According to aides who were present when Trump discussed the issue, but who choose to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, Trump said he was sick of Vance and wanted to fire him. “I wanted him to be my attack dog,” said Trump, “but he appears foolish on television. He dropped the college football trophy. He met with Pope Francis and the next day the pope died. Vance is toxic, and I don’t want him to come near me. He just doesn’t look as good on television as I thought he would.”   read more

The sheer numbers reveal just how dangerous life has become south of the border. Last year, 13,800 Mexicans requested asylum because of gun battles and murders brought on by cartels. This year’s total more than doubled from 2012, reaching 36,000 asylum requests. Last year only 1% of the claims were approved, granting asylum to just 126 people.   read more

Only 17% of respondents said they still support the 12-year-old war in Afghanistan. The decline in support has been dramatic since 2008, when favorability was at 52%. The new survey found 57% believe the conflict is going badly for the U.S. Only about 30% say America is winning the war, which has killed 2,300 U.S. troops.   read more

Korman threw out the case on two grounds: that seizures of personal electronic devices don’t occur often enough to be a concern; and that the government doesn’t need to have reasonable suspicion when it comes to taking away possessions at border checkpoints. It is important to note that the government’s policy on border seizures covers an area within 100 miles of the actual border. In his ruling, Korman seemed to trivialize the loss of computers and phones while entering the country.   read more

The sailors became exposed to radiation leaking from the crippled power plant when their ships arrived off Japan’s coast to provide humanitarian assistance. They remained in the area for four days. The American men and women say they are suffering from radiation exposure and numerous health problems brought on by the exposure. These include leukemia, testicular cancer, gynecological bleeding and thyroid diseases.   read more

Only 24% of respondents to a recent Gallup survey (December 5-8) considered themselves Republicans. And yet, GOP politicians consistently made more appearances than Democrats on programs like “Meet the Press,” “Face the Nation,” “This Week,” “State of the Union,” and “Fox News Sunday.” Six of the top seven, and 10 of the top 13 guests on these shows were Republicans.   read more

The latest Win/Gallup International’s Annual Global End of Year Survey revealed the United States was most often chosen as the greatest threat to world peace among all nations. Twenty-four percent of respondents chose the U.S., far more than Pakistan (8%), China (6%), North Korea, Israel and Iran (5%). But the U.S. is viewed as more than just a bully on the world stage. When asked which country they would most like to live in, 9% of respondents picked the U.S.   read more

The George W. Bush administration reportedly knew as early as 2003 that the Uighurs were not a threat to U.S. security. But the administration allegedly kept them at Guantánamo Bay in exchange for China’s cooperation at the United Nations to not interfere with the authorization of force against Iraq in 2003, the Uighurs claimed. “It is especially heartbreaking that when the Uighurs were turned over to U.S. forces following the invasion of Afghanistan, they thought they had been saved.”   read more

When I was 15 years old, I decided to keep a daily journal. I was partly motivated by the fact that my father had started to do so two years earlier and partly by the fact that I regretted not having a record of the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated less than six weeks earlier. Strange as it may seem, I have kept up that diary every day since I was 15. January 1, 2014, will mark the 50th anniversary of my first entry.   read more

These specialists intercept computer shipments ordered by a targeted person and reroute the boxes to secret workshops. There, the packages are opened, and either software or hardware are implanted into the equipment to allow the NSA full access to the system once it’s operational by the target. The packages are then carefully resealed and sent on their way to the unsuspecting customers.   read more

In 2013, the nation expanded by less than a percentage point (0.72%), according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The tepid growth was the lowest since 1937, with even slower expansion still to come. Percentage-wise, the biggest gainer was North Dakota, where a thriving oil and gas industry helped boost the population by 3.14%. It was followed by the District of Columbia (2.06%), Utah (1.61%) Colorado (1.52%) and Texas (1.49%).   read more

1. Judge Sentenced to 28 Years in Prison for “Selling” Kids to Private Prisons 2. Homeland Security Approves Seizure of Cell Phones and Laptops within 100 Miles of Border; Report Remains Secret 3. 9/11 Suspects Can’t Mention being Tortured during Trial Testimony because Their Torture is Classified   read more

Pauley followed his introduction about 9/11 with an endorsement of the government’s position that domestic spying has helped disrupt bomb plots against the New York subways, the New York Stock Exchange and a Danish newspaper. Judge Leon, however, found two weeks ago that the program did not help the government fight terrorism, concluding that “the government does not cite a single instance in which analysis of the NSA’s bulk metadata collection actually stopped an imminent attack.”   read more

The oil sheikdom was originally a defendant in the case until 2005, when a federal judge, George B. Daniels, ruled that sovereign immunity protected it from liability for the attacks. That liability could potentially amount to tens of billions of dollars in civil damages. But a Second Circuit three-judge panel ruled this month that Daniels had erred in dismissing Saudi Arabia from the lawsuit.   read more

Two years before Obama was first elected to the White House, there were only 18 full-power TV stations owned by African-Americans. This total represented just 1.3% of all such stations in the country. By the end of his first term in office, those 18 had declined to only five stations. And as of this month, the number has fallen all the way to zero.   read more

The operator of nearly 100 private colleges has more than 200 lawsuits pending against it, including a case brought by California’s attorney general claiming fraudulent marketing practices aimed at recruiting students. Wells Fargo is by far the biggest shareholder in the company, with 11.6 million shares. Corinthian’s second and third largest investors are the investment management firm BlackRock Fund Advisors (4.5 million) and investment adviser Royce & Associates (4 million).   read more

Over one 20-year period (1992-2012), BOP asked the courts to consider motions for early release only two dozen times a year on average, according to a report last year from Human Rights Watch. That’s out of a federal prison population of more than 200,000. The federal prison population has expanded by nearly 800% since 1980. Thousands of these inmates are now seniors, whose care can cost twice as much as non-elderly inmates.   read more