When Hillary Clinton called about half of Donald Trump s supporters a basket of deplorables, she was a bit off-base not because she insulted them by calling them what they are, but because half is far too generous.Recently, a seven-year-old girl in Aleppo that s the place Gary Johnson doesn t know about has been getting quite a bit of attention with her tweets about the horrors of her existence. Bana, like many others, is trapped in the Eastern part of the city with dwindling supplies and a constant fear of death and her tweets about her daily reality are both horrifying and endearing.Tonight we have no house, it's bombed & I got in rubble. I saw deaths and I almost died. Bana #Aleppo pic.twitter.com/arGYZaZqjg Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) November 27, 2016Under heavy bombardments now. In between death and life now, please keep praying for us. #Aleppo Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) November 28, 2016We have no home now. I got minor injury. I didn't sleep since yesterday, I am hungry. I want to live, I don't want to die. Bana #Aleppo Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) November 28, 2016This is our house, My beloved dolls died in the bombing of our house. I am very sad but happy to be alive.- Bana pic.twitter.com/9i0xxJrQtD Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) November 29, 2016This is my reading place where I wanted to start reading Harry Potter but it's bombed. I will never forget. Bana pic.twitter.com/6fXX2Me8ZB Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) November 29, 2016On Sunday, the little girl disappeared from social media, leaving an ominous message behind indicating that she is not safe. But fortunately, the BBC reports that she and her mother, who often tweets on her behalf, managed to escape to an undisclosed location. Bana s story has touched many, including J.K. Rowling, whose Harry Potter series Bana loves, and the world is in awe at the child s bravery well, aside from ISIS and the American Right. They don t like her too much at all.While many have expressed sympathy for Bana s plight and have left messages of love and hope, the Basket has been relentlessly trolling the little girl because they really aren t joking when they call them selves Deplorable Dave and other appropriated insults. They wear the title give to them by the former Secretary of State as a badge of honor.@VivaSyrianAA @AlabedBana Her father won't let her have a good life. Uses her as a Wahhabi terrorist propaganda ploy. Sick Jewish Russophile (@JewRussophile) December 2, 2016@AlabedBana death is always sad but looks more like honor killing muslims r always parading the dead bodies of strap bombs2kids Laurinda Cole (@apostlelaurinda) November 26, 2016@TheHerbalRose @AlabedBana these r innocent kids that will b used as bombs, human shields & sold in2sexual slavery by parents&islam Laurinda Cole (@apostlelaurinda) November 28, 2016@BobHenriqurs @AlabedBana Bana you really need to talk to your terrorist mates and get them to stopkilling children steve wright (@stewrigh) November 26, 2016@AlabedBana STOP USING THIS CHILD FOR BULLSHIT PROPAGANDA A D (@dm7474) December 5, 2016@AlabedBana what an attention seekerStop pretending you are dying every couple of daysEveryone knows this is a fake psyop account Chelsea Lopez (@justfake) December 5, 2016@AlabedBana how about you crawl back into the bombed out building you came out to tweet BS. Blazing Fury (@FuryBlazing) December 5, 2016@AlabedBana your a fake, no child would have climbed this rubble to get a picture like this..your a rebel or isis Life is illusions (@Bman4101973) November 29, 2016.@AdamNeira @HKX07 Whatever al Qaeda pic.twitter.com/FVXIfSw5C1 Porkchan (@MostPerfectLord) November 30, 2016@AlabedBana What propaganda ! Nice plug for jk rowling who retweets you. How you have internet connection ? New phone ? Clean clothes etc? DeplorableDave (@ThePhantomPain1) November 29, 2016@AlabedBana Lolololo! I now come here daily for a good laugh. Thinking about having my dog open an acct & 'he'll' Tweet from Mars. Calamity Jane (@AmandaKavanagh5) November 29, 2016@AlabedBana you are another gay girl in Damascus . A hoax just like this is. DeplorableDave (@ThePhantomPain1) November 29, 2016@AlabedBana where are you taking these pictures from Bana? You're like 3 floors up. Trump Supporter (@Trump201611) November 29, 2016@AlabedBana cut the B.S. this is sheer propoganda. Vanna (@vannanancy) November 29, 2016@AlabedBana I hope you were able to shave your beard John Smith (@999100cn) November 29, 2016This little girl is suffering, and her plight has been well-documented, but Trump fans don t care. All they know is that she s a Muslim, which means she s not human enough for anything approaching whatever level of compassion of which they are capable.Watch an interview with Bana below:


Three women suffered severe, permanent eye damage after stem cells were injected into their eyes, in an unproven treatment at a loosely regulated clinic in Florida, doctors reported in an article published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. One, 72, went completely blind from the injections, and the others, 78 and 88, lost much of their eyesight. Before the procedure, all had some visual impairment but could see well enough to drive. The cases expose gaps in the ability of government health agencies to protect consumers from unproven treatments offered by entrepreneurs who promote the supposed healing power of stem cells. The women had macular degeneration, an eye disease that causes vision loss, and they paid $5, 000 each to receive injections in 2015 at a private clinic in Sunrise, Fla. The clinic was part of a company then called Bioheart, now called U. S. Stem Cell. Staff members there used liposuction to suck fat out of the women's bellies, and then extracted stem cells from the fat to inject into the women's eyes. The disastrous results were described in detail in the journal article, by doctors who were not connected to U. S. Stem Cell and treated the patients within days of the injections. An accompanying article by scientists from the Food and Drug Administration warned that stem cells from fat "are being used in practice on the basis of minimal clinical evidence of safety or efficacy, sometimes with the claims that they constitute revolutionary treatments for various conditions. " Kristin C. Comella, the chief science officer of U. S. Stem Cell, said in an interview that the clinic did not need F. D. A. approval because it was treating patients with their own cells, which are not a drug. She said the treatments were comparable to patients' receiving grafts of their own skin — a procedure not a drug. Two of the eye patients sued the clinic and settled, but it has faced no other penalties. Ms. Comella said it no longer treats eyes, but continues to treat five to 20 patients a week for other problems like torn knee cartilage and degenerating spinal discs. All three women found U. S. Stem Cell because it had listed a study on a government website, clinicaltrials. gov — provided by the National Institutes of Health. Two later told doctors they thought they were participating in research. But no study ever took place, and the proposed study on the site had no government endorsement. Clinical trials do not need government approval to be listed on the website. Legitimate research rarely, if ever, charges patients to participate, scientists say, so the fees should have been a red flag. But many people do not know that. Promising research in eye disease and other conditions is taking place. But researchers and health officials have been warning for years that patients are at risk from hundreds of private clinics that have sprung up around the United States and overseas, offering treatments for all manner of ailments, like injured knees, damaged spinal discs, neurological diseases and heart failure. Businesses promising "regenerative medicine" have multiplied, with little or no regulation. Stem cells, which can develop into many different types of cells, are thought to have tremendous potential to repair or replace tissue damaged by disease, injury or aging. But so far, the F. D. A. has approved only a few products to treat certain blood disorders. The women in Florida suffered detached retinas, in which the thin layer of cells that send signals to the optic nerve pulls away from the back of the eye — a condition that usually needs prompt surgery to prevent blindness. Doctors who examined the patients said they suspected that the stem cells had grown onto the retina and then contracted, pulling it off the eyeball. One woman had such high pressure inside her eyes — about three times the normal level — that it may have damaged her optic nerves. Doctors operated quickly to relieve the pressure, but she became blind. "The really horrible thing about this is that you would never, nobody practicing good medicine would ever do an experimental procedure on a patient on both eyes on the same day," said Dr. Thomas A. Albini, an author of the article who saw two of the patients, at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Standard practice, he said, is to treat one eye at a time, usually the worse eye first, so that if something goes wrong at least the patient still has one eye left with some vision. Dr. Albini said his team alerted the F. D. A. after the second patient showed up. "They did send an investigator who took statements from us," he said. "They apparently wrote up a report, which as far as I know is still not finished or available for public consumption. " Andrea Fischer, a spokeswoman for the F. D. A. said the agency could not comment on whether an investigation had been conducted. Two of the women were not available for interviews because their lawsuit settlements in 2016 included nondisclosure agreements, according to their lawyer, Andrew B. Yaffa, of Coral Gables, Fla. He also was barred from discussing the case, but a publicly available complaint he filed in July 2016 details one patient's story, and states that the injections were performed by a nurse practitioner who was introduced as a physician. The third patient did not sue, but did not respond to a request for an interview made through her doctor. (The patients were not named in the journal article.) Ms. Comella, from U. S. Stem Cell, said that an independent review board had approved the proposed eye study, including the plan to treat both eyes at once. She said a total of three patients ever received eye injections at the clinic, and were not part of a trial. She declined to confirm that they were the same three patients described in the journal article, but the article links the women to the clinic. Ms. Comella said a trial never did begin, because the first three cases "ended the way they ended, so we decided not to go forward with any additional patients. " She declined to discuss the cases further, citing the nondisclosure agreement. But she said that U. S. Stem Cell had successfully treated thousands of patients for other conditions, and that it was misleading to draw attention to "a handful of adverse events. " U. S. Stem Cell also makes money by training doctors to extract stem cells from fat. And in a blog post on Tuesday its chief executive, Mike Tomás, said the company expected to open clinics throughout the Middle East, in Kuwait, Dubai and Qatar. But the company, which is a penny stock, is struggling financially, and as recently as last fall warned investors that its poor financial situation put it at risk of going out of business. Clinics like U. S. Stem Cell that extract stem cells from fat fall into a gray zone. Regulations say stem cells do not have to be F. D. A. approved if they are the patient's own and are "minimally manipulated" — but some clinics may stretch that term to suit their own purposes. The F. D. A. website has a page that warns "the hope that patients have for cures not yet available may leave them vulnerable to unscrupulous providers of treatments that are illegal and potentially harmful. " The F. D. A. article in The New England Journal of Medicine suggested that adverse events from treatments "are probably much more common than is appreciated, because there is no reporting requirement when these therapies are administered outside clinical investigations. " Like the Florida patients, people who consult clinicaltrials. gov may assume that the studies listed there have been approved by the F. D. A. or the National Institutes of Health, but that is not necessarily the case, Renate Myles, an N. I. H. spokeswoman, said. In an email, Ms. Myles said, "The information on ClinicalTrials. gov is provided by the study sponsor or principal investigator and posting on ClinicalTrials. gov does not necessarily reflect endorsement by the N. I. H. ClinicalTrials. gov does not independently verify the scientific validity or relevance of the trial itself beyond a limited quality control review. " Ms. Myles said that the site urges patients to consult their own doctors about joining studies and includes caveats in multiple places. "However, we agree that such caveats need to be clearer to all users and will be adding a more prominent disclaimer in the near future," she added.


They were young men caught between cultures, sons of immigrant families, feeling lost or rejected — and angry about wars. Online they encountered the recruiters of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, who said their first loyalty should be not to their nation but to Islam. Then they plotted sensational violence. In the weekend bombings in New York and New Jersey and stabbings at a mall in Minnesota, the suspected perpetrators fit the same rough pattern as in previous attacks at the Boston Marathon in 2013 in San Bernardino, Calif. in 2015 and in Orlando, Fla. in June, as well as in the terrorist assaults in Paris and Brussels. A rich recruiting pool for Al Qaeda and the Islamic State includes what psychologists call "" young adults whose identities have not yet solidified. Their uncertainty makes them vulnerable, said J. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist and clinical professor at the University of California, San Diego. "It allows the individual to attach his identity to something that is larger and inflates his sense of himself," he said. The uncomfortable status can be especially acute for those with recent immigrant roots. Living in two cultures at once is very enriching for most people but very unsettling for others, said Lorenzo Vidino, the director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. For some Muslim immigrants, he said, "You have a message at home that's very conservative, and a completely different message from the society around you when you're growing up. " The full history of Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, the naturalized American of Afghan birth who is accused of planting bombs in Manhattan and New Jersey, is not yet known. But his 2014 arrest in an alleged stabbing in a family dispute suggests a young man adrift his scribbling in a notebook the names of Osama bin Laden, Abu Muhammad — an Islamic State leader — and Anwar the Qaeda recruiter, appeared to reflect a embrace of jihadism. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a Chechen immigrant and the older of the two Boston Marathon bombers, turned to Islamist extremism when his hopes for a boxing career dimmed. He was 26 at the time of the attack. Omar Mateen, the son of an Afghan immigrant with outspoken political views, was 29 when he opened fire at an Orlando nightclub, killing 49 people. He had been dismissed from training as a prison guard after making disturbing remarks about weapons, and ended up as a private security guard. Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, the son of immigrants from Pakistan, found work as a health inspector but had spent years searching for dates and a mate before meeting Tashfeen Malik online and marrying her in Saudi Arabia. Together, the couple attacked a luncheon attended by Mr. Farook's colleagues last December, killing 14 people. "When you dig into these cases, you find the 'why' is a very complex question," said Peter Bergen, the director of the security program at New America, a research group, and author of "United States of Jihad. " Personal disappointment, perceptions of discrimination, anger about American foreign policy and the desire "to become a hero in one's own story" are all at play in addition to jihadist ideology, he said. "Many of them just take their grievances and dress them up in the garb of Islam," Mr. Bergen said. That has become easy in the age of the internet. The attackers in San Bernardino, Orlando and New York all had expressed support for the Islamic State, and they and the Boston bombers were devotees of the voluminous online work of Mr. Awlaki, who was killed in an American drone strike in 2011. His arguments remain highly popular on the web, where he urged Western Muslims to reject even the friendliest neighbors, whom he called "Sally Soccer Mom and Joe . " Mr. Rahami wrote in his journal that "Sheikh Anwar," as well as Mr. Adnani of the Islamic State, had "said it clearly": "Attack the kuffar," or "in their backyard. " Farhad Khosrokhavar, a sociologist at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris and the author of "Radicalization," said Muslims in Europe more often than those in America felt "frontally rejected" by the larger society. He said he had often seen in his research individuals who felt neither French nor Arab. "In France, they are blamed for not being French enough, and when they go to their parents' country of origin, they are blamed for not being Arab enough," Mr. Khosrokhavar said. "That double denial can push them to adhere to a radical version of Islam, as a kind of lifeline: Since I am neither French nor Arab, neither American nor Afghan, I am Muslim and to hell with you all," he added. These roots of radicalization do not make immigrants in general a danger. In the United States, immigrants have a lower rate of crime and violence than other Americans. Converts to Islam are disproportionately represented among Americans and Europeans drawn to extremism, and other ideologies also motivate mass violence — as in the case of Dylann Roof, who was 21 when he fatally shot nine black people last year at a church in Charleston, S. C. in the name of white supremacy. "The actual content of the ideology is secondary," said Mr. Meloy, the psychologist. "What's important is the identification and fixation. " But the Islamist terrorist groups target the particular anxieties of Western Muslims from immigrant backgrounds, posing recruitment as a religious loyalty test. They call on supporters to reject the nations where they live and embrace instead a devotion to the ummah, the global community of Muslims. The West is at war with Islam, they say, and you must strike out to defend your fellow Muslims. That message has been delivered with particular power by Mr. Awlaki, often reinforcing the newer propaganda efforts of the Islamic State. As an imam who counseled immigrants at three American mosques, and as a who had lived in both countries and in Britain, Mr. Awlaki understood the worries of Muslims in the West. When he joined Al Qaeda, he did his best to open a gulf between them and their neighbors. "The important lesson to learn here is: Never, ever trust a kuffar," Mr. Awlaki said in a 2003 lecture in London that was captured on video and remains a YouTube favorite. "Now, you might argue and say: 'But my neighbor is such a nice person. My classmates are very nice. My — they're just fabulous people, they're so decent and honest. '" Yet these can never be relied upon, he said. Later, after moving to Yemen, he spoke not only of shunning but also of attacking them. In a 2010 video, he tried to shame his listeners into choosing his brand of religion over their country. "To the Muslims in America I have this to say: How can your conscience allow you to live in peaceful coexistence with a nation that is responsible for the tyranny and crimes committed against your own brothers and sisters?" he said. "How can you have your loyalty to a government that is leading the war against Islam and Muslims?" He has led many people down the jihadist path, and not just in countries. The Counter Extremism Project, an advocacy group based in Washington, said Wednesday that it had counted 88 "extremists" who had been influenced by Mr. Awlaki: 54 in the United States and 34 in Europe. Most such jihadist recruits are the children of immigrants, said Olivier Roy, a professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and the author of "Globalized Islam. " His research shows that 65 percent of Muslim extremists in France and Belgium are from this second generation. "These young people have broken away from their parents, who they blame for many things — for practicing the wrong Islam, for having brought them to the West, for having failed in life," Mr. Roy said, noting that Mr. Rahami reportedly had clashed with his father. But such conflicts pass. Few jihadists are from the third generation, the grandchildren of immigrants, he said.


Friday, 4 November 2016 Brad, sticking it to the Ruskies  The 2016 presidential election has been full of talk about Russian involvement. WikiLeaks released repeated batches of emails related to the Democratic Party. U.S. intelligence agencies traced the leaks to Russian hackers sanctioned by the Russian government.  While no evidence emerged showing Russian hackers able to directly meddle with voting, hackers have been found to be electronically "sniffing" around election databases in multiple states. Experts speculate Russia may be planning something disruptive related to the election itself.  This activity has left the public on edge about Russia and what its intentions are. Well, American citizens can rest easy on at least one front.  Moscow had one plan to reduce voter turnout on Tuesday, November 8th that backfired biggly. It seems to be getting MORE people out to vote.  Intelligence agencies recently found evidence of an extensive subliminal message campaign. Cleverly hidden in the background of internet memes about funny cats and fast food tray liners have been messages encouraging people not to vote.  The hidden phrases include "Vote nyet,""Don't vote,""No Vote," and "Vote no mas."  The operation produced the opposite result.  Under anonymity an U.S. agent explained, "We are seeing unusually large turnout in all populations targeted by this campaign."  "We have two main theories to explain this.  One, those reading the message don't register the negative in the statement and keep seeing the word "Vote". Kind of like ordering someone to not think of an elephant, and then all they can do is think of elephants.  The second theory is that the Russians totally misread American culture. Americans harbor a deeply ingrained reaction against being told what to do. No American wants to be bullied into anything.  As a result, the Russians are getting exactly what they didn't want, people are actually getting themselves to the polls in record numbers."  When Brad Johnson, one of the many who found himself inexplicably voting early, heard all of this he said,  "Well, heck, that makes me sort of proud. I was just sticking it to the Ruskies." Make pinkwalrus's


A third Republican U.S. senator on Tuesday said she could not back any legislation to repeal Obamacare without a replacement plan, effectively blocking Republican leaders' efforts to bring up a narrower repeal-only bill after earlier legislation collapsed. "To repeal there has to be a replacement. There's enough chaos already, and this would just contribute to it," Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told reporters, saying she would vote no on any effort to take up legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act enacted in 2010 under former President Barack Obama.


France should not interfere in Iran s missile program, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Iran s supreme leader, said on Saturday according to state media. French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that Tehran should be less aggressive in the region and should clarify the strategy around its ballistic missile program. It does not benefit Mr. Macron and France to interfere on the missile issue and the strategic affairs of the Islamic Republic, which we have great sensitivities about, Velayati said. What does this issue have to do with Mr. Macron? Who is he at all to interfere? If he wants relations between Iran and France to grow then he should try not to interfere in these issues. U.S. President Donald Trump has said Iranian missile activity should be curbed. Iranian officials have repeatedly said the Islamic Republic s missile program is for defense purposes and is not up for negotiation. The program was not part of the 2015 nuclear deal with Western powers under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some sanctions. France said on Wednesday it wanted an uncompromising dialogue with Iran about its ballistic missile program and a possible negotiation over the issue separate from Tehran s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.


The U.S. Justice Department is scaling back its request to obtain a broad swath of data in connection with an anti-Trump website, after critics accused the department of trampling the free speech rights of political dissidents. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia had previously issued a broader search warrant in July to DreamHost, a Los Angeles-based web hosting company, to obtain data about visitors to website disruptj20.org. Disruptj20 is home to a coalition of political activists who organized disruptive protests during President Donald Trump's inauguration. The Justice Department said it sought the records connected to the site amid concerns that it helped facilitate the planning of violent riots on Inauguration Day in which more than 200 people were arrested for rioting and vandalizing businesses in downtown Washington. DreamHost resisted the request, saying the scope of the warrant was too broad and trampled on the rights of 1.3 million visitors to the site, many of whom were simply exercising their First Amendment rights to express their political views. The Justice Department on Tuesday proposed amending the scope of its warrant in a filing with the Superior Court of the District of Columbia Criminal Division, which is slated to hold a hearing over the dispute on Thursday morning. "The warrant - like the criminal investigation - is singularly focused on criminal activity. It will not be used for any other purpose," it wrote. "The government has no interest in records relating to the 1.3 million IP addresses that are mentioned in DreamHost's numerous press releases and opposition brief." The department proposed asking the court to amend the warrant, and said that DreamHost "should not disclose the contents of unpublished draft publications" or "HTTP request and error logs." An attorney for DreamHost called the Justice Department's action "a tremendous win for DreamHost, its users and the public." But in a statement, DreamHost counsel Raymond Aghaian added: "There remains, unfortunately, other privacy and First and Fourth Amendment issues with the search warrant, which we will address in a separate filing and at the hearing Thursday morning."


U.S. Senator Rob Portman, commenting on the possible lifting of sanctions on Russia by President Donald Trump, said on Friday lifting them for any reason other than a change of Russian behavior would send the world "a dangerous message." Portman, a founder and co-chairman of the Senate Ukraine Caucus, said the Senate should work to put sanctions imposed on Russia over its annexation of Ukraine into law. "We must stand by our allies in the region, including Ukraine," the Republican said in a statement.


Three U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups will exercise together in the Western Pacific in the coming days in a rare show of force as President Donald Trump visits Asia with warnings about the nuclear threat from North Korea, U.S. officials say. The drill will include the USS Nimitz, the Ronald Reagan, the Theodore Roosevelt and their accompanying warships, the first time three U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups have exercised together in the region in a decade. A Japanese destroyer, the Inazuma, will join the armada, two Japanese government officials said, following a separate three-day exercise with the Reagan and two Indian warships in the Sea of Japan that ended Monday. U.S. officials have previously said the drill was under consideration and that planning was under way. The decision to soon go forward with the exercise in the Western Pacific has not been previously published. The four U.S. officials and two Japanese sources who discussed the drill with Reuters spoke on condition of anonymity, and did not disclose the precise date or location of the exercise. The Pentagon and the Navy's Pacific Fleet declined comment on future operations. Reuters was not aware of any plans for Trump to visit the carriers. Trump has reiterated his tough rhetoric against North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs since starting a 12-day trip to Asia on Sunday. Speaking in Tokyo on Monday, Trump renewed his warning that the "era of strategic patience" with North Korea was over. The U.S. leader, who began a visit South Korea on Tuesday, has rattled some allies with his vow to "totally destroy" North Korea if necessary to defend the United States or its allies, and with his dismissal of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a "rocket man" on a suicide mission. Kim has called Trump a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard." The last time three U.S. carrier strike groups exercised together was in 2007, when the Nimitz, along with the John C. Stennis and Kitty Hawk carrier strike groups participated in drills near Guam. Such large-scale drills serve as a potent reminder of the U.S. ability to rapidly mobilize military force, a capability the Trump administration has been keen to emphasize as Pyongyang races ahead with tests to build a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the United States. Since taking office, Trump has vowed to expand the fleet of U.S. carriers, even as some military strategists and experts believe the massive ships would be increasingly vulnerable to modern Chinese and Russian weapons in any conflict. Singapore-based military expert Tim Huxley said the presence of the U.S. carriers still sent an unmistakable message, with each one carrying 70-odd aircraft. "Beyond the capability to project military power at great range, their ability to project political and psychological power is arguably unmatched, and we are seeing that play out," said Huxley, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. "While in a war against China, U.S. carriers might be vulnerable, they wouldn't be in any conflict against North Korea...and three U.S. carriers can deliver a tremendous amount of airpower." Carrier commanders say the strike groups are kept combat ready at all times, with jet fighters and surveillance planes flying constantly from their flight decks to maintain a protective screen. U.S. defense officials noted recently the presence of the three U.S. carriers in the region was reassuring allies, even though it was long scheduled. "It does demonstrate a capability that no other nation in the world can do," Joint Staff Director Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie Jr said earlier this month. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying called for restraint during a regular news briefing on Tuesday when asked about the carriers, saying the situation on the Korean peninsula was complex and severe. "All relevant sides should exercise restraint, avoid irritating each other, dedicate themselves to lowering the tense situation on the peninsula, and at the same time make positive efforts to get the North Korean nuclear issue back on a track to a resolution via talks as soon as possible," Hua said, reiterating the long-held Chinese position. The CIA has said North Korea could be only months away from developing the ability to hit the United States with nuclear weapons, a scenario Trump has vowed to prevent. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, on a trip late last month to South Korea, was at pains to stress that diplomacy was America's preferred course to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. Still, he warned Pyongyang that its military was no match for the U.S.-South Korean alliance, and that diplomacy was most effective "when backed by credible military force."


THERE S NO INDICATION OF A MOTIVE IN THE CASE: This is one sick puppy! A man went around spraying produce with poison but we don t know why yet. Ann Arbor, Michigan is home to the University of Michigan and several upscale grocery stores like Whole Foods and Plum Market.The FBI has arrested a Michigan man for allegedly spraying a poisonous mixture of chemicals on food at three grocery stores in Ann Arbor, Michigan.The FBI and Michigan Health Department are now looking at whether anyone was seriously ill from the low-scale chemical attack to contaminate food.Authorities believe the unidentified suspect targeted at least three grocery stores in the past two weeks: Whole Foods, Meijer and Plum Market. Law enforcement officials are also now trying to determine whether he victimized other stores with his toxic mixture of hand-cleaner, water and Tomcat mice poison. What if he s been doing this for weeks, or months, or even years, and just suddenly someone saw him? one concerned citizen said. Makes you think about everything you buy all the time. The suspect may have mental health issues, and so far there is no indication of terrorism, sources said.


It s like a day doesn t go by without some backwoods, right-wing jackass threatening the life of the President.Donald Baker of the Anchorage Fire Department was suspended after issuing threats to the President on social media. The controversy began when a reader sent a screenshot of the remark to WHAS11. Under an article titled Obama Hijacks Memorial With Sick Message (apparently from right-wing garbage pile America s Freedom Fighters), Baker wrote that someone should please put a bullet in this f*cker s head, referring to worthless piece of sh*t Obama:When the station contacted Baker s employer, an investigation was launched. Chief William Rockwood confirmed on Thursday that the post was being investigated, and that he had suspended Baker while he determines if the department s social media policy was violated by this direct threat to the President: The Anchorage Fire Protection District finds this post extremely troubling and inappropriate. The District does not condone or allow the use of inappropriate conduct or language by its employees in person or through instant technology. Sadly, Baker is finding a lot of support on WHAS11 s Facebook page: Some of his more vocal supporters have their own thoughts on the President: Perhaps it s time for the Secret Service to pay Mr. Baker a visit. All too often we see threats against the President go completely unanswered a dangerous thing when right-wing terrorism is on the rise.At minimum, Baker should definitely lose his job. After all, can he really be trusted to do his job to the best of his ability if he pulls up to a fire at a house with Democratic political signs in the yard? How deep does his bigotry go? Does it extend to all African-Americans? We are still awaiting the results of the investigation, but hopefully the Department does the right thing. Free speech is important, but it can and does have consequences.


New Jersey Governor Christie said on Friday the state would begin taxing income earned by people who work in New Jersey but live in Pennsylvania, ending a long-standing arrangement with the neighboring state. Pulling out of the nearly 40-year old "reciprocity" agreement would allow New Jersey to raise more revenue starting Jan. 1. Christie, a close ally of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, said in a statement that he was forced to act because the Democrat-controlled legislature created a $250 million budget hole in June by relying on public employee health insurance cuts they have not yet made. If lawmakers come back next week and cut health costs, Christie could consider "revising" his termination of the reciprocal tax pact. "I will not raise state taxes, cut property tax relief, reduce aid to education or our hospitals, or reduce the state's record pension payment to cover for this blunder by the legislature," Christie said. Jeff Sheridan, press secretary to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, said Christie "erred significantly in his decision to unnecessarily punish 125,000 Pennsylvanians and cost the commonwealth $5 million annually." He said Wolf, a Democrat, was hopeful Christie would change his mind. However, Christie seems committed to making Pennsylvania "suffer the consequences of his failure to enact a responsible budget in a bipartisan way," Sheridan said. Pennsylvanians pay a flat 3.07 percent income tax rate with no personal exemptions. New Jerseyans pay higher rates the more they make, with progressive rates increasing from 1.4 percent to 8.97 percent. The reciprocal agreement is advantageous for high-income Pennsylvania residents who work in New Jersey, because they pay their state's lower tax rate. It is also good for low-income New Jerseyans who work across the border because of New Jersey's progressive tax system. New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney said in a statement that ending the scheme is "the wrong decision for our state" and that more than 100,000 New Jersey residents will pay almost $1,000 per year in additional income tax. "The burden falls completely on working families in New Jersey, especially those in South Jersey who work in Philadelphia, and will have a very real impact on their quality of life," he said.


The 11 countries committed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership are considering amendments to the trade deal, three sources said on Tuesday, as officials meet in Sydney for talks to re-energize the stalled agreement. Among the areas being discussed, Vietnam has raised the prospect of changes to labor rights and intellectual property (IP) provisions in the original pact, one source familiar with the talks told Reuters. Vietnam had been one of the countries expected to enjoy the biggest economic benefits from TPP through greater access to U.S. markets. However, the original 12-member TPP, which aims to cut trade barriers in some of Asia s fastest-growing economies, was thrown into limbo in January when U.S. President Trump withdrew from the agreement. Trump s move fulfilled a campaign pledge to put America first - a policy that aimed to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. Although the remaining members have publicly said they remain committed to the deal, implementation of the agreement linking 11 countries with a combined GDP of $12.4 trillion has stalled - raising fears that other countries will follow the U.S. lead and withdraw. Eager to keep all members onboard, representatives from the remaining countries are considering changes to the original TPP deal, three sources familiar with the talks said. We re all open to evaluating what we can do and what viable alternatives there may be, Edgar Vasquez, Peru s deputy trade minister, told Reuters. While no agreement is expected at the end of the three-day meeting, Vietnam s desire to shelve the IP provisions around pharmaceutical data is likely to win broad support, with Japanese and New Zealand officials also indicating their support for the change, two other sources said. The original TPP agreement was seen as particularly onerous on Vietnam, which be forced to make significant reforms, analysts said. There s not much sense to agree to provisions they don t really want such as stronger monopolies on medicines if they are not going to get access to the U.S. market, said Patricia Ranald, research associate, University of Sydney. The original TPP offered an eight-year window before competitors can have access to proprietary pharmaceutical data, which critics said would impede development of cheap generics. Potential amendments, however, require delicate positioning. While Trump has said he will not change his mind on TPP, the remaining members are hopeful a future U.S. president will commit to the agreement, a cornerstone of former President Barack Obama s pivot to Asia. But analysts said wholesale changes, while ensuring the support of smaller members, would repel the United States. The more you change the agreement, it is going to be harder to get the U.S. to sign on when it is ready to, said Shiro Armstrong, research fellow at the Crawford School of Economics in Canberra.


Trisha & Garth didn't marry until 2005. This has to be in reference to the break up of his first marriage. You should fact check before you print.


The results of the disappointing 2016 presidential election aren t even official yet, but Vice President Joe Biden is already making noise about 2020. Known for bucking the rules and speaking from his gut, the outgoing vice-president hinted that he might be up for another fight four years from now.CNN asked him jokingly if he planned to run for office again. Yeah, I am. I m going to run in 2020, Biden responded.When asked for what position, Biden responded, For president. What the hell, man. When CNN told Biden it was planning to publish his quotes, the vice president responded, That s okay. No, I ve enjoyed every minutes of my time here in the Senate. It s a great feeling to come back. I love this place. Biden later clarified, I m not committing not to run. I m not committing to anything. I learned a long time ago fate has a strange way of intervening. Biden is leaving office one of the most popular political figures in America, and that popularity is even higher among Democrats. Biden is seen by many as a Democrat who excels at speaking to working class families across the racial spectrum, but still has a history of legislative experience as success as a Senator from Delaware and then as a two-term Vice President.Biden would likely be able to tap into existing Democratic donors if he ran, as he has near 100% name recognition domestically and internationally. Besides First Lady Michelle Obama, he would probably be the public figure to benefit most from an association with President Obama.Biden considered running in the 2016 election, but decided against it after the tragic death of his son Beau Biden. Since then, President Obama has put Biden in charge of the moon shot effort to find a cure for cancer, while Biden endorsed and heavily campaigned for Secretary Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.


Swedish satire "The Square" a of political correctness and the confused identity of the modern male, won the Palme d'Or top prize at the Cannes film festival Sunday. [In a stunning upset, the jury led by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and including Hollywood stars Jessica Chastain and Will Smith awarded the trophy to the movie's director, Ruben Ostlund. "Oh my God, oh my God!" Ostlund shouted from the stage after besting a raft of favourites for one of global cinema's most coveted honours. In a 70th anniversary edition marked by raging debate over sexism in the movie industry, Sofia Coppola became only the second woman in history to win best director for her thriller "The Beguiled" with Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell. Kidman, who appeared in four different projects at the festival, accepted a special 70th anniversary award from the jury. Diane Kruger clinched best actress for her first film role in her native German as a devastated mother who has lost her family in a Hamburg terror attack, in Fatih Akin's "In the Fade". "I cannot accept this award without thinking of everyone who has been touched by an act of terrorism … you have not been forgotten," the clearly moved actress said. Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix nabbed best actor for his turn as a hitman in the ultraviolent thriller "You Were Never Really Here". "Any work that I did was linked to the work of Lynne Ramsay," the film's British director, Phoenix said, before apologising for his look at the gala ceremony. "I don't wear leather," the committed vegetarian explained. — 'So much courage' — Greece's Yorgos Lantimos shared the best screenplay award with Ramsay for "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" an icy thriller set in a wealthy American suburb and starring Kidman and Farrell. The Grand Prix went to moving French drama "120 Beats Per Minute" about the radical activists who helped shame the world into action on AIDS. "This film is an homage to those who died but also those who survived and are still alive, who had so much courage," said the movie's director, former ACT UP member Robin Campillo. Campillo also wrote the screenplay for "The Class" a drama about a multicultural Paris high school that scooped the Palme d'Or in 2008 as well as an Oscar nomination. "Loveless" by Andrey Zvyagintsev, a wrenching drama about moral rot eating away at Russian society under Vladimir Putin, took the third place jury prize. — Magic of big screen — "The Square" coming in at two hours and 20 minutes, is an often hilarious art world satire exploring creative liberty, free speech and the blurred lines between the sexes. Danish actor Claes Bang plays a museum director and divorced father of two young daughters who finds himself in an increasingly absurd set of predicaments. The movie features Elisabeth Moss ("Mad Men") and Dominic West ("The Wire") in small roles viciously lampooning the art world. One featuring a wild, man performing as an ape wreaking havoc at a posh gala dinner entered festival legend. Cannes' 12 days of screenings and soirees — which were somewhat muted by the Manchester bombing — were marked by unprecedented measures and a raging row over how technology is shaping the future of the movie industry. Netflix had two movies in competition for the first time but faced blowback from critics who argue that online streaming is destroying cinema distribution and with it the magic of the experience.


On January 19, 2016, the city of Oakland, California, agreed to pay $450,000 to settle a wrongful death suit, filed by the family of Hernan Jaramillo, a 51-year-old man who was killed while being restrained by police.The Contra Costa Times obtained video of the moments before Jaramillo s death. The video shows the man repeatedly crying out for help, saying, They re killing me! and I can t breathe. As one officer pressed his knee into Jaramillo s back, four others used their weight to hold the man down on the sidewalk. When Jaramillo cries out to his sister again, saying They re killing me, one officer responds No-one s killing you. Before becoming unresponsive, Jaramillo again tells his sister They know what they re doing. They re killing me. Jaramillo did not have a criminal record. Worse, he was not even accused of a crime at the time of his death.According to the family, Jaramillo s sister called police to report that her brother was being attacked by an intruder. When police arrived, they found him alone in his room.Although Jaramillo s sister insisted that he was not the intruder, police handcuffed him and led him to a waiting squad car.The officers claim that they wanted to take him in for a mental health assessment, but he resisted as they tried to get him into the police car. That s when they threw him to the sidewalk, compressing his body under their combined weight, until he stopped calling for help.Although Oakland police never released the footage, which was captured by one of the officers body cameras, the video was leaked to Contra Costa Times this week. It was later published to YouTube by US Uncut.Watch the footage below.While the city of Oakland will pay $450,000 to settle the wrongful death suit filed by Jaramillo s family, the officers involved in this incident will never be held accountable.That s because the Alameda County District Attorney does not investigate in-custody deaths unless they involve officer shootings.This insane policy gives cops the green light to murder citizens, just as long as they don t use their guns to do it.The victim repeatedly told the officers that he couldn t breathe. Still they continued to press down on him, until he finally became unresponsive.At best, the officers involved in the death of Hernan Jaramillo are guilty of negligent homicide and reckless endangerment, if not deliberate murder. But the policies of the Alameda County DA s office enabled them to get away with it.Featured image credit: video screen capture via US Uncut


This is what having no freedom of speech looks like This guy is awesome! I use whatever flag I want because I am free. I am not a hypocrite, not like all the Cubans marching yesterday [the 2016 May Day march] all those Cubans are hypocrites, he told his detractors. He went on to praise the U.S. flag as the pride of the Americans and assert, I don t fear the government. Daniel Llorente is the brave pro-American Cuban dissident who interrupted Monday s May Day parade in Havana, running in front of the marching throngs waving an American flag. A communist mob attacked him, beating him and dragging him away.The man, identified as Daniel Llorente, has previously waged similar protests against the communist regime of dictator Ra l Castro and has expressed vocally his support for the American government.Video of the incident shows that Llorente took off running in front of the throngs, waving an American flag before the likeness of mass murderer Ernesto Che Guevara in the Plaza of the Revolution, waiting to march just moments before the May Day parade was to begin, shouting anti-government slogans. A group of men waiting on the sidelines, who have not been identified in reports, restrained, beat, and dragged Llorente away. Every major Cuban government leader, including dictator Castro, was in attendance.The Miami-based outlet Mart Noticias identified the man as Llorente, a freelance cab driver and dissident, but does not belong to any dissident organizations. Instead, he has used his American flag to protest on previous occasions by waving it before public congregations. A year ago, Llorente protested before a crowd awaiting the first American cruise ship s arrival in Havana, the Adonia. Llorente greeted the ship waving an American flag and shouting Yes we can! , the famous slogan of President Barack Obama s first presidential campaign. The government organized a rabble to berate Llorente with racial epithets, and Llorente responded by asserting his freedom.


In the ambitious business of New York bridge building, it has been a tragic consequence of the work: More than 20 people, including the bridge's lead engineer, lost their lives during the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. As workers raised the Bridge in the 1960s, three people paid the ultimate price. And during construction of the original Tappan Zee Bridge in the 1950s, a worker fell to his death. But when a large crane being used to construct what will eventually be the aging Tappan Zee's replacement came toppling down on Tuesday, landing squarely across the roadway, something astounding happened: Nobody died. "This was nothing short of a miracle," Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said at an afternoon news conference in Tarrytown at the base of the bridge, citing the lack of serious injuries from the accident. At least four people received minor injuries in the collapse, including three motorists who were trying to avoid the crane, officials said. A construction worker was also injured, officials said. The crane, one of 28 being used in the construction of the bridge's $3. 9 billion replacement — what is being called the largest infrastructure project in the country — fell around noon on the Rockland County side of the bridge, the authorities said. No vehicles were struck by the crane, the authorities said. Irving Martinez, a truck driver from New Haven, was heading home after delivering a load of cars in Blauvelt, N. Y. when, from about a quarter of a mile away, he saw the crane list and topple. "The crane was rotating normally and then it just suddenly fell sideways onto the highway," Mr. Martinez, 25, said. "It was out of nowhere. " While most drivers hit the brakes, he said, others accelerated to avoid the crash. "You know New Yorkers," he quipped. "Always in a hurry. " Aerial images showed the crane draped across all lanes of the bridge, its frame splintered into pieces as traffic was brought to a standstill. With the bridge blocked, many motorists were stranded for several hours. Some took to social media to document the travail. The collapse raised concerns about the integrity of the Tappan Zee Bridge, the state's longest, which is used by 138, 000 vehicles traveling between Rockland and Westchester Counties on weekdays. Built on the cheap, it was designed to last for only 50 years. And it also snarled traffic along the New York State Thruway, which traverses the bridge, and feeder roads. Traffic was blocked on Interstate 287 heading west toward Rockland at least as far as the Sprain Brook Parkway exit, as well as on the Thruway heading east toward Westchester. The Tappan Zee Express Bus Service, which transports commuters between Westchester and Rockland, was suspended, as officials rearranged transit schedules and other road availabilities. But after officials inspected the bridge, they gradually reopened all of its lanes except for one southbound lane. Mr. Cuomo described the damage to that lane as significant but not extensive, saying it could take days to repair. Officials said the crane, which was new, was engaged in a routine task — wielding a vibratory hammer to install pilings. "This was not one of the operations of bridge building," Mr. Cuomo said. Jeff J. Loughlin, the business manager of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 137, which represents the crane's operator, said the crane was an MLC 300 manufactured by Manitowoc Cranes. An official said the crane's boom was 256 feet long. Mr. Loughlin said the operator remained at the scene with a union representative, and was expected to undergo drug and alcohol testing. "It's a miracle that the boom fell across six lanes of traffic, cars that are doing 60 to 70 miles an hour, and not one car was hit by the boom," Mr. Loughlin said. Officials said they were investigating the cause of the crane's crash. But they ruled out the wind. There have been no deaths or serious injuries involving bridge workers since construction began on the new Tappan Zee Bridge in 2013. Mr. Cuomo said that the project's track record had been extraordinary for an undertaking of its size but noted that "things happen. " "Somebody will drop a hammer," he said. While Mr. Cuomo said that four people were injured in Tuesday's accident, Ed Day, the Rockland County executive, said that five people suffered minor injuries. The crane's collapse drew new focus to the construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge. The bridge, which is being built just north of the old bridge and is scheduled to be completed in 2018, has been mentioned by Mr. Cuomo as well as President Obama as an exemplary infrastructure project. On Monday during an event in Brooklyn, Mr. Cuomo praised the process used to contract the bridge's construction out to private companies. But Mr. Cuomo said on Tuesday afternoon that the accident did not jeopardize the new bridge's construction or its time frame for completion. He said it was a lucky break that the crane fell in the middle of the day when traffic was lighter. Victor Fargas, 57, a glass worker from the Bronx who had to delay some of his jobs after getting stuck in the traffic, decided to pass the time by taking a nap in his truck. "Now I'm doing all I can do," he said, "patiently waiting and praying to the traffic gods. "


Wall Township High School in Wall, New Jersey, has recently come under fire from the parents of three students for erasing references to Donald Trump in the school s most recent yearbook.Whether it was cropping or photoshopping items of clothing with Trump s campaign slogan in student photos or refusing to print statements by the president submitted by another student as her yearbook quote, the parents of those affected are claiming their children s first amendment rights have been violated, although they are acting more like it was they themselves who have been silenced. The school has not only been accused of censorship, but the parents of three students want the yearbooks to be reprinted with an apology or, at the very least, an explanation.One such student is Grant Berardo, a junior at Wall High, who wore a TRUMP: Make America Great Again t-shirt for his school photo, only for the slogan to be digitally removed from his yearbook picture. He was disappointed. This was the first election he has been interested in, said Grant s father, Joseph Berardo. I want the yearbooks to be reissued and I want a letter from the administration explaining why they are reissuing the yearbook Grant Berardo was probably only interested in an election for the first time simply due to his age and it also sounds like his father is trying to push his own political agenda, but Grant wasn t the only student affected. Another junior, Wyatt Dobrovich-Fago, had his photo cropped so the Trump logo on his vest was cut out and his sister, Montana, had a Trump quote removed from her photo as freshman class president. Montana Dobrovich-Fago wanted to have printed under her picture the Donald Trump quote, I like thinking big. If you are going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big, but when she opened the yearbook, the space below the photo was blank. I want to know who thought it was okay to do this, said Janet Dobrovich-Fago, mother of the two teenagers and another parent who appears to be living vicariously through her kids. I want the school to seek disciplinary action and to be held accountable. Parents received a letter from Wall Township Public Schools Superintendent Cheryl Dyer on June 9, stating that she was looking into the matter because, although the school s dress code does prohibit references to illegal activities such as drugs, alcohol, and weapons, there is nothing stating that students can t show political affiliation.


Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier discussed the need to improve ties between their countries and take mutual steps to that end during a phone call on Wednesday, Turkish presidential sources said. Aside from bilateral relations, the sources said, Erdogan also briefed Steinmeier about a summit on Syria s conflict held by Turkey, Russia and Iran in the southern Russian city of Sochi on Nov. 22.


In the time since Justice Antonin Scalia's passing on Saturday, the hard-working folks at The Monkey Cage have already done some yeoman work, offering up five separate posts about the politics of it. The Volokh Conspiracy, not to be outdone, has 10 posts up on the topic. With apologies to all of them, their takeaway message is: I don't disagree with a single thing that Mike Bailey wrote at The Monkey Cage or that SCOTUSblog's Tom Goldstein wrote about how to game out the strategies of both Obama and Republican senators. It all makes sense. It's all very savvy and very political. [Supreme Court nomination process sure to be an epic debate] Reading through them, however, there was just one small, teeny, tiny detail that kept nagging at me: No matter how this plays out, the Supreme Court loses. The hard-working staff here at Spoiler Alerts has been banging on periodically about the erosion of trust in American political institutions. The Supreme Court has not been immune to that trend. Here's the General Social Survey data: To be fair, the Supreme Court is still more widely respected than either Congress or President Obama. But if you think about it, that's a really low bar. The sources of this decline are likely myriad, but a big part of it is that the court is increasingly viewed through a partisan lens, and no partisan has liked the Roberts court in recent years. Indeed, the combination of divided government and political polarization forced the Supreme Court into a more overtly political role, thereby guaranteeing it would serve as a wedge issue going forward. Democrats didn't love this court because Republicans appointed a majority of the justices, leading to rulings like Citizens United and Heller. Republicans didn't love this court because its rulings on gay marriage and Obamacare shifting the political status quo to the left. We're at the point in this country where partisanship is now the last socially approved form of discrimination. As Paul Waldman noted over at The Plum Line, the trend on Senate confirmation votes of Supreme Court justices sustains this point: [Clarence Thomas excepted], through the Clinton administration, justices got near-unanimous votes. Then things changed starting with the George W. Bush administration. While Democrats did their best to find some dirt on John Roberts and Samuel Alito and Republicans did the same to Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, none of it amounted to much of anything. Yet in all those cases, most of the opposition party voted against the nominee. And it's likely to get even worse. The GOP Senate caucus's immediate reaction to Scalia's passing is simply the latest iteration of this dynamic. Whether due merely to partisan sorting or true ideological polarization, the erosion of trust in the Supreme Court reflects decades-long trends, so the flapdoodles and argle-bargle of the past few days were probably inevitable. But as Dara Lind noted over at Vox, it's a shame that political leaders haven't focused a wee bit more on one of Scalia's more gracious attributes. Scalia was clearly able to separate the political from the personal. His close friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Ralph to his Sam, attests to that. As Lind concludes: I get why this seat is such a high-stakes political battle for everyone involved. Politics ain't beanbag. But the battle that is about to ensue over Scalia's seat is going to be nasty. It's part of a secular trend that will only further the erosion of public trust in the Supreme Court. And that's the bigger problem with how this will play out.


What the f*ck is wrong with our country? Republicans may say that racism ended with Rosa Parks (they actually say this), but a lot of people s words and actions seems weirdly racist given the complete lack of it in our society.An African-American man posted a video of an exchange he had with a white driver after he passed the apparently aggressive Caucasian man in traffic. This is a prime example of why you should get out and vote! Guy got heated and decided to share w/ me what him and his family thinks about me and my people because I didn t allow him to speed up and stop me from changing lanes in traffic, a man identifying himself as Skye Lev wrote on Facebook. I could ve ended up doing 20 to life over this but instead I decided to show him respect, that he clearly didn t deserve, because I have children to be here for. Lord thank you for this patience and self-control that you blessed me with! GET OUT AND VOTE PEOPLE!!!! The video is just horrible. After Mr. White man apparently called Lev a n*gger, the African-American gentleman turned on his camera. Trump, Trump all the way, Trump, Trump, Mr. Deplorable says as the video begins. He then informs the gentleman that Black lives don t matter. There ain t no proof. The white gentleman claims that Lev cut him off in traffic and made him slam on his breaks. And that makes you a n*gger, Mr. Cracker says. That proves that black lives don t matter. The white gentleman then explains that he doesn t have a social media account because white lives matter (it probably sounded better in his head).Now if you thought that was bad, wait till you hear him teach this gentleman about black people! We won t spoil it for you. Watch it below:


Brazilian Felipe Massa completed two and a half race distances and put his Williams team on top of the timesheets as Formula One's final pre-season test got underway in Barcelona on Tuesday. Massa, brought back in January after his former team mate Valtteri Bottas moved to Mercedes as replacement for retired world champion Nico Rosberg, completed 168 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya. His eye-catching tally was matched only by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who ended up third fastest (1:19.906) behind Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo (1:19.900). "I don't remember before doing a day with 168 laps in my career," said the 35-year-old Massa, whose fastest was one minute 19.726 seconds. "It was a lot of laps and I can feel it a bit on my body, but I am good. I feel in good shape for the new season," he added. Triple world champion Lewis Hamilton, the bookmakers' favorite for a fourth title this year, was fourth fastest with a total of 49 laps. Bottas, who took over the car in the afternoon, did 86 and was fifth. "I think Ferrari are possibly the favorites," said Hamilton, whose running was cut short after the champions discovered damage to the floor of the car. "We can't take our eyes off them because they have been doing such a great job at the moment. "Red Bull look like they have gone quite quick today as well. We'll see over the next days and, most importantly, over the next weeks, but it's going to be close in the first race, that's for sure." The season starts in Australia on March 26. Ferrari failed to win a race last season, when they finished third overall, and have not been constructors' champions since 2008. McLaren's woes continued, with an electrical issue on the power unit of Belgian rookie Stoffel Vandoorne's car forcing Honda to replace it, costing the team more track time after a difficult first week. "Based on this testing we can expect to have a few engine changes, but they (Honda) will have addressed this before the start of the season or at least quickly into the season," said McLaren Racing Director Eric Boullier. Vandoorne completed 80 laps but was more than two seconds off the pace. Renault's Jolyon Palmer managed only 15 laps due to a power unit problem but he handed over to team mate Nico Hulkenberg who completed 58 in the afternoon.


The Trump administration is considering tightening the vetting process for women and children seeking to enter the United States as refugees, a proposal that if adopted would bring security checks closer to those for adult men, three sources with knowledge of the plan told Reuters. The plan could slow down refugee admissions even after the end of a 120-day ban on most refugees instituted by the Trump administration while it reviews vetting procedures. The vetting review is set to end on Oct. 24. President Donald Trump came into office in January with a goal of sharply cutting refugee admissions, in line with the hard-line immigration policies that were a focal point of the Republican's 2016 election campaign. Trump quickly issued temporary bans on refugees and travelers from some Middle Eastern and African countries that were challenged in court. A U.S. official told reporters last month that the administration is "considering a wide range of potential measures and enhancements" to vetting. Refugees currently undergo differing levels of security checks when applying for admission to the United States, depending on the perceived risk they might present, including running their biographic and biometric data against law enforcement and intelligence databases. Women and young children go through a lower level of security screening than men, said the three sources with knowledge of the proposal, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The proposed changes would bring their security checks more in line with what is required for adult male refugees. Successive Republican and Democratic administrations have focused most of their attention on adult men who tend to join militant groups such as al Qaeda and Islamic State in greater numbers than women. A State Department official declined to comment on any refugee vetting processes while the review is underway. The government is taking steps to "further intensify" refugee screening "to uphold the safety of the American people," the official said. Department of Homeland Security spokesman Dave Lapan declined to comment, and said the administration is "finalizing security enhancement recommendations as part of the 120-day review." A White House spokeswoman said there were "no announcements at this time." All refugees referred for resettlement in the United States are run through a database with watch-list information, called the Consular Lookout and Support System, or CLASS. Refugees can be singled out for a higher level of review based on their age, nationality, or gender. Syrian refugees, for instance, undergo extra checks. Of the nearly 85,000 refugees admitted to the United States in the 2016 fiscal year, about 72 percent were women or children, according to the State Department. Total processing time for refugees to enter the United States now averages about 18 to 24 months, according to the State Department. Trump's order to halt refugee admissions so his administration could determine whether additional checks are necessary was suspended for months by federal judges. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually allowed it to go in effect for all refugees except those with close ties to the United States. Trump also lowered the maximum number of refugees to be allowed into the United States in 2017 to 50,000 from the 110,000 originally set by former President Barack Obama, a Democrat. The 2018 level has been set at 45,000, the lowest number in decades.


The Russian police arrested hundreds of people in nationwide protests on Sunday, including the opposition leader Aleksei Navalny in Moscow, where thousands gathered for the biggest demonstration in five years against President Vladimir V. Putin. The protest in the capital took the form of a synchronized walk along a major shopping street to avoid a ban on unsanctioned stationary gatherings. It was one of 99 similar rallies in cities and towns across the country — from Vladivostok in the far east to Kaliningrad in the west — according to the organizer, Mr. Navalny's foundation. All but 17 of these, the foundation said, had been declared illegal by the authorities. In Moscow, some protesters tried to block security vans with cars, and the authorities deployed the riot police and surveillance helicopters. But they mostly avoided the brutal measures used in neighboring Belarus on Saturday against protesters in the capital, Minsk, and other cities. The police in Belarus beat and arrested hundreds of people who tried to gather for the latest in demonstrations against President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994. But while less than in Belarus, whose president is often referred to as "Europe's last dictator," the police crackdown in Moscow could still complicate efforts by President Trump to deliver on pledges to "get along" with Mr. Putin. In a statement on Sunday that reflected widespread wariness of the Russian leader in Washington, Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska, said: "Putin's thugocracy is on full display. The United States government cannot be silent about Russia's crackdown on peaceful protesters. Free speech is what we're all about and Americans expect our leaders to call out thugs who trample the basic human rights of speech, press, assembly and protest. " Shortly after the senator's statement, Mark Toner, the acting spokesman for the State Department in Washington, said the United States "strongly condemns the detention of hundreds of peaceful protesters throughout Russia on Sunday" and called for their immediate release. "Detaining peaceful protesters, human rights observers, and journalists is an affront to core democratic values," he added. The protests in Russia on Sunday — nominally against corruption but also a rare show of public defiance against Mr. Putin, who has found a fierce and enduring critic in Mr. Navalny — were the largest coordinated display of public dissatisfaction since demonstrations in 2011 and 2012, after an election that was tainted by fraud. Protesters tried to prevent a police van from taking Mr. Navalny away and chanted: "This is our city. This is our city. " Others shouted, "Russia without Putin," and held up pieces of paper denouncing the Russian president and his allies as thieves. In a Twitter post, Mr. Navalny urged his followers to continue with the demonstration after he was grabbed by police officers as he tried to join the crowds along Tverskaya Street in the center of Moscow. "Guys, I'm O. K.," he wrote in a message in Russian. "No need to fight to get me out. Walk along Tverskaya. Our topic of the day is the fight against corruption. " The Moscow Police Department said on its website that "around 500" people had been arrested in the city for taking part in an "unapproved public event. " a group that monitors arrests, said the number of arrests in Moscow was at least 1, 000. Instead of waving big banners with antigovernment slogans as in previous protests, most of those who joined Sunday's walk on Tverskaya Street displayed their feelings discreetly. Some waved Russian flags, cloaking their opposition in the same patriotism that Mr. Putin has used so successfully to boost his popularity. Others carried easily hidden signs featuring pictures of ducks, a reference to a claim by Mr. Navalny that corrupt officials even build houses for their ducks. Among those arrested in Moscow were Russian and foreign journalists, the leader of a small opposition party, Nikolai Lyaskin — who said he was hit around the head by police officers and taken to a hospital — and a British student, Gregory Hill, 17. Demoralized and divided since the election protests, which fizzled amid a wave of arrests, Russia's opposition has struggled to make its voice heard over a din of sentiment on television, which invariably presents opponents of Mr. Putin as traitors in cahoots with the West. But Mr. Navalny, a charismatic campaigner who helped lead the protests, has shown a knack for turning repressive action against him and his followers to his own advantage. When an assailant doused him in a green liquid in Siberia last week, he exulted that his face made him look like a superhero. Instead of directly attacking Mr. Putin, who is hugely popular outside more cities like Moscow, Mr. Navalny has focused on rallying support by exposing corruption, an issue that alarms even many of Mr. Putin's supporters. Mr. Putin, who is widely expected to seek another term as president in elections next year, has ruled Russia as president or prime minister since the former president, Boris N. Yeltsin, resigned on Dec. 31, 1999. He faces no credible opposition other than that mobilized by Mr. Navalny, the founder and leader of the Foundation for Fighting Corruption. The opposition leader has declared his intention to run in the 2018 presidential race, despite a criminal conviction in February on fraud charges that made him ineligible to compete but was widely viewed as a political ploy to keep him out of the race. Even if Mr. Navalny manages to compete for the presidency, he has little chance of winning. But his presence on the ballot would end what since 2000 have been a series of tightly choreographed presidential contests that resembled coronations. Dmitri Charishnikov, a web designer who answered Mr. Navalny's call to walk up and down Tverskaya Street, said protests would change nothing as most Russians "believe what they see on television" and strongly support Mr. Putin. But he added that he still wanted to show that "another Russia still exists. " Nearby, a police officer shouted through a bullhorn that all those walking in the area were "participants in an unsanctioned gathering" and must immediately disperse or risk prosecution. State television, the main source of news for most Russians, responded to the protests by ignoring them. In a report published this month, Mr. Navalny detailed how Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev, a close ally of Mr. Putin's, had built a lavish empire of mansions, country estates, luxury yachts, an Italian vineyard and an palace near St. Petersburg. Mr. Navalny called for the protests after Russia's Parliament, which is dominated by United Russia — a political party loyal to Mr. Putin — ignored demands for an investigation into accusations of corruption by senior government officials. By dusk on Sunday, the protests in Moscow had wound down after sporadic scuffles between the police and protesters. Russian news media reported at least one police officer was taken to a hospital in Moscow with head injuries. A spokesman for the interior ministry in St. Petersburg denied reports one of its officers had died after being beaten by protesters.


Shaqueana Peoples's mother quit on her when she was 15. She had been told by a doctor earlier in 2005 that she had Type 2 diabetes, but her mother ignored doctor's orders meant to help improve her daughter's health. She continued to order takeout for dinner, bought frozen meals and did not make sure her daughter took her medicine. Ms. Peoples's health rapidly deteriorated. She was rushed to the hospital nearly 20 times that year because of medical emergencies. Sick and not attending school, she was assigned a social worker, who also looked for signs of possible parental neglect. Then, during one of a series of routine hospitalizations, hospital employees suggested that her mother place her in the foster care system. "I didn't have a choice," Ms. Peoples recalled. "I felt abandoned, like my mother had given up on me. Looking back, she didn't know how to deal with me as well as her other two kids. She didn't show me the same kind of love as the others, and I'd been in a rage for years. " As the middle child, Ms. Peoples had often felt left out, as her mother favored her older brother and younger sister. She said she was rebellious as a teenager, and often got into explosive fights with her mother. Contentious family life was all she knew. Then she was moved into the foster care system. "I was nervous. I was crying. I was conflicted," she said. "I'd been with my family all my life. I didn't know how to live with someone that wasn't part of my family. " A month after entering an group home in Brooklyn, Ms. Peoples ran away. Over the next six years, she moved through one group home and six family placements, carrying her belongings from one home to the next in a suitcase provided by her social worker. She preferred to live in a household with other foster children, and not with biological children, because she was treated more fairly, she said. Her frequent moves meant enrolling in different schools and meeting new teachers, and she fell further behind in school with every relocation. She eventually dropped out of school in 10th grade, when she was 17. She became too old for the foster care system at 21. The Children's Aid Society, one of eight organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, was there with her during all the moves and has continued to provide her with help since she entered the system 11 years ago. At one point, Children's Aid helped place Ms. Peoples in a facility in Virginia for children with disabilities, to have her diabetes monitored. The Children's Aid Society also helped ease her transition out of the foster care system, through a program that provides housing assistance and job training. She learned to drive, enrolled in high school equivalency classes, obtained licenses in certified nursing and home health treatment, applied for subsidized housing and put money into savings. Social workers at the Children's Aid Society guided her through every step, she said. When she graduated from the Borough of Manhattan Community College with an associate degree in community health, the Children's Aid Society provided her with $100 in Neediest Cases funds to buy a dress for the graduation ceremony. Ms. Peoples now attends Hunter College, where she receives financial aid through academic scholarships. She qualified for assistance through a program for foster children that supplies $753 a month for school and living expenses. Ms. Peoples also receives Medicaid, $190 in food stamps and a $200 monthly stipend for living expenses from Children's Aid, provided to foster children attending college. Children's Aid also used $457 in Neediest Cases funds toward two months in rent arrears. In 2014 the organization used $1, 098 in Neediest Cases funds to cover rent and living expenses, as well as a MetroCard to travel to class. On a recent November day, walking along the college's colorful indoor bridge that connects buildings across Lexington Avenue, Ms. Peoples, now 27, spoke animatedly about majoring in biology. Her bright smile carried through a conversation about her darkest moments entering the foster care system and about the pride she felt celebrating her first graduation this summer. Dressed in a floral jacket and black leather boots and carting a snakeskin bag filled with schoolbooks and healthy snacks, she said she was working to take care of herself, both inside and out. "I wanted to better understand and monitor my diabetes," Ms. Peoples said about deciding on her major. "Not just to go to the doctor to get information but to know how the food I eat interacts with my body. " She recently became a member at a gym, has started taking Zumba and yoga classes at school and is rollerblading at a park in her Bronx neighborhood. She also cooks most of her food — baked chicken is a frequent meal — and incorporates whole wheat into her diet. Because of her lifestyle changes, she is now off all diabetes medication and can maintain normal blood sugar levels with diet and exercise. She has lost more than 50 pounds in the last six months. Now she would like to help others in impoverished communities make healthy dietary decisions, she said. She is pursuing a career in social work. Specifically, after seeing the effects of poverty in the Bronx, she has turned her attention to the plight of the homeless. "Having a support system through hardship is so important," she said. "And oftentimes the homeless don't have that. The situation of the homeless lays heavy on my heart. That's where I see my chance to help others. "


A once-fringe separatist movement in Cameroon s Anglophone regions is gaining ground after a year of state repression that has undermined moderate voices and raised concerns the majority French-speaking nation may face a prolonged period of violence. Soldiers shot dead at least eight people and wounded others in the two English-speaking regions on Sunday, the anniversary of Anglophone Cameroon s independence from Britain. Amnesty International said on Monday at least 17 people had died in the clashes. The growing influence of the separatists, who include armed radical elements, is one of the most serious threats to stability in the central African oil producer since President Paul Biya took power 35 years ago. Last year, separatists couldn t rally people on the streets. But people have seen family members arrested and killed, and they have switched over, said Tapang Ivo Tanku, an Anglophone activist based in the United States. Like many moderates who say they are marginalized by Biya s Francophone-dominated government, Tanku has campaigned for a peaceful solution: a two-state federation - one French speaking, the other Anglophone - under one president. I am in the minority now, he told Reuters from New York. The strife began in November, when English-speaking teachers and lawyers in the Northwest and Southwest regions, frustrated with having to work in French, took to the streets calling for reforms and greater autonomy. Six people were killed in those protests, and in the months that followed, the government deployed thousands of police and elite soldiers, implemented a blanket internet blackout and arrested dozens of activists, dubbing them terrorists . The thousands who protested on Sunday around the country were no longer calling for reform, but for a separate state for Cameroon s nearly five million English speakers. We told them our problems. They responded with force, killing us, said a young student in Bamenda, one of the largest Anglophone cities. We need our own country. The true size and influence of the movement remains hard to gauge. Many leaders are in jail or exile, and it s unclear how strong alliances are between a multitude of factions with competing visions of how to achieve their goals. Few analysts believe a split is imminent. There is no doubt the separatists popularity and ability to stir turmoil has grown, however. Separatists told Reuters that they were responsible for an improvised bomb that last month wounded three policemen in Bamenda. Nothing great can be achieved by using verbal excesses, street violence and defying authority. Lasting solutions to problems can be found only through peaceful dialogue, Biya said in a statement on Twitter following Sunday s violence. An uprising by Biafran separatists in neighboring Nigeria in the 1960s sparked a civil war that killed around 1 million. The roots of the divisions go back a century to the League of Nations decision to split the former German colony of Kamerun between the allied French and British victors at the end of World War One. The French Cameroons gained their independence in 1960 and the British Cameroons voted in 1961 to reunite with them under a federal government. The federation was abandoned a decade later, however, after a referendum most Anglophones considered a sham. A separatist movement existed for decades underground, with activists sometimes communicating by passing notes to bus drivers going through different towns. It simmered but never gained widespread popular support - until now. Southern Cameroons political activist Mark Bareta said government arrests of key organizers in January and February have pushed independent separatist coalitions, many of which are run by diaspora Cameroonians, together to form the Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Consortium United Front (SCACUF). SCACUF and other groups are busily laying the groundwork for a new state, coordinating protests, gaining support on the ground, and - in some cases - orchestrating violent attacks. They have printed thousands of light blue passports for Ambazonia - the Anglophones aspirational independent homeland - designed a currency and written a national anthem, five members told Reuters. In May, they set up their own satellite television network, the Southern Cameroons Broadcasting Corporation, which reaches up to 500,000 people, said SCBC board member Derric Ndim. Its satellite transmission is not affected by government-enforced internet cuts, he said. We are working to make a new country, and we are ready, said Nigeria-based Julius Ayuk Tabe, chairman of the Governing Council of Ambazonia, which is spearheading the movement. The cries of the people are getting louder.


The leader of Egypt s Muslim Brotherhood movement, Mohamed Badie, lost his appeal on Wednesday against a life sentence for his role in violent clashes during political turmoil in 2013, judicial sources said. The judgment by the court of cassation against the sentence, handed out in 2016, cannot be appealed. Badie, 74, was convicted for his role in violence that broke out in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia days after the army, led by then General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, toppled President Mohamed Mursi, a member of the Brotherhood, following mass demonstrations against him. Sisi was elected president the following year. In the same case, the court on Wednesday also upheld life sentences against seven other people and handed 10-year sentences to 39 and three-year sentences to 19 others. They were charged with killing three people and attempting to kill 16 others, thuggery, and vandalizing public property among other offences, related to the clashes in Ismailia in July 2013. Authorities outlawed the Brotherhood after Mursi was ousted, and arrested thousands of its supporters. They also dissolved its Freedom and Justice Party, which Mursi led. Mass life and death sentences have been common since then in what rights groups call an unprecedented crackdown by the government of Sisi, who promised during campaigning for the presidency to wipe out the Brotherhood. Badie has also been sentenced to life in eight other cases, only one of which has been confirmed. Two were canceled, two are pending appeal and three the subject of retrials.


Washington (CNN) Donald Trump will become the 45th president of the United States, CNN projects, a historic victory for outsiders that represents a stunning repudiation of Washington's political establishment. The billionaire real estate magnate and former reality star needed an almost perfect run through the swing states -- and he got it, winning Ohio, North Carolina and Florida. The Republican swept to victory over Hillary Clinton in the ultimate triumph for a campaign that repeatedly shattered the conventions of politics to pull off a remarkable upset. Clinton conceded to Trump in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Speaking at a victory party in New York, Trump was gracious toward Clinton and called for unity. "We owe (Clinton) a very major debt of gratitude to her for her service to our country," Trump said. "I say it is time for us to come together as one united people." He added: "I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans." Trump won with 289 electoral votes compared to 218 for Clinton, according to CNN projections. Trump's supporters embraced his plainspoken style, assault on political correctness and vow to crush what he portrayed in the final days of his campaign as a corrupt, globalized elite -- epitomized by the Clintons -- that he claimed conspired to keep hard-working Americans down. His winning coalition of largely white, working-class voters suggests a populace desperate for change and disillusioned with an entire generation of political leaders and the economic and political system itself. Now, Trump faces the task of uniting a nation traumatized by the ugliest campaign in modern history and ripped apart by political divides exacerbated by his own explosive rhetoric -- often along the most tender national fault lines such as race and gender. Trump is sure to follow his own playbook Trump will be the first president to enter the White House with no political, diplomatic or military executive experience. His victory will send shockwaves around the world, given his sparse foreign policy knowledge, haziness over nuclear doctrine, vow to curtail Muslim immigration and disdain for US alliances that have been the bedrock of the post-World War II foreign policy. His promises to renegotiate or dump trade deals such as NAFTA and to brand China a currency manipulator risk triggering immediate economic shocks around the globe. Trump, 70, will be the oldest president ever sworn in for a first term and will take the helm of a nation left deeply divided by his scorched-earth campaign. His victory was built on fierce anger at the Washington establishment and political elites among his grass-roots voters, many of whom feel they are the victims of a globalized economy that has resulted in the loss of millions of jobs. His victory ends Clinton's crusade to become the first woman to ever rise to the nation's highest office. It's a humiliating chapter in the long political career of Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Trump's win also deals a painful rebuke to President Barack Obama, whom he pursued for years with his birtherism campaign built on the false premise that Obama was born outside the United States. Now Trump will have the power to eviscerate Obama's political legacy -- including the Affordable Care Act, the latter's proudest domestic achievement. But there are deeper, more fundamental questions about Trump's presidency that will be key to his capacity to unify a deeply divided country and appeal to Americans who will feel outraged and disgusted by his victory. He's got the attention of the whole world Trump's campaign was built on rage, falsehoods and singling out culprits for the ills of modern America, including undocumented migrants, foreign nations such as China and Muslim immigrants. He mocked a disabled New York Times reporter, vowed to use the power of the presidency to put Clinton in jail and pledged to sue women who accused him of sexual assault. Trump has promised to build a wall on the southern border and make Mexico pay for it, and to deport undocumented migrants. He has vowed to reintroduce interrogation methods for terror suspects that are more extreme than waterboarding. So the demeanor that Trump will adopt as president and the manner in which he will behave will be closely watched -- not just in the United States, but among nervous leaders abroad. One of the many uncertainties about Trump's coming presidency is how his White House will interact with Republicans in Congress — and whether he and GOP leaders will heal their rift from the campaign. Republicans repelled a Democratic bid to recapture the Senate, giving the GOP control over Capitol Hill and the White House. That means it would fall to the GOP either to rubber stamp policies likely to mark a break from conservative orthodoxy or to provide a check on the power of Trump, who has shown every sign he will use executive power aggressively. House Speaker Paul Ryan will face intense pressure from pro-Trump members of his own coalition to cooperate with the new president. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are likely to hold Trump's feet to the fire to ensure he lives up to his promise to appoint justices who could ensure a generational conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court. Clinton apparently failed to reassemble the diverse coalition that helped Obama win the presidency in 2008 and 2012. The events of Clinton's terrible final week on the campaign -- the revival of her email controversy by FBI Chief James Comey and a damaging drip, drip, drip of revelations by WikiLeaks which her campaign says was orchestrated by Russian intelligence -- could have helped consign her to defeat. There also is the question of Trump's temperament. Clinton repeatedly warned that he was unfit to control the nuclear codes because he could be baited with a tweet. Obama passionately denounced Trump as intellectually and temperamentally unfit to succeed him in the Oval Office. But now, he will be forced to greet his successor on the morning of Inauguration Day in January, and look on while he is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.


We hope these women realize they were being used by George Soros and other leftists to protest Trump instead of to celebrate women!


U.S. President Donald Trump raised North Korea s missile tests during talks on Monday with the prime ministers of Japan and Australia, and said a lot of progress had been made in negotiations on trade. On the sidelines of a summit of East and Southeast Asian leaders in Manila, Trump met with Japan s Shinzo Abe and Australia s Malcolm Turnbull, and said discussions at the meeting would include tensions on the Korean Peninsula and trade. In brief remarks prior to news media being ushered out of the meeting, Turnbull said North Korea s recklessness needed to be stopped, while Abe said the most immediate challenge was to ensure regional peace and stability. Following the meeting, the White House said the three leaders reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining maximum pressure on North Korea in the effort to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. They also discussed expanded security cooperation for enhanced deterrence and defense against North Korean aggression, the White House said in a statement. The three men also discussed the need for free and open trade in the Indo-Pacific region and the need to pursue fair and reciprocal trade, the White House added. Trump, who campaigned heavily on U.S. trade issues, made pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Asian trade deal one of his first acts in office. His administration has instead pledged to reach bilateral pacts with individual nations. Countries remaining in the pact have said the deal is advancing without the United States.