During the talks last week, the Taliban signaled their seriousness by appointing one of their most powerful officials from the original movement, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, as their chief peace negotiator.

Though American and Afghan officials said that Mr. Baradar was not directly involved in the marathon meetings last week, with some sessions lasting as long as eight hours, he was expected to take the lead in the talks to come. The senior American officials said new high-level talks would start in late February, but suggested that teams from both sides could start on technical details before then.

The interview with Mr. Khalilzad on Monday was the first time that the American government had directly confirmed some details of the agreement taking shape.

As the first step in the framework, Mr. Khalilzad said that the Taliban were firm about agreeing to keep Afghan territory from being used as a staging ground for terrorism by groups like Al Qaeda and other international terrorists, and had agreed to provide guarantees and an enforcement mechanism for that promise.

That had long been a primary demand by American officials, in an effort to keep Afghanistan from reverting back to being the kind of terrorist base it had been at the war’s start, in 2001 after Al Qaeda’s Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

The next set of contingencies laid out by the senior American official involved in the talks would see the United States agreeing to withdraw combat troops from Afghanistan, but only in return for the Taliban’s entering talks with the Afghan government and agreeing to a lasting cease-fire.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/world/asia/taliban-peace-deal-afghanistan.html

Former N.J. Gov. Chris Christie, a friend of Donald Trump and former transition adviser for the Trump campaign, talks about the president’s prospects for coming out ahead of the next three week government funding deadline on ABC’s ‘This Week.’

CHRISTIE: I believe it is. I believe that, you know, he nor the people around him developed an endgame to that. If you are going to close the government, then you have got to have an endgame on how you get out when the moment is ready to get out with a way that is face saving for you and for the other people.


And as far as I could tell there was no plan on how to do that. And that’s an impulsive decision on his part, but also the people around him. And how does he get out now, he hits the reset button. He is the president of the United States. So, OK, now you have got three weeks to hit the reset button. Now come up with a plan that thank you is sellable and winnable for the country and for you politically.


I could tell you, everybody counts Donald Trump out as always being wrong. He has a great ability to be able to recover from things because he is strong and I say in the book, he is fearless. I mean, he’s fearless in a way that I have seen few people in politics be fearless. And so those are all good points, but when you act on impulse and you don’t have a plan sometimes, as I think what happened with the shutdown, it doesn’t end well.

Source Article from https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/01/27/chris_christie_trump_sometimes_acts_on_impulse_doesnt_have_a_plan.html

The larger finding of the poll was a 39 percent approval rating for Trump overall, down from 42 percent in December, versus 53 percent who disapprove, which is up from 49 percent last month. In addition, just 30 percent of Americans said they would definitely vote for Trump in 2020, versus 57 percent who would definitely vote against him. 

Source Article from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-fox-news-border-wall_us_5c4e7bd8e4b0287e5b8c23f7

Image copyright
Getty Images

Image caption

The US has accused Oleg Deripaska of operating for the Russian government

The Trump administration has lifted sanctions on three firms linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, an ally of President Vladimir Putin.

Curbs on aluminium giant US Rusal, En+ Group and JSC EuroSibEnergo were lifted after Mr Deripaska ceded control.

The oligarch has been linked to the probe into alleged Russian interference in US elections, and Democrats wanted the sanctions to continue.

But the Treasury Department said curbs on oligarch himself remained in force.

The companies were blacklisted last April when the Trump administration targeted people and businesses it said had profited from a Russian state engaged in “malign activities” around the world.

That included Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, as well as international cyber attacks.

But earlier this month, Republicans in the US Senate blocked an effort to continue the sanctions against Rusal, the world’s second largest aluminium firm and other Deripaska-linked firms.

They and the Trump administration argued the curbs could have an impact on the global aluminium industry. They also said Mr Deripaska had lowered his stakes in the firms so that he no longer controlled them, a sign the sanctions were working.

Image copyright
Reuters

Image caption

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced sanctions against Deripaska and other powerful Russians last April.

Analysis

Kim Gittleson, Business reporter

There has been pressure on the Trump administration by business groups to lift the sanctions on these three firms. That’s because the announcement of the sanctions in April led global aluminium prices to briefly spike, as Rusal is one of the world’s biggest suppliers.

But when the Treasury Department signalled its intentions in December, US politicians cried foul. They wanted the Trump administration to wait until a special investigation into Russia’s interference into the 2016 US Presidential election had finished.

Earlier in January, in a significant break, 136 members of President Trump’s Republican Party voted with House Democrats on a measure to oppose the lifting of sanctions. Although it was a largely symbolic vote – a similar measure the day before failed to get the necessary 60 votes to pass in the Senate – the large number of party defections was notable.

While the Treasury Department has insisted that the three firms have agreed to stringent new reporting requirements and that the Russian oligarch at the centre of the dispute, Oleg Deripaska, has significantly lowered his ownership stake, the lifting of sanctions less than a year after they were imposed is sure to once more raise questions about the Trump administration’s commitment to punishing Russia for meddling in the 2016 election.

Mueller concerns

In a statement on Sunday, the US Treasury Department said the three companies had also agreed to “extensive, ongoing auditing” to ensure they had no ties with the Russian billionaire.

And Power company EN+, in which Mr Deripaska owned a controlling stake, welcomed the news from Washington. The London-listed company’s shares plummeted when sanctions were announced last April have not recovered.

The firm’s chairman, Lord Barker of Battle said: “This is the first time independent directors of a London listed Russian company, with the strong support of minority shareholders, have successfully removed control from a majority shareholder as a direct response to US sanctions policy.”

But lawmakers across the political spectrum have said it is inappropriate to ease sanctions on companies tied to the oligarch while Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigates whether Mr Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Moscow.

Mr Deripaska, 51, has been a recurring figure in the investigation and has ties to President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who pleaded guilty in September 2018 to attempted witness tampering and conspiring against the United States.

Last week Belarussian model Nastya Rybka was briefly detained by Russian police, having claimed to have evidence of Russian interference in the election campaign obtained from Mr Deripaska.

Mr Deripaska has denied the allegations and successfully sued her.

President Trump denies collusion, and Moscow has denied seeking to influence the US election on Mr Trump’s behalf, despite US intelligence agencies’ finding that it did so.

Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47023004

“);var a = g[r.size_id].split(“x”).map((function(e) {return Number(e)})), s = u(a, 2);o.width = s[0],o.height = s[1]}o.rubiconTargeting = (Array.isArray(r.targeting) ? r.targeting : []).reduce((function(e, r) {return e[r.key] = r.values[0],e}), {rpfl_elemid: n.adUnitCode}),e.push(o)} else l.logError(“Rubicon bid adapter Error: bidRequest undefined at index position:” + t, c, d);return e}), []).sort((function(e, r) {return (r.cpm || 0) – (e.cpm || 0)}))},getUserSyncs: function(e, r, t) {if (!A && e.iframeEnabled) {var i = “”;return t && “string” == typeof t.consentString && (“boolean” == typeof t.gdprApplies ? i += “?gdpr=” + Number(t.gdprApplies) + “&gdpr_consent=” + t.consentString : i += “?gdpr_consent=” + t.consentString),A = !0,{type: “iframe”,url: n + i}}},transformBidParams: function(e, r) {return l.convertTypes({accountId: “number”,siteId: “number”,zoneId: “number”}, e)}};function m() {return [window.screen.width, window.screen.height].join(“x”)}function b(e, r) {var t = f.config.getConfig(“pageUrl”);return e.params.referrer ? t = e.params.referrer : t || (t = r.refererInfo.referer),e.params.secure ? t.replace(/^http:/i, “https:”) : t}function _(e, r) {var t = e.params;if (“video” === r) {var i = [];return t.video && t.video.playerWidth && t.video.playerHeight ? i = [t.video.playerWidth, t.video.playerHeight] : Array.isArray(l.deepAccess(e, “mediaTypes.video.playerSize”)) && 1 === e.mediaTypes.video.playerSize.length ? i = e.mediaTypes.video.playerSize[0] : Array.isArray(e.sizes) && 0

(CNN)It’s as if President Donald Trump’s humiliation over the government shutdown and his failed push to honor his core campaign promise never happened.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/28/politics/donald-trump-government-shutdown-nancy-pelosi-immigration/index.html

    California Sen. Kamala Harris formally kicked off her presidential campaign Sunday at a rally in her hometown of Oakland, with a promise to confront toxic politics and unite a country she claims has been divided by President Donald Trump.

    Less than a mile away from where she began her career as a prosecutor, Harris characterized her track record as a district attorney, attorney general and U.S. Senator as “fighting for the people.” Now, as a presidential candidate, she has folded that idea into her 2020 campaign slogan, “For the People.”

    “I do not lightly dismiss the dangers and the difficulties of challenging an incumbent president. But these are not ordinary times. And this is not an ordinary election.” she said.

    There was a clear message of diversity and representation for the black community at this rally. Before Harris even took the stage, a black gospel choir sang the national anthem, a black pastor preached a sermon of unity and a band participated in the New Orleans tradition of the “second line.”

    Harris, a California Democrat, is the fourth woman to launch a presidential bid.

    Though she never mentioned Trump by name, Harris sharply criticized the president and claimed she would confront what she considers the worst abuses of the Trump administration.

    “Under this administration, America’s position in the world has never been weaker. When democratic values are under attack around the globe, when authoritarianism is on the march, when nuclear proliferation is on the rise, when we have foreign powers infecting the white house like malware,” she said.

    Following Harris’ speech, the Republican National Committee fired back in a statement.

    “It’s fitting that Harris chose the most liberal district in deep-blue California to launch her campaign. Government-run health care, weaker borders and higher taxes might be popular there, but her liberal policies are totally out-of-step with most Americans. President Trump has led this country to record economic highs and strengthened our national security, and it’s why he’s going to be re-elected in 2020,” RNC Spokesman Michael Ahrens said.

    An estimated 20,000 people packed the plaza near Oakland City Hall and overflowed into the streets. Among the group were undecided voters like Walter Butler, who said he was looking for a candidate who can reach across the aisle.

    “I’m going to try to keep an open mind but I like Senator Harris. I like the way she performed for Kavanaugh hearings,” Butler said.

    Butler, who is still waiting to see who else hops into the race, has some slight reservations about Harris.

    “She’s anti-death penalty, that’s in agreement of where I am at… I am a bit concerned that she’s only been a senator for two years,” Butler said.

    Critics of Harris say her decisions as a prosecutor did not align with the progressive values of the party. On Twitter, the hashtag #KamalaIsACop has ignited a firestorm of tweets attacking the Senator for her record.

    While Harris personally opposes the death penalty, she defended it as California’s attorney general in 2014. Harris also won a $25 billion settlement for California homeowners hit by the foreclosure crisis, but drew criticism when she did not prosecute Steven Mnuchin’s OneWest Bank for foreclosure violations in 2013.

    Some supporters said they trusted her record as a prosecutor.

    “I think she’s right in the African-American community you want folks to be smart on crime and tough on crime. We also want there to be restorative justice policies. I think we can have both,” supporter Chris Taylor added.

    Harris also began spotlighting issues that she says will be at the heart of her campaign: Medicare for All, an income boost of up to $500 a month for working families, criminal justice reforms like ending cash bail, climate change and expanding education by making pre-K universal and college debt-free.

    “So today I say to you, my friends, these are not ordinary times. And this will not be an ordinary election. But this is our America,” she concluded.

    The lyrics of a song from the “Hamilton” musical soundtrack –- “I’m not throwing away my shot” — echoed as she left the stage.

    Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sen-kamala-harris-kicks-off-2020-campaign-criticizing/story?id=60668277

    “Uh, the contractors will depend on the contract and, um, let’s talk about the (government) employees for a second because I know a little bit more about that,” Muvlaney said.

    Source Article from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mick-mulvaney-shutdown-backpay_us_5c4dd5ffe4b0e1872d44c582

    Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, was sensitive to that argument. He clarified that the goal of the sanctions was “to change the behavior” of Mr. Deripaska, and “not to put Rusal out of business,” given the company’s pivotal role as a global supplier of aluminum.

    The Treasury Department announced a deal last month to lift the sanctions in exchange for a restructuring that it said would reduce Mr. Deripaska’s control and ownership of the companies.

    Yet a confidential, legally binding document detailing the agreement showed that Mr. Deripaska and his allies would retain majority ownership of EN+.

    Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat who has been among the leading critics of the deal, said that allowing it to take effect “represents just one more step in undermining the sanctions law, which President Trump has obstructed at every opportunity, while Russian aggression remains unabated.”

    But EN+ said in a statement that Sunday’s move was “a victory for the U.S. sanctions policy, successfully punishing the target but not at the expense of shareholders, employees and the wider market.”

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/27/us/politics/trump-russia-sanctions-deripaska.html

    One of the coldest air masses in years will envelop the Midwest and the Northeast this week bringing potentially life-threatening low temperatures to the Chicago area that will feel even harsher in tandem with strong winds.

    In Chicago, the coldest temperatures of the year will arrive midweek. After seeing a high around 34 on Monday at O’Hare International Airport, temperatures will drop to near zero before the end of the day, according to the National Weather Service. By Tuesday night, temperatures are expected to take another plunge, to 23 below zero, flirting with Chicago’s coldest temperature ever: minus 27 on Jan. 20, 1985.

    Temperatures are forecast to inch up to a daytime high of about minus 14 on Wednesday — the first subzero high temperature in five years and the coldest winter high ever recorded in Chicago — before dipping, again, to about minus 21 overnight. The coldest daytime high in Chicago was minus 11 on Christmas Eve 1983.

    For younger Chicagoans, the burst of Arctic air set to overtake the city this week could be one of the coldest days of their lives. For Generation Z, this week’s predicted low temperatures have only two rivals: minus 16 on Jan. 6, 2014, and minus 19 on Feb. 3, 1996.

    Source Article from https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-chicago-cold-weather-20190127-story.html

    President TrumpDonald John TrumpBillionaire investor says he’d back primary challenger to Trump: report Trump donates 0,000 from salary to alcoholism research How the government will reopen MORE on Sunday blasted a pair of Fox News reporters over their coverage of the border wall negotiations, claiming that they have “less understanding” than journalists at “fake news CNN & NBC.”

    “Never thought I’d say this but I think [John Roberts] and [Gillian Turner] have even less understanding of the Wall negotiations than the folks at FAKE NEWS CNN & NBC!” Trump tweeted, referring to two of the news network’s  top correspondents. 

    “Look to final results! Don’t know how my poll numbers are so good, especially up 19% with Hispanics?” Trump continued, referring to a poll published earlier this month that found a growing number of Latino adults approved of Trump’s job performance. 

    The Marist poll, published in partnership with PBS and NPR, found that 50 percent of Latino adults approve of Trump’s job as president, up from 31 percent in December. The survey also found that just 39 percent of adults approved of Trump’s job performance. 

    It is unclear what specific coverage Trump was referring to. Roberts filled in for Fox News anchor Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.” Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill. 

    The comments from Trump come only days after he signed a continuing resolution to temporarily reopen the government following a 35-day shutdown. The funding lapse was triggered after Congress failed to reach an agreement on a new spending bill. 

    Trump has repeatedly demanded that a long-term bill include funds for a border wall, which Democrats oppose. The president expressed doubts to The Wall Street Journal on Sunday that lawmakers could reach an agreement on the issue.

    “I personally think it’s less than 50-50, but you have a lot of very good people on that board,” Trump told The Journal, adding that  another shutdown is “certainly an option.”

    Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/427195-trump-rips-into-fox-news-over-shutdown-border-wall-coverage

    Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Arizona Sen. John McCain, said Saturday that she no longer calls herself a Republican because the party is “so tied up with being for” President Donald Trump.

    McCain, 34, made the comments during an appearance on CNN’s “The Van Jones Show.” She qualified that she is still a member of the Republican Party, and still holds conservative views but lamented what she sees as the president’s stranglehold on Republicans.

    “I think over 80-something percent of Republicans support President Trump and maybe they are doing it because they don’t have another option, but I think the populous Trump brand really has taken over,” McCain told Van Jones. “Which is why there’s this sort of no-mans-land that I’m in.”

    MEGHAN MCCAIN AND ‘VIEW’ CO-HOSTS GET HEATED OVER OCASIO-CORTEZ AND ICE

    “The View” co-host then evoked the memory of her late father saying: “As an American, I hate this country without him in it. I know that sounds awful. I don’t hate America but I just hate it without his leadership. I’m very – I’m sad all the time. I’m struggling with that sadness and I miss him in ways that I never even could have fathomed.”

    CLICK HERE TO THE FOX NEWS APP

    John McCain, who did last year from brain cancer, was a fervent critic of the president, and the two were known to trade barbs. During the campaign trail, Trump infamously mocked McCain’s war service saying, “I like people who weren’t captured,” in reference to the Arizona Senator’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. According to The New York Times, McCain’s dying wish was that Trump didn’t attend his funeral service.

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/meghan-mccain-says-she-no-longer-calls-herself-a-republican-cites-trumps-influence-on-the-party

    Some of the taxpayers hit hardest by the law’s changes could also be in for an unwelcome surprise this filing season. Higher-income taxpayers in high-tax states like California, New York and New Jersey could be particularly at risk for an unexpected tax liability, Morgan Stanley analysts estimate. That is because those taxpayers are more likely to have claimed large deductions for state and local taxes paid on their federal returns. Mr. Trump’s tax law capped that deduction, known as S.A.L.T., at $10,000 per household per year.

    Across the country, unexpectedly large refunds would be a welcome injection of cash into an economy facing a potential slowdown. Business spending tapered in late 2018, and that slowdown most likely worsened as financial markets convulsed in December, weighing on corporate and consumer confidence. The government shutdown is also expected to sap economic growth in the first quarter, since workers and contractors were not paid and vast amounts of government work went undone.

    Not paying workers drained significant consumer spending power from the economy. Some workers will catch up on their spending once they receive back pay; others, including contractors and business owners that cater to government employees, will have suffered a permanent loss. Federal workers may not be in a rush to spend any money, given the White House and Congress have only given themselves a three-week reprieve to try to resolve the differences that led to the longest shutdown in history.

    Economists are divided on how much the economy has permanently lost from the shutdown, but many analysts agree that first-quarter growth will be several tenths of a percentage point lower than they had anticipated.

    “An increase in refunds would be sort of a shot in the arm at the right time, if it came in Q1, early Q2,” Mr. Feroli said. “It would be nice to have consumers sort of have something to smooth over that raw patch.”

    The recent shutdown-related uncertainty about possible delays in paying out refunds could also counteract some of the traditional economic fuel from refund season, said Ms. Zentner of Morgan Stanley.

    The shutdown, on the heels of an awful December for the stock market, has already contributed to a recent decline in consumer confidence. Such declines are typically associated with a softening in spending behavior and an increase in savings as consumers brace for a more uncertain future.

    “When the government is not functioning it’s quite scary for households,” Ms. Zentner said. “You’re just going to pile up on top of another big pile of uncertainty, if their tax refunds are delayed.”

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/27/us/politics/tax-refund-code-shutdown.html

    Just days after losing the battle with House leader Nancy Pelosi over funding for a border wall, President Donald Trump is laying out his case, once again, for a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border.

    While most Americans were sleeping, reading the paper or getting ready for church Sunday morning, Trump was on Twitter calling for increased border security.

    To get his point across, he dropped several statistics alleging illegal immigration is spiraling out-of-control and costing the country millions every month.

    “We are not even into February and the cost of illegal immigration so far this year is $18,959,495,168. Cost Friday was $603,331,392,” Trump tweeted. “There are at least 25,772,342 illegal aliens, not the 11,000,000 that have been reported for years, in our Country. So ridiculous! DHS.”

    He didn’t say where he got those numbers.

    But according to a December 2018 report from the Department of Homeland Security, there were an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. in 2015, the last year figures were available.

    In another tweet, Trump claimed thousands of undocumented immigrants voted in the last elections in Texas and California, where he claimed “voter fraud is rampant.”

    “58,000 non-citizens voted in Texas, with 95,000 non-citizens registered to vote. These numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. All over the country, especially in California, voter fraud is rampant,” he tweeted.

    It’s not the first time Trump has claimed widespread voter fraud in California. While there have been some reported cases of non-citizens registering to vote, state leaders have insisted the numbers are small.

    In October, the California Department of Motor Vehicles acknowledged that about 1,500 people may have been incorrectly registered to vote for the November election because of a “processing error,” according to The Associated Press.

    Perhaps Trump missed that 1,500 number.

    Despite focusing much of the morning on illegal immigration — and using a video from a local TV station to tout his slogan “Build a Wall & Crime Will Fall” — he mentioned a couple of other subjects including NATO and Holocaust Memorial Day. Here’s he president’s tweetstorm so far Sunday.

    Source Article from https://deadline.com/2019/01/president-donald-trump-tweetstorm-sunday-edition-1202542872/

    Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., formally launched her run for the Democratic presidential nomination Sunday with a full-fledged embrace of big government programs, including “Medicare for All” and universal pre-kindergarten education — and taking multiple shots at President Trump’s policies.

    “I’m running to fight for an America where the economy works for working people,” Harris told a cheering crowd outside City Hall in her hometown of Oakland. ” … I am running to declare, once and for all, that health care is a fundamental right, and to deliver that right with ‘Medicare for All.’ To declare education is a fundamental right, and we will guarantee that right with universal pre-K and debt-free college.”

    Harris slammed President Trump’s planned border wall as “a medieval vanity project” and criticized the administration for its hardline immigration policy.

    “When we have children in cages, crying for their mothers and fathers, don’t you dare call that border security, that’s human rights abuse,” Harris said.

    Harris also pledged to reverse the administration’s tax cuts, which she described as a “giveaway to the top big corporations and the top one percent,” to pay for what she promised would be “the largest working and middle-class tax cut in a generation, up to $500 a month to help America’s families make ends meet.”

    Harris cast the United States as being at “an inflection point” in its history and claimed, “the American Dream and our American democracy are under attack and on the line like never before.”

    KAMALA HARRIS’ CAREER, FROM CALIFORNIA DISTRICT ATTORNEY TO THE SENATE

    “We are here at this moment in time because we must answer a fundamental question,” Harris said. “Who are we? Who are we as Americans? So, let’s answer that question to the world and each other, right here and right now.

    “America, we are better than this.”

    “People in power are trying to convince us that the villain in our American story is each other,” she added. “But that is not our story. That is not who we are. That’s not our America. You see, our United States of America is not about us versus them. It’s about ‘We the People.'”

    Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, started her political career in 2003 when she was elected San Francisco district attorney. She was voted attorney general of California seven years later and was elected to the Senate in 2016.

    “My whole life, I’ve only had one client: the people,” Harris said in an echo of her campaign slogan “For the People.” She also defended her record as a prosecutor, which has come under scrutiny from some progressives.

    KAMALA HARRIS, HITTING 2020 TRAIL, FACES TOUGH QUESTIONS OVER PROSECUTOR RECORD

    “‘For the People’ meant fighting for a more fair criminal justice system. At a time when prevention and redemption were not in the vocabulary or mindset of most district attorneys, we created an initiative to give skills and job training stead of jail time for young people arrested for drugs,” said Harris, who added that American’s criminal justice system “needs massive reform.”

    “It’s fitting that Harris chose the most liberal district in deep-blue California to launch her campaign,” Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Ahrens said in response to her remarks. “Government-run health care, weaker borders and higher taxes might be popular there, but her liberal policies are totally out-of-step with most Americans. President Trump has led this country to record economic highs and strengthened our national security, and it’s why he’s going to be re-elected in 2020.”

    Harris is among the first major Democrats to jump into what is expected to be a crowded 2020 presidential contest. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York have announced exploratory committees. Former Maryland Rep. John Delaney and Julian Castro, federal housing chief under President Barack Obama and a former San Antonio mayor, already are in the race.

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Bernie Sanders of Vermont have signaled they may also run.

    Harris was scheduled to make her first trip to Iowa as a presidential candidate following the rally. She traveled to the leadoff caucus state in the weeks before this past November’s midterm elections to campaign on behalf of Democrats. She has also visited other early-voting states, including South Carolina this past Friday.

    Fox News’ Patrick Ward and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kamala-harris-kick-starts-presidential-run-pushing-medicare-for-all-free-education

    Venezuela has backed down from their demand that US diplomats leave the country, saying they’re open to talks — as the Trump administration warned of a “significant response” if American personnel are threatened or intimidated.

    The country’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying that far-left President Nicolas Maduro was suspending the expulsion of US diplomats, to allow for a 30-day window to negotiate with American officials.

    The embattled second-term leader cut ties with the US Wednesday after the Trump administration recognized opposition leader Juan Guiado as Venezuela’s interim president, a move Maduro blasted as an attempted coup. He gave US diplomats three days to leave the county — but the Trump administration said it wouldn’t obey.

    Venezuela’s last-minute Saturday night decision to pull the expulsion order may have avoided a potential showdown with the US. Still, US National security adviser John Bolton cautioned that any threat on a US diplomat or Gaido would yield a forceful reaction.

    “Any violence and intimidation against U.S. diplomatic personnel, Venezuela’s democratic leader, Juan Guiado, or the National Assembly itself would represent a grave assault on the rule of law and will be met with a significant response,” Bolton tweeted Sunday.

    Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Sunday refused to rule out US military action to address the unrest in Venezuela, where violent anti-government protests have broken out.

    “I don’t think any president of any party who is doing his or her job would be doing the job properly if they took anything off the table,” Mulvaney said on “Fox News Sunday.”

    Meanwhile, Maduro struck down calls from European countries to hold early elections within eight days. France, Germany and Spain threatened to follow the US in recognizing Guaido as the true leader. Russia has called the ultimatum “absurd” and Turkey said it supports Maduro.

    In an interview with CNN that aired Sunday, Maduro said he was open to a dialogue with the US but that it was improbable — but not impossible — that he meet Trump.

    Venezuela has sunk into a crushing economic crisis under Maduro’s policies, with widespread food and medical shortages that have forced millions of people to starve or flee.

    With Post Wires

    Source Article from https://nypost.com/2019/01/27/venezuela-pulls-back-on-threats-as-us-warns-of-significant-response/

    There are two sides to special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of longtime Trump associate Roger Stone. On one side there are the under-oath statements Stone made to the House Intelligence Committee that Mueller says are false. On the other, there are the Stone statements Mueller did not challenge.

    The testimony for which Stone was indicted concerns his descriptions of dealings with two men — Jerome Corsi and Randy Credico — who Stone used to attempt to get in touch with WikiLeaks head Julian Assange in the summer and fall of 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign, when WikiLeaks published hacked emails relating to Hillary Clinton. Some of Mueller’s charges seem somewhat small; for example, Stone was charged with lying because he said he and Credico communicated by phone but not by email when in fact, according to Mueller, they communicated by both phone and email. But in each case, Mueller says Stone knowingly made false statements.

    On the other hand, the indictment does not accuse Stone of lying in some key instances when he defended himself against some of the most serious allegations of the Trump-Russia matter. Remember the media frenzy over Stone’s August 2016 tweet that it would soon be “the Podesta’s time in the barrel”? Remember Stone’s tweets with Guccifer 2.0? And remember his claim, “I dined with my new pal Julian Assange last night”? House investigators asked Stone many questions about those topics, which Stone answered. Mueller did not charge Stone with lying about those issues, or with any illegal underlying behavior, either.

    First, a warning: It is impossible for the public to fully evaluate the Stone indictment. It is based entirely on Stone’s testimony to the Intelligence Committee, which took place on Sept. 26, 2017. There is, of course, a transcript of that testimony. It would be useful for anyone trying to understand the Stone case to read the transcript. It should already be public, because the committee voted unanimously last September to release it and other interview transcripts. But before actually releasing the documents, the committee sent them to the Director of National Intelligence for clearance, on the slight chance that they contained classified information. (The Stone interview was conducted in a nonclassified setting and concerned nonclassified events.) The DNI has had the Stone transcript for months, far longer than necessary to do a routine clearance. Yet it has not cleared the transcript for release, which means Stone’s testimony remains largely secret.

    The Stone indictment, of course, contains snippets of the transcript. (The committee gave the transcript to Mueller.) But it is an indictment — a one-sided accusation — not a balanced picture of Stone’s entire testimony. Still, even though the whole transcript remains under wraps, some passages from it have been published, which can give us at least a hint of what Stone said.

    The two places to find excerpts of Stone’s testimony are the Intelligence Committee’s Trump-Russia report, entitled “Report on Russian Active Measures,” published by majority Republicans on March 22, 2018, and the Democratic response, published on March 26, 2018.

    The reports delved into Stone’s testimony about three particularly notorious public statements he made during the 2016 campaign. The first was the Aug. 21, 2016, tweet in which he wrote, “Trust me, it will soon the Podesta’s time in the barrel. #CrookedHillary.” (The wording is exactly as Stone originally wrote it, although the tweet is often misquoted to read, more ominously, that “it will soon be Podesta’s time in the barrel.’) The tweet has been interpreted to mean Stone predicted the October 2016 disclosure of hacked emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.

    According to the House GOP report, Stone denied that he “knew in advance about and predicted the hacking of…Podesta’s email,” noting that Stone said his tweet “makes no mention whatsoever of Mr. Podesta’s email.” Stone told the committee his motive was anger about the treatment of former partner Paul Manafort, saying the tweet was posted “at a time that my boyhood friend and colleague, Paul Manafort, had just resigned from the Trump campaign over allegations regarding his business activities in Ukraine. I thought it manifestly unfair that John Podesta not be held to the same standard.”

    Mueller did not charge Stone in connection with his testimony about the “time in the barrel” matter.

    The second part of Stone’s testimony that the reports dug into was his explanation of his August 2016 statement that, “I actually have communicated with Julian Assange. I believe the next tranche of his documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation, but there’s no telling what the October surprise may be.” According to the Republican report, Stone told the committee that he wanted to “clarify that by saying the communication I refer to is through a journalist who I ask [sic] to confirm what Assange has tweeted, himself, on July 21st, that he has the Clinton emails and that he will publish them.”

    The Democratic response went into some detail about the question of any Stone-Assange communications. In fact, it was on that topic that Democrats published the longest section of Stone testimony that is public — this exchange between Stone and Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley:

    QUIGLEY: You never met with Julian Assange.

    STONE: Correct.

    QUIGLEY: You never communicated directly with him.

    STONE: Correct.

    QUIGLEY: You’ve never spoken to him on the phone.

    STONE: I never communicated directly with him during the election, correct.

    QUGLEY: Did you ever communicate with him outside of that timeframe?

    STONE: We had some, I think, direct message responses in April of this year [2017].

    QUIGLEY: You and Julian Assange?

    STONE: Correct.

    QUIGLEY: Can you make those available to the committee?

    STONE: Yes, we can.

    QUIGLEY: Okay. Had you ever communicated with him before the campaign?

    STONE: No.

    QUIGLEY: So, back on this other streak, you’ve never emailed with him?

    STONE: Correct.

    QUIGLEY: Have you ever sent or received texts/SMS to and from Mr. Assange?

    STONE: No.

    QUIGLEY: Have you ever communicated with Mr. Assange over any other social media platform or encrypted application?

    STONE: No.

    Mueller did not charge Stone in connection with his denial that he had had any contact with Assange during the campaign.

    Mueller did charge Stone on his testimony about using an intermediary — the radio host Randy Credico — to attempt to contact WikiLeaks. Quigley and ranking Democrat (now chairman) Adam Schiff asked Stone about that intermediary, and the resulting testimony formed the basis of one of Mueller’s charges against Stone. Here is the entirety of the passage published in the Democratic report:

    QUIGLEY: And so, just to reiterate, in an Aug. 12, 2016, interview with Alex Jones on Infowars, you reiterated your contact with Julian Assange, quote “in communication with Assange,” adding, quote, “I am not at liberty to discuss what I have.” That was correct, too?

    STONE: That is correct.

    QUIGLEY: But you were referencing the same thing you pointed to before?

    STONE: Again, I have sometimes referred to this journalist as a go-between, as an intermediary, as a mutual friend. It was someone I knew had interviewed Assange. And I merely wanted confirmation of what he had tweeted on the 21st. And that’s what I refer to.

    QUIGLEY: — like Twitter, LinkedIn, anything?

    STONE: No.

    QUIGLEY: Have any of your employees, associates, or individuals acting on your behest or encouragement been in any type of contact with Julian Assange?

    STONE: No.

    QUIGLEY: Have you ever been in direct contact with a member of WikiLeaks, whether by phone, email, test, Twitter, encrypted message platforms, other social media platforms, or other means of communication?

    STONE: I am not certain, but I don’t think so …

    SCHIFF: Mr. Stone, I wanted to ask you, on Oct. 12, [2016], you gave an interview to NBC News where you said that: We have a mutual friend who’s traveled to London several times, and everything I know is through that channel of communication.

    STONE: Yes.

    SCHIFF: Referring to a friend of Assange.

    STONE: Yes.

    SCHIFF: And you said something similar in another interview on October — to CBS Miami. Did the intermediary tell you how often he traveled to London to meet with Mr. Assange?

    STONE: No. I just knew he had been there a couple times.

    SCHIFF: So throughout the many months in which you represented you were either in communication with Assange or communication through an intermediary with Assange, you were only referring to a single fact that you had confirmed with the intermediary —

    STONE: That —

    SCHIFF: — was the length and breadth of what you were referring to?

    STONE: That is correct, even though it was repeated to me on numerous separate occasions.

    Stone did not name Credico in his testimony, but a few weeks later, on Oct. 13, 2017, Stone wrote a letter to the committee identifying Credico as his sole go-between. Mueller charged Stone with making a false statement because Stone had also contacted Jerome Corsi, not just Credico, to act as a go-between with WikiLeaks.

    The third issue the committee asked Stone about was his communication with the hacker Guccifer 2.0, identified in another Mueller indictment as a creation of Russian military intelligence agents. The Republican report said Stone described his tweets and direct messages with Guccifer 2.0 as “innocuous,” adding that Stone “denied taking action in response to Guccifer 2.0’s messages.” The GOP report noted that Stone later gave the committee additional messages involving WikiLeaks.

    The Democratic report listed Stone’s tweets and direct messages with Guccifer 2.0. But the report included just one exchange about Guccifer 2.0, a request for more material from Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell:

    SWALWELL: If we were to send you a request asking for any direct messages with respect to the 2016 campaign, particularly around Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks, you would be cooperative and turn that over to us?

    STONE: Well, I attached the exchange with Guccifer as an exhibit, and you’re welcome to look at it. Beyond that, we’d have to go review the material. I don’t know what’s there.

    Stone later turned over more material to the committee.

    What else did Stone say about Guccifer 2.0? Neither Republicans nor Democrats included any more of Stone’s testimony on that subject in their reports. But whatever Stone said, it did not serve as a basis for any charges from Mueller, who did not mention Guccifer 2.0 or any Stone statement about Guccifer 2.0 in the Stone indictment.

    Finally, there was the big-picture question of whether Stone and the Trump campaign knew ahead of time about the WikiLeaks disclosure of hacked documents. A close reading of the Mueller indictment suggests they did not. In the House interview, Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro asked Stone whether he knew in advance about the October 2016 Podesta disclosure:

    CASTRO: You have now just told us that the intermediary told you in August that the emails would be released in October. Is that prior knowledge?

    STONE: I guess you could consider it prior knowledge. I would have to go back and look. I think that Assange himself had said October on Twitter. I was seeking a confirmation of what he’d already said.

    CASTRO: Mr. Stone, you’ve said multiple times here today that you had no prior knowledge. You’ve just now admitted that you had prior knowledge that these emails would be released.

    STONE: I believe that was a — I think that was publicly known, in all honesty.

    Mueller did not charge Stone with lying in that exchange.

    What an indictment does not say can be as instructive as what it does say. To take another example from the Trump-Russia investigation, look at the indictment of Trump fixer Michael Cohen for lying to Congress. Mueller charged Cohen with lying when he told lawmakers that talks over the proposed Trump Tower Moscow project ended in January 2016, when in fact, according to Mueller, they continued until June 2016. But on another aspect of the Trump-Russia affair, Mueller did not charge Cohen when he strongly denied that he had ever been in Prague, which was a key allegation of the so-called Trump dossier. The fact that Mueller did not question Cohen’s Prague denial — in testimony that Mueller examined carefully and actually indicted Cohen for another statement — suggests that there’s nothing to the Prague story.

    Similarly, there are the parts of Stone’s testimony that Mueller chose not to indict Stone over. Stone’s defense of himself in the “time in the barrel” matter, in his contacts with Guccifer 2.0, and in his lack of direct contacts with WikiLeaks all resulted in no accusations from Mueller. And, of course, the indictment did not charge that Stone knew about the WikiLeaks disclosures beforehand, or that he was involved in any conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 election, or that such a conspiracy even existed. Put it all together, and the Stone indictment adds up to less than it at first seems.

    We will know more when the full transcript of Stone’s testimony is released, or rather, if it is released. A new statement from Intelligence Committee Chairman Schiff, released after the Stone indictment, does not offer much hope of quick publication. “The first order of business for the committee will be to release all remaining transcripts to the Special Counsel’s Office, and we will continue to follow the facts wherever they lead,” Schiff said. That is a pledge to quickly get the transcripts to Mueller, not to the public, even though Mueller already has the transcripts and the committee voted more than four months ago to make them public. It could be a long time before the public knows all of what Roger Stone said.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/byron-york-on-closer-examination-roger-stone-indictment-is-less-than-it-seems

    Police have caught the man suspected in a shooting spree that killed five people in Louisiana yesterday.
    Investigators say 21-year-old Dakota Theriot made his way to Virginia after killing his mother and father, his girlfriend and two of her family members.
    Police near Baton Rouge says his parents made dying declarations naming their son as the person who shot them.
    They had recently kicked him out of their house.

    Saturday night, police in Louisiana said they were searching for an “armed and dangerous” 21-year-old accused of killing his parents and three others in two separate but related shootings.
    They said Dakota Theriot first shot and killed three people – the woman believed to be his girlfriend, her brother and father – in Livingston Parish before taking her father’s truck, driving to neighboring Ascension Parish where he shot and killed his parents.

    “We are totally focused on finding him. We’re following every lead that we come up with,” said Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard during an evening news conference streamed online.

    Theriot was being sought on first-degree murder and other charges. He was believed to be driving a stolen 2004 Dodge Ram pickup, gray and silver in color.

    Investigators identified the victims in Livingston Parish as Billy Ernest, 43; Tanner Ernest, 17; and Summer Ernest, 20. Ard said Summer Ernest and Dakota Theriot were in a relationship and that Theriot had been living with her family for a few weeks.

    But he said after talking with Summer’s mother, there was no indication of any red flags ahead of Saturday’s multiple shootings.

    Police earlier identified the other two victims as Theriot’s parents – Keith, 50, and Elizabeth Theriot, 50, of Gonzales.

    They were shot in their trailer on Saturday morning.

    “The father was gravely injured at the time we found him and has since passed away,” said Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre. But before he died, Webre said authorities were able to get a “dying declaration from him, and only enough information to let us know that it was his son that committed this act.”

    Webre said there were indications that Theriot was traveling east and maybe was in another state by that time.

    “We’re going to work every lead. We’re going to follow every tip,” he said during the evening news conference.

    Ard said Dakota Theriot was believed to be armed with at least one handgun.

    “We do not have a motive. It is still undetermined,” Ard said.

    Crystal DeYoung, Billy Ernest’s sister, told The Associated Press that she believes Theriot had just started dating her niece, Summer Ernest.

    “My family met him last weekend at a birthday party and didn’t get good vibes from him,” DeYoung said. She said she wasn’t sure how her niece and Theriot met, but that she believed the relationship was relatively new.

    “My mom is a good judge of character and she just thought he was not good,” DeYoung said of Theriot.

    DeYoung said she skipped the birthday party and didn’t meet Theriot herself. DeYoung said Summer and Tanner Ernest were two of Billy’s three children. He was also raising his wife’s children.

    DeYoung said Theriot doesn’t have a vehicle and she’s not sure how he ended up at the Ernest home on Saturday, but after the killings, he took off in her brother’s truck.

    There were also two young children in the home at the time. DeYoung said a 7-year-old took the baby out of the house and went to a neighbor’s.

    DeYoung said her brother, niece and nephew were good people.

    “They all had very good hearts. They trusted people too much,” she said, as she began crying. “They all loved unconditionally.”

    Charlenne Bordelon lives near the house where the Ernests were killed. She told The Advocate newspaper that two young children from the house ran to her home. They were uninjured and asked for help after the shooting.

    Bordelon said Theriot was the older daughter’s boyfriend and that he’d recently moved in with the family but she did not know him.

    A Facebook page appearing to belong to Dakota Theriot was filled with defensive and sometimes angry posts. He shared someone else’s post in June that said “wish i could clear my mind jus for one day” (sic) with a sad face emoji.

    In May, he reposted something saying, “If you have a problem with me, tell me. Not everyone else.”

    He also shared someone else’s post that said, “I don’t care what people say about me I know who I am and I don’t have to prove anything to anyone.”

    Webre said Dakota had lived with his parents briefly but was asked to leave the residence and not return.

    “I would not approach this vehicle. We feel no doubt that Dakota is going to be armed and dangerous, and we need to bring him to justice really quick,” Webre said.

    Webre said Dakota Theriot had some run-ins with law enforcement in other parishes that he described as misdemeanor-type incidents that did not include violence: “Certainly nothing of the magnitude that we’ve seen today.”

    Webre said there was no reason to think Theriot was now targeting someone else but warned that because he’s armed and dangerous: “Anybody he comes into contact with could be a target.”
    __

    Amy Forliti in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Courtney Bonnell in Phoenix contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://abc13.com/update-police-in-virginia-arrest-suspect-in-louisiana-shooting-that-killed-5/5107897/

    The National Weather Service has already issued alerts ahead of a clipper system — a fast-moving blast of snow, ice and rain originating in central Canada — that will move into the Midwest on Sunday afternoon.

    Conditions are expected to be rather windy Sunday from Montana to Nebraska, with gusts in excess of 60 mph. Snow that is already on the ground will be picked up by the gusty winds, and visibility can be drastically reduced.

    The disturbance moves into the Midwest on Sunday afternoon with snow expected to fall by the time the low reaches the eastern part of the Dakotas. Winter weather alerts have been issued from the Northern Plains east to Michigan.

    ABC News
    The clipper system will be in the Northern Plains by late Sunday night.

    Cold air behind the low, and moisture being wrapped into the system, will bring the heaviest areas of snow from southeastern North Dakota to northeastern Iowa late Sunday.

    ABC News
    The Chicago area will see snow on Monday afternoon.

    The Chicago metro area will be in the bull’s-eye of the clipper system Monday morning into early afternoon.

    Areas south and southeast of Chicago have a greater chance of seeing rain or a wintry mix, however, snow is possible into Missouri.

    ABC News
    The clipper system will move into the Northeast on Tuesday, with snow inland and rain and an icy mix on the coast.

    The storm will race eastward and impact the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic by Tuesday night.

    For coastal areas and the New York metro area, rain will dominate at first. As the cold front passes through Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning, precipitation is expected to change over to snow.

    While accumulation amounts will likely be very low for the New York City area, the rain and then snow Wednesday morning could make for a sloppy and potentially hazardous commute.

    ABC News
    Snowfall totals will be 6 to 12 inches in northern Michigan, northern New York and northern New England, with lesser totals farther south and closer to the coast.

    Forecasts show a relatively thin amount of excessive snow accumulation in the storm’s wake. Southern Minnesota and Wisconsin as well as upstate New York and northern New England will see the greatest snowfall — about 6 to 12 inches with locally higher amounts possible.

    There will be little accumulation along the coast.

    Dangerous cold follows snow

    ABC News
    Behind the clipper system, brutal cold temperatures will move into the Northern Plains on Monday.

    A dip in the jet stream associated with the passage of the clipper system will bring extremely cold air from the Arctic south into the Midwest.

    The air mass will begin to drop temperatures immediately in the wake of the clipper, but its full effect will not be felt until midweek.

    ABC News
    Wind chills on Tuesday morning will be minus 14 in Chicago and minus 30 or lower in Minneapolis, Minn., and Des Moines, Iowa.

    By Wednesday, wind chill temperatures will reach unprecedentedly low levels: minus 60 in Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota, and 50 below in Chicago.

    Record breaking high and low temperatures are possible. The temperature in Chicago on Wednesday is minus 11, and the low is minus 20. If this occurs, it will smash the previous records for Jan. 30 of 3 degrees and minus 15, respectively.

    ABC News
    Record-low temperatures are possible on Wednesday in the Northern Plains and Midwest with minus 60 wind chill readings possible in Minneapolis, Minn., and Des Moines, Iowa.

    The all-time record low temperature in Chicago was minus 27 on Jan. 20, 1985. There is an outside chance this will be broken.

    These temperatures will be the coldest that the region has seen in decades. Everyone should exercise caution when heading outdoors, and they should prepare their homes and cars for such brutally cold conditions.

    Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/US/dangerous-cold-set-follow-clipper-system-moving-midwest/story?id=60655468

    The Democratic odd couple in the U.S. House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy Patricia D’Alesandro PelosiHow the government will reopen Midterms show Ohio remains firmly in play for 2020 ‘Fox & Friends’ host to Trump aide: Who are these ‘unicorn’ Dems who will suddenly work on a wall? MORE (D-Calif.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-CortezAlexandria Ocasio-CortezMost favor policies to improve environment, but are divided over paying for it Ocasio-Cortez on shutdown: ‘GOP senators should be scared for their jobs in 2020’ WaPo fact-checker fires back at Ocasio-Cortez criticism over rating: ‘She’s wrong’ MORE (D-N.Y.) are the yin and yang of Democratic politics.

    One is a veteran establishment Democrat; the other is a young grassroots activist. Pelosi is Ms. Inside and Ocasio-Cortez is Ms. Outside. Pelosi is a shrewd and skilled political player. Ocasio-Cortez, already known simply as “AOC,” can work around the power structure because she commands the media like no other House member can. Between the two of them, they cover a lot of ground.

    The Speaker’s contributions are manifest. She stonewalled the president’s obsession with bricks and mortar border security. While I watched President Trump’s televised speech folding on his beloved wall, I imagined Pelosi just off camera holding a gun to his head while he announced his concession. Teddy Roosevelt had his bully pulpit. Well,Trump is just a bully. Trump tried to face Pelosi down but she stood up to him and forced him to cave.

    The president owned casinos so he should have known the house always wins. Trump underestimated Pelosi’s steely resolve but he should have known better. While she was House Minority Leader in the first half of Trump’s term, he failed to get a single Democratic vote in the House for his two most important legislative initiatives TrumpCare and his tax plan.

    Pelosi has already introduced comprehensive plans to fight government corruption and to reduce gun violence. These initiatives should please the progressive wing of her caucus but there might be a fight over health care. AOC and other progressive Democrats favor a single-payer plan like Sen. Bernie SandersBernard (Bernie) SandersLikely 2020 Dem contenders to face scrutiny over Wall Street ties Sanders poised to announce presidential campaign: report On The Money: Trump agrees to end shutdown without wall funding | Senate quickly clears short-term funding measure | House to vote tonight | Federal workers could get back pay within days | Dems take victory lap MORE‘ (I-Vt.) Medicare for All proposal while the Speaker will probably opt for a more limited plan that restores the vitality of ObamaCare law undermined by the actions of the Trump administration. Pelosi’s effort to broker a resolution to this conflict will be a true test of her political skills.

    Critics have demanded for years that Democrats stand tall and go toe-to-toe with right-wing Republicans. Now they have stand-up Democrats like Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez to do the job. Both women are tough as nails. They bring different but complementary skill sets to the table. 

    The president found out the hard way that experience still matters in Washington. Pelosi is as experienced as anybody can be. Trump is a babe in the wild ways of Washington. AOC doesn’t have much experience but she has plenty of energy and she can channel the enthusiasm of the millennials who are the rising force in national politics.

    AOC is a breath of fresh air in the fetid Washington swamp. She shares the public’s distaste for established economic and political power. No one should dismiss the representative from New York City as an extremist when she represents a national constituency of Americans who believe that government and the economy are rigged against working families.

    She caused a major ruckus recently when she called for a 70 percent marginal tax rate for the wealthiest Americans. But most voters believe the rich don’t pay their fair share of taxes and that the 2017 Trump tax scam favored corporations and wealthy Americans at the expense of working families. 

    Data from a national Gallup survey conducted last year demonstrated the public’s concern with tax fairness. Two of every three Americans indicated that they felt corporations (66 percent) and upper-income Americans (62 percent) paid too little in federal income taxes. 

    The marginal tax rate was higher than 70 percent under Republican President Dwight Eisenhower but somehow her proposal makes Ocasio-Cortez a radical. If she is a radical so are a majority of Americans.

    Pelosi and AOC both want to repair the damage from the disastrous Trump tax law that lowered taxes for corporate America and raised the national debt to record levels. The Trump tax plan cheated middle-class Americans of their right to significant tax relief. Worse, it gave the GOP an excuse to call for cuts in Social Security and Medicare to bail the nation out from the deficit that Republicans themselves created.

    AOC will not get anything close to a 70 percent marginal tax rate with a GOP president and Senate. But her proposal gives Pelosi leverage in her battle to reduce the tax burden on working families. The Speaker can tell Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellThe Memo: Trump concedes defeat on shutdown On The Money: Trump agrees to end shutdown without wall funding | Senate quickly clears short-term funding measure | House to vote tonight | Federal workers could get back pay within days | Dems take victory lap Shutdown ends without funding for Trump’s border wall MORE (R-Ky.) that she would like to accept his compromise but he’ll need to sweeten it so she can satisfy the demands of AOC and the other young progressives in the House Democratic Caucus.

    Pelosi and Ocasio represent the two wings of the Democratic Party. But a bird needs both wings to fly. Both congresswomen want to fight corruption, improve health care coverage and to reduce income inequality. There are differences in opinion on the means to deal with these problems. The two Democrats and their supporters have their differences but if everybody focuses on their common concerns, they will accomplish a lot and lay the groundwork for a big Democratic victory in 2020 which will allow them to do even more with a Democratic President and Senate.

    Brad Bannon is a Democratic pollster and CEO of Bannon Communications Research. He is also a senior adviser to, and editor of, the blog at MyTiller.com, a social media network for politics.

    Source Article from https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/427148-pelosi-and-ocasio-cortez-the-yin-and-yang-of-democratic-politics

    “);var a = g[r.size_id].split(“x”).map((function(e) {return Number(e)})), s = u(a, 2);o.width = s[0],o.height = s[1]}o.rubiconTargeting = (Array.isArray(r.targeting) ? r.targeting : []).reduce((function(e, r) {return e[r.key] = r.values[0],e}), {rpfl_elemid: n.adUnitCode}),e.push(o)} else l.logError(“Rubicon bid adapter Error: bidRequest undefined at index position:” + t, c, d);return e}), []).sort((function(e, r) {return (r.cpm || 0) – (e.cpm || 0)}))},getUserSyncs: function(e, r, t) {if (!A && e.iframeEnabled) {var i = “”;return t && “string” == typeof t.consentString && (“boolean” == typeof t.gdprApplies ? i += “?gdpr=” + Number(t.gdprApplies) + “&gdpr_consent=” + t.consentString : i += “?gdpr_consent=” + t.consentString),A = !0,{type: “iframe”,url: n + i}}},transformBidParams: function(e, r) {return l.convertTypes({accountId: “number”,siteId: “number”,zoneId: “number”}, e)}};function m() {return [window.screen.width, window.screen.height].join(“x”)}function b(e, r) {var t = f.config.getConfig(“pageUrl”);return e.params.referrer ? t = e.params.referrer : t || (t = r.refererInfo.referer),e.params.secure ? t.replace(/^http:/i, “https:”) : t}function _(e, r) {var t = e.params;if (“video” === r) {var i = [];return t.video && t.video.playerWidth && t.video.playerHeight ? i = [t.video.playerWidth, t.video.playerHeight] : Array.isArray(l.deepAccess(e, “mediaTypes.video.playerSize”)) && 1 === e.mediaTypes.video.playerSize.length ? i = e.mediaTypes.video.playerSize[0] : Array.isArray(e.sizes) && 0

    Washington (CNN)Roger Stone said Sunday he would tell the truth about his communications with President Donald Trump and did not shut the door on the possibility of cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/27/politics/roger-stone-cooperation-robert-mueller/index.html

    An image provided by the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office shows a 2004 Dodge pickup truck that was allegedly driven by Dakota Theriot, the suspect in five murders across two Louisiana parishes.

    AP


    hide caption

    toggle caption

    AP

    An image provided by the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office shows a 2004 Dodge pickup truck that was allegedly driven by Dakota Theriot, the suspect in five murders across two Louisiana parishes.

    AP

    Police have arrested a man accused of killing five people, including his parents and his girlfriend, across two southeast Louisiana counties, following a daylong manhunt.

    Authorities say Dakota Theriot shot and killed three people Saturday in Livingston Parish, near Baton Rouge, including the woman he was believed to be dating. He then stole a truck and drove to neighboring Ascension Parish, where he shot and killed his parents, according to police.

    “This is probably one of the worst domestic violence incidents I’ve seen in quite a while,” said Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre.

    Police in Virginia arrested Theriot on Sunday in Richmond County, according to the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office. He’ll be transported back to Ascension Parish and booked on two counts of first-degree murder, home invasion and illegal use of weapons.

    Theriot was also wanted under three counts of first-degree murder and theft of a motor vehicle in Livingston Parish.

    In a news conference on Saturday, Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard said Theriot first killed Summer Ernest, 20, believed to be his girlfriend, her father, Billy Ernest, 43, and her brother, Tanner Ernest, 17, on Courtney Road.

    Theriot had been staying with the Ernest family for a couple of weeks. Two children inside the home, a seven-year-old and a one-year-old, were unharmed.

    The suspect then left the scene in Billy Ernest’s truck and drove south on LA-447 towards Ascension Parish, according to police.

    Webre says Theriot traveled to his parents’ trailer on Churchpoint Road, went inside and shot both his mother, Elizabeth Theriot, and his father, Keith Theriot, in their bedroom. They were both 51, according to the sheriff.

    Police found both victims alive at the scene, according to Webre, and Keith was able to identify his son. They were transported to a hospital but later died.

    “We do not have a motive,” said Ard. “There is no red flags, no sign of anything.”

    Prior to his arrest, police had said Weber might be traveling east, armed with at least one handgun.

    Ard says Theriot had one prior run-in with police in Livingston Parrish, for “misdemeanor simple possession of drug paraphernalia.”

    Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/01/27/689140199/louisiana-police-arrest-man-suspected-of-killing-parents-girlfriend-and-2-others