***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[rolaholic]

@business: Russia's election hack breached 39 U.S. states - far more widespread than publicly revealed [Bloomberg] https://t.co/JqdEGmhE6A https://t.co/KVMT22bh7u

How about those dangerous North Koreans though...

 

[Belgium]

Merkel calls for greater investment in Africa ahead of the G20 summit.

http://www.dw.com/en/merkel-calls-f...frica-ahead-of-g20-summit/a-39220029#nomobile

Merkel calls for greater investment in Africa ahead of G20 summit

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has underscored the importance of combating poverty in Africa as a way to stem the mass migrant flow to Europe. Merkel has made ties with Africa the focus of Germany's G20 presidency.

Reducing poverty and conflict in Africa  were the main topics raised by German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday as she met with African leaders ahead of next month's Group of 20 (G20) summit.

The leaders of the African Union from Guinea, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Mali, Ghana, Tunisia, Rwanda and other nations met in Berlin to discuss a so-called "compact with Africa."  The initiative seeks to team up African nations which have committed to economic reforms with private investors who would then bring jobs and businesses.

"Positive development in the world will not work unless all continents participate," Merkel said in Berlin. "We need an initiative that does not talk about Africa, but with Africa."

Germany's Finance Ministry announced on Monday that it agreed partnerships with Tunisia, Ivory Coast and Ghana as part of a planned investment of up to 300 million euros ($335 million) to help African nations.

Fighting poverty to stop mass migration

Underscoring the pressure African countries face, Merkel contrasted Germany's average age of 43 with the average age in Niger and Mali of 15.

"If we don't give young people any prospects, if we don't invest in education and qualifications, if we don't strengthen the role of girls and young women, the development agenda won't succeed," she said.



Berlin is seeking to alleviate poverty particularly in African countries whose citizens have been among the hundreds of thousands of people who have arrived in Germany as asylum-seekers over the past two years. Last year, Germany took in around 890,000 migrants, thousands of whom came from African countries including Eritrea, Ghana and Ethiopia.

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara said the solution to mass migration "lies in the massive creation of jobs through strong and inclusive economic growth," adding that "young Africans will feel better in Africa than elsewhere."

Upping security role

Merkel also said that other industrialized countries should be more open to transferring weapons to African nations as part of their development aid so that those countries can more easily combat militant groups.

"For many years, we felt good when we didn't focus on military equipment ... But we have to be honest - only where security is ensured can development take place," she said at the opening of a G20 conference on Africa in Berlin.

Merkel pledged German support for a French plan  to authorize a West African force to battle terrorism in the Sahel region in Mali and other neighboring countries.

Monday's G20 conference on Africa is taking place ahead of the G20 summit in Hamburg on July 7 and 8.

rs/jm (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)

 

[rolaholic]

She probably see's how China's beaten them to the punch over the last few years

 

[gry60]

Belgium
I'm game as long as she doesn't want us to speak German...






























...Again

 

[sonoftony]

Grand Wizard Sessions decided not to go to the hearing?

 

[aepps20]

Grand Wizard Sessions decided not to go to the hearing?

?? Hopefully Grand Wizard Sessions spoke with Barson FIRST.

 

[rolaholic]

@thehill: JUST IN: Deputy AG Rosenstein: No good cause to fire special counsel Mueller http://hill.cm/zPwmf0y

There was none to fire Comey either

 

[Belgium]

Grand Wizard Sessions decided not to go to the hearing?

Sessions' hearing is at 2:30 EDT

Initially Sessions was supposed to go to this current budget hearing instead of Rosenstein but senators made it clear they were gonna use some of that time to grill Sessions on the Comey testimony etc. In response, Sessions sent Rosenstein to this hearing in his place and scheduled a public hearing for himself before the senate intelligence committee at 2:30 EDT

 

[aepps20]

Sessions' hearing is at 2:30 EDT
Initially Sessions was supposed to go to this current budget hearing instead of Rosenstein but senators made it clear they were gonna use some of that time to grill Sessions on the Comey testimony etc. In response, Sessions sent Rosenstein to this hearing in his place and scheduled a public hearing for himself before the senate intelligence committee at 2:30 EDT

BEAUTIFUL NEWS B. BARSON CLEARLY let Sess know that Da Goons WILL Have his back.

 

[Belgium]

This guy behind senator ***** is in desperate need of a haircut 

 

[aepps20]

This guy behind senator ***** is in desperate need of a haircut 

Not DAPPER.:x

 

[Nike Jordan]

2 million more people just dropped out of ObamaCare. It is in a death spiral. Obstructionist Democrats gave up, have no answer = resist!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2017

When in doubt, just blame the party that's completely out of power.

 

[aepps20]

2 million more people just dropped out of ObamaCare. It is in a death spiral. Obstructionist Democrats gave up, have no answer = resist!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

June 13, 2017


When in doubt, just blame the party that's completely out of power.

Da Don is telling DA truth B. LIBBIE SCUM.

 

[AEA18]

Obstructionist democrats

If only they didn't have all those seats in the house and senate

 

[Mark Antony]

They have the majority, seriously is this guy ******ed?

 

[harlemtothebronx]

As much as we laugh and recognize how absurd and ridiculous it is that this dude really just pushes lies onto the American Public, it really bothers me that there's a large portion of this country that will accept whatever ******** he's shoveling.

There are a large number of uneducated and/or uninterested people in this country. The fact that he's been going about this ******** for all this time is alarming to say the least.

 

[rolaholic]

They have the majority, seriously is this guy ******ed?

Dude is the worst,it's legitimately the post-fact/truth administration

 

[handullz]

As much as we laugh and recognize how absurd and ridiculous it is that this dude really just pushes lies onto the American Public, it really bothers me that there's a large portion of this country that will accept whatever ******** he's shoveling.

There are a large number of uneducated and/or uninterested people in this country. The fact that he's been going about this ******** for all this time is alarming to say the least.

That.

I'm willing to bet there are dozens of millions of people that legitimately believe the hold up is the Dems.

 

[elpablo21]

Justin Elliott‏  @JustinElliott   4h4 hours ago
More

NEW: Trump personal atty. Marc Kasowitz boasted that he got Preet Bharara fired https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-personal-lawyer-boasted-that-he-got-preet-bharara-fired … from @eisingerj and me

 

[sfc415]

On a side note, even though these travel bans aren't working, the racists working in Homeland Security have started showing their true colors more frequently. My friend's brother from Indonesia was detained at SFO a few days ago. They questioned him for 5 hours and kept asking him if he was Muslim (he's not; he's of Chinese descent and atheist). The reason he was given for his detainment was that he was here in the US recently, and they were suspicious about why he was back so soon. Which is BS, because he left here in April 2016 and one month before his visa had expired.

Some agent called up my friend and start asking her questions, and somehow it escalated to the agent threatening to come to her office, arrest her, and revoke her H1-B visa (which he has no power to do, but he thought it'd be appropriate to make these threats :x ). She told dude to go ahead and try whatever he wanted since she has a good lawyer (she really does), and then dude finally stopped acting like an @#$ and let her brother go.

The same thing also happened to an Indian woman my mom knows. Atheist woman that went to India to visit her mom, but she got detained for 4 hours anyway after returning to the US with countless questions about whether she was Muslim or not

Just because we live in mostly liberal and accepting California, don't get complacent and think this orangutan's words don't affect the inbreds that made their way over here throughout the years.

 

[gry60]

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/3...views-with-senators-without-permission-report

And this is how democracy dies

 

[Belgium]

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/3...views-with-senators-without-permission-report

And this is how democracy dies

Both parties are the same b

The democrats would've done the same thing if they were in power

Also:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?429875-1/attorney-general-sessions-set-respond-comey-testimony&live

Currently live but there's a little delay due to voting still going on, should start soon

 

[Belgium]

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/3...views-with-senators-without-permission-report

And this is how democracy dies

Update:

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/337617-senate-republicans-back-off-proposed-restrictions-on-media

 [h1]Senate Republicans back off proposed restrictions on media[/h1]
Senate Republicans on Tuesday quickly backed away from a proposal to restrict media access in the Capitol after an angry backlash from reporters and an emergency meeting between the Senate Rules Committee and the media gallery directors.

Senate Rules Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) sent out a statement around lunchtime clarifying that there would not be a rules change, only a discussion about how to ensure safety as the Capitol hallways have become more hectic because of growing crowds of journalists.

Shelby announced in a statement that the committee had made “no changes to the existing rules governing press coverage on the Senate side of the Capitol complex.”

A Senate official familiar with administrative discussions said, “Everything you did before, you can still do.”
It was an abrupt 180-degree turn from earlier in the day when Senate Sergeant at Arms staff informed the press galleries of tough new restrictions. Democrats had seized on the news, linking the new restriction to the GOP’s work on healthcare legislation that is being drafted behind closed-doors.
Earlier in the day, Senate Sergeant at Arms staff earlier told the directors of the media galleries who represent journalists’ interests that reporters would not be allowed to film interviews with senators in the Capitol or the Senate office building without first receiving special permission.

Television reporters had been told they could not conduct on-camera interviews in hallways, outside personal offices or outside committee rooms without permission from the Senate Rules Committee, the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms or the Senate Radio and TV Gallery, depending on location, according to another Senate official involved in the matter.

Kevin Cirilli, chief Washington correspondent for Bloomberg TV, tweeted that he was informed that he could not stand outside the Budget Committee to interview lawmakers.

The gallery directors were also told that all reporters seeking to speak to senators in the basement of the Capitol, where it is easiest to catch lawmakers on the way to votes and lunches, would have to stand in a special press pen.

The directive appeared to in effect only briefly on Tuesday.

Amid the blowback, the Senate Rules Committee denied that it had instructed Senate administrative staff to crack down on reporters.

One Senate official said that the Senate Rules Committee insisted later Tuesday that it had never ordered the Sergeant at Arms to enforce tougher restrictions on the press and blamed the uproar on a miscommunication.  

Sen. Amy Klobuchar  (Minn.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, told reporters that Shelby explained the alarm was set off by a “staff inquiry” and downplayed it as an “arbitrary enforcement of a rule that is against common practice.”

"He said he would never move forward on some major change without consulting with me. He said it was an inquiry and that we would talk about it. So he seemed to imply that they weren't going to change the policy," Klobuchar told reporters.

She also released a statement that said, "As ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee I call on the majority to allow reporting in the Capitol to proceed as usual.”

Members of the media had responded with outrage to the restrictions.

“Senate Rules Committee and @SenateSAA trying to SHUT DOWN press access in halls. No more staking out hearings without permission. Not OK,” Manu Raju, CNN’s senior congressional reporter, tweeted, using an abbreviation for the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms.

Several senators from both parties criticized the move.

Sen. Chris Murphy  (D-Conn.) tweeted:  “Maybe not the right moment to lower the secrecy veil on Congress. To whoever is trying to protect Senators - we can fend for ourselves.”

"I want you to have access to us, inform your readers, inform your viewers what we're trying to do," Sen. Lindsey Graham  (R-S.C.), one of the most media-friendly senators, told reporters in the Senate subway. But "of all the problems in America, y'all are pretty down on the chain."

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) retweeted an NBC News reporter's tweet, adding: "This is a bad idea."

Tensions between the media and reporters have ratcheted up at the Capitol since President Trump pulled off a major political upset by defeating Hillary Clinton  in November.

Public interest in Congress and media coverage of lawmakers has skyrocketed since Trump’s inauguration and crowds of reporters in the Capitol hallways have hit record sizes.

Last month, the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms sent a note to media outlets warning about overcrowding as reporters try to pin down lawmakers for interviews in hallways and around the Senate subway system. 

Since the beginning of the year, media outlets such as CNN, NBC and Fox News have regularly staked out senators outside of their offices and hearing rooms to ask questions about healthcare reform and the investigations into collusion between the Trump administration and Russia.

 

[Belgium]

Hearing has started

 

[noskey]

DA GOP'S Grand Leader Sessions about to give da libby's a grand class in da Art of Da Deal With It. Da kale gang gonna be in here with their liberal fair-trade tears while us true American Comrades out here with da coal smoke Hemi and Dominican lungs, b