Can anyone imagine a sitting Republican Senator calling for violence or fighting in the streets in opposition to a newly elected Democratic President? On Tuesday Democratic Senator Time Kaine told the Morning Joe in an interview that Democrats need to fight the Trump administration including online and on the streets in addition to the ballot box.Partial Transcript:MIKA BRZEZINSKI, CO-HOST MORNING JOE : So, broad question about the future of the Democratic Party, especially given your firsthand experience with what we ve all been through. There s so much going on here that we clearly see, you know, places where you we can criticize what the administration is doing, but how does the party rebuild? How do you prevent overreach in a situation like this? How do you prevent a continuation of the bubble in a situation like this, and how does the party reclaim its reach across the country while fighting these battles? SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): So, the way we get outside the bubble is we take advantage of this tremendous public outcry against the administration. What we ve got to do is fight in Congress, fight in the courts, fight in the streets, fight online, fight at the ballot box, and now there s the momentum to be able to do this. And we re not afraid of the popular outcry, we re energized by it and that s going to help us do our job and do it better. -GPListen to faux man Tim Kaine call for fighting on the streets here. Pay special attention to his comment about the Women s March that was organized under a grassroots label.' It sounds like Kaine s admitting that it was organized under a grassroots label but that it wasn t really grassroots at all. Why didn t he just come out and admit that it was organized by Soros, Obama and Planned Parenthood?We could also add the DNC s California Chair: In a sign of the vigor of the party s distaste for the president, outgoing party Chair John Burton, a longtime Democratic lawmaker and powerbroker known for his blunt and profane manner, extended two middle fingers in the air as the crowd cheered and joined him. F Donald Trump, he said:Outgoing @ca_dem chair @Johnburton gets standing O w final words to his party, finger upraised: F@ck Donald Trump! pic.twitter.com/VIqNQlhDJc Carla Marinucci (@cmarinucci) May 20, 2017And we though Tom Perez was bad: Tom Perez must not have taken the class about winning friends and influencing people. How can you win over voters with such bitterness and anger? The Democrat Party has sunk to a new low with this classless thug. Who goes out there and speaks like this? We reported (see below) on the last speech Perez gave and he said the same nasty things. What gives? Are the deems so desperate that they re now resorting to profanity-filled speeches that make false claims about Republicans and President Trump? We think it s a losing strategy!


Maine Governor Paul LePage said on Friday he would reject the latest budget deal by a bipartisan group of legislators, warning that most of the state government would shut down without more spending cuts. The second-term Republican said repeatedly this week that he would be ready to close down non-essential government services as the July 4 holiday weekend starts if the lawmakers cannot agree on a $7.055 billion two-year budget that would require no new taxes. The deal reached late on Thursday called for $7.1 billion in spending. "I'm out of ink," LePage told reporters in the state capital of Augusta. "There will not be a signature on a budget that increases taxes." The full legislature was due to vote on Friday, the day after a six-member bipartisan budget committee reached a deal that would repeal a measure that voters approved in November to impose an additional 3 percent income tax on state residents who earn more than $200,000 a year. The proposed budget also increases public education funding by $162 million. The leaders of Maine's Democrat-controlled House of Representatives and Republican-controlled Senate supported the measure, but it was unclear if they could garner the two-thirds support needed for passage. Even if they do, state law gives the governor 10 days to respond to any budget passed by the legislature. LePage said on Friday that he was ready to wait that long before vetoing any budget that raises taxes. Most of the government would shut during that time. Without a shutdown, "I lose all my leverage for negotiation for the next 10 days," LePage said, adding that he did not think lawmakers could reach a budget deal on Friday that he would accept. State police, parks and all offices responsible for collecting revenue would continue to operate during a shutdown, LePage has said. The state's Democratic House speaker urged lawmakers to back the budget deal. "In a divided government, compromise is the only option," Speaker Sara Gideon said in a statement. A Maine advocacy group sued the state in federal court on Thursday, seeking an order that would ensure that public assistance payments continue uninterrupted to the 450,000 people, about one in three residents, who receive them. In 1991 Maine's government shut down for several weeks due to a budget impasse, and lawmakers reached a deal only after furloughed state workers picketed the capitol.


A rebel former governor of Aden who is leading a movement for southern Yemen s secession has said an independence referendum would be announced soon and a parliamentary body set up to administer the territory. Aidaroos al-Zubaidi, who was sacked as Aden governor by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, set out his secessionist plans to thousands of supporters gathered on Saturday in Yemen s main southern city to mark 54 years since the October 1963 uprising against the British. Zubaidi, who has previously declared a council that seeks secession for southern Yemen, said in a television interview late on Friday that an independence referendum would be held soon. Speaking to supporters on Saturday, Zubaidi said a new 303-member parliamentary body, the National Association, would act like a small parliament to represent Yemenis from all areas of the south. Zubaidi announced in May a new council formed by senior tribal, military and political figures. The council seeks the secession of southern Yemen and is looking to establish a political leadership under his presidency that would administer the south. The move threatens more turmoil in the impoverished Arabian Peninsular country where the internationally-recognized government is forced to sit in Aden because Houthi rebels control the capital Sanaa. The council was born out of a power struggle between the southerners and President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi that has undermined regional power Saudi Arabia s efforts to coordinate a military campaign against the Tehran-supported Houthis. Hadi s government has rejected the formation of the council, saying it would deepen divisions and play into the hands of the Houthi rebels. Many southerners feel that officials in the north have exploited their resources and cut them off from jobs and influence.


President Donald Trump signed an order on Monday that will seek to dramatically reduce federal regulations, but the policy will not apply to most of the financial reform rules introduced by the Obama administration. Trump's latest executive action will require that agencies cut two existing regulations for every new rule introduced and it will set an annual cap on the cost of new regulations. For the rest of fiscal 2017, the cap will require that the cost of any additional regulations be completely offset by undoing existing rules. But, the move does not cover independent agencies that crafted many of the rules required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the White House said. It also would not apply to rules mandated by statutes. "There will be regulation, there will be control, but it will be normalized control," Trump said as he signed the order in the Oval Office, surrounded by a group of small business owners. During a meeting with the business owners, Trump described the Dodd-Frank law as "a disaster." He asserted that it was "almost impossible now to start a small business and it's virtually impossible to expand your existing business because of regulations." The creation of new U.S. businesses has actually climbed steadily since 2010, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (bit.ly/2jnU32o) White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Monday called the executive order a "first step" and said the administration would work with Congress to begin making changes to Dodd-Frank. Implementing the new regulatory order may be difficult alongside the Trump administration's push to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, said Tom Bulleit, head of the healthcare practice in the Washington D.C. office of law firm Ropes & Gray. As the Congress passes new legislation on healthcare, there will need to be new rules, Bulleit said. "There's a great deal of regulation that is either expressly required by legislation or is necessary to make the legislation work," he said. Consumer groups and environmentalists criticized the push to peel back regulations, arguing that it would remove important protections for the public. Major regulations are typically reviewed by the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before they are issued. That review will continue under this new measure, but agencies will also have to identify what two regulations will be repealed to offset the costs of any new rule. Harvard Law School Professor Jody Freeman said the new order was "entirely unnecessary," given similar cost-benefit regulatory directives made by past presidents and existing agency processes for reviewing older rules. "Even it is fairly toothless in the end, it will be a weapon that OMB can use to harass agencies and slow regulation," Freeman said. The new order does not require that the repeal of the two regulations be done simultaneously with the release of additional rules. "This vests tremendous power and responsibility in the OMB director to ensure the president's direction in how we manage this across the government," a White House official told reporters before the signing. Certain categories of regulations will be exempt from this new policy, including those dealing with the military and national security. The OMB director will also have the ability to waive this policy in certain instances. Trump has tapped U.S. Representative Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina to lead the OMB.


Republican Mitt Romney made an impassioned statement in support of President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday to try to erase doubts about him among Trump's supporters and remain in contention for U.S. secretary of state. Romney, a fierce critic of Trump during the Republican presidential primary battle, stopped short of an outright apology but his intention to wipe the slate clean was clear. The former Massachusetts governor, who was the Republican presidential nominee in 2012 and lost, praised Trump for a "message of inclusion and bringing people together" since his Nov. 8 victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Noting the appointments Trump has made to fill key cabinet positions for his administration and his desire for greater unity among Americans, Romney said that "all of those things combined give me increasing hope that President-elect Trump is the very man who can lead us" to a better future. Romney made his remarks after a lengthy meal with Trump and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus at a French restaurant at a Trump hotel in Manhattan. They dined on garlic soup with frog legs, scallops, steak and lamb chop. Since Trump began to seriously consider Romney as a potential secretary of state, some on Trump's team have voiced doubts about bringing in a former critic and rallied around their preferred candidate, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a long-time Trump friend and loyalist. Leading this effort in an unusually public way has been senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, who told a round of television interviews on Sunday that Trump supporters would feel "betrayed" if Romney was picked. Trump, however, has kept Romney in contention for the secretary of state position, and a Republican source close to the transition effort said Priebus has been pushing for Romney behind the scenes. "I had a wonderful evening with President-elect Trump," Romney said in remarks to reporters after the dinner. "We had another discussion about affairs throughout the world and these discussions I've had with him have been enlightening, and interesting, and engaging. I've enjoyed them very, very much." A senior Trump aide described Romney's remarks as "solid." Trump is to meet on Friday for the second time with retired Marine Corps General John Kelly as part of his secretary of state search, the aide said. Trump is also considering U.S. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Corker met Trump at Trump Tower earlier on Tuesday and told reporters afterward that Trump "needs to choose someone that he's very comfortable with and he knows there's going be no daylight between him and them." "The world needs to know that the secretary of state is someone who speaks fully for the president and again, that's a decision he's going to have to make," Corker said.


The team of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, now both senior federal government officials, has been alongside President Trump as the White House has hosted dozens of chief executives and a handful of world leaders in recent weeks. It is a rarefied crowd, one that has included the top executives of some of the world's largest automobile, airline, chemical, pharmaceutical and tech companies. Mr. Kushner will continue to keep such select company now that he has helped create a new office that Mr. Trump is calling the White House Office of American Innovation. But the financial disclosure report released late Friday for Mr. Kushner, which shows that he and his wife still benefit financially from a real estate and investment empire worth as much as $740 million, makes clear that this most powerful Washington couple is walking on perilous legal and ethical ground, according to several prominent experts on the subject. Unlike Mr. Trump, who is exempt from conflict of interest laws, both Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump — who took a formal White House position this past week — are forbidden under federal criminal and civil law to take any action that might benefit their particular financial holdings. "Donald Trump can evade legal responsibility even if the conflicts of interest remain," said Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal nonprofit group. "His daughter and don't have that escape hatch. " Mr. Kushner did resign from more than 200 positions in the partnerships and limited liability companies that make up the real estate business. But the financial disclosure report shows that Mr. Kushner will remain a beneficiary of most of those same entities. Jamie Gorelick, who served as deputy attorney general at the Justice Department during the Clinton administration and is now advising Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump on government ethics issues, said that the couple could continue to hold on to so many of their assets because most of the value is tied up in buildings. "The real estate assets that Kushner is holding on to are unlikely to pose the kinds of conflicts that would trigger the need to divest," Ms. Gorelick, a partner at WilmerHale, the law firm, said in a statement on Friday. "The remaining conflicts, from a practical perspective, are pretty narrow and very manageable. " But real estate projects like the Kushner Companies' deals have become a magnet for opaque foreign money — often from parts of the world that present thorny policy questions, such as China, where Mr. Kushner's company has actively sought investors, as well as the Middle East and Russia. As part of his exceptionally broad portfolio in the White House, Mr. Kushner has been a crucial figure in arranging the visit of the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, on Thursday in Florida. The mystery behind many real estate investments involving foreigners prompted the Treasury Department last year to push for additional disclosures as a way to combat money laundering. While Mr. Kushner may face a potential ethical minefield, the disclosure form makes it difficult to determine exactly where those mines might be situated. The form, which runs 54 pages and lists hundreds of entities, reveals few details about the underlying investments that make up the Kushner empire, such as the addresses of buildings, sources of financing and names of partners. John Pudner, a conservative who has helped elect Tea Party candidates to Congress and now runs a nonprofit group called Take Back Our Republic, said that Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump, if they wanted to serve in the White House, would have been better off if they had taken the difficult step of liquidating their holdings. "A for the president's family and everyone else is if there were no question anytime a decision is made that it's being done for the good of the country," he said. The actions by Mr. Kushner stand in contrast to the moves by some other top aides to Mr. Trump, such as Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, who before he was sworn in agreed to liquidate all of his stock holdings and his ownership stake in Exxon, putting his assets mostly into Treasury bonds and other permitted investments, such as diversified mutual funds, which make formal financial conflicts unlikely. Mr. Kushner, by contrast, continues to hold lines of credit from institutions such as Citigroup and Deutsche Bank, while companies he is still a beneficiary of have billions of dollars in additional loans from heavily regulated institutions. Richard W. Painter, who served as a White House ethics lawyer in the Bush administration, said that Mr. Kushner's financial holdings would complicate any interactions he might have with such banks. "The one thing Jared really ought to stay completely away from is anything having to do with " Mr. Painter said, referring to the 2010 law that increased capital reserve requirements and instituted many other regulatory changes that affected the nation's banks. Mr. Trump has already said he hopes to roll back the law, with the help of Congress and his top aides. Several of the companies that are in business with Kushner Companies have faced scrutiny by federal law enforcement. Deutsche Bank, for example, reached a $7. 2 billion settlement last year with the Justice Department over its sale of toxic mortgage securities. Mr. Kushner, who frequently speaks with world leaders and is tasked with overseeing Middle East peace negotiations, also has an unsecured line of credit worth as much as $5 million from Israel Discount Bank. Kushner Companies has also taken out at least four loans from Bank Hapoalim, Israel's largest bank, though they are not disclosed in the filing. That firm is the subject of a Justice Department investigation into whether it helped wealthy Americans evade taxes with undeclared accounts. Another potential conflict rests in Ms. Trump's continued stake in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, a project that has drawn protests from ethics experts who worry that people representing special interests could stay there or host events there to gain influence with the White House, which is just a few blocks away. Ms. Trump has rolled her fashion brand into the Ivanka M. Trump Business Trust, which is overseen by her Josh Kushner, and Nicole Meyer. The documents released on Friday valued the trust at more than $50 million. Discussions about changes in federal tax law — a major agenda item for Mr. Trump that could affect issues such as depreciation on Mr. Kushner's buildings and clothing imported for Ms. Trump's brand — could also pose problems, or force them to recuse themselves from participating. "They are going to have to walk a fine line between matters they are involved with financially and the policies they are helping create and legislation they may be advocating," said Scott H. Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit group. The federal ethics regulations formally prohibit federal employees from being involved in any "particular matter that will have a direct effect on a financial interest, if there is a close causal link between any decision or action to be taken in the matter and any expected effect of the matter on the financial interest. " But Mr. Painter said that most administrations had interpreted the law more broadly, so that officials who own stakes in individual industries do not participate in even broad policy decisions affecting that sector, unless they seek a formal ethics waiver, as certain officials did during the first George Bush administration, given that they owned energy industry stocks and were participating in the decision to enter the war against Iraq over its invasion of Kuwait. Federal employees, under ethics rules that Mr. Trump imposed, are also prohibited, for at least two years after they arrive in the government, from working on particular matters that involve former employers or clients, even if these actions do not directly financially benefit the federal employee. The disclosures by Mr. Kushner and other White House officials released on Friday demonstrate just how complicated it is going to be to police these rules, given the vast and extremely complex financial assets not only within the Trump family but also among dozens of aides they have selected. The National Economic Council director, Gary Cohn, as well as the top White House aides Christopher P. Liddell and Reed Cordish, collectively reported assets with a maximum value of more than $1 billion. Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump's chief strategist, reported assets worth as much as $53. 9 million. Even Mr. Bannon's aide Julia Hahn, who is 25, reported investments worth between $1 million and $2. 1 million, according to a tally by The New York Times, while Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, had assets worth between $11 million and $44 million. Some of those financial holdings are already creating questions. Mr. Liddell, an assistant to the president and the director of strategic initiatives, has participated in White House meetings since January that involved several companies in which he continued at least through February to own stock in, including International Paper and General Motors. Mr. Bannon disclosed more than $500, 000 in income from entities linked to the hedge fund manager Robert Mercer and his daughter, Rebekah Mercer, major Republican donors who were crucial figures in Mr. Bannon's appointment as the Trump campaign's chief executive last year. Mr. Bannon is selling off some of these assets, his financial disclosure report says, including shares in Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm, and Breitbart News, the website. But Mr. Bannon, even after joining the White House, has continued to interact with certain reporters at Breitbart, at times to express frustration with the site's coverage of the White House or to discuss coverage, editors there have said. Even Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a former hedge fund manager, wrote a letter on Friday to the Office of Government Ethics saying he should not have made a supportive remark about a film, "The Lego Batman Movie," that one of his companies helped produce. The comment was viewed by some as a commercial endorsement of the film. "The White House staff's massive businesses are creating so many possible conflicts of interest it seems almost impossible for them to avoid running into trouble as they mix their former business interests with their new professional duties," Mr. Bookbinder said.


We have always known that the Republican Party is filled with xenophobic, racist, misogynist, Islamophobic, everythingphobic imbeciles. When President Obama was elected in 2008, this became very, very obvious as right-wingers went full-on racist because an African-American man was suddenly the most powerful leader in the world. However, while we saw this hate all across the internet and sometimes on bumper stickers, they managed to sort of keep it under wraps. Donald Trump changed that all last year when he skyrocketed to first place in the GOP primary by running on a platform made solely of the hate mentioned above. In fact, he is so vile and divisive that the Huffington Post reminds their readers of it on every single article they publish about him.I was recently reading an article about Trump on the HuffPo s website when I noticed this at the bottom of the piece:Editor s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims 1.6 billion members of an entire religion from entering the U.S.This struck me as odd, so I investigated it a little further and saw the Trump disclaimer on every article about the billionaire.While HuffPo has always been left-leaning, it is a well-respected news organization that is read by people across the political spectrum, that s what makes this editor s note so shocking. When POLITICO asked the organization about their decision to add this to their articles, a spokesperson responded: Yes, we re planning to add this note to all future stories about Trump. No other candidate has called for banning 1.6 billion people from the country! If any other candidate makes such a proposal, we ll append a note under pieces about them. There is no doubt that this disclaimer will make some Republicans declare the Huffington Post biased, but that s because they can t face the fact that it is true. Trump is a serial liar, he lies seventy-six percent of the time. He is a rampant xenophobe, just listen to what he has to say about Mexicans and refugees. The frontrunner hates women, his feuds with conservative, Fox mouthpieceMegyn Kelly shone a bright, glaring spotlight on that. And we all know that his proclamations about President Obama not being a real American is what originally made Trump so popular.The Huffington Post should be commended for this decision, they are the only mainstream media organization to do something this bold.Bravo, HuffPo, bravo.


Trump's True Mission----Lance The Boil By David Stockman. It can't be emphasized enough. On Tuesday night the Wall Street/Washington ruling elites got fired and their policies of war, debt and bubble finance got ash-canned. But Donald Trump was just the agent of the voters' dismissal order not the recipient of a programmatic mandate ala beltway briefing books or even the airy nostrums of standard party platforms.


U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday delivered his most aggressive call yet to woo African-American voters, vowing to restore law and order, only days after a fatal police shooting of a black man sparked more street violence. Speaking a few miles from Milwaukee, which was rocked by weekend riots, Trump accused his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of "bigotry" and vowed to protect the jobs of minorities from immigrants. Trump has been repeatedly called a "bigot" by his Democratic opponents. "I'm asking for the vote for every African-American citizen struggling in our society today who wants a different and much better future," Trump said. "Jobs, safety, opportunity, fair and equal representation: We reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton which panders to, and talks down to, communities of color and sees them only as votes – that's all they care about – not as individual human beings worthy of a better future." Earlier, Trump held three events in Milwaukee, a city still reeling from violent protests after the death of Sylville Smith, 23. Authorities said Smith was stopped for acting suspiciously and was shot by police because he was carrying an illegal handgun and refused orders to drop it. Trump encountered only a handful of peaceful protesters while in the city, including some at a closed fundraiser. He held a brief meeting with veterans and law enforcement, including Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke and Inspector Edward Bailey. But news media representatives were escorted out and not permitted to hear the discussions. Clarke, who is black and spoke at last month's Republican National Convention, has criticized the protests, writing in an opinion piece for The Hill that they were "a collapse of the social order, where tribal behavior leads to reacting to circumstances instead of waiting for facts to emerge." Trump also taped a town hall meeting with Fox News, in which he blamed President Barack Obama for what he sees as hostility toward police. "He has not been good to the police, simply, and the police are not big fans of his," Trump said. Trump traveled 45 minutes outside of Milwaukee, which is 40 percent black, to deliver his appeal to African-American voters in the suburb of West Bend, Wisconsin, a community that is 95 percent white. He spoke before an almost entirely white audience. "A vote for her (Clinton) is a vote for another generation of poverty, high crime and lost opportunities," Trump said. "Crime and violence is an attack on the poor and it will never be accepted in a Trump administration." Clinton won the Democratic nomination in part thanks to her large victory margins among minorities in nearly every state, including overwhelming support from African-Americans in the South. "With each passing Trump attack, it becomes clearer that his strategy is just to say about Hillary Clinton what's true of himself," Clinton spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said. "When people started saying he was temperamentally unfit, he called Hillary the same. When his ties to the Kremlin came under scrutiny, he absurdly claimed that Hillary was the one who was too close to Putin. "Now he's accusing her of bigoted remarks - we think the American people will know which candidate is guilty of the charge." Trump also took aim at Clinton's past acceptance of large speaking fees, saying he would force top administration officials to sign a pledge not to accept speaking fees from corporations with registered lobbyists or foreign countries for five years after leaving office. Police violence against African-Americans has set off intermittent, sometimes violent protests in the past two years, igniting a national debate over race and policing in the United States and giving rise to the Black Lives Matter movement. Trump said critics of the police "share in the responsibility for the unrest in Milwaukee and other places in our country." "The war on our police must end and it must end now," Trump said. "The war on police is a war against all peaceful citizens." The shooting of Smith was likely justified, Trump argued in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday morning. "But the gun was pointed at his (a police officer's) head, supposedly ready to be fired. Who can have a problem with that? That's what the narrative is," Trump said. "Maybe it's not true. If it is true, people shouldn't be rioting." Officials from the Office of Director of National Intelligence are expected to give Trump a briefing on national security issues this week, an adviser to Trump and a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. Presidential candidates are entitled to a briefing of classified information after formally securing the nomination, which Trump did last month. Hillary Clinton, Trump's Democratic rival for the Nov. 8 election, is also entitled to receive a briefing if she requests one. Democrats have criticized Trump's positions on foreign policy and national security, besides some freewheeling remarks. Democratic President Barack Obama has called Trump "unfit" for the presidency and this month warned the Republican candidate that briefing information must be kept secret.


Trump s hastily organized White House Easter Egg Roll went from bad to worse after he almost managed to botch the national anthem on camera.After avoiding the children s event on the White House lawn for several hours so he could finish watching Fox and Friends (yes, really), Trump revealed that he wasn t prepared to handle even the basic responsibilities he was given for the event. In contrast to former President Obama, Trump declined to read to the children, so Melania had to instead. For some time Trump lingered on a railed balcony, separated from the gathered families on the lawn.When it came time to do the National Anthem, Trump seemingly forgot that it is customary to place one s hand over one s heart. While a member of the military band sang, Melania and Barron noticed that the President of the United States was just standing casually with arms at his sides. Melania can be seen nudging Trump s arm, and he finally realizes his mistake.*national anthem begins*Melania & Barron place hands over heart*Melania nudges Trump to do the same**Trump raises hand* pic.twitter.com/X59uYNg7rW Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) April 17, 2017It s possible that Trump s heart wasn t in the event because he had already thrown a private egg roll the night before for dues-paying members of Mar-a-Lago. Unlike the egg roll on the White House lawn, the one at Mar-a-Lago consisted of only rich families.And this ~color~ from pool reporter @Jordanfabian: pic.twitter.com/ov0L3J8lxf Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) April 16, 2017From pictures shared by excited attendees, Trump was much more willing to rub elbows with these families.VIPs come first pic.twitter.com/75hLNSIFk2 southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) April 16, 2017In other news, this delightful clip of President Obama s 2015 egg roll has been going viral again. It seems people are desperate to remember a time when America had a president capable of going a few hours without embarrassing the country.Happy Easter from 2015 pic.twitter.com/qmhfLIf5Rb NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 16, 2017


Texas and four other states sued the Obama administration on Tuesday over extending its healthcare nondiscrimination law to transgender individuals, saying the move "represents a radical invasion of the federal bureaucracy into a doctor's medical judgment." Texas, along with Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kentucky and Kansas sued on behalf three medical organizations, two of which are affiliated with Christian groups. They argue the medical groups would be forced to violate their religious beliefs "and perform harmful medical transition procedures or else suffer massive financial liability," according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, named as a defendant in the suit, was not immediately available for comment. On Sunday, a judge for the same district blocked an Obama administration policy that public schools should allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice, granting a nationwide injunction sought by 13 states, led by Texas. The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was passed in 2010 and included anti-discrimination provisions to prevent insurers from charging customers more or denying coverage based on age or sex. That law left some areas open to interpretation and thousands of consumers complain each year about being discriminated against, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said last year. The U.S. government said in September it would broaden its nondiscrimination law to transgender individuals and require health insurers and medical providers to treat all patients equally, regardless of sex.


A Miami doctor has been fired after a video of her assaulting and screaming profanities at an Uber driver went viral.Jackson Health System announced on Friday that they are terminating Anjali Ramkissoon, 30, a four-year neurology resident for her actions in the video. They released a statement that said: Jackson Health System is moving forward with the termination of Dr. Anjali Ramkissoon, a resident doctor. She is entitled to an appeal process. The assault took place in January and the doctor was initially put on probation. In the video, an extremely drunk Ramkissoon is seen hitting, kicking and cursing at the driver. The Uber driver is seen trying to restrain her, but after she kicked him he threw her to the ground and ran to his car. Ramkissoon got up, went to the car, opened the door and started throwing things out of his vehicle. There is absolutely no excuse for my actions. I am so sorry. I have hurt so many people with this. My family, my friends, my job, the Uber driver. Nobody deserves to be treated that way. That s not me. Unfortunately for her, the apology was not enough to save her job and rightfully so. I have been drunk many times and have never used it as an excuse to assault another human being. At thirty years old, she should know how to handle herself. While I understand that alcohol makes some people act a fool, as a neurologist she should know what happens to her brain when she drinks too much it makes her actions even less excusable.Hopefully, she has learned how to control herself. It would be a shame to see all of that education go to waste.Watch the assault:


SEE ALSO: ORLANDO KNOWN WOLF Watched by FBI, Worked with DHS, Amid Crisis Actors, Drills & CI s21st Century Wire says The Orlando Shooting. Many things are just not right with this story, including the father of the alleged shooter Omar Mateen, an Afghan-American, Seddique Mateen, who is closely linked to some of the most powerful leaders and agencies in Washington DC.Below is a photo of Omar s father after a meeting at the US State Dept. in Washington DC where he met with officials , but oddly, no log of his visit is available in the public record. Image Credit: facebook.com/seddique.mateenThe alleged shooter s father played an absolute key role in setting up the entire hate crime narrative by inserting this quote into the MSM machine during the immediate aftermath of the sensationalized media event. Seddique Mateen said: We were in Downtown Miami, Bayside, people were playing music, and he saw two men kissing each other in front of his wife and kid and he got very angry. They were kissing each other and touching each other and he said, Look at that. In front of my son they are doing that. And they we were in the men s bathroom and men were kissing each other. For the media, and every other political leader in the US, this was now classified as a hate crime , and so case closed. In other words, a simple story line with real traction was now baked firmly into this event about a homophobic, ISIS-inspired, crazed lone gunman who went postal in a Orlando gay nightclub, and coincidentally, on the eve of an international Gay Pride celebration day.Pictured below is Seddique Mateen with California Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher. Rohrabacher (R-CA) was initially elected to Congress in 1988, with the fundraising help of friend Oliver North.Rohrabacher s decades-long involvement in all things Afghan eventually earned him the nickname Gunga Dana. Today he chairs the United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats.This morning President Obama called him a home-grown terrorist. In a series of phone interviews Monday morning, Donald Trump responded that there s something going on with the President s reaction to the Orlando shooting.I guess even a stopped clock is right twice a day. It s like calling Blackwater XE Orlando shooter Omar Mateen s father said his son was not motivated by Islamist radical ideology, but in a Facebook video posted early Monday he said, God himself will punish those involved in homosexuality. My own suspicion was first awakened on Monday morning when U.S. news outlets uniformly reported that the father s TV show aired on a U.S.-based Afghan satellite channel. That sort of circumlocution is typical when something is being hidden which the corporate media prefers we not ask questions about.The name of the nameless Afghan satellite channel, Payam Afghan, is said to be widely-known in Southwest Asia as a CIA-Pakistani ISI construct, as this picture from Flicker shows.The identification of shooter Omar Mateen also involved deception. He was said to work for a security company called G4S, which few have ever heard of. However, G4S is merely a re-branded Wackenhut Corporation, a name with a storied reputation for scandal in the U.S. and around the world.Rohrabacher has stated that he sees radical Islam as the source of a major terrorist threat to the U.S.Calls to his office today to request comment on whether he views CIA assets relocated in the U.S. as a terrorist threat have not been returned.SEE FULL REPORT: ORLANDO KNOWN WOLF Watched by FBI, Worked with DHS, Amid Crisis Actors, Drills & CI sHelp support us by becoming a 21WIRE Member at: 21WIRE.TV


The ruling Communist Party s flagship newspaper on Thursday provided more evidence that President Xi Jinping should be regarded as China s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong after this week s party congress. Xi s official portrait dominated the People s Daily s front page report on the unveiling of the party s new top leadership. Below that was a smaller group photograph of the new top leadership - the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee including Xi. It is a stark departure from recent precedent, with Mao Zedong the last leader to be granted such status on the front page after the party conclave - which is held once every five years. The People s Daily did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Since Deng Xiaoping introduced collective leadership three decades ago to ward off the rise of another Mao-like cult of personality, the official portraits of all newly-selected Politburo Standing Committee members have been presented together on the front page in a grid. The portrait of the party s top leader, the general secretary, is usually only slightly more prominent; reflecting his position as the first among equals. Xi is the party s general secretary, chairman of the Central Military Commission, and president of the country. In Thursday s People s Daily, the portraits and biographical information of the six other standing committee members - Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng - were relegated to the inside pages. That s definitely the first time since Mao, said Ryan Manuel, a China expert at the University of Hong Kong, referring to Xi s oversized portrait on the front of the paper. The People s Daily is closely parsed by party cadres and others, and sets the tone for media coverage in state-run newspapers at the provincial level. Manuel said the paper closely followed regimented rules and norms and would have done so especially meticulously for its most important front page in five years . It s a strict system, he said. The rules of placement and the rules of what type of photos you put on there are incredibly tightly argued and defined. Xi s status as China s most powerful leader since Mao was underlined on Wednesday when the party, in another break with precedent, revealed a new leadership line-up without naming an obvious successor to him. There has been persistent speculation Xi could seek to stay on in some capacity beyond the end of the customary second five-year term in power, which ends in 2022. During the congress, Xi became the first leader since Mao to have a political ideology bearing his name enshrined in the party s constitution while in office.


Donald Trump is a racist. That is a fact that cannot be disputed. He has the support of white supremacists and other professional bigots, and yet the GOP elite continue to line up behind him, all while swearing they aren t racists. Well MSNBC political commentator Michael Eric Dyson has had enough.During a conversation with Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, Dyson unloaded and pointed out that Trump is promoting white nationalism during a conversation regarding the United Kingdom s Brexit vote. It is, in fact the same sort of dangerous xenophobia, racism, and nationalism that caused people in Britain to vote pro-Brexit. As we are now seeing, it is not a good thing in the United Kingdom, and that same sort of nationalism that drives Trump s political success is not a good thing here in America either. Here is a transcript of the exchange, via Media Matters:ALEX CASTELLANOS: The Brexit vote is a vote for the idea of nationhood.MICHAEL ERIC DYSON: It s nationalism.CASTELLANOS: Right, in Europe you ve destroyed borders. You can travel anywhere. Immigration has destroyed borders. There are no economic borders now. Greece can spend money that Germany has to pay back. The British looked at this and said, we think being a nation is a good idea and that we ought to be one.DYSON: But nationalism is not the answerCASTELLANOS: Of course it is.DYSON: I m saying nationalism within AmericaCASTELLANOS: There were nations before the EU. There will be nations afterwards. This is not a crisis. And when Donald Trump talks about building a wall DYSON: For who?CASTELLANOS: what people are hearing is we ought to have a real nation for all of us.DYSON: Donald Trump s nation doesn t represent all of us. When he keeps saying he wants to ban Muslims. He wants to keep immigrants out. He wants to build a wall. And look, at his rallies, when black people are pushed around, he then says, I will pay for the legal fees. Donald Trump amplifies the worst instincts. And his nationalism is really a white racist supremacist nationalism that reeks terror on the American democratic experiment.Dyson is right. Trump s divisive, violent, racist rhetoric only serves to prey on people s fears, ignorance, and prejudices. It divides rather than unites. Diversity is a beautiful thing, but if Donald Trump has his way, there will be no such thing.Watch the exchange below, again via Media Matters:


Little did we know at the time of this recording just how accurate our guest s comments would become.In last week s Episode #179 of the SUNDAY WIRE, host Patrick Henningsen speaks to author and global affairs analyst, F. William Engdahl, to discuss his recent article about the new US-Israeli oil wars in the Golan Heights in Syria and how this is connected to the West s hidden agenda to create Safe Zones in Syria.In prophetic fashion, Engdahl then goes on to describe Donald Trump as a tool of establishment, placed into the US presidency by America s Deep State in order to fast-track a destructive geopolitical agenda.NOTE: This interview was recorded 5 days before the US missile strikes on Syria SUPPORT OUR WORK SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TVREAD MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria Files


The Trump administration will make cost-sharing payments to insurance companies under Obamacare for August, a White House spokesman said on Wednesday, but the announcement did little to quell long-term concerns about the insurance market. President Donald Trump, a Republican, has repeatedly threatened to stop the payments, which are made directly to insurance companies to help cover out-of-pocket medical expenses for low-income Americans enrolled in individual healthcare plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The payments are estimated to amount to $7 billion in 2017. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also said on Wednesday that two counties were projected to have no insurer in 2018 selling plans on the individual market created under former Democratic President Barack Obama's healthcare policy, down from 40 earlier this year. Both announcements could bring some short-term stability to insurance markets, but the long-term outlook is uncertain, said Cynthia Cox, policy researcher and associate director at the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. Over the past several months, Trump and Republicans lawmakers who control both chambers of Congress, regularly pointed to the number of expected so-called bare counties in 2018 to argue for a bill repealing and replacing Obamacare. Insurers are still unsure whether Republicans will again try to repeal or replace the law when they return in September from a recess and whether the Trump administration will permanently make the insurer payments. They also do not know whether the administration will enforce a requirement of the ACA that all Americans buy health insurance or else pay a fine. It is unclear whether the federal government played a role in providing incentives to insurers to offer plans in bare counties, many of which were at risk because Anthem Inc, one of the largest remaining Obamacare insurers, pared back its offerings in several states, said Cox. State officials and insurance commissioners have worked to provide incentives and Centene Corp has filled in many of the gaps. "Health plans have been working hard with insurance commissioners and state leaders to ensure that Americans who buy their own coverage have options that are as affordable as possible," said Kristine Grow, spokeswoman for insurer lobbying group, America's Health Insurance Plans. "This is a demonstration of that commitment." The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday estimated that health insurance premiums for many customers on the Obamacare individual insurance markets would be 20 percent higher in 2018 if Trump stopped the insurer payments.


How do New York Times journalists use technology in their jobs and in their personal lives? The Times's fashion director and critic discusses the tech she uses. As a fashion critic, what's your favorite tech product that helps you spot and keep track of fashion trends? My iPhone 5, embarrassing as that is to say, and my laptop. I am stuck with my iPhone 5 because I have a keyboard attachment for it that turns it into a BlackBerry, and which I love because during fashion shows I file reviews on my phone and they can be 1, 000 words long. I can't do that on a touch screen. I hate lugging anything bigger than the phone around since I carry so much else. I also use the gadgets mostly to surf around Instagram and Facebook and various news sites to see what regular people are wearing during their everyday lives in places I am not. For runway trends, I just use my eyes. You've written a lot about wearable technology. Are smartwatches ever going to be fashionable enough to replace normal watches? I am sure they will be at some point, but who knows when that will be. The problem is they just look too much like gadgets — or like wannabe traditional watches. Someone has to come up with a third paradigm. Then whoever does that will be in clover. Beyond your job, what tech product are you currently obsessed with using in your daily life? My Kindle. It's really the only other tech product I use. I have gone through iPad and tablet phases, and smartwatch moments, but they all end up in the back of a drawer somewhere or my kids take them. I am really interested in tech that is efficient and functional and solves problems that are real problems, not theoretical ones. After that, I find it hard to get worked up. What do you and your family do with it? Read! Plus a Kindle is very good to take to shows, because I am lugging a heavy bag full of stuff all day, and it is light and takes up almost no room. And it gives me something to occupy my mind during the endless minutes I spend waiting for shows to start. What could be better about it? The light. Shows have very complicated lighting plans and sometimes that makes it hard to read. What is your children's favorite piece of technology and why? The favorite app for my and daughters are Snapchat and SoundCloud. That's because they can use Snapchat to connect with their friends and stay in touch with those that are far away, and SoundCloud because it is easy and a good way to find new music and fun remixes. For my son: Spotify, because he loves listening to music. Favorite piece of technology (from all of them): their iPhones. It is like another limb for them.


A 10-year-old girl smacked down Donald Trump, and it was amazing.On Saturday, the Huffington Post interviewed Lexi, an adorable Hillary Clinton volunteer who had absolutely no problem shredding the Republican billionaire when asked how she feels about him.Lexi slammed Trump for having zero experience in government and compared him to her brother who thinks he knows everything. Number one, he doesn t have any experience, at all, Lexi said. And he sits there and thinks, Oh I m Mr. Donald Trump, I know everything, which is sort of like my brother. She also broke the bad news to Trump s supporters that if they think they ll get money by voting for Trump, they are sorely mistaken. He s just rich, a lot of people just vote for him because they think they ll get some money, too. But that s not it. You think you re going to get the money, but that s not the case. Lexi then took aim at Trump s xenophobia and racism and made it clear what parents who vote for Trump can expect of their children s future should he get in the White House. Oh, and she also had positive things to say about Bernie Sanders, who she sees as someone who is building an environment for the kids. It s ridiculous because I mean, look at these people, your best friend you may not know is Muslim or Jewish. And Bernie Sanders, he s Jewish. You don t see anybody talking about that. He s just building an environment for the kids, their parents are voting for Donald Trump, but little do they know that their kids will grow up not having a good education and not having good jobs. Lexi then warned that if people fail to show up and vote on Election Day in November, it could mean a Trump victory. And she thinks his hair is gross. If you don t vote, then Mr. Donald Trump will be president. I don t think that s his real hair, being president. His hair, look at it! Look at it! It s gross. I can t believe that s his real hair. Here s the video via Huffington Post. Lexi s interview can be found at the 7:30 mark.// < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]>HuffPost s Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani takes us through Hillary HQ with chicken & waffles on primary day in S.C. (Yes, chicken & waffles.)Posted by HuffPost Politics on Saturday, February 27, 2016Donald Trump just got his ass handed to him by what he fears most: an intelligent young girl who is going to be a strong woman when she grows up.


Sweden's Vattenfall will invest 3 billion Swedish crowns ($349 million) in a Scottish offshore wind farm that U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tried to stop being built near his luxury golf course in Scotland. State-owned utility Vattenfall, which will take 100 percent ownership of the project from Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group, described its investment as a vote of confidence in Britain after the nation's decision to leave the European Union. "The decision to invest ... comes only a few weeks after the British referendum on leaving the EU and demonstrates Vattenfall's continuing long-term commitment to wind power in Great Britain," the company said in a statement. Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she would not rule out the possibility of Scotland remaining in the EU. Sturgeon said that a second independence referendum is now a possibility, though she has also emphasized that another vote would not take place until it is clear that most Scots are in favor of breaking from the United Kingdom. Vattenfall said the wind farm will have capacity of 92.4 megawatts, which could potentially supply about 130,000 households with energy. It will also serve as a center for testing and developing new technologies for offshore wind power. In December last year Britain's top court threw out a bid by Trump to stop the 11-turbine wind farm from being built near his multimillion-dollar resort. The Trump Organization had denounced the Scottish government as "foolish, small minded and parochial". The Scottish National Party's foreign affairs spokesman Alex Salmond replied that Trump was "three times a loser". Construction is expected to start in the latter part of 2017, with the wind farm expected to start generating electricity in spring 2018. Onshore construction activity will start later this year.


As we all know, Trump told Access Hollywood host Billy Bush in 2005 that he made unwanted advances on a married woman and bragged that he walks up to beautiful women and just starts kissing them and grab them by the p*ssy. Seriously. It s all on tape. Had the tape been turned over to police they might have opened a sexual assault investigation.On Sunday morning, CNN anchor John King said that Trump should be in jail instead of being the Republican nominee for president.King began by playing part of the clip of Trump talking about how he pursued a married woman by taking her furniture shopping. And then he talks about moving on that b*tch. I said what you re about to see was some graphic language, King said. That s one of the tamest parts. And the point, if you go on in this tape, that s he s talking about making unwanted advances on a married woman. He also talks about conduct that is a crime. If he did it. People go to jail for the things that he was talking about doing, groping women. That was the dam opening. Indeed, it is a crime and that why many Republicans are desperately trying to distance themselves from Trump.The outrage was so bad that Trump was forced to apologize for the remarks, but King noted that it took Trump s aides hours to get him to actually do it. King proceeded to slam Trump for it and pointed out that what Trump said is not mere locker room talk. It s a confession to committing crimes. In his video released Saturday night, after it took his aides hours to convince him this was a big deal, that s important here too. He doesn t say in the video that I never did this. He never says he never did this. I m going to say it one more time: he s bragging about things that people go to jail for. I ve been to a lot of locker rooms. Men say stupid things in locker rooms. Men say inappropriate things in locker rooms. Men do not talk about committing crimes in locker rooms or, if anybody brings it up, the grown-up on the team pushes that guy against the locker and tells him to shut up. Here s the video via VidMe.In other words, Trump should have been investigated by law enforcement and should have been arrested, tried, sentenced to serve time in jail, and required to register as a sex offender. He certainly should never have been elevated to the leadership of a major political party and been allowed to get this close to becoming the most powerful person in the world. Republicans own this and they need to pay a price for it in November.


Trump Tower Surrounded By Dump Trucks In Anticipation Of Violence 11/09/2016  DAILY CALLER  The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has surrounded the perimeter of Trump Tower with reinforced dump trucks in anticipation of Election Day violence.  The dump trucks flank the skyscraper on all sides, and are supplemented by guardrails and heavily armed police officers. This morning, the building was not open to the general public and traffic crawled through a narrow corridor of trucks and police. On the street, supporters and protesters stood for interviews with a burgeoning press corps camped across the street. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump lives in a penthouse near the top of the building, which also serves as headquarters for his presidential campaign. (RELATED: Election Day Voting Has Begun – Who Is Winning?)  Police told The Daily Caller News Foundation that the dumping beds are filled with sand, which adds weight to each truck, in effect making it impossible to run the barrier. Police decided to circle the Tower with trucks as a hedge against car bombs, or some such similar incendiary munition delivered by car. The fleet of trucks will travel with Trump this evening to surround the New York Hilton Midtown Manhattan Hotel, where Trump is hosting his victory rally. The NYPD maintained a presence around the hotel for several days, which is also closed to the public.  Guests staying in the hotel on unrelated business must present their keycards at a security check-point before entering the premises.  Similar security measures will attend Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's headquarters at the Javits Convention Center in Hell's Kitchen this evening.


The two countries keep dozens of intercontinental nuclear missiles pointed at each other's cities. Their frigates and fighter jets occasionally face off in the contested waters of the South China Sea. With no shared border, China and the United States mostly circle each other from afar, relying on satellites and cybersnooping to peek inside the workings of each other's war machines. But the two strategic rivals are about to become neighbors in this patch of East African desert. China is constructing its first overseas military base here — just a few miles from Camp Lemonnier, one of the Pentagon's largest and most important foreign installations. With increasing tensions over China's efforts in the South China Sea, American strategists worry that a naval port so close to Camp Lemonnier could provide a seat to the staging ground for American counterterror operations in the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa. "It's like having a rival football team using an adjacent practice field," said Gabriel Collins, an expert on the Chinese military and a founder of the analysis portal China SignPost. "They can scope out some of your plays. On the other hand, the scouting opportunity goes both ways. " Established after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Camp Lemonnier is home to 4, 000 personnel. Some are involved in highly secretive missions, including targeted drone killings in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, and the raid last month in Yemen that left a member of the Navy SEALs dead. The base, which is run by the Navy and abuts Djibouti's international airport, is the only permanent American military installation in Africa. Beyond surveillance concerns, United States officials, citing the billions of dollars in Chinese loans to Djibouti's heavily indebted government, wonder about the durability of an alliance that has served Washington well in its global fight against Islamic extremism. Just as important, experts say, the base's construction is a milestone marking Beijing's expanding global ambitions — with potential implications for America's longstanding military dominance. "It's a huge strategic development," said Peter Dutton, professor of strategic studies at the Naval War College in Rhode Island, who has studied satellite imagery of the construction. "It's naval power expansion for protecting commerce and China's regional interests in the Horn of Africa," Professor Dutton said. "This is what expansionary powers do. China has learned lessons from Britain of 200 years ago. " Chinese officials play down the significance of the base, saying it will largely support antipiracy operations that have helped quell the threat to international shipping once posed by marauding Somalis. "The support facility will be mainly used to provide rest and rehabilitation for the Chinese troops taking part in escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia, U. N. peacekeeping and humanitarian rescue," the Defense Ministry in Beijing said in a written reply to questions. In addition to having 2, 400 peacekeepers in Africa, China has used its vessels to escort more than 6, 000 boats from many countries through the Gulf of Aden, the ministry said. China's military has also evacuated its citizens caught in the world's trouble spots. In 2011, the military plucked 35, 000 from Libya, and 600 from Yemen in 2015. As China's navy has assumed these new roles far from home, its commanders have struggled to maintain vessels and resupply them with food and fuel. Capt. Liu Jianzhong, a former political commissar of a Chinese destroyer plying the Gulf of Aden, said the lack of a dedicated port in the region took a toll on personnel forced to spend long stretches at sea. "For six months, we didn't reach the shore, and a lot of sailors had physical and psychological problems," he told the China Military Online. To that end, the new base will include a gym, the ministry said. Professor Dutton said Beijing would most likely try to "acclimatize" the world by using the facility for commercial purposes when it begins operating this year and then gradually increase the number and variety of warships that dock there. "It will be relatively incremental in the forward deployment of naval power. You are not going to see a Yokosuka," he said, referring to the base for the United States Seventh Fleet in Japan. In its written answers, the ministry said that China was not budging from its "defensive" military policy and that the base did not indicate an "arms race or military expansion. " In recent years, China has moved aggressively to increase its power projection capabilities through the rapid modernization of its navy. Military spending has soared, with Beijing's defense budget expected to reach $233 billion by 2020, more than all Western European countries combined, and double the figure from 2010, according to Jane's Defense Weekly. In 2016, the United States spent more than $622 billion on the military, Jane's said. These days, Chinese naval vessels, including nuclear submarines, roam much of the globe, from contested waters of the Yellow Sea to Sri Lanka and San Diego. China's decision to establish an overseas military installation comes as little surprise to those who have watched Beijing steadily jettison a principle of noninterference in the affairs of other countries. The shift is an outgrowth of China's evolution from an impoverished slumbering introvert to mercantilist with economic interests across the globe. Half of China's oil imports sail through the Mandeb Strait, the choke point off Djibouti that connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. Across Africa, companies are investing tens of billions of dollars in railways, factories and mines. And the millions of Chinese citizens who live and work overseas have come to expect that the government will look out for their interests — a point driven home in recent years when Beijing was forced to rescue Chinese nationals from Libya and Yemen. "The facility in Djibouti is a very interesting lens through which to view China's growing capabilities and ambitions," said Andrew S. Erickson, an expert at China's maritime transformation at the Naval War College and the editor of the book "Chinese Naval Shipbuilding. " "Not only will it give them a huge shot in the arm in terms of naval logistics, but it will also strengthen China's image at home and abroad. " A encampment built adjacent to a new commercial port, the base is designed to house up to several thousand troops and will include storage structures for weapons, repair facilities for ships and helicopters, and five berths for commercial ships and one for military vessels. At the base's front gate recently, Chinese workers in construction helmets waved away a reporter who tried to ask questions. China's Defense Ministry declined a request to tour the site. American officials say they were blindsided by Djibouti's decision, announced last year, to give China a lease for the land. Just two years earlier, Susan Rice, the national security adviser under President Barack Obama, had flown here to head off a similar arrangement with Russia. Shortly afterward, the White House announced a lease renewal that doubled its annual payments for Camp Lemonnier, to $63 million, and a plan to invest more than $1 billion to upgrade the installation. If the Pentagon's current base restrictions are any guide, American and Chinese troops are unlikely to be sharing beers any time soon. American officials, citing possible security threats, keep most personnel confined to the rectangle of scrubland, which is a drive from the center of Djibouti city. It is a policy that stirs some discontent among those who often spend yearlong stints at Camp Lemonnier without venturing outside. By contrast, French military personnel can often be seen jogging through the city and socializing with locals. Americans who work for the United States Embassy also live in the community and say they feel little threat to their safety. Life on base can be monotonous, broken up by visits to the fitness center or meals at the camp's Subway sandwich outlet. Capt. James Black, the camp's commanding officer, said one of his primary challenges was to provide salubrious distractions for those stationed here. The distractions include free a movie theater, Texas Hold 'em tournaments and the occasional soccer match with Italian and German troops. "We're like a landlocked aircraft carrier," Captain Black said during a recent tour of the installation, which is blasted in summer by broiling heat. "Part of my job is to create opportunities to give people a break and attend to their mental health needs. " Local residents also crave more face time with the Americans. Some say Camp Lemonnier personnel could play a more active role in helping to alleviate Djibouti's crushing poverty by building schools, painting hospitals or simply taking part in language exchanges. Others, like Mohamed Ali Basha, the owner of a restaurant that serves grilled fish and massive discs of baked flatbread, said he would welcome business from military personnel. "I don't understand why the Americans are so obsessed with security here, but I would be happy to close the restaurant for them if they would come," Mr. Basha, 26, said. "Just call in advance. " In interviews, Djiboutian officials expressed little concern that two strategic adversaries would be sharing space in a country the size of New Jersey. It helps that the Chinese are paying $20 million a year in rent on top of the billions they are spending to finance critical infrastructure, including ports and airports, a new rail line and a pipeline that will bring desperately needed drinking water from neighboring Ethiopia. Critics say the surge of loans, which amount to 60 percent of the country's gross domestic product, raises concerns about China's leverage over the Djibouti government should it fall behind on debt payments. "Such generous credit is itself a form of control," said Mohamed Daoud Chehem, a prominent government critic. "We don't know what China's intentions really are. " But on the city's dusty, potholed streets, most people are pleased to see China joining the club of a foreign militaries that have a presence here, among them Japan, Italy and Britain. Also here is a large contingent of French soldiers who stayed on after 1977, when the colony formerly known as French Somaliland gained independence. Abdirahman M. Ahmed, who runs Green Djibouti International, an environmental social enterprise, said many people viewed foreign militaries as a stabilizing force, given their country's diminutive size, its lack of resources and the potential threats from neighbors like Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea, where expansionist sentiments continue to burble. "We don't see any problem having the Chinese here," he said. "They provide revenue and help play a deterrence to those who would love to annex Djibouti. " The plethora of foreign troops, some say, also served as a bulwark against the jihadist violence that has destabilized other countries in the region. Djibouti, whose population of 900, 000 embraces a moderate form of Sunni Islam, has not been entirely spared: In 2014, a double suicide bombing at a downtown restaurant popular with foreigners killed a Turkish national and wounded 11 people. The Shabab, the militant group, later claimed responsibility, saying the attack was motivated by the presence of so many Western troops in Djibouti. For American military strategists, the security implications of the Chinese base are unclear, though practically speaking, many experts say the military threat is minimal. "A port like this isn't very defensible against attack," said Philip C. Saunders, director of the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs at the National Defense University. "It wouldn't last very long in a war. "


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


The European Union and Britain made progress in the latest round of divorce talks, but not enough to move to the next phase of discussions on a transition period after Brexit or a future trade deal, top negotiators said on Thursday. We have had a constructive week, yes, but we are not yet there in terms of achieving sufficient progress. Further work is needed in the coming weeks and months, chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier told reporters, praising a new dynamic created by concessions made last week by Prime Minister Theresa May. She had hoped that a speech she made in Florence on Friday would unblock the three-month-old talks and pave the way for the EU to open discussions on a post-Brexit free trade deal, by allowing Barnier to tell EU leaders that there is sufficient progress on three key divorce issues - rights for expatriate citizens, the Northern Irish border and Britain s exit bill. Differences over the role of the European Court of Justice and how much London will owe Brussels remain major obstacles. Officials involved said there had been a better atmosphere this week. One EU official said May had averted the train crash which might have resulted from another week of stubborn deadlock. That would have increased risks of Britain simply crashing out of the Union into legal limbo in March 2019. British Brexit Secretary David Davis said the talks achieved considerable progress over the four days in Brussels. He repeated his eagerness to move on to discuss what happens after Brexit and the two-year transition period which May requested, during which Britain would remain in the EU single market. We must never forget the bigger picture. Britain wants to be the European Union s strongest friend and partner, he said, echoing May. I leave Brussels optimistic about this future. Officials said transition issues were not raised this week. Barnier said he would take stock of progress with leaders of the other 27 EU states at a Brussels summit in three weeks time, a week after the next negotiating round. But he gave no indication of how likely he is to recommend opening trade talks. And sufficient progress has been deliberately left undefined. EU diplomats doubt Barnier will be satisfied by October and many see a December summit as a more likely moment to open the trade negotiations. However, officials said there could be some blurring of the EU refusal to discuss post-Brexit issues if the sides narrow differences and gain confidence in settling terms. Barnier highlighted two key areas of disagreement - on the legal protection for the rights of the 3 million EU citizens in Britain and on a pre-Brexit settlement from Britain for a share of outstanding financial commitments made during its membership. New figures from EU auditors on Thursday showed that the sum at stake may be growing as talks continue, simply due to delays in the bloc s spending of already agreed payments. May said on Friday that Britain would ensure the other 27 were not out of pocket in the current EU budget period and that it would honour commitments . Barnier expressed disappointment that negotiators had made clear she meant to end those budget payments in 2020, even though payments from the current 2014-20 budget will go on for some years beyond that. And London had given him no detail on what other commitments it would meet. On citizens rights, he welcomed Davis confirmation that the treaty guaranteeing them should now have direct effect in British law. That tightens a link between what the EU negotiates and what its citizens can count on in future in British courts. But the Union continues to demand that people also have the right to pursue grievances at the EU s own court in Luxembourg - a red line for a British government keen to show voters who backed Brexit last year that they have taken back control. Welcoming a guarantee that Britain would safeguard rights in a way consistent with EU law , Barnier said: We failed to agree that the European Court of Justice must play an indispensable role in ensuring this consistency.


Saudi Arabia will train women to work as air traffic controllers, state media reported, as the conservative Islamic kingdom seeks to create more jobs for women as part of a reform push to wean the economy off oil. Its Vision 2030 plan aims to increase employment and diversify revenue sources as low oil prices have hit the finances of the world s top exporter. Some of the planned changes, like increasing the number of women in the overall workforce to 28 percent from 23 percent and quadrupling their presence in senior civil service roles to 5 percent, would transform a society where employment has traditionally been the preserve of men. State-owned Saudi Air Navigation Services (SANS) announced on Sunday that it was offering theoretical and practical training to 80 women per year to prepare them for work in the air traffic control sector. The applicants began taking admissions exams on Sunday for the Saudi Academy of Civil Aviation and will undergo a number of editorial tests, state news agency SPA said in a report late on Sunday. Applicants must have a high school diploma with high marks and be between 18 and 25 years old, it said. Saudi Arabia is the only country where women are forbidden to drive, making it harder for them to get to work. Most employed women work for the kingdom s vast public sector, primarily in health and education, but authorities say they seek to encourage more hiring by private firms as part of the 2030 plan. Regulations bar women from certain professions, while rules on gender mixing in shops and businesses further limit job opportunities. Until 2012, even lingerie shops were mostly staffed by men. Female employment has been a battleground for years between social conservatives and reformers, but the balance has tipped toward change since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman took on wide-ranging powers role two years ago. Last year a senior cleric said women should be allowed to work as paramedics and opticians, and last month women staffed an emergency call center at the haj pilgrimage for the first time.


Kenya s education minister said on Monday that arson was to blame for a weekend blaze that killed nine pupils at a girls boarding school, part of a rising trend of deliberate school fires. It was not an accident, it was arson, Minister Fred Matiang i said of the fire on Saturday at Moi Girls School in Nairobi. The Kenya Red Cross said on its Twitter feed there had been three other school fires reported in different parts of the country on Monday. Many of the fires were set by students protesting harsh discipline, poor teaching and corruption, said Canadian Elizabeth Cooper, assistant professor of International Studies at Simon Fraser University, who spent four years researching the subject. Students she interviewed complained about poor food, scarce teaching materials, harsh teachers, and management that ignored their concerns. Many compared their schools to prison and said they destroyed their schools so they could go home. In one case, boys had drained water tanks and cut phone lines before setting fire to their principal s car and pushing it into his home. They were angry that he had been collecting money from their parents for three years for a school bus, but had not bought it. If a pupil needed hospital treatment, the principal drove them himself and charged the family, she said. In another case, girls smeared butter on their curtains and beds before setting them alight, Cooper said. Fires peak just before exams and mock exams. The students always say, no one listens to our concerns . Around 350 Kenyan schools caught fire from 2015 to 2016, according to the government. This compared, according to one academic source, with 76 fires from 2011 to 2013. It was not clear how many fires were deliberate. Numbers for 2014 were not available. Cooper said some schools set on fire have dismissed their principals afterward. There have been few successful prosecutions. Kenya frequently sees deadly protests, including after the presidential elections held last month. Cooper said students sometimes cited violent protests by slum residents or university students that successfully publicized their causes, and sought to emulate them. Students learn that authorities don t respond until they present a threat, she said. It s one way for voiceless citizens to be heard. But Matiang i said some arson attacks were also related to fights over staff appointments in schools, where senior positions can bring financial rewards. Some of the fires we have faced before in the sector are related to that kind of thing, politicization of school headship, politicization of responsibility in the education sector. It is not right, he said in a televised press conference. Kenya is East Africa s largest economy but unemployment is high and corruption is rife, making life difficult for many ordinary people. Control of a school can mean not just a government salary but an opportunity to extort extra money from students and parents in fees or other charges.


An earthquake, believed to be the strongest to hit Italy since 1980, struck the center of the country on Sunday, four days after two quakes severely damaged buildings and left thousands homeless in the area. The temblor on Sunday also caused fresh damage to the towns destroyed by a quake that killed nearly 300 people in August. The quake, which had a magnitude of 6. 5, according to Italy's national geophysical and volcanology institute, struck at 7:41 a. m. with its epicenter near Norcia. It was felt as far away as Bolzano in northern Italy and Puglia in the south, according to Italian news reports. Most of the towns in the area had already been evacuated after the recent seismic activity, so there were no immediate reports of deaths. About 20 people were injured but none killed, said Fabrizio Curcio, the head of Italy's civil protection department. "It was an important earthquake," he said. Helicopters were taking people to hospitals because some roads had been closed off, Mr. Curcio said. teams were converging on the area, he added, and mayors were verifying the conditions of residents in smaller hamlets. As night fell, emergency teams worked to transfer residents of the stricken areas to temporary dormitories and hotels in outlying areas, overcoming the resistance of those who preferred to remain near their homes, Mr. Curcio said. "This was a 6. 5 — we haven't had an earthquake of this magnitude since 1980 — so there are a series of controls we have to carry out," he said, adding that people would be assisted better outside the earthquake areas. Electrical power was out for many thousands of residences, many roads were blocked by debris or cracks, and several sections of the Via Salaria, the most important highway in the area, were not accessible, Mr. Curcio said. Emergency workers were preparing to work through the night to clear roads of debris. "It will be a difficult night," Mr. Curcio said after meeting with the mayor of Norcia, Nicola Alemanno, and Vasco Errani, the government's point man for the earthquake reconstruction program in Norcia. Mr. Curcio said he hoped people would not spend the night in their cars or in makeshift camps and would opt for more stable accommodations. "There is no reason to suffer," he said. Mr. Alemanno estimated that at least 3, 000 residents of the town had been left homeless. Other mayors were still tallying numbers of those left homeless in their own towns. Mr. Errani, who was appointed after the August quake, said Sunday's earthquake had "changed the scenario, and even more the spirit and the soul of people," he said. "We must remain calm to face the situation," he added. Aftershocks continued throughout the day, and the geological institute registered about 200 in the first 10 hours after the morning 6. 5 quake, at least 15 of them with a magnitude measuring over 4. The mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, ordered schools to remain closed Monday to allow for checks on their stability. At a news conference, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi vowed to rebuild damaged areas. "We will rebuild everything — homes, churches, businesses," he said. Italy has been urging the European Commission to give it more leeway in meeting targets for its budget deficit, citing greater costs incurred by its response to the migrant crisis and to the fallout of the earthquakes. The Italian government allocated 40 million euros, about $44 million, to the stricken zones after Wednesday's quakes, and on Sunday Mr. Renzi said more would be set aside to deal with the fresh damage. "We will broaden the crater zone so no town must fear it might be left out," he said. "We can't give back a smile to those who in this moment think they have lost everything," said Mr. Renzi, who noted that the earthquake had been felt by many Italians. He called on citizens to be strong and show solidarity. "Italy has its limitations and defects, but in these circumstances it gives the best of itself," he said. Italian news media showed images of the cathedral and basilica of St. Benedict in Norcia, where damage to the historic center was extensive. "Right now, the most important thing is to assist people," Mr. Curcio said. Television crews for the Italian state network RAI and Sky News had remained in the area after Wednesday's tremors, and provided live images with billows of dust from crumbled buildings in the background. The few residents of Norcia who had remained in town because their houses had withstood the previous quakes wandered the streets, startled and frightened. One television broadcast showed a group of nuns running into the main square where they later led prayers, with residents kneeling around them, in front of a statue of St. Benedict. The earth continued to tremble in the first minutes after the quake as reports of damage in various towns began to be tallied. In Ussita, a town near the epicenter of Wednesday's quake, "90 percent of the houses have crumbled," Mayor Marco Rinaldi told Italian television. In Amatrice, the town hardest hit in the August earthquake, the facade of the church of Sant'Agostino collapsed. "Everything has been destroyed. The towns no longer exist," said Aleandro Petrucci, the mayor of Arquata del Tronto, another ghost town since the August quake. In Rome, both of the main subway lines were temporarily closed to check for damage, Italian news outlets reported. Paolo Messina, the director of the Institute of Environmental Geology and Geoengineering at Italy's National Research Council, said Sunday's earthquake was linked to the quakes in August. "It's a complex situation, where a fault is breaking in sections," he said. On one hand, the repeated quakes were positive, "because if it occurred all at once the magnitude would be much higher," he said in a telephone interview. "At the same time, it is causing terrible damage. " It was impossible to determine the course of the seismic activity, he added. "We don't know how much energy has accumulated in this fault over the centuries, so we don't know how much needs to be discharged," he said. One shaken resident of Ussita, who had already lost her home, told the Italian news media: "We don't know what to do anymore. " The earthquake wants to kill us. "


Speaking to Breitbart News during a trip to Israel, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee hailed President Donald Trump's historic trip to Israel and urged the president to fulfil his campaign promise to move the U. S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem despite pressure against such a move. ["I think this is a historic trip," said Huckabee. "He made the first ever flight from Riyadh to Tel Aviv. We had the first sitting U. S. president go to the Western Wall and offer a prayer. I think that is incredibly significant. " Huckabee said that Trump has been "very vocal in his support for Israel and I think that the people here sense it. " Continued Huckabee: I also hope with all my heart that he will keep his campaign promise to move the U. S. embassy. I know there is enormous pressure for him not to do that. The rationale is that it will make certain people unhappy. Whoever those people are, they are unhappy already. They are not going to be made happy by the location of the U. S. embassy. Huckabee said Trump's visits to Israel and Saudi Arabia have demonstrated that a "very strong America is much better than a weak America. This is so incredibly different from the eight years of Barack Obama's administration. " "The reception that Trump received in Saudi Arabia was a stunning contrast to the one received by Barack Obama," he continued. "In Obama, they [the Saudis] saw a weak American leader, whereas with Trump they see someone who exhibits strength. Whose strength in leadership is out front. They might not have agreed with everything that Trump said [in his address in Saudi Arabia] but they have to respect that he spoke the truth. " Huckabee, who ran against Trump in the 2016 presidential election before endorsing him, is in Israel on a brief tour with American activist Dr. Joseph Frager. On Sunday night, Huckabee and Frager went for a nighttime visit to Joseph's Tomb, Judaism's third holiest site, located in a complex controlled by the Palestinian Authority. "It's an amazing experience to have to come to this type of difficulty just to be able to come to a holy site for Jews and frankly even for Christians, who pay tribute to Joseph," Huckabee said at the site, according to Ynetnews. "To have to do it in the dead of night, under armed guard, with the smell of tear gas in the air, burning tires along the route, it's a stark reminder [of how different] it is in the heart of Israel, where the Israeli government protects every Muslim that accesses their holy site," he added. "In Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] Jewish people do not have unhindered access to holy sites without having to go to extraordinary lengths in order to be able to access these places. " Huckabee will also attend the annual Moskowitz Prize for Zionism reception. The prize was "established in recognition of the people who put Zionism into action in today's Israeli society — at times risking their own personal security, placing the collective before personal needs and doing what it takes to ensure a strong, secure Jewish homeland. " It was established by the late Irving Moskowitz, whose wife Cherna continues the family's philanthropy. U. S. law requires the relocation of the embassy to Jerusalem. However, President Obama signed successive waivers delaying the move. The current waiver expires on June 1. Numerous reports in recent days cited White House officials saying that Trump is not expected to use the visit to announce an embassy move. Still, that prediction is subject to change. Even if Trump does not announce an embassy move, there are that could be put into place, including the possibility of David Friedman, the U. S. ambassador to Israel, setting up shop at the U. S. consulate in Jerusalem instead of the beachfront embassy building in Tel Aviv. Aaron Klein is Breitbart's Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio. " Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.


Comments  Special to Occupy Democrats by Carlos Miller of PINAC News.  It was only last month that Scott Michael Greene accused a group of black teenagers of being "cop haters" because they did not stand for the National Anthem during a high school football game. This morning, he shot and killed two cops in cold blood as they sat in their patrol cars. Greene, 46, was arrested a few hours later after an intense manhunt.  Below is a video he posted on YouTube, along with a screenshot of his comment referring to the black teens as cop haters for not standing during the national anthem at high school game, which caused him to throw a fit of rage leading to him eventually being kicked out of the stadium.  He was angry at police after they had kicked him out of the football game for waving a Confederate flag in front of a group of black students in Urbandale on October 14, 2016. Two days later, he posted the infamous video to YouTube from the encounter titled, "Police Abuse, Civil Rights Violation at Urbandale High School 10/14/16."  Of course, neither Trump nor his campaign have said anything about the killings except a tweet offering the old tired "thoughts and prayers."  In the video, he tries to explain to the cops kicking him out that he was doing nothing more than expressing his First Amendment rights to wave the Confederate flag. He also said he was assaulted and had his flag stolen from him. However, police said he was causing a disturbance and that he would be arrested for trespassing on school property if he did not leave. They also returned his flag to him.  While they agreed he had a Constitutional right to wave the flag, they informed him that on school grounds, he was subject to school policies that did not allow the waving of the Confederate flag. Less than a week ago, he stated in the comments section of his video that he was "offended by the blacks sitting through our anthem" and referred to them as being "cop haters." Now, he is a suspected cop killer. Greene has a long history of arrests, including one incident where he threatened to kill a black man after calling him a racial slur. He also went though mental evaluation and was placed on medication.  According to the Des Moines Register:  He was charged with a simple misdemeanor count of interference with official acts on April 10, 2014, when he resisted an attempt by officers to pat him down for weapons at an Urbandale residence on Colby Parkway, according to a criminal complaint. The officers wanted to search Greene after noticing that he had a pouch on his belt that resembled a holster.  Greene was "noncompliant, hostile, combative and made furtive movements toward his pockets" before the arrest, Officer Chris Greenfield wrote in the complaint. Greene pleaded guilty to the charge about two weeks later.  The complaint does not indicate why officers initially came into contact with Greene. But two days later he reportedly threatened to kill a man in the parking lot of the same apartment complex and he was charged with first-degree harassment, according to another complaint.  In that incident, Greene was accused of approaching a man in the parking lot and shined a flashlight in his eyes. Greene, who lived in the apartments, called the man the N-word and told the man "I will kill you, (expletive) kill you," according to the complaint. Greene pleaded guilty to a lesser harassment charge on June 30, 2014, and was sentenced to one year of probation.  In a discharge report filed in June 2015 a probation officer wrote that Greene had received a mental health evaluation and "reports to have complied with the medication recommendations."  Watch this confederate flag obsessed cop-killer's YouTube video: