Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stepped up his bid to win over minority voters by addressing a largely black church in Detroit on Saturday and calling for a new civil rights agenda to support African-Americans. As scores of protesters outside chanted "No justice, no peace," Trump said he wanted to make Detroit - a predominantly African-American city which recently emerged from bankruptcy - the economic envy of the world by bringing back companies from abroad. Trump separately met with about 100 community and church leaders, his campaign said, in his latest push to peel away minority voters from Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. His outreach to minorities over recent weeks comes as he seeks to improve his chances in the Nov. 8 election and shake off months of offending the sensibilities of black and Hispanic voters with his hard line on immigration and rough-hewn rhetoric. "I fully understand that the African American community is suffering from discrimination and that there are many wrongs that must still be made right," Trump said at the church which was half-full. "I want to make America prosperous for everyone. I want to make this city the economic envy of the world, and we can do that." His address of over 10 minutes at the Great Faith Ministries International church received moments of applause, including when he said Christian faith is not the past, but the present and the future. Accompanying Trump to the church was Ben Carson, the former Republican presidential hopeful who grew up in the city and whose childhood neighborhood Trump visited on Saturday. Trump has argued that his emphasis on job creation would help minority communities in a way that Democrats have failed to. But Clinton has accused Trump of aligning himself with racists. Opinion polls show Trump has low support among minorities. "I believe we need a civil rights agenda for our time, one that ensures the rights to a great education, so important, and the right to live in a good-paying job and one that you love to go to every morning," Trump said. "That can happen. We need to bring our companies back," he added. Emma Lockridge, 63, said as she entered the church that she found his comments about Mexicans and Muslims "hateful." "That's my major reservation with Mr. Trump is how he's treated those particular sets of people," said Lockridge, who is retired and an environmental activist. But she said she also had concerns about Clinton's support in the 1990s for crime legislation signed by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, which many black Americans say contributed to high incarceration rates in their communities. Vicki Dobbins, an activist protesting outside, said she was disappointed the church asked Trump to speak. "I believe that Trump coming to Detroit is a joke, and I'm ashamed of the pastor who invited him," she said. "In my opinion, he stabbed everyone in the back."


HBO has discarded plans for an animated political comedy series from former Daily Show host Jon Stewart. [In a statement Wednesday, the premium cable network said that technical difficulties had derailed the untitled project, which Stewart had been working on since at least the summer of 2016. "HBO and Jon Stewart have decided not to proceed with a digital animated project," the network said in a statement. "We all thought the project had great potential but there were technical issues in terms of production and distribution that proved too difficult given the quick turnaround and topical nature of the material. " Stewart signed an exclusive production deal with HBO in November 2015, shortly after retiring from his stint as host of Comedy Central's Daily Show. The network said Wednesday that it is currently developing other projects with Stewart. The scrapped project was described as an animated parody of a cable news network, which would have been delivered over the Internet and would have allowed Stewart to comment on political news in real time. At the Television Critics Press Association summer tour last year, HBO programming president Casey Bloys described the project as being an " portal. " The network had initially hoped to have the new project in production during the 2016 presidential race. The news of the cancellation comes as Stewart's former colleagues Stephen Colbert and Samantha Bee have seen interest in their programs spike under President Donald Trump's administration. Colbert's Late Show on CBS earned its first total viewer victory over NBC and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show this season for the first time since 1995. Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum


U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will meet with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday, Politico reported on Monday, citing aides on Capitol Hill. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, is scheduled to visit Washington on Thursday to meet with House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan.


This random cop killing trend is almost like punishing every black man in America for the crimes Obama has committed against our nation. Most of us are smart enough to understand that you don t blame an entire group of people who are largely innocent of wrong doing, for a few bad apples. Now that Obama, Holder, Sharpton and DeBlasio have made blaming our law enforcement as a whole, for the crimes of a few, expect to see more of these hate crimes committed across America. This is a despicable new trend, and people need to start demanding those who started this war against our law enforcement are held accountable.Officials say they were warned a gunman was hunting cops in Ohio this weekend, and by Sunday evening they realized the terrible truth behind the warning when they found a bloody hat but no patrol car and no officer.Police say a woman in Danville called dispatch Sunday evening around 11:20 p.m. to warn them her ex-boyfriend, identified as 34-year-old Hershel Ray Jones III, was armed and looking to kill an officer, reports CBS affiliate WBNS-TV in Columbus.The woman said officers in the area of Danville, near Columbus, were in danger.Dispatchers frantically put out a call and failed to make contact with Danville Officer Thomas Cottrell. Deputies from the Knox County Sheriff s officer were dispatched, but all they turned up initially was a Cottrell s hat with blood on it, and nothing more.Their worst fears were later realized 20 minutes later when they Cottrell s body behind the Danville Municipal Building, clearly dead from gunshot wounds. His gun and patrol car had been stolen.He was the first officer killed in the state of Ohio in 2016, reports WBNS.Jones was tracked down a short while later, and spotted at 1:30 a.m. running out of a house. Police gave chase, and caught him near Danville Park. He has been named as the prime suspect in the murder.No charges have been announced yet.


New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio told CNN that he approves of the idea of shielding from deportation any illegal alien arrested for drunk driving. [During an interview on CNN's State of the Union, host Jake Tapper pointed out to Mayor DeBlasio that the City of New York refuses to cooperate with the federal government to deport illegal aliens who have been convicted of drunk driving and grand larceny. Tapper went on to ask why the city is so quick to shield such dangerous criminals from deportation. Tapper also asked DeBlasio for a response to the recent order President Donald Trump signed stating that federal grant money will be stripped "from the sanctuary states and cities that harbor illegal immigrants. " DeBlasio decried the move and insisted he opposes "tearing families apart" over a "small offense" such as drunk driving. DeBlasio claimed these "small" crimes don't merit deportation, but for "any serious and violent crime, we're going to work with" the federal government. Still, DeBlasio claimed that drunk driving could easily be seen as a lesser offense. "Drunk driving that does not lead to any other negative outcome, I could define as that," DeBlasio said before going on to say, "Someone commits a minor offense … let's say someone went through a stop sign, they could be deported for that and their family could be torn apart and you could have children left behind where the breadwinner in the family is sent back to a home country, that is not good for anyone. " Of course, if someone is picked up and scheduled for deportation after being detained during a traffic stop, it isn't the running of a stop sign that gets him deported it's being in the country illegally. Drunk driving is not generally seen as a "small offense. " Nearly 10, 000 Americans are killed by drunk drivers every year, according to The Hill newspaper. Indeed, for years many activists have criticized what they feel are chronically lax drunk driving laws in many states in the U. S. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail. com.


The U.S. Justice Department has reached a settlement with dozens of conservative groups that claimed the Internal Revenue Service unfairly scrutinized them based on their political leanings when they sought a tax-exempt status, court documents showed. In a pair of lawsuits filed in federal court in 2013, the conservative groups accused the IRS of targeting organizations with such words as "Tea Party" or "patriots" when they applied to the agency for tax-exempt status starting in 2010. The sides asked the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday to issue a declarative judgment in one of the cases involving 41 plaintiffs that would say the IRS was wrong to apply the United States tax laws based on an entity's name, position or association with a particular political movement. "We hope that today's settlement makes clear that this abuse of power will not be tolerated," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement on Thursday. The IRS admitted it was wrong when it based screenings of the groups' applications on their names or policy positions, subjected the groups to heightened scrutiny and delays and demanded unnecessary information from the groups, the agreement in the Washington case said. The IRS "expresses its sincere apology," it said. Senior management within the IRS's Exempt Organizations Division "was delinquent in its responsibility to provide effective control, guidance, and direction over the processing of applications for tax exempt status filed by Tea Party and other political advocacy organizations," the settlement document said. A request to halt the other case, a class action suit involving 428 members, was filed in a federal court in Ohio. Republicans claimed the targeting of conservative groups showed political bias in the IRS under former Democratic President Barack Obama. House Republican investigators found no connection to the Obama administration, according to a 2014 report. But the report did blame IRS officials for mistreating conservative organizations who sought tax-exempt status and that IRS officials covered up the misconduct and misled Congress. The officials included former Commissioner Douglas Shulman, former acting Commissioner Steven Miller, and Lois Lerner, the former head of the unit overseeing applications for tax-exempt status. Obama fired Miller after an internal 2013 IRS audit released found poor management - not partisan politics - led to an "inappropriate" focus on conservative groups. No criminal charges were ever filed against IRS officials. Groups seeking tax exemption under federal law may engage in limited amounts of political activity, depending on the type of exemption sought. That and the vagueness of the rules often make it difficult for IRS agents to tell which groups overstep and become ineligible for exemption.


U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid on Wednesday threw his weight behind legislation being written that would stop gun sales to a limited number of people who are on some terrorism watch lists. "I support Senator (Susan) Collins' legislation to keep guns and explosives out of the hands of terrorists. Even though it may be a small step forward, at least it is a step forward," Reid said in a statement.


Myanmar s leader Aung San Suu Kyi is the latest in a long line of Nobel Peace Prize laureates to disappoint many of those who once applauded her, and probably won t be the last, a cautionary tale for the 2017 laureate who will be named next week. Suu Kyi is facing international criticism, including from fellow peace prize winner Desmond Tutu, for not doing more to stop what the U.N. says are mass killings, rapes and the burning of villages taking place in Rakhine state. The violence has forced 421,000 Rohingya Muslims into neighboring Bangladesh. That is a turnaround from 1991, when the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded her the prize and praised her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights . Once awarded, the prize cannot be withdrawn. This has happened many times before that laureates have been criticized, said Professor Geir Lundestad, who was the secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee from 1990 to 2014. Lundestad said the prize remains a force for good, even if some winners later fall short of its ideals: Aung Sang Suu Kyi was a very important spokeswoman for human rights in Burma and much of Asia. You cannot take that away from her. The Nobel prizes were established by Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, whose fortune came in part from making and selling arms. The peace prize, worth 9 million Swedish Krona ($1.1 million) will be announced on Oct. 6 and can go to one or more individuals or organizations. A number of winners of the peace prize have gone on to launch wars or escalate them. Israeli leader Menachem Begin ordered the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, four years after sharing the Nobel with Egypt s Anwar Sadat for their Camp David peace accord. Sadat was assassinated by an Islamist army officer in 1981. Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat shared the 1994 prize with Israel s Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres for the Oslo accords, which have not brought a lasting settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Rabin was assassinated by a far-right nationalist in 1995 and Peres was voted out of office eight months later. Arafat later presided over the Palestinians during the second intifada, a violent uprising against Israeli occupation. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, awarded the prize in 1990 for his role in bringing the Cold War to a peaceful end, sent tanks in 1991 to try to stop the independence of the Baltic countries, though he later let them become independent. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger shared the 1973 prize with North Vietnam s Le Duc Tho for what turned out to be failed efforts to end the Vietnam War. Tho declined the award, the only laureate ever to do so, accusing Washington of violating the truce. The war ended in 1975 with the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese. When U.S. President Barack Obama won in 2009 just months after taking office, even he said he was surprised. By the time he came to Oslo to collect the prize at the end of the year, he had ordered the tripling of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated, he said in his speech. I m responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill, and some will be killed. And so I come here with an acute sense of the costs of armed conflict. Among Suu Kyi s critics is Tutu who, in a Sept. 7 letter to his dearly beloved younger sister writes: If the political price of your ascension to the highest office in Myanmar is your silence, the price is surely too steep. On Sept. 19, Suu Kyi condemned rights abuses in Rakhine state and said violators would be punished. While Western diplomats and aid officials welcomed the tone of her message, some doubted if she had done enough to deflect global criticism. Dan Smith, the director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize might even have harmed the Rohingya. She has an aura, he said of Suu Kyi, adding that maybe her stellar international reputation masked the true awfulness of abuses over many years of the Rohingya. When she responded to questions about the Rohingya by saying why are you focusing on them, not on other issues?, people were inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt. Suu Kyi was the rare winner, like Nelson Mandela, to rise from political prisoner to national leader. Mandela stepped down after five years as South Africa s first black president with his reputation largely unblemished, but some of his allies from the apartheid-era liberation movement faced scandals in office. Maybe it s this move from the image of the bold, heroic defender of human rights and ordinary people ... into what is inevitably a more grubby world of politics where compromises are made that tarnishes reputations, said Smith. Even saints face criticism. Mother Teresa, the 1979 Nobel winner canonized by Pope Francis last year, was faulted in 1994 by British medical journal The Lancet for offering neither diagnoses nor strong pain killers to dying patients in her Calcutta hospice. The decision to give the award in 2012 to the European Union was criticized at the time. Brussels was then imposing tough financial bailout conditions on member Greece that many economists said destroyed livelihoods. Tutu, among others, also faulted the EU as an organization that uses military force. The risk of disappointment arises because Nobel committees pick laureates for the hope they carry or a recent achievement, rather than the sum of a career, said Asle Sveen, a historian of the Nobel Peace Prize. It is a always a risk when they promote somebody, because they are getting involved in politics, he told Reuters. And they cannot predict what is going to happen in the future. That is what makes the Nobel Peace Prize different from all the other peace prizes, said Sveen. Otherwise you would give the prize to very old people just before they die. Among the favorites are parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, such as Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini and John Kerry, the U.S. Secretary of State at the time. The deal, which saw Iran agree to curbs on its nuclear program in return for the lifting of international sanctions, has been criticized by hardliners in both Tehran and Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump called it an embarrassment to the United States in a speech at the United Nations this month, and has suggested Washington could repudiate it. Experts on the prize say it is precisely the sort of breakthrough among foes that the committee tends to recognize. This is the first time that a country subjected to Chapter VII (of the U.N. Charter) has seen its situation resolved peacefully, said Henrik Urdal, Director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, referring to how Iran s nuclear program is no longer labeled a threat by the U.N. Security Council. Focusing on the EU and Iran would also be a signal to the United States that the Iran nuclear deal has a broad support base, Urdal told reporters. Other possible contenders are Pope Francis, Syria s White Helmet rescue crews, the UN refugee agency UNHCR and its high commissioner Filippo Grandi. UNHCR has already won twice. Last year s prize went to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his efforts to end half a century of war that killed a quarter of million people.


Like millions of Americans who are paying thousands of dollars a year for health insurance no doctors will take, I would love to be flying to Washington this week, pleading with members of Congress, spearheading campaigns and appearing as a witness, to tell everyone about my experiences with Obamacare. [But none of us can, because we're too busy working so we can afford to pay for the health care of 22 million poor, entitled or irresponsible people under Obamacare. Just yesterday, for example, in addition to working, I had to spend an hour — on top of days and days last month — figuring out which few remaining clinics provide mammograms under my now third Obamacare insurance plan. My original plan was made "illegal" by Obamacare, and the next two plans — fully approved under Obamacare — went bankrupt and were shut down by state and federal regulators. Now I just have to pray I don't get cancer or break a bone before Obamacare is repealed because, even at $700 a month with a gigantic deductible, there is NO PLAN on the individual market accepted by the two premier hospitals in my area for cancer or broken bones. Those $700 premiums go to pay for the pregnancies and dental care of welfare recipients and immigrants, not cancer treatment for Ann. Democrats love to get on their high horses about the wonderful things Obamacare has done for the uninsured. They should be asked why they refuse to live under it. After they spend 800 hours changing insurance plans every year, ending up with increasingly expensive and increasingly useless plans — all so that their premiums can pay for the poor — I'll be fascinated to hear about their love for the downtrodden. Same with Republicans who are, once again, being bamboozled by lobbyists, to the detriment of their taxpaying constituents who don't have time or money to fly to Washington and tell them our stories. Insurance lobbyists have somehow convinced politicians, who have very little experience in the private sector, that health insurance is wildly different from every other product — even car insurance and homeowner's insurance — because of its need for a large pool of enrollees. Everyone talks about the enrollment problem as if this is a bug unique to the health insurance industry. What product, do they imagine, does not need lots of customers? How could restaurants afford those chefs, fresh flowers, industrial kitchens, one hundred sets of plates, napkins and silverware and a staff of waiters — without customers? AHHHH! THEY'LL GO OUT OF BUSINESS! !! THE MODEL DOESN'T WORK WITHOUT LOTS OF PARTICIPANTS! CONGRESS MUST GET INVOLVED. Publishers couldn't have editors, proofreaders, lawyers, paper plants and marketing departments — unless there's a large pool of book buyers. Pipe manufacturers couldn't have hundreds of employees, huge machines and factories unless — you get the idea. Why is "having customers" treated like some freakish need of this one industry? People are a lot less interested in buying hotel rooms, restaurant meals and pipes than they are in buying health insurance. Everyone knows someone who has died of cancer or had some other major medical problem, and most people are not insane. Even with the hell of Obamacare, requiring hundreds of hours of work — to research, sign up for, be thrown off of, then sign up for a different, plan, year after year — the taxpayer is doing all that in order to maintain some form of health insurance. So apparently, no matter how awful you make it, this is a product Americans are desperate to buy! Republicans all say they want to save the "good parts" of Obamacare. Because who knows better what the American consumer wants than a member of Congress! I keep imagining Congress designing a "comprehensive hotel reform bill," promising to save the popular parts: "BUT PEOPLE LIKE HAVING TV'S IN THEIR HOTEL ROOMS!" How could we ever get TVs in hotel rooms without Congress writing a law? It turns out, people running a business have an uncanny ability to figure out what's popular with their customers. Any "popular" features of Obamacare obviously, manifestly, inevitably will be preserved by the free market. If parents like keeping their useless millennial kids on their plans, guess what? Any insurance company forced to compete with other insurance companies WILL OFFER THAT. As for covering people with " conditions" — there are conditions and conditions. Does this mean the unfortunate few with some exorbitantly expensive medical problem? Or does it mean people who have a " condition" because they waited to be diagnosed with cancer before buying insurance? The first category of people was dealt a bad hand. Eventually, they will be taken care of by the market when excess coverage policies are common and reinsurance companies pop up to cover the primary insurance companies. Until then, a separate program can pay for the unlucky. That's not a reason to wreck the health insurance market for everyone else. There aren't 22 million people with horrifyingly expensive medical conditions. They're being used as the baby seals to sell subsidized health care for the irresponsible. The second category is a lot less sympathetic, which is precisely why the two cases are always conflated. You can't buy flood insurance after your house has already floated away. But we won't let people die in the streets, so — as Trump said at the very first GOP debate — they will be dealt with "through a different system. " They probably can't go to Sloan Kettering, but then again, neither can I. Right now, my $700 a month pays for them to go to Sloan Kettering. Both cases are of zero practical importance to the vast majority of people who just want to buy health insurance on the free market, rather than what we're doing now, which is giving shiftless layabouts and irresponsible an unlimited health care credit card — paid for through our insurance premiums. We'd come to Washington and tell you that, but we're working to pay for the pediatric dental care of illegal aliens.


After a business meeting before the Miss Universe Pageant in 2013, a Russian participant offered to send five women to Donald Trump s hotel room in Moscow, his longtime bodyguard told Congress this week, according to three sources who were present for the interview.Two of the sources said the bodyguard, Keith Schiller, viewed the offer as a joke, and immediately responded, We don t do that type of stuff. The two sources said Schiller s comments came in the context of him adamantly disputing the allegations made in the Trump dossier, written by a former British intelligence operative, which describes Trump having an encounter with prostitutes at the hotel during the pageant. Schiller described his reaction to that story as being, Oh my God, that s bull -, two sources said.The conversation with the Russian about the five women took place after a morning meeting about the pageant in Moscow broke up, two sources said.That night, two sources said, Schiller said he discussed the conversation with Trump as Trump was walking back to his hotel room, and Schiller said the two men laughed about it as Trump went to bed alone. Schiller testified that he stood outside Trump s hotel room for a time and then went to bed.One source noted that Schiller testified he eventually left Trump s hotel room door and could not say for sure what happened during the remainder of the night.Two other sources said Schiller testified he was confident nothing happened.Schiller said he and Trump were aware of the risk that hotel rooms in Moscow could be set up to capture hidden video, two sources said.Schiller was grilled about the Moscow trip as part of four hours of testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. The questioning around the Moscow trip took a significant amount of time, the sources said. Schiller was also asked about the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr. and Russians, two of the sources said. He testified that he did not recall much about that day. A White House lawyer familiar with the matter said that the White House and fair-minded people are pleased that Mr. Schiller was able to debunk yet another of the false claims in the fantasy dossier funded by the DNC and the Clinton campaign and prepared during a time its foreign author worked closely with paid Russian operatives. A Navy veteran, Schiller worked part-time as a bodyguard for Trump while still an NYPD officer. He began working for Trump full-time after his retirement from the force in 2002 and became his director of security in 2004. He served as director of oval office operations in the Trump White House from January until September. NBC News


Security surrounding the inauguration of Donald J. Trump is proving to be the most challenging in recent history, according to senior officials involved in its planning, largely because of the same forces of political rancor that shaped the race for the presidency. On top of the daunting threats to any inaugural ceremony, the three dozen agencies responsible for security at the Jan. 20 festivities are preparing for the possibility of large numbers of protesters flooding the capital, along with what may be nearly a million supporters of Mr. Trump. The agencies are worried about the possibility of confrontations between groups of Americans still deeply divided over the election — and at a moment when millions of people around the world will be turning their attention to Washington. At the very least, officials said, protests would put additional pressure on the region's security apparatus. "To paraphrase Tolstoy: Each inauguration is risky, but each is risky in its own way," said Michael Chertoff, who was secretary of homeland security under President George W. Bush and oversaw the department for President Obama's first inauguration, in 2009. "I can't think of an inauguration that presented more security challenges than this one," Mr. Chertoff said. There were, of course, heightened concerns for the second inauguration of Mr. Bush, in 2005, the first presidential to follow the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. And in 2009, Mr. Obama's inauguration was the first transfer of power in the era — and the first in which an was taking the oath of office. Mr. Obama faced a rash of racist threats, as well as concerns about a terrorist plot that ultimately proved unfounded but sent the and top aides scrambling on the eve of his . Even so, Mr. Obama did not face the kind of large protests expected to greet Mr. Trump when he officially arrives in Washington. The 2009 crowd of nearly two million people, a record, included few, if any, protesters and did not lead to a single arrest, according to Christopher T. Geldart, the director of homeland security for the District of Columbia. The National Park Service, which controls much of the public land in Washington, from sidewalks to the National Mall, has already seen permit requests from groups hoping to host events both for and against Mr. Trump skyrocket to 23. In typical inauguration years, the agency receives just a handful of requests. Safeguarding the nation's peaceful transfer of power is no easy task even under the most predictable of circumstances. There are few rituals in American public life than the of a new president. From the Metropolitan Police of Washington to the National Park Service to the F. B. I. a vast overlapping patchwork of intelligence analysts, military personnel and law enforcement officers numbering in the tens of thousands will be working to protect the inauguration and related activities. In total, more than three dozen agencies spread out across the capital will be working to prevent the occasion from becoming a platform for individuals or groups looking to do harm. Their work, begun months ago, has taken on a new urgency since Election Day and will soon include the imposition of a security perimeter around the Capitol, the Mall and large parts of the city. The costs of security alone are expected to exceed $100 million. Protecting the new president, the thousands of dignitaries who will be on hand and the crowds is the top priority of federal intelligence, law enforcement and military agencies, as it has been at inaugurations since the Sept. 11 attacks. Threats, from abroad and from homegrown extremists alike, remain a chief concern, current and former officials said. "What the intelligence community says publicly is what they say privately, and that is more threats from more directions than ever before," said Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, who is chairman of the congressional committee planning the inaugural ceremony. "And that just means the Capitol Police and the security elements need to be more thoughtful and alert than ever to what could happen. " But this time, security forces — particularly law enforcement officers who will be on the ground here — are also preparing to confront crowds of Americans who are unusually divided and anxious over the election results. The priority, officials said, is to avoid the kind of violent clashes that periodically flared up on the campaign trail between Mr. Trump's supporters and those who opposed him, while allowing groups on both sides to carry on with events. "Everybody knows how contentious the campaign was," said Mr. Geldart, the District of Columbia homeland security director. "Honestly, what really keeps me up at night around this is the ability for us to just allow folks to come in, express their views and leave safely. " Mike Litterst, a spokesman for the National Park Service, said the agency was "actively reviewing" permit requests, with a goal of trying to accommodate as many events as possible. Groups that are granted permits will be spaced out to try to prevent mixing, Mr. Geldart said. The largest of those events, the Women's March on Washington, was granted a permit for about 200, 000 people to rally and then march in protest against Mr. Trump on Jan. 21, the day after the inauguration. Boris Epshteyn, the communications director for Mr. Trump's inaugural planning committee, said the group welcomed the "free exercise" of First Amendment rights "as long as it is done peacefully and within all applicable laws, rules and regulations. " Just how many of Mr. Trump's supporters will attend remains unclear. The planning committee said it was expecting two million to three million people. Such a crowd would be a record, though Mr. Geldart said his team had yet to see evidence that would cause it to revise its own estimates of 800, 000 to 900, 000 people. The security effort will require virtually the full strength of the region's law enforcement agencies, as well as significant reinforcements. More than 3, 200 police officers from departments across the country and about 8, 000 members of the National Guard will be on hand to help with basic crowd and traffic control around the city. An additional 5, 000 active duty service members will be on hand to serve in ceremonial capacities. Mr. Geldart said those forces would allow local agencies better versed in crowd management tactics to monitor the protesters and groups, in person and with the help of social media. The security planning covers not just Inauguration Day itself but also a week of public and private events planned to celebrate Mr. Trump's victory, beginning with a welcome concert on the National Mall on Jan. 19. Thomas Barrack Jr. a longtime friend of Mr. Trump's who is leading the inaugural planning committee, said each of those events had been carefully negotiated with the Secret Service and its partners. Mr. Trump's personal security was made somewhat simpler when he decided he would stay at Blair House, as his modern predecessors have, rather than at his new hotel in Washington, as was once under consideration. "It's their party and we're there to develop the operation security plan to make their party safe," said James Murray, the deputy assistant director of the Secret Service's office of protective operations, which has overall responsibility for inaugural security. "But by all means it's certainly a kind of thing. "


Donald Trump is being graded on a curve. He always has been, as he has broken every rule in the political handbook and still managed to lie, cheat, and insult his way to the presidency. However, on Tuesday night, he delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress his first. For the most part, he stuck to his prepared remarks, and he seemed to keep his attention span and his temperament in check. There were no nasty insults to the press, to Democrats, or to Republicans who have been critical of him. Compared to the wild, unhinged antics we ve been treated to from Trump since the day he launched his disgusting presidential campaign, this speech was surprisingly normal by Trumpian standards. This seems to be good enough for cable news personalities at this point.But, one #NeverTrump conservative, Charlie Sykes, has news for said pundits: They are looking too hard for Trump to act like a normal president or even a normal human being and in turn they are behaving like abused spouses. Appearing on MSNBC, Sykes said of the punditry surrounding Trump s speech: There s almost a battered pundit syndrome going on out there. He comes home and he s not abusive, and he s not drunk, and so we re just so incredibly grateful, it s just so incredibly good. Sykes went on to remind people that Trump s new tone is unlikely to go beyond that speech. He ll be back to his old, unruly self again in no time just like a drunken, abusive spouse. To that end, we, the American people, need to treat him like an abuser, because that is just what he is, only on a grand scale.Thank you, Mr. Sykes, for reminding everyone just who and what Trump is. Splashes of seeming normalcy from him should not be treated as if the storm has passed. It will never pass with this man.Watch the exchange below:


President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would be issuing an order next week aimed at keeping the American people safe, as his temporary ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries remains kept on hold by a federal court. "We will be issuing a new and very comprehensive order to protect our people," Trump said at a news conference.


Posted on November 1, 2016 by WashingtonsBlog 75% of Americans Believe the Media Is Biased For Hillary  A Suffolk University/USA Today poll released Friday found that 75.9% of Americans believe the mainstream media "would like to see [Hillary Clinton] elected president."  The poll also found that only 10% of Americans believe that "foreign interests such as Russian hackers" are "the primary threat that might try to change the election results". In contrast, 45.53% believe "the news media" is the primary threat to the election:  Indeed, the New York Times , Boston Globe , Los Angeles Times , CNN and other mainstream media admitted to us they were going to try to throw the election for Hillary. (And leaked emails show widespread collusion between the media and the Clinton campaign.)


U.S. Republican Senator Jeff Flake on Thursday expressed concern about the Senate Republican tax proposal's impact on the national debt. In a statement, Flake did not say how he might vote on the proposal unveiled earlier Thursday. "I remain concerned over how the current tax reform proposals will grow the already staggering national debt by opting for short-term fixes while ignoring long-term problems for taxpayers and the economy," he said. Both the Senate and House tax cut plans would add about $1.5 trillion to the U.S. national debt over 10 years. Lawmakers should achieve tax reform in a fiscally responsible manner, Flake said, adding that he looked forward to working with his colleagues "to deliver on that goal."


mars-alive.blogspot.ca 0  In this image from NASA's Curiosity Rover's Image, which i call the Medusa Rover, every life form Curiosity looks at changes to stone, you can clearly see a few Martian faces in this image, to me this is pretty clear evidence that the rovers are on Mars and not here on Earth. ( Devon Island ) NASA JPL are masters of making Mars look as dead and dry as possible, they are not really searching for life because they have known for a very long time already that life exists on every planet and moon out there, i hope you are all able to see what i see in this video!  Thanks very much for Watching  Please Share and Subscribe!!


A spate of unsolved murders of young women in Uganda is putting rare public pressure on a police force long accused by opposition politicians of spending more time suppressing political dissent than tackling crime. Widespread media coverage of the appearance of 20 corpses beside roadsides south of the capital since May reflects public anger with police for repeatedly saying they have arrested the perpetrators, only for another body to be discovered. It s terrifying, Susan Kabul, 29, told Reuters, standing near the garbage-littered bank of a drainage channel where the latest murder victim was discovered. The police need to tell us who is slaughtering people like this. The government has defended the police, and police say they have arrested 30 suspects and charged 13 of them, listing possible motives ranging from domestic rows through sexual abuse to ritual murder linked to human sacrifice. Ritual killing is one of the motives that we suspect, we also think there might be cases of jilted lovers, police spokesman Asan Kasingye said by telephone. Other theories might come up as investigations progress. There have been occasional individual cases of alleged ritual murder in the east African nation, but this is the first time there has been such a large number of people killed in similar circumstances in the same area. In a nod to the public outrage, lawmakers stopped work for two days this week after the 20th body was found, saying ministers had failed to appear before the legislature over the killings in three districts on the outer edge of Kampala. Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo accused them of populism. They spoke as if the government is doing nothing, he said. They should leave police to work without pressure. The legislature is dominated by supporters of longstanding President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986. The constitution was changed in 2005 to remove a two-term limit, allowing him to extend his rule, and parliament is discussing removing an age cap. His son is a major general and powerful presidential adviser. Opposition leader Kizza Besigye, who contends that Museveni stole his victory in last year s election, has been charged with treason. Police often break up opposition rallies with teargas, beatings or detentions. The opposition and rights activists have long accused security forces of neglecting crime to focus on political control. Police can t secure women in a small area - all the attention is on politics, on who is criticizing Museveni, said Sarah Birete of the Centre for Constitutional Governance. Government spokesman Opondo said police were doing a good job. Some people start disguised as political activists and degenerate to criminals, I think they are unhappy that the police is on their back, he said. The police is right to focus on all forms of crime that can cause insecurity. Uganda is ranked among the world s most corrupt countries by watchdog Transparency International. The Ugandan government s inspector general said in a 2014 report that the police force was the most corrupt public institution in the country and noted crimes were rarely investigated. In Wakiso, the district south of Kampala where most of the victims have been found, few residents have faith that the killings will stop. I have stopped moving about at night. He could be a serial killer. I don t know where he will strike next, said Deo Busulwa, who lives a stone s throw from the canalside bank location of the latest grisly discovery, of mother-of-two Maria Nabilawa. Many residents suspect the victims are killed elsewhere and the bodies dumped. Kasingye said they had arrested Nabilawa s husband in connection with her killing. (Story refiles to add dropped word in fifth paragraph.)


Zimbabwe s ruling party will dismiss President Robert Mugabe on Sunday and reinstate Emmerson Mnangagwa, the vice-president he fired, two party sources told Reuters on Saturday, as ecstatic crowds celebrated the expected downfall. Mugabe s 37-year rule has been effectively at an end since the army seized control on Wednesday, confining him to his residence, saying it wanted to target the criminals around him. State television said Mugabe would meet military commanders on Sunday, quoting Catholic priest Fidelis Mukonori, who has been mediating in negotiations with the president. But hundreds of thousands of people had no need for a formal signal that his time had ended as they flooded the streets of Harare, singing, dancing and hugging soldiers. In scenes reminiscent of the downfall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, men, women and children ran alongside the armoured cars and the troops who stepped in this week to oust the only ruler Zimbabwe has known since independence in 1980. Others marched towards his lavish Blue Roof residence, but were kept away by soldiers. Under house arrest in his compound, the 93-year-old has watched support from his party, security services and people evaporate in less than three days. The sources said a ZANU-PF party central committee meeting scheduled for 10:30 a.m. (0830 GMT) would also dismiss 93-year-old Mugabe s preferred successor, his wife Grace, from her role as head of the ZANU-PF Women s League. Mugabe s nephew Patrick Zhuwao, speaking from an undisclosed location in South Africa, told Reuters the leader and his wife were ready to die for what is correct rather than step down in order to legitimise what he described as a coup. Zhuwao also said that only Mugabe, who had hardly slept since the military took over but was otherwise in good health, could call a meeting of the central committee. It was not clear from reading the party s constitution who is empowered to call such a meeting - but events appeared to have made the issue irrelevant. On Harare s streets, Zimbabweans spoke of a second liberation for the former British colony, alongside their dreams of political and economic change after two decades of deepening repression and hardship. These are tears of joy, said Frank Mutsindikwa, 34, holding aloft the Zimbabwean flag. I ve been waiting all my life for this day. Free at last. We are free at last. Mugabe s downfall is likely to send shockwaves across Africa, where a number of entrenched strongmen, from Uganda s Yoweri Museveni to Democratic Republic of Congo s Joseph Kabila, are facing mounting pressure to step aside. The crowds in Harare have so far given a quasi-democratic veneer to the army s intervention, backing its claims that it is merely effecting a constitutional transfer of power, which would help it avoid the diplomatic backlash and opprobrium that normally follows a coup. The military had been prompted to act by Mugabe s decision to sack Mnangagwa, Grace Mugabe s main rival to succeed her husband. The next presidential election is due next year. Zimbabweans abroad were also hailing the end of Mugabe s rule, not least the hundreds living in Britain who gathered outside their embassy in central London. I m ecstatic to see people give Mugabe a reality check because he has been in his echo chamber for too long, lying to himself that people still want him, said Ruva Kudambo, 37, who came to study technology and ended up staying. Tasa, a 36-year-old who refused to give his family name, said he had brought his four young children, aged 5 to 9, to the protest because they are the future of Zimbabwe . NO DIS-GRACE For some Africans, Mugabe remains a nationalist hero, the continent s last independence leader and a symbol of its struggle to throw off the legacy of decades of colonial subjugation. But to many more at home and abroad, he was reviled as a dictator happy to resort to violence to retain power and to run a once-promising economy into the ground. Political sources and intelligence documents seen by Reuters said Mugabe s exit was likely to pave the way for an interim unity government led by Mnangagwa, a life-long Mugabe aide and former security chief known as The Crocodile . Stabilising the free-falling economy will be the number one priority, the documents said. The United States, a long-time critic of Mugabe, said it was looking forward to a new era in Zimbabwe, while President Ian Khama of neighbouring Botswana said Mugabe had no diplomatic support in the region and should resign at once. The Herald, the state newspaper that has served as Mugabe s loyal mouthpiece, said ZANU-PF had called on Friday for him to go. It said ZANU-PF branches in all 10 provinces had also called for the resignation of Grace, the first lady whose ambitions to succeed her husband outraged the military and much of the country. To many Zimbabweans, she is known as Gucci Grace on account of her reported dedication to shopping, or - in the wake of an alleged assault in September on a South African model - Dis-Grace . The scenes in Harare reflect the anger and frustration that has built up among Zimbabwe s 16 million people in nearly two decades of economic mismanagement that started with the seizure of white-owned farms in 2000, the catalyst of a wider collapse. The central bank tried to print its way out of trouble by unleashing a flood of cash but that only made matters worse, leading to hyperinflation that topped out at 500 billion percent in 2008. At least 3 million Zimbabweans emigrated in search of a better life, most of them to neighbouring South Africa. After stabilising briefly when Mugabe was forced to work with the opposition in a 2009-2013 unity government, the economy has collapsed again, this time due to a chronic shortage of dollars. In October, monthly inflation leapt to more than 50 percent, according to some economists, putting basic goods beyond the means of many in a country with 90 percent unemployment. Mugabe s only public appearance since the military took over was at a university graduation ceremony on Friday morning. Decked out in blue and yellow academic gowns, he appeared tired, at one point falling asleep in his chair. A senior member of ZANU-PF said it was only a matter of time before he agreed to go. If he becomes stubborn, we will arrange for him to be fired on Sunday, the source said. When that is done, it s impeachment on Tuesday.


Proud Shares  The NRA's magazine acknowledged that President Obama "really hasn't had the opportunity to" confiscate firearms, undercutting years of fearmongering about the supposed existence of a " massive Obama conspiracy " to dismantle the Second Amendment and take guns away.  The NRA's admission that a president can't confiscate guns because "Congress writes the laws, not the president" also demonstrates the implausibility of repeated recent claims from the NRA that link Hillary Clinton to gun confiscation.  The admission was included in a June 9 article for NRA magazine America's 1st Freedom which took issue with how Obama "rudely" responded to a question from a gun store owner at a recent town hall event.  The article quoted Obama as telling the questioner, "I'm about to leave office. There have been more guns sold since I've been president than just about any time in U.S. history. There are enough guns for every man, woman and child in this country. And at no point have I ever proposed confiscating guns from responsible gun owners. So it is just not true."  Responding to Obama's statement, the article acknowledged, "Now, [the gun store owner]could have interrupted the president to mention that Obama really hasn't had the opportunity to do that. Congress writes the laws, not the president":  Rhude didn't sit down after asking his question. Rather, he stood silently as President Obama didn't even try to answer his question, but instead went off on a defensive tirade: "First of all, the notion that I or Hillary or Democrats or whoever you want to choose are hell-bent on taking away folks' guns is just not true. And I don't care how many times the NRA says it."  Obama then said, "I'm about to leave office. There have been more guns sold since I've been president than just about any time in U.S. history. There are enough guns for every man, woman and child in this country. And at no point have I ever proposed confiscating guns from responsible gun owners. So it is just not true."  Now, Rhude could have interrupted the president to mention that Obama really hasn't had the opportunity to do that. Congress writes the laws, not the president. He could then have listed the many attacks on the right to bear arms — from Operation Fast and Furious to Operation Choke Point to Obama's attempted ban on common ammunition for AR-15-type rifles to his using a "pen and phone" to push anti-gun executive actions. But Rhude respectfully stayed silent.  Claims about gun confiscation and Obama have been the NRA's bread and butter for the past eight years . More recently, the NRA has suggested that the election of Clinton could lead to gun confiscation for law-abiding Americans.  Read in full on Media Matters for America: NRA Admits It: "Obama Really Hasn't Had The Opportunity To" Confiscate Guns


Palestine Palestinians inspect the damaged house of Zaid Amer, after it was demolished by the Israeli army, in the West Bank city of Nablus, May 3, 2016. (Photo by AP)  Israeli troops have razed to the ground at least three houses in the East Jerusalem al-Quds, in the latest demolition of Palestinian property in the occupied territories.  Local media reported that Israeli forces demolished the buildings in the neighborhoods of Beit Hanina and Silwan on Wednesday without prior notice, displacing at least 44 Palestinians including children.  The United Nations has documented a dramatic rise in demolitions, saying 124 Palestinians, including 60 children, were left homeless in the occupied West Bank in a single day in April.  The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also said in August that a total of 726 Palestinian structures had been razed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds since January, and that the demolitions had affected 1,020 Palestinians.  The world body noted that there were 533 demolitions and 688 displaced Palestinians in the entire 2015, meaning that demolitions so far this year have increased more than 36 percent. This picture taken on March 14, 2011 shows a general view of a construction site in the West Bank settlement of Modiin Illit. (Photo by AP)  The demolitions have raised alarm among diplomats and human rights groups over Tel Aviv's sustained violation of international law. The demolished structures include houses and schools.  The Israeli razing of Palestinian homes along with its illegal settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories have dimmed hopes of any peace in the region.  Over half a million Israelis live in more than 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank, including East al-Quds. The settlements are considered by the international community as illegal.  The occupied territories have witnessed increased tensions ever since Israeli forces imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem al-Quds in August 2015.  Nearly 250 Palestinians have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces since the beginning of last October. Loading ...


While at a campaign event in Riviera Beach Florida, Bill Clinton was speaking about his wife, Hillary, and letting everyone know why they should choose her in the upcoming election. However, from the crowd came shouts of protest from a lone Donald Trump supporter who stood with a Trump campaign sign smirking and looking very proud of himself.What this protester didn t realize was coming was the fact that the former president is used to being attacked from every angle. He will have a comeback and retort to everything thrown his way. So that protester soon had his condescending smirk wiped off his face by an epic verbal smack down that he likely was not expecting.The Trump supporter was shouting You took his money! in reference to the Clinton s taking Trump s money for their foundation. This is when Clinton responded without even blinking an eye: I certainly did. I took his money for my foundation and used it better than he s using it now. However, the Trump minion still stood there with his smug little smile waving his sign around for all to see. And as the crowd grew restless at this obnoxious display, Clinton took on this creep head on. Referencing Trump, he said: I remember when he called me to say how terrible the Republicans had been to Hillary and me and how unfair they were and what a brilliant job Hillary did as a senator. By the way, a lot of them called me about that, which is why they spent the last three years trying to tear her down because they know if they nominate her they are going to have to eat the words they said. However, the former president wasn t done. As the Secret Service finally led the Trump lackey away, Clinton said: If you want to build a wall along the Rio Grande and spend $13 million, then you should follow him like Moses into the Promised Land. BURRRNNN! Clinton basically told the guy that Trump is full of crap and is selling him on racist promises he simply won t be able to deliver.The lesson to be learned from all of this? Don t mess with the Explainer-in-Chief. He will SHUT YOU DOWN.Watch here:Video/Featured image: YouTube


Palestinian Islamist group Hamas s leader in Gaza said on Thursday a reconciliation deal with President Mahmoud Abbas s Fatah faction was collapsing, just 10 weeks after the agreement was reached. The rivals signed a deal brokered by Cairo on Oct. 12 after Hamas agreed to hand over administrative control of the Gaza Strip, including its border crossings with Egypt and Israel, a decade after seizing control of the enclave in a civil war. The deal bridged a deep gulf between Abbas s Western-backed mainstream Fatah and Hamas, an Islamist movement designated a terrorist group by Western countries and Israel. But continued disputes have delayed its implementation. Yehya Al-Sinwar, Hamas s chief in Gaza and a key architect of the unity agreement, offered a bleak outlook on Thursday, suggesting the deal could suffer a similar fate to numerous reconciliation attempts over the past decade. The reconciliation project is falling apart. Only a blind man can t see that, Sinwar said in comments published by pro-Hamas media. One of the latest disputes came earlier this month when Hamas, according to Fatah officials, missed a milestone to complete the handover of Gaza to Abbas s West Bank-based government. Hamas says it has given up all administrative control in Gaza. Rami Al-Hamdallah, the prime minister, said Hamas had not transferred moneys as agreed, while Hamas said Hamdallah s government had not paid salaries in Gaza as agreed. Sinwar in the past has said his group would not go back to governing Gaza and that he was committed to making the deal succeed. Fatah officials declined immediate comment. Reconciliation is collapsing because some people want to get from it the relinquishing of arms and the closing of tunnels, said Sinwar without elaborating, but in apparent reference to Fatah. During the last Gaza war, in 2014, Hamas fighters used dozens of tunnels to blindside Israel s superior forces and threaten civilian communities near the frontier. Israel and the United States have called for Hamas to be disarmed as part of the pact between it and the Palestinian Authority, so that Israeli peace efforts with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which collapsed in 2014, can proceed. Hamas has rejected the demand.


REYHANLI, Turkey — After an airstrike on his village, a Syrian farmer hurried to rescue the initial victims of the attack, the residents of a home. But as Mohammad Nejdat Youssef neared the site, he ran headlong into what he described as "a winter fog — not quite yellow and not quite white. " He started to lose his balance, he said. His eyes began to sting. His nose started to stream. Finally, Mr. Youssef said, he started to foam at the mouth. Mr. Youssef had been poisoned, one of the victims of Tuesday's chemical attack in northern Syria, one of the deadliest chemical weapons attacks in years in the country, which killed dozens of people. A tall and burly man, Mr. Youssef, 23, was able to recover after being treated locally. But when the toxic cloud that had sickened him was blown downwind toward his farm outside the village, his pregnant wife, 20, and a nephew, 9, had a far more serious reaction and were evacuated by ambulance to a hospital in Turkey, said Mr. Youssef, who accompanied them. At the hospital in Reyhanli, a small Turkish border town that took in many of the victims, the mourners gathered outside mostly came from just two extended families, Mr. Youssef's and the Abu Amash family. The families are connected by marriage and both come from Khan Sheikhoun, the village in Idlib Province that residents said had been hit with chemical weapons earlier that morning. "Just look at this!" Orwa Abu Amash, 33, said as he held up his phone. On the screen was a long WhatsApp message listing what he claimed were the names of 46 relatives who had died that day in Khan Sheikhoun. As Mr. Youssef paced around the parking lot outside the hospital, he said he was scared not just for his wife on the other side of the hospital wall, who had arrived lying motionless on a stretcher, but for his relatives on the other side of the border. Many of them had also been poisoned by the gas but had not been deemed sick enough to be treated in Turkey, whose border is closed to most Syrians. Earlier Tuesday, witnesses reached by phone in Syria described similarly traumatic scenes at the site of the attack. Warplanes had roared overhead just before 7 a. m. when many people in the town were sleeping after a night of intense sounds of bombing, said Othman an activist in Khan Sheikhoun who was reached via phone at a first aid station. He spoke after fleeing Rahmeh Hospital in Khan Sheikhoun, where many victims were being treated, after an airstrike hit part of the hospital. While he was speaking, another loud boom sounded, and the line went dead he called back to say it had been another nearby strike. The area's minister of health, Mohamad Firas said in an online video that hospitals and clinics were overwhelmed. He said he had been in a field hospital at 7:30 a. m. when over 100 people arrived injured or sickened many others, he said, were sent to other clinics, with some left lying in the corridors. Symptoms, he said, included suffocation, fluid in the lungs with foam coming from the mouth, unconsciousness, spasms and paralysis. "It's a shocking act," he said. "The world knows and is aware of what's happening in Syria, and we are ready to submit evidences to criminal laboratories to prove the use of these gases. " Yasser Sarmani, a rebel fighter reached by phone in Idlib, said he collapsed while driving to the scene on his motorcycle to help the victims. "It became a routine for us that when we hear an airstrike to rush to the scene and try to rescue people," he said. "I woke up to the sound of an explosion, but it was not as loud as usual. " "Driving against the wind, my eyes started burning and I felt I was being suffocated," he added. "People were running away from the site and falling on the ground. It was a cruel scene. At that point I fainted. " He said he woke up an hour later at a clinic, after receiving injections and oxygen. "Kids were all over the floor, some dead and others struggling to breathe," he said. "The noise of them trying to breath was loud, with foam all over their faces. " As they watched the ambulances come and go outside the hospital in Reyhanli, Mr. Youssef and several of his relatives wondered what President Trump might make of all this. On Monday, Mr. Trump's administration signaled that it no longer saw the departure of President Bashar of Syria as a priority. On Tuesday, Mr. Assad appeared to unleash one of the worst chemical attacks of the war. "If Donald Trump is happy for this to happen to his own people and his own children," said Mr. Youssef, "then we're happy to keep Bashar . " Shuffling around in the hospital parking lot, several of Mr. Youssef's relatives buried themselves in their phones, watching the videos of the morning's atrocities over and over. The clips have been widely circulated on the internet. They show the pale corpses of dead toddlers, or the retching bodies of men who appear to be close to death. One woman lay on her back, her purple leggings exposed. A young boy, perhaps 12, lay motionless except for his mouth, gasping for air. None had visible marks of injury. Some of the sickened and dying were nearly naked, as rescuers, many with their bare hands, stripped them and hosed them down. A man narrating a video of motionless children, lined up as if sleeping, was able to come up only with sentence fragments. "A whole family," he repeated. Unlike the people around the globe who found these videos on social media, several of those watching them outside the hospital in Reyhanli had witnessed the scenes in real life. You wouldn't have known it, however, by looking at their blank faces. "We've seen so much of this," Mr. Abu Amash said. "It's normal. We see this every day. We had six years of it. "


Kellyanne Conway is not taking Russian interference in our political process seriously, so CNN host Kate Bolduan called her out for it.During an interview on Thursday night, Bolduan asked Conway about Donald Trump s reaction to President Obama slapping sanctioned against Russia, including the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, in retaliation for hacking the DNC and meddling in the election on Trump s behalf.Trump insisted that we move on and blamed computers instead of the Russians for the attack because computers have complicated our lives greatly. Conway, as usual, brushed off the question and began whining about the New York Times and Hillary Clinton all while once again claiming that Trump won a huge victory. She also accused President Obama of hitting the Russians with sanctions as a political maneuver against Trump.Let s not forget that Clinton won the popular vote and Trump electoral win is one of the smallest margins of victory in the last 100 years.But while President Obama s actions against Russia may make it harder for Trump to kiss Putin s ass, it s hardly politically motivated. The CIA and 17 other intelligence agencies agree that Russia interfered in our election, and there needed to be consequences because Trump sure as hell was not going to do anything about it himself.Conway, however, continued her obsession with talking about Hillary Clinton to dodge Bolduan s questions and whined about people questioning Trump s legitimacy, which forced Bolduan to call Conway out for not taking the Russian hacking seriously. This is serious, Bolduan said. This is about a foreign country hacking into the United States electoral process. Regardless, it doesn t even have to do with the result, even. It is more that they tried to and did. Conway replied by blaming the DNC for the hack instead of the Russians who did the hacking and then proceeded to accuse the intelligence community of trying to interfere with the election results.Here s the video via YouTube:It sure sounds like there will be a lot of friction between Trump s team and the intelligence community, and frankly, they should tell Trump he s on his own. Because you know he s going to blame them for whatever happens anyway.


Donald Trump is set to impose a range of executive orders immediately after his inauguration on Friday, according to his transition team. ["He's got a few of them, probably in the area of four or five, that we're looking at for Friday," said incoming press secretary Sean Spicer at the Trump transition headquarters. "Then there are some other ones that I expect him to sign with respect to a couple of issues that have been high on his priority list," he continued. Trump has promised to reverse a range of orders previously imposed by Barack Obama. The most likely executive order to be repealed on Friday is the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) which grant amnesty to thousands of illegal immigrants. Other orders that will inevitably be repealed on Friday or in the near future include the Clean Power Plan, as well as orders pertaining to gun control and religious liberty. You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart. com


U.S. President Donald Trump said the suspected gunman who opened fire on Republican lawmakers on Wednesday had died from injuries he received during the shooting. "The assailant has now died from his injuries," Trump announced from the White House.


on October 30, 2016 4:07 pm ·  For like the eleventy-billionth time, Sarah Palin posted a broken link to a Facebook post on Twitter Sunday. Now, at first glance her months of posting dead links and not figuring out how to fix the problem might seem moderately stupid — until you see the content of the actual post on the half-term, half-wit former Governor of Alaska's Facebook timeline.  Referencing Clinton's recent, mundane campaign stop at a bar, Palin — who regularly appears to be heavily intoxicated whenever she has a camera in front of her and was involved in a drunken hillbilly brawl in 2014 — quipped, "she's gonna drive us all to drink."  Thinking she is clever, she then adds that Clinton should have been "thinking Sam Adams" rather than "drinking Sam Adams."  Naturally, as Palin brought up drinking, the internet decided it couldn't let this one go: @SarahPalinUSA I see you've already started  — Clodagh Smith (@Clodagh831) October 30, 2016 @SarahPalinUSA Any excuse to drink, eh Sarah? #Lush  — John Yuma (@JohnYuma) October 30, 2016 @SarahPalinUSA Have you been day drinking again?  — Mr. Wolfcastle (@tew156) October 30, 2016 @SarahPalinUSA oh Sarah, remember when you mattered?Me neither. Open another Box O' Wine.


One day after what was demonstrably one of the stories by the media focused on the "removal" of Steve Bannon, President Trump's top adviser, from the National Security Council (NSC) he attended a council meeting, the Washington Examiner reported on Thursday. ["White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has attended the first meeting of the National Security Council after he was removed from the principals committee Wednesday," the Examiner story said. Despite the headlines about Bannon's removal, most media outlets included the fact that the change on the council only meant Bannon was no longer a permanent member on the council but that he retained top security clearance and could attend council meetings. "Bannon is still permitted to go to NSC meetings," Fox News reported on Wednesday. CNBC reported that Bannon can attend council meetings by invitation of the president or H. R. McMaster, Trump's national security adviser. "He is one of the president's closest and most trusted advisers," a White House source told CNBC when asked why Bannon attended.


Donald Trump issued an apology on Friday after the release of a video in which the Republican presidential candidate was recorded on an open microphone in 2005 talking in vulgar terms about trying to have sex with women. "This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course - not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended," Trump said in a statement released by his campaign. The video, released in a Washington Post story (wapo.st/2dSk1nD), was recorded while Trump was speaking with TV host Billy Bush of "Access Hollywood" while they were about to tape a segment about a planned cameo appearance by the New York businessman on the soap opera "Days of Our Lives," the Post reported. Trump has faced repeated criticism for his comments about women, most recently involving his attacks on a former beauty queen with a vague and unsubstantiated allegation about a sex tape in predawn Twitter posts that prompted Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to denounce him as "unhinged."


Enjoy your turkey, family events and holiday cheer. Enjoy the changing political environment and the strange sense of normalcy that has returned since the end of the election. None of it is likely to last. 2017 may prove to be pretty brutal. Now that the Western world has turned in the direction of Trump and Brexit, it may be that the bankster class is prepared to start the next phase. The pressure that has been building since the 2008 economic crisis is poised to topple the system again. As reputed author James Wesley Rawles of SurvivalBlog.com points out, negative interest rates and big debt governing under Obama have set us up for a fall. Easy money, cheap money and free flowing, unlimited credit to the top of the heap have brought things to a desperate point of no return. Nassim Taleb made the point that Obama's most grandiose betrayal against the American people won't be felt until the coming tide of inflation enlarges the national debt, already at record levels of government spending, even further: 3) Don't fughet Obama is leaving us a Ponzi scheme, added ~8 trillions in debt with rates at 0. If they rise, costs of deficit explode… — NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) November 20, 2016  Federal Reserve officials have already conceded that the zero percent interest/quantitative easing package is no longer capable of stimulating the economy, and so raising interest rates to normal is in order; however, raising these rates even slightly is enough to induce panic and economic turmoil. Countless figures have come forward to warn that our financial system is set up for a pump and dump – and that the populist Trump presidency is likely to be background to economic pain, gloomy news and grim difficulties in every respect. Though the die was cast by the cronies who drafted the phony recovery, Trump will be associated with what could be one of the worst financial eras in history. Worse, that time would leave millions and millions of people without jobs, money or a way to provide. As usual, Rawles makes the case for how to survive in such a depressing and chaotic environment, and how to avert the worst of the collapse by preparing now, and building a lifestyle that is resistant to market pressures and political shoes dropping. Here's the interview from X22 Report : Check out more of James Wesley Rawles work at SurvivalBlog.com or via his survival books .


Jut when you didn t think the hosts on the Fox News channel couldn t get any more despicable, they do. On Tuesday s edition of Fox and Friends, the hosts of that silly show decided to take aim at a high school athlete who just happens to be transgender. They misgendered her and called her a boy, and also said that she was gender bending, and confused. The athlete is a track star at her high school, and instead of praising this brave young woman as they should have the hosts said that she was confusing kids who are already pretty confused in this culture. They went on to wonder: Are girls who identify as boys, are they going to be the running backs for the football is that going to work out well? How s that going to work out? Here is the transcript of the conversation, via Media Matters:STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Laura, we talk about popular culture and society. How about this story this morning. There s a high school track athlete who was born male, identifies now as female LAURA INGRAHAM: No.DOOCY: Competed with the girls track team. And finished I think third at the state competition. I think we could have seen this coming. What do you make of this?INGRAHAM: Well, it s another first, right? We re all into firsts so that s a first. Then it will be the first field hockey player and pole vault star. Let me just say this, and Brian will love this story. I was in field hockey in Glastonbury, Connecticut. And at the end of the season one season we had the boys soccer team play us. We were ranked number one in the state so the boys decided they were going to pick up sticks, the soccer team and play against us. Well, sadly for us the boys, who have never played field hockey, creamed us, okay? They killed us. We were number one in the state. They were faster. They were stronger. And they I mean, it made me really mad, but they had better hand/eye coordination and never picked up a stick before. So is this fair to the other girls competing? I mean, I don t think it s really fair.BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Of course it s not.INGRAHAM: And I think it s just more gender bending. This is gender bending this is the next frontier until there s another frontier that the you know, those who want to mix up the traditional social mores want to take us to. So it doesn t surprise me. It s not fair. Until parents make their views known, this is just going to keep getting worse.KILMEADE: Hey, Laura, in an environment where people are taking performance enhancing drugs to do better in sports you know we re going to be in the situation where, well, we d like to win our first state championship so let s let a few men excuse me, some boys play with the girls team and then take the controversy and also take the trophy.INGRAHAM: Hey Brian, do you think it will go the other way though? Are girls who identify as boys, are they going to be the running backs for the football is that going to work out well? How s that going to work out? Let s go the other direction and see how successful that works out. I mean it s just, I have no I really have KILMEADE: I just shrug my I don t know what to say.INGRAHAM: Well, it s only the current conversation, but remember we ll be on to the next issue and then the next and the next. This is a current litmus test. You re not a human being with real feelings and empathy unless you re cheering this on and bowing down to this new movement. Look, that s the way they want to frame it. It s up to the regular Americans to say, look, I m a good person. But I don t think this is fair and I think most people don t develop their understanding of their own, you know, sexuality until frankly later in life. You know, I think it s I think it s confusing kids who are already pretty confused in this culture.KILMEADE: I m confused, and I m a grown-up. Laura Ingraham, I pretty much have reached my maximum in maturity. Laura. Thanks so much.This is really just too much, even for the imbeciles at Fox and Friends. They can have their opinions, sure, no matter how absolutely ignorant they may be. But attacking a private citizen, a high school student no less, on national television over her gender identity is truly beyond the pale. These people need an education, not a platform to spread ignorance.Watch the video below, again via Media Matters:


China wants to improve its military relationship with Singapore, but is resolutely opposed to any country having defense ties with self-ruled Taiwan, China s Defence Ministry said on Thursday, obliquely criticizing Singapore s Taiwan links. China is suspicious of the city state s good military relations both with the United States and Taiwan, claimed by China as its own. Singaporean troops train in Taiwan, despite a lack of formal diplomatic relations between the two, which has been an irritant in China-Singapore ties. Last November, Hong Kong port authorities impounded nine Singaporean armored military vehicles being shipped home from training grounds in Taiwan, leading to tensions between Singapore and China. Hong Kong later released the vehicles. Asked about a visit of Singaporean Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen to China last week and speculation this may lead Singapore to end its military training in Taiwan, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said relations with Singapore s military had been generally developing smoothly. There are high level talks, mutual visits of warships and other exchanges, which has deepened mutual understanding and achieved practical results, Wu told a monthly news briefing. China is willing to work with Singapore to create favorable conditions to develop an even more mature military relationship, he said. I also want to stress here that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China. We resolutely oppose any country having any form of official exchanges with Taiwan or military links. Ng s meeting with Chinese Defence Minister Chang Wanquan came as part of a trip to Beijing by Singapore s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, where there was no public mention of the Taiwan matter. Influential state-run Chinese newspaper the Global Times said last week that it was inevitable the military training in Taiwan would end, though it offered no proof. Taiwan is one of China s most sensitive issues. Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring what it considers a wayward province under its rule. Ties across the Taiwan Strait have nosedived since Tsai Ing-wen from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party won presidential elections last year. China suspects she wants to push for the island s formal independence. She says she wants to maintain peace with her giant neighbor. In recent months, Chinese air force jets have carried out a series of drills around Taiwan which have included bombers and advanced fighter jets. Spokesman Wu reiterated that the drills were routine. We will continue with such exercises, he added. Taiwan s Defence Ministry declined to comment.


The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to pass a $602 billion defense authorization bill, despite President Barack Obama's threat to veto the annual policy measure over issues including a ban on closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison. The vote was 85-13, far more than the majority needed to pass the 100-member Senate. Six Republicans and seven members of the Democratic caucus voted against the bill, which authorizes military spending for the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1. Obama gave a long list of objections to the versions of the bill passed by the Senate and House of Representatives, including provisions making it more difficult to close the detention center at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba and the use of funds specially designated for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to allow the military to avoid mandatory spending limits. The Senate's version of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, now must be reconciled with the one passed by the House last month before it can be sent to Obama. The House bill also faces a veto threat. If the bill is finished before November, when every member of the House and one-third of the Senate is up for re-election, a veto could prove challenging for Democrats. Obama's party is trying to keep the White House, and hopes to regain the Senate majority it lost in 2014, if not control of the House. But Democrats perpetually battle accusations from Republicans that they are soft on defense, a fight that could be more difficult if they block the major Pentagon policy bill. Republican Senator John McCain, who chairs the Armed Services Committee, said he was disappointed the bill did not include a program that would help Afghans who are in danger because they worked for American troops to move to the United States. "They are the number one target for the Taliban and for ISIS (Islamic State)," McCain said in the Senate after the bill passed without an amendment extending the program to provide Special Immigrant Visas for interpreters and others who worked for U.S. forces. Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who had introduced the amendment, called its omission "unconscionable." In a statement, she said, "For many of them, this could be a death sentence." The bill would also require young women to register for the military draft, as the Department of Defense opens all of the military, including combat roles, to females. A few conservative senators voted against the measure because of that provision. The bill passed with a compromise on the use of Russian RD-180 rocket engines. Lawmakers eased a ban on their use late last year, worried that it could drive United Launch alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, out of business and leave only privately held SpaceX to transport satellites into space. An amendment from Republican Senator Cory Gardner and Democrat Bill Nelson gives the Pentagon time to develop and test a replacement for the Russian-made engines and limits their use for launches. McCain, a harsh critic of Moscow, had tried to stop the use of the RD-180 to send a message to Russia's President Vladimir Putin. The bill also bars military base closures, despite military leaders saying they have more capacity than they need. Closing bases is a thorny issue for many lawmakers, especially in an election year.


The senior United States commander in Iraq said on Tuesday that an American airstrike most likely led to the collapse of a building in Mosul that killed scores of civilians this month. But the commander, Lt. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, indicated that an investigation would also examine whether the attack might have set off a larger blast from explosives set by militants inside the building or nearby. It was the fullest acceptance of responsibility by an American commander since the March 17 airstrike. "My initial assessment is that we probably had a role in these casualties," said General Townsend, who commands the task force that is fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. But he asserted that "the munition that we used should not have collapsed an entire building. " "That is something we have got to figure out," he added. With an increase in reports of civilian casualties from the American bombing of Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria, some human rights groups have questioned whether the rules of engagement have been loosened since President Trump took office. Pentagon officials said this week that the rules had not changed. But General Townsend said on Tuesday that he had won approval for "minor adjustments" to rules for the use of combat power, although he insisted they were not a factor in the Mosul attack. General Townsend acknowledged, however, that steps had been taken to speed up the process of providing air power to support Iraqi troops and their American Special Operations advisers at the leading edge of the offensive to recapture Mosul from the Islamic State. The goal, he said, was to "decentralize" . General Townsend did not describe the changes in detail, but he cast them as a return to the military's standard offensive doctrine, in contrast to the "very centralized" approach he said was initially put in place after President Barack Obama sent American forces back to Iraq to combat the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Maj. Gen. Maan an Iraqi special forces commander, has said that his men called in a coalition airstrike to take out snipers on the roofs of three houses in a Mosul neighborhood called Mosul Jidideh. The Iraqi forces, General Saadi said, were unaware that at least some of the houses were filled with civilians. General Townsend said he did not have information on the Iraqi commander's specific role, but explained that the United States had been training Iraqi military officers how to call in airstrikes that are carried out by Iraqi aircraft. Any American airstrike requested by the Iraqis, General Townsend said, would need to be approved by American officers. "If he said his guy was calling for fire, he could have been," he said. "Now how that works is that they don't call directly to a U. S. fighter overhead and suddenly a U. S. fighter is rolling in on their grid coordinates. " Iraqi forces have been eager for the help of American air power as they take on the toughest phase of the more than battle to retake Mosul. American officials have said that 500 Iraqi troops were killed and about 3, 000 wounded in taking the eastern half of the city. General Townsend said the battle for the western half of the city was even more difficult because of what he called its "claustrophobically close terrain" of narrow streets and buildings. He repeated several times that the fighting was the most intense urban combat since World War II. Adding to the challenge is a factor he did not mention: the decision by Iraq's governments to urge Mosul's residents to shelter in place instead of trying to flee. When American troops retook Falluja in 2004, the fierce urban fighting took place in a city that had already been abandoned by most civilians. Though the Iraqis are doing the main fighting on the ground in Mosul, American and coalition forces have been playing an essential role. United States Army Paladin howitzers have been firing rounds into Mosul from their positions outside the city. Task Force Thor, which is based at Qayyarah West Airfield 40 miles south of Mosul, has been firing Himars rockets into the city. American Apache attack helicopters have added to the firepower. This year, the United States increased the number of soldiers who have been advising Iraqi troops as they have pushed into the city. While the mission of the advisers is not to directly engage in combat, many are in harm's way as they advise Iraqi units carrying out the fight. On Monday, American military officials said that two infantry companies from the 82nd Airborne Division were being sent to help protect those United States advisers and that a "route clearance" platoon was also being deployed to clear away roadside bombs. Together, the deployment adds about 240 troops to the mission. The troop cap that the Obama administration established for the operation in Iraq — what the Pentagon calls the "force manning level" — is 5, 260. But that formal limit, which the Trump administration is likely to eliminate, does not count temporary deployments. The actual number of troops in Iraq is certainly higher. With more American forces in Iraq, and more United States advisers near the front lines, the need for timely airstrikes is much greater. Brig. Gen. Matthew C. Isler, an Air Force officer who serves as deputy to General Townsend, is in charge of the investigation into the Mosul airstrike. A team of American experts has visited the site to collect evidence to determine what caused the significant loss of civilian life. American officials said they were investigating a number of possibilities, including whether the militants herded the civilians into the building to use as human shields whether the building was rigged with explosives or whether a nearby car bomb exploded. "My initial impression is the enemy had a hand in this, and there's also a fair chance that our strike had some role in it," General Townsend said in a briefing broadcast to the Pentagon from Iraq. "I think it's probably going to play out to be some sort of combination. But you know what, I can't really say for sure, and we've just got to let the investigation play out. " General Townsend said the results of the investigation would be reported publicly, "unlike our enemy. " While General Townsend acknowledged an American role in the Mosul strike, he said the allegations that the United States had bombed a school full of refugees in Syria were not credible. That airstrike, which has garnered considerable attention, occurred during an operation in which Syrian fighters were trying to seal off the western approaches to Raqqa, the Islamic State's capital. But General Townsend said that the evidence he had seen indicated that it was about 30 Islamic State fighters who were killed in that attack. "I think that was a clean strike," he said. He also dismissed reports, publicized by the Islamic State, that an American airstrike had endangered the Tabqa Dam west of Raqqa, saying that the structure was not in imminent danger. "If something happens to the Tabqa Dam, it will be at the hands of ISIS, not the coalition," he said. Still, the reports of desperate civilians in Mosul prompted Zeid Ra'ad the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, to urge on Tuesday that the coalition reconsider its tactics. The United Nations has said that at least 61 people were killed in the March 17 strike in Mosul. Amnesty International said as many as 150 might have died. "The fact that Iraqi authorities repeatedly advised civilians to remain at home, instead of fleeing the area, indicates that coalition forces should have known that these strikes were likely to result in a significant number of civilian casualties," Donatella Rovera of Amnesty International said in a statement.


21st Century Wire says Every Sunday, our editorial team curates another documentary film for 21WIRE readers.This week: Although this is a mainstream and at times, a somewhat sensational depiction of CIA history, the film contains some extremely interesting information and insights regarding the US Central Intelligence Agency s covert program targeting members of the general public which employed the use of Class A and hallucinogenic narcotics in order to develop an array applied behavior science applications to be used in the manipulation of people and the extraction of information under duress. The film also introduces the prospect of RFK assassin, Sirhan Sirhan as a Manchurian candidate. These classified drug-based programs were developed during the height of the Cold War, and who knows how many other similar programs there were, and which one are still running today. Watch: SEE MORE SUNDAY SCREENINGS HERE


The number of migrants illegally coming across the U. S. southern border in March dropped to the lowest level in 17 years, says a leaked agency statement given to the Associated Press. [The statement is included in testimony slated for delivery on Wednesday, April 5, by Gen. John Kelly, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Typically, routine testimony is provided early to the legislators so they can prepare questions for the witness, but it is rarely leaked. According to the Associated Press: Another report on Tuesday said the data showed a 67 percent drop in migrants seeking to cross the border. David V. Aguilar, former U. S. Border Patrol and acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee that March 2017 figures he reviewed indicate illegal border crossings are down 67 percent [compared to March 2016] … . "It's actually up to 67 percent drop compared to last year," Aguilar told the Senate committee. During his tenure, former President Barack Obama reduced border barriers and allowed at least 300, 000 migrants from Central America to cross the border and get temporary residency, plus work permits and access to Americans' schools. That wave of migrants helped solidify public opposition to immigration, aided Donald Trump's presidential campaign and helped cause many extra crimes in the United States. However, the flow of new illegal immigrants is only a small part of the nation's oversupply. Currently, at least 11 million illegal immigrants are living in the United States, of which at least 8 million hold jobs. Many of the recent illegal immigrants arrive legally as tourists or workers but fail to leave when their visas expire. In 2015, for example, almost 500, 000 people overstayed their visas and remained for some time as illegal immigrants. Also, the federal government annually invites 1 million people to legally immigrate to the United States, and provides work permits to a shifting population of up to 1. 45 million plus at least 200, 000 . The immigrants and contract workers compete for jobs sought by the 4 million young Americans who join the workforce each year. Overall, the huge inflow of migrants, both legal and illegal, help lower Americans' salaries and wages by roughly $500 billion per year. In turn, that money is scooped up by employers and Wall Street investors as higher profits. President Trump has promised to toughen border security by building a barrier along most of the border, and he has already directed border officers to end Obama's "catch and release" policy. He has also rejuvenated repatriation policies and has promised to curb business' use of temporary contract workers in place of Americans.