June 02, 2017 - June 06, 2017 Days 203-207 since Nov 8, 2016, election and days 133-137 since Jan 20th inauguration of No45
‘The guy won’t pay and he won’t listen’: Four top law firms refuse to represent the rich asshole in Russia probe
Four top law firms turned down White House requests to represent President some rich asshole in the ongoing Russia probe — and many cited his infamous unwillingness to heed legal advice as a key reason.
Yahoo News’ Mike Isikoff reports that the White House recently reached out to some of America’s top lawyers to see if they would work for the rich asshole on the Russia investigation, including Brendan Sullivan of Williams & Connolly; Ted Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Paul Clement and Mark Filip of Kirkland & Ellis; and Robert Giuffra of Sullivan & Cromwell.
However, all of these lawyers turned the White House down, forcing the administration to rely on longtime the rich asshole attorney Marc E. Kasowitz instead.
“The concerns were, ‘The guy won’t pay and he won’t listen,'” said one of Isikoff’s sources, who is described as a “lawyer close to the White House.”
Another attorney tells Isikoff that the rich asshole’s toxic political image at the moment made firms reluctant to be associated with him, as they feared association with the rich asshole would hurt their efforts to recruit top talent to their firms.
“Do I want to be associated with this president and his policies?” the attorney said in explaining the firms’ concerns about working for the rich asshole.
DC bar to host 'Comey Hearing Covfefe' Thursday
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN -
A Washington, D.C., bar is opening its doors early Thursday morning to broadcast former FBI Director James Comey's highly anticipated testimony in front of Congress.
Shaw's Tavern will open at 9:30 a.m. for "The Comey Hearing Covfefe." The bar will feature $5 "Russian Vodka flavors" and a $10 "FBI" sandwich.
"Come on... you know you want to watch the drama unfold this Thursday," a Facebook post for the event reads. "We will be opening early at Shaw's Tavern at 9:30am and the hearing starts at 10am on all 5 tv's with sound."
This is Comey's first appearance in front of Congress since he was fired by President the rich asshole last month. He will testify in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee amid its ongoing probe into Russian election interference and is expected to address reports that the rich asshole asked him to drop the FBI's investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
News of the event quickly spread on Twitter.
Don't F*ck With London, Donald. You're Not Hard Enough, and You're Not Welcome Here Either
The calls for the rich asshole's impending state visit to be canceled are growing stronger by the day, and there is no way Londoners are going to stand for having a president who has expressed such abhorrent views towards Muslims (along with women and other minorities) in their city without an almighty demonstration.
I was born and raised in London and the vast majority of my family still resides there, so when I heard about the terrorist attack on London Bridge, I felt a sense of panic unlike the one I had during the Manchester attack. Of course any appalling act of violence is difficult to hear about, but when it's close to home it becomes very, very real.
In the wake of the attacks, Londoners did what they always do -- they banded together, showed extraordinary compassion to one another, and went on about their business without panicking (as seen by the legendary bloke holding his pint in the picture above who reportedly wouldn't leave it in the pub after it was evacuated). Why? Because terrorism doesn't work on Londoners as we've simply seen too much of it. From the Blitz to the IRA and Al Qaeda, Londoners are just too hard to scare into submission, and our mayor Sadiq Khan represents the very best of that resilient spirit -- unlike some rich asshole, who represents the very worst of what to do in a crisis.
After the attack happened, Khan, who grew up in south London (around the corner from me), boxed as a youngster and became the first Muslim mayor of a major western capital, told Londoners that there was “no reason to be alarmed” by an increased in armed police presence in the city that day. Seeking to keep everyone calm, Khan told London that, “Metropolitan police are responding to the horrific terrorist attack at London Bridge and Borough Market. My thoughts are with everyone affected, and I’d like to thank the brave men and women of our emergency services who were first on the scene and will be working throughout the night."
“This was a deliberate and cowardly attack on innocent Londoners and visitors to our city enjoying their Saturday night,” he continued. “I condemn it in the strongest possible terms. There is no justification whatsoever for such barbaric acts.”
Rather than show support for London in its time of need, some rich asshole weighed in with his fat little fingers tweeting out the following insulting message to the mayor:
Khan refused to respond personally, but a spokesman for the mayor said he had “more important things to do than respond to some rich asshole’s ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks”. Instead of apologizing to the mayor -- or at the very least leaving it alone -- the rich asshole decided to continue his war of words with Khan and fired off the following revolting tweet, hoping to sow fear and division amongst Londoners and the rest of the world:
The acting US ambassador to Britain, Lewis Lukens, defied the president and declared his support for Khan:
Khan has responded by stating that the U.K must now cancel the rich asshole's state visit. “I don’t think we should roll out the red carpet to the president of the USA in the circumstances where his policies go against everything we stand for,” he said on an interview with Channel 4 News.
“When you have a special relationship it is no different from when you have got a close mate. You stand with them in times of adversity but you call them out when they are wrong. There are many things about which some rich asshole is wrong.”
The calls for the rich asshole's impending state visit to be cancelled are growing stronger by the day, and there is no way Londoners are going to stand for having a president who has expressed such abhorrent views towards Muslims (along with women and other minorities) in their city without an almighty demonstration.
As a Londoner, I echo the calls for his state visit to be canceled immediately. the rich asshole isn't hard enough to mix it with Sadiq, and he's not welcome there either. London is responding to terrorism without fear and without hate, so Donald can fuck right off and never interfere with my city ever again.
the rich asshole Embarrasses Himself And All Americans Again With Monday Morning Twitter Meltdown
June 5, 2017 by Samuel Warde
the rich asshole Suffers Monday Morning Meltdown On Twitter.
the rich asshole already suffered a horrendous weekend full of backlash – so he returns to Twitter Monday morning with a set of tweets guaranteed to come back to haunt him.
NBC News‘ “First Read” noted Monday morning that “For a presidency that’s already in crisis — see his 36% job approval rating per Gallup or this Thursday’s upcoming testimony by former FBI Director James Comey — the last 24 hours or so have been extraordinarily horrendous for President the rich asshole.”
Saturday night, the rich asshole invalidated his own legal defense for his travel ban while attempting to use the London terror attack to promote his bigoted political agenda when he posted a tweet admitting that his travel policy and accompanying executive orders are in fact a “travel ban.”
[His Justice Department attorneys have been arguing that his order is a “pause” and not an actual “travel ban.”]
We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!
The ACLU was quick to pick up on the admission, tweeting “Glad we both agree the ban is a ban.”
Glad we both agree the ban is a ban. twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
That was followed up by a tweet by Cecillia Wang, the Deputy Legal Director for the National ACLU, who tweeted: “We need to be outraged when the president exploits a terrible violent crime to push his discriminatory and illegal policy.”
We need to be outraged when the president exploits a terrible violent crime to push his discriminatory and illegal policy. twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
Then on Sunday, the rich asshole embarrassed himself, and all Americans, yet again when he lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan in the wake of Saturday night’s terror attack on a London bridge.
At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is "no reason to be alarmed!"
As NBC News reports, a spokesperson for London Mayor Sadiq Khan later said in a statement that:
“The Mayor is busy working with the police, emergency services, and the government to coordinate the response to this horrific and cowardly terrorist attack and provide leadership and reassurance to Londoners and visitors to our city. He has more important things to do than respond to some rich asshole’s ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks urging Londoners not to be alarmed when they saw more police — including armed officers — on the streets.”
Monday morning the rich asshole doubled down on both controversies, leaving no doubt that his travel policy is a ban and renewing his attack on Mayor Khan.
People, the lawyers and the courts can call it whatever they want, but I am calling it what we need and what it is, a TRAVEL BAN!
Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his "no reason to be alarmed" statement. MSM is working hard to sell it!
the rich asshole also tweeted about the watered down nature of his second travel ban that was intended to withstand constitutional scrutiny, but has failed so far:
The Justice Dept. should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C.
The Justice Dept. should ask for an expedited hearing of the watered down Travel Ban before the Supreme Court - & seek much tougher version!
And he appeared to threaten to bypass the courts, tweeting: “In any event we are EXTREME VETTING people coming into the U.S. in order to help keep our country safe. The courts are slow and political!”
In any event we are EXTREME VETTING people coming into the U.S. in order to help keep our country safe. The courts are slow and political!
Calling the rich asshole the “Alarmist-in-Chief,” NBC News summarized the rich asshole’s Monday morning Twitter melt down:
For starters, there was his out-of-context shot at London’s mayor after the terrorist attack on the city Saturday night (before playing a round of golf). Then there were his tweets this morning that called his revised travel ban “watered down” and “politically correct,” potentially undermining his administration’s legal defense that the ban doesn’t discriminate against Muslims.
CNN Found The Perfect Way To Troll the rich assholel's Live Announcement Today (IMAGE)
some rich asshole may have been guilty in intentionally scheduled his first overseas trip to temporarily escape his Russia scandal just as things started really heating up. Unfortunately for the rich asshole, now that he is back in the States, the investigation is once again catching up to him.
One thing the rich asshole will regret during this whole Russia investigation is his volatile, tense relationship with the press. Thanks to his own abrasive personality, the rich asshole has made many enemies with major networks, one of the main ones being CNN. Earlier today, CNN sent a pretty direct message to the rich asshole, one that should scare him for the remainder of the investigation.
While CNN was covering the rich asshole’s live White House event, where the POTUS was speaking about the “Air Traffic Control Reform Initiative”, CNN found the perfect opportunity to troll the rich asshole. Using an on-air chyron, CNN promoted the explosive testimony of former FBI Director James Comey, which is only three days away. This graphic appeared throughout the rich asshole’s announcement, as a reminder that the rich asshole’s troubles are just beginning. You can see the chyron below:
CNN likely had a ball thinking of ways the network could troll the rich asshole before settling on this. The Comey investigation was a perfect choice, though — without a doubt, the rich asshole is practically sh*tting his pants over this, judging by the pattern of erratic tweets that have recently been sent out, as they always are whenever poor Donnie is stressed out about something.
It won’t be long before the rich asshole finds out what CNN did during his event and lashes out in response. But no matter how much he attacks CNN and the media as a whole, it won’t help him in the Russia investigation, or make Comey’s testimony go away. the rich asshole will finally have to face the music, and most of us cannot wait.
SUPPORT FOR SOME RICH ASSHOLE'S IMPEACHMENT IS NOW HIGHER THAN HIS APPROVAL RATING
BY
Virtually every single poll tracking President some rich asshole's approval rating showed the figure plummeting Monday morning, well below the margin of error compared to the rising level of support for impeachment. The results follow the rich asshole's controversial decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord; the ongoing investigation into his campaign’s possible ties to the Kremlin is also a factor.
The president's approval rating dipped from nearly 42 percent to just 36 percent over the weekend, according to a Gallup daily tracking poll published Monday. the rich asshole's declining popularity is inching closer toward his all-time low of 35 percent as president in March, when Gallup had the president’s approval at just 35 percent. What's more, nearly 43 percent of American voters support the idea of beginning the official impeachment process for the rich asshole, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll published Wednesday.
There are slight discrepancies between several leading polls as to where the president’s approval officially stands, though each tracking poll published Monday and over the weekend seemed to show a decline in popularity following the rich asshole's decision on the Paris Agreement. Even right-leaning poll sites like Rasmussen Reports are indicating dips in support for the president's job performance, reporting that as of Monday, 54 percent of the nation disapproves of the rich asshole’s tenure as commander in chief.
Support for impeachment is now higher than Trump's approval rating in virtually every poll.
Approval @Gallup: 36%
Impeachment @Politico: 43%
Approval @Gallup: 36%
Impeachment @Politico: 43%
Whereas the rich asshole enjoyed record-high popularity near the end of his first trip abroad since assuming the Oval Office (nearing 42 percent or above in several polls and indexes), now he is once again in the historic territory of being one of the least popular new presidents in modern American history. The public’s increasing support for the exhaustive political process of removing the president from office comes at a time when Democratic lawmakers are taking to the airwaves and the floors of Congress to call for the rich asshole’s impeachment.
Texas Rep. Al Green brought an official call to Congress to impeach the president May 17 and said he was writing drafts of impeachment articles. Firebrand California Rep. Maxine Waters was back on TV Sunday afternoon, demanding that her colleagues take the rich asshole’s impeachment—and the allegations against him concerning his business interests and ties to Russia—seriously.
Maxine Waters on @amjoyshow: "I've given up absolutely on the House Intelligence Committee. Nunes is crazy. He doesn't make good sense."
"We're also going to continue to talk about how this president and his allies, I believe and others believe, colluded with the Russians to undermine our democracy," Waters told Joy Reid on MSNBC on Sunday. "And we’re not going to stop talking about it because this is extremely important to the future of this country."
Schumer: the rich asshole should blame himself for vacancies
© Greg Nash
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is firing back at President the rich asshole's charge that Democrats are "obstructionist," saying the president is to blame for hundreds of vacancies in his government.
“If the President is looking for someone to blame on the slow pace of confirmations, he needs only to look in the mirror. There are more than 500 Senate confirmable positions. Even though it is now June, the administration has failed to select a nominee for 442 of them," Schumer said in a statement on Monday.
He added that the rich asshole "ought to roll up his sleeves and get to work rather than pointing false fingers of blame.”
Earlier Monday, the rich asshole blamed Democrats for slow-walking his political nominees and urged the Senate to approve more of his picks.
Democrats can't block a nominee without GOP support, but they have slow-walked many of the rich asshole's nominees and forced even sub-Cabinet picks to overcome procedural hurdles.
Schumer argued on Monday that senators have a "responsibility to give a thorough vetting for such important positions, with many of the nominees having conflicts of interest and incomplete ethics agreements when they were named."
Of the 559 "key positions" tracked by The Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service, the Senate has confirmed 39 individuals and the president has nominated an additional 63.
The Senate has already confirmed five of the rich asshole's ambassador nominations. An additional six have been formally nominated, but only one— Scott Brown to be ambassador to New Zealand — is currently ready for a Senate vote.
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, also blasted the rich asshole's tweets as "fake news," adding that "your lack of nominations is the problem."
Seven Democratic senators sent the rich asshole a letter last month urging him to quicken his pace on State Department nominations, arguing the vacancies "threaten to undermine our leadership on many of the national security crises we face today."
Sean Bartlett, a spokesman for Cardin and Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee, added that "the President should get off Twitter and lead his team in sending more ambassadors and other crucial nominees to the Senate. We’re ready to do our job, but he needs to do his first. That’s how the process works."
GOP senators have also voiced frustration at the rich asshole's pace, which have left key sub-Cabinet positions without a Senate confirmed nominee for months.
Seven Democratic senators sent the rich asshole a letter last month urging him to quicken his pace on State Department nominations, arguing the vacancies "threaten to undermine our leadership on many of the national security crises we face today."
Sean Bartlett, a spokesman for Cardin and Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee, added that "the President should get off Twitter and lead his team in sending more ambassadors and other crucial nominees to the Senate. We’re ready to do our job, but he needs to do his first. That’s how the process works."
GOP senators have also voiced frustration at the rich asshole's pace, which have left key sub-Cabinet positions without a Senate confirmed nominee for months.
- This story was updated at 12:48 p.m.
the rich asshole Failed to Read the Fine Print: He Does Not Have the Final Authority to Withdraw from Paris Climate Agreement
By
Posted on
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some rich asshole did his best to spite Barack Obama by attempting to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, but as The New York Times points out, he really doesn’t have the authority to do so.
Here is what the NYT wrote:
But he will stick to the withdrawal process laid out in the Paris agreement, which President Barack Obama joined and most of the world has already ratified. That could take nearly four years to complete, meaning a final decision would be up to the American voters in the next presidential election.
So what does this all mean? It means that despite the rich asshole’s worst efforts, the withdrawal process would not be completed until the week following our next presidential election in 2020. Should the rich asshole lose that election (or should he be removed from office at some point before the November 2020 elections), his actions would have been futile.
You might find this situation somewhat similar to the fall 2016, when Mitch McConnell and the Republicans decided to block President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland. Their rationale was that because the appointment vacancy came so close to a presidential election, that the new president alone should have the authority to make the appointment.
The big difference between these situations is that the action of the Republicans was completely and utterly unconstitutional, while the withdrawal timeline for the Paris agreement is functioning exactly the way it was designed.
President the rich asshole Just Held a Signing. He Had Nothing to Sign
1:13 PM ET
After announcing his goal to privatize the nation's Air Traffic Control System, President some rich asshole sat down at a desk on Monday and signed two documents. There was only one problem: He wasn't actually signing something that would have any tangible impact on what he had just proposed.
A White House aide told reporters the rich asshole had signed a "a decision memo and letter transmitting legislative principles to Congress," surrounding the privatization of the Air Traffic Control system, which he had just spent the last few minutes advocating for. But in order for his goal to come to fruition, Congress would need to pass pass legislation implementing it. Before the rich asshole gave remarks Monday, White House officials had told reporters that the President is only dictating his legislative goals of separating air traffic controls from the FAA. Congress is not required to follow through on these goals.
the rich asshole's proposal was actually based on legislation introduced by Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Bill Shuster, the Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The bill never made it to the House floor for a vote and reportedly faced bipartisan opposition in the Senate
June 05 2017
When President some rich asshole addressed NATO leaders during his debut overseas trip little more than a week ago, he surprised and disappointed European allies who hoped—and expected—he would use his speech to explicitly reaffirm America’s commitment to mutual defense of the alliance’s members, a one-for-all, all-for-one provision that looks increasingly urgent as Eastern European members worry about the threat from a resurgent Russia on their borders.
That part of the rich asshole visit is known.
What’s not is that the president also disappointed—and surprised—his own top national security officials by failing to include the language reaffirming the so-called Article 5 provision in his speech. National security adviser H.R. McMaster, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson all supported the rich asshole doing so and had worked in the weeks leading up to the trip to make sure it was included in the speech, according to five sources familiar with the episode. They thought it was, and a White House aide even told The New York Times the day before the line was definitely included.
It was not until the next day, Thursday, May 25, when the rich asshole started talking at an opening ceremony for NATO’s new Brussels headquarters, that the president’s national security team realized their boss had made a decision with major consequences—without consulting or even informing them in advance of the change.
“They had the right speech and it was cleared through McMaster,” said a source briefed by National Security Council officials in the immediate aftermath of the NATO meeting. “As late as that same morning, it was the right one.”
Added a senior White House official, “There was a fully coordinated other speech everybody else had worked on”—and it wasn’t the one the rich asshole gave. “They didn’t know it had been removed,” said a third source of the rich asshole national security officials on hand for the ceremony. “It was only upon delivery.”
The president appears to have deleted it himself, according to one version making the rounds inside the government, reflecting his personal skepticism about NATO and insistence on lecturing NATO allies about spending more on defense rather than offering reassurances of any sort; another version relayed to others by several White House aides is that the rich asshole’s nationalist chief strategist Steve Bannon and policy aide Stephen Miller played a role in the deletion. (According to NSC spokesman Michael Anton, who did not dispute this account, “The president attended the summit to show his support for the NATO alliance, including Article 5. His continued effort to secure greater defense commitments from other nations is making our alliance stronger.”)
Either way, the episode suggests that what has been portrayed—correctly—as a major rift within the 70-year-old Atlantic alliance is also a significant moment of rupture inside the rich asshole administration, with the president withholding crucial information from his top national security officials—and then embarrassing them by forcing them to go out in public with awkward, unconvincing, after-the-fact claims that the speech really did amount to a commitment they knew it did not make.
The frantic, last-minute maneuvering over the speech, I’m told, included “MM&T,” as some now refer to the trio of Mattis, McMaster and Tillerson, lobbying in the days leading up to it to get a copy of the president’s planned remarks and then pushing hard once they obtained the draft to get the Article 5 language in it, only to see it removed again. All of which further confirms a level of White House dysfunction that veterans of both parties I’ve talked with in recent months say is beyond anything they can recall.
the rich asshole quietly slashes number of refugees from Obama’s target despite court order
- The Washington Times - Sunday, June 4, 2017
Despite a court order halting most of his extreme vetting policy, President the rich asshole’s administration has quietly been working toward his goal of a drastic cut in the number of refugees the U.S. will accept this fiscal year.
President Obama had set a target of up to 110,000 on his way out the door, but some rich asshole tried to reset that number to 50,000. If the pace continues, the final tally is likely to be about 60,000 when the fiscal year ends in September — well below the level Mr. Obama wanted to lock in.
Most striking is the drop in the number of refugees from the seven terrorist-connected special interest countries that some rich asshole singled out for extra scrutiny in his executive orders: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Those countries accounted for about half of all refugees admitted over the final months of Mr. Obama’s tenure. But during the past six weeks, they have represented only about a quarter of the refugees — despite a judge’s order instructing some rich asshole to keep Mr. Obama’s policies in place.
Security analysts cheered the move, saying the new president has already changed the culture from the previous administration.
“Even if ‘extreme vetting’ is on hold, good vetting takes time, and the rich asshole administration’s plans to follow the law are eliminating the irresponsible rush to judgment that took place under the Obama administration,” said Matthew J. O'Brien, research director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform and a former senior anti-fraud executive at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, one of the agencies that handles refugees.
Across two executive orders — one in January and, after courts blocked it, a revised one in March — some rich asshole has tried to impose a 90-day halt on all admissions from a half-dozen suspect countries. He has also attempted to enforce a 120-day pause in refugee admissions and a broader halt to any Syrian refugees. He also cut Mr. Obama’s refugee ceiling by more than half, to just 50,000.
The goal, some rich asshole said, was to give his administration a chance to improve screening procedures so no potential terrorists could slip through.
However a federal judge in Hawaii said some rich asshole’s entire approach has been tainted by the “animus” he showed Muslims during the presidential campaign and has put all of the key parts on hold.
That means the rich asshole administration is still admitting refugees from the seven targeted countries of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — but at much lower levels than during Mr. Obama’s tenure.
Syrians made up about 15 percent of all refugees admitted during Mr. Obama’s time this fiscal year. Over the past six weeks, though, they total about 4 percent. The number of Iraqis has dropped from 15 percent under Mr. Obama to about 8 percent of the total in thee rich asshole administration.
Overall, the number of refugees accepted worldwide has dropped from more than 10,000 in October to 2,070 in March, and only slightly more than 3,000 in each of the past two months.
The Justice Department late last week asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the court battle and allow some rich asshole’s full travel ban and refugee halt to be reinstated — including a full stop to Syrian refugees and reimposing the 50,000 cap for fiscal year 2017.
If they succeed, it would slow refugees even more. The government has admitted more than 46,000 in the first eight months of the fiscal year, so that would leave an average of just 1,000 for each of the final four months — 10 percent the rate Mr. Obama had hoped.
Refugee advocates say thousands of refugees could be stranded without options.
“For people who may have family here who don’t know what the future means for them, that’s just a tragedy. For people who were in the process and now are wondering what’s next for them, and people who are in precarious and tenuous and vulnerable conditions, what does this mean for them? I don’t have an answer for every refugee, but in general it’s not a good situation for refugees,” said Kay Bellor, vice president for programs at the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services.
She said American communities have shown “an amazing outpouring of support” for the refugees and that the government needs to match that commitment. Ms. Bellor said a 50,000 cap is well below what the U.S. can — and should — accept.
“Disappointment is kind of not even a strong enough word,” she said. “The U.S. should do more. The problem is great, our resources are great.”
The U.S. looks to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to conduct initial screenings to decide who would be good candidates for resettlement. American officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services then do their own screening, which includes an interview and the most extensive background check possible, and the State Department makes final approvals.
Refugees are resettled in the U.S. by nonprofit groups such as the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services.
some rich asshole argues that the U.S. needs better refugee screening, and security analysts point to a number of people admitted as refugees who have been charged with terrorist-related offenses over the past decade. Refugee advocates counter that the rate of crime and other dangers from refugees is low.
For now, battles in Congress over budgets and in the courts over the legality of the president’s plans have left the agencies that administer the refugee program struggling.
USCIS began a slowdown in January to conform to some rich asshole’s 50,000 ceiling. When a judge in Hawaii issued an injunction in March halting the 50,000 number, USCIS had to alter its plans but had already canceled interviews with thousands of potential refugees.
Now, the agency is scrambling to adjust the pace of interviews.
The State Department blamed an uncertain budget situation for the overall slowdown and suggested that activity would pick up after Congress approved funding for fiscal year 2017 in early May.
The department said in a statement that it is acting under the 110,000 ceiling set by Mr. Obama but stressed that is an outer limit, not a target.
“We are not in a position to speculate as to the final number of refugees that will be admitted by the end of this fiscal year,” the department said.
The department declined to answer why the percentage of refugees from special-interest countries has dropped, saying only that “we continue to interview and process refugees of all nationalities.”
Mr. O'Brien said part of the slowdown from special-interest countries could be a result of deteriorating conditions in the Middle East in recent months.
But overall, he said, the numbers are a signal that some rich asshole is in charge and employees are getting the message.
“Many of the people from the Iraq/Syria region under the Obama administration should never have been admitted to the United States. It appears that the rich asshole administration is making attempts to engage in serious (as opposed to superficial) vetting efforts and is approving refugee applications only for individuals who appear to be genuine refugees,” Mr. O'Brien said in an email.
He also said he suspects that where the Obama administration treated the refugee cap as a target to be met,the rich asshole administration sees it as an outer limit.
“Part of Obama’s immigration agenda was to significantly increase the number of both asylees and refugees admitted to the U.S. — presumably because President Obama saw the U.S. as being responsible for the degradation of the security situation in the Middle East. By way of contrast, President the rich asshole has clearly indicated that he sees refugee admissions as a priority national security issue and radical Islam as the source of the problem,” Mr. O'Brien said.
HOUSE DEMS TO THE RICH ASSHOLE: DON’T F*CK WITH US ON COMEY TESTIMONY
Posted by Andrew Simpson on 03 Jun 2017
On June 8th, former FBI Director James Comey is scheduled to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Given the talk of obstruction of justice after Comey said publicly that some rich asshole asked him to “back off” the FBI’s investigation of General Michael Flynn, the testimony is likely to be the most explosive yet in the saga of the rich asshole’s nascent presidency.
On Friday, Press Secretary Sean Spicer was cornered by a question from a reporter during his press briefing: Would the president attempt to invoke executive privilege to prevent Comey from testifying? Spicer was noncommittal:
I think, obviously, it’s gotta be reviewed…I have not spoken to counsel yet. I don’t know how they’re going to respond.”
Okay, but that’s not a definitive “no,” and seven Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee were having none of it.
Friday afternoon, ranking Democrat John Conyers along with his colleagues sent a letter to chief White House Counsel Don McGahn. They warned the rich asshole administration that invoking privilege in this instance would not only likely not hold up in court, but would make them look even more guilty — as if that were possible.
Conyers laid out the circumstances in which it is possible for a president to claim privilege: The “deliberative process privilege,” which protects sensitive information prior to a judicial decision, and the “presidential communications privilege,” a broader interpretation of the power of the office regarding high-level conversations. The letter details how neither instance applies here, not least because the rich asshole has already publicly discussed his conversations with Comey. This likely waives his right to invoke privilege altogether.
That doesn’t mean the rich asshole won’t try, however. In case he does, Conyers and his allies on the Judiciary made it clear:
In short, use of executive privilege to block Mr. Comey’s testimony would be a mistake. We caution you that it would fail on the merits. We also warn you that the public would likely — and perhaps rightly — view the decision as additional evidence of obstruction of justice.”
John Conyers is the longest serving current member of Congress. the rich asshole would do well to listen.
the rich asshole Immediately Politicizes London Tragedy On Twitter In A New Low Even For Him
Here’s a new low for America: During the unfolding tragedy in England, NBC announced that it would not be displaying the messages of some rich asshole, the President of the United States, because his tweets were spreading potential lies.
Pres. Trump has used Twitter to share news report on London incident.
We aren't relaying president's retweet, as the info is unconfirmed.
We aren't relaying president's retweet, as the info is unconfirmed.
the rich asshole decided the minutes after a possible terror incident in London would be a good time to retweet fear-mongering speculation from the right-wing conspiracy site Drudge Report. His action may have done one of two equally disgusting things: He either amplified the terror being spread by a terror attack (thereby doing the work of the terrorist) or he spread misinformation and rumors thereby needlessly scaring people because of his eagerness to exploit a tragedy.
Either way, people were appalled.
But the rich asshole wasn’t done.
Rather than wait for the facts to come in, the rich asshole immediately seized on the moment to renew his push for a Muslim ban in the United States. British officials hadn’t even confirmed the number of dead and wounded, and the rich asshole was busy using the tragedy to promote his own bigoted policies an ocean away. It would take him three tweets before he got around to expressing concern for the victims.
the rich asshole has been increasingly relying on unreliable right-wing conspiracy sites to get his information. As president, he regularly receives extremely detailed information about world events from experts in the intelligence community, but his animosity towards the officials in the FBI and CIA, and his general dislike of reading makes him often ignore the valuable intel. Instead, he chooses to get his information from Drudge, Fox News, and InfoWars. The right-wing media sites are notoriously unscrupulous. InfoWars, for example, endorsed the theory that the Sandy Hook school shooting was staged by Obama as a pretext to taking people’s guns. Drudge routinely gets facts wrong in its rush to promote fear and intolerance in its extremely right-wing audience.
Two hours later, the rich asshole finally deleted the Drudge Report tweet – which puts him in an awkward position because it technically violates federal law to do so. His advisers might want to tell him that the best way to avoid that is by not spreading Drudge Report tweets in the first place.
Briefed by top National Security officials in the nation.
Retweets Drudge.
UnRetweets it.
Unpresidented.
Retweets Drudge.
UnRetweets it.
Unpresidented.
White House ethics waivers prove ‘drain the swamp’ was a scam
06/02/17 10:48 AM—UPDATED 06/02/17 02:41 PM
We learned in April that some rich asshole’s White House has hired several lobbyists, lawyers, and consultants who are now crafting policies “for the same industries in which they recently earned a paycheck.” The administration has ethics rules to prevent this from happening, but Team the rich asshole quietly issued waivers, allowing officials to ignore the rules.What we didn’t know at the time was just how common this practice has been in the rich asshole World – because the White House insisted on keeping information about the waiver secret. The Office of Government Ethics told the administration it had to disclose the details, and the White House relented.
The New York Times reported on the information the rich asshole and his aides were so reluctant to share.
President the rich asshole has given at least 16 White House staff members dispensation to work on policy matters they handled while employed as lobbyists or to interact with their former colleagues in private-sector jobs, according to records released late Wednesday. […]
The list of waivers includes high-profile names such as Reince Priebus, some rich asshole’s chief of staff, and Kellyanne Conway, a senior White House adviser. They had to be granted waivers because of their prior work with organizations such as the Republican National Committee, which Mr. Priebus once ran, and because they continue to have contact with those organizations as part of their White House work.
But the waivers granted by the White House are also going to former lobbyists, despite some rich asshole’s campaign vow to try to reduce the influence of lobbyists in Washington.
So, for example, Michael Catanzaro was a corporate lobbyist for an oil company and a coal-burning electric utility. the rich asshole then hired him to help undermine the same environmental safeguards he used to target as a lobbyist, thanks to a waiver that allows Catanzaro to ignore the ethics rules the rich asshole used to brag about.
The White House and its allies will be quick to note that the Obama administration relied on similar waivers. That’s true, to a point, but the details matter: not only did the Obama White House volunteer to publicly disclose these waivers, which were narrowly focused, but the rich asshole World has issued more ethics waivers in four months than Team Obama did in eight years.
Obama also didn’t extend waivers to much of his senior White House staff, while the rich asshole has done exactly that.
Adding insult to injury, a separate New York Times report added that the Republican administration may not have handled these waivers properly.
The rich asshole administration may have skirted federal ethics rules by retroactively granting a blanket exemption that allows Stephen K. Bannon, the senior White House strategist, to communicate with editors at Breitbart News, where he was recently an executive.
The exemption, made public late Wednesday along with more than a dozen other ethics waivers issued by the White House, allows all White House aides to communicate with news organizations, even if they involve a “former employer or former client.”
The waiver, which was undated, did not mention Mr. Bannon specifically, but appeared to benefit him by potentially dislodging him from a pending ethics complaint over his past discussions with Breitbart editors. It would also free him from restrictions on his future communication with the conservative media company.
5 things to expect when ex-FBI Director James Comey testifies on Russia
In this occasional series, we will bring you up to speed on the biggest national security stories of the week.
Former FBI director James B. Comey is scheduled to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8 in a public hearing that will begin at 10 a.m. The appearance will be the first time Comey has spoken publicly since President the rich asshole fired him last month, and it comes as the law enforcement investigation into possible coordination between the rich asshole campaign and the Kremlin during the 2016 election is heating up.
Here’s what you need to know about his testimony:
Why does the committee want Comey to testify?
The Senate Intelligence Committee is among several congressional committees investigating possible coordination between the rich asshole campaign and the Kremlin during the 2016 election, and there are few people on the planet who know more about that than Comey.
Until he was fired on May 9, Comey was leading the FBI’s investigation into Russian meddling, which had started back in July. Now he personally might become a part of the probe, as investigators consider whether the rich asshole obstructed justice in firing him or in interacting with him before his dismissal.
That could be interesting in its own right, and it could further legislators’ look at Russian meddling.
Play Video 2:31
Comey prepared extensively for his conversations with the rich asshole
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Before he was fired by President the rich asshole, former FBI director James B. Comey fielded practice questions in advance of meetings and wrote highly detailed notes afterward in his car. (Jason Aldag,Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)
Are there any limits to what Comey can say?
Investigators — led by newly appointed special counsel Robert S. Mueller III — are still working on the Russia case. Even before Mueller was appointed, Comey would almost certainly not have been willing to discuss the details of their work. That is still the case now that Mueller is in charge.
People familiar with the matter, though, say Comey has reached an understanding with Mueller’s office about what he can and cannot discuss, and it seems Comey will be allowed to reveal at least some details of his exchanges with the president.
Can the White House stop this?
The president could possibly invoke some form of executive privilege — which is designed to keep sensitive decision-making processes involving the president secret — to stop Comey from testifying. The administration had discussions about privilege with former acting attorney general Sally Yates before she testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Russia and other matters last month.
In that case, though, Yates ultimately was allowed to testify, and the White House might be on even shakier footing to try to block Comey. The president, after all, has tweeted extensively about the Russia investigation and even mentioned conversations with Comey in his letter firing the FBI director. the rich asshole claimed in that missive that Comey had told him three times he was not under investigation.
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the rich asshole on asking Comey to end Russia investigation: 'No, no. Next question.'
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President the rich asshole dismissed a question on May 18 about reports that he asked former FBI director James Comey to end the investigation into ties between Russia and the rich asshole campaign, and went on to attack Comey's "poor, poor performance." (Reuters)
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Will this affect the Russia investigation?
Comey could say something that is of interest to the new special counsel, particularly on the question of whether justice was obstructed. But given that he has already been in touch with Mueller’s office, that seems unlikely.
That’s not to say the hearing won’t be interesting.
Comey is a gifted orator who is not shy about claiming the spotlight. In 2007, he famously described to lawmakers how he raced to the hospital room of Attorney General John Ashcroft to stop, at least for a while, the approval of a National Security Agency surveillance program that he believed to be unlawful. The intervention has become lore in Washington and helped foster Comey’s reputation as a fiercely independent official, unafraid to stand in the way of perceived wrongdoing and then expose it publicly.
some rich asshole Asked A Question. George Takei Delivered A Blistering 6-Word Reply.
Set phasers to BURN!
President some rich asshole asked a question during his announcement Thursday that he was pulling the United States out of the Paris climate accord.
As Hate Crimes Rise, The rich asshole Administration Blocks Funding To Fight Domestic Extremism
WH Aides: the rich asshole Decided To Break Paris Deal After French President’s Handshake Embarrassed Him
the rich asshole Flies Into Late-Night ALL CAPS Freakout After Negative Paris Accord Press
Pittsburgh Mayor Slaps the rich asshole Down For Using Pittsburgh As A Reason To Destroy The Planet
some rich asshole Asked A Question. George Takei Delivered A Blistering 6-Word Reply.
Set phasers to BURN!
President some rich asshole asked a question during his announcement Thursday that he was pulling the United States out of the Paris climate accord.
“Star Trek” actor George Takei had sharp answer.
the rich asshole had painted a picture of a United States being mocked by the rest of the world for joining with them in the accord, agreed to by nearly 200 countries.
“At what point do they start laughing at us as a country?” the rich asshole asked.
Takei responded on the rich asshole’s favorite platform, Twitter:
Donald asks "At what point does America get demeaned? At what point do they start laughing at us?"
Literally, the moment you were elected.
Literally, the moment you were elected.
Takei, once a contestant on the rich asshole’s “Celebrity Apprentice,” has become one of the president’s loudest critics.
“I think every day of his tenure so far, and I think it’s going to be abbreviated, has been a disaster,” he said in April. “One chaos after another disaster.”
As Hate Crimes Rise, The rich asshole Administration Blocks Funding To Fight Domestic Extremism
In the midst of a rise in hate crimes and domestic extremism, such as the recent white supremacist attack in Portland, the rich asshole administration is cutting down on programs aimed at combating domestic extremism.
WH Aides: the rich asshole Decided To Break Paris Deal After French President’s Handshake Embarrassed Him
the rich asshole’s decision to pull America out of the Paris climate accord is being described by policy experts and scientists as nothing short of catastrophic. In a single day, the rich asshole managed to blunder America into a mistake that will be as disastrously consequential as the Iraq War. And making matters worse, the rich asshole’s speech in the Rose Garden was bursting with lies. When it came down to it, the rich asshole couldn’t even find truthful justifications for why he was doing it – he had to fabricate them.
So why did he really do it?
A disturbing picture is emerging, but one that is so “on brand” for the rich asshole that it seems not only plausible but probably true. For starters, when the rich asshole kept teasing America with his decision it wasn’t just because he treats his job like a reality tv show, it’s because he is also incompetent and indecisive. This tweet wasn’t just for drama – the rich asshole seriously didn’t know what his decision would be on an agreement that would have an impact on all life on planet earth until a few hours before he announced it to the world.
I will be announcing my decision on Paris Accord, Thursday at 3:00 P.M. The White House Rose Garden. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Just ask Fox News host, and noted non-scientist, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who said the rich asshole called her this morning seeking advice on whether to stick with the Paris agreement or not. (Guilfoyle, a climate denier, told him to pull out of the agreement.)
But things only get sadder from here. Buried at the bottom of a lengthy dive into the rich asshole’s latest screw up, the Washington Post had this surreal tidbit:
If he needed a nudge, though, one came from France over the weekend. Macron was quoted in a French journal talking about his white-knuckled handshake with the rich asshole at their first meeting in Brussels, where the newly elected French president gripped the rich asshole’s hand tightly and would not let go for six long seconds in a show of alpha-male fortitude.
…
Hearing smack-talk from the Frenchman 31 years his junior irritated and bewildered the rich asshole, aides said.
A few days later, the rich asshole got his revenge.
the rich asshole has long pegged his identity on something as stupid as a handshake. He yanks, twists, and grips the hands of his victims in an attempt to dominate them. It’s juvenile and pathetic, but unavoidable. Macron confirmed that he had prepared for the rich asshole’s handshake and went into it with the idea that he would not allow the rich asshole to get away with it. With the tables turned, the awkward handshake went viral.
the rich asshole was described as seeking his “revenge” on Macron for the handshake incident by torching the climate deal. the rich asshole’s own comments seem to back this up. In his Rose Garden speech, the rich asshole said he was doing this for “the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris” – a not-so-subtle dig at France.
The idea that the rich asshole would reduce a crucial decision about the planet’s future to an opportunity to take a dig at a person who had a stronger handshake than him is reprehensible – but largely in line with what observers of the rich asshole’s pettiness have long noted. When ego consumes every inch of your self-worth, you’ll go to great lengths to protect it. Unfortunately for Americans, and that includes “citizens of Pittsburgh,” we are now heading down a path to ruin because of the rich asshole’s need to fuel his narcissism.
the rich asshole Flies Into Late-Night ALL CAPS Freakout After Negative Paris Accord Press
By Pearson McKinney -
The president of the United States has taken to Twitter to make a complete fool out of the entire nation once again, and this time, he just wanted to give a screaming shoutout to remind everyone of his 2016 presidential campaign slogan.
In case you had forgotten what the rich asshole was trying to do..
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
The belligerent tweet comes on the same day that the rich asshole announced the removal of the U.S. from the Paris Accord during a gathering at the White House Rose Garden.
After the announcement, the rich asshole received a barrage of negative press, as well as public statements made by prominent figures throughout the world, like Barack Obama and the Vatican.
This could be a long night.
Pittsburgh Mayor Slaps the rich asshole Down For Using Pittsburgh As A Reason To Destroy The Planet
The mayor of Pittsburgh had a few choice words for some rich asshole after he used the city as a reason to abandon the Paris Climate Agreement.
“I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,†the rich asshole said in defense of his decision to destroy the planet. Apparently, he doesn’t realize that Pittsburgh stands to lose just as much as Paris, or literally anywhere else on Earth for that matter.
Mayor Bill Peduto was quick to respond to the rich asshole’s nonsense:
The United States joins Syria, Nicaragua & Russia in deciding not to participate with world's Paris Agreement. It's now up to cities to lead
Fact: Hillary Clinton received 80% of the vote in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh stands with the world & will follow Paris Agreement @HillaryClinton twitter.com/theinclinepgh/…
As the Mayor of Pittsburgh, I can assure you that we will follow the guidelines of the Paris Agreement for our people, our economy & future. twitter.com/presssec/statu…
Once again, the rich asshole is simply incapable of comprehending even the most fundamental of concepts. But I suppose that is par for the course when you are talking about someone who never learned that science is real. A total of 194 countries are now part of the Paris deal. The U.S. joins only two other nations who have chosen not to sign on. And even among those, America is the only one to abstain for such absurd reasons. Syria was not part of the agreement because they have been trapped in a bloody civil way. Nicaragua, on the other hand, refused to be a part of the deal because they didn’t think it went far enough.
Nancy Patton Mills, chairman of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee, echoed Peduto.
Statement From Chairwoman Mills:
And Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, joined in to let the rich asshole knew where she stood as well.
Once again @realDonaldTrump is wrong. #Paris & #Pittsburgh do stand together for the #ParisAgreement #Cities4Climatehttps://twitter.com/billpeduto/status/870370288344674304 …
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