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Bernie Sanders Gets Brutally Honest On ‘Conan’ About Trump’s Tweets (VIDEO)

Bernie Sanders appeared with Conan O Brien on Tuesday night. The segment of the show was hardly funny, but it didn t matter. It was about the frightening fact that the President Elect of the United States has the self-control of a toddler with an intellectual sophistication to match, and an apparent desire to totally destroy our democracy.The first tweet Conan and Bernie talked about was this one:In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016Sanders correctly pointed out that the argument is ridiculous, and beyond that, dangerous. First of all, it s delusional. It s totally insane, Sanders said. But what s even scarier in his view is that Trump is sending a signal to Republicans all over this country, urging them to suppress the votes of poor people, people of color, immigrants and others who might vote against them. My own view is we have got to work overtime to bring more people into the political process, not make it harder for people to participate. Source: The Daily BeastThen, there was this tweet:Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag if they do, there must be consequences perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016Bernie acknowledged, after saying that there were far more important issues than flag burning, that that too is a hidden message, and that is be careful if you are prepared to dissent. We re watching you, is the message, even though the Supreme Court ruled that flag burning is free speech. I worry about the future of this country, Sanders said, especially given the fact that the cornerstone of the president-elect s campaign was bigotry against Mexican-Americans, Muslims, and other groups.Here s the video:We hear you, Bernie. Everyone with a modicum of intelligence is worried for the future of this country, and frankly of the planet, under a Trump presidency. While Bernie is right that Trump s tweets hint at his dictatorial leanings, we shouldn t let his tweets distract from Trump s actual dictatorial moves and the fact that the swamp Trump claimed to want to drain is being filled with the dirtiest water in the country.Featured image via video screen capture.

Trump: 'Tinge' of sadness over losing Iowa

MILFORD, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Donald Trump, the New York businessman seeking the Republican U.S. presidential nomination, said on Tuesday he felt “a tinge” of disappointment after losing to Texas Senator Ted Cruz in the Iowa caucuses. Cruz bested Trump with 28 percent of caucus-goers’ pledges on Monday compared to Trump’s 24 percent. Florida Senator Marco Rubio came in a close third with 23 percent. Asked by a reporter if he felt at all bad about the result, Trump said, “There’s a tinge...I probably had a tinge because a poll came out that said I was five points ahead.” In the weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Trump held leads in almost every statewide and national poll though his dominance in Iowa wobbled after Cruz won a key endorsement from a local evangelical Christian leader. Trump also said there was a chance his decision to skip a Fox News debate among Republican candidates on Thursday might have hurt him in the caucuses. Asked before a rally in Milford, New Hampshire on Tuesday evening if he planned to change his campaign strategy, Trump told a news conference he felt confident in his methods, but he was adding more town hall-style events. But any humility was fleeting as Trump went on to say he beat Rubio by getting support from almost 3,000 Iowans - “That’s a lot of people” - and that he had gotten a larger percentage of support than any other Republican candidate in history “except for that one number,” he added, referring to Cruz’s win. He also said he had not tried very hard to win Iowa. “I didn’t devote tremendous time to it,” he said. “I didn’t expect to do so well.” Trump fielded question after question from reporters about why he thought he lost and whether it made him anxious about primary elections in other states ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election. When he took the stage before more than a thousand people, Trump’s swagger had returned. He criticized the media for focusing more on Rubio’s third-place showing than his second, calling journalists “miserable people” and encouraging the crowd to boo them. Fans interviewed before the rally said Trump’s loss did not bother them. “I think he’s done pretty well from the start,” said Eli Johnson, 33, from nearby Brookline, New Hampshire. “He did pretty well considering Cruz was praying with everyone at every rally (in Iowa) and they’re a really religious state.”

Democrats flex muscles as Congress confronts a government shutdown

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats have a rare chance to win major concessions in a U.S. Congress they do not control by taking advantage of a battle within the Republican Party over keeping the government open. With a Friday deadline looming when most funding for federal agencies runs out, Democrats finally have some clout. But their power is strongest while the Republicans in Congress remain fractured and fighting. The showdown with Republicans could come to a head on Thursday when Democrats are expected to press their demands to President Donald Trump at a White House meeting. For Trump, the complex, and very public, battle over the shutdown will also be a demonstration of his ability to deliver on a central 2016 campaign promise of adding billions of dollars to the U.S. military budget. That issue is at the core of Republicans’ behind-the-scenes negotiations with Democrats. Most Republicans want a defense buildup. But many also want to limit government spending. While many Democrats also support bolstering defense, they insist on raising spending on non-defense programs too. Democrats’ top two demands include passage of legislation that has eluded them for 16 years: protecting from deportation nearly 700,000 young people known as “Dreamers,” whose parents brought them illegally to the United States as children. The Democrats also want to shore up Obamacare by reversing Trump’s decision to stop monthly subsidy payments to insurance companies offering healthcare policies to lower-income people. Democrats will enter the White House meeting knowing their support is crucial to Senate Republicans passing any spending bills. Republicans control the chamber by 52-48, but need 60 vote for passage of most spending measures. While a partial government shutdown would keep emergency services and the military mainly operating, thousands of operations would be suspended, such as the operation of national parks. Republicans have clear control of the House of Representatives. But a core of conservative Republicans who consistently vote against funding bills in their drive for smaller government could balk. Democrats have a history of strongly supporting stopgap funding bills, providing the cushion for victory in the Republican House. Conservative Republicans said on Tuesday they would try to pass temporary spending bills without House Democrats’ support. If so, it is unclear whether such a bill could clear the Senate, where Democratic votes are necessary to pass most bills. There is another wild card for both parties in Thursday’s meeting: Trump. Democrats will test the unpredictable president to see whether he is willing to go the bipartisan route in order to keep federal agencies running smoothly or whether he will be in a confrontational mood. In May, angry he did not win money to build his promised wall along the border with Mexico, Trump said the United States needed a “good shutdown” to force his agenda on Congress. Just last week, he wrote on Twitter about the spending bills: “I don’t see a deal.” Democrats are counting on the bipartisan Trump showing up, betting that he and fellow Republicans in Congress do not want to leave the immigration legislation, popularly known as the Dreamers Act, to fester until a March deadline, so close to the 2018 congressional election season. Chuck Schumer, Senate minority leader, and Nancy Pelosi, House minority leader, are calculating that voters’ wrath would rain down on Republicans if the government lights go out. Republicans would blame Democrats. At a news conference last Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said that if Democrats vote against the temporary spending bill because they have not won their demands, “then they will have chosen to shut the government down.” Republicans already are trying to exploit possible differences among Democrats over whether to link support for the stopgap spending bill to the immigration measure. Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said she expected Democrats to vote for the government funding bill this week, telling Reuters in an interview that while it “is important to all of us” to take care of the Dreamers, “I don’t think we should shut the government down.” Senator Dick Durbin, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, told the Washington Post last week he would oppose any spending bill if Congress had not first taken care of the Dreamers. On Tuesday, Schumer noted there were “good negotiations” under way on the immigration measure. This week’s vote to keep the government operating on temporary funding is likely to be the first of a three-step process that could stretch to Jan. 31. A second step would be another short-term funding bill, followed by one to fund the government through the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

West Africa population planners battle to woo Muslim hearts

DAKAR/LIBORE, Niger (Reuters) - Mabingue Ngom, the head of the U.N. Population Fund in West Africa, knows that if he wants to cut birth rates he can t ignore religion. Population experts like Ngom are worried that if West Africa s population continues to grow at its current pace - the region has the highest birth rate in the world - it will drive fiercer competition for scarce water and farmland, and fuel malnutrition, conflict and ever more economic refugees. GRAPHIC-Family planning in West Africa: tmsnrt.rs/2zWftuY West African governments, U.N. agencies and charities also want to cut maternal mortality rates, which are higher in West Africa than anywhere else in the world, according to U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) figures. But imams who follow the puritanical Wahhabist form of Islam and some traditional religious leaders across the region regularly preach against the use of contraception, saying Western nations are pushing birth control because they fear being outnumbered by Africans. Some imams cite a passage in the Koran imploring Muslims to go forth and multiply , and family planning is seen by many in the region as a Western plot to curb the spread of Islam. The West s policy is about reducing our numbers, said Hassane Seck, an imam in Dakar influenced by the Wahhabist tradition. Because of their perverse promotion of contraception, women in Europe are no longer fertile, but ours are. There are going to be many more of us, and they re afraid. . To counter that message, population experts are trying to co-opt moderate clerics. Which is why, at a meeting in September with half a dozen senior Senegalese clerics, Ngom avoided the issue of overpopulation and focused on values espoused in the Koran: the need for better maternal health and the need to ensure parents have resources to feed and educate their children. You can come with your Powerpoint and make nice speeches and achieve nothing. People will be even more hostile, he told Reuters. If you want to change things, you have to engage them. After listening to Ngom speak, Bou Mouhamed Kounta, deputy head of Senegal s Islamic Supreme Council, warned that family planning in Senegal was taboo. But, he added: We are ready to work with you, because I can see that UNFPA respects religion. For planners worried about growth rates, the starkest case remains Niger, a poor country stretching into the Sahara desert. According to U.N. projections, its population will triple by 2050 to 72 million, yet because of frequent droughts it already struggles to feed its people. The fertility rate in Niger has been the highest in the world for the past decade and has been above 7 children per mother for a quarter of a century, according to U.N. figures. More than one in five women are married by the time they are 19 and for every 100,000 births in Niger, 553 mothers die. In neighboring Chad, the maternal mortality level is 856 per 100,000 births. It is only 12 in the developed world. Attempts by Niger to lower its birth rate have been fiercely resisted by traditional leaders - known as marabouts - and some imams. Measuring the extent of Wahhabist influence in West Africa is hard, but they control many of the region s most strategic mosques, such as the main university houses of worship in Senegal and Niger. On Niger s religious TV stations, preachers promise hellfire for anyone practicing family planning. At a large mosque in the southern city of Maradi, an imam denounces contraception as a plot by the whites to reduce us , two reproductive health workers based there, who declined to be named, said. When UNFPA and Niger s President Mahamadou Issoufou tried to introduce sex education in schools in 2015, angry mobs burned the text books outside U.N. offices. Three years earlier a bill banning girls being taken out of school for marriage provoked such a backlash it had to be axed. Back then, Ngom wondered whether decades of telling Africans they were having too many babies was counterproductive. He decided the family planning message needed to be nuanced and has held dozens of meetings with moderate imams, always wearing a bubu, the traditional Muslim robe of his native Senegal. In a world of suspicion, of mistrust, how you put things is more important than the issues themselves, he told Reuters in Dakar. You need to know your audience. Atamo Hassane, head of Niger s family planning unit, agrees. To limit or reduce population, those are two words you just can t use, Hassane told Reuters in Niger s capital Niamey. If you do, every marabout ... is going to be against you. He said using family planning to space out births won t be enough to tackle population growth but hopes that once people start to use contraception they will see the benefits, use it more, and birth rates will then start to fall. Other moderate clerics include Sheikh Ali Ben Salah, Niger s former minister of religious affairs. Islam is clear: you can t just have children without considering how you re going to feed, clothe and educate them, Salah told Reuters at a conference on child marriage in Dakar. So family planning is part of Islam. The problem only comes if you want to stop at a certain number. UNFPA had a breakthrough in July when Chad s highest Islamic authority hosted a symposium with the U.N. agency and 1,200 regional religious leaders - unprecedented for the subject of family planning. I told them family planning will reduce maternal mortality by a third. Who doesn t want to do that? Ngom said. Cheikh Abdeldahim Abdoulaye, secretary general of Chad s Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, told Reuters he had backed the U.N. program because the Koran permitted the spacing out births, primarily for the sake of better maternal health. Aminatou Bakah, a Nigerien aid worker for charity Marie Stopes International, which provides contraception and family planning advice in 37 countries, said they had long struggled to shake off the idea they were a tool of Western interference. They called us Marie Stop , because we want to stop people having children, she said. We had to explain that, no, we want to help you plan, not just get pregnant by pure chance. At a pop-up clinic run by the charity in Libore, 20 km (13 miles) outside Niamey, mothers with young children wait for advice on contraceptive methods. In the village of jagged acacia trees, clay houses and a mosque, all nine of the mothers interviewed by Reuters said they didn t want to have fewer children and were using contraception only as a temporary reprieve from child birth. I would have 15 children if that s what God wants, said Rahinatou Kadri, 24, a mother of four. Her husband, who is an imam, has two other wives, the oldest of whom has 16 children, she said. Keen not to be outdone, when her husband said he wanted another child, Kadri dutifully came back to have her contraceptive implant removed. Our religion doesn t permit us to stop having children, said Mariane Hamadoun, 34, a mother of five. Thanks partly to such views, the birth rate in some African countries has defied predictions that it would fall as the continent gets more prosperous, as has happened in Europe, Asia and the Americas. But attitudes may be changing. Lamodi Soulye, 39, a devout Muslim and worker in a Chinese restaurant in Niamey, was one of 28 siblings from one father and three different mothers. He remembers occasionally going hungry, and dropping out of school with only basic primary education. My father lacked the resources to keep us, he said. I decided not to do the same thing to my children. He plans to stop at three.

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published on may by cbs sunday morning there is a place in minnesota that has the feel of small town america but if you want to get to the northwest angle travelers have to leave the us and go through canada to get there lee cowan explains a geographical quirk along the northern border share this

Trump looking at fast ways to quit global climate deal: source

WASHINGTON/MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump is seeking quick ways to withdraw the United States from a global accord to combat climate change, a source on his transition team said, defying broad global backing for the plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Since Trump’s election victory on Tuesday, governments ranging from China to small island states have reaffirmed support for the 2015 Paris agreement during climate talks involving 200 nations set to run until Friday in Marrakesh, Morocco. Trump has called global warming a hoax and has promised to quit the Paris Agreement, which was strongly supported by outgoing Democratic U.S. President Barack Obama. Trump’s advisers are considering ways to bypass a theoretical four-year procedure for leaving the accord, according to the source, who works on Trump’s transition team for international energy and climate policy. “It was reckless for the Paris agreement to enter into force before the election” on Tuesday, the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Paris accord won enough backing for entry into force on Nov. 4, four days before the election. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday in New Zealand the Obama administration would do everything it could to implement the Paris accord before Trump takes office. The accord says in its Article 28 that any country wanting to pull out after signing on has to wait four years. In theory, the earliest date for withdrawal would be Nov. 4, 2020, around the time of the next U.S. presidential election. The source said the future Trump administration is weighing alternatives to accelerate the pull-out: sending a letter withdrawing from the 1992 international framework accord that is the parent treaty of the Paris Agreement; voiding U.S. involvement in both in a year’s time; or issuing a presidential order simply deleting the U.S. signature from the Paris accord. Withdrawing from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) would be controversial, partly because it was signed by former Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1992 and approved by the U.S. Senate. The action also could antagonize many other countries. [L8N1DB41L] The UNFCCC sets a goal of avoiding “dangerous” man-made damage to the climate to avert more heat waves, downpours, floods, extinctions of animals and plants and rising sea levels. The 2015 Paris Agreement is much more explicit, seeking to phase out net greenhouse gas emissions by the second half of the century and limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. Many nations have expressed hope that the United States will stay. But the host of the current round of climate negotiations, Morocco, said the pact that seeks to phase out greenhouse gases in the second half of the century was strong enough to survive a pullout. One party deciding to withdraw would not call the agreement into question, Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar told a news conference. In Beijing on Monday, the foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, told a regular news briefing that China would like to continue working with all countries, including the United States, in the global fight against climate change. The agreement was reached by almost 200 nations in December and, as of Saturday, has been formally ratified by 109 representing 76 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, including the United States with 18 percent. The accord seeks to limit rising temperatures that have been linked to increasing economic damage from desertification, extinctions of animals and plants, heat waves, floods and rising sea levels. U.N. climate chief Patricia Espinosa declined to comment on the Trump source’s remarks to Reuters. “The Paris Agreement carries an enormous amount of weight and credibility,” Espinosa told a news conference. She said the United Nations hoped for a strong and constructive relationship with Trump. The Trump source said the president-elect’s transition team is aware of the likely international backlash but said Republicans in the U.S. Congress have given ample warning that a Republican administration would take action to reverse course. “The Republican Party on multiple occasions has sent signals to the international community signaling that it doesn’t agree with the pact. We’ve gone out of our way to give notice,” the source said. The source blamed Obama for joining up by an executive order, without getting approval from the U.S. Senate. “There wouldn’t be this diplomatic fallout on the broader international agenda if Obama hadn’t rushed the adoption,” the source said.

MN: SOMALI MUSLIM IMMIGRANTS Explain Why It’s Acceptable To Kill Anyone Who Insults Mohammed [VIDEO]

Ami Horowitz is a thought provoking filmmaker who took a lot of heat for exposing the truth about the horrific, violent no-go zones in Sweden in one of his recent documentary films. Horowitz is also very controversial because he doesn t shy away from asking tough questions of the people he randomly interviews on the streets.In fiscal year 2014, Minnesota took in 2,232 refugees, according to the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. Almost half of those were from Somalia.In the video below, Ami took to the streets in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, MN to talk a variety of Somali Muslim immigrants. Ami posed several questions to a large variety of random Somali Muslim immigrants. He asked young boys, teenagers, middle-aged men and even an older woman their thoughts on how they felt about living in the United States, and if they d rather living back in Somalia. Horowitz also asked if they would prefer to live under Sharia Law or American laws. Their answers may surprise you.The most shocking part of the video however, comes near the end when Horowitz begins to discuss freedom of speech in America. While one of the men being interviewed talks about how great it is to be in America and to be afforded rights like freedom of speech and freedom of religion, every single Muslim respondent believed that free speech is great unless it involves criticizing the prophet Mohammed. Horowitz took his question a step further and asked if was okay for Muslims to use violence against someone who disparaged or insulted Mohammed. Every Muslim he asked, believed that using violence, including killing a person who criticized or mocked Mohammed, would be justified.Watch:After a major dip in 2008, the year ly num bers of new So ma li refu gees in Minnesota have re bounded stead i ly. The num ber of So malis re set tled in the state has more than trip led in four years. As resettlements nationally have picked up, more So malis are also arriving here after brief stints in other states often trading early support from resettlement agencies for the company of more fellow Somalis. You tend to go some where you can con nect, said Mo ha mud Noor, the head of the Con fed er a tion of So ma li Community in Minnesota. Be fore peo ple even ar rive from Af ri ca, they know they are com ing to Minnesota. But without the Twin Cities family ties of earlier arrivals, these newcomers often can t lean as heavily on longer-term Somali residents. Mary s Place, a Minneapolis home less shel ter, has be come ground zero for fami lies like Ali and Mo ha med s. Somali participation in the state s public food assistance program doubled in the past five years. Meanwhile, the Minneapolis School District, its So ma li stu dent en roll ment up 70 percent since 2011, launched eight class rooms with in struc tion in both Eng lish and So ma li to help new comers catch up. Star Tribune

In clash of billionaires, Bloomberg calls Trump White House race 'a con'

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - New York media mogul Michael Bloomberg assailed fellow billionaire Donald Trump on Wednesday, calling his U.S. presidential race a “con” and ripping into his history of bankruptcies and lawsuits. “Trump says he wants to run the nation like he’s running his business? God help us,” Bloomberg told the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia to roaring applause. “I’m a New Yorker and I know a con when I see one.” Formerly a Republican and now an independent, Bloomberg was for the most part greeted warmly by the audience in the Wells Fargo Center arena where he threw his support behind the Democrats’ presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton. The owner of the Bloomberg media empire and a former New York City mayor, Bloomberg was an odd choice for a speaker at the Democratic conclave, where many party progressives have railed against the influence of billionaires in politics. “Let me thank all of you for welcoming an outsider here, to deliver what will be an unconventional convention speech,” he said when he took the stage, eliciting cheers. “I am not here as a member of any party. I am here for one reason: to explain why I believe it is imperative that we elect Hillary Clinton as the next president of the United States.” Bloomberg had considered running for the White House as an independent this year but dropped the idea in March, saying it could increase the chances Trump would win. Bloomberg has known Trump casually for years and twice appeared on Trump’s reality TV show “The Apprentice.” But since Trump entered the race for president in June 2015, Bloomberg has taken issue with him, lashing out at his policies and fiery rhetoric, especially his call to ban Muslims from entering the country and his promise to wall off the Mexican border and deport millions of undocumented foreigners. On Wednesday, he went a step further and favorably compared his own business record to Trump’s. “I’ve built a business, and I didn’t start it with a million-dollar check from my father,” Bloomberg said. Forbes lists Bloomberg, 74, as America’s sixth wealthiest American, with a fortune amounting to $47.7 billion. Trump, 70, who often boasts about his extravagant wealth and success in the real estate business, is listed 113th with $4.5 billion, though that figure has been widely challenged. A Reuters review of Trump’s federal filings showed he had cash and other liquid investments worth between $60 million and $180 million in May, far short of the amount he would need to self-fund his campaign.

Iran calls on Muslim nations to step up efforts against Trump's Jerusalem decision

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday all Muslim nations should work together to defend the rights of Palestinians against Donald Trump s decision last week to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital. Speaking in an emergency meeting of Muslim leaders in Turkey s Istanbul city, Rouhani said the Muslim countries should resolve their internal disputes through dialogue and called for unity against Israel. Rouhani said Israel had planted seeds of tension in the crisis-hit region.

Fewer than a third of Americans back Trump tax plan: Reuters/Ipsos poll

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fewer than a third of Americans support Donald Trump’s tax-cut plan, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday, as the U.S. president went to Capitol Hill looking for Republican backing for his proposal to slash tax rates for individuals and companies. As the 2018 midterm congressional election campaigns grow nearer, the poll found that more than two-thirds of registered voters said reducing the U.S. federal budget deficit is more important than cutting taxes for the wealthy or for corporations. Trump’s plan would balloon the deficit and add to the $20 trillion national debt, according to critics and independent analysts, but Republicans say the tax cuts proposed in the plan would be offset by economic growth that would generate new tax revenue. Among Republicans surveyed, 63 percent said deficit reduction should take priority over tax cuts for corporations, while 75 percent said deficit reduction should take priority over tax cuts for the wealthy. Democrats oppose Trump’s plan, unveiled on Sept. 27, and say it is unfair to the poor and the working class. The plan is still only a nine-page “framework.” It was drafted in secret by Trump administration and congressional leaders. Formal legislation is in development. Congressional leaders and Trump are trying to lock in support for the plan from rank-and-file Republicans, who were uninvolved in the framework drafting process. Trump, who has yet to score a major legislative win since taking office in January, wants his plan to become law before year’s end, a timeframe that some policy analysts doubt is realistic. More than half of the adults surveyed in the poll agreed that “cutting taxes for the poor is more important than reducing the federal deficit,” with 68 percent of Democrats and 47 percent of Republicans in accord with that statement, the poll showed. The Oct. 20-23 poll found that only 15 percent of registered voters said Republicans in Congress should prioritize tax reform over other issues. About a quarter of those polled, including 23 percent of Democrats and 30 percent of Republicans, agreed that Congress should continue working on a healthcare bill. Of those adults who said they had heard of the “tax reform plan recently proposed by congressional Republicans,” just 28 percent said they support it, while 41 percent said they oppose it and another 31 percent said they do not know. The poll found opinions on Trump’s plan were sharply divided along party lines, with 56 percent of Republicans and just 9 percent of Democrats supporting it. Of those who had heard of the plan, 14 percent said it would cut their taxes, while 30 percent said it would increase their taxes. Another 35 percent said their taxes would not change and 20 percent said they did not know how it would impact them. The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English in all 50 states. It gathered responses from 1,862 people, including 1,079 people who said they were aware of the Republican tax plan. It has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3 percentage points.

Lebanon's Hariri leaves Cairo for Lebanon: Egypt airport sources

CAIRO (Reuters) - Saad al-Hariri, who resigned as Lebanese prime minister on Nov. 4, left Cairo for Lebanon on Tuesday after a brief meeting with Egypt s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egyptian airport sources said on Tuesday. Hariri announced his resignation during a visit to Saudi Arabia but has yet to return home. He has said he will clarify his position once he returns to Lebanon. His surprise resignation has triggered a political crisis in Lebanon, which finds itself in the midst of a bitter regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

We’re Officially At The ‘My Wife Is Hotter Than Your Wife’ Part Of The Election (TWEETS)

Almost every day, this year s presidential election is becoming more and more like a high school election, or rather middle school, at least on the Republican side. Empty promises of walls and this and that being thrown all over the place. They might as well be promising free French fries and all-day recess. Then there s the name-calling from every direction. The only thing left, really, would be a food fight at the next debate.Now, we ve officially gotten to the my wife is hotter than your wife part of the election.It all started when an anti-Trump/pro-Cruz group had an ad in Utah featuring Melania Trump in her GQ spread where she was pretty much naked. Trump, and actually rightfully so, was less than pleased. However, he responded in the Middle School fashion that we ve now become accustomed to seeing and went directly after Ted Cruz s wife Heidi, claiming he ll spill the beans on her.Taking this ridiculousness a step further, Trump has now retweeted an image that quite honestly screams, look at my wife, she s so much more attractive than your wife. "@Don_Vito_08: "A picture is worth a thousand words" @realDonaldTrump #LyingTed #NeverCruz @MELANIATRUMP pic.twitter.com/5bvVEwMVF8" Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2016As much as it pains me to defend Ted Cruz and his wife, this really isn t okay. And Cruz was spot-on with his response to the image.Donald, real men don't attack women. Your wife is lovely, and Heidi is the love of my life. https://t.co/pprXhIMzUT Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 24, 2016All of this makes it all the clearer that we, as a nation, need to be voting for the adults in this election. So, no matter who, folks vote blue.Featured image via Flickr/Flickr

BREAKING: Trump Declares He Will Only Accept Election Results ‘If I Win’ (VIDEO)

Donald Trump just declared himself a threat to our democracy.During the final presidential debate in Las Vegas on Wednesday night, Republican nominee Donald Trump told moderator Chris Wallace that he will decide on Election Day whether he will accept the results or not. I will keep you in suspense, he said.Trump s refusal to say that he would accept the results of the debate no matter what has caused a national outcry and concern that his supporters will cause violence and chaos on Election Day if he loses.And Trump only fanned the flames even more on Thursday when he made a stunning declaration that makes it clear how he will react on November 8th if Hillary Clinton wins. I would to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters, and to all of the people of the United States that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election if I win, Trump said at a rally in Delaware, Ohio.He then pointed at the crowd and they cheered.Here s the video via YouTube.In addition, Trump accused Hillary Clinton s campaign of inciting violence and said hers is truly a campaign that will do anything to win. This is treason, pure and simple. Donald Trump just openly admitted that he has no intention of conceding if Hillary Clinton wins the election. Instead, he vowed to undermine our democracy and unleash his army of supporters upon the nation, the very supporters who have threatened to violently overthrow the government and assassinate Hillary Clinton if their candidate loses.Donald Trump just disqualified himself, and Republican leaders must denounce him and do everything in their power to remove him from the ballot.This kind of rhetoric is dangerous and could very well end up getting people killed, and that is unacceptable in this country.Featured Image: Screenshot

Trump administration tells EPA to cut climate page from website: sources

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the climate change page from its website, two agency employees told Reuters, the latest move by the newly minted leadership to erase ex-President Barack Obama’s climate change initiatives. The employees were notified by EPA officials on Tuesday that the administration had instructed EPA’s communications team to remove the website’s climate change page, which contains links to scientific global warming research, as well as detailed data on emissions. The page could go down as early as Wednesday, the sources said. DON’T MISS: Dow hits 20,000 as post-election rally roars back to life INSIGHT: How Russia sold its oil jewel - without saying who bought it OPINION: Trump probably can't require pipelines to use U.S. steel “If the website goes dark, years of work we have done on climate change will disappear,” one of the EPA staffers told Reuters, who added some employees were scrambling to save some of the information housed on the website, or convince the Trump administration to preserve parts of it. The sources asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media. A Trump administration official did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The order comes as Trump’s administration has moved to curb the flow of information from several government agencies who oversee environmental issues since last week, in actions that appeared designed to tighten control and discourage dissenting views. The moves have reinforced concerns that Trump, a climate change doubter, could seek to sideline scientific research showing that carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels contributes to global warming, as well as the career staffers at the agencies that conduct much of this research. Myron Ebell, who helped guide the EPA’s transition after Trump was elected in November until he was sworn in last week, said the move was not surprising. “My guess is the web pages will be taken down, but the links and information will be available,” he said. The page includes links to the EPA’s inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, which contains emissions data from individual industrial facilities as well as the multiagency Climate Change Indicators report, which describes trends related to the causes and effects of climate change. The Trump administration’s recently appointed team to guide the post-Obama transition has drawn heavily from the energy industry lobby and pro-drilling think tanks, according to a list of the newly introduced 10-member team. Trump appointed Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a longtime foe of the EPA who has led 14 lawsuits against it, as the agency’s administrator. The Senate environment committee held a tense seven-hour confirmation hearing for Pruitt last week. No vote on his nomination has been scheduled yet.

Italy's center-right in search of a leader as election nears

ROME (Reuters) - Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi returned to frontline Italian politics at the weekend, staking his claim to lead a resurgent center-right into national elections that are expected early next year. At exactly the same moment, Berlusconi s outspoken ally, Matteo Salvini, was addressing his Northern League party and laying down his own marker to become the next prime minister. Salvini Premier read a sign stuck to the lectern. In reality, neither man looks likely to head the next government if they pull off an election victory, and possible alternative candidates are already emerging. There is an apparent power struggle going on between Berlusconi and Salvini, but it will not get out of hand. They know a violent clash would be suicidal with voters, said Piero Ignazi, politics professor at Bologna University. The truth is both men will remain head of their respective parties, but they won t be the next prime minister, he said. This would open the way for a consensus candidate who would have to bridge the huge divergences between the three main rightist parties from the fierce anti-EU agenda put forward by both the Northern League and Brothers of Italy to the pro-European vision embraced by Berlusconi on Sunday. Latest opinion polls show this trio of long-standing allies are pulling ahead in the polls and predicted to win a combined 35 percent of the vote, with the anti-migrant Northern League just ahead of Berlusconi Forza Italia on some 15 percent. By contrast, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and ruling center-left Democratic Party (PD) are seen on around 28 percent apiece. The 5-Star has ruled out any coalition alliances and the center-left pool of votes is shrinking as various leftist parties engage in ferocious infighting. Under the current electoral system no party or bloc looks like winning enough seats to govern alone. However, political analysts say the wind is filling the center-right s sails after years of adverse conditions, giving it pre-election momentum. Berlusconi ignominiously resigned from power in 2011 during a sovereign debt crisis. Mired in sex scandals and legal woes, he was subsequently expelled from the Senate and banned from running for office due to a 2013 tax fraud conviction. Open heart surgery last year left most analysts writing his political obituary. But not for the first time, the media tycoon, now 81, bounced back and has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to overturn the ban on seeking election. A hearing is scheduled for November, but a verdict is unlikely to come for several months, meaning he almost certainly will not be able to stand in the next national ballot, which is due by May 2018 and widely expected to be held in March. Despite his age, Berlusconi would love to be prime minister again. It would be his last hurrah. But realistically speaking, it is not about to happen, said a Forza Italia official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. Significantly, Berlusconi made his political comeback speech at an event organized by Forza Italia stalwart Antonio Tajani, the president of the European Parliament. Party sources said Tajani was in pole position to be Berlusconi s surrogate. While Berlusconi s name abroad evokes memories of bunga bunga sex parties and wisecracks, Tajani is a much less colorful character, whose pro-European instincts would make him a reassuring figure for international markets. Those very same instincts would pose a problem for Berlusconi s hardline allies, who have regularly denounced the European Union and have called for Italy to quit the euro. The leader of the center-right needs to be chosen through a clear process, perhaps a primary, Giorgia Meloni, the head of Brothers of Italy, told Sky Italia television on Sunday. I imagine that whatever grassroots method you decide, Tajani will not win out, she said. Brothers of Italy is a small, nationalist party, which is anti-migrant and anti-euro. It tries to differentiate itself from the League by saying it focuses on the whole country, not just the wealthy north. Buoyed by the League s strong poll numbers, Salvini says the leader of the party which wins the most votes next year should automatically be the prime ministerial candidate. But Berlusconi, a four-times premier, has ruled out handing over the baton of power to Salvini, who has embraced Europe s far-right and endorsed France s National Front. We created the center-right in Italy and we have always been its leader, laying out and fulfilling its program, Berlusconi said on Sunday. The two men have not spoken for months, saying they are in no hurry to discuss strategy. Political analysts have speculated that the pro-business Forza Italia might find it easier to create a government of national unity with former prime minister Matteo Renzi s PD party rather than the populist Northern League. Forza Italia loyalists reject this notion. We ruled with the Northern League for years in national government and we are ruling with them now in the regions and it is going well, said Forza Italia lawmaker Deborah Bergamini. One such regional coalition is in Liguria, headed by Forza Italia s Giovanni Toti. He attended both the Forza Italia and Northern League rallies at the weekend and is due to take part in a Brothers of Italy meeting this weekend. Toti has been carefully building bridges between the three parties and would be a natural choice to head any national coalition, Bologna University s Ignazi said.

Trial against Guatemalan president's brother, son begins

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - A fraud trial against the brother and son of Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales began on Wednesday amid a scandal touched off by the president s attempt to expel the leader of a U.N.-backed anti-corruption unit investigating the case. Guatemala s top tribunal, the Constitutional Court, ruled definitively on Tuesday against Morales internationally criticized push to expel from the country Ivan Velasquez, the Colombian who leads the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG).[nL8N1LF4RY] The CICIG and the prosecutor s office accuse Samuel Sammy Morales, the president s brother and one of his closest advisers, and Jose Manuel Morales, one of the leader s four sons, of facilitating false receipts that defrauded the national property registry in 2013, two years before Morales was elected. They deny any wrongdoing. Neither of the two gave a declaration before a judge on Wednesday, where they appeared together with another 20 other defendants. The scandal has hurt the popularity of Jimmy Morales, a former comedian, who won election in late 2015 after riding a wave of public discontent over the corruption scandals that brought down his predecessor Otto Perez Molina. The president has said the investigation into his family was not related to his controversial decision to declare Velasquez persona non grata. Last week, Velasquez and Guatemalan Attorney General Thelma Aldana asked to remove Morales immunity, in order to investigate him for accusations of illegal campaign financing. The case involves payments linked to the mother of Jose Manuel Morales then-girlfriend in 2013. She allegedly sent the national property registry a $12,000 bill made out in the name of a local restaurant for 564 breakfasts, according to the attorney general. The breakfasts were never delivered. Samuel Morales recognized the acts as a favor to his nephew, but he denied that he had benefited or been implicated in the network of fraud that deprived the institution of thousands of dollars. Both were detained in January, then put under house arrest and barred from leaving the country.

Flynn pleads guilty to lying on Russia, cooperates with U.S. probe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia, and he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors delving into the actions of President Donald Trump’s inner circle before he took office. The dramatic turn of events also raised new questions about whether Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had a role in those Russia contacts. Flynn was the first member of Trump’s administration to plead guilty to a crime uncovered by special counsel Robert Mueller’s wide-ranging investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. election and potential collusion by Trump aides. Under a plea bargain deal, Flynn admitted in a Washington court that he lied when asked by FBI investigators about his conversations last December with Russia’s then-ambassador, Sergei Kislyak, just weeks before Trump took office. Prosecutors said the two men discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia and that Flynn also asked Kislyak to help delay a U.N. vote seen as damaging to Israel. On both occasions, he appeared to be undermining the policies of outgoing President Barack Obama. They also said a “very senior member” of Trump’s transition team had told Flynn to contact Russia and other foreign governments to try to influence them ahead of the U.N. vote. Sources told Reuters that the “very senior” official was Kushner, a key member of Trump’s transition team and now the president’s senior adviser. Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. He has previously said Kushner has voluntarily cooperated with all relevant inquiries and would continue to do so. Flynn’s decision to cooperate with Mueller’s team marked a major escalation in a probe that has dogged the president since he took office in January. There was nothing in the court hearing that pointed to any evidence against Trump, and the White House said Flynn’s guilty plea implicated him alone. “Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn,” said Ty Cobb, a White House attorney. Flynn, a retired army lieutenant general, only served as Trump’s national security adviser for 24 days. He was forced to resign after he was found to have misled Vice President Mike Pence about his discussions with Kislyak. But Flynn had been an enthusiastic supporter of Trump’s election campaign and the president continued to praise him even after he left the administration, saying Flynn had been treated “very, very unfairly” by the news media. A small group of protesters yelled “Lock him up!” as Flynn left the courthouse on Friday, echoing the “Lock her up!” chant that Flynn himself led against Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, in vitriolic appearances on the campaign trail. Mueller’s team is also looking at whether members of Trump’s campaign may have sought to ease sanctions on Russia in return for financial gain or because Russian officials held some leverage over them, people familiar with the probe say. Prosecutors said Flynn and Kislyak last December discussed economic sanctions that Obama’s administration had just imposed on Moscow for allegedly interfering in the election. Flynn asked Kislyak to refrain from escalating a diplomatic dispute with Washington over the sanctions, and later falsely told FBI officials that he did not make that request, court documents showed. Prosecutors said Flynn had earlier consulted with a senior member of Trump’s presidential transition team about what to communicate to the Russian ambassador. “Flynn called the Russian ambassador and requested that Russia not escalate the situation and only respond to the U.S. sanctions in a reciprocal manner,” the prosecutors said in court documents, adding that Flynn then called the Trump official again to recount the conversation with Kislyak. They did not name the senior official in the Trump team but U.S. media reports identified former adviser K.T. McFarland as the person. Reuters was unable to verify the reports. On Dec. 28, 2016, the day before prosecutors say the call between the Trump aides took place, Trump had publicly played down the need to sanction Russia for allegedly hacking U.S. Democratic operatives. “I think we ought to get on with our lives. I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago Florida resort. Ryan Goodman, a professor at New York University Law School, said Flynn’s plea deal shows Mueller is scrutinizing the truthfulness of testimony given to his investigators. Kushner is potentially liable for making false statements if his testimony is contradicted by Flynn, Goodman said. Earlier on Friday, ABC News cited a Flynn confidant as saying Flynn was ready to testify that Trump directed him to make contact with Russians before he became president, initially as a way to work together to fight the Islamic State group in Syria. Reuters could not immediately verify the ABC News report. U.S. stocks, the dollar and Treasury yields fell sharply after the ABC report, although they partially rebounded on optimism that a Republican bill to cut taxes will be approved in the U.S. Senate. If Trump directed Flynn to contact Russian officials, that might not necessarily amount to a crime. It would be a crime if it were proven that Trump directed Flynn to lie to the FBI. Moscow has denied what U.S. intelligence agencies say was meddling in the election campaign to try to sway the vote in Trump’s favor. Trump has called Mueller’s probe a witch hunt. In May, the president fired FBI Director James Comey, who later accused Trump of trying to hinder his investigation into the Russia allegations. Comey also said he believed Trump had asked him to drop the FBI’s probe into Flynn. Comey on Friday tweeted a cryptic message about justice. “But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream, ‘Amos 5:24’,” he wrote, quoting the Biblical book of Amos. Paul Manafort, who ran Trump’s presidential campaign for several months last year, was charged in October with conspiring to launder money, conspiracy against the United States and failing to register as a foreign agent of Ukraine’s former pro-Russian government. Manafort, who did not join Trump’s administration, and a business associate who was charged with him both pleaded not guilty.

Case on Trump worker contract raises conflict of interest question

(Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has often boasted about the strict confidentiality pledges he exacts from his employees. Now a legal challenge to one of those agreements is pending before a U.S. agency over which he will soon have influence, potentially posing an early test of concerns about conflicts of interest between Trump’s public role and his business empire. In September, a worker-advocacy group filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claiming a nondisclosure contract used by Trump is unlawfully broad. The contract prohibits employees, independent contractors and even volunteers from ever disclosing any information that Trump deems confidential about his personal, business or political life. The NLRB has said that sweeping or unclear contracts inhibit workers from discussing working conditions or speaking to union organizers. The five-member NLRB currently has two vacancies that Trump is slated to fill early in his term, likely tipping what has been a liberal-leaning agency under President Barack Obama to a more business-friendly posture. If the NLRB rules against Trump, it could free up workers to be more vocal about their concerns and strengthen their bargaining power. In addition to the confidentiality case, there are about 10 other Trump-related cases pending at the NLRB. The cases involve alleged labor violations at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, where management has refused to bargain with the Culinary Workers Union. It was not clear if the confidentiality contract was intended for workers on Trump’s election campaign or employees in his businesses, and Reuters could not independently verify its authenticity. Representatives of the Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment. The case is at a very early stage and could be settled or dismissed before reaching a full hearing before the five-member NLRB. The board’s decisions may be appealed in a federal court. The NLRB is comprised of three members from the sitting president’s party and two from the opposing party, a system that typically results in wide policy shifts between administrations. In addition to the current two vacancies, another will arise when a current member’s term expires next December. Under the Obama administration, the NLRB has struck down confidentiality agreements and other employment contracts that could discourage workers from organizing at T-Mobile USA Inc, Quicken Loans, DirectTV and a number of other companies. Government ethics experts and labor lawyers said that if Trump’s handpicked NLRB members uphold the contract, it could suggest favoritism. “There is an appearance of bias and political pressure that could undermine the legitimacy of the agency,” said Richard Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who was the chief White House ethics lawyer under Republican President George W. Bush. The NLRB cases represent one of several areas where concerns may arise over potential conflicts of interest raised by Trump’s new role and his sprawling business interests. Trump last week said he would allow his children to run his businesses while maintaining his ownership interest via a “blind trust.” If the current cases are ruled upon by the NLRB, one possible solution to the potential conflict could be for Trump appointees to recuse themselves from cases involving his business organization, said a former NLRB chairman, William Gould. Gould said that during his tenure at the agency, in the mid-1990s, members recused themselves from cases that raised any chance of a conflict. Gould, who is now a professor at Stanford Law School, said he disqualified himself from cases involving a union of which his son was a member. Several experts, however, said recusal would not be legally required unless Trump’s appointees represented him or his companies in the past or were otherwise involved in his business. The challenge to Trump’s confidentiality agreement was filed by David Rosenfeld, a California labor lawyer, on behalf of the Committee to Preserve the Religious Right to Organize, a worker advocacy group that he created. Reuters reviewed a copy of the employment agreement that Rosenfeld filed with his complaint, which targeted both the Trump Organization and the Trump campaign. Rosenfeld said he copied it from the campaign website, but that the agreement was no longer posted there. It was not clear how many employees signed this version of the agreement, and Reuters was unable to find a copy on the website. The agreement prohibits disclosure of details about Trump’s “personal life, political affairs and/or business affairs,” as well as anything “Mr. Trump insists remain private or confidential.” It forbids employees from publicly disparaging Trump and his wife, children, grandchildren, siblings and other relatives. Confidentiality agreements are common, but labor law experts said they can be unlawful if they are too broad or don’t specify what types of information will be deemed confidential. Trump defended a similar confidentiality agreement in a case earlier this year involving a former campaign aide, whom Trump accused of giving information about other staffers to reporters. In a statement, the Trump campaign said confidentiality agreements were “standard practice” for entities that need to safeguard sensitive information. The case settled for undisclosed terms.

Puerto Rico enacts emergency debt moratorium bill

SAN JUAN (Reuters) - Puerto Rico’s governor on Wednesday signed an emergency bill allowing the government to halt payments on its debt, throwing into doubt broader restructuring plans to stave off a financial collapse of the U.S. territory. The measure, which earlier passed Puerto Rico’s legislature, lets Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla declare a moratorium on any debt payment he deems necessary and could alter the structure of the Government Development Bank (GDB), the island’s primary fiscal agent. “This legislation provides us with the tools to address the highest priority of needs — providing essential services to our people — without fear of retribution,” Garcia Padilla said in a statement. Puerto Rico, burdened by a $70 billion debt load it says it cannot pay, a 45 percent poverty rate and shrinking population, faces economic collapse without measures that either change its laws or involve an agreement with creditors. Wednesday’s emergency law was rushed into existence as the GDB faces possible default on a $422 million debt payment due on May 1. Garcia Padilla had said he would consider a debt moratorium ahead of that deadline. GDB and its creditors are trying to work out a consensual restructuring. But the new law could spark “a new era of litigation” from creditors, said Daniel Hanson, an analyst with Height Securities. “We believe the overwhelming majority of Puerto Rican issuers have violated their creditors’ rights,” he said in a Wednesday note. Some GDB creditors on Monday sued to prevent a run on the bank, asking a federal court to block depositors from taking out their money while talks continue. The passage of the law drew a quick rebuke from some creditors. Stephen Spencer, a financial adviser to bondholders including OppenheimerFunds and Franklin Advisers, said it might violate the terms of a prior restructuring deal at PREPA, the island’s power utility. That deal, under which creditors agreed to take 15 percent repayment cuts, “should be explicitly preserved, rather than being cast into a state of uncertainty,” Spencer said in a statement. He said the law could “close the door to anyone extending new credit to Puerto Rico, seriously impeding its ability to meet citizens’ needs.” In a statement on Wednesday night, PREPA Executive Director Javier Quintana Mendez said the agreement “remains in place and should not be negatively affected by the new law.” “We continue working in collaboration with our creditors, focused on the implementation of our recovery plan,” Quintana said. A second group of creditors holding debt issued by Puerto Rico’s sales tax authority, COFINA, expressed support for the debt freeze bill, citing delays in legislative efforts by federal lawmakers in Washington to address Puerto Rico’s crisis. “With entrenched private institutions obstructing the legislative process in Washington, it is understandable that Puerto Rican leaders are taking steps to equip the island with the tools it needs,” Susheel Kirpalani, counsel to the COFINA Senior Bondholders Group at law firm Quinn Emanuel, said. A rescue bill being drafted by the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee so far uses U.S. bankruptcy rules as guidance for a solution, something many creditors oppose. Hearings are expected next week in Washington. Relations between Puerto Rico and its creditors are growing tenser as major debt payments in May and July loom. On Tuesday, some of Puerto Rico’s general obligation bondholders criticized the debt moratorium law, at the time still being debated by lawmakers, saying Puerto Rico was ignoring their offer to restructure debt by extending principal payments. Garcia Padilla appeared to fire back on Wednesday, saying “our creditors have engaged in public relations efforts that contain falsehoods about their proposed ‘fixes’ – all of which are aimed at misinforming the public and dissuading Congress from doing what is right for our 3.5 million American citizens.” Puerto Rico’s benchmark 2035 GO bond 74514LE86=MSRB is down sharply since talk of a debt moratorium bill surfaced earlier this week. On Wednesday the bond fell 2.45 points in price to bid 63.299, yielding 13.33 percent, according to Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board data. “Puerto Rico’s problems stopped being legal problems and they’ve started being a math problem... at the end of the day Puerto Rico can’t pay,” said Nicholas Venditti, portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management in Santa Fe, speaking at a luncheon for reporters in New York.

Germany's Schaeuble says soft Brexit best way to minimize damage

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A soft Brexit incorporating trade deals would be the best way to minimize damage to Britain and the European Union, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Thursday. Schaeuble, in Washington for a meetings of the International Monetary Fund, also praised the pro-European stance of French President Emmanuel Macron and said multilateralism was a prerequisite for world peace. He said he hoped British finance minister Philip Hammond and other backers of a so-called soft Brexit prevailed in negotiations over the terms of Britain s exit from the EU. The talks have stalled on issues like the bill Britain must pay to leave and the future of Northern Ireland s land border with the EU. Hammond, considered one of the most pro-EU members of Prime Minister Theresa May s cabinet, on Wednesday warned that the lack of direction to talks was hurting business investment and consumer confidence. A soft Brexit - in which Britain remains in or close to the EU s single market and keeps many of the trade and business benefits it had as member - would be preferable, Schaeuble said. That is the best way to keep the damage as minimal as possible, he said during a event on the sidelines of the IMF meeting. Schaeuble said he was optimistic that Chancellor Angela Merkel and her conservatives would be able to forge a new coalition government before Christmas, that the new team would stick to a stable economic and pro-European course. Merkel is trying to put together a three-way coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats and the environmentalists Greens. The parties must still resolve differences over immigration, taxes and energy. Schaeuble is due to become president of the lower house of the German parliament and step down as finance minister, freeing the post for someone from another party. The job is likely to go to a member of the FDP, but a key ally of Merkel on Thursday said he would like to keep the spot for the conservatives to preserve Schaeuble s insistence on a balanced budget.

Colombia's FARC leader Timochenko to run for presidency in 2018

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

U.S. Capitol replacing flag display over Confederate imagery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A display of U.S. state flags in a tunnel under Washington’s Capitol complex will be replaced because of controversial Confederate symbols on some of the flags, an administrative committee said on Thursday. In its place, in the busy passageway between the Capitol and adjacent office buildings, depictions of commemorative quarters representing the 50 states, the U.S. territories and Washington, D.C., will be installed, said Committee on House Administration Chairwoman Candice Miller. Michigan Republican Representative Miller said in a statement that she decided to replace the display because of the controversy surrounding the Confederate flag, which is widely seen today as a symbol of racism and slavery. “I am well aware of how many Americans negatively view the Confederate flag, and, personally, I am very sympathetic to these views,” she said. Lawmakers who choose to hang their home states’ flags outside their offices may still do so. “In this way all state flags are displayed on Capitol Hill,” Miller said. Only the Mississippi state flag still depicts the Confederate battle flag, in the top left corner. Symbols from various Confederate flags are evident in the flags of Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Arkansas. All these states were among those that seceded from the union in 1860-1861 and joined the pro-slavery Confederate States of America that was defeated by the anti-slavery union in the American Civil War. Representative Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who pushed last year for his state’s flag to be removed from the Capitol, praised Miller’s announcement as a step toward removing all signs of the “Confederate revolt against our own country.” Criticism over public display of the Confederate flag intensified last year after a white man who gunned down nine black churchgoers in South Carolina was pictured on social media with it. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, told a weekly news conference that he supports the decision to change the display. It is expected to be installed once renovations of the tunnel are finished later this year.

Trump Waves Texas Flag: ‘Texas Can Handle Anything’ [Video]

President Trump thanked supporters who had gathered outside the local fire station He waved the Texas flag after remarks Dems will never win an election ever again https://t.co/MJDElgjll0 Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) August 29, 2017Fox News reported: President Trump touched down in Corpus Christi, Texas, at 11:30 a.m. CT to get a firsthand look at the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey on Texas southeast coast.Texas Gov. Greg Abbott greeted the president and first lady as they disembarked Air Force One. Abbott said last weekend that the president gets an A+ for his response to the crisis. Trump declared the storm a disaster early on, freeing up federal resources for relief.Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson Health, Human Services Secretary Tom Price and other Cabinet members joined the president on the trip.The president later appeared at a meeting with Gov. Abbott and local officials. After brief remarks to a crowd that gathered outside the fire station, the president waved a Texas flag and told them Texas can handle anything.

Brazil's Temer says pension reform might not pass this year

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

LOL! ACTRESS CHARLIE THERON Tells South Africans AIDS Is “Not transmitted by SEX…“It’s transmitted by sexism, racism, poverty and homophobia” [VIDEO]

Is there really anything more irresponsible than standing before a large group of people on a stage in South Africa and telling them that SEX doesn t transmit AIDS? As long as Theron s a card carrying Hollywood liberal, she gets a pass and anything she says. After all, her reckless remarks were only for the good of the poor blacks in Africa right?The HIV virus can be spread in plenty more ways than just sex, actress Charlize Theron asserted while delivering the opening remarks at the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa on Monday. It is not just AIDS, she said. It is the culture that condones rape and shames victims into silence. It is the cycle of poverty and violence that traps girls into teen marriages and forces them to sell their bodies to provide for their families. It is the racism that allows the white and the wealthy to exploit the black and the poor and then blame them for their own suffering. It is the homophobia that shames and isolates LGBT youth and keeps them from life-saving healthcare and education. HIV is not just transmitted by sex, Theron added. It s transmitted by sexism, racism, poverty and homophobia. And if we re going to end AIDS, we have to cure the disease within our own hearts and within our own minds first. -BreitbartThis certainly isn t the first time the rabid anti-gun actress has made the news (well almost) for making a completely unfounded and idiotic comment. In May, 2014, Theron compared the media s coverage of her to rape . When asked by Sky News whether she ever Googled herself, Theron replied, I don t do that, so that s my saving grace. When you start living in that world, and doing that, you start, I guess, feeling raped. Critics went wild over her twisted analogy. But in the end, she s a Hollywood liberal and much like their good friend in the White House, they re untouchable. The sky is the limit when it comes to the ignorant and irresponsible statements they are able to make without ever being held accountable.

After Iowa, Trump’s Fragile Ego Totally Preparing For Being A Loser Everywhere (VIDEO)

According to Donald Trump, he didn t lose in the Republican Iowa Caucus. He came in second, which is really the same thing as winning when you really think about it. Except it s not. However, to Trump s fragile ego, and what he tells himself in the mirror each night, is that he really won, because Ted Cruz was a meanie and cheated.Now, to prepare himself for loss everywhere he goes, Trump has now taken to telling everyone he doesn t actually have to win a state. In this case, New Hampshire. Someone should probably let Trump know that in order to win the Republican Party nomination he s going to have to not only win states, but win a lot of them, not come in second, but actually, in all legitimacy, win.However, Trump being Trump, and with his narcissistic personality disorder preventing him from being able to wrap his giant head around a loss, even losing is a win to him. He even told CNN s Jake Tapper on State of the Union: I want to win New Hampshire, but I don t think I have to win it. He s clearly preparing himself for a loss, despite having a monster lead in the Granite State, but after Iowa, he s probably thinking all bets are off.Donald Trump will never admit to losing, now if he does lose, well, he can say he called it and claim he never needed it: I told you guys I didn t need it! He s creating a bit of an insurance policy for himself as really any good businessperson would: you have a contingency plan.Oh, Trump. If not for your ego, you would be a very lonely man. Your love for yourself is unending. Trump: I want to win N.H., but I don t think I have to win it. #CNNSOTU Full interview: https://t.co/1UBwh3zztW https://t.co/uVRpYsQ305 State of the Union (@CNNSotu) February 7, 2016Video/Featured image: Twitter

Libyan officials criticize U.S. travel ban, doubt over February conference

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya’s U.N.-backed government has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s temporary ban on its nationals and those of six other countries entering the United States, which put in question attendance at a high-profile conference on Libya planned in Washington for mid-February. The executive order by Trump comes at a time of uncertainty over U.S. policy in Libya, which remains mired in the chaos that followed the NATO-backed 2011 uprising against long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi. The U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), was strongly supported by former U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, but has struggled to assert its authority in Tripoli and beyond. Factions in eastern Libya aligned with a rival government and with powerful military commander Khalifa Haftar welcomed Trump’s election, hoping for more support for their anti-Islamist stance. Trump’s travel ban has angered some Libyans, including students studying or planning to study in the United States. GNA Foreign Minister Mohammed Siyala called it an “unjust decision” that should be reviewed. “These actions represent racial discrimination on the basis of religion and are incompatible with human rights,” he told local TV station Libya’s Channel. Authorities in eastern Libya declined to comment on the ban for days. A spokesman for the eastern-based government said on Wednesday however the order “could not be rejected”, given Libya’s own institutional confusion. A member of the eastern parliament, Youssef al-Fakhri, said that despite Libya’s political and security problems, the measure was “not appropriate”. The order appeared to put in jeopardy the participation of Libyans invited to a Feb. 16 conference titled “Libya-U.S. Relations 2017: New Vision, Hope and Opportunities”. The event, co-hosted by the National Council on U.S.-Libya Relations, lists Libyan speakers including two former prime ministers and the head of the National Oil Corporation (NOC). Several speakers are loyal to or connected with eastern-based factions. “We are clearly concerned with the risk of denial of entrance to some of our key speakers and participants from Libya,” Hani Shennib, the council’s president, said in an email. “However, we are working diligently with authorities here in the USA and we are hopeful that a resolution to facilitate entrance of our conference participants will [be] present in the next 2-3 days.” A GNA spokesman, Ashraf al-Tulti, told Reuters Libya’s foreign ministry would request exceptions from the U.S. Department of State for Libyan attendees. Exceptions to the travel ban can be made on a case by case basis, and diplomatic visas are exempt. Tulti, who was invited to attend the Washington conference and holds a diplomatic passport, said he was still waiting for a visa. One Libyan speaker said she had a visa, but was still investigating whether she would be able to attend. Under the order released on Friday, travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen are banned from entering the United States for at least 90 days. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said some countries “may not be taken off the list anytime soon, if they are countries that are in various states of collapse”.

Trump Whines Because Democrats Are Blocking His Cabinet Nominees, Gets Informed That Karma Is A B*tch

Donald Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates on Monday and proceeded to whine about how Democrats are blocking his nominees. Twitter responded by teaching him about karma.For eight years, Republicans blocked many of President Obama s nominees, including one nominee who died waiting to be confirmed as the Ambassador to the Bahamas. Cassandra Butts waited for two long years and died without getting the opportunity to serve her country. And Republicans blocked President Obama s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court for almost a year before it expired due to the end of Obama s second term in office.This unprecedented obstruction has rallied Democrats to do the exact same thing to Trump, but Democrats have far better reasons to block Trump s nominees since they intend to help him destroy this country.One particular nominee Democrats are blocking is Jeff Sessions, whom Trump nominated as Attorney General. The problem is that Sessions is a racist who wants to cripple civil rights and voting rights and that will be easy to do if he is allowed to control the Justice Department.So Trump complained about the obstruction on Monday night and again on Tuesday morning.The Democrats are delaying my cabinet picks for purely political reasons. They have nothing going but to obstruct. Now have an Obama A.G. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2017Nancy Pelosi and Fake Tears Chuck Schumer held a rally at the steps of The Supreme Court and mic did not work (a mess)-just like Dem party! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2017When will the Democrats give us our Attorney General and rest of Cabinet! They should be ashamed of themselves! No wonder D.C. doesn t work! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2017Trump is a hypocrite. Again, Republicans did the same thing to President Obama for eight years, and his nominees were at least qualified for the jobs. Trump s nominees are not. And I don t recall Trump ever telling Republicans that they ought to be ashamed of themselves.The Internet, of course, ripped Trump a new one.@realDonaldTrump None of your cabinet picks are qualified. I would vote NO on all of them. Betsy Devos has no experience. Matthew Schueller (@booshoe37) January 31, 2017@realDonaldTrump You are putting our entire country in danger. Step down NOW. Jen Vargas (@jenvargas) January 31, 2017@realDonaldTrump As the Republicans reminded us in 2016 with Merrick Garland, the Senate has to advise *and* consent. Try to be patient. Dave Hogg ? (@Stareagle) January 31, 2017@realDonaldTrump dude your party literally stole Obama s rightful SCOTUS pick after obstructing it for nearly an entire year Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) January 31, 2017.@realDonaldTrump Betrayal ?! #SallyYates swore an oath of loyalty to the CONSTITUTION, not a bullying, narcissistic fascist. WE #RESIST Danielle Muscato (@DanielleMuscato) January 31, 2017@realDonaldTrump That s because you couldn t be trusted to pick out a cabinet from Ikea Declan Cashin (@Tweet_Dec) January 31, 2017@realDonaldTrump or maybe your cabinet picks are garbage humans. Their moral compasses smaller than your tiny, pathetic hands. Neil Miller (@rejects) January 31, 2017@realDonaldTrump if by political reasons you mean objecting to appt of unqualified folks w/huge conflicts of interest then, well, yeah. rebeccaloebe (@rebeccaloebe) January 31, 2017.@realDonaldTrump Maybe if you didn t pick a guy who in 1986 was deemed too racist to be a judge \_( )_/ Jordan Uhl (@JordanUhl) January 31, 2017@realDonaldTrump you re running America like a reality TV show. You can t just say you re fired to everyone you don t like, Mr Trump. Ben Rachinger (@BenSRachinger) January 31, 2017@realDonaldTrump This is how it s supposed to work: no one gets all the power. While you re waiting, maybe read up on checks and balances? rebeccaloebe (@rebeccaloebe) January 31, 2017@realDonaldTrump You re surprised they re making it difficult for you to ruin the US ? Henry Hall (@hj_hall) January 31, 2017@realDonaldTrump Merrick Garland, 321 days ago. Obstruction is the O in GOP. Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) January 31, 2017@realDonaldTrump Your party explicitly stated that their job was to stop Obama at every turn through obstructionism. Damn hypocrite. MatthewDicks (@MatthewDicks) January 31, 2017@realDonaldTrump Right? It s almost like refusing to move forward with a Supreme Court nomination for a president with 11 months left. Aaron Gouveia (@DaddyFiles) January 31, 2017Featured image via Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images

Dallas Police Chief Tells Congress To Shove Their Thoughts And Prayers: ‘Do Your Jobs!’ (VIDEO)

It started out as an observation, then it turned into a joke, and but it s become downright insulting. Each time America suffers from another horrific mass shooting, Republicans in Congress send their thoughts and prayers and do absolutely nothing else. Rather than work towards solutions, conservative politicians have found that merely saying a prayer before bed somehow absolves them of their reprehensible inaction towards gun violence.And Dallas Police Chief David Brown, like so many of us, is absolutely fed up.At a press conference updating the country about the investigation into the ambush of police officers in Dallas following a peaceful anti-police brutality march, he didn t remain silent about the culpability of Congress. In short, Chief Brown has had a lot of long days trying to fulfill his obligation to the public and get answers, but he s noticed lawmakers can t say the same. It s been business as usual and that means no business on finding solutions to mass shootings.Dallas Police Chief Brown to Congress: Do your job pic.twitter.com/rhhoWPKSVX Colin Jones (@colinjones) July 11, 2016Brown is not alone. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings (D) recently pointed out something that conservatives had hoped would go unnoticed: Open Carry, the movement that allows Texans the right to carry AR-15s nearly anywhere in public, didn t help during the police ambush, and actually made everything much, much worse. Rawlings said Dallas police Chief David Brown told him that people running through the shooting scene with rifles and body armor required officers to track them down and bring them to the police department. Whether that was time that could have been spent trying to find and stop the shooter is something police will have to comment on. Major Max Geron of the Dallas PD didn t mind answering that question: There was also the challenge of sorting out witnesses from potential suspects. Texas is an open carry state, and there were a number of armed demonstrators taking part. There was confusion on the radio about the description of the suspects and whether or not one or more was in custody. Dallas police have every right to feel frustrated and sickened by the response from both their state Republican Party and the ones in Washington, D.C. Law enforcement agencies have repeatedly warned pro-gun lawmakers that these fanatical pushes to put guns in every citizen s hands and in every corner of public life means putting both civilians and cops at risk. It makes policing harder. It makes mass murder easier. And it makes the lines between good guy with a gun and bad guy with a gun impossible to separate.To be clear, Democrats need to bear some responsibility for inaction as well. After massacres at Sandy Hook and Aurora, there was motivation from Americans to finally fix this problem and Democrats let it slip through their fingers. Following Orlando, progressive lawmakers seemed to show signs that enough was enough, but they need to keep at it.The way forward is simple: Congress needs to put the lives of American citizens above the rights of an AR-15. Do. Your. Jobs.Watch an extended cut of Police Chief Brown s comments below: On the subject of guns, @DallasPD says the policy makers need to do their jobs https://t.co/Aa2LZ0VlCn pic.twitter.com/kjXACzLJC8 CBS News (@CBSNews) July 11, 2016Featured image via CBS News

Pittsburgh Mayor Slaps Trump Down For Using Pittsburgh As A Reason To Destroy The Planet

The mayor of Pittsburgh had a few choice words for Donald Trump after he used the city as a reason to abandon the Paris Climate Agreement. I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris, Trump said in defense of his decision to destroy the planet. Apparently, he doesn t realize that Pittsburgh stands to lose just as much as Paris, or literally anywhere else on Earth for that matter.Mayor Bill Peduto was quick to respond to Trump s nonsense:The United States joins Syria, Nicaragua & Russia in deciding not to participate with world s Paris Agreement. It s now up to cities to lead bill peduto (@billpeduto) June 1, 2017Fact: Hillary Clinton received 80% of the vote in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh stands with the world & will follow Paris Agreement @HillaryClinton https://t.co/cibJyT7MAK bill peduto (@billpeduto) June 1, 2017As the Mayor of Pittsburgh, I can assure you that we will follow the guidelines of the Paris Agreement for our people, our economy & future. https://t.co/3znXGTcd8C bill peduto (@billpeduto) June 1, 2017Once again, Trump is simply incapable of comprehending even the most fundamental of concepts. But I suppose that is par for the course when you are talking about someone who never learned that science is real. A total of 194 countries are now part of the Paris deal. The U.S. joins only two other nations who have chosen not to sign on. And even among those, America is the only one to abstain for such absurd reasons. Syria was not part of the agreement because they have been trapped in a bloody civil way. Nicaragua, on the other hand, refused to be a part of the deal because they didn t think it went far enough.Nancy Patton Mills, chairman of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee, echoed Peduto.Statement From Chairwoman Mills: pic.twitter.com/vmJ2LZrqLS ACDC (@AlleghenyDems) June 1, 2017And Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, joined in to let Trump knew where she stood as well.Once again @realDonaldTrump is wrong. #Paris & #Pittsburgh do stand together for the #ParisAgreement #Cities4Climate https://t.co/7HGQ4AQ9Rj Anne Hidalgo (@Anne_Hidalgo) June 1, 2017Featured image via Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Average Trump Cabinet Member Stands To Profit By Hundreds Of Thousands From Tax ‘Reform’

Ever wonder if Donald Trump s insistence on repealing Obamacare has a motive beyond, We need to undo everything the black man did? Had the GOP actually been able to repeal the ACA, which contained a 3.8 percent tax on investment income that mostly affects the wealthy, Trump s cabinet would save an average of $124,200 to $313,700 on their own tax bills, according to an analysis by MapLight.Many stand to save an awful lot more than that. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos stands to save anywhere from $1.9 million to over $4 million. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross could save up to $1.31 million. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin could find his tax bill reduced by as much as $900,000. Trump himself could save as much as $560,000 if that tax were repealed. It s not hard to see that s.This is the wealthiest cabinet in U.S. history, and many members of the top 1 percent believe in continuing to send the wealth their way instead of distributing it more fairly via fair wages and benefits, and perhaps, maybe shifting the bulk of the country s tax burden back onto those who are currently not paying their fair share.MapLight s analysis shows a possible reason why the Trump White House is so desperate to repeal Obamacare, and why Trump made it a cornerstone of his campaign. It may well not be just everything-Obama-ever-did-is-evil rhetoric. Trump stated outright during the campaign that he could be the first presidential candidate to make money off his candidacy. It s pretty much a given that he feels this way about his presidency, too.Combine that with Trump ongoing refusal to release his tax returns, and it starts looking like his efforts on repealing the ACA are more because it benefits him and those in his circle, not because he cares about the American people.Further evidence of this is shown in his and the GOP s total disregard for the CBO scores on their plans, which demonstrated that repeal would harm more Americans than it would help. He s primarily motivated by self-interest, despite his ongoing assurances that all he wants to do is help regular Americans. This is just further evidence of that.Read more:Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Chinese state media takes praise for leader to new heights as Xi tightens grip

BEIJING (Reuters) - The official newspaper of China s ruling Communist Party has lavished unusually high levels of praise on President Xi Jinping s signature leadership, as China s strongest leader in decades consolidates his personal power. Xi s leadership was cast as having forged a new way of governance for China that the paper said had been applauded worldwide and had brought China to new heights of economic, political and diplomatic success. The paean, even more effusive than usual for the state mouthpiece, came in two parts written under the official nom de plume of the People s Daily for important commentaries and was carried on its front page on Tuesday and Wednesday. Billed as an exposition on the changes in leadership, thought, mission and rejuvenation for China revealed during a course-setting meeting of the top party leadership in October, it marked the latest assault in a propaganda onslaught vaunting Xi s contributions to China and the world. Xi has amassed positions and accolades at a level much higher than his immediate predecessors, being named the core of the party leadership last year and having his named theory written into the party charter in October. Such an honor has not been given to a sitting leader since Mao Zedong, communist China s founding leader. Chinese state media has taken praise for Xi to new levels since the twice-a-decade conclave. Xi was given Mao-like prominence with his portrait taking up nearly the entire front page of the People s Daily. A unique path, a unique theory, a unique system, a unique culture; Xi Jinping s thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era has developed a rich path for China that has transcended Western-centric theory, and hugely excited many developing countries to confidently choose their own path, the paper said. Without Xi Jinping thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, we would not have a party center that is moving closer daily to the center of the world stage, the People s Daily said. China has expanded the reach of its foreign policy and military under Xi, who has talked about the need for China to be confident in its own political system and to provide Chinese solutions and wisdom for global issues. However, concerns abroad about China using its influence to sway foreign business, academic, and political institutions have also grown. Xi told foreign political groups in Beijing on Friday that China would not export its political system and would provide more opportunities for the world through its development. He was speaking as he opened China s first ever high-level inter-party dialogue.

Ashley Judd Knows From Experience That Donald Trump Is A Perverted Creep And He’s ‘Revolting’

Donald Trump is a misogynist creep and Ashley Judd had no problem telling the world what she has personally witnessed.The actress talked to Jezebel writer Ellie Shechet on Thursday morning on the red carpet of the Creative Coalition Gala and Judd gave an unprompted story about the Republican nominee, whom she has know for over a decade. And let s just say that Judd s story about Trump takes him to a whole new level of creepy perv. I ve known Donald for 15, 17 years? she began. I m friends with someone who married into the family. Anyway, I would bump into him at the U.S. Open, for example, and I think I can say the amount of time he has spent looking at my chest rather than my face is proportional to his insanity and functionality. And then she demonstrated exactly what Trump does. If I may, this is what it s like to talk to Donald Trump. Judd stopped and stared pointedly at my chest. He s a chest gazer, a breast gazer, let s be more specific and, referring to the person who at that time was married into the family, he just sexualized her. Doesn t she look great? Doesn t she look ? He s just revolting. And it s not like Trump hasn t publicly displayed his creepiness.On multiple occasions, Trump has fantasized about his own daughter. During a 2006 appearance on The View, Trump said this about Ivanka Trump when asked if she would ever pose for Playboy: It would be really disappointing not really but it would depend on what s inside the magazine. I don t think Ivanka would do that, although she does have a very nice figure. I ve said if Ivanka weren t my daughter, perhaps I d be dating her. And that was just in 2006. Here s what he told Rolling Stone for an article in 2015.At 69, he can still carry on like the teen who was yanked out of prep school and delivered to Col. Dobias, the take-no-shit instructor at the military academy. After I met Ivanka and praised her to her father, he said, Yeah, she s really something, and what a beauty, that one. If I weren t happily married and, ya know, her father . . . So yeah, Donald Trump treats all women, even his own daughter, as sexual objects. He s disgusting. And he s the person the Republican Party chose as their leader. If that s how they thought they could reach out to women voters they were sorely mistaken.Featured Image: Wikimedia

Indian navy the odd man out in Asia's 'Quad' alliance

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Trump administration is pushing security ties between the United States, India, Japan and Australia, but the revival of the Asian Quad must overcome lingering mistrust in New Delhi towards its allies that hampers genuine military cooperation. Joint naval drills have been at the heart of a relationship that analysts widely see as a move to counterbalance China s rising power by binding the region s leading democracies more closely together. But while the navies of the United States, Japan and Australia can easily operate together - based on common U.S.-designed combat systems and data links - India is the outlier. Not only are most of its ships and warplanes Russian-made, its government and military remain deeply reluctant to share data and open up sensitive military communications systems. The United States has carried out more naval exercises with India than any other nation. But naval sources and experts say these are more about cultural familiarization than drills for joint combat. Because India will not sign an agreement on sharing data, naval exercises are conducted through voice and text commands with rudimentary SMS-style data exchange, Indian and Japanese military sources said. Think of it as directing your friend to your house in the 1980s. Your left may be his right, neither of you have situational awareness, said Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, a senior fellow at New Delhi s Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies who has tracked the military exercises. What the Americans want is 2017 - drop a pin on Google maps and hit share. You know where your friend is and he knows where your house is and how to get to it. The Indian defense ministry did not respond to a request for a comment. The so-called Quad to discuss and cooperate on security emerged briefly as an initiative a decade ago - much to the annoyance of China - and was revived recently, with an officials-level meeting this month on the sidelines of a regional gathering in Manila. The Trump administration has talked up cooperation with India as part of efforts for a free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific . Describing the Indian and Pacific Oceans as a single strategic arena , U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described India and the United States as regional bookends . In concrete terms, it will lead to great co-ordination between the Indian, Japanese and American militaries including maritime domain awareness, anti-submarine warfare, amphibious warfare, and humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and search and rescue, he said. To be sure, India and the United States have steadily been bringing more powerful ships into their annual Malabar drills that have been expanded to include Japan in recent years. This year the USS Nimitz carrier group was deployed for the maneuvers off India s eastern coast, along with an aircraft carrier from India and a helicopter carrier from Japan. But a Japanese Maritime Self Defence Forces official said when Japan conducts drills with the Indian navy, communication is done mostly through voice transmission. There is no satellite link that would allow the two navies to access information and share monitor displays in on-board command centers. Communication is usually the most difficult aspect of any joint drill, he said. The exercises are meant to lay the ground for joint patrols that the U.S. eventually wants to conduct with India and its allies across the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan, a Pentagon spokesman, said better interoperability was a goal of the exercises and noted that India s enhanced role as a major U.S. defense partner would help boost the relationship. The designation of India as a major defense partner is significant and is intended to elevate defense trade and technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of our closest allies and partners, he said. As this relationship matures so will the level of interoperability. Last year, India signed a military logistics pact with the United States after a decade of wrangling, but two other agreements are stuck. The United States says the Communication and Information Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) would allow it to supply India with encrypted communications equipment and systems. The Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement is the other pact that would set a framework through which the United States could share sensitive data to aid targeting and navigation with India. India is concerned that agreeing to the CISMOA would open up its military communications to the United States, and even allow it to listen in on operations where Indian and U.S. interests may not coincide - such as against arch-rival Pakistan, military officials in New Delhi say. Captain Gurpreet Khurana, executive director at the government-funded National Maritime Foundation, said India s underlying concern was having its autonomy constrained by binding its military into U.S. codes and operating procedures. Once, the Americans proposed a portable suitcase communications system called the CENTRIXS which could transmit full situational awareness data to Indian ships while the two navies practised together. India refused to allow it to be plugged in for the duration of the exercise, citing operational security, according to an Indian source briefed on the planning of the exercises. Even the joint air exercises that the two countries are conducting as a follow-on to Malabar are severely restricted, the source said. India sends its Russian-acquired Sukhoi jets to the drills, but their radars and jammers are turned off. David Shear, who served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia under President Barack Obama, said U.S. forces, particularly the Navy, were well aware of the interoperability constraints to interacting with India. They understand what the obstacles are and that this is going to be a long-term project, he said.

California Rep Gets The Ball Rolling, Files First Article Of Impeachment Against Trump

California Democratic Representative Brad Sherman has decided that enough is enough and has taken matters into his own hands.Sherman believes Donald Trump committed obstruction of justice by firing former FBI Director James Comey during the agency s investigation into Russia s ties to the US election and has filed the first formal article of impeachment against the President of the United States.The United States Constitution states that impeachment of a President is a possibility if guilty of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors and obstruction of justice just happens to be a felony under federal law.Sherman said in a statement issued on Wednesday that he doesn t expect impeachment to happen right away, rather that he is trying to promote the idea of an intervention in the White House. For Trump to actually be impeached, articles must pass the House with a majority vote something that will be borderline impossible in a Republican-controlled chamber.There is hope, however, as Texas Republican Representative Al Green has publicly expressed his support for the impeachment of President Trump, so hopefully, others might follow suit.Sherman s article lists other actions that President Trump has allegedly taken, besides the Comey firing, that could potentially be grounds for his impeachment. These include James Comey s allegation that Trump asked him to let this go in reference to an FBI investigation into Michael Flynn, the former National Security Advisor, and his ties to Russia.Comey s firing is still the cornerstone of the article. With Sherman claiming that Trump did so in relation to the handling of the Russia investigation, the California Representative might have a valid point namely the President telling NBC s Lester Holt, When I decided to just do it, I said to myself I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. I have introduced H.Res. 438 Articles of #Impeachment of Donald J. Trump for Obstruction of Justice. Statement here: https://t.co/0gKr8ZFg3c pic.twitter.com/yUTDAnPFuJ Rep. Brad Sherman (@BradSherman) July 12, 2017However, not all Democrats are on board with Sherman. When he first started circulating drafts of the article in June, fellow Democratic Representative Michael Capuano reportedly stood up at a party meeting and branded Sherman as selfish. Only time will tell how his efforts play out.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Conservatives LOSE IT, Call For Obama’s Death After ‘Northern Scum’ Pulled From State Song (SCREENSHOTS)

The Stupid Part of America is riled up again after Maryland made a small change to its state song. To make it a bit more modern, the state Senate voted 37-8 to both officially reaffirm Maryland, Oh Maryland as the official state song, and to remove the words Northern scum so that citizens of the state can finally sing it without feeling a stinging sense of shame. Maryland, Oh Maryland was penned in 1861 and adopted as the state song in 1939. Talking Points Memo notes that it is unclear why the song was adopted at that particular historical moment but notes there had been two recent lynchings in the state and the NAACP was then advocating for equal pay for black teachers. In other words, it probably was not selected because people enjoy singing to the tune of O Tannenbaum. By enshrining a Confederate war anthem, the General Assembly may have been seeking symbolically to challenge such efforts, the AP notes.The song is pretty inflammatory. Currently, it ends with a rousing call to fight against those dirty northerners who wanted to end slavery: She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb Huzza! She spurns the Northern scum! She breathes! She burns! She ll come! She ll come! Maryland! My Maryland! The song refers to President Abraham Lincoln as a despot and urges Marylanders to burst the tyrant s chains. The changes keep one verse from the old lyrics and add one from an 1894 poem describing the natural beauty of the state of Maryland something more appropriate in modern times than complaints about Lincoln and calls for an armed uprising. They keep the historic song. It s still there, but this bill is an excellent compromise to move forward, so that our children and our children s children and so that all Maryland can be proud of our state song, said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller (D). At the present time, all of Maryland cannot be proud of our state song, and so that s the reason I m voting green. Changing the song is a completely reasonable action, given its inflammatory speech so naturally, Fox News fans became rather incensed when they learned about what they view on an assault on their heritage (whether they are from Maryland or not). Some complained about rap music for some reason, while others threatened to take up arms against the government. Others whined about black people, some said that this is a form of white genocide (the systemic elimination of the white race that Donald Trump s supporters in the KKK believe is happening), and others still hold out hope that the South will rise again. And, of course, there were the customary calls for President Obama s death that accompany literally everything that happens in the world: Unfortunately, this is where we re at as a nation and Donald Trump s rhetoric has given these people, who would normally keep their shameful and idiotic opinions to themselves and their local Klavern, the courage to speak out. Whenever someone tells you that Republicans aren t racist, we d tell you to show them this, but we all know they will simply claim that the hundreds of similar comments are left by liberal plants who want to destroy America no matter how much evidence exists that this attitude is no longer the minority in the Rapublican Party.The bill is set to go to the House, where it is expected to pass a good thing for the state of Maryland, but something that will likely cause at least a few acts of violence against African-Americans. It s just what conservatives do these days.Maybe next, legislators can hop on board the effort to change the name of Negro Mountain or at least take down the numerous highways signs and remove the picnic area.Featured image via screengrab

Top U.S. official visits Vietnam to assess human rights progress

HANOI (Reuters) - A top U.S. envoy began a two-day trip to Vietnam on Monday to gauge its progress in human rights, two weeks ahead of a visit by President Barack Obama in what will be the first by a U.S. leader in a decade. Tom Malinowski, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, is expected to press Vietnam to release unconditionally political prisoners and reform its laws to comply with its international commitments. Relations between the United States and Vietnam have moved to a new level in the past two years as Washington seeks to make a new ally in Asia, but the communist nation’s zero-tolerance approach to its detractors remains a sticking point. Vietnam has jailed dissidents, bloggers and religious figures in recent years, holding them for long periods without access to family or legal counsel and often subject to torture or other mistreatment, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch. The United States has been intensifying efforts in building stronger ties - in health, education, environment, energy and recently military - to boost its influence, and offset that of China. The United States and Vietnam, along with 10 others, this year signed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), one of the world’s biggest multinational trade deals. Though the TPP has no requirements for members to reach certain standards in human rights, analysts say Vietnam’s record of arrests, intimidation and oppression of those who speak out against the ruling Communist Party could add to anticipated resistance to the pact among U.S. legislators. The TPP must be ratified by each member country’s parliament. Malinowski said during his visit to Vietnam last year that he had seen signs of progress on human rights but the country needed to make a stronger commitment. Rights groups, however, say those improvements might be short-lived and designed to ensure its smooth accession to multilateral trade agreements, including a pact with the European Union.

Republicans plan healthcare vote; Obama and TV host denounce bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Republicans announced plans to vote next week on their latest bid to scuttle Obamacare even as a popular comedian who has become part of the U.S. healthcare debate denounced the bill and former President Barack Obama on Wednesday warned of “real human suffering.” President Donald Trump, who has expressed frustration at the Senate’s failure thus far to pass legislation dismantling Obama’s signature legislative achievement, said “47 or 48” Republicans back the bill, which needs 50 votes for passage in the 100-seat Senate, which his Republican Party controls 52-48. “We think this has a very good chance,” Trump, who made replacing Obamacare a top 2016 campaign promise, told reporters during an appearance with Egypt’s president in New York. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul opposes the bill. At least five other Republicans are undecided on it: Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, John McCain of Arizona and Jerry Moran of Kansas. Republican Senator John Thune on Fox News said: “We’re a handful of votes short of having the 50 that we need.” As they worked to gather enough votes to win, after prior legislation failed in July, congressional Republicans and the White House were on the defensive after Jimmy Kimmel used his late-night TV show to blast the proposal and call Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, one of its two sponsors, a liar. “This guy, Bill Cassidy, just lied right to my face,” Kimmel said on his show on Tuesday night, referring to the senator who since May had touted a “Jimmy Kimmel test” of standards any Obamacare replacement would need to possess. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was noncommittal on Tuesday about scheduling a vote, now intends to bring it to the Senate floor next week, said his spokesman David Popp. Republicans are using the measure Cassidy is sponsoring with fellow Senator Lindsey Graham to make one last push this year to pass legislation to roll back the 2010 Obamacare law, a goal of theirs for seven years, facing a Sept. 30 deadline. Avalere Health, a healthcare consultancy to hospitals and insurers, forecast that the bill would slash federal funding to states by $215 billion through 2026, with 34 states facing cuts. Hit hard would be Democratic-governed California and New York, which expanded the Medicaid insurance program for the poor and disabled under Obamacare, while Republican-governed Texas, which did not expand Medicaid, would be a winner, Avalere said. It remained unclear if the bill, opposed by Democrats and top medical groups and hospitals, can attract the 50 votes needed for passage, with Vice President Mike Pence ready to cast a tie-breaking vote. In a speech in New York, Obama defended the Affordable Care Act, known informally as Obamacare, which expanded medical insurance to 20 million Americans. “So when I see people trying to undo that hard-won progress for the 50th or 60th time, with bills that would raise costs or reduce coverage or roll back protections for older Americans or people with pre-existing conditions ... it is aggravating,” the Democratic former president said. “And it’s certainly frustrating to have to mobilize every couple of months to keep our leaders from inflicting real human suffering on our constituents.” Cassidy defended his bill, which would divvy up healthcare money as block grants to states, let them opt out of some Obamacare consumer protections and waive requirements that insurers cover certain benefits. It also would end Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. Kimmel entered the healthcare debate after revealing on his show in May that his newborn son had undergone life-saving emergency surgery for a congenital heart condition, and pleaded that no family be denied medical care because they cannot afford it. Cassidy appeared that month on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” “He said he would only support a healthcare bill that made sure a child like mine would get the health coverage he needs no matter how much money his parents make,” Kimmel said on Tuesday. “Stop using my name, OK? Because I don’t want my name on it. There’s a new ‘Jimmy Kimmel test’ for you. It’s called the lie detector test. You’re welcome to stop by the studio and take it any time,” he said to cheers from his audience. Cassidy, a gastroenterologist who represents Louisiana, gave a measured response to Kimmel’s remarks, telling reporters on Capitol Hill, “It was a personal attack and I can’t help that.” Graham blasted the comedian. “I bet he looked at some liberal talking point, bought it hook, line and sinker, and went after Bill Cassidy without talking to him. And I think that’s unfair,” Graham said on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” show. Cassidy said his proposal would protect people who are already ill, although it does let states waive an Obamacare mandate that insurers cannot charge people who have pre-existing medical conditions more than those who are healthy. “There is a specific provision that says that if a state applies for a waiver, it must ensure that those with pre-existing conditions have affordable and adequate coverage,” Cassidy told CNN. Trump, in a tweet late on Wednesday, said he would not sign the bill if it did not include coverage of pre-existing conditions. “It does! A great bill,” Trump said.

Canada’s Trudeau Throws MAJOR Shade At ‘Grizzly Bear’ Trump; It’s GLORIOUS

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is a diplomatic, nice guy unlike his American counterpart, Donald Trump. While speaking on the issue of how to deal with Trump, Trudeau was able to show class and grace, while still throwing major shade at the bombastic, bumbling American president. Trudeau s low-key handling of Trump could cost him with his progressive base at home, but given Trump s penchant for retaliation, going after Trump explicitly could be harmful to Canada s economy, given the fact that they export so many products to our country.While speaking on Trump, Trudeau said: Why poke a grizzly bear while it s having lunch? Trump has just got into office and he is formulating his economic plans. This is clearly a departure from the closeness Trudeau had with President Obama. Their adorable bromance and open and affectionate friendship is surely something that will not be duplicated with Trump. Those familiar with the situation on how Trudeau may handle Trump acknowledge that no one quite knows what to do with him at this point. One source said: He is totally unpredictable. Of course, this isn t the first time Trudeau has thrown passive aggressive public punches at Trump. After Trump s Muslim ban threw the nation and world into chaos, Trudeau tweeted:To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) January 28, 2017Of course, Trudeau s reluctance to go after Trump may not last long. He is up for re-election in 2019, and will have to continue to tout his commitment to diversity and inclusion in the fact of Trump s crude nationalism and open bigotry. However, Canadian Pollster Nik Nanos says Trudeau is doing the right thing regarding Trump for now: He has to avoid making any kind of criticism. Trump has a very thin skin and he s quick to lash out. That may be, but given Trudeau s public statements regarding diversity and progressive values, he is not likely to hold off for long before he takes the gloves off regarding Trump. We ll be lucky if America has ANY friends left by the end of Trump s term.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Trump's Washington foreign policy speech

(Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump delivered a major foreign policy speech on Wednesday, vowing always to put America first.. The following are highlights from his address: “No country has ever prospered that failed to put its own interests first. Both our friends and our enemies put their countries above ours and we, while being fair to them, must start doing the same. We will no longer surrender this country or its people to the false song of globalism. The nation-state remains the true foundation for happiness and harmony. I am skeptical of international unions that tie us up and bring America down.” “The Russians and Chinese have rapidly expanded their military capability, but look at what’s happened to us. Our nuclear weapons arsenal, our ultimate deterrent, has been allowed to atrophy and is desperately in need of modernization and renewal.” “Our active duty armed forces have shrunk from 2 million in 1991 to about 1.3 million today. The Navy has shrunk from over 500 ships to 272 ships during this same period of time. The air force is about one-third smaller than 1991. Pilots flying B-52s, in combat missions today - these planes are older than virtually everybody in this room.” “President Obama watches helplessly as North Korea increases its aggression and expands further and further with its nuclear reach. Our president has allowed China to continue its economic assault on American jobs and wealth, refusing to enforce trade deals and apply leverage on China necessary to rein in North Korea. We have the leverage. We have the power over China, economic power, and people don’t understand it. And with that economic power we can rein in and we can get them to do what they have to do with North Korea, which is totally out of control.”     “Russia, for instance, has also seen the horror of Islamic terrorism. I believe an easing of tensions, and improved relations with Russia from a position of strength only is possible, absolutely possible. Common sense says this cycle, this horrible cycle of hostility, must end and ideally will end soon.” “We have a massive trade deficit with China, a deficit that we have to find a way quickly, and I mean quickly, to balance. A strong and smart America is an America that will find a better friend in China, better than we have right now. Look at what China is doing in the South China Sea. They’re not supposed to be doing it. No respect for this country or this president. We can both benefit or we can both go our separate ways. If need be, that’s what’s going to have to happen.” “And then there’s ISIS. I have a simple message for them: Their days are numbered. I won’t tell them where and I won’t tell them how.” “ISIS will be gone if I’m elected president. And they’ll be gone quickly.” “He (Obama) negotiated a disastrous deal with Iran, and then we watched them ignore its terms even before the ink was dry. Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.” “He (Obama) supported the ouster of a friendly regime in Egypt that had a longstanding peace treaty with Israel, and then helped bring the Muslim Brotherhood to power in its place. “Israel, our great friend and the one true democracy in the Middle East has been snubbed and criticized by an administration that lacks moral clarity. “President Obama has not been a friend to Israel.  He has treated Iran with tender love and care and made it a great power.” “After I’m elected president, I will also call for a summit with our NATO allies and a separate summit with our Asian allies. In these summits, we will not only discuss a rebalancing of financial commitments, but take a fresh look at how we can adopt new strategies for tackling our common challenges.     “For instance, we will discuss how we can upgrade NATO’s outdated mission and structure, grown out of the Cold War to confront our shared challenges, including migration and Islamic terrorism.”

Cambodia deports 61 telecom extortion scam suspects

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia police on Saturday deported 61 Chinese nationals wanted in China on suspicion of extorting money over the internet and by phone, they said, but Taiwan said 19 were from Taiwan. Several hundred suspected scammers have been arrested in Cambodia, which has emerged as a major center of rackets that have cost the victims billions of dollars. Pictures sent to Reuters on Saturday showed suspects wearing red shirts with their wrists bound together ahead of the deportation. Uk Heisela, chief of investigation at Cambodia s immigration department, said Chinese police had arrived to pick up the suspects. The Immigration Department deported 61 suspects, including 13 women, who were involved in extortions on the internet, Uk Heisela told Reuters. Uk Heisela said they had been detained during raids on Oct 17 and Oct 21 in the capital, Phnom Penh, and in Kandal and Preah Sihanouk provinces. Taiwan s government said 19 of them were from Taiwan, and that it had lodged a strong protest with China about the deportations. Taiwan has been unhappy that Taiwanese extortion suspects have been deported to China in the past and has accused Phnom Penh of acting at the behest of Beijing. China considers self-ruled Taiwan sovereign territory and Cambodia is one of China s closest allies in Southeast Asia.

Trump pulls just ahead in two key U.S. states: poll

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump pulled ahead of Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton in Florida and Pennsylvania in a Quinnipiac Poll released on Wednesday that included responses after the FBI released its findings on Clinton’s email use. Clinton lost ground on honesty and moral standards in the poll that showed tight races in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio, all swing states that could go to either party in November’s presidential election. The Quinnipiac Poll, taken from June 30 to July 11, showed Trump competitive in the three states a week before the start of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland that will formally nominate him as the party’s presidential candidate for the Nov. 8 election. Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the poll, said there was no definite link between Clinton’s drop in Florida from Quinnipiac’s June 21 survey and the FBI’s findings that she was careless in her handling of government emails while U.S. secretary of state. But he said Clinton lost ground to Trump on questions that measure moral standards and honesty. Clinton lost an 8-point lead in Florida, where Trump won 42 percent to Clinton’s 39 percent, according to the Quinnipiac Poll. In Ohio, the poll showed the candidates tied at 41 percent. In Pennsylvania, the Quinnipiac poll showed Trump with 43 percent to Clinton’s 41 percent. A NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released this week showed a very different result in Pennsylvania, with Clinton leading Trump 45 to 36 percent. The July 5-10 poll included 829 registered voters and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points. Nationally, Clinton leads Trump by 13 percentage points, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday. The online poll showed that 46 percent of likely voters support Clinton while 33 percent support Trump. The July 8-12 included 1,146 likely voters and has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3 percentage points. FBI Director James Comey said last week Clinton was “extremely careless” in the handling of classified information but the investigation found no evidence she or her colleagues intended to violate laws. Clinton, a former U.S. senator and first lady, has faced heavy criticism from Republicans for her use of private email servers for government business while she led the State Department from 2009 to 2013. The Quinnipiac poll was conducted by telephone with people who identified as registered voters. It included 1,015 people in Florida, 955 people in Ohio and 982 people in Pennsylvania. The margin of error was around three percentage points in all three states.

Trump Ends A Recent Tradition Established By Obama

President Trump is once again proving that he will be running the White House in a vastly different manner than his predecessor.For the past several years Barack Obama welcomed ESPN to the White House to fill out the NCAA tournament bracket. The news called this Baracketology. The Sports network reached out to the Trump staff, asking if the president would be continuing the tradition, but according to The Washington Post, the offer was declined. We expressed our interest to the White House in continuing the presidential bracket. They have respectfully declined, an ESPN spokesman said in a statement.Unfortunately, this tweet might be correct, Baracketology may be the best thing Obama did while in office.the best thing Barack Obama did in his 8 years. #Baracketology #ObamaFarewell pic.twitter.com/Z1blhjN3rG nick stasiak (@1staz8) January 11, 2017(Source: IOTW Report, Daily Caller)

As North Korea threat looms, Trump to address world leaders at U.N.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - North Korea’s nuclear threat looms large this week over the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations in New York, where diplomats are eager to hear U.S. President Donald Trump address the 193-member body for the first time. North Korean diplomats will have a front-row seat in the U.N. General Assembly for Trump’s speech on Tuesday morning, which will touch on the escalating crisis that has seen Trump and Pyongyang trade threats of military action. Despite his skepticism about the value of international organizations and the United Nations in particular, Trump will seek support for tough measures against North Korea, while pressing his “America First” message to the world body. “This is not an issue between the United States and North Korea. This is an issue between the world and North Korea,” Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, said on Friday. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres - who, like Trump, took office in January - plans to meet separately with “concerned parties,” including North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho, on the sidelines of the 72nd General Assembly. “The solution can only be political. Military action could cause devastation on a scale that would take generations to overcome,” Guterres warned on Wednesday. A week ago, the 15-member U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted its ninth sanctions resolution since 2006 over North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said U.N. sanctions had banned 90 percent of the Asian state’s publicly reported exports, saying of Pyongyang on Friday: “This is totally in their hands on how they respond.” Haley told CNN’s “State of the Union” program on Sunday that Washington had “pretty much exhausted” its options on North Korea at the Security Council. Ri is due to address the General Assembly on Friday. Some leaders will also push Trump not to give up on a 2015 deal curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions in return for a lifting of U.N., U.S. and European sanctions, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was time to “fix it - or cancel it.” The foreign ministers of Iran, the United States, Britain, Germany, Russia, China and France - the parties to the agreement - are due to meet on Wednesday ahead of an October deadline for Trump to tell Congress if he believes Tehran is sticking to what he has described as “the worst deal ever negotiated.” When asked on Friday what Moscow’s message would be for Washington, Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said: “Stay in the JCPOA (the nuclear deal).” A senior U.N. Security Council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “We are faced with real uncertainties with respect to North Korea and it’s a bit dangerous ... to add another source of uncertainty with respect to Iran.” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday his country would not be bullied by the United States and would react strongly to any “wrong move” by Washington on the nuclear deal. Iran and North Korea will also feature heavily during a ministerial Security Council meeting on Thursday, at the request of the United States, to discuss the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. While leaders and diplomats are also due to meet on longer-running crises including Libya, Syria, South Sudan, Mali, Central African Republic, Yemen and Iraq, a last-minute addition has been Myanmar, where the United Nations has branded violence against Rohingya Muslims as “ethnic cleansing.” Britain is due to host a ministerial meeting on Monday to seek a way to get Myanmar authorities to end a military offensive in the country’s Rakhine state that has sent more than 400,000 minority Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh. Following Trump’s announcement that the United States would withdraw from a landmark 2015 global agreement to fight climate change, several high-level gatherings are planned on the sidelines of the General Assembly to bolster the deal. “Climate change is a serious threat,” Guterres told reporters. “Hurricanes and floods around the world remind us that extreme weather events are expected to become more frequent and severe, due to climate change.” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appeared to hold the door open for the United States to remain in the Paris climate accord “under the right conditions.” “The president said he is open to finding those conditions where we can remain engaged with others on what we all agree is still a challenging issue,” Tillerson said on CBS’ “Face The Nation” program on Sunday. Trump will seek to boost support for reforming the United Nations, which he once called “a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.” The United States is the largest U.N. contributor and Trump has complained that Washington pays too much. “The United Nations, of course, holds tremendous potential to realize its founding ideals, but only if it’s run more efficiently and effectively,” McMaster said on Friday.

Tennessee Family Values GOP Leader Loses Job After Years Of Unsolicited Sexts To Young Women

The Tennessee House of Representatives needs to find a new majority whip after their last one was exposed of having repeatedly sexually harassed young women while he trumpeted family values from his political office.State Rep. Jeremy Durham formally announced he would be stepping down from his leadership role (but not giving up his seat in the legislature) after an investigation by the Tennessean found that he had repeatedly sent sexual texts to at least three women, oftentimes late at night.One woman in her mid-20s, who worked in various capacities at the statehouse, said during the 2013 legislative session, Durham repeatedly sent text messages and Facebook messages, sometimes late into the night.One text message, after 10 p.m., says he misses her.In another text, at about 1:30 a.m., Durham asks her for pictures.Another of Durham s victims reported that the politician sent her dozens of texts in a similar vein. In fact, he seemed so persistent that it s a wonder he had time to work in between bouts of sexual harassment.A text from Durham, sent at about 1 a.m., asks the woman for pictures. For me, I was just trying to engage professionally, from one professional to another. And he crossed the line: You don t text and constantly message on Facebook and ask to meet up at bars in the evening, the woman said. He would come up with these ideas and I would just be like, Are you crazy? All three women said they did not make formal complaints against Durham because they feared what he and his fellow politicians might do when they found out. When one victim finally did alert leaders in the Tennessee legislature, it became clear that their fears were well founded. Rather than immediately attempt to get to the bottom of it, the politicians quickly convened with lawyers and concluded that the best course of action was to silence her. When a colleague floated the idea of letting the victim address the Republican caucus, they dismissed it out of hand. I think the general response was that it would be a bad precedent, just to get somebody who shows up at a caucus meeting and goes after a member, without going through a formal process, McCormick said.The formal process wound up accomplishing nothing. It took the explosive report in the Tennessean to kickstart Durham s downfall.This isn t Durham s first run in with scandal. Just two years ago, the Republican rising star was turned in by a pharmacist for trying to forge a drug prescription. When police arrived, Durham had a meltdown that was in all its glory caught on tape. (A grand jury later refused to indict him. Shocking.)Right on cue, Durham blamed the liberal media for his latest problems. Having been let off the hook before, it s looking as if Durham is expecting to weather this storm as well. He may have miscalculated. Adding to the bizarre spectacle happening in the Tennessee GOP, Durham appears to have been stripped of his post while he was busy watching football. When reporters called his house to ask about his resignation, it was all news to him. I m talking it over with my family but have not made a decision. Nothing should ve gone out. Watching Broncos game at the moment. Family values conservative getting caught doing anything but valuing families has become a painfully common hypocrisy for the Republican Party. While politicians of all stripes have moral failings, conservatives have long propped themselves up on the idea that they are ethically superior than their liberal counterparts. The concept, ludicrous on its face, has only become more absurd with every scandal.Feature image via WSMV Channel 4 screenshot

Watch Ted Cruz Suffer An INSANE Meltdown After Someone Asks If He’ll Support Trump (VIDEO)

The battle between Republican presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz and Donald Trump continues to intensify, as both candidates keep fanning the flames by directing insults at each other.On Tuesday, Cruz s emotions seemed to get the better of him as he snapped on a reporter for simply asking him if he would be supporting his front runner rival if he became the GOP nominee. This public meltdown came just a few days after Meet the Press host Chuck Todd had tried to ask Cruz if he would keep his pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee regardless of who it was, and Cruz repeatedly dodged the question.Cruz had been busy insulting the business mogul at a press conference in Evansville, Indiana when NBC News correspondent Hallie Jackson tried to get a straight answer from the Texas senator on whether or not he would back Trump, hoping to get more of an answer than Todd was able to. Jackson asked: These are some of the strongest words you ve used against Donald Trump yet. You know I ve been with you, I ve heard you talk about him. Today feels different for you. So, I m going to ask you a question and you re going to say that I sound like a broken record While it was clear that Cruz didn t want to answer the question, his rude response was shocking. Jackson was abruptly cut off by Cruz, who aggressively said, You sound like a broken record. Someone else have a question? Jackson tried to object and get a straight answer from the candidate. She pressed, Why not say once and for all? Cruz continued to give Jackson a nasty attitude and angrily replied, You ve asked one already, Hallie. You ve asked already. Frustrated, Jackson continued to badger Cruz to answer her: Will you support him as the nominee? I don t understand why you won t answer the question, Senator. If you think he s a liar If you say he s a pathological liar, and you say that you can t Cruz continued to scold Jackson and ignore her request, making the situation tense and uncomfortable. You can watch Cruz completely disrespect and ignore Jackson below:It looks as though Cruz doesn t want to accept the harsh reality that he might lose the Republican nominee to Trump. Anything that reminds Cruz that he s in second place will easily send him into a full-blown temper tantrum.Featured image via Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / Getty Images

will draftourdaughters bring hillary down

the sad saga of john walker lindh rebel without a clue the sad saga of john walker lindh rebel without a clue beau albrecht my father was a highranking student radical poobah and still thinks castro is the bees knees although this makes me technically a red diaper baby i rejected all that baloney early on these days i write stories mostly comedy science fiction as well as maintain a blog mainly about dating advice political commentary and my writing projects november culture john walker lindh grew up in the washington dc area his family brought him to california when he was ten in another ten years he would become known as the american taliban while in afghanistan he was known as sulayman alfaris one of several arabic monikers hes used over the years johnny joins the jihad there are moments when one realizes ones vacation is really starting to suck when he was twelve the young lindh saw spike lees rather hagiographic film biography about malcolm x that began his fascination with islam while a teenager he used the evocative email email protected and made several postings about rap music on usenet sometimes he pretended to be black even having the nerve to dis dr dre hort dog does hip hop no glory wack like dr dre and his madeup gangster stories sellout house nigga living honkey dory saying hes broke in his own pool doing laps all these playground mcs fall off like scabs skills disappear like alaka abracadab dr dres a disgrace selling out to the talcolm hell be left dead and naked in the outcome word to brother malcolm dre shirts and hats when will we see his cereal so whos the poseur there anyway im not sure whether to laugh at the sheer impertinence or cry at the abuse of the english language when he was sixteen he formally converted beginning his fateful journey meanwhile his family situation was on shaky ground his father turned gay living parttime with his male lover and eventually divorced john began his world travels twice venturing to yemen both times for nearly a year later he stayed at a pakistani madrassa in may he went to afghanistan to fight on behalf of the taliban unfortunately for him after september american forces went to war with the taliban he was captured on november after his unit surrendered in kunduz the cia questioned him and he claimed to be an irishman that must have been an interesting conversation perhaps ach begorrah top o the mornin to ye presumably pretending to be black again wouldnt have gotten him very far shortly after the captive jihadis staged a bloody uprising and lindh escaped hundreds died including mike spann one of his interrogators after that he was recaptured andfollowing some rough treatment not that im shedding any tears about itquestioned again he announced defiantly that he wasnt in the taliban but rather al qaeda his actions sealed his doom fighting for the taliban fruitcakes was a pretty dumb move on his part his actions after being captured were even dumber what could he have done differently in the beginning he couldve said he was interested in islam and his quest for discovering his spiritual roots took him abroad then he could have lied and told them he was pressganged into the taliban and he was quite happy to be freed by his countrymen he could have tipped off his interrogators about the planned escape attemptpotentially sparing many lives on both sidesas well as avoiding further criminal charges for himself had he given a helpful warning about the uprising likely they wouldve concluded he was small fry and let him go after that he couldve become the star of the daytime tv talk shows then he couldve given speeches on the antiwar circuit helping his jihadi buddies by saying they really arent that bad or whatever instead he ended up faced with ten criminal charges which couldve meant three life sentences plus ninety years finally getting smart he copped a plea for twenty years with the possibility of three off for good behavior now hes in federal prison making the news back in by suing for the right to be allowed group prayer what went wrong as bush the elder put it lindh was some misguided marin county hottubber later he apologized profusely for the remark still i have to say that bush was onto something with that one all the criticism he got from that was because the truth hurts things couldve been different lindh didnt have to become a renegade if hed made other choices he could be living a happy life as a productive member of society rather than counting the days in a prison cell still his environment bears some responsibility for what he became he was raised in the catholic faith but a stronger grounding in itas well as explaining some of the unpleasant realities about islam to balance out the picture might have put the kibosh on his journey to jihad a liberal environment should at least be able to explain why all thats bad or has liberalism become too wishywashy to assert its own values there wasnt much chance of parental guidance turning him from the wrong path his mother converted to buddhism and his father left for the gay community for that matter if he had acquired an appreciation for good musicbe it mozart or metallicaperhaps he wouldnt have been so fascinated by irritating rap music what kind of white kid is so alienated from his heritage that he pretends to be black and laughably accuses dr dre of selling out on that note as for malcolm x didnt lindh have some cultural icons of his own i have to wonder if he received much grounding in his own irishamerican heritage all this is an illustration of what can happen when an impressionable adolescent is cast adrift in an anything goes environment islam speaks in absolutes enjoining right conduct and forbidding haram conduct and they fight for what they believe in i cant fault them too much for that although i disagree with their theology and actions on many points going further islam offers paradise for believerspromising seventy virgins to their martyrsand eternal hellfire and brimstone for the damned theres nothing wishywashy about it indeed embracing radical islam could be interpreted as an utter rejection of the anything goes world view i certainly dont agree with lindhs choices but i can see how he found that compelling in comparison to being at sea in moral relativism this certainly isnt the first time that people turned their backs on their countries and went abroad to give aid and comfort to the enemy jane fondas north vietnam adventure comes to mind an action she now regrets more recently there were about five hundred misguided youths who volunteered to be human shields in iraq for their pal saddam for all their posturing none of them got themselves blown up over there leaving aside the question of whether or not the resumption of war was justified fewer social justice warriors wouldve helped cleanse the gene pool a bit then theres the odd case of matthew todd miller a californian who went to north korea tore up his visa and announced he was seeking political asylum that ones an iffy case though later he said i just wanted to speak to an ordinary north korean person about normal things kids these days in summary dont let this happen to our youth they must not grow up culturally bereft in times past children were taught about their countrys heritage instructed in their culture and pride in their nation was instilled in them it was a given that these were presented as good things these daysat least in much of the western worldthis isnt happening we cant count on the educational systemand certainly the mediato do that any more because of decades of cultural marxism young people are indoctrinated with a negative view of their own civilization all societies beliefs and ways of life are equal except yours are terrible those who dont see through that baloney end up rootless alienated and disconnected from their own culture some even end up thinking that their homeland is the embodiment of all evil while repressive regimes abroad are wonderful this is basically what social justice weenies think something they have in common with young jihadi rebels without a clue this will have to change of course hopefully the day will come when the media manipulators and educational bureaucrats who pushed cultural marxism are standing in the unemployment line for now well have to pay close attention to the messages that the young people in our lives are absorbing and help them learn to be secure in their faith and cultural identity teach them about their roots and why thats important dont let the tv be your childs babysitter anything goes is not a standard by which to raise our youth

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items only geniuses schizophrenics can pass this question quiz many neuroscientists estimate that as much as of all brain activity is unconscious just think about that for a second all that unconscious activity is influenced heavily by the world around its subconscious cues to demonstrate that were going to call on a super cool quiz the premise is simple only geniuses and schizophrenics can answer the following three questions which one are you continue to find out there are no hints you either know it or you dont the test youve just done relies on what researchers call the contraposition method this method tests the extent of a persons awareness and brain processing power its a super complicated method with tons of moving parts so to speak but heres what you need to know for the purpose of this article there are objects which one can reasonably say are unrelated most people would assume for example that a race car and a hurricane have very little connection a genius who thinks outside of the box however would deduce some sort of connection a schizophrenic patient would also deduce a connection because of the way the illness makes people see nonexistent connections in just about everything in other words if the quiz in this article left you scratching your head youre normal if not one of two things is true youre brilliant or you have schizophrenia dont worry i wont leave you guessing here are some facts that will help you figure out which one you are geniuses will have taken their time to think before blurting a response did you get the answers right what do you think are you a schizophrenic or a genius as far as the schizophrenia angle goes this post is not a diagnostic tool it can get you thinking about schizophrenia and if you have concerns you can see a psychiatrist for a proper evaluation sources

Top Dems Take Action To Keep Documents On Russia Investigation Safe From Trump

Democrats are taking action to keep Donald Trump away from documents related to the investigation of his possible collusion with Russia to steal the presidential election. Following the firing of FBI Director James Comey, top ranking members of the Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the Justice Department urging the FBI to retain all Russia investigation documents and not share them with the Trump administration. It was brazen, one of the most staggering, stunning acts of a president compromising an investigation, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, said.Trump s decision to fire Comey (the person who just happened to be investigating him) is being compared to Richard Nixon s Saturday Night Massacre and Democrats have called his actions Nixonian, mind-boggling and a cover-up. If there was any question about the need for a special prosecutor, there is none now, Blumenthal said. They fired Sally Yates. They fired Preet Bharara. And now they fired Director Comey, the very man leading the investigation. This does not seem to be a coincidence, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. Comey was scheduled to testify on Thursday but what will happen now that he is no longer heading up the FBI remains to be seen. I doubt if he ll attend on Thursday but it is still my strong desire to have now-former director Comey to come and testify before the committee, Sen. Mark Warner said.Comey has indeed been invited to testify as a private citizen, although he has not yet accepted the offer. If he were to do so, and it was a closed-door hearing, he would be free to provide much more information now that he is not the director of the FBI. And this could prove disastrous for Trump.Hopefully, the FBI and the DOJ do as the Democrats are asking and keep these vital documents pertaining to the Russia investigation safe from not only the White House but Attorney General Jeff Sessions as well. Trump and his crooked cronies certainly aren t afraid of trying to make the evidence of their collusion disappear. They are in so deep that they will stop at nothing to escape the inevitable consequences that are coming.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Ecuador court sentences VP to six years in jail in Odebrecht graft case

QUITO (Reuters) - An Ecuadorean court on Wednesday sentenced Vice President Jorge Glas to six years in jail after finding him guilty of receiving bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht [ODBCT.UL] in return for handing the scandal-ridden firm state contracts. A close ally of leftist ex-President Rafael Correa, Glas served as Correa s vice president from 2013 and retained the position under current President Lenin Moreno. But Moreno, who has largely broken from Correa, suspended Glas in August, accusing him of not being a team player. An Ecuadorean judge in October then ordered pre-trial detention for Glas as part of the investigation into Odebrecht. The public prosecutor s office accused him of pocketing a roughly $13.5-million bribe from Odebrecht via his uncle. Glas constructed, with (former Odebrecht executive) Jose Conceicao Santos, the awarding of public contracts in return for payment, Judge Edgar Flores said on Wednesday as he read the decision. Glas, a 48-year-old electrical engineer, has been accused by senior members of Correa s government of corruption while serving as strategic sectors minister and vice president. His lawyer slammed the decision as unjust and vowed to appeal. Glas downfall highlights how fallout from the massive Odebrecht corruption scandal has continued to ripple across South America. The company, which has admitted to paying bribes to win contracts in a number of countries, has paid $3.5 billion in settlements in the United States, Brazil and Switzerland. Odebrecht allegedly paid $33.5 million in bribes to secure contracts in Ecuador. The opposition says that Correa s government was slow to investigate, although he rejects that.

Megyn Kelly Unveils DAMNING Truth Bomb About Trump’s Amazingly Hypocritical Campaign Performance

Prior to the election, one of the things that Trump kept harping on was how the DNC gave Hillary debate questions in advance. He claimed to have solid evidence of that, and so did conspiracy sites that purported to be able to see what Hillary was staring at on her podium for one of the debates. It seems, though, that Trump s gripe was less-than legitimate even more so than most of his gripes throughout the campaign.This kind of thing is only a problem if it could hurt him. When it benefits him, everyone should have at. But we knew that. What many probably didn t know is that the accusations he insisted on lobbing during the final stretch up to the disastrous Nov. 8 election were incredibly, amazingly, astonishingly, astoundingly hypocritical.Megyn Kelly s new book, Settle For More, details out a lot of what Trump did to her during the primaries. But that s not all. The New York Times review of her book says: The day before the first presidential debate, Mr. Trump was in a lather again, Ms. Kelly writes. He called Fox executives, saying he d heard that her first question was a very pointed question directed at him. This disconcerted her, because it was true: It was about his history of using disparaging language about women. The day before. Now how did he know what Kelly was going to ask, we wonder? Could it be that someone at Fox leaked the debate questions to him? There s no other way for him to know that.Throughout the last 17 months, the accusations Trump leveled at his enemies were things he himself was guilty of. Following the third general election debate, he was adamant about exposing alleged treachery on the part of the DNC and Hillary. His claim was that she d gotten the debate questions in advance, while he was kept in the dark. We have to ask Trump, Project, much? Then again, projection is what he does.But that s not all Settle For More also contains this tidbit: On the day of the debate, Ms. Kelly writes, she woke up feeling great. Then an overzealous, suspiciously enthusiastic driver picked her up to take her to the convention center. He insisted on getting her coffee, though she d repeatedly declined his offer. Once it was in her hand, she drank it. And within 15 minutes, she was violently ill, vomiting so uncontrollably that it was unclear if she d be able to go on and help moderate that evening. It was so bad that she kept a trash pail beneath her desk throughout the debate, just in case. Was Trump trying to poison her in advance of the debate? She doesn t say, and The New York Times wisely leaves that up to the reader to determine. Regardless, it s suspicious and entirely typical of a man like Trump he will stop at nothing to get revenge on his enemies. And the Electoral College will put this man in the White House.Photo of Megyn Kelly by Neilson Barnard via Getty Images for Hollywood Reporter. Photo of Trump by Zach Gibson via Getty Images

Somali man found guilty in kidnapping of Canadian journalist

(Reuters) - A Somali national has been convicted in an Ontario court for his role in the 2008 kidnapping of Canadian Amanda Lindhout, who was held captive in Somalia for 460 days and released only after her family paid a ransom, Canadian media reported on Wednesday. Ali Omar Ader, 40, was found guilty of one charge of hostage-taking for his role as negotiator for the kidnappers, in a decision handed down on Wednesday in Ontario Superior Court in Ottawa. Lindhout, a freelance journalist, was taken hostage in Somalia on Aug. 23, 2008, along with Australian photographer Nigel Brennan, while working on a story. They were released for ransom in November 2009. Ader was lured to Canada from Somalia in 2015 and arrested in Ottawa as part of a sting operation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in which an officer posed as a publisher interested in a book Ader was writing on Somalia, according to court documents. Prosecutors argued that Ader had been the main spokesman for the hostage-takers, negotiating first with Lindhout s mother and later with a private consultant hired by the families of Lindhout and Brennan. According to court documents, he referred to himself as a commander and repeatedly threatened that the hostages would be harmed or killed unless the ransom was paid. During his trial, Ader said that he too had been kidnapped by the group holding Lindhout captive, and was forced to act as their spokesman, as he spoke some English. In his ruling, Justice Robert Smith said Ader s claims were completely unbelievable, numerous Canadian media outlets reported. Reuters has not read the ruling. Ader faces up to life in prison. Sentencing in the case is not expected until next year. Lindhout has said she was repeatedly sexually and physically assaulted during her captivity, and both she and Brennan have said they were tortured and starved. In 2013, Lindhout recounted her experience in the book A House in the Sky.

Factbox: Xi allies dominate China's new 25-member Politburo

(Reuters) - While the new seven-member Politburo Standing Committee unveiled on Wednesday by China s ruling Communist Party was not packed with people regarded as close to President Xi Jinping, his allies dominate the new Politburo - the second tier in Beijing s power structure. Of the 25 members of the Politburo, at least 14 were known to be close to Xi, according to sources with ties to the leadership and foreign diplomats in Beijing. In five years time, some of them could be promoted to the Standing Committee, China s pinnacle of power. The 14 exclude Xi himself, who heads the Politburo. By comparison, the new Standing Committee included just one close Xi ally, although the other members are not seen as rivals. Xi s known allies on the Politburo, in alphabetical order: Cai Qi, Beijing party boss Chen Miner, Chongqing party boss Chen Xi, who is likely to become minister of the party s organization or personnel department Ding Xuexiang, who is expected to become Xi s chief of staff as director of the party s General Office Huang Kunming, expected to become the party s propaganda minister Li Hongzhong, Tianjin party boss Li Qiang, Jiangsu party boss Li Xi, Liaoning party boss Li Zhanshu, who is tipped to become head of parliament having been appointed the third ranked member of the Standing Committee Liu He, economic adviser Wang Chen, a vice chairman and concurrently secretary-general of parliament General Xu Qiliang, a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission Yang Xiaodu, minister of supervision and deputy secretary of the anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection Zhang Youxia, a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission The average age of the new Politburo is 62.48 compared with 61.16 five years ago The oldest member is General Xu Qiliang, a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission. Xu and five others are at the cusp of retirement at 67 and can only serve one five-year term. The youngest is Guangdong party secretary Hu Chunhua, who was born in 1963. Two others were born in the 1960s, Chen Miner and Ding Xuexiang, 1960 and 1962 respectively. A fourth, Li Qiang, was born in 1959. Sun Chunlan, minister of the party s United Front Work Department, is the lone woman in the new Politburo. The previous Politburo had two women. Top diplomat Yang Jiechi surprisingly made it to the Politburo and could become one of four vice premiers, the first diplomat to hold that post since Qian Qichen, who was vice premier from 1993 to 2003. Qian was instrumental in breaking China out of diplomatic isolation after the military crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests. General Zhang Youxia, a close Xi ally, is a Politburo newcomer. He is one of two vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission, and his promotion confirms a Reuters report on Oct. 17. Vice President Li Yuanchao, outgoing Propaganda Minister Liu Qibao and former Xinjiang party boss Zhang Chunxian have not reached retirement age but did not retain their Politburo seats. Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong is not on the new Politburo, most likely dashing his chances of becoming party boss of China s financial capital. China s top cop, Politburo member Guo Shengkun, is expected to become security chief. There are no ethnic minorities on the new Politburo.

Supreme Court faces 4-4 split in Obamacare contraception case

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Wednesday headed toward a possible 4-4 split over a legal challenge by Christian nonprofit employers who object to providing female workers insurance covering birth control as required by President Barack Obama’s healthcare law. An evenly split ruling, with the court’s four liberals backing the Obama administration against the four conservative justices, would leave in place lower-court rulings rejecting challenges brought by the Christian organizations that oppose providing contraception coverage for religious reasons.     Justice Anthony Kennedy, who often casts the deciding vote in close cases, appeared more aligned with the court’s three other conservatives in favoring the challengers, which primarily were Roman Catholic including the archdiocese of Washington. The Christian employers call contraception immoral and argue that the government should not compel religious believers to choose between following their faith and following the law. They argue they should get the complete exemption from the mandate already given to places of worship such as churches, mosques and temples. Kennedy said if religious employers were forced to comply with the contraception mandate they would be “in effect, subsidizing the conduct that they deemed immoral.” Only eight justices heard the latest high-profile conservative challenge to the law, considered Obama’s signature legislative achievement, following conservative Justice Antonin Scalia’s Feb. 13 death. The court heard 90 minutes of arguments in the case, Zubik v. Burwell, on the sixth anniversary of Obama signing into law the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. The law has expanded medical insurance coverage to millions of previously uninsured Americans. Conservatives have mounted numerous legal challenges to the law. The Supreme Court in 2012 and 2015 issued high-profile rulings leaving Obamacare intact. The court heard arguments on seven consolidated cases focusing on whether nonprofit entities that oppose the requirement can object under a 1993 U.S. law called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to a compromise measure offered by the government. A ruling is due by the end of June.     A 4-4 split would set no national legal precedent against such claims, and would allow them in some parts of the country depending on lower-court rulings. The justices also potentially could order the case reargued. The Christian groups object to a 2013 compromise offered by the Obama administration that allowed groups opposed to providing insurance covering birth control to comply with the law without actually paying for the required coverage. Groups can certify they are opting out of the mandate by signing a form and submitting it to the government. The government then asks insurers to pick up the tab for contraception. The challengers contend the accommodation violates their religious rights by forcing them to authorize coverage for employees even if they are not paying for it. One question before the hearing was whether Kennedy would be more sympathetic to the government than he was in a 2014 case concerning the same contraception requirement. Kennedy was in the majority when the court ruled 5-4 that family-owned companies run on religious principles, including craft retailer Hobby Lobby Stores Inc, could object to the provision for religious reasons. Kennedy wrote a concurring opinion then saying an accommodation like the one now at issue could be acceptable. Nothing he said during Wednesday’s arguments indicated he thinks the accommodation now before the court passes legal muster. The federal government asserts it has a compelling interest in protecting the health of female workers, and that contraceptive coverage is part of that. The challengers say the government has imposed a substantial burden on their religious rights and that the waiver is not the least restrictive means, as required under the religious freedom law, toward its goal. Kennedy questioned whether it would be difficult for the government to arrange alternative access to contraception coverage that would not force religious groups to be complicit. “If it’s so easy to provide, if it’s so free, why can’t they just get it through another (insurance) plan?” Kennedy asked. Liberal justices raised concerns about giving nonprofit religious organizations the same exemptions churches get. Justice Elena Kagan said Congress might stop giving churches exemptions when it passes laws, posing a “mortal danger” to them. Liberal Sonia Sotomayor referred to the danger of widespread exemptions from government requirements, asking, “How will we ever have a government that functions?” Liberal Stephen Breyer said religious groups often contend with government decisions they oppose. He cited Quakers, who opposed the Vietnam War but were still required to pay taxes that funded military spending. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts said the challengers’ contention that the government was seeking to “hijack” their insurance plans in order to provide contraception coverage appeared to be an “accurate description of what the government wants to do.” Among other challengers in the case were: the Little Sisters of the Poor order of Roman Catholic nuns that runs care homes for the elderly; and Bishop David Zubik and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.

EU to ask Britain to look for 'solutions' to Ireland border: Guardian

(Reuters) - The European Union will soon ask Britain to take responsibility for solving the Irish border problems, according to documents leaked to the Guardian. Michel Barnier, the European Union s chief negotiator, will ask Britain to work out solutions that avoid the creation of a hard border with Ireland, the newspaper also reported. The news comes after the Guardian earlier reported, based on a draft memo it reviewed, that Britain is considering measures to restrict immigration for all but the highest-skilled EU workers. The British government declined to comment on the report while the European Union was not immediately available for comment.

FBI to give media some Clinton notes over email use: CNN

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI plans to hand over some of its notes from its interview with U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton regarding her use of private email while secretary of state to news outlets that requested them, CNN reported on Tuesday. However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will not yet release other notes from the law enforcement agency’s interviews with Clinton aides or turn over other investigative material, CNN said, citing unnamed sources. The materials could be released as soon as Wednesday to media companies that formally sought them under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), according to CNN. FBI representatives declined to confirm the report to Reuters. In addition to the notes, CNN said the FBI will give the news outlets the roughly 30-page report it sent to the U.S. Department of Justice last month when it recommended against pursuing criminal charges against Clinton, who is vying for the White House in the Nov. 8 U.S. election. The Clinton campaign, which had expressed concern about selective leaks from the notes, welcomed the release. “This is something that we wanted to have happen,” campaign spokeswoman Kristina Schake told CNN in an interview. Several media outlets, including Reuters, have made FOIA requests for a summary of the interview. Such requests are often returned with sensitive information redacted. FBI Director James Comey told Congress that the interview was not recorded, so the agency would only be able to provide a summary.

Why Is Mitch McConnell Suddenly So Afraid To Declare War On ISIS?

Let s face it, Obama s second term has been so wildly successful, the only thing Republicans can do to prevent him from being the greatest president in modern history is to block everything. This even includes things that Republicans keep screaming are necessary for the safety of the nation.If you need evidence of this, just look at Mitch McConnell s recent statement regarding ISIS, and why he claims he won t allow Obama s request for congressional approval for war come up for a vote.Well, the problem with what the president submitted for authorization to use military force restricted what he could do. I can t imagine that I would be voting for an authorization for the use of military force that Barack Obama would sign because the one he submitted for us to take a look at restricted his activities, what he could do based upon conditions on the ground.Look, I don t want to tie the hands of the next president. The next president may want to actually defeat ISIL. And I think an AUMF, an authorization to use military force, that ties the president s hands behind his back is not something I would want to do to a new president who s going to have to clean up this mess, created by all of this passivity over the last eight years.McConnell s Obama Derangement Syndrome is so bad that he is literally refusing to allow Obama to go to war with, of all things, ISIS. It would be hilarious if it was another nation doing this.Mitch McConnell is officially afraid that Obama will be able to defeat ISIS before he leaves office. The Obama coalition has already liberated about forty percent of previously held ISIS territory and has prevented any gains by them since May of 2015. If McConnell holds a vote for authorization for war against ISIS, every Republican would have to vote yes to approve Obama s actions. If they didn t, the knives would come out for every one of them in the next election cycle. If they vote yes, they would be seen as cooperating with the president. If Obama made significant progress in the fight against the terror group, Republicans couldn t run on ISIS in 2016 and 2018. If something bad happened, every Republican would get challenged for supporting a failed Democratic president. The only way Republicans can stay safe is by doing absolutely nothing to fight what they would otherwise call the greatest threat to America. That is just plain cowardly.Featured image via barefoot and progressive (altered)

U.S. Navy fires two commanders after Asia sea accidents

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy dismissed two senior officers on Monday after a series of collisions involving Seventh Fleet warships in Asia, citing a loss of confidence in their ability to command. Rear Admiral Charles Williams, commander of Task Force 70, and Captain Jeffrey Bennett, commander of Destroyer Squadron 15, were fired by Seventh Fleet commander Vice Admiral Phil Sawyer, the Navy said. In August, Sawyer replaced fleet commander Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, who was fired after the accidents. Both reliefs were due to a loss of confidence in their ability to command, the Navy statement said. The shakeup in the Seventh Fleet command followed a pre-dawn collision between guided-missile destroyer USS McCain and a merchant vessel east of Singapore and Malaysia on Aug. 21, which killed 10 sailors and was the fourth major incident in the U.S. Pacific Fleet this year. In June, another destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, collided with a Philippine cargo ship, killing seven U.S. sailors. Several other officers have also been relieved, with administrative action taken against other members of the ship s watch teams.

WATCH: CNN HOST GETS SCHOOLED By Guest After Comparing Oregon Protesters To #BlackLivesMatter Terrorists

Facts are funny things Ever wonder why the Left is so opposed to using them in an argument?CNN law enforcement analyst Art Rodericktold explained to CNN host Brian Stelter, armed protesters in Oregon who took over a federal building to protest a tyrannical federal government, were not being surrounded by federal agents because: They re not destroying property, they re not looting.

BREAKING: THE SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST THE EPA ON POWER PLANT REGULATIONS

SHOCKER! Great news that the EPA was shot down on their overreaching regulations. Justice Scalia got this one right when he wrote that it s not appropriate to impose billions of dollars of economic costs for little benefit in return.The Supreme Court has ruled against federal regulators attempt to limit power plant emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants.The rules began to take effect in April, but the court said by a 5-4 vote Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency failed to take their cost into account when the agency first decided to regulate the toxic emissions from coal- and oil-fired plants.The challenge was brought by industry groups and 21 Republican-led states.Writing for the court, Justice Antonin Scalia said it is not appropriate to impose billions of dollars of economic costs in return for a few dollars in health or environmental benefits.The case now goes back to lower courts for the EPA to decide how to account for costs.

EPIC! KRAUTHAMMER Nails Obama For Hiroshima Visit: “Dishonored Our Nation”

We couldn t have said it better! The brilliant Krauthammer rips into Obama for his visit to Hiroshima EPIC! Krauthammer: Obama closed the apology tour today in Hiroshima. And to say it wasn t a form of apology, of course he wasn t going to use the word. And yes he did speak in the abstract but he did it in Hiroshima Look, this is a visit he should have made next year as a private citizen. In which case he could speak like a naive private citizen about escaping the logic of fear And the president speaking as president, representing the United States, I thought it was embarrassing utopianism and the implicit apology dishonored our nation.

MSNBC ANCHOR Flabbergasted at What Texas Teachers Do to Protect Their Students [Video]

If we protect every other government building or public venue with armed guards, why shouldn t our schools be protected with armed teachers? A Texas Sheriff shocked an MSNBC host when he discussed how he prepares local teachers to be armed in the classroom. common sense solution? You betcha!Sheriff Paul Cairney of Argyle, Texas, described the process by which staff members can carry firearms in the school district. The Sheriff said that the staff at the school who choose to carry a firearm go through an intense round of interviews and training before they are allowed to carry on campus. The MSNBC host was flabbergasted at the practice and asked the Sheriff about concerns for the safety of the students in the school when there are firearms around.Sheriff Cairney: The time to do nothing is over THE PROCESS TO BECOME A SCHOOL MARSHALL:To become a school marshal, those employees must undergo extensive active shooter and firearms training with the state. They must also undergo a mental health evaluation. They receive a school marshal designation by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement and must renew their license every two years by undergoing the same training and evaluation. Outside of campuses in Keene and Argyle, signs warn visitors that there are staff members who are armed and are prepared to protect children.

DETECTIVE ON SETH RICH Murder Mystery Drops Shocking News [Video]

Rod Wheeler was on Hannity last night with startling information on the Seth Rich murder mystery. He spoke about the mystery of why they can t locate the computer Rich used. They went on to discuss clues in the case that point to collusion between the DC police and the DNC. The most shocking information comes at the 4:20 mark when Wheeler says this:Rod Wheeler: Here s one other thing that is going to be startling I m just gonna say this right now. I reached out to the police department way back in March when the family first hired me right..to get involved. I didn t hear anything from the police department for 2-3 days.Guess what I learned yesterday from the family of Seth Rich? The police department did not call me back because someone, a high ranking official at the DNC check this out a high ranking official at the DNC when I called the police department, they got that information and called the Rich family wanting to know, why was I snooping around? The plot thickens in this case. Will we finally find the murderer of this young man and who is behind it?IN CASE YOU HAVEN T SEEN UPDATES ON THIS CASE:CONFIRMED BOMBSHELL: SETH RICH Sent Over 44,000 DNC Emails To Journalist, Best Friend Of Wikileaks Founder DC Police Officer Claims They Were Told To Stand Down On Case [VIDEO]Wow! The private investigator hired by the Rich family to look into the death of 27-year old murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich just revealed some stunning evidence. It s been confirmed that over 44,000 emails and over 17,000 attachments were sent to the now deceased investigative journalist and best friend of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Now that this new information has been made available to the public, will the media be asking Hillary or the DNC any questions about their involvement in Rich s death? Will the DOJ be opening an investigation into his death in light of this new stunning evidence? What about the alleged Russian hack of the DNC emails that the media tried to tie to President Trump?Just two months shy of the one-year anniversary of Rich s death, FOX 5 has learned there is new information that could prove these theorists right.Rod Wheeler, a private investigator hired by the Rich family, suggests there is tangible evidence on Rich s laptop that confirms he was communicating with WikiLeaks prior to his death.Now, questions have been raised on why D.C. police, the lead agency on this murder investigation for the past ten months, have insisted this was a robbery gone bad when there appears to be no evidence to suggest that.Wheeler, a former D.C. police homicide detective, is running a parallel investigation into Rich s murder. He said he believes there is a cover-up and the police department has been told to back down from the investigation. The police department nor the FBI have been forthcoming, said Wheeler. They haven t been cooperating at all. I believe that the answer to solving his death lies on that computer, which I believe is either at the police department or either at the FBI. I have been told both. When we asked Wheeler if his sources have told him there is information that links Rich to Wikileaks, he said, Absolutely. Yeah. That s confirmed. Wheeler also told us, I have a source inside the police department that has looked at me straight in the eye and said, Rod, we were told to stand down on this case and I can t share any information with you. Now, that is highly unusual for a murder investigation, especially from a police department. Again, I don t think it comes from the chief s office, but I do believe there is a correlation between the mayor s office and the DNC and that is the information that will come out [Tuesday].The Democratic National Committee staffer who was gunned down on July 10 on a Washington, D.C., street just steps from his home had leaked thousands of internal emails to WikiLeaks, law enforcement sources told Fox News.A federal investigator who reviewed an FBI forensic report detailing the contents of DNC staffer Seth Rich s computer generated within 96 hours after his murder, said Rich made contact with WikiLeaks through Gavin MacFadyen, a now-deceased American investigative reporter, documentary filmmaker, and director of WikiLeaks who was living in London at the time. FOX5DCHere is the tweet announcing the death of Gavin MacFayden only weeks before the U.S. presidential election:Gavin Macfadyen was mentor to Assange (and his closest friend in London), to WikiLeaks' Sarah Harrison, Joseph Farrell and many others. WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 23, 2016 I have seen and read the emails between Seth Rich and Wikileaks, the federal investigator told Fox News, confirming the MacFadyen connection. He said the emails are in possession of the FBI, while the stalled case is in the hands of the Washington Police Department.The revelation is consistent with the findings of Rod Wheeler, a former DC homicide detective and Fox News contributor and whose private investigation firm was hired by Rich s family to probe the case. Rich was shot from behind in the wee hours, but was not robbed. My investigation up to this point shows there was some degree of email exchange between Seth Rich and Wikileaks, Wheeler said. I do believe that the answers to who murdered Seth Rich sits on his computer on a shelf at the DC police or FBI headquarters. The federal investigator, who requested anonymity, said 44,053 emails and 17,761 attachments between Democratic National Committee leaders, spanning from January 2015 through late May 2016, were transferred from Rich to MacFadyen before May 21. FOX NewsWe reported on this story extensively. Here are some of our stunning findings over the past 10 months. It s pretty stunning that it took so long to find out about the e-mails on Rich s laptop: Conspiracy theories have been surrounding the murder of Seth Rich. They reached a new frenzy after the hacking of DNC e-mails led to the resignation of its chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.Rich was beaten, shot and killed early on the morning of July 8 while he was walking home and talking on the phone to his girlfriend. Police have said they haven t determined if his murder was a botched robbery or something else. The killer or killers appear to have taken nothing from their victim, leaving behind his wallet, watch and phone.Wikileaks just confirmed murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich was the source of the DNC leak.Wikileaks released a series direct messages from US alleged Russian spy Guccifer 2.0 to actress model Robbin Young (according to Young).In the stream of texts the discussion leads to the DNC leaker.His name is Seth ** In November Julian Assange said Russia did not hack into the DNC servers. -h/t GP Here s the proof:Direct Messages from U.S. alleged Russian spy @GUCCIFER_2 to actress-model @robbin_young (according to the latter) https://t.co/uMsB9WgxRQ WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 8, 2017Actress Robbin Young claims she had given this information she received from Guccifer 2.0 to the authorities but, no one cared :https://twitter.com/Robbin_Young/status/850743524953702404Actress Robbin Young states that Guccifer 2.0 told her, i m eager to find facts about seth, i m sure it wasn t just a robbery. seth was assassinated. :Guccifer 2.0 said, "i'm eager to find fact about seth, i'm sure it wasn't just a robbery. seth was assassinated." #SethRich Robbin Young (@Robbin_Young) March 29, 2017In June 2016,the hacker Guccifer 2.0 claimed responsibility for breaking into the Democratic National Committee s servers, lifting opposition research the DNC had gathered, including a 200-page document focused on presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.The hacker s moniker is an homage to Guccifer, the nom de guerre of Romanian hacker Marcel Lazar who claimed a previous hack into Hillary Clinton s private email server and is now awaiting prosecution for cybercrimes. RTWhile Wikileaks Julian Assange was being interviewed by John Pilger, he brought up the death of Seth Rich. Watch Assange s strange and somewhat cagey reply.Here is part of the conversation:Julian Assange: Whistleblowers go to significant efforts to get us material and often very significant risks. As a 27 year-old, works for the DNC, was shot in the back, murdered just a few weeks ago for unknown reasons as he was walking down the street in Washington.Reporter: That was just a robbery, I believe. Wasn t it?Julian Assange: No. There s no finding. So I m suggesting that our sources take risks.Watch it again in slow motion below:Seth Rich s parents explain what happened only moments before his death. He was the Voter Expansion Data Director for the DNC. His parents say he was, Making sure everyone who wanted to vote, had the opportunity :Shortly after the killing, Redditors and social media users were pursuing a lead saying that Rich was en route to the FBI that fateful morning, apparently intending to speak to special agents about an ongoing court case possibly involving the Clinton family.More recently, Wikileaks s thousands of DNC emails and voice mails have piqued Reddit s interest, with Redditors combing through years of communications looking for any clue to Rich s murder.The theory is apparently based on Julian Assange s recent ITV appearance, where he scoffed at the idea that Russian hackers could be responsible for the data dump, and said that anyone within the Democrats organization could easily have sent Wikileaks the offending messages.Given that Rich as a DNC staffer presumably would have had some access to its servers, Reddit is absolutely positive Rich paid the ultimate price for exposing Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the DNC s crusade against Bernie Sanders. HeatstreetGo HERE for fascinating timeline of events leading up to the brutal murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich.

AWESOME: PATRIOTS AND SHERIFF STAND GUARD As Feds Try To Confiscate Navy Vet’s Guns

Do you hear that sucking sound? That s the Obama regime sucking more and more of your freedoms away every day In northern Idaho, residents are standing guard against a federal government determined to disarm those they deem unworthy. About 100 locals in Bonner County are stationed outside the home of U.S. Navy Veteran John Arnold, including Sheriff Daryl Wheeler and two state lawmakers.Arnold, who lives in Priest River, received a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs warning him he is not permitted to purchase or possess firearms, the AP is reporting.Rep. Matthew Shea of Spokane Valley, who described the event as a defiance against tyranny. I took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and uphold the laws of Idaho, Wheeler said. This seemed appropriate to show my support. I was going to make sure Mr. Arnold s rights weren t going to be breached. During Thursday s demonstration, the group at times broke out in song to sing God Bless America and pray while waving both the American flag and the Don t tread on me flag. With a population of just 1,700, Priest River is near the tip of northern Idaho- a region known for its strong tea party roots and gun-rights activism.Arnold had a stroke one year ago. In January, paperwork filed with the VA stated that Arnold was financially incompetent and could not handle his own affairs.Arnold claimed the box that was checked was done in error and he was always competent to handle himself. However, the VA said that due to the paperwork, Arnold was no longer allowed to buy, sell or possess firearms. If somebody else makes an error and they cause you grief they should fix it, said Arnold. That s all I want is that stuff to get fixed. The Department of Veterans Affairs can declare a vet incompetent by fiat if they so wish, in direct violation of the Second Amendment.Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas proposed legislation that would require court action before barring gun purchases by veterans declared incompetent.Via: DownTrend

Escape from North Korea: video shows defector under fire

SEOUL (Reuters) - A North Korean border guard briefly crossed the border with the South in the chase for a defector last week - a violation of the ceasefire accord between North and South, a video released on Wednesday by the U.N. Command (UNC) in Seoul showed. The North Koreans were only steps behind the young man when they shot him at least four times as he made his escape on Nov. 13. The video, filmed as the defector drove an army truck through the demilitarized zone and then abandoned the vehicle, gives a dramatic insight into his escape. The defector, identified by a surgeon as a 24-year-old with the family name Oh, was flown by a U.S. military helicopter to a hospital in Suwon, south of Seoul. Doctors said he had regained consciousness, having had two operations to extract the bullets, and his breathing was stable and unassisted. He is fine, lead surgeon Lee Cook-Jong said at a news conference in Suwon. He is not going to die. A UNC official said North Korea had been informed on Wednesday that it had violated the 1953 armistice agreement, which marked the cessation of hostilities in the Korean War. The UNC official told a news conference that a soldier from the North Korean People s Army (KPA) had crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), the border between the two Koreas, for a few seconds as others fired shots at the defecting soldier. The key findings of the special investigation team are that the KPA violated the armistice agreement by one, firing weapons across the MDL, and two, by actually crossing the MDL temporarily, Chad Carroll, Director of Public Affairs for the UNC, told reporters. The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between North Korea and the international community over its nuclear weapons program, but Pyongyang has not publicly responded to the defection. The video, released by the UNC, was produced from surveillance cameras on the southern side of the the Joint Security Area (JSA) inside the demilitarized zone. When tree cover is too dense to see the wounded defector crawling across the border, it switches to infra-red. The film begins with a lone dark green army jeep speeding along empty, tree-lined roads toward the border. At one checkpoint, a North Korean guard marches impassively toward the approaching vehicle. It races by. He runs in pursuit. After passing a memorial to North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, where tourists often gather, the jeep runs into a ditch just meters from the border, which is not clearly marked. For several minutes the driver tries to free the vehicle, but the wheels spin uselessly in fallen leaves. The driver abandons the vehicle and sprints away, pushing tree branches out of his way and sending leaves flying. He scrambles up a slope to cross just seconds before more guards appear, shooting as they run. One slides into a pile of dead leaves to open fire before running forward and appearing to briefly cross the dividing line between the two countries. He quickly turns on his heel. The video does not show the moment the defector is hit, but he is seen lying in a pile of brush next to a concrete wall in a later edited clip. The UNC s Carroll said the position was still exposed to North Korean checkpoints across the border. Allied troops operating the cameras had by then notified their commanders and a quick reaction force had assembled on the South Korean side, according to Carroll. The video does not show this force. Infrared imagery shows two South Korean soldiers crawling through undergrowth to drag the wounded North Korean to safety, while the deputy commander of the border security unit oversees the rescue from a few meters away. Doctors have conducted a series of surgeries to remove four bullets from the critically wounded soldier, who arrived at the hospital having lost a large amount of blood. From a medical point of view he was almost dead when he was first brought here, said the surgeon, Lee. Hospital officials said the man remains in intensive care. The soldier showed signs of depression and possible trauma, in addition to a serious case of parasites that has complicated his treatment, the hospital said in a statement. Lee said last week one of the flesh-colored parasites he removed from the soldier s digestive tract was 27 cm (10.6 in) long. Continuing stress made the soldier hesitant to talk, but he had been cooperative, doctors said. The patient first recovered consciousness on Sunday, and asked where he was in South Korea, Lee said. He was in agony when he came to, the surgeon added. Since then doctors have played South Korean pop music for him, and American action movies including The Transporter from 2002. On average more than 1,000 North Koreans defect to the South every year, but most travel via China and numbers have fallen since Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011. It is unusual for a North Korean to cross the land border dividing the two Koreas. They have been in a technical state of war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The last time a North Korean soldier had defected across the JSA was in 2007.

BREAKING BOMBSHELL: Hillary, Obama, Holder, Comey, Mueller and 2 Key Officials Leading Trump-Russia Collusion Investigation Are All Linked To HUGE Secret Russian NUCLEAR Deal

Yesterday, the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange sent a cryptic tweet that contained a series of number and letters. Someone out there knows what that code means, and they are very likely shaking in their boots today.4767 5774 6a7a 4d6c 6330 666b 314a 3453 0000 0907 84b4 f787 7616 86f7 a737 5707 5736 Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) October 15, 2017On another front, two writers from separate publications were set to publish what Sean Hannity was calling a huge bombshell story that was due to break today.Last night on Fox News Hannity show, Sean Hannity warned that a huge bombshell would be breaking today. Sean told his audience that Circa News Sara Carter and The Hill s John Solomon have HUGE BREAKING NEWS. Hannity told his audience, Let me put it this way, if I m Hillary or fake news, I won t be sleeping well tonight. Watch:.@seanhannity TICK TOCK Tonight Folks Get ready @HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/PxbRCgyPwm 'GITMO' BAMA (@President1Trump) October 17, 2017Well, John Solomon and Alison Spann s story did indeed break first thing today in The Hill, and it s a doozy. Will justice finally be delivered to these corrupt, anti-American, self-serving and lying players? Not providing information on a corruption scheme before the Russian uranium deal was approved by U.S. regulators and engage appropriate congressional committees has served to undermine U.S. national security interests by the very people charged with protecting them. The Russian efforts to manipulate our American political enterprise is breathtaking. Former House Intelligence Chair Mike Rogers (R-MI)The Hill Before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin s atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews.Federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FBI and court documents show.They also obtained an eyewitness account backed by documents indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow, sources told The Hill.The racketeering scheme was conducted with the consent of higher level officials in Russia who shared the proceeds from the kickbacks, one agent declared in an affidavit years later.Rather than bring immediate charges in 2010, however, the Department of Justice (DOJ) continued investigating the matter for nearly four more years, essentially leaving the American public and Congress in the dark about Russian nuclear corruption on U.S. soil during a period when the Obama administration made two major decisions benefitting Putin s commercial nuclear ambitions.The first decision occurred in October 2010, when the State Department and government agencies on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States unanimously approved the partial sale of Canadian mining company Uranium One to the Russian nuclear giant Rosatom, giving Moscow control of more than 20 percent of America s uranium supply.When this sale was used by Trump on the campaign trail last year, Hillary Clinton s spokesman said she was not involved in the committee review and noted the State Department official who handled it said she never intervened on any [Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States] matter. In 2011, the administration gave approval for Rosatom s Tenex subsidiary to sell commercial uranium to U.S. nuclear power plants in a partnership with the United States Enrichment Corp. Before then, Tenex had been limited to selling U.S. nuclear power plants reprocessed uranium recovered from dismantled Soviet nuclear weapons under the 1990s Megatons to Megawatts peace program. The Russians were compromising American contractors in the nuclear industry with kickbacks and extortion threats, all of which raised legitimate national security concerns. And none of that evidence got aired before the Obama administration made those decisions, a person who worked on the case told The Hill, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by U.S. or Russian officials.The Obama administration s decision to approve Rosatom s purchase of Uranium One has been a source of political controversy since 2015.That s when conservative author Peter Schweitzer and The New York Times documented how Bill Clinton collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in Russian speaking fees and his charitable foundation collected millions in donations from parties interested in the deal while Hillary Clinton presided on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.The Obama administration and the Clintons defended their actions at the time, insisting there was no evidence that any Russians or donors engaged in wrongdoing and there was no national security reason for any member of the committee to oppose the Uranium One deal.But FBI, Energy Department and court documents reviewed by The Hill show the FBI, in fact, had gathered substantial evidence well before the committee s decision that Vadim Mikerin the main Russian overseeing Putin s nuclear expansion inside the United States was engaged in wrongdoing starting in 2009.Then-Attorney General Eric Holder was among the Obama administration officials joining Hillary Clinton on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States at the time the Uranium One deal was approved. Multiple current and former government officials told The Hill they did not know whether the FBI or DOJ ever alerted committee members to the criminal activity they uncovered.Spokesmen for Holder and Clinton did not return calls seeking comment. The Justice Department also didn t comment.Mikerin was a director of Rosatom s Tenex in Moscow since the early 2000s, where he oversaw Rosatom s nuclear collaboration with the United States under the Megatons to Megwatts program and its commercial uranium sales to other countries. In 2010, Mikerin was dispatched to the U.S. on a work visa approved by the Obama administration to open Rosatom s new American arm called Tenam.Between 2009 and January 2012, Mikerin did knowingly and willfully combine, conspire confederate and agree with other persons to obstruct, delay and affect commerce and the movement of an article and commodity (enriched uranium) in commerce by extortion, a November 2014 indictment stated.His illegal conduct was captured with the help of a confidential witness, an American businessman, who began making kickback payments at Mikerin s direction and with the permission of the FBI. The first kickback payment recorded by the FBI through its informant was dated Nov. 27, 2009, the records show. The investigation was ultimately supervised by then-U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, an Obama appointee who now serves as President Trump s deputy attorney general, and then-Assistant FBI Director Andrew McCabe, now the deputy FBI director under Trump, Justice Department documents show.On August 6, 2017, The Washington Times questioned Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein s fishing expedition aimed at digging up dirt on President Trump in his investigation in the Trump-Russia investigation. The special counsel is subject to the rules and regulations of the Department of Justice, and we don t engage in fishing expeditions, Mr. Rosenstein said on Fox News Sunday. In his first Sunday show interview, Mr. Rosenstein added that special counsel Robert Mueller understands and I understand the specific scope of the investigation and so, it s not a fishing expedition. Mr. Rosenstein s comments come amid reports citing unnamed sources that the investigation has expanded into Mr. Trump s finances unrelated to possible Russian interference in last year s election.Mr. Rosenstein played down the reports: That s not anything that I ve said. That s not anything Director Mueller has said. We don t know who s saying it or how credible those sources are. Both men now play a key role in the current investigation into possible, but still unproven collusion between Russia and Donald Trump s campaign during the 2016 election.McCabe is under congressional and Justice Department inspector general investigation in connection with money his wife s Virginia state Senate campaign accepted in 2015 from now-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe at a time when McAuliffe was reportedly under investigation by the FBI.The connections to the current Russia case are many. The Mikerin probe began in 2009 when Robert Mueller, now the special counsel in charge of the Trump case, was still FBI director. And it ended in late 2015 under the direction of then-FBI Director James Comey, who Trump fired earlier this year.Bringing down a major Russian nuclear corruption scheme that had both compromised a sensitive uranium transportation asset inside the U.S. and facilitated international money laundering would seem a major feather in any law enforcement agency s cap.But the Justice Department and FBI took little credit in 2014 when Mikerin, the Russian financier and the trucking firm executives were arrested and charged.The only public statement occurred an entire year later when the Justice Department put out a little-noticed press release in August 2015, just days before Labor Day. The release noted that the various defendants had reached plea deals.The lack of fanfare left many key players in Washington with no inkling that a major Russian nuclear corruption scheme with serious national security implications had been uncovered.On Dec. 15, 2015, the Justice Department put out a release stating that Mikerin, a former Russian official residing in Maryland was sentenced today to 48 months in prison and ordered to forfeit more than $2.1 million.Ronald Hosko, who served as the assistant FBI director in charge of criminal cases when the investigation was underway, told The Hill he did not recall ever being briefed about Mikerin s case by the counterintelligence side of the bureau despite the criminal charges that were being lodged. I had no idea this case was being conducted, a surprised Hosko said in an interview.Meanwhile, Julian Assange is jumping on the bandwagon, as he teases that he has a major announcement of his own that is coming soon Russian nuclear bribery investigation reveals that Russia routed millions to the Clintons https://t.co/ti7ycn7auf Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) October 17, 2017

Gingrich Seriously Thinks Trump Could Get More Black Votes ‘Than Any Republican In Modern Times’

Former House Speaker and Trump supporter Newt Gingrich has gone completely delusional, having somehow convinced himself that Donald Trump could somehow manage to get more of the Africa American vote than any Republican in modern times. (Go ahead and laugh, I ll wait.) Donald Trump is the first Republican I can remember who is explicitly saying to the African-American community, Things can be better, but not with Democrats in charge,' Gingrich said during an interview with Fox News. If [Trump] continues to say it, and if he has the courage to go back to places like Chicago and say it, I think he s going get far more votes from the black community than any Republican in modern times. The GOP nominee has kicked off minority outreach efforts in recent weeks, but by all accounts, this has done him little if any favors. Trump s grand scheme so far has been to say that people of color should vote for him because their lives suck so bad that they don t really have anything to lose anyway, so why not give him a shot and see what happens. Mind you, he has primarily said this to predominately white crowds, which has also drawn criticism.On Saturday, Trump attended a service at a black church in Detroit, which turned out to be as much of a failure as the rest of his attempts to pander to African Americans. The bigoted billionaire s speech was carefully scripted, but judging by the empty church, nobody really wanted to hear his schpeel anyway. However, looking at how many protesters turned out for the event, it is pretty clear that nobody is buying his latest line of bullsh*t.Watch Gingrich lose all touch with reality, here:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZK_mNHZqZU]Featured image via video screen capture

Two children killed as car crashes into Australian classroom

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A car crashed into a Sydney school classroom on Tuesday, killing two eight-year-old boys and seriously injuring three children, Australian police said. Police believe it was an accident, not a deliberate attack. A sports utility vehicle smashed through the wooden wall of the school in Sydney s west, where 24 primary-age children were in class with their teacher, police said in a statement. Three girls, two aged eight and another aged nine, were in a serious or stable condition in hospital. Another 17 children and their teacher were treated for minor injuries. Police said the driver, a 52-year-old woman who was not hurt, was taken to hospital for blood and urine tests and later charged with two counts of dangerous driving. TV images showed the car punched through the wall and stop completely inside the classroom, which was adorned with children s drawings and pictures. Obviously it was a scene of carnage, New South Wales state Ambulance Superintendent Stephanie Radnidge told reporters outside the school. New South Wales Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith said police were not looking at this as an intentional act, it is a crash investigation . The driver was granted bail to appear in court on Nov. 29, according to a police statement.

Maxine Waters Threatens To ‘Take Trump Out’…Pumps Fist [Video]

Earlier today, Youtube had taken down the video from the Ali Forney Center gala in New York City on October 13th where it only took Maxine Waters 27 seconds before she threatened President Trump. We looked everywhere but the video was gone from every source. After much digging, we found a clip of it on Facebook so here you go:Waters starts off with, Wow, what a moving evening this is. Then this: I m sitting here listening, watching, absorbing, thinking about Ali even though I never met him. And with this kind of inspiration, I will go and take out Trump tonight, she said as the crowd roared in approval and Waters pumped her fist.(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.10'; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));Maxine Waters vows "I will go and take Trump out tonight!"Maxine Waters vows "I will go and take Trump out tonight!"Appearing at the Ali Forney Center gala in New York City, it only took Waters 27 seconds before she slammed Trump. Feeling inspired, Mad Maxine promised the group that she would 'go and take Trump out tonight!'. Like >> Share >> Follow >> The New Revolution IIPosted by The New Revolution II on Saturday, October 21, 2017Just two days later, Waters continued to rant about Trump, this time at a Los Angeles AIDS walk.Waters turned the event into a platform to push her personal political agenda: We face unprecedented challenges today in our struggle against HIV and AIDS and I want you to know those people in Congress on the opposite side of the aisle from me control every branch of our federal government, Waters said. And we have, unfortunately, an unstable, erratic person in the White House. We don t know what this president will do, or say, or tweet from one day to the next. Don t forget, this is not a political event, but I m heading toward impeachment, Waters said with a snicker. Another challenge we face today is Republicans determination to repeal the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, Waters continued. Without Obamacare, insurance companies will once again be able to deny care to the people living with HIV and other pre-existing conditions. Furthermore, without Obamacare states like California that expanded Medicaid will not be able to cover low-income adults living with HIV. And so, the House Republicans Obamacare repeal bill which passed the House in May will cut $100 billion from Medicaid and cause 23 million Americans to lose their health insurance, the 79-year-old career politician said. So far, the Senate has been great. It has refused to pass the bill. Via: American Mirror

Soccer star Weah leads most counties in Liberia presidential election vote

MONROVIA (Reuters) - Former soccer star George Weah leads in partial presidential election results in 11 of Liberia s 15 counties, the electoral commission said on Thursday, after a vote meant to bring about the country s first democratic transfer of power in decades. Early results from Tuesday s poll read to reporters by the commission s chairman left Weah s camp confident he would win the outright majority he needs to avoid a run-off, even though most counties had reported tallies from less than a third of polling stations. The other favorite in the 20-candidate field, Vice-President Joseph Boakai, led in just one county, although he was running in second in most others. I can say for sure that Ambassador George Manneh Weah is going to be the next president of the Republic of Liberia, Weah s adviser Mulbah Morlu told Reuters. The people of Liberia have spoken. The final results must be announced by Oct. 25 and a run-off will be held next month if no one has won a majority. Before the commission s announcement, parties backing three other candidates alleged fraud and vowed to contest the results. But international observers said they had seen no major problems with the vote. The overall conduct of the voting was generally assessed as either good or very good, the EU mission said in a statement on Thursday. Observers from the U.S.-based Carter Center and National Democratic Institute (NDI) also said they had not identified any major issues with the voting or subsequent counting. The allegations of irregularities centered on charges that extra ballots were printed in advance and marked with votes for Boakai from the ruling Unity Party of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. However, none of the parties provided evidence of cheating. A Unity Party leader declined to respond to the accusations. Earlier in the day, Johnson Sirleaf, who became Africa s first elected female president when she won a surprise victory in 2005 following a post-war transition, hailed the election as historic. We believe that all Liberians are ready for this process. I thank them for participating in this process, she told reporters. Liberia, Africa s oldest modern republic, was founded by freed U.S. slaves in 1847 but its last democratic power transfer occurred in 1944.

Third Grader ROASTS Trump With Hilarious Letter Obliterating His Deportation Rhetoric (IMAGE)

Since the start of Donald Trump s presidential campaign, he s gone after pretty much every minority group there is. Along with his obvious and seemingly deliberate racism, he s also declared that he will deport all undocumented immigrants, mainly the ones he can tell by skin color. In other words, Latinos and Muslims. His words have been horrendous and have reached far and wide all across the United States.His words have even reached a young third grader, who seems to be taking an ESL (English as a Second Language) course, and their teacher in Ohio posted a letter the child wrote concerning Donald Trump to Facebook for all the world to see. Why? Because it s AMAZING.The letter reads, in its original grammar: I have a dream 2016!I have a dream that Donald Trump will not be president. But if he does all Asians, Africans and Mexicans have to go back to their contry. Without them the U.S.A. population will go down to 12,0000 people only. Most enginners are Indian then their won t be no tecnolegy! Without tecnolgy theirs no NETFLIX. Without netflix theirs no chill. Is that a world you what live in NO. // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&#038;version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]&gt;Third graders should run this country ?Posted by Bayan Sabouri on Thursday, January 21, 2016No, tiny human, we don t want to live in a world where we can t Netflix and Chill, although it s apparent this child doesn t truly know what that means, but we ll let that pass. They are a young child after all and hopefully they won t know the grown up meaning to that phrase til much later in life.However, the point is still made that if we as a nation degrade, look down upon, or worse deport minorities, we ll be doing ourselves a great disservice. The United States of America is a nation of immigrants, it s kind of our thing. It makes us who we are, and we can cultivate the best and brightest to build a better future.So to answer the question again, no, we don t want to live in a world with Donald Trump as president. Not one tiny little bit.Featured image: Flickr/Facebook HT: Uproxx

MEDIA PROMOTES Fake News That Shooter Connected to White Nationalist Group

The mainstream media is guilty of fake news when it serves their desired narrative. In this case, the desire by the media to make the Florida shooter out to be a white nationalist is huge. They often go with the lie because by the time the lie is corrected, no one is listening. This is how the media hijacks the narrative in order to shape minds to think a certain way. Pretty evil, huh The media ran with the story but it s not true FAKE NEWS from the Associated Press to serve the purpose of the lefty media. This is nothing new but with the invention of social media and citizen journalists, we re able to correct the lies and hopefully get the truth out there. Nick Short and others called out the AP and other main stream media outlets for their lack of integrity in making claims that are a lie:According to law enforcement, there are no ties linking Cruz to the white nationalist group but it appears AP & the rest of the media didn t even bother to corroborate with authorities about this and instead gave a racist white nationalist free publicity. https://t.co/RFiDQc3d8b https://t.co/TScmiApfAe Nick Short (@PoliticalShort) February 15, 2018Tallahassee.com set the record straight:Local law enforcement sources have not found a connection between accused Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz and a Tallahassee-based paramilitary group.Leon County law enforcement sources told the Tallahassee Democrat that they could not find information linking Cruz, 19, to the Republic of Florida Militia, as claimed by the group s self-proclaimed leader Jordan Jereb.His comments to the Anti-Defamation League and The Associated Press set off a media firestorm Thursday at about midday that Cruz was connected to the alt-right, white nationalist group.HERE S WHAT HAPPENED IN A NUTSHELL:The ADL used 4Chan as a source, CBS used the ADL as a source.welcome to the future. pic.twitter.com/rBj61SUZC8 Tim Pool (@Timcast) February 16, 2018

Trump makes late push for support on eve of Wisconsin primary

MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump tried to put a difficult week behind him and rally his supporters on Monday ahead of a crucial nominating contest in Wisconsin, where he was in the unfamiliar position of underdog. Opinion polls show Trump trailing U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas in the Midwestern state, where a loss on Tuesday could dent the New York billionaire’s aura of inevitability and make it harder for him to win the 1,237 delegates needed for the party’s nomination for the Nov. 8 election. Trump hunted for support at two rallies in the state on Monday, telling voters in La Crosse, Wisconsin, they could propel him toward the nomination by delivering him a surprise victory over Cruz. “If we do well here, folks, it’s over,” Trump said. “This could be the real beginning. If it’s not, I think we get there anyway, and I’m pretty sure we get there anyway.” Trump said an array of forces were aligned against him in Wisconsin, including the state’s governor, Scott Walker, who has backed Cruz, a “very hostile media” and party establishment figures worried he will lead Republicans to a broad defeat in November. He ridiculed the “NeverTrump” movement to block his nomination and said the party establishment should have put the same effort into beating Democratic President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. “If they had worked this hard to stop Obama, Obama wouldn’t have had a chance,” Trump said at a rally in Superior, Wisconsin. He also said it was “unfair” that rival John Kasich, the governor of Ohio, refused to get out of the race despite trailing Trump and Cruz badly. Trump has won 736 delegates to the July nominating convention in Cleveland, but is still 501 short of the majority he needs to clinch the nomination. Rivals Cruz and Kasich hope to stop him short of a first-ballot victory and trigger a contested convention. “My eyes are wide open,” Trump said of the possibility the party establishment would maneuver to deny him the nomination at the convention. “We’re dealing with a corrupt system. We’re dealing with a system that is not fair.” Cruz told reporters the party was beginning to rally behind him, and said a win in Wisconsin would spark a surge of momentum for him in upcoming contests. “What we’re seeing is the party unifying behind our campaign,” Cruz said in Madison. “I hope and believe tomorrow night’s going to be a very good night here in Wisconsin.” A Trump loss would cap a rough week, including an avalanche of criticism for his suggestion, which he later dialed back, that women be punished for getting abortions if the procedure is banned. Uncharacteristically, Trump also acknowledged that he made a mistake retweeting an attack on Cruz’s wife, according to the New York Times. He also drew fire last week for saying he would not rule out using nuclear weapons in Europe and that Japan and South Korea might need their own nuclear arsenals to ease the U.S. financial commitment to their security. Trump told the crowd in Superior he had been advised that he should act more presidential but that if he did, it would be boring and “only about 20 percent of you would be here.” Cruz was eager to capitalize on Trump’s missteps, talking about his family during a town hall session in an attempt to soften his strident image and appeal to women turned off by Trump’s recent comments. At a later rally, Cruz told voters the entire country was looking toward Wisconsin. “Let’s show the country that this race is not about yelling and screaming and insults,” he said in Madison. Even with a victory in Wisconsin, Cruz faces difficult odds to win the delegates needed to secure the nomination, given that the next states to vote, including New York on April 19 and five Northeastern states on April 26, are more Trump-friendly territory. Cruz has 463 delegates, 774 short of the total needed for the nomination, according to an Associated Press count. Kasich, with 143 delegates, has no chance to gather enough delegates to win on the first ballot but has refused to end his candidacy. He rejected Trump’s call for him to get out of the race and poked fun at the front-runner’s complaints. “I’ve got news for him. I’m gonna get a heck of a lot of his voters,” he told a town hall meeting in Hempstead, New York. “I know how to fix these things that the Trump voters care about.” In the Democratic race, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has a small lead in opinion polls in Wisconsin over front-runner Hillary Clinton and is trying to add to his momentum after winning five of the last six contests. A Wisconsin win by Sanders would put the focus on the April 19 contest in New York, where Clinton was campaigning on Monday. Sanders still faces a tough task to overcome Clinton’s lead of 263 pledged delegates in the Democratic race, which awards all delegates proportionally to their vote totals in each state. After days of sparring over the date for their next debate, Clinton and Sanders have agreed to hold the event on April 14 in Brooklyn, New York. Clinton reported on Monday that she had raised $29.5 million in March for the primary campaign, trailing the $44 million Sanders reported raising in March. Clinton’s campaign said she raised an additional $6.1 million for the Democratic National Committee and state parties. At a New York City event celebrating a hike in the state minimum wage to $15 an hour, Clinton noted Trump had said wages were too high. That drew boos from the crowd, which included a large number of labor union members. “I don’t know what the calculation is by Trump and others but I’ll tell you this: They are selling Americans short,” Clinton said.

new leaked clinton emails came from the devices of anthony weiner

by dml daily november society developing story breaking news two police officers are dead in des moines iowa after they were ambushed early wednesday morning the killings were in separate incidents within blocks of each each other police are on a manhunt to find the killer identified as scott michael greene the ambushes both happened as the cops were sitting in their patrol cars breaking police have identified the suspect in fatal shootings of officers as scott michael greene pictwittercomecsapjfcn charly haley charlyhaley november from fox news the shootings occurred within minutes of each other in des moines one des moines police officer and another from the suburb of urbandale were found in their bulletriddled cruisers des moines police sgt paul parizek said theres somebody out there shooting police there is a clear and present danger to police officers right now he said in all appearances it looks just like that that these officers were ambushed parizek said neither police officer was identified by officials and as of a am police were still notifying family members parizek said their names and details about their service would be released later wednesday sign up to get alerts about dennis michael lynchs upcoming donald trump film and breaking news subscribe

Fractivists Claim Victory Against This Fracking Danger You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

The Center for Biological Diversity just announced that they have won a major lawsuit against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The lawsuit was settled in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. The lawsuit will put a moratorium on fracking that is occurring off the coast of California. It may have future importance in determining the fate of off shore fracking in the Gulf Coast. This halt to offshore fracking is a huge victory for California s coastal environment, said Kristen Monsell, a Center attorney. Offshore fracking is a dirty and dangerous practice that has absolutely no place in our ocean. The federal government certainly has no right to give the oil industry free rein to frack offshore at will. A lot of attention has been paid to the fracking that is going on in people s backyards. That s under stable. Anyone who has seen the infamous fire faucet from Gasland, or heard about the increased number of earthquakes fracking related activity is causing, should be concerned about their back yard. Be that as it may, there has been a huge boom in offshore fracking that is putting North America s coasts in danger. Until now, America s coast has been a virtual free-for-all for the fracking industry.The fracking industry has permission from the federal government to dump 9 billion gallons of waste water from fracking operations into the ocean. That wastewater comes from their 200 oil platforms that are found off the coast of California. That waste water contains chemicals from the fracking process. Unfortunately, most of the chemicals commonly used in fracking process are considered trade secrets making it so that the public is not able to find out what chemicals are being used. Every offshore frack puts coastal communities and marine wildlife at risk from dangerous chemicals or another devastating oil spill, Monsell said. Once federal officials take a hard look at the dangers, they ll have to conclude that offshore fracking is far too big of a gamble with our oceans life-support systems. They ll have to stop authorizing it for good. It might be a bit optimistic to say that settlement will lead to a complete end to federal authorization of offshore fracking. However, the new requirements that the fracking industry will have to go through in order to get authorization are substantial. This is a major paperwrench to the fracking industry, that will in the very least delay new offshore fracking operations.Featured Image Credit: By Ken Lund [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

WATCH BILL CLINTON Say Hello To The Darkness [Video]

Former President Bill Clinton made a campaign appearance with former Congresswoman Gabbie Giffords and her astronaut husband. It s been reported lately that Bill just isn t himself shaking and rail thin. This is yet another bizarre moment we thought we d share:

U.S. health secretary says his job is to follow Obamacare law

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said on Sunday that it was his department’s job to follow the law on the Affordable Care Act, former President Obama’s signature domestic initiative known as Obamacare. Price, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” was asked whether he would implement the Affordable Care Act as it was intended. “Our job is to follow the law of the land,” Price said, but added that “the law ... is failing the American people.” He said the administration’s goal was to repeal and replace Obamacare and “put in place a system that actually works for patients.”

BREAKING: GANG THAT CAN’T SHOOT STRAIGHT: Vote Cancelled for Obamacare [Video]

Speaker Ryan: We were on the cusp of achieving an ambition that we've all had for 7 years and we came a little short. We were close." pic.twitter.com/o8vzsmi582 ABC News (@ABC) March 24, 2017 WE D LOVE TO KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS DID YOU WANT THE BILL TO PASS?Paul Ryan spoke out to thank everyone for giving their all to pass the bill. He said that this is a setback but not the end of the story. Everyone s committed to seizing this opportunity Paul Ryan- I m really proud of the bill we produced All I know is that our family s premium doubled since Obamacare was put in place Ouch!This is a critical building block to get to tax reform. Trump s first major legislative push has gone down in flames and it s the Republicans who had 7 years to produce a bill who are at fault.Nancy Pelosi must be thrilled

EU withholds $33 million loan to Moldova over justice reform hold-up

CHISINAU (Reuters) - The European Union will not transfer a final tranche of loans worth 28 million euros ($33 million) to support Moldovan justice reforms as the authorities have not fulfilled the required conditions, the EU delegation to Moldova said on Wednesday. The European Union is the ex-Soviet nation s largest external donor, but payments have been frozen or repeatedly delayed by slow reform progress and political upheaval. The EU has closely observed the reform process and noted that the Moldovan authorities showed insufficient commitment to reforming the justice sector, the delegation said in an online statement. The Moldovan authorities have not fulfilled the EU s conditions for receiving the last financial transfer under the justice reform program, which amounts to 28 million euros, it said. The disbursement of other EU funding, including a 100 million euro ($117 million) macro-financial assistance package of loans and grants for 2017-2018, has also been delayed. Last week, Prime Minister Pavel Filip said Moldova would not receive any financing under the agreement this year. The EU has said a basic precondition for the financial assistance is a respect for the democratic process and the rule of law. Nevertheless Moldova this year introduced a new electoral law that a pan-European rights body ruled could make the system more susceptible to undue influence by vested interests. Moldova s economy grew 4.1 percent last year, recovering from a contraction of 0.4 percent in 2015 due in part to an economic crisis in nearby Russia that hit exports and remittances from Moldovans working there. The country, Europe s poorest, has also been rocked by a scandal that saw the equivalent of an eighth of its gross domestic product stolen from three of its largest banks between 2012-2014. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund have forecast growth of between 4 and 4.5 percent in 2017.

Iowa Voters Couldn’t Tell The Difference Between Ben Carson And A Black Comedian (VIDEO)

It can likely be said that Iowa is one of the whitest states in the entire nation. So white, in fact, that it seems many of the people in the state haven t come into too much contact with any people of color to notice that, no, they don t all look the same. Proof of this can be found in Triumph the Insult Comic Dog s Ben Carson Social Experiment. According to Hulu: Triumph goes to Iowa to discover if white people tell the difference between SNL comic Tim Meadows and presidential candidate Ben Carson? Spoiler alert: Not so much. In fact, the people who Meadows came into contact with while dressed as Carson really didn t seem to notice the difference between the men whatsoever. He spoke with several people at a local diner. Some who even seemed very excited to finally be meeting who they though was Carson.Meadows was so convincing that he was able to persuade one of the folks at the diner to stab him in the belt buckle, just like from the infamous fable Carson had told time and time again from his childhood. However, this time, Meadows made it seem like he was actually stabbed and left the diner in a hurry to go to the hospital. By the end of the segment, the SNL alum even had an entire arena full of people fooled as he sang the Star Spangled Banner before a basketball game.All in all, it seems as though far too many people in Iowa can t tell the difference between Carson and just any random black man. Which is sad, yet somehow not at all surprising. Featured image: YouTube

Yemen's Saleh ready to turn new page if Saudi-led attacks end

DUBAI (Reuters) - Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Saturday called on the Saudi-led coalition to pave the way for an end to nearly three years of war by ceasing attacks and lifting a siege. Saleh, whose call came as his supporters fought allied Houthi forces in the capital Sana a, said on television that he was ready to turn a new page if the coalition agreed to his demands.

Obama, trying to protect legacy, unlikely to act on Mideast peace

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama, keen to preserve his legacy on domestic health care and the Iran nuclear deal, is not expected to make major moves on Israeli-Palestinian peace before leaving office, U.S. officials said on Thursday. One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the last word on the president’s failed peace effort might come from Secretary of State John Kerry at an appearance on Sunday at an annual Middle East conference in Washington. Obama’s aides are wary of being seen picking a fight with Donald Trump at a time when he hopes to persuade the Republican President-elect to preserve parts of his legacy, including the Iran nuclear deal, Obamacare and the opening to Cuba. While Obama has yet to present his final decision, several officials said he had given no sign that he intended to go against the consensus of his top advisers, who have mostly urged him not to take dramatic steps, a second official said. “There is no evidence that there is any muscle behind (doing) anything,” said a third official. Putting new pressure on Israel could be seen as a vindictive parting shot by Obama at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the first official said, noting they have had a testy relationship. There is concern that Trump, in response, might over-react in trying to demonstrate his own pro-Israel credentials, for example by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, a step that would enrage Palestinians and create an international furor. Officials said Obama has weighed enshrining his own outline for a deal in a U.N. Security Council resolution that would live on after he gives way to Trump on Jan. 20. Another idea was to give a speech laying out such parameters. These options appear to have lost steam. Kerry, who led the last round of peace talks that collapsed in 2014, appears on Sunday at the Saban Forum conference of U.S., Israeli and Arab officials. Officials could not rule out that Obama might also talk about Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy before he leaves office. The White House and the Israeli embassy declined comment. The central issues to be resolved in the conflict include borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state, the fate of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which most nations regard as illegal, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem. Israeli officials remain concerned that Obama and his aides have not explicitly ruled out some kind of last-ditch U.S. action, either at the United Nations or in another public forum. U.S. officials said Obama could also have his hand forced, notably if another nation like France put forward a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity as illegal or illegitimate, daring Washington to veto it as it did a similar French-proposed resolution in 2011. U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, asked if Washington would again veto a French proposal, told Israel’s Army Radio: “We will always oppose unilateral proposals.” He added: “If there is something more balanced, I cannot guess what the response will be.”

Progressive Lunacy: PETA Claims Indonesian Monkey Owns ‘Selfie’ Copyright

21st Century Wire says You know that western society is approaching its final hour when animal rights activists start advocating individual animals to be able to sue humans in courts. That s exactly what has happened in the US.We can trace some of this line of thinking back to Cass Sunstein, the radical, liberal progressive technocrat and chief advisor to President Barack Obama (as well as the husband of disastrous UN Ambassador Samantha Power). According to his own writing and public declarations, Sunstein believes that activists should be able to bring a lawsuit on behalf of an animal in US courts. In his 2004 book Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions, Sunstein remarked:Cass Sunstein. My simplest suggestion is that private citizens should be given the right to bring suits to prevent animals from being treated in a way that violates current law. I offer a recommendation that is theoretically modest but that should do a lot of practical good: laws designed to protect animals against cruelty and abuse should be amended and interpreted to give a private cause of action against those who violate them, so as to allow private people to supplement the efforts of public prosecutors. Somewhat more broadly, I will suggest that animals should be permitted to bring suit, with human beings as their representatives, to prevent violations of current law. As one of liberal America s most influential technocrats, Sunstein argues that this legal right can be invoked on the basis of animal cruelty. While no cruelty seems to be present in the case of the Monkey Selfie (see story below), activists at PETA were no doubt emboldened by Sunstein and others who have propelled their ideological argument into the political activist discourse.While our society and our legal system are far from perfect, a move like this from a wealthy charity like PETA could throw that system into even further chaos.Surely, if animals can sue humans, then shouldn t humans be able to sue animals? As you can see, when you pursue this activist rabbit hole, reality starts to dissolve rather quickly.More on this incredible story from AP Monkey Selfie Copyright credited to David J. Slater (UK)Linda Wang APcurious monkey with a toothy grin and a knack for pressing a camera button was back in the spotlight Wednesday as a federal appeals court heard arguments on whether an animal can hold a copyright to selfie photos.A 45-minute hearing before a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco attracted crowds of law students and curious citizens who often burst into laughter. The federal judges also chuckled at times at the novelty of the case, which involves a monkey in another country that is unaware of the fuss.Andrew Dhuey, attorney for British nature photographer David Slater, said monkey see, monkey sue is not good law under any federal act.Naruto is a free-living crested macaque who snapped perfectly framed selfies in 2011 that would make even the Kardashians proud.People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals [PETA] sued Slater and the San Francisco-based self-publishing company Blurb, which published a book called Wildlife Personalities that includes the monkey selfies, for copyright infringement. It sought a court order in 2015 allowing it to administer all proceeds from the photos taken in a wildlife reserve in Sulawesi, Indonesia to benefit the monkey.Slater says the British copyright for the photos obtained by his company, Wildlife Personalities Ltd., should be honored Continue this story at AP/Chicago TribunePictured here is a typical Indonesian Crested Black Macaque monkey (Image Credit: Lip Key Yap, Wikicommons)READ MORE FINANCIAL NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Financial FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV

U.S., Mexican officials try to find common ground on security: sources

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A Mexican delegation met U.S. military officials in southern Mexico on Tuesday to discuss security initiatives, sources said on Wednesday, as the two countries try to find common ground in tough negotiations over trade, security and immigration. The relationship between the United States and Mexico has become strained after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to build a wall between the two countries to keep out illegal immigrants, drug dealers and criminals and make Mexico pay for it. Lori Robinson, chief of the U.S. Northern Command, and Kurt Tidd, head of the Southern U.S. Command, attended the talks, two people familiar with the matter said. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity so they could discuss the meeting. It was one of the first known meetings between U.S. and Mexican officials since Trump became president in January, after threatening to upend years of cooperation between the two neighbors with divisive rhetoric on trade and security. One of the sources said the talks focused on Mexico’s commitment to securing its southern border to keep out criminals and illegal immigrants. The source said that U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Roberta Jacobson also attended. Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray was not present. A third source said Socorro Flores, deputy minister for Latin America and the Caribbean, represented Mexico at the meeting. U.S. Northern Command spokesman Michael Kucharek confirmed Robinson and Tidd visited Mexico on Tuesday as part of “continued coordination in partner nation security,” adding that the two also went to Honduras and Guatemala. A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Mexico City said: “The southern border visit has been planned for months and gave U.S. authorities a chance to learn first-hand about the challenges Mexico faces in protecting its borders.” The spokesman did not provide further details. Mexico denied media reports on Wednesday suggesting that Trump, on a recent call with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, had threatened to send U.S. troops into Mexico if the country did not step up efforts against its drug cartels. CNN later published what it said was the real transcript from the call, showing Trump taking a more measured stance, and offering U.S. help to combat Mexico’s “tough hombres.” Mexico’s presidential spokesman, Eduardo Sanchez, was not immediately able to comment on CNN’s report but said “it sounded more logical.” A summit between Trump and Pena Nieto that had been planned for January was canceled after Trump tweeted that it would be better for the Mexican leader not to come to the summit if Mexico would not pay for the wall. Pena Nieto canceled. Trump has threatened to levy a hefty tax on imports from Mexico to the United States. Mexico said on Wednesday it expected to begin formal talks on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement from around the beginning of May.

“ALLAHU AKBAR” MUSLIM EXTREMISTS Forced Catholic Priest At Knifepoint To Kneel While They Performed “Arabic Sermon”….Filmed Beheading Of Priest…Two Terrorists Shot DEAD…19 Yr Old Was KNOWN TERRORIST Allowed To Live With Parents, Roamed Freely During Day [VIDEO]

FRANCE HAS THE BLOOD OF THIS PRIEST ON THIER HANDS! Their political correctness allowed this KNOWN TERRORIST to roam freely in the streets! Shame on their progressive values that made it possible for this beautiful 84 year old priest, who was filling in at the church to be beheaded by these monsters! The ISIS knifemen who stormed into a church in Normandy filmed themselves butchering an elderly priest after forcing him to kneel before they performed a sermon in Arabic at the altar, a terrified witness has revealed today.The 84-year-old priest, named as Jacques Hamel, had his throat cut in a Normandy church this morning in an attack that also left a nun critically injured and both jihadis dead.The two killers, who were both known to French authorities, were shot dead by police marksmen as they emerged from the building shouting Allahu Akbar . The building was later searched for bombs.One of the extremists who stormed into the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen during mass was a French 19-year-old named Adel K., who was being monitored by electronic tag after twice attempting to join fanatics in Syria. Unbelievably, his bail terms allowed him to be unsupervised between 8.30am and 12.30pm the attack happened between 9am and 11am.Adel K is understood to have forced the priest to kneel while his accomplice, who also lived locally and was on a terrorist watchlist, filmed the brutal killing.This afternoon it emerged that the murdered clergyman was deputising while the regular parish priest was on holiday. French authorities say they have arrested a third man over the attack a 17-year-old man believed known as HB and believed to be a relative of Adel K.It was also revealed that the Catholic church involved was on a terrorist hit list found in the apartment of a suspected ISIS extremist last April.Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for a merciless response to the killing while horrified ex-Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said he feared everything is being done to trigger a war of religions .France s Socialist president Francois Hollande addresses the Islamic terror attack with the press here: A nun who was in the church during the attack said the priest was forced to the ground before his throat was slit.French authorities admitted that both of the attackers were subject to security S files, meaning both were known terror suspects who should have been under surveillance.Adel K. was a convicted terrorist who was meant to be living with his parents in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray with an electronic tag on his ankle.In March 2015, while still a minor, he tried to reach the terror group s base in Syria via Germany, but was arrested in Munich. He was placed under judicial control with his parents, but after his 18th birthday again tried to return to the Middle East.Accompanied by two childhood friends, Adel K. headed to Switzerland overland and then took a plane to Turkey, hoping to cross the border into Syria.Turkish police deported him back to Switzerland and, after being sent back to his hometown, he was tried and found guilty of associating with a terrorist enterprise on May 22 2015.After spending less than a year of his two-and-a-half-year sentence in prison, he was released on March 22 this year.For entire story: Daily Mail

Tomi Lahren Blasts ObamaCare, Admits She’s Still On Parents’ Health Insurance [VIDEO]

It seems that right-wing pundit Tomi Lahren has made quite a healthy career criticizing any and every move the Democratic party make, all the while struggling to successfully hold up her end of an argument and managing to come across as an over-priveleged brat at the same time. Well the 24-year-old has done it again.Lahren was being interviewed at Politicon by liberal comedian Chelsea Handler on Saturday, an event that was originally publicized as a debate, only to later be downplayed by Handler as an interview in an effort to get to understand the viewpoints of people that don t share her political ideology. People such as Tomi Lahren.The pair struggled to find any common ground during the first several minutes of the interview and then the topic turned to healthcare. When Handler asked Lahren if she had health insurance, she replied, Luckily, I am 24, so I am still on my parents plan a line that drew loud boos from the crowd, but Handler still defended her by telling the audience to stop, she is being honest. Despite Handler taking the high road, Lahren went on to say that Obamacare is in a death spiral. Being able to stay on your parents plan until the age of 26 is a major aspect of the current healthcare legislation and also one of the beneficial facets that critics of the Affordable Care Act tend to overlook, instead opting to chastise other factors such as the individual mandate to buy insurance.The outspoken Lahren has been a controversial figure in the realm of political commentary, having joined the pro-Donald Trump group Great American Alliance in May after she was suspended from hosting her own show, Tomi, on TheBlaze in March when she expressed her belief that women should have legal access to abortion, a view rarely shared by her fellow conservatives.Watch a portion of Handler s interview with Lahren here:Featured image via Joshua Blanchard/Getty Images for Politicon)

U.S. lawmaker wants new budget requests for Iraq, Afghanistan troops

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee called on the Obama administration on Monday to ask Congress for more money to fund its plans for Iraq and Afghanistan, amid expectations of a defense budget battle when lawmakers return to Washington this fall. “The administration needs to come over with a supplemental (budget request),” Republican Representative Mac Thornberry said at a roundtable discussion with reporters shortly after returning from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. He said U.S. and allied forces were making progress in Afghanistan and in the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq, but that stiff challenges remained in both campaigns. Thornberry and other congressional Republicans have been saying President Barack Obama must formally request additional funds for the fiscal year that starts on Oct. 1 since he announced plans earlier this month to send more troops to Iraq and keep more in Afghanistan than had been expected. The request for more troops, without a plan to pay for them, added another wrinkle to the simmering dispute between the Republican-led Congress and the Democratic administration over spending. Obama has threatened to veto a $602 billion defense policy bill because of its use of special funds for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to avoid mandatory budget limits. Democrats say the Department of Defense should be subject to the same spending restrictions as non-military programs. Republicans accuse Democrats of stinting on national security in order to fund pet domestic projects. “That is holding our military hostage,” Thornberry said. The congressman said he had had no official numbers from the Pentagon but that he had been told it faces roughly $6 billion more in expenses than when the administration made its budget request earlier this year. He said military commanders in Afghanistan were grappling with how to handle Obama’s plan to reduce the number of troops in Afghanistan to 8,448 by December 31 from about 9,800 currently. They are looking into using more contractors and whether some functions can be moved out of Afghanistan, Thornberry said. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has said the Pentagon was evaluating how to proceed, comparing its estimated costs with what is already in its budgets.

CAUGHT ON VIDEO! Violent Anti-Trump Thugs Pelt Eggs At Trump Supporters

When will the media report on this nice group of illegal aliens and racist American thugs

Leading Democrat: Critics can't conclude Trump is impaired

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on Sunday that it was premature to try to remove U.S. President Donald Trump by claiming he is physically or mentally impaired. Schiff told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” program that it did not make sense for Trump’s opponents to focus on the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which two Democratic lawmakers invoked against the president after his controversial comments about a white nationalist rally in Virginia. Under the 25th Amendment, the vice president takes over as acting president if he and a majority of either Cabinet officials or “such other body as Congress may by law provide” declare in writing that the president “is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” “I think we’re still far from concluding that that’s the case,” Schiff said, “even though we find, many of us, his conduct anathema and there to be a serious problem here.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. California Representative Zoe Lofgren on Friday introduced a resolution urging Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s Cabinet to have medical and psychiatric professionals examine the president to help determine whether he can do his job. “Many Americans, including many Republicans, have observed the President’s increasingly disturbing pattern of actions and public statements that suggest he may be mentally unfit to execute the duties required of him,” Lofgren said in a statement. Representative Jackie Speier, also of California, said in a Twitter post on Tuesday that Trump was “showing signs of erratic behavior and mental instability that place the country in grave danger. Time to invoke the 25th Amendment.” Speier wrote the post after Trump’s explosive news conference on Tuesday, when he blamed violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, not just on white nationalist rally organizers but also on counter-protesters. Trump said there were “very fine people” in both groups. Those comments also provoked criticism from Republican Senator Bob Corker, who told reporters on Thursday that Trump “has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful,” according to a Tennessee local news website. Corker did not refer to the 25th Amendment in his remarks.

“LIE” WITNESS NEWS: JIMMY KIMMEL SHOW Asks People What They Thought Of Debate…DAY BEFORE Debates Happened [VIDEOS]

It s hard to imagine so many people would lie to the this reporter about a debate they never saw. But we are living in the Age of Hillary where lying is perfectly acceptable if you re attempting to reach a lifelong goal of breaking a glass ceiling (or 13 cellphones) with a hammer!Not that we re keeping score, but only one of these liars was a Trump supporter.Enjoy!

EU braces for Brexit talks collapse as May falters

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - As in-fighting consumes the British government, Europeans have stepped up quiet preparations for a possible collapse of Brexit talks that could see Britain crash out of the EU without a deal 18 months from now. Prime Minister Theresa May s EU counterparts still see the no-deal scenario she threatened them with as most unlikely, as they think it would hurt Britain much more than the continent. But after her faltering party conference this week and ahead of important meetings in Brussels over the next fortnight, diplomats and officials there and in big member states said they have been putting renewed focus on contingency planning for a legal limbo in March 2019 and urging businesses to do the same. German officials say that in recent months they have been spending just as much energy on how to handle that as on preparing for a negotiated solution. The BDI industry federation in the biggest EU economy warned German firms on Thursday that it would be naive not to be ready for a a very hard exit . Like May, who on Friday rejected calls from some lawmakers to resign, Michel Barnier, the European Union negotiator, says his aim is an orderly exit. But he repeatedly cautions that he also has a mandate from EU leaders to help prepare for failure and regularly tells businesses to be sure to plan for the worst. We want to be ready for all eventualities, including no deal , he told business and labor representatives after the negotiations began in July. Deal or no deal is the fundamental question , he said, after talks made little progress in August. This is the growing feeling, absolutely, a senior EU official said of concerns that talks could collapse, not because Britain saw economic advantage in that, as May has warned, but because British politics could end up in domestic stalemate that could mean missing reasonable deadlines for a withdrawal treaty. For many, talk of a breakdown in talks remains part of the bluff and counter-bluff of negotiations. But what May s problems inside her own government indicate to many across the Channel is that the country is so divided it may be unable to reach a deal. You need to factor in that it s not a rational process, the senior EU official said, repeating a common view that voting for Brexit made no economic sense in the first place. So it s not unlikely that they again shy away from what are the economic imperatives and we end up cliff-edging by political default. People close to Barnier s negotiating team draw attention to new legislation last month aimed at protecting the EU carbon market from a disorderly British departure and moves to force euro-denominated securities clearing from London to the continent as examples of Brussels contingency planning. It s the responsible approach. And the more it goes on like this, said one EU official of the lack of clear breakthroughs in the talks, the more we ll see of these steps. Another senior official said: There s every reason to be worried and European industry should take this more seriously. May s Brexit minister, David Davis, is expected back in Brussels on Monday for a fifth round of negotiations with Barnier. But expectations among EU officials are low to nil for a breakthrough on key divorce issues that would allow EU leaders to tell May when they meet her the following week that they are willing to open talks on a future free trade accord. Aside from uncertainty over how a new EU border with Ireland will work and differences over rights for expatriates after Brexit, a standoff over tens of billions of euros that Brussels argues Britain will owe on departure seems far from resolution. Describing as unbelievable arrogance British offers to pay just 20 billion euros ($23 billion) of a Brexit bill which the EU estimates at perhaps 60 billion euros, a senior diplomat from a country Britain generally views as an ally in EU affairs said May would have to face down hardliners who reject such payments. Few of Britain s negotiating partners see any benefit in a change of prime minister now. That would cost more time that neither side has, since the chances of London or Brussels agreeing to extend the Brexit deadline seem limited. With Boris Johnson as prime minister, the negotiations would be easier, one EU diplomat said of the foreign secretary, who has sniped at May s push for a deal that could see Britain stay bound by some EU rules, at least for a transition period. We could save ourselves all this analyzing, the diplomat said, As he d just drive the talks straight off the cliff. For many, ending with a legal void remains far-fetched. But though British ministers talk of a bespoke deal to exit EU rules while retaining market access, EU officials warn that time is running out for London to find any option other than to agree to something like the status of Norway being in the EU market and accepting rules on which is has no vote. Pretty soon, said one, It will be Norway or nothing.

Trump Stands Up For Fellow Sexual Harasser Bill O’Reilly: He Didn’t Do ‘Anything Wrong’

On March 31, Donald Trump declared April National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. On April 5 less than one week later he said fellow scumbag Bill O Reilly didn t do anything wrong when he seemingly sexually harassed a large number of his female staff over the years. But then, Donald Trump himself has been accused of numerous sexual assaults and harassment, so birds of a feather.The New York Times got an exclusive interview with Trump and walked away with two bombshell findings, both awful in their own unique way: First, Trump duped veteran journalists Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush into publishing a slanderous claim that Susan Rice, the former national security adviser under Obama, had committed a crime. That would be a huge story if not for the fact that when asked to produce a single shred of evidence, Trump refused to do so. I think it s going to be the biggest story, Mr. Trump said in an interview in the Oval Office, declining repeated requests for evidence for his allegations or the names of other Obama administration officials. It s such an important story for our country and the world. It is one of the big stories of our time. He declined to say if he had personally reviewed new intelligence to bolster his claim but pledged to explain himself at the right time. And he s currently already nursing several other claims 3 million people illegally voted, Obama illegally wiretapped him which he has also failed to provide any proof for. Despite these repeated offenses, Habermann and Thrush ran the story as if Trump weren t the biggest bullshitter in the world. That s inexcusable.But Trump wasn t done. After pretending to uncover a major political scandal, Trump moved onto his friend Bill O Reilly. O Reilly is currently embroiled in scandal that may cost him his job after having been exposed as settling at least five sexual harassment lawsuits filed against him from female coworkers. Trump, five days into Sexual Assault and Prevent Month, jumped to his friend s defense. I think he s a person I know well he is a good person, said Mr. Trump, who during the interview was surrounded at his desk by a half-dozen of his highest-ranking aides, including the economic adviser Gary Cohn and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, along with Vice President Mike Pence. I think he shouldn t have settled; personally I think he shouldn t have settled, said Mr. Trump. Because you should have taken it all the way. I don t think Bill did anything wrong. Here s what Trump considers innocent behavior locker room talk, if you will by O Reilly:The women who made allegations against Mr. O Reilly either worked for him or appeared on his show. They have complained about a wide range of behavior, including verbal abuse, lewd comments, unwanted advances and phone calls in which it sounded as if Mr. O Reilly was masturbating, according to documents and interviews.The reporting suggests a pattern: As an influential figure in the newsroom, Mr. O Reilly would create a bond with some women by offering advice and promising to help them professionally. He then would pursue sexual relationships with them, causing some to fear that if they rebuffed him, their careers would stall.Trump, of course, has a large list of his own offenses against women. During the campaign, over a dozen women came forward to recount times he had assaulted or attempted to assault them. Trump himself seemed to back up their claims in a leaked audio recording where he bragged about grabbing and kissing women even without their consent. Other women have also come forward to describe times Trump was sexually demeaning or suggestive to them.To watch Trump and O Reilly, both with histories of abuse, cover for each other is truly nauseating.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images

Ben Carson Has A Very Public Meltdown After Getting Trashed In Iowa (VIDEO)

It hasn t been a very good time for Ben Carson s campaign to become America s first Black Republican President. But his very public meltdown after getting trashed in Iowa might suggest that he has no place anywhere near the red button anyway.Carson crashed badly in Iowa, picking up just 9% of the vote, leaving him in fourth place behind Ted Cruz (28%), Donald Trump (24%) and Marco Rubio (23%). His explanation? According to Carson, it s all a big conspiracy to keep him out of the race for President. He told supporters in a speech which felt rather more like a public nervous breakdown: I was reasonably happy today until I discovered the dirty tricks that were going on. And people spreading rumors that I had dropped out and that people should caucus for somebody else, he continued. I mean, do you think that that is something that s acceptable? Apparently, Carson is arguing that people didn t vote for him because Ted Cruz told them not to.The candidate insisted his campaign was not over, and yet boarded an early flight home to Florida for rest meanwhile, the other candidates headed straight to New Hampshire or South Carolina to battle the next stage of the Primaries.So while his opponents were off developing their strategy for the next battleground states, Carson decided to write an email to his supporters, and continue his meltdown in public. For months, my campaign has survived the lies and dirty tricks from opponents who profess to to detest the games of the political class, but in reality are masters at it, he wrote. Even tonight, my opponents resorted to political tricks by tweeting, texting and telling precinct captains to announce that I had suspended my campaign in some cases asking caucus goers to change their votes. What is considerably more certain than this conspiracy theory, is that Mr. Carson will be making that exiting from the race announcement soon. Hopefully with a little more grace than he could muster in Iowa. Featured Image via screen capture

Turkish police summon FBI official: Anadolu

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police summoned a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) official on Wednesday over statements made in a U.S. court by a former Turkish police investigator who fled the country last year, the state-run Anadolu Agency said. Anadolu said the FBI official was summoned following testimony given by Huseyin Korkmaz in the trial of a former executive at Turkish state-run bank Halkbank, who is charged with taking part in a scheme to help Iran evade U.S. sanctions. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert confirmed that an FBI attache at the U.S. Embassy had been brought in to the Turkish ministry . She provided no details. The former bank executive, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, has pleaded not guilty. Halkbank has denied involvement with any illegal transactions. Korkmaz told jurors in a New York court on Monday that he fled Turkey in 2016 out of fear of retaliation from the government after leading a corruption investigation involving high-ranking officials. He said he took his evidence with him. Korkmaz said he had received $50,000 from the FBI and financial assistance from U.S. prosecutors for his rental payments. The FBI declined to comment on Wednesday. Turkish police said they could not immediately comment on the report that they had summoned an official from the U.S. agency. A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Ankara said the embassy was aware of the report but had no immediate comment. Already strained ties between NATO allies Ankara and Washington have deteriorated further over the court case, in which Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, who is cooperating with U.S. prosecutors, has detailed a scheme to evade U.S. sanctions. Korkmaz is testifying for the prosecution at the trial. He told the court this week that he began investigating Zarrab in 2012. Zarrab has implicated top Turkish politicians, including Erdogan. Zarrab said on Thursday that when Erdogan was prime minister he authorised a transaction to help Iran evade U.S. sanctions. Although he has not yet responded to the courtroom claims, Erdogan has dismissed the case as a politically motivated attempt, led by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, to bring down the Turkish government. The government blames Gulen s network for last year s failed military coup in Turkey. Gulen has denied any involvement.

Trump’s DEPLORABLE Fans Cheer As He Almost Calls For Hillary’s Assassination

Donald Trump is rising in the polls, has the media wrapped around his little finger, and people are starting to take him seriously. With all these things going in his favor, with 50 days left until the election, you d think he would stick to staying on script.But, as always, he screws it up.Just hours after denouncing birtherism (and then falsely accusing the 2008 Clinton campaign of starting it), Trump delivered another off-color, off script speech in Miami where he (yet again) hinted at Hillary Clinton s assassination.After incorrectly claiming that Clinton wants to abolish the Second Amendment (which she can t do), Trump said: I think that her bodyguards should drop all weapons. They should disarm. I think they should disarm immediately, what do you think, yes? Take their guns away, she doesn t want guns. Take them, let s see what happens to her. Take their guns away, okay. It will be very dangerous. And just like that, Trump basically called for an assassination of Hillary Clinton, and the basket of deplorables cheered like the rabid dogs they are.Just five weeks ago, Trump hinted that angry gun rights supporters could take matters into their own hands assassinating Hillary Clinton should she win the presidency: Hillary wants to essentially abolish the Second Amendment. If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks. Although the Second Amendment people maybe there is, I don t know. After those comments were made, Trump received intense backlash from both the left and the right. Although his people maintain he was not advocating for assassination, but rather them getting out to vote, his campaign promised to stay on script the remainder of the race.Clearly they aren t following their own advice.Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head at a constituents meeting thus forcing her to resign from Congress demanded Trump apologize and disavow his dangerous comments: In his more stable moments, Mr. Trump has said he regrets some of the ugly insults and dangerous threats he has leveled during the course of this campaign. We call on him to immediately renounce these comments, apologize to Hillary Clinton, and acknowledge that once again he has gone dangerously too far. If anyone knows the danger of stoking political violence, no matter how innocent it may seem, it s Gabrielle Giffords. Republicans, Independents, and weary Democrats should ask themselves: is this who they want representing them? A man who makes a casual reference to violence against Hillary Clinton?Any presidential candidate who is so cowardly he has to call on his opponent to essentially be assassinated should in no way even remotely be considered for the job. Perhaps Trump s secret service agents should have a word with the Republican candidate about jokes regarding death.When will the American people stand up and say enough is enough. Enough of the off-script jokes, enough of the blatant disregard for cordial campaigning, enough of the deplorable and reprehensible comments.Featured image via Joe Readle/Getty Images

U.S. House panel approves Benghazi report after two-year probe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives’ special Benghazi committee approved its report on Friday on the attack in Libya that killed four Americans in 2012, but the Republican-led panel set no date for ending its work after a two-year-long investigation. The committee’s chairman, Republican Representative Trey Gowdy, said the panel voted to approve the 800-page report, with seven Republicans in favor and four Democrats opposed, in a closed-door meeting. Republicans had issued the report on June 28. It included no major new revelations about the assault in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. But it criticized presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the violence, saying both she and her staff showed a “shameful” lack of response to congressional investigators looking into the attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound. It also accused Clinton’s State Department of failing to protect the Americans killed. Last October, Clinton, already a Democratic presidential candidate, calmly deflected harsh Republican criticism of her handling of the attack during a testy 11-hour hearing before Gowdy’s committee. Democrats have derided the report as a political vendetta against the former secretary of state. Republicans said the committee’s work would not wrap up until materials related to the report are reviewed for classified information and potential perjury claims, which would be referred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “If you thought a vote today would be the end of this partisan chapter of our history, you would be wrong,” Representative Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the panel, said in a statement. “The Select Committee is poised to last for months - perhaps until right before the presidential election - and that appears to be the Republican plan,” Cummings said. Republicans plan more interviews, including one next week with Stephen Hedger, the head of legislative affairs at the Department of Defense, Cummings said. Panel Republicans issued a joint statement calling the investigation “a great privilege and honor.” They urged President Barack Obama’s administration to clear for public release all of the supporting evidence and documents referenced in the report.

Cambodian PM says sanctions wouldn't hurt him

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen told his cabinet on Friday he had no fear of Western sanctions after some U.S. senators threatened to push for travel restrictions over his arrest of the main opposition leader, the government spokesman said. Hun Sen s critics accuse him of destroying democracy in Cambodia to ensure that he wins re-election next year to extend more than 32 years in power. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz said he would push for a travel ban on top officials if opposition leader Kem Sokha is not freed by Nov. 9. Senators John McCain and Dick Durbin have also called for travel restrictions if the crackdown continues. Hun Sen told a weekly cabinet meeting that sanctions by Western donors don t worry him, the government spokesman said. Samdech said he doesn t have wealth abroad and there is no necessity for him to step on U.S. soil, Phay Siphan told Reuters, using Hun Sen s official title. Kem Sokha was arrested on Sept. 3 and charged with treason. He is accused of plotting to take power with the help of unspecified Americans - an accusation he denies. The government has also asked the courts to dissolve Kem Sokha s Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) and Hun Sen has called on its members of parliament and other elected officials to defect to his Cambodian People s Party (CPP). Pro-government media said one parliamentarian and some local councillors had defected. Kem Sokha s daughter Monovithya Kem said that if he were not released and the pressure ended on the CNRP, it would mean that next year s election would lack legitimacy. Hun Sen s government cannot survive without that legitimacy, she told Reuters. Cambodia would become a pariah state if the government doesn t reverse course soon. Western countries have called for the release of Kem Sokha and have intensified lobbying. In an unusually direct statement from Japan, visiting vice minister for foreign affairs Iwao Horii called on Thursday for a free and fair election next year. Japan is Cambodia s biggest aid donor after China. He expressed the expectation that Cambodia s next national election will be conducted in a free and fair manner, Hironori Suzuki, Counsellor at the Japanese Embassy, said in an email to Reuters. He expected that the general election would be held in a way that the international community will welcome. Hun Sen has been increasingly isolated from Western donor pressure by his strong relationship with China, which has become by far the biggest giver of foreign aid as well as the biggest investor in Cambodia.

Trump panel urges more treatment options to fight opioid crisis

(Reuters) - A panel convened by U.S. President Donald Trump to tackle the opioid crisis called on Wednesday for more treatment programs, tighter prescribing guidelines and additional drug courts to help reduce overdose deaths. The commission, led by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, said the recommendations would require funding by Congress but did not recommend an amount. Trump last week declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. Public health experts broadly welcomed the proposed measures. “This sounds to me like a very progressive and very needed move,” said Professor Kosali Simon, a health economist at Indiana University, of the recommendations. But Paul Hanly, a New York lawyer representing local governments in a legal battle against opioid makers, said recommendations, while laudable, would be “toothless” without substantial funding. Opioids include prescription painkillers, heroin and fentanyl. More than 100 Americans die daily from overdoses, according to federal data. The commission recommended a national media campaign to encourage opioid addicts to seek help. Only 10.6 percent of people who need treatment get it, the report noted. The media campaign would encourage addicts to “stop being afraid or ashamed of seeking help when facing their addiction.” It urged expansion of drug courts, in which addicts convicted of non-violent offenses are diverted into programs that combine treatment with mandatory drug testing and court appearances. The commission said drug courts, which are currently offered in just 44 percent of U.S. counties, should embrace medication-assisted treatment to improve outcomes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week announced plans to encourage wider use of substitute opioids such as methadone and buprenorphine, which do not induce a high and are used to help people through drug addiction recovery. Still, Dr. Stefan Kertesz of the University of Alabama at Birmingham said communities often lack treatment facilities where drug courts can send addicts. And many drug courts charge fees that make them unaffordable for many. “Drug courts often function as pay to play,” Kertesz said. “Only people who can come up with money can escape a prison sentence.” The report recommended expanding the ranks of emergency responders allowed to administer naloxone to treat overdoses. It also encouraged stricter prescribing guidelines for physicians.

WATCH: Donald Trump Explains His New Muslim Ban ‘Expansion’ Plan

Donald Trump and the GOP appear to have finally found the messaging that they are using to sell Trump s flip-flop on banning Muslims from entering the United States.During an interview on MSNBC s Meet the Press Sunday morning, Trump told the Chuck Todd that he doesn t consider his recent changes to his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States a rollback. I actually don t think it s a rollback. In fact, you could say it s an expansion. I m looking now at territory, Trump told Todd. People were so upset when I used the word Muslim. Oh, you can t use the word Muslim. Remember this. And I m okay with that, because I m talking territory instead of Muslim. We re going to have tough standards, Trump went on to say. And if a person can t prove that they re from an area, and if a person can t prove what they have to be able to prove, they re not coming into this country. And I would stop the Syrian migration and a Syrian from coming into this country in two seconds. Let s be clear, Trump s proposal is a rollback. His initial call for a unilateral ban on Muslims entering the United States is both incredibly bigoted and unconstitutional. It also happens to be impossible to enforce and would severely damage the United States reputation. Even if Trump were to become president, it is hard to see how such a proposal would actually be implemented.That s why this rollbacked version of his proposal is actually far worse. That s because it can actually be implemented. While still divisive among the GOP, Trump would have far more support for his modified approval. More than half of the governors in the United States want to ban Syrians from entering the United States as of last year. There are even a few Democrats who would jump on board the xenophobia train.So, yes this is a rollback. It s also an expansion as Trump refers to it, in the sense that it is something that could actually become policy.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhpwEO7b7eoFeatured image via video screenshot

Racist Teacher Fired For DISTURBING Viral Facebook Post About Michelle Obama (IMAGES)

How would you feel if you found out that your child was being educated by an insanely racist person? For many parents with children attending Chestatee Elementary School in Gainesville, Georgia, this became a reality.On Monday, Jane Wood Allen was fired from her job as a teacher after a shockingly racist Facebook post went viral. The post, which targeted First Lady Michelle Obama, was shared thousands of times after Roni Dean-Burren, a Houston Ph.D student, took a screenshot and shared it.The caption on the hideous post, which was accompanied by a link smearing Michelle, said: This poor Gorilla. How is she going to function in the real world, by not having all of her luxurious vacations paid for anymore? She needs to focus on getting a total make-over (especially the hair), instead of planning vacations! She is a disgrace to America! Word of Allen s posts came to the attention of school officials on September 30th, according to school district spokeswoman Jennifer Caracciolo, who said, Racism and discrimination are not tolerated in Forsyth County Schools. And it turns out, the post about Michelle Obama was far from the only bigotry that existed on Allen s page:As Allen s posts spread, the internet erupted in criticism for the racist teacher. A Facebook page was even created in her honor it is called Chestatee Elementary School Fire Jane Wood Allen, NOW and it was calling for her removal from the school.Dear @FCSchoolsGA.Fire Jane Allen now. Fire her, issue an apology, and begin implicit bias training for your staff.This is NOT ok. pic.twitter.com/stQtWFOwfb Shaun King (@ShaunKing) October 2, 2016Seriously, people with these hateful views should not be allowed anywhere near the minds of America s children. Upon firing Allen, Forsyth County Schools released a statement on Facebook that read: Effective Monday, Oct. 3, Jane Wood Allen has been relieved from duty and is no longer an employee of Forsyth County Schools. Racism and discrimination are not tolerated in our school district. We are committed to ongoing staff training on the acceptance of all individuals. As this is a personnel matter, the district will provide no further comment. Featured image via Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images