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U.S. extends overtime pay to 4.2 million salaried workers

(Reuters) - The Obama administration on Tuesday unveiled the final version of a long-awaited and controversial rule to extend overtime pay to 4.2 million U.S. workers, which marks one of the administration’s most significant moves to address stagnant wages. The rule, which has drawn intense criticism from business groups and Republicans, doubles the maximum annual income a salaried worker can earn and still be automatically eligible for overtime pay from $23,660 to $47,476 and requires that threshold to be updated every three years. It takes effect Dec. 1. Officials said many workers will earn more money, an estimated total of $12 billion over the next decade, while others will work fewer hours for the same pay. “More than 4 million workers are either going to be paid more or get time back to raise their family, go to school … or retrain to get a better job,” Vice President Joe Biden said during a phone call with reporters on Tuesday. The rule will likely touch nearly every sector of the U.S. economy but is expected to have the greatest impact on nonprofit groups, retail companies, hotels and restaurants, which have many management workers whose salaries are below the new threshold. Business groups, which lobbied heavily against the changes, say companies will be forced to cut wages and hours and may slow hiring. The Obama administration and supporters of the new rule say the $23,660 threshold allowed companies to hold down labor costs by requiring workers with relatively low incomes to work well over 40 hours per week without additional pay. The rule will likely face legal challenges, including claims that the U.S. Labor Department flouted legal requirements for creating new regulations. Republicans in Congress have said they will move to block the rule, but they would need to overcome a veto from President Barack Obama. The new threshold was lower than the $50,440 standard proposed by the Obama administration last year, but the last-minute change to lower it, which was widely expected, did little to appease critics. Any federal standard above the $35,100 overtime threshold in New York, which has a high cost of living, will inhibit economic growth in more rural states in the South and Midwest, Tammy McCutchen, a Washington D.C. lawyer who works with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said on Tuesday before the final rule was announced. The threshold also disappointed proponents of the new rule, including Ross Eisenbrey of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, who first pitched an overhaul to the White House in 2013. “It means a million fewer employees will be helped,” he said before the rule was released.

U.S.-Russia relations at another low after Syria attacks

MOSCOW/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The presidents of the United States and Russia on Wednesday both presented souring views of the relationship between their two countries, exchanging sharp words as Moscow extended an icy welcome to the United States’ top diplomat in a face-off over Syria. In Washington, President Donald Trump said the United States’ relationship with Moscow “may be at an all-time low.” Trump’s comments came after he made his biggest foreign policy decision of his new presidency last week, firing missiles at Syria to punish Moscow’s ally for its suspected use of poison gas. Russia condemned the U.S. action. (For graphic on battle for control in Syria click here: tmsnrt.rs/2nm68H0) Hours earlier on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin was equally pessimistic, saying in an interview broadcast on Russian television, “The level of trust on a working level, especially on the military level, has not improved but has rather deteriorated.” The rhetorical salvos came as U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson received an unusually hostile reception in Moscow, where any hope that the Trump administration would herald less confrontational relations was dashed in the week after the U.S. missile strike on Syria. Tillerson met Putin in the Kremlin after talking to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, for about three hours. The Kremlin had previously declined to confirm Putin would meet Tillerson, reflecting the renewed tensions. Trump had frequently called during the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign for warmer ties with Putin, despite criticism from lawmakers in his own Republican Party. But the civil war in Syria has driven a wedge between Moscow and Washington, upending what many in Russia hoped would be a transformation in relations, which reached a post-Cold War low under Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama. As Tillerson sat down for talks with Lavrov on Wednesday, a volley of statements, including from a senior Russian official, appeared timed to maximize the awkwardness during the first visit to Moscow by a member of Trump’s cabinet. Lavrov doubled down on Russia’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, repeating denials that Assad’s government was to blame for the gas attack last week and adding a new theory that the attack may have been faked by Assad’s enemies. Tillerson reiterated the U.S. position that Assad must eventually relinquish power in Syria. “We discussed our view that Russia as their closest ally in the conflict perhaps has the best means of helping Assad recognize this reality,” he said. Asked whether Assad could be subject to war crimes charges, Tillerson said people were working to make such a case, though he cautioned doing so would require clearing a high legal hurdle. Lavrov greeted Tillerson with unusually icy remarks, denouncing the missile strike on Syria as illegal and accusing Washington of behaving unpredictably. One of Lavrov’s deputies was even more undiplomatic. “In general, primitiveness and loutishness are very characteristic of the current rhetoric coming out of Washington,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russia’s state-owned RIA news agency. But Lavrov said some progress had been made on Syria at the meeting and that a working group would be set up to examine the poor state of U.S.-Russia ties. He also said Putin had agreed to reactivate a U.S.-Russian air safety agreement over Syria that Moscow suspended after the U.S. missile strikes. Tillerson noted the low level of trust between the two countries. “The world’s two foremost nuclear powers cannot have this kind of relationship,” he said. Moscow’s hostility to Trump administration figures is a sharp change from last year, when Putin hailed Trump as a strong figure and Russian state television was often full of effusive praise for him. In another possible setback to a thaw with Moscow, Trump said on Wednesday that NATO is not obsolete, as he had declared during the election campaign last year. But he told a news conference at the White House with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that alliance members still need to pay their fair share for the European security umbrella. Trump said U.S. relations with Russia were not going well. “Right now, we’re not getting along with Russia at all. We may be at an all-time low in terms of a relationship with Russia. This has built for a long period of time. But we’re going to see what happens,” Trump told the news conference. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump said his administration’s policy was not to demand Assad step down as part of a “peaceful resolution to the conflict,” in some contrast to Tillerson’s remarks in Moscow. “Are we insisting on it? No. But I do think it’s going to happen at a certain point,” Trump said. The Wall Street Journal cited Trump as saying that Assad’s use of chemical weapons again would elicit another military response, but he also said he would not intervene in depth in the conflict. The White House has accused Moscow of trying to cover up Assad’s use of chemical weapons after the attack on a rebel-held Syrian town last week killed 87 people. Trump responded to the gas attack by firing 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian air base on Friday. Washington warned Moscow, and Russian troops at the base were not hit. Moscow has stood by Assad, saying the poison gas belonged to rebels, an explanation Washington dismisses as beyond credible. Russia blocked a Western effort at the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to condemn the gas attack and push Assad to cooperate with international inquiries into the incident. Trump came to the presidency promising greater cooperation with Russia in fighting against the two countries’ common enemy in Syria, the Islamic State militant group. Tillerson is a former oil executive who was awarded Russia’s Order of Friendship by Putin. Trump’s relations with Russia are also a domestic issue, as U.S. intelligence agencies have accused Moscow of using computer hacking to intervene in the U.S. presidential election to help Trump win. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating whether any Trump campaign figures colluded with Moscow, which the White House denies.

GOP Rep. Steve King Just Went FULL White Supremacist – David Duke Is Cheering (TWEETS)

While it should surprise absolutely no one that Iowa Rep. Steve King is a blatant, flaming, disgusting pig of a racist, what he just did on Twitter puts him into the same category as the KKK and the Neo-Nazis here in the U.S. He met with two white supremacist demagogues Geert Wilders from the Netherlands and Frauke Petry from Germany in 2016 and expressed strong support for their ahem anti-immigrant policies. But today, he not only doubled down on that, he was so obviously white supremacist he earned accolades for it from one David Duke.King tweeted a cartoon from Voice of Europe, a publication that could easily be a Make America Great Again publication for Trump if it was American. It says:Hundreds of Islamists shouting Allahu Akbar in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Wilders is right for over 10 years. #turkijerel pic.twitter.com/dV2SjXg23r Voice of Europe (@V_of_Europe) March 12, 2017King, not to be outdone on the white supremacy front, then tweeted:Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can t restore our civilization with somebody else s babies. https://t.co/4nxLipafWO Steve King (@SteveKingIA) March 12, 2017In other words, King just said that culture is rooted in demographics, which implies that he believes the only way to preserve true American and Western European culture is to preserve white superiority. That s what known white nationalist groups also say about brown people polluting the white gene pool.Now, read what David Duke s reply was to that:Just in case you were thinking about moving -> sanity reigns supreme in Iowa s 4th congressional district.#MakeAmericaGreatAgain https://t.co/RRjTzAzlKw David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) March 12, 2017 Reigns supreme. No double entendre there at all. You know you ve arrived as a white supremacist when David Duke applauds you. Steve King needs to be ousted from Congress. He s the antithesis of America.Featured image via Scott Olson/Getty Images

Turkey says U.S. 'pulled the pin on bomb' with Jerusalem decision

ANKARA (Reuters) - The United States has primed a bomb in the Middle East with its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Thursday. Yildirim said Turkey s stark differences with Washington, which have already strained ties between the NATO allies, meant that an overwhelming majority of the Turkish people were now unsympathetic toward the United States. The United States has pulled the pin on a bomb ready to blow in the region, Yildirim told a conference in Ankara. President Donald Trump on Wednesday reversed decades of U.S. policy by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and promising to move the U.S. Embassy there. Following the decision, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul; on Thursday, there was a heavy police presence with uniformed soldiers patrolling the roof. Today, more than 80 percent of our citizens are cold towards the United States and they are right to be so, Yildirim said, without giving a source for the figure. Bilateral relations had already been hurt by Washington s support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, seen by Ankara as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has for decades waged an insurgency against the Turkish state. In addition, Ankara has been angered by the United States refusal to extradite U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it accuses of orchestrating last year s attempted military coup. U.S. officials say the courts have not been shown sufficient evidence to extradite Gulen, who has denied any involvement in the coup. Turkey also says the case of Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, who is on trial in New York and cooperating with U.S. prosecutors, is an attempt to discredit it and undermine its economy. Zarrab has pleaded guilty to helping Iran avoid U.S. sanctions and detailed a vast international money laundering scheme.

TRUMP POISED TO REVERSE OBAMA’S Politicized “Global Warming” Policies…Plans To Bring Energy Jobs Back To Americans

The President who shoved his radical agenda down the throats of Americans is about to watch his legacy unwind in favor of jobs and a stronger economy President Obama s eight-year effort to rein in the energy and mining industries with environmental regulations will likely come to a halt under President-elect Donald Trump, who is poised to green-light key job-creating projects from the Atlantic Coast to Alaska.With the election of Donald Trump and a transition team that includes GOP energy lobbyist Mike McKenna and outspoken climate change skeptic Myron Ebell both sides now see their fortunes reversing amid Trump s promise to rescind Obama s signature Clean Power Plan and jump-start oil, and natural gas projects. I think 80 percent of President Obama s policies will be reversed very soon after Trump moves into the White House, Robert McNally, the president of the Rapidan Group, the energy consulting firm, and former official in the George W. Bush administration, told FoxNews.com. The Trump administration will reverse the global warming principles enacted under Obama and he will stop the politicization of infrastructure. This will definitely spur on the growth of the oil and gas industries. Here are three projects that could be revived soon after Trump takes office in January:Keystone XL PipelineOne of the biggest environmental flashpoints of Obama s presidency, the pipeline s final phase which would create a shorter route for American and Canadian crude oil coming from Alberta to Nebraska was rejected by Obama for not serving the national interests of the United States. Keystone XL faced stiff opposition from environmental groups and a minority of U.S. lawmakers amid concerns of oil spills in highly sensitive ecological terrain and worries from the Environmental Protection Agency about large increases in greenhouse gas emissions from Alberta s carbon intensive oil sands.Throughout his campaign Trump vowed to immediately approve the Keystone XL pipeline adding he believed it would have no environmental impact and would create hundreds of jobs and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is already pressing the president-elect to make it a priority in his first 100 days.If I am elected President I will immediately approve the Keystone XL pipeline. No impact on environment & lots of jobs for U.S. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2015Reviving CoalCoal production has been on the wane for a number of years as Americans move toward cheaper, cleaner alternatives like natural gas and the industry struggles to cope with tighter environmental regulations imposed by the Obama administration.Saving the coal industry is part of Trump s 100-day action plan and, although he has not given any specifics so far, his campaign trail promises included rescinding the EPA s Clean Power Plan and the Mercury and Air Toxics Rule.Trump s campaign promises of reviving the coal industry helped him win over voters in places like Wyoming, West Virginia and other states hard hit by declining production of the energy source. Now as he readies to enter the White House, many of the voters are looking to see when and, maybe more importantly, how the incoming president will fulfill that promise.Trump has not weighed in on the issue, but Sarah Palin Alaska s former governor who is rumored to be on Trump s short list for Interior Secretary helped ease the path for what would be one of the world s largest open pit mines by appointing mining industry officials to lead her Department of Natural Resources and embracing resource extraction.Offshore Drilling in the AtlanticThe Obama administration recently moved to restrict drilling in waters off the Eastern Seaboard from 2017 to 2022, but environmentalists, fishermen and those in the East Coast s tourism industry want to make that restriction permanent before Trump comes into office.Despite his vocal stance on U.S. energy independence and support of increased oil and gas development, Trump s stance toward offshore drilling in the Atlantic has been vague saying only that he backs it when done responsibly but if he green-lights drilling in the Atlantic it would make him many friends in U.S. oil and gas companies and could open the possibility to expand drilling other U.S. waters.Obama, however, could prevent this by invoking an obscure section of the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Act that would make it difficult, maybe impossible, for future presidents to reverse the ban. He has used the act before to safeguard parts of Alaska s Bristol Bay and parts of the Arctic. That s the big question, David Goldston, the director of government affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told FoxNews.com. Will the Obama administration go beyond the five-year ban? While a permananet ban is still in question, late last week Obama blocked the sale of new oil and gas drilling rights in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas north of Alaska for the next five years a move that was praised by enviromentalists and largely scorned by oil industry represenatives. Once again, we see the attitude that Washington knows best an attitude that contributed to last week s election results, Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, told The Assocuated Press in reference to Trump s surprise victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton. FOX News

Saudi Arabia says U.N. report on Yemen 'inaccurate and misleading'

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Friday rejected a United Nations report blaming a Saudi-led military coalition for killing or injuring 683 children in Yemen and attacking dozens of schools and hospitals as inaccurate and misleading. We exercise the maximum degree of care and precaution to avoid civilian harm, Saudi U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi told reporters at the United Nations. In a report submitted to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres blacklisted the Saudi-led coalition for its 2016 actions - even as he said it had taken action to improve child protection. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the coalition reaffirm that it is taking important measures to protect civilians during all military operations to end the suffering of the Yemeni people and minimize the humanitarian cost, Mouallimi said. We reject the inaccurate and misleading information and figures contained in the report and we express our strong reservation with respect to this information, he said. The coalition had been briefly added to the U.N. blacklist last year and removed by then-Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pending review. At the time, Ban accused Saudi Arabia of exerting unacceptable undue pressure after sources told Reuters that Riyadh threatened to cut some U.N. funding. Saudi Arabia denied this. In an effort to dampen controversy surrounding the report, the blacklist this year is split into two categories. One lists parties that have put in place measures to protect children, which includes the Saudi-led military coalition, and the other includes parties that have not. The report does not subject those listed to U.N. action but rather shames parties to conflicts in the hope of pushing them to implement measures to protect children. Yemen has been devastated by more than two years of civil war in which President Abd-Rabu Mansour Hadi s government, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, is fighting to drive the Houthis out of cities they seized in 2014 and 2015. More than 10,000 people have been killed and the conflict has ruined the economy and pushed millions to the brink of famine. Mouallimi blamed the Iran-allied Houthi rebels and forces loyal to Yemen s ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh for putting civilians at risk, including using children as human shields. The U.N. blacklist also named the Houthi rebel group, Yemen government forces, pro-government militia and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula for violations against children in 2016.

Highlights: The Trump presidency on March 19 at 6:50 p.m. EDT

(Reuters) - Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday: U.S. House Republicans are working on changes to their healthcare overhaul bill to provide more generous tax credits for older Americans and add a work requirement for the Medicaid program for the poor, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Sunday. With warm words from Chinese President Xi Jinping, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ends his first trip to Asia since taking office with an agreement to work together with China on North Korea and putting aside trickier issues. Despite a long list of potential pitfalls, Tillerson’s visit to China, the first by a senior member of the Trump administration, passed off relatively smoothly although there were no tangible gains to show. German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen rejects Trump’s claim that Germany owes NATO and the United States “vast sums” of money for defense. Trump criticizes North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying he is “acting very, very badly.” U.S. lawmakers from both parties say they have seen no proof to support the claim by Trump that his predecessor, Barack Obama, had wiretapped him last year, adding pressure on Trump to explain or back off his repeated assertion. A detailed version of Trump’s budget to be released in May will lay out plans to eventually erase U.S. deficits, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney says. Trump may begin his overhaul of the U.S. tax code as early as late spring, White House spokesman Sean Spicer has told Ireland’s Sunday Independent newspaper. A 29-year-old man who was arrested near the White House late on Saturday falsely told the U.S. Secret Service he had a bomb, according to a police report.

ANOTHER KNOWN WOLF? NYC Bombing Suspect Probed by FBI, Leading to Bigger Questions

Shawn Helton 21st Century WireThe New York bombing attack has a list of details that don t add up.When examining what transpired this past week in New York and New Jersey, we must consider a deeper social engineering agenda that may be at play as part of a larger geopolitical drama continues unfold in Syria.While August ushered in a hyper-propagandized war image that went viral in the West, September delivered an alleged active-shooter false alarm played out at both JFK airport and LAX as well as the apparent bombings in New York City and New Jersey this past week.As bombs go off outside, Obama sails through the UNGA.You have to wonder, were the events in New York and New Jersey also a weapon of mass distraction, following a major international embarrassment for the United States both at home and abroad the brutal airstrike campaign in Syria that killed over 70 Syrian troops? This unlikely bombing incident just happened to also coincide with the UN General Assembly in NYC, where President Obama was delivering among other speeches, his War on Terror addresses to the international community. No surprise then, with the city suddenly on high terror alert that Obama quickly and confidently and comfortably used his center stage spotlight at the UN, shifting into national security mode boasting how quickly his police forces solved the case. It was almost if he was ready for events that weekend.The alleged NYC bombing suspect was named as 28 year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami, who managed the family Chicken Kebab Shop. He has been charged with using weapons of mass destruction in addition to other criminal charges. Similar to what was described in the apparent Boston Marathon Bombing of 2013, Rahami is alleged to have created a homemade pressure cooker bomb which exploded in Chelsea, an affluent neighborhood of Manhattan. Oddly missing are scenes depicting the transport of 31 injured individuals after the explosion in New York. BOMBER OR PATSY? Ahmad Khan Rahami was known to both US officials and Pakistani officials (Image Source: BBC)NYC s Known Wolf After the mainstream media and officials floated the idea that a Wireless Emergency Alert system helped to locate and find Rahami with an electronic wanted poster, it turns out the FBI already knew him.According to The Washington Post, the FBI had already known Rahami since 2014, making this latest known wolf attack a strongly suspicious event: The FBI s probe into Ahmad Khan Rahami, the 28-year-old named as the only suspect in the bombings, was launched based on comments his father had made. An official said his father later recanted his comments. Agents conducted interviews, checked with other agencies and looked at internal databases, none of which revealed ties to terrorism, the bureau said in a statement.But why then, was Rahami on the radar of Pakistani intelligence in recent years?During the San Bernardino caper last December, we were told that supposedly Pakistani-born Tashfeen Malik, had ties to The Red Mosque in Pakistan, a well-known Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) linked mosque: Sources have told Daily Mail Online that US officials handed over information to their Pakistani counterparts about links between Tashfeen Malik and the Red Mosque in Islamabad. The mosque is infamous for its links to violence and authorities in Pakistan are now considering taking action against its preacher, Maulana Abdul Aziz, after the disclosures by US officials. If Malik was inspired by ISIS, as claimed by authorities (via social media) then why did her background suggest a Pakistani/ISI/CIA/Al-Qaeda connection, if she was in fact radicalized as US plot writers insist?The UK s Telegraph stated that the part of Pakistan where Malik was staying is known as a recruiting ground for Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist groups, including Lashkar al-Taiba, responsible for a bloody attack in Mumbai, India s financial capital, in 2008. If true, this was a new twist in the media hyped San Bernardino shooting, displaying a startling link between the Al Qaeda/ISI affiliated Red Mosque and other Western-backed black ops in Pakistan.In May of 2011, The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) outlined the ISI s material support for various militant groups, including the formation of Al-Qaeda giving historical context to recent events: The ISI s first major involvement in Afghanistan came after the Soviet invasion in 1979, when itpartnered with the CIA to provide weapons, money, intelligence, and training to the mujahadeen fighting the Red Army. The CFR further stated, Pakistan s government has repeatedly denied allegations of supporting terrorism, citing as evidence its cooperation in the U.S.-led battle against extremists. The CIA and ISI, have had a long, sometimes contentious relationship on the surface but the reality is that their collective footprint, is all over many tribal areas in Pakistan and places like Afghanistan where extremism continues to grow to this day.Malik s affiliations suggested that she could have been involved with one of the intelligence agencies active in the exact location she resided in Pakistan was this also the case with Rahami, given his link to a Pakistani seminary with ties to the Taliban?The UK s Guardian reported the following: The 28-year-old, who was born in Afghanistan but became a US citizen, spent time at the Kaan Kuwa Naqshbandi madrasa on his two visits to Pakistan, a security official working for the government of Balochistan province told the Guardian. Cointinuing, the article discussed how Pakistani officials have limited the information they have about Rahami: US officials have revealed basic details about Rahami s two visits to Pakistan, the first in 2011 when he spent a couple of months in Quetta and got married and almost a year in 2013 when he also made a car journey to Afghanistan.But very little information has emerged from inside Pakistan about what Rahami did during his visits.The government official, who did not wish to be named because he was speaking about a highly sensitive subject, said Pakistani security agencies have tried to hide all the details of his visits to Quetta and keep as much information as possible out of the media. It s also worth noting the similarities of this case to that of another known wolf who traveled overseas before a major domestic event, the alleged Boston Bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who had previously been recruited by the FBI, most likely as an informant. This might help to explain why Tamerlan traveled overseas to attend the American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus in Dagestan, during the summer of 2012 an event organised by the Jamestown Foundation itself another known CIA front, and part of a vast network controlled by Freedom House (George Soros) and linked to the CIA , as reported by the Voltaire Network. INFORMANT OR TERRORIST? What was Rahami s real role in the New York and New Jersey bombings and bomb attempts? (Image Source: nbcnews) Sturm und Drang During a hotly contested US presidential election cycle, multiple overlapping narratives continue to contribute to an environment of confusion, fear and uncertainty in the War On Terror era.Mass media has worked out their own formula for laying out a familiar series of polarizing political points in the aftermath of any tragic event, as they have with many others. Appearing once again, to purposefully redirect the public to look at a ready-made laundry list of hateful rhetoric and random writings as an ironclad motive for a crime. The aftermath in the case of New York is no different, as it rapidly descended into an overindulgent barrage of media speculation and theorizing.All too often we ve seen the stage persona of any alleged attacker or killer being touted as hard evidence, despite the fact that even strong circumstantial evidence of any apparent crime would likely result in many hours of analysis and debate, potentially without a definitive conclusion, even if the evidence eventually reached a court room setting.As 21WIRE has covered in recent years, very often there is much more involved behind-the-scenes when it comes to sensationalized attacks in America, particularly of those said to be lone wolf events. The incidents themselves are quickly taken out of the political and forensic realm, giving way to a hyper-realized account, often defying logic and reason.Drills, Patsies & DupesIn May of 2015, the NY Post stated the following, after the city s largest ever terror drill involved mock explosions: Officials said the event was the largest active-shooter operation ever, involving more than 200 NYPD and FDNY officers.It was the ninth full-scale exercise of its kind since the beginning of 2014. Chief of NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau James Waters explained that the drill replicated portions of events that occurred in San Bernadino, in the Bataclan in Paris and in Australia. Continuing, the article described the intricate mass exercise: On the third and the fourth floors we had additional explosions go off, replicating things that happened at the Bataclan nightclub, and that pushed the ESU officers up to the third floor, and finally the fourth floor, where they encountered a barricade with a hostage situation, he said, explaining that the cops again were able to stop the shooters. For the average person, its hard to differentiate from a drill or a real event, causing one to scrutinize the legitimacy of such an operation.In recent years, the investigative tactics of various intelligence agencies have come into question, none perhaps more dubious then the Newburgh FBI sting that involved entrapping four men to participate in a fabricated event created by the bureau. Here s a 2011 passage from The Guardian describing how an FBI informant named Shahed Hussain coerced four others into a fake terror plot: The Newburgh Four now languish in jail. Hussain does not. For Hussain was a fake. In fact, Hussain worked for the FBI as an informant trawling mosques in hope of picking up radicals.Yet far from being active militants, the four men he attracted were impoverished individuals struggling with Newburgh s grim epidemic of crack, drug crime and poverty. One had mental issues so severe his apartment contained bottles of his own urine. He also believed Florida was a foreign country.Hussain offered the men huge financial inducements to carry out the plot including $250,000 to one man and free holidays and expensive cars.As defence lawyers poured through the evidence, the Newburgh Four came to represent the most extreme form of a controversial FBI policy to use invented terrorist plots to lure targets. There has been no case as egregious as this. It is unique in the incentive the government provided. A quarter million dollars? said Professor Karen Greenberg, a terrorism expert at Fordham University. The whole episode seemed born out WTC 1993 bombing case, which involved yet another informant working alongside officials.More below regarding the purported NYC bombing from ZeroHedge NYC UNDER ATTACK? In less than 48 hours law enforcement nabbed the man purportedly behind the recent NYC bombings. (Image Source: observer)9 Weird Things About The NYC And NJ Bombs That Will Make You Say Hmmmm Zero HedgeZero Hedge continues READ MORE WAR ON TERROR NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire W.O.T Files

Hurricane Irma kills at least eight in Saint Martin: Minister

PARIS (Reuters) - At least eight people were killed on the Franco-Dutch Caribbean island of Saint Martin by hurricane Irma, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said on Thursday. Collomb said the toll was likely to rise in the coming hours.

Germany against Trump's Jerusalem decision: Merkel

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany does not support the Trump administration s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday. The German government does not support this position, because the status of Jerusalem is to be resolved in the framework of a two-state solution, she was quoted as saying in a tweet by the government spokesman.

the bundy verdict is another defeat for obama

obamas un ambassador cuba is right about our human rights october daniel greenfield you may remember ambassador samantha power from the time she proposed invading israel since then shes gone on to a glorious career of representing the castro regime at the un or is it the obama regime it naturally gets confusing when the us ambassador to the un sides with the enemy against her own country for more than years the united states had a policy aimed at isolating the government of cuba for roughly half of those years un member states have voted overwhelmingly for a general assembly resolution that condemns the us embargo and calls for it to be ended the united states has always voted against this resolution today the united states will abstain applause thank you under obama power was told to abstain from opposing a resolution critical of the united states and they say obama is some sort of antiamerican traitor i dont see it if he were we would be seeing signs of it by now anyway power then went on to audition for the job of the un ambassador from cuba by claiming that critiques from a brutal communist dictatorship about our human rights are wellfounded let me be among the first to acknowledge as our cuban counterparts often point out that the united states has work to do in fulfilling these rights for our own citizens and we know that at times in our history us leaders and citizens used the pretext of promoting democracy and human rights in the region to justify actions that have left a deep legacy of mistrust somehow though siding with communist dictatorships who are the enemy while betraying our allies in the region does not create any mistrust only opposing the left does

Catalan leader must drop independence by Thursday: Spain deputy PM

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain s government will take control of Catalonia and rule it directly if Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont does not drop a bid to split the region from Spain by Thursday at 1000 a.m. (0800 GMT), deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said. Mr Puigdemont still has the opportunity to start resolving this situation, he must answer yes or no to the declaration (of independence), Saenz de Santamaria said. Madrid had given Puigdemont until Monday 10:00 a.m. (0800 GMT) to clarify his position on independence with a Yes or No , but the Catalan leader did not directly answer the question.

Turkey's Erdogan calls killing of Rohingya in Myanmar genocide

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that the death of hundreds of Rohingya in Myanmar over the past week constituted a genocide aimed at Muslim communities in the region. Nearly 400 people have died in fighting that has rocked Myanmar s northwest for a week, new official data showed, making it probably the deadliest bout of violence to engulf the country s Rohingya Muslim minority in decades. There is a genocide there. They remain silent towards this... All those looking away from this genocide carried out under the veil of democracy are also part of this massacre, Erdogan said at his ruling AK Party s Eid al-adha celebrations in Istanbul. The army says it is conducting clearance operations against extremist terrorists to protect civilians. Erdogan, with his roots in political Islam, has long strived to take a position of leadership among the world s Muslim community. He said it was Turkey s moral responsibility to take a stand against the events in Myanmar. Around 38,000 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar, United Nations sources said, a week after Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts and an army base in Rakhine state, prompting clashes and a military counteroffensive. Erdogan said the issue would be discussed in detail when world leaders convene for the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 12 in New York.

Former ‘Apprentice’ Contestants Unite AGAINST Trump – Issue BRUTAL Statements

When you want to learn more about what a person is really like, talk to the people they have been around a lot. It s one thing to push a persona into the spotlight that has been sculpted to how one would like to be perceived,while it is quite another to get to the truth behind the actual person.So, when half a dozen former contestants from Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump s reality show The Apprentice come forward to issue statements condemning the candidate, we should all probably listen. Some of those who have come forward are the winner from Season 4, Randal Pinkett alongside Kwame Jackson who was runner-up in Season 1. They are also planning a press conference.According to Bloomberg: In statements, the contestants slammed Trump s rhetoric as divisive and accused him of running a campaign of sexism, xenophobia, racism, violence and hate. Winning Project Manager from The Apprentice, Marshawn Evans Daniels said: Trump is passionately and strategically reigniting a dirty and divisive culture soaked in a history of prejudice, fear and hate. It is unpatriotic, anti-American, self-serving, regressive and downright lazy. Pinkett stated: As alums of The Apprentice, we have had the opportunity to work with Donald in various capacities, including as employees of the Trump Organization. Based on that experience and Donald s campaign, we do not believe he is worthy of becoming president of the United States. Of course, Trump responded to these criticisms in the most Trumpian way possible, and said the group of former contestants are six failing wannabes. He said: How quickly they forget. Nobody would know who they are if it weren t for me They just want to get back into the limelight like they had when they were with Trump. Total dishonesty and disloyalty. They should be careful or I ll play hours of footage of them individually praising me. Ask how successful they ve been since they left. Six failing wannabes out of hundreds of contestants so sad! A statement in response that pretty much proves the former contestants point of what a hateful, vindictive person Trump is. As you may have noticed, in Trump s mind, he s never wrong. It s always someone else s fault. It s always someone else doing something to him, and never ever the other way around. This is a true sign of an egomaniacal narcissist. It s amazing that he can fit his giant, braggadocios head through any door.We need to listen to these former contestants. They ve had to work with him, and aren t afraid to tell it like it is. Donald Trump cannot be our next president. It wouldn t only be bad for the nation, but the entire world.Featured Photo by Amanda Edwards/Getty Images

IRANIAN SCIENTIST HANGED For “Revealing [Nuclear Weapons] Secrets To The Enemy” After Hillary Revealed Top Secret Intel About Him Through Unsecured Email

Reckless Hillary couldn t have cared less about the seriousness of exposing America s top-secret intel to the world by using an unsecured email server. Why would any American want to put her in charge of our troops? Why would any voter trust her with our national security. The job of Commander In Chief is too important to leave to a self-serving grifter simply because she is equipped with female genitalia. Just ask the family of Shahram Amiri a friend of the US who paid the ultimate price for providing America with Iran s nuclear weapons secrets while Hillary was our crooked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used her private email server to discuss details of the Iranian nuclear scientist who was executed for giving information to the CIA.Shahram Amiri, who was hanged for revealing secrets to the enemy , was in the US and allegedly informing on Tehran s extensive nuclear program during the Democrat s controversial reign as Secretary of State.At the time she stressed researcher had been there of his own free will and was described as our friend in correspondences. But he maintained he had been kidnapped by intelligence agents. Emails sent by Clinton s advisers point to the scandal involving Amiri suggesting it was a diplomatic, psychological issue , but not a legal one .One aide also warned he would lead to problematic news stories Richard Morningstar, a former State Department special envoy for Eurasian energy wrote to Clinton: We should recognize his concerns and frame it in terms of a misunderstanding with no malevolent intent and that we will make sure there is no recurrence. Our friend has to be given a way out. Our person won t be able to do anything anyway. If he has to leave so be it. Senior adviser Jake Sullivan sent another email about Amiri on July 12, 2010.It appears he is referring to the scientist just hours before he showed up at the Iranian interests section of the Pakistani Embassy in Washington D.C., demanding he be sent home.He said: The gentleman has apparently gone to his country s interests section because he is unhappy with how much time it has taken to facilitate his departure. This could lead to problematic news stories in the next 24 hours. Amiri went missing in 2009 after leaving for a pilgrimage to Mecca, but appeared in a video apparently recorded in the U.S. in which he claimed to have been put under pressure to reveal sensitive information to the intelligence agency.In interviews he has claimed he was drugged, put on a plane, and then kept under psychological pressure at an undisclosed location in the U.S.There he was asked to hand over classified documents, but he claims he never did as he didn t want to betray his country.He then walked into the Iranian interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and demanded to be sent home.He came back to a hero s welcome and insisted he was a simple researcher .Amiri worked for a university affiliated with Tehran s extensive nuclear program.He is said to have had an in-depth knowledge of Iran s nuclear program and was kept at a secret location after returning to the country.According to CBS, he told officials in interviews he was being held against his will by Saudi and U.S. spies.But American officials said he was set to receive millions for informing.Amiri s mother told the BBC that his body had been sent to her with rope marks around his neck.On Sunday, an Iranian judicial spokesman confirmed the execution had taken place.Iran confirms execution of Iranian nuclear scientistHe told the Mizan Online news site: Shahram Amiri was hanged for revealing the country s top secrets to the enemy (US). In another recording filmed when he was missing, the scientist suggested he had fled from the USA, where he had been held against his will.But US officials said they paid Amiri some $5 million to defect and provide significant information about Iran s atomic program. Amiri later fled the U.S. without the money.Iranian officials previously touted Amiri s claim he had been abducted by U.S. agents while on a pilgrimage to holy sites in Saudi Arabia.They welcomed him home in 2010 as a hero.But his family confirmed to the BBC he had been given a lengthy jail sentence after returning to the Middle East.The State Department declined to comment on Amiri s execution.Via: Daily Mail

BUNDY SON AND RANCHERS POST VIDEOS On Facebook: Speak Out Against “Lies on social media,” Explain Why They’re Fighting Tyrannical Government

// <![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&#038;version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]> We re here because we re tired of the lies in the social media. Our federal government has run amuk. Everybody has guns. Just because you have guns, doesn t mean that you re violent. Oregon rancher asking for our help!Posted by Bundy Ranch on Sunday, 3 January 2016// <![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&#038;version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>Come help the ranchers in Oregon gain back their rights!Posted by Bundy Ranch on Monday, 4 January 2016 // <![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&#038;version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>Oregon rancher asking for our help!Posted by Bundy Ranch on Sunday, 3 January 2016This rancher traveled from Michigan to show his support for the ranchers. He s calling for a peaceful resolution to this issue:// <![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&#038;version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>Calling all to come and help the people of Harney CountyKen Rhoads, (71) calling all to come and help the people of Harney County. Come to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge 30 mile from Burns Oregon. We have a warm place for you to lay your head and food to eat. We need you to make this happen without violence.Posted by Bundy Ranch on Sunday, 3 January 2016

Brother of man who killed Jews, soldiers in 2012 France attack jailed for 20 years

PARIS (Reuters) - The brother of a Franco-Algerian gunman who killed four Jews and three soldiers was sentenced to 20 years in jail on Thursday over a killing spree that heralded an era of Islamist-inspired attacks in which hundreds have since died in France. A court in Paris ruled Abdelkader Merah guilty of terrorist offences. He was found to have helped in the preparation of the attacks although he did not participate himself when his younger brother Mohamed Merah shot three Jewish children and one of their parents, and then three soldiers, in Toulouse in 2012. More than 240 people have been killed in France since then, primarily since early 2015. The biggest was a string of Islamist attacks in which gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 in Paris. Prosecutors had asked the court to sentence Abdelkader Merah to life behind bars, arguing that he was a religious radical who had mentored his younger brother and helped materially, notably in the theft of the scooter used in the killings at the Jewish Ozer Hatorah school in Toulouse, southwestern France. The judge sentenced the defendant to 20 years. A second man, Fettah Malki, was sentenced to 14 years for his role in providing the gun, ammunition and a bullet-proof vest to the attacker. Mohamed Merah, 24 at the time, was shot dead when he jumped, guns blazing, from the window of an apartment where he was holed up a few days after his killing spree in March 2012. The Merah killings were the first major incident of the kind since Paris subway bombs attacks in the mid-1990s by Islamist militants linked to the GIA group in Algeria, a former French colony. Abdelkader Merah denied being involved during a four-week trial where his lawyer demanded acquittal and accused public prosecutors of going after him because they could no longer pursue his brother. For the prosecution, French attorney general Na ma Rudloff said when pleading for a life-sentence that there was no doubt the older brother was guilty and devoted much of his time to mentoring his sibling. Abdelkader Merah made Mohamed Merah, she said. At the time of the killings, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said the younger Merah, who had both French and Algerian citizenship, had claimed affiliation with the al Qaeda militant group and said he wanted to avenge Palestinian children. He had been under surveillance by the intelligence service for several years after being identified in Afghanistan. At home in Toulouse he was better known by for his love of soccer, night clubs and motorbikes than any conspicuous religious devotion.

NEW ORLEANS Bans Incredible Civil War Monuments

We ve been following this push to remove all statues related to the Civil War. It was basically ramrodded through by the Mayor and other pc idiots. This is our history and is honoring those who fought in the Civil War. Is anyone else sick about this? If you ve ever been to New Orleans you would remember the beautiful statues sprinkled around the city. It s part of the charm and the rich history of New Orleans. This is wrong, wrong, wrong! THANK YOU TO THE HAYRIDE FOR ALL THE TRUTH IN THIS THAT SHOWS WHAT A SHAM IT IS:The New Orleans City Council voted 6-1 today to remove four historical monuments in the city: Robert E Lee Circle, PGT Beauregard s City Park statue, the Jefferson Davis monument and the Liberty Place monument.Mayor Mitch Landrieu first requested the proposal back in June after the AME Charleson Church shooting. At the time, Landrieu said he wanted to hold a 60-day discussion period so that residents could converse about the four monuments on the chopping block.Though, the Hayride exclusively reported how the Landrieu administration knew that they had the votes to remove all four monuments before even proposing the idea. Also, the Mayor s administration apparently has been looking into warehouse spaces and construction companies to remove the monuments since August, even though the 60-day discussion period was not over.Councilman Jared Brossett compared the monuments to the Berlin wall, while Councilwoman Susan Guidry said she and others were justifiably offended by the monuments.Councilwoman Latoya Cantrell and Councilwoman Stacy Head, however, felt differently. Cantrell said she felt disrespected by Landrieu for proposing the idea with no input from residents or the City Council.Councilman Jason Williams, though, said that other council-members should not be too upset with the Landrieu administration for bringing up the issue.Cantrell also took a major issue with the fact that Landrieu suddenly got an anonymous donor to pay for the removal of the monuments. Cantrell said she and the residents of New Orleans deserved to know who was behind removal of the monuments.The Hayride exclusively reported months ago that the anonymous donor was Democrat-funder John Cummings, however Cummings denied being the anonymous donor.Head, the only no vote on the monuments issue, said removing the monuments will do nothing for the city, saying that she asked for a compromise, but that compromise was not given any chance. Last month, Head confirmed exclusive Hayride reports which found that the Landrieu administration had been looking into construction companies and warehouse spaces for months now.Cantrell also confirmed last week that she was actually against removal of monuments because she felt as though the Landrieu administration had rammed the process through the city, taking no input from historians or residents.Read more: The Hayride

U.S. ends temporary protected status for Sudanese but extends it for South Sudanese

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is ending temporary protected status for citizens of Sudan as of 2018 but extending it for citizens of South Sudan through mid-2019, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement on Monday. Temporary protected status allows nationals of certain countries, often facing armed conflict or major natural disasters, who are already in the United States to temporarily remain and work there. Both Sudan and South Sudan s designations were due to expire on Nov. 2. Instead, Sudanese nationals are allowed to stay legally for another year, but then must leave. DHS urged them in a statement to use their remaining time to prepare for and arrange their departure from the United States or apply for other visa types allowing them to stay. But acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke decided to extend South Sudan s TPS status until May 2, 2019, DHS said, because the ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions that prompted the 2016 decision to grant the status to South Sudanese have persisted. South Sudan was the world s youngest country when it became independent from neighboring Sudan in 2011 following decades of conflict. But the new nation dissolved into civil war less than two years later, after President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy, Riek Machar, a Nuer. Since then tens of thousands have died, and 3.5 million of the country s 12 million citizens have fled their homes, creating Africa s largest refugee crisis since Rwanda s 1994 genocide. El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, Syria and Yemen are the other countries whose nationals can qualify for temporary protected status in the United States.

#BlackLivesMatter Terrorists Disrupt Chicago Diners In Lame Attempt To Gain Sympathy

We re thinking it s having the opposite effect. Maybe it s time for a food fight The Black Lives Matter terrorist began harassing unsuspecting patrons this morning at Dove s Diner on Wicker Road in Chicago.https://twitter.com/ZachStafford/status/682994134395793410h/t Gateway Pundit

WOW! Rebel Media Finds Shocking Evidence Implicating Son of DEM APPOINTED Judge In “Hate Crime” Trump Supporter Was FALSELY Charged With [VIDEO]

Rebel Media: Attacking someone for their politics could be expected from private citizens acting out against each other, but what about government and law enforcement officials?The Rebel has investigated the case of Mark Feigin, a California Trump supporter who was wrongfully accused of and charged with an anti-Muslim hate crime.On October 19, 2016, Feigin was arrested and charged with making a criminal threat and annoying phone calls against the Islamic Center of Southern California by the Los Angeles Police Department, and then by California Attorney General Kamala Harris.LAPD officers accused Feigin of making two threatening phone calls and claimed that they had traced the phone calls back to him, later labeling the calls a hate crime against Muslims.On October 19th, 2016, Feigin s home was raided by the LAPD and his weapons were confiscated and placed on display for the media during a press conference where the California Media and LAPD were complicit in portraying Feigin as a potential mass murderer.Cmdr. Horace Frank with the Los Angeles Police Department stated in a press conference in October 2016: The male caller threatened to kill the person who answered the phone along with other members of the center because of the caller s hatred for Muslims and his belief that Muslims will destroy the United States. The Rebel has obtained new documents and evidence through police disclosure surrounding the case which proves that the first phone call made to the Islamic Center came from the phone of a different California man, Michael Slawson.Michael Slawson is the son of Democratically appointed Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John Slawson.In other words, Slawson s father is a judge in the same justice system under which Feigin was charged.

A Federal Judge Just Told Trump To Take His Muslim Ban And Shove It

A federal judge in Brooklyn, ruling on behalf of the ACLU and two Iraqis detained at New York s JFK International Airport, has placed a stay on Trump s Muslim ban. The move comes amidst massive protests all over the country, lawyers making sure that those denied entry despite having the necessary paperwork have representation, and more.Two Iraqis were held at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City today, and although they ve been released, many others, including green card holders, people on student visas, people on work visas, and even people on visitor visas, have found themselves unable to enter the U.S. In some cases they re held at their port of entry (such as the international terminal at an airport), and in others, they re actually pulled off of planes before they even leave their countries of origin.Congress enacted a law in 1965 that prohibits us from discriminating against anyone when it comes to immigrant visas on the basis of their race, gender, nationality, place of residency or place of birth. This ban is supposed to make it harder for terrorists to come in, but is probably illegal despite being signed by Cheetolini here.It s also likely having the opposite effect of what Trumplestiltskin thinks it will. As one former CIA agent said on Twitter:I proudly served in the CIA post 9/11. Fought actual terrorists. The ban makes that fight harder. It makes us less safe. pic.twitter.com/THN70v4bOC Tom King (@TomKingTK) January 28, 2017That goes against everyone who keeps insisting that it s for the nation s own good that we do this. The fact of the matter is, though, that the former CIA agent is right. When we alienate predominantly Muslim countries, we make radicalization far easier. We also make countries want to retaliate, as Iran has done already.Congressional Democrats have gone on record condemning Trump and his Muslim ban:RM @RepEliotEngel s statement on executive action on refugees: https://t.co/hNvbdz8awm pic.twitter.com/KNDBAchjYB Foreign Affairs Cmte (@HFACDemocrats) January 27, 2017These Exec Orders will only serve to embolden & inspire those around the globe who would do us harm. They must be reversed, immediately. Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) January 29, 2017We will not allow a Muslim ban in the United States of America. Here s what I said at Logan Airport tonight. #NoBanNoWall pic.twitter.com/XqeS9Iy14e Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) January 29, 2017Yet Republicans are oddly silent on this, with the exception of Charlie Dent, whose district has an awful lot of Syrian refugees. Dent seems to be the only one with any compassion right now.The stay is temporary, and it will be up to the courts whether to make it permanent or not. Basically, though, what this judge did was halt an illegal and unconstitutional executive order, effectively telling Trump to take his Muslim ban and shove it.Featured image by Andrew Harrer via Getty Images

MOCK ASSASSINATION OF DONALD TRUMP Sparks Outrage At Texas School

A San Antonio, Texas school is under fire for an outrageous skit portraying the assassination of President-elect Donald Trump by two 10th grade students. The skit provoked outrage from the parents of a student who watched it unfold last week. Harold and Melinda Bean said that in the skit, entitled The Assassination of Donald Trump, one of the boys made a gunfire sound effect with his cell phone as the other boy, portraying Trump, fell to the ground in mock death.Melina Bean made a great point when she explained her concern that the boys weren t punish enough: Younger children using their hands to simulate guns on the playground have been suspended, she said, and this was far worse. Melinda BeanAll of the students were required to submit descriptions of their English class presentations beforehand to be approved by their teacher, the parents said, but these two students in particular changed their skit afterward. Appropriate action was taken to reprimand both boys and their teacher, said Northside ISD spokesman Barry Perez. The parents, however, believe more should have been done, including suspending the two students. Honestly I have run out of words to describe how angry I am and how shocked I am that they re still in school today, Melinda Bean said.Younger children using their hands to simulate guns on the playground have been suspended, she said, and this was far worse. The teacher apologized Monday, Harold Bean said, but that wasn t enough. I don t understand how the teacher can repeat an apology and be right there back at work on Monday morning, he said. Though we understand she is apologetic, it does not make the situation right. Perez said campus officials investigated the incident and found that the teacher didn t condone it and stopped the skit. But Harold Bean questioned why she allowed it to start once she heard the title. Pardon my language but I think that it s a bunch of B.S. if they re going to tell you the kids were stopped, Harold Bean.Via: mySA

HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER SEEKS HELP FROM UNION AFTER BEING FIRED FOR STOMPING ON AMERICAN FLAG IN CLASS [Video]

This is just another example of the rampant indoctrination of our children by the anti-American left God bless these local veterans who came forward in defense of our American flag:A teacher who allegedly stomped on the American flag during a high school lesson on free speech has been fired.The Martinsville School District board has unanimously voted 6-0 to fire English teacher Jordan Parmenter, WGLT reports.The teacher incensed students after he stepped on the flag during a May lesson on free speech at Martinsville Junior-Senior High School.According to a student in the class, Parmenter was using a small American flag as a pointer for a chart and when the student said it was disrespectful, the teacher said he then made what he says was the rash decision of dropping the flag to the floor and stepping on it to illustrate an example of free speech as part of the lesson that day, according to the Journal Gazette. We can t figure out why he actually went to the simulations of actually doing it, Jonathon Smith, a senior at the school, was quoted as saying by TristateHomePage.com last month. He talked about it being the right to do whatever he wants. That s why it was there so he could do whatever he wants, but we have no idea why he would actually take it down and basically start all this. Several residents reportedly protested outside the school after the incident to bring attention to it, walking a flag back and forth in front of the building. It s just disgraceful, protester Clifford Clouser, a U.S. Navy veteran, told WTHI-TV while fighting back tears. There s just so much history in that flag some good, some bad but it s still our flag. Protester Nicholas Gibson, a veteran of the U.S. Marines, told the TV station, It should have never happened. I m very proud of these kids that have stood up for what they believe in. Parmenter wrote a letter of apology to the school board, but it wasn t enough to save his job.The teacher wouldn t speak to the media following his termination, except to say he plans to speak with his union representative, according to Fox 2.Via: EAG News

Hong Kong leader demands end of independence talk, warns ties with Beijing at risk

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong s leader urged an immediate end to independence debates in the Chinese-ruled global financial hub on Tuesday, warning that the issue was harming the city s relationship with Beijing s Communist Party leaders. Insisting that the government did not want to intervene on university campuses, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the campaign was organized and systematic rather than simply an issue of freedom of speech. This has already deviated from the so-called, Why aren t we able to talk about this? point of view. It is clearly attacking one country, two systems ... and destroying the relationship between Beijing and Hong Kong, Lam said. It is not in the interests of Hong Kong s development and must stop. Lam said the calls violated the Basic Law, the constitutional document securing Hong Kong s broad freedoms of speech and assembly after Britain returned its former colony to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 under the one country, two systems banner. While the Basic Law enshrines far broader civil and commercial freedoms than exist in mainland China, some legal experts warn that a sustained independence campaign could break laws against sedition. Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping, have warned that independence discussions are a red line that can t be crossed, saying the city is an inalienable part of China. Some students have placed banners on democracy walls on campuses in recent days, sparking anger and counter campaigns from Hong Kong-based mainland students. Some mainland Chinese students and pro-China patriotic groups have since sought to rip down some posters, sparking heated exchanges with Hong Kong students and free speech advocates. Pro-independence activists should be killed and treated without mercy, Junius Ho, a pro-Beijing lawmaker, said during a rally on Sunday, sparking outrage and calls for police to act. The widening controversy sparked criticism from Chinese state media, as well as a rare joint statement from the heads of Hong Kong universities, declaring that the universities did not support Hong Kong independence. Lam said she believed university management would be able to handle the issue without government action. Asked about Lam s warnings, Chris Patten, Britain s last governor of Hong Kong, urged greater efforts to engage Hong Kong s restive young people. It s unwise to think that you can simply shut it down by, and I m sure Carrie Lam wouldn t suggest this, by locking students up, Patten told Reuters. These aren t people to be frightened of. They are the future. And you ve got to persuade them why they re wrong. While the students should back off counterproductive independence debates, he said, they should continue to push for democracy and the rule of law to secure their freedoms. This is an extremely moderate community, Patten later told a meeting at the Foreign Correspondents Club. If you give Hong Kong a bit more democracy, you ve got to recognize that it s a moderate place and people will behave responsibly. Patten was critical, however, of the Hong Kong government s decision to seek a resentencing of democracy activist Joshua Wong and others, calling it a political decision that should have been better thought out, given the criticism it provoked. He also mentioned a Reuters report that Hong Kong s Justice Secretary Rimsky Yuen had overruled department colleagues in pursuing prison sentences for the democracy activists. He s a grown-up, he must know that actions have consequences, Patten added. Not to understand what signal that would send to the rest of the world strikes me as being, to be frank, a little na ve.

Russia vetoes extension of mission probing chemical weapons use in Syria

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia cast a veto at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday preventing the renewal of the mandate for a mission that investigates the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The investigation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) - known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) - was unanimously created by the 15-member U.N. Security Council in 2015 and renewed in 2016 for another year. Its mandate is due to expire in mid-November. The JIM is due to report by Oct. 26 on who was responsible for an attack on April 4 on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, held by the opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, that killed dozens of people. Russia wanted to discuss the report before voting on the extension of the mandate, and its U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia unsuccessfully asked to postpone the vote. Don t try to create the impression that the JIM will be a dead letter unless we adopt this resolution today, Nebenzia said prior to the vote. We are ready to return to extending the JIM after the publication of the report and after we discuss it after the 26 of October. A separate OPCW fact-finding mission determined in June that the banned nerve agent sarin had been used in the Khan Sheikhoun attack, which prompted the United States to launch missiles on a Syrian air base. Russia has once again demonstrated it will do whatever it takes to ensure the barbaric Assad regime never faces consequences for its continued use of chemicals as weapons, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, traveling in Africa, said in a statement. After the vote, Nebenzia said the elimination of chemical weapons in Syria had nearly finished. In its most recent report late last month, the OPCW said it had verified the destruction of 25 of the 27 chemical weapons production facilities declared by Syria and continued to prepare an inspection to confirm the current condition of the last two. China abstained from Tuesday s vote, while Bolivia joined Russia in voting no. Eleven countries voted in favor of the text.

In Abu Dhabi, France's Macron says must remain firm with Iran

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday he wanted to remain firm with Iran regarding its ballistic missile program and influence in the Middle East, but warned regional countries against exacerbating rising tensions. The French leader arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday for a two-day visit that will see him inaugurate a new Louvre museum, hold talks on the geopolitical situation with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, before ending his trip in Dubai to attend an economic forum. In an interview with the government-linked al-Ittihad newspaper posted on the French embassy website, Macron repeated his country s stance that there was no alternative to the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. At the same time, it is also important for us to remain firm with Iran with regard to its regional activities and its ballistic missile program, Macron was quoted as saying. With tensions mounting in Lebanon following the resignation of Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri and an attempted ballistic missile strike on Riyadh by Houthi rebels in Yemen, Macron warned about an escalation in the region. Today, more than ever, we need a region of peace and responsible regional actors working for the stability of the Middle East, Macron said. The opening of an additional front would only exacerbate tensions and further destabilize the region.

HILLARY’S PHYSICIAN CLAIMS She Has Pneumonia…Does Pneumonia Cause Convulsions?…Do People With Pneumonia Hug Little Girls, Expose Newborn Grandchildren? [VIDEO]

Hillary s been coughing to the point of almost passing out, spewing strange objects into her glass of water, flinging metal pieces from her pant legs, and convulsing as secret service agents lift her into her vehicle. So today, her doctor clarified what s been causing her Parkinson s disease like symptoms. Her doctor claims she has pneumonia, and that she s had it since last Friday. Do people who have pneumonia lie about it to reporters and blame their bizarre coughing fits on allergies? Do they convulse? Do they visit their daughter and her newborn baby unannounced after being lifted into their car by secret service? Secretary Clinton has been experiencing a cough related to allergies, Dr. Lisa R. Bardack said in the statement. On Friday, during follow up evaluation of her prolonged cough, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule. While at this morning s event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now re-hydrated and recovering nicely. Walking pneumonia can be contagious and between the ceremony today and the Barbra Streisand event on Friday night, she was among hundreds of people.Today, including Chuck Schemer and Bill De Blasio. WZEither she s lying gasp! or she s incredibly selfish or maybe she s just both?The touchy, feely infected with pneumonia Hillary can be seen here at the 9-11 memorial service, clearly taking every precaution to not infect everyone around her (that is, if she indeed does have pneumonia and not Parkinson s disease:She also staged a hug with a little girl outside Chelsea s apartment following her convulsions and falling down episode hours earlier:

Clinton calls on world to break down barriers holding back girls

COPENHAGEN (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - U.S. presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton called for renewed efforts to “break down the barriers holding back women and girls around the world” on Thursday. In a video address to Women Deliver, a major women’s health and rights conference, she said gender equality must be made a priority in the drive to meet new U.N. development goals. “Two decades ago at the U.N. fourth world conference on women in Beijing we came together and said with one voice that women’s rights are human rights. And the gains we’ve made since then prove that progress is possible,” she said. “But as you all know too well, our work is far from finished. This is an important moment as we chart a course to meet the new Sustainable Development Goals. We have to break down the barriers holding back women and girls around the world.” More than 5,500 delegates from over 160 countries - including world leaders, ministers, health experts, economists, business leaders, activists, royalty and celebrities - have attended the four-day conference in Copenhagen. Discussions focused on how to put girls and women at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed by world leaders last year to fight inequality and extreme poverty. “Gender equality, including sexual and reproductive health and rights, must be a core priority,” Clinton, the Democratic front-runner in the race to the White House, said in the unscheduled video address. “To get there we need greater political will and resources, and we need to continue to invest in more and better data to measure progress. “The Women Deliver summit is critical to this work,” Clinton added. “You carry the spirit of Beijing forward bringing in new voices and lifting up the next generation of leaders.” Mogens Lykketoft, president of the U.N. General Assembly, said he hoped a woman would become the next head of the world body when Ban Ki-moon steps down later this year. “It would be symbolically and of real value very important that at the end of 2016 we will have the first ever elected female U.N. secretary general, and the first ever female president of the most powerful of nations – the United States. “What a way to demonstrate that our shared vision can become a reality,” he said. Women candidates in the running include former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova of Bulgaria.

Trump welcomes stock market surge, consumer confidence on Twitter

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed a record surge in the stock market on Thursday, a day after the Dow blasted through the 21,000 mark for the first time after his speech to Congress. “Since November 8th, Election Day, the Stock Market has posted $3.2 trillion in GAINS and consumer confidence is at a 15 year high. Jobs!” the Republican president wrote on Twitter. In an address to Congress on Tuesday night, Trump said he wanted to boost the U.S. economy with a “massive” tax relief and make a $1 trillion push on infrastructure, bets that have helped Wall Street scale fresh records since the election.

White House deregulation push clears out hundreds of proposed rules

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said Thursday it had withdrawn or removed from active consideration more than 800 proposed regulations that were never finalized during the Obama administration as it works to shrink the federal government’s regulatory footprint. In a report, the Trump administration said it had withdrawn 469 planned actions that had been part of the Obama administration’s regulatory agenda published last fall. Officials also reconsidered 391 active regulatory proceedings by reclassifying them as long-term or inactive “allowing for further careful review,” the White House said. The steps to eliminate regulations makes good on a much-repeated Trump campaign promise to promote business-friendly policies. Investors have anticipated the action, helping to push share prices higher on hopes that fewer regulations will boost business growth and lead to higher corporate profits. The Trump administration has identified nearly 300 regulations related to energy production and environmental protection it plans to rescind, review or delay across three agencies – the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior and Energy Departments. Trump had identified several of the regulations as targets in his March executive orders on energy, but they will now undergo a formal rulemaking process to be rescinded or revised. White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said the administration was addressing “that slow cancer that can come from regulatory burdens that we put on our people.” In February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to place “regulatory reform” task forces and officers within federal agencies in what may be the most far-reaching effort to pare back U.S. red tape in recent decades. Trump has vowed a sweeping cut in U.S. regulations and previously ordered agencies to repeal two rules for every new one adopted. The Interior Department is reviewing an Obama-era rule that directed companies to reduce venting and flaring and methane leaks from oil and gas production on federal and tribal land, according to a White House semi-annual government-wide regulation report. Representatives of the oil and gas industry cheered. “We just got through eight years of a regulatory onslaught, aimed at curtailing oil and gas production. So we are very supportive of the administration’s efforts to roll back regulation,” said Kathleen Sgamma, head of the Western Energy Alliance, which represents oil and gas drillers in Western states. She said membership was particularly pleased about the effort to repeal the methane rule, which the industry estimated would have cost about $50,000 per well. Methane is one of the gases scientists say is driving global climate change. The U.S. Transportation Department said it would review a number of Obama administration proposals that were close to being finalized including making automobile event data recorders mandatory, requiring sounds for electric cars and updating some crash test dummy standards. The government also said it does not plan to complete a number of airline-related regulatory actions within the next year, including new rules required by Congress generally requiring quick automated refunds for any baggage fees when checked luggage is not delivered. The Energy Department listed dozens of energy efficiency standards for commercial and household appliances that it would review. The White House said the regulatory agenda “represents the beginning of fundamental regulatory reform and a reorientation toward reducing unnecessary regulatory burden on the American people.” But some condemned the plan. “Six months into the administration, the only accomplishments the president has had is to rollback, delay and rescind science-based safeguards,” said Yogin Kothari of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Today’s release of the regulatory agenda confirms just as much. It continues to perpetuate a false narrative that regulations only have costs and no benefits.” Among the labeling requirements pushed back are Agriculture Department rules regarding production labeling on “natural” for meat and poultry as well as the bioengineering disclosure standard. The regulatory agenda calls for the U.S. Labor Department to rescind an Obama-era rule that prohibits restaurants and bars from forcing servers to share their tips with untipped employees such as cooks and dishwashers. That 2011 tip-pooling regulation is also the subject of a legal challenge by the National Restaurant Association, which has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the rule.

House No. 2 Republican says still questions Clinton's judgment in email matter

(Reuters) - U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Tuesday he was still troubled by Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email server when she was secretary of State, even though the FBI has declined to recommend charges in the matter. “This is still very troubling,” McCarthy, the No. 2 House Republican, told reporters, adding that there was no way to know whether Clinton’s email server was ever successfully hacked.

U.S. trade barriers report slams China on overcapacity, tech transfer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Friday slammed China on a range of trade issues from its chronic industrial overcapacity to forced technology transfers and longstanding bans on U.S. beef and electronic payment services. The annual trade barriers list from the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) office sets up more areas of potential irritation for the first face-to-face meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping next week in Florida. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, asked about his expectations for the meeting, told Fox News on Friday: “What I would hope will come out would be a commitment to starting to abide by the rules and a commitment to working collaboratively to help reduce our deficit.“ USTR, controlled by the White House, said that Chinese government industrial policies and financial support for industries such as steel and aluminum have resulted in overproduction and a flood of exports that have distorted global markets and undermined competitors. “While China has begun to take steps to address steel excess capacity, these steps have been inadequate to date and even fewer efforts have been taken by China in aluminum and other sectors,” USTR said in the report. USTR released the list of trade irritants in 63 countries just after senior Trump trade officials announced an executive order to study the causes of U.S. trade deficits. The report said China also is using a series of cybersecurity restrictions as part of an apparent long-term goal to replace foreign information and communications technology products and services with locally produced versions. USTR also accused China of using a range of measures to engineer the transfer of foreign technology to Chinese firms. They include denying financial or regulatory approvals to companies using foreign-owned intellectual property (IP) or that do not conduct research or manufacture products in China. “China also reportedly conditions foreign investment approvals on technology transfer to Chinese entities, mandates adverse licensing terms on foreign IP licensors, uses anti-monopoly laws to extract technology on unreasonable terms and subsidizes acquisition of foreign high technology firms to bring technology to the Chinese parent companies.” Gaps in IP rights enforcement have allowed the misappropriation of foreign IP and trade secrets, both within and outside of China. USTR’s criticisms are consistent with increasingly vocal concerns raised by international business groups about what they see as a worsening business climate for foreign firms in China, as well as China’s goal to boost domestic manufacturing content in 10 sectors from robotics to biopharmaceuticals. Earlier this month, the European Union Chamber of Commerce said the “Made in China 2025” plan amounts to a “large-scale import substitution plan aimed at nationalizing key industries” or “severely curtailing the position of foreign business.” USTR also brought up longstanding complaints about online piracy of movies, books, music, video games and software in China as well as a ban on U.S. beef that has been in place since 2003. It said delays in China’s approval process for agricultural products derived from biotechnology also worsened in 2016, hurting U.S. corn exports. Ross, the commerce secretary, also said Trump will sign two executive orders on Friday. The first calls for a 90-day study by the Commerce Department into the causes of U.S. trade deficits, the results of which would be used to formulate policy. A second order would solve a problem involving collection of anti-dumping duties, he said. “There’s some $3 billion worth of duties that have never been collected because they set up straw-man importers that don’t have any financial substance, so by the time the case ends, there’s nobody there against whom you can assess the fine. So what these orders will do is require letters of credit or insurance company bonds or cash so there will be somebody against whom we can levy the fine,” Ross said.

Turkey's Atlasglobal says flights out of Copenhagen back to normal: statement

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish airline Atlasglobal on Monday said flights out of Copenhagen had resumed as normal, after security checks found nothing negative following a threat to its planes. After receiving notice concerning the Atlasglobal flights in Copenhagen Airport, security units were contacted, Atlasglobal said in a statement. Necessary security measures were taken, and security units conducted necessary inspections. Nothing negative was encountered. We would like to inform the public that our flight operations in Copenhagen are back to their routine course, it said. (This version of the story was refiled to fix typo in paragraph three)

U.S. House Speaker: Banning Muslims not in U.S. interests

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Banning Muslims from entering the United States is not in the nation’s interest, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Tuesday, standing in stark contrast to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call to limit Muslim immigration. “I do not think a Muslim ban is in our country’s interests,” Ryan, the nation’s top elected Republican, told reporters, adding that people entering the country should face a “robust security test” but not a religious test.

Skepticism over Trump's 'wall' cost simmers among Democrats, border Republican

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Congressman Will Hurd - whose district spans 800 miles (1,290 km) of the Texas-Mexico border - on Friday criticized plans under consideration by the Trump administration to build walls and fences costing an estimated $21.6 billion to deter illegal immigration. Reuters on Thursday revealed details of an internal report by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that estimated the cost of covering the entire border. It called for the first phase of construction to begin in San Diego, California; El Paso, Texas and the Rio Grande Valley. “Building a wall is the most expensive and least effective way to secure the border,” Hurd, whose district includes El Paso, said in an email. He said his district includes rough terrain where “it is impossible to build a physical wall.” The estimated price tag in the report is much higher than a $12 billion figure cited by Republican President Donald Trump in his campaign and estimates as high as $15 billion from Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The border wall was one of Trump’s main campaign promises. Trump, who took office on Jan. 20, has vowed to make Mexico pay for it, but the United States’ southern neighbor has repeatedly said it will not fund its construction. Many congressional Democrats reacted strongly to the news of plans for the wall and its estimated price. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the senior Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a telephone interview that he welcomed the debate in his committee over funding the wall. “Instead of funding this costly and ineffective proxy for real action on immigration reform, we should be directing our resources toward finding cures for cancer, building schools for our children, feeding the hungry and rebuilding our bridges and our roads,” Leahy said. Five Democratic senators on Friday wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly claiming that the money would be misspent. The letter was signed by Senators Kamala Harris of California, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Tom Udall of New Mexico, Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Warren, a star of the political left, was silenced in the Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday evening for speaking out against Trump’s attorney general nominee, Republican Senator Jeff Sessions. Sessions was confirmed on Wednesday. The senators wrote, “We are extraordinarily concerned that President Trump’s executive order appears to require that you divert DHS funds meant for critical security priorities to instead fund the border wall.” They asked that Kelly respond to a series of questions, including how much funding will be diverted to cover costs for building the wall. Hurd said he had seen estimates as high as $40 billion for the barrier’s construction, citing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study released in October.

Trump Crushed As Ex-KKK Leader Bashes Him For Finally Calling Out White Supremacy In Charlottesville (VIDEO)

Donald Trump is in big trouble. Not only has his popularity been historically low, but his pathetic response to the recent tragedy in Charlottesville, Virginia has made him more hated than ever.It took Trump two full days to call out white supremacy and neo-Nazis as being responsible for the horrific Unite the Right rally and riot in Charlottesville and now that he has, Trump is in yet another predicament. Solidifying the fact that Trump can t win no matter what he does, Trump is now in trouble with the few people who still support him America s most racist alt-right.While Republicans have been abandoning Trump left and right, his most loyal supporters have been clinging on until now. After Trump called out white supremacists on Monday, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke denounced Trump and bashed him for criticizing racists and the KKK.Duke went on Twitter to shred Trump for giving in to the fake news media and holding racists responsible for the violence that occurred at the rally. Duke must have felt quite betrayed and pissed off by Trump, because then he went over to Periscope to continue bashing Trump, calling the POTUS statement just ridiculous and claiming that white nationalists aren t violent. He begged Trump to stop targeting white supremacists: President Trump, please, for God s sake, don t feel like you need to say these things. It s not going to do you any good. This temper tantrum follows Duke s post on Saturday, in reaction to Trump s weak statement on Charlottesville. Duke warned Trump to remember that he should be thanking his racist fanbase in a chilling tweet:Now that Trump has finally taken a half-ass stance against white supremacy, we can only expect that his fanbase is going to be almost nonexistent in the near future.Featured image via screenshot and Scott Olson / Getty Images

WATCH: HILARIOUS AD Calls Into Question Health Of Aging Clinton Crime Family Bosses

After watching this telling video, you ll wonder if instead of working so hard to get back into the White House, Hillary s time would be better spent looking into an assisted living situation for her and Bill

Trump reaffirms commitment to defend U.S. and allies

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned in a phone call North Korea s continued destabilizing and provocative actions, following that country s most recent nuclear test, the White House said on Sunday. Trump also reaffirmed that Washington would defend itself and its allies using the full range of diplomatic, conventional, and nuclear capabilities at our disposal, the White House said. The two leaders condemned North Korea s continued destabilizing and provocative actions, confirmed the two countries ironclad mutual defense commitments, and pledged to continue close cooperation, the statement said.

Trump says fresh North Korea sanctions 'nothing' compared to what needs to happen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that fresh sanctions on North Korea approved by the U.N. Security Council were just a small step and nothing compared to what ultimately will have to happen. We think it s just another very small step, not a big deal, Trump told reporters in reference to the sanctions approved on Monday. I don t know if it has any impact, but certainly it was nice to get a 15 to nothing vote. But those sanctions are nothing compared to what ultimately will have to happen.

Want To Know Where Your Meat Comes From? Those Days Are Over

One word China That s the only reason you should be furious with our government that s usually overreaching but not so much in this case. Because we were being penalized by the WHO, we decided to stop requiring a country of origin on meat. Just to clue you in, here s one of our articles that will make you furious that the meat labels are gone:Yuck! It s bad enough that China had a dog meat festival last week but now this! The USDA just removed the country of origin off of meat but it needs to come back ASAP! If there s meat smuggling going on you really don t know where it originated, but if it s China I would like to make the informed choice not to buy their meat for this reason:Chinese authorities have seized more than 100,000 tonnes of smuggled meat some of it more than 40 years old, according to state media.The frozen meat, estimated to be worth about 300 million (3bn yuan; $483m), was seized in a nationwide crackdown. It was smelly and I nearly threw up when I opened the door, an official from Hunan province, where 800 tonnes were seized, told the AFP news agency. Poor standards have made food safety a major concern in China. According to state newspaper the China Daily, officials from Guangxi, a southern region bordering Vietnam, found meat dating back to the 1970s. Thawed several times: Some of the meat seized in Hunan province was found to have been refrozen after thawing out while in transit, according to the reports. Yang Bo, an anti-smuggling official in Hunan province, was quoted as saying food was often transported in ordinary rather than refrigerated vehicles to save money. So the meat has often thawed out several times before reaching customers, he said. The Hunan province haul reportedly included beef, chicken feet and duck necks. Authorities believe meat is smuggled into China via neighboring Hong Kong and Vietnam, from countries such as Brazil and India, to sidestep import restrictions. WASHINGTON (AP) It s now harder to find out where your beef or pork was born, raised and slaughtered.After more than a decade of wrangling, Congress repealed a labeling law last month that required retailers to include the animal s country of origin on packages of red meat. It s a major victory for the meat industry, which had fought the law in Congress and the courts since the early 2000s.Lawmakers said they had no choice but to get rid of the labels after the World Trade Organization repeatedly ruled against them. The WTO recently authorized Canada and Mexico, which had challenged the law, to begin more than $1 billion in economic retaliation against the United States. U.S. exporters can now breathe a sigh of relief, said Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. The longtime opponent of the labels helped add the repeal to a massive year-end spending bill. After the law was passed, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the government immediately would stop requiring the labels.Consumer groups say the repeal is a disappointment just as consumers are asking for more information on their food packages. Advocates say the labels help people make more informed buying decisions and encourage purchases of American meat.Before repeal, the labels told shoppers that a particular cut of meat was born in Canada, raised and slaughtered in the United States or born, raised and slaughtered in the United States. Congress first required the labels in 2002 amid fears of mad cow disease from imported cattle. The labels weren t on most packages until 2009, though, due to delays pushed by the meat industry.Repeal became inevitable once the United States lost all its WTO appeals and the retaliation became a possibility. But the consumer groups criticized Congress for repealing the law for ground meat and pork in addition to the fresh cuts of meat that were the subject of WTO concerns.The bill was a holiday gift to the meatpacking industry from Congress, complained the advocacy group Food and Water Watch. Meatpackers who buy Mexican cattle were some of the law s most aggressive opponents.The repeal also was a big defeat for lawmakers from northern border states where U.S. ranchers directly compete with Canadian ranchers. Those lawmakers insisted on including the labeling in the 2002 and 2008 farm bills and this year fought to replace it with a voluntary program once the WTO rulings came down. But after years of success, this time they were not able to find enough support.Roger Johnson of the National Farmers Union, which has heavy membership in those states, said the group was furious about the repeal. Packers will be able to once again deliberately deceive consumers, Johnson said.Still, there was some good news for food labeling advocates in the spending bill. Despite an aggressive push by the food industry, lawmakers decided not to add language that would have blocked mandatory labeling of genetically modified ingredients. Also, a provision by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, would require labeling of genetically modified salmon recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration.The issue is expected to come up again in 2016, with Vermont set to require labeling on genetically modified food this summer.The day the spending bill passed, Vilsack said he would try to help Congress come up with a middle ground on labeling of engineered foods in a way that doesn t create significant market disruption, while at the same time recognizing consumers need to know and right to know basic information. Via: AP

Venezuela Maduro warns of repeat elections in states won by opposition

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan state elections may be repeated in the five states won by the opposition if the governors-elect continue to refuse to be sworn in by a controversial pro-government legislative superbody, President Nicolas Maduro warned on Friday. His warning came in a televised speech after the government on Sunday unexpectedly won 18 of 23 states in a vote which the opposition calls fraudulent. Authorities have mandated that all elected governors participate in a ceremony before the pro-government Constituent Assembly, but the five opposition winners did not take part. Anyone who wants to be governor will have to recognize the Constituent National Assembly; otherwise elections will be repeated in states where the Assembly is not recognized, Maduro said at the inauguration of one of the socialist candidates in western Lara state. The opposition says that by law, the oath must be taken before regional parliaments and not before the Constituent Assembly, but so far none of their candidates have undergone that process and formally assumed their roles. Venezuela s opposition leaders have said they would travel abroad to denounce what they call dirty tricks by the government and outright fraud in the minerals-rich state of Bolivar. Maduro says the opposition cries fraud whenever it loses elections and that Venezuela s electoral system is the most secure in the world.

Trump asks for probe into imports of foreign-made steel: officials

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday will sign a directive asking for a speedy probe into whether imports of foreign-made steel are hurting U.S. national security, two administration officials said on Wednesday. Trump is to sign the memorandum related to section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 at a White House event that is expected to include leaders of some U.S. steel companies. The law allows the president to impose restrictions on imports for reasons of national security. There are national security implications, one of the officials said, from imports of steel alloys that are used in products such as the armor plating of ships and require a lot of expertise to create and produce. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross launched the probe on Wednesday night. Trump’s directive will ask Ross to conduct it “with all deliberate speed and deliver the results to the president with his recommendations,” a second official said. The move is another step in Trump’s “America First” policies in which he has tried to boost U.S. manufacturers and preserve American jobs. It comes as he tries to coax China into taking a more active role in reining in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. The first official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the directive is not aimed at a specific country but is “product oriented.” He said there is concern when a domestic industry is hurt by imports from a foreign entity “that hampers our ability to maintain production and maintain the expertise necessary for these high national security-concerned products, specific alloys and so forth.”

Stephen King Is BRUTALLY Making Fun Of Trump On Twitter Right Now, And It’s AMAZING

With Donald Trump s intensely bizarre and crazy tweetstorm Saturday morning, it left Twitter buzzing with a general sense of wtf and jokes regarding how unhinged the *president appears to be.One person who couldn t let this moment go by without thoroughly making fun of it is none other than the legendary author Stephen King.King took to Twitter with a string of tweets that brutally trolled Trump and he may still not yet be done. Let s face it, Trump s tweets Saturday morning deserve all the mockery they can get.King tweeted out: Not only did Obama tap Trump s phones, he stole the strawberry ice cream out of the mess locker. Obama tapped Trump s phones IN PERSON! Went in wearing a Con Ed coverall. Michelle stood guard while O spliced the lines. SAD! Trump should know OBAMA NEVER LEFT THE WHITE HOUSE! He s in the closet! HE HAS SCISSORS! Not only did Obama tap Trump's phones, he stole the strawberry ice cream out of the mess locker. Stephen King (@StephenKing) March 4, 2017Obama tapped Trump's phones IN PERSON! Went in wearing a Con Ed coverall. Michelle stood guard while O spliced the lines. SAD! Stephen King (@StephenKing) March 4, 2017Trump should know OBAMA NEVER LEFT THE WHITE HOUSE! He's in the closet! HE HAS SCISSORS! Stephen King (@StephenKing) March 4, 2017King is clearly making fun of Trump s apparent paranoia. Paranoia that may be because the man is likely guilty of colluding with Russia to help him win the election. The fact that there may have been an order to tap into his lines shows that there was a just reason to do so.Well played, King.Featured Photo by Larry French/Getty Images

Spain makes largest cocaine bust in 18 years

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain has made its largest cocaine bust in 18 years, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday, after more than 5,800 kg of the drug were discovered on a container ship traveling from Medellin in Colombia. The ship, stopped in the southern port of Algeciras, was carrying bananas from Colombia to El Prat de Llobregat, the location of the international airport in Catalonia, the ministry said. Three people had been arrested in relation to the haul, including the Spanish head of the import company using the container, and more arrests have not been ruled out with at least two more under investigation, it said. The cocaine, which was discovered Nov. 28 and had a street value of some 210 million euros ($250 million), was divided into 1 kg blocks and marked to identify its eventual distribution to a number of destinations and organizations, the ministry said. ($1 = 0.8430 euros)

Waiting for May, Brussels eyes December Brexit deal

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - When Theresa May visits Brussels on Friday, EU negotiators will be listening intently for signs the British prime minister is preparing to risk a domestic backlash and raise her offer to secure a Brexit deal in December. European Union officials and diplomats from the other 27 member states involved in the process hope that within a week to 10 days of meeting European Council President Donald Tusk, during a summit with ex-Soviet neighbors, May will deliver movement on three key conditions so that her EU peers can launch a new phase of Brexit negotiations when they meet on Dec. 14-15. I don t know what room for maneuver May has, but what we can see is a willingness to act, one senior EU official told Reuters. Another spoke of efforts to arrange the choreography of a deal over the next three weeks, including an EU-UK joint report pinning down interim accords to unlock talks on trade. I feel the tectonic plates moving now, a diplomat handling Brexit for an EU government said. Time is running out and a failure in the December Council would serve nobody s purpose. There has been only a day of top-level talks between the two lead negotiators since a mid-October summit that dismissed May s call for immediate talks on a future trade agreement. But talks are continuing apace behind the scenes, ahead of a deadline of early December to strike a deal which can then be formalized by the 27 government leaders at the summit. Everyone is talking to everyone already, at all levels, the European Commission s chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters on Thursday when he confirmed that May would meet Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels on Monday, Dec. 4. That is two days before envoys from the 27 meet on Dec. 6 to discuss a first draft of the Dec. 14-15 summit conclusions, including, crucially, whether the leaders should accept Britain has made sufficient progress to merit opening trade talks. Hopes in Brussels have been raised by reports in British media that May has secured backing from pro-Brexit hardliners in her cabinet to increase the amount of a financial settlement of what Britain owes to the Union when it leaves in March 2019. If there is a political willingness in Britain, we should be ready, a senior EU official said, while warning that nothing was being taken for granted. May s room for maneuver to cut a deal that would please business while irritating Britons who want a sharper break with Brussels is limited. And Germany and France, the Union s lead powers, have taken a tough line so far. With German Chancellor Angela Merkel distracted at home by a search for a new coalition, May can expect little focus from her to help smooth a deal, several diplomats said. Some in Britain have suggested May could take advantage of Merkel s weakness at home to drive a harder bargain. But EU diplomats argue that Merkel s troubles make it harder for her, and so for the 27, to water down their existing demands. So any brinkmanship around the summit could mean no deal in December. That would create some kind of crisis in negotiations, the second EU official said, noting that time was already short to complete a treaty by late next year to ensure an orderly Brexit. But maybe that is necessary. The sides already believe they are quite close on agreeing the scope of rights for expatriate citizens in Britain and on the continent, though the EU will be particularly looking to pin Britain down to accepting its demands that any agreement be subject to enforcement through the Union s legal system. The third key criterion for moving to Phase Two, an outline agreement on how to avoid the new EU-UK land border disrupting the peace in Northern Ireland, remains a potential stumbling block. Differences of opinion between London and Dublin have been marked this month, worrying EU officials. However, it is the financial settlement that has been the most concerning for the past few months. Officials believe that could be resolved by a combination of May stating clearly that Britain will pay a share after leaving of two major EU budget lines, staff pensions and agreed but undisbursed spending. British press reports, seen in Brussels as planted leaks from May, suggesting she might offer to pay something like 40 billion pounds ($53 billion) have encouraged EU negotiators. While that is well short of the 60 billion euros ($71 billion) the European Commission has mentioned, that was always seen by EU officials as a maximum demand. And they are willing, they say, to help May massage the public messaging of the amount in order to limit the political flak she takes at home. On presentational issues, Barnier is ready to help, not to call things by their real name, an EU official said.

Pence denies eyeing presidential bid amid distance with Trump over Russia

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday denied that he is preparing for a presidential election run in 2020, saying the suggestion is “disgraceful and offensive.” Pence was responding to a New York Times report that some Republicans were moving to form a “shadow campaign” as though President Donald Trump were not involved. It said multiple advisers to Pence “have already intimated to party donors that he would plan to run if Mr. Trump did not.” The report said Pence had not only kept a full political calendar but also had created his own independent power base, including a political fund-raising group called the “Great America Committee.” But Pence called the article “fake news” and said his entire team was focused on advancing Trump’s agenda and seeing him re-elected in 2020. “The allegations in this article are categorically false and represent just the latest attempt by the media to divide this Administration,” Pence said in a statement. The Times stood by its coverage. “We are confident in the accuracy of our reporting and will let the story speak for itself,” New York Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said in an email. Pence has good relations with conservative political groups and some of the Republican Party’s big donors, including billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. He is also a Trump loyalist, and there is typically little distinction between his public statements and the policies of the president. But as investigations deepen into Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. election and possible ties to members of Trump’s campaign, Pence has put some distance between himself and the president on the best way to approach Moscow. On a trip to Eastern Europe last week, Pence condemned Russia’s presence in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, with which Moscow fought a brief war in 2008. He also said ties with Russia would not improve until Moscow changed its stance on Ukraine and withdrew support for countries like Iran, Syria and North Korea. The U.S. Congress recently passed a bill imposing new sanctions on Russia with overwhelming bipartisan support, but Trump signed it into law last week with reluctance. “Our relationship with Russia is at an all-time & very dangerous low,” Trump wrote on Twitter after signing the bill. “You can thank Congress.” Trump has described probes into his campaign’s ties to Russia, including those under way in Congress and a Justice Department investigation headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, as a “witch hunt.” The president has also sent mixed messages on whether he agrees with U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusions that Russia tried to intervene in the 2016 election to boost his chances of beating Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway on Sunday also dismissed the idea that Pence was looking at running for president in 2020. “It is absolutely true that the vice president is getting ready for 2020 - for re-election as vice president,” Conway told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “Vice President Pence is a very loyal, very dutiful, but also incredibly effective vice president, and active vice president,” said Conway, adding that she had worked for Pence for a decade as his pollster and senior adviser.

WATCH: Racist Fox News Goon Gets PUNKED By Comedian On The Streets

When Fox News goon Jesse Watters went to Chinatown in New York to put together an incredibly racist segment filled with Asian stereotypes, it caused national outrage.Now Watters is getting a taste of his own medicine thanks to comedian Jason Selvig.During Watter s racist report, he talked to residents who didn t speak much English, asked them if they know karate and if they can take care of North Korea for us. Fox News, Bill O Reilly, and Watters disrespected and insulted the Asian-American community that day, and they have still not issued an apology despite Asian-American organizations raining hell on them with statement after statement condemning the segment.So Selvig treated Watters the same way.Selvig approached Watters on the street and gave him a hug before saying hello to him using a racist Asian accent. Pretty good, right? Selvig asked Watters. It s racist like you like. A confused Watters then realizes what s going on and tries to run away like a coward. But Selvig continues mocking him by pitching future segments Watters should consider for his next man-on-the-streets bit. Just a bunch of black people eating fried chicken? Selvig suggests. How about just Mexicans eating tacos? Selvig then suggests a segment on gay people, but then remembers that Watters already did that and shows some footage of it. Oh just like, call all Muslims terrorists, Selvig continues before nixing the idea because I guess you guys already do. Selvig tells Watters that he ll leave him alone if he plugs his movie Undecided. When Watters avoids doing so, Selvig takes matters into his own hands and declares that it s endorsed by Fox News.Here s the video via Facebook:Jesse Watters and Fox News should think twice before doing such a segment ever again. In fact, they should just not do these kinds of segments at all. But if they do, perhaps comedians from all over can approach Watters on the streets and mock him. It s called karma, and Watters just got a taste of it.Featured Image: Screenshot

Scalia's death boosts legal chances for Obama's climate plan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A vote to block the Obama administration’s ambitious climate regulation was one of Antonin Scalia’s last acts as a Supreme Court justice. His sudden death may have opened a new path to the rule’s survival. Scalia died Saturday. Four days earlier, he voted with the other conservative members of the high court to put a hold on the administration’s plans to implement the Clean Power Plan while it is litigated. The regulation is designed to lower carbon emissions from U.S. power plants by 2030 to 32 percent below 2005 levels. The rule is the United States’ main tool to meet the emissions reduction target pledge it made at U.N. climate talks in Paris in December. It was challenged by 27 states, along with business and industry groups, in a case now before an appeals court in Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court could be asked to weigh in again later this year. Without Scalia, the conservative members of the court no longer have a majority, at least in the short term. The sudden shift has given a boost to the supporters of the emissions rule. “Last week, the Clean Power Plan was basically dead,” said Brian Potts, a lawyer with the Foley & Lardner law firm who represents companies on environmental regulatory issues. “But with Scalia’s death, everything has changed.” Environmental lawyers involved in the litigation who support the regulation told Reuters Monday that even before Scalia’s death they had been hopeful the Supreme Court would ultimately uphold it upon close consideration. But they said the change in the high court bolsters the rule’s chances. “There are still no guarantees, but the Clean Power Plan faces much better odds now than it did on Friday,” said Jack Lienke, a lawyer with the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law, which backs the regulation. Industry lawyers said they remained confident the regulation will be struck down. “While Justice Scalia’s untimely passing creates more uncertainty, the Clean Power Plan is still predicated on an extraordinarily shaky legal foundation,” said Scott Segal, a lawyer with the Bracewell law firm, which represents companies that oppose the regulation. In January, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had unanimously rejected the same request for a stay that the Supreme Court granted last week. The appellate panel has set oral arguments on the merits of the case for June 2. The randomly-drawn appeals court panel is viewed by lawyers on both sides as relatively favorable for the administration, featuring two Democratic appointees and one Republican appointee. One of the Democratic appointees is Sri Srinivasan, a judge many legal experts see as a leading candidate for President Barack Obama to nominate to replace Scalia. If the appeals court upholds the rule and the challengers take the case to the Supreme Court, they would face an uphill battle in getting the five votes needed for a win without Scalia. The four liberal justices are seen as likely to uphold the rule. So, the best result the challengers would be likely to get is a 4-4 split. When the court is evenly divided, the lower court ruling stands, meaning the regulation would survive. An unknown factor is how soon a ninth member will be appointed and whether it will be a Democratic or Republican president who makes it. Some Republican leaders have said Obama should not appoint a successor, leaving it to the next president, who would take office in January 2017. Obama has said he plans to announce a nomination but will face an uphill ban to win confirmation in the Republican-controlled Senate. If a Democratic appointee replaces Scalia, it would tilt the balance of the court leftward for the first time in decades. A Republican appointee would extend the narrow conservative tilt the bench had until Scalia’s death. If Srinivasan were appointed, he would have to step aside on the Clean Power Plan case because of his involvement in the case at the appellate level. That would increase the chances of a 4-4 split. (This version of the story corrects date when new president takes office to January 2017 in paragraph 15)

Erdogan and Macron to urge U.S. to turn back on Jerusalem decision: sources

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey s Tayyip Erdogan and France s Emmanuel Macron will work together to try to persuade the United States to reconsider its decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a Turkish presidential source said on Saturday. The two leaders agreed during a phone call that the move is worrisome for the region, the source said, adding that Turkey and France would make a joint effort to try to reverse the U.S. decision. Erdogan also spoke on the phone to the presidents of Kazakhstan, Lebanon and Azerbaijan on Saturday regarding the issue, the source said. On Wednesday, he called an urgent meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Turkey next week. President Donald Trump s announcement on Wednesday has upset U.S. allies in the West. At the United Nations, France, Italy, Germany, Britain and Sweden called on the United States to bring forward detailed proposals for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement . Palestinians took to the streets following the U.S. decision. Demonstrations also took place in Iran, Jordan, Tunisia, Somalia, Yemen, Malaysia and Indonesia, and outside the U.S. embassy in Berlin. The status of Jerusalem has been one of the biggest obstacles to a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians for generations. France has been a supporter of the Palestinian cause. In 2014, the French National Assembly passed a non-binding motion calling on the government to recognize Palestine, but the government has not officially done so. Paris has pointed out in the past its conviction that a two-state solution requires the recognition of Palestine.

Cop Who Killed Mentally Ill Teen Sues Victim’s Family For $10 Million Dollars (VIDEO)

Chicago police officer Robert Rialmo shot and killed Quintonio LeGrier, a mentally ill college student, in his family s home the day after Christmas in 2015. One of the police officer s rounds also struck and killed their 55-year-old neighbor, Bettie Jones. Now Rialmo is suing LeGrier s family for emotional distress. Ther are 911 calls that show that LeGrier called the police three times only to be hung up on by the dispatcher.How much does Rialmo think that the emotional distress he has endured is worth? $10 million dollars. Seriously, this cop thinks that he can kill this family s son and neighbor, get away with it, and then make away with a fortune.The Chicago Tribune reports: Rialmo s lawsuit provides the officer s first public account of the Dec. 26 shooting in the West Garfield Park neighborhood. It says Rialmo opened fire after Quintonio LeGrier twice swung a bat at his head at close range, and LeGrier was shot when Rialmo saw him raising the bat again and thought LeGrier could kill him if LeGrier hit him in the head with the bat.LeGrier s father, Antonio LeGrier, had filed a wrongful death lawsuit saying his son wasn t a threat, and Rialmo s lawsuit, which asks for damages of more than $10 million, is a countersuit in that case. Rialmo also fatally shot Antonio LeGrier s neighbor Bettie Jones, 55, in the confrontation, but police have said her death was accidental. In 2015, the police killed more than 1,000 people in the United States. That s a staggering figure. What s even worse is that none of those police officers have been prosecuted for any potential wrongdoing. In the United States, if you are a cop you can kill someone and not have to worry about the consequences. Apparently that is not good enough for some cops. They saw how fast Darren Wilson got rich after he killed Michael Brown and have decided to get in on the action.You can watch a video report on the story, below. Featured image from video screenshot via YouTube

UK PM May says believes Northern Irish accord possible; wants more talks

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday she wanted to see more talks next week between Northern Ireland s main parties, adding she believed an agreement to restore the devolved power-sharing government in the province could be reached. I believe that the differences between the parties, the issues that are dividing them, are very small ... issues around culture, identity, legacy, the future stability of the devolved institutions, she said. I believe a way forward can be found so agreement can be reached.

France sold two military ships to United Arab Emirates: Macron

DUBAI (Reuters) - France sold two Gowind-class corvettes of state-owned shipbuilder Naval Group to the United Arab Emirates, President Emmanuel Macron told a new conference on Thursday. The deal also includes an option for two more vessels, the French presidency said in a statement. The president s office did not disclose financial details. French arms sales to the Gulf Arab region have surged in recent years as Paris has nurtured new links with Sunni Arab states, which appreciate its tough stance on their Shi ite rival Iran and similar positions on the region s conflicts.

BREAKING: CLOSE AIDE TO BILL CLINTON: “I arranged for $50 million in payments to Bill Clinton”

A close aide to Bill Clinton said he arranged for $50 million in payments for the former president, part of a complicated mingling of lucrative business deals and charity work of the Clinton Foundation mapped out in a memo released by WikiLeaks on Wednesday.The report was written by Doug Band, who has transitioned from his job as a Clinton aide to a partner in Teneo Consulting, a company whose client roster now includes some of the biggest companies in the world. Along the way, Band wrote, he also pushed his clients and contacts to donate millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation, and to help win business deals for Bill Clinton.Band wrote the memo in November 2011 to John Podesta, now chairman of the Hillary Clinton campaign, and sent copies to other key Clinton aides, apparently to explain and justify his work in the face of criticism from others in the Clinton orbit notably Chelsea Clinton.WikiLeaks has been releasing thousands of hacked emails from Podesta s account in recent weeks, revealing the rivalries and controversies roiling inside the Clinton family network as Hillary Clinton prepared to run for president.In the memo, Band depicts himself as the indispensable linchpin of the Clinton family s finances even as he acknowledges that the arrangement is unusual: We appreciate the unorthodox nature of our roles, Band wrote.A spokesman for the Clinton campaign declined to comment; the campaign has refused to confirm whether the emails are authentic. Band did not immediately respond to a request for comment.In the November 2011 memo, Band lays out how he founded Teneo five months earlier with Declan Kelly, one of Hillary Clinton s top fundraisers during her 2008 presidential campaign. When Clinton became secretary of State, Kelly was named an envoy to Northern Ireland, holding the post even as he continued to represent several clients. Rightly or wrongly, Band said, because other fundraisers couldn t deliver, he and Kelly pushed their clients to donate to the foundation; he also lined up speaking and consulting deals for Bill Clinton. In some cases, it worked the other way, with Teneo winning consulting contracts from foundation donors.One example, he said, was Laureate International University, the for-profit international school that donated more than $1.4 million to the Clinton Foundation and was paying Bill Clinton $3.5 million a year to serve as honorary chancellor. The company paid Clinton more than $17 million before the relationship ended last year, as Hillary Clinton was launching her presidential bid.Read more: Detroit News

3 CONSERVATIVE CELEBRITIES Visited Trump Last Night And Hilariously Trolled A White House Picture Of Hillary

Ted Nugent is all smiles, as he s pictured with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office:Rocker Ted Nugget s wife Shemane Nugent posted this video to Facebook of her husband excitedly telling fans about his visit to the White House as they flew to Washington DC:Shemane Nugent tells her Facebook followers what it was like to have dinner with President Trump:The best photo of the night was taken when Sarah Palin, Ted Nugent and Kid Rock hilariously trolled the White House photo of Hillary Clinton. Sarah Palin posted this picture of Kid Rock, his new fianc Audrey Berry, Ted Nugent and his wife Shemane Nugent along with Sarah Palin and her daughter Bristol Meyer with the caption: So Ted Nugent, Kid Rock and Sarah Palin walk into a bar With sons who hunt, the President is very aware of the misguided, anti-science and anti-hunting laws and regulations perpetrated by power abusing bureaucrats infesting our states and nation. I would say that the prognosis for hunter s rights has never been better for the future of hunting, fishing and trapping in America, I assure you.President Trump told me to not only give you his very best and a big presidential thank you for the phenomenal wildlife conservation force we have succeeded at, but also gave me his word that he is aware of the ongoing mistakes in wildlife mismanagement and his commitment to right the flurry of wrongs that get in the way of meaningful wise-use of our precious renewable wildlife resources.We didn t actually confirm that I will be organizing annual deerhunts at Camp David, but he is acutely aware of wise-use management versus politically correct misuses and vows to work diligently to make it right.We discussed various quality of life issues and how entrenched status quo political correctness has wrecked everything it has touched and how his administration is focused and dedicated to get back to the US Constitutional basics of government of, by and for the people.President Trump summed it up when he humbly and proudly stated that he works for we the people and he will not let us down.Sarah Palin speaks with President Trump in the Oval Office:Sarah Palin pictured speaking with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner:Kid Rock has made several trips overseas to visit and perform for our troops. He s been a huge supporter of veterans and has even purchased homes here in our home state of Michigan for wounded warriors.Here s a video we took of Ted Nugent performing at Trump s final rally in Michigan the night before the election:

U.S. deaths in Niger highlight Africa military mission creep

NAIROBI/ABIDJAN (Reuters) - U.S. special forces soldiers were with their counterparts from Niger on Wednesday in the West African nation s volatile southwest, a growing hot-bed of jihadist violence, when the report came in of a raid nearby. The assailants were believed to be led by Dondou Chefou, a lieutenant in a new group operating along the Mali-Niger border and called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. A decision was soon taken to pursue them. The mixed force was ambushed by fighters on dozens of vehicles and motorcycles. Under heavy fire, U.S. troops called in French fighter jets for air support, but the firefight was at such close quarters that the planes could not engage and were instead left circling overhead as a deterrant. The version of events, as told by two Nigerien and two Western sources briefed on the incident, shines a light on Washington s increasingly aggressive Special Forces-led counter-terrorism strategy in Africa and its risk of casualties. Four U.S. soldiers died in the firefight, killed in a country where most Americans were unaware that their army is deployed but where Washington has steadily grown its presence. One soldier s body was only recovered two days later. At least four Nigeriens were also killed and, according to one Niger security source, militants seized four vehicles in the ambush. French helicopters, scrambled after the U.S. call for help, evacuated several soldiers wounded in the clash. A diplomat with knowledge of the incident said French officials were frustrated by the U.S. troops actions, saying they had acted on only limited intelligence and without contingency plans in place. After initially offering only scant details of what happened in the Nigerien desert on Wednesday, the U.S. military s Africa Command said on Friday the soldiers were in the area to establish relations with local leaders. It was not meant to be an engagement with the enemy, Africom spokesman Colonel Mark Cheadle told reporters. The threats at the time were deemed to be unlikely, so there was no overhead armed air cover during the engagement. U.S. forces do not have a direct combat mission in Niger, but their assistance to its army does include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in their efforts to target violent extremist organizations. U.S. military deployments are on the rise in Africa. In May, a U.S. Navy Seal killed in a raid on an al Shabaab militant compound in Somalia became the first U.S. combat death in Africa since the 1993 Black Hawk Down disaster in Mogadishu. In Niger, Washington has deployed around 800 soldiers, runs a drone base in the capital Niamey, and is building a second in Agadez at a cost of around $100 million. U.S. Special Forces help local troops develop counter-terrorism skills to tackle threats from al Qaeda-linked groups, Nigeria s Boko Haram and Islamists who have pledged allegiance to Islamic State. It s a pretty broad mission with the government of Niger in order to increase their capability to stand alone and to prosecute violent extremists, the U.S. military s Joint Staff Director, Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie, said on Thursday. Washington has long seen the Sahel as a security threat but involvement increased in the wake of a 2012 occupation of northern Mali by Islamist militants. France led an offensive against the Islamists a year later, and the U.S. government now provides logistical and intelligence support to a 4,000-troop French counter-terrorism operation in the region. The U.S. military organizes an annual, high-profile U.S. drill as well as longer-term, more discreet training of regional forces. But experts say U.S. involvement in the fight does not stop there. It is likely that there are other operations going on aside from just the training operations, said Andrew Lebovich, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. In missions run out of a base in the northern Niger town of Arlit and others like the one that led to the ambush of U.S. troops, sources say they have helped local troops and intelligence agents make several arrests. It is discreet but they are there, a Nigerien security source told Reuters. Analysts are awaiting the political fallout of Wednesday s ambush with some speculating it may spark a reversal of the U.S. stance on a new regional force - known as the G5 Sahel - which France is pushing but which Washington is cool on. Others however like Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, a former top United Nations official in West Africa and Somalia, recall with concern the American pullout following the Black Hawk Down incident. Eighteen U.S. soldiers were killed when Somali militia shot down two helicopters in Mogadishu. In Somalia, they over-reacted and withdrew their troops ... My worry is that after this attack they will also over-react. Trump might just say Why should we die for this? I hope they don t.

U.N. seeks 'massive' aid boost amid Rohingya 'emergency within an emergency'

KUTUPALONG CAMP, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Aid agencies have to step up operations massively in response to the arrival in Bangladesh of about 400,000 refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar, and the amount of money needed to help them has risen sharply, a senior U.N. official said on Wednesday. The exodus of Muslim Rohingya to Bangladesh began on Aug. 25 after Rohingya militants attacked about 30 police posts and an army camp. The attacks triggered a sweeping military counter-offensive by security forces in Buddhist-majority Myanmar which the U.N. rights agency said was a textbook example of ethnic cleansing . We will all have to ramp up our response massively, from food to shelter, George William Okoth-Obbo, assistant high commissioner for operations at the U.N. refugee agency, told Reuters during a visit to the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. The United Nations said on Tuesday 370,000 people had crossed into Bangladesh but Okoth-Obbo estimated the figure was now 400,000. He declined to speculate on how many more might come. Bangladesh was already home to about 400,000 Rohingya, who fled earlier conflict in Myanmar including a similar security crackdown in western Myanmar s Rakhine state in response to militant attacks in October. Many of the new arrivals are hungry and sick, without shelter or clean water in the middle of the rainy season. We have an emergency within an emergency with conditions in existing camps, he said, pointing to a mud-clogged road in the camp. Last week, the United Nations appealed for $77 million to cope with the crisis but Okoth-Obbo said that would not now be enough. The appeal that was issued of $77 million on behalf of the aid agencies was based on the situation as it was roughly about two weeks ago, he said. There were only 100,000 people then. We are already four times that figure now. The funds need clearly is going to continue. He declined to say how much he thought was needed. He also declined to say if he thought aid agencies were getting proper access to the conflict zone in Myanmar, though he said it was important to ensure that people were safe where they were. Of course, also that access is provided to all the responders to provide humanitarian assistance, he added. Myanmar has restricted most aid agency access to the north of Rakhine. Some officials have accused aid agencies of supporting the insurgents. Okoth-Obbo said he agreed with the Bangladeshi position that the most important solution was for the refugees to be able to return home in safety. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Tuesday the refugees would all have to go home and Myanmar should set up safe zones to enable them to do so. Under difficult circumstances this country has kept its borders open, Okoth-Obbo said of Bangladesh. All of us should support that and ensure that the response is strong. (Story corrects paragraph 2 reference to ethnic cleansing, not genocide.)

HILLARY CAUGHT IN THE ACT OF Breaking The Law In NY To Get Votes [VIDEO]

Imagine what it must be like to be one of the only people in America who doesn t have to abide by any of our laws. Apparently it pays to be a Clinton.Even though it s against the law to campaign inside the polling place or within 100 feet of the measured entrances of the polling place in NY, Hillary and Bill can clearly been seen breaking that law in the video below. Much like Obama though, Hillary knows that no one will hold her accountable for her actions. She and Bill are above the laws that the everyday people Hillary claims to be a champion for, are required to follow.Watch Hillary and Bill pander for votes in the video below:NY State Law Prohibiting Electioneering Activities In NY: While the polls are open no person shall do any electioneering within the polling place, or in any public street, within a one hundred foot radial measured from the entrances designated by the inspectors of election, to such polling place or within such distance in any place in a public manner; and no political banner, button, poster or placard shall be allowed in or upon the polling place or within such one hundred foot radial. (N.Y. Election Law 8 104(1))

New Batman Comic Features Batman Saving Black Man From Evil Cops

Full frontal Leftist propaganda As a side note, writer and artist Frank Miller is also a Hillary supporter Last week anarchists, socialists and Black Lives Matter terrorists joined together to protest against white police officer, Jason Van Dyke, who was already charged with first-degree murder for fatally shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.The following day, DC Comics released the much-anticipated first issue of its latest Batman installment, Dark Knight III: The Master Race. Half of the comic is dedicated to scenes of police brutality, depicting a potentially fatal course of events halted by the caped superhero s interventions.The occasion of the issue s release heralded not only Batman s reemergence in Gotham City, but also the return of original Dark Knight Returns writer and artist Frank Miller. Nearly 30 years after he first penned the iconic comic series, the 58-year-old is breathing new life into his most influential work.A known provocateur, Miller has been described by turns as reactionary, overly conservative and radical. In a recent Vulture interview, he described himself as a libertarian who supports Democrat Hillary Clinton.Miller s politics have always been complicated, making his newest Batman s explicit stance against police brutality a noteworthy change of pace.This isn t the first time a comic book author has used their influence to indoctrinate young minds with a leftist narrative. We recently reported about about Disney s effort to turn popular opinion in favor of amnesty by making the villain in their latest Captain America comic book an evil conservative:DISNEY Introduces New Marvel Comic Books: Captain America (Captain Socialist) Beats Up Conservative Terrorists Defending U.S. Borders And More [VIDEO]The opening sequence of Dark Knight III: The Master Race is narrated through text messages between a young black man in a hoodie and his friend, presumably rehashing recent past events. The man, named Squid, is shown running from a police car with a cracked windshield and blood on its dashboard.As Comic Book Resources points out, colorist Brad Anderson uses only police reds and blues in this scene to illustrate the closeness of the cop car.Two police officers emerge from the car with their guns pointed at him. Aghast, Squid responds by showing them his open palms. Getting arrested, reads a text bubble from Squid. 4? his friend asks. The man dont need no reason [sic], Squid responds in a panel showing the barrel of a gun. I was waitin for the shot, he continues in his recollection, BANG last sound id ever hear. Instead i heard a snap and i turned to it. Enter the superhero of the hour, a dark caped figure who swoops in and immediately shatters one of the police car s front windows. He starts beating the officers who had their guns aimed at Squid.At first, it seems like this is game over. The artwork pans to TV pundits comic doppelgangers of Kelly Ripa, Michael Strahan, Jon Stewart, Al Sharpton and Bill O Reilly debating the morality of Batman s actions. There s talk about how the video footage of the confrontation went viral.Then Miller moves to a different setting in the jungle with Wonder Woman, and the police encounter is briefly forgotten, only to be thrown back into sharp relief at the end.With their overt metaphors and symbolic characters, comics have a long history of steering their readers toward certain moral conclusions and inciting fury over perceived social injustices.The issue s final scenes show Batman taking the place once occupied by Squid, except this time he s far outnumbered as he runs from a parade of at least four police cars. His attempts to evade the officers seeking vengeance for their beaten colleagues are unsuccessful, as Batman runs between trucks and climbs a fire escape before committing himself to a brawl.https://twitter.com/restlessbit/status/670836492026163200Completely surrounded, Batman falls to the ground after a police officer shoots the side of his head. A horizontal panel shows 10 cops approaching him with batons in the air.The large sound effect lettering leaves little room for interpretation. WHACK. WHACK. WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK. He is bludgeoned seemingly endlessly. Had enough? one of the officers asks as the troupe encircles a fallen Batman lying face-down in his own blood.This being a superhero comic, however, Batman emerges seriously injured but not defeated. With a sudden burst of energy, he punches the cop closest to him, causing them all to scatter.(The final pane reveals a significant twist to Batman s identity, but we ll leave that out because it s irrelevant to the police scene.)Via: The Washington Post

TOP POLLSTER WARNS Something Strange Going On With Polls: Trump “Shock Potential Enormous”

All of the tracking polls keep holding at Trump being ahead, he continued. And then all of these other polls that are one-off polls, or whatever I don t know how they re doing some of these university polls. You just put the name of some university and apparently it becomes credible, whether they know what they re doing, or not.Caddell was pointing out the discrepancy between the different types of polls. But in any event, polling is all over the place . Something isn t adding up, said Caddell. Something is going to happen here, I just sense it, he concluded. Either Hillary will glide into the White House, or we re headed for one of the greatest shocks in American politics. I think it s a very close call. I think the shock potential is enormous. Read more: Breitbart

Russia, commenting on Manafort charges, says U.S. should further investigate Ukrainian links: RIA

MOSCOW (Reuters) - After U.S. charges against President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, Washington should investigate “the Ukrainian trace”, the RIA news agency cited Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Tuesday. Kiev “has information” about the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Lavrov told a news briefing, RIA reported. Federal investigators probing alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, something Moscow denies, charged Manafort with money laundering on Monday. Neither Trump nor his campaign was mentioned in the indictment against Manafort. The charges, some going back more than a decade, center on Manafort’s work for Ukraine.

ARROGANT BILL CLINTON MOCKS COAL MINERS For Supporting Trump After Hillary Promises To Shut Down Coal Industry If She’s Elected [VIDEO]

The arrogance of Bill Clinton is astounding. While addressing a crowd of Hillary supporters in Pennsylvania, he mocks the hard working coal miners in West Virginia and Kentucky because they re saying they won t support his wife after she promised to double down on Obama s promise to bankrupt the coal industry.Watch this West Virginia coal miner confront Hillary over remarks she made during a CNN town hall where she proudly exclaimed, We re gonna put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business. Watch the stunning arrogance with which Barack Obama delivers his punishing message of government overreach to American coal miners and anyone associated with the coal industry in America, If somebody wants to build a coal fire plant, they can. It s just that we re going to bankrupt them, because we re going to charge a huge sum for all that greenhouse gases. And now, here s former president Bill Clinton mocking the coal miners for not getting behind Barack Obama in 2012 and now the polls are showing they re not about to vote for another president who swears to destroy their livelihoods and the towns where generations of coal miners have lived.

EU Commission says it has not changed its position on Catalonia

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Monday it had not changed its position on Catalonia after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced he would invoke special constitutional powers to fire the regional government and force a new election. The position is well known. We ve always said we respect the constitutional and legal arrangement of Spain, a Commission spokesman said. He added that the measures taken were precisely to be seen within that constitutional context .

Totally-Not-Running-For-President Pence Signals Yet Again He’s Running For President

Speculation about Vice-President Mike Pence s political aspirations to position himself in Trump s Oval Office chair will likely get another jolt after it was reported that he tapped campaign operative, Nick Ayers, to be his chief of staff.Ayers spent months quietly bending Pence s ear to warn him that Donald Trump s troubles could cause collateral damage and that he needed to take a more aggressive position on a range of issues in order to ensure that he enters the post-Trump era on solid ground, according to two White House officials, Politico reports.There s been a lot of speculation that Pence will run in 2020 if Trump cannot, considering that his boss is plagued with scandals while only on the job for 7 months. Even political satirist Andy Horowitz wrote a piece titled, Mike Pence considering running for president in 1820. But, President Pence emphatically denied the possibility of a 2020 run.In a statement released by the White House, Pence said Sunday s story in The New York Times is disgraceful and offensive to me, my family, and our entire team. He added that the allegations in this article are categorically false. However, just before Anthony Scarmucci was kicked of Trump Island as the White House communications director, he suggested to New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza that the Vice-President can t believe what s going on with his boss. Why do you think Nick s there, bro? Scaramucci told Lizza in an interview last month, shortly before being fired. Are you stupid? Why is Nick there? Nick s there to protect the Vice-President because the Vice-President can t believe what the f*ck is going on. On top of that, Pence is headed to Latin America after requesting to secure 700 visas for his team.A diplomatic source called the number of visas curious because it dwarfed even the advance teams for President Barack Obama s trip to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador combined in 2011.But yeah, he s totally not preparing to sit in the Oval Office. Nope. Not at all. How long will it take before Trump lashes out at his Vice-President? We re pretty sure he cannot fire Pence. Another question: How much does/did Pence know about the Russia scandal as it happened? He might be a bigoted jerkface but he s not stupid.Whatever you do, do NOT tweet Donald Trump to ask about President Pence. That would be wrong and we never do wrong things here.Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images.

California governor proposes more money to fight Trump

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California governor Jerry Brown on Thursday proposed a funding increase for the state attorney general to create more than 30 new positions dedicated to combating President Donald Trump’s policies. Democratic attorneys general in states across the country have assumed lead roles in opposing some of the Republican president’s agenda. State attorneys general in Washington and Hawaii successfully sued to block Trump’s executive orders restricting travel from some Muslim-majority countries, and California attorney general Xavier Becerra has pledged to defend the state’s environmental standards and health care access. Brown has been particularly outspoken against Trump’s policies. In budget revisions released on Thursday, Brown’s office proposed a $6.5 million increase for California’s Department of Justice, enough to fund 31 positions to address “various actions taken at the federal level that impact public safety, healthcare, the environment, consumer affairs and general constitutional issues.” The department has expended over 11,000 hours of legal work in response to federal issues since Trump’s inauguration in January, according the governor’s office. Brown’s proposals would have to be approved by California’s legislature, which is dominated by Democrats. At a press conference, Brown repeatedly expressed the need to fight the Trump administration on health care reforms under discussion in Washington. The potential loss of funds for the state’s Medicaid program alone would be enough to fund the University of California system for a year, Brown said. Given that backdrop, Brown said Becerra deserves “some latitude” in pursuing litigation. A spokeswoman for Becerra could not immediately be reached for comment. Brown’s budget also proposed a $15 million increase to expand legal services for immigrants seeking assistance securing legal status in the United States and fighting deportation.

BREAKING: LIBERAL MEDIA’S WORST NIGHTMARE Comes True…Kellyanne Conway Lands Top Position On Trump’s Team

Kellyanne Conway will be joining the White House as counselor to the president, the Trump transition team announced Thursday.Conway, Donald Trump s final campaign manager, has been a fierce advocate for the president-elect. Kellyanne Conway has been a trusted advisor and strategist who played a crucial role in my victory, Trump said in a statement. She is a tireless and tenacious advocate of my agenda and has amazing insights on how to effectively communicate our message. I am pleased that she will be part of my senior team in the West Wing, he added.Watch Conway as she masterfully deconstructs CNN s New Day host Alisyn Camerota s false accusations about Trump and exposes her overt and unprofessional allegiance to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and her campaign:Conway joins incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon in making up the most senior advisers in the Trump White House. NYP

Immigration case could hurt Republican outreach to U.S. Hispanics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For a Republican Party trying to woo Hispanic voters, the timing of the U.S. Supreme Court’s review of the legality of President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration could not come at a more awkward time. The case, which will consider whether Obama exceeded his constitutional authority to spare from deportation millions of immigrants in the country illegally, is set to be argued in the coming months with a decision due by the end of June. That would land the issue squarely in the middle of the U.S. presidential race, just weeks before Republicans gather for their convention to choose a nominee in November’s election. A Supreme Court win for the Republican-governed states that sued to block Obama’s action surely would have conservatives in the party celebrating but might have those in the party who are concerned about reaching Hispanic voters fretting. “As a Republican, you would take a quick victory lap and then not talk about it,” said Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic strategist and former aide to Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. “Either way, whatever happens, you want it to happen quickly.” Republican strategists have long worried that the hard-line stance taken by the likes of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz toward Obama’s immigration policies would cost the party the opportunity to secure the badly needed support of Hispanic voters in the general election. In the 2012 election, Hispanic voters preferred Obama over Republican nominee Mitt Romney by a massive margin, 71 percent to 27 percent, causing Republican leaders afterward to warn that if the party did not start broadening its appeal to that swiftly growing demographic, it would be on the losing end of presidential contests for years to come. John Feehery, a Republican strategist who has argued that the party needs to a do a better job courting Hispanics, conceded that those voters largely would blame Republicans if Obama’s policy is blocked by the justices. But, Feehery said, those voters also might fault Obama for trying to bypass Congress to do something he was not empowered under the Constitution to do, setting back the cause of immigration reform in the process. Hispanic advocates are already angry with Obama over recent deportation raids by the Department of Homeland Security. “Latino voters will of course blame Republicans, but should the Supreme Court decide against the president, he will blamed also, especially in conjunction with his increased enforcement against illegals,” Feehery said.  Democratic presidential candidates seemed eager on Tuesday to have the court rule on the case, contending that it provides an opportunity for the court to ratify the president’s action and end the debate over its legality. And they seemed mindful of the issue’s potency on the campaign trail. “(Obama’s) action should be upheld so families can stay together and live without fear of deportation,” Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, wrote on Twitter. Her top rival, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, said he was “confident the president has the legal authority” for the order. Sanders called on Congress to move forward on immigration reform, but pledged that, as president, “he would uphold and expand the president’s action.” Criticism of the 2014 executive order, and of the president’s use of his executive authority generally, has been standard fare among Republicans on the campaign trail. Cruz, a senator from Texas and a leading contender for the Republican nomination, has been a long-time critic of Obama’s immigration policies. Cruz, a Harvard-trained lawyer and former Supreme Court clerk who once served as his state’s top advocate before the high court, said it was significant that the justices will decide whether Obama violated the U.S. Constitution’s requirement that presidents “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” “He did not do that, and I trust that the court will reach that conclusion,” Cruz said. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who co-sponsored bipartisan immigration legislation that passed the Senate in 2013 but died in the House of Representatives, has also been a longstanding critic of Obama’s use of executive power. Rubio has since backtracked on his support for the legislation. “I’m confident (the Supreme Court) will agree Obama executive orders are unconstitutional,” Rubio wrote on Twitter. “Regardless, as president, I will end them.”

Corker, critic of first Trump travel ban order, positive on new one

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Republican chairman said on Monday he was “very encouraged” by the approach President Donald Trump’s administration took to its new immigration executive order, and pleased that Iraq was removed from the list of countries subject to visa restrictions. “We all share a desire to protect the American people, and reviewing our nation’s screening and vetting procedures is an appropriate step,” Senator Bob Corker said in a statement. Corker had said the first order was “poorly implemented” and called for immediate revisions.

VIDEO: HARLEM BAR Kicks Customers Out For Wearing Trump Hats: “We don’t play that sh*t here”

A large group of very diverse young adults who call themselves The Modern Patriots videotaped themselves being kicked out of the Grill On The Hill bar located at Amsterdam Ave. and W. 140th St in Harlem for wearing Trump hats. 100 Percent FED UP spoke with one of the young adults who was part of the group to find out why they were kicked out. According to the young lady we spoke with, The Modern Patriots group had just finished giving a speech at the City College across the street and decided to go out together to have a drink. They looked for the nearest bar, and happened to end up across the street at the Grill On The Hill . There were 15 people in their group; 3 females and 12 males. Some of the males had MAGA (Make America Great Again) hats on. When they entered the bar, a young woman began screaming that she was offended by their MAGA hats. Other customers in the bar joined in and started jeering at them. It was then that they were told to leave.The groups who call themselves The Modern Patriots can be seen in the video below chanting, USA, USA as they were being kicked out of the bar. A large black man in a blue shirt followed them out of the bar and approached them. He warned them as they were leaving, It s a very sensitive time. Be careful with that. The young patriots appeared frustrated with the treatment they received from the bar, but responded in a very respectful manner. The man wearing the blue shirt in the video asked, Do you know where you re at? to which one of the students who was kicked out of the bar responded, Yeah, America! We talked to one of the young female Trump supporters who was with the group when they were kicked out. She explained how the customer in the bar who was triggered by their hats followed the bouncer outside the bar, engaging them in a shouting match. The bouncer was admonishing the young adults wearing MAGA hats, while attempting to move them off the public sidewalk, when the female customer who started the issue inside the bar stepped outside and began taunting the Trump supporters. The female patriot who was part of the group explained to us what happened once they we re forced outside: I told him [the bouncer] we have our own opinion and he responded that the people in the bar had their opinion too. That woman was screaming at our friend and he gave her the middle finger when we were already outside of the bar but she started everything like she owns the place. She started all of this and when the bouncer came outside she did as well and added fuel to fire. But the bouncer was agreeing with them and told us to relax. We did not go there to cause problems we wear our maga hats all over NYC and we rarely have issues. We felt discriminated by this bar and even now they re trying to justify why they kicked us out on their page. Most of the people we were with attend the college nearby and live in the neighborhood but they are basically telling us we don t belong here. I m not for the identity politics no matter where we go we find supporters so they can keep their segregated bar and we will keep on protecting free speech. The man in the blue shirt continues to warn the young adults who dared to wear their Trump hats into the bar, Be careful out there. It ain t no joke. It ain t no meme. Be careful out there. He continue to threaten them, We don t play that shit here. He tells them to take that shit where you live. to which one of the Trump supports says, I live here! His response is priceless: I don t give a f**k where you live. Is the man in the blue shirt suggesting this crowd of young adults who represent just about every racial group in America, had no business being in a bar whose customer base is primarily black? What about the college across the street? Do they only allow black students to drink at their bar?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa1m2N3W5tE&feature=shareThe best line in the video comes near the end of the confrontation when the man in the blue shirt says, This ain t a democracy. Be careful with yourselves. At which point the young patriots begin to laugh and walk away to avoid confrontation as they chant, He will not divide us! Here is a sample of some of the responses Grill On The Hill received under their post on their Facebook page, where they tried to explain why they kicked the large group of young adults supporting our President out of their bar: The popular online restaurant review service Yelp shut down the comments section on the Grill On The Hill after they were overwhelmed by reviews after the story began to circulate on social media:We took screen shots of a few of the reviews that were mostly hidden from users of the YELP review service.The first reviewer starts out by mocking the man in the blue shirt saying: Be careful with that. They told people who are low on melanin to go back to downtown. Racists.The second reviewer claimed YELP would not allow her to give Grill On The Hill ZERO stars. She went on to say, Anyone who lets a person political opinion interfere with them tryout to enjoy a night out is bull. You say free speech but kick people out for wearing trump hats. Shame on you. That s talking out of both sides of your mouth. Stay away. Far away. We called Grill On The Hill to speak with the owners to get their side of the story. The owners were unavailable.

Trump preparing orders to review trade deals, procurement: officials

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration is preparing new executive orders to re-examine all 14 U.S. free trade agreements and review government procurement policies to aid American companies, two administration officials said. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada will top the list of trade deals to be reviewed, which affect 20 countries from the Americas to Asia, the officials told Reuters. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the orders were still being developed. They said on Wednesday that the trade deal and procurement review orders were among several executive actions that the Trump administration is preparing on trade. The timing of the orders is unclear, but they could start to be rolled out next week, the officials said. Politico first reported the plan for the two orders, quoting a senior administration official as saying the trade orders would help shift the White House narrative “to a place where the president can really shine.” The fate of Trump’s first major legislative effort in Congress, a measure to replace the 2010 Obamacare health law, remains uncertain amid stiff opposition from conservative Republicans. The House of Representatives had to delay a vote on the bill on Thursday due to insufficient support for the legislation. The orders to review existing trade deals and public procurement policies would be largely symbolic, as the administration has already announced its intention to renegotiate NAFTA, with plans to formally notify Congress of its intention to launch talks in the coming weeks. Early last month, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said, “We’re going to re-examine all the current trade deals, figure out if we can improve them.” The U.S. bilateral and multilateral trade deals cover these countries: Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Jordan, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Oman, Panama, Peru, Singapore and South Korea. Media representatives for the White House and the U.S. Trade Representatives’ office declined to comment on any forthcoming executive orders. Senator Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said he would welcome orders to review trade deals if that means it accelerated negotiations on changing them. “I think we’ve got to start moving,” Hatch told reporters on Wednesday. “If he wants to do these unilaterally or bilaterally, he’s got to get going on them.” Trump’s trade officials, including White House adviser Peter Navarro, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, have long said that NAFTA’s rules-of-origin provisions need to be tightened to exclude more components from outside the trading bloc. NAFTA requires cars and trucks to have only 62.5 percent North American content, providing significant opportunities for Asian manufacturers to provide parts. The procurement review would be in line with Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” campaign push and could win some allies among Democrats in Congress. These include Senators Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who urged the White House in a recent letter to exclude U.S. government contracts from NAFTA and restrict waivers that allow more foreign companies to bid on public procurements. But news of the potential trade orders did not impress Republican Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas. “I’m more interested in getting our trade representative passed on the Senate floor,” Roberts told reporters, referring to Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s choice for U.S. trade representative, whose nomination has been stalled in the Senate. Roberts also said he wanted to impress upon the White House the importance of trade deals to boost agricultural exports, including a glut of Kansas wheat, amid what he views as a preoccupation with manufactured exports in the administration.

Palestinian President Abbas won't meet Pence in region: foreign minister

CAIRO (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will not meet U.S. Vice President Mike Pence during his visit to the region and there will be no communication between U.S. and Palestinian officials Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki said on Saturday. Maliki comments were made before an Arab League meeting in Cairo to discuss President Donald Trump s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital and after Abbas said Washington could no longer be a peace broker. We will seek a new mediator from our Arab brothers and the international community, a mediator who can help with reaching a two-state solution, Maliki told reporters in Cairo.

Kurds will find it hard to implement independence, says Iraqi foreign minister

CAIRO (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdish leaders must be prepared to face the consequences if they unilaterally declare independence and find implementation more difficult than they expected, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said on Wednesday. Jaafari was in Cairo for an Arab League summit where the closing statement included a resolution calling a Kurdish independence referendum this month unconstitutional, mirroring the stance of Iraq s central government and national parliament. Jaafari told Reuters in an interview Kurdish leaders should think carefully before going ahead with any independence move. Those who make such a declaration should bear the responsibility for it. It is easy to declare whatever you want but it is not that easy to actualize it, he said in his Cairo hotel room. We are depending on dialogue and also Arab, and non-Arab advocacy. As we saw yesterday, the Arab diplomatic mobilization was attained by Arab foreign ministers, he said. The Kurdish area of northern Iraq has enjoyed broad autonomy since the first Gulf War in 1991. Since the 2003 U.S-led invasion and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, it has been largely stable while the rest of Iraq has suffered insurgency. Kurds are set to hold the referendum on Sept. 25 but Baghdad opposes it, with lawmakers voting to reject it. Iraq s neighbors Turkey, Iran and Syria also oppose the referendum, fearing it could fan separatism among their own ethnic Kurdish populations. Western powers are concerned a plebiscite in Iraq s semi-autonomous Kurdish region - including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk - could divert attention from the war against Islamic State militants. Kurds have sought an independent state since at least the end of World War One, when colonial powers divided up the Middle East after the collapse of the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire. Iraq is in the final throws of a U.S.-backed campaign to oust the Sunni militant groups which seized vast swathes of the country back in 2014. Iraqi forces took back its second largest city, Mosul in July, and Tal Afar last month. Jaafari said the international community must offer financial and other support to Iraq for the rebuilding of Mosul and other cities retaken from Islamic State. It is well known that nations who have emerged from war and destruction suffer great losses especially if the opposing party is implementing a scorched earth policy. (They) never surrendered land except after destroying it, he said. Homes, institutions, hospitals mosques, markets and worship places, all were destroyed. The money needed is not little, a great sum is required.

TWO SENATORS SAY NO TO MOVING MUSLIM TERRORISTS FROM GUANTANAMO BAY TO THEIR STATES

Yeah because everyone wants these guys living in their hometown Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Pat Roberts of Kansas are up in arms about reports that the Pentagon is scouting sites in their home states to house terrorist prisoners currently detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We have received reports of President Obama s attempt to shut down Guantanamo Bay, which once again reflects another egregious overstep by this administration, Roberts said in a statement on Friday, referring to the law preventing transferring any of the inmates to a U.S. prison. Congress has consistently stopped Obama by law from moving a single detainee to the U.S., Roberts said in reaction to reports that Kansas s Fort Leavenworth is being considered as the terrorist suspects new home. I shut down this administration s nominee for secretary of the Army in 2009 to prevent moving any detainees to Kansas and will do it again if necessary, he said. Not on my watch will any terrorist be placed in Kansas. Graham was equally emphatic upon learning that Defense Secretary Ash Carter is also considering Charleston for the new high-risk installation. If the detainees need to be moved, they must be moved to a maximum security location in a remote area far from heavily populated areas with vital infrastructure, Graham told the Washington Post earlier this week. Charleston does not meet that criteria. The Pentagon on Thursday confirmed to lawmakers that it is studying both Forth Leavenworth and the Consolidated Naval Brig in Charleston as potential sites. These visits will also help refine our baseline standard for what a facility should look like to inform potential selection of other locations to evaluate in the future, the Defense Department notification read.Transferring the remaining 116 detainees to the U.S. is being considered as an option for closing Guantanamo Bay. Moving the prisoners to other countries requires congressional notification and unanimous sign off by the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice and State, along with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.Earlier this week the Pentagon said it would present Congress with a plan to shutter Guantanamo Bay when they return to Washington after Labor Day. Via: Washington Examiner

Infrastructure overhaul may top $1 trillion, cut red tape: Trump

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump vowed on Tuesday to cut red tape to speed up approval of infrastructure projects and said his overhaul could top $1 trillion on roads, tunnels and bridges, one of his 2016 election campaign promises. Trump, a real estate businessman before he was elected, did not provide further details on the amount or where the money would come from when he spoke to a White House meeting of 50 chief executives and other business leaders. U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said at the forum that the administration plans to release a legislative package in May. Investors have become more skeptical that the plan would win approval this year in Congress, which is controlled by Republicans who are traditionally wary of big spending. Trump said building a highway can require dozens of approvals and take 10 to 20 years, a process he vowed to speed up. Trump said he would not fund projects that cannot be started within 90 days. The administration wants to improve the electrical grid and water systems, rebuild airports, bridges, roads and potentially hospitals for military veterans and broadband. National Economic Council director Gary Cohn told executives that privatizing air traffic control, which the administration proposed in its budget outline in March, “is probably the single most exciting thing we can do.”. Cohn, an investment banker with Goldman Sachs before he became Trump’s top economic adviser, said it could help speed flight times and reduce fuel use. Cohn said if cities “sell off” or privatize infrastructure assets, the administration could provide financial support. “We’re not on the cutting edge of this,” Cohn said. “We’ve got to get a little more comfortable with public-private partnerships.” Cohn touted an idea of electric car maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) CEO Elon Musk to use tunnels to speed rail transit on the densely populated east coast and also to cut traffic congestion in Los Angeles. A Tesla spokesman declined comment.

Berlusconi suggests Italian general could be next prime minister

ROME (Reuters) - Silvio Berlusconi has suggested a Carabinieri (military police) general could be Italy s next prime minister if his center bloc wins national elections slated for early 2018. Berlusconi, a four-times prime minister, is barred from holding public office because of a 2013 conviction for tax fraud. He is trying to overturn the ban, but is seeking alternative candidates if his legal battle fails. I have many names, but there is someone who is very capable ... who has had success and is esteemed by everyone, General (Leonardo) Gallitelli, Berlusconi told a Sunday night chat show on state broadcaster RAI. Gallitelli headed the Carabinieri, a military police force that operates under the control of both the defense and interior ministries, from 2009 to 2015. He is currently head of Italy s anti-doping office. Berlusconi said he had not yet discussed the idea with Gallitelli. He has previously suggested that European Central Bank Governor Mario Draghi or the CEO of carmaker Fiat Chrysler, Sergio Marchionne, could be his prime ministerial candidate. The billionaire media tycoon was widely written off after he quit as prime minister in 2011 amid a sex scandal. But he has made a remarkable political comeback and his Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party is now the lynchpin of a center coalition that leads in opinion polls ahead of next year s election. Berlusconi, 81, said if his bloc took power he would like to see 12 people from outside the world of politics appointed to the cabinet, with only 8 ministries entrusted to politicians. His allies, the far-right Northern League and Brothers of Italy, are likely to baulk at the suggestion. The three parties have agreed that whichever group gets more votes next year should nominate the prime minister. Forza Italia is just ahead of the Northern League in the polls, but surveys indicate no one party or bloc will win enough votes to govern alone, meaning a hung parliament looks likely.

Republican presidential race erupts into four-way battle

CHARLESTON, S.C./SUMTER, S.C. (Reuters) - The Republican race for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination erupted into a four-candidate crossfire on Wednesday over who has the proper experience and is the most conservative, days before South Carolina voters put their stamp on the campaign. In TV interviews and campaign events, front-runner Donald Trump threatened to sue Senator Ted Cruz of Texas over a negative TV ad, while Senator Marco Rubio of Florida accused Cruz of lying about his record, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush questioned Rubio’s experience to serve as president. Amid the squabbling, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley endorsed Rubio as the Republicans’ best hope for winning the White House, a boost to Rubio and a blow to Bush, who had lobbied hard for her to pick him. The endorsement gave Rubio, 44, a valuable ally to try to sway voters ahead of Saturday’s South Carolina Republican primary, the third contest after Iowa and New Hampshire to pick a party nominee for the Nov. 8 election to succeed Democratic President Barack Obama. Bush had a tough day, learning of Haley’s endorsement right before a town hall meeting in Summerville, South Carolina, where four members of the audience second-guessed his campaign strategy and offered tips on how to have a greater impact in the state. Much of the debate took place over the television airwaves, as Trump, 69, a billionaire businessman and former reality TV star, lobbed charges at his rivals at an MSNBC town hall, and Rubio and Cruz battled in back-to-back appearances at a CNN town hall in Greenville, South Carolina. Trump fumed about a TV ad put out by the Cruz campaign that brought up Trump’s past position in support of a woman’s right to an abortion. Trump says he has evolved into a conservative and is now against abortion. “You look at a guy like Ted Cruz, he’s a nasty guy,” Trump said. “He doesn’t have one Republican endorsement from the Senate and he works with the Senate. Think of it. Hard to believe.” Cruz dared Trump to sue him over the campaign ad, which featured a 1999 video clip of Trump saying he was “very pro-choice” on abortion. Cruz said Trump sent his campaign a “cease and desist letter” demanding it drop the ad. At the CNN town hall, he said he laughed out loud when he got the letter threatening what he called a “frivolous lawsuit.” “In any defamation case, truth is a complete defense,” Cruz said. Questioners at the town hall pressed Cruz, 45, on charges leveled against him by Trump that he may not be eligible to be president because he was born in Canada, and that none of his U.S. Senate colleagues liked him. Cruz said he met the constitutional requirement that a president must be a “natural born citizen” because his mother was an American. As for his Senate colleagues, Cruz said some may not like him because he serves the interests of his constituents, not fellow senators. The latest national Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Trump taking a more than 20-point lead over Cruz in the Republican race. Trump had 40 percent support in the poll conducted from Saturday to Wednesday, compared with 17 percent for Cruz, 11 percent for Rubio, 10 percent for retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, and 8 percent for Bush. The results contrasted with those of an NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll that put Cruz ahead of Trump among Republicans by 28 percent to 26 percent. Rubio, hoping to overtake Cruz for second place in South Carolina, where Trump leads in the polls, accused Cruz of spreading falsehoods with an ad attacking Rubio over his position on immigration. Rubio backed a 2013 Senate immigration reform effort that collapsed. Cruz says Rubio would have supported “amnesty” for illegal immigrants, which his rival denies. “If you say something that isn’t true and you say it over and over and you know it’s not true, it must be a lie,” Rubio said. Bush, running fourth in South Carolina and behind Rubio, questioned Rubio’s level of experience after Rubio said Bush did not have foreign policy experience. Rubio counts his time on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as valuable experience. “It’s hard for me to be lectured to by a gifted young guy who thinks going to committee hearings means you know something about the world,” Bush said in Summerville. At the event, Bush, 63, the son and brother of former presidents, sounded a note of frustration at frequent criticism of his campaign by TV pundits. “The pundits have made it all – it’s all decided. We don’t have to go vote, I guess. It’s all finished. I should stop campaigning, maybe, huh? It’s all done,” he said. “No,” shouted people in the crowd. (Additional reporting by Chris Kahn in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters’ editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage.

The View Host Furious…Drops Bombshell On Being Let Go

BLINDSIDED THE CURIOUS REASON THE NETWORK LET BILA GO OR SO THEY SAYEveryone was caught off guard on Monday when The View co-host Jedediah Bila announced live that she was departing the show and it would be her last day on air. The 38-year-old political pundit joined the show as a permanent co-host in 2016 after serving as a guest host several times in 2015. Bila revealed in her exit speech that she was preparing to write a not-yet-titled book that will be released next year, but offered no other plans or explanation for her abrupt departure from the show. DailyMail.com has now exclusively learned that Bila was blindsided by the shakeup the weekend before her shock announcement, as it is revealed that Meghan McCain is in talks to take her spot.CNN TIP OFFThe former Fox News contributor received a call from a friend at CNN who tipped her off that ABC News had done a deal with conservative host McCain to replace her. After she heard, Jedediah called the execs at ABC and they were basically like, Oops, you weren t supposed to find out this way. She went from being initially shocked to furious that they would treat her this way, a source at the network told DailyMail.com.SHE S NOT A REPUBLICAN The network s reasoning for wanting to ditch Bila was because even though she played the role of the conservative on the show, she isn t an actual Republican. Bila is a registered independent voter who did not support Donald Trump and identifies herself as a Libertarian.HILLARY S FAULT?Bila griped to staffers on Monday that she felt this was all fallout from her Hillary Clinton interview. WHOOPIE WASN T HAPPY!This is some bullsh**t. You all do this s**t and don t tell us anything.Read more: Daily Mail

In their best red stilettos, German transvestites stomp on AfD

BERLIN (Reuters) - German drag queens are using satire to spoof a hard-right party s anti-Islam election campaign, and German voters are loving it. They have formed Transvestites for Germany, or TfD, a name that bears an uncanny resemblance to Alternative for Germany (AfD), the name of Germany s leading right-wing party, and launched a Facebook campaign that has almost 7,000 followers. The AfD s election campaign focuses on messages that Islamic customs don t belong in Germany. That has left a bad taste with many Germans, and TfD saw an opportunity to use drag fashion and wit to mock the AfD s own election placards. The AfD posters feature white German women in bikinis or raising wine glasses, with captions like Burka? I m into bikinis and Burka? I m into Burgundy . The posters are emblazoned with the party s election motto: I dare you, Germany! The TfD version of the posters uses the AfD s light blue party color but replaces the anti-immigrant party s red arrow with red stiletto shoes. Guzzle your crap Burgundy alone! I prefer prosecco, reads one poster with a picture of Gisela Sommer, one of several bearded men dressed like women and raising a middle finger on TfD placards, which include the hashtags #NoAfD and #NoNaziPack. JACKY-OH WEINHAUS The TfD campaign has drawn the attention of several German newspapers and has brought some flare to an otherwise largely dull election. Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to win and secure a fourth term in office without much trouble. I don t think that all AfD members are Nazis, but there is an appalling racial tone in this party which is for sure shared by many of its members, said TfD leader Jacky-Oh Weinhaus. Buffalo Meus, the media manager of the fictional party, said he gets about 50 Facebook messages a day from people asking how they can become TfD members. We just wanted an art project, Meus said. But some people have taken us for a real party. They ask us, how can I register? How can I vote for you? Not all the messages are pleasant. Other readers have wished the group members death by stoning or by hanging. The group s main goal is get the 17 million Germans who stayed home in the 2013 election to the polls. They hope their votes will cut into support for the AfD, which is forecast to enter parliament for the first time with 8 to 10 percent of the vote. Instead of supporting the AfD, the only party that criticizes Islam, you go against it, an angry Facebook user called Hans Horn wrote to TfD this week. If Islamisation continues and Muslim invaders from Africa continue to flood in you will be the first to be thrown from high roofs. The TfD responded two days later: We love you and wish you a sunny Wednesday!

DEMOCRAT DERSHOWITZ Slaps Down Feinstein’s Effort to Say Trump Guilty of Obstruction: ‘She doesn’t know what she’s talking about’ [Video]

I think this is hope over reality longtime Democrat and Harvard Law professor Allen Dershowitz ripped into Senator Diane Feinstein for making accusation of obstruction of justice against President Trump. He went through all of the reason why there is nothing to the claim by Feinstein that POTUS committed a crime. Dershowitz compared Trump to the crimes of past presidents and concluded that Trump is in the clear. He detailed crimes that Nixon and Clinton clearly committed but said that it s within the Constitutional powers that Trump did what he did by firing former FBI Director James Comey: You cannot charge a president with obstruction of justice for exercising his constitutional power. @AlanDersh pic.twitter.com/dPZBrIcsLh FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) December 4, 2017 She simply doesn t know what she s talking about Dershowitz on Senator Diane Feinstein s claim that President Trump obstructed justice.This woman is another one who needs to go! She s gotten rich off of being in Washington and will probably only retire if she s pulled out of her office kicking and screaming. It s been a lucrative business for Diane and we re sure she doesn t want to see it end. Is she pushing the envelope politically because she knows her delusional liberal base will approve? Reelection over truth and integrity wins out with these people every time

REPORTER CONFRONTS State Department Over DC Visit By Al Qaeda Tied Terror Group [Video]

Could this guy be any more clueless? Is it that this administration is this clueless or this evil? Al Qaeda tied leaders who ve been vetted by the Saudis are visiting DC do we trust the Saudis at all? If this guy knows this man had been vetted by the Saudis then why doesn t he know more? The Obama administration has been using the tactic of ignorance of situations since day one. Eric Holder, Jeh Johnson and others have lied and claimed they have no clue but will look into a problem. Here s yet another example of this tactic:

Guantanamo, rights issues in defense bill divide Congress

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee announced his opposition on Wednesday to the 2017 defense authorization bill, underscoring the partisan divide over the $602 billion defense policy measure. Representative Adam Smith said changes in the bill this week by Republicans, who control the House, on issues including women’s registration for the draft, transfers from the Guantanamo detention center and protection for gay and transgender employees of military contractors, had led him to oppose it. “These have tipped the balance of the bill considerably,” Smith said in a statement. President Barack Obama had already threatened to veto the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, over a long list of issues, starting with its use of $18 billion of special war funds for day-to-day military programs to avoid automatic budget cuts. This week, the powerful House Rules Committee used a procedural move to remove, without a House vote, an amendment approved by the armed services committee that would have required women to register for the military draft. The Rules panel also decided not to allow debate on an amendment that would have stripped a “religious protection” measure from the bill that rights advocates fear would undo the president’s 2014 executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Smith said he also objected to Republicans’ adding further restrictions on transfers from the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and reduction in funds for nuclear nonproliferation and other provisions. Republicans control 246 seats in the 435-member House, which passed the bill by a vote of 277-147 late on Wednesday, largely along party lines, with most Republicans backing the bill and most Democrats opposed. However, the Senate will pass its own version of the bill later this year, which will be reconciled with the House bill to create a final version of the legislation. Once passed by the Senate and House, that NDAA would be sent to the White House for Obama to sign into law, or veto.

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see dems accept foreign cash to disrupt trump rallies undercover footage catches hillary operative redhanded published mins ago bob unruh about archive bob unruh joined wnd in after nearly three decades with the associated press as well as several upper midwest newspapers where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists he is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially print a hillary clintonsupporting advocacy organization had no trouble accepting a donation funneled through a belize bank to use in this years presidential election campaign until its decision was about to be made public in a series of undercover videos by james okeefes project veritas action suddenly the head of the organization expressed suspicion about the donations overseas origin and decided to return it thats one of the significant revelations in the latest in a series of videos released by okeefe called rigging the election okeefe explained he had a fictitious donor meet with bob creamer who was a staffer at americans united for change a group supporting clinton for president until the videos started appearing last week he said creamer who boasted of working directly for the clinton campaign directed that the donation go to aufc to disrupt rallies and fund bracketing ops okeefe said he and his colleagues were very careful not to violate the law themselves creamer was clear about his ties to clinton stating every morning i am on a call at that goes over the message being driven by the campaign headquarters sign the precedentsetting petition supporting trumps call for an independent prosecutor to investigate hillary clinton project veritas first video explained how the clinton campaign uses hidden connections to incite violence at donald trump rallies its second video showed plans for stepbystep voter fraud and the third exposed prohibited communications between hillary clintons campaign the dnc and the nonprofit americans united for change the fourth video breaks down the process of the longterm investigation it comes after creamers announcement that he was stepping down from campaign responsibilities okeefe and project veritas action have filed a complaint with the federal election commission among the revelations in the latest video was creamer was boasting of his close links to president obama oh barack obamas was the best campaign in the history of american politics i mean the second one i mean the first was good too i was a consultant to both the second one was everything hit on every level and every aspect he said hes a pro ive known the president since he was a community organizer in chicago when asked whether a potential donor could meet obama creamer said ok you may have a lot more opportunity once he is done in days i was just at an event with him in chicago friday of last week he is just as good as ever i do a lot of work with the white house on their issues helping to run issued campaigns that they have been involved in i mean for immigration reform for the the health care bill trying to make america more like britain when it comes to gun violence issues explained project veritas the more that was promised to creamer the more access project veritas action journalists seemed to get project veritas actions investment paid off the story was solid robert creamer scott foval jenna price from the dnc brad woodhouse from aufc cesar vargas and others opened the door to their smoke filled rooms of illegal and dirty campaign dealings as seen in the three previous pva videos in the first video foval a democratic operative boasted of what he called conflict engagement or sending protesters to disrupt trump events were starting anarchy here he said and he needs to understand that were starting anarchy in the second video creamer explained clintons direct control over those disruption operations in the end it was the candidate hillary clinton the future president of the united states who wanted ducks on the ground so by god we would get ducks on the ground creamer said creamer the husband of democratic rep jan schakowsky of illinois has starred in several of the undercover videos heres the third that video also revealed a direct conflict between what creamer was confirming clintons active involvement in such decisions and campaigns and the claim of her campaign manager robby mook mook told cnn over the weekend that there was no pathway between the activists staging violence and clinton sign the precedentsetting petition supporting trumps call for an independent prosecutor to investigate hillary clinton these individuals no longer have a relationship with the dnc he said theyve never had a relationship with the clinton campaign and my understanding is that the events that are referenced happened i think in february of last year they did not have a contract with the dnc until june but putting all that aside this was again a video that was leaked out with the purpose of damaging the campaign it is edited so we dont know what the full context is and theres no evidence whatsoever that anyone ever did anything like this when they were working for the dnc his comments after confirming it was clinton or wanted ducks on the ground creamer warned undercover project veritas journalists dont repeat that to anybody creamer ran democracy partners a consulting company with ties to clinton he has been to the white house times while obama has been president including meetings directly with obama okeefes organization reported that the coordination between the campaign the dnc and the americans united for change smacks of illegal coordinated campaign expenditures last week project veritas filed a complaint with the federal election commission asking for an investigation into the clinton campaigns criminal conspiracy the filing of the complaint with the federal agency follows the release of two videos in which democrats explain how they can attempt to change the outcome of the election through apparently fraudulent means such as having people travel across state lines to vote illegally the video have resulted already in two democratic operatives losing their jobs editors note be aware of offensive language throughout videos and in quotes from videos one is scott foval who had worked for people for the american way a george sorosfunded group and more recently with americans united for change in the video he said you know what weve been busing people in to deal with you fing aes for years and were not going to stop now also he said he and his agents are starting anarchy by creating conflict engagement in the lines at trump rallies also out of work is creamer see the second video talkradio icon rush limbaugh said the evidence is worrisome every trump rally would feature none of this violence unless the democrats were paying for it i think its a big deal folks the media is complicit they know who these people are theyre in on it theyre part of the game none of its organic none of its natural none of its real every bit of it is bought and paid for democrats cant leave elections to chance because they know that despite the way it may look the majority of americans would not support them if they knew who they are the first video

mike rowe schools hamilton cast on lecturing pence and has a few notes for trump too

presidentelect donald trump met with the media on monday in trump tower and gave them a massive tonguelashing many conservatives have rightly cheered the biased media finally getting some pushback but did the contentious meeting help or hurt the situation comment on this article via your facebook account comment on this article via your disqus account follow us on facebook

Seattle lawmakers pass tax on highest earners; mayor eager to be sued

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Seattle’s city council unanimously passed a pioneering income tax on the city’s highest earners on Monday, a measure that has become a clarion call for Democrats there even though it is likely to face a swift legal challenge over violating state law. The measure created a 2.25 percent tax rate on individuals earning above $250,000 and married couples jointly earning above $500,000. The tax will add roughly $140 million in new annual revenue and affect fewer than 20,000 residents in the city of more than 660,000, supporters say. The proposal has become a rallying cry for Democrats and activists in the liberal-leaning city who used local opposition to Republican President Donald Trump to advance long sought-after local policies. Washington is one of seven U.S. states without a tax on personal income, and no city in the state has an income tax. Supporters of the Seattle proposal, including Mayor Ed Murray, say the current tax code unfairly burdens poor and middle class residents because it relies on “regressive” taxes, such as taxes on property and sales transactions. Proponents say new revenue is needed to offset any potential drop in federal funding under the Trump administration. “Our goal is to replace our regressive tax system with a new formula for fairness, while ensuring Seattle stands up to President Trump’s austere budget that cuts transportation, affordable housing, healthcare, and social services,” Murray said by e-mail after the city council’s 9-0 vote. Earlier on Monday, Murray told a cheering crowd at a rally outside city hall he would sign the measure into law on Friday and welcomed a legal challenge. The campaign for the new tax on Seattle’s richest was launched earlier this year by Trump Proof Seattle, a coalition of community activists and residents. Proceeds from the tax could be used to pay for transit services and affordable housing, Murray said. The city has been grappling with soaring housing prices in recent years, fueled in part by the growth of online retailer Amazon.com, which is headquartered in downtown Seattle. Voters in Olympia, the state capital, rejected a similar tax on its highest earners last year. In 2010, Washington state voters rejected a state income tax at the ballot box. Jason Mercier, a director at the conservative Washington Policy Center, said Seattle’s tax conflicts with state law and court decisions. He said he expects the city to face a swift legal challenge after Murray signs the measure into law. “There’s something fundamentally wrong with elected officials passing a tax they know is against state law and the constitution with the hope of being sued and having a judge overturn prior decisions,” Mercier said. State law blocks a county or city from levying a tax on “net” income, although net income is not defined in the statute. The Washington state Supreme Court has found that income is treated as property under the constitution and therefore has to be taxed uniformly and at no more than 1 percent of its value, Mercier said.

lol listen to yoko onos primal response to trump win

a new poll from rasmussen reports showed that percent of americans dont trust the media at all or very much

Trump says he'll make high court pick within two weeks after taking office

(Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump said on Wednesday his team has met with numerous candidates to fill the longstanding U.S. Supreme Court vacancy and promised a decision on a nominee within about two weeks of taking office on Jan. 20. Trump, during a news conference in New York, indicated the importance he attached to the selection of a replacement for conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last Feb. 13. The Republican-led Senate then refused to consider President Barack Obama’s nominee to the post, appeals court judge Merrick Garland. “It will be a decision which I very strongly believe in. I think it’s one of the reasons I got elected,” said Trump, who previously vowed to pick a jurist similar to Scalia, who was one of the most conservative members of the nine-seat court. Trump said he would make his announcement “probably within two weeks of the 20th ... probably the second week.” He did not mention any of the potential picks by name or state exactly how many have had interviews, but said, “We’ve met with numerous candidates. They were outstanding in every case.” Trump said he would pick from names suggested to him by conservative legal groups. Trump said he had a list of 20 names. The original list his presidential campaign made public included 21 names. Trump specifically mentioned input from the Federalist Society and Republican former South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint. Scalia’s death left the top U.S. court ideologically split with four conservatives and four liberals. Scalia’s replacement could tilt the ideological leaning of the court for years to come, restoring the long-standing conservative majority just at a time when it appeared liberals would get an upper hand on the bench. This could be pivotal in wide range of issues including abortion, the death penalty, religious rights, presidential powers, transgender rights, federal regulations and others. The U.S. Constitution calls on the president to nominate members of the Supreme Court, with confirmation of the selection in the hands of the Senate. The Republican-led Senate, in a move with little precedent in U.S. history, refused to consider Democrat Obama’s nominee, saying the winner of the Nov. 8 presidential election between Republican Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton should make the pick. The court is in the midst of its current term, which started in October and ends in June.

WATCH Obama Mention Himself 119 Times During Hillary Endorsement Speech…And Then I Parted The Red Sea…LOL!

Narcissist isn t a strong enough word to describe this twisted little man

WOW! FORMER MUSLIM’S MESSAGE To Refugees Who Betray America Goes Viral: “You are Muslims living here and benefiting from this country…Stand up for America!”

// <![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&#038;version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>We the people ! Don t bite the hands that feed you people !Posted by Saad Kooza Salman on Saturday, June 6, 2015 You cannot handle their freedom, thats why you re full of hate Where do you think those 2 -3 million soldiers who fought your f ass s in Fallujah and Ramadi and Baghdad and up-north went? They are here they did not forget how to kill, they did not forget how to fight. The same ones who fought you in Fallujah, they will f - you up here too. They got guns, but they don t want to choose that path. Don t call it your country if you don t fight for it, you coward! And you, as Americans, sympathizing with those mother f s , trying to off police officers and killing American people here! Shame on you! Stand up! Grow some balls! I m not an advocate for war, but the time has come to let them know. We will die for this nation, we will fight for this country. Whites, blacks, Chinese, I don t care what color you are! You are Muslims living here and benefiting from this country! Stand up for this America! I don t see no religion, I don t see no color. I see you are an American with us or you are against us! That s my message to you! Deal with that! I m an American by choice my friend, I love this flag and I will stand by it and I will die for it. That s my message to you.

U.S. Navy halts search for three sailors lost in Philippine Sea air crash

TOKYO (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy said it has called off a search for three sailors missing since a transport plane crashed in the Philippines Sea south of Japan on Wednesday enroute to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier. During the course of two days, eight U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Defence Force ships, three helicopter squadrons and maritime patrol aircraft covered nearly 1,000 square nautical miles, the U.S. Seventh Fleet said in a press release. Eight other people on a C-2 Greyhound were rescued shortly after the aircraft crashed and transferred to the Reagan. The latest Navy accident in the Asia Pacific comes after two deadly incidents in the region involving U.S. warships that have raised questions about training and the pace of Navy operations in the region, prompting a Congressional hearing and the removal of a number of some senior officers. The propeller powered C-2 on Wednesday was conducting a routine flight carrying passengers and cargo from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan to the carrier. The mainstay transport aircraft for the U.S. carrier fleet has been in operation for more than five decades and is due to be replaced by a long-range version of the tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft. The U.S. Navy said it is investigating the cause of the crash. Japanese Minister of Defence Itsunori Onodera told reporters on Wednesday that the U.S. Navy informed him that the crash may have been a result of engine trouble.

U.S. Embassy move can be done in 'two minutes': Jerusalem mayor

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel s mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat said on Tuesday that moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the holy city can take two minutes . Senior U.S. officials have said President Donald Trump is likely on Wednesday to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital while delaying relocating the embassy from Tel Aviv for another six months, though he is expected to order his aides to begin planning such a move immediately. The officials said, however, that no final decisions have been made as an outcry grew across the Middle East and among world powers against any unilateral U.S. decision on Jerusalem. Barkat said the United States would only have to convert one of its existing assets in the city, such as its consulate located in West Jerusalem. They just take the symbol of the consulate and switch it to the embassy symbol - two American Marines can do it in two minutes, and give the ambassador David Friedman a space to sit in, Barkat told Israel Radio. The implementation of this decision is immediate and then later slowly start moving the employees in a more structured manner to begin providing services in Jerusalem, Barkat said. The status of Jerusalem is one of the major stumbling blocks in decades of on-and-off Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. Israel considers all of the city its indivisible, eternal capital. Jerusalem is home to sites holy to Islam, Judaism and Christianity Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War and later annexed it, a move not recognized internationally. U.S. endorsement of Israel s claim to all of Jerusalem as its capital would break with decades of U.S. policy that the city s status must be decided in negotiations with the Palestinians.

U.N. pleads for end of Yemen blockade or 'untold thousands' will die

(This story from November 16 corrects paragraph 15 to say Aden port only partially open and Sanaa airport remains closed, not open for commercial flights) By Stephanie Nebehay and Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - The heads of three U.N. agencies urged the Saudi-led military coalition on Thursday to lift its blockade of Yemen, warning that untold thousands would die if it stayed in place. The coalition closed all air, land and sea access to Yemen on Nov. 6 following the interception of a missile fired towards the Saudi capital, saying it had to stem the flow of arms from Iran to its Houthi opponents in the war in Yemen. Yemen already has 7 million people on the brink of famine, but without the reopening of all ports that number could grow by 3.2 million, the heads of the World Food Programme, UNICEF and the World Health Organization said in a joint statement. The cost of this blockade is being measured in the number of lives that are lost, the statement from David Beasley, Anthony Lake and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Together, we issue another urgent appeal for the coalition to permit entry of lifesaving supplies to Yemen in response to what is now the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote to Saudi U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi to warn him that the blockade was already reversing the impact of humanitarian efforts, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday. The Secretary-General is very much disappointed we ve not seen a lifting of the blockade. The Secretary-General and his humanitarian team are heartbroken at the scenes we re seeing from Yemen, Dujarric told reporters. Saudi Arabia has since said that aid can go through liberated ports but not Houthi-controlled Hodeidah, the conduit for the vast bulk of imports into Yemen. For months, the U.N. has warned that the closure of Hodeidah would dramatically escalate the crisis. As of Wednesday, 29 vessels, with 300,000 tonnes of food and 192,000 tonnes of fuel, had been blocked, while U.N. ships carrying $10 million of health and nutrition supplies and 25,000 tonnes of wheat were waiting to berth at Hodeidah, according to another U.N. statement. Without fuel, the vaccine cold chain, water supply systems and waste water treatment plants will stop functioning. And without food and safe water, the threat of famine grows by the day, the U.N. agency heads said. At least one million children are at risk if a fast-spreading diphtheria outbreak is not stopped in its tracks, and the lives of 400,000 pregnant women and their babies are under threat because of the lack of medicines. There is also the risk of a renewed flare-up in cholera, which was on the wane after the most explosive outbreak ever recorded - with over 900,000 cases and 2,200 deaths in the past six months. The number of new cholera cases has declined for the last eight weeks, Sherin Varkey, UNICEF deputy representative in Yemen, said in a telephone interview from Sanaa on Thursday. The government-controlled port of Aden has partially re-opened for limited shipments of aid, while Sanaa airport remains closed for commercial and humanitarian flights. Humanitarian access is inadequate as needs are so huge , he said. There is a fuel crisis. Some estimates say fuel will only last in the country for 20 days because of the blockade and challenges of getting fuel into the country, Varkey said. UNICEF is helping provide clean water to 6 million Yemenis by ensuring fuel is delivered to water pumping stations in cities, he said. Our worry is with the fuel shortage this could affect and even we assume reverse the declining trend (in cholera), he said.

Not so fast, Theresa: EU seeks divorce terms to stay friends

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - In pledging to stay best friends with the European Union after Brexit, Theresa May is getting ahead of herself, say EU negotiators who want her to start putting the divorce money on the table as soon as Monday. Three days after the prime minister s speech in Renaissance Florence promising a warm and vibrant future relationship, her Brexit minister David Davis will launch a new round of talks in Brussels with the EU s Michel Barnier. And the Frenchman first wants details on May s broad promise to pay Britain s bills. Without significant progress on that and other elements of a planned treaty to ease Britain s passage out of the Union in March 2019, Barnier said, EU leaders will refuse to open any talks on a free trade and cooperation deal, let alone on the two-year transition to it that May requested. With German Chancellor Angela Merkel concentrating on her likely re-election in voting on Sunday, her coalition deputy still found time to echo French President Emmanuel Macron in ramming home the demand that Britain focus first on its exit. We heard nothing concrete. It is time for the government of Great Britain to clearly state under what conditions it wants to leave the European Union, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said. May s speech was intended to jolt the divorce talks out of deadlock, three months after they began and to demonstrate some unity in her government notably on remaining in the EU single market and accepting its rules for a couple of years after Brexit, a bitter pill for some hardline opponents of EU membership. But much of her 35-minute address dwelt on the Shared Future . A Facebook video targeted at continental neighbors emphasized the message with clips from the speech. A Dutch-language version led off with the bold caption: Wij willen uw beste vriend en partner zijn We want to be your best friend and partner. The tone went down well with some: There are many positive elements, especially regarding the future relations, a senior EU government official said. On the other hand, on issues related with the separation there is not much clarity. We are looking forward to receiving detailed proposals. May made two potentially important concessions on the other two criteria for moving on to trade talks: a direct role for the EU-UK exit treaty and for EU case law in British judges rulings on the future rights of EU citizens in Britain; and she said Brexit would not immediately cost other states money. On the first, Barnier may repeat the EU demand for direct oversight by European Court of Justice; on the second, EU negotiators insist Britain will owe a share of Union spending for years after the budget May referred to, which ends in 2020. One potential benefit from a transition period may be that it lets Britain present its voters with a somewhat less hefty bill for leaving than the 60 billion euros ($70 billion) or so that Brussels reckons it would owe the EU come March 2019. About a third of that 60 billion represents what the EU wants Britain to pay into the current budget for 2019 and 2020, whether or not it remains in the single market. By staying in for a transition period, Britain could deduct that 20 billion euro payment from the one-off, pre-Brexit divorce settlement. Such payments to the EU have become a hot-button issue for British voters, somewhat to the frustration of EU negotiators who note that Britain s annual net contribution to the EU budget represents little more than 1 percent of its public spending. May will meet Donald Tusk, who chairs EU summits, over lunch in London on Tuesday and then the 27 leaders at dinner in Estonia on Thursday, just after Barnier and Davis are expected to have concluded the negotiating round in Brussels. The Europeans insist they will not negotiate with May over Barnier s head, but this week could be an important moment in setting how quickly they are willing to open trade talks for the future and indeed in determining how far mutual tactics of bluff and counter-bluff may risk ending in chaos without a deal.

Trump defends tax plan as 'great Christmas gifts' to middle class

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday defended a Republican tax-cut plan against Democratic charges that it favors the rich, saying it will be “one of the great Christmas gifts” for the middle class with just days to go before Congress votes. With a vote on the biggest tax rewrite in three decades set for Tuesday, Republicans were working to ensure party members were holding the line in favor of the legislation against entrenched Democratic opposition. The plan was finalized on Friday after Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Bob Corker pledged their support. Three Republican senators, enough to defeat the measure in a Senate that Trump’s party controls with a slim 52-48 majority, remained uncommitted: Susan Collins, Jeff Flake and Mike Lee. Passage in Congress would provide Republicans and Trump with their first major victory since he took office in January. “It’s going to be one of the great Christmas gifts to middle-income people,” Trump told reporters at the White House before he boarded a helicopter for meetings at Camp David. “The Democrats have their sound bite, the standard sound bite before they even know what the bill is all about,” he added. The proposed package would slash the U.S. corporate tax rate to 21 percent and cut taxes for wealthy Americans. Under an agreement between the House of Representatives and the Senate, the corporate tax would be 1 percentage point higher than the 20 percent rate earlier proposed, but still far below the current headline rate of 35 percent, a deep tax reduction that corporations have sought for years. Democrats have slammed the plan as a giveaway to corporations and the rich that would drive up the federal deficit. For months, Trump has touted the bill as a middle-class tax cut. Studies from independent analysts and non-partisan congressional researchers have projected that corporations and the rich would benefit disproportionately. Trump repeated on Saturday that the tax overhaul would help bring in $4 trillion in foreign profits from U.S. companies. The tax plan proposes new rules for repatriating cash held overseas. “This is going to bring money in. As an example, we think $4 trillion is going to be flowing back into the country,” he said. “That’s money that’s overseas that’s stuck there for years and years.”

clinton cronies steered millions to foundation and bills wallet

email republican presidential candidate donald trump signaled thursday plans to seek nationwide changes to school curricula with the goal of promoting american pride and patriotism in americas schools in a trump administration i plan to work directly with the american legion to uphold our common values and to help ensure they are taught to americas children trump said speaking at the american legions annual convention in cincinnati we want our kids to learn the incredible achievements of americas history its institutions and its heroes many of whom are with us today he told the veterans group the comments suggested a federal government intervention in the programs of locally run schools which is prohibited under federal lawwe will stop apologizing for america and we will start celebrating america we will be united by our common culture values and principles becoming one american nation one country under one constitution saluting one american flag and always saluting it trump said last year a denverarea school board sought to change the content of the ap us history course because some board members thought it failed to promote patriotism that sparked a political proxy war in jefferson county colorado and the school board election drew nearly million in campaign funding from outside interest groups public schools nationwide are funded by their local communities along with some state money most schools receive little federal funding current federal law prohibits the federal government from exercising any direction supervision or control over the curriculum program of instruction administration or personnel of any educational institution school or school system

North Korea launch put millions in Japan into 'duck and cover': Mattis

OMAHA, Neb. (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Thursday that North Korea s missile launch over Japan put millions of Japanese into duck and cover before it landed in the Pacific Ocean, and added that top U.S. officials had fully coordinated after the test-launch. We have just got done with the calls we always make to coordinate among ourselves. Steady as she goes, Mattis told reporters traveling with him during a visit to the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees U.S. nuclear forces.

Contenders for key jobs in Trump administration

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump held talks on Saturday with 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a meeting between famous foes fueling speculation that Romney could be in line to be the new U.S. secretary of state. Working to fill administration positions ahead of his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump also met for an hour with retired Marine General James Mattis, who is considered a strong contender for defense secretary or another high-ranking job. On Friday it was announced that Trump had chosen Republican Senator Jeff Sessions to be attorney general, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn to be national security adviser and Republican Congressman Mike Pompeo to head the CIA. Trump announced on Sunday he would make Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus his White House chief of staff and named Stephen Bannon, former head of the conservative website Breitbart News, as his chief strategist and senior counselor. Below are people mentioned as contenders for senior roles. * Steven Mnuchin, former Goldman Sachs Group Inc executive and Trump’s campaign finance chairman * Jeb Hensarling, U.S. representative from Texas and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee * Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co chief executive officer * Tom Barrack, founder and chairman of Colony Capital Inc * Mitt Romney, 2012 presidential nominee and former Massachusetts governor * Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City * Nikki Haley, governor of South Carolina * Jeff Sessions, U.S. senator from Alabama and early Trump supporter, member of the Senate Armed Services Committee * John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush * Bob Corker, U.S. senator from Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee * Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq * James Mattis, retired Marine general * David Petraeus, ex-CIA director and retired general * Tom Cotton, U.S. senator from Arkansas * Jon Kyl, former U.S. senator from Arizona * Duncan Hunter, U.S. representative from California and early Trump supporter, member of the House Armed Services Committee * Jim Talent, former U.S. senator from Missouri who was on the Senate Armed Services Committee * Kelly Ayotte, outgoing U.S. senator from New Hampshire and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee * Jeff Sessions, senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who takes a hard line on immigration, was announced as the choice on Nov. 18. * Tom Price, U.S. representative from Georgia who is an orthopedic surgeon * Rick Scott, Florida governor * Rich Bagger, former pharmaceutical executive and former top aide to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie * Bobby Jindal, former Louisiana governor * Michael McCaul, U.S. representative from Texas and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee * David Clarke, Milwaukee county sheriff and vocal Trump supporter * Joe Arpaio, outgoing Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff who campaigned for Trump * Jeff Holmstead, energy lawyer, former EPA official during George W. Bush administration * Mike Catanzaro, energy lobbyist, former EPA official during George W. Bush administration * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors * Leslie Rutledge, Arkansas attorney general * Carol Comer, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management * Harold Hamm, Oklahoma oil and gas mogul, chief executive of Continental Resources Inc * Kevin Cramer, U.S. Representative from North Dakota * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors * Larry Nichols, co-founder of Devon Energy Corp * James Connaughton, chief executive of Nautilus Data Technologies and a former environmental adviser to President George W. Bush * Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor, 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee * Jan Brewer, former Arizona governor * Forrest Lucas, founder of oil products company Lucas Oil * Harold Hamm, Oklahoma oil and gas mogul, chief executive of Continental Resources Inc * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors * Wilbur Ross, billionaire investor, chairman of Invesco Ltd subsidiary WL Ross & Co * Linda McMahon, former World Wrestling Entertainment executive and two-time Senate candidate * Ronald Burgess, retired lieutenant general and former Defense Intelligence Agency chief * Robert Cardillo, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency * Pete Hoekstra, former U.S. representative from Michigan * Republican U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo was announced as the choice on Nov. 18. * Michael Flynn, retired lieutenant general and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was announced as the choice on Nov. 18. * Kelly Ayotte, outgoing U.S. senator from New Hampshire and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee * Richard Grenell, former spokesman for the United States at the United Nations * Peter King, U.S. representative from New York * Dan DiMicco, former chief executive of steel producer Nucor Corp The Trump transition team confirmed he would choose from the list of 21 names he drew up during his campaign, including U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah, and William Pryor, a federal judge with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. * Victoria Lipnic, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission commissioner and former Labor Department official during the George W. Bush administration. * Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants.

Trump FURIOUS As Latest Obamacare Numbers Prove It’s Not Going Anywhere (IMAGES)

Donald Trump s approval rating plummeted after his disastrous attempt to get support for his American Health Care Act (Trumpcare) crashed and burned. It was a disastrous health care bill to begin with, proving to be higher in cost while stripping millions of Americans of life-saving health care and Trump paid for it with his lowest approval ratings yet. Trump is swimming in bad news, but the latest info about the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) is about to make it worse.Apparently, the GOP s effort to do away with Obamacare has created quite the opposite effect Obamacare is now more popular than it s ever been. Since the bill was signed in 2010, Americans are now more in favor of it than ever before:A new Gallup survey also echoes this monumental change in the last five months alone, Obamacare approval skyrocketed 13 percentage points, and part of that change has been thanks to the GOP s failure to provide a better solution. The Gallup survey discovered that 55% of America now approves of the Affordable Care Act:Gallup s Jim Norman states that this has big implications for the law and directly affects what the Republican Party may or may not be able to do in the future. Norman said: If that majority holds, it would be a significant development. Politically, it creates a major obstacle to Trump and Congress ongoing efforts to change or replace the law. In future elections, it could turn the GOP s opposition to the law from an asset into a liability. More importantly in the daily lives of Americans, it might mean that the most sweeping changes to the nation s healthcare system in decades will remain the law of the land for the foreseeable future. Another poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation discovered that although there was equal opposition and approval for Obamacare, 64% of Americans were pleased that Trumpcare failed because it was obviously far worse. The majority of Americans (61%) are now also holding Trump and the GOP responsible for the future of America s health care, and strongly believe Trump should find a way to improve Obamacare, not repeal it.This information is sure to set Trump on fire, considering how desperate he was to get rid of the bill as soon as he began his role as POTUS. Given the fact that his ideas and agendas are more unpopular than ever, his presidency might be filled with Obama s policies and laws for quite a while.Featured image via Win McNamee/Getty Images

Congress Demands White House Turn Over Alleged Comey Tape Mentioned In Trump’s Tweet (LETTER)

During yet another Twitter fit on Friday morning, Donald Trump seems to be unraveling before our eyes under the pressure of the press and ongoing investigations into his campaign ties to Russia.Earlier in the week, Trump fired James Comey who was the Director of the FBI. Now, in an effort to seemingly almost blackmail Comey so he doesn t leak any pertinent information regarding investigations, Trump tweeted:James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017Well, members of Congress saw this tweet and are holding him accountable for what is being implied. Quite honestly, it s about time Congress starts taking Trump s tweets seriously.Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) had this to say: Earlier this morning, President Trump wrote a tweet referencing his taping of high-level conversations in the White House. In light of this revelation, I would respectfully request that the White House Counsel provide the House Oversight Committee with all tapes of the President s communications with former FBI Director James Comey, of President Trump s meeting with Russian officials which was closed to American press but not their Russian counterparts, and of any conversations regarding the hiring or firing of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. These White House tapes could accelerate current investigations as previous tapes have aided past inquiries. Here is the official letter to White House Counsel Donald McGhan with the request:via krishnamoorthi.house.govIf Trump is going to use his Twitter account to relay information not only to the public but to the legislative branch of government, he better be prepared to face the consequences of his words.If there are tapes, this isn t only damning for Comey, but also Trump himself. He seems to think he can manipulate this whole situation like some sort of deal in a boardroom. This isn t a boardroom. This is the United States government, and good on Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi for calling him out.Featured Photo by Getty Images

WOW! HILLARY’S UNCENSORED COMMENTS About Monica Lewinsky Revealed By Longtime Hillary Friend [VIDEO]

Longtime friend and Clinton advisor Diane Blair released Hillary s uncensored remarks about the 22 year old intern Monica Lewinsky her husband pursued and had sex with in America s Oval Office. Narcissistic Looney Toon is how Hillary described her. Wow! Way to show your compassion for a young influential girl who was pursued by your husband for the purposes of pleasuring him. What a true champion of women

Insider: This GOP Plan To Steal The Election Had Them So ‘Giddy’ They Were ‘Frothing At The Mouth’ (VIDEO)

Republicans plan to use laws about voter ID to win this fall s elections, since they know that in many states if all the voters who show up to vote are allowed to do so, their party will lose yet another presidential election its third in a row.They are very excited at the effect those laws could have if left unchecked, according to an insider who is now speaking up.Last week, during the federal trial on Wisconsin s voter-ID law, a former Republican staffer testified that GOP senators were giddy about the idea that the state s 2011 voter-ID law might keep Democrats, particularly minorities in Milwaukee, from voting and help them win at the polls. They were politically frothing at the mouth, said the aide, Todd Allbaugh.Studies show that voter ID laws suppress minority votes, key to Democratic victory.A recent voter-ID study by political scientists at the University of California at San Diego analyzed turnout in elections between 2008 and 2012 and found substantial drops in turnout for minorities under strict voter ID laws. These results suggest that by instituting strict photo ID laws, states could minimize the influence of voters on the left and could dramatically alter the political leaning of the electorate, the study concluded.Watch this video of people getting assistance, trying to register to vote under the GOP s new harsh voter ID rules:Despite Republican claims otherwise, getting these IDs often requires documents like birth certificates that poorer minorities have trouble accessing.In one instance documented by the Washington Post, a man whose mother changed his name in 1964 has to present the original 52-year-old document changing his name before the state of Texas will issue him a voter ID card, which he needs to be able to vote.Seventeen states will have new voting restrictions in place for this fall s election for the first time. Many of the laws were passed by Republican-held state legislatures in 2009, right after Obama s historic victory in 2008.They apparently were afraid that if the voters were allowed to have their say, Republicans might not ever be contenders, so they rigged the system.Featured image via screen capture