Ireland needs Britain to provide significantly more clarity on its plans for the Irish border, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Thursday, denting hopes that London was on the verge of a deal to move on to the second phase of Brexit talks. But British Prime Minister Theresa May s room to offer additional concessions to Dublin appeared extremely limited as the Northern Ireland party propping up her government hinted it might withdraw its support if she gives too much. Avoiding a so-called hard border on the island of Ireland is the last major hurdle before Brexit talks can move to negotiations on Britain s future trade relationship with the EU and a possible two-year Brexit transition deal. A mis-step by May could bring down the British government or spook British businesses fearful of a cliff-edge Brexit without a transition deal. We are looking for significantly more clarity than we currently have from the British negotiating team, Coveney told parliament in Dublin, adding that constructive ambiguity from Britain would not suffice. Hopefully we will make progress that will allow us to move on to Phase 2 in the middle of December, he said. If it is not possible to do that, so be it. Britain in the coming days needs to demonstrate sufficient progress on three key EU conditions a financial settlement, rights of expatriate citizens and the Irish border for leaders to give a green light to trade talks at a summit on Dec. 14-15. With significant progress on the financial settlement and citizen rights, a deal on the Irish border would pave the way for Brussels to offer British Prime Minister Theresa May a transition deal as early as January. Britain s Times newspaper, without citing a source, said London was close to a deal after a proposal to devolve more powers to the government of its province of Northern Ireland so that it could ensure regulations there did not diverge from the EU rules in place south of the border across the island. The border between EU-member Ireland and the British region of Northern Ireland will be the UK s only land frontier with the bloc after Brexit, and Dublin fears a hard border could disrupt 20 years of delicate peace in Northern Ireland. Ireland has called on Britain to provide details of how it will ensure there is no regulatory divergence after Brexit in March 2019 that would require physical border infrastructure. But any attempt at a solution will have to convince Northern Ireland s pro-Brexit Democratic Unionist Party, whose 10 members of parliament are propping up May s government. The party ratcheted up the pressure on Thursday by suggesting it might withdraw its support for May s government. If there is any hint that in order to placate Dublin and the EU they re prepared to have Northern Ireland treated differently to the rest of the United Kingdom, then they can t rely on our vote, DUP member of parliament Sammy Wilson said in an interview with the BBC. European Council President Donald Tusk, who last week set an absolute deadline of Monday for May to demonstrate sufficient progress on the three issues, is due to fly to Dublin on Friday for talks with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in a bid to break the deadlock. May will then hold talks in Brussels on Monday with EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker and his chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, and will hope to secure a green light to trade talks at a summit on Dec. 14-15. Barnier said on Wednesday the summit would be able to discuss a transition period and that the EU would define a framework next year of the new partnership with Britain that would follow the transition. May has insisted she wants any new offers to be met with simultaneous assurances from the EU that it will maintain the open trading relationship which businesses are demanding to know soon if they are to maintain investment levels in Britain.


Florida s insurance and reinsurance market is well equipped to handle hurricane losses, but Irma could strain the state s coverage market depending on the extent it makes landfall in Florida, according to rating agencies. Irma, the second major hurricane to approach the United States in two weeks, is expected to make landfall in south Florida on Sunday morning. Fitch said if the storm were to produce insured losses greater than $75 billion, some Florida insurers and reinsurers could experience notable financial strain . Irma hit the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Friday, heading for Cuba and the Bahamas. The projected path and severity of Irma creates the potential for economic and insured losses to significantly exceed those experienced in Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Fitch said. Strong capitalization of the insurance and reinsurance sector will help mitigate the impact of Irma, S&P Global Ratings said.


U.S. Vice President Mike Pence put North Korea on notice on Monday that neither the United States nor South Korea would tolerate further missile or nuclear tests by the reclusive state, with the U.S. attack on Syria showing its resolve. Pence and South Korean acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn expressed disappointment over China's retaliatory actions against South Korea in response to the deployment of U.S. missile defense system THAAD in the South, but reaffirmed their plan to go ahead with its deployment.


They re President Trump s #1 fans and they ve been with him from the start of his campaign. The wildly popular, hilarious and outspoken Diamond and Silk duo have been hitting it out of the park on YouTube with their videos that rely entirely on pro-Trump commentary. They never use vulgarity or threats and their videos are always G-rated (Well, okay, a few of their videos may be PG-13). Apparently supporting the President of the United States now violates YouTube s monetization policies. Their videos have received millions of hits and had such an effect on liberals that Youtube recently made the decision to pull 95% of their revenue.Conservative Trump supporters Lynnette Hardway and Rochelle Richardson of North Carolina, know they re never going to get an invitation to leftist The View show, so, by using a few special effects, Diamond and Silk have decided to make a surprise visit to The View hags and give them a piece of their mind. The result is hilarious!Watch, as Diamond and Silk school Whoopie, Joy Behar and the rest of the liberal hags on The View about who is, and who is not our President, and remind them of what the President s role is and what is expected of Congress.Enjoy:.@DiamondandSilk have been anxious to get Whoopi & the ladies from The View straighten out because they've gotten a lot of stuff twisted. pic.twitter.com/ddkgKcW7yF Diamond and Silk (@DiamondandSilk) September 9, 2017


Catalonia s regional parliament declared independence from Spain on Friday in a disputed vote that is now likely to be declared illegal by Spain s constitutional court. The independence motion was passed in the 135-strong assembly with 70 votes in favor, 10 against and 2 blank ballots, the assembly s speaker said. Lawmakers from the Socialist Party, the People s Party (PP) and Ciudadanos had left the chamber before the vote in protest.


U.S.-backed militias expect to push all Islamic State fighters out of their former Syrian headquarters of Raqqa in less than a month, a Kurdish commander told Reuters on Monday. Under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the militias have hemmed the jihadists into a few districts in the north of the city. The Kurdish and Arab militias pushed into the city in June after fighting for months to encircle it with the help of U.S.-led jets and special forces. As the noose tightens, the reaction of Daesh gets fiercer, said Jihan Sheikh Ahmed, spokeswoman for the Raqqa offensive, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State. In the coming days, the battles will be at their most intense... We expect, under our plan, that we will be able to liberate Raqqa in less than a month. Islamic State has lost much of its territory in Syria this year under separate offensives by the SDF and the Russia-backed Syrian military. Its fighters have fallen back to its last major footholds, the cities and towns in the fertile strip along the Euphrates river downstream of Raqqa. The SDF said last week that, after seizing 80 percent of Raqqa, the battle for the city had entered its final stages. With the Kurdish YPG militia at its forefront, the SDF has closed in from three directions. Islamic State militants put up tough resistance, planting scores of mines around their districts, Ahmed said. SDF forces sought to meet up from several axes to squeeze the Islamic State enclave, said a field commander in the northeast of Raqqa. Shefkar Hemo said his fighters had faced fewer mortar shells and car bombs recently, with the jihadists relying more heavily on snipers. The breach of enemy lines is clear on the ground... Daesh are hiding behind civilians, he said. Another field commander in the city said the latest phase of the battle had proved difficult. SDF officials estimate that 700-1,000 Islamic State fighters are holed up in a pocket in the city. Ahmed said she did not expect them to surrender and the SDF would never allow them passage out. Thousands of civilians remain trapped there too, and Ahmed accused Islamic State snipers of targeting them. Daesh is also entrenched in the National Hospital, which they consider a main position, she said. Our forces besieged the hospital, but were being cautious to avoid damaging it, she said. Earlier this month, Physicians for Human Rights said that poorly-equipped hospital was the last medical facility operating in the city. The New York-based group said intense bombing by the U.S.-led coalition had hit civilian facilities. The coalition says it is careful to avoid civilian casualties during bombing runs in Syria and neighboring Iraq. The caliphate that Islamic State declared in 2014, spanning both countries, lost its de-facto Iraqi capital of Mosul in July when Iraqi forces took the city.


If there s one thing anyone needs to know about the First Family, it s don t f**k with Michelle Obama, and really don t go after her man. Which is a lesson Donald Trump has yet to learn.Responding to the debate and the topic of President Obama s birth certificate where Trump seemed rather proud of himself for Obama revealing it, even though he continued pressing the topic, Michelle Obama struck back.She said: There are those who question and continue to question for the past eight years, whether my husband was even born in this country. And let me say; hurtful, deceitful questions deliberately designed to undermine his presidency. Questions that can not be blamed on others or swept under the rug by an insincere sentence uttered at a press conference. Then, visibly angry and insulted, she says: Let me take a moment. She then continued: But during his time in office, I think Barack has answered this questions with the example he set and the dignity he s shown by going high when they go low. Which is exactly what the Obama s have always done because they are the epitome of class and grace that we should all aspire to be.Watch Michelle go after Trump here: Michelle Obama on birther claims: Pres. Obama showed dignity by going high when they go low https://t.co/vhFCCpkHBa CNN (@CNN) September 28, 2016


Emboldened by the Republican sweep of last week's American elections, members of the Israeli government have called anew for the abandonment of a solution to the conflict with the Palestinians. "The combination of changes in the United States, in Europe and in the region provide Israel with a unique opportunity to reset and rethink everything," Naftali Bennett, Israel's education minister and the leader of the Jewish Home party, told a gathering of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem on Monday. Mr. Bennett, who advocates annexing 60 percent of the occupied West Bank to Israel, exulted on the morning after Donald J. Trump's victory: "The era of a Palestinian state is over. " That sentiment was only amplified when Jason Greenblatt, a lawyer and of the Trump campaign's Israel Advisory Committee, told Israel's Army Radio that Mr. Trump did not consider West Bank settlements to be an obstacle to peace, in a stark reversal of longstanding American policy. Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and other rightist politicians jumped to make hay of the change. Yoav Kish, a Likud member of Parliament, called for the expansion of Israeli sovereignty into the West Bank Meir Turgeman, the chairman of Jerusalem's municipal planning committee, said he would now bring plans for thousands of Jewish homes in the fiercely contested eastern part of the city up for approval. Aryeh Deri, the interior minister, who is hailed Mr. Trump's victory as a miracle, asserting it would lessen the influence of liberal, streams of Judaism popular in America. He added, "We must truly be in Messianic times when everything will turn out favorably for the people of Israel. " Mr. Netanyahu, whose previous three terms in office all coincided with Democratic administrations in the United States, has been more cautious. Adding to his troubles, Israel's Supreme Court on Monday rejected a government request for a delay of the demolition of an illegal West Bank outpost built on privately owned Palestinian land. The demolition is slated for Dec. 25, and the government had argued for the delay in part to temper a potentially violent settler response. On Sunday, a ministerial committee of rightists within the Likud party and the governing coalition approved a contentious bill to retroactively legalize illegal settlement on privately owned Palestinian land. Prompted by the effort to salvage the Amona outpost, it may be a precursor of things to come. Although the camp was promoting the bill long before Mr. Trump's victory, the decision was taken, unusually, over Mr. Netanyahu's vehement objections and despite his exhortations for it to be postponed. Tzipi Livni, a centrist former foreign minister and justice minister who now sits in the Parliamentary opposition, denounced the settlement bill, writing on Twitter that it constitutes "major damage to the rule of law at home, damage to Israel abroad, and primarily conveys a message that might makes right, when faced with a weak prime minister. " Mr. Netanyahu warmly welcomed Mr. Trump's victory, calling him "a true friend" of Israel. But Mr. Netanyahu has also since instructed his ministers and legislators to be discreet, saying the incoming administration should be allowed "to formulate — together with us — its policy Israel and the region through accepted and quiet channels, and not via interviews and statements. " Mr. Netanyahu endorsed the principle of a Palestinian state in 2009, under American pressure and with caveats. Since then, he has tried to balance between world opinion and his constituency by declaring support for a solution based on two states for two peoples without going out of his way to advance it. Israeli analysts point out that the Trump campaign has spread contradictory messages. While many here assume that he will have more pressing priorities than the conflict, Mr. Trump told The Wall Street Journal on Friday that he would like to seal an peace agreement, calling it the "ultimate deal. " Mr. Netanyahu's critics on the right, however, assume a Trump administration will at least give Israel a freer hand in areas like settlement construction. They say Mr. Netanyahu will have to decide which side he is on. Acknowledging that Mr. Trump's positions are not entirely clear, Mr. Bennett, the leader of Jewish Home, said, "We have to say what we want first. " Amit Segal, a political commentator for Israel's popular Channel 2 News, said that during the tenures of Presidents Clinton and Obama, Mr. Netanyahu could "disguise his worldview. " The Obama administration's sharp condemnation of all settlement activity gave Mr. Netanyahu "the ultimate excuse" for not building with abandon in the West Bank, Mr. Segal said in an interview, adding, "I am not sure that the right wing, with its appetite, will be prepared to suffer another few years of that. " Asked what Mr. Netanyahu would probably be rooting for, Israelis who generally reflect the prime minister's thinking said he was unlikely to forswear the solution. "Israel has its own interest in reaching a negotiated solution with its neighbors," said Dore Gold, a longtime Netanyahu adviser who recently resigned from his position as director general of Israel's foreign ministry. "This is not a function of pressure or . Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it clear that this is his goal. " But Mr. Gold suggested that a Trump administration was likely to roll back the demand that Israel withdraw to the 1967 lines and support borders that are more accommodating to Israel. "Trump's policy paper spoke about Israel having defensible borders, which are clearly different from the 1967 lines," he said. Michael B. Oren, a deputy minister in the prime minister's office and a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, told Israel Radio: "We have to ask ourselves what is in Israel's interests. The interest of the Israelis and, in my view, of the government, is indeed to achieve peace with the Palestinians through direct negotiations, without preconditions, at any time, in order to get to a solution of two states for two peoples. " Gilead Sher, an Israeli former peace negotiator under the governments of Ehud Barak and Yitzhak Rabin, noted that although most of the Israeli governments over the past four decades had been "never has one of them annexed one square inch of the West Bank. " Mr. Sher, now a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, is also of Blue White Future, an Israeli group advocating a solution, by unilateral means if necessary. Of the rejoicing on the Israeli right, he said, "Most joyful moments are provisional and temporary. "


George Ciccariello-Maher | November 9, 2016  The final election results are not in, but one thing is crystal clear: Hillary Clinton is a failure. And so is the neoliberal establishment.  Even if she narrowly manages to defeat Donald Trump, she has still lost. Her failure is not individual, however, but a failure of Clintonism, the Democratic Party, and decades of failed economic policies. According to some exit polls, Clinton is losing half of union households and getting routed in a rust belt abandoned by Clintonism: in Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin, a state that she took so much for granted that she didn't make a single campaign stop there .  All this against a racist misogynist with no ground game, hemorrhaging the support of his own party leadership, with far fewer resources and a thousand character flaws and weaknesses to be exploited. All polls show that even many Trump voters doubted his qualifications and character, but they voted for him anyway.  Confronted with this reality, Clintonite liberals have been willfully ignorant, managing to both write poor whites off as racist deplorables while simultaneously underestimating their potential to swing to the Right. Neglecting poor whites, Clintonism holds Black and Latino Americans hostage, offering no solution to police murder and promising more deportations to boot.  The blame game is already in full swing: Democratic apparatchiks are already preparing to blame FBI director James Comey, third party candidates, and it wouldn't be surprising to hear Vladimir Putin's name come up—the Red Scare never gets old. But the ire of a wounded Clintonism will no doubt be directed above all at the Left.  But the liberal establishment and its neoliberal economic policies have failed, and it's time for liberals to own that. The pundits, the talking heads, the press, and the pollsters are admitting that they had no idea what they were talking about and flailing for explanations. Maybe if liberal and conservative elites alike don't have answers, it's time to build a fighting left that can offer real solutions.  The left needs to directly confront the racism that Trump harnessed, but it also needs to better understand what caused the Trump phenomenon to begin with. For all of his flaws, Bernie Sanders did the second, and you don't have to like Sanders to admit that there's no way he would have fucked this up so bad.  But Sanders' failure to capture the Democratic Party was no accident. If Trump wins, the same Democratic Party has been calling him a fascist and would-be dictator will demand that we recognize his legitimacy. They will suddenly discover that, instead of fighting back, they can reach across the aisle and work with this eccentric leader.  But the reality is this: if you really believe that Trump is a fascist, you'd better be prepared to do more than just vote.  George Ciccariello-Maher is an organizer, radical political theorist, and professor at Drexel University. Follow him on Twitter @ciccmaher .


Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen called on the United States on Friday to withdraw Peace Corps volunteers in an escalating row over accusations that U.S. agents conspired with an opposition leader to plot treason. Hun Sen was responding after the U.S. embassy in Phnom Penh issued a travel warning that urged citizens to show caution amid anti-American rhetoric by officials . Are you scaring Cambodians? Hun Sen said of the United States in an address to garment workers at factories which export much of their production to the United States. Are you prepared to invade Cambodia and that s why you told Americans to be careful? It s good if you pull out the Peace Corps, Hun Sen said. The U.S. embassy declined to comment. It has previously dismissed the accusations of collusion with opposition leader Kem Sokha and called for his release. On Friday, the embassy was swearing in 71 new volunteers from the Peace Corps, which sends Americans abroad to help with local projects with the stated goal of promoting mutual understanding. Hun Sen said on Friday that he had ordered an investigation into whether any Americans were involved with Kem Sokha. Opponents of Hun Sen accuse him of arresting Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) leader Kem Sokha and cracking down on independent media and other critics ahead of a general election next year. The evidence presented against Kem Sokha is a video recorded in 2013 in which he discusses a strategy to win power with the help of unspecified Americans. Hun Sen, a close ally of China, has taken a series of measures against U.S. interests this year from ending joint military exercises to expelling a naval aid unit to forcing a U.S.-funded pro-democracy group to leave. On Thursday, Hun Sen said he was suspending cooperation with Washington to find the remains of Americans killed in the Vietnam War. According to the U.S Embassy, more than 500 Peace Corps volunteers have served and worked in Cambodia since 2006, providing English teaching and teacher training as well as community health education. U.S. President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps in 1961 to promote world peace and friendship.


One of Donald Trump s favorite morons you know, the poorly educated as he calls them managed to pick a fight he couldn t win with a 12-year-old boy outside a city council meeting in Huntington Park, California on Tuesday.The boy had just finished speaking to the city council when an angry man wearing a Trump flag asked him if he was an American. I was born here, but I am also half-Mexican, Joseph Moreno replied. Then Mr. MAGA learned that typical talking points he and his exceptionally stupid friends regularly throw at people on Twitter don t work when the target is twelve.Calling the preteen brainwashed, the Trump follower began angrily demanding to know if the boy, who (once again) is twelve, if he can vote in Mexico. So you can vote over there? the man asks. I. Am. Twelve. Years. Old, the kid says, emphasizing every word as though he was talking to a Trump voter (oh, wait, he was). I can t even vote here if I wanted to. Can you vote over there, the man repeated. I can t right now because I m 12, the kid replies.This is just one gem in a treasure trove of stupid, which you can watch below if you need a good laugh:(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));MUST WATCH! love this boy so much! . He gave an amazing speech at the podium at Huntington Park City Council Meeting. Mark my words.. he is a future leader! ?? Posted by Veronica Tomas on Tuesday, June 6, 2017


Turkey s Justice Ministry said on Tuesday it had canceled a planned study visit to the United States due to the widening diplomatic row between the countries over the issuing of visas. Local media earlier reported that U.S. authorities had rejected visa requests from members of the delegation, but the Justice Ministry said it had taken the initiative and canceled the trip. Due to the recent visa crisis between the two countries, the visit was canceled by our Ministry, it said in a statement, adding that there were no visa applications to be rejected. The delegation had planned a study visit to the United States, at the invitation of U.S. authorities, between Oct. 29 and Nov. 4, the ministry said. The pro-government Daily Sabah newspaper said the delegation had planned to study the U.S. penal system and visit American prisons. Washington this month stopped issuing visas at its missions in Turkey, citing safety concerns for its staff following the arrest of two U.S. consular staff, both Turkish nationals. The crisis has weighed on the lira currency and alarmed some investors. On Tuesday, a group of leading Turkish and U.S. businesses urged both governments to resolve the dispute. In May, a translator at the U.S. consulate in the southern province of Adana was arrested and, more recently, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) worker was detained in Istanbul. Both are accused of links to last year failed coup. The U.S. embassy has said the accusations are baseless. Turkish police want to question a third worker based in Istanbul. His wife and daughter were detained over alleged links to the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for orchestrating the abortive putsch. They were later released. Turkey has been angered by what it sees as U.S. reluctance to hand over the cleric Gulen, who has lived in Pennsylvania since 1999. U.S. officials have said its courts require sufficient evidence to order his extradition Gulen denies any involvement in the failed coup. More than 150,000 people in the police, civil service and private sector have been sacked or suspended from their jobs in the crackdown that followed the failed putsch. Some 50,000 have been detained. Rights groups and Turkey s Western allies have expressed concern that Turkey using the coup as a pretext to quash dissent. Ankara says the measures are necessary, given the extent of the security threat it faces. Turkey has also been enraged by Washington s support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in the fight against Islamic State. Turkey regards the YPG as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).


Clinton Foundation drew intense protests for scheduling the wife of a Palestinian terrorist to speak at a Clinton Global Initiative dinner. The foundation saw nothing wrong with this and defended their decision: Hanan al-Hroub is a beacon of hope in a part of the world that is very dear to me and in desperate need of more hope, said Haim Saban, a major Clinton Foundation donor, according to The Wall Street Journal. I only wish more people honored her and the cause that she embodies. Haim Saban has deep roots in Egypt and is a controversial figure who totally bought access to the Hillary Clinton during her time as Secretary of State:Between 2009 and 2013, as Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state, the Saban Family Foundation paid the Clinton Foundation more than $7 million, and listed $30.5 million in grants and contributions approved for future payment, according to nonprofit records filed with the Internal Revenue Service. It s unclear whether there was any overlap between the $7 million paid and $30.5 million committed to the Clinton Foundation in those years.What kind of message does this send to the people of Israel who had six of their citizens murdered by the acts of this woman s husband? Hanan al-Hroub, this year s winner of the Global Teacher Prize, is scheduled to speak at the dinner despite the fact that her husband, Omar, served 10 years in an Israeli prison for providing chemicals used in a 1980 terror bombing attack that killed six Israelis. This was apparently no big deal to the Clinton Foundation even as the U.S. investigates the weekend bombings in New Jersey and New York, as well as the stabbing spree that occurred in a Minnesota mall. The decision to honor the wife of a terrorist by Hillary Clinton s foundation shows a complete lack of judgment and a callousness that should disqualify her from holding the presidency. Foundation donors were quick to defend the invitation of al-Hroub.


By Jameson Parker Feminist Issues , News October 26, 2016 Congressman Who Said He Couldn't Look His Daughter In The Eye And Endorse Trump Is Voting Trump 9143 Google Pinterest Digg Linkedin Reddit Stumbleupon Print Delicious Pocket Tumblr  Thumb through the pages of the dictionary until you find the word "craven" and a picture of Republican congressman Jason Chaffetz's picture will probably greet you. In a year full of pathetic spinelessness from Republicans, his efforts seem to stand out.  It's hard to imagine a congressman doing more damage to his lasting reputation than Chaffetz pulled off on October 26th, 2016 – a date that will live in infamy. First, news broke that Chaffetz was already prepping for a Clinton White House by pre-planning two years worth of senseless investigations in a shameless attempt to destroy any chance of her – or congress – accomplishing anything. And yet sadly that story was only half of the reason why Chaffetz singlehandedly proved Mark Twain wasn't kidding when he quipped "Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress, but then I repeat myself." Congressman Chaffetz is a very big idiot.  A little over one week after Chaffetz tried to score some cheap political points by unendorsing Donald Trump following the release of an audio tape in which the Republican nominee bragged about sexual assault, he sent out a tweet clarifying that when he said he wouldn't endorse or defend Trump, he never said he wouldn't vote for him. I will not defend or endorse @realDonaldTrump , but I am voting for him. HRC is that bad. HRC is bad for the USA.  — Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) October 27, 2016  What's the distinction between "endorsing" and "voting for" you ask? Well, for Jason Chaffetz it's like when you want to bake a cake but you also want to eat it too. See? Simple. Chaffetz is a very, very big idiot.  Making Chaffetz's cowardice all the more apparent is the reason why he said he was unendorsing Trump in the first place. Like the rest of the country, he heard Trump's boasts about grabbing women's genitals and found it abhorrent. He also said he couldn't face his 15-year-old daughter and support a potential sexual predator like Trump.  "I can no longer in good conscience endorse this person for president. It is some of the most abhorrent and offensive comments that you can possibly imagine. My wife and I, we have a 15-year-old daughter, and if I can't look her in the eye and tell her these things, I can't endorse this person."  So to be perfectly clear, Jason Chaffetz, Republican congressman from Utah, can't look his daughter in the eye and endorse Donald Trump, but he can stare her straight in the face and say "Dad just voted for this monster."  Nice work, Jason. You pathetic, small man. I'm forwarding your congressional photo to Webster's.


Britain s interior minister said a claim by U.S. President Donald Trump that the culprits behind a bombing on a London train were in the sights of the police, made on Twitter shortly after the attack, had been nothing more than speculation. It s never helpful to have speculation about an ongoing operation and I would include the president of the United States in that comment, Amber Rudd told BBC television on Sunday. It is pure speculation, absolutely. Rudd s comments echoed those of British Prime Minister Theresa May who said on Friday it was not helpful for anyone to speculate on investigations.


The Syrian army and its allies launched air strikes against rebels north of the city of Hama on Thursday after recapturing villages lost to the insurgents in an attack earlier in the week, a war monitor said. A series of strikes after midnight hit areas in rebel-held Khan Sheikhoun, Kafr Nabil, Kafr Zeita and Maarat al-Numan, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The offensive by jihadist and other insurgent groups this week was their biggest near Hama since March, but the army late on Wednesday retook the villages it lost in the attack, the Observatory said. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has gained momentum in the six-year war since driving rebels from Aleppo in December. He has been aided by Russia s air force and Iran-backed Shi ite militias including Lebanon s Hezbollah. However, insurgents still hold large, populous areas in northwest and southwest Syria and smaller pockets elsewhere in the country. Tuesday s attack north of Hama revived hostilities in the northwestern area near the Turkish border that has been relatively calm in recent months as Russian-led diplomacy seeks to shore up ceasefires across western Syria.


At least six farmers protesting the removal of coca crops, the base ingredient in cocaine, were killed during a confrontation in rural southwestern Colombia, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Friday. Santos ordered further investigation into the event, which took place on Thursday and also injured 19 people. The incident occurred in Narino province, near Tumaco, a key zone for coca growing. Reports on how exactly the six people died were contradictory. The defense ministry said on Thursday that a dissident group of ex-fighters from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group forced farmers to protest against police who were removing coca crops. The dissidents then fired on the officers and launched home-made missiles, hitting the farmers, the ministry said. But regional farmers organizations accused the police and army of firing at the civilians to break up the protest and clear the way for the manual eradication of the crops. The majority of FARC fighters demobilized under a peace deal signed last year, but some dissident units remain involved in drug trafficking and illegal mining. The FARC, now a political party, has distanced itself from the dissidents. We are verifying the exact way in which things occurred, Santos said during a press conference. We are investigating, I don t want to tie myself to any version of events until these investigations give us total clarity about what happened. The events underlined the significant challenge that the drug trade represents to the peace process with the FARC, the head of the United Nations mission in Colombia said. The events reinforce our conviction at the United Nations of the necessity of giving coca farmers in affected regions all the means to escape the terrible choice between extreme poverty and illegality, mission chief Jean Arnault told journalists. Subsistence farmers have often been obliged by rebel groups, paramilitaries and crime gangs to plant and harvest coca. Some also choose to grow the crop because illegal groups will pay more for it than farmers can earn at market with other products - a tempting possibility amid dire poverty. Coca cultivation reached levels not seen for a decade last year after the government banned aerial fumigation with glyphosate, an herbicide that has been linked to cancer. The prohibition has sparked criticism from the United States, which is set to give the Andean country more than $400 million in funding help for the FARC deal. Coca is cultivated on about 188,000 hectares (464,000 acres) across Colombia. The government wants to manually eradicate 100,000 hectares this year.


Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) Monday accused President Donald Trump of having a tendency to target women and people of color for his ire.Waters spoke uninterrupted for almost four minutes on MSNBC s The Beat about the Trump Administration s handling of the aftermath of Army Sgt. La David Johnson s death in Niger. She called on Trump and his Chief of Staff John Kelly to apologize to widow Myeshia Johnson and Rep. Frederica Wilson (D., Fla.), going on to criticize Trump s disrespect for women and minorities in general. He seems to have this tendency to talk down to people of color, to treat them with disrespect, and I think this adds to it, Waters said. First of all, he called [Wilson] wacky. Secondly, that he didn t back down, that he simply talked about her in a way that was not respectful I think that yes, I think this adds to the suspicion of him and the way that he thinks about minorities and black people in particular. She said Kelly was also wrong in her criticism of Wilson s 2015 speech, and she said she had the backing of the Congressional Black Caucus in saying the Trump Administration needs to do more to respect black women. All of the women of the Congressional Black Caucus have come together and we re demanding an apology, she said. We re sick and tired of women being undermined, dismissed, and black women, in particular, being called names. Waters also criticized Trump s overall leadership. He has the most distorted leadership of any president I ve ever known or heard about, Waters said. Here he had the opportunity to make the condolence call, to do it properly, to recognize this family and their grieving, and also to know the name of the soldier who had been killed. It is so unconscionable in the way that he manages his leadership, she added.Waters also said Kelly s credibility has been damaged. General Kelly has had a good career, and to have his career basically undermined by the president of the United States because he s trying to protect the president and stand up for the president when the president did not deserve to be stood up for, now he s damaged himself, Waters said. He needs to call the congresswoman and apologize.


ST. JOSEPH, Minn. — White ribbons flutter along a grade school's fence here in memory of Jacob E. Wetterling, whose remains were found this month nearly 27 years after he was abducted on a country road. A fresh vase of flowers sits at the spot on the road, silent but for crickets and the whoosh of wind through rows of corn, where Jacob was grabbed so many years ago. And though it is the middle of the day, at the house where Jacob lived, the porch light still is on, just as it has been over a matter of decades — here and at homes across Minnesota — to guide him home. The disappearance of Jacob in 1989 shattered this city of fewer than 7, 000 people, as well as so many other tiny central Minnesota towns in a region of farm fields and ranch homes. "It changed a lot," Lee Meyer, 94, said. A generation of parents suddenly kept their children close, and a generation of children learned to worry. "To tell the truth," said Robert Devore, 42, who was in his teens when Jacob vanished, "I'm still looking over my shoulder to this day. " Long before an age of Amber Alerts and elaborate tracking of sex offenders, Jacob's case opened a new conversation in Minnesota about child sexual abuse and abduction. His story helped lead to a significant national policy change: Jacob's name was on the first federal law in 1994 that required states to keep registries of convicted sex offenders. And, over all the years, the hope here for Jacob's return never seemed to fade, in large part because of the work of his mother, Patty, who has become one of the nation's prominent advocates on behalf of missing and exploited children. As a reporter covering the Midwest for more than a decade, I have focused at times on shifting policies regarding sexual predators — from local bans on where they can live to controversial programs in which states hold offenders, even after they complete criminal sentences, and the legal challenges that have followed. And I have long followed Jacob's case, and often thought of the grinning boy in the yellow sweater in a frequently reprinted photo as the real stakes in any policy debate. As a parent, I could never shake the impossibly painful details of the case: a masked, armed man had grabbed Jacob, 11, and his best friend and his brother before ordering the friend and brother to run into the darkness and never look back. I watched as Patty Wetterling created a foundation with her husband, Jerry, dedicated to helping other missing children and preventing abuse served on the board of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children expressed nuanced views on offender registries and ran for the House of Representatives twice — even as she waited, with Midwestern resoluteness, for Jacob. But now it seems the answers were close by all along. Jacob was buried in a farm field in this very county, kidnapped and killed not by someone who had crossed state lines or vanished into the anonymity of some faraway locale, but by Danny Heinrich, who lived about 30 miles away and had first been interviewed by investigators about the case, court records show, within weeks of Jacob's disappearance. This month Mr. Heinrich, 53, admitted assaulting and killing Jacob Wetterling on the night he kidnapped him, in October 1989. He had also been investigated months before Jacob's disappearance in a similar sexual attack on a boy in a nearby town amid a rash of earlier assaults on young boys in Paynesville, another town near St. Joseph. When Mr. Heinrich was questioned not long after Jacob's disappearance, he denied it all, court documents show, and was not charged. The allegations left this city reeling. "I have boys around that same age — 13, 11 and 8 — and what's happened to Jacob just makes you cry," said Tracy Omann Smith, who owns the local flower shop, where a sign last week read, "Jacob Let Your Light Shine Bright. " "You have to understand, the family had left everything as it was," she said. "They never moved from the house, never changed their phone number. They really believed he was coming back, and maybe we all did. " On Oct. 22, 1989, Jacob and the two other boys were confronted by a man on a darkened road as they rode their bikes back from a convenience store, where they had picked out a movie. The attacker ordered them into a ditch, asked the boys their ages, then sent two of them scrambling off into the woods and threatened to shoot them if they looked back. He handcuffed Jacob and drove him to a pit near Paynesville, where he attacked him, then shot him. After Mr. Heinrich's confession in court this month, an emotional Ms. Wetterling thanked law enforcement officials. She also praised a local blogger and another assault victim of Mr. Heinrich's, for "stirring this pot" the last few years until the truth came out. Then she said her family was not yet ready to speak publicly about the case. "For us Jacob was alive until we found him," Ms. Wetterling said. "We need to heal. " In an unusual plea agreement, Mr. Heinrich agreed to admit to the killing and directed the authorities to Jacob's remains, buried in a shallow grave in a pasture. But he will not be charged in the killing or the earlier assault on the victim who survived. He pleaded guilty to a federal pornography count, and is expected to serve 20 years in prison. The authorities have raised the possibility that he could be held beyond that, under civil commitment procedures aimed at the most dangerous sex offenders. He told a hushed courtroom what Jacob had asked that night: "What did I do wrong?" Some here say they have grown skeptical about police work on the case, given the years it took to solve it, the early questioning of Mr. Heinrich that did not result in charges, and the unsolved assaults of young boys in nearby towns over several years before Jacob's abduction. A new investigative podcast series by American Public Media, "In the Dark," is examining law enforcement's handling of the case. At least eight cases involving boys who were groped or attacked occurred from 1986 to 1988 in tiny Paynesville, where Mr. Heinrich lived at that time, court documents show. The descriptions of the attacker often sounded similar: a husky, short man with a mask and a raspy voice. At points, the local authorities said Mr. Heinrich should be considered a suspect in those cases, though he was never charged. Jacob's was a case that drew enormous law enforcement resources to this city. National Guard members were dispatched. Rewards were offered. Thousands of tips poured in. Would Sheriff John L. Sanner of Stearns County do anything differently in the investigation given everything? "My response has always been the same," Sheriff Sanner said. "Our energy needs to stay focused on what we can control and not wasted on things we have no control over. " Much has changed since Jacob Wetterling vanished — from DNA technology to an internet revolution that allows people to know almost instantly when a child disappears, but that also gives predators new ways to reach children without even stepping outdoors. But in a way, this small city has stood still, waiting, like the lights outside the Wetterlings' home. Trina Faber, 45, a manager at Bo Diddley's sandwich shop, grew up around here. Patty Wetterling sometimes comes in for sandwiches. And Jerry Wetterling, the local chiropractor, whose office remains just down the street, has treated Ms. Faber's back from time to time. So when she heard that Jacob's remains had at last been found, she burst into tears. "There has been so much to it for so long," she said. "In a way I was relieved. He was in peace. But it also meant it was the end. "


Libya s coastal guard has rescued more than 250 illegal migrants trying to leave the North African country in small boats bound for Italy, officials said on Saturday. Libya s western shores are the main departure point for migrants mainly from sub-Saharan countries fleeing poverty and conflict trying to reach Europe. Arrivals to Italy have fallen by two-thirds since July from the same period last year after officials working for the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, Italy s partner, managed to cut back human smuggling in the city of Sabratha west of the capital. That has pushed the trade further east, with the coast guard intercepting several boats off the coast near Qaraboulli and Zliten, two towns located east of Tripoli. The naval forces Ibn Ouf vessel rescued (on Friday) illegal migrants including women, children and men ... they are from different sub-Saharan and Arab countries, Coast Guard Captain Abdulhadi Fakhal told Reuters. They were rescued off Qaraboulli and Zliten towns ... and they are about 250 to 270 persons, Fakhal said. Libya has plunged into chaos since the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising. A U.N.-backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli has been trying to gain control of territory.


Dr. MacDonald & Dr. Duke Expose the Vicious War on Trump by the Jewish Establishment! November 10, 2016 at 11:25 am  Dr. MacDonald & Dr. Duke Expose the Vicious War on Trump by the Jewish Establishment!  Today Dr. Duke had Professor Kevin MacDonald as his guest for the hour. They discussed the importance of the Trump victory as well as what needs to be done. They agreed that regarding immigration, the most important thing in the long term is repealing the 1965 Act.  They also pointed out the phenomenon of whites voting their ethnic interests. While we have been hearing that white women were going to vote against Trump, they wound up supporting him by a 10% margin. Even almost half of white women with a college education supported Trump, despite the years of Jewish indoctrination at college. The same can be said for white millennials.  This is an important show in terms of showing the path forward. Please share it widely.  Our show is aired live at 11 am replayed at ET 4pm Eastern and 4am Eastern.  Click on Image to Donate!  And please spread this message to others.


During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump was thrilled when Great Britain voted to leave the European Union. Now that he s on his first world trip as BLOTUS and after calling one of our greatest allies bad, very bad, he finally fessed up his real beef with the European Union, and if you haven t guessed, it s that it s too hard for him to get richer.While Trump did love one thing about Europe, the Belgian chocolates, which he called the best, which is high praise coming from the man who claims to know a lot about chocolate, at least in cake form.Our national laughing stock didn t leave it there, though. He admitted that the real problem he has with Europe has nothing to do with global economics or even immigration. Trump s problem with Europe is that it takes him too long to open golf courses.According to one source to The Guardian: He made a lot of references to his personal journey. He explained, for example, the functioning of Europe on the basis of his difficulties in doing business in Ireland, one source told the Francophone paper.A second source told the newspaper: Every time we talk about a country, he remembered the things he had done. Scotland? He said he had opened a club. Ireland? He said it took him two and a half years to get a licence and that did not give him a very good image of the European Union. One feels that he wants a system where everything can be realised very quickly and without formalities. This, in a nutshell, perfectly encapsulates most of what is wrong with Trump. While he s playing the role of world leader, in reality, his world view is so small that if it s not directly about him, he tunes out. He won t even read his national security briefings unless the authors pepper his name frequently throughout. Even then, the briefings have to be short and it s best if they contain pictures.Even beyond that, Trump is a businessman, and regardless of the fact that he technically works for us, he s still only working to enrich himself.


All 10 US Navy sailors detained by Iran after drifting into its territorial waters have been released, the US and Iran said Wednesday. Could the juvenile suspects in the Tennessee wildfires be tried as adults? Detained American Navy sailors shown in an undisclosed location in Iran. Iranian state television reported that all 10 U.S. sailors detained by Iran after entering its territorial waters have been released. Iran's Revolutionary Guard said the sailors were released Wednesday after it was determined that their entry was not intentional. All 10 U.S. Navy sailors detained by Iran after drifting into its territorial waters a day earlier have been freed, the U.S. and Iran said Wednesday. The Navy said the American crew members returned safely and there were no indications they had been harmed while in custody. The nine men and one woman were held at an Iranian base on Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf after they were detained nearby on Tuesday. The tiny outpost has been used as a base for Revolutionary Guard speedboats as far back as the 1980s. The sailors departed the island at 0843 GMT aboard the boats they were detained with, the Navy said. They were picked up by Navy aircraft and other sailors took control of their boats for the return voyage to Bahrain, where the U.S. 5th Fleet is based. The Navy added that it "will investigate the circumstances that led to the sailors' presence in Iran." The Revolutionary Guard's official website published images of the detained U.S. sailors before their release, showing them sitting on the floor of a room. They look mostly bored or annoyed, though at least one of the sailors appears to be smiling. The sole woman had her hair covered by a brown cloth. The pictures also showed what appeared to be their two boats. "After determining that their entry into Iran's territorial waters was not intentional and their apology, the detained American sailors were released in international waters," a statement posted online by the Guard said Wednesday. US Vice President Joe Biden says that America did not apologize to Iran over U.S. sailors allegedly entering Iranian territorial waters. Biden made the comments Wednesday in an interview with "CBS This Morning." The vice president said: "There's nothing to apologize for. When you have a problem with the boat you apologize the boat had a problem? No, and there was no looking for any apology. This was just standard nautical practice." Biden said that the Iranians realized the U.S. sailors "were there in distress and said they would release them and released them like ordinary nations would do." Gen. Ali Fadavi, the navy chief of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, was quoted earlier Wednesday by Iranian state TV as saying that an investigation had shown the Americans entered Iranian territorial waters because of "mechanical problems in their navigation system." U.S. officials also blamed mechanical trouble for the incident. They had said on Tuesday that Tehran assured them the crew and vessels would be returned safely and promptly. Fadavi said the American boats had shown "unprofessional acts" for 40 minutes before being picked up by Iranian forces after entering the country's territorial waters. He said Tehran did not consider the U.S. Navy boats violating Iranian territorial waters as an "innocent passage." The sailors were nonetheless allowed to make contact with the U.S. military, based on Iran's "responsibilities and Islamic mercy" late Tuesday, he said. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who forged a personal relationship with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif during the three years of nuclear negotiations, called his Iranian counterpart immediately on learning of the incident, according to a senior U.S. official. Kerry "personally engaged" with Zarif on the issue, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Kerry said in a statement Wednesday: "That this issue was resolved peacefully and efficiently is a testament to the critical role diplomacy plays in keeping our country safe, secure and strong." Kerry has a close relationship with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif after the recent nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and world powers. Kerry learned of the incident around 12:30 p.m. EST as he and U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter were meeting their Filipino counterparts at the State Department, the official said. Fadavi said Zarif "had a firm stance" during the telephone conversation with Kerry about the sailors' presence in Iran's territorial waters and "said they should not have come and should apologize." Carter said he was pleased with the sailors' release and he thanked Kerry for his diplomatic efforts. "Around the world, the U.S. Navy routinely provides assistance to foreign sailors in distress, and we appreciate the timely way in which this situation was resolved," Carter said. The Guard's 200,000-strong force is different from the regular Iranian military and is charged with protecting the ruling system. Its naval forces are heavily dependent on armed speedboats that can be used in teams to swarm much larger vessels. The incident came amid heightened tensions with Iran, and only hours before President Barack Obama gave his final State of the Union address to Congress and the public. It set off a dramatic series of calls and meetings as U.S. officials tried to determine the exact status of the crew and reach out to Iranian leaders. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told The Associated Press late Tuesday U.S. time that the sailors' boats were moving between Kuwait and Bahrain when the U.S. lost contact with them. The sailors were part of Riverine Squadron 1 based in San Diego and were deployed to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain. When the U.S. lost contact with the boats, ships attached to the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier strike group began searching the area, along with aircraft flying off the Truman. The Riverine boats were not part of the carrier strike group, and were on a training mission, the officials said. The craft are not considered high-tech and don't contain any sensitive equipment, so there were no concerns about the Iranians gaining access to them, they added. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive incident publicly. In an earlier incident, in late December, Iran launched a rocket test near U.S. warships and boats passing through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, the route for about a fifth of the world's oil. Last February, Iran sank a replica of a U.S. aircraft carrier near the strait and has said it is testing "suicide drones" that could conduct kamikaze missions on naval ships. It has also challenged foreign cargo ships operating in the Gulf, opening fire on at least two in April and May. In one of those incidents, Iran temporarily seized a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship over what it said was a commercial dispute before releasing it with its crew more than a week later. Meanwhile, Iran was expected to satisfy the terms of last summer's nuclear deal in just days. Once the U.N. nuclear agency confirms Iran's actions to roll back its program, the United States and other Western powers are obliged to suspend wide-ranging oil, trade and financial sanctions on Tehran. Kerry recently said the deal's implementation was "days away." Schreck reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee, Lolita C. Baldor, Bradley Klapper and Richard Lardner in Washington, Jon Gambrell in Dubai and Nasser Karimi in Tehran contributed to this report.


A campaign ad for Donald Trump attacking rival Republican presidential candidate John Kasich has been pulled off the air in Ohio for violating federal election law.The ad, John Kasich All Talk No Action Politician, is designed to cut into the lead of Kasich, the current sitting governor in the state and the odds-on favorite to win the Republican primary coming up there.But it won t be seen on TV, and it is because the people employed by Trump s presidential campaign are very inept at their jobs.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iibsiauLgOoNew Day for America, the super PAC supporting Mr. Kasich, sent complaints to stations about the ad, saying that it was falsely attacking Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and that it did not comply with federal regulations for political advertising. No disclaimer appears at the end of the advertisement paid for by Donald Trump, Matt Carle, executive director of New Day for America, wrote in the complaint. Consequently, this advertisement is in violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, and it must be removed from the air. It is amazing in this day and age, when almost any sort of political advertising is allowed for the highest bidder, that an ad would get pulled like this.As the New York Times explains:The Federal Election Commission says that political ads must include a clearly readable written statement that appears at their end for a period of at least four seconds with a reasonable degree of color contrast between the background and the disclaimer statement.This is a standard thing to do for any real, serious presidential campaign, but it is a symptom of the sort of basic failure that happens every day with Trump.His campaign often issues conflicting positions on basic issues, contradicting what is said in a speech with a press release or a statement by a campaign spokesperson on TV. They issue inaccurate press releases, with wrong or misspelled names and locations, and the candidate himself has often misstated the dates and times when instructing his supporters on where and when they should be voting.Trump is already months into his campaign and still making amateur hour screw-ups. He has such a lead on the rest of the Republicans, this won t hurt. But if he makes these kinds of mistakes in the fall against the Democrats, it will weaken his already shaky campaign.


Wary of German Chancellor Angela Merkel s ambition for closer European Union integration, right-wing politicians in the EU s eastern wing are touting her weak election victory as a vindication of their concerns. Eurosceptic governments in Poland and Hungary have been vocal in criticizing Merkel s open-door approach to migration and opposing EU reforms that would transfer more power to the Brussels institutions at the expense of national governments. Poland s foreign minister said Germany s Sept. 24 election, in which Merkel s conservative bloc won the lowest number of votes since 1949, was proof that Berlin would have to heed the concerns of eastern member states. She should focus on maintaining the unity of the European Union, Witold Waszczykowski told Polska the Times newspaper. Mrs Merkel will have to look for new allies and this in turn opens room for maneuver for Polish diplomacy. Today, there is no climate for federalization and there won t be one in the nearest future. Merkel is expected to take months to build a new coalition government, reducing German pressure on Warsaw and Budapest to comply with EU standards. Her most likely coalition allies are the increasingly eurosceptic, pro-business Free Democrats and the Greens - but she also faces a more divided Bundestag lower house, where the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) is now the third biggest party. Nationalist politicians in the EU s eastern member states hope the rise of the AfD, the first far-right party to enter the Bundestag in decades, will force Merkel to harden her stance on immigration after Germany admitted more than one million migrants and refugees, mostly Muslims, in 2015-16. Hungary has already said German politicians since the election have endorsed its measures to beef up its border security to discourage migrants from entering the EU. About some aspects of illegal migration we are still in debate, but there is full agreement on the principal issue that the protection of the external borders of Europe is very important, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said after meeting senior German lawmakers in the city of Stuttgart last week. The head of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, has invited the leaders of the four Visegrad states - Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - to a dinner in Brussels on Oct. 18, ahead of an EU summit, to try to ease tensions between them and wealthier western Europe. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban s Fidesz party and Merkel s CDU-CSU are in the same political family in the European Parliament, and despite Berlin s criticism of his record in government, has welcomed Merkel s election victory. Let s quietly pray every evening for the extension of the mandate of the current chancellor, he said before the election. Orban himself faces an election next April in which he will seek a third consecutive term, and he probably does not want to tackle EU reform issues head-on now, analysts said. Orban s objective is to keep the margin of maneuver open as long as possible: he does not want to face yes-or-no questions like whether to take Hungary into the euro zone or stay on the periphery anytime soon, Botond Feledy, senior fellow at the Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy in Budapest. GERMAN-FRENCH AXIS But once Merkel has bedded down a new coalition in Berlin, Budapest and Warsaw can expect a resumption of pressure over their record on democracy and rule of law from a reinvigorated partnership between Germany and Emmanuel Macron s France. Analysts said Merkel and Macron, both keen to overcome EU disunity, may try to pick off more cooperative eastern states such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic in order to concentrate pressure on Poland and Hungary to comply with EU rules. Merkel may also in due course revive her demands on the eastern states to take in more migrants as she seeks to blunt the allure of the AfD at home for conservative German voters. Warsaw, currently under an unprecedented EU investigation over its rule of law standards, is bracing for renewed criticism. We are expecting Merkel to get tough on Poland - definitely not in the next few months while the new government is being formed, but after the domestic dust has settled, a Polish government source added.


He boasted about himself in the third person. He sneered at the opponents he had vanquished. He disparaged journalists and invited angry chants from the crowd, grinning broadly at calls of "lock her up" and "build the wall. " He ridiculed the government's leaders as stupid and dishonest failures. In his first major address since winning the presidency three weeks ago, Donald J. Trump soaked up the adulation of thousands of his supporters at a rally here, unabashedly gloating about the "great" victory he had secured. If there were any question about whether his evolution to would temper his presentation or moderate his tone, the rally offered a forceful answer: Not a chance. Kicking off what was billed as a "thank you" tour, Mr. Trump was incendiary and prideful, hopeful and indicting, vengeful and determined. His staff said the rally was the first of several he will hold before his inauguration next month. His tour is an unusual move for a most of whom do not return so quickly to the campaign trail, especially while key cabinet positions remain unfilled. Mr. Trump, who has been mostly cloistered in Trump Tower as he tries to assemble a government, was said to be eager to reconnect with voters. Connect he did, whipping the partially filled arena into a frenzy by reprising the rhetoric from his campaign. He repeated pledges to suspend immigration from countries with a history of terrorism, repeal the Affordable Care Act, lower taxes, end unfair trade and "drain the swamp" of corruption. But while he at times stuck to the script on his teleprompter, Mr. Trump came alive when he veered from it to talk about himself and demean those who had opposed him. "We had a lot of fun fighting Hillary Clinton," he said, smiling knowingly as the crowd chanted "Lock her up!" but offering no indication that he intended to do so. In the middle of a scripted part of the speech about lower taxes for businesses, he shifted abruptly to note the magnitude of his wins. "How about North Carolina — how well did we do in North Carolina? Remember when they said he cannot win North Carolina?" Mr. Trump said, adding a moment later: "Donald Trump can't break the blue wall, right? We didn't break it, we shattered that sucker. We shattered it, man. That poor wall is busted up. " And he reserved special bile for the "extremely dishonest press," provoking boos as he lashed out — without naming her — at a network anchor who he said had cried on television on election night when she realized he was going to win the presidency. "You know what she doesn't understand, things are going to be much better now," he said. "I love this stuff," he said after a nearly discussion of his electoral prowess and his critique of the news media. "Should I go on with this for just a little bit longer? I love it. " He did go on, shifting back and forth between his prepared remarks and his extemporaneous walk down the memory lane of victory. During the prepared parts of the speech, Mr. Trump seemed eager to reach out to the people who had opposed his candidacy. He said the new government would "seek a truly inclusive society," and he proclaimed that "we condemn bigotry and hatred in all of its forms. " On the economy, he vowed to "reverse the stagnation and usher in a period of prosperity and growth," even as he promised to overcome the partisan gridlock that has led to stalemate in Congress during much of the past eight years. "We'll compete in the world, we want to compete in the world, but we're going to compete in the world where it's a road, not a road," Mr. Trump vowed. "The advantages are going to come back to our country, and they haven't for many, many years. " Speaking in Ohio just days after a Somali refugee wounded several people with a knife at Ohio State University, Mr. Trump essentially attributed the attack to programs to admit refugees "stupidly created by our very stupid politicians. " "We will suspend immigration from regions where it cannot be safely processed," he said, echoing some of his most effective campaign rhetoric. But he sometimes veered from his prepared remarks in the middle of a sentence. A discussion of what his administration would do if a company wanted to move jobs overseas reminded him again of his victories. And that discussion of winning several states led directly into a diatribe against reporters, who he said had never seen his victories coming. Then, when he mentioned Utah, he railed against a candidate who before Election Day had seemed poised to do well. "Remember when they said Donald Trump is going to lose to some guy I've never even heard of?" he said, laughing. "The people of Utah were amazing, and we trounced them. Hillary came in second, and that guy came in third. What the hell was he trying to prove?" Mr. Trump offered both an olive branch and a warning to Democrats in Washington, saying he believed that "they want to get together" but reminded them that they had lost "because the people are angry. " He delivered his promise through the prism of a federal government. "Our victory was so great, we have the House, we have the Senate," Mr. Trump said, his last words drowned out with cheers. He smiled and paused, before offering some tepid reassurance that "we want to get them on board. " Mr. Trump opened his rally with a familiar trope: gawking at the crowd and lamenting the difficulty that supporters were having traveling to the arena. "So I didn't know what came with this position, and I didn't know that they closed down the roads around the stadium for an hour and a half," he said, thanking the crowd "for being so patient. " Before he spoke, a familiar scene developed at the arena, with hundreds of Mr. Trump's supporters lined up, some clad in red shirts handing out " " signs. The prerally soundtrack, heavy on Elton John and the Rolling Stones, rotated through the songs heard during the campaign. The main difference this time: the lectern at center stage, which now had a big, bold "USA" where the name "TRUMP" used to be. As Mr. Trump has at times seemed frustrated by criticism of his business conflicts and his loss by more than two million ballots in the popular vote. But at the rally, Mr. Trump was once again in good spirits, feeding off the fervor in the crowd. He had just come from Indianapolis, where he celebrated his involvement in Carrier's decision to keep roughly 1, 000 jobs in Indiana. Mr. Trump seemed to relish toying with the news media, at one point announcing that he had chosen James N. Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general, to be his secretary of defense — even though his spokesman had said four hours earlier that no decision had been made. "I gave up a little secret," Mr. Trump said, urging the crowd not to "let it out of this room. " But nothing seemed to fire up the as much as recalling his victories in the campaign, each made so much sweeter, he repeatedly said, because the media and his opponents had never seen them coming. "We had a lot of fun," he said, adding: "The bottom line is, we won. "


The spoiled son of a New York millionaire went full affluenza on an Uber driver, calling him a minimum wage f*ggot on camera in a fit of privilege that has to be seen to be believed.As Heavy.com reports:Jake Croman, son of New York City landlord Steven Croman, is seen in a video verbally harassing Uber driver Artur Zawada after Zawada canceled a ride on the University of Michigan frat bro.The video was posted on March 23 and quickly went viral with more than 300,000 views.In the video, Croman, a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon, is seen berating Zawada along with frat brothers. But Croman is the ringleader of the harassment, calling Zawada a f*ck and a f**got. He continues, You wanna kick me off? Kick me off, you little piece of sh*t. You re an Uber driver! Go f*cking drive, you little f*ck! He then proceeds to call Zawada a minimum wage f*ck before storming off with his cronies.The footage is astonishing because it lays bare the sense of entitlement and privilege of these trust fund frat bros. While their wealth is no more than an accident of birth, they strut about as if they invented the light bulb. Worse, they actually scoff about the fact that Zawada will spend the rest of the day working while they sit on their a** and watch TV. Newsflash fellas: Zawada is worth ten of you.But clearly, these are values Croman and his cronies learned at home. According to the NY Daily News, the frat bro s father has been branded a slumlord, found to be using illegal tactics to force out rent-stabilized tenants. His latest scam, reports Crains New York, is to undertake highly disruptive renovation works in efforts to force out tenants, making way for those he can charge higher rents.Little wonder then, that his son shows so little respect for his fellow New Yorkers.Croman s fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon, has released a statement announcing their own investigation of the incident. It reads: At the conclusion of our swift, thorough investigation, we will handle the situation with appropriate action, Depending on the details of the investigation, this could include the expulsion of membership. Something tells us that this is not going to be enough to correct Croman s attitude. An attitude which stems from an unacceptable wealth gap, which rewards this spoiled boy s father for abusing those without the financial clout to fight back.


A man deliberately drove his car into a group of people outside a school near Toulouse in southern France on Friday, injuring three Chinese students, police sources said. The driver of the vehicle, a 28-year-old man, was known to police for committing minor offences but was not on a terrorism watchlist, the sources said. He was arrested at the scene. One of the students, a young woman, was being treated for serious head injuries. For the moment, it is not being looked at as a terrorist incident although it is also not ruled out, the Toulouse prosecutor said in a statement. The driver has long suffered from psychological problems and was hospitalized until Dec. 2016, the prosecutor said. More than 240 people have been killed in France since early 2015 in attacks by Islamist militants or assailants inspired by the Islamic State group. Monday will mark the second anniversary of attacks in Paris that killed more than 130 people. Earlier this week, French police arrested nine people and another was arrested in Switzerland in coordinated counter-terrorism swoops.


U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Monday urged China to implement economic reforms that will help ensure fairness for U.S. exporters. In a call with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, Lew called on Bejing to liberalize its investment environment, reduce excess industrial capacity in its metals sector, and establish a new set of official export credit disciplines to "create a level playing field" for U.S. exporters, Treasury said in a statement.


The Bavarian sister party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has said her conservative bloc must agree policies on immigration, pensions and healthcare before opening coalition negotiations with two other parties. Leaders of Bavaria s Christian Social Union (CSU) - stung by a drop in support of more than 10 percent in the Sept. 24 election - have redoubled their push for a 200,000 per year cap on immigration, a demand that Merkel has rejected, complicating her efforts to form a new government. Merkel s bloc of the CDU and CSU, which have worked as partners for decades, hung onto their position as the largest group in parliament after a Sept. 24 vote, despite seeing their combined support fall to its lowest since 1949. They must find coalition partners to build a government, with the most likely path toward a majority being an alliance with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens. CSU leader Horst Seehofer said the conservative allies could not begin negotiating with the other parties until they resolved their own position on major issues, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported on Monday. It quoted the Bavarian premier, who is fending off calls for his own resignation, as saying the two parties faced their biggest challenge since 1976 - when his predecessor Franz-Josef Strauss threatened for weeks to break up the alliance. Seehofer, whose biggest challenger is Bavarian finance minister Markus Soeder, a hardliner on immigration, will meet Merkel and other top officials on Sunday, with top officials in Merkel s CDU split on the need for a rightward shift. The conflict inside the conservative camp is straining Merkel s already difficult task of bringing together parties with big differences on energy, Europe, migration and taxes. Armin Laschet, premier of Germany s most populous region, North Rhine-Westphalia, told the Handelsblatt newspaper that the migrant cap sought by CSU leaders was unacceptable. But he suggested a compromise could be found that included some ballpark figures. Laschet also said the Greens would have to step back from some of their hardline environmentalist demands. The CDU s leader in the eastern state of Thuringia on Monday argued against the rightward shift demanded by the CSU and the conservative premiers of two states - Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt - where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party made big gains in Sunday s national elections. Our job is to fence ourselves off against the left and the right, Mike Mohring told Reuters. Manfred Weber, deputy leader of the CSU and head of the center-right group in the EU Parliament, told Deutschlandfunk radio it was important to avoid setting red lines before the coalition talks, given the urgent need to win back AfD voters. Weber said he expected all mainstream parties to focus on preventing the anti-immigrant AfD from gaining a permanent foothold in the German parliament. He said a three-way coalition among conservatives, Greens and the FDP, dubbed a Jamaica coalition since the parties colors match those of the Black, Green and Yellow Jamaican flag, offered a chance to build consensus on other issues such as energy and agriculture. Jamaica offers us a chance ... to embark on a new start, he said. The CSU is ready to do that. Merkel has sought to keep the door open for a renewal of her grand coalition with the Social Democrats that has ruled for the past four years, but the SPD is determined to stay in opposition after suffering its worst result since 1933. We got 20.5 percent of the vote. That is not a mandate to govern, SPD Secretary General Hubertus Heil told broadcaster ARD on Monday. He accused the other parties of stalling coalition talks until after a state election due on Oct. 15 in Lower Saxony. They want to govern, now they should govern, he said. A new poll by the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper showed the CDU and SPD nearly tied in Lower Saxony, with 33.1 percent and 32.8 percent, respectively.


Germany s Free Democrats (FDP) would want the finance ministry in exchange for joining Chancellor Angela Merkel in the country s next coalition government, a member of the party s executive said. Setting out conditions days before federal elections that Merkel is almost certain to win, albeit short of an absolute majority, the FDP also ruled out partnering her conservatives if she supported French plans to deepen fiscal integration in the euro zone. Often viewed as Merkel s natural allies, the socially liberal FDP were part of her second government from 2009 to 2013. They crashed out of parliament that year but are hoping to re-enter the legislature on Sunday as the third-largest party. Current Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, of Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU), has held the post since 2009 and is the most high-profile member of her cabinet. But Alexander Hahn, a member of the FDP s national executive, said the ministry should go to someone from his party. The FDP should enter no government in which it cannot name a finance minister, Hahn told mass-market daily Bild in remarks published on Monday. On Sunday, FDP leader Christian Lindner said setting the agenda for Europe was the most important issue for his party in any coalition talks with the conservatives after the Sept. 24 vote. I fear that Ms Merkel has already agreed to new funding mechanisms (for the EU) with (French President Emmanuel) Macron, he told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. Everything that goes in the direction of financial transfer on the European level, be it a euro zone budget or a banking union, is a red line for us . Macron, who is to present his views on the future of the euro zone on Sept. 26, has called for a finance minister and a standalone budget for the bloc, while European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday urged EU governments to use economic recovery as a springboard toward closer union. Merkel has said she would work with Macron on strengthening the euro zone. But Germany remains insistent that member states should take primary responsibility for their own economic problems, a principle whose prime exponent has been Schaeuble. He is revered by a significant part of the conservative voter base who see him as a guardian of their austerity-oriented interests in the euro zone. The FDP, who held the foreign minister in their last union with the conservatives, have reinvented themselves under Lindner, who preaches a hard line on Europe. They are polling 8 to 10 percent in surveys, while Merkel s conservatives are on around 37 percent, leaving their combined forces just short of a majority. Analysts say completing a banking union and creating a euro zone budget would provide more stability for the currency bloc, and that a conservative/FDP coalition might threaten such plans. I fear there could be a strong reaction on bond markets should the FDP push for a literal enforcement of fiscal rules or for an expulsion of Greece as part of a future ruling coalition, said Martin Lueck of asset manager BlackRock. A grand coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), Merkel s current partners and polling around 23 percent, would make it much easier for the chancellor to work with Macron on overhauling the euro zone. The centre-left SPD have often criticized Schaeuble s tough stance on Greece and have even backed the idea of common euro zone debt. The FDP are fighting for third spot against the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is forecast to enter parliament for the first time.


After Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was finally publicly outed after decades of alleged sexual abuses toward women, a #metoo hashtag formed and a dam broke. Suddenly it seemed that every time we turned on our computers, every time we received a phone alert, it was yet another man outed as an abuser.The worst of the worst of sexual abusers, though, are those who abuse children. Roy Moore, the right-wing Christian nut-job who s running for Senate in Alabama has been accused of doing just that. Five women have now come forward alleging that Moore dated them and worse while they were teens and he was in his 30s.This all began almost a year to the day after an audio tape of Donald Trump bragging about how he s such a big star he can just grab women s pussies. Is it possible, though, that Trump is as bad, if not worse, than Moore?While liberals and Democrats have decried the alleged abusers, regardless of ideology or party affiliation, Republicans have taken a *shall we say* more nuanced stance when it comes to Moore. They have invoked the Bible, saying that the Virgin Mary was a teenager when Jesus was born. Of course, much like they forget the well regulated militia part of the Second Amendment, these men who would slut shame their own sisters if they were Democrats who wanted birth control, suddenly forgot the first part of Mary s moniker. They also defended Moore by saying that he was just a fragile young buck of 32, who couldn t have possibly known better, while his alleged victims were well on their way to adulthood at 14 and 16.Donald Trump has been surprisingly mum about the Moore allegations, but spokesperson Kellyanne Conway carefully straddled the line by saying that if the allegations were true, Moore should resign. Trump, though, had something interesting to say about the subject of statutory rape three years ago. In a tweet, Trump called it talent to date a woman who s young enough to be his daughter. Note: he was married to Melania at the time.@rexrode_lisa "@realDonaldTrump you date girls young enough to be your daughter.That's perverted" Dated. No, that's talent. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2013 This wasn t the first time Trump expressed interest in young girls. At least twice, Trump was heard saying that he would soon be dating girls who, at the time, were very underaged.Donald Trump once told 14-year-old girls, 'In a couple of years, I'll be dating you' https://t.co/nslYeqp8dg pic.twitter.com/ayDeW6nGNz L.A. Times Politics (@latimespolitics) October 13, 2016 In 1992, he said about a 10-year-old girl that he would be dating her in 10 years. Here s the video:All of this, of course, was out there before the election and Trump voters didn t care. Trump voters in Alabama don t care about the allegations against Moore either. A poll taken after the accusations began to surface showed Moore with a 10 point lead against his Democratic opponent, Doug Jones. If we haven t thrown in the moral towel as a country, Republicans certainly have. Jerry Falwell s moral majority has turned into an immoral minority of right-wing ideologues who would pimp out their own daughters if it meant putting another Republican in Congress.


U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and other top White House officials urged conservative activists on Thursday to set aside differences and unite behind President Donald Trump's agenda stressing tough trade and immigration policies. Addressing the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in suburban Maryland, outside Washington, Pence rallied the large group of Republicans who helped elect Trump on Nov. 8. "My friends, this is our time. This is the chance we've worked so hard for so long to see. This is the time to prove again that our answers are the right answers for America," Pence said. Trump was due to address CPAC on Friday. Earlier on Thursday, Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, known as a forceful influence in the White House, made a rare public appearance to appeal for support for the Republican president. "We want you to have our back" in upcoming battles, Bannon told the gathering, denouncing media criticism of Trump. He appeared onstage along with White House chief of staff Reince Priebus. The early days of the new administration have been marked by deep post-election divisions between Trump backers and liberals over the president's temporary travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries, as well as moves to increase deportations of illegal immigrants and build a wall on the border with Mexico. While conservatives celebrate Trump's role in delivering them victory in November's election, his agenda veers from traditional right-wing principles like limited government and open trade. Republicans who control the White House and Congress are also arguing over how to dismantle and replace former Democratic President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare law. Bannon and Priebus both sought to dispel a sense of disorder in the White House portrayed in media accounts. Referring to media criticism of Trump and echoing the president's attacks on the media, Bannon warned: "It's going to get worse every day" as Trump presses forward with his 2016 campaign promises. "If you think they're going to give you your country back without a fight you are sadly mistaken," said Bannon, who formerly ran the confrontational right-wing website Breitbart News. He blamed the "corporatist, globalist media that are adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda" under Trump. The CPAC conference, once a fringe event but now decidedly in the Republican mainstream, is being attended by an estimated 10,000 activists. White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, in remarks to the group, credited Trump with revitalizing the Republican Party's right wing. "Every great movement ends up being a little bit sclerotic and dusty after a time, and I think they (conservatives) need an infusion of energy," Conway said. CPAC organizers are trying to steer clear of controversy over the alt-right movement, a loose grouping that includes neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites whom Trump has been slow to denounce. Breitbart has a following among some of those groups and Bannon in the past had called the media organization a platform for the movement. Some Breitbart staffers were scheduled to participate in CPAC panel discussions. "We don't think there's any role for the alt-right in the conservative movement," Matt Schlapp, head of the American Conservative Union, which organizes CPAC, said in a phone interview. Just a month into his presidency, Trump is already being compared by some conservatives to their hero, former President Ronald Reagan, who swept into office in 1981 with a small-government, free-trade, tax-cutting agenda that energized the Republican right wing and molded the views of many of the CPAC faithful. Trump so far has been "pitch-perfect with conservatives as he starts his administration," said Schlapp. Even so, some conservatives, including some at CPAC, are nervously watching Trump. Trump has proposed a major expansion of government to police immigration. He has already canceled a trade deal with Asia-Pacific neighbors and sharply criticized one among the United States, Mexico and Canada. "I always worry any discussion about trade competition and tariffs ... misdirects the focus," said CPAC stalwart Grover Norquist, a powerful advocate of low taxes and small government. On taxes, Trump has backed cuts in rates, but his position on a Republican tax package under debate in Congress is unclear. Schlapp credited Trump with naming the most conservative Cabinet in a half-century and nominating a Supreme Court justice, Neil Gorsuch, who has conservatives' blessings. Trump has also thrilled conservatives by working hand in glove with congressional Republicans on overturning or gutting a handful of Obama-era regulations, including one that prevented coal companies from dumping waste into rivers and streams.


So now if you enter a contest, you need to worry about your political affiliation if you re a Republican? The left continues to show that they are the most intolerant of anyone who s across the aisle from them. It s getting uglier and uglier out there. What happened to the accepting leftists who claim they re ok with all people? WE HAVE A SUGGESTION: Please message Gypsy on Twitter or Instagram It might also be a good idea to contact Kat Von D Beauty. Light Up Social Media!The Wichita Eagle reported that Gypsy Freeman was declared the winner of a national art contest sponsored by Kat Von D Beauty and was set to receive a prize package worth about $2,100. That is, until an Instagram user found a post on her page supporting Donald Trump. Once that was made known to the company, Freeman reportedly received a message from Kat Von D s Instagram account informing her that she was disqualified.PLEASE SEND A MESSAGE OF ENCOURAGEMENT TO GYPSY FREEMAN VIA TWITTERAccording to the Eagle:When Freeman was announced as the winner, curious Instagrammers went to her page and found a pro-Trump post from Election Day last year.That evening, she received a direct message from Kat Von D s personal Instagram account, telling her the celebrity had drawn a personal line in the sand between myself and anyone who supports that man, according to screenshots of the conversation. My launch party [and my brand] celebrates many things that Trump is against, the celebrity went on to say, according to the screenshots. And I just need you to know that I personally have a hard time with inviting anyone who would support such an anti-feminist, anti-homosexual/LGBT, anti-immigrant, and anti-climate change fascist such as Trump. According to the screenshots, Freeman replied: I won t be upset with you if you can t have us there for these reasons, and I wish you the best. We would love to be there, of course, but I sincerely do understand if you decide to replace us with someone who supports the candidate you support. This woman is so talented! It should be about the work and not about politics. This is a shame but Gypsy will get much more publicity from this than she would have otherwise. Her website is amazing! The winning image is below:


As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday to propose close military coordination in Syria, the White House and Pentagon offered lukewarm support for the plan and demanded that Moscow show it was serious about fighting Islamic State, not just propping up President Bashar al-Assad.Kerry himself took a tough line after his meeting on Thursday with Putin, State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Moscow. "Secretary Kerry emphasized that absent concrete, near-term steps, diplomatic efforts could not continue indefinitely," Kirby said. Kerry's proposal would create a new center where U.S. and Russian militaries would share intelligence and coordinate air strikes against Islamic State and the Nusra Front, an al Qaeda affiliate. The move has angered U.S. military and intelligence officers and diplomats who argue that Russia has proved repeatedly that it cannot be trusted. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Defense Secretary Ash Carter supported Kerry's efforts to encourage Moscow to "do the right thing" in Syria. But he added that Carter has experience dealing with Moscow and maintains a "healthy dose of skepticism" about Russia's aims in the conflict. "The secretary supports Secretary Kerry's effort ... but he has also said that he's had questions about the Russian activities up to this point," Cook told reporters. "If the Russians are prepared to do the right thing in Syria, then the secretary of defense would be open to that conversation," he said. "But we're waiting to see what's going on. ... It's not clear that we'll ever reach an agreement." WHITE HOUSE SAYS IT'S UP TO RUSSIA At the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest's response was similarly cautious. "It's time for Russia to make serious decisions about how they want to use their influence inside of Syria both when it comes to their diplomatic influence, but also when it comes to their military capabilities," Earnest told a daily briefing on Thursday at the White House, "They have to decide if they're going to use the military to prop up the Assad regime or if they're going to use their military to go after extremists," Earnest said, "Our case is you can't do both." Kerry has expressed growing frustration with the lack of progress in ending Syria's five-year civil war despite agreements with Russia to secure a lasting nationwide cessation of hostilities and ensure that humanitarian aid reaches besieged communities. U.N.-led efforts to bring the warring sides together to negotiate a political transition also have failed. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau acknowledged a "very robust and very vigorous conversation" among government agencies over Kerry's plan. Asked whether Kerry's visit had the full backing of the White House, she added: "I'm not going to characterize that for the White House, but I would say that the secretary is going to ... have discussions in Moscow that present the administration's views." Anger Within the Administration But U.S. military and intelligence officers and diplomats involved in Syria policy expressed anger about Kerry's proposal, which several called naive. The Russians, said one official, had known for weeks about Kerry's upcoming visit to Moscow, yet two days before he was due to arrive they bombed a remote camp near Syria's border with Jordan used by U.S.-backed rebels. "That is consistent with what the Russians have been doing all along," said a U.S. military official, who like others spoke anonymously to criticize administration policy. "More of it has been to us, not with us, and the message has been clear all along: 'When our interests differ from yours, ours win." "They've violated every cessation of hostilities agreement they've ever agreed to, sometimes within hours," the official said. Another American official, who has helped train members of the Free Syrian Army rebel alliance, said the U.S.-backed opposition forces have been asking why the administration keeps seeking Russian help and are growing increasingly bitter, their anger compounded by what they complain is a lack of American military support. Former U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford expressed deep skepticism with Kerry's plan, saying Russian air strikes have primarily targeted U.S-supported moderate opposition groups. "How serious are they (Russia) about defeating terrorism, as opposed to bolstering Assad's position at the center? How are we to assume that they are going to do better if they work with the Americans?" Ford told Reuters. Ford said that Russia has been unable to get its "obstreperous client" Assad to make any political concessions, allow significant humanitarian assistance into numerous rebel-held enclaves or abide by a cessation of hostilities agreement. "I don't think the Russians can deliver," he said. "I don't see how this American-Russian condominium on the Islamic State can help bring about a negotiated solution to the broader Syrian conflict. It will make it less likely that Assad will make concessions that will bring the broader civil war to an end."