February 26th, 2017 continued. It's been 471 days since the Nov 8, 2016, election of some rich asshole, no. 45, and 399 days since the Jan 20th inauguration of some rich asshole.
Melania the rich asshole ends ‘gratuitous contract’ with longtime friend amid outrage over $26 million inauguration payments
Melania the rich asshole (Shutterstock)
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First Lady Melania the rich asshole has cut ties with a friend and adviser who was paid $26 million for event planning at President some rich asshole’s inaugurationafter the New York Times reported on the existence of the payments.
The Times revealed the payments to the First Lady’s friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff on February 15. In the interim, the president reportedly became “enraged” upon learning that $3.7 million was paid David Monn, a friend of Wolkoff’s.
A spokeswoman for the First Lady said her office had “severed the gratuitous services contract with Ms. Wolkoff,” who was characterized as a “special government employee.”
the rich asshole’s spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said the First Lady “had no involvement” and “had no knowledge of how funds were spent.”
Responding to the Times, Wolkoff said twice that coverage of the payout was “completely unfair,” but did not cite examples.
Parkland survivor David Hogg slams ‘disgusting’ Don Jr: ‘Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree’
Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg (left) and first son some rich asshole Jr. (right). Images via screengrab.
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David Hogg, the Parkland, Florida mass shooting survivor at the center of a right-wing “crisis actor” conspiracy theory, slammed the president’s eldest son some rich asshole Jr. on Monday for promoting the “disgusting” accusation on Twitter.
the rich asshole Jr. “liking” two tweets that suggested Hogg was an actor paid by gun control activists is “disgusting,” the Marjory Stoneman Douglas student told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
“Along with the other trolls online, he’s only proven the point that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree on maturity,” Hogg continued, “especially from the president.”
Nevertheless, the rich asshole Jr.’s apparent endorsement of the conspiracy theory “quadrupled” the survivor’s Twitter followers and kept his and his classmates’ crusade in favor of gun control in the wake of the Parkland shooting in the media, Hogg said.
Watch below, via CNN:
‘We’re all f*cked’: Omarosa’s fellow ‘Big Brother’ contestant is ‘shocked as hell’ at the state of the rich asshole’s White House
Omarosa Manigault (CBS/screen grab)
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The “Celebrity Big Brother” contestant who got Omarosa Manigault-Newman to open up about her time in the White House said he was both shocked and excited to learn about just how headline-grabbing her comments were.
“I was just trying to get any juicy scoop that I could and she was willing to talk, which shocked the hell out of me,” contestant and former Jay Leno intern Ross Mathews told The Daily Beast. “So I thought, shut up Ross and keep asking questions until she stops talking. I assumed it would make news.”
Mathews told the Beast that he was genuinely concerned for the country when he asked Manigault-Newman if the White House is as chaotic on the inside as it appears to voters, and her response did little to reassure him.
“It made me want to eat pizza and cake for the rest of the day,” he said. “That’s certainly not the answer I wanted for myself. That’s certainly not the answer the country wanted. So I felt like we’re all f*cked.”
You can watch the clip of Mathews and Manigault-Newman’s intense “Big Brother” conversation below:
the rich asshole Organization says it donated foreign government profits, but won’t release any details
Ethics watchdog described the announcement as "wholly inadequate."
The rich asshole Organization said Monday it has donated profits earned from foreign government spending at the company’s hotels last year to the U.S. Treasury Department, but both the company and the federal agency have refused to disclose details about the transactions, according to the Associated Press.
The rich asshole Organization, the real estate empire that President some rich asshole still controls, donated the profits last Thursday, the company’s executive vice president and chief compliance counsel, George Sorial, told The Washington Post.
“Although not a legal requirement, this voluntary donation fulfills our pledge to donate profits from foreign government patronage at our hotels and similar business during President the rich asshole’s term in office,” Sorial told the Post.
But details about who those foreign customers are, what the rich asshole hotels profited, and the amount of those profits remain a mystery. It’s an issue that’s left ethics and watchdog organizations concerned with the lack of transparency surrounding the president’s business dealings.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics [CREW] in Washington, D.C. released a statement Monday describing the rich asshole Organization’s announcement as “wholly inadequate” because of the lack of details, including how the profits were calculated. The watchdog organization also pointed out that the donation includes only hotels, not all of the rich asshole’s businesses, and includes only events, but fails to track payments for hotel rooms and meals.
“There is no independent oversight or accountability; we’re being asked to take their word for it,” executive director Noah Bookbinder said in the CREW statement. “Most importantly, even if they had given every dime they made from foreign governments to the Treasury, the taking of those payments would still be a problem under the Constitution.”
Sorial told Forbes reporter Dan Alexander in a statement that the donation, for profits earned from January 20, 2017 to December 31, 2017, was calculated “in accordance with our policy and the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry.”
A Treasury Department spokesperson confirmed to the Associated Press and Forbes that the agency had received the check from the rich asshole Organization, but did not provide further details.
Robert Weissman, president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, told the Associated Press that he was not surprised about the lack of disclosure given that the rich asshole’s family businesses have “a penchant for secrecy and a readiness to violate their promises.”
“Did they pay with Monopoly money? If the rich asshole Organization won’t say how much they paid, let alone how they calculated it at each property, why in the world should we believe they actually have delivered on their promise?” saidWeissman.
Last month, Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee called on the committee’s Republican chairman to subpoena the rich asshole Organization for documents that could shed light on the foreign government payments the rich asshole Organization received last year.
In their letter, Democrats sought answers to questions similar to those being asked by watchdog organizations, including: the process by which payments from foreign governments or foreign government-owned entities are identified, as well as the process or formula by which the profits from such payments are calculated.
“Over the past year, President the rich asshole and his attorneys have stalled virtually any credible oversight,” the Democrats wrote in the letter. “And unfortunately our Committee has done nothing to push back on these efforts, press for answers to these questions, or obtain documents that would assist our efforts to carry out our duties under the Constitution to act as an independent check on the President and the Executive Branch.”
POLITICS
the rich asshole, Who Cited Bone Spurs To Avoid Military Service, Claims He Would Have Fought Off Parkland Shooter Without A Weapon
“I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon.”
WASHINGTON ― President some rich asshole on Monday suggested that he would have personally fought off the school shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School even while not armed, despite the fact that he previously deferred military service due to bone spurs in his foot.
“I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon, and I think most of the people in this room would have done that too,” he said during a White House event with the nation’s governors.
the rich asshole was referring to criticism against law enforcement officials, including an armed guard at the school who failed to swiftly respond to the gun massacre in Parkland, Florida, earlier this month.
When later asked to clarify the rich asshole’s comments, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed that he didn’t actually mean that he would “run in” to the school.
“I think he was just stating that as a leader, he would have stepped in and hopefully been able to help,” she said.
the rich asshole has previously expressed disgust for seeing blood, saying that “it’s just not my thing.”
“I’m not good for medical. In other words, if you cut your finger and there’s blood pouring out, I’m gone,” he told radio host Howard Stern in 2008.
In the same interview, he went on to describe a charity event at his Mar-a-Lago resort, during which he looked away when a man fell off the stage and started bleeding.
“He was right in front of me and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him … he’s bleeding all over the place, I felt terrible,” the rich asshole said. “You know, beautiful marble floor, didn’t look like it. It changed color. Became very red.”
Last week, the rich asshole proposed that one of the solutions to the nation’s epidemic of school shootings should involve arming teachers, and that teachers who receive training to carry a weapon at school should receive a pay bonus.
“A teacher would have shot the hell out of him before he knew what happened,” the president said Friday while addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Earlier Monday, Florida attorney general and the rich asshole ally Pam Bondi (R), similarly claimed that she would have gone after the shooter without a weapon.
“If I was there, and I didn’t have a firearm, I would have gone into that scene. That’s what you do,” she said on “Fox & Friends.”
POLITICS
Supreme Court Denies the rich asshole Request To Hear Dreamer Lawsuit
The decision means the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will remain in effect — for now.
WASHINGTON ― In a major setback for the rich asshole administration, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a lawsuit over the future of an Obama-era program that protects so-called Dreamers from deportation.
The decision all but ensures that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will remain in effect for recipients after the March 5 deadline originally set by the White House. It also takes some of the pressure off Congress to act to pass its own legislation to protect young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, something lawmakers have repeatedly failed to do.
President some rich asshole rescinded DACA in September, putting its nearly 700,000 recipients at risk of losing two-year deportation relief and work permits. He said he wanted to put in place permanent protections for Dreamers, but demanded major policy changes on legal immigration, asylum seekers and border security that senators rejected earlier this month.
The rich asshole administration has the power to end DACA, which President Barack Obama had implemented through executive action. But a spate of lawsuits in California and New York have argued that the White House flouted procedures required by federal law and violated the equal protection rights of DACA recipients.
Several lawsuits filed in the Northern District of California were consolidated into one and resulted in the first nationwide, preliminary injunction barring the rich asshole administration from ending the DACA program while the lawsuit proceeds. The order, issued in January, requires U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to keep processing DACA renewals for people who have been approved for the program in the past, but doesn’t require them to process first-time applications.
The rich asshole administration appealed the injunction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, but also took the unusual step of asking the Supreme Court to immediately consider the lawsuit rather than waiting for the appeals court to rule first.
White House spokesman Raj Shah responded to the Supreme Court’s decision Monday by criticizing the California judge who issued the injunction reopening the DACA program. He said the administration “fully expect[s] to prevail” in the end, and said the program “is clearly unlawful.”
“The district judge’s decision to unilaterally re-impose a program that Congress had explicitly and repeatedly rejected is a usurpation of legislative authority,” Shah said in a statement. “The fact that this occurs at a time when elected representatives in Congress are actively debating this policy only underscores that the district judge has unwisely intervened in the legislative process.”
The Supreme Court’s decision Monday concerned the California lawsuit. A separate judge issued a nationwide injunction earlier this month based on another lawsuit, this one heard in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York.
Congress has thus far been unable or unwilling to pass legislation to help Dreamers, though lawmakers in both parties claim they want to fix the issue. The Senate voted down multiple proposals this month, with the rich asshole’s plan garnering the least support of all.
The House hasn’t taken up any legislation. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has repeatedly said he will bring up a bill the president would sign ― signaling that he might not allow votes on measures that lack the rich asshole’s explicit endorsement.
Ryan told reporters earlier this month that the March 5 deadline was “not as important as it was before, given the court rulings.” However, he said, “I think this place works better with deadlines, and we want to operate on deadlines.”
While DACA remains in effect for people already approved for the program, it isn’t open for new applicants, including Dreamers who would otherwise be aging into the program. Some current recipients are also likely to temporarily lose their work authorization and deportation relief as they await approval of their renewal applications, which typically takes months.
OPINION
My 15-year-old son texted me from the streets of Iowa City last week, as he joined other kids in a walkout to support survivors of the shooting that took place earlier this month at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. By the time they reached the historic Old Capitol of Iowa, their ranks had swelled to hundreds.
A lot of people aren’t happy with these kids. A school district in Texas announced last week that any students participating in such protests against gun violence would be suspended for three days. A Nevada school district threatened to keep kids from participating in school-sponsored events, including benching school athletes, if they took part in walkouts; a district in Wisconsin issued a blanket “unexcused absence” for any student engaged in protests during the school day.
On the evening of the walkout my son participated in, our school district sent an email saying he hadn’t been in class and asking if we, as parents, would grant permission for an excused absence.
My son didn’t need permission, though. He was following the lessons of his history books ― and what I believe is our best American tradition for change.
History reminds us that young people have often played this role as catalysts for resistance.
In her extraordinary speech at a rally last week, Stoneman Douglas high school student Emma Gonzalez invoked the actions of an earlier generation of students in Iowa.
“Just like Tinker v. Des Moines, we are going to change the law,” she said, referring to students who earned the right to protest the Vietnam War at their school. That 1969 Supreme Court ruling affirmed that students do not have to “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
In our system, state-operated schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute authority over their students. Students in school, as well as out of school, are “persons” under our Constitution. They are possessed of fundamental rights which the State must respect, just as they themselves must respect their obligations to the State.
My son also reminded me that his peers’ actions were not a symbolic gesture of youthfulness. Iowa’s Republican-controlled legislature passed one of the state’s most extreme pro-gun bills last year, barring law enforcement from notifying firearms sellers if any gun owner’s permit has been suspended or revoked. It also allows any kid under the age of 14 to “legally shoot pistols or revolvers” as long as they’re under the direct supervision of a “sober” guardian over the age of 21.
In 2011, Iowa passed a law that allows legally blind residents to obtain permits to purchase guns and carry them in public.
Reeling somewhere between rage, incredulousness and grief, my kids and their schoolmates are simply fed up with adults, sober or otherwise, who have thrown up their hands at the seemingly unbreakable grip of the NRA on Iowa’s legislature.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) was a featured speaker at the organization’s Women’s Leadership Forum Summit last year, and lawmakers such as Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have openly accepted massive amounts of campaign contributions from the group. Ernst’s last campaign raked in over $3.1 million in gun lobby expenditures alone.
“We are going to be the last mass shooting,” Parkland students have boldly announced, setting off a ripple effect that challenges this kind of campaign complacency in my generation.
As walkouts take place and are planned across the country ― nationwide protests are set to take place in March and April ― these kids are not only leading the resistance to the gun lobby in our elections. As a father, journalist and historian, I also realize they are galvanizing the resolve of their parents and communities in a historic moment to find the courage and leadership for a broader change in policy-making.
History reminds us that young people have often played this role as catalysts for resistance.
Two months ago, for example, federal Judge A. Wallace Tashima struck down a 2010 Arizona law that had effectively banned the teaching of Mexican-American studies in a Tucson school district. That historic legal decision was the result of an arduous and long-term campaign of walkouts, protests and teach-ins led by Mexican-American high school students and supporters who continued to confront a law that served “an invidious discriminatory racial purpose and a politically partisan purpose,” according to the federal ruling. The youth never gave up.
This multiyear resistance campaign by the Tucson students came 50 years after the Birmingham Children’s Crusade in 1963, when young people faced down the police forces of Eugene “Bull” Connor in order to challenge segregation policies in parks, businesses and neighborhoods. The controversial role of kids in the protests served as a turning point in the civil rights movement.
Defying high-powered water hoses, police dogs and blows from police batons, hundreds of Birmingham kids were arrested, thrusting the brutality of the city’s segregationists into the national spotlight. Then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy warned Connor, among others, that “an injured, maimed, or dead child is a price that none of us can afford to pay.”
Within a week of the children’s arrests, local leaders had negotiated agreements for desegregation at lunch counters and other businesses. Later that year, they had negotiated for desegregation in schools. Similar walkouts led by students in East Los Angeles, California, in 1968 reframed a national discussion on the inequalities of education from those most affected by failed policies: the students.
Decades earlier, in 1903, children joined famed labor leader Mary “Mother” Jones as she marched from Philadelphia to New York to expose child labor conditions. Although it took years for states, and eventually the federal government, to pass child labor laws, the historic 125-mile march set off the ripple effect that first brought the issue to national attention.
We’ve arrived a similar hinge moment in history.
Thanks to the organizing tools of social media, as well as coverage in local and national news outlets, young people from Florida to Iowa to California have made it clear that they don’t plan to wait for years for our representatives in office to act on gun control and finally break from the grip of the NRA on state and federal levels.
For that, they sure don’t need my permission for an excused absence. Instead, they have my gratitude and respect.
Jeff Biggers is the author of the forthcoming book Resistance: Reclaiming an American Tradition.
the rich asshole brags about secret NRA lunch while families are still grieving
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The White House is going all-in on embracing the NRA.
After huddling with his NRA allies during a secret White House meeting over the weekend, the rich asshole reassured Republicans on Monday that they had nothing to fear from the organization.
“Don’t worry about the NRA. They’re on our side,” the rich asshole said during a meeting with governors on school safety.
“You guys, half of you are so afraid of the NRA. There’s nothing to be afraid of,” he assured them.
And he even mocked journalists for not knowing about the undisclosed meeting.
“I can’t believe the press didn’t find this out. I think they’re getting a bit lazy.”
the rich asshole insisted he’d “fight” the gun lobby if they opposed his efforts on gun violence. Instead, he is allowing them to completely dictate his radical gun policy.
In contrast to the private lunch, the rich asshole hosted an awkward “listening session” last week with survivors of the Parkland shooting. The event may have been designed to project an image of the rich asshole as engaged and empathetic. But he needed a cheat sheet to remind him to listen to the victims.
And unlike gun lobbyists, survivors did not get an extended private meeting with the rich asshole.
Both the White House and the NRA are struggling with the political fallout of yet another mass shooting. And specifically in the case of Parkland, Florida, they are facing a powerful grassroots gun-safety movement led by local high school students.
the rich asshole is echoing the NRA’s fringe talking points about the need to arm schoolteachers in order to protect students. But there’s virtually nobody in the ranks or leadership of the Republican Party willing to publicly back that idea.
Indeed, such a notion is straight out of the NRA’s agenda, but it’s no wonder the rich asshole is pushing it. According to McClatchy, the organization spent between $55 and $70 million in 2016 helping him get elected, a record-breaking amount even for the deep-pocketed group.
“The $55 million is more than twice the $22 million the NRA spent overall in 2012 and more than four times what it spent in 2008 and 2004, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics,” McClatchy noted.
Last December, in a craven display of indifference, the rich asshole hosted NRA boss Wayne LaPierre at the White House on the anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School gun massacre.
And as families in Florida are mourning, the rich asshole once again sided with the gun lobby over the victims of gun violence.
POLITICS Democratic Governor Confronts the rich asshole: ‘Less Tweeting ... More Listening’
Jay Inslee told the president to reconsider his idea of arming school teachers.
WASHINGTON ― Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee (D) on Monday urged President some rich asshole to lay off Twitter and instead listen to Americans and back away from one of his suggestions for dealing with mass shootings.
the rich asshole has suggested that arming 20 percent of the nation’s teachers could help prevent school shootings like the one that occurred earlier this month in Parkland, Florida, that claimed 17 lives. The president also has said that those teachers trained to use firearms could even receive extra pay.
Inslee directly challenged the rich asshole as he and other governors met at the White House with the president and several senior administration aides.
“I’ve listened to the biology teachers and they don’t want to [be armed] at any percentage,” the former U.S. House member said. “I’ve listened to the first-grade teachers who don’t want to be pistol-packing first-grade teachers. I’ve listened to law enforcement, who have said they don’t want to train teachers [on firearm use]. ... Educators should educate, and they should not be foisted upon this responsibility of packing heat in first-grade classes.”
Inslee ended his remarks by saying, “So I just suggest we need a little less tweeting here, and a little more listening, and I just suggest we take [the rich asshole’s proposal] off the table and move forward.”
the rich asshole responded by noting that “a number of states right now” allow educators to bear arms while in the classroom.
At least eight states allow teachers in some capacity to carry guns on K-12 school campuses. But law enforcement groups and teacher organizations have expressed opposition to the president’s proposal to arm certain teachers, arguing it could lead to accidental loss of life.
The National Rifle Association, the nation’s top gun lobby, thinks it would be a good move.
“Evil walks among us and God help us if we don’t harden our schools and protect our kids,” NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre said last week.
The public seems divided on the matter. Fifty percent of Americans oppose allowing more teachers and school officials to carry guns, while 44 percent support the idea, according to a recent CBS News poll.
Some notable Republicans are among those opposing equipping more teachers with guns, including Gov. Rick Scott and Sen. Marco Rubio, both of Florida.
“The notion that my kids are going to school with teachers that are armed with a weapon is not something that, quite frankly, I’m comfortable with,” Rubio said last week during a CNN town hall on gun violence and gun control.
the richasshole’s company refuses to prove it’s not pocketing foreign cash
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The rich asshole Organization is attempting to appear transparent while providing zero actual evidence.
The rich asshole Organization announced that it is resolving all conflicts of interest by giving away profits from foreign governments. But it is refusing to provide any actual evidence of that beyond a mere say-so.
Instead, the company is attempting to appear transparent while not actually revealing any details or being accountable.
As the Chicago Tribune notes, “Neither the company nor the government disclosed the amount or how it was calculated.”
In a statement released on Monday following the announcement, Citizens for Responsibility for Ethics in Washington (CREW) attacked the announcement as doing basically nothing.
“This announcement is wholly inadequate,” CREW said. “There is no transparency as to how much money they donated, how they arrived at that number, how profits were calculated, or where the profits came from.”
CREW further notes that the rich asshole Organization’s plan “even if fully implemented, is woefully insufficient.”
The plan “only includes hotels, not all the rich asshole businesses, only includes events, as they are not even trying to track payments for hotel rooms and meals, and only includes a nebulous ‘profit’ figure — not all payments — calculated at their discretion.”
“There is no independent oversight or accountability; we’re being asked to take their word for it,” CREW added. And even if the plan is implemented, “the taking of those payments would still be a problem under the Constitution.”
the rich asshole’s children ostensibly took control of the rich asshole Organization when he took office. But that is not even close to sufficient to prevent ethical conflicts.
When foreign diplomats pay to stay at the rich asshole International Hotel in D.C., for example, it creates the appearance of buying influence. Ethics groups have filed lawsuits over this exact issue.
And none of this addresses the separate ethical issue that the rich asshole Organization properties are funneling taxpayer money into their profits.
the rich asshole’s family is desperate to end the questioning over their unethical mixing of personal and government business. Their newest façade of ostensible transparency does nothing but raise more questions.
This stuff writes itself
GOP fearsnew Roy Moore upset in Arizona with married sexting minister
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Steve Montenegro, the frontrunner to replace a Republican embroiled in a sex scandal, just got caught in his own sex scandal.
Republicans are worried that former state Sen. Steve Montenegro will “pull a Roy Moore” and lose a reliably red seat Arizona congressional seat if he wins Tuesday’s special primary election.
Because as Montenegro is running for a seat vacated by a Republican embroiled in a sex scandal, he’s caught up in a sex scandal of his own.
Former GOP Rep. Trent Franks announced in December that he’d resign after the House Ethics Committee began investigating accusations of sexual harassment against him. The allegations centered around his alleged offer to pay $5 million to impregnate a staffer.
But just a week before Tuesday’s special election, Montenegro — a married minister who touts himself as a “leader of virtue” — got caught in his own sex scandal.
And now Republicans are worried that they have another Roy Moore situation on their hands.
According to the Arizona Republic, Montenegro admitted last Thursday that he had exchanged flirtatious text messages with a junior state legislative staffer for months. Those messages including receiving nude photos from the woman. An attorney for the woman says those exchanges followed conversations during which Montenegro “groomed” her for an affair.
Montenegro’s admission came after initial denying the accusations and calling reports of the messages “false tabloid trash.”
The explosive revelations have left Republicans worried that the Arizona race “could be Alabama all over again,” Shiree Verdone, who ran Sen. John McCain’s 2010 Senate race, told Politico.
“Deep down, I’m worried because I don’t want this to be another Roy Moore situation,” Verdone said.
An estimated 75 percent of voters had already cast their ballots before the sex scandal emerged last week. If Montenegro comes away as the Republican winner on Tuesday, he’ll bring his scandal with him when he faces a Democratic opponent in the April 24 special election.
“Montenegro winning — that’s a big fear for Republicans right now,” said GOP pollster Mike Noble. He said Republicans are worried that another sex scandal plagued GOP candidate could “impact the party’s perception and brand.”
the rich asshole won the district by a large margin in 2016. But the same was true in Alabama. Yet Democrat Doug Jones beat Moore amid a slew of allegations of child molestation against the GOP candidate.
“The district is obviously tough, but the rich asshole won it by 21 points, and he also won Alabama by 27 points,” said Democratic strategist Rodd McLeod. “Obviously we’re in a year where there’s something changing — and if there’s a wave election coming, and the Republican nominee is damaged, you could have a really close election.”
Perhaps now would be a good time for Republicans to ask themselves what it is about their party that attracts candidates plagued by sex scandals.
And perhaps the Oval Office would be a good place to start looking for answers.
Court decision all but nullifies March 5 deadline for 'Dreamers'
BY RAFAEL BERNAL - 02/26/18 05:35 PM EST
The Supreme Court on Monday decided to stay out of the legal fight surrounding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, all but nullifying a March 5 deadline for congressional action set by President the rich asshole.
The court’s decision means an injunction preventing the rich asshole administration from unwinding the program will remain in place as the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals continues its review.
Andrew Pincus, a Supreme Court litigator and partner at Mayer Brown, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm, said the earliest a decision could be expected from the appeals courts would be in June or July.
“We’re certainly looking at a matter of a significant number of months,” Pincus said.
A few weeks ago, it seemed likely that the fight over DACA and "Dreamers," as DACA recipients are commonly called, would dominate the congressional agenda this month.
Immigration issues have fallen to the side, however, after gun control raced to the top of the political agenda in the aftermath of the Florida high school shooting that left 17 people dead.
It’s left an uncertain road forward for DACA recipients and lawmakers pressing their case. While people protected by DACA can renew their applications, they could lose their status if the courts ultimately side with the rich asshole, who argues the Obama-era program is unconstitutional.
“Today’s decision means that current DACA recipients can continue to submit DACA renewal applications as long as the 9th Circuit injunction remains in place,” said Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.).
“However, DACA recipients will continue to face uncertainty until Republicans and the rich asshole can agree to a fair and narrow bipartisan solution for Dreamers.”
Congress has made little progress on a legislative solution, with the rich asshole and Republicans demanding that a DACA fix be coupled with changes to other immigration programs and money for the rich asshole’s wall on the Mexican border.
A spokesman for the White House railed against DACA and the lower court in a statement.
“The district judge’s decision unilaterally to re-impose a program that Congress had explicitly and repeatedly rejected is a usurpation of legislative authority,” deputy press secretary Raj Shah said in a Monday statement.
“The fact that this occurs at a time when elected representatives in Congress are actively debating this policy only underscores that the district judge has unwisely intervened in the legislative process,” he added.
DACA gives two-year permits to certain immigrants who entered the country illegally as children so they can work and go to school in the United States; after March 5, people who were not given the opportunity to renew their permits would have nonetheless lost them.
Nearly 20,000 DACA recipients lost their benefits following the rich asshole’s announcement in September that he was ending the program. These people failed to apply for renewal in the month granted to them by the rich asshole administration.
Under the injunction, beneficiaries who were covered by DACA in September — including those who didn't renew — are allowed to apply for a two-year renewal of their permit.
The injunction does not protect people who would have aged into DACA, leaving the youngest “Dreamers” subject to deportation and without documentation to allow them to work or go to school.
The nearly 800,000 people who did get DACA status at some point will be allowed to apply for renewal, although the glut of applications is expected to create lapses in coverage for certain beneficiaries. For some, that will mean losing their work permits — and if employed, their jobs — at least temporarily.
Of those 800,000 people, more than 100,000 left the program, either because they were expelled from it, they left the country or they received a different immigration status. Former DACA beneficiaries will be allowed to reapply while the injunction lasts as long as they weren't removed from the program for criminal or gang behavior. Since the program's inception, about 2,000 beneficiaries were expelled from DACA for criminal acts.
“We are grateful that immigrant young people who have DACA will have time to renew, but most immigrant young people are not protected,” said Greisa MartÃnez, a DACA recipient and advocacy director for United We Dream, an immigrant youth advocacy group. She said a permanent solution was necessary.
The Justice Department's request to challenge the lower court ruling was rare in that it asked the Supreme Court to jump ahead of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in reviewing the case.
The court typically will only bypass an appellate court when there’s an emergency involving foreign affairs, a serious separation of powers concerns or when it has already agreed to hear another case dealing with the same question.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) said the rich asshole administration's attempts to circumvent the appeals process have actually slowed down the process.
“You could let the rich asshole administration know the court would run its course faster if the rich asshole administration would stop appealing every decision,” he said.
Lydia Wheeler contributed to this story.
CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin blasts the rich asshole’s ‘ridiculous’ ploy to make himself the hero of Parkland: ‘It’s embarassing’
CNN's Jeffrey Toobin (screengrab)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Yet another CNN personality called President some rich asshole out on Monday for asserting that he would have run into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day to prevent the mass shooting that left 17 people dead.
“It’s ridiculous,” analyst Jeffrey Toobin noted. “It’s embarrassing.”
Toobin became the third CNN pundit to blast the rich asshole’s comments, joining host Jake Tapper who noted that the rich asshole’s comments were ironic given his draft-dodging and reporter Jim Acosta, who asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders if the president was suggesting that he would have “saved the day.”
“In fairness, when you look at his heroism during the Vietnam war, a prisoner of war for five years — oh, no, that was John McCain,” the legal analyst joked during a panel discussion with host Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.”
Watch below, via CNN:
Jared and Ivanka are ‘essentially playing the role of vice president’ — without security clearances to match: MSNBC panel
Ivanka the rich asshole and Jared Kushner (Ovidiu Hrubaru / Shutterstock.com)
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Panelists on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press” Monday pointed out that although the president’s daughter Ivanka the rich asshole and son-in-law Jared Kushner operate as high-ranking White House spokespeople, they both still lack the security clearance to match their roles.
The New York Times‘ Nick Confessore mused that the First Daughter and her husband “are essentially playing the role of a vice president in a different administration.”
“They are the stand-ins for the president,” the reporter noted. “They speak for him. She especially goes abroad and speaks for him at diplomatic functions.”
The issues rise not from Ivanka’s lack of security clearance, he continued, but from her propensity to shift blame when called out, using her relationship to the president as a defense.
“You can’t pick which role you choose to inhabit at any given second,” Confessore said. “If you want to be a senior White House adviser that’s going to be your job. You can’t get a question about that role and then be like ‘look, I’m just a daughter.'”
Watch below, via MSNBC:
the rich asshole to meet with lawmakers Wednesday on gun bills: White House
U.S. President some rich asshole speaks during an interview with Reuters at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 17, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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U.S. President some rich asshole plans to meet with Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday to discuss gun legislation, the White House said, after a mass shooting in Florida that killed 17 students and staff.
“The president is planning a meeting for Wednesday with bipartisan members of Congress … to discuss different pieces of legislation and what they can do moving forward,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said at a news briefing.
the rich asshole would support legislation to ban bump stock devices, she said, if an administrative fix does not work.
Courts & Law
Supreme Court declines to enter controversy over ‘dreamers,’ rejects the rich asshole administration’s request to review lower court rulings (behind paywall, use incognito)
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to enter the national controversy over “dreamers,” turning down the rich asshole administration’s request to immediately review lower court decisions that keep in place the program that protects undocumented immigrants brought here as children from deportation.
President the rich asshole announced in September that he would let the program expire in March, unless Congress acted. Efforts on Capitol Hill to revive the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) as part of a broader deal on immigration policy have failed.
Federal district judges in California and New York have issued nationwide injunctions against ending the program, siding with states and organizations challenging the administration’s rescission. The court orders effectively block the rich asshole administration from ending the program on March 5, as planned.
No appellate court has reviewed those decisions, and it would have been exceedingly rare for the Supreme Court to take up a case without that interim step. In the past, the court has granted such cases only in matters of grave national importance, such as the controversy over President Richard Nixon’s White House tapes or solving the Iranian hostage crisis.
The litigation now will take its usual course, and the issue probably won’t return to the Supreme Court before the next term. In the meantime, the White House and Congress can continue to seek a political resolution.
The rich asshole administration skipped the more usual procedure of asking the high court to stay the lower court decisions. Instead, it said the court should accept the case now because it raised such important legal questions about presidential authority.
“The district court’s unprecedented order requires the government to sanction indefinitely an ongoing violation of federal law being committed by nearly 700,000 aliens — and, indeed, to confer on them affirmative benefits,” Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco wrote in the government’s brief to the court.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco ruled in December that challengers are probably right that the way the administration is ending the program violated the Administrative Procedure Act, because it is arbitrary and capricious.
A nationwide injunction is warranted, Alsup said, because “our country has a strong interest in the uniform application of immigration law and policy.” Earlier this week, a district judge in New York came to an almost identical conclusion.
The solicitor general told the court that the administration was ending the program because of the threat of legal challenges from a coalition of states led by Texas, and a belief that the program instituted during the Obama administration could not be successfully defended in court.
The Department of Homeland Security, Francisco said, “opted to wind down DACA after reasonably concluding that the policy was likely to be struck down by courts and indeed was unlawful.”
The administration had proposed to end the program next month. But the injunctions require the department to continue to accept renewal applications from those protected from deportation. The administration is not required to accept new applications.
Challengers, led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) and the board of regents of the state’s universities, said the current administration is ignoring past findings by the government that the program is legal.
“Without the injunction, thousands of DACA recipients would lose their work authorization and deferred action status in March 2018 — and thousands more the next month, and each succeeding month, until nearly three-quarters of a million young Americans would be shunted back into the shadows of our society,” Becerra wrote in his brief.
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And a separate brief from the California Board of Regents noted how unusual it would be for the court to accept the case without the benefit of review from lower courts, a process called “certiorari before judgment.”
“In the very rare instances — the last almost 30 years ago — in which the court has granted certiorari before judgment in this situation, it has done so in response to an urgent, overwhelming need for immediate resolution of a legal issue,” the brief said
The case is Department of Homeland Security v. California Board of Regents.
Huckabee Sanders: the rich asshole Would Take ‘Courageous Action’ In An Active Shooter Situation (VIDEO)
Earlier today, some rich asshole, a 71-year-old former reality show star who received five military deferments to avoid serving, one of them because his feet hurt, said that he would have run into the Florida high school without a gun in order to stop the gunman from carrying out our country’s latest mass shooting. That’s right, the rich asshole would grab a couple of Big Macs then bravely run into an active shooting situation even though he’s afraid of stairs.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders faced questions from CNN’s Jim Acosta about that ludicrous remark and that went down about as well as you’d expect.
“When the president said earlier today that he would have run into the school, was he suggesting that he could have saved the day?” Acosta asked Huckabee Sanders.
“I think he was just stating that as a leader he would have stepped in and hopefully been able to help as a number of the individuals that were in the school, the coach and other adults and even a lot of the students stepped up and helped protect other students,” she said. “I think the point he was making is that he would have wanted to have played a role in that as well.”
“Is he trained in firing a weapon?” Acosta asked. “Is he trained in using a handgun or a firearm of some sort?”
“I don’t think that was the point he was making,” Sanders said, adding that the rich asshole would have wanted to take “courageous action” regardless of whether or not he had a gun in the event of a mass shooting.
Watch:
Just last year, while world leaders took a walk together in Taormina, Sicily during the Group of 7 (G7) summit, the rich asshole chose to ride in a golf cart, but we’re supposed to believe that Donnie Two Scoops would bravely storm the school in order to save lives. Sure, whatever you say, Sarah.
the rich asshole Says He Would Have ‘Run’ Into School To Rip Florida Shooter Apart With His Bare Hands
some rich asshole may have used deferments to dodge the Vietnam draft a total of five times, but the Commander-in-Queef says that had he been in Florida when one of his supporters armed with an assault rifle killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, he would have totally stopped it.
In fact, the rich asshole says he wouldn’t even need a weapon:
“I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon.” the rich asshole said at a meeting of the governors at the White House on Monday
“You never know until you’re tested,” said The rich asshole, whose “bone spurs” allowed him to skip serving his country. “But I think, I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon and I think most of the people in this room would’ve done that too because I know most of you.”
To be clear, it is almost never a good idea to charge at someone armed with an assault rifle unless your name is “Logan” or “Wade” or another melee-centric comic book superhero. Even then, you’re probably getting shot a few times. But the rich asshole’s desire to seem “macho” is apparently more important than coming up with any real solutions to our country’s gun violence problem.
Naturally, everyone in the world seems to be having a lot of fun with Dumb the rich asshole Statement #499874675875566347.
He could have killed the shooter with his high cholesterol diet.
Hobble in there. Those bone spurs, remember?
"[Trump] had a longtime fear of being poisoned, one reason why he liked to eat at McDonald’s — nobody knew he was coming and the food was safely premade."
-Michael Wolff, Fire and Fury
General Bone Spur leads the way.
Right. He really proved his selfless bravery in Vietnam. Oh, wait.....
If it weren't for those damn bone spurs ...
Is there any evidence that he can run?
No, he fucking wouldn't have. What is it with these people and their hero fetishes? This guy faked bone spurs to get out of Vietnam, and we're supposed to think he's brave? Fuck him.
He can’t even sit next to an eagle
Trump: I would have run into the school with no weapon talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump… pic.twitter.com/Jp6BBmA7TV
@realDonaldTrump Just like you ran into battle....wait, how are the bone spurs? You'll probably need a deferment from running into the building. #ImpeachTrumpNow
Trump: I would have run into the school with no weapon talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump… pic.twitter.com/Jp6BBmA7TV
If the rich asshole were to “run” anywhere in a high school it would be to the girls’ locker room based on his history of running away from any conflict that places him in harm’s way and spying on underage girls in their changing rooms. Since he has a documented fear of stairs, even if he wasn’t a coward and ran in there unarmed to f*ck up a shooter, the entire thing would just go up in smoke the moment he realized elevators weren’t working.
the rich asshole is a perpetual embarrassment to our country, and he’s not going to stop until Republicans step up and remove this uniquely unqualified individual from office.
CORRECTION: We inadvertently used a photo of “Fat Bastard” from the Austin Powers movies in place of the rich asshole. We hope you can forgive this completely understandable confusion. The image has been fixed.
‘Did they not have Google?’: Nicolle Wallace pounds new the rich asshole excuse Manafort’s crimes took place ‘before campaign’
"Deadline: White House" anchor Nicolle Wallace
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MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace on Monday called BS on the White House’s latest line of defense against increasing indictments against former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
After special counsel Robert Mueller hit Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates with 32 superseding indictments on Friday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted that their crimes, primarily bank fraud, “took place long before” they joined the campaign.
“If he was a criminal long before he joined the campaign, why the hell was he on the campaign in the first place?” Wallace mused. “Did they not have access to Google?”
She went on to note that Gates pleaded guilty to lying to prosecutors three weeks ago.
Incredulous, Wallace blasted Sanders, musing aloud about whether the press secretary “even has notes in front of her.”
Watch below, via MSNBC:
Jake Tapper knocks the rich asshole’s claim he’d confront school shooter: Same man ‘repeatedly sought deferments to avoid’ Vietnam
CNN's Jake Tapper
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CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday hit some rich asshole for claiming he would have run into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, unarmed, to intervene during the deadly mass shooting earlier this month, noting the president received multiple deferments to avoid serving in the Vietnam War.
“President the rich asshole says he would have rush in the to stop the Florida gunman even if he weren’t armed,” Tapper began on “The Lead” Monday. “His military academy classmates who served in Vietnam could not be reached for comment.”
“President the rich asshole is pushing ahead on his proposals to try to prevent any further mass shootings in this country and he is railing against the police handling of the Parkland tragedy,” an incredulous Tapper said. “Today, President the rich asshole said the school officer on the scene ‘choked’ and he declared that he, the President of the United States—and former military academy student who repeatedly sought deferments to avoid service in the Vietnam War—he would have run into the building, even if he didn’t have a gun.”
the rich asshole received four college deferments while receiving his undergraduate degree at Wharton. He later received a “minor medical deferment for bone spurs,” according to a statement from the rich asshole campaign.
Watch Sarah Sanders flounder after CNN’s Acosta asked if the rich asshole thinks he could have ‘saved the day’ in Parkland
CNN reporter Jim Acosta (left) and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (right). Image via screengrab.
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During Monday’s White House press briefing, CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta wondered aloud if President Donald the rich asshole’s announcement that he “believes” he would have ran into the Parkland school during the February 14 mass shooting meant he considers himself a theoretical hero.
“When the president said earlier today that he would have run into the school, was he suggesting that he could have saved the day?” Acosta asked press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
“I think he was just stating that as a leader, he would have stepped in and hopefully been able to help as a number of the individuals that were in the school, the coach and other adults and even a lot of the students stepped up and helped protect other students,” the press secretary responded. “I think the point he was making is that he would have wanted to have played a role in that as well.”
“Is he trained in firing a weapon?” Acosta pressed. “Is he trained in using a handgun or a firearm of some sort?”
“I don’t think that was the point he was making,” Sanders responded, saying the president would have wanted to take “courageous action” regardless of whether he theoretically had a gun in the event of a mass shooting.
Watch below:
Reporters grill Sarah Sanders over the NRA’s control of the rich asshole
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Screenshot)
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White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday faced questions about the relationship between President some rich asshole and the National Rifle Association.
At a press briefing, Fox Business reporter Blake Burman asked why it appeared that the White House had softened its support for raising the age limit to buy rifles.
“Now you just said that it is something that is still being discussed,” he asked. “It feels like a little bit of a downgrade. Why the downgrade and to those who would say, well he had lunch with the NRA over the weekend, did the NRA get ahold of him?”
Sanders said the rich asshole still supported the “concept” for raising the age limit, but “it would be premature to weigh in” before specific legislation was proposed.
She also insisted that the president wasn’t trying to keep his lunch meeting with NRA officials over the weekend a secret, even though it was not published on the White House schedule.
“The president is taking information from a number of stakeholders and to try to pretend he’s being influenced by any one group would be ridiculous,” Sanders said.
“The reason I’m asking about what day the lunch took place Sarah is because yesterday morning the NRA spokesperson said these are things he is discussing when it comes to the age limit that Blake was asking about,” Daily Mail reporter Francesca Chambers noted. “It does seem like there was a softening of the stance from the president between what we heard last week and what we are hearing now today.”
Watch video below:
WATCH: Testy the rich asshole folds his arms and pouts as Dem governor rips apart his plan to arm teachers
President some rich asshole pouts while listening to criticism of his plan to arm teachers (Screen cap).
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President some rich asshole on Monday got an earful from Democratic Washington Gov. Jay Inslee about his plan to arm school teachers — and he did not appear at all happy to be on the receiving end of criticism.
During a talk with governors about school safety, Inslee stood to counter the rich asshole’s plan to train teachers in schools how to use firearms to potentially take out mass shooters.
In particular, Inslee said that conversations he’d had with teachers suggested they wanted no part of the president’s plan to give them deadly weapons.
“I have listened to the biology teachers, and they don’t want to do that at any percentage,” Inslee said. “I’ve listened to the first-grade teachers who don’t want to be pistol-packing first-grade teachers. I’ve listened to the law enforcement officials who say they don’t want to train teachers as law enforcement agencies, which takes about six months.”
Inslee then chided the president for insisting that arming teachers was the solution to school shootings, despite the pleas of teachers across the country to find alternative means.
“Now this is a circumstance where I think we need to listen — that educators should educate, and they should not be foisted upon this responsibility of packing heat in first-grade classes,” he said. “I just suggest that we need a little less tweeting here, and a little more listening.”
the rich asshole ignored Inslee’s remarks and proceeded to call on Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to change the subject.
Watch the video below.
Sarah Sanders sticks with talking point that was demolished by Mueller’s latest indictment
The White House uses a lie to downplay former the rich asshole campaign official Rick Gates' guilty plea.
During the White House news briefing on Monday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked if former the rich asshole campaign official Rick Gates’ guilty plea for conspiring against the United States and making false statements to the FBI says “anything about the president’s judgment that three people linked to his campaign have now turned out to be criminals?”
Sanders responded with a blatant lie.
“Look, I think that those are issues that took place long before they were involved with the president, and anything beyond that, because those are active investigations, I’m not going to go any further than that,” she said.
“Even though Gates served on his campaign?” the reporter — Hallie Jackson of NBC — followed up.
“Yeah, but the actions that are under review and under investigation took place prior to him being a part of the president’s campaign,” Sanders replied.
But while Sanders wants you to believe that the crimes Gates, Michael Flynn, and George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to all took place before they were associated with the rich asshole, the truth is actually the opposite. Each of them pleaded guilty to crimes involving conduct that took place either during the campaign or after the campaign had ended.
In fact, Gates admitted to lying to FBI officials during an interview that took place on February 1 of this year. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during the transition period between the 2016 election and the rich asshole’s inauguration, and Papadopoulos copped to lying to federal investigators during an interview that took place a week after the rich asshole’s inauguration.
Those pleas aside, the indictment Special Counsel Robert Mueller issued on Thursday accusing former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Gates of laundering some $30 million and working as unregistered foreign agents for Ukraine involved conduct that alleged took place as recently as October 2017. The Washington Post notes that while “the charges against Manafort and Gates do not involve activities inside the rich asshole campaign… the conduct in question continued while they worked there.”
As ThinkProgress detailed, the new indictment’s timeline “flies in the face of White House officials’ previous attempts to distance themselves from the allegations facing Manafort, which centered primarily on the fact that the illegal activity preceded Manafort joining the rich asshole’s campaign. As the president tweeted last October — around the same time Gates was allegedly lying to his tax preparer — Manafort’s crimes took place ‘years ago.'”
But instead of developing a new talking point conforming with the facts of the guilty pleas and indictments, Sanders’ remarks on Monday indicate that the White House is simply willing to lie about it.
