U.S. President Barack Obama surprised Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday by awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction in an emotional White House ceremony that celebrated their partnership over eight years in office. "This is an extraordinary man," Obama said of his friend and running mate at a surprise ceremony with staff, family and friends of the vice president. "For the past eight years, he could not have been a more devoted or effective partner in the progress that we've made." Biden, who was unaware that the ceremony would take place, became visibly moved when Obama said he would bestow on him the highest civil honor in the United States. It will be the last such award that Obama gives before he and Biden leave office on Jan. 20. "I had no inkling," Biden, 74, said after receiving the medal. "I get a lot of credit I don't deserve," he said, proceeding to give a roughly 20-minute impromptu speech thanking Obama and honoring the extended Biden family. Biden and Obama became close friends during their time in the White House. Biden was a U.S. senator from Delaware when Obama chose him to be his running mate in his 2008 presidential campaign. The vice president told an anecdote about Obama offering to help the Bidens financially during Biden's son Beau's illness. Beau Biden died of brain cancer at age 46 in 2015. First lady Michelle Obama and the Obamas' daughters, Malia and Sasha, also attended the ceremony.


Approval for Brazilian President Michel Temer s government has plummeted, according to a poll published on Tuesday, as the scandal-plagued leader faces new corruption charges and struggles to push his economic reform agenda through Congress. Polling firm MDA said that 3.4 percent of those surveyed thought the Temer government was doing a great or good job - down from 10.3 percent in MDA s last such poll in February. Temer took over a year ago from impeached leftist Dilma Rousseff and has said he does not care about popularity and only wants to push through an austerity package before his term ends in Jan. 2019. Yet his ability to do so has been hamstrung by charges of taking bribes, racketeering and obstruction of justice. The charges against Temer are based on the plea-bargain testimony of the owners of the world s largest meatpacker, JBS SA. They accuse Temer of taking bribes in return for political favors and of conspiring to buy the silence of a witness who could implicate the leader. Temer has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. The MDA poll was commissioned by the national transport lobby CNT and surveyed 2,002 people across Brazil from Sept. 13-16. The poll has a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.


Included among the many uplifting economic numbers released by the Census Bureau on Tuesday was a remarkable one about health insurance in the United States: Only 9. 1 percent of Americans do not have coverage, the lowest level ever recorded by the agency. That figure is down from 13. 3 percent in 2013, before the major provisions of the health care law signed by President Obama went into effect. Another government study, released last week, looked at the first part of 2016 and found that the uninsured rate had fallen even further, to 8. 6 percent. So does that mean the Affordable Care Act is solving the puzzle of getting people covered, a major goal of the law? It certainly looks that way. About 18 million more people have coverage now than did in 2013. But the new numbers also highlight where the law is not working well — and how difficult it will be to drop the uninsured rate much lower. Many states have continued to resist the Obama administration's entreaties to expand their Medicaid coverage, leaving millions of poor Americans with no affordable health insurance options. And the marketplaces created under the law, in which people without insurance can buy policies, are struggling in states across the country. Some insurers are dropping out, and others are sharply raising prices. In New York City, for example, rates for a benchmark plan could go up by an average of 16 percent, according to one analysis. If the marketplaces do not stabilize, the drop in the uninsured rate could stall or even reverse. Adding to the uncertainty is the hazy future of the health care law. Donald J. Trump and Republicans in Congress have vowed to repeal it if they get the chance. And even if the Democrats are in control, there is an array of competing proposals on how to adjust the law. "The way I would frame it is, this isn't just about whether the Affordable Care Act works," said Dr. Benjamin D. Sommers, an assistant professor at Harvard's School of Public Health and former researcher for the Health and Human Services Department, who has analyzed the remaining uninsured population. "It's also about whether the effort to expand coverage has gone far enough. " The Affordable Care Act was not intended to cover everyone, the way that systems in many other countries do. Undocumented immigrants, for example, are largely shut out of the health insurance system. And because the system requires people to actively sign up for insurance and often pay a premium, there will always be some Americans too independent — or isolated — to seek insurance. But the law was certainly written to get insurance to far more people. The Medicaid expansion, for example, is meant to expand coverage to all Americans earning below a set income threshold — about $16, 000 for a single person. Adoption of the program has been substantial. But the Supreme Court dealt a major blow to that plan in 2012. The court determined that states could decide whether to expand, and 19 have still declined to do so. Those decisions leave more than three million people who are in poverty uninsured and without good options for obtaining health insurance. The law was written to give poor people coverage through Medicaid, not the private marketplace, so it does not provide financial assistance for buying coverage. The census report highlighted an increasing gap in the uninsured rates between states that expanded their programs and states that did not. There is another large group of Americans — about nine million, according to recent calculations from the Urban Institute — who are eligible for Medicaid or the related Children's Health Insurance Program but have not signed up. The online marketplaces, which play a critical role under the law in reducing the number of people without coverage, also remain volatile. Fewer people than expected have signed up for plans through the marketplaces, and the enticements are not improving. Prices are set to rise substantially next year. And in many places, people who enroll will have fewer insurers to choose from. Millions of people qualify for subsidies to buy into the plans. But many people who qualify for small subsidies have still found the plans to be unaffordable or a poor value. And people who make more and do not qualify for much or any government aid — especially those who are healthy — have been less likely to enroll. That has kept the mix of people in the pool sicker — and more expensive to insure — than expected. "These gains in coverage don't negate the need to make the insurance marketplaces sustainable," Larry Levitt, an executive with the Kaiser Family Foundation, which closely tracks the insurance market, said in an email. "In fact, coverage needs to grow more, with additional healthy people signing up, to stabilize the individual insurance market. " Insurers say it is imperative that the people who sign up are not just the sickest people. "We need to encourage younger and healthier people to enroll," said Alissa Fox, a senior executive at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, a trade group. Before the Affordable Care Act, most Americans got insurance from their jobs, and that continues to be true. According to the Census Bureau, employer coverage has held steady since 2013. Many critics of the health law had predicted it would result in a huge in employer coverage. That has not happened. In fact, the persistent strength of employer coverage has been one of the reasons enrollment in the state marketplaces has not been higher. On Wednesday, the Kaiser Family Foundation released its annual survey of employer health benefits. It found that the market remained stable, with no appreciable decline in the share of companies offering their employees coverage. While employees are typically paying a greater share of their medical bills, the cost of coverage went up modestly this year. The future trajectory of the uninsured numbers depends largely on the results of the next election. Though the health care law may have come to bear President Obama's name, as Obamacare, its future will be shaped by the president who replaces him — and by the next Congress. Hillary Clinton has proposed an array of policies to expand outreach to the uninsured and increase financial assistance to Americans buying health insurance, policies designed to bring more people into the health law's programs. She has also proposed introducing public insurance programs for more Americans, including a Medicare for people. Mr. Trump, in contrast, has said he would repeal the health law and move to a more system for health insurance sales, a proposal that is expected to result in a substantial increase in the number of Americans without health coverage. Republicans in the House have put out their own health proposal, also built on a total repeal of the president's health law. "The stakes are huge," said Linda J. Blumberg, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, who has suggested a series of policy changes to help expand coverage under the law. "You couldn't be further apart in terms of the perspectives on what is needed here. "


White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon and his economic nationalism remain at the forefront of the Trump administration's policy agenda despite a media narrative predicting Bannon's immediate doom, former Trump campaign advisor Robert Wasinger writes. [From the Hill: The reports of Steve Bannon's demise have been greatly . The media has pilloried Steve Bannon to the point of utter exhaustion, both ours and theirs apparently. After a solid month of insisting that Bannon and his brand of economic nationalism were on the way out of the White House, he remains in place, and the president continues to emphasize the themes that won him the election in November — much to the consternation of the Washington set whose reputation depends upon the presumption that they have an inside line to the inner workings of power in the nation's capital. The mainstream media spin on Bannon's loss of influence and relevance has been achieved primarily by glossing over inconsistencies in their own narrative about his role and influence in the White House, and, more insidiously, by introducing into their narrative a total caricature of the "America First" themes whose political resonance they have so badly underestimated. For the rest of the article, click here.


Monday 21 November 2016 by Davywavy and H Short-sighted pervert disappointed not to see a film called 'Fantastic Breasts and Where to Find Them'  A solitary cinema-goer was today loudly demanding a refund of £18 from the Odeon Leicester Square, 'plus the money for the 3D glasses'.  Myopic raincoat wearer and aggrieved onanist Simon Williams, 47, told the Thump, "I've always had a keen interest in the, hem, hem, beauties of nature."  "From the pert cups of budding maidenhood to the more rrrrounded and queenly figure," he added, breathing rapidly and mopping sweat off his face.  In answer to our next question, Mr Williams confirmed that he had never had a girlfriend, but didn't think this had been an impediment.  "Au contraire," he confided, with what we assume was a roguish snort.  "Sadly," Williams went on, "over the years, my hobby has led to a deterioration in my eyesight, as my old scoutmaster once warned me would happen.  "And this has led to me making a perfectly natural and disappointing mistake in the title of a film, for which I hold the Odeon cinema chain entirely culpable."  Ordering a couple of bouncers to throw Williams roughly out into the street, the Odeon manager emphasised that he would not be welcome back in the cinema "now or at any future time."  "And I've warned the Vue and the Empire to keep an eye open for him as well," he added. Get the best NewsThump stories in your mailbox every Friday, for FREE! There are currently witterings below - why not add your own?


British Prime Minister Theresa May disagrees with the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel because it is unlikely to help efforts to bring peace to the region, her spokesman said on Wednesday. Jerusalem should ultimately be shared between Israel and a future Palestinian state, the spokesman said. We disagree with the U.S. decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem and recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital before a final status agreement, the spokesman said. We believe it is unhelpful in terms of prospects for peace in the region. President Donald Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy on Wednesday and recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, despite warnings from around the world that the gesture further drives a wedge between Israel and the Palestinians. Trump sparked outrage in Britain last week after he issued a sharp rebuke of May on Twitter after she criticized him for retweeting British far-right anti-Islam videos. May s spokesman welcomed Trump s desire to end the conflict and his acknowledgement that the final status of Jerusalem, including boundaries within the city, must be subject to negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. We encourage the US Administration to now bring forward detailed proposals for an Israel-Palestinian settlement, he said.


By Nick Bernabe A small Standing Rock Sioux site in North Dakota called the Sacred Stone Camp has been propelled into the national news narrative following their stand against the Dakota Access...


Like all other presidents since George H.W. Bush President Obama has worked to build a closer relationship with Israel while still pushing them publicly to stop the development of their Jews only settlements that have all but made a 2 state solution impossible. The progressives in the Democratic party have pushed for accountability with Israel due to its horrific human rights violations against the Palestinians, which rules over them and denies them the most basic of human rights in the West Bank and Gaza. Yet, despite the billions of dollars of tax payer money we give but can t afford to give to Israel, politicians are tripping over each other to grovel to the American Israel Public Affairs committee (AIPAC), the powerful pro-Israel lobby group that can make or break a political career.That s why all the political candidates lined up to speak at the AIPAC conference yesterday (minus the only Jewish candidate Bernie Sanders) to see who can kiss Israel s a** the best; each of the Republican presidential candidates using Israel as a cudgel to hammer President Obama for not sufficiently bowing to the needs of the Israel first AIPAC conference.It was quite embarrassing to watch American leaders grovel to a group whose sole reason for being is to push the interests of a foreign country. Out of all of the pandering and ass kissing that happened at AIPAC there was one moment that brought a long ovation from the crowd. And this one moment really encapsulates the sense of entitlement for Israel.Trump s best line: with President Obama in his final year, yay! And the crowd erupts. One would think there was a Rosh Hashanah celebration with the kind of applause heard in the crowd, but alas it was a group of right wing Americans applauding President Obama being in his final year in office.Because from their vantage point President Obama is secretly trying to destroy Israel. Despite the billions of dollars sent each year, the diplomatic cover the president has provided Israel at the United Nations for its war crimes and apartheid state they hate him. Despite the years of partisanship by Prime Minister Netanyahu where he inserted himself into the 2012 Presidential election to help Mitt Romney or the multiple years of public defiance over international agreements on the Iran peace deal having brokered a deal with the Republican party to speak to Congress behind President Obama s back they blame him.AIPAC is upset because of the president s deal with Iran over its nuclear weapons and would rather see America s kids go to war on Israel s behalf than have the diplomatic solution the president was able to broker, which the great majority of US military leaders have called a good deal. They are also upset because the president has refused to raise Israel s welfare check to $5 billion a year from the current $3 billion we give them, despite the fact that we can t afford clean water in Flint, Michigan.One good word to to describe AIPAC s reaction to Trump s condemnation of the president is: ungrateful.Watch video here: With Pres. Obama in his final year yay, @realDonaldTrump says to cheers at #AIPAC2016: https://t.co/ivrbx3iG0B https://t.co/8iTFpuMZt9 CBSN (@CBSNLive) March 21, 2016


Veteran FARC leader Rodrigo Londono - known as Timochenko - will run for the presidency of Colombia next year, with the backing of former FARC rebels, the group s new political party said on Wednesday. However, he and other ex-commanders will likely face trials for human rights crimes and it is unclear how they would serve in office if sentenced. The Marxist FARC demobilized under a peace deal with the government last year, ending more than five decades of war. They are now the Revolutionary Alternative Common Force party, still referring to themselves by the Spanish initials FARC. The party is guaranteed 10 seats in Congress through 2026 by the accord, regardless of its success in elections. Among senate candidates will be former guerrilla commanders Ivan Marquez, Pablo Catatumbo, Carlos Antonio Lozada and Victoria Sandino, the FARC said on Wednesday. The party will also run candidates for the lower house in five districts. The group reiterated its willingness to forming a coalition with other leftist parties, a tacit acknowledgement it may have little electoral pull among skeptical Colombians. We manifest our willingness to hold talks with all social political groups and movements to make united lists, the FARC said in a statement. Londono, best known by his war alias Timochenko, suffered a stroke this year and has received treatment in Cuba. It remains unclear how the FARC members would complete their terms if they are tried or sentenced by transitional justice tribunals tasked with bringing former rebels to justice for crimes like murder, kidnapping and rape. The maximum sentence the tribunals can hand out is eight years and those convicted will avoid traditional jails, instead doing reparations work like removing land mines. In a Wednesday press conference, the FARC leaders did not clarify how they would serve possible sentences while holding elected positions. More than 11,000 FARC fighters and supporters handed over their weapons to the United Nations during demobilization. Another 1,000 refused to lay down their arms and continue to operate lucrative drug trafficking and illegal mining operations. The FARC has sought to distance itself from the dissidents and the government has authorized air raids against them. There is a crowded field for 2018 s presidential race, which looks set to focus more on issues like the economy and corruption than on implementation of the deal, the cornerstone of current President Juan Manuel Santos legacy. Security does however remain on the minds of many voters, especially after farmers were killed in a confrontation with police last month.


An aide to U.S. Democrat Hillary Clinton criticized Donald Trump's foreign policy as making "no sense for the rest of us" after the Republican presidential candidate said he would hold talks with North Korea's Kim Jong Un. "Let me get this straight: Donald Trump insults the leader of our closest ally, then turns around and says he'd love to talk to Kim Jong Un?" senior foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement. "I suppose that makes sense for him, since he also praised Kim Jong Un for executing his uncle and seems to have a bizarre fascination with foreign strongmen like Putin and Kim. His approach to foreign policy makes no sense for the rest of us."


Demanding reparations from Germany for its actions in Poland during World War Two is a matter of honor for Warsaw, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Polish ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, said on Saturday. The issue of reparations, revived by Poland s eurosceptic PiS after decades of improving relations with Germany, could escalate tensions between the two European Union members. In September Polish parliamentary legal experts ruled that Warsaw has the right to demand reparations from Germany, although Poland s foreign minister indicated that no immediate claim would be made. The French were paid, Jews were paid, many other nations were paid for the losses they suffered during World War Two. Poles were not, Kaczynski said. It is not only about material funds. It is about our status, our honor ... And this is not theater. This is our demand, a totally serious demand, added Kaczynski, Poland s de facto leader. The PiS government, deeply distrustful of Germany, has raised calls for wartime compensation in recent months but Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski has said further analysis was needed before any claims were lodged. Six million Poles, including three million Polish Jews, were killed during the war, and the capital Warsaw was razed to the ground in 1944 after a failed uprising in which 200,000 civilians died.


Wednesday, 26 October 2016 Was This Leg Hacked By The Russians? A London Court Will Soon Decide.  London, UK, England - You can buy anything and connect it to the internet these days; TV's and microwaves, toilets and toasters. Even the latest artificial leg comes with online capabilities and is part of our new world's Internet Of Things . Now, Mr. Evan Youngbone, is wondering if all this I.O.T. nonsense, keeping track of his every step via satellite, is all worth it, after facing a London court on 787 counts of assault on over 360 people in London's West End.  "Like I told the Police Constables piled on top of me that night, it was all the robot-leg's fault. It wasn't me!" pleaded the very sorry defendant from the witness box. "The high-tech leg I received after my car accident was hacked, probably by the Russians , causing it to go completely bonkers; kicking people all over the place! For almost an hour, I couldn't control the damn thing. It dragged me through the streets. It's like it suddenly had a mind of it's own. And it wanted to kick people really, really badly!"  "I was kicked three times in the shin, very, very hard," cried the first badly-bruised witness, Iris Lillyham (87) of Bumholeshire, near where Mr. Youngbone's kicking rampage first started. "I'll have to start using my cane again because of that man... and I hate my cane, it's very slippery when it's raining.. and I don't like the rain... because that's slippery too," added the lonely victim, who claimed that she didn't believe a word about this strange, futuristic leg being at fault; but, who also had absolutely no idea how to turn on the iphone her son had bought her for emergencies. "He had a big grind on his face!" claimed Mrs. Lillyham, regarding the attacker. "I believe he was loving every second of it!"  Mr. Youngbone's appointed lawyer is arguing that it's clearly Corninghamshire Hospital's fault, and the doctor's who first attached his client's fake leg, claiming that they never bothered to change the default password of: 1111, which comes standard with each artificial leg, (which are also suspiciously made near the Crimea River in the former Ukraine.) "This poor man was a sitting pigeon for the Russians," charged the lawyer to the courtroom, "He never even stood a chance!"  Mr. Youngbone then got up and hopped back to his lawyer's side, not wanting anything to do with his new high-tech appendage. "I'm getting fitted for a nice old-fashion wooden one, thank you very much," The defendant told reporters during a recess. He also plans on going thrift-store shopping for a new toaster and vacuum cleaner this weekend, too. That is, if he's not getting ass-raped in prison.  "I'm afraid I wouldn't get on very well in there-" said the worried kicker on the subject of jail, not thrift-stores. "Look at me, I'm very easy to catch and pin down. If I drop the soap, I'm bloody knackered, aren't I, mate. But thrift-shopping I'm very handy at, if I don't say so myself. Quite a bargainer, I am. I bet they'll knock a few quid off an old hoover, for a man with a used wooden leg!" Make Paul Blake's


NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — President Trump on Thursday used the country's most advanced, aircraft carrier as the backdrop for his push to rebuild America's armed forces with a $54 billion increase in military spending. Speaking in the hangar bay of the Gerald R. Ford, which this year will become the nation's largest and most powerful warship, Mr. Trump said the Navy — and other military services — must grow and modernize. "We will make it easier for the Navy to plan for the future and thus to control costs and get the best deals for the taxpayer," the president said. "The same boat for less money, the same ship for less money, the same airplanes for less money. " Ever the showman, Mr. Trump arrived on the carrier in dramatic style, landing on the flight deck aboard his helicopter, Marine One. He emerged with a sharp salute and wearing his trademark red Make America Great Again baseball cap. One deck below, watching on large screens, hundreds of sailors and others let up a huge cheer for the commander in chief. After touring the ship, the president was lowered to the hangar bay on the massive elevator that carries fighter jets between the decks. To the sounds of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U. S. A. ," Mr. Trump strode into the crowd — wearing a Gerald R. Ford baseball cap. Mr. Trump marveled at the ship's size, calling it "4. 5 acres of combat power and sovereign U. S. territory, the likes of which there is nothing to compete. " "It is a monument to American might that will provide the strength necessary to ensure peace," he said. The Ford is the first of a new, more technologically advanced class of aircraft carrier, and cost about $13 billion to build after cost overruns and years of delay. But Mr. Trump did not mention those challenges, saying instead that he supports expanding to a Navy, from the current 10. He said ships like the Ford will allow him and future presidents to project American power in distant lands. "Hopefully it's power we don't have to use. But if we do, they are in big, big trouble," he said to cheers from the sailors. Mr. Trump asserted, as he did during the presidential campaign, that the Navy is now the smallest it has been since World War I. The Navy swelled from 245 ships in 1916 to a peak of over 6, 000 during World War II, downsizing between conflicts and bulking up during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. From the 1970s, the Navy gradually began to shrink to a total battle force of 275 ships as of September 2016. But that fleet includes 10 aircraft carriers, 22 cruisers, 63 destroyers, 11 amphibious assault ships and 68 submarines, 14 of which are armed with nuclear warheads. These are far more powerful than the fleets of World War II. So comparing the navies of the past and today is "like comparing the telegraph to the smartphone they're just not comparable," Ray Mabus, the secretary of the Navy under President Barack Obama, said in 2012. Lawmakers in both parties have already expressed deep skepticism about Mr. Trump's military spending proposal, in part because of its potential to increase the nation's deficit and in part because of the administration's assertion that it would deeply slash nonmilitary spending to compensate. But the president's desire to expand the military was a core promise during his campaign for the White House. American politicians often seek to associate themselves with the country's enormous, gleaming war machines. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, announced his choice of Speaker Paul D. Ryan as his running mate on the retired battleship Wisconsin. But sometimes the moment goes awry. In 2003, President George W. Bush stood on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln to declare that the military phase of the Iraq war was over. He spoke in front of a banner that proclaimed "Mission Accomplished. " The war continued for years. Aides to Mr. Trump are hoping that the images of the president on the Ford are more positive.


While in Warsaw, Poland, Obama commented on the Dallas shooting proving he s totally divorced from reality. He states that it s hard to untangle the motives of the shooter Huh? First of all, I think it s very hard to untangle the motives of this shooter. I ll leave that to psychologists and people who study these kinds of incidents I think the danger is that we somehow suggest the act of a troubled individuals speaks to some larger political statement across the country. Perhaps he should listen to the video of the Dallas Police Chief (video below) stating directly that the suspect wanted to kill white people and cops. Crazy! President Obama on #Dallas: It's hard to "untangle the motives of the shooter" https://t.co/7dClE5Mjr6 https://t.co/YzdDnT3nDf CNN (@CNN) July 9, 2016 DALLAS POLICE CHIEF S STATEMENT:


Kansas sought on Wednesday to avoid a court ruling that could force the cash-strapped state to increase school funding by more than $1 billion. Lawyers for the state and for public school districts faced off before the Kansas Supreme Court in the latest chapter of a decades-long battle over equitable and adequate funding. Stephen McAllister, the state's solicitor general, argued that while Kansas may be spending less on education than some other states, student achievement is improving. "Kansas is making excellent use of resources to do pretty well compared to the nation," he told the justices. The state spends about $4 billion on schools, but lawyers for the four districts suing the state claim another $430 million to $1.4 billion would be required to meet the state constitution's requirement for adequate funding. "We're falling short and we're leaving massive numbers of kids behind," said Alan Rupe, an attorney for the districts. He asked the court to declare the system unconstitutional and give the state legislature some direction on achieving constitutionality and a full legislative session to come up with a new system. The justices did not indicate when they might rule. The adequacy question comes after the court ruled in June that Kansas had complied with its order to resolve inequities in educating students. Kansas' budget is feeling the effects of actions taken by Republican Governor Sam Brownback and the legislature in recent years to cut corporate and other income taxes in hopes of helping the state compete with bordering Missouri and other states for business development and jobs. The state's fiscal woes led Standard & Poor's to downgrade Kansas' credit rating by one notch to AA-minus in July.


Christians are one of the main targets of the Islamic State as they cut a murderous swath through Syria and Iraq. And yet, Christians constitute only 0.5% of the Syrian refugees whom the Obama administration has admitted into the United States.  On October 21, 2016, in his concurrent opinion in the case of Heartland Alliance National Immigrant Justice Center v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security , Judge Daniel Manion , a federal appellate court judge for the U.S. Seventh Circuit, issued a sharp rejoinder to the Obama administration over the almost complete lack of Syrian Christian refugees being admitted to the U.S. Note: Heartland Alliance National Immigrant Justice Center is a "progressive" liberal advocacy organization. The Heartland Alliance v. DHS case has nothing to do with Christian refugees, but pertains to Heartland Alliance's FOIA request to the DHS for information on Tier III terrorist organizations.  While concurring in the 7th Circuit Court's ruling, Judge Daniel Manion explains why he's writing separately. On pages 7-8 of U.S. Court of Appeal for the Seventh Circuit No. 16-1840 Heartland Alliance National Immigrant Justice Center v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security , Judge Manion writes: "I write separately for a second, critical reason, which is my concern about the apparent lack of Syrian Christians as a part of immigrants from that country . It is possible that our case bears a direct link to this enigma. It is well‐documented that refugees to the United States are not representative of that war‐torn area of the world. Perhaps 10 percent of the population of Syria is Christian, and yet less than one‐half of one percent of Syrian refugees admitted to the United States this year are Christian. ¹ Recognizing the crisis in Syria, the President in 2015 set a goal of resettling 10,000 refugees in the United States. And in August the government reached this laudable goal. And yet, of the nearly 11,000 refugees admitted by mid‐September, only 56 were Christian. To date, there has not been a good explanation for this perplexing discrepancy."  Judge Manion also noted that while the Obama administration is bringing Syrian refugees into the country by the thousands, it is concealing basic information about those refugees behind a wall of government secrecy, including whether terrorists are among the refugees. The administration refuses to tell the American public or the states how it is making its decisions on who are accepted for resettlement in the U.S., or even what steps it is taking to ensure there are no terrorists among the refugees. Nor is Congress exercising its oversight functions.  As Manion writes in his concurrent opinion: "The good people of this country routinely welcome immigrants from all over the world. But in a democracy, good data is critical to public debate about national immigration policy. When we demand high evidentiary burdens for states seeking to keep their citizens safe, and then prevent the states from that evidence, we create a Catch-22.² […] And yet, Congress, through the exemptions to FOIA, has consciously made the decision to limit what governmental information is available to the public. If Congress is concerned about how immigration officers are making their decisions related to the designation and application of the Tier III terrorist organization affiliation, Congress has the authority to act. Congress has its own oversight capabilities and subpoena power, and Congress could choose to amend our nation's sunshine laws or our immigration laws. Until that time, however, many of us remain in the dark as a humanitarian catastrophe continues."  Daniel Manion , 74, is a senior jurist on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit whose chambers are located in South Bend, Indiana. He was an Indiana state senator (R) from 1978-82. In 1986, Manion was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to the 7th Circuit Court.


After protests erupted in Chicago that led to the cancellation of a Donald Trump rally at the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavilion, the controversial Republican candidate has filed a lawsuit against the city for prohibiting his First Amendment right to free speech.  My free speech right was infringed last Friday in Chicago and thats what it will say in the lawsuit, Trump told reporters. Well be asking for a monetary settlement and for those protestors to be prosecuted. It was very, very wrong of them. I do not condone violence. Im very against violence, especially at my campaign events. Trumps attorneys drew extensive papers on the lawsuit and are filled on Monday. A Chicago judge will review them by next week. Chicago violated my First Amendment right and they arent going to get away with it. Just like China wont get away with stealing our jobs and manipulating their currency. The campaign thinks a conspiracy might be involved with the anti-trump protesters. When the cops saw a bunch of black people entering my rally, they knew they shouldnt be there but let them in anyway. I mean, what the Hell is that? Trump then went after Chicagos Mayor Rahm Emanuel. I know Rahm thinks hes a tough guy, but hell be a mouse looking for his mom by the time I get done with him. He makes Little Rubio look like a giant. A New Yorker will beat a Chicagoan every time. Believe me, he is going to regret not having his city under control. He was terrible as Obamas Chief of Staff and hes been a terrible Mayor. Look at the gang problem and the cities credit rating. Im happy Nabisco closed that Chicago factory and moved it to Mexico. I was against it before, but after tonight, Im totally for it. The Mayor  Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel1 called the lawsuit frivolous and ridiculous. You cant have a presidential candidate going around suing cities because the local people dont like the guy, Emanuel told the Chicago Tribune. The city is in massive debt and the last thing we need is to be tied up in court for years to come cause we know Trump loves to sue people. Legal fees arent cheap. Trump claimed the Chicago Police Department told him to call off the event but they responded by saying it was Trumps campaign that called off the event and the Chicago Police did not infringe on his free speech right. If Trump thinks he can bully the City of Chicago, hes got another thing coming.


You begin describing small aliens…  "They were small."  "Ah man," says the cabbie. "Just some little small aliens, huh?"  He seems disappointed. Wait, I changed my mind. They were big.  You begin describing the big aliens…  "They were big."  "Wow! Big aliens," says the cabbie. "Now we're talking. I never heard of anything like that. What were the big aliens like? Did they have legs?" They had skin like leather.  You don't tell the cabbie about aliens.  "That's okay," he says as he drives on. "Aliens! Gee. Makes sense, I guess. I never heard of nothing like aliens." Pass the rest of the ride in silence. Come to think of it, I did see some aliens tonight. And they were big.  "Ah, that's too bad," says the cabbie. "Like I said, I never heard of anything like aliens before, but I was getting ready to believe you, especially if they had big, nice legs. Ones like you just described, though? Thanks but no thanks." Pass the rest of the ride in silence. Come to think of it, the aliens I saw did have big, nice legs. Five of them!  The cabbie nods excitedly. …and these hollow black eyes. …and that's it.  The cabbie is rapt with awe. …with fearsome ivory fangs.  The cabbie signals you to keep going. …and five big, nice legs. …and that's it.  "Ah, the legs! I can picture it perfectly," says the cabbie. "Aliens! I never heard of nothing like that before, but I can practically see those legs kicking, so nice and so big!"  The cab begins to swerve as the cabbie becomes more excited about how big the aliens' legs were and is no longer paying any attention to the road. I'm telling the truth! The legs were big! Wait, I just remembered! The legs were small!  "Yes, those big alien legs!" the cabbie shrieks as he completely loses control of the vehicle, which goes careering up a nearby volcano. His last words as the taxi plummets over the verge and into molten lava are, "I believe you!"  Someone believed that you were abducted by aliens, but at what cost? At the cost of dying in a volcano. Start Over  "Here we are! Sister's apartment!" says the cabbie. Great. How much do I owe you? Leave without paying.  "This one's on the house!" says the cabbie. Thanks!  You're outside your sister's apartment complex, which is where your sister makes $1,111 per day working from home.  You super trust and super admire your sister. She is a master of logic and facts, and you know she'll have a high bar for believing your story. You'll need to remember a lot of good detail if you hope to convince her, and you'll need to hurry, since your memory is already feeling a little fuzzy… Text your sister about the fact that you are outside and have seen aliens. Send your sister nine emails about the fact that you are outside and have seen aliens. Text your sister the "alien" emoji, the "abduction" emoji, and the "outside apartment" emoji.  Your sister answers the door immediately. She invites you to sit down on the couch and hands you a microphone with the local news channel's logo cube on it and asks you to tell her what happened. I was abducted by aliens, and I am going to tell you all about it. Stand back, my sibling. I am going to convince you that I was abducted by aliens.  "Aliens, eh?" your sister asks. "Abducted by?" Yes, my sister, they stole me from the atmosphere, and now I'm back. Precisely. Now listen up, my sibling. Here comes the tale.  "Go ahead then," says your sister. "Tell me a story about how aliens stole you from the atmosphere." It began like any other night… It began right away with aliens… It began right after the aliens had left me in the forest and disappeared…  You begin your story…  "The alien light dissipated. I was alone in the forest at night.  I decided to hail a cab, so I stuck out my arm in the universal sign for 'taxi.' Immediately, a cab burst from the forest.  'Where you headed?' the cab driver asked." I got in and told him to go to my sister's house. The cabbie got out of the cab.  "It was then I remember the cabbie got out of his cab." Then he got back in the cab. And that's all I remember.  "So," says your sister. "If I have your story right, you hailed a cab in the forest, and at some point the driver got out of the vehicle, and that's all you remember." Exactly. There's more to the story. Let me start over.  "The next thing I knew, he was back in the cab.  'Where you headed?' he asked me again." I told him to go to my sister's house. He got out of the cab again.  "I believe you about the driver getting out of the car, but I don't think you saw any aliens," says your sister. "I'm sorry, but that's just how I feel."  Your sister doesn't believe that you were abducted by aliens. You have failed. Start Over  "The cabbie floored it, and pretty soon we were driving through the city on the way to my sister's house, which is where you live." We arrived, and I thanked the cabbie for his service.  "When we arrived, I got out of the cab. The cabbie and I pointed at each other and waved goodbye in silence for three minutes." And that's the end of my story.  "Well, it certainly sounds like you took a taxi from the forest to my apartment, but I'm sorry to say I'm not convinced that you saw any aliens," says your sister. "Is that really the whole story?" Yes, that's it. There was more.  "Then I don't believe you saw any aliens."  Ouch. You really bungled the story about how you were abducted by aliens. You are a miserable bard of the supernatural, and your sister didn't believe you at all. You have failed. Start Over  Your sister settles in as you begin your alien testimony…  "It began like any other night. I thought it was Guy Fawkes Night, so I was in the forest setting off fireworks by myself." I would light the firework, run back to safety, look up, and…  " Boom! Good riddance, Sir Fawkes!" It was so much fun, I decided to light another firework. I wasn't having fun, but I decided to light another firework.  "I lit the firework, stepped back, and looked up. I expected to see a sparkling skyrocket. What I saw was…" A sparkling skyrocket, just as I had expected. A strange light in the sky.  "Yes, it was a skyrocket. My expectation was on the money.  I prepared to launch another firework into the sky. I loaded it up, sprinted back to safety, and looked to the sky again, this time expecting to see the gorgeous blue and purple firework known as the Butcher's Delight…" And the Butcher's Delight it was. And that's when it happened.  "I was right again. In the clear sky above me, I saw the firework called the Butcher's Delight.  I set up the last firework, drew a match, and lit the fuse. It was a quick fuse, so the firework had already launched by the time I turned around and looked up, thinking I would see the unmistakeable multicolored burst of the Salute to James Buchanan firework. But is that what I saw, looking to the skies?" Yes, it was. It was not, for that was when it happened.  "Yes, my sibling. The Salute to James Buchanan firework exploded as planned.  I applauded at the fireworks finale, congratulating myself on another successful night of fireworks even as I realized that I had bungled the Guy Fawkes date again." Then I went home. Then I came right to you.  "Thank you," says your sister. "That was a very nice story about how you set off fireworks in the woods by yourself. And did you see any aliens while you were at it?" Yes. No.  "Well, I don't believe you. You only told me about fireworks. I was expecting to hear more about aliens."  You have not convinced your sister that you saw aliens. Wait, I didn't tell it right. Start Over  "Okay," says your sister. "It's too bad nothing happened with aliens."  You have not convinced her that you were abducted by aliens. Wait, I didn't tell it right. Start Over  "A strange light appeared in the sky." I ran, but the strange light followed me. I couldn't escape it. There was a sudden burst of futuristic light.  "Science enveloped me." The light only got more futuristic. Then all of a sudden, I was standing on the UFO deck.  "When the light faded, I noticed that I was on a spaceship.  This part of the ship was clean and triangular." I noticed that the spaceship had some sort of artificial gravity. I could tell immediately that the spaceship was in space.  "Okay, I think I understand that you were on a spaceship," says your sister. "Get to the aliens, though. How about some aliens in the story? When you were on the spaceship, were there any aliens that you saw?" Yes. I don't know, but my boss from my first job was there.  "My boss from my first job was there, and he was happy to see me." My boss said that I was dreaming, and I said "Yes, that seems right." My boss said that I was dreaming, and I said, "No, that's wrong," but it later turned out that he was right.  "Hmm," says your sister. "It sounds to me like instead of encountering aliens, you had a dream about seeing your boss in space. Could that be right?" Yeah, that's definitely right. Wait, I told the story wrong. Let me start over.  You were trying to get your sister to believe that you had seen aliens, but all you managed to convince her of was that you had a dream about seeing your boss in space. You failed! Start Over  "There were aliens. A crowd of them. Huge, mighty creatures with skin like leather, hollow black eyes, and fearsome ivory fangs." The aliens were shouting at me, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. "JENCH CREV AMAMU!" the aliens shouted, but I could not understand.  "From among the aliens, a bigger alien stepped forth. I immediately realized this was their mayor of the aliens, as the alien was wearing a ceremonial mayoral jacket." The mayor took out a device.  "The mayor reached out and put the device over my eyes.  Suddenly, I could hear everything differently." The mayor then seemed to speak to me in English.  "'Welcome to my UFO,' said the mayor. 'You are now wearing language glasses. They allow you to understand anything that we say in our language, but be careful: It doesn't work the other way around. If you want to learn how to talk like us, you'll need to visit the Language Room and earn a diploma from the language guide.'" I told the mayor that I understood. I told the mayor that I didn't understand. I asked the mayor to explain who the aliens were and what their purpose was.  "'I don't know what you're saying, but I'm going to assume you asked who we are and what our purpose is.  'To do that, I will need to tell you how the world works. In the universe, there are three kinds of things. First, there is us. We are called people. You can tell we're people by inspecting our beautiful ivory fangs and big, thick legs. It's obvious.  'Second, there is God. God is special, secret, and far away, and there is only one of him. And we need to find him so that we can hold hands forever. We don't know where God is, but we are looking for him.  'Last, there is rocks. Rocks is everything else. Planets are rocks. Spaceships are rocks. Since you are not a person, you are probably also a rock…unless of course you are God. But that's very unlikely and illegal.'" I asked the mayor how to find out if I am a rock or if I am God.  "'I still can't understand you, but here's the deal. I'm going to retreat to the observation deck and look at the majesty of space for a while. Go to the Language Room, learn our language, then come find me and we'll see if we can find a use for you.'" The mayor left, and I was alone with the crowd of aliens.  "In the spaceship's deck, the crowd of aliens was talking excitedly about God and about the kinds of dances they would do together when they found him at last." I left the deck area and went south into the hallway.  "In the Language Room, a man was standing on a small, circular stage.  Above him hung a giant banner that read 'LANGUAGE TUTORIAL FOR ENGLISH SPEAKERS.'" He began the tutorial.  "'Welcome to this free alien-language tutorial for English speakers!' said the man. 'If you are viewing this in hologram form, it means our captors have determined I am no longer necessary, and that they have mercifully killed me and freed me from my didactic prison. Right on!'" I waved my hand through him to confirm that he was a hologram. I continued watching the presentation.  "He was not a hologram.  'Ha! Not yet! I wish!' he said. 'Please sit down, and let's get this presentation over with!'" I sat back down and kept watching the presentation.  "'Let's begin with the most basic grammatical element of the language: the word CREV,' the man began.  He gestured in the air beside him, where the word CREV appeared in red light.  'CREV is a verb that roughly translates as "to be about to point at something." If you want to communicate effectively with the aliens, it's an extremely important word to know.'" "CREV," I managed to say. "CREB," I blurted stupidly.  "'For example, to announce that I am ready to point at something, I would begin with the word AMAMU, which means "me," then I would say, "CREV," then I would say what I am pointing at.'  'Like this: AMAMU CREV MERYL STREEP.'" I looked where the man was pointing. I knew then that the man was pointing at Meryl Streep.  "'Hello!' said Meryl Streep. 'I am definitely a hologram.'" "AMAMU CREV MERYL STREEP," I said as I pointed at the Meryl Streep hologram.  "'Very good. The next word we're going to learn is important, but be aware that it is very politically charged. I am of course talking about the controversial word CREVV, and you must be very careful with it. It's a slur that means "bad alien" and is extremely insulting to use in any situation but language tutorials.'" "CREVV," I said. I nodded solemnly. I asked the teacher for an example of the bad word in context.  "'Here is an example of CREVV used in English context: Oh God. The aliens are killing me. Why did I say CREVV? Why didn't someone teach me not to say CREVV? I shouldn't have said CREVV.'" I said, "Okay." I said nothing.  "'CREVV,' I said.  No sooner had the word left my lips than a fearsome ivory fang had pierced my vulnerable stomach and sent everything inside me all over the place." I was dead.  You wrap your story about the aliens  "Ah. So…you died?" your sister asks. Yeah. Wait, I didn't tell the story right. Let me start over.  "Hmmm. I…doubt it," says your sister.  You told a story about how you got abducted by aliens and died, but your sister doesn't seem convinced.  No one believed you! You failed. Wait, I didn't tell the story right. Start Over  "'At this point, you're almost conversant in the language. You just have a couple more words to get through. I am now teaching you the word JENCH. It means "God."'" I said, "JENCH."  "Finally, 'The word BRIDE is the equivalent of the English word "um." When you say the word BRIDE, it means that you have forgotten how to speak, and you are trying to remember.'" I said, "BRIDE."  "'This concludes this first and only module of alien language for English beginners. Thank you for learning with me. Get out there, start speaking the language, and remember: If I'm not already dead, please find someone who will kill me!'  With that, the teacher handed me a diploma with some inscrutable symbols on it and ushered me out of the Language Room." I left the Language Room and went back out to the ship hallway. I went east.  "I was in the ship corridor to the south of the first room." I went north.


Senior figures from across Libya s political divides protested on Thursday against remarks by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson about clearing dead bodies from the city of Sirte. Johnson told members of his Conservative Party on Tuesday that British investors had a brilliant vision to turn Sirte, a former stronghold of Islamic State, into the next Dubai if bodies could be cleared away. Lawmakers from Libya s House of Representatives (HOR), who represent political and military factions based in the east of the country, called the comments unacceptable. The HOR s foreign affairs committee issued a statement demanding a clarification from the British prime minister and an apology to the Libyan people . The head of Libya s U.N.- and Western-backed government, which is based in Tripoli and has been spurned by the HOR, also asked for clarification during a meeting with the British ambassador in the capital. Some of what was said in (Johnson s) statement is unacceptable, said a statement from Fayez Seraj, head of the U.N.-backed government. Johnson s comments led to calls for his resignation from British political opponents. He accused them of playing politics, saying on Twitter that he had been referring to the clearing of booby-trapped bodies of Islamic State militants. Local Libyan forces backed by U.S. air strikes fought for more than six months last year to oust militants from Sirte, which Islamic State had turned into its most important base outside the Middle East. The coastal city of about 80,000 was badly damaged during the campaign and is struggling to rebuild. The HOR has been based in eastern Libya since 2014 when a conflict in Tripoli led to the setting up of rival parliaments and governments in the capital and the east. Its cooperation is considered crucial for the progress of a new U.N. plan to stabilize Libya and the ending of turmoil that began after the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.


In what will surely send Donald Trump into a new Twitter tirade, a new poll from Public Policy Polling (PPP) shows the majority Americans longing to have President Obama back, and overwhelmingly not liking Trump.According to the poll: Less than 2 weeks into Donald Trump s tenure as President, 40% of voters already want to impeach him. That s up from 35% of voters who wanted to impeach him a week ago. Only 48% of voters say that they would be opposed to Trump s impeachment.Beyond a significant percentage of voters already thinking that Trump should be removed from office, it hasn t taken long for voters to miss the good old days of Barack Obama 52% say they d rather Obama was President, to only 43% who are glad Trump is. President Obama was loved by the United States, and for as many haters as there were, there were far more that loved and appreciated his true leadership and love of country over himself. The same can t be said of Trump.Check out this tweet that garnered over 1.6 million likes:It's been the honor of my life to serve you. You made me a better leader and a better man. President Obama (@POTUS44) January 20, 2017And then this one:I won't stop; I'll be right there with you as a citizen, inspired by your voices of truth and justice, good humor, and love. President Obama (@POTUS44) January 20, 2017The man isn t only loved, he s beloved.Trump, on the other hand, throws out mean revenge tweets like their going out of style. And most of the responses to his tweets are condemning his actions. To be blunt the man is not liked much at all. Sure, he has he band of merry minions who would likely drink paint if Trump told them to, but he lost the popular vote by 3 million vote to Hillary Clinton. And the only reason he is president is due to an archaic Electoral College that was devised to give power to slave owners who counted their slaves as 3/5 of a person, and help those in rural communities have a voice. It s no longer needed and the nation doesn t want Trump nor his backhanded style of egomaniacal leadership.It seems, if given the opportunity, the United States would have President Obama back in a heartbeat. If only that were possible.Featured Photo by Alex Wong, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images


President Donald Trump was taking off on Air Force One when the latest bad news pinged into the inboxes of his besieged staff - a report that he had told Russian officials that fired FBI Director James Comey was "a nut job". Officials on board the Riyadh-bound presidential plane scrambled to coordinate with staff in Washington and those who had just landed in the Saudi capital for a response to the New York Times story about Comey. A second bombshell came from the Washington Post, which reported that a federal investigation about Russian contacts with the Trump campaign last year had reached a current White House official, who was not named. White House chief of staff Reince Priebus sought to play down the reports of disarray. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Priebus said Trump had spent the flight reading newspapers, meeting with national security advisers and other staff, getting briefed about the trip and getting a little sleep. But the sense of frustration was clear. Presidential aide Dan Scavino captured the mood of confrontation, seizing on a comment from Trump's nemesis in the 2016 Republican presidential race, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who called Trump a "chaos president" for all the bad headlines of late. Scavino fired back by reviving the derogatory nickname Trump had given Bush last year to raise doubts about his energy level and ultimately defeat him. "LOW ENERGY JEB is out of stock on Jebbity JEB Jebbers. Perhaps @RedBull or @MonsterEnergy could help out. ¯\_( ツ)_/¯" Scavino tweeted. Trump's nine-day tour takes him to four countries. White House staffers, shell-shocked from the daily barrage of bad news, were soldiering on, trying to keep the focus on a trip that could bring some significant achievements. "We're focused on that. The media will talk about what they talk about and people will get hysterical about what they get hysterical about but there's a lot of people who are not focused on the day-to-day horse race and they are just making sure that the president's objectives are followed through on," a senior aide told Reuters. It will be Trump's longest time away from the White House since he took office on Jan. 20. He is joined on the trip by some aides who have squabbled in the past but who have sought to set aside their differences to try to advance the president's agenda, such as his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and senior strategist, Steve Bannon. Trump's agenda has been sidetracked by the hubbub over his firing of Comey and the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the Russia ties. "I think this foreign trip is something they're all looking forward to because it changes the narrative. It buys them a little time," said a Republican close to the White House. While Trump has privately vented about his staff, the source doubted there would be a major staff shakeup in the near-term. The source said there might be some adjustments in the communications team to enable the White House to respond much more swiftly to the news.


U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday that tensions between Kurdish and Iraqi forces in and around Kirkuk had the full attention of the United States, which was working to ensure it does not escalate. Kurdish authorities said they have sent thousands more troops to Kirkuk to confront threats of Iraqi military attack, but also pulled back defense lines around the disputed oil-producing area slightly to ease tensions. We have got to work on this, the secretary of state has the lead, but my forces are integrated among these forces and they are working too, to make certain we keep any potential for conflict off the table, Mattis told reporters. The Baghdad central government has taken a series of steps to isolate the autonomous Kurdish region since its overwhelming vote for independence in a Sept. 25 referendum, including banning international flights from going there. Mattis said while he was aware of troop movements, he had not heard of any fighting and called on both sides to focus on fighting Islamic State militants. We can t turn on each other right now. We don t want this to go to a shooting situation, Mattis added. Kirkuk, a city of more than 1 million people, lies just outside Kurdish territory, but Peshmerga forces deployed there in 2014 when Iraqi security forces collapsed in the face of an Islamic State onslaught. The Peshmerga deployment prevented Kirkuk s oil fields from falling into jihadist hands. As the territory controlled by Islamic State has shrunk, ethnic and sectarian fractures that have plagued Iraq for more than a decade have once again started to resurface. The group s last territory in Iraq is now a stretch skirting the western border with Syria following the fall of the town of Hawija and surrounding areas on Oct. 5 in an offensive by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces. Mattis said the differences would have to be worked out politically and not on the battlefield. These are issues that are longstanding in some cases. ... We re going to have to recalibrate and move these back to a way (where) we solve them politically and work them out with compromised solutions, he said.


One Twitter user once asked me, "Is it too much to hope that *one* of our parties would pick someone with no links to a pedophile sex-slave island?"  Apparently, it is too much to ask for.  Both presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton have ties to convicted pedophile and Democratic donor, billionaire Jeffery Epstein and "Sex Slave Island."  Note: President Bill Clinton is not merely the husband of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, either. Bill is currently campaigning for his wife, plus Hillary recently unveiled that Bill with be in charge of " revitalizing the economy " if she were to take office.  It has been uncovered that Clinton, known for his trouble-making libido, has even stronger ties to Epstein than previously reported. As noted by The Free Beacon , "Clinton was aboard the infamous Lolita Express owned by a billionaire pedophile at least 26 times," not the initially reported 11 times.  Fox News reports :  Clinton's presence aboard Jeffrey Epstein's Boeing 727 on 11 occasions has been reported, but flight logs show the number is more than double that, and trips between 2001 and 2003 included extended junkets around the world with Epstein and fellow passengers identified on manifests by their initials or first names, including "Tatiana." The tricked-out jet earned its Nabakov-inspired nickname because it was reportedly outfitted with a bed where passengers had group sex with young girls…Official flight logs filed with the Federal Aviation Administration show Clinton traveled on some of the trips with as many as 10 U.S. Secret Service agents. However, on a five-leg Asia trip between May 22 and May 25, 2002, not a single Secret Service agent is listed.  The Republican presumptive nominee apparently got in on the action, too. Trump's ties to Epstein — a man Trump once called a "terrific guy" — and Sex Slave Island have been chronicled by The Daily Wire here .  Per The Political Insider, Trump is accused of threatening and raping a 13-year-old girl on the private island . Epstein is also named in the suit for sexual misconduct. The lawsuit accusations have been vehemently denied by the Trump camp, alleging that the filing is a "hoax" and that there is "no evidence" that the plaintiff in question "actually exists."  Sex Slave Island, sometimes referred to as "Orgy Island," (both lovely names), is one deranged place, allegedly rife with solicited sex, often from minors " groomed " by Epstein.  "Terrific guy" Epstein, of course, was convicted for soliciting sex from a minor in 2008; the billionaire served 13 months in prison.  Election 2016: Where both candidates have ties to a convicted pedophile, the Lolita Express and Sex Slave Island.


Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed sharply in a debate on Thursday over their support for President Barack Obama, with Sanders accusing Clinton of "a low blow" after she compared him to Republicans. As the Democratic race moves to states with large minority populations, both candidates openly courted black and Hispanic votes during a debate that was far more restrained and cordial than last week's contentious debate in New Hampshire. In the sharpest exchange of the night, Clinton attacked Sanders for being too critical of Obama, who is extremely popular with the black voters who will play a big role in the outcome in South Carolina and other upcoming nominating contests. "The kind of criticism that we've heard from Senator Sanders about our president, I expect from Republicans, I do not expect from someone running for the Democratic nomination to succeed President Obama," said Clinton, who served as secretary of state during Obama's first term. "Madam Secretary, that is a low blow," said Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont. Sanders said he had been an Obama ally in the Senate even if he did not always agree with him. "Do senators have the right to disagree with the president?" Sanders said. Clinton, who has eagerly embraced Obama's legacy, said Sanders had called Obama weak and a disappointment, and "that goes further than saying we have our disagreements." With Clinton looking to rebound after her crushing 22-point loss to Sanders in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, the two also differed over healthcare and Wall Street. Even so, the restrained exchange on Thursday was unlikely to change the trajectory of a race that has intensified dramatically over two weeks. Clinton accused Sanders of misleading Americans on his healthcare. She said his proposal for a single-payer, Medicare-for-all healthcare plan would mean dismantling the program known as Obamacare and triggering another intense political struggle. "Based on every analysis I can find by people who are sympathetic to the goal, the numbers don't add up," Clinton told Sanders. "That's a promise that cannot be kept." Sanders said he was simply moving to provide what most industrialized countries have - healthcare coverage for all. "We're not going to dismantle anything," Sanders said. "In my view healthcare is a right of all people, not a privilege, and I will fight for that." Sanders also repeated his accusation that Clinton is too beholden to the Wall Street interests she once represented as a U.S. senator from New York, noting her Super PAC received $15 million in donations from Wall Street. "Let's not insult the intelligence of the American people," he said. "Why in God's name does Wall Street make huge campaign contributions? I guess just for the fun of it, they want to throw money around." Clinton said the donations did not mean she was in Wall Street's pocket, and noted that President Barack Obama had taken donations from Wall Street during his campaigns. "When it mattered, he stood up and took on Wall Street," she said. With an eye to on the minority vote, both candidates decried the high incarceration rate of African-Americans and called for broad reforms of the criminal justice system. Sanders said the disproportionately high rate of incarceration for black men was "one of the great tragedies" in the United States. He called for "fundamental police reform" that would "make it clear that any police officer who breaks the law will in fact be dealt with." Clinton criticized what she called "systemic racism" in education, housing and employment. "When we talk about criminal justice reform … we also have to talk about jobs, education, housing and other ways of helping communities of color," she said. They both agreed on the need for immigration reform, an important issue to Hispanic voters, though they clashed over the Obama administration's actions on handling a wave of undocumented children who entered the country alone. Clinton criticized Sanders for voting against a reform measure in 2007, which Sanders defended because of a provision in the bill for guest workers. Clinton entered Thursday's debate under acute pressure to calm growing nervousness among her supporters after her drubbing in New Hampshire and a razor-thin win the prior week in the Iowa caucus. Both states have nearly all-white populations. For his part, Sanders, who calls himself a democratic socialist, hoped to harness the momentum and enthusiasm he gained from the first two contests and prove he can be a viable contender to lead the Democratic Party to victory in the Nov. 8 presidential election. "What our campaign is indicating is that the American people are tired of establishment politics," Sanders said. "They want a political revolution." Clinton dodged an opportunity to distance herself from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's recent controversial comments that there was "a special place in hell" for women who don't support other women. "Look, I think that she's been saying that for as long as I've known her, which is about 25 years. But it doesn't change my view that we need to empower everyone, women and men, to make the best decisions in their minds that they can make," she said. On the foreign policy front, Sanders criticized Clinton for her warm relationship for Henry Kissinger, who served as secretary of state under Republican President Richard Nixon during the Vietnam War. Sanders called Kissinger "one of the most destructive secretaries of state." Asked by Clinton about who his foreign policy advisers were, Sanders shot back: "Well it ain't Henry Kissinger." The race now moves to what should be more favorable ground for Clinton in Nevada and South Carolina, states with more black and Hispanic voters, who, polls show, have been more supportive of Clinton so far. (Additional reporting by Amanda Becker, Alana Wise and Megan Cassella in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters' editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage.


COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Danish prosecutor says a girl has been formally charged with planning bomb attacks against two schools in Denmark. [Prosecutor Nilas says the teenager is accused of "having made preparations to make bombs" using the explosive known as TATP. She said her targets were a school west of Copenhagen and a Jewish school in the capital. Police thwarted the plans by arresting the girl on Jan. 13, 2016. A trial is set to start April 7, 2017 in Holbaek, northwest of the Danish capital. Charges against a man, initially believed to an accomplice, have been dropped. Defense lawyer Michael Juul Eriksen told The Associated Press his client, who twice had been in Syria, would be released later Friday. Neither the girl nor the man could be identified.


MarcFaberBlog.com November 1, 2016  It's nonsense to claim that inflation is only going up 1 percent per year in the United States. The cost of living of a typical family is going up much more than that—insurance, transportation, schooling are all going up.  For example, health care premiums for insurance policies [are rising], so the typical household is being squeezed. The central banks don't care about that; they don't look at it..  I suppose the system will collapse before we become like Venezuela. In the West, if they start to print money, the end game will be brief. Within five years, I expect the system to implode.  You better ask the bureaucrats what their plans are. They had zero rates since December 2008; soon eight years [passed], and that hasn't boosted economic activity for the average household, not in Japan nor the United States nor the EU. Now they talk about fiscal spending.  You better ask the bureaucrats what their plans are. They had zero rates since December 2008; soon eight years [passed], and that hasn't boosted economic activity for the average household, not in Japan nor the United States nor the EU. Now they talk about fiscal spending.  Then they will find some academics who will blame wealth inequality on the evil capitalists who made so much money out of asset bubbles.  They will blame the economic woes on these people. To some extent this is true. But the rich people did not create the inflated asset values; it was the central banks, by slashing interest rates to zero and negative interest rates in many countries.  First, you create mispricings through artificially low rates and negative interest rates and you boost the income and wealth of the super-rich. It's at best the 0.1 percent that really benefit from asset inflation, at the cost of all the people that have no assets and so you have this rising wealth inequality. So we have to tax the rich people and tax them more.  Taking money from the rich is appealing if you go to voters, and you say to them, "Look, the reason the economy is doing so badly, it's because of the rich people, the billionaires. We have to take 20 percent away from them and give it to you." You can be sure that everybody will vote for that because the wealthy are a minority. This is what happens after monetary policies completely fail.  Some well-connected people will hide their wealth but a lot of people won't. Even if they take 50 percent from the richest, it's not going to help. The next step will be to take money from less wealthy people; the interventionists will go all the way.  - Source, The Epoch Times


4 Flawless Zen Lessons on Gratitude Nov 4, 2016 4 0  In Zen Buddhism, even an empty rice bowl is something to be grateful for. Spontaneous gratitude is easy to come by, after all. Who wouldn't feel happy upon receiving a bonus at work, being rescued from a mountain cliff, or clean water to drink in a desert? The trick is cultivating gratitude for the things we take for granted, and even the people and circumstances that normally make us hopping mad. The Blind Turtle: Gratitude for a Human Birth  Kindness is rare in the world, but one who expresses gratitude for kindness is even more exceptional. This is the sentiment expressed by the Buddha in the Anguttara Nikaya (AN 2:118). Gratitude is so important on the path to realization that the Buddha compares it to a blind turtle living on the bottom of the sea that surfaces only once every hundred years to take a breath. When he rises to the ocean's thrashing waves, he places his thin neck through a yoke floating on a vast sea. This is the likelihood that we would enjoy a human life, affording us freedom and fortune, and the opportunity to unshackle ourselves from the illusion of duality.  This story sets a precedence for all other forms of gratitude. Our human life is so precious that the Buddha would often take a monk into the forest, tell him to sit at the base of a tree, and begin "gladdening of the heart," simply to reflect on how fortunate he was that an innumerable number of circumstances had to occur in order for him to be alive with the added boon of being able to seek the dharma.  The Buddha would also teach that it was incorrect to bemoan any of life's unsavory circumstances, since just being alive "is enough." He said that, "when we realize how perfect everything is, we will tilt back our heads and laugh at the sky." Gratitude for the 10,000 Sorrows  Being grateful doesn't mean we ignore the very painful realities of this world: war, hunger, poverty, inhumanity, among them. The understanding we gain from practicing gratitude frees us from being lost or identified with either the negative or the positive aspects of life, letting us simply meet life in each moment as it rises. We divorce ourselves from a belief in dualism – the delusional or erroneous view of reality, not to be confused with "duality," an intrinsic aspect of reality .  Jack Kornfield, a Buddhist teacher and author of A Path With Heart, s peaking on the subject of spirituality and gratitude once stated ,  "If we see the world as sacred, which is an expression of the spiritual life, then gratitude follows immediately and naturally. We've been given the extraordinary privilege of incarnating as human beings — and of course the human incarnation entails the 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows, as it says in the Tao Te Ching — but with it we have the privilege of the lavender color at sunset, the taste of a tangerine in our mouth, and the almost unbearable beauty of life around us, along with its troubles. It keeps recreating itself. We can either be lost in a smaller state of consciousness — what in Buddhist psychology is called the "body of fear," which brings suffering to us and to others — or we can bring the quality of love and appreciation, which I would call gratitude, to life. With it comes a kind of trust. The poet Pablo Neruda writes, "You can pick all the flowers, but you can't stop the spring." Life keeps recreating itself and presenting us with miracles every day." Gratitude for Those Who Came Before Us  Bernard of Chartres once said that we were all standing on the shoulders of giants. In the Zen tradition, this could not be more true. Taigen (Zen Master) Dan Leighton wrote in an article titled " Meditation and American Shin Buddhism ,"  "It is certainly true that Japanese Soto Zen founder Eihei Dogen (1200-1253) encouraged his students to apply themselves diligently to zazen, the sitting meditation that he espoused as a primary practice throughout his career. . . Dogen was not seeking for an "easy practice" as a response to concerns about mappo, in the spirit of his fellow Kamakura period innovators. But none of this means that Dogen was advocating a self-power practice with which its practitioners could accomplish great realization through their own efforts. On the contrary, many aspects of Dogen's meditation teaching assume the practitioner's devoted acceptance of and support from "other" sources.  This is not to claim that Dogen was relying solely on some other-power with the same humble and insistent devotion as his contemporary Shinran. . . "Other power" here does not refer to reliance on any single other source such as the vow of Amitabha, but Dogen did see the necessity for awakened realization of receiving support and strength from a variety of external "other" sources, and the importance of sincere devotional gratitude to these benefactors."  What Leighton articulates is our dependence on others' achievements to enjoy the lives we currently live. While this can certainly describe our spiritual practice – who among us hasn't had an a-ha experience from speaking with a more enlightened master – but it can also be applied to a myriad other things in our lives. We drive on roads that someone else built. We eat food that someone else grew. We use technology that someone else dreamed up. Even the rivers, lakes and oceans that we have the privilege of gazing upon were built by eons of hard work by Mother Earth. Going back to the first point on gratitude, even our birth is possible because our parents and their parents' parents decided to love one another, even if only long enough to make us come to be. Gratitude for Our Parents  Some of us would quite naturally feel gratitude for our parents. A few lucky people among us were given two loving, balanced, psychologically stable adults who were charged with raising us from the first moments we took breath on this planet. Others among us might feel it difficult to feel gratitude for our parents (insert any other family member or close friend here) due to the seeming unfortunate way we were treated as we grew up. The Buddha once said,  "I tell you, monks, there are two people who are not easy to repay. Which two? Your mother & father. Even if you were to carry your mother on one shoulder & your father on the other shoulder for 100 years, and were to look after them by anointing, massaging, bathing, & rubbing their limbs, and they were to defecate & urinate right there [on your shoulders], you would not in that way pay or repay your parents. If you were to establish your mother & father in absolute sovereignty over this great earth, abounding in the seven treasures, you would not in that way pay or repay your parents. Why is that? Mother & father do much for their children. They care for them, they nourish them, they introduce them to this world.  "But anyone who rouses his unbelieving mother & father, settles & establishes them in conviction; rouses his unvirtuous mother & father, settles & establishes them in virtue; rouses his stingy mother & father, settles & establishes them in generosity; rouses his foolish mother & father, settles & establishes them in discernment: To this extent one pays & repays one's mother & father." — Anguttara Nikaya (AN 2:32)  If your parents weren't so fabulous, or even abusive, you can be grateful that they taught you how not to overcome by adversity. Is there a greater gift?


Donald Trump s list of allies is getting shorter because of his outrageous accusation against President Obama.During the campaign, Marco Rubio fiercely opposed Trump but soon chose to kiss his ass and endorse him.Rubio has been reluctant to say anything against Trump ever since, but that changed over the weekend after Trump openly accused President Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower in a Saturday morning Twitter rant.Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my wires tapped in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017Trump offered zero evidence to back up his claims and both former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and current FBI Director James Comey have forcefully refuted Trump s accusation.And now Rubio, who is on the Senate Intelligence Committee, says that Trump will have to answer for his lies. I have no evidence and no one has presented anything to me that indicates anything like that, Rubio told Meet The Press on Sunday. Suffice it to say I don t have any basis, I ve never heard that allegation made before by anybody. I ve never seen anything about that anywhere before. But again, the president put that out there, and now the White House will have to answer as to exactly what he was referring to. Chuck Todd went on t ask Rubio if he would concede that if Trump is lying that it would be a huge political scandal and Rubio agreed.Here s the video via YouTube:Trump is desperate to distract everyone from focusing on his ever-growing Russia scandal, so he made up this lie based on a conspiracy theory he read on Breitbart in the hopes that Congress and the media will shift their focus.This is a serious accusation against a former president and Trump should be severely punished for it. He has offered no evidence to prove his claim and that means he is slandering President Obama, which should result in a lawsuit and impeachment. But we all know that Republicans in Congress have zero credibility so they will more than likely shield Trump and pursue a witch hunt against Obama, who was a more honorable and respected president than Trump will ever be.


Illinois' first full-year budget since 2015 became law on Thursday after the House of Representatives overrode the governor's vetoes of a $36 billion fiscal 2018 spending plan and a companion measure that implements it. The House's actions followed the Senate's successful override votes on Tuesday.


Thank goodness for Rep. Jim Jordan s masterful grilling of FBI Director Chris Wray today (see video of testimony below) regarding the Trump investigation. The videos below reveal bombshell information that this is a set up by FBI agent Strzok who took the fake dossier to the FISA Court in the beginning THIS IS A BIG DEAL!JORDAN ON LOU DOBBS AFTER HIS QUESTIONING OF WRAY: There are a couple of fundamental questions here. Did the FBI pay Christopher Steele? I asked that of the Attorney General two weeks ago he wouldn t answer the question. Did they actually vet this dossier? Because it s been disproven, a bunch of lies, a bunch of National Enquirer garbage and fake news in this thing. Did they actually check it out before they brought it to the FISA Court which I m convinced they did. And all of this can be cleared up if they release the application that they took to the court I think they won t give it to us because they did pay Christopher Steele. I think they did use the dossier as the basis for the warrants to spy on Americans associated with President Trump s campaign. Strzok is the guy who took the dossier to the FISA Court.Politically Corrupt FBI @Jim_Jordan: I believe the FBI paid Christopher Steele, and then used the discredited, fake news dossier to spy on @POTUS and his campaign. #MAGA #TrumpTrain #DTS @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/bfgk37LbFC Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) December 8, 2017Earlier in the day, Rep. Jim Jordan grilled Chris Wray about the dossier: Let s remember a couple of things about the dossier, he said. The Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign, which we now know were one and the same, paid the law firm who paid Fusion GPS who paid Christopher Steele who then paid Russians to put together a report that we call a dossier full of all kinds of fake news, National Enquirer garbage and it s been reported that this dossier was all dressed up by the FBI, taken to the FISA court and presented as a legitimate intelligence document that it became the basis for a warrant to spy on Americans. The easiest way to clear it up is tell us what s in that application and who took it there, Jordan said.Jordan finished with this: Here s what I think I think Peter Strozk Mr. Super Agent at the FBI, I think he s the guy who took the application to the FISA court and if that happened, if this happened, if you have the FBI working with a campaign, the Democrats campaign, taking opposition research, dressing it all up and turning it into an intelligence document so they can take it to the FISA court so they can spy on the other campaign, if that happened, that is as wrong as it gets.


Cheers from Angela Merkel s conservative allies in Brussels at her re-election on Sunday belie wider unease at how the German chancellor will deal with an awkward new coalition and a surge in support for the far-right. With Angela Merkel, Germany remains the strong and reliable partner in Europe, tweeted Manfred Weber, a Merkel ally who leads the biggest party bloc in the European Parliament. But one source in the European People s Party saw trouble ahead in her need to replace her battered Social Democrat grand coalition partners with an alliance of both the left-leaning Greens and the resurgent, economically hawkish liberals of the FDP. Things worked very smoothly with the socialists, the EPP source said. Now, you don t know what s going to happen. The broad expectation is for a Jamaica coalition the country s flag comprises the three parties colors. Martin Selmayr, German chief-of-staff to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, sent a tweet consisting only of three flags: Jamaica s green, yellow and black flanked by two blue EU banners a reflection of hope in Brussels of continued EU commitment from Berlin that some fear may now be problematic. One casualty of Merkel s weakness may be a rapid move to deepen integration of the euro zone along lines that new French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to outline on Tuesday. Those plans, as with reform proposals floated this month by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, may run into increased scepticism in Berlin, where many are wary of what they see as more demands for German bailouts of states like Greece. Resistance may come both from Merkel s Christian Democrats, spooked by the surge on their right flank, where Alternative for Germany (AfD) entered parliament as the third biggest party, and from the Free Democrats (FDP), whose leader Christian Lindner ruled out Germany contributing to a shared euro zone budget. The liberal leader in the European Parliament, committed federalist and former Belgian premier Guy Verhofstadt, said he hoped for a pro-European coalition to push EU integration. The FDP leader in the EU legislature, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, said it was an open-minded, pro-European party . The European Greens German co-chair Reinhard Butikofer said his party wanted to strengthen the European Union, making use of the window of opportunity that exists ... between Paris, Brussels and Berlin . He was referring to a keynote speech by Juncker 10 days ago in which the EU chief executive said anti-EU populists were in retreat and called for deeper EU integration. But Guntram Wolff, the German director of the Brussels think-tank Bruegel, questioned Juncker s thinking. He forecast a rightward shift in Germany due to the AfD and resistance from the FDP that would stymie Macron and Juncker s grand visions. Populism definitely not dead, Wolff tweeted. Juncker speech completely miscalculated the situation.


Earnings for minimum-wage workers in Portland, Oregon will rise by $5.50 an hour over the next six years, with lesser increases set for smaller towns and rural areas under a first-of-its-kind measure signed into law on Wednesday by Oregon's governor. Oregon has been in the vanguard of a growing number of U.S. states and cities that have moved in recent years to bolster the federal minimum wage, which has remained at $7.25 an hour since 2009. The latest measure builds on a current Oregon wage floor that already stands at $9.25 an hour statewide under a law enacted in 2002. Supporters say such measures are necessary to help low-paid workers who have been slipping into poverty due to stagnant earnings and rising living expenses. Opponents say raising the mandatory wage floor puts an undue strain on businesses still struggling to rebound from a prolonged U.S. economic slump. The bill passed by Oregon's Democratic-led legislature and signed by Governor Kate Brown, also a Democrat, seeks to strike a balance by setting different pay tiers based on geography. Starting July 1, the minimum wage for Oregon workers statewide will climb by 50 cents an hour, with graduated increases set at higher rates for the state's biggest city, Portland, as compared to smaller municipalities and rural communities where the cost of living is generally lower. By 2022 under the new statute the hourly minimum wage will rise to $14.75 in Portland, to $13.50 in smaller cities and towns, and to $12.50 in rural areas. "It means just an extra $15 or $20 a month starting in July, but for a mom of three just that small amount makes a big difference," Brown said in signing the measure. She said the gradual, differentiated pay hikes would ensure that "businesses have time to plan for the increase. That's the Oregon way." U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez hailed Oregon's approach, adjusting the wage floor according to regional economic differences, as a model for other states to follow until Congress passes a higher national minimum wage supported by President Barack Obama. A Democratic-backed proposal to raise the federal minimum to $10.10 stalled on Capitol Hill in 2014. More recent proposals by some lawmakers call for a federal minimum wage of up to $15 an hour. Oregon Republicans who opposed the increase predicted it would cost businesses in the state $1.2 billion.


Iran's foreign minister criticized on Tuesday a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to revive part of President Donald Trump's travel ban imposed on citizens from six majority Muslim countries, saying it would boost militants in the Middle East. The justices narrowed the scope of lower court rulings that had completely blocked key parts of a March 6 executive order that Trump had said was needed to prevent terrorism attacks, allowing his temporary ban to go into effect for people with no strong ties to the United States. [nL1N1JN0M6] "We always believed that the Muslim ban that President Trump imposed soon after assuming office had no basis in facts and would not help fight terrorism," Iran's Mohammad Javad Zarif told a joint news conference in Berlin with his German counterpart. Zarif called the U.S. decision the "greatest gift" for militant groups seeking new recruits. Separately, Zarif tweeted: "A bigoted ban on Muslims will not keep US safer. Instead of policies empowering extremists, US should join the real fight against them." Zarif said the travel ban punished people who had never been convicted of a terrorist act, while people from other countries involved in past attacks would not be affected. "For some terrorism and support for terrorism is measured by the amount of arms they buy from the U.S, and not by actually being involved in acts of terrorism," he said, in an apparent reference to recent U.S. approval of $110 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Saudi citizens are not affected by the travel ban. Zarif did not mention Saudi Arabia by name but the ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom is the arch-foe of Shi'ite Iran in the region.


These last several weeks, the American people have gotten a taste of what they d be getting with a Clinton or a Trump presidency. And, not surprisingly, they overwhelmingly prefer a Clinton presidency.According to a new poll released from Bloomberg, Hillary Clinton crushes right-wing blowhard Donald Trump by a whopping 12 points, 49-37 percent.Not only does the poll show Clinton with a commanding lead, 55 percent of respondents said they could never vote for Donald Trump. Astoundingly, 63 percent of women polled said they could never vote for him. Republicans need to figure out their next move quickly, because there is no way in hell their candidate can win if more than half of the country refuses to vote for him. Seeing that the poll was conducted when the shooting in Florida happened, Trump, hoping to cash in on a wave of fear, has a rude awakening.And the new poll shows Trump s biggest area of support, white men, may not be enough:For his part, Trump is winning 50 percent support from white men, compared to 33 percent for Clinton and 13 percent for Johnson. He s getting 54 percent support among evangelical Christians, while Clinton gets 36 percent from that group.White men are among Trump s strongest demographics. But even there he s not showing as much strength as the party s last nominee, Mitt Romney, who beat Obama in 2012 by 62 percent to 35 percent among white men, according to exit pollsLibertarian candidate Gary Johnson takes a commanding 9 percent of the vote, while 4 percent remain unsure and 1 percent said they will not be voting. It s no secret that Johnson s lead can be attributed to Trump s alienation of non-crazy Republicans.Ann Selzer, who oversaw the poll, said: Clinton has a number of advantages in this poll, in addition to her lead. Her supporters are more enthusiastic than Trump s and more voters overall see her becoming a more appealing candidate than say that for Trump. And what s even better: Americans aren t buying into Trump s racism and bigotry:Trump s suggestions that Obama hasn t taken forceful enough action to stop domestic terrorism because he sides with Muslims landed with a thud for the majority of Americans, with 61 percent disagreeing with the suggestion. A strong majority 69 percent also disagree that law enforcement agencies should increase surveillance of all American Muslims, even if it conflicts with civil liberties.While Trump is only slightly favored to handle issues of terrorism and violence, Clinton isn t far behind. And as the nation continues to be exposed to Trump s extremist policies on how to handle such situations, Clinton s numbers could rise.Trump is in trouble, and Republicans know it. If he keeps this up, he may very well end up being the next Barry Goldwater.