February 16th-17th, 2017. It's been 461-462 days since the Nov 8, 2016, election of some rich asshole, no. 45, and 389-390 days since the Jan 20th inauguration.
the rich asshole fires off bizarre late night tweet blaming FBI’s Russia investigation for Parkland massacre
President some rich asshole speaks in Ohio while the Dow Jones plummets in historic drop. Image via screengrab.
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President some rich asshole fired off a rare late-night tweet on Saturday blaming the FBI’s attention to Russian meddling in the 2016 election for the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday.
“Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable,” the rich asshole wrote. “They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the rich asshole campaign – there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!”
This week, special counsel Robert Mueller announced a string of indictments related to Russian meddling in the 2016 election, showing a surprising level of familiarity with the Russian operation.
the rich asshole followed up with a second tweet that appeared to address criticisms that the president’s claims of vindication from the Mueller indictments are unfounded.
“General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems. Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!” said the president.
In fact, nothing in Mueller’s indictments precludes further charges against Americans associated with Russia’s “translator project” nor does it provide any exculpatory evidence on the rich asshole and his campaign.
WATCH: Historian explains how the rich asshole and his media enablers could be charged with treason
Presidential historian Timothy Naftali on CNN (Screen capture)
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Presidential historian and former director of the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library Timothy Naftali told CNN’s Ana Cabrera on Saturday that if allegations that President some rich asshole collaborated with Russia to skew the 2016 election are true, then the rich asshole could credibly be charged with treason.
“There’s no precedent for a set of indictments regarding a foreign intervention in one of our elections,” Naftali said, regarding special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of 13 Russians on charges of interfering with the 2016 election. “So we’re in uncharted waters anyway.”
Naftali went on to say that the charges laid out by Mueller constitute a clear attempt to usurp the democratic process of the United States. It’s a matter, he said, of public record.
“That means that any attempt by an American citizen right now, whoever it is, to undermine the Mueller investigation, you have to interpret as a way to help Russia,” Naftali said.
The Mueller investigation, he said, is tasked with finding out why Russia preferred some rich asshole over Hillary Clinton, who was involved with the plot to help the rich asshole win and to what extent the outcome of the election was affected.
“Anybody who tries to intervene in that process is making it harder for our country to defend itself against Russia,” explained Naftali. “That’s why the issue of treason arises. It’s a game-changer.”
The White House and its media defenders have mounted a full court press in recent weeks to undermine and discredit the Mueller investigation in order to defend the rich asshole and his hold on the White House.
Watch the video, embedded in two parts, below:
Part One:
Part Two:
the rich asshole gets slaughtered online for jaunty ‘thumbs up’ photo with Parkland massacre’s first responders
President some rich asshole and First Lady Melania the rich asshole pose with Parkland, FL first responders (Twitter.com)
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President some rich asshole never seems to miss an opportunity to take a deeply upsetting national tragedy and somehow make it even worse. From his determination to equivocate after the death of Charlottesville protester Heather Heyer to his latest tone-deaf debacle — the jaunty “thumbs up” gesture the president flashed when posing for a photo with first responders to Wednesday’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.
Our entire Nation, w/one heavy heart, continues to pray for the victims & their families in Parkland, FL. To teachers, law enforcement, first responders & medical professionals who responded so bravely in the face of danger: We THANK YOU for your courage! instagram.com/p/BfSO1z6gpaB/
The Trumps sped through their hospital visit and the president’s hasty press conference at the Broward County Sheriff’s Office before the motorcade swept off into the night and deposited the chief executive and his spouse at a Studio 54-themed “disco party” at Mar-a-Lago.
Much of the nation recoiled from the rich asshole’s show of insensitivity.
What’s the thumbs up? I’m confused, you are visiting a patient not campaigning.
Thumbs up? You must be a riot at wakes. #FakePresident #IllegitimatePresident #RussiaCollusion #RussianPuppet #GunReformNow
You need to shut up you ignorant, impotent, incompetent idiot. America thanks you for giving up a day of golf to give the thumbs up, you inappropriate fool. By the way, your wife feels the same.
I cannot believe how happy you look in these photos!! Makes me want to knock that ridiculous grin right off your face. Thumbs up??? After a horrific school shooting?? You’re the most ignorant, despicable human on earth.
After Sandy Hook, Obama was visibly distraught. Trump is smiling and giving a thumbs up.
Thumbs up huh? You are a disgrace.
@RealDonad_Trump Who the hell smiles and gives a thumbs up after 17 people are murdered?!? WTF?!?
Trump: Day 393
-128th Day at a Trump Property
-Torched by Social Media overPic
-Called Out by Douglas HS Students
-Skips Day of Golf 2 Honor Victims
-Thinks Indictments Prove Innocence
-Kushner Req More Intel Than Others
-NSA McMaster Breaks w/ Trump
-Don Jr Goes Shark Hunting pic.twitter.com/zCPw5MFG80
Add...
Social media torches Trump for giving thumbs up while visting Florida shooting victims.
What a heartless clown! pic.twitter.com/ALpQQNFGIS
Just like they don’t want to solve the DACA problem, why didn’t the Democrats pass gun control legislation when they had both the House & Senate during the Obama Administration. Because they didn’t want to, and now they just talk!
Are you tweeting this bullshit from your disco party at Mar-a-Lago, you low life scumbag? A disco party right after visiting shooting victims? Are you going to grimace and give thumbs up after visiting the next group of victims you classless ghoul?#WorstPresidentEver #RESIGN
Here’s Trump’s new header pic. He’s meeting with Florida police about the Parkland shooting and giving a thumbs up like he’s at the grand opening of a car lot. pic.twitter.com/IQhnsTPIfv
I noticed the same thing last night - the thumbs up AND the shit-eating grin. Everything is a damn photo op for him - and he is missing the sympathy/empathy chip in his brain ... and his heart. #NeverAgain
GOP Rep trashes Mueller’s Russia indictments — then reluctantly admits she hasn’t read them
CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield and Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY)
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CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield had to repeatedly push back against a first-term Tea Party congresswoman who was drawing inaccurate conclusions from a document she admitted she had not read.
Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), a conservative upstate Republican, went on CNN “Newsroom” on Saturday, attempting to defend President some rich asshole.
“Thirteen Russians now indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller, charged with attempting to interfere in the 2016 presidential election,” Whitfield noted. “The indictment describes an unprecedented campaign by Russia to support some rich asshole, disparage Hillary Clinton and communicate with, quote, unwitting people tied to the rich asshole campaign.'”
“The indictments say there were Americans who were unwitting participants, the president continues to say there was no collusion,” Whitfield noted. “How do you interpret these indictments?”
“Well, I think the indictments are instructive because what they show is the Russians really are trying to create some kind of chaos in our country,” Rep. Tenney replied. “I think it’s unfortunate that the Democrats are overreacting to this as far as, you know, really focusing on just the rich asshole/Russia collusion, I think this doesn’t say …”
“Well,” Whitfield interrupted, “it’s the president who brought up the word ‘collusion’ actually.”
“But actually, this has been going on for over a year that the Democrats have been trying to take down the administration claiming there was Russian collusion. I sat at the State of the Union address and listened to ‘Russian collusion’ being yelled out behind me from many of the Democrats,” Rep. Tenney claimed.
“I think it’s really clear from the indictment of whether the Department of Justice and others in the FBI, what they’re saying is it was clear that they didn’t affect the elections but they attempted to,” she continued. “We’ve used millions of dollars and thousands of hours of time and wasted resources on investigating something that looks like it wasn’t really there in the first place.”
“Why aren’t Democrats working together with Republicans to stop this instead of trying to create, what looks like an unending smear campaign,” she continued.
Apparently Rep. Tenney, who is a lawyer, did not actually read the indictment before going on national television to answer questions about what it alleges.
“It is a 37-page indictment, I haven’t read it all,” Rep. Tenney admitted. “I’m skimming through it right now.”
“I think that this is showing that there is clearly not collusion by the rich asshole campaign with Russian operatives to try to steal the election from Hillary Clinton,” Rep. Tenney argued.
Watch:
the rich asshole puts public school safety and trauma counseling funding on the chopping block
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says school safety is a priority, but budget proposals tell a different story.
With school mass shootings on the rise across the country, the the rich asshole administration is proposing major funding cuts for violence prevention and recovery assistance programs at public schools.
Funds targeted for reduction or elimination in President some rich asshole’s FY’19 budget request, which was released two days before the tragedy at a high school in Parkland, Florida, have helped pay for counselors in schools and violence prevention programs. In fact, the funding levels sought by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos would “completely abdicate responsibility” for school safety, violence prevention, and recovery, according to a report released Friday by the Center for American Progress (CAP).
Immediately after Wednesday’s mass shooting, DeVos called on Congress to hold hearings on school safety but did not seek to mobilize the Department of Education’s resources to support students, families, and educators affected by the violence, the CAP report said. (ThinkProgress is an editorially independent news site housed at CAP.)
In the meantime, the Broward County (FL) Public Schools system is providing counseling for anyone who needs support in the wake of the mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Trump and DeVos say they want to make schools safer, but their budget guts funding that helps reduce gun violence and ensure school safety. New from me and @ChelseaCParsons americanprogress.org/issues/guns-cr…
In his budget request, the rich asshole is seeking to cut $25 million, or 36 percent, from the Education Department’s funding for school safety activities. The department has called for the complete elimination of the Project School Emergency Response to Violence (Project SERV) and Project Prevent Grant programs.
Following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, Project SERV provided more than $6.4 million over three years to Newtown, Connecticut, for immediate recovery, trauma counseling, therapy, and other programs, according to the CAP report. Project Prevent provides students with counseling and social and emotional supports to help cope with trauma, anxiety, and the other effects of violence.
“Incredibly, the rich asshole and DeVos are calling to eliminate this funding that could specifically help the Parkland community heal from the tragedy,” Chelsea Parsons, vice president of gun violence prevention at CAP, and Scott Sargrad, managing director of K-12 education policy at the center, wrote in the report.
For both FY’18 and FY’19, the rich asshole and DeVos also proposed eliminating a separate $400 million program that addresses student safety and health. Under the program, school districts must use at least 20 percent of their funding from this program for efforts such as violence prevention programs, mental health services, and training for crisis management and conflict resolution.
As with every mass shooting, the tragedy in Florida is also generating calls for lawmakers to restrict or ban the sale of military-style assault weapons such as the AR-15 that was used by 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who is suspected of killing 17 people and injuring 15 others at the high school. In an address to the nation on Thursday, the rich asshole made no mention of gun control but said he is committed to “tackling the difficult issue of mental health” during a conference with governors later this month.
the rich asshole apparently thinks he deserves credit for staying away from the golf course as victims of the Florida mass shooting are buried.
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February 17, 2018
the rich asshole apparently thinks he deserves credit for staying away from the golf course as victims of the Florida mass shooting are buried.
the rich asshole wants credit for what he apparently believes is the sacrifice he has personally made in the wake of the Florida high school massacre: not golfing.
The White House usually tries to hide the rich asshole’s weekend golf outings. He and his entourage have gone as far as to hide from the cameras, and in one instance apparently enlisted the services of a box truck to block reporters from capturing footage of him golfing.
That all changed this weekend when suddenly, the White House was eager to go on the record about the rich asshole’s plans to not golf.
Speaking to Bloomberg reporter Jennifer Jacobs, the rich asshole’s team made it clear that they wanted it reported that he skipped golfing on Saturday. In a tweet reporting the fact, Jacobs noted, “White House wants to respect the dead and the mourners, I’m told.”
She added, “Mar-a-Lago is only about half an hour from the site of the Parkland school shooting, and memorial services continue.”
The push for positive coverage comes just a few hours after the rich asshole visited the hospital in Parkland without spending much time with victims of the mass shooting or speaking about their plight.
The Washington Post reported that the rich asshole was only in the hospital “for about 35 minutes,” and spent most of his time talking about the response time from EMTs and law enforcement. He completely avoided the issue of gun access and did not publicly greet the families of any children who were killed in the attack.
Not that many affected by the shooting in Florida want to hear from the rich asshole, anyway. who has received millions of dollars worth of support from the NRA in his short time in politics.
Stoneman Douglas student have made clear that they don’t want to hear from the rich asshole and they want action to reduce gun violence. Ameer Hussain, a 15-year-old freshman at the school, told The Daily Beast, “In my opinion I do not want the rich asshole here at all.”
Hussain said the rich asshole would “use this event to make himself look better politically.” He added, “He’s the president and he should be speaking on what he’s going to do to make it better for next time.”
Another student cited the rich asshole’s tweet that cast blame on the shooting victims as a reason why he should stay away. He told the outlet, “Apparently [the president] said it was the kids’ responsibility to report Nikolas Cruz so in a way it was our fault… A lot of people aren’t happy about his visit.”
Senior the rich asshole aides also admitted to the Daily Beast that they are terrified at the optics of a the rich asshole visit to the school. The site notes, “the rich asshole could potentially find himself in a situation in Parkland where he is trapped with grieving parents or students who harangue him about his administration’s position on guns.”
the rich asshole couldn’t emulate the compassion and understanding his predecessor, President Barack Obama, demonstrated often during mass shootings that occurred on his watch. But the rich asshole wants credit for popping his head in at the hospital, and for tearing himself away from the golf course for a change.
Neither behavior does a single thing to reduce gun violence, and the rich asshole continues to work on the NRA’s behalf to maintain the bloody status quo. He just doesn’t want the negative press that comes along with standing with ghouls.
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February 17, 2018
Paul Ryan tried to sneak around Florida to raise money for Republicans instead of addressing the school shooting. He was caught in the act by a 5th grade teacher.
House Speaker Paul Ryan snuck into Florida for a Republican party fundraiser but ignored the recent mass shooting at a Parkland high school and its aftermath.
He was caught in the act by a schoolteacher, who confronted him face-to-face about his dereliction of duty.
Ryan went to Key Biscayne for the National Republican Congressional Committee’s winter meeting. His attendance came after he reportedly complained that Republicans are lagging behind Democrats in their fundraising for the fall elections.
Maria Thorne, a fifth-grade teacher, caught wind of the event after she had spent the day reassuring her kids that she could keep them safe from a shooter.
Thorne made her way into the event and found Ryan, telling the Miami Herald, “I shook his hand and everything.”
She then told him she was a teacher and a resident of the area, to which he responded, “Nice.”
That set Thorne off. “Nice? You’re here celebrating the death of 17 children,” she admonished.
Ryan weakly replied that he “didn’t want to talk politics” — an odd statement to make at a political fundraiser.
Thorne persisted in her critique, and was escorted out of the event as she chanted “no more guns!”
Her concerns echo those of the anguished students, teachers, and parents still contending with the mass murder that occurred.
Ryan, in his role as Speaker of the House, has done the NRA’s bidding by refusing to bring legislation on gun violence to a vote. He also emulated the extremist organization’s language when he said “this is not the time” to discuss remedies, right after a shooting. It is a delay and deny strategy the NRA has embraced for years.
And his Democratic opponent, Randy Bryce, called him out: “Paul Ryan went to Florida last night, but he didn’t go to support a grieving community. He went to raise money for his political organization.”
Indeed, Ryan was more than happy to go to Florida to collect money to preserve the majority and his political power, but seemed fine with ignoring the horror through which teachers and students lived through just days earlier.
Ryan is two heartbeats from the presidency. He ought to act like it.
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February 17, 2018
Fox News spent Friday spewing alternative facts and throwing shiny objects at the camera to distract viewers from the latest indictments in the Russia investigation.
As the personal propaganda arm of the rich asshole White House, Fox News has gone all-in to shield the rich asshole and his supporters from having to face the stark reality of the Russia investigation.
Fox has played a key role in denying, deflecting, minimizing, and covering up damning evidence about anything Russia-related, while also leading the rich asshole’s ongoing smear campaign against the intelligence community and regularly providing a platform for the rich asshole stooges like Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA).
True to form, Fox News was determined to spin the latest round of indictments in the Russia probe into ‘good news’ for the rich asshole, who remains at the center of an ongoing investigation into potential coordination with Russians seeking to influence the 2016 election.
When news broke Friday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s team had indicted over a dozen Russian individuals and three Russian organizations for their role in a broad effort aimed at “supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate some rich asshole and disparaging Hillary Clinton,” Fox personalities went into a collective meltdown, frantically trying to decide which narrative to peddle to their viewers.
Lou Dobbs declared the indictment “good news” for the rich asshole, saying the announcement meant there was “no evidence of collusion” and thus there was no basis for a criminal investigation.
Sean Hannity jumped on the “no collusion” bandwagon, falsely claiming that the 37-page indictment cleared the rich asshole campaign of potential wrongdoing. Tom Fitton, a regular Fox guest and president of the right-wing group Judicial Watch, echoed this talking point, saying the indictment “shows the Russia collusion scandal is over as far as the rich asshole is concerned.”
The indictment does not show that.
Although Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosentein noted that there are no allegations of collusion in the indictment, he did not say that allegations of collusion had been ruled out, nor did he say that the investigation into collusion had ended.
In fact, as Bloomberg reported after the indictment was announced, “Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his prosecutors haven’t concluded their investigation into whether President some rich asshole or any of his associates helped Russia interfere in the 2016 election, according to a person with knowledge of the probe.”
But that didn’t stop RNC spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany from going on Fox News Friday evening and declaring, “Today marks the day that the Democrats’ Russia collusion conspiracy theory unraveled.”
The Russia investigation is actually led by members of the intelligence community who were almost all nominated to their respective posts during Republican administrations — but facts would ruin the talking point, so McEnany apparently decided to leave them out.
Also joining the “no collusion” camp was frequent Fox guest and conspiracy theorist Jim Hanson, who chimed in Saturday morning to falsely reassure viewers that “[t]here is no the rich asshole-Russia and there never has been.”
But,” he added, “there is a Hillary-Obama-Dem-Resistance-GPS-DNC-Russia that nobody wants to pay attention to.”
There’s no evidence to back up Hanson’s statement — but then again, he’s the same person who suggested that a homemade clock brought to a school by a 14-year-old American Muslim student “was half a bomb.”
Those who didn’t jump on the “no collusion” bandwagon settled into the shiny object camp. And since it’s Fox, those shiny objects were none other than Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama.
Fox contributor Tammy Bruce blamed the Obama administration for Russian interference, saying“ many of the individuals who were indicted actually came in into this country when John Kerry was Secretary of State under Barack Obama.”
What she failed to mention was that once it became known that those individuals had committed crimes in the U.S. on behalf of the Kremlin, President Obama implemented sanctions as punishment — something that the rich asshole has refused to do.
Fox host Laura Ingraham went even further than Bruce, calling for Mueller to investigate Clinton, John Kerry, Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, and President Obama — all of whom she suggested may be the ones “who really colluded with the Russians.”
Meanwhile, White House spokesperson Hogan Goodley used his appearance on Fox News to let Russia off the hook, saying “the Democrats and the mainstream media” are to blame for “creat[ing] chaos.”
And then there was Carter Page, who blamed the FBI for the school shooting in Florida this week, saying they were too busy with the Russia investigation — which Page referred to as a “witch-hunt” — to notice the “real threats out there.”
In a final twist, Fox host Shep Smith was the rare exception to the spin machine, telling viewers that the indictments show the Russia investigation is “the opposite of a hoax.” Within minutes, the rich asshole fans were on Twitter calling for Smith’s firing and pushing the hashtag #FireShep.
Apparently, telling the truth is a fireable offense for the Fox News crowd.
"I will not write another check unless they all support a ban on assault weapons. Enough is enough!"
Republicans in Florida are facing a crisis after a Republican mega-donor threatened to cut off future contributions to political candidates and groups if they don’t support a ban on the sale of military style weapons to civilians.
Al Hoffman Jr., a Florida-based real estate developer who previously served as the National Finance Chairman for the Republican National Committee (RNC), told GOP leaders in an email Saturday that he will no longer support them until they take action on gun violence, the New York Times reported.
“I will not write another check unless they all support a ban on assault weapons,” Hoffman wrote, according to the Times. “Enough is enough!”
Hoffman has donated millions of dollars to GOP causes and politicians, including Florida Gov. Rick Scott — a top recipient of NRA donations who maintains an “A+” rating from the NRA’s Political Victory Fund — and the Senate Leadership Fund, a group focused on defending Republicans’ majority in the Senate.
But after Wednesday’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida, Hoffman issued an ultimatum to Republicans.
According to the Times, the GOP donor pledged “that he would not give money to Mr. Scott, who is considering a campaign for the Senate in 2018, or other Florida Republicans he has backed in the past, including Representative Brian Mast, if they did not support new gun legislation.”
And he’s not stopping there. Hoffman also said he plans to reach out to other top donors to convince them to join him in closing their checkbooks until Republicans step up to the plate.
“I’m going to email every single donor I know in the Republican Party and try to get them on board,” he said.
Wednesday’s school shooting was the third-deadliest in modern U.S. history. Yet even in the face of such unspeakable carnage, Republicans have refused to break with their NRA-approved talking points. Instead of addressing gun violence, Republicans have tried to shift attention to mental illness — and Hoffman has had enough of it.
“For how many years now have we been doing this — having these experiences of terrorism, mass killings — and how many years has it been that nothing’s been done?” Hoffman said in an interview with the Times. “It’s the end of the road for me.”
Hoffman isn’t alone. In the aftermath of the shooting, Republicans have come under fire from students, teachers, law enforcement, reporters, and community members for failing to stand up to the gun lobby and protect Americans from the scourge of gun violence.
With their most reliable donors turning their backs, Republicans must now choose whether the blood money is worth the cost.
Trumps went straight from Parkland to Studio 54- themed ‘disco party’ at Mar-a-Lago: report
President some rich asshole and First Lady Melania the rich asshole arrive for midnight mass in Palm Beach, FL (AFP)
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President some rich asshole and First Lady Melania the rich asshole didn’t spend overlong pondering the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Friday night, according to Mediaite.com.
The first couple made short stops at the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and at the Pompano Beach hospital that received the Parkland massacre’s dead and wounded.
After the rich asshole met with a small group of survivors and their family members at the hospital and delivered remarks to the press at the sheriff’s office, the president and first lady continued on to Mar-a-Lago, the rich asshole’s private golf resort.
According to CNN’s Kevin Liptak, the Trumps attended a “disco party” in Mar-a-Lago’s ballroom. The party was dedicated to celebrating Studio 54, the notoriously decadent 1970s nightclub.
An Instagram user posted a photo with the president in the background from the party.
the rich asshole announced on Saturday that he will forego his usual Saturday golf game out of respect for the Parkland victims.
the rich asshole Twitter-rages at ‘fake news media’ for reporting on Mueller Russia indictments
some rich asshole (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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President some rich asshole broke his silence on the bombshell indictments of 13 Russians accused of meddling in the 2016 election, citing an opinion piece in the New York Post to prove his innocence and then attacking the “fake news media.”
In a multiple tweet burst, the rich asshole cited the New York tabloid, writing, “’Charges Deal Don A Big Win,’ written by Michael Goodwin of the @nypost, succinctly states that ‘the Russians had no impact on the election results.’ There was no Collusion with the the rich asshole Campaign. ‘She lost the old-fashioned way, by being a terrible candidate. Case closed.’”
he later turned on the press, writing, “Funny how the Fake News Media doesn’t want to say that the Russian group was formed in 2014, long before my run for President. Maybe they knew I was going to run even though I didn’t know!”
You can see the tweets below:
“Charges Deal Don A Big Win,” written by Michael Goodwin of the @nypost, succinctly states that “the Russians had no impact on the election results.” There was no Collusion with the Trump Campaign. “She lost the old-fashioned way, by being a terrible candidate. Case closed.”
Omarosa reveals a White House staffer is ‘sleeping around with everybody’
Omarosa Manigault, an aide and confidante to President some rich asshole (image via Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons).
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Former senior White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman gossiped about the sex lives of her former colleagues, during the Friday night episode of Celebrity Big Brother, Entertainment Weekly reported.
Contestant Brandi Glanville asked Manigault if she had ever slept with some rich asshole.
“Hell no!” Manigault replied.
“Oh, my God. Brandi, that’s horrible,” Omarosa added.
“There’s somebody in the White House that’s sleeping around with everybody, but she is not me,” Omarosa revealed. “I’ve never had to do that.”
This was not the first time Manigualt has dished on the White House on the TV show.
“I was haunted by tweets every single day. Like, what is he going to tweet next?” she said in an earlier episode.
“It’s going to not be ok. It’s not,” she said.
Manigault was asked in an earlier episode if she would vote for the rich asshole in 2020.
“God, no,” she said. “Never. In a million years, never.”
Watch:
CNN host shuts down Jack Kingston with brutal fact check on Russia meddling timeline
Former Congressman Jack Kingston (R-GA) on CNN.
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CNN anchor Victor Blackwell had to repeatedly correct falsehoods by former Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), who works for the network as a political commentator, during a Saturday segment on the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.
“Jack, I’m coming to you about this indictment of these 13 Russians. and I’ve jotted down something that HR McMaster said about this indictments and what it does now,” CNN host Victor Blackwell explained.
“As you can see with the FBI indictment, the evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain, whereas in the past it was difficult to attribute for a couple reasons,” McMaster explained at the Munich Security Conference.
“I think that we should not focus on that as much as the outrageous fact that they did interfere,” Kingston suggested.
“You know, not just through these three companies, but think about 80 employees who work full-time to spy on us and to interrupt us and meddle,” Kingston charged.
“I think that is where the focus needs to be,” Kingston argued.
Last month, Kingston claimed, nobody on the rich asshole campaign “would be stupid enough” to collude with Russia.
“And I’ll grant all the rich asshole critics, if you want to focus on the fact that the president did not — wasn’t strong enough about this in terms of what their interference was, I would give that to you,” Kingston admitted. “But on other hand, I would also say the people who for over a year now have said the rich asshole campaign was involved in this and they were up to their neck in collusion, I think it is time for those critics to also say, ‘perhaps we were wrong about this and that Russian interference was aimed at America in general in terms of creating chaos and disruption.'”
“But Jack, when you say that people should move on from highlighting that the president didn’t acknowledge the involvement of Russia, the president was briefed on this a year ago,” Blackwell fact-checked.
“Okay, then Victor, it has to be fair game to talk about the October 22nd, 2012 criticism by Barack Obama of [Mitt] Romney, when he mocked Romney for saying that Russia was a geo-global threat,” Kingston claimed.
“Nope,” Blackwell dismissed. “Not relevant at all.”
“You bring up an October 2012 debate on an indictment that starts in 2014,” Blackwell continued.
Having failed to blame President Obama for Russian electoral interference, Kingston the resorted to attacking Bill and Hillary Clinton over the Uranium One conspiracy theory.
This was not the first time a CNN anchor had to correct their political commentator. Anderson Cooper had to shut down Kingston in January, Victor Blackwell also smacked down Kingston in December and just last week, Christi Paul had to reign him in.
Watch:
Want to see gun control enacted? Support a movement to arm all black Americans
Black man holding gun -- Shutterstock
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The only greater certainty than another mass shooting in this country is the likelihood that it will be met with inaction. Since the 2012 massacre of 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School, there have been a staggering 1,607 mass shootings across the U.S., nearly 240 in schools. Each has been met with useless thoughts and prayers from craven conservative politicians, all of whom insist there’s never a right time to discuss gun control. The fatigue incurred from the whole circular spectacle makes it feel like it might just be easier to start labeling lawmakers either “pro-child murder” or “anti-child murder.”
It’s impossible to reason with the disingenuous logic that mass slaughter is just the cost of freedom, and not a consequence of NRA-owned politicians, which is why even the mildest gun reform seems impossible. Sandy Hook proved the GOP is willing to take donor dollars to look away from dead American children. The correlation between levels of gun ownership and gun deaths has similarly failed to rouse GOP political will, as have arguments that military-style killing machines should be kept off U.S. streets. While the “mental health problems” of white “lone wolf” shooters bring Republicans to crocodile tears, the rich asshole signed a bill making it easier for mentally ill people to buy guns just a year ago. The knowledge that toddlers accidentally shoot more Americans annually than foreign terrorists do didn’t stop Iowa Republicans from proposing a bill to let “1-year-olds, 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds [and] 4-year-olds…operate handguns,” leading one Democratic lawmaker to observe, “We do not need a militia of toddlers.” Perhaps relatedly, studies find the reflexive GOP tendency following mass killings is to make gun laws more, not less permissive, as evidenced by Florida Republicans’ attempts to loosen state gun restrictions just 24 hours after the Parkland massacre.
Ending mass shootings might seem like a hopeless cause in light of all this, but that kind of thinking ignores the historic infallibility of racism to move American political mountains. The shift in the public face of poverty from white to black helped take us from the New Deal to the destruction of the welfare state; conversely, as drug addiction has gone from being an “inner city” (read: black) to a “suburban” (read: white) problem, the state has transformed from carceral to compassionate. A movement—both visible and vocal—to arm black Americans en masse would fire up GOP political will toward gun control, and probably at speeds currently unimaginable. Second Amendment hardliners often engage in bad-faith references to America’s racist gun control history at convenient moments, namely when trying convince wary black folks, who statistically are overwhelmingly pro-gun control, to join the chorus calling for unfettered gun access. There are too many reasons to question their sudden commitment to anti-racism in those moments. That said, there is historic precedence for the mere idea of black gun possession leading directly to white American efforts at gun control.
These policies even predate this country’s official nationhood. The Splinter’s Daniel Rivero points to the “first gun control law,” passed in Virginia in 1640, which “explicitly banned black people from owning guns, even if they were not slaves.” The 1857 Dred Scott decision prohibited blacks from becoming American citizens, in part because citizenship would confer the right “to keep and carry arms…inevitably producing discontent and insubordination…and endangering the peace and safety of the State.” Post-Civil War “Black Codes” were adopted throughout much the South, making gun ownership by freed blacks illegal. The Atlantic notes that to “enforce the gun ban, white men riding in posses began terrorizing black communities….The most infamous of these disarmament posses, of course, was the Ku Klux Klan.”
Martin Luther King, who received endless death threats and was the target of a house bombing in 1956, applied for an open carry permit, but was denied by Montgomery, Alabama’s racist police force. When the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, in accordance with California law, began openly carrying weapons to patrol Oakland’s neighborhoods, the state legislature quickly crafted, and Gov. Ronald Reagan quickly signed, the 1967 Mulford Act ending public carry. On the heels of race riots, Congress Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, followed by the Gun Control Act of 1968, which Georgetown historian Adam Winkler notes included a provision to restrict “‘Saturday Night Specials’—the cheap, easily available guns often used by [black] youth.” The legislation was the first federal gun law in nearly three decades, and proved lawmakers would rather institute widespread gun control measures than potentially have a widely armed black populace.
More recently, the understanding that the Second Amendment serves only to protect America’s white citizens was reified with the 2014 police murder of John Crawford III, who was holding an airgun in a Walmart located in Ohio, an open carry state. The same is true of Philando Castile, a licensed gun owner who had just informed cops he was carrying when Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez unloaded five fatal shots into his body. (The NRA was conspicuously mum on the issue.) The Christian Science Monitor cites research from Jennifer Carlson, author of “Citizen-Protectors: The Everyday Politics of Guns in an Age of Decline,” who noted discrepancies in the Michigan licensing practices that stood until 2015.
She found differences in how gun boards operated in Michigan’s majority-black Wayne County and majority-white Oakland County. Black concealed-carry applicants in Wayne were routinely lectured and quizzed in public forums – what she calls “degradation ceremonies.” White gun owners in Oakland, meanwhile, were addressed without lectures in hearings where they could plead their case in a semi-private room. (Michigan has since done away with the gun boards.)
White folks’ deep-seated fears of black folks will always ensure pushback on arms in black hands. These attitudes, it will surprise zero black people, are yet more pronounced among white gun advocates. That is, the intensity of gun fervor in white Americans often correlates directly with racist attitudes, and by extension, fears and stereotypes about black criminality, thus creating a perceived need for more guns. Researchers note that “for each 1 point increase in symbolic racism there was a 50 percent increase in the odds of having a gun at home.” Similarly, Jason McDaniel and Sean McElwee analyzed data comparing white racial resentment and gun attitudes and emerged with the near-obvious conclusion, “Opposition to gun control—like opposition to immigration, Sharia law, and ‘political correctness’—has become linked to things that racially resentful whites fear.” It seems pretty likely that, were the media face of gun ownership to become black, calls to institute legislative controls would suddenly fill the halls of Congress.
By the most recent tally, just 19 percent of African-Americans have a gun in their household, compared with 41 percent of whites. But new fears about rising racist violence, an increase in the number of hate groups and the everyday transparent bigotry of the the rich asshole administration are reportedly helping drive up the number of African-American gun buyers. Imagine that this leads to thousands, even millions, of black folks joining the NRA, applying for concealed carry licenses, starting gun clubs around the country and attempting to exercise our rights as citizens. Racism would, as it always has, perk up and put a stop to that, and fast. The official numbers aren’t yet in, but if the needle on black gun ownership noticeably moves, it will be taken as cause for alarm and time to politically act. And once again, black folks will have saved America from itself.
‘The evidence is now incontrovertible’: NSA head McMaster undercuts the rich asshole over Russia election meddling
Herbert Raymond McMaster, National Security Advisor. Photo via MSC.
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National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster undermined President some rich asshole’s that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation was “a hoax”despite additional indictments revealed Friday.
“President the rich asshole spent more than a year calling it a hoax, a witch hunt and a total scam, but now special counsel Robert Mueller has indicted 13 Russians for interfering with the 2016 election,” CNN’s Rene Marsh explained Saturday.
CNN played a clip from the Munich Security Conference, where McMaster spoke shortly after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who said claims of election interference were “just blather.”
“As you can see with the FBI indictment, the evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain, whereas in the past it was difficult to attribute for a couple reasons,” McMaster concluded.
“First, technically, it was difficult. But second, you didn’t want to divulge your intelligence capabilities,” McMaster continued, “but now that this is in the arena of a law enforcement investigation, it will be very apparent to everyone.”
“Well, these comments from the president’s top national security adviser come after months of President the rich asshole calling the investigation a witch hunt and a hoax,” CNN White House correspondent Abby Phillip explained.
“The president is right, in part of that response, in that that the efforts did start in 2014, but they heated up in the midst of 2016 when the Russians were instructed to help President the rich asshole and hurt Hillary Clinton according to these indictment documents,” Phillip noted.
Watch:
Parkland shooting survivors claim ‘blood of 17’ is on GOP’s NRA enablers: ‘They left us to people like Nikolas Cruz’
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students -- CNN screenshot
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Five students who survived the horrific shooting that claimed 17 lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School placed the blame solely on lawmakers from their own state, calling them “enablers” of the NRA.
Sitting down with CNN host Victor Blackwell, the five students who have started up a project called “Never Again MSD,” went right after GOP officials by name.
“Wednesday’s high school shooting has renewed the national conversation about gun control,” Blackwell began. “Now the president says he’s working with Congress on many fronts on this issue. In the meantime, some students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School say they feel abandoned and have a message for D.C. You said that the governor and Senator Rubio murdered 17 people — why?”
“It’s Rick Scott and Marco Rubio who allowed this to happen,” student Cameron Kaskyexplained. “They are enablers, and the blood of 17 people and all those injured and all the families that have been hurt, this is all on them. They have us thinking that this is inevitable, and that we can’t do anything to stop it, that it’s too difficult. We’re done with that. The GOP has abandoned us and left us to people like Nikolas Cruz.”
After sharing a clip of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) saying it was not time to take sides, Stoneman Douglas junior Alex Wind fired back.
“I disagree with that statement because it’s very clear that there are two sides to this, and there are certain people that accept money from the NRA,” he remarked. “I believe Speaker Ryan is one of those people. It doesn’t seem that the country is coming together, it seems that they’re sending prayers and condolences but not taking action like they need to be.”
Asked about attacking the NRA, with Blackwell saying, the NRA “didn’t pull the trigger,” student Sawyer Garrity squarely put the blame on the NRA.
“They might not have pulled the trigger, but they’re who allowed him to buy the gun,” she told the CNN host. “Someone who isn’t allowed to buy alcohol legally is allowed to buy a war weapon? Where does that make sense?”
Watch the video below via CNN:
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says reports on US election interference ‘just blather’
some rich asshole and Sergei Lavrov (Tass)
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declined to comment on Saturday on U.S. indictments of 13 Russians and three Russian companies in what Washington sees as a criminal and espionage conspiracy to tamper with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Russia has repeatedly denied any effort to influence the U.S. election.
Lavrov echoed that tone, telling participants at the annual Munich Security Conference that even U.S. Vice President Michael Pence and others had raised questions about the U.S. investigation. “So until we see the facts, everything else is just blather,” he said.
Pressure mounts on FBI director to resign as Florida community reels
President some rich asshole's pick for FBI chief, Christopher Wray, served in president George W. Bush's Justice Department. (AFP)
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Pressure is mounting on the FBI director to resign after his agency admitted it failed to investigate a warning that the man accused of killing 17 people at a Florida high school possessed a gun and the desire to kill.
The disclosure spread angry disbelief among residents of the Miami suburb of Parkland where Wednesday’s massacre unfolded, and led Florida’s governor Rick Scott to call for FBI chief Christopher Wray to resign.
“The FBI’s failure to take action against this killer is unacceptable,” Scott, a Republican, said in a statement. “We constantly promote ‘See something, say something’, and a courageous person did just that to the FBI. And the FBI failed to act.”
Scott’s comments came after the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement that a person described as someone close to accused gunman Nikolas Cruz, 19, called an FBI tip line on Jan. 5, weeks before the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, to report concerns about him.
“The caller provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting,” it said.
That information should have been forwarded to the FBI’s Miami field office for further investigation, but “we have determined that these protocols were not followed”, it said.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he has ordered a review of FBI procedures following the shooting, carried out by a gunman armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle and numerous ammunition cartridges.
“We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy,” Wray said in a statement.
The FBI has also separately been criticized by some Republicans over its investigation of allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, heaping further scrutiny on the agency led by Wray since President some rich asshole fired James Comey last year. Russia denies any involvement.
SAFETY RALLY
The mishandled information followed a tip-off to the FBI in September about a YouTube comment in which a person named Nikolas Cruz said: “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.”
The FBI said it investigated that comment but was unable to trace its origins, closing the inquiry until Cruz surfaced in connection with Wednesday’s shooting.
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told a news conference his office had received about 20 “calls for service” in the last few years regarding Cruz and would scrutinize all of them to see if they were handled properly.
But Israel said law enforcement should not be held responsible for Wednesday’s tragedy. “The only one to blame for this killing is the killer himself,” he said.
More vigils and funerals will be held over the weekend in and around Parkland. Two gun shows and a rally calling for the firearm safety legislation are due to be held nearby.
“We cannot have one more family, one more student, one more life taken because of a failure to hear and enact comprehensive firearm safety legislature in Florida,” said organizers on Facebook of the rally to be held at the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday.
Organizers of the gun shows to be held in Boca Raton and at the Miami-Dade County’s fairgrounds could not be reached by Reuters.
The massacre has raised concerns about potential lapses in school security and stirred the ongoing U.S. debate pitting proponents of tougher restrictions on firearms against advocates for gun rights, which are protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.
Some political leaders including the rich asshole have said mental illness prompted the shooting. Cruz had been expelled for undisclosed disciplinary reasons from the school where the attack occurred. Former classmates have described him as a social outcast trouble-maker with a fascination for weaponry.
Some relatives and friends of shooting victims blamed Florida’s lenient gun laws, which allow an 18-year-old to buy an assault rifle. Outside a vigil on Friday, a sign read: “Kids don’t need guns. No guns under 21.”
On Friday, the rich asshole and first lady Melania visited survivors, victims and medical staff who have treated the injured. He later appeared at the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, along with the governor and other politicians, offering praise to first responders.
(Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Alison Williams)
Reactions to Russian indictments in 2016 US election meddling probe
Paul Ryan (CBS News)
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U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has charged a Russian Internet agency and more than a dozen Russians with interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign in an effort to support some rich asshole and denigrate his rival Hillary Clinton.
Below are reactions to Mueller’s 37-page indictment:
“We have known that Russians meddled in the election, but these indictments detail the extent of the subterfuge. These Russians engaged in a sinister and systematic attack on our political system. It was a conspiracy to subvert the process, and take aim at democracy itself. Today’s announcement underscores why we need to follow the facts and work to protect the integrity of future elections.”
– House Speaker Paul Ryan in a statement
“For all those who have been asking ‘where is the evidence of a crime?’ – this is it. This is the criminal conspiracy. This is what President the rich asshole and his allies have repeatedly called a ‘hoax’ and ‘fake news.’ Today’s indictment shows precisely how the Russians worked to help the rich asshole campaign, in startling and extensive detail.”
– Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings in a statement
“Mueller just put Moscow on notice. This ought to be a wakeup call to Washington: Putin’s shadow war is aimed at undermining Americans’ trust in our institutions. We know Russia is coming back in 2018 and 2020 – we have to take this threat seriously.”
– Republican Senator Ben Sasse in a statement, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin
“The Putin regime presents a pressing threat to American interests, including through Moscow’s long-running influence operations against the United States. The House Intelligence Committee has been investigating these threats for many years: in 2014 – the year the Russians began their operation targeting the 2016 elections — I warned about Russia’s worldwide influence operations. In April 2016 I stated that the United States’ failure to predict Putin’s plans and intentions is ‘the biggest intelligence failure that we’ve had since 9/11.’ Although the Obama Administration failed to act on the Committee’s warnings, it’s gratifying to see that Russian agents involved in these operations have now been identified and indicted.”
– Republican Representative Devin Nunes in a statement
“I’m glad the administration is acting, based on the ongoing work of the special counsel, to hold Russia accountable. We’ve long known Vladimir Putin has been using an arsenal of trolls, disinformation and propaganda to try to undermine western democracies – including the United States. Putin doesn’t care whether we’re Democrats or Republicans. His goal is to undermine America’s values and our public institutions. More must be done, including with international broadcasting, to counter this threat. Our midterm elections are rapidly approaching, and we must ensure the sanctity of our political process.”
– Republican Representative Ed Royce in a statement
“Thirteen people interfered in the U.S. elections?! Thirteen against an intelligence services budget of billions? Against intelligence and counterintelligence, against the latest developments and technologies? Absurd? Yes.”
– Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in a Facebook post
“The Americans are very emotional people, they see what they want to see. I have great respect for them. I am not at all upset that I am on this list. If they want to see the devil, let them.”
– Russian businessman Evgeny Prigozhin to RIA news agency
“Mueller indictment of Russians starts to fill out the other side. Next: who are the actors in this country. The contours of the conspiracy are starting to be detailed. This is hugely significant.”
– Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Twitter
“It is a cold hard fact that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 election. We know for a fact that they hacked into the Democratic National Committee. We know for a fact that they hacked into voter registration systems across the country and used social media to sow discord and spread disinformation among voters. And we know for a fact that their goal was to help elect some rich asshole. Now, this indictment gives us a chilling look at just how sophisticated, well-funded and wide-ranging this attack on our democracy really was. It should send chills up the spine of every American.”
– Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez in a statement
“The Special Counsel’s indictments make absolutely clear that the Russians perpetrated a strategic effort to undermine and influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election to support the campaign of some rich asshole, and are continuing to interfere with our elections. As desperately as President the rich asshole insists that the Special Counsel investigation is a ‘hoax’, these latest indictments build on multiple guilty pleas and indictments of several the rich asshole campaign officials, demonstrating the gravity of the rich asshole-Russia scandal.”
– House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi in a statement
“While it does not include an allegation that any U.S. persons conspired wittingly with the Russian actors, the indictment leaves open the vital question of whether Americans, including any associated with the rich asshole campaign, knowingly played a role in Russia’s active measures campaign.”
– Democratic Representative Adam Schiff in a statement
“It has been clear to everyone (except some rich asshole) that Russia was deeply involved in the 2016 elections and intends to be involved in the 2018 elections. It is the American people who should be deciding the political future of our country, not Mr. Putin and the Russian oligarchs. It is absolutely imperative that the Mueller investigation be allowed to go forward without obstruction from the the rich asshole administration or Congress.”
– Independent Senator Bernie Sanders in a statement
“What we learned was astonishing. We learned that the Russian were also organizing for Bernie Sanders. We learned that in late November 2016 they then turned their efforts to be against President the rich asshole, that their goal was to sow discord and chaos, not to promote a certain candidate, and that no Americans were involved in this plot … Democrats deceived this country and they were caught today.”
– Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany to Fox News
“Sometimes an indictment is designed to catch the principal perpetrators. But sometimes an indictment or prosecution is launched with an eye towards accomplices and conspirators, who may not even be identified yet. In this case, the Russians are in Russia, and Putin isn’t going to hand them over any time soon. If someone in the United States assisted them, though, they could be prosecuted for their participation in the criminal endeavor. We don’t know who those persons are, but as of today we know a lot more about the criminal enterprise they were involved in.”
– Cornell Law School professor Jens David Ohlin
“The indictment is careful to say there are some unnamed conspirators and co-conspirators. We have no sense of who those might be and if they will be charged ever. … There are no allegations in the indictment that any American was a knowing participant. But that is a telling statement by omission. There is no reason to think that is the only indictment released from Special Counsel’s office.”
– Constitutional law professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, Leah Litman
“The indictment refers repeatedly to unwitting people in the the rich asshole campaign. Anybody who was dealing with these Russians unwittingly is not guilty of a crime. But if Mueller has evidence that there are people who were dealing with members of this conspiracy knowingly then there would be a lot of basis to charge those people with the same crime.”
– Former federal prosecutor and Stanford Law School professor David Alan Sklansky
“What is clear is that we now have a public accounting of allegations of Russian interference in the American election system that is far more detailed and broader in scope than any public accounting we have had so far. That a Russian organization literally spent millions of dollars to influence the American election is a damning indictment of Russia and its interference. If the U.S. government fails to respond that will be a severe sign of weakness. Sitting back is not acceptable … The indictment is really interesting in that it only portrays American victims and no American collaborators or colluders. It’s an open question why that is.”
– Former senior counsel in the investigation of President Bill Clinton, Paul Rosenzweig
“The grand jury indictment of Russian agents details a broad conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Buried literally in the middle of the indictment is a paragraph that should jar every American committed to the long fight for voting rights. The Russians allegedly masqueraded as African-American and American Muslim activists to urge minority voters to abstain from voting in the 2016 election or to vote for a third-party candidate. The alleged Russian campaign to depress turnout of minority voters is wrong. Both the special counsel and Congress should investigate whether the the rich asshole campaign colluded with Russian agents in this alleged targeting of minority voters in 2016. Such actions, if proven, would be criminal.”
– Deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington Legislative Office, Christopher Anders, in a statement
the rich asshole spokesperson defends Russia, blames election interference on the mainstream media
Fox News wasn't interested in correcting this spin.
Deputy White House Press Secretary Hogan Gidley claimed during an appearance on Fox News on Saturday that Democratic politicians and the mainstream press have done more to interfere in the electoral system than Russia has.
Responding to a question about the indictment handed down by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Friday — which accused 13 Russians and three Russian companies of a coordinated social media campaign to bolster some rich asshole and undermine Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election — Gidley brushed aside the allegations against Russia, and quickly pivoted to other scapegoats.
“What the Russians were trying to do, as outlined by Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein, was create chaos in the American election system,” Gidley said.
“And I will just say this: There are two groups that have created chaos more than the Russians, and that’s the Democrats and the mainstream media, who continued to push this lie on the American people for more than a year — and quite frankly Americans should be outraged by that.”
Fox News’ Rachel Campos-Duffy was quick to endorse Gidley’s spin and downplay the significance of Friday’s indictment. “The good news is, Hogan, if you poll the American people they were never buying the Russian collusion story anyway,” Campos-Duffy said. Gidley agreed.
Mueller’s 37-page indictment provides detailed evidence of massive Russian social media interference before and after the 2016 election. Russian operatives effectively disseminated pro-the rich asshole and anti-Clinton propaganda through online platforms, often by impersonating Americans.
While Friday’s indictment did not confirm any instances of collusion between the rich asshole campaign officials and Russian operatives, the investigation into possible collusion remains ongoing — and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has not ruled out the possibility of future allegations in this area.
the rich asshole’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, acknowledged Saturday that, with the addition of Mueller’s latest indictment, the mounting evidence of Russian election interference is now irrefutable.
Nonetheless, with the help of Fox News, Republicans have wasted no time finding ways to downplay the latest indictment from the special counsel — arguing that the president has been completely exonerated from allegations of collusion, that Russian operatives were actually organizing against the rich asshole and for Bernie Sanders, and that Russian collusion was all President Obama’s fault.
Defenses of Russia from the rich asshole White House have bigger implications on the international stage. Because top the rich asshole administration officials — including the president himself — have repeatedly denied that Russia had any influence over the 2016 election, it’s given Russian leaders cover to argue the same thing.
At a conference in Munich on Saturday, for instance, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov downplayed the accusations in Friday’s indictment as “just blabber” and cited the the rich asshole officials who have said the latest presidential election results weren’t influenced by any outside force.
UPDATE: Gidley’s comments are playing well with Russian propaganda network RT, which summarized his argument as “Democrats and [mainstream meda] wreaked far more havoc than Russians.”
Shamed by teenager for taking NRA money, the rich asshole throws temper tantrum
By Oliver Willis February 17, 2018
Florida teen Emma Gonzalez called out the rich asshole's cozy relationship with the NRA. Not long after, the rich asshole threw another Twitter tantrum, blaming Democrats for gun violence.
After her remarks trended on social media, the rich asshole petulantly tweeted that it was Democrats who are to blame for the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
“Just like they don’t want to solve the DACA problem, why didn’t the Democrats pass gun control legislation when they had both the House & Senate during the Obama Administration,” the rich asshole tweeted.
“Because they didn’t want to, and now they just talk!” He concluded.
In her speech, Gonzalez noted that the NRA spent an unprecedented $36 million from their war chest to help secure the presidency for the rich asshole.
After promising to enact the group’s pro-violence agenda, he has worked on its behalf to continue the flow of guns into America.
As Gonzalez pointed out, the rich asshole rescinded a regulation put in place by President Barack Obama designed to make it more difficult for people with mental illnesses to get a gun.
Along with his Republican allies in Congress, the rich asshole has pushed for weakened laws and regulations on guns. This is an initiative that dovetails perfectly with the NRA’s mission.
The extremist organization paid for the conscience of many politicians like the rich asshole, and it is getting its money’s worth.
When the rich asshole had a chance to show compassion for victims of gun violence, he only spent 35 minutes with them to pose for pictures flashing a thumbs-up. Then he was off to a disco party at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
He decided not to play golf as part of a gambit designed to show his empathy, but instead tweeted multiple times throughout the day.
It is well known that the rich asshole schedules so-called “executive time” to watch television instead of doing his job. Gonzalez’s speech showed up all across cable news, and it is well within the realm of possibility that his tweet is an attempt to short-circuit her potent message.
It is unlikely to work. Millions have now seen Emma Gonzalez’s moment and they side with her, against the rich asshole and the NRA. He is rattled, but they are resisting.
Come claim him, Republicans — he's all yours.
When Rep. Trey Gowdy announced recently that he would not seek re-election in 2018, a crowd of Republicans quickly jumped into the race to replace him.
The latest addition to the list is the rich asshole apologist Mark Burns, who came under fire last year for his outspoken defense of accused child molester Roy Moore during the race to fill Jeff Sessions’ vacant Senate seat in Alabama.
Burns announced late Thursday that he had thrown his name into the race for Gowdy’s seat as the representative for South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District. He followed up that announcement Friday with a tweet touting his work for the rich asshole and asking people to visit his campaign website.
I am officially seeking the Republican nomination for South Carolina's 4th Congressional district seat, being vacated by the retiring Congressman @TGowdySC. Please share this video highlighting my work for @realDonaldTrump. Get on board markburns.org #MAGA #SC04 #tcot
Burns, an evangelical pastor, rose to prominence in 2016 as a vocal supporter of the rich asshole’s presidential campaign. He has since taken on the role of a full-fledged apologist, defending even the most indefensible decisions the rich asshole has made, including his recent comments referring to African nations as “shithole countries.”
He also made headlines in Sept. 2016, when he walked out of an interview with CNN’s Victor Blackwell after being confronted about false biographical claims he made on his website. He later admitted to falsifying several of the professional accomplishments listed on his biography.
According to NBC News, “Burns has yet to present a policy platform, but has hewed closely to the rich asshole on immigration and support for law enforcement in the past.”
While he hasn’t outlined his policy positions yet, Burns has made his stance on one issue very clear.
The issue? Credible accusations of child molestation.
His apparent stance? That’s not a problem.
In November, Burns used his national platform to defend Moore against credible allegations of child molestation, referring to the accusations as a “character assassination.” He also voiced doubt about the allegations, insisting that Moore was a “very strong Christian conservative.”
As repugnant as Burns’ defense of Moore was, it was par for the course these days for Republicans. The GOP elected the rich asshole just weeks after hearing him brag about sexual assault and then listening to more than a dozen women come forward to confirm it.
And one year later, the party went all in for an accused child molester.
Now one of the strongest voices in defense of an alleged pedophile is running on a GOP ticket.
Come claim him, Republicans — he’s all yours.
Serious questions are mounting about Jared Kushner’s security clearance
the rich asshole's son-in-law has been asking for more intelligence information than almost any other White House official.
Serious questions are swirling around Jared Kushner’s security clearance — which is still pending more than a year after he entered the White House, even as Kushner reportedly requests more intelligence information than almost any other White House official.
According to new reports by the Washington Post, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly announced on February 16 that starting next week some people with interim security clearances will not be able to access top-secret information. This could include the rich asshole’s son-in-law, whose clearance has been the subject of controversy for some time.
A great WaPo piece on Kushner making the most of his interim clearance to obtain sensitive security intel while appearing unlikely to ever get his five-year clearance washingtonpost.com/amphtml/politi…
The news comes at the same time as Talking Points Memo reveals Kushner had to update his financial disclosure logs yet again — he has now had to make more than 40 changes since his original filing last March.
Kushner is a senior adviser to the president and has been tasked with leading efforts to bring peace to the Middle East, spearhead criminal justice reform, and tackle the opioid epidemic, among other things. His role has allowed him to meet with officials from China and Saudi Arabia. Kushner also reportedly receives a copy of the Presidential Daily Brief — a daily compilation of the country’s top intelligence information.
Kushner has been given an interim clearance allowing him to access this sensitive information and work in such a high-level position. Kushner, however, has yet to be granted full security clearance. As one official told the Washington Post, Kelly’s memo released on Friday puts a “bull’s eye” on Kushner.
While Kushner’s lawyer maintains he will not be affected by Kelly’s memo, other officials don’t expect Kushner to get permanent security clearance.
One of the main issues holding back Kushner’s clearance is the number of amendments he has had to make to a form detailing his contact with foreign officials. Last year he filed three updates to this form. These forms, filled out by those who require security clearance, are scrutinized to determine whether someone can be trusted with top-secret information, and whether that individual could be vulnerable to influence or blackmail by a foreign government.
According to experts, it is incredibly rare to hold interim security clearance for a long period of time; most last only 12 months. Kushner is now at more than 13 months.
Watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington this week called for Kushner’s clearance to be revoked. In a complaint addressed to Kelly, the group calls Kushner’s access to classified information “a security threat”.
“Failure to revoke Mr. Kushner’s temporary clearance would set a dangerous precedent for these other cases by signalling a willingness to tolerate unacceptable national security risks,” the letter continues.
Last summer also saw multiple attempts by House Democrats to revoke Kushner’s clearance after it was revealed he met with a Russian lawyer linked to the Kremlin in June 2016.
Kushner, however, isn’t the only one facing this problem. Issues over security clearances have plagued the White House in recent weeks. A report by CNN on February 9 claimed that 30 to 40 the rich asshole administration appointees still did not have the full security clearance required to do their jobs.
This came shortly after former White House staff secretary Rob Porter resigned his post following allegations of spousal abuse. Porter had been operating under an interim security clearance.
A recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office has called the current security clearance system “high risk” and warned it is in need of reform.
‘Follow the money’: Ex-US Attorney reveals how Mueller’s Russia indictments now lead to the rich asshole’s tax returns
Ex- US Attorney Michael Moore -- screenshot
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Appearing on CNN to discuss the implications of the bombshell indictments against 13 Russians for meddling in the 2016 election, a former U.S. Attorney explained that money is at the root of everything and that the next step will be for special counsel Robert Mueller to look at President some rich asshole’s tax returns — if he hasn’t already.
Speaking with New Day host Victor Blackwell, ex-prosecutor Michael Moore, who served as a U.S. Attorney in Georgia, stated upfront the “key” to everything is money.
“The key is we need to follow the money, follow the money, follow the money,” Moore explained. ‘I think at some point we’ll find out — that we look back and see that there was a reason that Russia wanted to have the rich asshole elected president. I think that’s one of the reasons we don’t have his tax returns, he’s been holding that very tightly.”
“I think that [former Director of National Intelligence James] Clapper is right, probably that Mueller has that information and knows there’s a money trail that leads back from Russia to some folks very high up in the the rich asshole administration,” he continued.
“It’s likely that there are other things to drop,” Moore stated. “It’s not a complete story of the investigation. It only produces the evidence that is needed to charge these defendants with the crimes.”
You can watch the video below via CNN:
the rich asshole’s national security adviser says the evidence of Russian election interference is irrefutable
"The evidence is now incontrovertible."
President the rich asshole’s national security adviser acknowledged on Saturday that the evidence of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election is irrefutable — after more than a year of the rich asshole characterizing accusations of Russian election interference as a “hoax.”
Speaking to an audience at an international conference in Munich, H.R. McMaster said the evidence of Russian interference “is now incontrovertible” after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s latest indictment, which was handed down on Friday.
The indictment accuses 13 Russians and three Russian companies of mounting “interference operations” to sway the presidential election away from Hillary Clinton and toward some rich asshole. According to the indictment, this effort involved hundreds of people engaged in disseminating material on social media platforms to disparage Clinton’s campaign and boost support for the rich asshole’s.
McMaster’s latest comments are a sharp departure from the way the rich asshole himself typically talks about potential Russian interference.
the rich asshole has repeatedly denied that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, saying that he takes Russian President Vladimir Putin’s word for it. He has called such allegations “fake news,” accusing Democrats of making up the story to compensate for their loss in 2016.
The rich asshole team’s repeated denials have provided convenient cover for Russian officials to brush aside the alleged Russian plot to sway the latest U.S. presidential election.
At the same conference where McMaster acknowledged the “incontrovertible” evidence of interference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov downplayed the accusations in Mueller’s latest indictment. “Until we see the facts, everything else is just blabber,” he said. Lavrov pointed out that some the rich asshole officials themselves have denied that the 2016 election results were influenced by any outside force.
McMaster also recently suggested there is some evidence of Russian interference in Mexico’s upcoming presidential election, which will take place in July.
conference announcing the indictments, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said, “There is no allegation in this indictment that any American had any knowledge, and the nature of the scheme was the defendants took extraordinary steps to make it appears that they were ordinary American political activists, even going so far as to base their activities on a virtual private network here in the United States so if anybody traced it back to the first jump they would appear to be Americans.”
The caveat of “in this indictment” is key — officials are not ruling out the possibility of allegations of collusion against the rich asshole campaign in future indictments.
Friday’s indictment focused on efforts by the Internet Research Agency, the Russian organization responsible for spearheading Moscow’s social media interference operations during the 2016 election, ThinkProgress’ Casey Michel reported. The indictment didn’t reveal any new fake Russian Facebook or Twitter bots that hadn’t already been reported on, but it did detail the efforts of groups already identified, including “Secured Borders,” “United Muslims of America,” “Blacktivist,” and “Heart of Texas,” confirming that the size of many of the pages “had grown to hundreds of thousands of online followers.”
In the fall of 2017, The Daily Beast published a bombshell report revealing that Kremlin propagandists had impersonated American advocacy groups by digitally executing real-world rallies in support of some rich asshole on American soil during the 2016 election.
Mueller’s indictment demolishes the rich asshole’s narrative that Russian interference was a hoax
the rich asshole may need new talking points.
Over the past year, President the rich asshole has repeatedly denied Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
He has ignored the joint assessment of his own intelligence community and instead took the word of Russian President Vladimir Putin that the U.S.’s Cold War rival did not interfere in the electoral process. His view reportedly remained undeterred even after CIA Director Mike Pompeo, FBI Director Chris Wray, and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats all testified that such meddling definitely occurred before a Senate panel on Tuesday.
But it’s going to be hard for the rich asshole to continue denying Russian interference following the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s latest bombshell indictment on Friday — which completely undermines the rich asshole’s favored narrative that election meddling is fake news.
The 37-page indictment accuses 13 individuals and three Russian companies of “interference operations targeting the United States” by pushing support for some rich asshole and disparaging Hillary Clinton via social media, by coordinating with unsuspecting the rich asshole campaign staffers, and posing as political and social activists.
According to the indictment, a Russian operation called Project Lakhta — which was led by the Internet Research Agency in coordination with several LLCs out of St. Petersburg — employed hundreds of employees who created fake personas, provided data analysis, and created graphics, attempting to influence the election via YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Russian operatives traveled the U.S. under the guise of Americans to collect intelligence or gain access to U.S. servers to mask their Russian location on social media posts and conspired to obstruct “the lawful functions of the United States government through fraud and deceit.” The operatives made election expenditures without registering as a foreign agent carrying out political activities within the U.S. and obtained visas through fraudulent statements.
The White House has emphasized that Mueller’s indictment found no evidence of collusion — which is true, although the investigation into possible collusion remains ongoing — but has not addressed whether the president finally acknowledges he was wrong about the existence of election interference.
The misleading claims Republicans are already using to downplay the Mueller indictment
Your guide to the dubious talking points already taking off.
Republicans are working quickly to downplay Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s latest indictment, which was released on Friday and which focuses on 13 Russians accused of attempting to sway the 2016 election using social media.
While the indictment itself outlines a number of troubling accusations that support the notion of Russian interference, many on the right have instead chosen to focus on several cherry-picked details to try and claim the special counsel’s investigation is unfounded.
The Republican National Committee debuted especially brash talking points on Friday afternoon, with spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany telling Fox News’ Melissa Francis that the indictment was “astonishing” proof that the left had “deceived the country.”
“Today marks the day that the Democrats’ Russia collusion conspiracy unravels,” McEnany said. “What we learned is astonishing. We learned the Russians were also organizing for Bernie Sanders, we learned that, in late November 2016, they turned their efforts to be against President the rich asshole, that their goal was to sow discord and chaos — not to promote a certain candidate — and that no Americans were involved in this plot they uncovered. This is astonishing, it backs up what the Democrats have said all in along. […] Democrats deceived this country and they were caught today.”
The indictment released on Friday details myriad explosive allegations against 13 Russian individuals and three Russian entities, who the special counsel’s office claims engaged in a widespread social media campaign to undermine the 2016 election. This effort was coordinated by the Internet Research Agency, an organization based in St. Petersburg that carries out campaigns on behalf of the Russian government.
In an accompanying press conference on Friday afternoon, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein dubbed the effort “Information Warfare.”
Nonetheless, McEnany and other conservative figures are already skewing the details in the 37-page indictment to fit a very specific narrative: that Democrats were lying about collusion between the rich asshole campaign and Russians, and that those Russians were, in fact, working against the rich asshole the whole time.
Here are the claims that are already gaining ground, most of which are easily refuted.
The Russians were actually organizing for Bernie Sanders
McEnany claimed on Friday that, contrary to popular belief, the Russians behind the hacking of the 2016 election were actually “organizing” for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I). While it’s true that some of the accounts created by the Internet Research Agency were supportive of Sanders, a large portion of the Russian efforts were done to paint the rich asshole in a more favorable light and denigrate Clinton.
“Certain organization-produced materials…used election-related hashtags, including #RichAsshole2016, #TrumpTrain, #MAGA, #IWontProtectHillary, and #HillaryForPrison,” the indictment reads. “Defendants and their co-conspirators also established additional online social media accounts dedicated to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, including the Twitter account ‘March for the rich asshole’ and Facebook accounts ‘Clinton FRAUDation’ and ‘Trumpsters United.'”
The indictment alleges that the defendants also worked to promote third-party candidates like Jill Stein, purchasing social media ads using accounts with names like “Blacktivist” to push them.
The Russians were organized against the rich asshole
It’s true that the Russian entities and individuals cited in Mueller’s indictment did eventually orchestrate efforts to protest the rich asshole, as McEnany stated on Friday. However, those efforts came after the 2016 election had taken place.
In November 2016, the defendants allegedly organized several rallies and marches both in support and protest of then-President-elect the rich asshole. On or around November 12, the indictment states, the group orchestrated a rally designed to “show your support for President-Elect some rich asshole”; that same day, using another Internet Research Agency organization, they also held a rally in New York called “the rich asshole is NOT my President.” On November 19, the Russian defendants orchestrated an anti-the rich asshole rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The 2016 presidential election was held on November 8, 2016.
The indictment proves the rich asshole campaign did not collude with Russia
McEnany claimed this week that the latest Mueller indictment marked “the day that the Democrats’ Russia collusion conspiracy unravels.” That couldn’t be further from the truth.
In reality, the indictment highlights the fact that the Russians did communicate with several individuals who were “associated with the rich asshole campaign” at the grassroots-level — in other words, low-level supporters and volunteers. While Rosenstein noted in Friday’s press briefing that “[no] American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity,” he stopped short of suggesting that Mueller’s investigation was over, or that any high-level members of the rich asshole campaign were innocent bystanders.
Republicans have honed in on this point to try and claim there’s no evidence whatsoever that the rich asshole team had colluded with Russians, misleadingly suggesting the investigation into the matter is closed.
“President some rich asshole has been fully briefed on this matter and is glad to see the Special Counsel’s investigation further indicates—that there was NO COLLUSION between the rich asshole campaign and Russia and that the outcome of the election was not changed or affected,” the White House said in statement on Friday. “President the rich asshole says, ‘it is more important than ever before to come together as Americans. We cannot allow those seeking to sow confusion, discord, and rancor to be successful. It’s time we stop the outlandish partisan attacks, wild and false allegations, and far-fetched theories, which only serve to further the agendas of bad actors, like Russia, and do nothing to protect the principles of our institutions.”
Neither Rosenstein nor any member of the Justice Department or special counsel’s office have said that the rich asshole campaign is innocent of potential collusion or that the investigation as a whole is nearing a close.
Obama is to blame for Russian interference
During a separate interview on Fox News, former House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz repeated Rosenstein’s assertion that the Russian interference highlighted in Friday’s indictment did not influence the rich asshole’s victory in the 2016 election. Rather, Chaffetz shifted focus to the rich asshole’s predecessor, Obama, claiming he hadn’t taken the threat seriously.
“I think a lot of people were very concerned, even at a small level, that this was happening. [Current House Oversight Chairman] Devin Nunes [(R-CA)] has been talking about this for a couple of years,” he said. “President Obama kind of pooh-poohed the idea that anybody could even interfere, but I think clearly — the more we’ve learned, particularly after the election, yes, there were people improperly trying to manipulate the election.”
Several right-wing media figures have also claimed that the bulk of the blame should go to Obama because the activities described in the indictment occurred on his watch, as early as 2014.
However, according to Vice President Joe Biden, Obama had been aware of the Russian interference well before the election took place and had even met with members of Congress to inform them of the problem. Speaking at a Council on Foreign Relations event in January, he stated that it was Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who had stopped the administration from speaking out, refusing to sign a bipartisan statement identifying the threat as coming from the Russians.
If Obama had violated that trust, Biden argued, it could have undermined the legitimacy of the election.
“Can you imagine if the president called a press conference in October, with this fella, Bannon, and company, and said, ‘Tell you what: Russians are trying to interfere in our elections and we have to do something about it,'” Biden said, referring to Steve Bannon, the rich asshole’s former campaign chairman. “What do you think would have happened? Would things have gotten better, or would it further look like we were trying to delegitimize the electoral process, because of our opponent?”
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