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Trump's defense chief heads to Asia, eying China, North Korea threat

President Donald Trump’s defense secretary is expected to underscore U.S. security commitments to key allies South Korea and Japan on his debut trip to Asia this week as concerns mount over North Korea’s missile program and tensions with China. The trip is the first for retired Marine General James Mattis since becoming Trump’s Pentagon chief and is also the first foreign trip by any of Trump’s cabinet secretaries. Officials say the fact that Mattis is first heading to Asia - as opposed to perhaps visiting troops in Iraq or Afghanistan - is meant to reaffirm ties with two Asian allies hosting nearly 80,000 American troops and the importance of the region overall. That U.S. reaffirmation could be critical after Trump appeared to question the cost of such U.S. alliances during the election campaign. He also jolted the region by pulling Washington out of an Asia-Pacific trade deal that Japan had championed. “It’s a reassurance message,” said one Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “This is for all of the people who were concerned during the campaign that then-candidate, now-president, Trump was skeptical of our alliances and was somehow going to retreat from our traditional leadership role in the region.” Trump himself has spoken with the leaders of both Japan and South Korea in recent days and will host Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Washington on Feb. 10. Mattis leaves the United States on Feb. 1, heading first to Seoul before continuing to Tokyo on Feb. 3. Trump singled out both South Korea and Japan on the campaign trail, suggesting they were benefiting from the U.S. security umbrella without sharing enough of the costs. In one 2016 television interview, Trump said of the 28,500 U.S. troops deployed to South Korea: “We get practically nothing compared to the cost of this. Why are we doing this?” Mattis, in his confirmation hearing, appeared to play down those remarks, noting that there was a long history of U.S. presidents and even defense secretaries calling on allies to pay their fair share of defense costs. But his visit to the region comes amid concerns North Korea may be readying to test a new ballistic missile, in what could be an early challenge for Trump’s administration. Speaking with South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo ahead of his trip, Mattis reaffirmed a U.S. commitment to defend the country and “provide extended deterrence using the full range of U.S. capabilities.” Analysts expect Mattis to seek an update on South Korea’s early moves to host a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, which, once in place sometime in 2017, would defend against North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic capabilities. Still, a South Korean military official played down expectations of any big announcements during the trip, saying Mattis’ first visit would likely be “an ice-breaking session” for both countries. In Tokyo, Mattis is to meet Defense Minister Tomomi Inada, who has repeatedly said Japan is bearing its fair share of the costs for U.S. troops stationed there and has stressed that the alliance is good for both nations. Japan’s defense spending remains around 1 percent of GDP, far behind China, which is locked in a dispute with Japan over a group of East China Sea islets 220 km (140 miles) northeast of Taiwan known as the Senkakus in Tokyo and the Diaoyus in Beijing. The trip also comes amid growing concern about China’s military moves in the South China Sea. Tension with Beijing escalated last week when Trump’s White House vowed to defend “international territories” there. China responded by saying it had “irrefutable” sovereignty over disputed islands in the strategic waterway. “What U.S. military people say is that considering the pace of China’s military build-up such as anti-ship missiles and fighters, there are worries about Japan’s capabilities,” said a senior Japanese defense ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

politicsNews

February 1, 2017

Democrats flex muscles as Congress confronts a government shutdown

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.

politicsNews

December 5, 2017

Business leaders say no NAFTA better than bad deal

Business leaders attending a U.S.-Mexico CEO conference said on Wednesday that no North American Free Trade Agreement would be better than a bad deal, as industry braces for the end of a treaty that drives $1 trillion in annual trade. The CEO meeting ran in parallel to talks near Washington aimed at refreshing the 1994 agreement, with Mexico, Canada and businesses united in opposition to a number of radical U.S. proposals they say would damage the North American economy. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would be open to bilateral trade pacts with Mexico or Canada if a deal cannot be reached to substantially revise NAFTA. “We are all much worse off with a bad agreement than with no (NAFTA),” said Guillermo Vogel, who co-chaired the Mexico City event and is a vice president at Tenaris, a steel company. The meeting, part of a bilateral “CEO dialogue” that meets a couple of times each year, included a closed-door discussion on the NAFTA negotiations addressed by Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray and Economy Minister Idelfonso Guajardo, who are in charge of the negotiations for Mexico. On the U.S. side the event was co-chaired by Fedex Freight’s CEO Michael Ducker and U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue. The event’s organizers declined to say who else attended. American Express, AT&T, GM and Delta were listed on publicity material for an event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Mexico on Tuesday, where Donohue warned that several U.S. proposals in the NAFTA talks were “poison pills” that risked dooming the agreement. The process of renegotiating NAFTA has turned increasingly sour. Mexico accuses Trump of spoiling for a “protectionist war” with proposals aimed at balancing trade. Those proposals include removing dispute resolution mechanisms, limiting trade in fresh produce and introducing minimum quotas for U.S. parts in autos. While better than a bad deal, Vogel said the failure of NAFTA would be a “lose-lose” situation, and that U.S.-Mexico trade without it could lead to a U.S. trade deficit larger than the current $64 billion. Without NAFTA, Mexico trade experts say U.S. products would face higher tariffs to enter Mexico, which could further skew the trade balance. “The clear focus was that we have to send a message to all the different constituencies about how much of an error it would be to cancel NAFTA, or make a bad NAFTA,” Vogel said in an interview with Reuters. He said content rules for auto parts were still negotiable, despite shock in Mexico at suggestions half of all parts in cars should be made in the United States. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Wednesday he expected an agreement would be reached on that issue. On Tuesday, Donohue also singled out a “sunset clause” that would automatically terminate NAFTA every five years unless there were fresh negotiations. “Clearly, a clause that cancels the agreement every five years totally defangs it,” Vogel said. “Starting to play with a non-market economy would be terrible for us.” Vogel said U.S. and Mexican businesses still believed NAFTA talks would produce a good deal and said they would continue to lobby their governments and lawmakers to negotiate a good deal. “With an agreement, in 10 years I see a strong region that can face Asia or China, without an agreement I see a weaker region in the medium and long term.”

politicsNews

October 12, 2017

Investors buoyed by Trump's readiness to move on from Obamacare

Wall Street’s predilection for a glass-half-full view of President Donald Trump was on full display Friday as investors backed off fears that a failure to repeal Obamacare would endanger Trump’s entire agenda in favor of optimism that he would simply get on with tax cuts and infrastructure spending. As the clock ticked down to a close vote in the House of Representatives set tentatively for Friday afternoon, U.S. stocks were little changed even as it appeared that the Republican leadership had yet to secure the support needed to pass the measure. That was in stark contrast with earlier in the week when equities suffered their biggest one-day drop since the November election on grounds that the shaky prospects for a successful repeal of the Affordable Care Act - known popularly as Obamacare - was a litmus test for everything championed by Trump. “I think investors are of the belief that Trump is just going to pivot to taxes,” said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago. “I think it’s a pivot from what we saw on Tuesday.” Indeed, Trump delivered lawmakers an ultimatum late Thursday, saying the time for negotiation had ended and that he was willing to leave the ACA in place and get on with his other priorities. S&P E-mini futures rallied about 0.25 percent in overnight trading following the statement. “If this goes on the back burner, and they start addressing corporate tax rates or infrastructure, that would be a positive for the market because the administration is not going to look at this and say, ‘Hey, this thing is going to take a while.’ They want to win,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama. “So they will go on to something that they could get through more quickly, which will be beneficial to the market,” Hellwig said. U.S. stocks have rallied hard since Trump was elected on Nov. 8, with the benchmark S&P 500 gaining around 10 percent in that span. Most of the gains have come as investors embraced prospects for the pro-growth and pro-business agenda Trump touted during his campaign. But more recently, doubts have arisen over Trump’s ability to deliver on the agenda as the effort to repeal Obamacare grew more rancorous. Stocks have drifted sideways for the last several weeks. Even amid the more sanguine mood on Friday as the vote approached, not all investors were ready to embrace the notion that a failure to repeal Obamacare could be so readily overlooked given how far the market has come since the election. “If the Republicans cannot settle their own conservative-moderate division on healthcare then that divide will be exacerbated for any other issue they attempt,” said Joseph Trevisani, chief market strategist at Worldwide Markets in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. Still, with less than about 90 minutes to go to the House vote, there was little evidence of the angst evident earlier in the week when investors saw the vote as a clear pass-fail test for Trump’s agenda. “I think what Trump did by saying that they are going to take a vote and if it doesn’t go they will move on to the next item is kind of a positive thing, because I think the more important things are fiscal stimulus and tax reform,” Tom Tucci, head of Treasuries trading at CIBC in New York said. “I know a lot of people are saying this will foreshadow the battle there, but I think there’s a lot more support on that end.”

politicsNews

March 24, 2017

Craziest Person In Congress Wants To Investigate Everyone BUT Trump; Maybe You’re On The List

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is the most insane if not the most offensive of all of the knuckle-dragging Republicans in Congress, so it makes sense that he s a fan of Donald Trump. He is scrambling so hard to cover Trump s alleged crimes that he s made a pledge to waste taxpayer money investigating pretty much everyone who s identified as a Democrat.In a press release, King called for investigating President Obama, Hillary (and probably Bill) Clinton, James Comey, George Soros, Loretta Lynch (my fingers are getting tired), Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner.King, who is a proud white supremacist (as seen in this video:)argued that Obama should be investigated because he interfered with an election in Israel. That was a debunked conspiracy theory.He also wants liberal bogey-man who most liberals have never heard of, George Soros investigated for a Russian based conspiracy theory saying Soros funded election manipulation in the Balkans.He wants to investigate Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner for improper use of classified emails. Even the right-wing blog The Blaze admits that that s (to quote Trumpsters) a nothing burger.Of course, he wants to open the gazillionth investigation into Hillary Clinton s emails, something she s been exonerated for multiple times.Then there s Loretta Lynch, who happened to talk to Bill Clinton on a tarmac. That has to mean something unseemly was happening, right? By the way, even if it was somehow an attempt to sway the election, it didn t work, but it did cause James Comey to go public with Hillary s emails, which surely helped her lose the election, despite it also being a nothing burger. And then there s Comey, who apparently didn t try hard enough to make Clinton lose the election that she won/lost.None of the people King wants to investigate currently hold a political office, yet he wants to continue beating a dead horse to keep eyes off the real, and possibly treasonous, scandals in Washington.Featured image via Scott Olson/Getty Images

News

July 31, 2017

CFTC commissioner nominees pledge to complete position limit rules

Three of President Donald Trump’s nominees to serve as commissioners on Wall Street’s top derivatives regulatory agency on Thursday pledged to work to complete rules that would restrict trading by market speculators who bet on the rise and fall of prices. The nominees to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Republicans Dawn Stump and Brian Quintenz, and Democrat Rostin “Russ” Behnam, told the Senate Agriculture Committee during their confirmation hearing that they are committed to working to craft a final “position limits” rule that would limit speculators without harming farmers, ranchers and others who rely on futures markets to hedge their business risks. “I look forward to helping... finalize this rule,” said Stump, adding that she will work to ensure that the strategies agricultural businesses use to hedge “are not prevented in the future due to unworkable bonifide hedging restrictions.” Bonham said: “The relevant question is not whether or not position limits should be completed, but how they should be completed.” The CFTC won broad new powers under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform to police the massive over-the-counter derivatives markets. The agency has largely implemented the bulk of the rules, which required many kinds of derivatives to be cleared centrally to reduce the risk of default and traded on platforms with greater price transparency. The CFTC is primarily focused on reviewing more carefully how the rules are working and whether certain rules should be tweaked to reduce burdens. Acting CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo, who is awaiting Senate confirmation as permanent chairman, earlier this year launched a review that aims to streamline and simplify existing regulations. However, there are still a number of outstanding rules that need to be completed, with the position limits rule one of the most notable. Although there has generally been considerable tension between Democrats and Republicans over Trump’s nominees to various positions since January, there was no such divisiveness on display Thursday. Both Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow signaled they intend to support the nominations of all three.

politicsNews

July 27, 2017

Anonymous Posts Video Of Donald Trump That Shows How CRAZY It Would Be To Elect Him President

Donald Trump has shown his true colors time and time again while running for the Republican nomination for the presidency. Thus far we ve discovered that he advocates for violence at his rallies, he has racist tendencies, and he says many creepy things about women, including his own daughter. While all of these factors have put a dent in his possible nomination, he still has a comfortable delegate lead and he polls well in upcoming contests. Despite the overwhelming evidence that Trump is a certified douche bag, there are voters out there who find his insanity appealing. Now comes another video that the hacker collective Anonymous posted that proves just how absurd it would be to elect this man as the representative of our country and the symbol of our nation.Watch video here:The clip was taken in 2007 at Wrestlemania, and it shows Donald Trump tackling professional wrestling promoter Vince McMahon and then beating him to the ground. Trump then triumphantly pumps his fists in the air. A disgruntled McMahon is then tied to a chair and Trump is shown shaving his head as the crowd cheers him on.While this video is quite entertaining, it s very hard to imagine that the guy we just watched clotheline and shave Vince McMahon s head could be the leader of our military, the planner of our economy, and the guy who represents America to the world.Let s hope that Donald Trump running for president is just a short and funny clip in America s history and nothing more. Featured image via video screenshot.

News

April 12, 2016

U.S. would like nuclear deal with India to go forward: official

President Donald Trump’s administration would like to see a Westinghouse nuclear reactor deal with India move forward, a senior White House official said on Friday ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meetings with Trump on Monday. The deal, years in the making, has been slow to complete due to concerns about liability in the event of a nuclear accident. “We’re still very much interested in seeing this deal move forward,” the official told reporters. “Westinghouse stands by the viability of the project ... We very much support continued negotiations between Westinghouse and its Indian partners.”

politicsNews

June 23, 2017

Democratic Senator Wyden says he will vote for Puerto Rico debt bill

Democratic U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said on Tuesday he will vote for a crucial Puerto Rico debt restructuring bill, saying it was the best alternative for the financially battered territory. “I am going to vote for this bill,” Wyden told reporters after a meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. “I certainly wish that there were amendments, but for me I am not going to let the adequate be the enemy of the barely sufficient.”

politicsNews

June 28, 2016

Senate Republican signals possible committee 'no' vote on tax bill

U.S. Republican Senator Bob Corker said on Monday that he could oppose his party’s tax bill over deficit concerns in an expected Senate Budget Committee vote this week, but added that Republicans were working to resolve his concerns. “I’m not threatening anything. I’m just saying it’s very important for me to know that we’ve got this resolved,” Corker told reporters. Asked if he could vote ‘no’ on the tax bill at a committee hearing slated for Tuesday, he replied: “Very possible. Yeah. Sure.” Corker is among a group of deficit hawks who want the tax legislation to contain a backstop measure that would raise revenues in the event that expected economic growth does not materialize to compensate for nearly $1.5 trillion in deficit spending over the next decade.

politicsNews

November 27, 2017

Reagan’s Son SLAMS Trump: If My Father Was Alive He Wouldn’t Vote For GOP Nominee (TWEETS)

Yet another conservative is openly expressing his support for the #NeverTrump movement and it s none other than Michael Reagan, the son of former President Ronald Reagan.On Monday, Michael took to Twitter to tell his followers that he would not be voting for The Donald on Tuesday, and that he firmly believes that his father would also refrain from voting for the business mogul if he was still alive. Of course, Reagan was immediately attacked by Trump s die-hard followers, who tried to argue his claim that the former President wouldn t have backed Trump if he were here today. Here s how that went:TwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterTwitterReagan is one of an overwhelming amount of Republicans abandoning the GOP solely because Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee. No one can forget that when Trump was announced as the leader in the GOP race, conservatives all across the country reacted by burning and tearing up their voter registration cards. In some cases, GOP voters left their affiliation with the party altogether.Reagan has spoken against Trump before, with the assertion that his father would not approve of the business mogul being the GOP nominee. A few months ago, during an interview with Newsmax, Reagan slammed Trump s campaign, and the Republicans who support it: My father would be appalled by what s going on with this campaign. Are you a Trump Republican, or are you a Reagan Republican? Because you cannot be both. The words of Reagan s son are particularly humorous considering that Trump has compared himself to Reagan before, when he claimed he evoke[s] the name Ronald Reagan. Trump said on CBS s Face The Nation: Ronald Reagan was a fairly liberal Democrat, and he evolved over years and he became more and more conservative. And he was not a very conservative person, but he was pretty conservative. And he ended up being a great president. Clearly, no one else sees the similarities besides The Donald, and many GOPers such as Reagan s son don t have any faith in Trump to be a great president .Featured image via Wikimedia

News

June 7, 2016

Obama says work has begun on habitats to help humans reach Mars

U.S. President Barack Obama, highlighting his pledge to send people to Mars by the 2030s, on Tuesday announced further public-private efforts to build habitats that could help humans live long-term far from the Earth. “We are working with our commercial partners to build new habitats that can sustain and transport astronauts on long-duration missions in deep space. These missions will teach us how humans can live far from Earth - something we’ll need for the long journey to Mars,” Obama said in an opinion piece on CNN’s website. His comments come ahead of a meeting planned by the White House in Pittsburgh this week to team up scientists, students and others to advance the commercial space market, Obama said. NASA separately said it was coordinating with commercial space companies to develop “deep space habitat modules” and create opportunities for companies to use the International Space Station’s docking port. Obama has previously sought to boost space exploration and renewed that pledge on Tuesday: “We have set a clear goal vital to the next chapter of America’s story in space: sending humans to Mars by the 2030s and returning them safely to Earth, with the ultimate ambition to one day remain there for an extended time.” The two-term president’s recommitment comes in the final months of his tenure and faces an uncertain future after he leaves office in January. His successors will be chosen on Nov. 8 in an election that could also reshape Congress, which allocates government funding. Obama, a self-described “nerd” who last year hosted budding astronomers at the White House, has made known his love of space. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her rival, Republican Donald Trump, have given little, if any, attention to the issue on the campaign trail. Humans have yet to travel to Mars, Earth’s neighbor some 35 million miles (56 million km) away. Like Earth, the so-called Red Planet also has seasons, and a 2012 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mission found conditions there once supported microbial life, according to the U.S. space agency. It would take about eight months to get there, depending on rocket velocity, according to NASA experts. Efforts to fund the space program have faltered in recent years over concerns about fiscal priorities. As part of the space habitat effort, NASA said on Tuesday it was entering the so-called “proving ground” stage to demonstrate and test various technologies over the next 10 years.

politicsNews

October 11, 2016

North Korea says naval blockade would be 'act of war', vows action

North Korea on Thursday warned it would take merciless self-defensive measures should the United States enforce a naval blockade, which Pyongyang sees as an act of war , the isolated nation s state media said. Citing a foreign ministry spokesman, the North s KCNA news agency said a naval blockade would be a wanton violation of the country s sovereignty and dignity. U.S. President Donald Trump was taking an extremely dangerous and big step towards the nuclear war by seeking such a blockade, it added. It was not immediately clear what U.S. proposal the agency was referring to. Should the United States and its followers try to enforce the naval blockade against our country, we will see it as an act of war and respond with merciless self-defensive counter-measures as we have warned repeatedly, the agency said.

worldnews

December 14, 2017

Trump SCRAMBLING To Fill Over 600 Empty Posts – Literally Has ONE Option Ahead Of Swearing-In

Apparently, Trump has been unable to fill more than 600 executive posts in his administration, according to a new report from The New York Times. With Obama leaving office now, and his swearing-in ceremony looming, he only has one option left: Retain Obama s staffers, at least for the time being.That has to be galling for someone who keeps insisting he s the best at everything, has the best of everything, and has a cabinet with the highest IQ ever (don t make us laugh too hard, sir ). He clearly isn t the best at appointing staff or working with other people. Senior Obama administration officials, along with some Republican lawmakers, have watched with growing alarm as the pace of the transition stops and starts. They ve said, repeatedly, that Trump s team won t coordinate with them.The Times says that aides released the names of over a dozen fresh appointments, but that barely scratches the surface of what they have to do. They also announced that they would keep 50 essential personnel in both the Department of State and Department of Homeland Security for the time being, including current Obama appointee Thomas A. Shannon Jr., who will stay on as acting Secretary of State pending Rex Tillerson s confirmation.Other Obama officials sticking around for now include:And White House press secretary Sean Spicer tried to spin it as ensuring continuity of government. Har de har har.Things are so terrible that Strobe Talbott, the president of the Brookings Institution and former Clinton official, said: In 21 years of covering the State Department and in eight years of serving there, I ve seen rocky transitions and experienced what feels like a hostile takeover, but I ve never seen anything like this. 21 years is a long time to never see anything like this.For his part, Trump really doesn t seem to care. He s floating around Washington, working to draw the crowds he so desperately needs to keep his ego properly inflated and still avoiding a lot of real work. He s acting like the demagogue he is, preparing to be crowned tomorrow, rather than sworn in. He even said it was bad karma to get too involved with the transition, and, according to the Times report, wanted to stop planning altogether.Besides, appointing people to his administration? That s grunt work. He s above grunt work.Featured image by Drew Angerer via Getty Images

News

January 20, 2017

ABC Shuts Down Conservative Tim Allen’s “Last Man Standing”…Viewers Furious When They See How Highly Show Was Rated

Tim Allen s hit sitcom Last Man Standing has seen its final days.ABC announced it has canceled Allen s show after six seasons. This was a scheduling decision, wrote Jori Arancio, senior vice president of ABC Entertainment and ABC Studios, in an email sent to Fox News on Friday.According to Deadline, ABC and its production partner for the show 20th Century Fox TV typically negotiate licensing fees prior to each season, however the network simply decided to pull the plug.A rep for 20th Century Fox TV told us cancellation decisions are made by ABC. FOX NewsIn December, 2016, Tim Allen is took on microagressions in one of the episodes of ABC sitcom Last Man Standing. In an installment entitled Precious Snowflake, Allen, who plays conservative family man Mike Baxter, goes head-to-head with his daughter Mandy over the issue on college campuses:The cancellation came as a shock for many fans considering the show s high ratings. Deadline reports the sitcom was the network s second-highest comedy this season and averaged 8.1 million viewers, just behind Modern Family, which averaged 8.7 million viewers this season and was recently renewed for two more seasons. It was also ABC s third highest watched scripted series behind Grey s Anatomy and Modern Family. I am so upset that #ABC has decided to cancel Last Man Standing because Tim Allen is conservative. It's funny. #nomoreABC Linda Smith (@LindaMcRaeSmith) May 12, 2017Wow ABC good job showing free speech by ending a conservative tv show cause you don't agree with it. #lastmanstanding #TimAllen best show! Mary Popish (@maypop36) May 11, 2017Infuriated that @ABCNetwork is cancelling #lastmanstanding despite high ratings and viewership! I can find entertainment on other networks. Natalie Richoux (@NatalieRichoux) May 12, 2017Tim Allen recently told Jimmy Kimmel that he had to be careful around intolerant liberals in Hollywood:

politics

May 13, 2017

Rep. Joaquin Castro won't seek Cruz's Senate seat in 2018: report

Representative Joaquin Castro has decided against running for the U.S. Senate in 2018, a campaign that would have pitted him against Republican Senator Ted Cruz, The New York Times reported on Monday. Castro, 42, made his decision after several months of speculation about a potential primary clash with Congressman Beto O’Rourke, who has already announced his candidacy, the Times reported. Both Castro and O’Rourke are part of the U.S. congressional delegation from Texas. Castro and his brother, Julian, are both considered rising stars in the Democratic party. Julian Castro served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama.

politicsNews

May 1, 2017

UK sees swift deal on Brexit transition outline, still at odds with EU on trade

Britain believes it can quickly agree a framework for a transitional agreement on exiting the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May s spokesman said on Tuesday, even as other stark differences over the Brexit timeline persisted. Britain is seeking a so-called implementation period of around two years following its departure from the EU in March 2019, during which its access to the EU single market would stay largely unchanged while new arrangements are put in place. Businesses are keen to see the details of such a deal as soon as possible to end uncertainty over the trading rules they will face after Britain leaves the bloc. In terms of the broad outline of an implementation period, we believe that we can agree that quickly, May s spokesman said. He did not provide further detail on when Britain hoped to reach such an agreement. We re clear that we want to achieve this implementation period, that we believe we can do so, and that our priority is to provide certainty for business, he said. May left some businesses confused on Monday by saying any implementation period would not be agreed until a deal was struck on Britain s future trading relationship with the bloc. That countered expectations that a transitional deal would come well before any deal on trade. It also highlighted a clear difference between Britain and the EU over when a trade deal would be agreed. Britain is seeking an ambitious deal on trade with the EU to replace its existing arrangement at the end of an implementation period. It believes its current close ties with the bloc mean such a deal will be agreed by October 2018. But the EU s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said it would take three years to negotiate a trade deal, meaning that if talks start in December it would be ready in time for the end of a transition period running until December 2020. In response, asked if it was Britain s position that it could still achieve a trade deal by the end of next year under the two-year exit process, May s spokesman said: Yes . Commenting on the timeline set out by Britain, an EU official said the bloc wanted to define a framework for our future relationship by this time next year so that a withdrawal treaty could take account of that future under the terms of the Article 50 legal exit process. However, the official said the EU will only negotiate on the details of a free trade deal after Britain has actually left in March 2019 because the EU s own laws do not allow it to negotiate trade agreements with its own members. Article 50 says that the withdrawal agreement has to take into account our future relationship, so we will know the terms of our partnership with the EU by our exit, a spokeswoman for May said when asked about the position set out by the EU official. But as to the details, that s subject to negotiation and I can t pre-empt those.

worldnews

October 24, 2017

Germany summons North Korea's ambassador over missile test

Germany strongly condemns North Korea s latest ballistic missile test, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Wednesday, adding that he would summon North Korea s ambassador. North Korea has again breached international law. North Korea s ruthless behavior poses a huge threat to international security, Gabriel said in a statement. North Korea said on Wednesday it successfully tested a powerful new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that put the entire U.S. mainland within range of its nuclear weapons.

worldnews

November 29, 2017

THE TEA PARTY IS MAKING A COMEBACK! Conservatives Reorganize…Mobilize To Fight Back Against Rent-A-Mob Democrats, Hold Congress Accountable [VIDEO]

As liberal protesters step up confrontations with Republican lawmakers, leaders of the original Tea Party movement that wrote the book on those tactics are reassembling their political army dispatching activists to push a conservative agenda that includes tax reform and dismantling ObamaCare.FreedomWorks, Tea Party Patriots and other groups are looking to keep pressure on GOP lawmakers to keep their 2016 campaign promises, and not buckle in the face of rowdy town hall protesters angry about the prospect of repealing the Affordable Care Act. A lot of people were elected to Congress based on bold promises about ObamaCare, tax reform and regulatory reform, Noah Wall, FreedomWorks national director of campaigns, told Fox News. We have to hold them to campaign promises, keep up the momentum and the energy. It s time to get off the bench and get this to work. FreedomWorks plans to mobilize its network of grassroots organizations and unite with the Tea Party Patriots on March 15 for a Day of Action on Capitol Hill that will include a rally and visits to members of Congress.The group will follow up with a Month of Action, set to include members driving constituents to congressional district offices and larger-scale rallies across the country to amplify their fiscally conservative message.Wall says his group and its supporters want to capitalize on Republicans now controlling Congress and the White House, and achieve long-awaited policy objectives. If successful, their efforts could mark a revival of the eight-year-old Tea Party movement a political revolt against big government under then-President Obama that crested with Republicans historic 2010 House takeover. Tea Party Patriots national coordinator Jenny Beth Martin on Wednesday said the upcoming Capitol Hill events are to make sure Republicans stay focused on repealing ObamaCare and her group will follow up with its own busy month including daily, micro-focused activities like Message Monday and Tweet Tuesday. She bristled at the suggestion the Tea Party movement has emerged from hibernation, arguing it was instrumental over the past several election cycles in helping Republicans take control of the House, Senate and then the White House. We are not dead, and we have never gone away, Martin told Fox News. There s a time to be active in campaigns, a time to have our voices heard and a time to stand up and be heard by members of Congress. They need to know we are not going away. FOX News

left-news

Feb 16, 2017

Did OPRAH Just Leave “Nasty” Hillary Wishing She Wouldn’t Have Endorsed Her? [VIDEO]

Four months ago, Oprah, the woman who made her fortune off preying on women s emotions and counting on their inability to think for themselves, gave Hillary s vagina an endorsement. She gave women absolutely no credible reason to support her, but reminded them, when you walk into the voting booth the choice is clear, one candidate has a vagina and the other one does not: Regardless of your politics, it s a seminal moment for women. What this says is, there is no ceiling, that ceiling just went boom! It says anything is possible when you can be leader of the free world. What Oprah s essentially saying to women who hang on her every word is that it doesn t matter if you or your husband don t have a job. It doesn t matter if you live in a town supported by coal that Hillary promised to destroy. It doesn t matter that Hillary left our nation s top secret classified emails exposed for anyone in the world to see, simply because she believed she was above the law, or that every other person in the history of our government has been punished for less serious breaches of our national security. Much like she tried to convince her viewers in 2008 that American needed a black President, she s now trying to convince her viewers they need to elect our first woman for President. Am I the only woman who finds Oprah s dumbing down of women to be an insult to my intelligence? Yesterday, Oprah weighed in on the election and gave an endorsement for Hillary that was an insult to the intelligence of every woman still clinging to her failed network. She essentially told them, you may not be smart enough to follow the news or to understand the seriousness of the content of the emails being leaked that prove Hillary was using her position as Secretary of State to funnel money into her Clinton Foundation. You may not even be smart enough to understand the seriousness of the recent videos released by James O Keefe of Project Veritas that show Democrats admitting to committing massive voter fraud for decades and inciting violence at Trump rallies. You may not even be smart enough to know these people featured in the undercover videos admit that Hillary and the DNC are fully aware of, and are funding their illegal activities. Yes, these same people are tied to Hillary who admit on tape they were responsible for the unprecedented violence a horrified America witnessed at Donald Trump s rally in her hometown of Chicago But let me tell you, that nasty woman you see on TV just ignore what you see, because, as Oprah states, She s not coming over to your house! You don t have to like her, she said. You don t have to like her. Watch Oprah below. She apparently couldn t offer her female viewers one concrete reason to vote for Hillary, so instead she focused on reasons to overlook her negatives and vote for her anyhow. Is this really an endorsement that will help Hillary Clinton win with thinking women or will they just use her endorsement to point out to other women that Oprah couldn t even think of one good reason to vote for Hillary other than the obvious argument used for the low information voter she has a vagina.Here s a video of Hillary speaking down to a young reporter in Oprah s beloved Africa. Maybe Oprah s decided that it s okay for women in positions of power to talk to women like this, as long as you don t invite them over for dinner:

left-news

Oct 22, 2016

Kenya's nurses call off their strike as lecturers take action

Nurses in Kenya have ended a five-month-old strike over delays to agreed wage rises, a union official said on Thursday, just as university lecturers began a similar action over their pay and benefits. The nurses strike had brought health services to a halt in many parts of the country, with patients being sent away from some government-run hospitals. Their pay deal was meant to have been approved in June by the union, the national government and county governments, but the state commission that advises on public sector pay rejected it shortly afterwards. We have asked all nurses to resume duty latest by Friday, union head Seth Panyako told Reuters, adding that an agreement had been reached with the government. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta won a second term in a re-run election on Oct. 26 after his initial victory in August was nullified by the electoral commission because of procedural irregularities. Panyako said a collective bargaining agreement would be signed in 30 days time. Kenyan public servants often strike over pay inequalities. The country s members of parliament are among the world s most well-paid, taking home around 1.2 million shillings ($11,577.42) per month, including allowances, says Justine Musila of the parliamentary watchdog website Mzalendo. In contrast, basic salaries for lecturers at public universities range from 69,000 shillings to 200,000 shillings each month, before allowances. A newly-qualified doctor typically earns about 156,000 shillings a month. On Thursday, lecturers also launched a strike to protest against what they described as the government s continued failure to implement a deal signed in March to boost salaries and housing allowances. That pact, which provided for a pay hike of 17.5 percent and an increase of 3.9 percent in housing allowances, ended a previous 54-day strike over pay that also affected the more than half a million students in Kenya s 31 public universities. All academic staff at the 31 public universities are on strike from November 1, Constantine Wasonga, secretary general of the University Academic Staff Union, said in a statement seen by Reuters on Thursday. The strike remains in force until the collective bargaining agreement is implemented in total.

worldnews

November 2, 2017

BOOM! WATCH TRUMP IN FLINT: “Now, the Cars are Made in Mexico and You Can’t Drink the Water in Flint”

OUCH! Trump really put things in perspective while visiting the Democrat run city of Flint MI, plagued by unemployed auto workers and tainted water During Donald Trump s visit to Flint, Michigan on Wednesday, the Republican nominee commented on how the automobile manufacturing industry has moved to Mexico impacting trade and how people in Flint can t drink the water, much like the water in Mexico. It used to be cars were made in Flint, and you couldn t drink the water in Mexico, Trump stated. Now, the cars are made in Mexico and you can t drink the water in Flint. That s not good, he added, as people chuckled in response.Trump: "Now the cars are made in Mexico, and you can't drink the water in Flint" https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim https://t.co/XTy1fmvsHN CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 14, 2016Via: Breitbart News

left-news

Sep 15, 2016

Fishing boat capsizes in South Korea, eight killed

A South Korean fishing boat capsized off the country s western coast on Sunday after it collided with a refueling vessel, killing eight people, South Korea s coast guard said. The boat was carrying two sailors and 20 passengers when the collision occurred in waters near Incheon west of Seoul, a coast guard official told a media briefing. Two people remain missing and a search and rescue operation involving five helicopters and 19 vessels is underway. President Moon Jae-in ordered all measures be taken to find those missing, his office told reporters. Those rescued from the water have been sent to nearby hospitals, the coast guard said. The reason for the collision has yet to be confirmed, according to the coast guard.

worldnews

December 3, 2017

PRESIDENT TRUMP To CBS This Morning: “I have no relationship with Barack Obama” [VIDEO]

Here is a bit of the transcript of their discussion via CBS:JOHN DICKERSON: Did President Obama give you any advice that was helpful? That you think, wow, he really was DONALD TRUMP: Well, he was very nice to me. But after that, we ve had some difficulties. So it doesn t matter. You know, words are less important to me than deeds. And you you saw what happened with surveillance. And everybody saw what happened with surveillance JOHN DICKERSON: Difficulties how?PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: and I thought that well, you saw what happened with surveillance. And I think that was inappropriate, but that s the way JOHN DICKERSON: What does that mean, sir?PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You can figure that out yourself.JOHN DICKERSON: Well, I the reason I ask is you said he was you called him sick and bad .PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Look, you can figure it out yourself. He was very nice to me with words, but and when I was with him but after that, there has been no relationship. "Words are less important to me than deeds." President Trump on why he now has "no relationship" w former President Obama. #WHThisMorning pic.twitter.com/16UimVudb3 CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) May 1, 2017JOHN DICKERSON: Every president makes the Oval Office theirs. What have you done to make this yours?PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, a lot of things. We had these incredible flags including the American flags. And they were in different rooms. And they were always being pushed around because they didn t have enough room. And I said, How beautiful, the base, the flags, Army, Navy, Marine Corps. I mean, just so beautiful. Just so beautiful. The Coast Guard flag over here.And I said, Well, let s see how they look in the Oval Office. So the flags were up. The picture of Thomas Jefferson I put up. The picture of Andrew Jackson I put up because they said his campaign and my campaign tended to mirror each other. So we did a lot of actually we did a lot of work. It s it s a much it s a much different look than it was previously.

left-news

May 1, 2017

WEBSITE AND TWITTER PAGE Of DC Group Leaking Soros Documents Is Taken Down…Censorship Alive And Well In Obama’s America

Censorship is alive and well in Obama s America DCLeaks, a website that releases information on powerful political figures, has had part of its website taken offline after releasing a cache of documents on billionaire donor George Soros. The @DCLeaks Twitter account has also been suspended from Twitter for reasons unknown:The website had previously released 2,500 internal Open Society Foundation (OSF) documents in order to shed light on one of the most influential networks operating worldwide. OSF is one of Soros networks of organizations.The leaked documents had resulted in several damaging reports about the organization. OSF had previously confirmed that the documents were legitimate.Read more: Daily Caller

Government News

Aug 27, 2016

As Trump shifts immigration and foreign policies, State Department is silent

The U.S. State Department will not conduct its regular daily press briefing until a new secretary of state is confirmed, leaving the main U.S. agency responsible for dealing with the rest of the world silent amid the uproar over President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration. Trump on Friday announced a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and a temporary bar on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries. The decision provoked a widespread backlash in foreign capitals, documented in cables U.S. embassies sent to Washington. Typically, in the aftermath of a major foreign policy shift, a State Department spokesperson would appear on camera within days to take questions from reporters and defend or explain the U.S. positions on different issues. The State Department has not briefed since the day before Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, however, and on Monday a department spokesperson said no one will appear at the podium until the U.S. Senate confirms a new secretary of state. “At that point, we will update the press corps on our posture,” the spokesperson said. Trump’s desire to break with previous U.S. policies on issues including Israel’s construction of settlements, U.S. trade pacts, and cooperation with Russia suggests that State Department officials have not been given guidance on what positions they should articulate. “Until you know what policy you’re advancing, it doesn’t do you any good to get out there,” said Richard Boucher, a former State Department spokesman who briefed reporters on the first weekday of the George W. Bush administration, in January 2001. “The decision not to brief is a simple admission that they don’t know what to say.” The Senate is due to vote on Monday on moving forward on confirming Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil Corp executive whom Trump has tapped to lead the State Department. If as expected the Senate votes to advance his nomination, a final confirmation vote would most likely take place late on Tuesday. The lack of briefings this far into a new administration is a departure from the three previous inter-party transitions. In 1993, 2001, and 2009, State Department spokespeople briefed reporters no later than Jan. 23, according to briefing transcripts stored in online archives. In those three transitions, the new secretary of state was confirmed on or just after Jan. 20.

politicsNews

January 30, 2017

Death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria more than doubles to 34

The death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria has more than doubled to 34, a spokesman for Governor Ricardo Rosello said on Tuesday. The worst hurricane to hit the U.S. territory in more than 90 years directly killed 19 people, said Pedro Cerame, the governor s director of communications in Washington. Just hours earlier when President Donald Trump visited the island to survey the damage the official death toll remained as it has for days at 16 dead.

worldnews

October 4, 2017

Trump’s Biggest KKK Fan Is Back, And He Just LOVED Those Anti-Muslim Tweets This Morning

Just in case you needed any more proof that Donald Trump s racist tweets were a thinly-coded message to his alt-right, anti-Muslim, and white supremacist followers, a former Grand Wizard of the KKK has jumped on board today in praise of President Hates-a-Lot.It wasn t enough that the KKK endorsed Trump during his campaign to stop his multitudes of followers from voting for him, so it s hard to say whether Duke s full-throated endorsement of today s disgusting display of racism will be any different. But for the average American, seeing the former Klan leader get behind Trump so vigorously should make them more than a little sick.To even go to Duke s page on Twitter is to subject yourself to a blinding cover photo, all white, with a blue-eyed Aryan baby in the upper corner, and the words It s Okay To Be White across the middle. The phrase is part of a hate campaign that Doctor Duke has been pushing across America, a play on the notion that there is some kind of war on white people happening.But the tweet itself is disturbing:Trump retweets video of crippled white kid in Europe being beaten by migrants, and white people being thrown off a roof and then beaten to death, He's condemned for showing us what the fake news media WON'T. Thank God for Trump! That's why we love him! David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) November 29, 2017By invoking God in his message, Duke is trying the age-old tactic of pretending that white supremacy has its roots in Christianity, an angle that KKK members have tried to use for generations.Sadly, it works on some followers of both Duke s and of Donald Trump s. It seems there s quite a bit of crossover between the two racist groups. That s no surprise: The KKK were absolutely instrumental in getting Trump elected.The bottom line is, both men know exactly what they re doing when they send messages like that to their followers. Trump s racist retweets were already disgraceful enough. But continuing to leave them on his Twitter feed even after seeing praise from a Loyal White Knight like David Duke is just rubbing salt in the wound.Featured image via William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

News

November 29, 2017

Republican tax plans gain speed; Fitch warns on deficit

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives forged ahead on Tuesday with legislation to reshape the federal tax code, while a top credit-ratings agency said the bill would balloon the budget deficit and give only a temporary boost to the economy. As the House tax committee weighed amendments to a bill that Democrats have blasted as a give-away to corporations and the rich, the Washington tax reform debate was fast shifting to the Senate, where Republicans hold only a slim majority. Senate Republicans are expected to unveil their own tax bill at the end of the week, and early indications suggest it could differ significantly from the House legislation. The House is aiming to vote on its bill next week, a senior Republican said. Tax reform has been a priority for President Donald Trump, who says it will stimulate economic growth. But Republicans have yet to score a major legislative accomplishment since Trump took office in January, even though the party controls both chambers of Congress as well as the White House. Trump made another pitch for Democratic support on Capitol Hill, where his top aides met with about a dozen Senate Democrats and Trump himself phoned in from his Asia trip. “He said, ‘Look … I want to do it in a bipartisan way,’” Senator Joe Donnelly told reporters. Fitch Ratings predicted that a Republican tax plan would win passage in both chambers, but did not see it offering long-term benefits. “Such reform would deliver a modest and temporary spur to growth. ... However, it will lead to wider fiscal deficits and add significantly to U.S. government debt,” Fitch said, revising up its medium-term U.S. government debt forecast. The U.S. national debt now exceeds $20 trillion. Republicans once firmly opposed adding to the debt, but their emphasis has changed. Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) said the House bill would add nearly $1.5 trillion to the national debt from 2018 through 2027. Trump and congressional Republicans say the proposed tax cuts would boost economic growth enough to generate new revenues that would offset the tax cuts. Few economists agree. The House bill slashes tax rates for large corporations, small businesses and wealthy Americans, while sharply reducing or eliminating tax breaks that benefit many middle-class Americans such as deductions for state and local taxes, college tuition and home mortgage interest. JCT estimates that the House bill could raise taxes on as many as 38 million people who earn between $20,000 and $40,000 per year, beginning in 2023. House Republicans, who have an overwhelming majority, drafted their bill in secret, ignoring Democrats. But the House bill is unlikely to be taken up in the Senate, where Republicans have a 52-48 seat majority and they need to pay heed to moderates within their own ranks as well as Democrats, lobbyists and analysts said. Two conservative Republican senators, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, have already voiced concern that the House tax bill could raise taxes on some middle-class Americans. The Senate bill could delay the proposed corporate tax cut by one year, may not allow any deductions for local property taxes, and may not collapse the current seven individual brackets to the four proposed by the House, according to the Washington Post. Republican leaders have pushed for the House to vote on the tax bill before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 23. “My donors are basically saying, get it done or don’t ever call me again,” Republican Representative Chris Collins said. U.S. tax legislation must begin in the House. “We’ll bring it to the floor next week,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady told Fox News. In party-line votes on Tuesday, Brady’s tax committee voted down eight Democratic amendments that would have preserved or expanded tax breaks for the middle class, nullified the tax legislation if it increased the deficit in future years and maintained taxes on foreign profits of U.S. corporations. Brady offered a sweeping amendment on Monday that tweaked at least half a dozen provisions of the 425-page bill. One related to carried interest income, a share of an investment fund’s profits paid out to the fund’s general partners and which represents a large portion of many fund managers’ incomes. Carried interest currently is taxed at the capital gains rate, which is substantially lower than the personal income tax rate for higher earners. Brady’s amendment would lengthen to more than three years from one the time period assets must be held in order to be eligible for the capital gains tax rate. The amendment would also reduce the amount of carried-interest income eligible for the lower rate.

politicsNews

November 7, 2017

Federal judge partially lifts Trump's latest refugee restrictions

A federal judge in Seattle partially blocked U.S. President Donald Trump’s newest restrictions on refugee admissions on Saturday, the latest legal defeat for his efforts to curtail immigration and travel to the United States. The decision by U.S. District Judge James Robart is the first judicial curb on rules the Trump administration put into place in late October that have contributed significantly to a precipitous drop in the number of refugees being admitted into the country. Refugees and groups that assist them argued in court that the administration’s policies violated the Constitution and federal rulemaking procedures, among other claims. Department of Justice attorneys argued in part that U.S. law grants the executive branch the authority to limit refugee admissions in the way that it had done so. On Oct. 24, the Trump administration effectively paused refugee admissions from 11 countries mostly in the Middle East and Africa, pending a 90-day security review, which was set to expire in late January. The countries subject to the review are Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. For each of the last three years, refugees from the 11 countries made up more than 40 percent of U.S. admissions. A Reuters review of State Department data showed that as the review went into effect, refugee admissions from the 11 countries plummeted. Robart ruled that the administration could carry out the security review, but that it could not stop processing or admitting refugees from the 11 countries in the meantime, as long as those refugees have a “bona fide” connection to the United States. As part of its new restrictions, the Trump administration had also paused a program that allowed for family reunification for refugees, pending further security screening procedures being put into place. Robart ordered the government to re-start the program, known as “follow-to-join”. Approximately 2,000 refugees were admitted into the United States in fiscal year 2015 under the program, according to Department of Homeland Security data. Refugee advocacy groups praised Robart’s decision. “This ruling brings relief to thousands of refugees in precarious situations in the Middle East and East Africa, as well as to refugees already in the U.S. who are trying to reunite with their spouses and children,” said Mariko Hirose, litigation director for the International Refugee Assistance Project, one of the plaintiffs in the case. A Justice Department spokeswoman, Lauren Ehrsam, said the department disagrees with Robart’s ruling and is “currently evaluating the next steps”. Robart, who was appointed to the bench by Republican former President George W. Bush, emerged from relative obscurity in February, when he issued a temporary order to lift the first version of Trump’s travel ban. On Twitter, Trump called him a “so-called judge” whose “ridiculous” opinion “essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country”. Robart’s ruling represented the second legal defeat in two days for the Trump administration. On Friday, a U.S. appeals court said Trump’s travel ban targeting six Muslim-majority countries should not be applied to people with strong U.S. ties, but said its ruling would be put on hold pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

politicsNews

December 24, 2017

Trump catches up to Clinton, latest Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has pulled into an effective tie with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, erasing a substantial deficit as he consolidated support among his party’s likely voters in recent weeks, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos national tracking poll released Friday. The poll showed 40 percent of likely voters supporting Trump and 39 percent backing Clinton for the week of Aug. 26 to Sept. 1. Clinton’s support has dropped steadily in the weekly tracking poll since Aug. 25, eliminating what had been a eight-point lead for her. Trump’s gains came as Republican support for their party’s candidate jumped by six percentage points over the past two weeks, to about 78 percent. That is still below the 85 percent support Republican nominee Mitt Romney enjoyed in the summer of 2012, but the improvement helps explain Trump’s rise in the poll. The Reuters/Ipsos poll is conducted online in English in all 50 states. The latest poll surveyed 1,804 likely voters over the course of the week; it had a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of three percent. Different polls have produced widely different results over the course of the campaign. In part that’s because some, like Reuters/Ipsos, have attempted to measure the preferences of who’s likely to vote, while others have surveyed the larger pool of all registered voters. And even those that survey likely voters have different ways of estimating who is likely to cast a ballot. Polling aggregators, which calculate averages of major polls, have shown that Clinton’s lead has been shrinking for the past few weeks. Those averages put her advantage over Trump at between three and six percentage points. Some of the more recent individual polls, however, have the race even tighter. Voters don’t elect the American president directly, of course, but through the Electoral College, an assembly representing each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on the number of legislators they have in Congress. As of last Friday, the separate Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation polling project estimated Clinton was on track to win the Electoral College, by about 332 votes to 206. Those numbers were scheduled to be updated later Friday. In recent weeks, Clinton has come under renewed criticism over her handling of classified information while serving as U.S. secretary of state, and her family’s charitable foundation has come under fresh scrutiny for the donations it accepted while Clinton served in the Obama administration. Meanwhile, Clinton hasn’t been campaigning as actively as Trump. Trump, meanwhile, has reshuffled his campaign leadership and sought to broaden his appeal to moderate Republicans and minorities. He recently suggested that he would be a better president than Clinton for African Americans, and has taken steps, including a meeting this week with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, to reach out to immigrants. It remains to be seen whether those efforts will click. Clinton has led Trump through most of the campaign for the November election, though neither candidate appears to have inspired America. In the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, more than 20 percent of likely voters opted for a choice other than the two major nominees, whether an alternative candidate, “would not vote” or “unsure.” That figure is significantly higher than the 10 percent to 14 percent of respondents who answered similarly at this point in the 2012 campaign. Both President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney enjoyed substantially stronger support at this point in the summer of 2012 than either Trump or Clinton does now. And while Trump has consolidated his support among Republicans, likely voters are expressing an increasingly sour view of Clinton: The share of likely voters with an unfavorable view of the former secretary of state has grown to 57 percent, compared with Trump’s 54 percent, her worst showing on that metric in a month. Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said he remains convinced Clinton is ahead, somewhere in the range seen among the polling aggregators. “There has been a closing that’s completely natural,” Sabato said. “Every four years, you have two national party conventions that produce a bounce of varying sizes. Clinton got a substantial bounce this year that lasted for a full month. It’s usually gone around Labor Day, and by then we’ll be where we should be, which is right around four to five points” for Clinton. In a separate question in the Reuters/Ipsos poll that included alternative-party candidates, Clinton and Trump were tied at 39 percent. Seven percent supported Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, and two percent supported Jill Stein of the Green Party.

politicsNews

September 2, 2016

Trump Says To H*ll With Benghazi Mom, Does Live Fox News Interview During Her Speech

The Republican National Convention got off to a rocky start on Monday. The evening portion opened with what else but Benghazi. Patricia Smith, who s son, Sean Smith, was killed that fateful night in Libya, spoke at the RNC. This should have been a big deal to the presumptive nominee, but Trump is a narcissist.Trump is ever so worried about Benghazi, but apparently not enough to decide not to interrupt this grieving mother s big moment by calling into Fox News for a live interview smack dab in the middle of her speech. MSNBC and CNN continued to cover Smith s emotional remarks, but Fox cut away from her to broadcast Trump s interview.What did he have to say that was so important? Not much. He gave a brief preview of what he plans to say on Thursday night when he accepts the GOP nomination, promising a fairly lengthy speech that will cover many themes one of them is law and order. O Reilly asked if he intended to discuss the recent police killings that have taken place in Baton Rouge and Dallas, and Trump said that he would definitely be talking about this issue.Of course. It s a big issue; it s a horrible issue; and it s going to be a very important one. It s called law and order. We want law and order.When he was asked about the Black Lives Matter movement, Trump said that some of the protesters are essentially calling death to the police, and that s unacceptable. He promised that if he makes it into the White House he will look into it very seriously. O Reilly pressed him on just what that meant, and Trump said that he would perhaps talk with the attorney general about it or do something, but at a minimum, we re going to have to be watching. Meanwhile, Patricia Smith was publicly mourning the death of her son at the RNC, slamming Hillary Clinton for her role in Benghazi. Benghazi! This has been the GOP s favorite witch hunt for years, but Trump thinks it is more important to talk about what he is going to talk about? Really? No narcissism there. Nope. None at all.You can watch the interview here:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USE4T27je0U]Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images

News

July 19, 2016

Trump says Fed keeping rates low because of pressure from Obama

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Monday that U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was keeping interest rates low because of political pressure from the Obama administration, questioning the motives of an institution whose work hinges on maintaining its independence. “Well, it’s (the interest rate) staying at zero because she’s obviously political and she’s doing what Obama wants her to do,” Trump told CNBC in a phone interview, saying Yellen should be “ashamed” of what she was doing to the country. The U.S. central bank has raised interest rates just once since cutting them to zero in response to the 2008 financial crisis. The Fed has indicated it is preparing for a second hike of 0.25 percentage point, although it has signaled the pace of future rate rises will be slower than in the past. “Any increase at all will be a very, very small increase because they want to keep the market up so Obama goes out and let the new guy ... raise interest rates ... and watch what happens in the stock market,” Trump said. He did not specify how the Democratic president had put pressure on Yellen. While Yellen has met with Obama, the Fed as an institution is independent when it comes to raising or lowering rates, and both Yellen and other rate-setters have said the Fed has no view on the Nov. 8 election. The Fed’s Washington-based board had no comment on Trump’s remarks, though regional Federal Reserve bank presidents said during public appearances that politics do not enter into Fed deliberations. Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari responded in a later interview on CNBC by denying that politics influenced Fed policymaking. “Politics simply does not come up,” he said. “We look at the economic data and ... everyone around the table is committed to achieving our dual mandate” of maximum employment and stable prices, Kashkari said. Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart, asked about political pressure on the Fed at a National Association for Business Economics conference in Atlanta, said, “I don’t see the world that way.” Trump’s comments mark a back-and-forth by the candidate over whether he feels low rates are good or bad. He has accused the Fed of keeping rates low at Obama’s behest, but at other times has said he felt lower rates were good because higher rates would make the dollar stronger, hurting American exports and manufacturers. As a businessman, he said, “I love low interest rates,” but said they hurt many people who were living on their savings. Typically, Fed officials steer clear of politics in their public remarks, and argue that doing so is important for the Fed to maintain the independence it needs to set monetary policy. The moments when the line is publicly breached, such as former Chair Alan Greenspan’s endorsement of a Bush administration tax cut, are rare and can provoke a quick backlash. Though the members of the Fed’s Board of Governor’s are appointed by the president with Senate confirmation, their long, 14-year terms and staggered appointment dates are designed to insulate them from the sort of pressure Trump alleges. The chair, considered one of the most powerful positions in setting U.S. economic policy, is picked from the board members for a four-year term. Yellen’s would expire in 2018, and Trump has previously said he would consider replacing her. The Fed’s marching orders, however, come from Congress, which has set the central bank’s mandate. The Fed lowered interest rates to near zero in response to the 2007-2009 financial crisis, and has increased them only once since then - in December - given the sluggish pace of the recovery. Fed members and economists have vigorously debated the issue Trump raised - whether easy-money policies have led to an unsustainable rise in asset prices. But there has been even more concern about weak growth, weak inflation, and the need to keep financial conditions loose to try to ensure businesses keep hiring.

politicsNews

September 12, 2016

Donald Trump: The Hundreds Of People I Insulted On Twitter ‘Deserved’ It

The New York Times published a piece displaying the 282 people Donald Trump has insulted on Twitter since he announced his run for the White House. It had to be a daunting task for the paper because the GOP nominee uses his Twitter account like a punching bag against anyone who hurts his tender feelings. The GOP presidential nominee needs to be in an anger management group instead of social media. According to Donald, though, the people he lashed out at deserved it. It s ok, most of them deserved, Trump said on ABC s Good Morning America. I believe in fighting back when people are against me, when they tell lies, you know, I have the power of this instrument and frankly sometimes I ll use that, he continued. And I agree sometimes it will revert back or sometimes maybe it doesn t come out you have to be careful with it. Melania Trump was also interviewed. She explained that as First Lady, she would focus on social media. The wife of a cyberbully said, What s going on is very hurtful to children, to some adults as well. We need to teach [children] how to use it, what is right to say, what is not right to say, because it is very bad out there and children get hurt, she added without one bit of irony.Trump said that he agreed that so many people are hurt by social media. She feels very strongly about. She understands it very well, Trump said.Trump hasn t changed. Even before his run for the presidency, he insulted random Twitter users. Are you making less than minimum wage, don t worry, the government will protect you. Afraid to give your real name? You should be, Donald tweeted to a Twitter user in 2013. By the way, Trump blocked that Twitter user after the exchange.Imagine if Barack Obama lashed out at random people on the Internet because people hurt his feefees in 2008 then in 2012.Donald continued his rigged election rhetoric in the interview. That s likely because he s preparing himself for defeat in November. He won t take losing gracefully and neither will his supporters.Image via screen capture.

News

October 27, 2016

FORMER CIA DIRECTOR Admits Guilt of Intel Agencies Out to Get Trump: “I don’t think I fully thought through the implications”

Remember former CIA Director Mike Morell s lies about Benghazi? He totally covered for Hillary and the Obama administration after Benghazi:Could this be connected to the reason Morell is now coming clean about targeting Trump?WHY IS HE ADMITTING GUILT NOW?Former Acting CIA Director Michael Morell thinks that intelligence agencies were too harsh to Trump during the campaign and presidential transition, according to an interview released Monday.Morell, who left the CIA in 2013 after serving as its acting director twice, endorsed Hillary Clinton in an August 2016 New York Times op-ed.Politico s Susan Glassner asked Morell if getting involved was a mistake and the former CIA official said that it wasn t, but that there were downsides to it that I didn t think about at the time. I was concerned about what is the impact it would have on the agency, right? Very concerned about that, thought that through. But I don t think I fully thought through the implications, Morell said. So, let s put ourselves here in Donald Trump s shoes. So, what does he see? Right? He sees a former director of CIA and a former director of NSA, Mike Hayden, who I have the greatest respect for, criticizing him and his policies. Right? And he could rightfully have said, Huh, what s going on with these intelligence guys? Right? And then he sees a former acting director and deputy director of CIA criticizing him and endorsing his opponent, Morell continued. And then he gets his first intelligence briefing, after becoming the Republican nominee, and within 24 to 48 hours, there are leaks out of that that are critical of him and his then-national security advisor, Mike Flynn. Morell is referring to an NBC report that said Flynn was repeatedly interrupting briefers during the session. And so, this stuff starts to build, right? And he must have said to himself, What is it with these intelligence guys? Are they political? The current director at the time, John Brennan, during the campaign occasionally would push back on things that Donald Trump had said, Morell told Politico.The former CIA acting director continued to reference leaked reports during the interview. Then he becomes president, and he s supposed to be getting a daily brief from the moment he becomes the president-elect. Right? And he doesn t. And within a few days, there s leaks about how he s not taking his briefing. So, he must have thought right? that, Who are these guys? Are these guys out to get me? Is this a political organization? Can I think about them as a political organization when I become president? He concluded: So, I think there was a significant downside to those of us who became political in that moment. So, if I could have thought of that, would I have ended up in a different place? I don t know. But it s something I didn t think about.

politics

Dec 11, 2017

Super Tuesday showdown: How the South won the spotlight

Things were not looking too good a year ago for Georgia’s top elections officer as he tried to stitch together a mega-presidential primary in the U.S. South. Efforts to bring Alabama and Arkansas online had stalled. Tennessee was threatening to defect. But Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp kept working the phones, arguing that a bloc of Southern states all voting on March 1 was the only way to make U.S. presidential candidates pay attention to the region. Eventually key state leaders came around and their effort seems to have paid off. Candidates have campaigned more in the South this election year in an effort to woo a group of states voting early on so-called Super Tuesday than Kemp can recall seeing in any contemporary primary. And the seven states holding contests in the region appear poised to play a pivotal role in selecting the Republican and Democratic nominees for the Nov. 8 race. “In years past, we’ve been an afterthought,” Kemp said at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta last week. “That’s certainly not the case this year.” Elections officials nationally are watching how the concurrent races in the South play out on Tuesday, and are talking about possibly replicating the strategy in other parts of the country to win a greater say in the primaries. Kemp has dubbed the coordinated Southern races that he’s orchestrated the “SEC primary” - or Southeastern Conference primary - after a regional college athletic conference. “This represents an attempt to introduce primary reform,” said Kay Stimson, spokeswoman for the National Association of Secretaries of State, which for years has urged holding regional primaries that would rotate around the nation. “Brian Kemp took the ball and ran with it,” she added. It was not easy. A year ago, Kemp stood in his statehouse office fretting that bills to set the primary date in Alabama and Arkansas were not going to pass. An Alabama state party chair was worried her state would get lost in a big group, he said, but Kemp argued that Alabama would still be better off by voting when it was early enough to matter. In Arkansas, the bill to change the primary date did not pass until it was included in a special legislative session. Kemp even feared trouble in Tennessee after his counterpart there said there was a rumor circulating that the “SEC Primary” states were thinking about moving back by a week. “No,” Kemp replied. “Our coalition is holding together.” “WAFFLE HOUSE” v. “SEC” PRIMARY Kemp, 52, a boots-wearing small business owner who drives a Chevrolet Suburban with more than 430,000 miles on it, jokes he could have dubbed his effort the “Waffle House primary,” for a restaurant chain prevalent in the region. But athletics jumped out as a common passion for the Southern states he helped to bring together: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Four other states, from Alaska to Vermont, also hold contests to award delegates on Super Tuesday. Kemp’s plan to concentrate attention on the South did not initially excite Alabama’s John Merrill, who had other priorities as that state’s newly elected elections chief. But after hearing the then secretary of state from Iowa - which holds the country’s first nominating contest - talk about how voters there would never back a candidate they had not met eight times, he rallied bipartisan support. “Do you know just how few times anybody in Alabama has ever had the privilege to interact with a presidential candidate on a personal basis, let alone do it more than once?” Merrill said. Candidates began showing up once the regional primary was in place. A rally for Republican billionaire businessman Donald Trump drew as many as 30,000 people to a football stadium in Mobile, Alabama in August, for example. The primaries in the politically conservative South got a boost in significance this year from the size and unpredictability of the Republican presidential field. On the Democratic side, the region’s large concentrations of African-American voters are seen as a test of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s and U.S. Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders’ appeal with a key Democratic voting bloc. While the South has not seen such a coordinated effort in decades, it is not the first time the states have tried to gang up. Yet in 1988, when the region almost entirely held primaries on March 8, votes were split among Democratic candidates and the contest left the South to be settled elsewhere. A number of states eventually walked away from the plan. “The experience in 1988 was not one that the powers-that-be at the time really wanted,” said Josh Putnam, a lecturer in political science at the University of Georgia. Nonetheless, other regions are eyeing the Southern model. Washington state Secretary of State Kim Wyman failed last year to persuade several neighboring states to coordinate their primaries but plans another push in the next cycle. “We could have a Pac-12,” she joked, referring to a Pacific Coast-oriented college athletic conference. “Or at least get some of the Western states to go on the same day, so candidates might actually come and visit us and campaign.”

politicsNews

February 29, 2016

Norway appoints its first female foreign minister

Norwegian Defence Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide was named minister of foreign affairs on Friday, making her the first woman to hold the post in the Nordic country. She replaces Boerge Brende, who last month was appointed president of the World Economic Forum. The appointment leaves the top three government jobs, that of prime minister, foreign minister and finance minister, in the hands of women. Prime Minister Erna Solberg said European Affairs Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen will move to the defense post, while Marit Berger Roesland will join the cabinet to take up the European affairs portfolio.

worldnews

October 20, 2017

Republican lawmakers: health plan tax credit changes likely to help seniors

U.S. Republicans’ proposed healthcare plan to unravel Obamacare likely will be changed to adjust its tax credits to help older Americans buy health insurance coverage, two Republican lawmakers said on Friday. House Budget Committee Chairman Diane Black said it was very likely there would be such changes to do more for older, lower-income people. U.S. Representative Tom Cole said House Speaker Paul Ryan earlier on Friday had “pretty much committed” to altering the plan’s tax credits to help older Americans.

politicsNews

March 17, 2017

Undercutting the Nation State? Chicago Group Suggests ‘Global Cities’ Should Run World Affairs

Mark Anderson TRUTH HOUNDCHICAGO, Ill. The Disruptive Forces Changing Cities, program, conducted by the Chicago Council of Global Affairs Sept. 15, was a textbook case of an elite organization pursuing a tightly planned, dictatorial society while sounding like it s seeking a democratic, promising vision of fairness and prosperity for all.It s all being spearheaded in accordance with the growing global cities movement that gradually challenges the authority of the very nation-states that the world s primary cities inhabit.This approach, according to several CCGA-aligned think tanks, journalists and others supporting the Global Parliament of Mayors and similar groupings, amounts to a direct challenge to national authority, in order to usurp some of the key powers delegated to national governments by their charters and constitutions.Since this movement chisels away at the constitutional foundations of nations, it risks undermining them in a way that would redraw the lines of governance, in a manner that s highly unpredictable, and potentially radical and unlawful. The policy areas over which cities want to assume much more influence (and, ultimately, exert control) include battling climate change, regulating immigration in order to increase it while providing sanctuary cities, along with sparking job growth and several other things even including the seemingly improbable realm of foreign policy, where you d think mayors would not tread.The CCGA s latest program Sept. 15, held on-the-record at the organization s conference center in the Prudential Building on Randolph Street, was a continuation of many of the themes covered in early June 2016 and June 2017 at the CCGA s annual all-day Forum on Global Cities. The keynote speaker Sept. 15 was Amy Liu, who s Vice President and Director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at Washington D.C. s Brookings Institution.She s considered a national expert on cities and metropolitan areas adept at translating research and insights into action on the ground. As director of Brookings Metro, which Liu co-founded in 1996, she pioneered the program s signature approach to policy and practice, which uses rigorous research to inform strategies for economic growth and opportunity, a CCGA representative said while introducing Liu in Chicago.Prior to her Brookings work, Liu was Special Assistant to [U.S. Housing and Urban Development] Secretary Henry Cisneros and staffed the U.S. Senate Banking Committee s Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs. She holds a Northwestern University degree in social policy and urban studies.Her remarks were promoted via the CCGA website with statements like, Cities are increasingly driving the global economy but numerous disruptive forces . . . threaten to deepen inequality and economic exclusion, unless cities adapt and evolve. And while Liu spoke of the choices that municipal leaders will need to make, in order to give their workforces access to basic things like skills, (and to foster innovation and entrepreneurship, while deepening regional connections ) the key to understanding her message is discerning what she and the CCGA mean by global forces of disruption. To address such matters, Liu spoke solo and then collaborated with CCGA moderator Niamh King, who, prior to joining the CCGA, worked for the European Commission and the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, among several other posts.Liu began her talk by saying she wants cities to be vibrant places to work and live, but due to America s current national discourse under President Trump, we are turning our backs on climate change, on the poor and the working class while also betraying our values as a nation of immigrants. Moreover, people of all races and religions are being neglected under this national discourse. So rather than take us backwards, the nation needs our cities to move us forward, Liu carefully stated, presenting a thinly-veiled claim that the nation-state, especially a more nationalist one, represents a barrier to what internationalist-oriented cities can do.Thus, the world s cities, in essence, need to run their nations, she implied. Accordingly, she called for a future that s hyper-global, more digital, more urban, more multi-racial and multi-ethnic. But her concern is that these very same forces of progress can also be great sources of division. Technology, for example, creates opportunities for some but destroys it for others, favoring the highly-skilled while abandoning those who cannot keep pace.To combat such disparities, Liu stressed that local leaders need to build inclusive local and regional economies that radically adapt to disruption and future-proof our cities. Citing her Brookings work, she said cities therefore should pursue three goals: Growth, prosperity and inclusion. That, she added, means quality growth of good jobs to seek better prosperity, but to achieve this inclusion, the benefits, especially in terms of better incomes, must accrue to all members of the community, closing disparities by race and by place. She also said that 63 U.S. metro areas out of 100 experienced economic growth and job hikes between 2010 and 2015, according to Brookings research. But several cities only saw growth in lesser-quality jobs, while only eight made significant economic progress in inclusion for whites and people of color. Liu also stressed, The nation s economic growth is not felt by most people . . . as a whole the bottom 50% of income-earners, the middle class, the working class, the poor, have made no ground. So the bulk of the nation s income gains have accrued to the top earners. From this, she concluded that it s up to the cities to bridge these gaps and solve the problems.Liu then cited historic policies and attitudes that she feels have held us back in tackling such inequities. Accordingly, at this point, she delved into the disruptive forces facing cities and how city leaders can adapt to disruption. DOUBLE-SPEAK DETECTEDIronically, Liu spoke of these disruptive forces, which are mainly macroeconomic in nature, as if they re akin to the four horsemen of the apocalypse globalization, urbanization, technology and demographic change, which, she warned, are upending existing systems. She went on to say that while globalization has supposedly slowed down, free trade is going strong, accounting for 40% of world economic value. Trade, she deduced from this, has tremendous economic value because firms that export their wares hire more people and pay better wages than non-exporting firms, yet, while downplaying the immense damage free trade has wrought lest groupings like Brookings and the CCGA lose the narrative in their constant support for more free-trade treaties she admitted that U.S. voters in the last election made it clear that globalization has left many without jobs for extended time periods.Showing a color-coded map, she also said that federal adjustment assistance has been extended to more than two million Americans in the past two decades those whose jobs were terminated due to trade, with 70% of such workers living in large and small metropolitan areas. The trade pain was most felt in the industrial communities in the Midwest and the South, she also conceded.BENDING PEOPLE TO THE SYSTEM, NOT VICE VERSABut the crux of the matter shone through when she stated; I would say that the problem isn t so much globalization, but the failure of our public policies to help people and to help communities adjust to the new world order Continue this article at The Truth HoundREAD MORE NWO NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire NWO FilesSUPPORT OUR WORK BY SUBSCRIBING & BECOMING A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV

Middle-east

September 23, 2017

SpaceX to launch Turkish satellites, minister says

Turkey s Turksat 5A and 5B satellites will be launched by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), Turkish Transport Minister Ahmet Arslan said on Thursday. Our friends decided to launch our satellites with the Falcon 9 rockets of Airbus subcontractor, SpaceX, Arslan said at an event in Istanbul. The agreement to build and launch satellites will be worth around $500 million, Turksat Chairman said during his speech at the same event. In October, Airbus submitted the best bid to build the satellites. The 5A satellite will be launched in 2020 and the 5B in 2021. Elon Musk, chief executive of American electric car maker Tesla and aerospace company SpaceX, met Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday and discussed cooperation between Tesla, SpaceX and Turkish firms. Musk s SpaceX plans a manned mission to Mars by 2024 and a rocket capable of carrying passengers from one continent to another in less than an hour.

worldnews

November 9, 2017

Macron calls for French food chain changes to help farmers

President Emmanuel Macron called for changes to France s food chain on Wednesday to ensure that farmers, who have been hit by squeezed margins and a retail price war, are paid fairly. Macron said he supported a new type of contract, based on farmers production costs, which would require stronger producer organizations and a change in legislation. The changes are part of a wide field-to-fork review promised by Macron during his presidential campaign as he sought to appease farmers, an important constituency in French politics, who have also complained of excessive red tape. Last year a third of farmers earned less than 350 euros ($403) a month, the Agricultural Mutual Assistance Association (MSA) said, a third of the net minimum wage. Macron endorsed a proposal from the workshops to create a reversed contract starting from farmers, to food processors and to retailers. This would ensure a better spread of added value along the chain. We should allow farmers not to rely on subsidies anymore and therefore ensure than they be paid a fair amount for their work, Macron told farmers and food industry players at the Rungis food market near Paris. Prices are currently defined by buyers tempted to pressure prices, leaving many farmers unable to cover their costs. Answering a proposal by a majority of French retailers to raise the minimum prices they can charge on products, a move which they say could benefit those lower down the supply chain, Macron said he would limit it to food products and only favor if each sector proposes organization plans by year-end. Macron s office said on Tuesday he had delayed until the end of the year his decision on retailers proposal as he sought guarantees it will meet his promise to boost farm income and food quality while minimizing retail inflation. Raising the threshold of resale at a loss without asking for any effort, no accompaniment, no transformation, is a form of blank cheque, he added. Company and industry representatives, unions, non-governmental organizations and officials, gathered at the so-called Food Convention since the summer to discuss topics ranging from food quality to farm income and export strategy. A second phase will start next week with debates focusing on healthy, safe and sustainable food and will last until year-end. ($1 = 0.8449 euros)

worldnews

October 11, 2017

YIKES! Who Keeps Letting Bill Out? You Won’t Believe How He Trashed Obama/Hillarycare Again!

If we didn t know better we d think either Bill clinton is senile or he s trying to sabotage Hillary s campaign! A not-so-slick Willie was campaigning in Goldsboro, North Carolina when he AGAIN listed the problems with Obamacare!

politics

Oct 27, 2016

Trump Just Accidentally Confirmed Russian Contact With Sessions In Latest Twitter Fit

Just when you thought Trump might have calmed down while basking in the glow of his written-for-him speech at the Joint Address, he decides to come out and make zero sense with a chopped up statement about Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He could have just left it as a statement on his Facebook page and offered a link to it, but no, he decided to appear as crazy as ever.Keep in mind it was about eight minutes between tweets that s a lot of words for his tiny thumbs.He tweeted: Jeff Sessions is an honest man. He did not say anything wrong. He could have stated his response more accurately, but it was clearly not intentional. This whole narrative is a way of saving face for Democrats losing an election that everyone thought they were supposed to win. The Democrats are overplaying their hand. They lost the election and now, they have lost their grip on reality. The real story is all of the illegal leaks of classified and other information. It is a total witch hunt! Jeff Sessions is an honest man. He did not say anything wrong. He could have stated his response more accurately, but it was clearly not . Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017 intentional. This whole narrative is a way of saving face for Democrats losing an election that everyone thought they were supposed .. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017 to win. The Democrats are overplaying their hand. They lost the election, and now they have lost their grip on reality. The real story Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017 is all of the illegal leaks of classified and other information. It is a total "witch hunt!" Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017First of all, Sessions didn t only lie, he lied under oath, which is otherwise known as perjury. Trump then saying he he could have been more accurate also proves he lied.Secondly, this has nothing to do with Democrats and everything to do with listening to our entire intelligence community and following through with evidence that Russia interfered with our election. Something Trump doesn t want to look into, because a.) he either took part in it OR b.) because he won and doesn t want the results changed. Both reasons prove he cares nothing about the sanctity of American democracy.Lastly, saying there are leaks and that there s nothing there in the same sentence contradicts itself. Which is it? Are there leaks with info getting out about Russia? Or is there nothing there? Can t be both.Trump is running in circles and is clearly panicked. He s trying to say there s nothing wrong with any of this and it s all everyone else s fault (never his), meanwhile, he s making himself look pretty damn guilty.Having Twitter fits late in the evening isn t a good look on anyone.Featured Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

News

March 2, 2017

Ted Cruz: ‘We Are One Justice Away’ From Stopping Every GOP Assault On Human Rights (VIDEO)

Ted Cruz summed up the significance of Justice Antonin Scalia s passing quite nicely in the early parts of Saturday s GOP debate: the appointment of a liberal justice would completely destroy every Republican agenda for the foreseeable future. We are one Justice away from a Supreme Court that will strike down every restriction on abortion adopted by the states. We are one Justice away from a supreme Court that will reverse the Heller decision, one of Justice Scalia s seminal decisions that upheld the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms. We are one Justice away from a Supreme Court that would undermine the religious liberty of millions of Americans, and the stakes of this election for this year, for the Senate, the Senate needs to stand strong and say we re not going to give up the U.S. Supreme Court for a generation by allowing Barack Obama to make one more liberal appointee. Yes, a more liberal Justice would reverse the 2008 Heller decision, which for the first time in our nation s history affirmed the right of men like George Zimmerman, the Bundy militia, and other violent people to own firearms. A more liberal Justice would definitely undermine what conservatives call religious liberty these days the right to deny service based on sexual orientation, the right to discriminate in the name of God.Cruz is right: Scalia s death emphasizes the importance of the upcoming election. The next President will appoint at LEAST two Supreme Court Justices three, if conservatives have their way.Watch Cruz s remarks below:Featured image via screengrab

News

February 13, 2016

DEMOCRAT THUGS VANDALIZE REPUBLICAN Offices Across Several States…Now Who’s “Deplorable”?

NC REPUBLICAN HEADQUARTERS Firebombed By The Terrorists On The LeftINDIANA REPUBLICAN OFFICE VANDALIZED:DELAWARE COUNTY, Ind. The Delaware County Republican Party said vandals struck at their office last week.Someone threw two landscaping bricks through a window on Oct. 8. Signs for Donald Trump and Todd Young were hanging on the window at the time, according to the group s Facebook page.Officials said it would cost about $1,200 to replace the broken window and said anyone interested in helping cover the cost could donate online.This week, Delaware County Sheriff Ray Dudley said his office has received reports of campaign signs being taken from yards in the Yorktown and Mount Pleasant Township area.Dudley said the reports were being taken seriously and that removing signs without the authority to do so may be criminal conversion under Indiana s criminal code. Via: FOX59

Government News

Oct 19, 2016

Trump expected to nominate attorney Sullivan as No. 2 at State Dept.: WSJ

President Donald Trump is expected to nominate attorney John Sullivan as deputy secretary of state, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing U.S. officials familiar with the discussions. Sullivan, 57, has been a partner in the Washington office of law firm Mayer Brown and served in the George W. Bush administration in senior roles in the Commerce Department and the Defense Department, the Journal reported. He was initially picked to become general counsel at the Pentagon, but the Trump administration recently decided to nominate him for the No. 2 post at the State Department, the Journal quoted the officials as saying.

politicsNews

March 24, 2017

China supports Cambodia's crackdown on political opposition

China supports Cambodia s efforts to protect political stability and believes it will smoothly hold elections next year, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Cambodian counterpart, after the country s main opposition party was dissolved. The Supreme Court banned the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) last week at the request of Prime Minister Hun Sen s government in a move that prompted the United States to cut election funding and threaten more punitive steps. The European Union has also threatened action. The CNRP was banned after its leader, Kem Sokha, was arrested for alleged treason. The government says he sought to take power with American help. He rejects that allegation as politically motivated, to allow Hun Sen to extend his more than three decades in power in next year s general election. The United States has said that Cambodia s 2018 election will not be legitimate, free or fair . Meeting on Monday on the sides of a Asia-Europe foreign ministers meeting in Myanmar, Wang told his Cambodian counterpart Prak Sokhon that China supported the government s actions. China supports the Cambodian side s efforts to protect political stability and achieve economic development, and believes the Cambodian government can lead the people to deal with domestic and foreign challenges, and will smoothly hold elections next year, , China s Foreign Ministry said in a Tuesday statement. China has repeatedly expressed its support for Cambodia, making no criticism of the government led by Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander, who is one of Beijing s most important allies in Southeast Asia after more than three decades in power.

worldnews

November 21, 2017

47 FABULOUS PHOTOS Of Melania Trump On Her 47th Birthday

Melanija Knavs-Trump was born on April 26, 1970 in the small Slovenian railroad town of Sevnica.Her father Victor was a car parts salesman. He drove a Mercedes, and by the time young Melania was 16 he had built the house in the small town of Sevnica population 4,500 as a weekend retreat for the family. The property is on the banks of the River Sava.Meanwhile, Melania s mother Amalija worked as an executive in a textile factory. She would come back from business trips to Milan and Paris with tales that would inspire her daughter to make her name in international fashion first as a designer before embarking on the modeling career that would lead to her meeting Donald Trump.School friends remember Melania as a studious girl who preferred her books to playing a long way from the woman who would pose for photos in a magazine wearing the skimpiest outfits aboard Trump Force One her husband s customised Boeing 727 (which he has since upgraded to a 757).Her childhood neighbour and friend Mirjana Jelancic, 45, who is now the headteacher at the primary school in Slovenia which they both attended, said: She loved everything to do with art and design. She would renovate old things to make them like new, such as old baskets. Her family put them in the living room with flowers in. Ms Jelancic said that Melania, now 46, often showed off her diplomatic skills by acting as a mediator during playground disputes. She said: She had a strong personality. She would not be the first with an opinion, but she was intelligent and wise. She grew up in a society when there was not so much freedom. She knew that there was a bigger world out there because her mother had gone to fashion shows as part of her work. She wanted something more from life, but she never told me that she wanted to be a model. She liked knitting and making clothes. In those times, people were more or less equal, but her family had a sense of aesthetics. Her father always had a Mercedes and it was a ritual that Melania and her sister Ines would clean it every Saturday. She was always reading books, fashion magazines and catalogues. Kids would often call her to play, but she was busy reading. Melania, her parents and sister moved to an apartment in Slovenia s capital, Ljubljana, when she was about 14, and she started at the city s Secondary School of Design and Photography.But her family retained their links with Sevnica, building their own white-painted house with a balcony and staying there at weekends.Her parents, who have lived in New York in recent years, still own the house and return once or twice a year. It even has a US-style mailbox. The couple were last there for a week in June when neighbors noticed they had bodyguards. DMMelania was 16 when she was spotted by fashion photographer Stane Jerko in Ljubljana and he invited her to pose for him. He said: I saw this tall girl with long hair and long legs so immediately introduced myself. She was a little self-conscious when I first photographed her, but she learned very quickly and relaxed. Melania s first modeling job was for Vezenine Bled one of the most prominent textile factories in Yugoslavia. That was about two years before the country fell apart in a series of bloody wars. Nowadays, the Vezenine Bled factory grounds function as a paintball site. She was very interested in perfecting her pose for the camera and in what kind of lighting worked best, Jerko says. She was eager to learn what it took to make a great photograph. It didn t take long for Melania to start getting regular modeling jobs, so Jerko didn t see much of her from then on. I would be delighted if she became first lady, he says. She didn t get there because I discovered her she has worked on herself a lot. She never went out with us, the local fashion crowd. She always had her books with her. She was always swimming or studying. She knew what she wanted. Vice SerbiaMelania has appeared on the covers of and and on the pages of several top magazines: A young Melania in her modeling days: .. ..... Melania Trump marries Donald J. Trump: Melania and Donald Trump are expecting their first and only child: Melania and Donald celebrate the birth of their son Barron Trump: In addition to being a former model, Melania was also a successful business owner before President Trump made the decision to run for office. Melania hits the campaign trail: Inaugural photos: First Lady Melania Trump: The official White House portrait of First Lady Melania TrumpHappy 47th birthday First Lady Melania Trump!

politics

Apr 26, 2017

Philippine military kills escaping Islamist militant in Marawi

Philippine troops on Tuesday killed a pro-Islamic State gunman in the southern city of Marawi, a military official said, eight days after the government declared the end of hostilities. Soldiers have focused on securing Marawi against surviving militant fighters since ending five months of operations against Islamic State-inspired militants who seized control of parts of the city in May, in a bid to win a foothold in the region. The conflict displaced about 350,000 residents and killed more than 1,100 people, mostly militants, stirring concern that the southern Philippines is becoming Islamic State s hub in Southeast Asia. The military engaged in a gunfight with one of the suspected remaining gunmen in the main battle area, after foiling his bid to escape, army spokesman Colonel Romeo Brawner said. We still have to put in troops, because there s a possibility for stragglers, Brawner told a news conference in Marawi. In the main battle area, there are many possible hiding spots. Indonesians, Malaysians and Middle Easterners were among the fighters who flocked to Marawi to support the Islamic State s emirate in Southeast Asia. Thousands of Marawi residents have started returning home, only for some to find dwellings ransacked. Brawner said an army official and five more personnel were detained in barracks after being charged with looting. The main battle area in downtown Marawi remains off limits, pending the removal of booby traps and unexploded ordnance.

worldnews

October 31, 2017

New Info Reveals The TRUE Lengths Trump Went To In Order To Stop FBI’s Russia Probe

It s well known by now that Trump unsuccessfully pressured Comey to end the FBI s investigation into Michael Flynn and Russia. Many might think that his attempts to pressure authorities to end that investigation ended with Comey, or maybe Attorney General Jeff Sessions. They didn t. A new report from the Washington Post details how Trump went after his newly confirmed Director of National Intelligence, Daniel Coats, on this same subject. [Trump] then started complaining about the FBI investigation and Comey s handling of it, said officials familiar with the account Coats gave to associates. Two days earlier, Comey had confirmed in a congressional hearing that the bureau was probing whether Trump s campaign coordinated with Russia during the 2016 race The interaction with Coats indicates that Trump aimed to enlist top officials to have Comey curtail the bureau s probe. After that, Trump spoke to Coats again and asked him to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion between his campaign and Russia. He made a similar request of Mike Rogers, the director of the National Intelligence Agency. Both of them refused to do what Trump wanted them to do.Trump is likely upset that he can t control every part of the executive branch like he no doubt thought he would. Nominating and confirming people who have a modicum of integrity, as well as knowledge of how the intelligence community and White House should behave with respect to each other, has only served to push Trump into a very uncomfortable corner.While Trump and his allies continue to deny that anything ever happened, up to and including lying through their teeth, we have to ask one question: If Trump knows he s innocent, why try to interfere in the investigations this way? Why behave like there s a cover-up? Once again, none of this is the behavior of an innocent man. It s the behavior of someone with something to hide.Featured image via Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images

News

June 7, 2017

GOP Senator Says Trump Doesn’t Deserve To Win

Another Republican senator has soured on Donald Trump. First it was Mark Kirk, then it was Susan Collins, and now it s Jeff Flake.Flake, who serves with John McCain from the quickly turning purple Arizona, has for months been holding out an endorsement of Trump, citing concerns over the tone and rhetoric of his campaign and of the candidate himself.Well now Flake has had enough, and has basically thrown up his hands in exasperation. Speaking to an Allstate town hall meeting, Flake told the insurance group: One, I don t think he can win if he continues to run this kind of campaign. And two, I don t think he should win as he continues to campaign as he is, taking the kinds of positions he s taking and the language he s using. Flake, who has publicly denounced Trump multiple times for his comments on Muslims and Mexican immigrants, warned that should Trump continue his dangerous and racist rhetoric, millions of young voters will turn against the GOP for the long haul, not just in November: Only one in five voters under age 35 plans to pull the Republican lever. If we don t change that, we consign ourselves to political oblivion in the future. And we have a candidate that is not reaching out but is instead finding new ways to offend just about every demographic we have out there. The implications will be far bigger than just losing the presidency in November. If anyone should be scared, it s Flake. Arizona is increasingly becoming competitive for Democrats, with the state s rising Hispanic and Latino population close to outnumbering its traditionally white, conservative base. Several polls have Clinton beating Trump by four points, and John McCain is currently trailing Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick in the polls for the upcoming Senate election. Not only is McCain on the verge of losing, Sheriff Joe Arpaio is also trailing in the polls to his Democratic challenger.Flake admits his vocal criticism of Trump may hurt his political future, but he has stood firm, telling reporters there are a lot of people that appreciate somebody pushing back, too. While John McCain has sold out, Jeff Flake has decided to push back hard against bigotry, racism and fear (for now). Although not a full on condemnation and snub, a welcomed point of view nonetheless.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images

News

August 23, 2016

Saudi's Kingdom Holding reports swing to quarterly profit from big loss

Saudi Arabian investment firm Kingdom Holding 4280.SE reported it swung to a third-quarter profit on Sunday, hours after its billionaire chairman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was detained as part of a corruption crackdown. Kingdom Holding, whose investments include stakes in major international firms such as Citigroup (C.N) and Twitter (TWTR.N), said it made 247.5 million riyals ($66 million) in the three months to Sept. 30, compared with a restated loss of 355 million riyals in the same period a year ago. It reported a 179.9 million riyal profit for the third quarter last year but the company said on Sunday it had restated that figure to be consistent with current figures . It did not elaborate. Saudi companies moved to internationally accepted IFRS accounting standards this year from a local system. Profit for the third quarter of this year was boosted by an increase in hotel and operating revenues, larger dividend income, and income and gains on investments, the company said. Revenue increased 76 percent to 550 million riyals. Prince Alwaleed has been detained by Saudi security authorities, a senior Saudi official told Reuters on Sunday. Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television reported he was detained along with 10 other princes, four current ministers and tens of former ministers in a probe by a new anti-corruption body headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Kingdom did not release a statement early on Sunday about the detention, and did not respond to requests for comment.

worldnews

November 5, 2017

BREAKING: President Trump Makes FBI Pick One Day Before Comey Testimony [Video]

President Trump has nominated Christopher Wray to be the new director of the FBI. The president announced the pick in a tweet Wednesday: I will be nominating Christopher A. Wray, a man of impeccable credentials, to be the new Director of the FBI. Details to follow. #BREAKING @POTUS nominates Christopher Wray for @FBI Director. #AmericaFirst #MAGA pic.twitter.com/7reLeV2ZE8 Boston Bobblehead (@DBloom451) June 7, 2017This comes one month after President Trump fired James Comey: While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau, Trump said in a letter to Comey. It is essential that we find new leadership for the F.B.I. that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission. You are hereby terminated and removed from office, effective immediately. Trump interviewed a slew of candidates for the position, including FBI director Andrew McCabe, former Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman, former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, former FBI official Richard McFeely and John Pistole before settling on Wray.The interesting thing about the pick is that this was Trump s pick. This is also a brilliant move from the president to nominate a pick for FBI Director one day before Comey testifies.Christopher Wray was the lawyer for Chris Christie in the Bridgegate Investigation. The left will probably go bonkers over that fun fact.Here s a little more on Wray:Wray was nominated by President George W. Bush as assistant attorney general in charge of the Criminal Division, according to the U.S. Department of Justice website. He held that job until 2005.Christopher Wray is a graduate of Yale Law School. He led the Enron Task Force when he was with the Department of Justice.As head of the Criminal Division, Wray led investigations and prosecutions in securities fraud, health care fraud, money laundering, public corruption and several other areas of federal criminal law, according the the website of King & Spaulding, a Washington firm where he currently serves as a litigation partner.Via: Daily Caller

Government News

Jun 7, 2017

Top Democrat on Senate panel: No rollback on Dodd-Frank because it works

The top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee told bankers gathered in Washington on Tuesday that his party would not support drastic changes to the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Sen. Sherrod Brown said he was eager to work on areas of bipartisan agreement, but made clear big changes to Dodd-Frank, created after the 2008 financial crisis, do not fit that bill. “What we will not do is a wholesale rollback of Dodd-Frank,” he said at an American Bankers Association conference. “That would be counterproductive... the law is working.” Brown argued that significant changes to the 2010 law, which Republicans are seeking, would actually be problematic for the banking industry, even as he expressed a willingness to revisit specific parts of financial rules. “Big changes create uncertainty, which is bad for everyone,” he said. Shortly after President Donald Trump was elected, his transition team said it would “dismantle” the Dodd-Frank legislation. As president, Trump has voiced support for efforts by the Republican chair of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, Jeb Hensarling, to rewrite the law. He has also directed agencies to review how Dodd-Frank regulations affect banks and other financial services companies. Brown said he would not resist any and all efforts to revisit rules on the financial sector, expressing fondness for the new Republican chairman of the banking panel, Sen. Mike Crapo. “The days of the Senate Banking Committee and its dysfunction and, let’s just say less than busy work ethic, I hope is behind us,” he said. “We both have a commitment to work on issues we can come together on.” On Monday, Crapo and Brown jointly announced they were seeking public input on policy changes that could “foster economic growth.” Efforts to relax certain rules, particularly for smaller community banks and credit unions, could be an area of common ground for the two. Crapo took control of the panel from Sen. Richard Shelby in 2017, after the end of Shelby’s term as its head.

politicsNews

March 21, 2017

Obama touts Supreme Court choice as symbol of fair-mindedness

As valedictorian of his high school class, Merrick Garland let his audience know precisely how he felt when parents unplugged the sound system that day in protest at a classmate’s speech against the Vietnam War. He may not necessarily have agreed with the topic or tone but, stirred by the sight of a student’s voice being silenced, Garland abandoned his prepared remarks to deliver instead an impassioned defense of free speech. U.S. President Barack Obama told that story on Wednesday when he nominated Garland, now a 63-year-old judge, on what is often called the second highest court in the land, to a seat on the Supreme Court, the country’s highest court. Obama praised what he called Garland’s “track record of building consensus as a thoughtful, fair-minded judge who follows the law.” Although Garland faces an uphill fight from a Republican-led U.S Senate opposed to anyone the Democratic president nominates, the judge is praised by politicians left and right, even after 19 years on the federal bench. The showdown promises to figure in the campaign for the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election with Republicans demanding that Obama leave the seat vacant and let his successor, to be sworn in next January, make the selection. Garland, picked to replace conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died on Feb. 13, has been a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 1997. His appointment to that court, by Democratic President Bill Clinton, was confirmed by the Senate, 76-23. The bipartisan support is one reason Obama might have for nominating him. In 2010, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, described Garland as a “consensus nominee” who would “get a lot of votes.” The court has served as a launching pad to the nine-member Supreme Court for several justices including Scalia. Chief judge since 2013, Garland is viewed as a moderate whose legal approach was shaped by a lengthy career as a federal prosecutor. As a senior Justice Department official, Garland oversaw the prosecution in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing case in which 168 people, many of them children, were killed. He secured the death penalty for the lead defendant, anti-government militant Timothy McVeigh. Jamie Gorelick, the No. 2 Justice Department official at the time, said in an interview that Garland immediately asked to go to Oklahoma to oversee the case. “When the bomb went off in Oklahoma and we started to see the children being pulled out of the wreckage, Merrick, who had young children at the time, was so moved by this and so angered by it he asked if we could send him out to Oklahoma to help,” she said. His background as a prosecutor has shaped his views as a judge, lawyers who practice before the appeals court said. Garland is viewed as less defendant-friendly than other Democratic appointees. But Garland is not afraid to rule against the federal government. In a 2013 case, he was part of a three-judge panel that ruled against the Central Intelligence Agency in its bid to keep documents secret concerning the use of armed drones. In 2008, he wrote on behalf of a three-judge panel when the court ruled in favor of a detainee held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Garland wrote that a U.S. tribunal was wrong to find that detainee Huzaifa Parhat, an ethnic Uighur from China, was an “enemy combatant.” Garland grew up in Chicago. His mother was a community volunteer and his father ran a small business. Obama said at the White House that Garland had to sell his comic book collection to help fund his college education. Garland would become the fourth Jewish member of the nine-member court. The other five are Roman Catholics. His education also mirrors those of the other justices. If confirmed, all of the justices would have studied at either Yale or Harvard law school. Garland attended Harvard.

politicsNews

March 16, 2016

Iowa Legislator Leaves Republican Party Over Trump’s Racism

For almost an entire year Donald Trump insulted, berated, bastardized and scrutinized everything that wasn t a white, Christian male. Republicans barely flinched.Then he makes a comment about a Mexican judge s heritage when it pertains to his fraud lawsuit. Republicans lose their minds (and rightfully so).It appears that Trump s comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel has hit a special nerve in one state legislator.The Des Moines Register has broken the news that David Johnson, who has served in the Iowa General Assembly for 18 years as a Republican, will be leaving the GOP over the party s bigot nominee, Donald J. Trump.Johnson told the Register: I will not stand silent if the party of Lincoln and the end of slavery buckles under the racial bias of a bigot. The now former Republican will be registering as a member of no party preference, and said he will never support Hillary Clinton for president. However, Johnson has also stated that he is not sure he will caucus with the Republicans in the Legislature, feeling that members of the GOP have become too timid to take on Trump and his supporters. Johnson did say that if a formidable Republican steps up to the plate and challenged Trump nationally, he may rejoin the party, but said: If Mr. Trump is the nominee, he becomes the standard bearer for a party that s on the verge of breaking apart. He simply cannot unify the GOP. If there is a profound split, I ll gladly rejoin Republicans who are dedicated to equality and justice for all, and let Trump lead his supporters over the cliff. And that s exactly what Mr. Trump will do. Johnson also knows how this will hurt him politically, but says he doesn t care, citing his record of often going against the Republican establishment in the state when it comes to education funding and Medicaid program.One thing is for sure we will see many more Republicans follow Johnson s lead in he coming months.Featured image via Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

News

June 7, 2016

China expels former justice minister from party for graft

A former Chinese justice minister has been expelled from the ruling Communist Party following an investigation by the anti-corruption watchdog, the first time the government has announced that she was in trouble. Wu Aiying, 65, was justice minister from 2005 until February this year, according to her official resume, and one of only a handful of senior female officials in China. In a statement released late on Saturday following a four-day meeting of the party s Central Committee, the largest of its elite ruling bodies, Wu s name was listed as one of a number of officials to have been expelled from the party for graft. While the other names listed, including former Chongqing city party boss, Sun Zhengcai, had been announced earlier, Wu s name had not been mentioned by the party in connection with any investigation. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection found that Wu had serious discipline problems , the communique said using a euphemism for corruption, but gave no other details. It was not possible to reach Wu or a representative for comment. Wu had spent most her career working in the eastern province of Shandong, where she rose to become a deputy provincial party chief, before moving to Beijing in late 2003 to work at the Justice Ministry. China s legal authorities have been one of the focuses of President Xi Jinping s crackdown on deep-rooted corruption, with powerful former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang, and many of his allies and former associates, jailed. It is not clear if Wu had any direct connection with Zhou. The WeChat account of the state-run Beijing News, Political Matters, said that Wu was known to be a no-nonsense straight talker, once shouting at an underling when a mobile phone rang in the middle of a meeting. The announcement about Wu comes a few days before the party opens a key, once-in-five-years Congress on Wednesday, which will see Xi strengthen his power and promote key allies and aides.

worldnews

October 15, 2017

Republicans worry Trump scandals may doom legislative agenda

Scandals enveloping U.S. President Donald Trump have left Republican lawmakers and lobbyists increasingly gloomy about the prospects for passing sweeping tax cuts, a rollback of Obamacare and an ambitious infrastructure program. With the White House and both chambers of the U.S. Congress under Republican control, party leaders and their allies in the business community had expected to get quick traction on their plans, with corporate tax cuts among the top priorities. But four months into Trump’s tenure, only limited progress has been made. The House of Representatives passed a measure to rewrite Obamacare, but the Senate is only in the very early stages of considering the issue. Lawmakers are just beginning their push on tax reform. In addition to congressional probes that are taking place into possible collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign team and Russia, the U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday named former FBI Director Robert Mueller to investigate the matter. “It’s the elephant in the room right now,” said Republican Representative Pat Tiberi. “The smartest minds in the White House know that, whether it’s tax reform or anything else on the public policy front. It’s hard enough to get things done in the U.S. Capitol under the best of circumstances.” The House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing on tax reform on Thursday. Key administration and congressional leaders met Wednesday afternoon to discuss a path forward. But they remain a long way from signing a bill into law. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that “less drama from the White House” was needed to advance legislative priorities. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters on Wednesday that the legislative process had “pretty much ground to a halt” amid the tumult in Washington. Republican Representative Steve Womack said it was important for committees investigating the Russia matter to move forward expeditiously to both ensure that the public gets answers and to clear the way for Congress to move on to other issues. “Any time we get bogged down on these kinds of issues unrelated to the governing agenda, it serves to delay and to sometimes complicate the real job that we have to do for the American people,” Womack said. At a news conference on Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan urged his colleagues to “seize this moment” to pass tax reform. But instead of discussing tax rates and structures, Ryan was faced with a series of questions about James Comey, who Trump fired as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation last week, and the Russia investigation. Several lobbyists said that in the past week their corporate clients have grown more cautious on the prospects for tax reform but still hope that at least a small package can be approved. “My worry level has grown considerably,” one lobbyist said. Some lobbyists suggested that Congress could consider focusing on tax breaks and perhaps leave aside the comprehensive overhaul of the tax code that they had originally hoped for. “When this all started, the thing we heard from the Hill was ‘transformative tax reform,’” said a strategist who consults with major companies focused on tax reform. “I think as time passes, tax reform is going to look much different, that it may be begin to look more like tax cuts than tax reform.”

politicsNews

May 18, 2017

BRILLIANT! A Great Patriot Destroys The Argument That Muslim Immigration Is A Civil Right [Video]

SENATOR JEFF SESSIONS has been such a beacon of common sense and patriotism in his battle to save America s sovereignty. He s fought the battle of illegal immigration and now this battle of refugee resettlement with great focus. This is yet another example of his passion for doing what s REALLY right for Americans. Bravo Senator Sessions!Discussion of a nuclear security bill was hijacked in a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting by Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), who insisted on a Right to Migrate amendment that would bar the United States from banning an potential immigrant based on religion.Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) then delivered a rebuttal to Leahy: Fundamentally, foreign nationals living in foreign countries have no constitutional right to enter the United States. If they did, any alien denied entry could file suit to demand entry and claim damages for lost employment, lost welfare benefits, lost income. Choosing who can immigrate into the United States is, by definition, an exclusionary process. The goal is to select immigrants for admission based on the benefits they provide to society based on skills, ages, values, philosophy, incomes, etc. Our goal is to choose for admission those likeliest to succeed and flourish and, crucially, to support our Constitutional system of government and our values of pluralism and Republican governance.

politics

Dec 12, 2015

Five Ukrainian servicemen killed in eastern Ukraine: military

Five Ukrainian servicemen were killed when pro-Russian rebels attacked government positions mostly in the Luhansk region on Thursday, the Ukrainian military said. An almost three-year-old peace agreement has failed to stop fighting in eastern Ukraine with each side accusing the other of violating the terms of a ceasefire on a near-daily basis. The Ukrainian military said in a statement they suffered losses during an eight-hour clash near the small village of Krymske, 30 km (20 miles) west of Luhansk. The situation in the Luhansk region had escalated after a conflict between separatist factions controlling the city.

worldnews

November 24, 2017

Critics urge WHO to reverse choice of Mugabe as goodwill envoy

The World Health Organization (WHO) should overturn its decision to appoint Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador, global health leaders said on Saturday, describing the move as unjustifiable and wrong. Britain said Mugabe s appointment was surprising and disappointing and added that it risked overshadowing the WHO s global work. The United States, which has imposed sanctions on Mugabe for alleged human rights violations, said it was disappointed. This appointment clearly contradicts the United Nations ideals of respect for human rights and human dignity, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said. This selection underscores why the United States continues to push for U.N. reform and leadership actions that uphold our shared U.N. ideals. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the appointment at a high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Uruguay on Wednesday. The meeting was attended by Mugabe, 93. He is blamed in the West for destroying his country s economy and numerous human rights abuses during his 37 years leading the country as either president or prime minister. In a speech, Tedros praised Zimbabwe as a country that places universal health coverage and health promotion at the center of its policies to provide health care to all . The former Ethiopian health and foreign minister, who was elected last May as WHO s first African director-general, added: Today I am also honored to announce that President Mugabe has agreed to serve as a goodwill ambassador on NCDs for Africa to influence his peers in his region to prioritize NCDs. But the NCD Alliance, which represents 28 international health groups seeking to combat chronic diseases, said it was shocked and deeply concerned to hear of the appointment, given Mugabe s long track record of human rights violations . Jeremy Farrar, a leading global health specialist and director of the Wellcome Trust charity also said the decision was deeply disappointing and wrong and called on Tedros to be brave and reverse it. Robert Mugabe fails in every way to represent the values WHO should stand for and those that Dr Tedros has stood for since becoming DG and has done over many years, Farrar said. Brave leaders are willing to listen, rethink and overturn bad decisions, this is one such case, he said. WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said the WHO chief had made the move seeking broad support for the agency s work. Tedros has frequently talked of his determination to build a global movement to promote high-level political leadership for health, he said by e-mail. Human rights activists also criticized the move. Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based group UN Watch described the choice by WHO, a United Nations agency as sickening . The government of Robert Mugabe has brutalized human rights activists, crushed democracy dissidents, and turned the breadbasket of Africa and its health system into a basket-case, he said. He noted that Mugabe himself had traveled to Singapore for medical treatment three times this year rather than in his homeland.

worldnews

October 21, 2017

VIOLENT PROTEST Outside Trump Rally In Pittsburgh As Cops Come Down On Black Lives Matter Thugs [Video]

You can thank the racist Black Lives Matter PAID PROTESTERS for this mayhem. They re trying to make it appear as though the people who support Trump are violent racists. The police should use their full force to stop this now because it ll set an example for future attempts to rally. Law and order comes first! You can blame Obama s buddy George Soros for stirring up this chaos. BTW-Trump has done NOTHING racist! He wants our border closed to illegals for the safety of Americans. He also wants a moratorium on Muslim refugees which is exactly what our FBI and DHS would recommend because they ve said we CANNOT vet these refugees. So what s the beef?

left-news

Apr 13, 2016

Tokyo's Koike reaches deal with opposition party ahead of Japan poll

Popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, whose fledgling conservative party poses a growing challenge to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe s ruling bloc, agreed on Saturday to cooperate in next month s election with a small party based in western Japan. The deal potentially broadens the geographic reach of Koike s new Party of Hope, formally launched just this week, ahead of the Oct. 22 poll. Abe called the election hoping to keep his conservative Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition s majority in parliament s lower house, where it had a two-thirds super majority before dissolution. But Koike has upended the political landscape with her new party and some Japanese believe she could become the country s first female premier. Koike and Osaka Governor Ichiro Matsui, who heads the small conservative Japan Innovation Party, announced the deal to coordinate candidates in Tokyo and Osaka, western Japan, at a news conference with Hideaki Omura, governor of Aichi prefecture in central Japan and the head of a tiny local party. In a situation where Abenomics is stalled, we must proceed with reform in each region, Koike told the joint news conference in Osaka, referring to Abe s economic policies. We have agreed to mutually cooperate in the coming election with those who share that aspiration, she added. Koike s Party of Hope is already cannibalizing the failed main opposition Democratic Party, which in a stunning move this week decided to have its lower house members leave the party and run on her ticket. The party, a mix of conservatives and liberals, had struggled with rock-bottom support and defections. Koike, a former LDP lawmaker and defense minister, has said she would only take in those who agree with her conservative stance on security policies, leaving liberals out in the cold. Abe, for his part, is warning that Koike s new party would cause bring confusion, not hope and stressing that the LDP-led coalition is the only reliable choice at a time of rising tensions over North Korea s missile and nuclear arms programs. North Korea has twice launched missiles over Japan, he said in remarks carried by NHK public broadcaster. We must join with international society to meet this threat. Last year, Koike infuriated the LDP s Tokyo branch by running for governor without party approval. She defeated her LDP rival by a landslide and then led a novice local party to a historic win with the backing of Abe s junior coalition partner.

worldnews

September 30, 2017

New York, New Jersey governors replace Port Authority leadership

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said on Tuesday they will replace two top executives at the powerful bi-state agency that controls many of the region’s most critical transportation assets. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Executive Director Pat Foye, whom Cuomo appointed to the authority in 2011, and Chairman John Degnan, whom Christie appointed in 2014, are leaving. The shakeup comes amid a struggle to find a chief executive officer. This is a new position created under reforms intended to clean up the agency after the “Bridgegate” scandal raised questions of political meddling. Resuming the CEO search will be “one of the first priorities” for the incoming officers, Cuomo and Christie said in a joint statement. Replacing Foye is Rick Cotton, Cuomo’s special counsel since January 2015 who has overseen some of the governor’s highest profile infrastructure projects. Those projects include a replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge, a $4 billion public-private partnership to renovate LaGuardia Airport’s central terminal and the transformation of an historic post office into a grand waiting hall for Pennsylvania Station, the busiest transport hub in the nation. Tapped to lead the board is Kevin O’Toole, a lawyer, Christie ally and former long-time state senator who joined the board in March. O’Toole and Cotton are expected to be sworn in at a special meeting of the Port Authority board on Thursday. The authority has been slow to fully adopt governance changes after the Bridgegate controversy. In 2013, a former Port Authority executive, David Wildstein, shut down lanes at the George Washington Bridge to cause massive traffic jams as punishment for a local mayor who declined to support Christie’s gubernatorial re-election bid. In his resignation letter to Christie on Tuesday, Chairman Degnan said he was “disappointed” that the CEO position has not yet been implemented. He highlighted changes including posting board meeting agendas and materials online well in advance, allowing the public to comment before board votes, and new guidelines on recusals and oversight. Degnan had championed a replacement for the authority’s crumbling 42nd Street bus terminal in Manhattan, helping to secure about $3.5 billion for the project in the authority’s latest capital plan. Degnan told Reuters in an email that he did not have specific plans other to “increase my attention to nonprofit boards I sit on and watch my grandchildren grow up.”

politicsNews

August 1, 2017

FAKE NEWS WEEK: How Mainstream Media ‘Fake News’ Led to the U.S. Invasion of Iraq

In response to the establishment media s contrived fake news crisis designed to marginalise independent and alternative media sources of news and analysis, 21WIRE is running its own #FakeNewsWeek awareness campaign, where each day our editorial team at 21st Century Wire will feature media critiques and analysis of mainstream corporate media coverage of current events exposing the government and the mainstream media as the real purveyors of fake news throughout modern history MSM LIES: Judith Miller of the New York Times was a key media operative used to sell the Iraq War to the public. By Timothy Alexander GuzmanThe mainstream media (MSM) has declared war on alternative media websites labeling them Fake News ever since Hillary Clinton lost the election to Donald Trump. The New York Times editorial board expressed their frustration in an article calling for the censorship of alternative and social media Facebook and the Digital Virus Called Fake News, which claimed both social media platforms (Facebook and Google) has not been aggressive enough in blocking fake news sites: Most of the fake news stories are produced by scammers looking to make a quick buck. The vast majority of them take far-right positions. But a big part of the responsibility for this scourge rests with internet companies like Facebook and Google, which have made it possible for fake news to be shared nearly instantly with millions of users and have been slow to block it from their sites. Some of the websites named in a fake news list by Melissa Mish Zimdars, an assistant professor of communication at Merrimack College in Massachusetts including 21st Century Wire, Activist Post, Global Research.ca, Lew Rockwell.com, Natural News.com and ProjectVeritas (who released undercover videos of the DNC attempting to rig the elections) and others have exposed the lies by MSM [mainstream media] propaganda.The MSM has lost its credibility and at the same time lost viewers at unprecedented levels. on April 17, 2016, the Associated Press reported on how the U.S. population viewed the MSM Poll: Getting facts right key to Americans trust in media said that, Just 6 percent of people say they have a lot of confidence in the media, putting the news industry about equal to Congress and well below the public s view of other institutions. Now they want to stop the alternative media from becoming a credible source for news. The New York Times is calling for the censorship of the alternative and social media by blocking misinformation :Blocking misinformation will help protect the company s brand and credibility. Some platforms have suffered when they have failed to address users concerns. Twitter users, for instance, have backed away from that platform because of abusive trolling, threatening posts and hate speech, which the company hasn t been able to control.Mr. Zuckerberg himself has spoken at length about how social media can help improve society. In a 2012 letter to investors, he said it could bring a more honest and transparent dialogue around government that could lead to more direct empowerment of people, more accountability for officials and better solutions to some of the biggest problems of our time. None of that will happen if he continues to let liars and con artists hijack his platform.Just to be clear, there are a number of websites that do spread misinformation including those in the alternative media, but it is fair to say that they never have caused the deaths of millions of people like The New York Times when it comes to U.S. foreign policy. A recent example is the U.S. led war against Iraq in 2003. After the September 11th attacks, the George W. Bush administration made a false accusation that the Iraq government had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) which led to a U.S. invasion eventually toppling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The U.S. led war turned out to be a calculated plan by The Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a neo-conservative think-tank who wrote the secretive blueprint called, Rebuilding America s Defenses: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century to remove Saddam Hussein and the Ba ath party from power. The blueprint was originally written for the neocon lunatics who served under then-President George W. Bush including Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to establish an international Security order dominated by the United States. According to the document: In broad terms, we saw the project as building upon the defense strategy outlined by the Cheney Defense Department in the waning days of the Bush Administration. The Defense Policy Guidance (DPG) drafted in the early months of 1992 provided a blueprint for maintaining U.S. preeminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival, and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests. PNAC was founded by neoconservatives William Kristol, a political analyst, media commentator (FOX News, ABC News) and the founder and editor of The Weekly Standard and Robert Kagan, an author, columnist, and foreign-policy commentator who is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) and a fellow at the Brookings Institution. Kagan is also the husband of Victoria Nuland, the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs appointed by President Obama who helped orchestrate a coup against the Ukrainian government of the democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych. The blueprint for regime change in Iraq was planned way before George W. Bush became President in 2001: Indeed, the United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein. However, Judith Miller (who is currently an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute) and The New York Times played a crucial role for the Bush Administration. Miller wrote one of the main articles on Iraq s WMDs that justified the Bush Administration s agenda to topple Saddam Hussein and the Ba ath party. The article was not just fake news telling a lie that deceived the public, it destroyed a sovereign nation. The U.S. war against Iraq killed more than 1.4 million Iraqis (according to www.justforeignpolicy.org estimates) and more than 4,400 U.S. troops and tens of thousands permanently injured. The Iraq War also displaced millions of Iraqis thus creating a refugee crisis in neighboring countries including Syria. The destabilization of Iraq has also created a terrorist recruiting base that has spread throughout the Middle East including Syria.The New York Times published Miller s article on April 21st, 2003 AFTER EFFECTS: PROHIBITED WEAPONS; Illicit Arms Kept Till Eve of War, An Iraqi Scientist Is Said to Assert which claimed that an Iraqi scientist confirmed that the Iraqi government had WMDs:They said the scientist led Americans to a supply of material that proved to be the building blocks of illegal weapons, which he claimed to have buried as evidence of Iraq s illicit weapons programs. The scientist also told American weapons experts that Iraq had secretly sent unconventional weapons and technology to Syria, starting in the mid-1990 s, and that more recently Iraq was cooperating with Al Qaeda, the military officials said.The Americans said the scientist told them that President Saddam Hussein s government had destroyed some stockpiles of deadly agents as early as the mid-1990 s, transferred others to Syria, and had recently focused its efforts instead on research and development projects that are virtually impervious to detection by international inspectors, and even American forces on the ground combing through Iraq s giant weapons plantsOn April, 22, 2003, Miller appeared on the PBS News Hour and spoke about her evidence on what she described as a Silver Bullet from an Iraqi scientist who allegedly worked on Saddam s weapons program:RAY SUAREZ: The task of finding that definitive proof falls in part to specialized teams within the U.S. Military. New York Times correspondent Judith Miller is reporting on the search conducted by units of the 75th exploitation task force. And she joins us now by phone south of Baghdad. Judith Miller, welcome back to the program. Has the unit you ve been traveling with found any proof of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?JUDITH MILLER: Well, I think they found something more than a smoking gun. What they ve found is what is being called here by the members of MET Alpha that s Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha what they found is a silver bullet in the form of a person, an Iraqi individual, a scientist, as we ve called him, who really worked on the programs, who knows them firsthand, and who has led MET Team Alpha people to some pretty startling conclusions that have kind of challenged the American intelligence community s under previous understanding of, you know, what we thought the Iraqis were doing.RAY SUAREZ: Does this confirm in a way the insistence coming from the U.S. government that after the war, various Iraqi tongues would loosen, and there might be people who would be willing to help?JUDITH MILLER: Yes, it clearly does. I mean, it s become pretty clear to those of us on the ground that the international inspectors, without actually controlling the territory and changing the political environment, would never have been able to get these people to step forward. I mean, you can only do that when you know there is not going to be a secret policeman at your door the next day, and that your family isn t going to suffer because you re talking. And that s what the Bush administration has finally done. They have changed the political environment, and they ve enabled people like the scientists that MET Alpha has found to come forth. Now, what initially the weapons hunters thought they were going to find were stockpiles of kind of chemical and biological agents. That s what they anticipated finding. We now know from the scientist that, in fact, that probably isn t what we re going to find. What they will find, and what they have found so far, are kind of precursors; that is, building blocks of what you would need to put together a chemical or a biological weapon.But those stockpiles that we ve heard about, well, those have either been destroyed by Saddam Hussein, according to the scientists, or they have been shipped to Syria for safekeeping. And what I think the interpretation of the MET Alpha people is, is why he did this. They believe that Saddam Hussein wanted to destroy the evidence of his unconventional weapons programs, and that s what he has done not only since 1995, but also in the weeks and months that led up to the war itself. There was mass destruction. And the scientist who has been cooperating with MET Alpha has actually said that he participated in he kind of watched, you know, a warehouse being burned that contained potentially incriminating biological equipment. So clearly what Saddam Hussein wanted to do was cover his weapons of mass destruction tracks. And that means that the whole shape of the hunt here on the ground for unconventional weapons is changing.The problem with Miller s assertion that Iraq had WMDs is that it relied on an Iraqi exile named Ahmed Chalabi who wanted regime change against Saddam Hussein s government. James Moore of The Guardian wrote, How Chalabi and the White House held the front page how The New York Times has burned its reputation on a pyre of lies about Iraq described Chalabi as a convicted criminal who embezzled millions from his Petra Bank in Amman, Jordan. Moore said the following: Judith Miller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and authority on the Middle East for the NYT, appears to have been the most reliant on Chalabi. In an email exchange with the NYT s Baghdad bureau chief John Burns, Miller said Chalabi had provided most of the front page exclusives for our paper . She later said that this was an exaggeration, but in an earlier interview with me, Miller did not discount the value of Chalabi s insight. Of course, I talked with Chalabi, she said. But he was just one of many sources I used. Miller refused to say who those other sources were but, at Chalabi s behest, she interviewed various defectors from Saddam Hussein s regime, who claimed without substantiation that there was still a clandestine WMD programme operating inside Iraq. US investigators now believe that Chalabi sent these same Iraqi expatriates to at least eight Western spy agencies as part of a scheme to convince them to overthrow Saddam. Mr. Moore mentioned Miller s article which was co-written with Michael R. Gordon and published by The New York Times on September 8th, 2002 titled, THREATS AND RESPONSES: THE IRAQIS; U.S. SAYS HUSSEIN INTENSIFIES QUEST FOR A-BOMB PARTS claiming that Saddam was building a uranium gas separator to develop nuclear material :If spies wanted a trophy to show what happens when their craft is perfectly executed, it would be a story written by Judith Miller on the front page of the New York Times on a Sunday morning in September 2002. She wrote that an intercepted shipment of aluminum tubes, to be used for centrifuges, was evidence that Saddam was building a uranium gas separator to develop nuclear material.The story had an enormous impact, one amplified when national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state Colin Powell and vice-president Dick Cheney all did appearances on the Sunday-morning talk shows, citing the first-rate journalism of the liberal NYT. No single story did more to advance the neoconservative cause.Here is the original excerpt from Miller s original September 8th 2002 New York Times article: More than a decade after Saddam Hussein agreed to give up weapons of mass destruction, Iraq has stepped up its quest for nuclear weapons and has embarked on a worldwide hunt for materials to make an atomic bomb, Bush administration officials said today.In the last 14 months, Iraq has sought to buy thousands of specially designed aluminum tubes, which American officials believe were intended as components of centrifuges to enrich uranium. American officials said several efforts to arrange the shipment of the aluminum tubes were blocked or intercepted but declined to say, citing the sensitivity of the intelligence, where they came from or how they were stopped. According to Moore (and many other journalists, researchers and alternative media outlets), Judith Miller s story was completely false and that the the aluminum tubes were covered with an anodised coating, which rendered them useless for a centrifuge, according to a number of scientists who spoke publicly after Miller s story. Moore continued the tubes, in fact, were almost certainly intended for use as rocket bodies. Lastly, Moore quoted what Miller had told him about her sources which lead to the WMD hoax: I had no reason to believe what I reported was inaccurate, Miller told me. I believed the intelligence I had. We tried really hard to get more information and we vetted information very, very carefully. A few months after the aluminum tubes story, a former CIA analyst explained to me how simple it had been to manipulate the correspondent and her newspaper. The White House had a perfect deal with Miller, he said. Chalabi is providing the Bush people with the information they need to support their political objectives, and he is supplying the same material to Judy Miller. Chalabi tips her on something and then she goes to the White House, which has already heard the same thing from Chalabi, and she gets it corroborated. She also got the Pentagon to confirm things for her, which made sense, since they were working so closely with Chalabi. Too bad Judy didn t spend a little more time talking to those of us who had information that contradicted almost everything Chalabi said. The New York Times was clearly embarrassed by Miller s articles after the fact that Miller was wrong all along about the WMDs that led up to the invasion of Iraq. Nothing was ever found. On May 26th, 2004, the editorial board admitted their wrongdoing. The article, FROM THE EDITORS; The Times and Iraq, stated that, We have examined the failings of American and allied intelligence, especially on the issue of Iraq s weapons and possible Iraqi connections to international terrorists which blames U.S. and other intelligence agencies (which do share the blame to an extent).The editorial piece continued We have studied the allegations of official gullibility and hype. It is past time we turned the same light on ourselves. Well, they do turn the light on themselves, sort of: But we have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been. In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged or failed to emerge.The problematic articles varied in authorship and subject matter, but many shared a common feature. They depended at least in part on information from a circle of Iraqi informants, defectors and exiles bent on regime change in Iraq, people whose credibility has come under increasing public debate in recent weeks. (The most prominent of the anti-Saddam campaigners, Ahmad Chalabi, has been named as an occasional source in Times articles since at least 1991, and has introduced reporters to other exiles. He became a favorite of hard-liners within the Bush administration and a paid broker of information from Iraqi exiles, until his payments were cut off last week). Complicating matters for journalists, the accounts of these exiles were often eagerly confirmed by United States officials convinced of the need to intervene in Iraq. Administration officials now acknowledge that they sometimes fell for misinformation from these exile sources. So did many news organizations in particular, this one The New York Times admittance that their journalistic principals had failed was too little and too late. The MSM in particular The New York Times relied on fake evidence from Ahmad Chalabi for years (since 1991 to be exact). The MSM failed the Iraqi people who suffered enormously under a pack of lies that destroyed their country. When Washington uses propaganda or fake news reports against a sovereign nation, the outcome is always regime change that sometimes leads to an all-out war. The MSM has time and time again been guilty of perpetrating fake news stories to assist in Washington s Imperial agenda.The Iraq War was the biggest lie of the 21st century. What other fake news stories will appear on the MSM websites and newspapers in the future regarding Syria, Russia, China, Iran, the Palestinians, Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and even the U.S. President-elect, Donald Trump?To answer that, we just don t know, but it is up to the alternative media to decipher the fake stories and bring out the truth. It is just a matter of time that the MSM will falsify another story; let s just hope it won t lead to another war in the process.*** Author Timothy Alexander Guzman is an independent researcher and writer with a focus on political, economic, media and historical spheres. He has been published in Global Research, The Progressive Mind, European Union Examiner, News Beacon Ireland, WhatReallyHappened.com, EIN News and a number of other alternative news sites. Areas of specialization include political issues, economic issues, media and history. This article was originally published at Silent Crow News.READ MORE ABOUT MSM FAKE NEWS AT: FAKE NEWS WEEKSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV

US_News

February 10, 2017

Why The GOP Establishment Should Fear This Outspoken Underdog Candidate

There seems to be a trend with the GOP presidential candidates who are appearing at the top of the polls right now. The one thing they all seem to have in common is their willingness to stand up to the media and to their own party and demand they stop caving to the Left. Senator Ted Cruz has never disappointed when it comes to standing up to those on the left and when necessary, calling out those in his own party when they take a left turn. He s not looking to be popular in the halls of Congress, he s looking to represent the will of We The People, and hopefully the American voter will remember his courage when it comes time to vote in the primary elections. Poster by awesome conservative artist Sabo.The Texas senator may look like an also-ran, but he s a legit contender. Where s Ted Cruz? The outspoken Texas senator has been unusually quiet in recent weeks. But in GOP circles, there s soft but growing chatter that he is likely to be one of the last men standing in one of the most chaotic and unpredictable presidential races in recent memory. You wouldn t know it from his poll numbers. Cruz is running at about 6 percent nationally and in key states such as Iowa and New Hampshire. That s well behind outsiders Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina, and Ben Carson, and those numbers accord with the attitude that many influential Republicans have taken toward him since his arrival in Washington three years ago: There s no way he can win the nomination. He s too conservative and doctrinaire, and his abrasiveness doesn t help the cause.Given his poll numbers and his solid but unremarkable debate performances, the press has mostly ignored him. The result is that the Texas senator may be the most undercovered serious candidate in the race and the most underestimated. But he shouldn t be dismissed. This is the man, after all, who, according to one of his allies, began meeting with Iowa activists to plot his path to victory in the state in August of 2013, just nine months after he was elected to the Senate. Is it possible that he ll sneak up on the Republican establishment again, just as he did in his 2012 Senate race? Within Republican circles, attitudes about his viability have begun to change. Even strategists associated with some of Cruz s rivals acknowledge that, in a historically crowded field, he may be one of the last men standing. He s got a long way to go, but unlike some of these guys, he has a coherent strategy, he has a lot of money, he has a pretty consistent message, and he s not making mistakes, says a top Republican strategist allied with Florida senator Marco Rubio. He s running a good campaign. With strong support in Iowa and South Carolina, Cruz has a path through the early states; both his campaign and his super PAC are flush with cash; and he s a skilled politician who doesn t slip up much on the campaign trail or in debates. But unlike Cruz himself, his strategy is not head-turning but simple, steady, even creeping. He s not readily considered a first-tier candidate, but if you look at the critical ways to evaluate whether a candidate is strong or not, he should be a first-tier candidate, says GOP strategist Matt Mackowiak. By all accounts, Cruz is positioned to succeed in Iowa, which has been friendly to conservative candidates in years past. The Real Clear Politics polling average has him tied for third place with Carly Fiorina, and he has a solid ground game in place. Our trajectory has been slow and steady upward, says Bryan English, Cruz s political director in the state. I ve just been kind of curious, okay, when are people going to start paying attention to what we re doing and that we re positioned to do very well in Iowa. The campaign has been getting in position for a long time. Steve Deace, an Iowa-based talk-radio host who has endorsed Cruz, says that as far back as August of 2013, Cruz was asking him to set up meetings with top Iowa activists. Now, Deace says, the Texas senator has the best [Iowa] organization I ve ever seen, composed of the sort of dedicated activists who put Rick Santorum over the finish line four years ago. Cruz also has a plan beyond Iowa. He has referred to the March 1 SEC primary, in which eight Southern states go to the polls, as his firewall : that is, a backstop against whatever losses he might sustain beforehand. This year, these Southern states will go to the polls before Florida and before the traditional Super Tuesday, a change in the primary calendar instituted by RNC chairman Reince Priebus. Most of those contests, unlike the ones that precede them, are not winner-take-all, and Cruz s goal is to win the most delegates rather than to take entire states.Via: National Review

politics

Oct 11, 2015

Hannity Gets His A** Handed To Him For Falsely Claiming Terence Crutcher Has Violent Criminal Past

Fox News host Sean Hannity desperately tried to smear Terence Crutcher on Wednesday as a violent criminal who was wanted by police but was repeatedly shut down by a local Tulsa news anchor.Crutcher was shot and killed by white police police officer Betty Shelby even though he had his hands up and was surrounded by other police officers. The murder was caught on camera.Clearly, the unarmed Crutcher was not a threat to the safety of the officers, especially when you consider the fact that police officers have consistently taken in armed white suspects alive without ever firing a shot at them.But Sean Hannity repeatedly claimed during his radio show that Crutcher had a violent criminal record and had warrants out for his arrest. I understand that in this particular case Mr Crutcher has a long criminal history and appeared to be under the influence or so the police are charging, Hannity said, which prompted Tulsa news anchor Russell Mills to smack Hannity down with facts. Well I ll tell you I looked up his history and I m not seeing a lot of criminal history, Mills replied. We have something called the OSCN the Oklahoma Supreme Court Network. I was able to find a protective order from 12 years ago that was dismissed. I found a couple of financial things. There s no violent criminal history for Mr. Crutcher that I ve been able to uncover. But Hannity didn t want to hear the truth so he moved on to claiming that Crutcher had several warrants out for his arrest.Mills informed Hannity that there were no such warrants.Hannity responded that he read somewhere that there were warrants. I have not seen any reporting on any warrants for Mr. Crutcher and I certainly haven t uncovered any myself, Mills said. There has been some misinformation floated. A disappointed Hannity resorted to claiming that he has a source within the department and said that it s a matter of time of when they re gonna release this information. Here s the audio via Media Matters:Once again, Sean Hannity tries to demonize another black victim of a police shooting in order to make people believe the shooting was totally justified. The bottom line, however, is that Crutcher had his hands up and was surrounded by officers. He wasn t a threat to them or anyone else but they executed him anyway. Officer Betty Shelby should be arrested and charged with murder. Period.Featured Image: Screenshot

News

September 22, 2016

Everyone Is Freaking Out Over This ‘Visitor’ At A Bernie Sanders Rally (VIDEO/TWEETS)

People are freaking out all over the internet over a winged intruder at a Bernie Sanders rally in Portland. In the middle of Sander s speech, a small and beautiful bird floated down and joined him on the podium.This is not some Matthew Bay-level CGI effect it actually happened. Sanders broke off mid-speech as the bird hovered around above him, and the packed stadium laughed and applauded. But then, to everyone s surprise, the bird actually flew down and settled on the lectern. I think there s some symbolism here, Sanders said. That little bird is really a dove asking us for world peace. This sent the crowd into uproar, and the meme-makers went into overdrive.There was some speculation about what would have happened to the poor bird if it had innocently flapped its way into a Trump rally.@politico If this was a Trump rally.. his goons would beat it up or one of the cult members would shoot it Greg King (@Megreg916) March 25, 2016And the whole affair is certainly not going to help Portland rid itself of the Portlandia gag #PutABirdOnIt.A little bird told me that @BernieSanders is really a Disney Princess.Also Portland you're taking that #PutABirdOnIt thing way too serious kelly kapowski (@Colo_Kelly) March 25, 2016For those who missed that joke. Sketch show Portlandia, which satirizes the uber-liberal Oregon city, made it famous with this skit.It didn t take long for the sparrow to become the patron saint of the #FeelTheBern movement, who even honored it with a name. They continued to praise it at the puntastic hashtag #BirdieSanders.My cynicism for all things political dims in response to #BirdieSanders J. Wolff Hughes (@JWOLFFH) March 25, 2016Even birds love him Make this man the President of the United States already. #BirdieSanders pic.twitter.com/RmclxLyiUr Rebekah Lopez (@BekahLeee) March 25, 2016Peeps a vote for Bernie is a vote for #BirdieSanders. Say owl caucus tomorrow." Toucan make a difference #LeftWing https://t.co/mKb7HwaDvB Billy (@billy_gendell) March 25, 2016Or as Obama would say: Yes Toucan.The news even made it international, with prominent British activists sharing their one disbelief.Omg!!! What!!. pic.twitter.com/0vvicZmLcO @JolyonMaugham ARTIST TAXI DRIVER (@chunkymark) March 25, 2016This has literally lit up the internet with even conservative-edged The Hill feeling the need to pass comment. Amid all the hullaballoo Sanders himself remained entertained and humble about the whole thing. The candidate hinted at further partnership with Birdie Sanders, perhaps a potential running mate should he defeat Hillary in the primaries?#BirdieSanders and I are on our way to our rally in Seattle at Safeco Field. Meet us there: https://t.co/eJGkfGsA5M pic.twitter.com/05LhBpMrne Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 25, 2016And with that Bernie Sanders heads to Seattle, home of the $15 minimum wage, to continue his battle to overcome Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.Featured Image via Screengrab

News

March 25, 2016

Episode #208 – ‘Not The Network’ – Sunday Wire with Hesher, Funk$oul and Patrick Henningsen Live from Iraq

Episode #208 of SUNDAY WIRE SHOW resumes on Oct 29th 2017 as host Patrick Henningsen brings you this week s LIVE broadcast on the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) covering all the top news stories both at home and internationally LISTEN LIVE ON THIS PAGE AT THE FOLLOWING SCHEDULED SHOW TIMES:5pm-8pm UK Time | 12pm-3pm ET (US) | 9am-12am PT (US) This week the SUNDAY WIRE is broadcasting LIVE from the Iraq as host Patrick Henningsen is joined by guest hosts Hesher & Funk$oul from the Alternate Current Radio s Boiler Room to discuss this week s top stories internationally including the leveling of Raqqa by US-led Coalition forces, the new US-UK-Soros-sponsored war against RT guests and the new European McCarthyist hunt for political dissenters to compliment the US effort and the update on Trump s release of classified JFK files. We ll also review this past week s news events with guest FunkSoul. Enjoy the show SUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TVStrap yourselves in and lower the blast shield this is your brave new world *NOTE: THIS EPISODE MAY CONTAIN STRONG LANGUAGE AND MATURE THEMES*Download Episode #208 Sunday Wire Radio Show Archives

US_News

October 29, 2017

Bristol Palin Loses Full Custody Of Son In Humiliating Court Defeat

If she had practiced abstinence, she wouldn t have these kinds of court battles.This is definitely not a good year to be Bristol Palin. The daughter of America s village idiot is already being sued for custody and child support by Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer over their daughter Sailor Grace. Both parties have worked out a custody agreement, and only the issue of child support remains.And that means Bristol has now lost twice because ex-fiance Levi Johnston just won custody of their son Tripp after a seven-year-long court battle that cost Johnston $100,000 in court and attorney fees to win.According to The Daily Beast:The Palin family reportedly made it very difficult for Johnston to see his son following his widely publicized break-up with the former Alaska governor s daughter in 2010, ending a tumultuous on-again-off-again young romance.The had agreed to a custody arrangement in 2010 but because the courts didn t finalize the agreement, Bristol reneged on the deal and kept custody of Tripp all to herself.After that, Bristol Palin continued to collect child support payments, which Johnston says amount to $50,000 total, while she became a paid spokesperson for an abstinence-only campaign, making $262,000 in 2009 alone. And then she got a $100,000 payday by selling her story to In Touch Weekly. And Palin owned a $400,000 modern lakefront home in Alaska.In a Facebook post that has since been deleted, Johnston wrote that he is happy to have Tripp in his life again and that having his child again was worth every dime he paid to fight for him in court. I bet it was worth it to see Bristol lose, too.Bristol Palin brought this entirely upon herself. No doubt she believed she was bulletproof because her mom is the most famous idiot alive. But now she has been taken to court twice by two different men and has lost. Now would probably be a good time for Bristol Palin to slink away out of the spotlight to prevent further embarrassment.Featured image via Inquistr

News

February 25, 2016

ACTORS QUIT “FERGUSON” PLAY DAYS BEFORE OPENING Because They Want Media’s Bogus “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” Version To Replace Actual Court Transcripts

These are people who claim to love diversity, and they don t love diversity they just want people to agree with them. Ferguson playwright Phelim McAleerVeteran actor Philip Casnoff hadn t read the full script yet when he arrived for the first rehearsal of Ferguson, a play chronicling the shooting of Michael Brown by a Missouri police officer.Casnoff thought he knew what the play, set for a four-day staged reading starting Sunday at the Odyssey Theater, would be about: the wilderness of testimony the grand jury navigated while investigating the day Officer Darren Wilson fatally shot the unarmed 18-year-old. Casnoff presumed a variety of viewpoints, the fog of truth.Then he read the script, which tells the story that Brown didn t have his hands up and that he charged at Wilson.Now, in a case of art imitating life, the play is experiencing the kind of ill will and mistrust that erupted from the city it attempts to portray. Part of the 13-member cast is in revolt Casnoff and four others have quit as the playwright and actors are locked in a fundamental disagreement over how to tell the story of Brown s death.Though the grand jury declined to indict Wilson after some witnesses and physical evidence supported his account of events, the tone of the play shocked some actors. It felt like the purpose of the piece was to show, Of course he was not indicted here s why,' Casnoff said. He said that after he learned who the play s author was, Casnoff, who describes himself as very liberal, left-wing-leaning, thought, Whoa, this is not the place for me to be. Through testimony taken from grand jury transcripts, the play ends with a witness telling a prosecutor that Wilson was justified in killing Brown. The audience is then supposed to vote on whether Wilson should have been indicted.The cast members who quit questioned the motivations of the playwright, Phelim McAleer.McAleer, a conservative filmmaker and journalist from Ireland now living in Marina del Rey, said he s just interested in the truth. The truth is the truth. If it doesn t fit in with their beliefs, they need to change their beliefs, said McAleer, who declined to say whether Wilson should have been indicted but said his research shows the hands-up claim is bogus. All the people who testified that he had his hands up, it was pretty much demolished in grand jury testimony. If the rest of the decidedly more liberal cast resigns some actors are leaning that way McAleer said he ll find a new cast. He also hopes to put the show on YouTube and bring the production to Ferguson itself. There s got to be some actors in L.A. who aren t scared of controversy, he said.During the Ferguson rehearsal, the performers balked after realizing the only witness in McAleer s play who says Brown had his hands up is immediately discredited by an FBI agent.(Although some witnesses told investigators that Brown had his hands up, a Department of Justice report said many of those witnesses accounts were recanted, debunked or inconsistent with physical evidence.)McAleer s play also ends with a damning exchange between a witness and prosecutor. Do you feel like this could have ended up any other way? the prosecutor asks. Yeah, it could have, if Michael Brown had just stopped running toward Wilson, says the witness, who is identified as Witness 48 in the grand jury transcripts, but who is given a pseudonym in the play and cast with a young black actress. It could have ended another way. The officer had no other choice. No other choice, in other words, but to shoot Brown.After those lines were read by actors Deborah Puette and Sydney A. Mason, a kind of awkward quiet fell over the cast members, whose bodies had been bent like question marks as they stared down at their scripts in a rehearsal space near Culver City.The cast questioned the balance of the 55-page script, and even debated the justification for the shooting. Why not shoot him in the leg? asked one actress, Donzaleigh Abernathy, cast to play a witness, her voice booming through the small, windowless space. He didn t have time! responded a younger actor, also playing a witness.Several members requested changes to the script that would include adding another account more sympathetic to Brown to balance out the final witness dramatic testimony. McAleer has rejected those requests, spurring some of the actors departures. He claims that he wrote this to try to get to the truth of it, but everybody s truth is totally subjective, said Veralyn Jones, an African American cast member who resigned. When you come to the matter of what really happened, nobody really knows for sure, because everybody has a different take on it. It just didn t feel right to me. One of the script s most heated critics has been Abernathy, who is the daughter of civil rights movement leader Ralph David Abernathy, who was with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. when he died. Abernathy, who is black, has not decided to leave the cast yet at least not before she has the chance to meet McAleer at a cast meeting scheduled for Thursday night. I want to hear what he has to say face to face. I actually want to know, on a moral level, how can you do something like this that you know will divide America? Abernathy asked. Does it make you feel good? Obviously he has a personal agenda. What is his personal agenda? McAleer was unapologetic, and waved away criticism. These are people who claim to love diversity, and they don t love diversity they just want people to agree with them, he said.So with or without his cast, McAleer said, the show will go on.Via: LA Times

left-news

Apr 23, 2015

WATCH: Bernie Sanders Visits U.S. Border, Delivers Brutal Truth About Trump (VIDEO)

Bernie Sanders visited the United States-Mexico border in Nogales, Arizona to witness one area that will be most affected by U.S. immigration policy. Sanders then spoke to a large crowd about his time listening to the stories of immigrants and the need to create a reality-based immigration policy that puts compassion first. As I have traveled around this country and talked to immigrant families, and particularly Latino immigrant families, I am struck by the fear and sadness that grips so many of them, Sanders said following the visit. Fathers or mothers or both sent out of the country having to leave their minor children with relatives or guardians here in the United States. A U.S. service member whose spouse was deported. A 12-year-old boy who longs to be reunited with his mother. This human suffering has got to end. That is why I am here today. During the event, Sanders delivered blistering remarks aimed towards Donald Trump and the Republican presidential candidate s incredulous plan to build a giant border wall. The most bizarre part of Trump s plan is to have the construction of this wall be paid for by the Mexican government. Sanders calls out Trump s bigoted remarks against Mexicans, including the time Trump implied that immigrants from Mexico are rapists. I would hope that all of us are rightly appalled by the divisive bigoted and xenophobic comments of people like Donald Trump. Trump s labeling of Mexicans as rapists and criminals repulses all Americans of good will. Mexico is our neighbor, which we have extremely important relations with. To insult an entire nation is not befitting of anybody, let alone a candidate for president of the United States. Citing Pope Francis, Sanders said that Pope Francis has said we should be building more bridges, not more walls. Pope Francis is right. You can watch video footage of the event below.Featured image from video screenshot

News

March 20, 2016

Trump names assistant Treasury secretary as acting IRS chief: White House

President Donald Trump will name David Kautter as acting commissioner of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the White House said in a statement on Thursday. Kautter, who is assistant secretary of the Treasury for tax policy, would become the acting head of the federal government’s revenue collection service effective Nov. 13, the White House said.

politicsNews

October 26, 2017

BOILER ROOM – EP #57 – Revenge of the Social Rejects

Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room starting at 6 PM PST | 9 PM EST every Wednesday. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for barfly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher, & Spore along with Andy Nowicki from Alt Right Blogspot, Randy J of 21Wire, Jay Dyer of Jays Analysis and Daniel Spaulding of Soul of the East. Tonight the Boiler Gang discusses psychological operations in the media, HIV/AIDS deniers, potentially staged gender politics, some out there B-movies with regards to esoteric symbolism, the metaphor of Reptiles as they relate to psychopathy in the elite establishment, and some good comedic relief. If you want to participate, bring something interesting to throw into the boiler Join us in the ALTERNATE CURRENT RADIO chat room.BOILER ROOM IS NOT A POLICTALLY CORRECT ZONE! LISTEN TO THE SHOW IN THE PLAYER BELOW ENJOY! REFERENCE LINKS:

Middle-east

May 18, 2016

Flint’s Mayor Knows Which Candidate Has Their Back, Makes GLOWING Endorsement

Governor Rick Snyder and his emergency management team have literally poisoned the water in Flint, Michigan. The city is literally in the middle of a public health emergency, and Snyder is being roundly criticized for his actions that could have permanent effects on the lives of the children living there who have been drinking and bathing in lead-poisoned water.Politicians and emergency workers around the nation have been gravely concerned about the situation in Flint, and many are doing what they can to bring an end to the water crisis and aid those poor residents affected by it. One such politician is Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. She sent two of her best and most trusted campaign staff to the suffering city of Flint, to do whatever they could to help in this time of dire need. Clinton s proactive response has earned her the endorsement of Flint s mayor, Karen Weaver. The mayor said of Clinton s response to the crisis: If this was a test, she has really come to the forefront and passed it because we in Flint need some help and we need it now. The statement came during a conference call that was the work of Clinton s campaign. It seems as if the endorsement wasn t part of Weaver s planned press releases from the call, but, nonetheless it happened. She said, when asked if she was giving Clinton her endorsement: Yeah it does sound like it, doesn t it? I want Hillary. Weaver went on to mention that others had expressed outrage and concern over what was going on in Flint, but action was what got Hillary her endorsement. We do want some accountability. But as far as what Hillary Clinton has done, she has actually been the only candidate, whether we re talking about Democratic or Republican, to reach out and talk with us We want a friend like Hillary in the White House. This is a very important endorsement from a mayor who has suddenly found herself thrust onto the national stage because of reckless decisions by a GOP governor who doesn t give a damn about the people he is supposed to serve.Whether it s Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, hopefully both would work to get Rick Snyder and those like him out of positions of power before they can ruin anymore lives.There have been at least three class action lawsuits filed on behalf of those living in Flint who are affected by the poisoned water. According to attorneys for the city of Flint s residents, the consequences for what Rick Snyder has done could be dire, and those responsible must be held accountable, and taken from their positions: Public officials must never again be permitted to give assurances to the public about public health conditions when they know the assurances are false. Public officials must never again be permitted to ruin the lives of our children by remaining silent in the face of a public health emergency. That is exactly right. Hillary and other Democrats, thank you for doing what you are doing. These people need your support so much right now. This isn t about politics, it s about people s lives. Hopefully others follow in Clinton s footsteps and send desperately needed AID to Flint, Michigan.Featured image via Twitter

News

January 19, 2016

Highlights: The Trump presidency on April 13 at 9:30 P.M. EDT/0130 GMT on Friday

Highlights for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday: The United States drops a massive GBU-43 bomb, the largest non-nuclear bomb it has ever used in combat, in Afghanistan against a series of caves used by Islamic State militants, the Pentagon says. Trump says Pyongyang is a problem that “will be taken care of” amid speculation that North Korea is on the verge of a sixth nuclear test. Military force cannot resolve tension over North Korea, China warns, while an influential Chinese newspaper urges Pyongyang to halt its nuclear program in exchange for Beijing’s protection. The Trump administration is focusing its North Korea strategy on tougher economic sanctions, possibly including intercepting cargo ships and punishing Chinese banks doing business with Pyongyang, U.S. officials say. Trump says “things will work out fine” between the United States and Russia, a day after declaring U.S.-Russian relations may be at an all-time low. Trump signals he could be moving closer to the mainstream on monetary policy, saying he has not ruled out reappointment of Janet Yellen as Federal Reserve chair as he considers his choices for the U.S. central bank. [nL1N1HL14B] Trump signs a resolution that will allow U.S. states to restrict how federal funds for contraception and reproductive health are spent, a move cheered by anti-abortion campaigners. Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen presses Deutsche Bank to release information about issues including Trump’s debt and any bank meetings with Trump administration officials, saying he has “great concern” about possible conflicts of interest. EXPORT-IMPORT BANK Trump’s office says he plans to revive the hobbled Export-Import Bank of the United States, a victory for American manufacturers such as Boeing Co and General Electric Co that have overseas customers that use the agency’s government-backed loans to purchase their products. Top Wall Street bankers say they are having positive discussions about financial regulation in Washington, and downplay the idea U.S. policymakers may force their institutions to split up. The United States is pushing for trade to be a key issue in top-level economic talks with Japan, a source says, an unwelcome development for Tokyo, which is seeking to fend off U.S. pressure to reduce the bilateral trade imbalance. Trump’s administration has focused on one group of illegal immigrants more than others: women with children, according to eight Department of Homeland Security officials interviewed by Reuters about agency planning.

politicsNews

April 13, 2017

Red Cross says has access to Islamic State families held near Mosul

The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday it had access to more than 1,300 foreign wives and children of suspected Islamic State militants following concerns expressed for the safety of the families held by Iraqi forces near Mosul. The neutral aid agency called on all sides in the wars in Iraq and Syria to treat detainees in line with international law that prohibits torture or executions and enshrines the right to a fair trial. More than 300 of the detained foreign families in Iraq came from Turkey, many others from former Soviet states, such as Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Russia, according to preliminary figures from the Iraqi army. Currently we visit and provide humanitarian assistance to some 1,300 women and children of several dozen nationalities who are detained in Iraq near Mosul, Patrick Hamilton, ICRC deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, told a news briefing. Last month, foreign aid agencies in Iraq said they were gravely concerned about the fate of the families. The women and children have been in Iraqi custody since August 30 following the fall of the city of Tal Afar. It is the largest group of foreigners linked to Islamic State to be held by Iraqi forces since they began driving the militants from Mosul and other areas in northern Iraq last year. The ICRC denounced some authorities and militias in the Iraq and Syria wars against Islamic State who have vowed to annihiliate the enemy, but declined to name names. Such dehumanisation of the enemy could lead to unlawful torture or executions, Hamilton warned. Talk of annihilation or extermination contributes to perpetuating the problem rather than solving it. International humanitarian law protects civilians and former combatants, he said. The ICRC has a good level of dialogue with Iraqi authorities and has visited detention facilities in Iraq holding 44,000 people so far this year, Hamilton said. Thousands of foreigners have been fighting for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and an unknown number of them are now detained. Hamilton said the ICRC was already in talks about potential repatriation of foreign fighters. We are ready to play the role of a neutral intermediary to assist these states in carrying out that, the return of their individual citizens, he said. Indeed we have been in dialogue with a number of different states and the Iraqi authorities in relation to this over recent weeks, he said. Hamilton, asked about media reports of executions by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) following the fall of the jihadist capital in Raqqa, Syria, said that an ICRC team had been in the chaotic northeastern city last week. No, we frankly don t have first-hand information in regards to extrajudicial killings or any such like ... clearly we remain concerned in the aftermath of Raqqa as we do after Mosul, Hawija, Tal Afar and so forth, he said.

worldnews

October 26, 2017

DONALD TRUMP JR. Releases Emails Related To Russian Lawyer Meeting…Here Are The Nothing Burger Emails The Media Was Salivating Over

Donald Trump Jr. took to Twitter today to release all email communication with the Kremlin-linked lawyer, revealing that he had hoped to get his hands on information that would damage Hillary Clinton s campaign. Is this really news? Someone who Donald Trump Jr. knew wanted to help him, by revealing some dirt on Hillary, and Trump Jr. agreed to meet with them. Okay? So what? Would Hillary s camp have declined such a meeting? What about Robert Creamer, a felon and Democrat operative who s married to a US Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and had ties to the Hillary campaign and to our sitting President Barack Obama? He was caught red-handed in an undercover video by James O Keefe admitting to inciting violence at Trump rallies as a way to help Hillary win the election against Donald Trump? Why was that story dismissed by the media and this nothingburger story getting wall-to-wall coverage?Here is the tweet from Donald Trump Jr., who was clearly not worried about revealing the contents to the world. Here's my statement and the full email chain pic.twitter.com/x050r5n5LQ Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 11, 2017Here is the statement made by Donald Trump Jr. about the release of the emails:Page 1:Page 2:Page 3:Page 4:The emails offer the first details about how the sitdown with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer, came about.Trump Jr. posted the emails on Twitter shortly after they were first reported by The New York Times.Trump Jr. said in a statement he thought he was receiving opposition research. The information they suggested they had about Hillary Clinton I thought was Political Opposition Research, Trump Jr. said. Throughout the exchange, he gave no indication that he was concerned about getting information from the Russian government, which the US intelligence community has concluded meddled in the election on his father s behalf.Trump Jr. and his high-powered white collar criminal defense lawyer, Alan Futerfas, insist he did nothing wrong. Media & Dems are extremely invested in the Russia story. If this nonsense meeting is all they have after a yr, I understand the desperation! he defiantly tweeted Tuesday morning.The White House has said President Trump was unaware of the meeting, and he has not commented on the revelations about his eldest son. NYPNot only do the emails appear to be another nothingburger for the rabid left and their allies in the media, but Donald Jr. should ve known that if the media didn t care about Hillary giving Russia one-fifth of all uranium production in the Untied States in exchange for donations to the Clinton Foundation (slush fund), they likely wouldn t care much else having to do with Crooked Hillary and the Russians.An April, 2015 article published by The New York Times tells a story of a corrupt Secretary of State who used her position as Secretary of State to gain massive donations to her Clinton Foundation while giving Vladimir Putin control of much of the United States uranium:The headline on the website Pravda trumpeted President Vladimir V. Putin s latest coup, its nationalistic fervor recalling an era when its precursor served as the official mouthpiece of the Kremlin: Russian Nuclear Energy Conquers the World. The article, in January 2013, detailed how the Russian atomic energy agency, Rosatom, had taken over a Canadian company with uranium-mining stakes stretching from Central Asia to the American West. The deal made Rosatom one of the world s largest uranium producers and brought Mr. Putin closer to his goal of controlling much of the global uranium supply chain.But the untold story behind that story is one that involves not just the Russian president, but also a former American president and a woman who would like to be the next one.At the heart of the tale are several men, leaders of the Canadian mining industry, who have been major donors to the charitable endeavors of former President Bill Clinton and his family. Members of that group built, financed and eventually sold off to the Russians a company that would become known as Uranium One.As the Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three separate transactions from 2009 to 2013, Canadian records show, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One s chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors. Other people with ties to the company made donations as well.And shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One, Mr. Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock.

politics

Jul 11, 2017

Factbox: Trump meets with Boeing chief, others

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump continued to hold meetings in New York on Tuesday, before taking over the White House from President Barack Obama on Friday. The following is a list of confirmed meetings for Tuesday, according to Trump’s transition team: * Fox News Channel journalist, co-host of “Fox and Friends,” for interview * Legal analyst for Fox News, former New Jersey Superior court judge * Boeing Co chief executive officer * Trump legal adviser on divestment plans, attorney at Morgan, Lewis and Bockius LLP in Washington * Washington-based reporter and co-founder of new political news website Axios, formerly of political news publication Politico

politicsNews

January 17, 2017

NOTHING About Those 50,000 Jobs From Japan Is What Trump Says It Is (VIDEO)

For the second time in as many weeks, Trump s Twitter feed has been filled with bravado over his job saving and job creating expertise. First, it was Carrier. It turned out to be a lie and a bad deal all around, but that didn t stop Trump from bragging that he saved 1,000 jobs.On Tuesday, Trump announced via Twitter that a Japanese company called SoftBank was ready to move 50,000 jobs to the United States. Naturally, Trump took credit for it.Masa (SoftBank) of Japan has agreed to invest $50 billion in the U.S. toward businesses and 50,000 new jobs . Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016 @realDonaldTrump: Masa said he would never do this had we (Trump) not won the election! Trump For President (@TrumpD2016) December 7, 2016Trump also held a press conference in front of Trump Tower saying: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Masa from Japan, Trump told reporters at Trump Tower as he introduced CEO Masayoshi Son, whose company, SoftBank, owns Sprint. He s just agreed to invest $50 billion in the United States and 50,000 jobs. He s one of the great men of industry, so I just want to thank you very much. Thank you. Source: PoliticoHere s the video:Anyone who s followed business or has ever taken a business class knows that it s impossible to iron out a deal like this in just a few weeks. Well, that s because it hasn t been ironed out and, well, it s been in the works since October.SunBank is not a bank. They are a technology company with a majority ownership in Sprint. They had previously tried to merge with T-Mobile but gave up after Obama expressed a concern about growing telecom monopolies. This is likely the reason Son is excited about Trump s presidency.In October, SoftBank announced the creation of a $100 billion fund, backed by Saudi Arabia. It appears that this latest deal is part of that.The reason deal is in quotes in the above paragraph is that there is no deal. There is talk of a deal, but all we ve seen so far is a PowerPoint slide. There is no legally-binding contract, there is no timeline, although according to the PowerPoint slide, it would take place over four years. As for the $50 billion investment, only a portion of that will be coming from SoftBank if it comes at all.Son said in a speech Friday in New Delhi that $25 billion of the money was put up by SoftBank, $45 billion by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, and the remaining $30 billion by other investors, according to Bloomberg.The fund, therefore, plans to invest half of what it has raised in the US. For comparison, a study of all 2015 venture capital funding in the world by EY found that roughly half of these investments were made in US-based companies, so this allocation does not appear to be out of the ordinary.Source: Business InsiderPerhaps the most important thing is that SoftBank, like Trump, can t be trusted. They are already a large American employer and just last year, Son announced his plan to cut thousands of jobs. However, even as early as last November, Son was hinting at this latest plan, saying that he plans on increasing the company s stake in Sprint.Featured image via Sara D. Davis/Getty Images.

News

December 7, 2016

WATCH DAN BONGINO CALL OUT CNN HOST For Ridiculous Bias Against Trump’s 2A Comments [Video]

Bravo! It s about time some of the conservatives shot back (no pun intended) at the liberal pundits who re doing everything they can to bury Trump. It s gotten so out of hand! Dan Bongino goes at it with Don Lemon Awesome!

Government News

Aug 10, 2016

Democrat Forces Trump’s Own Nominee To MOCK Him, Admit Obama’s Inauguration Was Bigger (VIDEO)

Donald Trump is fuming over the size of his little inauguration last weekend. Not only did his inauguration have embarrassingly low attendance numbers when compared to Barack Obama s previous inaugurations, but it was also completely outnumbered by the Women s March, which was a protest AGAINST him!Trump has tried to make his inauguration look less pathetic by having his team spew lies, despite the fact that photographic evidence clearly shows that almost no one went to see him get sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. While Trump continues to soothe his monstrous ego on Twitter, his political opponents are having the time of their lives mocking him and what Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley just did was the perfect way to troll someone like Trump.At the confirmation hearing for Rep. Mike Mulvaney (R-SC), Trump s pick for director of the Office of Management and Budget, Merkley forced Mulvaney to humiliate Trump in front of everyone by showing side by side photos of Trump s inauguration and Obama s 2009 inauguration. To make things even worse, Merkley asked Mulvaney to publicly state which inauguration crowd was bigger.Faced with the evidence and a room full of peers, Mulvaney was forced to admit what Trump and his team wouldn t: that Obama s inauguration crowd was bigger. Merkley then tied it all together, making sure to state his point in mocking Trump. He said: The reason I m raising this is because budgets often contain varied deceptions. You and I talked in my office about the magic asterisk. This is an example of something where the president s team, on something very simple and straightforward, wants to embrace a fantasy rather than a reality. You can watch this beautiful moment below:Later, Merkley made sure Mulvaney got the point by calling on him to give actual budgets instead of the alternative facts Trump s team has become well known for.This was absolutely brilliant, and we need more senators calling Trump and his team out for their lies. They need to be held accountable, and this was a great way to do it.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

News

January 24, 2017

U.S. government says benchmark 2017 Healthcare.gov premiums up 25 percent

The average premium for benchmark 2017 Obamacare insurance plans sold on Healthcare.gov rose 25 percent compared with 2016, the U.S. government said on Monday, the biggest increase since the insurance first went on sale in 2013 for the following year. The average monthly premium for the benchmark plan is rising to $302 from $242 in 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services said. The agency attributed the large increase to insurers adjusting their premiums to reflect two years of cost data that became available. The government provides income-based subsidies to about 85 percent of people enrolled, and those credits will increase with the higher premiums. It said 72 percent of consumers on HealthCare.gov will find plans with a premium of less than $75 per month. Large national insurers including Aetna Inc (AET.N), UnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH.N) and Anthem Inc (ANTM.N) have said they are losing money on the exchanges, created under President Barack Obama’s national healthcare reform law, because patient costs are higher than anticipated and enrollment is lower than forecast. Both UnitedHealth and Aetna have pulled out of the exchanges for 2017. As a result, consumers will have fewer plans to choose from. In 2017, in five states there will be offerings from only one insurance company. The government expects average monthly 2017 enrollment of 11.4 million people, up about 1 million from 2016. Obama acknowledged last week that the law is not working perfectly but said the problems could be fixed if lawmakers created a government-run health insurance option that would help U.S. states where there is little or no competition. Premium increases have become fodder for the presidential race, as Republican candidate Donald Trump calls for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act if he is elected and Democrat Hillary Clinton calls for expanding it. The news “shows why the entire program must be repealed and replaced .... Mr. Trump knows the only way to fix our nation’s failing health care system is complete and total reform,” said Trump communications adviser Jason Miller. The government agency said the 2017 premium increase comes after two years of very low increases in the marketplace for the second-lowest cost “silver” plan, the benchmark plan used to calculate cost-sharing subsidies. Average premiums for the silver plan increased 2 percent in 2015 and were up 7 percent in 2016, the agency said. The figure reflects premiums on Healthcare.gov, the federally run website that sells plans for about two-thirds of the states. Including four states and the District of Columbia, which run their own insurance marketplaces, and those that have reported data, the average premium rose 22 percent, the agency said.

politicsNews

October 25, 2016

WHOA! ANDERSON COOPER GOT MORE Than He Bargained For When He Tried To Discredit MELANIA TRUMP’s Husband During Their Interview [VIDEO]

Melania Trump is pure class. She refuses to allow Anderson Cooper to Destroy her husband or his reputation in this powerful and classy interview Here s part II:

politics

Oct 20, 2016

U.S. intelligence chief says Russia involvement in 2016 election unprecedented

U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said on Thursday that Russia has a “long history” of interfering in elections, but that U.S. officials had never encountered activity like its efforts during the 2016 U.S. campaign. “The Russians have a long history of interfering in elections. Theirs and other people’s... This goes back to the 60s, from the heyday of the Cold War,” he testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee. However, he added, “I don’t think we’ve ever encountered a more aggressive or direct campaign to interfere in our election process than we’ve seen in this case.”

politicsNews

January 5, 2017

Palestinian billionaire Masri released by Saudis; says they 'gave him all respect'

Sabih al Masri, a Palestinian billionaire and Jordan s most influential businessman, was released after several days of detention in Saudi Arabia, the latest in a series of events marking the worst crackdown on the rich and powerful in the country s modern history. Masri, the chairman of Amman-based Arab Bank, the country s largest lender, was detained last Tuesday hours before he was planning to leave after chairing meetings of companies he owns, sources said. He said on Sunday Saudi authorities had given him all respect . The authorities have not commented on his detention, which came after his confidants had warned him against traveling to the Saudi capital following a series of mass arrests in early November, the sources said. Sources familiar with the case said he was questioned about his links to Saudi partners among the royals, ministers and officials who were rounded up in last month s crackdown. His case carried echoes of that of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, who announced his resignation from Riyadh, drawing accusations from Lebanese officials that he had been coerced by the Saudis. Both the Saudis and Hariri denied that, but Hariri later rescinded his resignation. Masri s detention sent shockwaves through business circles in Jordan and the Palestinian territories. Masri s multi-billion- dollar investments in hotels and banking in Jordan are a cornerstone of the economy of the kingdom and he is by far the biggest investor in Palestinian territories. Arab Bank shares, which account for almost a quarter of the $24 billion market capitalization of the Amman exchange, ended just 1.44 percent lower at start of weekly trade as investor fears ebbed with news of his release. Officials and businessmen had warned of the reverberations of the crisis on an aid-strapped Jordanian economy already plagued by high debts. Saudi Arabia is a major donor. Masri has since taking the helm at Arab Bank in 2012 helped boost confidence in one of the Arab world s largest private financial institutions. The bank, which was first established in Jerusalem in 1930, has a balance sheet of over $45 billion and has earned a reputation of resilience in the face of regional political turmoil. Masri said on Sunday that he would be returning to Jordan after finishing business meetings in Riyadh in the next two days. All is well and am happy (to be released) and I was given all respect by everyone here, a Saudi citizen of Palestinian origin, told Reuters from his home in Riyadh. A member of a prominent merchant family from Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Masri amassed a fortune by partnering with influential Saudis in a catering business to supply troops during the U.S.-led military operation to retake Kuwait from Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War. Masri is the founder of Saudi Astra Group, which has wide interests in diversified industries ranging from agro-industry to telecommunications, construction and mining across the region. Reasons for Masri s detention were not clear, but political sources said the Saudis might have used him to put pressure on Jordan s King Abdullah not to attend a Muslim summit last week to discuss U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital. The Jordanian monarch attended the Istanbul summit, however. He is a custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem and has been vocal in criticizing Trump over his decision on Jerusalem. Saudi Arabia, whose relations with the United States have warmed with Trump taking a harder line against its arch-rival Iran than his predecessor, appears to have taken a softer line on the decision on Jerusalem than in the past, according to analysts. Riyadh sent a junior minister to the Istanbul meeting.

worldnews

December 17, 2017

Russia sanctions should be phased out if Ukraine ceasefire holds: Germany's Gabriel

European sanctions imposed on Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis should be phased out gradually if an internationally agreed ceasefire deal was implemented, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Monday. The conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists has claimed more than 10,000 lives since it erupted in 2014. Germany and France have tried to convince both sides to implement a peace deal agreed in Minsk in 2015 but with little success. The official agreement is: Only if there is 100 percent peace, then we ll lift 100 percent of the sanctions, Gabriel said during a panel discussion organized by German business daily Handelsblatt in Berlin. Gabriel said, from his point of view, this was a totally unrealistic position. We introduced the sanctions gradually and we ll lift them gradually - this is actually a commonly known fact, Gabriel said. He said that if there was a lasting ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, then the United States probably would also be willing to take similar steps. Gabriel is a senior member of Germany s Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel s ruling coalition and historic advocates of dialogue with Russia. Germany is heading toward a Sept. 24 federal election. Merkel has insisted that European sanctions against Russia could only be lifted if the Minsk peace deal was fully implemented - not only the ceasefire agreement which is one part of the broader Minsk peace plan. Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron last month called for Russia and Ukraine to increase their efforts to implement the fragile ceasefire. Kiev accuses Moscow of sending troops and heavy weapons to the region, which Russia denies.

worldnews

September 11, 2017

WHY IS AL SHARPTON’S “Half-Brother” Registering Thousands Of Felons To Vote In Alabama’s Controversial Senate Race? [VIDEO]

Pastor Kenneth Sharpton Glasgow claims he s Reverend Al Sharpton s brother, and he s registering thousands of felons to vote in the hotly contested, upcoming Senate election. When the local News 5 station looked into the pastor s claim, that he was Al Sharpton s brother, they made an interesting discovery. Glasgow told News 5 that he was indeed Al Sharpton s brother and that he dropped the Sharpton because we didn t want somebody that s a racist, a bigot, to try to kill me knowing I was Sharpton s brother while he was in prison. News 5 performed a background check on Glasgow and came up with nothing. They also called Reverend Sharpton s office in New York and spoke with Sharpton s media correspondent, who said he d never heard of Kenneth Sharpton Glasgow. It wasn t until they contacted Sharpton-Glasgow s mother, Tina Glasgow, that they finally discovered the connection.As it turns out, Glasgow actually has ties to Al Sharpton Watch the video below for the bizarre details:Much like his brother, the pastor is also a Democrat activist, and he is pulling out all the stops to help the party defeat Judge Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for Senate in Alabama. While the Democrat Party is begging for donors to help support Moore s opponent, Doug Jones, Al Sharpton s half-brother is busy signing up felons to vote in a controversial election, where every vote will count.Thousands of felons across Alabama have registered to vote in recent weeks, according to Pastor Kenneth Glasgow, who is heading up a statewide effort to get felons to the voting booth.Glasgow s goal is to get as many felons as possible signed up to vote before the end of the day Monday, the deadline to be able to cast a ballot in Alabama s Dec. 12 U.S. Senate special election. In the last month, I think we registered at least five- to ten-thousand people all over the state, Glasgow, president of Dothan s The Ordinary People Society (TOPS) advocacy group, said Monday. I ve got people all over the state registering people with my TOPS branches in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Montgomery, Enterprise, Dothan, Abbeville, Geneva, Gordon, Bessemer, we have a lot. For generations, most Alabamians convicted of a felony were barred from ever voting in the state again, but the Definition of Moral Turpitude Act, a new law passed by the state Legislature and signed by Gov. Kay Ivey in May, cleared the way for thousands of felons to restore their voting rights.The law lists several dozen felony convictions that are considered crimes of moral turpitude, which means that anyone convicted of one of them loses the right to vote; other felons are now eligible to restore that right. Previously, the list of crimes that some registrars considered to be of moral turpitude was not clearly defined, and many felons simply believed they could never regain the franchise. AL

politics

Dec 1, 2017

COLIN POWELL SAYS HILLARY LYING About Private Email Server Conversation: “has no recollection of the dinner conversation” [VIDEO]

For anyone who s paying attention, Hillary just got caught in ANOTHER big lie Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has no recollection of the dinner conversation recounted by Hillary Clinton to FBI agents, as documented by journalist Joe Conason in a forthcoming book.Conason s anecdote, reported Thursday night by The New York Times, recounts a small dinner party at Clinton s Georgetown home toward the beginning of her time as secretary of state, with former secretaries Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger and Condoleezza Rice also in attendance. During that dinner, Conason reports, Albright asked the former secretaries to impart advice to Clinton. Powell told her to use her own email, as he had done, except for classified communications, which he had sent and received via a State Department computer, Conason wrote in his book Man of the World: The Further Endeavors of Bill Clinton, of which the Times said it acquired an advance copy. Powell, according to Conason s account, told Clinton that his use of personal email had been transformative for the department and thus confirmed a decision [Clinton] had made months earlier to keep her personal account and use it for most messages. A spokeswoman for Powell s office issued a statement following the Times story: General Powell has no recollection of the dinner conversation. He did write former Secretary Clinton an email memo describing his use of his personal AOL email account for unclassified messages and how it vastly improved communications within the State Department. At the time there was no equivalent system within the Department. He used a secure State computer on his desk to manage classified information, the statement continued. The General no longer has the email he sent to former Secretary Clinton. It may exist in State or FBI files. Watch here:Powell s pushback comes amid an ongoing legal dispute between Clinton s lawyers and Judicial Watch over whether the conservative legal watchdog group can depose the former secretary of state as part of its lawsuit over State Department records.Read more: Politico

left-news

Aug 20, 2016

Russians steal research on Trump in hack of U.S. Democratic Party

Hackers believed to be working for the Russian government broke into the Democratic National Committee’s computer network, spied on internal communications and accessed research on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the committee and security experts said on Tuesday. Two separate groups entered the DNC’s system, and one read email and chat communications for nearly a year before being detected, according to the committee and CrowdStrike, the cyber firm that helped clean up the breach. Russian spies also targeted the networks of Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, as well as the computers of some Republican political action committees, the Washington Post quoted U.S. officials as saying, although details were not available. A Clinton campaign official said there was no evidence the campaign’s information systems had been hacked. A Russian government spokesman denied involvement in the breach. “I completely rule out a possibility that the (Russian) government or the government bodies have been involved in this,” Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, told Reuters in Moscow. The intrusion is emblematic of the sophistication of Russian hackers, who intelligence officials have long viewed as the most talented of U.S. adversaries in cyberspace. The Democratic Party had been aware of efforts to hack Trump material for two months, and U.S. intelligence agencies were involved in efforts to find out who was behind the hacking, a source familiar with Trump opposition research said. The source said Democratic Party operatives believed the hacking was conducted by the Russian government. The research includes material on Trump’s business efforts in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Serbia and Russia, according to information made available to Reuters. Cyber attacks against political candidates and organizations are common worldwide. U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper said last month he was aware of attempted hacks on campaigns and related groups and he expected to see more as the Nov. 8 presidential election nears. U.S. Representative Jim Langevin, a Democrat and co-founder of the congressional cybersecurity caucus, said it was “disconcerting” that independent groups penetrated the DNC and that one was able “to stay embedded for nearly a year.” But the groups are extremely sophisticated, Langevin said, and have previously been implicated on attacks at the White House, the State Department and the German Bundestag, as well as a number of private companies. The DNC contacted CrowdStrike in May and within 24 hours it began investigating unusual activity on the group’s network, said Dmitri Alperovitch, the company’s co-founder and chief technology officer. It identified two hacking groups and both were kicked out this weekend, he said. The first, which CrowdStrike named Cozy Bear, entered the DNC’s systems last summer, according to the firm. It primarily monitored email and chat conversations and may be working for Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, Alperovitch said. Russian President Vladimir Putin once ran the FSB. The second group, nicknamed Fancy Bear, is probably working on behalf of Russia’s military, Alperovitch said. It gained entry in late April and “went straight to the oppo research ... on Donald Trump and exfiltrated some of it,” he said. Alperovitch said both groups were among “the best threat actors that we’ve ever encountered” but they did not appear to be working together. He was not sure how the intrusions occurred but suspected the hackers may have leveraged “spearphishing” emails to trick DNC employees into downloading malicious code onto their network. “When we discovered the intrusion, we treated this like the serious incident it is,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the DNC, said in a statement. “Our team moved as quickly as possible to kick out the intruders and secure our network.” Trump’s interest in Russia goes back to the 1980s, with a 1990 Vanity Fair article citing news program appearances in which Trump offered his own services as a negotiator with Russia. Information made available to Reuters indicates Trump tried on at least three occasions - in 2004, 2008 and 2013 - to get involved in business deals in Russia. In 2013, he and an Azerbaijani-Russian oligarch, Aras Agalarov, jointly put on a Miss Universe competition in Moscow, and Trump was photographed with Agalarov’s wife, son and daughter. The last two U.S. presidential cycles in 2008 and 2012 witnessed a barrage of cyber attacks from a range of adversaries targeting President Barack Obama’s campaign and the campaigns of his Republican foes. U.S. intelligence officials have said many previous assaults were linked to Chinese hackers.

politicsNews

June 14, 2016

‘We Know Where You Live’: Trump-Loving Terrorist Threatens All Who Attack ‘The White Race’ (VIDEO)

Meet James Stachowiak. If he looks familiar, you may remember him as the guy who made headlines for telling his fellow patriots to shoot black women and children in the heads if they were seen simply exiting a store during the Ferguson protests. If you re unfamiliar well boy are you in for a treat!Stachowiak has by now cemented himself as one of the dumbest human beings on the internet, on par with right-wing agitator Charles Johnson and alt-right fake news creator Jim Hoft. In his latest video, the self-described leader of the patriot movement (a phrase synonymous with right-wing terrorist groups) has a threat to issue to those he perceives to be an-tee-fa (Antifa in English): if you f*ck with the white race you re dead. Since we the patriot movement don t see color, I am now going to pull this mask over my face, Stachowiak tells his fellow patriots as he pulls a red white and blue mask down. The sheepdogs are watching you. 200 million weapons in this country possessed by We the People,' Stachowiak says. 12 trillion rounds of ammunition and you people don t even know which bathroom to use? We grow stronger and more outraged every day. You want to destroy this country and the white race, Stachowiak adds. We have news for you. The sheepdogs have one mind. We love our country and we want it back. You will never know who we are, Stachowiak, who posted the video to Facebook under his real name, says. You will never know where we are. He then lays out a plan the patriot movement has to lure people they don t like into dark alleys and abandoned buildings to kill them.According to Stachowiak, members of the patriot movement are stalking those they think are planning insurrection and gathering intel to use against them. We will use it against you, Stachowiak says. We will create panic in your ranks, fear in your hearts, we will cause you to turn on each other like animals. We know where you live, where you work, where you go to school, Stachowiak says. We are looking over your shoulder. The sheepdogs are always watching. We are patriots. We are the new Minutemen. We will defend the flock. We will come for you. There will be no rules of combat or as the military says rules of engagement, Stachowiak says. There will be nowhere for you to run, nowhere for you to hide You will lie upon the earth until you are buried in it. Don t worry, though. He s not a terrorist. Just loves his country and stuff.Watch it below:Featured image via screenshot

News

September 26, 2017

WIKILEAKS EMAIL: CLINTON FAN BOY Says He “Knows” Trump-Hater Megyn Kelly…Offers To Arrange Softball Interview For Hillary

For all the hate Democrats openly express for FOX News, it s good to know that Hillary surrogates like Lanny Davis can rely on good Trump-hater Megyn Kelly to prop up Crooked Hillary The latest Wikileaks dump includes an email from Lanny Davis tries to convince Catholic hater Jennifer Palmeiri that it would be a good idea for Megyn Kelly to interview Hillary, giving her a chance to explain the mistake she made withe her private email server. He even offers to arrange a friendly interview for Hillary with Megyn. Here is the text from the email:Dear Jen,I know what I m about to propose is very risky and will be instinctively viewed negatively on the first reaction. But because of the high advantages that I see, perfectly aware of the risks, I think this proposal should be considered.I propose that the Secretary be on the Megyn Kelly File show for at least 30 minutes. I believe I can reduce the risks, since I know Megyn and Roger Ailes very well, by ensuring that the Secretary will have an opportunity to answer tough questions on emails and other issues without interruption. In fact, I believe it is in the interest of Secretary Clinton as well as Fox for the questions to be tough, something we should not fear as long as she has an opportunity to answer. I know she will do well with adequate preparation, and especially after yesterday s excellent statement taking full responsibility for mixing personal an official business on a single email device.I still believe the issue of the wiping out of the private server still needs to be dealt with e.g., simply stating that was done primarily to protect personal privacy on personal emails but she made the mistake of mixing personal with official on the server because she was using a single device, and she should have been more transparent shortly after she left office. This interview has the potential to be a ratings and media bonanza. I have confidence she would hit a political home run and have a massive audience to deliver her message without a filter. Of course there is a risk that Megan will try to show how tough she can be, even tougher than on Trump. I am assuming the worst case on that risk. But if we have a guarantee, which I believe We will get, that she will have an uninterrupted chance to respond to every question, and we have time to prepare, I think this could be a major plus and even a game changer in the various negative narratives about the Secretary being largely inaccessible and sometimes testy with the media.Here is a screen shot of the original email:

politics

Nov 4, 2016

Former Catalan leader says to stay in Belgium for time being

Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, facing arrest in Spain for organising an illegal independence referendum in October, said on Tuesday he would stay in Belgium for the time being. Spanish authorities dropped an international arrest warrant for him on Monday in order to bring his case solely under Spanish jurisdiction and avoid a lengthy extradition process through the Belgian courts. For the moment we will stay here, Puigdemont said at a press conference in Brussels. Puigdemont declared the northeastern region of Catalonia an independent republic on Oct. 27, leading Madrid to impose direct rule on the regional government and fire the pro-independence administration. The resulting political uncertainty has led to thousands of companies moving their legal base from Catalonia and has dented tourist figures and retail sales in the wealthy Mediterranean region. Puigdemont and four ex-cabinet members travelled to Brussels shortly after he was sacked by the central government. His former No. 2, Oriol Junqueras, is in custody in a Madrid jail while his role in the organisation of the referendum is investigated. Puigdemont faces charges of rebellion, sedition, misuse of public funds, disobedience and breach of trust in Spain. His party, Together for Catalonia , is campaigning on a pro-independence ticket for Dec. 21 elections called by Madrid in an effort to resolve the crisis. The central government hopes the elections will usher in a new administration that favours unity with Spain. Puigdemont said he hoped to be able to return to Spain if he was elected a member of the Catalan parliament, but he was not sure if he would be arrested and put in custody. We have to carefully consider such a decision before taking it, he said.

worldnews

December 6, 2017

German prosecutor demands life for neo-Nazi suspect Zschaepe

A German prosecutor urged judges on Tuesday to give a sentence of life imprisonment to Beate Zschaepe, the main surviving member of a neo-Nazi gang accused of murdering 10 people, most of them immigrants, over seven years from the year 2000. Prosecutors say Zschaepe was part of the National Socialist Underground (NSU) group which killed eight Turks, a Greek and a German policewoman. Zschaepe, 42, has denied taking part in the murders with two friends who killed themselves in 2011 when police discovered the gang by chance. But she has, through her lawyer, said she felt morally guilty for not stopping them. Judges have yet to give a verdict. The accused is criminally fully responsible for her behavior, said federal prosecutor Herbert Diemer, calling for Zschaepe to be given a life sentence for 10 murders. He described Zschaepe as an ice-cold, calculating person , adding that there were no mitigating circumstances. Zschaepe, 42, listened impassively, resting her chin on her hands. Prosecutors said in July that four years of hearing evidence had shown that Zschaepe was a co-founder, member and accomplice of a terrorist organization. The group had carried out the most violent and infamous terror attacks including two bombings and 15 bank robberies since the end of the Red Army Faction s two-decade spree in 1991, in which 34 people are estimated to have been killed. Although the NSU murders were carried out by Zschaepe s two friends, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt, both now dead in what is believed to have been a murder-suicide, she played a major role behind the scenes, according to prosecutors.

worldnews

September 12, 2017

CEO Who Threatened To Kill Trump With Sniper Rifle Says Life Has Been Turned Upside Down [VIDEO]

The former CEO of a local cybersecurity firm is talking first to 10News about his threat to shoot President-elect Donald Trump.Team 10 Investigator Allison Ash sat down with Matt Harrigan Tuesday afternoon. He tells Allison he s been getting death threats since the posts went viral and he and his family have relocated until the storm settles.Harrigan was the CEO of PacketSled until he resigned his position Tuesday morning. He said he s sorry for his words, and he wants his side of the story told.Harrigan wrote the series of Facebook posts on election night. They were words that he thought only his friends would see. He wrote, I m going to kill the president. elect and Bring it, secret service. He even mentioned getting a sniper rifle and targeting the White House once Donald Trump was living there.Harrigan said his Facebook friends shared the post on Twitter and that s how it went viral. He says, he s ashamed of what he wrote. I m incredibly apologetic, for that. I don t know, Harrigan said. It was [a] very, very dumb thing to do, and I regret it very much and I would take it back if I could. Harrigan said he was drunk when he wrote the absurd comments on election night before Donald Trump won the election. He said most of his friends knew he was just being over the top with his distasteful joke .At least one of those friends wasn t amused, sharing the disturbing messages outside their circle of Facebook friends. It started to trend very, very quickly and started spiraling and I was blown away, Harrigan admittedThe Secret Service spent two hours interviewing Harrigan inside his Del Mar home. They did not say whether criminal charged would be filed against the married father of two.Harrigan said his family has been forced out of their home by death threats from people unhappy with his remarks. Although he said the threats he made against Donald Trump were a joke , he is taking the threats against his family seriously. ABC 10 News

left-news

Nov 20, 2016

Milestones in the Supreme Court immigration case

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday will hear arguments in a challenge by 26 states to President Barack Obama’s executive action to defer deportation of certain immigrant children and parents who are in the country illegally. Here is a chronology of the case, United States v. Texas: June 15, 2012 - The Obama administration, through the Department of Homeland Security, initiates the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which suspends deportation for two years for people who entered the country illegally at least five years earlier, before they were age 16, and who were under age 31 as of June 15, 2012. Nov. 20, 2014 - Obama, through unilateral executive action, initiates a new deferred-deportation and work-authorization policy for immigrants whose children are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents and who have been living illegally in the United States since Jan. 1, 2010. These people must pass certain background checks for possible past criminal convictions. The program is called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA). The Obama administration also expands the earlier DACA program by eliminating the age-31 cap and increasing deferred deportation from two to three years. Dec. 3, 2014 - Texas and other Republican-governed states sue the Democratic Obama administration in U.S. district court in Texas. They assert that Obama’s Nov. 20 executive actions, which bypassed the Republican-led Congress, violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) notice-and-comment requirements for new federal agency rules and violated the U.S. Constitution’s dictate that a president “take care” that laws are “faithfully executed.” In all, 26 of the 50 U.S. states eventually sign on to the lawsuit: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Feb. 16, 2015 - U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen in the border city of Brownsville, Texas issues an injunction blocking enforcement of the programs nationwide. The judge says the Obama administration had failed to offer notice and seek comments under the Administrative Procedure Act. Administration lawyers counter that the actions did not arise from official rule-making but rather from Homeland Security Department discretion on deportation priorities. May 26, 2015 - After the administration appeals the judge’s decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, based in New Orleans, upholds Hanen’s injunction, pending an appeal on the merits of the case. Nov. 9, 2015 - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit rules for Texas and the other states, throwing out Obama’s DAPA and expanded DACA actions because, the court says, they were subject to notice-and-comment requirements under the Administrative Procedure Act. Jan. 19, 2016 - The Supreme Court agrees to hear the administration’s appeal. The justices say they will review the Administrative Procedure Act issue as well as whether the program violates the “take care” mandate. A key question before the justices is whether Texas and the other states even have legal standing to bring the case based on a claim that Obama’s action would cost the states financially in certain public services such as the cost of issuing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. Feb. 13, 2016 - Justice Antonin Scalia dies, leaving the Supreme Court with only eight members - four liberals and four conservatives - and the possibility of a 4-4 deadlock. Such a split ruling would be a defeat for Obama because it would leave in place the 5th Circuit decision disallowing his executive action. April 18, 2016 - Oral arguments scheduled in United States v. Texas. A ruling is expected by the end of June.

politicsNews

April 17, 2016

DODGY DOSSIER: The Trump-Russia Dossier Was Funded by Political Rivals

21st Century Wire says This week an unverified 35-page document concerning President-elect Donald Trump s alleged ties to Russia had been published by Buzzfeed. The so-called dossier, that levied unfounded accusations against Trump was initially given oxygen by CNN and included an unsubstantiated sexual blackmail scenario contained within the leaked US intelligence summary.It is too early to tell exactly what the implications of the leaked intelligence dossier will be but there s no doubt that it has compounded an already tense relationship between Trump, the FBI, CIA and Trump s political rivals moving forward THE DOSSIER During Trump s first press conference he fired back at Buzzfeed for publishing unconfirmed intelligence claims. (Image Source: Slate)Earlier this week, during the president-elect s first press conference, Trump admonished the website Buzzfeed (part of the NBC Universal media empire) for publishing the intelligence dossier, even calling the site a failing pile of garbage at the press conference. The over-the-top intelligence report sent a shockwave through social media and mainstream outlets alike, mostly due to the salacious nature of the unproven details it contained.Following the dossier s release, Trump refused to take a question from the CNN reporter Jim Acosta. The day before, CNN had been heavily promoting the fake dossier published by Buzzfeed. Watch as the president-elect calls the mainstream media outlet fake news While much has been made of Buzzfeed s role in publishing unconfirmed anonymous claims (and rightfully so), the public should also wonder why the US intelligence community would leak such information which was financed by Trump s political rivals a spiked dossier that peddled sordid sexual perversions wrapped-up in an alleged Russian blackmail plot.The Trump-Russia dossier also appears to contain outright fabrications in the case of Trump s lawyer, Michael Cohen, who according to the dossier, he allegedly held secret meetings with Kremlin officials in Prague. This doctored intelligence, turned out to be false.Donald Trump took to social media to describe the allegations even blasting the intelligence community s role in the so-called dossier According to one report by the New York Times, the dossier was produced by the Washington-based PR firm Fusion GPS, a Democratic party friendly firm that has also been employed by Planned Parenthood. During the course of 2016, Trump heavily criticized Planned Parenthood over controversial issues associated with the NGO s abortion practices.In October of 2015, the staunchly left-wing outlet, Mother Jones skirted around the apparent Russian-Trump related memo/dossier, which had already been circulating on Capitol Hill and was hinted at by former Democratic Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, just before the 2016 presidential election: On Monday, NBC News reported that the FBI has mounted a preliminary inquiry into the foreign business ties of Paul Manafort, Trump s former campaign chief. But Reid s recent note hinted at more than the Page, or Manafort affairs. And a former senior intelligence officer for a Western country who specialized in Russian counterintelligence tells Mother Jones that in recent months he provided the bureau with memos, based on his recent interactions with Russian sources, contending the Russian government has for years tried to co-opt and assist Trump and that the FBI requested more information from him. The Duran adds the following details outlining Reid s role and that of US Senator John McCain in spreading the contents of the dossier: Mother Jones writer David Corn referred to the documents in a late October column. Harry Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson tweeted Tuesday that the outgoing Senate Democratic leader had seen the documents before writing a public letter to FBI director James Comey about Trump s ties to Russia. And CNN reported Tuesday that Arizona Republican John McCain gave a full copy of the memos to FBI Director James Comey on December 9, but that the FBI already had copies of many of the memos. Flash forward to January 10th, where The Washington Post primed the public just prior to the dossier release on Buzzfeed, and after a string of delays concerning an apparent US intelligence briefing that alleged Russia s meddling in the 2016 US presidential election cycle: A classified report delivered to President Obama and President-elect Donald Trump last week included a section summarizing allegations that Russian intelligence services have compromising material and information on Trump s personal life and finances, U.S. officials said.The officials said that U.S. intelligence agencies have not corroborated those allegations but believed that the sources involved in the reporting were credible enough to warrant inclusion of their claims in the highly classified report on Russian interference in the presidential campaign. Trump, however, replied Tuesday night with a tweet declaring: FAKE NEWS A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT! Early Wednesday, he accused the intelligence community of taking one last shot at me. In a shocking turn of events, it was revealed that elements of the Trump-Russia dossier seemed to have been passed through media and intelligence connected insiders on Capitol Hill for months.Furthermore, the dossier appears to have been compiled by an ex-MI6 spy named Christopher Steele of the security firm Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd who was hired by PR firm Fusion GPS who had previously defended Planned Parenthood over unsafe and ethically questionable abortion practices.On January 11th, the NY Times reported the following developments: Last June, after evidence of Russian hacking of Democratic targets surfaced, Fusion GPS hired a retired British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele, to investigate Mr. Trump s ties to Russia. The US intelligence dossier implicating Trump, also revealed a decidedly politically charged backdrop, while suggesting rather ridiculously, that Russia s political influence on Trump has spanned some five years by courting the president-elect with various sweetener business deals supposedly offered via the Kremlin. The allegedly damning report also contends that Trump was supplied with a regular flow of intelligence on the Democratic party and other political rivals. But perhaps the real kicker was the dossier s conclusion that Russian spies had collated a mostly innocuous report regarding Hillary Clinton as stated by the UK s Guardian.QUESTION: Was the Trump-Russia dossier a part of a deep state smear campaign, or is there more to it?The NY Times included the following details, adding to a growing list of those who would be politically motivated to help produce such a report concerning Trump: After it became clear that Mr. Trump would be the Republican nominee, Democratic clients who supported Hillary Clinton began to pay Fusion GPS for this same opposition research. Glenn Greenwald from the Intercept published the following article that provided analysis of the politically motivated dossier. Here s a passage of Greenwald s scathing review of the intelligence crafted hit-piece on Trump and Russia this week: But [the left] cheering for the CIA and its shadowy allies to unilaterally subvert the U.S. election and impose its own policy dictates on the elected president is both warped and self-destructive. Empowering the very entities that have produced the most shameful atrocities and systemic deceit over the last six decades is desperation of the worst kind. Demanding that evidence-free, anonymous assertions be instantly venerated as Truth despite emanating from the very precincts designed to propagandize and lie is an assault on journalism, democracy, and basic human rationality. And casually branding domestic adversaries who refuse to go along as traitors and disloyal foreign operatives is morally bankrupt and certain to backfire on those doing it. In late October, I published the following report regarding the alleged DDoS attack in America and the US establishment s bogus Russian election hack claims all timed perfectly with the rise and eventual nomination of Donald Trump. Tie this thread in with the recent dossier allegations against the president-elect and you can see what could be a potential last-ditch effort in the form of a PR created coups d tat: In this age of America s new and improved trial by media format, you can expect a litany of unfounded accusations, along with the usual anti-Russia hyperbole and waving fingers at Washington s new go-to scapegoat Russian president Vladimir Putin.The likelihood of Russia or any other country being involved in this heavily coordinated DDoS incident falls flat, when you consider that the US media has been floating the blame Russia meme for months now, and even more conveniently during this 2016 US presidential election cycle, led by Vice President Joe Biden, and of course, the Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton all blaming the Kremlin for both the DNC Leaks and the Wikileaks email dump.Indeed, as you look back at NY Times articles since the summer, the stage was being set to implant the idea of an alleged Russian cyber war being waged at the US, principally charging that they would meddle with the US presidential elections in 2016 by aiding Donald Trump. Here s the NY Times building the case for Washington, seemingly without the burden of proof: An unusual question is capturing the attention of cyber specialists, Russia experts and Democratic Party leaders in Philadelphia: Is Vladimir V. Putin trying to meddle in the American presidential election?Until Friday, that charge, with its eerie suggestion of a Kremlin conspiracy to aid Donald J. Trump, has been only whispered. In August, the western media s claims against Russia hit overdrive, when the New York Times s Moscow bureau was the target of an attempted cyberattack this month. But so far, there is no evidence that the hackers, believed to be Russian, were successful. Flash forward to September here and here, as well as early October in the lead up to President Obama s decree, the Clinton-friendly outlet the NY Times had all but solidified the Russian cyber/hack claims once again, without any definitive proof. Here s a response from Russian leadership featured on RT news discussing revelations surrounding the Trump-Russia dossier:The Kremlin said on Friday that what Buzzfeed had published didn t merit to be called a report. We have finished the discussion of this fabrication, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained. This is far from being the first such falsehood published, and it is, moreover, really quite base. One simply shouldn t pay any attention to it, as it is now appealing to the emotional frenzy that is dominating in America at the moment. Politicians from both parties have accused Trump of being in cahoots with Russia, which the Obama administration has accused of waging a massive campaign to undermine the election and swing it in favor of Trump by hacking the Democratic Party s computers and leaking the stolen emails to the whistleblower site WikiLeaks.Russia has repeatedly denied the accusations, calling them nonsense, while the White House has refused to provide any concrete evidence to support its allegations, claiming it was necessary to keep it secret in order to protect the sources and methods of the intelligence communities.UPDATE* News Talk Florida disclosed the following alternative theory behind the most salacious details of the Trump-Russia dossier as told to well-known radio host Michael Savage: Thursday on WWBA 820 AM the Michael Savage s radio show there was a caller who was claiming to represent the Internet forum 4chan. the called who called himself John, insisted his site was the origin of the fictional 35 page dossier painting a very salacious story about President-elect Donald Trump and reported in detail by BuzzFeed on Tuesday. A caller named John, told veteran radio host Savage that We [4chan] expected some garbage outfit like BuzzFeed to pick it up, or maybe the New York Times. We didn t expect government entities to take interest in our fan-fiction. According to Savage, 4chan s claim is that the phony story was sent to veteran Republican strategist Rick Wilson, a supporter of the presidential campaign of former CIA officer Evan McMullin, who then put it in the hands of the CIA. It s hard to verify all of 4chan s claims but this latest development does add another intriguing layer to the Trump-Russia intelligence dossier.Here s a YouTube clip featuring Michael Savage with John on Savage Nation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4CsyXNHbBYQUESTION: Are the neoliberals and neocons in Washington working to unseat Trump through a made up honey pot plot or is this just one aspect of a larger scheme against the president-elect?Ron Paul Institute examines John McCain s role in the dodgy Trump-Russia dossier below . Daniel Mcadams Ron Paul Institute We all know what money laundering is. When you need to hide the fact that the money in your possession comes by way of nefarious sources, you transfer it through legitimate sources and it appears clean on the other end. It s standard practice among thieves, extortionists, drug dealers, and the like.The same practice can even be used to clean intelligence that comes by dubious sources, and sometimes even US Senators may involve themselves in such dark activities. Case in point US Senator John McCain (R-AZ), whose virulent opposition to Donald Trump is outmatched only by his total dedication to fomenting a new cold (or hot?) war with Russia.While the world was caught up in the more salacious passages from a purported opposition research report on Donald Trump showing all manner of collusion with Putin s Russia and Russia s possession of blackmail-able kompromat on Trump something very interesting was revealed about the custody of the information. The dossier on Trump seemed to follow two chains of custody. One involved the media, which in October were given and encouraged to publish the report by the authors of the report (or their sponsors), purportedly a former British intelligence officer working for a private intelligence company. Only David Corn of Mother Jones bit, and his resulting story picked over the report to construct a mess of innuendo on Trump s relation to Russia that was short on any evidence.The other chain of custody is what interests us. Remember, we have a dubious report constructed for the purpose of discrediting Donald Trump, which was first commissioned by one of his Republican primary rivals and later completed under the patronage of someone in Hillary s camp. It was created for a specific political purpose, which may have tainted its reception among more objective governmental sources had that been known. Enter John McCain. According to media reports, the dossier was handed to Sen. McCain again, a strong Trump opponent and proponent of conflict with Russia by a former UK ambassador (who presumably received it from the source, a former British intelligence officer).Senator McCain then felt duty-bound to bring this intelligence report directly (and privately) to the personal attention of FBI Director James Comey. From this hand-off to Comey, the report then became part of the Intelligence Community s assessment of Russian interference in the US presidential election.Senator McCain is the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, one of the most powerful members of the US Senate. Consider the impact of being handed a strange report by some private intelligence-firm-for-hire or a media outlet versus being handed a report by one of the most powerful men in the US government. McCain s involving himself in the case gave the report a sense of legitimacy that it would not otherwise have had. Was this laundering intentional on his part? We do not know, but given his position on Trump and Russia that possibility must be considered.More from the the Ron Paul Institute here .READ MORE MSM LIES AT: 21st Century Wire MSM FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE SUBSCRIBE NOW & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV

Middle-east

January 13, 2017

Republican Moore embraces Trump message on eve of Alabama election

Dogged by accusations of sexual misconduct toward teenagers, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore cast himself as a staunch ally of President Donald Trump at a rally on the eve of Tuesday’s election in Alabama. Despite Trump’s endorsement for Moore, some polls suggest Democrat Doug Jones, 63, a former U.S. attorney, could pull off an upset victory by becoming the first non-Republican to be sent to the Senate by deeply conservative Alabama in two decades. Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist and executive at the right-wing Breitbart News site, joined Moore in Midland City for the Monday night rally, labeled a “Drain the Swamp” event, in an echo of Trump’s 2016 campaign pledge to get rid of Washington insiders. “I want to make America great again with President Trump,” Moore said. “I want America great, but I want America good, and she can’t be good until we go back to God.” Moore, a 70-year-old conservative Christian and former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice, has been accused by several women of pursuing them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s, including one woman who said he tried to initiate sexual contact with her when she was 14. Moore has denied any misconduct. Reuters has not independently verified any of the accusations. The Alabama race has divided Trump’s Republican Party. The sexual misconduct accusations prompted many senior Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, to distance themselves from Moore. “There’s a special place in hell for Republicans who should know better,” Bannon told the rally, framing the Alabama election as a showdown between establishment elites and populist power. A Fox News Poll conducted on Thursday and released on Monday put Jones ahead of Moore, with Jones potentially taking 50 percent of the vote and Moore 40 percent. Fox said 8 percent of voters were undecided and 2 percent supported another candidate. An average of recent polls by the RealClearPolitics website showed Moore ahead by a slight margin of 2.2 percentage points. Trump taped a “robo-call” that the campaign has rolled out urging voters to back the Republican candidate in order to help support the president’s agenda. Democrats also made robo-calls using two of their party’s own big guns - former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden. Jones has said he wanted to be a “voice for reason” for Alabama and has touted a record that includes prosecuting former Ku Klux Klan members responsible for the 1963 bombing of a black church in Birmingham in which four girls were killed. Jones has spent the past week rallying African-Americans, the most reliably Democratic voters in the state, and hammering Moore in television ads. He has told supporters that his campaign is a chance to be on the “right side of history for the state of Alabama.” If Jones wins on Tuesday, Republicans would control the Senate by a slim 51-49 margin, giving Democrats much-needed momentum ahead of the November 2018 congressional elections, when control of both chambers of Congress will be at stake. Moore’s campaign has cast Jones as a liberal out of step with Alabama voters, seizing on the Democrat’s support of abortion rights. Many Republican officials in Alabama, including Governor Kay Ivey, say they will vote for Moore. But the state’s senior Republican senator, Richard Shelby, said he did not vote for Moore and instead backed a write-in candidate on his absentee ballot, telling CNN that Alabama “deserves better” than Moore. Moore, who was twice removed from the state Supreme Court for refusing to abide by federal law, may find a chilly reception in Washington if he wins. Republican leaders have said Moore could face an ethics investigation if Alabama voters send him to the U.S. Senate. Democrats have signaled they may use Moore’s election to tar Republicans as insensitive to women’s concerns at a time when allegations of sexual harassment have caused many prominent men working in politics, entertainment, media and business to lose their jobs.

politicsNews

December 11, 2017

Turkey summons U.S. envoy over Washington street brawl

Turkey summoned the U.S ambassador on Monday to protest the treatment of Turkish security officials in the United States during a visit by President Tayyip Erdogan last week, the foreign ministry said. A brawl erupted between protesters and Turkish security personnel outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence during Erdogan’s visit to Washington to meet U.S. President Donald Trump. Turkey blamed the violence on demonstrators linked to the militant Kurdistan Workers Party while Washington’s police chief described the incident as a “brutal attack” on peaceful protesters. The U.S. State Department said in a statement the conduct of Turkish security personnel during the incident was “deeply disturbing.” It confirmed the U.S. ambassador in Ankara had been summoned by the Turkish government to discuss the “violent incidents.” The Turkish foreign ministry said it summoned the U.S. ambassador to protest “aggressive and unprofessional actions” by U.S. security personnel to the security team of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. “It has been formally requested that the U.S. authorities conduct a full investigation of this diplomatic incident and provide the necessary explanation,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. It said that lapses of security experienced during Erdogan’s stay in Washington were caused “by the inability of U.S. authorities to take sufficient precautions at every stage of the official program,” adding that incidents would not overshadow what was otherwise a “very successful” visit. Police have said 11 people were injured, including a Washington police officer, and two people were arrested for assault. At least one of those arrested was a protester. Washington said last week it was voicing its strongest possible concern to Turkey over the brawl. U.S. Senator John McCain, one of the leading foreign policy voices in Congress, on Thursday called for the expulsion of Turkey’s U.S. ambassador.

politicsNews

May 22, 2017

Malian soldiers killed in French strike had joined Islamists: source

Malian soldiers killed by a French military strike in northern Mali last month were deserters who had joined an Islamist militant group, a French source close to the matter said on Tuesday. That contradicted comments from the Malian Defense Ministry, which said on Monday that the soldiers killed in the Oct. 23 strike, a raid on a camp of the Ansar Dine militant group, had been its hostages. The French source said the raid was carried out on the basis of detailed intelligence against a camp that included Malians who had joined the Islamist ranks. They were hit, amongst others. They were not prisoners, the source told Reuters, declining to say how many were killed or captured in the raid. The source accused Malian authorities of spreading propaganda in the run-up to a presidential election scheduled for November 2018. A French defense ministry source added: We have a real trust problem with the Malians. Malian officials were not immediately available for comment. The French army said in a later statement that the head of its Barkhane operation, General Bruno Guibert, had spoken with his Malian counterpart on Tuesday to update him on information it said showed the stricken camp was unmistakably used as a training camp for terrorists. This research has at no point shown the presence on this site of Malian soldiers, whether captured or hired by the terrorist group, the statement said, adding that the French army was ready to help Mali if it wanted to send to the site a mission to gather information. The French army previously said that 15 members of Ansar Dine, which is loosely affiliated to other militant groups operating in northern Mali, were taken out of action in the raid. The Malian government is struggling to contain Tuareg and Islamist violence in northern Mali, some of which is spreading south. Attempts to place officials in northern towns have sometimes failed, raising questions about the government s ability to maintain stability ahead of the election. Islamist militants seized northern Mali in 2012 and French forces intervened a year later. Around 4,000 of its troops remain in West Africa s Sahel region as part of Operation Barkhane, a cross-border anti-terrorism operation. France has also been at the forefront of organizing a regional force as part of efforts to find a long-term strategy to exit the region.

worldnews

November 7, 2017