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Acceptive:
Bill Cosby's star will not be removed from the Hollywood Walk of Fame because it is 'part of its historic fabric'
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Saturday, July 11, 2015
FICO
Wary euro zone to pass bailout judgment on Greece
BRUSSELS Sceptical European finance ministers gathered on Saturday to decide whether to negotiate a third bailout for Greece after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras won lawmakers' backing for painful austerity measures his leftist party was elected to prevent.
With Athens staring at a bankruptcy that could see it crash out of the euro zone after financial markets reopen on Monday, EU officials forecast agreement would be reached by the end of the weekend to keep Greece afloat, but not before ministers and government leaders had vented their wrath at Tsipras.
Wolfgang Schaeuble, finance minister of its biggest creditor Germany and a veteran stickler for the EU's fiscal rules, said negotiations would be "exceptionally difficult".
Since Tsipras's leftist government won power in January, he said, emerging optimism about Greece had been "destroyed in an incredible way in the last few months".
Other ministers arriving for the Eurogroup meeting also spoke of a fundamental lack of trust after years of broken Greek promises and a snap referendum Tsipras called, in which voters massively rejected creditors' terms he has since had to embrace.
However, sources familiar with a preparatory meeting earlier on Saturday said ministers' aides had endorsed with reservations a recommendation by EU institutions and the IMF that Tsipras's proposals did provide a basis to launch negotiations.
"We are still far away," said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who was chairing the meeting. "On both content and the more complicated question of trust, even if it's all good on paper the question is whether it will get off the ground and will it happen ... We are facing a difficult negotiation."
LEFTIST DEFECTIONS
In Athens overnight, Tsipras had to rely on opposition votes from the right in parliament after some of his leftist lawmakers resisted spending cuts, tax rises and other measures he proposed in order to unlock 54 billion euros in three-year credit.
But Germany, the biggest lender in two previous bailouts totalling 240 billion euros ($265 billion) since 2010, is deeply sceptical after five months of abortive talks with Tsipras.
"The high figures for financing needs over the next three years may be too high and too sudden," one euro zone source said. He said officials believed Greece may need 82 billion euros, factoring in cash from the IMF and other EU sources.
Slovak Finance Minister Peter Kazimir, one of the most hawkish critics of Greece, said making the country's debt sustainable was going to be "a huge problem".
A positive assessment of the Greek proposals delivered by the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund late on Friday, along with bullish comments from Athens' key euro zone ally France, had raised expectations that the Eurogroup would give a green light to new loan negotiations.
But several ministers said on arrival that more spending cuts and reform measures were needed, with swift enactment by parliament to show that Greece was serious this time.
Even French Finance Minister Michel Sapin, Greece's most powerful ally in the euro zone, said: "Confidence has been ruined by every Greek government over many years which have sometimes made promises without making good on them at all.
"Now we need to have confidence again, to have certainty that decisions announced are decisions which are actually taken by the Greek government."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made clear she does not want to see a "Grexit" that could disrupt a fragile European economic recovery and undermine a supposedly irreversible union. However, she faces stiff opposition among her own conservatives.
Euro zone leaders, including Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, are due to meet on Sunday, either to endorse the ministers' verdict or, along with other EU leaders, to take steps to contain the fallout from a looming Greek bankruptcy.
PARLIAMENT DIVIDED
With Greece's banks shut and completely dependent on a credit lifeline from the European Central Bank, the measures were seen as a last chance to avert financial collapse.
But in an ominous sign for the stability of the Greek government, 10 members on the ruling benches abstained or voted against the measures and another seven were absent, leaving Tsipras short of the 151 seats needed for a majority of his own.
Prominent left-wingers in his Syriza party signalled before the vote that they could not support the mix of tax hikes and spending cuts proposed by Tsipras, following the rejection of similar austerity measures by voters in Sunday's referendum.
Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, Deputy Labour Minister Dimitris Stratoulis as well as the speaker of parliament, Zoe Constantopoulou, all called "Present", in effect abstaining from the vote and withholding their support from the government.
"The government is being totally blackmailed," Constantopoulou said.
Following the vote, where many leftists in his own party were stunned by his acceptance of previously spurned austerity measures, Tsipras said he would now focus on securing a deal.
"The parliament today gave the government a strong mandate to complete the negotiations and reach an economically viable and socially fair agreement with its partners," he said.
"The priority now is to have a positive outcome to the negotiations. Everything else in its own time."
"HEAVY HEART"
After the jubilation in Athens last Sunday following the resounding rejection of further austerity in a referendum, there was bitterness that parliament was being asked to accept a strikingly similar package of measures.
The leader of the right wing Independent Greeks party, the junior coalition party in Tsipras' government, said his lawmakers would back the proposals "with a heavy heart".
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Friday that Greece and its creditors appeared to be closer to a deal, calling for an adjustment to Athens' debt burden to ease its cash flow.
Greece asked for 53.5 billion euros ($59 billion) to help cover its debts until 2018, a review of primary budget surplus targets in the light of the sharp deterioration of its economy, and a "reprofiling" of the country's long-term debt.
A senior EU official said the Eurogroup talks would include discussions on whether Greece needs some debt relief.
In addition to cash from the euro zone, if Greece makes payments it missed last month to the IMF, the global lender still has a facility to lend Greece some 16 billion euros.
Any deal would also have to be endorsed by national parliaments including in Germany, which must also formally approve the loan negotiations being started.
The latest offer includes defence spending cuts, a timetable for privatising state assets such as Piraeus port and regional airports, hikes in value added tax for hotels and restaurants and slashing a top-up payment for poorer pensioners.
Greek banks have been closed since June 29, when capital controls were imposed and cash withdrawals rationed after the collapse of previous bailout talks. Greece defaulted on an IMF loan repayment and now faces a critical July 20 bond redemption to the ECB, which it cannot make without aid.
They don't get any dumber than this
Raven-Symoné has cracked the conspriacy behind Donald Trump's presidential bid.
So I got this straight... Trump is involved in a conspiracy that set up the San Francisco killing to make his narrative about illegals more creditable?
Someone call this bitch ambulance!
Someone call this bitch ambulance!
Wonder if Cosby slipped her some bath salts?
This is an unrelated incident but added just to prove liberals are totally whacked.
When Sarandon buys donuts she likes them pre-licked.
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The newly minted "View" co-host dropped her bombshell theory on Thursday's episode of the ABC talk show, opining that the real estate mogul/reality TV star has been planted in the campaign by the real powers-that-be in order to distract voters from the nation's pressing matters.
Raven-Symoné offered her intriguing thoughts on the candidate during a heated debate about immigration. After her cohort Rosie Perez grumbled that people aren't talking about the real issues, such as Puerto Rico's crippling debt, Raven-Symoné dropped her megaton of science on the panel.
"Nobody is talking about the real issues because [Trump] is sucking up the air for everyone. He knows how to manipulate the industry," Raven-Symoné offered. "And I'm that person who thinks that he was put there by maybe Republicans or Democrats as a mole to just get people's opinions and stir stuff up, so that we don't talk about the real issues."
Two things... he's a mole for the Democrats?
(Over 12 million illegals is not a real issue?)
Two things... he's a mole for the Democrats?
(Over 12 million illegals is not a real issue?)
Well, looks like we know who the real Manchurian candidate is here.
Raven-Symoné continued along her conspiratorial bent during a discussion of Francisco Sanchez, an illegal immigrant and five-time deportee who's accused of fatally shooting a woman in San Francisco with a gun reportedly belonging to a federal agent.
"During the passionate back-and-forth, Raven-Symoné declared that she found it "interesting that this happened as soon as Trump started to talk about this; he randomly found a gun from a federal agent."
Guest host Candace Cameron Bure chirped in: "Right now I feel like Trump's the only one who's talking about it," an opinion that was met with sharp rebuttal from her cohorts.
White House blames Republicans for deported San Francisco killer
U-n-b-e-l-i-e-v-e-a-b-l-e.... times 100!!!
What party is the party for illegals? Let me put it another way. If you're here illegally would you fell more comfortable with a Trump presidency or Killary?
You would think Republicans and Democrats could at least see eye to eye when it comes to people coming here illegally.
Think again.
-----------------------------------------------
The White House blamed congressional Republicans Monday for the death of a San Francisco woman allegedly shot by a repeat offender illegal immigrant, and for a spate of gun violence last weekend in President Obama's hometown of Chicago.
Referring to the shooting death last week of Kathryn Steinle, allegedly shot by a Mexican man who has been deported five times, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the U.S. would be safer if Republican lawmakers had approved comprehensive immigration reform backed by the president.
"The president has done everything within his power to make sure that we're focusing our law enforcement resources on criminals and those who pose a threat to public safety," Mr. Earnest said. "It's because of the political efforts of Republicans that we have not been able to make the kind of investment that we would like to make in securing our border and keeping our communities safe."
In fact, DHS has released tens of thousands of illegal aliens convicted of felonies, so the case of the man accused of murdering Kate Steinle, Francisco Sanchez, who was deported five times and released on a technicality last March, is not unusual.
Friday, July 10, 2015
The Worst Agreement In U.S. Diplomatic History
On a tip from Ed Kilbane
Once this 'deal' is finalized watch what happens. It'll blow up in their face in a matter of months.
WASHINGTON — The devil is not in the details. It’s in the entire conception of the Iran deal, animated by President Obama’s fantastical belief that he, uniquely, could achieve detente with a fanatical Islamist regime whose foundational purpose is to cleanse the Middle East of the poisonous corruption of American power and influence.
In pursuit of his desire to make the Islamic Republic into an accepted, normalized “successful regional power,” Obama decided to take over the nuclear negotiations. At the time, Tehran was reeling — the rial plunging, inflation skyrocketing, the economy contracting — under a regime of international sanctions painstakingly constructed over a decade.
Then, instead of welcoming Congress’ attempt to tighten sanctions to increase the pressure on the mullahs, Obama began the negotiations by loosening sanctions, injecting billions into the Iranian economy (which began growing again in 2014) and conceding in advance an Iranian right to enrich uranium.
It’s been downhill ever since. Desperate for a legacy deal, Obama has played the supplicant, abandoning every red line his administration had declared essential to any acceptable deal.
Inspections
They were to be anywhere, anytime, unimpeded. Now? Total cave. Unfettered access has become “managed access.” Nuclear inspectors will have to negotiate and receive Iranian approval for inspections. Which allows them denial and/or crucial delay for concealing any clandestine activities.
To give a flavor of the degree of our capitulation, the administration played Iran’s lawyer on this one, explaining that, after all, “the United States of America wouldn’t allow anybody to get into every military site, so that’s not appropriate.” Apart from the absurdity of morally equating America with the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, if we were going to parrot the Iranian position, why wait 19 months to do so — after repeatedly insisting on free access as essential to any inspection regime?
Coming clean on past nuclear activity
The current interim agreement that governed the last 19 months of negotiation required Iran to do exactly that. Tehran has offered nothing. The administration had insisted that this accounting was essential because how can you verify future illegal advances in Iran’s nuclear program if you have no baseline?
After continually demanding access to their scientists, plans and weaponization facilities, Secretary of State John Kerry two weeks ago airily dismissed the need, saying he is focused on the future, “not fixated” on the past. And that we have “absolute knowledge” of the Iranian program anyway — a whopper that his staffers had to spend days walking back.
Not to worry, we are told. The accounting will be done after the final deal is signed. Which is ridiculous. If the Iranians haven’t budged on disclosing previous work under the current sanctions regime, by what logic will they comply after sanctions are lifted?
Sanctions relief
These were to be gradual and staged as the International Atomic Energy Agency certified Iranian compliance over time. Now we’re going to be releasing up to $150 billion as an upfront signing bonus. That’s 25 times the annual budget of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Enough to fuel a generation of intensified Iranian aggression from Yemen to Lebanon to Bahrain.
Yet three months ago, Obama expressed nonchalance about immediate sanctions relief. It’s not the issue, he said. The real issue is “snap-back” sanctions to be reimposed if Iran is found in violation.
Good grief. Iran won’t be found in violation. The inspection regime is laughable and the bureaucratic procedures endless. Moreover, does anyone imagine that Russia and China will reimpose sanctions? Or that the myriad European businesses preparing to join the Iranian gold rush the day the deal is signed will simply turn around and go home?
Non-nuclear-related sanctions
The administration insisted that the nuclear talks would not affect separate sanctions imposed because of Iranian aggression and terrorism. That was then. The administration is now leaking that everything will be lifted.
Taken together, the catalog of capitulations is breathtaking: spot inspections, disclosure of previous nuclear activity, gradual sanctions relief, retention of non-nuclear sanctions.
What’s left? A surrender document of the kind offered by defeated nations suing for peace. Consider: The strongest military and economic power on earth, backed by the five other major powers, armed with what had been a crushing sanctions regime, is about to sign the worst international agreement in American diplomatic history.
How did it come to this? With every concession, Obama and Kerry made clear they were desperate for a deal.
And they will get it. Obama will get his “legacy.” Kerry will get his Nobel. And Iran will get the bomb.
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