met with strong opposition across the rest of Spain and divided Catalonia itself. It has also prompted hundreds of firms to move their headquarters out of the region. Rajoy on Saturday urged them to stay. His center-right People s Party (PP) government has insisted that Puigdemont has broken the law several times in pushing for independence. It received unequivocal backing from the opposition Socialist Party. Differences with the PP on our territorial unity? None! said Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez. Heavy-handed police tactics to shut down the referendum were condemned by human rights groups, and secessionists accused Madrid of taking political prisoners .

Neil Cavuto faced off with Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee over her call for President Trump to resign after his tweets attacking Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough: Enough is ENOUGH! @realDonaldTrump you need to resign! This woman is just hateful! She claims to know Trump is unhappy GMAFB!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKPPzMPRrNYThis woman is a perfect example of the SWAMP in DC. She needs to go! She s mooched off of the American people for way too long and is a hateful racist!She says in the video above that she s gone through impeachments before, but said, We can t wait that long. It is time for you to resign. Enough is enough. I love America. I love these people. And we need a Commander-in-Chief. Cavuto confronted her about this and brought up the coarse language from presidents past. She argued that he is incompatible with the office, and in addition to issues like Russia and James Comey, his continuous assault on women only adds to it.She called Trump ill-suited for the office, and when Cavuto pressed her further by saying let the American people decide, the congresswoman responded by pointing to the President s low poll numbers.Jackson said she s going by his behavior in decrying his unfitness for office and Cavuto shot back by saying she just doesn t like him.They kept going back and forth, including on the question of the 25th amendment, and Cavuto asked her if she should be waiting for more evidence of something actionable.Jackson Lee said impeachment is a separate matter, telling Cavuto, I hope he does the right thing and resigns. And yes, she is completely standing by this: I will not back down. The President has lost the trust of the American people and needs to resign. WWE KNOW THIS WOMAN HAS A LONG HISTORY OF BULLYING PEOPLE. PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW OF AN EXCHANGE WITH MICK MULVANEY HE GETS INTO IT WITH HER:Mick Mulvaney is one smart cookie. He s doing a fantastic job cutting where cuts need to be made. Congress will complain about ANY cut to their voter base s favorite item. Listen to the grandstanding from Jackson-Lee on cuts to medicaid: They are begging for their medicaid The Grandstanding is so sickening!It went downhill from there. Jackson-Lee wanted to try and make Mulvaney out to be an uncaring guy. She s a total bully!HE S ONE SMART COOKE! MULVANEY JUST GAVE DETAILS OF THE BUDGET CUTS IN A FANTASTIC PRESS CONFERENCE. WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE ENTIRE VIDEO BELOW: Office of Management and Budgets (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney outlines the structure, intents and purposes of the Trump administration Fiscal Year 2018 Budget The Taxpayers Budget The best part of this great news conference is when a reporter asks about cuts to climate science programs : At the 17:00 mark Mick Mulvaney rips into the reporter and it s just awesome!We recommend the entire video because you ll see Trump hired one smart cookie! Mick Mulvaney knows the budget and handles the press beautifully!

Two white guys living in a state where 96% of its residents are white, and who have become extremely wealthy by selling ice cream to the rich, want everyone to know how much they support diversity by marketing over-priced ice cream with diverse labels to more rich people Ben & Jerry s announced Tuesday that proceeds from its newest flavor of ice cream, Empower Mint, will help benefit the North Carolina NAACP s campaign to repeal the state s voter ID law. Ben Cohen, Jerry Greenfield and North Carolina NAACP President Rev. William Barber kicked off a voter registration drive at North Carolina Central University in Durham on Tuesday to help marshal support against a new North Carolina law requiring voters to present a photo ID before they vote.Proceeds from the sale of the new flavor will also go toward the organization s effort to get big money donations from corporations and wealthy elites out of politics. This flavor will benefit the North Carolina NAACP, an organization dedicated to ensuring the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and eliminating racial hatred and discrimination, the ice cream company wrote in a statement on its website. It just felt really good to be working with all these people here in North Carolina, who ve been struggling to get back their right to vote for them and other people of color, said Ben Cohen.Campaigning against voter suppression is not something we get to do in Vermont, because they re so white, he added, chuckling. This flavor, Jerry Greenfield said, helps us connect with Ben & Jerry s fans as we work nationally on trying to help reauthorize the voting rights act. Right now we have a government that represents rich white people, Cohen added. That s not what s it s about. We ve got to overturn these laws. Ben & Jerry s Ice Cream was founded in 1978. Cohen and Greenfield sold the company they co-founded to British-Dutch corporation Unilever for $326 million in 2000. Via: Breitbart News

Keith Olbermann has been speaking out against Donald Trump for months via his show on GQ, The Resistance. He has continuously warned us about how dangerous this man is to our democracy. But on Thursday, he did something that was both unexpected and yet arguably necessary at this point: He pleaded with foreign intelligence agencies from around the world to help save the citizens of the U.S. from this coup by releasing any damning information they may have on the Trump administration.Olbermann begged these intel agencies, from all across the globe, to make the information they are rumored to have available to the American public. He urged them not to wait, to act now. Give the information to a reporter, leak it, put it on the internet, leave it outside someone s back door, he pleaded in desperation.Trump has fired the man investigating him, crippling our own intelligence agencies in the process, Olbermann continued. American citizens have lost their democracy as a result of this coup, and Republicans, the very people who have the power to stop him today, are choosing to do nothing. In a last ditch effort to save the U.S. from Trump, Olbermann has turned to the only people left that can help us: the intelligence agencies of other countries.Whether or not Olbermann s call to action will move someone to release damaging information remains to be seen. In the meantime, we can only cross our fingers and wait.You can watch Olbermann s passionate plea here:NEW: I appeal to the Intel Agencies of the world. Trump has enacted a coup here. We need what you have on him pic.twitter.com/E0KbP8TUul Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) May 12, 2017Featured image via viceo screen capture

21st Century Wire says On a recent episode of The Sunday Wire with Patrick Henningsen, guest Basil Valentine asked Patrick for his analysis on the Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton primary race, and what ensued was a poignant discussion about a deeper issue voter and election fraud.PH: It s a tight race. Hillary has the edge on the super delegates, which is the most corrupt, un-democratic aspect of the Democratic Party. BV: I m not sure it s it s very un-democratic and corrupt, I agree. But I don t think it s the most corrupt. The most corrupt is the vote fraud. Basil cites a new report about the recent Michigan Presidential Primary, where its findings suggest that Bernie Sanders actually did better than the recorded vote share indicates.The author of the report, Richard Charnin, provides context not only for Michigan primary results but for Massachusetts results as well:This analysis indicates that Sanders did much better than his recorded vote in the Michigan primary. Sanders had 590,386 votes (49.8%) and Clinton 570,948 (48.3%). Sanders won in 73 of 83 MI counties with 56% of the vote. He won the preliminary exit poll by 52.1-45.9%, a 97% win probability. Clinton won urban counties Wayne and Oakland with approximately 55% of the vote.Clinton won the Massachusetts primary by just 1.4%, but she did well in urban areas. Sanders won hand-counted precincts by 57-40% in 68 Towns (32,360 votes, 2.7% of votes cast). Sanders also had 52.1% in the preliminary exit poll which he won by 52.1-45.7%. His win probability was also 97%.(See Charnin s full report and statistical analysis here, including a breakdown of voting machine totals.)Charnin explains there are three key indicators to track in determining whether election fraud has occurred: cumulative vote shares, preliminary exit poll, absentee vote anomalies Of course, you will not hear much about election fraud from the media their coverage focuses solely on the recorded vote at the end of the night, and the usual Poli-tricks and Propaganda mess with voters minds during their televised election coverage.Will we see these same election fraud indicators in the Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina primaries?READ MORE 2016 NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 Election Files

Dining and dancing giving Kenya one billion dollars to boost young entrepreneurs in Africa His agenda in Kenya was focused on economic development, counter-terrorism and human rights. Wouldn t it be great if he really focused on those three issues in the U.S.? This is personal for me, Mr. Obama said. There s a reason why my name s Barack Hussein Obama. My father comes from these parts. The president said Africa s economic growth will depend on young dreamers with ideas. Entrepreneurship offers a positive alternative to the ideologies of violence and division that can all too often fill the void when young people don t see a future for themselves, Mr. Obama said. READ MORE: CBSNEWS

Many Republicans believe that if Donald Trump s presidential campaign is as unsuccessful as it is ramping up to be, that they can contain the damage. The thought process goes that if Trump is a failure, it is best to keep him at an arm s length, and Republicans won t have to suffer too much for it.But the Trump containment strategy is facing a test, as evidence emerges that Trump s controversial Trump University may have dodged criminal prosecution thanks to a relationship between Trump and Florida attorney general Pam Bondi.Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is denying that a $25,000 donation from Donald Trump is in any way connected to her office s decision not to pursue action against Trump University, despite dozens of complaints in Florida, her spokesman said.Bondi, who endorsed Trump in March, received the donation in 2013 via a political action committee raising money for her re-election.Bondi, who rose to fame within conservative circles thanks to repeated appearance on Fox News, reportedly received multiple complaints about Trump University s business practices, as new documents released in the fraud litigation against Trump University recently revealed.Instead of doing her job and being an advocate for consumers bilked by Trump University, Bondi s office decided against prosecuting the organization.The complaints show several unsatisfied customers called the course a scam and one man claimed it forced him in to personal bankruptcy.Trump has recently announced a campaign event in Florida where Bondi, who supports his nomination, will appear.Texas governor Greg Abbott, who served as state attorney general when legal action was heating up on Trump University, declined to announce that the company was facing a $5.4 million penalty for how they had conducted business in the state. Trump University soon after stopped doing business in the state.Featured image via Twitter

Alleged president Donald Trump doesn t want to be judged by his first 100 days in office even though it became a tradition after Franklin D. Roosevelt s first few months after taking the oath. But really, we can t blame the former reality show star for wanting to forgo the tradition considering how horrifying Trump s nearly 100 days in office has been. As for his accomplishments, we re not seeing any. And in comparison to former President Barack Obama, Trump looks like an amateur.Early this morning Trump tweeted, No matter how much I accomplish during the ridiculous standard of the first 100 days, & it has been a lot (including S.C.), media will kill! No matter how much I accomplish during the ridiculous standard of the first 100 days, & it has been a lot (including S.C.), media will kill! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2017We re not sure what Trump did in South Carolina. Perhaps he s referring to Georgia where Democrat Jon Ossoff outperformed every Republican candidate in the deep red district but he just didn t pay the 50 percent mark to avoid a runoff. Or maybe Trump is talking about Neil Gorsuch. It s hard to tell.Trump s 100th day may begin with a government shutdown if Congress fails to approve a new spending deal.Obama passed 11 laws during his first 100 days in office. So far, Trump has focused on reversing vital things that his predecessor has done for this country, including Internet privacy and health care, among others. The bigot-in-chief failed twice to pass a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. Trump is inundated with scandals, including his administration s possible collusion with a hostile foreign government to interfere in our election process.The Internet reacted to Trump s tweet:Trump says the first 100 days is a "ridiculous standard"Signed legislation compared. Obama did everything on the left in the first 50 days pic.twitter.com/hDzw6GkkCl Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) April 21, 2017I think people know I'm no Trump fan but I searched signed legislation for major legislation to positively highlight Trump. It doesn't exist Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) April 21, 2017@realDonaldTrump Let's look at some of Trump's accomplishments during his first 100 days: "Misplaced" an entire naval strike group pic.twitter.com/XN3CycDITJ Rob Szczerba (@RJSzczerba) April 21, 2017@realDonaldTrump On ISIS: "They will have 30 days to submit to the Oval Office a plan for soundly and quickly defeating ISIS."That was 83 days ago. Alex Zalben (@azalben) April 21, 2017Instead of working, Trump has been golfing and taking weekend vacays.@realDonaldTrump Look how many days you went golfing ! More than Obama, Bush, or Clinton in the first 100 days! Big league accomplishment ! Roland Scahill (@rolandscahill) April 21, 2017@realDonaldTrump You accomplished? You're charging US citizens thousands of dollars each time you use your own golf cart! & that's just the smaller charges ? ? (@VeeVee) April 21, 2017@realDonaldTrump Soooooo what have you *actually* done? Defeated ISIS? Nope. Repealed ACA? Oh, nope Golfed a lot? Oh hell yep. pic.twitter.com/IS3ZmYZPq4 Cerian Jenkins (@CerianJenkins) April 21, 2017@realDonaldTrump How typical. As you're about to fail the 100 day test, you begin attacking the "unfairness" of the test. So predictable. Trita Parsi (@tparsi) April 21, 2017@realDonaldTrump Wait, what did he do to South Carolina? pic.twitter.com/1ToyO135VI RPBP (@rpbp) April 21, 2017@realDonaldTrump But you've not accomplished anything, 45. Hilarious you say this while currently under FBI investigation for treason. We haven't forgot. Mike P Williams (@Mike_P_Williams) April 21, 2017@realDonaldTrump I mean, you have rolled back many Obama era regulations. But I'm pretty sure thats more like reversing progress, not a great accomplishment. Aaron Shive (@aaronshhh) April 21, 2017@realDonaldTrump Where's the report on Russian hacking that you promised you would deliver in your first 100 days? We're waiting. Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) April 21, 2017Unless Trump considers his playdate with Kid Rock, Ted Nugent and Sarah Palin on Thursday an accomplishment, then he s done nothing to move our country forward. Or embarrassing us in front of the world by disparaging our allies. That, too, is not an accomplishment. Words mean things.But the fact Trump hasn t blown anything up today is sort of an accomplishment for an angry 70-year-old Twitter addict.Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

After having to endure Donald Trump s disastrous presidential campaign and having to basically hold his hand every single day after the election, you can only imagine just how fed up President Barack Obama and his family are with Trump and his entitled children. They re likely counting down the days until they no longer shoulder the responsibility of the undeserving President-elect and aren t forced to be face-to-face anymore. Unfortunately, it seems that the Obamas are far from finished with the Trumps because part of Trump s family has dropped a bombshell with the decision to move just three minutes away from them.Trump s most beloved daughter Ivanka has just announced that she and her family will practically be neighbors to the Obamas once they leave the White House in less than three weeks. According to The Washingtonian, multiple real estate sources have reported that Ivanka and her family will be moving into a $5.5 million residence on Tracy Place in Washington, DC less than two blocks away from where the Obamas will be living.TwitterSo just as the Obamas thought they might actually be free of Trump once he takes the presidency, it looks like that s going to be much harder than they originally planned, as Trump will likely be lurking just around the corner at Ivanka s house. And Obama shouldn t be surprised if one day Trump comes around begging him for advice considering he has no idea what the hell he s doing.Ivanka is moving her family to Washington, DC to undoubtedly be closer to her father and provide assistance, just as she was heavily involved in his campaign. Currently, Trump and his team are trying to find a loophole that will allow Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to have a role in his administration.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

It warms the heart to know people as important as Hollywood actor Matt Damon care so much about the little people with guns in America. If Damon really feels so strongly about the government taking our Second Amendment right away, perhaps he should stop making a living with guns Matt Damon will return to the big screen as trained assassin Jason Bourne later this month, and while promoting the new film in Australia over the weekend called for a ban on guns in the United States.In an interview with a reporter from the Sydney Morning Herald, Damon said: You guys did it here in one fell swoop and I wish that could happen in my country, but it s such a personal issue for people that we cannot talk about it sensibly. We just can t. Damon made these comments at the red carpet premiere of the new Bourne movie, a film series in which he has killed at least 10 people with a firearm.Damon, who has reportedly made over $50million for his work in the four Bourne films, has also had no issue with using weapons in other films.The 45-year-old actor has also carried firearms in his movies The Departed, Green Zone and Elysium, to name just a few.Via: Daily Mail

When getting to the truth behind Donald Trump s scandals, there s probably nothing more revealing than Trump s Twitter history and his erratic behavior. Time and time again, we ve seen that when Trump s scandals begin to close in on him, he just gets crazier and does whatever he can to distract from the situation. And if his public behavior wasn t concerning enough, what Trump does behind the closed doors of the White House is even worse.According to a new report from Politico, Trump can t even act like a mature grown up when he watches television and sees segments about his Russia scandal. Behaving more like an old bitter retiree than the sitting President of the United States, Trump apparently can t contain himself and resorts to yelling at the television.Politico states that two advisers said that Trump would sometimes scream at television clips about the probe into his Russia investigation. Because that s not incriminating or weird at all, right?Honestly, the best thing Trump could do for his scandals and public image is to just stay the hell away from social media and cable TV but we all know that Trump can t do that. And as long as Trump lacks the self control to manage his emotions or the insane amount of television and social media he consumes, these outbursts are going to get him in even more trouble.This information from Trump s advisers shows that Trump will do anything to make this scandal go away to the degree that he has to scream at televisions to vent his anger. This kind of uncontrollable rage is exactly what the majority of Americans who voted against Trump were afraid of a man this unhinged should never have access to nuclear codes. With any luck, Trump s scandals will be his downfall and we won t have to deal with him much longer.Featured image via Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Is there some specific reason we have someone in the White House who s willing to let the military do what it wants in terms of strikes? On Friday, it was discovered that Trump literally granted our military commanders permission to order attacks in countries that don t have much of an American military presence very shortly after he took over the White House. This means that they can carry out strikes without first having to get approval from the White House, which supposedly has military strategists who know what s going on.The first units to carry out attacks without approval from the White House were, of course, in Yemen. Yemen is where we botched a raid that yielded absolutely nothing and resulted in the death of a Navy SEAL. While that raid didn t fall under this new authority, subsequent operations could result in similar disasters. The new authority, according to The Hill, is intended to accelerate the fight against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (a.k.a. AQAP).Navy Captain Jeff Davis says he doesn t want to telegraph future operations in explaining how this works, but, in short, this is part of a plan to go after a very real threat, to ensure they are defeated and denied the opportunity to plot and carry out terrorist attacks from ungoverned spaces. Like Yemen? Is Trump allowing them to just do what they want or do they still have to have solid intelligence before they strike? The reason the Yemen raid was such a disaster is because the White House didn t have solid intelligence and they didn t have a solid plan. While it sounds good to turn that authority over to military commanders in the regions we supposedly want to control, the question is, do they have the knowledge they need to succeed in any attacks they decide to carry out?The kicker here is that Trump has given this overarching authority to military commanders in areas where we don t have much of a presence, and therefore, probably don t have much in the way of the intelligence we need to make successful strikes. That means we have to be more careful. Trump doesn t want to be careful. He wants to abdicate a responsibility so he can what play golf and not think about it?It s not that our military commanders are incompetent. Far from it. The problem is letting them act on, well, pretty much anything, despite limited information. It could get us in a ton of trouble with the rest of the world.Featured image by Olivier Douliery via Getty Images

Obama brings two gas guzzlers on a sightseeing trip just another day in the life of preezy It s really easy to spend someone else s money, isn t it? In this case, it s YOUR money! The really ironic thing is that Obama likes to preach about global warming HummmPresident Obama brought along a second, smaller Air Force One for his family to enjoy a day of sightseeing in Argentina on Thursday.After dancing the tango at a state dinner in Buenos Aires Wednesday night, the president and first lady Michelle Obama took their daughters aboard the government plane colloquially known as baby Air Force One Thursday to fly to the scenic town of Bariloche in southern Argentina. It s a Boeing 757 used when traveling to places where the runway is too short for the primary Air Force One.The larger Air Force One, a 747-200, was parked alongside the smaller plane at the airport in Buenos Aires, according to pool reporters traveling with the president. It costs about $206,000 per hour to fly the larger plane, which the president is expected to use for the 10-plus-hour flight back to Washington late Thursday night.It s common for the government to have a backup plane available when the president travels, although not often for a family sightseeing excursion.Bariloche is a lakeside resort town nestled in the foothills of the Andes mountains, famous for its chocolates and Swiss-style architecture.Bariloche is also well-known for having served as a sort of haven for Nazis on the run after World War II. Several top former Nazis, including Dr. Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death from the Auschwitz death camp, are believed to have sought refuge there in the decades after the war.Via: WT

Remember when people paid attention to Arnold Scwarzenegger s political opinions? Me neither The irrelevant former California Governor, washed up Hollywood actor and failed Apprentice host Arnold Schwarzenegger, made a video that took on President Trump, as he called for a grassroots revolution in the fight against phony global warming. Of course, Schwarzenegger was just doing his part, as he joins forces with Hollywood hacks to trash President Trump after he announced his plans to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement.In the video below, the former governor and washed up Hollywood actor urged American citizens to rise up and save Planet Earth.BREAKING: Arnold Schwarzenegger has a blunt message for Donald Trump. #ParisAgreement pic.twitter.com/YI8fcxEeox ATTN: (@attn) June 2, 2017Why would anyone expect a Hollywood liberal (who calls himself a Republican) to understand that the climate change agreement is nothing more than a boondoggle for taxpayers?

CNN is finally seeing the serious repercussions of reporting #VeryFakeNews, while Fox News remains number one in ratings.CNN s ratings are plummeting, according to a Thursday cable TV rankings report by TV Newser.CNN fell to 10th in average total day viewership among all basic cable networks in the week of June 26 to July 2, far behind first-place Fox News and third-place MSNBC.An average of 639,000 viewers tuned in to CNN per day during the measurement period, less than half of the average 1,390,000 viewers who tuned in to Fox News per day during the same period.CNN s ratings slump is a remarkable drop from just a month ago, when CNN sat in fifth place among all basic cable networks the week of May 29 to June 4.CNN lost an average of 159,000 viewers per day from the week of May 29 to the week of June 26.Fox News and CNN continue to climb in ratings as CNN tumbles.Fox remained number one in all of basic cable, gaining an average of 7,000 viewers per day from the week of May 29 to the week of June 26.The Thursday ratings report is a slap in the face to CNN, which claimed on June 27 its most-watched second quarter in history. CNN s rating slump occurred in the same week three CNN staffers resigned following a damaging retraction of a story that falsely linked a Trump transition official to the chief executive of a $10 billion Russian investment fund.The network was also hit with a number of undercover videos published by undercover journalist James O Keefe, one of which revealed a CNN health producer dismissing the Trump-Russia collusion narrative and another that revealed CNN contributor Van Jones labeling the Russia story a nothing burger. Unfortunately for CNN, the ratings report released Thursday does not take into account the latest controversy to hit the network, indicating that its ratings could possibly plummet even further in the coming weeks.CNN came under fire Tuesday for apparently threatening to expose the identity of a private citizen who initially claimed credit for creating a GIF President Trump tweeted showing Trump tackling CNN.#CNNBlackmail trended worldwide Tuesday after the network made public its decision to mask the identity of the private citizen on the condition that the man no longer engages in what CNN considers to be ugly behavior. Trump has continued to hammer CNN for being the standard-bearer of what he considers fake news. Western Journalism

CARACAS (Reuters) - The Whale , The Dog or The Zebra ? Players line up beside a small kiosk in a poor neighborhood to choose animals in a lottery game that has become a craze in Venezuela even as the oil-rich country suffers a fourth year of brutal recession. It seems more and more Venezuelans are turning to gambling in their desperation to make ends meet amid the country s unprecedented economic crisis. Though more people lose than win overall, the illusion of a payday has become more alluring as Venezuelans endure the world s highest inflation, shortages of basics from flour to car batteries, and diminished real-term wages. Among multiple options from race courses to back-street betting parlors, the roulette-style Los Animalitos (or the Little Animals) is currently by far the most popular game on the street. Most people I see playing the lottery are unemployed, trying to make a bit extra this way because the payouts are good, said Veruska Torres, 26, a nurse who recently lost her job in a pharmacy and now plays Animalitos every day. Torres often plays more than a dozen times daily at the kiosk in Catia, spending between 5,000-10,000 bolivars, but sometimes making up to 50,000 or 60,000 bolivars in winnings - more than a quarter of the monthly minimum wage. When that happens, she splits the money between buying food and diapers for her baby boy, and re-investing in the lottery. The Animalitos game, whose results appear on YouTube at scheduled times, is hugely popular because it goes through various rounds, holding people s interest, and provides more chances to win than most traditional betting options. The cheapest ticket costs just 100 bolivars - a quarter of a U.S. cent at the black market currency rate, and more than 10 times less than that at the official exchange level. It helped me a lot, said Eduardo Liendo, 63, of a timely win. He recently lost his house and lives in a car in Caracas Propatria neighborhood, but had a successful punt on the Animalitos, choosing the dog figure after his own had died. There is no hard data on betting figures, and the government s betting regulator did not answer requests from Reuters for information. But those behind Venezuela s gambling businesses, run by a mixture of private companies and local regional authorities, said trade was booming, with lines longer and busier than ever - because of, not despite, the hard times. In a crisis like the one we re going through, people drink and gamble more to escape from reality, said psychologist Rosa Garcia from the rural state of Barinas. The latest scarcity in Venezuela is cash - as authorities cannot produce enough notes to keep up with dizzying inflation - so many bars, shops and betting parlors have quickly switched from cash to electronic transactions to keep money flowing. That has hit the Caracas hippodrome, where cash is still king. But thousands still go there at weekends, pushing against fences in front of the sand track to cheer their horse on as salsa music booms in the background. (See reut.rs/2A2eOEB for a related photo essay)

BEIJING (Reuters) - A prominent Chinese general under investigation for corruption has committed suicide, state media said on Tuesday, the latest development in a sweeping anti-graft campaign that has shaken the armed forces. Zhang Yang, a former member of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), was being investigated over links to disgraced generals Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, the official Xinhua news agency said. The investigation into Zhang, 66, had verified that he gravely violated discipline , was suspected of giving and taking bribes and the origin of a huge amount of assets was unclear, Xinhua said, citing the commission. On the afternoon of Nov. 23, Zhang Yang hanged himself at home, the agency said. A suicide by an officer who held such a senior post is rare, though experts have said the frequency of officials from various levels of government taking their own lives may have increased as a result of the intensity of the corruption crackdown since President Xi Jinping took power five years ago. A commentary carried on both the Defense Ministry and military s official websites said the CMC decided on Aug. 28 to investigate Zhang, who had lost his moral bottom line and used suicide as a means to escape punishment from the party and country , an extremely abominable act . This former general of high position and great power used this shameful way to end his own life, the commentary said. He would exhort loyalty but be corrupt behind others backs, a typical two-faced person , it said. Sources had told Reuters that Zhang, who had served as director of the military s Political Work Department, had been subject to an investigation, but the government had not announced it. Zhang s downfall was foreshadowed in September when he failed to make a list of 303 military delegates to the ruling Communist Party s key five-yearly congress, along with fellow CMC member Fang Fenghui. Both men were replaced at the congress, held last month, as part of a sweeping military leadership reshuffle in which Xi install trusted allies in key positions. China s military, the world s largest and undergoing an ambitious modernization campaign, has been an important focus of Xi s deep-seated fight against corruption. Serving and retired officers have said graft in the armed forces is so pervasive it could undermine China s ability to wage war. Dozens of officers have been investigated and jailed, including Xu and Guo, both former vice chairmen of the commission, which Xi heads. Xu once ran the Political Work Department, which is in charge of imbuing political thought and makes military personnel decisions, and along with Guo was accused of taking bribes in exchange for promotions. Guo was jailed for life last year. Xu died of cancer in 2015 before he could face trial.

Because shootings never happen in a gun-free theaters right? A local sheriff s deputy escorting a group of fifth-grade students on a field trip to the Fox Theater in Atlanta said he was told to stand outside because he was carrying his service weapon, reports WSB-TV.Monday, Sergeant Jack Gilroy was assigned to escort 60 fifth-grade students and their teachers from Stark Elementary School to the Fox Theater for a field trip.Butts County Sheriff Gary Long said it s standard procedure for an on-duty deputy to escort kids on all sporting events and field trips. It gives a sense of security to parents at work or home, Long said.Gilroy said a Fox Theater security officer asked him to leave the building or store his service weapon in his vehicle. How would the owner of the Fox explain if a shooting happened and here s a Butts County deputy sitting inside the theater without a weapon? Long said.Gilroy decided to keep his weapon and stand outside the theater for nearly three hours.A Fox Theater spokesperson told Channel 2 Action News their policy allows on-duty, uniformed law enforcers to enter the theater with their weapon. They released a statement that said, We plan to review our policies with the staff to ensure that procedures are clear moving forward. Gilroy said the security company called him to apologize.Via: Police Magazine

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused American politicians of whipping up hysteria about a mythical Russian threat as a ploy to distract voters from their own failings in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election. Putin, addressing an audience of foreign policy experts gathered in southern Russia, repeatedly lashed out at the Obama administration, saying it did not keep its word on Syria, did not honour deals, and had falsely accused Moscow of all manner of sins. The U.S. government has formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organisations, while Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has accused Republican rival Donald Trump of being a Putin “puppet”. Putin said he found it hard to believe that anyone seriously thought Moscow was capable of influencing the Nov. 8 election. “Hysteria has been whipped up,” said Putin. He said that was a ruse to cover up for the fact that the U.S. political elite had nothing to say about serious issues such as the country’s national debt or gun control. “It’s much simpler to distract people with so-called Russian hackers, spies, and agents of influence. Does anyone really think that Russia could influence the American people’s choice in any way? Is America a banana republic or what? America is a great power.” In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest dismissed Putin’s remarks as predictable and said the United States stood by its hacking allegations. “There’s nothing that President Putin had to say today that I find particularly surprising or that in any way undermines the president’s confidence in the analysis that’s been released by the Department of Homeland Security and the intelligence community,” said Earnest. Russian state TV and some of his past comments have suggested the Russian leader favours Trump, but Putin said he did not back any candidate in the U.S. election and was ready to work with any new U.S. president and to discuss any issue. Asked about Trump, whom he once described as “very talented,” Putin said the Republican candidate was deliberately adopting a showy style because he wanted to get his message across and that he represented ordinary voters fed up with the U.S. political elite. “He has chosen a method to get through to voters’ hearts,” said Putin. “He behaves extravagantly of course, we see this, but I think there’s a reason for this.” Putin dismissed suggestions by some politicians in the West that Russia is poised to attack another country or intervene elsewhere in the Middle East apart from Syria. Such talk was designed to exaggerate the threat that Russia posed, he said, in order for certain countries to secure higher military spending and talk up their own importance. He said Russia was not planning to attack anyone. But he made clear Russia was in Syria for the long haul and intended to clear the city of Aleppo of what he called “a nest of terrorists”, while trying to minimise civilian casualties.

(Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co customers aiming to sue the bank over bogus accounts opened in their names may be in for an unpleasant surprise: the fine print requires them to take their claims to an arbitrator instead of a court. Mandatory arbitration rules inserted into account-opening agreements prohibit customers from joining class actions or suing the third-largest U.S. bank in court. Instead, the agreements require individual, closed-door arbitration. U.S. senators highlighted the issue on Tuesday as they grilled Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf during a hearing. Asked if he would set aside the mandatory arbitration agreements for customers affected by the phantom accounts, Stumpf demurred. “I’m not an expert in that,” he said, adding he would talk to his legal team. That was not enough for some lawmakers. “If we had class action on this in 2010, 2009, 2008, the problem never would have gotten so out of hand,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said later, when questioning regulators about the practice. Class actions can be more affordable for unhappy customers, especially those with limited resources, because they can band together to sue, rather than having to hire lawyers individually. Consumers also complain that target companies often choose the arbitrators; proceedings are confidential; and decisions are hard to appeal. Three Wells Fargo customers filed a lawsuit Friday in a Utah federal court, seeking class action status on behalf of hundreds of thousands of customers nationwide they say were harmed by the San Francisco-based bank’s fraud and recklessness. It was unclear whether they could get around the mandatory arbitration clauses, though. Last year, Wells successfully invoked the clauses to defend against a class action suit tied to bogus accounts. In that case, the judge said customers had to arbitrate because of agreements they signed when opening legitimate accounts at the bank. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a brainchild of Warren, was part of the regulatory group that negotiated a $190 million settlement from Wells Fargo over the bogus accounts. The bureau is considering rules to ban banks, credit card issuers and other companies from forcing customers to submit to arbitration and waive their right to join class action lawsuits. Under the proposal, companies could still use arbitration, but would have to tell consumers they could join class action lawsuits instead. Mandating arbitration when signing up for financial products has become standard practice after a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision validated the practice. Still, the tide may be turning, said Joseph Peiffer, a New Orleans lawyer who has represented investors and others in class action lawsuits. “Class actions dissuade companies from ripping people off a thousand dollars here and a thousand dollars there,” Peiffer said.

Fareed Zakaria tends to go for the heart of the matter when he s talking about pretty much anything, but it s not likely that anybody expected him to criticize Donald Trump as bluntly as he did. Zakaria was live on CNN, speaking with Wolf Blitzer about what it says when a presidential candidate has to come back, time and again, to clarify what he says on volatile issues like Russia.Zakaria explained that there s a pattern of ignorance with Trump, and how, when someone points out that he s wrong somewhere, he comes back with a certain bravado and tries to explain it away with a tweet or a statement. He listed multiple examples of this, such as Brexit, the nuclear triad, and even where Tim Kaine was governor (Trump said New Jersey; Kaine actually governed Virginia). Then he said: Usually he adds that the press hates him. But there s a term for this kind of thing This is the mode of a bullshit artist. DAMN. There s a truth bomb if there ever was one. Trump is, indeed, a bullshit artist there s no other way to put it. Watch Zakaria s entire comment below:Fareed Zakaria, discussing Trump on CNN: This is the mode of a bullshit artist. pic.twitter.com/WXsgeegGFS Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) August 1, 2016 Zakaria just hit one of Trump s biggest problems on the head with an awfully heavy hammer. Trump can t ever admit that he made a mistake. It s the media that s dishonest. It s his opponents and enemies who are dishonest. Everyone but him is incredibly dishonest and unfair, and he s just a victim for whom our hearts bleed pink carbonated peanut butter. In the end, though, a bullshit artist is what he really is. And he s the GOP s candidate for president.Featured image via screen capture from embedded video