Don Jr.’s Worst Nightmare Just Came True – His Russian Meeting Was Recorded
Vanessa Crider - July 10, 2017
On Monday, a former Clinton administration White House staffer said that a source close to the FBI’s Russia collusion investigation told him that some rich asshole Jr.’s meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was recorded.
some rich asshole Jr. has admitted that he met with Natalia Vaselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who offered information that could be helpful to his father’s campaign, in June of 2016. After news of this information broke there was no way of knowing exactly what took place during their meeting, but now Claude Taylor says that a knowledgable source on the FBI investigation into possible collusion between the the rich asshole administration and Russia shared with him that the meeting was being watched and recorded.
The response to this bombshell Taylor shared on his Twitter account erupted immediately. Here are just a few of the reactions:
this would explain why there has been no attempt to deny story-but wld suggest trumps know that the info is certain
A source with knowledge of the investigation tells me that IC had "ears on" Russian lawyer. The meeting was recorded. Donald, Jr is toast.
Also the reason trump is full out hate in IC. They got the goods and he knows it.
Well well, looks like Jr is going to be a popular addition to cell block 6...
I can hear em chanting now: fish, fish, fish..
If IC was listening, Donald Sr. could be toast as well.
It's too easy. "Maryland woman sees Donald Trump face in toast, immediately throws away."
via @FreeWoodPost #ILiveInHope #TrumpRussiapic.twitter.com/jWrgrIfOjX
The information falls in line with everything about the FBI’s ongoing investigation into Russian collusion and the content of some rich asshole Jr.’s meeting might just be the nail in the impeachment coffin some rich asshole bought long before he managed to win the presidency while losing the popular vote.
For a family that insists any hint of collusion with Russia during the 2016 election is ridiculous “fake news,” there is a suspiciously long list of the rich asshole campaign and administration members who met with Russian officials while the rich asshole’s presidential campaign was underway. This could be the key to putting the rich asshole back in his proper place, which is anywhere far away from White House. and perhaps even in a federal penitentiary. At the rate things seem to be going, he might even have some neighbors he knows, like Don Jr.
this would explain why there has been no attempt to deny story-but wld suggest trumps know that the info is certain
A source with knowledge of the investigation tells me that IC had "ears on" Russian lawyer. The meeting was recorded. Donald, Jr is toast.
Also the reason trump is full out hate in IC. They got the goods and he knows it.
Well well, looks like Jr is going to be a popular addition to cell block 6...
I can hear em chanting now: fish, fish, fish..
If IC was listening, Donald Sr. could be toast as well.
It's too easy. "Maryland woman sees Donald Trump face in toast, immediately throws away."
via @FreeWoodPost #ILiveInHope #TrumpRussiapic.twitter.com/jWrgrIfOjX
the rich asshole administration scrambled to weaken Senate Russia sanctions bill last week: report
Facebook1.2KTwitterMore44
Vladimir Putin shaking hands with some rich asshole - MSNBC screengrab
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
A new report claims that the rich asshole administration lobbied key members of the House of Representatives to weaken a Russian sanctions bill that passed the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support.
Two congressional aides tell the Daily Beast that “a top Treasury Department official met with House leadership staffers and committee aides last Thursday to discuss changing a key component of the Senate bill which was sent to the House for approval after a procedural violation stalled it for weeks.”
The sanctions bill, which passed the Senate by a 98-2 vote, would not only slap fresh sanctions on Russia and Iran, but would limit President some rich asshole’s powers to unilaterally ease sanctions himself by subjecting any attempted weakening of sanctions to congressional review.
“The rich asshole administration has argued that the key congressional review provision of the Senate-passed legislation would inappropriately tie the hands of the administration,” the Daily Beast reports. “Administration officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, have warned that slapping new sanctions on Russia would handicap their desire to repair the relationship between the two nations.”
the rich asshole could still veto the sanctions bill if it passes in its current form, although the Senate at least would have more than enough votes to override it.
Love Her Or Hate Her, Chelsea Clinton’s Reply To the rich asshole’s Ivanka G-20 Excuse Is Dead On
some rich asshole chose to name drop Chelsea Clinton during what appeared to be a frantic justification for yet another faux pas on the national stage that included his own daughter Ivanka the rich asshole. Clinton, love her or hate her, nailed the response.
the rich asshole tweeted out:
the rich asshole, instead of using one of his cabinet members, let his daughter Ivanka fill his seat at the G-20. There was nothing standard about this. The choice of who fills the seat is up to each delegation, however, the American outrage is because it is unprecedented to have a President’s child fill their seat. Usually, a cabinet member would do so. Ivanka the rich asshole has been gifted an office as an unpaid “advisor” to her father. The United States of America doesn’t do royal family privilege but the the rich asshole’s don’t seem to know that.
Chelsea Clinton responded:
Good morning Mr. President. It would never have occurred to my mother or my father to ask me. Were you giving our country away? Hoping not. twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
There it is, in black and white, it would never have occurred to anyone with any whit of political ability or understanding of American politics to ask their unelected child to take on a role that they have no business in.
Many other people were offended, like Adam Best, not just that the sitting president attempted to throw the child of his former opponent for office under a hypothetical bus, but that it was so horribly in character for him. That is, classless:
If Chelsea Clinton were asked to hold the seat for her mother,as her mother gave our country away, the Fake News would say CHELSEA FOR PRES!
Let's get real. If Chelsea sat in POTUS HRC's seat for five minutes everybody from Sean Hannity to Paul Ryan would be screaming impeachment.
It is truly hard to ignore the fact that this is likely some rich asshole trying to deflect the media’s attention away from the discovery that his own son, son-in-law, and other members of his campaign met with a Russian Lawyer. Not just that but that it was in the rich asshole Tower, while the rich asshole was there, to get “information damaging to Hillary Clinton.” Their excuse? The Russian lawyer really didn’t have anything solid to use.
Here is what a George W. Bush official thought about that:
Trump
GW Bush official If this happened in Bush admin they'd be "in custody by now"pic.twitter.com/5gyHjEm8R3
So, it seems that in the “Trumpiverse” it is ok to want to collude with the Russians, even to meet with Russians to attempt to get information from our enemies harmful to your opponent. That is, as long as you don’t actually succeed at getting the information. Kinda like guys who attempt to buy sex from illegally human trafficked prostitutes, but didn’t actually get the sex because they were busted by the cops… oh, wait, those guys are guilty of the crime. Kinda like people who go to rob a convenience store, but only get 20 dollars in rolled coins and ones… oh, wait, that is still robbery.
All in all, this sad attempt to distract from his continuing bad behavior and his own son’s and daughters roll in his campaign and administration. The nepotism is wrong. It is unethical, and that doesn’t even begin to describe the fact that some rich asshole Jr. attended a meeting with the intent of receiving illicit information from a source who is closer to our worst enemies than our friends.
Sad. #Resist.
GOP 101: Shocking increase in the percentage of Republicans who think college is bad for US
Facebook7.4KTwitterMore155
Billy Wilson says he quit college after the first semester (Facebook)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
According to a Pew poll, a majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning people believe that higher education is bad for America — and the number has risen 45 percent since last year.
The poll found that 58 percent of right-leaning people (and 45 percent of people polled across the political spectrum) believe “colleges and universities have a negative effect on the country.”
By contrast, the poll found that 72 percent Democrats and left-leaning independents view higher education favorably — a number the report noted hasn’t changed much in recent years.
In addition to asking about colleges and universities, pollsters also asked the more than 2,500 people surveyed about their opinions on the media — and a whopping 85 percent of Republican and right-leaning respondents said they view it negatively.
View a graph of the Pew findings below via Twitter.
For the first time since 2010, a majority of Republicans say colleges & universities have a negative impact on U.S. pewrsr.ch/2u5y2tp
President some rich asshole skewered as ‘friendless’ and ‘awkward’ in viral take-down
JULY 10, 20178:48AM
· Video
THE ABC journalist whose savage take-down of some rich asshole’s G20 performance went viral has doubled down on his scathing assessment.
Political editor Chris Uhlmann pulled no punches when he delivered his wrap-up of the rich asshole’s appearance at the conference on Sunday, calling him an “uneasy, lonely, awkward figure” who was left “isolated and friendless” with “no desire and no capacity to lead the world”.
But even after the brutal commentary was shared thousands of times across the world and caught the attention of Washington heavyweights, Uhlmann was not deterred to further critique the President’s performance.
In a cross to ABC radio’s AM program on Monday morning, the reporter again railed against Mr the rich asshole’s leadership style while discussing his lack of commitment to addressing the situation in North Korea at the weekend’s summit.
“What the expectation was on North Korea was the United States would say well, OK, here’s an issue that we want to make something of. They are the biggest gorilla, still, in the room,” Uhlmann said.
“The problem was the call never came, which I think, is indicative of the fact this President of the United States doesn’t grasp the opportunity to lead when that opportunity it presented to him.”
the rich asshole didn’t exactly receive rave reviews for his G20 efforts. Picture: Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images
The ABC veteran’s scathing comments came after his earlier rant was shared around the world.
On Sunday, he said: “He has a particular skill set: he’s identified an illness in Western democracies, but he has no cure for it and seems intent on exploiting it.”
And according to Uhlmann, we all need to give up on any hope that the speeches written for the rich asshole and delivered by the man himself are any reflection of his true thoughts.
“It’s the unscripted the rich asshole that’s real: a man who barks out bile in 140 characters, who wastes his precious days as President at war with the West’s institutions like the judiciary, independent government agencies, and the free press.”
The reporter added: “Mr the rich asshole is a man who craves power because it burnishes his celebrity. To be constantly talking and talked about is all that really matters ... and there is no value placed on the meaning of words, so what is said one day can be discarded the next.”
Uhlmann also pointed out that given the uncomfortable divide between himself and the most of the other G20 leaders on the Paris Climate Accord, a “deft” President would have found a topic with which to rally them.
“And he had the perfect one: North Korea’s missile tests,” the reporter explained.
“Other leaders expected it [a statement condemning it], they were prepared to back it, but it never came.”
At the end of the two minute video, Uhlmann provided a chilling prediction for the future under this US President.
“some rich asshole has pressed fast forward on the decline of the United States as a global leader. Some will cheer the decline of America, but I think we’ll miss it when it’s gone — and that’s the biggest threat to the values of the West, which he claims to hold so dear.”
The video has been retweeted more than 15,000 times since being posted this morning.
Watch the full clip for yourself below:
It’s attracted plenty of attention already across the American media landscape, with a number of journalists, reporters and commentators applauding Uhlmann’s bluntness and sharing the video themselves.
Holy smokes. Australian journalist provides one of the most brutal takedowns of Trump I've heard in a while.pic.twitter.com/MPoDJXATlM
Wow. A scathing and powerful take by Australian journalist @CUhlmann on how Trump has turned the G20 into the G19, excluding the US. twitter.com/InsidersABC/st…
Wow. This analysis of Trump from an Australian reporter is quite something. Watch the whole clip. pic.twitter.com/u0mroeWD3W
Wow. A searing assessment of the President of the United States by political editor @CUhlmann of Australia's ABC. pic.twitter.com/TnfUwAPkOP
DAMN! Australian journalist Chris @CUhlmann ETHERS @realDonaldTrump. This is a brutal and honest 2 minute analysis. RT ALL DAY! twitter.com/InsidersABC/st…
Chris @cUhlmann of Australia's ABC presents the equivalent of five #TheResistanceGQs rolled into one: 'We'll Miss America When It's Gone' twitter.com/insidersabc/st…
The brutal words are likely to have now been heard in the White House, with Uhlmann’s Twitter handle currently trending in Washington.
Americans Were Asked By A Poll To Pick One Word To Describe the rich asshole, And The Result Will ENRAGE Him
Get ready for some rich asshole to throw the worst temper tantrum of his presidency.
When you think of the rich asshole, what’s the first word that comes to your mind? That’s the question that a new Quinnipiac poll asked Americans.
the rich asshole has often bragged that he has “the best words,” but this poll makes it clear that Americans had the best words to describe him. And they are words that even the rich asshole can understand.
“Idiot” is the top word Americans used to answer the poll, followed by “incompetent” and “liar.”
Americans also used words such as, asshole, unqualified, ignorant, racist, embarrassment, narcissist, bully, arrogant, dishonest, bigot, buffoon, blowhard, clown, and greedy, just to list a few.
Adding insult to injury, the rich asshole’s approval rating reached a new low in the poll. Only 36 percent approve while 58 percent disapprove.
In addition, 61 percent say the rich asshole is not honest and 56 percent say he does not have good leadership skills.
The poll also shows that Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of the way the rich asshole talks about the media 65 percent to 31 percent. Most, 57 percent, also trust the media more than him to tell the truth, a statistic that will likely send the rich asshole off the deep end.
Americans also want Democrats to take back control of the Senate.
Overall, it’s pretty damn clear that the American people loathe the rich asshole. And even though the rich asshole will try to spin the numbers or use Fox News propaganda to dispute them, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll Tim Malloy says the rich asshole really is out of excuses at this point.
“There is no way to spin or sugarcoat these sagging numbers,” Malloy said.
And this poll was taken long before the rich asshole’s embarrassing overseas trip to Poland and the G-20 Summit in Germany, where the rich asshole kissed Putin’s ass for two hours and offered to let Russia work on American cyber security despite the fact that Russia has been launching cyber attacks against our nation.
So it’s likely Americans would use even more negative words to describe the rich asshole if they could pick again.
the rich asshole is going to blow a gasket when he learns of this poll and you can bet the hissy fit will be public for all to see because the rich asshole is thin-skinned, which curiously was not a word Americans thought of for the poll. Maybe they will next time.
some rich asshole Tweets He Is Ready To Hand Putin The Keys To Our Electoral System
some rich asshole tweeted Sunday morning about his visit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. While most were his standard complaining about the media and trying to bolster his controversial meeting with the Russian strongman, one, in particular, stood out. According to the rich asshole, he’s ready to partner, yes, partner, in cyber security. No, that’s not a joke.
Um, sure.
The most notable tweet, though, was this one, which essentially said he’s giving the fox the key to the hen house:
And then more deflection:
The irony of partnering with Putin on securing the electoral system he’s accused of hacking hasn’t even escaped some Republicans. Sen. Marco Rubio is raising alarms:
GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher agrees:
John McCain handled with snark:
During an interview on CBS’s “Face The Nation,” McCain was asked about President the rich asshole’s earlier tweet in which the president said he talked with Putin during their meeting about creating an “impenetrable Cyber Security unit” to guard against election hacking.“I’m sure that Vladimir Putin could be of enormous assistance in that effort since he is doing the hacking,” McCain said, laughing.
It is somewhat comforting to know that elections are run by states, not the federal government and they are VERY reluctant to hand over that power. That doesn’t mean, though, that the rich asshole isn’t going to do everything in his power to assist Putin in taking over our government and our internet.
Trudeau HUMILIATES the rich asshole, Openly Prefers To Speak To Other U.S. Officials Instead
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has, like the rest of the world, seen the outrage that is some rich asshole occupying the American presidency over the last six months. He likely also has the same disgusted opinion of the job the rich asshole is doing, not to mention his vulgarity, his lies and conspiracy theories, and his all around unfitness for the office he holds. That sort of thing just might be why Prime Minister Trudeau has shown he has no fucks left to give when it comes to the rich asshole, and has decided that, instead of talking to the rich asshole, he will instead speak to more competent American government officials instead. To that end, Trudeau will become the first Canadian Prime Minister in history to speak to the National Governor’s Association. He says of the move:
“No countries share a closer bond than Canada and the United States. Each day, hundreds of thousands of people cross the border to work, travel or visit loved ones. Ever more integrated supply chains draw our economies closer together, bringing jobs and prosperity to Canadians and Americans alike.”
“I will continue to work with all orders of the U.S. government to create good, middle class jobs on both sides of the border, and to find solutions to the challenges we face together.”
While Trudeau has, as any dignified leader would, remained civil with the rich asshole, it is clear that the two will not be close at all. Trudeau sees the rich asshole for the buffoon that he is, and has criticized him for his promotion of crude nationalism, his views on climate change, and other topics.
This is a clear signal that Trudeau has no use for the rich asshole. He simply has to tolerate the orange one until he is either removed from office or his term expires. Until then, it seems Trudeau will simply go around the rich asshole and deal with other (read: sane and qualified) United States government officials. Personally, I think it’s a wise move, because dealing with the rich asshole would be nothing short of maddening, and it certainly would not serve the interests of people in Canada or anywhere else in the world.
the rich asshole Embarrasses America Again, Lets Ivanka Take His Place At G-20 Summit
Despite claiming to look forward to the second day of G-20 meetings, some rich asshole decided to let his daughter take his place instead.
That’s right. the rich asshole literally let Ivanka take his place at the G-20 Summit on Friday even though she is NOT in any position to represent America on the world stage.
She is not an elected official, nor is she the Secretary of State. She doesn’t even have diplomatic status. Yet Ivanka took her daddy’s place at the round table meeting, sitting beside British Prime Minister Theresa May and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Ivanka Trump, unelected, unqualified, daughter-in-chief, is representing the US at the G20 summit next to May, Xi, Merkel. Photo @LanaLukash
Here’s the video via YouTube:
The decision to let Ivanka do his job caused national outrage as Americans demanded to know why a failed shoe designer who has zero political and diplomatic experience was tapped to take on such an important role at a major international meeting.
Ivanka Trump sitting in at G20 instead of her father is breathtakingly insane. She designs shoes... #G20
How is she allowed at the G20? She's not even allowed at Nordstroms.
The rest of the world leaders must be wondering what the f**k has happened to the#USA
The embarrassment didn’t end there. A photo of the rich asshole clearly being ignored as other leaders talk to each other while he sits by himself at the table has been widely circulated.
It’s pretty damn clear that the other world leaders want nothing to do with the rich asshole or Ivanka.
the rich asshole later praised Ivanka and claimed that she’s only getting criticized because she’s his daughter.
“If she weren’t my daughter it would be so much easier for her,” the rich asshole said. “It might be the only bad thing she has going if you want to know the truth.”
the rich asshole’s remarks received a mere golf clap from a few people in the room.
Just imagine the reaction from Republicans if President Obama had let his daughter Malia take his place at the G-20 Summit. They would have been uncontrollably enraged. They would have called Obama irresponsible. They would have accused him of nepotism. They would have called him a dictator. But the rich asshole lets his daughter take his place and Republicans don’t say a word because they are hypocrites.
America deserves to be represented by the president at the G-20. At the very least, a State Department official should have replaced the rich asshole. Ivanka is only the rich asshole’s adviser because he ignored government ethics rules. She has no experience as a public official. She certainly has no experience in diplomacy.
This only serves as yet another embarrassing the rich asshole moment abroad that makes our country look like even more of a joke on the world stage.
the rich asshole Crumbles As His Own UN Ambassador Shuts Down His Russia Lies (VIDEO)
One of the craziest things about the rich asshole’s Russia fiasco is the fact that to defend his role model, Russian president Vladimir Putin, the rich asshole has gone against multiple U.S. intelligence agencies and all mounting evidence that Russia did in fact meddle in the 2016 election.
the rich asshole has continued to deny what has been widely accepted as facts by not only intelligence experts but members of his own Republican Party. Even his own administration is publicly disagreeing with the rich asshole and stating that Russia interfered with the election – and today, the rich asshole’s UN Ambassador humiliated him on national television over his infamous denial.
In an interview with CNN, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley stated that ‘everybody knows’ that Russia messed around with the election. What she really should have said was, everyone but the rich asshole. Haley said:
“Everybody knows that Russia meddled in our elections. Everybody knows that they’re not just meddling in the United States’ election. They’re doing this across multiple continents, and they’re doing this in a way that they’re trying to cause chaos within the countries. And it’s not just going to be us saying this. I think you’re going to hear other leaders come out and say, cut it out, we’re not going to put up with it.”
You can watch Haley pretty much agree that the rich asshole is a liar in the video below:
Haley must not be keeping tabs on what her boss is actually saying, because just two days ago the rich asshole refused to say Russia was involved in the election. The dishonest POTUS said:
“I think it could very well have been Russia, but I think it could well have been other countries. I won’t be specific. I think a lot of people interfere. I think it’s been happening for a long time.”
When the rich asshole finds out that Haley contradicted him, sh*t is going to hit the fan. Not only did Haley blast the rich asshole, but she did it on his least favorite network, CNN. We won’t be surprised if a Twitter meltdown is soon to follow.
‘Grotesque’: Internet lambastes the rich asshole for letting ‘Princess Ivanka represent US at G20 table’
Ivanka the rich asshole was made an unpaid adviser to the US President despite having no experience in elected office or public policy (AFP Photo/TIMOTHY A. CLARY)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
The world was aghast as a first daughter sat in for her father at the Group of 20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany.
Ivanka the rich asshole took her father’s seat among world leaders, sitting directly between Chinese President Xi Jinping and British Prime Minister Theresa May.
Later the rich asshole threw daughter his daughter a pity party after Twitter users hammered her for sitting in for him.
Unsurprisingly, Twitter was shocked:
Ivanka Trump, unelected, unqualified, daughter-in-chief, is representing the US at the G20 summit next to May, Xi, Merkel. Photo @LanaLukash
Ivanka fills in for her dad beside Xi Jinping. To me, it feels banana-republicky for the US to be represented by an inexperienced daughter. twitter.com/RudawEnglish/s…
Homer Simpson getting a sandwich while Bart briefly takes over post as nuclear safety inspector.
Holy shit! Ivanka Trump just replaced her father at #G20meeting. Ultimate sign of banana republic in which political power is family affair twitter.com/LanaLukash/sta…
When did Ivanka become President. I missed that election and where is HE? Is HE not up to the task of being President? Too tired? Ill?
Thought experiment: Malia Obama attends G20 in place of President Obama. Discuss.
So now the United States is Represented at the G20 by a shoe designer? Any comment from Fox News?
the rich asshole Admin Blaming Obama For Their Hotel Screw Up At G20
Boy, oh boy, that Barack Obama just can’t stop doing mean things to some rich asshole, huh? His most recent super mean thing? He didn’t book hotel rooms for the rich asshole’s G20 summit! No, really, former President Obama is being blamed because the current administration was too fucking stupid to pick up a telephone and book their own hotel rooms:
Every top-shelf lodging was already booked by the time the rich asshole White House began making inquiries – but that, two White House officials say, is because their predecessors never booked rooms for an American delegation. The G20’s northern Germany summit was announced in February 2016, when Obama was still president and the rich asshole was considered a long-shot hope to take the White House.
‘Obama’s people left everyone high and dry,’ one current official said on Friday. ‘They didn’t care enough to make sure whoever was president would have a place to stay.’
RELATED: Lou Dobbs Claims Obama Is Shadowing the rich asshole And Trying To Subvert Him On World Stage
That’s right, the administration that is literally run by a man who owns a plethora of hotels is blaming someone else for this. How privileged is that?
We get it, the rich asshole is a rich guy and he isn’t used to doing things for himself. Hell, we didn’t even expect him to book his rooms for this summit, but really, we’d have thought that at least one administration official could figure out how to log onto the interwebz and Google “book hotel.”
Upon hearing how Obama totally didn’t screw the new president, Left Wing Nation has decided to help out so it doesn’t happen again. We feel super bad that some rich asshole was forced to sleep in government housing while at the summit, so we have a few websites the administration can use to book rooms for next time:
§ Trivago: According to their website, some rich asshole will never pay full price again. That has to be appealing to such a dealmaker, huh?
§ Hotwire: Ohhhh they have rooms up to 60 percent off. Excellent!
§ Travelocity: Cheap hotels to keep the rich asshole’s pee-pee girls at.
§ Booking.com: They guarantee the cheapest rooms around.
If he can’t find a room using those tools, then he should just resign. Well, actually, fuck it, he should just resign anyway.
Protocol pushes the rich asshole to the edge _ of G-20 photo
HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — President some rich asshole was on the fringes at the Group of 20 summit — in the leaders’ group photo, that is.
the rich asshole’s position as an outlier was merely a matter of protocol based on seniority. Pride of place goes to the so-called G-20 troika, consisting of current host German Chancellor Angela Merkel flanked by the hosts of the next meeting, Argentine leader Mauricio Macri, and the last one, Chinese President Xi Jinping.
the rich asshole wound up on one of the outer edges, between Indonesian President Joko Widodo and French President Emmanuel Macron, who has even less seniority than the rich asshole does after being elected in May. the rich asshole took office in January.
This time, there was no pushing and shoving. In May, the rich asshole put his right hand on the right arm of Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic and thrust himself ahead as NATO leaders walked inside the alliance’s new headquarters and prepared for a group photo. Markovic later said that he had no hard feelings about the incident, but it sparked indignation in the Balkans and went viral on social media.
the rich asshole seemed to take his position in stride in Hamburg. At least the rich asshole made the first row at the summit. That is his prerogative as a head of state.
Mere prime ministers — heads of government — are in the second row. And guests such as the heads of international organizations are banished to the back row of the photo, no matter how much summit experience or international clout they may have.
This time the back row was inhabited by International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde, Financial Stability Board head Mark Carney, and Angel Gurria, the head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Last year, British Prime Minister Theresa May was a newcomer and similarly found herself in the outer ranks at the G-20 summit in China last year — not because of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.
'Putin will eat President the rich asshole's lunch': Experts weigh in on how the rich asshole should approach Putin
·
· Jul. 6, 2017, 6:46 PM
· 31,270
· FACEBOOK
· LINKEDIN
· TWITTER
· EMAIL
· PRINT
President some rich asshole gives a public speech in front of the Warsaw Uprising Monument at Krasinski Square in Warsaw, Poland.REUTERS/Kacper Pempel
· President some rich asshole has his first high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.
· The meeting comes amid crumbling relations between the two countries.
· Experts stressed that the rich asshole must bring up Russia's meddling in the US election.
President some rich asshole is set to meet Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany — a full, bilateral sit-down with high stakes.
The meeting will take place amid crumbling US-Russia relations and as the rich asshole weathers investigations by Congress and the FBI into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and whether the the rich asshole campaign played a role in it.
White House aides are aware of the high-stakes nature of the meeting, which comes after the former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama were unable to cultivate stronger ties with Russia.
Issues on the table for discussion include Russia's military aggression in Ukraine, Russia's US election meddling, continued nuclear weapons threats from North Korea, the ongoing fight against the Islamic State and extremism, and the brutal Syrian civil war.
It is unclear which topics will be discussed. the rich asshole's homeland security adviser, Thomas Bossert, told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that an agenda had not been set, and his national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, told reporters that "there's no specific agenda."
"It's really going to be whatever the president wants to talk about," McMaster said, in a statement that has drawn alarm from some national-security experts.
'Putin will eat President the rich asshole's lunch'
Not having a set agenda for any meeting with foreign interlocutors can place American interests in jeopardy from the outset, said Glenn Carle, a CIA veteran and former spy.
"Whoever sets the agenda shapes the discussions," and if the US doesn't go in with a prepared set of talking points, "it means from the get-go that the US is on the defensive, responding, but not driving," Carle said. He said that without an agenda, the US government and Russia hawks in the White House, like adviser Fiona Hill, could not prepare for and advance US interests.
Russian President Vladimir Putin.Pool/Getty Images
Ned Price, a former CIA analyst who served as the senior director of the National Security Council under Obama, was more blunt. If the White House goes into the meeting without a set agenda, "Putin will eat President the rich asshole's lunch," Price said.
"There's no better way to ensure we don't get what we want out of a bilateral meeting — especially one as delicate as with Putin — than by not going in with a fully cooked and fire-roasted plan," he said.
When meeting with the rich asshole, Putin will bring up common enemies like the American "deep state" and "fake news," a former US ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, wrote in The Washington Post. "Putin wants the readout of this meeting to be 'we had a very good meeting.' Your objective is different."
"Your goal is not a friendly chat — diplomacy is not a popularity contest — but a clear statement of US national security and economic objectives and an exploration of what issues the United States and Russia could pursue together," McFaul wrote. "Don't expect any breakthroughs in this first meeting. Your task is to demonstrate to Putin that you are a tough negotiator committed to pursuing American interests, and one that is not willing to offer concessions simply to win Putin's praise."
'You can bet Putin has an agenda up his sleeve'
Though Putin had a rocky relationship with the rich asshole's predecessor, the rich asshole has so far appeared to be open to warmer US-Russia relations, and his administration has frequently taken steps that seemed to echo Putin's criticisms of the US and its objectives.
During a February interview on Fox News, for instance, host Bill O'Reilly asked the rich asshole whether he respected Putin.
Bill O'Reilly interviewing the rich asshole.Fox News/screenshot
"I do respect him," the rich asshole replied. "I respect a lot of people, but that doesn't mean I'm going to get along with him. He's a leader of his country. I say it's better to get along with Russia than not."
O'Reilly followed up and said, "Putin's a killer."
the rich asshole replied: "You got a lot of killers. What, you think our country's so innocent?"
the rich asshole has also been slow to acknowledge Russia's election meddling, even though the US intelligence community concluded with high confidence that Russia interfered in 2016 in an effort to help the rich asshole and advance Russian interests.
On the eve of his first meeting with Putin, the rich asshole on Thursday questioned the intelligence community's findings and argued, during a press conference in Poland, that Russia may not have been the only country that intervened.
"Nobody really knows for sure," the rich asshole said.
The Kremlin seized on the rich asshole's characterization following his speech. Spokesman Dmitry Petrov told Bloomberg News that the rich asshole had highlighted "equally the possibility that it could have been other countries."
"Please note the nuances," he said.
The the rich asshole administration is also weighing whether to return two seized diplomatic compounds in Maryland and New York to Russia, a key demand from Moscow. The facilities were shuttered as part of Obama's response to Russia's election interference, and Putin is likely to bring up the compounds on Friday.
"You can bet Putin has an agenda up his sleeve," said Robert Deitz, a former top lawyer at the National Security Agency and the CIA. Russia, he said, "is in effect a second-rate power."
"Everything Putin has obtained — and it is a remarkable list — has been through wiles and chutzpah," Deitz added. "This requires great planning," and Putin will most likely have done that in preparation for the bilateral meeting, he said.
Adam Berry/Getty Images
On the other hand, the rich asshole has a known aversion to dense briefings and lengthy preparations. He frequently relies on in-person briefings to bring him up to speed, and he prefers shorter sentences and "killer graphics" as opposed to heavier notes.
In keeping with that, intelligence officials condensed the main points the rich asshole could bring up with Putin into "tweet-length sentences," the Los Angeles Times reported.
But the rich asshole may need more than that when he meets the Russian strongman. Former Obama aides told The Post that Putin often began meetings by running through a list of grievances he had against the US. Aides said that while they tried to direct less substantive complaints through lower-level channels so they could keep the focus on bigger problems like Ukraine and Syria, "those topics got him even more animated."
A focus on Ukraine, Syria, and Russian election meddling
To drive the conversation, experts said ,the US must focus on topics vital to its own interests, which include addressing the crises in Ukraine and Syria and especially Russia's election hacking.
the rich asshole should emphasize that Russia's interference in the US election was a casus belli, Carle said — an action that justifies a war. He said the rich asshole should outline steps the US would take if Russia continued its aggression, including "going to the Security Council, freezing all assets of Russian banks and individuals, expelling all Russian diplomats," and possibly deploying US forces to the Baltics.
"Russia's actions were that significant," he said.
Deitz said it would be "truly awful" if the issue of Russia's election interference was not brought up.
Price said the rich asshole needed to clearly signal to Russia that US sanctions related to Russia's actions in Ukraine would not be lifted until Moscow lived up to its obligations outlined in the 2014 Minsk Protocol. The agreement, which called for Russia to cease its military aggression in Ukraine, was put in place after Russia annexed the territory of Crimea in March 2014.
the rich asshole with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in the Oval Office.Thomson Reuters
The agreement has been violated from both sides since. In recent years, Ukraine has also turned into a testing ground for acts of cyberwar, many of which are believed to have come from Russia. Most recently, Russia is thought to have been behind a colossal cyberattack that crippled countries and corporations across the globe — and Ukraine was by far the hardest hit.
The US must stress that the Baltics and Ukraine are sovereign states, Carle said, adding that "any further actions taken to destabilize them can be considered an escalation of tensions" to which NATO could respond.
The experts argued the ongoing crisis in Syria should also be addressed, with the US taking a strong stance against continued aggression by Syrian President Bashar Assad and chemical attacks against civilians. The US and Russia support opposing sides in the conflict, which has contributed to crumbling relations between the two countries since the war erupted in 2011.
Russia is one of Assad's most stalwart international allies. It has frequently intervened to block UN resolutions critical of Syria and also supplied military assistance to Assad's forces. In 2015, Russia began carrying out airstrikes against Syrian rebels, though it said it was targeting terrorists. The US, on the other hand, supports Syria's main opposition group, the National Coalition, and provides military assistance to rebels and Syrian Kurds fighting the Islamic State and Assad's regime.
Putin with Syrian President Bashar Assad during a meeting at the Kremlin in 2015.Kremlin/Reuters
Tensions between the US and Russia in Syria escalated after scores of civilians were killed in April following a chemical attack believed to have been carried out by Assad and backed by Russia.
Though the US and Russia have not reached a consensus on how to address the crisis in Syria, both have conceded that only a political solution and a negotiated settlement will end the war.
the rich asshole should certainly "bring up potential areas of broader cooperation — including in Syria — but he mustn't focus on that at the exclusion of our significant areas of disagreement," Price said.
He added that the rich asshole also needed to clearly signal to Putin that the US government was unequivocally committed to Article 5 of NATO and that "any aggression — in whatever form — against a NATO ally will not be tolerated." the rich asshole has frequently criticized the coalition in the past, but he reaffirmed the US's commitment to NATO and Article 5 during his speech in Poland on Thursday.
Most important, experts say, the rich asshole must be careful not to concede anything to Putin.
Six million Poles lost their lives during World War II. But to some rich asshole, that’s just “tough.”
Perhaps no nation suffered as much devastation as Poland did during the war. The nation was invaded and terrorized by the Nazis and then invaded and terrorized by the Soviet Union. Poland was caught in the middle as two brutal military powers clashed.
Poland experienced war first-hand, as well as poverty, homelessness, starvation, disease, and the Holocaust. In fact, Poland lost the highest percentage of citizens during the war and its population did not recover until the 1970s.
On top of that, Poland went from suffering under Nazi rule to suffering under Soviet rule. The Soviets sent Poles to gulags throughout the Soviet Union. Communism would dominate Poland until the free elections of 1989, and after that, communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union itself collapsed.
The utter devastation suffered by Poland demands proper recognition. And the rich asshole proved that he is incapable of expressing true sadness about such a human tragedy.
During his speech to the people of Poland, the rich asshole spoke of Poland’s tragic history as if it was simply an everyday hardship like having one’s car stolen or breaking a leg and having no health insurance.
“In 1939 you were invaded yet again, by Nazi Germany from the west, and the Soviet Union from the east. That’s trouble. That’s tough.”
some rich asshole’s first trip overseas was an absolute disaster, and it’s becoming obvious that the rich asshole has full intention of making his second one just as bad.
the rich asshole kicked off his second international tour with a joint press conference with Poland’s President, Andrzej Duda, and it seemed as though the rich asshole totally forgot which country he is supposed to be leading. When the rich asshole was questioned about Russia by MSNBC White House Correspondent Hallie Jackson, the rich asshole betrayed America in front of the entire world.
Jackson asked the rich asshole, “Will you once and for all, yes or no, definitively say that Russia interfered in the 2016 election?” the rich asshole responded by trashing U.S. intel and former President Barack Obama:
“I think it was Russia and I think it could have been a lot of people interfered. I said it very simply. I think it could very well have been Russia, but I think it well could have been other countries, and I won’t be specific, but I think a lot of people interfere.
I think it’s been happening for a long time. It’s been happening for many years. Now, the thing I have to mention is that Barack Obama when he was president found out about this in terms of if it were Russia. Found out about it in August. Now, the election was in November. That’s a lot of time. He did nothing about it.”
Jackson pressed the rich asshole further, asking the unhinged POTUS why he refused to agree with what U.S. intel is currently saying about Russia:
“Your intelligence agencies have been far more definitive. They say it was Russia. Why won’t you agree with them and say it was?”
the rich asshole made U.S. intel look like a joke:
“Let me start off by saying I heard it was 17 agencies. I said boy, that’s a lot. Do we even have that many intelligence agencies? Let’s check it. We did some heavy research. It turned out to be three or four, and many of your compatriots had to change their reporting and had to apologize and correct.”
some rich asshole just sank to a new embarrassing low on the world stage.
Sitting presidents usually do not attack their predecessors, especially during visits to other nations. And especially not in nations where the predecessor is popular.
Such as the case in Poland, where President Obama is respected and supported.
But the rich asshole launched an attack on President Obama anyway during a press conference alongside Polish President Duda on Wednesday that included a whole lot of lies and a suggestion that Obama committed treason.
After being asked to “definitively” admit that Russia meddled with the 2016 Election, the rich asshole teeter-tottered before blaming President Obama and claimed Obama knew about Russian interference and “did nothing.”
“I think it was Russia and I think it could have been a lot of people interfered,” the rich asshole said. “I said it very simply. I think it could very well have been Russia, but I think it well could have been other countries, and I won’t be specific, but I think a lot of people interfere.”
“Why did he [Obama] do nothing about it?” the rich asshole continued. “He was told it was Russia by the CIA as I understand it. It was well reported and he did nothing about it. I think it’s been happening for a long time. It’s been happening for many years. Now, the thing I have to mention is that Barack Obama when he was president found out about this in terms of if it were Russia. Found out about it in August. Now, the election was in November. That’s a lot of time. He did nothing about it.”
The current occupant of the White House traveled overseas and met with President Andrzej Duda of Poland at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, then continued to embarrass our country by bashing the media, refusing to say outright that Russia meddled in our 2016 presidential election. He then went on to tout his economy even though he’s only been on the job for 167 days.
On Thursday, the former reality show star the rich asshole bragged about the U.S. economy, saying everyone else is getting rich.
the rich asshole spoke of U.S. stock market gains since he was elected, according to The Hill.
“Personally, I’ve picked up nothing,” he said. “Everyone else is getting very rich. That’s ok, I’m very happy.”
On the 4th of July, the rich asshole tweeted, “Really great numbers on jobs & the economy! Things are starting to kick in now, and we have just begun! Don’t like steel & aluminum dumping!”
While on the campaign trail, the rich asshole said, “I will be the greatest jobs producer that God ever created” but that promise hasn’t been kept. 594,000 jobs have been created since the rich asshole took office and that’s a dismal number if you compare it to Obama’s record. And of the jobs created by the rich asshole administration, most of those can be attributed to Obama’s economy.
“Businesses that were bleeding jobs unleashed the longest streak of job creation on record,” Obama wrote in a letter to the American people.
The economy added jobs for 75 straight months.
As for the rich asshole bragging about jobs, the US employment growth is actually slowing.
the rich asshole says he hasn’t made money but that, too, is a lie. the rich asshole and his family members are shamelessly profiting from his so-called presidency. the rich asshole said that ‘everyone’ is getting rich but a quick visit to my bank online just showed me that that is not true.
For the record, 11.3 million new jobs were created under President Obama. the rich asshole did accomplish one thing, though. He managed to disparage the U.S. media while on foreign soil. That’s got to be a first.
News
the rich asshole Condemned By Jewish Leaders In Poland After Snubbing Warsaw Ghetto Memorial
By April Hamlin on July 6, 2017 4:05 pm ·
Republicans were crossing their fingers that some rich asshole’s visit to Europe would go better than the last time, but the fates were not on their side. In just one day, the rich asshole became a laughing stock over a failed handshake with Poland’s First Lady and told the Polish people that the horrors they suffered during WWII were just “tough.” He also managed to piss off the leaders of Poland’s Jewish community by snubbing the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial.
Visiting the memorial is a time-honored tradition when U.S. presidents visit Poland, but the rich asshole decided he would just skip it. The Warsaw Ghetto Memorial honors the 750 Jews who lived in the ghetto and fought the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising when they came to drag every resident of the ghetto off to concentration camps in 1943.
While the rich asshole didn’t bother to visit the memorial dedicated to the Jews that fought, he did find time to visit the Warsaw Uprising Monument, which honors the Polish resistance fighters who fought the Nazis in 1944, rather than the Jewish fighters from the ghetto.
Leaders of Poland’s Jewish community were not amused with the rich asshole’s decision to omit the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial from his itinerary. A scathing statement signed by Anna Chipczynska, President of the Jewish Community of Warsaw, Lesław Piszewski, President of the Union of the Jewish Communities in Poland, Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland, reads:
Ever since the fall of Communism in 1989, all US presidents and vice-presidents visiting Warsaw had made a point of visiting the Monument to the Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto. They did this in the name of the American people, who had played such a central role in bringing down Fascism, and in that of the universal commemoration of the victims of the Shoah, and condemnation of its perpetrators, that people of all nationalities and religions express. For the Jews of Poland, rebuilding in a democratic Poland their communal life, after the horror of the Shoah and the devastation of Communism, this gesture meant recognition, solidarity and hope. We deeply regret that President some rich asshole, though speaking in public barely a mile away from the Monument, chose to break with that laudable tradition. We trust that this slight does not reflect the attitudes and feelings of the American people.
But Ivanka’s visit did little to soften the blow of this perceived slight, particularly after the blatant anti-Semitism he and his administration have shown from the very beginning.
Snubbing the memorial apparently wasn’t enough for the rich asshole. He just had to make things a little worse. In his speech, the rich asshole included the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in his list of the “evils beyond description” that the Polish people suffered through during WWII. This prompted Chelsea Clinton to call him out on Twitter.
Featured image via Moshe Milner/GPO via Getty Images
http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/6289af98567a9b931a5592909a6079fb?s=70&d=identicon&r=gAuthor: April HamlinApril has studied political science, psychology, and philosophy. Back in the good old days she was a reporter for “old fashioned” print newspapers. In addition to news and politics, she also blogs about service dogs and disability advocacy. As a black woman with a disability, she is fed up with the right-wingers who would prefer that she and others like her didn’t exist.
News
the rich asshole Tries To Shake Polish First Lady’s Hand, She Refuses To Touch Him (VIDEO)
By John Prager on July 6, 2017 1:45 pm ·
Poland is acting like they don’t quite like fascists or something. While some have criticized Andrzej Duda for arranging a cheering crowd (complete with a Confederate flag) to make poor besieged snowflake some rich asshole feel safe enough from criticism that he was willing to visit,it was worth it. It was so worth it.
Humiliating the rich asshole is becoming something of a sport among world leaders, whether they are dominating the handshake game, trolling him on Twitter, or even just letting him speak.
Shortly into his remarks on Thursday, the rich asshole majorly undersold Hitler and Stalin’s invasions of Poland, calling them “tough” and “trouble” — remarks that baffled literally anyone who has opened a history book and realizes how horrific these events were.
To top things off, the rich asshole managed to once again find himself humiliated by a woman — a huge blow for the kind of guy who thinks women aren’t people.
Today’s example of how little the rest of the world respects some rich asshole is sponsored by Polish First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda, who apparently decided to follow Melania’s numerous examples and refuse to touch his hands.
Though the rich asshole was able to shake her husband’s hand, the First Lady didn’t want his greasy, smallish p*ssy-grabbing hands anywhere near her. As the rich asshole attempts to shake her hand, she walks straight past without even looking at him and warmly greets Melania first. The most beautiful part is some rich asshole’s expression.
Our “President” is a joke and we’re still waiting for a punchline that will never come. It’s time to remove him from office so we can begin undoing the damage he has done, is doing, and will do.
White House Warns CNN That Critical Coverage Could Cost Time Warner Its Merger
By Eric Levitz
July 6, 201711:38 am
It’s quite possible that some rich asshole would never have become president were it not for CNN. The network nurtured the reality star’s campaign in its infancy, broadcasting entire stump speeches, uninterrupted by correction or commentary. And it is likely that the president would be little more than a cultural artifact — a walking reminder of 1980s nihilism — were it not for the network’s president Jeffrey Zucker, who reintroduced the rich asshole to the American public as a no-nonsense businessman in NBC’s The Apprentice.
But CNN is a journalistic enterprise. Or, at least, it plays one on TV. And so when a politician spews vicious, obvious lies on a near-daily basis — and directs a good portion of that venom at the free press itself — CNN’s anchors and reporters feel compelled to correct and condemn such mendacity. And that makes the president feel “betrayed.”
So, now, his administration is openly threatening to punish the network by sending the Justice Department after its parent company. As the New York Times reports:
some rich asshole’s allies argue that it is CNN’s conduct that is unbecoming. Starting on last year’s campaign trail, the president and his aides have accused the network of bias and arrogance, an offensive that heated up again in January after CNN reported on the existence of a secret dossier detailing a series of lurid accusations against some rich asshole. The network’s reporters now routinely joust with some rich asshole’s press aides, and Jim Acosta, a White House correspondent, recently denounced the administration’s use of off-camera briefings as an affront to American values.
White House advisers have discussed a potential point of leverage over their adversary, a senior administration official said: a pending merger between CNN’s parent company, Time Warner, and AT&T. some rich asshole’s Justice Department will decide whether to approve the merger, and while analysts say there is little to stop the deal from moving forward, the president’s animus toward CNN remains a wild card. [my emphasis]
This detail is buried 12 paragraphs into a feature on CNN’s combative relationship with the rich asshole. Which is bizarre, given that it’s an open confession of corruption by a senior White House official. It hardly matters whether the administration follows through on its threat: The White House is extorting a news network in the pages of the New York Times. The fact that this didn’t strike the paper as headline material is a testament to how thoroughly the rich asshole has already succeeded in eroding our expectations for good governance.
Shortly after the mogul’s election, Vox’s Matt Yglesias posited politically motivated interference in the Time Warner–AT&T merger as a frightening hypothetical — a development that would signal America’s descent into kleptocracy.
the rich asshole is not going to crush the free media in one fell swoop. But big corporate media does face enough regulatory matters that even a single exemplary case would suffice to induce large-scale self-censorship. AT&T, for example, is currently seeking permission from antitrust authorities to buy Time Warner — permission that Time Warner executives might plausibly fear is contingent on the rich asshole believing that CNN has covered him “fairly.”
It’s worth noting that CNN has already allowed the desire to appease the rich asshole (and his voters) to undermine its journalistic integrity. The network literally pays the rich asshole associates Corey Lewandowski and Jeffrey Lord to lie to its audience on the president’s behalf — even as it cut ties with Reza Aslan for profanely criticizing the president on social media.
While this is the first time the administration has publicly declared its interest in using the Justice Department as a tool for stifling dissent, the rich asshole has been encouraging Time Warner to discipline its news network for months now. In February, the Wall Street Journal reportedthat senior White House adviser (and the rich asshole son-in-law) Jared Kushner “complained to Gary Ginsberg, executive vice-president of corporate marketing and communications at CNN’s parent Time Warner, about what Mr. Kushner feels is unfair coverage slanted against the president.”
On the campaign trail, the rich asshole vowed to block Time Warner’s desired merger “because it’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few.”
If that sentiment were genuine, it would be worth applauding. There’s considerable evidence that corporate consolidation in general — and media concentration, in particular — has been bad for our economy and our democracy. But the rich asshole administration has signaled an appreciation for the virtues of monopolies, appointing a former lobbyist with an affinity for big business as the Justice Department’s head of antitrust enforcement.
And the White House is perfectly comfortable with media consolidation — when such mergers increase the bandwidth of pro-the rich asshole outlets. Earlier this year, the FCC relaxed rules on how many local stations a single owner can control. Shortly thereafter, Sinclair Broadcast Group purchased Tribune Media — thereby gaining ownership of enough local television stations to reach 70 percent of American households. Sinclair is run by a big-dollar GOP donor, and forced its local affiliates to skew their coverage in the rich asshole’s favor throughout the 2016 campaign.
If the White House blocks the Time Warner–AT&T deal, it will not be out of a desire to enhance competition, but to limit free speech.
To be sure, there’s reason to doubt that the rich asshole will make good on that threat — this White House’s bark tends to be louder than its bite. In an interview with the Times, Zucker claims that the merger is not something he thinks about and that Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes has never brought that subject to his attention.
But when a president with an ardent, white-nationalist following barks, it’s reasonable to fear that someone else might use their teeth. While Zucker isn’t worried about antitrust enforcement, he told the Times that he isworried for his staff’s personal safety:
The level of threats against CNN employees, he said, has spiked this year. some rich asshole, he said, “has caused us to have to take steps that you wouldn’t think would be necessary because of the actions of the president of the United States.”
Over the weekend, the rich asshole tweeted a GIF that portrayed him battering a wrestling figure with the CNN logo for a head. The creator of that clip turned out to be a neo-Nazi Reddit user who had posted a list of all the Jews that work at CNN. The network’s Andrew Kaczynski tracked down that user and extracted an apology. Kaczynski declined to reveal the figure’s identity, but suggested that he retained the right to do so, if the shit-posterresumed his “ugly behavior on social media.”
That threat did not sit well with white supremacy, who saw it as an attempt to restrict free speech through intimidation. Thus, some Trumpists decided to express their principled opposition to such intimidation, by threatening to kill Kaczynski and his family. As BuzzFeed reports:
For now, according to a source with knowledge of the situation, Kaczynski and his family are the subject of an ongoing harassment campaign that includes the publication of personal information and death threats. And earlier today, the pro-the rich asshole social media personality Michael Cernovich announced a protest outside Kaczynski’s New York home.
The White House is openly threatening to punish a (barely) adversarial outlet through selective regulatory enforcement. White nationalist the rich asshole supporters are threatening to kill investigative reporters and assembling outside their homes.
some rich asshole has been president for less than six months.
July 6, 201711:38 am
It’s quite possible that some rich asshole would never have become president were it not for CNN. The network nurtured the reality star’s campaign in its infancy, broadcasting entire stump speeches, uninterrupted by correction or commentary. And it is likely that the president would be little more than a cultural artifact — a walking reminder of 1980s nihilism — were it not for the network’s president Jeffrey Zucker, who reintroduced the rich asshole to the American public as a no-nonsense businessman in NBC’s The Apprentice.
But CNN is a journalistic enterprise. Or, at least, it plays one on TV. And so when a politician spews vicious, obvious lies on a near-daily basis — and directs a good portion of that venom at the free press itself — CNN’s anchors and reporters feel compelled to correct and condemn such mendacity. And that makes the president feel “betrayed.”
So, now, his administration is openly threatening to punish the network by sending the Justice Department after its parent company. As the New York Times reports:
some rich asshole’s allies argue that it is CNN’s conduct that is unbecoming. Starting on last year’s campaign trail, the president and his aides have accused the network of bias and arrogance, an offensive that heated up again in January after CNN reported on the existence of a secret dossier detailing a series of lurid accusations against some rich asshole. The network’s reporters now routinely joust with some rich asshole’s press aides, and Jim Acosta, a White House correspondent, recently denounced the administration’s use of off-camera briefings as an affront to American values.
White House advisers have discussed a potential point of leverage over their adversary, a senior administration official said: a pending merger between CNN’s parent company, Time Warner, and AT&T. some rich asshole’s Justice Department will decide whether to approve the merger, and while analysts say there is little to stop the deal from moving forward, the president’s animus toward CNN remains a wild card. [my emphasis]
This detail is buried 12 paragraphs into a feature on CNN’s combative relationship with the rich asshole. Which is bizarre, given that it’s an open confession of corruption by a senior White House official. It hardly matters whether the administration follows through on its threat: The White House is extorting a news network in the pages of the New York Times. The fact that this didn’t strike the paper as headline material is a testament to how thoroughly the rich asshole has already succeeded in eroding our expectations for good governance.
Shortly after the mogul’s election, Vox’s Matt Yglesias posited politically motivated interference in the Time Warner–AT&T merger as a frightening hypothetical — a development that would signal America’s descent into kleptocracy.
the rich asshole is not going to crush the free media in one fell swoop. But big corporate media does face enough regulatory matters that even a single exemplary case would suffice to induce large-scale self-censorship. AT&T, for example, is currently seeking permission from antitrust authorities to buy Time Warner — permission that Time Warner executives might plausibly fear is contingent on the rich asshole believing that CNN has covered him “fairly.”
It’s worth noting that CNN has already allowed the desire to appease the rich asshole (and his voters) to undermine its journalistic integrity. The network literally pays the rich asshole associates Corey Lewandowski and Jeffrey Lord to lie to its audience on the president’s behalf — even as it cut ties with Reza Aslan for profanely criticizing the president on social media.
While this is the first time the administration has publicly declared its interest in using the Justice Department as a tool for stifling dissent, the rich asshole has been encouraging Time Warner to discipline its news network for months now. In February, the Wall Street Journal reported that senior White House adviser (and the rich asshole son-in-law) Jared Kushner “complained to Gary Ginsberg, executive vice-president of corporate marketing and communications at CNN’s parent Time Warner, about what Mr. Kushner feels is unfair coverage slanted against the president.”
On the campaign trail, the rich asshole vowed to block Time Warner’s desired merger “because it’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few.”
If that sentiment were genuine, it would be worth applauding. There’s considerable evidence that corporate consolidation in general — and media concentration, in particular — has been bad for our economy and our democracy. But the rich asshole administration has signaled an appreciation for the virtues of monopolies, appointing a former lobbyist with an affinity for big business as the Justice Department’s head of antitrust enforcement.
And the White House is perfectly comfortable with media consolidation — when such mergers increase the bandwidth of pro-the rich asshole outlets. Earlier this year, the FCC relaxed rules on how many local stations a single owner can control. Shortly thereafter, Sinclair Broadcast Group purchased Tribune Media — thereby gaining ownership of enough local television stations to reach 70 percent of American households. Sinclair is run by a big-dollar GOP donor, and forced its local affiliates to skew their coverage in the rich asshole’s favor throughout the 2016 campaign.
If the White House blocks the Time Warner–AT&T deal, it will not be out of a desire to enhance competition, but to limit free speech.
To be sure, there’s reason to doubt that the rich asshole will make good on that threat — this White House’s bark tends to be louder than its bite. In an interview with the Times, Zucker claims that the merger is not something he thinks about and that Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes has never brought that subject to his attention.
But when a president with an ardent, white-nationalist following barks, it’s reasonable to fear that someone else might use their teeth. While Zucker isn’t worried about antitrust enforcement, he told the Times that he is worried for his staff’s personal safety:
The level of threats against CNN employees, he said, has spiked this year. some rich asshole, he said, “has caused us to have to take steps that you wouldn’t think would be necessary because of the actions of the president of the United States.”
Over the weekend, the rich asshole tweeted a GIF that portrayed him battering a wrestling figure with the CNN logo for a head. The creator of that clip turned out to be a neo-Nazi Reddit user who had posted a list of all the Jews that work at CNN. The network’s Andrew Kaczynski tracked down that user and extracted an apology. Kaczynski declined to reveal the figure’s identity, but suggested that he retained the right to do so, if the shit-posterresumed his “ugly behavior on social media.”
That threat did not sit well with white supremacy, who saw it as an attempt to restrict free speech through intimidation. Thus, some Trumpists decided to express their principled opposition to such intimidation, by threatening to kill Kaczynski and his family. As BuzzFeed reports:
For now, according to a source with knowledge of the situation, Kaczynski and his family are the subject of an ongoing harassment campaign that includes the publication of personal information and death threats. And earlier today, the pro-the rich asshole social media personality Michael Cernovich announced a protest outside Kaczynski’s New York home.
The White House is openly threatening to punish a (barely) adversarial outlet through selective regulatory enforcement. White nationalist the rich asshole supporters are threatening to kill investigative reporters and assembling outside their homes.
some rich asshole has been president for less than six months.
the rich asshole says the west is at risk, during nationalistic speech in Poland
US president’s speech in Warsaw calls for defence of ‘our civilisation’ from terrorism, bureaucracy and erosion of traditions
Christian Davies in Warsaw, Patrick Wintour in Hamburg and Jamie Grierson
Thursday 6 July 2017 10.11 EDT
some rich asshole said the survival of the west was at risk, as he lashed out at hostile forces ranging from Islamic terrorism to Russia, statism and secularism, during a speech in Poland.
At the start of a four-day trip to Europe, the US president gave a highly nationalist address in Warsaw suggesting that a lack of collective resolve could doom an alliance that had endured through the cold war.
“As the Polish experience reminds us, the defence of the west ultimately rests not only on means but also on the will of its people to prevail,” the rich asshole said at the site of the 1944 uprising against the Nazis. “The fundamental question of our time is whether the west has the will to survive.”
the rich asshole, who delivered the speech on Thursday before flying to Hamburg for the G20 summit and bilateral meetings with the leaders of China, Russia and Germany, painted a picture of the west facing existential challenges in the effort to “defend our civilisation” from terrorism, bureaucracy and the erosion of traditions.
the rich asshole pointed to Poland, which in the last century endured Nazi and Soviet occupations, as an example of resolve. “The story of Poland is the story of a people who have never lost hope, who have never been broken, and who have never forgotten who they are,” he said.
In a nod to the conservative values he shares with Poland’s controversial ruling Law and Justice party, the rich asshole also called on the west to defend its traditions.
“Americans, Poles, and the nations of Europe value individual freedom and sovereignty,” he said. “We must work together to counter forces, whether they come from inside or out, from the south or the east, that threaten over time to undermine these values and to erase the bonds of culture, faith and tradition that make us who we are.”
According to Polish press reports, the rich asshole was enticed to Warsaw by promises of a rapturous reception. The Polish government, which paid for supporters to be bussed in from provincial areas, appeared to have delivered, as the president was greeted by a boisterous, highly partisan, crowd in Krasinski Square, one of Warsaw’s smaller public spaces.
The crowd expressed its sympathies ahead of the rich asshole’s address, chanting the name of a Law and Justice politician as he took his seat and chanting “thieves” and “traitors” at opposition politicians as they entered the event’s VIP area.
The US president’s address was regularly interrupted by chants of “some rich asshole!” and “USA”, though he hit a less popular note when he praised the contribution to Poland’s freedom of Lech Walesa, the former dissident, president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has long been denounced by Law and Justice leaders as a traitor and Communist informant.
For the first time the rich asshole said he “stood by” article 5 of the Nato charter – the provision requiring members to defend each other from attack – but he coupled that much-sought promise with a fresh attack on unnamed Nato states for “failing to meet their full and fair financial obligations on defence spending”.
He claimed his tough criticism of those states that had not met the Nato target of raising defence spending to 2% of GDP was paying off, with billions more being committed to defence across Europe.
the rich asshole made repeated references to threats posed by Islamic terror. “Our borders will always be closed to extremism and terrorism,” he said. “We cannot accept those who reject our values and use hatred to justify violence.”
He made a rare criticism of Russia, accusing Moscow of “destabilising activities in Ukraine and elsewhere”, and claiming Vladimir Putin was supporting “hostile regimes including Syria and Iran”.
He also issued a Reaganesque call to tackle bureaucracy, which he framed as more than just an inconvenience or byproduct of a rules-based society. “On both sides of the Atlantic, our citizens are confronted by yet another danger – one firmly within our control. This danger is invisible to some but familiar to the Poles. The steady creep of government bureaucracy that drains the vitality and wealth of the people. The west became great not because of paperwork and regulations but because people were allowed to chase their dreams and pursue their destinies.”
In addition to the people gathering around Krasinski Square, many of whom appeared to have turned up out of curiosity, the rich asshole was faced by a message lasered on to the city’s Stalinist-era Palace of Culture that read “No the rich asshole, Yes Paris”, a reference to the Paris climate change agreement from which the rich asshole withdrew the US.
A small left-wing party held a protest with activists dressed as women from The Handmaid’s Tale, an American TV drama series based on a novel about a future totalitarian society, in protest over the rich asshole’s treatment of women.
Some of the rich asshole’s supporters were also disgruntled. Most of the space in Krasinski Square, Warsaw’s fourth or fifth largest public space, was taken up by VIP seating and media and security zones, leaving many supporters who had been bussed into Warsaw from the countryside, perhaps early in the morning, to stand in nearby side streets.
“They should let us in with them, after all they are here because of us,” one supporter told a reporter, referring to government politicians. “Not one of them looked at us as they walked in.”
Earlier in the day, the rich asshole and Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, discussed their disapproval of their respective countries’ domestic media outlets, as the rich asshole defended his criticism of CNN and his tweet depicting him body-slamming a figure bearing a CNN logo.
“They have been fake news for a long time, and they have been covering me in a dishonest way,” the rich asshole said, as Duda nodded enthusiastically. “We don’t want fake news.”
After Poland’s ruling Law and Justice assumed office in 2015, Duda signed a media law allowing the government to take political control of state media outlets. Liberal media outlets have been squeezed financially by the cancellation of subscriptions by state institutions, and the withdrawal of advertising revenues.
Asked about North Korea’s recent missile tests and the rich asshole’s planned response, the US president replied: “I don’t know. We’ll see what happens. I don’t like to talk about what I have planned. I have some pretty severe things we’re thinking about. I don’t draw red lines.”
the rich asshole closed the press conference with a rambling response to a call from a reporter to “finally answer yes or no” to whether he thought Russia had interfered in the 2016 US election.
“I think it could very well have been Russia,” he replied. “I think it could well have been other countries. I won’t be specific. But I think a lot of people interfere. Nobody really knows. Nobody really knows for sure.”
Trump’s dangerous thirst for a clash of civilizations
President Trump at Warsaw’s Krasinski Square. (Szilard Koszticsak/European Pressphoto Agency)
By Eugene Robinson Opinion writer July 6 at 7:35 PM
“A little learning is a dangerous thing,” wrote the poet Alexander Pope. Three centuries later, Pope’s aphorism perfectly — and dangerously — describes President Trump’s understanding of history as a zero-sum clash of civilizations in which “the West” can triumph by imposing its will.
ADVERTISING
The speech Trump delivered Thursday in Warsaw’s Krasinski Square might have been appropriate when Britannia ruled the waves and Europe’s great powers held dominion over “lesser” peoples around the globe. It had nothing useful to say about today’s interconnected world in which goods, people and ideas have contempt for borders.
“The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive,” the president said. “Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?”
Trump added what he probably thought of as a Churchillian flourish: “I declare today for the world to hear that the West will never, ever be broken. Our values will prevail. Our people will thrive. And our civilization will triumph.”
Triumph over whom? Trump mentioned “radical Islamic terrorism” as one of the enemies posing “dire threats to our security and to our way of life,” but he didn’t stop there. He went on to add Russia and — weirdly — “the steady creep of government bureaucracy” to the list. It is appalling that the president would describe patriotic public servants as a kind of fifth column that “drains the vitality and wealth of the people,” and I guess some precious bodily fluids as well.
But what does Trump mean when he speaks of “the West” and its civilization? “Americans, Poles and the nations of Europe value individual freedom and sovereignty,” he said. “We must work together to confront forces, whether they come from inside or out, from the South or the East, that threaten over time to undermine these values and to erase the bonds of culture, faith and tradition that make us who we are. . . . We write symphonies. We pursue innovation. We celebrate our ancient heroes, embrace our timeless traditions and customs, and always seek to explore and discover brand-new frontiers.”
That’s what I mean about a little learning. If the president read a few history books, he’d know that for most of the past 2,000 years, China and India were the world’s leading economic powers and Europe was a relatively primitive backwater. He’d know that Europe rose to dominance not by erecting walls but by opening itself to the rest of the world — its resources, products and people.
There is nothing pure about Western civilization. Its ability to absorb and incorporate outside influences has proved a great strength, not a weakness. Imagine Italy without tomato sauce, a gift from the New World — or the United States without the high-tech companies founded by immigrants, gifts from the Old.
Of course Trump is right to call for a united front against terrorism. But the solution, in a globalized world, cannot be to hunker behind walls, however big and beautiful those walls might be. Industrial supply chains cross borders and span oceans. Words and images flash around the globe at the speed of light. Global issues, such as nuclear proliferation and climate change, demand global solutions. Like it or not, we are all in this together.
The correct response to the terrorism threat, which is real, is to isolate it as an abomination that is as much a grievous insult to Islam as to any other faith — and that has taken the lives of far more Muslims than non-Muslims. The wrong response is to posit that “the West” is besieged by, and therefore at war with, a hostile civilization. That’s a fight in which everyone loses.
Trump did finally make clear that the United States remains fully committed to Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which states that an attack on one member of the alliance is tantamount to an attack on all. He was tougher on Russia than in the past, and he cited “propaganda, financial crimes and cyberwarfare” as “new forms of aggression” that must be countered.
But viewing the fight against terrorism as some kind of civilizational Armageddon is wrong. Trump seems to view himself as the West’s defender against 1.6 billion Muslims, almost all of whom want only to live in peace. We need a capable president, not a crusader in chief.
An International Brotherhood of White Grievance
the rich asshole's white supremacy speech in Poland redefined the West in nativist terms, eschewing democratic idealism in favor of "blood and soil" nationalism.
BY JEET HEER
July 6, 2017
In his address Thursday in Warsaw, some rich asshole returned to the stark, polarizing rhetoric of his campaign speeches and inaugural address, portraying America and its culturally similar allies as under siege by subversive forces both within and without. Although he called Ronald Reagan “one of the world’s greatest heroes,” the rich asshole avoided the fortieth president’s oft-invoked trope of America as a “city on a hill”—a moral beacon for the world. Instead, the rich asshole sounded much more like right-wing nativist Pat Buchanan, author of books like Death of the West, in warning of the imminent decline of Western civilization due to cultural liberalism and immigration:
“The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive,” he said. “Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?” Later, he evoked Poland’s wartime resistance to Nazism and Soviet communism. “The memories of those who perished in the Warsaw Uprising cry out across the decades,” he said. “Those heroes remind us that the West was saved with the blood of patriots; that each generation must rise up and play their part in its defense and that every foot of ground, and every last inch of civilization, is worth defending with your life.”
Such rhetoric is meant to conjure blood-and-soil nationalism. Here, the rich asshole is defining the West not based on ideals like democracy and liberty, but atavistic loyalties to territory and shared kinship. The speech was written by senior advisor Stephen Miller, and, like his other writing, it evoked themes popular with white supremacy and cultural conservatives: that immigration is an existential threat, and that religion and family values are essential to revitalizing the will of the West in the face of its enemies, both internal and external.
In painting the world in stark us-versus-them terms, the rich asshole’s speech made extensive use of right-wing Polish nationalism, which sees the country as a martyr state that was aided by God in throwing off communism in 1989 and that, today, is held together by shared faith while under constant attack from large nations in the East and West. the rich asshole modified this perspective in one significant way, saying that the enemies now come from “the South” rather than the West: “We must work together to confront forces, whether they come from inside or out, from the South or the East, that threaten over time to undermine these values and to erase the bonds of culture, faith and tradition that make us who we are. If left unchecked, these forces will undermine our courage, sap our spirit, and weaken our will to defend ourselves and our societies.”
the rich asshole’s message is that just as Poland defended its borders from the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, so a new alliance of Western nations must stand up to those who would erase borders today: globalists and immigrants. the rich asshole called for a new “community of nations” that, reading between the lines, is made up of white, Christian countries. Consider his chauvinism in contrasting the great achievements the West—as he imagines it—with the supposed failures of the rest of the world. “The world has never known anything like our community of nations,” the rich asshole declared. “We write symphonies. We pursue innovation. We celebrate our ancient heroes, embrace our timeless traditions and customs, and always seek to explore and discover brand-new frontiers. We reward brilliance. We strive for excellence, and cherish inspiring works of art that honor God.”
the rich asshole never explicitly defined the “forces ... from inside” that the West must “confront,” but he did so implicitly. “We put faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, at the center of our lives,” he said at one point, later adding, “Finally, on both sides of the Atlantic, our citizens are confronted by yet another danger—one firmly within our control. This danger is invisible to some but familiar to the Poles: the steady creep of government bureaucracy that drains the vitality and wealth of the people. The West became great not because of paperwork and regulations but because people were allowed to chase their dreams and pursue their destinies.”
The implication here is that American progressives, in their effort to expand the government’s influence on society, are the modern-day counterparts of the communists that threatened Poland. This is one of many examples from the rich asshole’s speech that show how his domestic and foreign policies are one. He won the presidency with a campaign of white nationalism, and now, in Warsaw, he has used white grievance politics to redefine “the West.” How appropriate, then, that even though the Polish capital is half a world away from the American South, someone in the crowd apparently unfurled a Confederate flag.
From day one of some rich asshole’s failure of a presidency, it was perfectly clear that the former reality television star thought he was a king and expected America to roll over and do whatever the hell he wanted. Unfortunately for the unworthy POTUS, his presidency is panning out a lot differently than he imagined, and he’s just been sent another great big ‘f*ck you’ by the United States.
the rich asshole’s voter fraud conspiracy has just been dealt a major blow and suffered a humiliating defeat, as every single state in America is refusing to give up the voter data that the rich asshole is demanding. According to The Washington Post:
“In a rare display of bipartisanship, officials in nearly every state have said they will partially or fully refuse to comply with President the rich asshole’s voting commission, which has encountered criticism and opposition after issuing a sweeping request for voter data nationwide. Even as some of the resistance centers on the rich asshole and members of his commission, the broader responses from the states indicate a strong and widespread belief that local officials should be managing elections and that the White House’s request for volumes of information went too far.”
That’s right – America as a whole united and agreed that what the rich asshole wanted was unconstitutional or illegal, and made moves to protect Americans’ private data. This is not only extremely embarrassing for the rich asshole, but it also reveals that his administration is increasingly lazy and sloppy, having not even bothered to look and see if their request for the voter data was legal by state law!
Unlike the rich asshole and his incompetent team, the majority of America is not so reckless and willing to bow down to a complete idiot. This will go down in the books as yet another one of the rich asshole’s failures, as he is once again defeated by the checks and balances he thought he could overrun with his dictator-style ‘leadership.’ Way to go, America!
Featured image via Drew Angerer / Getty Images
Author: VeraMy passion is bringing attention to human rights and equality issues. In addition to writing for Addicting Info, I also run a website and digital magazine dedicated to social issues and promoting equality in all forms.
Amateur president some rich asshole isn’t well liked in the U.S. or around the world. 37 nations had far more confidence in former Barack Obama when it comes to international affairs than with the former reality show star. In the U.K., protesters are on alert just in case the rich asshole makes a surprise visit in order to avoid being triggered by any demonstrations against his administration. 70 percent of the public in Britain have an unfavorable view of the rich asshole. the rich asshole, a ‘man’ who seeks constant adoration, found a safe place with Poland, likely because of the governing party’s nationalistic ideology.
the rich asshole has a lot in common with Poland’s leaders. They oppose immigration, they hold doubts about climate change and don’t intend to give up on coal-generated energy.
The Associated Press reports that Poland’s government will alleviate the rich asshole’s hurt fee-fees over possibly not being welcomed by the country’s people.
The White House received a promise from Poland’s government that the rich asshole will be well received and to accomplish that, crowds will be bussed in by pro-government activists to cheer for the so-called president of the U.S.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Like many of his fellow Polish pro-government lawmakers, Dominik Tarczynski is sending a busload of constituents to Warsaw on Thursday to cheer for President some rich asshole. The buses are being provided by a foundation close to the governing party.
“It’s going to be huge—absolutely huge,” Mr. Tarczynski said of the coming welcome for some rich asshole. “They just love him, the people in Poland—they just really love him.”
Sure, but they have to be paid or prompted to show their alleged ‘love’ for him. Żałosne!
With growing tensions mounting between North Korea and the U.S., the former reality show star was asked what he plans to do about that. the rich asshole responded just before taking flight, saying, “We’re going to do very well.”
As for the crowds being bussed in to feign adoration for the rich asshole, the alleged president is still not well liked by Poland’s citizens so he shouldn’t count on a huge crowd of supporters cheering him on.
Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images.
Author: Conover KennardConover makes tea partiers cry as a hobby. She was Commander of Jade Helm15 during the failed takeover of the South. She's also one of the biggest arseholes on Twitter. At night, she can be found drinking Conservative tears while pulling off the wings of flies just because she can. She is the founder of a Marxist, Commie, Maoist, Socialist site and has contributed to several other sites, blah blah blah. She is an awful person but she doesn't like to brag about that.
‘CNN’ Hilariously Responds To the rich asshole’s Vicious Attack And It’s Everything (VIDEO)
Amateur president some rich asshole typically targets the press on his Twitter timeline. Like, for example, this holiday weekend the former reality show star has been unleashing mean-girl tweets about his negative press coverage. While the rich asshole has successfully swayed his supporters into distrusting the media, a new poll found that Americans trust CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times more than the alleged president.
On Sunday morning, presumably, just after or before church, the rich asshole posted a fake video of himself beating the snot out of a fake CNN reporter, while using the hashtag: #FraudNewsCNN.
Humphries, while wearing a CNN logo for his head, starts the video off by saying, “My name is CNN and I was assaulted by the President of the United States.”
“The bullying started a while ago, mainly online. some rich asshole started calling me fake news, which was almost as painful as me having to call him President of the United States,” he continues.
Watch:
Want to Get Rid of the rich asshole? Only Fox News Can Do It
1772
Photo
Sean Hannity of Fox News, left, with Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, in January.CreditDrew Angerer/Getty Images
KNOXVILLE, Iowa — President the rich asshole’s administration is in crisis, consumed by fears of what Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russia’s meddling in the election, might find. Everyone’s lawyering up — even the lawyers have lawyers.
But here in rural Iowa you might never hear about any of that. What I do hear from my conservative friends — most still ardent the rich asshole supporters — is a collective yawn at the Washington maelstrom. Few care about his tweets — even about Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough and the CNN body slam. The whacking of James Comey? About time. President Obama’s appointee anyway. some rich asshole’s asking if Mr. Comey could drop the Michael Flynn investigation? It was a simple question, not obstruction of justice. The Comey testimony? Vindication for some rich asshole! Mr. Comey is a leaker, he lied under oath, and he’s going down. He’ll be lucky if he doesn’t serve prison time.
No, the big stunner in that testimony was Mr. Comey’s statement about former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton — that’s where the real obstruction of justice lies.
Here, conservatives celebrate the successes in some rich asshole’s short time in office: a conservative Supreme Court justice now seated; Mexico and Canada back to the trading table; red tape cut; the E.P.A. hamstrung; climate change nonsense tossed aside. It’s exactly what they elected him to do — victory after victory in a bigger battle than just policy, a battle for America’s soul.
For many conservatives, they support some rich asshole because he’s their de facto leader in a cultural war. Liberals mock Christianity and demean Christian morals. Conservatives respect our police and military, while liberals romanticize street thugs. Conservatives’ tax dollars help pay for public schools and colleges that indoctrinate liberal values. Out here some conservatives aren’t even calling them “public” schools anymore. They call them “government schools,” as in, “We don’t want to pay for your damn ‘government schools.’ ” They’re afraid to send their kids to them.
They bend over backward to justify everything some rich asshole does, largely because they don’t believe what anyone in the news media is telling them, except for maybe Fox News.
A prominent businessman here, for example, views the “whole fake Russian story” as “a coup attempt by the media.”
A sergeant major in the Iowa National Guard recently overheard a pro-the rich asshole law enforcement friend and me disagreeing about some rich asshole. He shook his head and smiled, telling me, “Well, all I know, Bob, is that my unit’s budget just doubled.”
Now, they’re not entirely blind to the damage some rich asshole is doing to the Republican brand. Democrats are energized, and though some rich asshole’s base is holding, “soft” the rich asshole voters are slowly sinking his approval numbers. One friend who twice voted for Barack Obama now sees World War III on the horizon and deeply regrets his vote for some rich asshole.
President the rich asshole has been in office only about six months and yet is already under investigation by congressional committees and the special counsel, Mr. Mueller. This fact alone should make every Republican nervous.
The country needs to see these investigations through. Regardless, my conservative friends should ask themselves, what has President the rich asshole accomplished that a President Mike Pence couldn’t have, without all of the drama? And what matters more: President the rich asshole or their conservative values? Here, I believe it’s the latter. some rich asshole, after all, was runner-up to Ted Cruz in the Iowa caucuses.
I see only one thing that might give my conservative friends pause about turning against some rich asshole — Fox News. After all, it helped create him. Most people here watch Fox News, and have for a generation.
Fox News is always on the TV in diners and other restaurants. In bars, if there isn’t a game on, Fox News is there. If there are a couple of televisions or more, one will most likely be tuned to Fox. And it’s not only TV. It’s radio. Our big “blow torch” conservative radio station out of Des Moines blasts conservative indignation and self-righteousness for hours a day and serves up Sean Hannity for hours every night.
I once grumbled to a friend that I didn’t think Fox was “Fair and Balanced” at all. He started to argue with me, then thought better of it, saying, “But at least they try — no one else does.”
To me, only that network has the power to convince conservatives that, if one or more of the investigations raises the question of impeachment, it’s in the best interest of the party and the conservative agenda to dump some rich asshole.
Mr. Hannity and other Fox hosts could provide cover for congressional Republicans to consider impeachment. If you believe that impeachment is a political and not a legal question, they need that cover. Right now, Mr. Hannity might have more power over an impeachment process than Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell.
Even if the investigation turns up clear evidence of presidential misconduct, I believe it would be impossible for the party to consider impeachment without Fox’s support. The first Republicans to even mention impeachment would probably be vilified by Fox and find themselves facing an angry constituency and a primary opponent next election. Yet if Fox turns, it’s inevitable. For reasons I do not understand, that network has that kind of power among most of the conservative rural voters I know.
some rich asshole has proved to be more of a liability than an asset in bringing about the changes conservatives want, and I suspect congressional Republicans know that. After all, whom would they rather work with, some rich asshole or Mr. Pence?
If, in fact, some rich asshole is, one way or another, removed from office, or takes the hint and resigns, maybe he will prove to be an effective bulldog for conservative causes from the sidelines. Perhaps conservatives will make him a martyr, a victim of the excesses of liberalism and a dishonest media.
Or they can let him fade away as a historical embarrassment like Warren Harding or Richard Nixon. Even if some rich asshole goes down, the war for the soul of America will continue.
Robert Leonard is the news director for the radio stations KNIA/KRLS.
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.
A version of this op-ed appears in print on July 5, 2017, on Page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Only Fox Can Rid Us Of the rich asshole. |
No comments:
Post a Comment