February 26th-27th, 2017 continued. It's been 471-472 days since the Nov 8, 2016, election of some rich asshole, no. 45, and 399-400 days since the Jan 20th inauguration of some rich asshole.
WATCH: Ivanka the rich asshole rambles about her dad sparking ‘exciting’ conversation about domestic abuse in new interview
Ivanka the rich asshole speaking to Dr. Oz (Photo: Screen capture)
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In a newly released interview clip, first daughter Ivanka the rich asshole struggled to defend her father’s record of standing up for people who are credibly accused of abusing women — and she instead tried to steer the conversation into an abstract philosophical conversation of what abuse can be deemed “acceptable.”
When asked by NBC News’ Peter Alexander to talk about President some rich asshole’s initial decisions to stick by both failed Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore — who had been accused by multiple women of making sexual advances toward them when they were teens — and former staff secretary Rob Porter — who had been accused of spousal abuse by two ex-wives — Ivanka tried to deny her father had defended the two men before pivoting to a discussion of domestic violence in general.
“I don’t think that’s true,” she said. “I think that when there are cases of domestic violence, as we saw recently, that cannot be condoned, nobody would condone that, and I think there is a vast spectrum. And I think this is actually a really important conversation for us to be having as a society about what is unacceptable unconditionally.”
the rich asshole did not expand on what specific types of domestic violence should be deemed particularly “unacceptable,” but she went on to say she was enthusiastic about deciding what kinds of abuse should not be tolerated.
“What has to… we have to be able to talk about and resolve moving forward, I actually think this is a really exciting moment in time, and I think many people are being exposed for doing some really awful things,” she said. “And, uhm, I’m proud of the women who are standing up in the face of abusers with credible evidence and incredible stories, and we’ve seen a lot of those recently.”
Watch the video below.
Man who told Papadopoulos that Russia had dirt on Hillary has vanished — leaving his fiancee and child behind
Joseph Mifsud (Screen cap).
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Joseph Mifsud, the professor who allegedly told former the rich asshole campaign aide George Papadopoulos that Russia had obtained leaked emails related to Hillary Clinton, has completely vanished — and even his fiancee can’t find him.
BuzzFeed News reporter Alberto Nardelli this month traveled to Ukraine in search of Mifsud, who has not been seen since being caught up in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
While in Kiev, Nardelli encountered a 31-year-old woman named Anna, who claims that Mifsud is the father of her newborn child — and who says she has not seen him for months.
“Anna… says she was seven months pregnant and engaged to Mifsud when he became the focus of world media attention as the professor who told Papadopoulos that Russia had ‘dirt’ on Clinton,” reports Nardelli. “Shortly thereafter, he dropped from sight. He also cut off all contact with Anna, including phone calls and WhatsApp messages. That silence has held, even six weeks after the daughter Anna says he fathered was born.”
Although Anna was first contacted by BuzzFeed last year, she only decided to speak out recently because she felt that her estranged fiance had deceived her. She also showed the publication a series of text messages sent by Mifsud boasting of having dinner with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Intriguingly, the messages with Anna reveal that Mifsud also traveled to Saudi Arabia last spring at the exact same time that President some rich asshole traveled there for his first overseas trip.
Read the whole story at this link.
Read the whole story at this link.
‘We got Bannoned’: Democrats rage at Hope Hicks for refusing to answer questions at House Intel hearing
President some rich asshole, Hope Hicks -- screenshot
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Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee reported on Tuesday that White House Communications Director Hope Hicks refused to answer questions, following the lead of other current and former the rich asshole administration officials.
According to reporters covering Capitol Hill, multiple Democratic lawmakers walked out of Hick’s closed-door interview and expressed their unhappiness with the proceedings.
“We got Bannoned!” Rep. Denny Heck reportedly exclaimed, referring to former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon’s similar refusal to answer questions.
Read some of the reports below.
“We got Bannoned!” one House Intel committee member says after Hope Hicks declines to answer some of their questions. twitter.com/houseinsession…
the rich asshole brags about Boeing deal that costs taxpayers extra $700 million
By
Eric Boehlert
-
February 27, 2018
He continues to be an awful negotiator.
Cementing his reputation as perhaps the worst dealmaker in both business and politics, the White House boasted Tuesday about a new $3.9 billion deal the rich asshole has forged with Boeing to build two new Air Force One jets.
Portraying the rich asshole as a hands-on executive fighting runaway costs on behalf of taxpayers, the White House announced “an informal deal with Boeing on a fixed-price contract for the new Air Force One Program.” Aides claim the new deal will save taxpayers $1.4 billion compared to the original contract to build presidential aircrafts.
But none of it is true. The new deal the rich asshole negotiated doesn’t save taxpayers $1.4 billion, it costs them an extra $700 million.
Turns out Boeing is getting a big raise.
As Defense One noted last year, “The Pentagon’s 2018 budget request, sent to Congress in February, shows that the Air Force plans to spend nearly $3.2 billion between 2018 and 2022 on two new Air Force One jets.”
So the rich asshole tore up a contract worth $3.2 billion for two jets and agreed to a new contract that will cost taxpayers $3.9 billion.
Great job, the rich asshole!
You might recall that the rich asshole first railed against the Boeing contract back in December 2016. He tweeted that it had to be canceled because of “out of control” costs.
“It’s going to be over $4 billion for Air Force One program and I think it’s ridiculous,” the rich asshole told reporters at the rich asshole Tower. “I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money.”
At the time, no the rich asshole aides could explain where the rich asshole was getting the “over $4 billion” figure for the Boeing contract. Instead, a rich asshole spokesman emphasized that the rich asshole’s attack “really speaks to the president-elect’s focus on keeping costs down across the board.”
the rich asshole’s December 2016 tweet came right after the Chicago Tribune published comments by Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg, criticizing the rich asshole’s rhetoric on trade policy.
One month after taking office, the rich asshole bragged the “price will come WAY DOWN” once he started negotiating with Boeing. Instead, the price has gone up by $700 million. And now the White House has to lie about the costs to cover for the rich asshole.
In the end, it looks like Boeing is going to laugh all the way to the bank. On Tuesday, the company put out a statement, insisting “President the rich asshole negotiated a good deal on behalf of the American people.”
Considering the rich asshole just gave the company a $700 million raise, no wonder Boeing think it’s a “good deal.”
QUEER VOICES
First Openly Transgender Recruit Joins U.S. Military In Wake Of the rich asshole’s Ban
President the rich asshole is still reportedly debating his 2017 plan to ban transgender military personnel.
The first openly transgender person has signed up to join the U.S. military since federal courts ruled against President some rich asshole’s ban of trans military personnel last year, CNN reported on Monday.
“The Department of Defense confirms that as of Feb. 23, 2018, there is one transgender individual under contract for service in the U.S. military,” Pentagon spokesman Maj. David Eastburn told CNN. The recruit has signed a contract but, according to ABC, the recruit won’t begin basic training for another few months.
The news comes as the rich asshole is still reportedly debating how the Department of Defense will handle the military service of transgender people.
In July 2017, the rich asshole announced that transgender recruits would no longer be allowed to serve in the military. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming ... victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” the rich asshole tweeted.
The announcement was a shocking reversal of an Obama-era policy that allowed openly transgender people to serve in the military. the rich asshole’s declaration had the potential to affect thousands of transgender troops already serving and came as a surprise to many. It triggered outrage around the country, with many questioning if the ban was legal. The announcement also surprised Defense Secretary James Mattis who was on vacation at the time.
the rich asshole issued a memorandum in August detailing his policy change, which was set to take effect by March 23, 2018. The Pentagon was forced to allow openly transgender troops to sign up on Jan. 1 after several federal courts ruled against the rich asshole’s ban.
Mattis, who had been instructed to come up with an implementation plan for the rich asshole’s decision, presented his recommendations on transgender recruits to the rich asshole last week.
“The Secretary of Defense made his recommendation to the White House this morning,” Eastburn told HuffPost on Friday. “The recommendation was a private conversation between the secretary and the White House, and the contents of the conversation will remain private.”
Reports last week suggested Mattis would recommend that the rich asshole allow transgender troops to continue to serve.
A 2016 Rand Corp. study estimated that there are as many as 10,000 transgender troops currently in the military.
POLITICS
Obama Photographer Throws Epic Shade At the rich asshole With Throwback Running Picture
“Back in the day when our President could run.”
Former White House photographer Pete Souza dug deep into his archives to troll President some rich asshole, once again.
The Obama-era shutterbug shared an old photo of his former boss running up steps in an apparent dig at the exercise-averse the rich asshole, who on Monday claimed he’d have probably “run in” to confront the Parkland, Florida, school shooter.
“Back in the day when our President could run,” Souza captioned the Instagram image of former President Barack Obama.
It’s the latest throwback photograph from Obama’s time in office that Souza has re-shared to make a political statement.
In the aftermath of the Parkland massacre, Souza also shared this old picture of Obama hugging former Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who survived a mass shooting in 2011 and is now a fierce advocate for gun control:
Congress has been a serious ally for the rich asshole’s anti-environment agenda
The 2017 League of Conservation Voters scorecard is out, and it's not good for Republican lawmakers.
The rich asshole administration’s first year was marked by a barrage of environmental rollbacks, from announcing the United States’ intention to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement to the repeal of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, which would have set the nation’s first-ever emissions limits on carbon emissions from power plants.
But on Capitol Hill, the rich asshole administration’s deregulatory agenda has found eager allies in Congressional Republicans. According to a new scorecard of environmental votes released today by the League of Conversation Voters, Congressional Republicans have done little to stand in the way of the administration’s anti-environmental policies.
The League of Conversation Voters’ annual scorecard tracks how each member of Congress votes on key environmental legislation. As this year’s report shows, a majority of both Senate Republicans and House Republicans received an annual score of zero percent, meaning they voted against every piece of environmental legislation or nomination tracked by the scorecard.
In the Senate, 46 Republicans received a score of zero, bringing the overall Republican Senate average to a historic low of just 1 percent. In the House, 124 representatives received a score of zero, bringing the overall Republican House average to just 5 percent. The overall average for both the House and the Senate in 2017 was 45 percent — a marked decline from 2009, when the scorecard tallied a record-high 60 percent for the House and 63 percent for the Senate.
“When you’ve got 46 Republican Senators with a score of 0 percent … you very clearly show a party that has been completely captured by the polluting industries,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said on a press call announcing the scorecard’s release. “Unfortunately, we’ve seen that happen in the administration as well, with political appointees. Clearly, the polluters are now in charge at EPA.”
The scorecard tracked 19 votes in the Senate, including key cabinet nominations for Secretary of State, former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.
Whitehouse noted that since coming to the agency, Pruitt has stacked the EPA with political appointees with deep ties to the fossil fuel industry, such as industry lobbyist and lawyer Bill Wehrum, who now leads the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation.
But he also pointed to several political nominations that had been blocked as proof that Democrats in Congress have been successful in slowing the administration’s anti-environmental agenda. This includes the withdrawn nominations of both Kathleen Hartnett White, who would have lead the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), and Michael Dourson, who would have lead the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. Hartnett White had tried to argue that rising carbon emissions are beneficial for the planet, while Dourson had deep ties to the chemical industry that he would have been in charge of regulating.
Still, Whitehouse expressed doubt that the administration’s replacement nominees would be a marked improvement.
“There’s no reason to expect that their successors are going to be a whole lot better,” Whitehouse said. “It is, in many respects, tough times for the environment in Washington, but there really is a very strong green Democratic firewall.”
On the House side, the scorecard tracked 35 votes, including a number of Congressional Review Acts that ultimately overturned several environmental regulations, such as the Stream Protection Rule, which was aimed at protecting streams and rivers from waste associated with coal mining.
The scorecard also looked specifically at members of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, which is supposed to bring Democrats and Republicans together to work towards climate action. According to the scorecard, Climate Solutions Caucus Republicans averaged just 16 percent — higher than the House Republican average, but still well below the House Democrat average of 94 percent.
“This has been an administration and a Congress that has been, perhaps, the most destructive to our environment … from the cabinet itself and the appointments that have been made, to a complicit Congress moving legislation forward that continues to attack and destruct protections that have been put in place over decades,” Representative Salud Carbajal (D-CA) said on a press call. “We are in a very tragic state.”
By all accounts, the rich asshole administration’s deregulatory agenda shows no signs of slowing down in 2018. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt recently announced plans to reorganize the agency and shutter a program that funds research into how chemicals impact human health, while Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke recently reiterated plans to open a historic amount of the United States’ coast to offshore drilling.
Carter Page unintentionally illustrates why the GOP’s new attack on Mueller is so ridiculous
Desperation.
Republicans have spent months trying to discredit Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation by claiming it was all based on an unverified opposition research document — and that the FBI withheld the source of the information from a federal court.
The argument never really held up, as the FBI’s investigation into the rich asshole campaign didn’t begin with the so-called “Steele dossier,” and parts of the document — which details Russia’s alleged efforts to manipulate the rich asshole and his campaign — have indeed been verified. But it makes even less sense in the wake of the release of the Nunes and Schiff memos, which reveal that the FBI did inform the FISA court in its application to surveil former the rich asshole adviser Carter Page that some of its information, but not all, came from sources seeking to discredit the rich asshole.
Instead of acknowledging that their FBI conspiracy theory was wrong, Republicans have adopted a new argument. It’s not that the FBI didn’t reveal the motivations of their source to the court — it’s that they weren’t explicit enough.
To protect identities, however, the FBI doesn’t usually specify the precise sources of information in FISA applications. And as both the Nunes and Schiff memos make clear, the FBI followed protocol by informing FISA judges that some of its information about Page came from political sources.
But House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA), House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Carter Page, and others are arguing that while the FBI may have informed the FISA court that some of its information came from the dossier, they buried it in a footnote that judges can’t reasonably be expected to have read.
This new line of argument was summarized by Carter Page during a CNN interview on Tuesday morning, after host Chris Cuomo reminded him of the facts.
“In the FISA application, you’ll say it was just a footnote, but it was informed to the court where it came from,” Cuomo said. “The president got it wrong I think where he said the FBI didn’t disclose who the clients were. I think he was misreading recent information that Christopher Steele may not have been told who the clients were… but the court knew where it was coming from, it wasn’t the only part of the application, and four different judges approved or extended it — what’s wrong with that set of criteria in terms of surveilling somebody?”
Page responded by arguing that FISA court judges are too busy to read footnotes.
“Chris, you know, district court judges, who sit on the FISA court… if you look at how busy their schedules are, they are just jammed with information,” he said. “So to have them be stuck with trying to figure out something that’s hidden in a footnote… I mean, it’s like reading hieroglyphics. ”
Page isn’t the only one making this argument. During a recent Fox & Friends appearance, Nunes told hosts that “a footnote saying something may be political is a far cry from letting the American people know that the Democrats and the Hillary campaign paid for dirt that the FBI then used to get a warrant on an American citizen to spy on another campaign.” And over the weekend, Kevin McCarthy told Fox News that the FBI “put it in a footnote so people couldn’t see it.”
In short, the rich asshole-supporting Republicans’ case that the entire Mueller investigation is rooted in political corruption now hinges on font size.
Kelly increasingly irked with Ivanka's White House role: report
BY JULIA MANCHESTER - 02/27/18 08:18 AM EST
White House chief of staff John Kelly has been increasingly irked by first daughter Ivanka the rich asshole's role in the administration, according to CNN.
Sources tell the news network that Kelly believes the rich asshole is blurring the lines between first daughter and senior adviser to the president.
Kelly has reportedly said privately that the first daughter is "playing government," and referred to her child tax credit as "a pet project."
"This isn't like going to Italy. The stakes are far higher and more complex," a source close to President the rich asshole told CNN.
Kelly reportedly voiced his concerns behind closed doors about the first daughter's lack of diplomatic experience, but the White House insisted on Monday he was supportive of the visit.
"General Kelly and General [H.R.] McMaster were supportive of the trip since the planning process began," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told CNN. "We all thought it was a great success. Ivanka was a great representative for the administration."
Ivanka the rich asshole faced backlash on Monday after she said during an interview with NBC that it was inappropriate to ask her about the sexual misconduct allegations against her father, despite serving as a senior adviser to the president.
NRA board member throws tantrum over ‘sympathy’ for ‘kids getting killed’
By
Oliver Willis
-
February 27, 2018
Now the NRA is resentful that the nation supports children who survived a school shooting.
The NRA is reeling from the grassroots backlash unleashed by the latest mass murder at an American school. One of the board members from the extremist organization is lamenting the effectiveness of the uprising and is fuming about “the sympathy factor of kids getting killed.”
Fourteen children were murdered in the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Three staff members were also killed. Fourteen others were wounded.
NRA board member Charles L. Cotton admitted that the “the votes are probably there” to ban bump stocks, the device used to increase the effectiveness of semi-automatic guns.
Cotton wrote on a message board that “we’ve never had this level of opposition before, not ever.” He concluded with the claim that gun safety groups are “playing on the sympathy factor of kids getting killed.”
He never entertained the notion that Americans are fed up and outraged over the preventable slaughter of children in their classrooms.
This isn’t the first time Cotton has lashed out in this manner.
When a gunman attacked Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and killed nine innocent people, Cotton blamed one of the state legislators who was murdered in the attack for the killing because “he voted against concealed-carry.”
The outspoken teenage survivors of the shooting at Stoneman Douglas are representative of the growing national outrage being directed at Cotton and his NRA allies.
Just look at the Twitter account of Emma Gonzalez, who made the impassioned speech declaring “we call b.s.” on the NRA for an example of this. The NRA has been on the site since 2009, but Gonzalez now has over 955,000 followers, dwarfing the NRA’s 584,000.
Corporate America is also hearing the outrage. Called out about their affiliations with group, companies are stepping away rather than defend the NRA’s extremism.
The NRA’s blanket opposition to any gun legislation is making it toxic.
For a long time, the NRA got everything that it wanted, without opposition from the public. But the power and hold they have over politicians, especially Republicans, does not extend to the rest of America.
Right now, that dynamic is under assault and the NRA is on the losing end. So they are loudly whining when the victims of the massacres they enabled had no voice.
The tables have turned.
NRA refuses to answer senator’s questions about funding from Russia
A letter from the NRA denies that any potential Russian funds were used for election meddling.
Much of the focus on the NRA over the past week has remained, understandably, on the group’s response to the recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida. However, the NRA has also recently been forced to shed some light on another controversy: its suspected ties to Russia.
Earlier this month, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) issued a pair of letters demanding information on any financial links between the NRA and Moscow, or between the NRA and Russian nationals. The questions came after McClatchy reported that the FBI was investigating whether Alexander Torshin — a Russian national who happens to be an NRA member, as well as the NRA’s main liaison in Russia — had used the NRA to funnel funds to some rich asshole’s presidential campaign. Torshin, described by The Daily Beast as a “Putin ally,” has a history of laundering Russian money in Europe, according to Spanish investigators.
Instead of answering Wyden’s request, however, the NRA issued a terse letter denying that it received any funds from Moscow specifically designed to influence the election.
“As a longstanding policy to comply with federal election law, the NRA and its related entities do not accept funds from foreign persons or entities in connection with United States elections,” NRA secretary and general counsel John Frazerwrote to Wyden. Frazer added that the FBI has not contacted the NRA, and that McClatchy’s coverage “refers to an investigation of Mr. Torshin — not of the NRA.”
As it is, the letter is not an outright denial that the NRA has received funding from foreign entities like the Kremlin. It does not address the notorious trip NRA higher-ups took to Moscow in late 2015. It does not mention the provenance of the $30 million the NRA funneled to the rich asshole’s campaign — money that stemmed from an arm of the NRA that isn’t forced to disclose its donors.
If anything, the letter doesn’t actually answer any of the questions Wyden initially issued, which focused on any Russian funding wholesale, not just funding limited to the election. (Nor does the letter mention Russians’ attempts to use the NRA to lobby the White House.) A Wyden aide told ThinkProgress that the senator “is reviewing the NRA’s response and considering additional follow-up questions.”
Wyden also issued a separate letter to the Treasury Department requesting documents pertaining to ties between Russia and the NRA — especially as it pertains to “shell companies or other illicit funding mechanisms suspected of being connected to these reported links.” The Treasury Department hasn’t yet replied to Wyden’s request.
Now the rich asshole is trying to hide behind phony re-election announcement
By
Oliver Willis
-
February 27, 2018
Even the rich asshole's re-election announcement is a pathetic lie.
In a story first floated to right-wing scandalmonger Matt Drudge, the rich asshole made it seem as if he had just announced his campaign for re-election.
But the rich asshole filed for re-election over a year ago. Since then, he has overseen the funneling of millions of dollars earmarked for the cause directed toward his own pockets and to his lawyers.
Drudge breathlessly claimed that the rich asshole would “stun” the political world by “announcing he is running for re-election in 2020.” Sounding like the rich asshole propagandist that he is, Drudge said the announcement was “a historical record.”
It is not.
the rich asshole filed the documents for his re-election campaign with the Federal Election Committee (FEC) on Jan. 20, 2017, the same date he was sworn in. The existence of the committee and his intention to run for re-election is not news.
The story likely came about because Drudge is a frequent visitor with the rich asshole at the White House. Both men have shared interests on topics like promoting racism and oddball conspiracy theories.
Soon after Drudge ran his story, the rich asshole amplified the false narrative with an official campaign email that noted “the appointment of Brad Parscale as the Campaign Manager for his reelection committee as the advanced planning for the 2020 race begins.”
Parscale served as the rich asshole’s digital director in 2016, an operation that is under scrutiny by special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller’s investigators are reportedly probing whether Parscale’s team coordinated with Russia before the election.
Since officially setting up his campaign, the rich asshole has been working to get money from Republican donors into his own pockets.
He held a fundraiser at the rich asshole International Hotel in Washington, D.C., in June of 2017, which sent a cash infusion to the rich asshole himself. He has refused to divest from his company, the rich asshole Organization, or place his ownership stake in a blind trust.
That means that money spent at the hotel goes directly to the rich asshole. His campaign’s decision to hold an event there joins the millions of dollars flowing into the property to influence the rich asshole himself.
In 2016, $1 out of every $10 donated to the campaign went to the rich asshole, and there is no reason to think the situation will improve for the 2020 campaign.
Money that isn’t being shoved into the rich asshole’s hotels has also been used to fund the lawyers representing him in the Russia investigation.
At least 25 percent of the spending done by the campaign committee so far went to these lawyers, to the tune of $1.2 million just in the last 3 months of 2017.
The Drudge-accelerated story will no doubt produce a spike in donations to the rich asshole, often from older conservatives fed a constant diet of “fake news” from Drudge, Fox and other right-wing sources. This money will then filter through the campaign committee and be laundered back to the rich asshole properties or to his lawyer.
For the rich asshole, it is a scam-infused perfect circle.
Read more: https://shareblue.com/trump-hide-re-election-announcement/#ixzz58Kx5Mhut
the rich asshole breaks Twitter silence to lash out in jealous rage at Mueller
By
Eric Boehlert
-
February 27, 2018
Read more: https://shareblue.com/trump-twitter-robert-mueller-witch-hunt/#ixzz58KwTA9SD
Two new polls confirm that Americans don't trust the rich asshole's denials, but they do trust Mueller.
the rich asshole uncorked his latest bout of rage over the encroaching Russia scandal on Tuesday morning — while watching Fox News. The mini-meltdown ended an uncharacteristically quiet stretch of Twitter for the rich asshole.
the rich asshole’s lashing out once again (No collusion!) comes as two new national polls indicate that the Russia story continues to slip away from the White House’s grasp.
“Americans have more trust in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation than they do in President the rich asshole’s denials of collusion,” USA Today reports. “A 58% majority say they have a lot or some trust in Mueller’s investigation, while a 57% majority say they have little or no trust in the rich asshole’s denials.”
Nearly 7 in 10 say they believe Russians made a serious effort to meddle in the 2016 election. Not only that, but Americans are now evenly split on whether Russia interference changed the outcome of the 2016 election, according to USA Today.
That’s a claim that seems to drive the rich asshole to complete distraction — that he wouldn’t be president if not for Russian interference.
Meanwhile, a new CNN poll tells the same story: Most Americans think the rich asshole isn’t doing enough to protect American elections from future Russian interference.
Just 30 percent approve of how the rich asshole is handling the Russia investigation, the lowest level in CNN polling by one point. At the same time, a new high-point was reached in the CNN poll in terms of the percentage of people who think the rich asshole has tried to interfere with Russia investigation — 55 percent.
The two polls follow news that Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals for meddling in the 2016 presidential election, including spreading false information on social media and organizing political events.
News also came last week that former the rich asshole campaign aide Rick Gates had cut a deal with Mueller and is now cooperating with the investigation.
No matter how many times the rich asshole and Republicans attack the FBI, now matter how many weeks they spent hyping the dopey so-called Nunes memo, and no matter how many distractions they mount, they remain incapable of influencing public opinion on Mueller.
Instead, the more Americans hear about the unfolding investigation, the more concerns they have about Russian meddling. And the less they believe the rich asshole’s denials.
Mueller will likely deliver to Congress a final report on his findings. And if there’s strong public consensus regarding wrongdoing, it will be difficult for the GOP to wave away the allegations as partisan or frivolous.
And that’s why the White House panic mounts.
Parkland’s David Hogg agrees to debate ‘sh*t journalist’ Alex Jones over unhinged conspiracy theory
Alex Jones (Youtube)
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Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg on Tuesday agreed to a interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
In a series of tweets, Jones accused Hogg of using CNN to shut down his YouTube channel.
“My YouTube channel with 2+ billion views has now been frozen after CNN lobbied for it to be closed in your name,” Jones charged on Twitter.
@davidhogg111 Also I have never been sued by survivors of any school shooting. Please stop the defamation. My YouTube channel with 2+ billion views has now been frozen after CNN lobbied for it to be closed in your name.
@davidhogg111 Again Mr Hogg, in your name CNN has shut down my speech on YouTube. It is critical that you come out and support the 1st Amendment and not let them use you to end free speech.
Hogg responded by suggesting Jones is a “shit journalist” who is “confused as to what I do/who I am.”
At that point, Hogg offered to come on Jones’ show to clear up the confusion.
Waitdidn't you get sued for pedaling lies about the survivors and victims of another school shooting? Clearly someone didn't learn from their mistakes
And Jones accepted the offer.
@davidhogg111 DM me your email and my producer will set you up. Thank you.
David, you are welcome to come on the show.
Are you aware that CNN is using you as part of a lobbying campaign to shut down Infowars?
You are now a public figure & activist. You are not immune to criticism.
We know your views on the 2nd amendment. Do you support the 1st? twitter.com/davidhogg111/s…
It was not immediately clear if or when Hogg would appear on Jones’ radio program.
New Mueller bombshell hints that Rick Gates may have delivered the goods in the rich asshole-Russia probe
Former the rich asshole campaign associate Rick Gates (left) and special counsel Robert Mueller (right). Images via screengrab.
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The office of special counsel Robert Mueller has now proposed dropping charges against former the rich asshole campaign aide Rick Gates, in what might be the strongest sign yet that Gates has given the investigation significant information related to its probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
As reported by Politico’s Kyle Cheney, the special counsel’s office has officially proposed dropping 17 separate charges against Gates from a superseding indictment that it issued last week. In his filing to dismiss the charges, Mueller writes “the government is moving to dismiss pursuant to a plea agreement,” although he doesn’t spell out any details of what his office is getting in exchange from Gates.
Gates, who served as the rich asshole’s deputy campaign chairman during the 2016 presidential election, agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy against the United States and lying to federal investigators last week. Gates’ guilty plea came shortly after the special counsel’s office issued a new 32-count indictment against Gates and Paul Manafort, the former the rich asshole campaign manager who faces charges related to money laundering and tax fraud.
Developing…
the rich asshole to name Brad Parscale to manage 2020 re-election: source
Brad Parscale (Twitter)
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President some rich asshole plans to name political strategist Brad Parscale as manager of his 2020 presidential re-election campaign, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
The decision comes as the rich asshole looks to get an early start on planning his 2020 re-election bid, eight months before November congressional elections that will determine whether his Republican Party will hold on to control of the U.S. Congress.
the rich asshole, 71, had already signaled plans to run for re-election, filing a letter of intent with the Federal Election Commission on Jan. 20, 2017, the day he took office. He frequently relives his improbable 2016 victory in speeches and interviews.
Parscale, based in San Antonio, Texas, was the rich asshole campaign’s digital director in 2016.
(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
Hope Hicks arrives on Capitol Hill — and refuses to say if she will answer committee’s questions
Hope Hicks (ABC News/screen grab)
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White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, a member of President some rich asshole’s inner circle, arrived on Capitol Hill on Tuesday but refused to say whether she would answer questions put to her by the House Intelligence Committee.
In video from ABC News, Hicks can be seen walking into the Capitol Building while a reporter asks her if she will answer questions from the committee members, who are expected to press her about the rich asshole campaign connections to Russia.
Hicks declined to say if she would answer questions from the committee. Other members of the rich asshole team have claimed that they cannot discuss private conversations with the president.
Watch the video below from ABC News.
NEW: White House Communications Director Hope Hicks arrives on Capitol Hill for closed-door meeting with the House Intelligence Committee. abcn.ws/2GO8q7D
NRA board member whines Parkland teens are ‘playing on the sympathy factor of kids getting killed’
Charles Cotton
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A National Rifle Association board member complained that gun-safety advocates had claimed the moral high ground after Parkland shooting survivors had mobilized after a school massacre.
Charles Cotton griped Monday night in the TexasCHLForum.com he operates that the tide seemed to be turning in public sentiment after the Florida school shooting left 17 students and teachers dead, and he urged fellow gun enthusiasts to take action.
“I’m so sick of buzz phrases,” Cotton groused. “No one is ‘giving up’ anything, but the reality is we could well see bump-stocks ‘taken away’ because the votes are probably there. Wake up people and see what’s happening!!!!”
He blamed wealthy gun-safety advocates like former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Hollywood producers and celebrities were helping the media promote the teens — who became activists after watching their friends and classmates gunned down — appear more sympathetic.
“Bloomberg and Hollywood are pouring money into this effort and the media is helping to the fullest extent,” Cotton said. “We’ve never had this level of opposition before, not ever. It’s a campaign of lies and distortion, but it’s very well funded and they are playing on the sympathy factor of kids getting killed.”
Cotton, who has previously made news for blaming the murder of nine black worshipers on their anti-gun pastor, warned his internet followers that their arguments had been drained of some power following the most deadly shootings in U.S. history.
“It’s not a slippery slope issue. It’s not a mission-creep issue,” Cotton said. “Tell me how to convince Americans who don’t own a gun why we ‘need’ bump-stocks or crank-type triggers that simulate machine guns. Don’t bother with telling me that ‘need’ isn’t an issue with constitutional rights. I know that, but a big segment of the general public doesn’t and those that do don’t care. I’ve talked to a lot of gun owners who are furious at the manufacturers of bump-stocks and trigger device manufacturers for giving anti-gunners an issue to fly like a battle flag.”
“There’s a lot bigger war going on now and bump-stocks aren’t even on the radar,” he added. “Attacking the rich asshole, Republicans and NRA helps the enemy.”
.@NRA Board member Charles Cotton posts that he’s concerned gun safety will happen in America because: “It’s very well funded and they are playing on the sympathy factor of kids getting killed.”
Cyber Command chief: the rich asshole has not given us permission to stop Russian attacks on 2018 elections
Admiral Michael Rogers (screen grab)
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Admiral Michael Rogers, director of the National Security Agency and commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, said on Tuesday that President some rich asshole had not given him the authority to fight back against Russian attacks on the 2018 U.S. election.
In testimony before a Senate committee, Rogers was asked by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) about the Department of Defense’s ability to respond to cyber attacks from Russia “against our forthcoming elections.”
“We have been attacked and there are a lot of us that feel like we are still being attacked and that we’re going to be attacked particularly with regard to our elections,” Nelson explained. “So, what’s the holdup?”
“The challenge for us is right now we have this thing called the law,” Rogers replied. “And the legal framework shapes what DOD can and cannot do.”
“What do you need as the commander to say go after and punish these guys that are trying to tear apart our critical infrastructure?” Nelson pressed.
“I need a policy decision that indicates that there’s specific direction to do that,” Rogers said. “The secretary [of defense] would ultimately make a recommendation to the president… and then based on that, we’d be given specific direction and specific authority.”
“So you need a direction and specific authority from the White House?” Nelson remarked.
“The president ultimately would make this decision,” Rogers stated.
Watch the video below.
Close the rich asshole aide Hope Hicks testifies in House Intelligence Committee regarding Russia probe
White House Communications Director Hope Hicks departs as she and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway (L) stand on the sidelines while U.S. President some rich asshole speaks to reporters in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 9, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
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Hope Hicks, a close aide to President some rich asshole, arrived at the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee on Tuesday morning for what could be several hours of testimony in its investigation of Russia and the 2016 U.S. election campaign.
White House communications director Hicks was the rich asshole’s spokeswoman during the 2016 election campaign. Committee members told reporters they did not know before her testimony whether she would answer their questions, or refuse by invoking executive privilege.
Other the rich asshole aides, such as former White House adviser Steve Bannon, have declined to answer many of the committee’s questions for that reason.
Hicks arrived at about 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) for a closed door session with the panel, which is conducting one of three main congressional investigations of allegations that Russia sought to interfere in the 2016 election to boost the rich asshole’s chances of victory, and whether his associates colluded with Russia.
She came through a back entrance, according to congressional aides, and thus was not seen by reporters.
Shortly before her scheduled testimony on Tuesday, the rich asshole took to Twitter to comment on the investigation, tweeting “WITCH HUNT.”
the rich asshole has repeatedly denied any collusion with Russia, and Moscow has denied attempting to meddle in the U.S. campaign.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by David Gregorio)
the rich asshole’s tweetstorm backfires as legal scholar admits how president could still get nailed for Russia collusion
Robert Mueller, some rich asshole -- screenshots
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President some rich asshole spent Tuesday morning catching up on the past weekend’s Fox News reporting, and he highlighted claims by a TV legal analyst to defend himself against the Russia probe.
Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University Law School professor, told Fox News on Sunday that he was “skeptical about the collusion and obstruction claims” because he hadn’t seen any evidence so far — but he admitted two days later that special counsel Robert Mueller could have evidence he hadn’t yet revealed.
“Well, we do know that we haven’t had a nexus established in any of these filings in terms of collusion,” Turley told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “Now that is, I think, a significant point, but it’s not the endpoint. Obviously, there may still be evidence out there.”
Turley agreed the special counsel clearly seemed to be putting pressure on former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who’s been indicted on a long list of fraud, conspiracy and financial crimes.
“The pressure on Manafort may represent a strategy to go to the person most likely to be colluding,” Turley said. “Paul Manafort has a long history with Russian oligarch and Russian bad forces, and I think what you see is Mueller shaking the one tree he knows where there are Russians in it, and he is shaking Manafort pretty hard to see if he can force a plea.”
CNN’s Chris Cuomo calls BS after Carter Page says America — not Russia — sabotaged the 2016 election
Former the rich asshole foreign policy adviser Carter Page talks with CNN's Chris Cuomo (Screen cap).
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Former the rich asshole campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page on Tuesday bizarrely claimed on CNN that the United States was more responsible for undermining the integrity of its own elections than Russia was in 2016.
When asked by CNN’s Chris Cuomo if he finally accepted American intelligence agencies’ conclusions that Russia interfered on behalf of President some rich asshole to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, Page dodged the question and said the United States government deserved more blame than Russia did.
“All the evidence I’ve seen so far, Chris, indicates that there was much more interference by the U.S. government compared to the Russian government,” he said.
Page then insisted that there was no real evidence that Russians were responsible for the hack of the Democratic National Committee, and he said that the money spent by the Russian government to push misinformation during the 2016 presidential election was dwarfed by the money the U.S. government allegedly spent trying to push misinformation — although he offered no examples of the American government deliberately pushing false information during the election.
Cuomo found it puzzling that Page was spending so much time defending the honor of the Russian government even as clear evidence had emerged that it had worked to tip the 2016 election to the rich asshole.
“You know the proof of it is fairly clear,” Cuomo said. “Why ignore it in favor of another political theory? Because it makes you look like you’re a little sympathetic to the cause.”
“I’m sympathetic to facts, Chris,” Page insisted.
Watch the video below.
Kellyanne Conway helping this the rich asshole-friendly Republican’s re-election bid
Jonathan D. Salant
Posted with permission from NJ.com
Kellyanne Conway, senior White House Advisor, is seen during a listening session conducted by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Wednesday, June 21, 2017, in Washington. Senate Republicans are steering toward a potential showdown vote on their long-awaited health care bill, despite indications that they've yet to solidify the 50 GOP votes they'll need to avert an embarrassing defeat. A draft of the still-secret bill is expected to be unveiled Thursday. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)Conway, who grew up in the Atco section of Waterford Township in Camden County, will participate in a private briefing and question-and-answer session will be offered to those who give or raise $15,000, and to those who give or raise $10,000, according to the invitation obtained by NJ Advance Media.
The first $5,400 of a donation will go to the re-election of MacArthur, R-3rd Dist., who Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee officials recently named as one of the House Republicans they feel they have the best chance of unseating.
House Democrats step up campaign
The remainder will go to the state Republican Party, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and MacArthur's leadership political action committee.
Conway's boss, Trump, hosted a fundraiser for MacArthur at his Bedminster golf club in June, which brought in around $800,000.
Kim faces former National Security Adviser Andy Kim this fall.
MacArthur has emerged as Trump's biggest ally in the New Jersey delegation even as just 34 percent of New Jerseyans in a Gallup poll approved of his performance in office, lower than most other states.
MacArthur was the only New Jersey lawmaker to support the Trump-backed tax bill, which targeted the federal deduction for state and local taxes disproportionately used by Garden State taxpayers.
He also was one of only two New Jersey representatives to support Trump's unsuccessful effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with legislation that the Congressional Budget Office said would leave 24 million more Americans without health insurance.
That measure, too, singled out New Jersey by eliminating the extra funds it and other states received for expanding Medicaid coverage under the health care law.
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
‘An utter joke’: MSNBC’s Mika slams Ivanka and Melania’s ‘fake jobs’ as ‘insulting to women’
Mika Brzezinski (MSNBC)
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MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski slammed Melania the rich asshole and Ivanka the rich asshole for looking the other way at President some rich asshole’s moral failings to lecture others.
Ivanka the rich asshole serves a dual role as White House adviser and the president’s daughter, and she has reportedly sparked resentment among colleagues for switching between the roles to suit her situational needs — such as when she scolded a reporterfor asking about her father’s alleged sexual misconduct.
“It’s not like she’s transportation secretary, she came in there to fight for women,” the “Morning Joe” co-host said. “(If) she can’t handle a question like that, the whole thing is clearly a joke, an utter joke — just like Melania’s role on cyberbullying, which an insult to women.”
Brzezinski and co-host Joe Scarborough marveled over Melania’s comments on online bullying, when her husband is the world’s most prominent cyberbully — launching personal attacks from his Twitter feed against lawmakers, celebrities and private citizens who have criticized him.
“When you have her husband saying that a New York senator,” Scarborough said, “actually implying that the New York senator would be willing to do sexual favors for campaign donations, and a thousand other attacks against women, you — and other people on Twitter, people that he considers weaker than him, that’s cyberbullying.”
Brzezinski said the White House’s roles for both women were insulting.
“More insulting to women, these women have been given fake jobs,” she said.
Florida shooting survivor tells disturbing story of Nikolas Cruz, his crotch and a dead bird
Jeffrey Caplan
Posted with permission from Rare
Nikolas Cruz courtroomRELATED: Florida high school shooting survivor’s idea could cost his state of Florida a lot of money
A student at the school told the Sun-Sentinel of a disturbing incident in which she said Cruz clutched a dead bird to his crotch during reading class. The student didn’t report the incident, believing the weird scene from last school year wasn’t any of her business.
“He always stared at everyone,” Stoneman Douglas senior Tyra Hemans told the newspaper of Cruz, whom she sat across from during her first-period reading class. They were both juniors at the time.
Hemans said she once saw Cruz holding his hand against his crotch during the class.
“I looked close, and I saw he was holding a dead bird near his genitalia,” Hemans told the paper. “I saw some feathers, and I knew it was a bird. That was disturbing. But I just looked away because it wasn’t my business.”
She said she now wonders if Cruz had been carrying the board around his lunchbox.
While Hemans didn’t tell a teacher at the school, she did share it with her friend Meadow Pollack, who was one of the students murdered on Feb. 14.
“We kept it to ourselves,” Hemans told the Sun-Sentinel.
The FBI also received a tip that Cruz took a dead bird into the kitchen of his home and cut it open, the Sun-Sentinel reports.
RELATED: School resource officer was one of “several” Broward County officers who backed down from the school shooting
The newspaper also reports that Cruz was bullied by his younger brother in the years after he watched his father die of a heart attack; he was 5 years old at the time. On the day his father died, Cruz reportedly walked into the kitchen crying. His mom, Lydia, asked him, “What’s the matter, did Daddy punish you?” Cruz answered, “Nope. Daddy’s dead.”
After the Feb. 14 massacre, Cruz’s brother, Zachary, 18, admitted to Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies that he and his friends had bullied Cruz and said he regretted doing so. He said he wished he had been “nicer” to his brother, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
Hannity tried to troll liberals by having them critique ‘provocative’ the rich asshole ‘art’ — and was immediately ripped to shreds
"Respect the flag" by John McNaughton (left, via Twitter) and Fox News host Sean Hannity (right, via screengrab).
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Fox News pundit Sean Hannity on Monday night mused on Twitter whether art-loving “leftists” would properly appreciate a YouTube video featuring a painting of President some rich asshole clutching a torn broken flag on a football field — and immediately got an art history lesson he didn’t ask for.
“The ‘left’ loves art, and especially taxpayer funded art that is ‘provocative,'” Hannity tweeted. “Let’s get their reaction to this.”
The “left” loves art, and especially taxpayer funded art that is “provocative”. Let’s get their reaction to this. youtube.com/watch?v=11vXh8….
Though it remains unclear whether artist John McNaughton was paid by the government to paint his “Respect the flag” ode to the president, Twitter nevertheless took the opportunity to school him both on art history and on public arts funding.
“I just want to say that Guernica has been surpassed,” journalist Sam Thielman joked, referencing Pablo Picasso’s 11-foot-long magnum opus.
This is like, blindingly wonderful twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
I just want to say that Guernica has been surpassed pic.twitter.com/O0HM0rgKq4
“This is almost as good as my favorite public school mural, Visual Ode To Pisschrist,” reporter Talia Lavin said, citing Andres Serrano’s controversial “Piss Christ” piece that features Jesus Christ on the cross contained within a urine-filled vessel.
this is almost as good as my favorite public school mural, Visual Ode To Pisschrist twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
Veteran and photojournalist J. M. Giordano, meanwhile, took a page out of Nazi history to describe his reaction to McNaughton’s imaginative take on athletes protesting police brutality.
“‘Degenerate art (German: Entartete Kunst) was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe Modern art.'” he tweeted, citing a definition of the movement banned during the Third Reich. “‘During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, such art was banned in Nazi Germany on the grounds that it was un-German.'”
“Degenerate art (German: Entartete Kunst) was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe Modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, such art was banned in Nazi Germany on the grounds that it was un-German” twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
Check out the best reactions below:
this is art in the same sense that a Thomas Kinkade knock-off motel painting is art or a photoshop of your dog playing poker is art or a Chia pet grown in the shape of Sylvester Stallone’s head is art twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
Big wet lefty here. On behalf of the whole left, Sean, please don’t buy this painting and hang it in your living room, it would own us too hard. Anything but that twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
You know @seanhannity, this painting might’ve been relevant if the man holding the flag actually knew the words to the anthem that that flag inspired. twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
A masterwork. You can see in Trump’s expression this is the first time he has ever tried to clean an object by himself and although he isn’t sure how, he will boldly make the attempt. A moving portrait of a man pushing himself. twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
Wow. The next Picasso. Timeless, creative, masterful. I’m at a loss for words. twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
Did you mean to pick a painting where Trump looks like he’s trying to remember which lot at Disneyland he parked in twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
Just waiting for Hannity to declare that the painting of Washington Crossing The Delaware is a threat to conservative values. twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
oh thank god I thought it was going to be a portrait of Hannity doing a karate chop twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
Does he think people left of Nixon explode upon exposure to a flag or something
Jon McNaughton is Thomas Kinkade for people who get misty-eyed at Shelby Foote interviews. twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
I feel like this should be Trump's official portrait. Like, the one that's hung in government buildings. twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
a flag in that condition should be burned, and it's a really poor likeness of Trump. the skin tone is all wrong--it actually looks like skin twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
And this piece of called “Confused Racist Grandpa with Safety Blanket Yells unintelligibly at Those That Scare Him”. twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
Jon McNaughton’s dad was my driver’s ed teacher. I still think it’s weird his son became the American Adolf Ziegler. twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
You got scalloped potatoes for brains mate. You gotta go see the monsignor your nan is worried about you love. twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
I think it’s a nice painting but they should’ve included all of his draft deferments as well twitter.com/seanhannity/st…
Congressional Republicans finally admit their tax bill is total disaster
By
Matthew Chapman
-
February 26, 2018
Republicans made numerous errors while drafting their scam of a tax bill. Now they want Democrats to bail them out.
Republicans were so desperate to pass their tax bill that it ended up being rife with errors. Now one of the bill’s drafters has finally admitted what a mess it is — and wants Democrats to help fix it.
According to a report in Politico, the tax bill accidentally made several business deductions impossible to claim. It lets money managers dodge the new “carried interest” tax. And it “creates two different start dates for new rules that make it harder for businesses to shave their tax bills.”
The bill’s glitches hit “everything from real estate investments to multinational corporations to farmers,” Politico noted.
Texas Rep. Kevin Brady, a key architect of the bill, finally admitted it broke the tax code. And he promised to “develop a punch list of provisions that need to be addressed.”
But in order to address those issues, they need Democratic votes. And that might prove difficult, because Democrats have no incentive to make a bad bill worse.
First, Democrats were locked out and not even allowed to see the bill as lobbyists helped write it.
Second, polls show that while the tax bill has gained some support, it is still divisive, and most Americans are still not benefiting from it. Indeed, some companies used their tax breaks to lay off workers.
And a new report suggesting insurance premiums will spike 18 percent next year, due in part to the tax bill, won’t improve the bill’s popularity.
If Republicans want Democratic votes, they will likely have to accede to major changes to the bill. Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown made this clear when he said, “We want to make the bill better, not just correct whatever technical fix is needed.”
Republicans have two choices. They can accept input from Democrats to redirect the tax bill toward helping working families. Or they can do nothing and let the bill’s glitches hurt the very businesses that lobbied for it.
Either way, they are in the hot seat for a crisis of their own making — and they are finally starting to admit it.
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