Category: Uncategorized

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Hillary Clinton For New York City Mayor?

According to the New York Daily News, Hillary Clinton did not rule out a run for mayor of New York City when asked in recent private conversations.

Current Mayor Bill de Blasio has known and worked with the Clintons for for years, but his initial reluctance to endorse Hillary for president didn’t sit well with her camp.

De Blasio’s term ends at the end of this year, and no high-profile Democrat has weighed in as a challenger.

Personally,  I can’t see her jumping back into a campaign so soon after her second loss in presidential politics.

Plus, she would have to move from her comfortable home in Chappaqua, NY, should she win. State law requires candidates for mayor to live within the five boroughs of the city by Election Day.

She would, however, be breaking one of those famous “glass ceilings.” The Big Apple has thus far never had a female mayor.

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Trump Trash Tweets Schwarzenegger Over APPRENTICE Ratings

With nothing to do in his early morning hours (but get ready to become leader of the free world), President-elect Trump chose to take some “me time” to poke at Arnold Schwarzenegger for the low ratings on the premiere of The Apprentice, which Arnold now stars in.

Of course, what the Trumpster left out of his classy call-out is that his own ratings had slid mightily from season 1 (18.5 million) when reality TV was still new, to his last season with a much lower viewership  on it’s season premiere (6.5 million).

Obviously, ego trumps money in The Donald’s world, since he’s still an executive producer for the show and making money off the series. So, mocking his own star is pretty much cutting off his nose to spite his orange face.

But not to worry, Arnold took the high road and gave a class in “class:”

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U.S. Economy Adds 156K Jobs In December, Extends Longest Job Growth In American History To 75 Months

The economy added 156,000 jobs in December, extending the longest streak of total job growth in U.S. history to 75 straight months, with U.S. businesses adding 15.8 million jobs over the recovery.

Average hourly earnings for all private workers increased 2.9 percent over the past year, the fastest twelve-month pace since the end of the recession and above the pace of inflation in 2016.

The unemployment rate has been cut by more than half since its peak in 2009, falling much faster and further than expected. After peaking at 10.0 percent in October 2009, the unemployment rate fell rapidly over the course of the recovery, and by mid-2015 had recovered fully to its pre-recession average. Since then, it has fallen even further, standing at 4.7 percent at the end of 2016.

And while we’re at it, just a few more facts to add as Obama closes out his run as president:

(source)

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Kellyanne Conway: I’m Not Going To Admit Russia Helped My Boss, So Stop Asking Me To!

Because in politics, you never admit – you deflect.

Via Mediaite:

“I’ll ask you a third time!” Cuomo said at one point about the October joint report from the Homeland Security Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence: did the intelligence community announce its findings of Russian involvement, yes or no?

What transpired was an (at times) infuriating battle between a fast-talking New Yorker and an equally abrasively stubborn and witty woman from New Jersey, both also aided by legal backgrounds. “Chris, I see you’re very passionate about this,” Conway said.

“Sure I am. Russia trying to hack during our election, being ignored by our President-elect? That’s troubling,” Cuomo shot back. Remarkably, Conway responded. “Right. No it’s not.” She furthered at one point, “You just want to argue with me.”

“You’re ducking the obvious,” he said, “and I don’t know why.” At one point, when the New Day anchor alleged that Trump was “sheltering Russia,” Conway defiantly shot back, “Don’t you say that again.”

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Trump Now Says Mexico Will Pay For Border Wall “Later”

Although we heard endless chants of “Who’s gonna pay for the wall? Mexico!” throughout the campaign at every single rally, President-elect Trump now would like to build “the wall” now and bill Mexico “later.”

And somehow it’s the media’s fault.

Via The Week:

Donald Trump’s transition team has approached leading House Republicans to let them know the president-elect prefers to have Congress pay for the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, House GOP officials told CNN Thursday. On Friday morning, Trump tweeted that “any money spent on building the Great Wall (for sake of speed), will be paid back by Mexico later!” — blaming the “dishonest media” for failing to report that.

Throughout his campaign, Trump emphatically promised that he would force Mexico to pay for the border wall, but now the transition team is telling Republicans in private meetings that he wants to fund it through the appropriations process, the officials said. The GOP could add billions of dollars to the spending bill that must be passed by April 28 in order to keep the government open.

Interestingly, Trump deleted his first tweet and then tweeted this, adding the word “later.”

#suckers

UPDATE: Former Mexican President Vicente Fox reiterated via Twitter that Mexico will not be paying “for that fucken wall.”

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BREAKING: U.S. Intelligence Report Shows Russia Officials Celebrated Trump Win

Details of the upcoming report from U.S. intelligence agencies on Russia’s cyber hacking during the presidential campaign were leaked this afternoon, and among the results are the fact that Russian operatives celebrated Donald Trump’s win

The Washington Post reports:

Senior officials in the Russian government celebrated Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton as a geopolitical win for Moscow, according to U.S. officials who said that American intelligence agencies intercepted communications in the aftermath of the election in which Russian officials congratulated themselves on the outcome.

The ebullient reaction among high-ranking Russian officials — including some who U.S. officials believe had knowledge of the country’s cyber campaign to interfere in the U.S. election — contributed to the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Moscow’s efforts were aimed at least in part at helping Trump win the White House.

Other key pieces of information gathered by U.S. spy agencies include the identification of “actors” involved in delivering stolen Democratic emails to the WikiLeaks website, and disparities in the levels of effort Russian intelligence entities devoted to penetrating and exploiting sensitive information stored on Democratic and Republican campaign networks.

Those and other data points are at the heart of an unprecedented intelligence report being circulated in Washington this week that details the evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and catalogues other cyber operations by Moscow against U.S. election systems over the past nine years.

Russia’s initial objective may have been merely to meddle and undermine the legitimacy of an assumed Clinton victory. But as Trump captured the GOP nomination and showed that he could remain competitive with Clinton, Russia’s aims became more ambitious, officials said. The final months of the race saw a steady stream of leaked emails that damaged Clinton’s candidacy, without any corresponding release to embarrass Trump.

The report also includes U.S. intelligence officials’ conclusion that Putin held a grudge against Hillary Clinton for years, which they cite as motivation for undermining her campaign.

Additionally, the report indicates that Russia used social media and “fake news” platforms as an “accelerant” to help Trump in his quest for the White House.

President-elect Donald Trump is currently busy having a meltdown on Twitter:

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News Round-Up: January 5, 2017

Some news items you may have missed:

• Wild and woofy Prince Harry covers Town & Country for the magazine’s “Hottest Bachelors” issue for his work on behalf of wild animals in Africa.

• Former American Idol contestant Bo Bice literally cries over being called “white boy” at a Georgia Popeye’s Fried Chicken restaurant. Seriously?

• More than 50 Electoral College voters were sat illegally which could delay ratifying Donald Trump’s election results.

• Just a day after Megyn Kelly announced her move to NBC News, former Fox News host Greta Van Susteren shares that she is heading to MSNBC to head up a new 6PM show, For The Record with Greta Van Susteren.

• British Prime Minister Theresa May has sent two senior aides on a quiet mission to attempt to improve her already frosty relationship with Donald Trump.

• But enough about “frosty” subjects, let’s take a look at these hottie Australian firefighters 🙂

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Ellen DeGeneres Explains Booting Kim Burrell From Show Over Anti-LGBT Sermon

Ellen Degeneres sat down with Pharrell Williams to discuss how there’s no room for hate in 2017.

The out TV host had booted singer Kim Burrell from the show’s lineup after recent antigay remarks went viral after being posted to YouTube.

From The Advocate:

“[Burrell] made a statement, she was doing a Facebook Live, and she said some very not nice things about homosexuals, so I didn’t feel like that was good of me to have her on the show to give her a platform after she’s saying things about me,” DeGeneres told singer Pharrell Williams, who had been set to perform with Burrell on the talk show.

“I say it all the time, to me, when I say be kind to one another, I feel that,” she added. “Because as someone who has received a lot of hate and prejudice and discrimination because of who I choose to love, I just don’t understand anyone who has experienced that kind of oppression, or anything like that, it only gives me more compassion. It gives me more empathy. I don’t ever want anyone to feel hurt because they’re different.”

The gospel singer raised a firestorm of controversy for blasting same-sex love in a December sermon, which went viral after being posted to YouTube.

“That perverted homosexual spirit, and the spirit of delusion and confusion, it has deceived many men and women,” said Burrell. “You as a man, you open your mouth and take a man’s penis in your face — you are perverted. You are a woman and will shake your face in another woman’s breast, you are perverted.”

Williams — a producer of Hidden Figures, a biopic that shows how three African-American women overcame segregation in 1960s Virginia to help NASA win the Space Race — condemned Burrell’s remarks on social media, along with the film’s stars. He reiterated his message of inclusion on The Ellen DeGeneres show in a clip released Thursday.

“There’s no space, there’s no room for any kind of prejudice in 2017 and moving on,” the artist said.

“Whenever you hear some sort of hate speech and you feel like it doesn’t necessarily pertain to you because you may not have anything to do with that, all you got to do is put the word ‘black’ in that sentence, or put ‘gay’ in that sentence, or put ‘transgender’ in that sentence, or put ‘white’ in that sentence and all of a sudden it starts to make sense to you,” Williams said. “I’m telling you, the world is a beautiful place, but it does not work without empathy and inclusion. God is love. This universe is love and that’s the only way it will function.”

“And I get it, sometimes the divisive stuff works in life. We’ve all learned that lesson. We learned that lesson last year that sometimes divisiveness works,” he continued. “But you have to choose what side you’re on. I’m choosing empathy. I’m choosing inclusion. I’m choosing love for everybody and just trying to lift everyone. Even when I disagree with someone, I’m wishing them the best and hoping for the best because we can’t win the other way.”

Not only did Burrell lose out on the ELLEN booking, but her Texas radio & TV shows have now been cancelled. Hate doesn’t pay, does it?

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Student Director Crafts Moving Spec Spot For ADIDAS

Bravo to student filmmaker Eugen Merher of Germany.

Merher’s spec spot for Adidas has a visceral pull that’s undeniable. The minute and a half video tells the tale of a senior in a retirement home who dreams of his days as a marathon runner.

And then one day, he finds an old pair of Adidas running shoes.

This one will tug at you.

The 26-year-old student at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg told the Huffington Post that he tried to share it with the footwear company: “We tried sending it to [Adidas’] communications department but they didn’t really react.”

I’ll bet you’ve got their attention now, Eugen 🙂