February 11th, 2017. It's been 456 days since the Nov 8, 2016, election of some rich asshole, no. 45, and 384 days since the Jan 20th inauguration.
the rich asshole's budget to request border wall funding
BY NAOMI JAGODA - 02/11/18 09:00 PM EST
The budget request that President the rich asshole is releasing Monday will propose more than $23 billion for border security and immigration enforcement — including funds for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, the White House said Sunday.
The request on border security comes as the Senate is about to start a freewheeling debate on immigration.
Congress has until March 5 to provide a legislative solution that helps people who came to the U.S. illegally as children and have benefited from the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
the rich asshole has offered a framework that would provide a path to citizenship for about 1.8 million immigrants, but also called for border wall funding and changes to family-based immigration and the diversity visa lottery. The framework is backed by some Republicans but has been widely criticized by Democrats.
Congress last week approved legislation to increase budget caps by about $300 billion for fiscal 2018 and 2019. In light of this budget deal, the administration is proposing an investment of $18 billion in that time period to construct a border wall, the White House said.
The White House also said it will request $782 million to hire 2,750 additional law enforcement officers and agents at U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The administration is also requesting $2.7 billion to pay for ICE to have an average of 52,000 people a day in detention — the highest-ever level for the agency.
The deal to raise spending caps is expected to contribute to higher deficits. While the rich asshole's budget is going to account for the higher caps, the White House said its proposal will also call for spending reforms that would cut deficits by $3 trillion over a decade and also reduce the debt as a percentage of gross domestic product.
"Just because this deal was signed, does not mean the future is written in stone," Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said on "Fox News Sunday." "We do have a chance still to change this [debt] trajectory."
He added that the budget will still include some proposed spending cuts at the State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, which the administration also proposed cuts to last year.
The White House plans to further its efforts to cut regulatory burdens in its budget — including as part of its infrastructure plan. The plan is designed to spur $1.5 trillion in infrastructure spending but includes only $200 billion in federal funding.
The White House also said that it's requesting $85.5 billion for veterans' medical care and other programs designed to improve veterans' quality of life. And the administration is asking for almost $17 billion for fiscal 2019 to fight the opioid crisis.
What is the rich asshole hiding? Inaugural committee still can’t account for $107 million in donations
Donald and Melania the rich asshole walk amongst sparse crowds on the way to his January 20, swearing in. Source: Department of Homeland Security.
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Millions of dollars in unregulated cash, forked over to any politician seeking to hold a massive party to commemorate their own inauguration. What could possibly go wrong? While most officials have raised several millions of dollars, the the rich asshole committee brought in a record-breaking $107 million in individual and corporate donations.
However, only half of the money was spent, and even those dollars seemed over and above what others have spent. While the inaugural committee claimed the overages would go to charities, it hasn’t, the Daily Beast reported. Indeed, no one knows where the money has gone.
Committee chairman Tom Barrack claimed that the committee would file an annual report with the donations given to charity for the IRS. That was two months ago. They could file a 990 form with the Federal Election Commission, according to Brendan Fischer, director of FEC programs at the Campaign Legal Center.
“Even if the inaugural committee does need more time to file its 990, there is nothing stopping it from voluntarily disclosing how it spent the leftover funds, and whether any money went to charity,” he said.
The promises of disclosure were set for fall of 2016. Then the date became November.
“Now here we are in February and the public still has no idea how the inaugural committee spent $107 million,” Fischer said.
In September, Barrack announced they would donate $3 million to charities involved in hurricane relief in the gulf after Hurricane Harvey. So far, that’s been the only disclosure.
The absurd amount of money raised by Barrack made the rich asshole so happy that sources said he was even considered as a replacement for chief of staff John Kelly.
“Considering that the inaugural committee’s only job was to put on a few parties in January 2017, it is difficult to see why it should need any extensions” to the IRS filing deadline, Fischer said.
The constant delays “really make you wonder what it is they are trying to hide,” he noted.
The Police Were Called Over Man’s Anti-the rich asshole T-Shirt; His Response Is Perfect
Garland, Texas resident Andy Ternay had quite a day over the weekend and it was all over this t-shirt which reads, “F*ck the rich asshole — and f*ck you for voting for him.” The back of the t-shirt reads,“FUCK THE RACIST ALT-RIGHT.” Ternay was at a First Watch cafe with his partner Mary Ann when a manager approached him to say that customers “were very distressed” by his t-shirt and that “children might see it.” Mr. Ternay detailed what took place in a Facebook post that has gone viral.
“I expressed deep sympathies and let her know that explaining ‘grab ‘em by the pussy’ and golden showers to my daughter was equally unpleasant,” he said.
While being seated again, he said that “she expressed that a particular group of customers was suffering due to my indescribable poor taste” but Ternay said that he didn’t see a problem.
The couple’s drinks were served and their order was taken, then a cook came out to ask him to leave. A customer at another table complained, but not to their server, who was a person of color. The complaint went to a white manager.
“We ask to tip our server for occupying her table, get drinks to go and leave. One table of white people applauds,” he wrote.
Once they were in the parking lot, a black server approached Mr. Ternay to say that he quit just after witnessing the incident. He told the couple: “You should hear these people asking not to be seated near Muslims.”
Ternay got into his car and started to leave when the Richardson police suddenly pulled up.
“I stop the car and ask the officer if she is there over a t-shirt,” he writes. “She affirms this to be true and asks my name which I respectfully decline to give; she starts in on the shirt – whereupon I cite Cohen v. California, 1971, in which the Supreme Court upheld the right to wear a T-shirt saying: FUCK THE DRAFT.”
The officer just looked at Ternay and said, ‘Just leave, okay?’
Ternay told The Daily Beast that the only comments he had gotten were positive and from people of color. “[A] Latino lady at the register thanked me [and] two African American servers said my shirt was awesome.” We, too, happen to think his shirt is awesome.
“I don’t want people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ [people], immigrants to feel alone,” he said. “The proper use of white male privilege is to help lift others. To speak truth to power.”
You can’t vote for a pussy grabbing reality show star whose platform is against political correctness, then get offended by the word ‘fuck’
MEDIA
GOP Lawmaker Devin Nunes Reportedly Made His Own Fake News Website
“News, sports and analysis” website is paid for by the Nunes campaign.
A Republican lawmaker from California has been reportedly operating his own news website.
Politico reported that “GOP memo author” Rep. Devin Nunes and his campaign were behind The California Republican, a website that calls itself a “media/news company” in its Facebook description and claims to have “the best of U.S., California and Central Valley news, sports and analysis.” According to Politico, however, the website was registered by Alex Tavlian of Sultana Media, which was paid $7,773 by the Nunes campaign for “advertising; digital advertising management.”
Tavlian told Politico he did not run the website and was not familiar with it.
The California Republican, who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and was a member of President some rich asshole’s transition team, has been offline since the Politico report, but a version cached by Google contained the following disclaimer:
Paid for by the Devin Nunes Campaign Committee · FEC ID #C00370056
The Facebook page did not appear to contain a similar disclaimer.
Nunes has not yet responded to the accusations.
One headline on the website ― “Understanding the process behind #ReleaseTheMemo” ― referred to the controversial and partisan memo drafted by staffers in Nunes’ office, which the rich asshole incorrectly claimed vindicated him in the Russia investigation. The story, written before the memo was made public, summarized and linked to a story in the conservative National Review that called on lawmakers to release the memo.
Democrat Andrew Janz, who hopes to unseat Nunes in the coming midterm elections, slammed his rival on Twitter for creating the fake news site:
Fake news, fake Clovis district office, and fake radio Town Halls on KMJ. It's time for a change in #CA22 twitter.com/davidsiders/st…
the rich asshole's budget to request border wall funding
BY NAOMI JAGODA - 02/11/18 09:00 PM EST
The budget request that President the rich asshole is releasing Monday will propose more than $23 billion for border security and immigration enforcement — including funds for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, the White House said Sunday.
The request on border security comes as the Senate is about to start a freewheeling debate on immigration.
Congress has until March 5 to provide a legislative solution that helps people who came to the U.S. illegally as children and have benefited from the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
the rich asshole has offered a framework that would provide a path to citizenship for about 1.8 million immigrants, but also called for border wall funding and changes to family-based immigration and the diversity visa lottery. The framework is backed by some Republicans but has been widely criticized by Democrats.
Congress last week approved legislation to increase budget caps by about $300 billion for fiscal 2018 and 2019. In light of this budget deal, the administration is proposing an investment of $18 billion in that time period to construct a border wall, the White House said.
The White House also said it will request $782 million to hire 2,750 additional law enforcement officers and agents at U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The administration is also requesting $2.7 billion to pay for ICE to have an average of 52,000 people a day in detention — the highest-ever level for the agency.
The deal to raise spending caps is expected to contribute to higher deficits. While the rich asshole's budget is going to account for the higher caps, the White House said its proposal will also call for spending reforms that would cut deficits by $3 trillion over a decade and also reduce the debt as a percentage of gross domestic product.
"Just because this deal was signed, does not mean the future is written in stone," Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said on "Fox News Sunday." "We do have a chance still to change this [debt] trajectory."
He added that the budget will still include some proposed spending cuts at the State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, which the administration also proposed cuts to last year.
The White House plans to further its efforts to cut regulatory burdens in its budget — including as part of its infrastructure plan. The plan is designed to spur $1.5 trillion in infrastructure spending but includes only $200 billion in federal funding.
The White House also said that it's requesting $85.5 billion for veterans' medical care and other programs designed to improve veterans' quality of life. And the administration is asking for almost $17 billion for fiscal 2019 to fight the opioid crisis.
GOP senators to introduce immigration plan mirroring the rich asshole framework
BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 02/11/18 07:04 PM EST
A group of GOP senators are preparing to introduce an immigration plan that lines up with President the rich asshole's framework as the Senate barrels toward a heated debate over the issue.
Seven GOP senators, led by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), will file the bill, known as the Secure and Succeed Act, on Monday.
Seven GOP senators, led by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), will file the bill, known as the Secure and Succeed Act, on Monday.
"Our proposal is supported by the President, who’s come a long way to reach a compromise. This is the only Senate proposal that has any chance of passing the House and being signed into law," Grassley said in a statement.
The legislation mirrors the rich asshole's framework by offering a path to citizenship for roughly 1.8 million immigrants brought into the country as children illegally in exchange for $25 billion in border security.
It would also place new limits on family-based immigration, a key point for conservatives but considered a nonstarter for many Democrats.
And it would toughen interior enforcement, including implementing E-Verify, strengthening penalties for immigrants who re-enter the country illegally after being deported and cracking down on visa overstays.
In addition to Grassley, the proposal is backed by GOP Sens. John Cornyn(Texas), Thom Tillis (N.C.), David Perdue (Ga.), James Lankford (Okla.), Tom Cotton (Ark.) and Joni Ernst (Iowa).
The plan is one of several that senators are expected to put forward as the chamber searches for a fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that can get the 60 votes it needs to pass.
GOP senators argued on Sunday night their plan is the only one the president supports — a requirement, according to Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), for any bill to be taken up in that chamber.
But the conservative proposal is expected to fall short of the needed 60 votes in the Senate, with senators in both parties predicting the rich asshole's framework can't get the support to break a filibuster.
the rich asshole kicked the immigration fight to Congress last year when he announced that he was ending the DACA program, which allows qualified immigrants brought into the country illegally as children to work and go to school without fear of deportation.
Under his decision, Congress has until March 5 to find a fix, but the Senate is expected to start its work on the issue Monday evening.
the rich asshole mulling privatization of International Space Station: report
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 02/11/18 03:47 PM EST
President the rich asshole's administration is considering a plan to privatize the International Space Station (ISS) after its federal funding ends in 2024, according to The Washington Post.
“The decision to end direct federal support for the ISS in 2025 does not imply that the platform itself will be deorbited at that time — it is possible that industry could continue to operate certain elements or capabilities of the ISS as part of a future commercial platform,” an internal NASA document obtained by the Post reads. “NASA will expand international and commercial partnerships over the next seven years in order to ensure continued human access to and presence in low Earth orbit.”
‘All kinds of ways of getting a black eye’: Ben Stein stuns MSNBC host with awful defense of White House aide
MSNBC host David Gura, Ben Stein -- screenshot
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Actor, comedian and former White House speech writer Ben Stein stunned an MSNBC host on Sunday afternoon after first saying he believes the accusations leveled by the wife of ousted White House staffer Robert Porter, only to turn around and cast doubt on the black-eye she sported in a photo given to the FBI.
Speaking with host David Gura, Stein — better known to many as a teacher in the popular film ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ — recalled his time working for President Richard Nixon before delving into the scandal still engulfing President the rich asshole’s White House.
According to Stein, he approves of the rich asshole’s assertion that the accused deserve “due process,” but that Porter’s ex-wife seemed credible since she wasn’t just some person who met the White House staffer “at a bus stop.”
“I think the president is right to want to talk about it,” Stein explained. “The president is doing something fine by saying I uphold due process of law. I think it would be wrong if the president said, ‘okay, from now on we’re going to go on the basis of allegations.'”
“I’m not going to say mere allegations, allegations from a man’s wife are extremely important,” he continued. “I’ve been married 52 years, and I think I can tell you when a man’s wife says something about the man, she’s probably more right than he is, generally speaking. But there’s no reason to believe this man has been deprived of his rights under due process as a friend of the rich asshole, as an official of the rich asshole’s.”
Turning to the now-infamous photograph of ex-Porter wife Colbie Holderness’s black eye, Stein cast some doubt on how it was sustained without it being examined as part of a full inquiry.
“I don’t know how she got that injury,” Stein explained. “I mean, she says he hit her and she’s probably right, but I’d like to see due process of law unfold. There are all kinds of ways of getting a black eye. In all likelihood she’s correct, but there are all kinds of ways of getting a black eye and I’d like to know more specifics. I’d like to have him have a defense counsel defend him.”
“I don’t want him being pilloried in the press and tortured and tormented by the press just because he’s a friend and ally of President the rich asshole,” he added. “That doesn’t mean he gives up his rights to due process.”
You can watch the video below via MSNBC:
the rich asshole thinks White House staffer accused of beating wives is guilty — but he’s defending him anyway: report
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President some rich asshole’s staunch defense of former White House staff secretary Rob Porter drew widespread disgust last week — however, a new report claims that the rich asshole is defending Porter even though he privately believes that he’s guilty.
Sources tell Axios’ Jonathan Swan that the rich asshole “has told multiple people that he believes the accusations about Porter, and finds him ‘sick.'”
As Swan notes, however, this completely contradicts the president’s public comments on the Porter scandal. On Friday, the rich asshole said he felt sad that Porter had to resign while adding that he wished Porter well in any future career. The president has also pointed out that Porter has claimed to be completely innocent — just as he did when he defended accused child molester Roy Moore last year.
During his statement, the president made no mention of the multiple women who have accused Porter of beating them.
“This is the strongest indicator yet that the rich asshole will reflexively defend his male allies from any and all accusations, even when he thinks those accusations are true,” writes Swan. “the rich asshole tells friends that he deplores the #MeToo movement and believes it unfairly exposes CEOs to lawsuits from their female employees. The fact that women frequently face sexual predation in the workplace doesn’t impact his view on this.”
Fox News Gets Obliterated After Promoting the rich asshole’s Tweet About ‘Fake News’
Fox News embarrassed themselves on Sunday when they decided it would be a good idea to use the words “fake news” while promoting some rich asshole’s latest dumb tweet.
At this point, Fox News can best be described as “far weirder than state-run media” as Vox’s Alvin Chang puts it — and it certainly is interesting that a “news” network that only tells the truth 22% of the time thinks they can even say the words “fake news” unironically for any reason. Naturally, the interwebs had a lot of fun with this tweet:
says the spreader of inaccuracies and self made stories
It might interest you to know that the German translation for "fake news media" is "lügenpresse" (literally "lying press"), but I'm pretty sure you know that already. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugenpres…
How is Fox News both the most watched AND somehow not part of the mainstream? Answer? Dumb audience.
Fake network reports fake news tweet from fake president
Trumps approval ratings are the lowest in history maybe he should include that in his tweet also.
A tweet from the treasonous media about fake media. I can think for myself so I don't need Fox News to tell me what to think.
Thanks state media
What is the fake news media?
Anyone who doesn't paint Trump in a positive light?
Trump is so scared of the truth.
FACT: Trump didn't implement the Russian sanctions and has not agreed to meet with Robert Mueller. Until he does, nothing he says has any credibility.
#CountryOverPartyFox is the pioneer of modern Goebbelism, I bet you're proud of those who have learned from & surpassed you in your quest for the Corporate State.
Perhaps he should reinstate the fairness in reporting doctrine that Reagan shit canned, Fox would have to do a deep cleanse, and come clean
the rich asshole is getting desperate and his tweets are showing it. It seems as though not a day goes by when he does not tweet about Russia, the FAKE NEWS media (everyone but Fox News and Breitbart-esque fringe websites).
Maybe that tweet about reinstating the Fairness Doctrine was a good idea…
Steve Bannon reportedly said he was “sick of being a wet nurse to a 71-year-old man” on leaving his role as White House chief strategist.
According to Bloomberg correspondent Joshua Green—author of Devil’s Bargain, about Bannon, Trump and the race for the White House—the embattled Bannon hit out at Trump after his forced exit.
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“The day that Bannon was pushed out, he was very angry about it. Refused to take Trump’s phone calls,” Green said in a Sunday interview with CNN’s State of the Union, adding that the former chief strategist had added: “I’m sick of being a wet nurse to a 71-year-old man.”
“He [Bannon] had as many doubts and frustrations, I think, about Trump’s fitness to be president, as a lot of other advisers around Trump did,” he added.
However, following his departure from the White House, Bannon became rather more conciliatory after excerpts from Michael Wolff’s tell-all book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House were released.
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Indeed, Bannon reiterated his support for Trump after it had emerged in Fire and Fury that he had referred to Donald Trump Jr. as a traitor for meeting with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 presidential campaign, in a comment that appeared to enrage the president, who claimed the book was “fake.”
“Michael Wolff is a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book,” Trump tweeted in January.
“He used Sloppy Steve Bannon, who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone. Too bad!”
And Trump continued to hit out at his former friend following the release of the book’s excerpts, commenting: “When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind."
“Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look,” he added at the time.
Joe Scarborough: ‘White House insider’ claims ‘more unflattering stories’ about John Kelly are about to drop
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly (Screen capture)
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“Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough on Sunday sent out a mysterious tweet claiming that “White House insiders” believe that chief of staff John Kelly’s days working for President some rich asshole are numbered.
Despite the fact that White House surrogates on Sunday insisted that the president still has confidence in his chief of staff, Scarborough believes the reality behind the scenes is quite different.
“WH insiders are saying it’s just a matter of time before Kelly is gone,” Scarborough wrote. “One source tells me more unflattering stories are coming out against an isolated CoS who has lost the president’s confidence.”
WH insiders are saying it’s just a matter of time before Kelly is gone. One source tells me more unflattering stories are coming out against an isolated CoS who has lost the president’s confidence. politico.com/story/2018/02/…
Although Kelly has been credited with instilling more discipline in what had been a completely chaotic White House, his handling of the Rob Porter scandal has led to a cascade of negative leaks questioning his fitness for the job.
First Daughter Ivanka the rich asshole and husband Jared Kushner have reportedly been the most eager to see Kelly ousted, as reports suggest they feel that the chief of staff has limited their access to the president.
the rich asshole backer flails wildly on CNN: Hiring Hope Hicks proves he won’t tolerate violence against women
Former the rich asshole campaign adviser Steve Cortes (Screen cap).
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Former the rich asshole campaign adviser Steve Cortes on Sunday tried to defend President some rich asshole’s response to the resignation of a White House staff member who had been accused of beating two ex-wives — but he ended up flailing wildly in a strange tangent involving Kellyanne Conway and Hope Hicks.
During a CNN panel discussion, Cortes admitted that the rich asshole had done a poor job of talking about the Rob Porter scandal on Friday, as he said that the rich asshole should have spent less time praising Porter and more time showing Americans that he was against domestic violence.
Host Ana Cabrera interrupted him, however, and pointed out that this kind of behavior is not unusual for the president.
“The president endorsed Roy Moore — he was the man accused of child molestation,” she said. “He has defended Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly, Corey Lewandowski. He implied that the women who accused him of assault and harassment weren’t even attractive enough to sexually abuse! So when, again, has the president made clear that he finds violence against women abhorrent?”
Cortes replied that the rich asshole’s history of hiring and promoting women throughout his career should be enough evidence to settle any doubts that he doesn’t approve of men who beat their wives.
“You know, he has made it clear through his life, by the way that he has elevated women throughout his business career,” he said. “The first woman, Kellyanne Conway, to chair a successful presidential campaign. Hope Hicks, director of communications. Kirstjen Nielsen, the head of DHS… He has enabled and empowered women throughout his life, he has to convey the message better.”
Watch the video below.
the rich asshole to unveil $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan
President some rich asshole (European Council President/Flickr)
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some rich asshole’s administration will sketch out more details of its plan to invest in America’s creaking infrastructure Monday, hoping it can leverage up to $1.5 trillion for the cause. Senior White House officials said the president’s budget, due to be released on Monday, will include $200 billion earmarked for projects to fix roads, bridges and other crucial infrastructure.
February 11, 2018
Posted with permission from AFP
Donald Trump's administration will sketch out more details of its plan to invest in America's creaking infrastructure Monday, hoping it can leverage up to $1.5 trillion for the cause.
Senior White House officials said the president's budget, due to be released on Monday, will include $200 billion earmarked for projects to fix roads, bridges and other crucial infrastructure.
Under the proposals, states and private investors would put up the remaining $1.3 trillion.
Trump, playing up his background in construction, had made fixing US infrastructure a core campaign pledge and already announced the $1.5 trillion plan in his State of the Union address last month.
On Monday, the administration will put more flesh on the bones, including ideas for cutting the length of the permitting process to two years.
"Infrastructure is obviously a critical component to the functioning of our economy, a lot of American success is a result of the quality of the infrastructure we have had historically," said a senior White House official.
"But the current system is fundamentally broken."
"We are under-investing in our infrastructure and we have a permitting process that takes so long that even when funds are adequate it can take a decade to build critical infrastructure."
It will now be up to Congress to discuss the proposal and Trump will host lawmakers from both parties at the White House on Wednesday to make his case.
He will likely face fierce questions about what the administration is willing to fund, including questions about whether any money will go to so-called climate-proofing.
The Trump administration has questioned global warming and the president has called it a hoax.
Fiscal hawks are likely to question where the money will come from, so soon after tax and congressional spending deals that are expected to explode the deficit.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has estimated that the spending plan passed by Congress last week will alone increase the deficit by $420 billion over a decade.
The Trump administration says the funding will come from cuts in other programs, which will be outlined in his budget proposal.
White House officials acknowledge the plan is just the opening salvo in the back-and-forth with Congress.
Experts have warned that poor roads, rail and air traffic systems are costing the US economy a fortune.
According to civil engineer Henry Petroski, traffic congestion alone costs the United States $120 billion per year.
Behind paywall
It is hard to tell what should be more worrisome: the fact that the commander in chief doesn’t bother to read his daily compilation of the nation’s most urgent intelligence, or the fact that his son-in-law — who has been unable to obtain a security clearance — does.
Those two stories were three pages apart in Saturday’s print edition of The Post.
On the front page, my colleagues Carol D. Leonnig, Shane Harris and Greg Jaffe reported that some rich asshole is the first president since Richard M. Nixon not to regularly review the document known as the President’s Daily Brief, the distillation of information picked up around the world by U.S. intelligence agencies.
And there on Page A4 was the other one, under the bylines of Matt Zapotosky, Josh Dawsey and Devlin Barrett.
Jared Kushner’s inability to get a permanent security clearance, for reasons that are not entirely clear, has become a source of vexation at the White House. But in the meantime, he has a temporary status that allows him to “see materials, including the President’s Daily Brief, that are among the most sensitive in government,” they wrote.the rich asshole no longer reads the President's Daily Brief
There are two sets of issues to be concerned about here. The more serious one, of course, is whether the president is getting the information he needs to keep the country safe — or alternatively, whether his handlers may be dumbing things down to avoid overtaxing his attention span or challenging his preconceptions.
In the case of Kushner, there is a potential security risk but also the more immediate question of how appropriate is it for him to have access to the material under any circumstances. That takes us back to the fact that the 37-year-old real estate scion has no credential to merit holding his current White House job, outside of whom he married.
It is hard to miss the irony of it all: Wasn’t the main driver of the scandal surrounding Hillary Clinton’s emails the fact that it suggested she was careless in handling the nation’s secrets?
The President’s Daily Brief, or PDB, was the document that on Aug. 6, 2001, contained a heading warning: “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in U.S.” It even suggested that he might hijack airlines to do it.
When such an attack happened a month later, that memo became Exhibit A in the case for those who argued that the George W. Bush administration was asleep to the danger.
Of course, every president has his own style of processing information. But even Ronald Reagan, whose inattentiveness so often exasperated his closest advisers, made a point of reading the PDB every day.
White House officials say that the rich asshole’s decision to receive a shortened briefing orally reflects his “style of learning,” as well as his impatience with dense material. His intelligence advisers augment their presentation with charts, pictures, videos and what CIA Director Mike Pompeo calls “killer graphics.”How Jared Kushner rose to power
But it seems fair to wonder how closely the easily distractable chief executive is following the oral presentations. The time on his official schedule set aside for the briefings has sometimes coincided closely with his tweets, including ones about random things he seems to have heard on “Fox & Friends.”
A separate issue is whether his oral briefings are full reflections of what the PDBs actually say. Last year, for instance, The Post reported that intelligence officials include Russia-related material only in the written version and avoid referring to it in their oral presentations, in apparent fear that it will set off another presidential eruption about witch hunts by sore-loser Democrats.
While it is typical for a close circle of presidential aides to also have access to the PDB, it is far less so for someone like Kushner, a newcomer to government who has only a temporary status on his clearance — and who, it should be noted, is also a focus in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation.
Kushner’s lawyer Abbe Lowell insisted in a statement that Kushner’s clearance is taking longer than usual “because of the extent of his holdings, travels and lengthy submissions.”
But the process has not been helped by the fact that Kushner has had to repeatedly update his security questionnaire, known as an SF-86, because he neglected to include all contacts he has had with foreigners.
Concern about the casualness with which the rich asshole White House deals with sensitive material also has been amplified in the past week, with the resignation of White House staff secretary Rob Porter over allegations that he had abused two ex-wives. It turns out that Porter, whose job it was to control the flow of documents to the president, also had only an interim security clearance — and that the FBI had warned top White House officials that there was evidence that he committed a violent crime.
Given the rich asshole’s background — the flamboyant bankruptcies of his businesses, the many lawsuits that he has filed and that have been lodged against him, the credible allegations that he has mistreated women — it is hard to imagine that he would be a slam dunk for a security clearance.
If he weren’t president, that is.
But he is.
And the job comes with homework.
the rich asshole takes ‘shackles’ off ICE, which is slapping them on immigrants who thought they were safe
Behind Paywall
A week after he won the election, President the rich asshole promised that his administration would round up millions of immigrant gang members and drug dealers. And after he took office, arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers surged 40 percent.
Officials at the agency commonly known as ICE praise the rich asshole for putting teeth back into immigration enforcement, and they say their agency continues to prioritize national security threats and violent criminals, much as the Obama administration did.
But as ICE officers get wider latitude to determine whom they detain, the biggest jump in arrests has been of immigrants with no criminal convictions. The agency made 37,734 “noncriminal” arrests in the government’s 2017 fiscal year, more than twice the number in the previous year. The category includes suspects facing possible charges as well as those without criminal records.
Critics say ICE is increasingly grabbing at the lowest-hanging fruit of deportation-eligible immigrants to meet the president’s unrealistic goals, replacing a targeted system with a scattershot approach aimed at boosting the agency’s enforcement statistics.
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ICE has not carried out mass roundups or major workplace raids under the rich asshole, but nearly every week brings a contentious new arrest.
A Virginia mother was sent back to El Salvador in June after her 11 years in the United States unraveled because of a traffic stop. A Connecticut man with an American-born wife and children and no criminal record was deported to Guatemala last week. And an immigration activist in New York, Ravi Ragbir, was detained in January in a case that brought ICE a scathing rebuke from a federal judge.
“It ought not to be — and it has never before been — that those who have lived without incident in this country for years are subjected to treatment we associate with regimes we revile as unjust,” said U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest, reading her opinion in court before ordering ICE to release Ragbir.
“We are not that country,” she said.
Immigrants whose only crime was living in the country illegally were largely left alone during the latter years of the Obama administration. But that policy has been scrapped.
Those facing deportation who show up for periodic “check-ins” with ICE to appeal for more time in the United States can no longer be confident that good behavior will spare them from detention. Once-routine appointments now can end with the immigrants in handcuffs.
More broadly, the rich asshole administration has given street-level ICE officers and field directors greater latitude to determine whom they arrest and under what conditions, breaking with the more selective enforcement approach of President Barack Obama’s second term.
the rich asshole officials have likened this to taking “the shackles off,” and they say morale at ICE is up because its officers have regained the authority to detain anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally.
Officers are detaining suspects in courthouses more often, and ICE teams no longer shy from taking additional people into custody when they knock on doors to arrest a targeted person.
“What are we supposed to do?” said Matthew Albence, the top official in the agency’s immigration enforcement division, who described the administration’s goal as simply restoring the rule of law. If ICE fails to uphold its duties to enforce immigration laws, he added, “then the system has no integrity.”
In addition to arresting twice as many immigrants who have not been convicted of crimes, ICE also arrested 105,736 immigrants with criminal convictions, a slight increase. That figure includes people with serious or violent offenses as well as those with lesser convictions, such as driving without a license or entering the country illegally.
ICE’s arrest totals in the rich asshole’s first year in office are still much lower than they were during Obama’s early tenure, which the agency says is partly because it is contending with far more resistance from state and local governments that oppose the rich asshole’s policies. And the president’s repeated negative characterizations of some immigrant groups have created an atmosphere in which arrests that were once standard now erupt as political flash points.
Obama initially earned the moniker “deporter in chief” because his administration expelled hundreds of thousands of immigrants, including people with no criminal records. But when Republicans blocked his effort to create a path to citizenship for millions living in the country illegally, Obama curtailed ICE enforcement, especially for those without serious criminal violations. Those measures incensed Republicans — and eventually helped to propel the rich asshole into office.
An estimated 11 million people are living in the United States without legal residency, and the new era of ICE enforcement has shattered the presumption that their social and economic integration into American life would protect them.
Because immigration records are generally secret, it is difficult to independently verify how federal agents decide to make arrests. Immigrant advocates and ICE often clash over immigration cases, and both sides frequently present incomplete versions of an immigrant’s case.
Last month, a college chemistry instructor in Kansas, Syed Ahmed Jamal, was taken into custody on his lawn while preparing to take his daughter to school. He arrived from Bangladesh 30 years ago and built a life in the United States. More than 57,000 people signed an online petition asking ICE to stop his deportation, describing him as a community leader and loving father.
An immigration judge placed a temporary stay Wednesday on ICE’s attempt to deport him, but the agency’s account of Jamal’s case is starkly different. ICE said he arrived in 1987 on a temporary visa. He was ordered to leave the United States in 2002, and he complied, but three months later, he returned — legally — and overstayed again. A judge ordered him to leave the country in 2011, but he did not. ICE said agents took Jamal into custody in 2012. He lost his appeal in 2013.
At first glance, Albence said, many of ICE’s arrests may seem like “sympathetic cases — individuals who are here, and who have been here a long time.”
“But the reason they’ve been here a long time is because they gamed the system,” he said.
Defenders of the tougher approach applaud ICE’s new resolve and say it is U.S. immigration courts — not ICE — that are determining who should be allowed to stay. And they reject the idea that the longer someone has lived in the country, the more the person deserves to be left alone.
“As someone who has practiced law for 20-plus years, I find strange the idea the longer you get away with a violation, the less stiff the punishment should be, and that your continued violation of the law is basis for the argument that you shouldn’t suffer the consequences of that violation,” said Matthew O’Brien, director of research at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, which backs the rich asshole’s approach.
No statute of limitations
The furor that has followed recent ICE arrests reflects a deeper disagreement — not unlike the fight over young, undocumented “dreamers” — about the consequences that those in the country illegally should face.
Living in the United States without legal status is generally treated as a civil violation, not a criminal one. And many Americans, especially Democrats, do not view it as an offense worthy of arrest and deportation once someone has settled into American life.
But in the hyper-politicized atmosphere of the immigration debate, where the merits of these arrests are increasingly litigated in public, partisans now argue over each immigrant’s perceived worthiness to remain in the country, even when a full grasp of the facts is lacking.
When a 43-year-old Polish-born doctor in Michigan who came to the United States at age 5 was arrested last month, supporters rushed to his defense. ICE justified its decision by saying the doctor, who was a permanent legal resident, had had repeated encounters with local police and two 1992 misdemeanor convictions for destruction of property and receiving stolen items, crimes that under U.S. immigration law are considered evidence of “moral turpitude.”
Others who committed crimes long ago and satisfied their obligations to the American justice system have learned there is no statute of limitations on ICE’s ability to use the immigrants’ offenses as grounds to arrest and deport them.
When Ragbir, the New York immigration activist, was detained last month during a scheduled check-in with ICE, his supporters accused the agency of targeting him for retaliation.
But Ragbir is the type of person who is now a top priority for ICE. After becoming a lawful U.S. resident in 1994, he was convicted of mortgage and wire fraud in 2000.
Ragbir served two years in prison, then married a U.S. citizen in 2010. Immigration courts repeatedly spared him from deportation, but his most recent appeal was denied, and ICE took him into custody eight days before his residency was due to expire.
Ragbir was so stunned that he lost consciousness, court records show, and was taken to a hospital.
Former acting ICE director John Sandweg, who helped draft the 2014 memo that prioritized arrests based on the severity of immigrants’ criminal offenses, said the agency has resources to deport only about 200,000 cases a year from the interior of the United States.
“The problem is, when you remove all priorities, it’s like a fisherman who could just get his quota anywhere,” Sandweg said. “It diminishes the incentives on the agents to go get the bad criminals. Now their job is to fill the beds.”
Albence said the agency’s priority remains those who represent a threat to public safety or national security, just as it was under Obama. The difference now is that agents are also enforcing judges’ deportation orders against all immigrants who are subject to such orders, regardless of whether they have criminal records.
“There’s no list where we rank ‘This is illegal alien number 1 all the way down to 2.3 million,’ ” he said.
Albence said ICE prioritizes its caseload using government databases and law enforcement methods to track fugitives. But in the vast majority of cases, ICE takes custody of someone after state or local police have arrested the person.
This approach dovetailed with ICE’s enforcement emphasis on targeting serious criminals, and at first, the Obama administration and other Democrats embraced it. But activists protested that ICE was arresting people pulled over for driving infractions and other minor offenses at a time when Congress was debating whether to grant undocumented immigrants legal residency. Advocacy groups pushed cities and towns to become “sanctuary” cities that refused to cooperate with ICE.
ICE’s caseload far exceeds the capacity of its jails. In addition to the 41,500 immigrants in detention, according to the most recent data, the agency has a caseload of roughly 3 million deportation-eligible foreigners, equal to about 1 in 4 of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants nationwide.
More than 542,000 of those are considered fugitives, meaning they did not show up for their immigration hearings and were ordered deported, or they failed to leave the country after losing their cases. Nearly 2 in 3 were not considered a priority for deportation under Obama. They are now.
An additional 2.4 million undocumented immigrants are free pending hearings or appeals, or because the agency has not been able to deport them yet and the Supreme Court has ruled that such individuals cannot be jailed indefinitely. Nearly 1 million of this group have final deportation orders, including 178,000 convicted criminals.
They include the Michigan doctor and Ragbir, the New York activist.
“It’s true that all these people are deportable, but that doesn’t mean they should all have equal value,” said Cecilia Muñoz, a former policy adviser to Obama who helped shape the administration’s tiered enforcement approach.
“By crowding the courts with all kinds of people, you’re creating a resource problem,” Muñoz said.
“If you apply that logic to local police forces, you’re saying that every robber and rapist is the same as a jaywalker. And then you’re clogging your courts with jaywalkers.
Scarborough: Dems should pull funds from candidates who mention impeaching the rich asshole
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 02/11/18 05:37 PM EST
"Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough said on Sunday that the Democratic Party should take away funding from Democratic candidates who talk about impeaching President the rich asshole on the campaign trail.
"Any Democrat mentioning the word 'impeachment' on the campaign trail should have their campaign funds pulled by the Democratic Party," Scarborough said in a tweet.
Any Democrat mentioning the word “impeachment” on the campaign trail should have their campaign funds pulled by the Democratic Party. twitter.com/orenkessler/st…
Scarborough, who is a former Republican congressman, has become an outspoken critic of the rich asshole.
He officially left the Republican Party last year and has said the rich asshole is in the process of destroying the GOP for years to come.
Democrats are looking to take back control of the House and the Senate in the upcoming midterm elections.
The House has rejected multiple impeachment attempts from Democrats in the chamber.
White House to unveil $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan
BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 02/11/18 05:00 PM EST
The White House on Monday will unveil its long-awaited $1.5 trillion infrastructure package aimed at overhauling U.S. public works.
The plan is structured around four goals: generate $1.5 trillion for an infrastructure proposal, streamline the permitting process down to two years, invest in rural infrastructure projects and advance workforce training.
The rich asshole administration confirmed a $200 billion direct federal investment for the package, which will be included in the White House’s Monday spending blueprint for fiscal 2019.
Half of the federal seed money would go toward an incentive program to match financing from state and local governments investing in rebuilding projects, while a quarter of the appropriations would be used for rural projects in the form of block grants to states so governors may decide where to invest.
The block grants would allot $20 billion for “transformative programs” meant for new projects rather than rehabilitation of old infrastructure. Another $20 billion is meant to expand the use of loans and private activity bonds, a common tool used to fund infrastructure projects. The last $10 billion would go into a "capital financing fund."
The allotted $200 billion comes from cuts within the impending White House budget. An official did not detail where specific spending reductions in the budget came from, but said the administration made cuts where “infrastructure funds haven’t been spent efficaciously,” providing Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants and transit funds as examples.
The proposal outlined by senior administration officials confirms many previously leaked details about a White House rebuilding initiative that would focus on public-private partnerships and funds from state and local governments.
Democrats have already denounced the anticipated package, calling for increased direct federal investment to adequately address the nation’s crumbling roads, bridges and other public works.
But the White House said its proposal is just the beginning of the negotiations.
“This in no way, shape or form should be considered a take it or leave it proposal,” the official said. “This is the start of a negotiation, bicameral, bipartisan negotiation, to find the best solution for infrastructure in the U.S.”
The plan will fall under the purview of at least six House committees and five Senate committees, according to officials.
“Our plan is our opening in terms of providing ideas to Capitol Hill,” said another senior administration official. “And we look forward to working with the relevant committees through the regular order process, through hearings and through additional feedback to the mark-up process.”
The delivery comes after several delays and amid questions over revenue sources for a proposal, for which the rich asshole has provided varying numbers since his presidential campaign.
The president, during his annual State of the Union address last month, called on lawmakers to craft an infrastructure proposal of “at least” $1.5 trillion, pushing the need for a streamlined permitting process.
To shorten that process, the administration will use a “one agency one decision” method, one of the officials said Saturday. That procedure would place the agency with the relevant “expertise” needed in charge of the permitting.
“A large part of the problem currently is that the federal government’s rules and restrictions get in the way of building a better America,” one of the officials said. “So we want to get out of the way to that regard.”
The proposal would also extend the eligibility for Pell Grants, which supply funds to students who need financing for college, widen the practice of apprenticeships and alter trade licensing requirements.
The plan is bound to face opposition from congressional Democrats, who have long pressed the federal government’s historic role in rebuilding. House Democrats last week released their own infrastructure plan that boasted a $1 trillion direct government spend on an overhaul.
But one point of apparent bipartisanship between the two plans is the need to address rural infrastructure needs. Democrats in their proposal push for the expansion of broadband in rural regions, while a sizable portion of the federal appropriations under the rich asshole’s plan will go into a pot dedicated to rural investment.
The administration is also likely to face opposition from environmental groups who argue the altered permitting process will inhibit environmental protections, a notion rejected by an administration official in the Saturday call.
The Natural Resources Defense Council on Sunday called the administration’s plan “a disaster” that fails to provide adequate infrastructure investment.
“Even worse, his plan includes an unacceptable corporate giveaway by truncating environmental reviews,” said Shelley Poticha, head of the group's urban solutions effort. “That would leave local residents all-but voiceless when it comes to the massive projects that will reshape their communities. We will fight to protect our future and oppose any effort to undercut these bedrock protections.”
the rich asshole is scheduled to host key lawmakers from both parties at the White House on Wednesday to continue the infrastructure discussion, providing the administration a chance to convince lawmakers who have already soured on the proposal.
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), the ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, on Friday slammed the administration ahead of the package’s unveiling.
“This is not a real infrastructure plan — it’s simply another scam, an attempt by this administration to privatize critical government functions, and create windfalls for their buddies on Wall Street,” DeFazio said in the Democratic weekly address.
“This fake proposal will not address the serious infrastructure needs facing this country, so our potholed roads will get worse, our bridges and transit systems will become more dangerous, and our tolls will become higher. And Wall Street? They’ll throw another party,” he said.
the rich asshole: Israel and Palestinians both hindering peace plan
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 02/11/18 02:56 PM EST
President the rich asshole said in an interview published Sunday that both Israelis and Palestinians are playing roles in hindering peace in the region.
"Right now, I would say the Palestinians are not looking to make peace, they are not looking to make peace. And I am not necessarily sure that Israel is looking to make peace. So we are just going to have to see what happens," the rich asshole told Israel Hayom.
"I think both sides will have to make hard compromises to reach a peace agreement," the president said.
the rich asshole went on to say that controversial Israeli land settlements have played a role in muddling the peace process.
"We will be talking about settlements. The settlements are something that very much complicates and always have complicated making peace, so I think Israel has to be very careful with the settlements," he told Israel Hayom.
the rich asshole threatened to cut additional aid to Palestinians last month after the U.S. announced it was withholding $65 million in aid to the United Nations agency that serves Palestinian refugees.
“That money is on the table and that money is not going to them unless they sit down and negotiate peace,” the rich asshole said last month beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
the rich asshole drew the ire of Palestinians and the international community in December when he announced the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.
Palestinians view East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Ex-wife of Rob Porter fires back at White House amid abuse scandal
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 02/11/18 02:43 PM EST
Jennie Willoughby, an ex-wife of former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, fired back at President the rich asshole and the White House after the rich asshole praised Porter following domestic abuse allegations.
In a piece published in Time, Willoughby wrote about how it felt to watch the rich asshole and other members of the White House come to Porter's defense, even after Porter announced he was resigning following multiple reports that he was abusive to his ex-wives, including Willoughby.
"I can’t say I was surprised. But when some rich asshole repeated twice that Rob declared his innocence, I was floored," she wrote.
"What was his intent in emphasizing that point? My friend turned to me and said, 'The President of the United States just called you a liar.' Yes. And so he did," she wrote.
"There it is again. The words 'mere allegation' and 'falsely accused' meant to imply that I am a liar. That Colbie Holderness is a liar," she wrote. "That the work Rob was doing in the White House was of higher value than our mental, emotional or physical wellbeing. That his professional contributions are worth more than the truth. That abuse is something to be questioned and doubted."
Willoughby went on to write in Time that the issue is deeper than the rich asshole. Society as a whole, she said, has a "fear of addressing our worst secrets."
A shocking disgrace’: Orrin Hatch’s hometown paper rips him to shreds for defending alleged wife abuser
Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah speaking at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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The Salt Lake Tribune took aim at Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) over the weekend after he sided with a White House staffer who was accused of domestically abusing two ex-wives.
In an piece published on Sunday, the paper’s editorial board attacks Hatch for saying that no newspaper should print allegations against Rob Porter, the former White House aide at the center of the abuse allegations.
“Shame on any publication that would print this,” Hatch told the paper. “I know Rob. I’ve known him for years, both as a close friend and as a personal advisor. He is kind and considerate towards all. The country needs more honest, principled people like Rob Porter.”
“Now now that Sen. Orrin Hatch has announced his retirement, it appears that his handlers have taken the muzzle off,” the paper’s editorial board writes in Sunday’s column.
The editorial continues:
Jennifer Willoughby and Colbie Holderness, Porter’s ex-wives, both told the FBI about Porter’s alleged abuse during a background check. Holderness gave the FBI a picture of herself with a large black eye. the rich asshole’s White House knew of the allegations, and hired him anyway.In other words, the White House did not care that a top official had been accused of similar abuse by two ex-spouses.
“That is a shocking disgrace,” the paper contends. “What’s even more shocking is Hatch’s comments regarding this week’s revelation.”
“Don’t ever underestimate what it takes for a woman to speak up,” The Salt Lake Tribune‘s editors conclude.
‘How do you look your daughters in the face?’ AM Joy guest lectures Kellyanne Conway for defending sex abusers
Anushay Hossain on MSNBC -- screenshot
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Political commentator Anushay Hossain launched a blistering attack on Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway on MSNBC Sunday morning for defending the White House’s handling of an aide accused of beating his former wives.
Appearing on AM Joy, Hossain called on Republican women to abandon their party due to its “sexist, racist misogynistic” ways, before she turned to Conway who was making the cable show rounds Sunday morning explaining how the White House stance on Rob Porter’s dismissal.
Noting the timing of the Porter revelations, MSNBC host Joy Reid proposed, “It’s interesting because the ‘me too’ movement is about the opposite. It’s about giving the woman speaking up about victimization the benefit of the doubt. But really the mindset is you give the man the benefit of the doubt. What does that say to you particularly at this cultural moment?”
“This says what I always knew,” Hossain began. “This is a sexist, racist misogynistic administration and government. I want to take this opportunity to say to GOP women: get out. This is your time, this goes beyond partisan politics. This is not about what Democrats and Republicans do. This is about violence against women. ”
“You guys have stuck by him [the rich asshole] through pedophilia, through sexual assault, domestic violence,” she exclaimed. “This is a human rights issue. This president does not stand behind your gender. This is not about partisan politics. This is a dangerous message for women around the world. GOP women, you owe it to women around the world, girls around the world to get out.”
Hossain then turned her ire on Conway’s defense of the scandal.
“I don’t know how Kellyanne Conway looks at herself in the mirror,” she stated. “I don’t usually pull this card but, as a mother, how do you look at your daughters in the face? We’re at a cultural shift, a turning point for women’s rights and violence against women. GOP women, you’ve got to get out. the rich asshole is not about anything else more than misogyny.”
Watch the video below via MSNBC:
Gillibrand offers the rich asshole ‘due process’ hearings on sexual assault allegations against him
the rich asshole is concerned that "lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation."
Following the resignation of White House staff secretary Rob Porter over multiple accusations of domestic abuse, President the rich asshole tweeted Saturday that he’s concerned people’s lives are being “shattered and destroyed” by “a mere allegation” without “due process.” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) responded by offering the rich asshole his own “due process” in the form of hearings about the many sexual allegations against him, prompting a retort from White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway that those women “have had their day.”
the rich asshole came to Porter’s defense Friday, wishing him “a wonderful career,” bemoaning that Porter is now “very sad,” and insisting that Porter has maintained his innocence. On Saturday, the rich asshole tweeted his concern that “there is no recovery for someone falsely accused,” an apparent reference to Porter’s departure.
On Sunday morning, White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney clarified on Fox News Sunday that it’s not clear the rich asshole’s tweet referred to Porter, and could have been a reference to Steve Wynn, the former Finance Chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Two weeks ago, Wynn resigned over accusations he assaulted and harassed dozens of women. The RNC has said it’s planning to keep the $200,000 Wynn donated to Republicans last year, insisting that he should be “allowed due process.” Despite the similar stories, Wynn has not really been in the news the last two weeks and wasn’t even mentioned on Fox & Friends Saturday morning — but Porter was.
Regardless of whom the rich asshole was referring to, Gillibrand decided to offer him exactly what he was asking for: due process in the form of congressional hearings on the many sexual assault allegations against him.
The President has shown through words and actions that he doesn’t value women. It’s not surprising that he doesn’t believe survivors or understand the national conversation that is happening.
The lives of survivors of sexual assault and domestic abuse are being shattered every day. If he wants due process for the over dozen sexual assault allegations against him, let’s have Congressional hearings tomorrow. I would support that and my colleagues should too.
Gillibrand has long been a champion in the fight against sexual harassment, even publicly reporting her own experiences being harassed by fellow lawmakers in 2014. She also led the charge in calling for fellow Democratic Sen. Al Franken (MN) to resign last fall. the rich asshole, himself, has come after her, insinuating that she would be willing to perform sexual favors for campaign donations. She responded that he could not silence her.
On two different Sunday morning political shows, Conway came to the White House’s defense over its handling of the Rob Porter allegations. Though she said on CNN’s State of the Union that she thought Porter did the right thing by resigning, she attacked Gillibrand on ABC’s This Week. “Those accusers have had their day on your network and elsewhere,” Conway said to George Stephanopoulos in response to Gillibrand’s tweets. “They were trotted out again late last year.”
“I don’t need a lecture from Kirsten Gillibrand or anybody else who protected and defended and harbored a sitting president who had sexual relations in the Oval Office and was impeached for lying. I don’t need a lecture from her or anybody else.”
Responding to @SenGillibrand’s tweet that Congress should hold hearings with women who have accused Pres. Trump of sexual assault, @KellyannePolls tells @GStephanopoulos “Those accusers have had their day…I don’t need a lecture from Kirsten Gillibrand or anybody else.” #ThisWeek
Conway is referring to President Clinton, who was impeached in 1999 and served in office until 2001. Gillibrand didn’t take office until 2007, so it’s unclear how exactly she could have been protecting Clinton at the time. It’s true that Gillibrand is close to the Clintons and that they have campaigned for her. She said last November that in hindsight, however, she believes Clinton should have resigned over his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
If anything, Conway’s retort shines light on the fact that the accusations against Clinton were actually investigated. Apparently she thinks that “due process” for the rich asshole is simply the fact that his accusers have had airtime on television.
Nunes: We actually want the ‘ridiculous’ Dem memo released
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 02/11/18 02:10 PM EST
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) on Sunday said he actually wants the Democratic rebuttal to a now-infamous GOP-crafted surveillance memo to be released.
"We actually want the Democratic memo out. We think it’s ridiculous on the face of it," Nunes said during an interview on Fox News. "We think it’s very political about how they attack myself, they attack Chairman Gowdy, they turn Carter Page into some super-secret Russian spy, they talk about how Christopher Steele is a really, really good source when we know that he lied to the FBI."
Nunes said he doesn't know why Democrats on the committee aren't spending the weekend "redacting it so that we can get it back to the White House so the president can declassify it."
Nunes's comments come after the White House announced last week President the rich asshole was not ready to approve the release of the Democratic memo.
White House counsel Don McGahn wrote a letter to Nunes explaining that “although the president is inclined to declassify” the Democratic memo, the administration believes it would create “especially significant concerns” for “national security and law enforcement interests.”
the rich asshole on Saturday tweeted that the Democrats knew their memo would have to be heavily redacted.
"The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo which they knew, because of sources and methods (and more), would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency," the rich asshole tweeted Saturday. "Told them to re-do and send back in proper form!"
Nunes said during the interview that it's not a "surprise" the rich asshole blocked the release of the Democratic memo.
"The Democrats have been on TV all weekend long. Their memo is sitting at the House Intelligence Committee down at the bottom of the Capitol waiting to be redacted," he said. "If they really wanted to get it out, they’d be down there all day yesterday redacting it, getting it back over to the White House so that the public can know what’s in it."
the rich asshole officials do damage control after staff turmoil
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 02/11/18 01:15 PM EST
the rich asshole administration officials on Sunday defended the handling of domestic abuse allegations against a former staffer while mounting a vigorous defense of White House chief of staff John Kelly.
Reports in recent days have suggested the rich asshole is frustrated with his chief of staff for allowing abuse allegations against Rob Porter — who resigned last week as staff secretary — to explode into a damaging national story. the rich asshole has reportedly floated the possibility of replacing Kelly, who has only been chief of staff for more than six months.
Administration officials pushed back hard on those reports, expressing full confidence in Kelly.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that the rich asshole told her to say that he has full confidence in Kelly.
"I spoke with the president last night about this very issue and he wanted me to re-emphasize to everyone, including this morning, that he has full confidence in his current chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly, and that he is not actively searching for replacements," Conway said on "This Week."
White House legislative director Marc Short also told NBC's Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press" that Kelly had not offered his resignation.
“He will step aside anytime the president doesn’t want him to be there," Short said.
"But John Kelly has not offered his resignation. John Kelly is doing an outstanding job," he added.
And Mick Mulvaney, the rich asshole's budget director, dismissed talk of replacing Kelly as "much ado about nothing."
“There’s a lot of good things that have been happening since the chief is there,” Mulvaney told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday."
Mulvaney went on to say that those saying the chief of staff could soon leave the White House are people “unhappy that they've lost access to the president" since Kelly assumed his role in the West Wing last year.
"I am extraordinarily pleased with the job the chief has been doing," he added. "I think the president is as well."
Mulvaney said Porter was not entirely forthcoming with the president about the allegations made by his ex-wives and that the problem does not lie with Kelly.
"You’re going to want to believe and trust the people that are close to you and that you know. You see, I think the problem here was with Mr. Porter, not with the chief of staff," Mulvaney said.
The president drew backlash on Saturday after he tweeted that "lives are being shattered ... by a mere allegation."
Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused - life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?
The president's tweet came after a second staffer, former White House speechwriter David Sorenson, abruptly resigned. He has denied allegations of domestic abuse, saying he was the victim.
Conway on Sunday defended the tweet, saying the rich asshole was referring to how the allegations are being handled.
"What the president is saying when he is talking about due process, he’s right in this way, we are a country of laws," Conway said on CNN's "State of the Union."
"But we as individuals have a duty to assess everybody on a case-by-case basis," she added.
Conway said she has no reason not to believe the allegations raised against Porter.
"In this case, you have contemporaneous police reports, you have women speaking to the FBI under threat of perjury ... you have photographs, and when you look at all of that pulled together, Rob Porter did the right thing by resigning," she said on CNN. "I have no reason not to believe the women."
The White House, however, has come under fire for how the situation was handled.
Deputy press secretary Raj Shah reportedly drew the rich asshole's ire when he told reporters last Thursday that the White House could have handled the situation better.
Short on Sunday stressed that the White House is taking the allegations seriously.
"I think that Rob is a friend to many of us in the administration. Rob is somebody who is a Rhodes Scholar, is a Harvard-educated guy. He did a great job as staff secretary," Short told NBC.
"But there can be no tolerance for domestic abuse. And there can be no tolerance for violence against women, and we have to be absolutely clear about that. I think there was probably some — in the process some lack of communication between different elements in the White House," he said.
Mulvaney echoed Short's sentiment on the White House's stance on domestic abuse.
“We don’t tolerate it at all,” he said. “You cannot put trust in people who would do that to their spouse of either gender, so we have a zero-tolerance policy for it."
Short and Conway defended the White House's decision to clear Porter for a security clearance, saying the administration took the same steps as previous administrations.
"This is the same process in the administration that the Obama administration used, the Bush administration used and others, and that the FBI runs this clearance process," Short said. "And when they provide somebody an interim security clearance, that means that they’ve done an initial vet and say, this person is okay, there are some mitigating circumstances we’re going to continue to investigate."
"There’s a lot of information going out in the public right now being reported as fact by people who couldn’t possibly know," Conway said referring to the process of obtaining a security clearance.
"And, and so they won’t discuss individual FBI investigations. We have to all respect that, I believe. But at the same time, an interim security clearance was granted to Rob Porter to allow him to continue. That is the case for others who work in the White House currently and in other White Houses," she continued. "But this is a process that’s gone on a long time, and we respect and rely upon that process."
the rich asshole to hold public signing of ‘Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse’ law after wife beating allegations
some rich asshole signs executive order (Photo: Wikipedia commons)
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President some rich asshole this week plans to hold a public signing ceremony for a sexual abuse law just days after he defended a White House staffer who was accused abusing his two ex-wives.
Politico reported on Sunday that the rich asshole’s Wednesday schedule includes a signing ceremony for the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act.
The act, sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), requires anyone who oversees children athletes to report allegations of sexual misconduct or abuse.
The ceremony will just a week after the rich asshole and Chief of Staff John Kelly defended White House staffer Rob Porter over abuse charges — even though the FBI had refused to grant him a security clearance based on the allegations.
It was not immediately clear if the rich asshole would take questions at Wednesday’s ceremony.
When pathetic excuses and spin don't work, the rich asshole's surrogates go for blatant dishonesty.
the rich asshole’s vile defense of accused domestic abuser Rob Porter has forced his advisers to spin, deflect, and finally, to flat-out lie about his resignation in disgrace.
The White House sent senior advisers out to each of the five Sunday news shows this weekend in a desperate attempt to mitigate the damage from the rich asshole’s embrace of Porter, and his own history of abuse. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway tried attacking Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), while senior adviser Marc Short went after NBC News.
But budget director Mick Mulvaney had an old trick up his sleeve.
Earlier Sunday morning, Mulvaney tried to pretend that the rich asshole wasn’t defending Porter at all when he tweeted about “due process.” And by the time he got around to his “Face the Nation” interview, he just went straight for the bald-faced lies.
CBS News White House correspondent Major Garrett pointedly asked Mulvaney, “Why shouldn’t women reasonably wonder if this White House doesn’t have a lax attitude when it comes to the question of domestic abuse?”
Mulvaney responded by calling the White House’s handling of the Porter scandal “completely reasonable and normal.”
“Reasonable and normal,” a dubious Garrett repeated.
Mulvaney tried to explain that the rich asshole was simply giving Porter the benefit of the doubt “up until the time that it became obvious, when the photographs came out, that the person was not being honest with the president.”
“And that person, after that happened,” Mulvaney continued, “we dismissed that person immediately.”
“You don’t want to throw people out on the street based just upon the allegation,” Mulvaney said. “But as soon as it became apparent to us that the allegations were true, Rob Porter had to go.”
Mulvaney told a number of whoppers in those few seconds, most egregiously that the White House “dismissed” Porter “immediately” after the photographs were published.
In fact, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders acknowledged the photos at a briefing on Wednesday, where she also told reporters that Porter had resigned without pressure from the White House, and would be staying on for an unspecified “transition” period.
It’s also a self-evident lie that the the rich asshole administration did anything about Porter “immediately,” since chief of staff John Kelly and White House counsel Don McGahn knew about the allegations for months and did nothing.
But perhaps most damaging for Mulvaney was his final lie, that “it became apparent to us that the allegations were true.”
That “us” apparently doesn’t include the rich asshole, who proclaimed Porter’s innocence to reporters, lamented a lack of “due process” for Porter, and smeared his accusers as liars. And when asked directly, none of his surrogates were permitted to say that he believes the allegations are true.
That disconnect will continue to make defending the rich asshole’s revolting response to this scandal impossible, and ensure that many more lies will be told in the process. Lies are all they have left.
Fox & Friends flips out after Kim Jong Un sister is compared to Ivanka: ‘They hate the rich asshole more than North Korea’
Pete Hegseth, Rachel Campos-Duffy and Griff Jenkins (Fox News/screen grab)
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The hosts of Fox & Friends on Sunday lashed out at the “media” for making comparisons between the sister of North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un and the daughter of President some rich asshole.
Multiple segments on the Fox News morning show took aim at outlets like The Washington Post and CNN, which pointed out similarities between Ivanka the rich asshole and Kim Yo Jong.
The Post, for example, quoted former Korean analyst at the CIA Sue Mi Terry, who called Kim Yo Jong “the Ivanka the rich asshole of North Korea.”
“South Korean television drew that exact parallel, noting that Kim Jong Un had sent his sister to the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic Games, while President the rich asshole was sending his daughter to the closing,” the paper observed.
“It’s unbelievable,” Fox & Friends co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy gasped on Sunday.
“Ivanka is in the White House working for paid leave, tax cuts,” co-host Pete Hegseth opined. “This is what she’s ‘complicit’ in, in the White House? Whereas the sister of Kim Jong Un, whether she wanted to be or not, [is] complicit in the murderous starvation regime of her brother who suppresses her people to seek nuclear weapons to threaten the entire world. I don’t know if she’s happy or not. I hope she defects.”
“That’s the message we should have,” he insisted. “But it’s amazing. It’s the ‘Never the rich asshole’, the hate the rich asshole media will find every angle it can, it’s unbelievable.”
“You get the feeling that they hate the rich asshole more than they hate North Korea and all the atrocities that are going on there,” Campos-Duffy chimed in. “It’s not just that they’re normalizing North Korea, they’re trying to find some sort of connection. We’ve heard it before from the media, ‘some rich asshole is like a dictator.’ It’s the most insane analogy because, if anything, this is a president who’s been trying to take power away from centralized government and give it back to the people.”
“Absolutely,” Hegseth agreed.
Watch the video below from Fox News.
the rich asshole, GOP at new crossroads on deficit
BY VICKI NEEDHAM AND SYLVAN LANE - 02/11/18 10:30 AM EST
Congressional Republicans who for years breathed fire about fiscal restraint have opened the floodgates to spending, prompting criticism from GOP budget hawks and incredulity from outside groups worried about the nation’s spiraling level of debt.
Congress sent President the rich asshole a $1.5 trillion tax-cut bill in December, and on Friday approved a massive budget measure that would boost spending over the next decade by $300 billion, giving Republican leaders another legislative victory.
The legislation eliminates budget ceilings put into place by a 2011 budget law agreed to by President Obama and former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), and allows federal funds to flow more freely to the Pentagon and a host of nondefense programs.
the rich asshole, GOP leaders in both chambers and a majority of Republicans in the House and Senate back the bill, but it has been fiercely criticized by its opponents within the party as a betrayal.
“Republicans have lost every single bit of credibility on the idea that they care at all about debts and deficits,” former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Friday on Fox Business’s “Mornings with Maria” show.
“They can talk all they want, but when they had the chance to do it, they caved and they spent so much money it's stunning,” added Chaffetz, referring to the GOP’s control of the White House and Congress.
The conservative House Freedom Caucus opposed the measure, and deficit hawks ripped the bill as it moved toward passage.
“This spending proposal is disgusting and reckless — the biggest spending increase since 2009,” said conservative Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), one of 67 House Republicans to vote against it.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was so furious about the bill he refused to let the Senate vote on it until 1 a.m. Friday, angering his colleagues in the process and forcing lawmakers to close the government for several hours.
Democrats have ripped Republicans opposed to the bill for their inconsistent policy stances, highlighting Paul’s support of the tax-cut bill that they say will have longer-lasting effects on the deficit.
The spending bill, signed by the rich asshole, raises the $20.6 trillion federal borrowing limit until March 2019 — an action Congress had to take this month partly because of declining revenue after passage of the tax cuts, which reduced the corporate rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.
The tax cuts bill and increase in government spending come as the economy is expanding, which some also criticize.
“Deficit-financed tax cuts and now government spending increases in a full-employment economy is poor economic policy,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody’s Analytics.
He predicted soaring interest rates.
“The Federal Reserve will have little choice but to raise short-term rates more aggressively, and the Fed tightening combined with the increased government borrowing will drive up long-term rates more quickly,” Zandi said. “Lawmakers are doing the opposite of what economic textbooks suggest they should be doing.”
The White House said Friday it is adjusting its budget request for fiscal 2019, which is expected to be released Monday, to account for the new spending levels.
When asked about rising deficit levels, White House spokesman Raj Shah told reporters Thursday that the rich asshole’s budget “does move us toward of path of restoring fiscal responsibility” despite the heavy debt load of the two major bills.
During former President Obama’s tenure, Republicans pressed for restrained federal spending as the nation struggled to dig out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
The first big “Tea Party” class of Republicans who arrived in Washington after the 2010 election won office campaigning against Obama’s stimulus and health-care laws, which they argued were bankrupting the country.
They also saw the previous GOP administration led by former President George W. Bush as having betrayed the party’s principles on the deficit.
The Republican push culminated in the 2011 Budget Control Act, which introduced spending ceilings on defense and nondefense spending.
But the sequester was never popular with either party, and the Pentagon and its supporters on Capitol Hill in particular balked at the constraints.
Still, it’s a surprise to many that with control of both ends of government, it is the GOP that is now driving up the deficit, which is likely to hit $1 trillion this year and stay at that level for the foreseeable future.
While campaigning for the White House, the rich asshole vowed to erase the nation’s debt within eight years.
But he has since softened that stance while calling for upward of $2 trillion in infrastructure spending and more money to build up the military.
the rich asshole made no mention of the debt or deficit in his recent State of the Union address.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has pressed the need to reform entitlements, arguing they are the greatest drivers of deficits. But Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has indicated that entitlement reform will not be on the agenda in this midterm election year.
Conservative groups have hailed the tax cuts as a law that will unshackle the economy. Some are defending the increased defense spending but argue that nondefense programs should have been cut.
“There’s little doubt that the increases to defense were justified and the GOP can be happy about that, but are any number of nondefense programs that could have been cut to help pay for the package,” said Justin Bogie, a senior fiscal policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
“If the package couldn’t pass without nondefense increases, then the GOP should have demanded that all the increases be fully paid for,” he said.
An analysis by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said the spending deal would add nearly $420 billion with interest to the national debt over 10 years.
If the tax and budget laws are made permanent, it could add more than $2 trillion to the debt in that time, the analysis said.
Bill Hoagland, a Capitol Hill budget veteran with the Bipartisan Policy Center, called the budget bill a “disaster as it relates to fiscal policy.”
With the combination of the tax law and the new budget spending levels “we are really creating a terrible situation for future generations … imposing a tremendous burden of debt in the future,” he said.
Hoagland said the biggest problem is that the legislation fails to address the major driver of the nation’s debt — entitlement programs, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
“Let’s be honest about it, these are things that are politically risky for Democrats and Republicans in a midterm election year,” he said.
MSNBC guest goes down in flames after Joy Reid asks her to name ‘any instance’ the rich asshole stood up for abused women
Joy Reid, Amy Tarkanian -- screenshots
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In what turned into a rowdy panel session made up of three female conservatives discussing sexual abuse at the White House, MSNBC host Joy Reid stumped one defender of some rich asshole by asking her to name one time the president stood up for a woman accusing a Republican of sexual assault or abuse.
Speaking with former Nevada Republican Party chair Amy Tarkanian, the AM Joy host listed off the rich asshole associates who have been accused of abuse, then pressed her to explain why the rich asshole is drawn to them.
“If it was just Rob Porter, you know, General Kelly knew about this last fall,” Reid began. “Seeing that photo one would think if you’re a person of conscience, that photo alone would give you pause about having them stay in place. But you haven’t had just Rob Porter. some rich asshole himself multiple times has been accused of sexual misconduct.”
“Not found guilty but accused,” Tarkanian interjected.
“Steve Bannon and Andrew Puzder, who had to withdraw as the nominee for Secretary of Labor, and David Sorenson, the speechwriter that is now gone,” Reid persisted. “You have Steve Wynn, the finance chief of the RNC. It goes on and on and on. I guess my question to you as a woman, as a Republican woman: what does it say to you that your party is cultivating so many of these men and some rich asshole defends them all?”
“Well, I don’t know if he necessarily defends them all, he says lives are being destroyed,” Tarkanian deflected before adding, “Who’s he defending? He said you need to be careful because a lot of these — these are allegations not everyone has been found guilty. You have to be careful.”
“some rich asshole doesn’t seem to be a problem with the Republican ones, right?” Reid pressed.
“I wouldn’t say that. I would hope that –,” Tarkanian attempted before the AM Joy host cut her off.
“Well, when has he ever stood up for women against an abusive man?” Reid persisted. “Can you name any instance when he stood up to a Republican man accused of abusing women, just one?”
“I don’t talk to him on a regular basis,” Tarkanian replied with a nervous laugh but was unable to provide a name.
“This is the problem,” conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin blurted. “You have women like Amy go on television and defend the president. And he seizes upon this and his supporters seize upon this and the pattern repeats itself because they get away with it. As long as you have Republican women like Amy, like Concerned Women for America, who want something out of this president whether it’s judges or whether it’s discrimination against gays, whatever it is that they want — they make excuses for him and they have to stop it.”
Watch the video below via MSNBC:
Republican congressional candidate Paul Nehlen's response to the denouncement was just as repugnant as his hateful tweet.
Congressional candidate and prominent the rich asshole supporter Paul Nehlen (R-WI) sparked international outrage with a racist attack on actress Meghan Markle.
And Nehlen’s response to the backlash was to double down on bigotry.
Nehlen — who was personally thanked by the rich asshole for supporting his vicious attacks on the Gold Star family of the late Captain Humayun Khan — is running to unseat House Speaker Paul Ryan.
On Friday, Nehlen posted a disgusting tweet featuring a photo of Britain’s Prince Harry and wife-to-be Meghan Markle, with Markle’s face replaced by a photographic re-creation of Cheddar Man, an ancient skeleton that was recently revealed to have had dark skin.
The text of Nehlen’s tweet said, “Honey, does this tie make my face look pale?”
Markle, whose mother is African American, will become the first black member of the British royal family when she weds Prince Harry.
Nehlen’s tweet sparked an international backlash, with headlines in the British press proclaiming Nehlen a “sick creep” and his tweet “racist” — an accusation that Nehlen isn’t exactly running from.
On Saturday morning, Nehlen tweeted a link to one of those articles, and explained that while his tweet was a “joke,” he was dead serious about defending white heritage and “homelands.”
“Publishing an article *disappearing whites* or *dispossessing whites* of their homelands is wrong; made worse when claiming “science” to “prove” whites never existed,” Nehlen wrote. “I made a joke of it. It’s not a laughing matter, so I chose to laugh about it.”
Nehlen’s vile attack demonstrates the bleak choices that Republican voters in Wisconsin, and across the country, face in November. Nehlen is an overt racist who has been thanked for his support by the overtly racist head of their party, while Ryan has openly acknowledged the rich asshole’s racism, yet quietly goes along with it.
But voters of decency in either party will also have huge numbers of Democratic candidates to choose from, and show with their votes that they reject the racism of the Nehlens and Trumps of this world.
Conway: the rich asshole's accusers 'have had their day'
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 02/11/18 09:32 AM EST
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Sunday pushed back on Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), saying that the women who have accused President the rich asshole of sexual misconduct "have had their day."
"Those accusers have had their day on your network and elsewhere for a long time. They were tried out again late last year," Conway told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week."
Conway was responding to a tweet from Gillibrand, who said Congress could hold hearings about sexual misconduct allegations against him if the rich asshole wanted due process for those accused of abuse.
The President has shown through words and actions that he doesn’t value women. It’s not surprising that he doesn’t believe survivors or understand the national conversation that is happening.
The lives of survivors of sexual assault and domestic abuse are being shattered every day. If he wants due process for the over dozen sexual assault allegations against him, let’s have Congressional hearings tomorrow. I would support that and my colleagues should too.
White House staff secretary Rob Porter stepped down from his post on Wednesday after abuse allegations from his two ex-wives surfaced. Chief of staff John Kelly reportedly knew for months that Porter had not obtained a full security clearance due to the allegations.
The president tweeted Saturday that "lives are being shattered ... by a mere allegation."
Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused - life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?
Marc Short could barely form a coherent response when asked why the rich asshole has been silent on Rob Porter's victims.
the rich asshole’s defenders had a rough Sunday morning trying to do damage control on the Rob Porter domestic abuse scandal, including one adviser who was stunned into momentary silence over the rich asshole’s despicable response.
The White House sent surrogates to all of the Sunday shows, and the results were progressively more absurd and desperate. the rich asshole has professed Porter’s innocence of the photographically-verified abuse and lamented the lack of “due process” for men who abuse women, but not uttered a single syllable about the victims of abuse — other than to smear them as liars.
“Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd confronted Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short about the rich asshole’s silence.
“Why didn’t the president or General Kelly ever talk about the victims of Mr. Porter?” Todd asked pointedly.
After a stunned pause, Short stammered, “Chuck, as I said, I think that uh, probably there’s more reason to go back and talk about the victims, just as I’m sure that NBC learned about their way of handling the Matt Lauer situation.”
“This is not about NBC,” Todd replied. “I understand why you are trying to do that …”
“I’m saying that there are people that go through a process like this when you know somebody, in y’all’s case for 25 years,” Short interrupted. “We knew Rob for a year in this White House, so yes, when we learned about it, we were sad and shocked and didn’t think that this was something that Rob would be capable of doing.”
“But if it is true,” Short said, expressing doubt about the accusers and the photographic evidence, “there is no tolerance for it, and he has since left the White House. That happened between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.”
Short’s stunned silence speaks volumes, and his bizarre attack on NBC only serves to underscore Todd’s point.
When Lauer was fired by NBC, the rich asshole did not speak out about Lauer’s victims. Instead, he tried to leverage Lauer’s actions into the firing of a perceived critic.
And unlike Porter, Lauer really was fired immediately by NBC, while Porter’s resignation was reluctantly accepted by a White House that was still defending him Wednesday afternoon, and still intending to keep him on until his replacement was found.
Perhaps the most relevant and disturbing thing Short said in that interview was “if it is true” — adding further evidence that none of the flacks who were sent out to do damage control and try to defend the rich asshole were permitted to say that he believes the women.
It’s hardly surprising, because if the rich asshole were to say he believes the women accusing Porter, it would follow that the rich asshole himself deserved the same fate as his now-former aide.
the rich asshole says he’s unsure Israel seeks peace with Palestinians
Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu are with some rich asshole and Melania at the Ben Gurion airport. (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
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US President some rich asshole said in an interview published on Sunday that he was “not necessarily sure” Israel was seeking to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
the rich asshole has previously denounced the Palestinians for what he sees as their unwillingness to negotiate, but he has largely refrained from criticising Israel.
Speaking to freesheet daily Israel Hayom, the rich asshole noted that while US-Israel relations were “great”, peace with the Palestinians would make them “a lot better”.
“Right now, I would say the Palestinians are not looking to make peace. They are not looking to make peace,” the rich asshole said in the interview with the right-wing paper.
“And I am not necessarily sure that Israel is looking to make peace. So we are just going to have to see what happens.”
the rich asshole also expressed concerns about Israeli settlement building, although his administration has been far less critical of settlements than his predecessor Barack Obama.
the rich asshole’s ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, has in the past been a supporter of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“The settlements are something that very much complicates and always have complicated making peace, so I think Israel has to be very careful with the settlements,” he said.
the rich asshole has said he intends to bring the Israelis and Palestinians to the “ultimate deal” that would resolve the decades-long conflict, but in the interview he questioned whether negotiations were even possible for now.
“I don’t know frankly if we are going to even have talks. We will see what happens, but I think it is very foolish for the Palestinians and I also think it would be very foolish for the Israelis if they don’t make a deal,” the rich asshole said.
“It’s our only opportunity and it will never happen after this.”
Relations between Washington and the Palestinians have been severely strained since the rich asshole’s December decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the American embassy there.
Palestinian leaders say there can be no talks with the US administration until the decision on the city that they also see as their capital is reversed.
the rich asshole is also withholding tens of millions of dollars from UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Lawmakers in dark about 'phase two' of Nunes investigation
BY KATIE BO WILLIAMS AND OLIVIA BEAVERS - 02/11/18 07:30 AM EST
House Intelligence Committee lawmakers are in the dark about an investigation into wrongdoing at the State Department announced by Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) on Friday.
Democrats on the committee say Nunes has refused to brief them on the probe, which he described as “phase two” of his investigation into alleged surveillance abuse at the Department of Justice. Senior members say they learned of the investigation when Nunes announced it on Fox News.
And some committee Republicans appear to know little more than the Democrats.
“He hasn’t talked to me about that,” Rooney said Monday, several days after Nunes announced the inquiry into State.
Some key Republicans insist that the new focus on State is nothing more than the committee exercising its oversight powers.
One member called the characterization of the State inquiries as a new investigation “a garble.”
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who was intimately involved in the creation of the surveillance memo released by Republicans and is participating in the inquiry into the State Department, also doesn’t view what Nunes is doing as a “phase II,” according to an aide, but rather an ongoing examination.
“It’s not Devin launching another investigation,” Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) said. “We’re aware of it, we’ve talked about it, it’s just something that we know as much about at this point. That’s not because Devin has kept from us, it’s just we don’t know that much about it yet.”
Despite expressing some private uncertainty about the future of the committee’s expanding investigative purview, Republicans did not suggest they were being deliberately excluded from Nunes’s plans.
Democrats repeatedly pressed Nunes on the scope of his investigation into State in a bitter closed-door Monday meeting, the transcript of which was released on Friday. Nunes did not address the matter.
The apparent confusion comes as Democrats have accused Nunes — they suggest perhaps alone — of breaking committee rules by launching new investigations without briefing the minority.
"What you can glean from the process, in what he is saying, is this is not a committee activity, this is a Devin Nunes activity or arguably maybe a majority activity,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said Thursday. “But again, none of the Democrats to my knowledge have been briefed on this.”
Ranking member Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), during Monday’s meeting, called the investigation “a farce.”
Nunes, backed by other Intelligence Committee Republicans, last week used an obscure House rule to release a controversial memo accusing the FBI and Justice Department of abusing U.S. surveillance powers during the 2016 presidential election.
The incident further inflamed partisan tensions on a panel that has struggled to maintain any semblance of bipartisanship during the Russia investigation.
In yet another signal of the increasingly toxic atmosphere in the committee’s secure office spaces, rumors swirled around the Capitol on Thursday that Nunes is considering building a physical barrier between the minority and majority staff in what is known as “the bullpen,” the open floor space where committee staff work.
“[The House Intelligence Committee] is poison right now,” Rooney said Thursday, who noted that he didn’t know anything about the rumors of segregating staff.
But, he said, “the fact that we might be building a wall just goes to show you how bad it is. The level of trust is just gone.”
Nunes told Fox News on Friday that, “we are in the middle of what I call phase two of our investigation.”
"That investigation is ongoing and we continue work toward finding answers and asking the right questions to try to get to the bottom of what exactly the State Department was up to in terms of this Russia investigation," he told Bret Baier.
Since then, GOP lawmakers have been quietly buzzing about allegations that an Obama-era State Department official passed along information from allies of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that may have been used by the FBI to launch an investigation into whether the the rich asshole campaign had improper contacts with Russia.
"I'm pretty troubled by what I read in the documents with respect to the role the State Department played in the fall of 2016, including information that was used in a court proceeding. I am troubled by it," Gowdy told Fox News on Tuesday.
Nunes has declined to go into the details of his probe in a handful of conservative media appearances in recent days.
He declined to answer any questions on Thursday. A spokesman also did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
Chief of staff John Kelly digs himself in deeper every time he opens his mouth.
Chief of staff John Kelly was supposed to be a moderating influence over the rich asshole, and even the “adult” in the room.
But similarly to his boss, Kelly doesn’t seem to know when to stop talking, even when his words just keep digging himself deeper and deeper into a public relations hole.
Instead of following in the rich asshole’s reckless footsteps, Kelly might want to heed the advice of his friend and one-time colleague, former Homeland Security chief under President Obama, Jeh Johnson.
That advice? Essentially, “stop talking.”
As reports emerged that now-former White House aide Rob Porter had allegedly verbally and physically abused three women — two ex-wives and an ex-girlfriend — Kelly’s handling of the situation was no better than the rich asshole’s.
Indeed, the White House has gone all in on defending Porter, with Kelly leading the way alongside the rich asshole.
The day before Porter’s resignation in disgrace, Kelly was out front praising him as “a man of true integrity and honor” about whom he “can’t say enough good things.” He called Porter a “friend, a confidante and a trusted professional,” and urged him to “stay and fight” — an interesting choice of words.
After Porter resigned, Kelly feigned shock at the new allegations. While he insisted that he believes there’s “no place for domestic violence in our society,” he also made sure to note that he “[stands] by my previous comments of the Rob Porter that I have come to know since becoming Chief of Staff, and believe every individual deserves the right to defend their reputation.”
But all the claims of shock and dismay ring hollow in light of the fact that Kelly knew full well about Porter’s record when Porter was brought on board.
When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper about Kelly’s handling of the Porter scandal, Johnson made clear that while Kelly is a respected former colleague as well as a friend of his, his behavior of late needs to change.
“My friendly advice to him is: Less press [and] fewer public statements,” Johnson declared.
Johnson referenced a quote from Leon Panetta — secretary of defense under Obama and chief of staff to President Bill Clinton — who noted that “the chief of staff is someone who should not be the issue.”
“I encourage John to hunker down and do his job,” Johnson continued. “Fewer public statements.”
Whether Kelly will choose to heed the wisdom of his friend and colleague, or instead continue to wallow in the muck alongside the rich asshole, remains to be seen.
But if he wants to still be seen as that ostensible “adult” in the White House, a good place to start would be to refrain from sinking down to the rich asshole’s childish level.
No amount of frantic damage control or desperate spin can excuse or explain away the rich asshole's defense of abusers — or his own misconduct.
the rich asshole’s surrogates were out in force to attempt to do damage control over the Rob Porter domestic abuse scandal this weekend, but they kept failing miserably.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway threw everything she could think of at the scandal in a lengthy interview with “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos.
She tried to say that the White House took “swift action,” even though it was still defending Porter after photographic proof of his abuse had been published. She repeatedly tried to change the subject to dubious talking points about the economy.
But Conway’s biggest obstacle was the rich asshole himself. She told Stephanopoulos that the rich asshole had personally prepped her for the Sunday show appearances, and even when given three separate opportunities, was quite tellingly unable to say that the rich asshole believed Porter’s accusers.
Instead, Conway resorted to attacking New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, whom the rich asshole sexually harassed in front of the entire world not two months ago.
Stephanopoulos, quoting a tweet from Gillibrand, said “‘The president has shown through words and actions that he doesn’t value women. It’s not surprising that he doesn’t believe survivors or understand the national conversation that is happening. If he wants due proves for the over dozen sexual assault allegations against him, let’s have Congressional hearings tomorrow.'”
“Do the president’s accusers deserve due process?” Stephanopoulos asked.
Conway began with the lie that the “accusers have had their day on your network and elsewhere for a long time,” which is, in no way, due process.
“And I don’t need a lecture from Kirsten Gillibrand,” Conway continued, “or anybody else who protected and defended and harbored a sitting president who had sexual relations in the Oval Office and was impeached for lying. I don’t need a lecture from her or anybody else. And she since, of course, has said that President Clinton had resigned.”
She then attacked Democrats once again for failing to applaud the rich asshole’s State of the Union address, which the rich asshole called “treasonous,” and changed the subject to tax cuts and immigration.
But Gillibrand’s suggestion and Stephanopoulos’ question gets at the very heart of why this scandal is so impossible for the White House to defend.
At the end of the day, the rich asshole isn’t just defending Rob Porter and every other abusive man he knows — he is defending himself.
And no amount of frantic damage control or desperate spin can excuse or explain that fact away.
Conway unwittingly makes point about White House: ‘Why would someone like me and other women work there?’
Kellyanne Conway speaks to ABC (screen grab)
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White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Sunday suggested that women would not work at the White House if they were not respected and valued as equals.
ABC host George Stephanopoulos noted during an interview with Conway on This Weekthat there is “pattern” with President some rich asshole’s view of women.
“When a friend or an ally — a man — gets in trouble with these allegations of abuse or sexual harassment, the president’s sympathies immediately go to the man,” Stephanopoulos said. “Whether it’s Bill O’Reilly or Roger Ailes or [former White House staffer and alleged wife beater] Rob Porter.”
“Why is that?” the host wondered. “And do you understand the problem that creates for the president?”
Conway insisted that the rich asshole “is a man who shows great compassion and understanding for women on many different issues.”
“I, frankly, wouldn’t work there if that were not the case,” she added. “I could be dozens of other places for lots of money. Why would someone like me and many other women be there?”
“He is an excellent boss to work for, an excellent boss for women, for working mothers, frankly,” Conway continued. “And I believe he’s there, I know that he’s there as president of the United States because he wants to do well across all Americans.”
Conway also said that the rich asshole had “come to the aid of many women privately.”
Watch the video below from ABC.
the rich asshole campaign co-chair gets 20 years for sexual abuse and trafficking teens
Screengrab of WKRC, Local 12 in Cincinnati.
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Tea Party leader and former the rich asshole campaign chair Tim Nolan has pleaded guilty and received 20 years in prison for human trafficking, reports Cincinnati.com.
According to the report, Nolan, 71, a former judge, used drugs and threats of arrest to force women and girls under the age of 18 into sex acts.
Pleading guilty to 21 of the counts filed against him — for crimes committed dating back to 2004 — Nolan accepted a plea deal where he will serve 20 years in prison and pay a $100,000 fine, becoming eligible for parole in four years, his attorney stated.
Some of the incidents occurred in the summer of 2016 while Judge Nolan was serving as the chair of the some rich asshole campaign in Campbell County, KY.
Nolan served as a district judge in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, and had just been elected to the Campbell County School Board in 2016 prior to be indicted.
According to a report read by Judge Kathleen Lape, Nolan paid some victims with heroin and painkillers in exchange for sex and threatened at least one victim, who lived on his property in southern Campbell County, with eviction unless she performed sex acts on him. Additionally Nolan told some of his victims — some under the age of 18 — that he would turn them into to the FBI if they didn’t comply with his demands.
Nolan faced more than 100 years in prison on 28 felony charges, including four counts of human trafficking of a minor.
GOP praises, Dems question tax-cut boost in paychecks
BY NAOMI JAGODA - 02/11/18 06:00 AM EST
Taxpayers are starting to see bigger paychecks as a result of the new tax law, which Republicans hope will pay off for them in the midterm elections.
Democrats warn that Republicans may be overpromising, and have expressed concerns that a number of taxpayers expecting refunds may instead end up owing the IRS money next year.
The growing paychecks reflect the new withholding guidance issued by the IRS last month following enactment of the tax law. The guidance adjusts the amounts that companies take from their employees' paychecks for federal taxes.
In most cases, taxpayers will have less money withheld from their paychecks, but the exact size of the boost depends of people’s income and other factors.
Republicans say the increases in people’s after-tax incomes are just one sign of the new law’s success. They have attacked House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for suggesting that the law is “armageddon” and that bonuses companies have announced are “crumbs.”
“Take home pay is going up, wages are going up, benefits are going up, businesses are expanding,” Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said at the recent GOP retreat in West Virginia.
But touting the bigger paychecks comes with some risks for Republicans, too.
Ryan deleted a tweet last weekend that highlighted a $1.50 weekly paycheck gain for a high school secretary in Pennsylvania, which Democrats used to bolster their arguments that the tax law is mostly helping the rich.
“The American people are being bamboozled by rhetoric that doesn’t match the reality,” said Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. “The reality is that this tax cut disproportionately, clearly, unequivocally, benefits the very, very, wealthy. And this is a continuing ploy, scheme, scam on the part of House Republican leadership to deliberately mislead people into believing that these tax cuts will go toward middle America.”
When asked about the tweet on Thursday, Ryan laughed and shifted to talking about how the legislation is helping people.
“You know what I know, the average family of four in America is getting a $2,000 tax cut,” he said. “You know what I know, we’ve got billions of dollars that are going into bonuses.”
Key Democrats have raised concerns that the rich asshole administration officials may have put political pressure on the IRS to update the withholding tables so that people see bigger boosts to their paychecks ahead of the midterms than is appropriate.
Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Richard Neal (D-Mass.) have asked the Government Accountability Office to take a look at the new withholding tables.
“The real question with respect to withholding is being straight with the American people, and if you play games with this in order to advance a political agenda, [then] Americans get hurt," Wyden said.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, however, has refuted the notion that the tables were manipulated for political reasons, saying in January that “any claims that we're doing this for political issues are ridiculous.” And House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) expressed confidence in the tables’ accuracy.
“[The] Treasury Department started early once the tax reform got to the president’s desk to make sure the tax tables are accurate,” he told reporters Tuesday.
Republicans are hoping that by aggressively touting the benefits of the tax law, they can bolster their chances of keeping their majority in the midterm elections amid President the rich asshole’s low approval rating.
The GOP has started to see the tax law become more popular as companies have announced bonuses in the wake of the law’s passage, and lawmakers predict the measure will gain even more support as people see bigger paychecks.
Republicans are calling on the public to look at their paychecks to see their tax cut. Ways and Means Committee Republicans issued a press release last month that shows taxpayers where they can see on their pay stubs they are getting more take-home pay.
“This month you’re beginning to see check your check,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said at a news conference Tuesday. “Individuals are getting more in their paychecks simply because [of] the withholding and the tax benefits from the tax bill.”
The IRS updated withholding tables to reflect three main elements of the tax law: lower tax rates, the near doubling of the standard deduction and the repeal of personal exemptions. Mnuchin said about 90 percent of wage earners will see bigger paychecks as a result of the new tables.
Some will see a bigger increase than others.
According to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a taxpayer with income of between $48,600 and $86,100 will see an average tax cut for 2018 of $930. That translates to an increase in take-home pay of about $35 per paycheck, if the tax cut is spread out equally among biweekly paychecks.
Those in lower income groups will see less of a tax cut on average, while those in higher income groups on average will see bigger tax cuts.
The IRS expects the percentage of people who get refunds when they file their tax returns to remain about the same under the new law. More than 70 percent of taxpayers have received refunds in recent years.
Tax experts predict that people with simple tax situations won’t run into a situation where they suddenly don’t receive a refund.
But those with more involved returns could find that their end-of-year situation is different because of changes the tax law made to deductions and credits.
“There’s winners and losers under this new legislation,” said Mark Kohler, a certified public accountant, attorney and a senior tax adviser for TaxSlayer.
Withholding is based on taxpayers’ incomes as well as the number of allowances they claim on W-4 forms. Taxpayers claim more allowances, and get less withheld from their paychecks, if they expect to get more benefits from exemptions, deductions and credits.
Taxpayers who claimed a lot of allowances because they benefited greatly from itemized deductions under the old tax law might find that they owe the IRS when they file their 2018 tax returns next year. This may particularly be the case for people who live in high-tax states and relied heavily in the past on the state and local tax deduction, which is capped in the new law at $10,000.
On the other hand, families with children may get the more welcome surprise of a larger than expected refund if too much money is withheld from their paychecks, as the new law increases the child tax credit.
The IRS is planning to release a calculator later this month that will help people figure out if they should adjust their withholding, as well as a new W-4 form that employees use to direct their employers on their withholding. The agency is planning a bigger revamp of the W-4 form for 2019.
Tax professionals are encouraging people — especially those who don’t have simple returns — to look at the calculator, consult with their tax advisers and update their W-4s if appropriate.
“If it’s not simple, don’t guess,” said Cari Weston, director of tax practice and ethics with the American Institute of CPAs.
This is one of the most pathetic defenses ever.
The White House is desperately flailing to defend the rich asshole’s indefensible reaction to the Rob Porter domestic abuse scandal, including the odd premise that the rich asshole has too many abusive friends to keep track of.
the rich asshole dragged his White House back off message when he proclaimed the innocence of, and lamented the lack of “due process” for, ousted senior staffer Rob Porter, who has been accused of photographically-verified instances of spousal abuse.
the rich asshole budget director Mick Mulvaney was among the White House mouthpieces appearing on the Sunday news shows to do damage control.
It did not go well.
Speaking to Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday,” Mulvaney first tried to suggest that the administration acted quickly when it learned of the photographic proof, despite the fact that press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was still defending Porter even as she read a statement referencing those photos on Wednesday afternoon.
But Mulvaney then made an more absurd claim that the rich asshole’s tweet about “due process” could have been about anybody, really.
Wallace pressed Mulvaney, noting that even after Porter resigned, the rich asshole “still has not said anything about zero-tolerance. He still hasn’t mentioned that the lives of the two women who were the subjects of abuse, that those lives have been shattered too.”
Mulvaney responded that the rich asshole’s tweet “can be applied to a bunch of different people. When I saw the tweet, I had wondered if he was talking about his friend Steve Wynn.
Mulvaney also described the tweet as evincing “a certain sadness that somebody that he liked had let him down.”
The defense that the rich asshole knows too many abusers to keep track of is an odd one to begin with, but it also serves to remind everyone that the rich asshole and his party still have not denounced former Republican National Committee finance chair Steve Wynn over the sexual misconduct allegations that have been leveled against him, even though he has now resigned in disgrace.
And nothing in the rich asshole’s tweets or public statements on the Porter scandal indicates that the rich asshole feels “let down” by anyone but the women who have accused him.
the rich asshole does not care about these women, and the fact that his minions can’t even come up with a convincing lie to the contrary only serves to make that even more painfully obvious.
Kellyanne Conway says Jake Tapper could be a wife beater like Rob Porter: ‘We give people benefit of the doubt’
Kellyanne Conway speaks to Jake Tapper (CNN/scree grab)
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White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Sunday suggested that President some rich asshole defended accused wife beater Rob Porter because the charges seemed unbelievable.
During an interview on CNN’s State of the Union, host Jake Tapper noted that the rich asshole spoke in defense of Porter and his chief of staff, John Kelly, called the White House staffer a “man of honor” after two ex-wives came forward to alleged domestic abuse.
Conway argued that the rich asshole made his remarks before disturbing photos emerged of one of Porter’s ex-wives with a black eye.
“A week ago I had no reason to believe that had ever happened,” she explained. “I have every reason to believe — you and I disagree on different issues, Jake — I have every reason to believe that you’re a loving, supportive husband. And it would be very hard for me to see otherwise.”
“But if I saw it, I would have to realize, this is not the Jake Tapper I know,” Conway added. “So, we do give people the benefit of the doubt.”
Watch the video below from CNN.
White House floats offer to keep immigration at 1 million per year instead of cutting it
President some rich asshole departs the White House for Palm Beach, FL (Shutterstock)
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White House floats an offer to keep legal immigration at 1 million per year instead of cutting it
February 10, 2018
Brian Bennett
Tribune Washington Bureau
Posted with permission from Tribune Content Agency
WASHINGTON — As the Senate prepares to begin a free-wheeling debate over immigration next week, White House officials have begun floating a possible compromise idea — a pledge to maintain legal immigration at current levels, about 1.1 million people a year, for more than a decade.
President Donald Trump has proposed a series of measures, including restrictions on family unification, which he calls "chain migration," and an end to the visa lottery, that critics say ultimately could cut legal immigration to America by 40 percent or more.
But a White House official said Saturday that the Trump administration is working with allies in the Senate on a proposal that would create a path to citizenship for an estimated 1.8 million people who were brought to the country illegally as children, and that would clear the backlog of nearly 4 million sponsored relatives who currently are waiting for green cards.
The combined effort, officials said, would effectively make up for the cuts in other immigration categories for about 13 years, the official said. After that, if Congress takes no additional action to add or expand visa categories, the total number of people allowed to resettle in the U.S. each year likely would decline by hundreds of thousands.
The outline began emerging early this week when John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, and Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of Homeland Security, met with a half a dozen or so Latino Republicans at the White House and said the administration was prepared to ensure that overall immigration levels would remain steady.
The shift shows the White House is feeling out the contours of a possible compromise as lawmakers prepare for marathon immigration debates on the Senate floor next week over how to protect from deportation — and possibly provide legal status for — the estimated 1.8 million people brought to the country illegally as children.
About 800,000 of them were given protection from deportation by the Obama administration under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA. But the Trump administration abruptly ended the program in September and set a six-month cut-off date for renewal applications.
A federal judge has suspended that March 5 deadline, but the White House has used the so-called Dreamers as a bargaining chip in Congress for its own immigration priorities, including cuts to legal immigration.
Democratic demands to protect the Dreamers led to a three-day government shutdown during the congressional budget showdown last month, and an epic eight-hour speech on the House floor this week by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Both efforts failed to get DACA in the spending packages.
On Saturday, Trump accused the Democrats of trying to politicize the Dreamers' plight ahead of the midterm election in November.
"Republicans want to fix DACA far more than the Democrats do," he tweeted. Democrats "only want to use it as a campaign issue."
Democratic leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York, have signaled privately to the White House they are willing to negotiate Trump's demand for $25 billion as part of a broader immigration package that would include help for the Dreamers.
The money would go into a "trust fund" for walls or fences on the southern border, as well as other border security purposes.
The hardest sell for Democratic lawmakers and immigration advocates has been Trump's insistence on limiting the types of family members that U.S. citizens and permanent residents can help resettle in the U.S., and what happens to those who already have applied.
Deriding the program as "chain migration," Trump says only sponsors' spouses and non-adult children should be admitted. People now can sponsor parents and, in some cases, siblings and adult children.
However, the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, an evangelical Christian pastor based in Sacramento, Calif., who is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said he's been assured repeatedly by the White House that overall legal immigration levels would not be cut under Trump's plan.
"That number is not being played with at all whatsoever," said Rodriguez, one of the Latino conservatives who attended the hour-long meeting Tuesday with Kelly and Nielsen.
Alfonso Aguilar, president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, also attended the meeting in the Roosevelt Room. He said the White House appeared to be making a "serious effort" to find common ground on immigration.
"Democrats are fabricating reasons not to address the framework or to talk to Republicans," Aguilar said. "Both sides are going to have to accept things they don't like."
Aguilar said he left the meeting believing the White House would support ways to speed up approvals of the nearly 4 million parents, siblings and other relatives who have applied for permanent residency and are in long backlogs.
Another Latino in the meeting, Daniel Garza, executive director of the Libre Initiative, a free-market group aimed at Latinos and bankrolled by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers, said he was reassured by the meeting and felt the White House was open to negotiating.
"We don't want to see arbitrary cuts to legal immigration," Garza said.
Critics already are lining up. Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates restricting immigration, said he would oppose a White House deal to keep legal immigration at current levels for more than a decade, calling it "a reversal" of Trump's previous proposals.
"This argument that our economy and our success requires mass immigration is absurd," Krikorian said.
In Congress, bipartisan groups are seeking to develop legislation as the Senate prepares for a rare open debate on immigration next week.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to take a House bill, strip its contents, and in a step not seen in modern times, open the floor for amendments to fill the bill. The White House is working with senators to craft an amendment that addresses all Trump's requirements.
"It will be an opportunity for 1,000 flowers to bloom," McConnell told reporters this week, oddly echoing the phrase Chinese leader Mao Zedong used in 1956 to encourage criticism of the Communist Party before he violently purged the critics who stepped forward.
The debate will be "fair to everyone," McConnell said. "And in the Senate, on those rare occasions when we have these open debates, whoever gets to 60 wins."
Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 ranking Democrat in the Senate, said McConnell has guaranteed "a fair and open process for senators to finally act to protect Dreamers."
Durbin and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are coauthors of the Dream Act, a bipartisan bill that would create a path to legal status for Dreamers. Democrats essentially want Trump to accept that legislation, which could be introduced for an up or down vote next week.
To get debate started, McConnell may allow the introduction of a narrow amendment that extends the DACA program by three years, and see how many votes that can get.
The future also is uncertain for the diversity visa lottery, which admits about 50,000 immigrants a year, mostly from Eastern Europe and Africa, and is geared toward countries that don't send many immigrants to the U.S. Trump has insisted the lottery be eliminated.
Democrats in the past were open to changing that system. But after Trump reportedly complained of immigrants coming from "shithole countries" in Africa and elsewhere, several Democratic lawmakers, including the Congressional Black Caucus, balked at ending the lottery completely.
Lawmakers are looking at other ways to keep legal immigration steady, including increasing skills-based immigration categories.
One possibility would be to resurrect a proposal made by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, during an immigration reform push in 2013 that ultimately failed. It would have more than tripled the number of work visas for foreign tech workers to about 180,000 per year.
Even if the Senate pieces together an immigration bill, any proposal to create legal status for immigrants in the country illegally will meet resistance in the GOP-led House. In 2013, the last time a major bipartisan immigration bill passed the Senate, it never even got to a vote in the House.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., promised Thursday to allow an immigration bill come to a vote this time.
"To anyone who doubts my intention to solve this problem and bring up a DACA and immigration reform bill, do not," Ryan said. "We will bring a solution to the floor, one that the president will sign."
———
(Lisa Mascaro of the Tribune Washington Bureau contributed to this report.)
White House officials say the rich asshole will keep Kelly despite defense of domestic abuser
"[the rich asshole] says that General Kelly, he's doing a great job and he has full faith in him."
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and budget chief Mick Mulvaney separately said Sunday that President the rich asshole would retain chief of staff John Kelly amidst public outcry over his handling of abuse allegations against former staff secretary Rob Porter.
During an interview on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, Jake Tapper asked Conway whether Kelly’s job was in jeopardy after it was reported that the chief of staff said he would resign on the president’s request.
“No. I spoke to the president last night and told him I’d be with you today and he said ‘please tell Jake that I have full faith in chief of staff John Kelly and that I’m not actively searching for replacements.’ He said, ‘I saw that all over the news today and I have faith in him,’ and he does.”
“He says that General Kelly — he’s doing a great job and that he has full faith in him and I think he looks at the full measure of all of us,” Conway added.
Budget chief Mulvaney similarly said on Fox News Sunday that Kelly’s rumored departure is “much ado about nothing.”
In response to Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asking whether the president or other administration officials have talked about replacing Kelly, Mulvaney responded “absolutely not.”
“I don’t think it’s an issue,” Mulvaney continued. “Working in the West Wing and reading about it in the newspaper, watching it on television, could not be more different. The place is very stable, very quiet. All the media hype about all the disarray is just that.”
When Kelly was hired as chief of staff, he received praise for bringing a “moderating influence” to a chaotic White House. Yet, he and other top White House officials reportedly knew for weeks and in some cases months about Porter’s domestic abuse scandal, an action that may have jeopardized national security.
Porter resigned as White House Staff Secretary last week following reports of a pattern of domestic abuse stemming as far back as 2003 involving two ex-wives and a third woman who dated him. His two ex-wives gave their accounts of abuse to the FBI during a routine background check, which meant that by 2017, the rich asshole administration officials — including Kelly — had known “Porter was facing troubles in obtaining his security clearance and that his ex-wives claimed he had abused them,” CNN previously reported.
When the initial allegations against Porter became public, Kelly praised his character as a “man of true integrity and honor and I can’t say enough good things about him.” Even after physical evidence emerged, including a photo of one of Porter’s ex-wives with a black eye, Kelly said he was “shocked by the new allegations” but that he stood by “my previous comments of the Rob Porter that I have come to know since becoming Chief of Staff, and believe every individual deserves the right to defend their reputation.”
Outgoing Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) said on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday that it was an “understatement” to say the the rich asshole administration could have better handled the domestic abuse scandal.
“I think when the White House said they could have handled the situation better, that’s a bit of an understatement, yes,” Flake said. “They could have done a lot better particularly with the Rob Porter situation.”
“I do think if you put on a political hat, that is a big problem, certainly how we are viewed as Republicans in the next election,” Flake added. “It’s a big problem not to show any concern or empathy for the potential victims of these incidents.”
Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson also said Sunday on CNN that the president should keep Kelly in the position.
“As long as some rich asshole is president, our government is best served if John Kelly is in the job of chief of staff,” Johnson said. “That might be a minority view among my Democratic friends but that is my view.”
the rich asshole tweets on lives 'being shattered ... by a mere allegation'
(CNN)President some rich asshole took to Twitter on Saturday to lament that "lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation" in the wake of the resignations of former White House staff secretary Rob Porter and speechwriter David Sorensen following allegations of domestic abuse.
"Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation," the President tweeted."Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused - life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?"
Porter abruptly resigned from his post at the White House on Wednesday amid abuse allegations from two ex-wives, who detailed to CNN what they said were years of consistent abuse from Porter, including incidents of physical violence. Porter has denied those allegations, calling them "outrageous allegations are simply false."
the rich asshole told reporters on Friday that Porter's departure was "very sad" and that "he did a very good job while he was in the White House." The President did not express any sympathy for the women Porter allegedly abused, instead focusing on Porter's claim of innocence.
White House chief of staff John Kelly knew for months about some claims that Porter physically and emotionally battered two ex-wives, yet didn't conduct an internal investigation into their veracity, sources told CNN. In that time, Porter's stock in the White House continued to rise. By early fall, it was widely known among the rich asshole's top aides both that Porter was facing troubles in obtaining a security clearance and that his ex-wives claimed he had abused them. No action was taken to remove him from the staff.
Sorensen also resigned this week after being accused of domestic abuse by his ex-wife, White House spokesman Raj Shah confirmed Friday. Sorensen denied the allegations, saying he has "never committed violence of any kind against any woman in my entire life," and alleging that he "was the victim of repeated physical violence" during his marriage.
Backlash
the rich asshole's tweet drew backlash from some on social media, including third-ranking Senate Democrat Patty Murray.
"Women's lives are upended every day by sexual violence and harassment. I'm going to keep standing with them, and trusting them, even if the President won't," the Washington senator tweeted, along with a subtweet of the rich asshole's original message.
The Senate's most senior member, Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont, also expressed support for victims.
"As a former prosecutor, I've been amazed by the bravery & sacrifice required of victims to come forward. Their lives are forever changed," Leahy tweeted. "Due process is critical, but it can't be a pretext for not believing women. We don't need to see photos of bruises to know that."
Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier of California slammed the President's comment, tweeting: "Apparently his motto is when they go low, he goes even lower."
"I do agree with @POTUS on one thing he said today, #domesticviolence does destroy lives, literally," she added. "3 American women are murdered every day by their husband or boyfriend."
the rich asshole's spoken defense of Porter also drew ire, including from at least one member of his own party. Former New Jersey Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman tweeted: "The fact that @realDonaldTrump praised Porter and said not a word about his abusive behavior or his former wives is typical of the WH attitude toward women and abuse."
"Our children must learn a different lesson," she added.
the rich asshole's history of lobbing allegations
Despite his call for "due process," the rich asshole has a history of issuing condemnations and promulgating conspiracies based on "a mere allegation."
He repeatedly questioned former President Barack Obama's nationality and the legitimacy of his American birth certificate over the course of several years, tweeting in August 2012 that "an 'extremely credible source' has called my office and told me that @BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud." Although he publicly acknowledged Obama's citizenship in September 2016, the rich asshole reportedly continued to privately question it as recently as November 2017.
In June 2016, the rich asshole faced widespread backlash for alleging that US District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was then overseeing a lawsuit against the rich asshole University, had "an inherent conflict of interest" due to his Mexican heritage and calling for his recusal in the case.
"I'm building a wall. I'm trying to keep business out of Mexico. Mexico's fine," the rich asshole said. "He's of Mexican heritage, and he's very proud of it, as I am of where I come from."
Curiel was born in Indiana.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, the rich asshole would address massive crowds to chants of "lock her up," referencing his political opponent, Hillary Clinton.
The chant stems from questions surrounding Clinton's use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
During the campaign, the rich asshole called Clinton 'guilty as hell' and said she should "go to jail" over her email use, citing a potential breach of national security.
However, then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch did not pursue charges against Clinton.
the rich asshole's tendency to call for justice even if the circumstances seem questionable dates back to well before his time in the political sphere.
the rich asshole pushed for the death penalty in the Central Park Five case, telling Larry King in 1989, "maybe hate is what we need if we're gonna get something done."
At the time, the rich asshole had bought full-page ads that ran in various New York City newspapers that read,"Bring Back The Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!"
Those convicted of the attack on a jogger in Manhattan's Central Park were exonerated years later after someone else confessed to the crime.
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