GOP rep blasts his own party: the rich asshole’s scandals would be ‘a human rights violation’ if Obama did them
US President-elect some rich asshole and President Barack Obama's comments on each other have not always been complimentary (AFP Photo/JIM WATSON)
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Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) on Tuesday acknowledged the Republican double-standard when it comes to the way they treat scandals surrounding the rich asshole White House and those that occurred during Democratic presidencies.
After noting that he thinks it’s “important for the president to set a good example” and raising concerns about President some rich asshole’s inaccurate statements about Canadian trade, Dent blasted his own party.
“[The Republicans] would be waving a bloody shirt” if President Barack Obama had a sex scandal akin to some rich asshole’s, Dent said. “It would be a human rights violation.”
“There’s no question about it, had this been a Democratic president who had been conciliatory towards the Russians, for example,” the congressman continued. “I’m sure as Republicans we’d be screaming morning to night about such a situation.”
Watch below, via CNN:
Ex-Mueller aide compares the rich asshole’s legal woes with Bill Clinton’s dream team: The president is ‘far behind’
Bill Clinton and some rich asshole (Wikimedia Commons / Composite)
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Michael Zelden, a former federal prosecutor who served as special assistant to Robert Mueller at the Department of Justice, compared some rich asshole’s legal team with the “dream team” that led Bill Clinton through his impeachment process, arguing the president is “far behind” where he should be.
“The best comparison is, what did Bill Clinton have as his outside counsel?” Zelden replied. “… They had a dream team that matched up equally with [independent counsel] Ken Starr’s team.”
“Here, you have Jay Sekulow, who’s really a communications guy, and Ty Cobb, who’s in the White House—so he’s circumscribed by virtue of his government service.”
“And so if you compare these two, the last two independent counsel investigations against the president of the United States, you see how far behind the the rich asshole legal team is from his predecessor, Bill Clinton’s, legal team.”
Watergate prosecutor mocks the rich asshole’s embarrassing Stormy Daniels lawsuit: He’ll go to court ‘with a paper bag over his head’
Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Ackerman on MSNBC (Screen capture)
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When discussing the never-ending legal conundrum surrounding whether or not President some rich asshole can be indicted in criminal court while in office, a former Watergate prosecutor joked that he was likely to appear in civil court soon.
“I don’t see why you could not try this particular president,” Watergate prosecutor Nick Ackerman said.
The prosecutor noted that President Bill Clinton “argued it would take away from his duties as president because he was fully engaged” — but that logic wouldn’t apply as evenly to the rich asshole given that he willingly entered the legal fracas with alleged mistress Stormy Daniel.
“You’ve got a president suing a porn star whom he claims he doesn’t know, and he may have to show up there and testify as [lawsuit pseudonym] David Dennison — perhaps wearing a paper bag over his head because he doesn’t want anybody to know who he is,” Ackerman joked.
He went on to note that the rich asshole is far from fully engaged in his duties, making the Clintonian argument obsolete.
Watch below, via MSNBC:
‘Are you a hypocrite or a bigot?’ Tea partier slammed for defending the rich asshole’s moral failings after claiming ‘Obama doesn’t love America’
Keith Boykin and Amy Kremer
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CNN’s Keith Boykin on Tuesday destroyed Women for the rich asshole PAC co-founder Amy Kremer over her continued support for the president despite his obvious moral failings.
“Thirty percent of evangelicals in 2016 said they had a problem with a politician who had moral failings, but when Barack Obama was president in 2011, 72 percent of white evangelicals had a problem,” Boykin explained. “So there’s clearly a hypocrisy.”
Confronted with those statistics, Kremer repeated a number of talking points, insisting the rich asshole “was elected to do a job” and the American “people wanted him to shake things up” because they were “tired of the status quo.”
“We did not elect him because we thought he was a preacher or a pastor,” Kremer declared.
Boykin called her deflection “highly inappropriate and hypocritical.”
“You defend some rich asshole despite all the p*ssy grabbing and all other stuff with the porn stars,” Boykin said. “You defended Roy Moore after he was accused of child molestation … despite all of that, when Barack Obama was president you were on CNN, on this network, you know what you said? ‘Barack Obama doesn’t love America.’ What’s the difference between Barack Obama, Roy Moore and some rich asshole? I’ll tell you what the difference is, Barack Obama is a black man.”
“You are better than that,” Kremer protested.
“You should be better than that,” Boykin shot back.
Asked by CNN’s Erin Burnett if she’ll admit Obama would be treated differently had he engaged in an affair with a porn star, Kremer argued, “I don’t think it would have been.”
“You you think the treatment would have been different with a black president having an affair with a porn star while home is at home with a baby?” a stunned Burnett asked.
“Are you a hypocrite or a bigot?” Boykin demanded. “Which is it?”
Watch below:
the rich asshole White House hires 22-year-old Disney star to work in the press office
Caroline Sunshine
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A former Disney Channel star was just hired by the rich asshole administration after interning in the White House.
CNN reported Tuesday that Caroline Sunshine, best known for her work on the Disney Channel show “Shake It Up,” was hired to work in the White House press office as an assistant.
In a statement to CNN, White House spokesperson Lindsay Walters said that prior to interning at the White House, Sunshine “was involved with the American Enterprise Institute,” a right-wing think tank.
Though Sunshine appears to be the first entertainer hired by the rich asshole administration, CNN noted that she’s far from its first media figure. Her relatively low-profile hiring came after President some rich asshole hired CNBC host Larry Kudlow to lead the White House National Economic Council, as well as the hiring of Fox News analyst John Bolton as the next national security adviser.
CNN’s Acosta: the rich asshole’s border wall campaign promise is ‘tumbling down’ and he’s ‘trying to stick us with the tab’
CNN's Jim Acosta
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CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta on Tuesday described some rich asshole’s backtracking on his signature campaign promise to “build the wall” and make Mexico pay, telling host Wolf Blitzer it’s clear the president is “trying to figure out how to stick all of us with the tab.”
“The president is also scrambling a way to pay for the wall on the border, floating the idea of taking the money from the just-approved budget for the Pentagon,” Acosta reported on Monday. “The White House wouldn’t confirm that, perhaps because that would be a sign of a key campaign promise that’s tumbling down.”
“Now the president suggested the idea of having the Pentagon pay for the wall to House Speaker Paul Ryan last week, but part of the problem with that idea is that the administration simply cannot just take the money away from the military,” Acosta explained. “That would require another vote from Congress.”
“It seems clear the president has given up on making Mexico pay for the wall and he’s trying to figure out how to stick all of us with the tab,” the CNN reporter said.
Watch the clip below, via CNN:
Watch the clip below, via CNN:
‘I’m not new to the rodeo’: April Ryan says Sarah Huckabee Sanders put her ‘on a list’ after Stormy Daniels question
White House correspondent April Ryan (left) and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (right). Images via screengrab.
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Veteran White House correspondent April Ryan on Tuesday blasted the White House press secretary for refusing to call on her during the press briefing.
In a tweet posted around the time of the briefing, Ryan noted that press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders didn’t call on her for a question about the president’s alleged affair with Stormy Daniels — and noted it wasn’t the first time she’s had issues with the head of the rich asshole administration’s press shop.
“It is back again,” Ryan tweeted. “Not called on today for a question. It has been how long? Oh, my last question was about @StormyDaniels! And, I was just told I am on a list.”
“Whatever!” she continued. “I have been doing this for 21 years. I am not new to the rodeo.”
It is back again. Not called on today for a question. It has been how long? Oh, my last question was about @StormyDaniels! And, I was just told I am on a list. Whatever! I have been doing this for 21 years. I am not new to the rodeo.
Last September, Sanders sparred with the American Urban Radio correspondent over President some rich asshole’s attacks on athletes who choose to kneel during the National Anthem to protest police brutality — and the press secretary ironically claimed that the issue is “pretty black and white.”
Raw Story reached out to Ryan for comment, and was directed to Sentinel Newspapers’ Brian Karem, who noted himself on Twitter that journalists who ask questions the White House doesn’t like often end up blacklisted.
If you ask questions the WH doesn’t like then they won’t call on you in a briefing. Fact @AprilDRyan @Acosta
the rich asshole, being true to form, ends protected immigration status for Liberians, gives them one year to pack up their lives
The program will end on March 31, 2019.
President some rich asshole will wind down a temporary immigration program for Liberian immigrants who have legally lived and worked in the United States for the past 16 years, according to a presidential memorandum released Tuesday afternoon.
Authorized at the president’s discretion to conduct foreign affairs, the Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) program for Liberia is an immigration program that allows beneficiaries to legally work in the country and travel out of the country with permission. The program does not provide a pathway to citizenship.
“Through consultation with appropriate executive departments and agencies and my advisors, I have been informed that conditions in Liberia have improved,” the presidential memo read in part. “Liberia is no longer experiencing armed conflict and has made significant progress in restoring stability and democratic governance. Liberia has also concluded reconstruction from prior conflicts, which has contributed significantly to an environment that is able to handle adequately the return of its nationals. The 2014 outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease caused a tragic loss of life and economic damage to the country, but Liberia has made tremendous progress in its ability to diagnose and contain future outbreaks of the disease.”
The current DED designation was set to expire on March 31, 2018, but the president gave immigrants an “orderly transition” or a “12-month wind-down period” and set the expiration for March 31, 2019.
“Accordingly, I find that conditions in Liberia no longer warrant a further extension of DED, but that the foreign policy interests of the United States warrant affording an orderly transition (“wind-down”) period to Liberian DED beneficiaries,” the memo added.
The wind-down period is meant to provide enough time for both the Liberian government to reintegrate these people and allow people still in DED status next year to “make necessary arrangements” to leave the United States. In the meantime, DED recipients will receive employment authorization to legally work between March 31, 2018 and March 31, 2019.
The presidential memo affects DED beneficiaries who have continuously lived in the United States since October 1, 2002, but excludes: individuals who are ineligible for TPS for reasons set forth in section 244(c)(2)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1254a(c)(2)(B)); individuals whose removal the Secretary of Homeland Security determines to be in the interest of the United States; individuals whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States; individuals who have voluntarily returned to Liberia or their country of last habitual residence outside the United States; individuals who were deported, excluded, or removed before the date of this memorandum; or individuals who are subject to extradition.
Since 2002, many Liberian immigrants in the United States have toggled between DED and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) extensions to remain legal. Liberians were first given protection under DED in 1999, but when the program expired in 2002, they applied for TPS, which is granted to displaced people fleeing war, violence, natural disasters, or other circumstances preventing them from going back to their homes. When TPS ultimately ended in 2007, then-President George W. Bush authorized DED. The Obama administration has continued to reauthorize DED through March 31, 2018.
What’s particularly unique about the DED program is that the president does not have to make a decision to renew or terminate the program until the last day of the program, so Liberian DED recipients live in constant uncertainty.
Little is known about the group of current DED beneficiaries, but according to undated data recently provided by DHS, anywhere between 1,000 and 3,600 people are DED recipients. The data also show that about 1,000 DED recipients have valid employment authorization cards, granting them the legal ability to work in the country.
The end of the DED program may not come as a surprise for the rich asshole White House. In conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the rich asshole administration has aggressively wound down or terminated a series of immigration programs that allow people to work and live in the country. Those programs include TPS for multiple countries and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for certain undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children. Some elements of the DACA program have been allowed to move forward because of court injunctions. the rich asshole also has not hid his feelings about people from African countries.
the rich asshole still throwing a tantrum over spending bill after believing bogus facts he saw on Fox News: report
some rich asshole (ABC/screen grab)
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President some rich asshole did not sound happy last week when he signed a bipartisan omnibus spending package into law, and the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman reports that he now hates the bill even more than before based on bogus information he’s received from Fox News.
“Per two senior administration officials, the rich asshole continued to rail privately about the omnibus bill, and has become convinced of things that aren’t true about it,” Haberman reports. “the rich asshole has been watching Fox, which had Coulter on Jeanine Pirro slamming the rich asshole over the wall funding. That type of thing — as well as his conviction it includes Planned Parenthood funding — are animating him.”
Per two senior administration officials, Trump continued to rail privately about the omnibus bill, and has become convinced of things that aren’t true about it.
Trump has been watching Fox, which had Coulter on Jeanine Pirro slamming Trump over the wall funding. That type of thing - as well as his conviction it includes Planned Parenthood funding - are animating him.
During the bill signing on Friday, the rich asshole complained that no one had supposedly read the massive, 2,000-plus page spending bill that had passed both houses of Congress. Many conservatives, including the ones normally most loyal to him, bashed him for grudgingly signing it during appearances on Fox News over the weekend.
NRA admits moving money from accounts with foreign donations to US campaign accounts
Wayne LaPierre speaking at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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The National Rifle Association acknowledged this week that it has moved money from accounts with foreign donation to accounts that are used for spending on U.S. political campaigns. The organization insists the transactions are “permitted by law.”
After it was announced that special counsel Robert Mueller was investigating whether the NRA was used to funnel Russian money into some rich asshole’s presidential campaign, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) asked the gun group to prove that the allegations were untrue.
NPR reported on Tuesday that the NRA admitted in a letter to Wyden that “we do receive some contributions from foreign individuals and entities,” but it also insisted that “those contributions are made directly to the NRA for lawful purposes.”
According to NPR, “the movement of its money between accounts could make it difficult, if not impossible, to track how the money is spent since it is not isolated or sequestered.”
In the letter to Wyden, the NRA said that it did “receive funds from foreign persons only for purposes not connected to elections, as permitted by federal law.”
And it acknowledged that some of the money in accounts containing foreign donations is moved into accounts used to fund political campaigns in the U.S. But the NRA insisted that the “transfers between accounts are made as permitted by law.”
“The NRA did not immediately respond to a request from NPR to disclose the total sum of its donations from foreign sources,” NPR noted.
‘Knowledge of adult film industry a plus’: Prankster posts hilarious DC Craigslist ad seeking a lawyer for the rich asshole
some rich asshole (YouTube)
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President some rich asshole keeps getting rejected by lawyers he tries to hire to help him handle special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe — and now one prankster has sarcastically decided to help the president out by posting an ad for an attorney on Washington DC’s Craigslist.
The ad, which seeks a “lead attorney for a difficult client” located at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington DC, says that it would be “a plus” for prospective applicants to have “working knowledge of social media, especially Twitter” and “better than average knowledge of the adult film industry and a collection of Playboy magazines from 1985-2010.”
The ad also says appearances on Fox News are a good way to make a first impression, and it says applicants should look like either Gregory Peck or Tommy Lee Jones to be considered for the job.
It then warns that the client in the case “is very forceful and opinionated about his defense” and tells applicants that their jobs will be “keeping him from testifying under oath and hoping the rest comes out in the wash.”
Despite these difficulties, the ad promises massive rewards for attorneys who take the case because the client “is a hugely wealthy man, hugely successful, everyone says it.”
Read the full ad below.
the rich asshole pushing Pentagon to pay for border wall: report
BY AVERY ANAPOL - 03/27/18 01:02 PM EDT
President the rich asshole is privately pushing for the Pentagon to pay for his proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, according to a new report.
The Washington Post reports that the rich asshole made the suggestion to several advisers last week, saying it was a "national security" issue that the wall be funded.
the rich asshole reportedly told Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in a meeting last week that the military should pay for the wall. Ryan offered little reaction to the idea while senior Capitol Hill officials called its prospects unlikely, the newspaper reported.
The president has sought $25 billion in funding for his long-proposed wall, but a massive funding bill passed by Congress last week only appropriated $1.6 billion for border security, with funding provided for fencing and levees.
In a separate meeting with senior aides last week, the president reportedly voiced confidence that the Pentagon would have enough funds to cover the wall's cost under the omnibus spending bill.
the rich asshole expressed frustration while signing the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending package, originally threatening to veto the bill because of its lack of funding for his border wall. The bill allots about $700 billion for the military.
Two advisers also told the Post that when the rich asshole tweeted "Build WALL through M!" earlier this week, the "M" was intended to stand for "military." the rich asshole originally said that Mexico would pay for the wall.
A senior Pentagon official told the newspaper that any reallocation of 2018 military funding for the border wall would require an act of Congress.
A budget amendment to find funds for the border wall in the fiscal 2019 budget would require 60 votes in the Senate, which the White House would be unlikely to find. Republicans currently hold a slim 51-49 seat majority.
Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee last fall added language to the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would have prevented any Pentagon funding from being used to cover the wall's costs.
That amendment, introduced by Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas), who is running against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for Senate, was stripped from the final NDAA bill.
– John Bowden contributed
Updated: 1:40 p.m.
CNN guest mocks the rich asshole’s legal team troubles: Lawyers are willing to work for Big Tobacco — but not him
CNN host Brooke Baldwin (left) and former Clinton special counsel deputy Solomon Wisenberg (right). Images via screengrab.
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According to a former member of the independent counsel that investigated the Monica Lewinsky scandal, conservative lawyers who refuse to work for the president due to alleged conflicts of interest should be taken at their word.
Solomon Wisenberg, who now practices white collar law in Washington, D.C., noted to CNN’s Brooke Baldwin that lawyer Tom Buchanan, one of the two most recent attorneys to refuse President some rich asshole, is “very conservative” and the younger brother of infamous right-winger Pat Buchanan.
Buchanan, along with fellow the rich asshole denier Dan Webb, works at Winston & Strawn — a firm that “represented tobacco interests for years and didn’t think twice about it,” Wisenberg pointed out.
“I don’t think they’d have any problem representing the president,” he said.
Watch below, via CNN:
Retired officers slam latest the rich asshole transgender ban as 'troubling move backward'
BY REBECCA KHEEL - 03/27/18 08:55 AM EDT
More than 20 retired generals and admirals are opposing the latest iteration of President the rich asshole’s ban on transgender people in the military in a new statement Tuesday.
“The administration’s announcement on the treatment of transgender service members is a troubling move backward,” the 26 officers wrote in their statement, obtained first by The Hill from the Palm Center, which researches issues of gender and sexuality.
“There is simply no reason to single out brave transgender Americans who can meet military standards and deny them the ability to serve.”
Tuesday’s statement was signed by many of the same retired officers who released a statement opposing the transgender ban in August, after the rich asshole first tweeted about it.
Notable signatories include retired Vice Adm. Donald Arthur, former surgeon general of the Navy; retired Vice Adm. Kevin Green, former deputy chief of naval operations for operations, plans and policy; retired Lt. Gen. Arlen Jameson, former deputy commander in chief of U.S. Strategic Command; and retired Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, the first Army women to achieve a three-star rank and a former Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence.
On Friday night, the rich asshole issued a memo that bans most transgender people from serving in the military “except under certain limited circumstances.” The memo also gives Defense Secretary James Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who oversees the Coast Guard, “authority to implement any appropriate policies concerning military service by transgender individuals.”
In Mattis’s recommendation to the rich asshole, released Friday in conjunction with the memo, he wrote there is “substantial risk” to allowing transgender service members. He recommended banning anyone diagnosed with gender dysphoria except under three circumstance: if they have not had gender dysphoria for 36 months, if they have been diagnosed after entering service but do not need to transition gender, or if they are currently serving troops who came out and are receiving treatment since the ban on their service was first lifted in 2016.
On Monday, Mattis said the military is “out to build the most lethal service,” but declined to comment further because of pending litigation against the policy.
The new policy cannot go into effect immediately, as courts have issued preliminary injunctions that require the Pentagon to continue adhering to the open-service policy while the lawsuits work their way through the court system.
In their statement Tuesday, the retired officers argue the new policy is similar to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which banned gays and lesbians from serving until Congress repealed it.
“Many of us personally experienced the belated removal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and faced firsthand how that mistaken policy set back our force and enabled discrimination against patriotic gay and lesbian Americans,” they said. “We learned a clear lesson: the singling out of one group of service members for unequal treatment harms military readiness, while inclusion supports it.”
Transgender troops who are able to serve under the new policy, they continued, would do so “under a false presumption of unsuitability,” not be able to receive needed medical care and will live in “constant fear” of being discharged.
“We should not return to the days of forcing men and women to hide in the shadows and serve their country without institutional support,” the officers said. “This deprives the military of trained and skilled service members, which harms readiness and morale.”
Betsy DeVos mysteriously cancels visit to school after threat of protest by transgender student
Betsy DeVos (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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Once again Betsy DeVos tried to visit a school without informing parents, and once again they found out and a protest was planned.
Parents of students attending a Frederick, Maryland charter school were a bit curious when their children came home with permission slips to be photographed on Tuesday by the media – without any explanation as to why.
“We just would have liked to know who was visiting the school and what they were planning to do,” parent Eric Schobel, who debated keeping his child home, told The Frederick News-Post. “We didn’t want our child being used as a political football.”
Schobel’s instincts were right.
Students at the Frederick Classical Charter School would have been photographed with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who did not co-ordinate her visit with the Frederick County Public Schools or the Board of Education. DeVos was to appear as part of a joint visit with the Reading is Fundamental children’s literacy non-profit.
Somehow several parents learned that DeVos would be visiting on Tuesday, and some contacted the school to register their complaints.
They were not the only ones concerned that DeVos would be visiting.
“James van Kuilenburg, a transgender student at Gov. Thomas Johnson High School, organized a protest for the same day as DeVos’ visit, due to the policy ideas DeVos has proposed and enacted. The protest has been canceled since DeVos is no longer visiting the school,” The Frederick News-Post notes.
Schools Superintendent Terry Alban in an email to a parent reportedly confirmed that DeVos was slated to vist, but a general email sent to all parents did not. It only stated that there would be no visit from the Dept. of Education. It did not mention DeVos by name.
It’s not the first time DeVos has tried to visit a school by surprise
White House has no plans to bring Rob Porter back
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 03/27/18 02:59 PM EDT
The White House said Tuesday it does not plan to bring back former top aide Rob Porter, pushing back on a report that President the rich asshole is considering the move.
“There are no plans for him to come back," Sanders told reporters.
She said the rich asshole and Porter have spoken one time since he was ousted in February over allegations of spousal abuse.
The New York Times reported Monday that the rich asshole has told advisers that he hopes Porter returns to work in the West Wing.
the rich asshole reportedly acknowledged that it will probably be impossible to bring back the former staff secretary, but has said he misses the structure he helped impose on the staff.
His musings come amid a major staff shakeup that has rattled the White House.
the rich asshole has recently parted ways with his secretary of state, national security adviser, National Economic Council director and his lead outside lawyer handling special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian election meddling.
This Hilarious Craig’s List Ad For A the rich asshole Lawyer In The Stormy Daniels Case Is Just What We Needed
some rich asshole is a nightmare of a client for any lawyer. His Twitter feed alone, combined with his pathological lying and penchant for conspiracy theories means that any lawyer, no matter how skilled, would have a tough time defending or representing the rich asshole. Therefore, it should be no surprise that the rich asshole’s team of lawyers is dropping faster than the people in his chaotic, scandal-ridden White House.
Well, since the rich asshole will be needing more legal representation since the Stormy Daniels case is heating up – after all, a president sleeping with a porn star and allegedly paying for her silence days before an election is a pretty big deal – a clever anonymous troll decided to help The rich asshole out. The ad says that there is an opening for a “lead attorney for a difficult client” located at the White House, and that “working knowledge of social media, especially Twitter” would be needed. The cherry on top is the last requirement, though (emphasis mine):
“[The ideal applicant has] “better than average knowledge of the adult film industry and a collection of Playboy magazines from 1985-2010.”
Perhaps the best part is what this lawyer would actually be doing. The ad goes on to say that the person who gets the job will be dealing with a man who “is very forceful and opinionated about his defense” and that the primary and most important task of all would be “keeping him from testifying under oath and hoping the rest comes out in the wash.” Without further ado, here is a screenshot of the ad:
The thing is, as funny as this is, it’s also true. We have a “president” who is a pathological liar, mired in scandal, and has turned America into a laughingstock on the world stage. The only thing we can do is pop the popcorn and wait, and in the meantime hope we survive all of this.
Featured image via Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images
Secret Steele report contradicts government's finding on former Putin aide's death in DC: report
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 03/27/18 02:21 PM EDT
A secret report authored by Christopher Steele alleges that a former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin was assassinated in Washington, D.C., and did not die by accident as the Department of Justice ruled, BuzzFeed News reported.
Four sources familiar with the document told the news outlet that the former British intelligence agent's report concludes that Mikhail Lesin was beaten to death by individuals working for a Russian oligarch close to Putin. The individuals were instructed not to kill Lesin, the report continues, but went too far and murdered him, BuzzFeed added.
Steele reportedly provided the report to the FBI during its investigation.
The Justice Department, however, concluded in 2016 that Lesin's death was due to injuries sustained in an accidental fall, with "acute ethanol intoxication" as a contributing cause of death.
"As a result of the almost year-long investigation, the Chief Medical Examiner of the District of Columbia has amended Lesin’s manner of death from 'undetermined' to 'accident,' " the department wrote in a statement at the time.
Lesin served as Russian minister of press, television and radio broadcasting before he founded the state-sponsored news agency RT, then known as Russia Today in 2005. Last year, the U.S. government forced RT to register as a foreign agent, citing the channel's "strategic messaging for [the] Russian government."
BuzzFeed quoted a current FBI agent who told the website that no one at the agency believes Lesin's death was truly an accident.
“What I can tell you is that there isn’t a single person inside the bureau who believes this guy got drunk, fell down, and died,” the unidentified agent said. “Everyone thinks he was whacked and that Putin or the Kremlin were behind it.”
Steele was the author of a controversial dossier alleging ties between President the rich asshole and the Russian government that Republicans have claimed was the impetus for the Justice Department's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
‘Knowledge of adult film industry a plus’: Prankster posts hilarious DC Craigslist ad seeking a lawyer for the rich asshole
some rich asshole (YouTube)
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President some rich asshole keeps getting rejected by lawyers he tries to hire to help him handle special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe — and now one prankster has sarcastically decided to help the president out by posting an ad for an attorney on Washington DC’s Craigslist.
The ad, which seeks a “lead attorney for a difficult client” located at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington DC, says that it would be “a plus” for prospective applicants to have “working knowledge of social media, especially Twitter” and “better than average knowledge of the adult film industry and a collection of Playboy magazines from 1985-2010.”
The ad also says appearances on Fox News are a good way to make a first impression, and it says applicants should look like either Gregory Peck or Tommy Lee Jones to be considered for the job.
It then warns that the client in the case “is very forceful and opinionated about his defense” and tells applicants that their jobs will be “keeping him from testifying under oath and hoping the rest comes out in the wash.”
Despite these difficulties, the ad promises massive rewards for attorneys who take the case because the client “is a hugely wealthy man, hugely successful, everyone says it.”
Read the full ad below.
Schumer: Courts should block the rich asshole's census citizenship question
BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 03/27/18 12:40 PM EDT
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) ripped the rich asshole administration's decision to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 census and urged the courts to overturn the move.
“The census, written about and hallowed in the Constitution, is being distorted by this administration for political purposes. President the rich asshole and Secretary Ross should be ashamed of themselves. Hopefully the courts will correct this glaring abuse," he said in a statement, referring to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
Democratic attorneys general in several states as well as progressive outside groups have pledged to bring legal action against the decision.
And Democratic lawmakers in Congress have condemned the decision as politically motivated and warned it will alienate immigrant communities after the rich asshole's hardline rhetoric during the champaign.
"Adding a question designed to depress participation in certain communities is an assault on the foundations of this country. Given President the rich asshole’s toxic rhetoric and aggressive policies toward immigrants, it’s clear his administration wants to include this question to discourage participation in immigrant communities," she said.
A group of Senate Democrats introduced legislation last week that would prohibit questions on citizenship or immigration status from being included on the census. House Democrats announced on Tuesday that they would file similar legislation.
But with Republicans in control of Congress, including over what gets a vote in both chambers, Democrats have limited options if they want to undo the rich asshole's actions through legislation. A mammoth government funding bill, which would have been one of their best legislative leverage points, passed last week.
NYT conservative rips evangelicals: ‘Stormy Daniels isn’t a shock to that culture — it’s a representation of it’
some rich asshole in Cleveland prayer huddle -- (YouTube screen grab)
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In a back and forth on the New York Times editorial page, conservative columnist Bret Stephens trashed the “institutional Christian right” for remaining in bed with President some rich asshole despite credible revelations that he had an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Taking part in the conversation with liberal Gail Collins, Stephens was asked what to make of the sex scandal that, if it involved a Democrat, would have Christian conservatives up and arms and moving towards impeachment, as was the case with former President Bill Clinton.
“Did you find the Stormy Daniels interview sort of … boring? I did, and it seems like a tribute to some rich asshole that I could be listening to a woman talking about how she swatted his rear end with a magazine that had his picture on the front and think, ‘Well, at least he had underwear on,'” Collins wrote before adding, “It’s just that we now have a president whose sleaze rating is so high it’s hard to get shocked by anything.”
Stephens agreed before accusing Christians of hypocrisy.
“Exactly. It’s boring because nothing about this president scandalizes us anymore,” Stephens wrote. “I can remember when news of Bill Clinton’s alleged affair with Gennifer Flowers broke when he was running for president in 1992. Conservatives erupted: The man was not fit to sit in the Oval Office!”
“Nowadays it’s a different story,” Stephen’s continued. “Right-wing political culture, including the institutional Christian right, has been pornogrified. The Stormy Daniels affair isn’t a shock to that culture; it’s a representation of it. This is the bed conservatives made, so to speak, when they adopted the rich asshole as one of their own, so they shouldn’t be surprised by anyone who turns up in there with them.”
Stephens later called out the rich asshole as an “incompetent executive.”
“The departures of Gary Cohn, Rex Tillerson and H. R. McMaster confirm the central truth of the rich asshole presidency: He’s an incompetent executive,” he wrote. “He offers no loyalty to his subordinates but expects flattery from them in return. He provides no direction but refuses to take direction when it is offered to him. People call him the chaos president, which he thinks is a compliment because it hints at the possibility that there’s method to the madness. There isn’t. It’s just a personality disorder with command authority over nuclear weapons.”
You can read the whole piece here.
House Dems request info on White House probe of loans to Kushner family's business
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 03/27/18 12:40 PM EDT
Two Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are pushing the White House Counsel’s Office to provide updates on its investigation into senior adviser Jared Kushner’s meetings with executives from two companies that later loaned millions to his family’s business.
Ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi(D-Ill.) asked White House Counsel Donald McGahn in a letter dated Monday to provide documents related to the review of Kushner’s compliance with ethics laws, as well as those pertaining to Kushner’s connection to his family’s company since joining the rich asshole administration.
“Your office has ignored repeated requests for information about steps your office or Mr. Kushner have taken to address his apparent conflicts. Your silence is disturbing given the increasing number of allegations about Mr. Kushner using his role in the White House to benefit his family’s company,” the lawmakers wrote.
The Democrats asked McGahn to produce the requested documents by April 10.
Krishnamoorthi previously raised concerns to the Office of Government Ethics following reports that Kushner met at the White House with executives from Apollo Global Management and Citigroup shortly before each company loaned Kushner Cos. millions of dollars.
Apollo loaned $184 million to the Kushner Cos., while Citigroup loaned $325 million to the business, which is run by Kushner’s family.
The New York Times reported last month that Kushner spoke with an Apollo co-founder about a possible job opportunity at the White House, but that nothing came of the discussion.
David Apol, acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, said in a letter published Monday that he spoke with the White House Counsel’s Office about Krishnamoorthi’s concerns, and the office confirmed it had already begun an investigation.
CBS News reported Tuesday that Kushner's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said the White House Counsel's Office concluded Kushner did not do anything wrong.
"He was not involved with his former company after he entered government service; the transactions in question came after that; he had nothing to do with those transactions; the transactions had nothing to do with any of his meetings in the White House, and the people from the companies involved have confirmed that as well," Lowell told CBS in a statement.
A spokeswoman for Kushner Cos. said Monday the business had not received an inquiry from the White House.
An Apollo spokesman previously said the executive who met with Kushner was not involved in the decision to loan Kushner Cos. money.
A Citigroup spokeswoman said the firm's relationship with Kushner Cos. was not connected to Kushner's White House role.
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March 27, 2018
Sarah Huckabee Sanders couldn't even keep a straight face trying to spin for the rich asshole and his ridiculous wall.
Even after a week away from reporters, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders wasn’t quite prepared to get back to lying for the rich asshole.
During her first full White House briefing in a week, Sanders was caught off guard when ABC News’ Cecilia Vega asked about the rich asshole’s apparent plan to have the military pay for his border wall.
Sanders said she couldn’t get into “specifics” about the vague plan that the rich asshole tweeted over the weekend, but assured Vega that the wall will be built.
“Isn’t it true, at this point, that Mexico is just not going to pay for that wall?” Vega asked.
Sanders couldn’t even keep a straight face when she answered. “I’m not going to go beyond what the president has already said. I think he still has plans to look at potential ways for that to happen.”
Asked what “plans” the rich asshole is considering, Sanders said, “When we have an announcement on that, I’ll let you know.”
Aside from the fact that Sanders had literally just finished commenting on the rich asshole’s plan to have the military pay for the wall, the Mexico lie was exposed just days into the rich asshole’s presidency when his speech and executive order on the wall made no mention of Mexico paying. The rich asshole administration hasn’t been able to keep its story straight since then.
And of course, Mexico has said repeatedly, since long before the rich asshole took office, that it has no intention of paying for his wall.
Now the rich asshole administration is simultaneously bragging that the wall is being funded, while complaining that the wall isn’t being funded. And the rich asshole is using the lack of funding as an excuse to block a fix to DACA, the program that keeps young immigrants known as Dreamers from being deported.
Meanwhile, the majority of Americans are decidedly unhappy with the rich asshole’s border wall, and with his insistence on holding Dreamers hostage to it.
the rich asshole has never had a real “plan” to make Mexico pay for his wall. And while his press secretary might be willing to stand in front of the press and lie for him, she knows it’s not true.
Blue states sue the rich asshole over census citizenship question
BY REID WILSON - 03/27/18 11:57 AM EDT
Democratic attorneys general in several states said Tuesday they would bring legal action to stop the rich asshole administration from adding a question on citizenship to the next U.S. census, a question they said would lead to serious undercounts that could reverberate for years to come.
The administration said late Tuesday it would include a question on the decennial survey that would ask whether respondents are American citizens.
An undercount could put at risk billions of dollars in federal aid, in programs ranging from health care to education and even law enforcement funding for some states. Figures from the census are used to allocate federal money through programs across the government.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) filed suit in U.S. District Court seeking to block the question from appearing on the census, which will take place in 2020.
“Having an accurate Census count should be of the utmost importance for every Californian,” Becerra said in a statement. “The Census numbers provide the backbone for planning how our communities can grow and thrive in the coming decade. California simply has too much to lose for us to allow the rich asshole administration to botch this important decennial obligation.”
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) said in a statement Tuesday he would lead a multistate effort against the question. In a statement, Schneiderman cited the 14th Amendment and the enumeration clause of the Constitution as potential areas for legal challenges.
“This move directly targets states like New York that have large, thriving immigrant populations — threatening billions of dollars in federal funding for New York as well as fair representation in Congress and the electoral college,” Schneiderman said in his statement.
Legal experts said it was not immediately clear that states would be successful in challenging the Commerce Department’s decision in court.
“The power to do the census is given to the federal government,” said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine.
Research shows that more than 60 percent of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States live in just 20 metro areas across the country. Twelve of those 20 metro areas are in blue states that backed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by wide margins in the 2016 presidential election.
More than a million undocumented immigrants live in the New York area, and a million more live in Los Angeles, according to a 2017 study by the Pew Research Center. Chicago, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Denver and four California metro areas all have between 100,000 and 400,000 undocumented immigrant residents.
An undercount of undocumented immigrants also threatens funding for several red states where those immigrants live. Houston, Dallas and Austin, Texas, all have large undocumented populations, as does Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Fla., and Phoenix. Those metro areas are all in red states President the rich asshole carried in 2016.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department asked the Commerce Department to include the citizenship question on the next census. Nineteen attorneys general, all Democrats, and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) wrote to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, himself a former census-taker, asking him to leave the question out.
But in a memo released Monday, Ross directed Karen Dunn Kelley, the Commerce under secretary for economic affairs, to develop plans to add the citizenship question to the census nonetheless. Ross cited concern from the U.S. Census Bureau itself that the question would lead to lower response rates among non-citizens.
“I find that the need for accurate citizenship data and the limited burden that the reinstatement of the citizenship question would impose outweigh fears about a potentially lower response rate,” Ross wrote.
Democrats reacted angrily to the rich asshole administration’s decision to include the new question. Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who heads the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said his group would sue the administration to block the question.
“Make no mistake — this decision is motivated purely by politics,” Holder said.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez called the addition “a craven attack on our democracy and a transparent attempt to intimidate immigrant communities.”
Civil rights groups also opposed adding the question to the decennial survey. In a letter to Ross, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights — an organization that includes senior officials from the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, the AARP and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, among many other groups — said the question would degrade the quality of the data the census produces.
“Adding a new citizenship question to the 2020 Census would destroy any chance for an accurate count, discard years of careful research, and increase costs significantly,” the group wrote.
The Justice Department cited Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in its request for the new question, but civil rights groups said the department had never used Census data to enforce the Voting Rights Act in the first place.
“As attorney general, I did not — nor did my predecessors — request the addition of a citizenship question to the decennial census to enforce the [Voting Rights Act],” Holder said in a statement. “We did not need to: Data derived from the existing census process was perfectly adequate for any voting litigation that arose.”
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March 27, 2018
Parkland teenagers leading the movement for gun safety have the support of a vast majority of the country. And that's driving the conservative movement mad.
A considerable majority of Americans support the teenage activists from Parkland who successfully organized the historic March for Our Lives. And that has driven the right-wing media around the bend.
A new poll from Public Policy Polling (PPP) shows that the high school students have a 56 percent favorability rating. That compares to an anemic 39 percent favorable rating for the NRA.
The poll found that efforts to reduce gun violence are extremely popular, as well. 87 percent back universal background checks, while 64 percent support an assault weapons ban. And 60 percent overall want stronger gun laws.
“One new gun proposal voters don’t like though is giving them to teachers,” PPP notes. That absurd and dangerous idea — pushed by the rich asshole, many Republicans, and the NRA — has only 35 percent support.
Gun control opponents on the right are on the losing side of this conversation. As a result, they’re getting in the mud and attacking the teens with a series of over-the-top, false, and pathetic smears.
Conspiracy theorist and the rich asshole confidante and supporter Alex Jones released a video depicting Parkland shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez as a member of the Hitler Youth. Jones also dubbed audio from Hitler over a speech made by David Hogg, another survivor of the shooting.
Jones popularized the repulsive lies that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax and that the U.S. government orchestrated the 9/11 attacks. Now he’s applied the same kind of disgusting smears to the students’ movement. He now claims that the protests are part of a plot to overthrow the government and kill gun owners.
Notably, Jones has been a staunch advocate for the rich asshole’s presidency and has reportedly maintained contact with him since the election.
But he isn’t alone in promoting unhinged commentary on the Parkland teens.
The conservative site Redstate, echoing Jones’ site Infowars, published a story claiming Hogg wasn’t on campus during the shooting. In reality, Hogg was in class as his classmates were killed, and even recorded a video of another student as they hid.
Redstate later retracted the story. But by then the fake news had been promoted by conservative pundit Erick Erickson. Erickson insisted that the story “isn’t fake news.” But it was.
And it was part of the mini-industry of hoaxes conservatives have created to attack the Parkland survivors
In one instance, they modified a video of Gonzalez ripping up a shooting target to instead appear as if she were tearing the Constitution.
They also claimed that Hogg was a so-called “crisis actor,” and not actually a Stoneman Douglas student.
When they aren’t making and circulating fake stories about the teens, the right has lashed out at them directly. The hateful attacks seem to grow out of jealousy for how their message has resonanted across the country.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson whined that they are “self-righteous kids screaming at you on television.” National Review simultaneously featured four stories attacking Hogg on the front page of the site. The articles called Hogg a “demagogue” and a “useful idiot.” And they complained that he delivered a “profanity-ridden rant” and called out Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for his fealty to the NRA.
That followed a widely ridiculed demand from former senator and failed presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who said the kids should learn CPR and stop protesting mass murder.
The right is losing this argument over a vital national issue.
They have been unable to win on the merits, as most Americans back gun safety reforms and legislation. So, they do what the right has done so often and effectively: smear, lie, and deceive without giving it a single second thought.
But it’s not working for them this time.
Ex-EPA heads: Pruitt is crippling agency with 'secret science' rule
BY MIRANDA GREEN -
Two former heads of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have issued a scathing critique of its current administrator, Scott Pruitt, warning that his crackdown on certain scientific studies could have long-term damaging effects on the agency.
In a New York Times op-ed published Monday, former EPA administrators Gina McCarthy and Janet McCabe warned the public should "not to be fooled" by a recent announcement from Pruitt that he would rid the agency of "secret science," a term used by some critics of the agency to describe studies that include nonpublic scientific data.
"Don’t be fooled by this talk of transparency. He and some conservative members of Congress are setting up a nonexistent problem in order to prevent the EPA from using the best available science," the two wrote.
"It is his latest effort to cripple the agency," they added.
The article follows Pruitt's announcement in a Daily Caller interview last week that the EPA was changing its policy on the data it used to determine regulations, deciding that going forward it would only utilize data made available for public scrutiny — reversing a long-standing policy at the EPA and the science community at large to use peer-reviewed data.
"We need to make sure their data and methodology are published as part of the record,” Pruitt told the Daily Caller. “Otherwise, it’s not transparent. It’s not objectively measured, and that’s important.”
Pruitt has long argued that such practices, which he says lack transparency, are used routinely to justify unnecessary regulations.
"When we do contract that science out, sometimes the findings are published; we make that part of our rule-making processes, but then we don’t publish the methodology and data that went into those findings because the third party who did the study won’t give it to us,” Pruitt said.
McCarthy and McCabe noted how similar Pruitt's new policy was to a bill introduced last year by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), called the HONEST Act. The bill would "prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from proposing, finalizing, or disseminating a covered action" unless all information was made publicly available for "independent analysis."
The two former EPA chiefs said adopting the new policy would likely open up a can of worms, leading the public to unnecessarily doubt other regulations determined in other government agencies through peer-reviewed science.
"This approach would undermine the nation’s scientific credibility. And should Mr. Pruitt reconsider regulations now in place, this new policy could be a catalyst for the unraveling of existing public health protections if the studies used to justify them could no longer be used by EPA," McCarthy and McCabe wrote.
NRA admits foreign money helps push its bloody gun agenda
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The NRA now admits on the record it received foreign donations to push a pro-gun agenda and oppose politicians trying to prevent gun violence.
The National Rifle Association is finally admitting that it receives and uses foreign money to finance its operations.
When the organization attacks the survivors of mass shootings, or smears politicians trying to reduce gun violence, it’s using foreign dollars to do so.
What is supposed to be an American organization influencing legislation and political debate has been exposed as a site for foreign money infusions into American politics.
“We do receive some contributions from foreign individuals and entities,” the organization’s general counsel, John C. Frazier, admitted in response to an inquiry from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR). Frazier insisted the contributions are for “lawful purposes.”
But there has been widespread concern about the NRA being a conduit for Russian money to influence the 2016 election. The highest-profile recipient of what might have been foreign-tainted money would be the rich asshole. The NRA endorsed the rich asshole and spent millions to elect him in 2016. That was a goal Russia shared.
“The NRA has a public responsibility to disclose where their foreign donations are coming from,” Wyden said in a statement to Shareblue Media. “Money in these accounts could be used to pay for ad campaigns and voter mobilization efforts. Knowing what outside actors are directly or indirectly influencing the US political debate is critical to the preservation of our Democracy.”
The gun rights extremists claim that none of its foreign money went to election operations, but as NPR notes, “The movement of its money between accounts could make it difficult, if not impossible, to track how the money is spent since it is not isolated or sequestered.”
The NRA acknowledges receiving money from foreign sources, which they place in certain designated accounts, but the group also admits that “transfers between accounts are made as permitted by law.”
That means the NRA could receive foreign money in one account and then transfer all or some of that money to campaign accounts, essentially using overseas cash to back its favored candidates. As NPR points out, “The NRA is not required to be transparent about how money moves between its various political entities, and this leaves questions unanswered about how these foreign funds were ultimately spent.”
After the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, the rich asshole first made public statements about several measures he would undertake to help reduce gun violence. He said he would discuss raising age requirements.
But after receiving marching orders in-person from the NRA, the rich asshole backed off. Since then, he has offered meaningless lip service and reforms studiously designed to ignore the gun issue and their role in mass murders.
He is doing everything a politician in thrall to extremists bankrolled by mysterious foreign funds would do.
Poll: the rich asshole leads Stormy Daniels in 2020 match-up, but not if she uses her real name
BY AVERY ANAPOL - 03/27/18 11:20 AM EDT
The adult film star who has alleged an affair with President the rich asshole could lead him in a hypothetical match-up in the 2020 race — but only if she used her real name, according to a new poll.
The poll from left-leaning Public Policy Polling found that in the match-up between Democrat Stormy Daniels and Republican some rich asshole, 32 percent of people said they would vote for Daniels, trailing behind the 41 percent who said they would vote for the rich asshole.
But when Daniels’s real name, Stephanie Clifford, is used in the pairing, 42 percent said they would vote for the adult film actress, compared with 41 percent who said they would vote for the rich asshole.
She is suing the rich asshole in an effort to dissolve a decade-old nondisclosure agreement, and added Cohen to the lawsuit on Monday, accusing him of defamation for suggesting she is lying about the affair.
Daniels defied the nondisclosure agreement and revealed details of the alleged affair, including claiming that she was threatened to keep quiet several years ago, in a “60 Minutes” interview on Sunday.
Though Daniels has given no indication that she would be interested in running for office in the future, she did briefly consider running for Senate in Louisiana in 2009.
Poll: the rich asshole's job performance rating drops
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 03/27/18 11:09 AM EDT
President the rich asshole’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest level in months, according to a poll released Tuesday.
Public Policy Polling found the rich asshole has an approval rating of 39 percent, while 54 percent of voters disapprove of his job performance. The approval number is one of the rich asshole’s lowest since taking office, the left-leaning firm noted.
Forty-four percent of respondents approved of the president's job performance last month, one of his highest ratings.
A majority of voters disapproved of the rich asshole’s handling of various issues in the latest poll. For example, 52 percent said they believe the president is a liar, 57 percent want to see his tax returns and 54 percent said the rich asshole has not delivered on his promise to “Make America Great Again.”
Public Policy Polling’s results were released a day after a CNN poll found the rich asshole received his highest approval rating in nearly a year. Forty-two percent of voters gave the rich asshole positive marks in that poll.
The latest poll numbers come amid a string of personnel changes in the rich asshole's Cabinet. Gary Cohn, the rich asshole's top economic adviser, resigned earlier this month, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was forced out a short time later. the rich asshole has since announced national security adviser H.R. McMaster is leaving early next month, and Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is reportedly set to be the next to go.
Stephanie Clifford, who acts in porn films under the name Stormy Daniels and has alleged an affair with the president ten years ago, topped the rich asshole by 1 point, 42-41, in a hypothetical 2020 election match-up. When asked the same question using the "Daniels" name, respondents picked the rich asshole, 41 to 32 percent, however, according to the poll.
the rich asshole has been the subject of recent claims he had multiple extramarital affairs around 2006.
Daniels detailed her alleged affair with the rich asshole during an interview that aired Sunday on "60 Minutes," while former Playboy model Karen McDougal shared her story late last week on CNN.
The White House has denied the women's claims.
Public Policy Polling surveyed 846 voters from March 23-25. Its findings have a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.
Stormy Daniels's lawyer: There's no 'Monica Lewinsky type' dress
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 03/27/18 10:46 AM EDT
The attorney for Stormy Daniels shot down the possibility that Daniels has a "Monica Lewinsky" dress that could prove an affair between the adult film actress and President the rich asshole.
In a tweet Tuesday, attorney Michael Avenatti said that Daniels doesn't have a dress that might contain the rich asshole's DNA, but said there was progress in proving that Daniels had been threatened by a man to drop the story in 2011.
To address the rumor: We DO NOT have a “Monica Lewinsky type” dress. Thus, there is no dress to be tested for DNA. But we are making progress on the assault/stalking that occurred around the same time that Mr. Cohen threatened @intouchweekly magazine in May 2011. #coverup #basta
Avenatti's tweet follows a remark from Alana Evans, a friend of Daniels, who told CNN's Jim Sciutto that Daniels "still has the dress" from her alleged one-night stand with the president in 2006, shortly after his marriage to first lady Melania the rich asshole.
“All I know is that Stormy still has the dress that she wore from that night,” Evans said.
In 1997, scandal erupted when Lewinsky, then a White House intern, told friend Linda Tripp that she still had a semen-stained dress from her sexual encounter with President Clinton earlier that year.
Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, took a $130,000 payment from the rich asshole's lawyer Michael Cohen in 2016 as part of a nondisclosure agreement that she says prevented her from speaking about the alleged affair.
Cohen has admitted to making the payment but denies that the rich asshole knew anything about it, saying it came from his personal funds. The White House has repeatedly denied Daniels's claims, and has suggested that the alleged incident in 2011 in which Daniels was reportedly threatened to drop the story in a parking lot never happened.
"The president strongly, clearly and consistently has denied these underlying claims. The only one who has been inconsistent is the one making the claims," White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah said on Monday.
"The president doesn't believe that any of the claims Ms. Daniels made in the interview are accurate."
the rich asshole sets up legal fight over bump stocks
BY LYDIA WHEELER - 03/27/18 09:12 AM EDT
The rich asshole Administration is setting the stage for a furious legal battle over bump stocks by proposing a rule to effectively ban the devices, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire more rapidly.
Bump stocks were catapulted to the forefront of the debate over gun control after a man in Las Vegas killed 58 people and wounded more than 500 others by opening fire with semi-automatic weapons that used the devices.
The Las Vegas killings represent the worst mass-shooting incident in modern U.S. history, and led to immediate calls for the banning of bump stocks.
But gun rights groups and other advocates say it’s outside the administration’s regulatory authority to ban bump stocks — and that doing so will provoke lawsuits.
The reason is complicated and has to do with how the law defines how a machine gun operates.
Machine guns are all but completely banned under a 1986 law passed by Congress that banned the possession or transfer of automatic weapons manufactured after that year.
A previous law from 1934 defines a machine gun as any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single pull of the trigger. It includes any combination of parts designed and intended to convert a weapon into a machine gun.
Those arguing the administration does not have the power to ban bump stocks say the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is effectively adding to and changing the definition of a machine gun.
They say the ATF does not have that power, and that only Congress can change how a machine gun is defined.
“What Congress has banned is machine guns and that’s defined as a device that fires more than one round with the single function of a trigger,” said Adam Winkler, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. “The bureau can only interpret that language, they can’t add to it.”
Even within the ATF, there have been doubts that it can promulgate a rule to ban bump stocks, which attach to the stock of a semi-automatic firearm and enhance the rate at which a shooter can pull the trigger on the firearm.
While the part increases the rate of fire in a way that is close to mimicking a machine gun, groups say that does not make it a machine gun and that it was specifically created by manufacturers as a way to work around the law.
Michael Bouchard, president of the ATF Association — a group of former and current ATF employees — argues the best and quickest way to ban bump stocks is through legislation.
"The regulatory method takes months and is subject to legal challenges for every device made," said Bouchard, who worked at the ATF for 20 years, the last three as ATF’s assistant director.
That argument isn’t stopping the rich asshole administration.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Friday the Department of Justice will soon start accepting public comments on a proposed rule to define machine gun to include bump stock devices — effectively banning them.
“After the senseless attack in Las Vegas, this proposed rule is a critical step in our effort to reduce the threat of gun violence that is in keeping with the Constitution and the laws passed by Congress,” Sessions said.
The ATF’s rule would clarify that " 'bump fire' stocks, slide-fire devices and devices with certain similar characteristics are 'machine guns' " under the federal law “because such devices allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger.”
While the National Rifle Association has backed further regulations of bump stock, other groups are already mulling their options.
“We may very well do it,” Dudley Brown, president of the National Association for Gun Rights, said of a possible lawsuit.
“Even the ATF knows that it’s not really within their bounds to ban bump stocks,” he said.
Some gun control advocates, on the other hand, argue it is within the government’s right to regulate an end to bump stocks.
In comments to the agency in January, Everytown for Gun Safety said the 1934 law was written to be a broad regulation covering automatic firearms and the ATF has the authority to clarify which bump stocks and other conversion devices qualify as “machine guns.”
“The authority has existed to regulate these devices and in fact ATF’s job is to say which devices count as machine guns and make it clear they are not legal,” said Jonas Oransky, Everytown’s deputy legal director. “They have not previously done that in a comprehensive way.”
But David Chipman, a retired ATF agent who now serves as a senior policy adviser at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said the public is entirely missing the mark in the bump stocks debate.
He said the question is not whether the ATF has the legal authority to ban bump stocks, but why Congress has failed to act.
Tapper quotes Bible passage in response to pro-the rich asshole pastor who criticized Stormy Daniels
BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 03/27/18 07:34 AM EDT
CNN's Jake Tapper responded with a Bible passage after a pastor who supports President the rich asshole criticized Stormy Daniels in a tweet.
"The funny thing is @realDonaldTrump is still the President and she’s still a hooker. #StormyDanielsDay," Pastor Greg Locke, the founder of the Global Vision Bible Church in Tennessee, tweeted.
The funny thing is @realDonaldTrump is still the President and she’s still a hooker. #StormyDanielsDay
In response, Tapper sent out a series of tweets quoting a Bible passage.
"Luke 7: 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears," Tapper tweeted.
Luke 7:
37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. twitter.com/pastorlocke/st…
37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. twitter.com/pastorlocke/st…
Luke 7:
37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. twitter.com/pastorlocke/st…
Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both.
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both.
”...Now which of them will love him more?”
Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house.
”...Now which of them will love him more?”
Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house.
”...You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet...
”...You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet...
46 “...You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
46 “...You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
-fin-
Locke later responded to Tapper, calling it a "great passage" and accusing the CNN anchor of hating his "support of the rich asshole."
"He changed her life by love and grace. She didn’t continue living in it and then get on national television to garner more attention for her nonsense. Context is key. The fact is, you hate my support of the rich asshole w/out a Bible," Locke tweeted.
Tapper shot back, saying he has "complete indifference" to his feelings about any politician.
"But you might want to reconsider a refresher course. Hint: the passage is not 'hey, go throw stones!'" Tapper tweeted.
Locke has in the past spurred controversy over posts on social media. He has been critical of media organizations in the past and has praised the rich asshole.
The exchange came after "60 Minutes" on Sunday aired its highly anticipated interview with Daniels, during which the adult-film star revealed details about the affair she claims she had with the rich asshole more than a decade ago.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said she decided to speak publicly about the alleged affair because she felt she needed to defend herself and her family from legal and public scrutiny.
She said she felt compelled to set the record straight after a Wall Street Journal article revealed she had been paid $130,000 by the rich asshole's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to keep quiet about the alleged affair.
Daniels filed a lawsuit earlier this month seeking to void the nondisclosure agreement, which her lawyer claims is invalid because it was never signed by the rich asshole himself.
the rich asshole's lawyers have argued in subsequent court documents that Daniels repeatedly violated the nondisclosure agreement and could be forced to pay $20 million in damages.
POLITICS
Lawyers Explain Why It Might Be Smart Not To Have some rich asshole As A Client
“It is difficult for one to maintain one’s appearance of being an ethical lawyer while trying to represent some rich asshole,” a legal expert said.
WASHINGTON ― President some rich asshole seems to be having difficulty finding lawyers to represent him in the widening probe of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Last week, the rich asshole’s lead attorney for the special counsel investigation, John Dowd, tendered his resignation, prompting a White House search that has yet to yield a suitable replacement. At least six lawyers in the last week have turned down an offer to represent the president.
Lawyers and legal experts say it’s not hard to see why: Lawyers could place themselves at great risk by working for a client with a reputation for impulsiveness and an inability to heed advice, who tends to undercut legal strategy with haphazard public statements and an itchy Twitter finger and who, as a result, may not be worth the publicity and likely future business associated with representing a president of the United States.
“One of the things you always wonder about when you’re asked to replace another lawyer is ‘Why?’” said George Clark, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney specializing in legal ethics.
Clark noted that many lawyers endure guilty or ethically challenged clients ― the right to legal counsel being something attorneys strive to uphold ― but erratic clients are a whole different can of worms. Refusing to take advice from counsel, for example, is a common reason why lawyers drop clients.
the rich asshole’s difficulties with staffing his legal team come as special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation is said to be entering a critical phase. While the president has publicly embraced the prospect of sitting down for an interview with the special counsel’s team, the rich asshole’s lawyers have been divided on the subject. Dowd reportedly opposed it, and his departure clears a path to begin preparations for an interview.
the rich asshole has, in recent days, also escalated his attacks against the Russia probe, leading many to speculate that Mueller’s job itself could be in peril. Last week, the president ignored cautioning from his counsel and lashed out at Mueller by name for the first time.
Further complicating the search for lawyers is that representing the rich asshole could present a conflict of interest, since the existing clients of high-profile and seasoned litigators may already be connected to individuals under investigation. Attorneys Joe diGenova and his wife Victoria Toensing, for example, were ultimately unable to represent the president as was previously announced, due to conflicts of interest with the case.
Robert Rizzi, a partner at Steptoe & Johnson who also teaches government ethics at Harvard Law School, declined to be interviewed for this story. But he too said there was a “good chance” he had represented or worked with many of the involved parties. Rizzi was one of a number of lawyers at prominent firms with large political practices who declined to comment to HuffPost for that reason.
One of the things you always wonder about when you’re asked to replace another lawyer is ‘Why?’George Clark, a Washington-based attorney specializing in legal ethics
Potential candidates for the rich asshole’s legal team are likely dissuaded by other factors, too ― such as the seemingly unending upheaval in the White House and among the Cabinet agencies.
“I think everybody would agree this is turmoil, chaos, confusion. It’s not good for anything,” Ted Olson, who served as solicitor general in President George W. Bush’s administration and who recently declined White House entreaties to join the rich asshole’s legal team, said Monday during an interview on MSNBC. “We always believe that there should be an orderly process, and of course government is not clean or orderly ever, but this seems to be beyond normal.”
Jed Shugerman, a law professor at Fordham University, said that representing the rich asshole in the Mueller probe could also threaten one’s professional reputation and may even put one in legal jeopardy.
Shugerman pointed to a recent episode involving Dowd and the circumstances surrounding the firing of then-national security adviser Michael Flynn. In December, Dowd claimed he drafted a tweet for the president’s Twitter account that said: “I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI.” The tweet seemed to indicate that the rich asshole was aware that Flynn had lied to the FBI before firing him, an admission that could bolster a possible obstruction of justice case against the president.
Dowd’s explanation for why he ― and not the president ― had authored the tweet may have exposed him to questions from the special counsel, as well.
“It is difficult for one to maintain one’s appearance of being an ethical lawyer while trying to represent some rich asshole,” Shugerman said. “Any lawyer who has observed those episodes is going to see that joining this team at this stage runs a risk to their professional lives.”
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