Monday, September 5, 2016

Putin and Obama Cartoons





Obama, Putin meet on sidelines of G20, vow to keep working toward Syria deal


The U.S. and Russia failed to come to a deal Monday on how to end the bloodshed between U.S.-backed rebels and Syria’s Russian-aligned regime, but vowed to keep up negotiations as the G20 summit in China came to an end.
President Barack Obama and Russian leader Vladimir Putin attended an economic summit as pressure mounted to get a deal done. Obama and Putin huddled for 90 minutes on the sidelines of the G20, according to a senior White House official.
The official told the Associated Press that the two sides clarified some of the large gaps in how a deal would be implemented. The two leaders directed their teams to schedule a meeting for some time later this week.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also met, but came out of their meeting without a deal to announce. The two diplomats met for an hour but emerged still at oods on certain issues, a senior State Department official said.
The talks culminated a several weeks of searching for a cease-fire between Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and moderate rebels that would expand access for hundreds of thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire. The strategy has hinged on an unlikely U.S.-Russian militarily partnership against extremist groups operating in Syria.
But beyond the Islamic State and Al Qaeda, the two powers have conflicting views about who fits in that category - as well as a deep and mutual distrust that the other party will hold up its end of the bargain.
"We're not there yet," Obama told reporters Sunday. "It's premature for us to say that there is a clear path forward, but there is the possibility at least for us to make some progress on that front."
Kerry and Lavrov hoped that a deal could come together and even scheduled a press conference to announce what they were speaking about. Those plans were canceled after both parties couldn’t reach an agreement.
"I've said all along we're not going to rush," said Kerry, who has negotiated several failed truces with Russia in recent months.
Kerry said the two sides had worked through many technical issues but said the U.S. didn't want to enter into an illegitimate agreement. In recent days, the State Department has said it only wants a nationwide cease-fire between Assad's military and the rebels, and not another "cessation of hostilities" that is time-limited and only stops fighting in some cities and regions.
The talks faltered Sunday when Russia pulled back from agreement on issues the U.S. negotiators believed had been settled, the State Department official said.
As the diplomats were negotiating, Syrian pro-government forces backed by airstrikes launched an offensive in the northern city of Aleppo, capturing areas they lost last month and besieging rebel-held neighborhoods. It was a major blow to insurgent groups that was likely to raise fresh concerns about Russian support for the Syrian military's attacks on Assad's opponents.
The Syria conflict has killed as many as a half-million people since 2011 and caused millions of Syrians to flee their homes, contributing to a global migration crisis. Amid the chaos, IS has emerged as a global terror threat.
Kerry and Lavrov's talks represent their third significant attempt since July to finalize a new U.S.-Russian military partnership that Moscow has long sought. The package would include provisions so aid can reach besieged areas of Syria and measures to prevent Assad's government from bombing areas where U.S.-backed rebels are operating.
U.S. officials have said that as part of a deal, Russia would have to halt offensives by Assad's government, something it has failed to do over months of diplomatic efforts. And the U.S. must get rebels to break ranks with the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, a task that grew tougher after its fighters last month successfully broke the siege of Aleppo, Syria's largest city and the site of fierce recent fighting.
Negotiators on both sides have spent weeks poring over maps of potential areas where opposition groups operate and where Assad's forces would be prohibited from launching airstrikes. The idea is for Russia to use its significant influence over Assad to ensure compliance with the deal.
But the U.S. has long been skeptical of the military coordination part of the deal, because it says Russia has mainly targeted moderate, U.S.-backed opposition groups in a bid to prop up Assad. The U.S. wants Russia to focus exclusively on ISIS and Al Qaeda-linked groups. Both Defense Secretary Ash Carter and National Intelligence Director James Clapper have expressed misgivings about sharing intelligence and targeting information with Moscow.
Neither side explained Sunday in detail what sticking points remain. Kerry said the U.S. wanted a deal with the best chance for survival. Lavrov's deputy, Sergei Ryabkov, said a deal was "close" but that Washington had to dissociate itself from Nusra.
"Many of the groups considered acceptable by the U.S. have actually affiliated with the Nusra Front, while the Nusra Front is using them to avoid being attacked," Ryabkov told Russian media, citing a longstanding complaint of his government.

US soccer star Megan Rapinoe kneels during national anthem in 'little nod' to Kaepernick

Another Spoiled Idiot.
U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe knelt during the national anthem Sunday night before the Seattle Reign’s match against the Chicago Red Stars “in a little nod” to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
"It was very intentional," Rapinoe told American Soccer Now after Seattle's 2-2 tie in the National Women's Soccer League game. "It was a little nod to Kaepernick and everything that he's standing for right now. I think it's actually pretty disgusting the way he was treated and the way that a lot of the media has covered it and made it about something that it absolutely isn't. We need to have a more thoughtful, two-sided conversation about racial issues in this country.
"Being a gay American, I know what it means to look at the flag and not have it protect all of your liberties. It was something small that I could do and something that I plan to keep doing in the future and hopefully spark some meaningful conversation around it. It's important to have white people stand in support of people of color on this. We don't need to be the leading voice, of course, but standing in support of them is something that's really powerful."
The 31-year-old Rapinoe helped the U.S. win the World Cup last year and played in the Rio Olympics.
"It's the least I can do. Keep the conversation going," Rapinoe tweeted.
Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the anthem to protest racial injustice and minority oppression sent a shockwave across the nation when he remained seated on the bench before a preseason game against the Green Bay Packers.
 On Thursday, he and safety Eric Reid kneeled during the anthem on Salute to the Military Night in San Diego. Seattle Seahawks defensive back Jeremy Lane sat before his game against the Oakland Raiders as well.
Kaepernick has said that he will continue to sit or kneel through the national anthem until he feels change has been made. He also plans to donate the first $1 million he makes this season to groups that help communities.
"I'm going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed," Kaepernick said last week. "To me this is something that has to change. When there's significant change and I feel like that flag represents what it's supposed to represent, this country is representing people the way that it's supposed to, I'll stand."
Santa Clara police have now threatened to stop working 49ers games in retaliation to Kaepernick’s protest.

Carson supports Trump's appeal to black voters, suggests Dems 'fear' losing base

Ben Carson: Trump was right to highlight Chicago violence
Ben Carson on Sunday supported Donald Trump’s outreach to African-American voters, defending Trump against accusations that the Republican presidential nominee is pandering to minorities and arguing Democrats “have the explaining to do.”
“I’ve had many discussions with him about it. He becomes very animated during those discussions. This is a subject about which he cares deeply,” Carson, a former 2016 Republican presidential candidate, told “Fox News Sunday.” "And what is going to be accomplished is something that many in the Democrat Party fear -- and that is an alternative."
The retired neurosurgeon made the comments a day after Trump attended services at the Great Faith Ministries International church in Detroit, where he vowed to listen to the concerns of black voters and to help them and other minorities in U.S. cities plagued by crime, high unemployment and underachieving schools.
“The Republican Party has not made an extensive outreach to certain communities, including the African-American community because they've pretty much written that off as Democrat territory. Donald Trump is changing that narrative,” said Carson, a Detroit native who accompanied Trump on his visit.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, and other members of her party have repeatedly tried to discredit Trump’s outreach efforts, arguing he has a long history of “bigotry” and criticizing his pitch to minorities of: “What the hell do you have to lose?”
The backlash follows weeks of Trump aggressively courting the black vote, accusing Clinton and other Democrats running major U.S. cities of implementing policies that have failed to help minority residents for decades.
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Most polls show Trump is likely to get about 1 percent of the black vote in November.
Later on “Fox News Sunday,” New York Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks said Trump was trying to “con” minority voters, including fellow blacks.
“It’s not real,” he said. “This was his first time visiting a black church. What you see here is a bait and switch.”
Meeks stopped short of calling Trump a bigot but said he has said “racist things” and has exhibited “racist tendencies.”
Carson on Sunday also defended criticism that Trump has called for “school choice” though he's presented no formal plan.
“You get to choose the school of your choice,” said Carson, arguing that Trump supports a voucher system that will allow families to send their children to better schools if the ones in their neighborhoods are underperforming.
“It’s really the Democratic Party that has the explaining to do,” Carson said. “They’ve been in charge of our cities for a long time. ... Detroit was once the most prosperous city in the United States, some people say in the world. From there it went to the largest bankruptcy. That was not a coincidence. And we see that in our large cities across the nation under Democratic control."

Bolstered by polls, Team Trump attacks Clinton, says Americans understand illegal immigration plan


Top Trump campaign officials on Sunday expressed optimism about recent poll numbers amid the fallout from Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s FBI email investigation and sought to defend the Republican presidential nominee's immigration plan in advance of the White House race intensifying after Labor Day.

“The polling data that you showed earlier really tells the tale,” Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told ABC’s “This Week.” “Hillary Clinton is having a hard time being accepted as a truthful and honest candidate vis-à-vis the American people.”
Clinton’s poll numbers have dropped in recent weeks amid further revelations about her use of a private email server while secretary of state and connections between Clinton Foundation donors and the State Department during and after her tenure at the agency.
The RealClearPolitics polls average showed Clinton leading Donald Trump by as many as 8 percentage points in mid-August, when the first-time candidate made a series of campaign missteps that some political analysts predicted would be too damaging to overcome.
However, the RCP average is now at about 4 points, though Trump trails by larger margins in such key battleground states as Ohio and Pennsylvania.
“We're taking Pennsylvania very seriously,” said Conway, acknowledging Democrats have won there in the past six presidential elections but dismissing the argument that the state is do-or-die for Trump.
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“We have several different paths to victory,” she said.
The Trump campaign also faced repeated questions Sunday about Trump’s immigration plan, which critics argue is vague on the issues of deportation for illegal immigrants and whether the United States or Mexico will pay for Trump’s proposed wall along the southern U.S. border.
GOP vice-presidential nominee Gov. Mike Pence said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the plan begins with building the wall for border security and makes a priority of “enforcing the laws of this country," including removing “criminal aliens” and people who've overstayed visas.
The Indiana governor also shot back that voters understood the plan, despite repeated questions from some in the media.
"What the American people want to see today is to establish the borders of this country, enforce the laws of this country. And Donald Trump has created a road map to do that," said Pence, who bristled at the suggestion that Trump hadn't been definitive enough in explaining his plan.
"Some 10,000 people in Arizona last week, it wasn't the way they see it," Pence said. "As I travel across this country campaigning with Donald Trump and for Donald Trump, I think people hear him loud and clear. And he's been completely consistent on this point."

Conway faced similar questions -- including one about managing the deportation of millions of people -- after a week in which Trump hinted about a possible “softening” in his immigration stances, met Wednesday with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, then delivered the Arizona speech hours later in which he appeared to return to his hardline positions on immigration.
“He'll manage it the way it should have been managed all along, by enforcing the law and relying upon those law enforcement officers and those (federal immigration) officers to do their job,” Conway said. “But at least you have a presidential candidate putting forth a 10-point plan.”
She also criticized Clinton for failing to hold a full-fledged press conference in 274 days and for staying off the campaign trail for several days to fundraise in such wealthy enclaves as the Hamptons and Martha’s Vineyard while campaign spokespeople and surrogates such as running-mate Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine pushed forward in the effort.
The Clinton campaign announced Sunday that Clinton would return to the trail Tuesday with an event in Tampa and issued a statement on Trump’s immigration plan, saying it’s an attempt to “mislead” Americans.
“Donald Trump has stated very clearly throughout his campaign that he will deport everyone who is undocumented, something that was reinforced in his speech in Arizona,” the campaign said. “What we saw today is Mike Pence and Trump’s top campaign officials attempt to mislead voters about their mass deportation policy by using soft words to describe harsh tactics.”
Kaine on Sunday brushed off repeated questions about the FBI investigation of Clinton's secret server, saying she requested the public release of her secretary of state emails and the release of the FBI notes from the agency’s interview with her last month. The federal investigation found that some emails sent or received by Clinton included classified information. However, no criminal charges were recommended.
“The reason these materials are being made public is that Hillary Clinton said I want the public to see them,” Kaine told ABC. “She said it was a mistake.”
Kaine instead pivoted to Trump's refusal to release his tax returns -- many of which Trump says he can't release because they're under audit -- and statements from Trump that appear to show support for how Russian President Vladimir Putin runs his country.
“Talk about national security,” Kaine said. “He has openly encouraged Russia to engage in cyber hacking to try to find more emails or materials, and we know that this cyberattack on the (Democratic National Committee) was likely done by Russia...This is serious business.”

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