Seoul police up security after rally at US envoy residence ( Ungrateful bunch )

In this Friday, Oct. 18, 2019, photo, a detained college student shouts a slogan into a police bus in front of the U.S. ambassador's residence in Seoul, South Korea. South Korean police said Saturday, Oct. 19, they beefed up security at the U.S. ambassador's residence in Seoul after a group of anti-American students used ladders to break into the compound. The sign reads "Stop" (Chun Jin-hwan/Newsis via AP) 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean police said Saturday they beefed up security at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Seoul after a group of anti-American students used ladders to break into the compound.

They were protesting demands by the Trump administration that South Korea pay more to help cover the costs of keeping U.S. troops in the country.

Officials from three Seoul police stations didn’t immediately say whether they will seek to formally arrest any of the 19 university students who were detained Friday afternoon at the residence of Ambassador Harry Harris.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police agency said Saturday the number of officers guarding the residence was more than tripled to 110.

The demonstrators, who broadcast parts of their protest on Facebook, used two steel ladders to climb over the compound’s wall. They shouted anti-U.S. slogans and held up signs that read “The United States has called for a five-fold increase in defense costs!” and “Harris, leave this land!” before police officers dragged them out.

At the time of the protest, Harris was at Seoul’s presidential Blue House attending a reception for foreign ambassadors hosted by President Moon Jae-in.

Harris tweeted about the incident on Saturday, saying, “Big shout out to Embassy guards & Seoul Metro Police Agency for responding to protesters who breached perimeter around my residence. 2nd incident in 13 months in Heart of Seoul. This time they tried to forcibly enter my home itself. 19 arrested. Cats are OK. Thanks @polinlove!,” referring to the Twitter account of South Korea’s National Police Agency.

South Korean police in September last year detained a Chinese woman who had trespassed into the residence, but said she wasn’t making a political statement.

About a dozen leftist students rallied in front of Seoul’s Namdaemun district police station on Saturday calling for the immediate release of the “righteous” protesters.

“You may have the support of foreign powers, capitalists, police and the military, but we have the united voice of like-minded colleagues bound by loyalty!” shouted one of the students.

Another student said South Koreans would see the United States as “nothing but an invader” if it continues to “disrespect” the country with excessive demands on defense costs.

The U.S. State Department has expressed “strong concern” over the illegal entry and urged South Korea to strengthen its efforts to protect all diplomatic missions.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry criticized the protest, saying in a statement that “any attack or harm inflicted on foreign diplomatic missions cannot be justified under any circumstances.” It said the government will take “every appropriate measure” to protect the facilities.

In a country deeply divided along political, ideological and generational lines, the United States is a source of anger for some leftist South Koreans.

Washington backed the South during the 1950-53 Korean War against the North and still stations about 28,500 troops here, but some anti-U.S. activists view the U.S. military presence as a major obstacle to their goal of an eventual reunification of the rival Koreas.

There was a major security scare in 2015, when a leftist activist slashed the face and arm of then-U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert on a street in downtown Seoul to protest the annual U.S.-South Korea military drills. Lippert recovered from the injuries.

Friday’s protest came as Washington and Seoul prepare to begin negotiations over sharing the costs for the U.S. military presence. The countries struck a one-year deal in February where South Korea agreed to contribute about 1.04 trillion won ($880 million) for 2019, which represented an 8.2% increase from last year.

Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Friday that the countries are scheduled to talk in Hawaii on Oct. 23-24 to negotiate a new deal and that Seoul is seeking a “reasonable and fair share of costs.”

Michael Moore joining AOC at Bernie Sanders rally in NYC to announce endorsement

Idiot

Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore announced Friday that he will be joining Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., at a rally in New York City on Saturday for 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“I am joining Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tomorrow to officially & publicly endorse a true hero of the people, Senator Bernie Sanders, as our next President of the United States!” Moore posted on Twitter on Friday afternoon. “I will speak tomorrow for him at his “Bernie Is Back!” rally at 1pm in Queensbridge Park in NYC. Join us!”
Ocasio-Cortez is also expected to formally endorse Sanders for president at the event. Her ally in Congress, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., endorsed Sanders earlier this week.
Sanders’ “Bernie is Back” rally in Queensbridge Park, across the East River from Manhattan, will be the senator's first campaign rally since he was sidelined after undergoing a medical procedure following a heart attack Oct. 4.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a Democratic presidential primary debate in Westerville, Ohio, Oct. 15, 2019. (Associated Press)

Moore also endorsed Sanders for president in 2016, saying at the time that he first backed Sanders when he was running for Congress in 1990.
“I’ve been a supporter of his ever since, and he’s never given me reason to not continue that support,” Moore wrote at the time.
Sanders addressed his recent health problems during Tuesday night’s debate in Ohio.
“I’m healthy. I’m feeling great," he told the audience. "We are going to be mounting a vigorous campaign all over this country. That is how I think I can reassure the American people.”
The rally will be held near the country’s largest public housing development and a power plant, the Huffington Post reported, and Sanders plans to speak about affordable housing and Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal.
The rally is meant as a reset after his heart attack and his lagging poll numbers behind surging progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

Hillary Clinton backs out of DC event also set to include Tulsi Gabbard, Kirstjen Nielsen: report

The Hawaii congresswoman and combat veteran fired back in a scathing series of tweets later Thursday, challenging Clinton not to “hide behind your proxies” and join the presidential race "directly."
Nielsen, who resigned in April, oversaw the Trump administration’s controversial “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which resulted in the separation of thousands of migrant children from their families at the border. The policy was later rescinded.
More than 51,000 people signed a petition asking Fortune to pull Nielsen from the summit’s roster, Slate also reported. About 100 speakers were still scheduled to attend the summit as of Friday evening.
Gabbard and lawyer Anita Hill are among the more high-profile scheduled speakers, on a list that also includes business executives, journalists, scholars and some elected officials. (Hill became a household name in 1991 when she accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, who had been her supervisor at the U.S. Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, of sexual harassment.)
In her remarks Thursday on “Campaign HQ,” a podcast hosted by former President Obama aide David Plouffe, Clinton did not mention Gabbard by name, though Plouffe ended the podcast by noting Clinton’s “belief that Tulsi Gabbard is going to be a third-party candidate propped up by Trump and the Russians.”
Clinton also singled out 2016 Democratic candidate Jill Stein, accusing her of being a Russian asset. The former first lady, whom Donald Trump defeated for the presidency in 2016, has recently been promoting a book co-authored with her daughter, Chelsea Clinton.
Gabbard has faced criticism from several other fellow Democrats, who have accused her of being a "puppet for the Russian government." The former Army National Guard major, who served in Iraq, has repeatedly defended her antiwar, anti-interventionist beliefs, which have led to some comparisons between her and President Trump.
At Tuesday's fourth Democratic debate in Ohio, Gabbard relentlessly slammed CNN, which was broadcasting the event live, and The New York Times, calling them "completely despicable" for news coverage that has raised questions about whether she is a "Russian asset and an Assad apologist," a reference to the leader of Syria.
Fox News’ Vandana Rambaran and Alex Pappas contributed to this report.

Biden campaign warns of cash shortfall, urges backers to 'pick up the pace': report

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign sent a fundraising email this week, claiming it hasn't raised as much money as its competitors after spending more than expected in the third quarter, according to a report.
Third-quarter filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show Biden has just $9 million in cash on hand, less than half of what both of his top competitors for the 2020 Democratic nomination -- Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. -- reported, according to The Hill.
“I hate to say it, but our opponents are way ahead of us when it comes to money in the bank,” a campaign fundraising email for Biden said. “If we don’t pick up the pace here, we might have to make budget cuts that could seriously hurt our momentum in this primary.”
Less cash on hand means the campaign will struggle to respond to “twists and turns of this race — and with Donald Trump constantly pushing his false smear campaign against Joe, that’s a HUGE problem,” the letter says.
The letter closes with an appeal, according to The Hill.
“We can’t afford to fall behind, so I’m asking you to step up now and make a donation to fuel our campaign."
Democratic operative Michael Ceraso said Biden's cash flow could dry up "as the primary enters the homestretch, which may prevent the VP from competing and challenging his opponents in Super Tuesday states and beyond."
Biden is spending money at a greater rate than the amount he raised, with a burn rate of 112 percent. Warren’s burn rate - the pace at which candidates are spending their campaign cash – was a much more modest 76 percent.
The 76-year-old former vice president started off as a solid frontrunner in the polls, but more recent surveys have shown Warren either catching up or surpassing him.
FEC filings show Warren has $25.7 million in cash on hand and Sanders has  $33.7 million.
Fox News' Joshua Nelson contributed to this report. 

Obama Nobel Peace Prize Cartoons

Syrian American group says Trump deserves Nobel Peace Prize, US troops should come home

A Syrian American doctor is spearheading an initiative to nominate President Trump for a Noble Peace Prize after Trump managed to convince Putin to throttle back on plans to seize the Syrian refugee city of Idlib in 2018, an attack that could have potentially killed upwards of 3 million civilians.
Dr. Tarek Kteleh, a rheumatologist in Indiana and board member of a group that promotes national security issues in Syria called Citizens for a Secure and Safe America, told Fox News Thursday that Trump "deserves credit" for preventing the potentially deadly attack on one of the last remaining cities not under the control of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
The Syrian military and their Russian and Iranian allies surrounded Idlib, a sanctuary city that nearly 4 million civilians fled to, ready to attack and push out the Syrian rebels by the end of summer 2018. The small province of land was a necessary stronghold for rebel forces, vital to preventing the dictator from accessing control of the Northern portion of the Middle East.
Kteleh and president of their group, Dr. Rim Al-Bezem, a cardiologist from New Jersey, met Trump at a fundraiser in Indiana specifically with the intention of bringing attention to the plight in Syria.
Al-Bezem explained to Trump the potential slaughter of innocent lives, almost a quarter of whom were children and Trump assured them that he was "not going to let this happen," Kteleh told Fox News.
Kteleh admits he was skeptical that Trump would take action, instead believing he was trying to appease himself and Al-Bezem, both of whom had families living in Idlib at the time.
Days after their meeting, on Aug. 31, 2018, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted about the dire situation in Idlib warning, "The U.S. sees this as an escalation of an already dangerous conflict."
"The 3 million Syrians, who have already been forced out of their homes and are now in #Idlib, will suffer from this aggression. Not good. The world is watching," Pompeo said.
"We thought maybe that was just an accident," Kteleh said, after seeing Pompeo's tweet. "But it could not be an accident--- that the president said he's not going to let this happen and then the next morning for the first time Secretary Pompeo says this."
Two days later, Trump used his active presence on social media to further the calls for the three foreign powers to stand down in Syria.
"President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don’t let that happen!"
"This is the first time ever in the last seven or eight years that anyone has done anything for the Syrian people and many of the civilians,"  Kteleh said, singling out former President Barack Obama's approach to interventions in Syria, and refusing to react with force to Assad's use of chemical weapons on his people.
"Unlike your predecessor, you bombarded Assad's military airport when he launched chemical weapons against civilians. We are grateful for this display of strength. The world now knows: you mean what you say," Kteleh and Al-Bezem wrote in a letter to Trump Thursday.
"He said 'the media did not give me credit for it. It's OK. I hear it from Syrian Americans, they thank me for it,'" Trump told Kteleh and Al-Bezem, who praised him for his efforts and told him he deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
"We took it seriously and started thinking about how we could give him credit for what he's done. Number one because he deserves the credit. Saving millions of people is an honor people need to be awarded for," Kteleh said. "And number two because we feel that if he gets the nomination or gets considered, that will shed more light on these people who became refugees and at any point in time if Putin and Assad start assaulting them again it will give them hope and make the world recognize it."
Kteleh and other members of his advocacy group, made up of doctors, businessmen and activists, launched a petition and Facebook page in support of nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020.
"We were surprised with the amount of support we got in a short period of time," Kteleh said, adding that in less than 10 days of creating the page, it garnered almost 28,000 supporters, a number that he says continues to climb by the thousands daily, as well as 21,000 signatures on a petition.
Kteleh said that despite allegations of collusion and Russian meddling in the 2016 election, a nearly two-year investigation that has clouded much of Trump's presidency, he doesn't believe the president is anything other than "sincere."
"He would not have done that," Kteleh said of Trump working with the Russians.
"We witnessed this firsthand. We went, we talked to the president, told him this was going to happen. He went out. Put pressure on Putin and Russia to stop the massacre. I don't believe it," he said.
Kteleh says he also fully supports Trump's withdrawal of nearly 1,000 troops from the northeast border of Syria, which many politicians and officials on both sides of the aisle condemned as an abandonment of U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who now struggle to fend off Turkish enemies in the region.
"We're American first. We understand where he's coming from. He promised he'd bring the troops home. He promised during his election and campaign. He promised he would not be intervening in wars all over the world," Kteleh said. "He's just trying to commit to what he promised the people who elected him."
"When he protected the people in Idlib he did not have to commit troops or anything. All that he really did was give warnings to the Russians and the Iranians and Assad, that if you can attack and commit crimes, we're going to respond to you. That's all that he did. He did not have to put troops there. And we hope that he can do the same thing here. The ceasefire announced today is very similar."
Vice President Pence successfully negotiated a ceasefire after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara Thursday, with the foreign nation agreeing to halt Turkey's shellings in Syria for five days to allow the Kurdish YPG forces to pull back from the roughly 20-mile safe zone on the Turkish-Syrian border.

El Chapo’s son released after arrest in Mexico as security forces outgunned by cartel: reports

Smoke from burning cars rises due in Culiacan, Mexico, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019. An intense gunfight with heavy weapons and burning vehicles blocking roads raged in the capital of Mexico’s Sinaloa state Thursday after security forces located one of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s sons who is wanted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges. (AP Photo/Hector Parra)

Violence seized a city in northwestern Mexico Thursday night as the son of infamous drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was briefly arrested then released by militarized police who struggled to contend with his heavily armed supporters, according to a report.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested by the National Guard in Culiacan, the capital of Mexico's Sinaloa state, on drug trafficking charges after he was discovered in a house with three other men, Reuters reported.
His arrest sparked an hours’ long gun battle with cartel members who surrounded the house and outgunned security forces.
The cartel also blocked the main roads out of the city with vehicles they torched.
“The decision was taken to retreat from the house, without Guzman, to try to avoid more violence in the area and preserve the lives of our personnel and recover calm in the city,” Security Minister Alfonso Durazo told Reuters.

 Amid the gunfire, a group of prisoners escaped from the city’s prison and cartel members fought police and soldiers throughout the city as citizens cowered or ran in fear.
Cristobal Castaneda, head of security in Sinaloa told a Mexican TV network that at least two people have been killed and 21 injured as the violence continued into the night. He asked residents to stay in their homes.
Falko Ernst, senior analyst for the International Crisis Group in Mexico, told Reuters Lopez’s release creates a “dangerous precedent" and shows the military is not in control.
Guzman led the Sinaloa cartel for decades before he was arrested and extradited to the United States. He had previously escaped Mexican prisons twice.

Marc Thiessen: Elizabeth Warren tells voters economy not working for them – Most voters disagree

With three polls showing her in the lead, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., may soon eclipse former Vice President Joe Biden as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. That's great news for Republicans, because Warren has a problem: The central message of her campaign is that the economy is working for the very wealthy but it is not working for ordinary Americans. Unfortunately for her, ordinary Americans disagree.
A Marist poll asked voters whether "the economy is working well for you personally." Nearly two-thirds of Americans said yes. This includes large majorities in almost every demographic group.
Sixty-seven percent of college graduates and 64 percent of those without a college education say the economy is working for them. So do 68 percent of whites and 61 percent of nonwhite people.

So do Americans of every generation: 63 percent of Generation Z and millennials; 69 percent of Generation X; 63 percent of baby boomers; and 69 percent of Greatest Generation and Silent Generation voters.
So do supermajorities in every region in the country: 60 percent in the West, 65 percent in the Northeast, 67 percent in the Midwest, and 68 percent in the South.
So do most voters in every type of American community: 63 percent of both big and small city voters; 64 percent of small-town voters; 66 percent of rural voters and 72 percent of suburban voters.
Most everyone, it seems, says the economy is working for them.
The only groups who disagree, Marist found, are progressives (59 percent), Democratic women (55 percent) and those who are liberal or very liberal (55 percent.
So, when Warren declares that President Trump is "part of a corrupt, rigged system that has helped the wealthy and the well-connected and kicked dirt in the faces of everyone else," it resonates with almost no one except those on the political left.
There is a good reason for that. Unemployment is near a record low, and the United States has about 1.6 million more job openings than unemployed people to fill them.
Not only are jobs plentiful, but wages are rising. And The New York Times reported in May that "over the past year, low-wage workers have experienced the fastest pay increases."
Americans don't just think they are doing better in the Trump economy, they are doing better. Little wonder Democrats barely mentioned the economy in Tuesday's debate.
This progress is bad news for Warren. Why would Americans rally to her call for "big structural change" to the economy when they say the economy is working for them? Especially when they learn the structural changes Warren is proposing would cost tens of trillions of dollars and – whether she admits it or not – would require them to pay more in taxes
Manhattan Institute budget expert Brian Riedl recently added up the price tag for Warren's proposals, and the numbers are staggering: $30 trillion to $40 trillion over 10 years for Medicare-for-all; $2 trillion for Social Security expansion; $3 trillion for climate change and environmental policies; $2 trillion free college and student loan forgiveness; and another $1 trillion for initiatives that include free child care and housing.
"Total cost: $38 trillion to $48 trillion," Riedl says. And that's before calculating the cost of offering free government health care to illegal immigrants, which Warren supports.
There's no way to pay for that miasma of spending with Warren's wealth tax; it will require massive middle-class tax increases.
No wonder the so-called moderates were going after Warren so hard at Tuesday's debate; they know it would be a disaster if she were to capture the Democratic nomination.
To win in 2020, Democrats need to win over voters who like Trump's policies but don't like Trump. They can't do that by telling these voters they are wrong about the economy working for them, and that they need to make peace with socialism. Instead, they need to convince voters that they can dump Trump and still keep their prosperity.
If Democrats nominate Warren, they will give voters suffering from Trump exhaustion no safe harbor. Her nomination would turn the election into an existential threat to the American economy.
And since Warren said Tuesday that, if she is elected, and Democrats take back the Senate, they will "repeal the filibuster," she will be able to pass her radical agenda by simple majority vote. That means Trump's message – "whether you love me or hate me, you have got to vote for me" – will ring true for millions of Americans whose votes might otherwise be up for grabs.