John Kelly defends the rich asshole’s blunderous FISA tweets: It’s a ‘juggling act’ and doesn’t make job ‘more difficult’
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly speaks during a daily briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
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White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who has said that he does not read President some rich asshole’s tweets, insisted on Thursday that the president did not make his job “more difficult” by accidentally tweeting opposition to a FISA bill that the White House was on record supporting.
In a tweet on Thursday that appeared to be prompted by a segment on Fox & Friends, the rich asshole suggested that he was against reauthorizing a Section 702 of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The president later walked back the tweet, but not before some members of the House threatened to delay the vote, which eventually passed on Thursday.
CNN’s Manu Raju caught up with Kelly as the White House was scrambling to undo the damage from the rich asshole’s tweet.
Kelly, who is on record saying he does not read the president’s Twitter timeline, seemed to be well aware of the trouble, but he insisted that the trouble-making tweet was business as usual.
“It’s not more difficult,” Kelly said of passing the FISA bill. “It’s a juggling act.”
Asked if Trump’s tweets made the FISA vote more difficult, WH chief of staff John Kelly told @TheOtherKeppler: “It’s not more difficult. It’s a juggling act.”
House passes bill to renew NSA internet spying tool despite confusion over the rich asshole tweets
National Security Agency surveillance (Carsten Reisinger / Shutterstock.com)
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The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill to renew the National Security Agency’s warrantless internet surveillance program, overcoming objections from privacy advocates and confusion prompted by morning tweets from President some rich asshole that initially questioned the spying tool.
The legislation, which passed 256-164 and split party lines, is the culmination of a yearslong debate in Congress on the proper scope of U.S. intelligence collection – one fueled by the 2013 disclosures of classified surveillance secrets by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Senior Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives had urged cancellation of the vote after the rich asshole appeared to cast doubt on the merits of the program, but Republicans forged ahead.
the rich asshole initially said on Twitter that the surveillance program, first created in secret after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and later legally authorized by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, had been used against him but later said it was needed.
Some conservative, libertarian-leaning Republicans and liberal Democrats attempted to persuade colleagues to include more privacy protections. They failed on Thursday to pass an amendment to include a warrant requirement before the NSA or other intelligence agencies could scrutinize communications belonging to Americans whose data is incidentally collected.
The bill as passed by the House would extend the NSA’s spying program for six years with minimal changes. Some privacy groups said it would actually expand the NSA’s surveillance powers.
Most lawmakers expect it to become law, although it still would require Senate approval and the rich asshole’s signature.
Before the vote a tweet from the rich asshole had contradicted the official White House position and renewed unsubstantiated allegations that the previous administration of Barack Obama improperly surveilled his campaign during the 2016 election.
“This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the rich asshole Campaign by the previous administration and others?” the president said in a tweet.
“WE NEED IT!”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request to clarify the rich asshole’s tweet but he posted a clarification less than two hours later.
“With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and today’s vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!” the rich asshole tweeted.
Unmasking refers to the largely separate issue of how Americans’ names kept secret in intelligence reports can be revealed.
Asked by Reuters at a conference in New York about the rich asshole’s tweets, Rob Joyce, the top White House cyber official, said there was no confusion within Oval Office about the value of the surveillance program and that there have been no cases of it being used improperly for political purposes.
The White House, U.S. intelligence agencies and Republican leaders in Congress have said they consider the tool indispensable and in need of little or no revision.
Without congressional action, legal support for Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which authorizes the program, will expire next week, although intelligence officials say it could continue through April.
Section 702 allows the NSA to eavesdrop on vast amounts of digital communications from foreigners living outside the United States through U.S. companies such as Facebook Inc , Verizon Communications Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google.
The spying program also incidentally scoops up communications of Americans if they communicate with a foreign target living overseas, and can search those messages without a warrant.
(Reporting by Dustin Volz; Additional reporting by David Shepardson, Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Bill Trott)
17 ex-missile officers ask Congress to curb ‘petulant and foolish’ the rich asshole’s control of the nuclear arsenal
President some rich asshole complains about the inadequacies of libel laws shortly before a cabinet meeting (Screen cap).
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Seventeen former missile officers on Thursday released an open letter asking Congress to take some rich asshole’s finger off the “proverbial ‘Red Button.’”
In the statement—published through the Global Zero campaign, which aims to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2030—the former United States Air Force officers said they were increasingly alarmed by the rich asshole’s temperament, declaring “this presidency is worse than we feared.”
“In the final weeks of the presidential election, we sounded our alarm over some rich asshole’s fitness to serve as commander-in-chief, with absolute authority over the nation’s nuclear arsenal,” the statement reads.
“One year into the rich asshole presidency, our alarm has only intensified and we must raise our voices again,” it continues. “The president has had ample opportunity to educate and humble himself to the grave responsibilities of his office. Instead, he consistently shows himself to be easily baited, stubborn in his ignorance of world politics and diplomacy, and quick to brandish nuclear threats.”
Pointing to “the rich asshole’s inflammatory rhetoric” with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the statement warns the administration has “undercut diplomatic efforts and [increased] the likelihood of stumbling into conflict.”
“As former nuclear launch control officers, it was our job to fire nuclear missiles if the president so directed,” the statement explains. “Once the president orders a launch, we could have missiles leaving their silos in several minutes. They cannot be recalled … There is no act of greater consequence, and it should not rest in the hands of any one person.”
“We and our nation cannot abide being hostages to the mood swings of a petulant and foolish
commander-in-chief,” they write. “No individual, especially some rich asshole, should hold the absolute power to destroy nations. That is a clear lesson of this presidency and one that we, as former stewards of the launch keys, embrace with full conviction.”
commander-in-chief,” they write. “No individual, especially some rich asshole, should hold the absolute power to destroy nations. That is a clear lesson of this presidency and one that we, as former stewards of the launch keys, embrace with full conviction.”
Read the full letter at globalzero.org
‘F-52’ planes the rich asshole boasted of selling to Norway only exist in the ‘Call of Duty’ video game
The fictional F-52 plane seen in the video game 'Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare,' left, and President some rich asshole, right.
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President some rich asshole this week boasted of delivering “F-52” jets to the Norwegian government — however, it turns out there is no such thing as an F-52.
As the Washington Post reports, F-52 jets are fictional planes that are only found in the video game “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.”
“In November we started delivering the first F-52s and F-35 fighter jets,” the rich asshole said this week during a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg. “We have a total of 52 and they’ve delivered a number of them already a little ahead of schedule.”
According to the “Call of Duty” Wiki page, the F-52 is “an advanced fighter aircraft in service of the United States of America and the Sentinel Task Force” that “is equipped with afterburners for greater speed to outrun aircraft, as well as air brakes, which provide the fighter with additional maneuverability in tight corners or for avoiding enemy fire.”
The Washington Post asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders if President the rich asshole is a “Call of Duty” fan, but the White House so far has declined to comment.
Company suing former the rich asshole campaign chief Paul Manafort is linked to Putin ally Oleg Deripaska
Paul Manafort some rich asshole's campaign manager on the floor of the Quicken Arena talking to reporters prior to the start of the Republican National Convention in 2016. (Shutterstock)
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U.S. President some rich asshole’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort faced a new legal headache on Wednesday after a Cyprus-based company tied to a Russian oligarch sued him and his business partner Richard Gates over allegations they committed financial fraud by misappropriating millions of dollars.
Surf Horizon Limited, a company linked in corporate filings to ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin named Oleg Deripaska, accused Manafort and Gates of misappropriating more than $18.9 million that the company had invested in Ukrainian telecom companies known collectively as the “Black Sea Cable.”
Manafort and Gates are already under criminal indictment by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who has accused them of failing to register as foreign agents, conspiring to commit money launder and conspiring to defraud the United States.
Wednesday’s lawsuit, brought against the pair in a New York state trial-level court, marks the second time now that the Deripaska-linked company has sued them along with Pericles Emerging Market Partners, an investment management firm controlled by Manafort and Gates.
In August 2015, the company also filed a parallel case in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, seeking documents and depositions in connection with the alleged missing money.
Lawyers for Manafort and Gates could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to the lawsuit, Manafort and Gates had testified under oath in 2015 that they did not know whether Surf Horizon still owned any stock in the Black Sea Cable, even though Surf claims had paid one of their affiliated companies $7.35 million in management fees.
The lawsuit says Manafort and Gates said in sworn testimony they did not know what happened to more than $26 million had gone missing from the investment.
In May 2017, however, one of Surf’s affiliates, known as Adoptol Limited, brought legal proceedings in Cyprus and unearthed documents which show that Manafort and Gates had “siphoned off for themselves millions of dollars” from Surf’s investment, the lawsuit said.
‘It destroyed my soul’: All-white Fox hosts rage over Super Bowl kneeling — and it hasn’t even happened yet
Fox News "Outnumbered" (screen grab)
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Four all-white co-hosts of the Fox News program Outnumbered expressed outrage that NFL players might kneel at Super Bowl LII to protest systemic racism in America.
Although the game does not air until February, the co-hosts of Outnumbered took aim at NBC Sports on Thursday, which said that it would not black out players who decided to kneel during the national anthem.
“Didn’t half of their viewers just turn off the dial for the Super Bowl weekend?” co-host Katie Pavlich opined.
“I want them to tell the people, ‘Get off your damn knees and stand up for the American anthem that people died for in this country!'” guest Dan Bongino exclaimed. “‘Go out there and do it on your own time. These are our fields, this is our brand, you are going to stand and put your hand on your heart or that million dollar salary is getting flushed down the toilet bowl.'”
Co-host Melissa Francis encouraged viewers to record the game so that they could fast forward through the national anthem.
“I don’t [fast forward] the whole thing like that, just the start,” Francis said.
“If they don’t fix this problem, I can almost guarantee you in four or five years that the NFL is going to be the field hockey or modern sports,” Bongino insisted. “I was a Raiders and Ravens fan, and I’m telling you, it destroyed my soul when I watched the Super Bowl last year. NFL and me, we are absolutely completely divorced.”
“Just watch on delay,” Francis recommended.
“You can fast forward through the kneeling,” Pavlich agreed.
Watch the video below from Fox News.
Report: Mueller hasn’t asked for Pence meeting
January 11, 2018
Greg Price
Posted with permission from Newsweek
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office has reportedly yet to request an interview with Vice President Mike Pence, but the number two in the nation’s command would be open to a sit-down.
As President Donald Trump’s lawyers decide whether or not to open their client to Mueller’s scrutiny, a meeting between Pence and Mueller’s team has not been discussed, one unnamed person familiar with the situation told NBC News for a report published Thursday morning.
"Our position has always been that if asked we'll cooperate," the source said.
Another unnamed source told NBC that other than an initial request for documents, Mueller’s office has not shown “interest” in interviewing Pence.
The former Indiana governor was, however, a key player in a reported focal point of Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian meddling in 2016’s presidential election to help Trump win.
Pence headed up the Trump transition team following the victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton. During the transition, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, as well as Trump son-in-law and current White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, each met with foreign officials, including Russians.
Flynn, however, admitted to misleading Pence about the nature of his conversations with the former Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak. The former general admitted to lying to FBI officials about his meetings, which centered on possibly lifting sanctions placed by the Obama administration after Trump took power.
Flynn is now one of four former Trump campaign officials to face charges by Mueller. He's also cooperating with the investigation after reaching a plea deal.
As media reports about Flynn’s meetings trickled out, Pence said a year ago on national television that Flynn had only given Kislyak “Christmas wishes” and “sympathy” after 92 people were killed when a Russian military plane crashed.
However, last month Pence told CBS News that he knew Flynn lied to him. It’s unclear when Pence learned about Flynn’s deceit.
Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly derided the Mueller probe as the greatest “witch hunt” in the country’s political history and denied any collusion took place.
Trump also swatted back the potential of sitting down with Mueller’s team.
"When they have no collusion…it seems unlikely that you'd even have an interview," Trump told reporters at a news conference Wednesday.
WATCH: MSNBC’s Mika perfectly explains the real reason the rich asshole keeps ‘bullying’ Hillary Clinton
Mika Brzezinnski (MSNBC)
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MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski examined President some rich asshole’s apparent obsession with former rival Hillary Clinton — and found he maybe just doesn’t know anything else to talk about.
She and her “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough watched the president’s news conference Wednesday where he insisted there had been “no collusion” between his campaign and Russia, and insisted his Democratic rival was guilty of crimes his associates had been accused of committing.
“That is so pathetic and sad that he keeps going back to campaign talking about Hillary Clinton and wind mills,” Scarborough said. “This is — well, we were talking about football before. Does anybody here think that (Alabama coach) Nick Saban is going to be obsessing over the Georgia Bulldogs a year from now or six months from now?”
Brzezinski agreed Saban, whose team won the national championship over Georgia earlier this week, was almost certainly not thinking of his vanquished rival a few days later.
“Do you think a CEO that takes over another company and successfully takes over another company at six months after is thinking how to move his or her company forward?” Scarborough said. “Or are they obsessing over how they got the better company they took over. This is a real problem and a sickness with this guy. I’m not saying mental sickness with this guy, it’s a real problem.”
Brzezinski walked through two possible explanations for the rich asshole’s obsession with Clinton.
“One is he is obsessed with her, and that would be kind of strange and maybe something psychiatric,” Brzezinski said. “Also it may be, and this we’ve seen with people that feel they don’t have capacity or command of the issues. They go to things that they can handle, so he can handle bullying Hillary Clinton, someone he beat, because that will fill time instead of actually having to talk about the content.”
Scarborough recalled the interview the rich asshole gave in March 2016 to the Washington Post editorial board, when he named George Papadopoulos to his foreign policy team, and kept talking about his own hands.
“You read the transcript, it was shocking,” Scarborough said. “‘I have the most beautiful hands, people come up to me — your hands, they’re very strong, big, beautiful hands.’ He kept going on and on. I was reading, I said to Mika, ‘Oh my god, he has completely lost his mind.’ She said, ‘No, he hasn’t — he is running out the clock because he doesn’t want them to ask him questions about policy, because he knows nothing about policy.'”
the rich asshole approval rating rapidly declining among whites
January 11, 2018
Summer Meza
Posted with permission from Newsweek
President Donald Trump’s approval rating has slipped significantly among white voters, including blue-collar whites who make up much of his base, according to newly published data.
Trump is losing his formerly strong grasp on white voters without a four-year college degree, a group that he won with 66 percent in the 2016 presidential election. But in 2017, his average among the same group had dropped to 56 percent, according to more than 600,000 interviews conducted by the polling company Survey Monkey, reported by The Atlantic Thursday.
White voters overall are turning away from the president as well, with 60 percent of the demographic disapproving of Trump’s performance. While 48 percent of whites with college degrees voted for Trump in 2016, his support dwindled to 40 percent over the following year.
SurveyMonkey analyzed responses to questions about Trump’s job performance in 2017 and broke down the numbers by race, gender, education level and age, a more detailed picture of approval ratings than is usually found in conventional polls of smaller sample sizes.
Trump narrowly won young whites on his way to the White House, but now white millennials largely disapprove of his performance. Among millennial white women with and without a college degree and young men with a degree, between 62 percent to 76 percent disapprove of the president. And there is a 49-49 percent split with young white men without a degree.
Slightly older voters were starkly split by gender, the survey found. White men older than 35 continue to support Trump, and his support rises even higher among those older than 50. But his approval rating fell further with middle-aged, blue collar, white women than with any other demographic group. White women without a college degree supported the president by 61 percent in 2016, but last year there was a 49-49 percent split.
Gender is also a strong factor in other demographic groups. African American and Hispanic voters largely disapprove of Trump, but far more men supported the president than women in each group.
The survey also found that Trump’s approval rating across all groups was 42 percent, with 56 percent disapproving.
Trump has battled record low approval ratings throughout his first year in office. A Gallup poll released this week indicated that he was the least popular president ever entering his second year in the White House.
BY MIKE LILLIS - 01/11/18 05:32 PM EST
House Democrats are amplifying their concerns with an emerging immigration agreement, accusing President the rich asshole and Republican leaders of moving the goal posts in the eleventh hour of the debate.
Democrats are increasingly indignant that Republicans are insisting protections for the so-called Dreamers — immigrants brought to the country illegally as children — be combined not only with enhanced border security, but also two additional provisions: a reduction in family migration and a scaling back of the diversity visa program.
The top Democrats — Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi(Calif.) — have claimed they reached an agreement with the rich asshole in September that included the first two elements of the package but not the last pair.
”The goal posts have moved,” said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.).
Senate negotiators — who have worked for months trying to secure a bipartisan deal protecting those eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — said Thursday they’ve secured a preliminary deal. But the rising concern from Democrats in the lower chamber, combined with early pushback from the White House, could complicate the effort to get the package across the finish line.
“I do not support diversity visas, the lottery, or any other ancillary issue that … has been in the past a part of a larger comprehensive immigration reform package,” said Rep. Joseph Crowley (N.Y.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.
Pelosi on Thursday said she’s optimistic that “a solution is in sight.” But she also voiced frustrations that the terms of the initial talks have changed, largely in favor of enforcement-minded Republicans.
“We, all along, were going along with what the president said: He supports the Dreamers … and he wants to have some border security,” Pelosi said Thursday during a press briefing in the Capitol. “Then this week it emerged that he wanted to change immigration policy [by] addressing family unification initiatives … and ending the diversity visa [program].
“People were finding out for the first time that there were communities that were affected by this very directly, and we have to address those concerns.”
Indeed, the changes have sparked a backlash from liberal Democrats, including some leaders and numerous members of the party’s influential minority caucuses.
Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), former head of the Congressional Black Caucus, said he’d likely oppose a DACA package that included sharp changes to the diversity visa program, which benefits countries with low numbers of immigrants to the United States, including many in Africa.
“I’ve learned in this business that you don’t absolutely close the door on every possibility. But it’s pretty darn close to a deal-breaker,” Butterfield said.
Fueling the Congressional Black Caucus’s opposition is the sense among many members that the Republicans want to dismantle the diversity visa program, not out of national security concerns but for reasons related to race.
“I don’t think it’s as much related to national security as it is to reducing the number of immigrants of color — black immigrants — coming into the country,” Butterfield said. “I hope I’m wrong about that, but that’s what it seems to suggest."
Crowley is also pushing back against the emerging DACA legislation, arguing that anything outside the Dreamer protections should be debated later as part of a larger comprehensive immigration reform package.
“I will reserve my judgment on that when I see the bill itself, [but] I have strong opposition to including diversity visas and family unification — any changes to those laws — as it pertains to the passage of DACA. I don’t think it belongs here,” Crowley said Thursday. “This is being hoisted now at the last minute by the Republicans who don’t want to see anything passed.”
Complicating the debate, a group of conservative House Republicans introduced a DACA bill on Wednesday that won quick praise from Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who suggested it will reach the floor in short order.
“I think it is a good bill,” Ryan told reporters Thursday. “It's important that we start putting ideas on the table.”
Sponsored by Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) and Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), the GOP proposal is a wish list for conservative immigration hardliners, eliminating the diversity visa program, curbing family migration and reducing numbers of legal immigrants while providing new funding for a border wall and tougher interior enforcement.
Pelosi pronounced the bill dead-on-arrival even in the House, where the Republicans enjoy a commanding majority. She predicted half of the Republicans would oppose it, along with all of the Democrats.
“Do you think Democrats are going to vote for that bill? That’s completely out of the question,” she said. “It has no prospect for success. Zero.”
BY JOSH DELK - 01/11/18 05:32 PM EST
Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) on Thursday blasted Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) remarks about white men working on an immigration agreement as "offensive."
“The five white guys I call them, you know," Pelosi said, referring to five bipartisan lawmakers, including Hoyer, leading efforts to salvage the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. All five of the lawmakers are white.
"Are they going to open a hamburger stand next or what?" she said, referring to the popular fast food restaurant "Five Guys."
Hoyer pushed back against the remarks.
“That comment is offensive. I am committed to ensuring DREAMers are protected and I will welcome everyone to the table who wants to get this done,” he told Politico in a statement, using the nickname referring to recipients of the DACA program.
Hoyer was one of over 20 bipartisan legislators from both the House and Senate who met with President the rich asshole on Tuesday to discuss a possible deal on the Obama-era program, which will expire in March.
Pelosi earlier this week suggested that it was a mistake not to include minority representatives in the discussions.
“The sensitivity even on the wording is really important [and] for people who are engaged in these issues to be there at the table. They’ve been working on it in a bipartisan way for a long time,” Pelosi said.
Hoyer maintained that no agreement came out of the meeting, though Senate Democrats suggested there was a preliminary agreement on Republican demands for enhanced border security and immigration policy changes.
Republicans say effort to help ‘Dreamer’ immigrants advances
A small group of demonstrators block traffic to demand action by the federal government on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in downtown San Diego, California, U.S., December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake
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A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has reached a deal on protecting young immigrant “Dreamers” from deportation as part of a broader immigration plan, a spokesman for Republican Senator Jeff Flake said on Thursday.
The spokesman, Jason Samuels, would not provide details of the plan, but said “the next step is taking it to the White House” for President some rich asshole to weigh.
Some other lawmakers who have been engaged in the negotiations were also optimistic; others said no deal had yet been reached.
Flake is one of a group of six senators who have been meeting privately in hopes of crafting legislation that would prevent around 700,000 Dreamers from being subject to deportation after the rich asshole ended a program providing them with temporary legal status and work permits.
Dreamers are undocumented immigrants who were brought as children to the United States, largely from Mexico and Central American countries.
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin has been leading that group, along with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
Ben Marter, a spokesman for Durbin, disputed that a deal had been struck, saying that talks were ongoing. He would not discuss details of a bill that is being put together.
Earlier on Thursday, Republicans in the House of Representatives told reporters there had been substantial progress toward a deal.
“I feel more optimistic than I have since I’ve been here for three years (in Congress) that we’re going to get a healthy compromise on immigration,” said Republican Representative Carlos Curbelo, who has offered legislative proposals to help Dreamers.
A senior House Republican, Representative Tom Cole, voiced similar optimism following briefings from House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
BY JONATHAN EASLEY - 01/11/18 03:18 PM EST
The White House on Thursday defended President the rich asshole’s planned trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, against criticism from reporters that he’s going to “rub elbows” with “globalists.”
CBS News White House correspondent Major Garrett pressed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin during the White House daily briefing on why the president would attend the forum, which he described as a “hangout for globalists.”
“I don't think it's a hangout for globalists," Mnuchin responded. "The idea is that the economic team is going to go over and talk about the 'America first' economic strategy. We are thrilled that the president is coming. And I think what we know is that the economy that is good for the U.S. is good for the rest of the world.”
The U.S. typically sends a high-ranking delegation to the meeting of government and business leaders. the rich asshole will be only the second sitting president to attend the Davos conference, after former President Clinton. This year's forum is scheduled to run Jan. 23-26.
A second reporter asked why it was appropriate for the rich asshole to “rub elbows” with “very wealthy” people in Switzerland.
the rich asshole is a billionaire but ran a populist campaign aimed at energizing working-class Americans he said had been ignore by the Democrats.
the rich asshole is a billionaire but ran a populist campaign aimed at energizing working-class Americans he said had been ignore by the Democrats.
“I assure you that the members of the Cabinet have no interest to go in there to rub elbows with anybody,” Mnuchin said. “This is about meeting business leaders and meeting our counterparts. It is all about creating jobs and economic growth for the U.S. … This is all business. I can assure you it has nothing to do with anything other than that."
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders added that the rich asshole would talk to world leaders about correcting trade imbalances.
“I expect the president will talk about trade, reciprocal, free, fair trade,” Sanders said. “We have obviously been very clear with the Chinese on the issue that we have with the trade deficit and making sure that U.S. companies can compete fairly. And the president will talk a lot about his economic program and the impact on the global economy.”
“I expect the president will talk about trade, reciprocal, free, fair trade,” Sanders said. “We have obviously been very clear with the Chinese on the issue that we have with the trade deficit and making sure that U.S. companies can compete fairly. And the president will talk a lot about his economic program and the impact on the global economy.”
the rich asshole’s wealthy Treasury chief Steve Mnuchin insists international Davos meeting ‘isn’t a hangout for globalists’
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin (Screenshot)
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Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Thursday insisted that a gathering of international bigwigs was not “a hangout for globalists.”
CBS News correspondent Major Garrett asked during a White House press briefing why the rich asshole administration planned to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, which he described as “a hangout for globalists.”
“I don’t think it is a hangout for globalists,” Mnuchin insisted. “I think the idea is the economic team is going to go over and talk about the ‘America first’ economic strategy.”
The former Goldman Sachs banker and Hollywood financier added “the economy that is good for the U.S. is good for the world.”
Watch the video below:
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 01/11/18 05:42 PM EST
Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez aligned himself with the countries insulted by President Trump in comments leaked from an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers on immigration.
Perez, whose parents are from the Dominican Republic, said his parents came from a country similar to those mentioned by Trump in a tweet responding to the president.
During the meeting with lawmakers on Thursday, Trump said, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” according to a report in The Washington Post.
The Post said Trump was referring to Haiti and African countries, and that his remarks took lawmakers aback.
The White House did not deny Trump's remarks in a statement released after the report.
The statement said that while Trump's opponents "choose to fight for foreign countries," the president will always "fight for the American people.”
Trump has been quoted attacking immigrants from Haiti in the past.
In December, The New York Times reported that Trump once suggested that all immigrants from Haiti "have AIDS," and that Nigerian immigrants would never “go back to their huts” if granted entrance to the U.S.
The White House denied that Trump made those statements, calling the charges "outrageous."
"General Kelly, General McMaster, Secretary Tillerson, Secretary Nielsen and all other senior staff actually in the meeting deny these outrageous claims and it's both sad and telling The New York Times would print the lies of their anonymous 'sources' anyway," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the time.
Pro-the rich asshole fringe media figures are mocking Oprah’s childhood sexual assault
Oprah Winfrey (left, via Creative Commons) and InfoWars host Alex Jones (right, via screengrab).
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InfoWars Alex Jones and former VICE co-founder and “Proud Boys” leader Gavin McInnes have taken to smearing Oprah Winfrey for being “promiscuous” and having been raped as a child by a family member amid speculation that she may run against President some rich asshole in 2020.
As Media Matters reported, McInnes in particular claimed Winfrey has “weaponized” her childhood abuse against white men and the president.
“She gets raped by her black cousin, allegedly, and decides to pin the blame on white men and the rich asshole,” the ex-VICE founder said, “like she uses her rape as a flamethrower and just directs it at anyone she doesn’t like. If her flight is late, it was my rape.”
Referencing Winfrey’s viral “you get a car!” meme, Jones responded, saying the talk show veteran would claim “you get a rape, you’re a rapist, you’re a rapist, you’re a rapist.”
The comments about Winfrey’s assault at age nine by her cousin followed Jones’ larger smear campaign against her following her much-talked-about Golden Globes speech. During his interview with McInnes, the two repeated accusations that Winfrey is a lesbian, claimed she was “promiscuous” and a prostitute and that she assisted Harvey Weinstein in “recruiting” women for the movie mogul to assault.
Watch below, via Media Matters.
CNN’s Jim Acosta slams Huckabee Sanders for insisting the rich asshole’s contradictory tweets did not sow confusion
CNN's Brooke Baldwin and Jim Acosta (Screengrab)
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CNN’s Jim Acosta and Brooke Baldwin on Thursday slammed the White House for trying to convince reporters “two plus two does not equal four,” after press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted contradictory tweets by some rich asshole did not sow confusion in Washington, D.C.
the rich asshole on Thursday seemed to cast doubt over the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)—which the House voted on this afternoon—after he tweeted it was used to “badly surveil” his campaign during the 2016 presidential election. Shortly after that, the rich asshole urged lawmakers to “get smart” and vote in favor of reauthorizing FISA.
In a tense exchange with NBC’s Hallie Jackson, Huckabee Sanders said the president’s contradiction wasn’t “confusing to me, I’m sorry if it was for you.”
“Here is the reality: it did create confusion,” Baldwin said after playing that exchange. “It just did.”
“Lawmakers said so themselves, including Republicans,” she continued. “Republican Mark Meadows (R-NC) said it gave everyone pause. Democrats begging Republicans to delay the vote because of the president’s tweets this morning.”
“It just was confusing,” Baldwin later said, turning to Acosta. “The tweet was confusing this morning, she’s obviously saying it’s wrong.”
“They’re telling us that two and two does not equal four, they’re telling us that the sky is not blue, that is what happens here at the White House,” Acosta replied.
“Those were contradictory tweets this morning from the president on the FISA program—tweets, by the way, which were posted at around the same time he was watching Fox and Friends essentially tell him, no, Mr. President don’t do this,” he continued. “And so, it raises the question … does the president essentially livetweet his policy after watching a television program? That should cause concern to people when wondering what the president is up to on any given morning. It appears this morning he was watching a program and then tweeting policy. that obviously caused a lot of concern up on Capitol Hill, caused a lot of concern at the White House.”
“We just know that,” Acosta explained. “Yet we have the White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders essentially telling us that two plus two is not four and the sky is not blue.”
Watch the clips below, via CNN:
Part One — Sarah Huckabee Sanders battles NBC’s Hallie Jackson over the rich asshole’s tweets:
Part Two — Brooke Baldwin and Jim Acosta slam Sarah Huckabee Sanders for denying confusion over the rich asshole’s tweets:
the rich asshole rails against immigrants from ‘shithole’ Africa and Haiti in angry Oval Office rant: report
US President some rich asshole signs an executive order alongside officials including National Trade Council Advisor Peter Navarro (3rd R) in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 23, 2017 (AFP Photo/Saul LOEB)
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In an Oval Office meeting, President some rich asshole blasted people coming into the United States from countries he doesn’t like.
“Why are we having all these people from sh*thole countries come here?” the rich asshole said, according to The Washington Post. What the rich asshole was referring to were people from African countries and Haiti. Instead, the rich asshole wants to see more people from places like Norway.
The comments come just after the Norwegian Prime Minister came to the White House.
Lawmakers were reportedly stunned and taken aback. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Dick Durbin (D-IL) were speaking with the president about cutting the visa lottery program by 50 percent with specific countries prioritized over the other.
The White House had no comment.
The news comes just weeks after a New York Times report revealed the rich asshole said in a June meeting that people coming from Haiti “all have AIDS.” He continued saying that recent Nigerian immigrants would never “go back to their huts” in Africa and that Afghanistan is a terrorist haven.
“Certain Washington politicians chose to fight for foreign countries, but President the rich asshole will always fight for the American people,” the White House said in a statement. However, the statement did not detail how praising Norwegian immigrants are fighting for the American people.
“The President will only accept an immigration deal that adequately addresses the visa lottery system and chain migration — two programs that hurt our economy and allow terrorists into our country,” the statement continued. “Like other nations that have merit-based immigration, President the rich asshole is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation. He will always reject temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures that threaten the lives of hardworking Americans, and undercut immigrants who seek a better life in the United States through a legal pathway.”
‘This is straight up racist’: CNN panel crushes the rich asshole on ‘sh*tholes’ remark
CNN panelists discussing President some rich asshole calling Haiti and African countries "sh*tholes." Image via screengrab.
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During a panel interview on CNN, The Daily Beast’s editor-in-chief John Avalon noted that President Donald the rich asshole’s comment calling African countries and Haiti “shitholes” went beyond merely “not presidential.”
“This is beyond unbefitting of the presidency, which it is. This is beyond not presidential, this is beyond ‘oh, the big tent Republican party dream has died,'” Avalon said. “This is straight up racist.”
Though Republicans claim “the left is always quick the play the race card,” the rich asshole’s reported comments, which were corroborated to The Washington Post by two people briefed on the meeting, refute that.
“He referred to immigrants and people who’ve gotten asylum here from El Salvador, Haiti and African countries as living in shitholes, and that we need more people from Norway instead,” he continued. “I wonder what the real difference is: yeah, wealth, but also whiteness. That’s an ugly underbelly that’s been exposed and we need to confront it.”
Watch below, via CNN.
‘Get smart!’ the rich asshole walks back attack on his own White House after getting tricked by ‘Fox & Friends’
some rich asshole Jr. and some rich asshole (Shutterstock)
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President some rich asshole on Thursday attacked his own administration’s position on foreign surveillance legislation apparently because of a segment he watched on “Fox & Friends” — and then quickly walked it back just an hour later.
“I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and today’s vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land,” the rich asshole wrote in response to an earlier tweet he sent out Thursday morning. “We need it! Get smart!”
Earlier in the morning, the rich asshole undermined the White House’s position on renewing Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act after a “Fox & Friends” segment suggested that this act was used to conduct warrantless spying on the rich asshole’s campaign.
“‘House votes on controversial FISA ACT today,'” the president wrote, quoting directly from the Fox segment. “This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the rich asshole Campaign by the previous administration and others?”
As CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pointed out, the White House on Wednesday night issued a statement urging Congress to “preserve the useful role FISA’s Section 702 authority plays in protecting American lives.”
the rich asshole attacks his own White House on foreign surveillance after watching ‘Fox & Friends’ report
some rich asshole speaks from the Oval Office (screen grab/CNN)
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President some rich asshole on Thursday attacked his own administration’s position on renewing Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act — and it’s all because of something he saw on “Fox & Friends.”
“‘House votes on controversial FISA ACT today,'” the president wrote on Twitter Thursday morning, quoting from a segment that ran earlier on Fox News. “This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the rich asshole Campaign by the previous administration and others?”
As CNN’s Kaitlan Collins points out, the White House on Wednesday night issued a statement urging Congress to “preserve the useful role FISA’s Section 702 authority plays in protecting American lives,” which means that the rich asshole is undermining a statement made by his White House less than 12 hours ago.
The president’s outburst was a direct response to a “Fox & Friends” segment that aired on Thursday in which legal analyst Andrew Napolitano criticized the White House for wanting to renew Section 702 on the grounds that it allows for warrantless surveillance of Americans who happen to be talking with people living in foreign countries.
Napolitano claimed during the segment that the rich asshole’s “woes began” because the Obama administration supposedly conducted warrantless surveillance of the rich asshole campaign — although he presented no evidence to back up this claim.
Watch a clip of Napolitano below.
the rich asshole-Kushner corruption ‘will move front and center this year,’ reporter tells MSNBC
Michael Duffy (MSNBC)
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President some rich asshole has raised alarms with his authoritarian tendencies — but maybe there’s another word that could be used to describe his anti-democratic urges.
MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” hosted Time deputy managing editor Michael Duffy, who wrote the magazine’s cover story this week on the rich asshole’s first year in office, and USA Today senior politics reporter Heidi Przybyla asked him about the president’s business dealings.
“We’ve talked a lot about 2017, things being autocracy, authoritarianism, but looking forward to 2018, how much do you think the word kleptocracy should start to become part of this discussion?” Przybyla said.
She pointed to her newspaper’s new report the rich asshole companies selling $35 million in real estate last year — mostly to secretive shell companies that Przybyla said opened the president up to influence peddling.
“There could be explanations for this, like people just don’t want their names identified with the rich asshole properties,” she said. “But according to our reporters, there’s a lot of people who say these could be used for influence buying, influence-seeking groups including foreign people who have purchased these properties if we’re able to identify.”
Duffy said the president had already tipped off investigators about how much influence peddling could be going on.
“President the rich asshole told, warned special counsel (Robert) Mueller not to look at his family finances which, of course, was a great big red flag to go ahead and look at his family finances,” Duffy said. “I think that’s another theme here. The extent to which outside of government that the rich asshole and Kushner family finances are in this target set of Bob Mueller at the moment has a kind of existential mind concentrating piece for this White House now. Those are things that have probably never been looked at, and if you put them in the context of foreign policy, that could get really ugly. Kleptocracy is a little different. I think the family’s finances will move front and center this year.”
Kellyanne Conway loses it on Fox and claims she’s ‘forced to’ talk about ‘that woman’ Hillary Clinton
Kellyanne Conway speaks to Fox News (screen grab)
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Presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway on Thursday defended the rich asshole administration’s fixation on Hillary Clinton and asserted that the media has “forced” President some rich asshole and his surrogates to continue attacking the former Democratic nominee.
While speaking to the hosts of Fox & Friends, Conway appeared to be upset about an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, who noted that the presidential adviser “can’t keep Hillary Clinton‘s name out of her mouth.”
Although the hosts of Fox & Friends began Thursday’s interview by asking about the Russian dossier on the rich asshole, Conway responded with a rant about Clinton.
“I know people love to talk about how we’re so obsessed with Hillary Clinton here,” Conway said, rolling her eyes. “The fact is we only have to talk about her because people won’t let go of an election that she lost miserably. And if she’s going to be an ungracious loser and people continue to talk about the 2016 election in light of the [Russian] dossier, in light of this ridiculous Russian collusion.”
“Here we are a year later and we’re still talking about it through a nonsense lens,” she continued. “What are we doing talking about that constantly, especially on other networks, and not talking about every single accomplishment, all the good that’s happening. Stuff happens her every single day.”
Instead of focusing on Russia, Conway argued that the media should spend more time reporting on a bill the rich asshole signed “to stop Fentanyl from pouring in our communities.”
“We have a Fentanyl problem in this country!” she exclaimed. “What is Fentanyl? Look it up everybody! F-E-N-T-A-N-Y-L. Educate yourselves because the other people want to talk about Hillary Clinton and collusion and dossiers, which haven’t been verified.”
Referring to her interview with Cuomo, Conway complained about CNN “titillating graphics about Russia.”
“Things happen here every single day and yet people are still stuck in last year’s election,” Conway ranted, “and about that woman who will never be president. I said last night, no one at the White House talks about Hillary Clinton — only when we’re forced to and only with the requisite eye roll.”
Watch the video below from Fox News.
‘What a mess!’ the rich asshole reacts to Fox report on dossier with angry rant against ‘Crooked Hillary’
some rich asshole (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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President some rich asshole angrily reacted early Thursday on Twitter to a Fox News report on the dossier linking him to Russia.
The dossier returned to the news a year after its publication by Buzzfeed after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) sidestepped Republican efforts to bury the document by releasing congressional testimony about its creation.
“Fox & Friends” opened with a segment on the dossier, which the hosts claimed had been used to justify an FBI investigation and surveillance of the rich asshole campaign — which other news organizations have reported otherwise.
Right on cue, the rich asshole lashed out nearly 30 minutes later on Twitter.
Disproven and paid for by Democrats “Dossier used to spy on Trump Campaign. Did FBI use Intel tool to influence the Election?” @foxandfriends Did Dems or Clinton also pay Russians? Where are hidden and smashed DNC servers? Where are Crooked Hillary Emails? What a mess!
the rich asshole insisted Wednesday during a news conference that Hillary Clinton, whose emails were hacked by allegedly Russian agents and eventually lost the election, had colluded with Russia to influence the election.
The @foxandfriends clip that spurred Trump's tweet, asking: "Did FBI use Intel tool to influence the Election?"
some rich asshole accused of fabricating praise after claiming to receive letters from TV hosts
White House has not yet produced letters the rich asshole claimed to receive
Journalists are accusing some rich asshole of again fabricating praise, saying he falsely claimed to have received laudatory letters from television anchors.
Earlier this week, the rich asshole presided over an extended meeting on immigration with members of Congress that, in an unusual twist, was left open to members of the media.
In subsequent remarks the President said the “tremendous” meeting was “reported as incredibly good,” adding that television network anchors “sent us letters saying that was one of the greatest meetings they've ever witnessed”.
“They probably wish they didn’t send us those letters of congratulations. But it was good. I'm sure their ratings were fantastic,” the rich asshole said.
The claim drew skepticism from journalists who cover the rich asshole. The White House did not respond to The Independent’s request for copies of the congratulatory letters.
But when CNN reporter Jim Acosta said that when he asked about the letters, he was sent something else entirely: a pair of video clips and a list of tweets in which reporters marvelled at being allowed to observe protracted negotiations.
the rich asshole has long had an uneven relationship with facts, and he has been caught out before claiming praise for which there was no evidence.
Last year, he said he received a phone call from the leader of the Boy Scouts of America calling his politically charged speech at a scouting jamboree “the greatest speech that was ever made to them”. But the Boy Scouts denied that account, releasing a letter apologising for the rich asshole’s address.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders subsequently said “multiple members of the Boy Scout leadership” approached the President to congratulate him in person after the speech.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a lie — that’s a pretty bold accusation,” Ms Sanders said. “The conversations took place, they just simply didn’t take place over a phone call”.
the rich asshole attacks protections for immigrants from ‘shithole’ countries in Oval Office meeting
President the rich asshole grew frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office when they floated restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, according to two people briefed on the meeting.
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” the rich asshole said, according to these people, referring to African countries and Haiti. He then suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met Wednesday.
The comments left lawmakers taken aback, according to people familiar with their reactions. Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) proposed cutting the visa lottery program by 50 percent and prioritizing countries already in the system, a White House official said.
A White House spokesman declined to offer an immediate comment on the rich asshole’s remarks.
Outlining a potential bipartisan deal, the lawmakers discussed restoring protections for countries that have been removed from the temporary protected status program while adding $1.5 billion for a border wall and making changes to the visa lottery system.
The administration announced this week that it was removing the protection for citizens of El Salvador.
the rich asshole had seemed amenable to a deal earlier in the day during phone calls, aides said, but shifted his position in the meeting and did not seem interested.
Graham and Durbin thought they would be meeting with the rich asshole alone and were surprised to find immigration hard-liners such as Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) at the meeting. The meeting was impromptu and came after phone calls Thursday morning, Capitol Hill aides said.
After the meeting, Marc Short, the rich asshole’s legislative aide, said the White House was nowhere near a bipartisan deal on immigration.
“We still think we can get there,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the daily White House news briefing.
the rich asshole administration: Children don’t deserve protection from cancer, brain damage
JANUARY 10, 2018
The rich asshole administration wants children to handle dangerous pesticides that could cause brain damage or cancer, in their latest move to target the vulnerable.
JANUARY 10, 2018
The rich asshole administration wants children to handle dangerous pesticides that could cause brain damage or cancer, in their latest move to target the vulnerable.
The rich asshole administration is working to expose underaged children to pesticides that could cause cancer or brain damage, in yet another initiative designed to hurt vulnerable Americans.
The rich asshole-era Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — led by Scott Pruitt, who had repeatedly sued the agency prior to becoming its leader — is considering rule changes in a departure from the Obama administration that would put children directly in the path of harm.
A 2015 rule increased safety requirements for farmworkers, which prohibit people under 18 years old from working with pesticides. The rules were put in place because doctors raised the alarm about the harm those chemicals could cause with children.
The EPA is also considering getting rid of a rule that currently stops minors from working with what are categorized as “restricted-use” pesticides like arsenic and methyl bromide. Those chemicals are not even sold to the public for general use due to their danger, but the rich asshole team appears to believe children should be around them.
Former EPA official William Jordan, who helped implement the child-safety rules under Obama, told HuffPost, “I think that there’s a pretty strong likelihood that if the minimum age is eliminated or lowered, there will be more people getting sick.”
He added that with these sorts of chemicals, “a small amount like a teaspoon can kill you.”
In 2014, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a warning about these chemicals and children handling them, writing, “Many pesticides are highly toxic to the brain and reproductive system and will cause long-term damage to those systems.”
HuffPost notes that industry groups have been lobbying Congress to get rid of these rules, and that “one reason growers may want to remove the minimum age requirements is that teenagers often work for less money than older employees.”
the rich asshole and his underlings have repeatedly cited getting rid of regulations (even fake ones) as one of the meager accomplishments he achieved in his first year in office, as they have been unable to cite any signature legislation beyond the recent billionaire tax cuts.
Exposing children to harm, particularly those likely to come from the lower economic brackets who would be working in the farming industry, is right in line with the rich asshole’s previous despicable actions and priorities.
The administration did the dirty work of industry lobbying groups and significantly lessened the fines nursing homes would face for abusing elderly patients – even if they die. And the rich asshole and his interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, moved to allow frackers to hide toxic chemicals used on public land.
The vulnerable are being targeted by the rich asshole and his Republican allies, not as an unfortunate side effect, but as a direct result of the ideological and financial goals that they believe in above anything else.
Trump administration ends registry for substance abuse, mental health programs
BY JESSIE HELLMANN - 01/10/18 05:57 PM EST
The federal government has ended a national registry designed to provide information to the public about evidence-based mental health and substance use interventions and programs.
The National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP), which is funded and administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, has existed since 1997 to help people, agencies and organizations identify and implement evidence-based behavioral health programs and practices in their communities, according to the website.
But the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the department under HHS that manages the program, wrote on its website that the contract for the database had been discontinued.
SAMHSA is still "very focused on the development and implementation of evidence-based programs in communities across the nation," the notices says.
SAMHSA's in-house "policy lab" will "lead the effort to reconfigure its approach to identifying and disseminating evidence-base practice and programs."
Because the contract has ended, the database will no longer be updated.
A spokesperson for SAMHSA has not responded to request for comment.
‘Nobody talks about Hillary Clinton!’: Kellyanne Conway melts down during off-the-rails interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo
CNN's Chris Cuomo (left) and the rich asshole aide Kellyanne Conway (right). Image via screengrab.
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During an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, President some rich asshole’s adviser and former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway rose her voice multiple times as the host made points she didn’t like.
“The idea that we would have to look any further than Hillary Clinton to beat Hillary Clinton itself is a fantasy,” the former campaign manager said. “I didn’t need to talk to anybody in Moscow — I was talking to people in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina and Macomb County, Michigan.”
“There’s no reason to have gone anywhere outside of Hillary Clinton and how unattractive her policies were,” she said, adding that “so many people can’t get over the election results.”
“Says my friend who can’t keep Hillary Clinton‘s name out of her mouth,” Cuomo rebutted, causing Conway to melt down further.
“We don’t care about her, nobody here talks about her,” she exclaimed. “Hey, Chris, nobody talks about Hillary Clinton.”
“You just brought her up,” the host responded. “Hold on a second. No shouting contest here.”
Watch below, via CNN.
8 times in 95 seconds: CNN literally ‘dings’ some rich asshole every time he claims ‘no collusion’
some rich asshole crosses arms when asked about Robert Mueller investigation (Photo: Screen capture)
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In 95 seconds, President some rich asshole proclaimed that there was “no collusion” a grand total of eight times during a press conference with the Norwegian Prime Minister.
On “The Situation Room,” host Wolf Blitzer played a supercut of the answer the rich asshole gave when asked about special counsel Robert Mueller. While the question from the Fox News reporter was simply whether the rich asshole intends to talk to Mueller, the president immediately proclaimed his innocence.
Check out the hilarious supercut video from CNN below with fun “dings” each time the president claims “no collusion.”
‘Stable genius’ some rich asshole doesn’t actually have an MBA from Wharton: report
President some rich asshole. Image via screengrab.
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President some rich asshole likes to brag about having gone to the Wharton School of Finance, a school known for their elite MBA program. As it turns out, however, the rich asshole never got an MBA from the school.
In April 2016, while the rich asshole was still duking it out for the Republican nomination, the Associated Press reported on the rich asshole’s “complicated relationship” with Wharton. Though he regularly brought up the school, which is part of the University of Pennsylvania, the rich asshole never received his master’s degree from Wharton School of business. In fact, his undergraduate degree isn’t even in business–it’s a bachelor of science in economics.
Earlier this week, Vanity Fair‘s Kurt Eichenwald resurrected the rich asshole’s Wharton deception when the president slipped up and said “I went to the best colleges, or college.”
As Eichenwald pointed out on Twitter, the rich asshole did indeed go to the famed institution, but only after transferring there from Fordham University, located in New York City. He “never made dean’s list,” though he claims to have graduated first in his class.
Wharton’s graduate business program is “the most highly respected” in the US, and mentions of “Wharton” typically denote that program. the rich asshole, Eichenwald said, “has been tricking people” into believing he has an MBA from the revered school.
“the rich asshole has no MBA,” Eichenwald tweeted. “He can’t read a balance sheet.”
Check out the thread below.
...Trump always refuses to mention Fordham, because it is evidence that he wasn't good enough. He refuses to call U Penn by that name, but instead calls it Wharton, the undergraduate business school. BUT no one says "I went to Wharton" when they are talking about undergrad.....
...believing he has a Wharton MBA (Which WOULD be a major accomplishment) by his crafty word choice. Trump has no MBA. He can't read a balance sheet. He's just a guy who inherited lots of $ long ago and is so bad at business that no American banks will deal with him anymore.
WATCH: CNN’s Erin Burnett shuts down pro-the rich asshole Rep’s claim the Russia dossier ‘is political by Democrats’
Erin Burnett and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) (Photo: Screen capture)
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Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) got a little testy when being asked about the dossier researched by Christopher Steele.
In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Gaetz began by talking about the “political” nature of the dossier, noting it was eventually funded by Democrats.
“When you say the dossier is political by Democrats, that it’s proof of collusion by Democrats and Russians, as the president has said, I just want to lay out the facts here in terms of how this dossier happened,” Burnett said. “The firm behind it was first hired in September 2015. That date according to The New York Times, they were hired to do opposition research on the rich asshole during the Republican primaries by the Washington Free Beacon, which is a conservative website.”
She explained that the website was funded by a major donor to Marco Rubio, a rich asshole rival.
“It was not until April of the following year, so from September of 2015 to April of 2016, when the rich asshole won that crucial primary against Ted Cruz and it became clear he could be the Republican nominee, that’s when a law firm picked up the tab and started paying Fusion,” she continued. “So, Republicans became Democrats. Why do you only accuse Democrats? Why do you say this is a Democratic thing?”
“They’re the ones who paid for it,” he said as if he didn’t hear what Burnett said.
“So did Republicans,” she replied.
He then repeated the allegation that Democrats “were the willing participants to pay Fusion GPS to colluded with the Russians” to dig up dirt on some rich asshole.
“This brings me back to my point. We’ve just established there are things in here which are true, so you’re saying they’re paying them for lies?” Burnett asked.
He claimed that he was doing nothing but quoting former FBI Director James Comey.
“Some things are unverified, certainly by CNN, but others are not,” Burnett said. “In fact, Congressman, let me just make this point: on page 279 of the testimony, Glenn Simpson’s lawyer says, ‘somebody’s already been killed.’ Nine Russians, high profile Russians, died nine months after the U.S. presidential election. If people may have died because of this, is that enough for you to say, ‘I want to know if everything in it is true’ instead of ‘a Democrat’s paying people to lie’ as you just said?”
Gaetz insisted that people were paid to lie about some rich asshole and cover their tracks.
Burnett explained again that there were things in the report that are true. “So, this point about lies doesn’t add up.” She also noted that Steele felt his findings were so concerning he shared it with the intelligence community out of concern. She asked if Gaetz was simply “shooting the messenger” for delivering the information.
It devolved into chaos from there.
Watch below:
the rich asshole and congressional Republicans thought they could use the threat of deporting the DREAMers as a bargaining chip to make Democrats agree to their demands. But a federal court just ruled they can’t.
some rich asshole met with bipartisan congressional leaders Tuesday, ostensibly to discuss immigration. Although he appeared to lack a firm grasp on the issue, one of the key takeaways of this stunt is that he intended to hold the threat of deporting young, high-skilled, community-tied immigrants known as “DREAMers” over Democrats’ heads to make them capitulate to draconian, nativist changes to the immigration system.
In return for permanently protecting the DREAMers, the rich asshole is demanding the construction of his border wall, elimination of a program that admits people from low-migration countries, and ending “chain migration” — a derogatory term for legal immigrants bringing their families.
But just hours after the talks concluded, a district judge in San Francisco blew up the rich asshole’s strategy, ruling it is illegal for him to deport the DREAMers in the first place.
The main reason the DREAMers are in legal limbo is that the rich asshole terminated the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program last year. Judge William Alsup ruled this decision was improper, issuing an injunction to “maintain the DACA program on a nationwide basis.”
Ironically, the rich asshole’s own tweets were used as evidence that terminating DACA was illegal. Alsup cited multiple the rich asshole tweets indicating support for the DREAMers, including one calling them “educated and accomplished young people with jobs, some serving in the military,” to demonstrate that the rich asshole “publicly favors the very program [he] has ended.”
It is important to note that this is not the end of legal questions on the DREAMers, nor does it definitively prohibit the rich asshole from ever deporting them. A permanent act of Congress is still needed to protect them, in case a higher court reverses this ruling or the rich asshole finds a way to rewrite his anti-DACA order that passes legal muster.
Indeed, the DREAMers were in legal limbo even before the rich asshole, because, despite the fact that 86 percent of Americans want them to stay, Republicans in Congress spent years blocking a bill to grant them permanent residency. President Barack Obama had intended DACA to be only a temporary reprieve from deportation until such a bill was passed, but that temporary reprieve stretched into years.
That being said, the rich asshole was counting on the imminent threat of deportation to come to the table with the upper hand and walk away with a “security first” deal. Democrats will be less inclined to broker a compromise on his terms, now that they know his legal power to do immediate harm to the DREAMers is limited.
the rich asshole is used to a negotiation table skewed in his favor. That is why, in the business world, he repeatedly refused to pay contractors and forced them to sue him. He thought he would have this same kind of leverage against Democrats by eliminating DACA.
He was wrong.
This is a disturbingly Orwellian habit for the rich asshole administration.
While an unskeptical political media (with rare and great exceptions) fell for some rich asshole’s extended mental stability photo op Tuesday, the rich asshole’s own communications team appears to understand what a disaster it really was.
The 55-minute televised portion of the bipartisan meeting on immigration was a naked attempt to quell concerns about the rich asshole’s mental fitness, but it backfired when he had to be reminded of his own policy positions.
One spectacular example was this exchange with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), in which she asks the rich asshole if he would be “agreeable” to a clean DACA bill:
FEINSTEIN: Would you be agreeable to that?RICH ASSHOLE: Yeah, I would like — I would like to do that.
But when the White House released its official transcript of the meeting, that line from the rich asshole was nowhere to be found. It was only after getting busted for the omission that a “corrected” transcript was released, 17 hours later.
It would be easier to chalk this up as an accidental omission if not for the fact that the line exposes the rich asshole’s manifest ignorance about his own policy positions, and if this were not part of a longstanding pattern for this White House. When they’re not making up alternative facts, they’re just disappearing the ones they don’t like.
Sometimes, the alterations to official transcripts are seemingly trivial, yet illustrative. In July, the White House altered an official briefing transcript to stroke the rich asshole’s ego by inflating his dubious golf skills.
Also in July, though, the White House made a much more significant omission from a transcript of an Air Force One gaggle. the rich asshole told reporters that he may have been told about the rich asshole Tower collusion meeting, but maintained he wasn’t aware of the subject matter, according to a New York Times reporter:
the rich asshole has never been asked publicly to reconcile that bombshell revelation, although it will surely come up when he sits down to face special counsel Robert Mueller.
And from that same gaggle, the White House omitted the rich asshole’s remarks about DACA, reportedly at the urging of White House senior adviser and perennial cable news embarrassment Stephen Miller. But those remarks had already been published via a pool report.
Censoring official White House transcripts is just one of many ways in which this administration betrays the free press, but it is a particularly audacious one that asks the American people to believe their lying president, rather than their own eyes and ears.
Desperate to return from the wilderness, Kellyanne Conway makes up her own reality.
White House counselor and “alternative facts” defender Kellyanne Conway was in the doghouse over her cooperation with “Fire and Fury” author Michael Wolff, but she scurried back into the spotlight this week to lie about some rich asshole’s failed attempt at damage control.
the rich asshole attempted to quash concerns about his mental fitness with a 55-minute televised photo op on Tuesday, during which he could not manage to keep his own policy positions straight. That didn’t stop Conway from popping up on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox to insist that the stunt was a success.
Both Conway and Hannity lauded the rich asshole’s performance, ignoring the rich asshole’s gaffes and asserting that such a meeting was “unprecedented”:
CONWAY: Even some of his greatest critics in the media were flabbergasted, really stunned but appreciative, that this president held forth, on camera, for a full hour, with no filter, no script for anyone, just a conversation, bicameral, bipartisan, unprecedented in that way, in the Cabinet Room. […]HANNITY: I saw a president in command of the facts, leading, opening up transparency like we’d never had before today, and that is what made it so fascinating.CONWAY: It was, and those of us who work there see that every day on a regular basis. He really enjoys a discussion, he welcomes dissent and he welcomes discussion. This president takes many different inputs and ideas, and he makes a final decision. He was the one elected, after all. But I think what you saw on full display today is very similar to what we see on an ongoing basis at this White House.
the rich asshole’s meeting, of course, was not “unprecedented.” President Barack Obama held a six-hour bipartisan summit on health care, on camera, and even spent over an hour taking questions just from Republicans at another televised event. Neither event featured Obama embarrassing himself, so in that way, the rich asshole did blaze a trail.
Conway also insisted that the rich asshole was “clear” about his position on the border wall, but at least one Republican senator didn’t get the memo, and the rich asshole’s own White House staff knew enough to try to censor his bumbling.
Conway’s appearance vividly demonstrates the degree to which the rich asshole is an embarrassing failure. When even your most dedicated propaganda minister acknowledges that holding a conversation for an hour is “stunning” and “flabbergasting,” it’s time to admit there’s a problem.
Once again whining about his press coverage, the rich asshole's authoritarian streak returns with new threats of legal action.
Still stinging from a White House insider book that portrays him as an unstable dolt surrounded by aides who uniformly think he’s unqualified to be president, an angry some rich asshole, reading from a prepared statement, threatened Wednesday to “take a strong look” at U.S. libel laws.
“Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace,” he added, “and do not represent American values or American fairness. So we’re going to take a strong look at that.”
the rich asshole presumably wants to make it easier for people to take media companies to court if they feel embarrassed by press coverage. Under current U.S. libel and defamation laws, which staunchly protect the First Amendment, would-be plaintiffs must prove that a media company knowingly and purposefully published false information, which is a very high bar to clear.
the rich asshole didn’t mention Michael’s Wolff’s new book, “Fire and Fury,” by name, but there’s no doubt the tell-all book continues to roil the White House and the rich asshole personally.
The book set off a cascading string of events, part of which culminated with former the rich asshole strategist Steve Bannon, who was widely quoted in the book, getting booted from his white nationalist perch at Breitbart.
the rich asshole, of course, has a long history of threatening legal action, and specifically against media outlets, and then failing to follow through. He also loves to whine and pout about his press coverage and has previously threatened to look at libel laws.
the rich asshole’s proud authoritarian streak of wanting to control and hinder a free press in America when it doesn’t produce what’s deemed to be favorable coverage is one reason the Committee to Protect Journalists just this week announced that the rich asshole was a winner of its “Press Oppressor” awards.
31 House Republicans are declining to seek re-election. The last time either party even came close to having this many representatives leave was 1994.
House Republicans, already growing nervous about the prospects for retaining the majority this year, just hit a new milestone.
According to NPR, 30 Republican members of Congress have declined to seek re-election in 2018 — 12 of whom are pursuing runs for higher office, and 18 of whom are retiring outright.
That count increased to 31 Wednesday, when the OC Daily reported that embattled California Rep. Darrell Issa — the infamous former Oversight Committee chair who first made Benghazi a household name, and who barely won re-election in 2016 — is expected to announce his retirement as well.
The list does not even include GOP congressmen who resigned without completing their terms, like Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Pennsylvania Rep. Tim Murphy.
This breaks the previous modern-era record for House retirements from a single party, which was when 28 Democrats retired in 1994 ahead of Newt Gingrich’s “Republican Revolution.”
Many of the retiring Republicans are powerful, long-term incumbents. Seven chairs of House committees, like Texas Rep. Lamar Smith and Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte, are among their number.
Losing the benefit of incumbency can make a huge difference in how competitive a district is. Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen represented such a heavily Democratic district that Republicans are publicly admitting they have no chance of keeping it.
And one of the most recent retirements, California Rep. Ed Royce, was a particularly devastating blow to the GOP, because he outperformed Clinton by 24 points in 2016 and his suburban Orange County district now becomes one of the most vulnerable red seats.
Because many states still have several weeks until their filing deadlines, even more retirements may happen before the battle lines are drawn.
The same trends in the House appear to be developing in the Senate as well, where nearly half of all Republicans up for re-election have decided to step down.
None of this is happening in a vacuum. the rich asshole’s enormous unpopularity, combined with public outrage over the GOP’s failed Obamacare repeal attempts and the tax scam that was forced on the public with no input, has resulted in Republicans trailing the generic congressional ballot by double digits.
As the election this fall takes shape, it does so with an already gutted GOP majority that will struggle to defend itself.
Over 100 top executives are warning the rich asshole that the consequences of ending protections for DREAMers could be a disaster for the U.S. economy.
some rich asshole has spent the past several months, all the way up to his stunt meeting on Tuesday, holding the threat of deportation for 800,000 high-skilled young immigrants known as DREAMers above the heads of Democrats in Congress.
His apparent hope was to get Democrats to agree to fund his racist border wall and other harebrained, nativist immigration schemes.
On Wednesday, a federal court blocked the rich asshole from ending the program that gives the young immigrants work permits. But their status remains legally unclear, and the rich asshole is jeopardizing their ability to securely live and work in America.
And that could hurt a lot more people than just those young people.
In an open letter to congressional leaders, a massive group of top business executives urged a quick legislative fix to the legal status of DREAMers, pointing out that if they are deported or go into hiding, the consequences for the economy could be disastrous.
“In addition to causing a tremendous upheaval in the lives of DACA employees, failure to act in time will lead to businesses losing valuable talent, cause disruptions in the workforce, and will result in significant costs,” the executives write.
The letter goes on to warn, “Studies by economists across the ideological spectrum have also determined that if Congress fails to act our economy could lose $215 billion in GDP.”
Among the over 100 signatories are the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Marriott, and Target.
This is nothing new. The corporate world — and even many corporate groups that support the GOP — tend to back immigration reform, because it does not help the economy when their workers might be thrown out of the country at any moment.
But this letter is a reminder, to a party that claims to support the growth of the economy, how catastrophically out of touch they are, and how they have let the needs of our country take a back seat to nationalist scaremongering.
the rich asshole and his GOP cohorts need to stop playing with people’s lives and take real steps to help young immigrants who are growing our society and economy. The cruelty of using DREAMers as a political football to try to win concessions from Democrats has gone on long enough.
If other businesspeople can see this, the rich asshole — the ostensible “businessman in chief” — ought to be able to do so, as well.
"Maybe President the rich asshole should stop playing politics during his executive time and start doing his job. It's clear Dianne Feinstein is doing hers."
Tuesday’s day of epic failure for some rich asshole was mainly engineered by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and the rich asshole reacted like the “very stable genius” he clearly is not.
the rich asshole’s attempt at a comeback from days of coverage about his mental unfitness was ruined by Feinstein’s cunning use of logic, when she got the rich asshole to agree that a clean fix to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was something he would like to do. (Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy had remind him that it’s the opposite of what he would like to do.)
Then Feinstein dropped a bomb on the rich asshole and the Republicans by releasing transcripts of extremely damaging testimony in the rich asshole/Russia investigation, in defiance of Senate Republicans who wanted it to remain hidden.
On Wednesday morning, the rich asshole reacted by attacking Feinstein with one of his patented witless nicknames, and demanding a primary challenge for the leading Democrat:
Feinstein’s bold actions may have even provoked the rich asshole into openly urging Republicans to obstruct the Russia investigations, as his next tweet appeared to do:
the rich asshole’s attack drew a strong reaction from EMILY’s List.
“Yet again, some rich asshole is threatened by a strong woman. Dianne Feinstein took an important and decisive action — and naturally, some rich asshole took to Twitter,” said EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock. “Given his failed picks lately, maybe President the rich asshole should stop playing politics during his executive time and start doing his job. It’s clear Dianne Feinstein is doing hers.”
But Feinstein’s actions also drew praise from at least one Republican. Texas Sen. John Cornyn told The Hill that releasing the transcript was a “good idea,” and he was “glad” she had done it.
This past week has been an at times painful reminder of just how easily the rich asshole can be provoked, but Feinstein reminds us that there are strong women who are willing to stand up to a bully like the rich asshole, and he can’t stand it.
The "very stable genius" strikes again.
some rich asshole was forced to face White House reporters Wednesday afternoon, and it did not go well for him.
At a joint press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, the rich asshole tried to cushion the blow by only calling on two reporters, both from conservative outlets, but still could not manage to avoid making devastatingly bad news for himself.
Fox News’ John Roberts asked the rich asshole if he would be willing to sit down for questioning by special counsel Robert Mueller, and what preconditions he might demand. the rich asshole then went on a lengthy digression that included solid gold hits like “no collusion” and “Democrat hoax,” but failed to answer Roberts’ actual question.
Roberts followed up that embarrassment by asking the rich asshole to answer the actual question, which turned out to be that the rich asshole doesn’t actually think he will submit to the interview, after all:
ROBERTS: Are you open to meeting with him? Would you be willing to meet with him without conditions, or would you demand that a strict set of parameters be placed around any encounter between you and the special counsel?RICH ASSHOLE: Well, again, John, there has been no collusion between the rich asshole campaign and Russians, or the rich asshole and Russians. No collusion. When I watch you interviewing all the people leaving their committees, I mean, the Democrats are all running for office and they’re trying to say this stuff. But bottom line, they all say there’s no collusion. And there is no collusion. And when you talk about interviews, uh, Hillary Clinton had an interview where she wasn’t sworn in, she wasn’t given the oath, they didn’t take notes, they didn’t record, and it was done on the Fourth of July weekend. Uh, that’s perhaps ridiculous, and a lot of people looked upon that as being a very serious breach, and it really was.But again, I’ll speak to attorneys. I can only say this: There was absolutely no collusion. Everybody knows it, every committee — I’ve been in office now for 11 months. For 11 months, they’ve had this phony cloud over this administration, over our government, and it has hurt our government. It does hurt our government. It’s a Democrat hoax that was brought up as an excuse for losing an election that, frankly, the Democrats should have won because they have such a tremendous advantage in the Electoral College. So it was brought up for that reason. But it has been determined that there is no collusion, by virtually everybody, so we’ll see what happens.ROBERTS: But again, would you be open to —RICH ASSHOLE: We’ll see what happens. I mean, certainly I’ll see what happens. But when they have no collusion and nobody’s found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you’d even have an interview.
the rich asshole appears to be laying the groundwork to refuse the interview based on some sort of dubious legal argument, as well as his own false sense of indignation at even being asked. the rich asshole’s lawyers have been making a pretense of cooperating with Mueller, but that pretense may have ended Wednesday. His lawyers are reportedly worried that the rich asshole — who was caught lying 30 times under oath during a two-day deposition — might perjure himself.
Mueller was never likely to take “no” for an answer, but the rich asshole’s impulsive performance here may have hastened the day when the special counsel forces the issue.
They are literally praising the rich asshole for not murdering journalists.
The crew at "Fox & Friends" has some seriously low standards
Fox
some rich asshole has waged an unprecedented campaign against the free press in America, but “Fox & Friends” would like to remind you that at least he’s not killing any journalists.
In response to the rich asshole’s infantile (and as-yet-unscheduled) “Fake News Awards” ceremony, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) put out a list of top press oppressors this week, handing the rich asshole the award for “Overall Achievement in Undermining Global Press Freedom.”
That honor did not sit well with the folks at “Fox & Friends,” or their guest Katie Frates, editor at The Daily Caller.
The gang laughingly wondered how the rich asshole could be on that list when he hasn’t even murdered anyone. Really:
DOOCY: He is the top oppressor in the world. In Mexico, six journalists were murdered. In Russia, two were murdered. In the Philippines two were murdered. And yet, some rich asshole is not only the top oppressor, he is also the most thin skinned, according to this outfit.FRATES: Again, clearly that’s wrong. Look, like, it is true that the rich asshole does have a thin skin. You can see it in how he behaves on Twitter with the media. But again, he cannot be the worst because he’s not killing anyone. And there are presidents that are murdering journalists.
This may well be the lowest bar that has ever been set for the rich asshole, and that’s saying a lot.
Elsewhere in the segment, Frates urges Fox viewers to read “the actual article” accompanying the awards, which would have been good advice for Frates and the Fox hosts to take.
The CPJ actually named Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “Most Thin-Skinned,” naming the rich asshole the runner-up for that prize, and awarded the rich asshole its special prize mainly because of his utter failure to uphold U.S. leadership in protecting press freedoms worldwide.
In fact, the rich asshole has repeatedly praised the aforementioned Erdoğan, and even apologized after Erdoğan’s security detail assaulted protesters on American soil. the rich asshole has also effusively praised many of the other leaders on CPJ’s list, and failed to raise concerns over press freedom and other human rights issues with these leaders.
Furthermore, the rich asshole has attacked journalists to their faces, labeled an award-winning black White House correspondent an “enemy,” demanded the firing of journalists explicitly over their criticism of him, and incited violence against journalists on a number of occasions, including during his recent golf vacation.
On his first full day in office, the rich asshole sent his press secretary out to literally demand that reporters print demonstrable lies.
So while it is true that the rich asshole has not murdered any journalists, his campaign against the free press is undoubtedly the most vicious in American history — a history that has stood as a worldwide beacon for freedom of the press.
Until now.
Fox News’ Shep Smith laughs at the rich asshole’s libel laws threat: ‘All of that was just a word-salad of nothingness’
Shep Smith laughing at the president (Photo: Screen capture)
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President some rich asshole told the press during the first cabinet meeting of 2018 that he fully intends to examine what it would take to alter the libel laws and ensure people, like him, aren’t abused in the press.
However, according to Fox News host Shep Smith, the commentary is evidence of a leader who clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
“All of that, about libel laws, all of that was just a word salad of nothingness,” Smith said during Wednesday’s show. “None of that means anything. Except, look over here. He couldn’t’ change the libel laws if he wanted to change the libel laws. He couldn’t change them if he got the Congress in there.”
Smith couldn’t help but laugh and noted “these are state laws.”
Each state has their own laws that deal with defamation and libel. It’s extremely rare that a public official can make a case that they were defamed. Interestingly, a report commissioned by the American Bar Association (ABA) concluded that the rich asshole’s litigation history reveals he is the “libel bully,” in that he frequently brings lawsuits to intimidate his critics.
Such lawsuits can be effective in getting political opponents to back down even if the rich asshole would ultimately lose his case in court.
Watch Smith’s full commentary below:
January 10, 2018
Carlos Ballesteros
Posted with permission from Newsweek
Federal immigration agents stormed into nearly 100 7-Eleven stores nationwide in an unprecedented search for undocumented workers under President Donald Trump, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
And Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says it is only getting started.
“This is what we’re gearing up for this year, and what you’re going to see more and more of is these large-scale compliance inspections, just for starters,” Derek Benner, acting executive associate director for ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations, told the AP. “It’s not going to be limited to large companies or any particular industry, big medium and small. It’s going to be inclusive of everything that we see out there.”
It is illegal for employers to knowingly hire unauthorized workers living in the United States illegally.
In an emailed statement to Newsweek, parent company of the raided convenience stores, 7-Eleven Stores Inc., based in Irving, Texas, said that they were aware of the sweep and stressed that their franchisees are “independent business owners and solely responsible for their employees, including deciding who to hire and verifying their eligibility to work in the United States.”
In an emailed statement to Newsweek, parent company of the raided convenience stores, 7-Eleven Stores Inc., based in Irving, Texas, said that they were aware of the sweep and stressed that their franchisees are “independent business owners and solely responsible for their employees, including deciding who to hire and verifying their eligibility to work in the United States.”
Wednesday’s raids represent the largest single-operation by ICE against employers under President Donald Trump.
According to the AP, the 7-Eleven stores served on Wednesday “will be required to produce documents showing they required work authorization.”
Benner said these kinds of sweeps will become more common during the Trump presidency.
“We need to make sure that employers are on notice that we are going to come out and ensure that they’re being compliant,” Benner told the AP. “For those that don’t, we’re going to take some very aggressive steps in terms of criminal investigations to make sure that we address them and hold them accountable.”
The administration has drastically stepped up immigration enforcement in the United States. ICE arrests of suspected undocumented aliens are up 40 percent since Trump took office, federal stats show. The administration has also given federal immigration agencies the green light to arrest anyone suspected of being in this country illegally.
The enforcement effort at 7-Eleven comes with some irony. The company’s president and CEO, Joseph DePinto, contributed $2,000 to Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016, federal records show.
The raids came hours after U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco blocked a Trump administration move to end protections for children brought to the country illegally by their parents. The University of California system, more than a dozen state attorneys general, and at least one participant in the so-called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program are currently battling the Department of Homeland Security in court.
WATCH: the rich asshole’s lying ambassador just got brutally humiliated in the Netherlands
Pete Hoekstra (Screenshot)
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the rich asshole’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra, is proving himself to be just as embarrassing as many of this administration’s other appointees.
You may remember Hoekstra from his viral humiliation in December, when he was caught on camera lying about racist and unfounded statements about the threat of radical Islam. At a 2015 conference, he grossly exaggerated its dangers, claiming “the Islamic movement has now gotten to a point where they have put Europe into chaos.” Hoekstra said there is “chaos in the Netherlands, there are cars being burned, there are politicians that are being burned. And yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands.”
When a reporter pressed him on the accuracy of these statements last month, he summoned the spirit of his appointer, some rich asshole, claiming: “I didn’t say that, it’s an incorrect statement. We’d call that fake news.”
Then that reporter showed him the exact clip in which he made the initial remarks about chaos and burning, and asked to confirm: “You call that fake news?” Hoekstra doubled down. “I didn’t call that fake news. I didn’t use those words today.”
On Wednesday, Hoekstra dug himself into an even deeper hole at a Dutch press conference marking the beginning of his ambassadorship when reporters asked again for Hoekstra to clarify: “Are politicians being burned in the Netherlands? Is that something you believe?”
“I’m not revisiting the issue,” Hoekstra replied. He refused to say anything further, and the room exploded in protest. “Why don’t you answer the question?” one journalist called out.
“This is the Netherlands, you have to answer questions,” another said. Whoever she is, she should be promoted to White House correspondant— god knows we could use her in the States.
Hoekstra issued a strange half-apology last month after his first “fake news” confrontation, but provided absolutely no clarity on his false beliefs about burning cars and politicians, and mythical Sharia-ruled “no-go” zones in the Netherlands. His racial insensitivity shouldn’t surprise anybody; Hoekstra came under fire for issuing this racist Super Bowl ad against his opponent in their 2012 race for Michigan Senate. (The comedy brand Funny or Die later released this parody of the ad, which is worth a watch if you need some comic relief from the constant pain of being American right now.)
Watch the video of Hoekstra’s interview below.
Michael Wolff tells The View that the rich asshole’s closest aides think he’s unstable — but that’s not all
ABC's 'The View' interviews author Michael Wolff
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Michael Wolff, the author of the bestselling book Fire and Fury, sat down on Wednesday with ABC’s The View to discuss his book and the resulting fallout.
“The hottest topic in America right now, is this book,” introduced host Whoopie Goldberg, with a giggle.
“Who thought giving you this much access was a good idea?” Goldberg asked.
“Literally, I just sort of slipped in through the cracks,” Wolff explained.
The topic of President some rich asshole’s mental health was also a topic of conversation.
“Is he a moron or a stable genius?” Sunny Hostin asked.
Watch:
One of the writers of the 25th amendment doesn’t think it should be used to remove the rich asshole from office
President some rich asshole yelling inside a truck (image via Creative Commons).
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Ratified after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the 25th Amendment allows the vice president and Congress to remove an “unfit” president from office — but one of the men who wrote it thinks that it’s not the best way to deal with President some rich asshole.
In an interview with Vox, amendment co-writer Jay Berman, who was a young chief of staff for Sen. Birch Bayh (D-IN) when the congressman passed the amendment, discussed the 25th Amendment’s mechanisms for removing presidents from office.
When asked what the amendment actually says “about the conditions under which a president can be removed from office,” Berman suggested that it’s fairly open to the interpretation of the vice president.
“Well, that’s the big question, isn’t it?” he said. “It’s much more about process than it is about setting into the Constitution a trigger mechanism. The president has to be unfit to fulfill his obligations.”
When asked if he thinks the amendment should be used to remove the rich asshole from office, however, Berman answered with an unequivocal “no.”
“At this moment, I don’t think he meets the test of a president who’s incapable of fulfilling his responsibilities,” he said. “I think he was elected to do these dumb things. He hasn’t become dumber or meaner since he was elected — this is who he’s always been. This was who he was when he ran, and may well have been the reason people elected him.”
He does, however “see more than enough grounds for impeachment.”
“It’s very alarming, what we’re witnessing right now,” Berman said. “But the bar for the 25th Amendment is set extraordinarily high. I agree that the president appears unhinged, but he’s always appeared unhinged, and he was still elected in a legitimate political act. If, for example, he decided he wanted to go to war with North Korea against the advice of literally everyone else, then we would be in different territory in terms of the 25th Amendment. But right now I just don’t see it.”
WATCH: Angry the rich asshole fumes about Wolff book again — and vows to ‘take a strong look’ at libel laws
President some rich asshole complains about the inadequacies of libel laws shortly before a cabinet meeting (Screen cap).
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President some rich asshole still seems upset by Michael Wolff’s bestselling book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the rich asshole White House.”
In a quick talk with reporters just before his cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the rich asshole once again attacked author Michael Wolff and said his book’s success showed the need to strengthen libel laws in the United States so that he can more easily sue people who write unflattering things about him.
“We are going to take a strong look at our country’s libel laws so that when somebody says something that is false and defamatory about someone, that person will have meaningful recourse in our courts,” the president said. “And if somebody says something that’s totally false and knowingly false, that the person that has been abused, defamed, libeled, will have meaningful recourse.”
Instead of letting his statement end there — or even elaborating on what “taking a strong look” at libel laws would entail — the rich asshole continued to rant about how difficult it is for public figures to sue writers in the United States.
“Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace and do not represent American values or American fairness,” the president claimed. “So we’re going to take a strong look at that. We want fairness. You can’t say things that are false, knowingly false and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account. We’re going to take a very, very strong look at that. And I think what the American people want to see is fairness.”
Watch the video below.
Bonkers pro-the rich asshole super PAC says Oprah is leading a ‘coordinated effort’ to ‘destroy some rich asshole’
Oprah Winfrey (Youtube)
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A pro-the rich asshole super PAC has taken the gloves off to warn its donors of the grave threat posed by iconic talk show host Oprah Winfrey.
In a message sent out to its mailing list, Great America PAC claims that Winfrey is at the head of “a coordinated effort by the media and Democrats” that is “centered on destroying President the rich asshole and returning power back to the liberal elite.”
The PAC doesn’t describe exactly what Winfrey is doing to lead this effort, although it’s presumably referring to the media speculation sparked by her Golden Globes speech this past Sunday that she is planning to run for president in 2020.
Regardless, the email asks donors to send money to Great America PAC to show that they’re still “onboard” with the rich asshole agenda. See the whole email, as posted by New York Times reporter Ken Vogel, below.
Pro-TRUMP @GreatAmericaPAC raising $ by alleging that @Oprah is at the fore of a "coordinated effort between the media & Democrats" intent on "destroying Donald Trump & returning power back to the liberal elite."
Stephanie Ruhle destroys White House with one look after it corrects the rich asshole transcript ‘oversight’ on DACA
Stephanie Ruhle perfectly mocks White House after it corrections the rich asshole transcript 'oversight' on DACA
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The White House on issued a correction Wednesday to a transcript that left out text of President some rich asshole seeming to agree with Democrats that a border wall would not have to be of an initial part immigration legislation.
During a televised bipartisan meeting at the White House on Tuesday, the rich asshole suggested that he agreed with Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) that Congress could first tackle DACA legislation to allow undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children to stay in the country.
“Yeah, I would like to do it,” the rich asshole told Feinstein at the meeting.
But the White House’s official transcript of the meeting omitted the president’s full response to Feinstein.
Facing pressure from the media, the White House corrected the record on Wednesday.
The notion that the omission had been an honest mistake was met with skepticism from Ruhle.
“Somehow that was left off the transcript,” she noted. “But fortunately, thanks to the free press, that was on tape and the White House is going to be issuing a correction.”
“We’re going to take them at their word,” Ruhle added, sarcastically rolling her eyes, “that it was just an oversight.”
Stephanie Ruhle eye roll
Watch the video below from MSNBC.
Ryan Zinke’s offshore drilling gift to Florida is almost certainly illegal
"The way they have gone about it doesn't seem to comply with federal law and is completely without precedent."
On January 4, the rich asshole administration released its proposed five-year offshore oil and gas leasing plan, ostensibly kicking off a 60-day public comment period during which affected communities would be given the chance to weigh in on the administration’s plan.
But less than a week after releasing the proposal — which would open up nearly every inch of federal water to the possibility of offshore drilling — Secretary Ryan Zinke made an unexpected announcement on Twitter. Calling Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) a “straightforward leader that can be trusted,” and noting that “Florida is unique and its coasts are highly reliant on tourism as an economic driver,” Zinke said that he would be removing Florida waters from consideration for new oil and gas platforms.
Read my full statement on taking #Florida off the table for offshore oil and gas. Local voice matters.
Observers were quick to note that the move likely had political motivations, handing Scott and other Florida Republicans — who had been outspoken in their opposition to the plan — a win. But legal experts are pointing out another major flaw in Zinke’s hasty exemption: it’s likely illegal.
That’s because offshore leasing decisions are subject to a number of federal laws — chiefly, the Administrative Procedures Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act — that dictate formal processes for how the Department of the Interior must consider, and revise, its decisions regarding which offshore areas can be opened up to oil and gas.
By publishing the plan in the Federal Register, the Interior Department initiated the formal rule-making process, which dictates a 60-day public comment period as well as an environmental impact statement for areas that could be opened up to drilling. Announcing a change in the proposal two days into the process signals that the administration isn’t following the required procedure, legal experts argue, and raises flags about whether the decision was arbitrary or capricious — two things prohibited by administrative law.
“The decision is apparently being made two days into a comment period for the state of Florida, but not for the numerous other states that requested the same exclusion based on the same reasoning,” Sierra Weaver, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, told ThinkProgress. “Under the Administrative Procedures Act, you would say this is arbitrary and capricious. It is also clearly in violation of federal law, which requires this very specific process.”
Taking #Florida off the table for offshore drilling but not #California violates the legal standard of arbitrary and capricious agency action. California and other coastal states also rely on our beautiful coasts for tourism and our economy. I believe courts will strike this down twitter.com/SecretaryZinke…
According to Weaver, the problem with Zinke’s announcement isn’t his reasoning; economic factors are a viable reason to remove an area from a proposed offshore oil and gas leasing plan. The issue is that Zinke apparently made the decision without following the procedures mandated by federal law, rather than waiting to make the announcement after a full public comment period and environmental impact study.
“It’s the lack of the formal process,” Weaver said. “No one has ever seen anything like this. I don’t think anyone has imagined anything like this.”
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