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Monthly Archives: September 2017

Vicente Fox Slams ‘Cruel’ Trump Over #DACA, Says Minorities To Be Majority In ‘Few Years’

Vicente Fox was able to get through an anti-Trump tirade without dropping any F-bombs, in a reaction to the decision to cancel the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (#DACA) program – which a Mark Zuckerberg linked study found would cost ‘Dreamers’ 800,000 jobs which can now to go American citizens and foreigners legally residing in the U.S.

Fox starts off with a sharp ‘TRUMP! You have failed America, cancelling DACA,” adding “This measure is cruel and heartless. Worst than any machine. You’re cancelling the future of 800,000 children and young people. You are so mistaken, the future of any country is the minorities which will be majorities – in a few years. You can not stop the change. The progress. The future, of that great nation.”

Who else thinks this is ‘CRUEL’ specifically?

For starters, former Hillary staffer in charge of ShareBlue, Peter Daou – who founded the new liberal propaganda repository Hillary tweeted about the other day:

Who else thinks this is cruel? Why, a ton of liberal pundits, politicians, and CEOs! It’s as if they compared notes for the word of the day.

Twitter is in fact chock full of tweets from prominent liberals who all thought to describe Trump’s decision to end #DACA as ‘cruel,’ despite several lawsuits challenging its legality in the first place.

 

 

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Hillary’s New Book Shifts Blame For Election Loss On… BERNIE SANDERS!?

(optional background music)

Hillary Clinton slammed Bernie Sanders in her new book, What Happened, calling the Senator from Vermont an ‘over-promiser’ whose attacks on her during the primary caused ‘lasting damage’ which paved the way for Donald Trump’s ‘Crooked Hillary’ campaign – while President Obama counseled her to ‘grit my teeth and lay off Bernie.’

In the book – slated for release on September 12th (1 year and 1 day after she was chucked into a van like a side of beef), Clinton says Sanders “had to resort to innuendo and impugning my character” because the two Democrats “agreed on so much,” according to CNN

Clinton went on to blame some of Bernie’s supporters, “the so-called ‘Bernie Bros,’ took to harassing my supporters online. It got ugly and more than a little sexist.”

“When I finally challenged Bernie during a debate to name a single time I changed a position or a vote because of a financial contribution, he couldn’t come up with anything,” Clinton wrote. “Nonetheless, his attacks caused lasting damage, making it harder to unify progressives in the general election and paving the way for Trump’s ‘Crooked Hillary’ campaign.”

Cheating? What cheating? 

Since the 500 page What Happened isn’t available for our reading pleasure, I’m going to make a long-shot prediction that there’s no mention of Hillary colluding with Donna Brazile to cheat against Bernie in the primaries… Because I’m sure the optics on that weren’t as bad as Bernie doing what every political candidate has done since the beginning of time and talking shit about their opponent.

Meanwhile, What Happened can be summed up in one meme:

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Meet The New Antibiotic-Resistant ‘Hypervirulent’ Superbug Discovered In China

To take your mind off nuclear war with North Korea and deadly hurricanes, let’s talk about other ways to cull the herd…

Scientists in Hangzhou, China have discovered a new strain of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia which spreads incredibly fast, after a 2016 outbreak in a hospital ICU led to the deaths of five patients ranging in age from 53 to 73. In findings published in The Lancet, researchers conclude that the new superbug poses a “substantial threat to human health” due to the fact that it is “simultaneously hypervirulent, multidrug resistant, and highly transmissible.”

drugs.com

K. pneumoniae  (ST11 CR-HvKP) is a triple threat; a deadly combination of two previously known strains of pneumonia; one which shrugs off all but the toughest antibiotics, and the other which is classified as ‘very severe’ and ‘hypervirulent’ in terms of lethality and how quickly it spreads.

The new report also reveals that samples from other parts of China tested positive for the new superbug, noting that “[f]ailure to control its early spread right now, will make a global epidemic of carbapenem-resistant [CRE], hypervirulent K. pneumoniae hard to avoid,” advising that “Control measures should be implemented to prevent further dissemination of such organisms.”

Epidimiologiests Liang Chen and Barry Kreisworth call the new strain of pneumoniae an “alarming evolutionary event.

While Allergan’s U.S. approved antibiotic of last resort ‘Avibactam’ can likely handle ST11 CR-HvKP, it is not available in China, which currently has nothing it its pharmaceutical arsenal to battle the infection.

Via NPR

The microbe can fight off all drugs available in China, Chen says. “We don’t have anything in China to stop it,” he says. “There is a drug available in the U.S. that should be effective against it, but we haven’t tested it yet.”

In the outbreak, the five patients who died were all older than 53. They were all on ventilators after undergoing major surgeries. And they died from severe lung failure, multiorgan failure or septic shock, the researchers found.

“The disease progresses very fast,” Chen says. “It starts in the lungs and then infects other organs, like the liver.”

Until China approves Avibactam or a similarly effective antibiotic of last resort, doctors and health officials can prevent the spread of hypervirulent pneumonia by quickly identifying outbreaks and isolating the infected.

 

 

 

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Barclays Warns Hurricane Irma Damage Could Be ‘Largest Ever’ – Insurance Co’s Spiral

With winds topping 180 mph, Category 5 Hurricane Irma has been deemed the strongest Atlantic hurricane on record – which, writes Barclays, could hit southern Florida early next week. Evacuation orders have been issued to the Keys.

“We think Irma’s insured damage in Florida could be the largest ever in the US perhaps equivalent to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 ($50bn on an inflation-adjusted basis). In a worst case scenario, catastrophe modelers AIR Worldwide and Karen Clark and Co. have estimated a repeat of the 1926 Miami hurricane could result in $125-130bn of insured damage.”

This is substantially higher than the mostly uninsured property affected in Texas by hurricane Harvey, and has sent the S&P Property & Casualty Insurer Index tumbling.

ZeroHedge

Via CNBC:

Stock prices of home insurers tied to Florida plunged Tuesday after Irma strengthened into a Category 5 storm. This latest storm system follows Harvey, which dumped several feet of rain, destroyed thousands of homes and killed over 50 people in a matter of days.

Shares of HCI GroupUniversal Insurance Holdings, and Heritage Insurance Holdings, which provide property and casualty homeowners insurance in the Sunshine State, were down 13, 16, and 13 percent, respectively.

Reinsurers XL Group and Everest contributed some of the largest losses to the S&P 500’s decline, down 5 and 4 percent, respectively.

Barclay’s Jay Gelb writes:

“We would view Irma as more of a risk to the traditional reinsurers as well as third-party providers of reinsurance capital than the primary commercial insurers and personal lines insurers based on the industry’s long-standing view that Florida poses substantial windstorm risk. Of the companies we cover, reinsurers expected to have among the largest exposures to a Florida hurricane could include RE, XL, VR, RNR, and AHL. Among primary commercial insurers, we would expect AIG to have among the largest exposure.”
Update: 
Universal Insurance highlights the previously announced placement of its 2017-2018 reinsurance programs (effective June 1, 2017)  
  • As publicly disclosed at the time, UPCIC has a net retention of $35 million per catastrophe event for losses incurred, in all states, up to a first event loss of $2.65 billion. In addition, under an excess catastrophe contract specifically covering risks located outside the state of Florida and intended to further reduce UPCIC’s $35 million net retention, UPCIC has obtained catastrophe coverage of $30 million in excess of $5 million covering certain loss occurrences, including hurricanes, in states outside of Florida.
  • In certain circumstances involving a catastrophic event impacting both Florida and other states, UPCIC’s retention could result in pre-tax net liability as low as $5 million — the $35 million net retention under the all states reinsurance program could be offset by as much as $30 million in coverage under the other states reinsurance program. These retention amounts are gross of any potential tax benefit the Company would receive in paying such losses. UPCIC’s statutory surplus as of June 30, 2017 was $351 million.

To top it off, gulf residents will be dealing with Jose next…

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WH Source: Sessions’ ‘Amazing’ DACA Speech Rocks The Left

AG Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump administration is ending the Obama-era DACA program, stating “We cannot admit everyone who would like to come here. That is an open border policy and the American people have rightly rejected it… it’s just that simple.”

Axios reports a White House source said Sessions gave an ‘amazing’ press conference which rocked the left.

Key excerpts from his statement:

  • “The executive branch, through DACA, deliberately sought to achieve what the legislative branch specifically refused to authorize… such an open-ended circumvention of immigration laws was an unconstitutional exercise of authority.”
  • “The nation must set and enforce a limit on how many immigrants we admit each year and that means all can not be accepted.
The reaction, per a source close to the White House: “In one amazing press conference, Jeff Sessions lit up the entire institutional left, the mainstream media and probably caused a couple tears to hit the floor from some West Wing Democrats.”
And yes, the butthurt is strong;

Let’s see if Hurricane Irma and Jose can wag the dog on this one…

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Trump Tax Overhaul Progressing, Cohn Wants Before End Of Year For 2018 Midterm Campaigns

Politico reports that the Trump team and congressional leaders, who have nicknamed themselves the ‘Big 6,’ are making ‘significant strides’ in overhauling the U.S. tax code beyond the six-paragraph framework presented in July, the goal being to push tax reform through before the end of 2017 in advance of 2018 midterm campaigns.

“We’ve got a great, I would say, ‘skeleton’ for tax reform.” –Gary Cohn, Director National Economic Council

The buts and bolts are said to include: 

  • Capping the mortgage interest deduction for homeowners
  • Eliminating the ability for people to deduct state and local taxes
  • Eliminating the ability for businesses to deduct interest
  • Allowing small businesses to deduct investments such as new equipment or facilities
  • A corporate tax rate in the 22 – 25% range (higher than the 15% Trump wants)
  • Possibly taxing 401(k) contributions up front – an idea which would raise billions of dollars in the short term
  • Mandatory repatriation of corporate cash held offshore at a low tax rate

“Yes, we will be open to losing tax revenues in these early years,” Kevin Brady, chairman of the Way and Means Committee, said at a tax event at Ronald Reagan’s California ranch.

It is unclear whether or not the suggested cuts will be permanent, or temporary with a sunset provision similar to many of the cuts signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003 – only to be made permanent by President Obama in 2012.

“A mix of permanent and temporary cuts could, on paper, look to the budget scorers like something that would not add to the deficit over the typical 10-year window and would allow politicians more cover to pass such a package.” –Politico

Hurry up! 

One of the few things Republicans agree on when it comes to the Trump agenda is the need for tax reform. Via Politico

Republicans want the fall to be all about taxes, if they can help it. It seems like their best and perhaps only route toward a major legislative victory before the fever of the 2018 midterm elections takes hold.

“People are feeling optimistic because they do not see failure as an option. They’ve put all of their eggs in one basket now, and that basket is tax reform,” said one source familiar with the administration’s tax talks. “The fear of failure on this will cause people to agree with things they may not normally agree to.”

The White House has reportedly created a ‘mini war-room’ inside of its existing communications shop to address taxes, in which Comms director Hope Hicks and Treasury official Tony Sayhegh will team up to sell the plan to the public.

“The question now is whether this is becoming more of a policy pursuit or a political success,” said one Republican close to the administration. “Now, it looks like the latter. The president campaigned on signing the biggest tax cut in history, and he’s on track to do that for the middle class even if he has a compressed time frame to get it done.”

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Emmanuel Macron’s MP Nearly Kills Man With Motorcycle Helmet After Being Called ‘Dirty Arab’

French socialist politician Boris Faure is fighting for his life in an ICU after a bloody brawl with one of Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche! MP’s, M’jid El Guerrab in central Paris. Faure reportedly called Guerrab a ‘dirty arab,’ who then hopped off his scooter and proceeded to hit Faure over the head twice with his helmet after a brief exchange of words.

Via Express.co.uk

An eyewitness told the French magazine Marianne they saw M’jid El Guerrab, a centrist MP, hop off his scooter to talk to the Socialist before beating him to a pulp.

What started off as a war of words “quickly escalated into fisticuffs”, the eyewitness is reported as saying, adding Mr El Guerrab had grabbed hold of his helmet before “violently” hitting Mr Faure in the head with it.

Mr. Guerrab, who left the Socialist party to join Macron’s En Marche last year, has taken a leave of absence from the party. Mr. Faure, first secretary of the Federation of Foreigners of the Socialist Party, managed the campaign of the candidate who beat Mr. El Guerrab in the recent French parliamentary elections – undoubtedly fueling discord between the two men.

Via Independent

Mr Faure collapsed and was later taken to hospital where he was operated on and spent five days recovering in intensive care.

Mr El Guerrab was placed in custody after an investigation into “aggravated violence”. His lawyer Yassine Yakouti said: “Mr El Guerrab naturally regrets the turn of events.”

On Facebook, Mr El Guerrab announced he was taking leave of absence from En Marche! (LREM) “to allow the inquiry to proceed… I hope that Mr Faure will be able to recover quickly.”

Mr. Faure’s family and friends have denied Mr. Guerrab’s claim of being called a ‘dirty Arab,’ calling it ‘laughable and insulting.’

 

 

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Dreamers Hosed – Trump Rumored To end DACA Tuesday

President Trump is set to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which grants work permits to illegal immigrants who entered to the U.S. as children. A meeting of senor West Wing aides was held Sunday to discuss the mechanics of rolling back the program, which will include a six-month delay acording to two White House leakers who spoke with Politico.

Via Politico

Trump has wrestled for months with whether to do away with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA. But conversations with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who argued that Congress — rather than the executive branch — is responsible for writing immigration law, helped persuade the president to terminate the program and kick the issue to Congress, the two sources said.

In a nod to reservations held by many lawmakers, the White House plans to delay the enforcement of the president’s decision for six months, giving Congress a window to act, according to one White House official. But a senior White House aide said that chief of staff John Kelly, who has been running the West Wing policy process on the issue, “thinks Congress should’ve gotten its act together a lot longer ago.”

Surely they won’t use the home addresses of hundreds of thousands of trusting illegals who handed their info over to the Obama administration.

On the bright side, ending DACA stands to free up 700,000 jobs for U.S. citizens over the next two years, according to a pro-immigration lobbying group funded by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.

Liberals are a veritable salt mine right now…

Meanwhile Twitter bots are lighting up left and left.

Not everyone is upset, however…

 

 

 

 

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Japan Reignites Preemptive-Strike Debate As North Korea Lights Off Another Nuke

Japan, which is really good at attacking first, has been mulling whether or not to prepare for a preemptive strike on North Korea following Kim Jong Un’s ICBM test last Tuesday which traversed Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean, followed by their largest nuclear test to date last night.

In March, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sparked a parliamentary debate over whether or not to acquire the ‘capabilities’ for a preemptive strike, which they’re calling a ‘strike-back’ to avoid violating their constitution. When Abe’s idea failed to gain support, the debate fizzled and the topic was dropped. That all changed in the last week.

Via WaPo:

A pre-emptive strike, by Japanese definition, is a step preceding the two-tier defense. Cruise missiles, such as Tomahawk, fired from Aegis destroyers or fighter jets would get the enemy missile clearly waiting to be fired, or just after blastoff from a North Korean launch site, before it approaches Japan.

Japan’s self-defense-only principle under the country’s war-renouncing constitution prohibits its military from making a first strike, and officials discussing a limited pre-emptive strike are calling it a “strike-back” instead.

Kim’s latest firecracker

 

North Korea lit off their sixth and largest nuclear test to date last night, picked up by seismic stations all over the world. Notably, their previous tests were around the size of the Hiroshima / Nagasaki bombs – around 20-22 kilotons, while this test of a presumed hydrogen bomb is estimated in the hundreds of kt. 

“That’s very roughly the equivalent 100,000 tons of TNT. Maybe its 20% smaller, maybe 30% larger,” says James Acton, a physicist and co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. (npr)

Trump Tweets, U.N. Freaks, Mattis Speaks

Trump is talking massive shit over Twitter, now that Kim Jong Un has laughed off Trump’s prior tough talk.

Mad Dog Mattis Barks Back

In response to the North Korean nuclear test, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said ‘we are not looking for the annihilation of North Korea – we have many options,’ adding that ‘any threat’ against U.S. teritory or U.S. allies will be met with a ‘massive military response.‘ 

UN Security Council to meet Monday

Via The Guardian:

 

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N. Korea Begging For War After Announcing New Hydrogen Bomb With ‘Great Destructive Power’

Kim Jong Un has gone full honeybadger in terms of shits given about U.S. threats over North Korea’s nuclear arsenal – announcing the development of a ‘more advanced’ high altitude nuke that has ‘great destructive power’ in the range of hundreds of kilotons – far outmatching the 20 kiloton bomb dropped at Nagasaki, and said that they can crank out a high volume of similar devices.

Under its leader Kim Jong Un, North Korea has pursued work on building nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles that can deliver them at an unprecedented pace, defying U.N. sanctions and international pressure. –Reuters

North Korea’s state-run KCNA reports “Kim Jong-un said he felt the pride at the indomitably bolstering up of [North Korea’s] nuclear forces despite a great price as he watched the Juche-oriented thermonuclear weapon with super explosive power made by our own efforts and technology. He expressed great satisfaction over the fact that our scientists can do anything without fail if the party is determined to do.”

Shit talkin’ into WWIII

Early Saturday, Kim threw major shade at President Trump, stating that “any attempt by the puppets to detect and destroy our TELs in advance is nothing but a silly dream,” then adding “The puppets in South Korea will never avoid catastrophes as long as they continue to run amok.”

Kim then said that North Korea’s strategic weapons were “ready to thoroughly annhilate the strongholds of aggression and provocation from any unpredictable region and place anytime.”

Testing, testing

North Korea has conducted a total of five nuclear tests between 2006 and 2016, and has conducted 18 missiles during 12 tests so far in 2017 – including Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) they claim are capable of reaching “anywhere in the world” (not exactly).

For more:

 

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