Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Pres. Trump Predicts Dems, GOP Will Work Together on Health Care
OAN Newsroom
President Trump is predicting Democrats and Republicans will come up with a new Obamacare replacement after the passing of the tax reform bill.He made the remarks on Twitter Tuesday, saying the tax law will eventually terminate Obamacare because of the repeal of the individual mandate.
The tax law would essentially force Democrats to come to the table — some of whom have already said the current health care law needs to be amended.Based on the fact that the very unfair and unpopular Individual Mandate has been terminated as part of our Tax Cut Bill, which essentially Repeals (over time) ObamaCare, the Democrats & Republicans will eventually come together and develop a great new HealthCare plan!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2017
The individual mandate was a tax penalty which forced people to participate in Obamacare, a system plagued with rising costs and and dwindling choices.
Most top colleges still regulate campus speech, report says
More than 90 percent of top U.S. colleges have
policies regulating campus free speech, with one-third applying severely
restrictive policies, according to a recent study.
The Foundation for Individual Rights
in Education (FIRE) reported Tuesday that more than half of the 461
schools included in its annual year-end study limit free speech in some
way.
"Despite the critical importance of free speech on
campus, too many universities — in policy and in practice — chill,
censor and punish students’ and faculty members’ expressive activity," the study said.
"One way that universities do this is through the use of speech codes:
policies prohibiting speech that, outside the bounds of campus, would be
protected by the First Amendment."However, the study also found that for the 10th year in a row, the percentage of "red light" schools -- institutions FIRE says have severely restrictive policies -- has declined. And the group reported that an unprecedented number of schools have removed all of their speech codes, earning them a "green light" rating.
The majority of institutions surveyed -- 58.6 percent -- earned a "yellow light" rating, which means their policies "still chill or outright prohibit protected speech."
In its analysis, FIRE noted a difference in free speech at public universities versus private ones. The First Amendment generally does not apply to students at private colleges because its regulates government — not private — conduct, according to FIRE."We are happy to see that fewer schools are maintaining the most restrictive types of speech codes, but the fact that 90 percent of schools maintain a speech code of some kind is still a significant problem for free speech."- Samantha Harris, vice president of policy research at FIRE
The group claims that while "most private universities explicitly promise freedom of speech and academic freedom," their policies often contradict such statements.
FIRE cites a 2017 statement from Georgetown University in which the school declares its commitment to free speech.
"As an institution of higher education, one specifically committed to the Catholic and Jesuit tradition, Georgetown University is committed to free and open inquiry, deliberation and debate in all matters, and the untrammeled verbal and nonverbal expression of ideas," the university said in a June 2017 statement. "It is Georgetown University’s policy to provide all members of the university community, including faculty, students and staff, the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge and learn."
However, Georgetown is labeled "red light" school by FIRE. The school has a ban on any language that disrespects individuals there: a "civility" requirement in the student code of conduct that FIRE deems restrictive to free speech. But all other policies at Georgetown are considered "yellow light" by FIRE.
Other schools deemed "red light" include American University, Boston College, the University of Notre Dame, Harvard, Wesleyan, the University of Texas at Austin, Rice University and Pennsylvania State University – University Park.
Schools listed as "yellow light" include Amherst College, Brown, Columbia and several state schools, like Colorado State University. "Green light" schools include University of Chicago, the University of Florida and Duke.
"We are happy to see that fewer schools are maintaining the most restrictive types of speech codes, but the fact that 90 percent of schools maintain a speech code of some kind is still a significant problem for free speech," Samantha Harris, vice president of policy research at FIRE, said Wednesday.
"In the coming year, we hope to work with more schools to eliminate their speech codes altogether," Harris said.
ISIS has lost 98 percent of its territory -- mostly since Trump took office, officials say
ISIS has lost 98 percent of the territory it once
held -- with half of that terror group's so-called "caliphate" having
been recaptured since President Trump took office less than a year ago,
U.S. military officials said Tuesday.
The massive gains come after years of
"onerous" rules, when critics say the Obama administration
“micromanaged” the war and shunned a more intensive air strategy that
could have ended the conflict much sooner.
“The rules of engagement under the Obama administration
were onerous. I mean what are we doing having individual target
determination being conducted in the White House, which in some cases
adds weeks and weeks,” said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula,
the former head of U.S. Air Force intelligence. “The limitations that
were put on actually resulted in greater civilian casualties.”But the senior director for counterterrorism in former President Barack Obama’s National Security Council pushed back on any criticism the former president didn’t do enough to defeat ISIS.
“This was a top priority from the early days of ISIS gaining the type of territorial safe haven in particular, there was recognition that safe havens for terrorist groups can mean terrorist plots that extend — not just into the region — but to Europe and conceivably into the United States,” said Joshua Geltzer, author of “US Counter-Terrorism Strategy and al-Qaeda: Signalling and the Terrorist World-View,” now a visiting professor at Georgetown Law School.
The latest American intelligence assessment says fewer than 1,000 ISIS fighters now remain in Iraq and Syria, down from a peak of nearly 45,000 just two years ago. U.S. officials credit nearly 30,000 U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and regional partners on the ground for killing more than 70,000 jihadists. Meanwhile, only a few thousand have returned home.
The remaining ISIS strongholds are concentrated in a small area along the border of Syria and Iraq. ISIS, at one point, controlled an area the size of Ohio.
While ISIS has been largely defeated, it continues to call on followers around the world to conduct terror attacks during the holidays with a new message sprouting up on Tuesday, and a suicide attack in Kabul on Christmas with ISIS claiming responsibility. It’s part of the terror group’s effort to expand influence into Africa and Afghanistan. The U.S. envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition warned late last week not to expect a complete defeat anytime soon.
“ISIS became a brand, and a lot of pre-existing terrorist groups — you’ve seen this in the Sinai, for example — start to raise the flag of ISIS, mainly to recruit foreign fighters and other things,” said Brett McGurk, Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS at the U.S. Department of State, in a press briefing Thursday with reporters at the State Department.
Deptula thinks the ISIS fight would have ended much sooner if then-President Obama had given his military commander in the field more authority. He compared President Obama’s actions to President Lyndon B. Johnson during the Vietnam War.
“Obama micromanaged the war,” Deptula said. “We could have accomplished our objectives through the use of overwhelming air power in three months not in three years.”
Deptula said ISIS-controlled oil supplies weren’t targeted for 15 months beginning in 2014, giving the terror group $800 million in much needed revenue to plot attacks and enslave millions of innocents.
In addition to ISIS, an old nemesis has taken root in Syria, and which might take on a bigger priority for the Trump administration next year, according to Geltzer.
“A lot of folks when they think about Al Qaeda probably still think of its center of gravity as being on that Afghanistan-Pakistan border,” he said. “But I would think of the center of gravity for Al Qaeda really having shifted to Syria at this point.”
Three US cities sue Pentagon over failure to report convictions
Three major U.S. cities on Tuesday
filed a lawsuit against the Defense Department for allegedly failing to
report criminal convictions of people in the military to the Federal
Bureau of Investigation and its national gun background check database.
The lawsuit – filed by officials in
New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco – seeks a court order to force
the Pentagon to submit to federal court monitoring of its reporting
requirements.
The Pentagon recently acknowledged it has failed to comply with requirements dating back to the 1990s.“This failure on behalf of the Department of Defense has led to the loss of innocent lives by putting guns in the hands of criminals and those who wish to cause immeasurable harm,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
The suit argues that having a federal court oversee compliance would reduce the chance of a mass shooting like the recent tragedy in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
In that incident, former airman Devin Kelley shot 26 people to death in a Texas church. Kelley had been convicted in a military court of domestic violence but his case wasn’t reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which ideally would have prevented him from buying a gun, the complaint claims.
“We cannot accept the level of gun violence in our country as ‘just the way it is’,” San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in a statement. “Twenty-six people being murdered at church can never be normal.”
The Pentagon had no comment on the lawsuit though its acting inspector general testified at a Senate committee earlier this month that there was “no excuse” for the military’s repeated failure to comply with reporting rules.
Most recently, military investigators found that nearly one in three court-martialed convictions that should have prevented defendants from purchasing guns had gone unreported.
NICS reporting is required for all federal agencies, including the military, and include regular mandatory compliance reports. The federal law was strengthened following the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech.
The case is City of New York v. U.S. Department of Defense.
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Roseanne Barr slams 'bigot' Lorde for nixing Israel concert under BDS pressure
Roseanne Barr slams Lorde as "bigot" for cancelling concert in Israel.
Roseanne Barr took to Twitter to
blast Lorde after the singer cancelled a performance in Israel scheduled
for next summer following pressure from anti-Israel activists.
The New Zealand music star said in a
statement that "the right decision at this time" was to cancel her June
2018 concert in Tel Aviv, which was announced earlier this month.
But Barr slammed her on Twitter:“Boycott this bigot,” Barr wrote. “Lorde caves to BDS pressure, cancels Israel concert.”
Lorde’s announcement followed calls by proponents of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to cancel her performance over Israel's human rights record. Lorde joins artists including Roger Waters, Lauryn Hill and Elvis Costello in boycotting Israel over its treatment of Palestinians.
Lorde said that after having "lots of discussions" about the matter, "I'm not too proud to admit I didn't make the right call on this one," referring to her initial decision to hold the concert.
Lorde's cancellation was welcomed by members of the BDS movement. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel posted a statement on Twitter thanking the artist for "heeding appeals from your fans against Israel's art-washing of its brutal oppression of Palestinians."
"Lorde, I expect you to be a pure heroine, like the title of your first album, a pure culture hero, free of any external - and if I may add, delusional - political considerations," Regev said in a statement.
The Israeli concert promoter responded to the cancellation, saying: "We forgive her."
Rosie O'Donnell tells Paul Ryan he's going 'straight to hell'
Paul Ryan faced Rosie O'Donnell's
wrath on Monday after the comedian slammed him on Twitter.
Rosie O’Donnell had a not-so-warm Christmas wish for House Speaker Paul Ryan: go to hell.The fierce opponent of President Trump and the newly-passed GOP tax plan lashed out at Ryan on Twitter.
“paul ryan – don’t talk about Jesus after what u just did to our nation – u will go straight to hell,” O’Donnell wrote Monday.
“U screwed up fake altar boy,” O’Donnell added.
She finished her holiday attack with the hashtag: “#JUDASmuch” in a reference to the disciple who betrayed Jesus.
The actress, who has famously tussled with Trump, last week offered to pay two senators $2 million each to vote against the tax bill. Her bribe to Sens. Jeff Flake and Susan Collins didn’t work and no GOP senator voted against Trump’s signature legislative achievement.
What seemed to set O’Donnell off was a Christmas video message that Ryan posted Saturday honoring the birth of Jesus.
A rep for Ryan responded only by saying: “We wish everyone a Merry Christmas!”
It’s the latest Twitter war for the ex-View host.
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro reported an obscene tweet O’Donnell posted about him last week that said “Suck my d___ Ben,” according to Fox News.
The two were sparring over the GOP tax plan.
Shapiro reported the “harassment” to Twitter to see if the social media giant would take action against a liberal. Twitter initially declined to delete the tweet, but then reversed course.
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