Friday on ABC's "The View," senior for Breitbart News Joel Pollak took on Joy Behar over claims Breitbart News is a white supremacist and site. Partial transcript as follows: BEHAR: Breitbart — the website has been described as a platform for the or some say white supremacists. How would you describe it? POLLAK: Breitbart News is a conservative website and we have a very diverse group of editors and writers. I'm the orthodox Jewish former senior . So not exactly an accurate description. We call that fake news, a fake news description. But we are — BEHAR: What's fake news, what I said? POLLAK: Yes. BILA: That it is white supremacists. BEHAR: No no no. That is not fake news. POLLAK: It's absolutely — BEHAR: How do you explain this headline, 'Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew,' You're Jewish. POLLAK: It was written by David Horowitz, who is one of the most prominent Jewish conservatives. He was criticizing Bill Kristol for not being Jewish enough, so it was the opposite of what people described. And we have more than a dozen Jewish people working at Breitbart including the CEO, COO. We have Black writers, Hispanic, Asian, whatever, gay, whatever you can imagine. BEHAR: What do you think is the rise of about in this country? POLLAK: I'm really glad the media finally woke up to this phenomena. It started quite a long time ago, long before Donald Trump ran for president, particularly in California where I live, on college campuses, there's been a rising tide of linked to far criticism of Israel. It's very tough to be a Jewish student on some of these campuses nowadays. BEHAR: Mostly, it seems to me that there's a flurry of them since Trump is in. POLLAK: I think the media just woke up and noticed that this is a problem. BEHAR Really? POLLAK: And I think that I feel very proud that Donald Trump not only is one of the most presidents that we've ever had, but his daughter Ivanka tonight will light the Sabbath candles just like my wife will, and bring in the Sabbath. To me, that is something extraordinary in America history. BEHAR: But you know that phrase, one of my best friends is Jewish, it's meaningless really. You can still be an and have Jewish relatives. POLLAK: I agree with you. When people say my friends are Jewish, it doesn't cut it. HOSTIN: Or I have a black friend. POLLAK: But when your are Jewish, you have a little more credibility. HOSTIN: Let me ask you about Steve Bannon. Whoopi calls him President Bannon. He's the White House chief strategist, former executive chair of Breitbart, people have called him everything from a Nazi to a racist. He's made bigoted statements. They've called him a white supremacist sympathizer. What's your response? How do you work for someone who has that reputation? POLLAK: None of that is true. That's more fake news and even people who — HOSTIN: So everyone is lying? POLLAK: Yes. Steve is a fantastic guy. I worked with him for six years and he can be very tough in an argument. We used to argue all the time over any kind of policy issues. Jedediah will back me up here. You bring data and facts to the table — BILA: A very tough guy. POLLAK: Absolutely a person. HOSTIN: So we can't believe when he makes these bigoted statements, is he just being provocative? POLLAK: What statements are you talking about? HOSTIN: There's a laundry list. I can get you a card. BEHAR: Here's a headline from Breitbart. 'Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy.' Do I look crazy to you? POLLAK: You see how you've shifted the goal post now. So, it's gone from Steve Bannon says things to, "Oh, there was a headline. " Steve Bannon has not said bigoted things. BEHAR: But he's behind these though. What are you talking about? BILA: I submitted content a long time ago to Breitbart and I know Steve and I've often argued that you can disagree with him, and it's tough to disagree with him because he's a strong headed guy, but I don't believe him to be an or racist. He's tough though, so if you go into battle you better be prepared. I have a question about Steve, which is that Steve is from what I know of him, he is kind of a boss. He does like to take control. He does like to be kind of in charge, and I see a lot of what's coming out from the Trump campaign now. A lot of the focus seems to be about going against the media establishment. That is Steve's main focal point. Is it safe to assume that Steve is kind of running the show? POLLAK: Well, I don't think Donald Trump takes orders from anybody, so I think Donald Trump is very much in charge. I think that Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus do get along. Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN


Oscar Pistorius, the Olympic runner who shot his girlfriend to death in 2013, is unfit to testify at his sentencing for murder, a defense psychologist said as a hearing opened on Monday in a court in Pretoria, South Africa. "Currently, in my opinion, he is not able to testify," the psychologist, Jonathan Scholtz, told Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa of the High Court in Pretoria, arguing that Mr. Pistorius should be hospitalized rather than imprisoned. "His condition is severe. " Under questioning from Mr. Pistorius's defense lawyer, Barry Roux, Dr. Scholtz gave a largely sympathetic account of Mr. Pistorius's background, personality and mental health. Dr. Scholtz said Mr. Pistorius showed symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress disorder. He also said Mr. Pistorius was taking psychiatric medication and had problems with memory. Gerrie Nel, the chief prosecutor, rejected that argument, saying that Mr. Pistorius had not expressed remorse for the death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Mr. Nel also questioned Dr. Scholtz's assertion that Mr. Pistorius was unable to testify, given that Mr. Pistorius recently gave an interview, his first about the killing, to the television network ITV. The interview is scheduled to be broadcast on June 24, which is probably after his sentencing. Guidelines call for a sentence of at least 15 years, but the judge has discretion to render a lighter or tougher sentence. The decision, which is not expected until later this week, will bring to a close a case that has riveted and divided South Africa. Mr. Pistorius, 29, was found guilty in December of murdering Ms. Steenkamp after South Africa's top appeals court overturned a lower court's conviction on the lesser charge of manslaughter. The court found that the earlier conviction had been based on a misinterpretation of laws and an erroneous dismissal of circumstantial evidence. The appeals court said Mr. Pistorius, who insists that he accidentally killed Ms. Steenkamp under the mistaken belief that an intruder had broken into his home, should have foreseen that his actions would kill someone. He fired four shots through a locked bathroom door, killing Ms. Steenkamp, who was on the other side. In a country with a high crime rate, the fear of home intrusion cuts across social and racial lines, and high walls and security guards are common in gated communities like the one where Mr. Pistorius lived in Pretoria. Mr. Pistorius's arrest in the killing of Ms. Steenkamp on Feb. 14, 2013, sent South Africans reeling. Known as the Blade Runner for the flexible prosthetic legs he used when competing, Mr. Pistorius achieved worldwide fame by challenging athletes, most notably at the 2012 London Games. He won medals at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Paralympics. Ms. Steenkamp, who was 29 at the time of her death, was a model, a law school graduate and a budding star. In September 2014 — after a lengthy and highly publicized trial that was likened to the trial of O. J. Simpson in the United States — Judge Masipa convicted Mr. Pistorius of culpable homicide but found him not guilty of murder. She found that prosecutors had failed to present "strong circumstantial evidence" and to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Pistorius had shown intent to kill. Prosecutors, and Ms. Steenkamp's family, argued that Mr. Pistorius had deliberately killed his girlfriend after an argument. Although Mr. Pistorius was regarded as a hero to many in South Africa, the trial revealed another, darker side: a man with a mercurial temper, given to jealousy and occasional anger an aggressive driver an irresponsible gun owner and a celebrity who was used to getting his way. In their appeal, prosecutors argued that Judge Masipa had misinterpreted a crucial legal concept in finding Mr. Pistorius not guilty of murder. They argued that, under a legal principle known as dolus eventualis, Mr. Pistorius should be found guilty because he should have known that firing through the locked door would kill the person inside. The Supreme Court of Appeal, in Bloemfontein, agreed. Mr. Pistorius was released from prison in October after serving one year of the sentence for manslaughter, and he has been living under house arrest. Dr. Scholtz called Mr. Pistorius's relationship with Ms. Steenkamp "a normal, loving relationship," with "no signs of abuse or coercion. " Dr. Scholtz said that Mr. Pistorius "has found some solace in the belief that the deceased is with God," and that he was enrolled in a degree program at the University of London. He argued that further incarceration "would not be psychologically or socially constructive" and that Mr. Pistorius was not a threat to society. Mr. Pistorius, once a gun enthusiast, has sold his firearms, Dr. Scholtz said. "He is adamant that he never wants to touch or handle a firearm again," the psychiatrist said. But Mr. Nel, who Dr. Scholtz, suggested that Mr. Pistorius had not expressed remorse. "Does he understand that he committed murder?" Mr. Nel asked. "Yes," Dr. Scholtz said. "In what way?" Mr. Nel asked. The prosecutor then made it clear that he was unconvinced.


November 4, 2016 For our freedom and yours  IF EUROPEAN history once seemed to have arrived at its terminus in 1989, it has sped off in a new direction in Poland. After winning the country's first post-1989 outright majority in elections one year ago, the populist Law and Justice party (PiS) immediately set about undermining independent checks on its power, from the constitutional court to public media. Such antics would disqualify an aspirant from membership of the European Union, but it is harder to punish miscreants once they are inside. Surrounded by problems outside its borders, from Russia to Turkey to Libya, the EU now confronts a particularly chewy one within.  Outsiders sometimes lump Poland's government in with the other populists making the running in much of western Europe. But while it shares their hostility to outsiders and taste for economic statism, PiS is a very Polish phenomenon. Its chairman, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who runs the country from the party's headquarters (the prime minister, Beata Szydlo, is a cipher who does her leader's bidding), is fixed on completing what he considers an unfinished revolution. Mr Kaczynski believes the Polish state was captured by a cosy, treacherous elite after 1989, with the connivance of the EU. His aim is to overturn and replace it.


The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump's pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday over the objections of Democrats and environmentalists worried he will gut the agency, as the administration readies executive orders to ease regulation on drillers and miners. The installation of Scott Pruitt, who sued the agency he intends to lead more than a dozen times as Oklahoma attorney general, reinforces expectations on both sides of the political divide that America will cede its position as a leader in the global fight on climate change. Senators voted 52-46 to approve Pruitt, who was to be sworn in later on Friday afternoon at the White House. Only one Republican, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, voted against him. Two Democrats from energy-producing states, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, voted for his confirmation. "I have no doubt that Scott will return the EPA to its core objectives," said Republican Senator James Inhofe, also of Oklahoma, adding the agency had been guilty of "federal overreach, unlawful rule making, and duplicative red tape," during President Barack Obama's presidency. The nomination of Pruitt, who sued the EPA more than a dozen times on behalf of his oil-producing state and has doubted the science of climate change, upset many former and current agency employees. Nearly 800 former EPA staff urged the Senate to reject Pruitt in a letter this week, saying he had "shown no interest in enforcing environmental laws." Earlier this month, about 30 current employees at an EPA regional office in Chicago joined a protest against Pruitt held by green groups. Trump is likely to issue executive orders as soon as next week to reshape the EPA, sources said. The Republican president has promised to kill Obama's Clean Power Plan, currently held up in the courts, that aims to slash carbon emissions from coal and natural gas fired power plants. Trump also wants to give states more authority over environmental issues by striking down federal regulations on drilling technologies and getting rid of an Obama rule that sought to clarify the EPA's jurisdiction over streams and rivers. Conservatives warmly welcomed Pruitt's confirmation. "For far too long the EPA has acted in an overzealous manner, ignoring the separation of powers, the role of states and the rights of property owners," said Nick Loris, an economist at the Heritage Foundation. Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, however, said he was concerned that if the administration does not enforce emissions cuts such as outlined in the Clean Power Plan, it would increase U.S. pollution and harm the country's leadership in international efforts to curb climate change. Opponents of Pruitt also protested his ties to the energy industry. Republicans have the majority in the Senate, but Democrats spoke through Thursday night and Friday morning on the Senate floor, trying to extend debate on Pruitt until later in February when 3,000 emails between him and energy companies will likely be revealed by a judge. An Oklahoma judge ruled this week that Pruitt will have to turn over the emails between his office and energy companies by Tuesday after a watchdog group, the Center for Media and Democracy, sued for their release. The judge will review and perhaps hold back some of the emails before releasing them, a court clerk said. Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell had moved to "strap blinders" on his fellow Republicans by not waiting for the release of Pruitt's emails. Environmentalists decried the approval. "If you don't believe in climate science, you don't belong at the EPA," said May Boeve, the head of environmentalist group 350.org.


More than 160 Simon and Schuster children's book authors have signed a letter to the CEO of the company protesting the publishing of Breitbart Senior editor MILO's upcoming book, "DANGEROUS. "[The letter, organised by Simon and Schuster's children's authors, was published Thursday morning with signees such as Newbery, Caldecott, and honorees of the National Book Award. Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi also texted his signature from India according to the release. The letter reads, We, as Simon Schuster children's and YA authors and illustrators, have deep respect for our publisher, our editors, and the Simon Schuster Children's Division, which we believe strives to publish the strongest, most diverse list it can acquire, for the betterment of literature and children everywhere. Sadly, we cannot extend this same respect to Simon Schuster's Threshold imprint following their decision to lend the legitimacy of this publisher's venerable brand to Milo Yiannopoulos. Threshold has placed Simon Schuster's considerable reputation and weight behind one of the most prominent faces of the newly repackaged white nationalist movement and financially supported a man who routinely denigrates, verbally attacks, and directs dangerous internet doxxing and hate campaigns against women, minorities, LGBTQ individuals, Muslims, and anyone he chooses to target who supports equality and human decency. Irrespective of the content of this book, by extending a mainstream publication contract, Threshold has chosen to legitimize this reprehensible belief system, these behaviors, and white supremacy itself. Additionally, they have associated all of Simon Schuster with it, and therefore weakened the reach of the many other brilliant imprints that daily attempt to contribute to humanity instead of destroy it. This is not an issue of advocating or suppressing free speech, as Mr. Yiannopoulos has a broad internet broadcasting platform and the support of many extremist organizations and publications. His voice is certainly being heard, and it is a voice of hate that stirs its followers to emotional, verbal, and physical violence directed at anyone who disagrees or speaks to the contrary. Insinuating that people who protest this terrible decision wish to suppress free speech is gaslighting. As Simon Schuster authors and illustrators who are already published, with books in the release pipeline, with contracts in place, we do not have to quietly accept or assent to this "Gleichschaltung," this getting in line with fascism and making it mainstream. We reject the wisdom of this decision. This man, and this book, are not America. This man, and this book, are not the bulk of Simon Schuster. This man, and this book, are not us, the authors and illustrators of Simon Schuster. We believe that the children we write for deserve a better America. We the undersigned pledge to continue to advocate tolerance, acceptance, love, diversity, and equality, and respectfully ask you to take an irrefutable stand against hate. Simon and Schuster has yet to respond to the letter.


A 30-year prison sentence for a woman in El Salvador who said her child was stillborn is appalling, U.N. human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell said on Friday. The Second Court of Appeal of San Salvador on Wednesday upheld the sentence for Teodora Vasquez, who was convicted in 2008 of aggravated homicide in the death of her child the previous year. Prosecutors said Vasquez strangled the baby after birth. Her lawyers said she suffered health complications and the baby was stillborn. Since 1997, El Salvador has had one of the world s most severe laws against women who have abortions or are suspected of assisting them. It is absolutely astounding, astonishing, appalling that these women are in essence being convicted of having a miscarriage, having a child stillborn, Throssell said. They are basically being convicted for being women, for losing a child and for being poor, she said, adding that at least 41 other women have been similarly convicted over the past decade or so. The U.N. was not aware of El Salvador jailing any women from wealthier backgrounds under the same law, Throssell said.


Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence said on Sunday that evidence implicated Russia in recent email hacks tied to the Nov. 8 U.S. election, contradicting his running mate, Donald Trump, who has cast doubt on Russia's involvement. Pence's comments came after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview that aired on Sunday that the United States would be sending a message to Russia "at the time of our choosing" about the email attacks. Obama administration officials initially refused to say if they thought Russia was behind the attacks, before accusing Moscow for the first time earlier this month. President Barack Obama said in an interview with NBC News that "anything's possible" when asked if Russia hacked into the Democratic National Committee. "What we do know is the Russians hack our systems, not just government systems, but private systems," Obama said. "But what the motives were in terms of the leaks and all that, I can't say directly, but what I do know is that Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin." Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, speaking about the hack of the DNC emails, said the U.S. intelligence community was not ready to "make the call on attribution" as to who was responsible. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson offered state officials help from hacking threats or other possible election tampering, in the face of unsubstantiated allegations by Trump that the system is open to fraud. Speaking at a conference in Washington, Clapper said that "the Russians hack our systems all the time," but he did not officially blame them for the intrusions into Democratic Party organizations. During a live interview with the Washington Post, Clapper said Russia had a tradition of trying to interfere in elections in other countries. He added that his biggest concern was not that a foreign power would try to affect the outcome of the U.S. election but instead "cast doubt on the whole process." The U.S. government for the first time formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations. "We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities," the Obama administration said in a statement. Biden said in an interview with NBC News that the United States would send a "proportional" response to Russia for the hacking "at the time of our choosing and under the circumstances that have the greatest impact."


If this keeps up, the Democrats will never win another election Several county clerks in Colorado said they ve seen hundreds of people withdraw their voter registrations following the state s announcement that it would comply with President Trump s voter fraud commission.In Denver, a spokesperson for the Denver Elections Division said 180 people have withdrawn their registrations in the county since Monday, according to a Denver Channel report.In Arapahoe County, which contains the city of Aurora, at least 160 people have withdrawn their registrations since July 1.The counties normally see fewer than 10 withdrawn registrations in similar time frames.Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams said last week he would submit the registrations requested by the Trump administration.Numerous states have said they won t comply with the request for voter registrations, which include the last four digits of Social Security numbers and other identifying information. CNN reported earlier this week that 44 states refused to comply with the request by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who serves as vice chair of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.Kobach disputed that number Wednesday, saying only 14 states and the District of Columbia have refused. Washington Examiner


Ukrainian Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko said on Thursday he was open to amending law reforms amid concerns they aided corruption and could lead to the end of probes into the shooting of protesters in the run-up up to the 2014 revolution. The eastern European nation, which is in a dispute with Russia over its annexation of Crimea, passed amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code last week that anti-corruption groups say severely limits the time investigators have to solve a crime and present a case in court. Petrenko said he had yet to go through the final text of the lengthy reforms, but he said that he was aware of the concerns. If there (are) some positions which make problems for the investigations process for old cases or for new cases I will give proposals to the parliament and president to change these positions, Petrenko told Reuters in an interview in Sydney, where he was attending a legal industry conference. The legislation still requires the sign-off from President Petro Poroshenko. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine said in a statement last week the new legislation could force investigators to present a criminal case before court within six months, or up to 12 months with a court extension. Corrupt officials could benefit, the law enforcement agency said, given the complexity of investigations that can involve international assistance. There are also fears that the legislation could prevent prosecutions for crimes committed during the Euromaidan street demonstrations in 2013 and 2014, where more than 100 protesters, demanding closer European integration, were gunned down. The popular uprising, that focused on corruption concerns and the country s Russian ties, culminated with the removal of the then president Viktor Yanukovych. More than three years on, Ukraine is still dealing with allegations of deep corruption with Transparency International earlier this year ranking it 131st of 176 countries in the World Ranking of Corruption Perception. Petrenko said on Thursday the country was intent on reforming its judicial system, which included the selection of more than 100 Supreme Court judges after a competition-style candidate process designed to root out corruption. Are all these people ideal? I think no, because the country is not ideal, Petrenko said. You cannot find some ideal people from Mars or from the moon and take them and put in these positions, but those people, they went through the objective, transparent and absolutely public competition. Ukraine is the recipient of an aid-for-reforms program from the International Monetary Fund.


More than 500,000 people have gotten health insurance in Kentucky through the state's health care exchange, Kynect, and through expanded Medicaid. Kentucky has seen the second-steepest drop in uninsured of any state. Supporters of the health care law point to it as one of the success stories, but the man who very well could become the state's next governor is vowing to "dismantle" Kynect and cancel the Medicaid expansion. "We will have a very spirited discussion as it relates to health care in our state. Trust me on that," vowed Republican Matt Bevin, the surprising apparent winner of the contentious GOP gubernatorial primary. The Tea Party-backed Bevin finished just 83 votes ahead of James Comer, the state's agriculture commissioner, out of more than 200,000 votes. "Obamacare's been very good to the state," said Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky. But President Obama is very unpopular in the state and anything associated with him is, too. Kentuckians and Bevin are stressing the "first three syllables instead of the last one" in Obamacare, Cross said. It is the latest example of the problems Obama's signature legislation has faced at the state level, where most governors and legislatures are in Republican hands. The Affordable Care Act, often called "Obamacare," can be viewed very differently based on the name. In 2013, Hart Research and Public Opinion Strategies, the bipartisan pollsters who conduct the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, tested that in 2013 for CNBC. The poll asked separately about feelings toward "Obamacare" and the "Affordable Care Act." There was almost a 10-point difference in how much more negatively people felt toward "Obamacare," and almost three times as many did not know the "Affordable Care Act." It was similar when the question was asked specifically in Kentucky about feelings toward "Kynect" and "the new health care law." An NBC News/Marist poll in May 2014 found by a 29 percent to 22 percent margin that Kentuckians had a favorable opinion of their state health care exchange. But 57 percent had an unfavorable view of "Obamacare," while just 1 in 3 had a positive one. In Kentucky, the governor has the power to unilaterally create or disband programs like Kynect, Cross said. Incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear chose to both set up a state exchange and expand Medicare. But he is term-limited. Bevin, a venture capitalist who lost badly in a Senate primary last year to Mitch McConnell, would face off with Democrat Jack Conway. Conway, the state attorney general, starts as a slight favorite, but Kentucky is a conservative state, and Conway struggled in his 2010 Senate bid against Republican Rand Paul. Bevin made getting rid of Kynect and the Medicaid expansion central to his campaign. He is also vowing to implement right-to-work laws and shrink government, in part, through attrition of public sector workers. "I think it, too, is destined to crumble under the weight of its own instability," Bevin said of Kynect when he announced his long-shot bid for governor. Bevin wound up breaking through in the primary, in large measure, by pitting the two front-runners against each other. He did it with this memorable ad, depicting Comer and Hal Heiner, a former Louisville city councilman, as children at a backyard table throwing food at each other: "Hal Heiner and James Comer are acting like children, throwing insults and attacking each other," an announcer says as pasta splatters across the lens. "Kentucky can do much better." The ad pivots, labeling Bevin as "grown-up leadership for Kentucky." But now it will be Bevin's policies that come under sharper scrutiny. He argues the state cannot afford the Medicaid expansion, which was the biggest reason for the drop in the uninsured. Federal funds currently pay for it, but that money will eventually go away. "The fact that we have 1 out of 4 people in this state on Medicaid is unsustainable; it's unaffordable," Bevin said during the campaign, "and we need to create jobs in this state, not more government programs to cover people." But Medicaid expansion is different than Kynect, which has been held up as one of the best-functioning state exchanges in the country. "He won't get away with it," Cross maintained of Bevin's promise to get rid of Kynect. "He'll have to get serious about it at some point and stop conflating Kynect and the Medicaid expansion."


Tune in to the Alternate Current Radio Network (ACR) for another LIVE broadcast of The Boiler Room tonight 6:00 PM PST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST for this special broadcast. Join us for uncensored, uninterruptible talk radio, custom-made for bar fly philosophers, misguided moralists, masochists, street corner evangelists, media-maniacs, savants, political animals and otherwise lovable rascals.Join ACR hosts Hesher and Spore along side Andy Nowicki (The Nameless One), Randy J and Fvnk$oul (ACR and 21Wire contributors) for the hundred and thirty first episode of BOILER ROOM. Turn it up, tune in and hang with the ACR Brain-Trust for this weeks boil downs and analysis and the usual gnashing of the teeth of the political animals in the social reject club.This week on Boiler Room the ACR Brain-Trust is examining the change in the Boy Scouts of America allowing girls into the club, Harvey Weinstein s perverted history in Hollywood, the potential ramifications of his being outed as a sexual predator who s been covered for by the mainstream media and leftist politicians for many years and giving a good beat down to rapper, Eminem, who foolishly decided to throw his rap stylings into the political realm and failed miserably.Direct Download Episode #131 Please like and share the program and visit our donate page to get involved! Reference Links, for your consideration and research:


We ve noticed a trend across America that s disturbing because the communities of Muslims do not assimilate but want Americans to bend to their every whim. We noticed in the last election that a non-English speaking forum was held in Minneapolis for the 2016 election:Ilhan Omar now addressing the room. No English so far in candidate speeches, so I can t relay what has been said pic.twitter.com/OH3jTpH91I Eric Roper (@StribRoper) March 2, 2016NO ENGLISH SPOKEN AT ALL Do you call that assimilation?Quite a scene here as Omar (left) and Noor (right) supporters break off pic.twitter.com/O2aRZ18HKC Eric Roper (@StribRoper) March 2, 2016An uptick in Muslim activists running for positions in public office is noticeable so we wanted to find out who s behind it: NEW AMERICAN LEADERS PROJECT RECRUITS ANYONE BUT WHITES TO RUN FOR OFFICENew group in Maryland is recruiting Muslim candidates to run for officeCANDIDATES ACROSS AMERICA WILL SHAPE POLICY:Son Of Egyptian Immigrants Hopes To Become FIRST MUSLIM GOVERNOR In U.S Will Push For Sanctuary State REFUGEE TO ACTIVIST: DEEQO JIBRIL IS GIVING IMMIGRANTS HOPE A nice fluff piece by NBC on a Muslim activist running for city council in MASSDearborn: Amnesty-pushing Obama Muslim appointee announces run for CongressWHY MUSLIMS ARE LESS LIKELY TO INTEGRATE INTO WESTERN NATIONS: Sharia lawyer and expert Daniel Akbari tells Ezra Levant of The Rebel Media why Muslims are less likely to integrate into Western nations. This is one of the best interviews we ve come across on the truth in Sharia law and abiding by the Koran. How can a Muslim follow our laws when they are taught to follow Sharia law?WRAPSNET is a great resource for anyone concerned about refugees and where they re going. You can find out what who, what and where the refugees are going. It s shocking to see but should be shared with everyone!What we found: Arrivals are close to 50,000!Some of the top states receiving refugees are Florida, Georgia, Texas, California and Arizona. Please note that California is off the charts with over 4 thousand refugees! Remember that those refugees can relocate anywhere they want to and do. Pockets of mostly Muslim refugees like to live separated from their community so they will seek out other Muslim pods of refugees.Places like Minneapolis have become swamped with Somali Muslims. They even have an area called Little Mogadishu that is flooded with Smoalis:Isolation of the Somali Muslim community AND teaching Sharia law in Muslim schools in Minneapolis are the two main reasons why we should still fear their recruitment to terrorism. Assimilation hasn t happened and that s a HUGE problem! A very recent article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune discusses a new Somali Mall:Minneapolis Council Member Abdi Warsame pledges to build new Somali mallPete Hegseth goes to Little Mogadishu and finds out that many Somali Muslims don t speak English and that they actually teach Sharia law in school but not sure about American law. This all goes back to the REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM and the HUGE problem with bringing over 3 million MOSTLY Muslims to the U.S. in the past 30 years. We need to take a look at defunding this program because it s ballooned way past what it was originally intended to be.


License DMCA  How much does it take to get by where you live? A new report concludes that current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour doesn't come close, anywhere in the United States. It takes more than $15 per hour to earn a living wage in most states. When you throw in the rising cost of student debt, low-income Americans are even further underwater.  The report, " Waiting for the Payoff: How Low Wages and Student Debt Keep Prosperity Out of Reach (pdf)," was issued this week by the People's Action Institute. Among its findings:  * It takes more than $15 per hour to earn a living wage in 42 states and the District of Columbia. That figure is over $16 in more than half of the country, comes to nearly $20 per hour in California, and is more than $20 in New York state.  * New York State's minimum wage of $9 per hour provides only 44 percent of a living wage for a single adult and less than a quarter of the living wage for a single adult with two children."  * Arkansas had the lowest hourly rate of any state, but at $14.58 per hour it was barely below the $15 per hour minimum proposed by Fight for 15 . - Advertisement -  * The situation is even more dire for working parents. A single adult with two children needs more than $26 per hour to get by in South Carolina, more than $41 per hour in New York state, and nearly $44 per hour in Washington DC.  * 43 states and Washington, D.C. have a lower minimum wage for tipped workers. Half of tipped workers are 30 years old or older, and tipped workers are three times as likely as other workers to be impoverished.  What's the price of a dream? For people who saw college as the way to a better life, this country's student debt crisis offers a harsh answer. More than 43 million Americans now carry some level of student debt.  Student loan debt in this country now totals more than $1.3 trillion -- and it's getting worse. Common Dreams' Deirdre Fulton points to a new study from the Institute of College Access and Success which shows that the average undergraduate borrower now graduates with $30,100 in debt, a 4 percent increase from last year's figure.  Living wage figures rise even higher when the cost of student debt is factored in. The national median payment for student debt comes to $242 per month. Student debt cost increases the national average living wage from $17.28 to $18.67 per hour. - Advertisement -  College graduates typically earn higher wages, but the discrimination faced by women and people of color contributes to ongoing wage inadequacy. For example, African Americans are considerably more likely to take on student debt that white Americans, and are more likely to go to higher-cost private institutions. Women and people of color are more likely to work in tipped occupations, so the sub-minimum wage affects these groups disproportionately.  Wage discrimination is also a critical problem, both for student debt holders and low-wage workers as a whole. As the report notes:  "... Majors with a high proportion of white males, such as computer and information sciences, see starting salaries of $65,000. At the same time, English and Psychology, which see more women and people of color, have median starting salaries of $35,000 and $32,750 per year, respectively -- lower even than the traditional living wage for a single adult."  Discrimination in hiring and other systemic problems take a heavy toll. For each dollar paid to white male college graduates with degrees, black men are paid 78 cents; Latinos are paid 81 cents; black women are paid 72 cents; and Latinas are paid 69 cents.


Ben Carson, President Donald Trump's nominee to lead U.S. housing policy, won approval on Tuesday from the Senate committee reviewing the qualifications of the retired neurosurgeon and former Republican presidential candidate. The endorsement by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, by a voice vote shown on its website, cleared the way for a full Senate vote on Carson's appointment as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Carson, 65, had promised senators on the committee during a confirmation hearing that he would monitor any potential conflicts of interest between his agency and properties controlled by real estate mogul Trump. He also told lawmakers during a hearing on Jan. 12 that he was fit to lead HUD, an agency that offers housing to the poor, even though he has sometimes criticized its work.


MARK STEYN ON TRUMP S MOVE LAST NIGHT: @MarkSteynOnline pic.twitter.com/CM21gVlFWW FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) April 7, 2017Gen. Jack Keane said this is a major setback for Russia and Iran, close allies of the regime of Syrian President Bashar-al Assad. These airstrikes are a sign that the U.S. is open to taking a more aggressive role in the Syrian civil war. This is an incredible message. It should have been sent many years ago by the Obama administration. MARK STEYN NAILS IT ON INTERVENTION IN SYRIA:Mark Steyn nailed it when he said that President Trump should be cautious about using American power to overthrow a dictator without a very clear endgame: To go back to the Democrats most notorious debacle, Hillary thought knocking off Gaddafi in Libya would be easy and cost-free. What we know now is that it left a power vacuum and further destabilized the Middle East. You ve got to have an endgame here. You ve got to know what you want Syria to look like after Assad, or it s a waste of time. Trump has been very clear that he regards running around Afghanistan for 15 years as a complete waste of time. He doesn t want to get into a similar situation. THE COMMENTS BEGIN ON SYRIA AT THE 3:00 MARK:


The Senate session is coming to a close for the 113th Congress, and we are seeing a dramatic change in its composition come January 2017. Liberal firebrands Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer and Barbara Mikulski will be retiring, leaving quite a big void in the chamber but they will all be succeeded by equally progressive leaders, so no need to worry.As per tradition, the outgoing members of the Senate gave their farewell addresses on the floor, speaking for the last time in their capacity as Senators. Needless to say, it was bittersweet watching these leaders (who have been in the Senate for over 25 years) pass the torch. But while watching their remarks and their colleagues tributes we are reminded of all the handwork they did for the progressive causes we as Democrats hold so dear.Here are their farewell addresses.Barbara BoxerSenator Boxer has served in the Senate since 1993 for California, and beforehand in the House from 1983 until joining the Senate. She chaired the Senate Environment Committee before becoming a ranking member. A pro-LGBT (before it was acceptable), pro-worker s rights, pro-environmentalism senator, Boxer never wavered in her fight for what was right for not only California but for the whole country.Barbara Mikulski Senator Mikulski, the longest-serving woman in Congressional history, arrived in the House in 1977, serving until moving up to the Senate in 1987. She chaired the powerful Appropriations Committee, becoming a ranking member. Coining the term Macaroni and cheese economics, Mikulski worked tirelessly for working families, children, women, and veterans, who too often fell prey and victim to a system that was rigged against the little guys.Harry ReidSenator Reid, who entered the United States Congress in 1983 and the Senate in 1987, bringing with him a unique and humbling story of hope, handwork and perseverance. For two years Reid served as Minority Leader until elevating to Majority Leader, a position he held for 8 years in which he fought tooth and nail to protect and defend President Obama s legacy and the progressive ideals the Democrats work for every single day. Whether it be standing up to Ted Cruz during a government shut down, or convincing centrist Democrats to vote in favor of Obamacare, Harry Reid never backed down ever. And we are better as a nation because of that.These three progressive Senators blazed trails and put up the good fight. When the going got tough, the tough got going. Senators Boxer, Mikulski and Reid stood tall in times of thick and thin, and never wavered in their commitment to doing the right thing. These Senators will be missed greatly, and their legacies will live on long after they leave their seats. There might never be more like them, but we should all feel lucky that each one will be succeeded by intelligent, equally compassionate progressives who share their values.Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, and Barbara Mikulski you will be greatly missed. Thank you for your service.


EXTREME POSITIONS ON ABORTIONHillary Clinton positioned herself as a moderate on abortion for much of her career, but now holds the most extreme positions on abortion of any presidential candidate ever.Here are three reasons why:1. She wants taxpayers to pay for abortion.Clinton supports government funding for abortion. On June 10, Clinton delivered a speech at a Planned Parenthood event in which she called for repealing the Hyde Amendment, a policy that prevents taxpayer funding for abortion. Let s repeal laws like the Hyde Amendment that make it nearly impossible for low-income women, disproportionately women of color, to exercise their full reproductive rights, she said.The Democratic National Committee added this goal to its platform after Clinton became the nominee.An August YouGov poll found that 55 percent of Americans support the Hyde Amendment. This includes a large number of Democrats, who are about evenly divided. Forty-one percent of Democrats support the ban on abortion funding while 44 percent oppose it, which is within the poll s margin of error (4.8 percentage points for the full sample).2. She supports abortion until birth.Clinton supports abortion up until the moment of birth.She doesn t say it exactly like that, of course, because it sounds awful when you say a baby can be legally killed right before she s born. Instead, Clinton uses some shifty Clintonian lingo.Clinton has said she supports restrictions only in the third trimester and only if there are exceptions for the life and health of the mother. (In one interview she said there should only be restrictions at the very end of the third trimester. ) But as Clinton understands, and most voters don t, the health exception is just a huge loophole that allows for abortion for any reason.The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Doe v. Bolton, the companion case to Roe v. Wade, that the health exception can be whatever the abortionist decides it is.An abortionist s medical judgment may be exercised in the light of all factors physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman s age relevant to the well-being of the patient. All these factors may relate to health, the court decided.So, when Clinton says she ll only support abortion restrictions in the third trimester if there is a health exception, she is effectually saying there should be no restrictions on abortion through the entire pregnancy. She admits this when pressed on the issue.In an April appearance on ABC s The View, Clinton was asked if she supports legal abortion just hours before delivery, and she agreed. That same week, on NBC s Meet the Press, she was asked, when or if does an unborn child have constitutional rights? She answered, the unborn person doesn t have constitutional rights. A July 16 Marist poll found that only 13 percent of Americans think abortion should be legal through the entire pregnancy. Similarly, a 2012 Gallup poll found only 14 percent of Americans believe abortion should be legal in the last three months of pregnancy, and a July 2014 HuffPost/YouGov poll found that 59 percent of Americans support a ban on abortions after 20-weeks of gestation, which is during the second trimester. 3. She thinks abortion should be common, not rare.Clinton no longer argues that abortion should be rare.During his 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton s husband, Bill, said that abortion should be safe, legal and rare. It was controversial at the time within the pro-choice community because saying that abortion should be rare implies that there is something wrong with getting an abortion. (What could that be?) But the phrase helped establish Bill Clinton s public image as a moderate on abortion.


Welcome to the new America, where there can be no opposition to the Left or there will be serious consequences The retired cop who annually cut a rug while directing Rhode Island traffic until Providence cut ties with him when he protested a Black Lives Matter supporter has a new dance partner on the other side of town.Tony Lepore, 68, is taking his holiday dance act to East Providence from Dec. 10 to Dec. 24, the cavorting cop said during an appearance Sunday on Fox & Friends. And I ll always on the 24th wear my Santa hat and pass out candy canes to the kids, said Lepore, who s been dancing in the streets since 1984.A longtime local favorite, Providence dropped Lepore s services after he helped organize a picket outside a Dunkin Donuts where a worker wrote #blacklivesmatter on a police officer s coffee cup. Mr. Lepore was not authorized to speak on behalf of the Providence Police Department and his actions were, in my judgment, a disservice to the department and to members of the Providence community, Providence Police Chief Stephen Pare said in a statement.Lepore said Sunday he was aware of the risks of his protest but he wanted to support the beat cops. Black Lives Matter is an organization that has some individuals some individuals that advocate harm to police officers, Lepore said. Since we picketed and got a written apology from the Dunkin Donuts owner. . . . we haven t had one incident in Rhode Island.


President Donald Trump previewed his administration's budget, promising to hold each branch of his cabinet accountable. ["We must do a lot more with less," he said prior to a working lunch with economic and political advisers. Trump described the current financial situation of the country as "a mess" and vowed to fix it. "The finances of this country are a mess, but we're going to clean that up," Trump said, pointing out that he had only been president for four weeks. "I can't take too much of the blame for what's happened, but it is absolutely out of control. " Trump met with his Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, as well as Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. He was joined by his senior staff, including Jared Kushner, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, and his economic adviser Gary Cohn. He asserted that funding the military was a priority, and promised to negotiate more deals for the government. "We have already saved a lot — billions and billions of dollars," he said, referring to his efforts at renegotiating federal contracts.


Is anyone else getting sick and tired of hearing all of the baseless lies being told about Trump? There is zero evidence that Trump is a racist, yet the Left continues to spew that horrible label every chance they get. If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler s public relations mastermind


Talk radio hosts went nuts with the news of Gore s visit to Trump Tower today. Michael Savage was very disappointed but Rush Limbaugh gave the best comment: I m gonna tell you something, said Limbaugh. If Trump goes south on climate change, that is just gonna be deeply disappointing and alarming because of what climate change is to the left. It s everything, it s everything they want and everything they believe and it s almost everything they can get to achieve it, to accomplish it. We couldn t agree more with Rush! It s just upsetting that they would even want to speak with the phony who claims global warming is real Yikes!


Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane just couldn t resist having a bit of fun with Kellyanne Conway s absolutely batsh*t insane claim regarding Trump s unfounded allegation that President Obama spied on The Donald through his microwave. On Monday, the legendary comedy figure tweeted his own theory about what Conway meant and to him, it sounds a lot like the sort of thing you d expect from the furniture at PeeWee s Playhouse (those sneaky little bastards):So basically @KellyannePolls, you're saying this is how Obama spied on Trump: pic.twitter.com/8IeecMwa5E Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) March 13, 2017 There was an article this week that talked about how you can surveil someone through their phones, through their certainly through their television sets, any number of different ways, Conway said over the weekend as she attempted to defend Trump s claim that Obama tapped his wires at Trump Tower. And microwaves that turn into cameras, et cetera. So we know that that is just a fact of modern life. Tech publication Wired explains that it is, contrary to her assertion, impossible to use a microwave oven to spy on someone (unless, of course, it really is the worst Transformer ever):First, let s take Conway s assertion literally. Microwaves (the waves) can be used for certain types of imaging, as in radar, but a microwave oven can t be used as a camera unless it literally has an outward-facing webcam onboard. No such microwave appears to exist. That s in contrast to the case of the spying Samsung TVs, referenced by Conway, that each come with a built-in, internet-connected microphone.But what if we were to take Conway not literally, but seriously? Asked whether a microwave could be turned into not a camera, specifically, but a listening device, Stephen Frasier, a microwave imaging and radar researcher at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, let out several seconds of sustained laughter. Unless it s a voice-activated microwave oven connected to the internet I can t think of a way, says Frasier. Outside of a failed smart microwave Kickstarter, no microphone-equipped microwaves appear to exist. In fact, a quick check of major appliance manufacturers including GE, LG, and Samsung shows that internet-connected microwaves are a rarity. Even those that might exist in early-adopting kitchens would be far more likely to be conscripted into a botnet than used as a listening device.To date, the Trump administration has not produced a shred of evidence to back Trump s claim though they did secure additional time to stall as they desperately search for something anything that will at least convince the most stupid among us that it happened.


Nigeria s army said it had repelled an attack on Monday by suspected Boko Haram militants on the city at the center of the conflict with the Islamist insurgency. Major General Nicholas Rogers, who heads Nigeria s military operations against Boko Haram, told Reuters that the situation in Maiduguri, in the northeast of Nigeria, was under control. He did not give further details. The government says it is on alert for Boko Haram attacks during the Christmas period and other festivals for Christians and Muslims. Embassies regularly warn their nationals to be cautious and avoid public spaces at those times. Heavy gunfire was heard in the Molai area on the outskirts of the city on Monday evening, prompting residents to flee the district, two residents and an officer in a local vigilante group had said. The vigilante commander, who asked not to be identified, said his group had joined the effort to repel the attackers. There were no immediate reports of casualties nor any immediate claim of responsibility. It was also not immediately possible to identify the target of the assault. Boko Haram has in the past targeted places of worship during religious celebrations, including attacking churches at Christmas or mosques during Muslim festivals or prayer times. The last major Boko Haram attack on Maiduguri, a mainly Muslim city with a Christian minority, was in June, when the group launched an assault on the eve of a visit by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. President Muhammadu Buhari s administration has previously said Boko Haram was almost defeated but the latest attack shows the group s continued ability to stage hit-and-run raids, prompting a renewed government push against the militants. The Nigerian government approved the release of $1 billion last week from a state oil fund to help with the fight. Nigeria s long-term plan is to corral civilians inside fortified garrison towns, a move that effectively cedes the rural areas to Boko Haram. Nigeria replaced its previous military commander of the fight against Boko Haram after half a year in the post. Military sources told Reuters this followed a series of embarrassing attacks by the militants.


The U.S. Navy carrier Ronald Reagan is conducting drills with Japanese warships in seas south of the Korean peninsula, Japan s military said on Friday, in a show of naval power as Pyongyang threatens further nuclear and missile tests. The Reagan strike group will conduct a separate drill with the South Korean Navy in October, the defense ministry said in a statement distributed to South Korean lawmakers on Monday. The 100,000-ton Reagan, which is based in Japan, and its escort ships have been holding drills with Japanese navy vessels since Sept 11 in waters south and west of Japan s main islands, the Japan Maritime Self Defence Force said in a statement. That exercise with the three Japanese warships, including two destroyers and one of the country s two biggest helicopter carriers, the Ise, will run until Sept 28, it added. The U.S. and regional allies are responding with military drills, including bomber and jet fighter flights near the Korean peninsula, as Pyongyang pursues its nuclear and missile programs, with an apparent hydrogen bomb test and two ballistic missile firings over Japan in recent weeks. North Korea on Friday said it might test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to destroy the country.


The most worrying thing about James Hodgkinson, experts on violent extremism say, is how unremarkable the 66-year-old home inspector from Illinois seemed until he opened fire on Republican lawmakers as they played baseball. Violent clashes between left-wing and right-wing groups at rallies and protests around the country have increased since the election of President Donald Trump in November. Experts say detecting and heading off anti-government attacks from people driven by political ideology is increasingly difficult because of the abundance of partisan rancor, particularly on social media. Hodgkinson wrote a series of strident messages against Trump and other Republicans on his Facebook account. But so have many other Americans as politics have become more polarized in recent years, particularly since the divisive 2016 presidential election campaign. None of Hodgkinson's posts suggested he would end up opening fire at a baseball field outside Washington on Wednesday morning. He wounded a top Republican lawmaker, a Congressional aide, a lobbyist, and a Capitol police officer before being shot himself. He later died from his wounds. In one Facebook post, Hodgkinson wrote: "Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It's Time to Destroy Trump & Co." However, there is no evidence so far that he was linked to any radical or violent groups. Like millions of other Americans, he supported Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who sought the Democratic presidential nomination and condemns violence. Steve Bongardt, who worked until 2015 as an FBI special agent focusing on threat detection, said traditional counter-terrorism tools such as behavioral profiling and surveillance are less effective because so many otherwise harmless people post virulent messages on social media. "The problem isn't that behavioral profiles don't work. The problem is the utility of them, because they give us so many false positives," said Bongardt, who now heads The Gyges Group, a security firm. Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow in the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, said the intensity of emotions on both sides of the political divide could be dangerous. "When you have people with basically mainstream opinions so worked up that they're willing to commit acts of actual violence, it illustrates in a very stark way how divided our country is right now," Pitcavage said. A spokesman for the Justice Department said the department is considering a possible statute to target "ideologically motivated crimes of violence" from radical groups or individuals inside the country. Jerry Boykin, executive vice president of the conservative Family Research Council, which a gunman attacked in 2012 over its opposition to same-sex marriage, said Wednesday's shooting showed that both sides need to "tone down their rhetoric." "This is an opportunity for a fresh start for everybody in a position of leadership, all the way up to the president," Boykin said. Most political violence in the United States still comes from right-wing groups, according to Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. However, the United States also has a history of violence from left-wing groups such as the Weather Underground, which was active in the 1970s. It then eased substantially over the past three decades but has risen again in recent years with violence at protests against globalization, police brutality and the Trump administration, Levin said. Left-wing extremists "might be the junior varsity, but they're now on the radar screen," he said. It is too early to say if Hodgkinson's attack was part of a post-election trend of left-wing violence, said J.J. MacNab, a fellow specializing in anti-government extremism at George Washington University's Center for Cyber and Homeland Security. "We are a cycle-of-violence country. It looks like we may be going into a left-wing phase now, but I'm not sure the violent right-wing is ready to shut up yet," MacNab said.


Her shoes were bedazzled platform moon boots. Her outfit was encircled by a tutu tilted at a particularly rakish angle. Her capelet, cresting in tusklike spikes, appeared to be from aluminum foil. Jeremy Scott, the fashion designer, leaned forward and fixed the contestant, Alyssa Edwards, with a look. "I will just come out of the closet here and say, This is fashion," he said. And because this is also "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" — one of the reality TV shows in the empire overseen by RuPaul Charles, the drag "supermodel of the world" — Ms. Edwards, a drawling diva out of Mesquite, Tex. accepted the compliment and went on to Taylor Dayne's "Tell It to My Heart. " For the uninitiated, "RuPaul's Drag Race" is a competition on the Logo network to find "America's next drag superstar. " It is a campy, joyful pastiche of "Project Runway," "America's Next Top Model" and "America's Got Talent," requiring its superstars to sing, dance, act, strut and for the title. Along the way, in and out of drag, contestants design and make their own dresses, spackle on their own makeup and merrily talk trash about, and to, one another. Is it any wonder that it has become the fashion industry's favorite show? "I've seen every episode," said Marc Jacobs, who, like Mr. Scott, has been a guest judge on the show. (Mr. Charles and his friend and sidekick, Michelle Visage, are two of the constant judges, with a rotating roster of regulars and guests.) "It makes me laugh, it makes me cry. There's a lot of power in it, and I'm not a big reality TV show fan at all. " It was first recommended to him by the photographer Steven Meisel. Since its premiere in 2009, "Drag Race" has grown from minor curiosity into niche touchstone, largely by word of mouth and social media. This month, after being ignored by most major awards for years, Mr. Charles won his (and the show's) first Emmy, for best host. Its audience is growing along with its acclaim. The first episode of the eighth season of "Drag Race," its most recent, which concluded in May, was the most streamed in the history of the series. Viewership for the second season of "Drag Race All Stars," in which previous contestants come back for a second chance at a crown, airing now, is up 28 percent over "Drag Race" (and more than 50 percent over the first season of "All Stars"). Winners and have gone on to perform around the world, record albums and music videos, team up with cosmetics companies and, in at least one case (Laganja Estranja, Season 6) debut a line of fashion, accessories and dog clothes. In some circles, the show has been celebrated for its politics of affirmation and visibility. In fashion circles, it is celebrated for this, too — but also for minting a class of who look great in a dress. "It's happening," said Miss Fame, 31, a contestant on Season 7. "The doors have been opening. " Since being on "Drag Race," she has attended New York Fashion Week (and will attend Paris's this season) and made beauty videos for L'Oréal, which sent her to the Cannes Film Festival, where she walked the red carpet in a Zac Posen gown. Mr. Charles's queens are now guests at fashion shows and fashion week parties, adored by the biggest names in the industry. Pat McGrath, the doyenne of runway makeup artists, posts images of contestants on her social media accounts. Miu Miu flew several contestants to Paris for a party to celebrate its perfume last July. They also appear in magazines and ad campaigns. Mr. Meisel was on the vanguard when he shot Carmen Carrera (an early contestant who has since announced she is transgender) for W magazine in 2011. In the years since, more have followed. Pearl, a contestant from Season 7, signed with Wilhelmina Models in 2015. This year, Mr. Jacobs featured Dan Donigan (better known by his nom de drag, Milk) a contestant from Season 6, in his spring ads, wearing his women's collection. And in April, Naomi Campbell gave a to Naomi Smalls, a Season 8 who chose a drag name in Ms. Campbell's honor. "I'm loving Naomi Smalls," Ms. Campbell told a crowd in London. "It's a kind of " said Violet Chachki, 24, the winner from Season 7. "There's a strong crossover there. " Known on the show as a "fashion queen" (as opposed to a "comedy queen" or a "pageant queen") Ms. Chachki's signature look involved corseting herself to a so extreme that one of her accessories was an oxygen tank. Since her win, she has been invited to fashion shows by Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Scott, and was among those flown to the Miu Miu party in Paris ("" she said). The photographer Steven Klein shot her for Interview magazine, alongside the runway model Anna Cleveland, and for Italian Vogue, alongside other "Drag Race" alumni, for an article about the club promoter Susanne Bartsch. "I think that a lot of people in the fashion world have an eye on me, because I do have that crossover," Ms. Chachki said. "It seems so normal to me now, but even three years ago I never would have imagined it. Now it seems I'm segueing into that world, more so than the drag world. " "That world" is watching, and discussing. "I was on set shooting an ad campaign a few days ago, and I think half the set watched the show," said the designer Jason Wu. "It was totally the topic of the day. Between the makeup artist and the set designer, we're all huge fans. " Mr. Wu has a long history with RuPaul as a doll designer before he worked in fashion, Mr. Wu worked on a series of RuPaul dolls. "There are many weekly discussions in the office," said the designer Joseph Altuzarra, who called RuPaul "the heir apparent to Oprah. " "A lot of people go into fashion — a lot of designers, certainly — because they love clothing, they love makeup and hair and beauty. And I think 'Drag Race' is such an extreme version of it that it only makes sense that people in this industry can appreciate it and latch on. " Bianca Del Rio, 41, the winner of Season 6 and one of the show's most visible stars, said, "Fashion people understand drag. " She has toured the world with her comedy act, and stars in a new independent film, "Hurricane Bianca," that comes out this week. "It's a process, and you get to create absolutely anything you want. The only difference with a fashion show is it's 15 minutes. For us, it's usually two hours. " Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, two of the executive producers of "Drag Race," are also documentarians who directed "In 'Vogue': The Editor's Eye. " "We were a little anxious they might find out that we made 'Drag Race,'" Mr. Bailey said about his initial meetings with Vogue editors. "The reverse was completely true. The embrace was fantastic, because they all watch it. " The affection is mutual. Asked who else from the fashion industry he would most like to have on the show — besides Mr. Scott and Mr. Jacobs, the models Gigi Hadid and Chanel Iman have appeared — Mr. Charles said: "How fabulous would it be if we got Anna Wintour on the judges panel?" Of course, drag fashion is not runway fashion. Most of the queens on the show make or commission their outfits, only occasionally straying into designer pieces, which rarely come in regular women's sizes, let alone 's sizes. ("I can definitely make sample size work," said Ms. Chachki dryly, "which is more than most. ") More to the point, drag fashion satirizes high fashion as much as it celebrates it. "That's part of the bohemian creed," Mr. Charles said. "You reserve the right to simultaneously love something with all your heart and absolutely hate it to your core. I love creativity and beauty. Fashion is absolutely that. " Which may in part explain why the fashion industry has found "Drag Race" easy to love. Runway fashion, with very few exceptions, exists in a state of permanent seriousness drag sends it up mercilessly, worshiping its extremes while mocking its pretensions with impunity. It comes as a relief. And that is exactly how some use it. After the grueling production of his most recent fashion week show, Mr. Jacobs said, he dragged himself home and got in bed. "I couldn't move, I was so wiped out," he said. "Eight o'clock came around I was like, 'Oh, my God, we get to watch 'Drag Race All Stars.' What could be better? Lying in bed, eating pretzels with peanut butter stuffed inside them, watching 'Drag Race' with my boyfriend. "


Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders brought his firebrand rhetoric back to the floor of the Senate on Tuesday to condemn a White House-backed bill on Puerto Rico's financial crisis as "colonialism at its worst." Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who turned an unlikely presidential bid into a political movement to combat inequality, warned that legislation due for a crucial Senate vote on Wednesday would subject Puerto Rico to Republican trickle-down economics and favor "vulture capitalists" at the expense of the island's increasingly impoverished population. An aide said it was the first time Sanders has spoken in the Senate since December. "Does that sound like the kind of morality that should be passed here in the United States Senate?" Sanders fumed during an eight-minute appearance to support an hours-long speech by Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who opposes the bill. The Vermont senator used his appearance to rail against details of the legislation, which would put much of Puerto Rico's management in the hands of a seven-member oversight board and require the island to pay $370 million over five years for the board's administration costs even as it cuts funding for education, healthcare and pensions. In an exchange with Menendez, Sanders said, "How in God's name do you run up an administrative cost of $370 million," adding, "I know this sounds so absurd that people may think I'm misleading them." "Would my friend from New Jersey agree that this is colonialism at its worst?" asked Sanders, who announced last week that he would vote for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in her November election contest against Republican Donald Trump. "Oh absolutely," replied Menendez. The Puerto Rico bill, which has already been passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, faces opposition from both sides of the aisle in the Senate. Nevertheless, the Obama administration and Republican leaders are trying to get the bill passed before a July 1 deadline, when the island is scheduled to make a $1.9 billion payment on its $70 billion debt.


U.S. President Donald Trump is ramping up his search for a new chief for the U.S. central bank, meeting with former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh and three others and promising a decision next month. "I've had four meetings for Fed chairman and I'll be making a decision over the next two or three weeks," Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn. Trump has previously suggested he may reappoint Fed Chair Janet Yellen to the post. Jerome Powell, one of the current governors on the Fed's board, also met with Trump earlier this week about the Fed job, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Trump on Friday did not provide details on his meetings. A new Fed chair would take the helm as the central bank eases well away from crisis-era policies in response to a strengthening economy and falling unemployment, though inflation still lingers below the Fed's 2-percent goal. Under Yellen, the Fed has raised interest rates and launched a plan to shrink its $4.5 trillion balance sheet. Much of the latter was accumulated through a controversial bond-buying program that Yellen said helped the economy avert an even deeper downturn. Her term as chair expires in February. Warsh was a Fed governor between 2006 and 2011 and resigned from the board because of his opposition to the bond-buying program. He has called for a revamp of how the Fed makes monetary policy, saying it needs "fresh air" from markets and from the "real economy." Treasury yields spurted higher on news of the Trump meetings; Warsh is viewed as more of a hawk than Yellen. "He's definitely more hawkish on the spectrum. He is quite a contrast to Yellen. It does seem he is the front-runner even though it's not a sure thing he will be nominated," Gennadiy Goldberg, interest rates strategist at TD Securities in New York, said of Warsh. As recently as July, Trump had not ruled out reappointing Yellen, telling the Wall Street Journal that he liked her demeanor and desire to keep interest rates low. In addition to Warsh and Powell, Stanford University economist John Taylor's name also has been floated as a contender. Powell specialized in financial regulatory matters during his five years on the Fed Board of Governors, which is led by the Fed chair. There has also been speculation that Trump could turn to his top economic aide, Gary Cohn, for the Fed chair position. A Fed spokesman declined to comment on the process while Warsh and Taylor did not respond to requests for comment.


Is anyone else 100% FED UP?On Friday, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, along with Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) and Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ), sent a letter to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson and ICE Deputy Assistant Secretary Salda a warning them not to release an illegal immigrant with drug-resistant tuberculosis into the general public. I was alarmed when I was forwarded a letter written by Pinal County Director of Public Health Thomas Schryer indicating that the ICE Detention facility in Florence is planning on releasing an illegal immigrant with drug resistant tuberculosis into the Pinal County Community in the next couple days, Gosar said in a statement. I demand ICE and DHS rethink this awful decision and not release this dangerous individual. Such actions put our citizens at risk and will impose significant financial burdens on the County. Dr. Thomas Schryer, Director of Public Health for Pinal County, wrote a letter explaining his concerns about releasing the detained illegal immigrant, who has been receiving treatment for seven months for his tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a very dangerous disease that can spread easily, due to the public health threat Arizona Revised Statutes and good public health practice dictates that we provide healthcare to treat tuberculosis for anyone residing in our county (other than those incarcerated) as a result when the ICE facility releases this individual he will be treated at the local tax payers expense, he stated. From a public health perspective it is essential that anyone who is suffering from TB be treated so they are not a health threat to others, I request that ICE pay the costs of those who are released from their facility. The full text of Dr. Schryer s letter and the letter from Gosar, McCain, Flake, and Kirkpatrick can be read below. FINAL Letter to ICE and DHS re Illegal Immigrant with TB in Florence Facility.docx


Russia s military forces in Syria are likely to be substantially reduced and a drawdown could begin before the end of the year, the head of the Russian general staff, Valery Gerasimov, said on Thursday.


Here's something interesting from The Unz Review... Recipient Name => Pat Buchanan not only read these books, he wrote them. Credit: VDare.com.  If only Donald Trump hadn't been such a crazy, thin-skinned, moral lout who holds the Constitution in contempt, THEN we could have supported him! Maybe.  Mushy moderates think alike: Rod Dreher is out with The Tragedy of Trump [ The American Conservative , October 24, 2016] praising New York Time s token conservative Ross Douthat for saying  The dangers of a Hillary Clinton presidency are more familiar than Trump's authoritarian unknowns, because we live with them in our politics already. They're the dangers of elite groupthink, of Beltway power worship, of a cult of presidential action in the service of dubious ideals. They're the dangers of a recklessness and radicalism that doesn't recognize itself as either, because it's convinced that if an idea is mainstream and commonplace among the great and good then it cannot possibly be folly.  [ The Dangers of Hillary Clinton , October 22, 2016, Dreher's emphasis]  Dreher comments:  Boy, is that ever true. Read the whole thing. Along these lines, there was a quite good Peggy Noonan column in the WSJ last week [ Imagine a Sane Donald Trump , October 20, 2016](now, alas, behind the paywall, but I found the whole thing here ), saying that if Trump were not a "nut" — which he clearly is — he would be winning this thing by a landslide, because a lot of folks are sick and tired of the status quo that Hillary represents.  But wait a minute. I find my mind circling back to Patrick J. Buchanan, a devout Christian, a long-time conservative, and a loyal Republican who endorsed Bob Dole in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2004. Buchanan was a truly creative political thinker who wrote the Donald Trump playbook on immigration, free-trade , and foreign policy —and he was excommunicated from the cult of #TrueConservatism for opposing the disastrous Iraq War.  Then, after Pat Buchanan, there was Ron Paul in 2008 and 2012, who was a very different messenger, but one who carried Buchanan's torch on foreign policy. Ron Paul wasn't as strong as Buchanan on immigration or free-trade, but he was the Mr. Constitution of 2008 and 2012. Like Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul carried none of Trump's character baggage on women, morality or religion, but he was STRONG on the Constitution.  How did all of these born-again constitutional conservatives respond to Ron Paul's candidacy at the 2012 Republican Convention? They crushed him. [ Chaos on the Convention Floor as RNC Blocks Ron Paul Delegates, Alters Seating Rules , DemocracyNow, August 29, 2012]  Mike Huckabee , too, was a very different messenger than Pat Buchanan or Ron Paul. Huckabee's campaigns anticipated Trump's campaign on entitlements. He wanted a more blue-collar, populist, working class Republican Party that tilted more toward Main Street than to K Street and the Chamber of Commerce. Also like Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee shared none of Trump's character baggage on women, morality or religion. Mike Huckabee was the Mr. Evangelical of the 2008, 2012 and 2016 campaigns. Huckabee styled himself as the "God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy" conservative.  And yet, Pat Buchanan was caricatured as a Neo-Nazi anti-Semite, Ron Paul as a crazy wild eyed kook, and Mike Huckabee as an unacceptable cornpone welfare-stater.  Unlike John McCain, Mitt Romney and ¡Jeb!, non e of these "Sane Donald Trumps" were acceptable to the classical-liberal, self-anointed "governing wing" of the Republican Party.  TAC 's Dreher wimps on:  Trumpers, likewise, will be strongly tempted to indulge in bitter "You stabbed him in the back!" polemics. All of this will work to the advantage of President H. Clinton, of course. What is needed is for the GOP establishment to humble itself enough to admit those who, like Noonan, accept the critique of the party and the system that Trump's candidacy embodies, however, well, nuttily. And the Trump insurgents — including their leader — need to have the sense to realize that it advantages them not at all to drag this fight with Republicans out past the election . Their candidate will have received a thorough, resounding rejection by voters in an election he likely would have won had he not consistently spoken and acted like a nut.  Do I think this (humility on both sides, uniting in the face of Hillaryism) is likely to happen? No, I do not. But I hope I'm wrong. The Trump people, like their candidate, are not known for their ability to think strategically and to restrain themselves for their own good. And the bitterness and spite among Republican regulars is going to blind them to their own role in creating this mess. (My emphasis)  But this isn't "polemics"—it is a historical fact: no major party candidate in American history, including William Howard Taft in 1912 and Barry Goldwater in 1964 , has been stabbed in the back by more members of his own party. No major party candidate in history has ever taken more fire from the "leading intellectuals" of his own party. Trump has been fighting a two-front war since May—the war against Hillary Clinton and the Left, and the war against #NeverTrumper conservative intellectuals and hacks in his own party.  Trump's struggles from the convention through the general election have been due to a single demographic: college educated, suburban White Republicans, especially women. These people voted for Mitt Romney in 2012. They voted for ¡Jeb!, Rubio and Kasich in the Republican primaries. This is the 25% of the Republican Party who have refused to back Trump or have panicked time and time again whenever some new story roils the news cycle.  #NeverTrump still has a lot of influence over these Establishment-oriented voters. Their strategy has been to throw gasoline on every small fire in the news cycle in order to panic these voters into fleeing from Trump. That's what happened with the Judge Curiel incident, the Khizr Khan fiasco and most recently with the Access Hollywood tape. Trump's "fellow Republicans" come out and slam him and make these stories a far bigger deal.  Because of these dynamics, it's true to say that what happened on October 8, 2016 was The Day The Republican Party Died . That was the day of the #NeverTrump coup in which1/3 of the Republican Senate and 1/4 of all elected Republicans publicly abandoned him. It was a historically unprecedented betrayal – never before in American history, not even during TR's short-lived Bull Moose Party in 1912, had more elected members of one party deserted their own nominee.  The utterly predictable result of the #NeverTrump coup was the party split that showed up in the polls. That event altered the whole trajectory and tone of the race.  What would have happened if Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul or Mike Huckabee had beaten Dole in 1996 or Romney in 2012? I believe the result would have been the same . I think the Republican Establishment would have joined forces with the Democratic Establishment in order to preserve the neo-liberal globalist status quo.  There would have been some kind of #NeverBuchanan, #NeverPaul, or #NeverHuckabee campaign. If any of these forerunners of Trumpism had won the Republican nomination, there would have a similar fight to "save the soul" of "conservatism."  If the Establishment candidate loses the primary, the "soul" of the Republican Party will always be at risk.  If Trump loses in a landslide, the response of the GOP Establishment to any future insurgent candidate will be the precedent set in 2016: They will sabotage their own nominee in order to elect the Democrat and hang on to power.  Because of this, it will be impossible to reform the GOP through the primary system.  So yes, we must face facts and "drag this fight out" beyond November.  Conservatism, Inc. has thrown down the gauntlet: either support ¡Jeb! 2020 or Rubio 2020, the candidate of the minority neo-liberal globalist "governing wing" of the GOP—or else.  Brad Griffin is the Editor of Occidental Dissent , where he writes under pen name Hunter Wallace . (Reprinted from VDare.com by permission of author or representative)


CNN cut ties with political commentator and interim Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile after leaked emails suggested she offered advisers to Hillary Clinton advance information about presidential debate questions, the news network reported on Monday. Brazile came under fire earlier this month after a hacked email published by WikiLeaks showed she may have tipped off the Democratic presidential nominee's campaign about a March CNN town-hall debate question about the death penalty. CNN announced her departure after a subsequent leaked email showed she said she was privy to "questions in advance" and offered to "send a few more." Brazile had offered the network her resignation earlier this month, CNN reported. Brazile previously denied allegations that she gave the Clinton campaign information about debate questions ahead of time, according to media reports. Brazile, currently serving as interim head of the DNC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment but posted several tweets on Monday as the news broke. "Thank you @CNN," Brazile tweeted. "Honored to be a Democratic strategist and commentator on the network. Godspeed to all my former colleagues." Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized CNN, alleging it is biased against his campaign. A Clinton spokesman said in an email the campaign would not comment "on the authenticity of any individual emails that have been hacked by the Russian government." FBI Director James Comey said on Friday the agency was probing more emails that might relate to Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.


Motorola is Dead but Donbass lives on ‹ › Dr. Kevin Barrett, a Ph.D. Arabist-Islamologist, is one of America's best-known critics of the War on Terror. He is Host of TRUTH JIHAD RADIO ; a hard driving weekly LIVE call in radio show. He also has appeared many times on Fox, CNN, PBS and other broadcast outlets, and has inspired feature stories and op-eds in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, and other leading publications. Dr. Barrett has taught at colleges and universities in San Francisco, Paris, and Wisconsin, where he ran for Congress in 2008. He currently works as a nonprofit organizer, author, and talk radio host. I beat the ban in Berkeley – still censored in Sacramento By Kevin Barrett on October 26, 2016  by Kevin Barrett , Veterans Today Editor  Thanks to members of the Social Justice Committee of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, a large and enthusiastic crowd turned out for my talk on "Recent False Flags" yesterday. It was a triumph of free speech in the city that gave the world the Free Speech Movement.  But unlike last year's talk (watch it here ) this one wasn't held at BFUU.  Why not? One member of the BFUU Social Justice Community, a certain Holly Harwood, demanded that my scheduled event be canceled because (she libelously claimed) I am a "Jew hater" and "homophobe."  Not one member of the Social Justice Committee supported her.  So Holly Harwood started inundating the BFUU Board with lies and distortions about me and my books. The Board, which apparently includes some "stealth Zionists" who got themselves elected by concealing their pro-Israel loyalties, went along with her.  Harwood's vicious vilification campaign only succeeded in increasing the turnout for my talk, which was held at Redwood Gardens instead of BFUU. But Harwood didn't get the message. Now she has managed to censor another Berkeley free speech institution: Bonnie Faulkner's legendary Guns and Butter radio show.  Today's broadcast, which goes out on KPFA Berkeley and other Pacifica stations, features most of an interview Bonnie recorded with me last week. Unfortunately, after more mendacious complaints from Holly Harwood, Bonnie was apparently forced to cut the final six minutes of the interview, which features me explaining how and why I was banned at BFUU. Here is the censored "Guns and Butter" segment (please spread it far and wide so the censorship backfires):  The last place on earth I would ever expect ANY censorship of ANYTHING is Berkeley, California. And the last two places in Berkeley I would EVER expect to be censored are the Unitarian Church and the Guns and Butter radio show!  Did I fall into a black hole and emerge into a Bizarro World counter-universe where Berkeley Unitarians are authoritarians and censors, and it's the Bible-thumping Baptists of Alabama who are at the cutting edge of free speech, free thought, and unfettered intellectual inquiry? Memo to the Association of Alabama Baptists: Please invite this "radical Muslim conspiracy theorist" to speak at your freedom-loving church!  And it gets worse. I will be speaking in Sacramento tonight, and guess who's blocking the news? The main local leader of the 9/11 truth movement!  David Kimball, who runs Sacramento 9/11 Truth, has sponsored and/or helped publicize all of my previous talks in the area. Yet this time he wouldn't return my repeated phone calls. Finally, weeks after I had started calling him, I got this email:  From: David Kimball <…> Sent: Friday, October 21, 2016 11:42 PM Subject: Re: Sacramento event October 26th  Hi Kevin.  I've received your phone messages and email, and my apologies for this late response.  In recent years I've continued to research 9/11 more thoroughly, and although you and I are still in agreement that the "official narrative" of 9/11 cannot be true and that the media perpetuates the Big Lie, my views about 9/11 are no longer in agreement with yours.  Therefore, I cannot in good conscience promote your upcoming speaking event.  Sincerely,


U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, flew into Iraq on Monday with the top U.S. general to get a first-hand assessment of the battle against Islamic State from U.S. commanders on the ground and Iraqi leaders. For Kushner, who has not been to Iraq before, the trip comes at a critical time as Trump examines ways to accelerate a U.S.-led coalition campaign that U.S. and Iraqi officials say has so far been largely successful in uprooting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. The visit appears to demonstrate the far-reaching portfolio of Kushner, 36, who is part of Trump's innermost circle and who has been given a wide range of domestic and foreign policy responsibilities, including working on a Middle East peace deal. Marine General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he invited Kushner and Tom Bossert, White House homeland security adviser, to accompany him so they could hear "first-hand and unfiltered" from military advisers about the situation on the ground and interact with U.S. forces. "I said, 'Hey, next time I go to Iraq, if you're interested, come and it'd be good," Dunford said, adding he extended the invitation weeks ago. That kind of ground-level awareness of the war helps inform strategic decisions, Dunford said, adding it was the same reason he regularly leaves Washington to visit Iraq. "The more appreciation you could have for what's actually happening on the ground, the more informed you are when you start talking about the strategic issues," Dunford said. Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump, did not speak with reporters. Trump campaigned on defeating Islamic State but has yet to announce any dramatic shift in war strategy. After arriving, Kushner joined Dunford for meetings with the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad and the senior American commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend. Dunford's delegation also met Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, whose office said their talks focused on the ongoing battle to retake the city of Mosul from Islamic State and U.S.-led coalition assistance, including aiding civilians displaced by the fighting. "The delegation affirmed its support to Iraq in the war on terror," Abadi's office said in a statement. The trip comes as Iraqi security forces engage in fierce, house-to-house fighting in Mosul, Islamic State's last major stronghold in Iraq and the city where leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate nearly three years ago. Nearly 290,000 people have fled the city to escape the fighting, according to the United Nations. Although the loss of Mosul would deal a major defeat to Islamic State, U.S. and Iraqi officials are preparing for smaller battles even after the city is recaptured and expect the group to go underground to fight as a traditional insurgency. What happens to the U.S. military role in Iraq after Mosul is recaptured remain unclear. Influential Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has previously called on Iraq's government to order the withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces after the battle of Mosul is over. Dunford said Abadi understood the need for continued U.S. military support. "It's not our judgment that the Iraqis will be self sustaining and self sufficient in the wake of Mosul. More importantly, it's not Prime Minister Abadi's assessment," Dunford said before his talks. Across the border in Syria, a U.S.-backed campaign to isolate Islamic State's de facto capital of Raqqa is advancing ahead of an eventual assault on the city. But in Syria, too, tough decisions await Trump. NATO ally Turkey has been incensed by U.S. support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, seen by the U.S. military as a reliable partner but by Turkey as a hostile force with deep links to Kurdish PKK militants who have waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state. The U.S. military has said no decision has been made yet on whether to support the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which include the YPG, in the Raqqa assault.


ENOUGH ALREADY! A California Dem and two dozen others want to have gender neutral terms now. Everyone s equal now? Um, not really.More than two dozen Democrats have proposed legislation that would eliminate the words husband and wife from federal law.Those gendered terms would be replaced by gender-neutral words like spouse or married couple, according to the bill from Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif. The Amend the Code for Marriage Equality Act recognizes that the words in our laws have meaning and can continue to reflect prejudice and discrimination even when rendered null by our highest courts, Capps said. Our values as a country are reflected in our laws. I authored this bill because it is imperative that our federal code reflect the equality of all marriages. The Supreme Court ruled in June that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution means all states have to license same-sex marriages, a ruling that effectively ended the same-sex marriage debate in America. Capps said her bill was aimed at taking the next step, which is to ensure the United States Code reflects the equality of all marriages.


Why is the NFL ignoring this situation? Are they okay with NFL players posting images that suggest brutally murdering cops? The NFL can be reached at this number for anyone who cares to let them know how you feel about their silence. You may also send them a Tweet @NFL to let them know how you feel or go to their NFL Facebook page and leave a comment.The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and the NFL Players Association s appeal for an en banc rehearing in the ongoing Deflategate case.As a result, Brady s four-game suspension stands with the start of the regular season just nine weeks away. USA TODAYThe NFL was quick to tweet about the defeat of Brady s appeal:Tom Brady's appeals petition denied: https://t.co/9cy1wP5Y7o pic.twitter.com/RTPCMif5ug NFL (@NFL) July 13, 2016Yesterday we reported about a vile Instagram post by Cleveland Brown s Isaiah Crowell that depicted a cop s neck being slit by an ISIS type character. The NFL has had a couple days to respond to the horrific, hateful and racist post below:Here is the response from the NFL on Isiah Crowell s hateful social media post that glorifies killing cops:The Cleveland Police have threatened to pull out of Cleveland Stadium after NFL s Isaiah Crowell s vile social media post.Here s a sample of what Stephen Loomis, President of Cleveland Police Patrolmen s Association had to say to Crowell: Think we ll accept your apology? Kiss my ass. The full story can be found HERE.


President Donald Trump picked Wall Street financier Anthony Scaramucci, a long-time supporter, to be his White House communications director on Friday, a White House official said. Currently at the Export-Import Bank, Scaramucci is expected to start his new job in August, the official said. No other changes were immediately expected in a communications operation that includes press secretary Sean Spicer and his deputy, Sarah Sanders, the official said. The appointment comes as the White House deals with questions around a special counsel probe and several congressional investigations into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and potential collusion with Trump's campaign. The communications position has been vacant since Michael Dubke resigned in May as communications director. Spicer has been serving a dual role as press secretary and communications director since Dubke left. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Scaramucci was interviewed by Trump on Friday morning and the job had been offered and accepted. Scaramucci, a Republican fundraiser and founder of Skybridge Capital, was earlier offered the post of U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.


Iran s defense capabilities are not negotiable, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday in remarks made previously but which now come amid increased pressure from the U.S. government over Tehran s ballistic missile program. Ties between Iran and the United States have deteriorated under U.S. President Donald Trump and suffered another deep blow two weeks ago when he decided not to certify that Tehran is complying with a 2015 nuclear pact and warning he might ultimately terminate it. Iran has reacted defiantly, dismissing Trump s demands for the pact to be toughened up. Last week, Iran s elite Revolutionary Guards, the most powerful military force in the country, said its ballistic missile program would accelerate despite U.S. and European Union pressure to suspend it. The defense capabilities and strength of the country are not negotiable or up for haggling, Khamenei was cited as saying at a ceremony at the Imam Ali army officer s academy in Tehran, according to state media. The ramping up of rhetoric on both sides has raised the specter of a possible military confrontation between the two countries. In recent months, small boats from the Revolutionary Guards navy have swarmed close to American warships in the Gulf, prompting the U.S. navy to fire flares and warning shots. Under the landmark 2015 deal between Iran and world powers, the Islamic Republic agreed to curbs on its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of a number of sanctions. The U.S. Senate is considering new legislation which could lead to Washington restoring sanctions on Iran should it test a ballistic missile able to carry a warhead or bar nuclear inspectors from any sites. In response, Khamenei said last week that Tehran would stick to the nuclear accord with world powers as long as the other signatories respected it, but would shred the deal if Washington pulled out.