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Despite undiplomatic discourse, Trump's dance card is full

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A subtle diplomat like Talleyrand, Donald Trump is not. The U.S. president, in his first foray at the U.N. General Assembly, derided North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a “rocket man ... on a suicide mission” and delivered an unabashed defense of sovereignty at the seat of global multilateralism. But if his speech drew barbs from allies and authoritarian adversaries, it did nothing to deter his dance partners at the premier diplomatic waltz of the year, the 193-member United Nations’ annual gathering of world leaders known by the acronym UNGA. Trump held bilateral meetings with 13 leaders this week, more than his predecessor Barack Obama had at his first UNGA(five), his last (six) or his busiest (10), according to data compiled by CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller. Trump’s less than diplomatic speech on Tuesday recalled the fiery nationalist language of his Jan. 20 inaugural address and raised eyebrows across the political spectrum by its bald assertion of the primacy of U.S. interests. “Our government’s first duty is to its people, to our citizens - to serve their needs, to ensure their safety, to preserve their rights, and to defend their values,” he said, evoking his campaign’s nationalist themes despite the departure of advocates such as Steve Bannon from the White House. Germany’s foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, delivered a riposte in a scathing and barely veiled critique on Thursday. “National egoism, I believe, is worthless as a regulatory principle for our world,” Gabriel said. “The motto ‘our country first’ not only leads to more national confrontations and less prosperity, in the end there can only be losers.” Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s authoritarian 93-year-old leader who has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980, also sought to nudge Trump in a more peaceable direction. “Mr. Trump, please blow your trumpet, blow your trumpet in a musical way towards the values of unity, peace, cooperation, togetherness, dialogue,” he said. In his speech, Trump said if the United States were forced to defend itself or its allies, it would have “no choice but to totally destroy North Korea” and he called Iran’s government a “murderous regime” that exports “violence, bloodshed and chaos.” His directness contrasts with the subtlety of 18th- and 19th-century French diplomat Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, who is reputed to have said: “A diplomat who says ‘yes’ means ‘maybe,’ a diplomat who says ‘maybe’ means ‘no,’ and a diplomat who says ‘no’ is no diplomat.” Still, Trump’s language has seeped into the discourse of other leaders, perhaps seeking to curry his favor. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke of “draining the swamp” of Israeli occupation while South Korean President Moon Jae-in called North Korean behavior “extremely deplorable.” Trump, possibly recalling the criticism that his Democratic U.S. presidential opponent Hillary Clinton earned for calling some of his supporters a “basket of deplorables,” was pleased. “I’m very happy that you used the word ‘deplorable’,” Trump told Moon. “That’s been a very lucky word for me and many millions of people.” Both Moon and Abbas had sitdowns with Trump, and there was no shortage of others who wanted to meet him. A U.S. official said the White House accommodated as many requests for meetings as they could schedule, noting some leaders who wanted to meet Trump did not make the cut. The U.S. president has also wanted to see the leaders of China, India and Germany, but they did not come this year. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani met Trump on Thursday, and officials in Kabul said all the impetus had come from the Afghan side, with no burning interest from the White House. French President Emmanuel Macron made clear he would work with any U.S. president, whoever he was, and said he and Trump had clear disagreements on climate change and Iran policy. “I want a deep, cordial dialogue to bring him back into the international and multilateral fold on these two subjects,” Macron told reporters. “As I’m a pragmatist, I put myself in a position to work the best way possible with him.” Asked if dealing with Trump was like managing a difficult child, the French president replied: “Not at all. I’m managing a partner of the world’s biggest power and a historical partner for our country.”

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White House says Israel's new settlement contradicts assurances

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House sharply criticized Israel on Wednesday over its plan for a new settlement building in the West Bank that the White House says undermines the peace process and contradicts assurances from Jerusalem. “We did receive public assurances from the Israeli government that contradict this announcement,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a news briefing. “I guess when we’re talking about how good friends treat one another, that’s a source of serious concern as well.”

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Will This Guy Shut Off the Lights in the Sanders Campaign? - The New York Times

years ago, Jeff Weaver was a lowly campaign aide driving an obscure congressional candidate around Vermont in a Yugo. Now, Mr. Weaver is well known enough from his stinging appearances in the press and on television to be slammed by Cher. In April, the singer called #JeffWeaver “scum” on Twitter and, with the help of emojis, more scatological epithets. Cher is a devoted Hillary Clinton supporter. Mr. Weaver, 50, is Senator Bernie Sanders’s campaign manager and his closest aide and consigliere. As the Democratic race for president winds down, some party strategists have complained that Mr. Weaver is the Vermont senator’s enabler in chief, a true believer who could encourage his boss to keep fighting on after the June 14 primary in Washington, D. C. even though Mrs. Clinton has mathematically locked up the nomination. Others think Mr. Weaver may be the one person who can coax Mr. Sanders into a conciliatory stance. He hasn’t revealed much yet to reassure either camp. “Sure, there will be a roll call eventually,” he said in a phone interview on Friday, referring to the Democratic convention. “My plan until then is to help the senator do whatever he wants to do to further the political revolution. ” For the moment, at least, Mr. Weaver holds the political world in suspense: Is he going to broker a peace agreement or will he be the last man standing on the Bernie barricades? It’s a delicate moment in the Sanders campaign. Like the time’ music that shoos Oscar winners off the stage at the Academy Awards show, the cascade of Clinton endorsements this last week — President Obama, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Vice President Joe Biden — are drowning out Mr. Sanders’s speech. On television, Clinton supporters continue to gingerly humor the senator, insisting he should take his time. In private, those same strategists drum their fingers, roll their eyes and look pointedly at their watches as they circle Mr. Weaver. Mr. Weaver, who is bald, bearded and wears glasses, looks like many other Washington political operatives who roundelay on cable news shows. Since the Sanders campaign started, he has become adept at sparring, but he isn’t typical. Instead he is a rather glaring reminder of what has made the Sanders campaign so different — and unpredictable. Mr. Weaver had left politics and was running a comic book and gaming store in Falls Church, Va. when Mr. Sanders tapped him for the job he had never managed a presidential campaign before. (The recorded message on his personal cellphone still takes messages for Victory Comics.) He was an unlikely choice, but possibly the best one for the willful and demanding democratic socialist who, after meeting with President Obama on Thursday, assured supporters at a rally in Washington, D. C. that “we are still standing. ” Mr. Sanders relies on longtime loyalists to work round the clock. Mr. Weaver calls himself Mr. Sanders’s lieutenant. (He didn’t say Robin, though when pressed he said his favorite superhero is Batman.) “I’ve worked for Bernie since I was 20 years old, so I am still inspired by what he has to say, but you know I’ve been with him so long,” Mr. Weaver said in a deserted hotel cafeteria on June 7, the day of the California primary. “I think one of the reasons why he asked me is that he knows I know how he thinks,” Mr. Weaver said. “I’m here to do what Bernie wants to get done. By and large I understand what that is before he … ” Mr. Weaver paused and changed tack. “Without having to ask him about it. ” Those who have worked with him on Capitol Hill say he is more influential than he lets on. “He is the one staff person who is both loyal to Bernie Sanders and clearly not intimidated by him in the least,” said Luke Albee, a former chief of staff to the Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Mark Warner of Virginia. Mr. Albee met Mr. Weaver in the 1980s, when Mr. Weaver was a Boston University student lobbying Senator Leahy on behalf of Soviet Jewry. “He didn’t look like a typical student,” Mr. Albee said. “He was smart, a fast speaker and he looked 40. ” (Mr. Weaver later left B. U. after being suspended for, among other things, student protests against apartheid.) Mr. Albee said he didn’t know in which direction Mr. Weaver would prod Mr. Sanders, if any. “If I were to guess, I would think he wants to come up with a plan to land the plane smoothly,” Mr. Albee said. “At least I hope so. ” Carol Davis, the treasurer for Mr. Sanders’s first senate campaign, said she was astounded when Mr. Weaver was appointed campaign manager, but later decided it made sense. “With Bernie and Jeff, it’s sometimes hard to tell where one ends and the other begins,” she said. And perhaps accordingly, Mr. Weaver has been cast as the heavy in news reports that the dwindling Sanders campaign is riven between and professional consultants who prefer to get back on the good side of the Democratic establishment. Mr. Weaver disagreed. “The senator, he drives this train,” Mr. Weaver said. “It’s not a or campaign. ” Mr. Weaver has made enemies on Capitol Hill and inside the Democratic National Committee, but he appears to get along quite well with his opposite number in the Clinton campaign, Robby Mook. In fact, Mr. Mook and Mr. Weaver seem to have the kind of entente — and camaraderie — that the Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze and Secretary of State Jim Baker shared during the Cold War. “I get along with Jeff extraordinarily well,” Mr. Mook said, noting that he speaks to Mr. Weaver by phone often. “He is obviously a tough opponent who did a masterful job, but I consider him a good and close colleague. ” Tad Devine, Mr. Sanders’s chief strategist, is described by some political analysts as the insider most eager to make peace with the Clinton forces. Mr. Devine said he thinks of Mr. Weaver as a friend and ally, not a rival. “Jeff looks tough and aggressive on television,” Mr. Devine said. “He’s smart and he’s not afraid to stay stuff. But off camera, he’s steady, really smart and good company. We laugh a lot. ” It was not so jolly inside the Sanders war room on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles on the night of the California primary. The two top aides sat near each other as the returns began coming in, not so much together as in parallel play. Mr. Devine watched CNN on a laptop and made droll comments about the commentators. Mr. Weaver was crouched over a different computer with the campaign’s pollster Ben Tulchin, staring at early returns. Those results showed Mrs. Clinton with a much stronger lead than the Sanders team had hoped for, and the room grew quieter. Younger campaign aides studied their screens with the strained intensity of gamblers watching a roulette ball circle closer and closer to zero. Mr. Weaver maintained good humor — albeit gallows humor — and made phone calls. Mr. Weaver, while respected by his peers, isn’t a clubbable Washingtonian. When Vermonters refer to him as a “St. Albans boy,” they don’t mean he is an alumnus of the elite private school in Washington, D. C. that Al Gore and Secretary of State John Kerry attended. Mr. Weaver was raised in St. Albans, Vt. a small rural town near the Canadian border. He has roots his grandmother was named Violet Champagne. He was educated by nuns and considers himself as social justice Catholic his three children attended Catholic schools. From 1985 to 1989, he was in the United States Marine Corps Reserves. While working for Mr. Sanders, he went to Georgetown law school, where he met his wife, Barbara Butterworth, 49, who shares his progressive politics and is a criminal defense lawyer for indigent clients. “Jeff enjoys taking on the powers that be,” Ms. Butterworth said. Mr. Weaver said he doesn’t know what he will do after the campaign. He said he wasn’t sure if he would return to the comics store. And he doesn’t seem likely to become a hired gun on the Democratic circuit. When asked what other politicians he could work for, Mr. Weaver gave the name of Paul Wellstone, the progressive Minnesota senator who died in a plane crash in 2002. The other name that came to mind was the California representative Barbara Lee, the only member of Congress to vote in 2001 against the authorization of use of force after the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Weaver could certainly pursue a career as a political commentator. He could also, he joked, make infomercials, since he has lost 30 pounds during the campaign. He seems to be tickled by his sudden fame, and chuckled about a recent encounter on the MSNBC program “Hardball” with Chris Matthews. When Mr. Matthews scolded Mr. Weaver for not having yet released Mr. Sanders’s tax returns, Mr. Weaver pointed out that Mr. Matthews’s wife, Kathleen, didn’t release their tax returns when she ran for a Congressional seat last year. (Ms. Matthews lost the primary.) Mr. Matthews, clearly taken aback, suggested the analogy was unfair. “This is ‘Hardball,’ Chris,” Mr. Weaver replied evenly. Mr. Weaver, too, has campaigned for office. In 1990, he ran as an independent against the incumbent mayor of St. Albans. His concession words back then could turn out to be prophetic: “People haven’t seen the last of Jeff Weaver. ”

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NH Car Dealer Gives Away Free AR-15s With Car Purchases – Gun Nuts Sickeningly Rejoice

Mike Hagan has a used car dealership and repair shop in Rochester, New Hampshire and is running a very odd and frankly irresponsible promotion. He s offering a free AR-15 to people who come buy a car from him, because Murika.Hagan is a combat veteran who served in Afghanistan. He knows what these kinds of guns can do, and yet, according to WFTV 9, he s not worried about whether any of these guns might be used to murder people later on. Thus far, he s given away four of the weapons, along with a 9mm Beretta, which is an alternative for people who don t want an AR-15, and he thinks his promotion is a wild success.This kind of promotion is bad enough, and to refuse to end it following a horrific tragedy like Orlando is just plain insensitive and cruel. The gun nuts apparently don t see it that way, though. They ve taken to Facebook to celebrate Hagan s promotion, lest the evil libruls finally come to confiscate everyone s guns. There has been some backlash, though, not just on social media, but also from a couple of people that NH1 TV spoke to. At least there are least still some sane people out there: To me that s just getting more of the nut jobs out there doing harm to more people that don t deserve it. My opinion, military and police are the only ones that should have them. Hagan has partnered with a local gun dealer to run his promotion, and customers have to go there to go through a background check and get the weapons. Apparently, that makes it all okay because it means he knows he can t give them out like they re candy.Besides that, he believes that the people who take advantage of this promotion will be fully responsible, because everyone knows that all the people who obtain their guns legally are very responsible gun owners oh wait. Omar Mateen, and so many other mass shooters, bought their guns legally, not to mention all the idiots who have no clue what gun safety is, and end up accidentally shooting someone to death.Hagan claims he won t extend the offer to someone from whom he gets a bad feeling. So, what, he s telepathic and knows who has bad intentions? Horse hockey. This is still sick, it s still irresponsible, and it s still cruel and insensitive. It also demonstrates just how sick as a society we ve become where this kind of thing is seen as something to celebrate by so many.Featured image via screen capture from NH1-TV report

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DONALD TRUMP JR. Blasts “Comedian” KATHY GRIFFIN After She Poses In Gruesome Photo Holding President Trump’s Bloody, Decapitated Head

The outspoken comedian posed for a photo shoot with controversial photographer Tyler Shields in which she is holding a bloodied mask of President Trump.***WARNING***Photo is graphic and could be confused with an act of terror by an ISIS terrorist:Here s the gruesome ISIS inspired video that Griffin posted to Twitter:https://twitter.com/kathygriffin/status/869654650844098562TMZ published the gory photo from Griffin s photo session with the famed Shields, known for his shocking pictures. FOXIt didn t take long for the son and father of 5 of President Donald J. Trump s grandchildren to react to the ISIS-like photo liberals like comedian Kathy Griffin think is funny Donald Trump Jr. is blasting Kathy Griffin, and all liberals, for her photo op with a bloodied mask of President Trump but admits he s not all that shocked.Don Jr. called the gory Tyler Shields shot of Kathy Disgusting but not surprising. This is the left today. They consider this acceptable. He also said, Imagine a conservative did this to Obama as POTUS? TMZDonald Trump Jr. isn t immune from the hateful, and intolerant left. Only one week before the election, liberal rag magazine Esquire published a story using this bloodied a photo of Donald Trump Jr., a father of five young children simply because he is the son of a man who dared to shake up the system and challenge the rightful heiress to the American throne.The Esquire article was titled:We re just saying that people are saying it.After Kathy Griffin got HAMMERED by Twitter users for her sick and very distasteful photo op, she responded by saying she s not apologizing, she s simply using a bloodied, decapitated head to mock our President:https://twitter.com/kathygriffin/status/869655312239697920Twitter users who didn t find any humor in the photo that more closely resembled an act of terror than an act of humor responded to the vile comedian :It wasn t so long ago that Griffin was seen smiling on a Trump golf course in a photo with Donald Trump s arm around her. But that was before he became president and threatened her small-minded world.Twitter wasn t the only social media outlet who went after Griffin. Greg Locke, a popular pastor who posts commentary videos related to current social issues on Facebook really let Kathy Griffin have it. Watch:

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Japan PM says U.N. sanctions on North Korea must be firmly imposed

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday that United Nations sanctions on North Korea needed to be firmly imposed. Abe, speaking to reporters, said that the international community must send a clear message to North Korea over its provocative actions. North Korea fired a missile on Friday that flew over Japan s northern Hokkaido far out into the Pacific Ocean, South Korean and Japanese officials said, further ratcheting up tensions after Pyongyang s recent test of a powerful nuclear bomb.

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Donald Trump Doubles Down On Korea Threat; Says He Wasn’t Tough Enough

If you ve been hiding under your bed since Donald Trump threatened North Korea with fire and fury unlike the world has ever seen, grab something hard (a drink, a prescription, a rock) and go into your basement for this one. Trump says his words weren t strong enough. Maybe it wasn t tough enough, the president told reporters on Thursday at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. It s about time someone stuck up for the people of our country. Source: PoliticoNorth Korea s leader, Kim Jong Un, the other petulant man-child in this pissing match, hasn t yet responded, but he has twice, as a response to Trump s fire and fury threat, threatened to nuke Guam.The intelligence community believes that North Korea has developed a miniaturized nuclear warhead that is small enough to fit into a long-range missile, leading to speculation that if Kim John Un wanted to attack the United States, he could.Even Trump s own White House is conflicted on how to handle it, though. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has tried to mitigate Trump s irresponsible and irrational threat. Nothing that I have seen and nothing that I know of would indicate that the situation has dramatically changed in the last 24 hours, he said, adding that Americans should sleep well at night. But he also defended Trump s comments. I think what the President was doing was sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong Un would understand, because he doesn t seem to understand diplomatic language, Tillerson said. Source: CNNTrump advisor Sebastion Gorka quickly refuted Tillerson, saying: You should listen to the president; the idea that Secretary Tillerson is going to discuss military matters is simply nonsensical, Gorka said in a recording shared with The Washington Post. It is the job of Secretary Mattis, the secretary of defense, to talk about the military options, and he has done so unequivocally. He said, Woe betide anyone who militarily challenges the United States, and that is his portfolio. That is his mandate. Secretary Tillerson is the chief diplomat of the United States, and it is his portfolio to handle those issues. Mattis is hoping for diplomacy, but he s ready to go to war at any moment.Even if Trump is blowing smoke up Kim Jong Un s posterior, this is a dangerous line of talk, especially when dealing with a mentally unstable narcissist with daddy issues. Then we have to worry about North Korea.Read more:Featured image via Pool/Getty Images

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Trump sold all his shares in companies in June: spokesman

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump sold all of his shares in companies in June, aides said on Tuesday, a move that likely raised substantial cash ahead of the presidential election and could now ease some concerns about potential conflicts of interest. Trump’s stock portfolio included shares of companies including Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co and a host of others, according to a financial disclosure form filed in May. Trump spokesman Jason Miller said in an email that Trump sold all of his shares, but he did not respond to questions about what Trump did with the sales proceeds or whether he withdrew from any other investments at the same time. The Republican’s transition team did not provide documentation of the sales. Trump will not have to file a new financial disclosure form until May 2018, according to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Presidents typically provide some such information voluntarily during their first year in office. Selling his shares would reduce some potential for conflicts for the businessman-turned-politician as he prepares to take over the White House from Democratic President Barack Obama on Jan. 20. It would not address concerns about Trump’s personal and family business activities, which include hotels and golf resorts from Panama to Scotland. Trump has said he will step back from running his business, but he has not given any detail about the arrangements. During the presidential campaign, Trump indicated he had pulled back from the stock market. “I did invest, and I got out, and it was actually very good timing,” he told Fox Business in an August interview. The issue arose after Trump urged the government to cancel an order with Boeing Co for a revamped Air Force One presidential plane. The New York real estate developer, who defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 election, said, without citing proof, that costs for the aircraft were out of control. Trump had previously said he owned Boeing shares. Asked earlier on Tuesday whether the president-elect still owned them, Miller said Trump sold all his shares in June, but it was not clear at the time whether he was speaking only about Boeing stock.

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HILLARY CLINTON CRONYISM VIOLATES FEDERAL RULES: Chelsea’s “Best Friend” Given Millions In Contracts With The Feds…A New Low!

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought to arrange Pentagon and State Department consulting contracts for her daughter s friend, prompting concerns of federal ethics rules violations.Clinton in 2009 arranged meetings between Jacqueline Newmyer Deal, a friend of Chelsea Clinton and head of the defense consulting group Long Term Strategy Group, with Pentagon officials that involved contracting discussions, according to emails from Clinton s private server made public recently by the State Department. Clinton also tried to help Deal win a contract for consulting work with the State Department s director of policy planning, according to the emails.Deal is a close friend of Chelsea Clinton, who is vice chair of the Clinton Foundation. Emails between the two were included among the thousands recovered from a private email server used by the secretary of state between 2009 and 2013. Chelsea Clinton has described Deal as her best friend. Both Clintons attended Deal s 2011 wedding.Here s a little blurb from the fashion rag WWD on an event the two attended together: This story first appeared in the October 20, 2011 issue of WWD. Wearing a short-skirted black Chanel dress, Clinton began by crediting her longtime friend Jacqueline Newmyer. Jackie invited me to see Romeo and Juliet, she said, remembering back to 1995. The next time, I got my parents to come. And I have been coming here ever since. That historic family night out occurred three years later. She and her parents arrived at the theater two days after Christmas 1998 and a week after the House of Representatives voted to impeach her father. The show they saw? None other than Twelfth Night, a tale of magical transformation. Talk about Freudian.Later, at the after party, Clinton elaborated on the nearly 20-year friendship with Newmyer, putting to lie the old Harry Truman quip If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. Jackie and I are still best friends, said Clinton, who met Newmyer her first year in Washington at the Sidwell Friends School. She was in my wedding, and I was in hers. Clinton, 31, continues to work on snagging her Oxford Ph.D. while working at New York University and with the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative. Newmyer, 32, is the president of the Long Term Strategy Group, a military research firm in Cambridge, Mass.Government cronyism, or the use of senior positions to help family friends, is not illegal. However, the practice appears to violate federal ethics rules that prohibit partiality, or creating the appearance of conflicts of interest.Specifically, the Code of Federal Ethics states that government employees shall act impartially and not give preferential treatment to any private organization or individual. Pentagon ethics guidelines also call for avoiding actions that would create even the appearance of improper behavior or conflicts of interest.The Clinton email exchanges with Deal between 2009 and 2011 were among tens of thousands of private emails made public by the State Department under pressure from Congress and the public interest law firm Judicial Watch.Read more: WFB

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How to Love: Legendary Zen Buddhist Teacher Thich Nhat Hanh on Mastering the Art of "Interbeing"

How to Love: Legendary Zen Buddhist Teacher Thich Nhat Hanh on Mastering the Art of "Interbeing" “To love without knowing how to love wounds the person we love.” By Maria Popova / brainpickings.org What does love mean, exactly? We have applied to it our finest definitions ; we have examined its psychology and outlined it in philosophical frameworks ; we have even devised a mathematical formula for attaining it. And yet anyone who has ever taken this wholehearted leap of faith knows that love remains a mystery — perhaps the mystery of the human experience. Learning to meet this mystery with the full realness of our being — to show up for it with absolute clarity of intention — is the dance of life. That’s what legendary Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh (b. October 11, 1926) explores in How to Love ( public library ) — a slim, simply worded collection of his immeasurably wise insights on the most complex and most rewarding human potentiality. Indeed, in accordance with the general praxis of Buddhist teachings, Nhat Hanh delivers distilled infusions of clarity, using elementary language and metaphor to address the most elemental concerns of the soul. To receive his teachings one must make an active commitment not to succumb to the Western pathology of cynicism , our flawed self-protection mechanism that readily dismisses anything sincere and true as simplistic or naïve — even if, or precisely because, we know that all real truth and sincerity are simple by virtue of being true and sincere. At the heart of Nhat Hanh’s teachings is the idea that “understanding is love’s other name”— that to love another means to fully understand his or her suffering. (“Suffering” sounds rather dramatic, but in Buddhism it refers to any source of profound dissatisfaction — be it physical or psychoemotional or spiritual.) Understanding, after all, is what everybody needs — but even if we grasp this on a theoretical level, we habitually get too caught in the smallness of our fixations to be able to offer such expansive understanding. He illustrates this mismatch of scales with an apt metaphor: If you pour a handful of salt into a cup of water, the water becomes undrinkable. But if you pour the salt into a river, people can continue to draw the water to cook, wash, and drink. The river is immense, and it has the capacity to receive, embrace, and transform. When our hearts are small, our understanding and compassion are limited, and we suffer. We can’t accept or tolerate others and their shortcomings, and we demand that they change. But when our hearts expand, these same things don’t make us suffer anymore. We have a lot of understanding and compassion and can embrace others. We accept others as they are, and then they have a chance to transform. Illustration from Hug Me by Simona Ciraolo The question then becomes how to grow our own hearts, which begins with a commitment to understand and bear witness to our own suffering: When we feed and support our own happiness, we are nourishing our ability to love. That’s why to love means to learn the art of nourishing our happiness. Understanding someone’s suffering is the best gift you can give another person. Understanding is love’s other name. If you don’t understand, you can’t love. And yet because love is a learned “dynamic interaction,” we form our patterns of understanding — and misunderstanding — early in life, by osmosis and imitation rather than conscious creation. Echoing what Western developmental psychology knows about the role of “positivity resonance” in learning love, Nhat Hanh writes: If our parents didn’t love and understand each other, how are we to know what love looks like? … The most precious inheritance that parents can give their children is their own happiness. Our parents may be able to leave us money, houses, and land, but they may not be happy people. If we have happy parents, we have received the richest inheritance of all. Illustration by Maurice Sendak from Open House for Butterflies by Ruth Krauss Nhat Hanh points out the crucial difference between infatuation, which replaces any real understanding of the other with a fantasy of who he or she can be for us, and true love: Often, we get crushes on others not because we truly love and understand them, but to distract ourselves from our suffering. When we learn to love and understand ourselves and have true compassion for ourselves, then we can truly love and understand another person. Out of this incomplete understanding of ourselves spring our illusory infatuations, which Nhat Hanh captures with equal parts wisdom and wit: Sometimes we feel empty; we feel a vacuum, a great lack of something. We don’t know the cause; it’s very vague, but that feeling of being empty inside is very strong. We expect and hope for something much better so we’ll feel less alone, less empty. The desire to understand ourselves and to understand life is a deep thirst. There’s also the deep thirst to be loved and to love. We are ready to love and be loved. It’s very natural. But because we feel empty, we try to find an object of our love. Sometimes we haven’t had the time to understand ourselves, yet we’ve already found the object of our love. When we realize that all our hopes and expectations of course can’t be fulfilled by that person, we continue to feel empty. You want to find something, but you don’t know what to search for. In everyone there’s a continuous desire and expectation; deep inside, you still expect something better to happen. That is why you check your email many times a day! Illustration from The Missing Piece Meets the Big O , Shel Silverstein’s minimalist allegory of true love Real, truthful love, he argues, is rooted in four elements — loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity — fostering which lends love “the element of holiness.” The first of them addresses this dialogic relationship between our own suffering and our capacity to fully understand our loved ones: The essence of loving kindness is being able to offer happiness. You can be the sunshine for another person. You can’t offer happiness until you have it for yourself. So build a home inside by accepting yourself and learning to love and heal yourself. Learn how to practice mindfulness in such a way that you can create moments of happiness and joy for your own nourishment. Then you have something to offer the other person. […] If you have enough understanding and love, then every moment — whether it’s spent making breakfast, driving the car, watering the garden, or doing anything else in your day — can be a moment of joy. This interrelatedness of self and other is manifested in the fourth element as well, equanimity, the Sanskrit word for which — upeksha — is also translated as “inclusiveness” and “nondiscrimination”: In a deep relationship, there’s no longer a boundary between you and the other person. You are her and she is you. Your suffering is her suffering. Your understanding of your own suffering helps your loved one to suffer less. Suffering and happiness are no longer individual matters. What happens to your loved one happens to you. What happens to you happens to your loved one. […] In true love, there’s no more separation or discrimination. His happiness is your happiness. Your suffering is his suffering. You can no longer say, “That’s your problem.” Supplementing the four core elements are also the subsidiary elements of trust and respect , the currency of love’s deep mutuality: When you love someone, you have to have trust and confidence. Love without trust is not yet love. Of course, first you have to have trust, respect, and confidence in yourself. Trust that you have a good and compassionate nature. You are part of the universe; you are made of stars. When you look at your loved one, you see that he is also made of stars and carries eternity inside. Looking in this way, we naturally feel reverence. True love cannot be without trust and respect for oneself and for the other person. Illustration by Julie Paschkis from Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People by Monica Brown The essential mechanism for establishing such trust and respect is listening — something so frequently extolled by Western psychologists, therapists, and sage grandparents that we’ve developed a special immunity to hearing it. And yet when Nhat Hanh reframes this obvious insight with the gentle elegance of his poetics, it somehow bypasses the rational cynicism of the jaded modern mind and registers directly in the soul: To love without knowing how to love wounds the person we love. To know how to love someone, we have to understand them. To understand, we need to listen. […] When you love someone, you should bring relief and help him to suffer less. This is an art. If you don’t understand the roots of his suffering, you can’t help, just as a doctor can’t help heal your illness if she doesn’t know the cause. You need to understand the cause of your loved one’s suffering in order to help bring relief. […] The more you understand, the more you love; the more you love, the more you understand. They are two sides of one reality. The mind of love and the mind of understanding are the same. Echoing legendary Zen teacher D.T. Suzuki’s memorable aphorism that “the ego-shell in which we live is the hardest thing to outgrow,” Nhat Hanh considers how the notion of the separate, egoic “I” interrupts the dialogic flow of understanding — the “interbeing,” to use his wonderfully poetic and wonderfully precise term, that is love: Often, when we say, “I love you” we focus mostly on the idea of the “I” who is doing the loving and less on the quality of the love that’s being offered. This is because we are caught by the idea of self. We think we have a self. But there is no such thing as an individual separate self. A flower is made only of non-flower elements, such as chlorophyll, sunlight, and water. If we were to remove all the non-flower elements from the flower, there would be no flower left. A flower cannot be by herself alone. A flower can only inter-be with all of us… Humans are like this too. We can’t exist by ourselves alone. We can only inter-be. I am made only of non-me elements, such as the Earth, the sun, parents, and ancestors. In a relationship, if you can see the nature of interbeing between you and the other person, you can see that his suffering is your own suffering, and your happiness is his own happiness. With this way of seeing, you speak and act differently. This in itself can relieve so much suffering. The remainder of How to Love explores the simple, profoundly transformative daily practices of love and understanding, which apply not only to romantic relationships but to all forms of “interbeing.” Complement it with John Steinbeck’s exquisite letter of advice on love to his teenage son and Susan Sontag’s lifetime of reflections on the subject , then revisit the great D.T. Suzuki on how Zen can help us cultivate our character . Liked this post? Consider supporting the author. Donating = loving. Give Now. 0.0 ·

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German war reparations 'matter of honor' for Poland

KRAKOW, Poland (Reuters) - Demanding reparations from Germany for its actions in Poland during World War Two is a matter of honor for Warsaw, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Polish ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, said on Saturday. The issue of reparations, revived by Poland s eurosceptic PiS after decades of improving relations with Germany, could escalate tensions between the two European Union members. In September Polish parliamentary legal experts ruled that Warsaw has the right to demand reparations from Germany, although Poland s foreign minister indicated that no immediate claim would be made. The French were paid, Jews were paid, many other nations were paid for the losses they suffered during World War Two. Poles were not, Kaczynski said. It is not only about material funds. It is about our status, our honor ... And this is not theater. This is our demand, a totally serious demand, added Kaczynski, Poland s de facto leader. The PiS government, deeply distrustful of Germany, has raised calls for wartime compensation in recent months but Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski has said further analysis was needed before any claims were lodged. Six million Poles, including three million Polish Jews, were killed during the war, and the capital Warsaw was razed to the ground in 1944 after a failed uprising in which 200,000 civilians died.

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U.N. condemns anti-gay crackdowns in Egypt, Azerbaijan, Indonesia

GENEVA (Reuters) - Azerbaijan, Egypt and Indonesia have all unjustly arrested dozens of people during anti-gay crackdowns in recent weeks, subjecting many to mistreatment in custody, the United Nations human rights office said on Friday. Arresting or detaining people based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity is by definition arbitrary and violates international law, U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing. In Azerbaijan, more than 80 lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people have been arrested since mid-September and the U.N. has received allegations that some were subjected to electric shocks, beatings, forced shaving and other forms of humiliation to force them to incriminate themselves before being released, Colville said. There was no immediate comment from authorities in Baku. More than 50 people have been arrested so far in Egypt s widest anti-gay crackdown, a swift zero-tolerance response to a rare show of public support for LGBT rights in the conservative Muslim country. Two were arrested for waving rainbow flags at a concert and one for a Facebook page, Colville said. In some cases, individuals were reportedly arrested after being entrapped by law enforcement officials on apps and in internet chat rooms. Charges include habitual debauchery , inciting indecency and debauchery , and joining a banned group , he said. At least 10 men in Egypt have been sentenced to between one and six years imprisonment, while most others await trial and a few have been released, Colville added. In Indonesia, more than 50 people were arrested at a sauna in Jakarta last Friday, Colville said. Four men and one woman were charged under the country s pornography law, a vague statute used to arrest people for consensual same-sex relations, he said. In all three countries, authorities have alleged that those arrested were involved in sex work although in almost all cases the accused have denied such allegations or indicated that they were coerced into confessing involvement, Colville said. He called for the release of people detained on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity and for authorities to drop charges based on vague or discriminatory laws, and to repeal such legislation.

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VIDEO: HARLEM BAR Kicks Customers Out For Wearing Trump Hats: “We don’t play that sh*t here”

A large group of very diverse young adults who call themselves The Modern Patriots videotaped themselves being kicked out of the Grill On The Hill bar located at Amsterdam Ave. and W. 140th St in Harlem for wearing Trump hats. 100 Percent FED UP spoke with one of the young adults who was part of the group to find out why they were kicked out. According to the young lady we spoke with, The Modern Patriots group had just finished giving a speech at the City College across the street and decided to go out together to have a drink. They looked for the nearest bar, and happened to end up across the street at the Grill On The Hill . There were 15 people in their group; 3 females and 12 males. Some of the males had MAGA (Make America Great Again) hats on. When they entered the bar, a young woman began screaming that she was offended by their MAGA hats. Other customers in the bar joined in and started jeering at them. It was then that they were told to leave.The groups who call themselves The Modern Patriots can be seen in the video below chanting, USA, USA as they were being kicked out of the bar. A large black man in a blue shirt followed them out of the bar and approached them. He warned them as they were leaving, It s a very sensitive time. Be careful with that. The young patriots appeared frustrated with the treatment they received from the bar, but responded in a very respectful manner. The man wearing the blue shirt in the video asked, Do you know where you re at? to which one of the students who was kicked out of the bar responded, Yeah, America! We talked to one of the young female Trump supporters who was with the group when they were kicked out. She explained how the customer in the bar who was triggered by their hats followed the bouncer outside the bar, engaging them in a shouting match. The bouncer was admonishing the young adults wearing MAGA hats, while attempting to move them off the public sidewalk, when the female customer who started the issue inside the bar stepped outside and began taunting the Trump supporters. The female patriot who was part of the group explained to us what happened once they we re forced outside: I told him [the bouncer] we have our own opinion and he responded that the people in the bar had their opinion too. That woman was screaming at our friend and he gave her the middle finger when we were already outside of the bar but she started everything like she owns the place. She started all of this and when the bouncer came outside she did as well and added fuel to fire. But the bouncer was agreeing with them and told us to relax. We did not go there to cause problems we wear our maga hats all over NYC and we rarely have issues. We felt discriminated by this bar and even now they re trying to justify why they kicked us out on their page. Most of the people we were with attend the college nearby and live in the neighborhood but they are basically telling us we don t belong here. I m not for the identity politics no matter where we go we find supporters so they can keep their segregated bar and we will keep on protecting free speech. The man in the blue shirt continues to warn the young adults who dared to wear their Trump hats into the bar, Be careful out there. It ain t no joke. It ain t no meme. Be careful out there. He continue to threaten them, We don t play that shit here. He tells them to take that shit where you live. to which one of the Trump supports says, I live here! His response is priceless: I don t give a f**k where you live. Is the man in the blue shirt suggesting this crowd of young adults who represent just about every racial group in America, had no business being in a bar whose customer base is primarily black? What about the college across the street? Do they only allow black students to drink at their bar?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa1m2N3W5tE&feature=shareThe best line in the video comes near the end of the confrontation when the man in the blue shirt says, This ain t a democracy. Be careful with yourselves. At which point the young patriots begin to laugh and walk away to avoid confrontation as they chant, He will not divide us! Here is a sample of some of the responses Grill On The Hill received under their post on their Facebook page, where they tried to explain why they kicked the large group of young adults supporting our President out of their bar: The popular online restaurant review service Yelp shut down the comments section on the Grill On The Hill after they were overwhelmed by reviews after the story began to circulate on social media:We took screen shots of a few of the reviews that were mostly hidden from users of the YELP review service.The first reviewer starts out by mocking the man in the blue shirt saying: Be careful with that. They told people who are low on melanin to go back to downtown. Racists.The second reviewer claimed YELP would not allow her to give Grill On The Hill ZERO stars. She went on to say, Anyone who lets a person political opinion interfere with them tryout to enjoy a night out is bull. You say free speech but kick people out for wearing trump hats. Shame on you. That s talking out of both sides of your mouth. Stay away. Far away. We called Grill On The Hill to speak with the owners to get their side of the story. The owners were unavailable.

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SOMALI IMMIGRANT Charged With Multiple Stabbings At Mall of America Has Interesting Meaning Behind His Islamic Name

Minnesota is home to the largest number of Somali immigrants in America. Census numbers put the state s Somali s population at about 40,000, but community activists have said it s higher. The largest share of that group has settled in the Minneapolis area, including one neighborhood near the University of Minnesota campus that s been dubbed Little Mogadishu. But significant numbers have also settled in St. Cloud, Willmar and other smaller cities.Being home to the largest number of Somali immigrants in America doesn t come without a price WND For the second time in just over a year, a Somali refugee has stabbed shoppers with a knife at a Minnesota mall.The first case, on Sept. 17, 2016, was a clear act of jihad when Dahir Adan injured 10 people in the Macy s at the Crossroads Center Mall in St. Cloud after asking his victims, chosen at random, if they were Muslim.But on Sunday night a man identified as Mahad Abdiaziz Abdirahman, 20, of Minneapolis stabbed two men at the Mall of America after they tried to stop him from stealing clothes inside the dressing room at Macy s.His middle name, Abdiaziz, means the slave of Allah the master, a native Arabic speaker told WND.His first name, Mahad, means the one who preaches and invites people to Islam. Wow! Talk about the perfect ambassdor for Islam According to the NYP, Abdirahaman sneaked into a men s fitting room at the Minnesota mall and tried to swipe something from a customer s belongings while the man was outside the fitting room modeling clothes for his family. But he caught Abdirahaman in the act, and the would-be thief pulled a knife and stabbed him, authorities said.Hearing the victim s screams, his family rushed to his aid, but Abdirahaman slashed a second person before they could wrest the knife from him.The scuffle and ensuing response by police freaked out nearby shoppers waiting in line for their kids to see Santa.Violence by Somali immigrants against Minneapolis residents is nothing new to people who have watched the Somali population explode in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.Last year, we reported about a mob of up to 30 young Somali men paraded through one of Minneapolis more upscale neighborhoods last week, yelling disparaging comments and threats against homeowners.A female resident of the neighborhood, obviously shaken in a TV interview, related how she was screamed at by a Somali man who threatened to kidnap and rape her. They were screaming at the house that they were going to kidnap you and they were going to rape you, one Minneapolis resident told KSTP TV. It was a very traumatizing experience. Somalis living in Minneapolis are almost all Sunni Muslims, and residents of the Lake Calhoun area say this isn t the first time a group of Somali men has made an intimidating march through their neighborhood, which is filled with million-dollar homes.Go HERE for video to see homeowner tell her horrifying story.

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Paul Ryan Just Revealed What He Gave Up For Lent, And It’s Truly Despicable (VIDEO)

The Republicans have given us a lot of WTF moments lately, but this one is something you ll remember for a while and just in time for Easter.Earlier today, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) released a video over Twitter announcing what he gave up for Lent, a Christian tradition during Easter season where people give up specific comforts and luxuries for 40 days as a form of repentance. After you see this, the levels of rage you ll experience will make you wish Ryan had just kept it between himself and the Lord. Seriously, the smug smile on his face is enough to make you sick:I used to give up food, like beer or ice cream, for #Lent. But this year, I decided to give up something different.https://t.co/1CBygHRoG1 Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) March 24, 2016So what did Ryan decide to forego for several weeks? Anxiety. And impatience. He s dead serious. In the video, he said: I used to give up beer, or ice cream, or pop. But I ve given up so many things over the years, food-wise, that I ve decided to switch my Lenten vows to character deficiencies or problems I ve had. For Ryan to refer to anxiety as a character deficiency is reprehensible. It is something that around 40 million American adults suffer from regularly, and can lead to serious physical issues such as ulcers and respiratory problems.Ryan, with his amazing amount of white privilege and insensitivity, referred to the everyday stresses that many Americans face as an actual debilitating disorder. How nice is it that Ryan can CHOOSE to give up anxiety for 40 days? People who actually suffer from anxiety don t even have that choice, and would probably give anything to live without anxiety for just ONE day. What Ryan said has only further stigmatized a real mental health issue.The stigma against mental health is a serious matter in this country. As discussions about mental health are usually delivered in a punch line or decried in public, it s no surprise that only a quarter of those with mental health issues believe that others understand and are compassionate about their condition. Because of heavily engrained stereotypes about mental illness, many people will never seek treatment and get the help they need.Maybe if Ryan is looking for more Lent ideas, he could give up shaming people. At least that s a real character deficiency. Featured image via Getty Images

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Anti-Gay Pastor Who Cheered Killing Of Pulse Victims Just Got Arrested For Child Molestation

This hypocrite just got his ass handed to him by karma.Ken Adkins is an anti-gay Christian pastor in Georgia who cheered when a gunman killed nearly 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando,Florida this past June.The nation was horrified by the mass shooting, but many so called conservative Christians were very pleased.Adkins himself wrote on Twitter that the victims deserved to be killed. I don t see none of them as victims, he wrote. I see them as getting what they deserve!! His tweet received wide condemnation but that didn t bother the 56-year-old man of God. He simply continued preaching hate to his congregations.But now karma is biting Adkins in the ass for doing something that conservative Christians often falsely accuse gay people of doing.On Friday, Adkins turned himself in to police after he was accused of molesting a child in 2010.Adkins alleged molested the victim on multiple occasions in several different locations, including the church, in his car, and at the victim s home.The charges against Adkin s are especially ironic considering what the pastor has said about LGBT anti-discrimination laws.According to the Florida Times-Union,Adkins is a controversial figure in Jacksonville politics, particularly because of comments and crude caricatures he posted on his Twitter account while he helped lead the fight against expanding Jacksonville s anti-discrimination law to cover lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.Among the criticisms that Adkins lodged was his assertion that expanding the law would make it easier for sexual predators to find victims in bathrooms.Yet, it sounds like we need stricter laws protecting children from pastors instead.Adkins isn t the only pastor to meet karmic retribution after remarks about the Pulse nightclub shooting.Pastor Steven Anderson actually called for executing gays across the country in a video in which he cheered the slaughter at Pulse.The good news is that there s 50 less pedophiles in this world, because, you know, these homosexuals are a bunch of disgusting perverts and pedophiles, Anderson spewed. These people all should have been killed, anyway, but they should have been killed through the proper channels, as in they should have been executed by a righteous government that would have tried them, convicted them, and saw them executed. You gotta wonder when Anderson will also be arrested for child molestation someday. After all, he sure does enjoy talking about pedophilia and accusing people of committing it even though he has no proof to back up his claims.At any rate, at least we got to see him throw a fit about various companies terminating their business ties with his church. You know, because businesses generally don t want to have anything to do with bigots who support mass murder.Featured image via Wikimedia

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HOW HILLARY’S GRIFTER BROTHER Mooched Off Of Clinton Foundation Donations And Used It As His Own Slush Fund

Nothing like riding on your sister s coattails and making bucketloads of cash just because you re a mooch and a grifter like they are. The Clinton Foundation was nothing but a slush fund for these scumbags Sitting in a courtroom three years ago, after skipping out on a sizable legal bill, Hillary Rodham Clinton s youngest brother struck a reassuring tone: Don t worry, the money is coming. I deal through the Clinton Foundation, Tony Rodham said, according to court transcripts uncovered by the New York Times. He gave his word that Hillary and Bill were setting him up with Haitian-government permits to build a $22 million housing development in the earthquake-stricken country. I hound my brother-in-law, because it s his fund that we re going to get our money from, Rodham explained, promising a $1 million check once the Haitian-government paved the way, enough both to cover the outstanding legal fees and take his family to Disney World.The construction deal fell through, but Rodham managed to settle his debt. And the next year, he got another crack at making money in Haiti s heavily-regulated economy when he joined the advisory board of a company, VCS Mining, which was developing a gold mine on the island. He d met the company s CEO at a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. I go to see old friends [at the meetings,] Rodham told the Washington Post, but you never know what can happen. From the moment the Clintons walked through the White House doors in January of 1993, Rodham has proven remarkably adept at harnessing their political horsepower for his personal gain. His schemes don t always pan out, and they have caused numerous headaches for Hillary and Bill. But Rodham s fortunes have always been tied to theirs, his bank account waxing and waning in time with the Clintons political prospects. He may lack their sophistication, but to many observers, Tony is the unvarnished embodiment of the Clintons decades-long dance with crony capitalism.Rodham sits atop of a pile of money acquired through a vast tangle of enterprises just a little less secret and complex than those of his sister and brother-in-law. There s really no better definition of what this is, says David Bossie, president of the conservative group Citizens United and a longtime Clinton foe. This is a person who is not directly the principal, but he s the brother or, in the 1990s, the brother-in-law of the president, using these open doors of family to shake people down. Tony is the unvarnished embodiment of the Clintons decades-long dance with crony capitalism.Read more: National Review

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First Brexit, Now Trump … What’s Next?

WashingtonsBlog CNN’s Jake Tapper hit the nail on the head last night, as he was speaking about why people voted for Trump. Tapper said that most Americans are sick of the income inequality, globalization, and politics-as-usual that the status quo have given us. He even pointed out that only a handful of people have gotten rich off of globalization, and a lot of people have been left behind . Indeed, exit polls last night showed that the economy was the number 1 concern for voters. The Guardian reports : “It’s the economy, stupid” was a phrase coined by her husband’s adviser James Carville in the 1992 election and, in many ways, it ought to have helped Democrats again in 2016. Barack Obama helped rescue the US from the financial crash and presided over a record series of consecutive quarters of job growth. Unfortunately for Clinton, many Americans simply did not feel as positive. Stagnant wage levels and soaring inequality were symptoms of the malaise felt by many voters. Trump successfully convinced them to believe this was caused by bad trade deals and a rigged economy. Despite being pushed in this direction by Sanders in the Democratic primary, Clinton never really found a satisfactory response. Her volte-face on trade sounded – and was later proved by leaked emails – unconvincing at best; deeply cynical at worst. Similarly, Brexit – the other recent vote which went against all political forecasts – was largely a vote by those who lost out on the benefits of globalization … that only a handful of fatcats really profited from. Leaders of the Brexit campaign noted the confluence of the two votes: Jeremy Corbyn described Mr Trump’s victory as “an unmistakable rejection of political establishment” . Ukip leader Nigel Farage – who went to the US to appear at a Trump campaign rally – said he was handing over his mantle as the creator of political earthquakes to the new President, saying that 2016 was “the year of two great political revolutions”, adding: “I thought Brexit was big, but boy, this looks like it’s going to be even bigger”. N igel Farage has issued this statement following Donald Trump’s victory. “Today, the establishment is in deep shock. Even more so than after Brexit. What we are witnessing is the end of a period of big business and big politics controlling our lives. Voters across the Western world want nation state democracy, proper border controls and to be in charge of their own lives. I commend Donald Trump for the courage with which he has fought this campaign and I look forward to a closer relationship between the USA and the UK. We now have a President who likes our country and understands our post-Brexit values. Prepare for further political shocks in the years to come.” Voters in the UK and the world’s strongest nation, the U.S., have both rebuked the status quo, including neoliberal trade and economic policies. What’s next? The rebellion will spread … For example, it’s so probable that Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party will be thrown out on its ear that Merkel is already trying to distract with silly claims that the Russians will hack the German election. Postscript: There are, of course, other reasons that Trump won. But the economy is the main one.

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American McCarthyism: Neocon Warhawks’ Plan to Kill Antiwar Dissent in Media

21st Century Wire says After 12 months of perpetrating one of the greatest political hoaxes in history blaming Russia for the Presidential victory of Donald Trump the Washington establishment is now wanting to take the lie to the next level by sanctioning not only Russian international media outlets, but any media outlet (see one of their guide lists here) who dare to violate the mainstream party line on the US war agenda by broadcasting to an America audience forcing them the register as foreign agents under the FARA Act of 1934. CrossTalk says: The television station you are watching now and the Russian news agency Sputnik may find themselves in legal jeopardy in the United States. The drive to designate both as foreign agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act is disturbing and dangerous. It would seem those in power decide who can freely speak. Host Peter Lavelle is CrossTalking with guests Scott Rickard, Neil Clark, and Alexander Nekrassov.Watch this incredible discussion on how Washington is degenerating into a paranoid NeoMcCarthyist den of political scape-goatists whose chief aim is to shut down any dissenting voices against America s policy of endless war around the globe:. READ MORE RUSSIAGATE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Russiagate FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV

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As Crooked HIllary Investigation Reopens, Democrat Cities Push To Allow Illegal Immigrants Voting

As Crooked HIllary Investigation Reopens, Democrat Cities Push To Allow Illegal Immigrants Voting 'Look at illegal immigrants voting all over the country,' Donald Trump recently claimed in a Fox News interview, part of his ongoing effort to cast doubt on the integrity of the presidential election. There’s no evidence to support the Republican nominee’s claims of election fraud, but some cities are moving to expand voting rights to include noncitizens. 29, 2016 Some Democrat-Run Cities Want Their Illegal Alien Population to Vote EDITOR’S NOTE: Yesterday, FBI director James Comey announced that they have reopened the investigation into Crooked Hillary’s illegal email server. Yay! But even before that, Democrat operatives are working around the clock to skew the election results in any way they can. Today we present to you Democrat-run cities in America allowing illegal immigrants to vote in the upcoming election. Should illegal immigrant voting be legal? Wha…??? ‘Look at illegal immigrants voting all over the country,’ Donald Trump recently claimed in a Fox News interview, part of his ongoing effort to cast doubt on the integrity of the presidential election. There’s no evidence to support the Republican nominee’s claims of election fraud, but some cities are moving to expand voting rights to include non-citizens (illegal immigrants) . Trump Opposes Same-Day Voter Registration to Prevent Illegal Immigrants from Voting: The latest is San Francisco , where the Nov. 8 ballot will include a measure allowing the parents or legal guardians of any student in the city’s public schools to vote in school board elections. The right would be extended to those with green cards, visas, or no documentation at all. “One out of three kids in the San Francisco unified school system has a parent who is an immigrant, who is disenfranchised and doesn’t have a voice,” says San Francisco Assemblyman David Chiu, the son of Taiwanese immigrants. “We’ve had legal immigrants who’ve had children go through the entire K-12 system without having a say.” Undocumented immigrants should also have the right, Chiu adds, to bypass the “broken immigration system in this country.” Should Illegal Immigrants Be Allowed to Vote in US Elections? Today there are six jurisdictions in Maryland that let non-citizens (illegal immigrants) vote in local elections. Chicago allows them to take part in elected parent advisory councils but not to vote in school board elections. Four towns in Massachusetts have moved to allow noncitizen voting and are awaiting state approval. And in New York City, where non-citizens (illegal immigrants) make up 21 percent of the voting-age population, the city council is drafting legislation that would allow more than 1.3 million legal residents to take part in municipal elections. The city previously allowed non-citizens (illegal immigrants) to vote in school board elections, but that ended when New York’s school boards were dissolved in 2002. Liberals Sign Petition to Allow Illegal Immigrants to Vote in 2016 Presidential Election: San Francisco has tried in the past to grant noncitizens access to school board elections. A 2004 measure narrowly failed, with 51 percent voting against it. “There was an opposition campaign at that time,” Chiu says. He sponsored another ballot measure in 2010, which also failed. This time, Chiu says, he’s hoping for a victory. So far he’s seen no organized opposition: “I think that’s because of the ugly, anti-immigrant statements expressed by Donald Trump and his supporters.” SHARE THIS ARTICLE

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Dubai frees Briton sentenced for touching another man: advocacy group

DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai s ruler has pardoned a British man a day after he was sentenced to three months in jail for touching another man at a bar, a legal advocacy group said on Monday. Jamie Harron, an electrician working in Afghanistan, was convicted for public indecency after being accused of touching a German man s behind in a bar. Harron, 27, denied the charges and said he brushed past the man by accident as he pushed through the crowded room. The incident at the raucous Rock Bottom bar, popular among Dubai s many wealthy and often tipsy foreign residents and tourists, was reported to police by the accuser. By special order of the Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Jamie Harron has been freed. The cases against him have been dismissed, and the sentence imposed by the court yesterday has been nullified, said Detained in Dubai, a group that assists foreigners facing legal problems in the emirate. A Dubai courts spokesman did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment. An airlines, business and tourism hub with looser alcohol policies than most Gulf Arab neighbors, Dubai still maintains strict laws against public indecency and homosexuality. Radha Stirling, head of Detained in Dubai, said she hoped cases like Harron s would not happen again. Of course, a fully functional legal system would not require outside intervention, and a case like Jamie s would never proceed in the first place. But we are enormously grateful to Sheikh Mohammed for stepping in.

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Good News for Silver in 2017

James Burgess Oil PricePrecious metals are an important component of every investor s portfolio, and while gold often gets all the hype, another precious metal will be a much better bet in 2017: Silver.The market for silver continues to tighten as supply has failed to keep up with demand for much of the past decade. Silver is used in all facets of modern life, including electronics, medical devices, engines, batteries, solar panels, LED lighting, semiconductors, touch screens, dentistry, and nuclear reactors. The list goes on.Demand for silver is up by more than 35 percent since 2009, while supply only grew by a little more than 10 percent. In 2015 alone, global demand for silver exceeded supply by roughly 129 million ounces, or about 11 percent of overall demand. With silver consumption set to expand indefinitely, the supply deficit will continue to put upward pressure on prices in the years ahead.The set-up here is fantastic because indications are that we are on the edge of another bull run at a time when silver mining stocks are significantly undervalued. Silver prices had a good run for most of 2016, but have fallen back in recent weeks as the dollar has strengthened and uncertainty surrounding the U.S. presidential election abated. But the pause in the run up in prices will be brief, offering investors an appetizing entry point for a crucial commodity in today s globalized economy.Silver may be down 10% from its peak of $20.67 in Q3, but the sell-offs were based on sentiment, not fundamental reality and this is exactly where smart investment finds opportunity. The strongest documented indication of this is the Q3 earnings of silver miners, which only the savviest of investors are picking up on. Pan American Silver (NASDAQ:PAAS) reported Q3 earnings of an impressive US$43.4 million up US$9.2 million over the previous quarter just for starters.[ ]1. The Global Silver Lining: A Precious Metal PremiumGlobal investors are magnetically drawn to precious metals in times of uncertainty and instability. Global tensions are as high as they were in the 9/11 aftermath, when precious metals soared phenomenally as everyone hedged bets against global instability Continue this article at Oil PriceREAD MORE FINANCIAL NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Financial Files

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AWESOME! PRO-TRUMP CROWD Protests Fake News at CNN Headquarters [Video]

Debbie Dooley and a crowd of great Patriots marched in front of the CNN headquarters in Atlanta today in a show of support for President Trump and in protest against CNN s fake news. Who isn t proud of these people literally walking the walk to voice their opposition to the constant drip, drip, drip of propaganda from CNN.Debbie Dooley of Main Street Patriots told Breitbart News why they were protesting CNN today:CNN threw objective journalism out the window once Donald Trump was elected President and have begun to report DNC talking points as news. CNN can no longer claim to be a news organization that reports facts without bias, because they report innuendo with no facts as news with the intent on bringing down a democratically-elected President. They have simply become an entertainment network not to be taken seriously.Time for Trump supporters to get active and show the Democrats that we are very passionate about our support of President Trump and we will fight hard to pass his agenda, the notice of the event states on Main Street Patriots website. Bring your signs and let s show CNN that we support President Trump and call them out for becoming an arm of the DNC intent on bringing down President Trump with biased coverage and false innuendos, the invitation on Main Street Patriots Facebook page states.A TRUMP SUPPORTER ON WHY SHE S JOINING THE PROTEST: She is 100% spot on Trump supporter on why she's joining protest against Fake News CNN. She is 100% spot on. pic.twitter.com/IblSehMU52 Tennessee (@TEN_GOP) June 17, 2017 We re so happy about this! It s the outward and visible signs of protest that make a HUGE difference.

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Former GOP EPA Chiefs Endorse Clinton: Trump Would ‘Set The World Back Decades’

Two Republican former Environmental Protection Agency chiefs are warning that a Trump presidency would not only set the world back decades, but could also be a direct threat to the environmental legacies of presidents Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and George H.W. Bush. As a result, they have decided to back Hillary Clinton rather than the Republican nominee.William D. Ruckelshaus and William K. Reilly issued a statement on Tuesday announcing their endorsement of Clinton.Republicans have a long history of support for the environment dating back to Theodore Roosevelt. Donald Trump threatens to destroy that legacy of respect for the environment and protection of public health, the statement read.Ruckelshaus was EPA administrator under both Reagan and Nixon. Reilly served under Bush. They both praised the environmental policies of the administrations they had worked under but said Trump doesn t have the slightest clue. Donald Trump has shown a profound ignorance of science and of the public health issues embodied in our environmental laws, they said. He hasn t a clue about Republicans historic contributions to science-driven environmental policy. The former EPA heads also slammed Trump for his claim that climate change, which they called the singular health and environmental threat to the world today, is nothing more that a hoax. It flies in the face of overwhelming international science and the public conviction and commitment of almost 200 national governments that adopted the Paris Agreement on climate change in December 2015, they said, pointing out that their leadership was essential to that agreement. To back away now, as Trump wants to do, would set the world back decades years we could never recover. The young people in this country deserve far better than that as our legacy, they addedThey wrote that Clinton, on the other hand, acknowledges climate change as the threat that it is and is concerned about protecting the environment. She is committed to reasonable, science-based policy to meet those challenges, the men wrote. For us, there is simply no choice in this election, they concluded. We Republicans should be shocked, outraged even, at the prospect that all this progress, this legacy will be repudiated and rolled back by Donald Trump. This is a hugely consequential election; the stakes are that high. That is why as Republicans, we support Hillary Clinton for President. Featured image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images

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The All New PR Mindset · Guardian Liberty Voice

As everyone embraces the power of publicity, industry leader Annie Jennings, founder of the National Firm, Annie Jennings PR, shares the new way to think of publicity and avoid the many pitfalls that stand in your way. With so many people selling services without a track record of success for their clients, you have to protect yourself and ask the right questions. What is in it for me? This is the first question you should be asking about your publicity strategy. In addition, the first of a new, three-headed PR mindset for success. The other two, understanding the power of being socially relevant and thinking of your media bookings as assets to be leveraged over the long haul, come into play as you start building your ascent to the top. To be sure, you are aligned with the right approach to your publicity that will elevate your credibility, exposure, and business; you must ask, “What’s in it for me?” This question is designed to make sure you are buying deliverables. This means secured PR media placements that actually occur and are designed to propel your personal and business growth forward. Asking this question makes sure you are working with a publicist who specializes in your particular growth area and can answer the question as it pertains to your goals. This one piece of advice is precious. Asking this question will help you avoid wasting your money and instead leads to you investing your money in a targeted media strategy with specific outcomes in mind that serve to advance your level of achievement and standing in your industry. When you simply spend your marketing money without a plan that supports outcomes, once you buy the service, the money is gone. However, when you know “what’s in it for you” and invest accordingly, you can expect to get a return on your investment. Now this is how a great PR firm works. They are always asking the question “what is in it for my client?” It’s go time Once you have your PR strategy in place, it’s time to go after the media placements. It is time to decide how you, your message, your book and/or area of expertise relates to society today. Many people will try to force a topic through to the media. This is a mistake. It is so much better to go with the media flow (that is, the issues of the day) than try to push a concept or conversation that has no social relevance at the time. Define what it is you want to say and understand where you fit into the national conversation on topics within your areas of expertise. When you can address an issue people are talking about right now and are qualified to discuss it, the bookers can say YES to you. That is what we call the triple win. The show keeps its listeners or viewers glued to the program, the audience is fascinated and the guest (YOU) is very happy as you got a chance to share your message, promote yourself and live your book out loud. You also get a strong media asset that you can leverage into more opportunity. Collecting assets Accumulating these bookings as assets allows you to keep them working for you for years to come, giving you a competitive edge. The final part of the all new PR strategy for success focuses on incorporating the big brand names into your marketing outreach. Consultants, speakers, and authors have said that major national media is a critical component in a greater business and marketing strategy. It enhances growth and allows you to realize a potential that in many cases, you would not have been able to reach without that publicity. Becoming a regular contributor to a highly respected news outlet, for example. On the other hand, perhaps being the consultant hired for big money contracts with prestigious organizations that enhance your image. With this scaled up reputation, you may be able to name your price when it comes to speaking engagements. What happens in the all new PR mindset, is that over time, you become the prize. You are now the one being pursued. No miracle outcomes This is why investing in publicity assets offers a tremendous advantage over just plunking down money on any old publicity plan hoping for a miracle outcome. There are no miracle outcomes. There is just a careful planning of a PR strategy that is implemented accordingly. The plan should be specifically designed for your intended objectives. What do you want to achieve? Do you want to be regular or do you want to be great? Do you want to be the envy of your industry and call the shots? It is all possible. Consistency over time following a PR strategy that has been tailored to your goals and dreams is the secret. Optimal success is the result of an investment in yourself and again, not just careless spending with no advance knowledge of the outcome. That is why you always have to ask, “What’s in it for me?” Written by Annie Jennings (Edited by Cherese Jackson) Source: Annie Jennings PR : Ever Wonder How The Big Experts Think About Publicity? Photo Credits: Featured Image Courtesy of Niuton may – Flickr License Top and Inline Images Courtesy of Annie Jennings Annie Jennings, founder of the National Publicity Firm Annie Jennings PR , has innovated industry concepts for more than 20 years as the media has rapidly evolved. Annie has been a contributing commentator in the national media including Fast Company, Inc., Entrepreneur, US Weekly, TheStreet.com and been an invited speaker to NYU’s publishing program, The Harvard Club, the American Society of Journalists and Authors and hundreds more. brand , Marketing , media , PR , public relations

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Key Democrat cites 'profound doubt' about Intelligence panel Trump probe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said on Wednesday that actions by the committee’s chairman cast “profound doubt” on its ability to conduct a reliable investigation of potential ties between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia. “This is not how you conduct an investigation. You don’t take information that the committee hasn’t seen and present it orally to the press and to the White House before the committee has a chance to vet whether it’s even significant,” U.S. Representative Adam Schiff told a news conference. Republican Representative Devin Nunes, the committee’s chairman, told reporters earlier on Wednesday that an anonymous source had provided him with information that communications by associates of Trump and possibly Trump himself had been swept up during routine surveillance.

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Panti Bliss, Ireland’s Queen of Drag, Expands Her Kingdom - The New York Times

Ireland became the first country in the world to legalize marriage by popular vote in 2015, thanks in part to the advocacy of a drag queen called Panti Bliss. A pub owner and longtime fixture on the gay scene, she rose to mainstream fame the year before the vote when her male alter ego, Rory O’Neill, was sued for criticizing a group of activists on TV for their views on homosexuality. The lawsuit sparked a national outcry known as “Pantigate. ” During the controversy, Panti made a speech about homophobia that became a viral video sensation and turned her into a symbol of the gay rights movement in Ireland. The eventual success of the campaign for marriage seemed to cement her celebrated status. That was a year and a half ago. For many activists — or drag queens — the story might have ended there, capped off by cheering crowds chanting her name at Dublin Castle when the results of the marriage referendum were announced. But Panti’s cultural footprint has expanded ever since. “He has a radio show, the theater show, he’s absolutely unstoppable,” Conor Horgan, a filmmaker who directed a documentary about Mr. O’Neill. “Panti’s brand is a movable feast. ” Mr. Horgan’s film received critical acclaim in Ireland and Britain in 2015 and made its New York premiere last weekend at the Irish Screen America film festival. It traces the last three decades of Ireland’s gay history through Mr. O’Neill’s life story. “As my mother would say, it’s quite the turn up for the books,” Mr. O’Neill said over lunch in New York. “If you’d said it to me 10 years ago, I would have looked at you. It’s pretty wild how queer Ireland has become. ” Panti is not alone. In recent years, a host of prominent Irish people have come out, including Maria Walsh, the winner of the Rose of Tralee, an Irish beauty pageant, Pat Carey, a former government minister, and Leo Varadkar, a young politician widely seen as a possible future prime minister. For Mr. O’Neill, becoming a symbol of modern Ireland has had its perks beyond the film, which is now playing in American film festivals. He has traveled the world as Panti, performing a show to houses in New York, London and Sydney. (He is in two separate shows that are in talks for a North America run.) He also released a memoir in 2014. Panti has interviewed scientists about the meaning of life for her new national radio show, and she even addressed the country last December for a “Queen’s Christmas Message. ” It was a cheeky take on a British tradition, with a towering blonde drag queen earnestly praising the nation for its changing attitudes. Those changes reach beyond marriage. Ireland’s embrace of gay rights has inspired a new generation of progressive activism on issues like abortion access, said Ailbhe Smyth, who has long campaigned for both causes. Abortion is severely restricted by the eighth amendment to Ireland’s constitution, and has been the subject of multiple referendums since 1983. Many young political activists who came of age during Pantigate and the gay marriage campaign are pushing for another referendum. Ms. Smyth called them “a cadre of people who know how to do things on the ground. ” “The victory in the ‘Yes Equality’ campaign further opened up the path for change in Ireland. People say ‘we can do this, we won this,’ ” she said. “You get that momentum and dynamism, that sense of optimism that flows from a victory. ” Panti Bliss was a leader in Ireland’s gay scene for more than two decades, an H. I. V. drag queen who hosted “The Alternative Miss Ireland” pageant for 18 years and mentored a generation of younger performers. Una Mullally, a columnist for The Irish Times, said she was not the first figure in Irish history who, at first glance, seemed like an unlikely icon. “We hold our outsiders up to become Irish heroes, whether that’s people who were queer, like Oscar Wilde, or intellectual, like Beckett, or who hated Dublin, like Joyce,” Ms. Mullally said. “Panti is in that lineage in a way. Despite our social conservatism there is a sense of devilment among Irish people. ” In New York, Mr. O’Neill said he sometimes felt conflicted about his success. The New York premiere of his film was attended by Irish diplomats and Melissa the speaker of the New York City Council, who hailed him as “a catalyst for change” in a speech. It was a far cry from his roots in the night life of the late 1980s, when he became a drag queen because it was “underground and transgressive and discombobulating,” he said. “To me it’s inherently punk,” Mr. O’Neill said. “Which is then odd for me to suddenly be an establishment figure. ” He said his performances and activism have always been devoted to expanding the idea of Irishness to include the marginalized, like migrants, religious minorities or L. G. B. T. people. He calls it “queering the Irish space. ” Did he think it was working? The question drew a laugh. “Maybe too well!”

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Interview: Why did Quito cut Assange’s access to the Internet?

Interview: Why did Quito cut Assange’s access to the Internet? 02.11.2016 Professor Doctor Mads Andenæs, a Norwegian lawyer and president of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, comments in the following interview with Edu Montesanti, for Pravdareport, on the Ecuadorian government's decision to cut off Julian Assange's Internet access. Assange was granted political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden or the United States; the Australian journalist has access to the Internet denied since October 17, less than 24 hours after releasing John Podesta e-mails, the Chairman of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Through official statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the South American country said it "respects the principle of non-intervention in the affairs of other countries", which led Quito to temporarily cut off Assange's access to the Internet. Print version Font Size At the same time, the Ecuadorian government stressed its commitment to protect "victims of political persecution" like Assange, and intended to "safeguard his life and physical integrity." Denying having suffered any external pressure for cutting the Internet, in line with the speech of US Department of State, the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister assured: "We reaffirm that the protection of the Ecuadorian State will continue as the circumstances that led to the granting of such asylum remain." WikiLeaks states that several US sources say that there has been pressure exerted by Washington on Rafael Correa’s government to restrict Assange's access to the Internet. Edu Montesanti: How do you evaluate the decision of the Ecuadorian government to deny Julian Assange's access to the Internet? President Rafael Correa claims that his country will not interfere in foreign elections: such a measure is really democratic? Mads Andenæs: That has surprised me. President Correa is one of my heroes, and I cannot understand well this latest measure. I understand that this latest measure is alarming to Assange. And it should be for all of us. Edu Montesanti: WikiLeaks tweeted after the incident: "Multiple US sources tell us John Kerry asked Ecuador to stop Assange from publishing Clinton docs during FARC peace negotiations," while the United States Department of State denied the accusation, and President Correa said he acted on his own, and does not give in to foreign pressures. In your opinion, Professor Mads, Washington really pressured Quito, as says Assange? Mads Andenæs: There has been pressure, no doubt. What you cite here sounds credible, but again I only know what I have read in the papers. Edu Montesanti: Do you think the government of Ecuador will restrict journalistic work of WikiLeaks, in general? Mads Andenæs: I hope not. Edu Montesanti: Do you think Assange's asylum is running a risk? Mads Andenæs: No I really hope not. But it is worrying that so much pressure is brought to bear on the Ecuadorians. I am increasingly worried that Assange is not safe anywhere, in asylum or not. He has very good reasons to resist extradition. Remember that two UK Supreme Court justices dissented in the judgment about the extradition to Sweden, and the reporting judge and one of the Supreme Court justices in Sweden held the request illegal because it was disproportionate. Professor Andrew Ashworth, Oxford, advised that the Swedish request did not allege facts that constituted a criminal offence under English law. Professor Liora Lazarus, Oxford has held that Assange's detention is in vioaltion of international law, the chair of the English Bar Association Human Rights Committee, Kirsty Brimelow QC and the general counsel at Human Rights Watch Dinah PoKempner have all supported the ruling by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The UK and Sweden should now just comply with international law as applied by the UN. Edu Montesanti: Do you fear that if the Ecuadorian opposition, pro-US, wins the 2017 presidential election, Assange will be extradited to America? Mads Andenæs: I really hope that they will not win, and if they do, that they will not renege on the asylum. Fear - yes strong reasons for much fear in this case. Edu Montesanti

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American Airlines Crew Hits Woman With Stroller, Challenges Passenger To Fight (VIDEO)

Yet another example of our airline industry s awesomeness occurred Friday when an employee was captured on video challenging a passenger to a fight after a woman holding a baby was hit with her stroller. The video begins with the crying woman holding one of her children in her arms while begging for her stroller back.One angry witness can be heard saying he s not going to sit here and watch this before going to the front of the plane to demand the name of the employee who hit the woman. Another woman on the flight can be heard confronting the staff about their treatment of the latest victim of airline violence. Much of the staff s conversation can not be heard from the vantage point of the person filming, but the gentleman who initially confronted the thugs on the plane stands up and says you do that to me and I ll knock you flat. You stay out of this! the male flight attendant shot back. Try it. Hit me. You don t know what the story is. But the passenger knew what the story is (the part that matters, anyway):I don t care what the story is. You almost hit that baby!Q13 Fox spoke to some of the people aboard the plane, and the story is just as terrible as it seems:Olivia Morgan was standing in the doorway of the aircraft with her 8-year-old daughter waiting to board when the altercation happened. The flight attendant wrestled the stroller away from the woman, who was sobbing, holding one baby with the second baby in a car seat on the ground next to her, she said.Morgan said the flight attendant was violent when taking the metal stroller from the woman and nearly hit the baby with the stroller. He stormed by me with the stroller and I said something like, What are you doing? You almost hit that baby! And he yelled at me to stay out of it! just like he does in the video, she said.Morgan said she talked to the woman about the incident. The woman said a female flight attendant told her she could look for space to store the stroller because it folds up very small, but if there was no available space, she would need to check it at the gate. She was looking for space when the male attendant tried to take it away from her and she said she told him the other attendant had told her it was okay to look, she said.According to the American Airlines website, small strollers can be checked at the gate but there is no policy about strollers in the overhead bin. The lady and her two children were seated near the back of the plane. She was somehow able to get her stroller on board and back near her seat, said Tom Watson, who was sitting just behind the first class section when the staff went insane. She refused to let him take it and she was almost to the point of shouting. The flight attendant and the woman started making their way to the front of the plane. They were at the front of the plane near the crew area. The woman was holding on to the stroller and refusing to let go, he continued, adding that The flight attendant should not have been so aggressive and should have been more aware of the kids. He then says the woman was escorted off the plane.Fortunately, American Airlines seems to have learned from United s numerous blunders following employees assault on a doctor. Rather than attempt to blame the woman, the company released a statement announcing that the employee has been suspended (not terminated though):We have seen the video and have already started an investigation to obtain the facts. What we see on this video does not reflect our values or how we care for our customers. We are deeply sorry for the pain we have caused this passenger and her family and to any other customers affected by the incident. We are making sure all of her family s needs are being met while she is in our care. After electing to take another flight, we are taking special care of her and her family and upgrading them to first class for the remainder of their international trip.The actions of our team member captured here do not appear to reflect patience or empathy, two values necessary for customer care. In short, we are disappointed by these actions. The American team member has been removed from duty while we immediately investigate this incident.The woman had to take another flight, but was given upgraded accommodations.Watch video shot directly following the attack below: Featured image via screengrab

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Pentagon making list of Iraqis who worked alongside U.S. forces after travel ban

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon was creating a list of Iraqis who had worked alongside U.S. troops, which will be passed to agencies implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting entry for people from Iraq and six other Muslim-majority countries, a spokesman said on Monday. A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Captain Jeff Davis, said that over the weekend the White House had “provided the opportunity” to submit names. “There are a number of people in Iraq who have worked for us in a partnership role, whether fighting alongside us or working as translators, often doing so at great peril to themselves,” Davis told reporters. “We are ensuring that those who have demonstrated their commitment tangibly to fight alongside us and support us, that those names are known in whatever process there is going forward,” he added. It was unclear when the list would be complete and how many names it would include. Trump’s order suspending travel, which he signed on Friday, sparked anger in Iraq, where more than 5,000 U.S. troops are deployed to help Iraqi and regional Kurdish forces in the war against the Islamic State militant group. Iraq asked the United States on Monday to reconsider the travel ban on its citizens, taking a more diplomatic line than the Iraqi parliament, which demanded the government retaliate. The Iraqi parliament called on the government to impose “similar treatment” on U.S. nationals.

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What to Make of the ‘Davos Class’ in the Trump Era - The New York Times

DAVOS, Switzerland — Donald Trump has never been invited here. Neither has Nigel Farage, the British politician who led the Brexit campaign. The World Economic Forum — an annual gathering of global policy and business leaders, who come to debate the world’s great challenges — gets underway here Monday night as the shifting political trends toward nationalism and against a sense of globalism are raising renewed questions about the relevance of the elites known as the “Davos class. ” It is this group of plutocrats that largely failed to anticipate — and may have even unconsciously generated — the seeping movement across the globe. Every January, a glittering array of the cognoscenti descend on the Alps: the Bill Gates, the of Microsoft the billionaire investor George Soros Jack Ma, the founder of China’s giant, Alibaba and — until recently — Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany. An assortment of Hollywood actors including Angelina Jolie, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon have made the pilgrimage over the years to promote their nonprofit work. And the conversations tend to be dominated by issues like inequality, climate change and the economic challenges facing developed and emerging countries. This year, the guest list includes names like President Xi Jinping of China Vice President Joseph Biden JPMorgan Chase’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde and former Vice President Al Gore. And yet missing from these conversations have been meaningful challengers or critics of the underlying theme that was seemingly stipulated from the birth of this event 46 years ago: Globalization has the potential to benefit everyone. “Trump’s election victory is a clear indication that the majority of people are not interested in a world government, but want to return to a classical, local democracy,” John Mauldin, an economic researcher and author, recently wrote. “Strange as it may seem to the Davos men, most people tend to love their ‘patria,’ the land of their fathers. ” Dissenting voices like those of Mr. Trump and Mr. Farage have rarely been part of the discussion — though perhaps that will change. Theresa May, Britain’s new prime minister, will attend this year, as will some of Mr. Trump’s advisers. But the victories of Mr. Trump and the Brexit campaign can be viewed as a rebuke of “Davos Man,” a name that Samuel Huntington, the Harvard political scientist, gave attendees in 2004, describing them as “transnationalists” who “have little need for national loyalty, view national boundaries as obstacles that thankfully are vanishing, and see national governments as residues from the past whose only useful function is to facilitate the elite’s global operations. ” The middle class in the United States and Britain — and perhaps in France if Marine Le Pen, the presidential candidate who has also never been invited to Davos, wins this spring — clearly haven’t felt the benefits of the world encouraged by multinational corporations that allows both immigration and commerce to take place without friction. “They have witnessed the rise of the Davos class, a network of banking and tech billionaires, elected leaders who are awfully cozy with those interests, and Hollywood celebrities who make the whole thing seem unbearably glamorous,” Naomi Klein, a columnist for The Guardian, wrote in a searing analysis of the American election in November. She described the failure of “elite neoliberalism” to address the economic challenges of the masses. “Success,” she wrote, continuing to describe the middle class, “is a party to which they were not invited, and they know in their hearts that this rising wealth and power is somehow directly connected to their growing debts and powerlessness. ” The Davos Man has either failed to properly articulate the benefits of open trade — or the reality of open trade is more complicated than previously imagined. In a nod to this new reality, the World Economic Forum has put together an index of what it calls inclusive growth and development, which measures 109 countries according to their progress on economic growth and reducing income inequality and breaks out subsets of those countries to compare with different data sets. According to the index, median income actually declined by 2. 4 percent between 2008 and 2013 across the 26 advanced economies where data is available, which may help explain the shifting political winds. “It’s our response to how capitalism has failed us — and how we need to fix it,” said Adrian Monck, a member of the forum’s executive committee. The United States ranked 23rd out of 30 advanced economies. In terms of wage and nonwage compensation, it ranked last in social protection, it came in 25th. It also came in 25th on “intermediation of business investment” — in other words, the amount of money that goes into productive investments, such as research and development and infrastructure as opposed to share buybacks. (Norway ranked No. 1. Living standards there rose by 10. 6 percent from 2008 to 2013 while the economy grew only 0. 5 percent.) Mr. Monck defended the idea of a globalist approach. “The benefits of globalization are there to see, in jobs in China, India and many emerging markets,” he said. “Billions of people owe better lives to it. ” He invoked Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum. “What hasn’t been listened to in Davos is persistent warnings from people like Klaus that the benefits need to be shared, and that you can’t have capitalism,” Mr. Monck said. Still, he acknowledged that the invitation list of insiders is by design. “We always want the most comprehensive political attendance in Davos, to help support cooperation, which is what we do,” he said. “That inevitably means current, serving political figures. There are politicians in office now — and coming to Davos — who reflect this emergent agenda that you’ve seen in the U. S. ” For example, he said, leaders from Poland, Finland, Portugal and even Switzerland — where the Swiss People’s Party was an early example of the shift in the political landscape — will be on hand this week. A bevy of Mr. Trump’s advisers and members of his business council are expected to attend, including Anthony Scaramucci, who joined the ’s White House staff as an adviser and public liaison to government agencies and businesses. He will be joined by Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of the Blackstone Group and also of Mr. Trump’s President’s Strategic and Policy Forum. Four Trump cabinet nominees have been to Davos in years past: Rick Perry (energy) once Rex Tillerson (state) three times Robert Lighthizer (trade) 15 times and Elaine Chao (transportation) four times. A few people who were once crusaders — like Ms. May of Britain — are now insiders. And, depending how the political winds shift, more people of her ideological ilk may join the Davos class in 2018. This is not the first time that the World Economic Forum has come under fire from critics about its globalist, message. In 2000, a group of more than 1, 000 demonstrators carrying signs that said “Against the New World Order” smashed the windows of a McDonald’s franchise here in Davos just down the road from the conference, protesting open trade policies espoused by Bill Clinton, who was speaking at the event. Many of today’s policy makers and executives gathering here are expected to speak about the rise of populism and the need to adjust economic incentives. Hamdi Ulukaya, the chief executive of Chobani, the yogurt company, is expected to encourage business leaders to do more to address wealth building among employees he provided shares in his company to every employee, making many of them millionaires. The question, of course, is whether those discussions can ever get beyond the theoretical for a group that is seen by many voters as out of touch with the real economic challenges that people face. Conversations about income inequality, for example, have long had a tinge of class envy as opposed to a real appreciation for the basic jobs and wages that people are seeking. Still, with the word “Davos” being tossed around as an epithet, some politicians are staying away from the Alps this year. Ms. Merkel, for example, has passed on attending now for two years in a row, in the face of continued criticism among German voters that she is too much of a globalist. So why do so many policy makers and executives still covet an invitation? Because Davos remains the world’s shop to meet leaders from all corners of the globe. And despite the critiques of the gathering, a remarkable amount of business — both political and corporate — takes place behind the scenes. One thing is sure: The predictions made here — known as the Davos consensus — have a tendency to be wrong. Mr. Trump, with very few exceptions, was largely written off last year as a bad joke. “If you bother to read some of the serious analysis of Trump’s support, you realize that it’s a very fragile thing and highly unlikely to deliver what he needs in the crucial first phase of the primaries,” Niall Ferguson, the historian, predicted at Davos in 2016, according to Bloomberg News. “By the time we get to it’s all over. I think there’s going to be a wonderful catharsis, I’m really looking forward to it: Trump’s humiliation. Bring it on. ”

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Trump’s Strike on Syria Has All Sides Asking: What Next? - The New York Times

President Trump’s decision to strike Syria has upended assumptions about American military involvement in the Middle East, angering adversaries and raising hopes among allies that it signals a new willingness by the United States to deploy force to help its friends and punish its foes. “People are jubilant in the Gulf right now,” said Mohammed Alyahya, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council who is from Saudi Arabia. “What is clear is that Trump understands what American power can change and is willing to use it. ” The swift decision, by a president who had previously shown no interest in entering conflicts like Syria’s, set Mr. Trump apart from his predecessor’s far more cautious approach to the war. The missile strikes on a Syrian airfield inflicted only minor damage and are unlikely to change the dynamics of a complex conflict that rages on local, regional and global levels. On the ground, it pits an array of rebel groups against the Syrian president, Bashar . Supporting the rebels are nations like Saudi Arabia and Turkey, who oppose Mr. Assad and his ally, Iran. The war has also entangled Russia and the United States, and sent shock waves through Europe, which streams of Syrian refugees have fled to. But Mr. Trump’s decision to launch quick strikes raised questions about whether it would give the involved powers pause as they pursue their objectives in a war that seems to have no end in sight. Russia and Iran, who back the Syrian government, have responded angrily to the strikes, while allies who criticized President Barack Obama’s cautious approach have welcomed the change. Some allies renewed their calls for a leadership change in Damascus, although officials in the Trump administration did not portray the strikes as the start of a broader campaign. “A lot of this is an emotional response, but nothing about this strike suggests that the fundamentals of the Syria conflict have shifted,” said Noah Bonsey, a Syria analyst with the International Crisis Group. As president, Mr. Obama sought to differentiate himself from his predecessor, George W. Bush, by limiting direct American involvement in Middle Eastern wars. That angered some allies. Israel, Saudi Arabia and others accused him of overlooking aggressive moves by Iran in order to clinch a deal to limit its nuclear program. And Persian Gulf states and Turkey were irate when he did not enforce his own “red line” on the use of chemical weapons in Syria by using force against Mr. Assad after an attack in 2013 that killed more than 1, 000 people. Now, many who felt that Mr. Obama’s caution gave a green light to Mr. Assad’s brutality are lauding Mr. Trump for his forcible response to this week’s chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun, a town in northern Syria. “Everyone here in Khan Sheikhoun is happy. It is revenge for the families of the victims,” said Yasser Sarmini, a rebel fighter who was in the town at the time of the strike. “Trump is more frank and earnest than Obama. He promised and fulfilled his promise. ” In Turkey, which has long backed Syrian rebels in their effort to topple Mr. Assad, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a rally that he supported the attack but wanted further action. “I want to say we found this positive as a step taken against the war crimes the Assad regime has committed with chemical and conventional weapons,” Mr. Erdogan said. “Is it enough? I don’t reckon it is enough. ” He called for the establishment of “safe zones” inside Syria, an idea considered but ultimately rejected by the Obama administration. Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, went further, calling in a televised speech for a leadership change in Syria. “This regime should be removed from Syria right away,” he said. “The best way to do this is to establish the interim government, an interim government without Assad. ” In Israel, which has kept its distance from the war raging across its northern border, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes sent a clear message against the spread of chemical weapons. “Israel fully supports President Trump’s decision and hopes that this message of resolve in the face of the Assad regime’s horrific actions will resonate not only in Damascus, but in Tehran, Pyongyang and elsewhere,” he said. But Mr. Trump’s actions could complicate the pursuit of other American priorities, including defeating the Islamic State. Russian officials, who have denied that the Syrian government has retained any chemical weapons, condemned the American attack and suspended their agreement with the United States over the use of Syrian airspace, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday. Russia has argued that the deaths in Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday occurred when a bomb hit a chemical weapons facility belonging to the rebels. So far, Mr. Trump has not clarified whether Thursday’s strikes were a response to the chemical attack or the start of more direct American involvement. He had previously spoken of cooperating with Russia against the Islamic State, and his spokesman, Sean Spicer, said just last week that Mr. Assad’s staying in power was “a political reality that we have to accept. ” Maha Yahya, the director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, Lebanon, said, “It’s too early to call this a game changer, because we don’t know what the next step will be — or if there will be a next step. ” Ms. Yahya said she had learned of the strikes in the company of Syrian dissidents in Washington, where some applauded and others stayed silent. “There were a lot of mixed emotions,” she added. “They were worried about what this means, yet at the same time incredibly relieved and happy that someone is finally standing up for them against Assad. ” Some analysts said that even if the strike did not represent a major blow to Mr. Assad’s military abilities, it could be a deterrent by signaling new American assertiveness in the conflict. In Iran, the attack, and the swiftness with which it was executed, caught the establishment by surprise. Most in the crowds at Friday Prayer said they had heard of the attack only through social media. State television broadcast the reaction of the Foreign Ministry hours after the strike. Farshad Ghorbanpour, an analyst close to the government of President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, predicted that the country would take the news seriously. “They will choose not to be confrontational towards the U. S. and the West,” Mr. Ghorbanpour said. “Iran will continue to support Bashar but not at all costs. ” The strikes did not appear to have significantly degraded the ability of Mr. Assad and his allies to wage war. A correspondent in Syria for Rossiya 24, the main Russian satellite news channel, filed video from Al Shayrat airfield. The barrages of Tomahawk cruise missiles destroyed nine airplanes and littered a runway with shrapnel, among other damage, the reporter said. He posted a photograph on Instagram of at least one warplane that he said had not been damaged. Talal Barazi, the governor of Homs Province, which includes the air base, said by telephone on Friday that five people in the military and two civilians had been killed in the strikes. “What happened today is biggest evidence that the U. S. and its allies are the biggest supporters of the Daesh terrorist,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. While chemical attacks draw the world’s attention, most of the more than 400, 000 people who have died in the Syrian civil war have been killed with conventional weapons whose use has not piqued Mr. Trump’s ire, leaving some observers skeptical that the strikes would change the war’s course. “I feel the ecstasy of revenge now,” said Malek an antigovernment activist who recently fled to Turkey. “I don’t feel the strike will change anything. Unless Bashar goes, nothing will change. ”

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FL Toddler Shoots Himself In The Face After ‘Responsible Gun Owner’ Leaves Weapon In Truck (VIDEO)

A Florida two-year-old is in critical condition after he shot himself in the face Monday night while playing with his responsible gun-owning grandfather s unattended gun. WFTV reports that the unnamed child was riding in his grandfather s pickup truck when grandpa parked and ran inside the family s home, leaving the little boy to his own devices. Grandpa, whose name has not been released, also left his gun behind because what s the point in being irresponsible if you re not going to go all-out?The grandfather says he left the little boy playing with some tools in the back seat, but the child managed to climb into the front of the truck, where Granddaddy kept his .32-caliber Kel-Tec gun. The gun was responsibly kept in a holster, but the child removed it and shot himself in the cheek, near his eye. The boy was airlifted to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, where he remains in critical condition. They are talking to individuals that were at the residence, possibly in the residence and we have forensics out gathering some evidence, said Twis Lizasuain, Osceola County Sheriff s Office media relations director, who noted that evidence thus far suggests the discharge was accidental a word we too often hear when one of the good guys with guns shoots a child or, through negligence, allows a child to shoot him or herself. We will always encourage you to secure a weapon, especially when children are present. Though the shooting will likely be called accidental, grandpa might not escape unscathed. He could still be charged under a law that allows an irresponsible person to be held accountable if a child gets ahold of a gun that was not properly stored out of reach.Watch a report on this latest example of why guns make it into far too many hands than needed, below:Featured image via NLM

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Trump On The Verge Of Meltdown As FBI Clears Clinton Over Emails (VIDEO)

The FBI had just announced that it was clearing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the most recent email probe, and Donald Trump responded by having an epic meltdown in front of everyone at the Freedom Hill Amphitheater in Michigan on Sunday.In speaking to the crowd, the Republican nominee whined and moaned once again that the election is rigged and made it clear that he still thinks she s guilty as ever. Trump shouted: Right now she s being protected by a rigged system. It s a totally rigged system. I ve been saying it for a long time. You can t review 650,000 emails in eight days. You can t do it folks. Hillary Clinton is guilty. Hillary Clinton is guilty, she knows it, the FBI knows it, the people know it and now it s up to the American people to deliver justice at the ballot box on 8 November. You can watch Trump throw his temper tantrum below:Donald Trump responds to FBI letter: You can t review 650,000 new emails in 8 days. https://t.co/n3LYkBKlN7 https://t.co/F2ad7fs141 ABC News (@ABC) November 7, 2016For the record, the FBI actually CAN cover that kind of groundwork in eight days, but since when has The Donald ever been interested in thinking logically or sharing facts?! Completely missing the irony in what he would say next, Trump warned: The investigations into her crimes will go on for a long, long time. Trump was obviously projecting onto Clinton, because he currently has thousands of lawsuits against him, not including the high-profile sexual assault cases that have recently come to light after his lewd comments on an audio tape were uncovered, or the fact that he hasn t paid his taxes in decades. If anyone should be worried about being guilty of wrongdoing, it s definitely Trump and it s something we should keep in mind on Election Day tomorrow.Featured image via Joe Raedle / Getty Images

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Joe Scarborough Is A Republican No More (VIDEO)

Joe Scarborough, the former Florida GOP congressman and host of MSNBC s Morning Joe, announced during his appearance on Late Night with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night that he is leaving the Republican party, stating I am a Republican, but I m not going to be a Republican anymore. He later said he was going to become an Independent.The announcement comes merely weeks after President Donald Trump launched a scathing Twitter attack against Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, his Morning Joe co-host, in late June, where the President not only criticized the program s ratings, but referred to Scarborough as a psycho and Brzezinski as low I.Q. and crazy , then taking it a step too far, attacking her physical appearance from an encounter earlier in the year, claiming she was bleeding from a facelift. to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017The Twitter attack a fortnight ago wasn t the first time Trump s party had criticized the show, calling the program the worst case of Trump Derangement Syndrome in a press release in May. Once a respected forum for intelligent discourse, the program has turned into 3 hours of far-left hysteria, filled with more faux scandal and innuendo than a bad episode of Gossip Girl, RNC Deputy Communications Director Michael Reed continued in the release to reporters.Scarborough initially responded to the President s dishonorable late-June Twitter attack with dignity. Nothing that Mika and I did in setting up this meeting was any different than what all good reporters and news hosts try to do daily, he said of the Mar-a-Lago encounter. Brzezinski, on the other hand, decided to fight fire with fire, taking to Twitter to mock Trump in a rather subtle way by posting a picture of a Cheerios packet.pic.twitter.com/8YhzcCUwM1 Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) June 29, 2017The feud continued to get worse, with the morning show duo claiming that White House staff told them that Trump would have a story run about them in the National Enquirer unless they begged for it to be killed, Scarborough adding that he had evidence to back these claims.Finally, enough is enough and Joe Scarborough wants to denounce any and affiliation with President Trump, even if that means no longer identifying as a Republican. Watch his announcement here:.@JoeNBC announced that he's leaving #GOP to become an Independent. @StephenAtHome's full interview with Joe and @morningmika airs tonight! pic.twitter.com/OhLgXvYakH The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) July 11, 2017 Featured image via Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

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UK threat level remains at critical: minister

LONDON (Reuters) - The threat level facing Britain remains at critical, interior minister Amber Rudd said on Saturday, as she praised the police for making a very significant arrest following a London train bombing which injured 30 people a day earlier. Police arrested an 18-year-old man earlier on Saturday following the attack in west London. The threat level remains at critical and there will be further investigations and part of the operation later today, Rudd told reporters. This is a very significant arrest. The police have made very good progress. She added that it was too soon to know whether the culprits behind the attack were known to the authorities.

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The OTHER Clinton FBI Investigation That Hillary Does Not Want You To Know About

0 comments In many ways, this SCANDALOUS investigation is more DISTURBING than the others… It is hard to imagine an investigation more scandalous than the one presented my sexting wild man Anthony Weiner and his beautiful, estranged wife, Huma Abedin. Depending on what is found on the 650,000 emails on Weiner and Abedin’s laptop, the infamous couple could take down one of the most powerful women on the planet, Hillary Clinton. Something tells me that there is plenty of scandal to go around, however. It is now being reported that the FBI’s Miami office is investigating the Clinton Foundation for their “work” in Haiti. . @rpollockDC reports that FBI’s Miami office is conducting Clinton Fnd probe concerning Haiti work. https://t.co/w8iPeQ69nr @dailycaller — Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) October 31, 2016 It is no surprise that the FBI is interested in the Clinton’s dealings in Haiti. Since January of 2015, when a group of Haitians surrounded the Clinton Foundation’s offices in New York, carrying signs that said, “Clinton, where’s the money?” Dhoud Andre, of the Commission Against Dictatorship, has said, “We are telling the world of the crimes that Bill and Hillary Clinton are responsible for in Haiti.” Recent emails, leaked from the State Department, indicated that contractors seeking to provide earthquake relief to devastated Haitians were heavily vetted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s team. The criteria? Contractors needed to be “FOB’s,” or “Friends of Bill.” These FOB’s were donors to the Clinton Foundation. Reportedly, if a contract company was not a donor, they were referred elsewhere, while donating contractors were given funds to work in Haiti. Almost $4 billion was sent to Haiti for relief, and it has been noted by some Haitians that little of this money actually made it to those who need it. Haitians also have noted that Bill Clinton was the designated UN Representative for aid to Haiti while Hillary Clinton was the Secretary of State. The Clintons were the two most powerful people controlling the funds meant to help Haitians. Contracts went to friends of the Clintons, and, reportedly, homes were not built, schools were not built, technology was not installed, and infrastructure was not significantly improved. Haiti did, however, gain a few million dollar hotels. Not exactly what the poor were hoping for. Take a look at this video, entitled “How the Clinton Foundation Got Rich Off Poor Haitians.” The details are almost too numerous to list. For more information, visit the National Review. One thing is certain, if the FBI continues at this pace, the details are forthcoming, and they are not likely to be pretty.

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French Farmer Who Aided Migrants Is Given Suspended Fine - The New York Times

PARIS — A French farmer who smuggled African migrants to safety, defying the authorities in an effort that his supporters likened to the Underground Railroad, was essentially given a slap on the wrist by a court on Friday. The farmer, Cédric Herrou, a bearded olive grower, has become something of a hero after he shepherded migrants across the Italian border and into the Roya Valley of southern France, challenging official policy of rounding up migrants and sending them to detention centers or deporting them. A court in Nice ordered Mr. Herrou on Friday to pay a fine of 3, 000 euros, or about $3, 200. If he stays out of trouble for five years, he will not have to pay it. The light sentence — almost a nonsentence, given that the prosecutor, Prêtre, had asked for a tougher punishment — was an indication of how politically delicate the case against Mr. Herrou had become. He had popular opinion largely on his side — a fact the judges appeared to acknowledge in essentially letting him go with a warning. At the end of a highly publicized trial last month, Mr. Prêtre had requested that Mr. Herrou, 37, be given a suspended prison term. A 2012 law allows citizens to help migrants for humanitarian reasons. Before that legislation, such aid could result in a sentence of up to five years and a fine of up to €30, 000. But Mr. Prêtre said that Mr. Herrou’s actions had gone beyond the scope of the law, helping migrants enter the country illegally instead of merely offering them shelter. Last month, the readers of the newspaper chose Mr. Herrou as “Azuréen of the Year,” a reference to people from the Côte d’Azur. At the trial, Mr. Prêtre appeared contrite at times that the law had to be applied to Mr. Herrou, whose cause he praised as “noble. ” Mr. Herrou was cleared on Friday of the more severe charges of having helped illegal migrants stay on French territory and of having illegally hosted more than 50 Eritreans in an abandoned holiday resort. Agence reported that Mr. Herrou had welcomed the decision in an address to a small crowd of supporters in front of the courthouse. “We’ll carry on, because it’s necessary,” he told the crowd, according to the news agency. Mr. Herrou told Europe 1 radio Friday morning that he is sheltering five migrant minors from Sudan and Eritrea at his home. “There’s a deficiency of the state in France and in Italy, so I take action,” he said. Mr. Herrou is not the only person to have appeared in court for illegally assisting migrants. Last month, Mannoni, a researcher, was acquitted by the same court in Nice of having offered a ride to migrants. Border control has become a defining political issue in France in light of repeated terrorist attacks.

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Why this Orthodox rabbi supports Trump

Print I am an Orthodox rabbi. I am also an attorney and an adjunct professor of law. I clerked 20 years ago for the Hon. Danny J. Boggs in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Judge Boggs, one of the most brilliant minds I ever have known in any of my walks of life, soon thereafter served as chief judge of the Sixth Circuit. Of course, I am disgusted by the stories that dominate the election campaign. I am disgusted as a law professor, an attorney, a father of daughters, and as a rabbi. Women making accusations that they have been sexually abused — Paula Corbin Jones who received an $850,000 settlement from Bill Clinton; Kathleen Willey who went to Bill Clinton in the White House, desperate for a job after her husband killed himself; Juanita Broaddrick, a Clinton volunteer who insists he raped her; the new list of women whose names I am only now learning who say that Donald Trump groped or kissed them against their will.

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WATCH Obama Mention Himself 119 Times During Hillary Endorsement Speech…And Then I Parted The Red Sea…LOL!

Narcissist isn t a strong enough word to describe this twisted little man

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Bristol Palin Points Out She’s NOT A Graduate Of Harvard – Gets Roasting Of A Lifetime (IMAGES)

Bristol Palin didn t go to Harvard Law School like President Obama or her frenemy Ted Cruz did. She wants us to know this, apparently. Someone, please get ahold of Bristol s personal assistant, email inbox, whatever she uses to keep in touch with the vast worldwide community she tries to communicate with on a daily basis, and tell her: WE ALREADY KNOW THIS, PRECIOUS.Pic via PatheosNevermind the fact that she forgot to use the word be, thereby automatically rendering her sentence structurally unsound. That s less important. Let s soak in for a moment the gist of what she s saying, that is, if it s even humanly possible.First, here s some context. In a nutshell, Bristol is glad her mom has decided to endorse Donald Trump. She s mad that Ted Cruz campaign spokesman Rick Tyler issued the following statement when rumors first started circling that Sarah Palin would throw her support behind the Donald: I think it [would] be a blow to Sarah Palin, because Sarah Palin has been a champion for the conservative cause, and if she was going to endorse Donald Trump, sadly, she would be endorsing someone who s held progressive views all their life on the sanctity of life, on marriage, on partial-birth abortion. She then went on a long diatribe of how she likes Cruz after meeting him, but that this statement was just way over the line. Cue the inspired I didn t go to Harvard Law School quote. In other words, she s saying she knows a few things despite not knowing other things.Okay, we re done trying to understand Palin logic. Our heads are starting to hurt. Cue the internet reaction where she s currently getting the roasting of a lifetime for making the comment.Pic via Twitter.Pic via Twitter.Pic via Twitter.Pic via Twitter.In all fairness, we finally do get what Bristol was trying to say: She s not that bright but is still going to speak up regardless. In that respect, the apple doesn t seem to fall too far from the tree. Perhaps next time she can say something like: I didn t get married, but I still know how to teach abstinence and make babies at the same time. Featured image via Flickr

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Clinton campaign blasts James Comey over 'jaw-dropping' double standards at FBI

The Clinton campaign blasted the FBI director, James Comey, for “jaw-dropping” double standards on Monday after claims that he had sought to withhold evidence of Russian support for Donald Trump for fear of influencing next week’s US election. In a sharp escalation of their unprecedented war of words with federal law enforcement authorities, Clinton’s key aides contrasted this apparent caution with Comey’s controversial decision to release new details of its investigation into Clinton’s private email server to lawmakers on Friday. “It is impossible to view this as anything less than a blatant double standard,” her campaign manager, Robby Mook, told reporters, claiming the decision “defied all logic”, especially as other intelligence agencies had favoured disclosure of suspected Russian involvement. “Through these two decisions he shows he favours acting alone and without consulting … these are not the hallmarks of a responsible investigation,” added Mook. Both CNBC and the Huffington Post have reported that Comey privately urged against naming Russia for allegedly meddling in the election and hacking Democratic email accounts. Though this advice has not been confirmed officially, it tallies with the fact the FBI’s name did not appear on a list of US intelligence agencies supporting the allegations. “A foreign power was trying to undermine the election. He believed it to be true but was against putting it out before the election,” one former official told CNBC. Comey’s position, this official reportedly said, was: “If it is said, it shouldn’t come from the FBI, which as you’ll recall it did not.” The Clinton campaign called on Comey to “immediately explain this incongruence”. “He has set the standard for narrating a play-by-play,” added spokesman Brian Fallon. “If that is his way of handling things, he needs to take the same approach to the Trump campaign.” On Monday night, NBC News reported that the FBI was conducting a preliminary inquiry into former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s business ties to Russia, though it was not yet a criminal investigation. Manafort called the report “an outrageous smear being driven by Harry Reid and the Clinton campaign”. Earlier the White House highlighted concerns over the FBI director’s decision to announce that the bureau was examining whether newly discovered emails may be relevant to its investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server. Press secretary Josh Earnest was careful to say that Comey is regarded by Barack Obama as a man of integrity and principle. But he also noted the importance of “longstanding tradition and practice and norms” and warned of the “risk” of communicating with Congress. Comey has faced a fierce backlash for going public with the new FBI investigation just 11 days before a presidential election, reportedly against the advice and guidelines of the attorney general, Loretta Lynch, and other senior figures at the Department of Justice. On Sunday the FBI obtained a search warrant to begin reviewing the emails, reportedly numbering 650,000 and found on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. On Monday, a spokesman for the Office of Special Counsel indicated that the independent federal agency may be investigating Comey over an alleged violation of the Hatch Act, which guards against federal officials seeking to influence an election. An emboldened Trump has described the revelation as “bigger than Watergate”, but there is little initial evidence the news has upended the presidential race. A Morning Consult/Politico poll carried out after the announcement put Clinton three points ahead, while a CBS/YouGov survey of likely voters in 13 battleground states showed that only 1% of Clinton supporters were less likely to vote for her as a consequence. Trump claimed on Monday that the FBI had stumbled across a digital “mother lode” and predicted they would discover missing work-related emails that had been deleted from Clinton’s computers. “Six hundred and fifty thousand [emails]? … I think you are going to find the 33,000 that are missing,” he told supporters in Michigan. “I think we hit the mother lode, as they say in the mining industry.” Trump urged Comey to resist political pressure. “He’s gotta hang tough because a lot of people think he did the wrong thing, but he did the right thing,” he told the Grand Rapids rally. “I was not his fan but what he did he brought back his reputation.” “It took guts for Director Comey to do what he did,” he added, to chants of “lock her up” from the crowd. Trump has seized on signs of momentum to push into once-safe Democratic territory in the industrial midwest. He was also due to speak in Warren in Michigan on Monday before appearing with running mate Mike Pence in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Tuesday. Until his polling gap began to narrow again last week, Trump had been forced back to a dwindling number of swing states, while Clinton eyed Republican territory in Utah, Arizona and Georgia. Renewed optimism among Republicans has created an unusually vast national battleground, particularly as Trump’s economic populism scrambles traditional demographic dividing lines. Michigan and Wisconsin have both been hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs and were the scene of surprise defeats for Clinton in the Democratic primary, when large numbers of blue-collar workers favoured Bernie Sanders. Signs of Democratic nervousness in Wisconsin became apparent last week when the Clinton campaign suddenly announced an advertising blitz. Sanders has been dispatched to help campaign for Clinton in the state on Wednesday. The impact of early voting may also be forcing Trump to look further afield. States such as a North Carolina have seen heavy early turnout among Democrats and may be relatively immune from any late swing away from Clinton. If he cannot win North Carolina but picks up Florida and Ohio, Trump’s best hope of pulling off a shock victory will rely on either rustbelt states like Michigan and Wisconsin or, in the north-east, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Maine. Clinton is redoubling her efforts. Two stops on Monday in Ohio were to be followed by three in Florida on Tuesday and another swing to North Carolina later in the week. “Most people have decided quite a long time ago what they think about all this,” she told a rally in Ohio on Monday. “Now what people are focused upon is choosing the next president and commander-in-chief.” “I am sure a lot of you may be asking what this email business is about and why in the world the FBI would decide to jump into an election without any evidence and it’s a good a question,” she said, to boos from a young crowd at Kent State University. “By all mean they should look at [the emails] and I am sure they will reach the same conclusion as when they looked at my emails: there is no case.” Meanwhile, Clinton suffered another blow from a separate source: the ongoing WikiLeaks release of emails from her campaign chairman, John Podesta. The latest batch appeared to show that Donna Brazile, the interim head of the Democratic National Committee and a CNN contributor, gave Clinton a heads up about a likely debate question the day before she was due to take on Sanders in a primary debate. CNN spokeswoman Lauren Pratapas said: “CNN never gave Brazile access to any questions, prep material, attendee list, background information or meetings in advance of a town hall or debate.” Brazile has subsequently announced her resignation from CNN.

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Clinton vows to support U.S. coal regions while embracing cleaner energy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Tuesday said the United States must move toward a cleaner energy future but not forget those who work in the coal industry. “We’ve got to both move toward a clean energy future ... but we also have to remember who turned on the lights and powered the factories and provided the energy that we needed to build our country,” Clinton said, speaking from West Virginia in an interview with MSNBC.

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Leading U.S. senator urges changes in foreign investment rules

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican senator leading the charge on updating little-known investment rules designed to protect national security said that he will soon introduce a bill aimed at reining in potentially dangerous deals done by China. Senator John Cornyn, a member of the Republican leadership who is on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday that he was concerned by China’s attempts to ensure that its military catches up to the U.S. Defense Department in terms of technology. “China is using every tool at its disposal to close the technology gap between the United States and that country, and in the process, to eliminate our military’s technological advantage,” he said in his speech. Cornyn’s office provided Reuters with a copy of the address on Monday. To combat this, Cornyn plans to introduce a bill in Congress that would update the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, an interagency panel led by the Treasury Department that reviews proposed transactions to ensure they do not pose a challenge to national security. The law firm Covington and Burling LLP, which follows CFIUS, said in a note after the speech that it believed that Cornyn’s proposed legislation “may ultimately become law.” “Senator Cornyn is among the most influential members of the Senate, and there appears to be an emerging bipartisan consensus that CFIUS should be strengthened,” the firm said in an analysis on Friday. Cornyn said the legislation would be called the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, and would ensure that CFIUS focuses its investigations on countries which pose the biggest threat to the United States. It would also give CFIUS the authority to look at a broader range of deals, including joint ventures based outside the United States and smaller, minority-position investments which would give the investing companies access to sensitive information, Cornyn said. Cornyn’s office did not respond to a query on Monday regarding when the bill would be introduced. CFIUS already has a reputation for being tough on high-tech deals, and has been known in particular to block transactions that involve sophisticated semiconductors. The bill will not expand the committee, which will disappoint those who had pushed for the Agriculture Department to become a member of the panel.

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MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS: Was Sandy Hook Shooter Known to FBI Prior to School Massacre?

21st Century wire says The FBI recently released new documents regarding the bizarre and still forensically critiqued Sandy Hook elementary school shooting tragedy. SANDY HOOK Many questions still remain in this perplexing case. (Photo Illustration 21WIRE s Shawn Helton)KEY POINT: It s important to remember that even though the events at Sandy Hook were said to have been carried out by a deranged lone gunman named Adam Lanza, initial reports on several CBS and ABC affiliates following the Sandy Hook mass shooting stated there was a second shooter who was apprehended at the scene.We should also be reminded that mainstream media reportage of the Sandy Hook tragedy took audiences down several rabbit holes of their own making, eventually implicating an unlikely suspect (left photo) with Asperger s syndrome, in an apparently motiveless crime.Not since the forensically questionable Columbine High School shooting massacre, had the corporate media been so fixated on a tragic shooting, focusing their efforts on politicizing the apparent crime, while investigators offered very little in terms of evidence in their official story.On March 28th of 2013, a few short months after the Sandy Hook shooting, an article entitled Newtown Killer s Obsessions, in Chilling Detail was published by the NY Times. In that article, the public learned that the Lanza s were unknown to authorities and that there were never any disturbances at the family residence that would have prepped law enforcement prior to the school shooting: Two law-enforcement officials who were initially involved in the investigation said in recent interviews that the Newtown police had never been called to the Lanza home for any disturbances, and that before the shootings the family was basically unknown to the authorities.They said they believed that Mr. Lanza had spent most of his time in the basement of the home, primarily playing a warfare video game, Call of Duty. This aspect of the story had remained virtually unquestioned until the recent release of FBI information this week.Earlier this week, an NBC affiliate in Connecticut published an article disclosing the newly released FBI documents regarding the Sandy Hook case. Here s a short passage of that article: The documents include reports by FBI agents who interviewed people about Lanza. Large portions of many of the documents were redacted, including the names of the people who spoke to the agents.The documents also offer a window into the early days of the investigation, as agents chased false leads and gathered evidence of Lanza s isolation.A year after the massacre, state police released a final investigative document that concluded Lanza was obsessed with firearms, death and mass shootings, but that the motive may never be known. While the article continued by placing a heavy emphasis on the media crafted stage-like persona of the alleged shooter Adam Lanza, we re told for the first time of his alleged sexual perversions, as the video game/gun obsessed millennial, apparently also spent time analyzing mass shooting crimes.This murky portrait of the Sandy Hook shooter finally emerges nearly five years after the media sensationalized school shooting. But perhaps the most shocking claim has come from an unnamed Newtown resident alleging that Lanza may have already been well-known to the FBI or possibly the CIA prior to the Sandy Hook school massacre occurring: A Newtown resident told the FBI that Nancy Lanza said Adam had once hacked into a government computer system and federal authorities either FBI or CIA agents showed up at their door.Nancy Lanza told the person that she had to convince the agents that her son was just very intelligent and was challenging himself to see if he could hack into a government system. She said agents told her that if Adam was that smart, he could get a job with their agency someday. QUESTION: Why is the public just now learning that Lanza may have already been known to authorities via his government computer hack and why wouldn t various intelligence agencies continue to monitor his behavior after committing an illegal act that may have been a national security concern?The troubling Sandy Hook saga continues to have more questions than answers READ MORE DAILY SHOOTER NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Daily Shooter FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV

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EU agrees to extend blacklist on Russians over Ukraine turmoil

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union agreed on Wednesday to extend for another six months its blacklist of 149 Russian nationals and Ukrainian separatists, as well as 38 entities, for their role in the turmoil in Ukraine, sources in Brussels said. During a weekly meeting in Brussels, representatives of the 28 EU states agreed on the roll over, which will formally be adopted on Sept. 14, and prolong the visa ban and asset freeze list until mid-March. The bloc first imposed sanctions on Russia after it annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Kiev in March 2014, and ratcheted them up as Moscow went on to back a separatist revolt in the east of the former Soviet republic. Russia vows to never return Crimea though the annexation has not been internationally recognized and is denounced as illegal. The conflict in east Ukraine has killed more than 10,000 people and is still simmering, a key factor souring Russia s relations with the West, including the EU. The bloc s separate main economic sanctions against Russia, which curb EU cooperation in the energy, defense and financial fields, are in place until the end of January 2018. Apart from separatist leaders in Crimea and east Ukraine, the EU s blacklist, which prevents people getting visas or freezes their assets, includes senior Russian officials and companies that have supported or benefited from the crisis.

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Cuba decries U.S. expulsion of 15 diplomats

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez angrily protested the expulsion of 15 diplomats from the Cuban embassy in Washington on Tuesday, calling it “unjustified.” U.S.-Cuba tensions rising, in the wake of what the United States has described as “attacks” affecting the health of American personnel in Cuba, Rodriguez told reporters in Havana that Washington had failed to provide sufficient information for an investigation into the matter.

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OBAMA TAKES LEGALLY BINDING DRAFT TO UN SECURITY COUNCIL TO ENSURE NEXT PRESIDENT CAN’T UNDO IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL

Our current President must have staff working around the clock finding ways to circumvent Congress Last March, 47 Republicans led by Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas wrote a letter warning Iran s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that a future U.S. president could legally revoke any nuclear deal that had been negotiated by Barack Obama s administration with the stroke of a pen. They clearly didn t realize that the White House has a way of making that much harder to do.The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, on Monday circulated a legally binding draft to the 15-member U.N. Security Council that, if adopted, would give the body s backing to the landmark nuclear pact trading billions of dollars in sanctions relief for greater international scrutiny of Iran s nuclear energy program. It also instructs states to refrain from taking any actions that would undermine the agreement. The 14-page draft resolution, obtained by Foreign Policy, is likely to be put to a vote by early next week.The decision to take the deal to the Security Council before the U.S. Congress has concluded its own deliberations on the agreement places lawmakers in the uncomfortable position of potentially breaching a binding resolution by voting down the deal. The strategy has infuriated some Republican lawmakers, who see the administration making an end run around Congress.During a Tuesday phone call to Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) pressed him to put off a Security Council vote. I urged that the Obama administration not seek action at the U.N. Security Council on the agreement before Congress can review it in detail during the legislatively mandated congressional review period, Royce said in a statement.Congress is currently weighing whether to accept or reject the deal brokered by the United States, Iran, and five world powers. Under the terms of a U.S. law passed this year, lawmakers can prevent the president from lifting congressional sanctions on Iran, which would blow up the landmark nuclear deal.However, if a resolution is approved by the Security Council early next week, any president, Democrat or Republican, would be legally bound to enforce its terms. If Congress were to veto the deal, Congress the United States of America would be in noncompliance with this agreement and contrary to all of the other countries in the world. I don t think that s going to happen, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters Tuesday.Kerry suggested that the nuclear accord will likely win growing acceptance in Washington if Iran fully implements its obligations and is able to demonstrate that they re not able or ready to make a bomb. I am convinced that whoever is our next president will see the wisdom of this agreement and they will leave it in place, he added.On Capitol Hill, there are currently two schools of thought about the wisdom of taking a resolution to the U.N. Security Council prior to a vote in Congress.For some Republicans, the move is a dangerous subjugation of U.S. sovereignty and an insult to Congress s oversight role. Given that huge bipartisan majorities in both houses voted for legislation to prevent the president from implementing the agreement before congressional review, I think members from both sides of the aisle will see this tactic as an end run on Congress, said Jamil Jaffer, a Republican and former chief counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.Others, even those skeptical of a deal, prefer that the U.N. take action first so that Congress can better understand the accord it s approving or rejecting. It actually makes sense that we would go second because then we ll know what we re voting on, said a congressional aide who focuses on the Iran nuclear portfolio. If we went first, we d be in the uncomfortable position of approving something that could change depending on what s agreed on at the U.N. Indeed, the United States and its negotiating partners have not included some of the most controversial provisions for instance, a decision to lift an embargo on conventional weaponry in five years and ease restrictions on the development and import of ballistic missile technology in eight years in the nuclear accord that will be reviewed by Congress. Instead, those provisions are embedded in the new U.N. Security Council resolution, which congressional critics of the deal will have no power to block.The new draft resolution provides weaker restrictions on Iran s ballistic missile program than those contained in previous resolutions, which banned Iran from undertaking any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. The draft under consideration would only call upon Iran not to engage in such activities. It also includes no explicit prohibition on Iran s development or import of conventional missile technology. That means Iran can continue to advance its conventional ballistic missile program without violating the terms set by the U.N. Security Council.But acquiring foreign supplies for its missile program will still be constrained by the deal. A U.S. administration official familiar with the deliberations noted that the draft requires that any company trying to supply Iran with missile-related technology seek approval from a committee composed of representatives from key powers, including the United States. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Washington would use its position to veto the import of any sensitive missile technology into Iran. The practical effect of the new resolution is to preserve the same prohibitions contained in existing resolutions, said the official. It prohibits effectively any transfer of missile technology, conventional or nuclear. According to an individual familiar with the talks, the compromise on the arms embargo and ballistic missile sanctions came at the eleventh hour of negotiations in Vienna. Iran, backed by Russia, insisted that a final deal lift all restrictions on conventional arms and ballistic missiles immediately. Seeking to break the impasse, Kerry did some maneuvering between the Iranians and Russians and got it to a five-eight compromise, meaning the conventional-arms embargo would be in effect for another five years and restrictions on ballistic missile technology would extend for eight years rather than lift immediately. This was a Kerry special, said the individual.Prior to the conclusion of the nuclear talks, Republicans such as New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte grilled Obama administration officials about the dangers of lifting sanctions on Iran that deter it from obtaining conventional weapons or ballistic missiles.Responding to a question from Ayotte last week, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that under no circumstances should we relieve pressure on Iran relative to ballistic missile capabilities and arms trafficking. When Dempsey s remarks were raised during a press conference with Obama on Wednesday, the president pushed back, saying, We are not taking the pressure off Iran with respect to arms and with respect to ballistic missiles. Instead, the president asserted, the new resolution would keep those restrictions in place while leaving Washington with a host of other multilateral and unilateral authorities that allow us to take action where we see Iran engaged in those activities, whether it s six years from now or 10 years from now, he said.Via: FP

1real

Czech far-right party says will not support new government

PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy party (SPD) said on Thursday it would not support a new minority government formed by the ANO party leader Andrej Babis, making it more likely the government will lose a confidence vote next month. If Babis loses, he will stay in power as caretaker while another coalition arrangement is sought. Given ANO s strength, however, it is almost impossible to form a government without it. SPD leader Tomio Okamura told a news conference his party had led talks with ANO and while there were some common points on program, there were also many differences and SPD had objections to several ministers. We told them we will not support this government, Okamura told reporters. He said ANO refused to back its plan to legislate a referendum law allowing to vote on leaving the European Union, one of SPD s campaign calls. Running on an anti-establishment platform and pledges to improve management of public affairs, ANO won 78 out of 200 seats in the lower house of parliament in an October election. But it has failed to find any coalition partners or support for its minority government among the other eight factions in parliament. Only the far-left Communists, with 15 seats, have not ruled out supporting the government. The SPD, with 22 seats, had supported ANO in a number of votes, raising the possibility that it might also in the end vote for the cabinet. The fresh rejection to back the cabinet makes Babis s success less likely. Under the EU and NATO member country s constitution, Babis has to call a confidence vote by mid-January. Several parties - including SPD but also ANO s coalition partners in the previous cabinet, the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats have indicated they may be open to discussions on supporting an ANO-led government in the second round if Babis s first attempt fails. The main objection to Babis is a police investigation into alleged fraud Babis is suspected of in tapping a 2 million euro EU subsidy for a conference center outside Prague a decade ago. Babis denies any wrongdoing. Parliament is expected to vote in January whether to lift his immunity and allow police to prosecute him. Parties also criticise Babis for conflicts of interests he has as a politician and a billionaire owner of over 25o firms in chemicals, farming, media and other sectors.

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Obama calls for a halt to 'vicious' tone and violence on campaign trail

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he was dismayed about violence and divisiveness on the U.S. presidential campaign trail and, in a reference to Republican front-runner Donald Trump, called on leaders to clean up the tone of the race. “We have heard vulgar and divisive rhetoric aimed at women and minorities, at Americans who don’t look like us or pray like us or vote like we do,” Obama said during an event on Capitol Hill. “We’ve seen misguided attempts to shut down that speech. However offensive it may be, we live in a country where free speech is one of the most important rights that we hold. In response to those attempts, we’ve seen actual violence. And we’ve heard silence from too many of our leaders.” Obama spoke as Americans in five states - Ohio, Florida, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina - voted in the latest round of primaries to select the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates for the November election. Trump has drawn wide criticism, including from within the Republican establishment, for a campaign that has included calling Mexican immigrants rapists and proposing a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. There have been some clashes in recent days at his rallies between his supporters and protesters. Trump, a New York real estate magnate, has dismissed accusations that he has fueled the violent atmosphere. Obama said this year’s campaign cycle was not an accurate reflection of the United States. “It has to stop,” the Democratic president said, describing the atmosphere of the campaign as “vicious,” and adding that the behavior “can undermine our democracy, our society and even our economy.” Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Majority Leader, told reporters that Trump had called him on Tuesday. “I took the opportunity to recommend to him that no matter who may be triggering these violent expressions or conflicts that we’ve seen in some of these rallies, it might be a good idea to condemn that and discourage it,” McConnell said. He declined to comment on Trump’s response. U.S. Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida and Ohio Governor John Kasich are challenging Trump for the nomination. “I suspect that all of us can recall some intemperate words that we regret. Certainly I can,” Obama said. “And while some may be more to blame than others for the current climate, all of us are responsible for reversing it.”

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Michael Moore Tells Fox News The Only Way He’d Get ‘Behind’ Trump, And It’s Hilarious (VIDEO)

Now that the Republican choice for president is presumably Donald Trump, many are being asked who they ll support in the general election and if they could actually get behind a Trump presidency. So, when Megyn Kelly had documentary filmmaker Michael Moore on her show, she asked him just that.Kelly knew that Moore is a Bernie Sanders supporter and it s looking like Hillary Clinton will be the nominee. There have been some Sanders supporters who say they ll switch to Trump, because they can t support Hillary. These are the same people who would seemingly cut off their nose to spite their face. It s also the epitome of privilege, because these folks clearly have nothing to lose if Trump wins.Fortunately, Moore is not one of those people. When asked by Kelly, Let s say it is Trump-Clinton. A guy who understands the working class, has made some films involving them, from Flint, Michigan. Could you get behind Donald Trump? Moore sarcastically responds: Only to help push him somewhere. Then he stops short, and says: Wait a minute, he has Secret Service protection now, I shouldn t say that. And Kelly hilariously, and accurately responds: You d be the one getting pushed. Moore then says: I would push him to a more gentle place away from everybody. Clearly, Moore knows that we cannot have Trump as President of the United States. He also makes it clear that Trump is not who he makes himself out to be and is conning his conservative supporters just to get votes. Hopefully, more people follow Moore s lead and err on the side of making sure Trump never becomes president, instead of taking their ball and going home by declaring a moral victory by voting against Hillary if she is to become the nominee.Trump is a con artist and a crafty businessman who has built his career by manipulating people into giving him want he wants. Don t fall for it, America. Please.Watch Kelly interview Moore here, with the question regarding if he could support Trump beginning at the 4 minute mark:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAekxrKhFCgFeatured image via video screen capture

1real

Green Day Just Gave Trump The ULTIMATE Pre-Inauguration ‘F*ck You’ And Conservatives Are FURIOUS (VIDEO/SCREENSHOTS)

On Friday, more than half the nation will mourn as a bigot with tiny hands and orange skin who is the physical embodiment of all that is wrong with our country is sworn into office. The other 48 percent will celebrate by burning crosses or whatever racists do with their friends these days. On Martin Luther King Day, punk band Green Day released a completely appropriate song that sums up this election and the resulting series of disasters both past and future perfectly.On Monday, our nation both celebrated the life of Dr. King and mourned the upcoming day when we hand over our car keys to the drunkest and most racist guy at the party. While many took the opportunity to toss Trump a nice fuck you, no one did it quite like Green Day did by dropping their new music video for their song, Troubled Times. Today we celebrate love and compassion more than ever, the band posted on Facebook in announcing the release of the song, which is over three minutes of anti-Trump goodness (especially if you watch the music video):Naturally, Trump s idiot fans rushed to the comment section of Green Day s YouTube post to prove the song right: Recently, Green Day pissed off conservatives when Billy Joe busted out a No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA chant at the American Music Awards. It. Was. Glorious:If Trump supporters want a music video just for him, though, we have a suggestion. This ought to do just perfectly:The next four years will be interesting, to say the least not in a good way, but the same way the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust would be interesting.Featured image via Getty Images (Spencer Platt)/Pinterest

1real

Turkey hunts 42 university staff in post-coup crackdown: source

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police have launched operations to track down 42 university staff from Istanbul s Marmara University who are alleged to have links to last year s failed coup attempt, a police source said on Friday. So far 22 people have been detained in the operation, the police source said, adding the suspects were believed to be in contact with the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating the abortive putsch in July 2016. Gulen has denied involvement and denounced in the coup. Since the failed coup, authorities have arrested around 50,000 people pending trial and some 150,000 people, including teachers, judges and soldiers, have been sacked or suspended from their jobs. The crackdown has alarmed rights groups and some of Turkey s Western allies, who fear the government is using the coup as a pretext to quash dissent. The government says the crackdown is necessary given the severity of the security threat. More than 240 people were killed in last year s coup attempt.

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Boiler Room #90 – Downtown Brown and The Loss & Curse of Celebrity

Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along with Basil Valentine of The Sunday Wire Radio Show, Jay Dyer from Jay s Analysis and Stewart Howe of 21WRire and ACR for the 90th episode of BOILER ROOM. Water the plants, put the kids to bed and get your favorite snuggy out so you can drop deep into the Boiler Room with the ACR brain-trust.Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved!BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY!Listen to Boiler Room #90 on Spreaker.Reference Links:

1real

Is Feminism A Giant Shit Test?

As feminism erodes down to its tattooed, lesbian core, we should stop and take a moment to wonder what the point of the third wave part of feminism was. Although it ultimately proves destructive to western societies to give women “equality,” at least the first and second wave had something legitimate to bitch about. Third wave feminism; not so much, and today we’ll talk about the underlying motives and the end game of it all. When one looks at modern feminism, you see women who have “flipped the script,” to use their term, and rewired life so that men are not necessary for them. A modern feminist has her own job that can meet her needs, but maybe not all her wants, and has her own small place with her cat(s) and Netflix. When she wants the company of men, she goes out and sluts it up and is always successful due to the biological imperative of men. On the surface, a feminist woman may appear to be the analog of a Red Pill Man, yet, upon closer examination, she is actually an imperfect copy. A man works harder, more dangerous jobs, and makes more money because of it, thus he has money for anything he wants and more. A proper man has interesting hobbies and a healthy, fit lifestyle, and he must do this to fulfill his potential and inner drive, but also because he realizes that normal men do not get laid due to hypergamy and he must be the best he can be if he wants to be successful with women. However, the most crucial difference lies in the outcome. Women, who outlast their shelf lives while still being single are miserable, and I fully expect the suicide rate of women of my generation to skyrocket in about 5 years from now. Men, whose value is based on their production and can enjoy a later in life peak than women, also can live for other things than companionship and family, and can be quite happy on their own, even if they did want a family at one time, or still do. So, the question is, if women, despite their feminist pandering to the contrary, actually DO want a man to live with and grow old with, why is third wave feminism devoted to stopping that in every which way? The answer, like most things, lies in the red pill philosophy. Women, including feminists, only want the best men; modern feminism is nothing more than a nuclear-level shit test. A woman needs an alpha man like a fish needs water SJW society today tells us that men are not supposed to hit on women in the grocery store, in the bookstore, or at the coffee shop because that’s a precursor to stalking or some shit. At night, you’re not supposed to hit on girls at the bar or club, because they are there with the friends and not looking for that. At work, you’re not even supposed to talk to women about anything other than work-related topics because that’s harassment. If you are wondering where is a guy supposed to meet girls, then you get the point and the answer is that you’re not. Feminists, and women in general, know that any man who actually allows them to regulate his behavior is not a man worth having in the first place, so they are only interested in men that see that the answer to feminism’s constraints is to ignore them in the first place. Combining the above shit test with hypergamy will result in a winning combo. If a man is successful, good looking, and alpha enough, he has a good chance of pulling another man’s wife directly out of their marriage and family and taking her away. Women are ultimately interested only in their own self interest and that means, when confronted with the best man she has ever beheld, she will go against feminism because it is not in her own best self interest at the time, and instead, be receptive to the man in hopes of snaring him. Ultimately, women DO still need and want men, they just don’t want to be bothered by inferior men, and third wave feminism does a good job of convincing the betas to stay away until they are wanted for their paychecks by post-Wall NASCAR-style wrecks of women. When is enough enough? When you look at feminism logically (which is hard), you can come up with the premise that women have been disadvantaged over history, and feminism is an effort to balance the scales. They will disguise it in self-depreciating irony “feminism is the radical notion that men and women are equal,” but what they really men is that men and women should be equal over the balance of history, and, since women have been so disadvantaged, men had better get ready for some suck to square the accounts. I bet she’s been in 100 ROK articles by now… The question then follows, if men “owe” women, how much are we talking? Can it ever be paid off, or have women been so heinously treated over the entirety of our existence that there will never be enough atonement to make up for it? I have three theories. It could be that men have apparently treated women so badly for all time that it can never be paid off because it’s an absolute. The problem with absolutes is they lack scope. The worst atrocities in history have been borne by both men and women alike, and it could be said that men have borne the heavier half, as they are usually expected to die before defeat in war, whereas women, although they get raped by the conquerors, at least get to live. I doubt most women have been treated that badly, though, on the balance, so there is probably some finite amount of penance men would do to restore “equality.” The other two theories center on the idea that, eventually, men will atone for all faults perceived by feminism, and the only difference lies in what happens then. My second idea is not a noble one, but it is probably the most accurate. Feminists, you see, are not for equality, they are for female supremacy, and, once “equality” is reached, women will get to be on top for millennia. Some would say we are already at that point, and this is why anyone who is not a feminist can see why the movement has faltered and lost whatever relevance it ever had. When you already have it all, shouldn’t you stop and try to actually make things equal, that is, if you actually have moral integrity? That’s the third idea, the concept of, once all debts are paid, “true equality” would rule. I doubt this one would ever happen, as our victimhood-empowerment culture makes it advantageous to be a victim, and you can’t be a victim if your demographic is on top. Plus, being “feelers,” not “thinkers,” the average woman lacks the intellectual capacity to be honest with themselves. Conclusion Combining the idea of feminism being a massive shit test to guys and a scam to win money and prizes from society just because you have a vagina, one can see that the only solution is to treat it like the cult bullshit it is. While that is nothing new for those of us here at Return of Kings , and nothing new for those our message reaches, the reason we must treat it like that has hopefully been a little more exposed to the light here. The reason that feminism makes no sense, and makes it seem like all men have no way to succeed and must lose everything is because that is precisely the point. There is no way to win, there is no equality, there is only female superiority, males that go along with it, and men that do not. Read More: Feminism Has Lost The Minds Of Young Women

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Fox News Host CALLS OUT Trump: You’re The Problem, Not ‘Fake News’ (VIDEO)

Donald Trump probably did not enjoy watching Fox News this time around.Because when Neil Cavuto went on the air on Tuesday he addressed Trump s angry rant against the media and will likely be labeled fake news in retaliation for the way he did it.Earlier in the day, Trump attacked the media instead of honoring the 29,000 American soldiers who died on D-Day 73 years ago.The FAKE MSM is working so hard trying to get me not to use Social Media. They hate that I can get the honest and unfiltered message out. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2017Sorry folks, but if I would have relied on the Fake News of CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, washpost or nytimes, I would have had ZERO chance winning WH Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2017Of course, Fox News was not included on that list.But Cavuto decided to sort of speak out against Trump s rant anyway, and he not only informed Trump that he is the problem, he accused Trump of scapegoating. Mr. President, it s not the fake news media that s your problem, Cavuto said. It s you. It s not just your tweeting, it s your scapegoating. It s your refusal to see that sometimes you re the one who s feeding your own beast and acting beastly with your own guys. Cavuto pointed out that Trump focuses too much on settling endless scores and that the people around him want him to stop shooting himself in the foot all the time.By lashing out on social media and going on these ridiculous rants, Trump is only embarrassing himself. If Trump really wants the media to stop reporting on his tweets, he should stop tweeting stupid things like attacks on the media and insulting London s mayor in the wake of a terrorist attack. Look at the critiques you re now hearing from usually friendly and supportive allies as sort of like an intervention, Cavuto concluded. Because firing off these angry missives and tweets risks your political destruction. Here s the video via YouTube.Donald Trump just got called out by Fox News. Will he listen or will he put them on his enemies list, too?Featured Image: Screenshot

1real

While We Were Sleeping, Trump Declared Civil War

I woke up this morning completely unfazed over the idea that Donald Trump had yet another overnight Twitter meltdown. After being skewered in the media over his repeated claims that millions of people voted illegally, which is the only reason he lost the popular vote, Trump vowed to investigate.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, 2017All this, despite the fact that there is no voter fraud.Many, of course, are theorizing that Trump s Twitter tantrums are simply a distraction from his real disasters, and that s true, to a point, but when you dig a little deeper, you ll find something much, much more sinister; Trump is declaring Civil War and three things he s done over the last 24 hours prove it.While threatening to investigate voter fraud might be (and likely is) a distraction, it s more than a threat. It s very specific. He s going after only the states that he didn t win.During Wednesday s White House briefing, Press Secretary Sean Spicer was asked about Trump s false claim that millions of fraudulent votes cost him a victory in the popular vote. After that lie was ridiculed Tuesday, Trump tweeted early Wednesday morning that he would order a major investigation into voter fraud. But the claim is not just unsupported by any evidence it was contradicted by his own campaign lawyers, who argued there was no evidence of fraud when Green Party nominee Jill Stein sued for a recount in some states. Why should anyone believe him now?Spicer s answer was stunning. There s a lot of states that we didn t compete in where that s not necessarily the case, he said. You look at California and New York, I m not sure that those statements were we didn t look at those two states in particular I think when you look at where a lot of places where a lot of these issues could have occurred in bigger states, that s where I think we re going to look. Source: The AtlanticThe second shot fired in the Civil War is against sanctuary cities, or cities where undocumented immigrants can report crimes committed against them without fear of legal retribution. Most of those cities, not surprisingly, are heavily Democratic. Trump signed an executive order that would take away federal funding from states that don t make life a living hell for undocumented immigrants. The majority of sanctuary cities are in firmly blue states, but we ll be curious to see if Trump s threat will come to fruition in red states.The third was on a smaller scale, but in its way, far more frightening. On Tuesday night, Trump quoted some Bill O Reilly statistics and said that he was going to send in the Feds to deal with Chicago s violence (Chicago, by the way, doesn t even crack the top 30 in most murderous cities).If Chicago doesn t fix the horrible carnage going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017We re still unclear about what send in the feds actually means, but the implication is that Trump intends to declare martial law and it might be over a petty feud with Chicago s mayor, Rahm Emanuel. Illinois is also a state that voted for Hillary Clinton.In another time, Republicans would be furious! What Trump is threatening violates state sovereignty. No president has ever won 100 percent of the vote, but we ve never had a president who s threatened those who dared vote against him. We ve especially never had a president who threatened martial law over a political dispute. It s also a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which forbids federal troops from acting as local police except under cases of extreme emergency. If Trump does send troops into Chicago, against the will of the mayor and the governor, it will clearly be an act of war.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images

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WATCH SHOCKING INVASION OF ITALY: Will These “Economic Parasites” End Up In The US? [Video]

More than 1,400 migrants disembarked in Italy on Friday, the first of more than 4,400 who are expected to come ashore during the day after being picked up by rescue boats this week in the southern Mediterranean. The problem is this is not a reuse but an invasion enabled by the smugglers and the European Union. Italy and Europe are toast!Italy, along with France and Germany have agreed to draw up a code of conduct for charities operating rescue boats in the Mediterranean with the aim of bringing under control the growing influx of migrants. In the past few days alone, up to 12 thousand people have arrived in Italy from Africa, while more than 85 thousand have landed in the country since the beginning of this year. Former Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Franco Frattini discusses this issue of the increased risk of terrorism in italy:The Italians are fed up with the invasion:Locals of the Castell Umberto commune in Messina protested against the arrival of a new group of migrants, Saturday, with the Messina s mayor Vincenzo Civa Lionetto cutting off electricity supply to a former hotel, where the migrants were placed.HUNDREDS OF ILLEGAL INVADERS SET UP CAMP NEAR GEORGE CLOONEY S LAKE COMO MANSION:The locals are telling it like it is:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfIkiny_O14

1real

Law enforcement took more stuff from people than burglars did last year

Here's an interesting factoid about contemporary policing: In 2014, for the first time ever, law enforcement officers took more property from American citizens than burglars did. Martin Armstrong pointed this out at his blog, Armstrong Economics, last week. Officers can take cash and property from people without convicting or even charging them with a crime — yes, really! — through the highly controversial practice known as civil asset forfeiture. Last year, according to the Institute for Justice, the Treasury and Justice departments deposited more than $5 billion into their respective asset forfeiture funds. That same year, the FBI reports that burglary losses topped out at $3.5 billion. Armstrong claims that "the police are now taking more assets than the criminals," but this isn't exactly right: The FBI also tracks property losses from larceny and theft, in addition to plain ol' burglary. If you add up all the property stolen in 2014, from burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and other means, you arrive at roughly $12.3 billion, according to the FBI. That's more than double the federal asset forfeiture haul. One other point: Those asset forfeiture deposit amounts are not necessarily the best indicator of a rise in the use of forfeiture. "In a given year, one or two high-dollar cases may produce unusually large amounts of money — with a portion going back to victims — thereby telling a noisy story of year-to-year activity levels," the Institute for Justice explains. A big chunk of that 2014 deposit, for instance, was the $1.7 billion Bernie Madoff judgment, most of which flowed back to the victims. For that reason, the net assets of the funds are usually seen as a more stable indicator — those numbers show how much money is left over in the funds each year after the federal government takes care of various obligations, like payments to victims. Since this number can reflect monies taken over multiple calendar years, it's less comparable to the annual burglary statistics. Still, even this more stable indicator hit $4.5 billion in 2014, according to the Institute for Justice — higher again than the burglary losses that year. One final caveat is that these are only the federal totals and don't reflect how much property is seized by state and local police each year. Reliable data for all 50 states is unavailable, but the Institute of Justice found that the total asset forfeiture haul for 14 states topped $250 million in 2013. The grand 50-state total would probably be much higher. Still, boil down all the numbers and caveats above and you arrive at a simple fact: In the United States, in 2014, more cash and property transferred hands via civil asset forfeiture than via burglary. The total value of asset forfeitures was more than one-third of the total value of property stolen by criminals in 2014. That represents something of a sea change in the way police do business — and it's prompting plenty of scrutiny of the practice. The surprising reason more police dogs are dying in the line of duty Most Americans don’t realize it’s this easy for police to take your cash Police chases kill more people each year than floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and lightning — combined

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If You're Tired of Carving Pumpkins the Old-Fashioned Way, Try It Like This Gal--with a .22 Rifle

Share on Twitter It's the twelfth, or even better, thirteenth time you've carved pumpkins for Jack-O'-Lanterns and it's becoming a real drag. Have no fear, trickshooter Kirsten Joy Weiss is here...with a way to brighten up your Halloween Day—while making it a bit smokier as well. All you need is a .22 rifle, a few pumpkins, ammunition, and a safe space away from people (especially liberals) to do your worst to our favorite holiday gourd. Oh, and this handy tip from our guide: You're not looking to carve a hideous grin on your pumpkin using the bullet entries, but rather you're going for the exit points to get that ghoulish appearance. That's sure to make an impression on your trick-or-treaters. (Yeah, you bet they'll be picking “treat.”) Our expert guide also recommends making it a game. But just like with Halloween trick-or-treating, always practice safety first. Happy Halloween!

1real

Greenpeace Links Beijing’s Air Pollution Surge to Steel Factories - The New York Times

Read in Chinese 点击查看本文中文版] Despite promises to cut steel overcapacity, China actually brought more steel production online last year, resulting in a surge in air pollution in northern China, especially around Beijing, according to a report released this week by Greenpeace East Asia. The growth in operating capacity was more than twice the total steel making capacity of Britain, the report said. The increase in steel production, which is powered by the burning of coal, also means that levels of greenhouse gas emissions from that sector almost certainly grew last year, compared with 2015 levels. Greenhouse gases are the main factor behind the acceleration of climate change. The steel industry is the second biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas the first is power generation, which also relies mostly on coal. China is the biggest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, ahead of the United States. The report, released Monday, shows how powerful enterprises and local officials have acted to keep steel companies operating out of economic despite a serious overcapacity problem in the industry. And as China’s economic growth slows, local governments feel rising pressure to support factory jobs to avoid domestic unrest. The report said 10 Chinese provinces increased their operating steel production capacity. The greatest increases were in Shanxi and Hebei, which are close to Beijing and have some of the most toxic air in the world. Only six provinces had a net decrease, the report said. The Chinese consulting firm Custeel, under commission from Greenpeace East Asia, did the main research for the report. The firm based its calculations on surveys and official documents, including ones from local governments. Growth in steel demand across China has been slowing since 2011, leading to pledges by officials to cut capacity. Officials said that efforts last year to cut capacity had exceeded targets set for the year. But the research by Custeel showed that officials pulled a sleight of hand in making that declaration — many of the cuts were to plants that had already been idle. As a result, only 23 million metric tons of capacity was actually closed, the report said. Those closures curtailed supply at the same time that government stimulus led to a uptick in demand. Officials and companies restarted some plants that had previously been suspended, the report said. That production capacity was equal to 49 million metric tons, about the same as Germany’s total steel making capacity. China also added 12 million metric tons of new capacity. As a result, the net increase in operating steel capacity for 2016 was 36. 5 million metric tons, the report said. Eighty percent of that increase came from just three provinces: Hebei, Shanxi and Tianjin. Some government policies have gone against the stated goal of cutting overcapacity. From 2013 to 2015, bank lending and government subsidies to the steel industry increased. In 2016, stimulus policies “created a miniboom in construction, artificially inflating steel demand and steel prices. ” The report said most of the capacity that was cut came from closures of plants that were privately owned or owned by central state enterprises, which suggested that local enterprises and governments were protecting their own interests. A Greenpeace analysis of Beijing air quality data showed that steady progress in curbing air pollution in Beijing stalled last year. In some months late in the year, air quality worsened over 2015. In the first five weeks of 2017, the concentration of PM2. 5, or particulate matter of a size deemed especially harmful, was almost twice as much as the same period in 2016. In 2013, the central government announced goals to cut coal use in three major population centers in China, including in the large region around Beijing, to try to bring down levels of air pollution, among the worst in the world. Stimulus policies last year also led to an increase in coal prices during one period, though climate change researchers say they expect data to show that overall coal consumption in China declined in 2016 compared with 2015.

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Storm Maria pitches Puerto Rico barrio into sunken 'Venice'

CATANO, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Wading through highways swamped by turbid waters that sloshed over scattered, sunken belongings, residents of this Puerto Rican barrio flooded by Hurricane Maria have begun emerging from their shattered homes. Lying southwest of the capital San Juan, the Juana Matos neighborhood in Catano municipality took a huge hit from Maria after the storm slammed winds of up to 155 mph (249 kmh) into Puerto Rico early on Wednesday, destroying or damaging an estimated 80 percent of housing in the working-class barrio. The storm, the second Category 5 hurricane to batter the Caribbean this month, claimed at least 32 lives across the region, including 15 in Puerto Rico, and shut down power and communications across the island of 3.4 million people. By Thursday, Maria s floodwaters had turned the heart of the predominantly wood-built Juana Matos barrio into a series of waterways more suited to boats than walking. It s like we re in Venice, said 69-year-old steel worker Joaquin Rebollo, looking out across a broad channel that is normally teeming with cars. It was a really bad experience, really bad. I almost died of fright. Pitching the roof off his home and dozens of others in the area, Maria began to work through the wiring around the house as darkness descended across the island. It was like (Maria) was chewing the cables, he said, vividly making as if to bite through power lines with his teeth. Opposite him, residents trudged up to their knees in waters covering what was the main highway connecting Catano with the municipality of Bayamon further south. Rebollo and many neighbors left their homes in the hope the flooding that rose to four feet in some areas would recede. Houses locked for the storm were stripped of roofs or walls. Stranded cars stood half-sunk in driveways and satellite dishes tilted towards the sky to receive signals that had gone. I peeked my head out during the storm and felt the wind - and saw the wood, the roof, and the windows in the air, said Domingo Avilez, 47, who took cover inside a small cement stock room beneath his mother s house when Maria struck. By the end, the stock room was the only room left. Local officials estimate upwards of 2,000 people live in Juana Matos, and many too old or unwilling to evacuate watched from upper floors as the floodwaters turned streets into stagnant canals that seeped through their homes. Well, we re alive, said 75-year-old grandfather Angel Santos from the debris-strewn second floor of his wooden home. These are the works of God, so there s nothing you can do, Santos said, reflecting the faith evident among many Puerto Ricans hit by Maria just days after Hurricane Irma left. Even those on the edge of the flood-prone barrio in homes high enough to avoid shipping huge quantities of water suffered brutal incursions. Magdalena Oliveras, a 52-year-old housewife, showed the twisted metal blinds of her two-meter high washroom window she said had been mangled by a deluge from a nearby building. Lidia Espinal, 57, a longtime Juana Matos resident from the Dominican Republic, suffered a double blow on Wednesday morning before phone lines went down with a call from her homeland to say her younger brother had suffered a fatal heart attack. But Maria s presence meant she could not travel back. I lost everything in my house, the good things, the roof, the windows. The stove is full of water, she said. But the death of my brother taught me that we can t hold on to material things. Because life does not come back.

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Senate Republican leaders release revised version of healthcare bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republican leaders released a new draft of their healthcare bill on Thursday that retains key taxes on the wealthy and allows insurers to offer plans that do not comply with Obamacare regulations that mandate they cover certain health services. The bill also keeps Obamacare’s limit on corporate tax deductions for executive pay in the health insurance industry, includes an additional $45 billion for the opioid epidemic and includes an additional $70 billion to help cover out-of-pocket medical expenses. It also left the Medicaid overhaul in the initial bill largely unchanged, which drew opposition from moderate Republicans concerned it would throw many of their most vulnerable residents off their health insurance.

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Obama unveils wage insurance plan to spur job seekers

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday laid out a plan to help support the income of workers who lose their jobs and end up in lower paying positions, as part of a push to get unemployed Americans back to work. The proposal would offer experienced workers who now make less than $50,000 a form of wage insurance, allowing them to replace half of their lost pay. The benefit would cover up to $10,000 over two years. “It’s a way to give families some stability and encourage folks to rejoin the workforce - because we shouldn’t just be talking about unemployment; we should be talking about re-employment,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address, broadcast on Saturday. The wage insurance proposal will be included in a broader effort to overhaul the unemployment insurance system. Details about the program’s proposed funding will be further outlined in Obama’s budget for fiscal year 2017 expected to be released next month. Obama promised in his State of the Union earlier this week to advocate for legislative action on issues with bipartisan support during his last year in office. During the address, he pointed to wage insurance as one measure where lawmakers may be able to work together. The White House plan would require states to provide insurance for workers laid off from jobs they had held for at least three years. The plan would be federally-funded, but it would be administered through state unemployment insurance programs. Other measures proposed by the White House on Saturday included a requirement that all states provide at least 26 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits, and the creation of a permanent program that would automatically provide up to 52 additional weeks of federally-funded benefits for states experiencing rapid job-losses or high unemployment.

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A rare look inside the 'heart of society' for Iraq's Shi'ites

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - For more than 1,000 years, the al-Hawza al-Ilmiyya south of Baghdad has been one of the hearts of Shi ite Islamic scholarship, training the clerics who lead Shi ite communities across the Muslim world. Thousands of students, from teenage boys to university graduates, study Islam at its schools in the holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala. Shi ites, who are the majority in Iraq, were repressed under dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Muslim, but now lead the Iraqi government since Saddam was overthrown in 2003. Clerics trained at the Hawza have wide social and political influence, both inside Iraq and abroad. This year, around 200 fully fledged clerics will graduate, completing a process that requires at least ten years of study. In the Najaf school, a typical day will see clerics in flowing black robes and white turbans giving lectures to groups of students sitting on the floor of a great hall, lined with pointed arches and elaborate mosaics. For a photo essay on the life of student Shi'ite clerics, click here: reut.rs/2wQATVE Students are given instruction in subjects including Islamic jurisprudence, philosophy, theology, logic and interpreting Islam s holy book, the Koran. The Kerbala school teaches around 250 students each year, and in Najaf there are more than 1000. Together they are served by a faculty of around 90 teachers. Hawza has a high rank at the heart of the society, Wael Noor Al-Deen Murtadha, a Shi ite cleric and lecturer at the school, told Reuters. What is important about Hawza is that it reduces the moral degeneration and irregularities of life. It creates a culture among people aimed at reinforcing social relationships between different sects away from any discrimination.

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WATCH: Sean Spicer’s Debut in “The Bold and the Babbling” Is Everything You Expect And More

President Donald Trump has made one thing clear, he cares about ratings more than anything else in the world. This week the Washington Post reported that when asked if he was planning firing Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary Trump said, I m not firing Sean Spicer. That guy gets great ratings. Everyone tunes in. The President went on to compare the daily White House briefing to a soap opera and noted that Spicer gets better ratings than the soaps that are on today. Trump s love of television is so well known that aides use it as a way to reach him and foreign leaders are even starting to do the same. They are finding ways to show up on the shows they think the president is most likely to watch.Stephen Colbert took advantage of the comments connecting Spicer to soap operas to create one of his own. This clip shows a preview of what a Spicer soap, The Bold and the Babbling would look like:Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

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French police arrest 10 far-right militants

PARIS (Reuters) - French anti-terrorist police have arrested 10 far-right militants after an investigation showed they may have had vague plans of carrying out a violent attack on a place of worship or a person, a court official said on Tuesday. TV station M6 said the men, aged between 17 and 25 were arrested in Seine-Saint-Denis, north of Paris, and in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille. They were suspected of planning attacks on mosques, it said. The court official, speaking to Reuters, said they may also have been targeting a person - a politician, a migrant or a drug dealer. More than 230 people have been killed in attacks by Islamist militants in France over the past three years and the country has been under a state of emergency since late 2015, following an attack on Paris in November 2015.

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Exclusive: Nissan halts joint development of luxury cars with Daimler - sources

PARIS (Reuters) - Nissan is halting joint development of luxury cars with Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz, sources close to the companies told Reuters, suspending a key project in their seven-year partnership and potentially hitting profitability at a new shared factory in Mexico. Nissan (7201.T) decided in October its premium Infiniti brand would not use “MFA2”, an upgraded Daimler (DAIGn.DE) car platform that the companies have jointly funded, in part because Infiniti was not performing well enough to absorb Mercedes technology costs, the sources said. “It wasn’t possible to close a deal on the basis of MFA2,” said one of the people. “The targets set by Infiniti were too difficult to achieve.” The move could reduce efficiency at a $1 billion shared factory opening this year in Aguascalientes, Mexico, where the companies had planned to use the same compact car architecture to cut complexity and production costs, two of the sources said. It could also ultimately force Nissan to write down part of a 250 million pound ($306 million) investment at its UK plant that included Mercedes-based tooling, they added. Daimler and Nissan pursue joint programs only when “beneficial for both sides”, the companies said in separate statements to Reuters, without directly addressing emailed questions about their plans for MFA2 vehicles. Projects are constantly reviewed against targets to account for “developments beyond the control of management”, they added, and discussions about joint development of future premium compact cars are ongoing. Nissan’s decision deals a blow to the broad cooperation deal struck between Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn and his Daimler counterpart Dieter Zetsche in 2010. It also underscores the mixed results of Nissan’s battle over almost three decades to transform Infiniti into a significant global player in the lucrative luxury car market. The decision predates Donald Trump’s election as the next U.S. president, the sources said, and was unrelated to campaign vows to penalize Mexican imports that have rattled the auto industry. Ford (F.N) on Tuesday scrapped a planned compact car plant in the country. Nissan and Daimler are pushing ahead with Aguascalientes, where they will build Infiniti and Mercedes models for the U.S. and other markets from a single assembly line opening in 2017. The project nonetheless faces weakening U.S. demand for smaller cars that contributed to Ford’s cancellation and has further raised profitability hurdles for new Infiniti compacts. Persistently low oil prices accelerated the market shift to larger vehicles in 2016, Ford sales chief Mark LaNeve said on Wednesday. “All the growth was SUVs and trucks.” Infiniti has struggled outside the United States, last year selling 16,000 vehicles in Western Europe and 230,000 globally - less than 5 percent of Nissan’s overall tally and barely one-tenth of Mercedes’s expected 2 million deliveries. The first Infiniti appeared in 1989, the same year as the launch model for Toyota’s (7203.T) upscale Lexus brand - which has since grown three times bigger by sales. Modern carmakers pursue economies of scale by increasing the number of models built on each underlying platform - an adaptable chassis accommodating different body sizes, engines and alternative component sets for every part of the vehicle. The retreat on luxury compacts leaves intact the sharing of engines between Infiniti and Mercedes, and small cars between Renault and Daimler’s Smart. The three groups also collaborate on vans and pickups. But joint premium car development for Mexican production was “one of the largest projects between the Renault-Nissan alliance and Daimler”, Ghosn said when unveiling the program in 2014. A year later, after upgrading its plant in Sunderland, England, Nissan began building the Infiniti Q30 hatchback on the current MFA architecture developed for the Mercedes A-Class and derivatives. The plant added the QX30 SUV in 2016, extending Infiniti’s push into smaller vehicles. Nissan has now ditched plans to use the updated Mercedes platform for successors to those models planned for Aguascalientes, the sources said - or for any future Infinitis. Other cancellations include a compact Mercedes-based Infiniti Q40 sedan earmarked for the plant in 2018. Instead the single, less efficient assembly line will build Mercedes cars including an A-Class sedan and subsequent mini-SUV alongside Infiniti vehicles based on Renault-Nissan architecture, starting with a new QX50 SUV this year. Nissan was forced to conclude that the Infiniti brand would not command the higher prices required to turn a profit on vehicles stuffed with Mercedes technology, one source explained. “One of the lessons learned is that if you have the costs of a luxury vehicle but not the pricing, it’s hard to be profitable,” he said. Nissan may end up writing down some Sunderland investment in Mercedes-based tooling that had been intended to outlast the current Q30 and QX30, people with knowledge of the matter said. The company is still paying its share of MFA2 development costs running to hundreds of millions of euros for a platform it no longer plans to use, they said, but will leave Daimler with a higher share of some production costs in Aguascalientes. The setback may also show the limits of Ghosn’s consensual approach to economies of scale as head of both Renault (RENA.PA) and Nissan, whose 18-year-old alliance is underpinned by significant cross-shareholdings. The slow pace of integration has contributed to upheaval at the recently created alliance powertrain division, charged with converging Renault and Nissan engineering. Plans to build Infinitis on Mercedes technology had encountered resistance at Nissan from the start, one source said. “Once again, Ghosn has been unable to break through the wall of engineers to force commonality.”

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Supreme Court, Trump engulf Capitol Hill

Notable names include Ray Washburne (Commerce), a Dallas-based investor, is reported to be under consideration to lead the department.

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Colin Powell (Pronounced “Colon Pao”) Endorses Hillary Clinton

Migrant Crisis Disclaimer We here at the Daily Stormer are opposed to violence. We seek revolution through the education of the masses. When the information is available to the people, systemic change will be inevitable and unavoidable. Anyone suggesting or promoting violence in the comments section will be immediately banned, permanently. Daily Stormer Presents: Dr. David Duke © Copyright Daily Stormer 2016, All Rights Reserved

1real

Trump urged Washington to stop bank mergers in 2004 letter

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump warned the administration of George W. Bush in 2004 that big U.S. bank mergers were “totally out of control” and should be stopped as they were forcing businesses to borrow money from foreigners, according to a letter seen by Reuters. Though it is 13 years old, the unsolicited letter from Trump, when he was a New York real estate developer and businessman, to then-Treasury Secretary John Snow sheds some light on Trump’s attitudes toward big banks, which he has alternately lambasted and embraced since becoming a politician. As recently as May, Trump said he was looking at breaking up big banks, echoing a campaign theme from 2016. But as president, Trump has also promised to roll back bank regulations, and he has hired Goldman Sachs veterans as close advisers. In the February 2004 letter to Snow, Trump urged the Bush administration to block a historic merger between Wall Street giants JPMorgan Chase and Bank One. Unveiled a month before Trump wrote to Snow, the deal was completed in July 2004. Trump also asked Snow to stop a merger then under way between Bank of America and FleetBoston Financial. It was completed in April 2004, a few months after the Trump letter, which Reuters obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and which has not been previously reported. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The letter shows that as a businessman and a reality TV celebrity, Trump was worried about bank combinations and businesses relying on foreign lenders. “Hopefully, you can do something about this very serious situation - which has gotten totally out of control,” Trump wrote. “If this present trend continues, there will literally be one bank left in New York and, perhaps, the country.” “This merger activity has made it almost impossible to deal with these institutions ... and is pushing a tremendous amount of business to foreign banks and lenders,” he wrote. A financial disclosure statement released last month showed that Trump owed at least $130 million to a U.S. unit of Germany’s Deutsche Bank, a sizable share of his total debts of at least $315 million as of mid-2017. Trump has not released his complete income tax returns, which would give a clearer view of his debts to foreign lenders. Amid a public debate on whether the president could be influenced by his debts to foreigners, Trump’s lawyers said in May he does not owe money to Russian lenders. JPMorgan and Bank of America declined to comment. Snow also declined to comment. The United States had about 9,000 federally insured banks in 2004. That number was down by about half from 1984, due in part to aggressive buyout activity. By 2017, the number of U.S. banks was down further, to about 6,000, while the share of assets managed by smaller community banks had fallen to 13 percent from 38 percent in 1984. Before becoming president, Trump had a contentious relationship with commercial banks after a slump in his casino business. In 1990 he owed a combined $4 billion to scores of banks, according to a lawyer whose team led negotiations between Trump and 72 banks to restructure Trump’s loans. The Trump Taj Mahal declared bankruptcy in 1991 and some of Trump’s lenders vowed never to work with him again after failing to recover 100 percent of what they were owed. But by 2004, Trump was back on the upswing. His television show “The Apprentice” premiered the month before he sent the letter to Snow. In a hand-written postscript to the letter, Trump wrote: “P.S. I MET YOUR SON IN FLORIDA - HE IS GREAT.”

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Iran asks Muslims to disrupt Israeli ties in region: TV

ANKARA (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged Muslims on Tuesday to disrupt what he called a plot by unnamed countries in the region to build ties with Israel. He gave no more details on the states. But an Israeli cabinet minister said last month that his government had covert contacts with Saudi Arabia linked to their common concerns over Tehran. Some regional Islamic countries have shamelessly revealed their closeness to the Zionist regime (Israel), Rouhani said in a speech broadcast live by state TV. I am sure that the Muslims around the world will not let this sinister plot bear fruit. Both Saudi Arabia and Israel view Iran as the main threat to the Middle East. Increased tension between Tehran and Riyadh has fueled speculation that shared interests may push Saudi Arabia and Israel to work together. The Saudis have not publicly responded to the reports and Riyadh maintains that any relations with Israel hinge on Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war - territory Palestinians seek for a future state. Regional rivalry between Sunni Muslim monarchy Saudi Arabia and Shi ite Iran has overflowed into conflicts in Syria and Iraq. A Saudi-led military coalition has also been fighting in the Arabian peninsula s poorest country, Yemen, on behalf of a government based in the south against the Houthis, a Shi ite movement backed by Iran.

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WATCH: Trump Campaign Manager Blames Women For Rape

Once again, a Republican rape comment surfaces, and it s from the campaign manager of the Republican nominee.Donald Trump s campaign has been full of sexism and misogyny, so it was only a matter of time before his third campaign manager Kellyanne Conway made her own offensive comment about rape.In 2013, despite Republicans being advised to keep their mouths shut about women and rape, Conway appeared in a panel discussion to talk about women in the military. At some point, Conway used rape as an analogy even though rape was not part of the discussion.Conway blamed women for being raped because they are not as physically strong as men and that rape would not exist if only women were not so weak. If we were physiologically not mentally, emotionally, professionally equal to men, if we were physiologically as strong as men, rape would not exist, Conway said. You would be able to defend yourself and fight him off. Here s the video via YouTube. Conway s rape comment is at the 2 minute mark.Conway s comment assumes that all rapes can be prevented simply by being physically strong. Unfortunately, rapists have many tricks to incapacitate their victims, including date rape drugs. Being strong also does not work very well if a rapist has their victim at knifepoint or gunpoint.Instead of blaming rapists, Conway openly blamed women for rape. She was a Republican pollster at the time, but now she is the campaign manager for the presidential candidate of the Republican Party.Clearly, Trump either did not vet Conway at all or he is okay with what she had to say about rape.But this adds to the pattern of Republicans blaming the victim instead of the rapist. For years, Republicans have been saying outrageous things about rape. Here s 40 of them.Trump is just another Republican in a long line of Republicans who apparently believe women are at fault if they get raped. His hiring of Conway clearly demonstrates that. They seem to think it s acceptable to blame rape victims for their assaults, deny women the right to control their own health care, and downplay sexual harassment in the workplace, Daily Show creator Liz Winstead responded to Conway s remarks. It s not. Featured image via screen capture

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PRESIDENT TRUMP’S REMARKS at Ford’s Theatre Gala Include Warning to Terrorists: “This bloodshed MUST end. This bloodshed WILL end” [Video]

PRESIDENT TRUMP and FIRST LADY MELANIA TRUMP attended the Ford s Theatre Gala tonight. President Trump vowed to protect America from terror: We renew our resolve, stronger than ever before, to protect the United States and its allies from a vile enemy that has waged war on innocent life. And it has gone on too long. This bloodshed must end. This bloodshed will end.As president I will do what is necessary is to prevent this threat from spreading to our shores, and work every single day to protect the safety and security of our country, our communities and our people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ-rRMcXvyc The United States will do everything in its power to being those that are guilty to justice. President Trump spoke of Abraham Lincoln and Ford s Theatre with heartfelt fondness.Ford s Theatre is administered and maintained by the National Park Service as a historic landmark, but it is also a working theater operated by the Ford s Theatre Society. The gala is a fundraising event for the FTS, whose purpose is to secure private financing for much of the theater s programming. It dates back to the Carter Administration.Traditionally, the President has hosted a pre-gala reception at the White House. However, the Obamas chose not to attend in 2015 or 2016, citing the death of Beau Biden and scheduling conflicts as reasons. This led to a complete cancellation of last year s gala.

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Excessive force won't solve Myanmar's Rohingya crisis: Annan panel

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar should respond to a crisis over its Muslim Rohingya community in a calibrated way without excessive force, a panel led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan said on Thursday, adding that radicalization was a danger if problems were not addressed. The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Rohingya has emerged as majority Buddhist Myanmar s most contentious human rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule. Annan s commission - appointed last year by leader Aung San Suu Kyi to come up with long-term solutions for the violence-riven, ethnically and religiously divided Rakhine state - said perpetrators of rights abuses should be held accountable. Security deteriorated sharply in the western state on the border with Bangladesh last October when Rohingya militants killed nine policemen in attacks on border posts. In response, the Myanmar military sent troops fanning out into Rohingya villages in an offensive beset by allegations of arson, killings and rape by the security forces which sent 87,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh. The situation in the state deteriorated again this month when security forces began a new clearance operation with tension shifting to a township, Rathetaung, where Buddhist Rakhine and Rohingya communities live side-by-side. While Myanmar has every right to defend its own territory, a highly militarized response is unlikely to bring peace to the area, the nine-member commission said in its final report. Whatever action is taken, we should make sure that the population do not suffer and (that) they have access to support and necessary humanitarian needs they require, said Annan at a news conference in Yangon. Annan added that he discussed the military operation in Rakhine s Mayu mountains with army chief Min Aung Hlaing, who told him that the risk of a negative impact on the civilian population was small due to the remoteness of the area. Nevertheless, the commission said that a nuanced and comprehensive response was needed to ensure that violence does not escalate and inter-communal tensions are kept under control , it said. The commission warned that if human rights were not respected and the population remain politically and economically marginalized northern Rakhine State may provide fertile ground for radicalization, as local communities may become increasingly vulnerable to recruitment by extremists . The Rohingya are denied citizenship and classified as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite claiming roots in the region that go back centuries, with communities marginalized and occasionally subjected to communal violence. Annan has visited Myanmar three times since his appointment, including two trips to Rakhine. On Thursday, he presented his findings to Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing. The United Nations said in a report in February security forces had instigated a campaign that very likely amounted to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing. That led to the establishment of a U.N. fact-finding mission a month later. But Myanmar s domestic investigation team criticized the U.N. report this month and rejected allegations of abuses. Myanmar declined to grant visas to experts appointed by the U.N. and instead the government said it would comply with recommendations by the Annan team. But Annan s panel - which has a broad mandate to look into, among other things, economic development, education and healthcare - said it was not mandated to investigate specific cases of alleged human rights violations . It said that the government should ensure based on independent and impartial investigation that perpetrators of serious human rights violations are held accountable . The commission made a host of other recommendations, ranging from a faster and more transparent citizenship verification process to equal access to healthcare.

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RELEASED ON BAIL: ILLEGAL ALIEN With Criminal Record Is “No Show” In Court After Beating 2 Yr Old Girl So Severely, She’s Paralyzed And Living In Foster Care

How long before US courts are asked to not bother trying cases where illegal aliens are involved, so as not to give the impression of being unfair When Francisco Javier Chavez posted bail on charges of beating a California toddler within an inch of her life in late July, there was little reason to expect the illegal immigrant, who has spent much of his adult life hopping back and forth across the Mexican border, would return to face justice.Two weeks later, at his scheduled arraignment on Aug. 13, Chavez was a no-show. The 27-year-old career criminal had put up $10,000, or 10 percent of the amount set for his alleged crimes by California s bail schedule. His disappearance is hardly a surprise to critics who believe violent illegal immigrants are, by definition, flight risks who should be denied bail in such serious cases. They say judges, especially in border states plagued by illegal immigrant crime, are naive or worse if they expect suspects who regularly cross in and out of Mexico to take the U.S. justice system seriously. Frankly, judges grant bail in cases like these because they are being foolish, said Hans A. von Spakovsky, a former Justice Department lawyer now at The Heritage Foundation s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. The judge can consider bail for you when you are charged with a crime, but does not have to let you out on bail. If the state can show you are a flight risk, you should not get bail. If the state can show you are a danger to the public because of a history of violence, you should not get bail. Frankly, judges grant bail in cases like these because they are being foolish. While Chavez is in the wind, his alleged victim, the 2-year-old daughter of his live-in girlfriend, is now in foster care, paralyzed from the beating that also left her with both arms and a femur broken.Well before he was arrested in San Luis Obispo County for attacking the child, Chavez had compiled a lengthy criminal record that includes assault and drug convictions and arrests for violent acts such as kidnapping, car-jacking and cruelty to a child. He was deported in February 2014, but as in previous instances, found it easy to sneak back across the border and into the U.S. Francisco Javier Chavez, (l.), posted bail and has not been seen again after allegedly beating a toddler. Jose Enrique Vasquez, (r.), was accused of killing a child, but could be freed if he posts bail.Weeks after Chavez slipped out of custody, on Sept. 1, another 2-year-old toddler named Jonathan Montez was run down and killed in San Bernardino County. Illegal immigrant Jose Enrique Vasquez, 53, an unlicensed driver who witnesses said was speeding down the child s residential street, fled the scene, according to authorities. He was arrested two weeks later, and, like Chavez, was granted bail.Vasquez also has compiled a lengthy criminal record under various aliases, including charges of spousal abuse, battery of a peace officer, driving without a license, driving under the influence and armed robbery. But other charges in his criminal record might have given a judge pause in considering bail according to critics, including failure to appear in court, possession of false citizenship documents and eight deportations for illegally entering the country.The systems for granting bail in state courts varies from state to state. California s bail system lays out prescribed amounts for various crimes as a guideline for law enforcement and judges, but judges retain discretion to raise the amount in cases where the suspect is a flight risk or a danger to the public and the district attorney can add, drop or change the charges. Two states, Alabama and Missouri, have passed laws that preclude bail for illegal immigrants suspected of serious crimes, while judges in other states notably Texas weigh illegal status in making their decisions. But last year, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Arizona s 2006 law banning bail for illegal immigrant suspects violated their right to due process and amounted to punishment before trial. The 11-member panel s decision called the law a scattered attempt to deal with the problem of chronic bail-skipping by illegal immigrants. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider the lower court s decision.Judges everywhere maintain discretion to deny bail to anyone they believe is likely to flee justice, yet they often fail to consider illegal status as a factor, said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies. And critics say it should be obvious that someone here illegally and suspected of a violent crime will bolt rather than face justice, especially in border states such as California, where they can be out of the country an hour after posting bail. Aliens who commit acts of violence should not be released on bail, because they are clearly a danger to the public, and when we have someone with this kind of deportation history, clearly they are an obvious flight risk, said von Spakovsky. These judges are making mistakes granting bail to illegal aliens reckless mistakes that endangered the public. The willingness of judges to grant bail to illegal immigrants charged with serious crimes compounds the ongoing controversy involving so-called sanctuary cities. Such jurisdictions, either by local statute or practice, refuse to inform federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents when an illegal immigrant is detained.But even jurisdictions that do not implement sanctuary policies believe that two federal court rulings, the 2013 California Trust Act, which limits cruel and costly immigration hold requests in local jails, and an ambiguous White House policy all bar them from holding illegal immigrants who have posted bail until federal authorities can collect and deport them even if ICE asks them to via what is known as a detainer request. The American Civil Liberties Union has sued jurisdictions that attempted to honor the ICE detainers, and the Department of Justice has not intervened in the cases to underscore its support of them. As a result, local law enforcement agencies say they have no choice but to let even violent illegal immigrant suspects walk once they are granted bail. Via: FOX News

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26 BASEMENT DWELLERS ARRESTED In Oregon Riots…Police Post Pictures Of Suspects…Ask For Help To Identify Pro-Hillary Rioters

Thanks to George Soros, at least 26 couches in the basements of Oregon parents will be vacant for a while. Anarchists and rioters paid by Soros organizations and Democrat sore losers will spend some time in jail and will be facing charges for their violent and destructive behavior. Of course the sentences these radicals get will depend on the judges who hear their cases. This action is following burning projectiles being thrown at officers. Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) November 12, 2016Can You IDME? Riot Vandalism & Assault Suspect https://t.co/QJ4kiAHyzd #CanYouIDME pic.twitter.com/zBQBkuxzxW Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) November 12, 2016Police are looking for this guy who caused over $200,000 in damages: Can You IDME? Riot Vandalism Suspect https://t.co/AfynIElcbz #CanYouIDME pic.twitter.com/c92umDftsm Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) November 12, 2016Can You IDME? Vandalism Riot Suspect https://t.co/IbSCEsWL9f #CanYouIDME pic.twitter.com/ZnGYZkFh1G Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) November 13, 2016These thugs are likely not going to be missed by their parents:25 People Arrested in Thursday Night Riot in Portland (Photo) https://t.co/oas2XpzoHw pic.twitter.com/ikipWaoqB1 Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) November 11, 2016

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VA Hospital Honors Decorated Veteran of Three Wars with Free Side of Mashed Potatoes | GomerBlog

Tweet “U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! Po-to-toes! Po-ta-toes! Po-ta-toes!” INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Veterans Day is a time when our country comes together to honor our military service men and women who have sacrificed so much to protect our country. This year was no different at the VA hospital when 87-year-old Vincent Arnold, a veteran of three wars, was offered a complimentary serving of mashed potatoes in the cafeteria as a thank you for his 30 years of military service. Normally, the “Patriot” combo meal includes 2 pieces of fried chicken , a side of mixed vegetables and a 12-ounce drink. On Veterans Day, all veterans are given a scoop of mashed potatoes free of charge. Purple Heart recipients are also given the option of brown or cream gravy as a special recognition for the physical suffering they endured while fighting for our freedom. “We always make sure our veterans have a very special Veterans Day,” stated hospital administrator Nathan Bishop while opening a box of miniature American flags that will be placed in every patient’s room. “We pull out all the stops: stickers that say ‘We Love Our Veterans’; red, white, and blue crepe paper; and lots of smiles!” They may even roll out those patriotic Pyxis machines again. At press time, witnesses reported seeing a Medal of Honor winner being given a T-shirt adorned with a billowing American flag and three bald eagles. 290 Shares

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A New Casualty of Syria’s War: Drinking Water in Damascus - The New York Times

BEIRUT, Lebanon — For millions of Damascus residents, concerns about the direction of the war in Syria have been replaced by worries about where to get enough water to do the dishes, wash clothes or take a shower. For nearly two weeks, the Syrian capital and its vicinity have been afflicted by a water crisis that has left taps dry, caused long lines at wells and forced people to stretch whatever thin resources they can find. “When the world gets hard for us, we work something out,” said a woman in a video posted on Facebook showing how she used a cola bottle to wash teacups. “When you cut off the water, we dig for water. When you cut off the tap, we make a tap. ” Like most of Syria’s problems, the Damascus water crisis is a symptom of the war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced about half the country’s prewar population of 22 million and left its territory divided into zones controlled by the government, armed rebels and jihadist groups. While a brokered by Russia and Turkey and announced last week has reduced overall violence across the country, it has not stopped the fighting everywhere, nor has it resolved what happens when resources needed by one side are controlled by its enemies, as appears to be the case with Damascus’s water. Historically, most of the water for the capital, which is controlled by the government of President Bashar has come from the Barada Valley north of the city, which is controlled by rebels who want to oust Mr. Assad. The crisis began on Dec. 22, when the water stopped flowing. Each side has accused the other of damaging infrastructure near the spring, halting the flow. Antigovernment activists have posted photos online, purporting to show structures around the spring that they say were damaged by exploding barrels dropped from government helicopters. The government first accused the rebels of polluting the water, then of damaging the infrastructure. Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the United Nations humanitarian office in Geneva, said by email Tuesday that the “deliberate targeting of the water infrastructure” had caused the . “But we are not in a position to say by whom,” he said. “The area has been the scene of much fighting, so we have not been able to access it. ” Now, 5. 5 million people in Damascus and the vicinity lack water, which has raised the risk of waterborne disease, especially among children, he said. Fighting near the Barada Valley has continued despite the . Antigovernment activists say that government forces, and fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah organization, have continued to attack the area in an apparent attempt to take it over. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict from Britain through a network of contacts in Syria, said the government launched 15 airstrikes on the area Monday amid clashes between rebels and forces. Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, accused the Syrian government and its allies on Wednesday of violating the saying that the new violence could derail peace talks meant to be held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, on Jan. 23. Rebel groups have threatened to boycott the talks if government attacks do not stop. Few Damascus residents expect much from the talks or have time to think about them. While generally safe from the violence that had reduced other parts of the country to rubble, they were struggling through a cold winter of high prices and scarce commodities before the water crisis, making things worse. The Syrian government has sought to ease the crisis by trucking water from wells around the city, and the United Nations has rehabilitated 120 wells to cover about of the city’s daily needs, Mr. Laerke, the spokesman, said. But many residents said they had received nothing. Some were buying water from men with private tankers, while others took advantage of whatever they could get. A shopkeeper said he had not had a shower in 10 days but that he and his sons went to the mosque every day to wash their hands, feet and faces, an option not available to the women of the house. At home, he said, they used plastic utensils because they could not wash dishes. One woman said she had not had running water in her home for 10 days. Her two sons have spent hours each day lining up to fill jugs from the well at their mosque. They use that to drink and to wash dishes, collecting the runoff to flush the toilet. “My family’s dream is to get a warm shower,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions for communicating with a foreign news outlet without government permission. “It has become our ultimate hope in Damascus to have enough water to take showers and wash clothes in the automatic washing machine. ” She expressed anger that Syria’s news media had said little about the water crisis, instead focusing on the military’s battles with rebels. “We are fed up with the news of military operations,” she said. “We want news about water and water supply schedules. ” Despite the water crisis, conditions in Damascus are far better than those in Aleppo, the northern city and former commercial epicenter of the country, where Syrian and Russian forces prevailed last month after prolonged bombardments of its eastern side. While the appears to be holding there, the formerly eastern quarters are abandoned wastelands, United Nations relief officials said. “Nothing prepared us for what we saw,” Sajjad Malik, the United Nations acting humanitarian coordinator for Syria, told reporters Wednesday in a telephone briefing from Aleppo. “The infrastructure was destroyed in almost every neighborhood. ” Mr. Malik said more than 100 United Nations relief workers from several agencies were helping civil defense teams remove debris and provide emergency food, water, shelter and medical care in the city, where four million people once lived. He estimated that 1. 5 million people remain in Aleppo, mostly on the western side, including roughly 400, 000 Syrians displaced from other areas. He also said thousands of displaced residents from the eastern side were starting to return, even if their homes and businesses were badly damaged or destroyed. “They’re beginning to talk about rebuilding their lives and livelihoods,” Mr. Malik said. But he cautioned that “Aleppo’s reconstruction is going to take a much longer time and way more resources than we have right now. ”

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WIFE OF LIONS QUARTERBACK Matthew Stafford Just Sent A BRUTAL MESSAGE To NFL Players Who Disrespect Our Flag

Not only is Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford s wife drop-dead gorgeous, she s also smart, patriotic, and apparently outspoken when it comes to professional athletes who refuse to stand for our national anthem. We couldn t stop smiling, as we read Kelly Stafford s passionate and patriotic Instagram message to her husband s fellow NFL players.Here s what Stafford wrote: If you think the country can be better, stand for the ideal. If you think the answer is people showing unity, stand with them. The anthem is not the national police song. The anthem is not the national racists song. The anthem is an exercise in how this country can endure and rise, how we can agree on its future potential, even while struggling with its present.The anthem s words depict a flag that is suffering through bombs and rockets. You could easily view those bombs and rockets as the challenges our democracy faces today, and the flag a symbol of rising above them. -Mitch albomI ve been hesitant to talk about this, as I know I will get backlash from it.. but I believe we can stand and show our unity against everything that doesn t represent what this flag stands for.Let s stand united against terrorists, against racism, against white supremacists, against killing of cops, against police brutality, against sex slave trafficking.. against anything that is not the ideal for this country.Let s unite in the fact that God made us all unique and different and that is something we should cherish. You can disagree with me and that is totally ok.. let s use this forum to discuss (not yell at each other) and listen to one another.Here is the actual Instagram post: If you think the country can be better, stand for the ideal. If you think the answer is people showing unity, stand with them. The anthem is not the national police song. The anthem is not the national racists song. The anthem is an exercise in how this country can endure and rise, how we can agree on its future potential, even while struggling with its present. The anthem s words depict a flag that is suffering through bombs and rockets. You could easily view those bombs and rockets as the challenges our democracy faces today, and the flag a symbol of rising above them. -Mitch albom I ve been hesitant to talk about this, as I know I will get backlash from it.. but I believe we can stand and show our unity against everything that doesn t represent what this flag stands for. Let s stand united against terrorists, against racism, against white supremacists, against killing of cops, against police brutality, against sex slave trafficking.. against anything that is not the ideal for this country. Let s unite in the fact that God made us all unique and different and that is something we should cherish. You can disagree with me and that is totally ok.. let s use this forum to discuss (not yell at each other) and listen to one another. #landofthefree #homeofthebrave #illstandwithyou #nfl #standunited #unitedwestandA post shared by Kelly Stafford (@kbstafford89) on Aug 23, 2017 at 4:45am PDTMost of the comments Stafford received on her Instagram post were positive, however, there are always gonna be haters out there, and for the haters, Stafford posted a follow up to her original statement (which also received mostly supportive responses):A post shared by Kelly Stafford (@kbstafford89) on Aug 23, 2017 at 7:55am PDT

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Tim Kaine Seems Likely for Hillary Clinton’s No. 2, but Liberals Balk - The New York Times

Democrats close to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign signaled strongly Thursday that she would choose Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her running mate, rounding out the ticket with a popular politician from a battleground state. Both former President Bill Clinton and the White House have expressed their support for Mr. Kaine, but aides cautioned that Mrs. Clinton had not yet made a final decision and that other candidates were still under consideration. Mrs. Clinton is widely expected to announce her choice in an email to supporters while on a campaign swing in Florida on Friday afternoon, an attempt to regain momentum the day after her Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, accepted his party’s nomination in Cleveland. With Mr. Kaine emerging as a clear favorite, one group already expressed disappointment at the prospect of the former governor of Virginia joining the ticket: liberals. Many of the groups that backed Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in his Democratic contest against Mrs. Clinton had hoped she would extend an olive branch to the liberal wing of the party and choose a candidate whose stances on Wall Street and global trade deals closely aligned with those of Mr. Sanders. But with the Democratic National Convention beginning in Philadelphia on Monday, the prospects have dimmed for the two liberal senators who were being considered, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. That has led to more liberal scrutiny of Mr. Kaine’s record. Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has kept a tight lid on its search for a candidate. A spokeswoman for the campaign declined to comment. An aide to Ms. Warren planned to meet with Mrs. Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, on Thursday afternoon to discuss how they could work together, which was interpreted by some people with knowledge of the process as a sign that Mrs. Clinton had settled on a choice. Liberals say they are concerned about Mr. Kaine’s positions on global trade deals and Wall Street regulation. He has been an outspoken advocate of free trade and has defended the North American Free Trade Agreement, which many voters in Rust Belt states blame for the loss of manufacturing jobs to Mexico. He voted in support of “fast track” authority for the Partnership, a trade pact that President Obama has championed. Two others under consideration, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez, also supported the Partnership. But Mr. Perez, who is popular among labor unions, has criticized Nafta, which Mr. Trump has called “a disaster. ” After praising the Partnership as secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton has recently said as a candidate, “I don’t believe it’s going to meet the high bar I’ve set” on protecting American workers, the environment and other issues. About 60 percent of voters said trade with other countries caused job losses in the United States, according to the latest New York News poll. Mr. Trump has a slight edge over Mrs. Clinton on the question of who voters consider better poised to tackle the trade issue. Putting Mr. Kaine on the ticket “could be disastrous for our efforts to defeat Donald Trump in the fall” because of his support of the Partnership, said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America, a liberal political action committee. Mr. Kaine, the son of a welder who owned a small metalworking shop in a Kansas City suburb, could help Mrs. Clinton attract white male voters and independents. Those voters may prove more critical to her chances in November than the young liberal voters who backed Mr. Sanders in the primaries. As governor of Virginia, Mr. Kaine appealed to both Democrats in urban pockets and independents in rural areas, and established a reputation as a pragmatic consensus builder. “He’d appeal to people in the Midwest because that’s his roots,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. And Mr. Tobias said Virginians across political lines considered him “a thoroughly decent and honest person. ” Mr. Sanders endorsed Mrs. Clinton this month, declaring she is “far and away the best candidate. ” And while polls suggest that most of his supporters plan to vote for her in November, some surveys suggest that only a small fraction of them will do so enthusiastically and that Mrs. Clinton remains unpopular with independents. “Hillary Clinton’s pick will be seen by many as a proxy for how she will govern — boldly, or cautiously?” said Stephanie Taylor, a of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. She referred to the army of donors who fueled Mr. Sanders’s candidacy, adding, “The wrong pick could deflate energy among potential donors and volunteers, hurting Democratic efforts to win the White House. ” No running mate can please every demographic and constituency. Senator Cory Booker, also in the running for the No. 2 spot, supported Gov. Chris Christie’s push in New Jersey to expand charter schools and implement pay for teachers. Those positions made him deeply unpopular among the teachers’ unions who have been among Mrs. Clinton’s most loyal supporters. On Thursday, Mr. Booker, speaking from the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, defended Mrs. Clinton and derided Mr. Trump as “someone who has been so indiscriminate with his demeaning and degrading language. ” Asked about the prospect of Mr. Kaine on the Democratic ticket, Mr. Booker praised his Senate colleague. “Tim Kaine is one of the most honorable people I’ve met in all of politics. ”

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Russia's Putin registers re-election bid

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin formally registered his re-election bid on Wednesday, submitting the necessary documents to Russia s central election commission in person ahead of a March 18 vote. Polls show that Putin, who has dominated Russia s political landscape for the last 17 years as either president or prime minister, is on course to comfortably win another six-year term. That would allow him to rule until 2024, when he ll turn 72. The former KGB officer is running as an independent, a move seen as a way of strengthening his image as a father of the nation rather than as a party political figure. The ruling United Russia party and the Just Russia party have both said they will support him. Allies laud Putin for restoring national pride and expanding Moscow s global clout with interventions in Syria and Ukraine. But opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been barred from the election over a suspended prison sentence he says was fabricated, says Putin has been in power too long and that his support is artificially maintained by a biased state media and an unfair system which excludes genuine opponents. Navalny has called for a boycott of the election, raising the prospect of large-scale protests and clashes with the police.

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Temer warns pension reform failure will hurt Brazil's credibility

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil s President Michel Temer warned on Friday the country would face economic volatility and loss of international credibility if a bill overhauling its costly social security system is not passed by Congress early next year. Speaking to reporters, Temer acknowledged that corruption accusations had undermined his popularity and delayed passage of a pension reform bill that is now scheduled to be put to a vote on February 19. He said his government would not support a candidate in the 2018 presidential elections that does not back pension reform.

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Saudi reopens Lebanon front in struggle with Iran

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has opened a new front in its regional proxy war with Iran, threatening Tehran s powerful ally Hezbollah and its home country Lebanon to try to regain the upper hand. With Iranian power winning out in Iraq and Syria, and Riyadh bogged down in a war with Iran-allied groups in Yemen, the new Saudi approach could bring lasting political and economic turmoil to a country where Tehran had appeared ascendant. The resignation on Saturday of the Saudi-allied Lebanese prime minister Saad al-Hariri, announced from Riyadh and blamed on Iran and Hezbollah, is seen by many as the first step in an unprecedented Saudi intervention in Lebanese politics. The Saudis appear to have decided that the best way to confront Iran is to start in Lebanon, a European diplomat said. Riyadh is blaming Hezbollah for the resignation of Lebanon s preeminent Sunni politician, accusing it of hijacking Lebanese politics. But Saudi Arabia is also widening blame to Lebanon as a whole, saying it too has declared war on the Kingdom. A Saudi minister has made the near impossible demand that Lebanese act against a group that is a major part of Lebanon s political fabric and far more powerful than the weak state, with a guerrilla army that out guns the national military. Coinciding with a major anti-corruption purge of top Saudis, Hariri s shock announcement has given rise to suggestions from Hezbollah and others that his Saudi business interests had embroiled him in the probe and he was forced to resigning. Saudi Arabia and Hariri s allies deny that, and assertions that Hariri is under house arrest. They say his hand was forced by Hezbollah interventions in Arab countries in service of Iran. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir said Hezbollah had been calling the shots in the Hariri government, which included two Hezbollah ministers and was formed last year in a political deal that made Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah ally, head of state. Hezbollah and its allies will struggle to form a government without Hariri or his blessing, leaving Lebanon in a protracted crisis that could eventually stir Sunni-Shi ite tensions, though there is no sign of this yet as all sides urge calm. Announcing his resignation, Hariri cited an assassination plot against him and slammed Iran and Hezbollah for sowing strife and trying to kidnap Lebanon away from the Arab world. The declaration came as a surprise even to Hariri s aides. It is not clear what comes next: Saudi-backed efforts to weaken Hezbollah in Lebanon failed badly a decade ago, ending with a bout of Sunni-Shi ite fighting on the streets of Beirut that only underlined Hezbollah s military dominance. The regional struggle moved elsewhere in recent years, notably neighboring Syria where years of Saudi investment in rebel groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad failed to withstand direct military intervention by Iran and Hezbollah. In Iraq, Tehran-backed militias and Iranian commanders have often seemed as powerful as the U.S.-backed Iraqi military, most recently in an operation to retake Kirkuk from Kurdish forces. So emboldened was Iran that top Iranian official Ali Akbar Velayati trumpeted his regional alliance s success from Beirut last Friday, declaring victories in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. His statement to the media after a meeting with Hariri was seen as a major provocation to regional Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia. Hariri left for Saudi Arabia immediately afterwards, cancelling previously scheduled engagements and catching even his closest advisors off guard the next day with a declaration first broadcast by Saudi-owned media. The regional standoff flared in the Gulf hours later, with Iran-allied groups firing a ballistic missile at Riyadh from Yemen. Saudi Arabia says it was launched by Hezbollah. Hezbollah has not responded to the accusation. Neither Hezbollah nor the Lebanese government responded on Tuesday to the Saudi accusation, voiced by Gulf affairs minister Thamer al-Sabhan, a top aide to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that both Lebanon and Hezbollah had declared war. The Lebanese government will be dealt with as a government declaring war on Saudi Arabia, and all Lebanese must realize these dangers and work to resolve the issues before we reach the point of no return, he said in an interview with Al-Arabiya TV. Crown Prince Mohammed told Reuters last month the war in Yemen would continue to prevent the Iran-allied Houthi movement from becoming another Hezbollah at Saudi s border. Hezbollah was established by Iran s Revolutionary Guards in 1982 to fight Israeli troops in Lebanon. Its last major war with Israel was in 2006, since when Hezbollah has grown stronger. While Sabhan vowed that Hezbollah would be forced back into its caves in southern Lebanon, any Saudi military action in Lebanon - such as air strikes - would come as a major surprise. Political paralysis and tension is however a big threat to an already stagnant economy, and could derail next year s parliamentary elections - Lebanon s first since 2009. Policymakers have scrambled to calm concern over the financial stability of the heavily indebted state. They say the Lebanese pound - pegged against the dollar at the same rate for 20 years - is stable. Hariri was spearheading efforts to garner international aid to help Lebanon deal with the strain of hosting 1.5 million Syrian refugees, or a quarter of the population. Leaders on all sides say there should be no further escalation. Both Hezbollah and Hariri s Future Movement have worked to contain Sunni-Shi ite tensions during the war in neighboring Syria. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has called for calm and patience in the face of Hariri s resignation. Okab Sakr, a member of Hariri s Future Movement, noted that protests in solidarity with Hariri had been canceled to avoid trouble. Sabhan, the Saudi minister, has called for real sanctions and alliances to find a fundamental solution to this cancerous disease , saying Hezbollah should be disarmed and kept out of government. Hariri, who was thrust into politics by the 2005 assassination of his father, Rafik al-Hariri, led years of political struggle with Hezbollah in Lebanon. But his Saudi-backed March 14 coalition failed to make any progress toward Hezbollah s disarmament as demanded by U.N. resolutions. Echoing the Saudi position, the United States has also taken new measures targeting Hezbollah in recent weeks, as President Donald Trump takes a tougher stance toward Iran. It has offered a bounty for two Hezbollah officials, and the House of Representatives has backed new sanctions targeting entities found to support it.

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Juror 4: Oregon standoff prosecutors failed to prove ‘intent’ to impede federal workers

Oregon Live Juror 4 vigorously defends the across-the-board acquittals of Ammon Bundy and his six co-defendants, calling the rulings a “statement” about the prosecution’s failure to prove the fundamental elements of a conspiracy charge. The full-time Marylhurst University business administration student was the juror who had sent a note to the judge on the fourth day of the initial jury’s deliberations in the case, questioning the impartiality of a fellow juror, No. 11, who the judge bounced from the jury a day later. “It should be known that all 12 jurors felt that this verdict was a statement regarding the various failures of the prosecution to prove ‘conspiracy’ in the count itself – and not any form of affirmation of the defense’s various beliefs, actions or aspirations,” Juror 4 wrote Friday in a lengthy email to The Oregonian/OregonLive. He expressed relief that he can now speak out freely, but he wasn’t ready as of Friday morning to drop his anonymity. He said his studies have suffered since the trial started, and he’s not ready for the attention revealing his identity would bring but felt it was important to defend the verdict. The judge withheld jurors’ names during the jury selection process and trial, instead referring to each by number. The jury closely followed U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown’s instructions on how to apply the law to the evidence and testimony heard during the five-week trial, he said. The jury returned unanimous verdicts of “not guilty” to conspiracy charges against all seven defendants. Each was accused of conspiring to prevent employees of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management from carrying out their official work through intimidation, threat or force during the 41-day occupation. Juror 4 noted the panel couldn’t simply rely on the defendants’“defining actions” to convict. “All 12 agreed that impeding existed, even if as an effect of the occupation,” he wrote. “But we were not asked to judge on bullets and hurt feelings, rather to decide if any agreement was made with an illegal object in mind,” the Marylhurst student wrote. “It seemed this basic, high standard of proof was lost upon the prosecution throughout.” Prosecutors had argued that the case, at its core, was about the illegal taking of another’s property. The heavily armed guards that manned the front gate and watchtower during the 41-day takeover, in and of itself, was “intimidating,” and prevented officers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management from carrying out their work, they said. They argued that the alleged conspiracy began Nov. 5, when Ammon Bundy and ally Ryan Payne met with Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward and promised there would be extreme civil unrest in the community if he didn’t step in and block Harney County ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond. The Hammonds were slated to return to federal prison on Jan. 4 and serve out a mandatory minimum five-year sentence for arson on federal land. Defense lawyers urged jurors in closing arguments not to mix-up the “effect” of the occupation – which undoubtedly kept federal employees from doing their jobs – from the “intent” of the occupiers. Five of the seven defendants, including Ammon Bundy, testified. Many said that they were there to protest in support of the Hammonds and federal government overreach because they received absolutely no response from state or local government officials to their previous efforts to spur change. The defense lawyers’ arguments, coupled with the jury instructions on how to apply the law to the evidence, resonated with jurors, Juror 4 noted. “Inference, while possibly compelling, proved to be insulting or inadequate to 12 diversely situated people as a means to convict,” the juror wrote. “The air of triumphalism that the prosecution brought was not lost on any of us, nor was it warranted given their burden of proof.” Juror 4 plainly stated that fellow Juror 11, during the initial round of deliberations, “had zero business being on this jury in the first place.” Juror 11 had worked for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management as a ranch tech and firefighter “more than 20 years ago,” he had said during jury selection. Asked by the judge during voir dire if that experience would impede his ability to be a fair and impartial judge of the facts, he said, “Not really.” Juror 4 explained why he didn’t alert the court immediately after he had heard Juror 11, on day one of deliberations reportedly say, “I am very biased.” It wasn’t until the fourth day into deliberations that Juror 4 sent a note to the court, asking if a juror who had worked previously for the federal land management agency and outright told the panel he was “very biased” could be an impartial judge. The court, flummoxed by the development, a day later dismissed Juror 11 for “good cause,” after the prosecution and defense teams agreed to the dismissal. At the time, parties to the case weren’t sure which way Juror 11’s alleged bias fell. Juror 4 said he “resisted the impulse” to send the question sooner in an effort to give his fellow juror a chance to explain himself. In his email to The Oregonian/OregonLive, Juror 4, for the first time, also contended that Juror 11 “violated” the judge’s explicit orders “by hearkening to ‘evidence’ that was never admitted in this case, refused to consider the defendant’s state of mind and used imaginative theories to explain key actions.'” Juror 4 said, though, he wishes that he “had sent the letter on day one, since it would have alleviated much stress for all of us.” The Maryville business student said he is “baffled” by what he described as observers’“flippant sentiments” in the wake of the jury’s acquittals. “Don’t they know that ‘not guilty’ does not mean innocent?” he wrote. “It was not lost on us that our verdict(s) might inspire future actions that are regrettable, but that sort of thinking was not permitted when considering the charges before us.” The jury, he said, met with Judge Brown after the verdicts were announced and after the U.S. Marshals’ physical confrontation and arrest of Bundy lawyer Marcus Mumford. He said many of the jurors questioned the judge about why the federal government chose the “conspiracy charge.” He said he learned that a potential alternate charge, such as criminal trespass, wouldn’t have brought as significant a penalty. The charge of conspiring to impede federal employees from carrying out their official work through intimidation, threat or force brings a maximum sentence of six years in prison. “We all queried about alternative charges that could stick and were amazed that this ‘conspiracy’ charge seemed the best possible option,” Juror 4 said. — Maxine Bernstein

1real

Trump cuts off fundraising events for Republican Party

Donald Trump's campaign has ended fundraising events meant to support the Republican Party's get-out-the-vote efforts in next month's elections. Aides to the Republican nominee told Fox News on Tuesday that Trump Victory, the joint fundraising committee for the GOP and the campaign, held its most recent fundraiser on Oct. 19 and no more such events were scheduled. The move, which was first reported by The Washington Post, cuts off a key money source for Republicans hoping to keep hold of both houses of Congress. "We’ve kind of wound down," Trump national finance chairman Steven Mnuchin told the Post. "But the online fundraising continues to be strong." By contrast, the Post reported that Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign has scheduled 41 fundraising events between now and Nov. 4. The former secretary of state was scheduled to make her last personal fundraising appearance Tuesday in Miami. Mnuchin told the paper that the real estate mogul was focusing on making his final pitch to the voters at a campaign events rather than raising money in the final two weeks of the race. "We have minimized his fundraising schedule over the last month to emphasize his focus on political [events]," Mnuchin said of the candidate. "Unlike Hillary, who has been fundraising and not out and about, he has constantly been out and about." According to the Post, the Republican National Committee had collected $40 million through Trump Victory as of Sept. 30. RNC spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said the organization "[continues] to fundraise for the entire GOP ticket." Meanwhile, Politico reported Tuesday that the Senate Leadership Fund, a Super PAC with ties to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was putting $25 million into seven Senate races deemed crucial in determining the balance of power on Capitol hill. Click for more from The Washington Post.

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A.N.C.’s Combative Response to Election Losses Startles South Africa - The New York Times

JOHANNESBURG — When South African voters last month handed the African National Congress its losses, seemingly chastened party leaders said they would engage in “introspection. ” They promised to reach out to South Africans disillusioned by the A. N. C. ’s apparent transformation from a celebrated liberation movement with cherished ideals to a corrupt party interested in and . But in the weeks since the Aug. 3 municipal elections, the A. N. C, which remains in power at the national level, has brushed aside calls from inside and outside the party to replace the president, Jacob Zuma, before the end of his term in 2019. Instead of introspection, Mr. Zuma and his allies have moved aggressively to tighten their grip on the state’s coffers, surprising opponents and allies alike with their undisguised moves. With little explanation, Mr. Zuma announced that he would directly oversee the state enterprises that have long been the source of public corruption. And his allies have renewed their attacks on Mr. Zuma’s finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, who has built a reputation for probity and has tried to uproot malfeasance in government even one of the A. N. C. ’s closest allies, the South African Communist Party, has described the moves against the minister as intended to “weaken Treasury’s struggle against corruption. ” “This is further confirming the people’s suspicions about the A. N. C. ,” said Sasabona Manganye, the chairman of the Sefako Makgatho branch of the A. N. C. in Johannesburg, which has called on Mr. Zuma and the party’s top leaders to resign. “Unfortunately, the biggest loser out of all of this is the A. N. C,” he said. “If the A. N. C. leaves Zuma to remain president until 2019,” he added, “we should just accept that Zuma will be the last president that the A. N. C. had. ” The party’s reaction to the rebuke of voters has deepened doubts that, 22 years after winning power after the end of apartheid, it can fully transform itself from a liberation movement to a political party. Will it suffer the fate of Africa’s other liberation movements, which, years after abandoning their original ideals, have clung to power through patronage, coercion or even force? The liberation movements that helped free much of southern Africa decades ago are still in power — in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique and Angola. Like the A. N. C. they have used their liberation credentials to maintain their grip on power and to fend off rivals. But their records in government have been mixed at best, or, in the case of Zimbabwe, deeply tarnished. “We’re in the lingering days of these liberation movements,” said Roger Southall, a professor emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and an expert on liberation movements. “They’re not suddenly going to lose power,” he added. “They’ll go on organizationally. But they’ve certainly lost their shine, the hopes that they were embodied with, and, in South Africa, that process has been hugely accelerated by the Zuma presidency. ” Many African nations gained their independence in the 1960s after former colonial rulers withdrew from the continent. But the liberation movements took up armed struggle against colonial powers or white settlers, in that way gaining greater moral authority. In the constellation of liberation movements, none shone brighter than the A. N. C. and its most famous leader, Nelson Mandela. To liberation movement leaders like Mr. Zuma, who said last year that the A. N. C. “comes first,” even before the nation, nothing remains more vital than the movement. Many leaders have described their movement in religious terms, including Mr. Zuma, who until last month often said that the A. N. C. would rule “until Jesus comes. ” The qualities that were prized in liberation leaders and movements have often proved detrimental in government. “The A. N. C. is now being forced to change into a political party,” said Rekgotsofetse Chikane, a university student leader and A. N. C. member who is the son of a famous party leader, the Rev. Frank Chikane. “Even though it’s a political party in name, it is still a liberation movement through its actions — the way it thinks about how it’s going to deliver services, the way it builds its rhetoric and the way it defends itself. ” Because of its past as a liberation movement, the younger Mr. Chikane said, the A. N. C. practices a “centralized democracy” in which leaders simply give commands and are not used to a with other party members or with voters. Given the strength of South Africa’s democratic institutions compared with those of its neighbors in the region, Mr. Chikane said he was optimistic that the party would successfully transform itself. But he said it would be an arduous process because many in the party, shocked by last month’s elections, were focused simply on retaining power through two more presidential elections, or through 2024. “Those who’ve been pillaging the state in one way or another will pillage as much as possible until the last possible moment, so that when the game is over, they will be set for the rest of their lives,” Mr. Chikane said. “That’s what we’re going to see with parastatals,” he added, referring to state enterprises. In Zimbabwe, the same liberation movement and leader remain in power 36 years after the end of white minority rule. In the first years after liberation, decades before Zimbabwe degraded into a kleptocracy, President Robert Mugabe and his party were celebrated around the world, including by Western governments, as embodying the hopes of a new Africa. Over the weekend, Mr. Mugabe accused the West of continuing to plot to replace southern Africa’s liberation movements with “pliant puppet regimes. ” Zimbabwe’s economy is in free fall government workers, who make up most of the 10 percent of Zimbabweans fortunate enough to be employed in the formal sector, are being paid weeks late because of the government’s severe cash shortage. The fierce struggle to succeed Mr. Mugabe, increasingly frail at 92, has dominated the capital, Harare, in recent months. Zimbabwe’s political elites have focused their attacks on rivals’ liberation credentials — exhuming events that occurred generations ago. Joice Mujuru, a liberation hero known by her nom de guerre, Spill Blood, served as Mr. Mugabe’s vice president for a decade until she was expelled from the governing party in 2014. officials, who once lauded her wartime heroics, have been calling her a fraud since she created her own party this year. They say that the act of heroism for which Ms. Mujuru became famous — shooting down an enemy helicopter — was a fabrication. In turn, Ms. Mujuru and her allies have said that Mr. Mugabe — an intellectual who was imprisoned for years before becoming one of the liberation movement’s political leaders — was not a war veteran. He did not see combat, they said, and did not even have a nom de guerre. “ and the A. N. C. will never change because their support is based on the history of their liberation struggles,” said Margaret Dongo, a former politician who is now allied with Ms. Mujuru. “That’s their trump card. ” Ms. Dongo, who also fought during the war of liberation and was known as Tichaona Muhondo, or We Shall See in the War, led the latest riposte against Mr. Mugabe and his liberation credentials. The has reinforced the popular impression that the country’s politicians make up a class out of touch with the nation’s problems. “People are concerned about the issues of this country and not how this and that became a hero or turned into a villain,” said Richmond Gumbo, a student who was reading newspapers in the library of the University of Zimbabwe in Harare recently. He added, “Leaders need to bow down to the needs, the basic needs of the people, and not to brag about how they fought in the liberation war over 36 years ago. ”

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Tips for Shoring Up a Fragile Thanksgiving - The New York Times

Is it possible to break Thanksgiving? And if so, could last week’s chaotically divisive election have actually broken it? A story in The Times on Wednesday explores how the war between the presidential candidates might also lead to war at family dinner. Do you take the year off? Do you put a moratorium on politics at the table? You could. Or you could let Sam Sifton show you how to make a gravy so good it heals all divides. Sam runs the New York Times Food section, operates the paper’s Cooking app, does a column for The Times Magazine and actually wrote the book on Thanksgiving — 2013’s amusing, invaluable “Thanksgiving: How to Cook It Well. ” On the latest episode of Still Processing, Sam has advice for orchestrating a smooth, enjoyable feast. And so do we. (To start, make extra gravy. “Thanksgiving this year is going to be tough enough without skimping on the gravy,” Jenna says.) Sam had us over to his wonderful kitchen in Red Hook, Brooklyn, to instruct us on making that gravy (Wondra: who knew?) and talk about the rules for peace, harmony and, if you’re going that route, potluck. “This Thanksgiving is gonna be different for lots of folks all across the country,” Sam says. “Some families will be largely jubilant with some people in the corner of the table. And others will be largely sad with some jubilant outliers. . .. And if you find yourself as the outlier in one of those situations, as many Americans will at Thanksgiving, I think we just gotta — this year and perhaps always — practice radical acceptance of where you are and who you’re with. ” “The best ways to find those connections and that community is over food,” Jenna says. “As long as you don’t mess with the food too much. ” The Food section has an entire feature on Thanksgiving from all cultures, from all over the country, that is like being in 50 kitchens at the same time. If you’re taking a break from your own family’s dinner, let your mouth water at the ones the Food section discovered. Bon appétit, y’all. From a desktop or laptop, you can listen by pressing play on the button above. Or if you’re on a mobile device, the instructions below will help you find and subscribe to the series. On your iPhone or iPad: 1. Open your podcast app. It’s a app called “Podcasts” with a purple icon. (This link may help.) 2. Search for the series. Tap on the “search” magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen, type in “Still Processing” and select it from the list of results. 3. Subscribe. Once on the series page, tap on the “subscribe” button to have new episodes sent to your phone free. You may want to adjust your notifications to be alerted when a new episode arrives. 4. Or just sample. If you would rather listen to an episode or two before deciding to subscribe, tap on the episode title from the list on the series page. If you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to stream the episode. On your Android phone or tablet: 1. Open your podcast app. It’s a app called “Play Music” with an icon. (This link may help.) 2. Search for the series. Click on the magnifying glass icon at the top of the screen, search for “Still Processing” and select it from the list of results. You may have to scroll down to find the “Podcasts” search results. 3. Subscribe. Once on the series page, click on the word “subscribe” to have new episodes sent to your phone free. 4. Or just sample. If you would rather listen to an episode or two before deciding to subscribe, click on the episode title from the list on the series page. If you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to stream the episode.

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In new blow to campaign, Trump's foundation ordered to halt fundraising

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New York’s attorney general ordered Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s charitable foundation to immediately stop fundraising in the state, warning that a failure to do so would be a “continuing fraud.” For Trump, the cease-and-desist order was the latest in a series of blows that has sent his campaign reeling. The New York businessman and his aides spent much of the weekend dealing with the fallout from a New York Times report that said Trump may have avoided paying federal income taxes for almost 20 years. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office said the Donald J. Trump Foundation was violating a state law requiring charitable organizations that solicit outside donations to register with the office’s Charities Bureau. The order followed a series of reports in The Washington Post that suggested improprieties by the foundation, including using its funds to settle legal disputes involving Trump businesses. “The failure immediately to discontinue solicitation and to file information and reports required under Article 7-A with the Charities Bureau shall be deemed to be a continuing fraud upon the people of the state of New York,” according to a letter dated on Friday that the office posted online on Monday. Trump’s campaign has suggested that the probe launched by Schneiderman, a Democrat, was politically motivated. While again putting Trump’s campaign on the defensive, the order could also undercut his efforts to make the Clinton Foundation, the family charity of Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton, a primary target in his campaign against her for the Nov. 8 election. Trump has sought to paint the Clinton Foundation as a “pay-to-play” operation under which the former U.S. secretary of state and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, rewarded big donors to the foundation with access. The Clinton Foundation, which has $354 million in assets and almost 500 staffers, is a radically different charitable vehicle from the small-scale Trump nonprofit. It has worked to reduce the cost of drugs for people with HIV in developing countries, eradicate childhood obesity in the United States and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There has been no evidence that foreign donors to the foundation obtained favors from the State Department while Clinton headed the agency. While some donors were able to obtain meetings with her or senior State Department officials, Clinton has said the fact that they had donated to the foundation did not play a role in her decision to meet with them. The scrutiny of the Trump Foundation came as the Republican candidate was dealing with a torrent of bad news, including his shaky performance in his first debate with Clinton on Sept. 26 and the release by the New York Times of tax records that showed Trump taking an almost $1 billion loss in 1995 that may have allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes for up to 18 years. In its series on the Trump Foundation, The Washington Post reported that Trump may have violated U.S. Internal Revenue Service rules against “self-dealing” by using foundation money to purchase two portraits of himself, which were then hung at his private golf clubs in New York and Florida. The newspaper also said that Trump may have improperly used the foundation to settle legal disputes, including one at his Palm Beach, Florida, estate, diverted income from his business to the charity to avoid paying income tax, and donated foundation money to support Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Republican, who was considering launching an investigation into Trump University, Trump’s for-profit education venture. The foundation ended up paying a $2,500 fine to the IRS for that donation. A Trump Organization representative told the Post the donation was meant to be from Trump’s personal account, and that it came from his foundation’s account by clerical error. In response to the Post’s reporting, Schneiderman’s office began a probe into the Trump Foundation. The Trump campaign said in a statement on Monday that the charity would cooperate with the investigation. “While we remain very concerned about the political motives behind AG Schneiderman’s investigation, the Trump Foundation nevertheless intends to cooperate fully with the investigation,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks. “Because this is an ongoing legal matter, the Trump Foundation will not comment further at this time,” she added. The New York Attorney General’s Office is the sole regulator of charities in the state. A spokesman for the office said it was not unusual for the regulator to send notices to charities whose filings were overdue or incomplete but that a cease-and-desist letter was more serious. While letters such as the one the Trump Foundation, which is based in Woodbury, New York, on Long Island, received are not judgments of wrongdoing, they are sent only after the office gets “a clear indication of wrongdoing,” the spokesman said. Trump established the charitable foundation in 1988, but it runs no programs of its own. Instead, it donates money to other nonprofit groups such as the Police Athletic League for youths. Once the foundation began soliciting money from other donors beyond the Trump family, it was required by New York law to register with the state and file regular reports.

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CONVENIENT? ‘Active Shooter’ Kills 5 in Fort Lauderdale, CNN Claims Voices in His Head ‘Told Him to Join ISIS’

21st Century Wire says Incredibly, on the same day that US intelligence officials were due to meet President-Elect Donald Trump about the alleged Russian Hack report like clockwork, another Active Shooter event springs-up, this time at Fort Lauderdale International Airport in Florida. Very dramatic, great television drama on CNN and elsewhere. As a result, no US news channel covered the epic flop of the CIA s report debacle and Trump s reaction to it until the evening news cycle.Stay tuned to 21WIRE later on, for a full Daily Shooter report on today s Fort Lauderdale Airport attack.Thus far, we re told that the suspect got off a Delta Flight from Anchorage, Alaska, calmly collected his bags, went into a bathroom, loaded his gun (which we re told was stored legally in his check-on luggage) and stepped into the baggage claim area and began shooting and killing people.And just when you thought this story couldn t get any more ridiculous, we re meant to swallow this Just now, CNN reported that suspect Esteban Santiago was a member of the National Guard, served in Iraq, and was hearing ISIS voices in his head. Anchor Erin Burnett stated on air: The shooter went into FBI office in Anchorage (Alaska) and told officials he was hearing voices in his head telling him to join ISIS! Indeed, exactly as 21WIRE predicted yesterday:CIA #russianhacking report out Monday. Our guess: there's nothing in it. What will Obama do as distraction? New hack? #ISIS attack? 21st Century Wire (@21WIRE) January 6, 2017As expected, CNN is pushing the mental health angle, with panel experts talking-up the need for more gun control and mental health checks. Here s the official mainstream narrative (CNN) Five people were shot dead and eight wounded in a baggage claim area at Fort Lauderdale s airport, and law enforcement sources tell CNN the suspect, identified as Esteban Santiago, had brought the firearm in his checked luggage.Authorities said it was too early to understand why the suspect, who was taken into custody without incident, opened fire at the Florida airport.Florida Sen. Bill Nelson told CNN that Santiago had a military identification card, but he did not know whether it was current.Here s the latest on what we know: Thirteen people were shot and eight were taken to hospitals, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said. Five others died from their wounds. The suspect joined the National Guard in Puerto Rico in 2007. In April 2010, he went to Iraq for 10 months. A spokeswoman for the Alaska Army National Guard said Santiago was in the Army Reserves before he joined the guard there in November 2014. Lt. Col. Candis Olmstead said Santiago was discharged in August for unsatisfactory performance. The suspect showed up several months ago at the FBI office in Anchorage, law enforcement officials told CNN. He was interviewed and said he was hearing voices in his head, including some telling him to join ISIS. He was taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation, voluntarily checked himself in, the officials explained. Law enforcement sources told CNN that the suspect flew to Florida on Friday from Alaska and had declared the firearm. When he arrived at the airport, the suspect retrieved a bag at baggage claim, took out the gun and started firing, the sources said. One source said he went to the bathroom to get the gun out of his luggage and emerged firing. Sheriff Israel said the gunman likely acted alone. The sheriff said it was too early to say whether terrorism was the motive. Gov. Rick Scott told reporters at the airport: The citizens of Florida will not tolerate senseless acts of evil. Whoever is responsible will held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. The governor said that now was time to mourn the dead and pray for hospitalized victims, not talk about gun laws. Multiple reports on social media including tweets from former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer described the shooting.Continue the mainstream story at CNNREAD MORE DAILY SHOOTER NEWS AT: 21WIRE Daily Shooter FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER@ 21WIRE.TV

1real

U.S. says Kerry to meet Iran foreign minister on Tuesday

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in New York on Tuesday to discuss implementation of the Iran nuclear deal and ways Tehran can use its influence to end Syria’s civil war, U.S. officials said on Monday. Kerry is expected to raise Tehran’s concerns over difficulties with accessing the global financial system despite the lifting of some U.S. sanctions under the nuclear deal. Iran and six world powers clinched the nuclear agreement in July 2015, which allowed for the easing of some sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union and United Nations in return for Tehran curbing its nuclear program. Tehran has called on the United States to do more to remove obstacles to the banking sector so that businesses feel comfortable with investing in Iran without penalties. Current U.S. policy bars foreign banks from clearing dollar-based transactions with Iran through U.S. banks. But U.S. officials have said the Obama administration is considering ways in which non-U.S. companies can use the dollar in some business transactions with Iran. “The secretary is very mindful that topic will come up, that that is very much on Foreign Minister Zarif’s mind,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing. “The secretary will be ready to talk to them about it.” Kerry will press Iran to use its influence over the Syrian government to end Syria’s war, Kirby said, after peace talks in Geneva were halted by the opposition, which accused government forces of breaking a ceasefire in their bid to recapture the northern city of Aleppo. “The secretary intends to raise ... ways in which Iran can get more helpful going forward in a political process,” said Kirby, adding: “We want them to use that influence in a constructive manner, towards a political solution.”

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Homeless Man Finds Motorcyclist’s Keys And Returns Them, Refuses Reward

For the past six months, a man named Francisco Hernández has been sleeping in a public shelter due to losing his job and becoming homeless. To figuratively get back on his feet, the 43-year-old has...

1real

Trump taps Kelly for Homeland Security, third general for top post

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate a third retired general for a top job in his new administration with the choice of a battle-hardened Marine commander to lead the agency set up after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to protect the U.S. homeland. Trump is expected to name former Marine General John Kelly, 66, as head of the Department of Homeland Security, a source familiar with the decision told Reuters on Wednesday. Kelly told Fox News on Wednesday that he has “been asked and would consider it an honor.” If confirmed by the Senate, Kelly will be in charge of the agency tasked with securing borders against illegal immigration, protecting the president, responding to natural disasters, coordinating intelligence and counterterrorism. Like Trump, Kelly is believed to hold strong views on stopping illegal immigration. The four-star general told a congressional committee last year that the lack of security on the U.S.-Mexican border represents a national security threat. As former head of the military’s Southern Command, Kelly was responsible for U.S. military activities and relationships in Latin America and the Caribbean. He was a proponent of keeping open the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Kelly, whose son was killed fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, retired in January after a 45-year military career. CBS first reported that Trump would nominate Kelly to the position, which would put him in charge of more than 240,000 employees. Those include Secret Service and Border Patrol agents as well as the agency that clears refugees for resettlement in the United States. Under Democratic President Barack Obama, the department’s Border Patrol and immigration enforcement agents were criticized by civil rights groups for acting as a paramilitary force that neglected the humanitarian mission of helping immigrants escaping violence. With a retired general as chief, the department risks furthering that image and facing backlash from Democrats and immigrant rights groups. Trump energized voters in the election campaign by promising to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border in order to keep out Mexican immigrants he described as rapists and murderers. In testimony last year before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Kelly said people-smuggling activities on the southern border were a dire threat. “Terrorist organizations could seek to leverage those same smuggling routes to move operatives with intent to cause grave harm to our citizens or even bring weapons of mass destruction into the United States,” Kelly said. Such sentiments may have endeared him to Trump, who warned repeatedly during his presidential campaign of dangers from illegal immigration, and pledged to make Mexico pay for the wall along the border. The Republican president-elect, who has no military experience, also plans to nominate retired General James Mattis to lead the Pentagon and picked retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn to be his national security adviser. Trump may be forced to look to generals to fill key positions because he lacks a relationship with Republican establishment figures, said former White House and State Department official P.J. Crowley. “He never served in government, so until the campaign, he didn’t have an established bench,” said Crowley. “He’s forming a pickup team on the fly. On an individual basis, they have a lot of international operational experience but far less domestic political experience. How well they will gel together remains to be seen,” said Crowley, author of “Red Line,” a book on U.S. foreign policy. Trump’s transition team is also said to be considering former Army General David Petraeus for secretary of state. Kelly served in Iraq several times, and in 2003 was the first Marine in more than 50 years to be promoted to the rank of brigadier general while in a combat zone. In 2010, his son, Marine 1st Lieutenant Robert M. Kelly, was killed in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. Human rights groups had feared someone would be appointed to Homeland Security with a stronger anti-immigration position, such as Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who is a proponent of reinvigorating a system to track Muslims entering the United States on visas. Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice Education Fund, an immigrant rights advocacy group, said he was hopeful Kelly’s experience in Central America would make him sympathetic to migrants fleeing violence in the region. But Sharry said he was concerned over the number of generals Trump has appointed. “At times Trump’s Cabinet looks like a military junta. There’s been a securitization of migration that is out of whack with reality,” said Sharry. “But I’ll take a general with knowledge of the Americas over a radical like Kobach.” The National Border Patrol Council, an early Trump backer that represents some 18,000 Border Patrol agents and other employees, noted that Kelly had no immigration experience but had “stellar credentials.” It said in a statement that his popularity with troops boded well for morale problems at the Department of Homeland Security, but added that “we believe no other cabinet level nominee will be under more pressure to produce.” Kelly questioned the Pentagon’s decision to allow women to serve in combat, and differed publicly with Obama over the president’s attempt to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. “There are no innocent men down there,” Kelly said of Guantanamo in a January interview with the Military Times newspaper. The Republican-controlled Senate must confirm Kelly for the Homeland Security post.

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WHO urges Trump to expand Obamacare, ensure healthcare for all

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday urged U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to expand Obamacare and ensure all Americans have access to healthcare. The real estate magnate takes office next month after promising to repeal outgoing President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare policy which helped millions more Americans get medical insurance but has been a target of Republican attacks. Agnes Soucat, the WHO’s director of health system governance and financing, said there were various ways of providing health cover to more people, and it amounted to “political choices.” “We as the WHO really encourage the new administration to make sure that the social contract is expanded and that all U.S. citizens have access to health care,” Soucat told a news briefing in Geneva. The United States is the only country among the 35 member states of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) not to provide universal health care, a key U.N. Sustainable Development Goal for 2030, she said. The Affordable Care Act, known commonly as Obamacare, has provided some 25 million previously uninsured Americans with health cover. Republicans say it has created unwarranted government intervention in personal healthcare and private industry. Trump in late November picked Republican U.S. Representative Tom Price, an orthopedic surgeon from Georgia and Obamacare critic, to be his health secretary. Price has long championed a plan of tax credits, expanded health savings accounts, and lawsuit reforms to replace Obamacare. Republicans are divided over how quickly an Obamacare repeal should go into effect, with some saying a delay would give them time to work on a replacement, instead of throwing millions of Americans out of their health insurance with no substitute. “There are different strategies to make universal health care particularly pro-poor,” Soucat said. “So what we are saying is, yes, this would be a setback if people would lose coverage.”

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New Evidence Shows Foul Play, Cover-up by FBI and OSP in Shooting of LaVoy Finicum – DOJ Opens New Investigation

21st Century Wire says The mainstream media called it case closed after the FBI released its aerial footage of the ambush and shooting of LaVoy Finicum. Now, new evidence reveals that there was likely foul play and a misrepresentation by Federal and State authorities involved in the recent killing of rancher and protester LaVoy Finicum.As 21WIRE reported at the time (although ignored by the Oregonian and other mainstream media outlets) that without any audio track to synch with the FBI s aerial footage, it was impossible to really tell when shots were fired and if the official story was actually true. At the time, FBI Special Agent in Charge, Greg Bretzing, insisted that their footage provided an honest and unfiltered view of what happened. However, new evidence tells different story, and appears to demonstrate exactly how the official story was intentionally distorted by authorities in order to cover-up what really happened that day.At yesterday s Deschutes County Sheriff s Office press conference, officials claimed that the state trooper tactical team members were justified in killing Finicum because the officers feared for their lives. However, authorities are now saying that the FBI agents involved are now being investigated for firing shots and never reporting them.Mike Arnold, an attorney representing the Bundys explained on Tuesday, The public deserved to have the video, with audio and sound, released immediately after the shooting. Now we know why it wasn t released: the public would have heard the shots that the government didn t want it to hear. The following presentation revealed at yesterday s press conference shows previously released FBI aerial footage synched together with a newly released cellphone video from passenger Shauna Cox recorded while inside Finicum s truck. Among other things, this new video proves that police fired first on the vehicle before anyone had even exited the vehicle. Watch: Most importantly, this new evidence reveals what happened immediately after that crash, and this could very well lead to criminal charges against the FBI agents and members of the Oregon State Police tactical units. According to today s Washington Post: Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson said two bullets believed to be fired by FBI agents did not strike Finicum, who was hit by three rounds fired by state troopers. But Nelson announced at a news conference Tuesday that because the FBI agents did not disclose their shots to investigators, nor did they disclose specific actions they took after the shooting, his office and the Justice Department would both investigate. The new video, combined with a brand new disclosure by a team of local investigators points towards a conspiracy by agents and members of an elite national unit who appear to have lied about events at the police ambush and LaVoy Finicum s death has now prompted a new investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, led by Inspector General Michael Horowitz.Finicum Shot in the BackAmong other details, newly released findings show that two state troopers shot Finicum three times in the back during the police ambush Jan. 26, 2016. An autopsy revealed that one of the bullets pierced Finicum s heart.Another shocking point of this investigation shows the complete incompetence and negligence on the part of officers positioned in front and behind LaVoy Finicum creating a dangerous cross-fire situation, something which professional officers are taught to avoid, for obvious reasons.Mainstream Yellow JournalismThe mainstream media are still standing by their slanted terminology by describing the incident as a traffic stop , presumably to downplay the premeditated operation by Federal and State authorities to intercept the two vehicles (both the Oregonian, the Washington Post and many other mainstream media outlets all used this skewed language at the time).Clearly, by any sober estimation of the incident, this was an elaborate, staged ambush involving dozens of vehicles and special tactical teams, and yet every mainstream media news outlet covered the incident with a pro-government bias where the victim was assumed guilty while the government was assumed innocent. Not surprisingly, this coverage quickly turned public opinion against Finicum and anyone else protesting similar issues. One example of the public hate that was generated against Finicum can be found in the comment section of many articles on the website Gawker where Gawker readers celebrated Finicum s death:Tens of thousands of similar hate comments can be found throughout many mainstream media articles and on social media. This fact proves how pivotal the mainstream media s skewed coverage was in turning sections of the population against the protesters in Oregon despite the fact that Finicum s killing was an obvious ambush and a clear escalation of violence on the part of the government.Stay tuned for more updates at 21WIRE.SEE MORE OREGON STANDOFF NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Oregon Standoff Files

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Bought And Paid For: Paul Ryan Met With Insurance Lobbyists Before Presenting Trumpcare Plan

I m not sure why, after nearly a decade of Republicans gleefully sh*tting on the American people, I would suddenly expect that House Speaker Paul Ryan and his cohorts to realize they work for the us, not for the highest bidder. But alas, Ryan, with his gawdawful healthcare bill, that s guaranteed to give 10 million people the boot, while enriching the already rich, proved once again who his real constituents are, and it s not us. If you need proof, Ryan attended a fundraiser with health insurance lobbyists just two hours before rolling out the bill.The two things were related. The Thursday morning breakfast fundraiser he attended was hosted by a lobbying firm working to unwind the Affordable Care Act on behalf of health insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield, one of the big winners of Ryan s proposed legislation.The breakfast, according to an invitation, was sponsored by McGuireWoods PAC, the political action committee for the lobbying firm McGuireWoods. Blue Cross Blue Shield pays McGuireWoods $120,000 a year to lobby on changes to health reform, records show. Attendees of the event paid were asked to pitch in as much as $10,000.Source: The InterceptIt seems it was money well spent for the insurance company. The bill would allow insurance executives to make a lot more money. Companies can currently only deduct up to $1 million in salaries, per executive, from their taxes. The bill would remove that cap.It would also allow insurance companies to add a 30 percent surcharge if someone faces hard times and they let their insurance lapse. In other words, poor people will have to pay a lot more a lot more. It would also put a real burden on the young, who might forgo insurance for now, thinking the 30 percent surcharge might not be a big deal in a few years.There is nothing about this bill that benefits the people of the United States, but Ryan is dressing it up and entering it into what he calls a beauty contest. This beauty contestant, though, is ugly both on the outside and the inside. In fact, what is that smell?Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images

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Obama hits the trail for Hillary Clinton: Will he help or hurt?

President Obama campaigns Tuesday with Mrs. Clinton for the first time. He's more popular than she is, and can excite the Democratic base. But Obama also faces risks. President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived at Yangon International Airport in Yangon, Myanmar in 2012. The last time they traveled together was to the country, which had recently adopted democratic reforms. They’ve been bitter rivals, allies and colleagues. When they take the stage at their first joint campaign appearance on July, 5, 2016, Obama and Clinton will show off a new phase in their storied relationship: co-dependents. President Obama is set to hit the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton for the first time, the next step in what Democrats hope is a march to four more years in the White House. Mr. Obama has been itching to campaign for Mrs. Clinton for a while. But there was this little thing called the primaries that had to play out first. Then there was the Orlando massacre on June 12, which forced the cancellation of their first joint appearance, which was to take place a few days later. Obama, too, has been mindful of Bernie Sanders, who still hasn’t endorsed Clinton, and of Senator Sanders’s supporters. Still, polls show that most Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters are ready to vote for Clinton, so the big question is  turnout. That’s where Obama comes in, beginning Tuesday, when he joins Clinton on stage in Charlotte, N.C. He’s more popular than Clinton, and can (Democrats hope) rally the troops. But Obama also faces risks as a surrogate. Here’s a list of the ways Obama can both help and hurt Clinton’s candidacy. First, the positives: He’s better at campaigning. There’s a reason he beat Clinton in 2008, when she was the heavy favorite going in to win the Democratic nomination. He’s the master at soaring rhetoric, and she is all about 10-point plans. He has higher approval ratings. Obama is more popular than Clinton. His job approval rating is hovering around 50 percent, which is pretty good, considering that he was “under water” for much of the last three years – that is, more voters disapproved of his job performance than approved.  Clinton, in contrast, is deeply underwater, seen favorably by only 40 percent of Americans and 56 percent unfavorably. Maybe Obama can offer her some coattails. As president, Obama still commands the bully pulpit. Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump is a master at attracting media attention, but Obama is pretty good at it too. Wherever Obama goes, so do the media – and that’s good for Clinton when he’s campaigning for her. Attracting free media, which amplifies her message at no cost, saves campaign cash for other purposes, such as get-out-the-vote efforts. Obama can troll Mr. Trump in a way Clinton can’t. Obama clearly loves to make fun of Trump. Remember the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2011, when Obama mocked him mercilessly as the real estate mogul sat stone-faced in the audience? Trump had harangued Obama on his place of birth to the point where Obama released his long-form birth certificate just to end the distraction, and at that dinner, Obama got his payback. Obama has a deeper connection to key constituencies. Obama won the presidency twice in part by winning big among minorities, young voters, and single women. Clinton is beating Trump handily among all three constituencies, but Democrats are concerned about getting those groups excited about turning out. Obama is expected to play an important role in inspiring those groups, especially minorities and Millennials, to show up at the polls. Obama is sharing his campaign data. The president’s vaunted “data-driven machine,” the operation that elected him twice, is now at Clinton’s disposal – including Obama’s massive email list. That explains all the emails showing up in supporters’ inboxes offering a chance to go see the Broadway musical “Hamilton” with Clinton. Fundraising. Obama is still a major rainmaker for his party, and that benefits everyone up and down the Democratic ticket. Obama is no longer the ‘change’ candidate. Eight years ago, Obama was the candidate of hope and change. Now an older, grayer Obama represents the status quo, which for some Americans isn’t good, and Trump is the candidate of change. So it will be harder to jazz up crowds. It’s the Republicans’ ‘turn.’ After two terms of the Democratic Obama, voters would usually be ready for a swing of the pendulum toward the GOP. So Obama and Clinton are trying to buck history. Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric and unorthodox policies give the Democrats hope. But Obama has to be mindful that, in theory, this shouldn’t be a Democratic year. Obama can’t campaign everywhere. He'll avoid solidly red states. Even in battleground states, the president has to pick his spots, and that probably means avoiding heavily blue-collar areas. Pennsylvania is one example. It’s shaping up to be an important state for Trump, if he’s going to have a shot at winning. But after Obama’s secretly recorded comments during the 2008 campaign about voters in small-town Pennsylvania who “cling to guns or religion,” he should probably steer clear of rural western Pennsylvania and similar areas in the old rust belt. Obama and Clinton differ on some important policies. Under pressure from Sanders’s unexpectedly strong campaign, Clinton has moved to Obama’s left on issues relevant to working Americans, such as trade and the minimum wage. And she remains more hawkish on military intervention abroad. In a way, these policy differences help refute the idea that a Clinton presidency would be just a third Obama term. But if voters bring them up during campaign appearances, it could be awkward for both the president and Clinton. Obama has to beware the Trump trap. Too much trolling could drag the president down. Bottom line: Obama can do a lot of good for Clinton over the next four months, as he works to convince American voters that they should warm up to her just as he did. But there’s only so much a lame-duck president can do for his hoped-for successor.

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Vice President Joe Biden Brings Oscars To An Emotional Halt With Powerful Message (VIDEO)

In an powerful moment for a night that is usually designated to honoring celebrities and movies, Vice President Joe Biden took to the stage at the 88th Annual Academy Awards to deliver a message about sexual assault.Biden recently took a break from organizing a national initiative to cure cancer to help launch a program that asks young people to fight against sexual assault by standing up and intervening if they see a situation where consent cannot or has not been given. Taking the microphone at the Academy Awards ceremony, Biden was greeted with a standing ovation from the attendees. The applause was so intense, in fact, that Biden had to settle people down with a joke, telling the collected group of megastars, I m the least qualified man here tonight. Joe Biden introduces Lady Gaga at the #Oscars. https://t.co/aRmjqBSbjg MTV News (@MTVNews) February 29, 2016During his brief remarks, Biden made it clear that victim-blaming had no place in our society. Let s change the culture so that no abused woman or man ever feels they have to ask themselves What did I do? They did nothing wrong. The vice president was joined by Lady Gaga, who helped make a documentary on the subject of date-rape on college campuses. The two promoted a website called ItsOnUs.org that will help spread the message of what people can do to help stop sexual assaults in universities around the country. Afterwards, Lady Gaga performed a song she had written for the documentary. At the conclusion, she was joined by survivors of sexual assault. The performance brought the house down and reduced many in the audience to tears.Powerful. https://t.co/vG5LjQdCo9 #Oscars https://t.co/SSzZEcxSLX ABC News (@ABC) February 29, 2016After the performance, Biden tweeted a photo of himself and Lady Gaga.Proud to stand by my friend @LadyGaga tonight. Pure courage that inspires, challenges us all. #ItsOnUs. All of us. pic.twitter.com/1eee3v0Xd2 Vice President Biden (@VP) February 29, 2016And to those cynics who might believe a speech during the Oscars won t accomplish anything, consider this: From the instant it was mentioned, the ItsOnUs.org website was brought to a crawl under the weight of the traffic. That s a lot of eyes on an issue that is far too often swept under the rug and ignored.Featured image via ABC News/Twitter

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Dozens dead, including one American, as hostage situation in Mali hotel ends

The deadly hostage situation at a luxury hotel in Mali's capital city ended Friday, with a U.N. report indicating dozens of bodies were littered across multiple floors of the building. One of those killed was an American, according to the State Department. The siege "has concluded," State Department spokesman John Kirby announced Friday. He said about a dozen Americans were rescued uninjured from the Radisson in Bamako, but a State Department official later said one American had been killed. That person was not immediately identified. Some of the freed Americans were U.S. embassy personnel, Kirby said. Some attackers may have remained inside the hotel. A Mali security ministry spokesman told Reuters they "dug in" on upper floors of the building. "They are alone with the Malian special forces who are trying to dislodge them," spokesman Amadou Sangho said. Al Qaeda-linked jihadists claimed responsibility for the siege. A U.N. official told The Associated Press that initial reports from the field indicate 27 people were killed in the attack. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the operation is still ongoing, said 12 bodies were found in the basement and 15 bodies were found on the second floor. Another U.N. official, Mali mission spokesman Olivier Salgado, said two extremists have been killed and that forces were going from room to room, checking for more casualties. At least one guest reported the attackers instructed him to recite verses from the Koran before he was allowed to leave the hotel, Malian army commander Modibo Nama Traore told The Associated Press. At least five U.S. Defense Department personnel were among the Americans freed, according to a senior U.S. defense official, who told Fox News the 22 Defense Department and military personnel in Bamako at the time of the incident "have all been accounted for." Traore said Malian special forces entered the hotel and freed hostages "floor by floor." Hours after the attacks began, local TV images showed heavily armed troops in what appeared to be a lobby area. Some U.S. military personnel in Bamako assisted in the rescue efforts, a defense official told Fox News. Traore said 10 gunmen stormed the hotel Friday morning shouting "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great," in Arabic before firing on the guards. A staffer at the hotel who gave his name as Tamba Diarra said over the phone that the attackers used grenades in the assault. Al-Mourabitoun, a militant group based in northern Mali, said on Twitter that it was behind the attack, but the claim could not immediately be verified. The group is led by notorious one-eyed jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who gained recognition in 2013 for an attack on an Algerian gas plant that left 40 people dead, including three Americans. A handful of jihadi groups, some linked to Al Qaeda, seized the northern half of Mali -- a former French colony -- in 2012 and were ousted from cities and towns by a French military intervention. The Brussels-based Rezidor Hotel group that operates the hotel said the assailants had initially "locked in" 140 guests and 30 employees. The White House said President Obama was briefed about the attack by his national security adviser, Susan Rice. The U.S. Embassy in Mali told citizens to shelter in place amid reports of an "ongoing active shooter operation." In August, the embassy had issued a message warning Americans of a "heightened security risk to westerners in southern Mali, including the area outside Bamako city." The hotel raid Friday unfolded one week after the attacks on Paris that killed 130 people. One witness, a Guinean singer, told Reuters that he heard the attackers speaking English. "I heard them say in English ,'Did you load it?', 'Let's go'," Sékouba Bambino Diabaté told the news agency after he was freed. French President Francois Hollande said France was ready to help Mali with all means necessary in the wake of the attack and urged French citizens in Mali to make contact with the French Embassy there "in order that everything is made to offer them protection." A top official at the French presidency told The Associated Press that French citizens were in the hotel but could not give more. The official spoke anonymously in line with presidency policy. In Belgium, Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said there were four Belgians registered at the attacked hotel but it's unclear if they were taken hostage by the gunmen or not. Five Turkish Airlines personnel were among the freed hostages, Turkey's state-run news agency said. The website of the official China Daily newspaper also cited an unidentified witness as saying one Chinese citizen had been rescued. Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has cut short its trip to Chad where he was attending a meeting of G5 Sahel. The Mali presidency said on Twitter that Keita will be back to Bamako "in the next hours." Meanwhile, France's national gendarme service says about 50 elite police troops were en route from Paris to Bamako. A spokesman for the service who was not authorized to be publicly named said they are heading Friday from two different units of special police forces trained for emergency situations. Even after the French-led military intervention in early 2013 that drove extremists from northern towns and cities in Mali, the northern part of the country remains insecure and militant attacks have extended farther south this year, including the capital. In March, masked gunmen shot up a restaurant in Bamako that is popular with foreigners, killing five people. About 1,000 French troops remain in the country. The Netherlands also has troops working with the UN mission in Mali. According to the Dutch defense ministry, some 450 Dutch military personnel are taking part in the mission along with four Apache and three Chinook helicopters. Most of the Dutch force is based in Gao, but there are a few officers at the U.N. mission headquarters in Bamako. Fox News' Greg Palkot, Jennifer Griffin, Lucas Tomlinson, Michelle Macaluso and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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South Africa's Zuma asks court to reject call for inquiry into influence-peddling

PRETORIA (Reuters) - South African President Jacob Zuma has asked the High Court to reject a call by an anti-corruption watchdog for an official inquiry into alleged influence-peddling in his government. A report a year ago by South Africa s anti-graft agency known as Public Protector recommended a judicial probe be held to look into allegations of systemic corruption by Zuma, some of his ministers and heads of state-owned companies. The report focused on allegations that Zuma s friends, businessman brothers Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, had influenced the appointment of ministers. The 75-year-old Zuma, whose rule has long been dogged by scandal, and the Gupta brothers have denied the accusations. The president, who previously described the State of Capture report as unfair in parliament, wants the court to send it back to the watchdog for further investigations. He questioned the right of the report s author, Public Protector former head Thuli Madonsela, to call for a judicial inquiry. The report, whose public release Zuma had sought to block through the courts, called for an inquiry be set up by the president and for a judge to be appointed within 30 days of its release. Is she competent to then direct the president to hold a commission on inquiry? With respect to this submission, she s not, Zuma s lawyer Ishmael Semenya told the court, referring to Madonsela. The hearing is expected to continue until Thursday and a ruling is expected at a later date. Zuma this year faced a series of corruption allegations, most recently over leaked emails that suggest the Gupta brothers may have used their influence to secure state contracts for their companies. Zuma and the Gupta brothers have denied these allegations. Separately, Zuma is facing the possibility of more court charges. The Supreme Court this month upheld a High Court ruling to reinstate 783 corruption charges filed against him before he became president in 2009. The National Prosecuting Authority is expected to make a decision on whether to charge Zuma.

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