Saturday, October 7, 2017
Pres. Trump: U.S. Will Not Lift Sanctions on Cuba ( Photos of the real Cuba )
The Real Cuba. |
The Real Cuba. |
The Real Cuba. |
President Donald Trump talks with audience members during a Hispanic Heritage Month event in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Oct. 6, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) |
President Trump is sticking to his word, saying the U.S. will not lift sanctions on Cuba.
He made the comments from the east room of the White House Friday as he hosted a celebration for Hispanic Heritage Month.
This comes after the Trump administration ordered to expel 15 Cuban diplomats from the Washington embassy following unexplained attacks on U.S. diplomats in Havana.
The president says sanctions will continue until Cuba gives political freedom to its people.
“The same failed communist ideology that has brought oppression to Cuba has brought nothing but suffering and misery everywhere and every place it has been anywhere in the world,” President Trump stated. “Communism is the past. Freedom is the future.”
The president went on to stress the importance of the Hispanic community, and specifically praised Hispanic business owners for their contribution to our economy.
He also highlighted recovery efforts in Puerto Rico, and said America will not rest until Puerto Rico is back on its feet.
Hawaii wants to challenge third version of Trump travel ban ( Yes he's the same Democrat puppet of Obama that bans everything Trump.)
U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson ( Yes he's the same Democrat puppet of Obama that bans everything Trump.) |
HONOLULU – A
federal judge on Friday said he would give Hawaii an opportunity to
make its case that it should be allowed to challenge the Trump
administration's latest travel ban.
U.S. District Court Judge Derrick
Watson said Hawaii would have until Tuesday morning to file a new
motion. The government will have until Saturday, Oct. 14, to respond.
The latest travel ban removes Sudan from the list of
affected countries and adds Chad and North Korea, along with several
officials from the government of Venezuela. It's scheduled to take
effect Oct. 18."Hawaii fought the first and second travel bans because they were illegal and unconstitutional efforts to implement the president's Muslim ban," Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the third travel ban is more of the same."
The motion said the new version of travel ban "flouts the immigration laws' express prohibition on nationality discrimination, grossly exceeds the authority Congress delegated to the president, lacks any rational connection to the problems it purports to address and seems to effectuate the president's promise to ban Muslims from the United States."
Chin has been battling President Donald Trump on travel bans since February, after the president sought to bar new visas for people from seven mostly Muslim countries.
The state later amended that lawsuit to add a plaintiff: the imam of a Honolulu mosque. Hawaii has roughly 5,000 Muslims.
When Trump revised the ban, Chin amended the lawsuit to challenge that version.
In March, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu agreed with Hawaii that the ban amounted to discrimination based on nationality and religion.
A subsequent U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed the administration to partially reinstate a 90-day ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and a 120-day ban on refugees from anywhere in the world.
The court's ruling exempted a large number of refugees and travelers with a "bona fide relationship" with a person or entity in the U.S.
Hawaii successfully challenged the federal government's definition of which family members would be allowed into the country. Watson ordered the government not to enforce the ban on close relatives such as grandparents, grandchildren, uncles and aunts.
An attorney representing Hawaii notified the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday that the state intends to challenge the third travel ban.
Dem candidate calls female GOP rep a 'child,' says it's fair to call him 'sexist'
Democratic congressional candidate Steve Krieg |
A Democratic candidate is facing calls to apologize after referring to New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, pictured, as a "child." (Official portrait/stefanik.house.gov) |
A New York Democrat running for the House of
Representatives is under fire for calling the female Republican
incumbent in his district a “child,” while admitting it’s fair to call
him “a sexist.”
Democratic congressional candidate
Steve Krieg, a member of the Plattsburgh City School Board, made the
comments about New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik during a Tuesday
candidate forum with others seeking the seat.
“I recognize her as a child, and it has nothing to do
with her age,” Krieg said. “I see her as a child because she’s a child.
She thinks like a child. She has people set things up for her. She has
people put their words in her mouth and she happily repeats them.”The Democrat added, “I apologize if that’s mean.”
In 2014, Stefanik, who was 30 at the time, became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. She was re-elected in 2016 and is seeking re-election again next year.
Krieg previously came under fire for referring to Stefanik as a “little girl” on Facebook over the summer.
ARE DEMS FINALLY READY TO TOSS PELOSI?
"I intend to kick your stingy, money-grubbing, sniveling coward of a butt out of Congress,” he wrote in July. “Don't worry, sweetie, you're a little girl. You can always run home to Mommy and Daddy.”
Discussing that episode during the candidate forum, Krieg said, “I have been accused of being a sexist for calling Elise a little girl, and I probably deserved to be called a sexist. I think most of us, if we admit it, have some sexist in us, some of the racist in us.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee is calling on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats to condemn the remarks.
“These comments are disgusting and sexist,” NRCC spokesman Matt Gorman said.
Stefanik responded on Twitter by thanking those who have come to her defense.
“Thank you to the many women and men standing up for our next generation of women leaders by speaking out against these remarks,” she said.
Trump administration rolls back ObamaCare contraceptive mandate
The Trump administration on Friday announced a
major rollback of the ObamaCare contraceptive mandate, granting what
officials called “full protection” to a wide range of companies and
organizations that claim a “religious or moral objection” to providing
the coverage.
The decision swiftly ignited a new
battle over the Affordable Care Act. Republican lawmakers and
faith-based groups hailed the decision as a win for religious liberty,
while Democratic officials and groups like Planned Parenthood accused
the administration of attacking women’s rights.
By early afternoon, the American Civil Liberties Union announced it was filing a lawsuit challenging the change.The original mandate, which already has been the subject of multiple legal challenges, required employers that provide health insurance to cover contraceptives. Under the existing policy, churches and houses of worship were exempt, while religious-affiliated groups that object had to allow a third-party administrator or insurer to handle birth control coverage. The 2014 Hobby Lobby decision expanded exemptions to for-profit “closely held” corporations.
But under the new policy unveiled Friday, the Trump administration is expanding the protections to any nonprofit group, non-publicly traded company, or higher education institution with religious or moral objections -- and making the third-party provision optional for groups with “sincerely held” religious beliefs.
Publicly traded companies also could claim an exemption if they state religious objections, though a senior Health and Human Services official said they would still have to let a third party cover contraception.
“No American should be forced to violate his or her own conscience in order to abide by the laws and regulations governing our health care system,” said HHS press secretary Caitlin Oakley. “Today’s actions affirm the Trump administration’s commitment to upholding the freedoms afforded all Americans under our Constitution.”
“HHS has issued a balanced rule that respects all sides –it keeps the contraceptive mandate in place for most employers and now provides a religious exemption,” Mark Rienzi, senior counsel at Becket Law and lead attorney for Little Sisters of the Poor, said Friday. “The Little Sisters still need to get final relief in court, which should be easy now that the government admits it broke the law.”
“This is a landmark day for religious liberty," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said in a statement.
Officials stressed that the impact may be limited, even though the rule changes are significant, as some large corporations were grandfathered into the policy and spared from the mandate anyway.
“Of the 165 million women in the U.S., HHS estimates these rules affect at most 120,000, leaving more than 99.9 percent of women without any impact,” an HHS official told Fox News.
An official noted the administration anticipates the groups taking advantage of the change would be those involved in legal battles pertaining to the mandate.
“There are about 200 entities that have participated in lawsuits because of the contraceptive rule, and those entities will benefit from this rule,” a senior HHS official said.
A senior HHS official said there have been more than 50 lawsuits filed against the mandate, and the new rule would provide “relief.”
But the ACLU contended the policy would allow “nearly all employers” to deny contraception coverage if they state an objection.
"This is an unacceptable attack on basic health care that the vast majority of women rely on," Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said Friday. "With this rule in place, any employer could decide that their employees no longer have health insurance coverage for birth control."
And Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., accused the administration of "stooping to a new low."
"There is no 'exemption from having reproductive organs," Wyden said Friday. "This administration needs to end its obsession with attacking women's rights to receive the health care they deserve."
The types of contraceptives covered by the mandate are FDA-approved methods: diaphragms, hormonal methods like birth control pills and vaginal rings, implanted devices like intrauterine devices or IUDs, emergency contraception like Plan B, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling. The mandate is not required to cover drugs that serve to induce abortions.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, since the Obama-era rule, the share of women paying for their own birth control pills out of pocket plunged to under 4 percent, compared with 21 percent before the rule.
HHS also rolled out a guidance bulletin on Friday, underscoring the requirements of a section of ObamaCare that “segregates funds” for abortion services. The bulletin reminds employers that abortion coverage has to be kept separate from other premium payments.
In addition to HHS’ announcement, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced “20 high-level principles” on religious liberty to “guide all agencies in complying with relevant Federal law.”
“The constitutional protection of religious beliefs and the right to exercise those beliefs have served this country well, have made us one of the most tolerant countries in the world, and have also helped make us the free-ist and most generous,” Sessions said in a statement Friday. “President Trump promised that this administration would ‘lead by example on religious liberty,’ and he is delivering on that promise.”
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