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A new report from the London Borough of Redbridge has revealed almost one in five of all child deaths in the area since 2008 were down to their parents being close relatives. [The statistic was discussed at a meeting of the Redbridge Council Health and Board on Monday, with the matter of child fatality being raised. The council’s report found between 2008 and 2016, 19 per cent of child deaths in the borough were caused by infants being born to “consanguineous relationships” — marriage or otherwise sexual relations between couples who are first cousins or closer. The recording year of saw the highest number of child deaths in the period. Of all deaths in that year, the second greatest cause was “chromosomal, genetic or congenital abnormalities”. Overall, 65 per cent of child deaths occurred before the age of one. The Ilford Recorder reports the remarks of Child Death Overview Panel Chairman Gladys Xavier who told the meeting there were ongoing education programmes targeting Asian communities in the area to address the prevalence of incest, which the paper referred to as a “continued problem”. The council has also asked local schools to emphasise the teaching of genetics to children. The 2011 census found that 41 per cent of Redbridge residents identified as Asian or Asian British, and the religious makeup of the area was 36. 8 per cent Christian, 23. 3 per cent Muslim, and 11. 4 per cent Hindu. Concerns over consanguineous relationships in Redbridge focus around particular communities in the borough, with the report stating the practice “is most common among Pakistani communities” and the same pattern can be observed in Redbridge. Of all child deaths in the area in the time studies, nine per cent were to Pakistani ethnicity parents and were the “result of genetic complications arising from having related parents”. Despite the attempts to reach out to these communities, there was a concern the educational drive was falling on deaf ears. Councillor Joyce Ryan told the board meeting: “Although everyone is battling hard at this it is something that some communities struggle to accept and sometimes do not want to accept. ”

Kim Severson is filling in for Sam Sifton, who emails readers of Cooking five days a week to talk about food and suggest recipes. That email also appears here. To receive it in your inbox, register here. So we need to talk. I want to break up. It’s not you, it’s me. I just need some space. I also need to turn this back over to Sam Sifton, your regularly scheduled newsletter date. But before we part ways, let’s spend just a little more time together. We’ll start with a recipe that I think you’ll always remember me for: tahini ranch dressing. Actually, it’s a recipe Tejal Rao pried out of Julia Goldberg, a cook at the New York vegetarian restaurant Superiority Burger. (Ms. Rao is our newest reporter here at Recipe Central. The kid’s got moxie!) You can use it to dress some romaine or punch up roasted potatoes. It would also work on vegetables or in a burrito. And since you’ve already got the jar of tahini out, put it to good use in this Martha Rose Shulman recipe for roasted broccoli with tahini sauce. Or go old school (there’s an Old Testament joke here somewhere) with Yotam Ottolenghi’s hummus from the cookbook “Jerusalem. ” Lastly, I’d stake my work marriage to Julia Moskin on her salted tahini chocolate chip cookie recipe. Melissa Clark has been busy, too. Check out her latest, a grilled corn recipe based on the elote, the Mexican street snack. And I’m a fan of her vegetarian skillet chili, because you probably already have everything you need to make it, and you can get it on the table pretty quickly tonight. In fact, you probably need some other easy ideas for Manic Monday. (Did you know Prince wrote that song?) We’ve got suggestions for that. Of course, a good cook is never daunted. A lasagna on Monday? Why not? I laugh at you, Monday. Here’s a light vegetarian version that will make you wish Monday would start all over again. Double down by making Mystery Cake, adapted from “Joy of Cooking. ” So, anyway, about us. It’s been great. I’ve loved our time together. I wish you a wonderful life. Don’t forget to write. The address is cookingcare@nytimes. com. And if you haven’t blocked or unfriended me yet, stay in touch on Twitter @kimseverson or on Instagram. And if you never want to see me again, at least follow NYT Cooking in all these places: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. I toast what we had with a glass of salty lemonade and leave you with this. It says it all.

Donald Trump keeps claiming that the election is rigged. Well, he s right, only it s the Republicans who are doing the rigging.Wisconsin has one of the most restrictive voting laws in the nation, which Republicans have bragged would hurt Hillary Clinton in the state.The courts have ordered clerks to set up more polling locations to cut down on voting time and the long lines that plagued the state primary. But Green Bay city clerk Kris Teske, who was appointed by Republican mayor and Scott Walker stooge, Jim Schmitt, tried to get around both the court order and a request from Democratic State Rep. Eric Genrich to put a polling location near the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay to make it easier for students to vote.Teske wrote an email to the Wisconsin Ethics Commission in an effort to get out of doing so, arguing that not only would it cost money and require resources, but it would help Democrats in the upcoming election on November 8th. I don t like the idea at all for many reasons: Staffing, ballot security, budget, etc., she began. I was reading the statutes and read: No site may be designated that affords an advantage to any political party. UWGB is a polling location for students and residents on Election Day but I feel by asking for this to be the site for early voting is encouraging the students to vote more than benefiting the city as a whole. I have heard it said that students lean more toward the democrats and he is a democrat. I have spoken with our Chief of Staff and others at City Hall and they agree that budget wise this isn t going to happen. I would like to know your thoughts on this. Do I have an argument about it being more of a benefit to the democrats. Teske literally just argued for not setting up an additional polling place for students because she thinks they lean more toward voting for Democrats.That s the textbook definition of voter suppression and election rigging.Just imagine if a city clerk decided that churches can t be polling places because religious people lean more toward voting for Republicans. Or that we can t put polling places in rural areas because rural areas lean Republican. Republicans would be crying foul and throwing a temper tantrum over it.Kris Teske should be removed from her position immediately if a polling location is not placed where Rep. Genrich requested. Whether or not more students voting benefits Democrats is beside the point and that shouldn t be the position of a nonpartisan city clerk, Genrich told The Nation. I don t know what Kris s politics are, but it s really unfortunate to see her echoing the sentiments of Republicans in Wisconsin, who have been making it really difficult for citizens to vote in this state. We should be working hard to make sure everyone gets to vote in this country. Anything less should be considered criminal.Featured Image: Ethan Miller via Getty Images

"We’ve spent more money on the military than the next 12 nations combined."

advertisement - learn more I am of no exception to this, as I have often found myself struggling with the demands of day-to-day existence, usually at the expense of my own well-being. Not wanting to perpetuate this lifestyle any further, I recently began making a more conscious effort to implement a number of habits into my routine in the hopes of bringing a little more peace and calm into my world. While many have proven ineffective, the following list of 10 habits did make the cut and have improved my life considerably. Why not try them out for yourself? They might just make your life easier, too. 1. Cut The Multitasking To me, multitasking is nothing more than a grand illusion of increased productivity. Doing several things at once may make us feel as if we are going to accomplish more and therefore have more free time afterwards, but in most cases multitasking ends up taking longer and resulting in poorer work. Rather than trying to cross 3 things off your To-Do List at once, instead really focus on one item at a time (with no distractions), and you might just surprise yourself by how proficient you can be. 2. Prepare Yourself The Night Before Life is full of the unexpected, but the majority of our days tend to feature predictable occurrences and tasks to be accomplished. A simple little habit that I’ve found helpful in mentally preparing myself for the next day is to quickly think about or write out what my day is likely going to offer the night before. I don’t have any science to back this up, but I’ve found it allows my mind to mentally prepare itself and handle the next day better. 3. Turn Off The Tech The continually expanding world of technology is a wonderful thing; however, the amount of time we spend connected to it daily is far past alarming. According to a report by Digital Trends , Americans spend an average of 4.7 hours per day on their phone, which is scary enough, but becomes frightening when we also factor in time spent on our computers and in front of a television. I’ve made a conscious effort to stay away from tech a half-hour before and after sleep as often as possible and have found that just that alone has had a drastic impact on my well-being. advertisement - learn more 4. Stay Hydrated… With Water! According to Sheila Tucker, MA, RD, LDN of Boston College , two-thirds of Americans do not drink enough water daily, meaning that we put our bodies (which are composed of approximately 60% water) through chronic dehydration. I personally can always tell when I’ve not consumed enough water in a day, largely through the difference in how well I can function. Staying properly hydrated can be one of the easiest and most powerful tools in feeling better and ultimately making your life easier. (Note: Remember that anything containing either caffeine or alcohol is a diuretic, meaning it fosters water loss rather than hydration.) 5. Get Rid Of What You Don’t Need We may not all be hoarders, but I’m sure that the majority of us have a number of things in our living space that we truly have no need for. I recently made the move from living in a house to a condo, and am amazed by how little I truly require to live my life happily. By getting rid of what you don’t need, you give what you do require more space to operate, ultimately making your life feel less cluttered and focused. 6. Don’t Be Afraid To Say “No” Saying “no” seems simple enough, but for many of us it is a struggle that makes our lives that much more complicated and unhappy. It may seem scary or confrontational at first, but saying “no” eventually becomes quite empowering, especially when what is turned down is replaced by something you are passionate about or would like to accomplish. 7. Plan Out Your Meals Finding time for this may sound like it wouldn’t make your life easier, but planning out your meals ahead of time has a number of great benefits, the first being that it allows you to save money when grocery shopping by only buying exactly what you need, which in turn limits food and money waste. A second benefit is that it results in you eating meals at home more often, which Michael Pollan spoke to the importance of in a 2007 Ted Talk . I’ve also found great peace of mind in always knowing what I am going to prepare ahead of time rather than having to come up with something on the fly every day. 8. Daily Movement Whether it be something as simple as an evening walk, or as stringent as a workout routine, I’m a huge believer in the importance of daily movement. This is especially important when we consider the amount of research that has emerged to show just how detrimental prolonged periods of sitting can be to our health. Amp up the benefit of your daily movement time by also cutting out technology while doing it. Need music to be active? Put your phone on airplane mode to limit its negative impact on you. 9. Meditate I hate to include it in the list because of how cliché the term has become, but the truth is, based on my first hand experience (and a wealth of scientific data), it really works. There are few things that I can say are capable of having as profound of a positive impact on my daily function as meditating does. We all have rampant minds, and taking even just five minutes a day to quiet it down can work wonders on your experience of peace and ability to handle life. Have trouble meditating? Here are 6 methods that can get anyone on board. 10. Remind Yourself Of What Gets You Going Sometimes it’s the quote, “if not now, when?” and other times it’s the words of accomplished individuals like Will Smith that get me fired up about life. We all have those people, sayings, or things that really speak to us and get our engines going at full steam. Take some time and think about what those things are for you, remind yourself of them daily, and see how much of an impact it has on your overall functionioning. What are your thoughts on these habits? Feel free to share any that you practice regularly through the comment section below to help make this article even more powerful for those who come to it next. The Sacred Science follows eight people from around the world, with varying physical and psychological illnesses, as they embark on a one-month healing journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle. You can watch this documentary film FREE for 10 days by clicking here. "If “Survivor” was actually real and had stakes worth caring about, it would be what happens here, and “The Sacred Science” hopefully is merely one in a long line of exciting endeavors from this group." - Billy Okeefe, McClatchy Tribune

Olivia Palermo Rocks Knits Like You've Never Seen Them Before

WASHINGTON — The chiefs of America’s intelligence agencies last week presented President Obama and Donald J. Trump with a summary of unsubstantiated reports that Russia had collected compromising and salacious personal information about Mr. Trump, two officials with knowledge of the briefing said. The summary is based on memos generated by political operatives seeking to derail Mr. Trump’s candidacy. Details of the reports began circulating in the fall and were widely known among journalists and politicians in Washington. The summary, first reported by CNN, was presented as an appendix to the intelligence agencies’ report on Russian hacking efforts during the election, the officials said. The material was not corroborated, and The New York Times has not been able to confirm the claims. But intelligence agencies considered it so potentially explosive that they decided Mr. Obama, Mr. Trump and congressional leaders needed to be told about it and informed that the agencies were actively investigating it. Intelligence officials were concerned that the information would leak before they informed Mr. Trump of its existence, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about it publicly. The author of the memos is Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer with who once served in Moscow. After Mr. Steele retired in 2009, he founded a private firm called Orbis Business Intelligence in London. Former C. I. A. officials described him as an expert on Russia who is well respected in the spy world. On Tuesday night, Mr. Trump responded to the memos on Twitter: In an appearance recorded for NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” Mr. Trump’s spokeswoman, Kellyanne Conway, said of the claims in the opposition research memos, “He has said he is not aware of that. ” On Wednesday, a spokesman for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia dismissed the allegations. “The Kremlin has no compromising dossier on Trump, such information isn’t consistent with reality and is nothing but an absolute fantasy,” the spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said at a news conference. Since the intelligence agencies’ report on Friday that Mr. Putin of Russia had ordered the hacking and leaks of Democratic emails in order to hurt his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, and help Mr. Trump, the and his aides have said that Democrats are trying to mar his election victory. The decision of top intelligence officials to give the president, the and the Gang of Eight — Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress and the intelligence committees — what they know to be unverified, defamatory material was extremely unusual. The appendix summarized opposition research memos prepared mainly by a retired British intelligence operative for a Washington political and corporate research firm. The firm was paid for its work first by Mr. Trump’s Republican rivals and later by supporters of Mrs. Clinton. The Times has checked on a number of the details included in the memos but has been unable to substantiate them. The memos suggest that for many years, the Russian government of Mr. Putin has looked for ways to influence Mr. Trump, who has traveled repeatedly to Moscow to investigate real estate deals or to oversee the Miss Universe competition, which he owned for several years. Mr. Trump never completed any major deals in Russia, though he discussed them for years. Mr. Steele, who gathered the material about Mr. Trump, is considered a competent and reliable operative with extensive experience in Russia, American officials said. But he passed on what he heard from Russian informants and others, and what they told him has not yet been vetted by American intelligence. The memos describe sex videos involving prostitutes with Mr. Trump in a 2013 visit to a Moscow hotel. The videos were supposedly prepared as “kompromat,” or compromising material, with the possible goal of blackmailing Mr. Trump in the future. The memos also suggest that Russian officials proposed various lucrative deals, essentially as disguised bribes in order to win influence over Mr. Trump. The memos describe several purported meetings during the 2016 presidential campaign between Trump representatives and Russian officials to discuss matters of mutual interest, including the Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, John D. Podesta. If some of the unproven claims in the memos are merely titillating, others would amount to extremely serious, potentially treasonous acts. One of the opposition research memos quotes an unidentified Russian source as claiming that the hacking and leaking of Democratic emails was carried out “with the full knowledge and support of TRUMP and senior members of his campaign team. ” In return, the memo said, “the TRUMP team had agreed to sideline Russian intervention in Ukraine as a campaign issue” because Mr. Putin “needed to cauterize the subject. ” Michael Cohen, a lawyer and adviser to Mr. Trump, also went to Twitter to deny a specific claim in the opposition research involving him. One of the memos claims that Mr. Cohen went to Prague in August or September to meet with Kremlin representatives and to talk about Russian hacking of Democrats. Mr. Cohen tweeted on Tuesday night: In addition, in a recent interview with The Times, one of the Russian officials named in the memo as having met with Mr. Cohen, Oleg Solodukhin, denied that he had met with Mr. Cohen or any other Trump representative. “I don’t know where that rumor came from,” Mr. Solodukhin, of the Russian organization Rossotrudnichestvo, which promotes Russian culture and interests abroad, said in a telephone interview. The Times reported before the election that the F. B. I. was looking into possible evidence of links between the Trump campaign and Russia. But the investigation surfaced again at a Senate hearing on Tuesday in a series of questions from Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, to the F. B. I. director, James B. Comey. Mr. Wyden, trying to draw Mr. Comey out on information he may have heard during a classified briefing, asked if the F. B. I. had investigated the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia. Mr. Comey demurred, saying he could not discuss any investigations that might or might not be underway. Mr. Wyden kept pressing, asking Mr. Comey to provide a written answer to the question before Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 because he feared there would be no declassification of the information once Mr. Trump took office. After the hearing, Mr. Wyden posted on Twitter: The F. B. I. obtained the material long before the election, and some of the memos in the opposition research dossier are dated as early as June. But agents have struggled to confirm it, according to federal officials familiar with the investigation. Allies of Senator Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic leader from Nevada who retired at the end of the year, said the disclosures validated his call last summer for an investigation by the F. B. I. into Mr. Trump’s links to Russia. Democrats on Tuesday night pressed for a thorough investigation of the claims in the memos. Representative Eric Swalwell of California, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, called for law enforcement to find out whether the Russian government had had any contact with Mr. Trump or his campaign. “The has spoken a number of times, including after being presented with this evidence, in flattering ways about Russia and its dictator,” Mr. Swalwell said. “Considering the evidence of Russia hacking our democracy to his benefit, the would do a service to his presidency and our country by releasing his personal and business income taxes, as well as information on any global financial holdings. ”

Christina El Moussa Looks Totally Smitten on Dinner Date With New Boyfriend -- See the Pic!

A video supposedly showing a dead COVID-19 victim raising his hand while being lifted away by health workers proves the global pandemic is a hoax.

@greghm88 @pauloldenburg an estimated ZERO JEWS enlisted on 9.12 to fight THEIR "war on terror"

@LibertarianGeo @mimitonadzuketa I recognise that guy on the right... Who is it?

For the umpteenth time, Obama takes the opportunity to trash Americans while overseas President Obama on Monday pushed world leaders to finalize a sweeping global agreement that would cut carbon emissions and hopefully stave off the worst effects of climate change.Invoking the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., Obama insisted that a grim future hurt by worsening global warming is one that we have the power to change. Right here. Right now. But only if we rise to this moment, he said in a speech kicking off the Paris conference. For all the challenges we face, the growing threat of climate change could define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other, Obama said. What should give us hope that this is a turning point, that this is the moment we finally determined we would save our planet, is the fact that our nations share a sense of urgency about this challenge and a growing realization that it is within our power to do something about it. I ve come here personally, as the leader of the world s largest economy and the second-largest emitter, to say that the United States of America not only recognizes our role in creating this problem, we embrace our responsibility to do something about it, he added. Via: NYDailyNews

‘Conspiracy Theorists’ Believe They’ve Found Justice Scalia’s MURDER Plot Posted on October 27, 2016 by Dawn Parabellum in Politics Share This It’s troubling to uncover the dirty secrets in the emails leaked from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, and it just keeps getting worse. Since the mainstream media refuses to do it, many “conspiracy theorists” are investigating for themselves, and internet sleuths believe they’ve uncovered the murder plot of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Unsurprisingly, the Clintons may have even more blood on their hands. Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia. The evidence does look damning. In the email, where coded language and a disjointed writing technique was used, Podesta is offered a “script” to a “movie.” However, that’s the only normal part of this email. The script writer of the movie is asking Podesta to fund the film, which right away makes the exchange odd since the movie isn’t political and Podesta is Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, not a movie investor. It seems even more strange once the plot of the movie is revealed in the emails as well. What’s worse, this is not the first email thought to be about the assassination of Antonin Scalia, but I digress. The movie is about a “Mexican” girl on a journey to find her mother. She crosses paths with a man named Alex who assists her on her journey. They end up at an isolated ranch house with a massive underground tunnel in Tecate, California. There is a Smithsonian map included in a link, which has a line pointing to the “setting” of the film, as seen below. Map included in the Podesta emails showing the “setting” of the “movie” The map seems inconspicuous enough until it was realized that the pointer of the map is showing the exact location of the Cibolo Ranch where Antonin Scalia died. Below is a Google map showing the location of the Cibolo Ranch. Google map depicting the location of the Cibolo Ranch The maps were enough to draw the attention of internet sleuths. Digging deeper, they have uncovered more in the same email discussing the details of this “movie,” and honestly, it doesn’t feel right. The entire script of the “movie” can be read in the leaked emails , but one part stands out in addition to connecting the dots with the maps. Ronald Reagan is discussed for some strange reason It’s difficult to imagine what President Ronald Reagan has to do with a movie about a Mexican woman’s journey, other than the fact that Antonin Scalia was a Reagan appointee. However, it gets a little more creepy further down the slightly discombobulated email. A portion of the lengthy email conspiracy theorists believe details the murder plot of Antonin Scalia His five “film projects” aren’t detailed. All he says are “two are political, one is spiritual, and two are just for fun.” Conspiracy theorists believe this is a list of his assassinations and the best way to describe who has been killed and why. Could this all be an elaborate movie and the email sender a poor writer? That seems unlikely, considering he’s claiming to have written an entire script. But, could conspiracy theorists have jumped the gun? That’s also possible. There’s still no absolute proof that this is the murder plot of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, but with just over one week left until the nation decides who will be the president and Wikileaks still having many more John Podesta emails to release, it’s possible we may see more about this “movie” if that’s what was really being discussed.

CHICAGO — J. Dennis Hastert, once among the nation’s most powerful politicians, was sentenced on Wednesday to 15 months in prison for illegally structuring bank transactions in an effort to cover up his sexual abuse of young members of a wrestling team he coached decades ago. In a hearing that was by turns harrowing and revelatory, Mr. Hastert publicly admitted for the first time to abusing his athletes, was confronted in emotional addresses by one of the former wrestlers and the sister of another, and faced a long, scathing rebuke from the judge. Mr. Hastert, 74, who made an unlikely rise from beloved wrestling coach in Illinois to speaker of the House in Washington, sat slouched in a wheelchair in a federal courtroom here as a judge announced that he was rejecting pleas for probation from Mr. Hastert’s lawyers, as well as prosecutors’ endorsement of a shorter prison stay. While the sentencing hearing was, technically, about a violation of banking rules and regulations, the proceedings focused squarely on the underlying reason for Mr. Hastert’s puzzling bank withdrawals — his abuse of young wrestlers who had viewed him as a role model. “The defendant is a serial child molester,” said Judge Thomas M. Durkin of Federal District Court, as Mr. Hastert sat impassively, often staring downward, hands crossed on his lap. He added, “Some actions can obliterate a lifetime of good works. Nothing is more stunning than having ‘serial child molester’ and ‘speaker of the House’ in the same sentence. ” Mr. Hastert was not charged with sexual abuse because statutes of limitation for acts in the 1960s and ’70s have run out the judge noted pointedly that punishment for such a conviction would have been far worse. Illegally structuring bank transactions to keep such abuse secret — the felony count to which Mr. Hastert pleaded guilty — carried a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Mr. Hastert, whose date to report to prison has yet to be set, was ordered to pay $250, 000 in fines, never to contact his victims and to receive treatment. “If there’s a public shaming of the defendant because of the conduct he’s engaged in, so be it,” Judge Durkin said. Mr. Hastert has had a series of illnesses since last year, including a stroke, a blood stream infection and a spinal infection — factors his lawyers and family members argued should be taken into account in the sentencing. They urged the judge to consider the entire arc of his life and career, including his years of public service. As Mr. Hastert prepared to address the judge, he used a walker to rise to his feet, but his voice was firm and clear. “The thing I want to do today is say I’m sorry to those I hurt and misled,” said Mr. Hastert, whose grown sons were in the courtroom. “I want to apologize to the boys I mistreated when I was their coach. What I did was wrong and I regret it. ” Mr. Hastert’s remarks followed a tearful, halting statement from one of his victims, Scott Cross, a former wrestler, who had never before spoken publicly about his abuse and who said that he had not even been sure whether he could bring himself to make his statement now. “As a high school wrestler I looked up to Coach Hastert — he was a key figure in my life,” said Mr. Cross, now 53 and a businessman who works in financial services in the Chicago area. From a podium just feet from Mr. Hastert’s wheelchair, Mr. Cross recalled abuse that occurred on a locker room training table when he was 17. “I felt intense pain, shame and guilt,” he said. He said that he had gone years without speaking of what had happened, even to his parents and closest friends. “I’ve always felt that what Coach Hastert had done to me was my darkest secret,” Mr. Cross said. The revelation that Mr. Cross was among Mr. Hastert’s victims caused a ripple through Illinois’s Republican Party, where Mr. Hastert had gotten his political start and had been a political mentor to Mr. Cross’s brother, Tom Cross, a former state House Republican leader. Judge Durkin noted that Mr. Hastert had recently unsuccessfully sought a letter of support from Tom Cross. Judge Durkin is the brother of another prominent lawmaker here, Jim Durkin, the Republican leader in the state House, and the judge had offered last year to recuse himself in the case. The sister of another victim, Stephen Reinboldt, spoke directly to Mr. Hastert, describing lonely, isolated years Mr. Reinboldt spent after repeated abuse by Mr. Hastert in high school until his death of AIDS in 1995. “You took his life, Mr. Hastert,” Jolene Burdge, the sister, said. “Not because he died of AIDS, but because you took his innocence and turned it against him. ” At one point, the judge stared down at Mr. Hastert from the bench, and questioned him about the victims, one by one. “You said you mistreated athletes. Did you sexually abuse Mr. Cross?” he asked. “I don’t remember doing that, but I accept his statement,” Mr. Hastert replied. “Did you sexually abuse Victim B?” Judge Durkin asked, referring to one of at least two other former wrestlers whose names have not been made public. Mr. Hastert paused. “Yes,” he said. “How about Mr. Reinboldt — did you sexually abuse him?” Judge Durkin asked. Mr. Hastert said that was “a different situation,” but eventually acknowledged the abuse. Patrick Collins, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago who has handled corruption cases including that of former Gov. George Ryan, a Republican, said that it was unusual for a judge to veer so far from the sentencing guidelines, which recommended no prison time or up to six months. “It’s extraordinary that the case was on its face a financial structuring case with the conduct acknowledged, but the sentencing was about everything, essentially, but the structuring,” Mr. Collins said. Mr. Hastert’s fall from genial retired House speaker and hometown celebrity was sudden and steep. For decades, both in Washington and in Yorkville, on the edge of Chicago’s western suburbs, where Mr. Hastert had coached the local high school wrestling team to state championship, he had a reputation for appearing and steady. Mr. Hastert, who had served in the Illinois legislature and was then elected to Congress, found himself catapulted to speaker in 1999, in part because he seemed to be a safe, agreeable option. After leaving Congress, he went on to become a lobbyist. He was charged last May with lying to the F. B. I. and making cash withdrawals in a way devised to hide the fact that he was paying $3. 5 million to a former wrestler for misconduct. The wrestler, whose name has not been revealed and who is identified in documents only as Individual A, told of abuse in a motel room during a wrestling camp trip when he was 14. After the payments began, around 2010, the federal authorities took notice of large, unexplained withdrawals Mr. Hastert was making from his bank. When told that large withdrawals had to be reported, Mr. Hastert began drawing smaller sums, prosecutors say, to avoid notice. The wrestler sued Mr. Hastert this week, saying he still owed him $1. 8 million of their settlement. Before the hearing, a long list of supporters — from Mr. Hastert’s wife, Jean, to Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader — had sent letters to Judge Durkin. “He doesn’t deserve what he is going through,” Mr. DeLay wrote. But for nearly 45 minutes on Wednesday, Judge Durkin held forth in a passionate, often contemptuous tone, with little interruption. He said that Mr. Hastert had “manipulated” the F. B. I. and the United States attorney’s office, diverted their investigation and knowingly tried to “set up” Individual A, actions that were “intentional, thought out and desperate. ” The judge spoke broadly about child sexual abuse and the lifelong damage it inflicts. “Can you imagine the whispers, the the sideways glances if you’re a boy and you accuse the town hero of molesting you?” he said. He dismissed the defense’s arguments that Mr. Hastert was too old, frail or ill to be properly taken care of in a federal prison. And he ended with a blunt synopsis. “This is a horrible case — a horrible set of circumstances, horrible for the defendant, horrible for the victims, horrible for our country,” he said. “I hope I never have to see a case like this again. Court adjourned. ”

Within the three miles surrounding the University Circle area, infant mortality exceeds some Third World countries.

@PzFeed @BDUTT you should be clear about whom you are asking ! You r begging to Islam for Freedom of Speech ! Right !

Share on Twitter A plane carrying Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence skidded off the runway and tore up the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport in New York City on Thursday night. The Boeing 737 reportedly “overshot” the runway. There were no reported injuries. Pence took to Twitter to ensure the nation that he was unharmed. So thankful everyone on our plane is safe. Grateful for our first responders & the concern & prayers of so many. Back on the trail tomorrow! — Mike Pence (@mike_pence) October 28, 2016 The videos and photos of the scene were pretty striking. Clearly, the situation could have turned out much worse. This was the Tarmac when we landed on the @mike_pence plane- torn up concrete pic.twitter.com/hEYodMkord — Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) October 28, 2016 Photo shows Mike Pence's plane after it skidded off the runway at NYC's LaGuardia Airport; no injuries reported. https://t.co/1o6QoRkewr pic.twitter.com/xx02LAm9sg — ABC News (@ABC) October 28, 2016 #BREAKING : VP candidate @mike_pence 's campaign plane slides off rainy runway at LGA in NYC; no one injured https://t.co/ApiI0IFS5x pic.twitter.com/LjlgASGNWA

This is about to get interesting. The Hollywood elite that has been imposing their liberal moral code on the rest of America for decades (without having to exhibit a shred of moral decency), is just about to be put to the test Charlotte Rampling has accused those complaining about a shortage of black nominees at this year s Oscars of anti- white racism .The 69-year-old, who is up for the Best Actress award, said that people should not be classified adding that nominations should be based on the performance.Responding to stars who have threatened to boycott the ceremony next month, she told a radio station yesterday: One can never really know but perhaps the black actors did not deserve to make the final list. Miss Rampling s remarks follow a week of debate about nominations for the Academy Awards, after it was revealed that no black actors were shortlisted for the second year running. There have been calls for a boycott, with Jada Pinkett Smith wife of Hollywood actor Will Smith writing on Facebook that: We must stand in our power. Begging for acknowledgement or even asking [to be nominated] diminishes dignity. It diminishes power and we are a dignified people. Others have demanded that the Academy bring in quotas however this was met with criticism from Miss Rampling.Speaking to French radio station Europe 1 yesterday, the British star said: Why classify people? We live in countries where everyone is more or less accepted. There are always issues like he is less good looking or he is too black . There is always someone who says you are too . So are we going to say that we will categorise all that to make lots of minorities everywhere? She said that she did not think racism played into the nomination process and that the lack of black stars up for awards could be because they have not earned them.She added: [The complaints are] anti-white racism. Maybe the black actors don t deserve to be on the final stretch? Fellow acting veteran Sir Michael Caine also weighed into the debate yesterday. He told the Today programme: You can t vote for an actor because he s black and you can t just say I m going to vote for him, he s not very good, but he s black, I ll vote for him . You have to give a good performance and I m sure people have. I saw Idris Elba (in Beasts Of No Nation) I thought he was wonderful. Via: UK Daily Mail

@MailOnline | ISIS !

@CapehartJ this presser is going to be part of that class that teaches you how NOT to do it

@drgoddess http://t.co/fWvv5x9WDO

A photo of a burned cat is from the Australia wildfires.

Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough agreed on Monday with Nancy Pelosi s defense of scandal-ridden Rep. John Conyers. Look I think it s really important that the words due process have come up in this conversation, not that it s possible in every situation, but in this situation Every situation that we ve covered in the past two months is different, Brzezinski said referring to numerous accusations of sexual misconduct that have been levied against celebrities and politicians. They all have different dynamics to them, they all have different levels of nasty to them or bad to them. And they all need to be treated differently. This one breaks my heart, it really does, Brzezinski said.In a report released last week, Conyers, 88-years-old and the longest currently serving congressman, was accused of settling a previous harassment claim, and further accused by other former staffers of misconduct. He subsequently stepped down as the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee. The congressman denies the allegations. Michigan Congressman John Conyers has been in the spotlight recently for being a repeat sexual harasser to women he works with. He even showed up for a meeting in his underwear! Yikes!Nancy Pelosi defended Conyers on Meet the Press when she called him an icon She went on to say that he deserves due process . That s pretty ironic when you think of how the left wants to lock up any Republican right away if they re accused of wrongdoing. Conyers gets a pass because he s an icon ? This is just more insanity from Pelosi who needs to retire with Conyers..@NancyPelosi: Accused Congressman Conyers is an "icon" in our country. #MTP pic.twitter.com/4QlKKJTIJP Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) November 26, 2017 SHOWED UP TO A MEETING IN HIS UNDERWEAR The Detroit Free Press reported:A lawyer who formerly worked for U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, and later ran an ethics watchdog group in the nation s capital confirmed for the Free Press on Thursday that Conyers verbally abused her, criticized her appearance and once showed up to a meeting in his underwear.Melanie Sloan, a well-known Washington lawyer who for three years in the 1990s worked as Democratic counsel on the House Judiciary Committee, where Conyers remains the ranking Democrat, told the Detroit Free Press that Conyers constantly berated her, screaming at her and firing her and then rehiring her several times.She said he criticized her for not wearing stockings on at least one occasion. On another, she said he ordered her backstage from a committee field hearing on crime she had organized in New York City to babysit one of his children. Sloan made clear that she did not feel she had ever been sexually harassed, but that she felt mistreated by this guy.

All Republicans had to do is ban suspected terrorists from buying guns and pass a universal background checks law. But they chose to listen to the NRA, and now states like Hawaii are bringing the hammer down on guns.The American people are demanding legislative action to prevent future mass shootings and reduce the number of gun violence incidents in this country. Simple fixes like universal background checks and banning terrorist suspects from buying guns legally would have satisfied most Americans.But because Republicans are owned by the NRA they refused to act and now all gun owners are paying the price for their failure to be responsible.Hawaii has the lowest gun death rate of any state in the nation and the island chain s strict gun laws are the main reason why.And now Governor David Ige has signed three bills that take gun regulations to another level.Introduced by Democratic state Rep. Will Espero, SB 2954 requires police to place the names of gun owners in the state in the FBI monitoring database so that law enforcement in Hawaii will be informed if any of their residents commit a crime wherever they go in the United States. So if a Hawaiian commits a crime in New York the police in Hawaii will be notified so they can determine if that person should still get to be in possession of firearms.In addition, HB 625 stalking and sexual harassment now disqualify people who commit these crimes from buying guns and HB 2632 requires people who have been diagnosed with major mental disorders to surrender their guns to authorities.In all, these three measures make it clear that Hawaii is done taking shit from the NRA.Of course, it didn t take long for the NRA to whine about the bills. The NRA Institute for Legislative Action, which really should change that last word to Inaction, predictably condemned the new laws. The exercise of an individual s Second Amendment rights is not inherently suspicious and should not require a person to surrender other civil liberties, including unwarranted invasions of privacy or unequal treatment under the law. The lawful acquisition, possession, carrying, or use of a firearm does not justify subjecting citizens to ongoing monitoring. Sorry, NRA. But that s what happens when you refuse to do anything reasonable to prevent gun violence other than offering thoughts and prayers. If you can t agree on anything to keep guns solely in the hands of responsible citizens, the government has the power and the right to do it without your support.NRA spokesperson Amy Hunter complained that the laws go too far, which is coming from an organization that believes ANY law restricting guns goes too far. As you can imagine, the NRA finds this one of the most extreme bills we ve ever seen, she whined.At this point, if the NRA and their Republican puppets continue to refuse to do anything reasonable to reduce gun violence in this country, the states should do whatever it takes to make everyone as safe from gun violence as possible, even if it means putting every gun owner on an FBI list. Rep. Espero understands this and he s also a gun owner.Republicans and the NRA only have themselves to blame for not agreeing to be reasonable in the first place. They had a chance to DO something and they failed spectacularly. Now it s up to the states and Hawaii is setting an example for other states to follow.Featured image via Guns Wikia

Whirlwind Romances and Crushing Heartbreak: Inside Jennie Garth's Struggle to Find Love

ALEXANDER MERCOURIS | THE DURAN R ussia’s use of its aircraft carrier in the Syrian conflict is principally intended to learn lessons for the design of more potent such warships in the future, rather than to change the situation in Syria itself. The Russian navy’s deployment of aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean has provoked a very confused response in the Western media. On the one hand it is described as a major escalation, as if was a US style super carrier. On the other hand there has been a great of deal of derision , with the ship called an obsolete rust bucket dangerous mainly to its crew. Where does the truth lie? The Admiral Kuznetsov is the first and only Russian aircraft carrier capable of launching fighter aircraft conventionally. The preceding Kiev class carriers were smaller ships, which could only launch a small number of aircraft vertically. Contrary to what reports say, Admiral Kuznetsov is by the standards of navy carriers a relatively new ship. She was launched in 1985, commissioned in the then Soviet navy in 1990, but only became operational after prolonged trials in 1995. The US navy currently operates 10 Nimitz class supercarriers. If the age of a ship is determined by its date of launch; then three of the US navy’s Nimitz class supercarriers are older than Kuznetsov; if by date of commission, then five are; if by entry into service then six are. The Russian navy had no previous experience of operating carriers, so the lengthy time scale of her sea trials between commission and entry into service is not surprising. In addition what undoubtedly extended this period before her full entry into service was the political and economic crisis Russia experienced during the 1990s. Given the severity of this crisis, it is a wonder a ship as large and complicated as Kuznetsov was brought into service at all. Either way talk of Kuznetsov as some sort of archaic ship from a bygone era is exaggerated, whilst jokes about Kuznetsov being “….practically old enough to have been deployed in the 1905 Russo-Japanese war….” are simply silly. The Admiral Kuznetsov is expected to deploy off Syria, carrying 15 warplanes, including new MiG-29K/KUB fighters and the Su-33a, shown here. Aircraft carriers as it happens tend to be long-lived ships. Coral Sea, a US Medway class carrier, served in the US Navy from 1947 to 1990. By the standards of aircraft carriers Kuznetsov is not an old ship. What is true about Kuznetsov is that because she was the first of a type of ship of which the Russians had no previous experience, and because of the fraught period during which she was commissioned and brought into service – which made it impossible to sort out her teething problems properly – Kuznetsov suffers by comparison with US navy carriers from design flaws and from engine problems. The ship’s engines are unreliable, because they are insufficiently powerful for a ship of this size. The Russians when they built Kuznetsov lacked suitable nuclear reactors for this type of ship (they were designed for the intended follow-on Ulyanovsk carrier, which because of the 1990s crisis was however never built). They also lacked conventional engines large enough for a ship of this size, which was roughly twice as heavy as the largest other ship the Russian or Soviet navy had commissioned before. The Russians accordingly came up with a complicated solution of using multiple steam turbines and turbo-pressurised boilers to make up for the lack of power of the individual engines. Like all complicated arrangements, this arrangement is unreliable and prone to breakdown, with the engines experiencing stress especially in heavy seas. To compound the trouble with the engines, they were built by a plant in what is now independent Ukraine. As political relations between Russia and Ukraine deteriorated, servicing of the engines by this plant became increasingly erratic, and has now stopped completely. It is these problems with the engines that account for the practice of accompanying Kuznetsov on long range deployments with a tug. The tug in question – the Nikolai Chiker – is the most powerful tug in the world. This same tug played a key role in successfully hauling Kuznetsov’s uncompleted sister ship Varyag from Ukraine to China in 2005, where she has now become the Chinese carrier Liaoning. The fact Kuznetsov is accompanied by a tug on long range deployments has provoked some derision. However it is common practice in any navy to accompany large surface warships with service ships, and accompanying Kuznetsov with a tug ensures in Kuznetsov’s case that the carrier will get to where the Russian naval staff are sending it. The engine problems will not affect Kuznetsov’s Mediterranean deployment when the carrier finally reaches its position. Kuznetsov suffers from other problems, which are unsurprising given that Kuznetsov is so much bigger and so different to any other ship the Russian navy has ever previously commissioned, and the unhappy times when it was launched. The arduous deployment of the Russian flotilla. Everything is harder for the Russians. (BBC) There are for example known to be problems with Kuznetsov’s water pipes, which have a history of breakdowns and of freezing up in Arctic weather. These problems too however will not affect Kuznetsov’s capabilities as a warship when the carrier finally reaches the eastern Mediterranean, and the close proximity of Russian bases in Sevastopol and Tartus means they can be dealt with quickly if they arise. Once this deployment is ended Kuznetsov will go through a lengthy refit, which unlike previous refits is intended to be practically a rebuild. With Russia developing a new range of much larger and more powerful engines, Kuznetsov’s current unsatisfactory engines will finally be replaced, and the other teething problems like the problem with the water pipes will finally be addressed. Ultimately this is a potent warship, bigger than any other carrier other than those operated by the US navy, and once the refit is done it will be a powerful asset. In the meantime the ship already provides the Russian fleet with a carrier capability matched by no other navy apart from that of the US. The Russian carrier passing through the English Channel. In saying this it is important to stress however that the US navy carrier force – with its 10 nuclear powered supercarriers – dwarfs the capability of any other navy, including Russia’s, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Neither the Kuznetsov, nor any other carrier the Russians might build, nor any other navy, can match or rival it. A more pertinent criticism of Kuznetsov is that though Kuznetsov is a large ship (at 55,000 tonnes standard weight and with a 305 metre length Kuznetsov is midway between a US Medway class carrier and a US Forrestal class supercarrier) the air group it carries at 40-50 aircraft is relatively small (by comparison a smaller US Medway class carrier carried an air group of 75-80 aircraft in the 1980s). This suggests that Kuznetsov is inefficient in its use of its spaces, a fact which again reflects Russian inexperience designing this sort of ship when Kuznetsov was built. However it also partly reflects differences in Kuznetsov’s intended role. At the time Kuznetsov was built the Russians did not envisage using their carriers for the sort of long range carrier type operations carried out by the US navy. Unlike US navy supercarriers Kuznetsov prioritises air defence of the fleet rather than long range strikes. That explains why Kuznetsov’s fighter aircraft take off from the carrier using a ski jump rather than steam catapults. Ski jump takeoffs put less stress on the pilots and shorten takeoff times, enabling more aircraft to take off from the carrier more quickly, which can be important in an air defence situation. The penalty is that aircraft are limited in the loads they can carry by comparison with aircraft launched by steam catapults. For air defence – the purpose for which Kuznetsov was designed – this is unimportant since fighter aircraft carrying out air defence missions only carry light air to air missiles rather than heavy air to ground missiles and bombs. However it does significantly reduce the air group’s capability to carry out long range strikes. Combined with the relatively small size of the air group, this means that Kuznetsov’s ability to carry out long range ground strikes is fractional compared to that of a US navy supercarrier. If Kuznetsov is not really designed to carry out long range ground strikes, why are the Russians deploying Kuznetsov off the coast of Syria? The plan to deploy Kuznetsov to the eastern Mediterranean was made many months ago, long before the recent collapse in relations with the US over Syria. The decision therefore can have nothing to do with deterring the US from declaring a no fly zone over Syria, as some people are suggesting. Most likely the intention is to gain experience operating aircraft against ground targets from an offshore carrier. This is not something the Russians have ever done before. Even if Kuznetsov’s capability to do it by comparison with a US navy supercarrier is marginal, the fighting in Syria does at least give the Russians an opportunity to try it out to find out how it is done and what it involves. That way they can learn lessons that will help them with the design of the far more powerful ships that are to come (see here and here ). In other words the deployment of the Kuznetsov to the eastern Mediterranean is essentially a training exercise. It does not merit either the derision or the hype that has been created around it.

Says "Dan McCready took money from Ilhan Omar"

The president-elect on Monday took issue with a photo of himself used by CNN for the cover of its book about the 2016 election. Donald Trump took to Twitter to write, @CNN just released a book called Unprecedented which explores the 2016 race & victory. Hope it does well but used worst cover photo of me! @CNN just released a book called Unprecedented which explores the 2016 race & victory. Hope it does well but used worst cover photo of me! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2017This is the book cover:Get the 2017 inaugural edition of CNN s book Unprecedented in stores or online https://t.co/3ix857A9E5 pic.twitter.com/m23kFq7Y49 CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 2, 2017This isn t the first time Trump put his massive ego on display. He never learns. In late November, he yelled at reporters for using a picture of him which showed his multiple chins. Ever since, people have been tweeting out the image he dislikes so much. Well, it s happening again.The Internet responded to the tragically insecure president-elect s tweet with impunity. Twitter users are looking for the picture in question. (Psst: It s in the above linked tweet).This is apparently the photo the Mirror-Gazer in Chief hates. Make sure not to retweet it! @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/qR8NtQSSDM Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) January 2, 2017@realDonaldTrump @CNN did they use this one? pic.twitter.com/1ezRJuxPqv Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) January 2, 2017Social media users started tweeting Trump terrible photos that have been taken of him.@realDonaldTrump @CNN how about this one? pic.twitter.com/HzWBHN6YlV Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) January 2, 2017@realDonaldTrump @CNN this one is pretty nice too! pic.twitter.com/2pEAdg6jFv Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) January 2, 2017@realDonaldTrump @CNN You re so vain. Jeffrey Guterman (@JeffreyGuterman) January 2, 2017@JeffreyGuterman @realDonaldTrump @CNN he probably thought that book was about him. Subverting Trump (@rationalsquad) January 2, 2017@realDonaldTrump @CNN Now the president elect is whining about a photo they used. Jesus. What a clown. Mike Elgan (@MikeElgan) January 2, 2017@realDonaldTrump Have your charitable foundation commission a better one. pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) January 2, 2017@pourmecoffee @realDonaldTrump We here at MDT kinda like this one. pic.twitter.com/4bzmx1gDRn Not Maureen Dowd (@MaureenDowdTwit) January 2, 2017@realDonaldTrump @CNN Your cabinet looks great though pic.twitter.com/4w72z2AWmn Eric Lampaert (@EricLampaert) January 2, 2017@jrjaxster @realDonaldTrump @CNN only when he is googling nazi memes pic.twitter.com/uuLp2mFIbT Boycott tRump (@vicsepulveda) January 2, 2017.@realDonaldTrump @CNN I hope it s this one!! pic.twitter.com/KpOUkPcNIQ Matthew D Ambrosio (@drmattdambrosio) January 2, 2017The reason for his meltdown, as Brian Stelter explains, was likely because he was on CNN talking about the Unprecedented book and Trump s doubts he would win. Then he tweets about both. Coincidences? 12:55pm: I was on @CNN talking about the Unprecedented book and Trump s doubts he would win. Then he tweets about both. Coincidences? pic.twitter.com/hvhokeTuuZ Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 2, 2017This man will be sworn in in just 18 days and he s worried about an unflattering photo. Wait until he has to endure what President Obama was put through for 8 years. It s called karma and he s going to get a massive dose of it.Photo by Isaac Brekken/Getty.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will host the leaders of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden in May for a U.S.-Nordic Leaders Summit, the White House said on Friday. The leaders will discuss terrorism, violent extremism, environmental and nuclear security issues among other topics at the summit on May 13, the White House said in a statement. Obama last met with Nordic leaders during his trip to Sweden in September 2013, the statement said.

Mariah Carey, Nick Cannon Celebrate Twins’ Birthday at Disneyland

When Donald Trump heard the news that Hillary Clinton was going to back Jill Stein s recount efforts in three separate states, he didn t take it too well. Trump proceeded to flaunt his rage by having a full-blown meltdown on Twitter, because of course he did. What remains of Clinton s campaign team is finally responding to Trump s hysterics.Christina Reynolds, who was the Clinton campaign s deputy communications director, addressed Trump s Twitter rant in a few tweets of her own. She specifically took on Trump s claim that he had lost the popular vote only because of millions of people who voted illegally. Winning the electoral college won him the presidency, so Trump s excuses on why he lost the popular vote by millions are just small and sad. Christina Reynolds (@creynoldsnc) November 28, 2016To my knowledge, the very very rare cases of people voting illegally found so far were Trump voters. https://t.co/Bc7AEFEFbU Christina Reynolds (@creynoldsnc) November 28, 2016Marc Elias, Clinton s campaign lawyer,was responsible for writing the post on Medium which announced Clinton s support for Stein s recount efforts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. He also took to Twitter regarding Trump s attacks.We are getting attacked for participating in a recount that we didn t ask for by the man who won election but thinks there was massive fraud Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) November 28, 2016So far, Clinton herself has not addressed the recounts at all. Stein, who was the candidate of the Green Party, has lead the efforts and has raised over $6 million to cover the cost of the recounts. Clinton s team has been cautious, making sure it is understood that they are merely responding to the requests of voters and are just trying to be helpful to Stein. Because we had not uncovered any actionable evidence of hacking or outside attempts to alter the voting technology, we had not planned to exercise this option ourselves, but now that a recount has been initiated in Wisconsin, we intend to participate in order to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides, Elias wrote.Neera Tanden is the head of the Center for American Progress. She was not part of the campaign but was a top Clinton ally, she pointed out that Trump s claims of voter fraud only strengthened the argument for recounts and questioned what is making Trump so nervous.Let s do recounts across the country to check this. Then we can see how sure you are of EC. https://t.co/L2zbhQ7Ntt Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) November 27, 2016I think this is Trump s way of asking to #AuditTheVote https://t.co/L2zbhQ7Ntt Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) November 27, 2016Given what Trump has said, shouldn t we audit the vote in all close states? Just to be sure. Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) November 27, 2016Standing back:Between his statement attacking Stein & then his numerous twitter meltdowns, isn t Trump acting like something is wrong in WI? Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) November 28, 2016I m pretty sure that the Electors were created to stop a madman from becoming president. #alwaystrustHamilton Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) November 28, 2016It is important to note that so far, no one associated with the Clinton campaign has claimed that election was rigged.Featured image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Maryse Demands Some “Respect” From Nia Jax on Total Divas Season Premiere: See Their Heated Fight!

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani had his ass handed to him so badly that he resorted to spouting Trump talking points to distract from the whipping he just received.During an appearance on CNN on Tuesday, host Chris Cuomo slammed Giuliani for refusing to say the word gay in reference to the Orlando mass shooting that occurred over the weekend, thus following other Republicans like Mitch McConnell and Florida Governor Rick Scott who would rather pretend there is no such thing as gay people.Giuliani claimed not saying the word is okay because President Obama won t say radical Islamic terrorism. But Cuomo had the perfect response to that bullshit by asking Giuliani how he would feel if people referred to mob violence as radical Italian terrorism. Calling this gay and not using that word and not running away from it because of some sense of identity politics is wrong and you agree with that, Cuomo began. Saying radical Islamic terror you used an analogy, let me reverse it on you. If every time the mafia made a killing or a murder, they said well, those Italians, well there s something about em, and the mob. There s something about the Giuliani and the Cuomo. How would you have felt? You would have been disgusted. It s one of the things that motivated you as a prosecutor to distinguish the mafia from the rest of the Italians. That is the same point, is it not? That you can t talk about all of Islam you talk about these perversions. Of course, Giuliani claimed that they weren t the same thing but Cuomo quickly countered, But if you said radical Italian murders They call themselves the Islamic State, Giuliani said, which gave Cuomo the opening he needed to smack down the right-wing mayor for making ISIS happy. They do because they want the credit of owning the religion, Cuomo informed Giuliani. They want that. Why would you give them what they want? Rather than admit that he s helping ISIS in their crusade to own Islam, Giuliani quickly changed the subject to blaming President Obama for the attacks in Orlando and San Bernardino and repeating Trump s suggestion that President Obama is in league with the terrorists.Cuomo didn t buy the bullshit Giuliani was trying to sell. I think there s some politics being played with this. With Donald Trump coming out and seeming to suggest that President Obama has some sympathy, some compromise personally that doesn t keep him from being tough. With all the troops, with taking out OBL (Osama Bin Laden), I mean, it just doesn t seem like the right kind of rhetoric. I don t think if you were running you would ever suggest anything like that about a Commander in Chief. But Giuliani just continued to blame President Obama and claimed he is weak on terror, conveniently forgetting that the 9/11 attacks occurred on his own watch as NYC mayor in 2001. President Bush was also in charge on that day, yet Giuliani somehow believes that Bush was strong against terrorism despite the fact that 3,000 Americans died that day in attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that are far worse than any terrorist that has occurred before or since.Here s the video via YouTube:In addition, President Obama stated recently that the FBI has been tracking ISIS sympathizers but are unable to keep them from buying guns like Omar Mateen did because Republicans refuse to ban people on the terrorist watch list from purchasing firearms. If Republicans had done that when President Obama asked a long time ago this shooting could have been prevented because the FBI would have been able to make sure that every time Mateen walked into a gun shop, he would be flagged as a possible threat and would have been denied the assault rifle he used in the massacre. Someone should ask Giuliani why his party wants terrorists to have guns so much.Featured Image: Screenshot

A man who attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi, India, spit on cops intending to spread Corona virus.

$30,000 tickets, $2 million jewelry, and $2,000 tuxedos: Unbelievable facts show how opulent the Met Gala is

Sweden is experiencing what happens when your country puts progressive politics ahead of common sense and national security. Remember to discuss this story with your liberal friends when they gush about how Hillary won CNN s debate. Hillary won the hearts of progressives and the media when she attempted to brand herself the most progressive candidate on the stage. A spate of Islamist graffiti in the multiculturalist Swedish city Gothenburg has been compared to the harassment of the Jewish community in Germany in the 1930s, with Christian business owners being told to convert or die .The threats are yet another conflict imported to Europe from the Levant, as the Assyrian Christian Asmar family awoke to find their pizza parlour had been daubed with threats in red paint. Their experience is becoming increasingly common in the city, as legitimate asylum seekers fleeing persecution find it has followed them to Northern Europe, thanks to Sweden s open door immigration policy.The Goteborgs-Posten records the remarks of the local Assyrian association s president: Imagine yourself having fled from persecution in a country and then to find yourself staying next door to ISIS sympathizers here in Sweden. It is everyday life for many people . Convert Or Die! / Syrian Academic FoundationAs well as the vandalism on the Asmar pizzeria, written in Swedish but unusually drawn out in a Gothic script, local Assyrian Christians have found the message the Caliphate is here and the Islamic glyph for N ( )written on their walls. In Syria and elsewhere in the Arab world, the has come to be a sign of persecution, marking inhabitants out as devotees of Nazareth Jesus Christ and thus fair targets for persecution.Yusuf Asmar, who operates the pizzeria, compares their situation to that of the Jews in Nazi Germany. He said: It feels extremely uncomfortable that this has come to Gothenburg, Sweden. There is no doubt that it is directed at me as a Christian and Assyrian It feels like persecution of Jews in the 30s when Jews in Germany had Stars of David painted on its doors. Now it happens here .He said that under Swedish law, radical Islamists and ISIS supporters appeared free to come and go as they pleased, a situation politicians must take seriously .Police inspector Bertil Claesson said that while they would look into the graffiti, it wouldn t be classified as a hate crime the city has yet to establish a specialist task force to look into such things but it would be difficult to investigate. He said: No witnesses or forensic evidence that can be traced, it is almost impossible to investigate such cases. The only possibility is if someone has seen something and we get tips from the public .This sort of inter-ethnic and religious conflict is becoming a steady hallmark of the European migrant crisis, as the continent imports wholesale human beings from destabilised parts of the world. Breitbart London reported in September on the grenade attacks now common in Sweden, where different migrant groups continue conflicts with explosives imported from Eastern Europe.Via: Breitbart News London

Bloomberg wrote about Vladimir Putin's insidious plot concerning Belarus and referred to an anonymous source close to the Kremlin. The anonymous source is a trick, as in reality it does not exist. Anything can be published based on references to the "sources close to the Kremlin". Bloomberg does its best to turn Belarus and Russia against each other to prevent the establishment of the Union State between the two countries. Bloomberg will continue writing about political and economic disagreements between Belarus and Russia, and its future allegations will be based on the "sources close to the Kremlin". It was indeed Bloomberg who started an information war against Russia, and it was Bloomberg who was at the head of all international conflicts.

Chris Christie depicts Marco Rubio as a truant schoolboy. Jeb Bush’s top ally portrays him as a weather vane. Ted Cruz and his supporters characterize him as a nervous sellout who bowed to Democratic demands for “amnesty.” In commercials, interviews and face-to-face meetings with voters, Rubio’s 2016 rivals and their backers are waging increasingly personal attacks, using different words to say much the same thing: that the freshman senator from Florida is weak and unreliable. With their pointed attacks, Rubio’s rivals have essentially taken a page out of Donald Trump’s playbook. After months of trying and failing to dislodge the brash GOP front-runner, the field is now focused heavily on Rubio, who is seen as a vulnerable and necessary target straddling the line between the conservative and establishment wings of the Republican Party. Thursday night’s Fox Business News debate in North Charleston, S.C., will put the new dynamic on display before a national audience with less than three weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses. Rubio advisers and allies are tight-lipped about his debate strategy, but in general they say that he will not endure attacks quietly. Rubio tends to respond to criticism with specific, well-rehearsed policy critiques rather than personal jabs. However, in a campaign where Trump, Christie and Cruz have ascended on the strength of their belligerent dispositions and quippy broadsides, Rubio’s softer approach carries risks. “He’s not as inflammatory [as] others, and those personal attacks tend to get headlines,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), a Rubio supporter. “But Marco Rubio is that steady, responsible conservative with a message that’s inspirational for a lot of us.” One of the most searing attacks on Rubio yet came this week in the form of a Web video from Keep the Promise I, a super PAC supporting Cruz. The 1 -minute spot splices together footage of President Obama praising the immigration reform bill Rubio once pushed and clips from interviews edited to give Rubio a deer-in-the-headlights look. To many Republicans, Rubio’s youth is one of his best attributes. The 44-year-old candidate regularly talks about hip-hop, electronic dance music, Uber and Airbnb. He looks, sounds and sometimes dresses younger than most Republican officials. But where some see an appealing freshness, others see inexperience and weakness — critiques similar to those leveled at Barack Obama by Republicans in 2008. “Marco Rubio has never run anything. I’m not sure he could run a bath,” said Roger Stone, a longtime Trump confidant who departed Trump’s political team last year. Right to Rise USA, a super PAC supporting former Florida governor Jeb Bush, put out a video this week that kicked off a multi-pronged attack against Rubio, including seemingly questioning his masculinity and accusing him of changing his position on cap-and-trade regulations, immigration and other issues. “These boots are made for flippin’ and that’s just what they’ll do. One of these days young Marco’s gonna flip, flop, flip on you,” sings a woman in the video, which makes fun of Rubio’s well-documented fashion choice during a recent swing through New Hampshire: a pair of stylish black high-heeled boots. Right to Rise also released a TV ad showing a Rubio cutout spinning around on a weather vane. In a Wednesday interview with MSNBC, Bush — who at 6-3 is at least five inches taller than Rubio — was asked whether he owned any platform boots. “I don’t have a height issue,” he said. [Strategic or overconfident? Rubio plays hard to get with voters] Trump, who also has a height advantage, said last week on a Boston radio station that it “helps to be tall.” “I don’t know what to think of those boots,” he said, adding: “They’re big heels. I mean, those heels are really up there.” Rubio has called the fascination with his boots “craziness” at a time when consequential events are unfolding across the world. For most of Rubio’s competitors, finishing ahead of him rather than Trump is a more realistic goal in the early states. It’s particularly critical for those stuck in the middle tier to receive a boost with donors and voters in the first wave of contests. Christie, New Jersey’s governor, is a good example. Since the last debate in December, the Rubio-Christie rift has deepened. Christie has said in recent interviews with The Washington Post and other news outlets that Rubio “turns tail and runs” (a reference to him walking away from comprehensive immigration reform); that the “truant officer is out looking for him” (a reference to his many Senate absences and perhaps his relative youth); and that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton would “cut his heart out.” Rubio and his campaign have hit back, but on policy rather than character. “I’m sure he doesn’t really want to have a conversation about the issues,” Rubio said of Christie in Nashua, N.H., last week. Rubio dinged the New Jersey governor as a backer of Common Core education standards, said he “ran for office as a supporter of gun control” and noted that Christie once made a contribution to Planned Parenthood. Days earlier, a pro-Rubio super PAC unveiled a TV ad campaign in New Hampshire with similar lines of attack. [‘He’s Cuban. I’m Mexican.’ Can Rubio and Cruz connect with Latino voters?] On Monday, Rubio delivered a speech on taxes­ in which he took policy swipes at Christie and Cruz. In a clear shot at the senator from Texas, Rubio said not to be fooled by advocates of a “business flat tax,” which he said acts like a “value-added tax,” widespread in foreign countries but not the United States. Much of Cruz’s anti-Rubio rhetoric has been associated with his membership in the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” that pushed a comprehensive immigration bill in 2013. The bill included a path to citizenship that conservative opponents call “amnesty.” Rubio has fought back against Cruz by pointing to an amendment Cruz pushed offering legal status to undocumented immigrants. (Cruz says it was a poison pill meant to foil Democrats.) Rubio has also sought to run to Cruz’s right on national security, hitting him hard over his vote to stop the government’s bulk collection of Americans’ telephone metadata. Recent polling shows Rubio edging up to second or third place in each of the first two nominating states. There’s a growing sentiment that party elites will eventually coalesce around an alternative to Trump and Cruz, who some leading Republicans fear are too combative for the general election. Rubio is trying fend off Christie, Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich in that sub-contest. Even as he stresses his youth and next-generation appeal, Rubio has tried to appear presidential as his rivals raise doubts about him. He is pitching himself as the strongest possible commander in chief. His events, even the small ones, have a formal feel to them, with a stage always erected at the front. His TV ads include several spots with dark themes and dire warnings about threats overseas. Rubio will have to adjust a bit to Thursday’s debate because Rand Paul, a natural opponent on foreign policy, did not poll well enough to appear on the main stage. In the last debate, Rubio took am at the Kentucky senator’s libertarian-leaning foreign policy to tout his more hawkish views. Rubio has tended to do well in the debates, winning positive reviews in each of the previous five meetings. After the debate, Rubio will hit the campaign trail in New Hampshire and then Iowa, where some like Evan Sinclair, 20, are nervously watching whether he can blunt his rivals’ attacks. Observing Rubio shake hands in the Des Moines suburbs recently, Sinclair said he hopes the senator can catch fire. “Rubio had better shine a light so the Republican Party can exist,” he said. “People need to wake up and see a rational candidate is needed.”

By True Activist The majority of America’s mainline media is owned and controlled by a mere 6 corporations, but few in the U.S. are aware of this… Unless you go out of your way to seek truthful news...

LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. — Donnie Gaddis picked the wrong county to sell 15 oxycodone pills to an undercover officer. If Mr. Gaddis had been caught 20 miles to the east, in Cincinnati, he would have received a maximum of six months in prison, court records show. In San Francisco or Brooklyn, he would probably have received drug treatment or probation, lawyers say. But Mr. Gaddis lived in Dearborn County, Ind. which sends more people to prison per capita than nearly any other county in the United States. After agreeing to a plea deal, he was sentenced to serve 12 years in prison. “Years? Holy Toledo — I’ve settled murders for a lot less than that,” said Philip Stephens, a public defender in Cincinnati. Dearborn County represents the new boom in American prisons: mostly white, rural and politically conservative. A bipartisan campaign to reduce mass incarceration has led to enormous declines in new inmates from big cities, cutting America’s prison population for the first time since the 1970s. From 2006 to 2014, annual prison admissions dropped 36 percent in Indianapolis 37 percent in Brooklyn 69 percent in Los Angeles County and 93 percent in San Francisco. But large parts of rural and suburban America — overwhelmed by the heroin epidemic and concerned about the safety of diverting people from prison — have gone the opposite direction. Prison admissions in counties with fewer than 100, 000 people have risen even as crime has fallen, according to a New York Times analysis, which offers a newly detailed look at the geography of American incarceration. Just a decade ago, people in rural, suburban and urban areas were all about equally likely to go to prison. But now people in small counties are about 50 percent more likely to go to prison than people in populous counties. The stark disparities in how counties punish crime show the limits of recent state and federal changes to reduce the number of inmates. Far from Washington and state capitals, county prosecutors and judges continue to wield great power over who goes to prison and for how long. And many of them have no interest in reducing the prison population. “I am proud of the fact that we send more people to jail than other counties,” Aaron Negangard, the elected prosecutor in Dearborn County, said last year. “That’s how we keep it safe here. ” He added in an interview: “My constituents are the people who decide whether I keep doing my job. The governor can’t make me. The legislature can’t make me. ” But many criminal justice experts say that the size of the disparities undercuts the basic promise of equal protection under the law. “Letting local prosecutors enforce state laws differently throws all notions of equality under the law out the window,” said Peter Wagner, executive director of the Prison Policy Initiative, which advocates reducing incarceration rates. “This data puts governors and legislative leaders on notice that if they want to put criminal justice reforms into effect, they need to look at how prosecutors use and abuse their discretion. ” The analysis is based on previously unpublished data from the Department of Justice on state prisons, which hold the vast majority of American inmates sentenced to a year or more. The divide does not appear to be driven by changes in crime, which fell in rural and urban areas at roughly equal rates, according to the F. B. I. Instead, it reflects growing disagreement about how harshly crime should be punished, especially drivers of the criminal justice system like theft, drugs, weapons and drunken driving. Cities have adopted a more lenient approach to drug offenses in particular, diverting many drug offenders to probation or treatment rather than to jail. Those choices have started to reverse — if only modestly — longstanding racial disparities in American prisons, where blacks and Hispanics are incarcerated at drastically higher rates than whites. The annual number of new black prison inmates fell by about 25 percent from 2006 to 2013, and the number of Hispanic inmates fell by about 30 percent, while the number of new white inmates fell by only about 8 percent, according to the most complete federal data. The number of black prisoners is still “shockingly high,” said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project. “Nonetheless, these numbers are encouraging. It suggests that this is not necessarily an intractable problem. ” But rural, mostly white and politically conservative counties have continued to send more drug offenders to prison, reflecting the changing geography of addiction. While crack cocaine addiction was centered in cities, opioid and meth addiction are ravaging small communities like those in Dearborn County, where 97 percent of the population is white. A collection of small, quiet towns near the Ohio River, Dearborn County does not look like a prison capital. Violent crime is rare. There are few empty storefronts. And local officials, flush with money brought in by a popular local casino, have built a convention center and a high school football field fit for a movie set. But the extraordinarily high incarceration rate here — about one in 10 adults is in prison, jail or probation — is driven less by crime and poverty than by a powerful prosecutor, judges and a growing heroin epidemic. Opioid addiction spread early here. Mr. Negangard, the prosecutor, has fought the heroin crisis by aggressively going after drug crimes. “If you’re not prosecuting, then you’re de facto legalizing it,” Mr. Negangard said. Mr. Negangard has faced few obstacles to getting more convictions. He supervises his own police force, an unusual arrangement that allows him to investigate and prosecute most of the county’s serious crime. The police go after even minor drug cases, often offering to dismiss drug possession charges in exchange for information on friends or family members who sell drugs. Probation officials are just as strict. Offenders released on probation are tested for drugs frequently, and hundreds of people who violate the terms of their probation have been sent to state prison in the past few years. By 2014, Dearborn County sentenced more people to prison than San Francisco or Westchester County, N. Y. which each have at least 13 times as many people. “It’s government run amok,” said Douglas A. Garner, a local criminal defense attorney. Lawmakers in Indiana, concerned about the rising cost of incarceration, enacted a law that reduced criminal penalties starting in 2014 — one of at least 40 states to approve measures to reduce incarceration in the past few years. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Mike Pence, now the Republican nominee. But the new rules, which Mr. Negangard fought, have done little to curb incarceration rates in Dearborn County. Mr. Negangard said the long sentences here are the envy of police officers in Cincinnati. If a suspect is willing to sell drugs in Dearborn County, the Cincinnati police will help steer the case here, where greater punishment is almost assured, he said. One Cincinnati man, Scott Huy, drove from Cincinnati to Dearborn County in 2013, enticed by a heroin deal set up by a police informer. Mr. Huy had already been convicted of drug trafficking twice in Ohio, for which he had served a total of five years in prison. After Mr. Huy sold seven grams of heroin to an undercover officer, he was sentenced to serve 35 years. Lawyers here have a term for when defendants like Mr. Huy realize the geographic disparity: “sticker shock. ” Defense lawyers outside Dearborn County respond with disbelief as well. “That is so far out of line with the crime itself and any common notion of decency,” Jeff Adachi, San Francisco’s public defender, said of Mr. Huy’s sentence. The rural resistance to lighter penalties goes beyond Indiana. Prosecutors in New York City have sharply cut incarceration rates in part by diverting drug offenders from prison after state changes encouraged paths to treatment. But in the rest of the state, prosecutors and judges continue to put drug offenders in prison at a steady flow. In Texas, a series of changes intended to cut the prison population led to large reductions in new prisoners from Houston and Austin. But the rest of the state has had only modest declines. Court systems and jails in many populated areas are overcrowded, putting pressure on judges to offer probation. A federal court ordered California to reduce chronic prison overcrowding in 2009, leading to the largest declines in admissions in the country. offenders are now released on probation or diverted to local jails. At the same time, cities tend to have more resources to fight addiction outside of jail and prison. In Cincinnati, most people who are caught with small quantities of drugs are charged with a crime but are diverted to drug court, where they are placed in an outpatient treatment program, said Mr. Stephens, the public defender. If the offender completes the program, the charge is dismissed. “People are trying to work with it here in Cincinnati so it doesn’t overwhelm the justice system,” Mr. Stephens said. In smaller counties, prisons are often the only response to a range of social ills, including drug abuse and mental illness. To handle the expanded caseload, Dearborn County officials spent $11. 5 million to double the size of the local jail and approved $11 million more to expand the county courthouse. But money for drug treatment is scarce. At least 225 of the 250 inmates in the Dearborn County jail have a drug addiction, estimated Jonathan L. Cleary, a county judge. But drug treatment programs can serve only about 40 of them. Mr. Negangard said he wished the county could find more money for drug treatment. But he said about half of all addicts in prison had a criminal and would keep committing crimes whether they got clean or not. “We can’t just let the bad guys go,” he said.

Donald Trump picked a fight with the wrong woman.Even though the Republican nominee claims to not watch Morning Joe on MSNBC, it s pretty clear that he does based on the Twitter tantrums he has been throwing in response to Mika Brzezinski.Brzezinksi has been very critical of Trump recently and her criticism continued on Monday after former physician Howard Dean called Trump a classic narcissist.Unlike Trump and his team, who have spewed unfounded claims about Hillary Clinton s health, Brzezinski called for mental health professionals to evaluate him because he sure seems to be exhibiting tell-tale signs of being a psychopath, a term former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe used on Sunday during an interview with Chuck Todd. It s time to hear from somebody in the mental health community, to look at this person who has been on television for months and to give us a sense of what we have going on here, Brzezinski said. And, I m sorry, let s just not let s stop pretending we re dealing with someone who we can completely understand. When you see someone who you think has problems, you know it. And there s not anybody at this table who doesn t think he has some sort of problem. Let s ask the questions. Let s do this at this point. Let s set up someone and ask the questions. Does anyone think that s completely outlandish and only because I have some sort of weird, snarky slant to it and I want to be smart? I think there s an issue there. Joe Scarborough pointed out that it might be more accurate to call Trump a sociopath, but said a psychiatrist cannot come on and diagnose somebody. Here s the video via Twitter.Plouffe brands Trump as a psychopath The #morningjoe panel reacts. https://t.co/wbCipJ4P5z Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) August 29, 2016But Trump has already drawn some mental health professionals to publicly weigh in with their own evaluations, most notably Dr. Drew Pinsky and Fox News pundit Charles Krauthammer.On CNN, Pinsky said: The question, though, is, are some of the reckless qualities that everyone is getting so disturbed about on the campaign going to be translated into office should he get elected? That s a pretty hard thing to predict. I don t know if this is just somebody playing politics, or is this somebody who really can t contain their impulses? When I hear people that are impulsive with their speech, I worry about hypomania and bipolar types of conditions. And in a column earlier this month, Krauthammer, who is a board-certified psychiatrist, wrote that Trump s hypersensitivity and unedited, untempered Pavlovian responses are, shall we say, unusual in both ferocity and predictability. This is beyond narcissism. I used to think Trump was an 11-year-old, an undeveloped schoolyard bully. I was off by about 10 years. His needs are more primitive, an infantile hunger for approval and praise, a craving that can never be satisfied. He lives in a cocoon of solipsism where the world outside himself has value indeed exists only insofar as it sustains and inflates him. Featured Image: Screenshot

Hey, you! Any interest in running for the US House or, maybe better, the US Senate? A few seats are up for grabs in 2016. It's a very powerful, prestigious, decently well-paying job. Lots of important decisions. Great on a résumé. What's that you say? Not interested. Not for you? Yeah, I get it. I wouldn't want to run for Congress either. I know, you're probably a reasonable person, a nuanced thinker with a bit of an independent streak. You don't want to get drawn into the maw of that tribal trench warfare down there on the DC swamp. It's a bitter, angry place. And no fun. But hey, somebody has to do the job. And, flippant tone aside, it really matters who does do the job. If reasonable, level-headed people like you don't want to run for Congress, that means only hair-on-fire ideologues will put run the place, and ... oh wait. That does seem to be happening a bit these days. Which takes us to that upcoming 2016 congressional election.  Yet another golden opportunity to bring some fresh talent into Washington, maybe for some folks who are more excited about governing than about trying to make government disappear altogether? If such optimism sounds like the triumph of hope over experience, it probably is. Which raises an important question: Why don't we get many moderates, especially moderate Republicans, running for office these days? I've gathered here two good explanations from some recent political science literature: Say you're a moderate Republican. You might look at the Republican Party in Congress and feel like it's not exactly your people in charge of the place. You'd see that the leaders in Congress tend to be on the extremist side, and you'd make a reasonable guess that you wouldn't get too far in Congress as a moderate. By contrast, if you're a True Conservative, you'd see an opportunity to fit right in. This is the "Party Fit hypothesis," as developed by political scientist Danielle Thomsen in a paper titled "Ideological Moderates Won't Run: How Party Fit Matters for Partisan Polarization in Congress." (She also has a forthcoming book on this.) Thomsen looked at some surveys of state legislators and some data on who actually runs for Congress. Her conclusion based on the data is simple: "The more liberal the Republican state legislator, the less likely she is to run for Congress; the more conservative the Democratic state legislator, the less likely she is to do so." In an email, Thomsen told me that there are indeed moderates in the state legislatures. She estimates that "about 20% of Republican state legislators are as liberal as former Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and nearly 30% of Democratic state legislators are as conservative as former representative John Tanner (D-TN)." It's just that they are much less likely to run for Congress. Like most aspects of polarization, the "party fit" story is asymmetrical — the polarizing impact is much stronger for Republicans. Democrats have maintained more ideological diversity and get more moderates to run. This is not true for Republicans. And like most aspects of polarization, it feeds on itself. As Thomsen also wrote in her email to me, " As moderates gradually lost their place in both parties, polarization has become self-reinforcing.  The hyper-partisanship in Congress has discouraged moderates from running for and remaining in Congress, which has further exacerbated the ideological distance between the parties." Again, say you're a moderate Republican. Chances are your local and state party leaders are not all that interested in encouraging you to run. Most likely, they are ideologues themselves, and they'd like to find people who share their beliefs, especially if they are Republicans. They want True Conservatives. This is a conclusion I draw from a fascinating survey of 6,000 county-level political party leaders, conducted by political scientists David Broockman, Nicholas Carnes, Melody Crowder-Meyer, and Christopher Skovron. They asked what qualities party leaders wanted. Sure, the party leaders said they looked for the usual things — honesty, experience intelligence, dedication, good looks, and, yes, ability to raise money. But they also cared about ideology — particularly the Republicans. Broockman et al. write: And party leaders do play a very important role in candidate recruitment, as Broockman documented in a separate paper: In pretty much every study trying to explain why candidates decided to run for office, recruitment was a major factor. Again, we have a self-reinforcing loop here: The more ideologues run the party, the more they are going to recruit other like-minded candidates to run for office. There is also probably a fundraising aspect to this. Most of the big donors tend to be pretty ideological (again, especially on the right). If they give a lot of money, it's almost always because they feel very strongly that one or the other of the two major parties needs to be in charge. Active passion and strong partisanship tend to go together. For example, in explaining "leapfrog representation" (the phenomenon of extremist candidates jumping over the median voter in a district when a seat changes partisan control), political scientists Joseph Bafumi and Michael C. Herron point that active donors tend to be more extreme than non-donors. They argue that this may offer one explanation why candidates do not converge on the middle — if you can't raise money from (ideological) donors, it's harder to run for office. Sure, you might argue, party leaders may be ideologues themselves, especially on the right. But most of all, they want to stay in power. And to stay in power, they need to win elections.  And to win elections, they need to converge on the median voter who is, by definition, in the middle of the left-right ideological distribution. Ergo, the moderating pressures of electoral competition should overcome these forces of extremism. Fair enough. In close races, party leaders may indeed face a trade-off between ideology and electability. But one problem is there just aren't that many close races. By the latest Cook Political Report 2016 projections, 378 out of 435 House seats are considered safe — that's 87 percent. Add in the 25 "likely" seats, and we're at 403 out of 435, or 93 percent, at low or no risk. So it doesn't matter whether parties pick moderates or ideologues — they're almost certainly going to win as long as they don't pick a convicted felon (or maybe even if they do). In the Senate, 19 or 33 seats up in 2016 are solid for one party or another by the Cook assessment. If we add in the likely seats, we're at 25 or 33, or 75 percent low or no risk. In state legislatures, meanwhile, 43 percent of seats are not even contested. In other words, the proposed moderation of the median voter theory doesn't have very many seats on which to work its supposed magic. But then again, it's not even clear that competitive elections actually bring candidates to the middle. Research by political scientists Anthony Fowler and Andrew B. Hall suggests that partisans who win in close congressional elections vote just as extreme as partisans who win by landslides. Fowler and Hall conclude, "Elected officials do not adapt their roll-call voting to their districts' preferences over time, and ... voters do not systematically respond by replacing incumbents." No wonder, then, that political scientists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson have described the median voter theory as a failure in a recent paper criticizing the "Downsian" paradigm (Anthony Downs popularized the median voter theory). As Hacker and Pierson conclude, "Parties not only fail to converge, they diverge asymmetrically." One key reason for this, they argue, is that organized interests within the parties make strong demands, and "party leaders will be attentive to such demands because groups can provide resources they need, offering critical financial and organizational support." Okay, so you're probably not going to run for Congress in 2016. Nor am I. But somebody out there is going to put up with all the endless fundraising calls and the invasions of privacy and the negative ads attacking them and the endless recitation of the same platitudinous speeches over and over again. And, especially on the right, that somebody is probably going to be an ideologue. Because who else wants to run these days? And who else do party leaders want to recruit? The obvious suggestion is that we need to get some different people running for national office — again, especially on the right. More broadly, we might want to think a little more about the pipeline of who's getting involved in politics at all. And yeah, we probably also ought to do something about this problem of only a tiny share of the millennial generation viewing politics as a worthwhile career. But there's plenty of time ahead to work through these problems. So watch this space for some ideas in the months ahead. I'm going to be thinking a bit about this problem. This post is part of Polyarchy, an independent blog produced by the political reform program at New America, a Washington think tank devoted to developing new ideas and new voices. See more Polyarchy posts here.

“@GlobalGrind: Not just Mike Brown… Second police shooting in #Ferguson leaves man in critical condition http://t.co/MengO3jbYx”

It s interesting how the media has completely ignored this massive wall while making a big deal about the extra security measure Republicans had taken to keep their guests safe You know, after radical Democrat affiliated groups, like Black Lives Matter and the New Black Panthers threatened GOP members with violence To the Democratic National Committee elites, keeping average Americans away from their convention is a good idea, while protecting the southern border from intruding terrorists, rapists and murderers is a bad one.The DNC has erected a four-mile fence around its convention site at Philadelphia s Wells Fargo Center. (Isn t it ironic they re doing so much to protect a site named after a bank?)The DNC fence,surely they would have built a bridge !! pic.twitter.com/6RzjM6rBov Jay Hooks (@mojobubba) July 24, 2016The fence, which appears to be about 8 feet tall, is intended to keep out any individuals with whom Democratic Party leaders, delegates and other liberal elites would rather not mingle.The familiar temporary 8 foot high security fence up again,from Broad&Pattison down to 95 ramps for DNC @FOX29philly pic.twitter.com/3LXOzf8ncX Steve Keeley (@KeeleyFox29) July 20, 2016Worried abt th fence Trump will erect?Welcome 2 th Dem's fence in Philly! pic.twitter.com/Z46wWBnBVp Still Not Russian (@BKrab1) July 24, 2016Via: American Mirror

AMMAN (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump was wrong to retweet a video from a far-right British group which she said was “hateful” and spreads division. Trump sparked outrage in Britain with a sharp rebuke of May on Twitter after she criticized him for retweeting anti-Islam videos from the deputy leader of Britain First. “The fact that we work together does not mean that we’re afraid to say when we think the United States has got it wrong, and be very clear with them,” May told reporters in Amman. “And I’m very clear that retweeting from Britain First was the wrong thing to do,” May said.

@idesignwis @Heritage I would but you can't trust the police. The profession is corrupt.

French authorities are conducting an intense manhunt for the Charlie Hebdo attack suspects http://t.co/yPxkNu0Rm7

It s no accident that President Obama named Vanita Gupta acting head of the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ. Gupta is beloved by the radical left for her militant hostility toward law enforcement officers. Here s a fantastic overview from J. Christian Adams who has intimate knowledge of what s going on at the DOJ. He worked there and knows just how the DOJ has been turned into a politicized radical leftist entity of the Obama administration. Here s an example of that:Vanita Gupta, head of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, has told a lawyers group in Colorado that slavery and Jim Crow helped fuel the Ferguson and Baltimore riots.The last few days have seen a number of fanciful stories with the Obama administration seemingly questioning the authority of local police. I ve long maintained that the administration is nakedly seeking to federalize policing standards but get rid of local police? No way, that sounds like something broadcast from a shortwave station in Austin, Texas. But then up steps Vanita Gupta to lend some credibility to the idea that some want to disband local police and replace police powers with the federal government. Speaking to a group of left-wing lawyers in Colorado, Gupta had this to say:The conversation in these rooms, however, is not about whether to have police or not but about what kind of policing communities want and deserve.There is no question that we need police in our communities.The conversation? What conversation is Gupta hearing that needs to be corrected? Who brought up the idea we might not need police? Nobody sane, for sure.If you read the entirety of Gupta s speech, you ll get a sense of what is going on in the mind of the anti-police left. Officials in this administration still think it is rational and acceptable to bring up the name Michael Brown in the context of anything other than a likely felon against whom deadly force was justifiably used. Behold Gupta:Eric Garner. Michael Brown. Tamir Rice. John Crawford. Walter Scott. Freddie Gray.These names and many others have become familiar to us under tragic circumstances in recent months. Their deaths and those of other unarmed African American men and women in encounters with police officers, have provoked widespread responses across the country and have fueled the Black Lives Matter movement. In communities of color, in particular, the reaction has been stark and sobering.In the seven months I have been at the Civil Rights Division, I have spent a lot of time with local leaders and community members in cities all across America, including with numerous mothers who have lost their children in officer-involved shootings. The pain, anger, frustration the lack of trust in the police is real, and it is profound.Gupta asks the question that many Americans have already asked and answered:It s worth asking, first, how did we get here? And second, what are we going to do about it?To most law-abiding Americans, the idea of fleeing from the police, or worse, charging at a policeman you have already punched, is simply beyond the realm of possibility.So how did we get here? Was it a breakdown of values? Perhaps a pervasive tolerance for lawlessness? Of course not. Says Gupta:Let s start with the first question and consider the source of the mistrust. Mistrust can t be explained away as the kneejerk reaction of the ill-informed or the hyperbolic. It s in part the product of historical awareness about the role that police have played in enforcing and perpetuating (wait for it! here it comes!) slavery, the Black Codes, lynchings and Jim Crow segregation.Read more: pjmediaRead more: pjmedia

Shutdowns are "a normal part of the constitutional process," with 12 shutdowns under Democratic House Speaker Tip O’Neill and two during his own speakership.

A high-level defector from Kurdish-led forces that captured the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State has recanted his account of the city s fall, saying thousands of IS fighters

Initially, Grybauskaite was a KGB agent, operating under the name "Magnolia". After, at the age of 53, she became the leader of independent Lithuania where she has fuelled anti-Russian sentiments.

dont root root root for the racist redface team from cleveland paul thornton los angeles times october how i wish it were the dodgers who took the field tuesday night in cleveland yes were all sad in los angeles that our team is now one year closer to celebrating the th anniversary of its last world series appearance but this goes beyond provincialism and wounded civil pride the dodgers deserved the chance to humiliate a cleveland baseball team that not only persists in identifying itself as the indians but also resurrected the laughably racist redfaced mascot chief wahoo just in time for the playoffs for those who havent kept up with the baseball drama heres a summary the cleveland team drew the curtain on its regularseason minstrel show in the spring having replaced chief wahoo on its caps with a vintage red c it never officially retired the offending mascot but wahoo remained confined only to uniform sleeves throughout the regular season leading reasonable people to believe that the team ownership had finally seen the light where other franchises such as the nfls washington redskins remained defiantly in the dark and was easing its fans into the postindians era or so we thought chief wahoo reappeared when the cleveland team began its impressive playoff run against the boston red sox and he hasnt left he remained stitched on hats and held aloft by adoring cleveland fans as the team convincingly defeated the toronto blue jays even surviving a legal attack by advocates of canadas indigenous peoples that threatened to forbid even so much as the use of the term indians while the team was on canadian soil snip its tempting to look past all this and take pity on a city thats had it as rough as cleveland the cubs championship drought has famously lasted for baseball seasons but the cleveland team boasts a pitiable years without a world series title beyond sports clevelands decline as an important american metropolis is arguably unmatched having tumbled from a population peak of plus in to less than today snip but cleveland hey i know some generous wonderfully caring people from that part of ohio which makes wishing for their teams brutal defeat personally difficult but being on the right side of a moral dispute isnt supposed to be easy especially when the team in question isnt the evil washington redskins and its infernal owner daniel snyder clevelands municipal misery doesnt excuse the disgraceful exalting of chief wahoo any more than white mens economic hardship makes donald trumps popularity ok snip

A viral video shows food aid provided by the national government, but that aid is financed with the budget of private companies and civilians.

Remember back in May when Donald Trump said he d make California, New York and Maryland compatible (and that he d win them)? Well it s now mid-October and he can barely hang on to red states Utah, Georgia, Arizona and even Texas the latest poll out of the Lone Star state has him leading by three points. Romney won Texas by 19 points in 2012.There is one state in particular that is leaning towards Hillary Clinton Arizona.The Grand Canyon state, home to Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Jan Brewer, and the god-awful SB 1070, should be a dead set win for Trump, whose anti-immigration rhetoric has propelled him to where he is today. However, recent polling out of the state suggests that Clinton has the upper hand, and for good reason.According to a new Arizona Republic/Morrison/Cronkite News poll released just before the third presidential debate, Hillary Clinton is leading Donald Trump by five points, 39-34 percent. Gary Johnson took six percent while Jill Stein took one percent. Twenty percent remain undecided.However, when pressed on how those who lean one way or the other would solidly vote, as of right now, both Clinton and Trump expand their lead:When including leaners in the sample, the number of undecideds drops to 8.1 percent. Clinton s support rises to 43.3 percent while Trump s support increases to 37.8 percent. Johnson gets 6.5 percent while Stein gets 4.3 percent. The margin of error for the sample including the leaners is plus or minus 4 percentage points.In Nate Silver s FiveThirtyEight general election projection, Clinton has a 58 percent chance of winning Arizona s 11 electoral votes, compared to Trump s 42 percent chance. In the last 48 polls conducted in the state, Clinton holds the edge in 26, Trump in 19, and a tie in three.It is because of these shocking poll results that the Clinton campaign is pumping more than $2 million in advertising in the state and sending a slew of high profile surrogates including First Lady Michelle Obama and Senator Bernie Sanders all across the state.The last time Arizona went blue was in 1996, when voters chose Bill Clinton over Senator Bob Dole by 2 percent.Imagine if Arizona, a state most affected by illegal immigration, stuck it to Trump on election day? Arizona is proving to have a rich, culturally diverse electorate, buoyed by Latino and Hispanic voters who don t take too kindly to Trump s xenophobic, racist tones.Ana Navarro was right if Trump thought insulting Mexicans and Hispanics was the right move, he s going to have one hell of a wake up call in November.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images

Here is a bit of the transcript of their discussion via CBS:JOHN DICKERSON: Did President Obama give you any advice that was helpful? That you think, wow, he really was DONALD TRUMP: Well, he was very nice to me. But after that, we ve had some difficulties. So it doesn t matter. You know, words are less important to me than deeds. And you you saw what happened with surveillance. And everybody saw what happened with surveillance JOHN DICKERSON: Difficulties how?PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: and I thought that well, you saw what happened with surveillance. And I think that was inappropriate, but that s the way JOHN DICKERSON: What does that mean, sir?PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You can figure that out yourself.JOHN DICKERSON: Well, I the reason I ask is you said he was you called him sick and bad .PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Look, you can figure it out yourself. He was very nice to me with words, but and when I was with him but after that, there has been no relationship. "Words are less important to me than deeds." President Trump on why he now has "no relationship" w former President Obama. #WHThisMorning pic.twitter.com/16UimVudb3 CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) May 1, 2017JOHN DICKERSON: Every president makes the Oval Office theirs. What have you done to make this yours?PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, a lot of things. We had these incredible flags including the American flags. And they were in different rooms. And they were always being pushed around because they didn t have enough room. And I said, How beautiful, the base, the flags, Army, Navy, Marine Corps. I mean, just so beautiful. Just so beautiful. The Coast Guard flag over here.And I said, Well, let s see how they look in the Oval Office. So the flags were up. The picture of Thomas Jefferson I put up. The picture of Andrew Jackson I put up because they said his campaign and my campaign tended to mirror each other. So we did a lot of actually we did a lot of work. It s it s a much it s a much different look than it was previously.

@magamboaga Oh please. Easier for US to deport him from UK than from SE. @jenties87 @wikileaks

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 struck off southern Japan on Thursday, the United States Geological Survey said. The quake struck 682 km (424 miles) off Japan s island of Kyushu at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), the agency said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Hundreds of asylum seekers refused to leave a detention center in Papua New Guinea on Wednesday, even after power and water were cut and food supplies dwindled, in a stand-off that human rights groups warn could become a humanitarian crisis. Australia and PNG are trying to close the Manus Island center, one of two remote Pacific camps that Canberra uses to detain asylum seekers who arrive by boat. The camps have drawn widespread international condemnation. The remote Manus island center has been a key part of Australia s disputed Sovereign Borders immigration policy under which it refuses to allow asylum seekers arriving by boat to reach its shores, detaining them instead in PNG and Nauru in the South Pacific. Around 600 detainees on Manus island are defying the attempts to close the camp, saying they fear violent reprisals from the local community. The men refused to board a bus to a transit center on the island on Wednesday, three of the asylum-seekers told Reuters, frustrating Australia s plans to dismantle part of its costly offshore detention program. They took generators this morning and they cut the main pipes, there is no power in the whole center and no water, Sudanese refugee Abdul Aziz told Reuters. People are extremely anxious. The asylum seekers, warned that utilities would be cut, had begun to collect rainwater in bins. However, without running water, advocates fear a rapid decline in sanitary conditions of the camp. The loss of power also threatens to dampen morale of the detainees, nearly all of whom are suffering from mental health issues, according to a United Nations report in 2015. Mobile phones are a lifeline for these men, said Elaine Pearson, director of Human Rights Watch in Australia. They are completed isolated and they need phones to get real-time information about what is happening elsewhere on Manus, as well as to stay in touch with their families. The detainees were sharing what food remained but some of the men Reuters spoke to by phone said supplies were running low. They had been given enough meals to last only until the camp s official closure on Tuesday. Acting Australian Prime Minister Julie Bishop said the men should move to the new centers, which Australia has said it would support with A$250 million ($195 million) worth of food and security for the next 12 months. The relocation of the men is designed as a temporary measure, allowing the United States time to complete vetting of refugees as part of a refugee swap deal that Australia hopes will see it no longer responsible for the detention of nearly 1,400 asylum seekers who have been classified as refugees. Those not accepted by the United States would likely be resettled in PNG or in another developing country, dashing hopes of coming to Australia. Vehement opposition among Manus residents to the asylum seekers has raised fears within the camp of potential violence, stoked further by the departure of Australian-employed private security guards on Tuesday. We did not sleep, about 30 guys at one time would keep watch for potential attacks, said an asylum seeker who asked to be identified only as Imran, due to fears his application for U.S. resettlement could be jeopardized. Lawyers for some of the 600 men filed a last-minute suit in PNG s Supreme Court on Tuesday to prevent the camp s closure and for services to be returned. A ruling is expected later on Wednesday. PNG s High Court ruled last year that the Manus center, first opened in 2001, was illegal. The United Nations and rights groups have for years cited human rights abuses among detainees in the centers.

The pursuit of nuclear weapons will not bring security for North Korea s government and China s assistance is vital to bringing Pyongyang s atomic and missile programs under control, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday. North Korea may assume that nuclear weapons will ensure the survival of its regime. In truth, nuclear weapons are clearly only leading to greater isolation, ignominy and deprivation, Tillerson said at the U.N. Security Council. If China truly desires to denuclearize the Korean peninsula to promote stability and to avoid conflict in that sensitive region right on its own border, now s the time to work with the rest of us ... to put the kind of pressure on North Korea that can change its strategic calculations before it s too late, he added.

How things have changed. Only nine days ago, James Comey, then director of the FBI, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on FBI oversight that he had never been an anonymous source for news reports related to the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race. [Comey further testified that he never authorized anyone else at the FBI to serve as an anonymous source in news media coverage of that investigation or the agency’s probe into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. Fast forward to yesterday. The New York Times published intimate details allegedly from inside a dinner at the White House between Comey and Trump that took place seven days after the president was sworn in. The article quoted liberally from “two people who have heard [Comey’s] account of the dinner” in what seems to be a leak from Comey’s camp to fight back after Trump fired Comey earlier this week. At one point in the article, the Times describes the sources as “associates” of Comey’s. The White House disputed the Times’ dinner account, which claims that Trump asked Comey to pledge loyalty to him. “We don’t believe this to be an accurate account,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the deputy press secretary, told the Times. “The integrity of our law enforcement agencies and their leadership is of the utmost importance to President Trump. He would never even suggest the expectation of personal loyalty, only loyalty to our country and its great people. ” Trump also tweeted the following warning about Comey leaking to the news media. James Comey better hope that there are no ”tapes” of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017, The alleged leaks follow Comey’s May 3 testimony in which he steadfastly denied aiding in leaks to the news media regarding the FBI’s investigations into alleged Russian interference or the Clinton email probe. The denials came during the following exchange with Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley ( ): GRASSLEY: And thank you for your opening statement. I’m going to start out probably with a couple subjects you wish I didn’t bring up, and then a third one that I think everybody needs to hear your opinion on on a policy issue. It is frustrating when the FBI refuses to answer this committee’s questions, but leaks relevant information to the media. In other words, they don’t talk to us, but somebody talks to the media. Director Comey, have you ever been an anonymous source in news reports about matters relating to the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation? COMEY: Never. GRASSLEY: Question two, relatively related, have you ever authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation? COMEY: No. Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. ” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook. With additional research by Joshua Klein.

Donald Trump announced his economic advisers on Friday, and the list is about what you’d expect from the real estate tycoon. Trump has vowed to bring a more business-like approach to government; his list is dominated by businessmen — including several billionaires. Trump has railed against political correctness; his economic advisers are entirely white men. Trump has disparaged conventional policy experts; the list includes only one academic economist: But while nothing about the list is that surprising, it does provide some valuable insight into how a Donald Trump administration would actually govern. Trump is famously uninterested in policy details, which means that his advisers would have even more influence than usual in a Trump administration. The business people on Trump’s list include several distinguished names. Hedge fund manager John Paulson became famous in 2007 when he made billions betting against the housing market. Steve Roth built a billion-dollar real estate empire in New York Andy Beal made billions in real estate while also becoming an accomplished poker player and number theorist. He developed the Beal conjecture, a mathematical proposition related to Fermat’s Last Theorem, and then funded a $1 million prize for anyone who could solve it. And like Paulson, he saw the 2008 crash coming. He stopped buying during the last years of the real estate boom from 2004 to 2007, leaving him with plenty of cash on hand to snap up bargains in the post-crash environment of 2009. Private equity investor Stephen Feinberg is worth more than $1 billion, but he doesn’t share Donald Trump’s taste for ostentatious displays of wealth. "In general, I think that all of us are way overpaid in this business," he said in 2011. "It is almost embarrassing." The list includes a couple of prominent real estate tycoons and several people who made their fortunes in finance. Also on the list: oil and gas billionaire Harold Hamm and Howard Lorber, who has major holdings in cigarettes as well as real estate. In short, Trump has assembled an independent-minded and opinionated collection of rich businessmen. They could provide a valuable conduit for dissenting points of view in the insular Trump campaign. It’s customary for presidential candidates — especially Republican presidential candidates — to include some business leaders among their economic advisers. But most candidates also include people with significant academic expertise and government experience as well. John McCain’s list of economic advisers, for example, included six economics professors and three more people who were chief economists for private companies. McCain’s list also had about a dozen people with government experience, including several veterans of the George W. Bush administration. Mitt Romney also drew heavily on credentialed economists with senior government experience. In contrast, Trump’s list is thin on both economics PhDs and government experience. There’s only one academic economist, Peter Navarro of the University of California at Irvine. David Malpass served in several mid-level government positions during the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. Tom Barrack was deputy undersecretary for the Department of the Interior during the Reagan administration. The list also includes activist and former Wall Street Journal economics writer Stephen Moore. And that’s about it when it comes to economics training and government experience. This might be because Trump believes he’ll get along fine without the help of government veterans and credentialed academics. It also might be because the most experienced economic policy hands in the Republican party have largely shunned Trump. Greg Mankiw, for example, is a Harvard economist who served in the George W. Bush administration. In a recent blog post, he wrote that Trump won’t get his vote because he finds Trump’s protectionist views "disqualifying." John McCain’s top 2008 economic adviser — and former head of the Congressional Budget Office — Douglas Holtz-Eakin savaged Trump's economic ideas. Glenn Hubbard, Mitt Romney’s top economic adviser and former adviser to George W. Bush, hasn’t been too kind to Trump either. The result: a man who needs seasoned policy advice more than any other recent major-party nominee is going to struggle to get it. And that’s a problem, because while business people have a lot of valuable insights about the economy, there are some aspects of economic policy where formal training is indispensable. A successful career in business doesn’t give anyone insights about monetary policy or allow them to navigate the intricacies of the federal budget process. For some aspects of federal policy, there’s no substitute for careful study combined with practical experience. The economic advisers Trump has managed to recruit suggest that his policies wouldn’t be radically different from previous Republican administrations. The one obvious exception here is trade. By naming former steel executive Dan DiMicco as an economic adviser, Trump is underscoring his commitment to protectionist trade policies. DiMicco wrote a 2015 book calling for manufacturing jobs to be brought back to the United States. Like Trump, DiMicco blames recent trade deals and foreign countries that don’t "play by the rules" for declining employment in the manufacturing sector. That runs counter to the decades-long tradition of Republicans supporting free trade deals. But Trump’s other choices suggest more continuity with past Republican policies. Stephen Moore now works for the Heritage Foundation, which has played a key role in Republican policymaking since the Reagan administration. He’s a devoted supply-sider, and we can expect him to push Trump to follow through on his promises for big tax cuts. Republicans have traditionally been closer to the petroleum industry and more skeptical of environmental regulation than Democrats. Naming oil and gas entrepreneur Harold Hamm represents a continuation of that posture. Hamm has blasted the Obama administration for being too tough on energy producers. "While we've been doing this the last seven or eight years — doubling US production — we've had an onslaught, a tsunami if you will, of punitive regulations designed to put us out of business," Hamm said on CNBC earlier this year. And while Trump has sought to paint Clinton as a tool of Wall Street, his own economic advisers have extensive Wall Street connections. One of them, Steven Mnuchin, is even a veteran of Goldman Sachs, a frequent target of Donald Trump’s ire. That does not, of course, prove that Trump wouldn’t be tougher on banks and hedge funds than Hillary Clinton would be. But it does suggest that voters should take Trump’s populist rhetoric about Wall Street with a grain of salt.

@TheFinalCall them go in one ear and out the other.. Which we are guilty of. We must change, we have to change.

It appears that the Bundy militia has finally managed to radicalize a highly impressionable American into joining their cause and it just so happens to be one of Donald Trump s campaign officials.In a shining example of the kind of people who gravitate towards the Republican front-runners campaign, Jerry DeLemus, an anti-government fanatic, dropped what he was doing as the co-chairman of Veterans for Trump in New Hampshire to join up with the Bundy family members in Oregon to attempt to kickstart a revolution to overthrow the federal government.According to his Facebook, DeLemus (who is married to a New Hampshire Republican state congresswoman) arrived in Burns, Oregon along with a videographer to wage a psyops war on the mainstream media that are spreading lies about the Bundy brothers. screengrab via Raw StoryDeLemus is no stranger to walking right up to the line of insurrection. He has been adamant that the government is ruled by tyranny and may need to be overthrown. The Bundy brothers are just the kind of fanatics that he would latch on to. As the Daily Beast recently reported, DeLemus spent much of 2013 trying to raise an right-wing army in Rochester. He s begging for a fight. I believe that we have another financial collapse coming soon and it will be worse than the one in 2008, Delemus warned. There are stark differences we must realize that we have nearly a 0% interest rate and our debt is nearly double. Not to mention our credit rating has been dropped. On top of this we have a government that has no respect or regard for the rule of law as provided in our Constitution.If we do not stand against this insanity we can be sure we will fully slip into tyranny. We are in a similar position our Founding Fathers found themselves in and their decision to stand was equally difficult. During the 2014 standoff at Bundy Ranch in Nevada, he was right there with the other patriots, marching with guns and facing off against the federal government.Apparently, nobody let him know that Trump was not on the same page. Trump may be a racist, xenophobic narcissist, but he s not let s overthrow the government crazy. At the same time DeLemus was grabbing his camping gear and buying a plane ticket to Oregon, Trump was disavowing the militia. Trump, like many of his Republican challengers, felt the militia was too extreme, even for conservatives.When asked his feelings on the group, he called them lawless. You have to maintain law and order, no matter what. It s a bit awkward that one of his staffers is now joining their ranks.So why would a guy like DeLemus support law and order Trump? That s easy. They share an affinity for hating Muslims.Inspired by the bigotry in Texas, DeLemus recently tried to organize a Draw Muhammad rally in New Hampshire in the hopes of inciting violence between right-wing bigots and Muslim residents. The event fell apart and DeLemus claimed he won against Muslims anyway by spreading awareness. If DeLemus s rush to join an anti-government militia illegally occupying a wildlife refuge shows us anything, it s that Trump s base is teeming with right-wing extremists held together by little more than hatred. It s hard to imagine a single other candidate losing a campaign staffer to an insurrection and maintaining his or her massive lead in the polls, but Trump doesn t rely on anything but his own big mouth to keep himself in the lead.Feature image via YouTube

While ordinary Americans nationwide work on Thursday morning, the political class and media elite in Washington, D. C. plan to party as early as 9 a. m. in bars across the city to celebrate the congressional testimony of fired former FBI Director James Comey. [Throughout the nation’s capital, various restaurants and bars plan to open early to help Washingtonians imbibe adult beverages while cheering Comey on. The Senate Intelligence Committee hearing is set to begin at 10 a. m. Breitbart News has compiled a map and list of the local establishments partaking in the “Comey Crawl. ” 520 Florida Ave. NW, The bar’s “Comey Hearing Covfefe” event will feature $5 Vodka shots and $10 “FBI” sandwiches — fried chicken breast, bacon and iceburg lettuce on a toasted bun with fries. All five TVs will feature the hearing with sound. “Grab your friends, grab a drink and let’s COVFEFE!” says the bar’s Facebook event page. Opens at 9:30 a. m. Thursday we are opening early for our Comey Hearing Covfefe! pic. twitter. — Shaw’s Tavern (@ShawsTavern) June 6, 2017, 709 D St. NW, Grab a breakfast sandwich next door, then come “watch it all go down,” advertises The Partisan, another bar located in Northwest, D. C. As for specialty cocktails, it plans to offer $6 “The Last Word” and “Drop the Bomb” libations. Opens at 10 a. m. 201 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Probably the most celebratory event of all, this bar will be serving rounds on the house every time President Trump tweets about the hearing. Opens at 9:30 a. m. TOMORROW: We open at 9:30AM buying a round of drinks for the house every time @realDonaldTrump Tweets about the #ComeyHearing! #ThisTown pic. twitter. — Union Pub (@UnionPub) June 7, 2017, This ”special” will run til Comey’s testimony is over, or 4pm, whichever is earlier. #ThisTown #CapitolHill #OnlyInDC #ComeyHearing https: . — Union Pub (@UnionPub) June 7, 2017, 2106 Vermont Ave. NW, Covfefe cocktail anyone? This pub is offering free wifi — for those in D. C. who need to work — or pretend to work — Thursday morning. Opens at 10 a. m. 229 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, And for those who want to party sooner, Cap Lounge will be open the earliest at 9 a. m. We will open at 9AM on Thursday for #ComeyHearing. — Capitol Lounge (@CapLounge) June 5, 2017, Map was created using Google Maps

If there s one thing Donald Trump loves, it s himself. So, after the death of the staunchly conservative women s rights hater Phyllis Schlafly, Trump thought this would be the appropriate time to promote her book about his favorite subject himself, of course.No time like the present to use somebody s death to promote themselves, right? Well, at least according to a man who could be classified narcopathic.Trump tweeted out: As a tribute to the late great Phillies Schlafly, I hope everyone can go out and get her latest book, THE CONSERVATIVE CASE FOR TRUMP. via TwitterNow, whether you like the Phillies or not, let s leave Philadelphia s beloved baseball team out of politics.Clearly, Trump relied on auto-correct spelling to try to spell Phyllis Schlafly s name correctly. However, his effort failed miserably.Of course, Trump s campaign quickly caught on to this error and deleted the tweet then put out a new one with the proper spelling not too long after.As a tribute to the late, great Phyllis Schlafly, I hope everybody can go out and get her latest book, THE CONSERVATIVE CASE FOR TRUMP. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2016Those over at the Trump campaign still seem to think it s okay to use the death of someone to promote the candidate. However, this really should surprise no one. It s not as if Trump holds himself to any form of standards of dignity and respect.Featured Photo by Ralph Freso/Getty Images, Twitter

R. Kelly Scandals: From Aaliyah to Alleged Cults – Rolling Stone – BJO

Getty - Kevin Mazur The Wildfire is an opinion platform and any opinions or information put forth by contributors are exclusive to them and do not represent the views of IJR. Anderson Cooper is known to be the cool, mild-mannered news host of CNN's AC 360. But the shade he threw on Newt Gingrich after his rant against Megyn Kelly was nothing short of scorching. “I’m sick and tired of people like you using language that’s inflammatory, that’s not true!” Gingrich exploded on The Kelly File. “When you use the words, you took a position. And I think it’s very unfair of you to do that!” Then, the former Speaker went for the throat: “You wanna go back through the tapes of your show recently? You are fascinated with sex and you don’t care about public policy! That’s what I get out of watching you tonight!” Anderson Cooper noticed something unusual about Gingrich's line of attack: “For Newt Gingrich to accuse Megyn Kelly of being fascinated by sex,” Cooper stated. “This is a guy, who’s what, on his third marriage, cheated on his first two wives and was having an affair when he was impeaching Bill Clinton. Isn’t that right?” That's about right. Newt Gingrich admitted to cheating on his first and second wives and having an affair during the Clinton impeachment hearings. Watch the segment: Trump supporters may not be pleased with the way Megyn Kelly has commented on all of those accusations, and her throwing doubt upon Juanita Broaddrick's rape claims against Bill Clinton did not win her friends in that camp. But love her or hate her, it's not Megyn's job to be the Trump campaign's unofficial spokeswoman. It may be her job to assume the role of a news commentator, however, rather than that of an “objective” journalist. The idea that there is “objectivity” when it comes to reporting the news is a tired and dangerous cliche the American people should put to rest. As for being “fascinated by sex,” it just might be that Kelly is professionally interested in sexual assault and groping allegations against a presidential candidate, unfounded or otherwise, since the way those are perceived by the public just might sway a national election.

Migrants rape under-aged school girls in Finland. Police tries to hide this not to frighten the population and Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior confirms this.

U.S. agriculture groups are pushing for continuing talks with the presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential nominees in an effort to influence their farm policy positions as a slump in crop prices squeezes the sector’s profits. Representatives of about a dozen trade associations, including the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Farmers Union, met with staffers for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton on Friday at her New York campaign headquarters. It was the farm coalition’s first meeting with Clinton’s staff and included discussions of issues ranging from agricultural trade and labor to mandatory labels for foods containing genetically modified ingredients, attendees said on Wednesday. The meeting was the start of a push by the sector for more details from Clinton and Republican rival Donald Trump about their stances on issues affecting farmers and agribusiness. The groups are seeking a meeting with Trump’s campaign. “All of us agreed, on both sides of the table, that it is a successful meeting only if it’s the first of a number of exchanges,” said Jay Vroom, the chief executive of pesticide association CropLife America, who attended the session. The candidates’ agriculture policies are crucial, the groups say, because net U.S. farm income is forecast to drop to its lowest since 2002, largely due to a decline in grain prices. If that happens, incomes will be down 56 percent from a recent high of $123.3 billion in 2013. “With that kind of climate, we’re definitely concerned about what farm policy will look like building to the next (congressional) farm bill,” said Tom Bryant, the National Farmers Union’s membership director. If elected, Clinton will increase agricultural production and profitability for family farms, spokesman Tyrone Gayle said. A Trump spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Matt Paul, a former U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman working with Clinton’s campaign, participated in the meeting. The gathering came a day after Britain’s surprise vote to exit the European Union, which drew support from some regions with low population densities. Chandler Goule, incoming CEO of the National Association of Wheat Growers, said farm groups drew parallels to Britain’s referendum because “it’s going to be rural America that’s going to turn out for this election, that’s actually going to determine the outcome of this (presidential) election.” Now that Clinton and Trump are the presumed nominees, “it’s time to start making more detailed and more in-the-weeds-type commitments,” he said.

South Korea predicted on Tuesday that North Korea would look to open negotiations with the United States next year in an optimistic outlook for 2018, even as Seoul set up a specialized military team to confront nuclear threats from the North. The U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed new, tougher sanctions on reclusive North Korea on Friday for its recent intercontinental ballistic missile test, a move the North branded an economic blockade and act of war. North Korea will seek negotiation with United States, while continuing to pursue its effort to be recognized as a de facto nuclear-possessing country, South Korea s Unification Ministry said in a report, without offering any reasons for its conclusion. The Ministry of Defence said it would assign four units to operate under a new official overseeing North Korea policy, aimed to deter and respond to North Korea s nuclear and missile threat . Tensions have risen over North Korea s nuclear and missile programs, which it pursues in defiance of years of U.N. Security Council resolutions, with bellicose rhetoric coming from both Pyongyang and the White House. U.S. diplomats have made clear they are seeking a diplomatic solution but President Donald Trump has derided talks as useless and said Pyongyang must commit to giving up its nuclear weapons before any talks can begin. In a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency, North Korea said the United States was terrified by its nuclear force and was getting more and more frenzied in the moves to impose the harshest-ever sanctions and pressure on our country . China, the North s lone major ally, and Russia both supported the latest U.N. sanctions, which seek to limit the North s access to refined petroleum products and crude oil and its earnings from workers abroad, while on Monday Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying called for all countries to ease tension. On Tuesday, Beijing released customs data indicating China exported no oil products to North Korea in November, apparently going over and beyond U.N. sanctions. China, the main source of North Korea s fuel, did not export any gasoline, jet fuel, diesel or fuel oil to its neighbor last month, data from the General Administration of Customs showed. China also imported no iron ore, coal or lead from North Korea in November. In its 2018 forecast, South Korea s Unification Ministry said it believed the North would eventually find ways to blunt the effects of the sanctions. Countermeasures will be orchestrated to deal with the effects, including cuts in trade volume and foreign currency inflow, lack of supplies, and reduced production in each part of the economy, the report said. The latest round of sanctions was prompted by the Nov. 29 test of what North Korea said was an intercontinental ballistic missile that put the U.S. mainland within range of its nuclear weapons. The Joongang Ilbo Daily newspaper, citing an unnamed South Korean government official, reported on Tuesday that North Korea could also be preparing to launch a satellite into space. Experts have said such launches are likely aimed at further developing the North s ballistic missile technology, and as such would be prohibited under U.N. resolutions. The North Korean Rodong Sinmun newspaper said on Monday saying that peaceful space development is a legitimate right of a sovereign state . North Korea regularly threatens to destroy South Korea, the United States and Japan, and says its weapons are necessary to counter U.S. aggression. The United States stations 28,500 troops in the South, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, and regularly carries out military exercises with the South, which the North sees as preparations for invasion.

India Coronavirus Updates, 12 August: India-Bhutan border trade suspended due to lockdown; security personnel most infected in N-E states

Centrist French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron extended his lead in the polls over his rival Marine Le Pen on Friday, the final day of a tumultuous election campaign that has turned the country’s politics upside down. [The election is seen as the most important in France for decades with two diametrically opposed views of Europe and France’s place in the world at stake. The National Front’s Le Pen would close borders and quit the euro currency, while independent Macron, who has never held elected office, wants closer European cooperation and an open economy. The candidates of France’s two mainstream parties were both eliminated in the first round on April 23. Read the rest on Reuters …

Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests including foreign corporations to spend without limit in our elections.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request to revive an investigation in Wisconsin into whether Governor Scott Walker’s campaign to withstand a union-backed 2012 recall election illegally coordinated with conservative advocacy groups aligned with him. The justices, on the first day of their new term, let stand a 2015 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision to end the probe into whether the Republican governor and conservative groups violated campaign finance laws. The investigation, led by special prosecutor Francis Schmitz, was launched two months after Walker became the first state governor in U.S. history to survive a recall election. Walker last year mounted an unsuccessful bid for his party’s presidential nomination. “The United States Supreme Court, the Wisconsin Supreme Court and multiple judges have all reached the same conclusion with every ruling

@OwenJones84 it was an Islamic terror act. Call it what it is. The bigoted backlash may be an easier target, but it's far less widespread.

Mobile users should click the link below to visit our mobile site. The site is a better fit for your screen and you will get all the articles without having to scroll all the way down. ← Prepper Website home Conspiracy Galore –Page 4 The page for all the conspiracy nuts out there! Here you will find a ton of links to articles all in one place. If I’m missing a website, please let me know – todd [dot] sepulveda @ prepperwebsite [dot] com. Ron Paul Warns Trump That 'Shadow Government' Seek To Destroy Him 11/12/2016

#JeSuisCharlie RT @ianprior: Minute's silence at Guardian office for #CharlieHebdo http://t.co/UPUz84sHhH

@lolitasaywhat @MoniseLSeward at 18 he was a man--it is alleged by law--the community did become mobbish when the police showed force

WAGS Atlanta

Photos taken in an open-air drug market in São Paulo show a crowd and people are not affected by COVID-19.

The European Union will not transfer a final tranche of loans worth 28 million euros ($33 million) to support Moldovan justice reforms as the authorities have not fulfilled the required conditions, the EU delegation to Moldova said on Wednesday. The European Union is the ex-Soviet nation s largest external donor, but payments have been frozen or repeatedly delayed by slow reform progress and political upheaval. The EU has closely observed the reform process and noted that the Moldovan authorities showed insufficient commitment to reforming the justice sector, the delegation said in an online statement. The Moldovan authorities have not fulfilled the EU s conditions for receiving the last financial transfer under the justice reform program, which amounts to 28 million euros, it said. The disbursement of other EU funding, including a 100 million euro ($117 million) macro-financial assistance package of loans and grants for 2017-2018, has also been delayed. Last week, Prime Minister Pavel Filip said Moldova would not receive any financing under the agreement this year. The EU has said a basic precondition for the financial assistance is a respect for the democratic process and the rule of law. Nevertheless Moldova this year introduced a new electoral law that a pan-European rights body ruled could make the system more susceptible to undue influence by vested interests. Moldova s economy grew 4.1 percent last year, recovering from a contraction of 0.4 percent in 2015 due in part to an economic crisis in nearby Russia that hit exports and remittances from Moldovans working there. The country, Europe s poorest, has also been rocked by a scandal that saw the equivalent of an eighth of its gross domestic product stolen from three of its largest banks between 2012-2014. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund have forecast growth of between 4 and 4.5 percent in 2017.

The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword: 28 Cartoonists Pay Tribute To Charlie Hebdo Victims: http://t.co/sSfQMaSviI http://t.co/0nOThrr8VX

Who knew the radical leftist #BlackLivesMatter activists had a co-founder?Who knew the only political party with a black Presidential candidate would be the target of the radical black left?Cullors was asked by guest co-host Janet Mock what her plan was for Republican candidates, specifically Jeb Bush, for calling black lives matter a slogan. Cullors replied, Trust and believe that any opportunity we have to shut down a Republican convention, we will. We will make sure that our voices are made loud and clear. Via: Breitbart News

EU states agree caps on wholesale roaming charges 26 October 2016 , by Julia Fioretti - Brussels (Reuters) http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-telecoms-roaming-idUSKCN12Q1HV EU states agreed a preliminary compromise on Wednesday on lowering the caps for how much mobile telecoms operators can charge each other to keep their customers connected while abroad, easing concerns that a flagship EU policy to end retail roaming fees could backfire.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher ( ) spoke with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam regarding the CIA and recent Wikileaks revelations and the current state of America’s spy state combined with a growing government bureaucracy. [“We are not immune to authoritarian government in this country,” said Rohrabacher, citing the Obama years and adding “I think we are sliding … into an authoritarian mode where the government is running the lives of the people and we have a bureaucracy that is spiteful and jealous about their own power, even over the public, much less over other government entities. ” “Back when I was younger,” said Rohrabacher, “the book was ‘1984,’ George Orwell’s book was showing how … well, a lot of that is coming true. ” “If we are not jealous of our own privacy from government intrusion, at the very least, we’re going to find we’ve lost our freedom,” he concluded. Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern.

@BathosProfundo and what would you have done to stop them? Make fun of them like you are doing now? Wow what a way to retaliate

A hard-line Republican effort to impeach the top U.S. tax collector came under fire on Tuesday from Democrats who called it an unsubstantiated partisan attack that could undermine the credibility of Congress. Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen faces allegations before the House Judiciary Committee of ignoring congressional subpoenas and misleading lawmakers. The accusations stem from a 2013 scandal in which the IRS was criticized for targeting conservative Tea Party groups’ applications for tax-exempt status for extra scrutiny. Some Republicans want the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives to vote on impeaching Koskinen before Congress leaves for its midyear break in July. Democrats oppose the effort. “This resolution fails by every measure. It arises from the worst partisan instincts. It is not based in the facts,” Representative John Conyers said at the outset of the first of two Judiciary Committee hearings to examine charges against Koskinen. “When a vote for impeachment is divided on party lines ... we undermine our credibility,” added Conyers, the panel’s top Democrat. Koskinen angered critics by declining to testify, but submitted a statement saying the charges are without merit and fail to meet the constitutional impeachment standard of “treason, bribery or high crimes and misdemeanors.” In his absence, the committee heard from Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which investigated the Tea Party scandal and concluded that Koskinen failed to preserve evidence that was later destroyed. “This is really a simple case in my mind. When Congress asks you a question, you’re expected to give a truthful answer. When Congress issues a subpoena, compliance is not optional,” House oversight panel Chairman Jason Chaffetz testified. Chaffetz described impeachment as the remedy Congress has for officials guilty of breaching the public trust. But Democrats noted that IRS and Federal Bureau of Investigation probes produced no evidence of criminal wrongdoing or deliberate efforts to mislead Congress. They said the case against Koskinen showed little more than agency mismanagement and misstatements. Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte offered no direct criticism of the impeachment push, but avoided using the term other than to name impeachment as one of several options that include “the power to write the laws, the power of the purse ... and the power to censure.”

The RS-28 Sarmat missile, dubbed Satan 2, will replace the SS-18 Flies at 4.3 miles (7km) per sec and with a range of 6,213 miles (10,000km) The weapons are perceived as part of an increasingly aggressive Russia It could deliver a warhead of 40 megatons – 2,000 times as powerful as the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 By LIBBY PLUMMER and GARETH DAVIE S Russia has unveiled chilling pictures of its largest ever nuclear missile, capable of destroying an area the size of France. The RS-28 Sarmat missile, dubbed Satan 2 by Nato, has a top speed of 4.3 miles (7km) per second and has been designed to outfox anti-missile shield systems. The new Sarmat missile could deliver warheads of 40 megatons – 2,000 times as powerful as the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Scroll down for video Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly planning to replace the country’s older SS-18 Satan weapons with the new missiles amid a string of recent disagreements with the West. The Kremlin has stepped up the rhetoric against the West and carried a series of manoeuvres that has infuriated politicians in the US and UK. The pictures were revealed online by chief designers from the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau. A message posted alongside the picture said: ‘In accordance with the Decree of the Russian Government ‘On the State Defense Order for 2010 and the planning period 2012-2013’, the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau was instructed to start design and development work on the Sarmat. ‘ The RS-28 Sarmat missile is said to contain 16 nuclear warheads and is capable of destroying an area the size of France or Texas, according to Russian news network Zvezda, which is owned by Russia’s ministry of defence. The weapon is also able to evade radar. It is expected to have a range of 6,213 miles (10,000 km), which would allow Moscow to attack London and FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE CLICK LINK

by Yves Smith By John Light, a reporter and digital producer for the Moyers team. His work has appeared at The Atlantic, Grist, Mother Jones, Salon, Slate, Vox and Al Jazeera, and has been broadcast on Public Radio International. Follow him on Twitter at @LightTweeting. Moyers & Company The Colorado oil and gas industry is poised to strike a devastating blow against anti-fracking activists Tuesday. Enactment of Amendment 71 , a statewide ballot initiative campaign that’s backed by the industry, will make it, in the words of the Denver Post’ s editorial board, “ nearly impossible ” for Colorado voters to amend their state constitution to allow for local fracking bans — or, for that matter, anything else. It’s a story worth telling in some detail, because it vividly illustrates the many obstacles well-connected and well-funded special interests can put in the way of citizens trying to oppose them. The latest battle in a multi-year campaign by a network of pro-fossil fuel groups to defend the fracking industry against local opponents, Amendment 71 would require 2 percent of registered voters in each of Colorado’s 35 state Senate districts to sign petitions for any future initiative before it could be put on the ballot. Right now, anyone who wishes to amend the state constitution must collect signatures from 5 percent of the number of voters who voted for secretary of state in the last election. That threshold is still not always easy for grass-roots groups to meet: Two green priorities — an amendment allowing for local bans on fracking and an amendment requiring fracking operations to be at least a half mile from homes or schools — failed to make the cut for this year’s ballot, according to the secretary of state. Disappointed environmentalists attribute that to a lack of time and resources, but also to a very well-financed campaign by the oil and gas industry. A report released by the watchdog group Public Citizen estimated that fossil fuel interests outspent anti-fracking activists by a factor of 24-to-1. Nonetheless, greens feel ballot measures are among the best options in their political toolbox in a state where well-heeled oil and gas interests have managed to convince both Democratic and Republican politicians that what’s good for their industry is good for the state’s economy. “The political system in Colorado is really aligned with the oil and gas industry,” said Suzanne Spiegel, an organizer with Frack Free Colorado. She described the state’s Democratic governor, John Hickenlooper, as “incredibly supportive” of fossil fuel interests. A former oil and gas geologist, Hickenlooper touts the industry as crucial to the state economy. He once claimed to have joined Halliburton executives in drinking one of the company’s fracking fluids to demonstrate its safety. The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment on this article. For groups like Spiegel’s, ballot initiatives provide an alternative to a political system they see as in the pocket of the fracking industry. “One of the great things about Colorado is that we currently have access to this channel of direct democracy,” Spiegel said. But, she added, a victory for Amendment 71 “would all but eliminate it.” Both liberal and conservative groups that rely on grass-roots organizing have united to oppose the measure. Oil and gas interests, meanwhile, have thrown in millions of dollars from their sophisticated political operations to make sure the amendment passes on Tuesday. Fossil Fuels’ Grip on Colorado The origins of the current political fight date back 2012, when the top two Colorado oil and gas companies, Anadarko and Noble Energy, geared up to challenge local opposition to fracking. Four Colorado towns were moving to ban fracking or place a moratorium on it. Longmont, Colorado had already succeeded in becoming the first town to do so earlier that year. The fracking boom had hit the state several years before, and some Coloradans were alarmed by the speed at which wells seemed to be multiplying. According to the federal Energy Information Administration , natural gas production doubled in the state between 2001 and 2015, and oil production doubled between 2012 and 2014. With that came a flood of political donations from the oil and gas industry to state and local officials. By 2014, when environmentalists began collecting signatures for two anti-fracking amendments (neither of which ultimately made it onto the ballot), the industry was fully mobilized. In addition to offering two pro-fracking ballot measures of their own, oil and gas interests set up a series of benignly named advocacy groups. Among these were Protecting Colorado’s Environment, Economy, and Energy Independence — often referred to as simply “Protect Colorado” — and Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development (CRED). According to IRS filings (posted online here and here by Greenpeace), these two spent $27 million to promote the industry that year. A political strategist working with the groups, Mark Truax, attended a September 2015 meeting of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC), where industry executives, lobbyists and regulators from around the US gather to discuss strategy. Truax outlined the political groups’ efforts on behalf of the pro-fracking measures, including a sophisticated voter outreach organization, according to a transcript of the meeting published in Boulder Weekly and made from a recording obtained by Greenpeace researcher Jesse Coleman. On the recording, Truax touted the way the pro-oil and gas groups had targeted 3.9 million voters by demographic to win their sympathy toward fracking. He explained how the groups had built coalitions among businesses in the state and how the industry focused on electing pro-oil and gas city council members. Industry representatives also worked closely with the state regulator, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission . The group’s director, Matt Lepore , was present at the IOGCC meeting where Truax discussed strategy, and emails obtained by Greenpeace’s Coleman through a Freedom of Information Act request show that Lepore and other regulatory officials met with CRED as the group was developing one of its outreach campaigns. “As a public agency, we make ourselves available to any interested party that wants to learn more — or ask about specific issues — related to the COGCC’s work,” said Todd Hartman, a spokesperson for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, in a statement to BillMoyers.com. “As you might expect, we’d push back very hard” on the idea that the agency coordinates on communications efforts with the industry, he said, adding that COGCC meets monthly with a coalition of environmental groups. Academic Dispute To succeed, the oil and gas industry had to maintain the status quo. And in 2014, they did: No new towns passed fracking bans, and, as part of a compromise with Hickenlooper, environmentalists agreed to end their campaign to put anti-fracking ballot measures on the statewide ballot. As part of the compromise, however, Hickenlooper convened a task force to study ways in which Coloradans could have more input on fracking in their communities. Initially, fracking opponents were hopeful. “The governor’s announcement of the Oil and Gas Task Force is the first step forward in solving the problem of fracking occurring anywhere and everywhere,” said Rep. Jared Polis , a Democrat whose congressional district includes Boulder. But oil and gas interests already had been at work, commissioning researchers at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder to work on a series of studies that supported industry talking points. One study, underwritten by an industry-funded group called the Common Sense Policy Roundtable , along with two other groups not affiliated with the industry, declared that a moratorium on fracking would hurt the state’s economy. Another, commissioned and funded by the American Petroleum Institute , demonstrated that fracking had a positive economic impact on Colorado communities. The reports got coverage in The Denver Post and The Colorado Springs Gazette , neither of which disclosed that the Common Sense Policy Roundtable was an industry group. When the relationship between the Leeds School researchers and the industry groups came to light, Bronson Hilliard, a spokesperson for the school at the time, told High Country News that the researchers didn’t know about the group’s funding. “CU-Boulder policy researchers are under no obligation to understand industry organizations’ financial ties or to report them,” he wrote in a statement . But emails between researchers and industry employees, obtained by Greenpeace and Boulder Weekly , appear to show that the industry weighed in as the study was being written, requesting revisions. “I hope this new version is in line with what you envisioned… We look forward to further feedback and comments,” one CU-Boulder researcher said in an email sharing his findings with an API adviser. The emails also suggest a hope that the research would play a role in influencing the governor’s task force. The task force’s legislative recommendations ultimately did little for activists who were seeking greater control of fracking in their own communities. The End of Local Control Though the ballot measures that anti-fracking activists championed in 2014 and the governor’s subsequent task force ultimately failed, towns were having some success banning fracking. By 2015, five Colorado communities as well as Boulder County had voted to implement local bans or moratoria on drilling. These sorts of bans represent a rare area of agreement between Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton: Both have spoken in favor of “local control” — the idea that communities should be able to decide whether or not to approve fracking. “I’m in favor of fracking, but I think that voters should have a big say in it,” Trump told Denver television station KUSA . “I mean, there’s some areas, maybe, they don’t want to have fracking. And I think if the voters are voting for it, that’s up to them.” Clinton has made similar statements, and that panicked oil and gas lobbyists , because the idea of local control has been so potent. In addition to the Colorado communities, New York and Maryland have both banned fracking, as have five counties in California. But the Colorado communities’ bans were overturned this May when the state’s Supreme Court ruled that Colorado law does not allow for “local control.” So this year, anti-fracking activists wanted to put a new cause on the ballot: A “local control” amendment to the state constitution that would allow towns to ban fracking. National groups such as 350.org, Food and Water Watch and Greenpeace lined up behind local groups’ efforts to put the measure on the ballot, along with one that would have required fracking operations to be roughly half a mile from homes. Ultimately, however, Secretary of State Wayne Williams , a Republican, ruled that activists did not gather enough signatures to put these measures on the ballot. Activists handed in about 107,000 signatures — more than the 98,492 required. But Williams did not believe there were enough legitimate signatures to clear the bar. Advocates for the amendments decided they didn’t have the resources to challenge that decision. The industry had prepared for a long and hard fight, but by September, it was all over. So Noble Energy and Anadarko decided instead to pour their money into another initiative — one that would likely make it so they wouldn’t be fighting new activist ballot initiatives every year going forward. “Raise the Bar” Amendment 71 first surfaced as a campaign by business leaders and politicians called “Raise the Bar.” But the idea had its genesis at least a year ago. Greenpeace’s tapes of the September 2015 IOGCC meeting reveal a discussion about an initiative to change “the actual ballot process itself.” Mark Truax, the political strategist working with the oil- and gas-backed industry groups CRED and Protect Colorado, told the meeting participants, “We are in the process of evaluating that right now.” Coloradans have long complained their ballot is cluttered with proposed amendments and referenda that the average citizen cannot be expected to know anything about. The number of measures on the Colorado ballot is often quite large, creating a genuine frustration among voters. “This is too much,” Seth Masket, a University of Denver political science professor and commentator, wrote in Pacific Standard last month , describing his four-page ballot that included 15 state and local initiatives. “There are some legitimately interesting ones, including an increase in the minimum wage, the creation of a new public health care system, and switching from a closed caucus to an open primary in presidential nominations. But is the ballot really the right place to hammer these things out? Do I and other Colorado voters have the necessary expertise to decide whether a substantial restructure of our public-health system will be in the state’s best interests?” To bolster its argument for Amendment 71, Protect Colorado, one of the industry groups, has noted that most signatures on the recent anti-fracking ballot initiatives did not come from the regions where fracking is most intense, and argued that more communities should be involved in deciding what goes on the ballot. But the big money behind the initiative is raising alarms beyond the environmental community. The Denver Post editorial board — a body that often writes in support of the oil and gas industry — recently published an editorial opposing Amendment 71 for that very reason. “The campaign and the cause are the antithesis of grass roots,” The Post wrote. “The real muscle behind Raise the Bar is coming from the oil and gas industry.” “They have a really good shot of winning this thing, honestly,” said Frack Free Colorado’s Spiegel. “Their marketing is great around it. ‘Don’t make it so easy to change the constitution’ — people will get behind that if they don’t know where it’s coming from or why.” Activists are already planning to run another ballot measure campaign to try and legalize fracking bans in 2018. “But if 71 gets adopted,” said Spiegel, “our job is going to be really hard.” 0 0 0 0 0 0

Inside Ciara's Year of "Life and Love": Russell Wilson's Daddy Skills, Her Kids' "Awesome" Bond and More

The Italian government called on Tuesday for confidence votes in the lower house of parliament to try to force through an electoral law that is likely to penalize the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement. The new voting law, which would be used in a national election due by next May, is backed by the ruling Democratic Party (PD), former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi s Forza Italia (Go Italy!) and the anti-migrant Northern League. Unlike the current rules, the new system, known as the Rosatellum, would allow the formation of broad coalitions before the ballot, a factor likely to hurt the maverick 5-Star, which refuses to join alliances. The party, which tops many opinion polls, says the Rosatellum could cost it up to 50 seats in parliament. It has called for protests on Wednesday, when the lower house is due to hold two confidence motions. A third vote is set for Thursday. This is a mortal blow to democracy, a violation of democratic laws, said Luigi Di Maio, the 5-Star s candidate for prime minister. The aim is to destroy us. Italy s political landscape is highly fragmented and successive governments have failed to reduce the nation s huge debt mountain and struggled to revive the economy. Investors fear political instability here could undermine the euro. President Sergio Mattarella, the only figure with the power to dissolve parliament, has demanded new voting rules be drawn up because at present there is too much divergence between the systems for electing members of the two houses of parliament. Previous efforts at reform have all ended in failure thanks to a matrix of conflicting interests. The latest version offers a mix of first-past-the-post and proportional representation, and gives party leaders a huge say over nominating candidates. Although the Rosatellum will likely hurt 5-Star, analysts say it looks unlikely to throw up a clear parliamentary majority, with opinion polls showing the center-left, center-right and 5-Star splitting the vote three ways. A government is obliged to resign if it loses a confidence vote so only deploys the motion if it thinks key legislation might get held up or radically altered without its intervention. In this case, the government motions will sweep away dozens of secret votes on various aspects of the law, which would have allowed disaffected parliamentarians from the traditional parties to sink the bill, as happened in June during a prior attempt to introduce new electoral rules. The ruling PD dismissed accusations that it was subverting democracy, saying there would still be one final secret vote on the whole package. In this secret vote we will see if the law is good or bad, said Ettore Rosato, the parliamentary party leader of the PD who has put his name to the reform. This is the last chance we have to put in place an electoral law and we want to avoid, just weeks ahead of the ballot, any traps, he told reporters. Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni hopes to get the bill through the lower house of parliament by the end of the week, after which it will go to the upper house Senate, where the government has no clearly defined majority.

Brad Pitt fires back at Angelina Jolie's child support claims

If there s someone who has always stood up for the rights of women, it s Hillary Clinton. In fact, it s been pretty much her life s work. So, when a robotic, mansplaining candidate like Republican Sen. Marco Rubio decided he would throw jabs at Clinton and her stance on abortion rights, as well as abortion rights in general, she did not hold back her opinion of the Florida Senator.On ABC s This Week she said: It s really quite sad to see what Senator Rubio is becoming in this campaign. Everybody understands that he is diving as far right as he possibly can. I ve been on record for many years about where I stand on abortion, how it should be safe and legal. And I ve had the same position that I ve had for a very long time. But what s really going on here is an effort by the Republicans to keep pushing as far as they can to overturn Roe v. Wade, to defund Planned Parenthood, to make accusations and attacks that are really extreme It s just so unfortunate that politicians like Senator Rubio are trying to politicize these kinds of concerns and I don t think he should be allowed to get away with that. Rubio had stated that Clinton would support abortion even on the due date of that unborn child during Saturday night s GOP debate.While appearing on CBS Face the Nation Clinton reiterated her disgust in his comments, saying: I think it s pretty pathetic. This is something that illustrates how Senator Rubio has just been going as far as he can to try to, I guess, buttress his credentials with certain parts of the Republican constituency. I ve been on record for years about where I stand on making abortions safe and legal, the exceptions that are appropriate that should be looked into. And the very difficult choices that very few women have to confront that lead to excruciating kinds of decisions. Decisions Rubio, sans uterus, will never have to face.It s disgusting that women and their reproductive rights are politicized each and every election cycle, because it s pretty much they only social issue the GOP has left to get people to the polls, especially now that marriage equality is law of the land.What a woman does with her body is her decision, and her decision alone. No ifs, ands or buts about it. And unless these Republican men are cool with restrictions for their bodies as well, they better STFU.Hillary Clinton calls Rubio's comments on her abortion stance "pathetic" & an attempt to "buttress his credentials" https://t.co/u7wY0TcpCn Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) February 7, 2016Video/Featured image: CBS News

In the simplest of terms, one way to describe Donald Trump supporters would be to call them interesting. However, not interesting in a way where they have profound things to say and should be respected for all the things they do, but rather interesting in a way like when you visit a circus and wonder how so many clowns can fit into one car. That would, in fact, be interesting to find out.Catching up with a few of these interesting people was none other than Jimmy Kimmel s team on his late night show. He interviewed a number of them on the street in Hollywood and told them that it s Hillary Clinton s birthday. He then asked if they could say at least one nice thing about her for her birthday. The replies were, let s just say, less than kind.One woman said: I can t say anything positive. I d ask her if it s truly her birthday or if she s lying about that too. Another guy said: Happy birthday, Hillary. I hope you get arrested. One woman did muster up the strength to compliment Hillary s hair, but she wasn t happy about saying it.It definitely seems like there s a lot of anger coming out of the Trump campaign and their supporters, along with a lot of false information. Here s hoping they will be able to find happiness in life even when Hillary becomes president.Watch the segment and all their weird hatred towards Hillary here:[ad3media campaign= 1266 ]Featured image via video screen capture

Andrew Napolitano was a Superior Court judge in New Jersey until, frustrated by the constraints of his salary, he left the bench for more lucrative pastures: talk radio, a syndicated court TV series (“Power of Attorney”) and, eventually, Fox News, where he rose to become the network’s senior legal analyst. It was in that capacity this week that Mr. Napolitano managed to set off a cascading scandal, which by Friday had sparked a tiff between Britain and the United States while plunging President Trump’s close relationship with Fox News into new, murkier territory. It was new ground for Mr. Napolitano, 66, who prefers being addressed as “The Judge” and once insisted that Fox News install bookshelves and in his newsroom office, the better to resemble a judge’s chambers. But Mr. Napolitano’s unlikely leap into global politics can be explained by his friendship with Mr. Trump, whom he met with this year to discuss potential Supreme Court nominees. Mr. Napolitano also has a taste for conspiracy theories, which led him to Larry C. Johnson, a former intelligence officer best known for spreading a hoax about Michelle Obama. Let’s back up. The saga began on Tuesday on “Fox Friends,” the chummy morning show, where Mr. Napolitano made a bizarre and unsupported accusation: Citing three unnamed sources, he said that Britain’s top spy agency had wiretapped Mr. Trump on behalf of President Barack Obama during last year’s campaign. Cable news blather, especially at that hour, usually vanishes at the commercial break. But on Thursday, Mr. Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, repeated the claim from the White House podium, infuriating British officials. On Friday, Fox News was forced to disavow Mr. Napolitano’s remarks. “Fox News cannot confirm Judge Napolitano’s commentary,” the anchor Shepard Smith said . “Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the of the United States was surveilled at any time, any way. Full stop. ” The terse declaration boosted the credibility of Fox News’s newsroom, which is often attacked as biased, but also put it in the awkward position of repudiating one of its featured contributors. And it could threaten the cozy dynamic between Mr. Trump, a frequent Fox viewer, and the network’s conservative hosts. Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and the prankster Jesse Watters are among the few television personalities to be granted interviews with the president. Programs like “Fox Friends” often serve as cheerleaders for him, and the network is increasing its focus on conservatism: A new weekly series, hosted by a leader of the Brexit movement, Steve Hilton, will focus on populism. Mr. Napolitano, who keeps a residence in Manhattan at Trump International Hotel Tower on Central Park West, did not respond to inquiries on Friday. But Mr. Johnson, who was himself once a Fox News contributor, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Napolitano called him on Friday and requested that he speak to The New York Times. Mr. Johnson said he was one of the sources for Mr. Napolitano’s claim about British intelligence. Mr. Johnson became infamous in political circles after he spread false rumors in 2008 that Michelle Obama had been videotaped using a slur against Caucasians. In the interview on Friday, Mr. Johnson acknowledged his notoriety, but said that his knowledge of surveillance of Mr. Trump came from sources in the American intelligence community. Mr. Napolitano, he said, heard about his information through an intermediary. “It sounds like a Frederick Forsyth novel,” Mr. Johnson said. Mr. Trump refused to back down from the claims on Friday, and even praised Mr. Napolitano, telling reporters, “All we did was quote a very talented legal mind. ” The president’s next scheduled appearance on Fox News is Saturday night, when an interview will air between him and Mr. Watters, a host known for interviews that have been denounced as offensive and, at times, racist. In a clip released on Friday, Mr. Watters asks Mr. Trump which celebrity he would most like to fire: Alec Baldwin, Senator Chuck Schumer or CNN’s president, Jeff Zucker. “I don’t want to say,” Mr. Trump replied. “But I will say I’m disappointed in all three. ”

The Atlantic is a well-respected American publication. It also is one that tries with all its might to not be partisan when it comes to reporting on presidential politics. For this reason, the Atlantic usually refuses to endorse presidential candidates. The magazine has existed since 1857, and prides itself on being fact-based, morally sound, and non-partisan for the most part. They actually took sides for the first time in endorsing then-Republican candidate for president Abraham Lincoln, due to his position on slavery. To that endorsement, the paper said its reasoning for endorsing Lincoln was clear: a moral objection to slavery. The paper said of this endorsement:One of the animating causes of this magazine at its founding, in 1857, was the abolition of slavery, and Lowell argued that the Republican Party, and the man who was its standard-bearer in 1860, represented the only reasonable pathway out of the existential crisis then facing the country. In his endorsement of Abraham Lincoln for president, Lowell wrote, on behalf of the magazine, It is in a moral aversion to slavery as a great wrong that the chief strength of the Republican party lies. He went on to declare that Abraham Lincoln had experience enough in public affairs to make him a statesman, and not enough to make him a politician. The second time The Atlantic endorsed a candidate for president also had to do with racism, when the endorsement for Lyndon B. Johnson was announced. The Atlantic s position then was, once again, less of a glowing heap of praise for Johnson, but rather against Barry Goldwater s rank racism. Then-editor Edward Weeks wrote at the time: We admire the President for the continuity with which he has maintained our foreign policy, a policy which became a worldwide responsibility at the time of the Marshall Plan. The magazine went on to write that President Johnson would deliver to America the solution to the vexed problem of civil rights a power of conciliation which will prevent us from stumbling down the road taken by South Africa. They went on to say of the known racist candidate they saw in Barry Goldwater:We think it unfortunate that Barry Goldwater takes criticism as a personal affront; we think it poisonous when his anger betrays him into denouncing what he calls the radical press by bracketing the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Izvestia. There speaks not the reason of the Southwest but the voice of Joseph McCarthy. We do not impugn Senator Goldwater s honesty. We sincerely distrust his factionalism and his capacity for judgment.And now, when faced with the possibility of a bigoted, dangerous demagogue as president, The Atlantic once again has taken a stand and endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Again, this has more to do with the dangers of a Trump administration than it has to do with Hillary herself. While the good folks at The Atlantic had plenty of praise for Hillary s public service record, their public endorsement is definitely focused on the indisputable dangers of Donald Trump. They said, in part:Donald Trump, on the other hand, has no record of public service and no qualifications for public office. His affect is that of an infomercial huckster; he traffics in conspiracy theories and racist invective; he is appallingly sexist; he is erratic, secretive, and xenophobic; he expresses admiration for authoritarian rulers, and evinces authoritarian tendencies himself. He is easily goaded, a poor quality for someone seeking control of America s nuclear arsenal. He is an enemy of fact-based discourse; he is ignorant of, and indifferent to, the Constitution; he appears not to read.This judgment is not limited to the editors of The Atlantic. A large number in fact, a number unparalleled since Goldwater s 1964 campaign of prominent policy makers and officeholders from the candidate s own party have publicly renounced him. Trump disqualified himself from public service long before he declared his presidential candidacy. In one of the more sordid episodes in modern American politics, Trump made himself the face of the so-called birther movement, which had as its immediate goal the demonization of the country s first African American president. Trump s larger goal, it seemed, was to stoke fear among white Americans of dark-skinned foreigners. He succeeded wildly in this; the fear he has aroused has brought him one step away from the presidency.The Atlantic s editors are right to do this. Trump is dangerous. The fact that a non-partisan, widely respected publication that has only taken sides in presidential politics three times since 1857 has such strong words against one major party candidate and in favor of another is very telling. They are telling us something that we should already know: a Donald Trump presidency isn t just embarrassing, or even just bigoted. It would be a reckless and dangerous affair that would literally amount to a national and international emergency.Sure, Independents and others who aren t necessarily on Team Hillary might have legitimate reasons for not taking the word of a clear Clinton supporter such as myself seriously. But you surely can, if only for a second, take a step back and consider the opinions of a paper like The Atlantic.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images

GREEN BAY, Wis./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump acted to steer his White House campaign back into favor with his party’s establishment on Friday by endorsing U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and two Republican senators seeking re-election, after expressing coolness toward them earlier this week. “I need a Republican Senate and a House to accomplish all of the changes that we have to make,” Trump said during a rally in Green Bay, in northern Wisconsin, Ryan’s home state. He also endorsed Senators John McCain of Arizona and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, calling Ayotte a “rising star.” “We will have disagreements, but we will disagree as friends,” Trump said, Trump earlier this week refused to endorse Ryan, telling The Washington Post he was “not quite there yet” - nearly the same phrase Ryan had used about Trump before finally endorsing him. Trump said in the same interview that McCain had not done enough for veterans and criticized Ayotte for distancing herself from him during the campaign. Ryan, the top U.S. elected Republican, had no plans to attend the Wisconsin event, a sign of lingering frictions between the pair, even though Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, did endorse him. Ryan’s Republican primary challenger, businessman Paul Nehlen, did attend, according to a spokesman. Ryan is expected to win the challenge for his House seat in next week’s Republican primary, and he is viewed by many Republicans as a possible presidential candidate in the future. The tension between Ryan and Trump caused deep frustration among party leaders and lawmakers. Trump’s endorsement came as one of several steps to get his campaign back on track after days of controversy and falling poll numbers that have given Democrat Hillary Clinton the advantage in the race to the Nov. 8 election. In the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday, Clinton’s lead over Trump narrowed to less than 3 percentage points, down from nearly 8 points on Monday. Trump said on Friday he wanted a “big tent” party with multiple viewpoints welcome. He said he was endorsing the Republican lawmakers due to their “shared mission to make America great again.” Trump also announced a new advisory team to help guide him on economic policy. The group relies heavily on hedge fund managers and investment bankers, a group Trump has railed against. There are no women on the team. Trump plans to release his economic policy framework in a speech in Detroit on Monday, an event that will offer him a chance to avoid theatrics and detail how he would handle economic issues if elected. Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore told Reuters that the candidate’s plan would focus on four areas: tax, deregulation, energy policy and trade. “It’s going to be an all-encompassing look at how we reform the economy,” Moore said. At events in Des Moines, Iowa, and Green Bay, Trump showed discipline that is unusual at his often free-wheeling rallies, calling Clinton the “queen of corruption” and defending himself against her charge that he is temperamentally unfit for the White House. “All my life I’ve been told, ‘You have the greatest temperament,’” he said in Des Moines. He also said voters should consider supporting him because of Pence, who appeared with him at both events. “If you don’t like me, that’s okay. Vote for Pence because it’s the same thing,” Trump said. Trump bashed the media as well, saying reporters over-hyped an incident earlier in the week and claimed he kicked a baby out of an event in Virginia. “I love babies,” he said. “SHORT-CIRCUITED” Clinton sought to take advantage of Trump’s dip in the polls at a conference of minority journalists in Washington, where she pledged an all-out fight for comprehensive immigration reform. And she did what she has rarely done during the presidential campaign: take questions from reporters. She addressed two of the largest issues that continue to dog her campaign: the controversy over her use of a private email server while she was U.S. secretary of state and continuing skepticism among voters about her trustworthiness. Clinton conceded that she had “short-circuited” earlier in the week in interviews when she had asserted that FBI director James Comey had concluded that she had been truthful in her statements about use of the private server. Clinton had repeatedly said she never sent emails containing classified material, a finding that Comey contradicted at the conclusion of the FBI’s probe in July, when he rebuked her for “extremely careless” handling of classified information while recommending that no criminal charges be filed. On Friday, Clinton maintained, “I never sent or received anything marked classified,” while acknowledging that some material she sent may retroactively have been considered classified by other government agencies. Republicans have repeatedly charged that Clinton endangered national security with her handling of classified material. The email controversy has fueled a perception among a majority of voters that Clinton is untrustworthy. “I take it seriously,” she said. Still, as she has often done during her career, Clinton attributed much of her low standing on this issue to attacks from Republicans. Trump’s campaign said his economic advisory panel included former steel executive Dan DiMicco; Howard Lorber, CEO of tobacco company Vector Group Ltd (VGR.N); and Trump campaign finance chairman and investment manager Steven Mnuchin. Hedge fund managers John Paulson and Steve Feinberg, Moore, the Trump economic adviser, and David Malpass, who has served in previous Republican administrations, were also named. Trump’s moves came after many Republicans urged the candidate to correct course following a tumultuous week. The real estate mogul and former reality television star was caught up for days in a public spat with the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq. The parents had criticized Trump at last week’s Democratic National Convention. Many Republicans, including Ryan, McCain and Ayotte, were critical of Trump’s insistent attacks on the pair.

Of course, this happened in Florida.After reportedly failing to convince a man to support Donald Trump during a heated argument at a polling place in a Lake Worth church, a Trump supporter resorted to pulling a gun on him.Palm Beach County Sheriff s deputies responded to the incident and promptly arrested the Trump supporter, who was seen wearing his Make America Great Again hat as he was being placed in the back of a police cruiser.A witness said the Trump supporter got into an argument with the voter after he refused to vote for Trump.Here s some images of the man being taken into custody via Facebook.With the results of the election only hours away, one has to wonder if incidents like this will explode across the country if Donald Trump loses to Hillary Clinton.After all, Trump supporters have repeatedly threatened bloody violence, including assassination attempts and a coup in retaliation if their side loses.And since Donald Trump has repeatedly called the election rigged and has refused to say that he would concede if he loses, we can only wait and see how the results unfold and watch the reaction.Voting should be a safe civic activity for every person in this country. Pulling a firearm just because another voter does not share your choice of candidate is uncivilized and damages the democratic process. Polling places should be safe spaces no matter how much we disagree with each other.This is one of the nastiest elections in American history and it may end up being one of the most violent. That s what Trump and his deplorable supporters have done this year. And it s absolutely disgraceful.Featured Image: Facebook

Putin may be the one person Obama has absolutely no influence over. With Obama unable to use his Chicago thug-like political tactics on Putin, could this finally be the end of Hillary Clinton s career in politics? Hillary Clinton sits at the center of a raging firestorm concerning her arrangement of a private email account and server set up in her home from which top secret information may have been deleted. But despite Bernie Sanders apparent annoyance with the damn emails, the scandal just exponentially intensified, when Judge Andrew Napolitano revealed on Monday that Russia has possession of around 20,000 of Clinton s emails leaving open the possibility her deletions might not have been permanent after all. There s a debate going on in the Kremlin between the Foreign Ministry and the Intelligence Services about whether they should release the 20,000 of Mrs. Clinton s emails that they have hacked into, Napolitano told Fox News Megyn Kelly in an interview for The Kelly File.https://youtu.be/oounggTI-jkWith Clinton s repeated claims she employed the personal email server only for mundane communications and non-sensitive State matters having been proven outright lies, the deletions of 31,830 emails in the new context of Napolitano s statement have suddenly become remarkably relevant.As the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton s questionable email practices deepens, the question of who had access to what information previously located on the former secretary of state s server is now more critical than ever.One such individual, Romanian hacker Guccifer, who was abruptly extradited to the United States, revealed he had easily and repeatedly accessed Clinton s personal server and he wasn t the only one. For me, it was easy, the hacker, whose given name is Marcel Lehel Lazar, exclusively told Fox News; easy for me, for everybody. If Guccifer and Napolitano are right, Russia may, indeed, have possession of highly-sensitive information courtesy of Clinton s arrogant failure to adhere to the obligation to use a government email account during her tenure as secretary a situation worsened by the now-mendacious claim no sensitive information had been sent through the personal account.In fact, if Guccifer is to be believed as his extradition by the U.S. indicates news of the Kremlin having obtained potentially top-secret material may be the tip of a gargantuan iceberg. Using a readily available program, the Romanian hacker also claimed he observed up to 10, like, IPs from other parts of the world during sessions on Clinton s personal server. If just one of those unknown parties was connected to Russia, who the other nine might be could be central to the FBI s decision whether or not to charge Clinton for mishandling classified information.Adding yet another nail in the coffin case against Hillary on Thursday, the Hill reported conservative watchdog Judicial Watch revealed, pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request, frustration with technical difficulties in obtaining a secure phone line led the secretary to direct a top aide to abandon the effort and call her without the necessary security in place. I give up. Call me on my home [number], Clinton wrote in a February 2009 email from the newly-released batch on the also notoriously unsecured server to then-chief of staff, Cheryl Mills.Via: Zero Hedge