House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy criticized Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday for even considering traveling abroad during the fourth week of the partial government shutdown.
Pelosi was scheduled to leave Thursday afternoon for a trip to Belgium, Egypt and Afghanistan, but President Donald Trump sent a letter to the speaker informing her that she would not be allowed to use military aircraft for her trip. Trump’s decision to ground Pelosi appeared to be in retaliation for her announcement that she was postponing the State of the Union address because of the government shutdown.
House Minority Leader McCarthy responded to the decision by questioning why Pelosi was planning the trip in the first place.
“Why would she want to go overseas with government shut down, with people missing their paychecks? And if we don’t get this back open they could miss their paycheck again by next week, so I think it’s appropriate that we would get back together. It would not take long, and we could solve this problem,” McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill.
No Wall, No Deal: McConnell Blocks THIRD Government Funding Bill
by Cassandra Fairbanks January 17, 2019
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has blocked a third bill to reopen most of the government without funding the wall.
Senator Tim Kaine had attempted to get consent to take up a House-passed bill that would reopen all agencies — except for the Department of Homeland Security. Approximately 25% of the government has been shut down since December 22.
(Politico)
The Hill reports, “the Senate GOP leader didn’t explain his objection from the Senate floor but he has warned for weeks that he will not bring up a government funding bill unless it’s the product of an agreement between congressional Democratic leadership and President Trump.”
After McConnell turned down another House-passed bill on Tuesday, he stated that it would be pointless to approve a vote on any spending bill that does not have support from President Trump.
“In a situation like this where the president in my view is in the right place trying to get the right outcome… of course not,” McConnell told a reporter when asked if he would try to reopen the government with a veto override.
The standoff over the shutdown does not seem to be any closer to reaching a negotiation than it was in January.
On Tuesday, a group of House Democrats declined a meeting at the White House to discuss the matter.
Two days later, President Trump grounded Nancy Pelosi, denying her the use of military aircraft while she was already en route for a trip to Afghanistan — saying that she should be in Washington attempting to work on a deal.
“Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative,” Trump wrote.
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Facebook’s popular “10 Year Challenge” could potentially be a data mining ploy under the guise of a harmless Internet meme. The data could be used to train machines to better recognize age-progression characteristics, according to Wired magazine.
If you’ve scrolled through your social media feeds recently, you may have noticed a popular new Facebook trend known as the “10 Year Challenge,” in which users upload two photos of themselves side-by-side, one current photo alongside one photo from a decade ago.
At first, the trend may seem like an innocent Facebook meme, but social media users may actually be unknowingly aiding potential data mining to train machines for facial recognition, specifically having to do with aging, as first speculated in a Wired op-ed by Katie O’Neill.
“Imagine that you wanted to train a facial recognition algorithm on age-related characteristics and, more specifically, on age progression,” says O’Neill in her op-ed, “You’d want a broad and rigorous dataset with lots of people’s pictures. It would help if you knew they were taken a fixed number of years apart.”
The writer notes that critics of this speculation could say that it wouldn’t matter, because the company already has decade-old photos of its users, as they have already uploaded them to Facebook.
While that may be true, photos uploaded ten years ago could be of anything. They could be pets, memes, sunsets, or even “throwbacks.”
Not every individual on Facebook uses the platform in the same way — unless they’re participating in a popular trend — so by joining in on the 10 Year Challenge, social media users are already doing the work for the tech giant themselves, clearly labeling which photos are of them, and how many years apart they were taken.
O’Neill says a Facebook spokesperson insists that the photo challenge was not started by the social media company, and was “a user-generated meme that went viral on its own.”
“Facebook gains nothing from this meme,” says the spokesperson, “As a reminder, Facebook users can choose to turn facial recognition on or off at any time.”
Despite the company insisting that its users have autonomy, many have not yet forgotten about last year’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, when Facebook was scrutinized for allegedly allowing the data mining company to misuse data for 50 million of its users.
“Regardless of the origin or intent behind this meme, we must all become savvier about the data we create and share, the access we grant to it, and the implications for its use,” writes O’Neill, “humans are the richest data sources for most of the technology emerging in the world.”
Abby Johnson, a former abortion clinic director at Planned Parenthood, spoke to Alex Marlow on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily on Thursday, explaining that she became a pro-life advocate after witnessing an abortion.
The interview came ahead of the 2019 March for Life, scheduled for January 18 in Washington, DC.
Johnson said, “I worked for Planned Parenthood for eight years. I was a clinic director. I left in 2009 after a couple of things. One, I was told that my job was to double the amount of abortions — so double our abortion quota — that we had in our clinic, which was troubling to me because I was told for all of these years that our goal was to reduce the number of abortions, and here I am being told to double our quota.”
LISTEN:
Johnson then described her participation in and witnessing of an abortion procedure.
Johnson recalled, “Then, about a month later, I was asked to help participate in an ultrasound-guided abortion procedure. Ultrasounds are generally not used during the actual abortion procedure itself, but we had a new physician in our clinic that day, and he wanted to show us what this looked like. He thought it would be a good learning opportunity for us. I watched as a 13-week-old fetus fought and struggled for his life against the abortion instrument. I knew then that there was humanity in the womb, and abortion was taking the life of this innocent human being, and I decided to leave Planned Parenthood.”
Marlow invited Johnson’s comments on science as the theme of this year’s March for Life.
“I love the theme of the March this year,” replied Johnson. “I often — every day — talk to people who support abortion, and one of the things that they cannot deny is the science of the human fetus. That really bothers them, the fact that they want so bad to say, ‘It’s not human,’ and then when you really challenge them and ask, ‘Well, what species is it? Is it feline? Is it canine? What is it?’ That really gets to the heart of the issue. Science is on our side.”
Johnson added, “For those of us who are faithful people, for those of us who are believers, we know where science comes from. We know that science comes from our Creator. None of us who are Christian should have a problem with helping other people understand the science of a human person in the womb because we know the science was given to us by Christ.”
Johnson continued, “It’s a great opportunity. We see more and more people who are secular [and] atheist coming into the pro-life movement because of the science, and that’s a beautiful thing.”
Marlow asked if Planned Parenthood’s position is that an unborn child’s humanity is contingent on the pregnant woman’s desires.
Johnson explained how Planned Parenthood shifted its public statements on abortion over time.
“When I worked at Planned Parenthood, we sort of changed our phrasing back in about 2008,” stated Johnson. “So it used to be, ‘Oh, you don’t have to worry about it. It’s just a blob of tissue. It’s just fetal matter.’ Then it sort of changed. More and more women were having ultrasounds. Sixty percent of women who have abortions already have children at home, so these weren’t women who were ignorant to the fact that they were pregnant with a baby.”
Johnson went on. “So we had to change the way that we talked about abortion. So it became, ‘It’s not a baby until the woman decides she wants to keep the baby.’ And these women are so desperate for any sort of justification for their abortion. They believe whatever you tell them. Then it became, ‘Abortion is a sacrificial choice. It’s a choice that a woman makes because she cares about herself, her current family, and her future family.’ That was the language that we were told to start using in about 2008, and that’s the language that continues within Planned Parenthood.”
Marlow asked about contemporary left-wing sloganeering related to abortion — including “Shout Your Abortion” and actress Lena Dunham’s claimed wish to have had an abortion.
Johnson remarked, “Even in the past more than nine years that I’ve been out of Planned Parenthood, I’ve seen a shift in the way they talk about abortion and the way that they encourage our society and women who’ve had abortions to talk about their abortion.”
Johnson added, “When I worked at Planned Parenthood, we kept the abortion brochures behind the counter. Women had to ask for them to get them. Now, the discussion about abortion is just so brazen. I went to the Women’s March two years ago just to have a pro-life there, with a sign that said, ‘True feminists are pro-life.’ I went there, and I could not believe the vulgarity that I saw among these women. It was embarrassing to me that I was part of a movement like this. It really has changed over the past nine years.”
Johnson concluded, “We see that Planned Parenthood is more vocal about their support of abortion. Their current president, Leana Wen, two days ago, coming out on Twitter and saying, ‘Planned Parenthood is focused on providing abortion.’ Great. Get it out in the open. Stop trying to hide behind this false three percent number. Let’s be honest about the number of abortions you’re providing. Stop saying it’s only three percent. We all know that’s a lie. Just be honest and come out with it.”
Johnson will be a featured speaker at the March for Life. She plans to discuss her forthcoming film, Unplanned, scheduled for release in March.
Breitbart News Daily broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
Lawyer Harmeet Dhillon discussed Breitbart News’ latest Google leak on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight, Wednesday, highlighting Google’s threat towards democracy.
On Wednesday, Breitbart Tech Senior Reporter Allum Bokhari published details about a leaked Google internal discussion thread, proving the company regularly adds search results, including negative results about prominent left-wing figures, to a blacklist on its platform YouTube.
“The term ‘abortion’ was added to a ‘blacklist’ file for ‘controversial YouTube queries,’ which contains a list of search terms that the company considers sensitive. According to the leak, these include some of these search terms related to: abortion, abortions, the Irish abortion referendum, Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and anti-gun activist David Hogg,” Bokhari reported. “The existence of the blacklist was revealed in an internal Google discussion thread leaked to Breitbart News by a source inside the company who wishes to remain anonymous. A partial list of blacklisted terms was also leaked to Breitbart by another Google source.”
After announcing that she would discuss the leak on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Dhillon appeared on Carlson’s show, Wednesday, to warn viewers about the threat Google poses to democracy.
“Why is nobody covering this? That’s a great question. And this question as well: Google’s manipulation… why isn’t that a violation of campaign finance law? The company’s YouTube blacklist, for example, allegedly suppressed negative videos about Maxine Waters. Why is that not a contribution to Maxine Waters?” asked Carlson on his show. “Harmeet Dhillon, unlike us, is an attorney and she joins us tonight. So, Harmeet, you just saw a guy plead to a felony because he paid off his client’s girlfriend with private funds in the middle of a campaign. That was considered a campaign finance violation. Here you have the most powerful company in the world putting its thumb on the scale on behalf of candidates, but that’s not a campaign contribution? How?”
“Well it is a campaign finance violation, and if anybody thinks that this is some sort of aberration, Google has been doing this and bragging about it internally even in the last election,” Dhillon replied. “One internal person at Google, a manager at Google made a silent campaign contribution by turning out the vote and contributing turn out the vote efforts in several states that were swing states for Hillary Clinton, and specifically targeting Latino voters. I think people should be encouraged to do democratic activities like this, on both sides, and help with elections, but when a corporation does it, with its corporate assets, it needs to be disclosed as a campaign finance violation.”
“Here, you have the one example of Maxine Waters, but let’s just play this out. You have twenty plus Democrats running for the Democratic nomination. If Google decides to bump up the search engine results in a positive way for Beto O’Rourke in response to, for example, ‘Democratic candidates for president 2020,’ and then bump down Tulsi Gabbard or some others for example, that’s going to be a contribution, in my opinion, to those candidates who benefit from it, and a very valuable one,” she explained. “If it isn’t being disclosed as such, then that is a fraud on our democracy. And again, imagine what they’re doing to Donald Trump. They’re already doing it to Republicans as you have previously reported with regard to search engine results for Republican women, for Californian Republican Party, for various other Republicans.”
“This is a particularly shocking and alarming story that we really need to see our members of Congress, Senators, and the White House wake up about this issue, because otherwise, we aren’t going to be talking about a democracy in the next two election cycles,” Dhillon warned. “We’ll be talking about what it used to look like before we let Big Tech take over and control the outcome.”
Tucker then raised the possibility of President Trump even failing to be re-elected if Big Tech continues to influence politics at the current extent, and declared, “I wonder why the White House wouldn’t… they do control the executive branch of government… wouldn’t have been awakened to that.”
Dhillon responded, “We have seen Donald Trump, actually, tweet about this issue in September 2018. He tweeted, practically, about the subject matter of today’s story from Breitbart and people called him a conspiracy theorist, that it isn’t true, when now we see the evidence that they are doing this manipulation. And Sundar Pichai lied to Congress about it.”
“But these companies skilfully spread the money around, not just to members of Congress, but also people working in the administration who are looking for their exit and thinking, well, maybe I’ll work for the other side of tech policy and make a bunch of money advising Google on how to speak conservative to conservatives,” Dhillon concluded. “And that’s how it happens.”
Polk County Sheriff: ‘Deviant Alien From Mexico’ Arrested For Felony Sexual Abuse of a Child Under the Age of 12
by Cristina Laila January 17, 2019
Child sex abuser Carlos Calderon
41-year-old Carlos Calderon was arrested by Polk County, Florida police on Tuesday and charged with eight felonies related to sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12.
Carlos Calderon’s immigration status is unclear because of conflicting data gathered by law enforcement.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd described Calderon as a ‘deviant alien from Mexico’ who is here on an “expired work visa” although data came back suggesting Calderon is in the country on a valid work permit.
Regardless of Calderon’s immigration status, ICE issued a warrant for him to be removed from the United States.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd could hardly contain his anger and disgust over what Carlos Calderon did to the poor little girl he sexually abused for several years.
According to deputies, Calderon began abusing his victim when she was just seven years old. The abuse continued for five years, reported FOX 13.
Detectives said Carlos Calderon had sexually explicit photos of the child on his phone and created child pornography — Calderon admitted to law enforcement to taking the pictures and the sexual abuse.
It gets worse…
Polk County Sheriff said Calderon blamed the child for the abuse and told investigators “hell I don’t know” when they asked him “how many times he committed a specific type of sexual battery.”
Calderon is being held in the Polk County Jail on $400,000 bond and two counts of no bond. A search of his fingerprints brought back an illegal immigration arrest warrant from the U.S, Department of Homeland Security and, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, ICE is aware of his arrest.
However, Judd said his goal was to see Calderon imprisoned in the state of Florida for the rest of his life.
Calderon has a criminal history includes eight arrests, including six for driving with a non-valid, suspended, or revoked driver’s license, probation violation, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
He now faces eight felonies, including two charges of sexual battery of a child, two counts of lewd molestation of a child under 12, use of a child in sexual performance, two counts of sexual performance by a child, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd gave a press conference Wednesday and said, “Calderon’s continued molestation and sexual battery against this child is unconscionable. He preyed upon her and groomed her to commit these horrific acts. We are going to make sure he is held accountable for his actions.”
“We have an ICE warrant that said he is removable from the country,” Judd said in a press conference Wednesday. “However, other data we’ve gathered says, well, he’s here on a valid work permit and he was in the process of applying for permanent residency.”
The Democrats who are fighting to abolish ICE are advocating to have vicious child sex abusers like Carlos Calderon wandering around freely in society.
Video of Sheriff Grady Judd’s press conference on the arrest of Carlos Calderon:
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MUST SEE: Democrat Lawmakers Suffer Meltdown After President Trump Grounds Pelosi’s Flight to Belgium (VIDEO)
by Jim Hoft January 17, 2019
On Thursday afternoon, President Trump informed Speaker Pelosi her “public relations” trip to Afghanistan, Egypt, and Brussels has been postponed so that she can stay in DC and negotiate with him.
The President canceled Pelosi’s flight just one hour before she was scheduled to depart — Pelosi and other lawmakers were on the bus en route to the airport.
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One of America’s newest Muslim congresswomen is under fire for apparent anti-Israel remarks, but CNN doesn’t seem to be very interested in pressing her to explain them.
Back in 2012, Ilhan Omar posted a controversial tweet which called on Allah and appeared to call the Jewish nation “evil.” That’s an eye-opening statement from anyone, but particularly so now that Omar has been sworn in to Congress from her state of Minnesota.
“Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel. #Gaza #Palestine #Israel,” she posted in a tweet that has not been deleted.
To their slight credit, that post didn’t escape CNN, which brought it up to her on Thursday.
Rep. Omar’s comments on Israel begin at 7:47 in this video.
“You wrote Israel has ‘hypnotized the world,’” commented journalist Poppy Harlow. “I wonder what your message is this morning to Jewish-Americans who find that deeply offensive.”
Omar’s response was to passive-aggressively scold CNN for asking the question, while simultaneously standing by her inflammatory remarks.
“That’s really a regrettable way of expressing that (question),” the representative shot back.
Do you think CNN should have called Omar out for her remarks?
She feigned cluelessness about how ranting about “the evil doings of Israel” might be a problem with Israeli or Jewish people.
“I don’t know how my comments would be offensive to Jewish-Americans,” Omar declared. “My comments precisely are addressing what was happening during the Gaza War.”
But then she doubled-down on the same kind of rhetoric by using the term “Israeli regime” to refer to America’s closest ally and friend in the Middle East.
CNN could have followed up and pressed Omar on her inflammatory language — after all, calling a fellow democracy a “regime” is bizarre for an official representative of the United States government. But the network just shrugged it off, quickly moving to a different topic.
There are two items of note here. First is how quickly left-leaning networks change the subject once a liberal puts their foot in their mouth. There’s a clear double standard here: Imagine for just a second if President Trump tweeted about “the evil doings of Mexico” or any other friendly country, for that matter.
It would be national news, with CNN, MSNBC, and all the rest holding roundtable discussions about just how racist the president was.
Yet when a liberal lawmaker not only makes that comment about a U.S. ally but seems to defend it on national television, there’s no pressure. They simply accept her vague explanation as gold and move on.
The final point is about Omar herself. It’s very telling that the freshman congresswoman seemed absolutely stunned that anybody might have a problem with her anti-Israel statement or dare call her out on it.
Like fellow newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Minnesota representative seems to expect a free pass on accountability, perhaps because she is a minority.
But as the left has been telling us for decades, a person’s gender or religion shouldn’t change how they’re treated — and that’s exactly why media outlets need to hold America’s representatives’ feet to the fire when they say something ridiculous, not go easy on them.
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Confused Democrat lawmakers were left sitting idle on a military bus near the Capitol after President Donald Trump postponed their seven-day foreign trip as the partial government shutdown continues.
Photos shared to social media purport to show Democrats on a U.S. Air Force bus traveling to the airport when they received word that their access to a military plane had been blocked:
Fox is told CapHill security officials got an emergency call from the Pentagon canceling the overseas trip due to shutdown. No one here knows if the trip is going to happen or not. Lots of confusion pic.twitter.com/eFCqsaNcGe
House Members sitting on an Air Force bus b/t the Longworth and Rayburn House Office Buildings waiting to see if they are still going overseas after Trump cancelled the trip. pic.twitter.com/e5IgidRPZu
House Speaker Pelosi and other Democrats planned to depart around 3:00 p.m. Eastern Thursday for her overseas trip, according to the White House.
Drew Hamill, the speaker’s chief of staff, issued the following statement in response to the cancelation:
“The CODEL to Afghanistan included a required stop in Brussels for pilot rest. In Brussels, the delegation was scheduled to meet with top NATO commanders, U.S. military leaders and key allies–to affirm the United States’ ironclad commitment to the NATO alliance. This weekend visit to Afghanistan did not include a stop in Egypt. The purpose of the trip was to express appreciation and thanks to our men and women in uniform for their service and dedication, and to obtain critical national security & intelligence briefings from those on the front lines. The President traveled to Iraq during the Trump Shutdown as did a Republican CODEL led by Rep. Zeldin.”
In a letter to Pelosi on Thursday, President Trump wrote that due to the shutdown, a trip to Egypt, Brussels, and Afghanistan would be delayed, declaring, “In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I’m sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate.”
“I also feel that, during this period, it would be better if you were in Washington negotiating with me and joining the strong border security movement to end the shutdown,” the president continued.
Pelosi is welcome to fly on a commercial aircraft to make the trip, he told the House speaker.
While the shutdown drags on, on Thursday, the State Department instructed all U.S. diplomats in Washington and elsewhere to return to work next week with pay, saying it had found money for their salaries, at least temporarily, despite the ongoing government shutdown.
In a notice to staff posted online and sent to employees, the department said it had found money to pay most of its employees, beginning Sunday or Monday, for their next pay period. They will not be paid for time worked since the shutdown began in December until the situation is resolved, said the notice, which was signed by Deputy Under Secretary for Management William Todd.
President Trump declined to address the stalemate over the speech Thursday during a visit to the Pentagon, simply promising that the nation will have “powerful, strong border security,” including $5.7 billion in funding to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s luggage has been returned to the halls of congress by cart, according to a picture sent to the Washington Free Beacon by a snap-happy tipster.
The picture shows the luggage were returned to Pelosi on “military liaison” marked carts.
Pelosi’s bags were packed for a congressional trip to Belgium and Afghanistan, but the trip was canceled just before the delegation was set to leave by President Donald Trump, who let her know in a letter that she would have to fly commercial if she still wanted to make the trip.
Nancy Pelosi’s bags were returned to her office / Washington Free Beacon
The letter was released shortly before Pelosi was scheduled to depart by White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.
It’s unclear whether all the luggage belonged to Pelosi.
via Washington Free Beacon
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