November 29, 2017

The Far-Right Group Retweeted By Donald Trump Deleted A Bunch Of Pro-Putin Posts From Its Website

Source: BuzzFeed News



Deleted posts included "GO PUTIN! Russian president’s popularity on rise in Czech Republic!" and "VIDEO: Putin backs our Brexit".

Posted on November 29, 2017, at 10:48 a.m.

James Ball
BuzzFeed Special Correspondent

The far-right political party Britain First removed a series of pro-Putin posts from its website at some point in the last year, BuzzFeed News has learned.

The posts included one titled "GO PUTIN! Russian president’s popularity on rise in Czech Republic!" and "VIDEO: Putin backs our Brexit". The website's content is usually shared on the far-right group's Facebook page, which has more than 1.5 million followers.

Three inflammatory anti-Muslim tweets from the fringe party's deputy leader were retweeted on Wednesday morning by US President Donald Trump, bringing a renewed level of scrutiny to an otherwise ignored organisation, which has no MPs or councillors.

Journalist Ben Judah noticed the site had at some stage recently removed posts tagged "Vladimir Putin" from its website after spotting they were still listed on Google – where deleted content generally vanishes the next time the site is indexed.

https://twitter.com/b_judah/status/935891251546787840



Read more: https://www.buzzfeed.com/jamesball/the-far-right-group-retweeted-by-donald-trump-deleted-a?utm_term=.nlamDDYBd#.fwX3kkrzK

November 29, 2017

They Choose Party Over Neighbors, Friends, And Country - Gene Lyons

Gene Lyons

November 29, 2017 2:39 am

Sometimes it’s hard to be cynical enough about the current course of American politics. Astonishing, yet not at all surprising. That was my immediate reaction to the news—largely ignored by national print and broadcast media—that the Trump administration refused to ask Congress for one thin dime of disaster funding in the wake of Northern California’s devastating wildfires. The state had requested $7.4 billion, modest under the circumstances.

The drought- and wind-driven fires—every bit as much a natural cataclysm as a hurricane or a tornado—killed 43 Californians and destroyed almost 9000 homes and commercial buildings. Vast stretches of the beautiful city of Santa Rosa looked as if it they been carpet bombed. Many thousands of your fellow Americans were rendered homeless and destitute.

Yet that evidently didn’t qualify as a disaster to Donald J. Trump, who couldn’t even be bothered to show up on the west coast to throw paper towels around—as he’d done in Puerto Rico. And why?Mother Jones’ invaluable Kevin Drum thinks he knows: California’s governor, Jerry Brown, and its two U.S. Senators are Democrats, like 39 of its 53 congressmen.
And Democrats need not apply.

“Occam’s Razor” Drum writes “suggests that the best guess is the most obvious one: California is a Democratic state that didn’t vote for Donald Trump. You don’t mess with the family.”
Indeed, Californians voted against Trump almost two to one. Sonoma County, whose county seat is Santa Rosa, gave Trump a mere 22 percent of its vote. So let them live in tents and shovel their own ashes. They’re dead to this White House—apparently unworthy of help in Trump’s America.

Texas, Florida and even wave-tossed Puerto Rico, whose politicians basically shamed Trump into a grudging, lukewarm response to its humanitarian crisis, will share what local leaders call an inadequate relief package in the wake of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. (Sen. Bernie Sanders has proposed a $146 billion aid bill for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, but absent GOP support its chances would appear slim and none.)

Either way, Californians are on their own.

Even more remarkable, Drum thinks, is that with a single exception—Rep. Ed Royce of Orange County—“California’s Republican delegation boycotted a request for disaster funding for their own state.”

They haven’t simply chosen party over country, like GOP partisans determinedly ignoring the mountain of evidence documenting the Trump campaign’s entanglement with Kremlin operatives during the 2016 election. They have chosen party over their own friends and neighbors.

Because like altogether too many Trump supporters, they don’t consider fire victims as friends, neighbors or fellow Californians.

Instead, they’re Democrats, and as such avowed enemies.

Partisanship is nothing new in American politics, of course, but GOP hostility toward their Democratic rivals took a hard turn after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. Lacking a foreign enemy to demonize, the party’s evangelical right wing selected the Clintons as Public Enemies #1 and #2.

I once got a chance to ask the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, of “Clinton Chronicles” fame—a lurid video charging President Clinton with drug-smuggling and murder—if the Biblical commandment against false witness was more or less important than the one forbidding adultery. Somewhat to his credit, he said they were equally significant, although he pretended not to know why I was asking.
And then came Fox News.

Silly me, I recall being flabbergasted when delegates to the 2004 Republican convention wore Band-Aids mocking Sen. John Kerry’s Vietnam War wounds. Three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star for heroism in combat weren’t enough to persuade these zealots of the Democratic presidential candidate’s patriotism.

Surely, I imagined, such mockery would backfire.

It turned out that I had underestimated how far around the bend the Foxified GOP had gone. However, it’s one thing to turn partisan zeal against symbolic figures like presidential candidates, quite another to punish one’s fellow citizens. Short term, Trump will seemingly pay no price. What remains to be seen, however, is what price blue state Republicans will pay.

Less melodramatic, but perhaps more politically consequential is the way the current GOP “tax cut” bill takes direct aim at taxpayers in anti-Trump states. Just two of its provisions—sharply limiting the home mortgage interest deduction, and eliminating the federal deduction of state and local income and property taxes—would not only stick taxpayers in California and the urban northeast with sharply higher income taxes, but could destabilize real estate markets.

Up go your income taxes, down goes the value of your home. All this to shovel countless billions to corporations and tycoons like Donald J. Trump and his hardworking family of grifters, who, like really need the cash. Republican politicians in suburban swing districts will be left to fend for themselves.

###

http://www.nationalmemo.com/choose-party-neighbors-friends-country


Full article posted with the permission of the author -- Don

November 29, 2017

Donald Trump Jr. to talk to House Intelligence Committee behind closed doors

Source: CNN




CNN Digital Expansion DC Manu Raju
By Manu Raju, CNN Senior Congressional Correspondent
Updated 9:52 AM ET, Wed November 29, 2017

(CNN)Donald Trump Jr. has agreed to meet with the House Intelligence Committee as soon as next week, giving lawmakers their first opportunity to question President Donald Trump's eldest son over his contacts with Russians during the campaign season, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter.

Trump Jr.'s highly anticipated testimony, scheduled for December 6, comes as he has faced growing questions on Capitol Hill about the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower where he met with Russian operatives after being promised dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees have interviewed several of the participants in the meeting, including on Tuesday when the House panel questioned the Russian translator, Anatoli Samochornov, who also attended the Trump Tower session, sources said.

But Trump Jr.'s appearance will be one of the most anticipated events yet of the investigation, particularly in light of new revelations of correspondence he had with WikiLeaks during the campaign season.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/29/politics/donald-trump-jr-russia/index.html?sr=twCNN112917donald-trump-jr-russia1006AMStory

November 29, 2017

Scarborough's brother: I supported Trump all along but he just crossed the line

BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 11/29/17 10:47 AM EST

Joe Scarborough's brother — a supporter of President Trump — said Trump "crossed the line" with his tweet appearing to call for an investigation into a dead staffer found in the former GOP congressman's office in 2001.

https://twitter.com/GeoScarborough/status/935883944549081088

George Scarborough wrote that Trump mentioning fake news regarding his brother gives him "serious pause regarding" Trump's "'news' sources."
He tweeted that if Trump doesn't apologize, the president will lose his "public support & my vote in the next election."

"No [one] is deserving of lies being told about them in the public domain where idiots believe everything they see on social media," he tweeted.

more
http://thehill.com/homenews/news/362326-scarboroughs-brother-i-supported-trump-all-along-but-he-just-crossed-the-line

November 29, 2017

Even some of Trump's prominent allies are appalled that he's now promoting neo-fascist propaganda

SARAH K. BURRIS
29 NOV 2017 AT 10:15 ET

In an early morning Twitterstorm, President Donald Trump retweeted a pro-fascist activist in Britain, who published videos of an alleged Muslim attacking non-Muslims.

Dutch media claimed that the culprit involved wasn’t a Muslim. Nor was he a migrant. Rather he is a 16-year old Dutch boy from town of Edam-Volendam. He was reportedly arrested on May 13, one day after the incident happened.

https://twitter.com/HaraldDoornbos/status/935864806682308609

According to a Washington Post reporter, “one of Trump’s anti-Muslim videos is from July 2013 in Egypt, following the military coup of President Morsi, which prompted protests/clashes throughout the country.”

https://twitter.com/AshleyRParker/status/935869164660645891

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/935862113263935488

https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet/status/935837922326171648

https://twitter.com/AG_Conservative/status/935864255995400197

Washington Free Beacon reporter Alex Grisold tweeted another concerning information about the woman that Trump was “obsessively” retweeting this morning. The story was from, Jayda Frasen, who was convicted of religiously aggravated harassment in November 2016 after she abused a woman wearing a hijab.

https://twitter.com/piersmorgan/status/935842887480369152

###

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/even-some-of-trumps-prominent-allies-are-appalled-that-hes-now-promoting-neo-fascist-propaganda/

November 29, 2017

A court denied a gay couple the right to adopt for a really good reason

By Bil Browning · Wednesday, November 29, 2017

A South African court has denied a gay couple the right to adopt a child and the judge did it for a good reason. The adoption would not be in the child’s best interests.

The two men have been together for ten years and wanted to have a child with a surrogate mother. Surrogacy agreements have to be approved by a court in the African country before adoption rights are granted.

While they have been partners for a decade, one of the prospective fathers is not out of the closet. The two men, who live separately to hide their relationship, were only identified in court as CJD and HN.

Judge Ronel Tolmay declined the agreement saying the closeted relationship could harm the child’s psychological well being. “I can see a little toddler excitedly running towards his father in public, shouting out: ‘daddy’. Would the father pretend not to be the parent? How will this impact on the child?” she said in the decision.

“No one can judge a gay person who, because of persisting public prejudice, is reluctant to reveal his sexual orientation. However, the court must always place the rights of the child first.

more
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2017/11/court-denied-gay-couple-right-really-good-reason

November 29, 2017

Over Half of Public Comments to FCC on Net Neutrality Appear Fake: Study

Source: U.S. News & World Report




Nov. 29, 2017, at 10:02 a.m.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than half of the 21.7 million public comments submitted to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission about net neutrality this year used temporary or duplicate email addresses and appeared to include false or misleading information, the Pew Research Center said on Wednesday.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican appointed by President Donald Trump, proposed in April to scrap the 2015 landmark net neutrality rules, moving to give broadband service providers sweeping power over what content consumers can access.

Pai has said the action would remove heavy-handed internet regulations. Critics have said it would let internet service providers give preferential treatment to some sites and apps and allow them to favor their own digital content. From April 27 to Aug. 30 the public was able to submit comments to the FCC on the topic electronically. Of those, 57 percent used either duplicate email addresses or temporary email addresses, while many individual names appeared thousands of times in the submissions, Pew said.

For example, "Pat M" was listed on 5,910 submissions, and the email address [email protected] was used in 1,002 comments. TV host John Oliver supported keeping net neutrality earlier this on his HBO talk show.

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/technology/articles/2017-11-29/over-half-of-public-comments-to-fcc-on-net-neutrality-appear-fake-study

November 29, 2017

San Juan mayor: GOP tax bill would be worse for Puerto Rico than hurricanes

BY OLIVIA BEAVERS - 11/29/17 09:55 AM EST

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz on Tuesday said the tax legislation Republicans are pushing in Congress will have worse consequences for Puerto Rico than the hurricanes that hit the island earlier this year.

"This would be a much more devastating blow to our economy than Irma and Maria put together," Cruz said on "The Rachel Maddow Show."

Cruz noted that the tax proposal includes a 20 percent excise tax on goods imported from Puerto Rico to the mainland United States. That provision, she said, would destroy the island's economy. "[Our economy] is crippled already, this would obliterate it," she said.

The San Juan Mayor accused President Trump's administration of failing to protect the island state from the possibility of a humanitarian crisis enfolding, while claiming that GOP lawmakers' have repeatedly pledged they will fix the language in the bill but have failed to do so.

"The Republican Congress has promised we're going change the language, we’re going to change the language. But nothing happens. And that hurts the credibility of the Trump administration — if they have any credibility at all at this point — in terms of the Puerto Rican humanitarian crisis," she continued.

more
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/362309-san-juan-mayor-gop-tax-bill-would-be-more-devastating-to-puerto-ricos-economy

November 29, 2017

Trump pledges new wave of 'major sanctions' on North Korea after call with China's Xi

Source: The Washington Post




By Simon Denyer November 29 at 10:15 AM

BEIJING — President Trump pledged Wednesday that “additional major sanctions” would be imposed on North Korea after Pyongyang's latest intercontinental missile test.

Trump’s statement followed a telephone conversation with his Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country is an economic lifeline for North Korea. Beijing’s backing is needed for any additional economic pressures on the regime of Kim Jong Un, and it was unclear how far China could go in applying new sanctions.

“Just spoke to President XI JINPING of China concerning the latest provocative actions of North Korea,” Trump tweeted. “Additional major sanctions will be imposed on North Korea today. This situation will be handled!”

On Wednesday, North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, its third and most advanced yet, with experts calculating that the U.S. capital is now technically within North Korean reach.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/north-korea-missile-test-provides-a-fresh-challenge-for-trumps-relationship-with-china/2017/11/29/c35f0880-d4e1-11e7-9461-ba77d604373d_story.html

November 29, 2017

UPDATED: Point of Order raised in British House of Commons regarding President Trump's tweets.

Source: CSPAN


https://twitter.com/cspan/status/935878881474760704


Read more: Link to source

---

UPDATE

British lawmaker: Trump invite to visit UK should be withdrawn

BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 11/29/17 10:02 AM EST

British lawmaker Chuka Umunna called for President Trump's invite to visit the United Kingdom in 2018 to be withdrawn.

His call comes after Trump on Wednesday morning retweeted a series of videos that purported to show violent acts by Muslims, first sent out by the leader of an ultranationalist party in Great Britain.

"I don't think the president of the United States, a president that has not only promoted bigotry, misogyny and racism in his own country, I don't think he is welcome here," he said during an interview on Sky News.

"I think the invite that has been made to him to come to our country in early 2018 should be withdrawn." He accused Trump of normalizing hatred.

more
http://thehill.com/homenews/news/362312-british-lawmaker-trump-invite-to-visit-uk-should-be-withdrawn