January 1st, 2018 - January 2nd, 2018. 413-414 days since the Nov 8, 2016, election of some rich asshole, no.45, and 343-344 days since the Jan 20th inauguration.
Brand new year, brand new lies from no45.
January 2, 2018
the rich asshole, meanwhile, once wondered if his short-lived communications director was on drugs.
Losing your job in a fit of self-immolation after a mere ten days may seem like the type of professional stumble that doesn’t lend itself to a comeback. But Anthony Scaramucci, a.k.a. the Mooch, appears to be positioning himself to give politics another go.
The former White House communications director has privately told friends and associates that the president and other members of the rich asshole family, including White House adviser and first daughter Ivanka the rich asshole, miss him and want him back in the West Wing. Three sources close to Scaramucci have independently told The Daily Beast that the Mooch continues to brag that he and President some rich asshole talk on the phone, and that the Mooch believes his resurrection in the rich asshole-world could be imminent. One of these sources said that the Mooch claimed he was flying out to either Washington, D.C. or Mar-a-Lago early this month to meet the rich asshole to talk about it.
There are several major hurdles the Mooch must clear before all systems are a go. Most serious among them: the rich asshole himself doesn’t appear to be on board. In fact, it’s not clear if President the rich asshole, or Ivanka, is even in touch with the sacked comms director.
Virtually no one in or outside of the rich asshole White House who The Daily Beast contacted for this story believed the Mooch’s claims. This included several of the Mooch’s friends and also the rich asshole aides.
“It would amaze and shock me if the president still talks to [Scaramucci] or is considering re-hiring him after what happened,” one senior White House official said. “And that is coming from someone who works in a place where nothing surprises me anymore.”
The White House press office did not respond to requests for comment on this. Scaramucci, for his part, denied that he’s been telling people at all about the rich asshole administration resuscitation.
“[T]his is absolute nonsense,” he said in text messages to The Daily Beast. “Happy new year [and] be well. I have said nothing like that at all…Don’t believe BS.”
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the rich asshole starts 2018 at golf club
BY BRANDON CARTER - 01/01/18 09:27 AM EST
President the rich asshole is beginning 2018 at his private Florida golf club, according to a reporter traveling with the president.
the rich asshole left his Mar-a-Lago resort Monday morning just before 8:45 a.m. and arrived at his the rich asshole International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla. a few minutes later.
the rich asshole is playing with PGA golfer Fred Funk and his son Taylor, according to the White House.
the rich asshole’s early morning trip marks the seventh day in a row he’s visited his golf club.
On Friday, the rich asshole hosted Coast Guard members at the golf course to thank them for their response to Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Irma in Florida.
The president, who has said he is on a “working vacation” at his Mar-a-Lago resort for the holidays, tweeted on Christmas night that he would get “back to
work” the following day.
I hope everyone is having a great Christmas, then tomorrow it’s back to work in order to Make America Great Again (which is happening faster than anyone anticipated)!
the rich asshole is set to return to Washington later today. The president tweeted Monday morning that there is “much work to be done” in 2018.
Will be leaving Florida for Washington (D.C.) today at 4:00 P.M. Much work to be done, but it will be a great New Year!
the rich asshole’s latest trip to his golf course marks the 117th day at one of his own properties since taking office and the 91st day at one of his golf clubs, according to an NBC News tally.
--This report was updated at 9:45 a.m.
Pakistan defence minister responds furiously to the rich asshole's 'lies and deceit' tweet
Tense exchanges followed days of speculation that the rich asshole administration was set to dramatically reduce aid to the South Asian nation
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s defence minister responded angrily Monday to an early-morning tweet by President some rich asshole that accused America’s once-close ally of “lies & deceit,” countering that the United States had given Pakistan “invective and mistrust” in return.
In his first tweet of the new year, the rich asshole had said that the United States had “foolishly” given Pakistan $33 billion USD in aid over the last 15 years, “and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools.”
the rich asshole wrote further: “They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”
Defense Minister Khurram Dastgir-Khan hit back on Twitter, writing that Pakistan, as an “anti-terror ally” of the United States, had given Washington land and air communication, military bases and intelligence cooperation that “decimated Al-Qaeda over the last 16yrs” while America “has given us nothing but invective and mistrust.”
Officials in the country’s capital scrambled to arrange a cabinet meeting to be held Tuesday to adopt a response to the Twitter attack, while Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said in an interview on Geo television that the country is ready to publicly provide an accounting of “every detail” of U.S. aid it has received.
Pakistan was already doing all it could to combat terrorism within its borders, he said.
“We have already told the U.S. that we will not do more, so the rich asshole’s ‘no more’ does not hold any importance,” Asif said.
The tense exchanges followed days of speculation that the rich asshole administration — dissatisfied with the way Pakistan has dealt with the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network and other terrorist groups — was set to dramatically reduce aid to the South Asian nation, long a key partner in the region.
Michael Kugelman, deputy director for the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, said that the rich asshole may have been likely telegraphing an upcoming decision to reduce aid to the country.
“The the rich asshole administration has been keen to take a harder line on Pakistan but up to this point it hasn’t been clear if the White House would follow through on the threats. This tweet suggests some type of change could be afoot,” Kugelman said.
However, Kugelman added, “We shouldn’t overstate the policy significance of this tweet. It’s more likely to be an expression of frustration or a statement of intent rather than an actual declaration of a new policy.”
According to a November report from the Congressional Research Service, the United States has appropriated $34 billion in direct aid and military reimbursements for Pakistan since 2002, with proposed security and economic assistance at $345 million for this fiscal year. That number is a significant decrease from the $526 million allotted in fiscal year 2017.
The the rich asshole administration has been keen to take a harder line on Pakistan but up to this point it hasn't been clear if the White House would follow through on the threats
In India, news of the rich asshole’s tweet was met with celebration in some quarters, a healthy dose of skepticism in others. Analysts pointed out that in October the rich asshole had tweeted that the administration was “starting to develop a much better relationship with Pakistan and its leaders.”
This worried Indian officials who had hoped the rich asshole would be taking a stronger stance on Pakistan.
The good will appears to have flagged for a variety of reasons; administration officials, for example, were reportedly not happy that Pakistan freed Hafiz Mohammad Saeed from house arrest in November. The Islamist cleric — who led the militant group that conducted the terror attack on Mumbai in 2008, which left more than 160 civilians dead — had been arrested last January.
Last month, during a visit to Afghanistan, Vice President Mike Pence had issued a warning to the country, saying that the rich asshole had “put Pakistan on notice” that it has provided a “safe haven” for terrorist groups. “Those days are over,” Pence said.
some rich asshole does not have the 'skill set' to help bring peace to Northern Ireland, Irish premier says
01-01-2018
Leo Varadkar says US President's 'I win and you lose' approach is 'not going to work' when it comes to resolving Stormont stalemate
some rich asshole’s negotiating skills will not be helpful in resolving the political crisis in Northern Ireland, the Irish premier has said.
Leo Varadkar said he did not believe the US President had the “skill set” to help mediate the situation, which has left Northern Ireland without a government since last January.
Power-sharing at the Stormont assembly collapsed amid a fierce row between the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Fein over a controversial green energy scheme.
Previous US presidents have played a key role in bringing different parties together, using the USA’s historic links with Ireland to play a mediating role.
In particular, Bill Clinton was credited with having a pivotal role in negotiations during the 1990s in the lead-up to the Good Friday Agreement.
However, Mr Varadkar said he did not expect Mr the rich asshole to follow suit, despite the Republican having written an entire book, titled ‘The Art of the Deal’, on deal making.
He said: "I have read The Art of the Deal and the basic concept behind that is 'a good deal is when I win and you lose'. That's not the kind of deal that is going to work in Northern Ireland."
"So while President the rich asshole has many enormous talents and abilities, I don't think bringing about peace in Northern Ireland would be his skill set.
"But certainly we are always open to assistance from the US."
Mr Varadkar and his deputy, Simon Coveney, plan to meet Northern Irish leaders in the coming weeks to try to resolve the impasse.
However, his already strained relationship with the DUP is likely to be placed under fresh pressure after he admitted he would like to see a united Ireland, albeit one that was a result of consent and compromise.
He said: “In terms of a united Ireland, our constitution is clear on this. Our constitution aspires to there being a united Ireland. I share that aspiration.
"But only on the basis that it is done by consent, and when it does come about I would like to see it command a degree of cross-community support. And that's the way I would envision it."
Referencing former Northern Irish politician John Hume, a co-founder of the SDLP, the Taoiseach added: "I very much follow the school of thought of the great John Hume, who talked less about a united Ireland and more about an agreed Ireland and a set of relationships that we can all be happy with. That's the way it should be."
By Kevin Liptak, CNN White House Producer
Updated 2113 GMT (0513 HKT) January 1, 2018
(CNN)The White House said Monday that it will continue to withhold $255 million in military aid to Pakistan out of frustration over what it has characterized as Islamabad's obstinance in confronting terrorist networks.
"The United States does not plan to spend the $255 million in FY 2016 foreign military financing for Pakistan at this time," a National Security Council spokesman said. "The President has made clear that the United States expects Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorists and militants on its soil, and that Pakistan's actions in support of the South Asia strategy will ultimately determine the trajectory of our relationship, including future security assistance."
The administration first said in August it was temporarily withholding the $255 million, which was part of a $1.1 billion aid package authorized in 2016 by Congress. The money was put on hold until Pakistan agreed to do more to combat terrorist networks.
The National Security Council official said the administration would continue to review Pakistan's level of cooperation in security areas.
President some rich asshole signaled Monday that he was prepared to cut off aid to Pakistan if the country failed to cooperate with the US.
"The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools," he wrote. "They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"
the rich asshole announced his administration's plans for the continuing US military engagement in Afghanistan in August, which specifically called on Pakistan to do more to fight terrorism.
the rich asshole Jr. starts off 2018 by attacking Hillary Clinton with conspiracy claims from WikiLeaks
some rich asshole, Jr. speaking with supporters of his father, some rich asshole, at a campaign rally at the Sun Devil Fitness Center at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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President some rich asshole’s eldest son on Monday promoted a conspiracy that originated with the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
The conspiracy promoted by some rich asshole Jr. alleges that the New York Times “colluded” with Hillary Clinton while she was the Secretary of State.
“The double standard never ends. Every day @realDonaldTrump’s win is that much more impressive when you realize all he was actually up against,” the rich asshole Jr. wrote on Twitter.
The tweet linked to an article published on the conservative Daily Wire website, which claimed that an email released by WikiLeaks on Sunday night was “proof” that the New York Times “colluded” with the State Department in 2010.
The email released by WikiLeaks was authored by New York Times national security reporter Scott Shane. The email shows that he provided the State Department with information about when the newspaper planned to publish articles about a trove of leaked U.S. diplomatic cables.
WikiLeaks alleged the New York Times was providing Clinton with “up to 9 days in advance to spin the revelations or create diversions.”
Shane, however, dismissed the allegations as “nonsense.” In a series of tweets, he explained that the newspaper worked with the State Department to protect dissidents from hostile retailation from foreign governments.
New cable shows New York Times "reporter" Scott Shane handed over Cablegate's secret country by country publication schedule to the US government giving the State Department (then headed by Hillary Clinton) up to a week in advance to spin the revelations or create diversions. pic.twitter.com/DHpqxiXOWJ
.1) Not sure who's writing this stuff for @WikiLeaks, but they need to talk to those who actually worked on the diplomatic cables. WikiLeaks, NYT and the other media partners (Guardian, Le Monde et al) all agreed on a plan to inform State Dept which cables were being published.
.2) We had all agreed to redact the names of, say, Chinese professors and Russian dissidents who had spoken confidentially with US diplomats to prevent their being imprisoned or worse. But we wanted to make sure we understood all the potential dangers.
.3) Totally standard journalistic practice. In one memorable instance, I had not taken out the name of Qaddafi's protocol chief, who in a cable preceding a visit to NYC had explained that the aging Qaddafi should not be asked to climb too many stairs, etc.
.4) I told the State Dept we planned to use that cable. Their Libya specialists got on the phone with me and told me they feared that if we published the protocol chief's name, the great leader might take it as an insult and order his execution. We took the name out.
.5) For that collaborative project, WikiLeaks' helpers created a very cool redaction template so that the different media outlets could see what they had redacted and what others had redacted to avoid mistakes. So @WikiLeaksin that instance followed legit journalistic principles.
.This is nonsense. Check with the WikiLeaks volunteers who worked on this project. You'll learn WL created an online redaction engine so we could take out names of those who might be imprisoned or worse from cables we published. WL agreed on the consultation with State Dept.
In November 2017, it was revealed that the rich asshole Jr. had exchanged private messages with WikiLeaks on Twitter in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
The messages have been turned over to congressional committees investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
WikiLeaks has connections to Russian military intelligence, according to a U.S. intelligence report (PDF) released in 2017. The report notes that the “Kremlin’s principal international propaganda outlet RT (formerly Russia Today) has actively collaborated with WikiLeaks.”
There’s a comeuppance ahead for Christians who have traded faith for power
Vice President Mike Pence speaks before President some rich asshole signs the Presidential Space Directive. (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
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This Advent season, while watching some rich asshole in front of a garishly green-and-red banner which proclaims “Make America Great Again,” take the opportunity to reflect on the Faustian bargain which allowed conservative evangelical Christians to “Keep Christ in Christmas” while seemingly divorcing Christianity from Christ. That Republican supply side economics, exemplified by Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell’s cruel tax “reform,” contradicts Matthew 5:3 is clear. That the rich asshole’s draconian immigration policy, which new reports indicate could now involve splitting families apart, violates the essence of Exodus 22:21 is obvious. And it shouldn’t have to be said that the new nationalism, this new fascism, with its “blood and soil” metaphysic, stands in opposition to the sublime universalism of Galatians 3:28.
For those 81% of white evangelicals who voted for the rich asshole, and more troublingly for the profoundly inhumane, greedy, wrathful ideology that he embodies, and who have seemingly forgotten their scripture, I have another passage to remind them of: Matthew 4:10. Following the dark Adversary who took Christ up “an exceeding high mountain, and she with him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” And Christ, choosing to follow the small, humble, yet sacred path, rejected the temptations of worldly power declaring, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
America’s conservative evangelicals, however, have taken up that diabolical offer. Witness the self-debasement of a man like neurosurgeon and current H.U.D. secretary Ben Carson offering prayers for the rich asshole on December 19th, with the president “quipping” to the press that they “need the prayer more than I do…. Maybe a good solid prayer and they’ll be honest, Ben, is that possible?” Or when at that same meeting Vice-President Mike Pence (one for whom we are perennially reminded of his piety while he seemingly forgets Matthew 6:6) offered a master class in saccharine sycophancy when he groveled to the rich asshole with “Mr. President, I’ll end where I began and just tell you, I want to thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank you for speaking on behalf of and fighting every day for forgotten men and women of America… the forgotten men and women of America are forgotten no more, and we are making America great again.”
Or if those examples condemn the powerful at the expense of regular evangelicals, consider that 80% of white, self-identified evangelicals in Alabama voted for the disgraced and disgraceful losing pedophile Roy Moore. Presiding over this nightmare of abandoned principles (or perhaps more disturbingly the embrace of principles that were always there) is the rich asshole himself, the philandering, vulgar, immoral New York real-estate developer of seemingly no authentic faith who promised evangelicals that “I am your voice.” The Public Religion Research Institute reported that over the past five years the “percentage of white evangelical Protestants who said that a politician who commits an immoral act in their personal life could still behave ethically shot up from 30 to 72 percent. The percentage saying such a politician could not serve ethically plunged from 63 to 20 percent.” The difference, it would seem, is a certain Fifth Avenue resident who promised them that “If I become president, we’re gonna be saying Merry Christmas at every store …. You can leave happy holidays at the corner.” What easily bought faith! In 2017 all it takes for many right-wing Christians is to be taken to the top-floor of the rich asshole Tower, be shown all the kingdoms of the world, and they’ll gladly prostrate themselves before an idol for a bit of temporal power.
Christianity, by its own definition, is a countercultural faith, one which stands in opposition to the things of this world while still being in this world. But humans being humans the history of the religion is replete with moments where Augustine’s City of Man has overwhelmed the City of God in the heart of the believer. From Constantine’s usurpation of the Roman Church to Henry VIII’s appropriation of ecclesiastical power, Christians have been more than willing to sell their allegiance for thirty pieces of silver. Trumpian Christianity is but one chapter in a long lineage of hypocritical capitulation of principle to sovereigns in the name of worldly power.
A supreme irony, for one of the most important aspects of the Constitutional principle of disestablishment is that it preserved the independence and sanctity of religious practice from the machinations of a meddling state. But while there is a long custom of right-wing evangelicals bellyaching about their perceived oppression (when such calls for “religious freedom” are often really just a justification for denying the rights of others) there are now no compunctions about jumping into bed with the most manifestly irreligious of presidents in modern history, for whom the only scripture is that of Norman Vincent Peale’s prosperity gospel combined with an endlessly renewable faith in himself, regardless of what reality dictates.
There is an irony in all of this. Since the resurgence of politicized evangelical Christianity with the ascendency of Ronald Reagan, many apocalyptic minded conservative Christians made a sort of prophetic parlor game out of conjecturing who the potential anti-Christ could be. Figures from Hal Lindsey, to Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts, and Jerry Falwell often fingered world leaders or liberal politicians as being in league with Satan. An irony since if the anti-Christ is supposed to be a manipulative, powerful, smooth-talking demagogue with the ability to sever people from their most deeply held beliefs who would be a better candidate than the seemingly indestructible the rich asshole? Well I don’t believe in a literal anti-Christ, and to accuse the rich asshole of being one gives the president far too much credit. At his core he is simply a consummate narcissist with little intelligence and less curiosity, one who has somehow become the most powerful man in the world. And that’s certainly dangerous enough without invoking anything supernatural. Still, it’s surprising that evangelical Christians, who for years preached about such a figure, seem to lack the self-awareness to identify something so anti-Christian in the rich asshole himself. Or worse yet, they certainly recognize it, but don’t care.
I don’t wish to engage the “No True Scotsman” fallacy; conservative Christians presumably arrived at their faith and their conclusions for their own reasons, and the fact that I disagree with them on a litany of issues theological and political, from abortion to taxes, does not invalidate the legitimacy of their own faith. But there is something undeniably strange and supremely hypocritical in seeing the embarrassing spectacle of religious leaders bow to such a spiritually illiterate man, a moral midget. Jerry Falwell Jr., cognizant enough of the disjuncture between personal piety and support of the rich asshole but apparently not cognizant enough to avoid uttering inanities like the following, has compared the president to King David. That is to say that he acknowledges the rich asshole’s copious personal failings (and steadfast refusals at contrition for any of them) but sees the president as a tool of the Lord meant to enact Christian policy, and so it behooves evangelicals to support him. One imagines that whatever makes it easier for the good Rev. Falwell to sleep better at night, but perhaps he is the sort of man whose sleep is untroubled, for hypocrisy has a handy ability to cleanse the conscience.
Currently evangelical Christianity in the United States is certainly still classifiable as a flavor of orthodox Nicene Christianity. But it’s not like there isn’t precedent for the church to contort itself to the heresies of a totalitarian regime. Consider the promulgation of an Aryan “Positive Christianity” in the Third Reich, in which all Jewish elements of the faith were expunged, and the gospels rejected in favor of a deadly and noxious blood-and-soil ideology, where the “Fuehrer is the herald of a new revelation.” This consolidation of all the Protestant denominations of Germany featured no Apostle’s Creed, or Nicaean, rather only allegiance to the state, a complete capitulation to the Prince of this World and an ascent to the temptation upon that desert mountaintop. We must remind ourselves of such compromises, bargains, and contracts as a perennial threat to the inner life of the faithful. While there is certainly no corollary to such a phenomenon in the United States today – yet – one must be vigilant and on guard to those like Rev. Falwell who see no blasphemy in comparing a president to the Anointed One.
the rich asshole is arguably the logical culmination of some strains of right-wing evangelical Christianity in America, from the political theology of dominionism to the hermeneutics of presuppositional apologetics, dogmas which see no inconsistency to rendering all to a Caesar whom they have declared to be a Christ. We may have yet to see the arrival in the United States of a type of powerful, theocratic, fascistic Protestant Falangism enabled by the opportunism of a the rich asshole, and which makes the traditional Christian Right look positively liberal. And with the global rise of the new nationalism there is a disturbing degree of collaboration between rightest religion and racist ideology, from the Orthodox mysticisms of those in the Kremlin who follow the crackpot historian Aleksandr Dugin to Stephen Bannon who wishes to preserve his understanding of Christendom not because all of us are children of God but because only some of us are white. Christianity, when allied to the powers of the world, has a way of promulgating distinctly anti-Christian beliefs. Do not read me as hyperbolic, the threat is global, powerful, interconnected, and real. When 60,000 Polish fascists marched in November, promoting a Poland without Muslims and Jews, they chanted “We want God” – a phrase from a speech delivered in Warsaw by the rich asshole earlier that year.
Nazi “Positive” Christianity was countered by the resistance of the Confessing Church, the underground network of pastors and parishioners who operated in opposition to the glorification of worldly power as represented by the regime. One of the greatest of souls and theological intellects was the Confessing Church minister Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyred by the Nazis at Flossenbürg Concentration Camp in 1945. Witness to the rise of compromised fascist Christianity in his own country, he aptly diagnosed the equivocations and capitulations some Christians were willing to make in order to sup at the table of power, but he also understood that from a theological perspective there should be nothing surprising about this. He explained that for “evil to be disguised as light… is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on our traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who based his life on the Bible, it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil.” But even while acknowledging the fundamental wickedness of that evil, Bonhoeffer stood in opposition to it, and lived a life testament to that gospel.
So, this Advent, if you’re looking for a bit of the promise of that first Christmas consider this: whenever some persons trade their faith for the treasures of this world, elsewhere a remnant of true faith always seemingly endures. A faith that answers power with mercy, hate with love, a shout with a whispered prayer.
It’s written that nobody can serve two masters, even as many evangelicals seem content to try and serve God, Mammon, and darker gods aside. But a compromised faith, a tainted faith, an implicated faith can only flourish for so long, and genuine faith can never be extinguished. Writer and scholar Burke Gerstenschlager writes for our current moment that “In the midst of Propaganda and Gospel, we must resist … with love where there is hate. Resist with kindness where there is abandonment. Resist with grace where there is cruelty. Resist with justice where there is impunity. Resist with knowledge where there is ignorance. Resist with truth where there are lies. Advent is our season.” For if Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church provide us any Advent succor it’s this: even at the darkest of hours when faith seems all but extinguished a faint light can still glimmer so that we may see. And to those implicated, those collaborators, those who’ve traded faith for power, and those who chant “We want God” – consider that you should be careful what you wish for. God may be precisely what we get.
the rich asshole says US has gotten ‘nothing’ from Pakistan aid
some rich asshole (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Wikipedia)
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U.S. President some rich asshole said on Monday that the United States has “foolishly” handed Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years while getting nothing in return and pledged to put a stop to it.
“They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” the rich asshole wrote on Twitter. “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools.”
It was not immediately clear what prompted the rich asshole’s criticism of Pakistan but he has long complained that Islamabad is not doing enough to tackle Islamist militants.
The New York Times reported on Dec. 29 that the the rich asshole administration was “strongly considering” whether to withhold $255 million in aid to Pakistan.
It said U.S. officials had sought but been denied access to a member of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network captured in Pakistan who potentially could provide information about at least one American hostage.
The the rich asshole administration said in August that it was delaying sending the $255 million in aid to Pakistan. Last month, the rich asshole said in a speech the U.S. government makes “massive payments every year to Pakistan. They have to help.”
Pakistan counters that it has launched military operations to push out militants from its soil and that 17,000 Pakistanis have died fighting militants or in bombings and other attacks since 2001.
The top U.S. general in Afghanistan, John Nicholson, said in November that he had not seen a change in Pakistan’s behavior toward militants, despite the the rich asshole administration’s tougher line against Islamabad.
Hamdullah Mohib, Afghanistan’s ambassador in Washington, said in a Twitter posting on Monday that the rich asshole’s tweet was a “promising message to Afghans who have suffered at the hands of terrorists based in Pakistan for far too long.”
The Pakistan embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
As US budget fight looms, Republicans flip their fiscal script
Congressman Mark Meadows of North Carolina speaking at the 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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The head of a conservative Republican faction in the U.S. Congress, who voted this month for a huge expansion of the national debt to pay for tax cuts, called himself a “fiscal conservative” on Sunday and urged budget restraint in 2018.
In keeping with a sharp pivot under way among Republicans, U.S. Representative Mark Meadows, speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” drew a hard line on federal spending, which lawmakers are bracing to do battle over in January.
When they return from the holidays on Wednesday, lawmakers will begin trying to pass a federal budget in a fight likely to be linked to other issues, such as immigration policy, even as the November congressional election campaigns approach in which Republicans will seek to keep control of Congress.
President some rich asshole and his Republicans want a big budget increase in military spending, while Democrats also want proportional increases for non-defense “discretionary” spending on programs that support education, scientific research, infrastructure, public health and environmental protection.
“The (the rich asshole) administration has already been willing to say: ‘We’re going to increase non-defense discretionary spending … by about 7 percent,'” Meadows, chairman of the small but influential House Freedom Caucus, said on the program.
“Now, Democrats are saying that’s not enough, we need to give the government a pay raise of 10 to 11 percent. For a fiscal conservative, I don’t see where the rationale is. … Eventually you run out of other people’s money,” he said.
Meadows was among Republicans who voted in late December for their party’s debt-financed tax overhaul, which is expected to balloon the federal budget deficit and add about $1.5 trillion over 10 years to the $20 trillion national debt.
“It’s interesting to hear Mark talk about fiscal responsibility,” Democratic U.S. Representative Joseph Crowley said on CBS.
Crowley said the Republican tax bill would require the United States to borrow $1.5 trillion, to be paid off by future generations, to finance tax cuts for corporations and the rich.
“This is one of the least … fiscally responsible bills we’ve ever seen passed in the history of the House of Representatives. I think we’re going to be paying for this for many, many years to come,” Crowley said.
Republicans insist the tax package, the biggest U.S. tax overhaul in more than 30 years, will boost the economy and job growth.
‘ENTITLEMENT REFORM’
House Speaker Paul Ryan, who also supported the tax bill, recently went further than Meadows, making clear in a radio interview that welfare or “entitlement reform,” as the party often calls it, would be a top Republican priority in 2018.
In Republican parlance, “entitlement” programs mean food stamps, housing assistance, Medicare and Medicaid health insurance for the elderly, poor and disabled, as well as other programs created by Washington to assist the needy.
Democrats seized on Ryan’s early December remarks, saying they showed Republicans would try to pay for their tax overhaul by seeking spending cuts for social programs.
But the goals of House Republicans may have to take a back seat to the Senate, where the votes of some Democrats will be needed to approve a budget and prevent a government shutdown.
Democrats will use their leverage in the Senate, which Republicans narrowly control, to defend both discretionary non-defense programs and social spending, while tackling the issue of the “Dreamers,” people brought illegally to the country as children.
the rich asshole in September put a March 2018 expiration date on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which protects the young immigrants from deportation and provides them with work permits.
The president has said in recent Twitter messages he wants funding for his proposed Mexican border wall and other immigration law changes in exchange for agreeing to help the Dreamers.
Representative Debbie Dingell told CBS she did not favor linking that issue to other policy objectives, such as wall funding. “We need to do DACA clean,” she said.
On Wednesday, the rich asshole aides will meet with congressional leaders to discuss those issues. That will be followed by a weekend of strategy sessions for the rich asshole and Republican leaders on Jan. 6 and 7, the White House said.
the rich asshole was also scheduled to meet on Sunday with Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott, who wants more emergency aid. The House has passed an $81 billion aid package after hurricanes in Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico, and wildfires in California. The package far exceeded the $44 billion requested by the rich asshole administration. The Senate has not yet voted on the aid.
(Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh; Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton in Florida; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Odds of the rich asshole’s impeachment before 2020 rise to over 50 percent on top betting website
Sam Schwarz
Posted with permission from Newsweek
President Donald Trump may not want to look at betting odds on his impeachment if he wants to get 2018 off a positive start. The odds would likely leave the president on the brink of his first tweetstorm of the new year.
Related: Support For Donald Trump's Impeachment Is Higher Than His Re-election Chances
The Ireland-based gambling website Paddy Power thinks it's highly unlikely Trump lasts his first term in office without being impeached. The odds are currently 4/7 that the president is impeached before inauguration day 2021. To put that in perspective, oddsmakers at Paddy Power think it's nearly twice as likely Trump will be impeached as it is that he will serve four years in office.
Paddy Power has additional ominous betting odds for the White House. Of the three years Trump has remaining in his presidency, the betting site has impeachment most likely in 2018. The odds that Trump is impeached in 2018 are nearly even at 5/4. For a sitting president, that doesn't paint a particularly rosy picture. The odds get exponentially better for Trump if he emerges from 2018 unscathed, as the site puts the odds at 7/1 that Trump is impeached in 2019 and 50/1 in 2020.
If the president wants slightly more optimistic odds, he should look to PredictIt, a New Zealand-based prediction market which allows betting on major political events around the globe. On the topic of Trump being impeached in his first term, the market is a bit more bullish on the president's survival. The site, which does it's betting differently than Paddy Power, allows for a 35-cent bet on Trump's impeachment and a 65-cent bet on Trump completing the entirety of his term. That would put the odds at approximately 2/1.
The House of Representatives, which has the sole power to impeach a president, got started in 2017 as Democratic Texas Rep. Al Green introduced and forced a vote on articles of impeachment against the president. The vote failed overwhelmingly, but it did garner the support of 58 Democrats.
The odds of the president being impeached are likely dependent on two factors. The first major factor is the FBI investigation, led by special counsel Robert Mueller, into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Should the investigation yield bombshell revelations against the president or his close confidantes, a bipartisan coalition of representatives could see fit to reintroduce impeachment with a broader base of support.
The second factor is the 2018 midterms, which could potentially see the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives. Should Democrats win control of the chamber, they could be emboldened to humiliate the president by voting to impeach him.
Trump may be safe for now, but he may very well spend the next few years nervously looking over his shoulder. That is, if he makes it a few years.
Related: Support For Donald Trump's Impeachment Is Higher Than His Re-election Chances
The Ireland-based gambling website Paddy Power thinks it's highly unlikely Trump lasts his first term in office without being impeached. The odds are currently 4/7 that the president is impeached before inauguration day 2021. To put that in perspective, oddsmakers at Paddy Power think it's nearly twice as likely Trump will be impeached as it is that he will serve four years in office.
Paddy Power has additional ominous betting odds for the White House. Of the three years Trump has remaining in his presidency, the betting site has impeachment most likely in 2018. The odds that Trump is impeached in 2018 are nearly even at 5/4. For a sitting president, that doesn't paint a particularly rosy picture. The odds get exponentially better for Trump if he emerges from 2018 unscathed, as the site puts the odds at 7/1 that Trump is impeached in 2019 and 50/1 in 2020.
If the president wants slightly more optimistic odds, he should look to PredictIt, a New Zealand-based prediction market which allows betting on major political events around the globe. On the topic of Trump being impeached in his first term, the market is a bit more bullish on the president's survival. The site, which does it's betting differently than Paddy Power, allows for a 35-cent bet on Trump's impeachment and a 65-cent bet on Trump completing the entirety of his term. That would put the odds at approximately 2/1.
The House of Representatives, which has the sole power to impeach a president, got started in 2017 as Democratic Texas Rep. Al Green introduced and forced a vote on articles of impeachment against the president. The vote failed overwhelmingly, but it did garner the support of 58 Democrats.
The odds of the president being impeached are likely dependent on two factors. The first major factor is the FBI investigation, led by special counsel Robert Mueller, into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Should the investigation yield bombshell revelations against the president or his close confidantes, a bipartisan coalition of representatives could see fit to reintroduce impeachment with a broader base of support.
The second factor is the 2018 midterms, which could potentially see the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives. Should Democrats win control of the chamber, they could be emboldened to humiliate the president by voting to impeach him.
Trump may be safe for now, but he may very well spend the next few years nervously looking over his shoulder. That is, if he makes it a few years.
the rich asshole supporters know he’s‘a flawed human being’ — but ‘we just don’t care’
Paul Ryan (CBS News)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
A former Justice Department spokesman said House Speaker Paul Ryan and other top Republican lawmakers should not escape blame for slow-walking the rich asshole-Russia probe.
Matthew Miller, an MSNBC analyst and former Justice Department official, said Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) was just not most clumsily obvious example of how GOP lawmakers were hindering congressional investigations of Russian election interference.
Republicans expressed displeasure that Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was investigating alleged corruption within the FBI in an apparent effort to undermine the special counsel probe — but Miller called out those concerns as phony.
“I don’t buy that for one second,” Miller told MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson. “Republican leadership are good at telling reporters on background and off the record that they don’t like the way Devin Nunes has handled things.”
“If Paul Ryan really didn’t like the way Devin Nunes was handling this investigation, he could remove him, he could push him off of it,” Miller continued.”Same for people like Trey Gowdy (and) Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. They’re doing many of the things that Devin Nunes is doing, in terms of going to war with the FBI and questioning the special prosecutor’s mandate, but they’re doing it in less obviously transparent ways. They’re just less incompetent versions of Devin Nunes.”
the rich asshole supporters know he’s‘a flawed human being’ — but ‘we just don’t care’
President some rich asshole and Brian Pannebecker (Facebook)
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Supporters are well aware of President some rich asshole’s personal flaws, but they freely admit they “don’t care.”
The Financial Times spoke to voters in Macomb County, Michigan, which was crucial in getting the rich asshole elected, and found support for him there was as strong as ever.
“I am the ‘forgotten man’ that thrust some rich asshole into office, and the media elite and the hard left cannot stand it,” said Nelson Westrick, a 42-year-old autoworker. “I think there’s more the rich asshole support now than before the election.”
Westrick has given up on watching sports to back the rich asshole’s attacks on athletes protesting racism.
“I am a very passionate sports fan, but I have canceled the NFL network, I blocked ESPN, I don’t listen to sports radio now — and that’s all I used to listen to,” said Westrick, who has tattoos of several local sports teams on his calves.
Brian Pannebecker, a 58-year-old autoworker and anti-union activist, said he recognizes the rich asshole’s character flaws but simply doesn’t care.
“(He is) a flawed human being, a narcissist, an egomaniac, he exaggerates, embellishes, but we true the rich asshole supporters don’t care, we just don’t care, because … they are all liars and perverts and sex maniacs,” Pannebecker said. “Congress is full of them.”
Pannebecker, who has praised former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, is confident that tax cuts and a promised infrastructure bill will get the rich asshole re-elected in 2020.
“He may not get 50 percent of the vote again, but he will get re-elected,” Pannebecker said. “The only thing that could derail it is a moderate Republican candidate.”
Another autoworker, Chris Vitale, told the newspaper he had no regrets about the rich asshole presidency.
“Last year at Christmas I was flying high because I felt like I got a present that I couldn’t believe, and I’m still flying high on that present,” he said.
Ex-Bush official: Australian diplomats give the rich asshole-Russia probe a ‘new level of credibility’
President some rich asshole arrives at the Memorial Amphitheater during the 149th annual Department of Defense (DoD) National Memorial Day Observance. (DoD Photo by U.S. Army Sgt. James K. McCann)
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A former senior official in the George W. Bush administration said revelations about Australia’s role in the rich asshole-Russia probe opens a new set of problems for the White House.
Australian officials aren’t happy that U.S. officials had identified their British ambassador as playing a key role in launching the FBI investigation of the rich asshole campaign’s ties to Russia, reported The Age.
But they confirmed a bombshell New York Times report that the rich asshole campaign adviser George Papadopoulos told British ambassador Alexander Downer over drinks in May 2016 that Russia had damaging information about Hillary Clinton that came from hacked emails.
After those emails were dumped online in July 2016, Australia’s ambassador to the U.S., Joe Hockey, personally contacted the FBI to report what Papadopoulos had revealed to the diplomat two months earlier in London.
The Age reported that Downer had conveyed the conversation to Australian officials via official cable, but apparently not immediately.
“(Downer) gives this story of the rich asshole campaign collusion with Russia a new level of credibility that will be problematic for the White House,” said Michael Green, senior vice president for Asia and Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull is scheduled to visit the U.S. next month, but he’s “not at all” worried that new reporting on his nation’s role in launching the probe would damage his relationship with President some rich asshole.
“the rich asshole has attacked sources like this in the past,” said Green, a Bush foreign policy adviser and senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council, “and it would not be surprising if he did so this time — though I think the US-Australia alliance and intel relationship can easily weather this.”
Another foreign policy expert said Downer and the Australian government appeared to have handled the highly sensitive matter “entirely appropriately.”
“Given the febrile political environment in Washington, D.C., particularly when it comes to anything relating to Russian election interference and the [Robert] Mueller investigation, it’s regrettable but not terribly surprising that details of Downer’s encounter with Papadopoulos have become public,” said Andrew Shearer, a senior national security and foreign affairs adviser to former Australian prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott who is now with CSIS.
Millennials don’t like the rich asshole. Here’s how they say he could win them over.
WASHINGTON — Monica Robinson thought she was "good" identifying as a Republican — right up until President some rich asshole's election.
Now, nearly a year since his inauguration, she's wary. She called herself a "weaker Republican," skirting a full embrace of the GOP after dizzying months of the rich asshole tweets, feuds and scandals. Robinson doesn't think the president's intentions are bad, but his "delivery" puts her off.
"The policies and the things that they (the GOP) want to do, I feel like are on the right track," said the 30-year-old African-American who lives in Georgia and was one of several millennials interviewed by NBC News about the rich asshole. "The people they're having to use to get there, maybe not so much."
Robinson is hardly alone. A recent NBC News/GenForward poll found that, overall, young Americans don't like what the rich asshole has done as president so far. Half think he'll go down in history as a poor president, and his bad marks only get worse when it comes to millennials of color.
But all hope may not be lost for the GOP. Conversations with a half dozen young Americans between 18 and 34 from across the United States, all participants in the NBC News/GenForward surveys found that while most aren't fans of the rich asshole, they like or are open to some of the conservative policies he and the GOP are putting forward. They just want to see some things change first.
But what and how to change is up for debate among Republican strategists. Some think embracing the rich asshole — and his "drain the swamp" mantra — is the best way to earn young voters' support, while others look to elections in 2017 in Virginia and Alabama as signs that replicating the rich asshole's 2016 success through imitation won't work for anyone — except him.
Julio Carmona is a Democrat, but wouldn't call himself a “strong" one. To him, both parties care more about their own political interests rather than the people they're serving. That's why he's among the 71 percent of millennials who support the idea of a third party.
some rich asshole's first year as president: See the memorable moments 4:27
The 32-year-old father of two is no fan of the rich asshole — "When he was caught on camera talking about grabbing women's genitals and these things, I mean what type of example does that really give to my daughter?" Carmona asked — but he hasn't closed the door on the Republican Party entirely.
"I would (vote Republican)" in the future, he said, pointing to lawmakers like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who have stood up to the rich asshole. "Things can change."
Earning Carmona's vote would necessitate more of a focus on education incentives as well as job creation. Carmona, a nursing student, said his "biggest fear when I graduate is that even with having a good career, I'm still going to be in debt for next 10, 15 years."
the rich asshole has made "jobs, jobs, jobs" a centerpiece of his administration, but student debt has not been something he's spent much time talking about. And his administration has rolled back Obama-era guidance aimed at protecting student borrowers.
Voters split on the rich asshole's tone
Banty Patel, a 32-year-old lawyer and mother from New Jersey, told NBC News that she takes the president's rhetoric on the economy and immigration as a sign that the GOP is moving in a "positive direction." While other conservative-leaning millennials hesitated when asked if they identified as a Republican or Democrat, Patel affirmed her GOP affiliation without qualification.
In an interview, she praisedTrump's commitment to "buying American products, not products made in China" and repeated the need for politicians to focus on American workers.
But while Patel appreciates the rich asshole's tough talk and policy agenda, others wish he would moderate his tone — a desire expressed by skeptical lawmakers, Washington insiders and the rich asshole supporters alike.
"I'm not a the rich asshole fan, but I like some of the stuff he's doing," said Taylor Smith, a 23-year-old Republican from Georgia. "I just don’t like the way he's going about it."
Year one in the books, George Will looks at the road ahead for the rich asshole 3:00
Smith said he supports the rich asshole's advocacy for tighter immigration laws, as well as curbing the flow of drugs into the U.S.
But Smith, who works while going to school for his masters in music performance, worries about the rich asshole's persona on the international stage.
"He has what it takes to actually turn the country around, give us jobs…but what he really needs to do is just stop calling other leaders 'little rocket men,'" Smith said, referring to the nickname the rich asshole gave North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
Given the choice, Smith said, he would have voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in 2016, sold on the idea that both Sanders and the rich asshole promoted about the Democratic and Republican parties: They're rigged against outsiders.
An opportunity for the GOP — but which way to go?
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, a group focused on organizing young conservatives, said the idea of a "rigged" system is one that will continue to resonate going into the midterm elections this year.
"I think there's a lot of agreement among young people that the system is rigged and it's not working for the American people," Kirk told NBC News, adding that the president's attacks against "corruption" in Washington are an opportunity for the rich asshole and other candidates in his mold to harness the "widespread disdain among our generation towards politicians."
NBC News/GenForward polling found that millennials are generally mistrustful and disdainful of both parties and government. Sixty percent of poll respondents said they disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job, and on the whole millennials don't think either party cares about people like them. Fifty-nine percent have a negative view of the GOP, while 42 percent have an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party.
"If the 2017 Virginia election is any indication, millennials are paying attention, and the Republicans have a lot of work to do to get ready for that," said GOP strategist and MSNBC contributor Susan Del Percio.
Millennials want to see inclusive policies, Del Percio said, and that's "the opposite of the the rich asshole brand right now in the GOP."
Another GOP strategist, Evan Siegfried, said millennials have proven elusive for Republicans — even before the rich asshole.
"However, the rich asshole has taken those preexisting problems and put them on steroids," Siegfried said, pointing to the rich asshole's response to a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which the president blamed "both sides" for violence, his handling of DACA, and his call to ban transgender individuals from serving in the military.
Here's what Americans think of President the rich asshole's first year in office 3:50
Those things "reinforce the caricature of Republicans as out of touch, old, crusty white guys…that only look out for old, sad, crusty white guys," Siegfried said.
One thing the rich asshole could do, personally, to make the party more palatable? Quit Twitter.
"If he just cancelled his whole Twitter account that'd be great," Robinson, the millennial on the fence, said with a big laugh.
If that happened, she added, "You know what? I think I'm gonna start listening to him now."
BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 01/01/18 04:38 PM EST
Congress is barreling toward a showdown over immigration in January.
Lawmakers were locked in a flurry of closed-door negotiations and meetings with top White House officials as they tried to make progress on an agreement before wrapping up their work for the year.
Instead, both chambers adjourned without a deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, kicking the fight into 2018. The program allows certain immigrants, called dreamers, who came to the United States illegally as children, to work and go to school here.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Minority Leader Charles Schumer(D-N.Y.), Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are expected to meet with top White House officials on Wednesday to discuss a myriad of looming policy fights, including DACA.
The sit-down comes as President the rich asshole, a wild card in the immigration battle, is doubling down on his demand for funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
“The Democrats have been told, and fully understand, that there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border and an END to the horrible Chain Migration & ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration etc. We must protect our Country at all cost!” he said in a tweet.
The requirement would complicate any effort to get a deal because proposed funding is unlikely to get the 60 votes needed in the Senate.
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) noted on Friday that Congress could pass a legislative fix for DACA that “beefs up border security, stops chain migration for the DREAMers, and addresses the unfairness of the diversity lottery.”
“If POTUS wants to protect these kids, we want to help him keep that promise,” he added.
Conservatives have honed in on cracking down on “chain migration” by limiting which family members U.S. citizens and permanent residents can try to sponsor for a green card.
Negotiators are hoping they will have a deal by next month, though wide gaps remain between what GOP lawmakers, the White House and Democrats will accept as part of any agreement.
“My preference obviously would be to do it earlier in January and attach it to the must pass omnibus bill. That’s just me. ... We just need more time [and] we’ll run out of runway if we try to do it the end of February,” Flake told reporters before the holiday recess.
Supporters of a DACA fix believe that the spending and budget negotiations give them the most leverage because GOP leadership will need support from Democrats to keep the government open and prevent automatic across-the-board budget cuts.
“Come January we are focused on the caps, the omnibus and the opportunity they present,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, told The Hill.
Senate GOP leadership has pledged that if lawmakers can strike a deal in January they will bring the legislation up for a vote.
“There is a commitment to bring up a bill on the floor in January, but a bill does not currently exist so we have a lot of work we need to do,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), asked if a commitment had been made to Flake.
McConnell has also downplayed that Democrats will be able to use an upcoming slate of fiscal deadlines to gain an advantage in the immigration fight.
“There isn't that much of an emergency there. The president's given us until March,” he said.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in September that the administration would end the Obama-era program, which allows undocumented immigrants brought into the country as children to work and go to school.
The decision teed up a mid-March deadline for Congress to pass legislation. If they fail to reach a deal, hundreds of thousands of immigrants will be at risk of being deported.
Lawmakers on both sides have appeared sympathetic to DACA recipients, but a deal has remained elusive.
Negotiators met with White House chief of staff John Kelly earlier this month, but left Washington for the year without key issues resolved, including if DACA recipients would be given a path to citizenship, how many individuals would be covered and what security provisions would be part of a package.
Lawmakers have introduced wildly varying proposals, underscoring the challenge to getting an agreement that could clear both chambers.
GOP Sens. Thom Tillis (N.C.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) offered a bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship.
But that would likely draw backlash from conservatives, who view the DACA program as “amnesty.”
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) told Breitbart News Tonight that the rich asshole has a “mandate to build a wall [and] pass domestic [immigration] enforcement legislation.”
Flake told an Arizona radio station over the break that Ryan was “certainly committed” to fixing DACA, but the House speaker promised conservatives in 2015 that he would not bring up any immigration bill that lacked support from a majority of Republicans.
Meanwhile top Senate Republicans, including Cornyn and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), introduced the SECURE Act, which would pair a temporary extension of DACA with border security.
McConnell, who has sidestepped saying if he believes “Dreamers” should be given a path to citizenship, noted that he supports the principles included in the GOP legislation.
But that bill incorporates some provisions considered a non-starter for Democrats, including targeting cities that don’t comply with federal immigration law.
Democratic leadership is under growing pressure to take a hard stance on the immigration fight after failing to get a deal as part of an end-of-the-year stopgap bill.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who was one of several senators who voted against December’s short-term funding bill, appeared to blame Republicans for the delay.
“The Republicans have been so busy trying to give tax breaks to billionaires and ignoring this crisis is a very, very sad state of affairs. ...We need, absolutely, to protect the dreamers and pass that legislation,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
But progressive outside groups and immigration activists have grown increasingly frustrated with Schumer and Pelosi.
“This is a monumental failure of leadership on the part of Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi,” Murshed Zaheed, the political director for CREDO, said after lawmakers left for the year without a deal.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus didn’t specifically call out Democratic leadership but noted that they will “leverage every single opportunity to keep all Congressional leaders committed to the goal of permanently protecting Dreamers by mid-January.”
Democrats are warning Republicans to avoid attaching larger fights, like curbs to legal immigration, or tougher interior enforcement legislation to any deal.
But GOP Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who initially worked on the 2013 comprehensive legislation, warned that the demand was “unrealistic.”
“It’s unrealistic to think you’re going to get 60 votes in the Senate and a majority of the House and a presidential signature on a permanent change to the immigration status of hundreds of thousands of people and not pair that up with permanent changes in enforcement,” he told a local Florida paper.
He added that “the obsessive opposition to anything that involves enforcement by those on the left is beyond me.”
Pakistan fired back at President the rich asshole on Monday, saying the U.S. has given it "nothing but invective and mistrust" after the rich asshole lashed out at the country and threatened to withhold aid in an early morning tweet.
"[Pakistan] as anti-terror ally has given free to US: land & air communication, military bases & intel cooperation that decimated Al-Qaeda over last 16yrs, but they have given us nothing but invective & mistrust," Pakistan's defense minister, Khurram Dastgir-Khan, said on Twitter.
"They overlook cross-border safe havens of terrorists who murder Pakistanis," he added.
In his first tweet of 2018, the rich asshole blasted Pakistan, saying its leaders have given the U.S. "nothing but lies and deceit."
Last week, The New York Times reported that the rich asshole administration was considering withholding $225 million in aid from Pakistan over the country's handling of terrorism.
In August, the rich asshole unveiled a new U.S. strategy for the war in Afghanistan aimed at defeating the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network, an affiliated group that operates in Pakistan.
the rich asshole said then that Pakistan "gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence and terror." He also vowed the administration would be tougher on the country.
the rich asshole has a golf problem
"I'm going to be working for you. I'm not going to have time to go play golf."
On Christmas, the rich asshole tweeted that he would be going “back to work” the next day.
the rich asshole has since gone golfing for seven consecutive days, while the press pool ate pancakes at a local IHOP.
December 26
“The motorcade pulled into the rich asshole International Golf Club at around 9:05am. We passed by a lone protestor right outside the golf club, a woman holding a hand-made cardboard cut out of Trumps face with the text Pants on Fire…The press pool is reportedly going to be held at a local IHOP, which is both a blessing and a curse.”
December 27
“At precisely 9:00 a.m., President the rich asshole’s motorcade turned into the rich asshole International Golf Club, and your pool is now headed to hold nearby an expected combination of the library and an IHOP.”
December 28
“The presidents motorcade pulled into the rich asshole International Golf Club at 8:36 am. Pool is doing the IHOP/library maneuver.”
December 29
“At 9:09 a.m., the motorcade arrived at the rich asshole International Golf Club. One woman in a pink shirt that said “Resist” was standing across from the golf club with a sign thanking the Press pool.”
December 30
“The motorcade entered the rich asshole International Golf Club in West Palm Beach at 9:40. Your pooler saw a family on Southern Blvd. with a young daughter holding a neon poster that said this 5 year old loves the rich asshole, a heart replacing the word loves. Your pool is now en route to a familiar breakfast chain known for their pancakes.”
December 31
“POTUS arrived at the rich asshole International Golf Club at 9:44 a.m., while Press 1, Press 2, and Press 3 vans continued on to the International House of Pancakes. Well be holding here for a while.”
January 1
“POTUS pulled into the rich asshole International Golf Club at approximately 8:51 am. We are now heading to you guessed it, IHOP for what we “all” need this morning: Greasy breakfast food.”
the rich asshole also golfed on the two days before Christmas, making it nine out of the last 10 days on the links.
the rich asshole promised not to golf at all as president. “I’m going to be working for you. I’m not going to have time to go play golf,” the rich asshole said in August 2016.
the rich asshole repeatedly criticized Obama for golfing too often. the rich asshole has golfed about 75 times since being sworn in as president. At this point in his presidency Obama had played 24 rounds.
the rich asshole attacks LGBT rights in 2017
some rich asshole holds up a rainbow flag with "LGBTs for RICH ASSHOLE" written on it at a campaign rally in Greeley, Colorado, October 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
Grace Guarnieri
Posted with permission from Newsweek
President Donald Trump and his administration's policies and statements in 2017 have taken aim at the LGBT community despite his campaign promises to "fight" for the rights and beliefs of LGBT individuals.
During his 2016 presidential campaign, then-Republican candidate Donald Trump boasted his advocacy for LGBT Americans. "Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs," he wrote in a June, 2016 tweet.
A year later, in June, 2017 six members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), announced their resignations in an open letter published by Newsweek, explaining how the Trump administration was pushing policies that would be harmful to individuals with HIV and AIDS. PACHA, started in 1995, was a group of experts and advocates that has worked with the president to provide recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Trump fired the remaining member of the council last Wednesday.
During his 2016 presidential campaign, then-Republican candidate Donald Trump boasted his advocacy for LGBT Americans. "Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs," he wrote in a June, 2016 tweet.
A year later, in June, 2017 six members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), announced their resignations in an open letter published by Newsweek, explaining how the Trump administration was pushing policies that would be harmful to individuals with HIV and AIDS. PACHA, started in 1995, was a group of experts and advocates that has worked with the president to provide recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Trump fired the remaining member of the council last Wednesday.
In July, 2017 President Donald Trump back peddled on his commitment to the LGBT community when he announced a ban on transgender people joining the U.S. military via Twitter. The president said he had made the decision after consulting with generals and military experts. On Friday, the Trump administration quietly said it would abandon its bid to stop transgender people from joining the military come January 2018.
After the June, 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting, then-candidate Trump stood in solidarity with the LGBT community, saying that his fight against radical Islamic terrorism would protect the LGBT community. 49 people were killed and dozens were injured during the deadly Orlando shooting. Trump did not mention the LGBT community when he tweeted about the shooting anniversary one year later. “We will NEVER FORGET the victims who lost their lives one year ago today in the horrific #PulseNightClub shooting. #OrlandoUnitedDay,” he tweeted on June 14, 2017
We will NEVER FORGET the victims who lost their lives one year ago today in the horrific #PulseNightClub shooting. #OrlandoUnitedDay
Members of the Trump administration have also worked against the rights of LGBT Americans in 2017, namely Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In October, Sessions wrote a memo to the Justice Department saying that courts would no longer recognize Title VII as protecting transgender individuals against workplace discrimination.
“Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination encompasses discrimination between men and women but does not encompass discrimination based on gender identity per se, including transgender status,” Sessions wrote in the October memo, according to The Hill.
On December 1, World AIDS Day, Trump again snubbed the LGBT community by ignoring them in a White House statement that focused his support on women and girls in African countries who suffer from the deadly virus. While the White House prayed for those living with HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, Human Rights Campaign data said that 55 percent of about 1.2 million Americans living with HIV in the United States were gay men.
When Trump signed the GOP tax bill into law on December 22, the LGBT community took another hit. The bill will cut funding for social programs including healthcare, food stamps, housing, and homeless support efforts.
“This bill is a disaster for everyone really, but specifically for LGBT [people],” senior staff attorney at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Christopher Stoll, told Newsweek in December. “It will result in deep cuts in programs that LGBT people depend on.”
It is now 2018 and some rich asshole has been president for nearly one full year. Prior to taking office, the rich asshole confidently predicted what the world would look by now. Let’s check in and see how his predictions turned out.
1. “Everybody” was supposed to have health insurance
“We’re going to have insurance for everybody. There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us,” the rich asshole told the Washington Post on January 15, 2017. He added that, under his new law which would pass quickly, everyone “can expect to have great health care. It will be in a much simplified form. Much less expensive and much better.”
Since the rich asshole was elected, 3.5 million fewer people have health insurance.
Things are likely to get worse. The most significant health related legislation passed by the rich asshole was the repeal of the individual mandate, which will cause another 13 million people to become uninsured.
2. America was supposed to be “respected again”
Throughout the campaign, the rich asshole predicted that after he became president America would be “respected again.”
Since the rich asshole was elected, global confidence in the United States has dropped 47 points, with large declines in virtually every country except Russia, according to a Pew study of attitudes across 37 countries. This tracks an even steeper decline in confidence in the president.
3. The deficit was supposed to “go away rapidly”
“We’re not going to have a $400 billion deficit. That will go away rapidly and we’ll get along,” the rich asshole said in New Hampshire in September 2015.
In the 2017 fiscal year, the deficit was $666 billion, an $80 billion increase from 2016.
the rich asshole just signed a tax bill that is projected to increase the deficit by another $1 trillion over the next 10 years.
4. the rich asshole was supposed to have quit Twitter
the rich asshole promised that, as president, he would not tweet. “Don’t worry, I’ll give it up after I’m president. We won’t tweet anymore… not presidential,” the rich asshole said in April 2016.
the rich asshole has tweeted more than 2500 times as president.
the rich asshole made it seven hours in 2018 before creating an international incident on Twitter
Happy New Year!
President the rich asshole rang in the New Year early Monday by attacking Pakistan on Twitter, a nuclear armed country with an already-strained relationship with United States.
“The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools,” he wrote. “They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”
The tweet did not seem to be in response to anything in particular, as the rich asshole had been busy targeting Iran in the days prior. In a subsequent tweet on Monday, he blamed Iran for “failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama Administration.”
the rich asshole’s relationship with Pakistan, whose Foreign Minister Khawaja M. Asif on Monday promised to respond to the rich asshole’s tweet, grew tense in 2017.
Just after his election in November 2016, then-president-elect the rich asshole sang Pakistan’s praises in a phone call with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif — saying that “Pakistanis are one of the most intelligent people.”
In February, however, the rich asshole effectively ignored a devastating wave of attacks in the country, which left more than 100 people dead. As ThinkProgress reported at the time, the official White House account was also silent on the matter, although the State Department did manage to retweet condolences from the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.
Later in August, the rich asshole singled out Pakistan in a speech about his vague new strategy in Afghanistan, criticizing the country for harboring extremist groups fighting U.S. forces in the region. “We can no longer be silent about Pakistan’s safe havens for terrorist organizations, the Taliban, and other groups that pose a threat to the region and beyond,” he said in a speech that month. “Pakistan has much to gain from partnering with our effort in Afghanistan. It has much to lose by continuing to harbor terrorists.”
A day later, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson detailed the few specifics of the rich asshole’s new military strategy, which relied heavily on Pakistan and India — two rival nuclear powers — for support. In addition to announcing an unspecified troop surge, Tillerson explained that the United States would depend on Pakistan to up its fight against extremism, blasting Pakistan’s inaction against Taliban militants and threatening it with aid withdrawal.
“We are going to be conditioning our support for Pakistan and our relationship with them on them delivering results in this area,” Tillerson said. He added that the United States was prepared to withdraw Pakistan’s status as a non-NATO ally, pulling vital support in the process, should Pakistani officials be deemed uncooperative.
Those official administration statements were met with criticism by Pakistani officials, who claimed the rich asshole administration was ignoring the country’s assistance in other crucial areas.
“No country in the world has suffered more than Pakistan from the scourge of terrorism, often perpetrated from outside our borders. It is, therefore, disappointing that the US policy statement ignores the enormous sacrifices rendered by the Pakistani nation in this effort,” the Pakistani Foreign Ministry wrote in a statement. “…As a matter of policy, Pakistan does not allow use of its territory against any country.”
In October, in an apparent effort to ratchet down tensions, the rich asshole claimed that he was “starting to develop a much better relationship with Pakistan and its leaders.”
“I want to thank them for their cooperation on many fronts,” he tweeted.
The president’s more recent, antagonistic tweet follows a New York Times report that the White House was preparing to withhold some $225 million in aid to Pakistan, in retaliation for it’s failure to clamp down on extremism.
Comedian Dave Chapelle comments on allegations against Kevin Spacey in Netflix special
Riddhima Kanetkar
Posted with permission from International Business Times
Comedian Dave Chappelle's New Year's Eve Netflix stand-up special cast a unique albeit controversial light on the biggest story of 2017: allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct by men in positions of power in politics, media or Hollywood.
"The Bird Revelation” had Chappelle taking a dig at the #MeToo movement, almost defending Kevin Spacey and saying that the allegations against Louis C.K. were “the only ones that made me laugh,” the Daily Mail reported.
During the show, Chappelle took a sly dig at Anthony Rapp, who has accused Spacey of molesting him, and said that the young actor “grew up to be gay anyway.”
Rapp accused Spacey of sexual misconduct in October last year during an interview with Buzzfeed, saying that while working on a Broadway show in 1986 Spacey befriended him and invited him to his room for a party. By the end of the night, he “picked Rapp up, placed him on his bed, and climbed on top of him.”
“I mean it is really bad out here. Kevin Spacey's out here grabbing men by the p----! I didn't even know that was possible!” Chappelle said, referring to the claims that the former "House of Cards" star groped and harassed young men.
According to a report in the Daily Beast, Chappelle also said that he has been to a lot of good parties but he never went to one that had a 14-year-old boy present.
“I've been to a lot of parties in my day. Never been to a good one that had 14-year-old boys in it,' he said before he appeared to suggest that the incident was not that serious because Rapp “grew up to be gay anyway”.
“Kevin Spacey sniffed that shit out like a truffle pig, and not to victim-blame, but it seems like the kind of situation that a gay 14-year-old kid would get himself into," Chappelle added.
Riffing on Spacey’s ouster from the Netflix series, Chappelle almost condemns the actor for his act, but as it turns out it's just a set-up for a biting joke.
“All joking aside, Kevin Spacey shouldn't have done that shit to that kid. He was 14 years old and forced to carry a grown man's secret for 30 years. The saddest part is, if he had been able to carry that secret for another six months, I would get to know how 'House of Cards' ends," he said.
The also took on the case of one of his own: Louis C.K. Louis C.K. has admitted and apologized for forcing women to watch him masturbate.
Chappelle said the allegations against C.K. were “the only ones that made me laugh.”
He also said that the consequences for his conduct "might be disproportionate."
“It’s terrible, I know it’s terrible,” Chappelle says. “Ladies, you are right. But at the same time, Jesus Christ, they took everything from Louis. I think it might be disproportionate. I can’t tell. This is where it’s hard to be man.”
Chappelle raised a few laughs at the cost of the #MeToo movement, that had women coming forward saying they had been sexually harassed.
“I can’t even say the words ‘me too’ anymore,” Chappelle said. If someone told him they were going to some comedy club, he replies, “I... am also going to the comedy club.”
"The Bird Revelation” had Chappelle taking a dig at the #MeToo movement, almost defending Kevin Spacey and saying that the allegations against Louis C.K. were “the only ones that made me laugh,” the Daily Mail reported.
During the show, Chappelle took a sly dig at Anthony Rapp, who has accused Spacey of molesting him, and said that the young actor “grew up to be gay anyway.”
Rapp accused Spacey of sexual misconduct in October last year during an interview with Buzzfeed, saying that while working on a Broadway show in 1986 Spacey befriended him and invited him to his room for a party. By the end of the night, he “picked Rapp up, placed him on his bed, and climbed on top of him.”
“I mean it is really bad out here. Kevin Spacey's out here grabbing men by the p----! I didn't even know that was possible!” Chappelle said, referring to the claims that the former "House of Cards" star groped and harassed young men.
According to a report in the Daily Beast, Chappelle also said that he has been to a lot of good parties but he never went to one that had a 14-year-old boy present.
“I've been to a lot of parties in my day. Never been to a good one that had 14-year-old boys in it,' he said before he appeared to suggest that the incident was not that serious because Rapp “grew up to be gay anyway”.
“Kevin Spacey sniffed that shit out like a truffle pig, and not to victim-blame, but it seems like the kind of situation that a gay 14-year-old kid would get himself into," Chappelle added.
Riffing on Spacey’s ouster from the Netflix series, Chappelle almost condemns the actor for his act, but as it turns out it's just a set-up for a biting joke.
“All joking aside, Kevin Spacey shouldn't have done that shit to that kid. He was 14 years old and forced to carry a grown man's secret for 30 years. The saddest part is, if he had been able to carry that secret for another six months, I would get to know how 'House of Cards' ends," he said.
The also took on the case of one of his own: Louis C.K. Louis C.K. has admitted and apologized for forcing women to watch him masturbate.
Chappelle said the allegations against C.K. were “the only ones that made me laugh.”
He also said that the consequences for his conduct "might be disproportionate."
“It’s terrible, I know it’s terrible,” Chappelle says. “Ladies, you are right. But at the same time, Jesus Christ, they took everything from Louis. I think it might be disproportionate. I can’t tell. This is where it’s hard to be man.”
Chappelle raised a few laughs at the cost of the #MeToo movement, that had women coming forward saying they had been sexually harassed.
“I can’t even say the words ‘me too’ anymore,” Chappelle said. If someone told him they were going to some comedy club, he replies, “I... am also going to the comedy club.”
The Memo: the rich asshole in 2018: Five things to watch
BY NIALL STANAGE - 01/01/18 06:00 AM EST
True to his style, President the rich asshole’s first year in office was tumultuous and unpredictable.
There is no clear evidence that the nation’s 45th president is going to change his ways anytime soon.
As he begins his second year in office, what are some of the big things to look out for?
Does he hit the campaign trail in advance of the midterms?
the rich asshole defied every prediction by coming from nowhere to win the presidency at his first attempt. But his attempts to use his appeal to help other candidates in 2017 had mixed results.
This was clearest of all in Alabama, where he first campaigned for incumbent Sen. Luther Strange (R), who went down to defeat in the GOP primary. the rich asshole then backed Republican nominee Roy Moore — reportedly against the counsel of some of his advisers — only to see Moore lose the general election to Democrat Doug Jones in a state the rich asshole had carried by 28 points in 2016.
the rich asshole is unpopular with the electorate at large, but very popular with Republican voters — a fact that greatly complicates the question of whether his presence at rallies and other campaign events will help or hurt Republican candidates.
the rich asshole could help drive turnout up among the GOP base, but he could be equally energizing for the opposition.
With an overall approval rating of just 39.8 percent in the RealClearPolitics average as of Sunday, the rich asshole could also put off voters in the center ground.
Does he keep faith with his legal team?
The White House sought to contain the political damage from allegations of collusion with Russia when the president enlisted a separate, personal legal team to deal with the matter.
In recent months, three lawyers — Ty Cobb, John Dowd and Jay Sekulow — have come to the fore in responding to the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Cobb, in particular, has been vocal in his insistence that Mueller’s probe is nearing its end. At one point, Cobb suggested it would all be over by Thanksgiving or, at worst, the end of the year.
Many legal experts never saw this as a realistic possibility. There was widespread speculation that Cobb’s promises were aimed at keeping the president calm and discouraging him from precipitous action such as attempting to fire Mueller.
But how long will the rich asshole’s patience endure if the probe goes on well into 2018? And will he also keep faith with the current strategy, in which his lawyers promise to cooperate with Mueller while his political allies attack the special counsel?
the rich asshole surprised some observers last week, when he told The New York Times that he expects Mueller is "going to be fair." But it still seems plausible that the rich asshole will soon want a more confrontational strategy.
Does he reach out to Democrats?
One of the more idiosyncratic subplots of the rich asshole’s first year in office was his ever-changing relationship with “Chuck and Nancy” — Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
the rich asshole stunned his Republican colleagues in September when he struck a deal with the Democrats on government funding and the debt ceiling. He followed that up in short order with a meeting where Schumer and Pelosi believed they had reached an agreement on incorporating into law the protections of former President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The White House would soon insist that any immigration deal was much less definitive. And, as the year drew to a close, the rich asshole returned to a much more combative footing regarding Schumer and Pelosi, and Democrats generally.
There are items on the GOP's legislative agenda that have the potential to draw Democratic support. In addition to some kind of fix for DACA, infrastructure spending is the most obvious example. Some red-state Democrats are also open to loosening some of the regulations in the Dodd-Frank law.
But will the president make a good faith effort to keep Democrats on board? And, if he does, will they respond, given the enmity toward the president among huge swathes of their base?
Where does he go next on foreign policy?
the rich asshole’s “America First” platform on foreign policy has delighted his supporters but outraged critics and much of the establishment.
His propensity to use the kind of language that was unheard-of from any previous president — calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “Little Rocket Man,” for example — has startled the international community.
But the rich asshole’s actions have sometimes been several notches softer than his rhetoric.
He declined to certify that Iran was in compliance with the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, but stopped short of blowing up the agreement. He backtracked on his campaign-trail contention that NATO was “obsolete.” And his actions on trade — with China and in relation to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) — have not been as emphatic as some expected.
Most of these issues will remain relevant in 2018 and new international crises are sure to erupt. It remains to be seen just how far the rich asshole is willing to go to bring his policies in line with his words.
Does he hold onto his base?
Even as the rich asshole’s approval rating has sagged, there was one silver lining for the White House: Poll after poll indicated that around 35 percent of the electorate is sticking with him, despite all the storms that clouded his horizon in 2017.
the rich asshole is desperate to keep this base, which he credits with helping to deliver his election victory, especially in key states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
He has kept his loyalists fired up by his willingness to press any number of social and cultural hot buttons. He has hit the media constantly, attacked NFL players for kneeling to protest racial injustice and made deeply controversial remarks about racial violence in Charlottesville, Va.
the rich asshole has often argued that he is delivering on his campaign trail slogan — Make American Great Again — pointing in particular to strong economic performance. Unemployment has continued to decline, the stock market has soared and overall economic growth has been robust.
But that does not mean that those gains necessarily go to the people who elected the rich asshole, especially those voters lower down the socio-economic scale who have suffered from decades of wage stagnation and deindustrialization.
Maybe the rich asshole diehards will never lose faith in the president. But if any significant number of them decide that he is a less transformative figure than they had hoped, he could be in big trouble.
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage, primarily focused on some rich asshole’s presidency.
BY KYLE BALLUCK - 01/01/18 07:35 AM EST
President the rich asshole blasted Pakistan in his first tweet of 2018, saying its leaders have given the U.S. “nothing by lies & deceit.”
“The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools,” he said Monday morning.
“They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” he added.
The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!
The New York Times reported late last week that the rich asshole administration might withhold $225 million in aid over frustration with Pakistan's handling of terror networks.
Administration officials told the newspaper that a final decision is expected in the next few weeks.
Pakistan's defense ministry fired back at the rich asshole in a tweet later Monday, saying it has received nothing but "invective & mistrust" from the U.S.
Pak as anti-terror ally has given free to US: land & air communication, military bases & intel cooperation that decimated Al-Qaeda over last 16yrs, but they have given us nothing but invective & mistrust. They overlook cross-border safe havens of terrorists who murder Pakistanis.
U.S. officials have long accused Pakistan of being slow to stamp out terrorist groups within its borders.
In August, the rich asshole unveiled a new U.S. strategy for the war in Afghanistan aimed at defeating the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network, an affiliated group that operates in Pakistan.
the rich asshole said then that Pakistan "gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence and terror." He also vowed the administration would be tougher on the country.
In July, the Pentagon withheld $50 million in funding for Pakistan after Defense Secretary James Mattis told Congress he would not certify that the country has done enough to fight the Haqqani Network.
--This report was updated at 11:50 a.m.
Washington (CNN)In his first tweet of the new year President some rich asshole slammed Pakistan, saying the country has given the US nothing but "lies and deceit."
"The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools," the rich asshole tweeted Monday morning. "They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"
The New York Times reported last week that the US might withhold $225 million in aid to Pakistan because of the rich asshole's frustration over its handling of terrorists in the country. White House officials met to decide whether to cancel the aid, the Times reported.
The commander of the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, US Army Gen. John Nicholson, said in November that Pakistan had not changed its behavior since the rich asshole announced his new policy for Afghanistan and the wider region, which specifically calls on Pakistan to do more.
"No, I haven't seen any change yet in their behavior," Nicholson told reporters after a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels when asked whether Pakistan was cooperating more in eliminating Taliban sanctuaries.
"You've heard the public statements from President the rich asshole, from (Defense Secretary James) Mattis, from (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford) from (Secretary of State Rex) Tillerson, so we are engaging at the very highest levels with the Pakistanis to work together with them against these terrorists that are undermining the stability of the entire region," Nicholson added.
"Pakistan has fought hard and suffered heavily against those terrorists focused on its government, and now we are asking them to focus on the terrorists that are attacking Afghanistan and attacking the coalition," he continued. "The United States has been very clear about the direction we want to go, and we hope to see some change in the coming weeks and months."
In contrast to his tweet Monday, the rich asshole in October was talking about how much Pakistan now respected the US.
After American Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, were freed as Taliban prisoners, the President praised Pakistan's cooperation with the US.
"This is a very positive moment for our country's relationship with Pakistan," the rich asshole said, adding that the Pakistani government's cooperation "is a sign that is honoring America wishes for it to do more to provide security in the region."
the rich asshole said Pakistan is "starting to respect the United States again."
Later that month US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Pakistan and urged its leaders to step up efforts "to eradicate militants and terrorists operating within the country."
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