Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama have enlisted Chance the Rapper for their first-ever Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago. Taking place Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, the inaugural event is set to bring “hundreds of leaders from around the world” together to “exchange ideas, explore creative solutions to common problems and experience civic art, technology and music from around the world,” according to Billboard. In addition to performing, Chano will serve as curator alongside some all-star musical guests, including Gloria Estefan and the National, who will headline. I’m curating a concert on Nov. 1 for the #ObamaSummit. Follow @ObamaFoundation so you don’t miss it. That’d be a terrible thing. — Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) October 13, 2017 Chance has a rich history with the Obamas. His father once worked for President Obama, while Michelle has publicly praised his $1 million donation to Chicago Public Schools. “Chance, I am grateful for everything you’ve done on behalf of our young people back home,” said the former POTUS during a recent concert. “I’m hopeful that everyone who is at the concert today, everybody who is getting involved, everybody who’s been part of the parade, all of you are of the mindset that you can do anything that you want to do, as long as you put your mind to it.” Last year, Chance beamed while discussing his famous supporters, who still resided in the White House at the time. “If you go up there, you’ll probably hear Coloring Book,” he said. “This is not a joke at all…Malia [Obama] listens to Coloring Book. And I send them stuff sometimes…Barack was talking about it. Or, uh, President Obama was talking about it.” Answer: allan
This is now bigger than who becomes the next president. Trump is a threat to our democracy. Answer: expressions
Trump Jr. allowed Tuesday night in an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News Channel that "he has probably met with other people from Russia" but insisted that he did not attempt to coordinate to impact the election or try to damage Hillary Clinton. He repeatedly suggested that the charges of collusion were "ridiculous" and "overplayed" and insisted that his father knew nothing about the June 2016 meeting. "It was such a nothing there was nothing to tell" his father, said Trump Jr. Donald Trump Jr. eagerly accepted help from what was described to him as a Russian government effort to aid his father's campaign with damaging information about Hillary Clinton, according to the emails. The email exchange posted to Twitter by President Donald Trump's eldest son shows him conversing with a music publicist who wanted him to meet with a lawyer from Moscow. The publicist describes the lawyer as a "Russian government attorney" who has dirt on Clinton as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." In one response, Trump Jr. says he would "love" to hear more. President Donald Trump says his eldest son is "a high-quality person," and he applauds "his transparency." In a tweet Tuesday night, the president promoted his son's appearance on Fox News and called him a "great person who loves our country." My son, Donald, will be interviewed by @seanhannity tonight at 10:00 P.M. He is a great person who loves our country! White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a brief statement from the president Tuesday in response to revelations that Trump Jr. agreed to hear damaging information on Hillary Clinton as part of the Russian government's effort to help his father. Trump Jr., who was deeply involved in his father's presidential campaign, released the emails along with a statement describing the disclosure as an effort "to be totally transparent." The emails with publicist Rob Goldstone show that Trump Jr. was told that the Russian government had information that could "incriminate" Clinton and her dealings with Russia. Here's my statement and the full email chain pic.twitter.com/x050r5n5LQ The messages were the latest disclosure to roil the ongoing investigation into potential coordination between Trump's campaign and Russia, which U.S. intelligence agencies have said sought to influence the outcome of the election in Trump's favor. As congressional committees and Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, investigate, the emails will almost certainly be reviewed for any signs of potential campaign collusion with the Kremlin, which the White House has repeatedly denied. Mueller spokesman Peter Carr declined to comment on the emails, citing the ongoing investigation. Here is page 4 (which did not post due to space constraints). pic.twitter.com/z1Xi4nr2gq In the emails, Goldstone wrote to Trump Jr. that the information "would be very useful to your father." Goldstone was working to connect Trump Jr. to Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, who later met with Trump Jr. in New York at Trump Tower. Veselnitskaya has denied that she ever worked for the Russian government and said on Tuesday that she doesn't represent the Russian government, only herself. She also said she "couldn't have had" information on Hillary Clinton. "If it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer," Trump Jr. replied to Goldstone in one of a series of email exchanges the younger Trump posted to Twitter. The emails, dated early June, show Goldstone telling Trump that singer Emin Agalarov and his father, Moscow-based developer Aras Agalarov, had "helped along" the Russian government's support for Trump. The elder Agalarov was involved with Trump in hosting the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. The two men also had preliminary discussions about building a Trump Tower in Moscow that fell through. Trump also appeared in a music video with the younger Agalarov. Goldstone at one point said he could send the information to Trump's father first directly "via Rhona," an apparent reference to the elder Trump's longtime assistant Rhona Graff. The email release followed days of evolving accounts from Trump Jr. about the nature of the meeting and its purpose. The president's son posted the emails only after they were obtained by The New York Times. On Saturday, Trump Jr. described the encounter as being a "short introductory meeting" focused on the disbanded program that had allowed American adoptions of Russian children. Moscow ended the adoptions in response to Magnitsky Act sanctions created in response to alleged human rights violations in Russia. A day later, Trump Jr. changed his account, acknowledging that he was told beforehand that Veselnitskaya might have information "helpful" to the Trump campaign, and was told by her during the meeting that she had something about Clinton. In his third description of what occurred, on Tuesday, Trump Jr. said he had believed the information he would hear about Clinton would be political opposition research. He said that he first wanted to speak by phone, but that when that didn't work out, he was told that the attorney would be in New York "and I decided to take the meeting." "The woman, as she has said publicly, was not a government official," Trump Jr. said in the Tuesday statement. "And, as we have said, she had no information to provide and wanted to talk about adoption policy and the Magnitsky Act." The Trump Organization has confirmed the authenticity of Trump Jr. posts on Twitter releasing the email chain. Associated Press writers Nekesa Mumbi Moody in New York and Julie Bykowicz in Washington contributed to this report. Answer: expressions
Considering over 60 percent of United States citizens support going to war with North Korea, one would hope the majority would be able to, at the very least, locate the country on a map. Unfortunately, no such luck. The laughable discovery was made when Jimmy Kimmel and his team visited Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, and asked passersby to locate North Korea on a map. Many citizens were upfront about their lack of geographic knowledge but guessed anyway. Their estimates ranged from Canada to the Middle East to Australia. Only the minority actually knew where North Korea is located. Though the political situation in the United States is less than ideal at present, at least the people interviewed aren’t in charge of firing any missiles. What are your thoughts? Please comment below and share this news! Answer: allan
Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, has hired a lawyer as he prepares to appear before the House Intelligence Committee as part of its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, according to a report. Bannon hired Bill Burck, a co-managing partner of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart &amp; Sullivan LLP’s Washington, D.C., office, according to The Daily Beast. White House counsel Don McGahn and former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus hired Burck in September to represent them in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Bannon is scheduled to testify before the House Intelligence Committee next week. Sources told The Daily Beast the former chief strategist intends to “fully cooperate.” Bannon was hired as chief executive of the Trump campaign in August 2016 and was tapped by President Trump to serve as White House chief strategist. He left his post there in August 2017 and returned to Breitbart News as its executive chairman. But, Bannon and Breitbart parted ways earlier this week amid a spat between President Trump and his former chief strategist. Bannon made derogatory comments about the president and his family in a new tell-all book, prompting a fiery condemnation from Trump. Though Bannon had previously avoided being swept up in the Russia probe—until the House Intelligence Committee asked last month for him to appear before lawmakers—he had been discussing the probe with Trump behind the scenes. Answer: allan
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks at his election night rally in New York early on Nov. 9, 2016. Trump stunned America and the world Wednesday, riding a wave of populist resentment to defeat Hillary Clinton in the race to become the 45th president of the United States. Answer: allan
How many disasters must Puerto Rico suffer? After Hurricane Maria tore through the Puerto Rico, President Donald Trump was extremely slow to acknowledge that the U.S. territory was in dire need of aid. When Trump finally decided it was time to visit these Americans in need, his trip was a disaster in itself. Here are some of the shockingly insensitive, incompetent and tone-deaf things Trump said during his trip to Puerto Rico: Despite criticism from Puerto Rican leaders and the fact that only 32 percent of Americans approve of how he’s handled the disaster, Trump has spent much of his time on the island insisting that everything has been going terrifically! “I think it’s now acknowledged what a great job we’ve done,” he said. “In Texas and in Florida, we get an A+, and I’ll tell you what: I think we’ve done just as good in Puerto Rico.” “We only heard thank yous from the people of Puerto Rico,” he told another reporter. Here’s an idea: rather than telling people what a great job he’s done, Trump should actually just do a great job, and then the people of Puerto Rico will do the complimenting for him. Trump played upon an old, terrible stereotype of Latino laziness when he alleged that Puerto Ricans “ want everything to be done for them.” According to Trump in the same tweet, the leadership of Puerto Rico was ineffective and they couldn’t manage to get their own people to participate in the relief work. This comment is as dog whistle-y as racist dog whistles get, which is why it’s entirely fair that internet commenters started sharing this photo en masse to remind Trump who exactly likes to have everything to be done for him: While handing out flashlights to hurricane survivors, Trump couldn’t help but comment on the supposed pointlessness of the exercise. “Flashlights?” he said aloud. “You don’t need ‘em anymore. You don’t need ‘em.” Why Trump felt the need to say that is unclear, especially since at that point 95 percent of Puerto Rico was still without electricity. Maybe Trump was being taken to places with power, but the vast majority of Puerto Ricans could really use those flashlights to, you know, see at night. At least he wasn’t physically throwing the flashlights at the people of Puerto Rico. During another moment, Trump began tossing paper towel rolls one at a time to the crowd. It’s not only an inefficient manner of distributing supplies to people in need of resources, it’s a pretty degrading one. As much as Trump may fancy himself some sort of rock star, these aren’t fans attending a concert looking for free merchandise. Technically, Trump didn’t say anything in this instance, but the disrespect spoke volumes in his actions alone. The nerve of Puerto Rico to have a hurricane – don’t they know how expensive recovery efforts are? Trump made sure they were well aware at a press briefing on the island. “I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you threw our budget a little out of whack,” he said. Hahaha, what a funny joke, right? The president didn’t make residents of Texas or Florida feel like they were a waste of money, so it seems extra suspect for the president to say something like this after already treating Puerto Ricans as lesser American citizens. In the face of his initial inaction, Trump has repeatedly tried to downplay the scale of Hurricane Maria. While speaking to Puerto Rican officials he said, “If you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds of people that died…” Trump said. Sorry, there’s no need to finish that sentence, did Trump just really suggest a place experiencing massive devastation was not a “real catastrophe”? It’s true that the death count in Puerto Rico is significantly lower than that of Hurricane Katrina, but if that’s enough to make Trump “proud” (his own words) of how he’s handled this crisis, he’s completely off base. In an interview on Tuesday, Trump told Fox News that to help Puerto Rico, he was going to “wipe out” their existing debt. “You can wave goodbye to that,” he said. Honestly, it was one of the most productive ideas to come out of the Trump administration throughout the disaster… too bad it seems that Trump was babbling without having consulted with his staff who are not on board with this idea. Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney backtracked on the president’s comments saying, “I wouldn’t take it word for word with that,” insisting that the White House would instead focus on providing disaster relief. Way to get Puerto Rico’s hopes up! Answer: expressions
This past weekend, Americans watched in shock as “alt-right” members, neo-Nazis and white nationalists descended upon Charlottesville, Virginia, attempting to spread their message of hate and intolerance. Clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters were numerous. One counter-protester, Heather Heyer, was killed when a man rammed his car into several counter-protesters. The man, 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr., was later charged with second-degree murder. Earlier that day, he was photographed displaying the symbols of a white nationalist group called Vanguard America, which later denied he was a member. That weekend journalist Shaun King posted a video of several men beating a 20-year-old man named Deandre Harris. King, who was attempting to confirm the identities of the men behind the beating, found that one of the men, Alex Michael Ramos, identifies as Latino. A group called the Atlanta Antifascists then tweeted that Ramos was affiliated with the Atlanta chapter of the far-right organization Proud Boys and the far-right militia called the Georgia Security Force. When a viewer asked why he marched with racists, Ramos said, “I stood by racist people but they weren’t racist to me.” Ramos’ assertion that his Puerto Rican roots meant he couldn’t be racist is a prime example of Latinos who are completely ignorant of their ability to perpetuate white supremacy. Guess what? Latinos, both here and in Latin America, do and say plenty of things that promote anti-blackness — and most of the time we don’t even blink an eye when it happens. When it comes to discussing racism, we often subscribe to the black vs. white binary that we often see in the United States. If our views aren’t extreme, if we’re not a “full-blown racist,” then we’re completely absolved of perpetuating anti-blackness, right? Wrong. When we think like that, we tend to ignore the colorism — often subtle — that permeates through much of Latin America. It’s a difficult thing to confront, but if we don’t address it within our own community, we can’t expect it to magically resolve itself. Pulitzer prize-winning Dominican-American author Junot Diaz once said, “White supremacy’s greatest trick is that it has convinced people that it exists always in other people, never in us.” Don’t believe him? When he was fired over the comments, Figueroa wrote an open letter to Michelle Obama saying he isn’t racist because he comes from a bi-racial family. Meanwhile, in Mexican print media… ?? pic.twitter.com/xwyW0QWfJc — Laura Martínez® (@miblogestublog) August 17, 2017 Yes, Real Madrid are nicknamed “Los Blancos,” but the joke is clearly rooted in the idea that “white supremacy” is a problem “over there” in the U.S. and not in Mexico, where they released a stamp celebrating a cartoon character that is a racist stereotype. Right now would be a good time for us to revisit that and not just stop there, but continue to educate ourselves on how we can make sure we’re not promoting white supremacy. Answer: expressions
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, thinks “much too much” has been made of Hillary Clinton’s statement to the FBI that she did did not know that the “(C)“ markings on her emails meant and speculated that they referred to “paragraphs marked in alphabetical order.” Pelosi was asked by CBS News’ Josh Elliott whether Americans should be concerned that Clinton said she didn’t know what the markings meant. “I think they shouldn’t be that concerned,” she said on “CBS This Morning.” “I think that the secretary of state deals with a large number of issues -- 30,000 emails -- we’re talking about a few that may have been marked ‘confidential.’ ‘Classified...’ and ‘secret’ and ‘highly sensitive’ is where it becomes more problematic.” “The fact is that whatever it was that Hillary Clinton dealt with in that manner had no threat to our security,” Pelosi continued, “and I think that too much has been made of this.” The attention being paid to the issue, she called “a distraction” from Congress’ unfinished business. Congress returns this week for a brief session before the November elections. There are two things it must get done -- prevent the government from shutting down on Oct. 1 by passing a short-term spending bill and provide funding for the fight against the Zika virus. The House minority leader complained that the president had asked for the resources to fight Zika in February, but “not one cent has been appropriated by Congress.” Zika funding has been held up because Democrats and Republicans have been fighting over how much to allocate to stop the virus, whether the money should be taken from anti-Ebola efforts, and they’re also arguing about funding for contraceptive measures. Pelosi said Republicans were rejecting anything that has to do with reproduction in the bill. Zika, which has been linked to birth defects, is transmitted by mosquitoes, and by sexual contact. Answer:
allan