"New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker is now referring questions about whether he is being vetted as a potential running mate for Hillary Clinton to her campaign -- a shift from as recently as two weeks ago, when he flatly denied he was in the running for the job.

"I'm just referring questions about the vice presidency to the woman who is going to have to make this decision," Booker told CNN's Brianna Keilar in an interview that aired Sunday on "State of the Union." "You should talk to the Clinton campaign."

Booker's tightly guarded answer is a marked difference from how he responded to that question last month, when he told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell: "I'm not being vetted."

Booker is one of several Democrats believed to be under consideration by Clinton. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, Labor Secretary Tom Perez, Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Rep. Xavier Beccera of California have all been floated as potential choices.

One factor that potentially could work against Booker is that he's from a state with a Republican governor, meaning his seat in the Senate would almost certainly be replaced by a Republican were he to be elected vice president."


https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2016/07/03/politics/cory-booker-hillary-clinton/index.html

I'm really wondering who it will be.

Source: Haaretz


LONDON - Former Foreign Minister MK Tzipi Livni, currently in London to attend the Haaretz Israel Conference, has been granted special diplomatic immunity following a bid by the British police to question her in connection with war crimes.

The unprecedented police summons, which was delivered last Thursday, was cancelled after diplomatic contacts between Israel and Britain, at the end of which Livni received immunity.

According to the summons, police wanted to question Livni, a Zionist Union Knesset member, on suspicion of involvement in war crimes during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2008, when she was foreign minister, vice prime minister and a member of the diplomatic-security cabinet.

Haaretz understands that Livni received a telephone call last Thursday from a detective belonging to Scotland Yard's War Crimes unit, who asked her to confirm that she would be visiting London. At the conclusion of the telephone conversation, he sent her the summons via email.

Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.728619

"Donald Trump tweeted a meme Saturday that used dog-whistle anti-Semitism to announce that his political rival, "Crooked Hillary," had "made history." The meme Trump tweeted prominently featured the Star of David — a holy symbol of the Jewish religion that Nazis attempted to pervert by forcing Jews over the age of 6 to sew it onto their clothing during Hitler's reign.

Emblazoned onto the Star of David in Trump's meme are the words "Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!"

The star lies atop a giant pile of money.

Mic discovered Sunday that Donald Trump's Twitter wasn't the first place the meme appeared. The image was previously featured on /pol/ — an Internet message board for the alt-right, a digital movement of neo-Nazis, anti-Semites and white supremacists newly emboldened by the success of Donald Trump's rhetoric — as early as June 22, over a week before Trump's team tweeted it.

Though the thread where the meme was featured no longer exists, you can find it by searching the URL in Archive.is, a "time capsule of the internet" that saves unalterable text and graphic of webpages. Doing so allows you to see the thread on /pol/ as it originally existed.

Of note is the file name of the photo, HillHistory.jpg, potentially a nod to the Neo-Nazi code for "HH," or "Heil Hitler," which the alt-right is fond of hiding in plain sight. "


https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.mic.com/articles/amp/147711/donald-trump-s-star-of-david-hillary-clinton-meme-was-created-by-white-supremacists

Trump might be out before the convention if this keeps up. It's almost like self sabotage.

" In an exclusive interview with Chuck Todd, Hillary Clinton says she was "pleased to have the opportunity to assist the department in bringing its review to a conclusion." She also commented on her husband's tarmac conversation with Attorney General Loretta Lynch."
http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/msnbc-exclusive-hillary-clinton-s-first-interview-after-fbi-meeting-717556291850

"Donald Trump deleted a tweet criticizing Hillary Clinton after it was accused anti-Semitism."

http://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/politics/elections/2016/2016/07/02/86640368/

Too late!

Source: CBS

A Chicago nurse got a rude awakening Thursday afternoon when a man in her Portage Park neighborhood blew off his hand with a firecracker – a body part that was found hours later by the nurse’s dog.

Cheri Steigert normally works the overnight shift and was sleeping around 3:30 p.m. when she heard a large explosion and a scream.

She learned that a man had been injured in a fireworks explosion and lost at least two fingers. A few hours later, she learned it was even worse.

Steigert let her dog out in the yard, and it returned with something in its mouth and dropped the item – a bunny rabbit, she thought, at first....

Read more: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2016/06/30/dog-retrieves-hand-after-man-loses-it-in-firecracker-explosion/

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"The hand was found about 250 feet away at Steigert’s residence, on West Dakin."

I think it was more than a firecracker!

I remember I used to light ladyfingers between my fingers when I was a kid. I'm so lucky to have made it intact!

http://www.msn.com/en-us/video/watch/103-year-old-i-must-live-to-vote-for-hillary-clinton/vi-AAhR71Q

I hope she gets the chance to pull that lever.

Source: CNN

Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton met privately on Monday in Phoenix, Arizona, after the two realized they were on the same tarmac, an aide to Clinton said.

The meeting took place at an Arizona airport ahead of the public release Tuesday morning of the House Benghazi committee's report on the September 11, 2012, attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya.

Speaking at a news conference in Phoenix on Tuesday, Lynch confirmed the meeting and denied the two spoke about any matter pending before the Justice Department or the Benghazi probe. She also said the former president "did not raise anything" about an ongoing case or anything of that nature.

"I did see President Clinton at the Phoenix airport as he was leaving and spoke to myself and my husband on the plane," Lynch said according to CNN affiliate KNXV/ABC15. "Our conversation was a great deal about grandchildren, it was primarily social about our travels and he mentioned golf he played in Phoenix."

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/29/politics/bill-clinton-loretta-lynch/index.html

Source: Washington Post

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologized Monday for the downing of a Russian warplane in November and called for Russia and Turkey to mend a bilateral relationship that has become openly hostile over the incident.

One Russian pilot was killed last year when two Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian Su-24 warplane over Turkey’s border with Syria in an unexpected clash that Russian President Vladi­mir Putin called a “stab in the back administered by the accomplices of terrorists.” In footage later aired on Russian state television, pro-Turkish rebels fired automatic rifles at the Russian pilot as he parachuted to the ground. The Kremlin was furious, imposing a series of punishing sanctions against Ankara while demanding for months that Erdogan personally apologize.

On Monday, Erdogan wrote to Putin that he “would like to inform the family of the deceased Russian pilot that I share their pain and to offer my condolences to them. May they excuse us.” In a statement, Erdogan’s press secretary said Russia and Turkey “have agreed to take necessary steps without delay to improve bilateral relations,” specifically noting regional crises and combating terrorism.

“We had no wish or intention to down a plane of the Russian Federation,” a Kremlin press release quoted the Turkish communique as saying. “I share their pain with my whole heart,” Erdogan wrote of the family of the pilot

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/turkey-apologizes-for-shooting-down-russian-warplane-last-year/2016/06/27/d969e0ea-3c6d-11e6-9e16-4cf01a41decb_story.html

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I think Turkey's economy that has taken a major hit has something to do with this. Erdogan was defiant at the time.

Source: AP

BEIJING (AP) — China on Sunday recovered an experimental probe launched aboard a new generation rocket, marking another milestone in its increasingly ambitious space program that envisions a mission to Mars by the end of the decade.

The launch of the spaceship aboard the newly developed Long March 7 rocket on Saturday was hailed as a breakthrough in the use of safer, more environmentally friendly fuels. The launch also marked the first use of the massive new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the southern island province of Hainan.

Since launching its first manned mission in 2003, China has sent up an experimental space station, the Tiangong 1, staged a spacewalk and landed its Yutu rover on the moon.

Following that, the Shenzhou 11 spaceship with two astronauts on board is scheduled to dock with the station and remain for several days. Administrators suggest a manned landing on the moon may also be in the program's future.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/4c73dc21c41b49e3986a5effd4e1d197/china-schedule-launch-2nd-space-station

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So both the Russians and Chinese are planning manned moon landings.

NASA needs to get it together!