CLINTON'S EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE CONTAINED 'TOP SECRET' MATERIAL : THE STATE DEPARTMENT.

 

Seven of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email chains will be withheld from public release because they have been found to contain top secret information. (Reuters)

The State Department acknowledged for the first time Friday that “top secret” information has been found in emails that passed through the private email server Hillary Clinton used while leading the agency, elevating the issue in the presidential campaign three days before the hotly contested Iowa caucuses.
The information was contained in 22 emails, across seven email chains, that were sent or received by Clinton, according to a State Department spokesman. The emails will not be disclosed as part of an ongoing  release of Clinton’s email correspondence from her years as secretary of state, even in highly redacted form.

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The finding is likely to complicate Clinton’s efforts to move past the controversy, which has dragged down her poll ratings in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. And it comes as her potential Republican rivals have called for Clinton to be prosecuted for what they say was her mishandling of national secrets.
In responding Friday, Clinton’s campaign took the unusual step of criticizing the intelligence community, accusing  spy agencies of engaging in “overclassification run amok.” Some Clinton allies suggested that intelligence officials were politically motivated.
Clinton’s spokesman, Brian Fallon, presented the findings as the latest turn in an ongoing struggle between government officials over whether to retroactively classify emails that were not marked as sensitive when they were sent and that Clinton thinks should be made public.
“After a process that has been dominated by bureaucratic infighting that has too often played out in public view, the loudest and leakiest participants in this interagency dispute have now prevailed in blocking any release of these emails,” Fallon said. “This flies in the face of the fact that these emails were unmarked at the time they were sent, and have been called ‘innocuous’ by certain intelligence officials.”
Fallon told MSNBC that withholding the emails from view in their entirety made it impossible for the public to independently judge the validity of the State Department’s conclusion.
Friday’s announcement came at a politically sensitive moment for Clinton. She is locked in a dead heat in Iowa with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, whose long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination has gained momentum in recent weeks, and the revival of the email matter could increase anxiety among Clinton supporters who had hoped that the issue would fade as the primaries began and a  general election loomed.
Some uncertainty has hung over Clinton and her campaign since the revelation last spring that she had used a private email system for official business, with the FBI conducting an investigation into whether classified information was compromised.
A U.S. law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said that prosecuting anyone involved in the case would be difficult. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations, said that investigators are looking at whether anyone knowingly mishandled classified information on the system.


The inquiry has frustrated Clinton allies and provided fodder to GOP candidates such as Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who mused in Thursday night’s Republican debate that Clinton was “disqualified from being the commander in chief” because she stored classified material on her server and “her first acts as president may very well be to pardon herself.”
Republicans were quick to chime in, with Donald Trump tweeting that it was a “disaster” for Clinton and asking, “How can someone with such bad judgement be our next president?”
Sanders appeared to dismiss the email issue in October, when he told Clinton at a debate that Americans were “sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.”
“As I said at the first Democratic debate, there is a legal process in place which should proceed and not be politicized. The voters of Iowa and this nation deserve a serious discussion of the issues facing them,” Sanders said Friday in a statement.
The Friday announcement was significant because it appeared to undercut Clinton’s argument in recent months that she was merely the victim of a bureaucratic squabble between overly strict analysts at the intelligence agencies and more reasonable reviewers at the State Department.
The intelligence community’s inspector general had previously indicated that he thought that some of the emails contained top secret material. Until Friday, however, the State Department had declined to concur with that assessment.


State’s reviewers had said that more than 1,300 Clinton emails contained classified material, but the vast majority were just “confidential,” a lower level of sensitivity.
Clinton has said that none of her emails were marked classified when they were sent. But it is the responsibility of individual government officials to handle classified material appropriately, including by properly marking it as classified, according to experts.
Clinton has also said that the information in question was not classified at the time the emails were sent — a point that intelligence officials have disputed.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said Friday that his agency had not yet made a determination on that key question.
Kirby also said for the first time that some emails between Clinton and President Obama have been located and will also be withheld from public release. He said there were 18 emails between the two, comprising eight email chains. He said those emails were not classified but would take longer to be released, which is standard for presidential communication.
Clinton’s position was supported Friday by Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, who said none of the emails in question originated with Clinton.
“It has never made sense to me that Secretary Clinton can be held responsible for email exchanges that originated with someone else,” she said in a statement. “The only reason to hold Secretary Clinton responsible for emails that didn’t originate with her is for political points, and that’s what we’ve seen over the past several months.”
Another Clinton ally, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, told MSNBC that Friday’s announcement suggested an effort to hurt Clinton ahead of Monday’s voting in Iowa.
“The timing of it is quite suspect,” said Vilsack, a former Iowa governor.
Steven Aftergood, who heads a project on government secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists, said he thought the attention to Clinton’s emails was overblown, partly because similar classification disputes are common across government.
Still, he called Clinton’s public squabble with the intelligence community unusual.
“I think this is a unique set of circumstances in which a presidential candidate is engaged in a debate with an intelligence agency over her own record as a former official,” he said.
The State Department’s conclusion came as it has worked to process 55,000 pages of Clinton’s correspondence for public release, including about 1,000 pages that were released Friday night. Clinton has said that she deleted 31,000 additional emails in 2014, deeming them purely personal.
The State Department has been under a court order to release the documents in batches, once a month, as part of a lawsuit filed by reporter Jason Leopold of Vice News, who sued after the department failed to respond promptly to his request for the public documents.
A judge had ordered the department to release all of the emails by the end of January, but attorneys for the department said this week that they would miss the deadline, and requested another month.
That means the last of Clinton’s emails will not be released until the end of February — after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary — and just before Super Tuesday, when voters in 11 states will cast ballots.
Clinton, who held three campaign events across Iowa on Friday, has encouraged the State Department to release her email as quickly as possible.
“I think it’s great. Let people sort them through,” Clinton said at a town hall sponsored by CNN in Iowa this week. “And as we have seen there is a lot . . . [of] interest. But it’s something that took time to get done.”
Although in September she said her decision to use the private account was a mistake, at the town hall this week she said she did not believe it amounted to “an error in judgment.”

WHY IS THE U.S OBSESSED WITH GUNS?
 
 

The Sundance documentary Under the Gun dives into the debate about guns in the US, and hearing that description might make you think you don’t want to see it. Mass shootings, background checks, gun shows, the National Rifle Association: those buzzwords – do they ever leave the news feed? – can, by now, be wearying. The sheer omnipresence of the debate can make it seem like you’ve heard all the arguments before, and that there’s nothing new to learn.
Under the Gun, though, opens your eyes– and not just because it brings you close to the families of some of the victims from the Newtown and Aurora massacres in the US. The film’s achievement is its deep understanding of the people who worship guns.


Under the Gun presents two shocking facts. The first is that the sheer number of gun shops in the US is greater than the number of McDonald’s restaurants and Starbucks stores… combined. If this statistic is true, it’s a nightmarish scenario. The message isn’t just that gun stores are as ubiquitous as fast food. It’s that they are fast food, offering a cheap meal of sensory abandon.
But here’s the real jaw-dropper from the film. In 1986, when the NRA was first feeling its power as a lobbying organisation, it strong-armed the US Congress into passing a law that forbade the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the government branch that regulates guns, from storing its information on computers. Thirty years later, that law remains on the books. In Under the Gun, we see what the inside of a typical ATF office looks like: mountains of boxed papers. Most background checks are routine, but if a potential gun buyer needs to be investigated beyond the usual screening procedures, the ‘check’ consists of some poor slave of a bureaucrat hunting through the files – a process that would take mereminutes if it were done on computer. With the current system, it takes days. And if the check isn’t completed within 72 hours, the person in question can simply buy the gun without it.
Bullet points
Under the Gun reveals that the system, in other words, is engineered to operate in slow motion. It’s designed not to work.  Stephanie Soechtig, the director of Under the Gun, takes us inside the NRA, and for perhaps the first time in any film we get a full sense of their psychology – the secret vulnerability that drives their give-me-firearms-or-give-me-death stance. Soechtig stages a group therapy session with NRA members, and what they reveal is the anxiety behind their absolutism: the fear that if they ever backed down and allowed one rule that restricted guns, the government would bust down their doors and take away their weapons. They defend their Second Amendment rights, but what Under the Gun reveals is that guns, to the NRA, aren’t just a right. They’re the key to identity. We see citizens in supermarkets with machine guns slung across their backs, and the message is, “I pack heat, therefore I am.”

They’ve turned life into a Dirty Harry movie, and politics into a cult of firearms

Watching Under the Gun, you may think that no sane society would allow this. But the grand paradox of the NRA is that they have all the power with nothing close to a majority. They can cajole congressmen into voting their way – not because most US citizens share their view, but because gun-control advocates don’t vote en masse. Whereas gun-rights advocates turn out to vote as if their very existence depended on it. They see no shades of grey. There are ‘bad guys with guns’ and the ‘good guys’ who can stop them. They’ve turned life into a Dirty Harry movie, and politics into a cult of firearms.
Soechtig interviews the parents of mass-shooting victims, and though that’s a fair subject, the way the film showcases their heartbreak and rage can’t help but seem a touch exploitative. Trying to turn tragedy into an argument feels both right and wrong. Yet in the last part of the film, when we witness the Aurora movie-theatre massacre as it was recorded – outside the cinema itself – on the multiplex surveillance cameras, we feel a little like those families: helpless, torn by terror and thinking, “How could this happen?” Under the Gun acknowledges that gun control won’t solve everything, but it makes a profound target of the gun fetishists who seem to value their rights more than they do life itself.

TRUMP SAYS HE GOT AN APOLOGY FROM FOX NEWS.

But the network says Trump asked for $5 million to attend Iowa event

Donald Trump said Thursday evening Fox News had apologized to him after he publicly fell out with the network over the Iowa debate, but it came too late for him to change his mind.
“I got an apology, it was very nice, and I appreciated it,” Trump said, speaking to a small group of reporters aboard his private plane Thursday evening before his counter-debate event to raise money for wounded veterans. “And that’s why I was so open to doing something, but by that time it was just too late.”
Trump said he has spoken on the phone “many” times with Fox CEO Roger Ailes over the past few days. “They wanted to have me, and I would have loved to have been there,” Trump said of Fox. “The problem is once you set up this major event, how can I be there?”
Fox, however, released a statement saying Trump had asked for $5 million to do the debate, and disputing his claims that he had had multiple calls from Fox News chairman Roger Ailes. The network said it had merely recognized his issues with a press release it put out appearing to mock Trump:
“We acknowledged his concerns about a satirical observation we made in order to quell the attacks on Megyn Kelly, and prevent her from being smeared any further. Furthermore, Trump offered to appear at the debate upon the condition that FOX News contribute $5 million to his charities. We explained that was not possible and we could not engage in a quid pro quo, nor could any money change hands for any reason”
The statement continued: “We would never compromise our journalistic standards and we would always stand by our journalist, Megyn Kelly. We have accomplished those two goals and we are pleased with the outcome.”
Trump said his rival event has “turned out to be a big monster.” According to a statement by Drake University, the location for Trump’s Thursday night event, the auditorium is limited to a 700-person capacity, but the event had been “significantly over-ticketed by the Trump campaign.”
“The time to change my mind would have been two days ago,” Trump said. “Not now. It’s too late. When you look at the lines, what am I going to do, tell thousands of people that by the way folks, I’m going to go do the debate? I think it would look bad.”
The Republican frontrunner said his issues with host Megyn Kelly had been overblown. “I don’t care about Megyn Kelly. I’m not a fan of Megyn, but I don’t care if she’s the moderator,” Trump said. “The thing I thought was really unfair was that press release. And I thought that was unfair. But we’re fine now.”
He said that his event tonight has already raised almost $5 million for wounded veterans, and he pledged to donate $1 million more. He said that his children would also donate money, pointing out his daughter Ivanka standing with his wife Melania at the back of the plane.
When asked how he thinks his absence onstage will affect the other candidates, Trump said, “You don’t know until its over. Some people are saying it’s going to be negative because you’re not going to have me there so you’re going to have smaller viewership, some are saying maybe they’ll be able to express themselves better.”
Trump couldn’t resist a little negativity of his own. One reporter pressed him— what about Jeb Bush? “Jeb’s a lost cause,” Trump scoffed.

WHO WON THE REPUBLICAN DEBATE?

Trump proves you don’t have to show up to win.

Here’s an election-themed Zen riddle: How do you win a debate without showing up?
Donald Trump, the Samurai master of campaigning via media stunts, solved it Thursday by transforming his decision to skip the Fox News debate into a bigger happening than the event itself.
The billionaire businessman owned the last two days of coverage by reigniting his feud with the conservative cable network and ultimately making good on his threat to bolt rather than face Fox host Megyn Kelly as a moderator. Depending on your vantage, Trump either looked petulant or tough for deciding instead to counter-program the debate with his own rally — billed as a fundraising event for veterans — nearby in Des Moines.
But either way, he confirmed his rep as a figure willing to stand apart from the establishment political-media complex, and his front-running status in Iowa and beyond won’t suffer for it. And though he was gone, he was hardly forgotten, with Google search traffic for Trump through the first hour-plus of the debate eclipsing that of all the candidates on stage combined.
Those who did show up to the field’s seventh showdown — the final one before the Iowa caucuses on Monday — squabbled over immigration, terrorism and government surveillance. And in the most memorable clash of the night, Trump’s two nearest rivals in Iowa, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, eviscerated each other over their respective records on immigration.
Each accused the other of lying about his past positions, all to present as tough on immigration before primary voters agitating for a harder line. In that regard, both appeared to be right. Fox moderators drove that point home in dramatic fashion by playing extended video clips of the candidates arguing, in archived footage, for a solution that includes legalizing undocumented workers, then asking them to defend their respective evolutions.
The upshot: Both came across as disingenuous Washington insiders, a toxic caricature in a presidential primary. And New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie pounced on the opportunity to dismiss them as such after their back-and-forth. “I feel like I need a Washington to English dictionary converter, right?” Christie said, to laughter. “I mean, I heard what they both said, I saw it on the video.”
But as long as we’re getting creative in naming debate winners, we may as well extend that to losers, as well, and identify the voters among those who came up short. The two-hour debate managed to cover a wide range of issues, from the Flint, Michigan water crisis to a hypothetical Russian attack on Estonia. Yet as our colleague Dan Primack noted, the Fox News moderators gave exceedingly short shrift to jobs and the economy, failing to ask a single question dedicated to how the candidates would encourage fuller employment or higher wages. That, despite the fact that Republican voters in Iowa rate the issue as their top concern, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this week.
Trump’s shadow assumed its place on the debate stage from the start. Kelly kicked off the night by inviting Cruz to “address the elephant not in the room,” asking him what message Trump’s absence sent to Iowa voters. That was softer than soft-pitch, more like tee-ball, and Cruz took a swing with a canned laugh line: “Let me say, I’m a maniac and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat, and ugly. And Ben [Carson], you’re a terrible surgeon. Now that we’ve gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way…”
But as the highest-polling contender in the room, Cruz arrived braced for attacks. He appeared defensive bordering on whiny when he protested to the moderators at one point that he was being treated too roughly — a complaint that drew boos from the audience. At other points, he struggled through the barrage. Beyond his inconstancy on immigration, he took heat for calling to end ethanol subsidies — a position so unpopular with Iowa corn-growers that it’s already earned him a first-ever un-endorsement from Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a locally beloved Republican boosting Trump instead. Cruz found surer footing on a question about whether his grating style would limit his effectiveness, owning his unpopularity in Washington as proof he’s shaking things up.
The surprise of the night came from the contest’s original heavy, long-since deposed, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who turned in by far his strongest debate performance of the cycle. He parried a question about his brother’s foreign-policy misadventures, for example, into commanding enumeration of his plan for dismantling ISIS. If it got through to voters in New Hampshire, who head to the polls eight days after Iowa, Bush’s showing could give him a much-needed lift. There, the former frontrunner and is elbowing Rubio, Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich for position as the most viable, establishment-friendly alternative to Trump and Cruz. That sub-contest in the Granite State has remained something of a four-way tangle.

REPUBLICANS TRAIN THEIR FIRE ON HILLARY CLINTON AT IOWA DEBATE.

The Secretary of State came up almost as much as Donald Trump

Candidates at the Republican debate Thursday could agree on one thing: that Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton was a ripe target for repeated attacks.
Without GOP front-runner Donald Trump there to fling insults — or be insulted in turn — the remaining candidates turned their attentions to the former Secretary of State as the biggest obstacle to the Republican Party’s chances of winning the presidency in November.
Rubio quickly connected the former Secretary of State with President Obama, after Clinton proposed earlier in the week that Obama might make a good Supreme Court Justice. “Supreme Court? I don’t think so,” Rubio said. “If I’m our nominee, I will unite this party and we’ll defeat Hillary Clinton and we will turn this country around once and for all, after seven years of the disaster that is Barack Obama.”
Shortly after, Bush alluded to Clinton’s email scandal in the punchline of a joke.

“I released 34 years of tax returns and 300,000 e-mails in my government record,” Bush said to applause. “To get the information from Hillary Clinton, you need to get a subpoena from the FBI.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie favorably compared himself to Clinton in terms of executive experience. “Hillary Clinton has never been responsible for those kind of decisions where they were held accountable,” Christie said. “I’ve been held accountable for six years as the governor of New Jersey and with a Democratic legislature, I’ve gotten conservative things done. That’s exactly what I’ll do as president of the United States.”

MEET THE NEWEST MEMBER OF CLEVELAND METROPARK RANGER K-9 UNIT DEPARTMENT.

 Cleveland swears in 11-week old German Shepherd as Metroparks K-9

CREDIT: Cleveland Metroparks via Facebook

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WCMH)–It’s a “ruff” job, but somebody has to do it.
An 11-week-old German Shepherd has become the newest addition to Cleveland Metroparks Ranger Department K-9 Unit. Tyson, Cleveland Metroparks’ newest Patrol and Explosives Canine Officer, raised his right paw alongside his partner, Ranger Trevor C. Poole, at the Board of Park Commissioners meeting.

 


According to a press release, Tyson will join three other K-9 officers in patrolling the Park District. It’s a big job for those (momentarily) little paws, as the District is 23,000 acres.
Tyson and Ranger Poole will respond to the Metroparks’ busiest activities,

BEN CARSON ATTACKS PUTIN WITH THE SINGLE MOST BAFFLING QUOTE OF THE NIGHT.

 

While there might be some debate over who won and who lost the sixth Republican debate, no will dispute that Ben Carson had the best line of the night when he declared that "Putin is a one-horse country: Oil and energy." Let that sink in for a bit, because it'll be a while until you hear a sentence as glorious as that one.
There was more context to it than that, but honestly, do you really need it? Is there any context that could possibly make sense of the phrase "Putin is a one-horse country: Oil and energy?" No, there is not. Like Donald Trump, that sentence exists in a universe of its own, unchanged and unaffected by anything that happens to transpire around it.
All right, all right. Carson had been asked what he would do if, hypothetically, Russia invaded Estonia while he was president. It's a serious question, as a Russian invasion of Estonia could conceivably trigger World World War III, and Carson's initial response made sense. He said he'd increase America's military presence in the Baltics, build a new missile defense system in the region and continue to arm Ukraine. Fine. But then...


"I think we ought to fight [Russia] on an economic basis, because Putin is a one-horse country — oil and energy," said Carson. "And we ought to fight them on that level."
Don't think about that too long, because your head will hurt. Instead, enjoy Twitter's brilliant response to Carson's, errr, proclamation.

 There are some sentences that have permanently burned themselves into my brain, and "Putin is a one-horse country: Oil and energy" is one of them. Never change, Ben Carson.

 

 

 

 

 

GOP DEBATE : BEN CARSON WILL ANSWER 2 A.M PHONE CALL , References Hillary Clinton Attack On Obama

Republican U.S. presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson (L) listens as U.S. Senator Ted Cruz speaks at the debate held by Fox News for the top 2016 U.S. Republican presidential candidates in Des Moines, Iowa Thursday. Photo: REUTERS

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson said Thursday during the Republican debate in Des Moines, Iowa, that while he might not have politics on his resume, he has a proven record of answering important calls in the middle of night. His remarks alluded to a situation Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton argued in 2008 campaign attack ads that challenger President Barack Obama would not be equipped to handle.
"I have had more 2 a.m. phone calls making life and death decisions," Carson said, referring to his career in medicine. Clinton's 2008 ad asked voters who they would want answering the phone in the White House. "It’s 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep," the advertisement said. "But there’s a phone in the White House and it’s ringing. Something’s happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call." The advertisement, which ran in Texas, ended with Clinton answering the phone call.
In the final debate before the Iowa caucuses, Carson made an appeal to voters that his history dealing with difficult situations in medicine has prepared him to be president. "I have put complex teams together to deal with complex problems," Carson said.

The primetime Fox News-Googledebate also featured Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. Fox News anchors Chris Wallace, Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier moderated the debate.
Trump was invited to the debate, but opted to hold an event to raise money for wounded veterans instead. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America organization has said the group would not accept any donations from the event, reported the New York Times. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said they would attend the fundraiser after their appearance at the 7 p.m. EST undercard debate, where they were joined by Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore. The four candidates did not make the cut for the primetime showdown due to their low standing in the polls.
The next Republican debate is scheduled for Feb. 6 in Manchester, New Hampshire.

HERE'S HOW BERNIE SANDERS PLANS TO TAKE IOWA.

 Bernie Sanders Speaks to Lester Holt About How He Can Win Iowa

 

 Just days away from arguably the biggest moment of his political career, Senator Bernie Sanders is relatively sanguine on his chances for victory.

"We will win Iowa if there's a large voter turnout," Sanders told Lester Holt Wednesday in an exclusive interview with NBC Nightly News.
Turnout is something that Sanders returned to at several points in the interview. In many ways, he acknowledged, voter turnout is key to his campaign's electoral success not just in Iowa but in virtually every corner of the country where his main rival Hillary Clinton enjoys the crucial establishment support and financial prowess that is often key in primary season.
Getting people to show up, however, has largely not been a problem for Sanders thus far in this whirlwind campaign.
Thousands have attended his rallies — from liberal strongholds like Los Angeles and Boston, to reliably Republican locales like Montgomery, Alabama — to hear his core message on income inequality and answer his call for a "political revolution" to bring change to Washington.
And the Sanders campaign claims to have received two and a half million individual contributions — more than any other presidential candidate in U.S. history.
On Grassroots Movement
In the interview, Sanders returned to the central tenets of his policy platforms: universal healthcare, free tuition at public universities and colleges and reforming what he calls the nation's "corrupt campaign finance system."
When asked how his ambitious proposals could get through in a gridlocked and Republican-controlled Congress, Sanders' answer was two-fold.
He first cited experience working with his colleagues across the aisle, highlighting what he called a "significant piece of legislation" providing comprehensive health care to veterans which he worked on last year with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in the House Veterans Committee.
"I can work with Republicans," he said.
The second factor, he said, was bringing millions of people into the political process to demand that Washington "starts representing ordinary Americans, the middle class [and] working families — not just the billionaire class."
Entrenched interests in Congress, he said, were such that if free tuition is to become a reality, students would have to stand up and fight for it. If the issue of equal pay in America were to ever come to fruition, women would need to stand up and fight for it. As he has throughout his unlikely grassroots campaign, Sanders appeared confident that if ordinary Americans unite in their struggles, true reform could break through the various obstacles.
On Foreign Policy
On a day where Sanders held a private meeting with President Obama in the White House, which he admitted felt a little different visiting as a presidential candidate, the senator was slightly more retrospective on an issue where he has come under criticism: national security.
"When you sit in the Oval Office, where I was today, " said Sanders. "You understand that the issues are not just the mess — the need to rebuild a disappearing middle class, the need to make sure that all of our kids, regardless of income, can get a higher education, the need to deal with poverty — but also, we are living in a very, very dangerous world."
He said he and the president spoke about foreign policy but did not divulge details. He did repeat his pledge to destroy ISIS, but was careful to stress his support for a strategy that did not "get us involved in perpetual warfare."
This is where he said he differed from Clinton. He pointed out, as he often does in nearly every stump speech on the trail, that Clinton voted for the Iraq War. Sanders voted against it.
"What I said back in 2002 — much of what I predicted would happen, the destabilization, et cetera, turned out to be right," said Sanders.
Looking Ahead
He was defiant about his prospects for Monday night in Iowa: If he comes in second place, he said, his campaign would move full-steam ahead to New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — the next three primaries on the calendar.
At stake, he repeated, was nothing short of a political revolution. He then again returned to his familiar refrain: turnout was key.
"If voter turnout remains low, if working people give up on the political process, then the big money interests dominate," Sanders said. "That's the political dynamic that we're trying to change." ust days away from arguably the biggest moment of his political career, Senator Bernie Sanders is relatively sanguine on his chances for victory.
"We will win Iowa if there's a large voter turnout," Sanders told Lester Holt Wednesday in an exclusive interview with NBC Nightly News.
Turnout is something that Sanders returned to at several points in the interview. In many ways, he acknowledged, voter turnout is key to his campaign's electoral success not just in Iowa but in virtually every corner of the country where his main rival Hillary Clinton enjoys the crucial establishment support and financial prowess that is often key in primary season.
Getting people to show up, however, has largely not been a problem for Sanders thus far in this whirlwind campaign.
Thousands have attended his rallies — from liberal strongholds like Los Angeles and Boston, to reliably Republican locales like Montgomery, Alabama — to hear his core message on income inequality and answer his call for a "political revolution" to bring change to Washington.
And the Sanders campaign claims to have received two and a half million individual contributions — more than any other presidential candidate in U.S. history.
On Grassroots Movement
In the interview, Sanders returned to the central tenets of his policy platforms: universal healthcare, free tuition at public universities and colleges and reforming what he calls the nation's "corrupt campaign finance system."
When asked how his ambitious proposals could get through in a gridlocked and Republican-controlled Congress, Sanders' answer was two-fold.
He first cited experience working with his colleagues across the aisle, highlighting what he called a "significant piece of legislation" providing comprehensive health care to veterans which he worked on last year with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in the House Veterans Committee.
"I can work with Republicans," he said.
The second factor, he said, was bringing millions of people into the political process to demand that Washington "starts representing ordinary Americans, the middle class [and] working families — not just the billionaire class."
Entrenched interests in Congress, he said, were such that if free tuition is to become a reality, students would have to stand up and fight for it. If the issue of equal pay in America were to ever come to fruition, women would need to stand up and fight for it. As he has throughout his unlikely grassroots campaign, Sanders appeared confident that if ordinary Americans unite in their struggles, true reform could break through the various obstacles.
On Foreign Policy
On a day where Sanders held a private meeting with President Obama in the White House, which he admitted felt a little different visiting as a presidential candidate, the senator was slightly more retrospective on an issue where he has come under criticism: national security.
"When you sit in the Oval Office, where I was today, " said Sanders. "You understand that the issues are not just the mess — the need to rebuild a disappearing middle class, the need to make sure that all of our kids, regardless of income, can get a higher education, the need to deal with poverty — but also, we are living in a very, very dangerous world."
He said he and the president spoke about foreign policy but did not divulge details. He did repeat his pledge to destroy ISIS, but was careful to stress his support for a strategy that did not "get us involved in perpetual warfare."
This is where he said he differed from Clinton. He pointed out, as he often does in nearly every stump speech on the trail, that Clinton voted for the Iraq War. Sanders voted against it.
"What I said back in 2002 — much of what I predicted would happen, the destabilization, et cetera, turned out to be right," said Sanders.
Looking Ahead
He was defiant about his prospects for Monday night in Iowa: If he comes in second place, he said, his campaign would move full-steam ahead to New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — the next three primaries on the calendar.
At stake, he repeated, was nothing short of a political revolution. He then again returned to his familiar refrain: turnout was key.
"If voter turnout remains low, if working people give up on the political process, then the big money interests dominate," Sanders said. "That's the political dynamic that we're trying to change."

 

 

 

 

 

SWEDEN TO EXPEL 80,000 REJECTED ASYLUM SEEKERS AS MIGRANT CRISIS DEEPENS.

SWEDEN will dismiss up 80,000 asylum-seekers who had their applications rejected, a minister has said.

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Sweden could expel up to 80,000 rejected asylum seekers

Around 163,000 migrants sought asylum during 2015, the highest per capita in the whole of Europe.
However, the Scandinavians interior minister Anders Ygeman said about “60,000 people” would be expelled but the figure could climb to 80,000.

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The migrant crisis has deepened across Europe

The rejected asylum-seekers would be moved “over several years” and that last year, 55 per cent of 58,800 cases taken forward were accepted.
In November Sweden tightened its borders on migrants and Mr Ygeman said last year: “Our signal to the rest of the EU is crystal clear.

“Sweden is the country that has shouldered the greatest responsibility for the refugee crisis.
"If we are to cope with this mutual challenge, the other countries must take their responsibility."
The news comes as Europe struggles to cope with the increasing number of migrants coming into Europe.
The UN says more than 46,000 people have arrived in Greece in this year alone with more than 170 people killed in the crossing.
Angry EU leaders are now one step closer to kicking Greece out of the Schengen agreement after discovering how it was failing to impose Schengen rules on several fronts.

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Greece has come under criticism for neglecting its obligations

European Commission vice president Valdis Dombrovskis said: "Greece seriously neglected its obligations and that there are serious deficiencies in the carrying out of external border control that must be overcome... by the Greek authorities."
He added: “There is no effective identification and registration of irregular migrants.
“Fingerprints are not being entered systematically into the system, travel documents are not being systematically checked for authenticity or against crucial security databases.”
The Greek foreign ministry released statistics on Wednesday suggesting 90 per cent of the new arrivals last year were from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, most of whom would routinely qualify for refugee status.
Already six Schengen members have reintroduced controls since last year in Germany, Austria, France, Sweden, Denmark and the non-EU member Norway.

MEET THE NEWEST BUDWEISER CLYDESDALE HORSE.

Budweiser

Cheers.

Budweiser is raising a glass to its newest Clydesdale horse Mac, its first foal of 2016 born Tuesday at 1:20 a.m.
To see him, Bud drinkers will have to giddy up over to the Warm Springs Ranch in Boonville, Missouri, home of more than 160 Clydesdale horses, a breed that originated in the mid-18th century in Scotland in Lanarkshire (aka Lanark). Its name is believed to be “inspired by” the river that runs through that area, the River Clyde, according to The Livestock Conservancy and the Clydesdale Horse Society. Historically used for pulling heavy cargo, they were brought to North America in the mid-19th century.
“The tradition of the Budweiser Clydesdales started in 1933 when they made their first-ever appearance as a gift from August A. Busch, Jr. and Adolphus Busch to their father in celebration of the repeal of Prohibition,” Anheuser-Busch said in a statement. “Realizing the marketing potential of a horse-drawn beer wagon, the company also arranged to have a second six-horse Clydesdale hitch sent to New York…The Clydesdales made a stop in Washington D.C. in April 1933 to reenact the delivery of one of the first cases of Budweiser to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”
Nowadays, Clydesdales are said to be primarily used for “breeding and show.” But no word on when Mac will appear in his first Super Bowl commercial.

WHY PAYPAL JUST ADDED A RECORD NUMBER OF NEW USERS.

Lucas Jackson—Reuters Paypal CEO Dan Schulman takes part in the company's relisting on the Nasdaq in New York, July 20, 2015

The company added 6.6 million new users in the fourth quarter

PayPal added a record number of new users in the fourth quarter, the payments giant revealed as part of its latest quarterly earnings Wednesday afternoon. In an earnings call with analysts, CEO Dan Schulman shared that the company is gaining momentum and is benefitting from the shift by shoppers to mobile devices.
PayPal added 6.6 million new accounts in the fourth quarter, up from an average of 4 million new accounts per quarter in the recent past, explained Schulman. With the new additions, PayPal now has 179 million active accounts, up from 173 million in the previous quarter.
The increased growth is a sign that PayPal is succeeding as a separate company from marketplace eBay, which the payments company spun off from in 2015.
“It’s becoming increasingly evident that payments is a hard business to crack,” Schulman said. “While many others are attempting to play in this space, PayPalcontinues to gain market share.”
PayPal added 1.6 million accounts through its $890 million acquisition of Xoom, which lets people send money, pay bills and reload mobile phones from the United States to 37 countries. Beyond Xoom, Schulman also explained that the company’s isn’t losing as many users as before without giving any further details about the numbers of defectors.


Lastly, he said that the rise in payments from mobile devices and the company’s new technologies like One Touch which lets users log in once with PayPal to pay for goods when shopping online and on their mobile devices, is helping attract more users In the fourth quarter, PayPal processed $20 billion in mobile payment volume, up 45% from the same quarter in 2014.
Schulman said that more than 10 million people have enabled the universal digital payments service, signaling more people are buying items using their mobile phones. More than 1 million merchants worldwide let shoppers pay with OneTouch, and PayPal is processing millions of One Touch transactions each month. And there’s the fast growing mobile payments app Venmo, which is popular with millennials.

Payments is a really hard business, Schulman explained, but the company has been able to succeed because it has a “comprehensive” group of services, including merchant and consumer offerings. “Our biggest competition is ability to execute on our game plan.”
PayPal’s shares were up 4% in after hours trading to $33 per share.

HERE'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES SKIP DEBATES.

 

 

 Donald Trump said this week that he will skip Thursday’s Republican debate in Iowa after Fox News rebuffed his demand that it ditch Megyn Kelly—the anchor with whom Trump has feuded for months—as the moderator.
It’s unclear what impact the front-runner’s boycott will have on his campaign. But it places Trump among the ranks of a few other Republican presidential candidates who also skipped debates in key voting states. And history doesn’t necessarily suggest Trump will suffer for the move—though it might hurt him in Iowa.


For example, George W. Bush skipped the first debates of the 2000 presidential election. He opted out of the first debate, which took place in New Hampshire, to focus on Iowa and attend a dinner honoring his wife. Bush’s opponents criticized him for disrespecting New Hampshire voters and, shortly after he skipped a second debate, a long-running TIME feature highlighting the week’s winners and losers identified Bush as one of that week’s losers: “GEORGE W. BUSH Skips another N.H. debate with rivals. Message: I don’t care. Won’t exactly woo Granite State.”
“Bush must convince New Hampshirites that he doesn’t take their votes for granted,” TIME wrote in December 1999. Sure enough, he lost the New Hampshire primary—but he later won the nomination and the presidential election.
The Bush outcome echoed the situation from decades earlier, when Ronald Reagan chose not to participate in a debate hosted by the Des Moines Register the night before the 1980 Iowa caucuses, at the advice of his campaign manager, John Sears, according to reports in the Weekly Standard:

Reagan, who had been well known in Iowa since his days as a young sports announcer in the 1930s, seemed to have a solid lead over a field of challengers far less well known than he. More important, Sears feared Reagan wasn’t ready to debate. He concluded that the risk of a Reagan embarrassment in the debate was greater than the risk of losing Iowa. Indeed, Sears thought Reagan might win Iowa and still see his campaign begin to unravel if he looked ill-prepared, out of touch, and therefore too old to be president.

Sears thought Reagan would become “just one of the pack” if he debated in Iowa.
“Being the front runner can give you control. The race cannot really start before he begins to compete. Without him, it’s just practice,” Sears told TIME in 1980. The magazine also reported that the future president did not take part because he said, as an act of faith, he did not like to criticize fellow Republicans. While Reagan was the front-runner in the campaign at that point, his support took a significant hit after the missed debate, falling from 50% to 26%, according to polls by the Register. As TIME explained, the debate made a big difference in the state:

"… There was a debate, and Reagan failed to show while the other six G.O.P. candidates put on an impressive performance. “Republicans were tickled to death with the debate,” says Howard Baker, one of the participants. “It made the party as a whole look good.” Reagan was all the more conspicuous by his absence. That absence, proclaimed the Quad City Times, was “a cowardly attempt to maintain a lead in the polls.”

Iowans were insulted by Reagan’s refusal to join the debate, which was watched by a majority of adults in the state. Reagan lost the Iowa caucus to George H.W. Bush, suddenly finding himself in a competitive race. But Reagan recovered in New Hampshire, going on to win the nomination and two terms as president.
Not every debate-skipper has followed the pattern, however: In January of 1996, Bob Dole skipped the first nationally televised debate of that year, in South Carolina, instead returning to Washington for budget talks. “I regret I can’t be there to get beat up on,” Dole said at the time, becoming a target for opponents and Republican leaders who accused him of losing his nerve and lacking commitment. Dole won the South Carolina primary anyway, and the nomination—though he lost to Bill Clinton in the general election.
Of course, if there’s anything Trump has proven this campaign cycle, it’s that past is no longer necessarily prologue in American politics.

DONALD TRUMP DOESN'T BACK DOWN FROM THE FOX FEUD ON THE O'REILLY FACTOR.

John Minchillo—AP Donald Trump, left, and Megyn Kelly during the first Republican debate at the Quicken Loans Arena, in Cleveland on Aug. 6, 2015.

"I don't like being taken advantage of, in this case I was being taken advantage of by Fox"

Donald Trump appeared Wednesday night on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor to air his grievances with the network.
Trump has been going back and forth with Fox since he declined Tuesday to participate in a presidential debate hosted by Fox News, escalating a feud between the candidate and the network. During his appearance on Bill O’Reilly’s show, he showed no signs of relenting saying, “I don’t like being taken advantage of, in this case I was being taken advantage of by Fox. I don’t like that.”
O’Reilly skipped his usual current events segment Talking Points Memo at the top of his show to go straight to the interview with his longtime friend. In an attempt to reason with the billionaire Republican front-runner, O’Reilly said that by walking away from the debate Trump was leaving supporters behind.
“You are one person away—and it’s probably going to be Hillary Clinton—from being the President of the United States,” O’Reilly said. “I submit to you that you need to change and get away from the personal ‘they hurt my feelings, they’re unfair to me’ and make it about the folks, not about you. And you elevate them to a place where you could win this if you do that.”


Trump responded that O’Reilly wasn’t far off and that his campaign, which takes him all over the country, was about one thing—making good on his promise to make America great again.
“That’s why I’m doing this, it’s because I want the position, it’s because I know the potential of this country, how great the country can be,” Trump said. “I’m all over the country and I’m seeing unbelievable people, with unbelievable potential—and it’s untapped potential.”
The feud with Fox stems from a back-and-forth between Trump and Fox News Host Megan Kelly. Since she questioned him bluntly in August about comments he had made about women, Trump has protested that Kelly should not be allowed to moderate any Republican debate.
Trump also complained during the O’Reilly interview about the Republican debate schedule, and suggested that Democrats had a lighter load with less debates. He added that he could do better things with his time, citing an event he will be hosting Thursday, during the debate, at Drake University in Iowa to raise funds for veterans.

“We’re going to go on forever with these debates, at some point you’ve got to start doing other things other than debating,” Trump sai

MAN RUNS INTO BURNING HOUSE TO SAVE DOGS... THEN GETS ARRESTED.

A DOG lover has been arrested after ignoring firefighters to keep out of his burning home as he tried to save his pets.

IG/GETTY STOCK

Wendell Joyner saved his pets (bottom right, top right stock image) from the fire but was arrested

Wendell Joyner even grabbed a firefighter's axe and threw it through a window to get to his three dogs as smoke billowed out of the house from the raging fire.
Joyner, 58, was left covered in bandages after sheriff's deputies tackled him as the fire, started by a television, took hold.

Fire crews eventually saved the dogs but Joyner now faces charges for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and tampering with the fire axe.
"I got out of the house, and then I realised, 'Oh, wait a minute, my dogs are in there," Joyner later told reporters at the scene.
"So, I went back inside to look for my dogs." He went on to explain how he kept getting overcome by smoke and had to leave his property Cocoa, Florida, but when he saw his opportunity he grabbed the axe and smashed through the window.

IG

The local sheriff's said they suspected Joyner was intoxicated

IG

The property Joyner burst into to save his pets

A Brevard County sheriff's spokesman said deputies suspected Joyner was intoxicated when they arrived and feared what he may have done with the axe.
Joyner underwent a CAT scan after the incident and has reunited with his dogs.

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Joyner was battered and bruised after his rescue attempt

FBI ARREST TERROR SUSPECT WHO PLANNED MASS SHOOTING IN US TEMPLE.

THE FBI has arrested a man who was allegedly plotting a horrifying mass shooting.

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Hamzeh reportedly planned to conduct a mass shooting on a Masonic Temple

Samy Mohamed Hamzeh is accused of planning to travel to Jordan to conduct an attack on Israeli soldiers and citizens last October.
But he allegedly abandoned his plans to focus an assault on US soil.

The 23-year-old, who has been under investigation since September last year, told police he wanted to commit an act of terror on a Masonic Temple in Milwaukee, it has been reported.
Hamzeh took a guided tour of the temple earlier this month, learning meeting schedules and where people would be during specific times.
Speaking in Arabic, he allegedly told two FBI sources how he planned to commit a savage attack – telling them two machine guns and three silencers would be needed to complete the job.

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Hamzeh revealed his plans to undercover FBI officers

The one who is standing downstairs will spray anyone he finds. We will shoot, them, kill them and get out

Samy Mohamed Hamzeh

He was recorded saying: “I am telling you, to go without a silencer gun, you will be exposed from the beginning.
"One of us will stay at the door at the entrance and lock the door down, he will be at the main door down, two will get to the lift up, they will enter the room, and spray everyone in the room.
“The one who is standing downstairs will spray anyone he finds. We will shoot, them, kill them and get out.
“We will walk and walk, after a while, we will be covered as if it is cold, and we'll take the covers off and dump them in a corner and keep on walking as if nothing happened, as if everything is normal.
“But one has to stand on the door, because if no one stood at the door, people will be going in and out, if people came in from outside and found out what is going on, everything is busted."

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It comes just weeks after the mass shootings in San Bernardino

Hamzeh also detailed the specific jobs each attacker would have to do in the atrocity, according to reports.
He said: “As long as the one on the door understands he has bigger responsibility than the others.
“For your information, he has to take care of everyone around him, the comers and the one that wants to go, he has to annihilate everyone, there is no one left, I mean when we go into a room, we will be killing everyone, that's it, this is our duty as for the one at the door, he must have 20/20 eye vision and always alert for all the traffic around him.
"I am telling you, if this hit is executed, it will be known all over the world."

The suspect also met two undercover FBI agents on January 25 to buy machine guns and silencers from them, according to reports.
Hamzeh agreed a deal with the agents before buying two automatic weapons and a silencer.
He was arrested after taking a bag containing the weapons to his car.

The 23-year-old has been charged with possessing machine guns and a silencer.
US attorney Gregory Haanstad said: “Samy Mohamed Hamzeh devised a detailed plan to commit a mass shooting intended to kill dozens of people.
“He also said that he wanted this mass shooting to be known the world over and ignite broader clashes.
“It is difficult to calculate the injury and loss of the life that was prevented by concerned citizens coming forward and by the tireless efforts of the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force.”

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Hamzeh has been charged with possessing machine guns and a silencer

LOTTERY WINNER BRUTALLY MURDERED IN HOME AFTER DONATING WINNINGS TO POOR FAMILIES.

  Mon, Jan

This is truly heartbreaking. A Georgia man was brutally shot and killed by home invaders on Jan. 21 after being targeted for his lottery winnings. The 20-year-old had reportedly donated some of his jackpot to help the poor before being gunned down in front of his own family. Get the horrifying details below.

Is winning the lottery more of a curse than a blessing? Sadly, that appeared to be the case for 20-year-old Craigory Burch Jr. who was reportedly shot and killed during a brutal home invasion on Jan. 21. The Georgia native recently won almost half a million dollars from the state’s Fantasy 5 lottery, an event that relatives now believe was the cause for the vicious attack. Worst of all — he had already spent a large chunk of his winnings to help poor families in his community. Get the tragic details below.

What should have been an exciting time for Craigory and his family has quickly turned into a nightmare. The 20-year-old, who became $434,000 richer back in November after winning Georgia’s Fantasy 5 jackpot, was reportedly at home with his girlfriend, Jasmine Hendricks, and their three children when three masked men pushed their way through the front door and demanded Craigory give up his wallet and money while being held at gunpoint. “When they came in, he said, ‘don’t do it bro. Don’t do it in front of my kids. Please don’t do it in front of my kids and old lady,'” Jasmine told local station WALB.
Craigory reportedly told the men they could have anything, including his bank card, but when the men couldn’t immediately locate his wallet, they fired several shots at him and fled the premises. It was then that Jasmine was able to escape and run in search for help. Investigators have been collecting evidence from the home but so far, no arrests have been made.

WVU SWIMMERS AREN'T LETTING A LITTLE SNOWSTORM STOP THEIR PRACTICE.

'No days off for West Virginia swimming,' swimmer Chris McMahon tweeted. 

 

 

The massive snowstorm blanketing the East Coast has given many people an excuse to stop the world and cozy up indoors.
Not this pair from West Virginia University.
WVU's Chris McMahon tweeted this video of the two brave swimmers, armed in nothing but their Speedos and their polar will, racing headlong into a large "pool" of freshly-fallen snow.
Check out the form on those dives!

NEW YORKERS ORDERING PLENTY OF SNACKS, WINE AHEAD OF STORM.

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Yorkers have been busily placing orders with grocery delivery services like FreshDirect and delivery.com, not only snapping up staples like bread and milk but stocking up on comfort indulgences like ice cream, snacks and candy, and alcohol, the businesses tell NBC 4. 

FreshDirect says that compared to last week, orders were up this week by 40 percent for ice cream, 63 percent for snacks and candy and 57 percent for alcohol. 

Of those snacks, the biggest spikes were in red wine, pita chips, chocolate-covered graham crackers and peanut M&Ms.

At delivery.com, grocery and alcohol orders were up 30 percent Thursday over an average Thursday. And alcohol orders were up 10 percent over an average January day. 

People ordered 40 percent more batteries than in an average week at delivery.com, and three times more lightbulbs, the company said. 

"We believe customers are waiting today (Friday, closer to the storm) to stock up on more perishable items," said Kate McGee, vice president of marketing. 

Instacart, the grocery-ordering app service, usually sees an increase of 20 to 30 percent in order volumes before large storms, with more customers buying comfort food like baked goods, cheese and chocolate, it said. 

Meanwhile, food takeout service Grubhub says restaurants will be continuing deliveries during the storm, though some may amend their hours. 

"We hope diners will be patient if their orders take longer than normal to arrive, given the possibility of street closures impacting the route taken by their delivery person," said Grubhub spokeswoman Katie Norris. "We encourage diners to be generous and appreciative when tipping and readily available in case delivery people have questions."

Homer Logistics, a restaurant delivery service currently catering to midtown and Chelsea, says restaurants are in fact expecting a big bump in delivery volume. 

"One owner told us that if we didn't think we could run delivery service it wouldn't be worth it to open because he thought so little of his traffic would be in store," said Home Logistics spokeswoman Marisa Claire Smith. 

FreshDirect and Peapod were suspending some of their weekend deliveries, while the others say they'll continue to monitor weather conditions and keep customers up to date.

In the meantime, brick-and-mortar supermarkets were seeing elbow-to-elbow activity in some areas, a typical scene ahead of snowstorms. Photos posted to social media showed long lines and some shelves cleared of staples like bottled water and beverages.