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US PRESIDENT DONALD Donald Trump has launched a fresh attack on his opponents ahead of a new effort to end the government shutdown.
A divided US Congress is hoping to end a budget impasse tonight before hundreds of thousands of federal workers are forced to start the week at home without pay.
The impact of the shutdown that began at midnight on Friday has been largely limited so far, closing sites like New York’s Statue of Liberty, but the effect will start to become acute if the stalemate runs into tomorrow.
Republicans and Democrats have traded bitter recriminations over who is to blame for the failure to pass a stop-gap funding measure by a 20 January deadline, a year to the day since Trump took office.
“Great to see how hard Republicans are fighting for our Military and Safety at the Border. The Dems just want illegal immigrants to pour into our nation unchecked,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
He also encouraged the Senate’s Republican leaders to invoke a procedural manoeuvre known as the “nuclear option” to change the chamber’s rules to allow passage of a budget by a simple majority of 51 votes to end the shutdown.
Senate leaders have been wary of such a move in the past, as it could come back to haunt them the next time the other party holds a majority.
Undermining Trump’s ‘victory lap’
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney accused some Democrats of wanting to “deny the president sort of the victory lap of the anniversary of his inauguration” — echoing a complaint Trump earlier made on Twitter.
“There’s other Democrats who want to see the president give the State of the Union during a shutdown,” Mulvaney said on Fox News, referring to the nationally televised address Trump is set to deliver on 30 January.
However, White House legislative director Marc Short told ABC that progress is being made, and Mulvaney also said there is a chance to have the government open before the workweek begins tomorrow morning.
Late yesterday top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell set a key vote for a funding measure for 1am local time (6am Irish time) tomorrow, with both houses of Congress set to reconvene today.
“I assure you we will have the vote at 1am on Monday, unless there is a desire to have it sooner,” he said in a statement.
At the heart of the dispute is the thorny issue of undocumented immigration.
Democrats have accused Republicans of poisoning chances of a deal and pandering to Trump’s populist base by refusing to fund a programme that protects an estimated 700,000 ao-called Dreamers — undocumented immigrants who arrived as children — from deportation.
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Incredible in this day and age people still fall for the ‘African Prince with lotsa money but needs funds to release said money’ scam…come on folks….
maybe loneliness was a factor, this lady seems to have wanted it to real so much
It’s in the nature of the beast !!!
I know it’s tempting to laugh at others’ naïvety, but when you think about the outcome it’s little different to all those pensioners who get duped by fake bank employees, rogue property dealers and cowboy tradesmen. Another lonely, emotionally vulnerable person has been left in financial ruin while some keyboard-savvy lowlife is laughing as he wallows in his loot.
Some very clever scammers out there.
A friend of mine met an American woman online who spun a terrific yarn about wanting to come to Ireland to study Irish folklore. Really convincing. Communicated with her for ages, she was tying up loose ends and moving lock, stock and barrel to Dublin where she was enrolled in UCD.
Three times I had to stop him from forwarding money to her, we almost fell out over this fictitious person.
My argument:
‘If as you say she ‘Truly loves you’ then she will find a way to make it here’
Eventually the penny dropped when she contacted him from Amsterdam airport asking him to forward a few thousand euros to facilitate her claim that she was financially self sufficient entering the EU.
She is a fool & a gold digger – No sympathy 4 her at all. HA HA HA.
Iv a friend feel for someone living here with friends .. Went home to visit and have medical checks eat as cheaper at home ! She said she had cancer ! .. Needed thousands for treatment .. We convinced him eventually .. Turned out one of her friends was her husband !
Wha?????
Loneliness leaves people very vulnerable
Yeah so does ger wish 4 a ‘luxury’ life.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3887493.stm getting revenge on the scammers
That’s brilliant Peter!
A real pity,but hard to believe ppl fall for this carry on now a days!
People over 60 wouldn’t be as Internet savy as younger people add loneliness to that and you have the perfect victim.
Why does this seem to happen a bit more in the UK. My working theory is that British women are a bit more soppy romantics compared to savvy sceptical and can’t take a complement Irish women.
i know some irish women who’d bite the head off you for complementing them
Fred it happens here too. The victims keep it quiet. wouldn’t you?
I do NOT look lovely today!!!!!
haha thats it Deborah on the button!
Mark Hamilton…better known as Luke Skywalkerton
Poor silly woman
Literally!
It’s the lowest of the low.Preying on that poor woman’s emotions.
I’ve got 20 million resting in my account but I need 50 grand to release it, can anyone help me? I’m also a prince, good looking and single…
I hope that isn’t her profile picture on the dating site.
Yes, I see the Met Police caption perfectly clear now.
A prominent Irish businessman, highly experienced, was defrauded or scammed of almost 750k sterling to get the ex Emperor of Angola’s uncut diamonds worth 400 million sterling from a Safe Deposit box in Amsterdam.
People can be conned by greed, by pretend romance , by the need or want to help and due to vulnerabilities.
These romance scams are supposedly very prevalent but rarely surface due to acute embarrassment.
Who was that Michael?
‘£4 million in gold deposits in Ghana he was trying to have released from the bank. He claimed that after he had recovered his wealth from the bank he would come to Foster and they would spend their retirement together in luxury. He just needed some additional funds in order to complete the deal.’
With collateral like that I could afford to live in Dublin.
just about
It has become a major industry in Ghana and Nigeria High quality internet access in Ghana to facilitate the scammers
Sort of revenge for all the bad colonial experience
No fool like an old fool,
As they say… there’s one born every minute…
….and two to take ‘em.
Hard to feel sorry for her even after being arrested for money laundering and this chap even had her allow other women to use her account to send him money, how would they have fitted into their supposed future together?? Flipping hell after being arrested and giving her story to police she was obviously informed of that this was a clearly a scammer preying on her and these other women yet she continued to send her savings and even go into debt for him. Nah, there’s desperate, gullible and lonely and there’s this, being arrested and landing in a world of legal trouble yet continues to just give away her savings to a charming stranger in Africa of all places. Plain stupidity.
One born every minute..
wow some people are so stupid
Stupid is as stupid does….
have your say