Constituents laugh out loud at GOP Senator Joni Ernst’s defense of the rich asshole
This is going to be a long year for Republicans.
some rich asshole was already politically toxic to his party, but his racist rant last week is making things more uncomfortable for elected Republicans who have hidden from reporters, but now have to face constituents.
Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-IA) experience at her first constituent event of 2018 could be a prelude of things to come. In Red Oak, Iowa, on Sunday, Ernst was asked about the rich asshole’s recent comments about “shithole countries.”
At the otherwise friendly “Coffee with Joni” event, constituent Barb Melson confronted Ernst about “the damage that the rich asshole is doing to our neighbors around the world with his white supremacy talk.”
Ernst insisted that the rich asshole enjoys support from other world leaders.
“He is standing up for a lot of the countries,” Ernst told the crowd.
Ernst was then asked to “name a few.”
Her response drew a big laugh from the crowd.
Norway,” Ernst replied unironically.
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Norway is the predominantly white country that the rich asshole used as a contrast to the majority black nations he characterized as “shithole countries.”
Ernst isn’t up for reelection until 2020, but the GOP is facing a wipeout in the House, and they stand a very good chance of losing control of the Senate in November. If Republicans are going to brave angry constituents in this climate, they’re going to need better answers than “Norway.”
After telling Americans to go do community service for MLK, the rich asshole spends day at his resort
some rich asshole's actions speak louder than his lip service to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
As Americans celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., some rich asshole ignored his own empty suggestions to Americans by spending the day at his golf course.
On Friday, some rich asshole signed a proclamation declaring the day a federal holiday, during a photo op that ended with award-winning White House correspondent April Ryan asking a fleeing the rich asshole, “Are you a racist?”
During that ceremony, the rich asshole also said that he wanted to “encourage all Americans to observe this day with acts of civic work and community service,” a bit of advice that the rich asshole himself has paid no heed. the rich asshole’s schedule for Monday consists only of his return trip to the White House in the evening, and according to pool reports emailed to Shareblue, the rich asshole is spending the day at his golf course.
the rich asshole did make the extraordinary effort of pressing the “retweet” button to distribute his own weekly address, taped last week.
the rich asshole’s inaction is a sharp departure from his predecessor, President Barack Obama, who spent his last MLK Day in office participating in a service project at a family shelter in Washington, DC:
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the rich asshole’s choice to spend the King holiday is, however, consistent with his own history of either ignoring the slain civil rights hero, or co-opting him for his own purposes. A search of the rich asshole’s public statements on King shows that the rich asshole doesn’t seem to have mentioned him prior to January of 2016, save one tweet in which he retweeted a follower invoking King in defense of a celebrity who used the n-word.
Of the 36 references recorded, 10 were from last week’s photo op, and another 10 were of the rich asshole complaining that he was accused of removing a bust of King from the Oval Office. At a 2016 speech at Liberty University on MLK Day, the rich asshole “honored” King by dedicating his record-breaking attendance to King, and at another speech, used Dr. King as an example to complain about crowd size.
the rich asshole also used Dr. King to promote school vouchers at an event with reviled Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.
some rich asshole’s empty words of reverence for Martin Luther King, Jr. last week came in the shadow of his ultra-racist rant in the Oval Office, and his actions on MLK Day serve only to prove their emptiness.
Broken staircases and spoiled food: Florida health inspectors failed the rich asshole’s Mar-a-Lago
A painting of some rich asshole currently on display at Mar-a-Lago resort in FL (Twitter.com)
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Mar-a-Lago, President some rich asshole’s exclusive club in Palm Beach, required emergency repairs in order to pass a November inspection by Florida health inspectors, the Miami Herald reports.
On November 8th, the so-called “Winter White House” was cited for “the lack of smoke detectors capable of alerting the hearing impaired through flashing bright lights; and slabs of concrete missing from a staircase, exposing steel rebar that could cause someone to fall.”
There were also food-safety violations discovered.
“The November inspections of the club’s two main kitchens, meanwhile, yielded a total 15 violations,” the Miami Herald reported. “Among the no-nos was the staff’s failure to track the freshness of potentially hazardous foods, including curry sauce dated Oct. 21 pulled from a freezer and improperly marked, milk stored at 49 degrees instead of the safe temperature of 41 degrees, and cases of hot dogs stored on the ground of the walk-in freezer.”
This was the second time the rich asshole’s club has been cited during his presidency.
In February 2017, “inspectors found sushi fish ready for consumption without the obligatory treatment for parasites and cited the club for storing food in two broken down coolers at temperatures that spoiled fresh ingredients,” the Miami Herald reminded.
the rich asshole’s ‘favorite pastime’ is sizing up potential 2020 Dems — and he doesn’t see anyone as a ‘serious competitor’
some rich asshole during CNN debate (Photo: Screen capture via video)
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some rich asshole hasn’t yet served a full year in office, but according to Politico, when he’s not golfing at one of his properties or live-tweeting his favorite Fox News program, the president is sizing up—and dressing down—potential 2020 challengers.
According to a Republican insider, the rich asshole recently dismissed the threat of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), insisting the former Democratic candidate isn’t a serious threat to his presidency because Sanders’ age would play a major factor in a potential match-up (Sanders is five years older than the rich asshole).
the rich asshole has also reportedly dismissed potential presidential runs by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) (“easy to beat”), and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who the rich asshole reportedly thinks won’t run.
“He’s always asking people, ‘Who do you think is going to run against me?’” the GOP insider told Politico.
“I don’t think he sees anyone, right now, being a serious competitor,” the Republican added.
Speaking with Politico, A former White House official warned that the president’s biggest problem would be the addition of someone well-liked by voters who also pushes for policies related to the rich asshole’s central campaign promises.
“What we can’t let voters do is think they can get the same policies with someone they like better, like Joe Biden—someone who would fight for them but who doesn’t have the crass edge,” that former staffer told Poltiico. “I hope CNN has Kirsten Gillibrand on every minute of every day. Love it. Bring it. She’s easy to destroy. If you’re the president, or the RNC, you’re more worried about someone who looks like Biden—someone who has more mainstream appeal, who blue-collar workers could identity with.”
Others are worried about a potential upset by a big-named celebrity with universal appeal—like the beloved talk show host Oprah Winfrey.
“Oprah would be a problem,” a GOP strategist told Politico, referring to Winfrey as the Democrats’ “best.”
”She’s ubiquitous, she’s black, she has crossover appeal and she probably clears a lot of the field out,” the strategist added.
WATCH: Anderson Cooper issues epic takedown of the rich asshole’s claim he’s ‘the least racist person you have ever interviewed’
CNN "AC 360" host Anderson Cooper.
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CNN anchor Anderson Cooper delivered a powerful opening monolague on Friday in response to President some rich asshole’s claims that he is the “least racist” person members of the press corps have ever interviewed.
“Good evening, we begin tonight on this Martin Luther King Jr. day with a claim by the President of the United States, a claim that he is not, in fact, a racist,” Cooper noted, introducing a clip by the rich asshole.
Asked what he thinks about people who think he's racist, President Donald Trump said: "I am not a racist." He told reporters: "I am the least racist person you have ever interviewed. That I can tell you." 4.nbcla.com/Z3aBYfv
“It should be pointed out President the rich asshole has had to make that claim on more than one day of his administration,” Cooper noted.
“Keeping him honest, the president’s racist remarks were confirmed by a Democrat and Republican senator who were at the meeting and now are substantially backed up by two more Republican colleagues,” Cooper reminded. “A senior Republican source telling CNN that their defense seemed to hinge on hearing him say the word ‘house’ instead of ‘hole’ — as in ‘shithouse’ countries, not ‘shithole’ countries, as if ‘hole’ were racist and somehow ‘house’ is not.”
“How did the president honor Dr. King? Well, he got in a round of golf, it’s the 95th day of his presidency spent at one of his golf courses,” Cooper added.
At this point, Cooper replayed the clip of the rich asshole denying his racism.
“I suppose the claim of being the least racist person reporters have interviewed, depends on who you have interviewed,” Cooper noted.
Cooper than listed all of the Civil Rights heroes who may have a greater claim to being the “least racist” person.
Even more powerful, Cooper compared the rich asshole’s claims against his own record of racist statements and scandals.
Watch:
GOP leaders face most difficult shutdown deadline yet
BY MELANIE ZANONA - 01/15/18 05:08 PM EST
Republican leaders are facing their toughest challenge yet in keeping the government open, as lawmakers race to secure more money before current funding runs out at the end of the week.
Leadership was already going to have their work cut out for them in trying to corral frustrated defense hawks, skeptical conservatives and fired-up Democrats into supporting another continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government's lights on.
But President the rich asshole created new headaches for Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and his top lieutenants last week after the president rejected a bipartisan immigration deal and reportedly made explosive comments about "shithole countries,” throwing a wrench into broad negotiations on Capitol Hill.
While Congress has enacted a series of short-term funding extensions since September, each one has become progressively more difficult to pass. And the latest push comes amid bipartisan backlash to the rich asshole's reported comments about immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries.
“I am worried’’ about the impact on a CR, said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), who chairs an Appropriations subcommittee. “Anything that makes it more difficult to sit down and come to a deal is not helpful when we have such a short amount of time.”
“All these things are connected,” he added.
The House will consider a short-term funding patch this week, though GOP leadership has not yet decided how long government funding will last or whether it will include money for disaster aid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Current government funding is set to expire on Friday night.
Work on a long-term spending bill has been stalled as congressional leaders scramble to reach a bipartisan agreement on boosting spending caps and providing a permanent legal solution for beneficiaries of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which the rich asshole said he would end in March.
Congress needs to raise the spending caps in order to avoid automatic, across-the-board spending cuts that are set to take effect later this month under sequestration. Once appropriators receive the top-line spending numbers, they can begin writing a massive, trillion-dollar omnibus package.
But a deal on spending caps has so far remained elusive, with some Republicans accusing Democrats of slow-walking the budget agreement until they get a DACA fix.
Democrats have also been insisting on equal increases for defense and nondefense spending programs — another sticking point holding up the talks.
Ryan expressed confidence on Friday that they would be able to soon reach a deal on budget caps and avoid a shutdown next week.
“I don’t think there will be [a shutdown], because I think we’re making progress on what we call the caps deal,” Ryan said at an event in Wisconsin. “But I think the Democrats — and I understand why, it’s about the only leverage they have — they want to see a path for DACA.”
If a budget caps deal is not reached this week, the CR would have to temporarily suspend sequestration in order to avoid automatic budget cuts. But such a scenario could run into opposition within the GOP.
Defense hawks were already threatening to tank the last stopgap measure because they worry that temporary funding patches hurt the military.
While many of them ended up holding their noses and voting for the last CR, they may want to see an agreement in place to boost defense spending before they back another funding extension.
“We’ll see what the circumstances are at the time, but every day of a CR does damage to the military,” said Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
House conservatives have also balked at the idea of another CR – especially if it temporarily suspends sequestration.
“It’s a bad idea,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio.), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
If enough conservatives unite against the stopgap bill, GOP leadership will have to lean on Democrats to supply the necessary votes in the House.
Nine Democrats are already needed to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.
Democrats are under immense pressure to oppose the CR without a DACA deal in place — and it’s unclear whether one will materialize by Friday’s deadline.
"DACA is probably dead because the Democrats don’t really want it, they just want to talk and take desperately needed money away from our Military," the rich asshole tweeted on Sunday.
A bipartisan group of six senators announced Thursday that they had struck a deal to protect DACA recipients from deportation in exchange for securing the border and making other changes to existing immigration programs.
But the White House quickly threw cold water on the plan, with the rich asshole expressing a desire for more border wall funding. He is also pushing for new restrictions surrounding family migration and to reform the diversity visa lottery program.
Further roiling the DACA debate were explosive comments first reported by The Washington Post on Thursday indicating the rich asshole disparaged several nations as “shithole countries” during a private immigration meeting with lawmakers in the Oval Office. the rich asshole later disputed the comments, saying the conversation was "misrepresented."
But Democrats, who were already getting pushback from pro-immigrant activists and other base constituencies worried that they are poised to give away too much in a DACA deal, may now feel even less inclined to negotiate with the rich asshole on the issue.
“My thought that we might get a bipartisan agreement approved by the White House died yesterday,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who is part of one of the bipartisan working groups trying to hash out an immigration deal, said following the rich asshole's comments.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has made clear that she won’t help Ryan pass a CR unless a DACA deal has been secured.
“Well I, for one, will not vote for government funding until we get a deal on DACA,” Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) told ABC’s “This Week" on Sunday. "We must not give up or give in. We must continue to press on and get a deal."
It’s less certain, however, whether Senate Democrats will ultimately band together against a funding patch in the absence of an immigration agreement.
But if the CR includes additional items such as disaster aid or long-term CHIP funding, it could be difficult for vulnerable Democrats to vote against the measure and allow the government to shut down.
“If someone puts a clean CR out there with CHIP funding or hurricane relief, and you vote ‘no’ and the government did shut down, you’re responsible for that, and it will be remembered,” Cole said.
TAGS MAC THORNBERRY NANCY PELOSI SOME RICH ASSHOLE DICK DURBIN JOHN LEWIS JIM JORDAN PAUL RYAN TOM COLE DEFERRED ACTION FOR CHILDHOOD ARRIVALS CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM CONTINUING RESOLUTION GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
Durbin: WH should release any tapes from 'shithole' meeting
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 01/15/18 06:29 PM EST
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called for the White House to release any recordings it might have of a bipartisan immigration reform meeting during which President the rich asshole called some nations “shithole countries.”
Durbin, who confirmed the rich asshole’s reported remarks last week, said he didn’t record the meeting because visitors to the Oval Office are required to turn over their phones, but called on the administration to release any tapes of the meeting if they exist.
“I want to just call on the White House right now, release whatever you have. If they don’t have it, so be it,” Durbin told reporters.
Durbin also said that he stands “behind every word that I said in terms of that meeting.”
the rich asshole, who has been criticized by both parties for the alleged remarks attacked Durbin on Twitter Monday, saying that “Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting.”
Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals can’t get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military.
the rich asshole also suggested that he “probably should record future meetings” in a tweet last week denying that he made the comments.
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!
Republicans descend into internal squabbling over whether the rich asshole did or did not use hateful language during an immigration meeting last week.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is being hung out to dry as the Republican Party’s defense of some rich asshole’s racist and vulgar “shithole” comment last week regarding black immigrants to the U.S. has devolved into a Keystone Kops routine, with various players blindly bumping into each other.
the rich asshole made his disparaging remarks in a roomful of grownups, including Graham and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, who has publicly confirmed them. As for the Republicans in the room, their responses continue to ricochet around the Beltway, depending on the day of the week and the level of White House panic.
Graham essentially confirmed the remarks and reportedly admonished the rich asshole during the meeting. Meanwhile, other Republicans present opted for a fuzzy memory defense. (Who would forget if the POTUS blurted out “shithole” during a policy meeting?)
Keep in mind, White House aides confirmed the “shithole” comment when the story first broke. In fact, they reportedly loved it, took a “victory lap,” and insisted it played well with the rich asshole’s racist base.
But now, that’s all changed and there has been a collective memory shift. So on Sunday, Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia were marched onto the morning shows to both update their earlier claims from Friday that they couldn’t remember if the rich asshole had said “shithole” during the meeting. Now they’re declaring definitively that the rich asshole did no use the vile term. And they’re calling Durbin a liar.
Oh, and maybe the rich asshole said “shithouse” instead of “shithole.”
On “Meet the Press,” Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul insisted the “only thing” he regrets about the rich asshole’s racist rant isn’t that the rich asshole might be a racist, it’s that people are calling him one.
But again, this all leaves Graham out in the cold because with the White House radically altering its “shithole” talking point, Graham’s public statements mean he’s in direct opposition to the “shithole” cover up.
On Monday, Graham tweaked Cotton and Perdue, insisting his memory had not “evolved” on the matter:
New: @LindseyGrahamSC declines to confirm "shithole countries" comment but tells me, "My memory hasn't evolved. I know what was said and I know what I said."
Calls Oval Office meeting "disappointing" and "a step backward" but determined to continue working on DACA deal. #scpol
So the GOP civil war rages on.
Meanwhile, Democrats have not changed their position on any of this. The denunciations have been thundering and unequivocal.
“If the president can’t control himself and lead this country with the authority, dignity and leadership it requires, then he shouldn’t be the president,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said last week. “There’s no room for racism in the Oval Office.”
Meanwhile, there’s a movement among House Democrats to officially censure the rich asshole for his racist attacks on immigrants.
the rich asshole said he didn't care about CBC's demands during tense immigration meeting: report
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 01/15/18 10:01 PM EST
President the rich asshole told lawmakers that he didn’t care about the demands of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) during a tense meeting on immigration last week, The Washington Post reported Monday.
the rich asshole reportedly dismissed Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) when he suggested that the rich asshole consider the CBC’s demands, and that those lawmakers would be more amenable to an agreement if certain countries were added to the protections.
“You’ve got to be joking,” one adviser said to describe the rich asshole’s reaction.
the rich asshole made the comments about the CBC during the same infamous meeting that he allegedly referred to El Salvador, Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries.”
The president has faced intense backlash for those comments since they were reported on Thursday.
The White House did not initially deny the remarks, but the rich asshole pushed back against the report on Twitter on Friday and again on Monday.
Durbin confirmed that the rich asshole had made the remarks, but GOP Sens. David Perdue (Ga.) and Tom Cotton (Ark.) have said the rich asshole didn’t make the comments after initially saying they didn’t recall if he had.
the rich asshole has faced accusations of racism over the comments, but told reporters that he is “not a racist” on Sunday.
“I’m the least racist person you’ll ever interview,” he said.
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 01/15/18 03:43 PM EST
President the rich asshole blasted Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Twitter Monday, claiming the senator “totally misrepresented” his comments after Durbin said the rich asshole called Haiti, El Salvador and African nations “shithole countries.”
“Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals can’t get made when there is no trust!” the rich asshole tweeted.
Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals can’t get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military.
Durbin confirmed a report in The Washington Post that the rich asshole had made the “shithole countries” remark during a meeting with lawmakers on immigration reform, telling reporters that the president made “hate-filled, vile and racist” comments.
“You’ve seen the comments in the press,” Durbin said Friday. “I’ve not seen one of them that’s inaccurate. To no surprise, the president started tweeting this morning, denying that he used those words. It is not true. He said these hate-filled things, and he said them repeatedly.”
the rich asshole has denied that he made the comments on Twitter, although the White House did not initially deny the report.
Durbin also told reporters that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) had immediately spoken out against the rich asshole’s comments during the meeting.
Graham later said he had “said my piece directly” to the rich asshole, declining to explicitly confirm or deny what was said.
However, GOP Sens. David Perdue (Ga.) and Tom Cotton (Ark.) have both said that the rich asshole did not make the comments, after initially saying they couldn’t recall.
The comments were allegedly made during a meeting on immigration in the Oval Office.
the rich asshole said Sunday that a deal to extend protections for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is “probably dead because the Democrats don’t really want it.”
He has insisted the funding for his promised wall on the U.S.-Mexico border must be included in any DACA fix.
The battle for a DACA fix and wall funding comes as a possible government shutdown looms at the end of the week. Funding is set to run out on Friday, and lawmakers say they expect to pass a short-term package in order to continue negotiations on a larger bill.
Keeping the government running could prove to be difficult, as GOP lawmakers say they won’t vote for a package that doesn’t have defense spending, and Democrats insist that a DACA fix to protect certain immigrant brought to the U.S. illegally as children be included in the measure.
BY OLIVIA BEAVERS - 01/15/18 05:51 PM EST 1,127
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) on Monday announced she plans to boycott President the rich asshole's State of the Union address to Congress at the end of the month, joining a handful of other Democratic lawmakers who are skipping the annual event.
"I'm here on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to say I will not be going to the State of the Union," Jayapal said in a video posted on social media.
"I think it is absolutely unacceptable to see the racism and the hatred coming out the White House in a way in which this president is fueling the flames of divisiveness across our country," she added.
She pointed to the rich asshole's recent controversial remarks in which he reportedly described several nations as "shithole countries" during an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers on immigration reform, referring to immigrants from African countries, Haiti and El Salvador.
Jayapal blasted the rich asshole for "demeaning entire countries [by] calling them remarkably vulgar terms."
The Washington lawmaker joins Democratic Reps. John Lewis (Ga.), Frederica Wilson (Fla.), Earl Blumenauer (Ore.) and Maxine Waters (Calif.) in skipping the president's address, with many citing the rich asshole's recent remarks.
Jayapal said those boycotting the event will host their "own State of Our Union to talk about our opposition to these racist policies that are being put out of the White House and to make sure we put out our own aggressive vision of what our America looks like as we take it back."
Other Democratic lawmakers have announced they will protest the president's speech in other ways.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other female Democrats say they plan to wear all black in solidarity with sexual harassment victims to honor the "Me Too" movement.
The White House did not initially deny the "shithole countries" remarks, which were confirmed by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), but the rich asshole later took to Twitter on Friday to say he "never" made such comments.
"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," the rich asshole tweeted on Friday.
Critics of the president say his alleged "shithole" remarks serve as proof that the rich asshole harbors racist views, a claim the rich asshole has pushed back against.
“No. I’m not a racist. I’m the least racist person you will ever interview,” the rich asshole told reporters on Sunday.
Hope Hicks to meet with House Intel in Russia probe: report
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 01/15/18 06:42 PM EST
White House communications director Hope Hicks will reportedly speak with the House Intelligence Committee in the panel’s probe into Russian election interference.
Hicks will meet with the committee as soon as Friday, CNN reported on Monday.
Hicks’s attorney and a spokesman for Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif), the top Democrat on the committee, both declined to comment to CNN.
Hicks and a spokeswoman for Rep. Mike Conway (R-Texas) did not return CNN’s request for comment.
The now-communications director was one of the first staffers to join the rich asshole campaign and has remained close to the president.
Last month, Hicks sat down with special counsel Robert Mueller for his probe into Moscow's 2016 hacking.
She will be the second current White House official known to have appeared before the House Intelligence Committee, after senior White House adviser Jared Kushner.
Also this week, the committee is set to interview former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon and former the rich asshole campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
US officials warned Kushner about friendship with Wendi Deng Murdoch: report
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 01/15/18 05:15 PM EST
U.S. officials warned Jared Kushner last year that his friend, Chinese-American businesswoman Wendi Deng Murdoch, could be taking advantage of her close friendship with Kushner and his wife, Ivanka the rich asshole, to promote China’s business interests, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
Sources told The Journal that counterintelligence officials had warned Kushner about the relationship and said they were concerned about Murdoch’s role in pushing for a Chinese-government funded garden in Washington, D.C.
The Chinese garden, which would have cost $100 million and would be located in the National Arboretum, would have included a 70-foot-tall tower that U.S. officials deemed a national security risk.
Officials feared that the structure could be used for surveillance, as it would have been located on a high patch of land less than five miles from the White House and U.S. Capitol building, according to The Journal.
Kushner and the rich asshole, both White House advisers, have had a close relationship with Murdoch for years, including during her marriage to Rupert Murdoch. The couple divorced in 2013.
A spokesman for Wendi Deng Murdoch told The Journal she “has no knowledge of any FBI concerns or other intelligence agency concerns relating to her or her associations” and that she “has absolutely no knowledge of any garden projects funded by the Chinese government.”
Kushner and the rich asshole’s representative told The Journal that the warning about Murdoch was a “routine senior staff security briefing.”
The spokesman also told The Journal that Kushner “has complied with all ethics and disclosure recommendations and has played a helpful role in strengthening the U.S.-China relationship so as to help bring about a better resolution to the many issues the countries have.”
The Chinese Embassy in D.C. told The Journal its report was “full of groundless speculations.”
Poll: Only 1 percent of the rich asshole voters side with Bannon over president
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 01/15/18 04:57 PM EST
Only 1 percent of Americans who voted for President the rich asshole say they back former Breitbart News head Stephen Bannon in his recent feud with the rich asshole, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll.
About 66 percent of the voters said they backed the rich asshole over Bannon.
The poll found that the rich asshole supporters’ favorability of Bannon has dropped significantly. Only about 13 percent of the voters said they viewed him favorably, down from 38 percent in August when Bannon left the White House.
His unfavorability numbers have also risen to about 66 percent, up from 26 percent in August.
The poll comes after the rich asshole attacked Bannon over comments he made in Michael Wolff’s controversial new book “Fire and Fury: Inside the rich asshole White House.”
Bannon is quoted in the book as calling some rich asshole Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer during the rich asshole campaign “treasonous” and saying ”they’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.”
After the comments were made public, the rich asshole said Bannon “lost his mind.”
Bannon later released a statement calling the rich asshole Jr. a “patriot” and a “good man,” adding that he regretted not speaking out about the comments earlier.
However, the apology wasn’t enough to win over the rich asshole and White House officials.
Bannon stepped down as the head of Breitbart News last week as backlash over his comments continued.
HuffPost/YouGov interviewed 1,000 voters from Jan. 9-10. The poll has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
the rich asshole: ‘Terrific’ how Hawaii handled false nuclear alert
January 15, 2018
Graham Lanktree
Posted with permission from Newsweek
On Sunday President Donald Trump said he loved that Hawaii “took responsibility” for a false alarm Saturday warning people in the state of an incoming ballistic missile.
Hawaii’s Governor David Ige issued an apology Sunday for the alert, which caused widespread panic the day before, stating it “will never happen again.”
“Someone clicked the wrong thing on the computer,” said Richard Rapoza of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, stating the alert was sent out mistakenly during a shift-change drill. The false alarm was all down to human error.
“I love that they took responsibility. They took total responsibility. But we're going to get involved. Their attitude and their—what they want to do, I think it's terrific. They took responsibility. They made a mistake,” Trump told reporters at the Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach, Florida, before dinner with House majority leader Kevin McCarthy Sunday.
After the alert was found to be a false alarm, the White House issued a statement Saturday that it was “purely a state exercise.”
Nevertheless, panic spread throughout Hawaii. Tensions over North Korea’s ability to send a ballistic missile toward Hawaii and the coast of the Western U.S. rose last year after a series of missile and nuclear weapons tests conducted by the authoritarian regime leader Kim Jong Un. These tensions have been magnified by a war of words between Kim and Trump.
In December, Hawaii began staging monthly air-raid drills with sirens, in a throwback to the nuclear tensions with Russia during the Cold War.
Early this month Trump boasted of having a bigger nuclear button than Kim. The president has repeatedly said that diplomacy is not the answer to confronting North Korea about its nuclear weapons program. The Trump administration has said Kim must abandon the weapons program before negotiations between the two nations can start.
Former U.S. Secretary of Defense and nuclear weapons expert William Perry warned early this month that the rhetoric from Trump could lead America to blunder into a nuclear conflict.
Inside the Trump administration there is an ongoing debate about whether to give North Korea a "bloody nose" from a first strike with conventional weapons on one of their facilities, according to a report last week in The Wall Street Journal.
Trump said Sunday that he hoped a false alarm “won't happen again” and acknowledged that part of the reason for the widespread panic it caused “is that people are on edge.”
“Maybe, eventually, we'll solve the problem so they won't have to be so on edge,” Trump said.
Dem rep pours cold water on the rich asshole-DACA deal: You don’t negotiate with a man ‘who wants to make America just white’
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) -- MSNBC screenshot
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Appearing with guest host Katy Tur on MSNBC’s Meet the Press Daily, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) held out little hope a DACA deal could be worked with some rich asshole due to the president’s racist inclinations.
Highlighting the rich asshole’s Twitter complaint that Democrats refuse to work with him, with the president tweeting, “DACA is probably dead because the Democrats don’t really want it, they just want to talk and take desperately needed money away from our Military,” Tur began, “Does the president want to close the deal?”
“His base wants to compromise with the Democrats who are calling him racist on a deal that will grant amnesty to 700,000 illegal immigrants,” Tur continued. “What about Democrats? Do they want to close the deal? Will their base want to compromise with someone they think is a racist, in a deal that will help him build a wall.”
Turning to her guest, Tur asked the New York lawmaker if “the Democrats should walk away from a deal with the president.”
“I think the president already walked away from the deal,” Meeks exclaimed before mocking the rich asshole’s 55-minute televised meeting with lawmakers as a “TV show.”
“It was a bipartisan deal by both Democrats and Republicans, as I understand it,” the lawmaker continued. “The president had said — when he had his television show — that whatever they did in a bipartisan manner, he would sign it. They came to him with a bipartisan bill and he rejected it. So for the president to say the Democrats have rejected something is inaccurate. He is lying again. The fact of the matter is he rejected a bipartisan deal that was struck in a bipartisan manner.”
“Is there any deal that you could make with president when you have called him a racist?” Tur asked.
“Well, you know, we’re getting close to that point, because now I’ve got a vote of conscience,” he replied. “What his statements that he made clearly show is that he wants to make America not great, but want to make America just white, by his remarks talking about Norway and getting rid of diversity visas and not explaining or lying about what a visa diversity is.”
“So if that is his motivation, if the president’s motivation is to make sure that you’re locking out people of color, poor people and the needy, there there is no deal to be had,” he insisted. “And talking about the deal, with reference to the [Mexico/U.S.] fence, if the president wasn’t lying, then what are we worrying about, because he said the Mexicans are paying for it so he shouldn’t come to the American people for the money.”
Asked if the Democrats would allow the government to be shut down due to impasse over immigration negotiations, the New York lawmaker laid all the blame on the president.
“The Democrats are not trying to shut down the government,” he shot back. “It is clearly the president. The president already had an opportunity to make sure that we could work collectively together. If the president thinks he will have all of his way, and just do it the way he wants to do it, then he, in fact, wants to shut down the government.”
“So I won’t allow hum to flip it and say the Democrats are shutting down the government. It is the president who is shutting it down,” he said with finality.
You can watch the video below via MSNBC:
House intel committee to interrogate the rich asshole confidante Hope Hicks as early as Friday: report
Dan Scavino, Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller, Hope Hicks and President some rich asshole aboard Air Force One
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Trusted some rich asshole aide and current White House communications director Hope Hicks is expected to testify before the House Intelligence Committee as early as Friday, CNN is reporting based on multiple sources.
One area of expected questioning is some rich asshole Jr.’s misleading statementsabout a the rich asshole campaign meeting with Russian operatives.
In December, the rich asshole Jr. told the same committee that he communicated via Hicks in drafting the statement. Hicks was aboard Air Force One with President the rich asshole when the statement was drafted.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has also sought the phone records related to the Air Force One meeting on the rich asshole Jr.’s statement.
Ousted chief strategist Steve Bannon and former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski are both expected to testify this week. Lewandowski is alleged to have had an “on and off again” romantic relationship with Hicks during the 2016 campaign.
US intel officials warned Jared Kushner that the Chinese might use Rupert Murdoch’s ex-wife to influence him: report
Jared Kushner (Photo: Joint Chiefs of Staff/Flickr)
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In 2017, U.S. counterintelligence officials warned some rich asshole’s son-in-law Jared Kushner that Chinese-American businesswoman Wendi Deng Murdoch, a friend of Kushner and Ivanka the rich asshole, may using her proximity to their family “to further the interests of the Chinese government,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
As the Journal reports, officials feared Murdoch was using her connection to Kushner to advance a $100 million project that involves the installation of a 70-foot tower at the National Arboretum in Washington D.C. The intelligence community is concerned the tower could be outfitted to carry out surveillance on the U.S. government.
Murdoch, a U.S. citizen, was married to News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch from 1999 until their divorce in 2013.
Read the full report at the Wall Street Journal
the rich asshole is back to bashing immigrants because he’s losing his racist base: WSJ
some rich asshole (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Wikipedia)
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A commentary posted at The Wall Street Journal suggests President some rich asshole is being forced to turn back to the “pugilistic” immigration rhetoric he used during the 2016 presidential campaign because his core base of supporters is “eroding.”
According to the Journal’s Gerald Seib, the rich asshole rode into the White House by emphasizing immigration, trade and infrastructure and the president’s comments lately indicate he is falling back on what got him there as illustrated by his “sh*thole” comments about African nations and Haiti.
“After a year focused more on tax cuts, health care and deregulation—issues that tend to appeal more to traditional Republicans—the focus so far this year has moved decisively back to standard the rich asshole issues,” Seib wrote.
According to the commentator, the rich asshole’s fallback on more extremist red meat issues may be part of a plan to rally voters the president hopes will support Republicans in the 2018 midterm election — thereby assuring him he won’t face a hostile Democratic-majority Congress.
Seib notes that the rich asshole’s support is plummeting after one year in office, with poll numbers showing a precipitous collapse specifically among the people who voted for him in 2016.
“A dive into Wall Street Journal/NBC News polling suggests that, after some rich asshole’s tumultuous first year in office, the president’s support among his staunchest proponents has eroded some, though still is pretty solid,” Seib wrote. “Among whites without a college degree—a core the rich asshole support group—approval of the job he is doing as president slipped to 55 percent in December from 59 percent in February. Disapproval has risen to 41 percent from 32 percent.”
“Similarly, the share of whites without a college degree who have a negative image of some rich asshole personally has risen to 40 percent from 33 percent,” he added.
“A return to the signature the rich asshole issues would seem to be a way to end and perhaps reverse that erosion at the base,” he explained although he admitted that the rich asshole’s promise to build a wall between the United States and Mexico seems to only appeal to the most hardcore the rich asshole voters — with only 31 percent putting it at the top of their list.
“Of course, much of some rich asshole’s campaign appeal was based not on specific policy positions, but more on his pugilistic attitude—and the simple fact he wasn’t Hillary Clinton, an object of hatred for many the rich asshole voters,” Seib conceded. “More than four in 10 the rich asshole voters said making sure she didn’t become president was the top reason they voted for him.”
Regardless, the commentator added, the rich asshole is “expending a lot of capital and earning a lot of enmity at home and abroad on immigration and building a wall, subjects not as central for his supporters as commonly supposed.”
You can read the whole editorial here
Civil rights icon John Lewis says white man taunted him by yelling “the rich asshole!” on a plane
Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) (Screenshot/Twitter)
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Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), a hero of the civil rights movement, says that white people have now started taunting him by yelling President some rich asshole’s name whenever they see him.
Via BuzzFeed, Lewis appeared on a podcast with Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ) on Monday to talk generally about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy.
During the discussion, Lewis revealed that he had been on the receiving end of taunts by a white man who spotted him on a flight from Atlanta back to Washington DC.
“I was on a flight from Atlanta, and I’m walking down the aisle and the gentleman said as loud as he could, ‘the rich asshole!'” said Lewis. “So I didn’t — I just kept walking. I didn’t say anything.”
Lewis, who was one of the original “Freedom Riders” and who was regularly on the receiving end of brutality by police during civil rights protests, then told Booker that he doesn’t let mere verbal insults bring him down.
“And sometimes I’m walking in the airport in different places, I guess [they think] they’re getting to me or harassing me,” he explained. “But they don’t understand… I’ve been called many, many things. But I’m not going to let anything get me down. I’m going to keep walking, keep moving.”
CNN’s Chris Cuomo calls BS on White House excuse for the rich asshole’s ‘sh*thole’ comment
CNN's Poppy Harlow and Chris Cuomo (Photo: Screen capture)
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CNN host Chris Cuomo couldn’t help but note that the White House’s timeline and the excuses from Republican senators don’t exactly match with previous actions from President some rich asshole.
According to Cuomo, after the news broke that the rich asshole called out immigrants from “sh*thole countries” coming to the United States instead of people from places like Norway, the president took to the phones.
“Going from I don’t recall to I know he didn’t say it is just suspect,” Cuomo said of Sens. David Perdue (R-GA) and Tom Cotton (R-AR). Both men initially said that they didn’t recall hearing the rich asshole say it, however, several days later on the Sunday morning talkshows, the two men flatly denied it was said. The move came after Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) confirmed they heard the comment.
“The day that this happened, you spoke to someone at the White House who not only didn’t they deny it but they said, ‘I think the base will be OK with this,'” Cuomo recalled. “They are almost taking this as a victory lap. True or false?”
Reporter Kaitlan Collins noted that the White House wasn’t denying the comment was said. Typically, when the White House claims something is untrue immediately and everyone has the same story, they’re taken at their word. That didn’t happen in this case.
“Not only was the would you say not denying it, the president spent the day of these comments happened, phoning friends and allies to see how they felt the remark was playing out in the media,” Collins continued.
She went on to cite a White House source that the White House loved the comment.
“What they thought, the reaction to this was. And then someone told my colleague Gloria Borger that the president was loving all the controversy and outcry over this,” she continued. “The White House did not see this as a PR disaster as a typical administration would because they thought it would resonate with the president’s base not alienating them. Remember the attacks on the NFL that the president made, they thought it mirrored that as well. So, no pushback from the White House, privately or on the record about the comments in the beginning. The president himself is saying he did use tough language.”
Watch the full conversation below:
Mike Pence grew ‘visibly red-faced’ watching black pastor denounce the rich asshole’s ‘sh*thole’ comments on Sunday: report
Mike Pence speaks to Fox News (screen grab)
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Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday attended a service at the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Largo, Maryland — and he reportedly appeared embarrassed as he watched the church’s pastor shame President some rich asshole for calling African countries “shitholes.”
Local news station WUSA 9 reports that Metropolitan Baptist Church Pastor Dr. Maurice Watson on Sunday called out the rich asshole for saying that he would rather import more immigrants from white-majority countries such as Norway than black-majority countries such as Haiti.
“I stand today as your Pastor to vehemently denounce and reject any such characterizations of the nations of Africa and of our brothers and sisters in Haiti,” Watson told his congregation as Pence looked on. “And I further say: Whoever made such a statement, whoever used such a visceral, disrespectful, dehumanizing adjective to characterize the nations of Africa… whoever said it, is wrong. And they ought to be held accountable.”
According to WUSA 9’s report, Pence “became visibly red-faced at times throughout the speech,” even though the pastor did not call out President the rich asshole by name.
Watch the video of Watson’s speech below.
‘Morning Joe’ panel: the rich asshole supporters are throwing democracy ‘in the trash’ in the name of racist ‘culture war’
Joe Scarborough talks with Princeton professor Eddie Glaude Jr. (Screen cap).
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A “Morning Joe” panel on Monday lamented the way that President some rich asshole’s supporters are continuing to cheer him on even as he continues destroying the norms of American democracy.
Eddie Glaude Jr., the chair of the Center for African-American Studies at Princeton University, expressed astonishment that the Republican Party had continued to enable the rich asshole despite polling that shows he’s hurting their own party — and their own chances of holding on to their jobs.
“I have no idea about what’s informing the political calculus of some Republicans enabling some rich asshole, who are normalizing racism,” he said. “On the one hand you see them trying to marginalize and dismiss Bannonism and the alt-right, but on the other hand you see them engaging in this culture war rhetoric that in some ways reflects Bannonism and the alt-right.”
Glaude then lamented the fact that “38 percent of Americans” are “willing to throw the principles and norms of American democracy into the trash bin for a culture war that some rich asshole is waging as if she was Sherman marching to the south.”
Republican strategist Elise Jordan, who was born and raised in Mississippi, said that even her staunch Republican family is tired of trying to defend the president.
“They want to ignore the antics, it’s embarrassing,” she said.
Watch the video below.
some rich asshole’s infamous lawyer once sued Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for libel
Dr. Martin Luther King giving his "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington in Washington, D.C., on 28 August 1963 (Wikimedia Commons)
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President some rich asshole’s mentor and lawyer Roy Cohn once sued Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for libel.
A report from the Daily Beast on Martin Luther King Day revealed an old lawsuit from Cohn’s early days working for disgraced former Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) and other leaders.
It was the summer of 1964 in Harlem and a white police officer shot a black child, who may or may not have been armed. In a story that sounds eerily familiar, officer Thomas R. Gilligan said that he heard a “commotion,” ran out and ultimately shot a 15-year-old African-American boy. Gilligan and an older white adult, who said they “witnessed” the incident, claimed that Gilligan identified himself and the young man produced a knife and slashed the officer’s hand. Other children who went to school with the boy saw no knife and never heard the officer identify himself.
“Policemen should not shoot boys half their size,” said the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) at the time.
The death and cases around it sparked violence from Harlem to Bedford. By the end, one protester was dead, 118 were injured and 465 people were arrested. The officer was exonerated and a grand jury refused to indict him.
The incident came shortly after the three civil rights activists in Mississippi went missing. They were ultimately found murdered in August. Despite President Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act July 2, unrest continued. Civil rights activists mobilized and Dr. King joined with local and national leaders. The officer was attacked with “eloquence, creativity and wrath,” the Best reported.
Cohn helped Gilligan sue King and other leaders for what was said at the rallies and in the media. The move was ironic given King came to New York for a “peace mission” spreading non-violent protest. Many angry community members weren’t interested in peace and went on the attack. King was named along with other national leaders in the suit by Gilligan.
By 1954, Cohn was already well-known as McCarthy’s hatchet-man in the witch-hunt against Communists.
“My scare value is high,” Cohn once described himself. “My area is controversy. My tough front is my biggest asset. I don’t write polite letters. I don’t like to plea-bargain. I like to fight.”
“The complaint alleges plaintiff enjoyed an outstanding and excellent reputation and good character, that defendants since in or about July, 1964, conspired and maliciously and willfully participated in a plan and course of action designed to defame and injure the plaintiff in his good name and reputation, in his profession as a policeman; to destroy his income and livelihood and to remove plaintiff as a police officer of the New York City Police Department,” said the court in Gilligan v. King et al.
King’s lawyers argued that his speech was protected under the First Amendment. The legal team cited New York Times Co. vs. Sullivan (1964) in which the U.S. Supreme Court protected speech and made it more difficult for “public officials” to claim they’ve been libeled.
King died without the case being resolved. Cohn moved forward and in wasn’t until 1968 that the New York Appellate court allowed Gilligan’s case to move to trial. However, the courts ultimately decided that “the occupant of a governmental position, even of a minor nature, is a public official.” Cohn lost.
Today, Cohn’s protege is the president and has proposed rewriting the libel laws so that he can sue people. Such laws are developed state by state, thus doing so would require legislation in all 50 states and the five territories.
Updated 1:30 PM ET, Mon January 15, 2018
Washington (CNN) President some rich asshole appears poised to ignore his own calls for Americans to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day with "acts of civic work and community service."
the rich asshole is not scheduled to partake in any service projects on the federal holiday he and every other US president have designated as a "day of service" since 1994. Instead, he arrived Monday morning at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The only event on the public schedule released daily by the White House is the flight that will take him back to Washington in the afternoon.
the rich asshole's noticeably blank public schedule Monday comes as he continued to beat back accusations of racism for referring to countries in Africa as "shithole countries" and rejecting immigration from the African continent and Haiti in favor of immigrants from Norway during a meeting with lawmakers. His reported comments were confirmed by both a Republican senator and Democratic senator present, but the rich asshole has denied making the disparaging remarks.
the rich asshole rejected the criticism on Sunday night, telling reporters that he is the "least racist person you have ever interviewed."
the rich asshole's proclamation
the rich asshole marked the holiday celebrating the civil rights icon at the White House Friday where he signed the federal holiday proclamation in a ceremony alongside King's nephew, a dozen of his black political supporters and staffers, and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, the most-senior black member of his Cabinet. Carson was scheduled to attend a reception at a historic fire station in Atlanta alongside King's niece, Alveda King.
the rich asshole praised King's role in the civil rights movement before encouraging "all Americans to observe this day with acts of civic work and community service in honor of Dr. King's extraordinary life -- and it was extraordinary indeed -- and his great legacy."
There was no indication Monday morning that the rich asshole would heed that call. A White House spokeswoman did not return a request for comment on whether the rich asshole had any impromptu plans to take part in a community service project. The first lady's office also did not return a request for comment asking whether Melania the rich asshole had any such plans.
The White House on Monday did release a video message in which the rich asshole marked the federal holiday and extolled King's legacy and the rich asshole retweeted the video.
Today we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. & his service to this great country. I am honored to be First Lady of a nation that continually strives for equality & justice for all. #MLKDay
The first lady marked the day in a tweet Monday morning: "Today we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. & his service to this great country. I am honored to be First Lady of a nation that continually strives for equality & justice for all."
Day of service
How the Obamas spent MLK Day 00:45
President Ronald Reagan signed a bill into law in 1983 making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a federal holiday and the holiday was first observed in 1986.
US presidents have typically observed the holiday publicly, making remarks or attending events honoring the day. Each president since Reagan has signed a proclamation declaring Martin Luther King Jr. day a federal holiday, and in 1994 the holiday was rededicated in an act of Congress as a "day of service."
The last three presidents have often taken part in service projects to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In 2001, President Bill Clinton joined AmeriCorps members to help repair and paint a senior center in Washington. In 2007, President George W. Bush joined volunteers at a local high school who were sending postcards to victims of Hurricane Katrina. For the last Martin Luther King Jr. Day of his presidency, President Barack Obama helped students at a local elementary school build planters and plant vegetables for an "MLK Garden" at the school.
The projects were just some that the three presidents took part in to mark the holiday during their times in office.
the rich asshole’s ‘Fake News Awards’ could violate ethics rules
Little is known about what the president intends to do Wednesday, but some experts aren't taking it lightly.
Every awards show has its critics, but President some rich asshole’s much ballyhooed “Fake News Awards” has drawn attention from a group beyond the usual peanut gallery: ethics experts who say the event could run afoul of White House rules and, depending on what exactly the president says during the proceedings, the First Amendment.
The White House has not yet said what form the awards presentation, scheduled by the rich asshole for Wednesday, may take. But Norman Eisen, the former special counsel for ethics for President Barack Obama, and Walter Shaub, the former head of the Office of Government Ethics, have both tweeted that if White House staff members were involved, they would be in violation of the executive branch’s Standards of Ethical Conduct, which ban employees from using their office for “the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise.”
Richard Painter, an ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, agreed, telling POLITICO that there were plenty of valid reasons for executive branch employees to use their position to criticize private enterprises — if a bus company were violating federal safety regulations, for instance — but that helping put on an event to bash the media would not qualify.
“There has to be a legitimate official government reason for the position you’re taking with the respect to the particular company,” Painter said. “But here the only reason is they don’t like the coverage of the president.”
The president is not subject to the executive branch ethical standards, but all other White House staffers are. Ethics experts say that if the undertaking were carried out exclusively by political staff from the rich asshole campaign or the Republican National Committee — and not government employees in the White House — there would be no problem.
The issue, Eisen said, is “if the president enlists others in government to use government time or government resources to attack certain media outlets, while implicitly preferring others.”
The White House did not respond to questions asking whether any staff members would be involved. The Republican National Committee also did not respond to requests for comment.
Dan Scavino, the White House director of social media and an assistant to the president, has tweeted that he has nothing to do with the awards, saying that “it’s from a campaign,” though it was not clear exactly what he was referring to.
A Washington University School of Law ethics expert, Kathleen Clark, said that she agreed with Eisen and Shaub: Targeting specific news outlets by giving them “fake news awards” would represent a sort of “anti-endorsement,” she said, and would break the rules.
Not all experts agreed that the awards would violate executive branch standards. Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School and an ethics expert, said that White House staff members would be breaking the rules only if they endorsed or criticized an enterprise that had nothing to do with their jobs.
“Put me down as skeptical,” he said. “It’s got to be unrelated to the office. Criticizing the president’s critics strikes me as related to the office.
It is not reasonable to fully separate politics from governing, he said, “so long as we assume staff can be used for some political purposes, so long as there is a White House communications office and a White House political office — we’ve crossed that line a long time ago.”
Briffault said he did not see a particular difference between criticizing the media on Twitter or in an interview or briefing — as press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders does on a nearly daily basis — and being involved in the rich asshole’s awards.
Eisen argued that if the president creates a whole show around bashing specific media outlets, “there is more formality to it.”
“When you elevate it into a program,” he said, “it becomes harder and harder to say it’s just the president bloviating and it feels more and more like official government activity.”
Federal officials who violate ethics rules can face discipline from their agencies, ranging from censure to suspension to dismissal. While the Office of Government Ethics sets forth the regulations and can urge the White House to act, it does not have the power to actually enforce them. That means that the White House, essentially, polices itself.
Early in his administration, the rich asshole outraged ethics experts by failing to seriously discipline Kellyanne Conway, his senior counselor, when she promoted his daughter’s clothing and jewelry line on “Fox & Friends” and told viewers, “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff.”
That case, unlike this one, Briffault said, was a clear violation, since Conway was using her position to promote a product line that has nothing to do with governing.
But as Clark, the Washington University professor, said: “We’ve already seen that this White House, really, unlike its predecessors, does not impose significant discipline on those who violate the ethics rules in ways that the president approves of.”
Eisen conceded that any action related to the “fake news awards” would be unlikely.
“It’s ultimately tried in the court of the public opinion,” he said.
Painter, the Bush ethics lawyer, said that he believed that First Amendment issues could be at stake, something more serious than the ethics rules. Problems could arise, he said, if the rich asshole threatened any sort of action against media outlets he dislikes — as he has in the past — during the awards.
“He has First Amendment rights himself, but he can’t use those to threaten newspapers with official action if they don’t do what he wants,” Painter said.
the rich asshole has mused on Twitter about whether NBC should lose its broadcasting license, and tied together the Washington Post’s coverage and tax policies related to Amazon, both owned by Jeff Bezos. Speculation has also swirled around whether the president’s animus toward CNN affected the Justice Department’s decision to oppose the merger between its parent company, Time Warner, and AT&T.
“The First Amendment’s speech and press clauses would be implicated if the administration threatened prosecution or other legal action, but not by mere differential criticism, condemnation, and praise,” he said in an email.
Rebecca Tushnet, a First Amendment professor at Harvard Law School, said that any sort of threat — including those similar to the ones the rich asshole has previously made — would be a problem.
“Part of what the First Amendment is about is we want to avoid a chilling effect,” she said. “If NBC curtails its coverage as somebody reasonably might do after the president says he wants to go after you, he doesn’t actually have to do it to create the harm that the First Amendment is designed to combat. The threats themselves are problematic.”
“I don’t know that you could succeed in court,” she continued. “But is it the kind of thing the First Amendment is concerned about? Obviously.”
Even if nothing comes of these discussions, said Clark, they point to the bizarre nature of the “Fake News Awards” and the dangers of the president’s war on the press.
“I think that the government ethics issue,” she said, “is, frankly, another hook for raising the issue of the more fundamental way the rich asshole administration is trying to undermine democracy by undermining the press.”
A 22-year sex worker named Ivana Kamensky, claims she was one of the prostitutes who had sexual intercourse with some rich asshole in Moscow in 2011, adding that the American President had the smallest penis she had ever seen.
In an interview with the Moscow Daily Herald, the young woman described in great details the night that she allegedly spent in Mr the rich asshole’s hotel room five years ago.
Ms Kamensky claims she was hired by some rich asshole along with two of her friends to perform several degrading sex acts, like urinating on him and on each other.
She said that she had been shocked by the incredibly small size of his penis, and remembers laughing about it with the other two girls.
“Many parts of his body are too small, not only his hands,” she told the Moscow Daily Herald. “I’ve slept with hundreds of men and I’ve seen some small penises, but he’s by far the smallest I’ve ever seen.”
She described Mr.the rich asshole’s genitals as being the size of a grape, barely one inch (2.5cm) long when fully erect.
“We were not surprised when he asked for some unusual stuff, because he was not physically equipped to engage in any kind of normal penetration.”
Ms Kamensky says she was paid $10,000 for her night with me the rich asshole, which is more than the average Russian worker earns in a year.
According to Ivana Kamensky, some rich asshole paid $30,000 for one night with her and two other prostitutes in July 2011, and asked them to perform many perverted sex acts.
Ms. Kamensky’s claims seem to confirm the unverified allegations about Mr the rich asshole being caught on film with prostitutes in both Moscow and St Petersburg, causing a scandal already dubbed as the “Golden Shower Gate” by some media.
The scandal finds its origin in a 35-page dossier compiled by a former MI6 agent, containing unverified allegations that Russian security officials have compromising material on Mr the rich asshole that could be used to blackmail him.
According to the dossier, the Kremlin had been feeding the rich asshole some compromising information on his opponents for years. It had also acquired compromising information on the rich asshole himself that could be used as blackmail.
There are allegations of “perverted” sex acts and also of frequent contact between the rich asshole’s campaign and Russian government intermediaries.
Mr the rich asshole angrily denied the claims made in the dossier during his first press conference as president-elect.
He described the allegations as “fake news” and openly criticized the media who had covered the story.
Considering Mr the rich asshole’s tendency to react personally to most critics on his Twitter account, it is quite probable that he will react to Ms Kamensky’s claims over the next few days.
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President some rich asshole is spending Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday meant to honor the United States’ most iconic civil rights leader, at his golf club in Florida.
the rich asshole arrived at his the rich asshole International Golf Club in West Palm Beach around 9 a.m. Monday, the White House press pool reported. His next public event was scheduled for 4:20 p.m., when he and first lady Melania the rich asshole would depart Palm Beach International Airport for Washington.
A White House spokeswoman confirmed the rich asshole was not participating in any public events related to MLK Day, but did not return requests for comment about why.
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Monday is the 95th day the rich asshole has spent at one of his golf clubs since becoming president, according to CNN’s Manu Raju. the rich asshole has been deeply critical of the time former President Barack Obama spent hitting the links during his presidency.
the rich asshole’s seemingly wide-open schedule offered a stark contrast with past presidents, such as Obama and George W. Bush, who spent MLK Day volunteering or visiting memorials in the civil rights leader’s honor during their respective presidencies.
Despite his proclivity for firing off tweets, the rich asshole’s Twitter account remained noticeably silent on King Jr.’s legacy until late Monday morning. A few hours after using his platform to rail against Democrats, the rich asshole retweeted a video posted to the White House’s official Twitter account, which featured his weekly address.
“On this cherished day, we honor the memory of Reverend King,” the rich asshole said in the video. “And we rededicate ourselves to a glorious future, where every American from every walk of life can live free from fear, liberated from hatred and uplifted by boundless love for their fellow citizens.”
the rich asshole’s apparent decision not to partake in any MLK-related events comes amid rising tensions over his reported remarks calling Haiti and other African nations “shithole countries.”
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil rights activist who marched in Selma, Alabama, alongside King Jr. in 1965, called the rich asshole “a racist” in response to the comments.
“It’s unreal,” Lewis said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “It makes me sad. It makes me cry. As a nation and as a people, we’ve come so far. We’ve made so much progress. And I think this man, this president, is taking us back to another place.”
On Monday, Lewis called on Americans to give back to their communities instead of using the holiday to relax.
“The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is a day on, not a day off,” Lewis tweeted. “It is a day of service to our communities, to our brothers and sisters.”
The Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday is a day on, not a day off. It is a day of service to our communities, to our brothers and sisters, and to generations yet unborn so that we all may continue Dr. King’s work of building the beloved community. #goodtrouble
Last week, the rich asshole signed into law an act that redesignates a historic site honoring MLK in Georgia as a national park. He also signed a proclamation declaring Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Still, his seeming day of relaxation did not go unnoticed on Twitter:
"Dr. King's dream is our dream. It is the American Dream. It's the promise stitched into the fabric of our Nation, etched into the hearts of our people, and written into the soul of humankind." pic.twitter.com/tyUZGTecDY
From @mattmfm : Barack Obama honored MLK Day by volunteering, doing acts of community service and civic work with his family.
Donald Trump is at his private golf club for the third consecutive day, his 95th day as president at his golf clubs. pic.twitter.com/RkYZC3D9fo
the rich asshole Kicks Off MLK Day By Rage-Tweeting Then Heads To The Golf Course
some rich asshole woke up this morning to begin yelling at Democrats over DACA, border security, and the military. Then the rich asshole headed to his golf course. marking MLK day the 94th day he has spent at a golf course since taking the oath of office.
“Statement by me last night in Florida: “Honestly, I don’t think the Democrats want to make a deal. They talk about DACA, but they don’t want to help..We are ready, willing and able to make a deal but they don’t want to. They don’t want security at the border, they don’t want…..” he tweeted.
“…to stop drugs, they want to take money away from our military which we cannot do.” My standard is very simple, AMERICA FIRST & MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he added.
the rich asshole failed to mention the federal holiday and why it’s important to remember Dr. King’s legacy.
“I’m not a racist,” President Shithole said on Sunday night as he arrived at the rich asshole International Golf Club in Florida. “I am the least racist person you have ever interviewed, that I can tell you.”
Well, that settles that then!
In contrast, to honor Martin Luther King Jr., President Barack Obama dedicated his day to service and encouraged others to do the same while he was in office.
In 1994, Congress designated this holiday as a national day of service — a “day on, not a day off.”
President some rich asshole departs the White House for Palm Beach, FL (Shutterstock)
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some rich asshole’s denigrating comments about Haiti during a recent congressional meeting shocked people around the globe, but given his track record of disrespecting immigrants, they were not actually that surprising.
Despite campaign promises that the rich asshole would be Haiti’s “biggest champion,” his administration had already demonstrated its disregard for people from this Caribbean island. In November 2017, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would end the Temporary Protected Status that had allowed 59,000 Haitians to stay in the U.S. after a calamitous Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake.
Their TPS was extended after Hurricane Matthew devastated Haiti again in 2016. Without protected status, these Haitian migrants have until July 2019 to get a green card, leave voluntarily or be deported.
As a scholar and first-generation Haitan-American, I can attest that the rich asshole’s statements and policies reflect not just disrespect for Haiti but also a profound ignorance about how migration occurs.
Why history matters
As shown in my recent book, “Haiti and the Uses of America,” history shapes where immigrants choose to build their lives.
Outsiders head to the United States in times of crisis not at random but because historic ties point them in this direction. When nativists like President the rich asshole and Attorney General Jeff Sessions refer to immigrants as “criminal aliens” – perpetuating the idea that foreigners are “invading” the country – they ignore this key fact.
Movement from Haiti to the U.S. has its roots in colonial times, when British, French and Spanish traders exchanged coffee, cotton and mahogany between the two territories.
In the 1790s, thousands of white and mixed-race residents sought refuge from a revolutionary war in colonial Haiti, which was then called Saint Domingue. Fleeing an uprising by enslaved men and women of African descent, French colonists boarded ships following historic trade routes to U.S. port cities like New Orleans, Philadelphia and New York. Some brought with them the people they had enslaved.
An estimated 10,000 Saint Dominguan revolution-era refugees eventually resettled in Louisiana, contributing to the distinct Creole history
and culture that characterizes Gulf cities like New Orleans today.
and culture that characterizes Gulf cities like New Orleans today.
By 1804 the island’s revolutionaries had driven out France to found Haiti. The U.S., however, did not formally recognize Haitian independence until 1862.
Born of a slave rebellion, Haiti challenged the legitimacy of an American economy and society dependent on racial hierarchies. In 1806, the U.S. government imposed an economic embargo on the island.
But a vibrant illicit trade persisted. In 1821, 45 percent of Haitian imports still came from the U.S.
As a result, migration between the two nations continued, too – and not just from Haiti to the U.S. In the 1820s, some 13,000 African-Americans sought refuge in Haiti, seeking freedom from slavery, anti-black violence and lack of economic opportunity in the U.S.
In the 1870s, civic and religious leaders, notably Richard Allen of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Episcopalian Theodore James Holly, enabled similar journeys by negotiating directly with Haitian heads of state.
President Abraham Lincoln supported such schemes to send African-Americans abroad – not just to Haiti but also to Liberia, Central America and elsewhere. Even many abolitionists of the era believed that blacks and whites could not co-exist as equals in the U.S..
Many of the African-Americans who went to Haiti later returned to the U.S., in part drawn by the promise of new legal rights after the Civil War.
American meddling leads to migration
By the time the American embargo of Haiti ended in 1862, the U.S. was openly striving for political and economic domination of the Western Hemisphere, including in the Caribbean.
Starting with President Ulysses S. Grant, who wanted to annex Haiti, American politicians militarily pursued U.S. interests on the island nation. Between 1862 and 1915, American warships were active in Haitian waters 17 times.
Powerful commercial lobbies with a business stake in Haiti – particularly the financial and sugar industries – also meddled in the island’s affairs. Foreign merchants and bankers in Haiti paid armed groups known as cacos to overthrow standing presidents and empower leaders who would give them preferential terms of trade.
The political and economic instability that resulted helped perpetuate the racist perception of Haitians as incapable of self-rule.
It also fueled emigration. New research shows that in the first decades of the 20th century, some 200,000 rural Haitians left to work as guest laborers for American sugar companies in Cuba. They were among more than 1 million Caribbeans who traveled across the Americas between 1840 and 1940. Some of them eventually landed in the United States.
A series of military interventions
In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson invaded Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. The occupation, which lasted until 1934, was the first in a series of U.S. military actions on the island.
The next interventions came in 1994 and 2004, under the auspices of the United Nations. The impetus was the 1991 ouster of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who’d been elected during Haiti’s contested four-year transition from dictatorship to democracy. Through an economic embargo initiated by President George Bush and a military engagement under President Bill Clinton, Aristide was restored to power in 1994.
When he was again forced out 10 years later, President George W. Bush ordered the U.S. Marines back into Haiti.
The actions preceding and during these interventions have destabilized Haiti. In other words, for over a century, the U.S. has helped to perpetuate and exacerbate the political fragility and economic struggle that leads Haitians to seek refuge on American shores.
Today, an estimated 830,000 people of Haitian descent live in the U.S., primarily in Florida and New York. Approximately 40 percent of them were born in the U.S.
Few Haitian-Americans are wealthy – in 2009, census data shows, 1 in 5 households lived in poverty – but they are employed at higher rates than the general American public.
The Haitian-American population is also growing, more than tripling between 1990 and 2015. Within this group are the nearly 60,000 people granted Temporary Protected Status after the 2010 earthquake, who have now lived in the U.S. for an average of 13 years.
In countless ways, Haiti is woven into the fabric of the United States. Haitian-Americans have made their homes in South Florida, Brooklyn, and Detroit, among many other places.
The deep historic ties binding Haiti and the U.S. will persist with or without some rich asshole. What the president’s repugnant language and short-sighted policy changes can do is spur new crises in both Haiti and the United States.
By Chantalle F. Verna, Associate Professor of History and International Relations, Florida International University
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article
U.S. President some rich asshole speaks at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., August 22, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
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some rich asshole doesn’t know the words to the national anthem. There was some evidence of this as far back as Memorial Day, when during an otherwise solemn Arlington Cemetery ceremony for fallen soldiers, the rich asshole belted out select lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner” exactly like someone who oversings the only parts he knows. It happened again at the NCAA title football game Monday night, when the rich asshole mumbled and stumbled his way through the anthem, falling out of step with the words here, keeping conspicuously mum there, and only convincingly singing along after the song’s climax. (In both instances, “rockets' red glare” seemed to be where the rich asshole’s lyrical knowledge finally kicked in.)
For a president not to know his own nation's anthem seems both an embarrassment and a shame, emotions that require a kind of self-awareness the rich asshole is incapable of feeling. But this president’s failure at knowing the anthem is especially galling, since he’s made the song such an indispensable weapon in his racist culture war.
It should be obvious by now that everything the rich asshole excels at is also a case-in-point of why he’s so awful. He insults women like a true-blue misogynist and lies like a con-man possessed of a singularly profound dishonest streak. An inveterate racist, his bigotry is so virulent, it makes itself apparent in almost every outburst, both online and off. He deftly invokes tired but politically efficient African-American stereotypes both because he genuinely believes them and to remind his supporters their racism is justified, and reflexively condemns black people, always with an eye toward humiliation. And yet, as we’ve seen time and again, the rich asshole embodies all the worst traits he erroneously faults in "the other." His attacks on, and proposed correctives for, black folks’ behavior are actual reflections of his own failings. The subtext of every racist the rich asshole utterance inevitably turns out to be a truth about himself.
It is not difficult to find examples. There’s the rich asshole’s more than two-dozen tweeted gripes about how much time President Obama spent golfing and vacationing, which lean hard into the “lazy black people” trope favored by white racists. As of last August, the rich asshole had already chillaxed three times as many days as Obama had the entire first year of his presidency, and a new Axios report finds this shiftless president is too busy watching TV in bed, tweeting and chatting on the phone to get to work before 11am. (Obama worked out in the early mornings and got his first briefing—in actual written words, not pictures—by 8:30am.)
the rich asshole regularly accuses black people of stoking racial fires even as he retweets white supremacists, labels neo-Nazis “very fine people,” propagates fake statistics exaggerating black crime rates, and elevates alt-right leaders and racist “Chicago” dog whistles about black violence (sometimes in the very same tweet!). He has come time and again for Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players kneeling to protest police brutality, once disparaging them as “sons of bitches” who should be “fired” for their “disrespect.”
On Monday, the rich asshole fired off yet another tweet targeting the players and using the anthem as a political and cultural signifier. “We want our flag respected – and we want our NATIONAL ANTHEM respected also!” the rich asshole wrote, implicitly contrasting a patriotic (white) “we” against an unpatriotic (black) “them.” The message posted just a few hours before the rich asshole took to the football field in Atlanta and mangled a national anthem that Kaepernick and Obama undoubtedly know by heart. Given weeks of advance notice that he would be singing live on television, the rich asshole still didn't bother dedicating one of his leisurely mornings to committing the whole song to memory. Some patriot. Some “very stable genius.”
This latest the rich asshole anthem flub was funny in meme form, but depressing in the wider context of this whole godawful presidency. Sure, it’s absolutely possible that the rich asshole once knew the lyrics to the anthem, but simply forgot them in the moment—twice. While that might make his flub more excusable, it also makes his presidency more terrifying, considering the questions about mental competency that have dogged him as of late. (And particularly since he seems to have perfect recall of Smash Mouth’s “All Star,” which has not been designated a national song by any official body.) Far more likely, Monday night’s pathetic display was just another reminder, as if it were needed, of this president’s fraudulence and basic incompetence. It was the rich asshole inadvertently demonstrating his ethos of office and a fundamental belief of his base, which is that someone else deserves the blame for your difficulties and failures, and that person is by default black or brown.
Hypocrisy is a cornerstone of racist thinking, and of Trumpism as a political movement. How else to explain the rush of white conservatives applauding his performance? These same people refuse to acknowledge the extrajudicial murder of a black man when it’s captured on camera, but they’ll make any excuse for some rich asshole miserably failing to sing a song they claim to cherish.
And the garbage heap rises.
Dick Durbin throws down gauntlet and demands the rich asshole release tapes of Africa slur: ‘I know what happened’
Sen. Dick Durbin -- screenshot
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Sen. Dick Durbin on Monday doubled down on his recollection of an Oval Office meeting where the rich asshole allegedly made racist sentiments about Haiti and African countries.
While speaking to reporters, Durbin called on the White House to release the tapes of a White House meeting in which the rich asshole reportedly referred to African nations as “shitholes”.
Durbin also pushed back against some Republicans who claim that the rich asshole used the term“shithouse” instead of “shithole.”
“I know what happened,” Durbin said, noting that he attended the Oval Office meeting on immigration reform. “I stand behind every word that I said.”
“I don’t know that changing the word from ‘hole’ to ‘house’ changes the impact,” the Illinois Democrat observed. “I don’t think a majority of Americans agree with the president whichever word that he used. I don’t believe that a majority of the Republican Party agrees with the president, whichever word that he used.”
Durbin said that he is “stunned that this is their defense.”
“I don’t know if there was some other recording device in use within the Oval Office,” Durbin added. “If there was, I just want to call on the White House right now, release whatever you have.”
Watch the video below from WBEZ’s Tony Arnold.
C-SPAN caller claims Obama ‘started’ racism by ‘stirring up’ trouble: ‘Our black people have a good life’
Pedro Echevarria (C-SPAN/screen grab)
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C-SPAN host Pedro Echevarria on Monday challenged a caller who claimed that racial problems in the U.S. began after President Barack Obama was elected and “started stirring up” divisive feelings.
During a Martin Luther King Jr. Day broadcast, Echevarria spoke to a caller named Laura from Spokane, Washington.
“We struggle a lot with race relations,” Laura explained. “And Martin Luther King was a man who gave us all some sanity and respect for each other, regarding the ‘Don’t judge a man by the color of his skin, but the content of his character.'”
“That’s been a guiding principle for me all of my life,” she said. “But it wasn’t until Obama got into office that all this stuff started stirring up. And now there’s even — slave trade started in Africa and it’s just sad. And the Muslims are hunting down the black Africans and killing them. And that’s because they were armed and financed by the last administration.”
The caller continued: “Our black people today are working. Okay? They have the highest — in history — employment rate. And they’re buying nice homes and they’re bouncing babies and they’re having a good life.”
Echevarria interrupted for a clarification about Obama’s responsibility for racism in America.
“So you’re saying all these issues, when it came to race relations, was the result of the last administration?” the C-SPAN host asked.
“Most definitely, yes,” Laura replied. “He was elected — say, we’re all racist — he was elected by white people, okay? Not once, twice. And nobody seems to think about that. And what’s going on in Africa, he gave those people billions of dollars. Why can’t he help those people in Africa?”
“Okay,” Echevarria said, cutting off the caller. “Let’s go to Richard in Louisville, Kentucky.”
Watch the video below from C-SPAN.
Mike Pence attended a ceremony at an African American church in Maryland. It did not go well for him.
some rich asshole may be psychologically impervious to feeling shame for his actions. But some other members of his administration seem all too easy to humiliate for their association with him.
On Martin Luther King Day, Mike Pence and his wife attended a ceremony at the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Maryland.
And he had to sit in silence as Pastor Dr. Maurice Watson furiously slammed the rich asshole for his racist attacks on majority-black countries.
“In this news cycle I have to address it,” said Watson. “One, because I feel led by God to do it, and two, because it is right to do it, three, because there are members of this church who are from Africa, who are from Haiti. They call me Pastor.”
After calling the rich asshole’s rhetoric “hurtful, dehumanizing, visceral, guttural [and] ugly” Watson proclaimed, “I stand today as your Pastor to vehemently denounce and reject any such characterizations of the nations of Africa and of our brothers and sisters in Haiti.”
“Whoever made such a statement, and whoever used such a visceral, disrespectful, dehumanizing adjective to characterize the nations of Africa, whoever — do you hear me, Church? —whoever said it is wrong, and they ought to be held accountable.”
To those from Haiti and Africa, Watson said, “I, as your Pastor, and your Metropolitan family, will stand shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart, and breast to breast with you as we acknowledge your worth, your dignity, your humanness.”
“I think the best way to honor Dr. King’s legacy,” Watson said, “is to speak up for, and stand up for, the values for which he spoke and stood. And the main value Dr. King stood for is the value of love. He said, ‘I decided to go with love because hate is too great a burden for any man to carry.’ There was nothing that was loving in that adjective.”
According to WUSA9, “The Vice President reportedly became visibly red-faced at times throughout the speech.”
Meanwhile, other worshippers in the church “rose out of their seats in support.”
Faced with the real lessons of King’s uplifting use of his Christian faith to call for equal justice in America, and Watson’s righteous condemnation of the rich asshole’s hateful rhetoric, Pence had no response but shamed silence.
Yes-men hovering around the rich asshole will only lead to a worse midterm beating for the GOP.
Surrounding some rich asshole with Republican sycophants — who apparently even pick out his favorite candies for dessert — will certainly lead the Republican Party to doom, one GOP strategist warns.
A Washington Post profile of California Rep. Kevin McCarthy detailed just how far Republicans are willing to go to placate the rich asshole. McCarthy actually had a staffer go through a bag of Starburst candies and pick out the pink and red ones — the rich asshole’s favorites flavors — so they could be given to the rich asshole in a jar.
It’s that sort of pathetic attention that has helped McCarthy lift his personal stock within the the rich asshole orbit of loyalists, according to the Post.
It was McCarthy who was with the rich asshole on Sunday night outside of the Mar-a-Lago Florida resort where the rich asshole unconvincingly announced to a reporter he wasn’t a “racist,” after he disparaged African countries as “shitholes” in an Oval Office meeting about immigration.
But another yes-man isn’t what the rich asshole or the party needs right now.
“I don’t think being a rich asshole sycophant is going to do much in the long run for the party or holding the majority,” Republican consultant Mike Murphy told the Post. “It doesn’t change the rich asshole’s behavior, which is imperiling the party, and we’re getting to a place where challenging him is an imperative.”
Democrats need to flip 24 seats to take control of the House. The Cook Political Report currently rates 63 GOP seats as being competitive in November. By comparison, just 21 Democrats seats are deemed to be competitive, while the rest are safe.
Some prominent Republicans are detecting strong headwinds and have backed off previous plans to challenge key Democrats this year. By contrast, Democrats are fielding a record number of candidates this year.
According to Federal Elections Commission filings, Democrats are poised to oppose every Republican in the House, minus just 20 seats. “By comparison, Democrats in 80 districts do not have a Republican opponent for their seat,” The New York Times reports.
One Republican campaign strategist now tells ABC News, “The only question is whether Democrats win narrowly by picking up 25 seats or whether it is a blowout of more than 35 seats.”
Interestingly enough, it was McCarthy himself who recently tried to inform the rich asshole, gently, about how bad the party’s chances look in November.
As the Post reported, McCarthy “described scenarios to the president ranging from a bloodbath where Republicans lost the House ‘and lost it big,’ in the words of one official, to an outcome in which they keep control while losing some seats.”
McCarthy reportedly presented charts, instead of a memo, in hopes that the rich asshole would pay attention. But that might not be as interesting to him as a jar of candy. And playing up to the rich asshole at every opportunity will do nothing to avert the disastrous fate on the party’s horizon.
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