Bernie Sanders Wins The Killer Mike Primary

Rapper Killer Mike of Run the Jewels endorses progressive crusader Bernie Sanders for president.

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Rapper Killer Mike of the duo Run the Jewels announced in a tweet Monday that he is supporting Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' candidacy for president, citing Sanders' support for voting rights as a deciding factor.

Killer Mike has been politically outspoken following the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, last August. Killer Mike recently attempted to run as a write-in campaign for a seat on the Georgia House of Representatives, but neglected to fill out the necessary paperwork.

Sanders, who is challenging frontrunner Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president, is a darling of the progressive left, but he is considered a longshot. However, he has recently risen in New Hampshire polls and is drawing large crowds at rallies.

"No Hillary 4 me bro," Killer Mike wrote in a follow-up tweet to a fan. "I cannot support another Clinton or bush ever."

"I am beginning to see American political families like monarchs and I have no affection for monarchs," Killer Mike continued.

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AL Congressman: If You Get An Expensive Illness With Obamacare "You're Gonna Die"

“…the kinds of illnesses that threaten to kill people, that are expensive to treat, that’s where they’re gonna tell you to get your affairs in order because they’re not gonna provide coverage and you’re gonna die.”

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Rep. Mo Brooks, a Republican from Alabama, says people who contract expensive-to-treat illnesses are going to die under Obamacare.

"I have to look at the big picture," Brooks told the Matt Murphy Show on Friday when asked about those who would lose insurance if Obamacare was repealed. "I have to look at both the pros and the cons for all Americans and the damage that's gonna be done to Americans and the number of Americans vastly outweighs the benefit that is being given to those people that are being subsidized."

Brooks said "ultimately, you're looking at a lesser quality of care—health care." He added that the 15-person board of health-care experts created under the law to control costs -- the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) -- is making decisions about "whether a group of people live or die."

Sarah Palin famously referred to the IPAB as "death panels." The board is currently inactive because health care spending is growing at a slower rate than the threshold needed to activate it.

"An example: the Independent Payment Advisory Board, that's gonna be the entity that decides whether a group of people live or die because that entity is gonna be the one that decides whether health care is going to be provided for certain types of illnesses," said Brooks. "Uh, health care that is now provided by the kinds of insurance—well, I'll say now, that used to be provided—by the quality of insurance that we previously had."

Brooks said this meant, "people are going to be dying because of Obamacare because they're going to be denied coverage." He cited other countries in the world with similar agencies to make his point.

"And so people are going to be dying because of Obamacare because they're going to be denied coverage," said the Alabama Republican. "And how do we know this? Because there are other systems around the globe that have this kind of system in place. And there are people who are dying. You get breast cancer or you want to have a mammogram to try to have early detection to increase your likelihood of being able to survive it. Well, the countries that have this kind of government-run health care system do not provide mammogram access anywhere near the degree that we do in the United States of America. And that saves lives, if you have early detection. You lose lives if you have later detection."

Brooks again stressed that this meant there would be "people dying as a result of Obamacare just as they die in other parts of the world." He said if you had expensive illnesses "you're gonna die."

"And that's what you're going to be looking at is people dying as a result of Obamacare just as they die in other parts of the world. Now, Obamacare and government-run health care systems generally, they're good for the routine stuff. You got strep throat? Great. They'll address it. You got a broken leg? Uh, they'll mend it, okay. For the routine things. But the kinds of illnesses that threaten to kill people, that are expensive to treat, that's where they're gonna tell you to get your affairs in order because they're not gonna provide coverage and you're gonna die."

Here's the audio, the comments come 5:07:

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Alabama Supreme Court Order Causes Confusion For Marriage Equality In The State

Some probate judges in Alabama had started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in the wake of this past week’s U.S. Supreme Court marriage equality ruling.

WASHINGTON — Three days after the U.S. Supreme Court marriage ruling, there is confusion in Alabama.

First, some same-sex couples were issued marriage licenses in some counties in the state on Monday morning. Then, the state's Supreme Court issued an order in the afternoon — an order that's launched confusion, including in the media, about what happens now.

In March, the Alabama Supreme Court ordered probate judges — who can issue marriage licenses in the state — to stop issuing such licenses to same-sex couples. At the time, some probate judges in Alabama had begun issuing the licenses after a federal district court ruled the state's marriage ban was unconstitutional.

Since then, there were no marriages for same-sex couples in Alabama. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee marriage bans in Obergefell v. Hodges on Friday — a ruling that creates a national decision on the issue — some probate judges in Alabama began issuing licenses again on Monday.

On Monday afternoon, the Alabama Supreme Court issued an order that asks for input from the parties to the March case as to "the effect of the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell on this Court's existing orders."

The reference to "existing orders" suggests the court's view is that the March order that banned probate judges from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples remains in effect. On Monday, the court did not, however, explicitly direct probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Additionally, the Alabama Supreme Court noted that the parties to the Obergefell case have 25 days to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling — a step that appears unlikely given that state officials in each of the four states have said they will adhere to the ruling.

Although the court did not order probate judges to stop, Chief Justice Roy Moore — who has not participated in the orders in the state case — told AL.com that the Supreme Court's opinion is "[b]asically ... not in effect" during the 25-day period, absent a ruling to the contrary from the Alabama Supreme Court.

Moore's views on the issue, however, are well known. He has spoken out often in opposition to the marriage claims made by same-sex couples. He presumably has recused himself from the case before his court because he had issued his own memorandum, as the administrator of Alabama courts, attempting to stop same-sex couples from marrying in the state in advance of the federal trial court's order there taking effect in February.

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Can You Identify These Badly Drawn Foods?

Left-handed doodles by a righty.

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Ted Cruz: John Roberts "Put On An Obama Jersey," Justices Should Resign If They Want To Write Legislation

“He knows full well that what he did in both of those decisions was not faithfully applied the law but it was to alter the law, to change the law in order to achieve a policy outcome.”

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Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said Monday that while Supreme Court Justice John Roberts has been a friend for 20 years who he likes and admires, Roberts "put on an Obama jersey" in writing the majority opinion in the last two landmark court cases on Obamacare.

When asked directly by BuzzFeed News about whether Roberts should resign, Cruz said he thought that if "members of the court want to write legislation or rewrite it they should resign from the court and run for the Congress."

"The chief justice's decisions and opinions in the two Obamacare decision last week and three years ago, were profound disappointments, and they were disappointments because John Roberts is an incredibly talented lawyer," Cruz said in a sitdown interview on Monday.

"He knows full well that what he did in both of those decisions was not faithfully applied the law but it was to alter the law, to change the law in order to achieve a policy outcome."

Cruz noted that Roberts, at his confirmation hearing, "famously said, "'The role of judge is to be umpire, calling balls and strikes,'" but in his Obamacare decisions "he put on an Obama jersey."

"What the chief justice did that was wrong is he did not play the role of an umpire, he joined a team, he put an Obama jersey and rewrote the law in order to force Obamacare on millions of people who hurting because of it," said the Texas senator.

Cruz added that he himself "gave passionate speech on the Senate floor where I said 'Listen, if members of the Supreme Court want to write or rewrite federal legislation they should resign from the court and run for Congress because the Constitution gives Congress the authority to --."

Asked directly if he thought Roberts should resign he repeated, "As I said, if members of the court want to write legislation or rewrite it they should resign from the court and run for the Congress."

Cruz noted earlier that Robert was someone he'd known for 20 years and "he's been a friend and I liked and admired him." Cruz noted he and Roberts were both pallbearers at Chief Justice William Rehnquist's funeral and both had clerked for Rehnquist.

BuzzFeed News noted last week during Roberts' confirmation hearings in 2005, Cruz, as Texas solicitor general, spoke highly of Roberts, emailing his staff to say Roberts was a role model for how to "carry out our craft" and he was "the best Supreme Court litigator in the nation."

In 2005, Cruz said he had been one of those who helped recruit Roberts to help with the Bush v. Gore recount in Florida.

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Supreme Court Halts Enforcement Of New Abortion Restrictions In Texas

The 5-4 decision means several abortion clinics will remain open while the high court considers whether to hear the case.

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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday announced that Texas will not be able to enforce new restrictions on abortion providers while the justices decide whether to hear an appeal filed against the new rules.

Earlier this month, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the restrictions, which require abortion facilities in Texas to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs), where outpatient surgery is performed. Under the new rules, doctors who perform abortions must also have admissions privileges at a nearby hospital.

In the brief order on Monday, the Supreme Court — over the objection of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito — put the recent decision of the 5th Circuit on hold while the abortion providers ask the Supreme Court to hear their appeal.

The decision means that several clinics unable to meet the new restrictions will remain open at least until the Supreme Court decides whether it will hear the appeal.

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An Open Letter To The Love Of My Life, Carbs

Bread, I knead you in my life.

Dearest Carbs,

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It's been too long since we talked... I mean, really TALKED.

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Sure, we see each other every day. Usually at breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and sometimes for a little afternoon delight in between).

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But I feel like I haven't told you how much you mean to me in too long.

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FTC Settles With Developer Who Hijacked Phones To Mine Cryptocurrency

A game and rewards app was really a Trojan horse, installing virtual currency mining software on the phones of unsuspecting consumers.

Dogecoin

The thousands of consumers who downloaded the Prized app for Android from Google Play and the Amazon Appstore, beginning in 2014, believed they were working to redeem points for gift cards and clothing. Little did they know they were unwittingly enlisting their smartphones in the app developer's automated army as well.

The main purpose of Prized was actually to install malware on consumers' phones that would mine for virtual currency, harnessing the computing power of a massive fleet of mobile devices, to the unlawful benefit of the developer, Ryan Ramminger.

The Federal Trade Commission and the New Jersey Attorney General have settled with Ramminger, banning him from further distributing the malicious software. He will also be forced to pay the state of New Jersey $50,000. According to the FTC complaint, the malware mined for Dogecoin, Litecoin and QuarkCoin, but not the most prominent of the virtual currencies, bitcoin. In doing so, it caused rapid battery drains and monthly data overages on the devices on which it was installed. The settlement between the FTC and Ramminger requires that he destroy all the consumer information collected through the app. Ramminger has neither admitted to nor denied the allegations brought by the FTC.

In its complaint, the FTC alleged that Ramminger and his company, Equiliv Investments, violated the FTC Act and the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.

"Hijacking consumers' mobile devices with malware to mine virtual currency isn't just deplorable; it's also illegal," said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "These scammers are now prohibited from trying such a scheme again."

Helen Wong, an attorney with the FTC's Division of Financial Practices, told BuzzFeed News that this case is the first of its kind. The commission has dealt with email-based malware in the past, but Prized was the first instance of malicious activity originating in an app. She said the FTC has alleged that the app did not do any part of what it claimed — even the rewards part of the app, the legal, functioning aspect, was illegitimate and part of the ruse.

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Rand Paul Threw A Libertarian Hackathon On Pride Weekend

For liberty, for privacy, and for Rand Paul for President.

William Alden / Via BuzzFeed News

If they ventured outside on Saturday, maybe even took a walk to Dolores Park, the programmers would have been bathed in glorious sunshine and surrounded by rainbow-clad revelers.

Instead, for 24 hours starting that afternoon, smack in the middle of San Francisco's Pride weekend festivities, they sequestered themselves in a harshly lit co-working space in the city's SoMa neighborhood, coding for liberty, for privacy, and for Senator Rand Paul.

His presidential campaign had organized what is known in tech circles as a hackathon — basically, an all-night software-writing orgy — with a political twist. The campaign had challenged the programmers, grouped in competing teams, to make software applications for "protecting liberty and privacy." The winning team would get to meet Paul. The top two would get copies of the Constitution, signed by the libertarian-leaning senator.

The Rand Paul for President campaign cared a lot about this hackathon. Ron Schnell, the campaign's recently hired chief technology officer, told BuzzFeed News it was "a good starting point to ramp up to the most tech-savvy campaign in history," and that it was "pretty much the first thing I started working on" after joining the campaign in May.

Schnell pointed out the event had its own hashtag, #HackForRand. The senator wasn't actually there, but a close-to-life-size foam board cutout was. The image of Paul stared serenely at the programmers with a Mona Lisa smile. Beside it hung two campaign signs: "DEFEAT THE WASHINGTON MACHINE." "UNLEASH THE AMERICAN DREAM."

Ron Schnell, the campaign's chief technology officer.

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Carson On Same-Sex Marriage Decision: Sign Of Impending "Chaos"

“If everybody gets the right to change things for their group, what will we have pretty soon, other than chaos?”

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Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson said Friday that the Supreme Court's decision to strike down bans on same-sex marriages was a sign that America could be mired in "chaos," "pretty soon."

Carson's comments came hours after the 5-4 decision was handed down. They appeared to expand upon a formal statement he issued, which referred to the decision as "the law of the land," while calling for "Congress to make sure deeply held religious views are respected and protected."

Speaking that afternoon to radio host Simon Conway, Carson reiterated that he was "disappointed" and "not convinced" that the Court was playing the role that "the Founders intended" for it.

But he also said, "I don't have anything whatsoever against gay people or any people of any orientation getting together."

"I don't have anything whatsoever against gay people or any people of any orientation getting together, sharing property, hospital visitation rights, whatever they want to do," he claimed. "I have no problem with it, I'm happy for them to make a legal contract to do that."

Carson then argued that his problem was with "when you want to change things" and that, if other groups started demanding changes to laws in a similar manner, it would invite "chaos."

"What I have a problem with is when you want to change things," the retired neurosurgeon explained. "If everybody gets the right to change things for their group, what will we have pretty soon, other than chaos? So let's respect everybody and let everybody do what they want to do but don't change things for everybody else."

Asked by Conway about the possibility of the 5-4 decision eroding religious liberty in the US, Carson said, "It's already happened," before telling a story of a couple he said had lost their business for refusing to "participate in a gay marriage ceremony."

"I was talking to a couple here in Iowa a couple weeks ago," Carson recalled. "And, you know, they did not want to participate in a gay marriage ceremony. And the couple could easily have gone to some other person, but no they didn't want to and they had a lawsuit and they recently had to close their business. You know, this shouldn't be going on in the United States of America. That's what religious freedom is all about."

Here's the audio:

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