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SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Billionaire former President Sebastian Pinera will likely win Chile s presidential election on Sunday, Radio Bio-Bio forecast, a result that would likely usher in more market friendly policies in the world s top copper producer. Pinera, a conservative, was seen taking 54.8 percent of the vote, the local broadcaster said after polls closed, with center-left candidate Alejandro Guillier with 45.2 percent in the contest to take over from President Michelle Bachelet. The exit poll from Radio Bio-Bio, a well-known broadcaster, was the most accurate in Chile s first round presidential vote in November.

In 2012, when we were still smarting from the disastrous Citizens United decision, the billionaire Koch brothers were busy using their money to fund seemingly everything the GOP did. That included donating to the GOP convention that year. What are they doing this year? Holding out. They want no part of Trump s coronation, so they won t donate to this year s convention at all.The Kochs are very influential donors, and they spent billions in 2012 to try and defeat President Obama. This year, they do plan on spending about $450 million on conservative causes, but as far as supporting anything Trump does, they ve come to their senses enough to know that he s terrible for the country.Their specific problems don t just involve his policy positions (although it s hard to know just what policy positions Trump has, since he says whatever he wants), and they re angry over his comments about Judge Curiel, who s presiding over the Trump University case. Trump believes that Curiel, despite having been born in Indiana and being an American citizen, is biased against him because of his border wall idea.Charles Koch told USA Today: It s either racist or it s stereotyping. It s unacceptable, and it s taking the country in the wrong direction. He can t say whether Trump is fit to be president, but withholding the Koch empire s mostly GOP-colored money from the convention seems to answer that question for us: Koch said it would require a major shift in tone and policy for him to back Trump. Koch said he would need to be convinced that Trump supported his top causes in a way wasn t just hype, ticking off as conditions: support for free trade, free speech, eliminating corporate welfare and trying to find common ground with people.' Koch doesn t believe Trump is capable of shifting on these things, though. He s probably right Trump will not let anybody tell him he s wrong on anything. Because of that, David Koch, who attended the 2012 convention as a delegate and also contributed $1 million, isn t going at all this year.For his part, Trump is playing it off like he doesn t care, saying that he doesn t need their money. He claims he doesn t need any money at all. Yet, he s got aides that are going to meet with the Koch brothers soon. If it s not to court them as donors to help fill his rapidly emptying coffers, then what s the point?While the convention will likely be able to go on as scheduled, that s a massive blow to the party and to King Trump, especially when put together with all the Republicans who are un-endorsing Trump. These are people whose money heavily influences GOP policy. To withhold it because they don t want to crown Trump is very telling.Featured image by Isaac Brekken/Getty Images

DAKAR (Reuters) - Rapidly expanding access to the internet across Africa is helping grassroots opposition movements take on once-invulnerable regimes. Many entrenched rulers have a simple response: pulling the plug. While countries in the Middle East and China employ firewalls and block virtual private networks to control web access, leaders in Africa increasingly prefer the blunter instrument of outright outages. Critics say that infringes not just the rights of individuals but also undermines the burgeoning economies of some of the world s poorest countries. Since the start of 2016, governments in 13 African nations have intentionally shut down the internet on 21 occasions, mainly during elections and protests, according to a database run by online rights group Access Now. That compares to seven shutdowns in the previous two years. Earlier this month, tech entrepreneur Sama Tanya saw Cameroonian police fire teargas into a residential building during protests by the country s English-speaking minority. As choking women and children poured onto the street, he considered documenting the crackdown to share on social media, only to realize the internet connection had been cut. I couldn t even reach my family to tell them. I was worried, but I couldn t share a thing, he said by telephone from the city of Buea, the epicenter of the demonstrations. Rights group Internet Without Borders says cutting access is a violation of international law and defies a July 2016 U.N. resolution affirming that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online. Internet freedom declined worldwide for the sixth straight year in 2016, according to an annual report from Freedom House. Africa is becoming a new testing ground for authoritarian practices online, said Francois Patuel, West Africa researcher at Amnesty International. We have seen disruptions in Togo and in other countries but also arrests for what people are saying online. Often what people say online can be used against them in court. Internet cuts in Africa date back to the 2011 Arab Spring when rulers in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya sought to control the spread of information. Today, the intent is the same, but the methods have evolved. Governments slow internet speed by reducing bandwidth, or throttling , and target and shut down certain URLs like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, a process known as filtering. Although free apps like VPN Monster and Turbo VPN can circumvent filtering using VPNs which mask the location of a computer or phone, even a VPN won t help you if you don t have an internet connection in the first place. When Gabon shut down internet access for several days last year as violent street protests erupted against President Ali Bongo s contested re-election, it likely only required flipping a virtual switch at state-run Gabon Telecom. Gabon Communications Minister Bilie-By-Nze acknowledged in a Reuters interview that internet access had been disrupted, but declined to comment further. During elections in Gambia in December, the government ordered the shutdown of the internet s landing point , the central point from which service is supplied to the whole country, according to two people with knowledge of the decision. In Togo, authorities appeared to have organized a mobile data shutdown during opposition protests against President Faure Gnassingbe last month, according to people who were there who said fixed internet lines remained available. Certain people post images to amplify the situation or publish photos of horror, Togo s Security Minister Colonel Damehame Yark told reporters earlier this month. The government decided to cut the internet because we have to protect the population. Democratic Republic of Congo asked telecommunications companies to block social media networks in December. Providers declined to comment at the time on whether they would comply, but one industry executive said all companies had signed an agreement to respect national security injunctions. When a sovereign government gives licenses to telecoms companies, those companies have little choice but to comply with the government s demands, said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Oracle Dyn, which monitors international internet traffic flows. Orange and Airtel, which provide service in countries where there have been shutdowns, did not respond to requests for comment for this story. MTN, the continent s top mobile phone operator, provided a link to a company statement outlining its dedication to internet freedom but declined to comment further. Outages may be aimed at political opponents or social disruptors but businesses crucial to Africa s economic growth can get also caught up in the crackdown. Sub-Saharan Africa s internet shutdowns have cost the region up to $237 million in economic losses since 2015, according to a recent report by the UK government-funded Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa. Shutdowns are adversely affecting the livelihoods of citizens, undermining the profitability of business enterprises, and reducing the GDP and competitiveness of countries that implement them, the report said. Etta Ayuk s small tech start-up Skylabase, which provides software to banks, lost three major clients and $20,000 worth of business when the internet was shut down from January to April in Anglophone Cameroon, forcing him to fire nearly half his employees. During the outage, Ayuk and his remaining staff crammed onto buses every morning for the 70-km (44-mile) drive to Francophone Cameroon s commercial capital, Douala, to use the internet there. Gridlock often made it a three-hour trip each way. Cameroon s government declined repeated requests for comment. Ayuk is considering rebasing to Gambia, which has not had a government shutdown since Adama Barrow became president in January 2017. Barrow is encouraging internet start-ups. I am a child of Cameroon, I don t want to leave, he said. But the political situation is not supporting us.

WHAT S WORSE IS THE SECOND LONGER VERSION OF THE AUDIO WHERE KERRY SPILLS THE BEANS ON HOW THE END GOAL OF CREATING ISIS WAS TO CAUSE REGIME CHANGE IN SYRIA BUT THEY DIDN T COUNT ON RUSSIA GETTING INVOLVED. LANGUAGE ALERT BELOW BUT WORTH IT:DISGRACE!John Kerry says the problem with Syria is that young Americans don t want 2 die anymore Secret Audio John Kerry Behind Closed Doors pic.twitter.com/0K4fvLuaUT TRUMP ANOMALY (@ANOMALY1) January 3, 2017AT THE 30:00 MARK IS WHERE KERRY TALKS ABOUT SENDING AMERICANS IN TO FIGHT:THREE OBJECTIVES ARE REVEALED:They didn t count on Assad turning to Russia for help And now you know the rest of the story Read more: CT

When I breathe it sounds like a windstorm. Haha cool

J.R. Smith 21st Century WireMuch has been made by Democrat Hillary Clinton and the White House s accusation that Russia is trying to influence US elections, although neither has presented any real evidence to back up this extraordinary claim. On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence documenting the CIA interfering and altering numerous foreign elections throughout history. This raises an interesting question: would the CIA ever try to interfere in an US election? Evan McMullin is a 40-year-old self-described conservative Mormon and former CIA operative. I enjoyed being a grey man, said McMullin of his 11 years in the CIA.On the wall in his Salt Lake City campaign offices is a poster which reads 007 for President. That s a bit worrying, if indeed McMullin fancies himself as a James Bond character, but in a way it really sums up what his presidential run is all about working in the grey areas, in back room meetings with GOP establishment luminaries, colored by private and public deception. It s what the CIA has specialized in for decades; manipulating and perverting hundreds of overseas elections all in the interest of transnational corporate elites (like Mitt Romney), and now it seems they have an inside man nested in another key position Oddly, the media often introduces him as a conservative columnist seemingly in an effort to distract from his total insider pedigree. McMullin is no newcomer or fresh face he is a career operative, inserted into special niches, including his most recent stint as Congressional director of GOP policy. Now he s come out of the shadows to play a key role in the US election on behalf of some very powerful interests.According to Real Clear Politics, McMullin describes his work as a clandestine operative for the CIA in both Iraq and Afghanistan, in all the war zones post-9/11 until 2010 and most of the other hostile environments . He admits his job was to penetrate insurgent and terrorist groups as well as foreign governments , recruiting agents to pass information to take these people off the battlefield either capture or kill them. Interesting skill set, penetrating governments. We can safely assume that also entails subverting elections overseas, or maybe using Saudi Arabian cash to buy weapons for Jihadi terrorist rebels in Syria.Not surprisingly, McMullin trumpets a loud anti-Putin and anti-Assad rhetoric which is almost perfectly in synchronization with that of Hillary Clinton s. Like Clinton, McMullin relies on a campaign of fear set against Russia and Syria in an attempt to try to bracket Trump togther with other overseas leaders currently under a demonization order by the Washington DC establishment. Donald Trump is an authoritarian just like Vladimir Putin, just like Bashar Al-Assad, just like the Communist regime in China. I have worked against and around authoritarians overseas and I know them when I see them. Donald Trump is one of them. He would bring the same kind of economic stagnation, internal turmoil and discord to our country that other dictators bring to their own. I m sure the Kremlin considers Donald Trump by far its most successful intelligence operation ever. It s very clear that Vladimir Putin and his regime have some control over Donald Trump. Trump s support for Putin is the only thing he has been consistent on. The following is straight off of McMullin s campaign website, under the heading of, America s Role in the World : Evan will impose tougher sanctions on Russia and increase America s military presence in the Baltics in order to deter and reverse Putin s aggression, rather than pretending that he is a partner for peace in Syria. Evan will stand up for the rights of American and allied ships to sail freely in international waters, rather than letting China dominate the Western Pacific. This statement could ve just as well have written by the CIA s office of forward information planning, or from the office of Hillary 2016, take your pick.The next line in his r sum should also throw up a big red flag: he s also a former operative at Goldman Sachs investment bank. So, CIA and Goldman Sachs. Aside from bank-rolling Bill and Hillary Clinton s political machine for the better part of the last 15 years, Goldman also backed Mitt Romney s failed 2012 presidential run.The connections here between all of these establishment players is undeniable with McMullin sitting comfortably in his CIA grey area.Stealing Utah for Hillary If we can send a strong message here from Utah, it will change the discussion in Washington and across this country, said McMullin.This is the problem with the contrived McMullin campaign: it will not impact the national political discussion.Since he announced his candidacy three months ago on August 8, 2016, his campaign has only really existed inside Utah, but conveniently amplified by an US corporate mainstream media and the very same media outlets that have been demonstrably pro-Clinton, anti-Sanders and anti-Trump since the very beginning of the presidential race.Evan McMullin s primary directive seems to be to steal Utah s 6 electoral votes away from Republican candidate Donald Trump who is currently enjoying a comfortable lead over Hillary Clinton in Utah. Recent polls show Trump and McMullin running neck and neck in Utah, at 30% and 29% respectively. In an already tight national race between Trump and Clinton, those 6 electoral votes could easily decide the national election in favor of Hillary Clinton.Aside from Utah, McMullin is also hoping to steal away Republic votes in key states with substantial Mormon populations like Arizona, Idaho, and Wyoming. McMullin is hoping to exploit Mormon voter blocks over the issue of Donald Trump s bolshy demeanor and alleged past sex scandals a negative which will resonate with conservative Mormon voters in places like Utah.Based on the incredible amount of national media access he s being given across all of the top establishment broadcast TV networks, it s pretty clear that the McMullin campaign is being engineered at the highest levels. For a candidate who appeared from nowhere in the last two months, he s enjoyed carte blanche airtime, including softball interviews on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd, The Week with George Stephanopoulos, as well as primetime slots on pro-Clinton media outlets CNN, CBS, NBC, and of course, on Democratic Party channel MSNBC.Here s his debutant spot on Morning Joe, where McMullin waxes on about how, George Bush kept this country safe after 9/11 , and other familiar platitudes: When McMullin speaks, you can almost hear the voice of Mitt Romney and the old GOP establishment. If the Republican Party can t make the changes, as wasn t able to do after 2012, the conservative movement will need a new political vehicle, said McMullin to Stephanopoulos.From these sort of statements, we can see that the object of McMullin s campaign is the same as Romney s to keep the Republican candidate from winning on November 8th.Establishment scion Mitt Romney (photo, left) and his Wall Street partners are desperate, and deathly frightened that if Donald Trump wins, he will build a new GOP power base one which is not based on a tight elite Wall Street investment bank circle that uses men like Romney as their intermediary to control govemnent affairs and fix markets but rather, real people power based on grassroots, working class and middle class voters.The other subtle piece of the McMullin deception is how he constantly spins in the mainstream media about how a Clinton victory is already a fait accompli. In other words: Trump has already lost, so cast your vote for me as a protest vote against the winner, Hillary Clinton. By applying that subtle spin, McMullin hopes to avoid being fingered as Mitt Romney s #NeverTrump tool.Getting on enough ballots in enough states requires money, and a political machine. Enter the Team Romney McMullin s ability to get on the ballot in 11 states, and also write-in access in 32 others, was financed and run by a 501c3 Not for Profit organization which, like McMullin, suddenly popped up this year. It s called, Better For America, said to be founded by GOP operatives John Kingston and Joel Searby.When asked whether or not he s backed by Mitt Romney, McMullin always says no , but the facts say otherwise. Here we can see clearly that McMullin is a creation of Mitt Romney s so-called #NeverTrump Movement. McMullin s primary backer in this project appears to be Kingston, who just happens to be a former GOP delegate from Massachusetts and donor to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, as well as executive producer for the 2014 documentary, Mitt.In addition, McMullin s running mate is former Mitt Romney campaign staffer, Mindy Finn. Aside from working in the Bush Administration, Finn also worked for Twitter and Google, specifically building their tech networks with the Washington Beltway. Another total insider.McMullin has also been working with former Mitt Romney campaign strategist Stuart Stevens.Behind the patriotic rhetoric in Better For America s marketing spin is well-financed, laser focused operation to steal Utah from the Republican party. In public, the organization claims that: We deserve better than two candidates that are deeply unfavorable among a majority of the people they claim to represent. Together, we can give a voice to the millions of Americans who cannot in good conscience vote for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. If a third party candidate emerges, they need to know the support they have on the ground among the nearly two-thirds of Americans said they are willing to support an independent candidate. Better For America s claim is disingenuous at best, if not outright deceptive, not least because there were already third, and fourth party candidates Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party) and Jill Stein (Green Party), both of whom have been organizing in all 50 states. This casual ignorance of the other alternative candidates indicates an attempt to totally manipulate the electoral conversation.Very underhanded yes, but this is something a CIA operative would be doing overseas thrawrting elections and destablizing fledgling democracies in target nations. Romney and Goldman Sachs End GameBeyond engineering a narrow victory for Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney and the #NeverTrump conclave s last option is to steal the election after Nov 8th. It goes like this .Their final play would be if neither Trump nor Clinton receive the 270 electoral college votes required for an outright victory which would then send the election to the House of Representatives. This hasn t happened since 1825. At this point a Republican House of Representatives (many of whom are #NeverTrump supporters) would choose any of the top three candidates who had won a state. If McMullin wins Utah, then he would theoretically be in with a chance. But not as good a chance as Hillary Clinton would.Regardless, either scenario (although the Clinton scenario is more real) is predicated on Evan McMullin s role as a spoiler. McMullin admits this openly: It depends on the race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump being very, very close and it is not close now. For Clinton friends and campaign backers like Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and fellow Wall Street elites, a Donald Trump victory could mean an interruption in profits slowing down the financial organized crime and fiat paper fraud which has enriched them and the Clintons (and soon the Obamas too) ever since Bill Clinton gave Goldman and Co. the ultimate blank check when the outgoing US President repealed the Glass Steagall Act in 1999. With that one stroke of the pen, the Clintons set the stage for the 2008 Financial Collapse and bailout recipient Blankfein and the Goldman syndicate (and Romney too) made vast fortunes off other people s misery. Notice that Goldman and Wall Street have been stuffing money into the Clinton s pockets ever since with speaking fees, jobs, investments, and also bank-rolling Chelsea Clinton s husband Mark Mezvinsky s hedge fund.Blankfein and his ilk brought the US economy to its knees, and were paid handsomely for their effort.It s an incestuous ring of financial skull-duggery and you will not hear the righteous, self-styled liberty advocate Evan McMullin so much as mention any of this, let alone bad mouth his former employer and criminal financial institution and yet, this is the real story that everyone should really be talking about this election the seedy relationship between the likes of Goldman Sachs and the establishment s favored political candidates.READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire 2016 FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV

Due to the poor air quality from the wildfires, our teams' Ride to Conquer Cancer was cut short yesterday. Big shout out to the Ski Cellar for still hosting our team for a BBQ yesterday so they could celebrate their training and fundraising successes together! #therideABpic.twitter.com/76gLiXP37q

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Anyone seeking a table at Carmine’s Italian restaurant near Capitol Hill on a Tuesday or Wednesday needs to battle a mid-week crush of Congress members and their staff. But Mondays are far quieter — just like the floor of Congress. There are usually around nine events on a Monday, compared to as many as 30 on a midweek day, says Kelly Fitzgerald, Carmine’s director of special events and catering.  The mid-week crunch at Carmine’s underscores a trend: members of the U.S. Congress have been spending fewer days working in Washington since the late 2000s, according to a Reuters review of congressional records going back 18 years. Lawmakers increasingly try to cram their legislative work into the middle of the week in Washington and then rush back home. Their absence from the capital reinforces the effects of a deepening partisan divide in recent years that has led to high-profile deadlocks over legislation previously seen as routine, according to some former lawmakers and political analysts. Under pressure to spend more time in their home constituencies, often fund-raising for campaigns, members have less time to attend debates and mingle with other lawmakers. “In any work setting, if you don’t know your colleagues, it makes it much more difficult to get things done,” said Dan Glickman, who was a Democratic House member from Kansas for 18 years until the mid-1990s and recalls more working days and fuller debates than the current Congress. “...It makes it more difficult to build relationships,” said Glickman, who was U.S. secretary of agriculture after Congress. He was a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on Political Reform, which recommended in 2014 that Congress be in session conducting legislative business for 180 to 200 days a year. (Graphic on congressional working days: tmsnrt.rs/1VsssoZ) In 2015, the first year of a two-year Congress, the House of Representatives put in 130 working days, the Reuters review found. Compared with the first years of recent Congresses, that number has declined steadily since 2007, when the House worked 153 days — the high since 1998. House members typically meet more often in the first year of a Congress because in the second year they have to run for reelection. This year, an election year, the House calendar foresees 111 working days in Washington, in line with the total in recent election years. The House cancelled its entire schedule last week after a snowstorm hit the East Coast. The Senate’s annual working days have not risen above 156 since reaching a peak of 188 in 2009. The decline in working days in recent years has coincided with a slide in Americans’ approval rating for the legislature as the reputation of a “do-nothing” Congress has taken hold. Since fiscal 1997, Congress has failed every year to enact on time all of the government appropriations bills needed for a full federal budget, the Congressional Research Service said. More recently, polarized lawmakers often have been unable to find middle ground on pressing issues such as immigration, tax reform and gun safety. As of the end of 2014, about 75 percent of major issues were in deadlock, according to a calculation by Sarah Binder of the Brookings Institution think tank. MID-WEEK SQUEEZE To be sure, members of the House and the Senate, who are paid $174,000 a year, do important work outside of Washington. They meet with constituents in their home districts and raise campaign money by appearing and speaking at events. Representative Ryan Zinke, a freshman Republican and former U.S. Navy Seal, said Congress could use more “team-building” activities, but he has not felt the need for more days in legislative session. Zinke is the only House member representing the large, sparsely populated state of Montana, and says he needs lots of travel time just to see his constituents. “Last week I think I put on about 2,500 miles (4,000 km) traveling around Montana, and I saw about a third of the state,” he said. Staying in legislative session more does not necessarily equate to getting more work done, said Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican. “It’s a matter of what you do with the time you are here, not just the total time you are here,” he said. The Republican-led Congress had a relatively productive year in 2015, fixing a funding formula for Medicare doctors, passing a highway bill and approving fast-track authority for trade deals. In 2011 and 2013, the total number of bills passed by Congress dipped below triple figures to 90 and 72 respectively. Last year’s Congress managed to enact 113. Many bills are minor, however, so the total number does not necessarily correspond to productivity. “PRO-FORMA” SESSIONS The recent decline in overall working days does not tell the whole story. There has also been a rise in so-called “pro-forma” days when lawmakers go into session sometimes for just a few minutes or even seconds, for procedural reasons. They are formally counted as sessions of the House and Senate, but Reuters did not include them in its tally. Last year the House had 27 pro-forma days, none of which lasted more than seven minutes, the Reuters review found. In each of the last five years the House had more pro-forma days than in previous Congresses going back to 2002. Those days are usually scheduled for Monday or Friday, enabling lawmakers to fly in and out of Washington without missing mid-week votes. The typical House member returns to their district 40 or more times a year, said Brad Fitch of Congressional Management Foundation, a nonprofit that advises lawmakers on managing their offices. It did a study showing that in 2013, the average House freshman spent $53,170 of taxpayer money on travel. These days, fewer lawmakers move their families to the capital to live, said John Fortier, director of the Democracy Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank. Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who has been Speaker of the House since October, sleeps on a cot in his Washington office during the congressional work-week and flies home to his family in Wisconsin on the weekend. Vin Weber, who was a Republican congressman from Minnesota in the 1980s and 1990s, said that in the attempt to juggle all the demands they face at home and in Washington, today’s lawmakers have set themselves an impossible schedule. “They are on planes constantly, back and forth, all the time,” he said. “There’s no rationality to it at all.” The rising cost of election campaigns mean lawmakers have to devote more time to fund-raising outside Washington, said Glickman, now a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center. As a congressman, Glickman said, he often went to the House floor just to listen to the debate. “If I did that now, I would be guilty of malpractice,” he said. “You need to be either in committee doing your work or raising money.” (This story has been refiled to correct this week to last week in paragraph 11)

DHAKA (Reuters) - A pilot with the Bangladesh national carrier Bangladesh Biman was arrested on Wednesday suspected of terrorism offences, including plotting to keep passengers hostage and flying a plane into the houses of top government leaders, police said. Sabbir Enam, 31, was detained on Tuesday and formally arrested on Wednesday, a senior police official said. Rapid Action Battalion, the special security force of Bangladesh police, arrested him and three others, including his mother, said Mufti Mahmud Khan, a director of the RAB responsible for the legal and media wing of the force. He told Reuters that Sabbir had close links with the militant group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and was planning to fly a plane into the residences of top government leaders. He also had plans to take a flight, keeping passengers as hostage, (and heading) to some Middle Eastern country, Mufti said. No further details of the plans, or if or when they were ever to be carried out, were immediately available. The arrested pilot was not available for comment. JMB is an Islamic militant organization which in 2005, detonated 500 bombs at 300 locations across the country. Its aim is to set up an Islamic state.

Re: Hurricane Matthew: All of the @ASUTennis Student-Athletes are on their way to safety. Thanks to @ASU_Housing for arranging a safe place!

(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Monday it has reopened most stores in the Gulf region that were shut due to Hurricane Harvey. The company said five stores along the coast where the hurricane made landfall remain shut. Texas has been trying to recover from a storm that dumped some 50 inches (125 cm) of rain on the low-lying Gulf coastal region after coming ashore on Aug. 25, killing about 50 people.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Shelling killed around ten people, including five children at a school gate, in a besieged rebel enclave near Syria s capital Damascus on Tuesday, a day after a U.N. aid delivery to the area, a war monitor said. The shelling also injured 30 other people in the Eastern Ghouta area, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Britain-based monitor said the ongoing shelling which began Tuesday morning hit the towns of Jisreen, Douma, Saqba, Mesraba, Harasta, Ain Terma, Hazza and Kafr Batna. On Monday a United Nations and Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) convoy delivered aid to the towns of Kafr Batna and Saqba. A tightening siege by government forces has pushed people to the verge of famine in the eastern suburbs, residents and aid workers said last week, bringing desperation to the only major rebel enclave near the Syrian capital. Syrian state television on Tuesday said shells had also hit parts of government-held Damascus, injuring at least five people. In July, Moscow and rebels in Eastern Ghouta signed a deal to make the area a de-escalation zone . The agreement raised hopes of open crossings and aid flows. The aid organisation International Rescue Committee said on Monday the de-escalation zone agreements with rebel areas across Syria were failing to protect civilians. The safety of civilians has not improved with the establishment of these so-called de-escalation areas. With so many armed groups not covered by ceasefire agreements, we have even seen periods of increased aerial bombardment, IRC s Middle East Director of Public Affairs Tom Garofalo said.

So want Sony QX portable lens - will double food pictures flood ;)

I donated to this amazing organization helping the animals during the California wildfires - all I could do was imagine how I’d feel if something happened to Stella or Zodiac. Then I thought about how much I spend on pet food each week; glad to help someone else’s pet eat, too! https://twitter.com/MichelleMeach16/status/1062425848886759429 …

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The founding dean of a prominent Singapore school said on Monday he was stepping down, four months after he stirred a heated debate in the city-state with the comment that small countries like Singapore must always behave like small states . Kishore Mahbubani, a long-time diplomat and the wealthy city-state s former envoy to the United Nations, said he had written to the board of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy saying he would step down as dean at the end of the year. The announcement followed a high-profile expulsion by the government of a professor at the school, a China-born U.S. citizen, who was accused of being an agent of influence for a foreign country. In the statement to the school s governing board, Mahbubani cited a double heart bypass operation last year and said he wanted to focus on a new career that involves more time spent on reading, reflection and writing . I realize that the time had come for me to take a fresh look at what I should achieve over the next decade as I enter my 70s, he said. Kishore is 69 and has served 13 years as dean. Kishore s statement did not refer to the controversy fueled by his column in July that Qatar s experience of conflict with its Arab neighbors offered big lessons for small countries. In the piece titled Qatar: Big lessons from a small country , Kishore warned that Singapore could face the fate of the Gulf state which believed it could act as a middle power and exercise influence beyond its borders because it sits on mounds of money . I would like to emphasize as strongly as I can that this Qatar episode holds many lessons for Singapore, he wrote in Singapore s Straits Times newspaper. The first lesson, he said, was: Small states must always behave like small states. Public criticism or perceived admonishments of the government are rare in Singapore, one of the richest and most politically stable countries in the world. His comments drew a sharp rebuke from Singapore s political leaders and fellow former foreign service officials as flawed and intellectually questionable. A veteran diplomat, Bilahari Kausikan, called them muddled, mendacious and indeed dangerous . Mahbubani could not be reached for comment. A spokeswoman for the National University of Singapore, where the Lee Kuan Yew school is an autonomous postgraduate school, said: Professor Kishore Mahbubani s decision to retire is unrelated to the article mentioned. The school is named after modern Singapore s founding father.

Because there wouldn t be any outrage over a white kids only field trip to a local college would there?Parents criticized Indiana school officials Thursday for a trip planned to local colleges that was only offered to black third-graders, ABC 57 reported.School officials defended the trip, saying the outing sends a positive message to black students who may believe the prospect of college is out of reach. We take them to a college campus, have them meet African-American students, modeling the idea that as a black person, college is a great place, Dr. G. David Moss, the head of the African-American services at the South Bend Community Schools Corporation, told the station.The initiative has been criticized by parents in the community, not because of its ambitions, but because it excludes students with other backgrounds.One parent whose son is going on the trip told the station that she believes all kids should be going. Moss told the station that he did not mean to offend anyone with the trips, but said he was hired to look at the issues facing African-American kids in the community.Via: FOX News

Someone parked their car in the living room because of Hurricane Matthew: http://on.mash.to/2dXTaaW 

Ben and Jerry, the ber liberal Vermont ice cream guys, are no fans of Donald Trump and in a blistering and sarcastic op-ed, they sarcastically explained how pulling out of the Paris climate treaty was the right thing to do.The op-ed, on their website, is tongue-in-cheek, but also bitter (a terrible suggestion for a Ben & Jerry s flavor). They talk about the jobs that will be lost:We hear China is ramping up their renewable energy production and it sure looks like a lot of work. Beijing alone plans to invest $360 billion in renewables by 2020, creating more than 13 million jobs. But jobs are work! Work is hard! It s so much easier to luxuriate in the status quo, driving our fossil-fuel-powered cars and enjoying our coal-created electricity like we always have.It s also quite personal for them. The cost of cocoa beans and vanilla will rise dramatically over the coming years.Then, there s the fact that we are one of only three countries who have chosen not to participate. That means we will no longer have a seat at the table and it means that for all intents and purposes, we can no longer call ourselves a superpower.Ben & Jerry go on to talk about the wonderful ocean views we ll all soon have:Who doesn t love oceanfront property? With runaway climate change melting glaciers and causing sea levels to rise at unprecedented rates, a whole lot more of us could be seeing waves from our bedroom windows. Sure, some folks might lose their homes and businesses, and our coastal cities could see devastating changes, but a whole lot of people will also be able to learn how to surf right in their backyards. Sounds like a fair tradeoff to us.They also look forward to the impending world crises, which make life exciting. We can see it now: 13.1 Million US Homes Flooded Boat Sales Surge, World Refuses to Cooperate with US Foreign Policy, US Sulks Like Angsty Teenager, and Hundreds of Plants and Animals Now Extinct, US Says We Never Liked Polar Bears Anyway. Then, there s the fact that the world is ready to take the reins, with or without us. We are the second largest emitter of greenhouse gasses and we are leaving it up to everyone else to clean up our messes.Featured image via theimpulsiovebuy/Flickr

(Reuters) - A Trump administration aide corrected herself on Friday after being widely criticized for referencing a 2011 “Bowling Green massacre” in Kentucky that never occurred to defend President Donald Trump’s temporary ban on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Thursday that Trump’s executive order was justified in part by the “Bowling Green massacre” of 2011. She added, “Most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered.” During the interview Conway told how two Iraqis who came to the United States and were radicalized “were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre.” No such event occurred. Conway corrected herself on Friday in a post on Twitter, saying, “Honest mistakes abound.” The phrase “Bowling Green massacre” was the top trending topic on Twitter on Friday morning as thousands of social media users mocked Conway. “Very grateful no one seriously hurt in the Louvre attack ... or the (completely fake) Bowling Green Massacre. Please don’t make up attacks,” tweeted Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) on Friday. In May 2011, two Iraqi men were arrested in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and charged with attempting to send weapons and money to al Qaeda in Iraq. They admitted to using improvised explosive devices against U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Mohanad Shareef Hammadi and Waad Ramadan Alwan pleaded guilty and were sentenced to life in prison and 40 years in prison, respectively. Prosecutors at the time said neither was charged with plotting attacks within the United States. Conway said on Twitter that she meant to say “Bowling Green terrorists.” She also slammed a network reporter for criticizing her. “NBC reporter texted me at 632am re:a diff story; never asked what I meant on @Hardball b4 slamming me on @TODAYshow Not cool, not journalism,” Conway (@KellyannePolls) wrote. On Inauguration Day, Zeke Miller, a TIME Magazine reporter, incorrectly reported that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s bust was removed from the oval office, causing an uproar on social media. Miller (@ZekeJMiller), tweeted later that evening that the bust “was obscured by an agent and a door” and issued multiple apologies for his error. In a similar reaction to Conway, Trump’s administration responded by ripping the media for spreading fake news, with spokesman Sean Spicer describing his actions as “deliberately false reporting” during his first White House press briefing. As “Bowling Green massacre” swept social media, a website called “The Bowling Green Massacre Fund” carrying a parody of Conway’s comments surfaced on Friday. It read, “We all still carry the vivid memories of what horrors occurred at Bowling Green, but some still relive those moments everyday as they work to rebuild a community torn apart.” Clicking on the “donate now” button on the website leads to a donation site of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The ACLU did not return calls seeking comment.

Consortium News Exclusive: The mainstream media is so hostile to challenges to its groupthinks that famed journalist Seymour Hersh had to take his take-down of President Trump s April 6 attack on Syria to Germany, says ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern By Ray McGovernLegendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh is challenging the Trump administration s version of events surrounding the April 4 chemical weapons attack on the northern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun though Hersh had to find a publisher in Germany to get his information out.In the Sunday edition of Die Welt, Hersh reports that his national security sources offered a distinctly different account, revealing President Trump rashly deciding to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles against a Syrian airbase on April 6 despite the absence of intelligence supporting his conclusion that the Syrian military was guilty.Hersh draws on the kind of inside sources from whom he has earned longstanding trust to dispute that there ever was a chemical weapons attack and to assert that Trump was told that no evidence existed against the Syrian government but ordered his generals to retaliate anyway.Marine General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and former Marine General, now Defense Secretary James Mad-Dog Mattis ordered the attacks apparently knowing that the reason given was what one of Hersh s sources called a fairy tale. They then left it to Trump s national security adviser Army General H. R. McMaster to further the deceit with the help of a compliant mainstream media, which broke from its current tradition of distrusting whatever Trump says in favor of its older tradition of favoring regime change in Syria and trusting pretty much whatever the rebels claim.According to Hersh s sources, the normal deconfliction process was followed before the April 4 strike. In such procedures, U.S. and Russian officers supply one another with advance details of airstrikes, such as target coordinates, to avoid accidental confrontations among the warplanes crisscrossing Syria.Russia and Syrian Air Force officers gave details of the flight path to and from Khan Sheikhoun in English, Hersh reported. The target was a two-story cinderblock building in which senior leaders high-value targets of the two jihadist groups controlling the town were about to hold a meeting. Because of the perceived importance of the mission, the Russians took the unusual step of giving the Syrian air force a GPS-guided bomb to do the job, but the explosives were conventional, not chemical, Hersh reported.The meeting place was on the floor above the basement of the building, where a source whom Hersh described as a senior adviser to the U.S. intelligence community, told Hersh: The basement was used as storage for rockets, weapons, and ammunition and also chlorine-based decontaminates for cleansing the bodies of the dead before burial. A Bomb Damage AssessmentHersh describes what happened when the building was struck on the morning of April 4: A Bomb Damage Assessment by the U.S. military later determined that the heat and force of the 500-pound Syrian bomb triggered a series of secondary explosions that could have generated a huge toxic cloud that began to spread over the town, formed by the release of fertilizers, disinfectants, and other goods stored in the basement, its effect magnified by the dense morning air, which trapped the fumes close to the ground. According to intelligence estimates, the strike itself killed up to four jihadist leaders and an unknown number of drivers and security aides. There is no confirmed count of the number of civilians killed by the poisonous gases that were released by the secondary explosions, although opposition activists reported that there were more than 80 dead, and outlets such as CNN have put the figure as high as 92. Due to the fog of war, which is made denser by the fact that jihadists associated with Al Qaeda control the area, many of the details of the incident were unclear on that day and remain so still. No independent on-the-ground investigation has taken place.But there were other reasons to doubt Syrian guilt, including the implausibility of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad choosing that time while his forces were making dramatic strides in finally defeating the jihadists and immediately after the Trump administration had indicated it had reversed President Obama s regime change policy in Syria to launch a sarin attack, which was sure to outrage the world and likely draw U.S. retaliation.However, logic was brushed aside after local activists, including some closely tied to the jihadists, quickly uploaded all manner of images onto social media, showing dead and dying children and other victims said to be suffering from sarin nerve gas. Inconsistencies were brushed aside such as the eyewitness who insisted, We could smell it from 500 meters away when sarin is odorless.Potent ImagesStill, whether credible or not, these social-media images had a potent propaganda effect. Hersh writes that within hours of watching the gruesome photos on TV and before he had received any U.S. intelligence corroboration Trump told his national security aides to plan retaliation against Syria. According to Hersh, it was an evidence-free decision, except for what Trump had seen on the TV shows.Hersh quotes one U.S. officer who, upon learning of the White House decision to retaliate against Syria, remarked: We KNOW that there was no chemical attack the Russians are furious claiming we have the real intel and know the truth Continue this story at Consortium NewsREAD MORE WHITE HELMETS NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire WHITE HELMETS FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV

No Food, No FEMA: Hurricane Michael’s Survivors Are Furious #SmartNews https://www.thedailybeast.com/no-food-no-fema-hurricane-michaels-survivors-are-furious …

Tesla remotely extends car batteries to help with Hurricane Michael https://ift.tt/2QIDNoL 

I was 1 of the info officers assigned to the shelter from the flood last wk. Evacuees were kind and grateful. Many helped. Amazing folks!

BRASILIA (Reuters) - A congressional committee voted 39-26 on Wednesday to reject charges against Brazilian President Michel Temer stemming from a corruption case involving the world s largest meatpacker. The full lower house of Brazil s Congress still must vote on the charges but is expected to shelve them next week, sparing Temer from trial by the Supreme Court for alleged obstruction of justice and membership in a criminal organization. Temer was accused of taking bribes and condoning the payment of hush money to a jailed politician in testimony by meatpacker Joesley Batista. Temer has denied any wrongdoing and his lawyers argued that the case against him was flawed because it was based on an inconclusive recording that Batista secretly made of a conversation with the president. The lower chamber decides whether a Brazilian president can be put on trial. Two-thirds of its members must vote to approve a charge for it to move forward, a hurdle his opponents are not expected to clear. Temer survived an earlier corruption charge in the lower house in August in connection with the same graft scheme in which prosecutors accused him of arranging to receive a total of 38 million reais ($11.8 million) in bribes from JBS SA. In committee debates on Wednesday, opposition Congressman Alessandro Molon, of the center-left party called Sustainability Network, said Temer was part of a criminal organization that collected bribes. He accused the president of taking part in decisions on how the money was distributed. Workers Party lawmakers called for Temer to stand trial, saying the charges against him were more serious than those leveled at his predecessor Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached last year for a lesser crime of violating budget rules. But Temer s allies argued that the charges should be thrown out because the country needs Temer to serve out his mandate through the end of 2018 for political and economic stability. They said Temer has recovered Brazil from its worst recession, brought inflation under control, restored the purchasing power of Brazilian consumers and should stay in office to recover investor confidence. Presidential aides said Temer will now be able to get on with his economic policy agenda focused on boosting weak growth and bringing a bulging government budget deficit under control. The political capital and time Temer has spent defending himself, however, has delayed approval of a crucial overhaul of the pension system, the main cause of the fiscal deficit that cost Brazil s its investment-grade credit rating in 2015. Temer will be hard pressed to get the unpopular pension bill approved before the 2018 election year starts and promised reform of Brazil s burdensome tax system might is now unlikely.

COX S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - An estimated 270,000 Rohingya have sought refuge in Bangladesh over the past two weeks, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday, announcing a dramatic jump in numbers fleeing violence in neighboring Myanmar s Rakhine State. A rights group said satellite images showed about 450 buildings had been burned down in a Myanmar border town largely inhabited by Rohingya, as part of what the Muslim minority refugees say is a concerted effort to expel them. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said the estimated number of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh since violence erupted in Myanmar on Aug. 25 had risen from 164,000 on Thursday, after aid workers found big groups in border areas. We have identified more people in different areas that we were not aware of, said Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for UNHCR, while adding that there could be some double-counting. The numbers are so alarming - it really means that we have to step up our response and that the situation in Myanmar has to be addressed urgently. The latest flight of Rohingya began two weeks ago after Rohingya insurgents attacked security force posts in Myanmar s Rakhine State. That triggered an army counteroffensive in which at least 400 people died. The United States, a principle backer of Aung San Suu Kyi s civilian government that came to power in Myanmar last year, said there had been shortcomings on the part of Myanmar security forces and the government in dealing with the situation. Patrick Murphy, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said Washington was calling in talks with Myanmar s military and civilian leaders for urgent restoration of access to Rakhine State for humanitarian assistance and journalists. He said the security forces must respond responsibly to the attacks that began the crisis, telling reporters: They have a responsibility to carry out those activities in accordance with rule of law and international human rights Rights groups briefed U.N. Security Council diplomats on the Myanmar violence on Friday. Russia and China did not send any diplomats, according to people at the meeting. Myanmar has said it is was counting on China and Russia to protect it from any Security Council censure. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke with Suu Kyi by phone on Wednesday and reiterated his concerns about the situation in Rakhine State, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told Reuters. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the United States was deeply troubled by continued reports of attacks against innocent civilians and will continue to urge (Myanmar) security forces to respect those civilians as it conducts security operations. Washington was also calling on Myanmar to ensure that aid reached those in need as quickly as possible, and that it is delivered in a manner that protects their rights and dignity, she said in a statement. The wave of refugees, many sick or wounded, has strained the resources of aid agencies and communities already helping hundreds of thousands displaced by previous waves of violence in Myanmar. Many have no shelter, and aid agencies are racing to provide clean water, sanitation and food. We need to prepare for many more to come, I am afraid, said Shinni Kubo, Bangladesh country manager for UNHCR. We need huge financial resources. This is unprecedented. This is dramatic. It will continue for weeks and weeks. While most refugees are coming on foot, many are braving the sea. At least 300 boats carrying Rohingya arrived in Bangladesh s Cox s Bazar district on Wednesday, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said. Buddhist-majority Myanmar says its security forces are fighting a legitimate campaign against terrorists it blames for the attacks on the security forces, burning homes and civilian deaths. It says about 30,000 non-Muslims have been displaced. The 1.1 million Rohingya living in Myanmar have long complained of persecution. They are denied citizenship and regarded as illegal migrants from Bangladesh. There is very limited access to the north of Rakhine State and few if any independent witnesses, raising fears that a humanitarian crisis could be unfolding among Rohingya still there. What we know is what people are saying as they come across, and what they re saying now, given this been going on since Aug. 25, is they are in an absolutely desperate state, said IOM s Leonard Doyle. They say (they are) living out in (the) open, without protection from the tropical sun with their children, without enough food to eat. Bangladesh has proposed safe zones run by aid groups for Rohingya in Myanmar. But it would seem the plan is unlikely to be accepted there. Human Rights Watch said satellite images taken last Saturday showed hundreds of burned buildings in Maungdaw, a district capital in Rakhine State, in areas primarily inhabited by Rohingya. If safety cannot even be found in area capitals, then no place may be safe, said Phil Robertson, the group s deputy Asia director. A Myanmar reporter in the north of the state said he had reports from residents of an area called Rathedaung that six villages there had been torched and that there had also been shooting in the area. It was not clear who was responsible. Critics have accused Suu Kyi of not speaking out for the Rohingya and some have called for the Nobel Peace Prize she won in 1991 as a champion of democracy to be revoked. The United States has been careful to avoid direct criticism of Suu Kyi, and Murphy said Washington was looking to help Myanmar s transition to democracy succeed. He noted that most authority in Rakhine State lay with the military, which wielded direct power in Myanmar for decades before Suu Kyi s election win. Murphy called for implementation of recommendations of a commission led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan set up to find solutions for the ethnically and religiously divided Rakhine. The fact that over a million people inside the country have been devoid of basic rights for generations has been a long-standing issue, Murphy said. It needs to be addressed. Protests against the treatment of the Rohingya were held in several countries, including Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia. Others were held outside Myanmar s embassies in Tokyo and Manila. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said he was considering raising the issue in talks with U.S. President Donald Trump next week. Malaysia s coastguard said it was willing to offer Rohingya temporary shelter, although it is unlikely refugees would travel hundreds of kilometres south by sea during the monsoon season, which lasts until late November. Thailand has also said it is preparing to receive people fleeing Myanmar, while Singapore said it was ready to help the humanitarian effort.

A speech for the ages was given today by President Donald Trump. He addressed the 72nd meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York for the first time in his presidency. The transcript is below.PRESIDENT TRUMP: Mr. Secretary General, Mr. President, world leaders, and distinguished delegates: Welcome to New York. It is a profound honor to stand here in my home city, as a representative of the American people, to address the people of the world.As millions of our citizens continue to suffer the effects of the devastating hurricanes that have struck our country, I want to begin by expressing my appreciation to every leader in this room who has offered assistance and aid. The American people are strong and resilient, and they will emerge from these hardships more determined than ever before.Fortunately, the United States has done very well since Election Day last November 8th. The stock market is at an all-time high a record. Unemployment is at its lowest level in 16 years, and because of our regulatory and other reforms, we have more people working in the United States today than ever before. Companies are moving back, creating job growth the likes of which our country has not seen in a very long time. And it has just been announced that we will be spending almost $700 billion on our military and defense.Our military will soon be the strongest it has ever been. For more than 70 years, in times of war and peace, the leaders of nations, movements, and religions have stood before this assembly. Like them, I intend to address some of the very serious threats before us today but also the enormous potential waiting to be unleashed.We live in a time of extraordinary opportunity. Breakthroughs in science, technology, and medicine are curing illnesses and solving problems that prior generations thought impossible to solve.But each day also brings news of growing dangers that threaten everything we cherish and value. Terrorists and extremists have gathered strength and spread to every region of the planet. Rogue regimes represented in this body not only support terrorists but threaten other nations and their own people with the most destructive weapons known to humanity.Authority and authoritarian powers seek to collapse the values, the systems, and alliances that prevented conflict and tilted the world toward freedom since World War II.International criminal networks traffic drugs, weapons, people; force dislocation and mass migration; threaten our borders; and new forms of aggression exploit technology to menace our citizens.To put it simply, we meet at a time of both of immense promise and great peril. It is entirely up to us whether we lift the world to new heights, or let it fall into a valley of disrepair.We have it in our power, should we so choose, to lift millions from poverty, to help our citizens realize their dreams, and to ensure that new generations of children are raised free from violence, hatred, and fear.This institution was founded in the aftermath of two world wars to help shape this better future. It was based on the vision that diverse nations could cooperate to protect their sovereignty, preserve their security, and promote their prosperity.It was in the same period, exactly 70 years ago, that the United States developed the Marshall Plan to help restore Europe. Those three beautiful pillars they re pillars of peace, sovereignty, security, and prosperity.The Marshall Plan was built on the noble idea that the whole world is safer when nations are strong, independent, and free. As President Truman said in his message to Congress at that time, Our support of European recovery is in full accord with our support of the United Nations. The success of the United Nations depends upon the independent strength of its members. To overcome the perils of the present and to achieve the promise of the future, we must begin with the wisdom of the past. Our success depends on a coalition of strong and independent nations that embrace their sovereignty to promote security, prosperity, and peace for themselves and for the world.We do not expect diverse countries to share the same cultures, traditions, or even systems of government. But we do expect all nations to uphold these two core sovereign duties: to respect the interests of their own people and the rights of every other sovereign nation. This is the beautiful vision of this institution, and this is foundation for cooperation and success.Strong, sovereign nations let diverse countries with different values, different cultures, and different dreams not just coexist, but work side by side on the basis of mutual respect.Strong, sovereign nations let their people take ownership of the future and control their own destiny. And strong, sovereign nations allow individuals to flourish in the fullness of the life intended by God.In America, we do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to watch. This week gives our country a special reason to take pride in that example. We are celebrating the 230th anniversary of our beloved Constitution the oldest constitution still in use in the world today.This timeless document has been the foundation of peace, prosperity, and freedom for the Americans and for countless millions around the globe whose own countries have found inspiration in its respect for human nature, human dignity, and the rule of law.The greatest in the United States Constitution is its first three beautiful words. They are: We the people. Generations of Americans have sacrificed to maintain the promise of those words, the promise of our country, and of our great history. In America, the people govern, the people rule, and the people are sovereign. I was elected not to take power, but to give power to the American people, where it belongs.In foreign affairs, we are renewing this founding principle of sovereignty. Our government s first duty is to its people, to our citizens to serve their needs, to ensure their safety, to preserve their rights, and to defend their values.As President of the United States, I will always put America first, just like you, as the leaders of your countries will always, and should always, put your countries first. (Applause.)All responsible leaders have an obligation to serve their own citizens, and the nation-state remains the best vehicle for elevating the human condition.But making a better life for our people also requires us to work together in close harmony and unity to create a more safe and peaceful future for all people.The United States will forever be a great friend to the world, and especially to its allies. But we can no longer be taken advantage of, or enter into a one-sided deal where the United States gets nothing in return. As long as I hold this office, I will defend America s interests above all else.But in fulfilling our obligations to our own nations, we also realize that it s in everyone s interest to seek a future where all nations can be sovereign, prosperous, and secure.America does more than speak for the values expressed in the United Nations Charter. Our citizens have paid the ultimate price to defend our freedom and the freedom of many nations represented in this great hall. America s devotion is measured on the battlefields where our young men and women have fought and sacrificed alongside of our allies, from the beaches of Europe to the deserts of the Middle East to the jungles of Asia.It is an eternal credit to the American character that even after we and our allies emerged victorious from the bloodiest war in history, we did not seek territorial expansion, or attempt to oppose and impose our way of life on others. Instead, we helped build institutions such as this one to defend the sovereignty, security, and prosperity for all.For the diverse nations of the world, this is our hope. We want harmony and friendship, not conflict and strife. We are guided by outcomes, not ideology. We have a policy of principled realism, rooted in shared goals, interests, and values.That realism forces us to confront a question facing every leader and nation in this room. It is a question we cannot escape or avoid. We will slide down the path of complacency, numb to the challenges, threats, and even wars that we face. Or do we have enough strength and pride to confront those dangers today, so that our citizens can enjoy peace and prosperity tomorrow?If we desire to lift up our citizens, if we aspire to the approval of history, then we must fulfill our sovereign duties to the people we faithfully represent. We must protect our nations, their interests, and their futures. We must reject threats to sovereignty, from the Ukraine to the South China Sea. We must uphold respect for law, respect for borders, and respect for culture, and the peaceful engagement these allow. And just as the founders of this body intended, we must work together and confront together those who threaten us with chaos, turmoil, and terror.The scourge of our planet today is a small group of rogue regimes that violate every principle on which the United Nations is based. They respect neither their own citizens nor the sovereign rights of their countries.If the righteous many do not confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph. When decent people and nations become bystanders to history, the forces of destruction only gather power and strength.No one has shown more contempt for other nations and for the wellbeing of their own people than the depraved regime in North Korea. It is responsible for the starvation deaths of millions of North Koreans, and for the imprisonment, torture, killing, and oppression of countless more.We were all witness to the regime s deadly abuse when an innocent American college student, Otto Warmbier, was returned to America only to die a few days later. We saw it in the assassination of the dictator s brother using banned nerve agents in an international airport. We know it kidnapped a sweet 13-year-old Japanese girl from a beach in her own country to enslave her as a language tutor for North Korea s spies.If this is not twisted enough, now North Korea s reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles threatens the entire world with unthinkable loss of human life.It is an outrage that some nations would not only trade with such a regime, but would arm, supply, and financially support a country that imperils the world with nuclear conflict. No nation on earth has an interest in seeing this band of criminals arm itself with nuclear weapons and missiles.The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. The United States is ready, willing and able, but hopefully this will not be necessary. That s what the United Nations is all about; that s what the United Nations is for. Let s see how they do.It is time for North Korea to realize that the denuclearization is its only acceptable future. The United Nations Security Council recently held two unanimous 15-0 votes adopting hard-hitting resolutions against North Korea, and I want to thank China and Russia for joining the vote to impose sanctions, along with all of the other members of the Security Council. Thank you to all involved.But we must do much more. It is time for all nations to work together to isolate the Kim regime until it ceases its hostile behavior.We face this decision not only in North Korea. It is far past time for the nations of the world to confront another reckless regime one that speaks openly of mass murder, vowing death to America, destruction to Israel, and ruin for many leaders and nations in this room.The Iranian government masks a corrupt dictatorship behind the false guise of a democracy. It has turned a wealthy country with a rich history and culture into an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos. The longest-suffering victims of Iran s leaders are, in fact, its own people.Rather than use its resources to improve Iranian lives, its oil profits go to fund Hezbollah and other terrorists that kill innocent Muslims and attack their peaceful Arab and Israeli neighbors. This wealth, which rightly belongs to Iran s people, also goes to shore up Bashar al-Assad s dictatorship, fuel Yemen s civil war, and undermine peace throughout the entire Middle East.We cannot let a murderous regime continue these destabilizing activities while building dangerous missiles, and we cannot abide by an agreement if it provides cover for the eventual construction of a nuclear program. (Applause.) The Iran Deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into. Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the United States, and I don t think you ve heard the last of it believe me.It is time for the entire world to join us in demanding that Iran s government end its pursuit of death and destruction. It is time for the regime to free all Americans and citizens of other nations that they have unjustly detained. And above all, Iran s government must stop supporting terrorists, begin serving its own people, and respect the sovereign rights of its neighbors.The entire world understands that the good people of Iran want change, and, other than the vast military power of the United States, that Iran s people are what their leaders fear the most. This is what causes the regime to restrict Internet access, tear down satellite dishes, shoot unarmed student protestors, and imprison political reformers.Oppressive regimes cannot endure forever, and the day will come when the Iranian people will face a choice. Will they continue down the path of poverty, bloodshed, and terror? Or will the Iranian people return to the nation s proud roots as a center of civilization, culture, and wealth where their people can be happy and prosperous once again?The Iranian regime s support for terror is in stark contrast to the recent commitments of many of its neighbors to fight terrorism and halt its financing.In Saudi Arabia early last year, I was greatly honored to address the leaders of more than 50 Arab and Muslim nations. We agreed that all responsible nations must work together to confront terrorists and the Islamist extremism that inspires them.We will stop radical Islamic terrorism because we cannot allow it to tear up our nation, and indeed to tear up the entire world.We must deny the terrorists safe haven, transit, funding, and any form of support for their vile and sinister ideology. We must drive them out of our nations. It is time to expose and hold responsible those countries who support and finance terror groups like al Qaeda, Hezbollah, the Taliban and others that slaughter innocent people.The United States and our allies are working together throughout the Middle East to crush the loser terrorists and stop the reemergence of safe havens they use to launch attacks on all of our people.Last month, I announced a new strategy for victory in the fight against this evil in Afghanistan. From now on, our security interests will dictate the length and scope of military operations, not arbitrary benchmarks and timetables set up by politicians.I have also totally changed the rules of engagement in our fight against the Taliban and other terrorist groups. In Syria and Iraq, we have made big gains toward lasting defeat of ISIS. In fact, our country has achieved more against ISIS in the last eight months than it has in many, many years combined.We seek the de-escalation of the Syrian conflict, and a political solution that honors the will of the Syrian people. The actions of the criminal regime of Bashar al-Assad, including the use of chemical weapons against his own citizens even innocent children shock the conscience of every decent person. No society can be safe if banned chemical weapons are allowed to spread. That is why the United States carried out a missile strike on the airbase that launched the attack.We appreciate the efforts of United Nations agencies that are providing vital humanitarian assistance in areas liberated from ISIS, and we especially thank Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon for their role in hosting refugees from the Syrian conflict.The United States is a compassionate nation and has spent billions and billions of dollars in helping to support this effort. We seek an approach to refugee resettlement that is designed to help these horribly treated people, and which enables their eventual return to their home countries, to be part of the rebuilding process.For the cost of resettling one refugee in the United States, we can assist more than 10 in their home region. Out of the goodness of our hearts, we offer financial assistance to hosting countries in the region, and we support recent agreements of the G20 nations that will seek to host refugees as close to their home countries as possible. This is the safe, responsible, and humanitarian approach.For decades, the United States has dealt with migration challenges here in the Western Hemisphere. We have learned that, over the long term, uncontrolled migration is deeply unfair to both the sending and the receiving countries.For the sending countries, it reduces domestic pressure to pursue needed political and economic reform, and drains them of the human capital necessary to motivate and implement those reforms.For the receiving countries, the substantial costs of uncontrolled migration are borne overwhelmingly by low-income citizens whose concerns are often ignored by both media and government.I want to salute the work of the United Nations in seeking to address the problems that cause people to flee from their homes. The United Nations and African Union led peacekeeping missions to have invaluable contributions in stabilizing conflicts in Africa. The United States continues to lead the world in humanitarian assistance, including famine prevention and relief in South Sudan, Somalia, and northern Nigeria and Yemen.We have invested in better health and opportunity all over the world through programs like PEPFAR, which funds AIDS relief; the President s Malaria Initiative; the Global Health Security Agenda; the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery; and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, part of our commitment to empowering women all across the globe.We also thank (applause) we also thank the Secretary General for recognizing that the United Nations must reform if it is to be an effective partner in confronting threats to sovereignty, security, and prosperity. Too often the focus of this organization has not been on results, but on bureaucracy and process.In some cases, states that seek to subvert this institution s noble aims have hijacked the very systems that are supposed to advance them. For example, it is a massive source of embarrassment to the United Nations that some governments with egregious human rights records sit on the U.N. Human Rights Council.The United States is one out of 193 countries in the United Nations, and yet we pay 22 percent of the entire budget and more. In fact, we pay far more than anybody realizes. The United States bears an unfair cost burden, but, to be fair, if it could actually accomplish all of its stated goals, especially the goal of peace, this investment would easily be well worth it.Major portions of the world are in conflict and some, in fact, are going to hell. But the powerful people in this room, under the guidance and auspices of the United Nations, can solve many of these vicious and complex problems.The American people hope that one day soon the United Nations can be a much more accountable and effective advocate for human dignity and freedom around the world. In the meantime, we believe that no nation should have to bear a disproportionate share of the burden, militarily or financially. Nations of the world must take a greater role in promoting secure and prosperous societies in their own regions.That is why in the Western Hemisphere, the United States has stood against the corrupt and destabilizing regime in Cuba and embraced the enduring dream of the Cuban people to live in freedom. My administration recently announced that we will not lift sanctions on the Cuban government until it makes fundamental reforms.We have also imposed tough, calibrated sanctions on the socialist Maduro regime in Venezuela, which has brought a once thriving nation to the brink of total collapse.The socialist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro has inflicted terrible pain and suffering on the good people of that country. This corrupt regime destroyed a prosperous nation by imposing a failed ideology that has produced poverty and misery everywhere it has been tried. To make matters worse, Maduro has defied his own people, stealing power from their elected representatives to preserve his disastrous rule.The Venezuelan people are starving and their country is collapsing. Their democratic institutions are being destroyed. This situation is completely unacceptable and we cannot stand by and watch.As a responsible neighbor and friend, we and all others have a goal. That goal is to help them regain their freedom, recover their country, and restore their democracy. I would like to thank leaders in this room for condemning the regime and providing vital support to the Venezuelan people.The United States has taken important steps to hold the regime accountable. We are prepared to take further action if the government of Venezuela persists on its path to impose authoritarian rule on the Venezuelan people.We are fortunate to have incredibly strong and healthy trade relationships with many of the Latin American countries gathered here today. Our economic bond forms a critical foundation for advancing peace and prosperity for all of our people and all of our neighbors.I ask every country represented here today to be prepared to do more to address this very real crisis. We call for the full restoration of democracy and political freedoms in Venezuela. (Applause.)The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented, but that socialism has been faithfully implemented. (Applause.) From the Soviet Union to Cuba to Venezuela, wherever true socialism or communism has been adopted, it has delivered anguish and devastation and failure. Those who preach the tenets of these discredited ideologies only contribute to the continued suffering of the people who live under these cruel systems.America stands with every person living under a brutal regime. Our respect for sovereignty is also a call for action. All people deserve a government that cares for their safety, their interests, and their wellbeing, including their prosperity.In America, we seek stronger ties of business and trade with all nations of good will, but this trade must be fair and it must be reciprocal.For too long, the American people were told that mammoth multinational trade deals, unaccountable international tribunals, and powerful global bureaucracies were the best way to promote their success. But as those promises flowed, millions of jobs vanished and thousands of factories disappeared. Others gamed the system and broke the rules. And our great middle class, once the bedrock of American prosperity, was forgotten and left behind, but they are forgotten no more and they will never be forgotten again.While America will pursue cooperation and commerce with other nations, we are renewing our commitment to the first duty of every government: the duty of our citizens. This bond is the source of America s strength and that of every responsible nation represented here today.If this organization is to have any hope of successfully confronting the challenges before us, it will depend, as President Truman said some 70 years ago, on the independent strength of its members. If we are to embrace the opportunities of the future and overcome the present dangers together, there can be no substitute for strong, sovereign, and independent nations nations that are rooted in their histories and invested in their destinies; nations that seek allies to befriend, not enemies to conquer; and most important of all, nations that are home to patriots, to men and women who are willing to sacrifice for their countries, their fellow citizens, and for all that is best in the human spirit.In remembering the great victory that led to this body s founding, we must never forget that those heroes who fought against evil also fought for the nations that they loved.Patriotism led the Poles to die to save Poland, the French to fight for a free France, and the Brits to stand strong for Britain.Today, if we do not invest ourselves, our hearts, and our minds in our nations, if we will not build strong families, safe communities, and healthy societies for ourselves, no one can do it for us.We cannot wait for someone else, for faraway countries or far-off bureaucrats we can t do it. We must solve our problems, to build our prosperity, to secure our futures, or we will be vulnerable to decay, domination, and defeat.The true question for the United Nations today, for people all over the world who hope for better lives for themselves and their children, is a basic one: Are we still patriots? Do we love our nations enough to protect their sovereignty and to take ownership of their futures? Do we revere them enough to defend their interests, preserve their cultures, and ensure a peaceful world for their citizens?One of the greatest American patriots, John Adams, wrote that the American Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people. That was the moment when America awoke, when we looked around and understood that we were a nation. We realized who we were, what we valued, and what we would give our lives to defend. From its very first moments, the American story is the story of what is possible when people take ownership of their future.The United States of America has been among the greatest forces for good in the history of the world, and the greatest defenders of sovereignty, security, and prosperity for all.Now we are calling for a great reawakening of nations, for the revival of their spirits, their pride, their people, and their patriotism.History is asking us whether we are up to the task. Our answer will be a renewal of will, a rediscovery of resolve, and a rebirth of devotion. We need to defeat the enemies of humanity and unlock the potential of life itself.Our hope is a word and world of proud, independent nations that embrace their duties, seek friendship, respect others, and make common cause in the greatest shared interest of all: a future of dignity and peace for the people of this wonderful Earth.This is the true vision of the United Nations, the ancient wish of every people, and the deepest yearning that lives inside every sacred soul.So let this be our mission, and let this be our message to the world: We will fight together, sacrifice together, and stand together for peace, for freedom, for justice, for family, for humanity, and for the almighty God who made us all.Thank you. God bless you. God bless the nations of the world. And God bless the United States of America. Thank you very much.

NRG Center is now open as a relief shelter for Hurricane Harvey and is expecting up to 10,000 evacuees. There is... http://fb.me/AdYfRirl 

#Cars in the #News- Florida man parks Smart car in kitchen to save it from Hurricane Dorian https://www.autoblog.com/2019/09/05/hurricane-dorian-smart-car-in-kitchen/ …

We're ready for the hurricane and Stephen just left like tf are you doing????

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio warned Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday against embracing the “stop and frisk” police tactic that he said would worsen relations between police and community in the country. Trump has praised the anti-crime tactic in which police stop, question and search pedestrians for weapons or contraband and said on Fox News on Thursday it “massively changed” the crime statistics in New York City. “Stop and frisk worked,” Trump said on Fox & Friends on Thursday. He said the crime-ridden city of Chicago needed to adopt the tactic. De Blasio rejected that claim and attributed the sharp drop in crime to another strategy adopted by Bill Bratton, the city’s longtime police commissioner who retired less than a week ago. Bratton championed the “broken windows” policing strategy that emphasizes pursuit of crimes no matter how minor. In his resignation letter he attributed the decline in crime in New York City, the nation’s largest with 8.5 million people, to additional officers and an emphasis on building bonds within neighborhoods. “Donald Trump talks about stop and frisk like he knows the facts,” de Blasio said in an interview with CNN. “He has had no experience with policing, no experience with public safety. “He should really be careful because if we reinstitute stop and frisk all over this country, you would see a lot more tension between police and community.” Police tactics and deadly encounters with African-Americans, many of them unarmed, have sparked protests and unrest across the country. A state of emergency was declared in Charlotte, North Carolina, after a second night of unrest sparked by the fatal police shooting of a black man. There have also been protests in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in recent days demanding the arrest of a police officer seen in a video last week fatally shooting an unarmed black man who had his hands in clear view at the time. The stop and frisk policy gained traction in New York City under Mayor Rudy Giuliani, now a top Trump supporter. De Blasio promised to end the practice during his 2013 mayoral campaign. De Blasio also credited the continued drop in crime in New York City in recent decades to a crime reduction strategy adopted by Bratton called CompStat, which adopts statistical strategies to achieve more effective policing. “That’s what changed things in New York City,” de Blasio said, adding crime has gone down in the three years since his administration curtailed the use of stop and frisk. (Fixes ninth paragraph to say protesters demanding arrest, officer not arrested.)

"Competition is good for the economy, but not good for your business when it comes to competing for hourly employees. Ride sharing services such as Uber are spreading across the US like wildfires and are in need of drivers." https://blog.workstream.is/4-ways-to-compete-against-uber-for-hourly-workers-in-silicon-valley …

Cyclists attempt to ride their bikes through waist deep water in South Carolina after Hurricane Matthew made... http://fb.me/1d7URf0KE 

Latest: Highland Beach resident plans to ride out Hurricane Matthew https://goo.gl/FDjmii 

China's Stock Market Crash: Are There Gems In The Rubble?: China‰Ûªs stock market crash this summer has sparked ... http://t.co/2OqSGZqlbz

WHAT MORATORIUM? These guys in Congress are getting around the moratorium and spending like drunken sailors er pigs Stop the madness!Congress has appropriated over $4 billion earmarks this year despite a ban on pork barrel spending, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) announced on Wednesday.The group unveiled the 23rd edition of its Pig Book at the Phoenix Park Hotel near Capitol Hill, revealing millions in earmarks for fish passage, embryo adoption awareness, and abstinence education. The 2015 Pig Book continues to prove that any earmark is a bad earmark, CAGW president Tom Schatz said. At a time when members of Congress from both sides of the aisle and both sides of the Capitol continue to call for a restoration of earmarks, taxpayers should deliver a loud and clear message that it is time for earmarks to be permanently banned. Congress has been operating under a self-imposed earmark moratorium since 2010. However, lawmakers have found ways to get around the moratorium.CAGW found the cost of earmarks increased from $2.7 billion to $4.2 billion between fiscal years 2014 and 2015.The report highlights $2.6 million earmarked for the Denali Commission, a 1998 program to build infrastructure in rural Alaska that President Obama wanted to eliminate in 2012. Since FY 2000, 26 projects worth $295.8 million have been earmarked for the Denali Commission, including requests by Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee member Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska), Sen. Mark Begich (D., Alaska), and the late Sen. Ted Stevens (R., Alaska), according to the Pig Book.Read more: WFB

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump was the big winner across social media on Thursday night during the seventh Republican presidential debate - despite the fact that he did not attend. In all, Trump commanded 36 percent of the Twitter traffic during the debate, according to the social media company. The real estate billionaire tweeted on Friday: “Great Twitter poll-and I wasn’t even there. Thank you!” Trump was also the most searched-for candidate on Google during the debate, according to data supplied by the search engine, which co-sponsored the event with Fox News. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush also gained traction on Google. Trump boycotted the event after Fox News refused to yield to his demand that network anchor Megyn Kelly be replaced as a moderator. After Fox News issued a sarcastic news release about the contretemps, Trump hosted his own event in Des Moines, a fund-raiser for veterans. He was rewarded with positive social media buzz. Not long after he took the stage on Thursday night at his event at Drake University, a group of protesters chanted loudly. Trump responded: “I love the protesters in the big arena because the cameras (don’t move away from) my face.” That quip won him praise on social media, and his Twitter sentiment measured largely positive during the event, according to social media analytics firm Zoomph. “An unbelievable night in Iowa with our great Veterans!” Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) tweeted on Thursday. “We raised $6,000,000.00 while the politicians talked!” To be sure, he failed to garner as much attention on Twitter as the last time he was on a debate stage. According to Brandwatch, a social media monitoring company, Trump received roughly 130,000 Twitter mentions during the debate. This marked a roughly 40,000-tweet decline from the previous GOP debate - which he attended. While Trump led the field in terms of mentions, Yik Yak, a location-based mobile app popular with millennials, said on Friday that Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky had the highest approval rating with app users at 73.6 percent. At the debate, Cruz came out swinging against Trump in his initial comments, mocking the tycoon’s penchant for brash criticism. “I’m a maniac, and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly,” joked Cruz, in an effort to, as he put it, get “the Donald Trump portion” of the program out of the way. Cruz’s joke became one of the standout moments in the first half of the debate, gaining momentum on Twitter among news outlets and average Twitter users. The debate moved on to discussion of substantive issues. Foreign affairs, national security, immigration, reproductive rights and healthcare were the most tweeted-about topics during the debate, according to Twitter.

Irony just died a thousand deaths! ???? http://t.co/dBU30ObDxz

BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S.-backed militias in Syria have declared victory over Islamic State in its capital Raqqa, a milestone in the fight to roll back the theocratic caliphate declared in 2014.. Here are facts about Raqqa: Raqqa sits on the Euphrates river around 90 km (56 miles) from the Turkish border in north central Syria. Sunni militant group Islamic State overran Raqqa in January 2014, seizing control from rebel factions opposed to the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The United States has said Islamic State planned and sent teams from Raqqa to carry out attacks on cities including Paris, Brussels and Istanbul. THE ANTI-IS OFFENSIVE The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of mostly Kurdish and Arab militias, began to advance towards Raqqa city in November 2016. After encircling the city, they launched the offensive to take it, facing tough resistance. The United States-led coalition supported the SDF with air strikes and special forces on the ground. The battle for Raqqa has taken a severe toll on civilians. The United Nations said in March the city contained around 200,000 people, just under its pre-war population. Since late last year, fighting around and in Raqqa has displaced tens of thousands of people. Many have fled the city to camps in surrounding territory now under the control of the SDF and its strongest component, the Kurdish YPG militia. Civilians who were trapped inside the Islamic State enclave in the city endured miserable conditions for months, lacking water, power, food and healthcare. As the SDF captured parts of Raqqa they were mostly been cleared of residents. Air strikes, fighting and Islamic State snipers and mines have killed many hundreds of people. The coalition says it is careful to avoid civilian casualties in its bombing runs in Syria and Iraq. But the U.N. human rights office and rights group Amnesty International have raised concerns about reports of high civilian deaths. Islamic State imposed its very strict interpretation of Islamic law on Raqqa s residents. The fighters have carried out public executions, lashings and violent punishments for infringements of their rule. The Raqqa campaign has stirred tension between the United States and NATO-ally Turkey. Potential Kurdish influence in the future of the mainly Arab city is sensitive both for some activists from Raqqa and for Turkey. The YPG has become the main U.S. partner in the fight against Islamic State in northern Syria. Ankara views it as a Syrian extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency within Turkey, and fears growing Kurdish power along its border. The SDF s political allies have set up a Raqqa Civil Council of people from the city, which the SDF has said it will hand control to after Islamic State s defeat. This echoes the pattern in other towns and cities that the SDF captured. The U.S.-led coalition has helped train a new police force for the city. Islamic State has made enemies of all sides in the more than six-year Syrian conflict, with separate offensives now trying to clear it from its last foothold in the towns along the Euphrates river in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border. Besides the U.S.-backed SDF, the Syrian army, with Russian jets and Iran-backed militias, is also waging its own campaign against Islamic State in eastern Syria. A modern-day provincial transport hub and market town, Raqqa was built by the Abbasid Islamic Caliphate in the eighth century, serving as its capital at one point. It has been inhabited since antiquity and contains important archeological and architectural sites. The United Nations has said they have been extensively looted during the war and religious buildings have been damaged. Islamic State militants released a video of them bombing a large part of the Uwais al-Qarani shrine complex in March 2014.

Herman Cain, a former CEO and presidential candidate, has died after contracting coronavirus. He was 74. https://t.co/rAZgrjPv56

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian government rejects the independence referendum organized by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, Syria s foreign minister has said. Voting started on Monday in northern Iraq despite intense international and regional pressure to call the vote off. We in Syria only recognize a united Iraq and reject any procedure that leads to the fragmentation of Iraq, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem was cited as saying by Syrian state news agency SANA. This step is rejected and we do not recognize it and yesterday I informed the Iraqi foreign minister of this stance. An assistant to the Syrian foreign minister told the pro-government Syrian newspaper al-Watan that what is happening in Iraq is a product of American policies that aim to fragment the region s countries and create conflict between its parts. The referendum harms Iraq and harms our Kurdish brothers, Ayman Soussan added in the comments published on Monday. The Shi ite-led government in Baghdad has maintained relations with Damascus throughout the country s war, even as other Arab states cut ties with President Bashar al-Assad s administration. Iraqi Shi ite militias have fought on Assad s side against Syrian rebels and Islamic State. The Syrian government, which is regaining territory with Iranian and Russian military backing, also opposes steps taken by Syrian Kurds towards autonomy in northern Syria since the start of the country s civil war in 2011. Kurdish-led regions in Syria held elections for community leaders on Friday, the first in a three-phase vote that will culminate in the election of a parliament and the establishment of a federal system of government. Syrian Kurds insist independence is not their aim and they want to remain part of a decentralized Syria.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The verdict in the war crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic was delayed on Wednesday while he underwent a blood pressure test, his son Darko told Reuters. U.N. judges had ordered a five-minute bathroom break for Mladic, 74, before issuing their verdict in his trial for 11 alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity including genocide. That pause then stretched on for more than an hour. They took his blood pressure during the break. We don t know the readings, but they said they could continue with the verdict. We are very concerned about his blood pressure because he has already has four strokes, Darko Mladic said.

KING CITY, Calif. (Reuters) - On an overcast spring morning, about 40 Mexican men turned out in the pre-dawn hours to board a bus for California’s Salinas Valley where they would harvest 16 acres (6.47 hectares) of lettuce over the next three days. Hector Manuel Morales, 20, came north from Mexico to work the fields with his three cousins. He said his family worried about his journey, spooked by President Donald Trump’s talk of a crackdown on illegal immigrants. But he does not anticipate problems. While about half of U.S. crop workers are in the country illegally, Morales and the other men have H-2A visas, which allow them to work temporarily as seasonal agricultural laborers on American farms. “We are not violating any law here in the U.S.,” he said. “We come to work.” His co-worker Rafael Gonzalez Arredondo, 23, said listening to Trump’s statements about Mexico was “difficult, but we are going to show him that Mexicans are hard working people, that we are not what he says.” The men came to the country through a labor brokerage company, Fresh Harvest, which brings in H-2A laborers to work on farms in need of temporary workers. This year, the company’s owner, Steve Scaroni, says he expects to bring in about 4,000 workers. Companies like Fresh Harvest are attractive for farmers who want to employ legal workers but do not want to deal with the considerable government red tape and regulations associated with the H-2A program. Employers who bring in workers on the visas must provide them with free transportation to and from the United States as well as housing and food once they arrive. Wage minimums are set by the government and are often higher than farmers are used to paying. Still, Scaroni says he could find work for even more people if he had enough housing. While use of the H-2A program has steadily increased over the past decade, it still accounts for only about 10 percent of the estimated 1.3 million farmworkers in the United States, according to government data. In 2016, the government granted 134,000 H-2A visas. Alfredo Lopez Granados, 27, from Michoacan, Mexico has come north to work on an H-2A visa five times. He misses his family back home, he says, but the decision is not difficult. “Once you are here,” he said, “in one day you make more than you make in a week in Mexico.” (To see a related photo essay, click here: reut.rs/2qdtfnb)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU envoys discussed on Wednesday delaying into next year the launch of talks with London on a post-Brexit relationship, raising the risk of businesses shifting out of Britain due to lack of clarity on what will happen after March 2019. A meeting of ambassadors from the other 27 EU states had been due to start discussing how to negotiate a transition that would start when Britain quits the bloc in 17 months. But instead, people familiar with the talks told Reuters, the discussion was dominated by concern that London would fail to meet EU conditions next month for opening future negotiations. Once again, lead powers Germany and France insisted British Prime Minister Theresa May agree in principle to pay an exit bill in the tens of billions of euros to Brussels before EU leaders agree to open a second phase of Brexit negotiations on the future relationship. They told May at a summit last month that they were ready to do that when they next meet, on Dec. 14. But British negotiators, who will be in Brussels on Thursday and Friday for more talks on that financial settlement, as well as rights for EU citizens and the Irish border, should not think they are sailing ahead into the next phase , an EU official familiar with the envoys discussions said. While the transition and future relationship were formally on the agenda, what ambassadors focused very much on was real concern that the UK does not realize that the EU27 are deadly serious about the need to meet the sufficient progress mark on the three first-phase issues. With May struggling with the loss of a second scandal-hit cabinet minister in a week, Germany, France and others are ramping up pressure on her to cut a deal in the knowledge that businesses are piling on their own demands for clarity before making investment decisions in the new year. The focus was very much on the here and now and the fact that the UK is so far away from meeting the sufficient progress point and that we are rapidly running out of time, the official added. Several diplomats gave similar accounts of the meeting. We should not be pressured or rushed. They really must come with the money, one senior EU diplomat said. The European Parliament, which must approve any withdrawal treaty, added its voice on Wednesday. Its Brexit coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt said May s suggestion that agreement was close on citizens rights was wide of the mark and that major issues remained unresolved to guarantee rights for EU nationals. The EU official said the ambassadors agreed that without sufficient progress on divorce issues in the next month, the talks would simply be extended into 2018 with no discussions on the future talks that London is keen to start immediately. If they don t move until early December, we ll have to think again what to do next, the senior diplomat said. Then there could be a take it or leave it offer from us, which would clearly not be very nice to Britain and at home they would fall under immense pressure to walk away from the talks. Some Brexit backers in her own government have urged May to walk out without a withdrawal deal, arguing that the EU also has an interest in an orderly split and that the British economy can stand any disruption a view not shared by many businesses. Several EU officials said Britain would have to abide by all EU laws in the transition period, even if they are changed during that time, but would have no vote on them. And that such a transition, which both sides have said should last less than two years, might have to be extended to give time for a trade pact. It s impossible to get any bespoke trade deal in two years or so, said an EU parliament official who deals with Brexit. And for all that time the UK would be an EU colony forced to accept all our laws with no say. This is what I call a definition of colony.

Hurricane Matthew is now car 3 storm winds up to 125 mph movin very we may go love on Facebook that two days hurricane may hit fl

Batteries, flashlights, cell phone battery pack, gas, cash, medicine, ice, water in the bathtub, bottled water, cooler, canned food and dry goods, pet food, toilet paper, paper plates, beverages of choice, and a book. That’s all I can think of. #Hurricane #Dorian

Trump has famously said, repeatedly, that he plans to build a wall between Mexico and the United States. Furthermore, has been firm that Mexico will pay for that wall a claim that has been disputed by multiple former presidents and the treasury secretary of our southern neighbor. I will say it emphatically: There is no scenario in which Mexico will pay for this wall that is being proposed by the United States presidential hopeful, Mexican Treasury Secretary Luis Videgaray said in March. But that hasn t stopped Trump and his followers from pushing the issue right into the official Republican Party platform. In other words, this is not just Trump s dream. This is now something that every Republican across the nation will attempt to accomplish. This is really happening, people.But who will pay for it? The short answer is that we, the taxpayers, will. But if Trump is elected and we manage to once again hand Congress to the GOP, and every single one of them remains as stupid as they are today, we ll have to deal with one issue: where will we get the materials?Trump s border wall is a goldmine for southern building materials manufacturers a $700 million chunk of the more than $10 billion cost of the wall at the low end is some pretty sweet lucre, after all but the sheer demand will likely outweigh the supply by far. In fact, a recent report by Bloomberg notes that one of the biggest beneficiaries might be Cemex SAB, a company that is not exactly in the United States. In fact, as production progresses, they might have to figure out a way to get materials over the wall so construction can continue:The largest cement maker in the Americas would be best positioned to profit from such a large construction project, according to a report by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Other likely beneficiaries include another Mexican company Cemex owns a stake in, Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua SAB, as well as Martin Marietta Materials Inc., Vulcan Materials Co. and CalPortland Co.The project would enrich suppliers of building materials in the border region, Bernstein analysts led by Phil Roseberg wrote in the report. The wall proposed by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee would probably emulate the design of a barrier separating Israel from the West Bank, much of which was built with precast concrete panels, they said. The potential cost of the wall with Mexico: $15 billion or more. As ludicrous as The Trump Wall project sounds (to us at least), it represents a huge opportunity for those companies involved in its construction, Roseberg said in the report. Despite arguments concerning which government will pay for construction, the large quantities of materials required may necessitate procurement from both sides of the border. The wall itself isn t the only challenge. Roseberg says that roads would need to be built just to gain access to the more remote areas the wall would touch. But not to worry Cemex has operations on both sides of the border to satisfy all of Trump s needs.But why Cemex? Roseberg s team explains: It is not economically feasible to transport heavy building materials over large distances. As such, it is the companies with production facilities closest to the border that stand to gain the most as suppliers to The Trump Wall project. Bloomberg notes that the wall would need 7 million cubic meters of concrete if it extends 1,000 miles, rises 40 feet and reaches 7 feet underground. these numbers could rise if the wall keeps getting 10 feet taller like he says seemingly every time someone irritates him. We have assumed that planning and land acquisition would take 1-2 years with a further 2 years for construction itself, Roseberg s team says. This means that the impact on demand for materials would occur from 2018 at the earliest. Looks like those rapists and murderers in Mexico will be laughing all the way to the bank if Trump s wall is built.Watch Trump talk about his stupid wall below:Featured image via screenshot

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump raised the firing of his FBI director in a meeting with Russia’s foreign minister to explain why he had been unable to find areas of cooperation with Moscow, the White House national security adviser said on Sunday. “The gist of the conversation was that the president feels as if he is hamstrung in his ability to work with Russia to find areas of cooperation because this has been obviously so much in the news,” H.R. McMaster said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” Reports that Trump boasted to Russian officials of firing former FBI director James Comey to relieve “great pressure” from a law-enforcement probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election engulfed his administration in turmoil just as Trump left for his first foreign trip as president on Friday. “I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job,” Trump said during a May 10 meeting with Russian officials, according to a report by The New York Times that cited a document summarizing the meeting and an unnamed U.S. official. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied that Comey had come up during the meeting, according to Interfax news agency. McMaster also said in Sunday’s interview that the central purpose of Trump’s conversation with Lavrov and Russia’s ambassador to Washington was to confront Russia on areas where the United States considers them disruptive, such as Syria. McMaster criticized sources who told reporters that Trump had disclosed highly classified information to the Russian officials in the meeting about a planned Islamic State operation. “In a concern about divulging intelligence they leaked actually not just the information from the meeting, but also indicated the sources and methods to a to a newspaper. I mean it doesn’t make sense,” McMaster said.”

When Republicans announced that they would be abruptly releasing the conclusions to their exhaustive, five-year Benghazi witch hunt this week, political strategists were stumped. Either this meant they had something explosive and wanted to unload it, or it meant they had absolutely nothing and wanted to bury the wasted energy, money and time spent on this anti-Hillary Clinton hit job long before the election rolled around.Upon releasing the document, it became instantly clear which option this was: Even after five years, the Republican-led Benghazi investigation found absolutely zero evidence that Hillary Clinton did anything wrong. Nor did they find a single way Clinton could have saved any of the victims. In short, the investigation was a complete and total dud.As the New York Times summed up:Ending one of the longest, costliest and most bitterly partisan congressional investigations in history, the House Select Committee on Benghazi issued its final report on Tuesday, finding no new evidence of culpability or wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton in the 2012 attacks in Libya that left four Americans dead.Not that Republicans didn t try their hardest. The investigation cost a truly staggering $7 million and took years to conduct. At every turn, the evidence suggested Clinton was not irresponsible with her actions while Secretary of State, and at every turn that evidence was ignored in the hopes that there was a bombshell just around the corner.Also admitted to during the final report? President Obama didn t lie to the American people about what happened in Benghazi. That was right-wing spin.The investigations generally concluded that after the attack, the Obama administration s talking points a matter of much dispute were flawed but not deliberately misleading.The idea that President Obama would have all the information to accurately describe what was unfolding in Benghazi as it happened was preposterous. As someone once wryly remarked, George W. Bush spent years telling the American public that Iraq was responsible for 9/11, President Obama spent a few hours saying we don t know what happened in Benghazi. Hardly an impeachable offense.Nevertheless, Republicans including Trump s campaign have tried to make a lot of political noise based on these rumors. In a sick irony, Trump s own lawyer spent the same morning this report was released openly accusing Hillary Clinton of murder because of Benghazi.NBC/WSJ poll has @realDonaldTrump beating #CrookedHillary on #Honesty & #NationalSecurity. This picture says it all! pic.twitter.com/E9YKIgoqnV Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) June 28, 2016Clinton was understandably relieved to have this nonsense put past her. Despite the lack of evidence, certain corners of the internet routinely cited Benghazi as a reason not to vote for her. That talking point has finally and comprehensively come undone. After more than two years and more than $7 million in taxpayer funds, the Committee report has not found anything to contradict the conclusions of the multiple, earlier investigations, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign said in a statement. This report just confirms what Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and even one of Trey Gowdy s own former staffers admitted months ago: this Committee s chief goal is to politicize the deaths of four brave Americans in order to try to attack the Obama administration and hurt Hillary Clinton s campaign. In many ways, this final white flag by Republicans represents the increasingly despondent way they are viewing the upcoming election. Their candidate is a belligerent, self-aggrandizing bigot that is currently losing by historic numbers in the polls. If the GOP had any shot at competing in this election with that guy, they needed something like Benghazi to derail Clinton. Instead, they were forced to admit there was nothing there.By releasing the report now, there is a clear sense that the Republican Party is hoping to dig their trenches, hunker down and wait out whatever comes next. The Benghazi investigation going down in flames isn t exactly a game-ender, but it s certainly not the game-changer they had hoped for either.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Fuck a hurricane #sandy #food #love #enchiladas #mole #v8 #aguardiente #life #love #awesomeness #greatness # http://instagr.am/p/RY-oDiu5Ye/ 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump survived one of the biggest threats to his presidency when Thursday’s hugely awaited congressional testimony by the FBI chief he fired did not yield any explosive new disclosures about his campaign’s alleged ties with Russia. But former FBI Director James Comey’s remarks to a packed hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee left the Republican president far from unscathed. Comey recounted in vivid detail conversations with Trump that he viewed as an effort to undermine an investigation of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. He also said Trump’s comments after firing him on May 9 that the FBI was in disarray and that its members had lost confidence in Comey “were lies, plain and simple.” Still, Comey handed Trump and his supporters some fresh ammunition when he confirmed he had told the president the investigation was not focused on him personally. Even Senator Marco Rubio, who was among a number of Republicans who battled Trump for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, seemed to be advocating for him at times during the hearing. Rubio asked Comey why he did not directly tell Trump that he thought the president was making inappropriate requests of him. Comey replied that he did not know. “I was a bit stunned, and didn’t have the presence of mind,” he said. A Republican close to Trump said the president felt very good about Comey’s testimony, particularly since it bore out his earlier statement that the former FBI director had told him he was not under investigation. But the cloud from the Russia probe still hangs heavily over Trump’s White House. Comey’s firing set the stage for the appointment of a special counsel, Robert Mueller, who has taken over the investigation. Congressional probes, including one by the Senate intelligence panel, are ongoing. Russia has denied interference in last year’s presidential campaign. The White House has denied any collusion with Moscow. But Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat who sits on the intelligence committee, said the matter was nowhere near over. “It’s a big investigation, and these are facts. ... You have to dig for, and do a lot of analysis.” Several Democrats said Trump’s conversations with Comey seemed to build a case of obstruction of justice. “The lawyers are going to dig into obstruction of justice,” Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat on the intelligence panel, said after the hearing. “I believe the evidence just keeps piling up that there has been a very real presidential abuse of power.” But Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said Trump’s interactions with Comey may have reflected his lack of political experience rather than an effort to pressure the FBI director. Ryan said Trump may not have been “steeped” enough in the FBI’s independence from the White House. “He’s new in government, and so therefore I think he’s learning as he goes,” he told reporters. “I’m not saying it’s an acceptable excuse. It’s just my observation.” Trump could face even more problems over the coming months if the stream of details leaking out about the Russia investigation continues to grab the spotlight at a time when the White House wants to focus on priorities such as rolling back the Obamacare healthcare law and overhauling the tax code. “It distracts the administration and gives Republicans in the House and the Senate, many of whom have not been Trump supporters from the beginning, a reason to keep their distance and not get behind him,” said Andy Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, which conducts political polling. “It’s going to be a long summer,” Smith said. Trump’s core supporters are hunkering down for a fight. Great America Alliance, one pro-Trump group, spent $400,000 this week running ads attacking Comey, said Eric Beach, who runs the group. The ad lambasted Comey as “just another D.C. insider” and included images of militant attacks abroad to suggest Comey had not been focused enough on protecting Americans. But the investigation has contributed to a steady erosion of Trump’s political capital. According to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll taken from June 1 to 5, even before the Comey testimony - 38 percent of Americans said they approved of Trump, versus 58 percent who disapproved. “I think the situation is getting much more serious for Mr. Trump,” said Jon Bond, a political science professor at Texas A&M University. “The Mueller investigation is going on. I suspect that information that came out in today’s hearings is going to feed into that investigation. It looks like to me that the president is in increasing jeopardy.”

Batteries, flashlights, cell phone battery pack, gas, cash, medicine, ice, water in the bathtub, bottled water, cooler, canned food and dry goods, pet food, toilet paper, paper plates, beverages of choice, and a book. That’s all I can think of. #Hurricane #Dorian

‘It Was Like the Taliban Had Come to Town': 'Trump Train' Caravan Targeted Black Communities Across U.S. Ahead of Election https://t.co/t4jaiairI4 https://t.co/gU0hukN7J2

ZURICH (Reuters) - A 38-year-old refugee from Sri Lanka was shot and killed by Swiss police on Saturday after he charged at two other asylum seekers with knives, law enforcement officials said. Police in the town of Brissago in Switzerland s Italian-speaking canton of Ticino said they were called to a refugee centre after a report of an altercation after midnight. Officers say they escorted two asylum seekers into the building, where they were rushed by a man brandishing two knives. To guarantee the safety of all those present, a cantonal police officer fired his gun and seriously injured the aggressor, Ticino police said in a statement. Despite first aid, the man died at the scene, the police said.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Former Nepali prime minister K.P. Oli on Sunday looked set for a return to power after winning his seat in parliament and his Communist UML party and Maoist allies on course to win a majority. Counting is still under way following an election on Thursday that capped a near-decade long transition to democracy from monarchy and a civil war in which more than 17,000 people died. Oli, 65, has vowed to form a government that lasts its full five-year term, something no prime minister has achieved since parliamentary democracy was established in 1990. His campaign has called for the extension of the Chinese railway network into Nepal and implement of hydroelectric, airport and other infrastructure projects to create jobs. We can expect Oli to lead a stable government with the Maoists as strong allies, said Bipin Adhikari, a constitutional expert. Once there is political stability he can implement a development agenda and attract foreign investment. Instability has spooked investors, curbed growth, spurred corruption and slowed reconstruction after a 2015 earthquake that killed 9,000 people. Nepal is a natural buffer between China and India, with the ruling Nepali Congress party considered pro-India and the left alliance seen closer to China. If Oli leads the new government, he will be forced to be pragmatic in maintaining a geo-political balance with both, said Kunda Dixit, editor of the weekly Nepali Times. Final election results are expected to take about a week, election officials said. Home to Mount Everest, Nepal is one of the world s poorest countries.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont said he stood ready to cooperate with Belgian justice authorities, adding he believed Spanish authorities had become politicized. I will not run from justice. I will go to the justice authorities, but the real justice authorities, Puigdemont told Belgian state broadcaster RTBF in an interview aired on Friday. I have told my lawyer to tell Belgian justice authorities that I am completely ready to cooperate, he said. Puigdemont added that it was very clear that the Spanish justice authorities had become politicized .

There s been tons of speculation about possible involvement by Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 terror attack. The 28-page report has been classified but many are calling for the papers to be released. Many details have trickled out but Americans should know the role Saudi Arabia played in supporting the 9/11 terrorists:Tim Roemer told 60 Minutes the two Saudi nationals found a way to gain access to housing and flight lessons upon their arrival despite extremely limited language skills and no experience with Western culture. FOX NEWS REPORT: Lawmakers are calling on the White House to declassify more than two dozen pages in the 9/11 Commission report that they say outlines evidence for possible support from the Saudi government for two hijackers who settled in Southern California.A CBS News 60 Minutes report quoted officials familiar with the 2003 report as saying 28 pages of redacted information raises questions over whether Saudi officials were involved in assisting Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar upon their arrival in Los Angeles in Jan. 2000. Former Democratic congressman and U.S. ambassador to India Tim Roemer told 60 Minutes the two Saudi nationals found a way to gain access to housing and flight lessons upon their arrival despite extremely limited language skills and no experience with Western culture. PLEASE WATCH THE 60 MINUTES 28-PAGES VIDEO: CLICK HERE L.A., San Diego, that s really you know, the hornet s nest, said Roemer. That s really the one that I continue to think about almost on a daily basis. According to the report, witnesses say both al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar met at the King Fahad mosque in Culver City with Fahad al-Thumairy, a diplomat at the Saudi consulate known to hold extremist views. He was denied reentry to the U.S. in 2003 for suspected terrorist ties.Thumairy was a a ghost employee with a no-show job at a Saudi aviation contractor outside Los Angeles while drawing a paycheck from the Saudi government , according to the report. 60 Minutes also cited phone records that lawmakers say may link Thumairy to Omar al-Bayoumi, a mysterious Saudi who became the hijackers biggest benefactor.Former U.S. Senator Bob Graham said he believes Bayoumi was a Saudi agent, telling CBS News Steve Kroft that Bayoumi had been listed even before 9/11 in FBI files as being a Saudi agent. According to 60 Minutes , Bayoumi visited Thumairy at a Saudi consulate office where he worked on the morning of Feb. 1, 2000. The two then had lunch at a Middle Eastern restaurant on Venice Boulevard , a meeting which Bayoumi later claimed was a coincidence , Roemer said.Another 9/11 Commission member, former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey, has read the redacted 28 pages and told Kroft he and a solid majority of former 9/11 commissioners believes they should be declassified. We all have dealt for our careers in highly classified and compartmentalized in every aspect of security, Kerrey said. We know when something shouldn t be declassified those 28 pages in no way fall into that category. Via: CBS

MT @TravelGov US citizens in #Jamaica: Routine consular services suspended October 3, 4; Shelter in place during Hurricane #Matthew. #hmrd v

(Reuters) - President Donald Trump has added a veteran Washington lawyer to the team representing him in the investigations of possible collusion by the Trump campaign with Russia, including the criminal probe being led by special counsel Robert Mueller. John Dowd, who has represented key figures in a variety white-collar criminal matters and investigations, has joined the president’s defense team led by New York lawyer Marc Kasowitz, Mark Corallo, a spokesman for the team, said on Friday. Another well-known white-collar Washington lawyer will likely join the team shortly, according to a person familiar with the matter. Dowd, 76, represented U.S. Senator John McCain on congressional ethics charges in the “Keating Five” banking scandal in the late 1980s and early 1990s. McCain was cleared in the matter. In 1989, Dowd’s investigation on behalf of Major League Baseball led to former Hall of Famer Pete Rose being banned from the sport for betting on games while he was manager of the Cincinnati Reds. Dowd also defended Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam in a 2011 trial brought by federal prosecutors in New York over insider trading. Rajaratnam was found guilty and sentenced to 11 years in prison. Earlier in his career, Dowd served in the U.S. Marine Corps and was part of a U.S. Department of Justice organized crime unit. He went into private practice in 1978. He worked for many years at the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, retiring in 2015. Along with Kasowitz and Dowd, the other lawyers on Trump’s team so far are Jay Sekulow, a conservative activist with a radio call-in show, and Michael Bowe, a longtime partner in Kasowitz’s firm. Mueller is investigating possible ties between Trump’s campaign and the Russian government, which U.S. officials have said meddled in the 2016 election. Russia has denied such interference. The White House has denied any collusion with Moscow. The special counsel also is looking into whether Trump has sought to obstruct the investigation, a person familiar with the inquiry said on Thursday. Former FBI Director James Comey testified earlier this month that Trump asked him to drop the bureau’s investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The Senate and House Intelligence Committees are also investigating possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.

On Friday, Donald Trump embarrassed himself with a tweet, as is becoming a daily ritual, that was so stupid that seemingly all of Twitter could not help but come together to mock the orange sh*tgibbon in the White House. Trump continued his anti-Muslim tirade by reaching deep inside himself and tweeting We must keep evil out of our country . We must keep "evil" out of our country! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2017To even the most casual observer, it is obvious that Trump is referencing his Muslim ban, which was an effort to keep people of one specific religion from entering our country and, of course, that the word Islam was intended to fill in the quotes. Americans responded to The Donald s latest dogwhistle by asking him when the f*ck he s going to be stepping down and leaving our country.@realDonaldTrump cool, so when are you packing up? Tim Wrobel (@Timotato) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump so get out of our country! Jonathan Boucher (@jonbouch) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump this evil? pic.twitter.com/8TuxpkBA8I Mike Denison (@mikd33) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump when are you leaving? Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) February 3, 2017Maybe look at the white supremacists groups @realDonaldTrump? There's a lot of "evil" there to rid America of! Khary Penebaker (@kharyp) February 3, 2017.@realDonaldTrump Then get the fuck out of my country, stop dismantling its institutions, and stop emboldening Nazis. Starkles (@dcstarkey) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump 65 million of us tried to do that. John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) February 3, 2017@realDonaldTrump Putting it in inverted commas means you're using 'evil' as a euphemism. Let's try and guess what word you actually mean. Lissa Evans (@LissaKEvans) February 3, 2017Oh shit, he's leaving! @realDonaldTrump Steven Bonnell II (@OmniDestiny) February 3, 2017.@realDonaldTrump So you'll resign and live in exile? Brooklyn Spoke (@BrooklynSpoke) February 4, 2017Even anonymous stopped by to say hello to our Tweeter-in-Chief:Don, hows it feel to know most of your supporters like Bannon more than you, how's his hand feel up your ass, you puppet. @realDonaldTrump Anonymous? (@YourAnonCentral) February 3, 2017Don the only evil in your country is you @realDonaldTrump when are you packing your bags? You are a big loser. Big! pic.twitter.com/qxQvxhgggN Anonymous? (@YourAnonCentral) February 3, 2017Why is evil in quotation marks @realDonaldTrump, why are you subtweeting us you weak ass mother fucker. @ us like a real man. ? Anonymous? (@YourAnonCentral) February 3, 2017The Trump administration has not had a good time of it lately. From completely making up a terrorist attack and blaming Muslims for it to f*cking up relations with Australia, a country that has had our back always since World War I, to threatening to send troops to Mexico, the Trump Team has done nothing but make our country less safe by antagonizing our allies and enemies alike in his selfish quest to satisfy his overinflated and undeserved ego all while empowering the Ku Klux Klan, Nazis, and other real Americans who want their 1950 s America back.To most of us, that is the true evil. Featured image via Getty Images(Joe Raedle)/screengrab

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Friday the United States should keep its sanctions against Russia, amid speculation that President Donald Trump may lift the punitive measures imposed under former President Barack Obama. “I think Obama was late in putting them in place, so I think they should stay,” Ryan said in an interview with Politico. Ryan, the top Republican in the U.S. Congress, was responding to a question about comments by Republican Senator John McCain that if Trump lifted the restrictions, he would work to “codify sanctions against Russia into law.”

MSNBC s Brian Williams spoke the truth on Tuesday night when he said that it is the media s job to scare people to death over North Korea. Wow! These are the first true words this serial liar has spoken in years!Williams commented that he thought Secretary of State Rex Tillerson s tone was different from President Trump s North Korea stance.Andrea Mitchell couldn t wait to jump in and criticize Trump: There s pressure. This could have been a signal to Beijing as well; Listen up, take this seriously. It could have been President Trump sending signals in a number of directions. The next comment from Mitchell is hysterical because she uses two of the most anti-Trump people in Congress to say that even they criticized Trump s tone: Senators Dianne Feinstein and John Songbird McCain wouldn t respond positively to pretty much anything that Trump said.Brian Williams then delivered his truth bomb: Malcolm, our job tonight actually is to scare people to death on this subject so the talk isn t as free as it is about a preemptive or a surgical military strike. You know that part of the world. The population centers, Andrea and the General have talked about, South Korea, the Japanese, and so on and so on. What was Williams thinking? He let the cat out of the bag and actually told the truth. The lefty media is frothing at the mouth to make President Trump out to be clueless on strategy when in reality Trump is a master strategist! He s also surrounded himself with great military leaders!Would this crew of armchair quarterbacks want Trump to do what previous leaders did and kick the can down the road? It s no thanks to those weak kneed leaders that we re in the position we re in now with North Korea!

23 Killed, Cars Melt, Power Down as Wildfire Turns California Town Into ‘Burning Hell’ https://en.dhwanionline.com/23-killed-cars-melt-power-down-as-wildfire-turns-california-town-into-burning-hell/ …

Don't Panik! #KelbyTomlinson to the rescue! http://t.co/hujvgsFLUs

Senator Tom Cotton just put on a legendary show of hypocrisy on the floor of the Senate and my jaw has not quite left the floor. Cotton is known these days as Tehran Tom thanks to his poorly executed attempt to derail President Obama s nuclear agreement with Iran by organizing a secret letter that was sent to the Iranian government instructing the country to ignore the diplomatic agreement or else, so it s a little rich that he feels confident in lecturing another senator on leadership. However, it s not just Cotton s shameless hypocrisy that is striking, but the apparently fully realized fantasy world he lives in. So powerful are the delusions and so blind is he to the real world, it s a wonder Cotton manages to walk through his office without bumping into a coffee table. Here s Cotton, a man who recently held up a crucial bill because it would have allowed the Iranian nuclear agreement to go forward, slamming Sen. Harry Reid for don t laugh, this is serious obstructing a defense bill. As a junior senator, I preside over the Senate. I usually do in the morning, which means I m forced to listen to the bitter, vulgar, incoherent ramblings of the Minority Leader, Cotton said. Normally, like other Americans, I ignore them. I can t ignore them today, however. Cotton tore into Reid for stalling a vote on a crucial defense bill, even though the bill eventually passed 98-0. When was the last time the Minority Leader read a bill? It was probably an electricity bill, Cotton quipped.Why was Reid holding up the bill? For one thing, Republicans decided to add an amendment that would allow religious organizations to legally discriminate against gay people (in defiance of federal law). It s a favorite pet project of the GOP and, you may have noticed, has absolutely nothing to do with funding the military. Reid may be forgiven for feeling like amendments like these are unfettered bullshit and intentionally placed in important defense bills so that people like Tom Cotton can grandstand about them.Ironically, another aspect of the defense bill that has led to controversy is amendment requiring women to register for the draft. Why is that in there? Well, it s a funny story.The move to require women to register for the draft had an unlikely origin, when Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) who opposes the Obama administration s recent decision to open up all combat roles to women proposed the change in the House Armed Services Committee to start a discussion. But to GOP leaders surprise, the committee approved his language, prompting them to yank out the provision in a Rules Committee maneuver before it could go to the floor.In other words, Republicans in both the House and Senate have worked overtime to shoot themselves in the foot then scream at Democrats for not providing them with bulletproof shoes.It s clear what going on here. The Republican-led Congress has bravely led Congress to its lowest approval numbers in history. It s function as an equal branch of government has been replaced by a level of gridlock so severe that almost nothing gets accomplished. Having gotten Congress to this point by obstruction, Republicans are eager to diffuse the blame by pretending both sides do it.In Cotton s hysterical screeching, there s a very real fear that nobody is buying it anymore. Even someone as delusional as him can see that.Watch Cotton s ravings below via C-SPAN:Featured image via YouTube

Genius idea or not? Patrick Eldridge parked his smart car in his kitchen to protect it from Hurricane Dorian. https://wtop.com/trending-now/2019/09/florida-man-parks-smart-car-in-kitchen-so-it-wont-blow-away/ …

(Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday escalated his attacks on the federal judge presiding over lawsuits against Trump University, saying the judge had “an absolute conflict” because of his Mexican heritage, the Wall Street Journal reported. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the Nov. 8 presidential election, is fighting lawsuits that accuse his school venture of misleading thousands of people who paid up to $35,000 for seminars to learn about the billionaire’s real estate investment strategies. In an interview with the newspaper, Trump said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel had “an absolute conflict” in presiding over the litigation given that he was “of Mexican heritage” and a member of a Latino lawyers’ association. Trump said the background of the judge, who was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants, was relevant because of his campaign stance against illegal immigration and his pledge to seal the southern U.S. border, the Journal said. “I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest,” Trump said, according to the newspaper. The New York businessman also alleged the judge was a former colleague and friend of one of the Trump University plaintiffs’ lawyers, the newspaper said. The judge and the lawyer once worked together as federal prosecutors, but the lawyer, Jason Forge, in an interview with the Journal, said he had never seen the judge socially. “Neither Judge Curiel’s ethnicity nor the fact that we crossed paths as prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office well over a decade ago is to blame” for Trump’s actions, Forge told the Journal. An assistant in Curiel’s chambers said he was not commenting on the matter, the newspaper said. At a rally in San Diego last week, Trump lashed out at Curiel. “I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump. A hater. He’s a hater,” Trump said. “We’re in front of a very hostile judge. The judge was appointed by Barack Obama,” Trump said, adding he believed Curiel was Mexican. Legal scholars said Trump could face consequences for slamming the judge, although many have speculated that Curiel was unlikely to sanction him formally. Trump has drawn criticism for his comments about immigrants from Mexico, some of whom he has said were criminals and rapists. He has proposed building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico to prevent illegal immigration and requiring Mexico to pay for it.

Grocery employees in DC region are working their asses off to make sure folks have food/supplies ahead of blizzard. MVPs. #blizzard2016

Leftist Disney owned ESPN has a strange way of determining who is and isn t the type of host they want to be the face of their network. ESPN just fired baseball great Curt Schilling for sharing an opinion that was contrary to that of leftist Disney owned ESPN when he shared this meme on his personal Facebook page:Schilling added, A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don t care what they are, who they sleep with, men s room was designed for the penis, women s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic. ESPN then fired Schilling, announcing, ESPN is an inclusive company. Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated. Asked about the controversy on local radio, Schilling explained, To be in a place where people actually believe I m a racist or I m transphobic says to me that something has gone horribly askew somewhere. This wasn t the first time Schilling felt the heat from ESPN for his political views. He got slammed for retweeting a graphic that read, It s said only 5%-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How d that go? Schilling added, The math is staggering when you get to true # s. This was too much for ESPN, which had to step in to defend ISIS, and promptly suspended him from broadcast.Schilling made the horrible mistake of speaking truth in a place where only leftist falsehood is tolerated. ESPN has no problem firing a beloved host for speaking out against radical Islam and the LGBTQ-WXYZ Mafia. ESPN seems to have a soft spot however for female reporters like Britt McHenry (seen in video below) who berate and bully women who she considers to be less fortunate and important than her. Watch here:McHenry was given a one week suspension for her horrific and condescending behavior.ESPN host Stephen A. Smith spoke about former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice beating his then-girlfriend, and stated, We also have to make sure that we learn as much as we can about elements of provocation. Not that there s real provocation, but the elements of provocation, you got to make sure that you address them, because we ve got to do is do what we can to try to prevent the situation from happening in any way. And I don t think that s broached enough, is all I m saying. No point of blame. He was suspended for one week. Schilling suggesting that women be protected from men invading their restrooms, however, was a fireable offense.In the aftermath of the same incident, ESPN host Max Kellerman told a charming story about how when he was dating his now-wife, they were both drunk; she slapped him, and he slapped her back. That carried a short suspension. Kellerman is now back on the air regularly.None of these people committed the ultimate crime: stating that men and women are biologically different and should pee in different places. ESPN, of course, also stumps for more coverage of women s sports, which suggests a question: why not simply open up all women s sports to men, in the name of equality for people of all genders? Or wouldn t that comply with the logically incoherent leftist positional chart?To see more examples of people still working at ESPN who should ve been canned: Daily Wire

In preparation for Hurricane Dorian, Airbnb's Open Homes Program offers free temporary housing for displaced residents and relief workers. https://trib.al/yr5M08t 

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Sunday that a planned Sept. 25 independence referendum in Iraq s semi-autonomous Kurdish region would detract from the need to defeat Islamic State and to reconstruct regained territories. The Secretary-General respects the sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of Iraq and considers that all outstanding issues between the federal Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government should be resolved through structured dialogue and constructive compromise, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. The Secretary-General calls upon the leaders across Iraq to approach this matter with patience and restraint, he said.

@optich3cz #askH3cz i'm jealous now. Bc i wanted a elgato hd for my bday so i can record videos but i didnt have the money for it.

@RealJamesWoods #JimAcosta and #CNN Reporter gets read at the #Hurricane Shelter in #Houston Karma so Sweet #MAGA http://truepundit.com/video-hurricane-victim-snaps-after-cnn-reporter-terrorizes-woman-and-her-children-at-houston-shelter/ …

Rapidly developing strong tornado over Clanton, AL crossing I-65. Take shelter in Rockford!

People believe what they want to believe. When someone tells you they can solve your financial woes with a simple plan, you want to believe them. Donald Trump knew this and took advantage of people when they were at their most vulnerable. He promised a way to be successful, all while just simply making himself wealthy in the mean time.Well, guess what? He s finally being called out on his fraudulent scheme of Trump University and is even going to court over it.Also calling Donald Trump out for the scam artist that he is, is Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.Hillary went for the jugular and with good merit, stating: Well today we are learning about another scam, the so-called Trump University. The New York Attorney General is suing Donald Trump for fraud. And his own employees testified, I want you to hear this, his own employees testified that Trump U, you can t make this up, that Trump U was a fraudulent scheme where Donald Trump enriched himself at the expense of hardworking people Also adding: Trump and his employees took advantage of vulnerable Americans encouraging them to max out their credit cards, empty their retirement savings, destroy their financial futures all while making promises they knew were false from the beginning. This is just more evidence that Donald Trump himself is a fraud. He is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump U. Concluding: It is important that we recognize what he has done because that is usually a pretty good indicator of what he will do. And on issue after issue, we see someone who is unqualified and unfit to be President of the United States. He is absolutely unfit to be president. He has no policy experience, no diplomatic experience, no experience whatsoever except for being the true scam artist that he is. He should be condemned, not praised, and we need to make sure he is defeated this November. Watch Hillary here:Trump himself is a fraud.He s trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump University.https://t.co/yMt4mGLwYO Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 1, 2016Featured Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Woman trapped in submerged car during floods grateful for last-moment rescue http://bit.ly/1jW014n  via @timescall

Yay now I get to ride my bike to school through ass crack of hurricane Matthew. I can hear wind howling from inside my house.

Due to hurricane Matthew the Jacksonville workshop is being postponed due to the venue being used as a shelter. Stay safe Florida!

Unemployment is a political choice. We can abolish it with a Jobs Guarantee. Unemployment is a political choice. We can abolish it with a Jobs Guarantee. Unemployment is a political choice. We can abolish it with a Jobs Guarantee. https://t.co/Hk17RMNzgC

Hurricane Harvey Donation Fund For Bellaire Texas Psychiatrist Rachel Angel Long - Rent Food Bills Gas #hurricaneHr…https://www.pscp.tv/w/bHR2_DF4TlFheERKTnlYRWJ8MU1ZeE5YWFhvb3BHd7K4FAn6ZFMZe8FK0vmGV1SIgPfgc-ucAaWSgZMBO21x …

Last week, Oregon Judge Steve Grasty issued a statement that could be summed up as Geddafugouttahere! The statement was directed to head Domestic Terrorist Cliven Bundy who s been overcome with delusions of power. Bundy has declared that the four morons still inside the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge will retain possession of the property and he s also demanding that local officials resign because they haven t been America-Lovin Christian Soldier For Freedom fully supportive of the Bundy militia s seizure of federal property. Judge Gratsy seemed a bit confused as to why some schmuck in Nevada thinks he can dictate the law in Oregon: Last night I got a tweet with a copy of the letter in it from Mr. Cliven Bundy. I looked at that and wondered what does that mean? Perhaps he thinks he owns the refuge. I don t think that s the case. Judge Gratsy also responded to a petition to arrest the officers involved with the 100 percent justified shooting of martyr moron Lavoy Finicum: This isn t a valid petition in any sense of the law that I understand, Grasty told KOIN 6 News on Tuesday. That request won t be honored. Even funnier, the patriots that have been protesting clearly don t know how to count: Mr. Curtiss said [the petition] it was 200 signatures. What was delivered to us has lines for 150 signatures and it 118 signatures on them, the judge said. We think we can identify 111 of those as maybe Harney County folks. That sums up the Bundy clown parade perfectly: Ignorant of the law, very angry and very, very stupid. With a lot of guns. What could possibly go wrong?Since this story was first reported on, Cliven Bundy has been arrested for trying to join up with domestic terrorists and the four boneheads at Malhuer are reportedly in the process of surrendering after demanding that they not be arrested.Here s the full story via KOIN6: Featured image via AI Archives

It s all about the money isn t that the way it is with these RINO politicians who ve sold out the American people to big business? Well, John McCain is no different and should be taken to the woodshed one final time for his role in repeatedly destroying any hope we have of getting rid of Obamacare.BEWARE THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has paid millions to the GOP to keep Obamacare on behalf of multinational corporations who exploit and erode the U.S. economy. The largest beneficiaries of those payments has long been the RINOS within the senate. McCain s position is not a surprise. INSURERS PROFIT FROM OBAMACARE NO VOTE:Shares of U.S. insurers gained after news that McCain would not support the bill. Insurers had fallen over the past week as investors worried about spending cuts.Centene Corp gained 1.6 percent to $92.22 while Molina Healthcare rose 4.5 percent to $65.32. Both specialize in government-funded healthcare.The insurance industry, hospitals, medical advocacy groups such as the American Medical Association, American Heart Association and American Cancer Society, the AARP advocacy group for the elderly and consumer activists oppose the bill.WASHINGTON (Reuters) U.S. Senator John McCain said on Friday he opposes the latest Republican bill to dismantle Obamacare, dealing the measure what could be a fatal blow given the party s slim Senate majority.With several other Republicans still undecided on the measure, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said earlier this week he intended to bring it to the Senate floor for a vote next week, though he did not promise to do so.A vote would set the stage for another dramatic Capitol Hill decision on the 2010 law that brought health insurance to millions of Americans and became former Democratic President Barack Obama s signature domestic achievement.Read more: Reuters

Video from Pakistan shared to falsely depict Indian police brutality on Kashmiris | @Pooja_Chaudhuri https://t.co/YJI8SnvdMi

please tornado dont take my car. i need to get back to cali :/

Amid allegations of Russian interference with our elections, Republicans are scrambling, trying to defend the leader of their party. The latest defense, which comes from Lindsey Graham and sort of from Paul Ryan, is that Trump is too stupid to collude with the Russians.After former FBI Director James Comey testified in front of Congress, that yes, Trump did ask him to drop the investigation into former national security advisor Michael Flynn. The best defense House Speaker Paul Ryan could come up with was that Trump is new at this. He simply didn t know it wasn t cool to pressure the head of the FBI. The President s new at this. He s new to government. So, he probably wasn t steeped in the long-running protocols that establish the relationships between DOJ, FBI and White Houses. He s just new to this. Pushed further by CNN, Ryan said, I m not saying it s an acceptable excuse. It s just my observation. He s new at government, and so therefore I think that he he is learning as he goes, Ryan said.Source: CNNTeenagers, try that argument next time you get pulled over while driving. On second thought, don t.Now, Sen. Lindsey Graham has taken that argument a step further and said that Trump is too incompetent to have colluded with the Russians. He doesn t believe he did anything wrong with the Russians and I tend to believe him, Graham said on CBS Face the Nation. He can t collude with his own government. Why do you think he is colluding with the Russians? Source: Think ProgressWhat Graham is ignoring is that the fact that Trump is incompetent is likely what made him the most desirable for Russians. Russian journalist Mikhail Fishman says this about Russian president Vladimir Putin s opinion on Trump:They re quite obviously playing Trump. They consider him a stupid, unstrategic politician. Putin is confident that he can manipulate Trump to his advantage, and he should be.In other words, Trump s a useful idiot to them?Exactly. The Kremlin is limited in their knowledge about what s going on in Washington, but they see the chaos and the confusion in Trump s administration. They see the clumsiness, the inexperience. Naturally, they re working to exploit that.Of course, Graham and Ryan know this and that s what s most dangerous of all. While Trump might be too stupid to know that he is a stooge, the Republican Party s cavalier attitude about the fact that Russia might have installed our incompetent Commander-in-Chief is perhaps the most treasonous part of all of this.

ANKARA (Reuters) - A Syrian opposition activist and her journalist daughter have been found murdered in their apartment in Istanbul, the Istanbul police department said on Friday. The bodies of 60-year-old Orouba Barakat and her 22-year-old daughter Halla were found overnight in their apartment in Istanbul s Uskudar neighborhood in the Asian side of the city. Turkish media reports said Orouba Barakat was investigating alleged torture in prisons run by the Syrian government. It said she had initially lived in Britain, then the United Arab Emirates before coming to Istanbul. The hand of tyranny and injustice assassinated my sister Doctor Orouba and her daughter Halla in their apartment in Istanbul, Orouba s sister Shaza wrote on Facebook, adding that they were stabbed to death. Orouba wrote headlines in the first page and she pursued criminals and exposed them. Her name and her daughter s name, Hala, now made first page headlines, Shaza added. Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Turkey has become home to almost three million Syrian refugees, many of them opponents of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

@colinhoffman29 I hope he does. And I hope you die in the explosion too

This BBC story informs us that vaccines prevent disease, not infection and onward transmission of the infection to others. Until we have more vaccine data, assume you can be infected and infect others even you have been vaccinated. https://t.co/1clQwDXFfg

In a harsh reminder of just how differently reporters treated the Obama Administration compared to the current administration. Mika couldn t contain her excitement at getting to talk to Jarrett even begging the former advisor repeatedly to get herself, Michelle or Barack involved in politics again, to save the party. She began the sympathetic interview by empathizing how rough election night was for Democrats. She cooed to Jarrett, There were some rough I mean, election night, what was that like for you?After Jarrett answered that it was gut-wrenching but work still had to be done so they needed to move on, the MSNBC host harped on the election night devastation again: I still, though, wonder like, is there any flash in time, election night or in the days after, God, I saw some brutal pictures of some really devastated faces, could you ever have imagined and was there a moment when you realized the next president is going to be the man who rose to power on the birther movement, of all things?Though there s no denying Trump did help spread birther conspiracies prior to his campaign, so did Hillary Clinton. Her campaign was actually the first to raise these conspiracy theories during the 2008 election when she was running against then Senator Obama.Mika then asked Jarrett what she wish she d known before her first days in the White House. Jarrett responded with a scathing rebuke of partisan Republicans who had obstructed Obama from day one and were terrified at giving the power back to the hands of the American people. NewsbustersThe best part of the interview comes near the end when Mika implores Jarrett to ask Barack Obama to come back: Could he come back and save the party? Tell them what to do? Laughter What dingbat leftist Mika clearly doesn t understand is that community organizer Barack Obama is still running the party from DC and doesn t have any plans to go away Watch: You know, elections have consequences, Jarrett told Mika. It s part of why President Obama worked so hard during the campaign. And so when people show you who they are you can t be surprised when they actually then continue to fulfill what they said they were going to do. Here is the entire video:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress should give Puerto Rico the authority to restructure its debt, the White House said on Friday. Refusal by Congress to give the island’s government authority to deal with its financial challenges makes a future bailout more likely, a White House spokesman told a regular news briefing.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Republicans from Congress and the Trump administration vowed on Tuesday to complete tax reform by the end of 2017, despite party infighting and political distractions from investigations of alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election. In a speech to U.S. manufacturers, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress hoped to complete the job in the autumn, with a new tax system in place by the beginning of 2018. The goal is to get tax legislation to the floor of Congress during the first two weeks of September, Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn told technology industry representatives at the White House. Republicans are promising the biggest tax overhaul since the Reagan era, saying a simplified system with tax cuts for individuals and businesses, along with reforms to eliminate taxes on the foreign profits of U.S. corporations, can boost economic growth and create jobs. Independent analysts say there is no evidence that tax cuts drive long-term economic growth. Democrats contend that the Republican tax measures are designed to benefit wealthier Americans. “I am here to tell you we are going to get this done in 2017. Why are we going to get this done in 2017? Because we need to get this done in 2017,” Ryan told a conference hosted by the National Association of Manufacturers, a powerful Washington lobby group. “This will create jobs. That is what this is all about, jobs, jobs, jobs, good-paying jobs,” he said. The effort has drawn warnings and criticism from Democrats. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Republican moves to grant new tax breaks to the wealthy could jeopardize Democratic support for an increase in the government’s borrowing authority later this year. Shortly after Ryan’s speech, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s office called his remarks “a poor attempt to distract” from a lack of Republican initiatives on job creation. The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress face mounting pressure from U.S. businesses and their electoral base to deliver tax reform, a top 2016 campaign pledge that could determine whether Republicans retain control of Congress in the 2018 midterm elections. It was not clear whether Republicans can overcome infighting over healthcare legislation and government spending to move forward on tax reform. Earlier in the day, Vice President Mike Pence assured the same audience that tax reform would be done this year, in remarks echoed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a CNBC television interview. Ryan and Mnuchin are among six officials trying to craft a tax deal in closed-door discussions with Cohn, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican chairmen of two tax committees. “We’re comparing and contrasting various versions of reform to get the best possible one that gives us the lowest possible rates and most internationally competitive tax system, and the best one we can pass,” Ryan told CNBC after his speech. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC is up nearly 20 percent while the S&P 500 .SPX has added 14 percent since Trump's election in November, as investors bet he would spark economic growth by cutting taxes and boosting infrastructure spending. The Trump administration and Republican leaders in Congress have agreed that tax reform should eliminate estate and alternative minimum taxes, both levies on the wealthy. They also want to allow U.S. corporations to repatriate trillions of dollars in profits held overseas at a reduced tax rate and eliminate taxes on future foreign profits.

We all heard the reasons why Republicans, mainly Mitch McConnell, swear that they will not confirm President Obama s SCOTUS nominee. It s all about the process or about rules that don t actually exist. That s what Mitch keeps saying anyway. It turns out he s nothing but a damned liar, and the hard evidence is in the video below.Do you remember what Mitch has been saying about why he s blocking the nominee? It s up to the next elected president to appoint a replacement. These were literally his exact words for weeks. He and other Republicans claim it will give the American people a voice by voting for president, allowing them to determine what side gets to pick a replacement on the Supreme Court.With McConnell s exact words in mind, CNN host Dana Bash asked Mitch if Hillary or Bernie won in November, would Republicans then concede to the will of the people and vote on and/or confirm Merrick Garland during the final months of the Obama presidency?The context is obvious. If Democrats retain control of the presidency and the nominee was content with Garland, then the people have spoken and a Democratic nominee should get a hearing and be confirmed. It would be the will of the people, as Mitch keeps saying.This is the part where Mitch forgot what he was doing and accidentally spoke truthfully.Mitch s answer to Dana was a total contradiction to every reason he s been giving about why he is holding up the confirmation process. Mitch flat out said that Republicans would NEVER allow President Obama s nominee to be placed on the Supreme Court, even if Democrats won the presidential election in November. He literally went from saying if Democrats win they get their pick, to saying even if they won Republicans would not confirm their appointment. McConnell s lame excuse was that the NRA opposed Garland. Great.. Here we go with the NRA again.At this point, it s hard to say if this is a personal grudge McConnell has with Obama, or if this is really the will of the Republican establishment. Mitch has been working very hard for 8 long years to sabotage the president while Obama just keeps handing him defeat after defeat. Now, Mitch s irrationally racist obsession with soiling the legacy of our first black president will officially extend beyond Obama s second term in office.One thing s for sure. Mitch just proved what a total liar he is, that Republicans do not actually care about the will of the voters, and that nobody can ever trust a Republican for any reason.Watch Mitch McConnel prove what a liar he is below:Featured image via screen capture

Via http://axsomreport.com  Social Media Claims Pastor Joel Osteen Won't Open Megachurch To Shelter Hurricane Vict… http://ift.tt/2wjDBDs 

A striking image released by NASA from the picture-perfect landing of the Mars rover Perseverance shows the car-sized space vehicle being lowered to Martian soil https://t.co/VPK4IuI6ec https://t.co/MmI7qc7hIR

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A White House meeting that was to help determine whether the United States should withdraw from the Paris climate accord has been postponed, an administration official said on Tuesday. Some of President Donald Trump’s top advisers, including Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt, were scheduled to meet on Tuesday to discuss how Trump should handle the 2015 climate deal. The meeting was canceled because “some of the principals are traveling today,” the White House official said. The meeting will be rescheduled, but no date has been set, the official said. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters on Air Force One as Trump was returning from a visit to Wisconsin that the meeting “could be as soon as tomorrow, but I know that they’re working on trying to find a time that works for everybody.” The accord, agreed on by nearly 200 countries in Paris in 2015 and ratified in 2016, aims to limit planetary warming in part by slashing carbon dioxide and other emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Under the pact, the United States committed to reducing its emissions by 26 to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025. Trump has said the United States should “cancel” the deal, but he has been mostly quiet on the issue since he was elected last November. The White House has said it would take a position on the agreement before a summit of the Group of Seven wealthy nations in late May.

A racist, anti-gay Tennessee Republican who thinks rape victims are liars was hilariously taken to the woodshed by Samantha Bee on Monday.GOP state Rep. Sheila Butt has made an ass of herself ever since taking office. She has openly called for the creation of a National Association for the Advancement of White People and is staunchly opposed to same-sex marriage and homosexuality. She has also viciously targeted rape victims, whom she thinks are lying about being raped just so they can get an abortion.In response to all of these hateful and bigoted stances held by this conservative Christian lawmaker, Bee hilariously skewered her. Right, those crimes are totally unverifiable, Bee said of Butt s remarks about rape. So we should go with the likeliest assumption that girls are lying whores that just like the prestige of claiming to be raped by their fathers? It s called Occam s Razor, libtards! And then she moved on to Butt s racism, suggesting that NAAWP could also stand for National Association for the Advancement of Walrus Penises and that we should all spread the word that Sheila Butt loves walrus penises. I mean, she does seem to think about sex a lot, Bee noted before masterfully seguing to Butt s views on homosexuality. In her Christian dating guide Everyday Princess, Daughter of The King, Butt comes down on a 3-year-old who married her two female Barbies, telling her, Girls don t marry girls. God made girls to marry boys! Look, Sheila, if you don t believe in homosexuality, you should never have supported a toy line that includes Ken. That guy is young, dumb and hungry for c*m. And then Bee finished the Tennessee Republican off by literally making her the butt of a seriously funny piece of advice for women. So, girls, next time you re tempted to have dirty sinful sex, resist the urge. Instead, do all the stuff Sheila Butt suggests, or as she may call it, Butt Stuff. This Tennessee state representative wants you to do lots and lots of Butt stuff. Do Butt stuff until it hurts! Here s the video via YouTube.Simply put, Sheila Butt is going to be the butt of many more jokes from now on thanks to Samantha Bee. Featured image via screenshot

Remember that time Sarah Palin and pretty much her entire family got into a drunken brawl at a snowmobile company owner s birthday party? Well, she s not the only vapid right-wing lady who can throw a punch at random people at a party. Fox Business Network correspondent Charles Gasparino wrote on Facebook Monday that he personally witnessed something, well, something pretty hilarious at a private inaugural ball.Gasparino says he was hanging out with Scott Baio when the two were accosted by anarchist thugs. According to Gasparino, one of the anarchists moved toward them and he assaulted the man, shoving him. After Gasparino shoved him, the man allegedly told the pair touch me again u little prick and I ll smack u you know, because most people don t appreciate being randomly shoved. It is unclear if it was said with the same terrible spelling. Gasparino says he told the man to GFY when his producer intervened and crisis was averted. It is unclear if Gasparino realizes he admitted to assaulting a guy simply for moving in his direction (allegedly), but what he says next is far more interesting:Part two was even more insane: inside the ball we see a fight between two guys in tuxes and then suddenly out of nowhere came trump adviser Kellyanne Conway who began throwing some mean punches at one of the guys. Whole thing lasted a few mins no one was hurt except maybe the dude she smacked. Now I know why trump hired her. Btw I exaggerate none of this-cgLet s get this straight: Conway lost control of her own people, whom she could not keep from duking it out at a major political event celebrating her boss s big win, then decided to join in the fray and just beat the living hell out of one of them.Hell of a team Trump s building, huh?You can read the full post below:Featured image via Getty Images (Mark Wilson)

The EPA continues to push for more and more restrictions on emissions. The Obama agenda continues and is bolstered by the Pope s call for action on the global warming scam. Anyone with half a brain can see through this political agenda and knows it has nothing to do with any truth about climate. Crazy times!The Obama administration on Friday proposed tougher mileage standards for medium and heavy-duty trucks, the latest move by President Barack Obama in his second-term drive to reduce pollution blamed for global warming.The Environmental Protection Agency issued new rules that would lower carbon dioxide emissions from trucks and vans by 24 percent by 2027. It would cut fuel costs by about $170 billion and reduce oil consumption by up to 1.8 billion barrels over the lifetime of vehicles sold under the rule.The long-expected rules come one day after Pope Francis issued a teaching document calling for the world to take action to slow climate change.Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement that the new rules would help the environment and the economy, as trucks use less fuel and shipping costs go down. He called the rules good news all around. Gina McCarthy, chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the rules would deliver big time on Obama s call to cut carbon pollution. With emission reductions weighing in at 1 billion tons, this proposal will save consumers, businesses and truck owners money, McCarthy said. At the same time, the rules will spur technology innovation and job-growth, while protecting Americans health and our environment over the long haul, she said.Read more: Sioux City Journal

@Lehigh389 @TPEconomy How many Coloradans will need food stamps because of the floods? #Republicansarehypocritesbecause

MINYA, Egypt (Reuters) - Coptic Christians in the south of Egypt renewed calls on local authorities for an end to discrimination, after a number of churches have been closed down in recent weeks. Two churches in two separate villages in the southern province of Minya have been shut down by the authorities, a statement by the Minya diocese said. It said worshippers were harassed at both churches and pelted with rocks at one of them. We have kept quiet for two weeks after the closure of one of the churches, but due to our silence the situation has worsened ... it is as if prayer is a crime the Copts must be punished for, the statement, dated Saturday, read. A third church was closed following rumors of a pending attack, but the diocese said no attack has taken place since and the church remains closed. The Minya security directorate spokesman declined to comment. The governor s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Coptic Christians, who make up 10 percent of Egypt s population of nearly 95 million, say they have been persecuted for years. Many feel the state does not take their plight seriously enough. Nonetheless, the Copts are vocal supporters of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has vowed to crush Islamist extremism and protect Christians. He declared a three-month state of emergency in the aftermath of two church bombings in April which has since been renewed. Though Islamic State has long waged a low-level war against soldiers and police in Egypt s Sinai peninsula, it has stepped up its assault on Christian civilians in the mainland. In an attack claimed by the group in May, gunmen ambushed a group of Coptic Christians traveling to a monastery in Minya, killing 29 and wounding 24.

PRETTY FUNNY STUFF-MAKE SURE TO WATCH TO THE END.