The Serious Side - part 7

OR...They could just add "religion" to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. IMO, it should have been there from the beginning.

Maybe we need to teach our college students that they're there to open their minds, not close them. Every issue has at least two sides, and all should be considered before forming an opinion - let alone taking action. By not drumming this into kids' heads colleges are pandering to prejudice and abdicating their responsibilities as educators. College age kids are especially vulnerable to "causes" and the feelings of power involvement brings. It is the educator's job to make sure their choices are carefully and intelligently made.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7783497/Democrats-erupt-fury-Republican-names-suspected-whistle-blower-impeachment-hearing.html

[size=34]Democrats erupt in fury as Republican names suspected whistle-blower during prime-time impeachment hearing after repeated demands to keep CIA staffer's name secret[/size]

• Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert named seven people during a Wednesday impeachment hearing who he said should be called as witnesses
  
  
• Republicans have complained after Democratic committee chairmen blocked many GOP-favored witnesses
  
  
• One of the people Gohmert named is widely thought to have been the Ukraine whistle-blower who launched the impeachment saga 
  
  
• The evening hearing included five-minute opening statements from every member of the House Judiciary Committee 
  
  
• Lawmakers on the committee will resume the 'markup' session Thursday morning, offering amendments to the two articles of impeachment
  
  

By DAVID MARTOSKO, U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR  and NIKKI SCHWAB, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER and EMILY GOODIN, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 21:31 EST, 11 December 2019 | UPDATED: 09:18 EST, 12 December 2019

     

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During an impeachment hearing, a Republican congressman spoke aloud the name of a man thought to be the famed Ukraine whistle-blower
In an open impeachment hearing Wednesday night, a Republican member of Congress spoke the name of a man widely thought to be the whistle-blower whose complaint about Donald Trump's famous phone call with Ukraine's president sparked this fall's impeachment saga. 
Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert was complaining during a hearing about two articles of impeachment that Democrats have blocked attempts to call fact witnesses who didn't support their arguments.
Gohmert called 'abuse of power [and] obstruction of Congress the very things the majority has done in preventing us from having the witnesses that could shed light on this.'

'We needed to hear from those witnesses, people like Sean Misko, Abigail Grace, [name redacted], Devin Archer, Joe Biden, Nellie Ohr, Alexandra Chalupa and so many others,' he said.
DailyMail.com has not published the name of the man, who is a Russia and Eurasia expert for the CIA, tasked to the National Intelligence Council and reporting to the director of national intelligence.


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Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert vented about witnesses Democrats blocked them from calling, including a man whose identity as the whistle-blower one GOP aide says is 'the worst-kept secret in town'


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After a Politico reporter tweeted that Gohmert had outed the whistle-blower, Virginia Democratic Rep. Don Beyer called the move 'incredible and outrageous'
Virginia Democratic congressman Don Beyer reacted with fury on Twitter.
'House Republicans just committed an incredible and outrageous breach,' Rep. Beyer wrote. 
'The President threatened the whistleblower with violence, and whether the person just named is the whistleblower or not they were just put in real danger. This is unacceptable and there should be consequences.' 
Beyer was responding to one of several reporters who tweeted that Gohmert had named the person thought to be the whistle-blower.
Gohmert didn't describe the person in any way, other than saying he thought the man should testify before lawmakers made up their mind about impeaching Trump. 
[size=10][size=18]Rep. Louie Gohmert demands to hear from fact witnesses




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Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert was complaining during a hearing about two articles of impeachment against President Trump
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, told DailyMail.com after the hearing that he didn't know the whistle-blower's identity, but called Gohmert's pivotal moment 'an irrelevant distraction from the real evidence in the case.'
'It's sort of like Richard Nixon blaming his own criminal conduct in Watergate on Deep Throat. It just doesn't make any sense. It's incoherent,' said Raskin.
The CIA analyst's name has floated around Washington, D.C. for months. A federal whistle-blower protection law forbids the Justice Department inspector general from revealing his name, but doesn't bar elected officials or private citizens from doing so.




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Gohmert never said the man whose name he spoke was the whistle-blower; he named seven people who he thought should be impeachment hearing witnesses, but didn't explain why


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Democrats are steamrolling toward impeaching Donald Trump for abuse of power and contempt of Congress; Trump is pictured Wednesday night showing an executive order combating anti-semitism during a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul did it in November during a radio interview in Washington, a few weeks after urging reporters during a Trump rally to 'do your job and print his name!' 
Asked on WMAL radio about that moment, he mentioned the man by name as a 'person of interest' and said he 'needs to be pulled in for testimony,'   
The alleged whistle-blower's name does appear in a transcript of a closed-door interview of a diplomat that the House Intelligence Committee's Democratic chairman Adam Schiff released last month. 
A House Republican aide said Wednesday night that the whistle-blower's name is 'the worst-kept secret in town,' and added that 'we should all start putting on our big boy pants, name the guy, and tell him to back up his allegations against Trump.'
The whistle- blower's account of the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was undercut by a summary transcript of the call the White House released later.
Democrats contend it has been largely confirmed. 
[size=18]Jerry Nadler pleads with Republicans to impeach Trump




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Pizza boxes are piled up outside the House Ways and Means office as the House Judiciary Committee begins its markup of articles of impeachment
Wednesday's impeachment hearing saw Democrats and Republicans trading blows during opening statements of the House Judiciary Committee.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said President Trump could become a 'dictator' if his powers were left unchecked, while his GOP counterpart, Rep. Doug Collins, called impeachment 'the Big Lie.'
'If the president can first abuse his power and then stonewall all Congressional requests for information, Congress cannot fulfill its duty to act as a check and balance against the executive. And the president becomes a dictator,' Nadler warned in the opening moments of his committee's first prime-time impeachment hearing.
Following the pattern that would continue all night, Collins followed Nadler with a frenzied pushback against impeachment, labeling it 'The Big Lie.'


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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (left) and Republican ranking member Doug Collins (right) delivered remarks at the beginning of Wednesday night's impeachment hearing 


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Members of the House Judiciary Committee gathered at the Longworth House Office Building Wednesday night. The Republicans in the room again brought props 
'What's the Big Lie? It's the one Democrats have told the American people for the last three years,' Collins said. 'The Big Lie is that the ends justify the means. The Big Lie is that a sham impeachment is OK because the threat is so great. The Big Lie is that political expedience is honorable and justifiable.'
On Tuesday, House Democrats announced they planned to pursue two articles of impeachment against Trump, with a full House vote likely happening in a little over a week.
The Wednesday night hearing was scheduled to give Judiciary Committee members the opportunity to deliver five-minute opening statements - with the floor flip-flopping between the two parties.
Nadler opened up the proceeding with an ask: that Republicans might join Democrats in impeachment.
They didn't.
'I hope every member of this Committee will withstand the political pressures of the moment,' Nadler begged. 'I hope that we are able to work together to hold this President - or any President - accountable for breaking his most basic obligations to the country and to its citizens.'
Nadler said he hoped that members wouldn't try to 'justify behavior that we know in our heart is wrong.'
'And while you think about that choice, please keep in mind that - one way or the other - President Trump will not be president forever,' Nadler continued. 'When his time has passed, when his grip on our politics is gone, when our country returns, as surely it will, to calmer times and stronger leadership, history will look back on our actions here today.'
'How would you be remembered?' Nadler asked.


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Several supporters of President Trump showed up to the Judiciary Committee hearing and wore their MAGA hats throughout the night 
The New York Democrat said that with a 'heavy heart' he supported the president's impeachment.
Collins answered that by calling bull.
'We have spent all year in this committee trying to impeach this president,' Collins said.
He said it was as much of a surprise as the holiday season.
'It doesn't jump up and sneak up on you when you've been expecting it the whole time!' Collins said.
Rep. Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican, also argued that Democrats have long been after Trump - pointing to several pop culture references.
'Then the genre of assassination and personal harm began with Kathy Griffin posing with a model of Trump's severed head, and actor Robert De Niro using his Tony Awards speech to say, "F--- Trump! I'd like to punch him in the face!"' Buck said.
And Rep. Matt Gaetz put on his best movie-trailer-announcer voice during his turn.
'This is nothing more than the sloppy, straight-to-DVD Ukrainian sequel to the failed Russia hoax,' the Florida Republican said, sounding like a voice actor. 'If it seems like you've seen this movie before, it's because you have.'
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a Republican from Wisconsin, characterized the Democrats' case as weak.


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Rep. Matt Gaetz put on his best movie trailer announcer voice and said the Ukraine-focused impeachment proceedings were a 'straight-to-DVD Ukrainian sequel to the failed Russia hoax'
'This bar is so low that what is happening is that a future president can be impeached for any disagreement when the presidency and the House of Representatives are controlled by different parties,' he argued during his term.
There are 41 Judiciary Committee members, but Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrats, is absent due to illness.
On Wednesday night, the Republicans brought new signs - including one that labeled the Democratic committee chairs the 'Coastal Impeachment Squad' since they're from either California or New York.
Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, made his anti-impeachment argument along the same lines.
'They're never going to stop and it's not because they don't like the president ... they don't like us,' he said, speaking into the cameras to the Republican base. 'They don't like the 63 million people who voted for this president. All of us in flyover country. All of us common folk Ohio, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Texas.'
'They don't like us,' Jordan claimed.
Rep. David Cicciline, a Rhode Island Democrat, turned that argument on its head, suggesting Republicans were treating their constituents as if they were too dumb to understand what was going on.
'Wake up,' Cicciline told Republicans. 'Stop thinking about running for re-election, stop worrying about being primaried, stop deflecting and distracting and treating those you represent ... like they're not smart enough to realize that you are willfully ignoring the facts to protect a corrupt and dangerous president.'
Cicciline tried to lay out Democrats' case plainly.
'President Donald J. Trump wielded the enormous powers of the presidency to cheat in the 2020 election,' he said. 'If the president can cheat to win re-election the people lose their voice and he's no longer the president, he's a king.'
Cicciline then referenced how his home state of Rhode Island was first in pushing for independence from the British king.
Rep. Val Demmings, a Florida Democrat, also pointed to the era of the founding when she pushed for impeachment.
'George Washington was particularly concerned about unprincipled men finding their way into the White House,' she said. 'Well, those times have found us and we only have one option.'


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Rep. Pramila Jayapal, one of the most progressive Democratic voices on the House Judiciary Committee, listens as colleagues deliver their opening statements at an impeachment hearing Wednesday night 
Republicans have argued Democrats are trying to overturn the 2016 election while Democrats allege that the president with held nearly $400 million in aid to the Ukraine in order to pressure that country to investigate the Bidens and an unproven conspiracy theory that it was the Ukraine - and not Russia - that interfered in the 2016 election.
Lawmakers on the committee will return Thursday morning for the business at hand - offering amendments to the two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Any member of the committee can offer amendments.
And there are many ways to drag the process out - lawmakers can demand their amendments be read aloud (a process typically waved by a motion known as unanimous consent) and any lawmaker can object to any amendment.
Such moves would also have to be voted upon and any lawmaker can demand a roll call vote - another time consuming process.
Then the amendments themselves will be debated and given a final vote of approval or disapproval.
Given the partisan nature of impeachment the markup is expected to go long.
The markup of Bill Clinton’s articles of impeachment took three days.
After lawmakers on the Judiciary Committee finish their work, the articles of impeachment go to the Rules Committee, which sets the rules governing the debate on the House floor about the measure.
Then the articles go to the full House.
Democrats are on track to hold a vote in the full House next week - before they depart for the year - and then the approved articles will go to the Senate for trial.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7785487/Democrats-start-hearing-dramatic-reading-two-articles-impeachment-against-Donald-J-Trump.html

[size=34]Republicans fire up their attack on Democratic impeachment articles with amendment that names Hunter Biden – as Donald Trump loyalist brings up Joe's son's cocaine habit and the CRACK pipe found in his rental car[/size]

• Republicans offered their first amendment to impeachment articles: striking an 'abuse of power' article
  
  
• After it was voted down, Rep. Matt Gaetz brought up an amendment naming Hunter Biden 
  
  
• Action to run throughout the day on Judiciary panel's second day of hearings 
  
  
• Democrats began their Thursday hearing by having a clerk read two impeachment articles against President Trump
  
  
• A Republican sought to waive the reading but Democrat Zoe Lofgren objected 
  
  
• Chairman Jerry Nadler introduced a 'substitute' amendment changing articles to impeach 'Donald John Trump' 
  
  
• It earlier named articles against 'Donald J. Trump' 
  
  
• Trump defended himself in real-time on Twitter 
  
  
• Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert named seven people during a Wednesday impeachment hearing who he said should be called as witnesses 
  
  
• One of them is widely thought to have been the Ukraine whistle-blower who launched the impeachment saga  
  
  

By GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and KATELYN CARALLE, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 09:16 EST, 12 December 2019 | UPDATED: 13:03 EST, 12 December 2019

     


House Republicans turned the second day of House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings into a direct attack on Joe Biden's son Hunter – featuring his challenges with cocaine use into amendment to one of two impeachment articles.
Just minutes after the panel voted down a GOP amendment to strike down an abuse of power article, Donald Trump loyalist Rep. Matt Gaetz turned introduced a three-line amendment that explicitly mentioned Hunter Biden and the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma.
But it was not just the complex Ukraine dealings of the vice president's son that Gaetz raised – he immediately referenced Hunter's struggles with Ukraine use, a problem that got him kicked out of the U.S. Navy.
The Floridian referenced a New Yorker magazine article that catalogued how a Hertz rental agent had told a reporter of finding drug paraphernalia after a Hunter Biden rental after a car wreck. 


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Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a Donald Trump loyalist, introduced an amendment inserting Hunter Biden's name into an impeachment article – then brought up his past cocaine use
Gaetz, a fierce Trump loyalist, asked how someone who 'could not resolve his own dispute with Hertz rental car after leaving cocaine and a crack pipe in the car' got a lucrative job on the board of an energy firm. 

Gaetz said he was 'not passing any judgement on the challenges' that anyone 'goes through in their personal life.'
He read from the article, which catalogued how Hunter Biden had struggled with drugs, been forced to leave the military, and then had headline-grabbing turns in his romantic life after the death of his brother, Beau. His dark struggles came even as the vice president's son was serving as attorney general in Delaware.
Gaetz read into the official record of the impeachment articles mark-up: 'Hunter said that, at that point, he had not slept for several days. Driving east on Interstate 10, just beyond Palm Springs, he lost control of his car, which jumped the median and skidded to a stop on the shoulder of the westbound side. He called Hertz, which came to collect the damaged car and gave him a second rental.'


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Republicans introduced an amendment that would name Hunter Biden and Burisma in an impeachment article Democrats brought against President Donald Trump


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Rep. Gaetz was arrested for Driving Under the Influence in 2008, but prosecutors ended up dropping charges
The congressman continued: 'The Hertz rental officer 'told me that he found a crack pipe in the car and, on one of the consoles, a line of white-powder residue. Beau Biden's attorney-general badge was on the dashboard. Hertz called the Prescott police department, and officers there filed a 'narcotics offense' report, listing the items seized from the car, including a plastic baggie containing a 'white powdery substance,' a Secret Service business card, credit cards, and Hunter's Biden's driver's license.' 
'It's a little hard to believe that Burisma would hire Hunter Biden to resolve their international disputes when he could not resolve his own dispute with Hertz rental car over leaving cocaine and a crack pipe in the car,' said Gaetz. 
After Gaetz spoke, Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson of Gerogia condemned the effort. 
'Pot calling the kettle black is not something that should do,' Johnson said.
'I don't know what members, if any, have any any problem with substance abuse,' he He continued. But he cautioned against 'character assassination.'  
As it turns out, Gaetz was arrested for Driving Under the Influence in 2008 when he was 26 years old. According to the Tampa Bay Times, Gaetz admitted drinking two beers, refused a field sobriety test. However the charges were dropped. 
Later, Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, a senior member, urged restraint. 'The behavior of Vice President Biden's son and frankly the behavior of President Trump's two sons and daughter may be discussed in the election,' she said. 'But here we are talking about the abuse presidential authority. The president must take care that the laws be faithfully executed.'
House Republicans repeatedly sought to undermine the Democratic effort to impeach President Donald Trump on Thursday by seeking to completely strike a charge that he abused his power – mocking the charges leveled against him and denying he tried to foist a 'quid pro quo' on the president of Ukraine.
The angry televised fireworks came as the Democratic-run committee plodded ahead in its impeachment effort – which could have the House voting on impeachment articles as early as next week to set up a dramatic trial in the Senate.
Democrats began their historic Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday by having a clerk read through two articles of impeachment word-for-word – allowing gathered members and TV viewers to hear each charge they are leveling against Donald Trump. 
Republicans on the panel immediately began their day's mission – savaging the Democratic impeachment effort on technical and substantive grounds – by introducing an amendment striking Article 1 of the impeachment articles, the one accusing Trump of abuse of power in his dealings with Ukraine. 
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio introduced an amendment striking down the first of two impeachment articles – the one charging Trump with abuse of power through his interactions with Ukraine.


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Clash at the top: Jerry Nadler, the Democratic chairman, and Doug Collins, the ranking Republican, are at odds over basic procedures of the committee


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Leading Republican attack: Donald Trump defender Jim Jordan demanded that Article One of the articles of impeachment be removed, which charges the president with abuse of power


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Setting: The House Judiciary Committee debates the articles of impeachment in a process known as mark-up


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Ready for action: The House Judiciary Committee gets read to be gaveled in 
[size=10][size=18]'High crimes and misdemeanors:' Trump impeachment charges read out




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[size=18]Jim Jordan introduces amendment to strike article of impeachment




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The amendment 'strikes article one because article one ignores the truth,' Jordan said in a brief speech. 
'It ignores the facts, it ignores what happened and what has been laid out for the American people over the last three weeks. So I hope this committee will come to its senses, it'll adopt the amendment and strike article one from the resolution,' inveighed Jordan, who also brought his pugnacious brand of politics to the House Intelligence Committee during its impeachment inquiry. 
Republicans also managed to stall proceedings while seeking to derail the focus on the president's conduct with procedural complaints. 'It continues to amaze me how corrupt, how unfair this process has been from the start,' fumed Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko of Arizona. I believe the president of the United States is right. This is a sham impeachment,' she said. 
Rep. James Sensenbrenner, who was also a leading voice in the Clinton impeachment, complained that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff conducted his inquiry in the 'basement of the Capitol hearing room' where not every lawmaker could take part.
He contrasted that inquiry to former Independent Counsel Ken Starr. 'Both sides were allowed to present whatever witnesses they wanted to. Kenneth Starr did all the grunt work in terms of putting together the facts … That's not happened here,' said Sensenbrenner. 
The retiring member also defended Trump's conduct toward Ukraine, where the impeachment articles accuse him of a pressure campaign to get probes of political rival Joe Biden.
'There was no quid pro quo offered. There was no pressure that was put on the Ukrainians. I don't know how many times President Zelenksy has had to say that,' said Sensenbrenner. 'There was no impeachable offense here,' he said. 
Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas followed with her own comments about distinctions with the Clinton impeachment. 'The president abuses power and is a continuing threat not only to democracy but to our national security,' she said.
'It is not frivolous and without facts that we proceed. We proceed with facts, and we take this in a very somber manner,' she added.
'While this aid was being held, people died,' added Lofgren, pointing to $391 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine that was being held up while Trump interacted with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 
Rep. Steve Chabot of Indiana, yet another veteran of the Clinton impeachment, contrasted the current matter to impeachments of Clinton and Richard Nixon.
'President Clinton committed a crime - perjury. This president isn't even accused of committing a crime,' said Chabot. 
He said in both those prior impeachments, the 'abuse of power' charge was 'tacked on' to other charges.


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What's under debate: The printed form of the impeachment resolution 


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Chairman Jerry Nadler (3rd L) and Ranking Member Doug Collins (2nd R) begin the second day of the House Judiciary Committee's markup of House Resolution 755, Articles of Impeachment Against President Donald Trump. Republicans immediately sought to delay proceedings and rip out the heart of the Demorats' impeachment articles


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Culture war: Republicans are painting impeachment as an attempt by coastal elites to overturn the will of the heartland 


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Supporters: Donald Trump had two backers in the audience for the hearing


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Getting ready: Clerks lay out copies of the impeachment resolution before the debate
'Here, it's the main thrust of the House Democrats' entire case. The entire argument for impeachment in this case is based on a charge that is not a crime, much less a high crime.'
Even with party members making his case in the hearing room, Trump defended himself in real-time on Twitter.
'Dems Veronica Escobar and Jackson Lee purposely misquoted my call. I said I want you to do us (our Country!) a favor, not me a favor. They know that but decided to LIE in order to make a fraudulent point! Very sad,' Trump wrote.
He was going after Rep. Veronica Escobar and Sheila Jackson-Lee, in reference to the call where he told President Zelensky: 'I would like you to do us a favor though,' according to a transcript released by the White House. Trump made the remark after Zelensky mentioned Javelin missiles, and Trump mentioned a probe of the Bidens and his search for Democratic campaign server.  
While the lawmakers argued, Trump also tweeted: 'I also have constantly asked, 'Why aren't Germany, France and other European countries helping Ukraine more? They are the biggest beneficiaries. Why is it always the good ol' United States?' The Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats, never mention this at their phony hearing!'
Trump and GOP allies says millions in U.S. aid got withheld due to Trump's concerns about burden sharing – not as a pressure tactic, although numerous witnesses testified they had no idea why it was being held up, amid universal support among national security advisors.  
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, a former prosecutor, responded to the characterization. 'How about the highest crime that one who holds public office could commit? A crime against our Constitution,' he said. 
'Every other law… derives from the Constitution. Not the other way around. The president committed the highest crime against the constitution by abusing his office. Cheating in an election, inviting foeign interference, purley for personal gain' 
Lofgren took a leading role in the hearing, even as Nadler spent considerable time int he background. She also managed to introduce a controversy that did not draw a Democratic charge – the $130,000 payoff to porn start Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with Trump. Longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen is currently in jail on charges including a campaign finance violation related to the payoff.
Lofgren contrasted the Bill Clinton impeachment, which she boiled down to lying about sex, to Trump's. 
'Somehow lying about a sexual affair is an abuse of presidential power, but the misuse of presidential power you get a benefit somehow. If it's lying about sex, we could put Stormy Daniels case ahead of us,' she said. 'We don't believe it's a high crime and misdemeanor. Because it's not before us and it should not be before us –because it's not an abuse of presidential power,' she said.   
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a Trump loyalist, called the matter 'a sincere policy disagreement about how to make the Ukraine Great Again.'
'They're alleging a shakedown,' he mocked. 'You cannot have a shake down if the person allegedly being shook down doesn't' know about the shake down.' 
After the hearing's solemn beginning, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York introduced a surprise 'substitute' amendment, making a technical change that may matter for parliamentary reasons, or at least for the history books.
Nadler introduced new legislation impeaching 'Donald John Trump' rather than Donald J. Trump. That fits with the formal charges brought against William Jefferson Clinton in 1998.
The change 'just simply shows the frankly absurdity of where we're at' barked ranking Republican Rep. Doug Collins, who immediately sought to derail the proceedings by launching a procedural objection. 
The articles say the president 'abused the power of his office' and obstructed Congress in its inquiry.


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House Judiciary Committee markup of the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, on Capitol Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019, in Washington.


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Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., listens as the articles of impeachment are read during a House Judiciary Committee markup of the articles of impeachment. Democrats objected to an effort to waive the reading
As the clerk began reading the articles at the top of the hearing, a Republican objected – seeking to waive the reading. That routinely happens on less consequential matters.
But Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, who participated during the Clinton impeachment, objected. 
The angry exchanges were carried live on  CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and C-SPAN as the hearing began – but not on broadcast networks.
'Resolved, That Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate,' the clerk read. 
'Donald J. Trump has abused the powers of the Presidency,' according to the text of the 12-page articles.  


Ranking Republican Doug Collins of Georgia raised an immediate objection, saying the minority had not yet had the chance to hold hearing it had requested. 
In an open impeachment hearing Wednesday night, a Republican member of Congress spoke the name of a man widely thought to be the whistle-blower whose complaint about Donald Trump's famous phone call with Ukraine's president sparked this fall's impeachment saga. 
Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert was complaining during a hearing about two articles of impeachment that Democrats have blocked attempts to call fact witnesses who didn't support their arguments.
Gohmert called 'abuse of power [and] obstruction of Congress the very things the majority has done in preventing us from having the witnesses that could shed light on this.'
'We needed to hear from those witnesses, people like Sean Misko, Abigail Grace, [name redacted], Devin Archer, Joe Biden, Nellie Ohr, Alexandra Chalupa and so many others,' he said.
DailyMail.com has not published the name of the man, who is a Russia and Eurasia expert for the CIA, tasked to the National Intelligence Council and reporting to the director of national intelligence.


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Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert vented about witnesses Democrats blocked them from calling, including a man whose identity as the whistle-blower one GOP aide says is 'the worst-kept secret in town'


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After a Politico reporter tweeted that Gohmert had outed the whistle-blower, Virginia Democratic Rep. Don Beyer called the move 'incredible and outrageous'
[size=18]Rep. Louie Gohmert demands to hear from fact witnesses




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Democrats are steamrolling toward impeaching Donald Trump for abuse of power and contempt of Congress; Trump is pictured Wednesday night showing an executive order combating anti-semitism during a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House
Virginia Democratic congressman Don Beyer reacted with fury on Twitter.
'House Republicans just committed an incredible and outrageous breach,' Rep. Beyer wrote. 
'The President threatened the whistleblower with violence, and whether the person just named is the whistleblower or not they were just put in real danger. This is unacceptable and there should be consequences.' 
Beyer was responding to one of several reporters who tweeted that Gohmert had named the person thought to be the whistle-blower.
Gohmert didn't describe the person in any way, other than saying he thought the man should testify before lawmakers made up their mind about impeaching Trump. 
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, told DailyMail.com after the hearing that he didn't know the whistle-blower's identity, but called Gohmert's pivotal moment 'an irrelevant distraction from the real evidence in the case.'
'It's sort of like Richard Nixon blaming his own criminal conduct in Watergate on Deep Throat. It just doesn't make any sense. It's incoherent,' said Raskin.
The CIA analyst's name has floated around Washington, D.C. for months. A federal whistle-blower protection law forbids the Justice Department inspector general from revealing his name, but doesn't bar elected officials or private citizens from doing so.
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul did it in November during a radio interview in Washington, a few weeks after urging reporters during a Trump rally to 'do your job and print his name!' 
Asked on WMAL radio about that moment, he mentioned the man by name as a 'person of interest' and said he 'needs to be pulled in for testimony,'   
The alleged whistle-blower's name does appear in a transcript of a closed-door interview of a diplomat that the House Intelligence Committee's Democratic chairman Adam Schiff released last month. 
A House Republican aide said Wednesday night that the whistle-blower's name is 'the worst-kept secret in town,' and added that 'we should all start putting on our big boy pants, name the guy, and tell him to back up his allegations against Trump.'
The whistle-blower's account of the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was undercut by a summary transcript of the call the White House released later.
Democrats contend it has been largely confirmed.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7785507/Obamas-attorney-general-Eric-Holder-tears-Bill-Barr.html

[size=34]Obama's attorney general Eric Holder tears into Bill Barr calling him 'unfit to lead the Justice Department' and 'running political interference for a lawless president'[/size]

• Eric Holder, who served as Barack Obama's attorney general, slammed Bill Barr - the current holder of the top office at the Justice Department
  
  
• He said Barr is 'unfit' to lead the department and charged him with running political interference' for Donald Trump
  
  
• 'I now fear that his conduct — running political interference for an increasingly lawless president — will wreak lasting damage,' Holder
  
  
• Barr has come under fire for criticizing the FBI's role in origins of Russia probe 
  
  

By EMILY GOODIN, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 10:25 EST, 12 December 2019 | UPDATED: 10:44 EST, 12 December 2019

     



Eric Holder, who served as Barack Obama's attorney general, slammed Bill Barr as 'unfit to lead the Justice Department' and charged him with running political interference' for Donald Trump.
Holder, who had considered running for president himself in 2020, tore into Barr in an op-ed for The Washington Post, outlining a series of criticisms against the current attorney general, ranging from his comments on the FBI's investigation of the president's 2016 campaign to remarks he made about the police. 
'He is unfit to lead the Justice Department,' Holder argued.


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Eric Holder (right), who was attorney general under Barack Obama, slammed current Attorney General Bill Barr as 'unfit' to hold office 


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Attorney General Bill Barr has come under fire for his criticism of the FBI's role in the origins of the Russia probe in the 2016 election
His 900 word opinion piece focused on recent public actions by Barr.

'Barr has made a series of public statements and taken actions that are so plainly ideological, so nakedly partisan and so deeply inappropriate for America's chief law enforcement official that they demand a response from someone who held the same office,' Holder wrote. 
He charged Barr, who was appointed by Trump to the top spot at the Justice Department, with 'running political interference for an increasingly lawless president.'
'Virtually since the moment he took office, though, Barr's words and actions have been fundamentally inconsistent with his duty to the Constitution. Which is why I now fear that his conduct — running political interference for an increasingly lawless president — will wreak lasting damage,' he added.
Barr has faced criticism from Democrats for starting an internal investigation within his department for how the counterintelligence investigation into Trump's 2016 presidential campaign began.


Still it is unusual for a former office holder to criticism the current occupant of said office, a tradition of silence Holder acknowledges breaking: 'As a former U.S. attorney general, I am reluctant to publicly criticize my successors.'
Holder, who served as attorney general from 2009 to 2015, went on to question public comments from Barr he called 'so plainly ideological, so nakedly partisan and so deeply inappropriate for America's chief law enforcement official that they demand a response from someone who held the same office.'
And he argued it was inappropriate for Barr to comment on John Durham's investigation into the origins of the Russia probe while that investigation was on-going. 
'It was infuriating to watch him publicly undermine an independent inspector general report — based on an exhaustive review of the FBI's conduct — using partisan talking points bearing no resemblance to the facts his own department has uncovered.'
On Monday, the DoJ's inspector general's office released its 476-page report on the origins of the Russia probe. 
It found there were 'significant inaccuracies and omissions' in FBI surveillance warrants executed in 2016 but it also that opening of the Russia probe was 'in compliance with Department and FBI policies.'


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President Trump appointed Barr as his attorney general


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Holder, seen with Obama in September 2014, served as attorney general for five years
Barr slammed the FBI - which is housed in his Justice Department - in a blistering statement on Monday in response to the IG report, which was conducted by Inspector General Michael Horowitz and is separate from the criminal probe being conducted by Durham. Barr ordered the separate criminal probe.
'The Inspector General's report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken,' Barr wrote. 
Additionally the attorney general told NBC News this week that Durham will have the last word on the matter.
'I think our nation was turned on its head for three years based on a completely bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by a completely irresponsible press,' Barr said. 'I think there were gross abuses …and inexplicable behavior that is intolerable in the FBI.'
'I think that leaves open the possibility that there was bad faith.' 
In his op-ed piece, Holder also criticized comments Barr made that Holder claims is an 'outlandish suggestion' that Congress can't trust anyone but President Trump to execute the law.
And he criticized Barr for saying those who don't respect law enforcement 'might find themselves without the police protection they need.'
Holder concluded his argument with these words: 'The American people deserve an attorney general who serves their interests, leads the Justice Department with integrity and can be entrusted to pursue the facts and the law, even — and especially — when they are politically inconvenient and inconsistent with the personal interests of the president who appointed him. William Barr has proved he is incapable of serving as such an attorney general. He is unfit to lead the Justice Department.'
Barr became attorney general in February 2019.  
[size=18]AG Barr says communities not respecting police may lose protection




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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7787249/Woman-sues-CVS-local-pharmacy-sex-discrimination.html

[size=34]Mother of five sues CVS and her local pharmacy for discrimination after they 'refused to give her the morning-after pill due to pharmacist's beliefs'[/size]

• Andrea Anderson, 39, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in Minnesota
  
  
• Says that pharmacist at Thrifty White Pharmacy objected to morning-after pill
  
  
• Claims that when she called another CVS they also wouldn't fill prescription
  
  
• CVS says it is committed to providing access to emergency contraception
  
  

By KEITH GRIFFITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 19:06 EST, 12 December 2019 | UPDATED: 02:40 EST, 13 December 2019

     







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Andrea Anderson, 39, filed the sex discrimination lawsuit on Tuesday
A woman has sued CVS as well as her local pharmacy, alleging that she was denied the morning-after pill on discriminatory grounds.
Mother-of-five Andrea Anderson, 39, filed the sex discrimination lawsuit against Thrifty White Pharmacy in McGregor, Minnesota and CVS Pharmacy on Tuesday in Minnesota's Ninth Judicial District.
In the complaint, Anderson alleges that a pharmacist at the Thrifty White told her that he couldn't fill the prescription because of his 'personal beliefs.' 

Reached by phone by DailyMail.com on Thursday evening, an employee at the Thrifty White Pharmacy said that there was no manager available to comment.
In her complaint, Anderson says that she then tried to get her prescription filled at a CVS that was about a 25-minute drive away. 


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In the complaint, Anderson alleges that a pharmacist at the Thrifty White in McGregor (above) told her that he couldn't fill the prescription because of his 'personal beliefs'



Thrifty White is a chain headquartered in Minnesota chain with operations in six states


The lawsuit claims that the CVS pharmacist told her that the emergency contraceptive medication was out of stock there.
The suit also says that the CVS pharmacist advised Anderson not to bother calling a nearby Walgreens, saying the medication was out of stock there, but that Anderson found this not to be true when she contacted the Walgreens.
In a statement to DailyMail.com, CVS said: 'We are reviewing and investigating the allegations made in the complaint.'
'CVS Pharmacy is committed to providing access to emergency contraception, whether it is at the pharmacy counter for patients who have a prescription for it, or in our store aisles where we have sold over-the-counter emergency contraception for several years,' the statement said.
'We have policies and procedures in place to help ensure that customers seeking emergency contraception receive prompt service.'


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Anderson says that the nearby CVS (above) also wouldn't fill the prescription, telling her that the medicine was out of stock
The lawsuit alleges that the Thrifty White and CVS pharmacy discriminated against Anderson based on sex. 
'Like anywhere, there are challenges to living in a rural area,' Anderson said in a statement after filing the suit. 'But I never expected that they would include the personal beliefs of our local pharmacists, or that they would hold — and wield — such enormous decision-making power over my life.'
'The pharmacists I encountered ignored my health needs and my doctor's instructions,' she said. 
Anderson's attorney Jess Braverman, legal director for Gender Justice, told the Star Tribune that Anderson has not been in touch with representatives from CVS.
However, Braverman said that the owner of the Thrifty White pharmacy has since sent Anderson a gift card for gas that she has refused to use.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7788773/US-health-insurance-firm-Cigna-using-AI-check-patients-taking-medications.html

[size=34]US health insurance firm Cigna is using AI to check if patients are taking their medications but experts fear the controversial scheme may be used to cancel policies or avoid paying out[/size]

• Health Connect 360, developed by Cigna, will be offered to patients in January
  
  
• Database linked to online pharmacy to check how often users taking medication 
  
  
• Alerts pinged to medics if patients forget to take drugs or health deteriorates 
  
  

By CONNOR BOYD HEALTH REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 07:09 EST, 13 December 2019 | UPDATED: 08:26 EST, 13 December 2019

     




A US health insurance giant is using an AI system to monitor whether patients with chronic diseases are skipping their medication.  
Cigna's technology, Health Connect 360, will be rolled out to millions of Americans next month. 
But experts fear the technology will be used to cancel policies or avoid paying up if patients are found to be missing or incorrectly taking prescriptions.
Doctors and nurses will be able to constantly keep an eye on patients' health and step in when they have cause for concern. 

For example, an alert may be triggered if patients forget to pick up their prescription or miss an appointment.


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Health insurance giant Cigna says the technology, called Health Connect 360, will give its members personalised care at the touch of a button. But experts have told MailOnline the insurer will use it to reduce payouts and increase premiums
Patients insured with Cigna will be able to use an app on their laptops or phones to log onto the online database.
They will input updates on their health - such as blood-sugar levels, using glucometers for diabetics, and blood pressure readings for heart disease sufferers. 
If the AI notices a sudden spike or drop in these levels, it alerts doctors the patient may not be taking drugs, or they may not be working. 
For other patients, who are following their care plan and are healthy, the system will spare them needless trips to hospitals, the firm claims. 
The system is intertwined with millions of patients’ medical records, as well as the online pharmacy Express Scripts, which Cigna acquired for $54billion this year. 


Having access to medical records means the technology can cross-reference cases and predict which care to give specific patients based on what has worked for others.  
Cigna said the AI can also predict whether patients might abuse or overdose on prescribed opioids, based on their history with medication.
It has been in development since 2017 and will be offered to Cigna’s 11million insurees and its staff in the New Year.
Portions of the artificial intelligence was successfully trialled on some customers earlier this year.
Cigna’s chief information officer Mark Boxer, who is spearheading the AI project, told the Wall Street Journal: ‘Our concept around the acquisition of Express Scripts - it was much more than just simply buying a pharmacy-benefits management [company].
‘It was buying a set of care-management capabilities, and access to data and intelligence that would be very, very hard to replicate.’

HOW DOES ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LEARN? 

AI systems rely on artificial neural networks (ANNs), which try to simulate the way the brain works in order to learn.
ANNs can be trained to recognise patterns in information - including speech, text data, or visual images - and are the basis for a large number of the developments in AI over recent years.
Conventional AI uses input to 'teach' an algorithm about a particular subject by feeding it massive amounts of information.   
Practical applications include Google's language translation services, Facebook's facial recognition software and Snapchat's image altering live filters.
The process of inputting this data can be extremely time consuming, and is limited to one type of knowledge. 
A new breed of ANNs called Adversarial Neural Networks pits the wits of two AI bots against each other, which allows them to learn from each other. 
This approach is designed to speed up the process of learning, as well as refining the output created by AI systems. 



But Sam Smith, from the medical data campaign group MedConfidential, told MailOnline the insurer's interests are not the doctors nor the patients.
He said: 'Reducing payouts and increasing premiums is what insurance companies do, and they’ve always tried to use new technologies to do more of both.
'As monitoring from this app is used for one thing, it will be attractive to employers to monitor their staff even more - a digital dystopia masquerading as healthcare.'
Healthcare insurers across the US are all competing to perfect an AI system to give patients personalised care and save millions, if not billions, in payouts in the process.
But there have been several blips along the way. An algorithm used by hospitals to identify patients with chronic diseases was found to have a significant bias against black people in October. 
The artificial intelligence, sold by health firm Optum, disproportionately advised medics to give more care to white people even when black patients were sicker.
It means just 18 per cent of black patients were suggested for a continued care programme, when 47 per cent of them were in desperate need of it.
The software helps medics decide the future of roughly 200million patients across the US each year.
Scientists from universities in Chicago, Boston and Berkeley flagged the error in their study, published in the journal Science, and are working with Optum on a fix.
They said the algorithm - designed to help patients stay on medications or out of the hospital - was not intentionally racist because it specifically excluded ethnicity in its decision-making.
Rather than using illness or biological data, the tech uses cost and insurance claim information to predict how healthy a person is.
The computer system has been programmed to believe the more money spent, the sicker the patient is.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7788089/Federal-judge-Utah-rules-American-Samoans-citizens-birth-14th-amendment.html

[size=34]Federal judge in Utah rules that American Samoans are US citizens by birth under the 14th amendment and should be issued with new passports[/size]

• U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups has ruled that American Samoans are U.S. citizens
  
  
• The decision came from a 96-page ruling on Thursday that found American Samoans gain citizenship rights through the 14th amendment
  
  
•  John Fitisemanu, Pale Tuli and Rosavita Tuli filed a lawsuit against the government in 2018
  
  
• The lawsuit claimed American Samoans lost out on job opportunities and other privileges due to being 'non-citizen nationals'
  
  
• Their passports are categorized differently, reading: 'The bearer is a United States national and not a United States citizen' 
  
  
• The ruling says they should be issued new passports reflecting their citizenship
  
  
• As of now, the new ruling only applies to American Samoans present in Utah 
  
  
•  Other US territories, including Puerto Rico, are considered U.S. citizens by Congress statutes
  
  

By LAUREN EDMONDS FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 00:42 EST, 13 December 2019 | UPDATED: 02:55 EST, 13 December 2019

     


A federal judge from Utah has ruled that American Samoans are U.S. citizens by birth and should be issued new passports.
The announcement Thursday came from U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups' 69-page decision that favored plaintiffs John Fitisemanu, Pale Tuli and Rosavita Tuli after they filed a lawsuit in 2018.
They argued that as American Samoans, they deserved all rights afforded to U.S. citizens under the 14th amendment.  


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Pictured: John Fitisemanu, one of the plaintiff's in this case, posing near a courthouse with an American flag 
'Any State Department policy that provides that the citizenship provisions of the Constitution do not apply to persons born in American Samoa violates the 14th Amendment,'Waddoups wrote, according to Deseret News.  

'Further, Plaintiffs are American Samoans. They brought this action seeking to realize their rights to citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment.'
Waddoups barred the federal government from administering rules that say constitutional citizenship does not apply to people born in American Samoa.  
Neil Weare, an attorney with Equality America who represented the three plaintiffs, said the ruling is monumental. 
'This is a big day for the Constitution and it’s a big day for the American Samoan community that has been marginalized in Utah as a result of these congressional actions over the years,' he said.  


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U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups ruled that American Samoans are U.S. citizens by birth in a ruling on Thursday 
A host of U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands and the Northern Marianas, all receive American citizenship at birth based on statues in Congress. 
American Samoa was named a U.S. territory since 1900, but are not afforded the same rights and are labeled U.S. nationals.    
The Utahns claim that being categorized as 'non-citizen nationals' costs them certain employment opportunities, the ability to vote and other privileges despite paying U.S. taxes. 
Their passports are also categorized differently, reading: 'The bearer is a United States national and not a United States citizen.'
Waddoups' ruling also orders the government to issue new passports to Fitisemanu Pale and Rosavita.  


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Pale Tuli (left) and Rosavita Tuli (right) were two of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit fighting to recognized American Samoans as U.S citizens by birth


A similar case was brought to a District of Columbia federal court, but a judge ruled that decisions involving citizenship and U.S. territories belong to Congress. 
In 2016, the case made it to Supreme Court before they refused to reconsider a ruling that the Constitution does not grant citizenship to American Samoans.    
As of now, the new ruling only applies to American Samoans present in Utah and does not reflect in other states. 
Weare said: 'There’s thousands of American Samoans that live in Utah who yesterday were prohibited under federal law from being eligible to vote and today they are eligible to vote. If they want to vote they should go register and vote, and they should do that tomorrow before the case is appealed.'
Southern Utah Pacific Island Coalition in St. George was also a plaintiff in the group, and co-founder Susi Lafaele said the group will begin registering American Samoans to vote.


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 Fitisemanu (pictured) said prospective employers 'need me to show them proof that I am a U.S. citizen, which I am not' 
She said: 'It was definitely worth the wait. It was a long 13 months.'
Lafaele stated that American Samoans will no longer have to go through the oftentimes expensive process of applying for citizenship while maintaining their heritage and culture.
According to the Equality America, the policy labeled the three citizens as second-class Americans.   
Fitisemanu revealed he's been rejected from jobs that list U.S. citizenship as a requirement for hiring employees. 


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Fitisemanu (left), Rosavita Tuli (middle) and Pale Tuli will receive new passports that reflect their U.S. citizenship 
He said prospective employers, 'need me to show them proof that I am a U.S. citizen, which I am not. I sit quietly at my cubicle, and don’t say a word, because I know I can’t vote. It’s kind of embarrassing.'
Fitisemanu also said that not being a citizen has led to uncomfortable situations with colleagues. 
'It’s kind of like an office joke — "Hey! John is not a citizen, he’s an alien!" I know they’re joking, but it still hurts. It feels like a slap in your face, that you’re born on U.S. soil, but you’re not recognized as a U.S. citizen,' he said. 
Rosavita was forced to pay fees and specific permits to visit her aging parents outside of American Samoa.  


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Amata Catherine Coleman Radewagen (pictured), the American Samoa delegate to the U.S. House and the American Samoan government, was against citizenship 
Amata Catherine Coleman Radewagen, the American Samoa delegate to the U.S. House and the American Samoan government,' argued against citizenship. 
She, as well as other intervenors, said: 'imposition of citizenship by judicial fiat would fail to recognize American Samoa’s sovereignty and the importance of the fa’a Samoa' - or 'the Samoan way of life.'
They contended that: 'imposition of citizenship over American Samoan’s objections violates fundamental principles of self-determination.'
Waddoups responded to such claims by saying that court's decision was based on the long-held 14th amendment. 
'In response, this court is not imposing ‘citizenship by judicial fiat.’ The action is required by the mandate of the 14th Amendment as construed and applied by Supreme Court precedent,' he said. 
'It is not this court’s role to weigh in on what effect, if any, a ruling in plaintiffs’ favor may have on fa’a Samoa. This court must apply binding precedent.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7790229/Boris-Johnsons-victory-help-win-2020-says-Donald-Trump.html

[size=34]Boris Johnson's victory could help ME win in 2020 says Donald Trump as he hails UK Conservative's defeat of hard-left Labour and promises good news on a British trade deal[/size]

• Donald Trump claimed Boris Johnson's resounding victory in Britain could foreshadow his own re-election next year 
  
  
• ‘I want to congratulate Boris Johnson on a terrific victory. I think that might be a harbinger of what's to come in our country,' he said 
  
  
• Johnson's Conservative Party won a solid majority of seats in Britain's Parliament
  
  
• Trump and Johnson are personal friends
  
  
• The president also said there would be good news on a U.S.-UK trade deal 
  
  
• 'It's going to be a great thing for the United States also, because it means a lot of trade, tremendous amount of trade,' Trump said 
  
  

By EMILY GOODIN, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 12:44 EST, 13 December 2019 | UPDATED: 13:47 EST, 13 December 2019

     





Donald Trump on Friday claimed Boris Johnson's resounding victory in Britain could foreshadow his own re-election next year.
‘I want to congratulate Boris Johnson on a terrific victory. I think that might be a harbinger of what's to come in our country,' he said during an Oval Office sit down with Paraguay President Mario Abdo Benitez.
'It was last time,' the president said, which was likely a reference to the original Brexit approval vote, which took place in June 2016 - six months before Trump won the American presidential election.
[size=10][size=18]Trump congratulates friend Boris Johnson on PM victory




[/size][/size]










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Donald Trump claimed Boris Johnson's resounding victory in Britain could foreshadow his own re-election next year


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Trump and Johnson are personal friends
Johnson's Conservative Party won a solid majority of seats in Britain's Parliament on Thursday - a decisive outcome to a Brexit-dominated election that should allow Johnson to fulfill his plan to take the U.K. out of the European Union next month. 

President Trump promised good news on an Anglo-American trade deal, which would be needed once Johnson takes Britain out of the European Union.
'It's going to be a great thing for the United States also, because it means a lot of trade, tremendous amount of trade. They want to do business with so badly. Under the European Union it was very hard for them to do business with us,' Trump claimed.
 With all 650 Parliament seats declared, Conservatives had 365 seats and Labour just 203 - giving Johnson a big victory. The prime minister took a chance calling a parliamentary election and it paid off for him and his plans to take Britain out of the EU.
Trump and Johnson are friends - the president has given Johnson his personal cell phone number.


And that friendship appears to be back on strong ground after Johnson pleaded with the president not to interfere in the British contest when Trump was in London last week for the NATO summit. 
Additionally, Johnson refused to meet publicly with Trump although the two men talked at a reception at 10 Downing that Johnson held for all the NATO leaders.  
'This was a tremendous victory last night. And it’s very interesting – the final votes are being tallied right now but the numbers are tremendous. I want to congratulate him. He's a friend of mine,' Trump said Friday of Johnson. 
The two men are often compared for their flamboyant political rhetoric and floppy blonde hair styles.  
Meanwhile, comparisons are pouring in between Trump's 2016 win and Johnson's victory.
Donald Trump, in 2016, won the White House when he captured blue-collar voters in the Rust Belt states of the industrial MidWest.
Johnson won when his party captured Parliamentary seats across industrial towns in England's north and midlands that had been held by the Labour Party for decades. 
Trump wasn't the only one foreshadowing a win for himself out of Johnson's victory.
Joe Biden warned Democrats that Labour Party loses in the Britain's election on Thursday shows what can happen when a party moves too far to the left. 


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Joe Biden warned Democrats that Labour Party loses in the Britain's election shows what can happen when a party moves too far to the left


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Biden warned that Boris Johnson's victory could foreshadow a Donald Trump win next year
[size=18]Boris Johnson addresses the nation after election win




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The former vice president, speaking at a fundraiser in San Francisco on Thursday evening, warned the Conservative victory could foreshadow the 2020 American election, calling Johnson a 'physical and emotional clone' of Trump. 
'Boris Johnson is winning in a walk,' Biden told the crowd. 
He then predicted that Friday headlines covering Labour's walloping would say: 'Look what happens when the Labour Party moves so, so far to the left. It comes up with ideas that are not able to be contained within a rational basis quickly.'
He argued that could predict a Trump victory next year. 
'You're also going to see people saying, my god, Boris Johnson, who is kind of a physical and emotional clone of the president, is able to win,' he noted.

Donald tRump couldn't spell or define "harbinger" if you put a gun to his fat, orange head.

I'm sure he was on a MickeyD's break while some traitorous staffer tweeted from his unsecured Kremlin-ready phone.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7793401/Donald-Trump-rips-Debbie-Dingell-really-pathetic-backing-impeachment.html

[size=34]Donald Trump rips Democrat Rep. Debbie Dingell as 'really pathetic' for backing impeachment after he 'granted top memorial and funeral service honors' for her late husband[/size]

• Trump lobbed the attack against Rep Debbie Dingell in a tweet on Saturday
  
  
• She says she will likely support impeachment despite polls in her home Michigan
  
  
• Dingell is a centrist Democrat who has long been hesitant about impeachment
  
  
• She is the widow of John Dingell, the longest serving member of Congress ever
  
  
• John Dingell passed away in February after serving 59 years in the House 
  
  
• Trump boasted that he 'granted top memorial and funeral service honors' 
  
  

By KEITH GRIFFITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and REUTERS
PUBLISHED: 19:35 EST, 14 December 2019 | UPDATED: 19:39 EST, 14 December 2019

     




President Donald Trump has lobbed an attack at Rep. Debbie Dingell, a centrist Democrat from Michigan, for saying she will likely support impeachment. 
'The last time I spoke to Debbie Dingell was her call thanking me for granting top memorial and funeral service honors for her then just departed husband, long time Congressman John Dingell,' Trump tweeted on Saturday.
John Dingell died in February at the age of 92 after serving 59 years in the House, the longest that any member of Congress has ever served. 
Trump continued: 'Now I watch her ripping me as part of the Democrats Impeachment Hoax. Really pathetic!'

Debbie Dingell, who represents the suburbs of Detroit, had long been a holdout in committing to impeachment, but recently indicated that she is likely to support House Democrats' two articles of impeachment against Trump.


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Trump, seen at Saturday's Army-Navy football game, has lobbed an attack at Rep. Debbie Dingell, a centrist Democrat from Michigan, for saying she will likely support impeachment


+5


Debbie Dingell had long been a holdout in committing to impeachment, but recently indicated that she is likely to support House Democrats' two articles of impeachment against Trump




However, she recently indicated she is likely to vote to pass the articles of impeachment, despite polls showing that support for impeaching Trump is declining in Michigan.
Dingell said she 'wasn't elected to do what was popularly right' in a recent interview with Fox News. 
Dingell said that, while she is waiting to read the formal recommendations by the House Judiciary Committee, she thinks there has been a 'lot of evidence that the president did hold up money to the Ukraine that had been appropriated by the Congress in exchange for investigating a potential political candidate.'
'I was elected to protect our Constitution and our democracy,' the congresswoman continued. 'And, that's what my vote is going to reflect. Have we in some way endangered our national security? And I think things that I've seen and the obstruction of justice lead me to be very concerned.'
On Friday, a divided House Judiciary Committee voted 23-17 along party lines to approve articles of impeachment charging Trump with abusing the power of his office over the Ukraine scandal and obstructing House Democrats' attempts to investigate him for it.
Trump is expected to become the third U.S. president to be impeached when the full Democratic-led House votes on the charges, likely next week, setting up a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate. Trump's fellow Republicans have shown no signs of wanting to remove Trump from office.
[size=18]Family and friends arrive for the funeral of John Dingell




[/size]





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The casket of former Congressman John Dingell (D-MI) is carried out to the hearse followed by his wife Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI) after his funeral in February


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Representative John Dingell (seen on 2008) served 59 years in the House, the longest that any member of Congress has ever served
In congressional hearings that have gripped Washington, Democrats accused the president of endangering the U.S. Constitution, jeopardizing national security and undermining the integrity of the 2020 election by asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a July phone call to investigate Biden.
'Today is a solemn and sad day,' said Representative Jerrold Nadler, the judiciary committee's Democratic chairman. 'For the third time in a little over a century and a half, the House Judiciary Committee has voted articles of impeachment against the president.'
Republicans have defended Trump and accused Democrats of a politically motivated farce aimed at overturning his surprise 2016 presidential election victory.
'Impeachment is a hoax. It's a sham,' Trump told reporters at the White House after the committee's vote. 'There was nothing done wrong. To use the power of impeachment for this nonsense is an embarrassment to this country.'
If impeached, Trump is due to go on trial in the Senate in January just as the 2020 presidential campaign, in which he is seeking re-election, picks up speed.
He said he thought Americans 'are absolutely disgusted' with the process, but that it was benefiting him. 'It's a very sad thing for our country, but it seems to be good for me politically,' Trump said.
Biden, a former U.S. vice president, is a leading Democratic candidate to face Trump in the Nov. 3 election. Trump has alleged that Biden was involved in corruption in Ukraine and should be investigated there, but has offered no evidence. Biden has denied wrongdoing. 
[size=18]President Trump says he 'wouldn't mind a long' impeachment trial




Lo[/size]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7795427/Turkey-threatens-close-air-base-hosts-nuclear-warheads-response-proposed-sanctions.html

[size=34]Turkey threatens to close air base that hosts US nuclear warheads in response to proposed sanctions and genocide declaration over mass killings of Armenians[/size]

• President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkey has the authority to shut the base down 'if is necessary'
  
  
• Erdogan also said Turkey could respond to an approved Senate bill recognizing the killings of indigenous Armenians in past centuries as genocide
  
  
• The move infuriated Turkey and further strained ties between Ankara and Washington 
  
  

By RALPH R. ORTEGA FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and REUTERS
PUBLISHED: 18:33 EST, 15 December 2019 | UPDATED: 20:23 EST, 15 December 2019

     



Turkey could shut down its Incirlik air base, which hosts U.S. nuclear warheads, in response to threats of U.S. sanctions and a separate U.S. Senate resolution that recognized mass killings of Armenians a century ago as genocide, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday.
'If it is necessary for us to take such a step, of course we have the authority ... If this is necessary, together with our delegations, we will close down Incirlik if necessary,' Erdogan said on A Haber TV.
Turkey can also close down the Kurecik radar base if necessary, he added. 


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Turkey could shut down its Incirlik air base, which hosts U.S. nuclear warheads, in response to threats of U.S. sanctions and a separate U.S. Senate resolution that recognized mass killings of Armenians a century ago as genocide, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday


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Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey has been a main base for U.S. operations in the Middle East and more recently in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, while Kurecik, in eastern Turkey, is a key NATO base
'If they are threatening us with the implementation of these sanctions, of course we will be retaliating,' he said.

Turkey condemned the U.S. Senate measure last week. 
Erdogan suggested on Sunday that Turkey could also respond with parliamentary resolutions after U.S. lawmakers took steps to recognize the Armenian genocide from centuries ago.
[size=10][size=18]US Senate passes resolution recognizing Armenian genocide




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A unanimous vote to recognize the mass killings of Armenians was blocked by the White House and three times by three different Republican senators, but passed Thursday. 
The move infuriated Turkey and further strained ties between Ankara and Washington. 


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A unanimous vote to recognize the mass killings of Armenians was blocked by the White House and three times by three different Republican senators, but passed in the senate on Thursday. The move infuriated Turkey and further strained ties between Ankara and Washington
President Donald Trump does not have to sign it as it's a non-binding resolution. 
Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu' had already said that the United States could be barred from using Incirlik and another strategic airbase, Kurecik, in retaliation to possible U.S. sanctions against his country last week, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
Cavusoglu's comments came amid reports that U.S. lawmakers had agreed on a defense bill that also includes calls to sanction Turkey over its decision to proceed with the purchase and deployment of Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems.
Cavusoglu said: 'In the event of a decision to sanction Turkey, the Incirlik and Kurecik airbases can be brought to the agenda.
'Congress members must understand that it is not possible to get anywhere with sanctions'.
Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey has been a main base for U.S. operations in the Middle East and more recently in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, while Kurecik, in eastern Turkey, is a key NATO base.
[size=18]Trump welcomes Erdogan to DC as protests rage outside White House




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Turkey's decision to proceed with the purchase of the Russian system has added to growing tensions between the two NATO allies.
Turkey shrugged off threats of U.S. sanctions and began receiving its first S-400 deliveries in July.
In response, Washington said the Russian system poses a threat to NATO and removed Turkey from the U.S.-led F-35 stealth fighter jet program.
Turkey's S-400 purchase infuriated the U.S. Congress. The House of Representatives passed a sanctions package to punish Turkey over its Syria operation in October while key members of the Senate, such as Trump ally Republican Lindsey Graham, have vowed to advance it if Ankara endangers Kurds.
Tensions were raised further after Turkey launched an incursion into northeastern Syria to drive away Syrian Kurdish forces that had partnered with the U.S. in the fight against the Islamic State group.
Turkey considers the Kurdish fighters as terrorists because of their links to outlawed Kurdish rebels fighting inside Turkey.


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An aerial view of the airfield at Incirlik Air Base, circa 1987An aerial view of the airfield at Incirlik Air Base, one of two bases to which the 401st Tactical Fighter Wing deploys its forces during a time of conflict
[size=18]Trump requests a FRIENDLY Turkish reporter during cagey press conference




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Very very scary man.............diplomacy would come in handy.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7794043/UN-climate-talks-limp-finish-line-key-questions-left.html

[size=34]'Disappointment' as climate talks end with compromise and major polluting nations delay rules on carbon emissions for another year[/size]

• UN climate talks ended with a compromise that was described as 'disappointing'
  
  
• Marathon discussions saw big polluters block moves to ramp up climate targets
  
  
• Delegates from almost 200 nations in Madrid kept far beyond scheduled close
  
  
• UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was 'disappointed' by meeting
  
  

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 02:40 EST, 15 December 2019 | UPDATED: 11:22 EST, 16 December 2019

     



Marathon UN climate talks ended last night with a slim compromise that sparked widespread disappointment.
Major polluters resisted calls for ramping up efforts to keep global warming at bay and negotiators postponed debate about rules for international carbon markets for another year.
Organisers kept delegates from almost 200 nations in Madrid far beyond Friday's scheduled close of the two-week talks. 
In the end, negotiators endorsed a general call for greater efforts to tackle climate change and several measures to help poor countries respond and adapt to its impacts.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was 'disappointed' by the meeting's outcome.


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Activists protest outside of the COP25 climate talks congress in Madrid, Spain, on Saturday by putting nooses around their necks. United Nations Secretary-General warned that failure to tackle global warming could result in economic disaster


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Activist protest outside of the COP25 climate talks congress in Madrid, Spain, on Saturday. Scientists say greenhouse gas emissions must start dropping sharply as soon as possible to prevent global temperatures rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius
'The international community lost an important opportunity to show increased ambition on mitigation, adaptation and finance to tackle the climate crisis,' he said. 'We must not give up and I will not give up.'
The final declaration cited an 'urgent need' to cut planet-heating greenhouse gases in line with the goals of the landmark 2015 Paris climate change accord. 
But it fell far short of explicitly demanding that countries submit bolder emissions proposals next year, which developing countries and environmentalists had demanded.
The Paris accord established a common goal of keeping temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), ideally 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century. 
So far, the world is on course for a 3- to 4-degree Celsius rise, with potentially dramatic consequences for many countries, including rising sea levels and fiercer storms.
After two nights of fractious negotiations, delegates in Madrid decided to defer some of the thorniest issues to the next U.N. climate summit in Glasgow in November.


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Smoke and steam rising from a coal processing plant that produces carbon black, an ingredient in steel manufacturing, in Hejin in central China's Shanxi Province


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COP25 party members talking ahead of the closing plenary in Madrid, on Sunday. Negotiators from almost 200 nations planned to gather for a final time at the UN climate meeting in Madrid to pass declarations calling for greater ambition in cutting planet-heating greenhouse gases and in helping poor countries suffering the effects of climate change
Chile's Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt, who chaired the meeting, said she was 'sad' no deal had been reached on the rules for international trading in carbon emissions permits.
'We were on the verge,' she said, adding that the goal was to establish markets that are 'robust and environmentally sustainable.'
Economists say putting a price on carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, and allowing countries or companies to trade emissions permits, will encourage the shift to away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy.
Some observers welcomed the failure of a deal on carbon markets, though, and the European Union and developing countries had said beforehand that no deal was better than a bad one.
'Thankfully, the weak rules on a market-based mechanism, promoted by Brazil and Australia, that would have undermined efforts to reduce emissions, have been shelved,' said Mohamed Adow, director of Nairobi-based campaign group Power Shift Africa.
Helen Mountford, from the environmental think-tank World Resources Institute, said that 'given the high risks of loopholes discussed in Madrid, it was better to delay than accept rules that would have compromised the integrity of the Paris Agreement.'
The talks in Spain took place against a backdrop of growing worldwide concern about climate change. 


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Sheep waiting for food from a small scale farmer donated from an established farmer in Vosburg, South Africa last month


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A visitor resting at the at the COP25 summit in Madrid, on Sunday.  A key issue at the talks, an agreement on international carbon markets, has eluded officials even after the Chilean chair extended Friday's talks deadline to allow more time for negotiations
The past year saw large protests in hundreds of cities around the globe and climate activists staged several rallies inside and outside the conference venue to express their frustration at the slow pace of the talks.
The meeting was moved from Chile's capital Santiago to Madrid at a month's due to violent protests against the Chilean government, which was under pressure to deliver a positive result.


Delegates made some progress on financial aid for poor countries affected by climate change, despite strong resistance from the United States to any clause holding big polluters liable for the damage caused by their emissions. 
Countries agreed four years ago to funnel $100 billion per year by 2020 to assist developing nations, but so far nowhere near that amount has been raised.
Under the Paris accord, countries are supposed to regularly review their national emissions reduction targets and increase them if necessary. 


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COP25 President Carolina Schmidt (left) talking with party members during the closing plenary in Madrid, on Sunday
Last week, the European Union agreed a goal of becoming carbon neutral by mid-century, but the move did little to sway discussions in Madrid about setting more ambitious targets in the medium term, an issue that will be on the agenda again in Glasgow.
The United States will be excluded from much of those talks after President Donald Trump announced the country's withdrawal from the Paris accord, a process than comes into force November 4, 2020.
Scientists said the longer countries wait to cut emissions, the harder it will be to meet the Paris temperature target.
'The global emissions' curve needs to bend in 2020,' said Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research near Berlin.
'Emissions need to be cut half by 2030, and net zero emissions need to be a reality by 2050,' he said. 
'Achieving this is possible - with existing technologies and within our current economy. The window of opportunity is open, but barely.'

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/dec/17/purdue-payments-to-sackler-family-surged-after-oxycontin-fine

...so the Sackler family took millions more out of the company...............

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7801271/750-scholars-pen-open-letter-urging-House-impeach-Donald-Trump.html

[size=34]'If Donald Trump's misconduct does not rise to the level of impeachment, then nothing does': 750 historians pen open letter urging the House to impeach the president[/size]

• House is due to vote Wednesday on two articles of impeachment against Trump 
  
  
• 750 historians penned an open letter urging representatives to back the move 
  
  
• They say Trump's 'flagrant abuses of power' and disregard for rule of law are 'precisely what the [founders] had in mind as grounds for impeachment'
  
  
• After House vote the articles will go to Republican-controlled Senate for trial 
  
  

By CHRIS PLEASANCE FOR MAILONLINE 
PUBLISHED: 07:44 EST, 17 December 2019 | UPDATED: 10:58 EST, 17 December 2019

     




Hundreds of historians including the author whose biography of Alexander Hamilton inspired the hit musical have written an open letter urging the House to vote to impeach President Trump.
In the letter, 750 prominent figures including professors from Harvard, Yale and Stanford argue that Trump's 'abuses of power' are 'precisely what the [founders] had in mind as grounds for impeaching and removing a president.'
'If President Trump's misconduct does not rise to the level of impeachment, then virtually nothing does,' they write in the letter, which was published by Medium. 
Historians Ron Chernow, Jon Meacham, and Douglas Brinkley are among signatories to the letter, alongside the likes of filmmaker Ken Burns and biographer Robert Caro.

Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton inspired the hit musical and he has also written biographies of George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant; Meacham has written biographies of Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson and George H.W. Bush; and Meacham's works include histories of Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and editing Ronald Reagan's diaries.
Caro is the continuing biographer of Lyndon Johnson, and most famous for his work The Master Builder on Robert Moses, the urban planner who reshaped New York.
And Ken Burns is known for documentaries including The Civil War, the Roosevelts and The Vietnam War.
The House is due to vote Wednesday on two articles of impeachment against Trump - one alleging that he violated his oath of office by soliciting Ukraine to smear rival Joe Biden, and a second that he obstructed the subsequent investigation.


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Hundreds of scholars, historians and other prominent figures have signed an open letter urging the House to vote to impeach President Trump


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Signatories argue that Trump's 'abuses of power' are 'precisely what the [founders] had in mind as grounds for impeachment' (pictured, the House of Representatives chamber where the vote is due to take place Wednesday)
Both articled are expected to pass and will then be sent to the Senate for trial.  
Republicans say the impeachment is a politically-motivated 'witch hunt' by Democrats who have still not accepted Trump's 2016 election victory.
In the letter, academics argue that Trump has violated his oath of office to 'uphold the Constitution' by urging Ukrainian president Vlodomir Zelensky to launch an investigation into Biden.


They describe the Ukraine scandal as a 'flagrant abuse of power' that has been 'hurtful to the Constitution'.
They go on to attack Trump's 'lawless obstruction' of the House investigation, saying it 'has demonstrated brazen contempt for representative government.'
'So have his attempts to justify that obstruction on the grounds that the executive enjoys absolute immunity, a fictitious doctrine that, if tolerated, would turn the president into an elected monarch above the law,' they write.
Arguing that Trump has shown a complete disregard for both the rule of law and Constitution, they conclude: 'That disregard continues and it constitutes a clear and present danger. 


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Democrats argue that Trump violated his oath of office by soliciting Ukraine for dirt on Joe Biden, while Republicans have derided impeachment as an attempt to do-over the 2016 election (pictured, pro-Trump protesters)
'We therefore strongly urge the House of Representatives to impeach the President.'
The House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines last week to bring the two articles of impeachment, setting up Wednesday's debate and vote.
On Sunday a 650-page report was released outlining the case for impeachment, including evidence uncovered by House investigative committees.
'Taken together, the articles charge that President Trump has placed his personal, political interests above our national security, our free and fair elections, and our system of checks and balances,' the report says.
The House Rules Committee is due to meet Tuesday to set out the parameters for the debate, including who can speak, for how long, and the text of the articles.
A vote is currently scheduled for Wednesday, though may be delayed until Thursday if the debates run long.
The articles are expected to pass with a vote largely split along party lines, though at least two Democrats who hold seats in states that Trump won in 2016 could cross the aisle and vote against.


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The House is expected to pass both articles of impeachment along a roughly party-lines vote, though at least two Democrats could cross the aisle and vote against (pictured, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi)


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After the House vote the articles will pass to the Senate for trial, where they are expected to be shot down by the Republican Majority (left, Democrat Senate leader Chuck Schumer, right, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell)
[size=18]Republicans react to House approving articles of impeachment




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One such democrat is Jeff Van Drew, of New Jersey, who is expected to defect to the Republican party shortly before the vote.
Van Drew, a freshman Democrat elected in 2018, has consistently voted against impeachment.
He met with Trump at the White House on Friday before the majority of his staff abruptly quit, and news of his defection leaked. 
Once the articles have passed the House they go to the Senate as a 'privileged' resolution, meaning Senators must drop all other business and take them up.
Ahead of the trial, Democrat leader Chuck Schumer and Republican leader Mitch McConnell will try to negotiate a resolution setting out rules for the trial - including who can testify and for how long. 
Any trial would likely take place in January, though how long it will last is unclear - McConnell has been making the case for a quick hearing, though Trump has mulled taking longer and calling witnesses including Hunter Biden to testify.
All 100 Senators will act as jurors during the trial, with a two-thirds majority required to convict. Republicans currently control the Senate. 


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Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns (left) and Lydon Johnson biographer Robert Caro (right) are among figures to have added their names to the letter


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Historians Ron Chernow (left), whose biography of Alexander Hamilton inspired the musical, and Douglas Brinkley (right), who has written biographies of John Kerry and his actions in the Vietnam War, were also on the list of signatories

[size=34]READ THE HISTORIANS' LETTER URGING IMPEACHMENT [/size]

We are American historians devoted to studying our nation's past who have concluded that Donald J. Trump has violated his oath to 'faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States' and to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.' His 'attempts to subvert the Constitution,' as George Mason described impeachable offenses at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, urgently and justly require his impeachment.
President Trump's numerous and flagrant abuses of power are precisely what the Framers had in mind as grounds for impeaching and removing a president. Among those most hurtful to the Constitution have been his attempts to coerce the country of Ukraine, under attack from Russia, an adversary power to the United States, by withholding essential military assistance in exchange for the fabrication and legitimization of false information in order to advance his own re-election.
President Trump's lawless obstruction of the House of Representatives, which is rightly seeking documents and witness testimony in pursuit of its constitutionally-mandated oversight role, has demonstrated brazen contempt for representative government. So have his attempts to justify that obstruction on the grounds that the executive enjoys absolute immunity, a fictitious doctrine that, if tolerated, would turn the president into an elected monarch above the law.
As Alexander Hamilton wrote in The Federalist, impeachment was designed to deal with 'the misconduct of public men' which involves 'the abuse or violation of some public trust.' Collectively, the President's offenses, including his dereliction in protecting the integrity of the 2020 election from Russian disinformation and renewed interference, arouse once again the Framers' most profound fears that powerful members of government would become, in Hamilton's words, 'the mercenary instruments of foreign corruption.'
It is our considered judgment that if President Trump's misconduct does not rise to the level of impeachment, then virtually nothing does.
Hamilton understood, as he wrote in 1792, that the republic remained vulnerable to the rise of an unscrupulous demagogue, 'unprincipled in private life, desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents…despotic in his ordinary demeanour.' That demagogue, Hamilton said, could easily enough manage 'to mount the hobby horse of popularity — to join in the cry of danger to liberty — to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion — to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day.' Such a figure, Hamilton wrote, would 'throw things into confusion that he may 'ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.'
President Trump's actions committed both before and during the House investigations fit Hamilton's description and manifest utter and deliberate scorn for the rule of law and 'repeated injuries' to constitutional democracy. That disregard continues and it constitutes a clear and present danger to the Constitution. We therefore strongly urge the House of Representatives to impeach the President.

Gave up watching the impeachment proceedings when the Republicans started spouting the same crap as usual. They don't care what drumpf did. For them it's all process over content and party over country. We are royally screwed no matter what happens next.

Yes we are Lizzy, we know he won't be impeached. The people of this country need to think about who they are voting for and realize we have rules and everyone needs to be held accountable when they break them. That includes the President. The next eleven months are going to be hell for all of us.

https://people.com/politics/john-dingell-congresswoman-debbie-dingle-responds-trump-suggesting-husband-went-to-hell/

[size=48]Rep. John Dingell's Widow Slams Trump for Suggesting the Congresswoman's Late Husband Went to Hell[/size]

"You brought me down in a way you can never imagine and your hurtful words just made my healing much harder," Rep. Debbie Dingell wrote in an eloquent tweet Wednesday
By Ashley Boucher 
December 19, 2019 01:33 AM
FB[url=https://www.twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Rep. John Dingell%27s Widow Slams Trump for Suggesting the]Twitter[/url]
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The same day the House of Representatives voted to impeach Donald Trump, he held a campaign rally in Battle Creek, Michigan. During the rally, he not only said he isn’t “worried” about being impeached, but suggested that the late Rep. John Dingell was looking upon the political proceedings in the afterlife — from hell.
“Debbie Dingell, that’s a real beauty,” Trump said, according to CNN, of John’s widow, who is a Michigan Congresswoman. Debbie voted in favor of his impeachment on Wednesday.
Trump went on to recount a conversation he had with Debbie after John’s death in February at age 92, in which he said Debbie told him her husband was “looking down” on his funeral, the outlet reported.
“Maybe he’s looking up,” Trump then said at the rally. “Maybe, but let’s assume he’s looking down.”
John was the longest-serving congressman in history, and CNN reported that the disrespectful remark did not seem to land with Trump’s audience in John’s home state.

Debbie now represents the state’s 12th Congressional District, and addressed Trump on Twitter, saying that he hurt her “in a way you can never imagine.”
“Mr. President, let’s set politics aside. My husband earned all his accolades after a lifetime of service,” Debbie wrote on the social media platform. “I’m preparing for the first holiday season without the man I love. You brought me down in a way you can never imagine and your hurtful words just made my healing much harder.”
RELATED: Donald Trump Impeached by House of Representatives Over Ukraine Scandal

Earlier on Wednesday, Debbie applauded House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Twitter and Instagram for “strong leadership and an empathetic hand” in the impeachment proceedings.
Debbie explained in an op-ed for the New York Times published on Tuesday that though she was initially “hesitant” to vote in favor of impeachment, his Ukraine scandal was the last straw for her.
“The facts showed that President Trump and his administration put politics over country by asking a foreign government to investigate a political rival while withholding military aid that affects our national security,” she wrote. “Further evidence showed a clear obstruction of Congress. Blocking key witnesses from the administration from testifying and even intimidating sitting witnesses sets a dangerous precedent.”
“If we don’t address this abuse of power, we abdicate our constitutional and moral responsibility. Failing to address it would also condone these actions as acceptable for future administrations,” she continued, adding in conclusion that she would vote for impeachment “to protect our Constitution, our democratic republic and the future of our country.” 
Trump’s seeming attack on John Wednesday night isn’t the first time he’s been accused of speaking ill of the dead.
“I have to be honest, I never liked him much. Hasn’t been for me. I’ve really, probably, never will,” Trump said in March of the late Senator John McCain, after inaccurately stating that he had to “approve” the Senator’s memorial services.
RELATED: President Donald Trump Responds to Historic Impeachment Vote: ‘I’m Not Worried’
After the remarks, John’s daughter Meghan McCain spoke out about it on The View.
“[Trump] spends his weekend obsessing over great men because — he knows it and I know it and all of you know it — he will never be a great man,” she said. “My father was his kryptonite in life, he’s his kryptonite in death.”
Also in March, Cindy McCain shared a vicious message that someone had sent her speaking ill of her late husband, who died in 2018 after battling brain cancer.
“I want to make sure all of you could see how kind and loving a stranger can be,” Cindy, 64, wrote on Twitter with a screenshot of the message. “I’m posting her note [so] her family and friends could see.”

• 
  By Ashley Boucher@ashleybreports
  
  

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7807671/Donald-Trump-IMPEACHED-just-two-Democrats-voting-against-party.html

[size=34]Donald Trump is IMPEACHED on TWO charges: Three Democrats defect as House votes 230 to 197 to charge him with 'abuse of power' and 229 to 198 with 'obstructing Congress'[/size]

• Donald Trump became the third American president to be impeached
  
  
• House approved two articles of impeachment on a largely party-line vote 
  
  
• The vote on the first article of impeachment - abuse of power - was 230 to 197
  
  
• The vote on the second article - obstruction of Congress - was 229 to 198 
  
  
• Nancy Pelosi said Donald Trump gave them no choice but to impeach him 
  
  
• 'It is tragic that the president's reckless actions make impeachment necessary. He gave us no choice,' she said 
  
  
• She threatened not to send impeachment articles to the Senate until Mitch McConnell announced the process under which the Senate would hold its trial 
  
  
• Vote came as Trump spoke at a campaign rally in Michigan 
  
  
• 'It doesn't really feel like we're being impeached,' he said
  
  
• 'I'm having a good time, it's crazy,' he remarked later after the vote concluded 
  
  

By EMILY GOODIN, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 20:24 EST, 18 December 2019 | UPDATED: 04:15 EST, 19 December 2019

     



Donald Trump became the third president in American history to be impeached on Wednesday on a largely party line vote, setting up a formal trial next year in the Senate. 
The impeachment vote capped off a three month investigation into the president's actions in regard to the Ukraine. The vote came at the end of a day-long partisan debate on the House floor with Republicans charging Democrats with wanting to over turn the last presidential election and Democrats arguing the president tried to use a foreign power to help him win re-election. 
Republicans voted as a bloc against both articles of impeachment - the first on abuse of power, the second on obstruction of Congress - but three Democrats broke ranks to vote against.
Jeff Van Drew and Collin Peterson, who hold seats in states that Trump won in 2016, both voted 'no' on the first count. They were joined on the second count by Jared Golden, whose district is also deep in Trump country.

Donald Trump, who was holding a rally in Michigan at the time the ballots were cast, hailed the defections - calling it 'unheard of'. 
Fellow Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, who is running for president, was the only member of her party to vote 'present' on both - refusing to come down for or against.
'A great day for the constitution of the United States,' Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after the votes concluded.  
[size=10][size=18]Donald Trump becomes the third US president to be impeached




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Speaker Nancy Pelosi presided over the impeachment vote


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Republicans rushed to the speaker's dais to cast paper ballots


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Collin Peterson (left) and Jeff Van Drew, both Democrats with seats in states that Trump won in 2016, voted 'no' on both articles of impeachment - and were joined by Jared Golden, who voted 'no' against the obstruction count


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The voting board in the House during the impeachment vote


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Donald Trump became the third American president impeached


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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi kept her Democrats in line during the impeachment process

‘I could not be prouder or more inspired by the moral courage of House Democrats. We never asked one of them how they are going to vote. We never whipped this vote. We saw the vote -- well, you saw the public statements that some of them made, we saw the result when everyone else did,’ she said.
‘The statements on the floor about patriotism and about being very true to the vision of our founders. And so I view this day, this vote as something that we did to honor the vision of our founders, to establish a republic, the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform to defend our democracy and that republic and the aspirations of our children, that they will always live in a democracy,’ she added.
The House held two separate votes - one on each article of impeachment. Pelosi presided over the votes and largely kept her party in line. And she silenced a few Democratic lawmakers who cheered the outcome with a flick of her wrist. The speaker made it clear before the vote she did not want Democrats to be celebrating what she considered a grave constitutional matter.
The vote on the first article of impeachment - abuse of power - was 230 to 197. The vote on the second article - obstruction of Congress - was 229 to 198.
'On this vote, the yeas are 230. The nays are 197. Present is one. Article one is adopted,' Pelosi announced after she gaveled the vote on the first article to a close. 
On this vote, the yeas are 229. The nays are 198. Present is one. Article two is adopted,' she said at the end of the second vote. 
Republicans lawmakers rushed to the speaker's dais to cast their votes by paper ballot, which means the votes had to be tallied by hand by the Clerk of the House. The usual procedure is for lawmakers to vote via an electronic system. 
Some lawmakers were spotted taking selfies with their ballots before they officially casted them.
Pelosi voted yes on both articles, casting a rare vote. The speaker of the House typically does not vote on any legislative matter. 
Trump was in Michigan for a campaign rally as the House of Representatives held its impeachment vote. He was speaking in Amash's district. 
'By the way by the way it doesn't really feel like we're being impeached,' he told the crowd.
He went after the Democrats' with his favorite moniker for them - 'crazy.'
'Through their depraved actions today "Crazy Nancy" Pelosi's House Democrats have branded themselves with an eternal mark of shame,' he said.  
'I'm having a good time, it's crazy,' he remarked later after the vote concluded. 
'I'm not worried,' he noted of next year's presidential election. 'In the life of Trump, 10 months is an eternity.'
Trump's approval rating has improved over the course of the impeachment proceedings, a new poll revealed Wednesday.
The president's approval reached 45 per cent in the Gallup poll conducted December 2-15, up from 39 per cent in October – just days after Pelosi announced the launch of the impeachment inquiry.
Trump turned to bragging about his accomplishments, including the Space Force that was just established by congressional vote.
'I'll be able to tell my kids someday and everybody else, see that Space Force, that was my baby,' he said, drawing a loud roar from the crowd. 
And he also bragged he got some Democratic votes during the impeachment votes.
'The Democrats always stick together. Think of it: 3 Democrats went over to our side,' he said. He added: 'That's unheard of.'
The president was silent as he left the White House on Wednesday to head to his rally but he tweeted furiously throughout the day as Democrats and Republicans debated his fate on the House floor. 
'SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS. THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!,' he wrote in a furious all-caps assault earlier in the day. 
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham blasted the impeachment vote as 'one of the most shameful political episodes in the history of our Nation.'
'The President is confident the Senate will restore regular order, fairness, and due process, all of which were ignored in the House proceedings. He is prepared for the next steps and confident that he will be fully exonerated,' she said in a statement after the votes were concluded. 
Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said after the vote that President Trump must not be ‘allowed to become a dictator.’
‘The framers gave us the power of impeachment for exactly this reason and in fulfillment of our oath and obligation to the American people, today we took action to hold president trump accountable for the serious and undisputed risk he poses to our free and fair elections and to the separation of powers that safeguards our liberty. A president must not be allowed to become a dictator,’ he said. 


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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks with Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, Chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform Carolyn Maloney, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Eliot Engel, House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal and Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee Maxine Waters after the House vote


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Pelosi huddles with Waters, Maloney, Nadler, Engler, Elliot and Schiff in the Speaker's office


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Pelosi holding the speaker's gavel after the vote


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The final vote tally on the second article of impeachment


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Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who is running for president, voted present on each article of impeachment


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''I'm having a good time, it's crazy,' President Trump said after the vote
House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff noted the matter was now in the hands of the Senate and he encouraged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to allow more witnesses to be called in the trial process. 
‘The president of the united States should be tried and the question is now whether Senator Mcconnell will allow a fair trial in the Senate, whether the majority leader will allow a trial that involves witnesses and testimony and documents, a trial that should be fair to the president, yes, but should be fair also to the American people. The American people want to hear from people like John Bolton. The American people want to hear from people like Mick Mulvaney. The American people want to see what's in those documents that the president has been hiding at the State Department in the office of management and budget in the white house itself. We have done our duty here in the House,’ he said.
And Pelosi threatened to hold on to the articles of impeachment until McConnell outlines what the trial process will be in the Senate.
'So far, we haven't seen anything that looks fair to us,' she said. 
‘We have legislation approved by the Rules Committee that will enable us to decide how we will send over the articles of impeachment. We cannot name managers until we see what the process is on the Senate side, and I would hope that that will be soon, as we did with their legislation,’ she noted. 
‘We will make our decision as to when we're going to send -- when we see what they're doing on the Senate side,’ Pelosi added.
‘This is what I don't consider a fair trial, that Leader McConnell has stated that he's not an impartial juror, that he's going to take his cues, in quotes, from the White House, and he is working in total coordination with the White House counsel's office,’ Pelosi said.
There were three not-voting congressional seats on Wednesday night: the seats held by Katie Hill, who resigned, and Elijah Cummings, who died, have not been filled. Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter can’t vote after being found guilty of a felony. 
Additionally, Republican Rep. John Shimkus missed the vote because he was on a pre-planned trip to Africa.
'Long before today’s votes were scheduled, my wife Karen and I made arrangements to visit our son Joshua in Tanzania where he’s serving in the Peace Corps,' he said in a statement.




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President Trump spoke at a campaign rally in Michigan during the House vote


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The House chamber during the impeachment vote


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House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff made the closing argument for Democrats


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Rep. John Lewis warned lawmakers their children were watching their actions





Rep. Matt Gaetz accused Democrats of wanting to overturn the 2016 election
The day-long debate on the House floor was a ping pong back-and-forth of one minute speeches were Democrats accused the president of using a foreign power to help him win the 2020 election and Republicans claimed Democrats were trying to over turn the 2016 contest. 
'This is not about Ukraine. This is about power. Donald Trump has it and Democrats want it,' said Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, one of Trump's biggest allies on Capitol Hill. 'Democrats may have won the house in 2018. But they haven't forgiven Donald Trumper for having the audacity to win the presidency. And they haven't forgiven you, the American people, for voting for him.'
Democratic Rep. John Lewis, a legend of the civil rights movement, urged lawmakers to do the right thing and vote to impeachment.
'When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair—you have a moral obligation to say something, to do something. Our children and their children will ask us: "What did you do?"' he said. 
Pelosi began the formal debate on the articles of impeachment by saying the president gave them no choice but to impeach him. She received a standing ovation from her Democratic lawmakers when she was done.
'As speaker of the House I solemnly and sadly open the debate on the impeachment of the president of the United States. If we do not act now, we would be derelict in our duty. It is tragic that the president's reckless actions make impeachment necessary. He gave us no choice,' she said in her speech in the well of the House, standing next to a sign with a picture of the American flag and reading ‘to the republic for which it stands.'
The speaker was dressed in black for the day.  Pinned to her dress was a broach in the shape of the Mace of the House - a symbol of the power of the speaker. 
Pelosi, who fought to become speaker after Democrats won control of the House after the 2018 election, has received kudos from her party members on her handling of the impeachment inquiry. 


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Speaker Nancy Pelosi leaves the House floor after the impeachment vote


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Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer watches the House impeachment vote count in his Capitol Hill office; the Senate will hold Trump's trial in January


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Speaker Pelosi, in route to the House chamber, received kudos from her party for her handling of the impeachment process





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House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff accused Trump of trying to cheat in the 2020 election and getting caught
[size=18]Nancy Pelosi speaks about Articles of Impeachment




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Leading the floor debate for the Democrats were the two men who led the impeachment inquiry: House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.  
‘He tried to cheat and he got caught,' Schiff said in his remarks on the House floor.   
The debate grew more impassioned as the time for the final vote got closer.
One of the last lawmakers to speak, House Republican Whip Steve Scalise delivered a fiery defense of President Trump, throwing papers on the desk and waving his arms to the cheers of his fellow GOP lawmakers.
‘This has been about a political vendetta,’ Scalise said.
And he echoed Republican charges Democrats were trying to over turn the 2016 election.
‘This isn't just about Donald Trump. They don't just hate Donald Trump,’ he said of Democrats. ‘They hate the 63 million Americans who voted for this president. The forgotten men and women of this country who have been left behind.’
‘No, no,’ the Democratic lawmakers yelled from across the chamber. Republicans started cheering Scalise on to drown them out.
Rep. Diana DeGette, was presiding over the chamber, gaveled for a return to order.
‘Impeachment will not just be a stain on this Democratic majority. Impeachment will be their legacy,’ Scalise finished.  
Schiff made the closing argument for Democrats and he appealed to lawmakers to think of the future, when they could be the majority in the House.
‘You may be one day -- although you may not act like it, you may one day be in the majority. You will want to hold a president accountable. What will you say when that president says, you were a paper tiger, you have no oversight, I can ignore your subpoenas, what will you say? What will you argue? No, no, that was different. Then we were in the minority. Then it was a Republican president. Will that be your argument?,’ Schiff said.
He also pointed out that Republicans, under Ronald Reagan, cared about standing up to Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
‘We should care about Ukraine. We should care about a country struggling to be free and a democracy. We used to care about democracy. We used to care about our allies. We used to stand up to Putin and Russia. We used to. I know the party of Ronald Reagan used to,’ he said as Democrats applauded. 


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Republican Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia rallied his party with his final remarks


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Democratic lawmakers, like House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, kept their remarks focused on the vote ahead of them
The final line up of GOP speakers rallied the party against the ‘sham impeachment’ as they called it, while the Democratic speakers focused on the vote ahead.
‘I see a president who will put his head down in spite of the sham impeachment and he will do his job and he will tell the American people that I care about you and he will still put the economy first and he will make sure this country stands strong,’ said Republican Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, earning a standing ovation from his party.
'Democrats did not choose this impeachment. We did not wish for it,' House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said as a few Republican lawmakers yelled 'Come on' in response. 
The impeachment vote was a foregone conclusion given Democratic control of the House.  
The old arguments were rehashed by both sides of the political aisle and few lawmakers made impressions.  
But one who did was Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, when he compared Trump to Jesus Christ.
'Before you take this historic vote today, one week before Christmas, I want you to keep this in mind. When Jesus was falsely accused of treason, Pontius Pilate gave Jesus the opportunity to face his accusers. During that sham trial, Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than Democrats have afforded to this president in this process,' he said.


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Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia compared Trump to Jesus Christ


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 House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler has been full of comebacks after Republicans have spoken on the House floor


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Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert reacted with anger when Nadler accused him of saying Russian propaganda on the House floor
But Nadler countered that the president had the opportunity 'to come and testify...to send his counsel, to question witnesses.'
'He declined to do so,' Nadler added.
The Democrat from New York has been full of come backs after Republicans finished their remarks.
Republican Congressman Chris Stewart charged Democrats with trying to overturn 2016 election - a common argument from the GOP.
'They think Hillary Clinton should be the president and they want to fix that,' Stewart said. 
Nadler shot back: 'I remind the gentleman if President Trump is impeached and removed, the new president will be Mike Pence and not Hillary Clinton.'
That brought Nadler cheers from the Republicans, who applauded his words. 
'Hurrah,' one Republican lawmaker seated on the House floor. 'Thank god,' said another. 
Nadler also blasted GOP Congressman Louie Gohmert who pushed the unproven conspiracy theory that it was the Ukraine - and not Russia - that interfered in the 2016 election.
'I am deeply concerned that any member of the House would sprout Russian propaganda on the floor of the House,' Nadler said in response.
Gohmert, who had started to leave, walked back to the microphone and proceeded to yell at Nadler: 'Will the gentleman yield? Will the gentleman yield?,' he yelled as the presiding officer of the House gaveled him to order.
'He accused me of Russian propaganda,' Gohmert said. 'Have his words taken down.'   
[size=18]House members debate impeachment of President Trump




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Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrives in the Capitol Wednesday morning


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President Trump is expected to become the third president in U.S. history to be impeached


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Rep. Diane DeGette gaveled the House into session Wednesday morning


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Republicans launched a series of procedural votes, all of which are expected to fail
[size=18]Republicans move to adjourn Trump impeachment hearing




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While Trump watched the proceedings at the White House before leaving for his rally, Pelosi sat quietly in the back of the House chamber throughout most of the day, listening to the speeches. 
House Chaplain Patrick Conroy began the morning with a prayer that acknowledged the task before the lawmakers.
'We ask guidance for members of the people’s house,' he said, asking God to 'give them wisdom and discernment' in their task ahead.
Wednesday's vote comes less than five months after Trump got on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and pushed him to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden - a top contender for the 2020 Democratic nomination. 
Democrats allege Trump with held $400 million in military aid to Ukraine in order to put pressure on Zelensky. Trump has denied any wrong doing.
The vote was scheduled one day shy of the 21st anniversary of the last time the House took such a step - impeaching Democratic President Bill Clinton for lying under oath on December 19, 1998 after he failed to come clean about an affair he was having with a former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.
[size=18]Representatives Collins and Nadler argue impeachment viewpoints




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Bill Clinton, pictured with then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky - was the last president to be impeached


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President Andrew Johnson was the first president to be impeached 
The impeachment inquiry now moves to the Senate, where Trump will go on trial.
It will be presided over by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said it will begin in January after senators return from their holiday break.
He and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer are set to meet this week to determine the process the Senate trial, including its precise start date, how long it will last and whether additional witnesses will be called.  

[size=34]READ THE ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST DONALD TRUMP [/size]

In 1,414 words, the articles of impeachment passed by the House of Representatives Wednesday lay out two charges against President Donald Trump.
Article I: Abuse of Power
Using the powers of his high office, President Trump solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the 2020 United States Presidential election.



Accused: Donald Trump has two articles of impeachment against him
He did so through a scheme or course of conduct that included soliciting the Government of Ukraine to publicly announce investigations that would benefit his reelection, harm the election prospects of a political opponent, and influence the 2020 United States Presidential election to his advantage.
President Trump also sought to pressure the Government of Ukraine to take these steps by conditioning official United States Government acts of significant value to Ukraine on its public announcement of the investigations.
President Trump engaged in this scheme or course of conduct for corrupt purposes in pursuit of personal political benefit. In so doing, President Trump used the powers of the Presidency in a manner that compromised the national security of the United States and undermined the integrity of the United States democratic process.'
Article II: Obstruction of Congress
As part of this impeachment inquiry, the Committees undertaking the investigation served subpoenas seeking documents and testimony deemed vital to the inquiry from various Executive Branch agencies and offices, and current and former officials.
In response, without lawful cause or excuse, President Trump directed Executive Branch agencies, offices, and officials not to comply with those subpoenas. President Trump thus interposed the powers of the Presidency against the lawful subpoenas of the House of Representatives, and assumed to himself functions and judgments necessary to the exercise of the 'sole Power of Impeachment' vested by the Constitution in the House of Representatives.
In the history of the Republic, no President has ever ordered the complete defiance of an impeachment inquiry or sought to obstruct and impede so comprehensively the ability of the House of Representatives to investigate 'high Crimes and Misdemeanors.''
This abuse of office served to cover up the President's own repeated misconduct and to seize and control the power of impeachment -- and thus to nullify a vital constitutional safeguard vested solely in the House of Representatives.

[size=34]TRUMP ENTERS THE HISTORY BOOKS [/size]

 The first line of President Donald Trump's obituary has been written.
While Trump is all but certain to avoid removal from office, a portion of his legacy took shape Wednesday when he became just the third president in American history to be impeached by the U.S. House.
The two articles of impeachment approved along largely partisan lines on Wednesday stand as a constitutional rebuke that will stay with Trump even as he tries to trivialize their meaning and use them to power his reelection bid.
'It'll be impossible to look back at this presidency and not discuss impeachment. It is permanently tied to his record,' said Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University. 'Trump now always becomes part of the conversation about misusing presidential power. Ukraine will be his Watergate. Ukraine will be his Lewinsky.'
History books will add Trump to the section that features Bill Clinton, impeached 21 years ago for lying under oath about sex with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and Andrew Johnson, impeached 151 years ago for defying Congress on Reconstruction. 
Richard Nixon, who avoided impeachment by resigning during the Watergate investigation, is there, too.
Trump himself is keenly aware of the impact that impeachment may have on his legacy.
Allies in recent months have described him as seething over the prospect, taking impeachment more as a personal attack and an attempt to delegitimize his presidency than a judgment on his conduct. 
Trump said Tuesday that he took 'zero' responsibility for his expected impeachment.
'Few people in high position could have endured or passed this test,' Trump wrote in a fiery six-page letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the eve of his impeachment. 'You do not know, nor do you care, the great damage and hurt you have inflicted upon wonderful and loving members of my family.'
The letter, rife with exclamation points, random capitalizations and scores of grievances, portrayed the president as the victim of an unfair and politically motivated attack.
'One hundred years from now, when people look back at this affair, I want them to understand it, and learn from it, so that it can never happen to another President again,' he wrote.
With Republicans in control of the Senate, Trump's acquittal in a January trial there seems assured.
He has asserted that a public backlash to impeachment may help him politically by firing up loyal supporters and attracting more independents to his cause. He's mused about taking a post-verdict victory lap, a veritable 'Not Guilty Tour' akin to the 'Thank You Tour' he conducted during the 2016 presidential transition.
Presidential historian Jon Meacham said impeachment will make Trump 'the first insurgent incumbent president in American history.' 
He compared the reflexive partisanship of this moment to the 19th-century tribalism that surrounded Johnson and Reconstruction, requiring a divided nation 'to assess what's being said instead of simply saluting the person saying it.'
Uniquely able to command attention, Trump has held sway over his adopted Republican Party, reshaping it in his image even while defying its orthodoxy. 
He has thrilled his base of supporters with his confrontational style and tough rhetoric, using his combative Twitter account to fight political rivals and dispute from the outset accusations of foreign electoral interference during special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.
While Trump escaped that episode with his grip on power unchanged, the Ukraine story stunned the White House with the speed that it overwhelmed Washington. Trump fell back on the same playbook -- deny, delay, denounce -- but could not avoid an impeachment inquiry at the hands of the Democratic-controlled House.
Kellyanne Conway, senior counselor to the president, on Wednesday rejected the notion that Trump believes his legacy will be tarnished by impeachment.
'No, he doesn't,' Conway said. 'He sees it as a stain on the legacy of people who have been so focused and hell-bent on removing him from office' or on their own personal gain.
While Clinton apologized for his behavior and Nixon stepped aside, Trump has remained unbowed, sticking to his contention that he had a 'perfect' phone call with Ukraine's president. 
Trump and many of his Republican defenders have rejected the testimony of a parade of government witnesses who testified about Trump's efforts to push Kiev to investigate potential election rival Joe Biden.
At a rally in Michigan that began mere minutes after the House began its historic vote, Trump tried to publicly downplay the stain on his record.
'It's impeachment lite. With Richard Nixon, I could see it as a very dark era,' Trump said. 'I don't know about you, but I'm having a good time. But I also know we have a great group of people behind us in the Republican Party.'
The president's approval rating has largely remained unchanged during the impeachment inquiry, his pugnacious personality and populism helping cement his hold with supporters.
Extraordinary polarization around impeachment is not new, but the fierce partisanship this time has been heightened by a unique aspect of this moment: Trump is standing for reelection, while Clinton and Nixon were halfway through their second terms when they faced the threat of impeachment.
The outcome of that election may alter how Trump's impeachment is ultimately remembered.
'Donald Trump is now going to be synonymous with impeachment. There is no way to market it like a badge of honor. It's a medallion of shame,' said Douglas Brinkley, presidential historian at Rice University.
'But if he wins, the impeachment looks somewhat smaller. It means he defied it and remade the modern Republican Party in his own image and kept them loyal.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7814093/US-spys-wife-Anne-Sacoolas-charged-causing-19-year-old-Harry-Dunns-death.html

[size=34]Emotional family of British teenager Harry Dunn break down when they hear American diplomat's wife Anne Sacoolas is CHARGED with causing their son's death as her lawyer says she will not return to UK voluntarily[/size]

• Harry, 19, died when his motorcycle was in crash with car driven by Ms Scaoolas
  
  
• She had been driving in August near her husband's US base in Northamptonshire
  
  
• Mrs Sacoolas fled to her home country with her family following the collision
  
  
• Harry's parents, Charlotte Charles, 44, and Tim Dunn, 50, have fought for justice
  
  
• Crown Prosecution Service announced today she has been charged with death by dangerous driving
  
  

By ED RILEY and JAMES WOOD FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 08:38 EST, 20 December 2019 | UPDATED: 12:03 EST, 20 December 2019

     




The family of teenager Harry Dunn broke down in tears as it was revealed a US diplomat's wife has been charged over their son's death.
Parents Charlotte Charles, 44, and Tim Dunn, 50, hugged each other and sobbed as they were told Anne Sacoolas would be charged with death by dangerous driving. 
Sacoolas was granted diplomatic immunity and fled Britain after the car she was driving allegedly collided with 19-year-old Harry's motorbike outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on August 27.
Mrs Charles and Mr Dunn were both at the Crown Prosecution Service headquarters in Westminster, central London today when the charge was announced. 

This afternoon Sacoolas' lawyer Amy Jeffress, said in a statement that the diplomat's wife remains 'devastated' by the 'tragic accident' that killed Harry, but doesn't plan to voluntarily return to the UK. 
It came after the US State Department said it is 'disappointed' at the decision to charge Sacoolas and said in a statement that it fears 'it will not bring a resolution closer'. But Foreign Secretary Dominc Raab said he 'welcomed' the decision saying it was an 'important step towards justice.' 
Speaking outside the building today Mrs Charles looked visibly emotional as she told how the family's efforts to 'seek justice' since her son's death had been harder than she had imagined. 
Now that the CPS has authorised Northamptonshire Police to charge Sacoolas extradition proceedings have begun. If the extradition request is executed it is issued by the Home Office to the US, where a judge needs to be satisfied there is 'probable cause' to suspect that Sacoolas is guilty of the offence.  


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Charlotte Charles, 44, broke down today as she found out Anne Sacoolas had been charged


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The family of Harry Dunn hugged each other as they were told that Sacoolas would be charged with dangerous driving


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Tim Dunn, 50, broke down as he heard the news that Anne Sacoolas is to be charged with causing death by dangerous driving


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Anne Sacoolas has been charged with causing the death of British teen, Harry Dunn by way of Dangerous Driving. She is seen here leaving her house in a car in Virginia, December 15, 2019


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Sacoolas, pictured getting ready to get into her car at her house in Virginia, sparked international controversy after claiming diplomatic immunity
A lawyer in the US state department will look at the request and decide if it conforms to the 'dual criminality' treaty - which means it has to be a crime in both countries for extradition to occur. However it could result in a stalemate as the US may reject the request for extradition, arguing that Sacoolas is still entitled to diplomatic immunity.
Mrs Charles said today: 'We feel that we have made a huge step in the start of achieving the promise to Harry that we made. We made that promise to him the night we lost him to seek justice thinking it was going to be really easy. 
'We had no idea it was going to be so hard and it would take so long but we feel it is a huge step towards that promise we made Harry.'
Sacoolas, 42, the wife of a US intelligence officer, was twice interviewed by Northamptonshire Police - once on the day after the crash, and on another occasion by officers who travelled to the US. 

Legal battle that lies ahead after US suspect Anne Sacoolas is charged

Here is the potential legal battle ahead, as Anne Sacoolas is charged with causing death by dangerous driving by the Crown Prosecution Service. 
- What is the extradition process?
Extradition between the US and the UK is governed by the Extradition Act 2003, a treaty signed by both countries.
Once a charge has been made, a CPS prosecutor goes before a magistrates' court to give an overview of the case.
Extradition requests prepared by the CPS are sent by the Home Office to the requested state, in this case the US, through the diplomatic route.
If the extradition request is executed it goes before a US court, where a judge needs to be satisfied there is 'probable cause' to suspect that Sacoolas is guilty of the offence, according to the treaty.
- Can Sacoolas be extradited?
An extradition request sent by the UK is received by the US State Department via the British Embassy, where a lawyer looks at the request and decides whether it conforms to the 'dual-criminality' treaty.
Dual-criminality means that no-one can be extradited by either country unless the alleged offence is a crime in both countries, and carries a prison sentence of at least a year.
Causing death by dangerous driving, under the Road Traffic Act 1988, carries a maximum sentence of 14 years, although the maximum sentence is reserved for rare cases where blame is exceptionally high, according to the Sentencing Council.
The US may reject the request for extradition, arguing that Sacoolas is still entitled to diplomatic immunity.



She sparked an international controversy after claiming diplomatic immunity. 
Later it became clear that her husband was an intelligence officer and not a registered diplomat in a recognised role, and therefore neither he nor his wife are entitled to diplomatic immunity. 
In a statement released after the charge was announced, Sacoolas lawyer Amy Jeffress said: 'Anne is devastated by this tragic accident and continues to extend her deepest condolences to the family.
'Anne would do whatever she could to bring Harry back. She is a mother herself and cannot imagine the pain of the loss of a child. She has cooperated fully with the investigation and accepted responsibility.
'We have been working with the UK authorities in an effort to resolve this matter. Today we were informed that the Crown Prosecution Service has decided to bring a prosecution for wrongful death by dangerous driving, and the UK government may seek extradition.
'This was an accident, and a criminal prosecution with a potential penalty of fourteen years imprisonment is simply not a proportionate response.
'We have been in contact with the UK authorities about ways in which Anne could assist with preventing accidents like this from happening in the future, as well as her desire to honour Harry's memory.
'We will continue that dialogue in an effort to move forward from this terrible tragedy. But Anne will not return voluntarily to the United Kingdom to face a potential jail sentence for what was a terrible but unintentional accident.'
A US State Department spokesman also expressed their 'deepest sympathies' over the loss of Harry Dunn, but said it was 'disappointed' by the decision to charge.
It said: 'We express our deepest sympathies and offer condolences to the Dunn family for their loss.
'We will continue to look for options for moving forward. 'We are disappointed by today's announcement and fear that it will not bring a resolution closer.
'This was a tragic accident, a young man has lost his life, and his family is grieving.'


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Harry was killed when his motorbike was involved in a head-on collision with a car outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on August 27


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The family of Harry Dunn (left to right) mother Charlotte Charles, stepfather Bruce Charles, family spokesman Radd Seiger, father Tim Dunn and stepmother Tracey Dunn outside the Ministry Of Justice in London after meeting with the Director of Public Prosecutions
[size=10][size=18]Harry Dunn's family break down as US diplomat's wife is charged




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It added: 'The United States has been clear that, at the time the accident occurred, and for the duration of her stay in the UK, the driver in this case had status that conferred diplomatic immunities.
'The Foreign Secretary stated the same in Parliament.
'It is the position of the United States government that a request to extradite an individual under these circumstances would be an egregious abuse.
'The use of an extradition treaty to attempt to return the spouse of a former diplomat by force would establish an extraordinarily troubling precedent.

Diplomats to seek talks with the US to close loophole in diplomatic immunity arrangements

UK diplomats will seek talks with the US in a bid to close the loophole in diplomatic immunity arrangements which allowed Anne Sacoolas to return home.
A Government review found family members of US officers serving at RAF Croughton have greater protection from UK criminal laws than the officers themselves, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Friday.
Foreign Office staff will now press the US over the 'anomaly' in the existing diplomatic immunity agreement between the two countries, which emerged after Mr Raab ordered the review following the Harry Dunn case.
Under the arrangements, agreed between the UK and US governments in 1995, US staff at RAF Croughton and their families are regarded as part of the US embassy in the UK and afforded protection under the Vienna Convention.
As part of the agreement immunity was waived for the base's employees but that waiver did not apply to spouses, Mr Raab told MPs in October.
The rules meant Sacoolas, the wife of a US intelligence officer, was able to return to her home country after the car she was driving allegedly collided with the 19-year-old's motorbike outside the Northamptonshire base, used by the US Air Force, on August 27. 
In a written statement to the Commons on Friday, Mr Raab said: 'The Croughton Review has now concluded.
'It considered the anomaly that family members of US officers serving at the Annex at RAF Croughton have, under current arrangements between the UK and the US, greater protection from UK criminal jurisdiction than the officers themselves.
'On the basis of the review, I have instructed my officials to begin discussions with the US on the most effective way to address this anomaly.'



'We do not believe that the UK's charging decision is a helpful development.'
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab welcomed the decision to charge Sacoolas.
He said: 'I welcome the taking of a charging decision which is an important step towards justice for Harry and towards solace for his family, but it is not the end.
'I hope that Anne Sacoolas will now realise the right thing to do is to come back to the UK and cooperate with the criminal justice process.' 
Chief Constable of Northamptonshire Police Nick Adderley said to Sky News: 'They are going through hell. There is no question about that, they are going through this, and I hope this charging decision gives them some comfort.
'I find it quite sad actually that you know, you're holding onto a charging decision and seeing that as good news when actually you've lost your son.
'We move forward, this is good news, this what we've been working for.'
He added: 'We will support the Crown Prosecution Service where we can but we will now let justice run its course. We now let that run and we hope obviously we see Anne Sacoolas back in the UK to face justice.'
Responding to the US State Department's statement, Mr Adderley added: 'My emotional reaction is that I have a 19-year-old boy who has lost his life in the county of Northamptonshire, the county I am responsible for, and it does not sit comfortably with me that we do not have an individual that is held to account or facing the questions they should be facing in a court of law around the loss of Harry Dunn.
'The professional response is that we now have to let that now take its course, I hope the American authorities see sense, I hope that they see the injustice here in this case and that they do the right thing and make sure that they get the wheels in motion to get Anne Sacoolas back to the UK.
'My other hope, and it's more of a plea, is that Anne Sacoolas now has to live with this for the rest of her life. It may do her a world of good in her own mental health to come back and at least face a court of law and take whatever punishment they decide is appropriate in this matter.' 
Footage broadcast on Sky News showed Mrs Charles and Mr Dunn hugging and in tears after they learned charges would be brought yesterday.  
Mrs Charles said: 'Three months of fighting, we've done it. I'm proud that I could carry out my promise to one of my kids.
'The promise that I made that we would get that justice. I've managed to fulfill the promise. It means everything. 
'I would never have rested properly ever without being able to carry out that promise I made on the night we lost him.'
While his father, Mr Dunn, also said in emotional Sky News video footage, that the news was 'amazing' and that 'we've got what we wanted'. He added: 'Whatever happens now it doesn't matter.'
The lawyer for the Dunn family, Mark Stephens, told reporters the family was informed of the decision before Mrs Sacoolas.
Mr Stephens said: 'The family have rightly been told first by the Director (of Public Prosecutions) Max Hill that this charge will take place. 
'While we were in that meeting, once the family had been told, Mrs Sacoolas was told through her lawyer that not only was she being charged but also extradition was being sought and then the same message was communicated to the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and the Home Secretary.'


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Charlotte Charles said she was 'distraught' after the American suspect in the crash that killed her son Harry was filmed driving a car earlier this month


Reacting to the statement from the US State Department, Mr Stephens told Sky News: 'I think that is what you would expect from politicians. They want to carry on implacably.
'I am absolutely convinced that the CPS would not have moved forward if they did not think that was a realistic possibility and from my own analysis of the law I can tell you it is a realistic possibility because we know she was not entitled to diplomatic immunity irrespective of what the State Department said.'
He added: 'I think the Americans are going to be forced to confront effectively the request for this extradition and they'll have to do so in accordance with the law.
'You can't give diplomatic immunity to everybody. There's a good and decent reason why ambassadors and senior officials should have it but you can't suggest that every Tom, Dick and Harry, every member of the armed forces or national security agency of America is going to have diplomatic immunity and diplomatic status meaning whatever crime they commit, they can't be held accountable.'
Extradition procedures are now underway to bring Ms Sacoolas to the UK. Chief Crown Prosecutor Janine Smith revealed that she is to be charged. 
She said: 'Following the death of Harry Dunn in Northamptonshire, the Crown Prosecution Service has today authorised Northamptonshire Police to charge Anne Sacoolas with causing death by dangerous driving.
[size=18]Anne Sacoolas filmed driving for first time since Harry Dunn death




Loa[/size]

'The Director of Public Prosecutions has met with Harry Dunn's family to explain the basis of the decision we have made following a thorough review of the evidence available.
'May I remind all concerned that criminal proceedings against Anne Sacoolas are now active and that she has a right to a fair trial.'
A Northamptonshire Police spokeswoman added: 'We welcome the charging decision announced today by the Crown Prosecution Service in relation to Anne Sacoolas.

Chief Crown Prosecutor reveals Anna Sacoolas is charged with causing Harry Dunn's death by dangerous driving

Chief Crown Prosecutor Janine Smith said: 'Following the death of Harry Dunn in Northamptonshire, the Crown Prosecution Service has today authorised Northamptonshire Police to charge Anne Sacoolas with causing death by dangerous driving.
'The Director of Public Prosecutions has met with Harry Dunn's family to explain the basis of the decision we have made following a thorough review of the evidence available.
'May I remind all concerned that criminal proceedings against Anne Sacoolas are now active and that she has a right to a fair trial. It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.'



'However, because criminal proceedings are now active, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this time.'   
After the charging decision, Harry's mother Charlotte Charles said: 'My son died on August 27, doing what he loved most, riding his beloved motorbike.
'He was riding perfectly safely that evening. He had his whole life in front of him and he was taken from us far too young. 
'The pain of our loss eats away inside us. It is constant and unrelenting.'
Addressing the charging decision, Mrs Charles said: 'On behalf of our family, I would just like to say that we are relieved that Anne Sacoolas has finally been charged in respect of Harry's death.
'Northamptonshire Police told us that we had a less than 1% chance of having anyone held accountable for Harry's death.
'Were it not for our friend and neighbour Radd Seiger, taking up the matter on our behalf who became our adviser and spokesman without any fee at all, and our determination to uphold our promise to Harry as he lay dying in hospital that we would get justice for him, we would not be where we are.
'No one should ever have to go through what we have been through. We are so grateful for all the support the public and media have given us.
'It is their loud voices and fear that the same thing could happen to them, that has focused the minds of those in authority and ensured that this was not swept under the carpet.
'We now expect Anne Sacoolas to be treated in the same way as any other person and to be subject to the same legal process as the rest of us would be.' 


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Charlotte Charles, mother of Harry Dunn, arrives with Harry's step-father at the CPS in Westminster today
Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, families of diplomats are granted immunity from arrest or detention, with the sending state able to issue a waiver of that immunity.
According to the CPS, the immunity does not apply to dependants of consular officials based outside of London.
The force eventually passed the completed file of evidence to the prosecution service on November 1 - with Wednesday's charging decision coming just under seven weeks later. 
Extradition between the US and the UK is governed by a treaty signed by both countries in 2003, and requests prepared by the CPS are sent by the Home Office to the requested state - in this case the US - through the diplomatic route. 
Meanwhile Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Friday a review into the immunity arrangements at Croughton for US personnel and their families had concluded.  


+11


Harry Dunn, pictured in January 2014, with his newborn niece Lola Harber. He died in a collision outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire in August


+11



The teenager was killed when his motorbike crashed into a car driven by US diplomat's wife Anne Sacoolas, 42, outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire (pictured) on August 27
It found that it was an 'anomaly' that family members had 'greater protection from UK criminal jurisdiction than the officers themselves'.
Mr Raab added: 'On the basis of the Review, I have instructed my officials to begin discussions with the US on the most effective way to address this anomaly.' 
Harry's death was the start of three months' worth of separate legal battles for the teenager's family - a judicial review against the Foreign Office, a referral of Northamptonshire Police to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), an investigation into the US administration's handling of the case and a civil claim against Sacoolas herself.
Since the investigation into the teenager's death was launched, the family have taken their fight to the US and even met President Donald Trump at the White House.
The meeting with Mr Trump also sparked controversy after it later emerged that Sacoolas was sat in the room next door ready to meet with Harry's parents - an offer the teenager's family refused.
The decision to charge the suspect came just days after Mrs Charles was left 'utterly devastated' by footage which showed Sacoolas reversing out of her driveway at her home in the state of Virginia.     

[size=34]Timeline of key events following 19-year-old Harry Dunn's death [/size]

Anne Sacoolas has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving by the Crown Prosecution Service.
Here are the key events following 19-year-old Harry Dunn's death:
August 27: Motorcyclist Harry Dunn collides with a Volvo outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire.
Harry is taken to the John Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, but is pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
August 28: Northamptonshire Police interview 42-year-old suspect Anne Sacoolas, who is later granted diplomatic immunity.
September 15: Sacoolas leaves the country on a United States Air Force plane, but the Dunn family are not informed of her departure until three weeks later.
Northamptonshire Police are also not told that she has left the UK.
October 4: Harry's parents, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, call on US President Donald Trump to intervene and waive immunity for Sacoolas.
October 5: Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab urges US Ambassador Woody Johnson to waive immunity for Sacoolas.
October 6: Police write to the US Embassy in London to demand immunity is waived for Sacoolas.
October 7: Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the US should 'reconsider its position' on the immunity given to Sacoolas.
October 9: Mrs Charles and Mr Dunn attend a meeting with the Foreign Secretary which leaves them 'angry and frustrated' and feeling as though it was a 'publicity stunt'.
Mr Johnson speaks to Mr Trump personally to ask him to reconsider the US's position on the immunity granted to Sacoolas.
October 12: Sacoolas breaks her silence and issues a statement through her lawyer, saying the crash left her 'devastated'.
October 13: The Foreign Office writes to Mr Dunn's family saying Sacoolas does not have diplomatic immunity.
It becomes clear that her husband was an intelligence officer and not a registered diplomat in a recognised role, and therefore neither he nor his wife are entitled to diplomatic immunity.
October 14: Mr Dunn's family hold a press conference in New York after taking their fight for justice to the US.
October 15: Mr Dunn's family announce their intention to launch a judicial review into the advice given by the Foreign Office to Northamptonshire Police over the diplomatic immunity given to Sacoolas.
The White House calls an 'urgent' meeting with Mr Dunn's family and they have talks with President Trump.
Mrs Charles and Mr Dunn refuse to meet Sacoolas, who was in the room next door as they met Mr Trump.
October 20: The Dunn family are told Northamptonshire Police have passed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for a charging decision.
October 25: Radd Seiger, the spokesman for Harry's family, confirms they would be taking legal action against the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and referring Northamptonshire Police to the Independent Office for Police Conduct over their roles in the investigation.
October 31: Northamptonshire Police confirm that they had interviewed the suspect in the case in the US and were passing the file of evidence over to the CPS.
Superintendent Sarah Johnson said: 'We can confirm that we have completed an interview of the suspect in connection with the death of Harry Dunn, the details of which will be provided to the CPS for consideration alongside the rest of the evidential file already submitted.'
November 10: In a letter to Mr Dunn's family, the FCO says the legal claim against them and Mr Raab was 'without foundation'.
It also said it would 'oppose and seek costs' for any judicial review.
November 12: Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry criticises Mr Raab for 'threatening financial hardship' on the Dunn family.
December 17: Mr Dunn's family meet with Mr Raab again, and the Foreign Secretary then urged Ms Sacoolas to 'come back to the UK and co-operate with the criminal justice process'.
December 20: The CPS charges Sacoolas with causing death by dangerous driving.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7816303/Twenty-five-Jewish-lawmakers-ask-Donald-Trump-fire-Advisor-Stephen-Miller.html

[size=34]Twenty-five Jewish lawmakers ask Donald Trump to fire advisor Stephen Miller after it is revealed that he sent HUNDREDS of emails to a former Breibart editor that were 'supportive of white supremacy'[/size]

• The lawmakers said in a Friday letter that Miller's support for white nationalist 'is wholly unacceptable and disqualifying for a government employee' 
  
  
• Letter highlights a SPLC report that published summaries of emails Miller sent to former editor of Breibart News, Katie McHugh 
  
  
• 'Miller frequently disseminated the views of multiple hate groups supportive of white supremacy and other vile ideologies throughout 2016,' it reads 
  
  
• Lawmakers who signed the letter included Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) 
  
  
• They condemned the Trump Administration's tendency to label any 'legitimate criticism' of Miller as 'Anti-Semitism'   
  
  

By MATTHEW WRIGHT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 
PUBLISHED: 01:57 EST, 21 December 2019 | UPDATED: 02:28 EST, 21 December 2019

     




Twenty-five Jewish House members have called on President Trump to fire Senior Advisor Stephen Miller over his 'documented support for white nationalist and virulently anti-immigrant tropes.'
The representatives added that Miller's support 'is wholly unacceptable and disqualifying for a government employee.'
'As Jewish members of Congress, we are calling on you to immediately relieve White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller of all government responsibilities and dismiss him from the Administration,' the Friday letter [url=https://schneider.house.gov/sites/schneider.house.gov/files/2019.12.20 - Jewish Members_Stephen Miller_FINAL SIGNED.pdf][/url]reads. 


+6


25 Jewish lawmakers said in a letter to President Donald Trump that Advisor Stephen Miller needed to be fired over his 'documented support for white nationalist and virulently anti-immigrant tropes'
The lawmakers highlighted a recent Southern Poverty Law Center report that published summaries of a plethora of emails Miller sent to former editor of Breibart News, Katie McHugh.


The lawmakers highlighted a recent report that published summaries of a plethora of emails Miller sent to former editor of Breibart News, Katie McHugh (pictured) 
The emails appeared to show support for white nationalist groups.

'Miller frequently disseminated the views of multiple hate groups supportive of white supremacy and other vile ideologies throughout 2016,' the lawmakers letter states.  
'His distribution of materials fear-mongering about "white genocide" and supporting eugenics-based immigration theories are particularly disturbing given his leadership of your Administration's immigration policies.' 
The politicians declared that there should be no people on the President's staff or in government who propagate 'anti-Semitism, xenophobia, racism and white supremacy.' 
The group - which includes Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) - also condemned the Trump administration for 'claiming that legitimate criticism of Miller is anti-Semitic simply because Miller is Jewish.' 
'Nothing could be further from the truth,' the group asserted. 





The group - which includes Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) - condemned the Trump's administrations tendency to claim 'that legitimate criticism of Miller is anti-Semitic simply because Miller is Jewish'


+6


'Nothing could be further from the truth,' the group asserted. Nadler pictured with Pelosi


+6



Several civil rights groups and other politicians have pressured Trump to release Miller from his duties
They continued: 'Hateful ideology is not just unacceptable, it is un-American, irrespective of the faith, race, or nationality of the individual promoting it.
'Weaponing anti-Semitism is incredibly dangerous - by muddying the waters, we are no longer able to see and fight the real anti-Semites in our midst.' 
Concluding their message, the representatives shared that they would not 'accept intolerance or hate anywhere within our government, and especially not in the White House.' 
Several civil rights groups and other politicians have called for Miller to be released from his duties as well. 


+6




+6

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7819589/Christianity-Today-editor-called-Trump-removed-office-RESIGNING.html

[size=34]'It's his public morality that makes him unfit': Christianity Today editor doubles down on his criticism of Trump - and his successor who takes over next month AGREES with him[/size]

• Christianity Today, a major evangelical Christian magazine, published a controversial op-ed by editor-in-chief Mark Galli on Thursday 
  
  
• In the piece, Galli claimed Trump should be removed from office and argued that the President has 'dumbed down the idea of morality' 
  
  
• Galli's op-ed sparked outrage and is at odds with the views of a majority of evangelicals - 80% of whom still support the President   
  
  
• However, Galli stood by his piece during an appearance on CBS' Face The Nation on Sunday  
  
  

By ANDREW COURT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 15:33 EST, 22 December 2019 | UPDATED: 18:10 EST, 22 December 2019



The Christianity Today editor who penned an op-ed calling for the removal of President Trump is standing by his piece despite widespread controversy. 
Mark Galli, 67, appeared on Face This Nation this morning, repeating his claims that Trump is morally unfit for office. 
Critics of Galli's original op-ed, published in evangelical magazine on Thursday, accuse the writer of having little understanding of the Constitution and failing to cite any legal reasons for why Trump should be removed. 
But Galli doubled down on Sunday, stating: 'I'm not really speaking politically- making a political judgment about him, because that's not our expertise at Christianity Today. I am making a moral judgment that he is morally unfit'.

He continued: It's his public morality that makes him unfit because all of us, anybody in leadership has- none of us are perfect. We're not looking for saints. We do have private sins, ongoing patterns of behavior that reveal themselves in our- in our private life that we're all trying to work on. 




Mark Galli (left), the Christianity Today editor who penned a controversial op-ed calling for the removal of President Trump is doubling down on the piece 
'But a president has certain responsibilities as a public figure to display a certain level of public character and public morality.'
Meanwhile, Galli has faced further criticism for failing to mention that he was stepping down from the magazine in his op-ed - an omission that many readers claim is important contextual information that should have been included.  
On Twitter, one wrote: 'The author of that article is resigning in two weeks...meaning he won't have to face the backlash that is sure to come from that piece'. 


+4


Pictured: Christianity Today magazine cover for the December 2019 issue 
'If Mark Galli wasn't resigning in two weeks, I might take him seriously,' another critic wrote, after learning that the editor-in-chief was leaving the periodical. 
Several others theorized that Galli might be seeking work as a commentator on MSNBC following his resignation from Christianity Today. 
Christianity Today is largely read by evangelicals - 80% of whom still support the President. 
And on Face The Nation, Galli conceded that his views may not be congruous with those of his readers. 
'The only person I represent is me and maybe my magazine, not for that much longer since I'm retiring in a few days,' he told host Margaret Brennan. 
However, Galli's replacement, Dr. Daniel Harrell, appears to share his predecessor's anti-Trump sentiments. 
Harrell, who will take over the magazine on January 3 and has taught at Harvard University, re-tweeted a link to an interview with Galli, praising his criticisms of Trump.  
Billy Graham, the famed Christian revival preacher, founded Christianity Today magazine in 1956 and voted for Trump in 2016. 
But Trump claims the magazine has lost its roots, taking to Twitter on Friday to declare that the periodical is run by the 'far left'.  
Trump noted that Christianity Today is no longer affiliated with the Graham ministries. He also claimed he has been the best President for Bible-believing Christians—and predicted tough times for the born-again if a Democrat beats him in 2020.
He suggested the magazine's editors are 'looking for Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, or those of the socialist/communist bent, to guard their religion. How about Sleepy Joe?'
'The fact is, no President has ever done what I have done for Evangelicals, or religion itself!' he claimed. 


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Galli's replacement, Dr. Daniel Harrell (pictured), appears to share his predecessor's anti-Trump sentiments.
[size=10][size=18]Billy Graham magazine Christianity Today calls for removal of Trump




[/size][/size]




In his op-ed, Galli targeted evangelical Christians who continue to support Trump 'in spite of his blackened moral record.' 
'The facts in this instance are unambiguous,' he wrote, adding: 'The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president's political opponents,' he wrote.
'That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.' 


+4


Donald Trump took aim at a prominent evangelical Christian magazine, dismissing it as a 'far left' organ after its chief editor wrote that the president is a morally stained leader who should be removed from office
'We believe the impeachment hearings have made it absolutely clear, in a way the Mueller investigation did not, that President Trump has abused his authority for personal gain and betrayed his constitutional oath, 'the editorial read. 'The impeachment hearings have illuminated the president's moral deficiencies for all to see.'
Galli claimed Trump's own habits have slid the nation toward immorality: 'He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud.'
'His Twitter feed alone—with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders—is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused,' he stated. 


+4


Mark Galli (pictured) wrote an editorial in Christianity Today that called for Trump's removal from office based on the finding of House Democrats' impeachment inquiry 
ADVERTISEMENT

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7831787/UN-gives-green-light-draft-treat-combat-cybercrime.html

[size=34]UN approves Russia-backed 'cybercrime' treaty that America and Western powers say will censor the internet[/size]

• General Assembly approved the resolution, also supported by China, on Friday
  
  
• The movement will now set up a committee of international experts in 2020
  
  
• Critics have already said the language is legitimising crackdowns on expression
  
  

By RAVEN SAUNT FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 20:50 EST, 27 December 2019 | UPDATED: 14:28 EST, 28 December 2019

     







+2


The United Nations has approved a Russian-backed cybercrime treaty that has alarmed America and Western powers. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin
The United Nations has approved a Russian-backed cybercrime treaty that has alarmed America and Western powers who fear it will censor the internet. 
The General Assembly approved the resolution, sponsored by Russia and backed by China, on Friday.
The movement will now set up a committee of international experts in 2020.

The panel will work to set up 'a comprehensive international convention on countering the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes,' according to the resolution.
America, Western powers and other rights groups have already warned against the move as they fear that the language is code for legitimising crackdowns on expression.
China already heavily restricts internet searches to avoid topics that are sensitive to its communist leadership as well as news sites with critical coverage.
A number of countries have increasingly tried to follow suit and crack down on internet usage.
India is set to cut off online access in Kashmir in August after it stripped autonomy to the Muslim-majority region.
Iran is also taking much of the country offline as it cracked down on protests in November.
[size=10][size=18]Kashmir residents celebrate Eid Al-Adha amid tensions with India




L[/size][/size]
One U.S. official said: 'It is precisely our fear that (a new convention) would allow the codification at an international and global level of these types of controls that's driving our opposition and our concerns about this resolution.' 
Cherith Norman Chalet, U.S. deputy ambassador, told the assembly before the vote that 'this resolution will undermine international cooperation to combat cyber-crime at a time when enhanced coordination is essential.
'There is no consensus among member states on the need or value of drafting a new treaty.
'It will only serve to stifle global efforts to combat cybercrime.'


+2


An increasing number of countries are also currently attempting to crack down on internet usage including India and Iran (stock image)
The ambassador alongside the Finnish representative speaking for the European Union both stressed that the UN's existing intergovernmental expert group on cybercrime is already tackling the question of whether a new treaty is needed.
'It is wrong to make a political decision on a new treaty before cybercrime experts can give their advice,' Ms Chalet said, adding that the resolution 'prejudges' and 'will undermine' the experts' work.
Russia's representative underscored that the resolution requires that the new committee must take into account the results of the work of the expert group on cybercrime, expected next year, which Moscow supports.
They said that substantive work on the new convention will begin in 2021.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7845765/Polish-primary-school-play-recreates-Auschwitz-death-camp-pupils-swastikas-gas-chambers.html

[size=34]Outrage in Poland as children recreate Auschwitz death camp in primary school play with pupils wearing swastika armbands pretending to GAS seven-year-olds[/size]

• Primary school in Łabunie, Poland, had pupils recreate Nazi concentration camp
  
  
• Six children wearing striped uniforms 'played dead' as gas wafted on the stage
  
  
• Two boys dressed as Gestapo agents with swastika armbands then watched on
  
  
• A girl wearing a skull and crossbones cape danced around the 'dead' children 
  
  

By CHRIS DYER FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 11:43 EST, 2 January 2020 | UPDATED: 12:58 EST, 2 January 2020

     



A Polish primary school has caused outrage after pupils wearing swastika armbands recreated the Auschwitz death camp and pretended to gas seven-year-olds. 
Six pupils, some with shaven heads, dressed in the distinctive grey-striped prison uniform of Nazi concentration camps and lay on the floor as others danced around them during the play in the village of Łabunie, close to the border with Ukraine.
With a backdrop of barbed wire, the children in prisoner outfits dropped to the ground as smoke wafted across the stage to simulate the gas chambers.
Two students in black Gestapo trench coats stood to attention while a young girl wearing a skull and crossbones cape danced to dramatic music around the children 'playing dead'.

In show's climax, the 'good guys' then appear to defeat the Nazis and resurrect the children. 
The Auschwitz Memorial condemned the performance and a Polish priest branded the play 'terrifying and cruel'. 


+5


Polish schoolchildren in Łabunie reenacted the Auschwitz mass killings complete with striped uniforms, Gestapo swastika armbands and gas wafting across the stage 


+5


Gas was even shot across the stage as a group of children aged around seven lay on the floor
After the dance a speaker whose parents died at Auschwitz reportedly told the audience that Poland deserved compensation from Germany for the atrocities of the Second World War. 
Lawmakers who opposed seeking German reparations deserved to have their heads shaved as if they were Nazi collaborators, another speaker reportedly then added. 
Newsweek Polska magazine reported that the mayor of Łabunie, who is from the ruling right-wing populist Law and Justice party, 'told the children that they must defend Latin civilization'. 
Mariusz Kukiełka went on to claim the political left was trying to create a 'godless society', similar to Nazi Germany.
She reportedly said: 'Nazi Germany was a country which broke the rules of natural law and which was instead based on the norms of law created by man.
'Today we still have to contend with various people, with leftist groups, which are bent upon creating a new man, a new godless society.'
The controversial event held on December 10 was held to commemorate the renaming of the school to The Children of Zamosc, which is a reference to thousands of Polish children deported by the Nazis. 


+5


Somber music played as the children marched in a circle during the event marking the renaming of the school to commemorate youngsters who were deported by Nazis


+5


Pupils danced around the 'dead' children after gas wafted across the stage during the school's reenactment of the Auschwitz death camps 
Some of the children from the area were forcibly adopted by German families if found to be sufficiently Aryan. 
Some 110,000 Poles, including 30,000 children, were part of a German attempt at ethnically cleanse the area of occupied Poland between 1942 and 1943. 
Children from the area were later transported to the Majdanek and Auschwitz concentration camps. 






A video of the dance performance was published by local newspaper Tygodnik Zamojski, which reportedly described it a 'moving staging' of history.
Thousands of schools across the country also held similar events, according to local media.
But the Auschwitz Memorial condemned the performance, saying on Twitter that it was not an appropriate way to educate children about the Holocaust.


+5


After the dance a speaker whose parents died at Auschwitz reportedly told the audience that Poland deserved compensation from Germany for Nazi atrocities on Polish soil 
The Auschwitz Museum tweeted on Tuesday: 'The idea of dressing up children of this age in SS uniforms and staging death scenes with them is simply bad. 
'The adults who organized it don't have the elemental sensitivity needed to educate children about such a difficult and tragic history.'
Fr Wojciech Michal Lemanski, said the dance show was 'terrifying, reckless, blunt and cruel' and asked in a Facebook post: 'Where were the management, the curator of education, the local authorities?'
In June another re-enactment of Auschwitz was performed by children at a Catholic primary school in the Polish town of Chojnice.
The performance retold the story of Maksymilian Kolbe, a Polish priest who was murdered at the death camp.
Between 1939 and 1945, at least 1.5 million Polish citizens were deported to German territory for forced labor. 
Hundreds of thousands were also imprisoned and died in Nazi concentration camps.

Annemarie,
that's about the most disgusting and sickening thing I've read for a while 

It's a horrible thing to expose such young children to, but it was even more horrifying for the children who were Holocaust victims. If this is what the Polish people believe is necessary to bring the lesson of the Holocaust home then so be it.

This is a totally inappropriate and shameful way to be teaching impressionable children about the atrocities of the Holocaust. How can the Polish people who are so close to this history be so misguided?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7846829/More-200-Republicans-Congress-want-Supreme-Court-overturn-Roe-v-Wade.html

[size=34]More than 200 Republicans in Congress want Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade as justices prepare to hear first major abortion case since Trump appointed two conservatives to bench[/size]

• Thirty-nine senators and 168 House members filed amicus brief in the appeal of a Louisiana state law that could shut down abortion clinics
  
  
• The 2014 law requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital
  
  
• If the law is allowed to stand, it would effectively shut down all abortion clinics in Louisiana, which is home to four million people 
  
  
• All of the senators and all but two of the House representatives who signed on to the amicus brief are Republicans 
  
  
• They want the Supreme Court to revisit the 1973 landmark ruling Roe v Wade which made abortion legal in the United States 
  
  
• This will be first abortion case heard by Court since President Trump appointed two conservative justices to the bench - Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh 
  
  

By ARIEL ZILBER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 19:49 EST, 2 January 2020 | UPDATED: 19:59 EST, 2 January 2020

     




Most Republicans in Congress want the Supreme Court to make abortion illegal as it prepares to hear its first major case on the issue since President Trump appointed two conservative justices to the bench.
More than 200 members of the Senate and House of Representatives - all but two of them Republicans - want the Supreme Court to revist Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 decision which made abortion legal in the United States.
Thirty-nine senators and 168 House members submitted an amicus brief in June Medical Services LLC v. Gee, an appeal filed by a Louisiana clinic challenging a state law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.
The high court is scheduled to hear arguments on the case beginning in March. A decision is expected by the end of June. 


+3


The Supreme Court this spring will hear arguments in a case challenging a 2014 Louisiana law that if allowed to stand would effectively shut down abortion clinics throughout the state. Pro-choice activists protest in front of the Supreme Court in May 2019


+3




+3



June Medical Services LLC v. Gee is the first major abortion case since President Trump appointed two conservatives justices to the bench - Brett Kavanaugh (left) and Neil Gorsuch (right)

Supreme Court Privacy Policy



The 2014 law is virtually identical to one in Texas that the Supreme Court struck down in 2016, when Justice Anthony Kennedy was on the bench and before the addition of President Donald Trump’s two high court picks, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, who have shifted the court to the right.

WHERE SUPREME COURT JUSTICES STAND ON ABORTION

Swing vote
Chief Justice John Roberts
George W. Bush appointee. Voted in favor of abortion restrictions until Justice Anthony Kennedy left the bench. In only abortion case since then, voted to provisionally block new restrictions in Louisiana. As swing justice, seen as wanting to avoid the Supreme Court being associated with entrenched political positions. Could do his best to avoid a Roe v. Wade challenge coming to the court. Position if one did is now unclear
Liberal wing
Stephen Breyer
Clinton appointee. Warned in May that that the conservative majority could overturn a 1992 decision upholding Roe v. Wade. Has consistently voted pro-choice
Elena Kagan
Obama appointee. Has consistently voted pro-choice 
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Clinton appointee. Has consistently voted pro-choice 
Sonia Sotomayor
Obama appointee. Has consistently voted pro-choice
Conservative wing
Clarence Thomas
George H.W. Bush appointee. Said this year that Roe v. Wade was 'notoriously incorrect' and compared it to Dred Scott, the case which upheld slavery before the Civil War. Has consistently voted for anti-abortion positions
Samuel Alito
George W. Bush appointee. As a federal appeal judge, he voted to uphold a Pennsylvania law which required women to tell their husbands they planned to have an abortion. As Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, his ruling was overturned in the Supreme Court the next year, in a ruling Stephen Breyer says could be overturned itself. Has consistently voted for anti-abortion positions
Neil Gorsuch
Trump appointee. Only vote on abortion-related case was in February, on whether to block restrictions on clinics in Louisiana pending a full appeal. Gorsuch voted for them to go into place but the block was kept in place by Roberts voting with the liberal wing. Federal court career has no abortion votes. Seen as likely to vote for anti-abortion positions
Brett Kavanaugh
Trump appointee. Like Gorsuch, only vote on abortion-related case was in February, on whether to block restrictions on clinics in Louisiana pending a full appeal, when he joined Gorsuch in losing minority. As federal appeal court judge had one significant abortion vote, against allowing a 17-year-old illegal immigrant in detention to seek a termination without delay. Seen as likely to vote for anti-abortion positions    




If the law is allowed to be implemented, that means it would leave Louisiana without any functioning abortion clinics, according to CBS News.
Members of Congress said in their brief that the court should consider overturning Roe as well as a 1992 decision, Casey v Planned Parenthood, which upheld the basic principle of Roe but allowed for greater abortion restrictions.
The signatories of the amicus brief say that the Louisiana case ‘illustrates the unworkability of the “right to abortion” found in Roe v Wade…and the need for the Court to take up the issue of whether Roe and Casey should be reconsidered and, if appropriate, overruled.’
Among those who signed the brief include Senators Mitt Romney of Utah; Ted Cruz of Texas; and Marco Rubio of Florida.
Thirteen Republican senators declined to sign the letter. Eight of them, including Cory Gardner of Colorado, Susan Collins of Maine, and Martha McSally of Arizona, are set to run this year in very competitive races for re-election.
Four of the 39 senators and 8 of the 168 representatives who signed the letter are women.
The only two Democrats who signed on to the brief are Congressmen Dan Lipinski of Illinois and Collin Peterson of Minnesota.
Lipinski, a conservative Democrat who represents a safe blue district, is facing a primary challenge from a more liberal opponent, Marie Newman, who is receiving support from pro-choice groups like EMILY’s List and Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
Peterson, who is also a conservative Democrat, was one of two Democrats to vote against both counts of impeachment against President Trump.
The Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Louisiana law from taking effect last February, when Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s four liberal justices to put it on hold.
Kavanaugh and Gorsuch were among the four conservatives who would have allowed the law to take effect.
Those preliminary votes do not bind the justices when they undertake a thorough review of an issue, but they often signal how a case will come out.
Roberts’ vote to block the Louisiana law was a rare vote against an abortion restriction in his more than 13 years as chief justice.
That may reflect his new role since Kennedy’s retirement as the court’s swing justice, his concern about the court being perceived as a partisan institution and respect for a prior decision of the court, even one he disagreed with.
In the Texas case, he voted in dissent to uphold the admitting privileges requirement.
The Louisiana case and a separate appeal over an Indiana ultrasound requirement for women seeking an abortion involve the standard first laid out by the court in 1992 that while states can regulate abortion, they can’t do things that place an ‘undue burden’ on a woman’s right to an abortion.
The regulations are distinct from other state laws making their way through court challenges that would ban abortions early in a pregnancy. 

[size=34]Landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, 1973[/size]

In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized a woman's constitutional right to an abortion in Roe v. Wade. The landmark ruling legalized abortion nationwide but divided public opinion and has been under attack ever since. 
The case was filed in 1971 by Norma McCorvey, a 22-year-old living in Texas who was unmarried and seeking a termination of her unwanted pregnancy. 
Because of state legislation preventing abortions unless the mother's life is at risk, she was unable to undergo the procedure in a safe and legal environment.
So McCorvey sued Henry Wade, the Dallas county district attorney, in 1970. The case went on to the Supreme Court, under the filing Roe vs Wade, to protect McCorvey's privacy.
Supreme Court Decision
The Supreme Court handed down the watershed 7-2 decision that a woman's right to make her own medical decisions, including the choice to have an abortion, is protected under the 14th Amendment. 
In particular, that the Due Process Clause of the the 14th Amendment provides a fundamental 'right to privacy' that protects a woman's liberty to choose whether or not to have an abortion.
 …nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law
The landmark ruling saw abortions decriminalized in 46 states, but under certain specific conditions which individual states could decide on. For example, states could decide whether abortions were allowed only during the first and second trimester but not the third (typically beyond 28 weeks). 
Impact 
Among pro-choice campaigners, the decision was hailed as a victory which would mean fewer women would become seriously - or even fatally - ill from abortions carried out by unqualified or unlicensed practitioners. Moreover, the freedom of choice was considered a significant step in the equality fight for women in the country. Victims of rape or incest would be able to have the pregnancy terminated and not feel coerced into motherhood.
However, pro-lifers contended it was tantamount to murder and that every life, no matter how it was conceived, is precious. Though the decision has never been overturned, anti-abortionists have prompted hundreds of states laws since then narrowing the scope of the ruling.
One such was the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act signed by President George W. Bush in 2003, which banned a procedure used to perform second-trimester abortions.   

McCorvey lived a quiet life until the 1980s when she revealed herself to be Jane Roe
Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe)
Following the ruling, McCorvey lived a quiet life until the 1980s when she revealed herself to be Jane Roe. McCorvey became a leading, outspoken pro-abortion voice in American discourse, even working at a women's clinic where abortions were performed.
However,  she performed an unlikely U-turn in 1995, becoming a born again Christian and began traveling the country speaking out against the procedure.
In 2003, a she filed a motion to overturn her original 1973 ruling with the U.S. district court in Dallas. The motion moved through the courts until it was ultimately denied by the Supreme Court in 2005.
McCorvey died at an assisted living home in Texas in February 2017, aged 69. 
'The Heartbeat bill'
Multiple governors have signed legislation outlawing abortion if a doctor can detect a so-called 'fetal heartbeat,' part of a concerted effort to restrict abortion rights in states across the country.
Under the ban doctors will be prosecuted for flouting the rules.
Abortion-rights supporters see the 'heartbeat bills' as virtual bans because 'fetal heartbeats' can be detected as early as six weeks, when women may not be aware they are pregnant.
Anti-abortion campaigners have intensified their efforts since Donald Trump was elected president and appointed two conservative justices to the US Supreme Court, hopeful they can convince the right-leaning court to re-examine Roe v. Wade.
Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, and Louisiana have enacted 'heartbeat laws' recently, and Alabama passed an even more restrictive version in May, amounting to a near total ban on abortion from the moment of conception. Other states have similar legislation pending.
Similar laws has also been passed in Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, Iowa and Kentucky, though they have been blocked by courts from going into effect as legal challenges have been brought against them.

Overturning Roe vs Wade should mark the end of the sex life of every legislator who votes for recall. These f...ing men need to learn that there are some things they have NO RIGHT to control!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7850619/Iranian-ambassador-warns-strike-killing-Qassem-Soleimani-tantamount-declaring-WAR.html

[size=34]Iranian UN ambassador warns US strike killing Qassem Soleimani is 'tantamount to declaring WAR' - as American embassy in Baghdad braces for further violence during funeral marches[/size]

• Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi said Friday's airstrike 'is tantamount to opening a war against Iran'
  
  
• It comes as thousands of mourners packed the streets of Baghdad on Saturday for Soleimani's funeral
  
  
• Processions were also held for Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an Iraqi militia commander who died with Soleimani 
  
  
• Trump said yesterday he did not order the death of Soleimani to start a war but to stop one  
  
  
• Fears mount of a new attack following assault on the embassy by pro-Iran militiamen earlier this week  
  
  
• Iraqi military says strike was a breach of sovereignty and Iraq's parliament is set to vote US military out
  
  
• The U.S. is sending nearly 3,000 more Army paratroopers to the Mideast as tensions with Iran escalate
  
  
• Force protection condition for US troops in the Middle East is raised to 'Charlie' signalling imminent threat
  
  
• Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CNN Friday morning there was a threat of 'imminent' attack in the region 
  
  
• Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said 'Jihad of Resistance will continue with more motivation' 
  
  

By KEITH GRIFFITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and EMILY GOODIN, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER and NIKKI SCHWAB, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM IN PALM BEACH, FLA. and ROSS IBBETSON FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 22:05 EST, 3 January 2020 | UPDATED: 04:25 EST, 4 January 2020

     



America's killing of Iran's highest ranking general, Qassem Soleimani, is tantamount to declaring war, Tehran's UN ambassador warned Friday ahead of potentially riotous funerals in Baghdad today.
Majid Takht Ravanchi, who represents Iran's only diplomatic mission within the US, said in an interview with CNN that the airstrike 'is tantamount to opening a war against Iran.'
'The US has already started a war against Iran, not just an economic war but something beyond that by assassinating one of our top generals,' Ravanchi said. 'There will be harsh revenge... The response for a military action is a military action.'
It comes as funeral processions were held for the 62-year-old Soleimani, chief of the elite Quds Forces arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, as well Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, 66, commander of a pro-Iran Iraqi militia in Baghdad on Saturday. 

The pair had been riding in a two-vehicle convoy which was decimated by three missiles from an MQ-9 Reaper Drone in the early hours of Friday outside Baghdad's International Airport. 
President Donald Trump has said that he ordered the killing of Soleimani not to start a war but to stop one. He said that Soleimani was plotting 'imminent and sinister' attacks against Americans.
'We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war,' the president said in brief remarks at Mar-a-Lago on Friday. 
Thousands of mourners today were dressed in black, and carried flags of Muhandis's Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah militia, which has committed brazen attacks against US bases in recent months, climaxing with a siege of the US embassy on Tuesday. 
The procession began at the Imam Kadhim shrine in Baghdad, one of the most revered sites in Shia Islam. Mourners marched in the streets alongside militia vehicles in a solemn procession. 
Meanwhile thousands of furious demonstrators thronged outside the UN offices in Iran's capital, demanding retribution for the killing of Soleimani. 
The commander, the architect of Iran's global military strategy, will be laid to rest Tuesday in his hometown of Kerman as part of three days of ceremonies across the country, the Revolutionary Guards said.      


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Mourners surround a car carrying the coffin of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, killed alongside Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a US air strike, during a funeral procession in Kadhimiya, a Shiite pilgrimage district of Baghdad, on Saturday


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Funeral processions were held for the 62-year-old Soleimani (left), chief of the elite Quds Forces arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, as well Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, 66, (right) commander of a pro-Iran Iraqi militia in Baghdad on Saturday


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Thousands of mourners pack the streets of Baghdad on Saturday to mourn Soleimani and Muhandis killed in a US strike outside the Iraqi capital's airport in the early hours of Friday
[size=10][size=18]Iraq holds funeral procession for killed Shiite militia personnel




[/size][/size]






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Thousands of mourners pack the streets  on Saturdayfor the funeral procession of Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, top commander of the elite Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, and the Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who were killed in an air strike at Baghdad airport


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UN Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi, who represents Iran's only diplomatic mission within the U.S., said in an interview with CNN that the airstrike 'is tantamount to opening a war against Iran'


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A militia vehicle - a large Chevrolet truck - is adorned with flowers and posters of Muhandis as his coffin is driven through the streets of the Iraqi capital on Saturday


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Iraq's caretaker prime minister Adel Abdel Mahdi attends the funeral procession on Saturday in Baghdad. On Friday Mahdi warned the rocket strike would 'spark a devastating war in Iraq,' adding that the assault by the U.S. was 'a brazen violation of Iraq's sovereignty and blatant attack on the nation's dignity'


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Mourners bearing flags of the PMF and the Iraqi flag take part in a funeral procession on Friday for Soleimani, top commander of the elite Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, and the Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis


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Kataeb Hezbollah Iraqi militia - the Iran-backed militants responsible for a spate of missile attacks against the US in recent months - gather on Saturday ahead of the funeral of the Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was killed in an air strike at Baghdad airport, in Baghdad, Iraq on Friday. Crowds can be seen holding posters of Muhandis and slain general Soleimani who was in the same convoy as Muhandis
The mourners, many of them in tears, chanted: 'No, No, America,' and 'Death to America, death to Israel.'
Mohammed Fadl, a mourner dressed in black, said the funeral is an expression of loyalty to the slain leaders.
'It is a painful strike, but it will not shake us,' he said.
Two helicopters hovered over the procession, which was attended by Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi and leaders of Iran-backed militias.
Following the violent attacks on the embassy during marches for other militant 'martyrs' earlier this week, the U.S. is bracing for the possibility of another assault.
Some of the funeral processions were being held in areas close to the heavily-fortified 'Green Zone' and officials are extremely wary of masses of militia close to consular buildings.
Any attempt by Iran-backed militias to breach the embassy would 'run into a buzzsaw' of fire from U.S. defenders, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said earlier this week. 
'We are very confident that the integrity of that embassy is strong and it is highly unlikely to be physically overrun by anyone,' Milley said at a Pentagon briefing. 


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Men wearing the yellow and green of Kataeb Hezbollah hold banners of Soleimani and Muhandis together during funeral processions in Baghdad on Saturday


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Mourners attend the funeral of the Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, top commander of the elite Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, and the Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. In the background is the Imam Kadhim shrine, one of the most revered in Shia Islam


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Mourners surround a car carrying the coffin of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani who was riding in the same car as the Iraqi Shia militia commander Muhandis when they were killed by missiles from a US MQ-9 Reaper Drone


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Militants of Muhandis' Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah (Brigades of the Party of God) group join the funeral procession in Baghdad on Saturday


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Mourners surround a car carrying one of the coffins of the pair killed - Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis - in a US air strike, during a funeral procession in Kadhimiya, a Shia pilgrimage district of Baghdad


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U.S. Marines with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines reinforce the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad on Friday. The embassy is bracing for further potential violence during funeral marches for Soleimani on Saturday


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A U.S. Marine at the embassy looks through the scope of a M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System (SASS) on Friday
The death of the top Iranian security and intelligence officer has sparked concern that tension will escalate in the Middle East and caused U.S. officials to brace for possible retaliatory attacks.
The U.S. military's force protection condition level for troops in the Middle East has been raised to 'Charlie,' signalling that intelligence indicates a terrorist attack is imminent. 
The strike has also frayed U.S. relations with Iraq, and that country's military it was a clear breach of U.S. status-of-forces agreements there.
Iraq's Ministry of Defense in an official statement called the slain al-Muhandis a 'hero martyr' and said he 'was martyred last night in a cowardly and treacherous attack carried out by American aircraft near Baghdad international airport.'
'We affirm that what happened is a flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty and a clear breach by the American forces of their mandate which is exclusively to fight Islamic State and provide advice and assistance to Iraqi security forces,' the statement said. 


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Supporters of the Iraqi paramilitary forces and Iraq's Hezbollah brigades pose for a picture next to a poster of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani during a funeral, for Soleimani and Muhandis in Baghdad's district of al-Jadriya, in Baghdad's high-security Green Zone on Saturday


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Mohammed al-Tabatabai (center), deputy Secretary General of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq faction, attending the funeral in Baghdad - the Asaib Ahl al-Haq faction fought against US coalition forces during the Iraq War and are today part of the government-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF)


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Militants mourners parade through the streets of Baghdad on Saturday during funerals held for Soleimani and Muhandis


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People attend the funeral ceremony of Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Forces, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, vice president of the Popular Mobilzation Forces (PMF), killed by US strike near Baghdad International Airport yesterday


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Pakistani Shiite Muslims burn U.S and Israel's flags to condemn the death of Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in an airstrike near Baghdad, during a protest in Lahore, Pakistan on Friday


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Militia and demonstrators wearing the yellow and green of the Kataeb Hezbollah Iraqi militia gather on Saturday ahead of the funeral of the their commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was killed in an air strike at Baghdad airport alongside Soleimani 


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Female protesters outside the United Nations building in Tehran on Saturday protesting the missile strike in Baghdad in the early hours of yesterday


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A billboard in memory of Qassem Soleimani is seen in Tehran on Friday after the U.S. airstrike in Iraq that killed him


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Marchers in Tehran protest the U.S. airstrike in Iraq that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani


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Thousands of Iranians take to the streets of Tehran Friday to mourn the death of General Qasem Soleimani during an anti-US demonstration. A massive funeral march for Soleimani will take place on Saturday near the U.S. embassy in Baghdad


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Iranian demonstrators chant slogans during a protest against the killing of the Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in front of the United Nations offices in Tehran on Saturday

Terrifying. He acted alone, consulted no one, not even his allies and then blamed them for lack of support. And all this because he's concerned about appeasing the Evangelical Right who vote for him.

And this is the man who took no notice of the service at Washington Cathedral for his inauguration, threw down his order of service and was completely indifferent

Yes, opens the door for the wicked evil Islamic State to impose their ungodly attacks across the globe.  They can't control global wealth without a stronghold on Iran.

Does anybody know the film "Wag the Dog"?

For me, there are three benefits Trump might see (if he really thought about it):
1. His supporters and voters see him as a strong president who saves the US dominence in the Middle East
2. A possible war pushes the US defense industry
3. These discussions distract the public - e.g. his voters - from the impeachment proceedings.

PAN - At least half this country hates drumpf as much as the Iranians do. He wasn't planning on starting a war?! WTF did he think would happen? And now the liar who promised his base that he would get us out of never-ending foreign wars is sending 3500 troops to the region. They're even talking about reinstating the draft! I wonder if his offspring will be included in mandatory service, or if they've inherited their father's bone spurs.

Carolhathaway - The comparison to "Wag The Dog" has been made in the media, and it isn't that far-fetched. drumpf sees everything as how it affects his personal ambitions. Any consequences for the rest of the world are unimportant to him. Possibly, if he does re-instate the draft and his base starts seeing their sons being sent to war, they might start to realize he doesn't give a damn about them and stop giving him unconditional, blind support.

carolhathaway wrote:Does anybody know the film "Wag the Dog"?

For me, there are three benefits Trump might see (if he really thought about it):
1. His supporters and voters see him as a strong president who saves the US dominence in the Middle East
2. A possible war pushes the US defense industry
3. These discussions distract the public - e.g. his voters - from the impeachment proceedings.

I think the American public majority understand the timing is suspect, those (Islamic State and their partners who control the U.S. economy) who want to control the middle east told President Trump this was a good move; and gave him the arguments you suggest.  President Trump believed them.

The US defense industry does not need a push.  

I believe the Democrats believe the attack will push the public to want President Trump out of office;  therefore greater public support for impeachment.  By the way Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi is an extension of Bush/Chaney and is there to push the Bush/Chaney middle east agenda.  Until now President Trump has been a thumb tack in their middle east balloon.  Heaven only knows what is going to happen next.

Have you seen the film 'Vice' about Dick Cheney? It tells you all you need to know.

And one of the worst things that ever happened was when US troops left Iraq, the government that they left behind was run by a Shia muslim president. 

Unfortunately most of Iraq has a Sunni  muslim population! - and thereby hangs a tale.........Enter ISIS, (an extreme Sunni organisation) setting fire to oilfields for at least nine months (great for global warming obviously), and of course everything else that they perpetuated.

I fear that Trump will win again if the Stock Market conitinues to hold up - many peoples' only concern

PAN do you agree the Islamic State and their partners are evildoers who commit ungodly acts across the globe?

He has no idea what he is doing you can't stop a war by killing this man his followers will not stop.

I'm sure Trump wanted something else to be focus other than the impeachment. He may have just started another war which i'm sure he won't mind it gives hims something to brag about.

Updated January 04, 2020 02:16 AM
[size=42]US-Led Coalition Denies Airstrike Near Baghdad Saturday
[/size]



Kataib Hezbollah Iraqi militia gather ahead of the funeral of the Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was killed in an air strike at Baghdad airport, in Baghdad, Jan. 4, 2020.

BAGHDAD - The U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State said Saturday it did not conduct any airstrikes near Camp Taji north of Baghdad.
Iraq’s military also denied Saturday that an airstrike had taken place on a medical convoy in Taji, north of Baghdad.
Earlier Saturday, Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces umbrella grouping of paramilitary groups said airstrikes near camp Taji had killed six people and critically wounded three. Iraqi state television had said they were U.S. airstrikes.
“FACT: the coalition ... did not conduct airstrikes near Camp Taji (north of Baghdad) in recent days,” a spokesman said on twitter.
The PMF said the attacks hit a convoy of medics, not senior leaders as reported in some media. However, the PMF later issued another statement saying that no medical convoys were targeted in Taji.
A U.S. airstrike on Baghdad airport Friday killed Qassem Soleimani, Tehran’s most prominent military commander and the architect of its growing influence in the Middle East, and the leader of Iraq’s PMF Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
The overnight attack, authorized by U.S. President Donald Trump, was a major escalation in a “shadow war” in the Middle East between Iran and the United States and American allies, principally Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The PMF are holding an elaborate funeral procession for both men and others who died in the same airstrike starting in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, moving toward the Shiite holy city of Kerbala and ending in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
Thousands gathered in Baghdad ahead of the start of the procession early Saturday morning, some waving Iraqi and militia flags.

We can only pray that someone with a brain stops this before we end up in WWIII. It won't be drumpf because he has no idea what he's doing. Maybe it'll be one of his Fox News cronies who kiss his butt daily, since they seem to be the only ones he listens to.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7853703/Iran-threatens-attack-White-House-crushing-powerful-retaliation.html

[size=34]Iran puts an $80m BOUNTY on Donald Trump's head, threatens to attack the White House, tears up nuclear deal and calls the US president a 'terrorist in a suit' amid fury at killing of Soleimani[/size]

• Iran officials and supporters of General Qassem Soleimani vowed vengeance for his death in US strike Friday
  
  
• At a funeral procession for Qassem Soleimani, Iranians were urged to donate $1 each to raise the bounty 
  
  
• Iranian MP Abolfazl Abutorabi threatened to attack White House during open session of parliament Sunday 
  
  
• 'We can attack the White House itself, we can respond to them on the American soil,' Abutorabi said in session
  
  
• MP's threat came after Trump warned that US would hit 52 targets representing victims of Iran hostage crisis 
  
  
• Iran has also announced that the country will no longer abide by any of the limits of its 2015 nuclear deal
  
  
• Earlier on Sunday, the Iraqi parliament voted for US troops to be expelled from the country, local reports say  
  
  
• Iran also threatened to hit 35 American targets in region, including US ships, following top general's death   
  
  
• His body was returned to Iran early Sunday to chants of 'Death to America' ahead of a three-day funeral  
  
  
• Iranians raised the blood-red 'flags of revenge' over the minarets at the revered Jamkaran Mosque   
  
  
• Thousands of US paratroopers from the 82 Airborne Division continue to deploy to the Middle East 
  
  

By VALERIE EDWARDS and KEITH GRIFFITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 07:59 EST, 5 January 2020 | UPDATED: 14:16 EST, 5 January 2020

     




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'We can attack the White House itself, we can respond to them on the American soil. We have the power, and God willing we will respond in an appropriate time,' Iranian MP Abolfazl Abutorabi (pictured) 
Iran has placed an $80million bounty on Donald Trump's head and threatened to attack the White House in response to the president's warning that any strike on American interests in the region will bring massive retaliation.
An organizer for a funeral procession for General Qassem Soleimani called on all Iranians to donate $1 each 'in order to gather an $80million bounty on President Trump's head'. 
The organizer made the remarks during the procession in Mashad.

Iran has also announced it they will no longer abide by any of the limits of its 2015 nuclear deal.
A statement issued by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's administration said the country will not observe limitations on its enrichment, the amount of stockpiled enriched uranium as well as research and development in its nuclear activities.
It did not elaborate on what levels it would immediately reach in its program.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations watchdog observing Iran's program, could not be immediately reach for comment.
Earlier on Sunday, the Iraqi parliament voted for US troops to be expelled from the country. The vote will 'obligate the government to work towards ending the presence of all foreign troops on Iraqi soil,' the country's media office stated.
As tensions escalate after Soleimani's death, Iranian MP Abolfazl Abutorabi threatened to launch an attack on American soil in retaliation. 
'We can attack the White House itself, we can respond to them on the American soil. We have the power, and God willing we will respond in an appropriate time,' Abutorabi said, according to the Iranian Labour News Agency.
Abutorabi went on to say that 'this is a declaration of war, which means if you hesitate you lose'.
'When someone declares war do you want to respond to the bullets with flowers? They will shoot you in the head,' he added. 
Abutorabi's threat was made during an open session of parliament in Tehran just days after Iranian military Soleimani was killed in a drone strike on Friday at Baghdad airport. Soleimani was the architect of Tehran's overseas clandestine and military operations as head of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force.
After Sunday's funeral marches in Iraq, where thousands of people gathered, Soleimani's body was flown to the city of Ahvaz in southwest Iran. Video from the scene showed a casket wrapped in an Iranian flag being unloaded from a plane as a military band played and the crowd angrily chanted 'Death to America'.
On Saturday, Revolutionary Guards commander Major General Hossein Salami promised 'a strategic revenge which will definitely put an end to the US presence in the region'.  
However, Trump, who Iranian leaders branded as a 'terrorist in a suit', threatened to hit 52 critical targets in Iran in retaliation if Tehran strikes any American interests in the region. He upped the stakes after Iran said it had identified 35 targets for potential strikes and raised its red 'flags of revenge' over a key mosque. 


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An organizer for a funeral procession for Soleimani reportedly called on all Iranians to donate $1 each 'in order to gather an $80million bounty on President Trump's head'
'Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!' Trump tweeted on Saturday from Mar-a-Lago, after spending the day at his nearby golf course. 
'Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American, & badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently hundreds of Iranian protesters,' Trump said.
'He was already attacking our Embassy, and preparing for additional hits in other locations. Iran has been nothing but problems for many years,' he continued.
Trump's threat referenced the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-1981, in which 52 US diplomats and citizens were held hostage by student revolutionaries in Iran. 
His threat to target sites important to 'Iranian culture' drew many accusations from critics that he was threatening to commit 'war crimes'. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the list of US targets from DailyMail.com. 
'They attacked us, & we hit back,' Trump said of the drone strike on Soleimani, which followed assaults on the US embassy in Baghdad by pro-Iranian militiamen.
'If they attack again, which I would strongly advise them not to do, we will hit them harder than they have ever been hit before!' he said. 















'The United States just spent Two Trillion Dollars on Military Equipment. We are the biggest and by far the BEST in the World! If Iran attacks an American Base, or any American, we will be sending some of that brand new beautiful equipment their way...and without hesitation!' he said.   
On Sunday, Information and Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi tweeted: 'Like ISIS, Like Hitler, Like Genghis! They all hate cultures. Trump is a terrorist in a suit. He will learn history very soon that NOBODY can defeat ''the Great Iranian Nation & Culture''.' 
In a CNN interview, Hossein Dehghan, the military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, said: 'The response for sure will be military and against military sites.'
'Let me tell you one thing: Our leadership has officially announced that we have never been seeking war and we will not be seeking war,' Dehghan said.
'It was America that has started the war. Therefore, they should accept appropriate reactions to their actions. The only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they have inflicted. Afterward they should not seek a new cycle,' he added. 
Dehghan was referring to Khamenei's statement in May when the supreme leader said Tehran does not seek war with the US. 
At the time, Khamenei said: 'There won't be any war. The Iranian nation has chosen the path of resistance. We don't seek a war, and they don't either. They know it´s not in their interests.' 
Earlier on Saturday, an Iranian official said at least 35 US targets, including warships and Tel Aviv, have been identified for retaliatory strikes. 
Iranian General Gholamali Abuhamzeh, a Revolutionary Guards commander in the southern province of Kerman, said vital American targets in the region were identified a 'long time ago', including ships in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and Tel Aviv. 
'The Strait of Hormuz is a vital point for the West and a large number of American destroyers and warships cross there … some 35 US targets in the region as well as Tel Aviv are within our reach,' he said, according to Reuters.
Hezbollah, an Islamic political and militant group, has also warned Iraqi soldiers to stay at least 1,000 meters away from US military bases from Sunday onwards. 
Vowing vengeance for Soleimani's death, Iranians raised the blood-red 'flags of revenge' over the minarets at the revered Jamkaran Mosque in the holy city of Qom on Saturday. 

A retaliation attack from Iran could be seen 'within weeks' either at home or abroad, a senior congressional staffer told Time.   
The staffer said: 'There is no indication that there is going to be a de-escalation in the near future. The only question is how bad is the retaliation going to be and where and what is it going to hit.'
Abuhamzeh's concerning remarks that Iran has previously identified targets seems to confirm the State Department's reasoning behind the airstrike on Friday. 
The State Department said: 'General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.'
'The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.'
Meanwhile, one of the Iranian-backed militia Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, warned Iraqi soldiers to vacate any premises near US bases housing American soldiers in a thinly-veiled threat. 
'The leaders of the security forces should protect their fighters and not allow them to become human shields to the occupying Crusaders,' the statement said, regarding coalition bases.     
In a press conference after Friday's airstrike, Trump said Soleimani was plotting attacks against Americans in a press conference after the airstrike. 
'Soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him,' the president revealed in a press conference.  
Although the specific locations of the 35 targets have not been disclosed, the US Embassy in Baghdad and the military base could be potential targets. 
This comes off the heels of the slaying of an American contractor who was killed in a rocket attack a week ago while working at an Iraqi military base in the country's northern region. 
The US retaliated by launching an attack on five Popular Mobilization militia bases in Iraq and Syria, killing more than 24 people and inciting a nearly two-day siege of the United States Embassy in Baghdad.
Following Soleimani's death, several Iranian officials and the 62-year-old's supporters vowed revenge on the US. 
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the US made a 'grave mistake' in killing Soleimani and will supposedly suffer consequences for years to come. 

[size=34]Iran's President Rouhani issues chilling warning that the US made a 'grave mistake' and will face the consequences 'for years to come' after Soleimani's family asks for revenge[/size]

The President of Iran has issued a chilling warning that the U.S. made a 'grave mistake' by killing the leader of Iran's Quds force, Qassem Soleimani, in an airstrike and that it will face consequences for years to come. 
In a visit to the notorious general's house on Saturday, one of Soleimani's daughter's asked President Hassan Rhouani for revenge.
'Who is going to avenge my father's blood?' she asked. 
In response, he promised her that 'everyone will take revenge' and 'we will, we will avenge his blood , you don't worry.'
'The Americans did not realize what a grave mistake they have made. They will suffer the consequences of such criminal measure not only today, but also throughout the years to come,' Rouhani said. 
'This crime committed by the US will go down in history as one of their unforgettable crimes against the Iranian nation.'
Soleimani, 62, was killed in the early hours of Friday, local time, outside Baghdad's International Airport in an airstrike ordered by President Donald Trump.
Hours after the attack, Trump said that he ordered the killing of Soleimani to prevent war, adding that the commander was plotting 'imminent and sinister' attacks against Americans. 
The general was the architect of Iran's shadow warfare and military expansion in the Middle East and was targeted specifically because he was actively developing plans to kill members of the U.S. military and diplomats in the region.
'We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war,' the president said in brief remarks at Mar-a-Lago on Friday. 
Rouhani has said that Iran has the right to seek revenge, saying that that retaliation will come when the 'dirty hands of the US' are removed from the region indefinitely.   
[size=16]Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatolla Ali Khamenei also visited the home on Friday evening where he said the airstrike that killed the architect of the country's infamous militia was 'villainous'. 
'Everyone is bereaved & grateful to your father. This gratitude is due to his great sincerity, since hearts are in God's hands. Without sincerity, [people's] hearts wouldn't have been with him like this. May God bestow His blessings on all of us,' he said, recounting the conversation in a tweet. 
'You saw people in many cities come out in numbers, with devotion. Wait to see his funeral. These blessings are before us to see the value of martyrdom. What a blessing for Hajj Qasem. He achieved his dream.'
In a series of other tweets following the meeting, Ayatollah Khamenei referred to the Trump administration as 'villainous' and  condemned the airstrike. 
'Hajj Qasem Soleimani had been exposed to martyrdom repeatedly, but in performing his duty & fighting for the cause of God, he didn't fear anyone or anything. He was martyred by the most villainous people, the US govt, & their pride in this crime is a distinguishing feature of him,' he wrote on Saturday. 
He also warned Iran's 'enemies' that the Jihad of Resistance' supposed victory will be 'bitter.'    
[/size]e wrote: 'All friends—& enemies—know that Jihad of Resistance will continue with more motivation & definite victory awaits the fighters on this blessed path. The loss of our dear General is bitter. The continuing fight & ultimate victory will be more bitter for the murderers & criminals.'

During funeral processions for Soleimani, his supporters chanted 'No, No, America,' 'Death to America, death to Israel' and 'America is the Great Satan.'
Mohammed Fadl, a mourner dressed in black, said the funeral is an expression of loyalty to the slain leaders.
'It is a painful strike, but it will not shake us,' he said.

[size=34]Thousands chant 'Death to America!' and hold signs vowing revenge at funeral of Soleimani[/size]

Thousands of furious mourners thronged in the streets of Baghdad today during funeral processions for the slain Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and an Iraqi militia commander who died with him during yesterday's US strike.
They chanted 'Death to America' and 'America is the Great Satan' as they walked beside the coffins of Soleimani, architect of Iran's global military strategy, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Kataeb Hezbollah chief, in Baghdad. 
The pair had been riding in a two-vehicle convoy which was decimated by three missiles from an American MQ-9 Reaper Drone in the early hours of Friday outside Baghdad International Airport.
The strike - which also killed four more Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards and five members of Iraq's pro-Iran paramilitary network - infuriated Tehran, who vowed jihad on America. 

Meanwhile Iraq, whose prime minister attended the funerals today, threatened to order the expulsion of all US troops from the country after what it called 'a brazen violation of Iraq's sovereignty.' 
President Donald Trump has said that he ordered the killing of Soleimani to prevent war, adding that the commander was plotting 'imminent and sinister' attacks against Americans.  
Mourners in the Iraqi capital today carried posters of Soleimani and flags of Muhandis's Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah militia, which has committed brazen attacks against US bases in recent months, climaxing with a siege of the US embassy on Tuesday. 
The procession began at the Imam Kadhim shrine in Baghdad, one of the most revered in Shia Islam before crowds headed south to a point near the Green Zone, the high-security district home to government offices and foreign embassies, including America's.   

And........ here we go!!!!!!! We may not have to worry about climate change for very much longer. At the rate these dick-measuring morons are going we'll be extinct before it becomes any more of a problem. Where are the alien invaders when you need them?!

The aliens don't want Trump even they know better.

The wicked/evil Islamic State and their evil wicked partners will be back doing the devil's business.

There is a damn good reason why other Presidents and military commanders in the past chose not to take out Solemani.  They feared what is happening now would happen.  Americans are less safe now than they were last Thursday.  Trump’s motivations are obvious.  And the biggest irony is that he accused Obama back when he was President that he was going to start a war in Iran to help him win his election.  In Trump’s reality projection is key.  Almost everything he has projected about his foes he has actually done.  Quite telling.  Who knows how this is going to play out.  The US may be paying for years for this disastrous decision by Trump.

Trump had other options but chose to kill. He has pretty much started world war 3 which I think he has been wanting to do
for a while. His ego will be the cause of  death of many innocent people.

Sadly annemarie he will blame any American deaths on Obama and Bush and, of course, the Iranians. He will NEVER take responsibility. And as usual the Republican Party is standing lockstep with this incompetent ass in supporting the assassination. His base will blindly cheer him on. It’s really hard to say at this point how this will affect his winning a second term. I have to think the situation in the Middle East is going to get worse before it gets better.

Sadly, this will have worldwide implications for every democracy and will not just be confined to the States.

Boris has consulted with US, France and Germany (so far) and urges de-escalation....and requested Iraq, who now want all Western troops out, to maintain the British contingent there who are helping to fight ISIS