ET Williams

The Doctor of Common Sense

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Is Pelosi a Big Fat Liar?!

Pelosi and Supposedly Russian Ambassador

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday that she’s never met with the current Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak.

“Not with this Russian ambassador, no,” Pelosi told POLITICO’s Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer during a Playbook interview, when asked whether she had ever met with the Russian envoy.

But a file photo from Pelosi’s 2010 meeting with Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev shows Kislyak at the table across from Pelosi — then House speaker — and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). Medvedev had been in the country for a meeting with President Barack Obama a day earlier and stopped in on Capitol Hill to meet with congressional leaders as well.

Asked to square Pelosi’s comments with the photo of the meeting, a spokesman said Pelosi simply meant she never had a solo meeting with Kislyak.

“Of course, that’s what she meant,” said the spokesman, Drew Hammill. “She has never had a private one-on-one with him.”

After Trump needled Pelosi on Twitter about the matter, Pelosi hit back with her own tweet and another statement from her spokesman.

“Leader Pelosi’s answer to the question today was clearly about private, one-on-one meetings, which she has never had with Ambassador Kislyak,” Hammill said. “The Ambassador was incidental to the 2010 meeting between then-Russian President Medvedev and then-Speaker Pelosi. Clearly, one needs to remind Politico that Attorney General Sessions lied under oath about a secret meeting amidst Russia’s hacking of our election, which he also didn’t disclose in a written questionnaire.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/nancy-pelosi-sergey-kislyak-meeting-235653

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20,000 MS-13 Members Responsible for Drugs, Murder, and Rape Across America!

MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, is believed to have a presence in 46 states according to an independent study done by University of Pennsylvania.

The gang is thought to be behind a string of murders and violent crimes although the exact figures are not known.

Thirteen alleged members, ten of whom are illegal immigrants, were arrested in connection to seven slayings in Long Island over the last year.

The latest murders have begun to push into the public eye the decades of evil perpetuated by the group – and the terror of those living among it which sees female members inducted by being gang raped.

The MS-13 is the first and only criminal organization in the United States to be named as ‘transnational’ by the FBI and operates on the motto of ‘Kill, Rape, Control,’ Massachusetts Attorney Carmen Ortiz said.

The group was started nearly 20 years ago in Los Angeles after millions of immigrants from El Salvador came to the United States after a violent civil war left over 100,000 dead.

The gang has since spread all over the country, and are known widely as the best killers – due to their exceedingly brutal weapon of choice, a machete.

The two young women killed in Houston, Nisa Mickens, 15, and Kayla Cuevas, 16, were beat with bats and hacked with machetes so severely that their bodies were unrecognizable. They were both students at Brentwood High School.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4279934/MS-13-s-legacy-murder-rape-control-exposed.html

 

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“Breaking” The Obama Administration Officials Set Up Jeff Sessions’ Meeting With the Russian Ambassador

Obama Should Be In Jail.

We now have the details on Jeff Sessions’ first meeting with the Russian ambassador in 2016. It turns out the Senator spoke to the Russian ambassador on the invitation of the Obama Administration. Fox News reports:

The first came at a conference on “Global Partners in Diplomacy,” where Sessions was the keynote speaker. Sponsored by the U.S. State Department, The Heritage Foundation, and several other organizations, it was held in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention.

The conference was an educational program for ambassadors invited by the Obama State Department to observe the convention. The Obama State Department handled all of the coordination with ambassadors and their staff, of which there were about 100 at the conference.

Apparently, after Sessions finished speaking, a small group of ambassadors—including the Russian ambassador—approached the senator as he left the stage and thanked him for his remarks. That’s the first “meeting.” And it’s hardly an occasion—much less a venue—in when a conspiracy to “interfere” with the November election could be hatched.

So wait a minute — the Obama Administration set this up and the New York Times reports it is Obama administration staffers who are working to push out all the Russia information being used against Donald Trump and his administration.

Coincidence?

Obama Administration Officials Set Up Jeff Sessions’ Meeting With the Russian Ambassador

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NAACP Boycotts North Carolina Over No Penises Being Allowed In Women’s Restroom

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The NAACP urged religious conferences, athletic events and musicians on Friday to avoid North Carolina as part of a national boycott protesting the state’s conservative policies including a law limiting LGBT protections.

It was the first step in a national boycott that could expand to include other economic and tourism measures, according to a resolution approved by the group’s national board. The organization stopped short of telling its members to cease all travel and spending in the state — which has been a component of previous boycotts elsewhere.

 

“Right now in the state of North Carolina we have children — Dear God, children! — who are being imperiled, who face the prospect of being bullied as a consequence of politicians using them as political pawns while we talk about bathrooms,” said the NAACP’s national president Cornell Brooks.

His comments come two days after Republican President Donald Trump’s administration rescinded federal guidance that public schools nationwide should allow transgender students to use restrooms that match their gender identity.

 

The Rev. William Barber, who leads the state’s NAACP chapter, proposed the boycott late last year after a deal fell apart to repeal the North Carolina law known best for requiring transgender people to use restrooms in many public buildings corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate. The law, often referred to as House Bill 2, also excludes gender identity and sexual orientation from statewide antidiscrimination protections.

 

But Barber stressed the boycott would also pressure the Republican-controlled legislature over efforts to limit the new Democratic governor’s power as well as ongoing legal battles over voting rights and how electoral districts are drawn.

“What has happened in North Carolina makes this state a battleground … for the soul of America,” said Barber, who has drawn thousands to rallies protesting conservative policies in recent years.

The NAACP was part of a coalition that successfully sued to overturn much of a 2013 North Carolina elections law requiring photo ID from voters who cast ballots in person. A federal appeals court said it disproportionately targeted black voters. Republicans have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Republican Senate leader Phil Berger called on Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to “condemn William Barber’s attempt to inflict economic harm on our citizens, and work toward a reasonable compromise that keeps men out of women’s bathrooms.”

 

Asked about the boycott, Cooper’s spokesman Ford Porter said in an email: “While Governor Cooper continues to urge business to come to North Carolina in spite of HB2, Republican legislative leaders need to stop holding our economy hostage to this disastrous law.”

The NAACP’s boycott resolution says the group won’t hold future national meetings in North Carolina and urged other groups to take their business elsewhere, too. The resolution says the organization could take other steps, such as urging the divestiture of North Carolina-related investments.

Brooks declined to offer further specifics or a timetable for deciding on whether to escalate the effort, but suggested the group’s previous boycotts could serve as a model.

The NAACP boycotted South Carolina for 15 years over flying the Confederate battle flag on Statehouse grounds. When that boycott was approved, the group urged all of its members nationwide to avoid visiting or spending money in the state. The flag was removed in 2015.

Already, House Bill 2 has caused numerous conventions, concerts and sporting events to pull out of North Carolina, depriving it of hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact. The state also lost several large-scale business projects with hundreds of jobs because of the law.

The NAACP’s announcement comes as Charlotte hosts scores of students and alumni from historically black colleges and universities as part of the men’s and women’s CIAA basketball tournaments. The conference has moved other athletic events from the state, but said late last year that time constraints and contractual obligations made it too difficult to move the basketball games. The CIAA’s basketball tournaments brought an estimated $56 million to the city in 2015, according to local tourism officials.

 

http://www.argus-press.com/news/state_news/article_a5b9c0c9-fe9c-5ec0-90e2-2f929efcfdd8.html

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A Push for an Upgrade on U.S. Aircraft

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — Embracing a stronger defense, President Donald Trump is meeting with sailors and shipbuilders on an aircraft carrier in Virginia as he promotes his plans for a major military buildup.

Trump traveled Thursday to Newport News to deliver a speech aboard the Gerald R. Ford, a $12.9 billion warship that is expected to be commissioned this year after cost overruns and delays. Wearing a red USA cap, Trump saluted sailors as he arrived on the carrier.

During his trip there, Trump was joined aboard Air Force One by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

A draft budget plan released earlier this week by the White House would add $54 billion to the Pentagon’s projected budget, a 10 percent increase.

“To keep America safe, we must provide the men and women of the United States military with the tools they need to prevent war,” Trump said in his address to Congress on Tuesday night.

Trump, in his 2016 campaign, repeatedly pledged to rebuild what he called the nation’s “depleted” military and told supporters at Regent University in Virginia Beach in October that the region’s naval installations would be “right at the center of the action with the building of new ships.”

He often argued that the U.S. military is too small to accomplish its missions and pledged to put the Navy on track to increase its active-duty fleet to 350 ships, compared to the current Navy plan of growing from 272 ships to 308 sometime after 2020.

The PCU Gerald R. Ford CVN 78, located at Newport News Shipbuilding, will be the first of the Navy’s next generation of aircraft carriers and is expected to accommodate some 2,600 sailors.

Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress, his first as president, included his past calls for repealing the “defense sequester,” or across-the-board budget cuts instituted by Congress. He will need the repeal to achieve the kinds of increased defense spending that he is seeking.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRUMP_NAVY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-03-02-11-41-57

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“Great News” There Is A Coal Mining Revival

Wise County, Virginia –  A long-awaited revival is under way in this beleaguered Central Appalachia community where residents see coal as the once and future king.

Trucks are running again. Miners working seven days a week cannot keep up with current demand. Coal mines, long dormant after the industry’s collapse, are now buzzing again with antlike activity.

“We load coal every day for the power plant in Virginia City,” explained Rick, a long-time supervisor for a major local operation who did not want to give his last name. “There’s one shipment a week for Georgia Power, and one for Tennessee Eastman.”

The past month has seen a resurgence of the coal industry that once formed the backbone of the region’s economy, and locals credit President Trump’s aggressive, pro-energy agenda.

Crippled by a slew of factors, from changing times, an emphasis on renewable energy, and the Obama administration’s harsh penalties on coal-fired power plants, the area’s economy took a devastating hit over the past eight years. Many of the people living in these mountains had nearly given up hope that the area could ever recover.

The smaller communities in this county in southwest Virginia, such as the towns of Appalachia, Pound and St. Paul, were the hardest hit, but the ripple effects were felt far and wide.

Prospects changed nearly overnight. President Trump had promised to do everything he could to lift the coal mining industry. Trump began to make good on his pledge last month when he eliminated the Stream Protection Rule, which had placed layers of regulations on the industry.

Although it will take a while before the coal industry recovers, the metallurgical or “met coal” markets – coal used to make steel – are already seeing a major upswing. The price for met coal is twice as high as it was a year ago, which is causing a boom in the coalfields.

The turnaround owes to more than just Trump. China cut its own production, which helps lift the met industry in the United States. But, many in this area say, Trump’s moves to lift regulations are stoking a rally they have not seen in years.

Ramasco Resources began producing its first coal mine in December and said it would open two more this year. In Pennsylvania, Corsa Coal also announced this month that it would begin mining operations beginning in May, according to Bloomberg.

“There’s definitely cautious optimism after years of being brutally beaten down,” Jeremy Sussman, an analyst at Clarksons Platou Securities Inc., told Bloomberg.

TRUMP OVERTURNS BILL ON COAL MINING DEBRIS

Coal mines, long dormant after the industry’s collapse, are now buzzing again with antlike activity.(Johnny Giles)

The production of coal reached its peak in 2008. But then President Obama came into office and rolled out a series of regulations that he said were designed to protect America’s streams and waterways from the pollution the mining emitted.

Those regulations crippled the industry and left many in the region out of well-paying jobs.

For those whose livelihood depended on the industry, the most important thing that Trump has given them is hope.

“It was almost impossible due to the EPA regulations to open another deep mine,” said Rick.

Just a few decades ago, when unions were strong in Wise County, the area leaned Democrat. But once the economy bottomed out and many were left without jobs, this corner of Virginia found itself feeling left behind.

Nowadays, many homes in Wise County are adorned with Trump signs. This now-Republican stronghold is betting on a better future under the Trump administration.

“It’s a slow thing,” said Adam, a mining equipment operator in the area who also did not want to give his last name. “It’s not going to be immediate, but there’s definitely some optimism right now.”

It’s too early to tell whether or not coal will be king again. But with the stranglehold of regulations now on its way out, many in the area say they hope to see a full comeback.

“I don’t think production is going to go down anytime soon,” said Jason, an underground miner from Big Stone Gap. “At one of the mines in the town of Appalachia, [employees] were told they would have work for the next four years.”

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/03/01/coal-mining-begins-seeing-revival-as-trump-gives-industry-hope.html