__***Al Franken resigning 'in the coming weeks'***__
<http://archive.is/39xQJ>


Washington (CNN)Democratic Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota is resigning following allegations that he touched women inappropriately, he announced on the Senate floor Thursday.

"I am announcing that in the coming weeks I will be resigning as a member of the United States Senate," Franken said in an emotional address in which he said some of the allegations against him weren't true.

The push for Franken's resignation started after a woman came forward last month to say he had badgered her into an unwanted kiss before he was a senator and groped her while she slept.
Their patience had worn incredibly thin': How the dam broke on Al Franken
That allegation set forth weeks of open deliberation about the political future of the unlikely comedian turned progressive darling.

Last month, Leeann Tweeden, a morning news anchor on the AM radio station KABC in Los Angeles, posted her story on the station's website, saying Franken forcibly kissed her and groped her in 2006 during a USO tour.

┅┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Moore Accuser Reveals She Added Note To Yearbook Inscription**
<https://archive.is/vc15E>

One of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore’s accusers revealed Friday she added to an inscription from Moore in her yearbook she presented as evidence of their relationship. Beverly Young Nelson’s lawyer initially presented the inscription, including the date, as a message entirely from Moore, but Nelson told ABC she noted the date and time below his inscription.

“Is the party more important really than what happened?” Nelson said. “I feel like my incident is being swept under the rug, literally, because he’s a Republican.” “We’re going to present evidence that we think is important on the issue whether Roy Moore signed the yearbook,” Nelson’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, told ABC News Friday.

Moore has called the signature completely false, and has requested a handwriting expert look at the yearbook. Moore’s attorney said that he didn’t want to “make any allegations,” but mentioned that the two “77s” signed in the yearbook, should be looked at.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Jerry Sandusky’s Son Sentenced For Child Sex Abuse**
<https://archive.is/sXsNx>

Jerry Sandusky’s son was sentenced Friday for soliciting naked photos from a teenage girl and pressuring another minor to perform sex acts.

Jefferey Sandusky, 42, one of the six adopted sons from the disgraced former Penn State assistant football coach, was sentenced to between three and a half to six years in prison in prison for child sex abuse. Sandusky pleaded guilty Sept. 14 on charges that include solicitation of statutory sexual assault and solicitation of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, reported The New York Post.

The two teenage victims were sisters. One said that Sandusky pressured her for innapropriate photos. The victim’s sister, 15 at the time, said that Sandusky kept pressuring her for oral sex in 2013. According to authorities, Sandusky knew the two victims, who were sisters, through their mother. Police also said that he pressured one of the victims “to not show these texts to anyone.”
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Trump’s expanded travel ban goes into full effect – State Department**
<https://archive.is/4pYNd>

The US State Department announced that it is fully implementing President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban, following the Supreme Court’s decision to overrule injunctions against it.

“National security is our top priority in visa operations. Our embassies and consulates around the world are fully implementing Presidential Proclamation 9645 to protect the American people, now that US Supreme Court orders permit us to do that,” the State Department said in a statement Friday.

Formally known as Presidential Proclamation 9645 (Enhancing Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry into the United States by Terrorists or other Public-Safety Threats), the order bars nationals of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, and Venezuelan officials and their family members, from entering the US.
┅┅┅┅┅

<:trump:284711336934375425> **CNN Corrects Report About Trump Campaign and Wikileaks Tip**
<http://archive.is/3UTrb>

CNN had to correct a story on Friday that suggested the Trump campaign had been tipped off early about Wikileaks documents damaging to Hillary Clinton when it later learned the alert was about material already publicly available.

The new information, CNN noted, “indicates that the communication is less significant than CNN initially reported.”

It’s the second mistake in a week by a major news organization on a story that initially had been damaging to the president but didn’t live up to scrutiny, sure to give Trump ammunition for his campaign against “fake news.” This time it was by one of Trump’s favorite targets.

The story, by CNN reporters Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb, was posted at 8:05 a.m. on Friday and said that an email was sent to Trump and campaign officials on Sept. 4, 2016 with a link to documents from the Democratic National Committee hacked by Wikileaks.

Five hours later, the Washington Post reported that the message had actually been sent on Sept. 14 and it wasn’t a tip to secret documents, since Wikileaks had released them a day earlier.
┅┅┅┅┅

<:shiiiiit:348458410217308170> ***Woman pleads guilty to hate crime in beating of disabled teen live on Facebook*** https://archive.fo/vlxC6 A Chicago woman who live-streamed video of the racially charged beating of a teen with mental disabilities pleaded guilty Friday to a hate crime and was sentenced to four years of probation.
Calling the incident “horrific,” Cook County Circuit Judge William Hooks banned Covington from social media over the four years, prohibited her from contact with two of her co-defendants and ordered her to do 200 hours of community service.
The 19-year-old also pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and intimidation charges. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dropped additional charges, including kidnapping.

🇳🇿 **Top Transgender Weightlifter: I Have No Advantage Over The Biological Women I Beat**
<https://archive.is/eldtU>

A top male-to-female transgender weightlifter in New Zealand says he has no physical advantages over the women he beats in competitions. Hubbard was formally a men's weightlifting champ pre-transition.

Speaking to Newshub on Friday, decorated weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, who "transitioned" to female four years ago, said there's no "fundamental" difference between a biological male and his female competitors, and to suggest otherwise would be "disrespectful" to the women Hubbard defeats in said competitions.

But, of course, many still recognize the "fundamental" advantage a genetic male has over his female competitors. Australian Weightlifting Federation (AFW) chief executive Michael Keelan argued that there's even a psychological advantage.

“We’re in a power sport which is normally related to masculine tendencies … where you’ve got that aggression, you’ve got the right hormones, then you can lift bigger weights,” said Keelan. “If you’ve been a male and you’ve lifted certain weights, then you suddenly transition to a female, psychologically you know you’ve lifted those weights before.”
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Democrat Settled Sexual Harassment Case With $220k Of Taxpayer Dollars**
<https://archive.is/N6qVQ>

American taxpayers shelled out $220,000 to settle sexual harassment accusations against Democratic Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings, a new report reveals.

The Office of Compliance approved the settlement in 2014 after Winsome Packer, a former congressional staffer on a commission chaired by Hastings, accused the Democratic congressman of making sexual advances, touching her and threatening her job, documents obtained by Roll Call reveal.

Hastings, who has served in Congress since 1993, is the latest congressman to be caught up in a sexual harassment scandal. Democratic Michigan Rep. John Conyers resigned on Tuesday following a flood of sexual harassment allegations against him. Sworn affidavits signed by four of Conyers’ former staffer describe him as a sexual predator who demanded sexual favors from his female staffers and abused taxpayer resources.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Report: Never Trump Ex-Jeb Bush Staffer Admits Planting Anti-Roy Moore Story in Washington Post**
<http://archive.is/hZF3r>

A Friday Big League Politics report claims Tim Miller, a Republican operative prominent in the “Never Trump” movement, helped pitch the Washington Post story in which the first allegations of sexual misconduct nearly 40 years ago were made against Alabama GOP senatorial nominee Roy Moore.

The report contains screenshots of what are alleged to be text messages between Miller and conservative publisher Charles C. Johnson of GotNews.com. The texts show Miller insulting Judge Moore’s fitness for office and bragging about how “Beth” is “good to work with.” He is implied to be referring to Beth Reinhard, one of the two authors of the original Washington Post story.

Reinhard, before joining the Washington Post, worked at the Wall Street Journal during the 2016 GOP presidential primaries as the embedded reporter covering the Bush campaign. She, therefore, likely had regular interaction with Miller since at least 2015.

Miller, who served as Jeb Bush’s communications director in the 2016 GOP presidential primaries, categorically denies any involvement in the Washington Post story. He told Breitbart News:

During and after the 2016 primaries, Miller was one of the leading voices against eventual GOP nominee Donald Trump. He played a role in the decidedly unsuccessful attempt by Never Trumpers to disregard the will of Republican voters and deny Trump the nomination through the use of convention rules.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇮🇶 **Iraq Declares Victory Against Islamic State**
<https://archive.is/0jDZO>

Iraqi officials announced Saturday that the war against the Islamic State has ended after three years of brutal fighting to regain control of territory seized by the terror caliphate.

During remarks at a conference in Baghdad, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Iraqi forces were in full control of the country’s border with Syria. The development marks the “end of the war” against ISIS in Iraq, Abadi said.

A senior Iraqi military commander then confirmed that major combat operations were over, reports the Associated Press.

“All Iraqi lands are liberated from terrorist Daesh gangs and our forces completely control the international Iraqi-Syrian border,” Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Rasheed Yar Allah said in a statement, using to the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **New Study: Bias in Real News, Not Fake News, Was Key Factor in Hillary’s Loss**
<https://goo.gl/Ax3xDH>

News stories might have cost Hillary Clinton the presidency -- real stories from Manhattan, not fake stories from Macedonia. That’s the major takeaway from a new content analysis of media coverage of the 2016 campaign that the Columbia Journalism Review published on Tuesday.

Despite the media's intensely negative coverage of Trump, they still believe journalists were too hard on Hillary and didn't spend enough time explaining why liberal policies (especially Obamacare) were the obvious choice for voters.

Study authors Duncan Watts and David Rothschild, both of Microsoft Research, acknowledged that fake news “deserve[s] serious attention,” but argued that it had minimal effect on the vote, and that dwelling on it “diverts attention” from the MSM’s shortcomings, which mattered greatly given that “the overall volume of stories produced by major newsrooms vastly outnumbers fake news.”
┅┅┅┅┅

<:trump:284711336934375425> **Seth Rogen Backs Out of SiriusXM Interviews after Being Triggered by Steve Bannon**
<http://archive.is/TZ8Zs>

Actor Seth Rogen announced Friday he would pull out of scheduled interviews on SiriusXM satellite radio next week in protest of Breitbart News executive chairman Steve Bannon being re-named a regular host of its daily radio program Breitbart News Daily this week.

In a tweet Friday, Rogen said he had interviews lined up for Tuesday on the subscription radio service, but would not honor the commitments because he “can’t bring” himself to appear on the same platform as Bannon.

“I was supposed to do a press tour on @SIRIUSXM on teusday but I’m no longer doing it because I can’t bring myself to appear on the same service that has decided to support Steve Bannon,” the Pineapple Express and Sausage Party star wrote.

“Apologies to the shows I had to cancel. And f*ck Steve Bannon,” he added.

SiriusXM announced Tuesday that Breitbart News would expand its presence on the premium radio platform with a new weeknight show, Breitbart News Tonight, and with extended weekend programming, in addition to the already-airing weekday morning program Breitbart News Daily and its weekend afternoon and evening broadcasts on Patriot Channel 125.
┅┅┅┅┅

🎩 ***Nvidia announces $2,999 Titan V, 'the most powerful PC GPU ever created'*** https://archive.fo/bquFX#selection-1675.1-1687.57 It seems like Nvidia announces the fastest GPU in history multiple times a year, and that’s exactly what’s happened again today; the Titan V is “the most powerful PC GPU ever created,” in Nvidia's words. It represents a more significant leap than most products that have made that claim, however, as it's the first consumer-grade GPU based around Nvidia’s new Volta architecture.
That said, a liberal definition of the word “consumer” is in order here — the Titan V sells for $2,999 and is focused around AI and scientific simulation processing. Nvidia claims 110 teraflops of performance from its 21.1 billion transistors, with 12GB of HBM2 memory, 5120 CUDA cores, and 640 “tensor cores” that are said to offer up to 9x the deep-learning performance of its predecessor.
Also it comes in gold and black, which looks pretty cool.

🇺🇸 **Campus coffee shop evicts College Republicans from 'safe space'**
<http://archive.is/ZWE9J>

Members of the Fordham University College Republicans were asked to leave an on-campus coffee shop because their MAGA hats apparently violated the shop’s “safe space policy.”

In a video obtained by Campus Reform, the self-identified president of Rodrigue’s Coffee House, a coffee shop run by a student club, is seen telling the College Republicans they have five minutes to get out of the coffee shop.

“I am protecting my customers,” the president said.

“We are your customers, we bought something,” a CR member replied.

During the confrontation, the president presented the College Republicans with a flyer outlining the shop’s “Safer Space Policy.”
┅┅┅┅┅

<:trump:284711336934375425> **Trump reportedly drinks 12 cans of Diet Coke and watches up to 8 hours of TV per day**
<http://archive.is/gPIzN>

President Donald Trump drinks roughly 12 cans of Diet Coke every day, according to a lengthy New York Times profile about how he grapples with the daily demands of the presidency.

Trump is famous for his voracious consumption of cable news and tendency to fire off impulsive tweets when he's displeased with the way he's portrayed in the media. According to the Times report, the only people allowed to touch the TV remote are Trump and the technical support staff. The Times said the president watches up to eight hours of TV per day.

While he watches the news, Trump frequently likes to share his thoughts on the day's headlines with whoever's in the room — including members of the housekeeping staff, whom he "summons via a button for lunch or one of the dozen Diet Cokes he consumes each day," per The Times.
┅┅┅┅┅

<:trump:284711336934375425> **Lindsey Vonn injures back after Olympics rebuke of Trump**
<http://archive.is/LUQ44>

Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn, who took a swipe at President Trump last week, was treated for a back injury following a race Saturday.

The two-time Olympic medalist dropped to the ground and said she was in pain after a run in the World Cup Super-G race in St. Moritz, Switzerland, according to reports.

The injury follows a widely reported rebuke Vonn directed at Trump, saying that she intended to represent the “people of the United States," not President Trump, at the upcoming Winter Olympics in South Korea.

“I hope to represent the people of the United States, not the president. I take the Olympics very seriously and what they mean and what they represent, what walking under our flag means in the opening ceremony,” the American skier told CNN. "I want to represent our country well, and I don't think there are a lot of people currently in our government that do that."

She also said "absolutely not" to the idea of visiting the White House if invited.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **REPORT: Former Democratic Senator Arrested In Alleged Criminal Scheme**
<https://archive.is/nUCVn>

A former Massachusetts Senator was arrested on Friday and charged with over 100 counts in an alleged bribery scheme that officials claim he used to profit approximately $1 million.

After a two-year investigation, federal law enforcement officials arrested Democrat Brian Joyce, 55, at his home and charged him on 113 counts related to “racketeering, extortion, wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the IRS and money laundering,” CBS Boston reported.

Investigators allege that Joyce used his publicly elected office in the same manner as a criminal enterprise, claiming that he collected bribes and kickbacks in exchange for actions that he would take as a Senator and then laundered the money into a shell company that he used to disguise the money as “legal fees.”
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Washington Post reporter apologizes to Trump over crowd tweet as president demands firing**
<https://archive.is/0QKtl>

Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel has apologized for tweeting a photograph of an empty auditorium taken before Donald Trump’s rally in Pensacola, Florida Friday. The president responded by calling for Weigel to be fired.

Weigel shared a photo of Trump’s rally taken before it had started, tweeting, “packed to the rafters,” in an apparent taunt aimed at the president Saturday. He posted the tweet in response to one of Trump’s own tweets, in which the president said the “arena was packed to the rafters, the crowd was loud, loving and really smart.” Of course, Trump being Trump, he tweeted about Weigel’s tweet, tagging both the journalist and the Washington Post and demanding an apology from “FAKE NEWS WaPo!”

Weigel responded with an apology, and explained he “was confused by the image of you [Trump] walking in the bottom right corner,” and that he deleted it as soon as he was informed of the mistake. He further explained his tweet in an exchange with another user, writing, “It was a bad tweet on my personal account, not a story for Washington Post. I deleted it after like 20 minutes. Very fair to call me out.”

And call him out Trump did. He later tweeted “@ Daveweigel of the Washington Post just admitted that his picture was a FAKE (fraud?) showing an almost empty arena last night for my speech in Pensacola when, in fact, he knew the arena was packed (as shown also on T.V.). FAKE NEWS, he should be fired.” **Weigel formerly resigned from the Post after three months in 2010 after leaked online messages showed him disparaging Republicans and commentators. He was rehired in 2015.**
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Pentagon To Undergo First Ever Audit After Decades Of Sloppy Accounting And Missing Trillions**
<https://archive.is/mmCeg>

After decades of waste, overpayments, trillions of missing or improperly accounted for dollars, and most recently losing track of 44,000 US soldiers, **the Pentagon is about to undergo its first audit in history** conducted by 2,400 auditors from independent public accounting firms to conduct reviews across the Army, Navy, Air Force and more - **followed by annual audits going forward.**

The announcement follows a May commitment by Pentagon comptroller David Norquist, who previously served as the CFO at the Department of Homeland Security when the agency performed its audit. "Starting an audit is a matter of driving change inside a bureaucracy that may resist it," Norquist told members of the Armed Services Committee at the time when pressed over whether or not he could get the job done at the DHS.

On September 10th, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced that **"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions,"** after a Pentagon whistleblower set off a probe. A day later, the September 11th attacks happened and the accounting scandal was quickly forgotten.

And twenty years before that, DoD analyst Franklin C. Spinney exposed what he called **"accounting games,"** saying **"Those numbers are pie in the sky. The books are cooked routinely year after year."** In a 2002 testimony before the House Committee on Government Reform, Spinney laid out the DoD's accounting quagmire of un-auditable books and budget projections which don't match reality.
┅┅┅┅┅

<:shiiiiit:348458410217308170> **Woman sentenced to four years probation for live-streaming torture of mentally handicapped man**
<http://archive.is/4GcSX>

A woman who streamed herself and three friends torturing a mentally handicapped man has pleaded guilty to a hate crime and has been sentenced to four years probation.

Nineteen-year-old Brittany Covington of Chicago had been held without bail since she was arrested in January in connection with the video.

On New Year's Day, Covington went live on Facebook while her sister, Tanishia and two friends, Tesfaye Cooper and Jordan Hill, kicked a white mentally handicapped man and cut his clothing. The three also berated the man, using racial insults and invoking the name of then President-elect Donald Trump.

The defendants described the altercation started as a "play fight" that got out of control.

As part of her probation, Covington has been told not to use social media for four years and completed 200 hours of community service.

Tanishia Covinginton, Cooper and Hill remain in custody, their charges pending.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇮🇳 ***Diversity delivering Amazon packages caught on cam pooping in driveway*** https://archive.fo/7XWa5 SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A contracted Amazon driver in a marked U-Haul van was caught on camera making an unwanted delivery -- human waste.

The deposit happened on a suburban Sacramento street in a quiet cul-de-sac.

The homeowner did not want to be interviewed on-camera, but shared home surveillance video captured this week showing the delivery driver making a human deposit on the curb, right next to his driveway.

Then the female driver ran back into the van before eventually taking off.

The driver was making a delivery for Amazon, but worked independently.

🇺🇸 **'Terror attack' in Manhattan: 'Pipe bomb malfunctions and explodes prematurely'**
<https://archive.is/kYvf1>

There are reports of a terror attack in New York City, after an explosion was felt Monday morning in a Subway station near Times Square. Commuters said they felt a blast in the Subway tunnels underneath the Port Authority Bus Terminal around 7:30am. The bus terminal is a major transit hub for people commuting to and from New Jersey by bus, and is located just a block from Times Square.

Police have taken one man into custody, who was carrying a pipe bomb with a battery back, a source told the New York Post. He was injured when the bomb malfunctioned, but is alive and in stable condition, according to the FDNY. The FDNY says a total of four people were injured and that the injuries were non-life-threatening. The injured count includes the suspect.

While the suspect has not been identified by name, the Post reports that he is 27-year-old Bangladeshi national who lives in Brooklyn and has been in the U.S. for seven years. Former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton told MSNBC's Morning Joe that the suspect 'supposedly was setting the device off in the name of ISIS' and that it was 'definitely a terrorist attack, definitely intended'.

┅┅┅┅┅

🇸🇾 **Putin orders withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria during surprise visit to Khmeimim Airbase**
<https://archive.is/wqLtU>

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria. He announced the move during his first visit to the country, as he arrived with no advance notice at Khmeimim Airbase in Syria’s Latakia province on Monday morning.

A “significant part” of the Russian military contingent in Syria should return to Russia, Putin announced, addressing Russian military personnel at Khmeimim. The order to withdraw followed the defeat of “the most battle-hardened grouping of international terrorists” by the Russian and Syrian militaries in the space of two years.

As he arrived at the base, which houses Russian forces assisting Syria in the battle against Islamic State terrorists (IS, formerly ISIS), Putin was greeted by his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, and by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, in a brief stop on the Russian leader's way to bilateral talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo, followed by a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **HuffPo Laments That One Year in, ‘Trump Is Winning’**
<https://archive.is/fzHrw>

Among Mr. Trump’s many victories, Hutchinson enumerates Mick Mulvaney’s appointment to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Neil Gorsuch’s contribution to the Supreme Court, Scott Pruitt’s work at the EPA, Trump’s support of fossil fuels to make America energy independent, the RNC backing of judge Roy Moore in Alabama, the fizzling out of Russiagate, the passage of the tax reform bill, and the record-level stock market. Yet all of these wins are small potatoes compared to Trump’s three top victories, Hutchinson claims.

First, the President has successfully taken charge of the Republican Party. “He is the point man for GOP policy and issues and, in a perverse way, the spur to get action on them,” Hutchinson notes.

Second, Mr. Trump has managed to energize his base and keep their loyalty. The “overwhelming majority” of Republican voters continues to back him, Hutchinson admits. “This is the voter loyalty that buys a lot of support from the GOP establishment even as they flail him or shake their head in disgust at his antics,” he writes.

Third, Trump has successfully harnessed the mainstream media for his own purposes. “He remains a ratings cash cow for the networks and makes stunning copy for the print media,” Hutchinson complains. “He knew that from day one of his presidential bid and he knows it even more now. He will continue to suck the media air out of everything that the Democrats do and try to do.”
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Mystery Funders Behind Super PAC Backing Jones In Alabama Finally Exposed**
<https://archive.is/LSrjV>

The mystery super PAC that has poured more than $4 million into Alabama’s special Senate election on Tuesday is controlled by two of the Democrat’s largest super PACs — both of which are funded by Democratic megadonor **George Soros.**

While Jones tries to appear detached from Washington special interests, a Politico report published late Monday revealed that mystery super PAC Highway 31 "is a joint project of two of the largest national Democratic super PACs — Senate Majority PAC and Priorities USA Action."

The last-minute revelation gives insight into the forces that want Jones elected to the U.S. Senate and what they’re agenda is, as Soros has given millions of dollars to both Senate Majority PAC and Priorities USA Action.
┅┅┅┅┅

💾 **Executive Summary: George Soros: Godfather of the Left**
<https://archive.is/6uZBH>

The Media Research Center’s Business and Media Institute has undertaken more than a year of investigation into George Soros, his business dealings, his political involvement and his extensive connections to the media. That investigation shows that much of the more than $8.5 billion Soros has given to charity has in turned been used to advocate for hardcore left-wing policies around the globe. Those findings include:

**$400 Million to Manipulate Higher Education:** Journalists who thought the Koch brothers were dominating college funding with a mere $7 million should check out Soros. He’s given more than 50 times more and even helped establish his own university, Central European University, which teaches his own bizarre political/social philosophy of “open society.”
**Global Scandals Largely Unreported:** Soros has admitted to helping start revolutions, funding radicals and attacking national currencies. His insider trading conviction in France cost him $3 million and has been upheld by European courts repeatedly. His foundations have been opposed by nations around the globe, yet almost the only negative press he has received on ABC, CBS and NBC was linked to a sex scandal with a 28-year-old Brazilian actress.
**Political Contributions to Most Major Liberal Politicians:** Soros has personally funded some of the top names in America’s left from Barack Obama to Nancy Pelosi. Soros donates hundreds of millions to politically active liberal organizations as well. He’s even given $500,000 to the allegedly neutral Center for Responsive Politics, which is the source for much of the information on political donations.

**More Than Half a Billion Dollars to Finance the Left:** George Soros aids hundreds of left-wing groups in America each year under the auspices of his Open Society Foundations. Since 2000, Soros has given more than $550 million to liberal organizations in the U.S., underwriting every major liberal initiative – pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia, pro-gay marriage, pro-drug legalization, pro-union, pro-government-funded media and even attacks against the concept of free elections and voting for judges.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Hitler-themed pony in school assignment shocks parents in Illinois**
<https://archive.is/8Nd55>

Eighth-grade students in northeastern Illinois were given a task involving a pony with a Nazi swastika, along with a Hitler-style haircut and moustache. Parents were not impressed with the school’s methods, forcing it to apologize.

The bizarre in-class activity was handed to pupils of the Woodland Middle School in Gurnee by their language, arts and social studies teachers. Titled “If You Give a Hitler a Country” – an allusion to the classic children’s book ‘If You Give a Mouse a Cookie’ – the assignment asked the children “to create a comic strip for little kids” to tell them about “Europe’s appeasement towards Hitler.”

The assignment was posted on Facebook by the mother of one of the students, Kelly Masterson, raising eyebrows among many other parents online. Masterson said she was taken aback when she found her son Michael’s work, in which SpongeBob SquarePants was pictured looking like Hitler, according to Daily Herald.

“There’s got to be a better way to teach our kids about the horrific things Hitler did,” another district parent, Dan Umansky, told the outlet, adding that he is eager to hear the school’s explanation.
┅┅┅┅┅

⚠ **Doug Jones won, Alabama is now a blue state**

┅┅┅┅┅

🇩🇰 ***Parents of local children, education officials and leading Danish politicians have criticized primary school after it chose to cancel the traditional Christmas service, due to the presence of students of immigrant backgrounds.*** https://archive.fo/DffWQ "We took the decision because we have children who are not Protestant,” Marianne Vederso Schmidt, the head of Gribskolen in Graested, a town of fewer than 5,000 people in eastern Denmark, wrote in an intranet posting earlier this month.

🇬🇧 **Russia spent less than a dollar on Facebook ads to ‘influence’ Brexit referendum**
<https://archive.is/cz059>

If Theresa May is certain Russia is ‘meddling’ in British democracy she obviously knows some seriously cheap advertisers. It just emerged Russia spent 73p ($0.97) on ads to influence the Brexit referendum. How much influence can you buy for 73p? Well, for a start, probably not a lot because the Facebook ads were about migration and the wider European context – and not Brexit. And then there’s the fact less than £1 was spent.

Facebook has revealed the figures after the Electoral Commission dug into Russia’s alleged “meddling.” In total, three adverts from the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency were seen just 200 times during the entire two month campaign period.

Two hundred. That does not even mean 200 people – just 200 clicks. There were more than 30 million voters. So potentially 0.0006 percent of the electorate saw them, to be exact. On the other side of the pond, Russia spent $100,000 on Facebook adverts in the two years around the US election.

Those Brits who are super keen to jump on the Russia-bashing bandwagon should be suitably red faced.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Massive Los Angeles Fire Caused By Homeless Encampment**
<https://archive.is/aVTWK>

Last week, the Daily Wire reported on the growing homeless problem along the largely leftist controlled West Coast; Los Angeles and San Francisco being chief among the worst cities for this problem. It turns out that homeless problem helped to create one of the worst fires in Los Angeles history.

According to the Los Angeles Times, city officials have confirmed that "the blaze that swept through the hills of Bel-Air last week, destroying six homes and damaging a dozen others, was sparked by a cooking fire at a homeless encampment in a nearby ravine."

"The encampment was nestled in a canyon several hundred feet from Sepulveda Boulevard and the 405 Freeway, hidden from passing cars," reports the Times. "For several years, it had been home to an unknown number of people, officials said." Barrel fires have become a regular sight in L.A recently, where passersby witness smoke billowing up from freeway underpasses that are now laced with homeless encampments.

The fire swept through one of the city's most affluent neighborhoods, Bel Air. The irony has spurred some officials into calling for more action to combat the homeless problem.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Kentucky state rep accused of sexually molesting teen girl commits suicide**
<https://archive.is/OvyUy>

A Kentucky state representative who faced questions about his claim that he’d run a morgue near Ground Zero — and an accusation he molested a teenage girl — committed suicide Wednesday night, authorities said. State Rep. Dan Johnson fatally shot himself near a bridge in a secluded area of Louisville, Bullitt County Coroner Dave Billings said.

An investigation revealed that Johnson was accused of molesting a 17-year-old girl on New Year's Eve in 2012, according to the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting. He has never been charged. Johnson allegedly forcibly kissed, groped and used his finger to penetrate the girl, despite her asking him to stop, on New Year’s Eve 2012. At the time, the woman told police, who investigated the incident but closed the case and did not file charges. He denied the allegations as calls mounted for him to resign.

Shortly before 5 p.m. Wednesday, Johnson posted a message on his Facebook page that asked people to care for his wife. He wrote that PTSD “is a sickness that will take my life, I cannot handle it any longer. It has won this life, BUT HEAVEN IS MY HOME.” The post appears to have been removed.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **F.C.C. Repeals Net Neutrality Rules**
<https://archive.is/u5vpZ>

The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to dismantle rules regulating the businesses that connect consumers to the internet, granting broadband companies the power to potentially reshape Americans’ online experiences.

The agency scrapped the so-called net neutrality regulations that prohibited broadband providers from blocking websites or charging for higher-quality service or certain content. The federal government will also no longer regulate high-speed internet delivery as if it were a utility, like phone service.

The action reversed the agency’s 2015 decision, during the Obama administration, to have stronger oversight over broadband providers as Americans have migrated to the internet for most communications. It reflected the view of the Trump administration and the new F.C.C. chairman that unregulated business will eventually yield innovation and help the economy.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **SpaceX sends recycled rocket to dock with ISS in world first**
<https://archive.is/86qJq>

SpaceX has completed the launch of a recycled spacecraft from Cape Canaveral in Florida – the first time the company has flown a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule that have both been used before. The company declared Friday’s launch a success, after the Falcon 9 took the Dragon spacecraft into orbit, before heading back to Earth and completing a flawless vertical landing.

Meanwhile, the Dragon headed for the International Space Station (ISS). It’s scheduled to dock on Sunday. The mission was Space X’s 20th successful recovery of a first-stage booster. Friday’s mission, 13th of the 20 that SpaceX was contracted to fly for NASA, brought 5,000lb worth of supplies, including food, scientific equipment and Christmas gifts for the astronauts cooped up aboard the ISS.

“This is the beginning of rapid and reliable reusability," said SpaceX Manager Jessica Jensen, according to AP. “We want to be able to send thousands of people into space, not just tens, and so reusability is a very key part of that, and we're excited because tomorrow is just one step closer to that.”
┅┅┅┅┅

🇩🇪 **Berlin police ban US & Israeli flags at protests, tighten control over pro-Palestinian demos**
<https://archive.is/MR2Xp>

Facing a wave of anti-Israeli protests, the German police have introduced additional measures to stop any outbreaks of anti-Semitism. They have even banned taking US and Israeli flags to rallies to prevent them from being burned.

“Any dangerous objects as well as the US and Israeli flags are not allowed at the demo,” the Berlin police wrote in a Twitter post ahead of a pro-Palestinian rally on Friday. The police also warned potential rally participants that the officers would carry out personal searches ahead of the event.

However, these were not the only measures introduced by the police in an attempt to stop what it sees as growing anti-Semitic sentiments at the rallies that have swept the German capital following US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. “Two attested interpreters would accompany [the police] during the entire demo,” another police Tweet said, adding that the officers would also record the rally. *“No offensive utterances would be tolerated,”* the police also warned.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Illegal immigration on border surges back to Obama levels**
<https://archive.is/4HYJU>

Illegal immigration across the Southwest border has surged back to Obama-era levels, according to the latest data released Friday that suggests the gains President Trump made early in his tenure have worn off.

Nearly 40,000 illegal immigrants were nabbed attempting to jump the border in November, which was up about 12 percent compared to October, and more than twice the monthly numbers from March and April, when Mr. Trump touted his early accomplishments.

Perhaps just as worrisome for officials is the rise in families traveling together, which surged 45 percent last month, and unaccompanied minors traveling without parents, which rose 26 percent in November.
┅┅┅┅┅

🇺🇸 **Female Democrat Accused Of Sexual Harassment, SLAMS Democratic Party For Pulling Support**
<https://archive.is/pTJe3>

Kansas Democratic candidate Andrea Ramsey, 56, who was gunning for Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder's 3rd District seat, announced that she is withdrawing from the race because the Democratic Party has pulled its support. The announcement comes after the Kansas City Star asked her about the lawsuit in which a former male subordinate claimed she sexually harassed him and retaliated against him when he rejected her advances.

"Multiple sources with knowledge of the case told The Star that the man reached a settlement with LabOne, the company where Ramsey was executive vice president of human resources," The Star reports. "Court documents show that the man, Gary Funkhouser, and LabOne agreed to dismiss the case permanently after mediation in 2006."

Ramsey issued a statement on Friday, denying the allegations and making clear that the Democratic Party is forcing her to withdraw.

"In its rush to claim the high ground in our roiling national conversation about harassment, the Democratic Party has implemented a zero tolerance standard," said Ramsey in the statement. "For me, that means a vindictive, terminated employee's false allegations are enough for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to decide not to support our promising campaign. We are in a national moment where rough justice stands in place of careful analysis, nuance and due process."
┅┅┅┅┅