Guest views are now limited to 12 pages. If you get an "Error" message, just sign in! If you need to create an account, click here.

Jump to content

bostonangler

Members
  • Posts

    9,250
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by bostonangler

  1. Donald Trump’s legal team have unleashed the fury of internet jokes and trolls onto themselves after releasing a typo-riddled letter defending the President over former FBI Director's James Comey's testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee. “I am Marc Kasowitz, Predisent Trump’s personal lawyer,” the letter began. The internet was delighted with the mistake. The Twitter joke spigot had been opened. While many simply rejoiced in the latest typo to embarrass the President, others took it further, developing theories as to what the true implications of such an error could mean coming from a man who graduated from Cornell Law School where he served as editor of the Cornell Law Review. Theories proliferated: Was it actually an ingenious bit of legal work to give him an out should the heat in the metaphorical kitchen get too hot? Was it Marc Kasowitz’s absurd way to protect the president by trying to inject a small clerical error that could bring the whole case for impeachment down. As it turns out, other elements of the letter had some errors. Mr Kasowitz and his team went beyond misspelling the title of his highest profile, and most powerful client. He inexplicably added two periods to the end of a sentence toward the bottom. He skipped putting spaces between words. The real circumstance surrounding Mr Kasowitz’s many mistakes on Mr Trump’s important day may never be known, but he has certainly shown himself to be able to write a typo-free document. A review of his official biography on his law firm’s website by the Independent found zero typos there. That site, in a section dedicated to Mr Kasowitz’s professional accomplishments, his highest honor was listed right at top: Representing “President Donald J. Trump in a wide range of litigation matters for over 15 years.” Doh!!!!! B/A
  2. Chris Matthews: Trump-Russia Collusion Theory 'Came Apart' in Comey Hearing share this by Fox News Insider Even MSNBC's Chris Matthews is now having trouble with the notion that there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Sean Hannity called out the mainstream media on his show Thursday night for advancing the faulty narrative for months based on "innuendo." Reacting to the James Comey Senate hearing, Matthews said the Trump-collusion theory "came apart." The assumption of the president's critics, his pursuers you might say, is that somewhere along the line in the last year, the president had something to do with colluding with the Russians. Something to do, the helping hand, encouraging them, feeding their desire to affect the election in some way. Some role they played, some conversation he had with Michael Flynn or Paul Manafort or somewhere. But yet what came apart this morning was that theory. Matthews called it "fascinating" to hear Comey testify that Michael Flynn "wasn't central to the Russia investigation." The host said that he assumed Flynn could potentially "flip" on Trump after being accused of not truthfully filling out federal forms to become national security advisor. "And if that's not the case, where's the there there?" he asked. Hannity said the media has been "breathlessly lying" about Trump and Russia since the election, but now even "Mr. Thrill Up His Leg" is doubting the story. In the hearing, Comey also deemed inaccurate a February New York Times report that claimed Trump campaign associates contacted Russian intelligence multiple times. More fake news for you... B/A
  3. Trump's social media director receives ethics warning JILL COLVIN,Associated Press 2 hours 52 minutes ago WASHINGTON (AP) — White House social media director Dan Scavino violated the law when he used an official-looking Twitter account for campaign purposes, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel has concluded, issuing Scavino a letter of admonishment. The agency also warned that if Scavino engages in prohibited political activity again, it will be considered "a willful and knowing violation of the law, which could result in further action." The agency concluded that Scavino, one of Trump's most trusted aides, violated the Hatch Act, which bars most executive branch officials from using their government positions to influence elections. The decision came in response to a complaint from the good-government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington over a tweet from Scavino calling for the defeat of Rep. Justin Amash in a GOP primary. "@realDonaldTrump is bringing auto plants & jobs back to Michigan. @justinamash is a big liability," Scavino wrote on April 1. "#TrumpTrain, defeat him in primary." Scavino's Twitter account at the time featured photos of him standing in the Oval Office and of Trump delivering a speech behind a lectern with the presidential seal, CREW complained. "The rules are clear that government officials aren't allowed to use their position for campaign activity," executive director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement. "In these overly politicized times, the separation of official and campaign business is absolutely vital in keeping partisan politics out of government business." Scavino is one of the president's most loyal and longest-serving aides in the White House. He began working for Trump as a caddy at one of Trump's golf courses, and was part of the small group of staffers who traveled with the president across the country for the entirety of the campaign. A letter informing CREW of the decision said that Scavino was recently counseled about the Hatch Act by the Office of the White House Counsel and notes that he has not tweeted anything similar since. Scavino did not immediately respond to requests for comment. https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-social-media-director-admonished-political-tweet-174703969--politics.html Are these guys really this stupid???? B/A
  4. Left or right man or no man the climate is changing rapidly.... Ask your weatherman why Venus is the brightest ever. Ask why they are not reporting the earthquakes in Alaska, Tennessee, Alabama, Ohio. Ask why you haven't heard about the solar winds, the magnetic field increases. The media, governments and the elites are creating distraction while they prepare.... They make us worry with man made crisis and say nothing about what is happening... ... Just watch this video... The stories are written in the pages of The Book.... B/A
  5. We love Russia now! Well at least the idiots here who think Putin is more honorable than McCain are now fans of The Kremlin. B/A
  6. Kansas abandons massive tax cuts that provided model for Trump's plan State legislature rolls back Republican governors ˜terrible experiment Deep cuts had left the state with a $1bn budget hole and low growth Kansas governor Sam Brownback championed the cuts as a measure to spur growth“ but they have left the state with a $1bn hole in its budget. Photograph: Charlie Riedel/AP Dominic Rushe in New York and the Associated Press @dominicru Wednesday 7 June 2017 11.42 EDT Last modified on Thursday 8 June 2017 09.39 EDT Kansas has rejected the years-long tax-cutting experiment that brought its governor, Sam Brownback, to international attention and provided a model for the Trump administrations troubled tax plans. In a warning shot to the Trump administration, even Brownbacks fellow Republicans voted to override his veto of a bill to reverse many of the tax cuts he championed as a way to spur entrepreneurs and the economy, but which have left the state with a $1bn hole in its budget. 'We are a cautionary tale': Kansas feels the pain of massive Trump-style tax cuts Read more Starting in 2012, Brownbacks plan has been to march to zero“ cutting taxes wherever possible in the belief that the money Kansans saved would flow into the wider economy and drive growth. The governor was advised by Arthur Laffer, the economist who inspired Ronald Reagans trickle-down economic theory. So radical was his plan that critics called Kansas Brownbackistan State Democrats and local critics were delighted that Brownback plan had finally hit the rocks after earlier attempts to overrule the governors veto had failed. Senator Tom Holland, of Baldwin City, cheered the end of Sams march-to-zero madness. Judith Deedy, a mother of three from Johnson County who has campaigned against the cuts she blames for an escalating crisis in the states school system, said she was delighted by the news. It just didn't work. This was a terrible experiment that has left our state unable to do what it is supposed to do, she said. Advertisement Brownbacks defeat means the state will end a tax cut for limited liability companies (LLCs) and so-called pass-through businesses “ which meant independent business owners and farmers would pay no state tax on the bulk, if not all, of their income. That tax plan is similar to the pillar of Trumps tax proposal. After it was brought in, the number of LLCs in Kansas leapt from 190,000 to over 300,000 and tax revenues plummeted, but the rate of jobs growth in Kansas has lagged that of its neighbors. In an interview with the Guardian last month, Laffer defended his theories and said the problem was Brownback had not gone far enough. When you put an atomic bomb on a place, it will materially change the place – but a cherry bomb probably won't change the buildings or anything else, he said. Under the new tax plan, legislators expect to raise $1.2bn in new revenue over two years to close projected budget shortfalls totaling $889m through June 2019, and also provide additional funds for public schools. The conservative Republican governor still touts the income tax cuts enacted in 2012 and 2013 as pro-growth policies. But voters soured last year on the governor’s policies, ousting two dozen of his allies from the legislature and giving more power to Democrats and moderate Republicans who then backed this years tax increase. The legislatures action leaves his main political legacy in tatters. &&&&& Facebook Twitter Pinterest Judith Deedy said she was delighted Brownbacks tax cuts are being repealed. He still believes in this, and thats OK. I don't, said senate majority leader Jim Denning, a conservative Kansas City-area Republican who supported the first round of tax cuts in 2012 but voted to override the veto. I've made many, many bad decisions in my business career, as many bad as good, but I've always backed up and mopped up my mess. Thats what I'm doing now. Had the effort to override the veto failed, legislators would have had to start over on a new tax plan, with prospects of working into next week. Legislative leaders were waiting to finish work on the next state budget until tax issues were resolved, and Brownbacks administration had said that lawmakers need to pass a budget by 17 June for most state employees to continue getting paid after the new fiscal year begins in July. Let's get our work done, said representative Larry Hibbard, a moderate south-east Kansas Republican. Lets put this capitol in the rear-view mirror. Under the new tax laws, Kansas will return to having a third tax income tax rate for its wealthiest filers, something cuts in 2012 eliminated. The top rate will be 5.7%, as opposed to 4.6% now. The governor endorsed less aggressive income tax increases and proposed raising cigarette and liquor taxes and annual filing fees for for-profit businesses. But his proposals wouldn't have raised enough money to cover the spending increases for schools contemplated by lawmakers. We can and we must balance our budget without negatively harming Kansas families, Brownback said in his short veto message Tuesday afternoon. The tax increase was designed to also cover extra aid to the states 286 local public school districts because the state supreme court ruled in March that education funding is inadequate. The state spends about $4bn a year on its schools and lawmakers passed a plan Monday night to phase in a $293m increase in education funding over two years. Brownbacks remaining legislative allies, like him, suggested that the tax increase will ruin the economy, and they argued that Kansas has done little to control its spending – a point many Democrats and GOP moderates disputed. This level of taxation is wholly unnecessary, said senator Ty Masterson, a Wichita-area conservative Republican. What we're doing is fleecing our constituents. Trickle down doesn't work... When our founding fathers started the country they knew corporations needed to be the ones who paid taxes not individuals, and all these clowns think they are smarter than those whose vision started this great country... B/A
  7. Now that's good news for a change. Of course he could be lying, he is a spy after all! But I hope it is true. B/A
  8. I'm with you SnowGlobe you cannot trust these people... I wouldn't sell them a slingshot and a box of rocks. B/A
  9. Lame Stream Media.... You got that right. Read this guy's Bio.... CNN, PBS, now FOX... He isn't a journalist, he's an opportunist, just like the rest... Sorry Indraman, you've been hoodwinked by a con man. Tucker Carlson Biography Showing all 20 items Jump to: Overview (3) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (1) | Trade Mark (1) | Trivia (11) | Personal Quotes (3) Overview (3) Date of Birth 16 May 1969, San Francisco, California, USA Birth Name Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson Height 6' 1" (1.85 m) Mini Bio (1) Tucker Carlson was born on May 16, 1969 in San Francisco, California, USA as Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson. He is an actor, known for Fox and Friends (1998), Split: A Divided America (2008) and Tucker Carlson Tonight (2016). He has been married to Susan Andrews since 1991. They have four children. Spouse (1) Susan Andrews (1991 - present) (4 children) Trade Mark (1) Bow tie Trivia (11) Father, with Susan Carlson, of four children: Lillie, Buckley, Hopie, and Dorothy. Fox News contributor. Senior fellow, Cato Institute. Editor/founder (in 2009) of DailyCaller.com. Former contributing editor at New York Magazine. Contributor, Esquire Magazine. Miami, FL, USA; He is the founder and editor in chief of The Daily Caller, a 24-hour news site committed to providing its audience with original reporting, thought-provoking commentary, and breaking news. [April 2009] Fox News Contributor [February 2009] Lost his job as co-host of CNN's Crossfire (1982). Hosting his own weekly half-hour talk show on PBS, Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered (2004). [January 2005] Co-host of Fox and Friends (1998) Weekend [2013-2016)]. Named host of his own show, Tucker Carlson Tonight (2016) [November 3, 2016]. Personal Quotes (3) On the September 25, 2003 Crossfire (1982), Carlson said, "Score one for any yuppie community. They've won the right to trample on free speech. Congress is bypassing yesterday's court ruling to put the national do-not-call list on hold and today, passed a new law designed to hang up on telemarketers once and for all. When callers-in dared him to give out his own phone number, Carlson gave a phone number and said, "You can reach me there any time. That's fine. I've defended telemarketers. Feel free to call me. Someone is always there. But the next day, September 26, 2003, he had to confess, "Well, on yesterday's program on telemarketing, some of you may have seen it. I jokingly gave out what I said was my home phone number. In fact, it was the main number of the Washington bureau of the Fox News Channel. I thought it was funny. Fox did not think it was funny. Apparently, many of our viewers called that number, hoping to speak to me. Instead, they reached a grouchy Fox switchboard operator. Well, to our viewers, I'm sorry I gave you that bad information, even in jest. Last night, Fox responded by posting on its Web site my unlisted home phone number, the phone number where my wife and four small children often answer the phone, as they did last night, during dinner, when the first of several hundred Fox viewers called to scream obscenities at them into the phone. Fox had every right to be annoyed by what I did, amusing as I thought it was. They had no right to invade my privacy or to enable their followers to threaten my family. [from the CNN.com transcripts] [Asked by Elle magazine, "If you had to spend the rest of your life as a woman, who would you be?"] "Elizabeth Birch of the Human Rights Campaign, because you'd be presiding over an organization of thousands of lesbians, some of them quite good-looking." [The follow-up question: "What do women want?"] "They want to be listened to, protected, and amused. And they want to be spanked vigorously every once in a while." [on the September 26, 2003 Crossfire (1982), he told James Carville of North Carolina Senator John Edwards, who became the running mate of John Kerry in the 2004 presidential campaign:] "John Edwards might have been a promising senator. Now, his political career is over. You're not even going to respond to that, because you know it's true. ... He's not going to be the nominee and he's not running for the Senate again. ... He'll go back to chasing ambulances" [from CNN.com transcript]. B/A
  10. The good, the bad and the ugly https://fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/RL32499.pdf http://carnegieendowment.org/files/cp97_boucek_saudi_final.pdf https://www.newsbud.com/2017/04/30/saudi-arabia-is-the-top-sponsor-of-terrorism-not-iran/ http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/saudi-arabia-terrorism-funding-214241 http://www.veteranstoday.com/2017/02/13/saudi-arabia-is-the-number-one-terrorist-state-not-iran/
  11. Sadly the royal family is quite divided.... Some get it and some do not. Those are the ones with an agenda to spread the deadly beliefs... If power changes hands, we will be back in gas lines like the 70's in a flash... I know many here are too young to remember the embargo, but those were not happy times. B/A
  12. And we are selling Saudi 150 BILLION dollars in weapons.... Not Cool B/A
  13. How self-driving trucks can create more jobs than they kill Myles Udland Yahoo FinanceJune 5, 2017 The economic buzzword of the moment is automation. The robots are coming, we’re told, for our jobs, our money, and our cars, among other things. But this one-way view of automation as a job-killing tidal wave that leaves mass unemployment and poverty in its wake — requiring a universal basic income — misses that re-orienting the economy around new technology often creates new opportunities and, by extension, new jobs to be filled. And potentially even better jobs. A new research paper from David Price at the Richmond Fed examines the 1.8 million heavy truck and tractor-trailer drivers in the U.S. who are at risk of losing their jobs in the case of widespread adoption of self-driving trucks. And these jobs, Price notes, are of particular interest to economists, the media, and politicians given that these roles have been defined as “opportunity occupations,” or jobs economists define as those which pay at least the median national wage but do not require a bachelor’s degree. But looking at how both the banking industry coped with mass automation of a core function 40 years ago and how the retail sector can do more with its existing workforce provide reasons for optimism that we are not fated to a robot-dominated future. ATMs created more bank tellers Price uses the example of ATMs becoming widely adopted in the U.S. during the 1970s while the number of bank tellers in the country increased at the same time. The job that ATMs were automating, then, did not become obsolete but was changed and, as a result, made more valuable. As James Bessen wrote in the IMF’s publication “Finance & Development” in 2015: As banks pushed to increase their market shares, tellers became an important part of the ‘relationship banking team.’ Many bank customers’ needs cannot be handled by machines—particularly small business customers’. Tellers who form a personal relationship with these customers can help sell them on high-margin financial services and products. The skills of the teller changed: cash handling became less important and human interaction more important. In short, the economic response to automation of bank tellers’ work was much more dynamic than many people would expect. Being a member of a “relationship banking team,” while sounding a bit needlessly highfalutin, is a clear re-jiggering of an existing role into one that creates more value for the company and workers. Dispensing cash or depositing checks all day is precisely the kind of mindless work that robots and computers are great at. Explaining to customers the suite of other services a bank can offer is a great job for humans. (At Wells Fargo, however, this job might’ve been a little too great.) But the proliferation of bank tellers that followed the tellers’ primary job being automated shows how automation conversations ought to focus not on what jobs can robots or computers can do instead of humans, but which jobs only humans can effectively perform. The answer to the latter is likely far larger than the former. Work the floor then work the door Last week, reports surfaced that Walmart (WMT) had begun asking its employees to deliver packages on their way home. And this move comes as the company has again tried to make inroads against Amazon’s (AMZN) Prime program, which famously offers free two-day shipping — and other benefits — for a a yearly membership fee, by making some two million frequently-ordered items available for free two-day shipping with no annual membership fee. But asking store employees to also become delivery drivers on a part-time basis shows exactly what kinds of jobs are going to be needed if even more goods are shipped at an even lower cost across the country via self-driving trucks. According to Price, “By reducing the cost of transportation, self-driving trucks might lead manufacturers to build more warehouses so they can give customers faster deliveries.” And, as Price notes, getting trucks to drive themselves on an interstate highway is far simpler than getting a car to navigate city streets on its own. (The upshot here is that concerns over automation are often framed around the fact that in the 30 years, increasing economic inequality has seen high-wage jobs and employment grow, while middle-class prospects have declined. Making sales associates delivery people, then, advantages those who can afford to have their own car over those who take public transportation to work, thus creating further inequalities in the workforce.) Michael Watson, co-author of the book “Supply Chain Network Design,” told Price that big U.S. manufacturers may only have a handful of warehouses in the country, but if self-driving trucks make interstate transportation easier, then more numerous, but smaller, warehouses would be likely to crop up. This would then create more local delivery jobs. Back in 2013, Amazon hired the U.S. Postal Service to deliver packages on Sundays, leading some to argue the company ought to just buy the Postal Service outright. Also recall that in 2013 Amazon and UPS had to offer gift cards to customers who didn’t get holiday gifts in time for Christmas. Getting goods from the warehouse to the doorstep — what is called the “last mile” — has long been one of the biggest, if not the biggest, challenge for online retailers (or, in the case of Walmart, retailers who would like to have a bigger online presence). Price writes that, “many of the new short-haul jobs would likely be higher-value-added jobs, interacting with customers and collecting intelligence.” The analogy that Watson suggests to Price is that of the Coke (KO) or Pepsi (PEP) delivery person, who doesn’t just deliver drinks to a store but is also stocking shelves, looking at the displays of competitors, and keeping an overall eye on the state of the industry at the retail level. Thinking about the earlier example of bank tellers moving from being human cash dispensers to members of a “relationship banking team,” then, you can see how being a Walmart sales floor associate could morph into a job like “community sales manager,” a job which becomes not just working the sales floor but also delivering online-ordered packages to local customers. And maybe even asking them a question or two.
  14. People Are Turning to Outer Space for Relief From Trump News When headline fatigue gets you down, why not stare at pictures of cosmic explosions? Amr Dalsh / Reuters Last month, in a midst of a wave on nonstop, breaking-news reports about President Donald Trump—the surprise firing of “nut job” James Comey, the divulgence of classified information to Russian officials inside the Oval Office, the apparent attempts to stymy an FBI investigation—Christine Beavers felt overloaded. She’d heard and seen and read enough news. So Beavers opened a new tab in her browser, pulled up a website that wasn’t Twitter, and started looking for supernovae. Beavers, a scientist at Berkeley Lab in California, signed into Zooniverse, a crowdsourcing website that allows users, known as “citizen scientists” to aid researchers by combing through photos from satellites and telescopes and scans of ancient texts and war diaries. The latest Zooniverse campaign, a search for the light coming from exploding stars, came online hours before The Washington Post reported Trump had shared sensitive information the U.S. received from an ally about ISIS. The Australian National University had published data from the SkyMapper telescope, and they wanted help classifying potential supernovae among the small pinpricks of light. Beavers found herself forgetting about the news of the day as she clicked through. The work required considerably less mental bandwidth than reading the headlines. The scanning certainly requires some focus, but it’s mindless compared to the deluge of cable news and tweets. Beavers tried another campaign, asking users to classify African forest elephants, a vulnerable species, in photos taken by hidden cameras in the rainforests of Gabon. Zooniverse, like a movie or a good book, is just another form of escapism for overwhelmed minds. “There’s something just kind of soothing about looking at a picture, not having to do any in-depth analysis, not having to respond in an emotional way,” Beavers said. “I’m clicking, I’m scrolling, I’m not seeing horrible things. I’m just seeing images that are pleasing.” The deeper allure of Zooniverse is the perspective it offers, if only brief, she said. The supernova campaign serves as a reminder, whether comforting or terrifying, that humanity exists on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam, as Carl Sagan once wrote. “Right now, the idea of a massive vacuum of openness and silence, when it comes to news, is very attractive,” Beavers said. People have long looked to nature to get away from something else and reset, to experience a moment of peacefulness or awe. “It is a scientific fact,” wrote Frederick Law Olmsted, the American landscape architect who co-designed New York’s Central Park, wrote in 1865, “that the occasional contemplation of natural scenes of an impressive character, particularly if this contemplation occurs in connection with relief from ordinary cares … is favorable to the health and vigor of men.” Modern research has backed up his claim, showing that walking in natural landscapes can reduce depression. Users on Zooniverse are separated from natural phenomenon by a computer screen, but it provides a small dose of that distraction. That’s why Joy Seddon turned to Zooniverse, too. Seddon, who is retired, lives in Canberra, Australia’s capital city, a world away from Washington. But bad headlines, in her own country and others, are everywhere. “I feel the world today is going through a period of monumental change and for me it is both depressing and frustrating when listening to the news, whether on TV or in the newspaper, as it is full of violence, anger and despair,” Seddon said in a message on the website. “Looking at the night sky brings beauty back into my world and lets me know there is more to living than the constant stream of bad news.” For some, the natural world has seemed, in the heat of the moment, like a last resort in a barrage of news reports. After the announcement of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a distant star system in February, exasperated users across social media wondered, can we go there to escape what’s happening here? Can we send the president there, and maybe all of Congress, too? Stories about a mission to Mars have garnered similar responses. Some, confounded by the bad news, appear to look to the universe for answers, however unlikely. When I published a story yesterday about the detection of gravitational waves coming from two colliding black holes, someone tweeted at me, “Perhaps this is why the world is going mad? Looking for a crazy theory to soothe my aching mind.” Like Beavers and Seddon, Scott Sutherland, a meteorologist and science writer for The Weather Network in Canada, uses Zooniverse as a distraction, supplementing video games or movies when the news siren gets too loud, even up north. “We just get inundated by the news every day,” he said. “You reach a point where you just want to step away from it.” Sutherland has participated in other campaigns, including a search for exoplanets using data from the Kepler Space Telescope. It was a group of citizen scientists on Zooniverse that discovered the mysterious flickering of a distant star in 2015, which some astronomers believe could be signs of an alien civilization. The latest supernovae campaign has seen some success, too. The Australian National University announced last week that users discovered a star that exploded 970 million years ago, well before dinosaurs roamed the Earth. The relief that comes from activities like searching for supernovae or elephants, or even going for a walk outside, is, ultimately, short-lived. The universe can provide only some respite before it’s time to come back down to Earth. “If we give [people] a bigger perspective of the universe, they see that maybe what’s happening on this little planet on this isolated galaxy in one single corner of this immense universe, maybe it’s not quite so overwhelming,” Sutherland said. “But we still have to pay attention to it. We can’t ignore it.” After Trump announced Thursday that he would withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement, I asked Sutherland how he might distract himself from this latest piece of news. The thought of finding solace in science in the face of such news seemed almost eerie. “Unfortunately, as much as I’d like to retreat from this one, I just can’t,” he wrote in an email. Beavers sounded slightly more hopeful. “I haven’t yet found refuge in internet distraction yet,” she said, explaining that she had been in a daylong meeting. “But it will come.”
  15. Russian jet intercepts US bomber over Baltic Sea By Lucas Tomlinson Published June 06, 2017 Fox News Russian jets on Tuesday intercepted a B-52 bomber, similar to the one above. (Reuters) A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber flying a "routine mission" in international airspace over the Baltic Sea was intercepted by a Russian jet on Tuesday, a Pentagon spokesman said. The U.S. bomber was still up in the air Tuesday afternoon and the crew had not been debriefed about the incident, meaning it was not yet known exactly how close the Russian Su-27 fighter jet came to the U.S. plane, Capt. Jeff Davis said. The bomber was deployed to the U.K. from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana earlier this month, U.S. European Command told Fox News. The "vast majority" of Russian intercepts with U.S. forces are safe and professional, Davis said. But Tuesday's intercept is just the latest example of aggressive Russian actions aimed at the U.S. military and homeland. TRUMP AND RUSSIA INVESTIGATION: WHAT TO KNOW In May, a pair of Russian Bear Bombers entered Alaska's "air defense zone" escorted by two Russian jets. That instance followed several consecutive nights in April when Russian spy planes and bombers buzzed Alaskan airspace. In February, The Russian spy ship Viktor Leonov traversed the U.S. East Coast and approached a Navy submarine base in Connecticut. PUTIN OPENS UP ON CLAIM RUSSIA HAS DAMAGING TRUMP INFO There have also been several instances of Russian jets buzzing Navy ships at sea. The U.S. bomber intercepted Tuesday arrived days ago in the region to take part in the annual Baltic training operation called "Baltops." There are 14 allied countries participating in the annual military exercise which includes 6,000 personal, 50 aircraft, 56 ships and submarines. The exercise also includes live fire training. Some ships will be sailing from Poland to Germany. Lucas Tomlinson is the Pentagon and State Department producer for Fox News Channel. You can follow him on Twitter: @LucasFoxNews B/A
  16. Qatar row: Trump claims credit for isolation 51 minutes ago From the section Middle East These are external links and will open in a new window Copy this link http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40175935. Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani Qatar's foreign minister says there is no evidence of support for radical Islam US President Donald Trump has claimed credit for the pressure being placed on Qatar by Gulf neighbours who accuse it of supporting terrorism in the region. He said his recent visit to Saudi Arabia was "already paying off" and the development might mark the "beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism". Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Yemen, Libya's eastern-based government and the Maldives have all cut diplomatic and other ties with Qatar. Qatar strongly denies the allegations. Mr Trump's recent speech in the capital Riyadh, in which he blamed Iran for instability in the Middle East and urged Muslim countries to take the lead in combating radicalisation, is seen as likely to have emboldened Gulf allies to act against Qatar. "During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar - look!" Mr Trump tweeted on Tuesday. He later tweeted: "So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with the King and 50 countries already paying off. They said they would take a hard line on funding... extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!" The Qatar diplomatic crisis explained Why this row has erupted I'm flying through the Gulf: How will this affect me? Qatar is home to the biggest US military air base in the Middle East, with about 8,000 personnel based at al-Udeid. The official statement from White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the US was in communication with all parties "to resolve issues and restore co-operation". "The US still wants to see this issue de-escalated and resolved immediately, in keeping with the principles that the president laid out in terms of defeating terror financing and extremism," he said. In the same week as Mr Trump's Riyadh speech, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE blocked Qatari news sites, including Al Jazeera. On Monday, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE gave Qatari nationals two weeks to leave, banned their own citizens from travelling to Qatar, and cut all transport links. Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Tuesday that the economic measures should persuade Qatar to change its policies and behave "like a normal country". Speaking in Paris, he called on Qatar's rulers to end their support for the Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestinian militant group Hamas and what he called "hostile media". "We believe that common sense and logic and will convince Qatar to take the right steps," he said. The emir of Kuwait - one of the Gulf countries not involved in the dispute - travelled to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday in an attempt to mediate. He later left after a "brotherly visit" but there was no word on the outcome of the talks. Media captionQatar Airways passengers in Abu Dhabi vent frustration Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told Al Jazeera that his country would not retaliate but was unhappy with regional rivals "trying to impose their will on Qatar or intervene in its internal affairs". He told the BBC that Qatar was well prepared to withstand a "blockade", but also complained that the people of Qatar were the victims of "collective punishment" by other countries. The foreign minister said his government had told President Trump during his Middle-East trip that there was no evidence that Qatar was supporting radical Islamists, adding that the claims were based on "fabricated evidence and lies". 'Murkier dealings' - Analysis by Barbara Plett Usher, BBC Washington correspondent To be clear, when it comes to terrorist financing, nobody's hands are clean. The Qataris, Saudis and Kuwaitis have all funded extremists in the Syria conflict. All have pulled back from that under US pressure. But Qatar's dealings are arguably murkier than the others because it likes to see itself as a neutral player that can act as an intermediary, and is thus willing to play both sides - Saudi Arabia and Iran. Whatever the case, the Pentagon doesn't share Mr Trump's tone of triumphalism. Qatar hosts America's biggest Middle East air base, the nerve centre for the air campaigns in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State group. So far officials say operations have not been affected, but they might be if diplomatic feuding continues amongst US Arab allies. What steps have been taken against Qatar? The states that joined Monday's move against Qatar, a tiny but gas-rich peninsula, include some of the biggest powers in the Arab world. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE closed all transport links. Food, flights and football at risk Five things you may not know about Qatar Disruption to airspace in the Gulf began on Tuesday morning local time. Doha, Qatar's capital, is a major hub for international flight connections. Airlines affected include Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Emirates. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have revoked the licences of Qatar Airways and ordered its offices to close within 48 hours. When avoiding Saudi Arabia, their massive - and only - neighbour, Qatar's planes are having to take more indirect routes, leading to longer flight times. Saudi pulls Qatar Airways licence In a country reliant on imported food, residents have started to stockpile. How the economy may be hit: Andrew Walker, BBC News Image copyright AFP Image caption Residents were stockpiling water on Monday A substantial amount of Qatar's food is transported across the border from Saudi Arabia, which is being closed. That is also an important route for construction materials - needed for the energy industry and for the preparations for the 2022 football World Cup. Qatar's exports are dominated by oil and gas. They are mostly seaborne, so should not be immediately hit, but the general economic disruption could have an impact if the dispute drags on. 'A Qatarstrophe' - social media reacts All you need to know about Qatar That possibility pushed the price of crude oil higher, but only briefly. Qatar is a member of the exporters' group Opec and the dispute could yet undermine the organisation's efforts to raise prices by restricting production. Why did this come about? While the severing of ties was sudden, tensions have been building for years and particularly in recent weeks. Broadly, two key factors drove Monday's decision: Qatar's ties to Islamist groups, and to Iran, Saudi Arabia's regional rival. Wealthy individuals in Qatar are believed to have made donations and the government has given money and weapons to hardline Islamist groups in Syria - Qatar says this is not the case. The Financial Times also reports that Gulf allies were angry that Qatar had paid a $1bn (£773m) ransom to jihadists and Iranian security officials after Qatari nationals were kidnapped in Iraq and Syria. Is Saudi to blame for IS? Saudi Arabia, too, has been accused of funding IS, either directly or by failing to prevent private donors from sending money to the group - allegations it denies. B/A
  17. This is too funny.... I haven't complained about anyone protesting..... I believe I hear the pot calling the kettle black.... Black Pots Matter!!!! LOL B/A
  18. Hard to believe people subscribe to this way of thinking... I have to applaud the protesters for standing up. Thank God we can protest in America. B/A
  19. Hey Vlad you are becoming so popular in The United States of Amnesia, maybe you can run for president... You have a lot of believers here on DV. B/A
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.