turbinetree
turbinetree's JournalDivided Britain heads to the polls for EU elections it was not meant to hold
Source: Reuters
World News
May 22, 2019 / 8:00 AM / Updated 13 minutes ago
3 Min Read
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will hold European Parliament elections on Thursday, a vote which is expected to show growing frustration on both sides of the Brexit divide nearly three years after the country voted to leave the European Union.
The election, which Britain did not expect to have to take part in, is a result of the deadlock in Britain over the way forward on Brexit after Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal with Brussels was rejected three times by lawmakers.
Britain was due to leave the EU almost two months ago, but having delayed its exit date twice and with parliament still deadlocked, it remains unclear how, when or even if it will go ahead with the divorce. It is currently due to leave on Oct. 31.
Views among Britons, who voted 52% to 48% to leave the EU, have polarized, with opinion polls showing strongly pro-Brexit and pro-EU parties are set to gain votes at the expense of May’s governing Conservatives and the opposition Labour Party.
According to data from pollsters YouGov, only one in five of those who voted Conservative at the last national election in 2017 are planning to vote for the party on Thursday, with 62% instead planning to back Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-election-britain/divided-britain-heads-to-the-polls-for-eu-elections-it-was-not-meant-to-hold-idUSKCN1SS1BF?il=0
Does anyone see that Farage is a fucking right wing racist nationalist in Britain, along the same lines as the asshole's leading the countries in Poland, and Hungry, that gets his political backing from Russian money..................................
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And since Murdoch damn nears owns all of the airwaves over there spreading his bullshit.....................helping Farage.................
Survey shows U.S. military families far more negative about housing than landlords claim
Military landlords often report high tenant satisfaction scores in annual surveys. But an expanded survey of families, conducted by a nonprofit, shows the opposite: Across the U.S., most responding military families have negative views of base housing, echoing Reuters investigative reports.
By M.B. PELL and JOSHUA SCHNEYER in NEW YORK
Filed May 22, 2019, 10 a.m. GMT
U.S. military families are expressing far deeper dissatisfaction with their housing conditions than their private landlords claim, according to a granular survey of tenants at more than 100 bases across the country that was recently presented to Congress.
The survey, conducted by the nonprofit Military Family Advisory Network, was initially publicized in February. Three months later, the group has released a more detailed analysis of the results, providing a base-by-base look at the survey findings and a window into the problems most frequently cited.
Using this expanded information, Reuters has created a searchable database of base-by-base results, found here.
For more than a year, Reuters has exposed slum-like conditions dogging the Department of Defense housing privatization program, describing how private landlords reap billions in payments even as tenants clamor for repairs. The armed forces began privatizing base housing for military families two decades ago.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-housing-map/
So either the for profit private housing people are full of shit, or the same firms running these places are defrauding the American Taxpayer in some shape or form and the DoD is full of shit to privatize this matter, when they are now getting over 715 Billion to do exactly what.......................and they are still full of shit...................sounds like what trump does with his housing units right along with Kusher, they scam the system.............................
Theresa May's Brexit gambit fails as her premiership fades
Source: Reuters
World News
May 22, 2019 / 2:07 AM / Updated an hour ago
Guy Faulconbridge, Costas Pitas
4 Min Read
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May’s final Brexit gambit was in tatters on Wednesday just hours after her offer of a vote on a second referendum and closer trading arrangements failed to win over either opposition lawmakers or many in her own party.
Nearly three years since Britain voted 52% to 48% to leave the European Union, May is trying one last time to get her divorce deal approved by the British parliament before her crisis-riven premiership ends.
May appealed to lawmakers on Tuesday to get behind her deal, offering the prospect of a possible second referendum on the agreement and closer trading arrangements with the EU as incentives.
But the backlash was fierce. Both ruling Conservative and opposition Labour lawmakers lined up to criticize May’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill, or WAB, legislation which implements the terms of Britain’s departure. Some upped efforts to oust her.
“The proposed second reading of the WAB is clearly doomed to failure so there really is no point wasting any more time on the prime minister’s forlorn hope of salvation. She’s got to go,” Andrew Bridgen, a Conservative lawmaker, told Reuters.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu/theresa-mays-brexit-gambit-fails-as-her-premiership-fades-idUSKCN1SS0GW
I really have no sympathy for her, Farage, and for that matter the Tories....................they are a "clusterfuck'..............................
Housing secretary Ben Carson confuses foreclosure process with Oreos
By Dan Desai Martin -
May 21, 2019
He acted like he had never heard of a term that's a basic part of his job.
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson got tripped up Tuesday afternoon when Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) asked him about a common foreclosure term — and Carson thought she was referring to Oreo cookies.
Porter asked Carson what should have been a simple question for the Cabinet official in charge of housing policy: "Do you know what an REO is?"
The resulting back and forth showed just how out of his depth Carson is in his job.
Porter: Do you know what an REO is?
Carson: An Oreo...
Porter: No, not an Oreo. An REO.
Carson: Real Estate...
Porter: What's the "O" stand for?
Carson: Organization?
Porter: Owned. Real Estate Owned.
https://shareblue.com/ben-carson-katie-porter-reo-vs-oreo-cookie/
Rep. Katie Porter Schools Housing Secretary Ben Carson on Key Real Estate Term
This asshole should be Impeached and locked up...............................
And for Katie Porter: ................you are my hero, literally..........
clap:
Congress subpoenas White House aides who witnessed Trump's obstruction
By Emily Singer -
May 21, 2019
The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed former communications director Hope Hicks and former deputy counsel Annie Donaldson — who both witnessed Trump's obstructive acts outlined in the Mueller report.
Trump's attempts at stonewalling congressional oversight have not stopped the House Judiciary Committee.
The committee on Tuesday subpoenaed both former White House communications director Hope Hicks and former White House deputy counsel Annie Donaldson, ordering both to hand over documents and appear before the Judiciary Committee to testify about instances in which they witnessed Trump obstructing justice.
The two women both play a significant role in the obstruction section of special counsel Robert Mueller's report.
Hicks testified in the report about her role in the response to the now infamous Trump Tower meeting — in which Trump's son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former campaign chairman turned convicted felon Paul Manafort all met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer who promised "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.
https://shareblue.com/congress-subpoenas-hope-hicks-annie-donaldson-witnessed-trumps-obstruction/
Florida quietly passes law to cover up GOP plot to stop people from voting
By Emily Singer -
May 21, 2019
Florida Republicans snuck a provision into a bill that would block the public from tracking the state's progress in restoring voting rights.
In 2018, Florida voters overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment granting felons who completed their sentences the right to vote — a move that would make roughly 1.4 million new people eligible to cast ballots in the state.
But despite the fact that roughly two-thirds of voters chose to restore those rights, Republicans have been desperately trying to find ways to keep disenfranchising ex-felons — many of them black voters who overwhelmingly vote Democratic and thus could impact the GOP's stranglehold on the state.
Already, Florida Republicans have instituted what amounts to a poll tax on former felons. And now, on Tuesday, state GOP lawmakers snuck a provision into a bill that would shield the public from accessing records of how many have had their voting rights restored, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
The provision was pitched as a way to keep the group from being harassed. However, it will also have the consequence of making it impossible for reporters or other members of the public from accessing data to see if felons are, in fact, having their rights restored as they should be — creating the possibility for hijinks and attempts to continue to keep them from the voting booth.
https://shareblue.com/florida-law-gop-block-restoring-voting-rights/
What a bunch of fascist republican fucking assholes, every last one them .......................
NRA secretly worked with sheriffs who refuse to enforce gun laws
By Oliver Willis -
May 21, 2019
Extremist gun groups pushing to break the law had the NRA's help, a new reports reveals.
Reuters reported on Monday that the gun safety group Brady Campaign uncovered 1,600 documents, including email conversations, between the NRA and New Mexico sheriff Tony Mace, head of the New Mexico Sheriffs Association (NMSA). The documents show the NRA coordinating with the extremist group of sheriffs to ignore and subvert laws designed to keep people safe from gun violence.
While the NRA has often opposed popular new gun-safety proposals with the excuse that there are already laws on the books, this recent report shows the NRA interacting with a group subverting gun laws despite claiming to support existing legislation.
"The NRA was actively involved in the NMSA's efforts in drafting the (sanctuary) Declaration; recruiting sheriffs to lobby state and political politicians to oppose the GVP (gun-violence prevention) bills and to adopt so-called Second Amendment Sanctuary Resolutions; and encouraging sheriffs to not enforce state laws," the Brady Campaign told Reuters.
NMSA is one of several sheriff's groups that are part of the so-called "Second Amendment sanctuary" movement, known to push the idea that local sheriffs can ignore gun laws they disagree with.
https://shareblue.com/nra-extremist-gun-groups-sheriffs-refuse-enforce-law/
Top GOP congressman brags about making rape victims have babies
By Oliver Willis -
May 21, 2019
Steve Scalise spoke with pride about voting for a bill that would have forced 12-year-old rape victims to give birth.
Minority Whip Steve Scalise, the second-highest ranking Republican in the House, bragged about his support for banning abortion without making exceptions for women or girls who become pregnant as a result of rape.
During a Tuesday press conference, a reporter asked Scalise whether he supported Alabama's new anti-choice law — an extreme piece of legislation that outlaws abortion at every stage of pregnancy, even in cases of rape or incest.
Scalise began by saying that he was "proud" to come from Louisiana because it is often rated as the "most pro-life state in the nation."
"When I served in the [Louisiana] state legislature, we had a bill to protect people and say that abortion should be illegal, and we had an exception for the life of the mother, and I voted for that bill when I was in the state legislature," Scalise said.
https://shareblue.com/top-gop-congressman-brags-about-making-rape-victims-have-babies/
Meet the Texas law firm acting as a foreign agent for Russia's ally in the Balkans
Republika Srpska's government is run by a party helmed by a man sanctioned by the United States. McGinnis Lochridge is helping it.
Casey Michel
May 21, 2019, 8:00 am
For the past decade, Republika Srpska — a region of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) — has been governed by the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, or SNSD, a Serb nationalist party that advocates upending the hard-fought stability the Balkans have enjoyed for the past two decades. The party’s head, Milorad Dodik, has not only grown close to the Kremlin over the past few years, but he’s steered BiH closer to outright disintegration than any point in the past two decades.
In the process, Dodik — who was recently described by one regional analyst as potentially “one of the most dangerous men in Europe” — was, in the waning days of President Barack Obama’s administration, specifically sanctioned by the United States. (The Trump administration has not removed these sanctions.)
Dodik recently moved on from running Republika Srpska, ascending to Bosnia’s three-person presidency and leaving the region governed by one of his SNSD underlings. But now, Republika Srpska has a new partner: McGinnis Lochridge, a Texas-based law firm that recently registered as a foreign agent working on behalf of the regional government.
According to a filing in the Department of Justice’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) database earlier this month, McGinnis Lochridge signed an agreement with the Republika Srpska government to provide legal advice, as well as potentially helping liaise with “various U.S. executive branch officials, officials of U.S. government agencies, and members and staff of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives[.]” McGinnis Lochridge will also “maintain” a website regarding BiH issues. The contract, which began May 6 and will run through the end of the year, notes that McGinnis Lochridge will make some $80,000 per month from the deal.
https://thinkprogress.org/meet-the-texas-law-firm-acting-as-a-foreign-agent-for-russias-ally-in-the-balkans/
Mujanovic, though, sees the latest agreement with McGinnis Lochridge as part of a broader pattern of Republika Srpska’s — and Dodik’s — lobbying efforts in the U.S.
“[Dodik] both believed the Trump administration was an opportunity to receive a ‘fair hearing’ for his ethno-nationalist, Russian-aligned views — and that he was then stunned by the imposition of sanctions by the Treasury Department and the State Department,” Mujanovic told ThinkProgress. “The stress that he is putting on Bosnia state institutions and society more broadly is doing really damage not just to Bosnia, but the whole of the still very volatile Western Balkans.”
“It’s unconscionable to think then that this man can be under U.S. sanctions but still be allowed to legally attempt to influence U.S. policy,” he said.
This is just plain fucked up......................
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