Shulkin cancels meetings with the rich asshole appointees amid VA strife: report
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 03/09/18 10:04 AM EST
Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin has reportedly cut off contact with top agency officials and now operates out of an office with an armed guard at the door amid ongoing tensions with top staff.
Shulkin, a VA holdover from the Obama administration promoted to the head job by President the rich asshole, has canceled morning meetings with top the rich asshole appointees in the department and hasn't spoken to his public affairs chief in weeks. He fears that his aides in the nation's second-largest bureaucracy, behind only the Pentagon, are actively lobbying the White House for his ouster, The Washington Post reports.
In addition, several senior officials Shulkin personally suspects of disloyalty have lost access to the secretary's 10th floor executive suite.
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The chaos has allegedly deadlocked an agency that President the rich asshole promised during his 2016 campaign to reform after a major health-care scandal during the Obama administration.
“Things have come to a grinding halt,” one senior manager told the Post. “It’s killing the agency. Nobody trusts each other.”
Among those allegedly seeking Shulkin's ouster are public affairs chief John Ullyot, legislative affairs head Brooks Tucker and top aide Jake Leinenkugel, who all clashed with Shulkin over policies seen to be out of step with the rich asshole administration, as well as hires for the agency.
The friction led to the three regularly meeting to plot Shulkin's firing, the Post reports, while also overruling the Cabinet secretary on policy decisions.
Shulkin, meanwhile, recently met with Marvel Entertainment chief executive Ike Perlmutter, who advises the rich asshole on veterans' issues and whose backing Shulkin sought to rid the agency of his critics.
“The tragedy of all of this is that Shulkin is putting points on the scoreboard for the rich asshole,” said Philip Carter, a veterans' issues expert at the Center for a New American Security. “It’s the president’s agenda that suffers with this kind of dysfunction.”
Shulkin is the only the rich asshole Cabinet secretary who also worked under the Obama White House, and he has battled scandal during his time under the rich asshole. Last week it was revealed that Shulkin was the target of an inspector general investigation into the use of his personal security detail to perform errands.
In February, a separate inspector general investigation found that Shulkin improperly accepted tickets to the Wimbledon tennis tournament and used taxpayer dollars to take a trip to Europe that cost $122,000 in total. The report alleged that government emails were doctored so that taxpayer funding covered travel expenses racked up by Shulkin's wife.
POLITICS
the rich asshole’s Tariffs Could Make These Popular Products More Expensive
The protectionist trade policy also threatens jobs in industries from Kentucky bourbon to Wisconsin cranberries.
American companies that rely heavily on aluminum and steel have raised alarm that President some rich asshole’s tariffs on imports of the metals will raise costs and hurt workers.
In two weeks, the U.S. will begin collecting a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports, the rich asshole announced Thursday. Canada and Mexico are the only two countries exempted, for now. Some U.S. trade partners have already signaled they’ll slap retaliatory tariffs on U.S.-made goods ― with consequences that could affect American jobs and retail prices.
In response to the news, several companies said they may need to raise the prices of some common goods. (Though the hikes may be overblown for a variety of reasons, including the fact that many companies purchase steel and aluminum from domestic producers.)
Here are some of the items that may cost more soon.
Beer
The beer industry makes its cans out of aluminum. MillerCoors ― which has upped the amount of beer it sells in aluminum cans ― and Anheuser-Busch both released scathing statements warning of job losses across the industry and increased prices for consumers.
The 10-percent tariff on aluminum “will create a new $347.7 million tax on America’s beverage industry, including brewers and beer importers, and result in the loss of 20,291 American jobs,” Jim McGreevy, president and CEO of the Beer Institute trade group, said in a statement.
Yet the price of a pack of beer cans would likely only rise by a few cents, the Beer Institute added, given that one can costs about 10 cents to make to begin with.
Cars
The automobile industry wouldn’t exist without steel and aluminum, and the tariffs could cost Ford and General Motors $1 billion each per year, according to Goldman Sachs. Both companies, however, mostly use U.S.-made steel.
Ford warned in a statement that the rich asshole’s tariffs “could result in an increase in domestic commodity prices — harming the competitiveness of American manufacturers.”
The Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association came out in staunch opposition to the tariffs, arguing they jeopardized 871,000 U.S. jobs in the motor vehicle parts industry.
“This is not a step in the right direction,” the group’s president and CEO, Steve Handschuh, said.
Household Appliances
U.S. appliance makers, including the giant Whirlpool Corp., won a competitive advantage in January, when the rich asshole imposed a tariff of up to 50 percent on imported washing machines. That edge would slip if American companies now have to spend more on steel to make washers and dryers.
The European Union promised swift retaliation for the metal tariffs, targeting some of the most popular items it imports from the United States.
“If the Americans impose tariffs on steel and aluminum, then we must treat American products the same way,” European Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker said last week.
E.U. Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said Thursday a complete list was being drawn up, but suggested it would include these products, many of which happen to be produced in Republican-dominated parts of the U.S.:
Bourbon
Foreign taxes on the American distilled spirits industry would come at a time of heightened demand abroad. Bourbon sales have steadily risen across the E.U. in the last five years, although the bloc’s best-selling brands, like Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark, are owned by a Japanese company, Bloomberg News notes.
The tariffs would “harm consumers through higher prices and more limited product availability, and significantly threaten the distilling renaissance that is creating industry jobs and generating billions in capital investment,” the Kentucky Distillers’ Association said in a statement.
Steve Beam, a descendent of Jim Beam who runs a Kentucky distillery, warned as early as last November that tariffs of this kind would cause a loss of competitive advantage.
“They could make it more expensive for the consumer. Everybody loses in that deal,” Beam said.
Peanut Butter
The demand for peanut butter across Europe isn’t exactly through the roof, and countries like Argentina export many more nuts to the E.U. than America does, indicating that slapping a tariff on the spread could be more of a symbolic move than anything else.
“If you look at the list of products, they’re very iconic American products,” Patrick Archer, president of the American Peanut Council, told The Washington Post. “Peanut butter certainly fits into that list.”
Wisconsin Cranberries
Wisconsin alone exports more than 95 million pounds of cranberries to the E.U. annually, said Tom Lochner, executive director of the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association.
the rich asshole’s measures “would significantly hinder our ability to compete in these markets,” he lamented.
Orange Juice
The tariffs would impact an already struggling citrus industry. Orange juice production and consumption has been on a downward trend due to lower orange supply and significant damage from natural disasters.
Harley-Davidson Motorcycles
The U.S.-based motorcycle giant exports about 16 percent of its motorcycles to Europe, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal. The E.U. had threatened to slap retaliatory tariffs on the company before, when former President George W. Bush imposed steel tariffs in 2002.
“Import tariffs on steel and aluminum will drive up costs for all products made with these raw materials, regardless of their origin,” the company said in a statement. “Additionally, a punitive, retaliatory tariff on Harley-Davidson motorcycles in any market would have a significant impact on our sales, our dealers, their suppliers and our customers in those markets.”
Jeans
“We support open markets and free trade where everyone plays by the rules,” Levi Strauss said in a statement. “Unilateral tariff impositions risk retaliation and destabilizing the global economy, in which case American brands, workers and consumers will ultimately suffer.”
White House drawn into legal battle over Stormy Daniels
BY JONATHAN EASLEY - 03/09/18 06:00 AM EST
The White House is being pulled into the legal fight between President the rich asshole’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, and the adult-film actress who claims to have had an extramarital affair with the president in 2006.
The White House denies that the rich asshole had a relationship with Stormy Daniels, who real name is Stephanie Clifford.
The White House denies that the rich asshole had a relationship with Stormy Daniels, who real name is Stephanie Clifford.
But press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday also said the president recently won an arbitration ruling against Daniels — a statement that effectively tied the rich asshole to the $130,000 payment made by his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to keep Daniels quiet.
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The media is lapping up the salacious storyline as it plays out in courtrooms and arbitration hearings across Los Angeles.
“Look, she broke the contract as part of a publicity play,” said conservative lawyer Larry Klayman. “But I don’t know what you do about it at this point. The cat is already out of the bag.”
In legal filings, Daniels's attorneys claim that she had a sexual encounter with the rich asshole in 2006 in Lake Tahoe, Nev. Their relationship allegedly extended into 2007, and included a rendezvous in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Daniels's lawyers say she was eager to tell her story after the release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape at the height of the 2016 presidential race, in which the rich asshole boasted of being able to grope and kiss women without consent because of his fame.
But Cohen and Daniels reached an agreement whereby he would pay her $130,000 to keep quiet. Cohen claims that he acted without the rich asshole’s knowledge, used his own money and was not reimbursed by the president or his campaign.
On Oct. 17, Cohen formed a group called Essential Consultants to act as a conduit for the payment. The signed contract is between Essential Consultants, “David Dennison” and “Peggy Peterson” — aliases for the rich asshole and Daniels, respectively.
Cohen and Daniels signed the document. While there is a line for the rich asshole, he did not sign it. Daniels accepted the payment from Cohen anyway.
Now Daniels's lawyers claim that she is free from the nondisclosure agreement and ready to talk. They say the contract is null and void because the rich asshole did not sign it. And they say that Cohen breached the agreement by publicly admitting to making the $130,000 payment after it was uncovered by The Wall Street Journal.
The saga took another strange twist this week when Cohen obtained a restraining order from an arbitrator prohibiting Daniels from speaking further about the matter.
“This case has already been won in arbitration,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday.
The use of the arbitrator was agreed upon in the original contract. Legal experts described it as a means of ensuring that Cohen had recourse in case Daniels took the money and then threatened to talk anyway.
But a leak of the gag order provoked a cascade of media stories about how the rich asshole’s lawyer was trying to “silence” the adult-film star.
Daniels's lawyers say they did not know the arbitration proceedings were taking place and didn’t have a chance to give their side, although legal experts say it was likely an emergency injunction granted in advance of a full hearing that would include both parties.
The restraining order exacerbated the conflict.
Daniels's lawyers in a subsequent court filing named the president for the first time as a defendant and accused Cohen of running a shell game to protect him.
“The attempts to intimidate Ms. Clifford into silence and shut her up in order to protect some rich asshole continue unabated,” the filing states.
“The extent of some rich asshole’s involvement in these efforts is presently unknown, but it strains credulity to conclude that Mr. Cohen is acting on his own accord without the express approval and knowledge of his client some rich asshole.”
Still, there are questions swirling about Daniels's intentions and credibility.
Daniels signed a contract saying she would not speak about the allegations and accepted the payment in full before seeking a way out of it.
And last month, Daniels signed a statement saying that the allegations of the affair were false. Later, she went on a late-night talk show to insinuate that the statement she had signed was untrue.
Daniels's lawyers are claiming that she was “forced” to sign the statement denying the alleged affair.
“There were significant threats made, directed at Ms. Daniels, Ms. Clifford, that if she did not sign that various [legal] things would happen to her,” Daniels's lawyer, Michael Avenatti, said Wednesday night on CNN.
Avenatti acknowledged that the signed statement “puts her credibility at issue and raises questions about it,” but insisted that Daniels could explain once she is free from the nondisclosure agreement.
The controversy seems likely to dog the president for some time.
Avenatti has been making the rounds on the networks, with the story even breaking into popular morning shows like NBC’s “Today.”
The controversy has also caught the attention of campaign watchdogs, who have requested investigations into whether the payment to Daniels was an illegal contribution aimed at impacting the outcome of the election.
Conservative lawyers have dismissed that claim, believing that a public figure like the rich asshole would have many reasons to pay to protect his reputation.
Still, one lawyer fumed at what he described as sloppiness on the part of Cohen.
“He doesn’t get the political world,” the lawyer said. “He spent years doing this at the rich asshole Organization but he was not prepared to deal with the scrutiny and accountability that comes in this arena.”
the rich asshole’s allies are at their wit’s end over the saga.
“She’s clearly at the stage in her career where she’s looking for a last hurrah,” said a former the rich asshole adviser. “Plus, the media needs to feed the beast, so here we are, I guess.”
Putin and the rich asshole use same talking points to dismiss Russian election interference
"Maybe being Russian, they're actually working for some kind of American company."
On Friday, MSNBC broadcast the latest snippet of the exlusive interview Megyn Kelly did with Vladimir Putin. In it, she asked the Russian strongman if he’s worried controversy surrounding his regime’s efforts to interfere in American politics could pose problems for his reelection bid.
“You’re up for reelection right now — should the Russian people be concerned that you had no idea this was going on in your own country, in your own hometown?” Kelly asked Putin.
Putin — leader of a regime that rigs elections by harassing and excluding opposition candidates and by controlling the media — couldn’t even contain a smirk. He then proceeded to try and cast doubt about whether Russia was involved in the first place.
“Listen, the world is very large, and very diverse, and there is a fairly complicated relationship between the United States and the Russian Federation, and some of our people have their own opinion about this relationship,” Putin began. “You mentioned a number of names, some individuals, and you are telling me they’re Russians — so what? Maybe being Russian, they’re actually working for some kind of American company. Perhaps one of them used to work for one of the candidates. I have no idea, these are not my problems.”
Putin’s dismissal of his regime’s involvement is very similar to what the rich asshole said during a joint press conference with Swedish Prime Minster Stefan Löfven on Tuesday.
Asked by a Swedish journalist about what lessons he’s learned from “the Russian influence campaign” of 2016, the rich asshole cast doubt upon the U.S. intelligence community’s consensus conclusion — including comments offered publicly by his hand-picked officials — that the Putin regime was behind hacks and influence operations meant to help him win the presidency.
“Probably there was meddling from other countries, maybe other individuals,” the rich asshole said, echoing the infamous comment he made during one of the presidential debates about how a “guy sitting on his bed who weighs 400 pounds” may have been responsible for Democratic hacks, not Russia.
Despite his own intelligence officials publicly saying not enough is being done to prevent meddling, the rich asshole went on to say he’s not worried that Russia will again try to interfere in this year’s midterms. Somewhat alarmingly, he predicting that from his party’s standpoint, the elections will be “a tremendous surprise to people.”
NBC continues to get played by Putin
The framing of Kelly’s question to Putin about election meddling took him at his word that he wasn’t personally aware of efforts to interfere with the 2016 American presidential election — efforts recently detailed in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of 13 Russian individuals and three companies for well-funded “interference operations targeting the United States.”
But the US intelligence community’s consensus assessment of Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 election indicates there’s no reason to be so charitable.
“We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election,” the assessment said. “Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for [President] the rich asshole.”
Kelly’s new interview with Putin isn’t the first time she’s been used by his regime to spread propaganda.
Last spring, her first interview for NBC News consisted of a person-on-the-street segment from Saint Petersburg, Russia, in which she ostensibly chatted to everyday Russians to get their thoughts about the Putin regime’s meddling in the U.S. presidential election.
The first person Kelly spoke to was a man she simply identified as “Russian broadcaster” Sergey Brilev.
“There is a lot of kindergartenish stuff going on,” Brilev said. “It’s humiliating — self-humiliating for such a great country as the United States of America to think that your election was decided in Moscow.”
What Kelly didn’t know at the time was that Brilev is actually “a top executive at a state news agency who played a key role in one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s propaganda efforts,” according to Media Matters.
ENVIRONMENT
Teens’ Lawsuit Battling Climate Change Wins Victory Over Justice Department
A group of Oregon young people argue that federal support for fossil fuel industries violates their right to life.
A federal lawsuit filed by a group of young people accusing the federal government of violating their constitutional right to life with fossil fuel policies that promote climate change has won a key ruling.
The 2015 complaint filed in Oregon by 21 young people, ages 10 to 21, argues that government policies have exacerbated climate change, in violation of their rights to life, liberty and property ― and those of future generations. The policies have also failed to protect “essential public trust resources,” the suit argues.
The suit claims that for more than 50 years, presidents and eight federal agencies have promoted policies to support the energy industry’s use of fossil fuels, which are largely responsible for carbon emissions and climate change. The lawsuit calls for the government to develop a “constitutionally compliant national energy system and science-based climate recovery action.”
The appeals court “just gave us the green light for trial,” lawyer Julia Olson, executive director of Our Children’s Trust, a nonprofit litigating the case with Earth Guardians, said Wednesday in a statement. “We will ask the District Court for a trial date in 2018 where we will put the federal government’s dangerous energy system and climate policies on trial for infringing on the constitutional rights of young people.”
Seattle plaintiff Kirnan Ooman, 21, said in a statement that the “question of the last few years has not been do we have a case, but rather how far will the federal government go to prevent justice?”
There was no immediate comment from the Justice Department.
The Justice Department argued that the federal judge in Eugene, Oregon, who refused to dismiss the case in 2016 had overstepped her authority. Federal attorneys claimed that the issues are not the business of the courts, but the sole purview of Congress and the president. The appeals court unanimously concluded that those arguments are “better addressed through the ordinary course of litigation.”
the rich asshole’s Justice Department is likely to appeal the ruling and ask the Supreme Court to throw the case out, reports Bloomberg.
If that fails, U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken of Oregon must then decide which government officials can be deposed.
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Butch Otter's scheme was so ridiculous that even the rich asshole administration admitted it was illegal.
C.L. “Butch” Otter, the Republican governor of Idaho, thought he had a perfect plan to kill Obamacare: Just let insurers stop complying with it.
But his plan was so extreme, even the rich asshole’s rabidly anti-Obamacare health officials had to intervene and stop him.
Two months ago, Otter signed an executive order directing insurance regulators to allow plans outside the health marketplaces with essentially no restrictions. Blue Cross of Idaho quickly submitted a line of “Freedom Blue” plans that exclude maternity care, overcharge elderly patients, and include lifetime benefit limits and surcharges for preexisting conditions.
Health experts howled with outrage, calling the move “crazypants illegal” and “a comprehensive frontal assault” on health care law.
Otter claimed he had authority to do this because Congress repealed the individual mandate in the GOP tax scam. But that bill repealed the mandate, not the consumer protections Otter is waiving.
Moreover, Otter did not bother to seek approval from the Department of Health and Human Services before moving forward. Idaho Sen. Jim Risch summed up his state GOP’s position succinctly: “We’re a state. We don’t need approval. Get out of here.”
But as it turned out, Idaho overreached.
On Thursday, the rich asshole’s Medicare and Medicaid director Seema Verma grudgingly sent Otter notice that his scheme is illegal. If he moves forward, insurance companies selling these plans will face steep federal fines.
The rich asshole administration is still implementing other plans to sabotage Obamacare, from allowing short-term junk insurance, to legally dubious Medicaid work requirements. A study from Covered California found the rich asshole’s sabotage will raise the cost of insurance up to 94 percent in some states over the next 3 years.
But the rejection of Idaho’s scheme to kill Obamacare rules is a major win for consumers. Had these illegal plans been allowed, young, healthy people would have abandoned the legal insurance marketplace to buy them, spiking costs for everyone else.
And letting Idaho nullify Obamacare within its borders would have set a precedent. Idaho insurance director Dean Cameron said “dozens” of other Republican states were preparing to copy their system.
Any way you slice it, Otter’s plan to deprive his own people of care has crashed and burned. And the people of Idaho, and around the country, have one less thing to worry about when it comes to health care.
the rich asshole religious adviser: Hush money to adult film star ‘doesn’t matter’ because God forgives all
Evangelicals "knew they weren't voting for an altar boy when they voted for some rich asshole," Robert Jeffress argues.
One of President the rich asshole’s most vocal religious advisers thinks the president deserves to be forgiven for his affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels — even, apparently, if the rich asshole never asks for it in the first place.
During a Fox News interview on Thursday evening, pastor Robert Jeffress — a Southern Baptist who leads First Baptist Church in Dallas and serves as an evangelical adviser to the president — said he doesn’t think evangelicals should think twice about continuing to support the president, as more details trickle out about a $130,000 hush payment the rich asshole’s personal lawyer paid to Stormy Daniels just days before the 2016 election.
Jeffress describes allegations that evangelicals are being hypocrites as “absolutely ludicrous,” adding that “evangelicals know they are not compromising their beliefs in order to support this great president.”
“And let’s be clear — Evangelicals still believe in the commandment: Thou shalt not have sex with a porn star,” Jeffress continued. “However, whether this president violated that commandment or not is totally irrelevant to our support of him.”
Jeffress went on to say that evangelicals “knew they weren’t voting for an altar boy when they voted for some rich asshole. We supported him for his policies and his strong leadership.” He added that evangelicals “understand the concept of sin and forgiveness.”
But the rich asshole has never asked for forgiveness. In fact, the rich asshole has said through a spokesperson that he “absolutely, unequivocally” has never had an affair with Daniels, who in a 2011 interview extensively detailed the year-long relationship she says she had with the rich asshole starting in 2006 — the year after he married his wife Melania.
During Thursday night’s Fox News segment, co-guest Juan Williams pointed out the holes in Jeffress’ position, including the fact that voters never had the opportunity to learn about the rich asshole’s relationship with Daniels before the election because of the hush payment — a payment the White House accidentally acknowledged the rich asshole was directly involved in earlier this week.
But Jeffress wouldn’t budge. He brought up the Monica Lewinsky scandal as an example of how some critics of the rich asshole are purportedly being hypocritical.
“Even if it’s proven to be true, it doesn’t matter because of what I just said,” Jeffress said. “And Juan, listen — a blue dress was not enough to turn you into a red Republican, and I believe anything Stormy Daniels has will not be enough to turn red Republicans into blue Democrats. This is about the policies and issues.”
Williams responded by mentioning how the biblical Jesus believed sinners sometimes needed to be treated harshly for their misdeeds.
“Pastor, you cannot sell your integrity, your Christians values, and say, ‘because President the rich asshole is anti-abortion, I’ll support him no matter what,'” Williams said. “What happened to the principles, what happened to your love of people of character?”
Jeffress countered that Christ forgave sinners, prompting Williams to note that the rich asshole hasn’t even asked for it.
“This president, pastor, has never asked for forgiveness, never acknowledged it, he has tried to silence people,” Williams said.
Indeed, the rich asshole’s treatment of Daniels is reminiscent of his treatment of the 14 women who have accused him of sexual assault. Despite being recorded on a hot mic bragging about assaulting women, the rich asshole has denied each and every accusation, and even went so far as to suggest some of his accusers were too ugly for him in the first place. Since the rich asshole’s inauguration, the White House has made clear its official position is that all of the rich asshole’s accusers are lying.
Not only has the rich asshole not asked for forgiveness, but he responded to a recent Washington Post feature story about Rachel Crooks — one of at least 14 women who have accused him of sexual assault — by falsifying her story of being assaulted by him, then claiming it proven his innocence.
‘Cover-ups matter’: Stormy Daniels’ lawyer says he can prove the rich asshole is lying about porn star payoffs
Attorney Michael Avenatti speaks on CNN (Screen cap).
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The attorney representing adult film star Stormy Daniels said on Friday that he believes he can prove that President some rich asshole has been lying about what he knows about attorney Michael Cohen’s decision to pay hush money to his client.
Appearing on CNN, attorney Michael Avenatti was asked by host Chris Cuomo why he believed it was important for the American public to know the details of Daniels’ affair with the president, which allegedly occurred last decade shortly after his wife Melania gave birth to their son, Barron the rich asshole.
“Because cover-ups matter,” replied Avenatti.
“Meaning what?” Cuomo asked. “What’s the cover-up?”
“The cover-up is that you have attorney Cohen claiming that some rich asshole never knew anything about this,” he said. “You have the White House claiming some rich asshole never knew anything about this. That is going to be shown to be patently false.”
Cuomo expressed skepticism of Avenatti’s claims and said that he didn’t see any such proof that the rich asshole knew about the porn star payoffs in the lawsuit he filed this week.
“We have substantial evidence and facts that were not included in the complaint,” the attorney explained. “We’re not going to lay all of our cards out on the table… when that evidence and those facts come to light, the American people are going to conclude that attorney Cohen and the White House have not shot straight with them on this issue.”
Watch the video below.
WORLD NEWS
North Korea Experts Stunned Yet Cautiously Optimistic About the rich asshole-Kim Meeting
“My head is literally spinning... I don’t know what to make of it.”
North Korea policy analysts reacted with a mixture of cautious optimism and outright disbelief after South Korean officials announced Thursday that U.S. President some rich asshole would meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un sometime over the next few months.
The move ― whenever and wherever it takes place ― would be an unexpected moment in history between two leaders who have taken political posturing to new heights through a string of bombastic statements and missile launches. It would also be the first meeting ever between a sitting U.S. president and the Kim regime.
As the news broke on Thursday evening, some foreign policy experts reacted with stunned missives posted to social media and immediately began contemplating just what the North Koreans hoped to gain from the meeting, and why now.
“Honestly, it was stunning. I don’t think you’d be able to find anyone who follows this issue closely that would’ve predicted that announcement tonight,” said Alexandra Bell, the senior policy director at The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. “I would say that my feelings on the issues are guarded optimism.”
the rich asshole has long pledged to wage a campaign of maximum pressure on North Korea in an effort to convince the regime to abandon its rapidly developing nuclear weapon program. American officials recently said they’d be open to a dialogue with North Korea if the country agreed to give up its weapons beforehand, and just last month the rich asshole said he’d be willing to talk, but “only under the right conditions.”
But Thursday’s announcement holds no such prerequisites. Kim recently told envoys from South Korea of his “willingness to denuclearize” but has made no promises to do so just yet. Chung Eui-Yong, South Korea’s national security adviser, told reporters gathered outside the White House on Thursday that he gave Kim’s message to the rich asshole along with an invitation for the two leaders to meet face-to-face and that the U.S. president accepted.
“It’s a big deal, but it’s also a little bit of a strange deal,” Melissa Hanham, an analyst at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said. “It’s a break from the U.S.′ traditional process of trying to extract some kind of an agreement from the North Koreans before meeting, and in some ways the rich asshole administration is putting the cart before the horse.”
She also noted that it was “really weird” that Thursday’s announcement was made by South Korean officials outside the White House with no American counterparts present.
The White House said that, even though the rich asshole had accepted Kim’s invitation, “in the meantime, all sanctions and maximum pressure must remain.”
Some analysts say the meeting plays directly into something the Kim family has wanted for decades: legitimacy on the world stage.
“North Korea has been seeking a summit with an American president for more than twenty years,” Jeffrey Lewis, the director of the East Asia nonproliferation program at the Middlebury Institute, said on Twitter. “To be clear ― we need to talk to North Korea. But Kim is not inviting the rich asshole so that he can surrender North Korea’s weapons. Kim is inviting the rich asshole to demonstrate that his investment in nuclear and missile capabilities has forced the United States to treat him as an equal.”
They should have an ambassador in Seoul yesterday. There’s really no excuse for not having one already.Alexandra Bell, The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
Bell noted that, whatever happens between the U.S. and North Korea, the rich asshole administration would be well advised to staff up its diplomatic corps. The U.S. is still without an ambassador in South Korea, more than a year into the rich asshole’s presidency.
“It’s going to be a complex and difficult and frustrating road ahead,” Bell noted. “The nature of these negotiations ... there’s probably going to be a lot more bad days than there are good. They should have an ambassador in Seoul yesterday. There’s really no excuse for not having one already.”
For now, experts say time will tell just how well the White House is able to navigate the complicated waters surrounding diplomacy with the North, something that has flustered administrations for decades.
“The problem is that South Korea is doing all the talking this week. After Monday’s readout of their visit to Pyongyang, the North was completely silent. And today, Chung delivered the remarks from the curb with no U.S. official present. Why?” Vipin Narang, a professor of international relations at MIT, told HuffPost in an email.
“My head is literally spinning... I don’t know what to make of it.”
Interior Department pays $139,000 to fix doors in Ryan Zinke’s office
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is interviewed by Reuters, while traveling for his National Monuments Review process, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., June 16, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
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The U.S. Department of Interior spent $139,000 to fix three sets of doors in Secretary Ryan Zinke’s office, a spokeswoman said on Thursday, a move quickly criticized as wasteful by activists.
Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said that the project to fix the three double doors was requested by career facilities and security officials as part of a decade-long overhaul of the historic building, which was completed in 1936.
Zinke “was not aware of this contract but agrees that this is a lot of money for demo, install, materials, and labor,” Swift said in an email about the work, first reported by the Associated Press.
Joe Nassar, the director of Interior’s office of facilities, said the work was needed to stop water from coming into Zinke’s office during rain storms, which was damaging wooden floors in the office. Nassar said bottom panels of the old doors had been temporarily fixed with cardboard and duct tape and were replaced by fiberglass doors with new locks.
Swift blamed the cost of the fix on rules for historic preservation and procurement.
Environmentalists decried the expense, which was more than double the median U.S. household income in 2017, according to the Census Bureau.
Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, said, “Taxpayer dollars don’t grow on trees, but Mr. Zinke and his fellow grifters in the rich asshole administration repeatedly raid the federal treasury like it does.”
Zinke is being investigated by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel on whether be violated the Hatch Act, which bars executive branch employees from engaging in political activity, when he gave a speech to a professional hockey team owned by a political donor last year.
He is also being investigated by the Interior Department’s inspector general in connection with travels and the use of private charter flights.
Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Cynthia Osterman
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March 9, 2018
Trying to score political points by chasing voter fraud in court, Kris Kobach became a laughing stock this week instead.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who doubled as the rich asshole’s voter suppression czar last year, has been making a fool of himself in a Kansas City courtroom all week.
Kobach has been regularly humiliated by a Republican-appointed judge while he tries to prove his long-held conspiratorial claim that voter fraud is rampant in America and must be stomped out.
In truth, research has time and again confirmed that voter fraud is statistically non-existent in the U.S. Those findings suggest Republicans like Kobach, who are obsessed with the crusade, are more interested in making sure fewer people show up to vote on Election Day.
Specifically, Republicans have used fear-mongering about fraud to push restrictions on minority voters.
Kobach’s in court for a landmark voting rights case against the ACLU that could affect the future of how Americans register to vote. And Kobach, who is also currently running for governor, decided to argue the case himself rather than have the Kansas Attorney General’s office handle the legal duties.
The ego-driven decision has turned into a fiasco, with Kobach constantly being reprimanded by the GOP judge, who has had to basically explain to Kobach how trials work.
At one point the judge actually told Kobach from the bench, “That’s not how trials are conducted” — after he tried to introduce information into the trial without giving the other side a chance to review it.
“Kobach and his legal team made a number of procedural missteps throughout the case and been reprimanded by U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson, a George W. Bush appointee, who is presiding over the trial,” the Huffington Post reported after Thursday’s session. “Robinson punctuated her rebuke of Kobach’s legal team by saying she wanted her own comments to be preserved in the record for an appeal.”
The bumbling from Kobach and his team has produced outbursts of laughter inside the courtroom, according to a ThinkProgress.
Earlier in the case, Kobach was hit with a $1,000 fine for demonstrating “deceptive conduct and lack of candor” in his interactions with the court.
Kobach has been riding the voter fraud hobbyhorse for years. He was elevated to the national spotlight last year when the rich asshole and Vice President Mike Pence appointed him to be his voter suppression czar and help oversee the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity to root out the supposed evil.
In 2017, Kobach also took a job as a paid columnist for the white nationalist site Breitbart.
Less than one year later, after Kobach’s commission was buried in lawsuits from state attorneys general — from blue and red states — who objected to his demands for sensitive voter roll information, the whole charade was shut down.
Undeterred, Kobach’s in court trying to prove elusive voter fraud. Except this time he’s being played for a fool.
the rich asshole throws support behind Pennsylvania Republican who threatens to ‘rule with the fear of God’
Rick Saccone (Facebook)
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President some rich asshole is backing a Christian nationalist Republican candidate in a Pennsylvania special election.
State Rep. Rick Saccone (R-Elizabeth) is running against former federal prosecutor Conor Lamb in for the 18th congressional district seat vacated by Republican Tim Murphy, and the president will campaign in the district he won by 20 points.
“It’s you and me against the fake news in the fight to elect Republicans like Rick Saccone to Congress,” the rich asshole wrote in a campaign email.
“The president feels really great about those who are pushing for his agenda of lower taxes and fewer regulations and a stronger military, a well-funded military, people who believe in the coal-mining industry, steel, aluminum and manufacturing,” said White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, who took part Thursday in a Saccone fundraiser. “And it seems that Rick Saccone is right there with the president on those issues and that’s important because the president wants reliable votes in Washington.”
The race is considered a tossup just days ahead of the March 13 special election, and the GOP is bracing for a potentially embarrassing defeat.
Saccone, a career foreign service officer who spent years on the Korean peninsula, initially announced last year that he would run for the U.S. Senate, but he later decided to shoot for the House seat that opened up when news broke that Murphy, a pro-life Republican, had asked his pregnant mistress to get an abortion.
Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton and Sam Rohrer, a former Pennsylvania state representative who now heads the American Pastors Network, led an opening prayer for Saccone’s senatorial campaign.
Saccone later explained on Rohrer’s radio program that he was running for Congress because God wants “people who will rule with the fear of God in them to rule over us.”
Afterward, reported Right Wing Watch, Saccone appeared on Rohrer’s radio program, where he said that he is running for Congress because God wants “people who will rule with the fear of God in them to rule over us.”
Those comments, and Saccone’s close association with Barton and Rohrer, illustrate his view of government as the political arm of the church.
Saccone credits divine intervention for the rich asshole’s election win and warns God will judge the United States for placing women in positions of political leadership, and he blamed the mass shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub on LGBT rights.
“For two generations, our children have not been taught the virtue of the founding and the founders,” Saccone said during a 2015 prayer rally. “Secularists have disparaged our past and erased any trace of our godly heritage. They deny American exceptionalism and they condemn patriotism. And I tell you this, if we don’t teach our children to honor God and love their country, the secularists will teach them not to.”
US jobs surge 313,000 in February, unemployment steady
Help wanted sign (AFP Photo/Joe Raedle)
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The US employment engine roared in February, adding more new jobs than any month in over a year as robust hiring picked up in construction, retail and manufacturing, the government reported Friday.
The result shattered economists’ expectations, giving President some rich asshole a shot in the arm just as support for his “America First” economic agenda appeared to be on shaky ground.
the rich asshole broke with the leaders of his own Republican Party this week, announcing steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in a move denounced by top congressional leaders and drawing rebukes from industry, who said it could undermine the benefits of December’s sweeping tax cuts and spark a global trade war.
The news also could heighten Wall Street anxieties that the Federal Reserve will feel the need to raise interest rates faster than expected in 2018, something that has caused heightened volatility on stock markets since last month.
But economists downplayed the inflation threat posed by the employment numbers.
Employers added 313,000 net new non-farm jobs last month, the biggest monthly increase since July 2016, while the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1 percent for the fifth month in a row, according to the Labor Department’s highly anticipated monthly report.
On top of the exceptionally strong February, the job gains in December and January were revised up by a combined 54,000, bringing average monthly job creation to a strong 242,000 a month for the latest three months.
Hourly wages gained 0.2 percent in the month, matching analyst expectations but putting compensation up 2.6 percent over the same month last year — ahead of consumer inflation of 2.1 percent.
– The Fed: why worry? –
The goods-producing sector, including mining, manufacturing and the auto sector, added 100,000 new positions while the services sector added 187,00 jobs.
The public sector gained 26,000, with hiring added in education and at the state government level.
But, the Labor Department noted that gains in the clothing and general merchandise retail sectors, which added 33,000 new positions, suffered some distortion that made the gains appear stronger.
Retailers hired less than expected before the holidays but laid off fewer workers than expected afterwards, resulting in apparent gains for the sector after seasonal adjustment, the report said.
As a result, over the past four months, “employment in these industries has changed little on net,” William Wiatrowski, acting commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said in a statement.
But there also were signs the hunger for increasingly scarce workers was causing companies to dig deeper into the labor pool.
The number of discouraged workers or those marginally attached the labor market — such as people working part time who want a full-time position — fell 149,000 from a year earlier to 373,000.
Still economists said the report does not fuel fears of runaway inflation.
“In a nutshell, the tax cuts are already boosting hiring, but as long as it’s not causing wages to accelerate or the unemployment rate to drop, why worry?” Chris Low of FTN Financial said in a client note.
“That’s the way the Fed is likely to see it too.”
Fed officials in recent speeches have indicated that the economy can continue to add jobs without inflation becoming a concern, but say they are watching the situation closely.
The central bank is expected to raise the benchmark interest rate later this month, and at least twice more this year, but many economists now expect four rate hikes in 2018.
Republicans return the anti-gay First Amendment Defense Act to Congress
"Religious freedom" for me, but not for thee.
When some rich asshole was elected president in 2016, Republicans in Congress were very optimistic this would mean they could finally pass a bill legalizing discrimination against same-sex couples. This week, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) followed through, reintroducing the so-called “First Amendment Defense Act” (FADA).
FADA singles out a specific set of conservative beliefs for special dispensation to discriminate: those who oppose same-sex marriage and those who oppose sex outside of marriage. The bill defines these privileges as such:
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Federal Government shall not take any discriminatory action against a person, wholly or partially on the basis that such person speaks, or acts, in accordance with a sincerely held religious belief, or moral conviction, that —(1) marriage is or should be recognized as a union of—
(A) one man and one woman;
(B) two individuals as recognized under Federal law; or(2) sexual relations outside marriage are improper.
The language here is fairly insidious. A person who is held accountable for treating others unfairly because they oppose their same-sex relationship or their decision to engage in premarital sex would be considered a victim of “discriminatory action.” They would be entitled to cite FADA as a defense that they should not be in any way punished for their own discriminatory actions.
FADA protects this group from broad actions. The legislation stipulates they can’t be denied any tax benefit and they can’t be denied any access to “any Federal grant, contract, subcontract, cooperative agreement, guarantee, loan, scholarship, license, certification, accreditation, employment or other similar position or status.”
In a statement accompanying the bill’s introduction, Lee openly admitted that he wants to make sure organizations and individuals can discriminate without consequence. FADA ensures, he said, “that federal bureaucrats will never have the authority to require those who believe in the traditional definition of marriage to choose between their living in accordance with those beliefs and maintaining their occupation or their tax status.”
As multiple groups outlined when this bill was introduced in its previous incarnations, the implications of these “religious freedom” privileges are massive:
- Government employees could refuse to serve married same-sex couples and their families, such as processing tax returns, visa applications, or Social Security checks.
- Employers could refuse to grant employees family or medical leave to take care of their same-sex spouses.
- Employers could fire an unmarried female employee for getting pregnant.
- Hospitals could refuse to allow visitation to same-sex partners and spouses.
- Social services like homeless shelters, drug treatment programs, and adoption agencies could turn away anyone who has had sex outside of a man-woman marriage.
- Commercial landlords could refuse to provide housing to a single mother.
On his website, Lee offers a FAQ attempting to counter these examples. He insists that none of those forms of discrimination will take place, arguing that FADA doesn’t alter the laws that currently protect against them. This ignores the fact that the entire point of the legislation is to exempt individuals and organizations from having to follow those laws, whether it changes them or not.
This is the third time Congress has considered FADA, which was first introduced a week before Supreme Court’s 2015 marriage equality ruling. A leaked draft of an executive order President the rich asshole was considering during his first month in office also mirrored FADA’s language, though this particular EO never manifested.
This type of legislation has also advanced on the state level. Mississippi passed a similar law in 2016, which remains on the books.
The Senate bill already enjoys 21 co-sponsors, all of whom are Republican. The Republican National Committee has endorsed the legislation.
Comey friend warns Stormy Daniels saga could unravel years of the rich asshole hush money payouts
Benjamin Wittes (MSNBC)
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A friend of former FBI director James Comey predicted the Stormy Daniels scandal could open the floodgates for other women to talk about their past dealings with President some rich asshole.
Journalist Benjamin Wittes, editor-in-chief of Lawfare and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the porn actress’ lawsuit against the president over an unsigned non-disclosure agreement could embolden others to come forward.
“The biggest implications, since this is already out there, is not whether Stormy Daniels will be able to talk,” Wittes said.
“The biggest implication is that there are presumably other such agreements,” he continued, “and the question is whether you create an environment in which everybody who has a nondisclosure agreement with the president feels free to come forward and say what that person, he or she, knows — and that would be, I would think, a problem for the president.”
Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said the lawsuit puts the rich asshole into an awkward position.
“Maybe he has a signed copy of the contract, but if he does, then he has to acknowledge that he signed the contract,” Robinson said. “So he’s sort of been twisted between there.”
the rich asshole’s personal attorney Michael Cohen admits to facilitating a $130,000 payment to Daniels shortly before the 2016 election, for which he reportedly expected to be repaid — and which could potentially violate federal election law.
“It would come down to a question of whether the payment to her was, in fact, a funding of his campaign or whether it was simply a private transaction between two people,” Wittes said. “Of course, you would have to have an enforcement mechanism that was viable for that.”
Stormy Daniels ridicules pro-the rich asshole troll who thinks the president is married to Ivanka
Stormy Daniels attends the Los Angeles Premiere of "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" held at the Universal Studios in Hollywood, California, United States (Shutterstock).
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Stormy Daniels has been fielding a lot of hateful tweets from the rich asshole supporters, and she’s been responding to some of them.
But the former adult film actress singled out one the rich asshole apologist Thursday night for a special dose of mockery, because he apparently thinks the president is married to his daughter.
The mix-up was especially ironic in light of Daniels’ claim that the rich asshole compared her to Ivanka during their brief relationship, which his attorney paid her $130,000 not to reveal in the weeks before the 2016 election.
“We had really good banter,” Daniels told InTouch. “He told me once that I was someone to be reckoned with, beautiful, smart, just like his daughter.”
MEDIA
A pastor closely linked to some rich asshole said he’s against sex with adult film stars but isn’t holding the alleged affair with Stormy Daniels against the president.
“Evangelicals still believe in the commandment: Thou shalt not have sex with a porn star,” Robert Jeffress told Fox News on Thursday. “However, whether this president violated that commandment or not is totally irrelevant to our support of him.”
Jeffress, who is an evangelical adviser to the president, said the rich asshole’s personal behavior isn’t an issue.
“Evangelicals knew they weren’t voting for an altar boy when they voted for some rich asshole,” he said. “We supported him because of his policies and his strong leadership.”
In fact, when it comes to those behaviors, he suggested there’s pretty much nothing the rich asshole can do to alienate him as long as he delivers on those policies.
“I‘m his friend,” he said. “I will never walk away.”
Daniels was reportedly paid $130,000 just before the 2016 election to keep silent about an alleged 2016 affair with the rich asshole. Now she is suing the president, claiming the agreement is invalid because he never signed it.
Representatives of the rich asshole have denied the affair, as has Daniels via a written statement.
Jeffress, who has been a guest in the rich asshole White House, has a history of inflammatory comments. Last year, he said NFL players who kneel to protest racial injustice should “be thanking God” they haven’t been “shot in the head.” He also said the rich asshole has God’s support if he wants to “take out” North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. He’s also directed intolerant rants against gays, Muslims, Catholics, Mormons and more.
He is the head pastor of the First Baptist Dallas megachurch.
See the full discussion in the clip above.
Surprise! The rich asshole administration just admitted it has to follow Obamacare
The rule of law is a harsh mistress.
In an unexpected development, the Department of Health and Human Services sent a letter to Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (R) on Thursday reluctantly conceding that Obamacare “remains the law and we have a duty to enforce and uphold the law.”
The letter, from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma, informs Idaho that insurers will not be allowed to sell illegal plans within that state which threatened to destabilize Idaho’s insurance markets.
Last January, Idaho’s top insurance regulator announced that the state would permit health insurers to sell illegal plans that do not comply with those insurers’ obligations under the Affordable Care Act. Shortly thereafter, Blue Cross of Idaho submitted several proposed illegal plans to state regulators, which it wished to sell within the state. The unlawful plans, known as “Freedom Blue” plans, “charge people with pre-existing conditions and older residents significantly more than currently allowed under the ACA.” They also place “an annual limit on coverage and wouldn’t cover maternity care.”
The danger of these illegal health plans is that they were likely to be attractive specifically to healthy consumers because they would be relatively cheap to purchase. But, as healthier consumers shifted into the illegal market, the legal market would be left with a less healthy population that is more expensive to insure. As a result, healthy people would be able to buy cheaper — but worse — insurance, while sicker patients would see their premiums go up significantly.
Verma’s letter is laden with language attacking Obamacare. In its very first sentence, it claims that “the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is failing to deliver quality health care options to the American people.” Nevertheless, Verma concedes that “if a state fails to substantially enforce the law, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has a responsibility to enforce these provisions on behalf of the State.”
Among other things, Verma warns that insurers who sell unlawful plans in Idaho could face significant fines — as much as $100 per day, per individual sold an illegal health plan.
The letter is not all good news for supporters of stable health insurance markets. It notes that the rich asshole administration is trying to extend the availability of “short term, limited-duration health insurance” plans from three months to 12 months. These plans could also potentially destabilize markets by attracting healthier individuals into less generous health plans.
For the meantime, however, the rich asshole administration appears to have concluded that it is not above the law — at least with respect to this one effort to make an end run around Obamacare.
POLITICS
POLITICS POLITICS
Oakland Mayor Dings the rich asshole After He Calls It A ‘Disgrace’ That She Tipped Off Immigrants
I am proud to live in a country where “everyone can criticize elected officials,” said a smiling Libby Schaaf.
President some rich asshole denounced Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf on Thursday for tipping off immigrants about federal raids in her city, saying from the Oval Office that “what she did ... was a disgrace.”
But Schaaf shrugged off the president’s comment with a smile. “I am proud to live in a country where everyone can criticize elected officials,” she told a reporter in a video her office provided to HuffPost.
Much of the criticism of Schaaf’s decision to warn residents about raids has come from outside her community, she said Thursday.
“I’m so appreciative of the Oakland community ... the feelings of being supported, of being heard, of being stood up for, those have been really wonderful for me to hear,” she added.
After learning late last month that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was planning local raids, Schaaf warned residents to take precautions, saying it was her “duty and moral obligation” to warn her constituents. Oakland is a “city of law-abiding immigrants and families who deserve to live free from the constant threat of arrest and deportation,” Schaaf said.
How dare you vilify members of our community by trying to frighten the American public into thinking that all undocumented residents are dangerous criminals?Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf
Schaaf’s action catapulted her to national prominence and to the heart of an increasingly heated battle between the rich asshole administration and cities and states over undocumented immigrants.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions also attacked Schaaf on Wednesday. “How dare you needlessly endanger the lives of our law enforcement officers to promote a radical open-borders agenda?” he challenged her during a speech in Sacramento.
Schaaf responded: “How dare you vilify members of our community by trying to frighten the American public into thinking that all undocumented residents are dangerous criminals?”
Sessions claimed that ICE would have arrested some 800 undocumented immigrants had Schaaf not tipped off Oakland residents.
the rich asshole said Thursday: “Where they had close to a thousand people ready to be gotten, ready to be taken off the streets. Many of them, they say 85 percent of them were criminals, had criminal records.” He did not provide the source of that figure or elaborate on the nature of the alleged crimes.
Sessions filed a lawsuit against California this week, challenging three laws that make it a so-called “sanctuary state” for undocumented immigrants. One of the laws blocks local police from sharing certain information about immigrants with federal authorities. Another bars employers from turning over workers’ records to federal authorities unless officials have court orders forcing them to do so.
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) angrily slammed Sessions’ lawsuit as a “political stunt,” saying he sounded more like a “Fox News” host than a “law enforcement official.”
Brown said the administration was “initiating a reign of terror against California immigrants.”
The governor said the administration’s actions constitute “going to war against the state of California, the engine of the American economy.”
“It’s not wise, it’s not right and it will not stand,” Brown said.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors issued a strong statement against Sessions’ lawsuit on Wednesday.
“The United States Conference of Mayors today stands firmly united with mayors across the state of California,” the statement read. “The Attorney General’s decision to yet again threaten mayors and demonize our immigrant communities only strengthens our resolve to fight for what is just as we enforce the laws of our cities. It is unfortunate that the Attorney General continues to ignore both the Constitution and policing practices that have made our cities safer.”
Here’s Schaaf’s original statement warning Oakland residents about ICE raids:
the rich asshole Accuser Jessica Drake Named In Stormy Daniels’ Nondisclosure Agreement
She was at the same Lake Tahoe event where the rich asshole allegedly chatted up Stormy.
A woman named in the nondisclosure agreement signed by Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, turns out to be both a fellow porn performer and a fellow some rich asshole accuser.
Actress Jessica Drake, identified in the agreement as “Angel Ryan,” was mentioned as one of four people aware that Clifford allegedly had a yearlong affair with the rich asshole between 2006 and 2007, according to the New York Daily News.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Drake accused the future president of grabbing her, kissing her and offering her $10,000 for sex a decade earlier. She said the incident occurred at a July 2006 event in Lake Tahoe, the same one where Clifford said she met the rich asshole.
Drake’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, confirmed that Drake is Angel Ryan to CNN and HuffPost, but declined further comment. Allred also refused to talk to the Daily News about Drake’s relationship with Clifford or how she knew about the affair with the rich asshole.
The two performers have known each other since at least 2003, when Wicked Pictures signed Drake to an exclusive contract a year after they signed Clifford.
They’ve had multiple opportunities to talk: The Internet Adult Film Database lists 11 scenes between the two women.
Clifford signed the nondisclosure agreement on Oct. 28, 2016, just days before the presidential election. It forbids her from disclosing “confidential information” about the rich asshole or his alleged sexual partners in exchange for $130,000.
The actress is now suing the president, claiming the agreement is null and void since he didn’t sign it.
South Korean conservatives have had two nightmare scenarios about President the rich asshole: that he would either embroil their country in a ruinous war with North Korea or that he would sell out their interests to the North.
the rich asshole spent his first year in office lending credence to the first concern. He threatened to rain “fire and fury” down on North Korea. He called its dictator, Kim Jong-un, “Little Rocket Man,” and bragged that his “nuclear button” was much bigger than Kim’s. Administration officials claimed that deterrence couldn’t work and discussed the possibility of a “bloody nose” strike that could have triggered a nuclear war.
Now, in a head-snapping display of incoherence, the rich asshole has agreed to meet Kim, giving the worst human-rights abuser on the planet, what he most wants: international legitimacy. Kim will be able to tell his people that the American president is kowtowing to him because he is scared of North Korea’s mighty nuclear arsenal.
As recently as August, the rich asshole tweeted: “The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!” He was absolutely right. For decades, North Korea has engaged in a bait and switch. It has staged provocations, such as the torpedoing of a South Korean naval ship in 2010, interspersed with offers to negotiate. The end game has always been the same: It has hoped to be paid for not staging further provocations. In other words, it was attempting to blackmail the West.
That strategy paid off spectacularly during the “sunshine policy” years of 1998-2008. Progressive governments in Seoul delivered approximately $8 billion in economic assistance and got nothing in return. North Korea reneged on its 1994 pledge to the U.S. to freeze its nuclear development and instead raced ahead with a secret nuclear enrichment program. South Korea’s current president, Moon Jae-in, was a top aide to President Roh Moo-hyun, one of the presidents who pursued the sunshine policy, and evidently he is has not lost his faith in negotiations with the North. Admittedly, from his perspective, it makes sense to do anything possible to stop the rich asshole from starting Korean War II.
Moon and Kim have, for their own reasons, snookered the credulous American president into a high-profile summit that is likely to end in disaster one way or another. Kim is evidently willing to suspend his nuclear and missile tests while the talks are under way, but this is a minimal concession that can easily be reversed. He is most likely willing to do even that much only to buy time for his engineers to finish developing a nuclear warhead that can fit on an ICBM capable of reaching the U.S.
The South Koreans claim that the North Koreans are willing to discuss denuclearization, but the likelihood is that they will only do so on terms that the United States should never accept. Kim may offer to give up his nukes if the U.S. will pull its forces out of South Korea and sign a peace treaty with the North. the rich asshole, if confronted with such a scenario, may imagine it is a big “win” for him, but that’s only because he knows nothing of North Korea and has no one at a senior level in his administration who does. Victor Cha was supposed to be the ambassador to Seoul, but his nomination was withdrawn by White House hardliners, while Joseph Yun, the top State Department envoy to North Korea, just announced his retirement.
If the rich asshole bothered to talk to North Korea experts, he would undoubtedly learn that Kim’s regime is pursuing its age-old aim of pushing U.S. military forces off the Korean Peninsula, enabling Pyongyang to use its military power to coerce South Korea into unification on the North’s terms—i.e., the extension of a Stalinist dictatorship across the entire peninsula. Even if that’s not possible, North Korea hopes at a minimum for a relaxation of sanctions just when they are beginning to bite.
But of course the president doesn’t listen to experts. He just ignored the unanimous opinion of economists that trade wars are calamitous by imposing steel and aluminum tariffs. Now the rich asshole is rushing into a risky summit without having gotten anything substantial in return and without, apparently, having even consulted the State Department.
It may make sense to talk to North Korea, but at a lower level, while maintaining the “maximum pressure” sanctions policy. Eventually the regime may feel so much pain that it will be willing to bargain in earnest. But there is no reason to think that the time is now and much reason to assume that the rich asshole, as usual, doesn’t know what he is doing.
POLITICS
Kris Kobach Just Got Torched By A Federal Judge In Kansas Vote Trial
At the trial over requiring proof of citizenship to vote, the state official’s missteps on evidence draw rebuke.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. ― A federal judge lit into Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and his lawyers for trying to introduce information in a trial over voter suppression without giving the other side a chance to review it.
In an unusual move, the Republican state official is representing his own office in a lawsuit challenging a Kansas requirement that residents prove they are U.S. citizens when they register to vote. Kobach and his legal team made a number of procedural missteps throughout the case and been reprimanded by U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson, a George W. Bush appointee, who is presiding over the trial.
The dispute Thursday was over the number of people who were on a list of “suspended” voters because their applications were incomplete. Kobach’s office initially provided the American Civil Liberties Union with that information in 2016, but at 10:45 the night before trial, the ACLU lawyers were given an updated list. Robinson didn’t allow Kobach to admit the updated list into evidence because she said it was unfair to spring it on the lawyers at the last minute.
But Kobach’s legal team tried to get the information into the record another way Thursday. While he was being questioned by one of the lawyers on Kobach’s team, the Kansas director of elections, Bryan Caskey, said he had recently done an updated analysis of the number of applicants whose voter registrations were considered incomplete and the number of those who had been removed from the “suspense” list for various reason.
Robinson, who had appeared to be patient for much of the trial, became visibly angry when Kobach’s team tried to introduce the evidence. When Kobach stood up and objected that the numbers were constantly changing and the court needed to be aware of the most recent information, Robinson said that the underlying data were always changing and that for the purposes of a fair trial, Kobach could not keep changing the numbers the court was reviewing.
“That’s not how trials are conducted,” Robinson told Kobach.
When an opposing attorney noted that Kobach’s office hadn’t given them an updated list since 2016, Robinson said that if the numbers were constantly changing, it was outrageous that Kobach hadn’t updated opposing attorneys for two years. When Sue Becker, an attorney helping represent Kobach, stood up to speak, Robinson angrily told her she was out of line.
Kobach’s attorneys have told Robinson that they are asking certain questions during examinations to preserve information in the record for an appeal. Robinson punctuated her rebuke of Kobach’s legal team by saying she wanted her own comments to be preserved in the record for an appeal.
Kobach’s lawyers have made a series of missteps in court this week. Throughout the week, Robinson has admonished Kobach and his lawyers for not following proper procedure when introducing evidence. At one point on Tuesday, she explained how the process was supposed to work and said what she was telling them was “Evidence 101.”
Earlier in the case, Kobach was sanctioned with a $1,000 fine for demonstrating “deceptive conduct and lack of candor” in his interactions with the court.
From May 2017 until January, Kobach led the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The commission was sued several times for allegedly violating federal procedural laws. Facing legal scrutiny, the White House suddenly disbanded the panel in January.
By Christine Kim and Steve Holland
SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he was prepared to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the first U.S.-North Korea summit, marking a potentially dramatic breakthrough in nuclear tensions with Pyongyang.
Kim has "committed to denuclearization" and to suspending nuclear and missile tests, South Korea's National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong told reporters at the White House on Thursday after briefing Trump on a meeting South Korean officials held with Kim earlier this week.
"A meeting is being planned," Trump posted on Twitter after speaking to Chung, who said Trump expressed a willingness to sit down with Kim in what would be his biggest foreign policy gamble since taking office in January 2017.
Chung said Trump had agreed to meet by May in response to Kim's invitation. A senior U.S. official said later it could happen "in a matter of a couple of months, with the exact timing and place still to be determined".
Asian stock markets responded positively to the news, with Japan's Nikkei <.N225> climbing 2.3 percent. South Korean stocks <.KS11> were enjoying their best day since May, up 1.8 percent, while the dollar rose against the safe-haven Japanese yen . [MKTS/GLOB]
Trump had previously said he was willing to meet Kim under the right circumstances but had indicated the time was not right for such talks. He mocked U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in October for "wasting his time" trying to talk to North Korea.
Tillerson said earlier on Thursday during a visit to Africa that, although "talks about talks" might be possible with Pyongyang, denuclearization negotiations were likely a long way off.
'NO MISSILE TESTS'
"Kim Jong Un talked about denuclearization with the South Korean Representatives, not just a freeze," Trump said on Twitter on Thursday night. "Also, no missile testing by North Korea during this period of time. Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached."
A meeting between Kim and Trump, who have exchanged insults that had raised fear of war, would be a major turnaround after a year in which North Korea has carried out a battery of tests aimed at developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland.
Trump's aides have been wary of North Korea's diplomatic overtures because of its history of reneging on international commitments and the failure of efforts on disarmament by the administrations of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
South Koreans responded positively to the news, with online comments congratulating President Moon Jae-In for laying the groundwork for the Trump-Kim talks. Some even suggested Moon should receive the Nobel Peace award, although scepticism over previous failed talks remained.
North and South Korea are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a ceasefire, not a truce.
'IT MADE SENSE'
Daniel Russel, until last April the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, the most senior U.S. diplomatic position for Asia, said he wanted to see detail and hear from North Korea on the plans.
"Also remember that (North Korea) has for many years proposed that the president of the United States personally engage with North Korea's leaders as an equal - one nuclear power to another," he said. "What is new isn’t the proposal, it's the response."
A senior administration official told Reuters Trump had agreed to the meeting because it "made sense to accept an invitation to meet with the one person who can actually make decisions instead of repeating the sort of long slog of the past".
"President Trump has made his reputation on making deals," the official said.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Trump's firm stance on North Korea gave the best hope in decades to resolve the threat peacefully.
"A word of warning to North Korean President Kim Jong Un – the worst possible thing you can do is meet with President Trump in person and try to play him," Graham said on Twitter. "If you do that, it will be the end of you - and your regime."
Some U.S. officials and experts worry North Korea could buy time to build up and refine its nuclear arsenal, including a warhead able to survive re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, if it drags out talks with Washington.
JOINT MILITARY EXERCISES
In what would be a key North Korean concession, Chung said Kim understood that "routine" joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States must continue.
Pyongyang had previously demanded that such joint drills be suspended in order for any U.S. talks to go forward.
Trump has derided the North Korean leader as a "maniac", referred to him as "little rocket man", and threatened in a speech to the United Nations last year to "totally destroy" Kim's country of 26 million people if it attacked the United States or one of its allies.
Kim responded by calling the U.S. president a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard".
Tensions over North Korea rose to their highest in years in 2017 and the Trump administration has warned that all options are on the table, including military ones, in dealing with Pyongyang, which has pursued its weapons programs in defiance of ever tougher U.N. sanctions.
Signs of a thaw emerged this year, with North and South Korea resuming talks and North Korea attending the Winter Olympics. During the Pyongyang talks this week, the two Koreas agreed on a summit in late April, their first since 2007.
Japan, however, remained cautious.
"Japan and the United States will not waver in its firm stance that they will continue to put maximum pressure until North Korea takes concrete action towards the complete, verifiable and irreversible end to nuclear missile development," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters in Tokyo.
South Korea's Moon has said sanctions should not be eased for the sake of talks and nothing less than denuclearization of North Korea should be the final goal for talks.
China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, called on the United States and North Korea to hold talks as soon as possible, warning at a news briefing in Beijing on Thursday that things "will not be smooth sailing".
(Reporting by Christine Kim in SEOUL, and Jeff Mason, David Brunnstrom, Matt Spetalnick, Steve Holland, Yara Bayoumy and John Walcott in WASHINGTON; Additional reporting by Eric Beech, Mohammad Zargham and Susan Cornwell in WASHINGTON and Kaori Kaneko in TOKYO; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Grant McCool and Paul Tait)
POLITICS
Interior Department Spending $138,670 To Replace Doors In Zinke’s Office
The upgrade is meant to ensure the interior secretary doesn’t get locked out on the balcony and that rain doesn’t leak in.
WASHINGTON — The Interior Department is spending $138,670 to replace leaky doors in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s office, according to records first uncovered by The Associated Press and reviewed by HuffPost.
The agency awarded the contract to Conquest Solutions LLC, a Greenbelt, Maryland-based company that specializes in automation systems. A contract summary available online lists the purchase as “Secretary’s Door.”
Conquest Solutions could not be reached for comment late Thursday. The Interior Department also did not respond to HuffPost’s inquiry.
However, department spokeswoman Heather Swift did confirm the purchase to the AP, saying that Zinke was not aware of the contract and that the purchase is part of a long-running modernization of the historic headquarters building in Washington, D.C.
“The secretary was not aware of this contract but agrees that this is a lot of money for demo, install, materials and labor,” Swift said. “Between regulations that require historic preservation and outdated government procurement rules, the costs for everything from pencils to printing to doors is astronomical. This is a perfect example of why the secretary believes we need to reform procurement processes.”
The work involves replacing three sets of double doors, including two that open from Zinke’s office onto a balcony overlooking the National Mall and another that enters into a hallway on the building’s sixth floor, the AP reported.
Internal agency emails show that the balcony doors were problematic early in Zinke’s tenure. On March 29, Joe Nassar, director of the Interior Department’s Office of Facilities and Administrative Services, wrote to other facilities management staff about water leaking in and the need for new locks.
“We need to come up with a permanent solution for the doors since they are still allowing in rain,” Nassar wrote. He also wrote that replacing the locks would ensure Zinke “doesn’t need a key from the inside and he doesn’t get locked out when he goes outside.”
In a subsequent email, James Grisham, an assistant building manager, informed the others that he was planning to contact a government contractor named Ian — presumably Ian Mulira, the general manager of Conquest Solutions — to replace the historic wood doors with metal ones.
Swift told the AP that the third door leading into the hallway does not lock and requires a security upgrade. It is unclear how much is being spent on each separate door.
Emily Atkin of The New Republic looked into how a door could possibly cost that much and found that state-of-the-art electronic security doors can feature fingerprint or retina scanners. A specialist at a company similar to the one the Interior Department contracted told Atkin that the price tag is not unreasonable for that type of door.
“To be honest with you, $140,000 is not really that far out of the ballpark if it’s a high-security type deal,” the employee told her.
A contractor that does similar work to the one that installed Ryan Zinke's $139k door told me Zinke could have an eyeball reader newrepublic.com/minutes/147344…
On its website, Conquest Solutions notes that it is working to install a new digital control system at the Interior Department that will reduce energy consumption.
Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club Lands Protection Program, issued a statement blasting Zinke for the seemingly lavish expense.
“Zinke is a walking scandal who believes he can live the life of luxury on the American taxpayer’s dime, and it’s time the rich asshole puts a stop to it,” Manuel said. “We only hope that this $139,000 door doesn’t hit Zinke on his way out.”
Upon taking over the Interior Department, Zinke — a former Montana congressman and Navy SEAL — redecorated his office with a slew of dead creatures and a collection of Navy SEAL knives. Staff members were left scrambling to accommodate the changes, shuffling around a huge grizzly bear, mounting bison and elk heads directly into the office’s carved oak paneling, and making way for a $1,749 leather couch from California that included “white-glove delivery service.” The interior secretary has also been criticized for his use of private planes, which he dismissed as “a little BS.”
But Zinke isn’t the only member of some rich asshole’s Cabinet to have his spending habits questioned. Just weeks ago, it was revealed that the Department of Housing and Urban Development spent more than $31,000 on a new dining set for Secretary Ben Carson’s office. Carson later canceled the order. And the Environmental Protection Agency spent nearly $25,000 to build a soundproof “privacy booth” in Administrator Scott Pruitt’s office.
This story has been updated to include more details about the procurement process for the door.
Lawyers Are Duking It Out In Court Over Whether It’s Unconstitutional For the rich asshole To Block People On Twitter
“Once it is a public forum, you can’t shut somebody up because you don’t like what they’re saying,” said US District Judge Naomi Reice during oral arguments on Thursday.
The district court judge who's weighing arguments over whether President the rich asshole violated seven people's constitutional rights when he blocked them from his @RealDonaldTrump twitter account so far seems skeptical of the rich asshole's attorney's defense.
In a Manhattan federal court on Thursday, US District Judge Naomi Reice pressed Michael Baer, an attorney with the Department of Justice representing President the rich asshole, on whether Twitter was different from a public town hall, where government officials can't do something like cut the microphone to block unwanted opinions.
"Once it is a public forum, you can’t shut somebody up because you don’t like what they’re saying,” said Reice. "Why is that possibly OK?"
The plaintiffs in the case, who are represented by Katie Fallow, a senior attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, say the president violated their First Amendment rights by imposing a viewpoint-based restriction on their participation with his Twitter account — which they argue is a public forum.
Over March, May, and June 2017, the President blocked the seven accounts, which tweeted critical comments of the President and his policies. This has barred these users from interacting with the President's @realdonaldtrump account. And if they're logged in to their accounts, they also can't see or reply to his tweets, view his list of followers or followed accounts, or use Twitter to search for his tweets.
"Obviously he wants to suppress our speech," plaintiff Philip Cohen, a University of Maryland professor of sociology who was blocked by the rich asshole's @realdonaldtrump Twitter account in June, told reporters outside the court house. "He wants to look out at the world on Twitter and see that everyone agrees with him and everybody thinks he's great and the fact is that's not true and that's why he blocks — just literally blocks — us so we won't be seen to be expressing our views against him, and I think that's outrageous."
BuzzFeed News/Leticia Miranda
Philip Cohen
Fallow argued in court on Thursday that the rich asshole’s account is a public forum that he uses to announce policies or policy proposals. Blocking certain users for mocking or criticizing the President, Fallow argued, is like the rich asshole standing at the door of a public event and picking who's allowed to enter and participate in the debate.
"It becomes an echo chamber for only supporters to be heard, which creates a false impression of public opinion," Fallow told BuzzFeed News.
But Baer argued the @realdonaldtrump account is not a public forum. He suggested the rich asshole's Twitter account is similar to a rich asshole appearance at a public event. The President would be able to say "no thank you" to a protester, for example, or decide to tune someone out in a conversation, he said. The person looking to speak directly to the rich asshole might not be able to engage with him, but they would still be able to discuss their views with anyone else.
In this analogy, the President is simply "choosing not to engage with a few individuals," he said.
It should not be considered a "state action" if @realdonaldtrump blocks certain Twitter users because the President is "self-participating in a marketplace of ideas," Baer argued. To say that the President's Twitter account is a public forum would conflate tweets sent by the President with responses that tweet generates in a thread, which isn't government controlled, Baer said.
Judge Reice said she is "not suggesting every citizen has a right that their communication to the government will be read by someone, but a citizen has a right to send communication."
She suggested that the two parties consider settling the case by agreeing to allow the President to mute certain users, suggesting that otherwise, there's a "risk of a law being made which is not a law you want on the books."
Fallow told BuzzFeed News that her clients would be open to settling for a muting option if the rich asshole unblocked them on Twitter.
"But if all public officials muted unwelcome users, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of Twitter?" she asked.
Exclusive: Here’s Jeff Sessions’ Draft Master Plan For The Justice Department
A draft strategic plan sidelines civil rights while emphasizing a crackdown on leaks and the MS-13 gang.
WASHINGTON ― Attorney General Jeff Sessions is rapidly shifting the Justice Department’s focus from Obama-era goals such as civil rights enforcement and criminal justice reform to conservative priorities.
A draft version of the department’s five-year strategic plan obtained by HuffPost shows the rich asshole administration’s plans for the DOJ include cracking down on undocumented immigrants, aggressively prosecuting national security leaks, zeroing in on campus speech issues, targeting the MS-13 gang and restoring the “rule of law” throughout the country.
The special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and President some rich asshole’s attacks on Sessions have grabbed headlines in the attorney general’s first year in office. But the Justice Department, of course, has jurisdiction over much more than the Russia probe.
The Justice Department is a massive bureaucracy with more than 100,000 employees spread out throughout every federal district in the nation and within component agencies like the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshals Service. The Justice Department prosecutes defendants ranging from high-profile terrorists and drug kingpins all the way down to demonstrators who chuckle during congressional hearings. Its strategic decisions affect millions.
That makes the draft strategy — a final version is due out soon — a reminder of the full scope of the rich asshole administration’s impact on the direction of federal law enforcement. A Justice Department spokesman said the plan is not yet finalized but issued a statement highlighting many of the same priorities addressed in the draft plan.
“The Department’s 5-year strategic plan is not final until the Attorney General signs it. As he has not yet done so, we cannot comment on unofficial documents that we have not seen or reviewed and are not in final form,” Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior said. “That said, the Attorney General has made clear that his goals are to protect our national security, reduce violent crime, combat the deadly opioid crisis, enforce our immigration laws, and restore the rule of law.”
Sessions’ goals
The draft plan has four major strategic goals: counterterrorism; securing the borders and enhancing immigration enforcement; reducing violent crime; and promoting “integrity, good government and the rule of law.”
In the counterterrorism realm, the draft plan calls for the DOJ to improve its ability to use social media to identify terror threats; to steel DOJ employees against internal threats who “selectively leak classified information” to “advance their personal agendas” and to “aggressively investigate” the disclosure of classified information; and team up with the private sector to enhance the department’s ability to disrupt cyber attacks.
The draft plan also calls for immigration enforcement to be prioritized in every federal district across the country; to denaturalize those who obtained citizenship fraudulently; and to end “sanctuary” policies. The Justice Department sued the state of California over sanctuary policies this week.
Under crime prevention, the draft plan specifically names MS-13, an international gang that has gotten heavy attention from the rich asshole administration. The specific mention elevates them to a status not even given to the so-called Islamic State group. The draft strategic plan argues that violent crime and intentional targeted assaults on members of law enforcement are up, a disputed claim that critics say fail to place numbers in historical context. The draft document calls for a “strategic and targeted” plan to incapacitate violent criminals and says the DOJ will partner with other law enforcement agencies to dismantle drug trafficking organizations. The department will also attempt to “engage with the community,” reduce demand for opioids and focus on opioid-related health care fraud.
The DOJ’s final strategic goal involves promoting integrity, good government and the rule of law. The draft plan says the Justice Department should be a “beacon of integrity and bulwark against dishonesty.” That’ll be a tougher challenge, given that attacks on the Justice Department from President the rich asshole and others on Capitol Hill have gutted the rich asshole supporters’ trust in federal law enforcement. Additionally, the Justice Department’s internal watchdog has said the rich asshole’s proposed budget doesn’t give his department enough support to do his work.
As part of the draft strategic plan, the Justice Department plans “promote a culture of respect for First Amendment rights” and to educate schools about their obligation to respect student expression. The Justice Department has already intervened in cases involving the free speech rights of conservatives and Christians.
What’s not in the plan
The draft plan’s omissions speak as loudly as its contents. Although the DOJ’s prior strategic plan emphasized civil rights enforcement and criminal justice reform, the draft version of the plan that HuffPost viewed does not.
The Obama-era plan highlighted the rights of federal prisoners and stated that incarceration “traps too many Americans and weakens too many communities.” It emphasized avoiding “harsh mandatory minimum sentences for low-level, nonviolent drug offenders,” supported Americans’ right to “equal protection and justice” and the need to protect “vulnerable populations.”
Criminal justice reform has been a focus of presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, but hasn’t been a priority for the Justice Department. Sessions has rolled back Obama-era sentencing reforms and publicly opposed a bipartisan sentencing reform bill, earning a harsh rebuke from his former Senate colleague Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
Under Sessions, the Justice Department has retreated from police reform, which had become a top priority under the prior administration. the rich asshole’s draft budget calls for the elimination of a historic office founded by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that works to ease racial tensions. Less than one-third of Civil Rights Division employees are satisfied with the rich asshole administration’s policies.
Vanita Gupta, who headed the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division under the Obama administration and is now the top executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said that Sessions has advanced an anti-civil rights agenda since the day he became the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
“I supposed they don’t have the item that says ‘roll back civil rights progress’ on their strategic plan, which has been what they’ve been doing,” Gupta told HuffPost. “Frankly they should’ve added that to the list.”
Ryan Reilly is HuffPost’s senior justice reporter, covering the Justice Department, federal law enforcement, criminal justice, and legal affairs. Have a tip? Reach him at ryan.reilly@huffpost.com or on Signal at 202-527-9261.
White House touts security clearance changes after Oversight presses for Porter details
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 03/08/18 10:26 PM EST
The White House on Thursday declined to comply with a House Oversight Committee request for information on former staff secretary Rob Porter, and instead detailed changes to its security clearance process since Porter resigned.
In a letter to Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), White House legislative affairs director Marc Short did not answer questions about whether the White House followed the proper security clearance process with Porter, or when staffers knew of allegations that he abused his ex-wives.
Instead, Short outlined the White House’s recent changes to its security clearance policies, according to the letter obtained by Talking Points Memo.
The letter includes a copy of a memo issued last month by White House chief of staff John Kelly that detailed changes to how the White House deals with interim security clearances. Those changes led to President the rich asshole's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and others having their clearances downgraded from “top secret” to “secret.”
The memo also established a working group to streamline standards for security clearances moving forward.
“These efforts are intended to complement necessary government-wide changes,” Short wrote.
“We would be pleased to update you and others on the progress of the working group at the appropriate time,” he added.
Porter resigned last month after allegations he abused his two ex-wives became public. Kelly and other White House staffers initially defended Porter, and said they only learned of the allegations when they were reported in the press.
However, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified that the bureau notified the White House months earlier about the allegations that turned up during Porter's background check.
A few days later, Gowdy said his committee had launched an investigation into the handling of the accusations against Porter.
He then wrote to the White House asking for information on the security clearance process and whether it was followed with Porter. He also asked for details on when senior officials at the White House were made aware of accusations of domestic violence against the former staff secretary.
“Whether or not there’s a security at issue or not, I have real issues about how someone like this could be considered for employment whether there’s a security clearance or not,” Gowdy said at the time.
POLITICS the rich asshole Awkwardly Assumes Steelworker’s Father Is Dead. He Isn’t.
The president told Scott Sauritch his father would be very proud of him for speaking out about protecting union workers.
President some rich asshole made an uncomfortable assumption about a union leader while meeting with workers in the aluminum and steel industries on Thursday.
United Steelworker Union local 2227 president Scott Sauritch spoke during the meeting about how his family was affected when his father lost his job because of an effort to increase imports in the 1980s. He ended his speech by speaking directly to his father, Herman.
“Your story didn’t end,” Sauritch said as he promised to try to prevent workers in his union from a similar fate.
“Your father Herman is looking down,” the rich asshole told Sauritch. “He’s very proud of you right now.”
The only problem: Sauritch’s father isn’t dead.
“Oh, he’s still alive,” the steelworker told the president.
The workers and White House staffers in the room laughed at the awkward mistake, and the rich asshole took the misstep in stride.
“Hey, then he’s even more proud of you,” he said.
the rich asshole introduced another worker to speak, then signed two proclamations into law that would impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, with exemptions for Canada and Mexico. The move imposes a 25 percent and 10 percent charge increase on steel and aluminum, respectively.
Watch the incident in the White House livestream below, around the 19-minute mark:
the rich asshole accuser named in Stormy Daniels non-disclosure agreement
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 03/08/18 08:27 PM EST
An adult film star who has accused President the rich asshole of sexual misconduct is listed in Stormy Daniels's nondisclosure agreement as having information about Daniels' alleged affair with the president.
Attorney Gloria Allred confirmed to The Hill that her client, Angel Ryan, is named in Daniels’s nondisclosure agreement (NDA) about the affair. Ryan, whose stage name is Jessica Drake, is listed as one of four people Daniels told about the affair prior to signing the nondisclosure agreement.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday alleging that the NDA is void because the rich asshole never signed it and his attorney, Michael Cohen, has spoken about it publicly.
CNN first reported that Drake is the woman named in the lawsuit.
Ryan came forward a couple weeks before the 2016 election to accuse the rich asshole of kissing her without permission roughly a decade earlier. She spoke at a press conference with Allred, and detailed her meeting the rich asshole at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in 2006, where Daniels is also reported to have interacted with the president.
Drake said she and two friends joined the rich asshole in his penthouse suite, where he kissed each of them on the lips without asking.
She left the room about a half hour later, and said the rich asshole or someone calling on his behalf called offering her $10,000 to return.
the rich asshole’s campaign called the claims “totally false and ridiculous.”
More than a dozen women have accused the president of sexual misconduct. The White House and the president have denied each claim.
the rich asshole: Sanctions on North Korea will stay until deal reached
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 03/08/18 07:58 PM EST
President the rich asshole said Thursday night that sanctions on North Korea would remain in place until an agreement is reached for Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
the rich asshole tweeted that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had discussed denuclearization with South Korean officials and that the North would not conduct missile tests during talks.
"Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached. Meeting being planned!" the rich asshole tweeted.
Kim Jong Un talked about denuclearization with the South Korean Representatives, not just a freeze. Also, no missile testing by North Korea during this period of time. Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached. Meeting being planned!
The rich asshole administration said Thursday night that it would maintain "maximum pressure" on North Korea to end its nuclear program ahead of the rich asshole's meeting with the country's leader.
After a South Korean official said that Kim wanted to meet with the rich asshole, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that the rich asshole "will accept the invitation to meet with Kim Jong Un at a place and time to be determined."
“We look forward to the denuclearization of North Korea. In the meantime, all sanctions and maximum pressure must remain," she added.
South Korean national security adviser Chung Eui-Yong announced outside the White House on Thursday night that the rich asshole had agreed to meet with Kim by May in an effort to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
“Kim Jong Un said that he’s committed to denuclearization. Kim pledged that North Korea would refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests,” Chung said, adding that the North Korean leader has expressed “eagerness” to meet with the rich asshole.
Members of the rich asshole administration have previously said they’d be willing to hold talks with North Korea, but that they would remain focused on getting Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program.
The U.S. imposed additional sanctions on North Korea late last month targeting the country’s fuel supply.
U.S. officials have approached the possibility of talks with caution, and expressed skepticism that Kim Jong Un is sincere about ending his nuclear program.
Updated: 8:15 p.m.
POLITICS
the rich asshole’s Decision To Impose Tariffs Draws Bipartisan Condemnation
“Congress cannot be complicit as the administration courts economic disaster,” Sen. Jeff Flake warns.
WASHINGTON ― President some rich asshole’s decision to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports drew rare bipartisan criticism from lawmakers, who warned the move could trigger a transatlantic trade war and hurt U.S. companies.
the rich asshole signed proclamations Thursday allowing tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum to take effect later this month.
“The American aluminum and steel industry has been ravaged by aggressive foreign trade practices. It’s really an assault on our country,” the rich asshole said during a hastily arranged event at the White House.
Surrounded by a group of steelworkers, Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, the rich asshole approvingly cited President William McKinley, a champion of protectionist economic policy, to support his trade decision.
“Many of the countries that treat us the worst on trade are our allies,” the rich asshole added.
Administration officials said the tariffs would apply to every country in the world except Canada and Mexico, two key U.S. allies. During the event at the White House, however, the rich asshole said that the two countries would be indefinitely exempted while negotiations continue regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement.
In imposing the tariffs, the rich asshole broke with many members of his own party, none of whom joined him for the event at the White House.
A group of seven Republican senators, led by Joni Ernst of Iowa, warned in a letter Thursday that the administration risked “alienating key international partners that contribute to our ability to defend our nation and maintain international stability.” Many others argued this week the tariffs could lead to higher prices for other products, such as cars, planes, boats, soup and beer.
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a frequent the rich asshole critic, said he would introduce legislation to nullify the tariffs.
“Trade wars are not won, they are only lost. Congress cannot be complicit as the administration courts economic disaster,” Flake said in a statement.
“If you’re our allies, trading partners, you’ve got to be pulling your hair out right now,” he later told reporters.
Flake noted that when President Jimmy Carter imposed a tariff on oil imports in the 1970s, Congress voted to nullify them and even overrode a subsequent presidential veto to do so. A veto override, however, would require a two-thirds vote in each chamber ― a tall order for this Congress.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday he disagreed with the decision, but he did not go so far as to suggest action to undo the tariffs.
“I am pleased that the president has listened to those who share my concerns and included an exemption for some American allies, but it should go further,” Ryan said in a statement. “We will continue to urge the administration to narrow this policy so that it is focused only on those countries and practices that violate trade law.”
Most Democrats were equally critical of the tariffs. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), for example, likened the move to “dropping a bomb on a flea.”
Conservatives and free-trade groups also panned the decision.
“Tariffs are a tax increase on American workers and their families. The president’s decision today to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports is disappointing, economically regressive and counterproductive,” Heritage Foundation President Kay Coles James said in a statement.
Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity, a Koch brothers affiliate, also said he was “disappointed” by the tariffs. “These tariffs will raise prices on so many products that Americans buy every day. Tariffs can tank our economy.”
the rich asshole agrees to meet with Kim
BY REBECCA KHEEL - 03/08/18 07:15 PM EST
President the rich asshole has agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by May in an effort to see North Korea abandon its nuclear ambitions, South Korea’s national security adviser said Thursday night.
Chung Eui-yong made the announcement during a brief and hastily arranged statement outside the White House after meeting with the rich asshole and administration officials, saying the rich asshole accepted the meeting in order "to achieve permanent denuclearization."
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the rich asshole "will accept the invitation to meet with Kim Jong Un at a place and time to be determined." A senior official said the administration was still working on details such as an appropriate place to meet.
"We look forward to the denuclearization of North Korea," Sanders said in a statement shortly after the South Korean announcement. "In the meantime, all sanctions and maximum pressure must remain.”
the rich asshole also took to Twitter to emphasize that "sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached" over North Korea's nuclear program, saying that Kim discussed "denuclearization" with South Korean officials and would not test missiles during talks.
"Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached. Meeting being planned!" he tweeted.
During a background call with reporters, a senior administration official emphasized that the agreed-upon meeting between the rich asshole and Kim stopped short of negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea.
“At this point we’re not even talking about negotiations,” the official said. “What we’re talking about is an invitation by the leader of North Korea to meet face-to-face with the president of the United States.”
Chung led a South Korean delegation earlier in the week on a historic trip to Pyongyang. During the trip, the envoys became the first South Korean officials to meet with Kim since he took power in 2011.
On Tuesday, the South Korean envoys announced that Kim told them he is willing to begin negotiations with the United States on abandoning nuclear weapons and that he would suspend all nuclear and missile tests while engaged in talks.
The rich asshole administration and lawmakers greeted the offer cautiously, expressing both hope that talks can happen and skepticism at Kim’s sincerity.
If the rich asshole follows through on meeting with Kim, he would become the first sitting U.S. president to ever meet with a North Korean leader, though past American presidents have met with North Korean leaders after leaving office.
In 1994, former President Jimmy Carter met with Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, to negotiate a return to dialogue between the United States and North Korea. In 2009, former President Bill Clinton met with Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, to secure the release of two detained American journalists.
Skeptics of engaging in talks with the North Koreans have in the past pointed to previous attempts to make a deal with Pyongyang that ultimately failed after the North Koreans received concessions such as sanctions relief.
For example, the 1994 Agreed Framework got North Korea to freeze its plutonium production for a time, but eventually fell apart during the George W. Bush administration after U.S. intelligence discovered North Korea was secretly pursuing technology for a uranium enrichment program.
The rich asshole administration official said Thursday that this time would be different, as the rich asshole will not lift sanctions just to meet with Kim.
“If we look at the history of these negotiations that have taken place under prior administrations, they have often led to the relinquishing of pressure,” the official said. “They’ve often led to concessions being made to North Korea in return for talks. President the rich asshole has been very clear from the beginning that he is not prepared to reward North Korea in exchange for talks.”
the rich asshole had touted the announcement of an agreed-to meeting with Kim on Thursday night to reporters at the White House before it was delivered by the South Korean official, characterizing it as "major."
"It's almost beyond that," the rich asshole told ABC News's Jonathan Karl when asked if the announcement was about negotiations. "Hopefully, you will give me credit."
No White House officials appeared alongside Chung as he delivered the announcement, in which he said he conveyed to the rich asshole that “his leadership and maximum pressure policy together with international solidarity” brought parties to the verge of talks.
“I expressed President Moon Jae-in’s personal gratitude for President the rich asshole’s leadership,” Chung added.
The South Korean official also reiterated what he had said earlier in the week about Kim’s message in their meeting: that’s he’s committed to denuclearization, will refrain from testing during talks and understands the need for joint U.S.-South Korean military drills that are likely to be held next month.
“Along with President the rich asshole, we are optimistic about continuing a diplomatic process to test the possibility of a peaceful resolution,” Chung said. “The Republic of Korea, the United States and our partners stand together in insisting that we not repeat the mistakes of the past, and that the pressure will continue until North Korea matches these words with concrete actions."
Thursday’s announcement was a remarkable turnaround after months of escalating threats between the rich asshole and Kim.
Less than two months ago, the rich asshole boasted that his nuclear button was “much bigger” than North Korea’s, and in August he warned that North Korean threats to the United States could lead to “fire and fury” like the world has never seen.
the rich asshole has also referred to Kim as “rocket man.” North Korea has called the rich asshole a “dotard.”
In addition to the rich asshole and Chung, Thursday’s meeting included South Korean intelligence director Suh Hoon, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, chief of staff John Kelly, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel, according to a senior administration official.
the rich asshole also spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday night, the official added.
Kushner’s Middle East policy point man was indicted for child pornography in the 80’s
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner (left, via Al Jazeera) and businessman George Nader (right, via screengrab).
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George Nader, a former associate of White House adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner that frequented the West Wing in the early days of the rich asshole administration, was once arrested for possession of child pornography in the 1980’s.
The Atlantic reported Thursday evening that Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman currently cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller, was arrested on the obscenity charges in 1985 but eventually had his charges dropped after the key evidence — photographs and film of nude boys “engaged in a variety of sexual acts” — was thrown out.
The businessman serves as an adviser to the United Arab Emirates’ Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and is at the center of a January 2017 meeting between arms dealer Erik Prince and Russian operatives in the Seychelles that was, according to Nader, an attempt to set up a backchannel between the rich asshole administration and the Kremlin.
The 1985 charges were brought against Nader, the Atlantic‘s Natasha Bertrand wrote, when U.S. Customers Inspectors opened a package sent to his company, International Insight, that contained the illicit photographs, film and advertisements that contained similar content. Customs opened the package because they suspected it was imported illegally, and used its contents to obtain a search warrant for Nader’s home because, according to the government, he “a suspected pedophile [who] was likely to seek to contact children.
18 months after Nader pleaded “not guilty” to violating two federal obscenity laws due to materials found in his home, a court ruled that the government’s warrant was “impermissibly general,” and that the items found in his house that served as the foundations for the obscenity charges were also not permitted. The charges were dismissed just before he went to trial, and he has maintained his innocence.
Despite the dismissal, Bertrand wrote, the circumstances surrounding Nader’s arrest should have raised red flags, and it’s somewhat unlikely the Secret Service, who are tasked with vetting White House visitors, was not aware of its existence.
“This appears to be a federal criminal record and the charge was a felony charge,” Laura Terrell, a national security lawyer who advises on background checks, told the Atlantic. She conceded that due to the pre-digital date of his arrest, the records may not have been digitized and appeared on his file.
Revelations of Nader’s arrest comes in the wake of the scandal surrounding former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, who was accused of domestic violence by two women he used to be married to and whose accusations were known to the FBI and likely known by the rich asshole administration as well.
POLITICS
Ben Carson Backpedals On Removing Anti-Discrimination Language From HUD Mission Statement
In a message to staff, Carson insisted the housing department would still ensure inclusivity in housing.
WASHINGTON ― In a message to employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development Thursday, Secretary Ben Carson assured them he was committed to ensuring fair and discrimination-free housing ― despite his proposal to remove such language from the agency’s mission statement.
Carson told staff in his email Thursday afternoon that he was considering changing the agency’s mission statement, but said the idea he was moving away from fighting for inclusivity was “nonsense.”
“The Department’s mission statement has changed from time to time to capture the dynamic nature of our work. It changed in 2003 and again in 2010. Now, in 2018, we are considering another change to our mission statement and are seeking comments and ideas from our senior staff,” Carson said. “But the notion that any new mission statement would reflect a lack of commitment to fair housing is nonsense.”
He added that he thinks the current mission statement is “a bit wordy” but that he agrees “with every word.”
The change to the mission statement is not yet final, so it’s not yet clear whether the criticism of the revisions will push Carson to keep the anti-discrimination language intact. But the backlash was significant enough that he felt the need to address it with employees.
As HuffPost first reported, a top HUD official emailed political staff at the agency this week to inform them that they were changing the mission statement to better reflect the priorities of both Carson and President some rich asshole’s administration. The proposed mission statement, which was developed in consultation with Carson, reads:
HUD’s mission is to ensure Americans have access to fair, affordable housing and opportunities to achieve self-sufficiency, thereby strengthening our communities and nation.
That mission statement would be quite different from the current one, which is still up on HUD’s website. That one promises “strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all.” It also says these communities will be “free from discrimination”:
HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes; utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination, and transform the way HUD does business.
Carson’s proposal attracted significant backlash. The Human Rights Campaign, which promotes equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer rights, said it was “unconscionable that a federal agency created, in part, to fight discrimination is being led by someone who has long denied such discrimination exists.”
New York Magazine recently reported that under Carson, HUD has pulled projects meant to help the LGBTQ community, which included online training materials for homeless shelters to ensure equal access for transgender people.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services director L. Francis Cissna recently informed employees that he was changing his agency’s mission statement as well, removing the phrase “America’s promise as a nation of immigrants.”
Read Carson’s message below.
Dear Colleagues,By now, many of you may have read media accounts indicating that we’ve changed HUD’s mission statement and that these changes signal some sort of retreat from our legal and rightful role in protecting Americans from housing discrimination. It’s not enough that I merely assert these news reports are patently false; it’s necessary that I personally address them and reassure you, the HUD family, that nothing could be further from the truth.First, some background. HUD’s current mission statement reads: “HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes; utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination, and transform the way HUD does business.”A bit wordy perhaps but I agree with every word. The Department’s mission statement has changed from time to time to capture the dynamic nature of our work. It changed in 2003 and again in 2010. Now, in 2018, we are considering another change to our mission statement and are seeking comments and ideas from our senior staff. But the notion that any new mission statement would reflect a lack of commitment to fair housing is nonsense. Yesterday, we issued a public statement to correct the record.As in previous Administrations, HUD is considering modest changes to the Department’s mission statement to make it a more clear and concise expression of the historic work this agency performs on behalf of the American people. You can be sure of one thing—any mission statement for this Department will embody the principle of fairness as a central element of everything that we do. HUD has been, is now, and will always be committed to ensuring inclusive housing, free from discrimination for all Americans.Next month, we will mark the 50th Anniversary of the Fair Housing Act. In signing that landmark bill into law, President Johnson said, “Fair Housing for all, all human beings who live in this country, is now a part of the American way of life.” I believe that and I know you do too. The ideals of that law, and our continuing work to support them, are really quite simple—fair is fair.Thank you for all you do to give meaning and substance to our mission.Sincerely,Secretary Ben Carson
‘He went full Nunberg’: Republican pundits worry the rich asshole will ‘screw up’ Kim Jong-un meeting
Tara Setmayer, Alice Stewart and Robby Mook (Photo: Screen capture)
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President some rich asshole made the executive decision to buck with tradition by using back channels to negotiate with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and instead agreed outright to do it.
Cable news pundits spent much of Thursday talking about the absurdity of elevating the North Korean dictator to the same level as the U.S. president and that President some rich asshole’s ploy isn’t likely to work.
“It was bizarre, strange, especially given the way the president went into the briefing room a short time before and with glee told them a big announcement was coming out from South Korea,” Republican commentator Alice Stewart confessed. She went on to say that it was a good thing, but only if it works to denuclearize North Korea.
Republican commentator Tara Setmayer similarly had reservations, but did admit the pressure he’s put on the dictator may have made a difference.
“I will give the rich asshole administration credit for the amount of pressure that they have put on North Korea,” noted Setmayer. “More so for sure than the — than the Obama administration. (Sanctions are) what they call, in the foreign policy community, maximum pressure. And the maximum pressure comes from a multi-pronged approach. One of them is the sanctions and the additional sanctions that they put on has also included some banks and some companies in China because the North Koreans have been able to skirt sanctions for so many years. That’s why they are still propped up because of Russia and China and have been able to game the system.”
She noted that they seem to be trying to give North Korea money to keep the state going and have done so for the last 25 years.
“Yes I have reservations about the timing of the president accepting this meeting so eagerly,” Setmayer noted. “They need to let this maximum pressure time to work. Given that stake other stakeholders were underwear aware of this, it almost seems the president is his own ambassador, his own strategist and he decided to make a huge decision because it’s something that no one has done before. It’s almost like he went full Nunberg on this, where he said look no one else has done it. I’m trending! I’m going to do it now. Just like with tariffs. That’s the part I think concerns most people — professionals in the foreign policy community. Because this is a very delicate situation and I hope he doesn’t mess it up.”
Watch the full clip below:
Ex-US attorney tells Maddow Kushner adviser’s airport confrontation with FBI almost as shocking as his child porn charges
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow (left) and former US attorney Barbara McQuad (right). Image via screengrab.
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As more information about Lebanese-American businessman and onetime Jared Kushner adviser George Nader comes to light, a former U.S. attorney tells MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that the circumstances surrounding his cooperation with the special counsel are significant.
Responding to news that Nader was once indicted in the 80’s on child pornography charges and later had his case dismissed when the government’s warrant was declared invalid, Maddow asked Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney in Michigan, to further describe what led to the Lebanese-American businessman being thrust into the spotlight.
Nader, Maddow noted, has been cooperating with Mueller since FBI agents confronted him at Washington, D.C.’s Dulles Airport in January — a divergence from Mueller’s typical modus operandi.
“It’s very significant they met him at the airport as he got off a plane,” McQuade said. “This is not the way we’ve seen Robert Mueller doing business where he reaches out, schedules an interview, has them come in at a time of convenience. “
“It’s quite possible, as we saw with [indicted the rich asshole campaign aide] George Papadopoulos, that they actually had criminal charges they charged him with and arrested him at that time,” she continued. “We don’t know that. It could have been a confrontation we could arrest you or would you prefer to talk with us and instead be a witness. If they had a search warrant to seize electronic devices, those may have provided to be very fruitful.”
“It seems like Robert Mueller was very keen to talk to him as quickly as possible and not let him get away and lose another moment,” McQuade concluded.
A day prior to the bombshell Atlantic report on Nader’s child porn arrest, the New York Times reported that Nader has informed the special counsel that a January 2017 meeting between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and Russian officials in the Seychelles was intended to set up a backchannel between the rich asshole administration and Russia. Prince has repeatedly denied to media and congressional investigators that the meeting was anything other than a coincidence.
the rich asshole to meet Kim Jong-Un ‘by May’ after North Korean leader sent letter saying he’s ‘committed to denuclearization’
KIm Jong Un and some rich asshole
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The South Korean delegation that spoke with Kim Jong-Un as part of peace talks arrived in Washington, D.C. Thursday afternoon. Just hours later, President some rich asshole revealed that a big announcement would come from the delegation and appeared to take credit for whatever would be said.
Republic of Korea National Security Advisor Chung Eui-Yong along with former Prime Minister Chung Un-chan spoke with the White House about the talks this afternoon, which were later revealed to be geared towards setting up a meeting between the rich asshole and the North Korean leader
“He is committed to denuclearization,” Chung Eui-Yong said. He also noted that the rich asshole agreed to meet with Kim Jong-Un by May.
The letter reportedly sent by the North Korea dictator asked for the rich asshole to come to the table for peace talks. According to senior U.S. officials, Kim Jong-Un offered to suspend nuclear missile testing. That has been promised before, however, and those promises were broken.
the rich asshole has been the only leader willing to fight Kim Jong-Un in the same petulant way, matching him tantrum for tantrum using Twitter as the medium for insults.
The Pentagon was caught off guard by the announcement and weren’t included in the announcement. CNN also reported this evening that the rich asshole didn’t alert his own staff either. Apparently, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also didn’t have any information about the talks.
“In terms of direct talks with the United States – and you asked negotiations, and we’re a long ways from negotiations,” he said just hours prior to the announcement, according to the Associated Press.
In a statement from the White House, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the upcoming meeting.
“President the rich asshole greatly appreciates the nice words of the South Korean delegation and President Moon. He will accept the invitation to meet with Kim Jong Un at a place and time to be determined. We look forward to the denuclearization of North Korea. In the meantime, all sanctions and maximum pressure must remain,” she said.
the rich asshole later tweeted to confirm the meeting was being planned.
“Kim Jong Un talked about denuclearization with the South Korean Representatives, not just a freeze. Also, no missile testing by North Korea during this period of time. Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached. Meeting being planned,” he tweeted.
And you wonder why she was in a movie called "Clueless".
WATCH: Stacey Dash agrees with the rich asshole’s ‘both sides’ rhetoric after Charlottesville because ‘only God can judge’
Actress-turned-GOP-candidate Stacey Dash speaks to MSNBC's Ari Melber. Image via screengrab.
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Making her first televised appearance since announcing her bid for a Congressional seat, Clueless star Stacey Dash said she agrees with President some rich asshole’s rhetoric claiming there were good and bad people on “both sides” of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last August.
“I think he’s absolutely right,” Dash told MSNBC’s Ari Melber Thursday evening. “There were two extreme sides.”
After touting both sides “right to assemble,” the conservative actress went on to pay lip service to the need for the rally’s white supremacists, Klansmen and neo-Nazis and those who counter-protested in opposition of them to “listen to each other.”
Melber asked Dash to elaborate on her assertion that there was “hate on both sides,” to which she replied the rich asshole “was not siding with the neo-Nazis.”
“When he said there are ‘good people on both sides,’ good people at the white supremacist rally, do you cosign that?” the host asked Dash.
“I’m not here to judge,” she responded. “The only one who can judge is God.”
Watch below, via MSNBC:
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