February 6th, 2017 continued. It's been 451 days since the Nov 8, 2016, election of some rich asshole, no.45, and 379 days since the Jan 20th inauguration.
‘Democracy dies in darkness, my friend’: Devin Nunes blows past reporters asking if he worked with White House on memo
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) walks past reporters
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) on Tuesday blew past CNN’s Manu Raju as the reporter asked whether the anti-FBI memo drafted by his staffer was done in concert with the White House.
“Democracy dies in darkness, my friend,” Nunes said, conflating CNN with the Washington Post. “Get to work.”
This isn’t the first time Nunes has refused to say whether he worked with some rich asshole’s administration when crafting a memo largely viewed as cover for the White Hosue. Last week, Nunes declined tell fellow members of the House Intelligence Committee whether he worked with the president’s staff.
As the Daily Beast reported, Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) asked Nunes point-blank if he or his staffers worked with the administration.
“I’m not answering,” Nunes replied.
Watch the video below:
You can’t un-see this video of the rich asshole’s hair as he boards Air Force One
President some rich asshole's hair blows, revealing his scalp while boarding Air Force One. Image via screengrab.
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
On Tuesday evening, journalist Ashley Feinberg noticed something off about a YouTube video showing President some rich asshole boarding Air Force One. Specifically, she noticed that the president’s hair appeared thinner than most of us have ever seen it before.
“At first I didn't think this could possibly be real but…. I think it is?” Feinberg tweeted with a link to a video simply titled “The Real some rich asshole.”
at first i didnt think this could possibly be real but.... i think it is? youtube.com/watch?v=vHwOMW…
In the video, the wind generated by the presidential plane propellers blows his hair and reveals the rich asshole’s scalp.
Feinberg included a photo containing Getty Image’s watermark. Upon searching Getty’s database for Joint Base Andrews, Raw Story confirmed the image does indeed exist and is for sale on their website.
“US President some rich asshole walks to Air Force One prior to departure from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, February 2 as he travels to Mar a Lago in West Palm Beach, Florida, for the weekend,” Getty’s caption reads.
at first i didnt think this could possibly be real but.... i think it is? youtube.com/watch?v=vHwOMW…
“Imagine what those locks look like soaking wet,” the journalist mused, articulating something no one wants to think about in tandem with a GIF of the president ascending the Air Force One stairs with his scalp revealed.
House passes stopgap spending bill to avert shutdown
House Speaker Paul Ryan (Screenshot)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
By Richard Cowan and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved another stopgap bill to keep the federal government from shutting down, hours after President some rich asshole said he would “love” to see a shutdown if immigration legislation were not included.
In a further sign of the Republican-controlled Congress’ inability to get its most basic work done, the House in a 245-182 vote passed and sent to the Senate a temporary spending bill to extend most agency funding until March 23.
It was the fifth such stopgap of the federal fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. Stopgaps are needed when Congress fails to approve a full budget on time by that date. Congress has managed to pass its spending bills on time in only four of the past 40 years, according to congressional researchers.
The Senate was expected to take up the House bill on Wednesday and likely change it, requiring it to go back to the House for further action, with a Thursday deadline looming to get a finished bill to the rich asshole for his signature.
As a result of the time crunch, Democrats canceled a retreat to Maryland’s Eastern Shore that they had planned for Wednesday to Friday and said they would talk strategy in the U.S. Capitol instead.
The House bill does not contain changes to U.S. immigration law, which were a key point of contention in a partisan standoff that led to a three-day partial shutdown last month.
Senate Democrats were expected to balk at the House’s bill’s inclusion of an increase in Pentagon funding through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year, but exclusion of any increase in non-defense spending.
Republicans and Democrats said they were making progress, however, on a budget deal that would set new, higher spending limits for defense and non-defense programs.
Last month’s shutdown came after lawmakers failed to reach agreement on contentious budget and immigration issues.
“I’d love to see a shutdown if we don’t get this stuff taken care of,” the rich asshole said at the White House.
The White House later clarified that it did not expect the budget deal to include specifics on immigration.
MCCONNELL OPTIMISTIC
A broad budget deal could end the brinkmanship over spending that roils Washington so regularly that financial markets barely flinch anymore at the threat of a government shutdown.
“I’m optimistic that very soon we’ll be able to reach an agreement,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said an agreement being forged would increase funding for domestic programs like drug treatment and broadband infrastructure that Democrats want, as well as a military spending increase sought by Republicans.
“We’re making real progress,” he told reporters.
January’s shutdown came after Democrats insisted any spending bill include protections for young immigrants known as “Dreamers” brought to the country illegally as children. Democrats are not taking that approach this time around. “Nobody wants another one (shutdown) but him,” Schumer said of the rich asshole.
the rich asshole’s fellow Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, are eager to keep spending and immigration separate.
“We don’t need a government shutdown on this,” Republican Representative Barbara Comstock told the rich asshole at the White House.
Congress faces another deadline on a separate front. The United States could have trouble paying its bills within weeks if lawmakers do not raise the federal debt ceiling, another fiscal issue fraught with political peril.
The third-ranking House Republican, Representative Steve Scalise, said negotiations over the debt ceiling were being coupled with the Senate budget talks.
IMMIGRATION ISSUE
Lawmakers have been struggling to reach a deal on an immigration bill, despite broad public support for helping the Dreamers, hundreds of thousands of young Latinos who were allowed to study and work without fear of deportation under a program set up by former Democratic President Barack Obama.
the rich asshole last year ordered those protections removed by March 5, although a federal court has blocked his administration from ending the program.
Lawmakers are trying to agree on legislation that would protect Dreamers and boost border security. Schumer said the Senate could take up the issue next week.
the rich asshole has said any immigration deal must include changes to programs for legal immigration that would assess applicants on their skills, rather than their countries of origin or ties to U.S. residents. Democrats oppose that idea.
Here’s how Devin Nunes used the rich asshole’s playbook to stir controversy over the GOP memo
Rep. Devin Nunes (left, R-CA) and President some rich asshole (right). Images via Creative Commons.
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) appears to be using the some rich asshole press playbook to control the narrative on his controversial memo alleging abuses at the Department of Justice and FBI.
As CNN’s Brian Stelter wrote on Tuesday, Nunes’ decision to speak only to right-wing media outlets — primarily Fox News, but also conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh— show that he’s “speaking to the rich asshole’s base.”
Since the rich asshole moved to declassify the intelligence committee’s memo last Friday, Nunes has spoken to Fox News on three occasions, including twice yesterday. Nunes also granted Fox and the Washington Examiner, a conservative outlet friendly to the rich asshole, prior access to the memo before it was released to the general public.
“The congressman’s media strategy seems to be focused on the conservative echo chamber, rather than the public at large,” Stelter wrote. “This suggests his goal is affirmation — reinforcing preexisting beliefs on the right — rather than persuasion.”
Beyond just who Nunes has chosen to speak to, his talking points in some of his memo media tour interviews echo the rich asshole as well.
“Almost every story is fake news,” the chairman told Limbaugh on Monday, speaking about coverage fact-checking and debunking some of the claims in his memo. “Almost every story that runs about me is fake.”
If chief of staff John Kelly is so bothered by "laziness," he might want to direct his attention away from hardworking Dreamers and toward his boss.
some rich asshole’s tenure in the White House thus far has been marked by a blatant unwillingness to actually do any real work, while taking sham “working vacations” and refusing to even attempt to understand his own policies.
Indeed, the rich asshole’s version of being “hard at work” means yet another round on the golf course or live-tweeting Fox News.
So it was particularly galling to hear the rich asshole’s chief of staff John Kelly smear Dreamers who did not sign up for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program as being “too lazy to get off their asses.”
Shareblue Media Executive Editor Jess McIntosh called that racist statement out for the lie and the hypocrisy that it is.
“Dreamers aren’t lazy. the rich asshole is lazy!” McIntosh noted on MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes” Tuesday night.
During a White House meeting with law enforcement representatives and members of Congress, the rich asshole actually declared that he’d “love to see a shutdown” if Republicans remain so intransigent on the issue of immigration reform.
But as McIntosh noted, “He hasn’t even bothered to learn what happens when that happens!” Nor has he apparently absorbed any lessons whatsoever from the very recent GOP-engineered shutdown over this very topic.
And even some members of the rich asshole’s own party are publicly breaking with him over the potential of another shutdown.
“We’re starting to see the first fraying of Republicans who are chafing at this idea, because they have to stand for midterms in November,” McIntosh pointed out. “Barbara Comstock stood up today to the president’s face — Republican from Virginia — and said, ‘We don’t need a shutdown over this.’ That’s unusual.”
And if the rich asshole “keeps grandstanding and bloviating like this, I think we’re going to see more of them peel off.”
For the rich asshole, a shutdown probably just looks like a chance for another vacation, when he can spend time lashing out on Twitter and taking painfully obvious fake “working” photos.
But hundreds of thousands of American lives are in the balance here — people who work harder than the rich asshole on any given day, and who deserve far better than having their futures toyed with in the rich asshole’s twisted political gamesmanship.
His refusal to do his job is already causing some Republicans to call him out. And if Kelly wants to root out “laziness” in this country, he can start in the Oval Office.
One week later, the rich asshole is still wallowing in his petulant anger over not getting praise from Democrats for his first State of the Union address.
some rich asshole’s first State of the Union address drew dismal ratings, netting him 8 million fewer viewers than President Barack Obama’s first address in 2010.
But rather than examine his own flaws that may have led to such poor numbers, the rich asshole is taking a different response and continuing to attack Democrats for not applauding him.
the rich asshole, who tried to cue Democrats to stand and clap in the middle of his speech, sparked outrage on Monday by calling people who stayed motionless during his speech “treasonous.”
Now he’s taken it one step further with a re-election campaign ad featuring audio of the speech interspersed with stony-faced footage of several Democrats: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, House Whip Steny Hoyer, Senate Whip Dick Durbin, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Sen. Cory Booker, and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders — complete with snidely pointed captions.
“President the rich asshole asked Democrats to join him in standing up for America. Instead they just sat there … and sat there … and sat there … Disrespecting our people. Disrespecting our country. It’s disgraceful.”
The petulance and insecurity on display in this ad may be all too predictable, but it is stunning nonetheless.
When a Republican congressman screamed “You lie!” at Obama during his 2009 address to Congress, Obama coolly continued without feeling the need to insult anyone afterward.
If the rich asshole wanted Democrats to applaud, he might have tried devoting less of the speech to attacking immigrants and black athletes and hyping corporate tax cuts. One of the only issues he mentioned at the speech with cross-party appeal was paid family leave — for which his administration’s proposal involves cutting Social Security.
With the rich asshole, no failure in leadership ever seems to be his fault. In this case, it is Democrats and their decision not to put their hands together for him who he is pathetically trying to blame for his own shortcomings.
‘We become more North Korean every day’: CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin slams the rich asshole’s ‘un-American’ military parade order
CNN's Jeffrey Toobin (Screengrab)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
CNN’s chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on Tuesday criticized President Donald the rich asshole’s reported orders for a military parade as authoritarian.
“We’re getting more North Korean every day in this country,” he said. “You know, yesterday the president says people who don’t cheer are un-American and treasonous. And today, we’re going to start having big parades with tanks and missiles.”
Americans deserve to choose “whether they want to have that kind of country,” he argued.
“I mean, we have a country where we celebrate our troops,” Toobin said. “When they come home from battle in lower Manhattan and we throw ticker tape.”
He then used the rich asshole’s own words to drive his point home.
“The idea in peacetime, simply to have tanks roll through the streets of Washington, that’s—to use a phrase that the president likes to use, in my experience, that’s in my experience un-American,” Toobin concluded.
Watch below, via CNN:
"There is no excuse for him to fail to [testify] — except of course that he is becoming increasingly desperate as the investigative vise tightens around the Oval Office."
As the Russia probe continues to inch its way closer to the Oval Office, some rich asshole is increasingly desperate to undermine the progress of special counsel Robert Mueller and his team of investigators. From the firing of senior FBI leadership to last week’s failed memo stunt, the rich asshole has shown that cooperating with the investigation is the last thing on his priority list.
The latest sign of the rich asshole’s desperation comes from his lawyers, who are reportedly urging him to refuse an interview with special counsel Mueller.
“His lawyers are concerned that the president, who has a history of making false statements and contradicting himself, could be charged with lying to investigators,” according to The New York Times.
But according to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), if the rich asshole refuses to testify, he’ll be subpoenaed by a grand jury. At that point, the rich asshole would have to invoke the Fifth Amendment if he doesn’t want to talk — a move that would be a “profound sign adding to the case for obstruction,” Blumenthal told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Monday night.
But the rich asshole may find himself facing legal consequences regardless of what he does.
On the one hand, if the rich asshole testifies, he puts himself at risk of being charged for lying to federal investigators. On the other hand, if refuses to testify, he may end up bolstering the obstruction case building against him.
Although the rich asshole has the legal right to refuse to be interviewed and to invoke the Fifth Amendment, “Politically and ethically, there really is no excuse for him to fail to be forthcoming in this investigation — except of course that he is becoming increasingly desperate as the investigative vise tightens around the Oval Office,” Blumenthal noted.
“There is now a credible case of obstruction of justice against the president,” said the Democratic senator, who previously served as a U.S. attorney and attorney general for the state of Connecticut.
Blumenthal implied that the rich asshole is likely aware of the legal jeopardy he is in, and said this may explain why the rich asshole is acting in a way “that suggests he’s either delusional, desperate, or both.”
Video Player
00:00
01:21
Besides the legal implications, “Rejecting an interview with Mr. Mueller also carries political consequences,” The New York Times noted. “It would be certain to prompt accusations that the president is hiding something, and a court fight could prolong the special counsel inquiry, casting a shadow over Republicans as November’s midterm elections approach or beyond into the president’s re-election campaign.”
This is the second time in a day that the rich asshole has found himself between a rock and a hard place.
Earlier on Monday, the GOP-controlled House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously to publish the Democratic rebuttal to the overhyped GOP memo released by the White House last week.
Now, the rich asshole must decide whether to authorize the release of the counter-memo — a document that is widely expected to discredit the contents of the GOP memo — or keep it hidden, which would lend support to allegations that the rich asshole declassified sensitive intelligence and risked national security for the sole purpose of providing political cover for himself.
Adding insult to injury, the rich asshole can no longer point to the economy to distract from his legal troubles. On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its largest single-day point drop ever — marking the first time during the rich asshole’s presidency that he has refused to take credit for the stock market.
If what they say is true — that when it rains, it pours — the rich asshole may want to invest in a good umbrella.
For a memo that Republicans were so desperate to make public, House Speaker Paul Ryan suddenly seems notably reluctant to even discuss it.
House Speaker Paul Ryan was pressed by reporters on Tuesday as to whether or not the GOP’s FBI smear memo somehow “vindicates” some rich asshole, as the rich asshole himself has claimed.
But Ryan had nothing but awkward and unconvincing responses, before he simply gave up and made for the exit.
The memo was widely seen as a dud, especially after right-wing House Republicans hyped the memo as “bigger than Watergate” and claimed officials would be sent to prison after its release.
But Ryan can’t afford to offend the rich asshole on the matter — or on any matter.
So when held to account by the press, Ryan tried to dodge the question and change the topic, claiming the memo was somehow all about civil liberties.
He then resorted to abruptly ending the Q&A session, ignoring further questions and making a hasty exit.
The failed memo has quickly become an anchor around Ryan’s neck.
As speaker of the Republican-control House, it was Ryan who allowed the memo charade to get out of control. And it was Ryan who allowed the House Intelligence Committee to rip up decades of protocol in terms of how documents are released to the public.
“Mr. Ryan bears full responsibility for the deterioration of congressional oversight of intelligence operations,” a Washington Post editorial recently stressed.
In a follow-up condemnation on Tuesday, the Post continued to hammer Ryan’s handling of the matter.
“Mr. Ryan should now publicly insist that the president approve the release of the Democratic response,” the Post declared. “He also should remove Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the loose-cannon chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who is apparently preparing more memos for release.”
Further, the Post noted, Ryan “should bring up legislation to shield special counsel Robert S. Mueller III from any White House attempt to undermine or fire him.”
Ryan is an architect of the GOP’s failed memo strategy. He can’t just walk away from it now.
‘Praise Be to Dear Leader’: Internet horrified by the rich asshole’s ‘authoritarian BS’ after he requests a military parade
President some rich asshole marching through his inaugural parade with First Lady Melania the rich asshole. Image via screengrab.
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
As soon as news broke that President Donald the rich asshole ordered high-ranking military officials to plan a parade in his honor, Twitter reacted with predictable disgust.
“If he wanted to take part in a military parade,” one user noted, “maybe he shouldn’t have dodged the draft.”
If he wanted to take part in a military parade, maybe he shouldn’t have dodged the draft. twitter.com/jdawsey1/statu…
NBC news correspondent Steve Kornacki noted that the last time the US held a military parade was nearly 27 years ago in 1991.
“Enough of this authoritarian BS,” yet another user noted. “the rich asshole doesn’t want to emulate France. He wants to emulate North Korea. And pre-war Germany.”
Are the receipts from Mar-a-lago going to pay for this? Are the Koch brothers? NO! Enough of this authoritarian BS. Trump doesn't want to emulate France. He wants to emulate North Korea. And pre-war Germany. twitter.com/jdawsey1/statu…
Check out more responses to the president’s dictatorial request below:
From back then: pic.twitter.com/D1MLjwd32w
Here’s what it cost the last time we did a big dumb military parade: nyti.ms/2yazfi1 pic.twitter.com/Ot6B8v7SVL
Spoiled rich boy demands he be able to play with his toys if he can’t even use a small nuke for fun. The good people of a once proud nation continue to watch and hope this doesn’t end in dictatorial rule. twitter.com/kylegriffin1/s…
Since people didn’t show up for his inauguration, Trump wants to re-stage it with people who he can order to show up. washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…
Military parades are for insecure countries. They're the national equivalent of the mid-life-crisis sports car. twitter.com/jdawsey1/statu…
the rich asshole orders high-ranking Pentagon officials to hold a ‘grand military parade’ through the streets of DC for him
US President-elect some rich asshole speaks during a press conference January 11, 2017 at the rich asshole Tower in New York. AFP / Timothy A. CLARY
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
A known fan of pomp and circumstance, President Donald the rich asshole has ordered the Pentagon to hold a grand military parade through Washington, D.C. on his behalf later this year.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that during a January 18 meeting in the Pentagon’s “tank” room (typically reserved for top-secret military discussions with the Joint Chiefs of Staff) the president’s previously “abstract desire” for a military parade appeared to become a directive.
“The marching orders were: I want a parade like the one in France,” a military official with knowledge of the meeting told the Post. “This is being worked at the highest levels of the military.”
In 2017, the rich asshole attended a military parade during a September visit to France to meet with new French President Emmanuel Macron. The event so impressed him that he asked White House chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine general, if they could plan a similar parade for the 4th of July the following year.
the rich asshole wants a shutdown
"Let's have a shutdown.... I'd love to see a shutdown."
During a meeting at the White House on Tuesday, President the rich asshole said that he would “love to see a shutdown” if Congress couldn’t reach a deal on immigration and border security before the next spending deadline.
“If we don’t change the legislation, if we don’t get rid of these loopholes where killers are allowed to come into our country and continue to kill — gang members, and we’re just talking about MS-13, there are many gang members that we don’t mention — if we don’t change it, let’s have a shutdown. We’ll do a shutdown,” he told reporters. “It’s worth it for our country. I’d love to see a shutdown if we don’t get this stuff taken care of.”
A short while later, he added, “If we don’t straighten out our border, we don’t have a country. Without borders we don’t have a country. So would I shut it down over this issue? Yes. I can’t speak for our great representatives here, but I have a feeling they may agree with me.”
TRUMP: "If we don't get rid of loopholes where killers are allowed to come into our country and kill, gang members -- we are talking about MS-13, there are many gangs that weren't mentioned. If we don't change it, let's have a shutdown. It's worth it for our country." pic.twitter.com/CRq5GwRp4x
More TRUMP: "If we don't straighten out our border, we don't have a country. Without borders we don't have a country. So would I shut it down over this issue? Yes." pic.twitter.com/sycJZ39NZ4
the rich asshole’s comments come as the House of Representatives prepares to hold a vote on a spending bill that would continue funding parts of the federal government through September, and other agencies through March 23.
Congress previously voted to pass a temporary spending measure on January 22, after initially allowing the government to shut down for several days because Democrats and Republicans could not reach consensus on a deal to protect some immigrants from deportation. That continuing resolution funded the government through February 8.
As the Washington Post noted this week, the bill currently before the House would boost funding for the military but leave other departments and agencies “running on fumes until March.” The Senate is not expected to pass the bill.
the rich asshole’s comments on Tuesday stand in stark contrast with his previous remarks on the issue.
The president previous blamed the January shutdown on Democrats, many of whom voted no on a previous stopgap measure because it did not include an adequate fix for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. the rich asshole rescinded DACA in September last year, saying that it was up to Congress to find a permanent fix before protections ran out on March 5.
At the time, he claimed that their “no” votes and the subsequent funding lapse threatened the country’s safety.
Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border. They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead. #WeNeedMoreRepublicansIn18 in order to power through mess!
“Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border,” he tweeted on January 20, amid the shutdown. “They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead. #WeNeedMoreRepublicansIn18 in order to power through mess!”
Days earlier, on January 18, the rich asshole suggested that anyone who allowed the shutdown to happen would be endangering American troops.
“A government shutdown [would] be devastating to our military…something the Dems care very little about!” he tweeted.
Despite previously claiming that he would sign any bipartisan immigration legislation that reached his desk, the rich asshole rejected a deal struck between Senate Democrats and Republicans in early January, saying that it didn’t provide enough funding for his proposed border wall or move far enough toward a “merit-based” immigration system. The deal in question would have provided “Dreamers” — undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children — with a permanent solution and provided increased border security as the rich asshole had requested.
On Monday, the president once again knocked down a bipartisan immigration proposal by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Chris Coons (D-DE) that would have shielded Dreamers from deportation while simultaneously strengthening border security.
“Any deal on DACA that does not include STRONG border security and the desperately needed WALL is a total waste of time,” he tweeted. “March 5th is rapidly approaching and the Dems seem not to care about DACA. Make a deal!”
“Here’s the truth, the gov't doesn’t shutdown” apne.ws/16lbI86 via @AP. All essential services continue. Don't believe lies.
the rich asshole has argued in favor of government shutdowns in the past, tweeting in May last year the country “need[ed] a good ‘shutdown’ … to fix” gridlock on Capitol Hill. In 2013, he claimed that allowing the government to shut down was less concerning than lawmakers had suggested, tweeting that September, “All essential services continue. Don’t believe lies.”
UPDATE, 4:30 p.m.: In a statement to reporters on Tuesday afternoon, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed that President the rich asshole “isn’t looking for” a shutdown, despite the president saying he would “love to see a shutdown” just hours earlier.
“The only people that have caused a shutdown are the Democrats,” Sanders said.
the rich asshole's attack on Democrats as "treasonous" is not a laughing matter. But the White House clearly doesn't get that.
Criticism of some rich asshole’s outrageous accusation that Democrats were “treasonous” and “un-American” for not applauding his State of the Union address left his spokesperson flat-footed and lashing out at the rich asshole’s critics.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was clearly unprepared to respond to criticism of Trumps’s inflammatory and offensive attack.
At Tuesday’s daily briefing, CBS News’ Major Garrett read a quote from Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), who said, “I have seen the president’s most ardent defenders use the now-weary argument that the President’s comments were meant as a joke. Just sarcasm. Only tongue-in-cheek. But treason is not a punchline.”
Garrett asked Sanders whether she agreed with Flake, that “treason, or treasonous, is not a joking matter.”
Instead of agreeing that no one, least of all the president, should joking accuse critics of treason, Sanders was stunned into awkward silence.
“Honestly, I’m not going to respond directly to Sen. Flake’s comments,” Sanders said eventually. “I don’t care what Sen. Flake has to say. I don’t think his constituents do, either, and that’s why his numbers are in the tank. The president was clearly joking with his comments.”
Garrett’s question, of course, was not whether the rich asshole was joking, but whether accusing political opponents of “treason” — particularly for refusing to applaud a speech — is in any way appropriate or funny.
It’s not a surprise that Sanders didn’t know how to answer the question. Last July, when the rich asshole addressed a crowd of law enforcement officials and openly encouraged more police brutality against “thugs,” telling them not “be too nice,” Sanders laughed it off as “a joke.”
There is nothing funny about the rich asshole’s accusations, and Sanders’ refusal to say so shows just how willing she is to excuse the rich asshole’s behavior, no matter how inappropriate.
As Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Tuesday in a powerful speech condemning the rich asshole’s comments, “This is not a dictatorship, it’s a democracy, and we do not have to stand for a reality show host masquerading as president of the United States of America.”
some rich asshole is pushing America toward another government shutdown, but even a member of his own party is publicly trying to shame him out of it.
some rich asshole pushed for another government shutdown while hosting a White House meeting with law enforcement, and was almost immediately rebuked by a member of his own party.
“I’d love to see a shutdown,” the rich asshole declared.
the rich asshole has proposed an unworkable border wall, while Democrats want relief for immigrant Dreamers and their families who have been thrown into chaos by the rich asshole’s anti-immigrant directives.
But his eagerness for another shutdown was quickly shot down by Virginia Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock.
“We don’t need a government shutdown on this,” Comstock said, adding, “both sides have learned that a government shutdown is bad.”
Comstock’s vocal repudiation of the rich asshole, directly to his face, reflects concerns many Republicans may have about losing seats heading into the midterm elections.
Republicans are already facing headwinds, and are resigning at a historically high rate rather than face elections where they are weighed down by the rich asshole’s toxic reputation.
Virginia has already demonstrated that there is a strong anti-the rich asshole vote there, when Democrats won statewide and up and down the ticket in last year’s elections.
Comstock represents the 10th Congressional District in Virginia and won her race by a narrow margin in 2016. She is expected to face a close race in November in a seat that has been rated a “toss-up” by congressional observers.
What Comstock understands is something that the rich asshole does not or cannot: His party is unpopular, particularly with him at the helm. So is another government shutdown. The combination of the two is something that could wipe out many Republican seats.
It is no wonder she took an unusual step and defied him, right to his face and in front of the whole world.
EU will only make trade deals with nations that ratify Paris climate agreement
The United States would be excluded.
The European Union will no longer make trade deals with the United States if President the rich asshole follows through on withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, according to a French official whose comments were endorsed by the European Commission.
Addressing the French parliament on Thursday, French foreign affairs minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne drew a line in the sand.
“One of our main demands is that any country who signs a trade agreement with EU should implement the Paris Agreement on the ground,” said Lemoyne. “No Paris Agreement, no trade agreement. The [United States] knows what to expect.”
EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström tweeted support Lemoyne’s comments on Thursday.
“Yes Paris deal reference needed in all EU trade agreement today,” she wrote.
[BREAKING] No #TTIP without respect of the Paris Agreement on #Climate. cf. Declaration of the French secretary of state @JBLemoyne in the Parliament @AssembleeNat this afternoon ! Do you agree @MalmstromEU ? veblen-institute.org/Pas-de-TTIP-sa… … pic.twitter.com/JGi5XMWf7w
Yes Paris deal reference needed in all EU trade agreement today. In Japan agreement and will be in with Mexico and Mercosur..
A day later, a spokesperson for the European Commission — which manages the EU’s day-to-day business — elaborated on Malmström’s stance while voicing support for the comments as well.
“Since the deal we concluded last year with Japan, this chapter contains an explicit reference to the ratification and actual implementation of the Paris climate deal,” the spokesperson told Climate Home News. “This point is a priority for the EU and it would be difficult to imagine concluding an important trade deal without an ambitious chapter on trade and sustainable development attached to it.”
That assertion means that any country that fails to ratify the Paris agreement — a landmark accord that was signed by virtually every country in the world in an effort to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius this century — will be shut out of new trade deals.
The implications could be significant. the rich asshole announced that the United States would withdraw from the agreement in June, a process that won’t take effect until 2020. At the time of the rich asshole’s announcement, only two countries had opted not to sign the agreement: Nicaragua argued that the deal did not go far enough in preventing global temperature rise, and Syria declined because it was in the midst of a civil war. Both countries have since indicated that they will sign the agreement, making the United States the only country to opt out.
One immediate victim of mandatory ratification status would likely be the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), an agreement still in negotiations between the United States and the EU. TTIP is meant to promote trade and encourage economic growth between the two powers, but talks stalled in 2016 following the rich asshole’s election and the White House has shown no interest in reviving them. Should ratifying the Paris agreement become an additional prerequisite, TTIP would likely be in jeopardy.
Other countries would also be impacted by the EU’s decision. More than two dozen nations are actively interested in doing business with the EU. While the United States is the only country looking to exit the Paris agreement, pledging to sign the pact doesn’t mean countries have all ratified it. At present, 174 countries had ratified, out of 197 signatories.
Two prominent global powers that have yet to ratify the agreement are Russia and Turkey, both of which would be impacted by any decision to tie ratification status to future trade deals. Turkey in particular has long pushed for EU membership, something from which the country’s increasingly authoritarian leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has eased away. Erdoğan said in July that Turkey would be making no moves to ratify the deal following the rich asshole’s decision to exit the agreement and argues that developing countries require additional funds in order to meet the deal’s demands — something the rich asshole has resisted. Russia, meanwhile, has said the deal will likely be ratified in 2019.
Some legal experts have cast doubt over the European Commission’s commitment to standing by its assertions. As a body focused on trade liberalization, environmental concerns are not always a top priority. But the EU has signaled more broadly that a commitment to the Paris agreement will be key in future deals. That means countries agreeing to invest in fighting climate change will have an edge — while countries like the United States will be left behind.
the rich asshole smeared black lawmakers who wouldn't applaud him, calling them "treasonous." Now, one of them lets him have it.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) responded directly to some rich asshole’s calling black lawmakers who wouldn’t applaud him “treasonous,” rejecting the president’s dangerous and divisive attack.
At an official White House event in Ohio Monday, the rich asshole said it was “treasonous” and “un-American” when black lawmakers did not applaud him during his State of the Union address, when he tried to take credit for economic gains made under President Barack Obama.
“Can we call that treason? Why not!” the rich asshole said. “I mean, they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.”
Speaking on the floor of the House Tuesday, Jeffries used time afforded to lawmakers for one-minute speeches to respond to the rich asshole’s attack and to the White House’s spin that it was merely a joke.
“Treason is not a laughing matter. It is a serious crime embedded in the Constitution, punishable by death,” he said.
This was in response to deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley, who said the rich asshole’s comments were “tongue-in-cheek.” Gidley represents the rich asshole’s press operation, again forced to go out and play cleanup after one of his outrageous remarks.
“Is it treason for a presidential campaign to meet with a hostile foreign power to sell out our democracy and rig the election?” Jeffries asked. “Is it treason for a presidential campaign to meet with Russian spies who promised information that was negative about a political opponent, and then failed to report that meeting to law enforcement officials? Is it treason for your former national security adviser to be a Russian asset, sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue doing the bidding of Vladimir Putin?”
He concluded on a strong note to the rich asshole: “How dare you lecture us about treason! This is not a dictatorship, it’s a democracy, and we do not have to stand for a reality show host masquerading as president of the United States of America.”
the rich asshole has repeatedly used his bully pulpit to demonize and threaten his political rivals and the free press in a matter completely unhinged from American tradition and values.
Elected officials like Jeffries have made clear that what the rich asshole is doing is beyond the pale and are refusing to be quiet about it.
the rich asshole’s 2020 campaign just released a video accusing ‘treasonous’ Democrats of ‘disrespecting our people’ by not clapping
President some rich asshole at the State of the Union address
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
President some rich asshole’s 2020 re-election campaign on Tuesday uploaded a 60-second video further attacking Democrats for refusing to clap for him during his State of the Union address last week.
In a speech in Ohio yesterday, the president suggested that Democrats not clapping for him may be “treasonous.”
“President some rich asshole asked Democrats to join him in standing up for America,” text at the bottom of the video —which superimposed “patriotic” music over a clip from the president’s speech — reads.
“Instead, they just sat there, and sat there,” the chyron reads, “disrespecting our people, disrespecting our country.”
The video highlights the faces of multiple Democrats in the audience, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the former of which the rich asshole referred to in his Ohio “treasonous” speech.
Watch below:
the rich asshole-backing columnist who called migrants ‘feral’ can’t leave South Africa after taking ketamine and ‘spreading racial hatred’
Conservative shock jock Katie Hopkins, image via screengrab.
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
A conservative British columnist and fan of President some rich asshole has been detained in South Africa after taking ketamine and being accused of “spreading racial hatred” by government authorities.
The Evening Standard reported Tuesday that “independent journalist” Katie Hopkins traveled to South Africa on a fact-finding mission to discover evidence of white farmers being killed by their black counterparts in the former apartheid state. When she tried to leave the country, however, she said her passport had been “marked for spreading racial hatred.”
Earlier in the week, the Standard noted, Hopkins collapsed in the streets of Johannesburg after taking ketamine, a horse tranquilizer used by some to get high. She claimed to have taken the tranquilizer for her epilepsy.
Hopkins went on to use the detainment to continue to promote and ask for donations for her documentary on supposed “military-style” attacks on white members of the country’s agriculture industry.
“Amazing security co-ordination from a country where police do not respond to white farm murders because they are ‘on lunch break,'” she said.
Hopkins is known to audiences in the United Kingdom for her racial animus. In 2015, she wrote a column touted on the cover of The Sun where she said migrants from Africa should be met on Europe’s shores with guns, later calling them “a plague of feral humans.”
Watch Hopkins’ account of her detainment below:
No comments:
Post a Comment