DonViejo
DonViejo's JournalChina Warns U.S. Against Allowing Stopover For Taiwan's President Tsai
Source: Reuters
We hope the U.S. can abide by the one China policy...and not let her pass through their border.
12/29/2016 09:03 am ET
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will pass through the United States when she visits Latin America next month, the Taiwan Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, angering China which urged the United States to block any such stopover.
China is deeply suspicious of Tsai, who it thinks wants to push for the formal independence of Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing regards as a renegade province, ineligible for state-to-state relations.
Details of the stopovers will be disclosed before the end of this week, the ministry said. China said Tsais intentions were clear and urged the United States not to let her in.
We hope the U.S. can abide by the one China policy...and not let her pass through their border, not give any false signals to Taiwan independence forces, and through concrete actions safeguard overall U.S. China relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan strait, Hua Chunying, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told a briefing in Beijing.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/china-warns-us-taiwans-president_us_5865165ee4b0d9a5945a3e47
Leading DNC Candidates Duck Debate Over Obama's Handling Of UN Israel Resolution
The party is divided. And its prospective leaders don’t want to jump into that abyss.
12/28/2016 04:09 pm ET
The Obama administration’s abstention from a United Nations resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has engendered impassioned reaction from all corners of the political universe, save one.
The candidates running to take over the Democratic National Committee have, so far, steadfastly avoided the topic, even as it divides their own party.
A spokesperson for Labor Secretary Tom Perez told The Huffington Post that Perez wouldn’t be weighing in on the matter “given his role in the cabinet.” Several requests for comment sent over several days to Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) were not returned. A similar request to New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley went unanswered, while a statement from South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison notably avoided taking a position.
“Supporters of a two-state solution may differ on the tactics that are most likely to bring it about. Where there are good-faith policy disagreements among Democrats, it is not the role of the DNC Chair to take sides,” Harrison said. “What I will do as DNC Chair is lead the charge where Democrats are united. Here, that means maintaining our support for a two-state solution and opposing any measures the Trump Administration may take to undermine Israel’s future as Jewish and democratic, principles which the President-elect appears to have minimal appreciation for.”
more
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dnc-obama-israel_us_58641da4e4b0de3a08f6fadc
US senators: Russia should be sanctioned for election hacks
Source: Associated Press
THURSDAY, DEC 29, 2016 09:45 AM EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. senators visiting eastern European allies to discuss security issues called for sanctions against Russia for interfering in the presidential election by hacking American political sites and email accounts. Their demands came amid ongoing discussions among U.S. officials on an imminent response that would ensure the U.S. takes action against Russia before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
“We have to sanction Russia for these cyberattacks (and) send a clear message to the incoming administration that there is a lot of bipartisan support in Congress for going after this,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., told The Associated Press by phone from Latvia.
Klobuchar joined Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in their visits to some of Russia’s neighbors — the Baltic states, Ukraine and Georgia — as well as Montenegro.
Russian officials have denied the Obama administration’s accusation that the highest levels of the Russian government were involved in trying to influence the U.S. presidential election. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia’s goal was to help Trump win — an assessment Trump has dismissed as ridiculous.
Read more: http://www.salon.com/2016/12/29/us-senators-russia-should-be-sanctioned-for-election-hacks/
Donald Trump is, once again, taking credit for jobs he had no part in creating
Trump really, really wants you to think he's bringing jobs back to the country, even though it isn't trueMATTHEW ROZSA
Donald Trump is taking credit for a jobs deal that he objectively had nothing to do with.
The president-elect bragged on Wednesday about brokering a deal in which Sprint will bring 5,000 jobs to the United States and another company, OneWeb, will bring 3,000 jobs into this country. This is consistent with a theme that Trump has been spouting off about on Twitter all week — namely, that he deserves credit for the nation’s currently prosperous economic conditions.
-snip-
“Because of what’s happening and the spirit and the hope I was just called by the head people at Sprint and they’re going to be bringing 5,000 jobs back to the United States,” Trump said to reporters outside his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Wednesday. “Masa and some other people were very much involved with that.”
The problem is that, like so much of what Trump says, it simply isn’t true.
“This is part of the 50,000 jobs that Masa previously announced,” said a Sprint spokeswoman to Engadget on Wednesday. “This total will be a combination of newly created jobs and bringing some existing jobs back to the U.S.”
more
http://www.salon.com/2016/12/29/donald-trump-is-once-again-taking-credit-for-jobs-he-had-no-part-in-creating/
Senator McCain says has 'concerns' about Tillerson nomination
Source: Reuters
29 DEC 2016 AT 08:30 ET
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, will have to explain his relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at his confirmation hearing, senior Republican senator John McCain said on Thursday.
McCain, who is chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, also called President Putin “a thug and a murderer”.
Speaking on a tour of the Baltic states, where there is widespread concern that Moscow wants to reassert its power across the region, McCain said he had concerns about Tillerson, who opposed sanctions on Russia after its annexation of Crimea.
“I and several of my colleagues have concerns about Mr Tillerson, and some of his past activities, specifically his relationship with Vladimir Putin,” McCain told reporters. “I have concerns but at the same time I’m certain we will give Mr Tillerson an opportunity to make his case about why he is qualified to be Secretary of State.”
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/senator-mccain-says-has-concerns-about-tillerson-nomination/
Ex-GOP lawmaker: Trump needn't rely on US intelligence agencies - he can get info from...
Ex-GOP lawmaker: Trump needn’t rely on US intelligence agencies — he can get info from foreign governmentsAppearing on CNN, a former head of the House Intelligence Committee said President-elect Donald Trump should feel free to use intelligence information given to him from foreign governments in lieu of what his own intelligence agencies will be providing him.
Appearing on The Situation Room, former Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) flabbergasted host Jim Sciutto by saying U.S. intelligence agencies can provide “biased information,” before asserting Trump could also rely on information provided by foreign intelligence agencies.
Noting that Trump is still disputing evidence provided by all seventeen U.S. agencies that shows the Russians hacked the 2016 election, Hoekstra said Trump is sending U.S. intelligence a message.
“I think what Donald Trump is doing, is Donald Trump is putting the intelligence community on notice,” Hoekstra said. “That he expects them to deliver quality information in an unbiased format so that he will be equipped to make the best decisions possible as Commander in Chief. Sending that signal to the intelligence community is absolutely fine.”
“How will he judge when it’s quality? When it’s quality intelligence?” Sciutto pressed. “What will be his basis of deciding that?”
more
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/ex-gop-lawmaker-trump-neednt-rely-on-us-intelligence-agencies-he-can-get-info-from-foreign-governments/
States Are Beginning To Sound The Alarm On Obamacare Repeal
By LAUREN FOX Published DECEMBER 29, 2016, 6:00 AM EST
Republicans in Congress are waiting with bated breath for the moment when they pass a repeal of the Affordable Care Act in 2017 and President-elect Donald Trump goes to sign it, but it's their colleagues back in their home states that may have the most to lose from scrapping the law.
The repeal plans congressional Republicans have floated wouldn't likely take effect until 2019 or 2020. But already, governors and state legislatures are voicing concerns that repealing the ACA may leave millions of people uninsured, as well as take away some of the mechanisms that helped their states drastically slash their uninsured rates.
At the top of their list of concerns is the fact that the most likely blueprint in Congress for repeal, a 2015 bill that President Barack Obama vetoed, would also repeal federal funding for Medicaid expansion, which was estimated to have helped cover 11 million adults across the country in 2015. Ten Republican governors have taken advantage of the expansion, which was so successful in some places like Kentucky that, even though Gov. Matt Bevin (R) campaigned on scrapping the ACA, he simply made some tweaks to the program once he took office.
The Congressional repeal plan from 2015 would also repeal tax increases that were part of the ACA, likely shifting the burden for paying for health care from the federal government to individual states.
more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/states-grapple-with-what-will-happen-post-obamacare-repeal
Pelosi: GOP's response to guns sit-in an 'inside power grab'
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi accused Republicans Wednesday of attempting a “power grab” to snuff out free speech on the House floor with their controversial new rules package.
“While the American people worry for the financial security of their families, Republicans are opening the new Congress by turning their backs on the outside calls for help with an inside power grab in the House Rules,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) wrote in a letter to colleagues ahead of a Thursday caucus call.
The proposed Republican rules changes would give the sergeant-at-arms the power to punish members for taking pictures or video on the House floor by deducting fines up to to $2,500 directly from lawmakers’ paychecks.
Democrats say the proposed fines, a response to their gun control sit-in over the summer, is an unprecedented breach of decorum. And some experts have questioned the constitutionality of such a move, which House members are expected to approve as part of a broader rules package in early January.
more
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/nancy-pelosi-guns-protest-gop-233018
Trump: Sprint Is Bringing 5K Jobs Back To US Because Of 'The Hope' I Created
Source: Talking Points Memo
By ALLEGRA KIRKLAND Published DECEMBER 28, 2016, 5:50 PM EDT
The President-elect claimed that he received a phone call on Wednesday afternoon from the head people at Sprint pledging to return off-shored jobs to U.S. soil.
Theyre taking them from other countries and bringing them back to the United States, Donald Trump told reporters gathered at the door of his south Florida Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump credited the telecommunications companys decision to whats happening and the spirit and the hope. He also claimed that OneWeb, a new satellite-based Internet provider, will be hiring 3,000 people.
Sprint and OneWeb not yet verified these claims.
Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-claims-five-thousand-sprint-jobs-oneweb
Fox News wonders whether we should cancel food stamps because 0.09% of spending is fraudulent
By Philip Bump December 28 at 12:16 PM
A bit over 44 million Americans participate in the government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly referred to as food stamps. That's a higher number than in most years past, representing about 13.7 percent of the U.S. population, but it's down from the high of 47.6 million in 2013, 14.9 percent of the population that year.
What's incensing Fox News, though, is that 2016 saw a record-high level of fraud in the system, with $70 million wasted. The network hosted a discussion Tuesday morning with a simple conceit: Should the program therefore be ended?
In December 2013, a poll conducted by United Technologies with the National Journal asked Americans whether they thought that changing the rules to limit food stamp availability should be approved, even if it kicked 4 million people off the support system. Two-thirds of Americans said that was acceptable. How many would accept booting all 44 million isn't clear.
But it's useful to consider the broader context of the question before we consider scrapping the program in its entirety.
For example, the amount of fraud reported in the SNAP system is a tiny fraction of overall spending. The cost of providing nutritional assistance to those 44 million people (on average each month) is $70.8 billion. In other words, the amount of fraud is about 0.09 percent of all of the money spent. Visually, that looks like this.
more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/28/fox-news-wonders-if-we-should-cancel-food-stamps-since-0-09-percent-of-spending-is-fraudulent/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_fix-fox-350pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.03e0560d13f2
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Name: DonGender: Male
Hometown: Massachusetts
Home country: United States
Member since: Sat Sep 1, 2012, 03:28 PM
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