A battle over gun ownership between President Barack Obama and the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress kicked off on Wednesday as lawmakers began weighing whether to fund the administration's unilateral moves to tighten background checks on buyers. This month, Obama stirred conservative ire with executive action clarifying that all dealers selling guns, including at shows, flea markets, on the Internet or in stores, are required to get licenses and run background checks on buyers. A Senate appropriations panel that funds Justice Department activities used its first hearing of the year to zero in on the new federal guidance that pits gun rights advocates against gun control organizations energized by a series of high-profile mass shootings. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch told the Republican-controlled panel the actions would "bring progress on a number of fronts" in the face of "an epidemic of gun violence." In urging Congress to approve millions of additional dollars to help her agency hire more agents and conduct background checks around the clock, Lynch said she had "complete confidence" Obama's moves would survive any court challenges from opponents who argue he has over-stepped his authority. But Senator Richard Shelby, the Republican chairman of an appropriations subcommittee, told Lynch the public fears Obama "is eager to strip them of their Second Amendment rights" to bear arms and warned that the panel "will have no part in undermining the Constitution and the rights it protects." Obama issued his executive orders after Congress over the past few years refused to pass gun control legislation and as shooters carried out fatal attacks including on an elementary school in Connecticut, a movie theater in Colorado, a Virginia university and a community center in California. Senior Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski decried a "growing nexus of drugs, crime, guns, violence and murder" that she said resulted in more than 350 people being killed last year just in Baltimore, in her home state of Maryland. Amid the infighting, Republican Senator James Lankford said there likely is common ground on the need for states to improve reporting to federal authorities on people convicted of crimes under state law. "Alabama currently has zero felonies running into the (federal background check) system; California has 4,032. ... Delaware has zero, Maryland, 12, my fine state of Oklahoma has one," Lankford complained. Congressional appropriators will spend much of this year wrangling over fiscal 2017 funding, such as money for gun background checks.


Jennifer Rosen was scheduled to depart Kennedy International Airport on an 8:55 p. m. flight to San Francisco but instead found herself stuck at Gate C62 in Terminal 2. It was the typical misery of summer airline travel — or so it seemed. A short distance way away, in another terminal, something more unpredictable than the weather had begun to sweep across the New York airport: Panic. It spread quickly and without warning. By the time Sunday night was over, Ms. Rosen, 32, had sprawled out under a table seeking cover, followed a crowd of people who bolted through a secure door onto the tarmac, frantically called her sister to find out what was happening and tell her that she was alive, and, finally, made a mad dash from the terminal to join mobs of travelers who thought they might be living through an episode of terror. In the end, it proved to be a false alarm. While the authorities were still trying to piece together exactly how a report of gunfire at 9:34 p. m. outside the security checkpoint at Terminal 8 led to complete turmoil across one of the nation's busiest airports, the accounts of passengers in interviews and on social media offered a lesson in the anatomy of fear. It was a night of confusion and dread, informed by the latest headlines — including reports of recent attacks on airports in Brussels and Istanbul — as much as fact. In the absence of official information or instructions, unconfirmed reports from social media fueled the hysteria. Officials said there was no evidence that what took place at Kennedy Airport was the result of a hoax. It was, rather, a sign of the times. "Right now, what is being concentrated on is the investigation into what the catalyst of the incident is," said Joe Pentangelo, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport. Joe Haviland was at Terminal 8 seeing off his family when the first wave of panic hit. People nearby had been gathered watching the Olympics, as Usain Bolt of Jamaica made his bid for a third gold medal in the dash. "We heard a big celebration," Mr. Haviland told Fox News shortly after being evacuated. He described hearing something like a loud pop, followed by the sight of a herd of people running his direction. "When you see 80 people come running around the corner," he said, "and they break a door to get out, you think 'Oh my God, what is happening? '" He said he saw "people working for the airline taking off their shirts," and saying, "This is not worth it, I am leaving. " Within minutes, he said, police officers with their guns drawn were shouting, "Show me your hands!" The bomb squad soon arrived, and the area was evacuated. But inside Terminal 8, by the departure gates, many passengers had no idea anything was wrong. Judy Rothman Rofé, who had been visiting her son in Brooklyn and was waiting for an American Airlines flight back to Los Angeles, was waiting by Gate 33. Around 10 p. m. a passenger nearby was checking the internet and told her it seemed their flight was not delayed because of the weather. "There is a shooter at large," she was told. Still, she said, as the news filtered out, people around her were relatively calm. "It was business as usual in our section of the terminal," she said. Until it wasn't. Shortly after 11, she said, "we heard screaming. " It was unclear what set off the wave of panic, but suddenly the eerie calm turned to chaos. "Lots of screaming, crying, mass hysteria," she said. The gate agents, she said, were nowhere to be found passengers threw themselves under counters and huddled under chairs. After several minutes, an announcement came over the public address system, ordering passengers to leave their bags, put their hands above their heads and evacuate. As she left, she said, scores of law enforcement officers, weapons drawn, were heading into the terminal. Around the same time, Terminal 1 was also officially evacuated, sending hundreds of people into the street outside the airport, unsure what was happening. The Port Authority said that those were the only two terminals evacuated, but that the panic spread quickly to the rest of the airport. In Terminal 2, where Ms. Rosen was waiting for her San Delta Air Lines flight, everything seemed normal nearly an hour after the first calls to 911 about a possible gunman. It was around 10:30 p. m. when someone screamed, "Shots!" "Everyone started screaming and yelling," Ms. Rosen said. "I dove under this desk space like everyone else. "Then this guy came running over," she added. He was not an airport employee or an official, but he had an urgent warning. She recalled that he shouted: "They're coming! Let's go this way!" Not knowing who "they" might be and not wanting to find out, Ms. Rosen and about a dozen others followed the man through a secure door and onto the tarmac, leaving their belongings behind. "There were no announcements, nothing," she said. All she could hear was an alarm. She waited with about 20 others on the hot, humid tarmac. "I called my sister, freaking out," she said. "I told her I am on the tarmac, people are saying there are gunshots. I think I am safe. If you see news about this, I am O. K. " The crowd was searching Google and social media when a man — she thought he was a pilot — finally said they should return. "People were like, 'I don't want to go back inside,'" she said. Still, when the man opened the door, they found things just as chaotic as when they left. A flood of people were running in a single direction, she said. Out of the terminal. Once again she followed the crowd. There were "just mobs of people," she said. She spotted a man in a Transportation Security Administration shirt and asked him what was happening. "You probably have a better idea than I do" was his response, she said. Finally, a little after midnight early on Monday, employees were allowed back inside the airport. Passengers were permitted to collect their belongings. It would take time for operations to fully resume. And thousands of passengers still needed to figure out what to do next. There were no trains running. The Van Wyck Expressway leading to the airport was closed. Cabs were just starting to trickle back. Eventually, Ms. Rosen climbed in a cab with several others and made her way to her twin sister's apartment in the city. As she prepared to set off for the airport again on Monday morning, she was a bit more leery about the procedures that might be in place in the event of an actual emergency. "I understand situations like this are inherently chaotic, but the lack of communication and guidance just compounded an already tumultuous and traumatic experience," she said. "At least in our terminal, they should have had enough time to get a coordinated plan together. But they didn't, and that caused a lot of unnecessary panic and heartache. "


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


Many Americans believe it s racist to keep minorities trapped in a system that forces them to rely on Bernie and Hillary s promises of free shit from the government. Does that mean it s okay for them to go around and disassemble Bernie Sanders displays on college campuses?A Tulane University fraternity has caused an uproar this week after building a wall made of sandbags with the message Make America Great Again and Trump plastered across it.Photos of the wall circulated on social media after it was erected on April 7 on the off-campus house of the university s chapter of Kappa Alpha Order.As part of the local chapter s annual tradition, it has pledges build a wall around its private property each spring ahead of its Old South formal ball, according to The Times-Picayune. However, upset students said this time the wall was filled with connotations of hate and ignorance. The wall has since been torn down by unidentified individuals alleged to be Tulane football players.WATCH here:In a video posted to YouTube, individuals can be seen grabbing the sandbags and tossing them into the street while fraternity members look on, one saying this is private property. These connotations most directly mocked the experiences of Latino immigrants and workers throughout our nation, a post on student Ana De Santiago s Facebook read. By writing Trump in large, red letters across the wall, KA changed what was a tradition of building a wall into a tradition of constructing a border, symbolizing separation and xenophobia. This issue not only affects Latinos but all other marginalized immigrant groups in this country.On Wednesday, the university addressed the incident in a statement, saying that while it encourages the free exchange of ideas and opinions , the local chapter s actions sparked a visceral reaction in the context of a very heated and divisive political season, The Times-Picayune reported.In an effort to support the individuals who dismantled the fraternity s Trump wall , Tulane s Latino student advocacy group, Generating Excellence Now and Tomorrow in Education (GENTE), set up a Change.org petition against the university s administration. We the undersigned stand in solidarity with the individuals who took the brave action of dismantling the wall in front of Kappa Alpha Fraternity House, a statement on the petition read. This wall, although a tradition carried on by Kappa Alpha for many years, has been a source of aggression towards students of colour on this campus, and this year, with the addition of the labels Trump and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, has become overtly threatening towards Muslim and Latino students. In a statement released to The times-Picayune on Tuesday, the fraternity s national chapter Assistant Executive Director for Advancement Jesse Lyons said its chapter takes KA s values of gentlemanly conduct very seriously. This respect extends to every student of Tulane and every member of the broader community, the statement read. The comment was written on a makeshift wall on our private property, normally used for a game of capture the flag, to mock the ideologies of a political candidate. This had a unintended negative effect and as such it has been dismantled. In other words, they caved, and ceded their First Amendment right to free speech, in order to avoid any controversy created by the Leftist Mafia.*According to the fraternity s website, KA was founded in 1865 and Robert E Lee, who is known for commanding the Confederate Army in the Civil War, is listed as its spiritual founder.In 2010, the national fraternity chapter ordered an official ban on fraternity s members wearing Confederate soldier uniforms to its annual Old South Ball.In a document titled Laws concerning Old South , KA also prohibits the display of the Confederate flag from any chapter house, lodge, or meeting place.


DNA tests on the exhumed body of Salvador Dali showed that a Spanish woman who brought a paternity suit against him was not his daughter, the surrealist painter s foundation said on Wednesday. The court supervising the tests had informed its lawyers that Maria Pilar Abel was not Dali s biological daughter after comparing her DNA with samples taken from his remains, the foundation said in a statement. A spokesman for the court declined to confirm the results of the tests. Contacted by phone, Abel said she had not yet received the results from the court. The Madrid court in June ordered forensic scientists to exhume Dali s body after Abel, who was born in Dali s home town of Figueres, filed a paternity claim that alleged her mother had an affair with him. This conclusion is not a surprise for the Foundation, since at no point has there been any evidence that she was a relative, said the foundation, which manages Dali s estate. The Foundation is happy that this puts an end to an absurd and artificial controversy. Dali, who died in 1989 aged 84, was one of the 20th century s most famous and easily recognized artists. His paintings include The Persistence of Memory , with its iconic images of melting clocks, and he also turned his hand to movies, sculpture and advertising.


Check out what s happening in Texas! President Trump and the First Lady arrived and got to work helping out. FLOTUS AND POTUS ARRIVE IN TEXAS:TEXAS: We are with you today, we are with you tomorrow, and we will be with you EVERY SINGLE DAY AFTER, to restore, recover, and REBUILD! pic.twitter.com/p1Fh8jmmFA Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 2, 2017Melania Trump exited Air Force One ready to get to work:OUR FIRST LADY LOOKING GREAT ROCKING A TEXAS HAT AND CONVERSE TENNIS SHOES:HUGS FROM OUR PRESIDENT!President Trump Serves Food at NRG Stadium: This is awesome! President Trump puts on gloves to serve food. He turns to the press and says My hands are too big! PresidentAs he puts on plastic gloves to serve food at NRG Stadium President Trump turns to press and says: My hands are too big! pic.twitter.com/WIUTLOS4XD Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) September 2, 2017President Trump hands out food boxes and meets with Harvey victims: We will get through this and rebuild President Trump is handing out food boxes & meeting with #Harvey victims in Houston. We will get through this and rebuild.#TexasStrong pic.twitter.com/4DAKfnBRIk Alex (@SoCal4Trump) September 2, 2017


Canada s ruling Liberals won a special election in Quebec on Monday, picking up a parliamentary seat in a province where insiders say the party needs to do better if it is to retain power in a 2019 federal election. Provisional results showed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau s Liberals won the constituency of Lac-Saint-Jean with about 36 percent of the vote, with the separatist Bloc Quebecois in second place and the opposition Conservatives close behind in third. The Conservatives had held the seat before the sitting legislator retired earlier this year. The Liberals, who now hold 41 of Quebec s 78 seats, privately say they need to win another 12 in the province to offset expected losses elsewhere and maintain their majority in the House of Commons in an election in October 2019. Quebec polls show the party far ahead of the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois in province-wide support. National opinion surveys though show Trudeau s government is slipping in popularity amid an alleged conflict-of-interest problem involving Finance Minister Bill Morneau. Provisional results also showed the Conservatives easily retaining the seat of Sturgeon River-Parkland in the western province of Alberta, the party s stronghold.


And the hits just keep on coming, as the Pope makes his way around Latin America Pope Francis indicated contraceptives may be used to prevent the spread of the Zika virus, despite the church s longstanding ban on most forms of birth control.His comments may cheer health officials in Latin America but are likely to upset conservative Catholics.At a press conference aboard a flight from Mexico to Rome on Thursday, the Pope was asked if the church should consider contraception the lesser of two evils compared with the possibility of women aborting fetuses infected with Zika. The virus has been linked to an incurable and often devastating neurological birth defect.The Pope answered by calling abortion an absolute evil and a crime. It is to kill someone in order to save another. This is what the Mafia does, Francis said. On the other hand, avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil. The Pope then pointed to a narrow exception to the church s ban on most forms of birth control: His predecessor, Pope Paul VI, allowed African nuns to use contraceptives in cases of rape, Francis said. He did not explain why and what forms of birth control were used. In certain cases such as the one I mentioned of Blessed Paul VI, it was clear, the Pope said. It was Paul VI who wrote Humanae Vitae, the papal document that solidified the church s stance against almost every form of birth control in 1968. The church does allow natural family planning, which involves a woman monitoring her basal body temperature and vaginal secretions to avoid having sex at fertile times of the month.It s not entirely clear what the chances are that a pregnant woman who contracts Zika will have a baby with microcephaly. Babies with the defect have small heads and abnormal brain growth and often have developmental delays, seizures, problems with movement and speech and other issues.On Thursday, the World Health Organization called for access to emergency contraception and counseling for women who have had unprotected sex and do not wish to become pregnant because of concern with infection with Zika virus. But the Catholic catechism states that aside from natural family planning, anything that works to render procreation impossible is intrinsically evil. The church s teachings have put women in Latin America, where a majority of people are Catholic, in a difficult situation.In December, authorities in Brazil urged women not to get pregnant. Then last month came the warning from Colombia to delay pregnancy until July. Then in an interview, a health official in El Salvador recommended that women try to avoid getting pregnant this year and the next. But the Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, has said that birth control is wrong, no matter what. That prohibition doesn t change based on circumstances, he said. So couples have a responsibility to live according to the church s teachings in whatever circumstances they find themselves.


By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor on October 29, 2016 Several Iraqi Soldiers killed by US Airstrike Near Mosul With a blocking force in place preventing ISIS from moving into Syria, reported by Iranian press, the US is doing everything possible to slow down the Iraqi Army and prevent successful operations. There have long been suspicions that the Kurds, who let thousands of ISIS oil trucks through their region each week, have been working with ISIS all along. It was the Kurds, not the real Kurds, but Barzani's Saudi run dictatorship in Erbil, that invited Turkey into Iraq. Deputy Chief of the Nineveh Provincial Council Noureddin Qablan announced that the US-led coalition warplanes have launched airstrikes on army base in Nineveh province, killing several soldiers. "The US fighter jets hit one of the military bases of Iraqi Army's 16th Division in a region North of Mosul, and the attack left at least four Iraqi soldiers dead," Qablan said. According to FNA, He said that the US army has confirmed the attack, calling it a "mistake". Qablan said that it is not the first time the US warplanes hit the Iraqi army and volunteer forces (Hashd al-Shaabi) military positions, adding, "The US-led coalition has each time said that air raids were not deliberate." It is reported that another peshmerga convoy accidentally hit by an USA-led coalition airstrike near Mosul today. That's was 3 "Mistakan Raid" in 24 hours. Related Posts: No Related Posts The views expressed herein are the views of the author exclusively and not necessarily the views of VT, VT authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, technicians, or the Veterans Today Network and its assigns. LEGAL NOTICE - COMMENT POLICY Posted by Gordon Duff, Senior Editor on October 29, 2016, With Reads Filed under World . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 . You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. FaceBook Comments  You must be logged in to post a comment Login WHAT'S HOT


There s a petition on Change.org going around to stop Trump from becoming President, and it has made history, not just for its nature, but because it s the most popular ever seen. At 4.7 million signatures and counting, it s over 80 percent of the way to its goal, and the number of signatories just keeps growing.The second most popular petition on Change.org was to stop a dog meat festival, and had two million fewer signatures. That goes to show the Electoral College that a lot of people are looking for any way imaginable to stop Trump from actually getting inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2017.This petition is called Electoral College: Make Hillary Clinton President, and very likely won t work, if for no other reason than Republican electors just will not cast their votes for her. That s despite a popular vote lead of over two million, which is a bigger margin and several past presidents margins of victory. They should make her president based on that, but they ve been conditioned to hate her guts. So no go there, sadly.However, we may not need the biggest petition in history to work exactly as planned, because there s a growing coalition of faithless electors who won t vote for Trump. Several Democratic electors have gotten together in a mad dash to convince enough other electors to vote against Trump before the Dec. 19 deadline. They re calling themselves Hamilton Electors after Alexander Hamilton.At least two Republican electors from Texas have also declared that they can t vote for Trump. One, Christopher Suprun, penned an op-ed in The New York Times about all the reasons he can t vote for Trump. He s also encouraging his fellow electors to reject Trump and settle on someone like John Kasich. Kasich isn t great, but compared to Trump, he d be the best president ever.Perhaps this petition has gotten the attention of some other electors, and they re planning on defecting, too. The sheer magnitude of this petition should send a clear message to them that the people want them to defect. Here s hoping they take a good, long look at what they re doing and make their decisions for the good of the country.Featured image by Mark Makela/Getty Images


"If my daughter is a success, my happiness is complete," declares the title character of "Fatima," a small miracle of a film from the French director Philippe Faucon. Divorced from her husband, whom she followed to France and with whom she is still friendly, Fatima (Soria Zeroual) is a North African woman raising two teenage girls in Lyon. The oldest, Nesrine (Zita Hanrot) 18, is a medical student, and the younger, Souad ( Aïche) is a sullen, sexy rebel ashamed of her mother for working as a housecleaner. Souad sneers that Fatima is "a useless " and "a living rag. " But her mother, however stung, endures the abuse and chooses her words carefully when firing back. Fatima loves her daughter despite her insolence. Steeped in North African Muslim culture, Fatima has traditional notions of what she calls "respectable" female behavior that don't apply in France, and she is upset when Souad insists on baring her shoulders. If the movie, loosely based on two books by Fatima Elayoubi, tells a familiar story of immigrants struggling to make something of themselves in an alien culture (Fatima speaks some French but reads only Arabic) it does so in a tone that is kindhearted but clearheaded, and the performances are and believable. (Mr. Faucon picked Ms. Zeroual, a nonprofessional actress, to play Fatima.) It makes you feel the intense pressures facing Fatima and her family from all sides. When a young man flirts with Nesrine on a train, she politely but with a tinge of regret explains that she has to study. Some of those pressures come from gossipy female neighbors who are envious, and judgmental. One Moroccan woman fumes that Nesrine didn't greet her at a bus stop, an incident that Nesrine, lost in her thoughts of school, doesn't recall. While on the job 12 or more hours a day, Fatima is treated with barely disguised contempt by female employers who brusquely order her around and who, she rightly senses, suspect her of petty theft. Nesrine nearly cracks under the strain of her studies, which require her to absorb complex medical terminology. She worries most about not disappointing Fatima, who is sacrificing everything to pay for her schooling. Nesrine simply can't afford to fail. Eventually Fatima, exhausted, falls down stairs with her cleaning equipment and takes a paid medical leave. But when the time is used up, she complains of continuing shoulder pains, although tests indicate she has recovered. She has simply reached her limit. To bolster her morale, Fatima has been keeping a bedside journal, written in Arabic. As she reads aloud from it to a sympathetic doctor, her reflections on hardship, sacrifice and life's unfairness have the tone of a humble manifesto. "Be proud of all the Fatimas who clean working women's houses," she reads, and her words resound with the determination and quiet nobility of a woman who, however downtrodden, knows her own worth. "Fatima" is not rated. It is in French and Arabic, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 19 minutes.


The administration of President Donald Trump has been quietly cutting support for halfway houses for federal prisoners, severing contracts with as many as 16 facilities in recent months, prompting concern that some inmates are being forced to stay behind bars longer than necessary. The Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman Justin Long confirmed the cuts in response to an email inquiry from Reuters, and said they only affect areas with small populations or underutilized centers. "The Bureau remains firmly committed to these practices, but has had to make some modifications to our programs due to our fiscal environment," Long said. Halfway houses have been a part of the justice system since the 1960s, with thousands of people moving through them each year. For-profit prison companies such as Geo Group Inc have moved into the halfway house market, though many houses are run directly by government agencies or non-profit organizations. A Geo spokeswoman declined to comment for this article. The bureau, which falls under the U.S. Department of Justice, last year had about 180 competitive contracts with "residential reentry centers" run by non-profit and for-profit companies, such as Geo. The International Community Corrections Association says on its website there were about 249 separate halfway houses in communities nationwide that are covered by the 180 contracts. Federal judges who spoke to Reuters said the cuts are having an impact in their districts, particularly in states with fewer facilities or larger geographic areas where the nearest center might be several hundred miles away. Judge Edmund Sargus of the Southern District of Ohio said it was a real "stumper" when in July the government ended its contract with the Alvis facility serving the Dayton area. Long said that the cuts have not reduced referral rates or placements, and only impact "about 1% of the total number of beds under contract." However, the changes coincide with other major criminal justice policy shifts by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has pushed for more aggressive prosecutions of drug offenses and a crackdown on illegal immigrants who commit crimes. In May, Sessions ordered prosecutors to charge defendants with the highest provable offense, a move that is likely to trigger lengthy prison sentences. In 2016, of the 43,000 inmates released from federal prison, 79 percent were released into a halfway house or home confinement, according to the trade association. "We need to improve re-entry services ... This move flies in the face of that consensus," said Kevin Ring, whose non-profit Families Against Mandatory Minimums has recently launched a Twitter campaign to raise awareness of the problem. Sessions is scheduled to testify next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Ring said he hopes lawmakers will ask Sessions about the changes underway for halfway houses. "Is cutting re-entry opportunities really going to make us safer? Congress needs to ask the Justice Department if this is part of their strategy," he said. For Kymjetta Carr, the cuts have had a personal impact. The 30-year-old from Cincinnati said she had expected her fiance Anthony Lamar to get out of prison and go to a halfway house in November, after serving seven years on a drug charge. But she now has to tell their 10-year-old son his father won't be out for Christmas or his birthday because Lamar's release to a halfway house will not come until late July. "It seems like the rug has been pulled out from under us," she said, in an interview arranged through Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a nonprofit advocacy group. Halfway houses are low-security residences for thousands of convicted prisoners serving alternative sentences or on release from prison into partial freedom programs on the outside. The facilities are meant to help prisoners reenter their communities, find a job and get their lives back on track. A study commissioned last year by the Justice Department found that centers have come under greater strain in recent years, as more people have been released from prison. Blair Campmier, executive director of Reality House in Columbia, Missouri, said he was notified in early June that the center's eight-year-old contract would be terminated. Some of his clients were sent to halfway houses in Kansas City and Springfield, more than two hours away. "They were not happy, and their families were not happy," said Campmier. Ricardo Martinez, the Chief U.S. District Judge in the Western District of Washington and Chairman of the Committee on Criminal Law of the Judicial Conference of the United States, told Reuters he has sent a letter to the Bureau of Prisons' new Director Mark Inch requesting discussions. "From our perspective, these facilities are not only useful - they are essential," Martinez said.


In this Ted Talk , Michael Murphy discusses how his father's brush with death ultimately opened the doors to his own life path of architecture, but not just as a profession, and not just as a creative expression. When designing, Murphy and his team go beyond the blueprint, considering things like how like airflow and light can produce both a healthy community and gorgeous structures. He shows us his projects in countries like Rwanda and Haiti, and covers his plan for creating The Memorial to Peace and Justice, which mainly aims to heal hearts in the American South. " Why was it that the best architects, the greatest architecture — a ll beautiful and visionary and innovative — is also so rare, and seems to serve so very few? And more to the point: With all of this creative talent, what more could we do?" Murphy poses in his talk. He broke into the very soul of his work when he came to the realization that buildings are actually making people sicker. " In this hospital in South Africa, patients that came in with, say, a broken leg, to wait in this unventilated hallway, walked out with a multidrug-resistant strand of tuberculosis. Simple designs for infection control had not been thought about, and people had died because of it." With the revelation that hospitals are making patients sicker, he thought of designing one that flips the hallways on the outside, allowing people to walk in the exterior. " If mechanical systems rarely work, what if we could design a hospital that could breathe through natural ventilation, and meanwhile reduce its environmental footprint?" he said. He then discussed the incredible community aspect of following through with his healing niche in the architecture world. " We worked with Bruce Nizeye, a brilliant engineer, and he thought about construction differently than I had been taught in school. When we had to excavate this enormous hilltop and a bulldozer was expensive and hard to get to site, Bruce suggested doing it by hand, using a method in Rwanda called "Ubudehe," which means "community works for the community." Hundreds of people came with shovels and hoes, and we excavated that hill in half the time and half the cost of that bulldozer. Instead of importing furniture, Bruce started a guild, and he brought in master carpenters to train others in how to make furniture by hand. And on this job site, 15 years after the Rwandan genocide, Bruce insisted that we bring on labor from all backgrounds, and that half of them be women. " Ultimately, the healing journey became twofold, as it was both the process of building to heal as well as allowing an entire community to heal. "We call this the locally fabricated way of building, or 'lo-fab,' and it has four pillars: hire locally, source regionally, train where you can and most importantly, think about every design decision as an opportunity to invest in the dignity of the places where you serve. Think of it like the local food movement, but for architecture. And we're convinced that this way of building can be replicated across the world, and change the way we talk about and evaluate architecture," he explained. In his talk, Murphy reveals how he learned that architecture is more than what it seems. It "can be a transformative engine for change." Watch the full talk below. Perhaps it will show you how your work can be more than what it seems, too.  The Sacred Science follows eight people from around the world, with varying physical and psychological illnesses, as they embark on a one-month healing journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle.  You can watch this documentary film FREE for 10 days by clicking here.  "If "Survivor" was actually real and had stakes worth caring about, it would be what happens here, and "The Sacred Science" hopefully is merely one in a long line of exciting endeavors from this group." - Billy Okeefe, McClatchy Tribune


The Donald isn t having a very good week at all. His campaign manager was charged with battery for assaulting a lady, multiple protesters are suing him for assault and battery, his communications director quit and told the truth about him, and his supporters won t even be able to bring their guns to the GOP convention in case things get messy. Now, it looks like he will be facing a criminal investigation for buying Ben Carson s endorsement with an illegal job offer.Last month, Ben Carson made it very clear that he did not endorse Donald Trump because he likes him, agrees with his policies, or even thinks he should be President Trump offered him a job in his future administration in exchange for Carson s unwavering servitude. So far, he s been a good little house boy for the billionaire, heaping praise on the 2016 hopeful and even defending Trump s recent comments that women should face punishment for having an abortion.But this latest bought-and-paid-for bromance may cause some complication in Trump s life. Public interest group the American Democracy Legal Fund has filed a complaint with the Department of Justice Criminal Division, asking for an investigation into Trump s actions. Noting that federal law prohibits a candidate from promising a position to any person in exchange for support, the ADLF penned a letter demanding that Trump s illegal actions be investigated:American Democracy Legal Fund ( ADLF ) is a group established to hold candidates for office accountable for possible ethics and/or legal violations. It has recently come to light that Mr. Donald Trump may have willfully offered Dr. Ben Carson an appointment to his administration should he become president in return for supporting his candidacy in violation of 18 U.S.C. 599. ADLF respectfully requests that you investigate this matter and take all appropriate action as soon as possible.Former presidential candidate Dr. Carson endorsed Mr. Trump for the Republican presidential nomination on March 11, 2016. Mr. Trump and Dr. Carson met the day before to discuss and finalize the endorsement. Three days later, on March 14, Dr. Carson gave an interview to Newsmax TV to discuss his recent endorsement of Mr. Trump. During the interview, Dr. Carson stated that he believed Mr. Trump would surround himself with very good people. When asked if he would be one of those people, Dr. Carson responded, I will be doing things as well. When the interviewer asked whether that meant in a Trump administration, Dr. Carson replied, Certainly in an advisory capacity. The interviewer then asked Dr. Carson if that s been determined and followed by asking, When you sat down with [Mr. Trump] that was discussed? Dr. Carson openly admitted, Yes, and said that while they hadn t hammered out all the details, it is very important that we work together. When asked if this meant a cabinet position, Dr. Carson declined to reveal any details about it right now, because all of this is still very liquid. Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 599, [w]hoever, being a candidate, directly or indirectly promises or pledges the appointment, or the use of his influence or support for the appointment of any person to any public or private position or employment, for the purpose of procuring support in his candidacy shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if the violation was willful, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both. Dr. Carson s comments strongly suggest that Mr. Trump promised him an administration position in return for his endorsement. In his interview, Dr. Carson stated that he would certainly have an advisory capacity within a potential Trump administration. When asked directly whether this role was discussed during their endorsement meeting, Dr. Carson responded, Yes. Dr. Carson s assured answers lead to the reasonable conclusion that Mr. Trump promised Dr. Carson an administration post in order to secure his endorsement in violation of 18 U.S.C. 599.Federal law prohibits a candidate from directly or indirectly promising the appointment of any person to any public or private position in exchange for his or her support. Dr. Carson s comments indicate that Mr. Trump used the promise of a role in his administration to secure Dr. Carson s support for his presidential campaign. For the above stated reasons, we respectfully request that you undertake an immediate investigation of this matter.Trump cares nothing about the law. This is obvious to even the most casual observer after hearing him talk about killing terrorists families, establishing a national Muslim database, and establishing Muslim concentration camp. Trump, a man who promises to pay for his supporters legal defense when they beat up African-Americans at his rallies, is completely detestable. Somehow, it is almost poetic that his illegal interactions with a black man might finally bring him down.Now we must wonder: who else did he buy off?


DC lawyer Victoria Toensing is one smart cookie. She s representing a former FBI informant who has evidence on kickbacks and bribery involving the transportation of uranium in the US. She recently told Sean Hannity her client will brief Congress about Russian involvement in the U.S. uranium market. This includes widespread bribery and actions that involved the Clintons I m not going into detail, attorney Victoria Toensing said on the Oct. 24 Hannity. You know that, Sean. But the informant will give an overview and specific conversations that he had with Russians in what they were thinking about the money that they were spending. I mean, let me just be that general and it involves the Clintons. The director of the FBI at that time was Robert Mueller, and he is now the special counsel investigating alleged Russian collusion with the 2016 Trump campaign. The undercover investigation involving Toensing s client occurred between 2009 and 2014, and the senior attorney on the case was Rod Rosenstein, who is now the deputy attorney general of the United States and the official who appointed Mueller as special counsel.Further, all this information indicates that many senior Obama administration officials knew about instances of bribery and money laundering involving at least one Russian official, at a time when Russia wanted to expand its uranium market in the United States, and when the administration through a special committee had to approve or deny the sale of a company, Vancouver-based Uranium One, to Rosatom. (Rosatom is the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation.)Some of the people on that Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States included then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napalitano, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.The committee approved the sale of Uranium One to Rosatom in October 2010. That sale gave Russia, and President Vladimir Putin, control over 20% of U.S. uranium production. (At least nine investors in Uranium One prior to, during, and after that sale donated $145 million to the Clinton Foundation.) So, Mueller, [Rod] Rosenstein, maybe even [James] Comey at the time, and the president of the United States certainly Eric Holder was the head of the DOJ they all knew that they had all this evidence that the Russians had infiltrated with the purpose of a criminal enterprise to corner the market on uranium, the foundational material of nuclear weapons? asked Hannity.Toensing said, That is correct.


A federal judge in Washington, D.C. has recused herself from a second case involving Trump dossier firm Fusion GPS.Tanya S. Chutkan, an Obama appointee, recused herself on Monday from a case involving a dispute over subpoenas issued for Fusion GPS, the firm that commissioned the dossier.This Obama appointee is like so many others controversial. Change.org has a petition calling for her impeachmentA SUPPORTER COMMENT OF THE PETITION: There is Clear and Present Danger, in our Government and to our Country. Judge Chutkin needs to do her duty, as Sworn by Oath, to let in ALL of the evidence pertaining to Imran Awan and Hina Alvi. As it stands today, 9/12/2017, Judge Chutkin is not doing her duty to protect the interests and lives of the Citizens of The United States. For this reason, I am standing with others, shoulder to shoulder, and calling for the Removal and Impeachment of Federal District Judge Tanya S. Chutkin. Aleksej Gubarev, a Russian tech executive accused in the dossier of hacking Democrats computer systems, has sought to subpoena Fusion GPS records and to depose its employees to find out more about the research firm s work on the dossier.Gubarev is suing BuzzFeed for defamation for publishing the dossier earlier this year. He denies the allegations laid out in the document, which was written by former British spy Christopher Steele.Chutkan recused herself last month from another case involving Fusion GPS. The firm had filed suit against its bank, TD Bank, to keep it from complying with a subpoena issued by the House Intelligence Committee, which sought Fusion s bank records.Chutkan presided over that case from Oct. 20 to Nov. 9. It was reassigned to Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee. Since taking over the case, Leon has indicated that he plans to allow more transparency into the court proceedings involving the battle over Fusion s bank records. He has ordered several documents be unsealed and made public.Chutkan has presided over the case involving the lawsuit against BuzzFeed since Aug. 31. Her replacement is Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee who assumed office in October.The reasons for Chutkan s recusals remain a mystery Chutkan refused to comment on the recusal but her work with a medical technology firm also represented by Fusion GPS could be the reason.In any case, this is yet another case of the Obama hand in just about everything that has to do with corruption and intel agencies.


A clueless CNN reporter trying to interview a cold and hungry woman with her children is oblivious to the fact that this woman and her kids need help STAT!Unreal! What the f*ck CNN! We couldn t agree more! This is epic and will probably be pulled so watch while you can!"What the f**k," @CNN? pic.twitter.com/oPGzVg2zNv The Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 29, 2017This lady was saying what we all think when the idiotic reporters try and corner someone right after a disaster. Can you believe how Jim Acosta plays it off? Sounds like you ve got a very upset lady right there What in the world!This poor lady was stranded for days with young children not knowing if she would be rescued.


The timing couldn t possibly be any worse ***WARNING*** GRAPHIC VideoTarget is smack dab in the middle of a PR nightmare. The news of Target suing this good samaritan couldn t have come at a worse time In 2013, everyone agreed that Michael Turner saved the life of a teenaged girl who was attacked in a Pennsylvania Target store. Now, Target is suing him.When she was sixteen, Allison Meadows was shopping in an East Liberty, Pennsylvania, Target store when Leon Walls rushed into the outlet and stabbed her.With the assistance of surveillance video, Walls was convicted of attempted homicide for his attack on the girl.Here is the horrific video of the stabbing and more importantly, of the heroic act by Michael Turner (who Target is suing) that saved her life:The only reason the girl did not suffer more injuries is because Michael Turner interceded and, along with several other men, confronted Walls. Turner himself chased Walls out the store with a baseball bat.Unsurprisingly, Meadows was extremely thankful for Turner s efforts. I thank him, Meadows has said. I thank him every time I see him. But Meadows launched a lawsuit against Target, saying the store s lack of security put all shoppers, not just her, in danger.Target, however, is less grateful for Mr. Turner s heroics. And now the retailer is suing him for endangering the store s customers.According to the company s filing, Target says Turner and several others chased the suspect toward the store s entrance after the attack on the girl. The store insists Turner put other shoppers at risk with his actions.The victim of the stabbing and her family are furious with the retail chain and say Target is just trying to shift the blame away from its own security failures. Suing Michael Turner is just Target s way of trying to blame someone else for what happened under their own roof, the Meadows family attorney said. The family certainly doesn t blame Mr. Turner and they are thankful he was there that day. Target is already getting negative publicity; the chain is the subject of a major boycott effort due to its announcement that it is allowing men to use women s bathrooms and changing rooms.Despite the uproar over its decision not to mention the loss of up to $6 billion in stock values Target doubled down on its policy.


Every entertainer likes to be subversive — to push the envelope and surprise their audience. At a time when Hollywood has made itself insufferable with its increasingly hysterical political commentary, Lady Gaga shocked the world simply by entertaining it. [Expectations were before the Super Bowl LI halftime show what would Gaga — one of Hillary Clinton's top celebrity supporters — say or do in this, the first halftime show of Donald Trump's presidency? How could she possibly top Beyoncé's tribute to the Black Panthers from last year's game? "This performance is for everyone," Gaga coyly told reporters in Houston on Saturday, refusing to divulge her plans. "I want to, more than anything, create a moment that everyone that's watching will never forget. " Tantalizing stuff. And yet there was barely a whiff of partisan politics at all during the pop star's entire set, not even a requisite "Resist," or "Love trumps hate. " Opening with a of "God Bless America" and "This Land Is Your Land" from the roof of NRG Stadium under a cloud of pulsating red, white and drones, Gaga literally dove into the building and straight into a collection of her greatest hits: "Poker Face," "Just Dance," "Born This Way," "Telephone" and the grand finale of "Bad Romance," all delivered (a rare feat given the amount of dancing she was doing) and reasonably well. It was a mesmerizing performance, filled with the kind of expert showmanship that only very confident artists can pull off. It reminded me, if only slightly, of Prince's pageantry and 2007 halftime show in Miami, in which the late artist, ever the consummate entertainer, ran through a collection of Bob Dylan and Tina Turner covers before hoisting his guitar high for a rousing rendition of "Purple Rain," in the middle of an actual downpour. Gaga did her set, and then it was over. No raised fists, no inappropriate language, no threats, no protests. No hysteria. She walked off the field after an epic exit in which she dropped the mic, caught a football and dove offstage, and then that stage was reset for what was to become one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the NFL. It is not unlikely — given the current political and cultural climate in America — that Gaga considered going the protest statement route, and then decided against it. After all, it is now firmly established that the endless political grandstanding has gotten celebrities absolutely nowhere. It rarely ever feels authentic, especially coming from people who earn more money in an hour for flashing their ass on TV than most Americans will earn in a lifetime. And even when it does feel authentic, millions across the country are bound to disagree. Conservative media, including yours truly, have made a cottage industry of pointing out exactly how clueless and out of touch celebrities are when compared with ordinary people. Just ask Hillary Clinton and her celebrity army how the last election worked out for them. And consider Beyoncé's halftime show. For months afterward, the conversation was focused almost entirely on the blatant enforcement message she preached from America's biggest stage, and now, a year after the show and despite liberals' claim that everybody loves Beyoncé! half the country now hates Beyoncé. Her show led police groups to boycott her concerts, even as she audaciously used a police escort to get to the game (and later cashed in on the sentiment by offering her very own line of "Boycott Beyoncé" merchandise at her tour stops). More division. More disconnection between law enforcement and the people they serve and protect. All in the name of "love" and "tolerance. " Or consider Madonna at last month's Women's March on Washington, where she casually suggested to the tens of thousands of activists in attendance that she had often thought of blowing up the White House. What did that do for us? Or Meryl Streep's speech about morality at the Oscars, as if Hollywood is somehow the great arbiter of moral behavior. The only thing Streep's speech accomplished is that conservatives can no longer enjoy Kramer vs. Kramer in the same way again. The bottom line is this: the best way to unite more than 100 million Americans with wildly disparate political views is to refrain from making any political statements at all. That Lady Gaga was the one to buck the trend freaked out plenty of entertainment journalists and commentators. Could this be the same Gaga that hopped on a sanitation truck outside Trump Tower in the hours of November 9, defiantly holding up a "Love Trumps Hate" sign in a show of silent protest? After the show, Los Angeles Times writer Mikael Wood wrote that the collection of hits Gaga played Sunday night "sounded like objects of distraction, catchy baubles meant to entertain us in the absence of a broader message. " That sentiment was widely shared among Hollywood journalists, as a cursory look around the Internet revealed on Monday morning. Gaga missed her chance to say something useful, something revolutionary. This would have been The Moment, the chance to break through and show America just how stupid and wrong it was for electing Donald Trump president. Gaga would have found the key. To which I say: good grief. Pop songs are by definition catchy baubles meant to entertain us, and if Lady Gaga wanted to show off her maturity as an artist by performing a collection of her greatest hits (and converting some of the skeptics) then so be it. In the meantime, go masturbate to Meryl Streep's acceptance speech and dream of better days. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum


A YMCA in Indiana has removed CNN from the TVs in its wellness and exercise areas over complaints from members upset by the constant fake news the cable network airs. [The Valparaiso, Indiana, YMCA issued a statement to members that the cable news network was removed from facility TVs because too many members complained about the programing. Debra Koeppen, the YMCA's chief development officer, said that "Trying to please everyone" is the "No. 1 problem we have in the wellness area," according to Chicago Tribune reporter Jerry Davich, who claims to be a member of the YMCA in question. Earlier this week, Robert Wanek, CEO of the Valparaiso YMCA, sent a message to members saying, "In order to eliminate perceived political bias associated with national news outlets, the Valparaiso Family YMCA will only be showing local news channels in the future. " Davich asked the CEO to reveal more details about the removal of CNN from the TVs, but Wanek replied, "I cannot pinpoint the change origins, only to add that we get dozens of requests to change channels every day from numerous interest groups. " "We just want the Y to be a haven for wellness where people come together and have a sense of belonging, gain new relationships and achieve their personal goals," Wanek added. "We will display local news moving forward. " Indeed, Wanek said that from this point forward only local news will be played on the TVs and all cable news networks will be banned. Reporter Davich's article was far from a straight report on the matter, however. The reporter was an open detractor of the decision to remove CNN from the TVs, clearly stating he and some other members disagreed with the new policy. Davich insisted that CNN was a centrist network and noted that "none" of the members he talked to "agreed with the removal of CNN. " The reporter gave readers his opinion in the very first sentence, saying, "Is the Valparaiso Family YMCA simply exercising its right to appease as many members as possible, or is the new Donald America already flexing its muscles?" Davich's final say on the matter was just as clear. As he wrapped up his story. the reporter complained that "the Y's decision to remove all national news outlets from its televisions says more about its leaders than its members. You'd think this story would be just another example of fake news. Sadly, it's not. " Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com.


Very little is more infuriating for women than to have our appearances policed. Yet, police us people do, usually by criticizing what s in fashion and calling it too immodest, and crying that men can t stop staring and thus are sinning in their hearts, or saying that women over a certain age should not wear this or that. One of the latest incidents comes from Alan Sorrentino, of Rhode Island, who wrote a letter to editor for EastBayRI saying women over 20 should not be wearing yoga pants in public.Yoga pants draw a lot of ire from the supposedly pious and the supposedly weak-willed. Sorrentino s specific targeting of women in yoga pants earned him a yoga pants parade through the street in front of his house. Hundreds of people men and women participated while wearing yoga pants.Yes, there were men wearing yoga pants to stand in solidarity with women who are tired of being told what they can and cannot wear, and paraded with women in front of Sorrentino s house. Sorrentino got more than an eyeful of the struggles with physicality that he doesn t want to see anymore: To all yoga pant wearers, I struggle with my own physicality as I age. I don t want to struggle with yours. Thanks. His problem is that, as women age, we lose our beauty and our bodies, which, to people like him, necessarily restrict what we can wear. It s like he thinks that if we re not young and beautiful, we should hide ourselves in some way (oh wait, that s exactly what he thinks): Like the mini-skirt, yoga pants can be adorable on children and young women who have the benefit of nature s blessing of youth. However, on mature, adult women there is something bizarre and disturbing about the appearance they make in public. Maybe it s the unforgiving perspective they provide, inappropriate for general consumption, TMI, or the spector [sic] of someone coping poorly with their weight or advancing age that makes yoga pants so weird in public.A nice pair of tailored slacks, jeans, or anything else would be better than those stinky, tacky, ridiculous looking yoga pants. They do nothing to compliment a women over 20 years old. In fact, the look is bad. Do yourself a favor, grow up and stop wearing them in public. [emphasis mine]How disgusting. If someone is dressed or presenting an appearance we don t want to see, we can, you know, just look somewhere else. Or better yet, we can accept that there are things in this world that we personally would rather not see. Truly mature people, one of whom Sorrentino clearly isn t, recognize that it s not our place to tell other people what they can and cannot wear based on our personal comfort.Sorrentino is now claiming he wrote the letter as a joke, and the paper is defending its decision to publish it by explaining that they publish all opinions as long as they aren t attacking a person or a group: In this case, Mr. Sorrentino is not attacking any individual nor specific group. It s safe to assume that his comments target a large portion of America s female population, and that group obviously has ample firepower to respond to Mr. Sorrentino and his opinions. Telling women over 20 how they can and cannot dress isn t attacking women? Okay then. That s systemic sexism, though. Here s hoping the yoga pants parade got Sorrentino s attention, and he rethinks his position. Joke or not, it was inappropriate at best.Here s a short video from the parade:The #YogaPantsParade is underway @ABC6 pic.twitter.com/VItosLSLaA Bianca Buono (@BBuonoABC6) October 23, 2016


Whitewashing Hitler and the Holocaust seems to be all the rage among today s Republicans. There was the time when the White House remembered the Holocaust on Holocaust Remembrance Day, but forgot to mention the Jews, at all. Yesterday, Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Hitler didn t use chemical weapons. He s been trying, and failing, at backtracking ever since. Now, a Republican in North Carolina, on his Facebook page, compared Abraham Lincoln to Hitler.It was a comment by GOP Legislator Larry Pittman. He posted his newsletter on Facebook, and among the rest of the hate, he commented this to a person telling him to get over the Supreme Court ruling that made same-sex marriage the law of the land (something he hopes to overturn, at the state level):And if Hitler had won, should the world just get over it? Lincoln was the same sort if tyrant, and personally responsible for the deaths of over 800,000 Americans in a war that was unnecessary and unconstitutional.Obviously, his followers let him have it, but perhaps the best answer was this one:The Civil War was unnecessary and unconstitutional? What on earth were you thinking? The Republican Party used to be proudly called the Party of Lincoln. I have no idea what to call it now, at least that could be repeated in polite company.Couldn t NC Rep #LarryPittman find someone else to compare #Hitler to rather than #Lincoln ? @maddow #ncpol https://t.co/4sjhsCHPOs pic.twitter.com/LLSQv6y47q Indy Week (@indyweek) April 12, 2017Pittman clearly has no idea whatsoever what the Constitution says or he would not be putting forth a bill that would try to nullify federal law. That is against the Constitution. Now, so is slavery, although I m sure that s something else Pittman would like to nullify.Racism is nothing new for Pittman. Like Donald Trump, he was a birther. He said this about President Obama: Someone had posted something [on Facebook] with a picture of Barack Obama and across it said traitor, Pittman said. And, you know, I don t always agree with the guy, I certainly didn t vote for him but I gotta defend him on this one. I just don t think it s right at all to call Barack Obama a traitor. There s a lot of things he s done wrong but he is not a traitor. Not as far as I can tell. I haven t come across any evidence yet that he has done one thing to harm Kenya. Source: MSNBCBut hey, this is Trump s country now. It s totally cool these days to let your racist flag fly high. Double points if that flag belongs to the Confederacy.Image of Hitler via BBC | Image of Lincoln via Wikipedia.


The GOP convention is drawing all sorts, including nutbags like this one on YouTube. It s also drawing those who believe the GOP s policies are a major departure from what this country was supposed to be, despite all their claims that they want us to be exactly that. Because of that, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has a billboard up near their venue with a quote from none other than St. Reagan himself, and conservatives will absolutely despise it.This is the billboard below:FFRF quotes Reagan in Cleveland message to GOP convention https://t.co/MIkpBehtQv pic.twitter.com/6EGURARKW7 FFRF (@FFRF) June 27, 2016The point is clear: Keep church and state separate.Over the last couple of decades, Republicans have worked hard to entangle civil law with biblical law, and they hope to keep us from knowing the difference. Pea-brains like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, James Inhofe, and more allow their religions to have a stranglehold on their policy decisions. The GOP itself has taken the Establishment Clause to mean that Christians should be free to do whatever they want to whomever they want, but all other religions need to put up with being restricted, and shut up altogether.The FFRF has been working to keep church and state separate since 1978, and this billboard is a brilliant idea because it takes a quote from one of the GOP s own idols and turns it back on them. Some places, like The Blaze, have already claimed that the quote is taken out of context, which is nonsense. The full quote is: Our very unity has been strengthened by our pluralism. We establish no religion in this country, we command no worship, we mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are, and must remain, separate. All are free to believe or not believe, all are free to practice a faith or not, and those who believe are free, and should be free, to speak of and act on their belief. That s in no way taken out of context. Instead, it s basically a summary of what Reagan was saying. Furthermore, Reagan s own son, Ron Reagan Jr., is on the Honorary Board of Distinguished Thinkers at the FFRF, and is an atheist who isn t afraid to burn in hell. There s little question he supports this display.It s actually the hateful, judgmental, narrow-minded Christians of the religious right who don t want to follow the Constitution, and they re dragging the GOP along with them, all in the name of following the Constitution. It s long past time for the GOP to stop pandering to the evangelicals and actually try to govern according to the Constitution, like they keep insisting they are.Featured image by Win McNamee/Getty Images


U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said on Friday she understands how her meeting with former president Bill Clinton "casts a shadow" over the perception of independence in the investigation her department is conducting into his wife's email use. Bill Clinton met with Lynch on her plane in Phoenix on Monday night, triggering a firestorm from Republicans and a public statement from Lynch that she will accept whatever outcome independent investigators decide at the end of the probe into the Democratic presidential front-runner's use of a private email server.


21st Century Wire says It is not looking good for Clinton.Watch a video of this report here: Trump now sits at 45%, with Clinton at 42%.This shows Trump is only widening his lead over Clinton, as held just a 2% lead a few weeks ago.However, the more interesting statistic that the poll reveals is that Bernie Sanders is the only candidate in the entire presidential race that actually can beat Trump.Sanders leads Trump by 4%, meaning for a slightly more convincing victory than Donald could pull over on Hillary.Bernie would come in at 46%, and Trump would trail at 42%.With the anti-Trump campaign proving to be an absolutely futile effort, it appears that those with a deep-seated hatred for Donald could have had a far greater chance of beating him by putting their efforts into supporting Sanders earlier on, instead of just trashing Trump.Will those who have completely wasted their time in the anti-Trump campaign finally recognise where their efforts should be placed if they are actually serious about stopping Trump?GET THE FULL STORY ON THE 2016 ELECTION: 21st Century Wire Election Files


Republicans are great at creating controversy where there is none. They shut down the get out the vote organization, ACORN, because they fraudulently made people believe that ACORN was a criminal front (because, you know, black people). They ve also tried to strangle the life out of Planned Parenthood, again, for fraudulent reasons.One persistent non-problem that Republicans are manufacturing is voter fraud, which is virtually non-existent. This is actually pretty big deal. According to a poll released this week, more than half of respondents felt that voter fraud was real, and most of those were Republicans.Trump himself has been beating the drum about voter fraud when he proactively claims that the only way he d lose is if the election is rigged. Well, maybe Trump should look right under his nose. It appears that there is voter fraud, but it s coming from Trump s own newly hired campaign CEO, Steve Bannon. Bannon is registered in the swing state of Florida, but records show that no one actually lives at the address to which he s registered. In fact, it s set to be torn down. That makes him a criminal, at least according to Florida law.According to a report in The Guardian, Bannon has never lived in the house he claims as his residence. His ex-wife, Diane Clohesy once lived there. She moved out earlier in the year. The two divorced seven years ago.If you think that s just some sort of inadvertent paperwork error, well, it happened twice.Bannon previously rented another house for Clohesy in Miami from 2013 to 2015 and assigned his voter registration to the property during that period. But a source with direct knowledge of the rental agreement for this house said Bannon did not live there either, and that Bannon and Clohesy were not in a relationship.Bannon, Clohesy and Trump s campaign repeatedly declined to answer detailed questions about Bannon s voting arrangements. Jason Miller, a Trump campaign spokesman, eventually said in an email: Mr Bannon moved to another location in Florida. Miller declined to answer further questions.According to neighbors, Bannon has been to the first house (which he paid $5,500 a month for), but only a few times and he certainly didn t live there. The neighbors at the second house say they ve never seen Bannon.Bannon does set up shop in what he calls Breitbart embassy, which is a $2.4 million townhouse right next to the Supreme Court building. Bannon lives upstairs while his staff works in the basement. That, however, is owned by Mostafa El-Gindy, who s an Egyptian businessman.This may be less about voter fraud than tax fraud. Florida has no income tax, so people often try to set up Florida addresses to escape taxes. Attorneys typically recommend that they also attach a voter registration address as some sort of evidence of residency. There is no record Bannon has voted from that address.If Bannon is found guilty of submitting false information on a Florida registration form, it s a third-degree felony and punishable by up to five years in prison. Of course, the odds of him actually being prosecuted are pretty damned slim, but it does put a big wrench in the Trump campaign s claims of voter fraud.


A Muslim teenager from New Jersey was accepted to the prestigious Stanford University after he wrote #BlackLivesMatter a hundred times on his college application.Ziad Ahmed, a senior who attends the $34,600 a year private Princeton Day School, posted his acceptance letter and the essay that helped get him accepted on Twitter. The tweet shows that when he was prompted to answer the question, What matters to you, and why? Ahmed simply wrote the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter one hundred times.In his acceptance letter, Stanford emphasized how the university loved the passion, determination, accomplishments and heart shown in Ahmed s application. They also said he will be joining a diverse, joyful, and welcoming campus community with a shared determination to make our world better if he chooses to attend Stanford.In an interview with Mic, Ahmed said, I was actually stunned when I opened the update and saw that I was admitted. I didn t think I would get admitted to Stanford at all, but it s quite refreshing to see that they view my unapologetic activism as an asset rather than a liability, he added.Ahmed said he included a reference to Black Lives Matter because he feels unapologetic progressivism is a central part of my identity, and I wanted that to be represented adequately in my application. To me, to be Muslim is to be a BLM ally, and I honestly can t imagine it being any other way for me, Ahmed explained. Furthermore, it s critical to realize that one-fourth to one-third of the Muslim community in America are black and to separate justice for Muslims from justices for the black community is to erase the realities of the plurality of our community. Happy birthday to my role model, @lsarsour! As an American-Muslim youth today, she inspires/empowers me through her advocacy. Grateful. pic.twitter.com/u1YdU3tlyt Ziad Ahmed (@ziadtheactivist) March 19, 2017Ahmed s Twitter profile includes more of his activism and political leanings. On his Twitter page, Ahmed has a profile photo with former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, a background photo with former President Obama, a photo with Women s March organizer and terrorist sympathizer Linda Sarsour, and a photo with Teen Vogue writer Lauren Duca, who famously said President Trump is gaslighting America and defended Ivanka Trump being harassed.Although Ahmed s application mentioned his support for Black Lives Matter, according to the College Board website, Stanford is 36 percent white, 21 percent Asian, 16 percent Hispanic or Latino, 10 percent two or more races, 9 percent non-resident alien, but only 6 percent black or African American. MRCTV


The San Jose Police Department has been plagued with accusations of racism and racial profiling, and now they re getting sued for it. A black family alleges that an officer followed them home from picking up their seven-year old daughter, and held them at gunpoint for absolutely no reason other than they were black, and the father, Emmanuel Stephens, might have matched the description of a suspicious black man in the area. The family is suing for an unspecified amount in damages.The first question that many people will ask themselves when faced with a like this is, what did this family do that caused the officer to draw his gun?According the lawsuit, they did nothing, and it s that kind of question that perpetuates racism in the justice system, because nobody asks themselves that when the victim is white. Officer Alexander Keller followed them home, and then when they got out of their car, he got out of his and drew his gun. The officer also put Stephens in handcuffs and held him in the back of his patrol car for a while. Their car was searched, and Stephens was cited for possession of a small amount of pot, despite having it for medical reasons and producing a prescription to prove it.Worse, when their 14-year old daughter came out, she was threatened with a trip to Juvenile Hall if she went back to get her cell phone and record the whole sordid incident.Their lawyer said: What happened to my clients happens all the time and is a real problem.This type of police misconduct only gets attention when someone ends up dead, but this type of non-lethal harassment is much more widespread and also need to be brought to light and stopped. The department, however, says that there isn t any bias in their policing methods despite strong evidence to the contrary, and this situation would seem to be another piece of that evidence. Another cop later said that someone had reported a suspicious black man with a purple backpack in that area, but Stephens had no such backpack. Keller proceeded to profile him anyway.Even if Stephens did have such a backpack, there was no way for this officer to see that from his car when he decided to follow them, hold them at gunpoint, detain Stephens, and search their car without a warrant and without probable cause. Being black does not constitute probable cause.San Jose s police department is like many others, though. Black people are guilty until proven innocent, and are treated as such. Had this been a white family, and someone had reported a suspicious white man in their area, would Keller still have followed them home and drawn his gun on them? Searched their car without a warrant or evidence of wrongdoing? Cited him for medical marijuana for which he had a prescription?Very likely not.Featured image by David Paul Morris/Getty Images


Why Trump Won; Why Clinton Lost November 9, 2016  Exclusive: Hillary Clinton's stunning defeat reflected a gross misjudgment by the Democratic Party about the depth of populist anger against self-serving elites who have treated much of the country with disdain, writes Robert Parry.  By Robert Parry  In the end, Hillary Clinton became the face of a corrupt, arrogant and out-of-touch Establishment, while Donald Trump emerged as an almost perfectly imperfect vessel for a populist fury that had bubbled beneath the surface of America.  There is clearly much to fear from a Trump presidency, especially coupled with continued Republican control of Congress. Trump and many Republicans have denied the reality of climate change; they favor more tax cuts for the rich; they want to deregulate Wall Street and other powerful industries – all policies that helped create the current mess that the United States and much of the world are now in. A sign supporting Donald Trump at a rally at Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix, Arizona. June 18, 2016 (Photo by Gage Skidmore)  Further, Trump's personality is problematic to say the least. He lacks the knowledge and the temperament that one would like to see in a President – or even in a much less powerful public official. He appealed to racism, misogyny, white supremacy, bigotry toward immigrants and prejudice toward Muslims. He favors torture and wants a giant wall built across America's southern border.  But American voters chose him in part because they felt they needed a blunt instrument to smash the Establishment that has ruled and mis-ruled America for at least the past several decades. It is an Establishment that not only has grabbed for itself almost all the new wealth that the country has produced but has casually sent the U.S. military into wars of choice, as if the lives of working-class soldiers are of little value.  On foreign policy, the Establishment had turned decision-making over to the neoconservatives and their liberal-interventionist sidekicks, a collection of haughty elitists who often subordinated American interests to those of Israel and Saudi Arabia, for political or financial advantage.  The war choices of the neocon/liberal-hawk coalition have been disastrous – from Iraq to Afghanistan to Libya to Syria to Ukraine – yet this collection of know-it-alls never experiences accountability. The same people, including the media's armchair warriors and the think-tank "scholars," bounce from one catastrophe to the next with no consequences for their fallacious "group thinks." Most recently, they have ginned up a new costly and dangerous Cold War with Russia.  For all his faults, Trump was one of the few major public figures who dared challenge the "group thinks" on the current hot spots of Syria and Russia. In response, Clinton and many Democrats chose to engage in a crude McCarthyism with Clinton even baiting Trump as Vladimir Putin's "puppet" during the final presidential debate.  It is somewhat remarkable that those tactics failed; that Trump talked about cooperation with Russia, rather than confrontation, and won. Trump's victory could mean that rather than escalating the New Cold War with Russia, there is the possibility of a ratcheting down of tensions.  Repudiating the Neocons  Thus, Trump's victory marks a repudiation of the neocon/liberal-hawk orthodoxy because the New Cold War was largely incubated in neocon/liberal-hawk think tanks, brought to life by likeminded officials in the U.S. State Department, and nourished by propaganda across the mainstream Western media. Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona. June 18, 2016. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)  It was the West, not Russia, that provoked the confrontation over Ukraine by helping to install a fiercely anti-Russian regime on Russia's borders. I know the mainstream Western media framed the story as "Russian aggression" but that was always a gross distortion.  There were peaceful ways for settling the internal differences inside Ukraine without violating the democratic process, but U.S. neocons, such as Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, and wealthy neoliberals, such as financial speculator George Soros, pushed for a putsch that overthrew the elected President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.  Putin's response, including his acceptance of Crimea's overwhelming referendum to return to Russia and his support for ethnic Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine opposing the coup regime in Kiev, was a reaction to the West's destabilizing and violent actions. Putin was not the instigator of the troubles.  Similarly, in Syria, the West's "regime change" strategy, which dates back to neocon planning in the mid-1990s, involved collaboration with Al Qaeda and other Islamic jihadists to remove the secular government of Bashar al-Assad. Again, Official Washington and the mainstream media portrayed the conflict as all Assad's fault, but that wasn't the full picture.  From the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, U.S. "allies," including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Israel, have been aiding the rebellion, with Turkey and the Gulf states funneling money and weapons to Al Qaeda's Nusra Front and even to the Al Qaeda spinoff, Islamic State.  Though President Barack Obama dragged his heels on the direct intervention advocated by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Obama eventually went in halfway, bending to political pressure by agreeing to train and arm so-called "moderates" who ended up fighting next to Al Qaeda's Nusra Front and other jihadists in Ahrar al-Sham.  Trump has been inarticulate and imprecise in describing what policies he would follow in Syria, besides suggesting that he would cooperate with the Russians in destroying Islamic State. But Trump didn't seem to understand the role of Al Qaeda in controlling east Aleppo and other Syrian territory.  Uncharted Territory  So, the American voters have plunged the United States and the world into uncharted territory behind a President-elect who lacks a depth of knowledge on a wide variety of issues. Who will guide a President Trump becomes the most pressing issue today. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking with supporters at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona. March 21, 2016. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)  Will he rely on traditional Republicans who have done so much to mess up the country and the world or will he find some fresh-thinking realists who will realign policy with core American interests and values.  For this dangerous and uncertain moment, the Democratic Party establishment deserves a large share of the blame. Despite signs that 2016 would be a year for an anti-Establishment candidate – possibly someone like Sen. Elizabeth Warren or Sen. Bernie Sanders – the Democratic leadership decided that it was "Hillary's turn."  Alternatives like Warren were discouraged from running so there could be a Clinton "coronation." That left the 74-year-old socialist from Vermont as the only obstacle to Clinton's nomination and it turned out that Sanders was a formidable challenger. But his candidacy was ultimately blocked by Democratic insiders, including the unelected "super-delegates" who gave Clinton an early and seemingly insurmountable lead.  With blinders firmly in place, the Democrats yoked themselves to Clinton's gilded carriage and tried to pull it all the way to the White House. But they ignored the fact that many Americans came to see Clinton as the personification of all that is wrong about the insular and corrupt world of Official Washington. And that has given us President-elect Trump.  Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America's Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com .


http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/wikileaks-confirms-hillary-clinton-campaign-acknowledge-massive-email-cover/ It's always the cover-up that gets ya!  This is certainly getting interesting, folks. It's 13 days before the elections. This email leak confirms Hillary Clinton and her staff were engaged in a cover up designed to prevent Congress from seeing incriminating emails about well – everything!  The issue is this. Early voting has occurred and is occurring across the nation. People have already cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton. If the Democrats pull her as a candidate and put anybody else in – likely Biden – then they will lose all the votes cast for Hillary as she will no longer be the Democratic candidate.  All the Democrat illegal immigrant voting fraud, dead peopl e voting fraud, busing people around to vote in multiple precincts fraud plus all legal citizen Democrat votes cast early will no longer be valid if Hillary Clinton is removed as the candidate!  And the 32K emails haven't yet been released! How low did you go, Hillary?  It's a bit late now to do Michelle Obama's bidding to "take the high road." For you that might be a gutter. Shift Frequency 2016 SF original Oct. 26, 2016


Donald Trump, under pressure to show a more presidential image, elevated a top adviser on Thursday and said he planned to hire additional staff to prepare for the possibility of a long fight for the Republican nomination. The developments came as Trump tries to rebound from a loss in Wisconsin on Tuesday to U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a defeat that punctured the billionaire businessman's aura of inevitability and made it more likely the nominee will be picked in a floor fight at the Republican National Convention in July. The Republican front-runner's stumble in Wisconsin exposed a variety of weaknesses. Trump alienated many female Republican voters by saying that women who have an abortion if the procedure were banned should be punished, a position he later backtracked on. He also appeared to have been outmaneuvered in the scramble for delegates in Louisiana. Although Trump beat Cruz in that state on March 5, Cruz may end up with more delegates from Louisiana than Trump. Trump announced that he has assigned all functions related to the nomination process to veteran political operative Paul Manafort, who was hired to manage the process of corralling delegates who will pick the nominee. "The nomination process has reached a point that requires someone familiar with the complexities involved in the final stages," Trump said. Trump also canceled plans for a campaign swing through California in coming days in order to concentrate on New York, which has suddenly emerged as a must-win state for him on April 19. He has a big lead in his home state. A Trump campaign statement said that he will add to his team as the Republican National Convention nears and that he would announce new hires in the weeks ahead. The expansion of Trump's campaign means his team will grow beyond the close-knit group of advisers who have been at his side since he jumped into the presidential race last June. Trump said he plans to open a Washington office next week. While there has been speculation that Trump might make Manafort his campaign manager, the candidate's statement made clear that current campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and deputy manager Michael Glassner would remain in their positions. Lewandowski has been charged with simple battery for grabbing a reporter who tried to ask Trump a question in Florida a month ago. Trump, famously loyal to people he trusts, has rejected calls that he fire Lewandowski.


Republicans insist that everything under President Obama is awful and terrible and getting worse. Their nominee for the presidency has based his entire candidacy on the idea that America is a complete trianwreck and only he alone can fix things.But when you ask actual Americans about what their lives are like after eight years of Barack Obama being president, a completely different message emerges. Gallup did just that, in a survey of over 100,000 people, and almost completely across the board people feel better off than they did before.In 2008, fewer than half of Americans said their life was good enough to be considered thriving, according to Gallup. But that s changed: The 55.4% who are thriving so far in 2016 is on pace to be the highest recorded in the nine years Gallup and Healthways have tracked it, according to the report.The report even has findings that obliterate Donald Trump s constant harping that black Americans are living lives of complete desperation inside crack-destroyed inner city ghettos. The percentages of U.S. whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians who are thriving have all increased during the Obama era, Gallup notes. The percentage of blacks thriving has risen by about 6 points, as has the percentage of whites and Hispanics. Asian thriving has risen by about 10 points since 2008.It isn t magic or left wing propaganda. People simply feel better off and more optimistic, and it isn t a coincidence that this change has occurred between the presidency of a conservative Republican and a progressive Democrat.As a result, President Obama s approval rating has gone over 50 percent and reports are now emerging that Trump is having trouble convincing voters in key states that they need to turn the page from Obama because people are feeling positive about the situation in America.Ignore the hype and noise of the right, check out the data and you ll learn how people really feel.


Authorities in Philadelphia will station prosecutors throughout the city on election day to respond to any reports of voter intimidation or other illegal activity after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claimed that polling might be "rigged" in this mostly minority city. Philadelphia is one of many U.S. municipalities wrestling with how to respond to Trump's call for supporters to "watch" polling places, and corresponding promises from civil rights groups that they will send their own backers to the polls. "All of our election judges will be provided with cell phones that have direct access to the district attorney's office of Philadelphia," said Tim Dowling, chief deputy to City Commissioner Lisa Deeley. "As soon as you cross the line, you're going to be dealing with law enforcement." The Nov. 8 presidential election has been among the most contentious in the nation's history. Trump, whose campaign has been shaken by allegations that he groped numerous women after a video surfaced in which he made lewd comments about groping women, has refused to promise that he will accept the results of the election if he loses to Democrat Hillary Clinton. This week, Trump told supporters to "watch" polling places in such cities as Philadelphia, St. Louis and Chicago - all with large minority populations. As Trump has slipped in the polls, he has repeatedly said the election is "rigged" against him. Fearing that to be true, voters in Denver have been calling officials seeking reassurance, said Amber McReynolds, the city's director of elections. "Voters will call in and say, 'Is the election rigged?' McReynolds said. "We try to explain how the process works. ... Rigging an election is pretty much impossible." Various election experts, including Republicans, have said that it is virtually impossible to rig a presidential election, and numerous studies have shown that voter fraud in U.S. elections is very rare. In Arizona, a traditionally Republican state where polls have recently begun to show an increase in support for Clinton, poll workers are being trained to deal with an expected onslaught of observers, said Elizabeth Bartholomew, spokeswoman for elections officials in Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located. In North Carolina, where a local Republican party headquarters was badly damaged on Sunday in an unsolved arson attack, state elections officials are taking extra steps to address poll security. On Wednesday, the state elections board's executive director, Kim Strach, sent county elections officials a memo outlining examples of prohibited behavior at polling places and emphasizing that state and federals laws bar intimidation and coercion at the polls. In Philadelphia, teams from the district attorney's office will be stationed throughout the city, ready to respond at a moment's notice, Dowling said. The city is also increasing security at polling places, demanding for the first time identification even from credentialed poll-watchers sent by political parties. The city has activated such teams in previous elections, but this year there are more, and they will be set up at police stations. "Because of all the rhetoric, we're erring on the side of caution," Dowling said. Despite the high-profile nature of the claims, fears about intimidation at polling places may be overblown. Some of Trump's supporters have distanced themselves from his remarks about watching the polls. Many jurisdictions allow poll watchers, but they generally have to be credentialed and their numbers are limited. Several elections officials said they had so far not received an unusually high number of requests for poll-watcher credentials. In Leon County, Florida, for example, where the state capital of Tallahassee is located, 55 people affiliated with the Democratic Party had registered as poll watchers to observe early voting, which begins Monday. Two had signed up on behalf of Trump, and none for the Republican Party, Ion Sancho, supervisor of elections for the county. "We don't believe there will be any problems at the polls," he said. Florida civil rights activist Becca Guerra said she is not worried about voter intimidation inside polling places because of rules on electioneering and on poll watchers, but voters may have trouble outside in the parking lot. "We are training our folks to be the eyes and ears," she said.


Sunday, GotNews reported that the primary source of the White House leak was traced back to Deputy Chief of Staff and #NeverTrumper Kate Walsh. The goal was to undermine the Trump Presidency and Administration.Walsh is being investigated as a primary person of interest and is said to have been distributing highly confidential information to The New York Times and others. From Got News: Everyone knows not to talk to her in the White House unless you want to see it in the press, says a source close to the president. The only question is whether or not she s doing it at the behest of [White House Chief of Staff] Reince Priebus or if she s doing it to advance herself in DC media circles. Walsh would have significant access as she controls the president s schedule. There s also reportedly a trove of e-mails where Katie Walsh and Reince Priebus discuss how to rid themselves of Trump, according to a former #NeverTrump consultant. The president and his allies have been deliberately feeding her fake information in order to find her network, says a source close to the president s family. It s been going well. Walsh was a #NeverTrump Republican during the campaign . . . a White House investigation is planned into Walsh, who couldn t be reached for comment.(Source: Gateway Pundit)