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If Obamacare is fully implemented, 30 million people will still be without health insurance.

Donald Trump blames #CharlieHebdo massacre on France's strict gun laws http://t.co/gqzhHqeZbA http://t.co/ZkMY42uw7D

North West pulls her own Frozen suitcase as she and Kim Kardashian leave Paris

Here s why Clinton and Abedin should be flipping out: Multiple State employees told the FBI that they considered emailing Abedin the equivalent of e-mailing Clinton. Another close Clinton aide told the FBI that Abedin may have kept emails that Clinton did not. The electronic device shared by Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin and husband Anthony Weiner on which the FBI found more Clinton emails was a laptop and it contained tens-of-thousands of emails, a senior law enforcement official told Fox News on Saturday.The FBI announced Friday that it had restarted an investigation into emails Clinton sent on a private server system while secretary of state, as a result of a probe into Abedin s husband, disgraced New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, sexting, of sending sexually-suggestive electronic messages, to a teenage girl.The law enforcement official told Fox News that the laptop had five digits of emails, meaning tens-of-thousands of them. However, federal investigators remain unclear whether Abedin or Weiner own the laptop.The FBI conducted a roughly two-year investigation into Clinton s use of a private server system, finding several emails marked as classified and concluded that she had been extremely careless. However, the agency did not find evidence that Clinton had been criminally negligent and did not recommend criminal charges to the Justice Department.People familiar with the case say it was restarted by the FBI because the agency thought the new emails were pertinent to the investigation. The source also told Fox News that law enforcement officials think it s highly unlikely that all of the new-found emails are duplicates, as the Clinton campaign has suggested.Read more: FOX News

U.S. President Donald Trump said in a tweet on Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had insulted him by calling him “old” and said he would never call Kim “short and fat.” Trump made the comment after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam. In a series of tweets he also said Chinese President Xi Jinping was “upping sanctions” on North Korea in response to its nuclear and missile programs and that Xi wanted Pyongyang to “denuclearize.” During Trump’s visit to Beijing last week Xi reiterated that China would strive for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula but offered no hint it would change tack on North Korea, with which it fought side by side in the 1950-53 Korean war against U.S.-led forces. One of Trump’s tweets read: “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat?’ Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend

Guatemala s Supreme Court said on Wednesday it would not investigate the country s president for receiving a salary bonus that made him one of Latin America s best-paid leaders. President Jimmy Morales received 50,000 quetzals ($6,808) each month as a Bonus for Extraordinary Responsibility from the Defense Ministry that was not part of the official presidential salary, Guatemala s federal auditor said last month. With the bonus, which began last December, Morales monthly pay package totaled about 200,000 quetzals ($27,233), according to the defense minister. He later returned the bonus funds. The court s decision preserves Morales immunity against corruption investigations. In a separate case last month, Guatemala s Congress voted to protect the president from a potential probe into alleged illegal campaign financing. The president already returned the bonus and ... a person cannot be judged twice for the same incident. That is what causes it to be rejected, Supreme Court spokesman Angel Pineda said of the bonus case. A statement from the president s office said Morales accepted the court s decision, and contended that actions against him had been politically motivated. Guatemala s federal prosecutor and a United Nations-backed commission against impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) had pushed to revoke immunity for Morales after his salary bonus became known. Last month, thousands of Guatemalans marched to protest high-level corruption in the impoverished country and to demand that Morales and Guatemalan lawmakers step down. The federal auditor, which audits all government spending, said on Sept. 12 it would investigate the salary bonus, but has not yet produced any findings. With the salary bonus, Morales earned 70 percent more than Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and 130 percent more than Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, two of the region s best-paid leaders. The bonus made his salary about 90 times more than the $300 monthly minimum wage in Guatemala, where 60 percent of the population lives in poverty.

BELGRADE, Serbia — Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic appeared headed toward a victory in Serbia’s presidential election on Sunday, winning more than 50 percent of the vote among a field of 11 candidates, according to exit polls and early results. If the preliminary vote count holds and Mr. Vucic passes the 50 percent threshold, he would avoid a riskier runoff on April 16. While Serbia is a parliamentary republic and the presidency is intended as a largely symbolic position, the actual effect of the election result is seen as removing the last check on Mr. Vucic’s power and as a further erosion of Serbia’s nascent democratic institutions. Mr. Vucic, by far the most popular political leader in the country, will choose his successor as prime minister, most likely a pliant one, and he is expected to exercise unchallenged control over all of the country’s main political institutions: Parliament, the executive branch, the ruling party and now the presidency. With its coalition partners, his party has a strong and solid majority in Parliament, and the courts are weak and seen as politically controlled. The departing president, Tomislav Nikolic, had been one of the few checks on Mr. Vucic’s power. With Mr. Vucic in the president’s office, Serbia is likely to follow the same domestic and foreign policy course as during his time as prime minister: enacting the political and economic changes required for membership in the European Union, while simultaneously seeking closer relations with Russia. Creating tensions with Brussels, Mr. Vucic has refused to support sanctions against Russia. Declaring victory in Belgrade, the capital, Mr. Vucic said, “When you have results like this, it’s clear to everyone that there is no instability,” adding, “Serbia is strong, Serbia is powerful and it will be even stronger. ” As Western governments decrease their involvement in the Balkans and membership in the European Union loses its appeal to Serbia and other countries, political leaders in the region are feeling less pressure to govern within the confines of democratic institutions or to protect human rights, press freedom and the rule of law, and to fight corruption. The regional trend is toward “weak democracies with autocratically minded leaders, who govern through informal patronage networks and claim to provide stability in the region,” according to a study by the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group. Observers view Mr. Vucic’s consolidation of power as a product of this drive for stability that has shaped the politics of the western Balkans over the last decade, as Western governments choose to engage with strong leaders rather than work to strengthen democratic institutions. “Stability trumps everything,” said Jelena Milic, the director of the liberal Center for Studies in Belgrade. Public opinion surveys before the election showed that Serbian voters considered Mr. Vucic the best candidate for delivering stability, said Srdjan Bogosavljevic, a pollster at the Ipsos polling company in Belgrade. Living in a region still inflamed by ethnic tensions and economic turbulence, in which older people experienced three wars in a generation, Serbs want a strong leader to guide the country, Mr. Bogosavljevic said. Mr. Vucic’s popularity surged after the arrest and prosecution of Miroslav Miskovic, one of Serbia’s wealthiest magnates, who in June was convicted of fraud and sentenced to five years in prison. Mr. Vucic had campaigned for prime minister on a promise to rein in the country’s oligarchs. Mr. Vucic also positioned himself successfully on foreign policy: seeking good relations with Russia while also leaving no doubt that Serbia would eventually join the European Union, despite his frequent criticisms of the bloc. “Serbian public opinion says, ‘We love Russia, but we don’t want to be part of Russia,’” Mr. Bogosavljevic said. “And we don’t like Europe, but we want to be part of Europe. ” Support for European Union membership has fallen to 47 percent, according to a poll in December by the Serbian European Integration Office. Mr. Vucic reinforced his image as an indispensable international partner during the campaign by meeting with world leaders. He met last month in Berlin with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and in Moscow with President Vladimir V. Putin, who wished him “success” in the vote. Russia has been expanding its influence in the Balkans to fill the vacuum as Western powers draw back, Ms. Milic said. Because Mr. Vucic has delivered on some international issues important to the European Union, like encouraging moderation in Bosnia and engaging in a dialogue with the leadership of Kosovo, the bloc has refrained from overtly criticizing him for abuses like restricting press freedom. “The E. U. is very weak and disinterested in the Balkans now, and this has enabled him to get more credit and less scrutiny for his domestic policies than he should,” said Florian Bieber, a professor of Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz in Austria. “Behind closed doors, they always remind Vucic that he has to better protect the democratic process,” Mr. Bieber said. “But they don’t say it in public. ”

Eminem Returns To Acting In His Video For 'River' Featuring Ed Sheeran

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort met with Senate Intelligence Committee staff on Tuesday, a spokesman said, as another Senate panel issued a subpoena to force him to appear at a hearing. “Paul Manafort met this morning, by previous agreement, with the bipartisan staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee and answered their questions fully,” Jason Maloni, Manafort’s spokesman, said in an email. Earlier, the Senate Judiciary Committee said it had issued a subpoena on Monday night to force Manafort to appear at a hearing on Wednesday.

Ben Affleck introduces Lindsay Shookus to Jennifer Garner

call weeping neighbors a mob --> paint a picture of a violent community #MikeBrown came from --> justify his execution #Ferguson

How to apply self-tanner

@AliShahQalandar self serving ideas which were used against @MaajidNawaz? The hatred of satire & depiction isn't an isolated idea

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

While holding back tears in Manchester, New Hampshire on Thursday, First Lady Michelle Obama addressed the sexual assault bombshells that have been raining down upon the Republican nominee for nearly a week now.Mrs. Obama has mostly tried to refrain from commenting on Trump s sexual misconduct towards and remarks about women, but she felt she could no longer hold back. She roundly condemned Trump and explained how his remarks make him totally unfit to be president. The fact is that in this election, we have a candidate for President of the United States who, over the course of his lifetime and the course of this campaign has said things about women that are so shocking, so demeaning, I simply will not repeat anything here today. And last week, we saw this candidate actually bragging about sexually assaulting women. And I can t believe that I m saying that. A candidate for president of the United States has bragged about sexually assaulting women, and I have to tell you that I can t stop thinking about this. It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn t have predicted, she continued, telling the audience that she can t pretend that everything is normal because it would be dishonest and disingenuous for me to move on to the next thing like this was all just a bad dream. This is not something we can ignore. It s not something we can sweep under the rug as just another disturbing footnote in a sad election season. Because this was not just a lewd conversation. This wasn t locker room banter. This was a powerful individual speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior. And actually bragging about kissing and groping women. Using language so obscene that many of us are worried about our children hearing it when we turn on the TV. To make matters worse, it now seems very clear this isn t an isolated incident. It s one of countless examples of how he has treated women his whole life.And have to tell you that I listened to all this. And I feel it so personally. And I m sure that many of you do too, particularly the women. The shameful comments about our bodies. The disrespect of our ambitions and intellect. The belief that you can do anything you want to a woman. It is cruel. It is frightening. And the truth is, it hurts. It hurts. Unlike many Republicans who think otherwise, Michelle Obama made it clear that Trump is NOT a role model for children and urged parents to protect their kids by voting against Trump on Election Day. In our hearts we all know that if we let Hillary s opponent win the election, then we are sending a clear message to our kids that everything they re seeing and hearing is perfectly okay. We are validating it, we are endorsing it. We are telling our sons that it is okay to humiliate women, telling our daughters that this is how we deserve to be treated, that bigotry and bullying are perfectly acceptable. Is that we want for our children? Let s be very clear, strong men, men who are truly role models don t need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful. Here s the full speech via YouTube.Donald Trump is a disgrace to this country and our values. And it looks like only the American people can stop him, because Republicans are too cowardly to strip Trump of the nomination and admit that they were wrong to make him the leader of their party. This national nightmare needs to be put to an end once and for all and the only way to do that is to defeat Trump by a landslide in November.Featured Image via screenshot

This is the definition of insanity-doing the same thing over and over. We just need a Congress strong enough to stop the madness.For over 30 years, sovereign nations, particularly in the West have been buying votes by offering social payments in the form of welfare.The ridiculousness of this should not be lost on anyone. Politicians, in order to be elected, promise to allocate taxpayer funds on social programs that will benefit said taxpayers down the road (we re simply talking about social spending, not infrastructure or other costs).The concept that taxpayers might simply just keep the money to begin with never enters the equation. And because everyone believes that they are somehow spending someone else s money, they play along.When you believe that you are spending someone else s money, it s very easy to write a blank check, which is precisely what Western nations have been doing for years, promising everyone a safe and secure retirement without ever bothering to see where the money would come from.When actual bills came due to fund this stuff, Governments quickly discovered that current tax revenues couldn t cover it so they issued sovereign debt to make up the difference.And so the bond bubble was created.The large banks, that have a monopoly on managing sovereign debt auctions, were only too happy to play along with this. The reasons are as follows:1) They can use these alleged risk-free assets as collateral to backstop tens of trillions worth of derivatives trades. A $1 million investment in your typical US Treasury can backstop over $15 million worth of derivatives if not more. The profits from the derivatives markets remains a primary source of revenue for the banks.2) Sovereign Governments are only too happy to bail out the big banks if the stuff ever hits the fan on the trades that are backstopped by the sovereign debt (see 2006 onwards). Since the banks are the ones holding the sovereign debt, they can always threaten to dump bonds, which would render the whole social welfare Ponzi bankrupt (see what happened in Europe when sovereign bonds collapsed in 2011-2012).3) In a debt-based financial system such as the current one, sovereign bonds are the senior most assets in the system. Those who own these in bulk are at the top of the financial food chain in terms of financial, economic, and political clout.Since it was rarely if ever a problem to issue sovereign debt, Governments kept promising future payments that they didn t have until we reach today: the point at which most Western nations are sporting Debt to GDP ratios well north of 300% when you consider unfunded liabilities (the social spending programs mentioned earlier).Now, cutting social spending is usually considered political suicide (after all, the voters put you in office in the first place based on you promising to pay them welfare payments down the road). So rather than default on the social contract made with voters, the political class will simply push to issue MORE debt to finance old debt that is coming due.The US did precisely this in the fourth quarter of 2014, issuing over $1 trillion in new debt simply to pay back old debt that was coming due.Read more: Zero Hedge

Big Brother: Celebrity Edition Addresses Donald Trump and Bill Cosby and We Are Hooked On This Show

Even high estimates for an early draft of the health care plan are less than the $1.8 trillion cost of the Bush tax cuts.

@cmclymer @Marty_Quinn Reverse racism isn't the answer here. 2wrongs =! 1right.

@FortClank it sure did. A boon to my #brand

Everyone Donald Trump Has Called 'Overrated' on Twitter

By REBECCA PERRING For years Sweden has regarded itself as a “humanitarian superpower” – making its mark by offering refugee to those fleeing war and persecution. But people’s patience with their visitors is wearing thin following a year of violence, sickening sex assaults and the death of social worker Alexandra Mezher , 22, who was knifed to death at an asylum centre for unaccompanied children at the hands of a Somalian migrant who claimed he was 15. At the time, her grieving mother, an immigrant herself from the Middle East said: “Immigration has destroyed Sweden.” Sweden, a country of 9.8million, took 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015. The influx included 35,400 unaccompanied minors – nine times more than 2015. But nothing could prepare Stockholm for the rise in crime and an abuse of the criminal system. And so much so, a nation, which once prided itself on giving a warm welcome to outsiders, has reported a rise in arson attacks against migrant shelters, while support for the right-wing Swedish Democrats has surged. In January, authorities were forced to admit there were at least 70 girls in migrant centres were asylum child brides, according FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE CLICK LINK

A group of thugs marched through the main train station in Stockholm, Sweden and beat up refugee children and anyone who didn t appear to be ethnically Swedish. It is a shocking moment of anti-migrant violence as Europe deals with the fallout from the Syrian civil war.Wearing all-black balaclavas and armbands, the men gathered with the purpose of attacking refugee children, Stockholm police spokesperson Towe Hagg said. I saw maybe three people who were beaten. That was no football brawl or something similar. They targeted migrants. I was quite scared and ran away, an eyewitness told the Aftonbladet newspaper.Before the attacks, the mob handed out leaflets with the slogan It is enough now! which threatened to give the North African street children who are roaming around the punishment they deserve .The rhetoric of the attackers sounds unsettling like what we have been hearing every night at Donald Trump s presidential rallies. He launched his campaign with an explicitly white power message, blaming Mexicans for being rapists, then arguing in favor of a national registry of Muslims and banning them from traveling to the United States.Trump s rhetoric has already led to violence here. One group of Massachusetts men beat up a Latino man while citing Trump, while at his rallies Trump has egged on his supporters who have attacked and mistreated black protesters.The rise of the nationalist right in Europe has used mass migration as its excuse of the moment, blaming economic hardships and slowdowns on migrants with different colored skin and ethnic and religious backgrounds has been a trope of the extremist right for ages.The Republican Party and the mainstream press have both been afraid to call out Trump and his backers for their blatant hate, and while it seems unspeakable, we re not that different from the people in Europe. Maybe it could happen here.Featured image via YouTube

Donald Trump just LOVES attacking members of his own party. Seemingly not understanding that the 535 people in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate are a co-equal branch of government and can totally kneecap him and even remove him from office if they so choose, Trump has been steadily attacking a GOP stalwart: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.First, Trump decided that McConnell needed to get back to work on his failed healthcare legislation. Then, he suggested that McConnell should resign if he cannot get Trump s legislative agenda through the Senate. Well, it seems that other GOP Senators are sick and tired of Trump s bullying of their Senate leader, and are coming after him.First, Orrin Hatch, who is easily the oldest member of the Senate at age 83, had his office release the following cryptic message regarding Trump s attacks on McConnell:"@SenateMajLdr has been the best leader we ve had in my time in the Senate, through very tough challenges. I fully support him." -Hatch pic.twitter.com/3vD5nFgE36 Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) August 10, 2017Of course, Trump is not one of them. He ran an insurgent campaign and took over their entire party, as they watched helplessly. Now, slowly but surely, the establishment elected Republicans are realizing that this deal with the devil was a colossal mistake. Now that Senator Hatch has come out and stood with McConnell, surely more Senators especially those who have criticized Trump in the past are sure to follow. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John McCain (R-AZ), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) come to mind, for starters.Trump has no idea what he has done by declaring war on McConnell. These people have the power to end his presidency and perhaps even his freedom if he isn t careful. So, let the GOP infighting and the Trump bullying continue.Pop your popcorn, folks. This is about to get REAL good.Featured image via Olivier Douliery Pool/Getty Images

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three Democratic U.S. senators wrote to senior administration officials on Monday seeking confirmation on whether White House counterterrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka is under criminal investigation for failing to disclose his membership in a Hungarian neo-Nazi organization. “As a senior counterterrorism advisor, Mr. Gorka is in a position of great importance and public trust. The American people are entitled to know if a senior White House official is under criminal investigation,” Senators Dick Durbin, Richard Blumenthal and Benjamin Cardin said in the letter. They said the letter was a follow-up to a letter they sent in March calling for an investigation of whether Gorka had “falsified his naturalization application or otherwise illegally procured American citizenship.” Gorka “reportedly concealed his membership in the Vitezi Rend, a far-right anti-Semitic Hungarian organization with historical ties to the Nazis, when he applied for U.S. citizenship,” the senators said in Monday’s letter. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The senators’ letter was addressed to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Elaine Duke, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

Malick Sidibé, whose photographs of young partygoers captured the exuberance of newly independent Mali in the 1960s and ’70s and made him one of Africa’s most celebrated artists after his work was shown abroad in the 1990s, died on Thursday in Bamako, Mali. He was 80. His son Karim Sidibé said the cause was complications of diabetes, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Sidibé started out taking pictures at weddings and christenings in the 1950s, using a Kodak Brownie camera, but after opening his own studio he branched out into a more ambitious form of social reporting. He attended parties at which young Malians, dressed to the nines, danced the twist, the rumba and the merengue to the Beatles, James Brown and music. This was Mali’s youthquake, and Mr. Sidibé was its photographic witness. “For me, photography is all about youth,” he told The Daily Telegraph of London in 2008. “It’s about a happy world full of joy, not some kid crying on a street corner or a sick person. ” His photographs, surrounded by a brown tape border, were intended to be kept as souvenirs or sent as postcards. But after Western collectors discovered his work in the 1990s, they began presenting it, in enlarged sizes, in galleries and museums in Europe and the United States. He quickly became, with the older Seydou Keita, Mali’s most famous photographer and an international star. Mr. Sidibé was the first African to receive the Hasselblad Award, in 2003, and at the 2007 Venice Biennale he received the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement, the first given to either a photographer or an African artist. “He really changed the way Westerners look at Africa,” said Jack Shainman, whose Manhattan gallery currently has an exhibition of Mr. Sidibé’s work. (It runs through next Saturday.) “He captured the newfound freedom after colonialism — that time, and that moment,” he said. Malick Sidibé was born in 1935 or 1936 in Soloba, a village in what was then French Sudan. He grew up in an extended family of 60 and herded sheep and cattle for his father. He was chosen by the village chief to be the first child in his family to attend school, a white institution in Yanfolila, where he learned French. His skill at drawing with charcoal earned him a place at the Sudan School for Craftsmen (now the National Arts Institute) where he was trained as a jewelry maker. A French expatriate photographer, Gérard hired Mr. Sidibé to decorate his combined studio and shop, Photo Service Boutique, and then took him on as an apprentice. While running the cash register and delivering photographs to customers, Mr. Sidibé closely observed Mr. Guillat and absorbed the fundamentals of photography. Before long, he started working commercially. “I did the African events, the photos of Africans, and he did the European events — the major balls, official events,” Mr. Sidibé told the photography website gwinzegal. com in 2008. After going out on his own, he created Studio Malick in 1958, where he specialized in portrait photography with his own distinctive touch. He coaxed his subjects into more informal poses that gave his work a lively, vibrant quality. Tonally bold and beautifully composed, they often showed subjects glorying in a new possession — a sheep or a motorcycle — or showing off in modern clothes. “Generally, women come to get photographed as soon as they have a new hairdo or purchase a trendy piece of jewelry: a bracelet, a necklace, a handbag,” Mr. Sidibé told The Los Angeles Times in 2002. “For men, it’s when they buy a new bicycle or motorcycle. ” He found a rich subject in the parties and dances put on by social clubs with names like the Sputniks, the Black Socks and Las Vegas. On some nights, he would attend four parties, one after the other, photographing young Malians able, for the first time, to dance close together. “At that time, young people were very motivated,” he told the French newspaper Libération in 1995. “Every Saturday night you had to dress elegantly. People would plan their outfits all week long. To make an impression, you had to be impeccable, with a trouser crease so sharp you could cut off the head of a chicken with it. ” He later produced a portrait series called “Vue de Dos,” which showed women with their backs turned to the camera. In the early 1990s, when he had turned to camera repair work to earn a living, Mr. Sidibé was discovered by the photographer Françoise Huguier and by André Magnin, a curator who had been sent to West Africa by Jean Pigozzi, a French collector. Mr. Magnin organized an exhibition of Mr. Sidibé’s work at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art in Paris, and a book appeared soon after. In 1999, Jeffrey Deitch showed Mr. Sidibé’s party photos in Manhattan in the show “The Clubs of Bamako. ” A documentary about him, “Dolce Vita Africana,” was shown on British television in 2008. He is survived by three wives and 17 children. As he grew older, Mr. Sidibé stopped going to the parties, unable to blend in, but he remained sentimental about the era and the free and easy way that young Malians of all classes mingled on the dance floor. “I loved the music and the atmosphere, but above all I loved the dancers,” he told The Telegraph. “The moments when young people dance and play as though the stars belong to them — that’s what I loved the most. ”

Never mind that Iran continues to violate Obama s lopsided deal Senior Obama administration officials are expressing concern that congressional attempts to tighten laws preventing terrorists from entering the United States could violate the Iran nuclear agreement and prompt Tehran to walk away from the agreement.Congress is considering measures that would tighten the Visa Waiver Program to make it harder for potential terrorists to legally enter the United States by increasing restrictions on individuals who have travelled to countries with prominent terrorist organizations from bypassing security checks upon entering the United States.Iranian officials have in recent days repeatedly issued threatening statements to the Obama administration, saying that such moves would violate the nuclear agreement, and the Obama administration last week conveyed the Iranian anger to American lawmakers.Stephen Mull, the State Department official in charge of implementing the Iran deal, warned the Senate Foreign Relations Committee late last week that these congressional efforts could have a very negative impact on the deal. Under the revised law, which came in the week of a deadly terrorist attack in California, individuals who have travelled to Iran a lead sponsor of global terrorism would no longer be eligible to participate in the Visa Waiver Program, which permits individuals from 38 partner nations to more easily enter the United States.Congress remains concerned that gaps in the program could prevent federal law enforcement officials from detecting terror-tied individuals before they are granted entrance to U.S. soil.However, a portion of the Iran nuclear deal mandates that the United States not take any action that could harm Iran s economic relationships with other countries. Iranian officials maintain that the new restrictions violate this passage of the deal.Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran s parliament, said last week that these tightened measures are aimed at harassment and that they blatantly violate the nuclear agreement, according to comments carried by the Iranian state-controlled press.Larijani warned that this action will detonate the deal before it has even been implemented. If the Americans pursue the plan, they will destroy an achievement with their own hands since it is against the [nuclear deal] and it will trouble them, he warned.Rep. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) echoed these concerns last week when he questioned Mull during a Senate hearing.Visa waiver reform efforts include a naming of Iran such that individuals who have travelled to Iran will no loner be eligible for the visa waiver program, Murphy said. There has been a suggestion because there is an element of the agreement that obligates us to not to take steps that would stop economic relations between other nations and Iran that we could perhaps be in jeopardy of breaching the agreement. Mull agreed with this assessment. I have heard from very senior, and Secretary [of State John] Kerry has as well, from very senior officials of differing European allies of ours that it could have a very negative impact on the deal, he said.Sources working with Congress on the Iran deal criticized the Obama administration for attempting to stymie increased action on terrorism due to its desire to preserve the nuclear deal. According to the Obama administration s latest interpretation, the nuclear deal allows Iran to test ballistic missiles in violation of international law, but does not allow Congress to prevent terrorists from coming into the United States, Omri Ceren, the managing director of press and strategy at The Israel Project, a D.C.-based organization that works with journalists on Middle East issues, told the Washington Free Beacon.Seyed Araqchi, Iran s deputy foreign minister, also warned that Iran is prepared to take action against the United States for implementing visa restrictions.Iran s latest threat to break the deal comes amid numerous Iranian provocations, including multiple tests of advanced ballistic missiles, acts prohibited under United Nations Security Council resolutions.The Obama administration repeatedly said that, while it does not agree with those launches, they do not violate the nuclear deal.Via: WFB

@iSupportBJP @Indiaspeaks2014 Not tolerant. say If Hindus were not timid.......

CNN Announced: The Justice Department and Supreme Court will be covered by Justice and Supreme Court correspondent Pamela Brown, Justice correspondent Evan Perez, Justice reporter Laura Jarrett and Supreme Court reporter Ariane De Vogue.CNN continues to dig themselves deeper into radical territory VALERIE JARRETT RECENTLY WAS INTERVIEWED BY GRETA VAN SUSTEREN SHE HAS A NASTY ATTITUDE: In a really nasty exit interview, Jarrett hits at the Republicans like never before Check this quote out: what surprised me was the willingness of the Republicans in congress to put their short-term political interests ahead of what s good for the country . . . I thought they would come to the table and really try to work with us to focus on what we could do to move our country forward together. So it was disappointing and surprising that they didn t. Really??? The president s senior advisor forgets that the far left agenda Obama proposed was something the American people and their representatives rightly refused to support! What a slap in the face to anyone who has half a brain!

Read Also Read Also In the latest episode of Naagin 5 , Veer gets mad at Bani for killing his twin brother. Bani tells him she killed the twin thinking he is Veer, who killed Jay. Veer decides to seek revenge from Bani.Veer takes Bani to an aloof place to cremate his brother. He is angry at Bani for killing his innocent brother. The two return home, and Veer finds his father and brothers worried for him.Veer’s father feels they should kill Bani as she might have seen what she shouldn’t have. But Veer stops them from doing so. He tells her he plans to marry Bani. This makes Veer’s father and brothers upset. He leaves from there.Veer and Bani take pheras and get married. Both of them vow to take revenge from each other. Meanwhile, Veer’s father’s aide Shukla goes to the cheel temple and reveals that he was the one who killed Veer’s twin brother but unlike what he had anticipated Veer did not kill Bani, rather married her. He shares how this has landed Bani in trouble as she now won’t be able to distinguish who’s good and bad.Later, Bani goes to her Chacha and Chachi’s place. Veer accompanies her. Her Chachi is furious that she has married Veer, who was supposed to marry her daughter, Meera. She scolds her but then Veer distracts them by gifting them jewellery and other expensive items. Bani tells Meera about the circumstances under which she married Veer. The two hug each other and Bani leaves with Veer after taking her luggage.At the Singhania residence, Veer’s father and brothers welcome them. Veer whispers into her father’s ears that he has married Bani to seek revenge from her. Veer’s brothers misbehave with Bani but he stops them. After their grah-pravesh, Veer flirts with Bani but she warns him to not cross his limits. Veer then ties Bani and goes to attend the party organised by his brothers alone. Bani decides to kill one of Veer’s brothers the same night.

@scottkutach so are u saying Blacks are more prone to crime?

Of the Trump administration’s European travel restrictions that exempt the U.K.: “Well, you can just get into the Chunnel, and you’ll be in the U.K.”

McGinty previously told a local community newspaper in her native Philadelphia that she 'has found an alarming undercurrent of misinformed people in the 'T' part of the state' outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump views Germany as an important U.S. ally and gets along very well with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the White House said on Tuesday. Speaking at a news briefing after Trump intensified a dispute with Germany by calling Berlin’s trade and spending policies “very bad,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said: “They get along very well. He has a lot of respect for her. ... And he views not just Germany but the rest of Europe as an important American ally.”

The United States on Thursday began implementing restrictions to its Visa Waiver Program under a law passed after last year’s Paris attacks that makes it harder for citizens of some countries to visit. Several of the Islamic State attackers who killed 130 people in France held European passports that would have allowed them to easily enter the United States under the former system. Citizens of the 38, mainly European, countries in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program (VWP), who were previously able to travel to the United States for up to 90 days without a visa, must now obtain one if they have visited Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Syria since March 1, 2011. They must also obtain a visa if they are dual Iranian, Iraqi, Sudanese or Syrian nationals, the U.S. State Department said. Citizens from the 38 nations are required to obtain a travel authorization through the so-called Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) before coming to the United States. The State Department said that as of Thursday it would revoke the ESTA travel authorizations held by citizens from the 38 Visa Waiver Program countries if they are dual Iranian, Iraqi, Sudanese or Syrian citizens. However, it noted that under the new law the U.S. secretary of homeland security has the authority to issue waivers to the restrictions on law enforcement or national security grounds. People who could be eligible for a waiver include those who visited Iran, Iraq, Sudan or Syria on behalf of international organizations or humanitarian groups, or journalists who carried out reporting in the four countries. They may also include people who traveled for legitimate business reasons to Iraq or to Iran following the July 14, 2015 nuclear agreement. The Visa Waiver Program nations are Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and United Kingdom.

Dem Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz Pakistani IT staffer Imran Awan was arrested at Dulles airport while trying to flee the United States. Get the back story from Maria Bartiromo: How is it possible that 3 brothers are hired, Muslim brothers just saying, to work in Congress and deal with our most intelligent and sensitive information, number one? They were all making $160,000! Why were they paid so much? 22 years old one of the guys, the other was 25. They re making $160,000, $161,000 and $165,000. And one of them has a criminal background! If you haven t been following this crazy series of events, we ve got a previous report below to fill you in. Basically, Imran Awan and three Muslim relatives were hired to handle IT for the DNC which gave them access to lots of sensitive information NOT GOOD! The Daily Caller just exclusively reported that Awan attempted to destroy hard drives then desperately tried to retrieve them when they were discovered.GETTING THOSE DESTROYED HARD RIVES BACK:Pakistani-born Imran Awan, long-time right-hand IT aide to the former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairwoman, has since desperately tried to get the hard drives back, the individual told The Daily Caller News Foundation s Investigative Group.A high-level congressional source, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the probe, confirmed that the FBI has joined what Politico previously described as a Capitol Police criminal probe into serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network by Imran and three of his relatives, who had access to the emails and files of the more than two dozen House Democrats who employed them on a part-time basis.Capitol Police have also seized computer equipment tied to the Florida lawmaker.Awan s younger brothers, Abid and Jamal, his wife, Hina Alvi, and Rao Abbas, Imran s best friend, are also under investigation. There have been no arrests in the case.THIS CASE IS HUGE! MARIA BARTIROMO IS LIVID ABOUT IT:A Pakistani family under criminal investigation by the U.S. Capitol Police (see our previous report below) for abusing their access to the House of Representatives information technology (IT) system may have engaged in myriad other questionable schemes besides allegedly placing ghost employees on the congressional payroll.Imran Awan, his wife Hina, and brothers Abid and Jamal collectively netted more than $4 million in salary as IT administrators for House Democrats between 2009 and 2017. Yet the absence of signs of wealth displayed among them raise questions such as was the money sent overseas or did something other than paychecks motivate their actions?Capitol Police revoked the Awans access to the congressional IT system in February 2017 after a major data breach was detected. Their access had allowed them to read emails and files of dozens of members, including many serving on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.OUR PREVIOUS REPORT ON THIS THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA IS IGNORING THE CRIMINALITY OF THESE BROTHERS:3 MUSLIM BROTHERS Working For Dems In Congress CAUGHT Accessing Unauthorized Top-Secret Government Intel One Has Criminal Background May Have Ties To Muslim Brotherhood [VIDEO]3 Congressional IT employees have been fired for accessing members computer networks without permission. Maria s on the show, knows more about this. Can you fill me in a bit.Here are their names Stuart. let me tell you what the 3 people that were fired on Thursday: Abid, Imran and Jamal Awan. They were barred from computer networks at the House of Representatives on Thursday because they accessed Congressmen and Congress people s computer networks unauthorized. At a minimum they were fired. At a minimum we know that they accessed computers unauthorized and they did so in foreign intelligence, foreign affairs and intelligence committees. Okay? So they were getting very important information, government information. They accessed these computers. That is the least of it. There s also some talk that people are looking into what ties they have into terrorism. Are they impacted by the Muslim Brotherhood? Are they a part of the Muslim Brotherhood? One of them has a criminal background!How is it possible that 3 brothers are hired, Muslim brothers just saying, to work in Congress and deal with our most intelligent and sensitive information, number one? They were all making $160,000! Why were they paid so much? 22 years old one of the guys, the other was 25. They re making $160,000, $161,000 and $165,000. And one of them has a criminal background! I hear what you re saying, I mean, these intelligence committees handle our terror strategies right? They got in on Benghazi by the way.Yes, and they also worked for many Democrats in the House. They are thinking that they may be also one of the reasons Debbie Wasserman Schultz got hacked. There s so much more to come on this Stuart, it s an incredible story. I think it s amazing!Chiefs of staff for dozens of Democratic lawmakers who employed the four were informed last week that a criminal probe was underway into their use of congressional information technology systems, including the existence of an external server to which House data was being funneled, and into the theft of and overbilling for computer equipment.Their salaries and time were shared among dozens of Democratic members, including former Democratic National Committee Chairman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida.Chiefs of staff for dozens of Democratic lawmakers who employed the four were informed last week that a criminal probe was underway into their use of congressional information technology systems, including the existence of an external server to which House data was being funneled, and into the theft of and overbilling for computer equipment.Despite the generous salaries, the four were involved in multiple suspicious mortgage transfers and a debt-evading bankruptcy. Abid had more than $1 million in debts following a failed business called Cars International that he ran in Falls Church, Va., from November 2009 to September 2010. Business associates said in court documents that Abid had stolen money and vehicles from them.It s unclear how Abid found time to run an automotive business while working full-time for Congress. He had been on the congressional payroll since 2005. A congressional credit union repossessed two of his personal cars before the business folded.Abid filed for bankruptcy in 2012, but somehow managed to keep ownership of two houses while telling the bankruptcy court and creditors that he had no assets with which to pay them. He signed a sworn statement that he and his wife, Natalia Soba, were living apart and needed separate residences. My spouse and I are legally separated under applicable non-bankruptcy law or my spouse and I are living apart other than for the purpose of evading the requirements of 707(b)(2)(A) of the Bankruptcy Code, Abid claimed in bankruptcy documents. But both houses had been in the family for years.Abid s record includes numerous driving- and alcohol-related legal problems, including driving with a suspended or revoked license, court records show. He was found guilty of drunk driving a month before he started at the House, and was arrested for public intoxication a month after his first day.A spokesman for Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas told TheDCNF Friday that Jamal s employment with our office has been terminated. Hilarie Chambers, a spokeswoman for Rep. Sandy Levin who employed Abid told TheDCNF that after being notified by the House Administration Committee, this individual was removed from our payroll. We are confident that everything in our office is secure. Not every Democrat is willing to terminate their connection with these four:Some Democrats have not terminated their connection with the four, including Wasserman Schultz, who employs Imran and who resigned from her DNC post last year after a computer hack revealed embarassing emails. Derrick Robinson, spokesman for California Rep. Karen Bass, refused to comment on Alvi s employment status.For entire story: Daily Caller

Says legislation supported by gay rights activists would strip mother and father from future Texas birth certificates.

My friend Torey just said ALL his local news channels have been blacked out too. OMG #Ferguson this is why there is a "No Fly Zone" order!!

The CEO of Ford Motor Company, Mark Fields, praised Donald Trump for working to restore American manufacturing after his meeting at the White House with top auto executives on Tuesday morning. [“I think as an industry, we’re excited about working together with the president and his administration on tax policies, on regulation, and on trade to really create a renaissance in American manufacturing,” Fields told reporters after the meeting, according to the Detroit News. Fields also praised Trump’s decision to kill former President Obama’s Partnership trade deal, pointing out that it failed to address currency manipulation. “We’ve been very vocal both as an industry and as a company, and we’ve repeatedly said that the mother of all trade barriers is currency manipulation, and TPP failed in meaningfully dealing with that, and we appreciate the president’s courage to walk away from a bad trade deal,” Fields said.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani sacked the chairman of the country s Independent Election Commission on Wednesday, raising doubts over whether parliamentary and council ballots scheduled for next year will take place as planned. Najibullah Ahmadzai, head of the body charged with organizing the elections, had faced growing pressure following repeated delays to preparations for them and had lost the support of both Ghani and disillusioned foreign donors. The 2018 votes are seen as dry runs for a presidential election in 2019 and a key test of the progress made by Afghanistan s Western-backed government towards establishing durable democratic institutions. Following a contentious presidential election in 2014, marred by allegations of massive voter fraud on both sides, international donor countries have laid heavy emphasis on the need for successful elections next year. But planning has been beset by a mix of technical and political problems that have made the officially scheduled date of July 2018 increasingly unrealistic. Five members of the seven-member IEC wrote to Ghani this week accusing Ahmadzai of was incompetence. Ambitious plans for a biometric voter registration system had to be abandoned and squabbling between members of parliament and Ghani s fragile National Unity Government over issues including who sits on the election commission have caused months of delay. The problems underline the fragility of the political institutions created in Afghanistan since a U.S.-led campaign brought down the Taliban in 2001. The bitter 2014 presidential election produced no agreed winner and led to a U.S.-brokered deal which saw former rivals Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah forced into an uneasy coalition that has struggled to win popular support. District council elections have never been held, despite being mandated in the 2004 constitution, while the current parliament s term was supposed to end in June 2015 but has been extended due to the difficulty of holding new elections. Last month, officials from international partners including the United Nations told the Afghan government that even under the most favorable conditions, the earliest date on which an election could feasibly be held was Oct. 2018. Many Western diplomats believe even that date is impossible. If not ready by October, Afghanistan s mountainous terrain, bad roads and lack of security mean that registering voters and setting up balloting stations across the country are likely to face severe delays over the winter months, potentially pushing the date into the following year.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia will extend its Pacific Islands migrant labor program and fly aerial surveillance missions to protect valuable Pacific fisheries, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said at the Pacific Island Leaders Forum. The meeting, held in Apia, Samoa, brought 17 Pacific Island nations plus Australia and New Zealand to the negotiating table. The new agreement helps tiny low-income Pacific Island nations by giving them access to Australia s large and developed economy, with migrant workers repatriating funds via overseas remittances. The per capita gross national incomes of 11 countries in the region range from $1,540 for the Solomon Islands to $13,496 for Palau, according to World Bank figures, while Australian workers earn an average yearly salary of more than $64,000. Australia s population of 24 million people is highly urbanized, leading to labor shortages in rural areas. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull signed an agreement on Friday to allow 2,000 Islanders to work in rural areas over the next three years, adding to an existing seasonal worker program which supplies agricultural labor. The micro-nations of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu will have first access to the scheme, which will allow workers to engage in non-farm work such as care of the elderly. The World Bank said it was in Australia s interests to encourage stability. Aid dependency in the region is high, and reliance on aid alone is an unbalanced strategy. By improving employment prospects and increasing remittance flows, labor mobility helps stabilize otherwise fragile states, it said in a new report, Pacific Possible, released at the forum. The report said the Pacific region had the potential to create more than 500,000 new jobs and increase incomes by more than 40 percent by 2040, if they focused on developing key areas such as tourism and fisheries. The western and central Pacific Ocean covers about 8 percent of the world s ocean mass and contains the last healthy tuna stocks, supplying 60 percent of the world s tuna, the report said. Australia has agreed to fund aerial surveillance for Pacific Island member states to combat illegal fishing, with the planes to be in the air by the end of this year.

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Don’t need Twitter to explain what @anuragkashyap72 means to many of us. As a woman, am here to share my journey… https://t.co/Fb7IRVaPLj — Guneet Monga (@guneetm) 1600604086000 Read Also Filmmaker Guneet Monga becomes the latest one to join the bandwagon of people supporting Anurag Kashyap against the #MeToo allegation leveled against him by Payal Ghosh . Guneet took to her Twitter handle to share her journey with the filmmaker. Stating that she doesn’t need twitter to explain what Anurag Kashyap means to many of them, Guneet Monga went on to share the experience and journey she had with the filmmaker. She also hopes that the claim will be duly investigated.She captioned her post as, ‘Don’t need Twitter to explain what @anuragkashyap72 means to many of us. As a woman, am here to share my journey & definitely here to call out bullshit. Let’s not ruin an important #Metoo movement for some agendas!’Apart from her, Bollywood actors and filmmakers like Taapsee Pannu, Tisca Chopra, Anubhav Sinha, Hansal Mehta and others have lent their support to Kashyap on social media. Anurag’s first wife Aarti Bajaj also took to her Instagram handle to pen a supportive note for the director.Payal, in her allegation, has stated that Anurag Kashyap molested her and treated her badly at his house in 2014. Although she wanted to raise her voice then, she was afraid of the consequences. She has now finally gathered the courage to speak out against the filmmaker.According to her lawyer, the actress will be filing an official police complaint against Kashyap at Oshiwara Police station in Mumbai on September 21.

Three attorneys general on Tuesday directly challenged Volkswagen’s defense over its emissions deception, calling the decision to thwart pollution tests an orchestrated fraud that lasted more than a decade, involved dozens of engineers and managers and reached deep into the company’s boardroom. The accusations, leveled in lawsuits by New York, Massachusetts and Maryland, contradict Volkswagen’s portrayal of the deception, representing a new threat to the carmaker’s finances, reputation and management. For the first time, the suits connected Volkswagen’s chief executive, Matthias Müller, to the scandal, saying he was aware of a 2006 decision to not outfit Audi vehicles with equipment needed to meet American standards. Volkswagen, which admitted late last year to equipping 11 million vehicles worldwide with software to cheat emissions tests, has maintained that the deception was limited to a small group of people. The company has said top management was not aware of the cheating software, known as a defeat device. But the New York civil complaint, drawing on internal Volkswagen documents, emails and witness statements, depicts a corporate culture that allowed a “willful and systematic scheme of cheating. ” The evidence paints the most detailed picture yet about how the deception unfolded and who was responsible. The suits identified six different defeat devices, saying the deception was an “iterative process” that started with an Audi model. They described the device as a measure, because meeting American emissions standards would have required an overhaul of the vehicles. The suits stopped short of accusing Mr. Müller of having specific knowledge of the devices. At the time of the 2006 decision, Mr. Müller was head of project management at Audi, Volkswagen’s luxury car division. He became chief executive of Volkswagen in September, replacing Martin Winterkorn, who resigned days after the Environmental Protection Agency accused the company of the diesel deception that month. “The idea that this level of fraud could take place and involve so many people at such high levels of a major international corporation is appalling,” Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, said at a news conference in New York, describing what he called “a cunningly cynical fraud at the heart of this scandal. ” He was joined by the attorney general for Massachusetts, Maura Healey. The suits claim that the company made false statements to regulators and broke laws requiring cars to have approved pollution control systems Mr. Müller and Mr. Winterkorn have previously denied any involvement in the wrongdoing. “There is no credible evidence to support the allegation regarding Matthias Müller,” a Volkswagen spokeswoman, Jeannine Ginivan, said in an emailed statement. “It does not bear scrutiny. ” The potential blowback for Volkswagen could be costly. The company last month agreed to pay nearly $15 billion, a record, to settle claims in the United States by Volkswagen owners and regulators. But the settlement did not resolve what penalties might be imposed on Volkswagen, leaving room for additional suits. New York said Volkswagen was exposed to state penalties of over $500 million. Suits from Maryland, Massachusetts and other states that might follow will add substantially to that sum. The company is also dealing with criminal investigations and shareholder lawsuits around the world. The United States Justice Department said it was still pursuing a criminal inquiry. Volkswagen, Ms. Ginivan said, was already discussing a comprehensive resolution that would settle environmental issues nationwide and had already addressed many of the accusations with federal authorities. “It is regrettable that some states have decided to sue for environmental claims now,” she said. The complaints break the silence that prevailed in Germany and the United States about the genesis of the scandal and who was involved. The New York complaint claims that more than two dozen Volkswagen engineers and managers were involved in the deception, including Wolfgang Hatz, the former head of engine and transmission development at Volkswagen and Audi Ulrich Hackenberg, former head of development for Audi and Neusser, former head of development for the Volkswagen brand. While several executives have been identified by the media, German prosecutors, because of the country’s strict privacy laws, have named only one suspect, Mr. Winterkorn. The suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court in Albany, also criticized Volkswagen’s supervisory board for awarding 63 million euros (about $70 million) in salary and bonuses to Mr. Müller and other members of the management board last year. “Recent actions,” the complaint said, “demonstrate that the company’s culture that incentivizes cheating and denies accountability comes from the very top and, even now, remains unchecked. ” The deception, the complaint described, spanned more than a decade. While scrutiny has focused on the Volkswagen brand, the use of defeat devices was pioneered by Audi, according to the complaint. Engineers at Audi developed a way to eliminate the clattering sound that diesel engines tend to make after starting. But the solution increased pollution to impermissible levels. So Audi in 2004 programmed its diesels in Europe to turn off the noise reduction technology when software recognized that the cars were undergoing emissions tests, the complaint said. The defeat device was euphemistically labeled the “acoustic function. ” The same software was later adapted for a new generation of diesel motors that could not meet American emissions standards. The New York complaint is the first to explicitly present evidence that top managers, at the very least, were aware of the engineering problems that led to the use of defeat devices. According to the New York suit, Mr. Müller and Mr. Winterkorn were informed in 2006 that Audis with diesel engines needed additional equipment to meet American standards. Specifically, they needed a larger tank to hold the chemical solution used to neutralize nitrogen oxide emissions in the exhaust. But Volkswagen and Audi, the complaint said, did not want to spend the money necessary to redesign the cars. Instead, the company decided to deploy defeat devices. Both Mr. Winterkorn and Mr. Müller held senior positions at the Audi unit at the time. Documents used as evidence refer to “H. Müller,” according to the complaint. An Audi executive told investigators that was a reference to Matthias Müller, the current chief executive, the suit said. The New York suit also takes aim at executives’ claims that they were ignorant of the defeat devices, citing their behavior when the threat of exposure loomed. In early 2014, engineers at West Virginia University published a study in which two unidentified diesel cars were found to have emitted up to 40 times as much pollution on highways as they did under laboratory conditions. Inside Volkswagen, there was widespread alarm, the complaint said. After it became clear that the cars in the study were Volkswagens — a 2012 Jetta and a 2013 Passat — company engineers in the United States were bombarded with requests for information by senior managers, including a management board member, Christian Klingler. He has since left Volkswagen for reasons the company said were not related to the scandal. Over the next 17 months, Volkswagen embarked on a campaign to “mislead and confuse” regulators and the public, according to the complaint. In a conference call with California regulators in October 2014, Volkswagen officials “cited phony technical explanations for high emissions,” the suit said. After learning in May 2015 that California regulators planned to conduct more thorough tests of Volkswagen diesels, executives’ emails “began to reflect desperation and panic,” the complaint said. One executive, facing questions from suspicious California officials, wrote to “Come up with the story, please!” “This is an example of a company that not only engaged in deception and fraud on a brazen scale but covered up that deception,” Ms. Healey, the Massachusetts attorney general, said at the news conference. The conduct “reflects a corporate culture that had no regard for the law, no respect for the American people and no regard for the environment or people’s health. ”

Stephen Colbert Doesn’t Let Billy Bush Off the Hook

A judge at Leicester Crown Court praised a van driver who deliberately mounted a pavement and ran down five men during Ramadan as “a good family man” who was behaving “completely out of character”. [According to a report in the Daily Mirror newspaper, Lugman Aslam, of Warren View, Leicester, had gotten into a physical altercation with the men after backing his van into one of them, during which he alleged he was racially abused. Recorder (circuit judge) Justin Wigoder described how, following this incident, a vengeful Aslam returned to his van, mounted the pavement and ploughed through the group, in order to “get [his] own back”. “I’ve seen it on CCTV and you deliberately mounted the pavement and drove straight at them and right through the middle of them at speed,” Wigoder said. “Some were thrown to the side and three were struck by your vehicle with one going over the bonnet and hitting the windscreen. “It’s quite remarkable that nobody was seriously hurt or killed and the only injuries complained of were bruises and scratches. “One indication of the force of the collision was your windscreen was smashed — you claimed it had been hit by an animal when you got it repaired. “You accept your intention, driving at them, was to cause serious injury and that’s what makes this case so serious. “The motivation was driving at them to get your revenge, to get your own back from the fact they’d assaulted you. ” However, the judge then went on to say that he accepted the potentially deadly attack “was completely out of character” for the perpetrator, whom he praised as “a good family man” with glowing references. “You’re of very positive good previous character and I’ve received a considerable number of references setting out all the good that is in you,” he said. Nadeem Aullybocus, defending, explained that Aslam “was fasting [for Ramadan] on that day and had been doing so for about 20 days” when he carried out the attack. He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and attempting to inflict intentional grievous bodily harm, and ultimately received a sentence and a year driving ban. With the automatic parole provisions in the Criminal Justice Act 2003, it is unlikely he will serve more than half of his prison term in custody. The relatively light sentence follows a number of deadly attacks on pedestrians in Britain and Europe, including the Westminster Bridge attack on March 22nd and the London Bridge attack on June 3rd.

Newly released video captured by an Arizona police officer’s body camera captures the chilling moment when a deranged suspect drew a gun and fired the bullet that killed the officer last month. Rookie Flagstaff Police Officer Tyler Stewart’s camera caught the entire, deadly encounter with Robert Smith, whose girlfriend had called police on Dec. 27 to report he had trashed her apartment. The video, released by the police department in response to Freedom of Information Act requests, begins with Stewart getting out of his squad car and ends with Smith pointing the gun at him and firing. Smith then shot himself dead, and Stewart, who was 24, later died at a hospital. "Officer Stewart was murdered by Smith without any provocation or warning," Sgt. Margaret Bentzen told the Arizona Daily Sun. "There were no homicidal or suicidal indications from Smith prior to the crime." The frightening, 14-minute video comes as the Justice Department is encouraging police departments around the nation to invest in the body cameras following high-profile cases in which police have been criticized, including last August’s police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Stewart and Smith speak outside Smith's Flagstaff home on Dec. 27 for about three minutes as Smith stands with his hands in his jacket pockets. When Stewart asks him if he has any weapons on him, Smith replies, “No, sir. I'm just cold,” and says he only has “smokes” in his pocket. Stewart then calmly asks if he can check Smith for weapons. When he reaches toward him, Smith draws a .22-caliber revolver from his right pocket and fires six times at Stewart. Five shots hit Strewart, four in the head and one in the lower back. One of Smith's roommates told police that Smith had been contemplating suicide, according to police reports. Stewart had gone to Smith’s girlfriend’s home earlier, but the man who would later kill him was gone. The cop then went to Smith's home, where his roommate said Smith had fled, according to a police report. Records indicate that about an hour later, at 12.30 p.m., Smith called the Flagstaff Police Department and left a message for Stewart, who then went back to Smith’s home where the fatal encounter took place. “This is an enormous tragedy for our department and the family of our officer,” Flagstaff Police Chief Kevin Treadway told AZ Central. “We are a very close-knit organization, and know that all members of the Flagstaff Police Department are grieving at this time.” Release of the frightening footage raises questions about balancing the public's right to know against privacy concerns of police officers and their families, according to Levi Bolton Jr., executive director of the 14,000-member Arizona Police Association. On Wednesday, Bolton met with state lawmakers to discuss the cameras and how best to handle disclosure of footage that may show innocent bystanders, undercover police or informants or, as in Stewart's case, the final moments of an officer's life. "We are currently crafting or looking at legislation that may very well discuss this," Bolton told reporters. "We acknowledge that the public and the media should have access to this information." A fund to help Stewart's family has been established and those wishing to donate can do so at any Wells Fargo Bank, according to the Flagstaff Police Department. The account number is 7764473984.

(CNN) - As he considers another run for the White House, Rick Santorum is reaching out to working-class voters, bucking the GOP on the minimum wage and touting his new book in hopes of rebranding the Republican Party. In an interview with CNN's Candy Crowley that aired Sunday on "State of the Union," the former senator from Pennsylvania and 2012 Republican presidential candidate was candid on the possibility of launching another White House bid in 2016. 2016: "I'm looking at it" Santorum wouldn't throw his support behind a specific Republican on a list of possible 2016 White House contenders but admitted that he wrote his new book "Blue-Collar Conservatives" in part because he's considering launching another campaign. "I'm looking for candidates who connect with average voters," he said. "Someone who has a heart and an understanding of those difficult times those voters are going through, and whether it's Rick Santorum or somebody else - it's someone who has that appeal and connection. "I put this book out there because I'm looking at it - whether other people join in; I hope they do. I've been talking to a lot of candidates across the country, saying, ‘you really need to look at this book and take the opportunity that's present right now to create a new image for this party. It doesn't have a very good one right now,’ " Santorum added. One issue that could create conflict between Republicans and average Americans is their opposition to increasing the minimum wage. Dems seek to rally base over GOP's block of minimum wage bill The Senate voted last month on raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, but the bill failed to garner the 60 votes needed to pass. Only one Republican voted for the measure. Santorum joins 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty as Republicans who have come out in favor of some sort of increase. But Santorum, who long voted for minimum wage increases in his time in Congress, was quick to draw a distinction between his views on the issue and those of his former GOP presidential rival. "I think Romney came out in favor of President Obama's increase. I'm not in favor of President Obama's increase. When I was in the Senate and when I was in the House, I did vote for minimum wage increases that were incremental," he said. Asked by Crowley whether Republicans’ opposition to minimum wage increases will hurt the party's image among working-class voters, Santorum said it does and cautioned that lawmakers "need to be reasonable about it and offer an alternative." The most recent polls on the issue indicate that a strong majority of Americans supports raising the minimum wage, with Republicans mostly divided on the issue. Watch State of the Union with Candy Crowley Sundays at 9am ET. For the latest from State of the Union click here.

Much of Anne Fontaine’s blistering film “The Innocents” is set within the walls of a Polish convent in December 1945, just after the end of World War II. What at first appears to be an austere, holy retreat from surrounding horrors is revealed to be a savagely violated sanctuary awash in fear, trauma and shame. The forested landscape of the convent is photographed to suggest an ominous frontier that offers no refuge from marauding outsiders. The central character, Mathilde (Lou de Laâge, of “Breathe”) is a young doctor caring for French soldiers in a Red Cross hospital. One day, a young nun appears and pleads with Mathilde to make an emergency visit to a Benedictine convent to save the life of a sister who lies gravely ill. Defying hospital protocol, Mathilde slips away to the convent, where she discovers a pregnant novice in the throes of labor. Mathilde delivers the baby by cesarean section but is sworn to secrecy by the fearful Mother Abbess (Agata Kulesza, of “Ida”) who is terrified lest the news of a pregnant nun tarnish the convent’s reputation. Mathilde, a nonbeliever, learns that several months earlier, Soviet soldiers occupying Poland stormed the convent and repeatedly raped the nuns, leaving many pregnant. Mathilde agrees to return and assist in the deliveries of their babies. “The Innocents” is based on real events, recounted in notes by Madeleine Pauliac, a Red Cross doctor on whom Mathilde is based. Ms. Fontaine (“Coco Before Chanel,” “Gemma Bovery”) who extensively researched these atrocities and spent time in two Benedictine convents, writes in the production notes that the soldiers felt no sense of wrongdoing, because they were encouraged by their superiors to commit these crimes as a reward for their hard work on the battlefield. While driving back to the hospital, Mathilde is intercepted at a Soviet checkpoint and pounced on by soldiers, one of whom announces, “She wants all of us!” Were the assault not interrupted by a senior officer, the scene would be unwatchable. “The Innocents” weaves several narrative strands into a complex of themes that sometimes pull against one another. Mathilde, serenely acted by Ms. de Laâge, is a beautiful, preternaturally wise and compassionate young woman: a modern heroine undaunted by the horrors of the world. When a band of soldiers returns to the convent while she is there, her quick thinking saves the nuns from another harrowing round of assaults. The movie gives her a story in her affair with a medical supervisor, Samuel (Vincent Macaigne) a soulful Jewish doctor. The screenplay (by Ms. Fontaine, Pascal Bonitzer, Sabrina B. Karine and Alice Vial, working from a concept by Philippe Maynial) depicts the relationship as a friendly romance of convenience by two lonely, overstressed people who may never meet again. When Mathilde returns to the convent, he accompanies her, and they work as a team to deliver the remaining babies. The film takes care to distinguish the sisters from one another in their responses to a kind of brutality that the most naïve among them couldn’t have imagined. Those with more worldly backgrounds are better able to cope. “The Innocents” resists the temptation to wallow in sentiment as the nuns give birth, and images of new mothers cuddling their newborns are kept to a minimum. What you feel is their agony, terror and confusion. But the film surrenders to convention once a solution is found for the care of the little ones. It is a soggy end to an otherwise tough, troubling film whose images of brutality and helplessness are hard to shake. “The Innocents” is most interested in exploring how the atrocities test the sisters’ religious faith. As more of them give birth, the movie creates a complex group portrait. To a degree, Maria (Agata Buzek) the sister who showed up at the hospital begging for help, speaks for all of them when she describes the challenges and rewards of belief and as “24 hours of doubt for one minute of hope. ” The most complicated and compelling character is the severe Mother Abbess, who faces an excruciating choice between saving a baby’s life and risking disgrace, or abandoning the infant. Ms. Kulesza’s anguished performance conveys the weight of an almost unbearable choice, which she believes condemns her to eternal damnation. “The Innocents” is rated (Parents strongly cautioned) for a scene of sexual assault and some bloody images. It is in French and Polish, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes.

after this october surprise donald trump only has one option left expose the clinton crimes michael on television democrats are now calling for a revolution in the streets and i believe that they are quite serious by michael snyder on november th the surprise victory by donald trump on november th has spawned a series of violent protests and riots all over the nation as stunned leftists continue to throw the largest postelection temper tantrum in us history protesters in large cities all across america have been disrupting public transportation looting stores hurling objects at the police and burning trump in effigy there have even been shootings at antitrump rallies in seattle and in portland hundreds of protesters have been arrested so far and organizers are promising that this is only just the beginning meanwhile large numbers of enraged leftists are physically threatening trump on twitter and some are even calling for a violent revolution sadly i believe that they are quite serious about this even some big celebrity names are starting to use the word revolution in messages to their followers on twitter katy perry has ominously warned that the revolution is coming and comedian sarah silverman has boldly declared that trump gets a chance to hear us or else we r them if he fails revolution in the streets of course other leftists are seeking less violent ways to oppose trump there is a major push to use the electoral college to block a trump presidency if that fails there are many hoping to immediately impeach trump once he takes office and other activists such as former labor secretary robert reich are calling for a new third party if their planned postelection takeover of the democratic party is not successful but for many on the radical left the time for patience is over the not my president movement is taking off like a rocket and one survey found that only percent of all clinton supporters consider trumps victory to be legitimate a protest near trump tower in new york city on saturday drew approximately people and usa today reported that the antitrump protest in portland oregon on saturday night rapidly devolved into a riot it is becoming clear that these protests are not going away any time soon and some are even beginning to refer to this movement as the purple revolution no sooner had trump been declared the th president of the united states sorosfunded political operations launched their activities to disrupt trump during obamas lameduck period and thereafter the swiftness of the purple revolution is reminiscent of the speed at which protesters hit the streets of kiev the ukrainian capital in two orange revolutions sponsored by soros one in and the other ten years later in as the clintons were embracing purple in new york street demonstrations some violent all coordinated by the sorosfunded moveonorg and black lives matter broke out in new york los angeles chicago oakland nashville cleveland washington austin seattle philadelphia richmond st paul kansas city omaha san francisco and some other cities across the united states so could we actually see a violent revolution on the streets of america is the radical left really so horrified by the prospect of a trump presidency that they would actually be willing to engage in a prolonged campaign of chaos violence and physical intimidation well the oath keepers are so concerned about what this movement could become that they have initiated an intelligence gathering operation that they are calling operation hypo clearly as oath keepers we cannot simply sit around and watch while the enemies of liberty work to use violence to initiate a communist revolution in our country as a result of the intelligence being provided by our operation sabot operatives we have initiated operation hypo we have allowed our personnel to burrow deep inside these protest organizations to collect information regarding tactics motivations schedules and logistics we had operatives at the planning meetings for the protests that occurred last evening in baltimore md and philadelphia pa our operatives have also penetrated numerous other planning organizations in cities across the country for opsec reasons the precise list of cities we are operating in will not be publicly disclosed and one thing that we already know is that the radical left is hoping to organize the largest political protest in united states history in washington dc on inauguration day i will be writing about this later today on the most important news the election of donald trump has been the single most galvanizing event for the radical left that we have seen in decades one of the early leaders of the not my president movement is filmmaker michael moore and the following are three of his key action points which he feels must be implemented immediately must quickly and decisively form an opposition movement the likes of which hasnt been seen since the s i will do my part to help lead this as im sure many others bernie elizabeth warren moveon the hiphop community dfa etc will too the core of this opposition force will be fueled by young people who as with occupy wall street and black lives matter dont tolerate bs and are relentless in their resistance to authority they have no interest in compromising with racists and misogynists prepare to impeach trump just as the republicans were already planning to do with president hillary from day one we must organize the apparatus that will bring charges against him when he violates his oath and breaks the law and then we must remove him from office must commit right now to a vigorous fight including civil disobedience if necessarywhich will block any and all donald trump supreme court nominees who do not meet our approval we demand the democrats in the senate aggressively filibuster any nominees who support citizens united or who oppose the rights of women immigrants and the poor this is nonnegotiable but of course other liberals are still in the shock and disbelief stage as i have stated before americans were more emotionally invested in this election than they had been in any election in decades and the aftermath has not been pretty this has been particularly true on college campuses all over the nation according to the new york post college administrators have been going to extraordinary lengths to soothe the deep emotional pain that many of their students are experiencing ?the university of michigan offered its traumatized students coloring books and playdoh to calm them are its students in college or kindergarten ?the university of kansas reminded its stressedout kids that therapy dogs a regular campus feature were available ?cornell university an ivy league school held a campuswide cryin with officials handing out tissues and hot chocolate ?tufts university offered its devastated students arts and crafts sessions ok not kindergarten more like summer camp ?at campuses from elite yale to connecticut to iowa and beyond professors canceled classes andor exams either because students asked or because instructors were too distraught to teach and it is also being reported that suicide hotlines are ringing off the hook all over the nation we have never seen anything like this ever before and i have a feeling that this not my president movement is going to absolutely dwarf the occupy wall street and black lives matter movements and considering the very high levels of anger frustration and pain that these radical leftists are feeling it is easy to see how this movement could become very violent many patriots conservatives and christians were hoping that donald trump could bring america together and lead us into a new era of peace and prosperity but the radical left already hates trump more than any president that has ever come before him it isnt going to take much to push the radical left over the edge and if that happens we could see endless chaos violence and civil unrest for the next four years

Clinton, in an appearance on "The Tonight Show," agreed that she and Sanders are "in a tight race," a fact that she finds "pretty exciting." After noting she and Sanders are close, host Jimmy Fallon reminded Clinton that she once "had a 20-point lead at one point." "That is really artificial, all of those early soundings and polls," Clinton said. "Once you get into it, this is a Democratic election for our nominee and it gets really close, exciting. And it really depends upon on who can make the best case that you can be the nominee to beat whoever the Republicans put up and try to get your folks who support you to come out." She added, "I find it pretty exciting. This is not a job they give away. You really do have to work hard for. It is the hardest job in the world, so, I get up everyday and go right at it." In mid-2015, as both Sanders and Clinton launched their respective campaigns, polls showed the former secretary of state with leads as high as 60 points nationally In the last week, however, Sanders has begun to close Clinton's lead in national and early state polls. A New York Times/CBS Poll found Clinton's national lead at 7 percentage points. Clinton's interview with Fallon was her second appearance on "The Tonight Show" as a presidential candidate and came on the same night as the Fox Business Network hosted a Republican debate. The former secretary of state told Fallon that she usually doesn't watch the debates live because she loves "to be able to fast forward" through them. Fallon said the Republican candidates "might say something bad about" Clinton during the debate, suggesting she should "have a drinking game where every time they say your name you do a shot." "I don't think I would make it past the first half hour," Clinton remarked. Fallon also goaded Clinton into a comment on Donald Trump by telling the former senator that the Republican front-runner has been talking about her on the campaign trail. Clinton's response: "He is a lot more obsessed with me than I am with him." Clinton and Fallon closed the appearance by carrying out a mock interview, with Fallon acting like he was interviewing Clinton for the president of the United States. "How did you hear about the position," Fallon asked. "Are you willing to relocate," Fallon followed up. "For the right job, I am," Clinton responded. And Fallon's final question: "Lastly, is there an email address (where) we can reach you?" Clinton's response: "You can follow me on Snapchat."

A few days ago, under the headline, “The Department of Homeland Security Takes on President Trump,” Virgil took note of a leak from the department, observing that the Deep State is “Always doing something . . . to undermine the Trump administration. ”[Now, thanks to another leak from DHS, it’s time for an update: On March 2, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow had a scoop — paid for, of course, by American taxpayers. Media Matters for America, the lefty outfit founded by David Brock, wrote up the segment under the headline, “Rachel Maddow Exclusive Debunks ‘Extreme Vetting’ Propaganda Of Muslim Ban. ” Maddow begins by saying, “Now tonight, we have got this, this is another leaked report. ” It was a document dated March 1, apparently written by DHS’ Office of Intelligence and Analysis. Maddow pointed to a graphic of the document, highlighting the words “for official use only. ” In other words, the viewer was getting the good stuff. Further describing the paper, she added: It was coordinated with Customs and Border Protection, State Department, Immigration and Customs Enforcement — ICE, National Counterterrorism Center, and the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. The immediate question that comes to mind, of course, is: Is the paper for real? Could it be a fake? Maddow said it was genuine: I’m not going to tell you how we got it, but the Department of Homeland Security has tonight confirmed to us that this is authentic, that this is real. Here Virgil might pause to make a point: He finds it curious that DHS would be in such a hurry to confirm the document’s authenticity. Did the people, having been contacted by Maddow, demand to see the original so that they could study it, word for word? After all, it’s possible to imagine that it could have been a hybrid document — that is, part real, part fake, with, maybe, some sneaky interpolations aimed at making an point. Moreover, a close look at the actual document, including watermarks or metadata, might have helped authorities to identify the leaker. And why, in any case, was DHS in such a hurry to help out MSNBC? Why confirm it on a deadline? Is that the Trump administration policy — to serve, in effect, as a for the MSM? To facilitate the work of leakers, and “leakees”? Did anyone think about saying to MSNBC, “No comment”? Or even, “The possession of a such a document, by anyone outside of the Department, is a violation. So you’ll soon be hearing from law enforcement wondering how you got it”? Given that none of that seems to have happened, is Virgil too paranoid if he suspects that maybe at least some among the DHS staff are happy to see items leaking out? Now of course, Virgil presumes that the leaking, confirming, was the work of Deep Statists — that is, career staffers, as opposed to Trump appointees. And in fairness to the new Trump people, they haven’t had a whole lot of time to put their own operation together. Still, Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly was confirmed to his post on January 20, six weeks ago. And he spent more than four decades in the Marines, including time at the Pentagon — so he knows his way around a bureaucracy. So Virgil might ask: When does Team Trump plan on getting control of the DHS career staff? Today? Tomorrow? Never? Meanwhile, let’s take a closer look at the document in question. It was entitled, “Most Violent Extremists Radicalized After Entering Homeland. ” And then Maddow got to her meat: Oh, and what’s the key finding here? What’s the key judgment here? This is it, “We assess that most violent extremists likely radicalized several years after their entry into the United States, limiting the ability of screening and vetting officials to prevent their entry because of national security concerns. ” And then to Maddow’s conclusion: Since the radicalization of newcomers couldn’t be judged or predicted, there was no point in even trying — just let ‘em all in. As Maddow put it: Oh, right, so much for extreme vetting, right? The whole justification, the whole explanation from this administration for the Muslim ban was to stop people coming into this country, at least for a while, right? At least for a while, it’s a temporary travel ban so we can get the extreme vetting, In other words, Maddow seems to be saying, if we’re operating from ignorance, as to who’s a potential threat, then the best thing to do is operate from even more ignorance. We can observe: Not everyone agrees with the DHS leakers that it’s hopeless to assess danger and who could be dangerous. In fact, lots of good cops would say otherwise, and common sense says the same thing. Meanwhile, even if Maddow, relying on that DHS paper, is correct about “unknown knowns. ” There’s still such a thing as retrospective analysis — that is, examining the data, whatever it might be, after the fact, in order to identify correlations and patterns. That sort of analysis can then be used to build better predictive models. But of course, first you have to have the data hence the value of at every opportunity — including at the entrance door. Of course, Maddow’s mission the other night was something much different: She wanted to put yet another knife into “extreme vetting” and what she called “the Muslim ban”: I look at this, and you know what I think? I think the Muslim ban is dead. Maddow is referring, of course, to Trump’s January 27 Executive Order, the one that has been clobbered by the MSM and waylaid by the courts. That order was never a “Muslim ban” but, rather, an attempt to restrict entry from seven countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Indeed, the word “Muslim” doesn’t even appear in Trump’s document the phrase “Muslim ban” was applied by opponents, not proponents. To be sure, the idea of some sort of restriction on potentially dangerous people was a key element of Trump’s campaign. As candidate Trump said back in December 2015: Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life. That is to say, it’s part of the reason why he is now the 45th President. And in fact, Trump’s instincts about homeland security have ample justification, even if the Deep State doesn’t agree. According to the Pew Center, for example, public opinion in the Muslim world shows considerable support for Sharia law and other radical ideas, including terroristic violence. Indeed, our friend common sense tells us that the experience of traveling to the US from a village, in say, Yemen, can be, to put it mildly, psychologically disorienting. In fact, a recent illustrating this has gone viral. It shows two people on the subway: on the left, a woman in a niqab — that is, a veil, including the face — and on the right, a drag queen, glammed up to the max, with flaming red hair, dressed in short shorts, long legs akimbo. The woman in the niqab seemed placid enough as she sits next to the drag queen, but one can only guess the impact on, for instance, a hormonal young man from a repressed culture. Actually, we can do more than guess as to what can happen. We can review recent history, which is littered with cases of younger Muslims, mostly male, acting violently in America: We can note that each incident was slightly different. The Tsarnaevs were born in the former Soviet Union and spent their lives within the US welfare system before plotting . Abdulazeez was born in Kuwait before moving to the US he had a job. And of the two San Bernardino shooters, Farook — who worked for the same county government that he then massacred — was born in the US of Pakistani parents, while Malik was born in Pakistan, having gained lawful permanent residence in the US not long before she started killing Americans. And Mateen, the Orlando shooter, born in New York, was of Afghan heritage. So we can see: Some were born in the US, some not. Some seemed to have issues of mental illness, and drug abuse, and confusion over sexual identity. Some were single, some were married, and some were married with children. About the only thing that unites the four cases is that the perpetrators were Muslim. So at the risk of being correct, that fact would seem to suggest the general area where the search for greater public safety could begin. Yet, of course, Maddow and her allies on the left don’t concur they insist on seeing the issue only through the lens of their own PC. And to preserve the plausibility of their increasingly stressed PC worldview, lefties are willing to play — or, some might say, twist the truth. This verbal gamesmanship from the at Vox, trashing Trump’s January 27 order, is typical: None of the perpetrators of the major US terrorist attacks carried out in the name of Islam in the past 15 years have come from the nations on that list. [emphasis added] Yes, we can pause over that slyly insinuated word, “major. ” Because in fact, at least two attacks in the last decade, in North Carolina and in Ohio, were carried out by individuals from the targeted countries. But evidently, homicidalists’ plowing vehicles into pedestrians counts only as “minor. ” Speaking of we can return to that DHS document, the one on Maddow’s program, asserting that dangerous radicalism often emerges only after an immigrant had lived here for a while, thus “limiting” the value of vetting, extreme or otherwise. So we must ask: If we aren’t sure who, precisely, could be dangerous, doesn’t that suggest a general strategy of caution? Mightn’t we look, for example, at the fate of Europe — where there have been tens of thousands of murders, and other serious crimes, at the hands of terrorists — and start drawing some obvious conclusions? With that thought in mind, perhaps the Department of Homeland Security could contact Rachel Maddow and volunteer to go on her show with just that message: Better safe than sorry. Maybe the DHS team could actually seize an opportunity to advance the Trump agenda. But would Maddow even agree to such a booking? That’s an unknown. All we know for sure is that the Deep Statists at DHS, and their friends at MSNBC, know exactly how to connect with each other.

WATCH: Mass Shooting Occurs During #TrumpRiot; Media Ignores (Video) WATCH: Mass Shooting Occurs During #TrumpRiot; Media Ignores (Video) 45 pm by Guest Author Renee Nal | New Zeal Seattle’s Socialist Alternative organize anti-Trump rally. Note the manufactured signs and the hammer & sickle logo. “The five victims range in age from their 20s to 50s, and they have gunshot wounds to their legs, chest and neck.”– The Seattle Times , November 10, 2016 Seattle police are assuring citizens that a virtually unreported mass shooting has nothing to do with an anti-Trump rally incited by Seattle socialists, featuring Kshama Sawant, the Marxist Seattle city council member who is significant as being the only socialist to run openly as a member of Socialist Alternative , a Trotskyist organization. The shooting occurred “outside the 7-Eleven store on Third Avenue between Pike and Pine streets,” close to where protesters gathered, carrying their “Socialist Alternative” signs after being encouraged by Kshama Sawant to “attend the inauguration and shut it down.” Watch: Gulag-wide Bulletins from Sovereignty Unbound We respect your privacy, time, and inbox. Track us Down @GulagBound Like the Gulag There are many important matters that Gulag Bound itself is not treating on a daily basis. For that reason we suggest The Globe & Malevolence and the sites shown under "Key Links in our Chains," below. Your Daily Intelligence Brief MattSkosh on Secret Service Agents Pay a Visit to Anti-Obama Artist Sabo Tags activism Agenda 21 anti-American revolution authoritarianism Barack Hussein Obama II candidate eligibility collectivists & propaganda communisty organizations corruption crisis strategy Democrat finance & banking fraud George Soros globalism - NWO global Marxist-fascist movement government domination of resources history illegal immigration Islam Islamism jihad jihadism Israel kleptocracy labor unions Marxism Marxofascism Marxstream media Military Mitt Romney Obamacare health control Occupy Wall Street race-baiting/racism Republican Right of Private Property Russia Sovereignty Tea Party terrorism U.S. Congress U.S. Constitution U.S. Presidency (POTUS) United Nations (UN) video violence voting youth & education Sabotage What good will it do, to protect the United States of America, or our presumed interests against the aggressiveness of China, Russia, or Islam, if, partially in fear of these threats, we lose our free and independent nation to the stealth imperialism of transnational and global governance? As America threatens to shatter, we must see how a semi-covert, global, cartel collective and their NWO in the USA ("progressive" neo-Marxists and neo-fascists corporatists, updated with 21st Century techniques and technology) intentionally perpetrate this sabotage, while we patriots try to prevent it. Have a look around our camp, as we struggle to survive. - your tour guide Archives Militarization in America About DHS militarization, see the new, breakthrough analysis from James Simpson, " Police Militarization, Abuses of Power, and the Road to Impeachment " and our earlier, "Marxist President’s Military Exercises in These U.S. Cities; Yours One?" About the trajectory of this, we must pray, communicate, keep calm, and do not become the first to engage. If it comes to it, do not even respond in kind, until after the after the first times that extreme, anti-American violence is done by them. It calls for an attitude of self sacrifice -- first cheek, second cheek, then no more. And speak out about the potential and strategic "sense" of the Obama/NWO's DHS carrying out false flag missions of violence, blaming it on American patriots, perhaps upon our militia movements. We are in a real war, right now (of which others and I have been trying to alert fellow Sovereign Citizens for years) and the prime war is for the minds, hearts, and wills of the American People. We are opposed by an anti-American insurrection using any means of power (see Gramsci, Frankfurt School) including government power, as they are granted that opportunity.

Comments Director James Comey of Federal Bureau of Investigation stirred up a hornet’s nest with his decision to interfere in our election by giving House Republicans more ammunition to smear Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over her “email scandal”– and not even everyone in his own agency is happy about it. The head of the FBI’s Agent Association (FBIAA), Reynaldo Tariche , resigned tonight to work in the private sector in protest over Director Comey’s decision to use the FBI as a political tool on behalf of Donald Trump. “Importantly, we will not be used for political gains, and any implication that the FBI Special Agents are unwilling or incapable of performing effective investigations is simply false.'” And quit he should. Comey’s behavior has been most unbecoming as the head of a federal law enforcement agency who is obligated to remain impartial for the good of our nation. The FBI has no idea what the emails that “may be pertinent” that were discovered on disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner’s laptop actually contain; there was no need to alert Congress and doing so so close to an election is an obvious move to try to tip the scales in favor of the most unqualified and morally abhorrent candidate our nation has ever seen. Read his letter here: Dear Members, After 26 + years of service for the greatest Law Enforcement organization in the world I am retiring from the FBI today. I have accepted a position in the private sector within the Banking Industry. It has truly been a pleasure and honor to serve with the men and women of the FBI in the relentless pursuit of protecting the American people from Domestic and International threats. I will be eternally grateful to have worked side by side with the most dedicated individuals who carry out the FBI mission 24 hours a day seven days a week. My two terms as President of the FBIAA have been spent in a whirlwind of travel, meetings and other important work on behalf of the members of the FBI AA. It has truly been an amazing journey to witness the incredible work being done on a daily basis by the FBI around the world. Equally impressive has been to see how the FBI family helps each other in times of need including; deaths, family illnesses, natural disasters or any unforeseen tragedy. I am confident that incoming FBIAA President Tom O’Connor, the National Executive Board, and our entire FBIAA team will continue the work of advancing the mission of this incredible organization. The FBIAA’s mission includes defending the work and integrity of FBI Special Agents. As a non-partisan organization, comment on political campaigns or candidates is atypical for us, and we intend to keep it that way. Yet, in this intensely partisan election cycle, we find our work—our integrity—questioned as it relates to the investigation of Secretary Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Thus, honoring our mission, we will continue to remind federal officials and the public that the FBI Special Agents who undertook this investigation did so with an unwavering focus on complying with the law and the Constitution, as we do with all of our investigations. Importantly, we will not be used for political gains, and any implication that the FBI Special Agents are unwilling or incapable of performing effective investigations is simply false. May God bless the FBI family and may God continue to bless the United States of America

The Trump administration will temporarily delay the processing of most refugees from 11 countries deemed to be high-risk, top Cabinet officials wrote in a memo to President Donald Trump and seen by Reuters. The memo, which the administration provided to members of Congress on Tuesday afternoon, said the administration “will conduct a detailed threat analysis and review” for citizens of 11 “high risk countries.” In the meantime, it will “temporarily prioritize refugee applications” from other countries, the memo said. The administration is also temporarily pausing a program that allows refugees already in the United States to apply for their relatives abroad to join them in the country, until additional security measures can be implemented for the program, said the memo, which was signed by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke, and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.

Gov. Scott Walker received a $7,300 pay raise.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has declared herself ready to be Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the US presidential election. The Massachusetts senator – popular among the progressive wing of the Democratic party – made the declaration shortly after endorsing Clinton, calling her “a fighter with guts” who would keep Donald Trump out the White House. In an interview on MSNBC, Warren was asked by Rachel Maddow: “If you were asked to be Secretary Clinton’s running mate, do you believe you could do it?” In another interview with the Boston Globe on Thursday, Warren endorsed Clinton as the party’s presidential nominee, saying: “I’m ready to jump in this fight and make sure that Hillary Clinton is the next president of the United States and be sure that Donald Trump gets nowhere near the White House.” According to the Globe she also praised Clinton’s primary opponent, Bernie Sanders, saying that he had run an “incredible campaign”. Speaking to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday evening, Warren said the Sanders campaign had been “powerfully important”. “He ran a campaign from the heart, and he ran a campaign where he took these issues and really thrust them into the spotlight – issues that are near and dear to my heart – and he brought millions of people into the democratic process,” she said. But, Warren said, “Hillary Clinton won. And she won because she’s a fighter, she’s out there, she’s tough. And I think this is what we need.” Warren’s endorsement came within hours of President Barack Obama formally giving his endorsement to Clinton’s candidacy. “I’m with her,” Obama said, in a video recorded on Tuesday. “I don’t think there has ever been someone so qualified to hold this office.” Vice-President Joe Biden also appeared to give his endorsement on Thursday, referring in a speech to “… whoever the next president is – and God willing it will be Hillary Clinton”. Warren, a favourite of the progressive left who taught constitutional law at Harvard, is seen as a possible running mate who could help entice back a disaffected left that has been excited by Sanders but ambivalent about Clinton. Warren has been especially fierce recently in her criticism of Donald Trump, attacking the presumptive Republican nominee in a searing string of speeches, setting herself up for a prominent and pugilistic role in the presidential election whether she is on the ticket or not. Earlier on Thursday, at a speech to the American Constitution Society in Washington DC, Warren hit out at Trump as “just a businessman who inherited a fortune and kept it rolling along by cheating people”. She described him as “a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who … serves no one but himself”, and said his attacks on Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge presiding over the Trump University suit, was “exactly what you would expect from somebody who is a thin-skinned racist bully”.

After the news broke that Trump is going to be investigated for possible obstruction of justice, Trump has taken to Twitter to whine.After his first couples of tweets claiming to be part of the single greatest witch hunt in American political history, he s now whining about Hillary isn t being investigated over dealing with the Russians.Why is that Hillary Clintons family and Dems dealings with Russia are not looked at, but my non-dealings are? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017Trump tweeted: Why is that Hillary Clintons family and Dems dealings with Russia are not looked at, but my non-dealings are?Crooked H destroyed phones w/ hammer, 'bleached' emails, & had husband meet w/AG days before she was cleared- & they talk about obstruction? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017He then followed up with: Crooked H destroyed phones w/ hammer, bleached emails, & had husband meet w/AG days before she was cleared- & they talk about obstruction? What are we, five? Only kids try to throw others under the bus. Clinton was investigated, remember? She was investigated where you personally insisted she was investigated her private email server and anything and everything tied to it.Why are you pointing your finger at everyone else? What do you have to hide if it s untrue?This isn t about Hillary Clinton. This is about how the U.S. intelligence community concluded last year that Russia interfered in the presidential election to help Trump defeat Clinton.This is about investigating Russian election meddling, including possible ties between Trump s team and Russia.This is about possible obstruction of justice by firing former FBI Director James Comey.It has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton or anyone else for that matter. If anyone else needs to be investigated, it will happen. As of right now, the spotlight falls on you. You deny everything with the Russians and fired Comey who was going to look into it. What did you expect was going to happen?You are the President of the United States, Mr. Trump. You need to start acting like an adult and learn to face reality. Not whine and point fingers at everyone else.Featured image via MANDEL NGAN,BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

Microsoft held their E3 press conference this weekend, unveiling a number of new games and the long awaited Project Scorpio console. [Of all the announcements made, the reveal of the company’s newest gaming console was perhaps the largest. Teased at E3 2016 as Project Scorpio, the next addition to the Xbox family was officially announced with a brand new name — the Xbox One X. The new console features eight custom x86 cores clocked at 2. 3GHz, integrated AMD graphics with 6 teraflops of performance, 12GB of GDDR5 RAM, a 1TB hard drive, and a Drive. The console will reportedly cost around $499 on release and will also support backward compatibility for many games receiving visual enhancements courtesy of the Xbox One X’s new graphics system. Bioware also gave their first real look at their newest game during Microsoft’s presentation, Anthem, which throws players into a new world of monsters and expansive scenery as explorers wearing customizable Javelin which grant players “superhuman capabilities,” not unlike an Iron Man suit. It was also announced that the popular online multiplayer arena game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds would be coming to the Xbox One X as an exclusive title later this year. Crackdown 3 was also announced via an energetic pep talk from actor Terry Crews. Much like Crackdown 1 and 2, Crackdown 3 sees players acting as super cops for “The Agency,” leaping across sprawling city maps, fighting criminals and killer robots in an attempt to “step up your boom!” as the game says. Assassin’s Creed is back after a hiatus since the last main series entry in 2015. This time set in ancient Egypt, Assassin’s Creed Origins aims to tell the story of the original Assassin’s and how the group came to be. The game is being released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on October 27th but will hit Xbox One X slightly later on November 7th. In partnership with Forza 7, the popular car racing game, Porsche unveiled a new supercar, the Porsche 911 GT2 RS. Watch the full press conference below: Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ or email him at lnolan@breitbart. com

Caitlyn Jenner Mom Dad

CHARLOTTE, N. C. — As Hillary Clinton braced for political fallout from her use of a private email server, President Obama delivered a stemwinder on her behalf on Tuesday, praising her “steady judgment” as his secretary of state and criticizing Donald J. Trump for his own lack of transparency. Sleeves rolled up and declaring himself “fired up” on her behalf, Mr. Obama heaped admiration on Mrs. Clinton and assailed Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, saying American voters face a critical choice between “some imaginary past, or whether we are going to reach for the future. ” “I can tell you this, Hillary Clinton has been tested,” Mr. Obama said as he interrupted repeatedly by the cheering crowd. “There has never been any man or woman more qualified for this office,” the president boomed. But the jubilant rally — Mr. Obama’s first campaign appearance with Mrs. Clinton — unfolded at an awkward moment, just hours after the F. B. I. director, James B. Comey, accused Mrs. Clinton of being “extremely careless” in her email use as he announced the end of an investigation that has engulfed her candidacy and put the Obama administration on the defensive. The dueling political events on Tuesday were as discordant as they were separate: The president and his secretary of state sidestepped the email issue at their rally, where Mr. Obama clasped hands with his onetime rival and predicted victory in the fall, making no mention of Mr. Comey’s dramatic announcement in Washington faulting Mrs. Clinton even as he recommended against criminal charges. Without mentioning the email controversy, Mr. Obama pointed to the political attacks that have chipped away at Mrs. Clinton’s trust among voters. “Can I be blunt?” he said. “Hillary’s got her share of critics. ” But, he added, “That’s what happens when you dedicate yourself to public service over a lifetime. ” Mr. Obama delicately touched on Mrs. Clinton’s perceived weaknesses as a candidate even as he marveled at her tenacity in the nominating fight they waged against each other eight years ago. In an election year in which outsider candidates have railed against the establishment, Mr. Obama portrayed Mrs. Clinton’s experience as a plus. “Sometimes we take somebody who has been in the trenches and fought the good fight and been so steady for granted,” he said, recognizing that voters’ yearning for the next new thing had helped his own 2008 campaign. “We don’t do that, by the way, for airline pilots. ” At a time when her State Department tenure is being picked apart by political critics, he defended her turn as the nation’s top diplomat, noting how her popularity faded only once she returned to the political spotlight. “It’s funny how the filter changes a little bit,” he said. “The filter is a powerful thing. ” Mrs. Clinton, perched on a stool behind the president, grinned and gently nodded. The rally in North Carolina was rescheduled after a previous campaign event in Wisconsin was hastily canceled after the Orlando shootings. But in some ways, the moment had been years in the making. Eight years ago, after a brutal primary fight, Mrs. Clinton appeared arm in arm with Mr. Obama for the first time in Unity, N. H. where she declared, “Unity is not only a beautiful place, it’s a wonderful feeling, isn’t it?” Mr. Obama referred to that event at Tuesday’s rally in North Carolina, a rally that served as a kind of bookend to two remarkable careers that at times seemed destined to clash. “We went to Unity, N. H. just in case people missed the point,” Mr. Obama said. “I saw the grace and the energy with which she threw herself into my campaign. ” Mrs. Clinton spoke before the president, an unusual departure from how she appears at events with surrogates, and at times it felt like she was campaigning not for herself, but for Mr. Obama’s legacy, praising his “heart, depth and humility. ” She repeatedly referred to their former rivalry, even praising Mr. Obama’s political deftness at defeating her. “He knows a thing or two about winning elections, take it from me,” she said. The F. B. I. ’s decision not to recommend criminal charges came days after an unplanned, brief meeting between former President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch at an airport in Phoenix. To avoid any appearance of political interference, Ms. Lynch said Friday that she would accept the recommendations of career prosecutors and the F. B. I. director on whether to bring charges against Mrs. Clinton. On Saturday, Mrs. Clinton and her lawyers met with officials from the F. B. I. and the Justice Department to answer nearly four hours of questioning related to her email server. Aides to both Democrats said Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton did not discuss the F. B. I. investigation on the flight to Charlotte. A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, Nick Merrill, added that Mr. Obama looked at photos of Mrs. Clinton’s grandchildren aboard Air Force One. Serving as Mr. Obama’s secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton engendered good will with the White House, and the experience of accepting Mr. Obama’s offer to run the State Department became one of the most popular stories she relayed on the campaign trail, particularly when wooing black voters. Mrs. Clinton also fired away at Mr. Trump, saying that Mr. Obama was “someone who has never forgotten where he came from — and Donald, if you’re out there tweeting, it’s Hawaii,” a reference to Mr. Trump’s calls in 2011 for the president to produce his birth certificate. For several attendees, many of whom waited for hours in sweltering conditions to get into the rally, the chief draw was the chance to glimpse Mr. Obama as he sets off on something of a farewell tour. The crowd was heavily flashing clothing and trinkets dedicated to the sitting president. Vendors sold tote bags and emblazoned with images of Mr. Obama’s teenage daughters, and promising to continue Mr. Obama’s historic 2008 victory by electing the first female president. “It was on my bucket list,” Ivy Dunn, 69, said of seeing him. Asked if she thought Mrs. Clinton could be as effective in office, Ms. Dunn paused. “I’m not going to say yes,” she said, “but she’ll be good. ” Mrs. Clinton will need to nurture Mr. Obama and his supporters, particularly after she strayed to the left of his policies during her nominating fight on issues like the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal and the Keystone XL Pipeline. A majority — 51 percent — of Americans approve of the president, according to a recent Gallup poll. As Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton touched down at the Charlotte airport, and strode off Air Force One together in a sign of solidarity, a reporter asked John D. Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman and a former White House chief of staff to Mr. Obama, whether the F. B. I. announcement overshadowed the rally. He replied with a single word: “Hardly. ”

Donald J. Trump said Wednesday that he would place his vast business empire in a trust controlled by his two oldest sons and take other steps in an attempt to remove any suggestion of a conflict of interest with his decisions as president. But he said he would not sell his holdings. Hours later, the government’s top ethics monitor said the plan was wholly inadequate and would leave the president vulnerable to “suspicions of corruption. ” The unusual public criticism from Walter M. Shaub Jr. director of the Office of Government Ethics, followed Mr. Trump’s most detailed explanation yet of his plans to distance himself from the global business operations of the Trump Organization. No modern president has entered the White House with such a complicated array of holdings. The steps Mr. Trump outlined include turning over to the United States Treasury any profits received at his hotels from foreign government clients. An ethics officer and, separately, a chief compliance counsel will be appointed at the Trump Organization to watch its operations and ensure that it is not receiving special terms, payment or favors as a result of its ties to Mr. Trump, even as the organization is managed by a trust controlled by his two oldest sons and a longtime legal associate. Sheri A. Dillon, a longtime lawyer for the Trump Organization, said that many of the alternatives ethics lawyers have advocated, such as selling off Mr. Trump’s business assets entirely or putting them in a blind trust that would be managed by an independent party, were not practical. Pointing out flaws in a blind trust, she said, “President Trump can’t unknow he owns Trump Tower, and the press will make sure that any new developments at the Trump Organization are well publicized. ” In addition, she said, the price of a sale of assets would draw scrutiny, and Mr. Trump would still be owed royalties. The speaking at a news conference Wednesday in Trump Tower, repeated his view, expressed shortly after his election, that as president, he will be exempt from conflict of interest laws that apply to all other federal employees except the vice president. But he and his legal team said he would still take voluntary steps to avoid even a perception of a conflict, such as the appearance that a decision he made as president might benefit one of his business ventures. But Mr. Trump and his advisers would not release basic information about this plan. Mr. Trump has filed information with the federal government that indicates he is worth at least $1. 5 billion, but that information has not been independently verified, and the value of the assets being transferred into the trust is not known. Mr. Trump’s representatives also would not release the names of people who stand to benefit from any profits the trust generates, or say whether Mr. Trump would be able to reverse the transaction. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump rebuffed a renewed call to release his tax returns, which presidents have done for decades and which would show how much profit he makes from his business endeavors, including golf courses, marketing deals and commercial office space. Mr. Shaub, who was appointed by President Obama, said that he did not believe selling assets was too high a price to pay to be president, and that Mr. Trump must divest them in order to avoid conflicts of interest. “We can’t risk creating the perception that government leaders would use their official positions for profit,” said Mr. Shaub, whose office establishes ethical standards for 2. 7 million civilian employees in the White House and more than 130 executive branch agencies. “I appreciate that divestiture can be costly. But the would not be alone in making that sacrifice. ” He criticized Mr. Trump’s decision to put his assets into a trust instead of under the far stricter control of an independent manager, known as a blind trust. “The only thing this has in common with a blind trust is the label, ‘trust,’” Mr. Shaub said during an unusual news conference Wednesday at the Brookings Institution, a policy research center in Washington. “His sons are still running the businesses, and, of course, he knows what he owns. ” Even some Republican ethics experts questioned how far Mr. Trump had gone to confront the many ethical issues he faces. They noted, for example, that Mr. Trump had not promised to prohibit communication between federal employees and anyone at the Trump Organization, or his current or future business partners. “If you don’t have a real firewall, outsiders will view doing business with the Trump Organization as a way to gain access to the administration or to influence it,” said Matthew T. Sanderson, a Washington lawyer who worked on the Republican presidential campaigns of John McCain, Rand Paul and Rick Perry. In fact, Mr. Trump and his legal advisers seemed on Wednesday to revise a promise that the had made on Twitter in December: that there would be “no new deals” by his company while he was in the White House. Now, his legal team said, this standard will apply only to foreign deals. Ms. Dillon said the Trump Organization had canceled about 30 pending deals, costing it millions of dollars. But the company will continue to look for new business opportunities — be it hotels, golf courses or other ventures — within the United States at a time when the Trump Organization brand has an unrivaled profile. Instead, the Trump enterprise will clear new transactions with an ethics adviser to be named by the in the coming days. That person will vet the deals for potential conflicts, using a standard that Mr. Trump’s advisers said had not yet been determined. A spokeswoman for Mr. Trump said he had always intended the “no new deals” promise to apply only to foreign deals. The influence Mr. Trump will have over foreign and domestic policy as president has raised questions about whether American policy could affect his bottom line. For instance, he will oversee the regulation of banks, some of which lend money to his company, and he will have frequent contact with foreign heads of state, including some who run countries where the Trump Organization does business. He has consistently used his position to showcase his real estate properties, inviting dignitaries and cabinet hopefuls to visit him at his golf club in Westchester County, N. Y. and his resort in Palm Beach, Fla. And the business offers have been flowing in, Mr. Trump says. His lawyers said his company had canceled 30 deals as he prepares to take office, and last weekend, Mr. Trump said he had turned down a $2 billion deal in Dubai. “I don’t want to take advantage of something,” Mr. Trump said. The Dubai offer came from Damac, a major developer in the Persian Gulf region that is building the Trump International Golf Club, Dubai, and an adjacent luxury housing development. Mr. Trump and his legal team appeared to be particularly sensitive to the suggestion that Mr. Trump might violate the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which prohibits federal employees from taking any “present, emolument, office or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince or foreign state. ” Ms. Dillon, the Trump Organization lawyer, who works for the Washington firm Morgan Lewis, said the clause, in her view, did not apply to transactions such as a foreign government’s paying a hotel bill. But to address the issue, the organization plans to donate to the federal government the “profits” derived from any payments from foreign governments to hotels it owns. Representatives of the organization did not reply when asked how this calculation would be made or whether a public accounting of the payments would be provided. But Trump Organization officials said this agreement would not apply to golf courses or other businesses. That means Mr. Trump could still benefit from payments by foreign governments, critics said. Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law, also said the plan to turn over profits from foreign government payments to Mr. Trump’s hotels was not sufficient to eliminate the constitutional issue. “As soon as he receives the payment, he will have benefited, even if he later decides to give it away,” Mr. Chemerinsky said. “This will mean he will have violated a provision of the Constitution. ” Separately, Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka said on her Facebook page that she was both separating herself from the Trump Organization and turning over management of her brand of handbags, jewelry, shoes and other accessories to another executive. But ethics experts said the family might have figured out a way to accelerate the growth of their business while taking modest steps to separate themselves from the operations. “It’s hard to imagine anything she could do to help the brand more than simply being a part of the White House apparatus,” Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, a liberal nonprofit, said of Ivanka Trump. “The only solution for all of this is for them to divest — and that does not include handing it to another family member. ”

@Arden_Forester @JuliaHB1 Oh yes - yes they can! (but just very wordy... not violent - so far).

3 Philadelphia prison guards arrested for alleged assault on handcuffed inmate 3 Philadelphia prison guards arrested for alleged assault on handcuffed inmate By 0 48 Three Philadelphia prison guards are facing charges including aggravated assault after allegedly beating up a handcuffed inmate and submitting a fraudulent report. They say the inmate harmed himself, but their actions were caught on video. Milton Gibbs, 52, Terrance Bailey, 30, and Shaun Lowe, 26, are facing charges of aggravated assault, conspiracy, and tampering with public records. There are also additional charges of misdemeanor, recklessly endangering another person, unsworn falsification to authorities, and obstructing the administration of law and official oppression. They turned themselves in for arrest on Wednesday. “We cannot stand for any kind of assault, and this attack on a handcuffed inmate by sworn corrections officers is egregious. Every inmate who is held in our prisons deserves to be treated with dignity and respect,” Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said in statement following arrests of the three guards. According to the investigation, the assault at the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center dates back to June, when Gibbs allegedly threatened inmate Brandon Kulb, 22, stating that he would “hang him and murder him.” It is alleged that Gibbs called Bailey, and the two then entered Kulb’s cell and began beating, kicking, and spitting on him. District Attorney Williams says they eventually put Kulb in handcuffs and walked him down a staircase, while continuing to beat him. “Once they arrived at the cell block’s exit, Bailey struck the victim in the back of the head knocking him to the ground. Gibbs and Bailey then dragged the victim into the central control area and began to stomp on him. Lowe arrived on scene and joined in the assault,” the DA’s office said in a press release, adding that Kulb “lost consciousness” at least twice during that time. The guards tried to make sure that the assault would not get captured on surveillance cameras, but “much” of it was still caught on CCTV, offering the investigation irrefutable evidence. Despite that, guards tried to cover up the assault. After the purported beating of Kulb, Gibbs and Bailey submitted a mental health referral saying the inmate had intentionally harmed himself. Lowe allegedly transported the victim to the receiving room, and Gibbs tried to coerce the victim not to report the incident in exchange for food from the staff kitchen, the DA said. In their reports, the three wrote that they only used “open hand” control, because they had to subdue Kulb. They omitted their own actions. This is not the first time Gibbs has been arrested, according to NewsWorks. In 2004, he was reportedly fired for assaulting an inmate but was acquitted in a federal civil rights case filed against him. Via RT . This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission or license.

@Popehat @FOX2now Yeah, an AR-15. I've got a couple. You can buy 'em at Walmart.

Carly Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard chief executive, said her chances of running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 are “very high.” Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” the 2010 Senate candidate said she is “higher than 90 percent” likely to enter the race, with an announcement coming in late April or early May. Fiorina said she could appeal to voters with a “deep understanding of how the economy actually works, having started as a secretary and become the chief executive of the largest technology company in the world.” She added that she has relationships with “many of the world leaders on the stage today” and that she understands executive decision-making, as well as how to change large bureaucracies for the better. Discussing the economy, Fiorina said the government has “tangled people up from a web of dependence from which they can’t escape.” She also said the government is “crushing small businesses now.” In a nod to the populist, anti-Wall Street themes of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Fiorina said big banks are thriving while community banks go out of business. “If we want mainstream and the middle class going and growing again, we’ve got to get small and family-owned businesses going and growing again,” she said. Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Fiorina was a 2010 California gubernatorial candidate. She actually ran as a U.S. Senate candidate that year. The article has been corrected.

On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” host Chris Wallace had a heated exchange with Jay Sekulow, who is member of President Donald Trump’s legal team. Partial transcript as follows: WALLACE: I want to ask you a direct question, does the president think that Rod Rosenstein has done anything wrong? SEKULOW: The president has never said anything about Rod Rosenstein doing anything wrong. Here’s what — what is the legal situation here. There is a constitutional issue when you have this scenario. The president made a determination based on consult of advice. He decided ultimately. He’s the commander in chief. He gets to make that decision that James Comey had a go. That was coming, by the way, from groups right, left, and center over the last year. You — you and I know that. So there had been concern about James Comey. It was put forward in a memorandum — that’s what the president’s referencing — from the deputy attorney general and the attorney general requesting the removal of James Comey as the FBI director. And, ultimately, that’s the president’s determination. So here’s the constitutional threshold question, Chris. The president takes action based on numerous events, including recommendations from his attorney general and the deputy attorney general’s office. He takes the action that they also, by the way, recommended. And now he’s being investigated by the Department of Justice because the special counsel under the special counsel relations reports still to the Department of Justice. Not an independent counsel. So he’s being investigated for taking the action that the attorney general and deputy attorney general recommended him to take by the agency who recommended the termination. So that’s the constitutional threshold question here. That’s why, as I said, no investigation — WALLACE: Well, I — what — what — what’s the question (INAUDIBLE). I mean you — you stated — you stated some facts. First of all, you’ve now said that he is getting investigated after saying that you didn’t. SEKULOW: No. WALLACE: You — you just, sir, that he’s being — SEKULOW: No, he’s not being investigated! WALLACE: You just said that he’s being investigated. SEKULOW: No, Chris, I said that the — any — let me be crystal clear so you — you completely understand. We have not received nor are we aware of any investigation of the president of the United States, period. WALLACE: Sir, you just said two times that he’s being investigated. SEKULOW: No. The context of the tweet, I just gave you the legal theory, Chris, of how the Constitution works. If, in fact, it was correct that the president was being investigated, he would be investigating for taking action that an agency told him to take. So that is protected under the Constitution as his article one power. That’s all I said. So I appreciate you trying to rephrase it, but I’m just being really direct with you, Chris. This is — let me be — WALLACE: No, I — I — sir, I didn’t rephrase it. The tape will speak — Jay, the tape will speak for itself. You said he is being investigated. And it’s not that big — SEKULOW: Chris, he is — just — no, Chris — that’s (INAUDIBLE) unfair, Chris. WALLACE: Wait a minute — wait a minute. Jay, and it’s not — Jay, it’s not just being investigated for firing Comey. There’s also the question of what he said to Comey when Comey was still the FBI director. So there’s more than just the fact that he fired Comey. SEKULOW: He — Chirrs, let me be clear, you asked me a question about what the president’s tweet was regarding the deputy attorney general of the United States. That’s what you asked me. And I responded to what that legal theory would be. So I do not appreciate you putting words in my mouth when I’ve been crystal clear that the president is not and has not been under investigation. I don’t think I can be any clearer than that. WALLACE: Well, you don’t know that he’s not under investigation again, sir. I mean you might — SEKULOW: You know, I can’t read the mind — you’re right, Chris, I can’t read the minds of the special prosecutor. WALLACE: Well, then, good, OK, so we’re in agreement, you don’t know whether he’s under — you don’t know whether he’s under investigation. SEKULOW: But I have not been notified. No one has been notified that he is. WALLACE: You don’t know whether he’s under investigation or not. SEKULOW: Chris, I — WALLACE: The question I’m asking you is, does he think that Rod Rosenstein — it’s a very simple question — does he think that Rod Rosenstein did anything wrong? SEKULOW: The president has not expressed any opinion about Rod Rosenstein. WALLACE: Does he think that Robert Mueller has done anything wrong? SEKULOW: First of all, he has not said anything about Robert Mueller. And, Chris, let me say something here. You’re asking me if I had a conversation, which I have not had, about Robert Mueller with the president of the United States on — or anyone else for that matter. I can’t discuss that and would that with you. Unlike James Comey, who leaks information to the press, I actually respect the privilege. Apparently, he did not. WALLACE: Does the President believe — well, you’re speaking for his legal team, so you’re out here to represent him and tell us what the president’s belief is, is that correct? SEKULOW: No, I’m out here to tell you what the facts are and the legal issues are. I’m not to tell you what the beliefs are. I’m not the client’s conscience I’m his lawyer. WALLACE: I understand that and the — and the client — have you spoken the — have you spoken to the president at all? SEKULOW: Yes, but I’m not going to discuss those conversations with you. Those are privileged under the privilege. WALLACE: Well, I assume that if he asked you to say something, for instance, Marc Kasowitz said all kinds of things about — after Comey’s testimony. I assumed he was speaking for the president, SEKULOW: Marc Kasowitz made a general statement to the press after the testimony of James Comey. That’s what that was about. This — you’re asking me now questions about what people are thinking in their minds, which I don’t read minds, and you’re asking me also what I may or may not have had a conversation with the president about and you understand this. I respect the privilege, unlike James Comey. WALLACE: Does — SEKULOW: I want to be real clear on that too. I’m not going to give you conversations I’ve had with — have or have not had with the president of the United States. So when I’ve had conversations with the president of the United States — WALLACE: Well, I — your — SEKULOW: As his lawyer, it’s privileged, period. WALLACE: Does the president think that Rosenstein, because you talked about this constitutional theory that he took action, that’s on the advice — SEKULOW: Yes. WALLACE: Although he says he didn’t take it on the advice of Rosenstein, does he think that Rosenstein should recuse himself, and is healing the groundwork to fire Rosenstein and Mueller? SEKULOW: I’ve had no conversations, and I’ve heard nothing without that at all. Nothing. I think this — Chris, this points out — let me tell you one thing quickly about the constitutional theory, as you called it. It’s actually called the Constitution. You know, the president has certain (INAUDIBLE) authority under the Constitution. It’s — WALLACE: Well, you called it the constitutional theory, sir. SEKULOW: Yes, it is a constitutional theory based on the Constitution. WALLACE: I understand that. SEKULOW: Not . It’s the constitutional theory. It’s part of the Constitution. The president has inherent authority. Here’s what you’re trying to — here’s what you’re trying to do, Chris, and I appreciate that you’re — you’re trying to push back. WALLACE: Well, now you’re reading minds again. Now you’re reading minds again. SEKULOW: No, Chris, I deal with fact and law. You were asking me to read people’s minds. That I don’t do. WALLACE: Well, don’t tell me what I’m trying to — well, don’t tell me what I’m trying to do because you don’t know what I’m trying to do. What I’m trying to get is a straight answer out of you. Let me ask you this — SEKULOW: Yes, well — sure. WALLACE: As a matter of law, does the President think that he can be indicted under the Constitution? SEKULOW: The president — I haven’t had that conversation with the president, but the president can’t be indicted under the Constitution of the activity alleged in something like this. Of course not. WALLACE: Why is that? SEKULOW: Because there’s not an investigation. And there’s — there’s no investigation against the president. WALLACE: Well, you don’t know whether there’s an investigation. Oh, boy, this is weird. You — you don’t know that there’s — whether there’s an investigation. You just told us that. SEKULOW: Chris, you’re asking me to speculate — so then what you’re asking me to do is to speculate on — WALLACE: And it would matter. I’m asking you as a matter of law, not whether there’s an investigation. Does the president think he can be indicted as president? SEKULOW: For — for — WALLACE: That’s a constitutional issue, isn’t it? SEKULOW: For obstruction of justice? No, the Constitution’s — WALLACE: No, for any of it. SEKULOW: Now, Chris, you know, let’s — let’s be realistic here. You know what the — the answer is. Can the president be indicted for obstruction? You know what the position has been at the Department of Justice since the 1970s and again stated in 2000. That’s not what President — that’s now how you engage a president. There’s a political process if somebody did something wrong. You’re talking about — you’re conflating a constitutional process, criminal law, with an issue of political consequence. So I am his lawyer. I’m not his political advisor. WALLACE: Senator Dianne Feinstein, a top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, responded to the president’s tweet this week with this statement. “The message the president is sending through his tweets is that he believes the rule of law doesn’t apply to him and that anyone who thinks otherwise will be fired. ” Is she wrong, sir? SEKULOW: Yes, she’s wrong. First of all, Dianne Feinstein also called for an investigation of James Comey and Loretta Lynch for that whole episode regarding her engagement and calling it a, quote, “matter,” not an “investigation. ” But with regard to this particular issue, I mean the tweet — there’s nothing illegal or inappropriate about the tweet. If the tweet came on the heels of a Washington Post story that had five anonymous sources and didn’t even identify the agency from which those sources came from, and that’s what he tweet in response to. It’s that simple, period. WALLACE: Final question, the president just — just added John Dowd, a Washington lawyer, to his legal team. Should we expect him to hire other criminal lawyers? And, in a sense, is he preparing for a potential legal battle here? SEKULOW: Look, I mean John Dowd is — is a legal legend, you know that, in — in — in the — in Washington, D. C. and the president is doing the appropriate thing by hiring lawyers necessary, if there was to be an investigation, if there were to be an investigation, you have the lawyers in place. We’ve got a great legal team led by Marc Kasowitz. We’ve got John Dowd on the team. This is a solid team. Contrary to some of the press reports, a deep team, if necessary. WALLACE: Do you think — I — I — I misspoke. I’m going to ask one more question. Because I’m not allowed to ask you what the president thinks, do you think that he should stop — SEKULOW: Of course. WALLACE: Do you think he should stop tweeting about this case? SEKULOW: Look, I — here’s the thing on that. You know, people have been asking me that. Look, the president has changed the way in which engagement goes in — I mean you’ve got great ratings, no doubt about it, Chris. But let’s face it, the president speaks to 107 million people through his social media platforms. He revolutionized the election process by utilizing media in a different way. So I — I think, look, the president knows the effectiveness of social media. He’s been very effective at it. Again, I’m his lawyer, I deal with the issues. Nothing that he’s tweeted is causing me any issues whatsoever at this point. Nothing. WALLACE: Jay, thank you. Thanks for coming in. SEKULOW: Thanks, Chris. WALLACE: It’s always — it’s always interesting to talk to you. Please, come back, and we’ll — SEKULOW: Thanks, Chris. WALLACE: We’ll continue it and maybe this time we’ll get on this — you know what, be here in studio and we can stay on the same wavelength. SEKULOW: There we go. WALLACE: All right, sir — SEKULOW: Happy Father’s Day. WALLACE: Happy Father’s Day to you too, sir. Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

Obama has shown favoritism towards the Muslim Brotherhood terror group almost since the first day of his presidency. Many are convinced Obama is tied to the terror group through his brother, and his desire to prevent Americans from referring to this group as a terror group doesn t do much to convince us he doesn t have some sort of ties to them. Obama quietly offered his support when the riots Arab Spring uprisings took place in Egypt, paving the way for the Muslim Brotherhood Islamist, Mohamed Morsy to take over as President of Egypt through fair elections The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill on Wednesday calling on the State Department to classify the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group, by a 17-10 party-line vote.The GOP leadership under Speaker Paul Ryan supports the legislation, a high-ranking Republican source told the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) on background. This makes floor passage more likely.The bill states that it is the sense of Congress that the Muslim Brotherhood meets the criteria for classification as a foreign terrorist organization. Under the bill as amended by committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Secretary of State John Kerry would have 60 days to issue a detailed report to Congress indicating whether the Brotherhood meets the criteria qualifying it as a terrorist group. The Brotherhood s strategic goal in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house from within so that it is eliminated and God s religion is made victorious over all other religions, Goodlatte said, quoting the Brotherhood s 1991 Explanatory Memorandum, in a statement given before the vote.Here is Muslim terror expert, Brigitte Gabriel explaining the plan by the Muslim Brotherhood to jihad in North America. After watching this, you may ask yourself what has taken Congress so long to act? The Brotherhood and its leaders and affiliates, such as Hamas, have supported Islamist terrorism directly, through fundraising, and through exhortation. Each of these activities constitutes an act of terrorism under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Under the bill, the Obama Administration would be forced to deny admittance to any foreign national tied to the Muslim Brotherhood.Since Obama became President, people connected to the Muslim Brotherhood have received entry visas despite their open support for terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.There are many who believe the Muslim Brotherhood has been given special treatment by our very own President, and that he is somehow tied to the group:HERE, Rep Louie Gohmert (R-TX) is asking why the Obama regime gave $1.5 BILLION to the Muslim Brotherhood:Previously banned individuals such as Sheikh Rached Ghannouchi, head of Tunisia s branch of the Brotherhood, and Tariq Ramadan, grandson of Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna, have been welcomed to the US by the Obama Administration despite their vocal support for Hamas. Ramadan fought his ban on entering the US in court, and won an appeal.Other foreign Brotherhood speakers such as Ragheb Elsergany exploit the platform given to them by the Obama Administration to advocate for Muslims to support Palestinian mujahideen fighting against Israel.If the Brotherhood were designated as a terrorist group, it would be a crime for people in the United Sates to provide material support to it, and the Treasury Department could force banks to block financial transactions related to the Brotherhood. The bill lists US groups, including the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), as groups under the control of the international Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood continues to pose a global threat. The jihadist movement actively supports and finances terrorist networks around the world, including al-Qaida and Hamas. The United States must recognize and sanction the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization as part of our national security strategy, co-sponsor Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, (R-Fla.), said in a statement. Via: The Alemeiner

Democrats sliced holes in billionaire Betsy DeVos’ credentials to be the next U.S. Education Secretary at a confirmation hearing on Tuesday, raising doubts whether President-elect Donald Trump’s pick will win approval in the full Senate. The nomination of DeVos to head an agency that sets policy for younger children and universities and also administers a college financial aid program of $1 trillion has outraged Democrats who believe the Michigan Republican wants to dismantle public education. Teachers unions, a major constituency for the party, roundly oppose DeVos, a philanthropist and investor. “Do you think if you were not a multi-billionaire, if your family had not made hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to the Republican party, that you would be sitting here today?” asked Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who recently ran to be the Democrats’ presidential nominee. Democratic Senators have made their opposition clear in recent days in letters, speeches and most notably at the hearing. Next Tuesday, the Education Committee will likely approve sending her name to the full chamber when it votes in an executive session next Tuesday. Then, Democrats could attempt to block the nomination on the Senate floor. Because nominations other than those for the Supreme Court only require a simple majority vote, they will not be able to use a filibuster and would have to convince Republicans to join them in voting against the nomination. Former Senator Joe Lieberman, Democrats’ candidate for vice president in 2000, gave DeVos a laudatory introduction at the hearing, but other party members were wide-ranging in their criticism. Minnesota’s Al Franken expressed surprise DeVos was unfamiliar with a hot education debate over measuring student achievement by proficiency or by growth. Connecticut’s Chris Murphy was dismayed when DeVos did not condemn guns in schools. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, an advocate of tough financial regulation, asked whether DeVos or her children had attended public schools, borrowed student loans or received federal financial help known as Pell grants. “You have no experience with financial aid,” Warren summed up when DeVos answered “no.” Many were dismayed DeVos would not pledge to carry out rules on sexual assault, for-profit colleges and fair access for students with disabilities, only saying she would review the policies. Generally, Democrats pressed on how DeVos will manage her investments and companies in the education sector, including an on-line charter school, while serving as the most powerful public figure in the area. They also asked repeatedly if she intended to divert money to charter schools that operate independently of school districts and are frequently run by corporations and if she would undermine public schools. “I have major concerns with how you have spent your career and fortune fighting to privatize public education and gut investments in public schools,” said Washington’s Patty Murray, the committee’s senior Democrat. DeVos scrambled to reassure them she supports taxpayer-backed education. She also said she will work to give parents choices in the schools their children attend, treat all students equally and respect states’ decisions on education. The hearing, which was delayed from last week over missing financial disclosures, began at 5 p.m. (EST). Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander only allotted each member five minutes for questions. Democrats called foul, saying that because DeVos has not finished requisite ethics paperwork they are in the dark on issues and need more time. Alexander said the Office of Government Ethics will produce by Friday a letter outlining resolutions for her potential conflicts of interest. Committee Republicans universally backed DeVos, applauding her support of vouchers that families may use to pay for private education and of charter schools. They praised her history with The Potter’s House, which provides “Christ-centered” education, and spoke of her dedication to literacy.

Weeks after a new North Carolina law put transgender bathroom access at the heart of the nation’s culture wars, a federal appeals court in Richmond, Va. ruled on Tuesday in favor of a transgender student who was born female and wishes to use the boys’ restroom at his rural Virginia high school. Advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people note that the ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit applies to North Carolina, where the controversial law approved last month limits transgender people to bathrooms in government buildings, including public schools, that correspond with the gender listed on their birth certificates. As a result of the ruling, those advocates say, that portion of the North Carolina law that applies to public schools now clearly violates Title IX — the federal law that prohibits gender discrimination in schools. “Our expectation is that the North Carolina schools reverse course immediately, as in tomorrow,” Sarah Warbelow, the legal director for the Human Rights Campaign, an L. G. B. T. rights group, said Tuesday night. The ruling in favor of Gavin Grimm, a junior at Gloucester High School in southeastern Virginia, does not immediately grant him the right to use the boys’ restrooms rather, it directs a lower court that had ruled against him to Mr. Grimm’s request for a preliminary injunction to be able to use those restrooms. But it is the first time that a federal appellate court has ruled that Title IX protects the rights of such students to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. The ruling also comes as some school districts and state governments around the country are grappling with the question of whether transgender people should be allowed to go to the public facilities that correspond with their gender identity, or whether, as many conservatives believe, such access would infringe on the privacy rights of others. Boycotts and protests have followed the passage of the North Carolina law, but Gov. Pat McCrory has essentially stood by it. On Tuesday, Joshua Block, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the case on Mr. Grimm’s behalf, argued that such state and local legislation violated federal law. “With this decision, we hope that schools and legislators will finally get the message that excluding transgender kids from the restrooms is unlawful sex discrimination,” he said in a statement. The North Carolina law has prompted the Obama administration to consider whether the state would be ineligible for billions of dollars in federal funding for schools, housing and highways. Mr. McCrory, a Republican who is seeking in November, and other supporters of the law have played down suggestions that the Obama administration would rescind those billions. Mr. McCrory’s Democratic opponent, Roy Cooper, the state’s attorney general, has said in the past that the law may put the federal funding at risk and has refused to defend the state in a lawsuit challenging it. In a statement Tuesday, Mr. McCrory said he strongly disagreed with President Obama and Mr. Cooper’s objective “to force our high schools to allow boys in girls’ restrooms, locker rooms or shower facilities,” but would evaluate the effect of Tuesday’s ruling on North Carolina law and policy. The A. C. L. U. brought the case on behalf of Mr. Grimm, who was born female but identifies as a male, in June, seeking a preliminary injunction so that Mr. Grimm could use the boys’ restrooms at his school. The school administration initially allowed him to do so, but the local school board later approved a policy that barred him from the boys’ restrooms according to court documents, the policy also “required students with ‘gender identity issues’ to use an alternative private facility” to go to the bathroom. Judge Robert G. Doumar of Federal District Court ruled against Mr. Grimm in September, dismissing his claim that the school board had violated Title IX, although the judge did allow his case to go forward under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The ruling by a panel on Tuesday reversed the lower court’s dismissal of the Title IX claim, stating that the District Court “did not accord appropriate deference” to regulations issued by the Department of Education. The department’s current guidelines dictate that schools “generally must treat transgender students consistent with their gender identity. ” Roger Gannam, a lawyer with the conservative Liberty Counsel, which filed an amicus brief in the case on behalf of the defendant, the Gloucester County School Board, said Tuesday that the court had engaged in “blatant judicial legislation. ” “It’s very disappointing, and it’s frightening, in a sense,” he said. Mr. Block of the A. C. L. U. in a phone interview, said he was confident that the District Court would rule in Mr. Grimm’s favor and allow him to use the restroom. And he noted that the five states covered by the Fourth Circuit — Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, West Virginia and South Carolina — must now follow the federal Department of Education’s interpretation of Title IX on this issue. The Obama administration has been aggressive in its efforts to ensure that transgender students can use the bathrooms in public schools that correspond with their gender identities. Some federal agencies have threatened to rescind funding to pressure some municipal governments in California and Illinois to change their policies and allow transgender students to do so. In June, the Justice Department filed a “statement of interest” in Mr. Grimm’s case. “We are pleased with the Fourth Circuit’s decision, which agreed with the position that the United States advocated in its brief,” the Justice Department said in a statement Tuesday night. In an email, a clerk for the Gloucester school system said the superintendent, Walter Clemons, “has no comment at this time. ” In a statement released through the A. C. L. U. Mr. Grimm said: “I feel so relieved and vindicated by the court’s ruling. Today’s decision gives me hope that my fight will help other kids avoid discriminatory treatment at school. ”

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has just dropped yet another unpleasant bombshell on Donald Trump, and it s really going to screw our disgraceful POTUS over.In the latest development in Trump s Russia investigation, Mueller is requesting the phone records from an Air Force One meeting where Trump apparently personally dictated the misleading statement about a meeting involving members of his campaign and a Russian official.Politico reports that records that Mueller is requesting will give insight into the statement that Trump s son, Donald Trump Jr., gave a statement that caused Trump a massive amount of trouble when it was exposed. Sources close to the investigation have also stated that Mueller is investigating whether or not Trump is guilty for obstruction of justice when it comes to the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.To make matters even worse for Trump, Mueller also wants the documents that were related to a press briefing in May, in which former White House press secretary Sean Spicer had stated that Trump had confidence in Comey and yet he fired the then-FBI Director less than a week later.If this doesn t look like the walls are caving in on Trump, we don t know what does. Mueller is getting closer to uncovering everything that Trump has been hiding, and it doesn t look like it s going to end well for the undeserving POTUS and his equally crooked campaign. What we can expect in the meantime is some very predictable, erratic behavior from Trump threats to North Korea, unpresidential attacks on the media, more Obama and Clinton jabs basically anything to distract America from his Russia probe. But Trump can only do that for so long and it s clearly starting to catch up with him. It s only a matter of time before Mueller catches him red handed.Featured image via Alex Wong / Getty Images

Angela Merkel's autocracy causes the dissolution of the EU.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said on Tuesday that there was positive momentum behind the idea of Pope Francis visiting Russia, but suggested there was more work to be done if it were to happen. Parolin, speaking at a joint news conference in Moscow alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, did not give any date for such a possible visit. The Eastern and Western branches of Christianity split apart in 1054. The pope, leader of the world s 1.2 billion Catholics, is seeking to improve ties, and last year in Cuba held what was the first ever meeting between a Roman Catholic pope and a Russian Orthodox patriarch. Parolin said he had also used his talks in the Russian capital to also raise certain difficulties faced by the Catholic Church in Russia. He said that Moscow and the Vatican disagreed about the plight of Christians in certain parts of the world. He did not elaborate. Parolin, who is due later on Tuesday to meet Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, said he also believed Russia could play an important role when it came to helping solve a crisis in Venezuela because of its close relations with Caracas.

Whitney Port Talks Surviving the Holidays and Traveling with a New Baby

How is it that a major technical facility with over 20,000 employees had to rely on a valet parking attendant carrying a concealed gun to stop a woman from being stabbed to death? Doesn t this raise questions about how well prepared a major company like GM is for a possible terror attack? Where were the security guards? Are they even allowed to be armed?Police are investigating after a woman was stabbed at the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Mayor Jim Fouts confirmed to FOX 2.Fouts tells us a woman walked into the 8-story building at the center of the campus and asked to speak with a female employee. The two met in the lobby and started talking but stepped outside when their conversation escalated.It was outside that the visitor pulled out a knife and started stabbing the employee in the neck, back and abdomen several times, Fouts says. The stabbing was broken up by a valet driver who was carrying a concealed weapon.The employee was taken to the hospital and we re told she is in critical. The suspect is in custody at this time. We re told the suspect is not cooperating with police as they are trying to determined how the two women knew each other.Via: FOX 2 Detroit

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union staged a nationwide training event Saturday to make sure people are aware of their rights as protesters and urge organized, public resistance by those opposed to policies of President Donald Trump. [advertisement

The number of people who died as a result of the Great Famine in Ukraine during 1932-1933 is exaggerated by the Ukranian Government.// The famine was caused in Ukraine by natural conditions and it had nothing to do with the USSR policy.// It is not serious to recognize the Holodomor as genocide, because the Council of Europe did not recognize it as a crime.

“The Plan to Form the European Union Was Created within Nazi Germany”. The European Union is a Nazi project and it lacks democracy.

Hillary Clinton today falsely called Donald Trump an admitted sex assaulter and compared him to disgraced alleged sex abuser Harvey Weinstein.The failed Democratic presidential candidate, who received thousands in campaign funding from Weinstein, told the BBC s Andrew Marr we have someone admitting to being a sexual assaulter in the Oval Office. She was referring to the Access Hollywood tape leaked during the campaign where Donald Trump was heard boasting about grabbing women by the p****y in 2005.Mrs. Clinton is in the UK to promote her hand-wringing book about losing the presidential election.She told Marr: I was really shocked and appalled because I ve known him through politics as many Democrats have.Team player Hillary Clinton tries to deflect attention from the millions of dollars Harvey Weinstein raised for her recent failed presidential campaign by reminding reporters that he also donated to Obama and, for people (she forgot to mention that he ONLY funded DEMOCRAT people) who have run for office in the United States. He s been a supporter he s been a funder for all of us, for Obama, for me, for people who have run for office in the United States. So it was just disgusting and the stories that have come out are heartbreaking. But I think that it s important that we not just focus on him and whatever consequences flow from these stories about his behavior but that we recognize this kind of behavior cannot be tolerated anywhere, whether it s in entertainment, politics. After all, we have someone admitting to being a sexual assaulter in the Oval Office. There has to be a recognition that we must stand against this kind of action that is so sexist and misogynistic. And asked about allegations of sexual misconduct leveled at her husband and former president, Bill Clinton, she said: That has all been litigated. That was the subject of a huge investigation in the late 90s and there were conclusions drawn. That was clearly in the past. It is something that has to be taken seriously, for anyone not just in entertainment. The really sad part of the campaign was how this horrific tape, what he said about women in the past what he said about women during the campaign, was discounted by a lot of voters. DMLOL! Hillary. You re the only one left standing who believes a single word that comes out of your lying mouth.

Christine Lagarde admits that something must be done about old people living for too long.

Although Germany closes its borders refugees and migrants may still come in and they will not be medically checked for coronavirus.

Hillary Clinton’s niece has revealed to Radar that she will be voting for Donald Trump next week. Macy Smit is the daughter of Bill Clinton’s brother Roger. “Something tells me the Clinton side of the family looks at me and my mother as not good enough, but we’re hard-working!” she said. “I support Donald Trump — 100 percent! I have been a Democrat my entire life, but Trump is what we need right now — somebody who is going to stand up for us. I think at this point Hillary just wants it for the history books — to be the first woman president for selfish reasons.” Macy, a hairstylist in Tampa, is married to a meteorologist with the U.S. Air Force. Her husband is currently stationed in Kuwait coordinating operations in Iraq. “They’re not as good as everyone thinks they are,” Macy said in reference to the Clintons. “I went through some very personal things [without their support],” she added, speaking of a miscarriage she suffered last year. “The Clintons are all talk!” said Macy’s mother, Martha. “Hillary says she’s all about family, but she’s got a niece she’s never met and never acknowledged. The Clintons have never helped us out.” Even Hillary Clinton’s own family can’t stand her…

There is a totalitarian regime in the Czech Republic.

(Before It's News) CCTV at Woodbank Valley Urban Farm, Birmingham. The capacity of urban farms to tackle major issues such as poverty and reducing food miles should not be underestimated, and with more ambitious projects starting up every day, it might not be long until you see one appearing in your neighbourhood. By Michael Hardman Lecturer in Geography, University of Salford The Conversation Oct 26, 2016 Excerpt: Despite these barriers, our 2016 study into the state of urban farming showed that huge positives can come out of these spaces. For example, urban farms often act as a social incubator, bringing together communities and connecting cultures. Many also impact significantly on health and well-being, allowing city-dwellers to access fresh food and sometimes even supplement diets. We found that those connected to The Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens were strongest. They gained value from the networking with other such sites across the UK. A few in this extensive network have existed for over 30 years, and are still going due to the excellent support from both locals and the wider network. Ultimately, the idea of urban farming is not to replace traditional rural farms, but rather to complement and add value. To push forward with urban farming, there’s a need to build on what works – in particular, to learn from urban farms in the US, which are expanding and are on a different scale entirely to anywhere else. Read the complete article here.

More Election Coverage New Heavy-Duty Voting Machine Allows Americans To Take Out Frustration On It Before Casting Ballot The new Citadel voting machines can withstand up to 40 voters an hour getting a running start from a dozen yards outside the booth, leaping at full speed, and jump-kicking them directly in the screen. Close The new Citadel voting machines can withstand up to 40 voters an hour getting a running start from a dozen yards outside the booth, leaping at full speed, and jump-kicking them directly in the screen. NEWS November 2, 2016 Vol 52 Issue 43 · Politics · Election 2016 WASHINGTON—Saying the circumstances of this year’s presidential race made the upgrade necessary, election commissions throughout the country were reportedly working to install new heavy-duty voting machines this week that will allow Americans to physically take out their frustrations on the devices before casting their votes. According to Premier Election Solutions, the manufacturer of the new Citadel electronic voting machine, each unit features an easy-to-navigate interface, keeps accurate and secure tallies of votes, and is constructed with durable Kevlar buttons, a shatter-resistant Plexiglas screen, and a reinforced titanium housing, ensuring the devices are able to endure sustained blunt force trauma from voters’ fists and elbows as well as repeated puncturing attempts from sharp objects wielded by exasperated citizens. “These new voting machines were designed specifically with the 2016 election in mind and have been engineered to withstand everything the nation’s voters will bring at them on Election Day,” said company spokesperson Stephen Dunn, who also noted that the units’ Teflon coating makes it easy to wipe down all the sweat and saliva that will accumulate on their surface when they are being repeatedly pummeled in fits of anger. “When 18 months of disgust finally culminate inside the nation’s voting booths, these machines will be able to absorb every punch, kick, and knee drop citizens can dish out while still reliably tabulating totals for all local, state, and national races.” “Like millions of other Americans, I know that I’ll be ready to unload my pent-up rage next Tuesday,” Dunn added. “And our machines will be ready too.” According to Dunn, the Citadel underwent numerous revisions during testing, as a series of early designs proved incapable of withstanding voters’ increasing level of aggravation as the election progressed. Engineers are said to have quickly pulled their prototypes from preliminary field tests during the Virginia and Minnesota primaries upon learning the device’s original plastic housing was splintering to pieces following sharp headbutts from as few as three successive voters. Additionally, internal modifications were reportedly made after Super Tuesday to more securely solder the processor and wiring into place so the unit would maintain functionality each time it was thrown to the ground by a red-faced, screaming voter and continuously kicked for 35 minutes straight. In a later trial during the Wisconsin primary, when the Republican field had been effectively whittled down to just Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, Dunn said the design team came up with the idea to attach an aluminum baseball bat to the side of the machine with a steel cord, noting that if they didn’t provide voters with a convenient weapon, they would physically rip the unit’s legs off and beat it with those to the point of exhaustion. “Our test models were really pushed to their physical limits during the New Jersey primary in June when it was more or less clear that the country would be left with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as its two choices for president,” said Dunn, explaining that the devices had to survive all-out, abusive barrages from every voter who entered their testing precincts in Passaic County. “Thankfully, we had incorporated military-grade armor plating into the machines by that point, which proved able to sustain everything from being repeatedly smashed up against a cinder-block gymnasium wall to being dragged up and then pushed down flights of church basement stairs several times in a row.” “Of course, that was the night we learned we needed to make the touchscreen bulletproof, though,” Dunn continued. According to poll workers, excitement about the new machines appears to have increased voter turnout in the general election, with early voting up by as much as 30 percent in states where the units have already been installed, forcing many polling places to institute time limits on how long voters can batter, stomp on, and bite the units in raving bouts of hysterics. “It was nice to get in there and finally cast my ballot,” said 55-year-old Gordon Mulner, an early voter in Fredericksburg, VA, panting heavily as he wiped away the sheen of sweat from his brow with his raw, bleeding knuckles. “I had to wait in line a little while, but it was worth it. It felt good to make my voice heard.” “I think I broke my hand,” he added. At press time, election officials were scrambling to chain the machines to precinct walls, as it became apparent they would need to prevent voters from lugging them into the parking lot and repeatedly backing over them with their cars. 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@Estleton12 @BmoreConetta @kissane but to summarize, yes most crime against blacks is committed against blacks. The same is true of whites.

@AntonioFrench @drpatsyp Protesting demonstrate anger, concern, however voting is power!

Posted on November 2, 2016 by DCG | 1 Comment Hollyweird actor Bryan Cranston From Daily Mail : He spent years as America’s lovable dad in Malcolm in the Middle before starring on one of the most-watched cable shows in the country – Breaking Bad. But Bryan Cranston could be saying farewell to the United States after the election results are announced. The 60-year-old actor has warned he will move to Canada if Donald Trump becomes the next president. ‘I would definitely move,’ he told The Bestseller Experiment podcast when asked what he would do if Trump was elected over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. ‘It’s not real to me that, that would happen. I hope to God it won’t,’ he added. ‘It wouldn’t be a vacation. I’d be an expatriate,’ Cranston added. The Emmy-award winning actor is the latest Hollywood celebrity to pledge to leave the country if the Donald wins the election next week. He joins the likes of Clinton supporters Barbra Streisand, comedian Chelsea Handler and Girls creator and star Lena Dunham who have all said they will move abroad if the Republican presidential candidate wins the vote. No comment necessary We will have to wait and see whether they will keep their promises. But the opportunity to test them is becoming more and more likley as Trump closes ground on Clinton after the FBI announced it was re-opening the investigation into her email scandal. An ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll released Sunday showed Clinton ahead 46 per cent to 45 – narrower than Saturday’s 2-point Clinton edge. Cranston, who more recently played Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson, has been an outspoken critic of Trump, branding him a ‘supreme narcissist’ and an ’emperor without any clothes’ following his controversial campaign . The Emmy Award-winner said previously the billionaire tycoon’s rise in politics had ‘slapped’ Americans in the face and he would eventually be ‘swept to the side’. ‘I don’t want to join the vitriol that Donald Trump represents,’ Cranston told the Press Association. ‘He’s crude and crass and empty headed . If it weren’t serious, it would be laughable. Here we have a reality show, game show guy who’s now at the top of one of the two parties. That there are millions of people who are going to vote for him says something about, perhaps, disenfranchisement. People who are left out. People who don’t feel they are being listened to.’ Cranston revealed that he’s met both Trump and Clinton, but his facetime with the billionaire Republican was 20 years ago. ‘As he was saying hello it was like he was thinking of three or four or five other things, so it didn’t feel like he was actually present,’ Cranston recalled. Obama showing maturity and introspection His meeting with Clinton and another with her husband were improvements. ‘She asked me questions and I gave my opinion. And I think that’s what I want, I want a president, quite frankly, with what our current president has shown – diplomacy, restraint, introspection, a maturity – he’s not any of those things ,’ Cranston said, moving on to Trump. Hillary showing maturity and introspection ‘He’s the antitheses of what you’d want a president to be as far as behavior and comportment,’ the actor added. He added that university courses will be taught, books will be written and movies will be made in the future about Trump and this bizarre election. Cranston, who is a Clinton supporter, said he did not care if his views cost him fans, but that it was his responsibility as a public figure to talk politics as well . ‘I am willing to take those risks, I don’t want to sit on the sidelines. The socially-conscious Cranston joins the growing list of stars who have spoken up for Clinton which also includes Elizabeth Banks, actress America Ferrera and Scandal star Tony Goldwyn, all Hillary Clinton regulars on the campaign trail. More than 100 celebrities have also signed on to a MoveOn.org campaign launched on Monday to urge voters not to put Trump in the White House , with Mark Ruffalo, Neil Patrick Harris, Shonda Rhimes, and Macklemore added to the mix. DCG

Says the women whose whole life has been a series of lies.Hillary Clinton on Sunday effectively dismissed her two remaining White House rivals, suggesting that she s better vetted and tested than Democratic primary opponent Sen. Bernie Sanders and that presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump is only pretend successful. I have been vetted and tested, the Democratic front-runner and former secretary of state said on NBC s Meet the Press. Clinton also suggested that the Vermont senator has not had a negative ad against him during the primary and said, I am going to be the nominee. I m in a much stronger position, and voters who have given me 3 million more votes think that as well. Clinton repeated what she has said in recent days, We re stronger together, a likely reference to the acrimony between the Clinton and Sanders campaigns and supporters, as Sanders keeps alive his longshot White House bid.Recalling how she stayed late into her failed 2008 primary race against now-President Obama, Clinton said that Sanders, campaigning hard this weekend in California ahead of the state s June 7 primary, has every right to finish off his campaign however he chooses. She also appeared to dismiss Trump s business success, the centerpiece of which is his real estate holdings, in an apparent attempt to get him to release his tax returns. She compared him to business people who are really successful, instead of pretend successful. Via: FOX News

Sen. Johnny Isakson voted for a trade agreement, "with China costing Georgia 93,000 jobs."

Ratings for the 89th annual Academy Awards slid for a second consecutive year as a slew of wins for La La Land, a shock Best Picture win for Moonlight and a game host in Jimmy Kimmel couldn’t move the needle this year. [According to Deadline, the 49 minute Oscar broadcast on ABC averaged a 22. in metered market results, in the “early” numbers, marking a for the show. The Hollywood Reporter notes that figure is down around four percent from last year’s telecast, which drew a 23. 4 rating in the early numbers. Last year’s broadcast ultimately drew 34. 4 million viewers, enough to make it the third Oscars ever, so the lower initial numbers could mean this year’s broadcast drew even less total viewers. Sunday night’s ceremony featured plenty of Trump jokes from host Jimmy Kimmel, political statements from some of the honorees and presenters and one major upset. At the tail end of the nearly show, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway mistakenly named La La Land the winner of the night’s biggest award, when Moonlight had actually won. La La producer Jordan Horowitz paused midway through his acceptance speech to announce that a mistake had been made and called the cast and producers of Moonlight to the stage to hand them his Oscar. ’La La Land’ producer: ”There’s a mistake. ’Moonlight’ you guys won Best Picture. This is not a joke.” #Oscars pic. twitter. — Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 27, 2017, The night also featured fiery political speeches from Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, who blasted Trump’s proposed temporary immigration ban in his acceptance speech for Best Foreign Language Film, and from Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal, who criticized Trump’s proposal to build a wall on the U. S. border. As for the awards: Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea) took home the Best Actor prize while Emma Stone (La La Land) won Best Actress. Mahershala Ali (Moonlight) won Best Supporting Actor and Viola Davis (Fences) won Best Supporting Actress. Damien Chazelle (La La Land) won Best Director, and the musical also picked up awards for Best Original Score, Best Original Song and Best Cinematography. Stay tuned for updated ratings later Monday, and see more from the 89th Academy Awards at the Breitbart News livewire. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum

A question has been posed in a puzzled whisper in many of the nation’s living rooms and newsrooms ever since Donald J. Trump’s triumph in this month’s presidential election: What, exactly, is white nationalism? white nationalists have happily embraced Mr. Trump’s victory and, particularly, his choice of Stephen K. Bannon as chief strategist, as a win for their agenda. A barrage of groups that fight discrimination and hate speech have, in turn, criticized Mr. Bannon’s appointment, warning that his embrace of the “ ” movement was little more than an attempt to rebrand racism and white nationalism into something palatable enough for mass consumption. And much of the rest of the country has been left to wonder what this unfamiliar term actually means. While white nationalism certainly overlaps with white supremacy and racism, many political scientists say it is a distinct phenomenon — one that was a powerful but force during the presidential election and will most likely remain a potent factor in American and European politics in coming years. Eric Kaufmann, a professor of politics at Birkbeck University in London, has spent years studying the ways that ethnicity intersects with politics. While most researchers in that field focus on ethnic minorities, Professor Kaufmann does the opposite: He studies the behavior of ethnic majorities, particularly whites in the United States and Britain. White nationalism, he said, is the belief that national identity should be built around white ethnicity, and that white people should therefore maintain both a demographic majority and dominance of the nation’s culture and public life. So, like white supremacy, white nationalism places the interests of white people over those of other racial groups. White supremacists and white nationalists both believe that racial discrimination should be incorporated into law and policy. Some will see the distinction between white nationalism and white supremacy as a semantic sleight of hand. But although many white supremacists are also white nationalists, and vice versa, Professor Kaufmann says the terms are not synonyms: White supremacy is based on a racist belief that white people are innately superior to people of other races white nationalism is about maintaining political and economic dominance, not just a numerical majority or cultural hegemony. For a long time, he said, white nationalism was less an ideology than the default presumption of American life. Until quite recently, white Americans could easily see the nation as essentially an extension of their own ethnic group. But the country’s changing demographics, the civil rights movement and a push for multiculturalism in many quarters mean that white Americans are now confronting the prospect of a nation that is no longer built solely around their own identity. For many white people, of course, the growing diversity is something to celebrate. But for others it is a source of stress. The white nationalist movement has drawn support from that latter group. Its supporters argue that the United States should protect its white majority by sharply limiting immigration, and perhaps even by compelling nonwhite citizens to leave. Mr. Trump’s appointment of Mr. Bannon as his senior counselor and chief West Wing strategist has, more than anything, brought white nationalism to the forefront of conversation. He is the former editor of Breitbart News, a site he described in August to Mother Jones as “the platform of the . ” Although the is ideologically broader than white nationalism — it also includes neoreactionaries, monarchists, and internet trolls — white nationalism makes up a significant part of its appeal. For instance, Richard B. Spencer, who runs the website AlternativeRight. com, is also the director of the National Policy Institute, an organization that says it is devoted to protecting the “heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United States, and around the world. ” Mr. Spencer argues that immigration and multiculturalism are threats to America’s white population, and has said his ideal is a white “ . ” He has avoided discussing the details of how this might be achieved, saying it is still just a “dream,” but has called for “peaceful ethnic cleansing” to remove nonwhite people from American soil. Mr. Bannon, the Trump adviser, told The New York Times upon his appointment that he does not share those views. But under his leadership, Breitbart News has gone to considerable lengths to cater to an audience that does. And in a 2015 radio interview that was resurfaced this week by The Washington Post, Mr. Bannon opposed even highly skilled immigration, implying he believed it was a threat to American culture. “When or of the C. E. O.s in Silicon Valley are from South Asia or from Asia, I think … ” he said, trailing off midsentence before continuing a moment later, “a country is more than an economy. We’re a civic society. ” White nationalists, including Mr. Spencer, have rejoiced at Mr. Bannon’s appointment to such a senior position in the Trump White House. But focusing on figures like Mr. Bannon may obscure the more significant way that white nationalist ideas are affecting politics — and fueling the rise of politicians like Mr. Trump in the United States as well as populist movements in Britain and continental Europe. Several studies of other countries have found that a desire to protect traditional values and culture is the strongest predictor of support for the sort of populism that propelled Mr. Trump to power in the United States. Many of those voters would not think of themselves as white nationalists, and the cultural values and traditions they seek to protect are not necessarily explicitly racial. However, those traditions formed when national identity and culture were essentially synonymous with whiteness. So the impulse to protect them from social and demographic change is essentially an attempt to turn back the clock to a time. A recent working paper by Pippa Norris, a political scientist at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan, concluded, based on an analysis of survey data, that populists have succeeded by appealing to the cultural anxiety of groups like older white men, who once formed the cultural majority in Western societies “but have recently seen their predominance and privilege eroded. ” Elisabeth Ivarsflaten, a professor of politics at the University of Bergen in Norway, came to a similar conclusion after studying policies in Europe. Their supporters, she found, were motivated by a desire to protect their national culture — suggesting they believed that immigrants posed a threat to it. Mr. Trump’s criticism of immigrants and promise to “make America great again” may have tapped into those same cultural anxieties, fueling his success with older and white voters. (Over all, he won white voters by 21 percentage points.) Professor Kaufmann argues that anxiety over white identity and populist politicians can have a symbiotic relationship, each strengthening the other. When populist politicians gain mainstream success, that can make white nationalist ideas more socially acceptable. “It’s not just a question of ethnic change and people being alarmed over it,” he said. “It’s also a question of what people see as the boundaries of acceptable opposition. It’s about what counts as racism, and whether it’s racist to vote for a party. ” “This is all about the norm,” Professor Kaufmann continued. “If it’s weakening or eroding because people think the boundaries have shifted. ”

Sacred Medicine Wheel of Four Brothers(image by open) DMCA "The elders knew peace would not come on the Earth until the circle of humanity is complete; until all four colors sat in the circle and shared their teachings." The sacred medicine wheel of the four directions is for all extents and purposes a mandala, a visual depiction of the universe, our Earth and our inner universe . It's symbolism is simple and primal, and through these qualities it is powerful and meaningful. Representing the intersection of duality and polarity , four is recognized as symbol for completion. In nature this symbolism is illustrated in the cycle of four seasons -- spring, summer, winter and fall -- derived from the flow of cycles between two solstices and two equinoxes of our orbit, as well as the elements of nature: air, fire, water and earth. Four is also reflected in the four aspects of the self: the mental, physical, spiritual and emotional. Mathematically, the symbolism of four it is represented in the four forms of arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) while philosophically, comprehensive human thinking encompasses four dimensions: the thesis (is it so?), antithesis (is it not so?), synthesis (are both so?) and nullesis (are neither so?) Correspondingly, this matrix of four is presented in the beginning of practically every creation story, from Genesis to the Popol Vuh (the Mayan creation story). Nearly all creation stories start with the polarities of Heaven and Earth, and male and female. In this respect, this matrix of four is the basis of most creation stories as well as being depicted in every cross-like symbol shared by so many religions (the Christian cross, the Hindu swastika, the Egyptian ankh etc.) The four Vedas (Sanskrit for "knowledge") are the foundational scriptures in Hindu theology, while the cross symbol adopted by Christianity, Judaism and Islam, its presence in the creation story, and its basis in the four worlds of the Kabbalah reflect its major significance to those teachings. Indeed, all peoples share traditions that include the symbolism of four directly (or subtlety) as part of their core belief systems -- as I explore in detail in the article, The Common Origin of Religions and Theology . And it is this universality of the cross symbol and the unanimous celebration of the matrix of four, symbolically and philosophically, in Hindu, Taoist, Native American, Egyptian, Celtic and Judeo-Christian theology and symbolism that most clearly illustrates its commonality to human spirituality and understanding of our world. - Advertisement - But perhaps no group has lived so completely in unity and reverence to the seasonal cycles of Earth Mother and the universal system, as the indigenous peoples of Turtle Island, now known as North America. Most significantly, the Hopi believe we are living in the fourth world. Hopi tradition states the first world was Endless Space, the second was Dark Midnight, the third was the Age of Animals and the fourth is the World Complete. Four migrations were written upon four sacred tablets which man was supposed to undertake once in this fourth world -- to separate into smaller tribes, divided by color, and began to migrate in four different directions, settling in new lands. The Medicine Wheel Prophecy: The Polarity of Institutions vs. Individuals "At the beginning of this cycle of time, long ago, the Great Spirit made an appearance and gathered the peoples of this Earth together, and said to the human beings, "I'm going to send you to four directions, and over time I'm going to change you to four colors, but I'm going to give you some teachings, and you will call these the Original Teachings; when you come back together with each other, you will share these so that you can live and have peace on Earth, and a great civilization will come about" "And so He gave each of us a responsibility, and we call that the Guardianship. To the Indian people, the Red people, He gave the Guardianship of the Earth" To the South, He gave the yellow race of people Guardianship of the Wind" To the West, He gave the black race of people Guardianship of the Water" To the North, He gave the white race of people Guardianship of the Fire" Each of the four races went to their directions and learned their teachings" [but] some of the brothers and sisters had forgotten the sacredness of all things, and all the human beings were going to suffer for this" The elders knew peace would not come on the Earth until the circle of humanity is complete; until all the four colors sat in the circle and shared their teachings -- then peace would come on Earth." ~ Source : A Cherokee Legend by Lee Brown, Cherokee I have watched with dismay and horror over the last few years especially, and my lifetime in total, as the powers that be, every institution of each type -- religious, government, corporate and media -- have interjected and overwhelmed the discourse of the collective conversation, stifling the development of the discussion and thus the development of our thinking and being. This happens concerning practically every subject -- topics are reduced to a consideration of limited polarities. This reinforces polarity in the human mind, which is trained from birth to look for opposites: Good/Evil, Right/Wrong, Left/Right, Thesis/Antithesis. - Advertisement - The very inquiry into the origins of human thinking and being is posed through the duality of polarity, and yet it is most often considered a singular polarity. Why are we the way we are? Is it the result of nature, or nurture? The debate of nature versus nurture is posed in a single distinct polarization, yet the best question itself supersedes the mindset of the singular polarity. Traditionally, the question is viewed philosophically as a trinity of options -- the thesis (nature), antithesis (nurture) and synthesis (both) of one and the other. And yet, in its natural state, this mode of thinking is more comprehensively a matrix of four: thesis, antithesis, synthesis (both) or neither -- the mindset of infinite alternative potential. Such comprehensive thinking is uncommon today, as the institutions of the status quo have worked to maintain limited, polarizing collective narratives (particularly through the corporate media) so as to keep control of the way we think, and therefore, behave. But, when we understand how duality and polarity can be used against us, we soon come to see there are many holes in the institutional faรƒยงade. Sometimes it is their actions that expose them, but quite often it is what they say and how they say it -- or what they don't say -- that provides clarity into their real motivation: domination. Four Types of Institutional Lies There are four basic types of institutional/political lies, which directly correlate to the four basic forms of arithmetic. Like all effective lies, each type involves some nugget of truth. The first type of lie is the addition of information: Sometimes the addition of a small bit of (generally false) information can change the story entirely. The second type of lie is the subtraction of information: The removal of small key components can result in entirely different meaning. The third type of lie is the multiplication of information: Exaggerations of situations and related information are included in its presentation, to dilute or emphasize. The fourth type of lie is the division of information: The facts are interlaced with 'disconnects' which separate or underplay the significance of information. This approach is often used to cover institutional prejudices and bias; to maintain the appearance of objectivity among institutional leaders. The four main categories of human prejudice are racial, religious, institutional/national and cultural heritage/history. Often prejudice is simply based on the pigment of one's skin, or other inherited features, but sometimes it is much more nuanced and complicated than that, particularly where a history of conflict exists. And while human prejudice is typically based on these four distinctions, the specifics of each are near limitless.

The Austin Independent School District’s graduation rate reached an all-time high of 82.5 percent in 2012.

American Olympians are considering boycotting a world championship event scheduled to be held in Sochi, Russia, in February, a move that would represent the most provocative gesture yet by athletes dissatisfied with how sports officials have responded to the continuing Russian doping scandal. American athletes who compete in bobsled and skeleton have circulated memos laying out reasons to avoid participating in the world championships in Sochi, the site of the last Winter Olympics and of elaborate, cheating. The athletes have cited concerns about doping control, personal safety and information security. The correspondence, some of which was obtained by The New York Times, indicates that the athletes have the support of the United States Olympic Committee. That organization has not taken a strong public stand on Russia’s systemic doping as it seeks to curry favor with global sports leaders in a bid to hold the 2024 Summer Games in Los Angeles. “This has been passed down the line from the very highest level of sport, and now it’s fallen into the lap of athletes,” said Kyle Tress, an American skeleton racer. “There’s tremendous support to skip this event, and I think it’s the right decision. ” The United States Olympic Committee initially declined to comment. On Sunday, after this article was published online, a spokesman wrote that the organization supported athletes’ rights to choose when and where to compete. “The U. S. O. C. does not, and will not, support blanket boycotts of any events,” the spokesman added. “Any decisions our athletes make will be supported independently from our bid for the 2024 Summer Games, which is independent and unrelated to these events. ” In recent days, Mr. Tress and other members of his sport’s athlete advisory committee voted unanimously to recommend that if the competition was not relocated, American athletes should boycott the 2017 world championships. That event is key in determining rankings ahead of the following year’s Winter Olympics, to be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. In May, a longtime chief of Russia’s antidoping laboratory, Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, told The New York Times of a cheating operation coordinated by the Russian government at the Sochi Olympics in 2014. Top Russian athletes doped during the competition, he said, and had their urine replaced with clean urine for drug testing. An investigation commissioned by the World Agency verified the account, with its report released in July, and results of another investigation due this week are expected to address which athletes benefited from the cheating. “The fact that nothing has been done about the Sochi scandal and the fact that we’re still going to race there — it doesn’t make us feel secure, or that they’re taking the situation seriously,” said Katie Uhlaender, an American skeleton racer. At the Sochi Games, Ms. Uhlaender placed fourth, finishing 0. 04 of a second behind the bronze medal winner, Elena Nikitina of Russia. Ms. Nikitina’s urine sample was among those with which Dr. Rodchenkov said he had tampered, leaving Ms. Uhlaender wondering if she deserved a medal. This year, numerous Olympic medals have been stripped from Russian athletes for doping offenses at the Games in London in 2012 and in Beijing in 2008 — but not at Sochi. Athletes who are advocating a Sochi boycott hope that the World Agency’s publication of a final investigative report on Friday will prompt a stronger response from the International Olympic Committee and the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, the sport’s international governing body. Athletes are lobbying for the championships to be moved to a site outside Russia and for officials to revisit the standings of the 2014 Games as warranted. (The I. O. C. has appointed a disciplinary commission focused on Sochi, but it has not taken action ahead of the inquiry report expected this week.) “Perhaps after the report comes out, they’ll listen,” Mr. Tress said. “There’s politics and money and sponsors involved, but this is an opportunity to come out in favor of clean sport. And they’ve missed that opportunity. ” In July, after WADA published an initial report detailing cheating in Sochi, the I. O. C. provided guidance to sports organizations planning to host events in Russia. “Because of the detailed references to the manipulation of samples during the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014,” the committee wrote in a news release, “the I. O. C. asks all International Olympic Winter Sports Federations to freeze their preparations for major events in Russia, such as world championships, World Cups or other major international competitions under their responsibility, and to actively look for alternative organizers. ” Nonetheless, plans for February’s championships have moved forward. The I. O. C. has not publicly clarified its guidelines, and the matter is expected to be discussed at the Olympic committee’s executive board meetings in Switzerland this week. The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation did not respond to emails requesting comment. “Sochi is in Russia, and it’s the place where the cheating happened,” Ms. Uhlaender said. “I’m confused at how the I. O. C. said what it said, and we’re still holding our world championships there. ” Such confusion has transcended nationalities. “It’s not just the U. S. athletes,” said Travis T. Tygart, chief executive of the United States Agency. “Athletes around the world are concerned about this, and it’s a last resort,” he added, referring to the consideration of boycotting competitions. Lizzy Yarnold of Britain, who won a gold medal in skeleton at the Sochi Games, said in October that she was considering skipping the event in Sochi in February. Those traveling to Russia have concerns extending beyond drug testing, too, after recent Russian cyberattacks on WADA and Usada, and the theft of athletes’ private medical information, raised issues. As groups of athletes organize, they are increasingly forcing national governing bodies to support their cause — an uncomfortable position for United States sports officials, who need the votes of global Olympic officials to win the right to host the 2024 Games. The race to hold that competition has narrowed to three bidders, with Los Angeles and Paris considered ahead of Budapest. It was unclear how drug testing at the Sochi competition would be handled. WADA has decertified Russia’s national antidoping agency, making the country ineligible to hold an Olympic competition. That ineligibility, some antidoping officials said, should carry over to other international sporting events. “So long as Russia is noncompliant, they should not have events there,” said Thorhild Widvey, a politician from Norway who sits on WADA’s executive committee. Craig Reedie, WADA’s president, who is also a longtime I. O. C. member and has been criticized for seeming to run the regulatory agency more as politician than policeman, expressed eagerness last month for Russia to return to good standing. He invoked the country’s willingness to host major international competitions — something fewer and fewer countries are vying for. Mr. Tress said, “There hasn’t been a sufficient response from people in leadership positions, and there’s a lot of frustration. ”

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has taken a lead in party nominations for the next leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), securing the support of 65 percent of branches tallied so far, a poll showed. Hundreds of ANC branches across South Africa are nominating their choice for party president and other senior positions ahead of a December conference where about 5,000 delegates sent by the branches will cast their votes. The ANC s next leader will probably become president of the country at a national election in 2019 given the party s electoral dominance. Early indications are that party members are split between Ramaphosa, a former union leader and one of the country s richest people, and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a former minister and ex-wife of President Jacob Zuma, for the party s top job. The poll by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) found that Dlamini-Zuma had secured 30 percent of nominations and that ANC Treasurer General Zweli Mkhize received most of the remaining 5 percent of nominations. The IRR said its data suggested 74 percent of ANC branches had made nominations and cautioned that it had not been able to corroborate its findings. The ANC does not make the nomination tallies public. A Ramaphosa win in December has tended to be viewed as the more positive outcome by investors, some of whom have been spooked by Dlamini-Zuma s campaign message of radical wealth redistribution. Nominations do not necessarily translate into votes at the ANC s elective conference because delegates could vote for a different candidate than the one nominated by their branch. Dlamini-Zuma s campaign says that many branches sympathetic to her are yet to submit their nominations, which could reduce Ramaphosa s lead or swing the outcome in December in her favor. Dlamini-Zuma is backed by the ANC s women s and youth leagues, which also vote in December.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Sunday the government will proceed with a scheduled sales tax increase in 2019 unless the economy suffers a shock as big as the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers. He also defended the government s plan to divert some of the proceeds from the scheduled tax hike to 10 percent from 8 percent to child care and education, saying that investing in children will undoubtedly lead to stronger economic growth . Our administration has worked on fiscal reform more than any other administration, Abe told a television program as his ruling bloc headed for a big win in Sunday s general election. In order to pay back Japan s public debt, you need economic growth, he said. We d like to proceed with fiscal reform by spurring economic growth and investment, Abe said, suggesting his administration will continue to focus on reflating growth rather than fiscal austerity. Abe s ruling bloc was set for a big win in Sunday s election, bolstering his chances of becoming the nation s longest-serving premier. Abe twice delayed the sales tax hike to 10 percent after an earlier increase to 8 percent tipped Japan into recession. Analysts say increasing the levy is crucial to rein in Japan s huge public debt which, at twice the size of its economy, is the biggest among major industrialized nations.

The Upshots elections model suggests that Hillary Clinton is favored to win the presidency, based on the latest state and national polls. A victory by Mr. Trump remains possible: Mrs. Clintons chance of losing is about the same as the probability that an N.F.L. kicker misses a 37-yard field goal. For months, weve been updating our estimates with each new poll. Today, its Election Day, what weve all been waiting for, and there will be no more updates. You can chart different paths to victory below. Heres how our estimates have changed over time: State-by-State Estimates To forecast each partys chance of winning the presidency, our model calculates vote estimates for each state and the District of Columbia, as well as congressional districts in Maine and Nebraska, which assign electoral votes by district. In the table below, we have divided the country into groups based on each areas voting history relative to the nation since 2004. Our forecast in places that tend to vote The New York Times is one of many news organizations to publish election ratings or forecasts. Some, like FiveThirtyEight or the Princeton Election Consortium, use statistical models, as The Times does; others, like the Cook Political Report, rely on reporting and knowledgeable experts opinions. PredictWise uses information from betting markets. We compile and standardize these ratings every day into one scoreboard for comparison. First, every organizations estimate for who will win the presidency: Some combinations of electoral votes are much more common than others. The chart below shows the estimated likelihood of each outcome. The interactive diagram below illustrates Mr. Trumps challenging path to the presidency. Here, we let you control the outcome of the nine states that have voted most like the nation since 2004, plus North Carolina, which has emerged in the past decade as a more competitive state. We then assume that Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton win the other states in which they are favored. Above all, this diagram illustrates how important Florida and Pennsylvania are to both candidates. Select a winner in the states below to see either candidate's paths to victory.