On Wednesday, Senator John McCain responded to White House Press Secretary s claim that the massively failed raid in Yemen that left 30 civilians and a Navy SEAL dead, didn t achieve its primary objective, and managed to recover copies of three videos that have been on YouTube for about a decade, a huge success. According to Spicer, any criticism of the raid which Trump authorized over dinner without adequate planning, preparation, or backup after his staffers goaded him with claims that Obama would not have the cajones to do it is a disservice to the dead. The life of chief Ryan Owens was done in service to his country and we owe him and his family a great debt for the information we received during that raid, Spicer said. Any suggestion otherwise is a disservice to his courageous life and the actions he took. Full stop. McCain disagrees: Sen. McCain should not be talking about the success or failure of a mission to the media. Only emboldens the enemy! Trump tweeted. He s been losing so long he doesn t know how to win anymore, just look at the mess our country is in bogged down in conflict all over the place. Sen. McCain should not be talking about the success or failure of a mission to the media. Only emboldens the enemy! He's been losing so . Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017 long he doesn't know how to win anymore, just look at the mess our country is in bogged down in conflict all over the place. Our hero.. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017..Ryan died on a winning mission ( according to General Mattis), not a "failure." Time for the U.S. to get smart and start winning again! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017You know what emboldens the enemy? Failing to kill him. While he did manage to mow down women and children wholesale, Trump s raid missed al Qaeda leader Qassim al-Rimi, the primary target. Since the raid, al-Rimi has been taunting and mocking Trump in his propaganda videos. Our hero Ryan died on a winning mission ( according to General Mattis), not a failure.' Trump concluded triumphantly. Time for the U.S. to get smart and start winning again! It is probably past time for us to get smart and start winning again, but it seems that we will need to wait four years for that. The raid killed about double the number of civilians as it did militants, the important, game-changing intelligence recovered turned out to be decade-old YouTube videos, he missed his primary target, and Yemen revoked our permission to conduct anti-terrorism operations within their borders.If this is winning in Trump s America, it is time for all of us to be frightened. Fortunately, The Internet is here to let Trump know what they think of his new, GREAT America where losing is winning and the Ku Klux Klan is not an extremist group.This won t be the last time Trump gets people killed with his impulsive ego-driven mistakes. @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/fmu26DyHHI Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) February 9, 2017.@realDonaldTrump ryan died because you screwed up. his blood and the blood of the american girl who died is on your hands. you did that. Oliver Willis (@owillis) February 9, 2017.@realDonaldTrump Donald, maybe if you pay attention during briefings instead of tweeting about Ivanka's shoes fewer people will die. Bess Kalb (@bessbell) February 9, 2017@realDonaldTrump There is no greater tribute to a fallen US soldier than for the idiot who got him killed to use his name in a Twitter fight Jon Bershad (@JonBershad) February 9, 2017@realDonaldTrump Jesus Christ. These tweets make you look like a fucking lunatic. BenDavid Grabinski (@bdgrabinski) February 9, 2017@realDonaldTrump you consider the death of one of your soldiers a "win"? Brilliant. Ben Pearce (@BenPearceDJ) February 9, 2017@realDonaldTrump Ryan may have acted heroically but the mission (u decided to send him on over dinner) was an awful failure. https://t.co/m2eb2fpcv2 Tim Guinee (@TimGuinee) February 9, 2017@realDonaldTrump Winning! pic.twitter.com/UAP0CLThAN Letters of Note (@LettersOfNote) February 9, 2017Someone died. Have some humanity. Stop using him as a prop piece for your rhetoric. @realDonaldTrump PORP (@TheOfficialPORP) February 9, 2017@realDonaldTrump Just imagine if Hillary had called Benghazi a "winning mission" BenDavid Grabinski (@bdgrabinski) February 9, 2017@realDonaldTrump how dare you politicize the death of a fallen hero I already had a low opinion of you but I'm absolutely disgusted Rob Gorski (@The_Autism_Dad) February 9, 2017@realDonaldTrump how dare you not even use his full name, show some respect. You killed Chief Petty Officer William Ryan Owens. coganut (@Coganuts) February 9, 2017.@realDonaldTrump my god, if that's what's considered "winning" or "successful" I think the whole world would prefer you to stop, NOW! Eloise-at-midnight (@moonatmidnight) February 9, 2017@realDonaldTrump There is nothing as shameful as a lying draft dodger sending a hero to his death strictly to feed his ego. You disgust us. Stupid Should Hurt? (@stophrtngusa) February 9, 2017@realDonaldTrump STOP. TWEETING. YOU sent Ryan on a bad mission. It's on you now when our heroes die. J Throw (@mamathrow) February 9, 2017@realDonaldTrump nah man you killed a soldier, 30 civilians, and got banned from the country Dolly Doldrums (@_Philosophica) February 9, 2017@realDonaldTrump While you were asleep in bed. Your incompetence got a Seal killed and you couldn't care enough to be in Situation Room. ECMadTown (@ECmadtown) February 9, 2017And to think @realDonaldTrump signed the order at dinner, never monitored op from SitRoom, and was in bed tweeting when it went down. LOSER! D E V I N (@DevinMillington) February 9, 2017@realDonaldTrump an 8 year old was shot in the neck and bled out because of you Derek: Dream Hipster (@AnarchistPrince) February 9, 2017.@realDonaldTrump You killed 30 civilians, including an American citizen, AND slaughtered an American soldier AND MISSED YOUR TARGET! Liar Carl Allan Salonen (@CarlASalonen) February 9, 2017@realDonaldTrump How was that a winning mission? You missed your target, who is now mocking you, & we lost a soldier. You failed #WhyIResist FarmersCubed (@FarmersCubed) February 9, 2017William Ryan Owens was a hero exactly the sort of hero who deserves a Commander-in-Chief who cares about the lives of our men and women in uniform, a leader who will not place them in unnecessarily dangerous scenarios just to satisfy his ego. If this is winning, there is only one solution: we need to stop winning. Now.


It hasn t been a very good time for Ben Carson s campaign to become America s first Black Republican President. But his very public meltdown after getting trashed in Iowa might suggest that he has no place anywhere near the red button anyway.Carson crashed badly in Iowa, picking up just 9% of the vote, leaving him in fourth place behind Ted Cruz (28%), Donald Trump (24%) and Marco Rubio (23%). His explanation? According to Carson, it s all a big conspiracy to keep him out of the race for President. He told supporters in a speech which felt rather more like a public nervous breakdown: I was reasonably happy today until I discovered the dirty tricks that were going on. And people spreading rumors that I had dropped out and that people should caucus for somebody else, he continued. I mean, do you think that that is something that s acceptable? Apparently, Carson is arguing that people didn t vote for him because Ted Cruz told them not to.The candidate insisted his campaign was not over, and yet boarded an early flight home to Florida for rest meanwhile, the other candidates headed straight to New Hampshire or South Carolina to battle the next stage of the Primaries.So while his opponents were off developing their strategy for the next battleground states, Carson decided to write an email to his supporters, and continue his meltdown in public. For months, my campaign has survived the lies and dirty tricks from opponents who profess to to detest the games of the political class, but in reality are masters at it, he wrote. Even tonight, my opponents resorted to political tricks by tweeting, texting and telling precinct captains to announce that I had suspended my campaign in some cases asking caucus goers to change their votes. What is considerably more certain than this conspiracy theory, is that Mr. Carson will be making that exiting from the race announcement soon. Hopefully with a little more grace than he could muster in Iowa. Featured Image via screen capture


Sam Sifton emails readers of Cooking five days a week to talk about food and suggest recipes. That email also appears here. To receive it in your inbox, register here. Good morning. I have a column in The Times Magazine today about a recipe for roasted potato hash that I've been messing around with for years now. It makes a superlative bed for eggs and an excellent side dish for steak. You could eat it with a mess of sautéed greens and be happy without the animal protein. You should make it entirely your own. Perhaps you could make it for lunch? And then for dinner tonight, you could try the recipe for braised chicken legs that I learned from the teachings of the California chef Cal Peternell, and sop up the sauce with Julia Moskin's recipe for grilled garlic bread. On Monday night, you might go meatless and Balkan, mixing up David Tanis's recipe for a Greek tomato salad and adding some crumbled feta if you like to make it really sing. Or you could go Brazilian in honor of the Olympic Games, with 10 recipes from that nation's larder. For sure on Tuesday you could give Martha Rose Shulman's recipe for shrimp with spicy greens a try. Serve it with Kim Severson's can' rice and then settle in to see what the Olympics have to offer. (You're not, like, in Rio, are you? If you are, or just want to imagine that you are, Florence Fabricant has a fine guide to the city's best restaurant options.) Wednesday night could be good for a steak seared in a pan and served with a platter of sautéed summer squash with red pepper and onion, along with leftover rice or a baguette and butter. Then on Thursday night just order a pizza and make Melissa's recipe for eggplant with lamb, tomato and pine nuts while or after you eat it, in advance of serving a really incredible dish — one that benefits from overnight resting — on Friday night, as we head into the weekend. Thus fortified, you can wake up on Saturday morning, head to the market and return home to make jam. Go look around on Cooking to discover other things to cook this week. (This recipe for pork chops puttanesca, for instance.) And, if you like, tell us about what you make. We're on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, where we use and applaud the hashtag #NYTCooking. If you run into problems along the way, don't hesitate to ask for help: cookingcare@nytimes. com. Or if you have a particular question about food or cooking, kitchens or life in and around them, submit it to foodeditor@nytimes. com. I'll be collecting the best of them to answer in a forthcoming "Hey, Mr. Food Editor" column for Men's Style. Now, see if you can't find an actual print copy of The Times today. In it we have a beautiful special section devoted to an excerpt from Colson Whitehead's new novel, "The Underground Railroad. " Or, if you want to stay online only, try this fascinating account of life as a paramedic in the border town of Laredo, Tex. in California Sunday. Watch the trailer for "Little Men. " Read Tessa Hadley's new short story, "Dido's Lament," in The New Yorker. And watch Melissa cook the "impossible meat" that you may have been hearing about, on Facebook. See you tomorrow.


The United States is not coordinating its military operations in Syria with Russia, the White House said on Thursday. "At present, the United States is not conducting or coordinating military operations with Russia," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a news briefing. "I know there's some speculation that an agreement may be reached to do so, but it's not clear that will happen."


U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday called on his fellow conservatives to unify in an election year, warning them to refrain from the kind of infighting that frustrated and eventually drove out his predecessor, the more moderate John Boehner. Ryan, in remarks to Heritage Action, one of the influential conservative groups that vexed Boehner with constant demands for more spending curbs and smaller government, said divisions among Republicans played into the hands of Democrats. "Let's not fight over tactics. Don't impugn people's motives," said Ryan, the Wisconsin congressman who took over the top post in the Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives last October. But as he spoke, discontent was brewing among conservative Republicans in the House over the U.S. budget for the coming year. Late last year, more than 160 Republicans out of 246 voted against a two-year budget deal Boehner reached with the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama. On Wednesday, Ryan did not mention Boehner by name. He urged conservatives not to use their disagreements, including over appropriations, as a litmus test for supporting each other. "It's fine if you disagree ... But we can't let how someone votes on an amendment to an appropriations bill define what it means to be a conservative," Ryan said. He cautioned conservatives against standing in "a circular firing squad." Heritage Action is an affiliate of the conservative Heritage Foundation research group. Boehner blamed such outside groups for pushing him into a 16-day government shutdown in 2013. He retired last September, weary from fighting with more conservative members who have increased their numbers in the chamber in the past few years. Ryan could soon see Republican unity tested over decisions on fiscal policy, also a theme in the campaign for the November presidential election. The budget deal reached late last year exceeded strict spending caps by $80 billion over two years, to pump up defense and domestic programs. It is to be used as a framework for budget and appropriations legislation this year. Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus did not vote for it. Ryan, trying to allay concerns, hosted the Freedom Caucus in his office Tuesday evening for "'budget and beers,'" a spokeswoman said. Freedom Caucus member Representative John Fleming of Louisiana said the meeting was cordial, with Ryan listening to the group's objections to higher spending. "We didn't walk out with any agreements," Fleming said. Also on Tuesday, Obama and Ryan had their first formal meeting as they search for areas where they may be able to overcome policy differences.


American tourist Nicholas Burkhead said he d be happy to return to his latest holiday destination, with its beautiful scenery, great food and friendly people. The problem is, the destination was North Korea and a U.S. State Department ban on travel to the isolated country takes effect on Friday. Burkhead, a 35-year-old resident of Virginia, was among the last American tourists to leave North Korea, landing on Thursday in Beijing. I was surprised at how friendly everyone was, Burkhead said after stepping off the last scheduled flight to Beijing from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, before the U.S. travel ban kicks in. It was very relaxing - beautiful scenery and they fed us very well in the restaurants there, but the exchange rate wasn t too good for the local won, he told a waiting scrum of reporters. Burkhead arrived in Beijing on North Korea s state-owned Air Koryo after visiting Pyongyang as well as the city of Kaesong near the heavily armed border with South Korea. His five-day tour cost 1,850 euros ($2,200). Other Americans on the flight included two aid workers as well as Jamie Banfill, 32, who had led tours to North Korea but was visiting this time as a tourist. Banfill, who had made the trip to say goodbyes after regularly traveling to the North for a decade, said the travel ban short-sighted. It s an extremely complex situation on the Korean peninsula and they oversimplified it, he said. The United States last month announced a ban on U.S. passport holders from traveling to North Korea, effective Sept. 1. Journalists and humanitarian workers are allowed to apply for exemptions under the ban, which is similar to previous U.S. restrictions on travel to Iraq and Libya. Heidi Linton, director of Christian Friends of Korea, who has been working in North Korea for more than 20 years, told reporters she worried about the people her aid group helped, if her exemption was not granted soon. We started a hepatitis B program and we have 705 patients that have been started on life-saving medicine, that if they go off that medicine then their lives are in danger, she said. It was not immediately clear how many Americans had sought, or been granted, exemptions or how many were still in North Korea. An official at the state department said it was not able to give an estimate on the number of U.S. citizens there. North Korea is under growing international pressure over its nuclear tests and repeated ballistic missile launches, including one this week that flew over northern Japan. The U.S. ban on travel to North Korea followed the death of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier, who was jailed during a tour last year. Warmbier, who was sentenced to 15 years hard labor for trying to steal a propaganda sign, was returned to the United States in a coma in June and died six days later. The circumstances surrounding his death are not clear, including why he fell into a coma. Warmbier had been detained leaving the airport in Pyongyang. I was expecting a strict security check on exit but there was nothing like that, Burkhead said. The State Department declared U.S. passports invalid for travel to, in or through North Korea. The restriction applies for one year unless extended or revoked by the secretary of state. North Korean state media has described the ban as a sordid attempt to limit human exchanges. North Korea is currently holding two Korean-American academics and a missionary, as well as three South Korean nationals who were doing missionary work. This month, North Korea released a Canadian pastor who had been imprisoned there for more than two years. Hundreds of Americans are among the 4,000 to 5,000 Western tourists who visit North Korea annually, according to U.S. lawmaker Joe Wilson.


And the winner is the Anti-Billionaire or the guy who detests rich people or how about the guy who made a LOT of people rich during his campaign, but did absolutely nothing for the less fortunate with his windfall. In fact, we reported about hundreds of homeless people who were kicked out of a venue they used as a warming hut on the coldest night of the year because socialist Bernie Sanders (who cares so much for the poor and underprivileged) was about to host a rally in that venue. Oh well the show must go on who has time for homeless people who likely won t vote .right hypocrite Bernie?The small-dollar fundraising juggernaut that has kept Bernie Sanders s insurgent White House bid afloat far longer than anticipated has generated another unexpected impact: a financial windfall for his team of Washington consultants.As donations surged this year, the Sanders campaign ratcheted up its spending each month, racing through an astounding $45 million in March alone.By the end of March, the self-described democratic socialist senator from Vermont had spent nearly $166 million on his campaign more than any other 2016 presidential contender, including rival Hillary Clinton. More than $91 million went to a small group of admakers and media buyers who produced a swarm of commercials and placed them on television, radio and online, according to a Washington Post analysis of Federal Election Commission reports.While the vast majority of that money was passed along to television stations and websites to pay for the advertising, millions in fees were kept by the companies, The Post calculated. While it is impossible to determine precisely how much the top consultants have earned, FEC filings indicate the top three media firms have reaped payments of seven figures.Sanders s money blitz, fueled by a $27 average donation that he repeatedly touts, has improbably made the anti-billionaire populist the biggest spender so far in the election cycle. The campaign s wealth has been a surprising boon for vendors across the county who signed on to his long-shot bid.The large profits stem in part from the fact that no one in Sanders s campaign imagined he would generate such enormous financial support. So unlike Clinton, he did not cap how much his consultants could earn in commissions from what was expected to be a bare-bones operation, according to campaign officials.A campaign spokesman declined to comment on whether Sanders feels the high fees earned by his media consultants are appropriate.


Infowars uncovered a bombshell when they discovered the Facebook page of one of Judge Roy Moore s accusers, Debbie Gibson, who came out in a Washington Post article to accuse him of sexual misconduct that allegedly took place 36 years ago.Debbie Wesson Gibson says that she was 17 in the spring of 1981 when Moore spoke to her Etowah High School civics class about serving as the assistant district attorney. She says that when he asked her out, she asked her mother what she would say if she wanted to date a 34-year-old man. Gibson says her mother asked her who the man was, and when Gibson said Roy Moore, her mother said, I d say you were the luckiest girl in the world. Among locals in Gadsden, a town of about 47,000 back then, Moore had this godlike, almost deity status he was a hometown boy made good, Gibson says, West Point and so forth. Gibson says that they dated for two to three months, and that he took her to his house, read her poetry and played his guitar. She says he kissed her once in his bedroom and once by the pool at a local country club. Looking back, I m glad nothing bad happened, says Gibson, who now lives in Florida. As a mother of daughters, I realize that our age difference at that time made our dating inappropriate. Debbie Gibson hates Donald Trump, but that s not all, she s pretty fond of Judge Roy Moore s opponent, Doug Ross for US Senate In Alabama as well Here are a few anti-Trump posts that were found on Gibson s Facebook page: One of senatorial candidate Roy Moore s accusers is apparently a fervent Democrat who has worked for the DNC as a sign language interpreter for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, a revelation which the Washington Post never included in its original report.The accuser, Debbie Gibson, had also publically supported Moore s opponent Doug Jones before the accusations came to light.Gibson openly bragged about signing for Hillary during a campaign appearance. On a side note, we re not sure who she s signing for. The crowd behind Hillary, that is usually packed with the Democrats hand-picked diverse crowd, appears to be pretty thin.Here s a post from Gibson s page proving that she s supporting Judge Roy Moore s Democrat opponent for US Senate:She even posted a video of Moore s opponent, Doug Jones to promote him to her friends on Facebook. The screenshot below shows the post on her page. Interestingly, when attacking Moore ally Steve Bannon for suggesting the Washington Post was politically motivated in its reporting, the newspaper implied that Gibson wasn t down with Democratic propaganda, a statement which seemingly conflicts with Gibson s political activism:That s not what the photos say The Washington Post reported: According to campaign reports, none of the women has donated to or worked for Moore s Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, or his rivals in the Republican primary But notice the precise wording; it s lawyer-speak. It might very well be true that Gibson didn t donate or work for Doug Jones, but according to her Facebook profile, she did actively campaign for him, which doesn t help her credibility and it should have been reported yet the Washington Post conveniently left it out.


Fox is not only number one with racists, the network is apparently number one at hiring racists as well.After a video of a school valedictorian went viral because Mayte Lara Ibarra told the audience that she is an undocumented immigrant during her speech, a Fox Sports reporter simply could not accept that a Latino is smart enough to be at the top of the class.During a Barstool Rundown associated with Republican nominee Donald Trump and his plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, Fox reporter Emily Austen openly questions the intelligence of Mexicans and made racist comments about Asians and Jews. I didn t even know Mexicans were that smart, Austen said. She also derided Jews as stingy and claimed the Chinese guy is always the smartest guy in math class. Here s the video via Vimeo. Austen s remarks begin at the 24 minute mark.Well, while racist Trump supporters probably appreciated Austen s comments, they didn t go down well with her bosses at Fox Sports, who promptly removed her from the air for the time being.Fox Sports General Manager Steve Tello condemned Austen s comments and quickly made it clear that Fox Sports had nothing to do with them. We were made aware that Emily Austen appeared in a social media video unaffiliated with Fox Sports in which she made insensitive and derogatory comments. She was not speaking on behalf of Fox Sports, nor do we condone any of the statements she made in the video. Emily has been advised that her comments were unacceptable, and she is not scheduled to appear on any upcoming Fox Sports Florida or Fox Sports Sun broadcasts. These kinds of stereotypical precepts have no place in our society, but this is the kind of America that Donald Trump is hoping to create. As a public media figure, Austen should have known better. It would like someone saying that all blondes are dumb. However, that stereotype appears to be true in Austen s case.


Before Donald Trump's put-downs and the stumbles in presidential debates, and before the profound frustration of voters became so unmistakably apparent, Jeb Bush appeared to be best positioned to win back the White House for Republicans in 2016. He amassed a $150 million war chest in 2015, surrounded himself with some of the best minds in the party, had a famous last name and attracted the support of the party establishment. And yet, after a dismal finish in South Carolina, Bush dropped out of the race on Saturday with an emotional speech. "I firmly believe the American people must entrust this office to someone who understands that whoever holds it is the servant, not the master, someone who will commit to that service with honor and decency," he said. How Bush found himself out of the race after just the third nominating contest of 2016 is a cautionary tale of political miscalculation and strategic errors, according to interviews with a dozen Republican operatives, many with close ties to the Bush campaign and others who worked for the last two Republican presidential nominees, conducted during the last days of his campaign. From the start, they said, Bush appeared to misjudge the mood of the Republican base. In December 2014, for instance, Bush gathered his senior aides and a small group of national political operatives for a meeting in Miami to talk about his coming candidacy. A survey to gauge the national mood of the party was dismissed by Bush and his aides as unnecessary. Such polling, a participant said, would have made clear to Bush the rebellious sentiment of the conservative base of the party. "They missed the boat," the participant said. The polling may have also helped the campaign spot the threat of Trump, a billionaire and political outsider who tapped into that anti-establishment anger and stormed to the top of the polls. The Bush campaign disputed the charge as inaccurate. "He has shared the frustration of voters from the outset and he has not strayed from that," said spokeswoman Kristy Campbell. "He has presented a hopeful, optimistic message that is based on the belief that he has the leadership skills to get the job done." Viewing Trump as a summer fad who would fade given his outrageous comments, the campaign was slow to respond to the billionaire when he first blasted Bush last August as "low-energy." Bush maintained his above-the-fray strategy and focused on his policy proposals instead of mixing it up with Trump. Trump relentlessly and bluntly attacked Bush in speeches and on Twitter, portraying him as tired, weak and out of touch with the party. Trump has mentioned Bush on Twitter hundreds of times, far more than any other Republican candidate. "There was a decision made that he was not a serious person and would fade away," said one Republican strategist close to the Bush camp, who asked to remain anonymous. "You don't want to dignify somebody who wasn't a serious candidate. It wasn't just Jeb. Nobody thought he was." When the "low energy" attacks on Bush started to take hold and his poll numbers began dropping, he went out of his way to insist he had plenty of energy to be president, talking of working 16-hour days, putting in feistier appearances on the stump and hitting back at Trump hard. Behind the scenes, though, donors said they fretted that too much time had gone by before he took the problem seriously. Some confidants of the former Florida governor seethed for weeks at Trump's taunts and urged the campaign to shift to a more aggressive posture. "They made a horrendous miscalculation in not understanding the intent of the low-energy attack, which was designed to emasculate Bush, to make him look weak," said Steve Schmidt, who was campaign manager to 2008 Republican nominee John McCain. "Defining him as weak denied him the ability to make the argument that by resume, competence and experience he was the most fit to command," said Schmidt. When Bush launched his campaign in June, he was the clear frontrunner among Republicans, polling at nearly 18 percent in a crowded field. Roughly six weeks later Trump had taken a commanding lead with 26 percent and Bush had dropped to around 12 percent, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. Today Trump stands at 38 percent. But Trump was hardly Bush's only obstacle. Perhaps his biggest misstep was one of his own making, when he spent days trying to explain whether he would have launched the Iraq war begun by his brother, former President George W. Bush. Even George W. Bush has admitted mistakes were made in the 2003 conflict. But for a week last May, Jeb Bush was flummoxed by the question. The trouble began when he told Fox News that "I would have" launched the invasion even knowing what is now known - that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction. While Bush said he did not understand the question, his response began days of controversy that fed a narrative pushed by Democrats that he was little different from his brother when it came to Iraq. Some of Bush's foreign policy advisers were surprised that Bush did not have an answer prepared for the inevitable question. There was a disagreement among his advisers on how best to respond, "a genuine amount of confusion and upsetness about the whole thing," said one outside adviser to the campaign, who asked to be anonymous. Not wanting to be disloyal to his brother, Bush spent days trying to articulate a position until he finally disavowed the statement and declared he would not have ordered the war. "The fact that we went through this anguished process of several days and several kinds of answers was quite astonishing," the adviser said. Finally, George W. Bush told his brother he did not need to defend decisions made back in 2003. Jeb Bush had an on-again, off-again strategy to embrace the family name, but finally took full advantage of his family in New Hampshire and especially in South Carolina, where the Bush family name remains a valuable brand. For the first time in the campaign former President George W. Bush hit the campaign trail in South Carolina for his brother, addressing thousands of Republicans at a rally. "I know campaigns are stressful and taxing," he said. "But they should be. Because the job of the president is much harder than the campaign." The challenges of the campaign were driven home two days later when Jeb Bush learned that South Carolina's governor, Nikki Haley, would endorse Rubio. It was a double blow for Bush: not only did he fail to secure the backing of a popular governor, it went instead to Rubio, his one-time political protégé who has been the target of stinging attacks from Bush. His allied Super PAC, Right to Rise USA, spent at least $12.5 million on advertising opposing Rubio, according to Federal Election Commission data. Bush learned about the endorsement at a town hall meeting in Summerville, South Carolina, where some members of the audience gave him advice on how to run his campaign. He summed up the news briskly. "Disappointed," he said. By Saturday night, less than two hours after the polls had closed, Bush had called it quits. (Additional reporting by Grant Smith, Melissa Fares and Chris Kahn; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Ross Colvin) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.


Philippine troops rescued a catholic priest held hostage for almost four months by Islamic State-linked rebels after an offensive that captured a stronghold of the militants in southern Marawi City, defense officials said on Monday. Marawi s vicar-general Father Teresito Chito Soganub was kidnapped along with other Christians as militants rampaged through the city on May 23, burning churches and schools, releasing prisoners and seizing arms in a well-planned assault. Soganub, flanked by Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and military chief General Eduardo Ano, appeared to be in good health and high spirits when he was presented to the media in Manila. He expressed his thanks but gave no statement. Our troops gained the upper hand, the terrorists were forced to withdraw to nearby structures on the periphery of the mosque, Lorenzana told a media briefing in Manila, referring to the Bato mosque held by the rebels for 117 days. Troops had opportunity to snatch Father Chito... The appearance of Soganub is some rare good news for a military that has suffered a string of setbacks in Marawi, from deadly accidents during a controversial campaign of air strikes to repeatedly missing deadlines on when the battle would be won. The siege of the city by an alliance of rebels from the island of Mindanao, and numerous foreign fighters, has been the biggest internal security crisis in years for the Philippines, a country used to separatist and communist rebellions. Soganub made an appearance under duress in a militant propaganda video about a week after his capture, urging the government to stop the military operation in Marawi in exchange for sparing lives of hostages. The priest was among scores held by militants at the Bato mosque, one of Marawi s largest, which troops captured on Saturday afternoon. He was rescued along with another hostage, Lordvin Ocopio. The rebels who laid siege to Marawi are from an extremist faction of the Abu Sayyaf group, led by Isnilon Hapilon, the so-called emir of Southeast Asia, and members of the militant Maute family, which has deep clan connections in the lakeside town and surrounding areas. Military chief Ano said about 10 foreigners were still in the battle among some 50-60 rebels, who were holding 45-50 hostages. Hapilon was among those still fighting but several of the Maute brothers were likely dead, Ano added, citing information provided by civilians who escaped and some captured rebels. As of Monday, 149 members of government forces had died in combat, along with 47 civilians. More than 670 militants have been killed, according to a military estimate of bodies recovered and targets hit.


The draft bill introduced in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday to steer Puerto Rico through its economic crisis represents a constructive, good-faith effort but could be improved, the White House said on Wednesday. At a daily briefing, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters the bill would benefit from improvements to a mechanism to boost oversight of Puerto Rico's government and by expanding the earned income tax credit. (This story corrects to say improvements to pre-existing mechanism needed, not the bill, in paragraph 2)


Tax-policy writers in the U.S. House of Representatives are considering legislation to bring tax relief to businesses and individuals affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the top House lawmaker on tax issues said on Tuesday. Representative Kevin Brady, Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said staff was working with lawmakers from affected states to craft a bill that would help lessen the blow of property losses, facilitate access to retirement savings and encourage charitable giving. He said the committee could act on legislation before Oct 1. "They're really looking at how do we get our small businesses back up and running, how do we get customers to them and how do we help families and communities rebuild," Brady told reporters. In past years, aides say Congress has sought to help disaster victims through a number of tax innovations including special tax credits for low-income housing, tax deferrals on gains from insurance payments and special refunds on tax filings from past years. Irma has caused widespread damage in Florida, weeks after Harvey inundated Houston and southeast Texas with record flooding last month.


Any tax reform plan that includes a border adjustment tax would likely not pass the U.S. Senate, its Republican Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday. McConnell added that any tax plan would also have to be revenue neutral.


The prime ministers of Bulgaria, Greece and Romania gave their support to their Balkan neighbor Serbia s bid to join the European Union on Tuesday, saying the integration of the western Balkans would guarantee regional peace and stability. Serbia, which in the 1990s was seen as pariah of Western Balkans for its central role in wars that followed the collapse of Yugoslavia, expects to complete negotiations on EU membership by 2019. All of us know that the natural place of Serbia is in the European Union, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said after a four-party summit in the Black Sea city of Varna with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose and Serbian President Alexander Vucic. Borissov said that the three EU members would work to speed up the process to the advantage of peace and stability in the Balkans and Europe generally. Bulgaria takes over the rotating six-month EU presidency in January while Romania will take over in 2019. Many Serbs, however, remain skeptical about joining the bloc and view Western European countries as outspoken advocates of the 1999 NATO bombing to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians in the former province of Kosovo, in which thousands of civilians had been killed. Vucic accused the European Union of using double standards by refusing to accept the Catalan independence referendum while largely welcoming a separate Kosovo. We support Spain, it is our friendly country, said Vucic. But the European Commission responded in a different way (over Kosovo) and it was against my people and my state. Kosovo s declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 was accepted by Washington and most EU states, but rejected by Belgrade and its allies. Kosovo gained independence without even holding a referendum but Catalonia ... cannot get anything like that, Vucic said. Sometimes, we, the Serbs, are asking ourselves why we should have been the victim of double standards? Serbia s position on Kosovo has been one of the main stumbling blocks in its own bid to join the European Union. Brussels has said it needs to improve relations with the authorities in Pristina and stop trying to block their efforts to join international bodies.


I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails instead of two. Just the kind of person we need running our country a lying, corrupt and crooked woman; who feels she deserves the highest office in our nation because she comes equipped with the proper genitalia Any woman (or man) who supports this common criminal should be hanging their head in shame:


Dakota Access Pipeline: More Than 100 Arrested as Protesters Ousted From Camp 11/01/2016  NBC NEWS  Authorities used pepper spray and fired bean bags at activists demonstrating against a controversial North Dakota oil pipeline as the standoff there reached a new peak Thursday, according to officials.  Armed soldiers and police in riot gear removed the demonstrators using trucks, military Humvees, and buses Thursday afternoon, according to The Associated Press. Two helicopters and an airplane scanned the operation from the air.  At least 141 protesters were arrested as of midnight Thursday (1 a.m. ET) after law enforcement slowly closed in and tensions escalated, the Morton County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.  Seven protesters used "sleeping dragon" devices, which typically involve PVC or other pipe, to attach themselves to items, and fires were set on a highway and improvised fire bombs were thrown at law enforcement, the Morton County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.  One woman allegedly fired three shots from a revolver at police, an emergency services official said. No one was hit.  The chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe criticized law enforcement's "militarized" response to the camp and called for demonstrations to remain peaceful, but stressed that activists would not give up their cause.  "Militarized law enforcement agencies moved in on water protectors with tanks and riot gear today. We continue to pray for peace," Dave Archambault II said in a statement Thursday evening.  "We won't step down from this fight," he added. "As peoples of this earth, we all need water. This is about our water, our rights, and our dignity as human beings."  Archambault also called on activists to "remain in peace and prayer.""Any act of violence hurts our case and is not welcome here," he said.  Law enforcement were holding a line north of the Backwater Bridge early Friday morning, the sheriff's department.  A woman who was being arrested pulled a .38 caliber revolver and fired three shots at law enforcement, "narrowly missing a sheriff's deputy," North Dakota State Emergency Services Spokeswoman Cecily Fong told NBC News. The woman was taken into custody and no shots were fired by law enforcement, she said.  The protesters were ousted from the camp that authorities said was on private property in the path of the pipeline late Thursday afternoon, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier told the AP.  The sheriff said that while the camp was secure, officers were still dealing with protesters in the surrounding area, according to the AP. Kirchmeier added that authorities would maintain a presence in the area for the time being to keep protesters off the land. Fong confirmed to NBC News that the camp was cleared.  Protesters allegedly started two fires on the Backwater Bridge protest site and threw Molotov cocktails at law enforcement Thursday night, Fong said.  About 250 protesters had gathered at the camp and another 80 demonstrators with a dozen horses were at the site of a county road, according to a statement from the Morton County Sheriff's Department.  Protesters on horseback galloped toward the law enforcement line before wheeling around and some had begun throwing objects at the officers, Fong said. Demonstrators also allegedly set four DAPL construction vehicles ablaze, Fong said Thursday evening.  "They've definitely escalated, they're throwing rocks and debris," she said. A handful of officers suffered minor injuries, she said.  Officers fired bean bag rounds and used pepper spray on protesters, Fong said.  Authorities also used a long-range acoustic device with a high-pitched tone to disperse the protesters, who set tires on fire on the highway Thursday afternoon, according to a post on the Morton County Sheriff's Department Facebook page . Demonstrators stand next to burning tires as armed soldiers and law enforcement officers assemble on Oct. 27, 2016, to force Dakota Access pipeline protesters off private land where they had camped to block construction. The pipeline is to carry oil from western North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Ill. Mike McCleary / The Bismarck Tribune via AP  The department said they repeatedly told the demonstrators they were "free to go," asking them to move to a separate camp further south and let authorities put out the flames.  The protesters also set an area on fire near a bridge on a county road, according to a statement from the sheriff's department.  The protesters, comprised of a group that includes Native Americans and environmental activists, had been camped on private property since Sunday near the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, near the town of Cannon Ball.  The 1,172-mile pipeline would run within a half-mile of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Opponents of the project say the pipeline could adversely impact drinking water and would disturb sacred burial sites.  Hundreds of protesters from Standing Rock and other tribes have set up camp for months in protest a few miles away from where Thursday's confrontation occurred, close to where the Missouri and Cannonball rivers meet.  Thursday's incident came less than a week after more than 80 people were arrested and authorities used pepper spray on demonstrators. The arrests came during a five-hour conflict with police and around 300 protesters, some of whom stubbornly parked cars on the highway near the camp to block authorities from reaching them, according to the AP. They also set a small fire at one of two blockades they set up on the highway.  The majority of the protesters were retreating from the area of confrontation on the highway outside the camp, but had not fully left the area of private land, according to the AP. About 200 protesters remained in the area, listening to tribal elders speak and praying as authorities continued to approach. Play  Authorities used pepper spray and fired bean bags at activists demonstrating against a controversial North Dakota oil pipeline as the standoff there reached a new peak Thursday, according to officials.  Armed soldiers and police in riot gear removed the demonstrators using trucks, military Humvees, and buses Thursday afternoon, according to The Associated Press. Two helicopters and an airplane scanned the operation from the air.  At least 141 protesters were arrested as of midnight Thursday (1 a.m. ET) after law enforcement slowly closed in and tensions escalated, the Morton County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.  Seven protesters used "sleeping dragon" devices, which typically involve PVC or other pipe, to attach themselves to items, and fires were set on a highway and improvised fire bombs were thrown at law enforcement, the Morton County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.  One woman allegedly fired three shots from a revolver at police, an emergency services official said. No one was hit.  The chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe criticized law enforcement's "militarized" response to the camp and called for demonstrations to remain peaceful, but stressed that activists would not give up their cause.  "Militarized law enforcement agencies moved in on water protectors with tanks and riot gear today. We continue to pray for peace," Dave Archambault II said in a statement Thursday evening.  "We won't step down from this fight," he added. "As peoples of this earth, we all need water. This is about our water, our rights, and our dignity as human beings."  Archambault also called on activists to "remain in peace and prayer.""Any act of violence hurts our case and is not welcome here," he said.  Law enforcement were holding a line north of the Backwater Bridge early Friday morning, the sheriff's department.  A woman who was being arrested pulled a .38 caliber revolver and fired three shots at law enforcement, "narrowly missing a sheriff's deputy," North Dakota State Emergency Services Spokeswoman Cecily Fong told NBC News. The woman was taken into custody and no shots were fired by law enforcement, she said.  The protesters were ousted from the camp that authorities said was on private property in the path of the pipeline late Thursday afternoon, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier told the AP.  The sheriff said that while the camp was secure, officers were still dealing with protesters in the surrounding area, according to the AP. Kirchmeier added that authorities would maintain a presence in the area for the time being to keep protesters off the land. Fong confirmed to NBC News that the camp was cleared. Play  Protesters allegedly started two fires on the Backwater Bridge protest site and threw Molotov cocktails at law enforcement Thursday night, Fong said.  About 250 protesters had gathered at the camp and another 80 demonstrators with a dozen horses were at the site of a county road, according to a statement from the Morton County Sheriff's Department.  Protesters on horseback galloped toward the law enforcement line before wheeling around and some had begun throwing objects at the officers, Fong said. Demonstrators also allegedly set four DAPL construction vehicles ablaze, Fong said Thursday evening.  "They've definitely escalated, they're throwing rocks and debris," she said. A handful of officers suffered minor injuries, she said.  Officers fired bean bag rounds and used pepper spray on protesters, Fong said.  Authorities also used a long-range acoustic device with a high-pitched tone to disperse the protesters, who set tires on fire on the highway Thursday afternoon, according to a post on the Morton County Sheriff's Department Facebook page . Demonstrators stand next to burning tires as armed soldiers and law enforcement officers assemble on Oct. 27, 2016, to force Dakota Access pipeline protesters off private land where they had camped to block construction. The pipeline is to carry oil from western North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Ill. Mike McCleary / The Bismarck Tribune via AP  The department said they repeatedly told the demonstrators they were "free to go," asking them to move to a separate camp further south and let authorities put out the flames.  The protesters also set an area on fire near a bridge on a county road, according to a statement from the sheriff's department.  The protesters, comprised of a group that includes Native Americans and environmental activists, had been camped on private property since Sunday near the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, near the town of Cannon Ball.  The 1,172-mile pipeline would run within a half-mile of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Opponents of the project say the pipeline could adversely impact drinking water and would disturb sacred burial sites.  Hundreds of protesters from Standing Rock and other tribes have set up camp for months in protest a few miles away from where Thursday's confrontation occurred, close to where the Missouri and Cannonball rivers meet.  Thursday's incident came less than a week after more than 80 people were arrested and authorities used pepper spray on demonstrators. The arrests came during a five-hour conflict with police and around 300 protesters, some of whom stubbornly parked cars on the highway near the camp to block authorities from reaching them, according to the AP. They also set a small fire at one of two blockades they set up on the highway.  The majority of the protesters were retreating from the area of confrontation on the highway outside the camp, but had not fully left the area of private land, according to the AP. About 200 protesters remained in the area, listening to tribal elders speak and praying as authorities continued to approach. Play  Law enforcement officials began taking steps to remove roadblocks and protesters of the Dakota Access Pipeline near Highway 1806 at around 11:15 a.m. local time (12:15 p.m. ET), Kirchmeier said in a statement.  "Protesters' escalated unlawful behavior this weekend by setting up illegal roadblocks, trespassing onto private property and establishing an encampment, has forced law enforcement to respond at this time," he said in the statement.  "I can't stress it enough, this is a public safety issue," the sheriff said. "We cannot have protesters blocking county roads, blocking state highways, or trespassing on private property."  The protesters had created a camp in the pipeline's path on private property known as the Cannonball Ranch on the side of the highway and set up the roadblocks along on Sunday, according to the statement.  Highway 1806 remained closed Thursday between Fort Rice and Cannonball, according to the sheriff department's statement. Various counties, cities, state agencies and out-of-state law enforcement were helping the Morton County Sheriff's Department, the statement said.  Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign weighed in on the protests Thursday evening.  "From the beginning of this campaign, Secretary Clinton has been clear that she thinks all voices should be heard and all views considered in federal infrastructure projects," Spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement.  "Now, all of the parties involved — including the federal government, the pipeline company and contractors, the state of North Dakota, and the tribes — need to find a path forward that serves the broadest public interest," Hinojosa said. "As that happens, it's important that on the ground in North Dakota, everyone respects demonstrators' rights to protest peacefully, and workers' rights to do their jobs safely."  Protest camp coordinator Mekasi Horinek told NBC affiliate KFYR on Wednesday that the protesters had no plans of leaving their encampment.  "We don't have any plans on retreating. If they're going to come in here and they're going to arrest one of us, they're going to arrest every one of us," Horinek said. "We're going to stand in unity, we're going to stand in prayer, we're going to stand in peace."  Standing Rock Sioux Tribe chairman Dave Archambault II told NBC News on Sunday the tribe had asked the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene in the escalating situation with law enforcement.  "The DOJ should be enlisted and expected to investigate the overwhelming reports and videos demonstrating clear strong-arm tactics, abuses and unlawful arrests by law enforcement," Chairman Dave Archambault II said.


Chip Somodevilla The Wildfire is an opinion platform and any opinions or information put forth by contributors are exclusive to them and do not represent the views of IJR.  Hillary Clinton advisers Cheryl Mills and Robbie Mook provide one of the most revealing looks inside the campaign yet, courtesy of a WikiLeaks hacked email.  In the email , Robbie Mooks argues that Hillary Clinton would be making a mistake to run on her gender as an argument for her suitability to be president:  "In fact, I think running on her gender would be the SAME mistake as 2008, ie having a message at odds with what voters ultimately want. She ran on experience when voters wanted change...and sure there was plenty of data in marks polls with voters saying her experience appealed to them. But that was missing the larger point—voters wanted change.  Same deal here—lots of people are going to say it would be neat for a woman to be president but that doesn't mean that's actually WHY they will vote for her. That's likely to be how she will handle the economy and relate to the middle class.  It's also risky because injecting gender makes her candidacy about HER and not the voters and making their lives better.  That said I would not be surprised if this is a powerful message for donor and activist engagement (vs persuadable voters)." Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Getty Images  Then, Mills responds:  Interesting how hard this narrative is being pushed.  A friend shared this article with you from The Washington Post:  Embrace being a woman running for president..  http://wapo.st/1dbwtNo  The link is to a Chris Cillizza article on "How Hillary Clinton can correct the biggest mistake she made in 2008."  But one of the most fascinating tidbits is Mooks' suggestive off-hand reference to getting a "third party spoiler":  "Just need a third party spoiler and we'll be all set!  I think the chatterers will dissect and criticize whatever she chooses to do but it's going to be so important that the research drive it. I often felt in 08 that the research was being used to back up a premise instead of genuinely find the right target."  To which Mills replied cryptically:  "WJC redux of 1992"  WJC is a common acronym for former President William Jefferson Clinton. The reference is to the three-man race in 1992 between George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot. Contrary to what is widely believed, there is fairly convincing evidence that Perot did not "cost" Bush the 1992 election.  Trump supporters have mused if presidential candidates Gary Johnson and independent Evan McMullin are in the 2016 race for the sole purpose of sabotaging the Republican presidential nominee. Image Credit: George Frey/Getty Images  Johnson, who is running at about six percent in the polls, is running on the Libertarian Party ticket. For historical context, the Libertarians have sent up a presidential candidate every year for the last 44 years . Libertarians have plenty to disagree about regarding Trump's plan for the United States, whether it be on national security, immigration or trade.  That leads us to Evan McMullin, a man whose name recently caught fire on Twitter due to the so-called " Mormon mafia " started by Mitt Romney. Lou Dobbs, an ardent Trump advocate, coined the phrase while labeling McMullin... — Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) October 23, 2016  McMullin was indeed a Mormon missionary, but reports of him belonging to a "mafia" remain unconfirmed. The candidate was a CIA operative and an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, which has fueled speculation and conspiracy theories about his run.  Interestingly, the candidate is currently surging in Utah and his support may be underestimated . If McMullin could pull off a victory, it would launch an improbable scenario that could see the election thrown to the House of Representatives and an all-out scramble to nominate a president and vice president of the Congress's choosing.  This potential monkey wrench in Trump's plans has fueled outrage and concern among supporters: Team Hillary is all set: Ex-CIA Evan McMullin is the expert covert spoiler. Drink up, #Utah , the Kool-Aid tastes fine! | #RedNationRising pic.twitter.com/nMVR1fqehz — RNR Ohio (@RNROhio) October 27, 2016 Evan McMullin is a tool of the entrenched corrupt DC politicians, this is a spoiler campaign, nothing sincere about it. #ldschurch #mormon


My health insurance company sent my notice for my 2017 health care plan. Guess how much my premium is going up?  EIGHTY PERCENT. Yep. A big fat 80%. Fortunately, my deductible remains at $14,300 (obvious sarc) .  Starting next year, my monthly plan will cost MORE than 50% of my take-home pay.  And I'm not the only one facing this type of an increase.  Remember this at the polls on November 8 th .  DCG


Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez on Wednesday edged ahead of his TV star rival in a contentious vote count that has dragged on for three days. With 81.77 percent of the ballot boxes counted, the election tribunal said both Hernandez and opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla had won 42.17 percent of the vote, though the incumbent had an advantage of 40 votes.


The 'Islamic ' Notre Dame hammer attacker was allegedly radicalised in Sweden and awarded a "Journalist Prize Against Discrimination" by the European Union (EU) for writing articles during his time there. [The Algerian suspected jihadist Farid Ikken, 40, was given the award in 2009 by the European Commission, the EU's unelected executive branch, for a report about asylum seekers claiming healthcare in Sweden, Expressen reports. The "EU Commission's National Journalist Prize Against Discrimination" was awarded to him for an article dealing with "asylum seekers who are not entitled to medical care and who are therefore forced to seek medical care, as well as healthcare staff and others who still provide health care to asylum seekers," the Commission wrote in a statement. Eight years later, this Tuesday, the journalist cried "this is for Syria" while hitting a policeman with a hammer in front of France's most iconic cathedral. The highly educated, jihadi was shot in the chest and is currently recovering in hospital. He also left a video claiming allegiance to the Islamic State group, according to The Times. VIDEO van de aanval met hamer op politieagent nabij de . (LCI) pic. twitter. — Terreur Nieuws (@DreigingNL) June 7, 2017, The future terrorist came to Sweden to study for a master's degree, LIC reports, where he had a Swedish wife before getting a divorce. His nephew, Sofiane Ikken, claims he was radicalised during his time. "I think he started to take an interest in religion during his stay in Sweden," he told a Algerian site. After graduating from university in the Swedish capital Stockholm, he worked as a freelance journalist for various papers and radio stations between 2009 and 2010, when he wrote his article. He then returned to his native Algeria after the 2011 Arab uprising, where he set up a regional news site and worked on Al Watan, a national newspaper, before moving to France in 2013 to study for a PhD. Mr. Ikken regularly wrote about terror and jihad during this time. Describing his work at the Algerian news site, he wrote on his Linkedin profile: "I headed up a small team composed of two permanent journalists, two freelancers and a translator for two years. "My main task was to ensure that the content of our website was updated continuously, and to edit material sent by correspondents or written by journalists. " He added: "The processing of press releases, the call to civil protection services, hospitals, public institutions and institutions, the translation of Arabic and English content and the correction of texts were also part of my duties. "I also assisted in the writing of news articles and the editorial regularly. "


Enough is enough. It s time for Donald Trump to condemn this racist violence or be forced to end his campaign.For the second time in a week, video footage has revealed yet another incident of violent racism at the same Trump rally in North Carolina where an old white redneck sucker-punched a young black protester in the head as he was being escorted out the building by police.78-year-old John McGraw has since been arrested by law enforcement, but now it looks like police are going to have to hunt down and arrest another white racist who assaulted a different black person who, despite not doing anything wrong, was escorted out with other African-American attendees by officers who roughed some of them up for no reason.East Carolina University student Adedayo Adeniyi caught the terrifying experience on his cell phone camera on Wednesday as officers began scuffling with other black people in the stands around him. Hey that s not me, that s them, Adeniyi says on the video in reference to being told he has to leave even though he wasn t even protesting. I don t even know them! The cops, who are white, wrestle one protester to the ground and cuff him before leading him off. As Adeniyi is also led off down the aisle, an old white KKK wannabe tells him Hey, f*ck you, baby, f*ck you! And then physically assaults him by slapping him, and police didn t seem to care about that at all.Here s the video via YouTube.Afterwards, Adeniyi remarked that the incident made him fear for the future of America because it definitely looks like the country is embracing hate and bigotry. These are presidential candidate rallies, he told the New York Daily News. I m not at a KKK rally. The fact that I experienced hate at a candidate rally tells you everything you need to know about Donald Trump and the people that support him. People will act more hateful and racist in environments that they feel not only encouraged to do it, but accept it as normal. The man at the end of the video is a moment I ll never forget. The hate in his eyes. The words. The hate in those words. The slap. It was disgusting and sad. At that moment I believed that America will stay and continue to be a hateful and bigoted country. Donald Trump s rallies are nothing more than glorified white supremacist rallies that are an embarrassment to this nation and those around the world. The fact that any candidate for political office here in 21st century America actually condones and encourages violence and racism against black people is sickening The fact that the police are serving as Trump s own personal guard and are allowing these acts of violence to occur and in some cases even joining in is just as disgusting. This is not the America any of us should want, but it s the one we ll get if people do not vote in November.


Amira al-Qassab and her family flitted from one Iraqi city to another fleeing Islamic State, then waited three years in Beirut until they were cleared to move to the United States. But their plans to fly out last week were derailed after U.S. President Donald Trump froze refugee arrivals. "We were so surprised and unsettled. It was chaos," Amira, 45, said. "I didn't even unpack our clothes." Amira had taken her two youngest children out of school, the others had quit their jobs, and their suitcases had remained packed for weeks before a U.S. judge temporarily suspended the travel ban. As the family left for Michigan on Wednesday lugging 10 suitcases, they hoped to end a long road — still fraught with fear — to resettling as refugees in the United States. "Everything's been ready, we had just been waiting for a phone call. They told us to go to the airport at midnight," Amira said. A federal judge last week blocked Trump's order temporarily barring refugees and nationals from seven mainly Muslim countries, including Iraq and Syria. The ruling opened a brief window for travelers who had been waylaid to rush to the United States while the legal limbo continues. "We're quite afraid President Trump will halt travels again," Amira said as she prepared to board a flight with four of her children, aged 7 to 22. The Trump administration has said the ban would help prevent terrorism but opponents assailed it as unconstitutional. A U.S. federal appeals court heard arguments on Tuesday over whether to restore Trump's order. The case may ultimately reach the U.S. Supreme Court. The ban led to protests across U.S. cities and chaos at airports overseas after visa holders were kept from boarding flights, detained at American airports or denied entry. "We were really happy we would travel" but it was bittersweet, said Amira, whose husband Nizar was denied resettlement to the United States twice. This marked the first time they have been apart since they married nearly 30 years ago and they did not know when or where they would meet again. "I don't know what my fate will be," said Nizar, 52, whose two brothers resettled in Michigan about four years ago. In Beirut, the family lived in a small, dingy apartment in a suburb. Nizar was not able to find a job, he said. Their son, 22, worked at a factory to make rent while their daughter, 18, worked to cover food and living expenses. "We had waited a long time, and our situation here is really bad," he said. "My children don't have a future here. So I was forced to let them go." Last year, the United States set a quota to take in 2,500 refugees of all nationalities living in Lebanon, UNHCR spokeswoman Dana Sleiman said. Trump's order also sought to prioritize refugees fleeing religious persecution, a move he said separately was aimed at helping Christians fleeing the war in Syria. The Qassab family, Iraqi Christians from Mosul, first left their home when unidentified men tried to kidnap Amira at the school where she worked as a janitor. "Daesh came and kicked us out, so we fled further to the north," said Nizar, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. They trekked through Iraq, staying in Erbil and Dohuk, and ended up in Beirut in 2014. "I feared for my wife and children. We sold everything we had and came here," he said. The family had barely gotten some respite from the instability of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq before the threat of Islamic State militants emerged, Nizar said. They no longer cared where they ended up, his wife added, they just wanted to find some peace. "My children are drained. They worked just to pay the rent. We barely made a living," Nizar added. "I can't go to America anymore. I don't know why...I'm parting with my family," said Nizar , bursting into tears. "How am I going to live alone?" The Qassabs' eldest son Rami, 26, had already resettled to Michigan two months earlier to find them all an apartment. "He told us America is beautiful," Amira said. "But it takes some time to settle in."


Ethnic clashes killed 11 people this week in Ethiopia s Oromiya region, a regional government official said on Sunday, the latest unrest in a province that was wracked by violence in 2015 and 2016. Nearly 700 people died last year during one period of the violence in Ethiopia s largest region and other areas, according to a parliament-mandated investigation. The unrest forced the government to impose a nine-month state of emergency that was finally lifted in August. Sporadic protests have taken place since then. Violence broke out this week in two districts in the province s west after protests led to clashes between ethnic Oromos and Amharas, the spokesman for the region s administration said on Sunday. Eight Oromos and three Amharas died, spokesman Addisu Arega Kitessa said in a statement. The previous unrest was provoked by a development scheme for the capital, Addis Ababa, that dissidents said amounted to land grabs. Broader anti-government demonstrations followed, over politics and human rights abuses. The violence included attacks on businesses, many of them foreign-owned, including farms growing flowers for export. Separately, clashes along the border between the country s Oromiya and Somali regions last month also displaced hundreds of thousands of people. The area has been plagued by sporadic violence for decades. A referendum held in 2004 to determine the status of disputed settlements failed to ease tensions. Those clashes have fueled fears about security in Ethiopia, the region s biggest economy and a staunch Western ally.


Senator Dianne Feinstein went on Fox News this Sunday and ripped President Trump a new one.Pointing out the rank hypocrisy over Trump s executive actions and how Republicans treated President Obama, Feinstein called on the president to unite the country. Instead of uniting, Feinstein said, he s splitting it apart even more:You ve got people in the streets here. This president has not brought this nation together. He says he s working for his base. Well, there are a majority of people who are outside of that base. My best advice has been, and I was able to say this to him directly, Please Mr. President, you have to bring this country together. What he s doing is splitting it apart.Currently, the majority of the United States has an unfavorable view of Trump, who set a record for quickest descent into net negative approval ratings over 50 percent. In contrast, it took President Obama almost 1,000 days to reach that point. Trump did it in eight.Feinstein also blasted Trump for his immigration ban, telling Chris Wallace that he is not a dictator and that the Supreme Court will ultimately decide if his executive action is unconstitutional.Similarly, the majority of Americans are sharply disapproving of his immigration executive order, and his handling of terrorism, national security, and immigrant, all key tenets to his 2016 campaign.The most shocking statistic comes from Public Policy Polling, which found 40 percent of the American public wants to impeach President Trump. That number is up 5 points from a similar question asked just a week ago. In comparison, it took 16 months after Watergate for the American public to reach that number in support of Nixon s resignation. Trump s done it in two weeks.Not surprisingly, 88-92 percent of Republicans support of the job President Trump is doing. Only 7-10 percent of Democrats believe so. And every major poll has shown independent voters to be sharply divided, with all polls tilting negative.Senator Feinstein is right: President Trump is splitting this country apart all to appease the small minority who voted for him. All his promises of being the president who bridges the two Americas has completely fallen flat.


It s no secret that the comedic host of HBO s Real Time, Bill Maher, is no fan of religion. In fact, it s safe to say that he really pretty much hates the practice. He is one of America s most outspoken celebrity atheists, and Friday night s edition of his show saw him once again ripping religion for the amusement of his largely secular audience. What Maher had to say this time, though, wasn t just making fun of people who believe in god(s). He actually called for the Internal Revenue Service to make these institutions pay taxes.During his New Rules segment, Maher began: Why, in heaven s name, don t we tax religion? A sexist, homophobic magic act that s been used to justify everything from genital mutilation to genocide. You want to raise the tax on tobacco so kids don t get cancer, OK. But let s put one on Sunday school so they don t get stupid. Maher went on to say that the fact these churches owned billions in property got him, quote, hopping mad. He also pointed out something that likely has most religious people either panicking or in complete denial: religious belief is largely on the decline in the United States, which is traditionally seen as the most religious country in the developed western world. In fact, the youngest generation of Americans Millennials largely not only aren t actively religious, but they are uncomfortable with most mainstream religion, mostly due to the homophobia, misogyny, and other harmful ideas and practices therein.Maher continued on his rant: Almost a quarter of us are being forced to subsidize a myth that we re not buying into. Why am I subsidizing their Sunday morning hobby? They don t subsidize mine. After that brilliant closer, Maher flashed a photo of himself getting high with a friend on what is presumably one Sunday morning.The thing is, Bill Maher is right. We shouldn t be subsidizing churches. These people push all kinds of horrible things, including lobbying, at least indirectly, to enshrine bigotry into law against people they believe to be sinners. Our tax dollars should not be spent to uphold religion. People can believe what they like, but the rest of us shouldn t be paying for it.Thank you, Mr. Maher, for another hilariously brilliant and oh so true monologue on the truth about the tax-free status of America s religious institutions.Watch the video below, via Raw Story:https://youtu.be/Mw8MLub4siU


It could take years to learn how long men infected with Zika are capable of sexually transmitting the virus, which can cause crippling birth defects and other serious neurological disorders. In the meantime, health officials have warned couples to refrain from unprotected sex for six months after a male partner is infected. The extraordinary recommendation, based on a single report of Zika surviving 62 days in semen, could affect millions. The grave risks associated with Zika, along with its potential reach, are driving U.S. health authorities to pursue research even though funding is mired in Congressional gridlock. A study of sexual transmission risk is one example of science that health officials said can't wait for politics. Borrowing money earmarked for other programs, the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has started enrolling men infected with Zika in Brazil and Colombia in the study to determine how long the virus remains transmittable in semen. The study could take years to complete, but interim results could help public health officials fine-tune their recommendations on sex. "We are going out on a limb, but we have to," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. institute, said in an interview. "We can't say we're going to wait until we get all the money." Public health officials are alarmed by Zika's transmission versatility, which has the potential to expand its reach. It is primarily spread by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, as are the dengue and chikungunya viruses. But at least 10 countries, including the United States and France, have reported Zika infections in people who had not traveled to an outbreak area but whose sexual partners had. This ability to spread through sex could help Zika gain a further foothold outside the warm habitats of its most effective agent, the mosquito. To protect women who are pregnant or trying to conceive, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended couples refrain from unprotected sex for six months - triple the 62 days the virus survived in the semen in one British case study. The World Health Organization recently issued similar guidance. But such strict advice is not ideal, Dr. Anne Schuchat, a CDC deputy director, said in an interview. "To tell people not to have sex until we get back to you is not a very satisfying recommendation," she said. "We would like to have some more understanding of the sexual risk." In the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, where more than 2,100 cases of infection have been reported since the start of the year, health officials are passing out Zika protection kits that include bug spray and condoms, along with the recommendation. But the warning against unprotected sex isn't going over very well, said Dr. Chris Prue, a CDC behavioral scientist who has studied the response. "Condoms are not popular in a lot places," she said. "There's religious and personal preferences and lots of personal factors in that." U.S. lawmakers deadlocked over funding to fight the Zika virus on Tuesday, as Senate Democrats blocked a Republican proposal they said fell short of the challenge posed by the virus and hurt other health priorities. It was unclear when Congress would revisit the request by President Barack Obama for $1.9 billion. In the meantime, the White House has diverted more than $500 million earmarked for other projects for urgent Zika initiatives, including those where scientific opportunities will be lost if not acted upon immediately. One such study will follow children born to women infected with Zika to identify the development of any disabilities not detected at birth. Other projects on the priority list include vaccine development and mosquito eradication. One study underway will assess whether the risk of transmission is greater from men who experience Zika infection symptoms, such as fever and rash, than from those who don't. This information is considered vital since most people experience no symptoms. The study of infected men in Brazil and Colombia will test semen from thousands of men over time to determine how long Zika poses a risk to sexual partners. As long the virus can be grown in a laboratory from semen cell samples, infectious disease experts believe it is potentially contagious. Zika typically clears the bloodstream about a week after infection, but it has been detected in urine for at least twice as long. Its persistence in semen in the British case study has caused some researchers to draw comparisons to other viruses. HIV can last in blood and semen indefinitely, and the mosquito-borne West Nile virus can reside in the kidneys and urine for years, researchers said. One patient who survived the deadly Ebola outbreak had evidence of that virus in his semen for 18 months. "We got very surprised by Ebola that it was hanging around for so long," said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. "One of the big questions we have to ask is does Zika also cause a similar type of latency?"


Final results in last weekend s banned Catalan referendum on independence from Spain showed yes votes winning 90.18 percent of votes cast against 7.83 percent of no votes, the Catalan regional government said. The Catalan government put voter turnout at nearly 2.3 million people, or around 43 percent of registered voters. The referendum was declared illegal by the Spanish government and courts. Catalans who favor remaining part of Spain mainly boycotted the ballot and many polling stations were closed.


For much of the summer, the F. B. I. pursued a widening investigation into a Russian role in the American presidential campaign. Agents scrutinized advisers close to Donald J. Trump, looked for financial connections with Russian financial figures, searched for those involved in hacking the computers of Democrats, and even chased a lead — which they ultimately came to doubt — about a possible secret channel of email communication from the Trump Organization to a Russian bank. Law enforcement officials say that none of the investigations so far have found any conclusive or direct link between Mr. Trump and the Russian government. And even the hacking into Democratic emails, F. B. I. and intelligence officials now believe, was aimed at disrupting the presidential election rather than electing Mr. Trump. Hillary Clinton's supporters, angry over what they regard as a lack of scrutiny of Mr. Trump by law enforcement officials, pushed for these investigations. In recent days they have also demanded that James B. Comey, the director of the F. B. I. discuss them publicly, as he did last week when he announced that a new batch of emails possibly connected to Mrs. Clinton had been discovered. Supporters of Mrs. Clinton have argued that Mr. Trump's evident affinity for Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin — Mr. Trump has called him a great leader and echoed his policies toward NATO, Ukraine and the war in Syria — and the hacks of leading Democrats like John D. Podesta, the chairman of the Clinton campaign, are clear indications that Russia has taken sides in the presidential race and that voters should know what the F. B. I. has found. The F. B. I. 's inquiries into Russia's possible role continue, as does the investigation into the emails involving Mrs. Clinton's top aide, Huma Abedin, on a computer she shared with her estranged husband, Anthony D. Weiner. Mrs. Clinton's supporters argue that voters have as much right to know what the F. B. I. has found in Mr. Trump's case, even if the findings are not yet conclusive. "You do not hear the director talking about any other investigation he is involved in," Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Democrat of New York, said after Mr. Comey's letter to Congress was made public. "Is he investigating the Trump Foundation? Is he looking into the Russians hacking into all of our emails? Is he looking into and deciding what is going on with regards to other allegations of the Trump Organization?" Mr. Comey would not even confirm the existence of any investigation of Mr. Trump's aides when asked during an appearance in September before Congress. In the Obama administration's internal deliberations over identifying the Russians as the source of the hacks, Mr. Comey also argued against doing so and succeeded in keeping the F. B. I. 's imprimatur off the formal findings, a law enforcement official said. His stance was first reported by CNBC. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the minority leader, responded angrily on Sunday with a letter accusing the F. B. I. of not being forthcoming about Mr. Trump's alleged ties with Moscow. "It has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisers, and the Russian government — a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States, which Trump praises at every opportunity," Mr. Reid wrote. "The public has a right to know this information. " F. B. I. officials declined to comment on Monday. Intelligence officials have said in interviews over the last six weeks that apparent connections between some of Mr. Trump's aides and Moscow originally compelled them to open a broad investigation into possible links between the Russian government and the Republican presidential candidate. Still, they have said that Mr. Trump himself has not become a target. And no evidence has emerged that would link him or anyone else in his business or political circle directly to Russia's election operations. At least one part of the investigation has involved Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump's campaign chairman for much of the year. Mr. Manafort, a veteran Republican political strategist, has had extensive business ties in Russia and other former Soviet states, especially Ukraine, where he served as an adviser to that country's ousted president, Viktor F. Yanukovych. But the focus in that case was on Mr. Manafort's ties with a kleptocratic government in Ukraine — and whether he had declared the income in the United States — and not necessarily on any Russian influence over Mr. Trump's campaign, one official said. In classified sessions in August and September, intelligence officials also briefed congressional leaders on the possibility of financial ties between Russians and people connected to Mr. Trump. They focused particular attention on what cyberexperts said appeared to be a mysterious computer back channel between the Trump Organization and the Alfa Bank, which is one of Russia's biggest banks and whose owners have longstanding ties to Mr. Putin. F. B. I. officials spent weeks examining computer data showing an odd stream of activity to a Trump Organization server and Alfa Bank. Computer logs obtained by The New York Times show that two servers at Alfa Bank sent more than 2, 700 " " messages — a first step for one system's computers to talk to another — to a server beginning in the spring. But the F. B. I. ultimately concluded that there could be an innocuous explanation, like a marketing email or spam, for the computer contacts. The most serious part of the F. B. I. 's investigation has focused on the computer hacks that the Obama administration now formally blames on Russia. That investigation also involves numerous officials from the intelligence agencies. Investigators, the officials said, have become increasingly confident, based on the evidence they have uncovered, that Russia's direct goal is not to support the election of Mr. Trump, as many Democrats have asserted, but rather to disrupt the integrity of the political system and undermine America's standing in the world more broadly. The hacking, they said, reflected an intensification of operations that never entirely abated after the Cold War but that have become more aggressive in recent years as relations with Mr. Putin's Russia have soured. A senior intelligence official, who like the others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a continuing national security investigation, said the Russians had become adept at exploiting computer vulnerabilities created by the relative openness of and reliance on the internet. Election officials in several states have reported what appeared to be cyberintrusions from Russia, and while many doubt that an Election Day hack could alter the outcome of the election, the F. B. I. agencies across the government are on alert for potential disruptions that could wreak havoc with the voting process itself. "It isn't about the election," a second senior official said, referring to the aims of Russia's interference. "It's about a threat to democracy. " The investigation has treated it as a counterintelligence operation as much as a criminal one, though agents are also focusing on whether anyone in the United States was involved. The officials declined to discuss any individual targets of the investigation, even when assured of anonymity. As has been the case with the investigation into Mrs. Clinton, the F. B. I. has come under intense partisan political pressure — something the bureau's leaders have long sought to avoid. Supporters of both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump have been equally impassioned in calling for investigations — and even in providing leads for investigators to follow. Mr. Reid, in a letter to Mr. Comey in August, asserted that Mr. Trump's campaign "has employed a number of individuals with significant and disturbing ties to the Russia and the Kremlin. " Although Mr. Reid cited no evidence and offered no names explicitly, he clearly referred to one of Mr. Trump's earlier campaign advisers, Carter Page. Mr. Page, a former Merrill Lynch banker who founded an investment company in New York, Global Energy Capital, drew attention during the summer for a speech in which he criticized the United States and other Western nations for a "hypocritical focus on ideas such as democratization, inequality, corruption and regime change" in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union. Mr. Page responded with his own letter to Mr. Comey, denying wrongdoing and calling Mr. Reid's accusations "a witch hunt. " In an interview, he said that he had never been contacted by the F. B. I. and that the accusations were baseless and purely partisan because of his policy views on Russia. "These people really seem to be grasping at straws," he said. Democrats have also accused another Republican strategist and Trump confidant, Roger Stone, of being a conduit between the Russian hackers and WikiLeaks, which has published the emails of the Democratic National Committee and Mr. Podesta, the Clinton campaign manager. Mr. Stone boasted of having contacts with the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, and appeared to predict the hacking of Mr. Podesta's account, though he later denied having any prior knowledge. Mr. Stone derided the accusations and those raised by Michael J. Morell, a former C. I. A. director and a Clinton supporter, who has called Mr. Trump "an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation. " In an article on the conservative news site Breitbart, Mr. Stone denied having links to Russians and called the accusations "the new McCarthyism. "


One would think that conservatives would have figured out by now that they can t get people to turn out for their marches and protests. That seems to be especially true with Trump in office. So many more people are against him than for him, yet these delusional Trumpkins still think they re some kind of majority in this country.Witness their enthusiasm for today s March 4 Trump. It was supposed to be a counter to the Women s March on Washington that happened all over the world the day after Trump s inauguration. The Women s March drew well more than two million people just in the U.S. The March 4 Trump must have been overwhelming then, given all that support Trump and his loyal subjects think they have.And overwhelming these marches were, in their own way the lack of support they showed for Trump is actually what was overwhelming. Most of these protests drew dozens, rather than the thousands they seemed to think they were going to get. For instance, in Orlando, roughly 200 people showed up, compared to the 5,000 that showed up in January for the Women s March.Denver had just dozens, where 145,000 had marched in January. In our nation s capital, Trumpers were hoping that they could draw more than half a million, which would rival the Women s March there. They drew a few thousand at best, despite Trump s claim that marches for him would be the biggest marches of all:Here at the yuge rally for Trump at the White House pic.twitter.com/aJ5gcMicyr Brian Tashman (@briantashman) March 4, 2017The #TrumpTrain is in town and standing strong for @POTUS.I will be articulating the case for #Trump shortly, friends.#March4Trump pic.twitter.com/zdH682s7Vk Michael Johns (@michaeljohns) March 4, 2017Here s the march at Trump Tower in New York City:Literally the March 4 Trump pic.twitter.com/Of8vChB8NQ Eric Grant (@ericgrant) March 4, 2017Small crowd at the March 4 Trump. pic.twitter.com/LxPMcYtBO3 Eric Grant (@ericgrant) March 4, 2017Crowds were just as pathetic elsewhere, too:#March4Trump draws about 200 people to Voinovich Park, plus about 100 counter protestors pic.twitter.com/Jfq3GL05ar Kabir Bhatia (@KabirBhatiaTime) March 4, 2017#NoMorein614 march in Columbus, OH. #BlackLivesMatter #NoBanBoWall #organizeCBUS #JaronThomas @614Unity @soit_goes @marymad @OhioPJP pic.twitter.com/du1EdboKfd SURJ Columbus (@SURJColumbusOH) March 4, 2017At #March4Trump rally in Springfield,IL pic.twitter.com/WFvZLkSn25 James B (@JebLadat) March 4, 2017We are live from Denver where black bloc is confronting March 4 Trump DPD ready with police tape line https://t.co/RxJlYm2jkM pic.twitter.com/2817ZMkUq4 Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) March 4, 2017A better view of just how empty the Plaza is for this pro-Trump rally. Sad! pic.twitter.com/Ji78hNXJBD Cari Wade Gervin (@carigervin) March 4, 2017This is embarrassing for them. Trump supporters keep trying to tell the resistance to get over it, and give up, and ultimately call us treasonous for daring to oppose a dangerous orange despot in the White House. If they truly had the love and support they think, their protests would blow anti-Trump protests out of the water every time. Doesn t look like we re the ones who need to get over anything.