The corrupt covering for the corrupt. Chicago politics at its best Hillary Clinton could be prosecuted in federal court for failing to tell President Barack Obama about her private email server at the time she was running it, according to a veteran FBI agent. Obama said flatly during a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday that No, he did not know Clinton sidestepped security protocols with her a home-brew email setup while she was his secretary of state.The FBI agent who spoke with DailyMail.com has had a 20-year career in federal law enforcement and serves in a supervisory capacity in a domestic FBI field office.He said on Friday that failing to put Obama in the loop could be enough to send her to prison for ten years. Via:Daily MailEver since he opined that the police had acted stupidly prior to the infamous and embarrassing beer summit , Obama has shown himself eager to interfere with ongoing investigations for political reasons. When thuglet Trayvon Martin provided an good example of why jumping and beating down a stranger is a bad evolutionary strategy, Obama jumped on the race-baiting bandwagon saying if he had a son, that son would look like Martin. When the Justice Department was looking into the illegal use of the IRS to harass opponents of the administration, Obama said there is not even a smidgen of corruption. When deserter and failed turncoat Bowe Bergdahl was released by the Taliban, Obama had his hippie parents over for a Rose Garden ceremony even though he was known at the time to be a deserter. Now Obama has interjected himself into the investigation into the fate of top secret documents illegally stored on Hillary Clinton s private server. From his 60 Minutes interview with Steve Kroft on October 11:Steve Kroft: Do you think it posed a national security problem?President Barack Obama: I don t think it posed a national security problem. I think that it was a mistake that she has acknowledged and you know, as a general proposition, when we re in these offices, we have to be more sensitive and stay as far away from the line as possible when it comes to how we handle information, how we handle our own personal data. And, you know, she made a mistake. She has acknowledged it. I do think that the way it s been ginned-up is in part because of in part because of politics. And I think she d be the first to acknowledge that maybe she could have handled the original decision better and the disclosures more quickly. But Steve Kroft: What was your reaction when you found out about it?President Barack Obama: This is one of those issues that I think is legitimate, but the fact that for the last three months this is all that s been spoken about is an indication that we re in presidential political season.Steve Kroft: Do you agree with what President Clinton has said and Secretary Clinton has said, that this is not not that big a deal. Do you agree with that?President Barack Obama: Well, I m not going to comment on Steve Kroft: You think it s not that big a deal President Barack Obama: What I think is that it is important for her to answer these questions to the satisfaction of the American public. And they can make their own judgment. I can tell you that this is not a situation in which America s national security was endangered.Steve Kroft: This administration has prosecuted people for having classified material on their private computers.President Barack Obama: Well, I there s no doubt that there had been breaches, and these are all a matter of degree. We don t get an impression that here there was purposely efforts on in to hide something or to squirrel away information. But again, I m gonna leave it to This can only be seen as an attempt by Obama to tell the federal prosecutors who will ultimately decide what, if any, charges should be made in this case that there is nothing to see here:Those statements angered F.B.I. agents who have been working for months to determine whether Ms. Clinton s email setup had in fact put any of the nation s secrets at risk, according to current and former law enforcement officials.Investigators have not reached any conclusions about whether the information on the server had been compromised or whether to recommend charges, according to the law enforcement officials. But to investigators, it sounded as if Mr. Obama had already decided the answers to their questions and cleared anyone involved of wrongdoing.The White House quickly backed off the president s remarks and said Mr. Obama was not trying to influence the investigation. But his comments spread quickly, raising the ire of officials who saw an instance of the president trying to influence the outcome of a continuing investigation and not for the first time.A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment. But Ron Hosko, a former senior F.B.I. official who retired in 2014 and is now the president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, said it was inappropriate for the president to suggest what side of the investigation he is on when the F.B.I. is still investigating. Injecting politics into what is supposed to be a fact-finding inquiry leaves a foul taste in the F.B.I. s mouth and makes them fear that no matter what they find, the Justice Department will take the president s signal and not bring a case, said Mr. Hosko, who maintains close contact with current agents.Several current and former law enforcement officials, including those close to the investigation, expressed similar sentiments in separate interviews over several days. Most, however, did so only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.Contrary to what Hillary s campaign is saying, we now have it on pretty good authority that the FBI is conducting an investigation under the part of the Espionage Act that pertains to gross negligence in the handling of Defense information. That information, at a minimum, is the two Top Secret Keyhole satellite derived documents discovered by the Intelligence Community IG though it could be any of the over 400 emails containing classified information that have been uncovered so far.(f) Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.


Donald Trump s conflicts of interest are finally starting to create some major problems for the undeserving POTUS.When Trump was elected, most Americans were up in arms over the fact that Trump has so many messy, shady business ties and would clearly be trying to exploit his position in the White House for his own personal gain. Judging from what we ve seen from Trump and his corrupt family in these short six months of his presidency, we had every right to be worried Trump has been trying to profit off of his new role from the second he stepped into the White House.Fortunately, members of Congress are standing up to this unethical behavior. On Monday, a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives proposed legislation that would prevent the government from renting rooms at any of Trump s hotels for official business matters. In a statement that pretty much reflects exactly how most Americans feel about this, Representative Don Beyer of Virginia said: Donald Trump should not be allowed to line his or his family s pockets with taxpayer dollars. Exactly! Rep. Beyer also stated that these amendments to a spending bill were critical due to Trump s unprecedented failure to divest from his business, and the ongoing entanglement between the Trump Organization and the White House. This is following a similar motion that happened last month, when the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit that stated it was a constitutional violation to make government payments to Trump s businesses.The White House has yet to comment on this, but we can all be certain that Trump is going to have a colossal meltdown over it. Every time someone calls out his unethical actions even if they re 100 percent true Trump acts like a toddler and has a meltdown. Whether he likes it or not, Trump should NOT be profiting from his presidency when he is supposed to be serving the American people, and his personal interests must be blocked.


Ben Carson pitched a tax plan with numbers that didn't add up. Donald Trump boasted that he's paying his own way in the campaign, but he isn't. Chris Christie accused the government of stealing Social Security money that it has actually borrowed -- and has been paying back with interest. Even the price of hamburger got a bad rap in the latest Republican presidential debate, thanks to Ted Cruz. A look at some of the claims Wednesday night and how they compare with the facts: CRUZ: "If you look at a single mom buying groceries, she sees hamburger prices have gone up nearly 40 percent. She sees her cost of electricity going up. She sees her health insurance going up. And loose money is one of the major problems." THE FACTS: Americans may be facing many economic challenges, but rising inflation isn't one of them. And "loose money," a way of describing the Federal Reserve's low interest rate policies, isn't to blame for expensive hamburgers. Beef prices rose 21 percent in January of this year compared with a year earlier. That reflected a Midwest drought that had caused some cattle ranchers to cull their herds. Beef prices have since settled down and were up just 1 percent in September from a year earlier. Electricity costs have actually fallen 0.4 percent during that period. Those are national averages, so some local areas will have different figures. Overall, inflation has remained below even the Fed's 2 percent target for the past three years. In fact, the government's primary inflation measure, the Consumer Price Index, has actually been unchanged in the past 12 months. CARSON: His proposed flat-rate tax, which would have everyone pay an income tax rate of about 15 percent, "works out very well" in budget terms because it would spark enough economic growth to offset the lower rate. THE FACTS: Carson says his proposed tax would not increase the budget deficit because he would tax the entire economic output of the U.S. -- the gross domestic product -- plus corporate income and capital gains. Carson has not laid out a detailed plan, so it is difficult to measure how it would affect revenues or the economy. But based on what he said, he's double-counting because corporate revenues are part of the GDP. A tax rate of 15 percent would be a huge tax cut for the wealthy. The top income tax rate for individuals is now 39.6 percent. The corporate tax rate for corporations is 35 percent. To help offset the rate cuts, Carson said he would "get rid of all the deductions and all the loopholes." That's a bold proposal, considering how popular many tax breaks are, including deductions for interest on home mortgages and charitable contributions, as well as exemptions for health insurance and retirement savings. CHRISTIE: FBI Director James Comey said police officers are holding back "because of a lack of support from politicians like the president of the United States." THE FACTS: That's not what Comey said. In a speech last week about an alarming rise in crime, Comey said some officers feel under siege because of the spread of viral videos taken by young people with cell phones. Comey said he'd heard about one police official who told his force "their political leadership has no tolerance for a viral video." But Comey never mentioned Obama or blamed politicians for failing to support police. And Comey made clear he didn't have data to back up his gut impression. Christie also said when Obama was asked to speak about the issue, he declined to support police. In fact, Obama gave a firm defense of police Tuesday, telling a police chiefs convention that "this country is safer because of your efforts." TRUMP: "I'm putting up 100 percent of my own money." THE FACTS: No, he's not. Of $3.9 million raised for his campaign in the latest fundraising quarter, only $100,000 came from his own pocket. That was one major revelation from the latest batch of presidential fundraising reports, filed Oct. 15 with the Federal Election Commission. That's a drastic shift from his springtime fundraising report, when he loaned his campaign nearly all of the $1.9 million it had. BUSH: "Marco, when you signed up for this, this was a six-year term, and you should be showing up for work." RUBIO: "Barack Obama missed 60 or 70 percent of his votes" when running for president while he was in the Senate. THE FACTS: Bush correctly cited Rubio's spotty attendance record in the Senate since running for president, but ignored the fact that this is common when someone in public office runs a White House campaign --and previous candidates were absent far more often. Bush himself is free to run for president as he pleases, because he doesn't have a day job from which to be absent. For his part, Rubio didn't offer a fair comparison when comparing his Senate voting rate with Obama's. From Oct. 27, 2014, to Oct. 26, 2015, Rubio was absent for 26 percent of Senate votes, a worse attendance record than other senators running for president, according to an analysis by GovTrack.us, which tracks congressional voting records. But in a comparable period in the 2008 race -- from Oct. 23, 2006, to Oct. 22, 2007 -- Obama was absent for 29 percent of votes, a bit more than Rubio's absences, but not as much more as Rubio charged. Republican John McCain was absent for 51 percent of Senate votes in that period. Both Obama and McCain went on to miss an even bigger share of Senate votes as the election progressed -- an expected development bound to be seen again in 2016. CHRISTIE: The federal government has "stolen" the Social Security taxes paid by workers and spent it on other things. "It isn't their money any more. ... It got stolen from them. It's not theirs anymore. The government stole it and spent it a long time ago." THE FACTS: The money is not stolen, it's borrowed. Over the past 30 years, Social Security has collected about $2.7 trillion more in payroll taxes than it has paid in benefits. By law, the Treasury Department has invested the surplus in U.S. Treasury bonds. Over that same time period, the federal government has run budget deficits in all but a few years. To finance the deficits, the government has borrowed money, from other government agencies as well as public debt markets. The money from Social Security has been spent, but Social Security holds Treasury bonds worth $2.7 trillion, backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. Saying the money has been stolen assumes that the federal government will not honor the bonds. Social Security has been paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes since 2010. The program has been able to pay full benefits because the federal government has honored the bonds. TRUMP: Asked about his criticism of Rubio for his support for increasing the number of high-skilled foreign workers given visas to work in the U.S. -- calling Rubio Facebook CEO "Mark Zuckerburg's personal senator" -- Trump denied ever making the comment. "I never said that. I never said that," he said. THE FACTS: He did say it, on his own website. Trump's immigration policy calls for a different approach -- raising the prevailing wage for the jobs that attract high-skilled foreign workers, in hopes that they'll be filled by more Americans. Trump's policy statement said doing that "will improve the number of black, Hispanic and female workers in Silicon Valley who have been passed over in favor of the H-1B program. Mark Zuckerberg's personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities." SEN. RAND PAUL: The new budget agreement "will explode the deficit, it will allow President Obama to borrow unlimited amounts of money." THE FACTS: The agreement allows $80 billion more spending over the next two years, which is only a small addition to the $3.67 trillion the government spends every year. The government's annual budget deficit has declined to $439 billion, about 2.5 percent of GDP, below the average for the past 40 years. Overall, whatever its faults, most economists have responded to this week's budget deal between Congress and the White House with a sigh of relief. The agreement, approved by the House earlier Wednesday, sets funding levels and extends the government's borrowing limit for two more years, thereby taking the threat of a government shutdown and debt default off the table. A 2013 budget fight led to a 16-day partial government shutdown that was widely blamed by most economists for sharp drops in consumer and business confidence that dragged on the economy. GEORGE PATAKI: "Hillary Clinton put a server, an unsecure server, in her home as secretary of state. We have no doubt that that was hacked, and that state secrets are out there to the Iranians, the Russians, the Chinese and others." THE FACTS: The former New York governor, speaking in the undercard debate, exaggerated what's actually known about what happened to the emails of Clinton, the Democratic front-runner for her party's presidential nomination. While Clinton's email server was poorly configured and therefore more susceptible to hacking, there is no evidence of intrusion. The FBI is studying the server, which was subjected to a phishing attack by Russian-linked hackers while she was secretary of state. It's not known whether she clicked on any attachments, which would have exposed her account. Her account was also apparently the subject of cyberattacks originating in China, South Korea and Germany after she left office in early 2013. Determining whether a hack was sponsored by a nation, rather than just originating from that country, is notoriously difficult.


This is a stake to the heart of Senator Ted Cruz! Sarah Palin is shocking everyone with a big endorsement today LIVE STREAMING BELOW (6:00 p.m. Eastern):Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice-presidential nominee who became a Tea Party sensation and a favorite of grass-roots conservatives, will endorse Donald J. Trump in Iowa on Tuesday, officials with his campaign confirmed. The endorsement provides Mr. Trump with a potentially significant boost just 13 days before the state s caucuses. I m proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for president, Ms. Palin said in a statement provided by his campaign.Her support is the highest-profile backing for a Republican contender so far. I am greatly honored to receive Sarah s endorsement, Mr. Trump said in a statement trumpeting Mrs. Palin s decision. She is a friend, and a high-quality person whom I have great respect for. I am proud to have her support. In Iowa, where Ms. Palin spent years developing support, the endorsement could be especially helpful. Over the years Palin has actually cultivated a number of relationships in Iowa, said Craig Robinson, the former executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa and publisher of the website The Iowa Republican. There are the Tea Party activists who still think she s great and a breath of fresh air, but she also did a good job of courting Republican donors in the state, he added.Other conservatives said that Ms. Palin serves as a particularly effective shield against Senator Ted Cruz, who is battling Mr. Trump for the lead in Iowa polls by courting the state s evangelical voters.LIVE STREAM: WINTERSET, Iowa Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is kicking off a swing through Iowa at the John Wayne Birthplace Museum, where he received an endorsement from the Western film actor s daughter, Aissa Wayne. The endorsement was announced Tuesday in front of a life-size, rifle-toting model of the actor in full cowboy gear.Aissa Wayne said the country needs a strong and courageous leader like her father. She said John Wayne would be offering his endorsement if he were still alive.Trump said he was a big fan of Wayne and that the actor represented strength and power which the American people are looking for.He said, We have exactly the opposite from John Wayne right now in this country. The museum includes an extensive collection of memorabilia from Wayne s movies.VIA: NYPTRUMP S FACEBOOK POST ON THE ENDORSEMENT:A true honor to receive the endorsement of John Wayne s daughter, Aissa Wayne. So proud that if John were here today, he would have endorsed Trump strength!


Google Pinterest Digg Linkedin Reddit Stumbleupon Print Delicious Pocket Tumblr  Voter fraud has been on the minds of Republicans for a while now. It has been proven that while yes, there are isolated incidences of in-person voter fraud, there has never been a case where it was so rampant that it changed the results of an election. But that's exactly what the GOP wants you to think is going on.  Donald Trump took Republican rhetoric about voter fraud and has ramped it up to an entirely new level, claiming that the upcoming election is going to be "rigged." Apparently, Republicans are in on this alleged rigging along with Democrats, since a number of the states where the vote looks to be close are controlled by the GOP. And as everyone outside of Trump's basket of deplorables knows, election mechanics are handled by the states, not the federal government.  How are Trump's supporters reacting to all of his claims about voter fraud? Well, in at least one case the answer to that question is "By committing voter fraud themselves."  Terri Lynn Rote, 55, an Iowa Trump supporter, has been charged with "election misconduct," which is a Class D felony in the state. According to Iowa Public Radio, Rote allegedly voted for Trump twice when she cast her ballot during early voting. And her reason? She was afraid that her first vote would be changed to a vote for Hillary Clinton, so she voted again. The Des Moines Register reports that Rote voted once at the Polk County elections office , then again at a county satellite polling location.  Rote told Iowa Public Radio,  "I wasn't planning on doing it twice, it was spur of the moment. The polls are rigged."  According to the Register, Rote's case was one of three voter fraud cases that occurred in Polk County alone. The other two incidents involved people who voted on mail-in ballots, then voted again in person. Polk County auditor Jamie Fitzgerald says this is the first time in his 12 years in office he has had to deal with even one case of voter fraud, let alone three. There are no details about who the other two suspects cast ballots for. The sad thing is, polls have been saying for weeks that Trump is going to win Iowa. Cases like this might put his win there in question, which would be a perfect example of poetic justice.  This is what the rhetoric about voter fraud has come t0 — people attempting to vote multiple times because they're convinced that their chosen candidate is going to be cheated out of a legitimate win. Republicans, unwilling to accept that their policies are being rejected by a larger and larger segment of the U.S. population, are trying to sell the message that elections are being stolen from the GOP by "massive" voter fraud. Yet, time after time, it seems to be Republicans who are committing the lion's share of it. They claim to love the country, but Trump and the GOP are deliberately undermining the foundation of a democracy — the integrity of the vote. Next, Trump will claim that people like Terri Rote are "political prisoners." Just wait for it.


Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards plans to sign legislation making it a hate crime to kill a police officer or another first responder, bolstering penalties for an offense that already qualifies for the state's death penalty, his office said on Tuesday. The legislation adds language to an existing law enhancing penalties for crimes targeting people based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and other identity categories to include "actual or perceived employment as a law enforcement officer, firefighter or emergency medical services personnel." Edwards, a Democrat whose relatives have served as law enforcement officers, is expected to sign the bill sometime this week. The state legislature unanimously approved the measure last week. "Police officers and firefighters often perform life-saving acts of heroism, oftentimes under very dangerous circumstances, and are integral in maintaining order and civility in our society," he said in a statement. "The members of the law enforcement community deserve these protections." Supporters say police officers are facing increased threats simply because they wear a badge. Advocates for the law have dubbed the Louisiana measure "Blue Lives Matter," a reference to the color of uniforms often worn by police. The name draws on a prominent national movement, known as Black Lives Matter, which has generated wide protest over the killings of unarmed black citizens by police officers. Yet opponents argued that the bill was unnecessary because state law already makes it a capital offense to kill police officers in the course of duty. Critics say it could weaken the hate crimes law by including a professional distinction that a matter of choice, in contrast to the color of someone's skin. "Adding professional categories to the current Hate Crimes statue deters efforts from protecting against identity-based crimes," Allison Padilla-Goodman, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas, said in a statement earlier this month. Louisiana would be the first state to use a hate crimes statute to enhance penalties for crimes against police officers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, but other states allow for similar outcomes using different approaches.


The aircraft carrying 66 people was about 175 miles from the Egyptian coast when it disappeared, travelling at an altitude of 11,000 metres (37,000ft). The plane had left Paris at 11.09pm on Wednesday (21.09 GMT/07.09am Thursday AEST) and disappeared at 2.30am Paris time, about 45 minutes before it was scheduled to land, and only 40 seconds after it left Greek airspace and entered Egyptian space over the Mediterranean. The Greek defence minister, Panos Kammenos, said on Thursday that after entering Egyptian airspace the plane fell 6,706 metres (22,000ft) and swerved sharply before it disappeared from radar screens. On Friday he said debris from the plane, including a "body part", two seats and suitcases, had been found by Egyptian vessels in the Mediterranean sea. Egypt's military said it had found personal belongings and parts of the wreckage 180 miles north of the coastal city of Alexandria. The plane was carrying 56 passengers and 10 crew: two cockpit crew, five cabin crew and three security personnel. The airline said two babies and one child were on board. The nationalities of the passengers were as follows: 30 Egyptians, 15 French citizens, two Iraqis and one person each from Britain, Belgium, Sudan, Chad, Canada, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Portugal and Algeria. An Airbus A320, which is considered a safe and reliable plane. Nonetheless, the model has been involved in safety incidents in the recent past, including the Germanwings tragedy in March 2015 that claimed 150 lives. It was also the aircraft Chesley Sullenberger landed on the Hudson river in 2009. EgyptAir said the captain had 6,275 flying hours, including 2,101 on the A320; the co-pilot had 2,766 flying hours. The plane was manufactured in 2003. Airbus said it was aware of the report about the plane but otherwise made no comment. Egypt's aviation minister, Sherif Fathy, has said the Airbus A320's sudden disappearance was more likely caused by a terrorist attack than technical failure. But the French foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, said on Friday that there was "absolutely no indication" of why the flight came down. The aircraft passed through airports in Tunisia and Eritrea in the four journeys it made on Wednesday before the Paris-Cairo flight, but no warning flags were raised. EgyptAir's vice-chairman, Ahmed Abdel, said there were "no reported snags" from the crew in Cairo or Paris, nor was there any special cargo or notification of dangerous goods on board. The area of the Mediterranean where the plane went down is heavily trafficked and much monitored, within reach of British listening posts in Cyprus, close to Israel and near to the US Sixth Fleet. An Egyptian army spokesman says searches are continuing in the area where the debris was found. The location is the centre of a major international air and sea operation to find the aircraft's two black box flight recorders, which might hold the key to what happened. The water in that section of the Mediterranean can be 2,000 metres (6,500ft) deep. The equipment involved in the search for MH370 is able to search depths of at least 6,000 metres. If the EgyptAir A320 is the same as the Germanwings model that crashed last year, it will have two recording components: a cockpit voice recorder, which tapes what the pilots say, and a flight data recorder, which stores some of the 2,500 technical measurements in a modern aircraft. Both are stored at the back of the aircraft and wrapped in titanium or stainless steel, to best survive a crash. They are able to withstand one hour of 1,100C heat and weight of up to 227kg. The boxes can take years to be found – two years in the case of Air France flight 447, which disappeared in 2009 in the Atlantic. Greece's lead air accident investigator, Athanasios Binis, said: "The most important thing is that the plane's two black boxes are found. If the cockpit flight recorder and flight data recorder are found, along with wreckage, then a real investigation can begin. "There are three reasons for a plane [to go down]. Meteorological, technical and human. The first has now been ruled out because the weather was quite good. Whether a technical factor or human factor, either inside or outside the plane, is to blame remains to be seen. All possibilities are open." François Hollande, the French president, said: "We have a duty to know everything about the cause and what has happened. No theory is ruled out and none is certain right now. "When we have the truth we will draw our conclusions; whether this was an accident or something else, perhaps terrorist. We will have the truth." Panos Kammenos, the Greek defence minister, said: "The plane carried out a 90-degree turn to the left and a 360-degree turn to the right, falling from 37,000 to 15,000ft and the signal was lost at around 10,000ft." The Egyptian prime minister, Sherif Ismail, said it was too early to rule out any explanation for the incident, including terrorism: "We cannot exclude anything at this time or confirm anything. All the search operations must be concluded so we can know the cause." Serafeim Petrou, the head of Greece's air traffic controllers board, said: "The plane did not give any vocal or electronic signal before it disappeared," adding that "nothing can be excluded" on causes: "An explosion could be a possibility but, then, so could damage to the fuselage. I think at this point we are talking about wreckage, wreckage at the bottom of the sea and tracing the cause is going to take time." Jean-Paul Troadec, the ex-president of the French air accident investigation bureau, said "we have to remain very careful" about possible causes. "We can make certain hypotheses … there's a strong possibility of an explosion on board from a bomb or a suicide bomber. The idea of a technical accident, when weather conditions were good, seems also possible but not that likely. We could also consider a missile … If the crew didn't send an alert signal, it's because what happened was very sudden. A problem with an engine or a technical fault would not produce an immediate accident. In this case, the crew did not react, which makes us think of a bomb." The director of Greece's Civil Aviation Authority, Konstantinos Lintzerakos, said air traffic controllers were in contact with the pilot as the plane passed through Greek airspace, and that he did not report any problems. Controllers tried to make contact again with the pilot 10 miles before the flight exited the Greek flight information range, Lintzerakos added, but the pilot did not respond.


Ukraine has expelled a Russian journalist working for the television channel NTV as punishment for spreading anti-Ukrainian propaganda and justifying the actions of separatists, the state security service (SBU) said on Thursday. Relations between Kiev and Moscow have been poisoned since Moscow annexed Crimean from Ukraine in 2014 and backed a separatist insurgency in Ukraine s eastern Donbass region that has killed more than 10,000 people despite a notional ceasefire. Ukraine says Russia is fighting a hybrid war with Kiev, spreading propaganda while supporting the separatists with troops and sophisticated weaponry and launching cyber attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, which Moscow denies. Vyacheslav Nemyshev was expelled in the early hours of Thursday for preparing a series of false anti-Ukrainian materials, the SBU state security service said. The propagandist is forbidden from entering Ukraine for three years. NTV said on its website the incident confirmed that it was practically impossible for Russian journalists to work in Ukraine today. I was at the police station for five hours, first the police took testimony from me, then the SBU officers, NTV quoting Nemyshev as saying. After that we drove around Kiev for a really long time, then we stopped at some street where I sat in a car in the dark. After that, they told me that everything had been decided, and we went to the border. Ukraine in August detained and then deported another Russian journalist for spreading anti-Ukrainian propaganda, a move condemned both by Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which monitors the Donbass war. The security service had also barred two Spanish journalists for their negative coverage of the conflict.


(CNN) Heavily armed gunmen on Friday fired indiscriminately at guests at a hotel hosting diplomats and others in Mali's capital, the maître d' told CNN. At least 21 people were killed in the attack in which an al Qaeda-affiliated group is taking partial responsibility. "These people started shooting. They were shooting at everybody without asking a single question. They were shooting at anything that moved," Tamba Couye said of the attack at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako. One man did yell "Allahu akbar," said Couye, who was working in the restaurant where breakfast was underway. The attackers sounded like they were from northern Mali, he told "Erin Burnett OutFront." Couye said an attacker chased him from the hotel but he came back later to help because his instincts told him he needed to do so to save lives. Dozens of people were trapped in the building for hours, officials in the West African nation said, before Malian and U.N. security forces launched a counterattack and rushed guests away. Olivier Salgado, a spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, put the death toll at 21. At least six people injured in the attack have been hospitalized, Health Minister Marie Madeleine Togo told state broadcaster ORTM. Al Mourabitoun, an Islamist militant group, claimed it was jointly responsible for the attack, according to Mauritanian news agency Al Akhbar. The group announced it carried out the attack with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the news agency reported. Al Mourabitoun said the attack was carried out in retaliation for government aggression in northern Mali, Al Akhbar reported. The group also demanded the release of prisoners in France. Algerian jihadist and the leader of the group, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, is "probably" behind the attack, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in an interview on France's TF1, but the French are not "entirely sure." Belmokhtar was the target of a June U.S. airstrike in Libya. Libyan officials said he had been killed but U.S. officials never confirmed his death publicly. The assault began about 7 a.m., when two or three attackers with AK-47 rifles exited at least one vehicle with diplomatic plates and entered the hotel with guns firing, Salgado said. The attack, Salgado said, came as the hotel hosted diplomatic delegations working on a peace process in the landlocked country, a former French colony that has been battling Islamist extremists with the help of U.N. and French forces. The Radisson chain said that as many as 170 people -- 140 guests and 30 employees -- had been there as the attack began. Malian soldiers and U.N. troops had the hotel surrounded, a journalist for ORTM told CNN from the scene. Two security personnel were injured, Security Minister Salif Traore said on ORTM. "We're still hearing erratic gunfire," journalist Katarina Hoije told CNN from near the scene Friday afternoon. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The Radisson Blu Hotel is in an upscale neighborhood outside the center of Bamako, rising high above the dusty streets and surrounding houses. With 190 rooms and suites, it is known as a hub for international guests such as diplomats and businesspeople, and it is a 15-minute drive from Bamako-Senou International Airport. "I think this attack has been perpetrated by negative forces, terrorists, who do not want to see peace in Mali," Hamdi said. U.S. President Barack Obama said Saturday that the United States is still accounting for Americans who may have been inside the hotel. Speaking in Malaysia, Obama said that thanks to the swift action of Malian and other security forces, lives were saved. He said the victims were "innocent people who had everything to live for." The hotel attack, and the diplomats' meeting, came in a country that has struggled with Islamist extremists, especially since 2012. Taking advantage of a chaotic situation after a military coup in March 2012, Islamist extremists with links to al Qaeda carved out a large portion of northern Mali for themselves. When the militants tried to push into the south, France, at the Malian government's request, sent thousands of troops in 2013. The ground and air campaign sent Islamist fighters who had seized the northern region fleeing into the vast desert. The United Nations then established a peacekeeping mission in Mali that year, hoping to keep the government secure enough to continue a peace process. Though military pressure largely drove Islamist militants from cities, they have regrouped in the desert areas, said J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Washington-based Atlantic Council. "Unfortunately, this (hotel) is a likely target" because it is popular with international guests such as U.N. workers, Pham said. U.S. special operations forces were helping "move civilians to secured locations as Malian forces clear the hotel of hostile gunmen," said Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Falvo, a spokesman for U.S. Africa Command. Michael Skapoullis, who lives near the Radisson Blu, told CNN he was using the hotel's gym Friday morning when he noticed fellow exercisers leaving. He hadn't heard anything because he was listening to music, but he decided to follow. He walked to a door leading to the hotel lobby, and that's when he saw something was wrong. "When I opened the door, I saw, on the floor, bullets," Skapoullis said. "So I gently closed the door, and ... I went back into the gym" and eventually left the complex. Another man who'd been in the hotel told ORTM that he heard gunshots that he initially thought were fireworks. "Then we heard the hotel alarm. ... I walked out into the hallway, and I saw a lot of smoke," said the man, whom ORTM didn't name. "Then I went back into my room to stay there. "Later, the Malian forces came to get us. ... Thank God we are now healthy and safe." As news of the attack spread, media outlets and officials from a number of nations reported that some of their citizens were in the hotel or had been freed. A summary: - One U.S. citizen was killed, a senior State Department official told CNN. "We express our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased. ... Out of respect for the family, we have no further information at this time." Of Anita Datar, her brother Sanjeev Datar, said. "Everything she did in her life she did to help others -- as a mother, public health expert, daughter, sister and friend." - "About a dozen" Americans were rescued, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said. - Geoffrey Dieudonne, an administrative counselor for Belgium's Parliament, died as a result of the attack, Parliament said. Details about his death weren't immediately clear; he was in Bamako as part of a three-day French-language convention. - Three Chinese nationals were killed, the political counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Bamako told media in his country. State-run CCTV reported that four other Chinese guests were rescued. - Seven Algerians, including six members of an Algerian diplomatic delegation, are safe after being trapped in the hotel, the state-run Algerie Presse Service reported. The Algerians were freed during a counterassault by U.N. and Malian forces. - Twenty Indian nationals, working for a Dubai-based company and staying at the hotel long-term, were safely evacuated, Vikas Swarup, a spokesman for India's Ministry of External Affairs, said on Twitter. - Twelve Air France crew members who were staying at the hotel were safely extracted, the airline tweeted. Air France has canceled all its flights to and from Bamako as a precaution, the airline said. - Turkish Airlines said at seven of its employees were staying at the hotel, and all had been freed by the afternoon. - Two German nationals were able to leave the hotel, Germany's Foreign Office said. The soldiers stormed the hotel to end a daylong siege that started when gunmen raided the hotel after attacking a military site nearby, witnesses said. At the time, the Malian army said the attackers were affiliated with the Macina Liberation Movement. Human Rights Watch has described the group as Islamists who commit "serious abuses in the course of military operations against Mali's security forces."


After a really bad week for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, where he was destroyed endlessly by speaker after speaker at the Democratic National Convention, including by the Muslim parents of a fallen soldier, it would seem desperate times called for desperate measures.You may have noticed that the New York Post released photos of Melania Trump where she is posing nude, and even with other girls. Shocking, right? No, not really, considering this was Melania s former career, and her husband has always embraced it to the point of gloating.Here are the covers:Today's cover: Melania Trump like you've never seen her before https://t.co/wkoDGWTF9g pic.twitter.com/V375rBTUEw New York Post (@nypost) July 31, 2016Today's cover: Melania Trump's girl-on-girl photo shoot revealed https://t.co/QUEjkxZnXg pic.twitter.com/38p82c0MiM New York Post (@nypost) August 1, 2016So, the question can be asked, why now? And as to not sound like a complete conspiracy theorist, let s look at all the evidence and connect the dots which doesn t take terribly long.Those dots can probably be reduced even more so, because it doesn t take a genius to figure it all out. So, don t fall for it. It s clear media manipulation at its finest and it s working gloriously. Let s not let it.Focus on the fact that Trump is a racist, misogynistic egomaniac who will attack women, Muslims, Latinos, and now Gold Star families all while never admitting he s wrong. Focus on the fact that he d rather have you looking at his beautiful wife in the nude, and then feign outrage to get you to come back on his side. Focus on the fact that he has absolutely none of the experience necessary to be President of the United States. DO NOT focus on distraction tactics.


An Austrian former finance minister went on trial on Tuesday accused of bribery and embezzlement in one of the biggest corruption cases in the country s recent history. Karl-Heinz Grasser and 15 former high-ranking politicians, managers and bankers are charged in connection with the privatization of state housing company Buwog in 2004. Grasser, 48, was one of Austria s most popular politicians and became the country s youngest finance minister in 2000 when he was appointed aged 31 to serve in a coalition between the conservatives and the far right Freedom Party. He is accused of embezzling part of a commission for the sale of 60,000 federal apartments. He denies the accusations and said in a television interview on Monday he was glad the trial was starting so he could prove his innocence. Defense lawyers say the case is politically motivated at a time when conservatives and the far-right are working to form a government to replace a coalition led by social democrats. Investigators spent eight years gathering evidence and working on an indictment that runs for more than 800 pages. It says he under-priced the biggest ever sale of state-owned flats. The tender came down to two bidders and the contract was awarded to a financial consortium that offered just 1 million euros ($1.2 million) more than its competitor. After the sale, millions of euros in commissions flowed to two Grasser associates suggesting insider dealing, according to prosecutors. Grasser, who is married to socialite Fiona Swarovski, the heir of the Swarovski crystal manufacturers, says he is a victim of prejudice from the media and the judiciary. The trial is the latest to stem from the tenure of Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel who took power in 2000. Others have concerned the telecoms and real estate sectors. The court rejected a petition by Grasser s defense lawyer Manfred Ainedter to remove the chief of the four judges, Marion Hohenecker, due to conflict of interest because of tweets critical of Grasser sent by her husband who is also a judge.


Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed to take help from the U.N. refugee agency to safely repatriate hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who had fled violence in Myanmar, Bangladesh said on Saturday. More than 600,000 Rohingya sought sanctuary in Bangladesh after the military in mostly Buddhist Myanmar launched a brutal counter-insurgency operation in their villages across the northern parts of Rakhine State following attacks by Rohingya militants on an army base and police posts on Aug. 25. Faced with a burgeoning humanitarian crisis, the two governments signed a pact on Thursday agreeing that the return of the Rohingya to Myanmar should start within two months. Uncertainty over whether the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) would have a role had prompted rights groups to insist that outside monitors were needed to safeguard the Rohingya s return. Addressing a news conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali gave assurances that the UNHCR would play some part. Both countries agreed to take help from the UNHCR in the Rohingya repatriation process, Ali said. Myanmar will take its assistance as per their requirement. The diplomatic breakthrough came just ahead of a visit by Pope Francis to Myanmar and Bangladesh from Nov. 26 to Dec. 2 that is aimed at promoting reconciliation, forgiveness and peace . While the violence in Rakhine has mostly ceased, Rohingya have continued to stream out of Myanmar, saying they have largely lost access to sources of livelihood such as their farms, fisheries and markets. Thousands of Rohingya, most of them old people, women and children, remain stranded on beaches near the border, waiting for a boat to take them to Bangladesh. Ali said a joint working group, to be formed within three weeks, will fix the final terms to start the repatriation process. After leaving the refugee camps in Bangladesh, Rohingya who opt to be voluntarily repatriated will be moved to camps in Myanmar, the minister said. Most houses were burnt down. Where they will live after going back? So, it is not possible to physically return to their homes, Ali said. Myanmar officials have said returnees will be moved to camps only temporarily while so-called model villages are constructed near their former homes. Win Myat Aye, the minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement who heads a Myanmar government panel on rehabilitation in Rakhine, said India and China had offered to provide modular houses for returnees. The U.N. and the United States have described the Myanmar military s actions as ethnic cleansing , and rights groups have accused the security forces of committing atrocities, including mass rape, arson and killings. The United States also warned it could impose sanctions on individuals responsible for alleged abuses. Led by Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar is in the early stages of a transition to democracy after decades of military rule. But civilian government is less than two years old, and still shares power with the generals, who retain autonomy over matters of defense, security and borders. The commander of Myanmar s armed forces, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, has denied that soldiers committed any atrocities. On Friday he met China s President Xi Jinping in Beijing having been told earlier in the week by a top Chinese general that China wanted stronger ties with Myanmar s military. Under the deal struck with Bangladesh, Myanmar agreed to take measures to see that the returnees will not be settled in temporary places for a long time. Myanmar plans to issue them an identity card on their return, although most Rohingya have so far rejected a scheme to give them national verification cards . While the agreement says Bangladesh would seek the U.N. refugee agency s assistance on the process, Myanmar - which has largely blocked aid agencies from working in northern Rakhine since August - only agreed that the services of the UNHCR could be drawn upon as needed and at the appropriate time . Win Myat Aye told Reuters on Saturday that Myanmar would discuss technical assistance with the UNHCR, but had not reached a formal agreement with the agency. There were already hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh before the latest exodus, and the Bangladesh minister said they could also be considered for the repatriation, under the terms of the agreement. The agreement, however, says they will be considered separately on the conclusion of the present agreement. Some independent estimates suggest there are still a few hundred thousand Rohingya remaining in Rakhine.


A regional ballot in Sicily this weekend will serve as a dress rehearsal for a forthcoming general election, with the political dynamics on the Mediterranean island matching those being played out on the national stage. Bolstered by the return of four-times prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to the campaign trail, a resurgent centre-right is looking to reclaim its supremacy over Sicily and show that after years of scandals it is once again a force to be reckoned with. It faces a fierce opponent in the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, which has never won control of a Italian region and hopes victory on Sunday might propel it to success in next year s parliamentary election. Meanwhile, the centre-left, which now heads both the Sicilian and national governments, has succumbed to feuding with leftist rivals - a fratricidal struggle that looks likely to wreck its chances of regaining power. Sicily is one of the poorest regions in Europe, ranking 237 out of 263 in European Union competitiveness rankings, and has become a byword for bloated public payrolls, wasteful administration and the ever-present scourge of corruption and organized crime. It is also seen as a bellwether of national politics. The centre-right won all 61 seats on offer here in a 2001 national election when Berlusconi was at the zenith of his power. By 2012, with the mood in the country changing, Sicily shifted towards the centre-left, foreshadowing the bloc s subsequent victory five months later at a national level. The 5-Star hopes the political winds are now blowing in its favor and that voters are ready to embrace its manifesto, which focuses on fighting graft, promoting green energy and offering universal income support for the poor. The vote on November 5 is like a referendum ... You are choosing between the future and the past, between legality and corruption, said Luigi Di Maio, the 5-Star s new national leader, who has campaigned relentlessly in Sicily for weeks. Final opinion polls published before a blackout was imposed on Oct. 23 put the centre-right candidate Nello Musumeci on some 33 percent against 31.5 percent for the 5-Star s Giancarlo Cancelleri. The centre-left s Fabrizio Micari was seen taking some 16 percent, just ahead of the leftist Claudio Fava. Since the release of the last surveys, Musumeci has come under pressure over candidates on his list, some of whom have criminal records or are awaiting trial for graft. The 5-Star says the scandal has given it a major lift ahead of Sunday. While 5-Star and centre-right leaders have criss-crossed Sicily this autumn, the head of the ruling centre-left Democratic Party, former prime minister Matteo Renzi, has kept a low profile, insisting the vote is just about regional issues. Sicily certainly has its share of problems. The island s economic output fell more than 13 percentage points between 2008 and 2015 and it will take many years before it recovers the lost ground. Unemployment stands at over 22 percent, twice the national average, and youth unemployment is at 57.2 percent, compared with some 36 percent nationally. But should the Democratic Party candidate suffer a drubbing, it will undermine Renzi s standing within the party and underscore the cost it is paying for civil war on the left before the national vote, which is due by May 2018. Although the centre-right is running united, it too has internal divisions. Berlusconi has resisted campaigning alongside Matteo Salvini, the leader of his main ally, the Northern League, whom he has dismissed as a populist. But unlike Renzi, 81-year-old Berlusconi has papered over the differences and kept his focus on his main rival. The Sicilian elections resemble the national vote in one way. In Palermo, as in Rome, the fight is between us and the (5-Star), between our experience and competence ... and their utter poverty and incompetence, he said in Palermo on Wednesday.


The story below from the liberal New York Times is hysterical! Rex Tillerson is sweeping the State Department clean! The angle of the NYT article is one of horror and shock that Tillerson could let these lifers in the bloated bureaucracy of the State Department go in such large numbers. How dare he! LOL!5 MINUTES AND YOU RE OUTTA HERE:Of all the State Department employees who might have been vulnerable in the staff reductions that Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson has initiated as he reshapes the department, the one person who seemed least likely to be a target was the chief of security, Bill A. Miller.Mr. Miller got just five minutes with the secretary of state, the former officials said. Afterward, Mr. Miller, a career Foreign Service officer, was pushed out, joining a parade of dismissals and early retirements that has decimated the State Department s senior ranks. Mr. Miller declined to comment.DEMOCRATS GO NUTS OVER HOLLOWING-OUT OF DEPARTMENT:Democratic members of the House Foreign Relations Committee wrote a letter to Tillerson citing what they said was the exodus of more than 100 senior Foreign Service officers from the State Department since January . They expressed concern about what appears to be the intentional hollowing-out of our senior diplomatic ranks. Career diplomats are outta here! Tillerson has also slashed the State Department budget by 31 percent! This is great!Tillerson has also frozen hiring and offered payouts to many career employees He s hoping to reduce the State Department workforce by 2,000! Yes, 2,000!MAGA!


Email  The United States' abstention on a resolution to end its economic embargo on Cuba-a first time it happens after opposing it for 24 years- is an implicit acknowledgement of the wrongness of such a measure. It has brought considerable and unnecessary suffering to the Cuban people and hasn't brought any positive results to the U.S.  Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said in September that damage from the embargo between April 2015 and March 2016 amounted to $4.6 billion and to $125.9 billion since the beginning of the embargo more than 50 years ago. By maintaining the embargo, the U.S. has been a target of derision throughout the world, as shown by the repeated and overwhelming U.N. Assembly decisions against the embargo in the last 24 years.  In repeated visits to Cuba I was able to observe the impact of the embargo on the Cuban people. During my first visit to Cuba in 1981 to attend a public health-related meeting, I witnessed an unusual incident. As friends and I walked into the Bodeguita del Medio — a traditional restaurant famous for its many illustrious visitors over the years (Hemingway was a frequent patron) — a young Cuban male was discreetly asked to leave.  Realizing we weren't locals, the young man began ranting against government restrictions on Cubans. "I have money," he told us. "But they prefer foreigners to eat and spend their money here. I am fed up with this regime." As we were observing the scene, he asked us, "Do you see something in that corner?"  "Yes," I said, "there is a man standing there." "You are wrong," he replied. "He is not a man. That's a gigantic ear listening to everything I say to you. But I don't care. I am so sick and tired of this situation." In those few minutes, I got a first-hand sense of the problems besieging Cuban society: the need for foreign money, the oppressive nature of the regime and the dissatisfaction of the country's youth. These impressions were later confirmed during a later visit to the island when I headed a UN mission to assess the progress of Cuban scientists in developing interferon, an antiviral substance.  Highlighting the Cuban government's shortcomings doesn't diminish its achievements. During my last visit I met Fidel Castro. Although we didn't raise any political issues in our conversation, I was able to assess his enormous interest in — and knowledge of — health issues. This interest and knowledge underlies the Castro's government accomplishments in health and education.  Cuba, for all its other faults and drawbacks, is in the forefront in both fields when compared to other Latin American countries. And in some areas, it is on par with the United States. This progress, however, has been hindered by the unnecessary and ineffective embargo against the country, a situation that has cost the United States materially. In addition, the embargo has hurt U.S. prestige among Latin American governments, which consider it a violation of a fellow Latin nation's rights and sovereignty.  There is no doubt that political pressure from the powerful Cuban exile community in Florida has been an important factor in maintaining the U.S. embargo. However, the descendants of that immigrant generation have now a more nuanced view of the Cuban regime. In particular, they have seen the damage caused by decades of antagonism between both countries — and are eager for friendlier relations between them.  While Cubans have always been clear about their admiration for the American people — which I have observed first hand during my visits to the island — the embargo has fostered more hate and mistrust of the U.S. government than of the Cuban government among Cubans.  If votes in the UN General Assembly are a test, no country in the world now supports the embargo. President Barack Obama has wisely eased restrictions on travel to the island by Cubans and their descendants. This policy should be followed by an intense exchange of scientists, doctors, artists and ordinary citizens. The effect would be dramatic in neutralizing the atmosphere of antagonism and should be followed by the rapid lifting of the embargo and the complete normalization of relations between both countries.


President Michel Temer said on Friday that a bill overhauling Brazil s costly pension system might not clear Congress this year as planned, the first time that he has indicated that such a delay might happen. In an interview with Poder360 news website, Temer said the government had to again consult lawmakers in the government coalition, many of whom have already said they are doubtful the legislation will pass this year. The pension reform is crucial to Temer s attempts to plug Brazil s budget deficit and reduce the bloated pension system. But its provisions to increase the retirement age have made it unpopular with Brazilians. Temer put the delay down to charges in a corruption case that put his legislative agenda on hold for six months. The government is considering a watered-down version of the bill, Temer said, confirming previous statements from officials that it would be ready to settle for a bill that included at least the introduction of a minimum retirement age of 65 years for men, up from the current average age of 55. A diluted pension bill would also need to include a gradual transition to the new rules and parity between the public and private pension systems, he said. His chief of staff Eliseu Padilha, who also took part in the interview, said the government hoped a less extensive reform would still achieve 75 percent of the planned fiscal savings, assuming it included cuts to benefits for public sector employees. Temer also said the government may issue a temporary decree to extend for a few weeks the Refis program that allows companies and individuals to renegotiate delinquent tax payments.


May 7th is likely going to be a day of clashes against protesters who are coming from all over the United States to demonstrate against the removal of Confederate monuments in New Orleans. Homeland Security and New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison have promised that they will be arresting anyone who commits or threatens to commit an act of violence. The three locations they ll be watching are: Lee Circle, Congo Square and the Jefferson Davis monument, as credible threats have been reportedTension in New Orleans has mounted since the Battle of Liberty Place obelisk was removed early on the morning of April 24, part of an initiative by Mayor Mitch Landrieu, backed by the City Council, to rid New Orleans of what some consider to be tributes to racism. Supporters consider the monuments part of history, and their removal an attempt to erase history.Protestors on both sides clashed at the Jefferson Davis statute this week, prompting police to barricade the monument. Barricades also appeared Friday afternoon at Lee Circle.Landrieu has said statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard and Confederacy President Jefferson Davis will come down sometime after the 2017 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival wraps ends Sunday.RADICAL activists like Take Em Down Nola, a group that has long advocated for the monuments removal, plans to rally at Congo Square on Sunday at 1:30 p.m then march to Lee Circle. At least one pro-monument contingent has called for a rally at 11 a.m. at Lee Circle.From the Take Em Down Nola website:TAKE EM DOWN NOLA CALLS FOR PEOPLES CELEBRATION & SECOND LINE TO BURY WHITE SUPREMACYWhile white supremacists gather from many states around confederate monuments in OUR CITY, the mayor nor council has still not publicly called for its own ceremony to honor the historic occasion of 4 monuments to slavery coming down. Even the conservative governor of S.C. had a public ceremony to remove the confederate flag. Cowering in darkness offers no safety or protection, it is shameful and being questioned by world wide media.We the people of New Orleans demand that the Mayor and City Council take immediate action to remove all monuments, school names and street signs dedicated to White Supremacists. These structures litter our city with visual reminders of the horrid legacy of slavery that terrorized so many of this city s ancestors. They misrepresent our community. We demand the freedom to live in a city where we are not forced to pay taxes for the maintenance of public symbols that demean us and psychologically terrorize us. We demand:1.That the city release a timeline for the immediate removal of the monuments; 2.That the city expand the definition from 4 specific monuments to encompass all monuments to White Supremacy 3.That the city develop a community driven process for the removal of the monuments and the choosing of their replacements.Not everyone agrees with Take Em Down Nola that Confederate statues are a sign of racism. One of the most vocal defenders of the Confederate flag and of the Confederate statues in New Orleans is black female conservative activist Arlene Barnum. Barnum is pictured below with her friend, author and popular pro-Confederate flag speaker Anthony Hervey. Barnum was with when she says he was killed by 4-5 black youths after attending a pro-confederate flag rally in Mississippi. According to Barnum, she and Hervey were guest speakers at the rally in Mississippi. As they were leaving the rally, the SUV driven by Hervey was chased down by a silver car with 4-5 young black men inside. During the chase, he lost control of his car, it flipped and he was killed. Apparently his life didn t matter to the black community, as they never uttered a word about his suspicious death:PUBLIC NOTICE.. LISTEN UP very carefully. If anyone of you who claim to be pro-Confederate, but who are anti-Confederate Battle flag, then REMOVE yourself from my friends list. And be quick about it.If you are against the displaying of the Confederate Battle Flag in public, then REMOVE yourself from my friends list. Do it now!If you are advocating that people NOT bring Confederate Battle Flag into New Orleans at the endangered Confederate monuments, then REMOVE yourself from my friends list. And be quick as lickity split!As far as I know, I don t have any BLM folks on my friends list. And when I catch em thru the cracks, I remove & block them with the most extreme prejudice. However, in the case of these self-professed pro Confederate folks who have issues with that battle flag emblem, I will give them the respect, dignity & the curtesy to REMOVE themselves. I m giving them 72 hrs.In photo, the man to the left, Anthony Hervey is a Mississippian who was not afraid to publicly display the Confederate battle flag. As a colored man, he has been vilified, attacked, physically assaulted, called all sorts of racial insults that not even the average white Confederate flaggers had endured. But yet he kept on flagging proudly until the day he was killed. So don t give me that sh*t excuse to justify hiding the Confederate Battle flag to avoid being called a racist. I guarantee you that EVERY colored Confederate flagger I know have been called much worse & treated with violence & are the 1st to be targeted at public venues.You better not be black and support free speech or a Confederate monument in America or expect to be threatened by the left. This is no joke. Facebook user Gene Black threatened a black Confederate statue supporter s family while he s in New Orleans on his wall 4 days ago:Much like ISIS, pro-Confederate monument removal groups like Take Em Down Nola and communist groups like Antifa plan to come together to threaten free speech and freedom of expression.Black Rebel posted this image with the following message: words cannot described the friendships built after fighting side by side. on his Facebook page: Black Rebel also posted this video of an anti-free speech leftist launching a glass bottle, just missing the head of a fellow pro-confederate monument protester. Watch how the police take their time walking over to the area from where the bottle was thrown. You can hear the free speech protesters yelling, Do something! to the police officers as they appear to be in no hurry to do anything about it. Let s hope this is not an example of how police plan to respond to any potential acts of violence today, or things are likely to get very ugly very quickly: New Orleans Police Department held a press conference on Saturday where they made the public aware they are planning to keep the citizens of New Orleans safe and will keep the protesters safe from violence and from the threat of violence. Police Chief Harrison also makes it clear that they will take swift action for anyone who violates the law. Chief Harrison also makes clear that while they respect the rights of citizens to open carry weapons in New Orleans, that those weapons are not allowed at a public protest:Watch the response from American Warrior Revolution member to New Orleans Police Chief Harrison s press conference:


Washington Governor Jay Inslee on Tuesday signed a bill that paves the way for the state to create what is believed to be the first system in the United States to certify marijuana as organic. The sponsor of the bill, Republican Senator Ann Rivers, said marijuana certified as organically grown is likely to be on sale in Washington in about a year and a half. Washington is among a handful of U.S. states where voters approved the sale of recreational marijuana. Washington was the second state to begin legal recreational pot sales, in mid-2014, after its voters in 2012 approved it. "This is consumer-driven," Rivers told Reuters by phone on Tuesday night. "As we have moved forward in the legal marijuana market, we're hearing people say, 'We don't want any pesticides, fungicides, none of that stuff in our weed.'" The new law "creates a voluntary program for the certification and regulation of organic marijuana products," to be administered by the Washington agriculture department, according to a state analysis of the new law. Rivers said the "heavy lifting" in certifying marijuana has been done by the system of doing the same for a multitude of food products on supermarkets shelves across America. That process just needs to be adapted for pot, she said. Rivers said that legal recreational marijuana is "the gift that keeps on giving....this year, we'll make $768 million" in revenue for the state of Washington. This pays for drug education and drug addiction treatment as well as public education, she said. Organic pot was just one of a myriad of marijuana-related measures in the bill. Many state legislators wanted to vote for only one marijuana-related bill rather than have to go on the record favoring marijuana several times, Rivers said. The November 2012 measure to allow recreational marijuana in Washington passed 56 percent to 44 percent. While it is legal for adults to smoke marijuana in Washington, it is not legal to grow industrial hemp. The new law allows for the study of a method to allow hemp to be grown and used for industrial purposes. Last week, Vermont's legislature approved a bill to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Unless the measure is vetoed, Vermont would be the first state to legalize pot without a public vote. Voters have approved legal recreational marijuana use in Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon, California, Nevada, Maine, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.


Brexiters set up demented 'people's courts' 07-11-16 BREXIT supporters have set up a network of 'people's courts' where justice is based on popular opinion. Anti-EU Britons' dissatisfaction with the legal system has led to the creation of makeshift courts dealing with everything from witchcraft to disputes over borrowed garden tools. Accountant and people's judge Roy Hobbs said: "The court convenes in my living room, with the legal cases argued by our 'barristers' Sandra the local florist and Degsy, an unemployed decorator who's seen A Few Good Men five times. "Our biggest case so far has been the legality of Brexit. The court came to the unanimous decision that it is totally brilliant and anyone who disagrees deserves a toe up their arse. "You can accuse anyone of anything. Last week we dealt with 48 cases of people being shortchanged at the local Sainsbury's, a French spy and an old lady who put a curse on a horse than made it go lame. "Punishments range from the stocks for not wearing a poppy to hanging for more serious crimes, such as men having long hair. "Tomorrow I've got the case of a man who's guilty of liking Nicola Sturgeon. He won't be spouting his lies when he's being hit in the forehead by turnips."  Share:


The lawyer of an American-Iranian father and son jailed in Iran called on U.S. President Donald Trump to get his officials to press for the men's release at nuclear talks with Tehran on Tuesday. An Iranian court sentenced 46-year-old Siamak Namazi and his 80-year-old father Baquer Namazi to 10 years in prison each in October on charges of spying and cooperating with the United States. The Namazis' lawyer, Jared Genser, said he had traveled to the nuclear talks venue in Vienna with Siamak's brother, Babak, to encourage Washington's delegation to press the case, adding that he was worried about the detained men's health. The lawyer said a senior administration official in the U.S. delegation had told him on Monday that the case would be raised directly during the talks on the implementation of a deal reached in 2015 to shrink Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. A State Department spokeswoman did not comment directly on the case, but said: "We continue to use all the means at our disposal to advocate for U.S. citizens who need our assistance overseas." Iran has not commented on the Namazis' prison conditions but has repeatedly said that political prisoners are kept under standard condition in Evin prison with full access to medical care. "In our view, something happening to the Namazis would be devastating not just to one side but to both sides," Genser told reporters in a hotel near the venue. "For either or both of the Namazis to die on (Trump's) watch would be a public and catastrophic failure of his negotiating skills," Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps detained Siamak Namazi, a businessman, in October 2015 while he was visiting family in Tehran, relatives said. The IRGC arrested his 80-year-old father, Baquer Namazi, a former Iranian provincial governor and former UNICEF official in February lat year, family members said. Soon after the sentencing and days before he won the presidential election, Trump said on Twitter: "Iran has done it again ... This doesn't happen if I'm president!"


New York Times conservative columnist David Brooks is absolutely amazing. After years of sitting by while Republicans waged a scorched earth campaign against Democrats, the Constitution and basic human decency, he suddenly laments the toxic level of discourse in America. Why? Because Democrats are ascendant and Republicans are teetering on total collapse. Now, he says, we should work together and it would be bad for America if we don t!Brooks sets the stage by describing how we got here. He calls it anti-politics and he s VERY upset about it: Over the past generation we have seen the rise of a group of people who are against politics. These groups best exemplified by the Tea Party but not exclusive to the right want to elect people who have no political experience. They want outsiders. They delegitimize compromise and deal-making. They re willing to trample the customs and rules that give legitimacy to legislative decision-making if it helps them gain power. I m guessing he s referring to Bernie Sanders supporters as being the left-wing version because I can t think of any other group on the left that even remotely fits the description. But Bernie has been in Washington for 30 something years. He s hardly an inexperienced outsider. His followers may like his rebel cred but they don t want him to get into office for the sole purpose of bringing the government to a grinding halt. This is Brooks creating a false equivalency in order to absolve himself of his responsibility in creating antipolitics.He goes on to describe the antipolitics people as being extremists that cannot compromise and increasingly damage the process of governing. Essentially what the GOP has been doing for years while Brooks gave them ideological cover to wreck the country. Brooks is especially put off by Trump despite having enabled his rise in the first place.So far, the column is the usual right wing shifting of blame. They are patently incapable of accepting responsibility for their actions. But then we get to this, the plaintive wail for sanity: The answer to Trump is politics. It s acknowledging other people exist. It s taking pleasure in that difference and hammering out workable arrangements. As Harold Laski put it, We shall make the basis of our state consent to disagreement. Therein shall we ensure its deepest harmony.' It sure does sound reasonable but the timing of this sudden epiphany is not coincidental. You see, Republicans have spent the last 30+ years polarizing the country to the point where the two sides cannot work together. While Republicans controlled the White House, both chambers of Congress AND the Supreme Court, this was exactly what they wanted. They spent 6 years of ignoring the Democrats and doing whatever they wanted. Then they spent all of Obama s presidency breaking the system so they could stop his agenda. They became the party of antipolitics.But in November, Republicans are going to be crushed at the ballot box. Trump is going to going to lose so badly, he s going to cost Republicans the Senate by a comfortable margin, not a small number of House seats, a few governorships and control of several state legislatures. Oh, and the Supreme Court is going to tilt left for the next 30 years, which will put the final nail in the coffin of the Republican voter suppression schemes that are the only thing keeping Republicans in power in many parts of the country.So after decades of I hate you! I hope you die! Burn in hell! Compromise is surrender! Burn it all down unless we get 100% of what we want! , we should stop playing by their rules of winner takes all? Now that they re on the edge of losing everything, Republicans want to play nice again? Noooooope, fuck that. Republicans don t get to kick sand in our faces and then demand we share our ice cream because they dropped theirs.So sorry, Mr. Brooks. You had your chance and you blew it. You sat by and let your party turn American politics into a polarized blood sport. It s not our fault you lost and we re in no mood to give you the time of day much less any concessions. We re going to put you in a little box and undo all of the damage your policies have wrought since the 80s. Unions are going to grow in strength again. The minimum wage will become a living wage. Workers will have their rights restored. Women will have their rights restored. So will minorities and the victims of the Drug War (most of whom are minorities anyway). Wall Street will still make billions but they won t be able to crash the economy again. All of your voter suppression laws will be repealed and extreme gerrymandering will end. All of this will happen without no input from you because you have painted yourselves into a corner where working with a Democrat is grounds for being primaried from the far right. It won t happen in 4 years. Or even 8. Decades of damage will take decades to clean up. But it s going to happen and there s nothing you can do to stop it.Karl Rove once boasted of a permanent Republican majority in which Democrats would be utterly powerless. While I m not so bold as to claim a permanent Democratic majority, Republicans will grow weaker and weaker until they can stop appealing only to white racists. In the meantime, we re gonna take it all while you, Mr. Brooks, sit and scream in impotent rage at how mean and unfair the left has become. Ha. Ha. Ha. Fuck you.


World powers attempted to shore up Lebanon s stability on Friday by pushing Saudi Arabia and Iran to stop interfering in its politics and urging Hezbollah to rein in its regional activities. Lebanon plunged into crisis on Nov. 4 when Saad al-Hariri resigned as prime minister while he was in Saudi Arabia, saying he feared assassination and criticizing the Saudis regional arch-rival Iran along with its Lebanese ally Hezbollah. After international pressure and negotiations between Lebanese political factions, he rescinded his resignation on Tuesday and his coalition government, which includes Hezbollah, reaffirmed a state policy of staying out of conflicts in Arab states. The International Lebanon Support Group (GIS), a body that includes the five members of the U.N. Security Council Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States met in Paris on Friday to try to reinforce Hariri s hand to prevent a new escalation. Disassociation applies to everyone - inside and outside, Jean-Yves Le Drian said at a news conference with Hariri after the meeting. These principles were reaffirmed this morning, he said, later referring specifically to both Iran and Saudi Arabia. Without naming Hezbollah, he urged all sides not to import regional tensions into Lebanon. Hariri said that any breach of the policy of non-interference would drag Lebanon back into the danger zone . The disassociation policy is in the overarching interest of Lebanon, he said. The meeting had earlier been opened by President Emmanuel Macron. He has invested political capital in the crisis and leveraged France s close relations with both Lebanon and Saudi Arabia to secure a deal that saw Hariri travel to Paris and open the door to a resolution of the crisis last month. (The Group) calls upon all Lebanese parties to implement this tangible policy of disassociation from and non-interference in external conflicts, as an important priority, the final communique read. Saudi concern over the influence wielded by Shi ite Muslim Iran and Hezbollah in other Arab states had been widely seen as the root cause of the crisis, which raised fears for Lebanon s economic and political stability. The Lebanese policy of dissociation was declared in 2012 to keep the deeply divided state out of regional conflicts such as the civil war in neighboring Syria. Despite the policy, Hezbollah is heavily involved there, sending thousands of fighters to help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He said that while the diplomatic language for the final declaration would not single out any party, the message was that Saudi Arabia and Iran should not influence Lebanese politics and that Hezbollah should rein in its regional activities. Friday s meeting isn t anti-Saudi or anti-Iranian, it s pro-Lebanon, a senior French diplomat said before the meeting. Highlighting the difficulties of upholding such a policy, Hezbollah backed calls on Thursday for a new Palestinian uprising in reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump s recognition of disputed Jerusalem as Israel s capital. The stability of Lebanon may seem like a small miracle given the many conflicts that destabilize the region, but it is maintained at the cost of sacrifice, dialogue and compromise, Hariri said earlier alongside Macron. Those attending Friday s meeting also committed to strengthening the Lebanese army through a conference in Rome and to support a meeting in Brussels also in 2018 to discuss how to help Lebanon cope with the 1.4 million refugees it hosts. A separate donor conference will also take place in March in Paris to boost the country s economy with a view to stimulating investments once expected legislative elections take place in May.


Turkey s President Tayyip Erdogan will travel next week to Qatar, which Ankara has supported in its dispute with powerful Gulf Arab neighbors, presidential sources said on Wednesday. They said Erdogan would visit Doha on Wednesday, following trips to Russia and Kuwait. Turkey has backed Qatar since Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, cut economic and diplomatic ties in July, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism, a charge it denies. Turkey has increased trade with Qatar since the start of the embargo and the two countries have held joint military exercises in the Gulf state, where Ankara has a military base. It has said it will deploy 3,000 troops at the base.


Anthony Scaramucci's swift exit as U.S. President Donald Trump's communications director on Monday has no bearing on the pending sale of the firm he founded, SkyBridge Capital, parties involved in the deal said. "The transaction remains on track and is expected to close by the end of the summer," said Robert Rendine, a spokesman for HNA Capital U.S., a subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate HNA Group. HNA, along with holding company Ron Transatlantic EG, in January announced an agreement to purchase a majority stake in SkyBridge, the New York-based hedge fund investment firm. The sale came as Scaramucci planned to join the Trump administration, although it took months for a role to materialize and was not the one he initially anticipated. A representative for Ron was not immediately available, but a person familiar with the company, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said the transaction was on track. Woomi Yun, a spokeswoman for SkyBridge, also said the deal was proceeding as planned and was expected to close by the end of the summer. She declined to comment on Scaramucci's exit from the White House and whether he would return to the firm. Scaramucci did not respond to an email and phone call seeking comment. Trump fired Scaramucci on Monday just over a week after naming him to the job. The move followed an obscene tirade by the Wall Street financier and the appointment of retired Marine Corps General John Kelly as White House chief of staff, sources familiar with the decision said, in the latest staff upheaval to hit the Republican president's six-month-old administration. The sale of SkyBridge is under review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS. A spokesman for the Treasury Department, which chairs CFIUS, did not respond to an email request for comment. HNA has been on a multibillion-dollar international acquisition spree, scooping up stakes in companies including Deutsche Bank , Old Mutual Asset Management and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc . HNA's chief executive officer, Adam Tan, recently pushed back against media reports that the aviation-to-financial services conglomerate faces mounting pressure from its bankers and regulators, even as the pace of its acquisitions slows.


Hacking attacks on the web platform used by Italy s 5-Star Movement to select representatives and shape policy threaten to dent confidence in its methods before a parliamentary election it is well placed to win. Internet-based direct democracy, in which members vote online, is a hallmark of the anti-establishment group that first entered parliament in 2013 and leads many opinion polls before the election, due to be held by May. Gianroberto Casaleggio, the late internet guru who co-founded 5-Star in 2009, believed the web would eventually supplant representative democracy, the system under which all eligible citizens vote on representatives to pass laws for them. But in August anonymous hackers broke into 5-Star s web platform, called Rousseau after the 18th century Swiss-born philosopher, and obtained secret data on its members and donors. It is unclear whether there will be any impact on 5-Star s election performance. But if it cannot secure its web platforms, it will be hard to continue using the online methods that set it apart from other political groups. Public worries over theft of personal data could also make it difficult for 5-Star to attract new members. It already has only a modest membership although it has won millions of votes at the polls with promises to clean up politics and offer universal income support for the poor. The hacking problem is very serious for 5-Star because it undermines the credibility of their direct democracy message, sociology professor Luca Ricolfi told Reuters. It will probably be overshadowed by bigger issues ahead of the election, but it hurts their image and is something they will absolutely have to resolve. Casaleggio Associati, a web consultancy company that runs 5-Star s platforms and is headed by Gianroberto s son Davide, said security would be improved before the online election of the movement s new leader last month. Despite this, the election was dogged by hacking attacks which hampered voting and contributed to only 37,000 of 5-Star s 140,000 members casting an online ballot. The voting deadline had to be extended twice as members were unable to log on or connect to necessary web pages. One hacker published screenshots showing the system had been infiltrated again and that it had been possible to vote several times using the accounts of certified 5-Star members. Rousseau s content systems are outdated and its level of security is totally inadequate, said David Puente, a computer expert and web developer who worked for Casaleggio Associati for four-and-a-half years until 2011. Umberto Rapetto, a cyber security expert who used to head the computer crime division of Italy s finance police, called Rousseau a rudimentary platform with a host of weak points . Davide Casaleggio declined to answer questions for this article. Puente, a 5-Star member, said it would now be hard to update Rousseau without sacrificing many functions that have been added recently, meaning the only solution was to dismantle everything and start all over again. That would not be easy even if Casaleggio agreed. Hackers around the world have regularly penetrated the computer systems of public agencies and multinational companies with millions of euros to spend on cyber security. Casaleggio Associati has fewer than 20 employees, posted revenues of less than a million euros in 2016 and has run a loss for the last three years. 5-Star s new leader, 31-year-old Luigi Di Maio, says Rousseau s problems are understandable as it is a startup launched only last year. He says web-based democracy can work not only in 5-Star but in all branches of Italian politics. Yet many computer experts are skeptical about both Rousseau and internet democracy in general. One common criticism is a lack of transparency, as in only two of 5-Star s dozens of online votes has Casaleggio named an independent company to verify the regularity of the process. Critics also say there can be no guarantee that voters are anonymous to platform managers, or that the voter casts only one ballot or is not watched or coerced while he votes. Creating a structure that offers the same guarantees as paper ballots would be incredibly difficult, said cyber security strategist Corrado Giustozzi, a member of the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security.


China s parliament on Wednesday said part of a high-speed railway station being built in Hong Kong would be regarded as mainland territory governed by mainland laws, an unprecedented move that critics say further erodes the city s autonomy. Hong Kong reverted from British to Chinese rule in 1997, when it was granted a high degree of autonomy under a one country, two systems arrangement, giving it a separate police force, immigration controls, an independent judiciary and freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China. China s largely rubber stamp parliament, the National People s Congress, voted to allow Chinese immigration checks and the enforcement of mainland Chinese laws within part of the station, so that after boarding the train in Hong Kong passengers would not need to get off the train for immigration checks at the Hong Kong-mainland border. It is appropriate ... that the Mainland Port Area within the West Kowloon station would be regarded as belonging to mainland China, according to the legislative document released by parliament on the decision. Critics say the co-location arrangement, also known as one land, two checks in Chinese, sets a dangerous precedent as it violates the city s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, in which article 18 explicitly states national laws, with a few exceptions, do not apply in Hong Kong. But the document passed by parliament says since mainland officials operations will be strictly confined to specific areas in the station, it is different from the article which governs the whole of Hong Kong. Setting up a Mainland Port Area inside the West Kowloon station does not change the administrative area of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, does not affect the HKSAR s right to a high degree of autonomy accorded by the law, does not reduce or harm (Hong Kong) residents rights and freedoms accorded by the law, the document added. Li Fei, deputy secretary-general of parliament s standing committee, told reporters the decision would not take away Hong Kong people s freedoms. If Hong Kongers don t feel comfortable, they can use another entry port and not take the high-speed train, Li said. At a cost of more than HK$84 billion ($11 billion), the Express Rail Link will link up with the rest of China s high-speed rail network and roughly halve the journey time between Hong Kong and the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou to 48 minutes. It is expected to be operational in the autumn on 2018. The Hong Kong government said it would seek to put draft laws to its legislature by early February to implement the plan, but the bill is expected to be voted through without strong resistance after a series of controversial court cases stripped the opposition pro-democracy camp of its veto power. The prospect of Beijing tightening its grip on the financial hub has already stoked social tensions and protests including the 2014 Occupy street demonstrations that demanded, in vain, full democracy for the city of 7.3 million. The abductions of a Hong Kong-based bookseller in 2015 who later showed up across the border in Chinese custody also touched a raw nerve. The former head of Hong Kong s legislature and pro-establishment heavyweight, Jasper Tsang, wrote in a column last week that the government should admit frankly the arrangement does not comply with the Basic Law. Opposition lawmaker and barrister Tanya Chan, who leads a group against the arrangement, said the issue represents the most serious violation of the Basic Law since the 1997 handover. What we re seeing is the Central Government exercising overall jurisdiction over Hong Kong, Chan said. What we see today is the (NPC) Standing Committee ruling Hong Kong, zero degree of autonomy. Constitutional law professor Albert Chen said he believed the arrangement was based on reasonable arguments and did not violate the Basic Law. But it remained a grey area whether Hong Kong courts could handle judicial reviews that directly challenge Beijing s decision, he said. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam welcomed the decision, but conceded that there had been complex issues of applicability of mainland and Hong Kong laws for the project as it had been first conceived around a decade ago. She added that these complexities could not have been foreseen back then.


Just days before the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Pope Francis has sent a message of support to the March for Life taking place in Paris, France, on Sunday. ["The Church must never tire of being an advocate for life and must not neglect to proclaim that human life is to be protected unconditionally from the moment of conception until natural death," the Pope's message said. Pope Francis has been a vocal critic of the abortion industry, comparing it to King Herod's slaughter of the innocents at the time of Jesus, and accusing the abortion lobby of working with a mentality that seeks to eliminate those who get in one's way. In his message to marchers, Francis expressed his solidarity with their efforts and urged them to continue to proclaim the value of human life. "Beyond this legitimate manifestation in defense of human life, the Holy Father encourages participants in the March for Life to work tirelessly for the building of a civilization of love and a culture of life," said the message, which was sent through the Apostolic Nuncio to France, Archbishop Luigi Ventura. On Sunday, President Trump is expected to sign an executive order cutting funding to the International Planned Parenthood Foundation, in a restoration of Ronald Reagan's "Mexico City policy" that banned U. S. government funding of abortion around the world. The executive order would reportedly be timed to coincide with the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized on all 50 states in the Union. Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome


Because nothing says justice for Freddie Gray like a large group of teenage thugs descending on a defenseless woman and stealing her purse A producer for Ruptly, a video news service run by RT (formerly Russia Today), was robbed on camera while filming the violent protests in Baltimore overnight.The dramatic video shows the female victim first surrounded and harassed by a group of youths, who rapidly grow bolder reaching out at her, all the while hurling a stream of vulgarity and ranting about the police. She is then clearly physically attacked by the group. As the video stabilizes you see that the producer is chasing the thieves down the street trying to retrieve her stolen bag before the intervention of the Baltimore police.The protests in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray while in custody turned into violent riots overnight Saturday into Sunday morning. So much so that 30,000 people were locked down in Camden Yards.As Twitchy notes, at the time of the lockdown President Obama was delivering jokes to the mainstream media and assorted celebrities about a half hour away.Toward the end of the video, the woman who was robbed can be heard sobbing as she continues to film.