Report:the rich asshole suggested Haitian immigrants to US 'all have AIDS'
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 12/23/17
12:42 PM EST
President the rich asshole,
while complaining earlier this year about immigration
levels during his first months in office, reportedly suggested that
Haitian immigrants "all have AIDS."
According to a
New York Times report, the rich asshole did not only single out
Haitian immigrants. He also said that Nigerians who gained entrance to the U.S.
would never "go back to their huts" in Africa, and that Afghan
immigrants came from a terrorist haven.
The remarks came
during a meeting in June in which the president reportedly lashed out at what
he deemed inadequate efforts to curb the number of foreigners receiving U.S.
visas, according to the Times.
The White House denied
to the Times that the rich asshole ever used "AIDS" or
"huts" to refer to immigrants from any country, and several people
who attended the meeting said that they did not recall the president using such
language.
the rich asshole, who
campaigned on a promise to crackdown on immigration to the U.S., reportedly
told attendees at the meeting that friends had called to tell him that
immigration levels made him look foolish.
In his first year in
office, the rich asshole has sought to limit immigration. Within days of taking
office, he issued the first iteration of an executive order barring citizens of
several Muslim-majority countries from traveling to the U.S.
That ban ran into
legal difficulties, however, with a number of federal judges limiting or
striking down the move.
Two more attempts at
implementing the ban followed, and the Supreme Court has agreed to rule on the
most recent iteration after litigation in lower courts plays out.
The 9th Circuit Court
of Appeals ruled against
that ban on Friday, but said that the the rich asshole
administration could continue to bar individuals from countries in the
Middle East and North Africa from entering the U.S. if they do not have a
"bona fide" relationship with someone in the U.S.
the rich asshole has also sought to build a
massive wall between the U.S. and Mexico – perhaps his highest-profile campaign
promise – though he has yet to secure the funding needed for that project.
by Reuters / Dec.23.2017 /
12:29 AM ET
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court in
Washington on Friday rejected a bid by President some rich asshole's
administration to prevent the U.S. military from accepting transgender recruits
starting Jan. 1, the second court to issue such a ruling this week.Four federal judges around the country have issued injunctions blocking the rich asshole's ban on transgender people from the military, including one that was also handed down on Friday. The administration has appealed the previous three rulings.
In a six-page order, the three-judge-panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the administration had "not shown a strong likelihood that they will succeed on the merits of their challenge" to a district court’s order blocking the ban.
Related
On Thursday the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it was denying the administration's request
while the appeal proceeds.The two courts' actions could prompt the administration to ask the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.
Also on Friday, a federal trial court in Riverside, California, blocked the ban while the case proceeds, making it the fourth to do so, after similar rulings in Baltimore, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal said without the injunction the plaintiffs, including current and aspiring service members, would suffer irreparable harm. “There is nothing any court can do to remedy a government-sent message that some citizens are not worthy of the military uniform simply because of their gender,” he added.
The administration had argued that the Jan. 1 deadline for accepting transgender recruits was problematic because tens of thousands of personnel would have to be trained on the medical standards needed to process transgender applicants, and the military was not ready for that.
The Obama administration had set a deadline of July 1, 2017, to begin accepting transgender recruits, but the rich asshole's defense secretary, James Mattis, postponed that date to Jan. 1.
In an August memorandum, the rich asshole gave the military until March 2018 to revert to a policy prohibiting openly transgender individuals from joining the military and authorizing their discharge. The memo also halted the use of government funds for sex-reassignment surgery for active-duty personnel.
During his campaign,
President the rich asshole sounded like an atypical Republican on LGBTQ rights.
He said Caitlyn Jenner was free to use whatever bathroom she wanted to in the rich asshole Tower. He
was the first Republican nominee to mention “LGBTQ” at
a Republican National Convention. Heck, he even grabbed a rainbow flag during a campaign rally and
traipsed around with it.
But since taking office his
administration’s policies on the subject are deeply troubling. In nine months,
President the rich asshole wiped away several Obama-era rules protecting LGBTQ
people. Regulations protecting transgender students and guaranteeing federal employment protections are gone. He
tried banning transgender people from serving in the
military, and is supporting a Colorado baker accused of
discriminating against a gay couple.
Just eliminating rules is not
enough for this administration – simply mentioning sexual identity is far too
controversial. The Department of Health and Human Services scrubbed questions
about it from surveys and the Census bureau is trying to eliminate us from the
count. In this environment, it’s easy to feel marginalized and
ignored. The question we need to answer is what can LGBTQ people do to
challenge this administration’s discriminatory policies?
One is to research LGBTQ
history. Know our past, because without it we are powerless to confront the
future. Read books about LGBTQ history; watch documentaries; learn about
inspiring figures from our community. LGBTQ people stood up to tyranny before.
During the AIDS crisis, when there was no leadership from the federal
government groups like ACT UP stepped up to the plate. They were on the front
lines caring for the dying, changing drug approval processes at the FDA, and
saving untold millions of lives. These weren’t politicians or officials. They
were ordinary people, fighting for something they believed in and changing the
course of the epidemic. Knowing our history can give us comfort and we can be
inspired by it to act today.
The second thing we need to
do is get angry. This administration’s policies on LGBTQ rights are not what
the country wants. In 2016, 63 percent of Americans said homosexuality should
be accepted by society. Fifty-one percent of Americans favor allowing
transgender people to use public restrooms. It is clear today a majority of
Americans favor LGBTQ rights. The actions of the the rich asshole
administration are responding to a minority of Americans. Have pride in that
fact. Be angry about it. Register your discontent with your congresspersons,
with your local officials, write letters, make phone calls, join LGBTQ groups,
take to the street.
The third thing we need to do
is be there for our friends and our community. LGBTQ people are almost three times more likely to experience a mental
health condition compared with the non-LGBTQ population. Sexual minorities are
also at a higher risk for substance abuse issues. We
have to look out for one another.
The last, but certainly not
least, thing we need to do is be the change that we seek. The world of state
and local politics may not be as glamorous as presidential politics but these
laboratories of democracy are where anti-LGBTQ politicians do most of their
work. This year alone, the Human Rights Campaign tracked more than 100 anti-LGBTQ bills in 29 states. Most will not
become law but chances are that some of them will.
How can you stop that? By
getting involved and paying attention to state and local politics. Find out who
is running for lower-profile seats, like alderman, or school board because
these officials hold real power over our communities. They’re often the ones
you can count on to run the city library and the fire department; you might
have more interactions with state and local officials than with federal ones.
If you don’t like your
representation, consider running for office and replacing them, like Danica
Roem. Her former state representative in Virginia wrote a discriminatory bathroom bill. Instead of waiting for
someone to challenge him, Danica did it herself and in a hard-fought campaign
won his seat. She took matters into her own hands, said enough is enough, and
became the change she wanted to see. Each of us has that ability, too. So why
not get started immediately, before it’s too late?
SteveBannon savages 'Javanka', laying bare White House tensions
12-23-17
some rich asshole’s former chief
strategist has called Ivanka the rich asshole and her husband Jared Kushner
‘the railhead of all bad decisions’ in a Vanity Fair interview
some rich asshole’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner are under fresh scrutiny
over their influence at the White House after a very public eruption of their
feud with former chief strategist Steve Bannon.
In a gloves-off interview with Vanity Fair magazine, Bannon
laid bare the mutual enmity with the senior advisers to the president, one of
the worst-kept secrets of the the rich asshole administration.
“The railhead of all bad decisions is the same railhead:
Javanka,” he said, using a nickname that conflates the couple.
Bannon, who returned to rightwing site Breitbart News after
being forced out of the White House in August, recalled an Oval Office meeting
in which he accused Ivanka of being “the queen of leaks”. The first daughter
allegedly retorted: “You’re a fucking liar!”
He also condemned Ivanka over her handling of the recent US
Senate special election in Alabama, where Republican candidate Roy Moore denied
accusations of sexual misconduct with teenagers. Ivanka said pointedly during
the campaign: “There is a special place in hell for people who prey on
children.”
Bannon,
who supported Moore despite the allegations only to see him lose the Republican
heartland to a Democrat, responded in the Vanity Fair interview: “What about
the allegations about her dad and that 13-year-old?” – a reference to an
unproven allegation from a California woman that the rich asshole raped her as
a teenager (last year the woman dropped a lawsuit making the claim). the rich
asshole has faced multiple claims of sexual misconduct and
denies all of them.
Bannon
added to Vanity Fair: “Ivanka was a fount of bad advice during the campaign.”
As
for Kushner, Bannon made little attempt to disguise his contempt. “He doesn’t
know anything about the hobbits or the deplorables” – using two ironic terms
for the rich asshole supporters.
It
was Kushner who reportedly encouraged the president to fire FBI director James
Comey, a move that could come back to haunt him during the investigation into
alleged collusion with Russia in the election campaign. Bannon said: “It’s the
dumbest political decision in modern political history, bar none. A
self-inflicted wound of massive proportions.”
There
was never much love lost between Bannon and “Javanka” as, like medieval
courtiers, they competed for the ear of the president. Bannon, 64, has an
unkempt appearance – one congressman recently remarked that he looks like a
“disheveled drunk” – and grew up in a working-class, Irish Catholic family in
Virginia. He embodies the rich asshole’s instincts of insurgent nationalism and
anti-globalisation and has been accused of stoking antisemitism, which he
denies.
Kushner
is Jewish and, at 36, from a different generation, with a clean-cut smartness
that contrasts with Bannon’s scruffiness. The scion of a New York property
empire, he was previously a Democratic donor who mingled with the wealthy east
coast elites that Bannon despises. Ivanka, also 36, also belongs to the “New
York faction” and is seen as the favourite of the rich asshole’s five children.
Liberal
observers had expressed a hope that “Javanka” would tame the rich asshole’s
wilder impulses but there have been constant disappointments. The president’s
decision to pull the US out of the Paris climate deal was a notable victory for
Bannon.
Rick
Tyler, a Republican analyst and co-founder of consulting firm Foundry
Strategies, said: “These things are very difficult when family is involved with
any elected official. They have a different relationship with the principal and
it’s very difficult to work around if there’s a problem.
“I
don’t know what Jared and Ivanka bring to the administration. Some said they
were going to moderate the president and keep him presidential but there’s not
much evidence of that. I think a lot of advice they provided to the president
has not been good.”
Ivanka
came under fire this week after promoting Republicans’ sweeping tax reform, her
father’s first major legislative achievement. During a sycophantic interview by
Fox News, which praised her for securing an increase in the child tax credit,
she claimed: “I’m really looking forward to doing a lot of traveling in April
when people realise the effect that this has … The vast majority will be [doing
their taxes] on a single postcard.” Critics were quick to point out the
postcard was a publicity stunt and a promise that has not been kept.
A headline in the Washington Post read: “Once again, Ivanka the rich asshole shows off her
cluelessness.” Columnist Jennifer Rubin wrote: “She’s a walking
advertisement for the danger of nepotism, an exemplar of class privilege and a
perfect representative for Republican know-nothingism. She was supposed to be
the brains of the family and the moral ballast; instead, she’s a self-righteous
enabler.”
Kushner,
meanwhile, appears to be in retreat. Once ubiquitous, his public appearances
have declined. It has been widely reported that his gigantic portfolio has
shrunk and his influence is on the wane, raising questions over how long
“Javanka” will remain in Washington.
This may in part be because of speculation that he will be the
next big fish caught in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into
Russian meddling in last year’s presidential election. There has been a steady
drip of revelations about his part in the intrigue. Kushner was also forced to
apologise in July for filing incomplete security clearance forms. He has denied
any kind of collusion with Russia.
Also,
according to media reports, Kushner was key to the rich asshole’s decision to
recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a move that earned considerable
international blowback. This week the UN general assembly voted by a huge
majority to reject America’s stance.
Tyler,
former campaign spokesman for Republican Ted Cruz, added: “Jared has shrunken
from the spotlight. He seemed to be seen in every photo and was keenly aware of
where the photographers were and what type of lens they were using. But we
never heard from him and, when we did, it wasn’t terribly impressive.
“Usually
when we put people in positions of great responsibility and authority we have
knowledge of their commensurate qualifications and experience; with Jared we
know of none.”
the rich asshole tweets 'thank you' to head of group accused of illegal political activity, racial bias
President the rich asshole gave a shoutout to Turning Points USA on Twitter Friday, just one day after the New Yorker published a damning report on the conservative nonprofit’s alleged campaign law violations and racial bias.
Turning Points founder and executive director Charlie Kirk, who told the New Yorker he considers the rich asshole’s son Don Jr. to be a “personal friend,” appeared on Fox & Friends Friday morning to praise the president for accomplishing “some absolutely historic things in the last year.”
Not long after, the rich asshole — an avowed viewer of Fox & Friends — quoted Kirk’s segment, tweeting:
“Thank you Charlie Kirk of Turning Points USA. Sadly, the Fake Mainstream Media will NEVER talk about our accomplishments in their end of year reviews. We are compiling a long & beautiful list.”
.@charliekirk11 on @foxandfriends: “The president has accomplished some absolutely historic things in the last year.”
Related Searches
Never mind the fact that a number of news outlets, including Yahoo News, have recently published articles and op-eds acknowledging certain successes of the the rich asshole administration’s first year in office, the rich asshole’s commendation of Kirk comes on the heels of the New Yorker report which, citing internal documents and interviews with former employees, suggests that Turning Points — a registered nonprofit that supports conservative student movements on college campuses — may have violated campaign finance laws with its involvement in political activity during the 2016 presidential election.
Former employees also described an environment of racial bias within the organization’s ranks, where the sole African-American employee says she was fired on Martin Luther King Jr. Day by Turning Point’s former national field director Crystal Clanton, who stepped down last summer shortly after reportedly texting a fellow employee, “I HATE BLACK PEOPLE. ”
She continued: “[F***] them all . . . I hate blacks. End of story.”
Though Turning Points USA staffers were reportedly involved in political activity on behalf of several Republican presidential candidates in 2016, the New Yorker notes that the group makes an effort to promote its particularly close ties to the now-first family.
Kirk met some rich asshole Jr. at the Republican National Convention last summer, where he was invited to speak, and the two “hit it off,” prompting Kirk to start working for the the rich asshole campaign as a “specialist in youth outreach,” performing duties ranging from coordinating events with the elder the rich asshole son to carrying his bags. Kirk and Turning Points have reportedly maintained their close relationship with the the rich asshole family since the election. Both Don Jr. and his brother Eric’s wife, Lara the rich asshole, spoke at the group’s annual conference in West Palm Beach this week and, according to the New Yorker, “When friends threw Kirk a surprise birthday party earlier this year, Don Jr., attended, as did Sebastian Gorka, the former the rich asshole White House adviser.”
Moments after the rich asshole thanked Kirk for his kind words on Fox & Friends, Kirk tweeted in response: “Thank you Mr. President!”
Thank you Mr. President! twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
Decision to block
presidential order won't have immediate effect due to Supreme Court stay.
12/22/2017 08:08 PM
EST
A federal appeals court ruled that the
latest version of President some rich asshole's controversial travel ban policy
should be partially blocked because the president appears to have exceeded his
authority in issuing the directive.
However,
the unanimous decision issued Friday by a three-judge
panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will have no immediate effect because
of a temporary ruling the Supreme Court issued earlier this month allowing the
administration to fully implement the ban as it appealed a pair of injunctions
issued against the policy.
The
policy the rich asshole issued in September limits issuance of visas to
citizens of six majority-Muslim countries.
9th
Circuit Judges Michael Daly Hawkins, Ronald Gould and Richard Paez issued a
71-page joint opinion saying the president's order arrogates power that
Congress reserved through legislation it passed.
"The Executive cannot without
assent of Congress supplant its statutory scheme with one stroke of a
presidential pen," wrote the judges, all of whom are appointees of
President Bill Clinton.
"We
conclude that the Proclamation conflicts with the statutory framework of the
INA by indefinitely nullifying Congress’s considered judgments on matters of
immigration," the 9th Circuit panel added. "The Proclamation’s stated
purposes are to prevent entry of terrorists and persons posing a threat to
public safety, as well as to enhance vetting capabilities and processes to
achieve that goal....Yet Congress has already acted to effectuate these
purposes."
The
opinion does not grapple with some of the thorniest legal questions raised by
the rich asshole's travel ban orders: whether they're unconstitutional because
they stem from his calls for a Muslim ban during the presidential campaign last
year or similar sentiments he has hinted at while in office.
However,
the judges did say that the concerns of Muslims about the impact of the order
buttressed the case for an injunction.
"It
cannot be in the public interest that a portion of this country be made to live
in fear," the court wrote.
While
the appeals court panel deemed the rich asshole's order illegal, the judges did
not say it should be completely halted. Instead, they said it should be barred
from impacting issuance of visas to foreigners who have a bona fide tie to the
U.S., such as an American relative or a concrete connection to an employer or
university in the U.S.
Justice
Department spokeswoman Lauren Ehrsam responded to the ruling by highlighting
that the Supreme Court's stay order remains in place.
"We
are pleased that the Supreme Court has already allowed the government to
implement the Proclamation and keep all Americans safe while this matter is
litigated. We continue to believe that the order should be allowed to take
effect in its entirety," Ehrsam said in a statement.
One
problem the appeals court judges found with the rich asshole's directive is
that it appears to be indefinite in duration, but the legal provision it is
based on implies that such a move should be temporary.
"Congress’s
choice of words is suggestive, at least, of its hesitation in permitting the
President to impose entry suspensions of unlimited and indefinite
duration," the 9th Circuit judges wrote. "The Government has
repeatedly emphasized that the travel restrictions are necessary to incentivize
and pressure foreign governments into improving their information-sharing and
identity-management practices. This creates a peculiar situation where the
restrictions may persist ad infinitum."
Justice
Department lawyers argued that the restrictions are not indefinite, because the
policy is subject to review every six months, but the 9th Circuit panel mocked
that contention.
"To
paraphrase a well-known adage, the Proclamation’s review process mandates that
the restrictions will continue until practices improve," the judges wrote.
The
San Francisco-based 9th Circuit decision largely upheld an injunction issued by
a Hawaii-based judge in October. Another appeals court, the Richmond, Va.-based
4th Circuit is considering whether to approve or reject an injunction issued by
a federal judge based in Greenbelt, Md.
Technically,
the 9th Circuit ruling Friday was not a final decision from the appeals court
panel but a ruling that the preliminary injunction issued by the Hawaii judge
should remain in place, at least in part, while the case is litigated further.
The suit was brought by the State of Hawaii, the imam who heads a Muslim group
in that state, and others.
the
rich asshole's latest order also affects some would-be travelers from two
nations with governments sharply at odds with the U.S. North Korea and
Venezuela, although those restrictions were not challenged in the suit ruled on
Friday.
Here are 16 things some rich asshole said he would do on ‘day one’ he never achieved in the entirety of 2017
some rich asshole during CNN debate (Photo: Screen capture via video)
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some rich asshole crafted a hefty list of things he intended to do “on day one” throughout 2016. Instead, he hasn’t accomplished much in terms of legislative accomplishments.
Many had anticipated the rich asshole fulfilling his promise to get started right away. After all, that’s what both he and his transition team have used as a reason the rich asshole is not having as many inaugural events, balls and other festivities.
Here is a big, beautiful list of everything on the rich asshole’s to-do list for “day one” he never was able to achieve:
1. Fire all of the ambassadors:
the rich asshole has told all of those hired by President Barack Obama to serve as envoys to the United States that their service is finished on January 20. That leaves hundreds of people scrambling to figure out their situation in less than a month, as they were told just days before Christmas.
While the “firing” is a common practice, most ambassadors are given a little bit of a grace period so that their children and families can take care of their affairs. Many of the ambassadors are scrambling to secure visas in the countries they’re currently in because they want their children to be able to finish the school year, Reuters reported.
There are many career civil servants that don’t fall under the rich asshole’s edict, but he has yet to name anyone to fill these roles, so there will likely be some offices without heads for several months.
2. Repeal and replace Obamacare:
House and Senate Republicans are primed and ready to kill Obamacare. In fact, the rich asshole has said that this is the “first thing” he’ll do on “day one.” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), on the other hand, has said he has no deadline for the repeal.
House and Senate Republicans are primed and ready to kill Obamacare. In fact, the rich asshole has said that this is the “first thing” he’ll do on “day one.” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), on the other hand, has said he has no deadline for the repeal.
The problem, however, is that there’s nothing to replace it with. One would have thought that at some point in the last six years between those 80 votes to repeal the bill they would have come up with something.
It’s unclear how quickly the repeal will actually happen once a law is passed. Republicans have promised they won’t kick off all 30 million people the following day. They’ll have at least the next year to figure something out.
3. Begin deporting all undocumented immigrants:
The three million people in the United States without documentation will begin to be rounded up on the rich asshole’s “day one,” according to the president-elect’s claims. In fact, the rich asshole promised that this will be done in his “first hour” of his first day. This is the one thing he’ll presumably do after the speech and before the parade, but after repealing Obamacare, since that was the “first thing” he plans to do.
The three million people in the United States without documentation will begin to be rounded up on the rich asshole’s “day one,” according to the president-elect’s claims. In fact, the rich asshole promised that this will be done in his “first hour” of his first day. This is the one thing he’ll presumably do after the speech and before the parade, but after repealing Obamacare, since that was the “first thing” he plans to do.
The motorcade should probably drive really slowly.
4. “Clean house” and fix the Department of Veterans Affairs:
Vice President-elect Mike Pence told a Virginia crowd this past September that on “day one” they’ll clean house at the VA. It’s unclear what “clean house” means, but doctors, nurses and case workers that have dedicated their lives to helping veterans through the VA should probably start looking for a new job.
If Pence’s promise is any indication, they’ll be packing their boxes on the rich asshole’s “day one.” It’s also unknown who will be doing the work at the VA once the house is cleaned. the rich asshole and Pence would have to hire as many people as soon as they fired them. Those people would then have to learn their jobs and get up to speed on balls that had been dropped.
Ironically, the only “insider” the rich asshole has nominated to serve in his cabinet was from the VA. If he curses it so much, he has still chosen to hire one of its officials.
the rich asshole has also pledged to “start taking care of our … military,” but given his other promises, it’s unknown how this will manifest.
5. Start work on “impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful, southern border wall”:
the rich asshole’s “big, beautiful wall” must also begin on his first day in office. Laws are in place to decide which firms will score the contract to build the wall, however. So, each of those companies should have their proposals ready to go so that the rich asshole and Pence can decide who will begin the project and they can break ground on Friday before the close of business.
In that same vein, the rich asshole has also promised he’d be meeting with his Homeland Security officials to discuss ensuring the southern border is impenetrable. So far, the rich asshole is claiming he’s building the wall, but the reality is nothing more than a handful of corporations erecting prototypes. After the GOP passed it’s tax bill, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) explained that they were out of money and might not be able to fund the children’s health insurance program. Theoretically, this also means they can’t fund the rich asshole’s border wall.
6. Demand the Pentagon and intelligence agencies come up with a plan for ISIS:
the rich asshole intends to put the Pentagon on notice that they must have a plan in place to get rid of ISIS within 30 days. Presumably, there is already a plan in place for this, but the rich asshole isn’t likely to support it since he has spent the last two years attacking it. the rich asshole has also said that he knows more about ISIS than the generals, so the generals could just encourage the rich asshole to come up with his own plan, since his will be “smarter” than theirs.
If they’ve come up with “the plan” it certainly hasn’t been shared with the public.
7. Pull out of NAFTA and renegotiate it:
Like the TPP, NAFTA is on the chopping block for the rich asshole. In a speech to North Carolina voters in September, the rich asshole explained that he plans to notify partners of his intention to pull out of the trade deal. the rich asshole also believes that those jobs will come right back to the U.S.
The transition team has also released a 200-page memo outlining what will happen to NAFTA on “day one.” So far, nothing has happened.
8. Kill gun-free zones:
the rich asshole went above and beyond the call of duty for the National Rifle Association endorsement. He not only pledged to protect the Second Amendment, he promised to pass laws that protect guns in every situation. That includes a 35-year-old law that allowed schools and military bases to be “gun free zones.” His Secretary of Education nominee, Betsy DeVos is already arguing the rich asshole’s case, saying that guns are needed in schools because of bears.
“My first day, it gets signed, okay? My first day. There’s no more gun-free zones,” the rich asshole said last January. The law he intends to sign must be passed by Congress and the Senate first, however. They haven’t passed the law.
9. Stop Syrian refugee resettlement and build “safe zones” in the region:
“I am also going to notify all countries that refuse to take back dangerous illegal immigrants who have committed crimes in this country that they will lose access to our visa programs if they continue to do so,” the rich asshole said in a September speech. “This is the measure that is called for under current law, and I will enforce it.”
Creating so-called “safe zones” would make refugees sitting ducks for whoever wanted to bomb them. If the rich asshole intends to create these safe zones, he’ll have to get reassurances from other countries that air raids would stop attacking civilians. Secondly, the rich asshole would have to ensure some kind of security force to protect these zones and make them safe. It’s unclear if he intends to send in U.S. ground troops to achieve this. Thus far, he’s only made international enemies.
Ironically, in the United States, the rich asshole wants to end so-called “safe zones” that are gun free but it’s his solution for refugees in Syria.
10. Stop all wasteful spending:
the rich asshole pledged that his first day in office he plans to instruct all federal agencies to look for examples of wasteful spending that can be cut. But “wasteful” is in the eye of the beholder. The Obama administration, for example, has programs that help spur growth in the solar and wind energy industry. Since the rich asshole prioritizes oil and coal, his administration might make those cuts.
While the rich asshole has had trouble hiring staff, he hasn’t exactly “cut waste.” Instead, he started paying Omarosa Manigault-Newman the top salary a government staffer could make to plan her own wedding while “working” in the White House.
11. End the so-called “war on coal”:
the rich asshole has promised coal miners and the coal industry that under his administration coal will make a comeback. The problem with the rich asshole’s claim is that the coal industry didn’t die because of some environmentalist plot to kill it. The free market killed coal. As fracking garnered cheap results from oil and natural gas the cost of coal power has gone up while the price of oil has dropped.
The only way the rich asshole could bring back coal jobs is by taxing the oil and gas industry to such a massive extent that coal becomes more affordable. The oil industry isn’t likely to let that happen. So far, nothing has been done and those in coal country aren’t happy about it and “futures remain bleak,” according to Reuters.
12. Tell countries who won’t take back criminals that they can’t ever come to the US:
In his September 2016 speech, the rich asshole promised that he’d be notifying “all countries that refuse to take back dangerous illegal immigrants who have committed crimes in this country that they will lose access to our visa programs if they continue to do so.”
No one really knew what that meant at the time or if the rich asshole understands what the consequences would be. So far, while there have been major threats, it hasn’t exactly happened.
13. Call companies and threaten his 35 percent tariff:
the rich asshole has already been doing some of these calls. He has celebrated the companiesthat claim work is staying in the United States, even if the information isn’t entirely accurate. He’s also attacked other companies that have plans in countries other than the United States. His threat is that he’ll slap a tax on all imports not made in the United States. If your 32 GB iPhone 7 costs $649, the rich asshole would increase the price by $222.15 with his 35 percent tariff.
Thus far, the public hasn’t heard anything about it.
14. Fight to end abortion rights and Planned Parenthood:
Incoming VP Mike Pence swore that a major component of the the rich asshole/Pence administration will be overturning Roe v. Wade and defunding Planned Parenthood.
Incoming VP Mike Pence swore that a major component of the the rich asshole/Pence administration will be overturning Roe v. Wade and defunding Planned Parenthood.
“The days of public funding for Planned Parenthood are over when a the rich asshole-Pence administration arrives in Washington, D.C.,” Pence said.
The right-wing has been on a crusade to stop access to affordable OB-GYNs, birth control, abortion and more since Roe v. Wade was decided. Preventing women from controlling their own bodies and their health care has shown to increase both infant mortality and maternal mortality. It also increases teen pregnancy, poverty and crime. At the same time, it doesn’t end abortions. Data shows it increases the cases of “unsafe abortions.”
While the war is definitely on against women’s clinics and the global gag rule has been reinstated, thus far it Planned Parenthood is still being funded. For now.
15. End all regulations:
“Furthermore, I will direct every agency in government to begin identifying all wasteful job-killing regulations and they are going to be removed – this will include lifting the restrictions on American energy,” the rich asshole said.
Republicans have long argued that regulations are bad, but many regulations on things like clean water and clean are what have helped the United States from suffering some of the environmental problems that China is now facing. If regulations on lead in drinking water are relaxed, for example, it would no longer be illegal for a company to have contaminants in water. Every town could become Flint, Michigan.
Thus far, the rich asshole’s FCC has nixed net neutrality, despite the popularity of the regulation. No other regulations have been nixed. Instead, scientists at the EPA are just being fired or quitting, so the regulators are becoming few and far between.
16. Learn pretty much everything he doesn’t already know:
In an interview with Hugh Hewitt, the rich asshole confessed he doesn’t actually know everything. Like the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas — and why the difference matters. But on “day one” the rich asshole promises that he’ll figure it all out.
“So the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas does not matter to you yet, but it will?” Hewitt asked the rich asshole.
“It will when it’s appropriate,” the rich asshole said. “I will know more about it than you know, and believe me, it won’t take me long. But right now, right now, I think it’s just something that, and you know what, if you ask these candidates, nobody’s going to be able to give you an answer. I mean, there may be one that studied it because they’re expecting a fresh question from you. But believe me, it won’t matter. I will know far more than you know within 24 hours after I get the job.”
It’s unclear how much the rich asshole has learned thus far, however, he does spend four to eight hours each day watching cable news. Perhaps he’s learned something from that.
It sounded like a lot for the first day in office. However, the rich asshole never managed to get to it in the year he’s been in office. Sad.
Second court rejects the rich asshole bid to stop transgender military recruits
President some rich asshole and transgender airman Logan Ireland (composite image)
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A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday rejected a bid by President some rich asshole’s administration to prevent the U.S. military from accepting transgender recruits starting Jan. 1, the second court to issue such a ruling this week.
Three federal judges around the country have issued injunctions blocking the rich asshole’s ban on transgender people from the military. The administration has appealed all three rulings.
In a six-page order, the three-judge-panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the administration had “not shown a strong likelihood that they will succeed on the merits of their challenge” to a district court’s order blocking the ban.
On Thursday the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it was denying the administration’s request while the appeal proceeds.
The two courts’ actions could prompt the administration to ask the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.
The administration had argued that the Jan. 1 deadline for accepting transgender recruits was problematic because tens of thousands of personnel would have to be trained on the medical standards needed to process transgender applicants, and the military was not ready for that.
The Obama administration had set a deadline of July 1, 2017, to begin accepting transgender recruits, but the rich asshole’s defense secretary, James Mattis, postponed that date to Jan. 1.
In an August memorandum, the rich asshole gave the military until March 2018 to revert to a policy prohibiting openly transgender individuals from joining the military and authorizing their discharge. The memo also halted the use of government funds for sex-reassignment surgery for active-duty personnel.
‘Fox is going almost 24/7 saying this is a coup attempt’: NBC contributor terrified the rich asshole will sack Mueller
some rich asshole on Instagram (Screenshot)
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MSNBC’s Meet the Press Daily on Friday examined whether President some rich asshole will take action to obstruct the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.
“We keep talking about ‘is the president going to fire Mueller? Is the president not going to pardon Muller?'” guest anchor Katy Tur explained. “Do you think this is a real possibility?”
“I don’t think him firing Mueller at this point is a real possibility, he had his legislative victory, he knows that if he wants to do anything else going forward, that too many Republicans will stand up and call foul,” Republican strategist Susan Del Percio predicted.
“Do you think Republicans will stand up and call foul?” Tur followed up.
“I think so, there will be some rooting him on, there’s no doubt,” Del Percio answered. “I think at least fifty percent in the Senate, of the Republicans, would call him out on it.”
“Are you as confident?” Tur asked NBC News contributing correspondent Jonathan Alter.
“No,” Alter replied. “Nothing is beyond some rich asshole.”
“Every time we think he’s touched bottom, he crashes through the floor,” Alter noted.
“Endorsing an accused child molester,” Tur interjected.
“Meanwhile, Fox is going almost 24/7 saying this is a coup attempt,” Alter continued. “They’re doing everything they can to lay the groundwork for attacking this man of great integrity, Bob Mueller.
“It is really a shameful moment in the sort of Republican echo chamber right now,” Alter suggested. “They want to do something that would destroy our faith in the rule of law, which is what getting rid of Mueller would do.”
“Even if Mueller comes out and lays out his conclusions — says the president obstructed justice, says he colluded with the Russians, I don’t know, if he says that — there will be a good portion of the public that is not going to believe it,” Tur noted.
“That’s the whole point,” Caitlin Huey-Burns of Real Clear Politics replied.
Watch:
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 12/22/17 03:58 PM EST
A growing number of Republicans say a course correction is needed to prevent their party from losing the House, Senate or both given strong political headwinds that one veteran lawmaker likened to a “hurricane.”
GOP calls to work more with Democrats next year are becoming more common as Republicans look for ways to win over swing voters.
“One thing you can say about this year is that it was pretty partisan,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters on Friday at a year-end press conference.
“We’re going to be looking for areas of bipartisan agreement because that’s the way the Senate is.”
Republicans spent much of 2017 plowing ahead with a mostly futile effort to repeal ObamaCare before turning to tax cuts in the fall.
The successful tax-cut bill, beyond lowering the corporate rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, also repeals the ObamaCare mandate that most individuals have health insurance, an important victory for President the rich asshole.
Yet polls show weak public support for the tax bill, and Democrats are working hard to cast it as a handout to the wealthy. The ObamaCare repeal effort also was decidedly unpopular in polls, and was seen as playing a role in decisive defeats for Republicans in Virginia’s off-year elections in November.
Public support for the health-care bill dropped as low as 17 percent, and a recent NBC News–Wall Street Journal poll showed that only 24 percent of Americans though the Republican tax plan was a good idea.
Recent polls show that Democrats have their biggest lead over Republicans on the generic ballot question since 2006, when Democrats captured control of the Senate and House.
McConnell has expressed concern to allies that the GOP could lose both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, according to a recent report in Politico.
All of that has Republicans feeling nervous going into 2018 and next fall’s midterms.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said polls show the House “majority is very much at risk.”
the rich asshole’s approval rating stands at 35 percent, according to a recent CNN poll. That’s a dire number for lawmakers running under the Republican banner.
“They’re running with the wind in their face and it’s not a normal breeze,” Cole said of GOP candidates. “It’s a hurricane-force wind.”
Even as he signed the tax bill on Friday, the rich asshole signaled he’d like 2018 to have more of a bipartisan edge. the rich asshole repeatedly talked of his desire to work on an infrastructure package that many Democrats have suggested could be a point of convergence.
But that could be tough sledding for a number of reasons — including signals from Democrats that they want to run against the rich asshole in 2018.
Another issue is the call from Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to work on welfare reform next year, which is likely to be a non-starter for Democrats.
In the Senate, immigration is high on the priority list for Republicans.
the rich asshole in September rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows certain young people who entered the country illegally to work and go to school in the United States. People covered by DACA will begin to lose their status in March, setting up an early deadline for Congress to take action.
“I think we’ll start with the DACA fix,” Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (Texas) said Wednesday.
“I would like to see us get back to some regular functioning where we do things on a bipartisan basis,” he added.
Talks on a legislative fix are already underway, with discussions centered on including certain border security provisions in the mix.
Polling shows that 70 percent of Americans favor stronger border security and 70 percent don’t want so-called Dreamers, the young immigrants at issue, to get booted out.
“Seventy percent of Americans really are sympathetic to these kids and 70 percent of Americans want better border security,” Sen. Lindsey Graham(R-S.C.) noted in an interview earlier this year.
McConnell on Wednesday played up possible action next year on immigration and infrastructure and downplayed the likelihood of taking up entitlement reform.
“I hope we can go forward on infrastructure,” McConnell said at an event sponsored by Axios. “I think there's a lot of interest in infrastructure.”
“I think it's pretty popular with Democrats and Republicans,” he added.
Taking action on immigration might help with the center, but it risks blowback from the right.
Republicans say they hope they can avoid a furious fire by touting the partisan accomplishments of 2017: a $1.5 trillion tax cut, the roll back of 14 Obama-era regulations under the Congressional Review Act and the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.
Some in the GOP acknowledge they’re only now beginning to pay close attention to the coming political winds, which have been shaping for months.
“We were so focused on passing tax reform, but people will now turn to this,” said one Republican senator of his party’s weak poll numbers. “People are nervous. Virginia was a real wake-up call.”
Republicans also lost a special Senate election in Alabama in December, though the GOP candidate, Roy Moore, was a weak one given the allegations of sexual misconduct against him.
“If you need a wake up call after Virginia, New Jersey and Alabama, you are really deep asleep,” Cole told reporters earlier this week, referring to a string of recent Republican election losses.
Polls repeatedly show that frustrated voters want Republicans and Democrats to put aside their partisan differences and work on solving the country’s problems.
An NBC News–Wall Street Journal poll in September showed that 70 percent of Americans approved of the rich asshole’s deals with Democratic leaders to fund hurricane relief and to fund the government for three months, averting a possible shutdown.
One senior senator said the leadership should pursue legislative initiatives with more bipartisan support.
“In an election year, we probably need to be more focused on things that don’t require the vice president to break tie votes,” the lawmaker said.
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 12/22/17 08:08 PM EST
A panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled against the third iteration of President the rich asshole's travel ban, saying it goes against federal law.
"We conclude that the President’s issuance of the Proclamation once again exceeds the scope of his delegated authority," the court said in its ruling.
The most recent iteration of the ban bars people from eight countries – six of which are predominantly Muslim – from coming to the U.S.
The court said the ruling would be put on hold pending any review by the Supreme Court.
– This breaking news story will be updated
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 12/22/17 07:08 PM EST
A new ruling on Friday deals another blow to the rich asshole administration's efforts to bar transgender people from joining the military starting January 1.
The new D.C. Circuit Court of Appeal order came a day after an appeals court in Maryland similarly rejected the rich asshole administration's request to block a ruling by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly allowing the enlistment. A panel on a powerful federal circuit court of appeals on Friday was asked to stay that order but rejected it.
President the rich asshole announced over the summer transgender troops would no longer be allowed in the military.
However, Kollar-Kotelly wrote that her injunction that the military must continue to follow the policies established by former President Obama's memo that allowed transgender individuals to enlist.
The D.C. appeals court said in its decision that the rich asshole administration failed to prove a good reason for having Kollar-Kotelly's order stayed.
"Finally, in the balancing of equities, it must be remembered that all plaintiffs seek during this litigation is to serve their nation with honor and dignity, volunteering to face extreme hardships, to endure lengthy deployments and separation from family and friends, and to willingly make the ultimate sacrifice of their lives if necessary to protect the nation, the people of the United States, and the Constitution against all who would attack them," the D.C. appeals court said in its order.
the rich asshole announced on Twitter in July that he planned to bar transgender people from enlisting in the military. The White House issued a memo in August outlining the plan.
The Pentagon issued a memo earlier this month in response to court orders blocking the rich asshole's ban. That memo details how the military would process transgender recruits.
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 12/22/17 04:15 PM EST
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President the rich asshole left Washington on Friday for Christmas vacation without holding a year-end news conference, a break from his predecessors.
the rich asshole took a handful of questions from a small group of reporters while signing tax and spending bills at the White House before departing for Florida, but did not hold a formal news conference with the entire press corps.
The president suggested he might speak with the press on Air Force One, telling reporters before boarding, “I’ll see you on the plane.”
But the rich asshole did not come back to the press cabin during the two-hour flight.
Soon after he arrived at his Mar-a-Lago club Friday afternoon, the White House informed the media the president would not make any more public appearances for the rest of the day.
A White House official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, said they decided to forgo a news conference because the president has benefitted from positive coverage over the GOP tax plan.
Officials did not hold a news conference where the president could have been peppered with questions about the Russia investigation and other topics.
Most, but not all, modern presidents have held major news conferences at year's end to offer holiday greetings, tout their accomplishments and set their agenda for the coming year.
The practice dates back to the 1970s. Each president starting with George H.W. Bush held some type of December news conference almost every year they were in office, according to data compiled by Martha Kumar, a professor who studies White House communications.
The last president to skip the news conference entirely was George W. Bush, who did not hold one the first two years of his presidency.
President Barack Obama held one every year he was in office, though his first happened overseas with a smaller press corps and his 2011 news conference was conducted alongside Iraq’s prime minister.
But the rich asshole has had a contentious relationship with the mainstream media, which he frequently calls “fake news.” And he hasn’t been afraid to shun traditions when it comes to the president’s relationship with the press.
the rich asshole became the first president since Jimmy Carter to skip the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner for non-health-related reasons.
The president has generally avoided traditional news conferences. He held only one during his first year in office, way back in February.
By comparison, Obama held seven, Bush held four, President Bill Clintonheld 11 and President George H.W. Bush held 27 in each of their first years, according to the American Presidency Project.
the rich asshole prefers to take questions from smaller groups of reporters in informal settings, such as ceremonies in the Oval Office or on the South Lawn.
He frequently shares his thoughts on Twitter, too. In lieu of a news conference, the rich asshole tweeted 10 times as of Friday afternoon.
This story was updated at 4:45 p.m.
BY CRISTINA MARCOS - 12/22/17 11:37 AM EST
© Getty Images
President the rich asshole signed a stopgap measure on Friday to avert a government shutdown hours before the midnight deadline.
The House and Senate cleared the short-term spending patch on Thursday. It will extend funding for federal agencies through Jan. 19.
the rich asshole signed the stopgap bill alongside the GOP tax overhaul as his last items of business before leaving the White House for his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.
It's the second short-term spending bill the rich asshole has signed into law in as many weeks as Republicans focused on finishing their tax legislation before Christmas.
The temporary government funding bill also extends an electronic surveillance law, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that was set to expire at the end of this month.
It further includes temporary funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) through March. CHIP's authorization expired in September and lawmakers have been unable to finalize a bipartisan agreement on long-term funding.
That has resulted in states starting to run out of money for the program, which provides insurance to about 9 million low-income children.
Congress passed the stopgap measure as its final order of business before leaving for the holidays. When lawmakers return in January, they will have to grapple with finalizing a budget to begin work on an appropriations package that funds federal agencies for the rest of the 2018 fiscal year.
Lawmakers will also be tasked with establishing a long-term reauthorization for the foreign surveillance program. Democrats are also pushing for action in January on establishing protections for young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children who had received temporary work permits through the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, which the rich asshole administration is rescinding.
Jordan Fabian contributed.
The House and Senate cleared the short-term spending patch on Thursday. It will extend funding for federal agencies through Jan. 19.
the rich asshole signed the stopgap bill alongside the GOP tax overhaul as his last items of business before leaving the White House for his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.
It's the second short-term spending bill the rich asshole has signed into law in as many weeks as Republicans focused on finishing their tax legislation before Christmas.
The temporary government funding bill also extends an electronic surveillance law, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that was set to expire at the end of this month.
It further includes temporary funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) through March. CHIP's authorization expired in September and lawmakers have been unable to finalize a bipartisan agreement on long-term funding.
That has resulted in states starting to run out of money for the program, which provides insurance to about 9 million low-income children.
Congress passed the stopgap measure as its final order of business before leaving for the holidays. When lawmakers return in January, they will have to grapple with finalizing a budget to begin work on an appropriations package that funds federal agencies for the rest of the 2018 fiscal year.
Lawmakers will also be tasked with establishing a long-term reauthorization for the foreign surveillance program. Democrats are also pushing for action in January on establishing protections for young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children who had received temporary work permits through the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, which the rich asshole administration is rescinding.
Jordan Fabian contributed.
BY NATHANIEL WEIXEL - 12/22/17 04:25 PM EST
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price wrote two checks to the federal government for his wife's travels in Asia and Africa the day before he resigned, according to documents obtained by The Hill.
The checks, which were dated Sept. 28, total a combined $7,502.66. He also wrote a check the same day for more than $50,000 to cover his expenses, which was previously reported
The two checks were intended to reimburse the federal government for the cost of his wife when she accompanied him on trips overseas on military aircraft, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed.
Price resigned Sept. 29 after an investigation by Politico found that his use of military flights and private jets has cost taxpayers more than $1 million.
He held the job for less than 10 months, but in that time he traveled to Asia, Africa and Europe on official business aboard military aircraft, the investigation found. His wife Betty, a physician and Georgia state representative, accompanied him on those trips as an adviser.
The military aircraft trips were approved by the White House.
Price sent three separate checks to the U.S. Treasury on Sept. 28, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request; two checks for his wife, and one to cover the cost of his seat on domestic trips aboard a chartered jet.
A check for $1,489 was written to cover Price’s wife’s seat on a trip to Asia, while a check for $6,013.66 was written to cover her seat on a trip to Africa.
The dates and amounts of the reimbursement for Price’s wife have not been previously reported.
The full cost of the overseas trips to Europe, Asia and Africa was more than $500,000.
Price did not reimburse the government for his seat on the military flights, but paid $51,887.31 for his share of the domestic flights. Some of those flights overlapped with personal events, including a lunch with his son.
He did not reimburse the government for the full cost of the domestic flights.
An HHS spokesperson in September said Price was taking an “unprecedented step” by reimbursing the federal government for his share of the travel.
“The taxpayers won’t pay a dime for his seats on charter planes,” the agency said.
Price’s travel tab exceeded $1 million, when both the overseas and domestic flights are taken into account.
His travel expenditures are the subject of an ongoing investigation by the HHS Office of Inspector General, as well as by bipartisan members of the House Oversight Committee.
Tom Price checks by M Mali on Scribd
the rich asshole presidential challenge coin says 'Make America Great Again' instead of national motto
BY AVERY ANAPOL - 12/22/17 06:40 PM EST
© Getty Images
President the rich asshole made some notable changes to the new presidential “challenge coin," according to a report on Friday.
The most notable change is the replacement of the national motto, “E pluribus unum,” with the rich asshole’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again," The Washington Post reported.
the rich asshole was reportedly personally involved with designing the coin.
“That’s central to the message,” a White House aide told the Post. “I’m sure there will not be just one coin during his tenure. I’m sure the next one will say ‘Made America Great Again.’”
the rich asshole’s un-traditional coin does not include the presidential seal, but instead an image of the White House and an American flag on one side, and an image of an eagle with its head facing right on the other.
The coin is gold, compared to the traditional copper and silver, and thicker than that of presidential predecessors.
the rich asshole’s coin also has a ribbon-shaped add-on across the bottom bearing his name, rather than being shaped in a traditional, coin-like form. It is “designed to literally stand on its own,” according to the Post.
The commemorative coins stem from the military tradition of exchanging coins covertly through a handshake. Presidents give them to troops, visitors and other members of the public. The coins have become collector’s items, and are sometimes sold for hundreds of dollars.
Another White House aide told the Post that the rich asshole’s coins may be given to donors and distributed at campaign rallies, breaking another tradition. An RNC spokeswoman confirmed to the Post that the RNC paid for the coins.
“For the commander in chief to give a political token with a campaign slogan on it to military officers would violate the important principle of separating the military from politics, as well as diminishing the tradition of the coin,” Trevor Potter, a Republican former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, told the Post.
Vice President Mike Pence’s coin is similar in color, shape and design to former Vice President Joe Biden’s. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke also has a personalized coin, according to the Post.
What are we to make of Vladimir Putin’s first year in the White House? How has he done?
I’m only slightly kidding. Or rather I’m just channeling a CNN interview earlier this week with James Clapper, former director of National Intelligence. Here’s what Clapper said: “I think this past weekend is illustrative of what a great case officer Vladimir Putin is. He knows how to handle an asset, and that’s what he’s doing with the president […] You have to remember Putin’s background. He’s a KGB officer. That’s what they do. They recruit assets. And I think some of that experience and instincts of Putin has come into play here in his managing of a pretty important account for him, if I could use that term, with our president.”
Clapper clarified his statement by saying he was being figurative, rather than literal. So let’s just ask a figurative question, shall we? How successful has the Kremlin’s figurative investment been this past year? Pretty damn impressive.
Look first at Putin’s domestic goals. His core concern, as with any despot, is the legitimacy of his pseudo-democratic autocracy - which means, in turn, discrediting the very different features of the liberal democracies of the West. And in this, he must be scarcely able to believe his luck. After decades of the West’s championing of liberal democracy, the American president has spent his first year attacking it. the rich asshole has exhibited contempt for a free press, describing the bulk of Western journalism as “fake news,” words that have gladdened the hearts of dictators across the planet. He has minimized Putin’s assassination of critical journalists, saying that America has no moral standing to criticize. He has treated the judiciary either as instruments of loyalty — hence his packing of the federal bench — or as pests to be slandered or dismissed. He prefers total loyalty from law-enforcement officials to the actual rule of law. For good measure, the rich asshole has legitimized Putin’s core model of governance — that of a benevolent cult hero of the nation, shored up by religious reactionaries — by plagiarizing it. As for the other critical aspect of Putinism — the looting of the treasury by oligarchs — I give you the latest tax bill. It even carves out special goodies for real-estate investors.
Three Ways the rich asshole’s Tax Code Benefits Him And His Family
Then there is Russia’s permanent interest in deepening the racial and partisan divides in America — the better to force the United States to be more concerned with internal strife than with foreign affairs. On this, Putin’s success is even more impressive. What better propaganda could the Kremlin get than the Charlottesville horrors, the racial divide crippling the NFL, or the candidacy of Roy Moore? In the Cold War, the Kremlin constantly cited America’s racial strife as proof that, whatever its democratic pretensions, the country was still a bastion of white supremacy. Now, much of American academia and an entire rising generation agree with what the Soviets long argued. As for the stability and legitimacy of liberal capitalism, Putin could scarcely do better than the GOP tax proposal. When economic inequality is at record highs, undermining the social compact that undergirds capitalism, the GOP is making things far worse. It would also add well over a trillion dollars to the U.S. debt. the rich asshole is not just looting the Treasury for himself and his buddies, he is looting the younger generation as well.
Internationally, Putin has had an even bigger year. One of his central goals — the disintegration of the European Union and the entire concept of the West — has been advanced by Washington in ways never seen before. the rich asshole backed Brexit, breaking the U.K. away from its European partners; he supported Marine Le Pen in France for the same reason; and he has routinely lambasted Merkel, whose power is now hanging by a thread. He chose Poland, where an authoritarian party is busy dismantling judicial independence, as the site for his major foreign-policy address. He has permanently undermined the core Article 5 commitment that an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all of them, by being the first U.S. president to equivocate on it. America has also broken with its European allies by withdrawing from the Paris Accords on climate, threatening the Iran nuclear deal, and backing the ethno-nationalist extremists who now run Israel on the status of Jerusalem. Last week, the U.S. found itself utterly isolated at the U.N. on the question, and openly threatening all its allies with payback. In the Middle East, Russia has never been stronger — it is now the key player in the future of Syria, while Putin’s naked annexation of Crimea and sections of eastern Ukraine remains in place, unmentioned by the White House.
What more could Putin ask for? Well, he could hope that his grotesque attack on the last U.S. election would lead to no serious effort to prevent it happening again. And lo, an American president has emphatically refused to lift a finger to defend the Constitution he is duty bound to protect. There’s been no attempt by the White House to protect the integrity of our elections — just a constant disdain for those who worry about them, and a general, somewhat egregious, complacency.
No American president in history has ever given Russia so much in so short a time. Congrats, Vladimir. You’ve achieved what no Soviet dictator ever managed to. Your asset in the White House, figurative or not, has given more than all the British and American traitors in the history of the Cold War.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other top Republicans know that voters are angry with their party. In fact, they appear to be so acutely aware that they’re voting against the will of their constituents that McConnell himself has been privately saying that Republicans could lose both the House and Senate in the 2018 elections, according to Politico.
Donors Above All
GOP leaders are reportedly worried about losing Congress in the 2018 midterms. That’s probably because they’ve noticed a trend in all of the special elections that have come up so far – Americans are voting in favor of progressive change. Republicans have swindled voters into supporting an agenda that hurts the interests of the working class, of people of color, and women for decades. Right now the underlying intentions of the Republican party are shining brightly for all to see. For McConnell and others, the goal is money from wealthy donors above all, whether everyone else suffers, or not.
“Retirement”
The Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee presented a report to John Kelly recently showing up the party has lost favor with female voters. Well, that’s what happens when Republicans throw caution (and any scrap of morality) to the wind and push their extremist agenda forward at all costs. They lose the trust of voters.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is in trouble in Wisconsin, where progressive challenger Randy Bryce was already polling within six points of him despite the fact that 79 percent of voters don’t even know who Bryce is yet.
Here’s another emerging pattern: a growing number of Republicans have announced their retirement from politics. They must know where the party is headed – out of Washington, out of the government, and forever lost to history.
Vote Them Out
Some Republicans are delusional enough to believe that the recently passed, massively unpopular tax plan will boost their ratings and chances at the polls. the rich asshole will reportedly campaign aggressively across the country in favor of various races.
Should impeachment proceedings against the rich asshole be launched, that could ultimately ruin his already questionable credibility. And ultimately, Robert Mueller’s investigation is going to go somewhere.
So, expect massive Democratic and progressive victories in 2018 – that is, if we get out and vote.
Published on December 22, 2017 in Daily New Bite/News/Politics/Uncategorized by Shannon Argueta
On Thursday, CNN published an article about what dating is like since some rich asshole has been elected. Journalist Orlaith Farrell decided to interview a group of young, single men and woman after he noticed an addition to Tinder and Bumble (dating sites) profiles after the election. He explains that in the space under the photos where people’s biographies used to be filled with facts about their lives, single people are now putting things like “Swipe left if you voted for the rich asshole”, “If you voted for the rich asshole, we shall not hump” and “If you voted for the rich asshole, swipe yourself off a cliff” (swiping left, by the way, is a rejection).
In a Manhattan bar, Farrell spoke to some the rich asshole supporters who told him that finding a date after the election has been difficult. Mike Lagana, 24-years-old, told Farrell that women stop talking to him when they find out he voted for the rich asshole and he just doesn’t understand:
I think it’s nonsense. Just because I voted for someone does not mean I’m this stuff. Oh, he’s racist, or he’s a Nazi or whatever the case may be. I’m not any of that. I take offense to it. You know nothing about me.
Lagana went on to say that he ignores the requests from women to “swipe left” if he’s voted for the rich asshole:
I still swipe right. I would like them to know who I am first before I openly tell them I voted for this person. They know nothing about me. I’m a very reasonable guy. I’m a nice person, open-minded.
RELATED: the rich asshole Supporters Get Butt Hurt Over Samuel L. Jackson’s Facebook Trolling
Lagana is a perfect example of tone-deaf Republicans. He thinks that his vote doesn’t define him, it does. People who voted for some rich asshole knew that he’d insulted a Gold Star family, prisoner of war, disabled journalist, women, minorities, our allies, and on and on. They knew all of this and they chose to vote for him anyway because they didn’t give two flying fucks about the disadvantaged people who were screaming “Please don’t do this to us,” all across the country. Voting for the rich asshole is a clear indication that Lagana does not care about his fellow citizens and women have every right to ignore him for it.
What’s more, is that he feels entitled to mislead women because he thinks that if he just has an opportunity to speak to them he can gaslight them into believing he’s a great guy. “Reasonable, nice guys” do not ignore a woman’s explicit request that he not bother them if he voted for a misogynist. That says just as much about the type of person he is as his vote does and it is no wonder he can’t find a date.
MICHAL KRANZ
Dec 22nd 2017 12:03PM
- US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley invited countries that didn't vote to condemn the US's decision on Jerusalem to a "friendship" party.
- A total of 65 countries did not vote for the resolution, with most of these either abstaining or failing to cast a ballot.
- Haley, together with President some rich asshole, made statements on Thursday warning that there would be consequences for countries that voted against the US on the matter.
After a United Nations vote condemning President some rich asshole's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley invited all the countries that didn't vote for the resolution to a party to thank them for their "friendship to the United States" on Wednesday.
The invite, which was sent via email, stated that a formal invitation would follow, and set the gala's date for January 3, 2018.
The 8 countries who voted no with the #US on the #UNGA#Jerusalem resolution, the 35 who abstained and the 21 who did not cast a vote have been invited to a reception by @nikkihaley as a “thank you for your friendship to the United States”
Only nine countries voted directly against the resolution, while 56 others either abstained or did not cast a ballot. The vote came after Haley threatened the US would be "taking names" of countries that voted against the resolution, which may have led to a higher number of abstentions than usually occur on Israel-related resolutions, according to Reuters.
In off-the-cuff comments made during a cabinet meeting, the rich asshole himself seemed to threaten to cut off aid to countries that voted against the resolution.
"Let them vote against us," he said. "We'll save a lot. We don't care. But this isn't like it used to be where they could vote against you and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars. We're not going to be taken advantage of any longer."
The UN resolution passed overwhelmingly in the body's General Assembly on Thursday, with 128 countries voting in favor of it.
The vote was held in response to the rich asshole's decision earlier this month to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize the city as Israel's capital. While Israel has held most of its state institutions in Jerusalem for decades, the city remains disputed, and its eastern section is still considered to be occupied territory under international law, with several UN resolutions backing up this position. Palestinians also consider East Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state.
Former CIA Director Slams the rich asshole Over UN Bullying, Openly Suggests He’s Acting Like A Dictator (TWEET)
Many people have raised the alarm regarding the fact that some rich asshole is dangerously close to becoming an autocrat. The thing is, democracies become autocracies right under the people’s noses, because they can often look like democracies in the beginning phases. This was explained by Republican David Frum just a couple of months into some rich asshole’s presidency, in a piece in The Atlantic called “How to Build an Autocracy.”
In fact, if you really look critically at what is happening right now – the systematic discrediting of vital institutions such as the free press and the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well the direct weaponization of the Department of Justice in order to go after the rich asshole’s former political opponent, 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and you have the makings of an autocracy. We are more than well on our way. Further, one chamber of Congress, the House of Representatives, already has a rogue band of Republicans who are running a parallel investigation to the official Russian collusion investigation, with the explicit intent of undermining and discrediting the idea that the rich asshole could have possibly done anything wrong with the Russians in order to swing the 2016 election in his favor.
All of that is just for starters, too. Now, we have the rich asshole making United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley bullying and threatening other countries in the United States who voted against the rich asshole’s decision to change U.S. policy when it comes to recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish State. Well, one expert, who is usually quite measured, has had enough of the rich asshole’s autocratic antics: Former CIA Director John O. Brennan. The seasoned spy took to the rich asshole’s favorite platform, Twitter, and blasted the decision:
Trump Admin threat to retaliate against nations that exercise sovereign right in UN to oppose US position on Jerusalem is beyond outrageous. Shows @realDonaldTrump expects blind loyalty and subservience from everyone—qualities usually found in narcissistic, vengeful autocrats.
Director Brennan is correct, of course. the rich asshole is behaving just like an autocrat, and so many people in the nation are asleep when it comes to this dangerous age, in which the greatest threat to democracy and the very fabric of the republic itself is the American president. Fellow Americans, we know the GOP-led Congress will not be the check on the rich asshole that they are supposed to be. It’s time to get out and flip the House and possibly the Senate in 2018, and resist in the meantime, if we want to save our country from devolving into something that looks more like Russia or North Korea than the America we have always know. We’re already well on our way.
Featured image via BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
by Brian Stelter @brianstelter December 22, 2017: 12:19 PM ET
President the rich asshole's year of flouting presidential traditions and trashing the media isn't quite over yet.
the rich asshole left the White House on Friday without holding an end-of-the-year press conference.
While it's by no means a requirement to do so, most presidents in modern times have chosen to hold a formal news conference in December to tout accomplishments and share seasons greetings before Christmas.
This is the first time in 15 years that a president has opted not to.
Of course, the rich asshole could surprise the press corps by announcing a press availability at Mar a Lago sometime between now and New Year's Day. But that looks unlikely to happen.
Analysts have speculated that the rich asshole's aides and attorneys don't want him to speak in unscripted settings where he'll be asked about the Russia investigations.
In the seven months since Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel, the rich asshole has had two main types of interactions with the press: Short sessions where journalists shout questions, and kid-glove interviews with supporters on Fox News.
He has also held 20 joint news conferences with foreign leaders this year. But he has only held one solo news conference at the White House.
It was an unforgettable affair, on February 16, less than a month after his inauguration. the rich asshole did it "against his aides' advice," New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman said on "AC360" this week.
"He loved it," Haberman said. "It felt to him like a venting session."
the rich asshole seemingly has a lot to vent about right now -- he tweeted repeatedly on Friday about accomplishments that he claims the media is ignoring.
In one of the posts, he sarcastically said, "With all my Administration has done on Legislative Approvals (broke Harry Truman's Record), Regulation Cutting, Judicial Appointments, Building Military, VA, TAX CUTS & REFORM, Record Economy/Stock Market and so much more, I am sure great credit will be given by mainstream news?"
That tweet will reach his core supporters and members of the media, but a press conference is a way to reach a much bigger audience.
Instead of a presser, the rich asshole signed the GOP tax bill in front of cameras in the Oval Office. He spoke for about 20 minutes, complaining at one point about not getting "credit" from the media.
He answered a few questions from the small group of reporters who were brought in the Oval Office for the signing event.
At one point, he said to them, "Many of you have worked very hard. Many of you have worked very very fairly, and we appreciate that."
Then he left for Florida without taking any questions from the reporters who were waiting outside on the South Lawn.
Skipping a formal press conference could be seen as a Trumpian snub of the press corps.
He began the year by appropriating the term "fake news" and railing against coverage of his inauguration. His near-daily attacks deepened distrust of the media among his core supporters, but prompted others to express support for journalists and sign up for newspaper subscriptions.
Press access to the president has been a point of contention. Commentators pointed out that the rich asshole has used Twitter to drive news coverage and sidestep formal Q&A settings.
Since the 1970s, end-of-the-year press conferences have been a tradition, although there have been some exceptions.
Jimmy Carter held two pressers in December in first year in office. Ronald Reagan also held one at the end of his first year, but skipped it during most of his other years in office.
George H.W. Bush resumed the tradition in 1989, and only skipped it once, after he lost his re-election bid to Bill Clinton.
In 1993, Clinton's first year in office, a reporter tried to squeeze in one more question, and he said, "All right, one more, one more, it's Christmas."
Presidents have frequently used the nationally televised setting to wish the nation a merry Christmas.
Clinton held a December press conference every year until 2000, when he was about to hand over power to George W. Bush.
Bush resumed the tradition in 2003, and it became a predictable part of the White House beat.
Bush and Obama always held their end-of-the-year pressers between December 15 and 22.
As for the rich asshole, Fox anchor Bill Hemmer asked White House press secretary Sarah Sanders about the prospect of a year-end press conference on Thursday.
"You never know," Sanders said. "We like to keep you guys guessing!"
She said, "the president loves taking questions."
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 12/22/17 12:29 PM EST
President the rich asshole said Friday that he moved up the signing ceremony for the Republican tax bill after watching network news questioning whether he would sign the bill before Christmas.
“I was going to wait for a formal signing sometime in January, but then I watched the news this morning,” the rich asshole said. “And they were all saying, ‘will he keep his promise, will he sign it by Christmas?”
“You were one,” he added, appearing to point at one reporter.
the rich asshole said he told his staff to "get it ready, we have to sign it now.”
“We were going to wait until Jan. 7 or 8, but every one of the networks was saying, ‘will he keep his promise, will he sign it for Christmas, before Christmas,” the rich asshole said.
the rich asshole added that while the ceremony wasn’t “fancy, it’s the Oval Office, it’s the great Oval Office.”
The president previously claimed that he doesn’t have much time to watch television because he’s “reading documents. A lot.”
A New York Times report earlier this month said that the rich asshole spends up to eight hours a day watching television. the rich asshole fired back, attacking the report as "false" and the Times as "failing." The president frequently criticizes "fake news" and has launched personal attacks on reporters.
the rich asshole at the event offered pens from the signing ceremony to members of the media.
“We have them, many of you have worked very hard, many of you have worked very, very fairly and we really appreciate that,” the rich asshole said. “So here you go folks.”
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 12/22/17 08:03 AM EST
The U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands pushed back against a Dutch news station for confronting him with past statements he made about “no-go zones" in the country, calling it “fake news.”
Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, formerly a GOP lawmaker representing Michigan who is Dutch-American, dismissed the past statements despite the clip showing him talking about the zones during a congressional hearing.
"No-go zones" are areas that are believed to be too dangerous to enter, and those opposing more immigration in places like Europe have used the reported zones to push back against policies that would open borders.
“Speaking of threat, at one point you mentioned in a debate that there are no-go zones in the Netherlands and that cars and politicians are being set on fire,” a reporter for Nieuwsuur said to Hoekstra.
"I didn't say that. That's actually an incorrect statement,” Hoekstra replied. “We would call it 'fake news.' ”
The Dutch publication then played the clip of Hoekstra making the statement.
“The Islamic movement has now gotten to the point where they have put Europe in chaos," he says in the clip. “Chaos in the Netherlands, where there are cars being burned, there are politicians that are being burned.”
“And yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands,” he added.
When the reporter confronted Hoekstra with the clip, he denied using the term “fake news.”
“I didn’t call that fake news,” he said. “I didn’t use the word today, I don’t think I did.”
Hoekstra was sworn in as the ambassador to the Netherlands earlier this month.
Carissa House-Dunphy - December 22, 2017
some rich asshole has more than one favorite scapegoat that he uses to convince his rabid fans that he’s really doing a great job but all of these awful people keep getting in his way. The “fake news” won’t report his accomplishments. People in his own party won’t embrace his agenda. The Democrats, who are especially awful people, obstruct all of the wonderful ideas he has and try to prevent him from getting things done.
Despite the rich asshole’s vilifying the Democratic members of Congress, they have been trying to pass a workable infrastructure plan for some time. President Obama proposed a plan during his administration only to have it blocked by Republicans who insisted there wasn’t enough money to do anything so necessary that would create jobs.
‘There’s been bipartisan support in Congress for addressing the nation’s aging and inadequate infrastructure if funding questions can be resolved. Congress passed transportation bills in 2012 and 2015 to shore up the strained federal Highway Trust Fund, which provides highway and transit aid to states, and to provide modest increases in transportation spending — far short of what Obama and congressional Democrats said was needed.’
Those same Republicans had no problem passing a tax reform bill that gave massive cuts to the wealthy and is projected to add $1.4 trillion to the deficit. the rich asshole also fails to mention in his tweet that he hasn’t even proposed an infrastructure plan for anyone to obstruct yet.
Twitter weighed in with their thoughts, some of which can be seen below.
By
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December 22, 2017
After nearly a year of leading a chaotic White House, some rich asshole took to Twitter to tell the world that he will compile a “long and beautiful list” of his accomplishments because the “Fake Mainstream Media” will not report on this fantasy list.
the rich asshole gave Charlie Kirk of the conservative non-profit Turning Points USA kudos for praising him.
“The President has accomplished some absolutely historic things during this past year.” Thank you Charlie Kirk of Turning Points USA,” the rich asshole tweeted. “Sadly, the Fake Mainstream Media will NEVER talk about our accomplishments in their end of year reviews. We are compiling a long & beautiful list.”
Let us help you, some rich asshole. Here is your beautiful list:
The border wall was never built. Hillary Clinton is not locked up, but the rich asshole’s associates are being investigated, with some of them being indicted. the rich asshole did manage to help steal a Supreme Court seat, though. He also helped pass the biggest tax scam in history which he and his Republican colleagues will profit from. The ‘swamp’ is now spilling over after it was filled to the brim with Goldman Sachs alumni. Speaking of ‘historic,’ the rich asshole is the least popular president in the history of polling and his approval numbers continue to decline. The former reality show star’s endorsements are toxic. Because of the rich asshole, the GOP is scrambling because they know a blue wave is coming in 2018 and it’s going to be brutal. Obamacare has not been repealed even though he claimed that it is.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has lost over 700 employees under the the rich asshole administration, including scientists, specialists, and department directors. That’s quite an accomplishment, some rich asshole.
The exodus in his administration is just beginning. the rich asshole has spent far more time on golfing vacations than his predecessor ever did. the rich asshole blamed ‘both sides’ after one of his Nazi supporters used his car to run over protesters, resulting in the death of Heather Heyer. It’s been quite a year for this country. We’re going to have to Make America Great Again and drain the swamp after he’s out of office.
By RICK GLADSTONE and MARK LANDLERDEC. 21, 2017
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UNITED NATIONS — A lopsided majority of United Nations members rebuked the United States on Thursday, denouncing its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and ignoring President the rich asshole’s threats to retaliate by cutting aid to countries voting against it.
In a collective act of defiance toward Washington, the United Nations General Assembly voted 128 to 9, with 35 abstentions, for a resolution demanding that the United States rescind its Dec. 6 declaration on Jerusalem, the contested holy city.
The resolution is nonbinding and therefore largely symbolic, but the vote indicated the extent to which the rich asshole administration’s departure from a 50-year international consensus on Jerusalem’s status has unsettled world politics and contributed to America’s diplomatic isolation.
Major allies like Britain, France, Germany and Japan voted for the resolution, though some allies, like Australia and Canada, abstained.
Carrying out a promise to his base of supporters, some rich asshole upended decades of American policy with his decision on Jerusalem, aggravating an emotional issue that has festered since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, when the Israelis occupied the entire city.
Ivanka Touts Tax Plan And Gets Shredded On Social Media (TWEETS)
This promises to be a very Merry Christmas for the the rich asshole family. Not only is Dotard Donnie in the White House (for now, at least), but thanks to Congress, they just got a gigantic tax cut that will net them millions of dollars in savings over the next few years. Pop the corks, it’s party time!
Ivanka the rich asshole decided to take a victory lap on Fox & Friends Thursday morning, touting the tax bill as a win for the “middle class,” even though it isn’t. She also had this to say:
I’m really looking forward to doing a lot of traveling in April when people realize the effect that this has,” she said. “The vast majority will be [doing their taxes] on a single postcard.”
That’s also complete bullshit. Ivanka has indeed learned well from her daddy.
Twitter quickly lit up with comments for the First Daughter:
Hey numb skulls ask Ivanka how all her sweat shops in China are doing @foxnewspolitics @CBSThisMorning @GMA@CNNPolitics @MSNBC @foxandfriends
.@IvankaTrump on tax reform: "This is an historic milestone, an historic accomplishment." pic.twitter.com/Fv0yWC1BiE
.@IvankaTrump on tax reform: "This is an historic milestone, an historic accomplishment." pic.twitter.com/Fv0yWC1BiE
.@IvankaTrump: "@POTUS was very clear that he really wanted to ensure that this bill accomplished two goals: Of enabling American businesses to grow and be competitive and... to target relief for middle-income families." pic.twitter.com/GSMbd7nAMC
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The UN overwhelmingly votes to declare US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital`null and void’
The United Nations General Assembly sent a firm message to President some rich asshole on Thursday, as it voted overwhelmingly to reject the U.S.’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The UN voted 128-9 to declare the rich asshole’s move as “null and void,” with 35 nations abstaining.
The vote came after the U.S.’s ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, had threatened nations ahead of the vote who planned to vote against the U.S.’s decision.
Hinting at the possibility of halting financial contributions to the U.N., Haley said the U.S. “will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation…We will remember it when so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more.”
Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, also insulted the assembly, calling countries who supported the resolution “puppets pulled by your Palestinian masters.”
In addition to the U.S. and Israel, the only countries who voted against the resolution to declare the rich asshole’s move “null and void” were Guatemala, Honduras, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Paulu and Togo.
Among the abstentions was Canada, which many had assumed would back the U.S., and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared the vote a “victory for Palestine.”
The vote was largely symbolic, but further illustrated the continuing isolation of the U.S. among leading nations in the international arena. The UN has maintained the general international consensus that the Jerusalem issue — both Israel and Palestine consider it a capital, and it is a sacred site for Christians, Jews and Muslims — will only be resolved as a final matter in the peace process between the two states. Most countries have their embassies in Israel located in Tel Aviv.
Alex Jones and Roger Stone visited a gun range to prepare for civil war if the rich asshole is removed from office
Blog ››› ››› TIMOTHY JOHNSON
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Roger Stone, a conservative pundit who has advised President some rich asshole for decades, visited a shooting range to fire weapons in preparation for a civil war in the event the rich asshole is removed from office.
The visit was documented in a nearly one-and-a-half-hour-long December 19 video posted to Jones’ YouTube channel with the title “Roger Stone Prepares For Civil War After the rich asshole Is Removed From Office: LIVE AUTO GUNFIRE.”
Jones set up the video by explaining that when Stone “was recently asked by TMZ what happens if the rich asshole is assassinated or overthrown, he said it would cause a civil war.”
Asked to spell out his comment to TMZ, Stone, who is a contributor to Jones’ Infowars website, said, “We do not advocate violence or foment violence, but if there is a coup d’etat, if there is an illegitimate unconstitutional effort to remove some rich asshole on trumped-up charges by a biased and partisan prosecutors (sic) or an illegitimate takedown by the 25th Amendment, there will be a civil war in this country.”
“The the rich asshole constituency has been awakened and they will not be put to sleep,” added Stone. He then said that he was at the shooting range to practice self-defense for himself and his family, but also to “defend the Constitution” if it is necessary.
Jones and Stone then entered the shooting area and fired an array of semi-automatic and fully automatic firearms, including one equipped with a silencer. At one point, Stone violated a basic safety rule by putting his finger on the trigger of an Uzi submachine gun before he was ready to shoot, causing the instructor to repeatedly remind Stone to take his finger off the trigger before physically removing it. Stone also remarked that he couldn’t see where the safety was because of the glasses he was wearing. While firing the weapons, Stone and Jones joked about shooting “commie dogs” and making a “JFK throat shot,” and Jones joked that Stone is “our Rambo” to “take on the globalists.”
On his program, The Alex Jones Show, Jones has repeatedly and baselessly claimed that there is a plot by Democrats, globalists, and other forces to violently overthrow the the rich asshole presidency, which would lead to a bloody second American civil war. While talking about the prospect of a civil war, Jones frequently indicates his willingness to personally participate in violence, including serving as an executioner for convicted traitors. In other contexts, Jones has also raised the spectre of violence, including threatening to “beat” a Democratic congressman’s “goddamn ass” and discussing his willingness to take up arms in a race war.
‘Bye, Felicia’: Joy Reid mocks humiliating failure of the rich asshole and Haley’s Jerusalem threat to UN
MSNBC's Joy Reid on 'The Last Word' (Screen capture)
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“AM Joy” host Joy Reid sat in for Lawrence O’Donnell on Thursday’s edition of “The Last Word,” where she mocked President some rich asshole and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley for threatening the U.N. General Assembly in vain about moving the capital of Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
On Tuesday, Haley admonished United Nations delegates to remember that the U.S. would be “taking names” of countries that did not support a resolution declare Jerusalem the capital.
“And we can sum up the General Assembly’s response to that threat in two words,” Reid said before playing the famous clip of rapper Ice Cube from the film “Friday,” in which he says, “Bye, Felicia.”
“That is the two-line classic dis from the movie, ‘Friday,'” Reid explained, “denoting when your threats are meaningless because people are just DONE with you.”
The resolution failed by a massive margin, with even Canada voting against so as not to look like a U.S. “puppet.”
CNN counterterrorism analyst Philip Mudd said that this marks a low point for the U.S. on the global stage.
“Twenty-eight countries said we’re a bunch of idiots,” Mudd said. “I think the rest of the world is laughing at us.”
“(T)his is diplomatic prostitution,” he said. “We’re telling people unless you vote with us, we’re not going to give you money, and if your heart doesn’t agree with American policies, we’re not going to support you in terms of U.S. aid.”
Watch the video, embedded below:
By Jordan Weissmann
DEC. 21, 2017, 5:59 PM
The rich asshole administration spent the better part of this year attempting to undermine Obamacare. It slashed the outreach budget for open-enrollment. It drove up premiums by cutting off important subsidies for insurers. It cut the signup period in half (albeit, at the request of insurers). It endorsed a tax bill that got rid of the individual mandate. But it seems the Affordable Care Act’s markets managed to survive anyway.
With the federal open-enrollment wrapped up, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Seema Verma announced on Twitter today that 8.8 million Americans had enrolled in marketplace coverage for 2018 on the federal exchanges, down modestly from 9.2 million last year. And because the rich asshole’s people are pure chutzpah, she also lauded the administration’s “cost-effective” approach to driving signups.
These numbers may actually go up a bit, too. Open-enrollment is still rolling in states, including Florida and parts of Texas, where it was disrupted by hurricanes.
This is all a reminder that the ACA, for all its flaws, also created a weirdly resilient insurance market. Yes, premiums jumped a bunch this year as health carriers worried that the rich asshole might try to implode or explode the exchanges. But most marketplace customers were protected from price increases by the law’s subsidies, which cap the premiums at a fraction of their income. When the rich asshole finally tried to go nuclear by ending some of the law’s direct payments to insurers, state regulators found clever ways to let health plans raise their premiums when necessary without hurting customers much, if at all. Thanks to weird interactions with Obamacare’s subsidy structure, the rich asshole’s sabotage attempt may have actually made coverage more affordable for some.
Of course, Obamacare is still under attack. Though the Republican tax bill doesn’t repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate until 2019, it’s not clear how strenuously the rich asshole administration will be enforcing the requirement that Americans buy coverage. If the administration makes it clear there won’t be any real penalty next tax season for going uninsured, some people who’ve already enrolled might drop their plans. I’m also a bit curious what will happen to the number of people buying coverage off of the exchanges; most of those customers earn too much to be eligible for subsidies, so they’ve been exposed to price hikes. I would be surprised to see their enrollment figures drop.*
But those questions are still up in the air. For now, contrary to what our president might think, Obamacare lives.
*Correction, Dec. 21, 6:28 PM: This post originally stated that the Republican tax bill repealed Obamacare’s individual mandate in 2018. It is repeals it as of 2019.
MILITARY ANALYSIS.
DEC. 21 2017 4:13 PM
the rich asshole’s unforced error on Jerusalem.
By Fred Kaplan
The world just did to some rich asshole the one thing that he hates more than anything—it disrespected him. The odd thing is, he could have avoided the humiliation if only he knew a little about international relations or valued what his advisers tried to teach him above his most craven political instincts.
Fred Kaplan is the author of Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War.
On Thursday afternoon, the U.N. General Assembly voted 128–9 (with 35 member states abstaining) to declare null and void the United States’ recent recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel—a recognition that the rich asshole had bestowed on Dec. 6. The U.N. vote has no binding effect, but it is a loud rebuke of the rich asshole, just three days after he boasted that he had restored the world’s respect for American leadership.
The rebuke is amplified by the fact that the rich asshole had announced the day before that he would revoke financial aid for any country that voted for the resolution. “Let them vote against us,” he said at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “We’ll save a lot. We don’t care. But this isn’t like it used to be where they could vote against you and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars. We’re not going to be taken advantage of any longer.”
the rich asshole’s U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, wrote a letter to other delegates, warning, “The U.S. will be taking names” during the roll call. “As you consider your vote,” she elaborated, “I encourage you to know the president and the U.S. take this vote personally. She then tweeted, “At the UN we’re always asked to do more and give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don’t expect those we’ve helped to target us.”
It is doubtful that the rich asshole will follow through on this threat—which will make him look still more petulant—but if he does take action, it will severely damage U.S. interests, even as he has defined them.
The countries that voted for the resolution— or, as the rich asshole sees it, against him—include four of the five biggest recipients of U.S. aid: Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, and Jordan. They also include countries that the rich asshole has courted since taking office—Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, and Vietnam. They also include every country in Western Europe, though the rich asshole might not care about that.
It would be one thing if all these countries publicly razzed America on some vital national interest—something to do with, say, al-Qaida or ISIS or a cyberattack on our elections. But a declaration about the capital of Israel does not meet that standard.
Once the rich asshole declared that he was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the Arab leaders had to oppose it.
The fact is, no other countries recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel; though 10 countries, including the U.S., have diplomatic missions of some sort in the city, they are separate from their embassies, which are in Tel Aviv. Ever since 1967, the U.S. State Department has considered East Jerusalem as “occupied territory.” American policy, like that of many countries, has stated that the status of Jerusalem will be determined as part of a broader Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty. To declare the matter settled is, in effect, to discard the long-standing goal of a “two-state” solution to the conflict.
Neither the rich asshole nor any of his officials have disputed any of these facts. Secretary of Defense James Mattis was asked during his Senate confirmation hearings whether he considered Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital. He demurred, saying he’d stick with the long-standing policy of regarding the capital as Tel Aviv.
Just after the rich asshole announced his Jerusalem gambit, David Satterfield, the acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, held a news conference. One of the most intriguing exchanges went as follows:
QUESTION: And one other question. Do you regard those portions of East Jerusalem that were occupied by Israel in 1967 as occupied territory?
AMBASSADOR SATTERFIELD: The decision of the President is to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel. The President has stated that that decision does not touch upon issues of boundaries, of sovereignty, or geographic borders. Full stop.
QUESTION: So it is still occupied territory, in your view?
AMBASSADOR SATTERFIELD: I have stated what the President’s decision does and does not do.
QUESTION: What is the current policy of the U.S. administration towards Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem?
AMBASSADOR SATTERFIELD: As—this decision had no impact on any issue other than the recognition or acknowledgment of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Satterfield, a veteran diplomat with Middle Eastern postings under Republican and Democratic presidents, knew the absurdity of the rich asshole’s position. Mattis and other briefers, as well as several Arab officials with whom the rich asshole has good relations, had cautioned the president that recognizing Jerusalem would have major diplomatic consequences and could spark protests and violence throughout the region and possibly the world.
Hence the U.N. vote on Thursday. the rich asshole was warned that something like this would happen. In the runup, not only did he fail to take steps that might have softened the blow, he did everything he could to harden it—he cranked up the rhetoric, he ratcheted up the stakes.
And he did this for no need. The fact is, the status of Jerusalem is no longer the hot-button issue that it once was. The region’s Arab leaders—especially in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan—have turned their focus on the expansionism of Iran. In that struggle, they see Israel as an ally—even if they don’t publicly acknowledge this alliance—and they don’t want to upset that arrangement by harping on the Palestinians.
By raising Jerusalem as an issue, the rich asshole put it back on the front burner of the region’s politics. Whatever the Sunni Arabs’ real feelings about the nature of a future Palestinian state, they can’t go along with a policy that would block the formation of such a state—which is what the rich asshole’s declaration does. Even if they don’t care personally, they know that acceding to such a policy would rile the anger of their citizens. Once the rich asshole declared that he was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the Arab leaders had to oppose it.
On Monday, the issue came before the U.N. Security Council, which voted 14–1 to declare the U.S. recognition as null and avoid—but the sole dissent was cast by the United States, which, as a permanent member of the Council, has veto power. So the resolution was rejected. At that point, Yemen and Turkey—the latter a member of NATO—brought the matter before the General Assembly. Anyone would have seen that the measure would win overwhelming support by allies and adversaries alike. Yet rather than ignore or wave away the results, the rich asshole aimed the spotlight right on it, threatening those who voted against his preference.
The vote took place just three days after the rich asshole issued a 55-page document on a National Security Strategy, which warns of a coming cold war with Russia and China—and possible hot wars with North Korea and Iran. If any of these tensions escalate, he will need allies in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Yet with his fuss over Thursday’s U.N. vote—on a nonbinding resolution, over an issue that has no vital interest for the United States, an issue that’s entirely one of theatrics—the rich asshole has managed to alienate all of those allies.
The curious thing is that not even the rich asshole seems to have taken his policy shift on Jerusalem very seriously. After making his announcement on Dec. 6, he signed the congressionally mandated waiver that permits a president to keep the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv for another six months. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said it will take at least three years to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The U.S. already has a consulate in Jerusalem, and key personnel could move there and anoint it an “embassy” within days if the president wanted them to do so.
Clearly, the rich asshole made his move as a domestic political ploy to please a portion of his “base,” namely, the most conservative American Jews—including his ambassador to Israel, who opposes all restrictions on Jewish settlements—and certain Christian evangelicals. In other words, he made an unwise decision, which has further isolated the United States, for the shallowest of reasons—and now he could make an even worse decision because he’s humiliated.
BY BRANDON CARTER - 12/21/17 07:03 PM EST
FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe testified before the House Intelligence Committee that former FBI Director James Comey told him about conversations he had with President the rich asshole, including the rich asshole’s request for loyalty, according to a new report.
CNN reports that McCabe told lawmakers during his testimony this week that Comey told him about conversations he had with the rich asshole after they occurred.
McCabe told the committee that Comey also told him about the rich asshole’s request for loyalty, according to CNN’s Manu Raju.
During his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in June, Comey said that the rich asshole asked him for his loyalty during a January dinner at the White House.
"I need loyalty. I expect loyalty," the rich asshole said, according to Comey.
Comey said he didn't respond to the rich asshole's request, but the president returned to the subject later in the dinner, again repeating that he needed loyalty. Ultimately, Comey allowed that the rich asshole would get "honesty loyalty" from him.
the rich asshole has disputed Comey’s account of the conversation, saying he never asked Comey for his loyalty.
The revelation could mean McCabe can corroborate Comey's account of the conversation.
McCabe faced a nearly eight-hour grilling from the House Intelligence Committee this week as Republicans ramp up their charges that the FBI, Justice Department and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team are biased against the rich asshole.
BY JOHN HALTIWANGER ON 12/21/17 AT 5:26 PM
President some rich asshole is "oblivious" to the "dangers" Russia poses in Ukraine and the recent approval of a limited lethal arms sale to Kiev will do little to impact the ongoing, bloody conflict in the eastern part of the country, according to former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst.
"The president, by and large, has been oblivious to the dangers Russian policy presents. He’s not seen this as a challenge. Truly, it’s strategic near-sightedness, to put it lightly," Herbst, who served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006, told Newsweek.
Herbst, currently director of the Atlantic Council's Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center, described the rich asshole administration's recent approval of a limited lethal arms sale to Ukraine as a "positive step forward" and "it’s a message to Moscow that Washington’s support for Ukraine is growing." But, and the end of the day, Herbst said it's also more "symbolic" than substantive.
"[The arms sale] might have a small impact in the field," Herbst added.
The arms sale, first reported by The Washington Post on Wednesday, is valued at $41.5 million and reportedly includes Model M107A1 sniper systems, ammunition and associated equipment. This marked the largest U.S. commercial sale of lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine since 2014––the same year Congress approved such sales via the Ukraine Freedom Support Act.
The move was reportedly condoned by top the rich asshole national security advisers as well as GOP Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The arms sale "reflects our country’s longstanding commitment to Ukraine in the face of ongoing Russian aggression," the senator told The Washington Post.
But Herbst contended what Ukraine really needs to shift the currently deadlocked conflict in its favor is Javelin anti-tank missiles, which the Ukrainian government has requested. The president has not yet approved the sale of such weapons, despite the fact his National Security Council has recommended he do so.
"The Russians have used tanks effectively to take Ukrainian territory and kill Ukranians," Herbst said. "Javelin anti-tank missiles would make it much more dangerous and difficult to do that."
Heather Conley, director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic International Studies, echoed many of Herbst's sentiments about the recent arms sale. "I’m not convinced it’s massively significant. In many ways, it would have had significance had it been announced in a different way. Quite frankly, it’s a limited commercial sale. It’s not what the Ukrainian government had sought," Conley told Newsweek.
"This is a hot war," Conley said, and something "much more meaningful" than a limited lethal arms sale is needed if the rich asshole administration truly hopes to impact the conflict moving forward. The most positive aspect of this arms sale, Conley said, is that it helps bring the Ukraine conflict—which has taken a backseat to many other issues—back into public discourse.
"We need to take a fresh look at U.S. policy... We’ve now had three years of failure," Conley said, adding Russian activities in places like Georgia (South Ossetia and Abkhazia), Moldova and Transnistria also merit far more attention than they're currently granted.
The U.S. Department of State offered few details on the deal when questioned about it by Newsweek, but was particularly careful to note the U.S. government was not selling weapons "directly" to Ukraine.
"The Department of State has licensed the commercial export of a limited number of small arms and light weapons to Ukraine from U.S. manufacturers...The United States government has neither directly sold nor granted defensive weapons to Ukraine nor ruled out the option of doing so," a spokesperson said via email.
The conflict in Ukraine between government forces and Russian-backed separatists began in 2014 and has since claimed over 10,000 lives and displaced more than 1.6 million people. At present, the war is a complete stalemate and it's estimated there are approximately 40 ceasefire violations per day. In a conversation with Newsweek earlier this month, Herbst said the conflict could potentially continue for many years to come despite the pressure Russia faces from economic sanctions leveled against it over its involvement.
Little girl thanks the rich asshole‘for letting us say Merry Christmas again!’ in new pro-the rich asshole ad
Fact check: there was no prohibition against saying "Merry Christmas" when America had a black president.
A pro-the rich asshole nonprofit says it is spending $1 million to air a new pro-the rich asshole ad that concludes with a little girl saying, “Thank you President the rich asshole for letting us say ‘Merry Christmas’ again!”
America First Policies — a group including the rich asshole’s digital and data director Brad Parscale, freshly-indicted former deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, and former Mike Pence campaign advisers — says the “ad blitz” will begin on Christmas day.
The notion that saying “Merry Christmas” was in some sense prohibited under President Obama is, of course, a myth, as this supercut of the Obamas wishing people a Merry Christmas reveals. Nonetheless, the rich asshole seems to have convinced himself that nobody said it during the Obama years — a period of time during which the rich asshole rose to political prominence thanks to the racist conspiracy theory he pushed about Obama not actually being an American citizen.
What a convenient mistake: @BarackObama issued a statement for Kwanza but failed to issue one for Christmas. bit.ly/vUmvpM
During a White House celebration of the Republican tax bill on Wednesday, the rich asshole at one point remarked that “we can say ‘Merry Christmas’ again. People are saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again, and we like the sound.”
America First Policies’ new ad is called “Thank You, President the rich asshole.” In addition to the little girl thanking the rich asshole for purportedly bringing back “Merry Christmas,” other people thank the president for everything from “keeping my family safe” to “reminding us to stand for our national anthem” to “fixing our economy.”
The pro-the rich asshole group’s million-dollar effort to bolster the rich asshole’s image comes as his approval rating hits new lows. According to CNN polling, the rich asshole’s approval rating his 35 percent on Tuesday — marking “the worst approval rating in a December of any elected president’s first year in the White House by a wide margin — and only the second time since the dawn of modern polling that a president’s approval rating sank under 50 percent at this point.”
CNN’s latest poll was conducted just before congressional Republicans approved the tax cut bill that the rich asshole championed. That bill is referenced in America First Policies’ new pro-the rich asshole ad, which features a man who appears to be in a workshop saying, “Thank you for cutting my taxes.”
But while working-class people are at best getting crumbs, the rich are making off like bandits. According to the Tax Policy Center, roughly 82 percent of the tax bill’s benefits will accrue to the richest one percent over time. As a result, the tax cut bill is about as unpopular as the rich asshole — polling conducting just before it was passed showed that only 33 percent supported it, while 55 percent were opposed.
So regardless of how many times the rich asshole says “Merry Christmas,” it’s doubtful whether the president’s first major legislative accomplishment will boost his popularity heading into the second year of his presidency.
Refusing to be ‘intimidated,’ U.N. votes overwhelmingly to nullify the rich asshole’s Jerusalem decision
The U.N. General Assembly held an emergency session to register its oppostion to the rich asshole's recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.
The U.N. General Assembly voted Thursday in favor of a resolution calling for the nullification of President some rich asshole’s decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
Passing by a margin of 128 to 9 (with 35 abstentions), the resolution was voted on during a special emergency session that was called after the rich asshole decided on December 6 to unilaterally recognize Jerusalem — disputed territory that is subject to negotiation between Israel and Palestine — as the Israeli capital. He also vowed to eventually move the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv.
The resolution was introduced by Yemen’s Ambassador Khaled Hussein Mohamed Alyemany, who called the rich asshole’s decision a “blatant violation of the rights of the Palestinian people and the Arab nations, and all Muslims and Christians of the world.”
Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said that member states “will not be intimidated.”
“You can be strong but that does not make you right,” he said, addressing the United States. He added, “The words and dignity of member states are not for sale.”
But the commodification of votes and loyalty is precisely what the United States is banking on.
Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, insisted that the decision “reflected the will of the American people” and “does not preclude a two-state solution.” She reminded U.N. member states that “Instead, there is a larger point to make: The United States will remember this day, in which it was singled out for attack … we will remember it when we are called up to once again make the world’s largest contribution to the United Nations. And we will remember it when so many countries come calling on us, when they so often do, to pay even more, and to use our influence for their benefit.”
Haley has been on the defensive since the rich asshole made his announcement two weeks ago, with matters coming to a head earlier this week.
All of the other 14 member states at the U.N. Security Council on Monday voted to nullify the rich asshole’s decision on Jerusalem. The U.S. exercised its veto power, with Haley calling the decision by fellow Security Council members, “an insult,” and vowed that it would “not be forgotten.”
She issued a threat via Twitter on Tuesday, saying that the United States will be “taking names” at Thursday’s votes. the rich asshole supported that threat on Wednesday, saying that the United States would cut off aid to countries that voted against it on the non-binding resolution. He told reporters at the White House, “They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, we’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”
the rich asshole’s decision has been criticized by allies and adversaries in the Middle East and North Africa alike. States in the European Union have also questioned the move, which has triggered protests around the world and has resulted in a call to arms from groups such as Al Shabbab, and prompted Hamas to call for a third Intifiada (uprising).
It is also a complete departure from U.S. policy in the region, and has created doubt in the Arab world that the United States can act as an impartial negotiator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who supports the rich asshole’s decision on Jerusalem, called the United Nations “a house of lies” ahead of Thursday’s vote, praising the rich asshole and Haley for “their brave and uncompromising stance,” Reuters reported.
Threats of cutting off funding has precedent and can be effective in altering the course of U.N. action. For example, Saudi Arabia managed to avoid being investigated for war crimes in Yemen for two years, after threatening to stop funding several U.N. programs. The U.N. Human Rights Council in September finally agreed to push ahead and investigate Saudi for its role in the killing of civilians in its U.S.-backed airstrikes in Yemen.
Indeed, citing “the current geopolitical context,” the head of the United Nations human rights body, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, on Wednesday sent an email to his staff, according to Politico, saying that he would not seek a second term once his mandate was done in 2018.
Zeid said he was worried that staying on “might involve bending a knee in supplication; muting a statement of advocacy” resulting in “lessening the independence and integrity” of his voice.
Jeff Sessions reportedly orders review of debunked Hillary Clinton claims, violating recusal vow
Not exactly 'fair and impartial administration of justice.'
For weeks, critics of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the rich asshole administration have pushed a widely debunked conspiracy theory that she sold 20 percent of America’s uranium to Russia in exchange for a large donation to the Clinton Foundation.
On Thursday, NBC News reported that, on orders from Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Department of Justice’s prosecutors “have begun asking FBI agents to explain the evidence they found in a now-dormant criminal investigation into a controversial uranium deal that critics have linked to Bill and Hillary Clinton.”
The problem is that Jeff Sessions wasn’t supposed to be involved in decisions about Clinton and her foundation at all: he swore under oath in January that he would recuse himself from all such decisions, in light of his comments during the campaign. During his confirmation hearing, he told the Senate Judiciary Committee:
With regard to Secretary Clinton and some of the comments I made, I do believe that that could place my objectivity in question. I’ve given that thought. I believe the proper thing for me to do, would be to recuse myself from any questions involving those kind of investigations that involve Secretary Clinton and that were raised during the campaign or to be otherwise connected to it.
Though some rich asshole claimed shortly after the election that he did not “want to hurt the Clintons,” he has continued to attack her regularly since taking office, suggesting she should be investigated and publicly lamenting that as president he is not supposed to meddle in criminal investigations.
The decision to divert law enforcement resources to a debunked conspiracy theory against the woman who ran against the rich asshole in the 2016 elections may appear to be a political decision aimed to settle scores or distract from the many ongoing investigations into Russia’s role in electing the rich asshole. And it is just that appearance that one Jeff Sessions warned against in explaining his decision to recuse himself from these questions.
Asked by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the committee’s chairman, whether he would formally recuse himself and turn such decisions over to a deputy attorney general, he said that he would. “I believe that would be the best approach for the country because we can never have a political dispute turn into a criminal dispute. That’s not in any way that would suggest anything other than absolute objectivity. This country does not punish its political enemies, but this country ensures that no one is above the law.”
Federal law makes perjury a felony, subject to up to five years in prison. In 1999, Sessions voted to remove a president from office for allegedly violating that law.
‘We are second-class citizens’: Puerto Rico’s governor responds to GOP tax bill, lack of aid funding
"In the time to take action, they have reneged."
ADDY BAIRDDEC 21, 2017, 6:43 PM
Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló vowed to target Republicans at the ballot box next year after Congress failed to appropriate necessary disaster relief funding for the island and left provisions in the recently passed tax bill that could devastate Puerto Rico’s economy.
“We are going to do an evaluation of all of the congressmen and congresswomen that pledged support to Puerto Rico, and in the time to take action, they have reneged on that word,” Rosselló said on MSNBC Thursday. “We are second-class citizens. We don’t have representation, but we do have 5.3 million Puerto Ricans in the United States and we want to organize them to make sure that our voice is heard.”
Three months after Hurricane Maria hit the territory, Puerto Rico is still experiencing a “super blackout,” the longest and largest power outage in modern American history. Many people are still living in darkness, and the island is not expected to have full power until February, up to five months after the storm. Deaths from the storm have also been significantly under-reported by the government, and although the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) says the island has potable water, experts say that can’t possibly be true.
To make matters worse, Democrats and other advocates argue that the funding Congress has appropriated to help Puerto Ricans in need is only a fraction of what’s necessary, and certain provisions in the recently passed Republican tax bill could devastate the island’s economy.
On Thursday, the House passed a funding bill to deliver $81 billion to Puerto Rico and other communities recently affected by disasters in Texas, California, and Florida, but the package has been met with resistance in the Senate and is unlikely to pass. Even if it does, Puerto Rico alone is estimated to need $21 billion over the next two years.
And despite being part of the United States, the newly passed bill treats Puerto Rico like a foreign country, and part of the bill that aim to incentivize bringing business back to the United States could mean that business may abandon Puerto Rico for the mainland.
So although Rosselló would not name names on MSNBC Thursday, he is vowing to fight those decisions on election day. But, perhaps more importantly, he said Puerto Rico should “of course” have representation in Congress.
“If there was one time in our history where we can see what it means to be a colonial territory versus what it means to be a state, right now it’s that time,” he said. “We don’t have political power in Congress. We don’t have equal treatment in federal programs, and until we show that we can muster some muscle in some other jurisdictions or until the United States calls upon what I think is a moral imperative to finalize colonialism in the 21st century, transition out of that, and make Puerto Rico a state, which has been favored by Puerto Ricans twice in the last five years, then we will be with this lingering dilemma.”
NO, NIXON. YOU’RE THE NIXON.
‘Watergate went on for 928 days from break-in to the final trial. We haven’t come close to that.’
12.21.17 5:00 AM ET
The conservative media got the memo: Whenever the Russia probe comes up, get outraged and say that it—as in the probe itself, not what it may be uncovering about the rich asshole—is “worse than Watergate.” After all, that’s what Democrats have been saying for months about what the probe may be uncovering about the rich asshole.
The questions now are how did this become a talking point on the right, and what do they mean by “worse than Watergate?”
One theory: the new rallying cry is straight from the late Roy Cohn, the brass-knuckles lawyer in New York who schooled a young some rich asshole in the black arts of chicanery and corruption.
“Always hit back… never say you’re sorry… never admit you’re wrong,” were the words Cohn lived by as he made his name defending Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch hunt. He moved on to the Manhattan party scene where he befriended the rich asshole, seeded gossip items about friends and foes, and represented Mafia crime families before his death in 1986 of complications from AIDS.
An expert on smearing people’s reputations, Cohn would tell his clients that whatever someone says about you, turn it back on that person. You know: “No, puppet. You’re the puppet.”
After Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro got the rich asshole worked up about then-FBI Director James Comey using hardball tactics more often associated with Mafia cases, the president exclaimed: “Roy Cohn was my lawyer!”
When the rich asshole’s defenders say this is worse than Watergate, they are spreading a myth that the government is training more firepower on the rich asshole than it did on Nixon, and for no provable crime. “There is no collusion,” the rich asshole says. The right’s goal is to generate outrage among the rich asshole’s base that he’s bearing the brunt of an unfair and partisan investigation.
“Somebody has learned a lesson from Watergate and that lesson is you hit hard publicly,” says Timothy Naftali, former director of the Nixon Library. “Nixon stonewalled, he lied, he kept quiet. He [the rich asshole] and his allies are trying to delegitimate the entire process publicly by creating a lot of noise. I don’t know if it will work, but it is different.”
To understand what the right is getting at when they say this is “worse than Watergate,” I consulted John Dean, the White House counsel who turned against Nixon, and cooperated with the special prosecutor during Watergate. He says it depends on what standard you use.
“If there’s a conspiracy to influence an election with the help of a foreign government, it’s worse than Watergate because that’s committing a crime,” he says. “Watergate was a bungled burglary by a goofball who thought he was James Bond and he wasn’t quite Maxwell Smart,” but what happened, says Dean, is that “the break-in and cover-up metastasized into Nixon’s abuses of power.” And that’s what led to his resignation.
Fox News hosts led by Sean Hannity, a the rich asshole confidante, are calling for Mueller to be fired, and spreading the idea as though it were fact that a democratically elected president is under threat from a partisan investigation costing many millions of dollars, the likes of which the country has never seen.
They’re wrong, says Dean. The FBI’s investigation into Watergate expended more resources than it did investigating the assassination of President Kennedy, he says. “It was huge. They followed every lead. Watergate went on for 928 days from break-in to the final trial. We haven’t come close to that time frame.”
Naftali learned from his time at the Nixon Library from 2007 to 2011 that there are people, mostly older people, who think Nixon was railroaded, and they might be receptive to the argument that the rich asshole’s defenders make, that the investigation does not fit the crime. Republican pollster John McLaughlin told The Daily Beast that after a year of the Democrats saying the rich asshole campaign colluded with Russia, there’s no evidence that was true. “Then they say the president obstructed justice, but if there’s no crime what was obstructed?”
He cites GOP efforts to revive various Clinton scandals, and says, “The question may be what did Hillary Clinton know and when did she know it?”
Memories are short, and much of the voting population was not alive or politically aware in 1973 to remember the gavel-to-gavel coverage of the special Senate Watergate Committee day after day. The revelation of a White House taping system came out in those hearings.
“The country was transfixed by Watergate,” says Naftali. By comparison, there are no special committees in the Russia probe, and there’s very little public testimony. “There’s nothing on that scale,” he says. “That alone should put to rest this is worse than Watergate [in terms of the intensity of the probe].”
House Republicans pressed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last week about Mueller’s objectivity, a cartoonish effort that did not appear to shake Rosenstein’s commitment to Mueller, who is a Republican and a decorated war veteran. “It was embarrassing,” says Dean, citing Ohio Republican Jim Jordan’s aggressive attempt to undermine Mueller and the probe he leads. “That is not a good old Buckeye Boy. Sounded like he’s trying to get over to Moscow to find his constituency.”
Partisans in Congress can of course say what they want. The speech and debate clause in the Constitution protects them in that setting. “But you get on Fox News and start putting out lies, Sean Hannity could find himself in front of a grand jury,” Dean says. “There’s no First Amendment protection for obstruction of justice.”
Report: FBI Deputy Chief Backed Up Comey’s Claims that the rich asshole Asked for Loyalty
FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe reportedly backed up former FBI Director James Comey’s claims that President some rich asshole asked the ex-chief for loyalty. According to CNN, McCabe told the House Intelligence Committee that Comey informed him of those discussions with the rich asshole after they occurred. The rich asshole has denied that he asked Comey for loyalty.
Top FBI official grilled on Comey, Clinton in Hill testimony
Washington (CNN)FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe faced numerous questions this week about his interactions, conversations and correspondence with his onetime boss, former FBI Director James Comey, spanning both the FBI's Russia investigation and its probe into Hillary Clinton's private email server, according to multiple sources from both parties with knowledge of his testimony.
In private testimony before the House Intelligence Committee this week, McCabe told lawmakers that Comey informed him of conversations he had with President Donald the rich asshole soon after they happened, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.
The testimony suggests McCabe could corroborate Comey's account, including the rich asshole's ask that Comey show him loyalty, which the President has strongly disputed. Comey previously testified that he briefed some of his senior colleagues at the FBI about this conversation with the rich asshole.
McCabe appeared for more than 16 hours of testimony behind closed doors in two sessions this week before members of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Judiciary committees, amid growing calls for his firing from Republicans critical of the FBI's handling of both investigations.
Intelligence Committee Republicans also grilled McCabe about how the FBI used the dossier compiled by a British agent alleging collusion between the rich asshole and Russia. Some Republicans were dissatisfied with the responses, according to the sources.
Thursday, before the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, McCabe faced intense questioning from Republicans about the FBI's handling of the Clinton email investigation, which many in the GOP believe was unfair. The panel's Republicans forced McCabe to answer questions about internal emails they believe showed Comey mishandled the investigation, according to multiple sources.
The mood, according to Illinois Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, was "tense."
"All this time on Clinton emails and dragging the FBI in to talk about Clinton instead of the real crime: Russian interference in our democracy," said Krishnamoorthi, who sits on the House Oversight Committee.
The FBI declined to comment.
But two Republicans emerged from the Thursday hearing saying McCabe's testimony did not change their belief that Clinton got favorable treatment by the FBI when it decided not to pursue criminal charges last year over the handling of her private email server. They declined to provide details about what McCabe said, citing the confidential nature of the interview.
In the heat of the presidential campaign last summer, Comey publicly announced that Clinton would not be charged in the email server investigation. Comey said "no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case," primarily because investigators didn't determine that Clinton intentionally schemed to break federal law.
Drawing the ire of Republicans, Comey also said the investigation found "evidence of potential violations" of the statutes that dictate how classified information should be handled.
Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican who was been a sharp critic of the FBI's handling of the Clinton email investigation, told CNN: "Everything that I've heard reinforces what I believed before" McCabe came in for the Thursday interview.
On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte defended the two panels' focus on the Clinton email investigation, saying it is consistent with their focus on FBI decisions made in the 2016 elections. McCabe was the first witness.
"This investigation was announced two months ago, and this is the first interview and we are gathering documents," Goodlatte, R-Virginia, told CNN.
Told that Democrats called the probe an effort to distract from the Russia investigation, Goodlatte said: "That's definitely not right."
Criticism of FBI from Republicans
McCabe has come under fire in recent days from Republicans amid the release of anti-the rich asshole text messages sent between FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was removed from Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller's team when the messages were discovered, and FBI lawyer Lisa Page. The text messages also criticized liberals, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Chelsea Clinton.
Several Republicans, including Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, have called for his removal.
The criticism of McCabe comes as a growing number of Republicans are questioning the credibility of Mueller's investigation into possible collusion between the rich asshole's team and Russian officials.
Republicans have pointed to the anti-the rich asshole texts as well as connections between the FBI and Fusion GPS, the firm that paid for the opposition research dossier on the rich asshole and Russia.
But Democrats argue that the Republican criticisms of McCabe and the FBI are an effort to undermine Mueller as his investigation ramps up, and to give the rich asshole cover should he try to remove Mueller, a step the White House insists is not on the table.
"This hearing is part of an ongoing Republican attempt to divert attention," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. "I mean, this hearing occurred with very little prior notice, with weeks before the relevant documents are obtained, but although we're expecting the relevant documents. And suddenly we're told we have an emergency hearing."
First in a series with FBI witnesses
Thursday's hearing is the first connected to the joint investigation into Comey's handling of the Clinton email case that was launched earlier this year by the Oversight and Judiciary committees.
Both sides say they expect this is the first in a series of hearings involving FBI witnesses, and the two committees have asked for at least two other senior FBI officials to appear.
Thursday's hearing behind closed doors was considered "confidential," but not classified, according to Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight panel.
As part of the agreement, McCabe did not discuss topics that touched on Mueller investigation, Cummings said.
But the House Intelligence Committee's hearing, which lasted roughly eight hours Tuesday, did touch on topics Mueller's inquiry appears to be covering, sources said.
In particular, the panel pressed McCabe to discuss his interactions with Comey, who contended that on multiple occasions the rich asshole reached out to him, including over dinner.
Earlier this year, Comey testified that he briefed senior FBI officials about at least two conversations with the rich asshole: The January dinner where the rich asshole asked for loyalty, and the February meeting where the rich asshole asked Comey to go easy on former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was under FBI investigation. In his bombshell testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in June, Comey did not identify McCabe by name, only saying that he briefed "the FBI leadership team" about his interactions with the rich asshole.
McCabe testified this week that Comey did in fact tell him about these conversations.
Seth Meyers torpedoes GOP’s fawning over the president: ‘I guess we know what the rich asshole’s O-face looks like’
"Late Night" host Seth Meyers pokes fun at President some rich asshole. Image via screengrab.
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Late Night host Seth Meyers on Thursday lambasted the GOP for “lavishing praise” on President Donald Trump over their tax cut bill.
The host played an awkward clip of Vice President Mike Pence heaping compliments onto the president while sitting directly across the table from him during a cabinet meeting. In the video, the rich asshole watched Pence with his arms crossed, his mouth an emotionless thin line.
“Well I guess we know what the rich asshole’s ‘o-face’ looks like,” Meyers quipped. “Look at him, even he’s like ‘Dude, I’m married.'”
After the meeting, Meyers continued, Pence “showed up at the rich asshole’s door holding cue cards” a la “Love Actually.”
A manipulated still from “Love Actually” featuring President some rich asshole (left) and Vice President Mike Pence (right). Image via screengrab/Late Night.
Watch the Late Night host blast Republicans for their over-the-top praise below.
Carter Page’s attempt to insert himself into the AT&T merger gets rebuffed by judge and Justice Dept lawyer
Former the rich asshole campaign foreign policy aide Carter Page (image via screengrab).
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The rich asshole administration on Thursday made their distaste for Carter Page even more apparent when a Justice Department lawyer took the unusual step of asking a federal judge to throw out an amicus brief he’d written on the basis of its irrelevancy.
As Vanity Fair‘s Tina Nguyen reported for The Hive, Page’s amicus brief against the Time Warner-AT&T merger was not only self-aggrandizing (he claimed he knew the merger was bad because he’d been targeted by the “telecommunications-media oligopoly”) — it also has drawn the ire of his former employer.
Justice Department attorney Craig Conrath told the judge presiding over the hearing about the merger that the DOJ’s Anti-Trust Division doesn’t generally “oppose amicus briefs in the district courts,” but Page’s brief appears to be a special case.
“Dr. Page’s submission does not appear to be meaningfully relevant to the issues in this case,” Conrath said.
The judge appeared to agree with the DOJ lawyer, and denied Page’s brief. In response, the unfettered former the rich asshole adviser said he was “not disappointed at all.”
Bad News For the rich asshole — Mitch McConnell Says No To Repealing Obamacare In 2018
Republicans have had seven years to come up with a viable replacement for Obamacare but they failed miserably. After taking a victory lap for gifting the wealthy with a tax break on Wednesday, some rich asshole looked at the cameras and said, “We have essentially repealed Obamacare and we will come up with something that will be much better.”
“Obamacare has been repealed in this bill,” he added. Well, like most things the rich asshole says, that’s just not true. But, if the former reality show star could have done that in order to eradicate former President Obama’s signature legislation, he would have and without offering an alternative.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told NPR that “This has not been a very bipartisan year. I hope in the new year, we’re going to pivot here and become more cooperative.”
An Obamacare repeal in 2018 is DOA.
“Well, we obviously were unable to completely repeal and replace with a 52-48 Senate,” the Kentucky Republican said. “We’ll have to take a look at what that looks like with a 51-49 Senate. But I think we’ll probably move on to other issues.”
NPR reports:
McConnell hopes to focus instead on stabilizing the insurance marketplaces to keep premiums from skyrocketing in the early months of 2018, a promise he made to moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine to get her support for the tax bill.
On top of that McConnell broke with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., on the approach to paring back spending on programs like Medicaid and food stamps. McConnell told NPR he is “not interested” in using Senate budget rules to allow Republicans to cut entitlements without consultation with Democrats.
“I think entitlement changes, to be sustained, almost always have to be bipartisan,” McConnell said. “The House may have a different agenda. If our Democratic friends in the Senate want to join us to tackle any kind of entitlement reform. I’d be happy to take a look at it.”
This is coming from Mitch McConnell. He knows some rich asshole is destroying the GOP. It doesn’t matter, Sen. McConnell. We still recall him saying that his “number one priority is making sure president Obama’s a one-term president.”
Well, we’re hoping that the rich asshole doesn’t last a full term. Funny how that works.
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