Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Hillary Clinton on the conservative media: ‘It appears they don’t know I’m not president’

Hillary Clinton was nowhere near Washington the day charges against President Trump's former campaign chairman were announced and news broke that a former Trump campaign volunteer had pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about meeting with Russian officials.
She was in Chicago where she promoted her book (“I have a great chapter about Russia”), thought about her Halloween costume (“I think I will maybe come as the president”) and quipped about conservative media outlets’ preoccupation with a vanquished presidential candidate while big news surrounded the one who won.
“All the networks except Fox are reporting what’s really going on.... It appears they don't know I’m not president,” tweeted NBC News politics reporter Alex Seitz-Wald, quoting Clinton, who held an event at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University on Monday night.
Conservative media outlets seem to have largely followed White House talking points in reporting the news dump of the past few days: There’s no collusion. The charges against Paul Manafort predate his involvement in the Trump campaign. George Papadopoulos was a lowly campaign volunteer. And the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee’s funding of research that resulted in the now-infamous dossier — not to mention the Uranium One deal with a Russian company that was approved during the Obama administration while Clinton was secretary of state — are the clearest evidence of collusion with Russia.
For the Clinton camp, it seems there's a fixation on an administration that does not exist.
“If you watch Fox News these days, they're treating Hillary Clinton as if she won the election,” said former Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon. He called the media outlet a White House “propaganda arm” that focuses on Clinton while downplaying the recent criminal allegations arising from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into possible Russian influence in the presidential election. “Fox News is certainly buying that alternative narrative and they’re trying to peddle it, but Bob Mueller is not going to fall for that.”
Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The media outlet also had aired segments that included references to the nonexistent “Clinton administration” and “President Clinton.”
“The speculation is so insane right now. What we should be focusing on are the continued lies of the Clinton administration, the continued fallacies that they perpetuate,” former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” on Saturday, as news of an indictment loomed over Washington.
And here’s Sean Hannity, one of the leading purveyors of White House talking points, in his Monday night monologue, which focused on Clinton, the uranium deal and the dossier:
“What did Hil — what did President Clinton, uh or, President Clinton wannabe, President Obama and key members of the Obama administration, what did they know about the Uranium One scandal?”
The Clinton coverage continued to dominate in the conservative media world Monday morning, even as news broke that Manafort and his former business associate, Rick Gates, were told to surrender to the FBI. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway appeared on “Fox & Friends,” saying the focus should be on Clinton.
“People should be looking into any coordination . . . between the Clinton campaign, the DNC, the Russian dossier,” Conway said, adding that she and others in the administration would love to not talk about Clinton, “but she just won’t go away.”
“Fox & Friends” echoed Conway a bit later that morning with the headline, “PROBE SHOWS DEM TIES TO URANIUM DEAL, DOSSIER,” as other national media outlets focused their coverage on Manafort.
News of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee’s role in funding research that led to the dossier, first reported by The Washington Post last week, has become a major weapon for the White House and conservative media, which sought to focus allegations of collusion on Clinton, her campaign and the Democrats.
“There is clear evidence of the Clinton campaign colluding to smear the president and influence the election,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during the White House briefing Monday.
Also being used as a club against Clinton and the Democrats is the Uranium One deal, which is now the subject of a congressional probe.
Fallon, the former Clinton campaign spokesman, dismissed the new investigation as an effort by congressional Republicans to try to “dig up scandals” on someone who is never going to seek elected office again.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that Clinton was “paid a fortune” when she was secretary of state in exchange for a deal with a Russian state-owned nuclear energy company to control over 20 percent of the U.S. uranium supply. But multiple fact checks have shown that there is no evidence that Clinton was personally involved in the deal, which was approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, none of which involved Clinton.

As the Fact Checker’s Glenn Kessler wrote: “Any suggestion that Russian money was directed to influence Clinton’s decisions would be explosive. But the fatal flaw in this allegation is Hillary Clinton, by all accounts, did not participate in any discussions regarding the Uranium One sale which — as we noted — does not actually result in the removal of uranium in the United States.”
Cable news headlines remained just as disparate in the Monday evening broadcasts:
CNN: “FIRST CHARGES FILED IN MUELLER INVESTIGATION”
MSNBC: “REPORT: FIRST CHARGES FILED IN MUELLER RUSSIA PROBE”
Fox News, promoting a Hannity special: “NEW DETAILS IN DEMOCRAT SCANDALS”
Breitbart’s lead story was about Tony Podesta, a prominent Democratic lobbyist and brother of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief.
“THE PLOT THICKENS,” reads a headline on Breitbart's homepage Monday evening. “TONY PODESTA RESIGNS FROM PODESTA GROUP AS MUELLER PROBE HEATS UP.”
Podesta, brother of John Podesta, had not been charged with a crime or named in court filings, though his firm was indirectly referenced in the charges against Manafort and Gates.
On Tuesday morning, an alert splashed across the Fox News website read: “No Russia collusion, but are more Mueller charges coming? Should Hillary worry?”

By Tuesday afternoon, Breitbart’s lead story was a rehash of Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s interview with Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who urged the Justice Department to contain intelligence leaks.
On the Daily Caller’s homepage, the main story was also about Podesta: “We Asked This Dem Senator About The Podesta Group. He Immediately Tried to Deflect.” Below that was a story about White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly’s interview with Ingraham. She asked if there should be another special prosecutor to investigate the Uranium One deal, to which Kelly said, “Yeah, I guess so.”
The New York Post, meanwhile, has completely dropped any news story about the Mueller investigation or the indictment from its homepage.

Video Report - #NYPD: Person in custody after incident in lower Manhattan

Eight people killed after terrorist shooter driving Home Depot truck rips through Lower Manhattan bike lane


At least eight people were killed Tuesday afternoon when a speeding Home Depot truck plowed down riders on a Lower Manhattan bike path in a terrorist attack, sources said.
Eyewitnesses told police the driver yelled “Allahu Akbar!” — Arabic for “God is great!” — after running down helpless riders from behind, their mangled bodies left scattered behind his runaway rental truck. The Middle Eastern man was arrested after police shot him in the rear end following a Tribeca crash between the truck and a school bus. Sources said he was waving an air pistol and a BB gun when cops reached the scene. The truck jumped the curb near Houston St. at 3:04 p.m. and began bearing down on the unsuspecting bicyclists, sources told the Daily News. Video showed crumpled two-wheelers and four bodies left in the vehicle’s deadly wake. “I heard a truck, a car, something going down the bike path,” said eyewitness Eugene Duff, 44, who was waiting at a red light to walk across West St. “It was wrong.”
The off-duty chef watched in disbelief as the driver of the speeding truck ran down a pair of CitiBike riders about 50 feet apart, catching both from behind on the busy bike path alongside the Hudson River. There were visible tire tracks on the bodies of the two victims as the truck continued to carve a path of carnage through the neighborhood, he said.
“I thought it was terrorism,” he said of the Tribeca attack. “That’s the first thing that crossed my mind.” The arrest followed a crash involving the rented truck on West St. a few blocks north of the World Trade Center. Several eyewitnesses initially thought it was some sort of Halloween prank. One person on the bus was critically injured and rushed to Bellevue Hospital. Authorities said five others on the bus were injured, with 15 injuries in all. A horde of police vehicles and first responders descended on the scene as eyewitnesses reported hearing as many as 15 gunshots after the crash.
A police officer was apparently shot and suffered a minor injury. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, according to sources. “I thought it was a Halloween (prank) or something,” said witness Tawhid Kabir, 20, of Queens. “I saw the gun running in a circle and I realized it was serious.” NYPD snipers took positions on the roof of the nearby City Vineyard restaurant as cops flooded the neighborhood. “We thought the guns were fake and it was a Halloween prank,” said Stuyvesant High School student Laith Bahlouli, 14. “There was a car crash, and then he started to shoot.”
Classmate Alif Rahman, 14, said they heard “four to six gunshots” and then spied two bodies covered with blankets by the NYPD. A child was seen sitting on the lap of an adult wearing a neck brace after the incident. “We all heard the gunfire,” said witness Michael Corbin, who works at nearby District Council 37. “I heard distinctly five shots in quick succession.”
The truck was apparently rented from a Home Depot in Jersey City, N.J., making it likely the driver came through the Holland Tunnel. Home Depot, in a statement, said they were cooperating fully with the mass killing investigation. Witnesses reported seeing a gunman firing from inside the Home Depot tuck, and video showed a badly damaged truck from the home improvement store sitting on a median. “He shot about 15 times toward the pier and down West St.” one witness told the Daily News. The smell of gunpowder hung in the air as police shut down the West Side Highway mid-afternoon on Halloween. Mayor de Blasio was briefed on the situation and confirmed there was no active threat. President Trump was also brought up to speed on the rampage.
Witness Frank Brito, 45, told The News he saw two trucks crash into each other and then a heavyset man get out of one in a blue tracksuit and chase someone, firing five or six times.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/man-rapes-neighbor-asks-yardwork-cops-article-1.3555625

Video Report - New York witness: Bodies had tire tracks on them

Video Report - 6 killed in suspected terrorism attack in NYC

Video - #Pakistan - #PPP - Interview : ''Bilawal Bhutto Zardari''

Video Report - Aitzaz Ahsan Media Talk 31 October 2017 @MediaCellPPP

Pakistan - Imran was the only politician who did not offer condolence on BB’s death: Bilawal

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari fired shots at PTI chief Imran Khan in an interview to a private television channel, claiming that the former cricketer was the only politician who had not offered his condolences after his mother Benazir Bhutto had died. 
In his first ever interview to any Pakistani news channel, Bilawal Bhutto said that PTI chief Imran Khan had introduced the politics of bad language in Pakistan which he was trying to end.
“I’m trying to bring back the politics of decency in the country and to engage the youth in it,” he said.
Bilawal slammed Imran Khan, stating in the interview that a lot of time and money had been invested in making the cricketer-turned-politician a leader of national stature.
“Edhi sahab’s interview is on record in which he said that Imran and Hamid Gul had threatened to kidnap him,” he said.
Regarding the PTI chief, Bilawal said that Imran had penned an opinion piece for a British newspaper one day after the Karsaz attack, blaming his mother Benazir Bhutto for the people that had been killed.
“When my mother was assassinated, even the Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami came to Garhi Khuda Bakhsh to offer his condolences,” he said. “However, he remains the only politician who did not do so.”
The Bhutto scion on challenges being faced by Sindh government
In response to a question, Bilawal admitted that there were challenges that the party was facing and that its messages were not being delivered with as much precision as other political parties.
“However, this is not the first time that PPP has been counted out,” he said. “As you remember, we had only 17 seats in the 1997 elections but then in 2002 we emerged with the highest vote count in the country,” he added.
Regarding development projects in Sindh, Bilawal conceded that the province was beset with problems and challenges but he said that the Sindh government was tackling those issues.
“The media perception that the best governance is being followed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and then Punjab is wrong,” he said. “In Sindh, the government does take steps to address challenges,” he added.
He spoke of how there were hospitals in Sindh that were offering free treatment to the poor and said that the media should do a little to provide credit to the PPP where it deserved.
“Criticising us is your right as journalists but please where it is due, give us a little credit as well,” he said.
Bilawal’s views on the possibility of a technocratic setup
The Bhutto scion rejected any possibility that PPP was in favour of a technocratic setup in the country and said that he was quite sure elections would be held according to schedule in Pakistan.
“If there were to be a technocratic setup, PPP and I will be the first to stand up against it,” he said.
Bilawal said that it was not possible for him to support any technocratic setup since he was chairman of PPP, a party that had always opposed dictatorship and stood for democracy in the country.
“How is possible for the grandson of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the son of Benazir Bhutto to support a technocratic setup?” he asked.

https://www.samaa.tv/pakistan/2017/10/imran-was-the-only-politician-who-did-not-offer-condolence-on-bbs-death-bilawal/

Bilawal Bhutto’s interview full of commitment, passion, confidence and vision



General Secretary PPP ladies Wing Sindh Mahreen Bhutto has said that the lips of the opponents are sealed after yesterday’s interview of young PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto. She has further said that those who always criticized Bilawal due to his age, have now witnessed his commitment, passion, confidence and vision of the young PPP chairman .Bilawal Bhutto’s love for his country is unmatched. The blood of martyrs running in his body is reflected through his words.
http://www.thesindhtimes.com/sindh/bilawal-bhuttos-interview-full-commitment-passion-confidence-vision-mehreen-bhutto/

Pakistan - Sherry slams government over alarming external debt

Vice President PPPP, Senator Sherry Rehman slammed the government over Pakistan’s mounting external debt. “This alarming rise in our external debt shows the downward trajectory of the government’s lacklustre economic vision,” said the Senator in her statement.
The country’s external debt has swollen to a whopping $83 billion.
Rehman said, “The gross public debt now stands at Rs. 21.4 trillion or 67.2% of GDP. The figure was Rs. 14.7 trillion during the last year of the PPP government. External debt servicing has also gone up from 13% in 2013 to 16% in 2017 which is taking up 30% of the country’s crucial export receipts and there are no signs of any policy response. I cannot comprehend how this is not alarming to anyone in the Finance Ministry”.
“This disturbing development could lead Pakistan into a dangerous rabbit hole of debt since our capacity to repay has significantly weakened and we will soon need external financing. This crisis did not happen overnight, it has been going on for four years and the government still refuses to take note of the gravity of the situation,” continued the Senator.
Pakistan lost $2 billion of its foreign exchange reserve in the first quarter of FY18.
According to Rehman, “Pakistan’s economic figures all point toward the fact that the government’s economic policies have failed. Our exports took the brunt of poor policies which has led to the vulnerability of our balance of payments. From overvaluing the rupee which weakened the global competitiveness of our exports, to the liquidity issues that forced exporters to take out loans from banks, we are now witnessing its damaging repercussions”.
“The government’s Rs 180 billion export package alone is not sufficient to balance our trade unless the government does a complete overhaul of its ruinous economic policies,” explained the Vice-President PPPP.
“This government is yet to make any progress for crucial structural reforms despite warnings from the IMF and World Bank. During the campaign season, PML-N promised groundbreaking changes in the economy. We did not expect that setting up Pakistan towards the path of a bailout is what they meant by that,” concluded Rehman.

https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2017/10/31/sherry-slams-government-over-alarming-external-debt/