The Serious Side - part 6

I've watch the local news most of this morning, no mention of this from local news broadcast.  Why wouldn't Sinclair broadcast news agents not mention this story.  I wonder if Sinclair broadcast is connected to U.S Oil/Corporate business that have financial interest in the middle-east.

The Syria story has been covered as one of the lead stories on our local news radio station, on CNN and MSNBC all morning along with the tariffs issue.
Seems like the national security and military experts have convinced Trump for the time being not to pull out the troops anytime soon.

Donnamarie wrote:The Syria story has been covered as one of the lead stories on our local news radio station, on CNN and MSNBC all morning along with the tariffs issue.
Seems like the national security and military experts have convinced Trump for the time being not to pull out the troops anytime soon.

I watched Fox local news 7:30-9:00 and NBC local news 11:00-12:00 no mention of this story.  I saw this story on the internet and wanted to see how it would play out in broadcast news.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5580377/Woman-fired-flipping-Trumps-motorcade-sues-former-employer.html




[size=34]'Americans should not be forced to choose between principles and pay checks': Cyclist forced to resign for flipping off President Trump’s motorcade sues her former employer
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• Juli Briskman, 50, was fired by Akima after the infamous picture went viral 
  
  
• Akima claimed she had violated their social media policy by posting the picture
  
  
• But Briskman, a single mom of two, never posted about Akima on her Facebook 
  
  
• She argues that Akima violated Virginia employment law and First Amendment 
  
  

By ANNETA KONSTANTINIDES  and ASHLEY COLLMAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 23:52 EDT, 4 April 2018 | UPDATED: 00:19 EDT, 5 April 2018


    


The single mom who was forced to resign from her job after flipping off President Trump's motorcade is hitting back at her former employer. 
Juli Briskman, 50, became a viral sensation after she was snapped giving the finger while riding her bike near her home in Sterling, Virginia in October. 
But Briskman's newfound fame came at a price when her employer, Akima, forced her to resign just days later.
On Wednesday the mother-of-two filed a suit against the government contractor, arguing it had violated Virginia employment law.


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Juli Briskman, the woman who was forced to quit her job after flipping off President Trump's motorcade, is filing a lawsuit against her former employer 


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On Wednesday the single mother-of-two (pictured with her children) filed suit against the government contractor, alleging it had violated Virginia employment law 
'I filed this lawsuit against my former employer today because I believe that Americans should not be forced to choose between their principles and their paychecks,' Briskman said in a statement.  

'I never imagined that my "one-finger salute" to the Presidential motorcade and its occupant would cost me my job.'  
Briskman claims she was pulled aside at work and told she violated her company's social media policy by posting the image on her Facebook and Twitter.
But Briskman notes in her lawsuit that she does not mention her association with Akima anywhere on her social media pages. 


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Briskman (pictured here on Megyn Kelly) claims she was pulled aside at work and told she violated her company's social media policy by posting the image on her Facebook and Twitter 


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But Briskman notes in her lawsuit that she does not mention her association with Akima anywhere on her social media pages
And the same punishment was not doled out to Akima's Senior Director of Operations after they wrote 'You're a f*****g Libtard as*****e' in a Facebook discussion about Black Lives Matter, she alleges.
The Senior Director's Facebook profile identified himself as an Akima employee, but he was allowed to delete the comment and keep his job, according to the lawsuit.
Briskman claims that she was forced to resign because Akima was afraid of 'upsetting the federal government, not the supposed obscenity of the middle finger'.
'Working for a company that does business with the federal government should provide you with greater opportunities, but it should never limit your ability to criticize that government in your private time,' she said.  
'The actions of my company were swift and unexpected. It is un-American to let the government use your own tax dollars to buy your off-duty obedience.'


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Briskman claims that she was fired because Akima was afraid of 'upsetting the federal government, not the supposed obscenity of the middle finger'


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Briskman got involved in the Woman's Day protest by standing outside the CIA with a 'Not My President' sign (protesters outside the CIA in January above)



Briskman's attorneys are arguing that her gesture is protected by the First Amendment. 
'Juli’s expression of disapproval of the President is fundamental political speech protected by both the United States Constitution and Virginia state law,' Maria Simon said in a statement.  

Briskman's attorneys are arguing that her gesture is protected by the First Amendment 
'Ms Briskman chose in her private time and in her capacity as a private citizen to express her disapproval of President Trump by extending her middle finger.' 
In November, Briskman revealed that she decided to give Trump the finger because it was the 'only way I had to give him the message that I wanted to give'. 
Briskman told Megyn Kelly that she became enraged when she realized Trump was going golfing yet again when she decided to flip the bird.    
After Briskman was forced to resign, supporters raised $57,000 to help during her unemployment.  
A man named Rob Mello started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for Briskman. 


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Briskman told Megyn Kelly that she became enraged when she realized Trump was going golfing yet again

This story looks a bit unethical - to put it mildly!

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/04/planned-parenthood-president-cecile-richards-jared-kushner-and-ivanka-trump-offered-a-bribe-to-stop-abortions.html

PAN - Unethical, immoral and illegal! Typical of Trump administration.

party animal - not! wrote:This story looks a bit unethical - to put it mildly!

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/04/planned-parenthood-president-cecile-richards-jared-kushner-and-ivanka-trump-offered-a-bribe-to-stop-abortions.html

PAN,

Annemarie already posted a link to a people article concerning this yesterday.
But - at least from me - thanks for the repost since I had read this post last night and wanted to repeat but forgot due to other posts, so you reminded me about that issue.

Unethical is a very mild word for it, it's at least also immoral, and I don't know why Ivanka and Jared did this during the campaign. Okay, if they had succeeded, some very pro-life supporters might have voted for Trump, but he had already changed his mind and said he's against abortion. So would he have benefitted from such an agreement? Or did his kids plan to become politicians as well? Ivanka actually is an interesting person, and there are politicians like her in Europe as well. Very smart, most of them have never really worked apart from politics, don't campaign for the politics and the party they really believe in but for those where they think to succeed and benefit the most. 

Do they really believe in pro-life? Why don't they start supporting families? Work for better education (by the way: What's with Nancy DeVos' plans on schools? Haven't heard anything about itduring the last months), maternal leave and health insurance? They have three kids, can they really not imagine that children mean a rising risk for poverty? And that families need support and help instead of no alternatives?

Carolhathaway - Both Ivanka and Jared come from very wealthy families and have never gone without anything in their lives. They might understand the burden having a child puts on a low-income family on an intellectual level.  There's no way they can really understand how financial difficulties impact a family, or how difficult it can be to decide to terminate a pregnancy because you fear you won't be able to care for your child.

Maybe people would choose options other than abortion if they felt their child would be well cared for after it was born - whether through adoption or support services. Sadly, that isn't the case. The people who fight so hard against abortion have no interest in taking care of theses children once they're born.

And on that subject you'll be really interested in this positive stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUM8kqK8OFU

Thanks PAN.  Good interview.  Cecile was also on Rachel Maddow this week and she seemed more forthcoming about her plans to leave Planned Parenthood.  

Ivanka Trump has had plenty of opportunities to get involved in women’s issues and have a strong positive voice.  She has been terribly weak and ineffective. As a working woman herself she could have become an advocate for women entrepreneurs and taken on workplace issues such as equal pay and sexual harassment.  I just don’t see any passion in her to take on issues important to most working women or mothers in particular.  I just think the whole Trump family is vacuous.  It probably doesn’t help that her father is who he is.  Makes it quite hypocritical for her to take a stance on any issue supporting women.

When I was still at school, one of my classmates became pregnant at the age of 17. One of our teachers wanted her to be suspended from going to school until giving birth because 'she gave a bad example to other students' (by the way: she became pregnant after having had sex for the first time, and there were a couple of girls in our course who nobody had been surprised if they had gotten pregnant). She finished school, but when she wanted to start the training on her job (which was something she always wanted to do), she was told that they 'cant employ and train her because the shop's clients would never accept an employee with such an immoral lifestyle'. Our whole school decided to boycott this shop to protest against this decision. My classmate became a cook - which she never really liked, but our local hospital offered her this job, and she didn't have a real choice... small-town living where everybody knows everything about you...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5583385/Women-raped-levels-nobodys-seen-Trump-says-illegal-immigrant-violence.html




[size=34]'Women are raped at levels nobody's ever seen before!': Trump claims immigrant women are being targeted in Mexico as he tears up script to proclaim he was right that illegals are 'thugs' and 'murderers'
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• Trump revisited his infamous comments at the start of his presidential campaign casting illegal immigrants as 'criminals' and 'rapists' on Thursday
  
  
• He was totally off-script at the roundtable, eventually throwing the remarks, which he called 'boring,' that he was supposed to give away
  
  
• Trump said that 'women are raped at levels nobody's ever seen before' as he cited a report that he said came out yesterday
  
  
• White House clarified later that he was referring to an LA Times article from Tuesday that talked about the dangerous journey from Mexico to the U.S.
  
  
• The article was mainly about the since broken up caravan of Hondurran migrants
  
  

By FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 16:16 EDT, 5 April 2018 | UPDATED: 17:26 EDT, 5 April 2018



President Trump revisited his infamous comments at the start of his presidential campaign casting illegal immigrants as 'criminals' and 'rapists' as he went off-script at a roundtable on Thursday.
Trump eventually threw out his remarks at the West Virginia event, commenting that what he was supposed to say at the tax reform event was frankly pretty 'boring' as he relived his November 2016 election. 
During a tirade on immigration that preceded the unconventional move, Trump said it's impossible to know the backgrounds of people coming across the border illicitly, and whether they are 'thugs' or 'killers' and 'murderers.' 
Talking about the dangerous journey to the U.S. from Mexico, he said it's now been proven that 'women are raped at levels nobody's ever seen before' as he cited a report that he said came out yesterday. 


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OFF SCRIPT: President Trump chucked his notes on Thursday as he went on an off-script riff about illegal immigration during a tax roundtable


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President Trump revisited his infamous comments at the start of his presidential campaign casting illegal immigrants as 'criminals' and 'rapists' at the event


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OUT THE WINDOW: Trump tossed out his remarks after his immigration rant, commenting on how 'boring' the remarks he was supposed to deliver were


Trump did not credit a specific report or agency with the rape statistic. 
His White House spokeswoman said after the speech that he was referring to an LA Times article from Tuesday.
The article detailed the plight of the migrants from Honduras making their way to the U.S. in the highly-publicized caravan. 
The article said, 'Robberies, rapes and assaults — perpetrated by smugglers, cartel members and Mexican immigration agents — are common. In one incident in 2010, 72 kidnapped migrants were killed by a cartel in northern Mexico.'
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in statement after DailyMail.com requested clarification on Trump's comments that the violence is a 'well-established fact' and that 'women and young girls are brutally victimized on the journey north.' 
Trump infamously opened his 2016 campaign with a speech that characterized illegal immigrants coming into the United States via the porous southern border as criminals and rapists. 
'They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,' he said at the 2015 event.
Trump argued afterward that his comments had been taken out of context, and he was only talking about drug smugglers and illegal immigrants who've committed violent crimes.



He recalled the remarks on Thursday as he spoke at roundtable that was supposed to be a tax reform event.
Still fixated on the caravan of illegal immigrants that were making their way to the U.S. border before the bulk were stopped by Mexican officials, the president veered back to his original campaign comments.
'Remember my opening remarks at Trump Tower? When I opened, everybody said, "Oh, he's so tough." I used the word rape,' he said. 'And yesterday, it came out, this journey coming up, women are raped at levels nobody's ever seen before. They don't want to mention that.'
Minutes prior he had mentioned the caravan of 1,200 people directly that had been reduced down to 200 people, claiming it had contained 'thousands' of illegal immigrants before Mexico broke it up.
Trump went on to complain about illegal immigrants who come to the U.S. and have their children in the country while they await legally-mandated court adjudications. 
'This is our country. If you have a baby on our land, congratulations that baby is a United States citizen -- we're the only one,' he stated. 


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Elsewhere in Matias Romero, Oaxaca State, Mexico, migrants taking part in the caravan marched to protest against Donald Trump on Tuesday. Trump appeared to be talking about the caravan in his speech on Thursday when he mentioned the rape of women who make the journey to the U.S.


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A woman changes her baby's diaper while others look on at the Ferrocarrilero VÌctor F. Morales Sports Center in MatÌas Romero, Oaxaca, Mexico, while a pregnant migrant looks on. Trump complained Thursday about such women: 'If you have a baby on our land, congratulations that baby is a United States citizen -- we're the only one'


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Marvin Geovanni Alvarez, 39, of El Salvador, and others relax in a field in MatÌas Romero, Oaxaca, Mexico. Alverez was targeted by MS-13 gangsters that Trump said Thursday were thugs, killers and murders, after returning to El Salvador, stabbed three times - once in the head - and warned he would be murdered if he didn't join up
The United States' immigration laws are 'insanity,' he said during the riff on his desired border wall, and they need to be changed.
'We're gonna have our wall. We're going to get it very strongly. The military's going to be building some of it,' he added.
Trump said the major drawback of illegal immigration is that American authorities have 'no idea who they are what they do' when they come over the border.
'We don't know if they're murders, if they're killers, if they're MS-13,' he said, referring to a pervasive illegal immigrant gang.
Because of MS-13, Trump said America's towns are 'being taken over by thugs' who 'cut people up' with knives because a bullet is 'too quick' for their victims.
The gang members 'infect pain' on innocent children, he said, and then their 'parents never seem them again.'
'And this is the kind of stuff and crap that we're allowing in our country,' Trump stated. 'We can't do it. We cant do it anymore.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5583319/Its-not-conspiracy-theory-folks-Trump-revives-claims-widespread-election-fraud.html

[size=34]'It's not a conspiracy theory, folks!' Trump revives claims of widespread election fraud saying 'millions of people' could vote more than once but states like California hide the evidence[/size]

• Donald Trump has long claimed millions of illegally cast ballots cost him the popular vote in 2016, although he won the all-important Electoral College
  
  
• He set up a voter fraud commission in 2017 to hunt for evidence, but disbanded it with complaints about Democrat-run states that refused to share records
  
  
• On Thursday the president was back at it, claiming that people can vote more than once in California, citing 'millions of people' who might commit that crime
  
  
• Democrats, he said, back illegal immigrants because of a hope that they will find a way to vote – and support them
  
  
• California automatically registered people to vote when they get drivers licenses, and it has issued 1 million of them to illegal immigrants
  
  
• State election officials are required to screen them out by checking voter registration records against citizenship lists
  
  

By DAVID MARTOSKO, US POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 
PUBLISHED: 15:25 EDT, 5 April 2018 | UPDATED: 16:19 EDT, 5 April 2018



President Donald Trump on Thursday revived his long-held but often debunked belief that widespread voter fraud made the 2016 election closer than it should have been, and gave Democrat Hillary Clinton a numerical edge in votes cast.
During an economic roundtable event in West Virginia, he claimed 'in a lot of places, like California, the same person votes many times.'
'They always like to say, "Oh, that's a conspiracy theory." It's not a conspiracy theory, folks,' the president added. 
'Millions and millions of people, and it's very hard because the state guards their records. They don't want us to see it,' he said, while not being clear about whether the 'millions' referred to fraudulent voters or immigrants whose paths to the U.S. he aims to block in the future.


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During an economic roundtable event Thursday in West Virginia, President Donald Trump claimed 'in a lot of places, like California , the same person votes many times'


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Democrat Hillary Clinton won 2.8 million more votes than President Trump in 2016, largely buoyed by large liberal states like California and New York running up her numbers among nonwhite communities; he won the Electoral College, however, which determines the result
Trump was talking about the case of Sayfullo Saipov, an Uzbek immigrant who mowed down eight people last year in a terror attack inspired by the ISIS jihadi group. 

'He came in through chain migration. Or he might have also come in through [the visa] lottery. But he brought a lot of people with him. They say 22 people. Twenty-two people!' Trump said.
He insisted that Democrats oppose curtailing chain migration, which permits a cascade of visa sponsorships through immediate family members, for political reasons.  
'They like it because they think they're going to vote Democrat, okay? Believe me, they're doing that for that reason,' he said, before allowing that many such immigrants will never have the legal right to vote – and then concluding that 'a lot of times it doesn't matter.' 


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Trump on Thursday literally tossed his prepared remarks into the air and told a White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia audience that he would rather wing it than be 'boring'





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California alone has issued more than 1 million drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, according to the state's DMV. Nine other states offer the same benefit, generally citing the need to test potential drivers for skills and safety.
License holders are automatically registered to vote in California, but state election officials are required to cross-check the list with citizenship records to screen out people who are ineligible to vote. 
Trump made headlines in 2016 by predicting in campaign rallies that he might lose a 'rigged' election, and then by claiming as president that a voter fraud epidemic nearly cost him the White House.
He alleged, without evidence, that between 3 million and 5 million people participated illegally in the election, delivering the popular vote to Clinton by 2.8 million votes.


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Over 1 million illegal immigrants in California, the overwhelming majority of whom are Hispanic, now have drivers licenses; California automatically registers license holders to vote, but state officials are required to screen out noncitizens
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He convened a controversial commission in 2017 to investigate the election, but he disbanded it this year.
The White House blamed that decision on more than a dozen mostly Democrat-run states that rebuffed the commission's demands for access to personal voter data, including names, partial Social Security numbers, voting histories and party affiliations.

Trump's latest claims of illegal voting among immigrants were sparked by the memory of terrorist Sayfullo Saipov, who came into the U.S. through a visa lottery that Trump wants abolished
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a January 3 statement that '[r]ather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense, today President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order to dissolve the Commission, and he has asked the Department of Homeland Security to review its initial findings and determine next courses of action.'
Liberal critics saw Trump's commission as part of a conservative push to make it more difficult for minorities to cast ballots, and to justify Trump's voter fraud claims.
While there have been isolated confirmed cases of voter fraud in the U.S., past studies have found it to be rare.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5584559/Black-Parkland-students-say-arent-heard-gun-debate.html


[size=34]'Share the mic': Black student survivors of Parkland school shooting hit out at white classmates for drowning them out of gun control debate[/size]

• Black students at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School say their voices are being ignored in the anti-gun violence movement 
  
  
• Half a dozen students held a press conference last week in Parkland to urge their white peers to include them more in the gun law debate
  
  
• David Hogg, who is white, and Emma González, who is Latina, have become two of the more recognized faces of the Never Again movement
  
  
• Hogg recently called out the mainstream media for not given the minority survivors of the Parkland shooting a prominent voice 
  
  

By EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 23:06 EDT, 5 April 2018 | UPDATED: 23:21 EDT, 5 April 2018

    

Some black students at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School say their voices are being ignored in the aftermath of the mass shooting and are urging their white peers to include them more in the anti-gun violence movement.
About half a dozen African-American students from the school held a press conference last week in Parkland to say they felt their perspectives on the gun law debate weren't being adequately heard.
'We are proud to say we are from Douglas, we are proud to say that those who are at the front are doing a great job, but we have so much to say too,' Mei-Ling Ho-Shing, a 17-year-old student, said.


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Some black students at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School say their voices are being ignored in the anti-gun violence movement following the shooting massacre


Parkland's student protesters have been in the national spotlight ever since the February 14 mass shooting as they work to invoke change. 
David Hogg, who is white, and Emma González, who is Latina, have become two of the more recognized faces of the student-led Never Again movement.
Hogg recently called out the mainstream media for not given the minority survivors of the Parkland shooting a prominent voice.  
But some of the students say their peers are not practicing that inclusiveness with their own classmates. 
'David Hogg, we're proud of him, but he mentioned he was going to use his white privilege to be the voice for black communities, and we're kind of sitting there like, 'You know there are Stoneman Douglas students who could be that voice',' Ho-Shing told HuffPost. 
She said it 'hurt' when her Parkland protester peers recently met with Chicago teens to hear of their experiences growing up in communities that are prone to gun violence. 


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Tyah-Amoy Roberts, a junior who also spoke at last week's press conference, said she had not been invited to the March For Our Lives meetings by her peers


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Another Parkland junior, Kai Koerber, told reporters last week: 'I would say that our voices were not intentionally excluded, but they were not intentionally included
'They went all the way to Chicago to hear these voices when we're right here. We go to school with you every day,' Ho-Shing said. 
She added that black students had a key perspective to add to the anti-gun violence movement because often their family and friends suffer from gun violence in their communities. 
'The problem (is) with having the leadership at the forefront having the same experience growing up in a neighborhood that's safe and wealthy, where gun violence is not,' she said.

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• 'Clear backpack clapbacks!' Parkland students rebel against...'Unless they're bulletproof, I don't feel much safer':...'I thought I was going to die': Final Parkland shooting...Parkland student uses his mandated clear backpack to carry...
  
  

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'We just want to share the mic.'
She did, however, point out that the blame wasn't to be put on her peers because mainstream media, including a recent TIME magazine cover, hadn't included black students in their coverage.
'You can't blame them for how big they got,' Ho-Shing said. 'We're definitely going to start talking to them, because this is not a divisive thing.'


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Parkland students David Hogg and Emma González have become two of the more recognized faces of the student-led Never Again movement


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Hundreds of students from different backgrounds took part in the March For Our Lives protest in Washington DC on March 24
Tyah-Amoy Roberts, a junior who also spoke at last week's press conference, told Refinery29 that she had not been invited to the March For Our Lives meetings. 
'I'm not saying they're excluding us on purpose. I'm asking them really, turn to your neighbor and ask 'Do you have a story to share? We're having a meeting on this date. I would love to hear it,'' she said. 
'They've been saying but they haven't been doing.
'We feel like people within the movement have definitely addressed racial disparity, but haven't adequately taken action to counteract that racial disparity.
'We're not trying to form any rift in the movement, we're not trying to form a separate group. We are proudly representing Never Again. We're just trying to ensure our voices do not get lost in the movement, as we feel we have before this press conference.'
Another junior, Kai Koerber, told reporters: 'I would say that our voices were not intentionally excluded, but they were not intentionally included.
'Obviously we're going to continue to propose action plans and we're going to meet with legislators, and we're going to make sure that those groups that we do have meet with legislators are culturally inclusive of the message that we’re trying to convey.'  
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Read more:

• Black Parkland Students Want Peers To 'Share The Mic'
  
  

About Trump's comments on rapists coming from Mexico:
I don't know why people still believe every word he says. Simply because he's POTUS? We tend to trust officials and take their atatements as facts, but that's an ideal no politician has ever reached, as we all know. They all lie when it's useful for them, but Trump has put this on a new level since he doesn't seem to even care about it.
I guess mostofyou remember the incidents that happened in Cologne on New Years Eve 2015 where women were sexually harrassed, touched and pickpocketed by immigrants / refugees while the police said for days that there was no major incident - which was published by the press, so that's part of why people talk about fake news and lying press. There are many right-wing medias who constantly talk about 'women who were gang-raped' there. In fact, no woman was raped. I'm sure it was devastating for those who were harrassed to be touched, attacked verbally and pickpocketed, but none of them was raped. And German men joined these young men as well, maybe it was a group dynamics, I have no idea. Fact is that men, instead of helping victims, harrassed them as well. But nobody talks about that...

About the elections:
If he thinks that the voting system failed and millions of non-Americans voted / people voted several times, he can change it. He's the prssident and has the majority in both houses. But of course it's easier to simply say something without proving it or taking consequences.

He seems to have a vendetta against Mexicans, this whole story is because he was bored with his speech so simply 
told lies to enhance it. He is such a fool. He couldn't attack African Americans he had to find a dark skinned race to attack why not Mexicans.

As for the voting , he knows damn well that couldn't happen he is pissed that California didn't vote for him.
He really is childish he won the election but he can't stand the idea that he didn't get all the votes he really
thinks everyone wanted him to be elected.

Great post, Annemarie

annemarie wrote:He seems to have a vendetta against Mexicans, this whole story is because he was bored with his speech so simply 
told lies to enhance it. He is such a fool. He couldn't attack African Americans he had to find a dark skinned race to attack why not Mexicans.

As for the voting , he knows damn well that couldn't happen he is pissed that California didn't vote for him.
He really is childish he won the election but he can't stand the idea that he didn't get all the votes he really
thinks everyone wanted him to be elected.

Plus - he wants  this f***ing wall to be built and has to convince somebody to pay for it. And what's better than to cause fears? People who never met a Mexican might rather believe that every of them is a rapist or a drug dealer than someone who actually knows Mexicans and knows that they are as normal - or as criminal - as everybody else.

Isn't it interesting that those federal states who are neighboring Mexico, don't seem to fearMexicans as much as people in the rusty belt? Although I assume that many immigrants stay in California, New Mexico and Texas.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5583855/Trump-says-4-000-National-Guard-soldiers-deployed-border.html

[size=34]Trump says as many as 4,000 National Guard soldiers will be deployed to the border - and many of them will stay there until he gets his border wall[/size]

• President Trump said in a shock announcement on Tuesday that he's sending troops down to the southern border until his wall is finished
  
  
• National Guard deployment said to be a response to increased advertising from smugglers, historic trends and an explosion in crossings in March
  
  
•  But it was a report about a caravan of Honduran migrants traveling through Mexico that appears to have set the president off
  
  
• Caravan was broken up  by Mexican authorities as Trump demanded, however he has used the situation to renew his border security demands
  
  
• Just 200 or so individuals from the original group of 1,200 remains in transit 
  
  
• Unclear how many guardsman will be deployed and what they will do, but Trump said Thursday he thinks 2,000 to 4,000 soldiers will be part of it
  
  
• Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush also sent the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border in 2010 and 2006, respectively
  
  

By FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 18:10 EDT, 5 April 2018 | UPDATED: 19:32 EDT, 5 April 2018

    


President Donald Trump says he's planning a large-scale deployment of National Guard troops.
Trump told reporters during a question and answer session on Air Force One that the deployment would be comprised of anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 soldiers, making it at least twice the size of an Obama-era task force but far smaller than a similar operation authorized by George W. Bush.
The president said he'll 'probably keep them or a large portion of them' until his the border wall he's demanding funds for is built.
Congress has resisted offering him the entire pot of money he requested, and it remains unclear how he plans to fund his troop deployment.

He said it's something his administration is 'looking at' in his conversation with reporters. 
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President Donald Trump says he's planning a large-scale deployment of National Guard troops
Earlier today on Twitter, Trump rebutted critics who say his National Guard deployment is unnecessary.
Trump also argued in the morning tweet that the level of illegal traffic on America's southern border is 'UNACCEPTABLE,' regardless of the fact that it's at a 46-year-low, thanks to his administration.
He also gave Mexico a rare pat on the back for taking a wrecking ball to a caravan of 1,200 migrants that was headed to the U.S. after news reports indicated that just 200 from the original group would journey ahead.
'The Caravan is largely broken up thanks to the strong immigration laws of Mexico and their willingness to use them so as not to cause a giant scene at our Border,' he celebrated. 
Trump's DHS chief Kirstjen Nielsen admitted shortly after in an appearance on Fox & Friends that the annual caravan typically dissipates before it reaches the border the Unites States shares with Mexico.
'But having said that,' she asserted, 'we have seen more cooperation from Mexican officials than we ever have before on this particular caravan thanks to the president's leadership.'
Trump yesterday signed a proclamation authorizing a National Guard deployment on the southern border in response to the caravan.
The deployment was to begin immediately, his Homeland Security secretary said, and has no definite end. 


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Central American migrants, part of a caravan moving through Mexico toward the U.S. border, rest at a sports field, in Matias Romero, Mexico on Wednesday. Mexican authorities broke up the bulk of the larger group and now only 200 or so of the original 1,200 remain in the caravan


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THANKS, MEXICO! Trump gave Mexico a rare pat on the back for taking a wrecking ball to a caravan of 1,200 migrants that was headed to the U.S.
Nielsen said Wednesday afternoon that the size and scope of the mission is still under discussion with border state governors.
'It will be strong,' she pledged at a White House news conference. 'It will be as many as needed to fill the gaps that we have today.'
Administration officials characterized the deployment that Trump foreshadowed on Tuesday as a response to the 'growing threat' of illegal immigration that recent border traffic statistics will prove must be handled with 'urgency.' 
The president's proclamation called it a full-scale 'crisis' that left the administration with 'no choice but to act.'
The deployment follows Trump's announcement that he planned to send the military to the southern border until the wall he says must be built can be constructed.
'Until we can have a wall and proper security we're going to be guarding our border with the military,' Trump had said at a meeting with Baltic state leaders. 'That's a big step.' 



Congress has been in no hurry to provide him with the funds the project would require, but senior officials said Wednesday that they expect lawmakers' calculus to change as spring shifts to summer.
That's the when highest amount of illegal immigrants enter the U.S. through Mexico. 
Nielsen said that historical trend is the basis for the imminent action that's taking place while Congress is on break. In the warmer months north of the border, the number of unlawful immigrants crossing increases, she noted.
'April, traditionally, is a month in which we see more folks crossing the border without a legal right to do so. So partly it’s modeling, partly it’s anticipating,' she stated.
'We are seeing more and more advertising, very unfortunately, by the traffickers and smugglers to our south, specific to how to get around our system and enter our country and stay. We have documented cases of borrowing children, appearing at the border as a family unit in a fraudulent way.'
The cabinet secretary acknowledged that border crossings had dropped 'precipitously' since Trump took office, because of his tough immigration rhetoric. Officials and Trump were warning this week that the threat that on the rise once again, however, because of what they described as weak immigration laws.  
Nielsen told Fox on Thursday that illicit border traffic was up 200 percent last month, when 37,393 people were apprehended, over March of 2017.  
An official claimed Wednesday that the number of illegal crossings had been on the rise 'over the last few months' and seconded Nielsen's prediction that an even larger number would arrive this summer, based on historical data.
The official said the March 2018 numbers represent a 'staggering increase from last year' of illegal crossing and justify the deployment.


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The deployment is to begin 'immediately' and has no definite end. It is also unknown how many guardsmen will be deployed, with Trump's DHS chief Kirstjen Nielsen saying Wednesday afternoon that the size and scope of the mission is still under discussion with border state governors


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Members of the 200th Red Horse Air National Guard Civil Engineering Squadron  work on building a road at the border in Nogales, Arizona in this 2008 photo. President Trump says he wants to use the military to secure the U.S.-Mexico border until his promised border wall is built


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In this June 13, 2006, photo, Utah National Guard soldiers work on extending a border fence in San Luis, Arizona
The White House is demanding that Congress deliver the money that Trump wants for the construction of a border wall and pass legislation giving immigration officials greater authority to deport people who enter the country unlawfully.
In the meantime, the federal government, working in conjunction with the states, plans to send guardsman to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to assist border patrol with their responsibilities. 
California recently passed a law designating it a sanctuary state, or a safe haven for illegal immigrants, infuriating the Trump administration. 
The state's liberal governor, Jerry Brown, has yet to say whether he will cooperate with Trump's National Guard deployment.
'We look forward to more detail, including funding, duration and end state,' California National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Tom Keegan told McClatchy in a statement issued on behalf of Brown's administration.
Officials said yesterday that the Department of Homeland Security is working with the Department of Defense to identify the tasks that need to be completed and determine the necessary man power. The Department of Justice is also conducting a legal review.
Together, the three agencies are to submit a report to President Trump within 30 days presenting an action plan that is to included other executive authorities that can be invoked in support of the mission.
Nielsen has offered only a vague description on the soldiers' responsibilities, including counternarcotics operations, fleet support, aerial support, infrastructure development and surveillance operations training, while indicating that deployment would be similar to one authorized a little more than a decade ago by former Bush.
She told Fox on Thursday that the soldiers would be put in support roles in order to free up border patrol agents who are legally allowed to seize drugs and apprehend illegal immigrants.
The administration is studying the legal restrictions on the armed forces to determine what else they might be able to do.
'We have everything on the table,' she told a co-host of Fox & Friends. 'I can assure you, we're looking at every way in which we can act in the executive branch.'  


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The White House indicated on Tuesday evening that Trump was referring to a mobilization of the National Guard but has offered no additional details
Trump said Wednesday ahead of the proclamation that he would be 'taking strong action today.' 
He did not personally provide any details on the military deployment he envisions such as how many troops he anticipates and from what branch or branches. The White House had to clarify after his initial announcement that he was referring to the National Guard when he talked about sending in the troops.
U.S. law may have prohibited the deployment of active duty armed personnel to carry out domestic law enforcement functions. The last two presidents have utilized the National Guard at the southern border, providing Trump with a legal precedent to command reserve troops into service.  
Trump's sudden decision to deploy troops appears to have been incited by the caravan of 1,200 migrants from Honduras that were making their way through Mexico. On Tuesday, Trump also threatened to cut off aid to Central America unless Mexican authorities disbanded it.
Upon hearing that the caravan was being broken up later in the day, Trump not only took credit for it, warning that it would have been an impediment to the trade negotiations that the U.S. is currently engaged in with Mexico, he revealed his plan to authorize a military deployment.
'We are preparing for the military to secure our border,' he later affirmed. 'We have a meeting on it in a little while with General Mattis and everybody.'


On Tuesday morning, Trump said the caravan 'had better be stopped' or he'd punish Honduras and other countries that 'allow this to happen.'
'Cash cow NAFTA is in play,' he warned in a tweet. 'Congress MUST ACT NOW!'
He said later that he found the entire situation 'sad' and as he railed against America's 'very bad' border laws, which he blamed on congressional Democrats.
'We have immigration laws that are laughed at by everybody,' he harped at the meeting with Secretary of Defense James Mattis.
The caravan in question split in two on Monday evening, with a portion of the migrants taking a train to Veracruz. The bulk of the caravan was held up by Mexican authorities in Matias Romero Avendano, where travelers were registered and assessed, according to the Washington Post.
Travelers who do not fit the criteria to receive a humanitarian visa will have to leave Mexico. 
Roughly 200 of the migrants decided to journey on to the United States. That's close to the 150, CNN reported, who made the trek last year as part of the caravan movement.
Trump said Tuesday that he directed Mexico to break up the caravan because their immigration laws are stronger than the United States' at present. 
'They did it because, frankly, I said, “You really have to do it," ' Trump asserted during his meeting with Baltic leaders on Tuesday, bringing up the North American Free Trade Agreement. 'We’re going to have to include security in NAFTA.'


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A Central American migrant from Honduras wears his nation's flag during the annual Migrant Stations of the Cross caravan as the group makes a few-days stop in Matias Romero, Oaxaca state, Mexico on Monday
On Tuesday evening, as experts weighed in to say that the Posse Comitatus Act would get in the way of Trump's planned military deployment, the White House sent out a statement describing it as a National Guard mobilization.
A statement from press secretary Sarah Sanders said the president had been briefed by members of his national security team last week on the influx of drugs and illegal immigrants coming over the the United Sates' southern border.
'Today, he received a follow up briefing to discuss his administration’s strategy, which includes the mobilization of the National Guard,' Sanders said. 'President Trump and senior officials present also agreed on the need to pressure Congress to urgently pass legislation to close legal loopholes exploited by criminal trafficking, narco-terrorist and smuggling organizations.'  
A National Guard presence on the border is not unprecedented. Former President Barack Obama deployed 1,200 guardsmen to the same location in 2010 to disrupt the flow of illegal weapons and cash into Mexico. Bush put 6,000 troops there in 2006 to support Border Patrol as part of 'Operation Jump Start.'
Bush's troops were not on the border to act as law enforcement, however, which is what Trump suggested he'd do with his deployment. They assisted border patrol agencies with administrative tasks and gathered intelligence.
They also helped with civil engineering projects, inspiring another Trump idea, perhaps, to have the military shoulder the burden of his border wall.
The president suggested last month that the Pentagon could pay for the structure. 
It's not clear how that would work, either, given that the military's funds are appropriated by Congress, and the White House has not offered additional details on how such a plan would work.
In any case, Democratic Sens. Jack Reed and Dick Durbin said Monday in a letter to Mattis that the Pentagon 'has no legal authority' to repurpose federal funds, throwing cold water on Trump's latest border wall plan. 


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Trump's administration now says it wants to close additional 'loopholes' that allow the unaccompanied minors to stay indefinitely in the United States in a bid to cut down on the number of central American migrants flooding the southern border
Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego separately said the deployment is a 'waste' of taxpayer dollars. 
'Using the National Guard to do border security is very expensive. For what it would cost the Guard to make just TWO arrests at the border, we could give a homeless veteran permanent housing for an entire year,' he tweeted.
Astrid Dominguez, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Border Rights Center, said in a statement that the deployment was 'dangerous' and run contrary to 'the fundamental norms of a civil society.'
'President Trump is trying to create a crisis where there is none,' she said. 'This is another impulsive reaction to not getting his way on his border wall, and a maneuver to distract the American public from the crisis he created when he ended DACA for 800,000 young immigrants, whose lives and futures are at risk.'
Trump's pledge to deploy troops and possibly choke off funding to countries that the U.S. assists with drug and crime prevention as a deterrent to such migration upped the ante in Trump's war on illegal immigration a week before he's set to face the presidents of Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala at a South American summit.
He was meeting at the White House with leaders from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on Tuesday when he went on a tirade about the caravan and previewed the National Guard deployment.

[size=18]Mexican immigration offers humanitarian visas to caravan members


[/size]
President Trump debuted his hard-charging position on Easter Sunday in tweets renouncing his support for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that gives certain illegal immigrant youth from Mexico legal status.
He continued his assault on Monday, tying the caravan making its way through Mexico to the policy and demanding action from U.S. lawmakers who have continually refused to acquiesce to his plan for better border security.
The White House argued on his behalf that the DACA protections for illegal immigrant youth who came to the United States after a certain date are a 'magnet' for unaccompanied children flooding the southern border.
Senior administration officials said that smugglers are using the program as a way to rope in new travelers. They also cautioned that children coming across the border are likely to request amnesty in a decade the same the way that DACA recipients are now, creating an endless cycle of illegal immigration.
Trump was once supportive of the DACA protections, urging Congress to codify the Barack Obama program his Department of Justice ended on constitutional grounds.
The Republican president said legislators should show 'great heart' for the young people who were brought to America from other countries.
He had almost totally changed his tune on Monday following a long weekend with his top policy adviser, Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner, and after seeing a report on the annual caravan. 
By Tuesday the president was taking his demands even further and threatening to end nearly $1 billion in aid to struggling countries in Central America. 


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Trump said Tuesday that the caravan 'had better be stopped' or he'd punish Honduras and other countries that 'allow this to happen'
Last year, Trump ended a program put in place by his predecessor that gave Central American minors temporary legal residence in the country if they had a parent living in the U.S. legally.
Trump's administration now says it wants to close additional 'loopholes' that allow the unaccompanied minors to stay indefinitely in the United States, in addition to to a request to seal-up the border with a wall.
Officials also demanded an end to the 'catch-and-release' program that forces the administration to release family units after 20 days. The court case often takes years, they said, and many illegal immigrants do not appear.
Trump officials are claiming a spike in the number of unaccompanied minors was the driver, although U.S. Customs and Border Protection data from the current fiscal year shows a jump in November and December followed by a decline in the cruel winter months of January and February and another increase in March.
A total of 173,599 individuals have been apprehended since the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year, CBP data shows, and 21,720 of them were children.
In all but one month of fiscal year 2017 the year-over-year number of total apprehensions at the southwest border were also lower than in 2016, showing a slow-down in the number of illegal immigrants trying to the enter the country since a 2013 surge prompted additional government action.
That was the year after Obama introduced his DACA program for Mexican children who were residing in the U.S. and had arrived before the age of 16.
The White House singled out the program on Monday as a pull factor for illegal immigrants from Central American countries like Honduras and resolved that it should be permanently discontinued.


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Central American migrants gather before continuing their journey to the U.S. despite President Trump's vow to stamp out illegal immigration. The group is pictured above in Ixtepec, Oaxaca on March 30
Obama's response to the 2013 wave had been to double U.S. aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, giving the three countries $750 million to tackle the drug and crime problems that were causing the country's citizens to leave in the first place. The money also funded a campaign explaining U.S. immigration law to Central Americans.
The Trump White House said Monday that existing policy is not and has not been enough. Without a strong deterrent, it said, the children and families from Central America will keep coming to the U.S.
'We don't want to create a humanitarian crisis, and create endless waves of new illegal immigration,' one official told reporters. 'If you're gonna do it, it should be the last time you're ever gonna have to do it.'
Earlier on Monday, Trump tore into Mexico, claiming it had 'absolute power' to prevent the highly-publicized caravan of Latin American immigrants headed towards the countries' joint border from illegally cross into the United States. 
'They must stop them at their Northern Border, which they can do because their border laws work, not allow them to pass through into our country, which has no effective border laws,' Trump proclaimed. 
The organization behind the caravan, Pueblo Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders, fired back that 'Trump is trying to turn Central American refugees and other immigrant communities against each other, and use them as a bargaining chip with Mexico.'
'In the face of this bullying and these threats of mass violence, we continue to stand in solidarity with displaced people of all races, ethnicities, creeds, abilities, and gender and sexual identities,' the organization said. 


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The group of more than 1,000 mostly Honduran refugees plans to cross into the U.S. and demand asylum. They are pictured above on March 30 in the Mexican state of Oaxaca


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The group has been making the journey on foot, by bus and on trains. They plan to reach the state of Puebla by April 5, where they will take a four day break in their journey 


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The long march: The group mostly started from Tapachula on March 25th and his inched their way up towards Mexico City. They will spend most of this week camped at Puebla
Assaulting his opposition in the U.S. legislature, Trump also said: 'Congress must immediately pass Border Legislation, use Nuclear Option if necessary, to stop the massive inflow of Drugs and People. 
'Border Patrol Agents (and ICE) are GREAT, but the weak Dem laws don’t allow them to do their job. Act now Congress, our country is being stolen!' 
Trump went on to call America's border laws 'pathetic' compared to Mexico's in the Twitter rant that invoked a trade agreement between the two countries and Canada that's being renegotiated on his orders.
He argued that Mexico is 'making a fortune' on the North American Free Trade Agreement. 
'With all of the money they make from the U.S., hopefully they will stop people from coming through their country and into ours, at least until Congress changes our immigration laws!' he said.
Another tweet tied the ordeal to an amnesty program in the United States for illegal immigrant children who were brought across the border from Mexico that Trump has pledged to end unless lawmakers give in to his border security demands. 
'DACA is dead because the Democrats didn't care or act, and now everyone wants to get into the DACA bandwagon... No longer works,' he said. 'Must build Wall and secure out borders with proper Border legislation. Democrats want No Borders, hence drugs and crime!' 
Trump implied in the tweet that he was permanently killing off the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
DACA protections do not extend to anyone who arrives in the U.S. after 2007, and recipients must also be under the age of 31. It's currently in limbo after the president's Department of Justice deemed it unconstitutional.
Trump gave Congress six months to make the Barack Obama program law, then proceeded to turn down every immigration deal with bipartisan support that came to him.
In addition to the $25 billion he wants in funding he wants for his border wall, Trump says he won't let the illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. while they were minors to stay until Congress gives him the total overhaul of the legal immigration system he's also requested. 
Legislation that meets all four pillars of immigration plan has been unable to pass in Congress, and Trump has stood his ground on DACA, blaming Democrats for the program's lapse.
A Twitter rant on  the matter on Sunday had the president's critics accusing him of feigning concern for DACA youth.
Democratic Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia said that Trump had been attempting to 'gaslight the country' for months with his claims that he wants to save DACA.
California Democrat Kamala Harris likewise tweeted that Trump and his government doesn't actually want a solution to the Dreamers' plight.
'They want red meat for their base,' she said. 'They want to purge America's history as a nation of immigrants.'
On Easter morning, before he went to church with his family, President Trump lit up Twitter with a declaration that he was no longer in favor of protecting DACA youth because of 'caravans' that are headed toward the United States' southern border.
'Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release. Getting more dangerous. “Caravans” coming,' he said. 'Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!'





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Trump wrote a series of tweets Monday morning about the caravan and the country's 'weak' immigration laws


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Trump used the news of the caravan to sound the alarm on immigration, hoping Republicans in the Senate would finally 'go Nuclear,' which means killing off the rule that 60 votes are needed to close debate. 
Currently, there are 51 Republicans in the Senate, with Vice President Mike Pence available to break a tie in the GOP's favor. 
Previously, Democrats, and then Republicans, changed the rules so a simple majority closes debate on judicial nominations, cabinet appointees, and also for Supreme Court justices .But under Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, the legislative filibuster, as it's called, has stayed intact. 
Even Senate Republicans such as South Carolina's Lindsey Graham and Arizona's Jeff Flake would be likely to oppose immigration reform legislation that does not include protections for illegal immigrants who have lived in the United States as children and know it as home, though, defeating the purpose of Trump's plan to ram through a border bill that fully funds his wall. 


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President Trump went on a similar Twitter rant on Sunday  


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In his Easter Sunday tweets Trump blamed Mexico for putting the U.S. in a position where it even needs to build a border barrier.
'Mexico is doing very little, if not NOTHING, at stopping people from flowing into Mexico through their Southern Border, and then into the U.S. They laugh at our dumb immigration laws,' he said. 'They must stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL!'
Trump said, 'These big flows of people are all trying to take advantage of DACA. They want in on the act!'
It was Attorney General Jeff Sessions who announced the termination in six months of the Obama-era program that allowed immigrants who came to the United States as children, so-called 'Dreamers' to stay in the country in September, however.
DACA has not ended only because the legality of the program is being argued in court.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5584837/Mexican-President-hits-Trump-saying-negotiation-dont-justify-disrespectful-attitudes.html


[size=34]Mexican President hits out at Trump saying negotiations between the countries don't 'justify threatening or disrespectful attitudes'[/size]

• Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto addressed Trump on Twitter Thursday
  
  
• He said Trump's frustrations are to the US 'laws or to your Congress, it is to them that you should turn to, not to Mexicans'
  
  
• He also said they are 'not going to permit negative rhetoric to define our actions'
  
  
• Peña Nieto's statements come on the heels of a week of Trump railing against Mexico, the caravan of Honduran asylum seekers and sending troops to border
  
  
• Thursday Trump said women are being raped in record numbers in the caravans 
  
  
• He also said there is no way to tell if the asylum seekers are 'thugs' or 'killers' and 'murderers'
  
  

By JESSICA FINN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 
PUBLISHED: 01:34 EDT, 6 April 2018 | UPDATED: 06:53 EDT, 6 April 2018


    


Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto released a statement directly to President Trump via Twitter saying negotiations 'never justify threatening or disrespectful attitudes between our countries.'
'If your recent statements are the result of frustration due to domestic policy issues, to your laws or to your Congress, it is to them that you should turn to, not to Mexicans,' he said in a five-minute, video statement. 
'We're not going to permit that negative rhetoric to define our actions. We're only going to work in the best interest of the Mexicans.'
Peña Nieto's statement follows a week of public lashings by Trump blasting immigration laws, Mexican government, NAFTA and Honduran asylum-seekers traveling in a caravan into Mexico where some will continue on to seek asylum in the US.

Scroll for video  


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Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto addressed Trump directly over Twitter after a week of Trump beefing up the border security, calling for the wall and railing against the caravan of asylum seekers headed for the border 


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During an event in West Virginia on Thursday Trump made several remarks about the caravan of asylum seekers and emphasized the need for more border security until the wall is in place
During an event in West Virginia on Thursday president Trump railed against the human caravan from Honduras organized by Pueblo Sin Fronteras - People Without Borders.  
Trump said it's impossible to know the backgrounds of people coming across the border illicitly, and whether they are 'thugs' or 'killers' and 'murderers.'
Talking about the dangerous journey to the U.S. from Mexico, he said it's now been proven that 'women are raped at levels nobody's ever seen before' as he cited a report that he said came out yesterday. 
Trump added: 'We have to have strong borders' and vowed that troops would remain at the border 'until we can have a wall.' 
A few hours after Trump's remarks the Pentagon issued a statement that said it was creating a 'Border Security Support Cell' to coordinate between the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security.



'The cell will focus on supporting (the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol) priorities based on missions and threats, which will determine the time frame and number of military personnel employed,' the statement said. 
Peña Nieto's statement also comes on the heels of Trump ordering the secretary of Defense to deploy National Guard troops on the U.S.-Mexican border to beef up security on Wednesday.
Trump said that in issuing the deployment the conditions at the border is at a 'point of crisis' and that 'lawlessness' on the Southern border is 'fundamentally incompatible with the safety, security and sovereignty of the American people.' 


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US President Donald Trump waves next to Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto (R) ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit leaders gala dinner in the central Vietnamese city of Danang on November 10, 2017


While the Mexican president spoke in front of the flag in his Thursday statement, he listed the ways Mexico has worked with Trump and the US, including modernizing NAFTA and working to stop transnational criminal gangs and other things.
'The bilateral relationship entails enormous opportunities that should benefit both nations,' he said. 'It is an intense and dynamic relationship, which understandably also poses challenges. Nevertheless, these will never justify threatening or disrespectful attitudes between our countries.
'Paraphrasing the words of a great president of the United States of America: We will have no fear to negotiate, but we will never negotiate out of fear,' he said, quoting President Kennedy. 

[size=34]Read Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto full statement to President Trump[/size]

My Fellow Mexicans:
I address you today on a matter of great importance for our country. I am talking about the recent events that affect the relationship between México and the United States.
As the person responsible for directing the country's foreign policy, a little over a year ago, I established two fundamental principles that would guide our relationship with President Donald Trump's administration:
First: to protect, above all, the national interest, our sovereignty and the dignity of the Mexican people, and
Second: to maintain a constructive and open approach that allows us to overcome differences, face common challenges and reach agreements.
Our actions have been consistent with these principles.
The Mexican government has worked to build an institutional relationship, based on mutual respect, that is beneficial to both nations.
On that basis, we have made progress in the negotiations to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement, with the purpose of improving the competitiveness of the region and creating more and better jobs.
We have also deepened our efforts to fight transnational organized crime, which severely affects our communities. We have never withheld our cooperation, because we are aware of the shared responsibility that this important task implies. And, of course, we have defended, on a daily basis, the rights of Mexicans in the United States, always respecting its laws.
The bilateral relationship entails enormous opportunities that should benefit both nations. It is an intense and dynamic relationship, which understandably also poses challenges. Nevertheless, these will never justify threatening or disrespectful attitudes between our countries.
As Mexicans, we may disagree among ourselves, especially during election periods, but we will always be united when it comes to defending our country's dignity and sovereignty.
This is why, in light of recent events, the Mexican Senate unanimously condemned the offensive and unfounded statements concerning Mexicans and demanded the respectful treatment that befits a relationship between countries that are neighbors, partners and allies.
The candidates currently running for the Mexican presidency have added their voices to the Senate's resolution. Despite their understandable differences, they all agreed on rejecting all measures that run contrary to those that befit good neighbors.
As Ricardo Anaya pointed out 'this is a moment of national unity, not a campaign issue. It is a country issue.'
Andrés Manuel López Obrador declared that 'we need a relationship based on friendship and cooperation for development, no the use of force, not walls, not betting on bad relations among neighbors.'
José Antonio Meade stated that 'this is a time for all of us to come together in the defense of the nation's sovereignty and dignity.'
And as Margarita Zavala stated, 'when it comes to defending national dignity, we all speak with one voice and demand respect.'
As President of all Mexicans, I agree with those remarks.
México is a great and strong nation. We are a nation that is proud of its great history and culture, of its dynamic present and brilliant future. We are a vibrant country, innovative and full of talent. We are a generous and good-hearted nation. Above all, we are a sovereign nation, with values and principles.
This is us: 125 million Mexicans, very proud of who we are.
President Trump: if you wish to reach agreements with México, we stand ready, as we have proved until now, always willing to engage in a dialogue, acting in earnestness, in good faith and in a constructive spirit.
If your recent statements are the result of frustration due to domestic policy issues, to your laws or to your Congress, it is to them that you should turn to, not to Mexicans.
We will not allow negative rhetoric to define our actions. We will only act in the best interest of Mexicans.
Paraphrasing the words of a great President of the United States of America: we will have no fear to negotiate, but we will never negotiate out of fear.
We are convinced that, by coming to agreements as friends, partners and good neighbors, both countries will fare better than if we confront each other.
We stand ready to negotiate, certainly, but always based on mutual respect.
Something that brings together and unites absolutely all Mexicans is our certainty that nothing and no one stands above the dignity of México.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5582597/Oregon-governor-tells-Trump-shell-REFUSE-send-National-Guard-troops-Mexican-border.html


[size=34]Oregon governor tells Trump she'll REFUSE to send National Guard troops to the Mexican border if he calls them up – and she's allowed to say no[/size]

• 'If @realDonaldTrump asks me to deploy Oregon Guard troops to the Mexico border, I'll say no,' says Oregon's Democratic governor Kate Brown 
  
  
• Presidents can call up National Guard units using two different legal authorities, both enacted by Congress in 1956
  
  
• Trump used the weaker of the two on Wednesday, putting the burden on governors to order Guard to duty 'for operational Homeland Defense activities'
  
  
• That means Oregon's governor and others can ignore the president's order entirely – or refuse it publicly
  
  

By DAVID MARTOSKO, US POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 
PUBLISHED: 11:38 EDT, 5 April 2018 | UPDATED: 13:26 EDT, 5 April 2018

    

The governor of Oregon says she'll resist any attempt by Donald Trump to deploy her state's National Guard detachment to protect America's southern border, and California's governor appears poised to follow suit.
The president signed a proclamation on Wednesday that orders Defense Secretary James Mattis to 'request use of National Guard personnel to assist' with the Homeland Security Department's existing border patrol operations. 
But governors, whose duties include commanding their states' Guard units, can say no.
'If @realDonaldTrump asks me to deploy Oregon Guard troops to the Mexico border, I'll say no,' Oregon Gov. Kate Brown tweeted Wednesday.  'As Commander of Oregon's Guard, I’m deeply troubled by Trump’s plan to militarize our border.'

Oregon is about 1,000 miles from where the U.S. ends and Mexico begins. 


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Kate Brown, the Democratic governor of Oregon, said Wednesday that she'll refuse to comply with any Trump administration request for National Guard troops to patrol the nation's southern border


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President George W. Bush deployed National Guard troops to the Mexican border with assistance from the four border states in 2006






Oregon Gov. Kate Brown says she'll refuse any request for the use of her state's troops – even though her state is 1,000 miles away from where the U.S. ends and Mexico begins
Brown acknowledged in a second posting that '[t]here's been no outreach by the President or federal officials,' but insisted that she has 'no intention of allowing Oregon's guard troops to be used to distract from his troubles in Washington.'
Presidents can call up National Guard units using two different legal authorities, both enacted by Congress in 1956. 
One, known as Title 10, would allow Trump to 'federalize' the Guard, ordering it to assemble for 'active duty.' That is typically reserved for wartime deployment or an officially declared 'state of emergency. It also would apply if there were an open rebellion against the government.
But Trump invoked the weaker Title 32 law, which puts the burden on governors to order the Guard to duty 'for operational Homeland Defense activities,' according to a the National Guard Association of the U.S.
That means Oregon's governor and others can ignore the president's order entirely – or refuse it publicly.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said Wednesday that he welcomes the National Guard order from Washington, and noted that 'Texas has maintained a continuous presence of National Guard members along the border' since he took office.
Oregon is nowhere near Mexico. But like Texas, California is – and Golden State governor Jerry Brown is the only Democrat serving as chief executive of a state that shares America's southern border.


+6


President Trump used the weaker of two statutes available for National Guard call-up, meaning governors can refuse to participate


+6


Far from home: In this June 20, 2008 photo, members of the 200th Red Horse Air National Guard Civil Engineering Squadron from Camp Perry in Ohio worked on building a road at the border in Nogales, Arizona


His buy-in is unlikely, even though California supported previous National Guard border operations – including George W. Bush's deployment of 6,000 troops in 2006 and Barack Obama's use of 1,200 four years later.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Thursday on the Fox news Channel that she isn't giving up on him.
'We sent him some information with respect to our best advice as how we could use the Guard to support our mission,' she said. 
Nielsen suggested that she wants troops to patrol borders near where they live.
'The men and women on the front lines if you will, whether they be state employees or federal employees, they usually have much better grasp of what we need,' she said. 
Nielsen also seemed to concede that some cajoling and arm-twisting will be necessary in order to execute on Trump's order – and that Jerry Brown is entitled to decline.
'I'd would like further conversations with him,' she said, 'before I jump ahead of him and how he would like to secure his border.'


+6


Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Thursday that she's going to try to get California Gov. Jerry Brown to help, even though he's an anti-Trump liberal Democrat


+6


White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said the administration isn't putting a number on the troop deployment, only specifying that it would be 'whatever it takes'
Asked how many Guard troops the Trump administration would put on the border, he replied: 'As many as it takes.'
In Obama's border deployment, Guard troops were limited to advisory and observer roles, serving as extra eyes and ears for U.S. Border Patrol units and often limited to using binoculars in guard towers. 
Under rules of engagement issued by Obama's Pentagon, they were forbidden to pursue, confront or detain suspects, including illegal immigrants.
They also couldn't make arrests, stop or search vehicles, or seize drugs.
Trump's Defense Department hasn't said what Guard troops will be told this time around, but the president's proclamation specifies that their mission would be 'to stop the flow of deadly drugs and other contraband, gang members and other criminals, and illegal aliens into this country.'
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D

carolhathaway wrote:

annemarie wrote:He seems to have a vendetta against Mexicans, this whole story is because he was bored with his speech so simply 
told lies to enhance it. He is such a fool. He couldn't attack African Americans he had to find a dark skinned race to attack why not Mexicans.

As for the voting , he knows damn well that couldn't happen he is pissed that California didn't vote for him.
He really is childish he won the election but he can't stand the idea that he didn't get all the votes he really
thinks everyone wanted him to be elected.

Plus - he wants  this f***ing wall to be built and has to convince somebody to pay for it. And what's better than to cause fears? People who never met a Mexican might rather believe that every of them is a rapist or a drug dealer than someone who actually knows Mexicans and knows that they are as normal - or as criminal - as everybody else.

Isn't it interesting that those federal states who are neighboring Mexico, don't seem to fearMexicans as much as people in the rusty belt? Although I assume that many immigrants stay in California, New Mexico and Texas.

Trump knows how to keep his base energized.  Stoking fear and of course telling lies that keep him on the good side of his supporters is a win-win.  Having the National Guard deployed to the border with the intent of keeping them there until he gets his f**king Wall is his way of thumping his chest and  looking like a tough guy who insists on getting his way.  It’s another episode of the Trump Show.

I've got a groundbreaking idea:
What if the US government helped other American countries to stabilize their governments and ecomomics? So they have jobs, money to feed their families, to build homes, access to clean water, food and medical treatment? They wouldn't have to fear corruption, drugs and gangs.

People leave their area because they see no alternative. Those from Honduras know that they hardly have the chance to reach the States. Those refuging from Africa to Europe on small boats know the risk of drowning, those trying to leave Syria by foot know the risk of being shot or bombed. THEY SIMPLY SEE NO ALTERNATIVE, AND THIS LESS THAN 1 % CHANCE TO GET TO THEIR DESTINATION IS WORTH THE RISK FOR THEM.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5584743/Tired-told-no-Trump-freezes-chief-staff.html

[size=34]Trump is freezing out John Kelly because he is 'tired of being told no' - and is still frustrated at how chief of staff handled firing of Rob Porter[/size]

• Trump is moving against his chief of staff by freezing him out of phone calls and ignoring his advice because he is 'tired of being told no', insiders say 
  
  
• Kelly isn't involved in big decisions and opposed hiring John Bolton as national security adviser - but Trump went ahead and offered him the job 
  
  
• He was absent for Mar-a-Lago Easter weekend when Trump fumed about migration and trade
  
  
• President was not happy with how Kelly handled ousting of Rob Porter after Hope Hicks, his then communications director and Porter's then lover  
  
  

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 00:55 EDT, 6 April 2018 | UPDATED: 13:23 EDT, 6 April 2018

    


When President Donald Trump made a congratulatory phone call to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, White House chief of staff John Kelly wasn't on the line.
When Trump tapped John Bolton to be his next national security adviser, Kelly wasn't in the room.
And when Trump spent a Mar-a-Lago weekend stewing over immigration and trade, Kelly wasn't in sight.
Kelly, once empowered to bring order to a turbulent West Wing, has receded from view, his clout diminished, his word less trusted by staff and his guidance less tolerated by an increasingly go-it-alone president.

Emboldened in his job, Trump has rebelled against Kelly's restrictions and mused about doing away with the chief of staff post entirely. It's all leading White House staffers and Trump allies to believe that Kelly is working on borrowed time.
In recent weeks, Trump has governed at breakneck pace, ousting aides and issuing surprise policy announcements on Twitter, recreating the helter-skelter feel of his first months in office. Kelly's allies maintain that his retreat is strategic. 


+5


Iced out: John Kelly, a retired four star Marine general and ex-Homeland Security secretary is facing internal exile as chief of staff


+5


Over him: Trump is said to be 'tired of being told no' and has overruled Kelly repeatedly recently, including by having guests for dinner who the chief of staff had kept out of his orbit
They suggest that the belief that Kelly was Trump's savior was an overstated idea all along and that the chief of staff is now content to loosen the reins and allow an increasingly comfortable president to govern from his gut.
But those close to the president say that Trump has increasingly expressed fatigue at Kelly's attempts to shackle him and that while Trump is not ready to fire Kelly, he has begun gradually freezing out his top aide.
Trump recently told one confidant that he was 'tired of being told no' by Kelly and has instead chosen to simply not tell Kelly things at all, according to a person who was not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity.
In Trump's West Wing, once the rumors begin that an aide's exit is forthcoming, the 'stink' on that staffer never leaves, according to one of the nearly dozen White House aides, former administration officials and outside advisers who spoke to The Associated Press under the same conditions.
As Kelly's public profile and behind-the-scenes influence has faded, speculation has risen that chaos could return.
'It's not tenable for Kelly to remain in this position so weakened,' said Chris Whipple, author of 'Gatekeepers,' a history of modern White House chiefs of staff. 
'More than any of his predecessors, Donald Trump needs an empowered chief of staff to tell him what he does not want to hear. Trump wants to run the White House like the 26th floor of Trump Tower, and it's simply not going to work.'



Kelly was once a fixture at the president's side, but Trump has now cut him out of a number of important decisions.
For months, Kelly made it a practice to listen in to many of the president's calls, particularly with world leaders. 
While he is still on the line for some of those conversations, Kelly was not part of the call Trump made to Putin last month from the White House residence during which Trump ignored advisers' advice against congratulating the Russian president on his re-election.
Although Kelly had agitated for the removal of outgoing national security adviser H.R. McMaster, he counseled Trump against hiring Bolton, a neo-conservative media commentator. Trump did it anyway, offering the job to Bolton in a one-on-one meeting in the Oval Office and telling his chief of staff about it later.
As Trump spent the Easter weekend at his Florida resort and tweeted about his tariffs plan, Kelly was out of state, though the men did consult by phone. 
While Kelly has fumed about the ethics questions swirling around Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt, Trump was at least initially more supportive of Pruitt, telling him, 'We've got your back.'
The president also has cast aside the constraints the retired four-star Marine general tried to place on Trump about whom he could see and speak to. 
Those restrictions led shunned advisers to try to undermine the chief of staff in the press and with Trump. 
For months, former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was barred from the White House, only to return when Kelly was overruled by Trump, according to four White House aides and outside advisers.
Many in the West Wing believed that Kelly's attempts to curtail Trump's interactions with Lewandowski, as well as Trump allies such as David Bossie and Anthony Scaramucci, were always destined to fail and alienate the president, who has privately contemplated recreating the freewheeling nature of his campaign and Trump Tower office. 
Kelly also has clashed with Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, who had his security clearance downgraded after a policy change written by the chief of staff.


+5


Toxic coupling: One of Trump's frustrations at Kelly is over his handling of Rob Porter's firing. Kelly's shifting version of events elicited frustration from former communications director Hope Hicks who was Porter's lover until DailyMail.com revealed he was accused by both his ex-wives of domestic abuse


+5


Bright moment: Kelly enjoyed himself at the Easter egg roll at the White House this week



Some White House aides contend that Kelly has been intentionally giving Trump more leeway to be himself and that Kelly recognizes that's what Trump wants. 
But allies acknowledged Kelly's receding power and said he's trying to keep his head down and focus on policy, such as the plan to mobilize the National Guard along the U.S. border with Mexico.
The White House declined to make Kelly available for an interview. In public, Trump praises his chief of staff, telling Marines in California last month that Kelly probably 'likes what you do better than what he does, but he's doing a great job.'
The speculation surrounding Kelly echoes the treatment of his predecessor, Reince Priebus, who was the subject of months of questions about how long he would last on the job. Priebus eventually resigned under pressure.
Kelly also no longer commands the same respect among some quarters of the staff. 
His role came under harsh scrutiny this year over his handling of the controversy surrounding ousted White House aide Rob Porter, who was accused of domestic abuse.
Kelly's shifting version of events elicited frustration from former communications director Hope Hicks, who had been dating Porter, and dismayed a number of West Wing staffers. 
That episode frustrated Trump, who still remains agitated about an interview that Kelly gave to Fox News months ago in which he suggested that Trump had 'evolved' in his thinking about the need for a wall on the Mexican border.
Kelly, who took the job last July, had previously told confidants he hoped to be on the job for a year. One person familiar with his thinking said the chief of staff recently voiced doubt he would make it that far.

[size=18]Kelly jokes about White House move: 'God is punishing me'



[/size]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5584183/Trump-wants-Syria-dont-say-timeline.html

[size=34]Trump's furious Situation Room row with his top general is LEAKED: Chairman of joint chiefs reprimanded him on Syria - so president demanded immediate pull-out[/size]

• Trump held a summit in his White House situation room this week on how to get out of Syria - and in an astonishing breach, it has leaked 
  
  
• President opened the meeting with a tirade about U.S. intervention in Syria and asked what it had gotten for the money and American lives
  
  
• He said 'nothing' repeatedly but Associated Press says intensity of Trump's tone and demeanor 'raised eyebrows and unease among the top brass'
  
  
• Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Marine General Joseph Dunford reprimanded Trump saying his approach was 'not productive'
  
  
• Trump hit back by demanding immediate withdrawal of all U.S. forces and end to aid efforts and had to be talked down by defense secretary Mattis
  
  
• At a separate meeting he watched CIA footage of a terrorist being killed and demanded to know why his family wasn't taken out too 
  
  

By ASSOCIATED PRESS and DAILYMAIL.COM REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 20:05 EDT, 5 April 2018 | UPDATED: 17:07 EDT, 6 April 2018

 

 

 

 

• [email=?subject=Read%20this:%20Trump%27s%20furious%20Situation%20Room%20row%20with%20his%20top%20general%20is%20LEAKED:%20Chairman%20of%20joint%20chiefs%20reprimanded%20him%20on%20Syria%20-%20so%20president%20demanded%20immediate%20pull-out&body=Trump%27s%20furious%20Situation%20Room%20row%20with%20his%20top%20general%20is%20LEAKED%3A%20Chairman%20of%20joint%20chiefs%20reprimanded%20him%20on%20Syria%20-%20so%20president%20demanded%20immediate%20pull-out%0A%0ATrump%20clashed%20with%20Marine%20General%20Joseph%20Dunford%20in%20the%20Situation%20Room%20of%20the%20White%20House%20over%20what%20to%20do%20in%20Syria%20and%20was%20told%20by%20the%20commander%20his%20approach%20was%20%27not%20productive%27%0A%0Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-5584183%2FTrump-wants-Syria-dont-say-timeline.html%3Fito%3Demail_share_article-top%0A%0A%0AMost%20Read%20Articles%3A%0A%0AMMA%20superstar%20Conor%20McGregor%20is%20CHARGED%20with%20three%20counts%20of%20assault%20and%20one%20of%20criminal%20mischief%20after%20frenzied%20attack%20on%20rival%20fighters%20in%20their%20tour%20bus%20in%20Brooklyn%20that%20left%20two%20injured%C2%A0%0Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-5584323%2FShocking-new-video-shows-MMA-fighter-Conor-McGregor-throwing-dolly-competitors-bus.html%3Fito%3Demail_share_article-top_most-read-articles%0A%0APack%20your%20bags%21%20Shamed%20MMA%20superstar%20Conor%20McGregor%20is%20freed%20on%20%2450%2C000%20bail%20so%20he%20can%20return%20to%20Ireland%20after%20frenzied%20attack%20on%20rival%20fighters%27%20bus%20which%20has%20jeopardized%20his%20entire%20career%0Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-5586551%2FMMA-superstar-Conor-McGregor-led-Brooklyn-precinct-handcuffs.html%3Fito%3Demail_share_article-top_most-read-articles%0A%0AMeghan%27s%20dress-down%20Friday%21%20Prince%20Harry%20and%20his%20bride-to-be%20go%20casual%20as%20they%20watch%20athletes%20preparing%20for%20the%20Invictus%20Games%20-%20as%20she%20reveals%20trip%20to%20the%20main%20event%20in%20Sydney%20will%20be%20her%20first%20foreign%20tour%20as%20a%20member%20of%20the%20Royal%20Family%0Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fnews%2Farticle-5585377%2FPrince-Harry-Meghan-Markle-attend-team-trials-Invictus-Games.html%3Fito%3Demail_share_article-top_most-read-articles%0A%0A]e-mail[/email]
   
  
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President Donald Trump is facing an astonishing leak of a confrontation in the Situation Room with his most senior military commander and another leak of talks with the CIA.
He and Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, clashed over what to do about Syria in the White House's most secret and guarded area.
Five officials brief the Associated Press on that happened as Gen Dunford told him his approach was 'unproductive' and demanded that he issue 'specific instructions' on how to proceed.
And the Washington Post detailed how Trump demanded of its head of drone operations - an official whose name is a secret - why operators had waited until a terrorist had left his family's home before killing him.

The two leaks will serve to increase tensions in Washington over Syria.
Trump on Tuesday said 'I want to get out. I want to bring our troops back home,' and later that day held the meeting in the situation room.


+6


Closely guarded secret: The White House situation room - where Trump was photographed in September 2017 - is supposed to be sacrosanct but five officials brief the Associated Press on a confrontation between the President and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff


+6


U.S. presence: Regular soldiers and special forces have been deployed in northern Syria to fight ISIS - but now Trump wants them out



United front: Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Marine General Joseph Dunford and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis - also a retired Marine four-star general - both went head to head with Trump on pulling out of Syria in a Situation Room encounter which has leaked
Trump's desire for a rapid withdrawal faced unanimous opposition from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Pentagon, the State Department and the intelligence community, all of which argued that keeping the 2,000 U.S. soldiers currently in Syria is key to ensuring the Islamic State does not reconstitute itself.
But as they huddled in the Situation Room, the president was vocal and vehement in insisting that the withdrawal be completed quickly if not immediately, according to five administration officials briefed on Tuesday's White House meeting of Trump and his top aides. 
The officials weren't authorized to discuss internal deliberations and requested anonymity.
If those aides failed in obtaining their desired outcome, it may have been because a strategy that's worked in the past - giving Trump an offer he can't refuse - appears to have backfired.

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Rather than offer Trump a menu of pullout plans, with varying timelines and options for withdrawing step-by-step, the team sought to frame it as a binary choice: Stay in Syria to ensure the Islamic State can't regroup, or pull out completely. 
Documents presented to the president included several pages of possibilities for staying in, but only a brief description of an option for full withdrawal that emphasized significant risks and downsides, including the likelihood that Iran and Russia would take advantage of a U.S. vacuum.
Ultimately, Trump chose that option anyway.
The president had opened the meeting with a tirade about U.S. intervention in Syria and the Middle East more broadly, repeating lines from public speeches in which he's denounced previous administrations for 'wasting' $7 trillion in the region over the past 17 years.
What has the U.S. gotten for the money and American lives expended in Syria? 'Nothing,' Trump said over and over, according to the officials.
The intensity of Trump's tone and demeanor raised eyebrows and unease among the top brass gathered to hash out a Syria plan with Trump, officials said: Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Defense Secretary James Mattis, CIA chief Mike Pompeo and acting Secretary of State John Sullivan.
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Aftermath: Raqqa, which as ISIS's de facto capital, is one of the areas of Syria where new infrastructure will be needed. Trump suggested ending all U.S. efforts to build it in the Situation Room argument 


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Key weapon: Drones like the Reaper have become a part of the US Air Force's tool kit and Trump told the CIA to arm their fleet in Syria 'within 10 days' on his first day in office, a leak revealed


+6




+6



Deadly force: An Air Force drone destroyed a T-72 tank from the air in Syria - an indication of what they are capable of
At one point, Dunford spoke up, one official said, telling Trump that his approach was not productive and asked him to give the group specific instructions as to what he wanted.
Trump's response was to demand an immediate withdrawal of all American troops and an end to all U.S. civilian stabilization programs designed to restore basic infrastructure to war-shattered Syrian communities.
Mattis countered, arguing that an immediate withdrawal could be catastrophic and was logistically impossible to pull off in any responsible way, without risking the return of the Islamic State and other terrorist groups in newly liberated territories, the officials said. Mattis floated a one-year withdrawal as an alternative.
Trump then relented - but only slightly, telling his aides they could have five or six months to complete the mission to destroy the Islamic State and then get out, according to the officials. 
Trump also indicated that he did not want to hear in October that the military had been unable to fully defeat the Islamic State and had to remain in Syria for longer.
The president had spoken. But what to say about it publicly?
In a brief and vague statement released Wednesday, the White House said the U.S. role in Syria is coming to a 'rapid end' and emphasized that the U.S. was counting on other countries and the U.N. to deal with Syria's future. 
But it offered no specificity as to the timing of a U.S. withdrawal.
'The president has actually been very good in not giving us a specific timeline,' Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, director of the Joint Staff, said Thursday. 'We've always thought that as we reach finale against ISIS in Syria, we're going to adjust the level of our presence there. So in that sense, nothing has actually changed.'
Mattis said Friday that the military is talking with Kurdish partners and others in Syria to resolve questions over US support once the United States eventually withdraws from the war-torn country.
'We are in consultation with our allies and partners right now, so we'll work all this out,' Mattis said when asked whether the US military is committed to supporting Syria's Kurdish fighters. 
Pentagon officials stressed that no formal order had been handed down to the military to alter course or start a withdrawal. Nonetheless, the officials said Trump was clear in his intent.
For Trump, any notion of a 'timeline' comes with significant political risk. 
After all, he had regularly bashed Obama on the campaign trail for forecasting his military moves in advance. 
In fact, Trump was so critical of Obama for putting an arbitrary deadline on the 2011 Iraq withdrawal that he dubbed Obama 'the founder of ISIS,' arguing that Obama had signaled to al-Qaeda sympathizers in Iraq that they need only wait the U.S. out.
The leak of the Situation Room showdown was matched by another leak of top-secret activity - this time talks with the CIA operative in charge of its drone strikes om his very first day in office.
The Washington Post revealed how Trump met three agency officials when he visited CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and was shown a feed from Syria, where Obama had limited CIA drones to surveillance flights.
He ordered them to arm CIA drones there and said, according to two former officials who spoke to the Washington Post: 'If you can do it in ten days, get it done.'
Then he was shown a video of a previous strike in which a terrorist was killed after leaving his family home and responded by saying: 'Why did you wait?'
Trump has been infuriated by leaks throughout his presidency and demanded action against leakers repeatedly. 

[size=18]President Trump says US will be out of Syria 'like very soon'




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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5587745/Rape-fake-news-Mr-Trump-say-women-immigrant-caravan.html

[size=38]EXCLUSIVE: 'Rapes, what rapes? It's fake news, Mr Trump,' say women on immigrant caravan as White House claims 80 per cent of female immigrants are attacked - but that figure is from Univision anchor president hates[/size]

• White House doubled down Friday on the president's claim that 'where this journey coming up, women are raped at levels that nobody has ever seen before'
  
  
• It highlighted 2014 report claiming an estimated 80 per cent of migrant women from Central America are raped, with press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders calling high levels of rape 'a documented fact'
  
  
• The statistic ironically comes from a report on Fusion TV show America with Jorge Ramos - the Univision anchor Trump threw out of a campaign event in a notorious shouting match in 2015
  
  
• The report's producer, an investigative journalist, told DailyMail.com: 'These figures are not current; they are from 2013-2014. Trump is incorrect.'
  
  
• In Puebla, just outside Mexico City, members of the immigrant caravan which has set off the president's ire at border control laughed off his claims of rape saying they were far safer on it than in their homes 
  
  
• 'Rapes, what rapes? It's all fake news,' said widower Marta Alberto Ester, 38, a market vendor from violence-plagued Honduras.  'This is the first place I've felt safe since my husband died last year.'
  
  

By BEN ASHFORD IN PUEBLA, MEXICO, FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and KAREN RUIZ FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 18:33 EDT, 6 April 2018 | UPDATED: 20:46 EDT, 6 April 2018

    


Women migrants marching towards the US today dismissed President Donald Trump's rape claims as 'fake news' - saying they feel safer in their caravan than they do in their own countries.
Trump said in a speech Thursday that females making up the 1,000-plus Central American convoy travelling through Mexico have been 'raped at levels that nobody has ever seen before'. 
And on Friday the White House doubled down, with Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying: 'This is a well-documented fact that a lot of the people - I believe up to 80 percent in recent years of women that are making that journey have been raped in that process.'
Her deputy Raj Shah then tweeted a link to a HuffPo report of an investigation by Fusion TV - which was carried on American with Jorge Ramos in 2014. Ironically Trump had an angry confrontation with Ramos a year later, having him removed from a campaign rally.

The report said only: 'Sexual assault against women and girls is so common that many expect to be raped. Shelter directors and human rights directors estimate that 80 per cent of migrant women crossing Mexico are raped along the way.'
The producer of the report, investigative journalist Erin Siegal McIntyre based her 80 per cent figure on what she said were 'interviews with various stakeholders including migrant shelter directors' and told DailyMail.com: 'These figures are not current; they are from 2013-2014. Trump is incorrect.'
Caravan members surveyed today by DailyMail.com said they had not heard of a single accusation of rape or sexual abuse since the caravan set out in late March. 
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Speaking out: 'Rapes, what rapes? It's all fake news.' Widower Marta Alberto Ester, 38, a market vendor from Honduras. was set upon by a gang as she crossed a river at the border with Mexico. They hit her in the face and ripped her papers in half as they tried to wrench them away. 'I was only safe once I reached the caravan,' she added. 'This is the first place I've felt safe since my husband died last year.'


+24



Blanca Zunega, 20, traveling with her two-year-old daughter Michelle, said  that there are no rapists or criminals inside the caravan and thought the claim was humorous. She added: 'Guys have been around me the entire time and they could not have been more helpful and nice, helping us, carrying our bags. There's been nothing inappropriate.'


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Honduran migrant Sarah Marquez, 38, (left) said caravan members had actually formed patrols to thwart sex attackers and traffickers. Margarita Lemus, 29, a mother of four from El Salvador (right) is tired following a long journey to Iglesia Nuestra Senora De La Asuncion in the Aquiles Serdan neighborhood of Puebla, Mexico, where the migrant caravan has gathered.


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View from the migrant men: 'Trump has insulted the whole of Honduras,' said German Garcia, 27, (left) who left his homeland to find work and plans to cross the border to the US 'however God tells me to do it'. 'We don't want to rob or rape or do anything bad to anybody. We just want to work and have a better future.' Jose Antonio Hernandez, 24, a veteran from the Honduran army (right), who told DailyMail.com: 'The truth is that where I'm from there is a lot of crime and rape and robbery. But the women have joined the caravan to escape that. If I saw someone violating a woman I would stop them.'


+24


Missionary effort: Volunteers from local church congregations are preparing food for the new arrivals, who are expected to eat though 375 lbs of rice, 220 lbs of pork, 90 lbs of tomatoes, 40 lbs of onions and 22 lbs of garlic each day until they leave for the caravan's official final destination, Mexico City, on Monday


+24


Now the White House believes him: Jorge Ramos, who was thrown out of a Trump campaign rally in 2015 is revealed to be the source for its claim that as many as 80 per cent of women are raped - a claim made as it doubled down on Trump saying on Thursday of the immigrant caravan: 'Women are raped at levels nobody's ever seen.'


+24




+24



Ripping up the script: Trump made his explosive claim about rape at 'levels nobody's ever seen' in West Virginia Thursday. Asked to explain it, Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited - wrongly - the Los Angeles Times and her deputy, Raj Shah came up with a Huffington Post story which he called 'a study'. It is actually a report of a segment from America with Jorge Ramos on Fusion TV


+24


Victims: The report on America with Jorge Ramos in 2014 was by Erin Siegal McIntyre. She said: 'These figures are not current; they are from 2013-2014. Trump is incorrect.'







One migrant recalled being attacked and punched by a gang of robbers - but said that took place before she reached the 'safety' of the caravan. 
Another told DailyMail.com she saw suspected people traffickers pestering girls for sex outside the camp until caravan members banded together to scare them away. 
'Rapes, what rapes? It's all fake news,' said widower Marta Alberto Ester, 38, a market vendor from violence-plagued Honduras. 
Ester was set upon by a gang as she crossed a river at the border with Mexico. They hit her in the face and ripped her papers in half as they tried to wrench them away. 
'I was only safe once I reached the caravan,' she added. 'This is the first place I've felt safe since my husband died last year.' 
Blanca Zunega, 20, a petite Salvadoran travelling with her mother Linda, 40, younger brother, Miguel, 15, and daughter Michelle, two, said the President's claims were 'just not true'. 
She added: 'Guys have been around me the entire time and they could not have been more helpful and nice, helping us, carrying our bags. There's been nothing inappropriate. 
'But I know mothers who left the caravan alone last night because they think after what Trump has said that the police will come and deport us all. Now they are far more vulnerable.' 
Trump's claims at a round table in West Virginia harked back to his controversial comments made during the Presidential campaign about 'Mexican rapists' and killers crossing the US border. 


+24


Double down: 'This is a well-documented fact that a lot of the people – I believe up to 80 percent in recent years of women that are making that journey have been raped in that process,' said Sarah Huckabee Sanders. In fact the author of the claim said: 'Trump is incorrect.'
Although he did not credit a specific report or agency for his rape statistic, a spokeswoman said afterwards he was referring to an LA Times article from Tuesday. 
But while the article said 'robberies, rapes and assaults - perpetrated by smugglers, cartel members and Mexican immigration agents - are common' it was portraying migrants as victims rather than perpetrators. 
It cited an incident in which 72 kidnapped migrants were killed by a cartel in northern Mexico but this had taken place eight years ago. That appeared to prompt the White House to move on to Friday's claims of 80 per cent.
'Trump has insulted the whole of Honduras,' said German Garcia, 27, who left his homeland to find work and plans to cross the border to the US 'however God tells me to do it.'
'We don't want to rob or rape or do anything bad to anybody. We just want to work and have a better future.' 
His sentiments were echoed by Jose Antonio Hernandez, 24, a veteran from the Honduran army, who told DailyMail.com: 'The truth is that where I'm from there is a lot of crime and rape and robbery. 
'But the women have joined the caravan to escape that. If I saw someone violating a woman I would stop them.' 
Honduran migrant Sarah Marquez, 38, said caravan members had actually formed patrols to thwart sex attackers and traffickers. 
'At our camp we saw two Mexican men lurking around the entrance, they were pestering the young girls for dates and offering them money to take them to the border. It was obvious what they were up to. 
'But we formed a human shield, we confronted them and had the police arrest them. We then created a watch, taking turns. It's much safer inside the caravan than outside.' 
The caravan set out from the southern Mexican border city of Tapachula on March 25, the majority of migrants travelling on foot or hitchhiking, hopping on buses or clinging to the roofs of trains.
Their advance stalled for several days at a dilapidated sports complex in the southern state of Oaxaca where migrants were able to rest and apply for temporary travel documents before setting off again Thursday afternoon in a convoy of chartered buses. 
By Friday morning hundreds of caravan members had completed the ten-hour overnight drive to the central city of Puebla, 75 miles southwest of Mexico City, where they camped at a trio of churches in the working class Aquiles Serdan neighborhood. 





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Give me shelter: Volunteers distribute food and water to migrants, who just arrived following a long and dangerous journey from southern Mexico, at the Iglesia Nuestra Senora De La Asuncion in the Aquiles Serdan neighborhood of Puebla


+24


Ready for the arrivals: Around 8000 bottles of water had also been stockpiled, with more donations flooding in every day, said Padre Gustavo Rodriguez, the parish priest for Aquiles Serdan. 


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Chance to rest: Migrant families rest outside Iglesia Nuestra Senora De La Asuncion in the Aquiles Serdan neighborhood of Puebla, Mexico, where the migrant caravan has gathered, following a long and dangerous journey from southern Mexico


+24


Welcome: Iglesia Nuestra Senora De La Asuncion - Our Lady of the Assumption - in the Aquiles Serdan neighborhood of Puebla, Mexico, is providing help for the migrant caravan


+24


The new arrivals were given food and access to a doctor, before being invited to attend workshops with advocacy groups and immigration lawyers to get advice on how to apply for asylum in Mexico or the US


+24


Monica Gamez Rojas, 31, a doctor and missionary, treats Margarita Lemus, 29, at Iglesia Nuestra Senora De La Asuncion. The migrant caravan has been safe for those in it, they say, and not as portrayed by Donald Trump


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Playtime: Children on the caravan for food, water and the chance to play with each other as they reached Puebla 

[size=18]Director of caravan reassures Americans that immigrants are not a threat




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As many as 20 more bus-loads were expected to arrive throughout the day, with accommodation for 910 migrants at the Iglesia Nuestra Senora De La Asuncion church and space for several hundred more at two nearby churches. 
The new arrivals were given food and access to a doctor, before being invited to attend workshops with advocacy groups and immigration lawyers to get advice on how to apply for asylum in Mexico or the US. 
However, when DailyMail.com asked to attend the meetings a volunteer with the caravan's organizers, Pueblo Sin Fronteras, barred us from entering and said the sessions were private. 
Monica Gamez Rojas, 31, a doctor and missionary, was having a busy morning at her makeshift clinic, treating more than 100 arrivals for ailments including sprained ankles, muscle fatigue and respiratory problems. 
'They have problems from all the walking, the dust gets into their eyes,' she said. 'It's clear that many of them have been in really bad shape for a long time. 
'One boy who came to see me had an abscess in his mouth that had gone untreated for years.'
In a bustling kitchen area volunteers from local church congregations sliced fruit and stirred giant pots of stew.
The new arrivals, who are expected to eat though 375 lbs of rice, 220 lbs of pork, 90 lbs of tomatoes, 40 lbs of onions and 22 lbs of garlic each day until they leave for the caravan's official final destination, Mexico City, on Monday. 
Around 8000 bottles of water had also been stockpiled, with more donations flooding in every day, said Padre Gustavo Rodriguez, the parish priest for Aquiles Serdan. 
Padre Rodriguez said he had organized his security guards but he wasn't anticipating any trouble from the migrants who will bed down in storerooms and church dorms. 
'The U.S. President is confusing refugees with traffickers, the refugees are the victims not the violators,' Rodriguez told DailyMail.com.


+24


Ready for arrivals: The Iglesia Nuestra Senora De La Asuncion has readied sleeping areas with bedding for the migrants and volunteers have even brought toys for children


+24


Big effort: Volunteers prepare lunch for migrants at the church, who are expected to eat though 375 lbs of rice, 220 lbs of pork, 90 lbs of tomatoes, 40 lbs of onions and 22 lbs of garlic each day until they leave for the caravan's official final destination, Mexico City, on Monday


+24


Church volunteer and cook Enriqueta Vasquez, 61, (right) invited Trump to taste her food and meet the migrants for himself. 'He is rich man who has had a privileged life and knows nothing about poverty,' she said. 'But we would be happy to feed him. Everyone is equal here - whether you are a president or a refugee.' She and Gudelia Chavarria Flores, 63 (left) are among the volunteers helping feed the arrivals


+24


Welcome break: The church in the Aquiles Serdan neighborhood of Puebla has provided respite after a difficult journey through Mexico


+24


Ready to help: Volunteers with mobile medical facilities have gathered outside Iglesia Nuestra Senora De La Asuncion
'Every word that he says is a publicity stunt or a campaign slogan for his goals to deport more people or build a wall.' 
Church volunteer and cook Enriqueta Vasquez, 61, invited Trump to taste her food and meet the migrants for himself. 
'He is rich man who has had a privileged life and knows nothing about poverty,' she said. 'But we would be happy to feed him. Everyone is equal here - whether you are a president or a refugee.' 
Pueblo Sin Fronteras insists the caravan is being staged to highlight the plight of Central American refugees and to provide safe passage across Mexico for desperate people who would otherwise go it alone and fall prey to cartel robbers and kidnappers. 
The say their goal is to help people apply for legal asylum in Mexico or the US but admit that a substantial number of migrants will try to cross illegally when the event official winds down after a rally in Mexico City.
Similar caravans have crossed Mexico for the past several years but organizers say political unrest in the wake of a contentious November election in neighboring Honduras has swelled numbers from several hundred to more than a thousand. 
Even so, the event passed largely unnoticed until Trump, apparently responding to a news segment on Fox News, denounced the migrants as dangerous and implored Congress to toughen immigration laws before they swamped the US. 
He also warned the Mexican government he would cut off trade talks if they didn't halt the caravan, which even if it reached the border, would make up just a small proportion of the roughly 30,000 people caught trying to sneak across every month. 
Mexican officials had vowed to disband the caravan by Wednesday but rather than taking migrants into custody or deporting them they decided instead to hand over temporary permits granting them as long as 30 days to apply formally for asylum or a work visa. 
The documents, first revealed by DailyMail.com, did not place any restrictions on travel. 
And while migrants who are denied asylum face being deported, many told DailyMail.com they merely wanted the papers so they had long enough to travel legally to the border to try to cross into the US. 
Margarita Lemus, 29, a mom-of-four from El Salvador, doesn't even have a temporary permit.
But having walked 'countless' miles and got as far as Puebla she was in no mood to abandon her dream of reaching the US and setting up a home for her young daughters, Daniela, Darlene, Alison and Dayana. 
'I'm going to attend the classes here and apply to cross to the US legally,' she said. 'But if the lawyers tell me it's illegal or dangerous I will still go. I have to fight for a better future for my family.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5588231/Google-founder-Serjey-Brins-ex-wife-shames-hospital-treating-friend.html




[size=34]'Good healthcare comes to those who complain': Silicon Valley CEO and Google founder Serjey Brin's ex-wife Anne Wojcicki shames hospital into treating her terminally ill friend after it demanded he pay a $1MILLION deposit for treatment
[/size]

• Anne Wojcicki tweeted on Tuesday that Stanford Medical Center was asking her terminally ill friend for a $1million deposit to treat him
  
  
• After she directed attention to the matter, her friend received temporary insurance and has been moved from Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
  
  
• Wojcicki is the ex-wife of Google co-founder Serjey Brin and the sister of YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki
  
  
• She's the founder and CEO of 23andMe, a DNA ancestry website worth $1billion
  
  

By GERMANIA RODRIGUEZ FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 
PUBLISHED: 23:04 EDT, 6 April 2018 | UPDATED: 01:27 EDT, 7 April 2018


    

Sillicon Valley CEO, and ex-wife of Google co-founder Serjey Brin, Anne Wojcicki used her name and following to get a California hospital to treat her uninsured terminally ill friend.
Wojcicki took to Twitter on Tuesday to shine a light on Stanford Medical Center, which she claimed was asking for a $1million deposit to treat her friend.
'I have a friend critically ill at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center who can’t get transferred to Stanford for more advanced care without a $1M deposit,' the 44-year-old wrote.


+5


A woman with influence: Silicon Valley CEO Anne Wojcick used her social media following to get her terminally ill friend treated at Stanford Medical Center


+5


The ex-wife of Google founder Serjey Brin took to Twitter to shine a light on the matter
'What kind of morals are reflected in our society when you know you can save someone’s life but refuse to do so bc of payment?!'

Wojcicki, who did not name her friend or identify his illness, told Mercury News his family 'did the equivalent of calling 911' when faced with the hospital's request - they called her.
She said that last week her friend was told he had run out of medical options and wouldn't survive.



Thankfully, the CEO's campaign was successful and her friend has been moved to Stanford (pictured) where he's receiving advanced care


+5


 After her social media posts gathered plenty of attention, Bay Area Legal Aid and the counselors at insurer Covered California offered their help in the matter



The CEO also criticized the Santa Clara hospital for allegedly refusing to promptly hand over her friend's medical records to his family, which the Stanford hospital needed before treating him.
She tweeted: 'Santa Clara Valley Medical Center says it takes them 5-10 business days to give you medical records! It’s hard to imagine what possibly takes them that long?! Why do we all tolerate not having access to our own information?'  
Thankfully, the CEO's campaign was successful and her friend has been moved to Stanford where he's receiving advanced care not available at Santa Clara.
After her social media posts gathered plenty of attention, Bay Area Legal Aid and the counselors at insurer Covered California offered their help in the matter.


+5


Wojcicki was married to Brin until 2015 and is a successful entrepreneur in her own right, having founded 23andMe, a DNA-based ancestry website worth $1billion


+5


Sister CEOs: Wojcicki is also the sister of YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki
Wojcicki announced the good news on Twitter on Wednesday: 'It’s important for everyone to remember to advocate for themselves. Good health care comes to those who complain.'
Her friend is now insured under an Affordable Care Act program called Hospital Presumptive Eligibility that allows people to be temporarily covered, Mercury News reported.
She told the local paper she's passionate about access to affordable health care because she lost an uncle who died from an aspirin overdose as a toddler after his parents couldn't prove they could pay for his care.
Wojcicki was married to Brin until 2015 and is a successful entrepreneur in her own right, having founded 23andMe, a DNA-based ancestry website worth $1billion.
She is also the sister of Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of YouTube and recently made headlines for her unlikely romance with former baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez.
ADVERTISEMENT

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5587857/US-congressman-pulls-loaded-gun-constituent-meeting.html

[size=34]'Whoever shoots me better shoot well or I'm shooting back': Republican congressman pulls loaded gun at constituent meeting and says he's 'no Gabby Giffords'[/size]

• US House Rep Ralph Norman is a conservative Republican from South Carolina
  
  
• On Friday, he held a meeting with gun control activists in a South Carolina diner
  
  
• During the meeting, he pulled out a loaded pistol and put it on a table
  
  
• Norman said it was to prove that guns are not responsible for violence
  
  
• 'I'm not going to be a Gabby Giffords,' the 64-year-old lawmaker said
  
  
• Giffords is the ex-congresswoman who was shot in Arizona in 2011
  
  
• Her husband, ex-astronaut Mark Kelly, took exception to Norman's comments 
  
  

By AFP
PUBLISHED: 18:47 EDT, 6 April 2018 | UPDATED: 00:17 EDT, 7 April 2018

    

A US congressman said he pulled out a loaded Smith & Wesson pistol during a meeting with gun control activists Friday in a bid to prove that firearms are not responsible for violence.
House Republican Ralph Norman of South Carolina drew the handgun and placed it on a table while at a 'Coffee With Your Congressman' event at a diner.
Norman said it was an attempt to convey that guns are only dangerous if in the wrong hands, the lawmaker told The Post and Courier newspaper.
'I'm not going to be a Gabby Giffords,' said Norman, 64, referring to the former congresswoman from Arizona who was shot in the head during a meet-and-greet outside a grocery store in 2011.


+4



House Republican Ralph Norman of South Carolina (seen far right with wife Elaine and House Speaker Paul Ryan in June 2017) said he pulled out a loaded pistol during a meeting with gun control activists Friday in a bid to prove that firearms are not responsible for violence


+4


'I'm not going to be a Gabby Giffords,' said Norman, 64, referring to the former congresswoman from Arizona who was shot in the head during a meet-and-greet outside a grocery store in 2011


+4


Giffords was gravely wounded in that attack. She survived and became a prominent gun safety advocate
Giffords was gravely wounded in that attack. 

She survived and became a prominent gun safety advocate. 
Both Giffords and her husband, retired NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, are longtime gun owners.



'Americans are increasingly faced with a stark choice: leaders like Gabby, who work hard together to find solutions to problems, or extremists like the NRA and Congressman Norman, who rely on intimidation tactics and perpetuating fear,' Kelly said in a statement.
'If we want to protect our kids and communities, Congress must get serious about passing safer gun laws. For our kids' sake, let's show our leaders we expect them to behave more like Gabby and less like Congressman Norman.'


+4


Mark Kelly (left) and his wife, Giffords, attend the March For Our Lives on March 24, 2018 in Washington. Kelly released a statement denouncing Norman for being an 'extremist' who 'relies on intimidation tactics and perpetuating fear'
The paper said Norman also claimed: 'I don't mind dying... But whoever shoots me better shoot well or I'm shooting back.'
Norman's indelicate reference to Giffords appeared to suggest that her debilitating injury was in some way due to her not being adequately armed.
The congressman later issued a statement saying he is a concealed carry permit holder and regularly brings his gun with him when in public.
'Mental health, and more importantly, a lack of morality is the driving force behind this epidemic. Guns are not the problem,' he said, adding that he had responded appropriately to questions by 'a group of organized anti-gun activists.'
The incident came as Americans debate the prospect of Congress passing new gun safety laws in the wake of several mass shootings, including a February massacre at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead.
Last year during his unsuccessful US Senate campaign, former judge Roy Moore of Alabama drew a pistol from his pocket while on stage at a rally as a way to show the Republican candidate's commitment to the constitutional right to bear arms.

So..........He needed a gun to protect himself in a meeting with people who don't believe in carrying guns? Schmuck!

There are quite a few idiotic and ignorant people in our country and so no surprise that some of them end up being elected officials.

Some???????

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5589469/Department-Homeland-Security-compiling-database-journalists-influencers-monitoring.html

[size=34]Department of Homeland Security is compiling a database of journalists and influencers for 'media monitoring'[/size]

• The Department of Homeland Security posted a contract request seeking a company to help with 'media monitoring services'
  
  
• The department said it wants to monitor more than 290,000 news sources including online, print, broadcast, cable, radio, trade and industry publications 
  
  
• DHS press secretary Tyler Houlton tweeted that it was a normal process to monitor current events 
  
  

By MINYVONNE BURKE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 12:21 EDT, 7 April 2018 | UPDATED: 14:24 EDT, 7 April 2018

    

The Department of Homeland Security wants to compile a database that would contain the information of hundreds of thousands of journalists, editors, bloggers and other media influencers, a contract request by the department reveals.    
On April 3, a DHS request surfaced on FedBizOpps.gov saying the department was seeking 'media monitoring services'.  
According to the posting, the NPPD/OUS (National Protection and Programs Acquisition Division/Office of the Under Secretary) want 'to monitor traditional news sources as well as social media, identify any and all media coverage related to the Department of Homeland Security or a particular event.'


+4


Department of Homeland Security is compiling a database of hundreds of thousands of journalists and media influencers 


+4


DHS posted a contract request seeking 'media monitoring services' and wants to track more than 290,000 news sources including online, print, broadcast, cable, radio, trade and industry publications
The request said NPPD 'has a critical need to incorporate these functions into their programs in order to better reach Federal, state, local, tribal and private partners.'

 The document also states that the NPPD's mission is to 'protect and enhance the resilience of the nation's physical and cyberinfrastructure'.
DHS said the successful contracting company should be able to track more than 290,000 global news sources as well as social media in over 100 languages, including Arabic, Chinese and Russian, for instant translation into English. 
According to Bloomberg Law, the list will include journalists, correspondents, social media influencers and bloggers and will monitor online, print and broadcast outlets as well as cable, radio, trade and industry publications.    
The department also requested that the database is browsable by 'location, beat and type of influencer' and for each influencer, the contractor should 'present contact details and otherinformation that could be relevant, including publications this influencer writes for, and an overview of the previous coverage published by media influencer.' 

• re
  
  

+4


DHS press secretary Tyler Houlton tweeted that it was a normal process to monitor current events


+4


The request comes as president Donald Trump continues to attack media labeling stories about him and his presidency as 'fake news'
The DHS request has drawn some criticism and panic but department press secretary Tyler Houlton tweeted that it was a normal process to monitor current events. 
'Despite what some reporters may suggest, this is nothing more than the standard practice of monitoring current events in the media. Any suggestion otherwise is fit for tin foil heat wearing, black helicopter conspiracy theorists,' he posted. 
The request comes as president Donald Trump continues to attack media labeling stories about him and his presidency as 'fake news'.

I don’t know what to make of this story.  The fact that Trump and his peeps have attacked so many of our institutions since taking office I question absolutely everything they are doing.  I’ve never heard of the government involved in media monitoring services.  Maybe it’s legitimate.  But when we have a man in the highest position in our government attacking the media on a daily basis and who seems to have clout with dubious media companies (like Sinclair and Fox News)
it’s a red flag IMO.

If it's just a question of tracking what appears in the media, that's fine. It's in the public domain. If they want to extend it to monitoring internal and private correspondence, IMO it becomes a violation of the First Amendment - unless they have a warrant - and a damned good reason to have one.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5590339/Trump-blasts-Justice-Department-not-releasing-Hillary-Clinton-documents.html



[size=34]Trump blasts Justice Department for not releasing documents on Hillary Clinton and FISA and demands to know what the FBI and Justice Department are 'HIDING' from him
[/size]

• President Donald Trump hits out at Justice Department and the FBI
  
  
• He accused agency of having 'something to hide'
  
  
• Republicans want DOJ documents related to investigations of Hillary Clinton 
  
  
• GOP Intelligence chair Rep. Devin Nunes wants the full un-redacted memo that kicked off the Russia probe 
  
  

By ARIEL ZILBER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 20:17 EDT, 7 April 2018 | UPDATED: 20:17 EDT, 7 April 2018


    


President Donald Trump has again accused his own Justice Department and the FBI of 'having something to hide' by missing the deadline to turn over documents related to the Russia investigation and Hillary Clinton.
'Lawmakers of the House Judiciary Committee are angrily accusing the Department of Justice of missing the Thursday Deadline for turning over UNREDACTED Documents relating to FISA abuse, FBI, Comey, Lynch, McCabe, Clinton Emails and much more,' the president tweeted on Saturday.
'Slow walking - what is going on? BAD!'
Trump then tweeted: 'What does the Department of Justice and FBI have to hide?

'Why aren't they giving the strongly requested documents (unredacted) to the HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE?
'Stalling, but for what reason? Not looking good!' 


+10


President Donald Trump has again accused his own Justice Department and the FBI of 'having something to hide' by missing the deadline to turn over documents related to the Russia investigation


+10


Trump was referring to the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's subpoenaing of documents from the Justice Department as part of the panel's probe into Clinton.
Rep. Robert Goodlatte of Virginia has demanded more than a million documents from the department as it examines the agency's 2016 investigation into Clinton's private email server. 
He is also demanding documents related to the firing of former deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who was dismissed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month.
Sessions said he fire McCabe on the recommendation of FBI disciplinary officials who argued that McCabe had not been candid with a watchdog office investigation.
An upcoming inspector general's report is expected to conclude that McCabe had authorized the release of information to the media and was not forthcoming with the watchdog office as it examined the bureau's handling of an investigation into Clinton's emails.
Goodlatte said he'd only received 'a few thousand' of the 1.2 million documents he had requested in that investigation.
'Given the Department's ongoing delays in producing these documents, I am left with no choice but to issue the enclosed subpoena to compel production of these documents,' Goodlatte said in a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.


+10


Trump was referring to Rep. Robert Goodlatte (above), the GOP chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who subpoenaed documents from the Justice Department as part of the panel's probe into Democrat Hillary Clinton
Separately, Goodlatte is asking for documents related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. 
Republicans have been critical of the department's use of the secret surveillance court authorized in that act and a warrant to monitor a former campaign adviser to Trump.
Goodlatte said he had asked for those documents in February and had not received any.
In a statement responding to the subpoena, Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior said the department takes the request seriously and is 'committed to accommodating' the request. 
Prior said that more than two dozen FBI staff have been working on producing the documents, and they are reviewing them for sensitive information.
'The original universe of documents requested was substantial, but there are approximately 30,000 documents thought to be responsive to the committee's inquiry,' said Prior. 


+10


Former Secretary of State and former First Lady Hillary Clinton speaks at Rutgers University on March 29. The Republican head of the House Judiciary Committee wants to see documents related to the investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server
'Of that, we have thus far delivered 3,000 documents to the committee.'
The request for more information on Clinton comes on the same day that Republicans on the House intelligence committee shut down their investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, concluding that Trump's campaign did not conspire with Russia.
Last week, House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes also demanded the Justice Department hand over a fully, un-redacted version of the memo that kicked off the original FBI Russia probe.
He is threatening 'all appropriate legal remedies' to get what he wants.  
The agency has turned over a version of the memo to panel investigators, but has blocked out portions, the Republican chairman complains in a letter. 
He is threatening to issue subpoenas if his committee doesn't get the records it wants by next week.
The memo may have been drafted by FBI agent Peter Strzok, one of the pair of FBI lovers who was reassigned after he was revealed to have penned anti-Trump texts to agent Lisa Page, Fox News reported.  


+10


House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is demanding more information from the Justice Department about the start of the Russia probe


+10


Nunes wrote Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, above, demanding full access to the memo that kicked off the FBI's Russia probe
'On March 14th, 2018, Committee investigators were given access to a still heavily redacted version of the EC (FBI memo known as an electronic communication), which — as I informed Director Wray the next day via phone — was unsatisfactory,' Nunes wrote deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The version the 2016 FBI memo given to the committee is 'unsatisfactory,' Nunes wrote. 
He is also demanding access to copies of the original Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants used to gain information about former Trump advisor Carter Page, who drew attention due to his Russia contacts.


+10


House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes led his Republican colleagues in a party-line vote last month to shutter their probe into allegations of Trump campaign collusion with Russia. Now he is demanding access to documents that started the FBI's probe


+10


Trump boards Air Force One on a windy day at Andrews Air Force base on April 5, 2018 near Washington, DC. The House GOP Intelligence panel chair wants access to the documents that kicked off the Russia probe


+10


The president tweeted out findings of the GOP-run panel last month after it ended its Russia probe


+10


Nunes also wants to see FISA warrants for former Trump advisor Carter Page
Nunes also brandished a legal threat. 
''Be advised that failure to comply in a satisfactory manner will result in the Committee pursuing all appropriate legal remedies, including seeking civil enforcement of the August 24 subpoenas in federal district court,' he wrote. 
At its outset the memo references a previous meeting where Wray and Rosenstein 'expressed a desire to restore a constructive relationship with the Committee, and specifically asked that we seek to proceed on a more informal basis.'
It references a phone call Nunes made to Wray seeking a redaction-free document, then sets a hard deadline with the threat of legal action.
The pressure follows several developments in special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, including a report that Trump is a subject, though not a target of the probe. 
 President Trump has repeatedly labeled the Mueller probe, which had its origins in the 2016 investigation, as a 'witch hunt.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5589383/John-Barrowman-launches-FURIOUS-rant-Target-staff-lecture-helping-homeless-man.html

[size=34]John Barrowman vs Target: Actor films FURIOUS rant at retail giant after shop staff 'lecture' him for buying homeless man clothes and a $40 gift certificate[/size]

• Actor John Barrowman posted the rant on Twitter on Thursday evening
  
  
• Said staff at West Hollywood Target scolded him for helping homeless man
  
  
• Target apologized to Barrowman and said it will address incident with staff
  
  
• LA has seen a massive 75% surge in homeless population over past six years
  
  

By ANDREW BULLOCK FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 11:49 EDT, 7 April 2018 | UPDATED: 18:25 EDT, 7 April 2018

    



Actor John Barrowman took to his Twitter account on Thursday evening to launch an angry tirade aimed at retail giant Target.
The Desperate Housewives star claimed in the filmed rant that staff at the store in West Hollywood scolded him for purchasing clothing and a $40 gift certificate to give to a homeless man outside.
'I just bought a $40 gift certificate and a jacket and a shirt for a homeless person, and I was just lectured by the Target staff that I was not allowed to do that,' Barrowman said in the minute-long video, which was viewed more than 188,000 times. 
The 51-year-old performer continued his rant standing on the sidewalk outside the store on on Santa Monica Boulevard.







'Target, that’s a stupid rule. How dare you tell me, as a customer, who I am allowed to buy for, and what I am allowed to buy,' Barrowman said. 
Continuing his rant to his 497,000 followers, the Arrow actor went on: 'It’s absolutely ridiculous and every customer behind me thought it was ridiculous also.
'That gentleman just needed a bit of help to get him up, to make his day a little better, and Target, you were trying to deny that, so I’m a little p***ed off with you right now.'
Barrowman tagged the official Target account in his post, who replied swiftly to apologize and tell him they were going to investigate.
They have since released a statement. It read: 'We’re very sorry for the experience you had at the LA Target store.


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Fuming: In the minute-long video - which has at the time of this story's publication had 176k views, 832 comments, 4,957 retweets and 10k likes - Barrowman stands outside the store on on Santa Monica Blvd (pictured)


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'Disgusted!' Continuing his rant to his 497,000 followers, the Arrow actor went on to say 'it’s absolutely ridiculous and every customer behind me thought it was ridiculous also'


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Going viral: Barrowman tagged the official Target account in his post, who replied swiftly to apologise and tell him they were going to investigate
'We absolutely do not have a policy against this type of purchase, and are addressing it immediately with the team members involved.
'Thank you for bringing this to our attention.'
The homeless population in Los Angeles has surged more than 75 per cent in the past six years, as California grapples with a homelessness crisis.
Official estimates of the city's homeless population run about 60,000, but outreach workers say the true number is even higher.
In Barrowman's initial tweet, he captioned the video: 'I am disgusted by what I was told. Arrest me for trying to help someone. The stupidity behind that rule. I want an explanation. My fans and followers please message #Target regarding this. JB.'
And indeed, his fan-base chimed in, praising the star for taking on the retail chain.


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In the normally jovial actor's initial tweet, he captioned the video: 'I am disgusted by what I was told. Arrest me for trying to help someone. The stupidity behind that rule. I want an explanation. My fans and followers please message #Target regarding this. JB'


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High praise: 'Well done John, what a disgrace, where is compassion in this world, looks like common sense is not on targets agenda [sic],' one person posted in reply to his rant


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Barrowman is pictured as Patrick in the set of ABC's Desperate Housewives
'Well done John, what a disgrace, where is compassion in this world, looks like common sense is not on targets agenda [sic],' one person posted.
Another replied: 'That is awful!!!!! You have every right to purchase whatever you want for whomever you want! Thank you for being a kind human being!!! [sic]'
Another sympathised with the homeless man Barrowman helped out: 'This is why I love you, John. Your heart is huge. From someone who’s been there, thank you for helping that man. [sic]'
Target has stores across the US at 1,828 locations [as of 2017] and invested a massive $7billion in its shops, a revamped digital strategy and private label pushing since 2015.
In 2017, Target returned $591million to shareholders in the fourth quarter through dividends and share repurchases, bringing the total to $2.4 billion for full-year. 


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'This is why I love you, John. Your heart is huge. From someone who’s been there, thank you for helping that man. [sic]' one fan told Barrowman


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'That is awful! You have every right to purchase whatever you want for whomever you want! Thank you for being a kind human being!!' another fan told the Desperate Housewives star


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Official estimates of the city's homeless population run about 60,000, but outreach workers say the true number is even higher. Barrowman is pictured in the Desperate Housewives set

[size=34]Target's Previous Controversies [/size]

John Barrowman's encounter with the store is not the first time the US retail giant has come under fire.
LGBTQ Issues
In 2011, Lady Gaga discovered that the former Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel donated to a political action group that supported an anti-gay candidate.
She had been expected to provide the company with an exclusive expanded edition of her album at the time, Born This Way. But her discovery made her pull out of the arrangement. 
Target issued an apology and the following year began stocking gay pride merchandise and donating profits to LGBTQ charities and organisations.
They have since gone above and beyond to support gay rights, featuring LGBTQ individuals and couples in national advertising and launching a #takepride campaign in 2014. They have also been the presenting sponsor of GLAAD's Spirit Day and were ranked by LGBTQ Consumers as a favourite brand in 2016 & 2017.
Bathroom Policy and AFA Boycott 
Target's activism where LGBTQ customers were concerned led them to announce in April 2016 tha it would allow transgender customers and employees access to use restrooms and changing areas that correspond with the gender with which they identify.
Despite being branded 'the most prominent position taken by a national retailer' by the New York Times, the American Family Association (AFA) launched a nationwide boycott.
Over one million people had signed the AFA's petition by the end of the month and it was suggest that this was a major reason for Target's drop in shopper traffic during the second quarter of 2016.
Later that summer, Target announced it would add a third, private, single-stall locking bathroom at many of its stores which cost the business $20million and caused sales to fall nearly 6 percent in the three quarters following.
Animal Welfare 
In 2011, Mercy for Animals reported animal abuse at a Target egg supplier.
Hidden-camera footage shot at Sparboe Farms revealed hens were being kept in unsanitary conditions, killed inhumanely and left to rot next to living chickens that were laying eggs for human consumption.
The investigation received international media attention and Target immediately discontinued its relationship with the company. It pledges to become cage-free by 2025.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5590101/Fire-breaks-50th-floor-Trump-Tower-Manhattan.html

So does this mean that no other Trump buildings have sprinkler systems either?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5590101/Fire-breaks-50th-floor-Trump-Tower-Manhattan.html

[size=38]Prominent art dealer, 67, dies and six firefighters are hurt as huge blaze engulfs 50th floor Trump Tower apartment which had NO sprinklers, as President tweets it was 'well built' but fails to mention victims[/size]

• Fire broke out just before 6pm at Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan  
  
  
• The fire erupted on the 50th floor and was a fourth alarm with well over 200 firefighters and EMS personnel on the scene, the original call about the fire came in at 5:30pm
  
  
• Incredible footage shows flames exploding through several windows with debris bursting out of the building and onto the street below 
  
  
• Todd Brassner, 67, who was in the apartment where the fire started succumbed to his injuries after being transported to Mount Sinai Roosevelt Hospital in critical
  
  
• Brassner was a prominent art dealer who was close friends with Andy Warhol and was mentioned several times in his autopbiography
  
  
• In 2015, Brassner filed for bankruptcy with his Trump Tower apartment being listed as worth $2.5million 
  
  
• Six firefighters also sustained non-life threatening injuries 
  
  
• During a press conference FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said 'the apartment was virtually, entirely on fire' when they arrived 
  
  
• The First Lady and their son Barron are currently in Washington DC
  
  
• The President is also currently in Washington DC as well, tweeting at 6:42pm local time that the fire was 'confined'
  
  
• The fire was officially listed under under control by the FDNY around 7:45pm 
  
  

By JESSICA FINN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 
PUBLISHED: 18:21 EDT, 7 April 2018 | UPDATED: 05:34 EDT, 8 April 2018

    


A fire at Donald Trump's New York skyscraper has killed one man and left four firefighters injured.
Todd Brassner, 67, who was in apartment 50C on the 50th floor of Trump Tower, in Manhattan, died in hospital after the unit was engulfed by the blaze. 
Brassner was an art dealer who had purchased his 50th-floor unit in 1996. He was friends with Andy Warhol, and is mentioned multiple times in Warhol's autobiography. 
The deceased tenant of the posh Trump Tower pad filed for bankruptcy in 2015. In the bankruptcy filing it says the apartment he lived is worth $2.5million.

'The limited support of his family coupled with his medical problems caused the debtor to fall into arrears on his mortgage, credit card payments and line of credit payments,' says the filing. 
Flames and thick black smoke were seen coming from windows of the building, where the president has a residence, on Saturday evening.
Some 200 firefighters and members of the emergency services rushed to the scene on Fifth Avenue while the New York Police Department closed surrounding roads.
The fire broke out shortly before 6pm local time, filling floors of the 58-storey building with a 'considerable' amount of smoke, The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) said.


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The fire wrapped around the 50th floor and angled out through several windows in Trump Tower, the New York City home base of the president, in Midtown Manhattan Saturday


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The massive blaze shot out several windows on the 50 floor with flames licking out into the sky of Trump Tower on Saturday


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Todd Brassner (pictured right, left) was the 67-year-old resident who died in the fire in his apartment. He was a prominent art dealer, and close friends with famed artist Andy Warhol. He had filed for bankruptcy in 2015 with his apartment listed at $2.5million 
Around 45 minutes later - before the fatality had been publicly announced - Mr Trump took to Twitter to praise firefighters for their response, saying they had extinguished the blaze.
Trump, who made his fortune in property, also attributed the construction of his eponymous tower to the fire's limited spread.
'Fire at Trump Tower is out. Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!' he wrote on Twitter.  
Asked if that assessment was accurate, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said, 'It's a well-built building. The upper floors, the residence floors, are not sprinklered.'
Nigro said four firefighters suffered 'non-life-threatening injuries' in the blaze - the cause of which is not yet known.



'We found fire on the 50th floor of the building. The apartment was entirely on fire. Members pushed in heroically, they were knocking down the fire and found one occupant of the apartment,' he said in comments posted by the FDNY on Twitter.
'This was a very difficult fire. As you can imagine, the apartment is quite large, we are 50 stories up.
'The rest of the building had a considerable amount of smoke. 200 Firefighters and EMS (emergency medical services) members are on scene.
'We had many floors to search, and stairways.'
During the incident, Mr Trump was in Washington DC, where he was seen at the luxury Trump International Hotel.
As well as his luxury residence, Trump Tower also contains offices of the Trump family business.
His son, Eric Trump, tweeted: 'Thank you to the amazing men and women of the NYFD who extinguished a fire in a residential apartment at @TrumpTower. The @FDNY and @NYPD are truly some of the most incredible people anywhere!'
Opened in 1983, the mixed-use skyscraper is a jewel in The Trump Organisation's real estate portfolio that includes high-end properties, hotels and golf courses. 


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A fire broke out at Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan on the 50th floor on Saturday around 5:30pm. The FDNY says it was a fourth alarm with well over 200 fire fighters responding


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A firefighter is seen in the blown out window in the 50 story apartment where the blaze erupted Saturday at Trump Tower


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President Donald Trump was in DC when they fire broke out at his New York home base. He headed out with First Lady Melania Saturday evening to the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC for dinner following the fire 


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The First Lady joined the president for the evening in DC after the fire broke out at their New York home base Saturday to spend time at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC


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Trump and Melania leave dinner at the at Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC on Saturday evening after the fire at Trump Tower in New York 


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Trump and the First Lady leave dinner at Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC after Saturday evening's blaze at Trump Tower in New York City 


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Water is seeing spurting out the window as firefighters battled the massive blaze at Trump Tower on the 50th floor on Saturday


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The massive response by the FDNY and first responders saw the streets shut down around Trump Tower Saturday as they battled the inferno that started on the 50 floor


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NYPD officers and first responders asses the scene of a fire at Trump Tower on April 7, 2018 in New York City 


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FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro gave updates at the scene explaining the difficult blaze






Fire sprinklers were not required in New York City highrises when Trump Tower was completed in 1983.
Hours later, the president made no mention of the deceased resident on his Twitter. 
Subsequent updates to the building code required commercial skyscrapers to install the sprinklers retroactively, but owners of older residential highrises are not required to install sprinklers unless the building undergoes major renovations. 
Some fire-safety advocates pushed for a requirement that older apartment buildings be retrofitted with sprinklers when New York City passed a law requiring them in new residential highrises in 1999, but officials in the administration of then-mayor Rudy Giuliani said that would be too expensive. 
'They were knocking down the fire, they found one occupant,' Nigro said. 
'This was a very difficult fire. As you can imagine, the apartment is quite large, we are 50 stories up. The rest of the building had a considerable amount of smoke. 200 Firefighters and EMS members are on scene.'
'We found fire on the 50th floor of the building. The apartment was entirely on fire. Members pushed in heroically, they were knocking down the fire,' Nigro added. 
The FDNY had to search several floors because of the smoke condition above the 50 floor. 
The fire was finally declared under control at around 7:45pm.  
Melania Trump and the couple's son, Barron Trump, are both in Washington, D.C., according to the first lady's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham.  


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Debris rained down onto the street during the fire at Trump Tower in New York on Saturday after a massive blaze broke out on the 50 floor 


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The gutted out windows seen here where the fire started on Saturday. The FDNY said the apartment was completely engulfed in flames when they arrived


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Thick black smoke filled the the air above the blaze and settled onto 5th Avenue Saturday


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Well over 200 firefighters were responding to the scene at the explosive fire inside the president's Manhattan residence in Midtown Manhattan


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Some notable residents of Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan

Donald Trump, Floors 66 through 68
The president occupies the penthouse sprawling over the top two floors of Trump Town in Midtown Manhattan in his namesake tower
Guido Lombardi, Floors 62 through 63 
Real estate investor Guido Lombardi is a self-proclaimed Italian count, as well as a Trump supporter, and sympathizer
Helly Nahmad, Floor 51 
Art dealer Hillel Nahmad, of the Nahmad collecting dynasty, has been snatching up apartments on the 51st floor of Trump Tower since at least 1999, when he paid $2.5 million for Unit 51J. He would be the occupant just above the floor where the fire broke out and his sprawling pad was surely overcome with smoke during Saturday's fire 
Ernie Garcia, Floors 48 through 49  
The chairman of used car dealer DriveTime currently takes up residence in the tower. His apartment could potentially have water damage considering the massive response and water used to put out the fire on the 50 floor
Paul Manafort, Floor 43 
Trump's former campaign manager, who resigned in August, has lived in Trump Tower since 2006. Manafort transferred the apartment from an LLC to his name in 2015
Dennis Shields, Floor 42
The banker, and some-time boyfriend of Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel said he was alerted to evacuate Trump Tower from his childhood friend- the president's personal attorney Michael Cohen  
Jose Maria Marin, Floor 41 
For the people that did self evacuate, Marin may not have been one of them as he is currently serving house arrest. Marin, a former administrator of the Brazilian Football Confederation who's serving a sentence in connection with bribery charges stemming from the FIFA crisis, to which he plead guilty
Susetta Mion, Floor 32 
Ivana Trump's pal Susetta Mion, of the Italian fashion family, has been shacked up in a Trump Tower pad after allegedly looting her mother's bank accounts and possessions
Juan Beckmann Vidal, Floor 31 
Vidal's name is not as well known as the liquor brand he controls: Jose Cuervo. The tequila bigwig owns three apartments in the building
Source: Curbed New York 




The president is also in Washington D.C. 
The president and the First Lady went to dinner at Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC Saturday evening after the fire erupted at the home base in New York. 
At least five fire trucks were seen responding to the fire on Fifth Avenue. 
Trump has an office and home in the building. 
The 664-foot Trump Tower has 58 stories, though the top floor is numbered 68.
Nigro said Secret Service members checked on the condition of Trump's apartment.
Eric Trump also took to Twitter: 'Thank you to the amazing men and women of the NYFD who extinguished a fire in a residential apartment at @TrumpTower. The @FDNY and @NYPD are truly some of the most incredible people anywhere!' 
In addition to the president's penthouse, Trump Tower houses the headquarters of the Trump Organization as well as other residences, offices and stores.
 The headquarters of the Trump Organization is on the 26th floor. 
Nigro noted that no member of the Trump family was in the 664-foot tower Saturday.
Trump's family has spent little time in New York since taking office.While the building was not evacuated some people chose to self-evacuate.
The streets around Trump Tower are closed on 5th Avenue between East 55th Street and East 57th Street. West 56th Street is closed from 5th Avenue to Madison Avenue.
The FDNY called this a mass emergency response and sent dozens of firetrucks to the 58 story skyscraper.
Lalitha Masson, a 76-year-old 36th-floor resident, told the New York Postthe blaze was frightening.
'We're terrified. It was a very horrible experience, there was no evacuation system in place, we were at a loss of what to do. I almost fainted, I thought we would die,' she said.
'This looks similar to when 9/11 took place. My husband is disabled and we were helpless. All we could do is put wet towels under the door and pray.'
Incredibly Masson says she learned about the fire on the television from inside her 36th floor apartment.
'When I saw the television, I thought we were finished,' Masson told the New York Times. Her husband, Narinder, who is 79 has Parkinson's disease. 
'I started praying That this was our end. I called my oldest son and said goodbye to him because the way it looked everything was falling out of the window, and it reminded me of 9/11.'
She said she never received an announcement to leave, and added that when she called the front desk no one answered.
One person was given a heads up to get out of the building however, and the alert did not come from building management. 
Dennis Shields, who dates Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel, said he was alerted to leave the building by Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen.
Shields, who said he grew up with Cohen said: 'He said, 'Are you in the building?' I said, 'Yes.' He said, 'You better get out ASAP.' That's how I knew to get out, otherwise I'd still be in there.'
'You could smell the smoke and you could hear things falling like through the vents,' he said. 'It just smelled like sulfur.'
Shields added there were no official orders to evacuate.
Meanwhile an employee from the Gucci store all the way below on the ground floor said he could smell smoke.
'We smelled smoke coming through the vents, our clients and personnel were evacuated,' he said.
'We were assured they had it under control and it was precautionary. Definitely a noticeable smell [of smoke] coming through the vents.'  


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The massive response at Trump Tower called for well over 200 firefighters battling the blaze that erupted at 6pm


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Streets were closed in the area as the FDNY battled the enormous blaze that erupted in the New York City home base of the president around 6pm


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People in the streets stopped to watch the flames exploding through the windows at Trump Tower on Saturday 


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People on the streets of New York stopped to capture the incredible scene at the president's Manhattan residence

[size=18]Firetrucks flood NYC streets as fire breaks out at Trump Tower

L[/size]



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Circa 1980: People riding the escalators inside Trump Tower, New York City in the glittering interior of the president's New York City headquarters where a fatal fire broke out Saturday 


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Trump Tower boasts high end luxury. However residents complained they were not alerted to evacuate during Saturday's deadly blaze on the 50 floor 


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The FDNY said the interior of apartment 50C was massive which made fighting the fire more difficult 


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A lack of sprinklers on the floor where the fire erupted Saturday also contributed to the dangerous condition 


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The luxury apartments at Trump Tower are home to some of New York City's wealthiest elite who say they were not giving an evacuation plan and could not reach the front desk when the fire erupted Saturday 
There was a minor fire just three months ago in a cooling tower on the roof of the Midtown skyscraper, in which two people suffered minor injuries. 
'We had one minor injury to a firefighter, some debris fell on him,' FDNY Chief Roger Sakowich said at the time. 'We had one engineer that got up there with a fire extinguisher and breathed in some of the smoke, but he's refused medical.' 
The high-rise houses both residences and businesses. 

[size=34]REVEALED: Trump Tower blaze victim was an art dealer who was friends with Andy Warhol but had filed for bankruptcy and was in arrears with the mortgage on his $2.5m apartment [/size]

Todd Brassner was the 67-year-old art dealer who died in Saturday's Trump Tower inferno. He was close friends with Andy Warhol, and had fallen on hard times, filing for bankruptcy in 2015. 
Brassner was found unconscious Saturday inside his sprawling 50th floor apartment that FDNY Commissioner Dan Nigro described as completely engulfed in flames. 
Brassner was mentioned multiple times in Warhol's autobiography, according to the New York Daily News.
Warhol said he and Brassner grabbed lunch together at a Warhol's factory on Broadway in December 1976. 
Several months later, Brassner called Warhol to tell him that he just saw Muhammad Ali in the Polo Lounge, according to 'The Andy Warhol Diaries.'


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Todd Brassner (pictured) was the 67-year-old resident who died in the fire in his apartment at Trump Towers He was a prominent art dealer, and close friends with Andy Warhol


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Brassner and Andy Warhol were close friends, and the art dealer had sold a self portrait of the artist in 2007 
Brassner and Warhol did several sales together of the artist's famed pop-art, including a 1967 self-portrait that went for $601,000 in 2007. 
Brassner owned a 1978 Marilyn Monroe print by Warhol that the artist inscribed 'to Todd.'
However, Brassner had filed for bankrupcy in  2015 after dealing with a series of issues that caused him to fall in arrears on his mortgage.  
The president tweeted a thank you to first responders on Saturday shortly after the fire started, praising the intergrity of his building. 
'Fire at Trump Tower is out. Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!' 

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Trump continued to tweet through the evening, but never referenced the fire, or the tenant of the Trump Organization that had died in the blaze. 
The FDNY tells DailyMail.com six firefighters also sustained non-life threatening injuries.
During a press conference at the scene, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said 'the apartment was virtually, entirely on fire' when firefighters arrived. 
When asked if the president's assessment of the building being well built was accurate, Nigro said, 'It's a well built building. The upper floors, the residence floors, are not sprinklered.'
Fire sprinklers were not required in New York City highrises when Trump Tower was completed in 1983.
Subsequent updates to the building code required commercial skyscrapers to install the sprinklers retroactively, but owners of older residential highrises are not required to install sprinklers unless the building undergoes major renovations. 


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Brassner had filed for bankruptcy in 2015 with his apartment listed at $2.5million and was unable to keep up with his mortgage, despite a lucrative career as an art dealer and working closely with Andy Warhol 


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The fire wrapped around the 50th floor and angled out through several windows in Trump Tower, the New York City home base of the president, in Midtown Manhattan Saturday


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A firefighter is seen in the blown out window in Brassner's apartment, 50C, where the blaze erupted Saturday at Trump Tower


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The view from Brassner's window as posted by the art dealer to his Facebook page in 2016
'They were knocking down the fire, they found one occupant,' Nigro said.
'This was a very difficult fire. As you can imagine, the apartment is quite large, we are 50 stories up. The rest of the building had a considerable amount of smoke. 200 Firefighters and EMS members are on scene.'
'We found fire on the 50th floor of the building. The apartment was entirely on fire. Members pushed in heroically, they were knocking down the fire,' Nigro added. 
The FDNY had to search several floors because of the smoke condition above the 50 floor. 
The fire was finally declared under control at around 7:45pm.  
 
 
 

[size=34]'You better get out ASAP': President's lawyer told Bethenny Frankel's partner to evacuate Trump Tower as fatal fire raged - but other residents are angry they were left in the dark [/size]

Some residents of Trump Tower only learned about the blazing inferno just floors away on television, meanwhile resident Dennis Shields got a phone call from the president's lawyer to get out ASAP. 
Shields, who lives on the 42nd floor, and is Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel's on-again-off-again boyfriend, said he was alerted to leave the building by Donald Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
Shields, who said he grew up with Cohen, said the lawyer at the heart of the Stormy Daniels saga called him personally. 
'He said, ''Are you in the building?'' I said, ''Yes.'' He said, ''You better get out ASAP.'' That's how I knew to get out, otherwise I'd still be in there.'
'You could smell the smoke and you could hear things falling like through the vents,' he said. 'It just smelled like sulfur,' Shields continued to the New York Times.  


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Bethenny Frankel's sometimes boyfriend, Dennis Shields (pictured together) said he received a call from president Trump's personal attorney to evacuate the building 'ASAP' 


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Shields said he and Trump's attorney Michael Cohen (pictured) are childhood friends and that he was told to get out of the building by Cohen when the fire erupted in Trump Tower Saturday


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The FDNY received the call about the fire around 5:30pm on Saturday on the 50th floor of Trump Tower where residents complained they were not given evacuation instructions 
Shields added there were no official orders to evacuate. 
While the building was not evacuated some people chose to self-evacuate, however not everyone was able to do so.  
Lalitha Masson, a 76-year-old 36th-floor resident, told the New York Post she learned about the fire on the television from inside her 36th floor apartment.
'We're terrified. It was a very horrible experience, there was no evacuation system in place, we were at a loss of what to do. I almost fainted, I thought we would die,' she said.
'This looks similar to when 9/11 took place. My husband is disabled and we were helpless. All we could do is put wet towels under the door and pray.' 

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Her husband, Narinder, who is 79, has Parkinson's disease. 
'When I saw the television, I thought we were finished,' said Masson added to the New York Times.
'I started praying That this was our end. I called my oldest son and said goodbye to him because the way it looked everything was falling out of the window, and it reminded me of 9/11.'


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The massive blaze shot out several windows on the 50 floor with flames licking out into the sky of Trump Tower on Saturday


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Bethenny's boyfriend had his own 'in' who alerted him to evacuate Trump Tower on Saturday when the president's personal attorney called to tell him to evacuate 
She said she never got an announcement to leave, and that when she called the front desk no one answered.  
Meanwhile an employee from the Gucci store all the way below on the ground floor said he could smell smoke.
'We smelled smoke coming through the vents, our clients and personnel were evacuated,' he said.
'We were assured they had it under control and it was precautionary. Definitely a noticeable smell [of smoke] coming through the vents.' 
The blaze broke out on the 50th floor of the tower around 5:30pm. Thick black smoke billowed out from Trump Tower as burning debris fell onto Fifth Avenue.  
Todd Brassner, 67, was in his apartment where the fire started. He died after being transported to Mount Sinai Roosevelt Hospital in critical condition, an NYPD source told DailyMail.com. He was residing in apartment 50C.
Six firefighters also sustained non-life threatening injuries.
During a press conference at the scene, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said 'the apartment was virtually, entirely on fire' when firefighters arrived.
'They were knocking down the fire, they found one occupant,' Nigro said.
'This was a very difficult fire. As you can imagine, the apartment is quite large, we are 50 stories up. The rest of the building had a considerable amount of smoke. 200 Firefighters and EMS members are on scene.'
'We found fire on the 50th floor of the building. The apartment was entirely on fire. Members pushed in heroically, they were knocking down the fire,' Nigro added. 
The FDNY had to search several floors because of the smoke condition above the 50 floor. 
The fire was finally declared under control at around 7:45pm.

LizzyNY wrote:If it's just a question of tracking what appears in the media, that's fine. It's in the public domain. If they want to extend it to monitoring internal and private correspondence, IMO it becomes a violation of the First Amendment - unless they have a warrant - and a damned good reason to have one.

Hmm, yep.

Media monitoring is one thing - I do the the same for my job and there are many companies out there that will scan all publications (print, broadcast and online) for whatever you want them to look for and send you a report on it all.

But, a "a database that would contain the information of hundreds of thousands of journalists, editors, bloggers and other media influencers" isn't that at all. It's a database of the people doing the writing. This sounds like a list of who's been writing what and is the first step you take when you're wanting to start a witch hunt for 'anti-government' writers. I'd guess the government already has a list of journalists it considers friendly to the Trump administration, or not. This sounds like they're taking it one step further to list every single possible source of information and influence. Worrying what they'll do with that but I doubt it's good.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5592401/Trump-fought-legislation-two-decades-ago-requiring-sprinklers-NYC-buildings.html

[size=34]Revealed: Trump fought legislation two decades ago requiring sprinklers in NYC buildings saying they were too expensive at $4 per square foot after art dealer dies in fatal fire at his tower[/size]

• In 1998 Trump lobbied against legislation requiring sprinklers in New York City buildings that spurred from two serious and fatal fires
  
  
• He said installing sprinklers, which costs $4 per square foot, was too expensive 
  
  
• An apartment on the 50th floor of Trump Tower went up in flames Saturday
  
  
• The apartment building didn't have sprinklers in the units because Trump in 1998 got lawmakers to chance the legislation to only include new buildings
  
  
• Todd Brassner, a 67-year-old art dealer, was killed in Saturday's blaze  
  
  

By ABIGAIL MILLER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 20:52 EDT, 8 April 2018 | UPDATED: 05:51 EDT, 9 April 2018




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President Donald Trump fought against a 1998 law that would have required sprinklers be installed in all New York City buildings - including Trump tower, which went up in flames Saturday. He and Melania are pictured in 1998
President Donald Trump fought against a 1998 law that would have required sprinklers be installed in all New York City buildings - including Trump tower, which went up in flames Saturday.
Nearly 20 years ago, the man who was one of the biggest real estate moguls in the city lobbied against legislation that said sprinklers needed to be installed in all residential buildings.
The legislation was proposed after two major fatal fires in Brooklyn and Manhattan - which sparked building code changes across the city.

And early talks for the bill said all buildings be required to pay to install sprinklers - at the displeasure of many real estate moguls, including Trump. 
After the bills were compiled Trump called city officials and made the argument that installing sprinkler systems throughout entire buildings was too expensive, the [url=https://www.nytimes.com/?action=click&contentCollection=N.Y. %2F]New York Times[/url]reported at the time. 
The cost of the installation is roughly $4 per square foot. 
Then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani agreed with developers, saying the cost of installing sprinklers was going to be too high.
Scroll down for video 


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The legislation was proposed after two major fatal fires in Brooklyn and Manhattan - which sparked building code changes across the city. Pictured is Saturday's fire on the 50th floor


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Early talks for the bill said all buildings be required to pay to install sprinklers - at the displeasure of many real estate moguls, including Trump. Trump Tower is pictured under construction in the 1980s


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After the bills were compiled Trump called city officials and made the argument that installing sprinkler systems throughout entire buildings was too expensive, the New York Times reported at the time. Trump is pictured in 2005
After the proposal was tweaked to say existing buildings and those with approved permits didn't have to install sprinkler systems - Trump backed off and left the city council alone.  
Giuliani signed the bill, which added the provision that if the high-rise rentals underwent renovations developers would have to install sprinklers.  
The bill as it was initially written would have impacted two of his buildings, Trump Tower and Trump World Tower, which had already been approved but began construction in 1999.
He ended up spending $3million on sprinklers for the Trump World Tower, but they were never installed in the Upper East Side Fifth Avenue building. 
At the time he said he didn't see the purpose sprinklers served in high-rise buildings. 
'People feel safer with sprinklers,' he admitted to the Times. 
'But the problem with the bill is that it doesn't address the buildings that need sprinklers the most. 
'If you look at the fire deaths in New York, almost all of them are in one- or two-family houses.' 
The law never mandated sprinklers be installed in Trump  Tower - and on Saturday the fire that erupted on the 50th floor killed art dealer Todd Brassner in his apartment. 


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Art dealer Todd Brassner, 67, died in the flames. He was pulled from his apartment unconscious and was pronounced dead at hospital later 



Trump sparked anger on Saturday when he responded to the tragedy by describing the 'well built' building instead of acknowledging the victims 
It's not yet known the specific cause of 67-year-old's death.
The commissioner of the New York Fire Department said that the building stood up well despite not having sprinklers in the units. 
The president later echoed that sentiment in a tweet, applauding firefighters for putting out the flames quickly. 
'Fire at Trump Tower is out,' he wrote. 


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The first ever fire at Trump Tower was in 1982, when the top floor caught fire in what the fire chief then called 'definitely, absolutely, positively arson.' Nothing ever came of those claims
'Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!' 
He did not mention the potential victims in his tweet. 
This is reportedly the second fire this year at Trump Tower. In January a roof top fire broke out in the heating and cooling unit of the building. 
The first ever fire at Trump Tower was in 1982, when the top floor caught fire in what the fire chief then called 'definitely, absolutely, positively arson.' 
Nothing ever came of those claims.  
At the time the Fifth Avenue building was not yet finished.  
An FDNY spokesman told DailyMail.com on Sunday that the cause of the blaze remains uncertain.
'That's not something we're going to jump to conclusions on,' he said, adding that it was still very much under investigation. 
The fire sent thick, black smoke pouring from the windows of the skyscraper that bears the president's name.
New York Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the apartment was 'virtually entirely on fire' when firefighters arrived.  
No member of the Trump family was in the 664-foot tower on Saturday.
Trump's family has an apartment on the top floors of the 58-story building, but he has spent little time in New York since taking office. 
The headquarters of the Trump Organization is on the 26th floor.

Dreadful stuff from the White Helmets as they try to rescue civilian families in the most appalling attack so far - but one of many

https://twitter.com/SyriaCivilDef?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

On Saturday, somebody drove his car into people who were sitting outside a cafe, enjoying the first warm day in a small town in Germany. He killed two, injured  dozens (some are still in a critical condition) and then shot himself in his car. 
Minutes later, when the news were first reported, one of our 'lovely' right-wing politicians, MP, tweeted that it has to be a terror attack, committed by an islamistic terrorist. Quite some people retweeted by telling her to shut up until this is proven, most unfortunately agreed with her. 
Hours later, the police reported that it was a German man with a typical German name, no migration background but known as psychically ill, they also found a suicide note.

The politician then said that before Nice and London, nobody thought about killing himself by using his car and killing others. Which is rubbish, this has happened hundreds of times before, especially when people re wrong-way drivers on motorways and do it on purpose (sometimes it happens accidentally). The politician didn't excuse her previous tweet. One of her collegues then tweeted that perhaps the driver had been islamized before and asked others about that. I'm so fed up by them...

Carol, was that the attack in Muenster?  I briefly saw something on it this past weekend.  It seems that islamic (and in general all immigrant) fear mongering has become the scapegoat for all the violent acts perpetrated in our cities.  And it is propagated by the far right politicians.  And, no surprise, Trump!

PAN, it has been reported that there have been maybe as many as eight prior chemical attacks in Syria in the last year.  Why this one is making the big headlines and the others didn’t is beyond me.  Maybe because a larger number of deaths?  It’s horrible. But Assad continues to do it.  Another air strike by the US is not going to stop these attacks.  I don’t know what the answer is to stopping this despicable man from killing his people.  And obviously no one else does either.

Donna,
yes, I was talking about the attack in Muenster.

Meanwhile in NYC.......

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/09/trump-fought-against-fitting-of-sprinklers-in-apartment-where-man-died



And Chechnya.....

http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-the-1999-russian-apartment-bombings-led-to-putins-rise-to-power-2018-3

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/09/trump-fought-against-fitting-of-sprinklers-in-apartment-where-man-died


Trump fought against fitting of sprinklers in apartment where man died
Property mogul spoke against retrofitting of sprinklers in Trump Tower as unnecessary and expensive

Associated Press
Sun 8 Apr 2018 21.04 EDTLast modified on Mon 9 Apr 2018 07.27 EDT

• 
  
• [url=https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Trump fought against fitting of sprinklers in apartment where man][/url]
  
  
  

 Smoke billows from 50th floor of Trump Tower in New York – video report

The 50th-floor apartment in Trump Tower where a man was killed in a fire on Saturday did not have sprinklers – the requirement of which Donald Trumpfought against in the 1990s.
Todd Brassner, 67, died at a hospital on Saturday after a fire ripped through his apartment in the high-rise, which opened in 1983 at a time when building codes did not require the residential section to have sprinklers.
Subsequent updates to the codes required commercial skyscrapers to install sprinklers retroactively, but owners of older residential high-rises are not required to install them unless the building undergoes major renovations.


[size=16]Trump Tower fire: man dies in blaze on 50th floor

 
Read more


Some fire safety advocates pushed for a requirement that older apartment buildings be retrofitted with sprinklers when the city passed a law requiring them in new residential high-rises in 1999, but officials in the administration of then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani said that would be too expensive.
Trump was among the developers who spoke out against the retrofitting as unnecessary and expensive.
He later changed his views, saying sprinklers made tenants feel safer. He ultimately decided to spend $3m to put sprinklers in all 350 units of another building, Trump World Tower near the United Nations, The New York Times reported.
“People feel safer with sprinklers,” Trump said in 1999, according to The Times. “But the problem with the bill is that it doesn’t address the buildings that need sprinklers the most. If you look at the fire deaths in New York, almost all of them are in one-or two-family houses.”
The city’s Department of Buildings on Sunday said Trump Tower did have working hard-wired smoke detectors, and that the fire department was first notified of the blaze by the detectors in the building’s heating and ventilation system. A cause had not yet been determined.


Trump Tower fire: three people injured in New York City blaze

 
Read more


Brassner, who records show bought his unit in 1996, was an art collector who spent time with Andy Warhol.
He is mentioned several times in Warhol’s posthumously published diaries, with references including lunch dates and shared taxis. The artist signed and dedicated at least one print to him.
But in recent years, Brassner had financial problems and went through bankruptcy proceedings. According to documents, his family stopped helping him pursue buying and selling art at the end of 2014, and in the last few years he was “plagued with debilitating medical problems” that made it “difficult for him to function”.
New York fire commissioner Daniel Nigro said the apartment was “virtually entirely on fire” when firefighters arrived.
No member of the Trump family was in the 664-foot tower on Saturday.
Trump’s family has an apartment on the top floors of the 58-story building, but he has spent little time in New York since taking office. The headquarters of the Trump Organization is on the 26th floor.[/size]

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-1999-russian-apartment-bombings-led-to-putins-rise-to-power-2018-3?r=UK&IR=T


[size=40]How a series of deadly Russian apartment bombings in 1999 led to Putin's rise to power[/size]


[size=15]Lamar Salter, Linette Lopez[size=14] and Alana Kakoyiannis
 
Mar. 22, 2018, 10:32 AM
 
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David Satter is a US journalist who spent decades covering Russian politics before he was expelled from the country after claiming that President Putin and the FSB may have been involved with the deadly Russia apartment bombings in 1999.
We talked to Satter about the bombings at PutinCo n, a summit organized by the Human Rights Foundation that gathered together some of Putin's biggest critics. Following is a transcript of the video.
David Satter: You had to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to see what was going on. And in particular, you had to be willfully ignorant if you didn't see the implications of the Ryazan incident.
David Satter is a US journalist and expert on Russian politics. He was expelled from Russia after claiming that Putin and the FSB were behind the apartment bombings
Satter: In the summer of 1999 the approval rating of former President Yeltsin was 2%. There appeared to be no chance whatever that Putin, who was designated by Yeltsin as his successor could possibly become the next Russian president. The apartment bombings changed everything. It was said after those buildings went up that now we're living in a completely different country.
More than 200 people were killed in the September bombings. Russia blamed Chechen militants, triggering the second Chechen War.
Satter: Putin came forward as the savior of the country. He was put in charge of a war in Chechnya. The bombings were blamed on Chechens without any evidence whatsoever, and as a result of the successful prosecution of that war, against all odds he was elected the next Russian president. The apartment bombings appear to be the keystone of a plot to confuse Russian public opinion, to create terror, to distract the Russian public, to redirect their anger away from the corruption that had flourished under Yeltsin, and toward the Chechens who had had for a number of years a semi-independent government in Chechnya and in that way create the conditions for the Russian people to vote in what they absolutely consciously did not want, which was a successor to Yeltsin who would protect Yeltsin.
There was an enormous amount of material in the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta which pointed to the possibility and in fact to the likelihood that the authorities themselves blew up those buildings. At the same time a fifth bomb was discovered in the basement of an apartment building in Ryazan, which is a city southeast of Moscow. And I went to Ryazan after the bomb was discovered and diffused to talk to local residents and it was clear from those conversations that what took place was a genuine attempt to blow up a fifth building. The authorities said that this was only a training exercise, but it was nothing of the kind.
And what was most important was that three persons were arrested for putting a bomb in a building in Ryazan. They turned out to be not Chechens, not terrorists in the usual sense, but rather agents of the Federal Securities Service which is the FSB.
I asked for documents from the CIA from the FBI, from the directorate of national intelligence from the state department. I got very, very little that was of any use. But I did get a few documents from the state department which indicated that their sources of information were telling them that the apartment bombings were extremely suspicious. You had to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to see what was going on. And in particular you had to be willfully ignorant if you didn't see the implications of the Ryazan incident in which three FSB agents were arrested for putting a fifth bomb in a building, even though the bomb didn't go off it was a live bomb. What was it doing in the basement of an apartment building?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5596263/FBI-raid-Trumps-attorneys-office-seize-Stormy-Daniels-payment-records.html




[size=34]BREAKING NEWS: Trump unloads on Robert Mueller calling FBI raid on his attorney Michael Cohen 'an attack on our country and what we also stand for' after agents seize Stormy Daniels payment documents
[/size]

• Trump voices fury after his personal attorney Michael Cohen has his hotel room and office raided calling it 'an attack on our country' 
  
  
• At the White House he blames Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia probe and says: 'I have this witch hunt constantly going on.' 
  
  
• He called raid 'an attack on our country and what we also stand for' and claimed the Mueller probe is'biased' and not looking at 'the other side' 
  
  
• FBI agents seized documents and emails relating to the payment Cohen made to Stormy Daniels, the porn star who claims she had sex with Trump 
  
  
• Payment made just before election has been at center of questions over whether it broke campaign finance laws; Trump denied knowing about it last week 
  
  
• Mueller took information about potential crime unrelated to his Russia probe to deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein who asked New York feds to act on it 
  
  
• Agents seized communications between Cohen and Trump, which are normally covered by attorney-client privilege 
  
  
• Cohen's own attorney called move 'completely inappropriate and unnecessary' but Stormy Daniels's lawyer Michael Avenatti said: 'This could end badly for DJT' 
  
  
• Daniels also announced she is to pose nude for Penthouse and be interviewed by the magazine
  
  

By GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 16:17 EDT, 9 April 2018 | UPDATED: 18:53 EDT, 9 April 2018




President Donald Trump hit back at the FBI's dramatic Monday raid on his longtime personal attorney hours after it happened with a blistering attack on the special counsel, federal investigators and his own attorney general.
FBI agents swooped in on the offices of longtime Donald Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen Monday – seizing a trove of documents related to the porn star Stormy Daniels case and communications between the attorney and the president, in a dramatic escalation of Robert Mueller's special counsel probe.
Agents got a warrant based on a 'referral' from Mueller, Cohen's lawyer claimed, according to a report in the New York Times, only days after Trump had denied having anything to do with paying the porn star.
Hours later at the White House, flanked by cabinet members who were there to discuss how to respond to a chemical weapons attack in Syria, he raged: 'They raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning and I think it's a disgrace.'

Trump called it 'an attack on our country and what we all stand for'. 
He said agents 'broke into' Michael's Cohen's Manhattan office – a reference to search warrants executed that swept up a trove of documents related to the $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels as well as communications between Trump and his lawyer.


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Fury: Trump called it 'an attack on our country and what we all stand for'.


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Fighting talk: Trump had been meeting senior military leaders and members of his national security team - including (right) his new national security advisor John Bolton - when he launched his angry tirade against the Mueller raid


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Michael Cohen, a personal attorney for President Trump, had his hotel room and office both raided by the FBI acting on the instructions of the attorney general


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Raided: Michael Cohen had been living at the Loews Regency on Park Avenue, close to Trump Tower, and had FBI agents raid his room there on Monday morning. 


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Raided: Michael Cohen's offices are in 30 Rockefeller Plaza, which is also home to many of NBC's most high-profile shows including The Today Show, Nightly News and Saturday Night Live


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Target: He also went after Attorney General Jeff Sessions – whose decision to recuse himself set in motion events that led to the appointment of Mueller by deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein (right) who is revealed to have okayed the raid after hearing from Mueller.
He called Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators 'the most conflicted group of people I have ever seen.'
'This is the most biased group of people. These people have the biggest conflicts of interest I've ever seen. Democrats all, just about all,' Trump said, although Mueller himself is a Republican. 
Agents seized tax documents and business records as they raided the Lowes Regency hotel on Park Avenue where Cohen had been staying, and his office in 30 Rockefeller Plaza, just above NBC's studios.
Trump also went after Attorney General Jeff Sessions – whose decision to recuse himself set in motion events that led to the appointment of Mueller by deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who is revealed to have okayed the raid after hearing from Mueller.
'He should have certainly let us know if he was going to recuse himself and we would have put a different attorney general in,' said Trump, revising a longtime anger at the situation.
His admission that he would have replaced Sessions to head off the recusal could figure in Mueller's ongoing effort to establish obstruction of justice.
He continued to tout Mueller's failure to charge Trump or anyone on his team of colluding with the Russians, even as the probe continues to bring in members of his inner circle on other matters.
'They found no collusion whatsoever with Russia,' said Trump, seated in front of national security advisor John Bolton, experiencing his first day on the job.
The raid appears most likely to be related to Cohen's $130,000 payment to Daniels days before the election - but the FBI, Mueller, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York all declined to comment on the purpose.
Bloomberg reported that Mueller had gone to Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who oversees his probe, with information which Rosenstein decided to refer to the Manhattan U.S. attorney.  
The raid prompted a furious response from Cohen's own attorney, who said that 'privileged communications' had been seized.
'Today the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients,' said Cohen's attorney Stephen Ryan.
'I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller,' he said.
'The decision by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York to conduct their investigation using search warrants is completely inappropriate and unnecessary.
 'It resulted in the unnecessary seizure of protected attorney client communications between a lawyer and his clients.'
In a bizarre twist, Irish UFC star Conor McGregor had been staying at the Loews hotel after being charged with felony criminal mischief and a string of other crimes after he attacked a bus carrying other UFC stars with a dolly at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn last week.
Daniels' lawyer Avenatti tweeted: 'An enormous amount of misplaced faith has been placed on MC's shoulders IMO. If he does not hold up, this could end very very badly for DJT and others.'
Mueller is overseeing the probe of contacts between Russians and the Trump campaign.





CNN reported that President Trump had watched TV broadcasts of the FBI raid on his longtime personal attorney – and that he knew about the raid before the news came out. 
Daniels is suing to have a nondisclosure agreement she and Cohen signed whereby she got $130,000 and agreed not to disclose any details of a relationship with a man. 
Cohen says he made the payment with his own funds and without Trump's knowledge. Bank records have revealed he set up a Delaware LLC shortly before the payment was made to Daniels from the LLC. 
Daniels claims she had a sexual affair with Trump, who did not sign the agreement, although a pseudonym for him was left blank on the final agreement.
She has spoken about the alleged affair on CBS '60 Minutes' notwithstanding the agreement that her lawyer says is void. 
Cohen says he paid the money out of his topic to help Trump. He says he made it out of his own personal funds. 
Ryan claimed agents seized 'protected attorney client communications,' the Associated Press reported, without further explanation.
The raid comes just days after Trump made his first comments on the porn star aboard Air Force One Thursday – and denied any advance knowledge of the payment that appeared to benefit him and his campaign just days before the 2016 election.
Asked if he knew about the payment, the president said 'No.'






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It all goes back to this: Daniels claims she and Trump had an affair in 2006. She took a $130,000 payment from Cohen in return for signing a gag order just before the election. That appears to now be at the center of a federal probe


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Cohen's lawyer claims the referral came from special counsel Robert Mueller's office
Asked why Cohen made the payment, Trump said: 'Michael is my attorney. You'll have to ask Michael.'
The, asked by reporters on Air Force One if he knew where the money came from, Trump said: 'No, I don't know.'
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is suing for relief from a non-disclosure agreement that her lawyer claims is null and invalid.
Bloomberg reported that Mueller brought the information to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing the Russia probe and who decided that it should be handled by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District.
Mueller's general area deals with Russia-related matters. Under a memo partially revealed in a Mueller court filing, he is to go to Rosenstein's office for matters that fall outside his jurisdiction. 
Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, has been keeping the story in the news, now claiming he has a forensic sketch of a man who threatened her to keep quiet in 2011.
Avenatti said Cohen: 'has been placed in the crosshairs by Mr. Trump. He has been set up to take the fall.'
He also filed court papers Sunday to try to force Trump to answer questions about the agreement. 
He is seeking a jury trial and wants sworn testimony from Trump and his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, about a $130,000 payment made to Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election as part of a nondisclosure agreement she is seeking to invalidate. 


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Stormy Daniels in her interview with Anderson Cooper to be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, March 25


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The actress Stephanie Clifford, who uses the stage name Stormy Daniels, performs at the Solid Gold Fort Lauderdale strip club on March 9, 2018 in Pompano Beach, Florida




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Michael Avenatti on CNN April 9, 2018


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Michael Avenatti tweeted the photo on Sunday of Daniels with Lois Gibson, who he referred to as 'the foremost forensic artist in the world'
'We're going to be releasing that tomorrow along with a significant reward asking that the public come forward,' Avenatti said on CNN. 'We are very close to identifying this individual.'
He predicted that identifying the man his client says threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot will ' tighten the noose, if you will.'
It's unclear how Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, could remember facial features of the man seven years later. But Avenatti hinted that the result will point to the president or his inner circle.
The threat 'could only have come from one of three places,' he said confidently.
'My client, which means she threatened herself, which makes no sense; In Touch magazine, which makes no sense because why would they threaten my client relating to the publication of an interview in their own magazine?; or someone associated with Trump or the Trump Organization.' 
Daniels said in a Los Angeles court filing she always thought Trump was a party to the deal.  
'Such an agreement would not have made sense for many reasons,' she said in the filing.
'It was my understanding that Donald Trump was a party to the Settlement Agreement and that he was going to sign both documents,' Daniels said.
Her lawyer is trying to establish a basis for questioning Trump about the deal, even though he is not a signatory. 
Beyond his attorney's statement, it is not clear what the overall objective of the search was. 
Cohen appears in the infamous Steele Dossier of unverified information about President Trump and ties between his associates and Russia.
He is suing Buzzfeed for publishing the document.  

Even if Stormy Documents got scooped up, it is possible warrants were seeking information of another variety.
Cohen was in contact for the Trump Organization with Russian-American businessman Felix Sater in 2015 about a proposed Trump Tower Moscow.
In a noter to Cohen reported by the New York Times, Sater wrote: 'Lets make this happen and build a Trump Moscow. And possibly fix relations between the countries by showing everyone that commerce & business are much better and more practical than politics. That should be Putins message as well, and we will help him agree on that message. Help world peace and make a lot of money, I would say thats a great lifetime goal for us to go after.'
'Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it,' Sater wrote.
Mueller is probing an array of contacts between Trump associates and Russians.
Trump has said repeatedly there was 'no collusion.' 
The White House declined to comment on the raid when asked about it. 
Watchdog group Common Cause has filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission arguing that the payments to Daniels constitute a possible violation of campaign finance laws. 
Paul Ryan of Common Cause told USA Today: 'I'm happy to see the DOJ is doing its job. Donald Trump said he knew nothing about the payment to Stormy Daniels. The FBI will now quickly get to the bottom of whether Trump lied to the American people when he said no knowledge about Michael Cohen's payment to Stormy Daniels,' he said. 
Cohen also hand-delivered a so-called peace plan for Russia and Ukraine that would have lifted sanctions on Russia to fired national security advisor Michael Flynn, according to a Times report on the February delivery of a sealed plan. 
Cohen delivered it a week before Flynn resigned. 
The raid on Trump's longtime consigliere and latest twist in the Russia probe comes as Trump called out Russian President Vladimir Putin on Twitter by name for the first time following a suspected chemical weapons attack by the pro-Russia regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Syrian rebel territory.
The White House kicked out 60 Russian diplomats following the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, and leveled new sanctions on Russian entities. 
The raid immediately raised issues of attorney-client privilege. Cohen was the president's personal lawyer during the presidential campaign, which means their communications are assumed to be beyond the reach of law enforcement and the courts.
A critical loophole exists, however: the 'crime-fraud exception.' That allows prosecutors to use privileged material if it shows a client intended to further or cover up a crime.
Because of the usually sacrosanct nature of attorney-client communications, the FBI will likely use a 'taint team' to keep prosecutors from seeing anything privileged that could later cause a criminal conviction to be voided.

[size=34]SPANKING, A $130,000 GAG ORDER AND SECRET DEALS - HOW CLAIMS OF SEX WITH STORMY DANIELS TURNED INTO A FULL-SCALE FBI RAID[/size]

July 2006: Porn star Stormy Daniels says she meets now President Donald Trump at a Nevada golf tournament. They have an alleged sexual encounter.
2011: Daniels gives an interview about her tryst with Trump to In Touch Weekly. In 2018 she tells 60 Minutes that she was threatened by a man in Las Vegas over the telling of her story.
October 2016: In the weeks before voters head to the polls, Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen uses a Delaware-based LLC to make a $130,000 payment to Daniels, in exchange for her to sign a non-disclosure agreement to keep quiet about the alleged sexual encounter. 
May 17, 2017:  Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appoints former FBI Director Robert Mueller to take over the Russia probe on the heels of President Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey. 
January 12, 2018: The Wall Street Journal breaks the story that Cohen paid the $130,000 to Daniels, weeks shy of the 2016 presidential election.
February 13, 2018: Cohen publicly admits to paying the $130,000, but says he did so with his own personal money, and was reimbursed by the Trump campaign nor the Trump Organization. In referencing the payment, Daniels' attorney says the NDA is breached.  
March 6, 2018: The Washington Post reported that Mueller requested documents and interviewed witnesses about incidents involving Cohen.  Additionally, Daniels filed a lawsuit against Trump in California Superior Court claiming that the NDA never went into effect because Trump never signed it.
March 16, 2018: Lawyers for both Cohen and Trump attempt to get the Daniels' lawsuit moved from state to federal court. This marked the first time lawyers for Trump are actively involved in legal action over the Daniels' matter. 
March 28, 2018: The 60 Minutes' interview with Daniels airs.  She details spanking Trump with a magazine with his face on the cover and having sex with him once. 
April 5, 2018: For the first time, Trump speaks about the $130,000 payment telling reporters on board Air Force One that he had no knowledge of it at the time.  'You'll have to ask Michael,' the president responded when asked why Cohen made the payment
April 9, 2018: The FBI raids the New York City offices of Cohen. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan received a referral from Mueller, the New York Times reported. CNN reported that documents related to the Daniels affair were swept up in the search.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5591957/UN-Security-Council-expected-meet-Monday-Syria-attack-diplomats.html



[size=34]'Everybody's gonna pay a price': Trump says 'heinous' chemical weapons attack in Syria 'will be met forcefully' as he points the finger at Russia, Iran and 'Animal' Assad
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• Trump is weighing another military strike after a weekend chemical attack timed to the anniversary of the U.S. assault last year on dictator Bashar al-Assad's army
  
  
• Sen. Lindsay Graham this morning said that Assad should be classified as a war criminal, and Trump ought to totally destroy his air force
  
  
• Trump said recently that he wants the United States' 2,000 troops out of Syria
  
  
• GOP Sen. John McCain say the comment 'emboldened' Assad
  
  
• Attack had Trump turning the screws on Russia and saying that Vladimir Putin would have a price to pay if his country was involved
  
  
• Trump had several meetings today with his military advisers, including one where he signaled a strike would be kept secret until after it had happened
  
  

By FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 14:12 EDT, 8 April 2018 | UPDATED: 19:48 EDT, 9 April 2018


    


President Donald Trump signaled Monday that he was likely to launch another military strike against Syria after a weekend chemical attack timed to the anniversary of the U.S. assault last year on dictator Bashar al-Assad's army.
Trump said a meeting with military brass that he'd make a make a decision tonight 'or very shortly thereafter' and that he would probably keep U.S. action a secret until after it had happened.
'It will be met, and it will be met forcefully, and when I will not say, because I don't like talking about timing,' Trump told reporters. 'We can't let atrocities like we all witnessed, and you can see that and it's horrible.' 
Yesterday, Trump warned the leaders of Syria, Iran and Russia there would be a 'big price to pay' for the gas attack that is said to have killed nearly 50 people. He also referred to Assad as an 'animal.'

At at Cabinet meeting on Monday morning, Trump again said, 'If it’s Russia, if it’s Syria, if it’s Iran, if it’s all of them together, we’ll figure it out.' 
'Everybody's gonna pay a price,' he said, including Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. 'He will, everybody will.' 
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO 


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President Donald Trump is weighing another military strike against Syria after a weekend chemical attack timed to the anniversary of the U.S. assault last year on dictator Bashar al-Assad's army


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On Sunday President Trump (left) tweeted his condemnation of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad (right) calling him an animal


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President Trump whacked Russia and Iran over the countries' support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad





He also criticized President Obama for not taking Bashar al-Assad, as Obama had said a 'red line' for him would be if chemical weapons were used on the Syrian people

Russia has said there's no evidence that a chemical attack took place in the face of graphic images of civilians, some of whom were children, choking and foaming at the mouth. The country's Foreign Ministry called the episode a 'hoax.'
Syria has also denied allegations that it was behind the assault.
'They're saying they're not. But to me there's not much a doubt,' Trump told his Cabinet, 'but the generals will figure it out, probably over the next 24 hours.'
Trump said that 'nothing's off the table' when it comes to retaliation and he expects to make a decision 'very quickly' after consulting with his national security team.
'So we'll be looking at that barbaric act and studying what's going on,' he said. 
In the Cabinet meeting, Trump said it was a 'heinous' attack that was 'atrocious' and 'barbaric' in nature.
'This is about humanity. We're talking about humanity, and it can’t be allowed to happen,' he stated 
The U.S. president said then that he would make a decision about Syria within 48 hours and 'probably by the end of today.' 
Sen. Lindsay Graham this morning said that Assad should be classified as a war criminal, and Trump ought to obliterate his air force.
'The world is watching the president, Iran is watching the president, Russia is watching the president and North Korea's watching the president,' the GOP lawmaker who has Trump's ear said. 'This president has a chance to do exactly the opposite of Obama: send a strong signal that there's a new sheriff in town and America's back.'  
Barack Obama infamously warned Assad that that the U.S. would intervene militarily if he crossed a 'red line' and unloaded his chemical weapons on civilians. He ultimately backed down from the threat and later cited the unresolved conflict in Syria as his greatest regret as he left office.
Trump now faces a similar decision, having warned Assad last year that the U.S. would not allow him to gas his own people unchecked.


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'Everybody's gonna pay a price,' Trump said Monday, including Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. 'He will, everybody will'
On the anniversary of the United States' limited air strike for his last confirmed chemical weapons attack, Assad reportedly hit the rebel-held town of Douma in Syria's Eastern Ghouta late Saturday.
Trump hit out at his predecessor and Assad's allies in tweets on Sunday.
'If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In the Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago!' Trump said. 'Animal Assad would have been history!'
In his strongest condemnation of Russian President Vladimir Putin yet, Trumplashed out at the leader for his role in propping up Assad after the reports of another chemical attack.
'Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world,' Trump wrote. 'President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad.' 
United Nations Amb. Nikki Haley also lashed out at Russia on Monday for its role in the reported chemical attack inSyria. 
'The Russian regime, whose hands are all covered in the blood of Syrian children, cannot be ashamed by pictures of its victims,' Haley said during an afternoon speech at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that the U.S. and other nations called in the wake of the attack. 
Aiming her ire at Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and then bringing up the Russian government, she said, 'The monster that is responsible for these attacks has no conscience.' 


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Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham (right) said Monday morning that Bashar al-Assad should be classified as a war criminal, and Trump ought to obliterate his air force




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An image grab taken from a video released by the Syrian Civil Defense in Douma shows an unidentified volunteer holding an oxygen mask over a child's face at a hospital following a reported chemical attack on the rebel-held town on April 8, 2018


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A year ago, on April 7, the U.S. attacked Assa'd forces with targeted and limited missile strikes
U.S. officials said Sunday that President Trump was considering all of his options to counter Assad, a violent dictator who has the military support of Moscow and Tehran.
'I wouldn’t take anything off the table. These are horrible photos, we’re looking into the attack at this point,' Homeland Security advisor Tom Bossert told ABC's 'This Week.' 
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he could not 'comment on what our response will be.'
'But I expect to get an update later today from the national security team,' he said, 'and I assure you they will be reviewing with the president all different alternatives.'
On Monday morning Defense Secretary James Mattis said, 'I don't rule out anything right now.'
'The first thing we have to look at is why are chemical weapons still being used at all when Russia was the framework guarantor of removing all the chemical weapons,' he said, referring to a 2013 pact.
Trump himself said Monday evening that the U.S. has 'a lot of options, militarily, and we'll be letting you know pretty soon, probably after the fact.'
Days ago Trump claimed that 2,000 U.S. troops would be leaving Syria hastily and that the country that's mired in a civil war would be someone else's problem 'very soon.' The White House backed away that position last week as it was peppered to make an announcement 
It was unclear on Monday if the gas attack had changed Trump's calculus on the timing of a troop withdraw. 
Asked if Trump now believes that it's OK for the U.S. to be the world's policeman when the act committed is as atrocious as the one in Syria, his press secretary Sarah Sanders said, 'The president wants to bring our troops home after we complete the mission to eradicate ISIS in Syria.



'At the same time, he wants to make sure Assad is deterred from chemical weapons attacks on innocent civilians,' she added, reading directly from a prepared statement on the topic. 'Signaling we want to remove our troops in no way degrades our ability to hold parties responsible.'
Trump later showed, at his meeting with military brass, that he's conflicted about the role the U.S. ought to be playing in the conflict.
'We can't let atrocities like we all witnessed, and you can see that, and it's horrible. We can't let that happen, in our world, we can't let that happen, especially when we're able to, because of the power of the United States, because of the power of our country, we're able to stop it.'
After the weekend chemical attack, lawmakers from both parties were urging Trump not to immediately vacate Syria. Top GOP legislators were explicitly demanding new military action.
'The President responded decisively when Assad used chemical weapons last year. He should do so again, and demonstrate that Assad will pay a price for his war crimes,' Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain said. 
McCain tore into Trump on Sunday for sending mixed signals on Syria that he said 'emboldened' Assad and his allies. 
'President Trump last week signaled to the world that the United States would prematurely withdraw from Syria. Bashar Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers have heard him, and emboldened by American inaction, Assad has reportedly launched another chemical attack against innocent men, women and children,' McCain charged.

'Initial accounts show dozens of innocent civilians, including children, have been targeted by this vicious bombardment designed to burn and choke the human body and leave victims writhing in unspeakable pain.'
McCain said Assad's brutal regime had killed more than half a million of its people and turned another 11 million into refugees.
'President Trump was quick to call out Assad today, along with the Russian and Iranian governments, on Twitter,' he said. 'The question now is whether he will do anything about it.'
At the White House's daily press briefing, a reporter suggested that Trump essentially green lit the attack, pointing to McCain's response.
'Look we're still there. And I think that it is outrageous to say that the President of the United States green lit something as atrocious as the actions that have taken place,' she rebuffed.
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds also advised Trump to 'act decisively' on Sunday, telling Meet the Press host Chuck Todd that he also believes the president needs to follow through on the 'red line' he set for chemical weapons use in Syria last year.
'And he's got to send a message once again that what he said he meant,' the South Dakota legislator said. 'I think he will hold not just Syria, but I think he will make it very clear that he believes that Russia is also responsible.' 
Graham on Sunday called it a 'defining moment' in Trump's presidency that would have global repercussions. 
'We had a one-and-done missile attack. So Assad is at it again. They see us, our resolve, breaking. They see our determination to stay in Syria waning. And it's no accident they used chemical weapons,' he said.

His advice to Trump was to train Syrians to fight government forces and create safe zones inside the country. 
Commenting on Trump's desire to withdraw American forces from Syria, Graham said that would be a 'complete utter disaster to leave before the fight is done.'
He argued that a pull-out in Syria is likely to set off a similar chain of events as the drawdown in Iraq and eventually gave the terrorist group ISIS the opportunity to rise up and wreak mass havoc.
The White House said last week that the United States' mission in Syria is coming to a 'rapid end' in a statement that provided no definitive timeline for a withdraw. 
Bossert, the Homeland Security adviser, said Sunday on ABC that the administration's position is that 'we need regional partnership increased and we need U.S. presence decreased.'
'It is time to move that pendulum back in a way that brings regional partners and others with equities in these matters all around the globe into putting their resources and their treasure and their boys and girls on the line, and not just American troops,' he said.
Trump yesterday to French President Emmanuel Macron and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi about the attack.
A readout of the calls said Trump told Macron 'the Assad regime must be held accountable for its continued human rights abuses.'
The U.S. along with France and other UN Security Council members were meeting on Monday to discuss next steps. 

[size=18]Nikki Haley targets Russia at UN after Syria chemical attack

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In a statement, Haley said: 'The Security Council has to come together and demand immediate access for first responders, support an independent investigation into what happened, and hold accountable those responsible for this atrocious act.'
Russia had separately called on the the 15-nation Security Council to discuss 'international threats to peace and security' at the emergency meeting.
The U.S. France, Britain, Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands, Kuwait, Peru and Ivory Coast demanded a meeting to talk about Syria, Reuters reported. 
Medical relief organizations said Sunday that 49 people had died. That number, produced by the Syrian American Medical Society and the civil defense service in the rebel-held territories, remains unconfirmed by the U.S. and other officials. Other counts put the death toll at 70 people.

Okay, so I guess that Trump plans to bomb the whole Middle East (apart from Israel, of course) to hell, killing all the millions of bad guys, so the good guys (i.g. US friends) are able to rebuild the whole region. Then he's going to take the troops back to the states to protect the border and waits to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Is that what he plans?