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Arpaio was convicted on contempt charges in July for ignoring a 2016 federal court order instructing him to stop using traffic stops and workplace raids to enforce immigration laws. White House lawyers have reportedly told Trump that a pardon may prove unnecessary, as they believe the court order that Arpaio ignored was unconstitutional, sources involved in the process told CBS News.
The White House legal team has also advised against immediately issuing the pardon on the basis that Arpaio's Oct. 5 sentencing may very well be lenient and not include any jail time.
CNN reported Wednesday that the White House had prepared the requisite paperwork for issuing a pardon. CBS sources denied the veracity of the CNN report, claiming that no paperwork or supporting talking points have been prepared. "He could go ahead and do it but the advice is to wait and at least until sentencing," one source told CBS. "The hope is he let's the process play out some more."
Trump insinuated that Arpaio would receive a pardon during a campaign style rally Tuesday night in Phoenix. "He's going to be just fine," Trump said. "I won't do it tonight because I don't want to cause any controversy, okay? But Sheriff Joe can feel good."
© CNN
A racial discrimination lawsuit filed against CNN currently has 175 cases in which current and former employees allege that the network committed racial discrimination. The suit alleges that CNN's Atlanta headquarters is a hotbed of racism.
Similar complaints were made against Fox in a suit that began in the controller's office and has since spread to the news division.
The complaint filed against CNN by former worker Celeslie Henley and current employee Ernest Colbert Jr. said minority employees had to endure remarks such as "It's hard to manage black people" and "Who would be worth more: black slaves from times past, or new slaves?"
© Angelo Carconi/EPAFrench President Emmanuel Macron walks during a G7 Summit session in the Sicilian town of Taormina, Italy, 27 May 2017
According to the report, Macron's personal makeup artist put in two claims for payment, one for €10,000 and another for €16,000, for doing his makeup during his travels and ahead of press conferences.
The Elysée Palace said in response: "We called in a contractor as a matter of urgency."
Aides said that spending on makeup would be "significantly reduced" in future, Le Point reported, adding that the amount spent is less than under Macron's predecessors.
In a recent speech on the state of the Afghanistan quagmire, Congressman Thomas Massie (R) KY, exposed some hard truths that very few people in Washington are courageous enough to address. While most politicians cheered Trump's insane decision to increase US presence in Afghanistan this week, Massie Blew the lid off of it.
For years, Massie has pointed out that the US has blown billions of dollars on failed projects alone. As of last year, the number of failed projects totaled over 100 billion.
To put this number in perspective, the entire amount of money the United States allocates to spend on rebuilding America's crumbling highways every year is less than half of what it's blown on failed projects alone in Afghanistan.
© Juan Medina / Reuters
On Friday, the Trump administration issued an order prohibiting Americans from dealings in new debt and equity issued by the Venezuelan government and by its state oil company, PDVSA.
The White House said the measures "are carefully calibrated to deny the Maduro dictatorship a critical source of financing to maintain its illegitimate rule."
"We don't agree with anything that Maduro is doing," US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said on Friday, calling Venezuela's recently elected Constituent Assembly a "sham."
© CC BY-SA 4.0 / Arkadeep Meta / Pangong lake
India's Defense Ministry has recently said that it intends to speed up construction of roads along the border with China citing it as a crucial requirement for faster movement of troops and uninterrupted supplies of ammunition and other necessities.
The statement has obviously added fuel to the two-month border standoff between the two countries.
"This report makes me feel that India is slapping its own face," China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said during her regular press conference on Thursday when asked to comment on the statement.
© AFP 2017/ Omar haj kadour
The militants from ex-Nusra Front play the key role in the new formation, Col. Gen. Igor Korobov said at an Army-2017 forum roundtable.
"At present, more than 70 band formations, including from the ranks of the opposition which used to consider itself moderate, have joined together. The total strength of the Hayat Tahrir Sham group exceeds 25,000 militants," he said.
The group engages in active hostilities against the Syrian government forces and moderate opposition in the provinces of Aleppo, Damascus, Idlib and Hama, Korobov noted.
In her statements Hua also affirmed China's commitment to its manifold partnership/friendship with Pakistan while subtly warning Donald Trump not to insult Islamabad's commitment to peace in South Asia.
© Politico
When I speak of minorities, as I will below, I do that as a person who belongs to a long list of minorities. I was born in a family of Russian refugees. Right there, that makes me part of a (rather small) minority. Furthermore, I lived most of my life in the French speaking part of Switzerland, that again makes me part of a minority. Then, I am an Orthodox Christian. That is also a minority inside of the so-called "Christian" world (in reality a post-Christian world, of course). Moreover, I am a traditionalist Orthodox Christian, a small minority inside the much bigger "world Orthodoxy". And inside that, I am a Russian inside a majority Greek Church. I also lived for 5 years in Washington, DC, which was something like 70% Black and, at the time, openly and often rudely hostile to Whites (I never thought of myself as a color before, but I sure felt like one during those 5 years). And now I am a "legal alien" living in the USA. Anyway, while I am "White" (what a nonsensical category!) I suppose, that hardly makes me a typical WASP. So I am quite used to "being a minority" (and I quite like that, would I add). Just thought this might a useful clarification before I engage in the following thought crimes.
Question: why does the US foreign policies always support various minorities?
Is it out of kindness? Or a sense of fairness? Could it be out of a deep sense of guilt of having committed the only "pan-genocide" in human history (the genocide of all the ethnic groups of an entire continent)? Or maybe a deep sense of guilt over slavery? Are the beautiful words of the Declaration of Independence "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" really inspiring US foreign policies?
Comment: See also:
- Trump considering pardoning ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio
- Feds to press criminal charges against Arizona Sheriff Arpaio over immigration patrols, racial profiling
- America's Blackshirts: Sheriff Arpaio hired former employee, convicted child-sex criminal, for armed school "posse"
UPDATE August 25 from CNN: