Clinton's new friend — and maybe VP

She starts the phone calls with, “Tom, this is Hillary.”

“Hey, how are you?” he responds, consciously working his way around being so formal at this point in their relationship, but also too ingrained in his Dominican upbringing to just start calling her by her first name.

Hillary Clinton and Tom Perez have had some practice with the routine, according to sources familiar with the conversations. There was the phone call when she called to ask for his endorsement, which became a nerd-out session on prison reform and registering farmworkers. In March, when she asked for his help on Latino engagement ahead of the New York primary, he pushed for her to send him to a politically powerful local union president to ask for his help — and ended up being asked himself to rile up a bundler session the morning after the New York debate.
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Perez had only met Clinton in passing before last summer, when he happened to get scheduled ahead of her at the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) conference in St. Louis—just a typical day for a Labor secretary, he mock-complained to staff, with all those cameras arrayed to see him. She called over to him, introduced herself, thanked him for the work he was doing. They spent about 15 minutes together, complete with photos and teasing his former press secretary who’s now her director of black, Latino and women’s media.

But something clicked, between those encounters and the clutches he was pulled into before hitting the spin rooms at the debates he attended.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/clintons-new-friend-and-maybe-vp-225347#ixzz4E6gyv79N

Dallas should not make the nation forget Castile and Sterling

BREAKING: Andrea Leadsom to quit Tory leadership race - reports

Source: Daily Express (UK)

By Greg Heffer, Political Reporter
PUBLISHED: 11:42, Mon, Jul 11, 2016 | UPDATED: 11:58, Mon, Jul 11, 2016

The energy minister today scheduled a surprise statement at 12.15pm, less than an hour after her rival Theresa May launched her national campaign to be elected Conservative Party leader.

It is expected Mrs Leadsom will announce she is withdrawing from the contest to become Tory leader and Britain's next prime minister.

If she does, it would automatically install Mrs May as David Cameron's replacement in Number 10.

A source close to Mrs Leadsom told the BBC the "abuse {was} too great" for the former City trader during the leadership campaign.


Read more: http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/688246/Tory-leadership-race-Andrea-Leadsom-quits-Theresa-May-new-prime-minister

N. Korea: U.S., South Korea will suffer 'extreme uneasiness and terror'

Source: CNN

By KJ Kwon, CNN
Updated 1:37 AM ET, Mon July 11, 2016

Seoul (CNN) North Korea's military has threatened to "physically act" against an advanced anti-missile system deployed by the U.S. and South Korea, and make them "suffer from the nightmare extreme uneasiness and terror."

The harsh rhetoric by North Korea's People's Army (KPA) is the communist state's first comment on Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) since the U.S. and South Korea announced Friday they are in the final stages of negotiation about where to deploy the missile system.

THAAD can shoot down short, medium and intermediate ballistic missiles at incredible speed and altitude, and has been used by the U.S. for years to protect its military units.

"We once again warn the enemies that it is the steadfast will of the KPA to make merciless retaliatory strikes to reduce South Korea to a sea in flames and debris once an order is issued," KCNA cited the Korean People's Army as saying.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/11/asia/north-korea-us-thaad/index.html

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Fan Mail

Posted just a few hours ago.

Putting This Back on the Front Page, Where it Belongs

And a very large THANK YOU to ariesgem, who posted it originally.

President Obama Should Fire FBI Director James Comey

by Tommy Christopher | 4:40 pm, July 10th, 2016

It was an embattled week for FBI Director James Comey, who drew the ire of Republicans for announcing that his agency would not be recommending charges against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then spent the better part of Thursday getting grilled by Republicans over it on Capitol Hill. There were a few people angry at Comey for smearing Hillary Clinton as he was clearing her, but for the most part, Democrats tripped all over themselves praising Comey because they agreed with his conclusion.

But as the week drew to a close, and the Comey spectacle dominated the news, it became clear to me that the FBI director needs to be fired, and not for anything he did with regard to Hillary Clinton. President Obama should fire Director Comey because he’s on the wrong side of the problem that killed Alton Sterling and Philando Castile this week. While Comey shared the media spotlight with those two most recent martyrs to police violence, no one in the media thought to connect the dots between those tragedies, and Comey’s role in enabling them:

Kansas City Star Apologizes for Op-Ed Implying Rape is the Victim’s Fault

Source: Mediaite

by Ken Meyer | 5:23 pm, July 10th, 2016

The Kansas City Star is doing damage control Sunday after getting a lot of negative feedback for a guest column that appeared to victim-blame raped women.

In a column called “Women can take action to prevent rapes,” Laura Herrick wrote that women who don’t want to be sexually assaulted shouldn’t allow themselves to get so drunk that they can be taken advantage of. While The Star has already taken the column off their website, Jezebel flagged various parts of the article that seem to imply that the woman can be blamed in such a scenario:

“As women, shouldn’t we take responsibility for our bodies by not becoming so intoxicated that we don’t know what is happening? Every woman should know her drink limit and stop there.

No, she’s not asking to be raped by being drunk. But isn’t it her responsibility to reduce the risk by not getting to that point? And if you wake up the morning after doing the ‘walk of shame’ don’t yell rape if you regret your actions of the night before. Accept your role in what happened, learn from the experience and move on.”

'Pokémon Go' Is Luring Unsuspecting Victims Into Traps Set by Gunmen, According to Police

Source: Mic

By Brianna Provenzano July 10, 2016

Pokémon Go isn't just the latest craze in augmented reality gaming — it's also the latest way for armed robbers to lure you out of your home and mug you.

Such was the case for a string of victims in St. Louis and St. Charles Counties in Missouri who, according to an official statement released on Facebook by the O'Fallon Police Department, were lured to specific geolocations set up by the suspects in the hopes of catching Pokémon, only to by robbed at gunpoint instead.

"This morning at approximately 2 a.m. we responded to the report of an armed robbery near the intersection of Highway K and Feise Road," the official statement reads. "We were able to locate four suspects occupying a black BMW a short time later and recover a handgun."

The press release also confirms that the suspects, responsible for multiple robberies over the course of several days, had specifically targeted their victims using Pokémon Go.

Read more: https://mic.com/articles/148311/pok-mon-go-is-luring-unsuspecting-victims-into-traps-set-by-gunmen-according-to-police#.fo8tAoQTF

DOJ veterans weigh in on Comey’s HRC speech: “I don’t even think J. Edgar Hoover ever did this”

From Salon...

When FBI Director James Comey took the podium at the J. Edgar Hoover Building on Tuesday to address the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email system during her time as secretary of state, he acknowledged at the outset that his remarks would be unusual.

“I am going to include more detail about our process than I ordinarily would, because I think the American people deserve those details in a case of intense public interest,” Comey explained, stressing that he had not coordinated with the Department of Justice or any other government agency before delivering his statement.

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According to Nick Akerman, a former federal prosecutor who also served as an assistant special prosecutor with the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, Comey overstepped the bounds of his office with his statement.
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“What was so unusual and what was beyond the pale here was that the director of the FBI got up and basically announced the decision, which is never done by the FBI,” Akerman said. “I don’t even think J. Edgar Hoover ever did this.”

http://www.salon.com/2016/07/09/i_dont_even_think_j_edgar_hoover_ever_did_this_doj_veterans_weigh_in_on_fbi_director_james_comeys_handling_of_clinton_email_probe/