This is a daily or weekly record of the Trump presidency so hopefully future generations will learn what happens when you elect an narcissistic, thin skinned, racist, xenophobic, misogynistic unqualified buffoon in a position of power where he has access to nuclear codes.
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Sunday, January 14, 2018
January 11th, 2017 - January 12th, 2017. 423-424 days since the Nov 8, 2016, election of some rich asshole, no.45, and 353-354 days since the Jan 20th inauguration.
U.S. President some rich asshole and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell tried to move past the tensions that followed the collapse of the healthcare reform effort on Monday with a show of unity that focused on tax reform and other items on the Republican agenda.
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As the media uproar caused by President some rich asshole’s comment calling El Salvador, Haiti and the nations of Africa “sh*thole countries” stretches into its third day, one visiting scholar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace called the president’s comments a “cancer” for both the nation and the GOP.
“This kind of behavior is appalling,” international relations expert David Rothkopf told MSNBC’s Ari Melber on Friday evening. “I think it’s a cancer eating away at the Republican Party. They are effectively accepting unacceptable behavior.”
The assertion that the rich asshole is a racist “is not an opinion any longer,” the scholar said. “We have years of proof that Trump is a racist.”
Rothkopf also noted that the problem is no longer lies solely with the rich asshole and his administration.
“Every single day, the leadership of the GOP, or GOP party spokespeople and candidates, tolerate that,” he said. “It becomes their story. It becomes the identity of the GOP.”
“Let’s be absolutely clear: Donald the rich asshole is the worst of America,” Rothkopf continued. “This kind of lying, this kind of racism, this kind of corruption is as bad as it gets, but it also weakens America.”
The Carnegie scholar went on to commend the U.S. ambassador to Panama for resigning in protest of the administration, and said that more government officials should follow suit to send a message to the president that they will not tolerate his racism.
“I think it is time for somebody to put a flag in the ground and say, ‘we will go no further,'” Rothkopf implored. “This ambassador who resigned in Panama is the first step, but what about [Secretary of State] Rex Tillerson? What about [national security adviser] H.R. McMaster? What about [Defense Secretary] James Mattis?”
These people, who were once “thought to be the axis of adults,” have become “the axis of immorality,” the scholar concluded.
“They are enabling him, validating him and they’re damaging the institutions that they are at least ostensibly there to protect,” he said.
From Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon through Barack Obama, Americans have gotten used to the idea of their presidents using profanity, but some rich asshole’s use of the word “shithole” to describe Haiti and Africa this week sparked a storm of protest.
The countries offended condemned the outburst and human rights groups labeled the comment racist, given that the rich asshole described people from largely white Norway as more desirable immigrants.
But supporters of the former businessman and reality TV star erupted in applause.
“Finally a president that says what we all think! You go @POTUS! #ShitholeCountries #shithole #America1st,” tweeted Marco Gutierrez, a rich asshole supporter and Congressional candidate from California.
Conservative blogger Stacy Rush dismissed criticism of the rich asshole’s language as pitiful and a distraction from the bigger picture: “It is pathetic our country and particularly the MSM (mainstream media) is wasting time on the word #shithole when we have real issues that need to be addressed.”
But many from the worlds of diplomacy, academia and even etiquette experts cringed.
“The reality is that when you have to resort to it, it does send a message of insecurity,” said Diane Gottsman, author of Modern Etiquette for a Better Life, who advises against using profanity in either professional or social settings.
the rich asshole’s remarks during a meeting on immigration policy that was held at the White House on Thursday were reported by a U.S. senator at the gathering, who said on Friday that the president had used “vile, vulgar” language, including repeatedly saying “shithole.”
the rich asshole denied on Friday that he had used such derogatory language. But he was condemned nonetheless in many African nations, as well as in Haiti and El Salvador, and by international human rights organizations.
During the 1960s Lyndon Johnson raised eyebrows by saying that, in politics, “chicken shit can turn to chicken salad.” Experts said the public were shocked by the profanity-laced Nixon tapes from the Oval office in the 1970s Watergate political crisis, and that people are less sensitive now.
“People have become accustomed to the idea that presidents swear,” said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University history professor who studies the presidency. “But even with that, I think people still expect a certain amount of formality in public.”
Some academic research suggests there could be benefits to swearing in some contexts, from dulling pain to suggesting trust in social situations.
Benjamin Bergin, a cognitive science professor at the University of California San Diego who wrote a book on why people swear called “What the F,” said his research has shown profane speech can be perceived as more honest.
If swearing kept the rich asshole from storming out of the negotiations, that could be positive, said Timothy Jay, emeritus professor of psychology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and author of five books on profanity.
That was not enough to sway Gottsman, who advises people on business etiquette.
“My advice would be don’t do it,” she said. “When we are in a position of power, people look up to us.”
U.S. President some rich asshole is in “excellent health,” Dr. Ronny Jackson said in a statement after he gave the president a medical examination.
Jackson, the presidential physician, said the examination at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, “went exceptionally well.”
“The president is in excellent health and I look forward to briefing some of the details on Tuesday,” Jackson said in a short statement.
After the Washington Post broke news on Thursday that President the rich asshole called African countries “shitholes” during a bipartisan meeting with lawmakers earlier in the day, the White House released a statement addressing the furor generated by the rich asshole’s comments.
Notably, the statement didn’t deny that the rich asshole made racist remarks, but instead claimed, “Certain Washington policies choose to fight for foreign countries, but President the rich asshole will always fight for the American people.”
Later in the evening, numerous White House reporters reported that the rich asshole administration officials weren’t worried about the blowback generated by the rich asshole’s comment, which they characterized as being “blown out of proportion.” In fact, staffers were reportedly confident the rich asshole’s remarks would “actually resonate with his base.”
Staffers inside the White House aren't that worried about Trump's "shithole" remark -- with some predicting it will actually resonate with his base, not alienate it, much like his attacks on NFL players who kneel during the national anthem did.
On Friday morning, even the hosts of the rich asshole’s favorite TV show joined the chorus. At the beginning of the 7 o’clock hour of Fox & Friends — a show the rich asshole has gotten in the habit of live-tweeting just about every day recently — host Brian Kilmeade criticized the rich asshole’s racist comments, saying the president “made a mistake” with the “shithole” comment and should “walk it back.”
Lo and behold, just over 20 minutes later, the rich asshole tweeted a non-denial denial, claiming that while the language he used at the meeting with lawmakers was “tough,” what the Post reported that he said “was not the language used.”
The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made - a big setback for DACA!
However, as pointed out by Jonathan Martin of the New York Times, if the rich asshole didn’t in fact say what the Post reported he said, you would’ve expected the White House to deny it in its initial statement.
Later Friday morning, the rich asshole posted another tweet denying he said anything “derogatory about Haitians.” Notably, however, the rich asshole didn’t deny that he called African countries “shitholes.”
Friday marks the second consecutive morning that the rich asshole has taken cues from Fox & Friends.
While live-tweeting the show on Thursday, the president tweeted out a position on FISA authorization at odds with the administration’s official position. the rich asshole tried to walk it back in a second tweet he posted less than two hours later. Later in the day, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders insulted reporters who dared ask about the confusion the rich asshole’s generated by the rich asshole’s Fox & Friends-inspired tweet.
President some rich asshole and Michael Cohen, composite image. (Photo of the rich asshole by Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber examined the political implications of Friday’s Wall Street Journalbombshell report that longtime some rich asshole attorney Michael Cohen paid an adult film star $130,000 shortly before the 2016 election.
Melber asked former Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-MA) to explain how today’s revelations could impact special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigations.
“I want to pick up on a point you raised earlier in the hour, congresswoman, the potential influence of this story in the wider probe by Bob Mueller, because one of the unverified accounts, which the president has denied and brought up, was the notion that the Russian government might have some sort of blackmail material on him, that related to his sort-of private contacts, I’ll put it that way,” Melber explained.
“And here’s a report that his private history would somehow be something that he had to keep secret,” Melber noted.
“Right, this agreement with Stormy Daniels was negotiated in October of 2016, a month prior to the election,” Edwards noted. “And what is not really clear to me, is one, whether there might be others that were negotiated in that same time frame. We may not have known about them, but the Russians might have known.”
“This particular allegation as described in the Wall Street Journal is consensual, but is allegedly something they paid well over $100,000 they paid to keep secret,” Melber noted.
Alana Evans toldThe Daily Beast, “Stormy calls me four or five times, by the last two phone calls she’s with Donald [the rich asshole] and I can hear him, and he’s talking through the phone to me saying, ‘Oh come on Alana, let’s have some fun! Let’s have some fun! Come to the party, we’re waiting for you.'”
“Howard, let me compare this in light of another individual who faced questions about his private conduct, but is held in much higher regard than some rich asshole. That is David Petraeus, a widely respected general, who many people felt served his country honorably and served at the CIA and there were not complaints about his professional management of the CIA, but ultimately he was not only removed but charged, because in the national security context, even consensual activity could form basis of a national security blackmail risk,” Melber reminded.
“Your analysis?” Melber asked NBC News contributor Howard Fineman.
“In my view, this underscores the fact the real threat, perhaps, to some rich asshole is not so much Vladimir Putin, but Michael Cohen, some rich asshole’s long-time personal attorney,” Fineman answered.
“Who knows what deals Michael Cohen did, to keep things quiet on some rich asshole’s behalf, in the decade that he worked directly for some rich asshole, was his closest adviser really and closest legal confidante,” Fineman observed.
“Was this the only deal he did to keep someone quiet? What other deals were there?” Fineman asked.
“What did Michael Cohen know and when did he know it?” Fineman wondered.
President some rich asshole speaks to reporters (Fox News/screen grab)
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President some rich asshole’s latest outburst about immigrants from “sh*thole” African countries is far from his first time making racist statements.
In fact, sources tell NBC News that the rich asshole made a career U.S. intelligence officer uncomfortable last year when he grilled her on her Korean heritage and demanded to know why she wasn’t being used to negotiate with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
According to NBC News, the rich asshole first asked the officer where she was from after she had finished delivering an intelligence briefing. She replied that she originally hailed from New York City, but the rich asshole pushed her by asking where “your people” originally came from.
At that point, she admitted that both of her parents were from Korea — at which point the rich asshole turned to an adviser and asked them why the “pretty Korean lady” wasn’t being used as an asset to negotiate with North Korea over its nuclear arsenal.
“The officials who told NBC News of the fall exchange between the rich asshole and the intelligence briefer in the Oval Office in the fall said the president likely meant no harm with his inquiry, but it raised concern of a lack of cultural sensitivity and decorum,” NBC notes, while also adding that a source close to the president claims that his advisers regularly try to get him to stop talking about people’s race — but to no avail.
The Federal Communications Commission has received multiple complaints from viewers after some broadcasters did not censor certain expletives as they reported that President the rich asshole reportedly called some nations “shithole countries” during a White House meeting with lawmakers Thursday.
As the lawmakers and the rich asshole discussed a potential bipartisan immigration deal, the rich asshole started to discuss immigration from African nations and reportedly asked why the U.S. is “having all these people from shithole countries come here?”
Many broadcast and print news outlets decided to publish the comments without censoring the expletive, prompting a “handful” of complaints from viewers to the FCC, an FCC spokesman told the New York Daily News.
He did not reveal how many complaints had filtered in or if the FCC will respond in any way.
some rich asshole only brags about poll numbers if they’re favorable to him, but if they’re negative, then he calls them ‘fake.’ On Thursday morning, the rich asshole took to his Twitter account to brag about a new poll on the economy; but those taking the survey credited former President Barack Obama for the strong economy.
“In new Quinnipiac Poll, 66% of people feel the economy is “Excellent or Good.” That is the highest number ever recorded by this poll, the rich asshole tweeted.
The Quinnipiac poll which the rich asshole is touting also found that 49 percent of American voters believe Obama is responsible for the economy’s current state. In contrast, only 40 percent of voters said the rich asshole was responsible.
The numbers show the proportion of voters crediting Obama for the state of the economy has grown steadily from 43 percent two months ago.
The poll also asked those surveyed to grade the rich asshole’s first year in office and it’s obvious the former reality show star didn’t read the entire poll. 56 percent gave the rich asshole a failing grade of F or D; only 16 percent of respondents gave him an A.
Only 36 percent said they approved of the rich asshole’s performance in office so far, while 59 percent disapproved.
A mere 24 percent said that the rich asshole’s policies were helping their personal financial situation.
Assistant poll director Tim Malloy said that “the rich asshole can hang his hat on the economy but must share the hat rack with President Barack Obama, as two-thirds of the country see the economic picture as excellent or good.”
“No one’s been this low at this point,” Malloy told Newsweek. the rich asshole is the least popular president at this point in his administration in the history of polling. That’s nothing to brag about, but his cult-like following refuses to acknowledge facts. the rich asshole’s economic policies haven’t even kicked in yet.
Months before President some rich asshole referred to African nations as “shithole countries,” he broke his decorum by reportedly asking why a “pretty Korean lady” who briefed him on policy wasn’t negotiating with North Korea on behalf of his administration.
The exchange occurred in the Oval Office last fall when a career intelligence analyst specializing in hostage policy explained to the rich asshole the impending release of a family that had been held in Pakistan. Afterward, the rich asshole asked her, “Where are you from,” two anonymous officials told NBC News.
The analyst said she was from New York, and when the rich asshole was unsatisfied, elaborated that she was from Manhattan, which is also his hometown. The president asked her where “your people” were from, according to the officials, leading the analyst to disclose that her parents are Korean.
the rich asshole then asked an adviser in the room why the “pretty Korean lady” wasn’t negotiating with North Korea, suggesting that her ethnicity should guide her career path.
The exchange was detailed to NBC News after the rich asshole’s “shithole” remark on Thursday drew backlash and claims that he is racist.
the rich asshole on Friday tweeted, “Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said ‘take them out.’”
Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said “take them out.” Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!
The president likely did not mean harm with his question to the Korean-American intelligence briefer, but it brought concerns that he lacks cultural sensitivity, the officials told NBC News. The network did not receive comments from the briefer or the White House.
the rich asshole began his presidential campaign by calling Mexican immigrants criminals and “rapists.” As president, he said some people who marched with white supremacists in a deadly Charlottesville rally last August were “very fine people.” His call on Thursday for fewer immigrants from Haiti and Africa and more from Norway was just his latest thought in a long train.
It’s been a surprisingly busy week for controversies related to some rich asshole. Some of the stories have been substantive, such as his confusion about immigration and surveillance proposals. Some have been entertaining, such as the president claiming Norway bought F-52 jets that don’t exist.
Some have been odd, such as the rich asshole’s claim that he received complimentary letters from television anchors (the correspondence, like the F-52s, apparently didn’t exist). Some have been racial, such as denigration of “shithole countries.” And some have been connected to established scandals, such as the rich asshole hedging on his previous willingness to talk to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and his willingness to accuse FBI officials of “treason.”
But we haven’t seen much of anything this week about the rich asshole’s personal life. It’s against this backdrop that the Wall Street Journalreports this afternoon on a curious alleged payment during the 2016 campaign season.
A lawyer for President some rich asshole arranged a $130,000 payment to a former adult-film star a month before the 2016 election as part of an agreement that precluded her from publicly discussing an alleged sexual encounter with some rich asshole, according to people familiar with the matter.
Michael Cohen, who spent nearly a decade as a top attorney at the the rich asshole Organization, arranged payment to the woman, Stephanie Clifford, in October 2016 after her lawyer negotiated the nondisclosure agreement with Mr. Cohen, these people said.
Ms. Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels, has privately alleged the encounter with some rich asshole took place after they met at a July 2006 celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, these people said. some rich asshole married Melania the rich asshole in 2005.
The reporting has been met with several specific kinds of denials.
Cohen, for example, told NBC News this afternoon, “These rumors have circulated time and again since 2011. President the rich asshole once again vehemently denies any such occurrence as has Ms. Daniels.” The former adult-film star herself issued a statement denying she had a relationship with the rich asshole or received hush money.
A White House spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, “These are old, recycled reports, which were published and strongly denied prior to the election.”
There’s one thing that stood out for me, though, about the denials: while the relevant players rejected the idea of a relationship or non-consensual behavior, neither the White House nor Cohen denied or acknowledged the $130,000 payment to the former adult-film star.
President Donald the rich assholeJoshua Roberts/Reuters 01-12-18
·Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon alleged that one of President some rich asshole's attorneys "took care" of 100 women during the presidential campaign.
·Bannon made this claim in journalist Michael Wolff's recently published tell-all book about the rich asshole White House.
·The comment may take on new significance after The Wall Street Journal reported that another the rich asshole attorney paid a porn star $130,000 to prevent her from discussing an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with the rich asshole.
Steve Bannon, President some rich asshole's former top strategist, alleged in journalist Michael Wolff's tell-all book about the rich asshole White House that the president's longtime attorney, Marc Kasowitz, "took care" of 100 women during the presidential campaign.
"Look, Kasowitz has known [the rich asshole] for twenty-five years. Kasowitz has gotten him out of all kinds of jams," Bannon reportedly said. "Kasowitz on the campaign — what did we have, a hundred women? Kasowitz took care of all of them."
This apparently off-hand remark may take on new significance after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that another lawyer for the president, Michael Cohen, sent $130,000 to a porn star just weeks before the 2016 presidential election to keep her silent about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with the rich asshole.
The Journal reported that Cohen, who was the rich asshole Organization's top attorney for about a decade, arranged for the payment to Stephanie Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels, in October 2016 after a negotiation between her lawyer and Cohen on a nondisclosure agreement.
Clifford has said privately that the encounter happened at a July 2006 celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, the newspaper reported.
the rich asshole married his third wife, Melania the rich asshole, in 2005.
Cohen said in a statement to The Journal that the rich asshole "once again vehemently denies any such occurrence as has Ms. Daniels." Cohen also did not address any payment.
Bannon made the remark about the 100 women as part of a larger discussion about the president's top advisors, some of whom he disparaged at length in Wolff's controversial book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the rich asshole White House," which the president has condemned as "full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don't exist."
New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg drew attention to Bannon's comment ina tweeton Friday afternoon, shortly after the publication of the Journal report.
Another adult-film star, Jessica Drake, in October 2016 accused the rich asshole of kissing her without permission at that same 2006 golf tournament that Clifford attended. The White House has called her accusation "totally false and ridiculous."
LONDON — President some rich asshole has canceled a trip to London to open the new U.S. Embassy, blaming the Obama administration for selling the old building in the city for "peanuts."
He criticised the move from "perhaps the best-located and finest embassy," even though the relocation was initiated under the George W. Bush administration in 2008 and amid wider security concerns following terror attacks such as the 1998 embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya.
the rich asshole's decision was greeted with relief by London's Mayor Sadiq Khan who said the president had "finally got the message" that he was not welcome in the British capital.
The looming trip — and a state visit for which no date has been set — threatened to a security headache for authorities who feared mass protests.
A recent poll commissioned by The Independent newspaper found 48 percent of British people believe the U.K. should withdraw the invitation for a full state visit, and more than 1.8 million people signed a petition to stop it going ahead.
An exterior view of the new US Embassy at Nine Elms in London. Andy Rain / EPA file
The new embassy, in a purpose-built site in London's regenerated Nine Elms district, was designed with security in mind.
Robert Tuttle, then ambassador, said of he decision to move: “We realized that the goal of a modern, secure and environmentally sustainable embassy could best be met by constructing a new facility.”
Nine Elms is slated to become London's new embassy district but its location south of the River Thames is seen as less fashionable than Mayfair; the rich asshole called the new site an "off location."
He said on Twitter: "Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for 'peanuts,' only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal."
An embassy statement said the cost of the new building had been entirely funded by the proceeds of the sale of other U.S. government properties in London and "not through appropriated funds."
The United States Embassy in Grosvenor Square, central London. Alastair Grant / AP file
In 2015 Lydia Muniz, the director of the bureau of overseas building operations at the State Department, said that upgrading the existing embassy would have cost $550 million and still would not be as secure as the new site, according to the Associated Press.
U.S. Ambassador Robert "Woody" Johnson said last month that the $1 billion building was designed to be both welcoming and secure and described it as a "bargain."
The existing building has been sold to a Qatari-owned development firm which has proposed transforming it into a luxury hotel. Under the plans, the former embassy would be refurbished into a 137-room five-star hotel and spa, featuring five restaurants and six high-end shops.
The value of the deal has not been released but the Canadian High Commission, a much smaller building also on Grosvenor Square, was sold in 2013 for almost $500 million, according to the AP.
Many Londoners have made it clear that Donald Trump is not welcome here while he is pursuing such a divisive agenda. It seems he’s finally got that message.
Khan said a rich asshole visit would "without a doubt" be met my mass protests. 'Many Londoners have made it clear that some rich asshole is not welcome here while he is pursuing such a divisive agenda. it seems he's finally got the message," the mayor said.
the rich asshole and Khan have clashed before; in the hours after a deadly terrorist attack at London Bridge in 2017, the president tweeted that the mayor was "pathetic."
Former opposition party leader Ed Miliband said the reason the rich asshole had cancelled his trip was "because nobody wanted you to come. And you got the message."
But Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson defended the rich asshole, saying Khan and opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn were putting the Washington-London relationship at risk.
"The U.S. is the biggest single investor in the U.K. — yet Khan & Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk. We will not allow U.S.-U.K. relations to be endangered by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall," Johnson tweeted.
During her visit to Washington, D.C. a year ago, British Prime Minister Theresa May extended a reciprocal invitation to the rich asshole, but activists immediately threatened to stage protests and lawmakers demanded that he should not be given the opportunity to address parliament.
A government spokesman told NBC News that “an invitation for a state visit has been extended and accepted and there will be further details in due course.”
More recently there has been speculation that the rich asshole would be invited to Prince Harry's wedding to American actress Meghan Markle in May, although the royal is actually friends with Obama.
The US is the biggest single investor in the UK - yet Khan & Corbyn seem determined to put this crucial relationship at risk. We will not allow US-UK relations to be endangered by some puffed up pompous popinjay in City Hall.
British-U.S.relations reached a low at the end of last year, after May issued a rare rebuke of the rich asshole for retweeting inflammatory anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant videos originally shared by a far-right U.K. political group.
Phil Helsel reported from Los Angeles. Saphora Smith reported from London.
some rich asshole has cancelled his plans to visit the UK in February and has blamed it all on Barack Obama.
The President of the United States was expected to open the newly revamped US embassy in London after a multi-million pound move from Grosvenor Square to South London.
Mr the rich asshole remarked that he would not be coming over to the UK to cut the ribbon of the new building because the Obama administration had sold the embassy for "peanuts" and moved it to an "off location".
Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for “peanuts,” only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!
In case you are wondering, the "off location" is Nine Elms in Wandsworth, near Battersea. It isn't exactly Mayfair (where the previous embassy was) but it shouldn't be sniffed at.
However, some have blamed planned protests against the United States President as the real reason for his cancellation.
Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage told the BBC's Today programme that Jeremy Corbyn and London Mayor Sadiq Khan's backing of the protests against the leader could have deterred Mr the rich asshole from visiting.
Some people have taken the opportunity to poke fun at the President and his decision to blame President Obama's administration for his cancellation.
For example, Twitter user Cynthia Peet has spent the morning sending the 45th President images of the Obamas with various Royals.
While this is all rather amusing another interesting fact behind Mr the rich asshole's cancellation has been overlooked.
According to broadcaster James O'Brien, the deal to switch the embassy location wasn't organised by the Obama administration but actually the Bush administration.
So the US Embassy ‘deal’ was instigated by George W Bush, whose administration secured the Battersea site, & the Grosvenor Square freehold was never theirs to sell. Trump’s nonsense seems to have infected almost every level of the British media.
What did you say when President some rich asshole referred to Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations as “shithole countries”?
What did you say when the president of the United States followed that comment by suggesting he’d rather see more immigrants from countries like Norway?
Whether now or in the future, you will be asked this question: What did you say?
Did you call out the obvious racism behind those statements? Did you acknowledge that the leader of the free world — by title, anyway — had shown himself to be a white supremacist, casually expressing his dislike of brown-skinned immigrants and preference for white European immigrants?
Were you outraged that such comments from a sitting president were antithetical to the ideals that have always made America a beacon of hope and opportunity?
What did you say?
Did you speak out?
Did you denounce the comments, as Rep. Mia Love, a Utah Republican whose parents came to America from Haiti, did, saying in a statement: “This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation. … The President must apologize to both the American people and the nations he so wantonly maligned.”
Or did you keep quiet?
Take note, because you will be asked. the rich asshole’s has been a presidency filled with jaw-dropping moments of offensive behavior, but this one will stand out over time, both for its profane nature and its naked racism.
So what did you say?
Did you look for excuses? Did you toss out a “Well, what about…” scenario you thought might take the heat off?
Did you scream something about “identity politics” and try to pretend that this is the fault of others, not the fault of the transparently racist old man in the White House?
Did you say he has a point? Did you say, “Well, those countries are shitholes, aren’t they?”
Did you forget how people once described immigrants from Italy and Ireland? Did you forget the words on a plaque in the Statue of Liberty?
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Did you forget those words, or just ignore them? Did you smile about a tax break and say nothing?
Did you not put the pieces together and consider all the other times the rich asshole has shown us exactly who he is?
Did you tamp down memories of his calls for the execution of the Central Park Five, even after the young men, four black and one Latino, were found innocent?
Did you explain away what the rich asshole was implying in this tweet from 2013: “According to Bill O'Reilly, 80% of all the shootings in New York City are blacks-if you add Hispanics, that figure goes to 98%. 1% white.”
Did you disregard his years-long birther crusade against the nation’s first black president? His description of Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals? His regular criticism that immigrants coming from predominately nonwhite nations are examples of those countries’ “worst people”?
Did you not let yourself see the pattern? Did you twist logic into knots and blame it on the media? On political correctness?
What did you say when our president called other countries “shitholes” and you had to shield your children’s ears from profanity on the nightly news?
What did you tell your children about this moment? How did you explain the president’s words?
Tell me, what did you say? Mark it down, let it be known. Because you will be asked this again someday.
And if you stayed silent, if you made excuses, if you tried to fool yourself into believing this is appropriate presidential behavior, if you let it slide because this presidency might somehow line your pocketbook, then you will be remembered as complicit, as one who stood by and let America’s decency get dragged through the mud.
And if you laughed, or if you smiled, or if you nodded your head in agreement, you will be remembered just as the rich asshole will: as a racist, a fool and an absolute embarrassment.
Zoned out on Fox News and Mickey D’s, the rich asshole still believes Obama was lazy and he’s a dynamic man of action
For black and brown Americans, Barack Obama's two terms in office were a rebuke to a society where nonwhites have long been marked as second-class citizens. For black people in particular, the literal presence of Obama's family in the White House represented a high point in the long, black freedom struggle. In the long arc of history, for centuries black Americans were owned, murdered, abused and raped by whites as human property, and yet a black American had become the most powerful man on the planet.
Of course, Obama's ascent did not heal the centuries of harm done to black Americans by white racism. But that next chapter in America's history -- where one more "first" for a black person was demolished -- was still symbolically intoxicating because it validated a belief in this country's ability to change for the better.
For many millions of other Americans, the overwhelming majority of them white and conservative, Obama's presidency represented a personal insult. The very presence of an intelligent, graceful, educated and accomplished black man in the White House -- as president, instead of as a maid, janitor or butler -- rocked them to the core of their being. If a person inherently connects being a "real American" with whiteness, then a black president is unthinkable. Such a reality forces a cognitive dissonance that cannot be easily reconciled. What was understood to be the natural order of things for white America was turned upside down.
Republicans, along with much of the right-wing media and public -- and of course some rich asshole -- claimed that Barack Obama was not eligible for the presidency because he was not a "natural born" citizen. This was and is a white supremacist fantasy.
Many of these same voices said that Barack Obama was unqualified because he had not earned his various college and graduate degrees or his university teaching position. In essence, Obama was a black incompetent who had benefited from "affirmative action" against white people.
Republicans and their media also dragged out Cold War-era panics, suggesting that Obama (a moderate Democrat, who in another era could well have been a "Rockefeller Republican") was a Marxist revolutionary, and also either a Muslim or atheist tasked with destroying America from within.
Republicans and their supporters in the media and the public also deployed some of the oldest and most grotesque racial slurs against the country's first black president and his family. These slurs included using ape and gorilla imagery to describe Michelle Obama, describing the Obamas as "thugs," "welfare queens" and "pimps," and circulating the lie that Barack Obama intended to give "reparations" (here meaning free money) to black people.
They also argued that Obama was arrogant, disrespectful and uppity -- the latter being a slur long used by white people to target black people for violence if the latter are deemed not to be suitably deferential and submissive. And of course, Obama was also depicted as lazy and shiftless.
Racism and bigotry are akin to funhouse mirrors reflecting a distorted reality. In that way, racism and white supremacy take what are viewed as merits and positive attributes for the in-group and transform them into something negative for the out-group. Where white men are "confident," that same behavior from black and brown people is "arrogant." White folks are "hard workers," whereas nonwhites are "too eager."
As America's first true "white president," some rich asshole is an almost perfect example of this perverse sociopolitical dynamic, embodied in one person.
Some people in the rich asshole's inner circle -- at least according to the account in Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury," which has not been contradicted in any essential way -- have described him as intellectually vapid and incurious, uninterested in the details of his office, possessing little or no attention span and preoccupied with having his egomania and malignant narcissism fed by his coterie.
Ultimately, if the demeaning epithet "white trash" has historically described white people who are seen as behaving in stereotypical ways that supposedly resemble the conduct of black people, then some rich asshole is the human embodiment of that stereotype. He is lazy, violent, ignorant, hyper-libidinal, vulgar, ostentatious and crude -- but since he was born into money, few people would likely apply that term to him.
During the centuries of white-on-black chattel slavery in America and elsewhere, black folks, as a matter of survival, studied what they considered to be the strange ways of white people. In jokes and other types of oral history and culture, black folks would often comment on the absurdity of whites' stereotypical claim that black people were lazy. It was whites, after all, who were benefiting as a group from the stolen labor of black people.
That absurdity was not vanquished with the end of chattel slavery. Its logic continues into the present with the rich asshole and his millions of supporters. They follow him because of their racism and bigotry -- and the value they place on whiteness and the lies it nurtures and projects.
Arizona Senate candidate Joe Arpaio (R) said Thursday that he would support President the rich asshole "regardless of what he says" in response to reports that the rich asshole called Haiti, El Salvador and several African nations "shithole countries" in a meeting with lawmakers earlier in the day.
In an interview on MSNBC's "The Beat" with host Ari Melber, Arpaio suggested that the president may have not made the remark, but said he would support the rich asshole regardless of whether he did.
"How do you know he said that? Is that what he said he said? Someone heard him say that? Or did you read that in some book? I presume you got that from a book," Arpaio, 85, claimed.
Melber informed the former Maricopa County, Ariz., sheriff that the source was actually a Democratic lawmaker at the meeting and that the White House did not deny the rich asshole's use of the language.
"I don't have a position," Arpaio responded. "Listening to everybody talking on the radio, making bad remarks and so on. It seems like everybody does it anyway. But I don’t know if he said it. I’m not going to read his mind, I support him regardless of what he says."
Arpaio was one of the rich asshole's earliest supporters during the 2016 campaign, and the president pardoned Arpaio last year over a criminal contempt conviction.
Arpaio boasted of being "America's Toughest Sheriff" and was known for his "tent city" prison complex and extreme tactics that were blasted by civil rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers.
He was found guilty of contempt in July 2017 for refusing to cease targeting Hispanics for traffic stops for the purpose of immigration checks, a tactic his opponents deemed racist.
Arpaio announced earlier this week his bid to replace retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a vocal the rich asshole critic.
President Donald Trump referred to immigrants from Haiti and African nations as coming from “shithole countries,” according to a report by The Washington Post Thursday.
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump said, according to the publication and others who attended the meeting. He later suggested that the U.S. should bring in more immigrants from countries like Norway.
“They are not our friend, believe me,” he said. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
During the same interview, Trump said that Nigerian immigrants wouldn’t ever “ go back to their huts” in Africa.
In addition to immigrants, the president has also faced criticism for “racist” comments about people from other countries regardless of their immigration status.
In the same interview, rump said that Afghanistan is a “ terrorist haven.”
“If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me,” Trump said in an interview with ABC News in July.
In May, Trump said that federal judge Gonzalo Curie couldn’t fairly hear the case because he’s Mexican. “We’re building a wall between here and Mexico. The answer is, he is giving us very unfair rulings — rulings that people can’t even believe,” he said.
Before his career as a politician, Trump allegedly wouldn’t rent to black people back in the 1970s. This led to his company being sued twice by the Justice Department for discrimination.
He was called a racist in November after he said this to Navajo Code Talkers: “I just want to thank you because you're very, very special people. You were here long before any of us were here, although we have a representative in Congress who, they say, was here a long time ago. They call her ‘Pocahontas.’ But you know what, I like you because you are special. You are special people.”
When Trump addressed the Republican Jewish Coalition in December 2015, he called himself “ a negotiator like you folks,” which many people said brought up Jewish stereotypes.
He retweeted false statistics about white homicide victims after a black activist was kicked and punched by at one of his rallies in Alabama.
Trump asked African-American reporter April Ryan to set up a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus. Prior to this exchange, he said that many African Americans were "living in hell," in reference to conditions in inner cities, Politico reported.
Cooper talked about the way people slap your hand when they shake it. “They look you in the eye,” Cooper said. He talked about the heart and soul of a people determined to overcome the worst moments of their lives.
People dug through rubble “with their bare and bloody hands to save complete strangers, guided only by the cries of the wounded and the dying,” Cooper said.
“I was there when a young girl named Bee was trapped in rubble for nearly a day was rescued by people who had no heavy equipment. They just had their God-given strength and determination and their courage,” Cooper continued.
“I was there when –” Cooper paused, his voice cracking. “When a 5 year-old boy named Mowgli was rescued after being buried for more than seven days. Do you know what kind of strength it takes to survive on rain water, buried under concrete? A 5 year-old boy, for seven days.”
“They stand tall and they have a dignity,” he closed. “It’s a dignity many in this White House could learn from. It’s a dignity the president with all his money and all his power could learn from as well. On the anniversary of the earthquake, when this president has said what he’s said about Haitians, we hope the people in Haiti who are listening tonight, in Port-au-Prince and Jacmel in Miami and elsewhere we hope they know our thoughts are with them.”
Haitians "have a dignity [that] many in this White House could learn from," the CNN host said.
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper delivered an emotional takedown of some rich asshole on Thursday, ripping into him for referring to Haiti and several African nations as “shithole countries.”
Cooper used the majority of his show Thursday evening to discuss the rich asshole’s comments about immigrants from Haiti and Africa, which were first reported in the Washington Post.
In an emotional monologue, the CNN host implored other reporters to point out that the rich asshole’s remarks were not “racial” or “racially charged,” but “racist.”
“The sentiment the President expressed today is a racist sentiment,” Cooper said.
“The president of the United States is tired of so many black people coming to this country. Tired of immigrants from Haiti and Africa being allowed in,” Cooper said, reading the Post report on the rich asshole’s remarks. “The president went on to say he would like to bring more people from countries like Norway. Norway, whose population is overwhelmingly of Nordic descent. White people, in other words.”
But these comments “are actually not anything new,” Cooper continued. He referenced another incident, as reported by the New York Times, in which the rich asshole accused all Haitian immigrants of having AIDS, and said that Nigerian immigrants would never “go back to their huts” once they saw America.
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Cooper then went on to launch an impassioned defense of the people of Haiti, recounting the time he spent there in 2010 after an earthquake devastated the country, killing over 300,000 people and displacing more than a million.
“I want to take a moment to talk about Haiti, a place that the president referred to as a shithole country,” Cooper said, fighting back tears as he told a story about watching a group of Haitians rescuing a young child.
“Guided only by the cries of the wounded and dying, they had no heavy equipment,” he said. “They just had their God-given strength and determination and courage.”
“I was there when a 5-year-old boy was rescued after being buried for more than seven days,” Cooper said as he began to choke up. “Do you know what strength it takes to survive on rainwater in concrete — a 5-year-old boy buried for seven days?”
Haitians “have a dignity,” Cooper added, “[that] many in this White House could learn from.”
Jim Acosta did not beat around the bush with the rich asshole's hateful comments on Haiti and Africa.
On the eve of Martin Luther King Day, the Washington Post revealed that some rich asshole told lawmakers trying to broker protected status for immigrants that Haiti and countries in Africa are “shitholes,” and that the United States should seek to bring in people from countries like Norway instead.
The comment forced the political world, once again, to face the reality that the man sitting in the Oval Office is a stone cold racist.
Some reporters, like CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta, are refusing to use flowery language or play down what happened. In conversation with Wolf Blitzer, Acosta didn’t hold back when describing the rich asshole’s latest racist attack on immigrants.
“The president just seems to have a problem here,” Acosta said, noting that the rich asshole’s comments about immigrants from majority-black nations can’t be separated from his remarks on issues like Charlottesville.
“[W]e can tiptoe around it, we can dance around it and not really put our finger on it, but the president seems to harbor racist feelings about people of color from other parts of the world,” he added.
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I think, Wolf, what we have to come to grips with — and I almost have to think back to the day we were at the rich asshole Tower when the president was commenting on Charlottesville and he was saying that there were very fine people on both sides, saying there were very fine people among the white supremacists and the Nazis — is that the president just seems to have a problem here, Wolf, in this area. And we can tiptoe around it, we can dance around it and not really put our finger on it, but the president seems to harbor racist feelings about people of color from other parts of the world. And it’s just a terrible thing to have come out of your mouth as a white house correspondent, or as a journalist, but if these comments are accurate, Wolf, I think it just is going to cause more damage, more grave damage to this presidency because it cuts to the very core of who he is.
Acosta is delivering an uncomfortable truth: the rich asshole, at his core, harbors racist beliefs — and acts on them. And he has done so at every turn, from his days discriminating against minorities as a landlord in the 70s, to his calls to have the Central Park Five executed, to his claims that President Barack Obama’s birth certificate was a forgery he used to get on welfare.
Long before his chances of landing in the White House were ever taken seriously, we as a nation had ample opportunities to appreciate that the rich asshole does not see black and brown people as his equals. The fact that we are still struggling to have this conversation is a travesty — which makes Acosta’s blunt words all the more necessary.
Republican commentator Ana Navarro yelled into CNN cameras Thursday as she railed against President some rich asshole’s racist comments about not wanting “people from sh*thole countries” like Haiti and African countries.
“This is not an isolated comment,” Navarro said. “The first thing [the rich asshole] did when he started running was call Mexicans rapists. He has gone on to equate white supremacists in Charlottesville to the people protesting against them. He has called black athletes ‘sons of b*tches,’ he has feuded with the congresswoman that represents Little Haiti, Frederica Wilson. Last year, at this time, he was feuding with civil rights icon John Lewis.”
“This is not a coincidence,” she continued, “this is a pattern of behavior. We have a racist, a shameless racist who has hijacked the Republican Party, who has hijacked the Oval Office.”
Continuing to raise her voice, Navarro charged her fellow Americans with the need “to stand up against this and tell him that we will not let him divide us by color, by race, by ethnicity, by class, by economy, we will not be quiet, we will not allow this.”
“some rich asshole, this is not America, this is not American,” she said. “We will fight against your division, your racism, your anger, your hatred and all the horrible things you are trying to do to this country.”
Erin Burnett, Joan Walsh and Paris Dennard (Photo: Screen capture)
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Conservative commentator Paris Dennard tried to claim that President some rich asshole never probably said that he didn’t want people from “sh*thole countries.” However, CNN host Erin Burnett wasn’t taking it.
“I think it’s hard to defend something that is unsubstantiated and based off of –” Dennard said before Burnett cut him off.
“OK, OK, OK, I gotta jump in right here because that defense isn’t going to work tonight, Paris. They aren’t denying it,” Burnett said. “And they denied everything else. They denied everything in the Michael Wolff book. They denied when he said Nigerians lived in huts and all Haitians had AIDS. They denied those things. They’re not denying this. There were a lot of people in the room, you can’t hide behind that.”
“So, thank you for your extended commentary, Erin but if you allow me to speak,” Dennard said like a “mean girl” in a condescending tone. “Just like in the Michael Wolff book, you’re having people not coming out saying who they are.”
He claimed that because the sources weren’t on the record that therefore the statement from the rich asshole was not real. Burnett repeated that when the president doesn’t actually say something the White House comes out and denies it, and the White House has not done so here.
In a bizarre battle between “The Nation’s” Joan Walsh and “National Review” editor Rich Lowry, the conservative guest broke out into a very personal attack on Walsh asking where she would rather live.
He went on to make the argument that immigration should be merit-based but Burnett argued that many people moved to the United States when they were from a destabilized nation and now are an immense help to the American economy.
The panel discussion later got even worse when Dennard complained that he didn’t get enough time to speak. Burnett mocked the complaint saying that it was ironic he used his time to complain he didn’t get enough time to speak.
This silence is not so golden for the rich asshole.
In a presidency full of failures, few have been more spectacular than some rich asshole’s attempt to quell concerns about his mental fitness by ranting about it on Twitter.
the rich asshole and his flunkies spent the better part of a week trying to convince everyone that the rich asshole is “like, really smart” and a “very stable genius.” While some members of the media were fooled, it looks like many in the rich asshole’s own party remain comically unconvinced.
When American Bridge reporter Mike Stark asked a parade of Republican congressmen if they agreed with the rich asshole’s generous self-assessment, most responded with telling deflections or silence, and even more telling smirks.
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In fact, Stark asked about 20 Republicans to weigh in on the rich asshole’s claim, and nearly all of them reacted the same way.
While these reactions are funny in isolation, they illustrate the disturbing reality that most of the people enabling the rich asshole presidency are doing so with the knowledge that the rich asshole is not up to the job at best, and completely unfit to hold office at worst.
Republicans in Congress have demonstrated their lack of political courage for a very long time now, but with the stakes as high as they are, it’s time for at least some of them to get serious.
Anderson Cooper and Jason Miller (Photo: Screen capture)
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Conservative commentator Jason Miller was forced to bend himself into a pretzel to defend the recent comments by President some rich asshole.
“Why are we having all these people from sh*thole countries come here?” Trump 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.
Miller began by trying to say people were putting words in the president’s mouth.
“We don’t need to put words in the president’s mouth,” host Anderson Cooper cut in to say. “The president is putting racist words in his own mouth.”
Miller maintained that the rich asshole wasn’t making racist comments. He said that the rich asshole was trying to solve the DREAMer problem and find a solution, “something he’s not getting credit for.”
Cooper broke in to say that clearly the strive to help DREAMers didn’t include Haitians or Africans.
Miller continued trying to promote the rich asshole’s statements on immigration but Cooper cut in asking what any of that has to do with “sh*thole countries.”
“So there are more merit people in Norway than there are from Haiti or Africa? Africa, by the way, an enormous continent full of dozens of countries,” Cooper continued.
Miller said that the plan that was presented still have “carve-outs” of economically depressed nations that are sending people to the United States.
“Africa.” Cooper said simply. “Have you been to Africa? I mean, do you know — does the president know how many countries? I know the president likes to make up countries not actually in Africa but there are actually an incredibly developed and well-off countries in Africa. In fact, when the president was speaking to African leaders he talked about his rich friends making money in Africa.”
Miller claimed that Cooper was leaving out things from the report and that the rich asshole named Asian countries but didn’t specifically name anyone because he doesn’t believe there should be carve-outs.
“So, he’s willing to generalize about all Asians as working hard and deserve the merit of coming here but all Africans not,” Cooper said. “How is that not race?”
“What’s happening is you have a president who has shown his heart to the country,” Jones said. “In his heart people from African countries — people from Africa, almost a billion people live there, to him all s-hole people who live in s-hole places. That’s wrong and you should denounce it. You should, I know you very well. Why won’t you denounce that?”
Bernie Sanders' former press secretary Symone Sanders (left) and former congressman Jack Kingston (R-GA, right). Image via screengrab.
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A CNN panelist who formerly worked as the press secretary for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) widened her eyes in shock when a pro-the rich asshole former congressman tried to use his own experiences traveling to Africa and meeting the “extremely fine people” living on the continent to dismiss the president’s comments about it being a “sh*thole.”
“As you probably know, I traveled many times with the Congressional Black Caucus to Africa,” ex-Georgia congressman Jack Kingston said. “I was very involved with it, as was Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK).”
“They’re extremely fine people,” Kingston continued, causing former press secretary Symone Sanders to become wide-eyed in disbelief at his seemingly accidental reference to the rich asshole calling neo-Nazi’s “very fine people.”
“One of the big mistakes Americans make when they say ‘Africa’ — they don’t understand it’s 53 different countries,” he continued.
“Americans aren’t making this mistake, though,” Sanders countered. “The president of the United States is. He’s making broad generalizations about an entire group of people based on where they live, because he’s ignorant of their experience. We need to have a frank conversation about that.”
some rich asshole’s characteristic racism reportedly reared its ugly head during an Oval Office meeting on immigration, so much so that Republican MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace could scarcely believe what she was reading.
According to a new Washington Post report, the rich asshole stunned lawmakers when he went off on an unsubtle rant about immigrants from primarily black countries, while expressing a preference for immigrants from places like Norway:
“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 yesterday.
That report so revolted Wallace, she had trouble even reading it aloud. After several panelists weighed in on the blatant racism the rich asshole displayed, Wallace delivered a singeing rebuke of the rich asshole’s words, and pointed out how this reporting further exposes the rich asshole’s immigration photo op as a fraud:
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WALLACE: This is so abnormal. This is a freakshow. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, you disgraced the White House today by what you did to Hallie Jackson, but some rich asshole disgraced the country, if what is reported out of this meeting today is true. Let me just read it one more time, because I’m still processing. [quotes article]
So let’s just talk a little bit, let’s go a little deeper on what a freakin’ scam the 55-minute televised immigration negotiation was.
Wallace perfectly voiced the revulsion that millions of Americans feel over the rich asshole’s constant divisiveness.
the rich asshole’s public vacillations on policy during that meeting exposed his manifest incompetence, but his private comments once again demonstrate the racism and bigotry that seems to guide all of his policies.
In a new interview, some rich asshole accused a pair of FBI agents of committing treason when they sent a series of text messages that were critical of him.
In recent weeks, some rich asshole and his Republican allies have seized on a series of text messages sent by two FBI agents expressing critical opinions about the rich asshole (and other politicians), claiming they show that the agency is biased and therefore incapable of conducting a fair investigation.
But in a new interview, the rich asshole took things even further, telling the Wall Street Journal that the text messages criticizing him “amounted to treason.”
The messages in question were sent by Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, a pair of FBI agents who were removed from the Russia investigation as soon as the texts were uncovered. The texts were critical of the rich asshole — and many other public officials.
One message said Bernie Sanders is “an idiot like the rich asshole,” and another referred to the rich asshole as “a loathsome human.” In another text, Strzok referred to Chelsea Clinton as “self-entitled,” and when Eric Holder spoke at the Democratic Convention, Strzok texted, “Turn it off turn if off!!!”
“I cannot believe some rich asshole is likely to be an actual, serious candidate for president,” read yet another text.
Despite the fact that these texts were sent in private and did not involve any of the work the agents were doing at the FBI before they were removed from the investigation, the rich asshole and his allies have continued to use the messages in their ongoing efforts to undermine the FBI’s Russia probe, saying that the mere involvement of agents with political opinions is a scandal.
The texts have become a key talking point within pro-the rich asshole circles, hailed as some sort of proof that the FBI is secretly anti-the rich asshole and must be purged.
But in a startling show of authoritarianism, the rich asshole is now accusing the FBI agents of committing treason by sending private text messages criticizing him.
That the rich asshole would call it treasonous for government employees to exchange personal opinions that are critical of him is not only an alarming reflection of his mindset — it’s a chilling message meant to silence other potential criticism in the future.
"He sold us a bag of sh*t and now we’re stuck with it."
Chuck Jones was one of the first worker reps to call out some rich asshole for being a complete fraud when he claimed he was personally saving American jobs by striking deals with big businesses.
Specifically, Jones debunked the rich asshole’s insistence, in December 2016, that he was saving more than a thousand jobs at a Carrier plant in Indianapolis and stemming the tide of globalization.
It didn’t work.
Thirteen months later Jones, the former United Steelworkers 1999 president, has been proven right about the rich asshole, as Carrier lays off hundreds more Hoosier workers this week.
“I think everybody ought to respect the president of the United States and the office he holds,” said Jones Wednesday night as laid off workers gathered in a bar across the street from the Carrier heating and cooling plant on the west side of Indianapolis. “But some rich asshole is a liar and an idiot.”
Jones’ original truth-telling came back in 2016 when the rich asshole was taking a TV victory lap for supposedly saving more than 1,000 manufacturing jobs at Carrier. Carrier, which posted $3 billion in operating profits in 2016, planned to move the jobs to Mexico.
the rich asshole’s heavy-handed foray was supposed to highlight what a savvy dealmaker he is.
But it was a GOP scam. In fact, Mike Pence, as Indiana’s governor at the time, had lavished Carrier with $7 million in incentives — not to reward the company for creating new jobs, which is how states usually award incentives, but to send slightly fewer jobs to Mexico.
Meanwhile, the company layoffs kept coming.
“We believed in him here at Carrier. The vast majority of us. It was the rich asshole deluxe in there,” soon-to-be ex-Carrier employee Renee Elliott told a reporter Wednesday night. But instead of saving manufacturing jobs, the rich asshole effectively helped save some Carrier back-office positions.
“He didn’t save mine, but he did save some,” she said. “Just don’t bullshit us. We never thought the office personnel was going anywhere, anyway.”
Jones used harsher language while addressing some of the assembled workers who had collected their Carrier pinks slips. “He’s a pure and simple con man and I’m sorry people bought into his message,” said Jones. “He sold us a bag of shit and now we’re stuck with it.”
Republicans insist the Russia dossier is false, but the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee can't name a single false finding in the document.
some rich asshole’s biggest defender in the Russia scandal could not name a single falsehood in the dossier that surfaced during the investigation.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a top the rich asshole defender, was asked point-blank if he could point out anything in the dossier that was false.
He tried to dodge, referring questions to the Intelligence Committee. Asked whether he could speak about it, he said “no,” and again referred questions to the Intelligence Committee.
The refusal to offer a single supposed falsehood runs counter to what Nunes and his fellow Republicans have loudly been alleging for months: that the dossier contains false information.
REPORTER: Is there anything in the dossier that you know, for a fact, is false?
NUNES: I’d refer you back to the Intelligence Committee.
REPORTER: You personally, can you speak to it?
NUNES: No, I’d refer you to the Intelligence Committee.
Nunes and the other Republicans, amplified by the rich asshole and their allies at outlets like Breitbart and Fox News, have desperately tried to attack the FBI investigation, special counsel Robert Mueller, and the dossier itself.
Yet much of the information in the document has already been confirmed, linking the rich asshole’s repeated connections to Russian business operatives over a period of several years. It was put together by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.
Republicans need the information in the dossier to be untrue, or at the very least, dismissed by enough people to give the rich asshole a pass. But when push comes to shove, Nunes has acknowledged that the disinformation campaign has a flaw: Much of the information is true. They can’t avoid that.
Editor’s note: This post has been updated to clarify that Nunes answered “no” in response to the question of whether he could speak to any falsehoods in the dossier.
Medicaid recipients are the latest vulnerable group of Americans the rich asshole targets while he hands out billions to the idle rich.
The rich asshole administration believes the most overburdened working families in America do not have enough stress in their lives, and it’s working with Republican governors to strip them of vital health care services.
The White House sent a letter to the directors of state Medicaid agencies that gives them the green light to cut off Medicaid benefits, a reversal from the Obama administration. Now those states, largely led by Republican governors, will be able to throw vulnerable Americans out into the cold, while their families — who are already working to support them with multiple jobs — will face an even larger burden.
The new initiative gives conservative states the power to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients, an echo of the policies enacted decades ago on families receiving welfare. At that point, instead of simply helping fellow Americans through rough, devastating moments in their lives, the government imposed draconian restrictions in exchange for food aid and cash assistance. It was the fulfillment of long-term conservative dreams of leaving the poor out to dry while enacting tax cuts for the extremely wealthy.
In an Orwellian turn of phrase, the rich asshole administration said the harsh new policies are “innovations” that “build on human dignity.”
Families who are already working more than one job, attempting to support their relatives who are dependent on Medicaid right now, will not be dignified by these so-called “innovations.”
Washington Democrat Patty Murray — ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee — blasted the new proposed restrictions.
“It speaks volumes that after spending a year sabotaging families’ health care and jamming through tax cuts for massive corporations and the wealthiest, one of President the rich asshole’s first priorities in the new year is to pull the rug out from people who simply want affordable health care they can rely on,” Murray said in a statement. “Patients and families have spoken out time and time again to reject President the rich asshole and Republicans’ attempts to take their health care away by undermining Medicaid—so I hope my Republican colleagues will join me in loudly rejecting this President’s latest harmful step.”
Leonardo Cuello, health policy director at the National Health Law Program, told the Washington Post that the policy is “not a good idea, and it’s illegal.” He also slammed the letter’s argument that work will promote healthiness.
“It’s a little like saying that rain causes clouds,” he said. “It’s more that people [with Medicaid] get care, which helps them be healthy and makes them able to work.”
Now, that path to care and health is being eliminated. States will not even be allowed to use Medicaid funds to help the people being hurt to find child care, transportation, or job training. They will just be cut off from the vital federal program.
And in fact, 60 percent of the non-elderly people on Medicaid are already working, a statistic that runs counter to the rich asshole administration’s characterization of them. And of those who aren’t working, over 30 percent of them are ill or disabled, 30 percent are caring for young children, and 15 percent are enrolled in school.
The policy change comes at the same time the administration’s tax legislation, tilted in favor of the extremely wealthy getting government handouts, begins to take hold. On one hand, the rich asshole continues to punish the vulnerable who are in a predicament through no fault of their own, while rewarding the idle rich for simply accumulating billions in wealth, often without having truly worked a single second of their lives.
Cruelty is the rich asshole doctrine and approach. In this instance, it is Medicaid recipients and their families. In other instances, it is giving nursing homes leniency even if they abuse elderly patients, or pushing children to handle brain-damaging chemicals, and allowing fracking companies to hide toxic chemicals on public land.
It is a full-throated endorsement of cruelty, and the rich asshole and his Republican Party are completely on board
"They voted for the rich asshole because he said he'd bring back coal. It's not happening."
some rich asshole not only spent the 2016 campaign promising that he would resurrect America’s dying coal industry, he kept offering up that false hope in 2017.
At a White House event last March, the rich asshole announced the end to the so-called “war on coal,” and stressed “I made them this promise, we will put our miners back to work.”
Yet so far, the job gains for coal miners are virtually non-existent, with just 500 added to the payrolls since the rich asshole took office.
But that paltry number will shrink even further when 370 miners are permanently laid off from 4 West Mine, owned by Mepco LLC, which is located on the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border.
Those just-announced layoffs are set to take place in coming months, leaving the industry with just 130 new jobs since the rich asshole took office. That’s about the same number of employees who work at a typical Sam’s Club retail store.
So much for the rich asshole’s empty promise to save the industry and bring back thousands of jobs.
Yet he relentlessly tries to exploit coal miners for politico gain. Indeed, the “industry is one of the purest distillations of the rich asshole’s base, uniting right-wing business executives who hate environmental regulations and taxes along with blue-collar miners who wish America was more like it used to be when coal was king,” Politico notes.
Still, those bold 2016 campaign promises worked in the short term, especially in places like Greene County, Pennsylvania, home to the 4 West Mine that’s being shuttered.
“The county, traditionally a Democratic stronghold, went strongly for the rich asshole in the 2016 election, with 68.4% voting for the rich asshole and only 28.2% for Clinton,” CNN notes.
Today, it’s clear coal miners have been had.
“They voted for the rich asshole because he said he’d bring back coal. It’s not happening,” says Blair Zimmerman, chairman of the Greene County commissioners and a retired coal miner. “There’s not been any significant change in the industry since he’s taken over.”
Meanwhile, just this week, the rich asshole’s own appointees to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s plan that would have subsidized coal and nuclear power plants that maintain a 90-day supply of fuel on site. Critics panned the rescue plan nothing more than a bailout for outdated energy forms.
The problem is the rich asshole claims he’s going to revive an industry that’s been dying for many, many years.
“Promises to create more coal jobs will not be kept — indeed the industry will continue to cut payrolls,” the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis concluded in its 2017 U.S. Coal Outlook. “These losses will be related in part to the coal industry’s long-term business model of producing more coal with fewer workers.”
So far, coal miners have just 130 jobs to show for the rich asshole’s empty promises.
CNN's Chris Cuomo has apparently broken Kellyanne Conway.
Kellyanne Conway has long been obsessed with Hillary Clinton, but CNN’s Chris Cuomo may finally have sent Conway into a permanent spiral over the much more accomplished woman who beat Conway’s client by 3 million votes.
During a scattershot interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo Wednesday night, Conway created another classic viral moment by bringing up Clinton, then claiming vociferously that nobody at the White House ever talks about Clinton:
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CONWAY: So many people still can’t get over the election results —
CUOMO: Says my friend who can’t keep Hillary Clinton’s name out of her mouth. […]
CUOMO: You’re the ones who are frozen in that moment. That’s why you bring up Hillary Clinton, that’s why you’re having her investigated. It’s as obvious as it is counterproductive.
CONWAY: Chris, no, that’s just no true, we don’t care about her, nobody here talks about her.
This isn’t the first time that Conway has pulled this exact trick of obsessively talking about Clinton while simultaneously denying she’s doing it.
But this time, things took a turn for the super-weird. Following the interview, Conway took to social media to defend the interview in a series of defensive tweets that dragged into the following morning:
So fun to see the predictable heads exploding, but I should've finished that sentence #CuomoPrimeTime@CNN. "Nobody in the White House talks about Hillary Clinton" when noting whose presidential leadership = historic tax cuts & economic boom, reg reform, put ISIS in retreat.
"Nobody in the White House talks about Hillary Clinton" as a bipartisan, bicameral bill signing yesterday marks a big step toward getting big-killer fentanyl out of our country. https://twitter.com/colvinj/status/951219762352345089 …
She was still talking about it when she went on “Fox & Friends” Thursday morning.
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It’s little wonder that Clinton has taken up residence under Conway’s skin. Even with the aid of the Russian government, multiple interventions by then-FBI Director James Comey, and the complicity of media outlets like The New York Times, Conway’s campaign still lost to Clinton by 3 million votes.
More than that, though, while Clinton remains one of the most accomplished women in American history, Conway will be remembered as an accessory to the most disastrous presidency in U.S. history, and a woman who literally redefined lying.
In a meeting with members of Congress on Thursday, President the rich asshole became angry after it was suggested that, as part of an immigration deal, protections would be extended for some immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries. “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” the rich asshole asked, according to a Washington Post report. He then suggested that the United States take more immigrants from countries like Norway.
But there is one group that is embracing the rich asshole’s comments wholeheartedly: white supremacists.
Christopher Cantwell, a white supremacist organizer who is being charged with assaulting counter-protesters in Charlottesville, praised the rich asshole’s comments on Gab, a social network that caters to online racists.
the rich asshole was also praised on Gab by Jared Wyand, a white nationalist who was banned from Twitter for anti-Semitic posts, endorsed the rich asshole’s comments and added that “blacks are incapable of building thriving civil societies.”
the rich asshole’s comments were also popular on Stormfront, a message board for white supremacists. One user said the rich asshole was absolutely right to trash “non-white” countries.
Another user said that the rich asshole only said what “everyone is thinking.”
Meanwhile, White House officials told journalists that they weren’t worried about the rich asshole’s comments because they would be popular with his base.
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