Obama Says ‘Violent’ and ‘Bullying’ Men in Politics Are Having THIS IMPACT on Him

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By The Blaze. Former president Barack Obama wants women to become more politically involved, saying Wednesday that “men have been getting on my nerves” lately.

Obama made the comments during the second day of his visit to South Africa, during a town hall before members of the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg.

“Every day I read the newspaper and just think like ‘Brothers, what’s wrong with you guys?’” Obama said. “What’s wrong with us? We’re violent, we’re bullying. Just not handling our business.” . . .

Obama said that the increased inclusion and empowerment of women in politics would create better policy, both in Africa and in the world generally, and warned the students not to shy away from politics because of corruption or conflict. . .

“The one thing you can’t do is pretend that politics doesn’t matter and say to yourself ‘that’s too corrupt, that’s too broken, I’m not going to get involved in it’ because at some point if you are ambitious about what you are doing in your home country, you will confront politics.” (Read more from “Obama Says ‘Violent’ and ‘Bullying’ Men in Politics Are Having THIS IMPACT on Him” HERE)

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Obama Rebukes Identity Politics

By National Review. During a speech celebrating Nelson Mandela’s would-be 100th birthday, President Obama condemned the idea that only people from marginalized groups can comment on marginalized groups’ issues.

Obama made the comments when he was discussing the best way to interact with those with whom we disagree.

“Democracy demands that we’re able to also get inside the reality of people who are different than us, so we can understand their point of view,” he said. “Maybe we can change their minds, maybe they’ll change ours.”

“You can’t do this if you just out of hand disregard what your opponent has to say from the start,” he continued. “And you can’t do it if you insist that those who aren’t like you because they are white or they are male, somehow there is no way they can understand what I’m feeling, that somehow they lack standing to speak on certain matters.”

It might not seem like all that big of a deal, but what Obama did in that last statement was rebuke a way of thinking that has actually become quite pervasive in social-justice circles. In these circles, it’s often the case that men have no authority to speak out about certain issues just because their men, or that white people have no authority to speak out on certain issues just because they’re white. (Read more from “Obama Rebukes Identity Politics” HERE)

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Jim Jordan Interviewed in Ohio State Sexual Abuse Investigation, Doubles Down on Denial

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Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) was interviewed as part of an independent investigation into allegations of sexual abuse at Ohio State University by a former athletics team doctor, according to The Hill.

The law firm Perkins Coie LLP is handling the investigation, and initially said Jordan had been unresponsive to requests for an interview, although Jordan said it was simply because the firm was sending messages to the wrong email address. . .

Jordan told investigators the exact same thing he has told the public — that he knew nothing about alleged sexual abuse of Ohio State athletes by former team doctor Richard Strauss while Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach at the school.

“Congressman Jordan has told the investigators the same thing he’s told you guys in the media since day one,” said Jordan spokesman Ian Fury, The Hill reported. “He has never had any abuse reported to him. As we’ve said, we’re happy to assist the investigation any way we can.”

Several former wrestlers accused Jordan of doing nothing after hearing reports that Strauss was sexually abusing wrestlers. Jordan has denied the claims repeatedly, and has been defended by fellow former coaches and members of Congress. (Read more from “Jim Jordan Interviewed in Ohio State Sexual Abuse Investigation, Doubles Down on Denial” HERE)

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Media Trainwreck: Yeah, About That Picture of the Alleged Russian Spy in the Oval Office…It’s Not Her

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. . .So, of course, collusion fever reached unhealthy levels again yesterday. There was a picture of a woman with red hair—Butina is a redhead—in the Oval Office with President Trump. Great Odin’s raven! But it’s not her. It’s an NSC staffer with red hair. Regardless, the initial tweet went viral (via Mediaite):

. . .

And liberal media figures wonder why they’re mocked and not trusted anymore. (Read more from “Media Trainwreck: Yeah, About That Picture of the Alleged Russian Spy in the Oval Office…It’s Not Her” HERE)

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Watch: Sacha Cohen’s Attempt to Pull a Fast One on a Gun Store Went Down in Flames

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Over the weekend, Sacha Baron Cohen, best known for his role as Borat, released the first video in his Who Is America? series that will premier on Showtime. Controversy has been brewing over gun rights activists role in the film. . .

According to Warrior One Guns & Ammo owner Norris Sweidan, Cohen walked into his store, along with a camera crew, pretending to be a Hungarian immigrant who was interested in purchasing a firearm. . .

“He comes in, off the bat you can see in the video I’m looking like, this guy does not look like a Hungarian immigrant, tight a** leather pants, a beard, it just didn’t fit,” Sweidan told FOX 11. “The moment his words came out of his mouth I was like this guy is full of s***.” . . .

“I’m looking at the producer and I’m just like am I being fooled right here?” Sweidan said. “And I just kept looking at the guy and I was like you’re Borat, as soon as I said that his eyes just looked at me like, and he did a turn right out the door.” . . .

“Once I knew it was Borat, we already know his game and his bull*****, so we knew he’s here to make a mockery, and of what? Gun owners? The gun business, gun shops,” Sweidan said. “You’ve got some gun advocate holding a bunny on some gun, if you’re a gun advocate, what the f*** are you doing holding a gun with a bunny on it, really?”

[Video contains numerous uses of explicit language:]

(Read more from “Watch: Sacha Cohen’s Attempt to Pull a Fast One on a Gun Store Went Down in Flames” HERE)

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Sarah Sanders: President Trump Has Made It Clear to Putin He Should Stay out of Our Elections

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Speaking during the White House press briefing Wednesday, the first held in two weeks, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said President Trump told Russian President Vladimir Putin to stay out of U.S. elections during their two hour private meeting in Helsinki Monday. . .

“We certainly believe that we are taking steps to make sure they can’t do it again,” Sanders said. “We believe that the threat still exists which is why we are taking steps to prevent it.”

“The President and his administration are working very hard to make sure that Russia is unable to meddle in our elections as they have done in the past and as we have stated,” she continued. . .

“Russia’s already yesterday named several Americans who they want to question who they claim were involved in, quote, unquote, crimes, in their terms, including a former ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul. Does President Trump support that idea? Is he open to having US officials questioned by Russia?” asked the New York Times White House reporter Maggie Haberman asked.

“There was some conversation about it, but there wasn’t a commitment made on behalf of the United States. The president will work with his team and we’ll let you know if there is an announcement on that front,” Sanders said. (Read more from “Sarah Sanders: President Trump Has Made It Clear to Putin He Should Stay out of Our Elections” HERE)

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Scientists Just Found One Quadrillion Tons of Diamonds Buried in the Ground

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Don’t tell the Hatton Garden gang: scientists just unearthed an eye-watering hoard of diamonds, so valuable it would completely destroy the world’s economy.

The scientists reckon there’s a quadrillion tonnes of diamond buried in the ‘cratonic roots’ in continents.

There’s just one, tiny, catch: the treasure trove is buried 100 miles down, deeper than any drill has ever penetrated, according to MIT researchers. . .

Given that a ton of diamond is 50,000,000 carats, worth at least £3,000 each, that comes out at a tasty £150,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 by our relatively unscientific calculations.

‘This shows that diamond is not perhaps this exotic mineral, but on the [geological] scale of things, it’s relatively common,’ says Ulrich Faul, a research scientist in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. (Read more from “Scientists Just Found One Quadrillion Tons of Diamonds Buried in the Ground” HERE)

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Congressman Drops Bombshell About Lisa Page Testimony

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By The Daily Wire. Congressional leaders have praised the testimony of former FBI agent Lisa Page in recent days and have said that they found her testimony to be very credible as some of them claim she gave a very different account of events than her former lover, disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok.

Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that there were “significant differences” in Page’s testimony compared to the testimony given by Strzok and that she gave congressional investigators new information they did not previously have.

“In many cases, she admits that the text messages mean exactly what they say, as opposed to Agent Strzok, who thinks that we’ve all misinterpreted his own words on any text message that might be negative,” Ratcliff told reporters on Monday, according to ABC News.

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) agreed with Ratcliffe’s statement, saying, “She’s certainly more cooperative than Peter Strzok was and the pieces of information filled in some blanks along the way, but we’ve got a huge jigsaw puzzle to put together.” . . .

[Louie] Gohmert then took a shot at former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, saying, “When I hear Brennan or Clapper either saying the kind of things they’ve been saying recently, then it tells me, wow, we must be getting close to them. Those guilty dogs are barking pretty loud.” (Read more from “Congressman Drops Bombshell About Lisa Page Testimony” HERE)

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Former FBI Lawyer Lisa Page Said Anti-Trump Texts With Peter Strzok ‘Mean Exactly What They Say’

By Townhall. Yesterday was day two of testimony from former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who was also the mistress of disgraced FBI Agent Peter Strzok. The two sent tens of thousands of texts, anti-Trump in nature during some of the most politically sensitive investigations the FBI has undertaken in recent memory: the Clinton email probe and the counterintelligence investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians. Strzok was a key player in both investigations. Throughout 2016, the two sent texts that have raised eyebrows and questioned the credibility of the FBI’s impartiality. From “we’ll stop it” and an “insurance policy,” both referring to the Trump presidency, GOP lawmakers want to know what Strzok meant. The insurance policy is allegedly the Trump dossier, which was a campaign opposition research file compiled by former MI6 spy Christopher Steele, who was hired by Fusion GPS during the 2016 election; Fusion was hired by the Clinton campaign to find dirt on Trump. That document was allegedly used to secure a FISA warrant to spy on Trump’s former foreign policy adviser Carter Page.

Strzok’s testimony last week before Congress was a rodeo fraught with drama, as Democrats kept interrupting, some GOP members bringing up Strzok’s extramarital affair with Page, and other acts of insanity. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) said he would have given Strzok a Purple Heart. Strzok was combative, said his anti-Trump texts were an expression of “deep patriotism,” and that his “we’ll stop it” text was made in reference to Trump’s remarks about Gold Star parent Khizr Khan. It was ridiculous. Strzok’s main point was that his biased texts weren’t evidence of bias.

For Page, there were no fireworks. No explosive moments that we know of since it was behind closed doors. Yet, House Republicans found her testimony credible and respected her willingness to get to the truth. Her testimony on Friday did, however, raise concerns with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) concerning whether the FBI was driving towards a desired outcomeon the Russia investigation. Now, Page reportedly told House members that those anti-Trump texts meant exactly what they mean, according to Rep. John Ratcliff (R-TX). (Read more from “Former FBI Lawyer Lisa Page Said Anti-Trump Texts With Peter Strzok ‘Mean Exactly What They Say'” HERE)

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U.S. Officials Go to Entirely New Level to Achieve Peace, Reportedly Open to Talks With Taliban

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The United States is open to holding direct talks with the Taliban to encourage negotiations between the militant group and the Afghan government to end 17 years of war, U.S. officials said Monday.

That marks a tactical shift by the Trump administration, which has previously only appeared willing to participate in discussions with the Taliban if those talks also involve the Afghan government. The U.S. officials said that Afghan-to-Afghan negotiation remains the goal of any engagement with the militants.

The officials were not authorized to speak to media and requested anonymity.

The Taliban have long refused direct talks with the Afghan government, demanding instead to negotiate with Washington. The militants have persisted in that stance despite Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s unilateral extension of a holiday cease-fire last month in hopes of encouraging the militants to come to the bargaining table. With the Taliban continuing to mount deadly attacks, Ghani ordered government forces to resume military operations this month.

The unprecedented, three-day cease-fire by both sides had offered a rare glimpse of peace for Afghans during which militants fraternized with security force members.

A Taliban official in the small Gulf Arab nation of Qatar told The Associated Press on Monday that no American official or intermediary has been in touch with them to start direct talks, and it had only heard of it in the media. The administration’s willingness to hold direct talks with the Taliban was first reported by The New York Times on Sunday.

The Taliban official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was authorized to speak to journalists, said, “We wait for them to officially inform us.” But he added that if the U.S. is interested in talks, it should take steps to get Taliban leaders off a sanctions blacklist and support the formal opening of the Taliban office in Qatar where its political representatives reside. The official reiterated the Taliban’s call for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

Asked if the U.S. was willing to hold direct talks with the Taliban, the State Department said Monday, the United States “is exploring all avenues to advance a peace process in close consultation with the Afghan government.”

The department added that “any negotiations over the political future of Afghanistan will be between the Taliban and the Afghan government.”

Last August, President Donald Trump launched an Afghanistan strategy that centered on boosting the capabilities of Afghan security forces and aiming — with help from Pakistan and other interested nations — to compel the militants to negotiate. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Afghanistan last week to reinforce its support for talks.

“The United States will support, facilitate, and participate in these peace discussions, but peace must be decided by the Afghans and settled among them. We expect that these peace talks will include a discussion of the role of international actors and forces,” Pompeo said after meeting Ghani in Kabul on July 9.

The U.S. invaded Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and ousted the Taliban government that had hosted al-Qaida. It has about 15,000 troops in Afghanistan, mostly for training government forces.

The conflict appears stalemated, with insurgents controlling or contesting more than 40 percent of the country. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said Sunday that 1,692 civilians were killed in violence in the first six months of this year, the highest six-month death toll since the systematic documentation of civilian casualties started in 2009. (For more from the author of “U.S. Officials Go to Entirely New Level to Achieve Peace, Reportedly Open to Talks With Taliban” please click HERE)

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Scientists Find Creepy ‘Lizardfish’ Lurking off Coast of Carolinas

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After seeing what a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Exploration and Research team has found off the coast of the Carolinas, I can understand that fear. Scaly horrors swim beneath us — and we hardly know anything about them. . .

The expedition encountered one of the ocean’s simultaneously most bizarre and terrifying creatures on July 1. At a depth of 5,810 feet, the camera’s light casting an eerie, blue fluorescence.

The picture shows a small fish with delicately feathered fins, scales that resemble those of an iguana and a nightmare-inducing visage. Flat, button-like eyes punctuate a spiny maw that looks as though it could strip skin away with the barest twitch of its jaws.

What’s more, the animal gets even odder the more you learn about it. For instance, every member of the species possesses a set of genitals for both sexes, meaning its always able to reproduce with another lizardfish. . .

A dive on June 29 revealed “an unidentified fish … seen in a burrow,” its protruding jaw set in a seeming grimace. Think back to some of the aliens that appeared in Jabba the Hutt’s palace in the 1983 movie “Return of the Jedi,” and you have a pretty good idea of what this one looks like. (Read more from “Scientists Find Creepy ‘Lizardfish’ Lurking off Coast of Carolinas” HERE)

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Ocasio-Cortez’s Factually Challenged Position on Israel Is Embarrassing

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. . .This week on the new “Firing Line” on PBS — a program claiming to be a reboot of the famous debate show, where William Buckley once politely dismantled his guests’ weak arguments — Ocasio-Cortez was asked about Israel. A few months ago, she claimed that Israel Defense Forces was mass murdering civilians, and that Democrats should not silent on the crimes of Israel anymore.

Ocasio-Cortez: Well, yes, but I also think that what people are starting to see in the occupation of Palestine is just an increasing crisis of humanitarian conditions and that to me is just where I tend to come from on this issue.

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Ocasio-Cortez: Oh, I think, what I meant is that the settlements that are increasing in some of these areas and places where Palestinians are experiencing difficulty in access to housing and homes.

For one thing, there’s no such thing, nor has there ever been such a thing, as an Arab “Palestine.” There are a number of books Ocasio-Cortez could read about Arab history — or about the Turks or the Ottomans or the Jewish presence in Israel going back to 1500 BC, or even about situation that existed from 1947-1967 — but nowhere will she ever find a chapter on an independent Arab nation-state called “Palestine.” The idea itself is largely a post-World War II invention. You might hope that a Palestine will one day exist, but none has ever existed before.

Second, Ocasio-Cortez might not know this, but there are no “increasing settlements” in Gaza, the topic of the initial tweet Hoover was asking about, because there are no settlements in Gaza. In 2005, Israel conceded Gaza a large amount of autonomy, and with it the ability to conduct multi-party elections and live peacefully with its neighbors. In the process Israel dismantled all Israeli “settlements” in the Gaza Strip and expelled around 8,000 Jews who would have been massacred otherwise. (Read more from “Ocasio-Cortez’s Factually Challenged Position on Israel Is Embarrassing” HERE)

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