John Carney, Breitbart News finance and economics editor, joined SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Thursday's Breitbart News Daily to talk about the Dow's hitting 21, 000 for the first time after President Trump's address to Congress. [Marlow asked what Dow 21, 000 means to the average person. Carney replied that "people's retirement savings [and] investment portfolios, have gone up tremendously. " "We've seen a tremendous rally — in fact, the fastest ever, or it tied the fastest ever gain on record. You might remember just a little while ago, we were talking about Dow 20, 000, and then in just a few weeks, we've hit Dow 21, 000. Huge, tremendous rally," Carney said. Marlow asked if President Trump's "gloating" and "braggadocio" over the stock market rally could backfire. "Yeah, look, you've got to be careful, right? Because if you own the rally, and it reverses, you're going to end up owning the slump, as well," Carney cautioned. "Stock markets don't only go up. They're not only going to go up during the Trump administration. So far, they have — the stock market's actually up 15 percent since Election Day, which is gigantic. It's up five percent just over the last few weeks. But history is very clear: stock markets go up, and they go down. You've got to be a little cautious about this. " "A lot of the force behind the rally is a lot of optimism about what's going to happen with taxes, with trade, with regulation, but all that stuff has to go through Congress, and Congress can be a very messy place," he noted. "We don't know a lot of the details about what's going to happen with Trump's tax plan. Even if we knew the details about what he wants, that'll get changed when it goes to Congress. People could be disappointed. The Federal Reserve could raise interest rates ibn fact, they're likely to. That could also end up putting the brakes on the rally and perhaps causing stocks to go the other way. " "Yeah, you've got to be cautious when you start bragging about the stock market going up," he advised. Marlow asked if Met Life's "too big to fail" case would be a major test of Trump's agenda, a subject Carney is writing about at length for Breitbart News. "Met Life is one of the three largest insurance companies in the United States. AIG and Prudential are the others," Carney explained. "Under the Obama administration, a financial regulatory body called FSOC labeled them as 'too big to fail.' The official label is a SIFI, Systemically Important Financial Institution. Met Life fought it, won in court, and the court struck down that designation. " "The Obama administration appealed that case and said, 'Even though the court struck it down, we would like the appeals court to put that label back on them as too big to fail.' The court hasn't decided anything yet. The Trump administration can, if it wants to, rescind the appeal — in other words, ask the court, 'Hey, never mind. We're okay with the original decision' and go forward with that," he continued. "This will be a test. The president has said he wants to slow down the enormous growth of the regulatory state. This is an opportunity to do that, but there's a ticking clock on it. Once the appeals court makes its decision, you can't sort of wave it away the way you can right now, and you'll end up having to appeal it perhaps to the Supreme Court," he said. "There's an opportunity to slow the growth of the regulatory state. The question is whether or not they're going to take it now," Carney concluded. Marlow noted that Trump has been criticized as a "champion of Wall Street," even though he ran a populist campaign. "Look, I think that there are multiple ways of thinking about somebody as a 'champion for Wall Street,'" Carney argued. "The Trump administration so far, at least in terms of the stock market, has been very good for a lot of these big financial institutions — but it's also been very good for the smaller businesses. If you look at the broader index, the SP 500 or the Russell 2000, those stocks have also done very well. " "Even though it entails putting more regulation on them, it also sort of puts a patina of protection around them and says these are the institutions that the United States thinks are so important it will never let them fail," he said. Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a. m. to 9:00 a. m. Eastern. LISTEN:


Republican and Democratic senators introduced two pieces of legislation on Thursday seeking to block President Donald Trump from firing the special counsel probing his ties to Russia, as Congress increasingly seeks to assert its authority on policy. Members of Congress from both parties have expressed concern that Trump might dismiss Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed to determine whether there was collusion between his 2016 presidential campaign and Moscow. The Republican president on May 9 fired FBI Director James Comey, who was overseeing the investigation. He also recently criticized his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself from the probe. With signs that Mueller's investigation is intensifying, members of Congress sought to protect the special counsel, who was appointed on May 17. Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday that Mueller had convened a grand jury in Washington to investigate the allegations of Russian meddling. The sources added that grand jury subpoenas had been issued in connection with a June 2016 meeting involving Trump's son, his son-in-law and a Russian lawyer. Moscow has denied any effort to influence the election, and Trump has disputed any allegations of collusion between his associates and Russia. "Our bill allows judicial review of any decision to terminate a counsel to make sure it's done for the reasons cited in the regulations rather than political motivation," said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who co-sponsored one of the bills with Democratic Senator Cory Booker. A second, generally similar, measure was introduced by Republican Senator Thom Tillis and Democratic Senator Chris Coons. Coons told reporters that he expected the two groups of senators would work together and seek more co-sponsors from both parties, to come up with a single bill. He said they were in discussions with the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the hope they would take up the bill, a step toward a vote in the full Senate. The measures were introduced as the Senate prepared to leave Washington for its August recess. Lawmakers will return in early September. Members of Congress, including some of Trump's fellow Republicans, have recently been pursuing legislation seeking to increase Congress' influence on U.S. policy. Last week, lawmakers voted almost unanimously for a sweeping sanctions bill that gave Congress the right to review any Trump effort to ease or lift sanctions on Russia. Trump signed that bill into law on Wednesday.


The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld federal disclosure rules for political advertising, rejecting an appeal by a Denver-based libertarian think tank that wanted to run an ad without being forced to divulge its major donors. The Denver-based Independence Institute sued the Federal Election Commission, arguing the law requiring such disclosure violated its free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. The Supreme Court affirmed a lower court's ruling last year in favor of the commission. It was the latest in a decade-long series of cases brought by conservatives aiming to roll back federal campaign finance restrictions. The Independence Institute was supported in the case by influential Republican and conservative voices including Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Judicial Watch legal activist group as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce business group. The institute, ahead of the 2014 congressional elections, had sought to run a radio advertisement about increasing prison costs, telling listeners to urge their Colorado U.S. senators to support sentencing reform. Because the ad mentioned a senator by name in the lead up to an election, it triggered a provision in the 2002 campaign finance statute known as the McCain-Feingold law requiring the institute to file with the election commission and disclose any donors supporting the ad. The law was enacted to combat an explosion of what is known as "soft money" in campaigns through so-called sham issue advertisements, which cloaked partisan advocacy in discussions of public policy. Though the Supreme Court allowed unlimited campaign spending by corporations and unions in its landmark 2010 decision in the Citizens United v Federal Election Commission case, the court also upheld disclosure requirements for campaign ads. The Federal Election Commission said that for more than a century federal law has required organizations that influence elections to disclose information about their funding sources, a principle upheld in the Citizens United ruling. The Independence Institute sued in federal court in Washington in a bid to keep the names of its donors secret, arguing that its proposed ad focused on the sentencing reforms that senators were considering, not any senator's re-election campaign. Last October, a three-judge panel of the federal court ruled against the group, saying it would be impossible to distinguish genuine issue ads that reference candidates from campaign-style ads that openly promote or disparage a candidate.


Donald Trump is now the unofficially declared Republican nominee. Congratulations, Republicans, you went from Abraham Lincoln, to Dwight D. Eisenhower, to George W. Bush, and now Trump. We didn t think it could get much worse, but it did.Thankfully for the Democrats and other sane Americans, both Clinton and Sanders stand to beat Trump in a landslide in a general election. The math favors Clinton to be the Democratic nominee, for she only needs roughly 180 more delegates out of the 1,100+ left in the rest of the contests. No matter who you support, this is a good thing.So, unless there is a divine intervention (on both sides), it s going to be Trump v. Clinton.Anti-establishment Republicans are elated though for some weird reason their candidate is screwed.Take a look at the numbers: CNN has Clinton beating Trump 54-41 percent, a thirteen point lead. That s pretty sizable. And what s even more remarkable is the fact that Trump leads Clinton with white voters by only nine points (52-43). Remember, white voters are supposed to be Trump s saving grace in this election the angry white voter, new-age Southern Strategy is supposed to carry the xenophobic buffoon, and he is only leading by nine points.In 2008, McCain garnered 55 percent of white voters to Obama s 43 percent 12 point difference and still lost.In 2012, Romney nabbed 59 percent of whites to Obama s dismal 39 percent a 20 point difference and still lost.Projections show that Trump will have to win 70 percent of white voters if he wants to take the White House. And why is that? Because Clinton is absolutely crushing him among non-white voters. In CNN s poll, 81 percent of nonwhite voters are backing Clinton, while 14 percent are backing Trump, a 67 point difference.That s not even taking into consideration the entire female vote, which Trump is losing in historic proportions.And it certainly doesn t help that Republicans have lost ground with white voters (and white men) while Democrats have picked up the Republican s slack. Reuters found:Among whites under 40, the shift is even more dramatic. In 2012, they were more likely to identify with the Republican Party by about 5 percentage points. In 2015, the advantage flipped: Young whites are now more likely to identify with the Democratic Party by about 8 percentage points.Bottom line: the white vote cannot and will not save Donald Trump. The face of the nation has changed, the demographics have shifted, and it s no longer going to be the white man calling the shots. And no matter how many races and religions Trump wants to ban, the rhetoric will not be enough for his racist base. Of course never say never. There is always a chance he could win if Democrats get too comfortable and stay home. But if Democrats get out and vote, Trump will lose, and lose huge.Let s put the final nail in the white dominance coffin and send a message to the bigots on the Trump train.


David Duke is a former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard who also happens to be one of the most famous white supremacists in modern history. He is also, like many white supremacists, anti-semites, and other assorted despicable bigots, a Donald Trump supporter. Today, as we all know by now, Hillary Clinton issued a blistering takedown of Trump in a brilliant speech delivered in Reno, Nevada. She indicted the so-called alt-right movement which is really nothing more than the new white supremacy as well as Donald Trump himself for being nothing more than bigots, and bringing their bigotry into the mainstream via this presidential election. Well, of course, David Duke was most unhappy with this, and decided to issue a statement defending the alt-right which of course means, at this point, that he is also defending Trump.Duke talked to Buzzfeed s Andrew Kaczynski and said:Kaczynski went on to tweet:Bottom line, the white nationalists trust Trump and don't find his condemnations of them to be sincere. andrew kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) August 26, 2016He s right, of course. They know that Trump is just doing what he has to do to get elected. He is their guy. They know that all of his pathetic and disingenuous attempts to reach out to communities of color is really just lip service; hell, he isn t even actually talking to communities of color. He s trying to assure more mainstream white people that he isn t quite as racist as they thought, and that they should still vote for him, because he s still their man.Trump s campaign has completely embraced the lunatic fringe, and they are welcoming him with open arms. No matter how much his campaign staff tries to soften his bombastic tone and gets him to read off of a teleprompter, the truth is already out there, via not just Trump s own words, associations, and actions, but also via the full throated endorsement and defense of Klan leaders and other white supremacist leaders like David Duke.GOP, if you ve any sense at all, you ll kick ALL of these racists out of your party. You can t just say you aren t racists. You have to prove it. Take the hit this election, and reject Trumpism before it is too late.


Nobody can accuse the GOP of having it all together, but they are pretty good at having their press releases done ahead of time. Unfortunately for them, tonight s announcement was about the Vice Presidential debate, declaring Mike Pence the winner, well before the debate even started.Check it out below it s really amazing that they can see into the future:This is at least one Dewey Defeats Truman moment for the GOP. Back in 1948, the Chicago Tribune jumped the gun of the presidential election for that year and published that headline. Anybody who knows anything at all about American history should know we never had a President Dewey and the Tribune has yet to live that gaffe down.The GOP, though, won t deal in facts tonight. They ll declare Pence the winner even if he literally never says a single word. Notice what they highlighted: The economy and Hillary s emails. Tonight s debate started with presidential leadership, and what the VP must do with zero prep should the president become incapacitated.Pence did do every single thing he could to blame Hillary Clinton for weak foreign policy, including lying through his teeth about why we pulled our troops out of Iraq (he repeated the GOP line that Hillary chose to pull our troops out and ignored the fact that it was not our choice it was Iraq s choice). However, he s probably gotten some training from Trump s people, who try and turn even the most unrelated, irrelevant subjects into something about Hillary.Vox decided to be charitable with their evaluation of the GOP s premature ejaculation press release, saying it could be placeholder text on their site. But considering that they also said the other clear winner was Donald Trump, it s really, really hard to see this as anything other than what it is the GOP trying to control the narrative before anything even began.Featured image by Win McNamee/Getty Images


U.S. President Donald Trump agreed with South Korean President Moon Jae-in to revise a joint treaty capping the development of the South s ballistic missiles, Moon s office said on Saturday, amid a standoff over North Korea s missile and nuclear tests. Trump also gave conceptual approval to the purchase by the South of billions of dollars of U.S. military hardware, the White House said. The South wants to raise the missile cap to boost its defenses against the reclusive North, which is pursuing missile and nuclear weapons programs in defiance of international warnings and UN sanctions. The two leaders agreed to the principle of revising the missile guideline to a level desired by South Korea, sharing the view that it was necessary to strengthen South Korea s defense capabilities in response to North Korea s provocations and threats, South Korea s presidential Blue House said. Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The North regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the United States. North Korea sharply raised regional tension this week with the launch of its Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific. That followed the test launch of two long-range ballistic missiles in July in a sharply lofted trajectory that demonstrated a potential range of 10,000 km (6,000 miles) or more that would put many parts of the U.S. mainland within striking distance. North Korea has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States and has recently threatened to land missiles near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam. South Korea s development of its ballistic missiles is limited to range of 800 km (500 miles) and payload weight of 500 kg (1,100 pounds) under a bilateral treaty revised in 2012. South Korea has said it wants to revise the agreement to increase the cap on the payload. The two countries agreed to the cap as part of a commitment to a voluntary international arms-control pact known as the Missile Technology Control Regime, aimed at limiting the proliferation missiles and nuclear weapons. The two leaders pledged to continue to apply strong diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea and to make all necessary preparations to defend against the growing threat by the North, the White House said. The White House did not mention the voluntary bilateral agreement but said the two leaders agreed to strengthen their defense cooperation and South Korea s defense capabilities. Trump provided his conceptual approval of planned purchases by South Korea of billions of dollars in American military equipment , the White House said. Trump, who has warned that the U.S. military is locked and loaded in case of further North Korean provocation, reacted angrily to the latest missile test, declaring on Twitter that talking is not the answer to resolving the crisis. North Korea defends its weapons programs as necessary to counter perceived U.S. aggression, such as recent air maneuvers with South Korean and Japanese jets.


0 comments  Leaked audio from 2006, when Hillary Clinton was running for Senate in New York, proves that she has absolutely NO apprehensions about rigging elections.  During an editorial meeting with a small Jewish newspaper in Brooklyn, various topics were discussed, including the then-recent election in Palestine.  Here's what Hillary had to say about it:  "I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake. And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win."


Multiple reports state gunshots were fired outside the Rayburn House Office Building around 9:30 a. m on Wednesday. [Capitol Hill police officers with carbines and riot shotguns are patrolling the grounds. Other reports say the incident involved a truck driver ramming a police cruiser and trying to escape on foot. ABC News reported: U. S. Capitol Police responded to the area at Washington Ave and Independence Ave, which is located near the U. S. Botanic Garden and the Rayburn House office building. The suspect apparently struck a Capitol Police cruiser and then tried running over several officers who were on foot, according to Metro DC Police. At some point, Capitol Police fired shots, but no one was hit. The suspect was apprehended at 3rd and Independence Ave, and has been taken into custody. No one was hit by the suspect's car, police said. Shots fired on Capital Hill. We are locked inside the #Rayburn House building. pic. twitter. — Cherry Street Films (@cherrystfilms) March 29, 2017, #UPDATE: Suspect in custody after shots fired near US Capitol Capitol Police cruiser struck https: . pic. twitter. — FOX 5 DC (@fox5dc) March 29, 2017, BREAKING: DC police say a driver struck a Capitol Police cruiser then tried running over other officers who were on foot. Now in custody. — devindwyer (@devindwyer) March 29, 2017, Sounded like shots fired at the Capitol. Our view from Rayburn. pic. twitter. — Drew Griffin (@GriffDrew4) March 29, 2017,


KABUL, Afghanistan — Months after intense fighting between the Afghan government and the Taliban subsided on the outskirts of Kunduz, Hajji Habib Rahmani's family decided to go ahead with a delayed wedding. Amid the festivities, Abdul Basit, one of the children playing behind the house, picked up an unexploded shell, and it blew up. Basit, 14, and his brother Haroon, 8, were killed, and 12 other children ages 7 to 15 were wounded. The shell had been "fired from a helicopter during the fighting, and it hadn't exploded," said Mr. Rahmani, an uncle of the two brothers. On Monday, the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan reported that 2016 had been another year of record civilian casualties in the country, and it expressed particular concern about a 65 percent jump in the number of children killed or wounded by explosive remnants as fighting has spread to heavily populated civilian areas. The report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or Unama, said overall civilian casualties had continued their steady increase in recent years. In 2016, 3, 498 civilians were killed and 7, 920 others wounded — a rise of 3 percent over the previous year, the report said. "I am deeply saddened to report yet another year of increase in civilian casualties — another figure for the number of civilian casualties," Tadamichi Yamamoto, the United Nations special representative for Afghanistan and the head of Unama, said at a news conference on Monday in Kabul, the Afghan capital. "The killing and maiming of Afghan civilians is deeply harrowing and largely preventable. " According to the report, Unama documented "record numbers of civilian casualties from ground engagements, suicide and complex attacks, and explosive remnants of war" in 2016. The report also said casualties caused by aerial operations were the highest since the mission started systematically tracking them in 2009 and had doubled compared with 2015. Afghanistan is still having to clear what remains of the hundreds of thousands of mines and explosive remnants dating as far back as the war with the Soviet Union and the subsequent factional fighting, even as newer explosives take lives on a daily basis. Just as the conflict is restricting the movements of demining crews, civilians are being killed and maimed by homemade roadside bombs planted by insurgents, as well as unexploded ordnance left behind by coalition forces around bases they abandoned. And now, more children are dying not long after battles in their neighborhoods have ended, as none of the combatants bother to clear explosive remnants afterward as sought by international conventions. About 61 percent of the civilian casualties are attributed to what Unama calls "antigovernment elements," largely the Taliban. But civilian casualties caused by local affiliates of the Islamic State also increased tenfold compared with 2015, with 899 casualties claimed by Islamic State in 2016. forces caused 24 percent of the civilian casualties, the report said, significantly higher than in 2015. The United Nations mission was especially concerned about an overall 24 percent rise in casualties involving children compared with 2015, with 3, 512 such episodes in 2016 causing 923 deaths and leaving 2, 589 wounded. More than half of the child casualties occurred during ground engagements. Afghanistan has successfully carried out one of the world's largest demining efforts over several decades, removing nearly two million items of explosive material, more than 700, 000 antipersonnel mines and more than 29, 000 antitank mines, according to the United Nations Mine Action Service. The efforts have resulted in a 65 percent reduction in casualties caused by mines and explosive remnants since 2001. But in recent years, as the international coalition has closed down bases ahead of its withdrawal from the country, more casualties have been reported from ordnance exploding in areas that had been used as firing ranges and then abandoned by coalition forces. From 2009 to 2015, the United Nations recorded 138 casualties resulting from explosive remnant accidents in or around facilities used by the international coalition, and it said that 75 percent of the victims were children. A clearance operation to start getting rid of the explosives was introduced in 2014 to clear dozens of these sites. The United Nations said many of last year's casualties involving children and unexploded ordnance were caused by new explosive items left behind after recent fighting. "My team tracks the location of every one of the detonations, and the trend we have documented was a direct correlation between casualties from exploded ordnance and areas where the heaviest ground fighting happened," said Danielle Bell, the director of the human rights unit at Unama. "The majority of casualties resulted from new unexploded ordnance from the current conflict. " The United Nations is urging the Afghan government to comply with international rules requiring it to clear explosives after a battle.


Tens of thousands of Romanians rallied in the capital Bucharest and dozens of other cities on Sunday, protesting against a widely criticized plan by the ruling Social Democrats to overhaul the judiciary. The PSD-led coalition, which holds a robust majority in parliament, is drafting an overhaul that the European Commission, foreign diplomats and thousands of magistrates have criticized as placing the justice system under political control, potentially weakening an anti-corruption drive. A special parliamentary commission started debating the bill last week, with the ruling party aiming to have it approved by the end of the year. The commission is headed by Florin Iordache, who resigned as justice minister in February after a decree on corruption that he drafted triggered the biggest street protests since the 1989 anti-communist Romanian revolution. That decree, which was eventually rescinded, would have effectively shielded dozens of public officials from prosecution for corruption. Thieves, Thieves, shouted thousands of protesters in front of the government s headquarters on Sunday. We want justice, not corruption. PSD is the red plague. An estimated 30,000 people marched to parliament in Bucharest, while roughly 20,000 held rallies in about 70 cities. How do you trust wolves to make laws at the sheepfold, former technocrat prime minister Dacian Ciolos said on his Facebook page before going to the protests in Bucharest. The most contested judicial changes include those to an inspection unit that oversees magistrates conduct, the way in which chief prosecutors are appointed and the president s right to veto candidates. Romanian prosecutors have investigated hundreds of public officials, including former prime ministers, in an anti-corruption drive over the past decade. Transparency International ranks Romania among the European Union s most corrupt states, though Brussels has praised magistrates for their efforts. Prosecutors froze personal assets belonging to the leader of the PSD, Liviu Dragnea, this month as part of an investigation into suspected theft of cash from state projects, some of them Brussels-funded. Dragnea has denied any wrongdoing. In a report published on Nov. 15, the European Commission said that justice reform has stagnated in Romania this year and challenges to judicial independence remain a persistent source of concern.


Finnish President Sauli Niinisto is set to be elected for a second six-year term in January elections by a wide margin, a poll commissioned by public broadcaster YLE showed on Thursday. Known for cultivating good relations with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, 69-year-old Niinisto an independent candidate who previously represented the conservative National Coalition Party had the support of 76 percent in the poll. Fourteen percent of respondents backed lawmaker Pekka Haavisto from the Greens of Finland while five others had in total around 10 percent. The president is in charge of Finland s foreign and defense policy together with the government, but otherwise the post has become largely ceremonial in the past few decades. Following the Ukraine crisis and chilly East-West relations, Niinisto has taken an active role in maintaining relations with neighboring Russia by regular contacts with Putin. Finland is an EU member but it has stayed out of the NATO military alliance under its tradition of avoiding confrontation with Russia. The two countries share a 833 mile (1,340 km) border and a difficult history. I don t easily declare myself as an advisor... But my message to Moscow, Brussels, Washington and any other place is: you should have dialogue, Niinisto told reporters last week. The election will take place on January 28. If no candidate gets half of the votes, there will be a second round in February. If Niinisto and Haavisto met in a second round, Niinisto would win 82 percent of that vote, the poll showed. The numbers are exceptional. Incumbent presidents always have an advantage, but we ve never seen one s popularity grow as the election gets closer, said Johanna Vuorelma, political scientist at University of Helsinki. With the current tensions in the Baltic Sea region, it seems people look for a safe and familiar candidate, and don t even want to consider alternatives. The poll by Taloustutkimus surveyed 1,470 Finns last week.


One topic has dominated conversations among elected Republicans since President Trump's stunning victory: Will he actually pursue his campaign agenda of nationalism, all but obliterating the distinctions that have defined America's political parties for a century? While some of his advisers suggested that he would slip back into a more conventional Republican approach, Mr. Trump dropped hints in interviews, Twitter posts and other public comments that he intended to push his party away from its internationalist dogma on trade, foreign alliances, immigration, infrastructure spending and prescription drug access. The hints are over. An inaugural speech delivered with the same blunt force that propelled Mr. Trump's insurgent campaign has dashed Republican hopes for a more traditional agenda. With his "new decree," he declared himself modern America's first populist president — and all but dared his own party to resist his Republican reformation. "Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families," he said. Mr. Trump's vision will inevitably collide with establishment Republican leaders in Congress, and the outcome could determine not just the success of Mr. Trump's presidency, but also the identity of his party. Republicans have resisted Democratic efforts to spend big on the nation's roads, bridges, tunnels and rail lines use the federal government's power to bargain for lower prescription drug prices block trade agreements and limit foreign interventions. Republican leaders have sought a approach on immigration laws, offering a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, and tried to restrain popular programs like Social Security and Medicare. If the president is able to blur party lines on such issues and harness an ascendant coalition to win that clash, he will have untethered conservatism from the Republican Party and shifted the party away from the approach that has been its hallmark since Ronald Reagan stood 36 years ago in the same position on the Capitol steps as Mr. Trump. But Mr. Trump is about to discover that his hopes for a realignment may not come easily. As in his campaign, he faces an array of obstacles: his historic unpopularity and lack of discipline, advisers who hope to nudge him back toward conventional Republicanism and, perhaps most significant, other party leaders who have a more conservative outlook on domestic policy and government spending and a more hawkish attitude on foreign affairs. The alarm and anxiety within the Republican Party's congressional wing toward its own president are remarkable. And among Mr. Trump's most outspoken intraparty critics, the warnings of resistance are unambiguous. "There are three branches of government," said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona. "We now have a majority in both houses. And both majorities I think hold to basic conservative Republican principles. " the threat of reprisal, Mr. McCain said he intended to be true to what he saw as his party and his voters: "Trump carried Arizona by four points. I carried my state by 14 points. " Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, who like Mr. McCain has repeatedly clashed with Mr. Trump, said that he was preparing for the president to back his opponent in a primary next year — but that it would not dissuade him from putting up opposition on some issues. "There are some of us who will be pushing to get back to the roots of the party: limited government, economic freedom, individual responsibility, free trade," Mr. Flake said. "Those are things that the party has stood on for a long time. " Mr. Trump and some of his closest advisers say such resistance is not just futile but foolish. And they are already pledging to harness Mr. Trump's following in the states and districts of recalcitrant Republicans to sound warnings of their own. "The incentive for many of these members will be to follow Mr. Trump's lead because he won many of their states," said Kellyanne Conway, the president's campaign chief turned senior White House adviser. Aiming at perhaps the most powerful congressional Republican, and one of the more orthodox conservatives, Ms. Conway pointedly recalled Speaker Paul D. Ryan's inability to carry his own state in 2012 as the party's nominee. "Speaker Ryan knows lost by seven points in Wisconsin, and Mr. Trump just won the state," she said. As Ms. Conway noted, many Republican skeptics were doubtful that Mr. Trump could win in the first place. But even some on the right who are sympathetic to elements of his vision worry that there is no infrastructure to undergird and promote Trumpism — unlike Reagan's conservative movement or former President Bill Clinton's centrist "third way" approach. Traditional conservatives dominate Capitol Hill, Washington's think tanks and advocacy groups, as well as statehouses. "Populism has been an energy that has carried Republicans into office, but once in office very few of them stay populist," said Matthew Continetti, editor in chief of the conservative Washington Free Beacon. Reihan Salam, the executive editor of National Review, said, "I think it's likely that Trump is premature," arguing that Mr. Trump is aligned with the party's voters but a step ahead of its congressional wing. "He is only one man. " There are Republicans who still believe that Mr. Trump will govern more as a conservative even as he attracts a broader coalition of voters to the party. "I don't think he is going to fundamentally reshape the party on issues," predicted Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. He added that Mr. Trump's political legacy would be to "open the eyes" of voters who had not supported Republican presidential hopefuls in recent years. Mr. Walker said Mr. Trump himself had said he was not "a policy guy" and argued that the president would lean heavily on Vice President Mike Pence and the White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, to carry out his agenda. That is exactly what worries some Republicans who share Mr. Trump's views: that the president will be undermined by some in his inner circle. When Mr. Trump veered away from orthodoxy during the transition, some of his advisers quickly tried to recast his comments with a more conservative veneer. "My concern with Reince is he's bringing in a lot of the folks," said Rick Santorum, a onetime senator from Pennsylvania, who ran a campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. "They're not fans of the agenda, much less real fans of Trump. " And, Mr. Santorum added of Mr. Pence's roots in traditional conservatism, "candidly this is not where Mike has been in the past, either. " Still, Mr. Santorum said, he spoke on the phone to Mr. Trump this past week, and the incoming president was every bit as committed to his style of politics as he was during the campaign. "He's not going to change," Mr. Santorum said. Mr. Trump's Inaugural Address reflected as much, and it highlighted the influence of the most prominent nationalists entering the West Wing this weekend, the senior advisers Stephen K. Bannon and Stephen Miller. The new president not only outlined his brand of politics, but also sent a message to those who work in the building behind him. "We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action," Mr. Trump said. "The time for empty talk is over. " Or as Ms. Conway put it, "When he says, 'We're going to build the wall,' he means it, and when he says, 'We're going to renegotiate trade deals,' he means it. " " or undercutting or trying to change Donald Trump is a fool's errand," she added. "People who watched this campaign should have discovered that by now. "


And the Wisconsin Republican isn't talking about moving legislation in Congress. Long before Ryan clutched the speaker's gavel, bow hunting deer consumed his late-fall and early-winter weekends. Ryan aims to bag three or four deer a year. He then crafts jerky and sausage from the meat. Ryan has held the speaker's job since late October. And so far, so good in the legislative sausage factory. Passage of major education and transportation bills. A tax relief package. The forging of a bipartisan pact to avoid a government shutdown. Ryan even challenged Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump -- without mentioning the candidate by name. This came after Trump suggested the U.S. should ban Muslims from entering the country. "What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for, and more importantly, it's not what this country stands for," said Ryan after Trump's proposal a few weeks ago. Ryan appears to have altered the course on Capitol Hill -- at least for a time. "I'm very happy with how the last seven weeks have gone," he declared. But the sausage of late hasn't been the political stuff Otto von Bismarck spoke of when describing the onerous legislative process. Next year is when Ryan's real sausage-curing experiment is put to the test -- merging political pork, veal, beef and venison with intestines, salt, spices and breadcrumbs. The "barn" left to Ryan by former House Speaker Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, is now formally clean. Anything from here on is Ryan's barn. Passing the annual spending bills. Dealing with the Obama administration. Deciding what to do about the Benghazi committee. A decision on a threat by House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. Wrangling over the Asian trade pact. Confronting the threat of terrorism. Chasms in the GOP. Internecine fighting over the 2016 race for president. Right now, most political observers are trained on the campaign for president. But Ryan is campaigning, too. Not for president (at least not yet). But a campaign to calm the House, return to the illustrative but elusive "regular order" and instill confidence in the public and lawmakers. But 2015 was marked by exceptional turmoil within the GOP ranks, calls for Boehner's head and his eventual resignation, an aborted campaign for speaker by Majority Leader California GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy, squabbling over funding the Department of Homeland Security and raising the debt ceiling vexed Congress this year. Ryan wants 2016 to go differently. Already, there are catcalls from the far-right that Ryan is the same as Boehner. Or maybe worse than Boehner. Or that he already sold out. In the new year, Paul Ryan will face the conservative wing of the GOP. There's no more saying he came into the play during the second act or that Boehner is still on the hook. "There will always be contrarian voices out there," Ryan said. "Members of the conservative movement know me as one of their own." He hopes to hand the biggest legislative keys to the House Appropriations Committee and rank-and-file members as they try to fund the government next year. This involves plowing through the 12 annual spending bills to run each section of the government and avert a crisis next September. They had better get rolling. Congress is scheduled to be out of session for a staggering seven weeks stretching from July through early September to accommodate the Democratic and Republican parties' conventions. That doesn't leave much time to wrap things up by September 30, 2016, the end of the government's fiscal year. When asked how and why things seem easier than under the tenure of his predecessor, Ryan momentarily ponders the question. "I'm not sure I can give you a good answer on that," he finally replies. However, he made clear that his goal is to "loosen control." Perhaps without realizing it, Ryan responds to the Boehner regime interrogatory, saying "this place used to pre-determine everything, down to the amendment." Ryan believes he can empower members to influence policy through the appropriations process. They can do so by prescribing how much or how little money the federal government devotes to a given program. That invests everyone in the enterprise. Of course, that means Republicans won't get a lot of things they want (and demand from Ryan). And Democrats sure won't, either. Ryan got a taste of working with Democrats on the recent pact to fund the government and renew major tax breaks at the end of the year. "I didn't really know these people," he said of the Democrats, pointing out that he talked to Senate Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, Nevada, once for about 30 seconds in 2012. He says he and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., never had a conversation before the omnibus spending talks. That's to say nothing of negotiating with President Obama. Obama wants to dine with the new GOP speaker sometime in the new year. Ryan's spoken with the president by phone on multiple occasions since claiming the gavel. Still, Ryan described the administration's approach to governing as "arrogant, paternalistic and condescending." Even if Ryan's able to get along with Obama and congressional Democrats -- to say nothing of members of his own party -- the presidential sweepstakes will dominate 2016. And what happens if one particular candidate polls well as they approach the Republican convention in Cleveland? "I put up with politics in order to do policy," he says. But there's lots of GOP handwringing about whether Republicans can hold the Senate and maybe (maybe) the House if the party nominates Trump. "I think we're going to have a good climate," Ryan says optimistically of the GOP. But there's already chatter about what happens if the party is torn and Trump is cruising toward victory at the Cleveland nominating convention. What does the GOP do? Some private Republican conversations involve a brokered convention. Maybe the party pulls a Steve Harvey and switches the nominee at the last minute. One line of thought is for the GOP to engineer a brokered convention that perhaps propels someone like Ryan to the nomination. "He's the only person who can unify the Republican party," opined one senior Republican House member, "and possibly beat Hillary Clinton." Ryan publicly eschews that sort of talk. Of course, he also didn't like talk about him running for speaker … Until he did. Some political observers point to the video Ryan released before Congress abandoned Washington for Christmas. Titled "A Confident America," the slickly-produced, creatively-shot tape mimics a campaign commercial -- if not a movie trailer. It crescendos with dramatic music and inspirational oratory, liberally swiping segments from a speech Ryan delivered a few weeks ago in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress. "We believe in the American idea," Ryan proclaims. "We stand for a more prosperous, a more secure and a more confident America." Note that Ryan is one of few major GOP political figures who has been willing to take on Trump. But for now, there's sausage to be made -- in Washington and in Wisconsin. Ryan knows what to do with the venison back home. And in 2016, we'll see how he does in the Capitol Hill smokehouse.


(Before It's News) What is Vitamin E? Vitamin E is an important fat-soluble antioxidant compound that aids the body in neutralizing the harmful after-effects of oxidation of fats. Current research is even looking into the important role that this vitamin plays in stopping free-radical production, a key method of preventing the development of chronic diseases and aging. It is also a vital element in the overall maintenance of a healthy immune system. Some studies are even looking into its role in preventing degenerative mental imbalances such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease. And while many of us may do well in taking extra vitamin E supplements, we can use an organic diet to get a large amount of the daily requirements for this powerful antioxidant lipid. In fact, there are many common foods with vitamin E. You probably have a few in your house right now. Foods With Vitamin E Here are fifteen foods with vitamin E that you should strongly consider adding to your diet. 1. Almonds Almonds are one the best vitamin E foods. Just an ounce of almonds offers a whopping 7.4 milligrams of vitamin E. You can also get your vitamin E needs in the form of almond milk and almond oils. We would recommend eating raw almonds, if possible. 2. Raw Seeds Select raw seeds , such as sunflower, pumpkin and sesame, are another common food with vitamin E. In fact, eating just ¼ of a cup of sunflower seeds gives you 90.5% of your recommended daily value, making them one of the best vitamin E foods you can eat daily. 3. Swiss Chard Swiss chard is easily one of the healthiest vegetables you can eat on a daily basis. Commonly known to be high in vitamin K, vitamin A and vitamin C, Swiss chard is another food high in vitamin E. Just one cup of boiled swiss chard greens will provide you with almost 17% of your daily recommended values. 4. Mustard Greens Similar to swiss chard, mustard greens are very nutrient dense and will provide a variety of health benefits. Not only are they one of the best vitamin E foods, but mustard greens are also high in vitamin K, vitamin A, folate , and vitamin c. Eating just one cup of boiled mustard greens contains about 14% of your daily dietary requirements. We would recommend eating organic mustard greens, if possible. 5. Spinach Spinach may not be your favorite veggie, but it is one of the best leafy greens you can add to your diet. Not only is it one of the best calcium foods and naturally high in folate, it's also one of the best vitamin E foods as well. Just one cup of boiled spinach will provide you with approximately 20% of your daily needs. Try adding fresh spinach to your sandwiches to make them extra healthy. 6. Turnip Greens While turnip greens may have a slightly bitter taste, they are very high in many essential nutrients. Like the rest of the leafy greens on this list, just one cup will provide you with plenty of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C and folate. Not to mention approximately 12% of your daily requirements of vitamin E. 7. Kale Kale is another great cruciferous vegetable you should eat as often as possible. Kale is very high in many nutrients, in fact, just one cup of boiled kale can give you almost 6% of your daily vitamin E requirements. We would recommend eating organic kale, if possible. 8. Plant oils Most plant seed oils are very good sources for Vitamin E as well. The best oil with vitamin E is Wheat germ oil. In fact, one tablespoon of this oil holds 100% of your daily Vitamin E requirements. Sunflower oil is another excellent option, as it provides over 5 mg of the vitamin, and can easily be be used for cooking. Other great Vitamin-E-rich oils include hempseed oil, coconut oil, cottonseed oil (with almost 5 mg of vitamin E), olive oil and safflower oil. We would recommend only buying oils that are cold pressed unrefined and organic. 9. Hazelnuts A perfect snack during a long workday, eating just one ounce of hazelnuts can provide you with approximately 20% of our daily requirements of vitamin E. For an alternative to eating nuts, try drinking hazelnut milk in your morning coffee instead of milk or flavored creamer. 10. Pine Nuts Add an ounce of these nuts to anything you please! One serving contains 2.6 mg of vitamin E. You can also use pine nut oil for added health benefits. 11. Avocado Perhaps one of the tastiest foods with Vitamin E, avocados represent natures creamiest, oil-rich food. Just half of an avocado holds more than 2 mg of vitamin E. Avocados are very easy to incorporate into your diet. We would recommend adding sliced avocados to your salad, a sandwich, or mashed up as guacamole! 12. Broccoli For generations now, broccoli has been considered one of the best detox foods , but it's also one of the healthiest foods high in Vitamin E. Just one cup of steamed broccoli will provide you with 4% of your daily requirements. Broccoli may not be as nutrient dense as other Vitamin E foods on this list, but it is definitely one of the healthiest foods you can eat daily. 13. Parsley An excellent spice, parsley is another great Vitamin E food. Try adding fresh parsley to salads and dishes for an extra Vitamin-E kick. Dried parsley will also provide you with this important vitamin, but the fresher the better. 14. Papaya This popular fruit is most commonly known as one of the best vitamin C foods , but it's also high in Vitamin E. Just one papaya will give you approximately 17% of your daily needs. Try adding fresh or frozen papaya to fruit smoothies, along with other fruity vitamin E foods on this list for an extra healthy snack! 15. Olives From the oil to the fruit, eating olives is an excellent way of getting your daily needs for vitamin E. Just one cup of olives can give you approximately 20% of your daily recommended amount. These are just a few examples of foods with vitamin E. There are plenty more that aren't listed here. Which vitamin E food is your favorite? Let's hear your thoughts below. The post 15 Foods That Contain The Most Vitamin E appeared first on The Sleuth Journal .


The football league formerly known as the Lingerie Football League (now the Legends Football League) announced via Instagram and video this week its belief that America s flag and national anthem are far too sacred to protest.The all-woman league said in a Tuesday statement that its players would not be taking a knee during the national anthem as many of their male counterparts in the NFL have done. The LFL recognizes everyone s First Amendment right to protest, but our nation s flag and anthem are far too sacred, the league said. Too many fellow Americans have made the ultimate sacrifice, so that our flag and anthem continue in all its majesty. It symbolizes all the blood, sweat, and tears that have been shed so that we as Americans can raise our flag across our nation, the organization says during the video. The LFL salutes all those who make this the greatest country in the world. We stand in salute of our flag. This year s Legends Cup Champions were the Seattle Mist, which defeated the Atlanta Steam 38 to 28 in the finals. The Mist finished the season undefeated.


U.S.-backed militias battled foreign fighters defending the last pocket of Islamic State s one-time Syrian capital of Raqqa on Monday, bringing their four-month offensive for the city to the brink of victory. A Reuters correspondent saw smoke rising above the city and heard mortar fire, but did not see air strikes while in Raqqa. A field commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, said he expected the operation to end on Monday. The U.S.-led coalition that backs them said it could not give a timeline. SDF spokesman Mostafa Bali said they were fighting Islamic State in only one small zone of Raqqa in the evening, around the city s national hospital and stadium. Bali said he could not determine how much longer the battle would take. The clashes are ongoing, he added. A convoy of Syrian Islamic State fighters quit Raqqa on Saturday night with their families, leaving only 200-300 foreign jihadists to mount a last stand, the SDF has said. The SDF is now poised to end Islamic State s rule over a city where it had launched a string of lightning victories in 2014 and plotted attacks on civilian targets across the West. Its defeat in Raqqa mirrors its collapse across Iraq and Syria, where its enemies have driven it from cities, killed its leaders in air strikes and regained the oil fields that funded its self-declared caliphate. Islamic State lost Mosul in Iraq, its largest city and most prized possession, after months of fighting in July. The militants, which at their height ruled millions of people in both countries, are now forced back in Syria into a strip of the Euphrates valley south of Deir al-Zor and desert on each side. We have conducted some (air) strikes in the last 24 hours, but I suspect that that will pick up here very soon with the SDF advancing into the final remaining areas of the city, said coalition spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon. The SDF said they gained control of six more districts on Monday. The coalition has supported the SDF with air power and special forces throughout its Raqqa campaign, which began in November with an offensive to isolate the city. The battle inside Raqqa started in June, and the intense air strikes and street-to-street fighting drove many of its people to refugee camps and left much of the city a mess of concrete debris. The field commander in Raqqa described Monday s fighting as a clearing operation and said he expected it to be completed by the end of the day with the SDF controlling the whole city. Ilham Ahmed, a senior Kurdish leader who co-chairs the SDF s political affiliate, said earlier she expected the end of the offensive to be declared within hours or days. A Reuters correspondent was with an SDF sniper unit on a frontline facing the hospital complex that represents one of Islamic State s last strongholds in the city, and saw two men in camouflage clothing climb a building and raise a flag. Cars in the streets below had loudspeakers mounted on their roofs broadcasting messages to the last Islamic State fighters telling them they would not be ill-treated if they surrendered. Another SDF field commander, who gave his name as Ashraf Serhad, said he had heard that 250 IS fighters remained and on Sunday he had seen several vehicles leave the hospital carrying some who had surrendered. Saturday night s convoy included about 100 IS fighters and nearly 200 family members, said Omar Alloush, a member of the Raqqa Civil Council set up under SDF auspices to run the city. The fighters who left in the convoy, as part of a deal brokered by tribal leaders, are being held by security forces before interrogation and may be tried in court, he added. The deal also allowed civilians to leave IS-held districts. Dillon said about 3,500 civilians had left the militant-held parts of the city in the past week. The strongest group in the SDF is the YPG, a Kurdish militia that Turkey regards as an extension of the PKK, which has waged an insurgency against Ankara for three decades. YPG influence across swathes of northern Syria including in majority Arab areas, and its backing by the U.S., has provoked disquiet in Turkey. The U.S.-backed offensive has pushed Islamic State from most of northern Syria, while a rival offensive by the Syrian army, backed by Russia, Iran and Shi ite militias, has driven the jihadists from the central desert. When the jihadist group was entrenched in Syria and Iraq, it turned Raqqa into a planning and operations hub. Many of its leaders were at times based there, and former hostages said Mohammed Emwazi, better known as Jihadi John, imprisoned them along with those he later executed in a building near the city. The group killed dozens of captured Syrian soldiers there in July 2014 and made the city the site of a slave market for Yazidi women captured in Iraq and given to fighters. The coalition has said Raqqa was a center for attacks abroad, and in November 2015, after militants killed more than 130 people in Paris, France launched airstrikes on Islamic State targets in the city. But as the group defends its last patch of bomb-cratered ground in the city, the cost of the battle lies evident all around. Much of Raqqa lies ruined, hundreds of civilians have been killed, and thousands more have fled.


Frauke Petry, the former co-leader of the far right Alternative for Germany (AfD), will unveil her new Blue Party on Friday, promising a reasonable conservative agenda that would appeal to a broad base of Germans, she told a newspaper group. Petry, a 42-year-old chemist, was for a time the most visible face of the AfD, helping to build the public appeal that saw it win 12.6 percent of the vote last month and become the first far right group in the German parliament since the 1960s. But although she has long espoused strong anti-immigrant views, she berated other leading figures in the AfD for holding positions too far outside the mainstream and making it impossible for the party to join a coalition government. During the months leading up to the election she took a lower profile role in campaigning, all but vanishing from TV screens as more radical figures became the party s public faces. She won a seat in parliament on the AfD s list last month, but quit the party the next day in a surprise announcement at its victory press conference, pledging to sit in parliament initially as an independent. She told RND newspaper group in an interview published late on Thursday that she would hold a small initial event to announce her new Blue Party on Friday in her home state of Saxony in the former communist East. More rallies would follow around the country from November under the banner of Blue Change or Blaue Wende , she said. Wende is the term widely used to describe the dramatic shift in German society after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Blue stands for conservative, but also liberal policies in Germany and in Europe, she told RND, adding that her new group would seek to replicate the success of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives, on a national level. The CSU, part of Merkel s conservative bloc in parliament, has taken a harder line than Merkel s own Christian Democratic Union over immigration, but fields candidates only in Bavaria, a state that accounts for 15 percent of Germany s population. Every third German would like a reasonable, conservative political offering, she said, adding that many frustrated voters had supported the pro-business Free Democrats, the AfD or Merkel s CDU on Sept. 24 for lack of a better alternative. Petry said she had begun working on plans for her new party as early as August, after AfD members refused to accept her more moderate proposals at a party congress in Cologne. RND said German election authorities listed the new party as having been founded on Sept. 17, a week before the vote. Petry defended her decision to quit the AfD while keeping her seat won on its list, saying she would remain loyal to her voters. The mandate doesn t belong to the party, even if it was won with party funds, she said. The AfD is ostracized by all other parties, which refuse to work with it. None even wants to sit next to the AfD in parliament.


The video below is a great snapshot of what was going on with the Clinton foundation and huge donors from all over the world. Hillary treated the State Department like an arm of The Clinton Foundation


The Senate has joined the House of Representatives in averting a government shutdown by funding most of the federal government for one week. The Senate approved the House's Joint Resolution (HR Res 99) on a voice vote shortly after the House passed the Continuing Resolution on a 382 to 30 voice vote. [The CR, introduced in the House on Thursday, amends the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2017. The current CR was set to expire on Friday. "There's no Democratic objection," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ( ) told NBC News. "There's still some to be negotiated" on a deal, "but the negotiators were up 'til 1:30 last night … so certainly we're willing to give it a few more days. " "The measure was needed after negotiations between the two parties in Congress and the administration on a bill fell short of Friday's deadline," NBC reported on Friday. "The CR also amends the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to extend through May 5, 2017, a provision that provides health care benefits for certain retired miners and their families," the congress. gov website states. President Donald Trump has until midnight tonight to sign the Continuing Resolution.


The president of Honduras declared himself re-elected on Tuesday despite calls from the Organization of American States (OAS) for a fresh vote over allegations of fraud and deadly protests following last month s disputed election. In Washington, his rival asked the United States and others to reject the result and cut off aid, warning that protests in which more than 20 people have died could escalate into generalized violence unless there is a new election. The opposition alliance said it would file a legal challenge to the country s electoral tribunal s verdict that President Juan Orlando Hernandez won the Nov. 26 election. Hernandez spoke for the first time since the tribunal issued that verdict on Sunday. A partial recount did not tip the result in favor of his opponent, TV host Salvador Nasralla, the tribunal said. Hernandez, who is an ally of the United States, said in a televised address that he would bring peace, harmony and prosperity to the poor Central American nation. As a citizen and president-elect of all Hondurans, I humbly accept the will of the Honduran people, said Hernandez, a conservative who has led a military crackdown on the country s violent gangs. Nasralla, who leads a center-left coalition, called for a new vote monitored by international observers, saying Hernandez was holding onto power illegally. Honduras runs the risk of falling into an undesired and fratricidal civil war, with unforeseen consequences in the Central American region, he told reporters. At least 24 people, including two police officers, have died in simmering protests around the country since the opposition declared fraud, according to the Honduran human rights group COFADEH, which tracks kidnappings and murders by the state. However, for the most part the protests have been relatively small. Opposition leaders have accused government security forces of firing into barricades and peaceful protests. A military official said troops are firing only into the air and only if they are in imminent danger, such as coming under fire. Opposition leaders deny protesters are armed with guns. The political unrest has hit a country that struggles with violent drug gangs, one of world s highest murder rates - although murders have dropped under Hernandez s crackdown - and endemic poverty. Together, these drive a tide of Hondurans to migrate to the United States. Nasralla traveled on Monday to Washington to meet with OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro and a senior State Department official. Following his visit, the U.S. State Department urged Honduran political parties to raise any concerns about the official results through a formal legal challenge this week - the step that Nasralla s opposition alliance said later in the day that it would take. However, Nasralla earlier rejected the value of a legal challenge, saying the courts are controlled by Hernandez. Instead, he said the United States, Latin American countries and other foreign powers should push for fresh elections, not recognize the current results and cut off aid to Honduras. In the midst of the post-election chaos, the U.S. State Department certified late last month that the Honduran government has been fighting corruption and supporting human rights, clearing the way for Honduras to receive millions of dollars in U.S. aid. As results rolled in on Nov. 26, Nasralla initially seemed headed for an upset win. But results abruptly stopped being issued. When they restarted, the outcome began to favor Hernandez, arousing suspicion among Nasralla supporters. Shortly after the electoral tribunal backed Hernandez s victory on Sunday, the OAS said the election did not meet democratic standards and called for a re-run. On Monday, one of Hernandez s top officials rejected the call for another vote. Hernandez, 49, has been supported by U.S. President Donald Trump s chief of staff, John Kelly, since Kelly was a top general.


Georgia s secretary of state has claimed the Department of Homeland Security tried to breach his office s firewall and has issued a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson asking for an explanation.Brian Kemp issued a letter to Johnson on Thursday after the state s third-party cybersecurity provider detected an IP address from the agency s Southwest D.C. office trying to penetrate the state s firewall. According to the letter, the attempt was unsuccessful.And now, Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Aaron Diamond has learned two more states election agencies have confirmed suspected cyberattacks linked to the same U.S. Department of Homeland Security IP address as last month s massive attack in Georgia.The two states reporting the suspected cyberattacks were West Virginia and Kentucky. We need somebody to dig down into this story and figure out exactly what happened, said Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp.In the past week, the Georgia Secretary of State s Office has confirmed 10 separate cyberattacks on its network over the past 10 months that were traced back to DHS addresses. We re being told something that they think they have it figured out, yet nobody s really showed us how this happened, Kemp said. We need to know. He says the new information from the two other states presents even more reason to be concerned. So now this just raises more questions that haven t been answered about this and continues to raise the alarms and concern that I have, Kemp said.Through an open-records request, Diamant acquired the results of a survey Kemp asked the National Association of Secretaries of State to send to its members.West Virginia wrote back, This IP address did access our election night results on November 7, 2016. Kentucky responded the same IP address did touch the KY (online voter registration) system on one occasion, 11/1/16. In a letter this week, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson told Kemp the department sourced the mid-November activity in Georgia to a federal contractor conducting what he called normal internet searches on the Secretary of State s website. But Kemp says there s a problem with that answer. We haven t been able to recreate this the way they explained it to us, Kemp said.Kemp also told Diamant that DHS has yet to explain at least nine other suspected network scans linked to DHS IP addresses over the last year on or around important primary and presidential election dates. Kemp s call for answers is amplified now by the National Association of Secretaries of State, or NASS. WSBTV


Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been essentially blacklisted in the NFL for daring to kneel during the national anthem in order to protest police brutality against people of color. He was the original player to #takeaknee, and has paid dearly for it. However, since Donald Trump has seen fit to attack anyone daring to protest in this way, the tide on the anthem protests has taken on new life. After Trump s original attacks, players throughout the league were taking knees last Sunday. The attacks continued from Trump this week, and players continued to defy Trump. Perhaps most notably, those on Kaepernick s old team.The 49ers had an entire row of players kneeling during the anthem, right in front of those who chose to stand. However, despite choosing to stand, those players had their hands on the shoulders of those kneeling in solidarity. Trump might continue to petulantly tweet at these people who are using their public platform to shine a light on the very serious and deadly issue of police brutality, but clearly things are not going in the way he had hoped.Then again, Trump seems to think that everyone is as tone deaf and racist as he and his mouthbreathing, flag-soaked base are. That is clearly not the case, though. Newsflash, you orange fascist the world is much less tolerant of bigotry than you might like to think. People are sick and tired of your screaming racism through your bullhorn and using the bully pulpit of the White House to attack anyone who would dare to do the right thing here.Good on these brave players. They ll surely be attacked for what they are doing once again, from Donald Trump s overly active Twitter account. But, at the end of the day, they are the ones who are on the right side of history.Watch the video below, courtesy of the 49ers official Twitter:Together pic.twitter.com/PwKDagudCq San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) October 1, 2017


The European Union on Wednesday said it reaffirmed support for Lebanon s stability and unity after Saad al-Hariri s resignation as prime minister on Saturday plunged the country into crisis. In a statement, EU ambassadors called on all sides to pursue constructive dialogue and to continue work to strengthen Lebanon s institutions and to prepare for parliamentary elections in early 2018 in adherence with the constitution.


Ted Cruz has no interest in playing Mr Nice Guy with Obama or his willing accomplices in the FBI, DHS or his DOJ It s been over a week since the largest terror attack on American soil in 15 years, yet nobody in Congress has successfully steered the discussion to the actual source of our perilous security situation. The Obama administration is covering up all connections of the Orlando shooter to known Islamic terrorists with the help of the Muslim Brotherhood advising DHS and the FBI. Yet, all Republicans and Democrats want to discuss is guns. That is about to change.On Tuesday, June 28, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts, will conduct a hearing investigating the willful blindness on the part of the relevant law enforcement agencies to domestic Islamic terror networks. The subject of the hearing is Willful Blindness: Consequences of Agency Efforts To Deemphasize Radical Islam in Combating Terrorism. Senators on the committee now have an opportunity to expose the Muslim Brotherhood influence within DHS and the FBI, their invidious Countering Violent Extremism Agenda, and their hand in covering up counter-terrorism investigations.Senator Cruz hinted at the agenda he plans to pursue at this hearing in an op-ed for Conservative Review earlier this week:President Obama s politically correct reluctance to attribute the terrorist threat we face with radical Islam hobbles our ability to combat it by discouraging counterterrorism agents from taking radical Islam into account when evaluating potential threats. The examples of Fort Hood, Boston, San Bernardino, and Orlando demonstrate the harmful consequences of this administration s willful blindness.Just yesterday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced at a press conference that the motives of the Orlando jihadist might never be known and that our most effective response to terror is unity and love. This comes on the heels of the government s attempt to redact any mention of Islamic rhetoric in the 911 call and DHS releasing another internal document scrubbing all references to Islamic terror. Just this week, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a front group for Hamas, was allowed to sit in on FBI interviews with members of the Fort Pierce mosque. The FBI was supposed to cut ties with CAIR, and DOJ was supposed to prosecute them in 2009 following the Holy Land Foundation trial, in which CAIR was implicated as a co-conspirator, yet they are granted full access to FBI counter-terrorism investigations. How can Republicans let this stand for one day? Worse, they are validating the Democrat premise by obsequiously holding vote after vote on the non sequitur of gun control while our own government is willfully allowing Islamic terrorist sympathizers to operate freely within DHS and sabotage all investigations that would have prevented these attacks.This hearing will likely focus on which figures within the federal government worked to squelch any research connecting the dots between local Muslim Brotherhood officials, these individual terrorists, and foreign terror networks. Senators on the committee now have an opportunity to expose the Muslim Brotherhood influence within DHS and the FBI, their invidious Countering Violent Extremism Agenda, and their hand in covering up counter-terrorism investigations. They can demonstrate how the federal government has hamstrung local law enforcement by refusing to cooperate and share information regarding jihadists living in their communities.Most importantly, this is the first opportunity to finally change the narrative from the false discussion about guns, which has nothing to do with Islamic Jihad. Hopefully, this committee hearing will be the beginning of a concerted effort for the legislative branch to actually engage in some critical oversight of the perfidious actions within the top echelons of federal law enforcement. The fact that GOP leaders in the House and Senate are not pushing multiple hearings and legislation dealing with this issue is scandalous, but unfortunately, not unexpected.


Rabbis representing four prominent Jewish organizations have decided that they will not hold their annual conference call with the President because the man currently holding that office openly supports white supremacists.Following Trump s atrocious response to the tragic events in Charlottesville, the rabbis issued a statement explaining that they simply cannot organize such a call this year. They said that this decision was made because Trump s reaction to Nazis marching in the streets and the death of Heather Heyer was lacking in moral leadership and empathy for the victims of racial and religious hatred. We have concluded that President Trump s statements during and after the tragic events in Charlottesville are so lacking in moral leadership and empathy for the victims of racial and religious hatred that we cannot organize such a call this year, the rabbis wrote. The President s words have given succor to those who advocate anti-Semitism, racism, and xenophobia, they wrote. Responsibility for the violence that occurred in Charlottesville, including the death of Heather Heyer, does not lie with many sides but with one side: the Nazis, alt-right and white supremacists who brought their hate to a peaceful community. They must be roundly condemned at all levels. In the days following the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville that left three people dead, Trump insisted that many sides were to blame for the violence. The rabbis concluded by saying that they would pray that President Trump will recognize and remedy the grave error he has made in abetting the voices of hatred. They added that they will also pray that those who traffic in anti-Semitism, racism, and xenophobia will see that there is no place for such pernicious philosophies in a civilized society. The statement was signed by the Central Conference of American Rabbis, The Rabbinical Assembly, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.


NBA great and cultural commentator Kareem writes a column for the Hollywood Reporter in which he examines the hit film La La Land and how it "misleads" on issues of race, romance and jazz. [From the Hollywood Reporter: A recent Saturday Night Live skit depicts two cops yelling at a handcuffed man they just arrested because he didn't think La La Land was great. "It dragged in the middle," he complains. "You sick son of a bitch!" one cop barks. "You disgust me!" This pretty much distills the rift in American pop culture that is nearly as contentious as the rift in American politics. As someone who finds La La Land bold, daring and deserving of all its critical and financial success, I can also admit that there are a few elements that warrant closer examination, particularly regarding its portrayal of jazz, romance and people of color. In fact, the better a work of art is, the more we must dissect it, because now we're not just measuring Rotten Tomatoes popularity or boffo box office, we're assessing its proper place in our cultural canon. No, I don't think the film needs more black people. Damien Chazelle should tell the story as he sees fits with whatever ethnic arrangement he desires. However, it is fair to question his color wheel when it involves certain historical elements — such as jazz. … The white guy wants to preserve the black roots of jazz while the black guy is the sellout? This could be a deliberate ironic twist, but if it is, it's a distasteful one for . One legitimate complaint that marginalized people (women, people of color, Muslims, the LGBT community, etc.) have had about Hollywood in the past is that when they were portrayed, it was done in a negative way. The ditzy blonde, the Muslim terrorist, the gay predator are all familiar stereotypes from years of TV and movies. So much has been done in recent years to overcome those debasing images, but we still have to be careful. It's not that a black man can't be the sellout or the drug dealer, it's just that they shouldn't be if they're the only prominent black character in the story. Whether it's intentional or unintentional, that sends a bigoted message rippling through our society. … Read the full column at the Hollywood Reporter.


We all know by now that House Speaker Paul Ryan is a spineless weasel. He is clearly uncomfortable with the idea of a President Trump, and yet he endorsed the great orange one anyway, and no matter how outrageously offensive Trump becomes, no matter how many times Ryan has to distance himself from Trump s remarks, he still says he s a Donald Trump supporter. Well, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson is now calling Ryan out for making such a grave mistake, and wants him to un-endorse Donald Trump.Johnson sat down with CNN to express his views on Ryan s Trump endorsement, and he had nothing good to say about where the House Speaker is right now. Johnson said: I think Paul Ryan has an opportunity here to say, Look, I made a mistake. I m not saying that results in an endorsement of me, but come on, the statements that he s making he s made 100 statements that would disqualify any other presidential candidate from running and yet all you have to do is turn the page and tomorrow it will be 102. Host Erin Burneet pointed out that 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney had once floated the idea of supporting a Libertarian ticket, but had reservations about Johnson s policies, particularly his support of legal marijuana nationwide. Romney said that weed makes people stupid. Johnson disagreed, and admitted to taking a toke or two himself, and said: I do not agree with that. As someone who has used marijuana, I do not agree with that. What Gary Johnson doesn t seem to understand, though, is that Paul Ryan is not Mitt Romney. Paul Ryan is a dyed in the wool, loyal die hard GOPer till death do him and that wreck of a party part even if it means propping Trump up and letting him burn the world down.Give it up, Gary. As much as I agree with you, I think you need to realize that Paul Ryan will never, ever disavow his annointed nominee.Watch the clip below, via The Hill:


Italy s lower house of parliament on Thursday approved a new electoral law for use in the next national election, due by May 2018. The bill now passes to the upper house for further debate. Here are the main points of the bill. Italy gives Latin names to its electoral laws. This new proposal is called the Rosatellum, named after Ettore Rosato, the parliamentary party leader of the ruling Democratic Party (PD) who helped draft the legislation. The bill envisages that some 36 percent of parliamentarians in both the upper and lower houses will be elected on a first-past-the-post basis, with the rest chosen by pure proportional representation via party lists. Parties can stand alone or as part of broader coalitions. Single parties need to win at least 3 percent of the vote to gain seats, while coalitions need to take 10 percent. Unlike the previous Italian electoral law, the Rosatellum does not give an automatic majority to any party or group that wins more than 40 percent of the vote. With opinion polls split three ways between the center-right, the center-left and the maverick 5-Star Movement, there is unlikely to be a clearcut winner in the next election. Voters get two voting slips one for the Senate and one for the lower house. They can only put one cross on each slip, with that vote counted for both the first-past-the-post and PR segments. Under previous electoral systems, voters were able to split their vote between individual candidates and the parties. Candidates can put their name down for the first-past-the-post ballot in one constituency, and also be on five PR lists in locations of their choosing. There will be two to four names on each party PR list. The party leaders will have a major say in whose names go on the lists. In the lower house, 232 seats will be reserved for first-past-the-post winners, 386 will be reserved for the PR lists, and 12 will be reserved for overseas constituencies. In the Senate, 102 seats will go to first-past-the-post winners, 207 will go to the PR lists, and 6 will be for the overseas vote. No more than 60 percent of the candidates on any of the lists can be of the same sex.


Sweeping tax code changes aimed at keeping U.S. companies from shifting profits offshore to avoid taxes will not affect the battered economy of Puerto Rico, a senior White House official said on Wednesday. Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello has said the provisions in a new tax bill passed by Congress could prompt drug and medical device manufacturers to leave the island territory, which is considered a foreign jurisdiction for tax purposes. "I personally do not think that this is going to hurt Puerto Rico," the White House official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The tax base erosion provisions in the bill provide exemptions for the cost of goods U.S. companies buy offshore, meaning supplies made in Puerto Rico would not be affected, the White House official said. The manufacturing plants are an economic lifeline for 3.4 million Americans in the territory, where the economy never recovered after Congress in 2006 ended a different set of longstanding business tax breaks. Puerto Rico has $120 billion of combined bond and pension debt and near-insolvent public health systems, and filed the largest-ever U.S. government bankruptcy this year. Three months ago, Hurricane Maria slammed into the island, tearing up homes and the power grid and bringing its economy to a halt. Congress is considering an $81 billion disaster aid bill - some of which is aimed at Puerto Rico - as part of a must-pass government funding bill.


Turkish authorities have issued detention warrants for 216 people, including former finance ministry personnel, suspected of having links to last year s failed coup attempt, the state-run Anadolu news agency said on Wednesday. It said 17 former finance ministry personnel had been detained so far and another 65 were sought over alleged links to Gulen s network, Anadolu said. Separately, authorities carried out operations across 40 provinces targeting private imams believed to be recruiting members to the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen from Turkey s armed forces. Ankara blames Gulen for orchestrating the July 15 coup attempt last year and has repeatedly demanded the United States extradite him, so far in vain. Gulen denies involvement. In the aftermath of the coup, more than 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial and some 150,000 have been sacked or suspended from their jobs in the military, public and private sector. The extent of the purges has unnerved rights groups and Turkey s Western allies, who fear President Tayyip Erdogan is using the abortive putsch as a pretext to stifle dissent. The government, however, says the measures are necessary due to the gravity of the threats it is facing following the military coup attempt, in which 240 people were killed.


Donald Trump's comment on Tuesday calling for the government to cancel the purchase of Boeing's new Air Force One plane reflect the U.S. president-elect's focus on keeping costs down, his transition team told reporters. Speaking in a conference call with reporters, Trump's aides said the team was focused trying to save taxpayers' money and that there would be more specific details about such efforts after Trump takes office on Jan. 20.


The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Tillerson was leading the field after former Mayor Rudy Giuliani took his name out of the running for the job. New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman reported that Tillerson was expected to meet with Trump today.- BreitbartThe 64-year-old veteran oil executive has no government or diplomatic experience, although he has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The pick would put to rest weeks-long speculation of who would earn the post as the U.S. s top diplomat, and would place Tillerson fourth in line to the presidency.He will also be paired with former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton as his deputy secretary of state, one of the sources added, with Bolton handling day-to-day management of the department. NBCTillerson is a surprising choice, particularly for establishment political forces who urged Trump to select Mitt Romney for the job. Romney signaled interest in the position, appearing publicly to recant his opposition to the president-elect s victory.It also shows that Trump will start fresh with his diplomatic team, rather than selecting a life-long politician. Tillerson has spent his life in the private sector, working with Exxon-Mobil and has business relationships around the world.Trump took a break from his deliberations over who to pick for the secretary of state job and other positions by attending the Army-Navy football game in Baltimore.He was joined by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who withdrew from consideration as secretary of state on Friday.


The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to uphold a federal rule for electricity markets that encouraged grid operators to pay large users to reduce consumption at peak times is good news for consumers and clean energy, the White House said on Monday. "This decision allows us to continue realizing billions in annual savings from innovative incentives and business models that ensure we use our electricity system efficiently as we integrate more energy efficiency and renewable energy onto the power grid," White House spokesman Frank Benenati said in a statement.


California Governor Jerry Brown warned on Thursday of near-apocalyptic water shortages if his $15 billion plan to divert water from a Northern California river for use elsewhere gets bogged down in political and environmental disputes. The plan to remove water north of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the fragile source of much of the state's drinking water, is opposed by many environmentalists, but Brown insisted it was crucial in shoring up water supplies in the drought-plagued state. "If we don't have the project, the delta will fail, water will not be available and California will suffer devastating economic consequences," Brown, a Democrat, told a meeting of water regulators and utility executives in Sacramento to discuss the state's progress in stabilizing its water system. The plan calls for digging a pair of tunnels under the delta. They would carry water from the Sacramento River to the state's agricultural breadbasket as well as cities in the central and southern parts of America's most populous state. The governor's proposal, which must go through an environmental review and permitting process, has reignited California's century-old water wars, sparked when Los Angeles siphoned water from the Owens Valley north of the city to slake the thirst of the growing Southern California metropolis. Opponents have said the plan will imperil salmon, trout and the endangered delta smelt, damage the delta's role as a center for water recreation and sport fishing, and could ultimately reduce the availability of drinking water for Northern California cities. Brown, who has backing from labor, utilities, moderate Democrats and many Republicans, has said the project will protect the delta while ensuring an adequate water supply. But opponents said the project would harm the ecosystem. "How will the delta ever recover if freshwaters are never allowed to flow through it, even in rainy seasons," said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, director of the Restore the Delta group. Backers estimate construction would take at least 10 years after the necessary approvals are received, barring lawsuits and other actions to try to slow the project.


Blood donations are urgently needed in the Orlando, Florida area following Saturday night s massacre. So far, 50 people have died in the massacre and at least 53 are hospitalized due to injuries. The shooting took place at Pulse, an LGBT nightclub.The current crisis reveals the incredibly homophobic rules put in place by the FDA regarding blood donations. The FDA s current rules stipulate that any man who has had sex with another man cannot donate blood until they have been celibate for one year. This bars nearly all gay and bisexual men from being able to donate blood.According to reports, One Blood, a blood donation center in Orlando, has temporarily lifted the ban on blood for their organization, allowing men who have had homosexual intercourse donate to their organization. One Blood reports that their blood donation center is currently at capacity. However, they will still need high numbers of donations over the next few days in order to keep replenishing their stock. A tremendous response by blood donors in light of the tragic mass shooting in Orlando. We are asking donors to donate over the next several days to help replenish the blood supply. We are asking people please make an appointment online or call 1.888.9.DONATE (1.888.936.6283). Thank you! As our nation collectively mourns the massive loss of life in Florida, it is a good time for us to look at the institutionalized homophobia that helps to create a culture that determines that LGBT lives and bodies are lesser than that of heteronormative individuals. Right now, the blood of gay and bisexual men, as well as so many others, stains the interior of the Pulse nightclub. Orlando s Mayor Buddy Dyer, described the scene by saying: There s blood everywhere. As far as the FDA is concerned, the blood of those who died on Saturday had no value to living.Blood is thoroughly screened by blood donation organizations no matter who donates to them. There is no need for this discriminatory policy. Nothing should prevent a healthy person from being able to give the gift of saving a life. The horror that occurred on Saturday night proved that gay, bisexual, straight, man, women, black, or white we all bleed and that all life is precious.Featured image from Photo by Tim Matsui/Getty Images


Anatomy lesson Published: 12 mins ago  Editor's note: Do you need something to smile about? Every day, WND selects the best joke offered up by readers and contributors to its Laughlines forum and brings it to you as the WND Joke of the Day. Here is today's offering:  A pediatrician in town always plays a game with some of his young patients to put them at ease and test their knowledge of body parts.  One day, while pointing to a little boy's ear, the doctor asked him, "Is this your nose?"  The little boy turned to his mother and said, "Mom, I think we'd better find a new doctor!"