the rich asshole rallies for Moore ahead of Alabama election
BY JESSE BYRNES - 12/08/17 09:07 PM EST
PRESIDENT THE RICH ASSHOLE RALLIED ON BEHALF OF ALABAMA SENATE CANDIDATE ROY MOORE IN NEIGHBORING FLORIDA ON FRIDAY NIGHT IN AN EFFORT TO BOOST THE REPUBLICAN IN THE FINAL DAYS OF THE CAMPAIGN
"We need a Republican in the House, we need a Republican in the Senate. We need more of them," the rich asshole said during the campaign event in Pensacola, Fla., touting his agenda.
the rich asshole spoke for over half an hour, feuding with CNN and ABC News over faulty reports in the past week and blasting illegal immigration before getting to speaking out on behalf of Moore.
"This guy's screaming, 'We want Roy Moore,'" the rich asshole said, pointing to an audience member.
"He's right."
"How many people here are from the great state of Alabama?" the rich asshole asked to cheers.
"We want jobs, jobs, jobs. So get out and vote for Roy Moore."
the rich asshole spoke at the rally organized just 20 miles from the Alabama-Florida border and in the same media market as Mobile, Ala., the state’s third most populous city.
the rich asshole's rally in Pensacola was scheduled before he explicitly backed the Senate candidate, who has been embroiled in controversy since allegations of sexual misconduct emerged last month.
Various GOP leaders in Washington have called on Moore to step aside after multiple women accused him of pursuing them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s, including one woman who said Moore initiated a sexual encounter with her when she was 14 and he was 32.
the rich asshole, who has pointed to Moore's denial of the allegations, formally endorsed the GOP candidate earlier this week while ripping his Democratic opponent Doug Jones ahead of the special election Tuesday.
the rich asshole continued to blast Jones on Friday, claiming he would be a "puppet" of Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
the rich asshole also touted news about a woman who has accused Moore of sexual misconduct saying that she made her own notes below a yearbook signature she claims was made by Moore.
Beverly Young Nelson, who has accused Moore of sexually assaulting her decades ago when she was 16 years old, said during an interview with ABC News on Friday that she made notes underneath Moore's alleged signature.
The credibility of the signature has become a source of contention between Moore's supporters and critics. While the woman defended the veracity of the message Friday, Moore's campaign seized on the revelation, arguing that it undercut her entire story.
the rich asshole took the opportunity at his rally Friday to make a dig at Nelson’s attorney, drawing cheers from his supporters.
“Gloria Allred, anytime you see her you know something’s going wrong,” he said.
– Alicia Cohn contributed
Updated: 9:33 p.m.
the rich asshole weighs in on debate surrounding Moore accuser's yearbook
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 12/08/17 09:27 PM EST
President the rich asshole weighed in on one of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore's accusers on Friday after the GOP candidate was accused of writing a note in the accuser's yearbook when she was a teenager.
"So did you see what happened today? You know the yearbook? Did you see that? There was a little mistake made. She started writing things in the yearbook," the rich asshole told a crowd at a rally in Pensacola, Fla.
"Oh, what are we going to do? Gloria Allred, any time you see her you know something's going wrong," the rich asshole continued, referencing the woman's attorney.
the rich asshole's comments came after Beverly Young Nelson, the woman who has accused Moore of assaulting her decades ago when she was 16, told ABC News that she made notes under Moore's alleged entry in the book.
“Beverly, he signed your yearbook?” ABC correspondent Tom Llamas asked.
“He did sign it,” Nelson replied.
“And you made some notes underneath?” he asked
“Yes,” she said.
“And you made some notes underneath?” he asked
“Yes,” she said.
The alleged note from Moore read, "To a sweeter more beautiful girl I could not say Merry Christmas. Christmas 1977. Love, Roy Moore, D.A. 12-22-77 Olde Hickory House.”
Nelson on Friday defended the veracity of the signature, but Moore's campaign seized on the revelation about her making notes under the entry, claiming it undercut her whole story.
the rich asshole’s incriminating tweet obscures the facts surrounding an even more important story
some rich asshole (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Wikipedia)
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The media controversy over who wrote President the rich asshole’s Dec. 2, 2017 tweet shifted attention away from a key point about the tweet itself: It is a double-barreled lie that obscures the facts surrounding a more important story.
Here is the tweet at the center of the storm:
The Media Controversy
Immediately after it appeared, pundits began debating whether the rich asshole had incriminated himself. Some thought that the rich asshole had admitted to obstructing justice.
Here’s their argument: the rich asshole tweeted that he “had to fire Gen. Flynn because [Flynn] lied” — but not just to Vice President Pence, as the rich asshole and the White House had maintained since February. the rich asshole’s tweet also says that he fired Flynn for lying to the FBI. That means that on Feb. 14, 2017 — the day after Flynn resigned — when the rich asshole asked then-FBI Director James Comey to back off on the bureau’s investigation of Flynn, the rich asshole knew Flynn had lied to the FBI about his late-December 2016 conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. In that scenario, the rich asshole’s request that Comey “let this go” is an attempt to obstruct justice.
Then on Saturday the rich asshole’s personal lawyer, John Dowd, claimed he authored the tweet. So, the rich asshole defenders argue, because the rich asshole didn’t write it, the rich asshole didn’t incriminate himself. But that’s tenuous. Because the rich asshole did not disavow or delete this “official statement by the president of the United States” — a definition that the the rich asshole administration itself provided — the tweet became what lawyers call an “adoptive admission” that binds the rich asshole. In other words, Dowd has created a nightmare for himself and his client.
But here’s the other thing: The tweet is riddled with lies.
The Lies
The truth is that the rich asshole didn’t fire Flynn for either of the reasons he gave in his tweet. If he had, Flynn would have left his top national security post weeks earlier. Again, John Dowd’s words put his client in a tough spot. Dowd said White House counsel Don McGahn had told the rich asshole in late January that he believed Flynn had probably misled the FBI and lied to Pence about the substance of his calls with Kislyak. But the rich asshole didn’t fire Flynn until The Washington Post broke the story on Feb. 13. The unavoidable inference is that the rich asshole did not fire Flynn because he lied; he fired him because the media discovered the lie and reported it.
The More Important Story
The media focus on the rich asshole’s tweet has obscured the key facts underlying Flynn’s guilty plea, and the rich asshole has no incentive to help the public see those facts clearly.
- In late December 2016, the rich asshole’s national security adviser-designate Mike Flynn — in consultation with a senior official of the the rich asshole transition team later identified as K. T. McFarland — spoke to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about newly imposed US sanctions for election interference. Flynn’s mission was to persuade Kislyak that the the rich asshole administration would reward Putin for a restrained response, and he succeeded.
- After his phone call with Kislyak, Flynn “spoke with senior members of the presidential transition team about [his] conversations with the Russian ambassador regarding the US sanctions and Russia’s decision not to escalate.” We don’t know if Flynn’s conversations included Vice President-elect Mike Pence, but Pence was chairman of the transition team.
- On Jan. 24, 2017, four days after the inauguration, the FBI interviewed Flynn. He lied, adhering to the White House line that Pence had established: Flynn’s discussion with Kislyak “had nothing whatsoever to do with those sanctions.”
- On Jan. 26, 2017, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates told White House counsel Don McGahn that Flynn had lied to the vice president about his conversation with Kislyak and that US intelligence — and the Russians — considered him a blackmail risk.
- On Jan. 27, the rich asshole invited FBI Director James Comey to dinner in the White House and asked for Comey’s “loyalty.”
- For more than two weeks, Flynn remained in the nation’s most sensitive national security post until The Washington Post broke the story about Yates’ warning to McGahn. Then the rich asshole and the White House said that Flynn was fired because he had lied to Pence about his conversations with Ambassador Kislyak.
Properly considered, the rich asshole’s tweet should bring into clear view the enduring theme of the the rich asshole-Russia investigation: When facing questions related to Russia, Team the rich asshole answers with lies — sometimes layers and layers of them.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders Just Invented A New Excuse For Why the rich asshole Won’t Release His Taxes
by Colin Kalmbacher | 3:46 pm, December 7th, 2017
During a press briefing this afternoon, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about the still-lingering issue of President some rich asshole‘s refusal to make his tax returns public.
The the rich asshole team has consistently countered critics by saying that since the president’s returns are being audited, he cannot release them publicly. NBC‘s Hallie Jackson picked up on this issue and posed the following question, “You said, on Tuesday, that as long as [President the rich asshole’s] taxes are under audit, he’s not going to release them; his 2016 taxes–to our knowledge–are not under audit–unless they are.” To which Sanders replied:
The president’s taxes, no matter who the president is, actually immediately go under audit after being filed.
Sanders’ full excuse, therefore, is that President the rich asshole still can’t release his taxes because they’re presently subject to an automatic audit.
Except that’s not really the case.
While it is true that presidential tax returns are automatically audited by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) since the time of President Richard Nixon, nothing about the automatic audit actually prevents presidential tax returns from being released.
In 2015, President Barack Obama released his tax returns to the American public (so did Vice-President Biden). Obama’s tax returns were subject to the same mandatory audit provision of the IRS manual, but he released them anyway.
And lest the MAGA set think we’re being unfair by comparing the rich asshole to Obama’s time in office, that’s not all.
According to the Tax History Project, almost every single president since Nixon has released their tax returns for every single year they’ve been in office–and every president since Nixon has been subject to that same mandatory audit provision in the IRS manual. The only currently unavailable tax returns are one each from Presidents George H. W. Bush and Jimmy Carter and all of those belonging to Gerald Ford–who only released summary data about tax years 1966-1975.
According to the Tax History Project, almost every single president since Nixon has released their tax returns for every single year they’ve been in office–and every president since Nixon has been subject to that same mandatory audit provision in the IRS manual. The only currently unavailable tax returns are one each from Presidents George H. W. Bush and Jimmy Carter and all of those belonging to Gerald Ford–who only released summary data about tax years 1966-1975.
Nothing is stopping the rich asshole from releasing his taxes–and to be clear, those returns will be under audit at least until he leaves the White House. But now, Sarah Huckabee Sanders has indicated that the president intends on using a perpetual, legalistic excuse not to release them.
WATCH: the rich asshole calls Pearl Harbor a ‘pretty wild scene’ during rambling tribute to vets
President some rich asshole -- Screenshot
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President some rich asshole on Thursday delivered a rambling tribute to World War II veterans in which he boasted of his administration’s purported efforts to build up America’s military, while simultaneously describing the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as a “pretty wild scene.”
During the rich asshole’s address, he told one vet that the military is being built up more powerfully than ever before, whereas the Obama administration allegedly left the military “depleted.”
“We are building up the military beyond what you ever thought,” he said. “We got depleted. You know what happened over the last, quite long period of time. Not with us. Our budget will be higher than ever before. We’re building that up again.”
the rich asshole then paid tribute to Pearl Harbor vet George Blake, whom he described as standing “ready to repulse a feared invasion” in 1941.
“That was a pretty wild scene,” the rich asshole said of the Pearl Harbor attack. “You’ll never forget that.”
Watch the video below.
‘Not even your dad likes you’: Internet burns the rich asshole Jr. for gloating about Franken resignation
some rich asshole Jr. gets interviewed by WTAE in Pennsylvania (Screen cap).
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some rich asshole Jr. reacted to Sen. Al Franken’s (D-MN) resignation announcement on Thursday by gleefully quoting the Stuart Smalley character that Franken made famous on “Saturday Night Live.”
...because I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and God-darnit people like me. #Franken
Twitter users quickly noted the irony in the rich asshole Jr.’s gloating, especially since even more women have accused his father of sexual harassment — and because the rich asshole himself was caught on camera boasting about grabbing women by their genitals.
What’s more, the rich asshole has now offered a full-throated endorsement of Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused by multiple women of molesting them when they were teenagers.
Check out the top reactions below.
...because I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and God-darnit people like me. #Franken
"And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy." -- your dad
"Here’s a list of 13 women who have publicly come forward w/claims that Trump had physically touched them inappropriately in some way, and the witnesses they provided": washingtonpost.com/news/fact-chec…
It’s going to be hilarious when you fall in a giant concrete mixer trying to tweet about pizza gate nexts month
Watch: Is This Proof the rich asshole Is Unfit for Service?
New questions are being asked about President some rich asshole’s ability to lead after he slurred his words during a speech about his Jerusalem decision. Possible reasons for this include: fatigue, a dry mouth (the White House explanation), the use of drugs or alcohol, a problem with his dentures or more troubling issues dealing with his mental or physical health. Morning Joe reported this morning that, unlike other presidents, the rich asshole has opted not to get his physicals at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Questions about the rich asshole’s mental stability have been growing over the last few months. While he has never been viewed as a stable person in the traditional sense, his tweets and comments have gotten more erratic. He was widely criticized recently when he retweeted several anti-Muslim videos that were posted by radicals in the United Kingdom.
One psychiatrist talk to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnel about his impressions of the rich asshole’s state of mind.
Many think that any degradation in the rich asshole’s mental state may be due to the increased pressure he is feeling from Robert Mueller’s investigations into collusion between his campaign and the Russian government. This has increased since former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
All of this talk is leading to more people to ask if the rich asshole should be removed from office, citing the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Rep. Jamie D. Raskin (D-MD) has circulated a “dear colleague” letter suggesting just that. As published in the Washington Post, it says:
“Please join a rapidly growing group of colleagues in cosponsoring H.R. 1987, the Oversight Commission on Presidential Capacity Act. It sets up and defines the Congressionally-appointed “body” called for by the 25th Amendment.“Under Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, the Vice-President and a majority of the Cabinet or the Vice-President and a majority of “such other body as Congress may by law provide” can determine that the President is—for reasons of physical or mental incapacity—“unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”“The 25th Amendment was added to the Constitution in 1967, but in the last 50 years Congress never created the “body” that its language contemplated. Perhaps it never occurred to prior Congresses that setting up this body was necessary. For obvious reasons, it is indeed necessary, and now is the time for us to do it.”
While the Republicans in the Cabinet and Congress may not yet be ready to take this step, it is out there.
‘You literally just have to Google it’: Internet drags the rich asshole for botching FDR’s ‘Infamy Speech’ in Pearl Harbor tweet
some rich asshole during CNN debate (Photo: Screen capture via video)
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some rich asshole on Thursday marked the 76th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, posting a seemingly innocuous tweet that attempted to quote Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous “Infamy Speech.”
Unfortunately, the actual quote from FDR remembers December 7, 1941 as “a date which will live in infamy”—not “day that”—and, as many Internet users pointed out, a cursory Google search would have clarified those words.
Crooked Media’s Brian Beutler was dismayed to know that the President of the United States “can’t even quote one of the most famous sentences ever spoken in American history correctly,” while Washington correspondent for the Toronto Star Daniel Dale explained the rich asshole’s phrasing as actually a “common Internet misquote.”
Can’t even quote one of the most famous sentences ever spoken in American history correctly. twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
Read some more reactions below:
FDR’s quote is “a date which will live in infamy.” twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
I know it's nitpicking but it's "A DATE WHICH will live in infamy."
Also, again nitpicking, you're a waggle joweled goon with weird purple eyelids. twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
For the record it a “date” that will live in infamy. #HistoryMatter#PresidentsShouldSweatTheDetails. https://t.co/gyMMJRsejE— Chris Jones (@jonesnews) December 7, 2017
This is a botched FDR quote. The actual quote is "A date which will live in infamy" twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
you literally just have to google it and click on wikipedia link (it's at the very top): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infamy_Sp…
Jesus Christ, the quote was "a date which will live in infamy." This isn't a presidency, it's a term paper written the morning it was due. twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
FDR’s quote was “a date which will live in infamy.” Why can’t he even get the basic things right? twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
Without looking it up: what does "infamy" mean?#HoldOntoYourTeeth twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
Message from a president who will live in infamy. twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
Even this seemingly non-controversial Trump tweet is wrong. The quote should be a ‘date’ that will live in infamy, not a ‘day.’ twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
Actually “a date which will live in infamy” radiochemistry.org/history/video/… twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
How do you say "Day of Infamy" in Russian? November 8, 2016. twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
FDR actually said “a date that will live in infamy”, not day.
It’s a common misquote, but he’s the President of the United States. twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
(For those of you who neither remember nor have Google, FDR's line was "A Date Which Will Live in Infamy”) twitter.com/jonfasman/stat…
Shortly after the rich asshole flubbed the quote, First Lady Melania the rich asshole likewise got the date wrong:
Today we honor Pearl Harbor Heroes. 11/7/1941
Thank you to all military for your courage and sacrifice! pic.twitter.com/SeQTuhaFko— Melania the rich asshole (@FLOTUS) December 7, 2017
WATCH: CNN puts together a hilarious supercut of the rich asshole sniffling and slurring through speeches
President some rich asshole sniffles during his speech on Jerusalem (Screen cap).
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President some rich asshole’s sniffle-and-slur-filled speech announcing his plans to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital drew widespread ridicule across the web — but it’s not the first time the president has encountered such problems when speaking publicly.
The video, which is narrated by Jeanne Moos, includes the rich asshole’s sniffles from both his Jerusalem speech and from past public speaking events such as his presidential debate in 2016 with Hillary Clinton.
Moos then notes that the rich asshole has also started slurring his words recently, and she plays back-to-back clips of the rich asshole slurring in his Jerusalem speech — in which he referred to the United “Shtates” of America — and during a November 15 speech.
Watch the video below.
‘Hello, grand jury subpoena’: Ex-Justice official says Don Jr’s ‘privilege’ claims are clearly ‘incriminating’
some rich asshole Jr. appears on Good Morning America (Screen cap).
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A former Justice Department spokesman said some rich asshole Jr. was certain to face a grand jury subpoena after refusing to answer questions about his father from congressional investigators.
The president’s son testified for hours Wednesday before the House Intelligence Committee, but he invoked attorney-client privilege to avoid answering questions about conversations with his father.
Neither President some rich asshole or his namesake are attorneys, but the younger the rich asshole argued the conversations about his meetings with a Russian lawyer were privileged because their attorneys took part.
His reluctance to answer those questions would no doubt draw special counsel Robert Mueller’s attention, said MSNBC analyst and former DOJ spokesman Matthew Miller.
“Don Jr. couldn’t have given Mueller a clearer signal that the answer is incriminating,” Miller tweeted. “Hello, grand jury subpoena.”
Don Jr. couldn’t have given Mueller a clearer signal that the answer is incriminating. Hello, grand jury subpoena. twitter.com/kyledcheney/st…
Miller said the rich asshole Jr.’s argument would not likely work when talking to Mueller and his team of prosecutors.
“People often make aggressive privilege claims before Congress because it’s cumbersome for Congress to actually litigate it so they rarely do,” Miller tweeted. “Not so for Mueller, obviously.”
‘The worst cover-up I’ve seen’: Ex-federal prosecutor nails why the rich asshole associates ‘aren’t geniuses’ — they’re just guilty
Former Director of the United States Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub, CNN legal analyst Michael Zeldin, former federal prosecutor John Flannery
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A former federal prosecutor on Wednesday piled on some rich asshole and his associates after some rich asshole Jr. invoked attorney-client privilege to protect conversations between himself and his father.
Discussing reports that the rich asshole Jr. refused to disclose information about conversations between himself and the rich asshole while speaking before the House Intelligence Committee, John Flannery—like other legal analysts—expressed disbelief over that excuse before arguing the rich asshole family members are far from criminal masterminds.
“It’s not electricity, like if you have an attorney in the room it’s enough,” Flannery said of the rich asshole’s invocation of attorney-client privilege. “They were talking about disclosing information, and if you are having a discussion to disclose information, it is not privileged. On top of that, if you are using the privilege to conceal fraud then the privilege takes flight.”
“I think it was just a delay to avoid talking about it today,” Flannery added.
Former Director of the United States Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub, pointed out that the rich asshole Jr.’s refusal on Wednesday was one in a series of bizarre claims involving the rich asshole family lawyers.
“This certainly hasn’t been a great week for the rich asshole family’s attorneys,” Shaub said. “Between one of them claiming he wrote a bizarre tweet, another claiming that a president can’t be held liable for obstruction of justice, and now whoever gave Donald Jr. that advice that he has attorney-client privilege.”
“I was pretty excited to hear that, because I thought, ‘I’m an attorney and I talk to myself a lot, maybe my ramblings and murmurings are privileged as well,’” Shaub joked.
“What’s really going on?” Flannery asked. “What’s going on is to conceal the fact of the meeting with the Russians they kept saying never happened.”
“So their first imperative, certainly some rich asshole and the rich asshole Jr., was to say, nothing,” he continued. “Say, ‘It is about an adoption’ when it had nothing to do with it. They knew when they proposed it.”
“We are just lucky these people are bad at this,” Flannery said. “Otherwise, I used to say as a prosecutor on a white-collar case, ‘You don’t catch the geniuses.’ These guys aren’t geniuses. This is the worst cover-up I have seen. I’m glad for it. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have a chance of getting at their misconduct, and their misconduct was to conceal the deal with the Russians and all the conversations they had with them.”
Watch below:
Denturegate: Dentist says the rich asshole may have destroyed his teeth with too many veneers
President some rich asshole gives speech about Jerusalem (Screen capture)
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President some rich asshole’s speech seemed thick and slurry during his speech about Jerusalem on Wednesday, causing some to question whether his dentures were slipping.
In a video posted on Twitter, the president’s lower teeth certainly seem to be doing their own way-out thing during the speech, particularly during the last 90 seconds and on the words “United States.”
The slippage appeared to indicate a sliding lower plate, which led to speculation as to whether the president has gone on record as wearing dentures instead of opting for more permanent — and convenient — dental implants.
A Long Island dentist named Dr. Terry Shapiro — who has not treated the rich asshole — wrote about the president’s unnaturally white-looking teeth on his personal blog.
Shapiro pointed readers to a 2015 story by The Daily Beast’s Ciro Scotti, who wrote, “About 15 years ago, I had occasion to consult with a fancy Upper East Side dental surgeon who specialized in cosmetic work.”
While there, the dentist confided to Scotti that one of his clients was then-real estate mogul and TV game show host some rich asshole, who would come in every six months insisting that his veneers weren’t white enough.
Veneers are a layer of hard white resin that dentists glue to the front of a patient’s tooth to make it appear whiter, longer or more symmetrical to the teeth around it. They are semi-permanent and usually intended to stay on the teeth for 10 to 20 years.
the rich asshole would demand that his be changed twice a year.
“I tell him that if they are too white, they won’t look real,” the dentist said to Scotti, “but he won’t listen. So he picks a shade, and I make them about one-quarter as white as the shade he selects, and he goes away happy.”
Dr. Shapiro said that — if true — this could be potentially disastrous to the rich asshole’s oral health. Each time veneers are removed, some of the original tooth gets taken away as well, leaving the remaining material weakened.
“I hope this dentist informed the rich asshole that if he continued replacing his veneers every six months, he will soon have no tooth left to veneer — crowns, root canals, extractions, implants will be in his future, if the future is not already here,” Shapiro wrote.
Perhaps Pres. the rich asshole has taken to wearing dentures because his original teeth are broken or missing, although this still leaves unanswered the question of why the rich asshole wouldn’t simply opt for implants.
the rich asshole administration twists anti-discrimination law to claim the KKK is a protected class
A KKK member (left) and a lesbian wedding cake (right, image via Bev Skyes/Creative Commons).
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In the circus surrounding the Masterpiece Bakeshop case, in which a Colorado baker refused to serve gay customers, lost a discrimination case and then appealed it all the way to the Supreme Court, a strange tidbit emerged yesterday. In explaining why Jack Phillips, the bakery’s owner, should not be compelled to serve people whose lifestyles go against his religious beliefs, Solicitor General Noel Francisco kept saying that a black sculptor should not be compelled to make art for the Ku Klux Klan.
As Imani Gandy at Rewire pointed out Wednesday, Francisco, who serves as the government’s lawyer, got at least one half of his argument right — no lawyer could successfully argue that it’s discriminatory for an African-American artist to deny service to a KKK member. But that’s because, unlike LGBTQ people, KKK members are not members of a “protected class.”
“The anti-discrimination law doesn’t require every business to serve every person on the planet,” Gandy wrote. “It merely requires that a business not refuse service based on a person’s protected characteristic.”
Under Colorado’s anti-discrimination law, “places of public accommodation” like businesses, restaurants, stores and hotels are not permitted to refuse service to someone based on protected characteristics. Those characteristics include “disability, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin and ancestry.”
“A protected or ‘suspect’ class,” she continued, “is made up of ‘discrete and insular minorities’: a group of people who have historically been subjected to discrimination, comprise a discrete minority (meaning there aren’t a lot of them, percentage-wise), and have immutable characteristics (meaning characteristics that cannot be changed).”
Being a member of the Klan or other bigoted groups is not unchangeable, nor does it subject one to historic discrimination (no matter what racist right-wingers would have you believe).
Ex-Mueller aide slams Don Jr.’s claim of ‘attorney-client privilege’ — and explains why the special counsel won’t buy it
some rich asshole Jr. (left) and some rich asshole Sr. (right).
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In a discussion Wednesday night, CNN panelists — including a congressman who was at some rich asshole Jr.’s House Intelligence Committee earlier in the day — explained why the junior the rich asshole’s invocation of “attorney-client privilege” isn’t legally sound.
“This is not a privilege in the law,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) told host Anderson Cooper. “If it was, essentially every defendant in America could call into their attorney’s office, an alibi witness, and talk to them directly to get their stories straight and a prosecutor would never be able to penetrate that. That’s not how it works.”
The California congressman went on to say that he hopes the Republicans who control the committee either call the rich asshole Jr. back or subpoena him because, as many associated with President some rich asshole have exhibited in the past, his hand may need to be forced. He also said Republicans on the committee could have told the rich asshole Jr. that he’d need to come back under a subpoena, but didn’t.
“I believe the Republicans should start putting these witnesses under subpoena and then when they assert bogus privileges compel them to testify,” Swalwell continued, “and I think we’ll get to the truth.”
The panel then shifted to Michael Zeldin, who formerly served as special counsel Robert Mueller’s Justice Department special assistant. When asked by Cooper if the rich asshole Jr.’s invocation of attorney-client privilege “had any legal merit,” Zeldin answered unequivocally that it has “none whatsoever.”
If that privilege existed, it would “probably be waived” because, as Zeldin noted, “there were third parties present” and as the rich asshole Jr. himself asserted, he and his lawyer spoke through White House senior adviser Hope Hicks as an intermediary to the president.
“There’s nothing that’s attorney-client privilege protectable in that chain,” the former federal prosecutor.
“Maybe the assertion of attorney-client privilege here is to buy time to get their story straight,” Zeldin said later in the segment, “which is in and of itself very problematic and I don’t think Mueller will find that availing.”
Cooper later asked Zeldin if Mueller would permit the attorney-client privilege claim, to which the former prosecutor, the congressman and co-panelist Gloria Borger all laughed. He then said that it’s possible Mueller could use that claim to add to obstruction of justice charges brought against the rich asshole Jr. and his father.
You can watch the segment on the rich asshole Jr.’s bizarre privilege invocation below, via CNN.
the rich asshole rips Dems a day ahead of key White House meeting
BY SCOTT WONG AND MELANIE ZANONA - 12/06/17 08:11 PM EST
President the rich asshole on Wednesday ripped into Democratic congressional leaders one day before a critical White House meeting, claiming the party is looking to shut down the government with its demands on immigration.
“It could happen,” the rich asshole told reporters at the White House when asked about the chances of a shutdown. “The Democrats are really looking at something that is very dangerous to our country. They are looking at shutting down.”
the rich asshole took aim at threats from some Democrats to vote against a year-end spending deal unless Congress shields from deportation young immigrants in the U.S. illegally.
“We don’t have to have that,” he said. “We want to have a great, beautiful, crime-free country. And we want people coming into our country, but we want them to come on our basis.”
The high-stakes meeting comes a week after the top Democratic leaders, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), abruptly pulled out of last week’s scheduled sit-down after the rich asshole tweeted he could see no path to an agreement with Democrats on spending and immigration.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Pelosi shot back that the rich asshole “is the only person talking about a government shutdown.”
The House, on Thursday, is poised to pass a clean two-week continuing resolution that would fund the government through Dec. 22. The Senate is expected to quickly follow suit before money runs out at midnight Friday.
But Congress’s decision to punt the funding fight another two weeks means lawmakers will have to contend with a host of prickly issues right before Christmas.
GOP leaders have ruled out attaching to spending legislation any immigration deal to protect recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Another contentious issue likely to be discussed Thursday in the Oval Office is the GOP’s strategy later this month to fund defense and nondefense programs separately.
House Republicans, led by defense hawks, want to extend defense spending through next September at higher funding levels. Republicans would then fund the rest of the government at current levels through January while they work out a broader deal on an omnibus spending bill.
the rich asshole, who has had multiple phone calls with House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) throughout the week, appears to be receptive to the defense-first strategy.
“The President is pleased that Sen. Schumer and Rep. Pelosi have decided to put their responsibility to the American people above partisanship and attend tomorrow’s meeting, paving the way to fund our government and support our brave service men and women who put their lives on the line every day,” said White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters.
“The administration hopes to find fiscally responsible ways to avoid a government shutdown, address the looming sequester and devastating cuts facing our military, as well as fund important domestic priorities that will encourage economic prosperity and keep Americans safe,” she said.
But it’s unclear whether Democrats would be willing to go along with the idea of the defense-continuing resolution package, teeing up another possible showdown when the next round of government funding expires on Dec. 22.
Their support would be crucial in the Senate, where at least eight Democratic or independent votes would be needed to overcome a filibuster.
Democrats have traditionally insisted that any increase in defense spending above budget caps be paired with an increase in spending on domestic programs.
“I would not support that,” Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with Democrats and sits on the Armed Services Committee, said of the defense-continuing resolution package.
House Republicans could just jam the Senate with the defense-first package and dare vulnerable Democrats like Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Claire McCaskill (Mo.) to vote against a bill fully funding the military, especially with the escalating nuclear threat from North Korea hanging over their heads.
“Then they can go home and explain why they can’t fund the American military when the House did,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), an Appropriations cardinal.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), a defense hawk and Afghanistan War veteran, said it’d be a huge political risk for his home state senator, vulnerable Democrat Joe Donnelly, to vote “no” on the defense-continuing resolution package.
“There is broad bipartisan support for fully funding the military as we watch the growing threats we face, especially senators like Joe Donnelly in my state who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee,” Banks told The Hill. “It’d be hard for him to vote against funding the military.”
Division among Democrats could weaken the party, but it would be an enormous risk for Republicans. They are likely to get the blame if there is a shutdown since they control both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Congress will also be scrambling to tackle a host of other year-end priorities, including funding to combat the opioid crisis, more money for the hurricane recovery efforts and reauthorizing a popular children’s health program.
Some members are hoping Thursday’s White House sit-down will also produce a deal on top-line spending numbers for defense and nondefense programs — something that had been expected last week.
In the last offer, Republicans proposed a $54 billion increase to defense programs paired with a $37 billion boost to discretionary spending increase for nondefense programs, a top Democratic aide said.
Democrats responded by demanding “parity” between defense and nondefense spending, the aide said.
Democrats may be willing to accept an increase in domestic mandatory spending to make up for a discrepancy between defense and nondefense discretionary spending programs.
Alexander Bolton contributed.
Here are the real reasons why many evangelicals find some rich asshole simply irresistible
President some rich asshole delivered a televised statement a day after returning from a marathon trip to Asia. (AFP / Nicholas Kamm)
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Is it the rich asshole’s god-complex or God’s the rich asshole-complex? Either way the rich asshole and Jehovah have an awful lot in common.
People have been scratching their heads about how so many “family values” American voters who claim to love Jesus can follow some rich asshole. What ever happened to love thy neighbor, and if you have two coats give one to the poor, and turn the other cheek, and feed my lambs, and the meek shall inherit the Earth? Some horrified Christian leaders have gone so far as to say a person can’t be a Christian and a the rich asshole supporter.
Of course times are hard and, in fairness, fear and downward mobility do weird things to people, including Christians. And some folks, whether Christian or not, are congenitally horrid. But shouldn’t Bible belief inoculate earnest believers against someone who seems like the polar opposite of Jesus?
Perhaps the problem is that the rich asshole is a lot like a different Bible character—one who also is the polar opposite of Jesus in many ways, but who young believers are nevertheless taught to worship and praise. I’m talking about the character of Jehovah; Yahweh as some people call him; The Great I Am; the LORD God of the Old Testament who makes it into the New Testament as both the father of Jesus and his alter-ego, and later into the Quran.
One way that biblical literalism screws with people’s heads is this: Children are taught from a young age that God is perfect—the essence of Love and Truth. But when you look a little closer at the stories in the Bible, it turns out that he’s an awful lot like the rich asshole.
He is powerful, and He wants us all to know it. Isaiah 45 is just one of many egomaniacal diatribes about God’s unparalleled power and contempt for humanity, as if the force that created the DNA code and supernovas would need to brag and posture and lord it over lowly bipedal primates. It contains the word “I” 22 times, as in:
“I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no god. I arm you, though you do not know me, so that they may know—from the rising of the sun and from the west—that there is no one besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things . . . To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. . . ” (Isaiah 45:5-7 KJV).
Me, me, me, I, I, I, I, I.
He’s an insatiable attention seeker. From Genesis through Revelation, the Bible lays out precisely how people should grovel and sing God’s praises and otherwise kiss up. God wants his adoring followers to beg for things that he already knows they need. He loves the smell of burnt offerings and dictates just what should be burnt and when. He demands proof of loyalty, like cutting off the cover of your penis, or whacking relatives who don’t think he’s awesome, or being willing to turn your child into a human sacrifice.
And he doesn’t like it at all if anyone pays attention to competing deities. “Thou shalt worship no other god!” he roars, “For the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God!”
He issues two sets of 10 Commandments, one of which contains nothing but details of how to pay him homage. The other, better known, set includes some basic, universal ethical principles—but even there, four out of ten are about giving the Big Man the kind of exclusive adoration he wants. That’s why there was no room for Wash your hands after you go to the bathroom. Or Don’t have sex with anyone who doesn’t want to. Or Treat other living beings like they want to be treated. Or Thou shalt not own other human beings. Imagine our world if Jehovah had been a little less concerned with attention and a little more concerned with compassion and sanitation.
He’s mean. The internet abounds with articles, sermons and videos assuring us that the Bible-god isn’t really the embodiment of mean people suck. But what exactly would youcall sending a bear to tear apart 42 boys who tease a prophet? Or how about slaughtering a son in each Egyptian peasant family then and blaming the mass murder on their unelected ruler who is actually your puppet: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Pharaoh will not listen to you, in order that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.’ Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.” (Exodus 11:9).
Or let’s go back to the very first Bible story. What would you call putting a tantalizing fruit tree in front of two naïve and inexperienced creatures you’ve just made out of dirt and then punishing them brutally when they eat from it? (Genesis 2-3). Not long ago, an Alabama pastor wanted to teach a lesson about Christian obedience so he starved his chained-up dog for two days and then put food in reach but told the dog not to eat.
Yeah, sadistic. Sometimes Christians reveal a little more than intended about the deity they worship.
He’s racist and ablest. God may claim credit for making us all, but that doesn’t prevent him from picking favorites or finding some people repugnant simply by accident of birth. The Old Testament narratives are about favored blood lines of Hebrews—who get the right to claim land already occupied by other ethnic groups. According to God’s rules, even slaves must be treated better if they are Hebrew slaves.
But being Hebrew won’t help if you’re handicapped. Jehovah, like the rich asshole thinks that arthrogryposis is just gross. Stay away! “No one of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the food of his God. For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, one who is blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or one who has a broken foot or a broken hand, or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man with a blemish in his eyes or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles.” (Leviticus 21:17-21)
He demeans women. If a guy with crushed balls might contaminate Jehovah’s inner sanctum, a menstruating woman would be far worse. Whatever you do, don’t let Megyn Kelly sit on the furniture! And by the way, a woman who gives birth to a girl baby is nasty for twice as long as one who gives birth to a boy. But don’t get too insulted. Women can be saved through childbearing.
some rich asshole may treat women like trophies, but Jehovah literally defines women as economic assets belonging to men—just like slaves, children, and cattle, which is where the word chattel comes from. He actually sets up formal guidelines for sexual slavery. As chattel, a female who voluntarily gives up her virginity (thus reducing her economic value) can be stoned, but a rapist must simply buy the damaged goods. If a man suspects his wife of infidelity (again reducing her ability to produce purebred offspring of known origin), he can forcibly give her an abortion potion. Never say Jehovah is anything less than a bro. (See also Fifteen Bible Texts Reveal Why God’s Own Party Keeps Degrading Women. Or, don’t take it from me, take it from Christian leaders themselves: Twenty Vile Quotes Against Women By Church Leaders from St. Augustine to Pat Robertson.)
He’s bellicose and vindictive. Lists of Jehovah’s enemies and stories about how he ruins their lives or plans to ruin their afterlife occupy much of the Bible. First there’s Satan and all of those uppity angels who have apparently gotten tired of acting like everlasting groupies. Then come giants and people who build the Tower of Babel, which threatens to break through to God’s home above the sky.
Then comes everybody but Noah and his ark-building sons, and then the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Midianites and Amalekites and the Philistines (other Semitic tribes), and the Assyrians and Babylonians, and a long litany of foreign kings and queens like Nebuchadnezzar and Jezebel. And let’s not forget all of the traitors among his Chosen People, who—despite constant displays of divine temper and butchery—never seem to grasp how badly Jehovah will burn them if they fall down on sucking up. Unable to threaten lawsuits like the rich asshole can now, Jehovah instead threatens all who displease him with eternal torture.
His statements contradict facts and each other. Unless the Bible writers got things garbled, Jehovah’s claims are wildly contradictory. Jehovah says he created evil, and also says he can’t look on it. He shows up, then says no-one has ever seen him (Exodus 33:11/John 1:18). He tempts people to do bad things, then denies having ever done so. (Genesis 22:1/James 1:13). He declares himself unchanging but changes his mind at will (Exodus 32:14/Psalm 105:25-27). He apparently can’t remember if he created animals before humans or vice versa so boldly tells the story both ways (Genesis 1 & 2).
Add to the contradictions a surreal layer of ignorance.
Jehovah’s official biography is full of scientific hogwash. He creates day and night before the sun. He makes the sun stand still as a favor to some Iron Age fans—meaning he somehow stops the earth’s rotation without everything flying off the planet. He covers Mt. Everest in a flood that then dries up. He assumes that pi equals three. He predicts that a star will fall to earth. He warns against eating four-legged insects (which don’t exist). In sum, despite his claim to have created the world, he doesn’t have a freaking clue how it works.
But that’s ok, because all that really matters is . . .
He’s wildly rich, and he promises to make you rich too if you follow him. Jehovah’s version of heaven, which sounds rather hellish if you actually think about it for more than five seconds, perfectly sums up Jehovah as the protagonist of his own story. It’s a place of conspicuous opulence with streets of gold and gem encrusted walls where everyone gets their own mansion. But these trappings of wealth are on offer only to those who are willing to spend a literal eternity standing around singing about what an awesome god he is. This, according to many Christians, is the pinnacle of human existence. And if you don’t find that appealing—it’s outer darkness for you, Baby. Wailing and gnashing of teeth.
You can see why someone primed on Jehovah might admire a bully with an almost limitless sense of his own importance, one who demands constant admiration, has an enemy list a mile long, and shows a perverse lack of empathy for those he perceives as lesser beings. These classic characteristics of narcissistic personality disorder, are the reason we often refer to a narcissist as someone with a god-complex. Most of humanity’s gods are assholes, and the Bible-god is no exception.
Biologist Richard Dawkins once summed up Jehovah in a sentence: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
Christianity may make the head-spinning claim that Jehovah is a stand-up guy, goodness incarnate, and worthy to be worshiped by all of humanity, but he makes some rich asshole look morally intact. To the best of my knowledge the rich asshole has no history of infanticide, genocide, filicide, or ethnic cleansing. Despite his God complex, the rich asshole is a pale shadow of the Great I Am.
Even so, from an electoral standpoint, the rich asshole’s likeness to Jehovah may be as valuable as his celebrity name. If the rich asshole manages to get himself elected by Evangelicals looking for streets of gold and by old white males who think they are the Chosen People, we may all be grateful that the worst he can do is build a big wall or nuke the Middle East rather than drowning the entire planet in a flood that covers Everest.
Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and writer in Seattle, Washington. She is the author of Trusting Doubt: A Former Evangelical Looks at Old Beliefs in a New Light and Deas and Other Imaginings, and the founder of www.WisdomCommons.org. Her articles about religion, reproductive health, and the role of women in society have been featured at sites including AlterNet, Salon, the Huffington Post, Grist, and Jezebel. Subscribe at ValerieTarico.com
Theologian explains how the rich asshole’s Jerusalem move is right-wing evangelicals’ dream come true
some rich asshole in Cleveland prayer huddle -- (YouTube screen grab)
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President some rich asshole’s decision to announce that the United States would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s official capital drew effusive praise from many American evangelical Christians — largely because they believe it will bring about the apocalypse.
Christian theologian Diana Butler Bass explains on Twitter that having the state of Israel take full control of Jerusalem is part of many right-wing evangelicals’ mythology for what they believe will bring about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“For decades, conservative evangelicals have been longing for this recognition,” Bass writes. “They believe it is necessary in order to regain control of the Temple mount. That is important because rebuilding the Temple is the event that will spark the events of the Book of Revelation and the End Times.”
Bass makes it clear that she does not believe the rich asshole himself is looking to bring about the end of the world, but she thinks that many of the evangelicals who have lobbied him on this issue absolutely are.
“You can’t discount those evangelical advisers… almost all of whom take these End Times prophecies literally,” she writes. “Of all the possible theological dog-whistles to his evangelical base, this is the biggest. the rich asshole is reminding them that he is carrying out God’s will to these Last Days.”
To this end, says Bass, these evangelicals are actually praying that the rich asshole’s move destabilizes the Middle East and causes chaos and suffering.
“They want war in the Middle East,” she writes. “The Battle of Armageddon, at which time Jesus Christ will return to the Earth and vanquish all God’s enemies.”
Read the entire tweet storm below.
For decades, conservative evangelicals have been longing for this recognition. They believe it is necessary in order to regain control of the Temple mount.
Yes, of course, there are all sorts of political and secular motives for Trump's action. But you can't discount those evangelical advisors. Almost all of whom take these End Times prophecies literally.
They've been waiting for this, praying for this. They want war in the Middle East. The Battle of Armageddon, at which time Jesus Christ will return to the Earth and vanquish all God's enemies.
And Trump is taking them there. To the promised judgment, to their sure victory. The righteous will be ushered to heaven; the reprobate will be banished to hellfire.
And, this morning, with the news of Jerusalem, these people are ecstatic. This is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. And Donald Trump is not only acting on a campaign promise, but enacting a theological one.
They believe that Donald Trump is God's instrument to move us closer to the Rapture, the Judgment, and the End. Because to them, that's actually the beginning -- the beginning of their reward and heavenly bliss.
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