MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Gov. Robert Bentley engaged in an "inappropriate relationship" with his chief adviser, then used intimidation tactics and deployed state law enforcement officials in an effort to cover it up, according to a bruising report released Friday in support of the effort to impeach him. The report also claims that the governor tried to pin nonexistent crimes on a top law enforcement official. The release of the report by a special counsel to the state House Judiciary Committee is almost certain to further imperil Mr. Bentley, an avuncular physician and former Sunday school teacher. Mr. Bentley, a Republican, has vowed to fight to keep his office despite a steady drip of embarrassing and sometimes salacious details that have fueled a scandal that has embarrassed this conservative state and all but consumed its political culture for the last year. Despite mounting calls from members of his own party that he step down, the governor won a significant battle Friday afternoon when a local judge granted a temporary restraining order Mr. Bentley had sought. The order effectively blocks impeachment hearings that were set to begin Monday in the Legislature, which is dominated by Mr. Bentley's own party. In many other ways, it was a very bad week for the governor. On Wednesday, the Alabama Ethics Commission found probable cause that he had violated ethics and campaign laws, and referred the case to a local district attorney for possible criminal prosecution. A separate inquiry, already underway, is being led by a special prosecutor appointed by Alabama's attorney general. This week, both Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh and House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, both Republicans, called on the Mr. Bentley to resign. State Representative Corey Harbison, another Republican, said that he was worried about the possible violation of laws, but also the distraction the scandal has caused, and its damage to the state's reputation. "It is a terrible black eye for the state," said Mr. Harbison, who has called for Mr. Bentley's ouster. When Mr. Bentley was sworn in as governor in 2011, it seemed almost impossible to conceive of a politician with less potential for drama. He was and long married and had earned wide respect as a dermatologist in his hometown, Tuscaloosa. Whatever Mr. Bentley's fate, it is unlikely to shake the dominant Republican Party here. The state is simply too conservative to see mass defections to the Democrats. And he has not been viewed as a particularly powerful governor. Before 9 a. m. Friday — hours before the release of the report — Mr. Bentley appeared on the Capitol steps minutes after his office alerted reporters that he would be speaking. The governor spoke of how he had put his fate in the hands of a higher power, mentioning the word "God" nine times in under seven minutes. He said he had done nothing illegal, and he apologized directly to the people of Alabama: "There's no doubt I have let you down," he said. He also warned there were more "embarrassing details" to come. Headline writers have taken to referring to Mr. Bentley as the "Love Gov," over the accusation that he had engaged in an affair with his former senior political adviser, Rebekah Caldwell Mason — an accusation both Mr. Bentley and Ms. Mason deny. For months now, residents have had to endure a leaked audio recording of Mr. Bentley in conversation with a woman — said to be Ms. Mason — in which he describes embracing her and placing his hands on her breasts. The governor could also be heard saying, "If we're going to do what we did the other day, we're going to have to start locking the door. " The report issued Friday involved interviewing 20 witnesses and 10, 000 pages of documents. In the report, Jack Sharman, the special counsel, noted that Mr. Bentley and his associates, including Ms. Mason, refused to cooperate. The governor, Mr. Sharman said, refused to turn over all state documents investigators requested, while his campaign committee turned over no documents. "The Committee may consider the Governor's as an independent ground for impeachment," the report stated. The report also notes that in Alabama, a gubernatorial impeachment investigation is not a criminal one, and that impeachable offenses "may include but are not limited to crimes. " The report described a chief executive racked with "increasing obsession and paranoia," but one who also did little to hide his relationship with Ms. Mason from his inner circle. When his wife was able to make the clandestine recordings of Mr. Bentley speaking "provocatively" to Ms. Mason, the report states, "Governor Bentley's loyalty shifted from the State of Alabama to himself. " Mr. Bentley worried the recordings would become public, the report stated, and embroiled law enforcement officers in the drama, directing them, among other things, to investigate who might have copies" and to identify potential crimes which they could be charged. He also encouraged "an atmosphere of intimidation" to ensure that no one spoke of it, the report stated. Ms. Mason, meanwhile, exercised "extraordinary policy authority while receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from Governor Bentley's campaign account and from an apparently lawful but shadowy nonprofit," it stated. The speculation about an affair came to light in March 2016, after the governor fired Spencer Collier, the head of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Mr. Bentley said he had fired Mr. Collier after a review uncovered "possible misuse of state money" at the agency. The Alabama attorney general's office opened an investigation, only to close it in October, noting that "no witness had established a credible basis for the initiation of a criminal inquiry in the first place. " Soon after his firing, Mr. Collier held a news conference in which he accused Mr. Bentley of having an affair with Ms. Mason, whom he described as Alabama's "de facto governor. " The report accuses Mr. Bentley of "prematurely and publicly" accusing Mr. Collier of criminal misconduct, with the "likely" purpose of demonizing him. It also noted that Mr. Collier has since been cleared of wrongdoing. It is unclear when a new impeachment timetable will be established. Lawyers said that Greg Griffin, the circuit court judge who issued the restraining order, could issue an order laying out an impeachment process that would address the governor's concern that he was not granted proper due process. If the State House, which would take up the matter first, votes to impeach, Mr. Bentley will be temporarily removed from office while the Senate deliberates his ultimate fate. If Mr. Bentley is charged and convicted by the Montgomery County district attorney, he will face a to prison sentence and a fine of up to $20, 000 for each of the four potential violations. This year, Mr. Bentley sparked concerns among some lawmakers when he appointed Luther Strange, a former state attorney general, to the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, who left to become President Trump's attorney general. Mr. Strange had been overseeing an investigation of Mr. Bentley, and his successor has appointed a special prosecutor to take over the investigation. But Mr. Harbison, the Republican state representative, said that the appointment could give the perception that Mr. Bentley was trying to derail the inquiry. Today, Mr. Bentley's private life appears to be as complicated as his public one. His wife filed for divorce in August 2015. Ms. Mason resigned last year. Her husband remains the director of the Governor's Office of and Volunteer Service, and the couple traveled with Mr. Bentley to Washington, for Mr. Trump's inauguration in January. Ms. Mason could not be reached for comment. Her lawyers said in a court filing last year that she had "done nothing wrong, either civilly or criminally. "


The Texas House of Representatives gave formal approval on Monday to a bill that would restrict bathroom access for transgender students in public schools, a measure that critics say promotes discrimination against such children. The state's Republican-controlled legislature has been at the forefront in advancing measures seen by backers as protecting traditional values and religious liberty but criticized by civil rights groups as eroding protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, people. The Texas House gave preliminary approval on Sunday night to the bill, which requires public school students to use bathrooms, changing facilities and locker rooms that match their biological sex, not the gender with which they identify. Under the bill, school districts have to accommodate students who do not wish to use a common facility based on biological sex with a single-occupancy facility, or a multi-occupancy facility if its use occurs when no one else is present. The measure is narrower in scope than a bathroom bill passed along mostly party lines by the state Senate in March that extended to state universities and public buildings. The Senate bill is similar to one enacted last year in North Carolina. The North Carolina law prompted economic boycotts and the loss of sporting events, and was later revamped in the face of criticism. The more limited House measure is seen as a way to avoid an economic backlash in Texas, analysts said. "It is absolutely about child safety," Republican state Representative Chris Paddie, who managed the bill, said in House debate on Sunday. The measure heads back to the Senate for consideration of changes made since it was in that chamber. Republican Governor Greg Abbott has said he supports a bathroom bill. Critics said the House and Senate versions undermined civil rights and used children as political pawns. "There is no moral middle ground on discrimination, " said Kathy Miller, president of the civil liberties advocacy group Texas Freedom Network. The legislature on Monday also sent to the governor a bill allowing adoption agencies to reject families on religious grounds, an action slammed by critics as discriminatory against LGBT Texans and non-Christians. LGBT rights groups said they would challenge the adoption bill in court if it became law, arguing discrimination in the name of religion had no place in the state. The bill's backers, which include several Christian groups, said it banned no one and had a mechanism for the state government to offer alternative adoption providers if any service is denied for religious beliefs.


Top 5 unusual tragic deaths on sets # Top5darkests 0  Over the years, conspiracies and theories of paranormal activity on movie sets has grown. With a large amount of horror productions having unfortunate deaths, some deaths closely resembling story lines of the horror production, theories of movies with a curse has been spoken by some. From deaths on movie productions involving the devil to the conspiracy of the hanging extra in the wizard of oz, we will cover in this video our top 5 unusual tragic deaths on sets. Tags


Ronald Reagan is largely seen as the Messiah of the Republican Party. Despite how long it has been since the man was president, he has always remained the high standard of GOP morality for potential office holders. That is, until now. Reagan is likely rolling over in his grave at the idea of the state of his party with Donald Trump as its standard-bearer, and he s likely doing the same at the prospect of a bigoted accused child molester like Roy Moore (R-AL) being the next GOP Senator from Alabama. Well, now Reagan has another reason to hate Moore: He s clearly in the pocket of Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin just like Donald Trump is.During an interview where he s talking about Americans being the face of evil in the world right now, Moore indicates that Putin s harsh and murderous treatment of LGBTQ people in Russia is something he would like to see happen in the United States. Then, he does something most appalling, and goes on to give Putin a message in Russian. Now, no one knows where a bigoted, backwoods buffoon like Roy Moore would learn Russian. After all, he s barely left Alabama, where he has spent the last 40+ years wreacking havoc and just basically cementing Alabama s place as America s bigoted boil on the butt of humanity wherever and whenever he can. However, he managed to learn enough Russian to dog whistle to Putin in that interview. That should disturb us all. Not only is the man being a homophobe, a racist, a misogynist, and more than likely a child molester, he s also a Russian stooge.America, we can do better. We have enough Russian puppets at the highest levels of government. Lord knows we don t need one in the United States Senate.Watch the appalling video below:Please watch this until the end, Roy Moore sides with Putin over Reagan, says that America is the focus of evil in the world, and sends a nice message to Putin in Russian. pic.twitter.com/wFgDkvzEhT The Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) December 10, 2017


The United States wants to exhaust every diplomatic option on North Korea s nuclear and missile programs, and to see loopholes in the North Korean sanctions regime closed, U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood said on Friday. Sanctions have not had a real opportunity to bite as hard as we would like them to bite, and that comes from the fact that they have not been fully implemented, Wood told a news conference in Geneva. North Korea fired a second missile over Japan far out into the Pacific Ocean on Friday, South Korean and Japanese officials said, deepening tension after Pyongyang s recent test of its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb. Washington has in the past accused China, North Korea s main trading partner, of failing to apply enough economic pressure to its neighbor. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Tuesday that if China failed to implement the latest U.N. sanctions on North Korea, he would seek new financial sanctions against Beijing. Wood, formally U.S. ambassador to the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament, said North Korea had exploited gaping holes in the sanctions regime to secretly acquire equipment for its ballistic missile and nuclear weapon programs: We want to close those loopholes. Asked if war or a U.S. military strike was possible, Wood said: We are not taking any options off the table but ... we are pursuing the diplomatic track right now. That s where we are. We want to exhaust all diplomatic options. The United States wanted to see North Korea further isolated, with more countries breaking off or downgrading relations and cutting off trade. He said China had the same interest as the United States in seeking the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, and had helped to apply pressure on North Korea by supporting two U.N. Security Council resolutions. But he said there was much more that China could do, and suggested that Beijing s unique leverage was only just coming into play. We re at a real inflection point with regard to China, Wood said. In a wide-ranging briefing on U.S. disarmament interests, Wood also reiterated President Donald Trump s view that Iran was not fulfilling the spirit of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 deal that allowed Iran sanctions relief in return for curbing its nuclear program. If you look at what Iran is doing with regard to ballistic missile activity ... when you look at the support it is giving to the Assad regime in Syria, to Hezbollah, to Hamas, their funding and support for the Houthi rebels in Yemen ... Iran is not in any way, we think, fulfilling the aspirations of the JCPOA. He cited the preface of the JCPOA, which says the signatories anticipate that the agreement will positively contribute to regional and international peace and security . Trump must decide next month whether Iran is complying with the deal.


Popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, whose fledgling party is gaining momentum ahead of an Oct. 22 general election, said on Thursday at a news conference that she would look into what steps are needed to reduce Japan s dependence on nuclear energy to zero by 2030. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is calling the snap poll in the hope his Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition can keep its majority in the parliament s lower house, where it now holds two-thirds of the seats. Koike has said she wants Japan to abandon nuclear power - a stance likely to resonate with many voters - but had not previously mentioned a target date. Abe s government plans to retain atomic power as part of the energy mix, despite safety worries after the 2011 Fukushima crisis.


A new report suggests that in cases of gang rape or sexual assaults involving two or more attackers in Sweden, 85 percent of the attackers come from a foreign origin. [The information comes from a Swedish website "Gang Rape Sweden" which has kept tabs on the various instances of group rape that have occurred in the country over a period from 2011 to 2015. The site lists the various rapists' names, case numbers, and other details which show the national origins, if known, of the attackers. According to the site, "All records and documents available on this website are Swedish public records. " The site claims that in total between 2011 and 2015 there were 125 individuals accused and convicted of participating in group sex attacks. The majority, 41, come from unknown countries outside of Sweden, and they are followed by 23 from Afghanistan and 20 from Sweden itself. The total number of amounts to 105 or around 85 percent. The site makes a distinction of those accused of true gang rape (participating in sex acts) and those tried along with a rapist for other crimes like failure to disclose the sex attack. Of the "true gang rapes," they measure 50 such cases. Details are also given on the site as to the nature of the accusations, with thirteen of the gang rapists accused of having sex with underage children. Among those accused of molesting minors, none of the suspects are Swedish. The longest sentence for rape occurred in the case of Bardiya Coen Pajouhi, who comes from an unknown country and received a sentence for aggravated rape, though it says he will not be deported to his country of origin. Among those convicted of raping a child, many of the attackers were underage themselves, which matches previous reports of young boys and girls being raped in or around asylum accommodations. In one particular attack, a group of boys from Afghanistan took another young asylum seeker into a wooded area in Uppsala where they beat and raped him, filming the attack on their mobile phones. The Afghani migrants who raped the boy, who is said to have been under the age of 15, were tried and found guilty, but will not be deported back to Afghanistan because Swedish courts have deemed the country "too dangerous" for them to return to. In the statistics provided by the site, only 30 of those convicted face deportation, as opposed to 73 who will not be sent back to their countries of origin, more than double. The Swedish government refuses to keep official statistics that track the origin of criminals and have not done so in over a decade. One police officer, Peter Springare, blew the whistle on migrant crime back in February of this year, claiming that almost all of the serious criminal activity in Sweden is committed by foreigners and migrants. Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson@breitbart. com


Former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who earned a reputation for fighting crime on Wall Street and public corruption before President Donald Trump fired him in March, has signed a book deal with Alfred A. Knopf. The book, as yet untitled, is about "the search for justice, not just in criminal cases but in life and society in general," Knopf said in a statement on Thursday. Publication is expected in January 2019. Bharara said his book would be about the law, "integrity, leadership, decision making, and moral reasoning." "It addresses what it means to do the right thing, how to avoid doing the wrong thing, and the role of thoughtfulness in making the best choice," Bharara said in a statement. In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed Bharara to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which includes Manhattan. During seven and a half years as the chief federal prosecutor in that region, Bharara oversaw several notable corruption and white-collar criminal cases, as well as prosecutions of terrorism suspects. "Preet Bharara's life experience, coupled with his standing as a U.S. Attorney and the cases he tried as prosecutor, makes him uniquely qualified to write this book," said Sonny Mehta, editor-in-chief for Knopf, which is a division of Penguin Random House. Bharara, now a distinguished scholar in residence at New York University's law school, was unexpectedly fired by Trump on March 11 after refusing to step down. He had been among 46 U.S. attorneys who were told a day earlier to submit their resignations. In November, Bharara met with Trump at Trump Tower in New York City, three weeks after the presidential election, and said at the time that they had a "good meeting" and he agreed to remain in his post as a federal prosecutor." He was fired a few months later. This month, Bharara told ABC News in an interview that he received "unusual" phone calls from Trump after the election that made him uncomfortable. He said he was fired after declining to take the third call. Bharara said he believed Trump's calls to him violated the usual boundaries between the executive branch and independent criminal investigators. Knopf spokesman Paul Bogaards said on Thursday that Bharara "addresses the circumstances of his firing in the book proposal." Whether the book itself goes into the details of Bharara's firing "remains an open question," Bogaards said.


The Washington Post has removed a reference to MILO in a piece about his upcoming appearance at CPAC implying that he "espoused racist, and sexist points of view. "[The article, by David Weigel and Robert Costa, described MILO as being the latest example of the conservative movement's "embrace of aligned figures," despite MILO declaring on multiple occasions that he is not a member of, nor aligned with, the but only sought to give them a fair hearing in the press, notably by writing 'An Establishment Conservatives Guide To The .' After Breitbart News contacted the authors, the introduction was changed to describe MILO as a " firebrand," along with removing all references to the bigotry that MILO was accused of. One reader in the comment section, writing before the article updated, said that "this article is so riddled with errors, it may as well be fake news. " Many other news outlets have attempted to brand MILO with the or white nationalist label, including CNN, The Chicago Tribune, CBS, USA Today, LA Times, Glamour Magazine and NBC News. White supremacists have repeatedly attacked MILO the Daily Stormer declared a "holy crusade" against MILO, and proceeded to protest him at the University of Alabama. Most of the aforementioned outlets were forced to issue corrections and retract their claims for having no basis in reality. Jack Hadfield is a student at the University of Warwick and a regular contributor to Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @ToryBastard_, on Gab @JH or email him at jack@yiannopoulos. net.


After days of chaos at airports and confusion over details of President Donald Trump's immigration executive order, some of his fellow Republicans joined Democrats in saying Congress might need to consider legislation to address his new policies. Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said it was too early to know all the implications of Trump's order banning travel into the United States by citizens of seven majority-Muslim nations, but lawmakers might eventually need to step in to modify it. "Seriously, we still don't know all the implications of what happened. I don't think they (the Trump administration) know all the implications of what happened," he told reporters at the U.S. Capitol. "There may well need to be a legislative fix." Under the executive order Trump released on Friday, travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen may not enter the United States for at least 90 days while Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and others determine whether there is enough information available to screen them. Democrats in both the Senate and House of Representatives have introduced bills to rescind Trump's order, but those measures are not expected to go anywhere in the Republican-led Congress. Senator John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has criticized the order, saying it could weaken U.S. counterterrorism efforts. He blasted barring Iraqis who risked their lives to work as interpreters for U.S. forces, who have already undergone extensive screening. McCain and Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen led a push to pass legislation last year to provide visas to those Iraqis. McCain said he thought Iraq should not be on Trump's list. He said it could invite retaliation by Baghdad and said that Iraq should not be lumped in with frequent U.S. nemesis Iran. "There's no comparison. There's thousands of Americans fighting in Iraq as we speak. And what if the Iraqis decided, OK, we're not going to let all these contractors (working with U.S. forces) ... have visas to come into our country?" McCain asked. Iraq's prime minister on Tuesday said the country would not retaliate to Trump's travel ban against Iraqi nationals because it did not want to lose Washington's cooperation in the war on Islamic State. McCain said whether legislation was needed would depend on how the executive order was implemented over time. "Let's see what they do," McCain said. "General Kelly today made some very significant changes to what was initially publicized. So let's see what they do."


Republican lawmakers plan to introduce their legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare after they return from next week's break, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters on Thursday. Ryan did not give a specific date and added that lawmakers are waiting to see how congressional analysts "score" their proposal to reverse former Democratic President Barack Obama's health care law. The House is scheduled to return Feb. 27.


Prof. Michael Hudson on Hillary Clinton and the US Elections Video Prof. Michael Hudson, economist and author of 'Killing the Host- How Financial Parasites and Debt Destroy the Global Economy', speaks to Ross Ashcroft about the difficult choice faced by Americans in the upcoming US elections. Posted October 31, 2016


U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price promised on Thursday to repay the nearly $52,000 cost of his seats on private charter flights, as expensive air travel by Trump administration officials drew sharp scrutiny from Congress. "Today, I will write a personal check to the U.S. Treasury for the expenses of my travel on private charter planes," said Price, a former member of Congress, in a statement. "The taxpayers won't pay a dime for my seat on those planes." Price was one of a handful of senior officials in President Donald Trump's administration put on the defensive over reports about their use of charter flights and government aircraft, sometimes for personal travel, when they could have flown commercial for less money. Price told Fox News on Thursday that Trump had spoken to him about the matter and was not happy. Asked if he retained Trump's confidence, Price said he worked at the president's pleasure. Washington media outlet Politico reported that Price had taken at least two dozen private charter flights since May at a cost to U.S. taxpayers of more than $400,000. Politico in a report on Thursday night said the White House had approved the use of military aircraft for other trips by Price to Africa, Europe and Asia in the spring and summer that cost taxpayers more than $500,000. "Secretary Price will write a personal check to the U.S. Treasury for $51,887.31," a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services said on Thursday. Price is paying his individual share of the charter flight cost, an HHS official said. Price said earlier on Thursday he believed he retained Trump's confidence. Senior U.S. government officials travel frequently, but are generally expected to keep the costs down by taking commercial flights or the train when possible. Price, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin were all in the spotlight for their travel habits. Politico reported late on Thursday that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke took a charter flight from Las Vegas to Glacier Park International Airport in Montana in June that cost $12,375. The route is served by commercial flights. Zinke also took charter flights between St. Croix and St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands in March and used a military aircraft to travel to Norway in May, according to Politico. "As with previous interior secretaries, the Secretary traveled on charter flights when there were no commercial options available," Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift said in a statement. "All travel is pre-approved by the ethics office before booking and the charter flights went through an additional level of due diligence." Republican Senator Chuck Grassley urged Trump in a statement "to emphasize to cabinet secretaries the necessity of using reasonable and cost-effective modes of travel in accordance with federal restrictions." In his statement, Price said his travel had been approved by legal and departmental officials. But he expressed regret over the concerns raised and pledged to take no more private charter flights while health secretary. "I was not sensitive enough to my concern for the taxpayer," said Price, an orthopedic surgeon. He was confirmed in February as health secretary despite questions about how he had been buying shares in publicly traded healthcare companies while working on legislation affecting them. As a conservative Republican U.S. representative in 2009, Price chastised "the fiscal irresponsibility" of private-plane use by government officials in an appearance on CNBC television that he also posted on Twitter. Price's travels and those of the entire Trump Cabinet are being probed by a U.S. House of Representatives committee. Senate Democrats wrote to Price on Thursday demanding information about his flights. The inspectors general at HHS, EPA and Treasury are investigating to see if government travel rules were followed. The EPA's inspector general said last month it was investigating Pruitt's frequent travels to his home state of Oklahoma. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Pruitt had taken at least four noncommercial and military flights since mid-February, costing taxpayers more than $58,000. EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman said Pruitt did use one charter flight but that other commissioned flights were done on government planes. "The administrator flies commercial, unless there is a necessity to do otherwise, and with approvals from EPA's ethics office," said EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox. At the Treasury Department, the inspector general is reviewing Mnuchin's use of a government plane to fly to Kentucky in August for a visit to Louisville and Fort Knox. Mnuchin and his wife viewed the solar eclipse during the trip. On the "CBS This Morning" program on Thursday, Mnuchin said he would use military planes in the future only when there are national security issues or "there's no other means" of travel.


U.S. demands for more favorable treatment under the North American Free Trade Agreement, and a proposal that any new deal be allowed to expire after five years, heightened tensions as negotiators held another round of talks to renew the pact this week. NAFTA, long opposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, was first implemented in 1994. It eliminates most tariffs on trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico and underpins $1 trillion of trade. Key issues facing negotiators include: U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says the United States is seeking to add a so-called sunset clause to NAFTA to provide a regular, "systematic re-examination" of the trade pact. The provision, causing NAFTA to expire after five years unless all three countries decide to renew it, has been met with disbelief by Canada, Mexico and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They say a major reason for having a trade deal is to provide investors with certainty about the future. The United States wants U.S. parts to be make up at least 50 percent of the content of autos made in North America, and parts from the region to make up at least 85 percent of the vehicles. At present cars must contain at least 62.5 percent American, Canadian or Mexican content. Canada, Mexico and the auto industry warn that such strict rules will drive automakers to make their vehicles elsewhere, or buy cheap Asian parts and pay the tariffs. The United States has sought to ditch the so-called Chapter 19 tool, under which binational panels hear complaints about illegal subsidies and dumping and then issue binding decisions. Washington argues that Chapter 19 infringes on the sovereignty of its domestic laws. Canada has said Chapter 19 can be updated, but that a dispute settlement mechanism has to be part of any updated NAFTA. Mexico also says dispute settlement mechanisms are a vital part of the deal and give investors security. Quotas are already a feature of NAFTA in several agricultural commodities including dairy and sugar, but Washington is seeking to eliminate non-tariff barriers to U.S. agricultural exports. Dairy was excluded from the original 1994 NAFTA deal, and U.S. President Donald Trump has called Canada's restrictions on dairy imports a "disgrace." The United States is pushing for the Canadian and Mexican governments to open up their tender processes to U.S.-made products, but at the same time it is defending existing "Buy American" procurement laws under a proposal dubbed "Dollar for Dollar." The Buy American provisions have blocked the use of Canadian steel to build U.S. bridges, and Canada is pushing for a freer market for government procurement. The United States is exploring ways to protect fresh fruit and vegetable farmers in Florida and Georgia by giving small growers easier access to anti-dumping measures, a move Mexico sees as anti-free trade. It is also opposed by larger U.S. farm outfits that use their Mexican fields to sell cheap berries and tomatoes to U.S. consumer all year round under NAFTA. INVESTOR-STATE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT The United States has proposed a minor tweaking of the NAFTA Chapter 11 provisions, designed to ensure that firms that invest abroad receive "fair and equitable" treatment by foreign governments. Opponents of the provisions argue they infringe on sovereignty and benefit multinational corporations. Canada wants to update the mechanism to allow governments to regulate in the interest of the environment or labor, as in the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement that Canada recently negotiated with the European Union. Mexico's Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo last week criticized a U.S. proposal he said was aimed at putting new restrictions on companies that do deals with Mexico's state-run energy companies. In 2014, Mexico opened its energy sector to private investment and says it has since raised at least $60 billion in investment commitments.


Wenjian Liu, 32, and his partner, Rafael Ramos, 40, were murdered on Dec. 20 as they sat in their squad car in Brooklyn after killer Ismaaiyl Brinsley had stated he was seeking vengeance for the deaths this summer of two unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers. Brinsley killed himself after ambushing the officers. With de Blasio expected to speak at Liu's funeral, police commissioner Bill Bratton told officers ahead of Saturday's wake to refrain from the "act of disrespect" seen at Ramos' funeral a week ago, when thousands of officers turned their backs on the mayor. "A hero's funeral is about grieving, not grievance," Bratton wrote in a memo to officers. De Blasio and Bratton entered the funeral home together for the wake as officers stood guard by the entrance, saluting both men as they went in. The murders frayed already strained relations between the police force and de Blasio, who sharply criticized the NYPD's "stop-and-frisk" tactics during his 2013 campaign. The liberal mayor also offered qualified support for the wave of protests triggered by the two black men's deaths in New York and Ferguson, Missouri, and has said he talked to his bi-racial son, Dante, about interacting with police. Immediately after Liu and Ramos were shot, Patrick Lynch, the head of the city's largest police union, expressed scorn for de Blasio, saying there was "blood on many hands." Ramos' funeral a week ago among the largest in NYPD history, with more than 20,000 officers from around the country on hand. When de Blasio began his eulogy there, many uniformed officers turned their backs in a gesture of disdain, which Bratton called inappropriate, saying it had stolen the "valor, honor and attention" that was rightfully due the slain officer. In his memo, Bratton said he understood emotions were running high among the rank and file, adding that his entreaty to the department was not a mandate and he was not threatening to discipline those who did not comply. "But," he said, "I remind you that when you don the uniform of this department, you are bound by the tradition, honor and decency that go with it."


According to WIRED THERE ARE HACKABLE security flaws in software. And then there are those that don t even require hacking at all just a knock on the door and asking to be let in. Apple s macOS High Sierra has the second kind.On Tuesday, security researchers disclosed a bug that allows anyone a blindingly easy method of breaking that operating system s security protections. Anyone who hits a prompt in High Sierra asking for a username and password before logging into a machine with multiple users, they can simply type root as a username, leave the password field blank, click unlock twice, and immediately gain full access.In other words, the bug allows any rogue user that gets the slightest foothold on a target computer to gain the deepest level of access to a computer, known as root privileges. Malware designed to exploit the trick could also fully install itself deep within the computer, no password required. We always see malware trying to escalate privileges and get root access, says Patrick Wardle, a security researcher with Synack. This is best, easiest way ever to get root, and Apple has handed it to them on a silver platter. As word of the security vulnerability rippled across Twitter and other social media, a few security researchers found they couldn t replicate the issue, but others captured and posted video demonstrations of the attack, like Wardle s GIF below, and another that shows security researcher Amit Serper logging into a logged-out account. WIRED also independently confirmed the bug.Watch these two incredible videos posted to Twitter letting Apple know they have a HUGE security issue at MacOS High Sierra: pic.twitter.com/4TBh5NetIS patrick wardle (@patrickwardle) November 28, 2017Just tested the apple root login bug. You can log in as root even after the machi was rebooted pic.twitter.com/fTHZ7nkcUp Amit Serper (@0xAmit) November 28, 2017The fact that the attack could be used on a logged-out account raises the possibility that someone with physical access could exploit it just as easily as malware, points out Thomas Reed, an Apple-focused security researcher with MalwareBytes. They could, for instance, use the attack to gain root access to a logged-out machine, set a root password, and then regain access to a machine at any time. Oooh, boy, this is a doozy, says Reed. So, if someone did this to a Mac sitting on a desk in an office, they could come back later and do whatever they wanted. Facebook user Brian Matiash tells Mac users about how they protect their Mac from being hacked. We cannot confirm or deny if his advice is legit, we are simply sharing it with you. Matiash gives Facebook users the following advice: Wonders never cease, Apple. How can such a painfully obvious bug like this make it by your QA teams? At least make the default root password be password or something. FFS, guys. Get you damned act together. EDIT: It would be socially responsible of me to state that there is a fairly easy workaround. Start by opening up Terminal.app and type the following command: sudo passwd -u root Next, enter your primary user password. Then, enter a new password for root and retype it to confirm. There. You re protected.(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.11'; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Wonders never cease, Apple. How can such a painfully obvious bug like this make it by your QA teams? At least make the default root password be 'password' or something. FFS, guys. Get you damned act together.EDIT: It would be socially responsible of me to state that there is a fairly easy workaround. Start by opening up Terminal.app and type the following command:sudo passwd -u rootNext, enter your primary user password. Then, enter a new password for root and retype it to confirm. There. You're protected.Posted by Brian Matiash on Tuesday, November 28, 2017Reed also notes, however and other researchers confirm that it s possible to block the attack by either setting a password for the root user or disabling root access altogether. If you ve installed High Sierra and haven t set a root password or disabled root access, you should do it now.In a statement, Apple confirmed the problem, reiterated that short-term fix, and promised a longer-term software patch: We are working on a software update to address this issue, an Apple spokesperson wrote.


The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : - Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication...and WOW, Comey is a leaker! [0610 EDT] - Great reporting by @foxandfriends and so many others. Thank you! [0654 EDT] - Congratulations to Jeb Hensarling & Republicans on successful House vote to repeal major parts of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial law. GROWTH! [1022 EDT] - An honor to join the @FaithandFreedom Coalition yesterday. In America, we don't worship government. We worship God. #FaithandFreedom [1428 EDT] - A great honor to host and welcome leaders from around America to the @WhiteHouse Infrastructure Summit. #InfrastructureWeek [1448 EDT] - It is time to rebuild OUR country, to bring back OUR jobs, to restore OUR dreams, & yes, to put #AmericaFirst! TY Ohio! #InfrastructureWeek [1852 EDT] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR)


It s teetering on the ridiculous watching the US mainstream media get their knickers in a twist over Donald Trump s provocative comments during the last Presidential Debate about the possibility of election rigging, and whether or not he would respect the official result on November 8th.Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the House, also weighed in decriying Trump s assertion akin to a threat to democracy , stating, Our democracy relies on confidence in election results, and the speaker is fully confident the states will carry out this election with integrity. More than a bit melodramatic, considering recent history It seems that the unashamed pro-Clinton US mainstream media have an incredibly short memory. Remember the 2000 Presidential race between George W. Bush (Republican) and Al Gore (Democrat)? It was not only contested, the election was eventually called on a technicality by the US Supreme Court.Who held up the election: the very same Democratic Party who are going hysterical over Trump s recent off-hand remarks. Again, that same Democratic Party also cried foul in 2004, when John Kerry lost by a narrow margin to the incumbent Bush.Was there fraud and rigging in 2000 and 2004? Many leading leftwing media pundits still think so, and yet the US liberal-dominated mainstream media and political savants still equate Trump s comments with a coup d etat threat.Brasscheck TV says: Here s sanitized, mainstream news media s account of the endless campaign of 2000. And even their version is wild and unbelievable Anyone who has seriously studied the issue knows that the level of voter fraud, although not zero, is minuscule, and that in-person impersonation hardly ever exists. Yet by saying it over and over, Trump is fanning flames that are dangerous for our democracy. Always the dutiful gatekeeper and establishment-controlled media arm, CNN makes the old Pravda seem like Zero Hedge.READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV


The shadowy terrorist believed to have made the explosives used in Tuesday's attacks in Brussels and the November massacre in Paris was one of two suicide bombers who died at Zaventem Airport, sources told Fox News. Morrocan-born Najim Laachraoui, 24, was identified by law enforcement sources as one of two Islamic terrorists seen pushing suitcase bombs and wearing single "dead man's hand" black gloves - in a surveillance photo. The gloves are believed to have hidden detonators. A third man seen in the photo is believed to have escaped the scene and is being hunted. Laachraoui is suspected of also making the bomb used in a blast 79 minutes later at a Brussels Metro station, as well as the explosives used to kill 130 in the the Nov. 13, 2015, attacks in Paris. ISIS has claimed credit for Tuesday's carnage in Brussels. The announcement came following a day of uncertainty regarding the explosives mastermind. At a midday news conference, Belgian authorities appeared not to know of his fate and he was believed to be the subject of a nationwide dragnet. Raids on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning uncovered his suspected factory, turning up bomb-making materials in a Schaerbeek apartment, including detonators, nails and 15 kilos of acetone peroxide, a highly unstable chemical which is favored by Islamists because it's easy to make. The chemical also was found in the explosives used in the Paris attack. Laachraoui was raised in Brussels' Schaerbeek neighborhood, a predominantly Muslim area, according to The Washington Post. He's believed to have attended a local Catholic high school where he studied electro-mechanical engineering. Laachraoui traveled to Syria in February 2013, prosecutors said, and it was not clear when he returned to Europe. Prosecutors have said Laachraoui played a key role in recruiting and training attackers for ISIS, according to The Wall Street Journal. He was checked by guards at the Austria-Hungary border on Sept. 9 while driving in a Mercedes with Abdeslam and one other person, Belgium's federal prosecutors said in a statement. Using a false identity, Laachraoui also rented a house under the name of Soufiane Kayal in the Belgian town of Auvelais. That residence was allegedly used as a safe house, where prosecutors said traces of his DNA were found. That same DNA was later found on the Paris explosives. The house was searched Nov. 26. On Monday, Van Leeuw said officials wanted to interview Laachraoui, who was "someone who must explain himself." On Tuesday, coordinated terror attacks ripped through Brussels. Investigators reportedly believe attacks already being plotted were expedited in light of Abdeslam's arrest -- and word that he is cooperating with authorities. Earlier Wednesday, two men suspected of taking part in Tuesday's bombings were identified as Khalid and Ibrahim El-Bakraoui. Khalid is believed to have blown himself up on the Metro, an attack which killed at least 20 and injured more than 100, while Ibrahim is believed to have been the other airport bomber. The fourth bomber, the man in the far left of the airport photo pushing a cart next to Ibrahim, has not yet been identified. The brothers were well-known to police. In a raid Tuesday at Ibrahim's address, Van Leeuw said "there was a paper where he described that he is insecure, that he is lost and he does not know what to do and he might end up in jail." Both Ibrahim and his brother were Belgian citizens and born in Brussels, authorities said. A March 15 raid on an apartment rented by Khalid, 27, led to Friday's arrest of Paris attack suspect Salah Abdeslam after one of Abdeslam's fingerprints was discovered in the apartment. Politico Europe, citing a senior Belgian official, reported that Abdeslam was supposed to take part in Tuesday's attacks. The report did not specify what role Abdeslam would have played. DH reported that in October 2010, Ibrahim, 30, was convicted of shooting at police with a Kalashnikov during an attempted robbery. He was sentenced to nine years in prison. In February 2011, the paper reported, Khalid was sentenced to five years' probation in connection with a string of carjackings. Turkey said Wednesday that Ibrahim had been detained on the Syrian border last summer, and that Ankara warned Brussels officials that he was a militant before sending him home.


The Department of Homeland Security will not target immigrants brought to the United States as children for deportation, despite conflicting statements within the Trump administration, its secretary John Kelly said on Sunday. Kelly, asked on Sunday morning talk shows to clarify the department's position on the status of these illegal immigrants protected under an Obama-era program, said the agency is focused on deporting only dangerous criminals. "My organization has not targeted these so-called Dreamers," Kelly told CNN, referring to the name given to those granted protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program created by Democratic President Barack Obama and extended by Republican President Donald Trump. "We have many, many more important criminals to go after," he said. Trump has said Dreamers "have nothing to worry about," but Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week said immigrants who arrived in the United States as children were "subject to being deported." On Sunday, Sessions walked back his earlier statement. "I believe that everyone that enters the country unlawfully is subject to being deported; however, we've got — we don't have the ability to round up everybody and there's no plans to do that," Sessions said on ABC. "But we're going to focus first, as the president has directed us, on the criminal element." On Feb. 17, Juan Manuel Montes, 23, who had lived in the United States since he was 9, was deported from the border city of Calexico, California, after being questioned by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer. That was the first documented deportation of a Dreamer. Kelly said in another Sunday interview on CBS that while Dreamers are not being targeted, several of them end up detained by immigration officers as they round up criminals. "People fall into our hands incidentally that we have no choice in most cases but to go ahead and put in the system," he said.


Wounded Warrior Project has done so much to help so many veterans who have paid a heavy price for our freedom. Senior Airman Brian Kolfage Jr is a good friend and recipient of the WWP s 2014 George C. Lang Award for Courage.The George C. Lang Award for Courage PRESENTED TO BRIAN KOLFAGE Jr. from Brian on Vimeo.Sales from the newly released DVD of American Sniper are expected to generate a million dollars for the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP), a charitable organization founded to honor and empower U.S. veterans and armed service members who incurred a physical or mental injury after 9/11.A Warner Bros. production company statement says that one dollar of each purchase of the DVD, between its release on Tuesday and December 31, will be donated to WWP, up to $1 million from sales.American Sniper was based on the autobiography of Chris Kyle, a runaway bestseller which spent 18 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, 13 of those at number one. Kyle is thought to have been the most lethal Navy SEAL sniper in American history with 160 confirmed kills.The blockbuster film, which was unabashedly pro-War on Terror, was a massive box office success and out-grossed every other film released in 2014, including The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and Guardians of the Galaxy. The film grossed some $543 million worldwide.According to The Christian Post, Kyle personally wanted Clint Eastwood to direct the film, and after his tragic death the producers approached Eastwood who agreed to sign on as director of the project.Together with his friend, Chad Littlefield, Kyle was shot and killed by a Marine that he was trying to help overcome PTSD while at a Texas gun range in 2013, not long before the film went into production.Chris Kyle was a Christian whose father served as a deacon and whose mother taught Sunday school. He believed in the morality of what he did as a Navy SEAL sniper, and felt that on Judgment Day he would have things to answer for, but that his service as a SEAL wouldn t be one of them. In his autobiography, Kyle wrote:I believe the fact that I ve accepted Jesus as my savior will be my salvation. But in that backroom or whatever it is when God confronts me with my sins, I do not believe any of the kills I had during the war will be among them. Everyone I shot was evil. I had good cause on every shot. They all deserved to die.


Chart Of The Day: Private Residential Construction Stalls-Out 40% Below Pre-Crisis Peak By David Stockman. Posted On Tuesday, November 1st, 2016  David Stockman's Contra Corner is the only place where mainstream delusions and cant about the Warfare State, the Bailout State, Bubble Finance and Beltway Banditry are ripped, refuted and rebuked. Subscribe now to receive David Stockman's latest posts by email each day as well as his model portfolio, Lee Adler's Daily Data Dive and David's personally curated insights and analysis from leading contrarian thinkers.


Donald Trump set tongues wagging with a tweet on Monday promising a special guest scheduled to appear with him at campaign event in Iowa on Tuesday, January 19. His campaign announced: He ll be making a major announcement & bringing a special guest. Now, after some sleuthing by some conservatives online, it appears that the guest may be none other than failed Republican presidential candidate and half-term governor Sarah Palin.Eagle-eyed campaign watchers found a flight on a private jet that left Anchorage International Airport, and five hours later touched down at Des Moines International Airport.Since her campaign flameout, Palin has kept her brand alive at the center of conservative politics. She has been a featured speaker at the CPAC conference and regularly has pumped out books targeted at conservative readers. A pay-per-view video venture of hers was less successful and recently shuttered. Palin recently put her gated Arizona mansion up for sale.Palin may be accused by some conservatives of being disloyal to Trump rival Ted Cruz, who she endorsed and campaigned for in the past.But Palin has also been a booster of Donald Trump. Last November she said his nomination was a strong possibility. I think it s a very real possibility because people are really tired of professional politicians who, you know, won t call it like they see it and maybe don t have life experiences that allow them to prove a track record of success, the former vice presidential nominee said in a radio interview with WBT Charlotte s News Talk radio on Thursday. That s refreshing about Trump, she said. He s a fighter. We know he s gonna put America first, and he really nailed it early on what the main problems are in America right now, so it s a very real possibility. In 2011 when there was speculation Palin might challenge President Obama in 2012, she took her bus tour to New York City and had a weird pizza date with Trump and his wife, Melania.While mostly a laughingstock to the public at large, Republican base voters remain enamored with Palin, and may view an endorsement by her of the reality TV star as a signal to select him as their candidate as the Iowa caucus waits only a couple of weeks away.


Moments before Catalonia s leader, Carles Puigdemont, baulked at declaring independence from Spain this week, cracks were already appearing in his secessionist ranks. Some members of his political alliance say they were waiting for him at Barcelona s 18th-century regional parliament building on Tuesday evening, fully expecting him to call for an independence vote in the chamber that night. Instead, after arriving late, to the cheers of thousands of supporters, the former journalist and lifetime advocate of independence told his allies an hour before entering the chamber that there had been a late change of plan, according to one of those present. There would be no vote. Instead, Puigdemont made a symbolic declaration of independence, then suspended it and called for negotiations with Madrid. We are annoyed, we are hurt, we are angry because he came up with a strategic change one hour before the parliamentary session, said Carles Riera, a member of the Catalan parliament from the far-left CUP party, which backs an unequivocal declaration of independence and whose support keeps Puigdemont s minority government alive. A spokesman for Puigdemont s party denied he had surprised all of his own political allies, saying his core coalition had agreed the plan in the morning. The CUP was not included in that morning meeting but was informed afterwards, the spokesman said, without saying when. The CUP s claim of betrayal reveals the shaky political foundations upon which Catalonia s independence movement is built, a jumble of parties ranging from anti-capitalists to free marketeers whose only common cause is to split from Spain. There are now doubts over Puigdemont s ability to survive the worst confrontation between Catalonia, a former principality with its own language and culture, and Madrid in 40 years. Members of the CUP say Puigdemont lost his nerve at the crucial moment. One CUP lawmaker present at the meeting, Eulalia Reguant, quit the day after, citing his reversal. Instead of persuading Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to accept talks, his gesture was met with an ultimatum: renounce independence by Thursday or Madrid will use its constitutional power to take control of the region directly. Now Puigdemont, 54, finds himself in a struggle with not only Madrid, but also internally with the CUP, which may end up being the bigger danger for his political career and for his prospects of winning another regional election on a pro-independence platform. The small CUP party had ousted Puigdemont s predecessor as Catalan president, Artur Mas, in 2015. It refused to back the mainstream independence coalition, Junts pel Si, unless Mas stepped down. If Puigdemont backs down and says we tried but this is not working, unilateral secession isn t doable, I don t think CUP will support him again, said Eurasia analyst Federico Santi. He said Puigdemont s party was already sliding in opinion polls. In the final hour before Puigdemont stood up in the regional parliament to announce that he was suspending the independence push, he also made it clear to those in his political circle that their voices were not the only ones that mattered. I am talking to the world, he told them when pressed for an explanation, according to two people who were present. Some in the room said they suspected he had taken a phone call from a senior EU figure in Brussels, though the heads of the two main EU political institutions, Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk, said it was not them. One EU official, however, said there was reason to believe that an emotional personal appeal Tusk had made publicly to Puigdemont a couple of hours before he was due to speak had weighed on the Catalan leader s decision. Puigdemont has always considered world opinion as crucial to Catalan independence: as a journalist in the 1990s, he traveled Europe to research media impressions of Catalonia and wrote a book, Cata ... que? (Cata ... what?). A supporter of the European Union, he switches easily from Catalan to Spanish, French or Romanian, the native language of his wife, whom he met at the Catalan News Agency he founded. The president made a speech which was very much addressed to EU institutions and governments, a Catalan government source said on condition of anonymity. Puigdemont also made clear that he considered it would be Spain s responsibility if it rejected his offer of dialogue. Several neighboring countries criticized Spain s use of force to disrupt Catalonia s Oct. 1 independence referendum, which had been banned by Madrid. Hundreds were injured when police used batons and rubber bullets on voters. The crackdown, though, fired up independence supporters and hardened expectations among Puigdemont s base that he would unilaterally declare independence in parliament. When he didn t, supporters watching his speech on large screens outside the assembly buried their heads in their hands, some wept, and they rolled up their Catalan flags and went home. Inside, the recriminations were well underway. Some lawmakers in Puigdemont s Junts pel Si coalition said they, too, had only been informed of his tactic at the 11th hour, though the spokesman for Puigdemont s party denied this. The government source said Catalan companies leaving the region in the days before his speech had also weighed on Puigdemont s mind. Several firms, including Catalonia s two major banks, moved their legal headquarters to other parts of Spain. Some anxious Catalan depositors traveled to neighboring regions to open bank accounts there. Jordi Alberich, director of Barcelona-based business association Cercle D Economia, met Puigdemont on Oct. 7. He seemed to be very conscious of the consequences of a unilateral declaration of independence, Alberich said. He was very worried about companies fleeing.


Applying for financial aid for college got a lot harder this month, in the thick of application season, but it took federal agencies nearly a week to explain what was happening. To get aid for college from federal or state governments, as well as from colleges, students and their parents must fill out the Fafsa (the Free Application for Federal Student Aid). The notoriously complicated form, which is longer than the typical 1040 tax form, collects detailed information from students and families about income, expenses and taxes. On March 3, families logging onto the website for federal aid found that a key component of the online application had stopped functioning. The component, known as the Data Retrieval Tool, automatically fills in a Fafsa application with information from an applicant's tax return, via a data connection with the Internal Revenue Service. Without the tool, applicants have to transcribe tax information from their old returns or order tax transcripts from the I. R. S. (which can take several weeks). Twitter started to fill with frustrated messages from applicants wondering when the tool would be back up. Student advocacy organizations, such as the National College Access Network (N. C. A. N.) pleaded with the Department of Education and the I. R. S. to explain the situation and resolve it as quickly as possible, but received no response. N. C. A. N. and others began urging families to contact their elected representatives. Six days later, on Thursday morning, the Department of Education and the I. R. S. jointly released a statement saying that the I. R. S. had "decided to temporarily suspend the Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) as a precautionary step following concerns that information from the tool could potentially be misused by identity thieves. " The agencies declined to elaborate, and it was unclear whether a breach had occurred or had only been feared. The tool has been in use for five years, with no reports of identity theft stemming from its use. If the move was, as the statement said, a precautionary step, waiting to repair it until after the peak of the aid application season would have been far less disruptive. Students can still apply for student aid, and it seems they should not postpone their application in hopes that the data tool will return anytime soon. While the agencies have provided no specific date, they have indicated it will be down at least several weeks. Completing the Fafsa is now going to require more legwork, more paperwork and more time, and applicants will be putting themselves in a difficult position if they wait until the last minute to apply. Fafsas completed without using the data tool are more likely to be chosen for "verification," an audit that requires applicants to submit additional paperwork to prove that their tax information is accurate. This further slows the process. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators has asked the Department of Education to scale back verification requirements given the data tool outage. Federal aid such as Pell grants and Stafford loans have no firm deadline students can apply all year. But many states have limited aid budgets that are rationed on a basis. And colleges have deadlines for their own aid, which is drawn from endowments and tuition revenue and which is limited at most schools. Delayed applications may mean, for many students, no aid from states or school. The unannounced suspension of the data tool comes at a critical moment in the aid cycle. March is a peak time for aid applications, second only to February in the volume of Fafsa submissions. The deadlines for 19 state aid programs are approaching, according to Sarah Pingel of the Education Commission of the States. The I. R. S. suspended the data tool just as it was benefiting more applicants than ever before. In past years, the Fafsa application called for tax data from the previous year, even though most filers wouldn't have had returns processed by this point. But now those applying for aid for the academic year are allowed to submit information from their 2015 tax return (in fact, it's a requirement to use 2015 and not 2016 returns) — a change made in part to allow many more people to use the data tool. It is not just current students who are affected by the shutdown. Borrowers applying for or renewing their eligibility for repayment plans such as Pay as You Earn use the data tool to verify their income information, which is used to calculate payments. The Trump administration has tightened social media and other communications from agencies. Coordinating communication across multiple agencies may be particularly challenging, as the administration may require approvals from political appointees who are not yet fully in place. This may explain the silence from the education department while the tool was disabled for a week. The problem with this approach is that it takes a broad network of financial aid offices, aid professionals and advocacy groups to keep the aid system functioning. College offices put together aid packages and communicate with students, for example. If this intricate infrastructure is not kept informed about changes, the aid system will grind to a halt.


North Carolina s anti-transgender law, HB2, has made the state and its notoriously bigoted governor, Pat McCrory, come under fire from decent people and companies everywhere. Well, now they are going to take a huge hit to the state s economy as the National Basketball Association has pulled its All-Star game out of Charlotte over the law. The sports organization said that it would be unable to host the convention while the law is on the books and being enforced. They said in a statement: Our week-long schedule of All-Star events and activities is intended to be a global celebration of basketball, our league, and the values for which we stand, and to bring together all members of the NBA community current and former players, league and team officials, business partners, and fans.While we recognize that the NBA cannot choose the law in every city, state, and country in which we do business, we do not believe we can successfully host our All-Star festivities in Charlotte in the climate created by HB2. As expected, Pat McCrory, like the good, small-minded bigot that he is, struck back and blamed liberals for the consequences of his own bigotry: The sports and entertainment elite, Attorney General Roy Cooper and the liberal media have for months misrepresented our laws and maligned the people of North Carolina simply because most people believe boys and girls should be able to use school bathrooms, locker rooms and showers without the opposite sex present. Twenty-one other states have joined North Carolina to challenge the federal overreach by the Obama administration mandating their bathroom policies in all businesses and schools instead of allowing accommodations for unique circumstances. Left-wing special interest groups have no moral authority to try and intimidate the large majority of American parents who agree in common-sense bathroom and shower privacy for our children. The Human Rights Campaign immediately came out to praise the NBA for their strong stand against bigotry. President Chad Griffin said: Today the NBA and Commissioner Silver sent a clear message that they won t stand for discrimination against LGBTQ employees, players or fans, said Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin in a statement. The NBA repeatedly warned state lawmakers that their hateful HB2 law created an inhospitable environment for their 2017 All-Star Game and other events. Nevertheless, Governor McCrory, Senator Berger and Speaker Moore doubled down on HB2 and refused to undo their discriminatory and costly error in judgment. Every day that HB2 remains on the books, people across North Carolina are at risk of real harm. We appreciate the leadership of the NBA in standing up for equality and call once again on lawmakers to repeal this vile HB2 law. HB2 is nothing more than a strike at the LGBTQ community. These right-wing transphobes and homophobes are so afraid of LGBTQ people that they are literally policing who can pee. It s a level of bigotry and insanity that is unacceptable in our society, and businesses are sending clear messages that they don t reward open, overt, and deliberate discrimination. The NBA follows a long list of businesses and entertainers who have refused to enter North Carolina until they stop making discrimination a matter of law.Keep the pressure on, big business. In the end, hate never wins.


Since President Trump appointed Sebastian Gorka last month as a deputy assistant, Mr. Gorka has been an increasingly visible defender of the administration. He has spoken out in favor of the targeted travel ban, which spurred mass protests and was then blocked by federal courts. He suggested in a recent interview with The Hill that the CNN anchor Jake Tapper was sexist for aggressively questioning the Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway. He has also insisted that media reports of turmoil in the White House bear "almost no resemblance to reality. " Mr. Gorka came out swinging again on Thursday, after Mr. Trump's contentious news conference in which he excoriated the media. Asked by Evan Davis of the BBC to assess Mr. Trump's appearance, Mr. Gorka repeatedly declared the president's performance "fabulous. " "It's only weird to journalists like yourself, who are biased," he said. Who is he? Here's what we know: Mr. Gorka is an American citizen who was born in Britain to Hungarian parents. He earned a Ph. D. in political science from Corvinus University of Budapest and has made his living as a national security expert with a focus on Islamist extremism. He wrote a book, published last year, called "Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War. " In his Breitbart articles, he has criticized foreign policy under the Obama administration and trumpeted the threat of the Islamic State group. Mr. Gorka, 46, is a former editor for the media outlet Breitbart News and a friend of Stephen Bannon, the former Breitbart chairman who is now a powerful assistant to Mr. Trump. Until recently, Mr. Gorka was not well known to Washington policy makers. But his increasing visibility has brought headlines, some less welcome than others. He has appeared in a number of television and radio interviews as a representative of the Trump administration and a member of a White House team called the Strategic Initiatives Group. The Daily Beast called it a think tank within the White House that was set up by Mr. Bannon and the president's and senior adviser, Jared Kushner. The group's formation raised red flags, said Julianne Smith, a former deputy national security adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the director of strategy and statecraft at the Center for a New American Security. The National Security Council has traditionally played a decisive role in foreign policy decisions, she said. "Now we have the Strategic Initiatives Group and the National Security Council both working on issues of national security and strategy. So my question on Sebastian, ultimately, is: Who is he reporting to? Is he reporting to the National Security Council? Or is this a direct line to Bannon?" Mr. Gorka said he could not comment for this article without clearance from the White House. But after multiple calls and emails since Tuesday, neither he nor the White House has answered questions about his position or the role of the initiatives group. This month, Mr. Gorka told CNN that the group would bring private industry expertise to bear on a range of issues, including cybersecurity, veterans affairs and the modernization of government technological systems. "That is very different from what the National Security Council is doing every day under the sterling leadership of General Flynn," he added, referring to Michael T. Flynn, then the national security adviser, who would resign 12 days later. Ms. Smith said she was not personally familiar with Mr. Gorka, though she had crossed paths with him during the early 2000s. "I don't know what to believe about this guy, but given his experience at Breitbart and what I had heard years ago, it does appear to me that he takes some rather extreme views," she said. Mr. Gorka dismissed such criticisms during a Wednesday interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News and brushed aside some of the more controversial reports buzzing around him. "I think we're doing our job very well — don't you, Sean? — if this is the best they can do," he said. He referred to reports, like one from Fusion, that said he had exaggerated his role as an expert witness in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted of helping to carry out the Boston bombing of 2013. Mr. Gorka told Mr. Hannity he still had invoices for the expert report he submitted for the case. "I may not have taken the stand, but I was an expert on the Boston bombing trial," he said. As for the speculations about Nazi sympathies, they go back to one of Mr. Trump's inauguration balls, when Mr. Gorka — appearing in photos and a video interview with Mr. Hannity — wore a medal that could be interpreted as a nod to Miklos Horthy, a Hungarian leader who entered into a strained alliance with Nazi Germany in the early years of World War II. In a video posted by Breitbart on Tuesday, Mr. Gorka said the medal belonged to his father, who he said had suffered "under both the Nazis and the Communists" in Hungary, having lived through World War II and survived torture under the government that later came to power. Mr. Gorka was charged with a misdemeanor after he took a handgun into Reagan National Airport in Virginia last year. In a statement quoted by Breitbart, he said that on his way to the airport, he had "grabbed the wrong bag, one I had just used" at a gun range. He added that he was allowed to board his flight, and that the weapon was confiscated. The charge was dropped early this month. Though his appointment to the White House occurred only recently, Mr. Gorka has been in touch with Mr. Trump at least since 2015. He wrote last year that he had submitted some policy papers to the presidential candidate and had met with him twice to discuss national security issues. Federal election commission filings indicate that the Trump campaign paid $8, 000 to Mr. Gorka for policy consulting in 2015. It is difficult to predict the impact Mr. Gorka could have on foreign policy in the White House, Ms. Smith said, especially since he is apparently working under the shadowy aegis of Mr. Bannon. "We've got a situation where both outsiders and certain members of the government are confused about who is serving as the lead on foreign policy decisions," she said. "And because we are not clear about Steve Bannon's role, it raises a lot of concern because of his personal views, and also his lack of experience. "


It s one thing to call a person stupid, it s another to prove it, and that s exactly what Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) just did to Donald Trump in one simple tweet.You see, Takano is a former British literature teacher, knows a thing or two about the English language and can spellcheck you in real time. That s bad news for a guy like Trump who often takes to Twitter in anger-fueled rants and doesn t take the time to proofread his tweets, or even let spellcheck do it for him.In Trump s latest grouping of tweets, he really, really messed up. In fact, following a tweet that said, We must fix our education system, he tweeted I hear by demand and then, I hearby demand and then finally, I hereby demand. Check it out:via TwitterNot letting the moment escape him, Takano pointed out the irony of the spelling errors following a tweet about fixing our education system.Takano tweeted: The moment when one tweet is proof of the other tweet. The moment when one tweet is proof of the other tweet. pic.twitter.com/aPV0b9jBOw Mark Takano (@RepMarkTakano) March 3, 2017In other words, Trump just got called out on his inability to spell and was kinda sorta called stupid.Now, did a Trump staffer tweet out this mess? Maybe. Undoubtedly, Trump won t say it was him because, according to him, he s seemingly never wrong.Nevertheless, Takano s tweet is absolutely hilarious. Well played.Featured Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images


The U.N. refugee agency urged Bangladesh on Tuesday to speed up vetting of up to 15,000 Rohingya refugees stranded near the border after crossing into the country from Myanmar and move them further inland to safer and better conditions. Some 582,000 Rohingya are now known to have fled since violence erupted on Aug. 25 in northern Rakhine state, where they lack access to food and healthcare, U.N. officials said. We are gravely concerned about humanitarian conditions in Bangladesh, where thousands of new arrivals are stranded near the border, UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told a Geneva news briefing. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 have entered Bangladesh through the Anjuman Para border crossing point since Sunday night, many of whom described walking for about a week to reach the border, he said. We are advocating with the Bangladesh authorities to urgently admit these refugees fleeing violence and increasingly difficult conditions back home. Every minute counts given the fragile condition they are arriving in, Mahecic said. The delay was due to screening by Bangladesh border guards, he said, emphasizing this was the right of any government. U.N. aid agencies have not had access to the shrinking Rohingya population in northern Rakhine state since the Aug. 25 coordinated insurgent attacks on police posts and army campaign which the U.N. rights office has likened to ethnic cleansing . U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman wrapped up a five-day visit to Myanmar on Tuesday. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Feltman saw dozens of burned and destroyed villages in northern Rakhine. Dujarric said that in Feltman s discussions with the Myanmar military he noted that, in the U.N. s experience, successful counterterrorism efforts do not rely exclusively on security measures and urged them to support credible investigations into allegations of human rights abuses by security officials. Jens Laerke, spokesman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that Rohingya in Rakhine now faced a desperate choice whether to stay or go , not only due to the violence but also humanitarian needs. Nearly 60 percent of the 582,000 refugees who have fled Myanmar since Aug. 25 are children and thousands more are crossing each week, UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said. UNICEF, which is providing clean water every day to 40,000 people in Cox s Bazar, Bangladesh, and has installed thousands of toilets, may have to stop operations by the end of November unless further funds are received, she said. A U.N. interagency appeal of $434 million for Rohingya in Bangladesh and host communities is only 24 percent funded, OCHA s Laerke said.


Obama decides to nominate Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court even though the Senate announced they would wait until a new administration to confirm a nominee. This is an attempt to box in the Republicans in the Senate. This nominee is left on some things and right on others like criminal justice but has been supported in the past as a judge who will articulate a broad progressive vision for the law . This should be interesting: To be clear, Garland s record does not suggest that he would join the Court s right flank if confirmed to the Supreme Court. He would likely vote much more often than not with the Supreme Court s liberals. Here s the skinny on left leaning Garland:Garland is unquestionably qualified to sit on the Supreme Court. A 19 year veteran of the DC Circuit a court that is widely viewed as the second-most powerful in the nation Garland graduated with high honors from Harvard Law School. He clerked for Justice William Brennan, and spent a few years as a partner in the multinational law firm Arnold and Porter. He also held senior positions in the Justice Department, including a leadership role in the department s criminal division and a stint as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General.At age 63, Garland is also the oldest person nominated to the Supreme Court since President Nixon named Justice Lewis Powell in 1971. Thus, if confirmed, Garland is unlikely to match or even approach Justice Scalia s nearly 30 years on the Supreme Court. Garland s relatively advanced age may help explain why Hatch floated the DC Circuit chief judge as his ideal Obama nominee. Another factor that almost certainly played a role is Garland s reputation for moderation. In 2003, for example, Garland joined an opinion holding that the federal judiciary lacks the authority to assert habeas corpus jurisdiction at the behest of an alien held at a military base leased from another nation, a military base outside the sovereignty of the United States an opinion that effectively prohibited Guantanamo Bay detainees from seeking relief in civilian courts. A little over a year later, the Supreme Court reversed this decision in Rasul v. Bush. Although, in fairness, it should be noted that legal experts disagree about whether the decision Garland joined was mandated by existing precedents. The former prosecutor also has a relatively conservative record on criminal justice. A 2010 examination of his decisions by SCOTUS Blog s Tom Goldstein determined that Judge Garland rarely votes in favor of criminal defendants appeals of their convictions. Goldstein identified only eight such published rulings, in addition to seven where he voted to reverse the defendant s sentence in whole or in part, or to permit the defendant to raise a argument relating to sentencing on remand, during the 13 years Garland had then spent on the DC Circuit. To be clear, Garland s record does not suggest that he would join the Court s right flank if confirmed to the Supreme Court. He would likely vote much more often than not with the Supreme Court s liberals.


CNN host Don Lemon asks guest Simone Sanders, former Press Secretary for Bernie Sanders: How can you say it s not a hate crime against a white person? Simone answers Lemon s question by suggesting that this is NOT a hate crime. She goes on to say that if the 4 black thugs that beat and tortured this mentally disabled teen did it because they hated Trump, it shouldn t be a hate crime. Sanders explains, Motive here matters. So was this for hate of Donald Trump, the President-elect because of things that he has said, or was this for pure hate of white people? Yeah, so torturing another human being you kidnapped for hours is okay, as long as it was just about something Trump said.


According to Bedford, Mass. School Superintendent, John Sills, no employees will face disciplinary action for showing this video to the students. People who are sick and tired of watching our nation being divided down racial lines should call him at 781-275-7588. It s time to flood the lines of these leftist school administrators and let him know how you feel about the shaming of white students in a high school he is paid to supervise.BEDFORD, Mass. After students played a video promoting racial stereotypes during the morning announcements, school administrators are dismissing it as a teachable moment. A group of students at Bedford High School who produce BHS Live created a video called Sh*t White People Say, which played off racial stereotypes allegedly held by their white peers.It featured a black girl wearing a blonde wig, several school employees and a number of minority students.It warns white students to DO NOT ASSume things about their black classmates. I m very offended by what I saw, parent Bob Marshall tells Fox 25. It was a very disgusting video, very hurtful video. A lot of them were upset by what they saw, Marshall he says of students who watched it during morning announcements. I m shocked that a video like that could be displayed and that nobody oversaw it. School administrators are pleading ignorance.HERE S THE VIDEO:In a letter home to parents after the incident, the school s principal says, there has not been a vetting process of videos for BHS Live. Therefore, the video was not previewed by any administrator, student or teacher surrounding BHS Live. A protocol for vetting student videos is being developed. That seems a little hard to believe, given that three adults participated in the production.Superintendent John Sills says while it was framed in a way that was offensive, it was a positive thing that the video spurred conversations. I would never say it s good when something offensive happens. But we always seek to find positives, and we continue to work to derive learning from it, according to Sills.That s not good enough for Marshall. To me, it s smoke and mirrors to say oh, it was a learning lesson, Marshall says. Somebody needs to be held accountable and somebody needs to lose their job over it. According to the superintendent, no employees will face disciplinary action.


Mitch McConnell probably wasn t expecting this from a Fox News host.Yet, when the Senate Majority Leader appeared on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, the closest thing to an actual journalist Fox can muster, McConnell was confronted with what he has said in the past about judicial nominees compared with what he is doing now in the name of partisan politics.McConnell used remarks made by Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer in 2005 and 2007 to make the claim that Republicans are following a longstanding tradition of not filling vacancies on the Supreme Court during a presidential election.Leave it to Republicans to think that 11 years is a longstanding tradition. The fact is, however, that current Justice Anthony Kennedy was confirmed to the high court in 1988, which was an election year. If we go back even further, we find that Justice William Brennan was confirmed in 1956 and Justice Frank Murphy was confirmed in 1940, both during election years.So it s clear an election year does not justify the refusal of Senate Republicans to do their constitutional duty.But Chris Wallace hit McConnell with his own words from 2005 when he said on the Senate floor that in a democracy an up or down vote should be given to a president s judicial nominees. It isn t complicated. It s simple. It s fair. It worked for 229 years and it has served us well. Frankly, isn t there a fair amount of hypocrisy on both sides here? Wallace said, calling out McConnell s own hypocrisy on this issue. Senator, if an up or down vote for a judicial nominee is simple, fair, and a principle that has served us well for over 230 years; if that s true then, is it still true? Wallace asked.McConnell, of course, tried to weasel his way out of it by saying that it s apples and oranges because Supreme Court nominees are somehow not considered judicial nominees even though the Constitution includes the Supreme Court as part of the judicial branch. It s right there in Article III.When asked if Senate Republicans would confirm Garland after the election to prevent a more liberal nominee should Hillary Clinton become president, McConnell proceeded to trash current nominee Merrick Garland as a liberal and complained that his confirmation would swing the court to the left. And if McConnell and his fellow Republicans are unwilling to confirm Garland, you can bet that if the GOP loses the election, they will continue to obstruct any nominee that Clinton nominates to the Suprem Court as well.Here s the video via YouTube.Basically, McConnell just admitted that the real problem Republicans have with confirming a Supreme Court nominee is that they don t want to lose the conservative-leaning Court they have used to roll back policies they don t like over the last couple decades. They are literally throwing a temper tantrum because they think late-Justice Scalia should be replaced with a conservative judge who will be just like him.But that is not how the Supreme Court works. It has always swung from left to right and back again depending on who the president is at the time a vacancy arises either from a death, which is the case now, or a retirement. Justice Scalia probably would have preferred to serve another decade or more on the bench, but even he would say that his vacancy needs to be filled even if the most liberal nominee in the world ends up filling it.As it happens, Garland is not a liberal. He is, in fact, a centrist. But according to McConnell, even that is far too liberal for him and his colleagues to consider.Republicans are literally willing to keep the Supreme Court from working at full capacity for the next year or more until they get their way. So not only have Republicans kept Congress from working properly, they are now preventing the high court from working properly as well and that should outrage every American to the core enough to boot Republicans out of public office for generations until they learn to do their jobs with honor again and start working for all of the American people instead of just their extreme right-wing base.


People like to pretend that Mike Pence is the grown-up in the room compared to Donald Trump s brash childishness from the White House. However, he proved that wrong on Sunday, when he left the Indiana Colts football game because a few of the players on the team opposing the Colts chose to take a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality against black and brown Americans. Taking a leaf out of Trump s playbook, Pence tweeted:I left today's Colts game because @POTUS and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem. Vice President Pence (@VP) October 8, 2017While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I don't think it's too much to ask NFL players to respect the Flag and our National Anthem Vice President Pence (@VP) October 8, 2017Just like Trump, Pence forgets the meaning of the First Amendment, and seems to think that his position gives him the right to try to bully owners, players, and ultimately the National Football League into following his orders. Further, it is worth noting that the Colts were playing the San Francisco 49ers, which is the former team of Colin Kaepernick, the man who started this protest before being blacklisted from the NFL for taking a stand against police brutality against people of color. Further, Pence and Trump admitted that they used the situation to divide the country and make some kind of point on the taxpayers dime because of course we paid for Pence to travel to that football game. For one thing, the press was kept in the van, in anticipation of Pence stirring the pot and then leaving:The media pool was kept in the vans ahead of the game instead of being led in with VPOTUS. https://t.co/NXIFZCp3fb Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) October 8, 2017FLAG: Was Pence leaving Colts game a political stunt? Reporters were told to stay in van bc "there may be an early departure from the game." Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) October 8, 2017Then, Trump admitted to ordering Pence to leave if the 49ers took a knee, which of course everyone knew they would:I asked @VP Pence to leave stadium if any players kneeled, disrespecting our country. I am proud of him and @SecondLady Karen. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2017So, in short, this was all premeditated racial pot stirring. Unsurprising from Trump, but somewhat surprising from Pence, who has been trying very hard to keep up the idea of how OMFG #notracist! he is. Well, that s out the window now.Another white supremacist takes his hood off in the Trump Administration.


Carly Fiorina has decided to add her face to the sideshow known as the Ted Cruz campaign. Cruz, who can t possibility win the nomination unless there s a contested convention, would then not be picking his own VP, making this entire collaboration a lesson in futility. Nevertheless, Fiorina has spoken and she will be proud to maybe be on his ticket if hell freezes over and enough loons and zealots come out to vote. Her official position, it appears, is ring announcer. With a head bob that exuded all the confidence a woman with zero political capital could muster, Fiorina announced the future first family to the crowd.As the Cruz family heads down towards the stage, Fiorina suddenly disappears. A quick rewind revealed that she had, in fact, taken a header right in front of Ted And Heidi. How would they react? Would they look for her reaction first to see if she was OK and make a clever joke out of it like, Carly just gets so excited to see Ted. Or do you show immediate concern for your friend and hopeful future Vice-President of the United States? Here s how Ted Cruz handled the situation:Wasn t that classy? Both Ted Cruz and wife Heidi decide that the best course of action is to ignore her altogether. Oh, she fell? Keep smiling. Wave over there. She had better get up or I swear to God I m calling Ben Carson. All thoughts that wouldn t be out of the question in someone like Ted Cruz s head. Cruz has always been out for himself. If Ted Cruz wins the White House we re doomed to an onslaught of legislation and vetoes based on the man s personal religious beliefs. The fact that he just brought on Carly Fiorina, who will only be remembered for being so opposed to Planned Parenthood that she was willing to throw her whole campaign behind these taped that turned out to be edited, out of context lies that have already landed those responsible with an indictment.Carly is a fitting piece to the puzzle. She s irrational, annoying and has little actual clout with anyone. Congrats on the great find, Ted. Apparently you care about as much about her as the rest of America.


Monday on Bloomberg TV, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez predicted because of what he called a GOP overreach, the Democratic Party would retake both chambers of Congress in 2018. Perez said, "What Republicans have to do is understand is that we need a budget that reflects our values. When you try to cut Meals on Wheels, when you cut investments in education, when you propose to cut the budget of the National Institute of Health by billion dollars, you are cutting that lifeline of research investment that saves lives. Right now what we are seeing plain and simply is that the Republicans are overreaching. That is why we are going to win seats like the congressional seat in District 6 down in Georgia. That is why we are competitive and on the verge of upsets elsewhere. And that is why I think we cannot only take over the House in 2018, but we can take the senate back as well. " Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN


U.S. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that Representative John Conyers should resign after sexual harassment allegations were brought against him, saying "zero tolerance means consequences for everyone." Pelosi said the situation with Conyers, the longest-serving member in the U.S. House of Representatives, was "very sad" but the allegations against him were "serious, disappointing and very credible" and "the brave women who came forward are owed justice." "Congressman Conyers should resign," Pelosi said.


5 Hundreds of far-right protesters marched to Milan's Montello barracks on Monday, to protest the barrack's transformation into a refugee shelter. Supporters of regionalist political party Lega Nord and radical right group Casa Pound turned out to protest. The protesters chanted anti-refugee chants while marching with flares, numerous Italian and Casa Pound flags, and banners such as "Italians first"; "Defend Milan". COURTESY: RT's RUPTLY video agency, NO RE-UPLOAD, NO REUSE - FOR LICENSING, PLEASE, CONTACT http://ruptly.tv Leave a Reply Login with your Social ID Your email address will not be published. Name