This is how the United States became irrelevant to the rest of the world
President some rich asshole (AFP / MANDEL NGAN)
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Depending on the hour, President the rich asshole is in open conflict with Congress, the media, the intelligence services, his own national-security adviser, his generals, and now, seemingly, his own veterans affairs director. That sort of turbulence leaves the United States paralyzed and indecisive, unable to speak with a common, or even coherent, voice on a number of important policy issues. And it appears that, on many topics, other countries have stopped listening.
Two weeks ago, the rich asshole nurtured distrust and hostility between the United States and its allies by enthusiastically tweeting his belief that “trade wars are good, and easy to win.” As with most of his own tweets, it was characterized by sheer abrasiveness.
Over the past year, the United States has abandoned its leadership position on the global stage in many ways. The U.S. stopped leading the effort to combat climate change. The U.S. stopped leading on trade and tariffs. The U.S. raised destabilizing questions about our continued commitment to multilateral organizations and military alliances. The U.S. stopped leading on human rights and the rule of law. And these are things that the rich asshole did with intention.
the rich asshole justified these actions as necessary for America to be first, but the result is more like America has become alone and mostly irrelevant.
When the rich asshole pulled the United States pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the other nations involved reworked the agreement and signed it among themselves. China moved aggressively ahead with its own web of trade and investment deals and countered the rich asshole’s announcement of tariffs. And our partners in Canada and Mexico are thinking through how to manage without us. If the United States can’t decide how to pursue its interests abroad, and can’t propound a consistent economic strategy to friends and foes alike, it’s going to be less prosperous—as we already see with China’s retaliation to the rich asshole’s trade tariff.
When the rich asshole backed out of the Paris Climate Agreement, it was characteristic of the rich asshole’s isolationism. “The Paris accord will undermine our economy,” and it “puts us at a permanent disadvantage.” What withdrawal actually means is that the rich asshole has put America at a competitive disadvantage in the new clean energy economy. Meanwhile, Chinese prime minister Li Keqiang, while on a visit to Germany, was quoted by AFP as saying, “China will continue to implement promises made in the Paris Agreement, to move towards the 2030 goal step by step steadfastly.” America now stands as the only country to not sign on to the Paris Climate Agreement.
The rich asshole administration ended American membership in UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural agency, over the organization’s alleged anti-Israel bias and signaled that it will decline to certify that the Iran nuclear agreement is in the interest of the United States, which will prompt a debate in Congress that could ultimately lead to the demise of the accord, further distancing America from its allies. He recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in defiance of United Nations policy. the rich asshole’s “America first” policy is unconvincing, but what makes it truly dangerous is his accompanying erratic pronouncements.
How will a country look to the rich asshole, who allegedly questioned why the United States accepts citizens from “shithole” countries and who got himself into a mess of controversy when he waded into the Twittersphere with foolish tweets in the wake of the latest terrorist attack in London? In both these instances, leaders, whose voices were heard far and wide, stood together and publicly condemned the rich asshole.
Thus comes into play what political scientist Joseph Nye deemed “soft power.” Soft power is defined as the ability of a country to persuade others to do what it wants without force or coercion. When a country fails to deploy soft power, it ultimately undermines U.S. leadership and prevents it from reaching common goals.
the rich asshole is gutting America’s “soft power” and its credibility as a good-faith actor in international affairs. Whether it’s Justin Trudeau renegotiating NAFTA or Kim Jong Un considering a diplomatic resolution to the crisis over nuclear weapons, they will have to wonder whether they can trust the United States as a negotiating partner. They must also wonder whether they can trust any American president to honor the word of his predecessor. And when countries fear they cannot trust America, they’ll continue to ignore America and America.
This is already happening. German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told the Berlin Foreign Policy Forum that Germany would start to pursue its own agenda, whether the U.S. likes it or not, because the West has been losing influence around the world with the rich asshole as president. “The U.S. no longer sees the world as a global community but as a fighting arena where everyone has to seek their own advantage,” Gabriel said, according to Deutsche Welle. The numbers tell the story: According to Gallup, “approval of U.S. leadership across 134 countries and areas stands at a new low of 30%.” That’s lower than the 34 percent approval during the last year of George W. Bush’s administration, in the wake of fiascos such as the Iraq War, and far lower than the 70 percent approvals America got before the Iraq War. But that’s not all. There was more approval in this same international survey for Germany (41 percent) and China (31 percent) as world leaders than there was for the United States—the country that has, in fact, led the free world since 1942.
As the world moves on and looks elsewhere for leadership, the rich asshole is pushing his military agenda. He is relying heavily on what Joseph Nye deems “hard power”—acoercive approach to international political relations, especially one that involves the use of military power. There is no doubt that America maintains an edge over all other countries in the world in terms of military might. The U.S. defense budget already is more than the next 12 nations in the world combined, and a recent vote of Congress will increase defense spending by $162 billion. However, all of this military spending will prove irrelevant, as other countries are looking toward greater independence and assertiveness.
the rich asshole’s actions are creating a country that relies solely on military force to influence the international stage and, when this is the case, it is not only American power that becomes irrelevant, but also American ideas. As the rich asshole continues to frighten allies with erratic pronouncements, his voice, along with America, has become increasingly irrelevant.
Mike Pompeo begins to babble after being asked if he still thinks gay sex is a ‘perversion’
Mike Pompeo during his Senate confirmation hearing (Screenshot)
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CIA Director Mike Pompeo is testifying before the Senate right now, and not only said he opposed same-sex marriage but refused to say if he believes gay sex is perversion.
Pompeo, a far right wing Christian conservative and former Tea Party Republican U.S. Congressman stood his ground under intense questioning by Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey.
After referring to a quote Pompeo had made about LGBT people, Sen. Booker asked the nominee directly, “Is being gay a perversion?”
“When I was a politician,” Pompeo responded, “I had a view it whether it was appropriate for two same-sex persons to marry. I stand by that view,” Pompeo stated.
“Senator, I continue to hold that view –” Pompeo said after Booker asked him to clarify. He then began to laugh uncomfortably, saying, “It’s the same view, for the record –”
“And so, people in the State Dept.,” Booker pressed on, “you do not believe that should be allowed?” he asked, referring to same-sex marriages.
“We have married gay couples at the CIA, you should know, I treated them with the exact same set of rights,” Pompeo said.
“Do you believe gay sex is a perversion?” Booker asked.
As Pompeo literally began to babble, Booker pushed: “Yes or No?”
“My respect for every individual, regardless of their sexual orientation, is the same.”
Watch:
Sec. of State nominee Mike Pompeo says he does not approve of same-sex marriage, adding: "We have married gay couples at the CIA...I treated them with the exact same set of rights." abcn.ws/2qqNwEQ
the rich asshole Tower doorman hits back at claims he lied about the rich asshole’s love child: ‘I took a polygraph test’
some rich asshole at the NBCUNIVERSAL 2015 Winter TCA Press Tour at The Langham Huntington Hotel on January 16, 2015 in Pasadena, CA (Joe Seer / Shutterstock.com)
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Dino Sajudin, the former the rich asshole Tower doorman who got paid $30,000 to keep silent over rumors he’d heard about President some rich asshole fathering an out-of-wedlock child with a rich asshole Organization employee, has now gone on the record.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Sajudin hit back at the rich asshole Organization for calling him a liar after he told the National Enquirer what he knew about the rich asshole secretly fathering an out-of-wedlock child.
“You know I took a polygraph test,” Sajudin said in response to a rich asshole Organization statement that claimed he regularly fabricated stories.
Sajudin also said that he was not surprised to see that news organizations were starting to report on the deals that the National Enquirer had made over the years to “catch and kill” negative stories about the rich asshole.
“It seems like the writing is on the wall about that, it’s pretty clear,” he said, while also noting that the rumor about the rich asshole fathering an illegitimate child “had to come out” at some point.
Sajudin was paid $30,000 by the Enquirer for the exclusive rights to his story about the rich asshole’s out-of-wedlock child. The tabloid then proceeded to keep a lid on the story entirely in what critics say is part of a long-standing pattern of protecting the rich asshole from additional scandals.
WATCH: Cory Booker hammers Mike Pompeo over his longtime friendship with anti-Muslim bigots
Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ) interviews Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo (Screen cap).
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Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) on Thursday expertly cornered Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo for his past statements about Muslims and his associations with people who hold bigoted views about Muslims.
In particular, Booker zeroed in on Pompeo’s past statement that Muslims who do not condemn terrorist attacks in the United States are “complicit” in them. After establishing that Pompeo believes that Muslim leaders in the United States have a special “opportunity” to represent their faith well by condemning violent extremists, Booker turned to some of Pompeo’s extremist associates and asked him whether he would consider calling them out.
Booker specifically asked Pompeo if he had ever condemned Frank Gaffney, an anti-Muslim extremist who has said that Muslims who “abide by the adherence of their faith should be tried for acts of sedition and should be prosecuted.”
“Did you remain silent?” Booker asked. “Were you silent in your position of authority against these words?”
Pompeo tried to insist that he believed in treating people of all faiths equally, but Booker hammered him for refusing to answer his question.
“If that’s your response, you did not say anything to call out his remarks,” he said.
Booker then hit Pompeo for his association with Brigitte Gabriel, the founder of an anti-Islam organization that the Anti-Defamation League has called out for promoting “hateful conspiracy theories” about Muslims.
“Did you ever call her out?” Booker asked.
“I don’t know,” Pompeo admitted. “I can’t recall statements I’ve made over 54 years.”
Pompeo did say, however, that he once called out Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps.
Watch the video below.
the rich asshole heaps Twitter praise on his own ‘historically cooperative, disciplined approach’ to Mueller probe
U.S. President some rich asshole speaks during an interview with Reuters at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 17, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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President some rich asshole blasted out a tweet out of nowhere praising his lawyer and his own restraint in dealing with the special counsel investigation.
the rich asshole denied reports Thursday morning that he wanted to fire special counsel Robert Mueller — although he boasted that he would have had he wanted to do so — and hours later followed up with a tweet lauding his approach to the investigation.
“I have agreed with the historically cooperative, disciplined approach that we have engaged in with Robert Mueller (Unlike the Clintons!),” the rich asshole tweeted. “I have full confidence in Ty Cobb, my Special Counsel, and have been fully advised throughout each phase of this process.”
It’s not clear what prompted the tweet, since all the major cable news networks were broadcasting confirmation hearings for the rich asshole’s pick for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.
Why the new National Enquirer story matters — whether or not the rich asshole had a child outside of marriage
The National Enquirer's parent company reportedly forced the man to sign a contract threatening him with a $1 million penalty if he ever spoke out.
The National Enquirer’s parent company paid out $30,000 to a former doorman at one of President’s the rich asshole’s New York properties at the height of the Republican presidential primary campaign, in order to prevent him from speaking out about a rumor he’d heard regarding the rich asshole’s sex life, the Associated Press reported on Thursday. According to the outlet, longtime the rich asshole lawyer Michael Cohen also knew about the matter and spoke with the tabloid before it ultimately decided to quash the story.
The AP report details how American Media Inc. (AMI) paid ex-doorman Dino Sajudin to sign over the rights, “in perpetuity,” to a rumor about the rich asshole allegedly having fathered a child with a rich asshole World Tower employee. If Sajudin ever spoke out about the rumor or disclosed the stipulations behind the $30,000 payout, he would have been forced to pay a $1 million penalty.
Speaking with AP reporters, Cohen confirmed that he had discussed Sajudin’s account with the National Enquirer while the tabloid was still working on it, but denied knowing about the payment beforehand.
AMI executive Dylan Howard, who currently serves as the Enquirer’s chief content officer, told reporters last summer that executives supposedly made the payment to Sajudin in order to secure the tip, which he said would have sold “hundreds of thousands” of magazines. He claimed the tabloid later decided to spike the story because it could not verify Sajudin’s account, and released the ex-doorman from his contract — just after the 2016 election.
“When we realized we would be unable to publish, and other media outlets approached the source about his tale, we released Sajudin from the exclusivity clause that had accompanied his $30,000 payment, freeing him to tell his story to whomever he wanted,” Howard told Radar Online — the Enquirer’s sister site — this week. “Many organizations have since tried [to publish his account]. …We’re flattered by this attention, and wish that it were true. Unfortunately, however, Dino Sajudin is one fish that swam away.”
Whether or not Sajudin’s account is true, the revelation that AMI effectively paid the ex-doorman what amounted to “hush-money” is the latest in an emerging pattern of schemes to “catch-and-kill” negative stories about the president, which may have hurt his chances at the presidency. So far, various outlets have documented at least three separate instances in which people close to the president made a concentrated effort to scrub damaging stories and portray the then-candidate in a more positive light, ahead of pivotal moments along the campaign.
Eight months after AMI paid Sajudin, for instance, the media company also paid former Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 for a story about an alleged affair she’d had with the rich asshole in 2006, which ultimately never ran. The media company later said it paid McDougal for a series of “fitness columns and magazine covers.”
AMI CEO David Pecker is close friends with the rich asshole and the Enquirer endorsed him for president during the 2016 election.
The development also places Cohen at the center of yet another scandal involving payments to individuals with information damaging to the rich asshole. Aside from his part in the Sajudin account, Cohen was also indirectly linked to AMI’s payment to McDougal in 2016. Although Cohen claims he had no part in the payment negotiations, the attorney was reportedly told of McDougal’s intent to share her story; her lawyer at the time, Keith Davidson, also kept Cohen apprised of the negotiation process throughout.
McDougal, who recently shared details of the alleged affair with CNN, later said she believed Davidson was more concerned about Cohen and the rich asshole’s interests than her own. She is currently suing AMI to invalidate her contract, claiming that she was convinced to sign under false pretenses, and that Cohen and AMI worked secretly with Davidson as part of a “broad effort to silence and intimidate” her.
Cohen has also been linked directly to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, to whom he paid $130,00 in October 2016, weeks before the presidential election. Daniels, who claims to have had a sexual relationship with the rich asshole in 2006, was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement barring her from speaking out about the alleged affair, although she and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, have since claimed the NDA is moot because the rich asshole himself did not sign the document.
The FBI on Monday, acting on a referral from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, raided Cohen’s hotel room, office, and New York residence in search of documents related to both Daniels’ and McDougal’s payments. According to a New York Times report on Tuesday, agents were specifically searching for information “related to the publisher of The National Enquirer’s role in silencing one of the women.”
Cohen is currently under investigation by Mueller’s office for his ties to the rich asshole campaign, which is alleged to have conspired with Russian officials to win the 2016 election.
Pompeo has convenient memory lapse when asked about potentially incriminating meeting with the rich asshole
But he's sure the president did nothing inappropriate.
Toward the beginning his confirmation hearing on Thursday, CIA Director Mike Pompeo was asked about a report that President the rich asshole sought to have him and Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats intervene in the FBI’s investigation of the rich asshole campaign.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) began his questioning by asking Pompeo about a June 6, 2017 report in the Washington Post headlined, “Top intelligence official told associates the rich asshole asked him if he could intervene with Comey on FBI Russia probe.”
The report details a March 22, 2017 White House meeting between the rich asshole and intelligence officials. At the conclusion of the meeting, the rich asshole asked “everyone to leave the room” except for Coats and Pompeo. the rich asshole then reportedly pressured Coats and Pompeo to intervene in the investigation, the existence of which had just been publicly confirmed by Comey two days earlier.
The president then started complaining about the FBI investigation and Comey’s handling of it, said officials familiar with the account Coats gave to associates. Two days earlier, Comey had confirmed in a congressional hearing that the bureau was probing whether the rich asshole’s campaign coordinated with Russia during the 2016 race.After the encounter, Coats discussed the conversation with other officials and decided that intervening with Comey as the rich asshole had suggested would be inappropriate, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters.
While the Post doesn’t detail exactly what the rich asshole said to Coats and Pompeo, the president’s use of one intelligence agency to curtail an investigation into his campaign being handled by another could constitute obstruction of justice.
During the confirmation hearing on Thursday, Menendez noted that the report “strongly suggests that the president asked you and Director Coats to interfere with then-FBI director Comey’s investigation into the rich asshole campaign’s contact with Russia.”
“What did President the rich asshole say to you and Director Coats in that meeting?” Menendez asked.
Pompeo’s response did not make much sense. He began by saying that while he was “not going to talk about the conversations the president and I had,” the report’s “suggestion that [the rich asshole] asked me to do anything that was improper is false.”
But when Menendez pressed Coats on about what exactly the rich asshole said, Pompeo claimed to have a convenient lapse of memory about a conversation at the heart of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the rich asshole for obstruction of justice.
“Senator, I don’t recall — I don’t recall what he asked me that day precisely, but I have to tell you, I’m with the president an awful lot — he’s never asked me to do anything that I considered remotely improper.”
During another part of Menendez’s questioning, Pompeo confirmed that he’s spoken with Mueller, but he declined to detail what they talked about.
Pompeo’s confirmation came a day after the rich asshole casually admitted to committing to obstructing justice on Twitter.
While the president suggested he was justified in doing so because he only did it to “fight back,” there is no “fighting back” exception to obstruction of justice charges, which were part of the articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
WATCH: Secretary of State nominee Pompeo refuses to answer whether the rich asshole asked him about Comey before firing
Mike Pompeo -- screengrab
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Outgoing CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who is looking to move laterally into the position of Secretary of State, ran into a rough patch on Thursday morning when a Democratic senator pressed him on what President some rich asshole asked of him in a private meeting that preceded the firing of FBI Director James Comey.
Addressing Pompeo, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) brought up special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the rich asshole’s presidential campaign, leading Pompeo, seeking to head up the State Department, to shut down when it came to talk about conversations with the president.
“The Washington Post” reported last year that you and the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats attended a briefing at the White House,” Menendez read. “As the briefing was wrapping up, the rich asshole asked everyone to leave the room except for Coats and CIA Director Pompeo. The president started complaining about the FBI investigation and Comey’s handling of it.”
“This strongly suggests the president asked you and Coats to interfere with director Comey’s investigations into the rich asshole campaign’s contacts with Russia,” the Democratic senator pressed. “Did President the rich asshole — what did President the rich asshole say to you and Director Coats in that meeting?”
“Senator, I am not going to talk about the conversations with the president I had,” Pompeo offered. “I think it is in this setting, it was appropriate for a president to have an opportunity to talk with his senior leaders. I do that throughout the day. The article suggesting that he asked me to do anything that was improper is false.”
“Did he ask you to do anything as it relates to that investigation?” Menendez shot back.
“I don’t recall,” Pompeo replied. “I don’t recall what he asked me that day precisely. But I have to tell you, he never asked me to do anything that I considered remotely improper.”
‘When you say you’re not going to talk about that conversation, you’re not asserting executive privilege, are you?” Menendez pushed.
“Senator, I believe — I think you’ll agree, we’ll talk about foreign policy issues,” Pompeo deflected.
“This has a connotation of foreign policy because this is about Russia,” the New Jersey Democrat lectured. “And so, at end of the day, understanding how you responded, what you will do as we’re looking at mandatory sanctions that the administration has yet to impose, looking at how we’re going to deal with a Russia, that not only sought to affect our last elections, but is doing so even as we speak both here and at home and across the world, those are substantive questions.”
“It is a question of understanding what you’re asked, how you responded, and what you did,” Menedez pronounced.
Watch the video below via CNN:
The View’s Meghan McCain defends the rich asshole’s porn star payout by comparing him to the founding fathers
the rich asshole supporter Meghan McCain on The View/Screenshot
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The office and residences of some rich asshole’s attorney Michael Cohen were raided Monday, as investigators probe possible illegal behavior including possible illegal campaign donations.
But the rich asshole defender Meghan McCain and other Republicans are seeking to spin this topic into morality—so as to excuse the president’s immoral behavior.
“In 1791, Alexander Hamilton paid off his mistress’ husband,” she said. “Paying off mistresses has been going on since literally the birth of our Democracy.”
The View’s Sonny Hostin put things into perspective, by focusing the issue on the possible illegal behavior.
“I am such a traditionalist, as many people know, and I am so offended by these allegations of love child, and sleeping with a porn star when your wife just had a baby—and people should care about it,” she said. “But people should also care that these may be illegal campaign contributions used to conceal these affairs so as to influence the outcome of the election, because if people know about all of this stuff maybe they wouldn’t have voted for him.”
McCain quickly derailed the conversation by turning it back to morality so she could defend the rich asshole’s affair with a porn star months after his wife gave birth to their son.
“I’m not surprised by this? Who’s surprised by this? The idea that he possibly impregnated someone, slept with a million women—we know this about President the rich asshole,” McCain said.
John Kelly called James Comey to trash ‘dishonorable’ the rich asshole for firing him: book
James Comey and John Kelly
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John Kelly threatened to quit last year as Homeland Security chief over the firing of FBI director James Comey, according to the ousted lawman’s new book.
Kelly called Comey within minutes of the firing and made an “emotional” offer to resign as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, according to an excerpt from the upcoming book “A Higher Loyalty,” reported The Daily Beast.
Comey said then-DHS secretary Kelly said he was “sick” about the situation and “intended to quit” in protest, saying “he didn’t want to work for dishonorable people” — meaning President some rich asshole.
Kelly, of course, did not quit and later accepted an offer to serve as the rich asshole’s White House chief of staff, a post he continues to serve despite reported tensions with the president.
Watch CNN’s Phil Mudd launch an epic blast at ‘dirtbags’ the rich asshole and Hannity for attacking Mueller’s character
Phil Mudd (Photo: screen capture)
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Former CIA officer and current CNN contributor Phil Mudd was livid on Thursday morning when asked about a report by Fox News personality Sean Hannity that smeared special counsel Robert Mueller as a criminal.
Asked by host John Berman, “What is your reaction to Sean Hannity calling Robert Mueller ‘a crime boss?'” Mudd wasted no time launching an attack on both Hannity but also President some rich asshole for maligning Mueller.
“I spent four and a half years by Robert Mueller,” Mudd began. “This is a storied prosecutor, one of the most legendary FBI directors, who spent 12 years as an FBI director for both President Bush and Obama. He’s a decorated military veteran being compared to a crime boss when he’s investigating a man who bragged about his genitalia during the campaign and lied about the Obama birth certificate during the campaign.”
“Whose press secretary lied within 24 hours of getting into the White House, who lied about the rich asshole Towers being wired,” he continued, building up stream.”Who has got 17, 18 women — I lost a number of fingers to counting how many women who said he did something inappropriate. Whose advisers have quit because they lied to federal investigators about everything from financial fraud to their involvement with the Russian ambassador.”
“And you got that dirt bag telling me that one of the most storied FBI directors ever is a crime boss?” the CNN regular asked incredulously. “You put him side by side and you tell me what we got here. Facts are facts. Robert Mueller’s an American legend’s legends. The president is a dirt bag — I don’t know what to tell you, I’m so pissed off.”
“Your statement there is about the president of the United States,” Berman reminded his guest. “That’s a remarkable statement or a notable statement.”
‘Oh, come on, John!” Mudd excitedly shot back. “He spoke about his genitalia. He made fun of a woman’s face during the campaign. He made fun of a woman’s menstrual cycle — what do you want me to say?”
Watch the video below via CNN:
the rich asshole judicial nominee refuses to say if Brown v. Board of Education decision was correct
Senators questioned Wendy Vitter about her views on abortion and school segregation.
Wendy Vitter, a lawyer nominated by President the rich asshole for district judge of the Eastern District of Louisiana, would not tell senators she believed Brown v. Board of Education was correctly decided.
During her Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) asked her whether she agreed with the 1954 landmark case that declared state laws allowing school segregation were unconstitutional.
Vitter, counsel for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans, said, “I don’t mean to be coy, but I think I get into a difficult area when I start commenting on Supreme Court decisions, which are correctly decided and which I may disagree with.”
When Blumenthal asked again, “Do you believe it was correctly decided?” Vitter answered, “My personal, political, or religious views I would set aside.”
WATCH: During her confirmation hearing this morning (yes, this morning – in 2018), judicial nominee Wendy Vitter refused to say whether she agreed with the result in Brown v. Board of Education. #UnfitToJudge
Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, tweeted that if people are outraged at her response, they should contact senators on the committee.
Vitter also responded to questions about her views on abortion.
Vitter’s anti-abortion views are well known, but she omitted a 2013 Right to Life panel discussion from her Judiciary Committee questionnaire. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) questioned her about the omission, which Vice first reported. In 2013, Vitter led the panel, called “Abortion Hurts Women’s Health,” where one of the attendees said abortion increases women’s breast cancer risk, although there is no causal link between the two. Vitter then told people who were watching the panel to pick up a brochure that said women who take birth control pills are more likely to die violently. According to Vice, the brochure read, “It is not unreasonable to suspect that such effects could also influence rates of intimate partner violence.”
Vitter responded to Hirono by saying she did not pick the event’s speakers.
“I had never heard those views before,” she said to the senator.
Vitter’s response to questions on racial discrimination in education isn’t entirely out-of-step for the rich asshole nominees.
Kenneth Marcus, nominated for the head of the Office for Civil Rights within the U.S. Department of Education, evaded questions about racially disparate school discipline in January. The Office for Civil Rights receives complaints about racially disparate student discipline. National data shows that that students of color are often disciplined far more often and more severely than their white peers.
Marcus said, “Senator, I believe disparities of that size are grounds for concern, but my experience says that one needs to approach each complaint and compliance review with an open mind and a sense of fairness to find what out what the answers are. I have seen what appeared to be inexcusable disparities that were the result of paperwork errors. They just got the numbers wrong.”
Marcus founded the Brandeis Center in 2011. In 2012, it filed an amicus brief opposing race conscious admissions in the Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin case.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has not committed to answering basic questions about federal policies on discrimination against students in her hearings with senators either.
Last year, before she was confirmed, Sen. Murphy asked DeVos about whether she would maintain a requirement that schools submit civil rights data to the department. The department gathers data on student enrollment, discipline, and educational programs and disaggregates it by race and ethnicity, disability, gender, and English proficiency. She would not commit to continuing to require that the data be submitted. “That is absolutely stunning,” Murphy said at the time.
the rich asshole’s picks for the Department of Health and Human Resources have similar anti-abortion views as Vitter. Charmaine Yoest, who was tapped for the position of assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services last spring, is a well known anti-abortion activist. Teresa Manning, the rich asshole’s pick for the position of deputy assistant secretary for Population Affairs at HHS, falsely claimed there was a link between breast cancer and abortion and that birth control doesn’t work. Both Yoest and Manning have since left their positions. Valerie Huber, who is an advocate for abstinence education, took Manning’s place as acting deputy assistant secretary.
WATCH: Morning Joe panel stunned by professor’s passionate case to ‘get out’ of Syria
Jeffrey Sachs, Rick Tyle and Mika Brzezinski (MSNBC)
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As President some rich asshole tweets Syria provocations, it’s almost a foregone conclusion the U.S. will escalate its military response to the ongoing civil war — but one expert told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” it doesn’t have to be that way.
Jeffrey Sachs, professor of sustainable development and health policy at Columbia University, has been calling for an end to the U.S. military presence in Syria for years, and he stunned other panelists with his passionate call to leave the war-torn nation.
“I think we have to step back and not put it in partisan terms,” Sachs said. “This is a U.S. mistake that started seven years ago. I remember the day on your show when President Obama said Assad must go, and I looked at you and Joe and I said, ‘Huh, how is he going to do that? Where is the policy for that?'”
He said the plan to overthrow Syrian president Bashar Hafez al-Assad using covert methods was a “disaster” that opened the door to Islamic State militants and Russia, and Sachs said the U.S. had compounded its original mistake by remaining involved.
“What we should do now is get out and not continue to throw missiles, not have a confrontation with Russia,” Sachs said. “Seven years have been a disaster under Obama, continuing under the rich asshole. This is what I would call the permanent state.”
Sachs said the CIA and Pentagon have waged a proxy war in Syria that has killed 500,000 people and displaced 10 million more — and he said the disaster was completely predictable.
“I predicted it seven years ago, there was no way to do this and it would make a complete chaos,” he said. “What I would plead to President the rich asshole is, get out, like his instinct told him.”
He said the elite media and military-industrial establishment warned the rich asshole that leaving Syria would be irresponsible, but Sachs said the president was right to urge Obama to stay out.
“His instinct is right, get out,” Sachs said. “We have done enough damage, seven years. Now we really risk a confrontation with Russia that is extraordinarily dangerous — reckless.”
Retired Adm. James Stavridis, the former NATO supreme allied commander, agreed Sachs made an “attractive” case but argued an international military solution was still possible — but the professor rejected his premise.
“I don’t think it’s attractive, but we have to understand how this happened,” Sachs said. “This happened because of us. These 600,000 are not just incidental. We started a war to overthrow a regime, it was covert. It was Timber Sycamore, you can look it up, the CIA operation, together with Saudi Arabia, still in secrecy, which is part of the problem in our country.”
“A major war effort, shrouded in secrecy, never debated by Congress, never explained to the American people, signed by President Obama — never explained — and this created chaos,” Sachs continued. “So just throwing more missiles in right now is not a response.”
Sachs said he agreed with Stavridis that American troops could not simply withdraw and leave Syria to tumble into further chaos, but he argued that the current path was just as risky.
“Go to the UN Security Council as the admiral says, to agree with Russia on a strategy for ending the fight,” Sachs said. “But ending the fight means that we stop trying to overthrow a government, that we stop trying to support rebels who are committed to overthrowing the government.”
“That is where this war continues because we to this day back a government contrary to international law, contrary to the UN Charter, contrary to common sense, contrary to practical path — we can’t do it,” he added. “It’s creating ongoing crisis to the extent of facing an imminent confrontation with Russia.”
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April 12, 2018
White House reporter April Ryan has been receiving death threats merely for asking press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders a question about the rich asshole.
White House reporter April Ryan revealed that she has received death threats from the rich asshole supporters after asking if he has considered stepping down from the presidency.
Ryan is the White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks.
During a daily press briefing this week, Ryan asked press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders if the rich asshole has “thought about stepping down, before or now.”
Sanders complained that the question was “absolutely ridiculous.”
Later appearing on CNN, Ryan explained that her question was motivated by the multiple scandals facing the rich asshole, including the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. Ryan said sources have told her that among the array of choices facing the rich asshole, stepping down “has been on the table.”
She asked the question, and the backlash from the rich asshole supporters was furious.
“Those who are supporting this president are outraged or angry” by her question, she told Wolf Blitzer.
“I’ve been getting death threats, and we’ve been calling the FBI,” she said. “I asked a question, I did not point a finger, I asked a question, and now my life is in jeopardy because of a question. But I’m going to continue to do my job.”
This is not the first time Ryan has faced this issue in her attempts to report on the rich asshole administration.
After the rich asshole referred to countries with large nonwhite populations as “shithole” countries, Ryan asked the rich asshole if he is a racist. Fox News singled her out and criticized her for the question. That’s when she started receiving death threats.
Ryan is one of the few black women in the White House press corps, and has been repeatedly attacked by the rich asshole administration through the tenure of both of its press secretaries.
the rich asshole himself has openly expressed hostility toward the concept of the free press, and often derides negative but accurate stories about himself as “fake news.”
The attacks on Ryan by the rich asshole loyalists shows that the message of vindictive hatred is being received loud and clear, and they are going into the gutter in defense of his unpopular presidency.
the rich asshole promotes totally unhinged episode of Hannity
the rich asshole and Hannity want you to believe that Mueller is part of a "DEEP STATE CRIME FAMILY."
At 8:48 p.m. on Wednesday, President the rich asshole asked his 51 million Twitter followers to tune in to Sean Hannity’s Fox News broadcast, promising it’d be a “big show.”
Big show tonight on @seanhannity! 9:00 P.M. on @FoxNews
Hannity, who recently dined with the rich asshole at his private resort in Florida and is in regular communication with the president, began the show by attacking former FBI director James Comey — the subject of an ABC interview set to air Sunday.
Hannity seemed unaware that the logic he was using to attack Comey could be viewed as very incriminating for the rich asshole.
Alluding to an ABC teaser of its interview with Comey where the rich asshole is compared to a mob boss, Hannity said, “Really? Mob boss. Let’s think about this, of all the people, the former head of the federal bureau of investigation, the person responsible for taking down actual criminal gangs — shouldn’t James Comey know better than to make an outrageous comparison like that?”
Hannity then began to smear Comey for his alleged involvement in “the Clinton crime family” and “the Mueller crime family.” Special Counsel Robert Mueller — a Republican and former FBI director who was appointed by Republican president George W. Bush — came under fire for failed prosecutions from nearly two decades ago.
Hannity is attacking Comey for failed prosecutions from nearly two decades ago. It's total desperation. pic.twitter.com/NZ1YF1Yv0r
By the end, Hannity was linking his attacks on Comey, Clinton, and Mueller under the single heading of “DEEP STATE CRIME FAMILY.”
Hannity’s monologue was followed by a panel discussion with two lawyers the rich asshole has relationships with — Alan Dershowitz and Joseph diGenova. The three teamed up to attack Mueller, with diGenova going as far as to say that “what Bob Mueller is doing and has done is destroying the Department of Justice, and for Jeff Sessions to sit there like a bump on a log and do nothing about it is disgraceful.”
Dershowitz, echoing a rich asshole talking point, went on to accuse Sessions of “wrongful conduct” by not informing the rich asshole that he might have to recuse himself from investigations of the rich asshole campaign for contacts with Russia before taking the job as attorney general.
With the rich asshole’s legal team in chaos, he’s turned to cable news personalities like Dershowitz and diGenova for advice.
the rich asshole is using Hannity as a mouthpiece at a time when he’s without a White House communications director. Hope Hicks’ last day in that role was late last month, and she hasn’t been replaced.
the rich asshole, who routinely live-tweets Fox News programming, was reportedly watching cable news on Monday night as news of an FBI raid on the home, office, and hotel room of his personal attorney circulated.
Lawmakers have taken notice of the rich asshole’s TV habit. During a Fox News interview earlier in the evening on Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) twice directly appealed to the rich asshole and tried to give him advice.
During a Fox News interview, @LindseyGrahamSC addresses President Trump directly.
"Mr President, if you're watching, I think you're going to be fine unless you screw this up. Let the process play out. I don't believe you colluded w/the Russians, but Mueller will soon tell us." pic.twitter.com/WZ4JtPoOEG
At end of interview Graham addresses Trump directly for a second time, this time to give him advice on Syria.
"Mr President, you said Assad would pay a big price. To me a big price means he cannot do this again ever, that he will never sleep well at night." pic.twitter.com/ssdQXOR26u
In a tweet posted Thursday, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) alluded to the power people have to persuade the rich asshole during TV interviews while defending Mueller.
the rich asshole, however, refuses to publicly acknowledge his taste for TV.
“Believe it or not, even when I’m in Washington or New York, I do not watch much television,” the rich asshole told reporters aboard Air Force One in November. “Primarily because of documents. I’m reading documents. A lot.”
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April 12, 2018
Top advisers are leaving in droves leave while the rich asshole tweets incoherently about war with Syria.
Like his legal defense team, the rich asshole’s national security team is now unraveling.
At a time when the rich asshole is tweeting in circles with incoherent, contradictory claims about pending missiles strikes against Syria, his National Security Council is being racked by resignations and firings.
On Thursday, it was reported national security aide Ricky Waddell is out. He follows three others who have jumped or been pushed out, just in the last week.
“Waddell, a Major General in the United States Army Reserve, who has run the daily operations of the NSC since last May,” Axios reports.
It’s all part of the larger purge that former Fox News contributor and Bush-era Iraq War cheerleader John Bolton is leading, since taking over as the rich asshole’s top national security adviser. Not only has Bolton replaced ousted H.R. McMaster, but Bolton is essentially dismantling the top echelons of the National Security Council.
This week, senior official Nadia Schadlow tendered her resignation, just a few months after landing her job. And Michael Anton, who was in charge of the NSC’s strategic communications, also resigned.
On Wednesday, Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert was fired, also part of the Bolton purge.
“In a West Wing beset by chaos and dysfunction, Bossert was regarded as one of the few competent aides still standing” New York magazine noted.
More defections and firings are expected to roil the council in coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the rich asshole continues to advertise the fact he’s a complete neophyte when it comes to diplomacy and national security, as he makes a fool of himself this week with heated tweets about “smart!” missiles that he’s going to launch against Syria.
On Wednesday morning, the rich asshole was all over the Twitter map, posting taunts about possible military strikes and warning Russia not to interfere in Russia, and then hours later downplaying his threats.
Russia responded by mocking the rich asshole’s “Twitter diplomacy.”
the rich asshole’s irrational tweets completely toppled the administration’s planned-out response to Syria’s latest alleged gas attack.
“the rich asshole upended it all with a tweet — warning Russia, the Syrian government’s backer, to “get ready” because American missiles “will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!'” the Washington Post reported. “White House advisers were surprised by the missive and found it “alarming” and “distracting,” in the words of one senior official.”
the rich asshole needs all the national security help he can get. But for now, his team’s imploding.
GOP wants ‘lame duck’ Paul Ryan out as House Speaker right now to stop ‘backstabbing’ frenzy to replace him
Paul Ryan attempts to duck questions about the rich asshole's false tweets about voter fraud (Screen capture)
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Republican leaders are pushing Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) to relinquish his House Speaker position early out of fears that his potential successors will spend months “backstabbing” each other in an effort to move up the GOP food chain.
According to Axios, Ryan’s surprise announcement on Wednesday that he will not run for re-election, already has Republicans in the House maneuvering to replace him by lining up allies and calling Ryan a “lame duck.”
“Scuttlebutt is that Paul will have to step down from speakership soon,” A GOP insider told Axios. “Members won’t follow a lame duck, he’ll have no leverage to cut deals, and the last thing they need in this environment is 6 months of palace intrigue and everyone stabbing everyone else in the back.”
According to the report, a ranking GOP House member said Ryan will step down and “be gone by the end of July.”
The report, which lists House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) or House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) as Ryan’s potential replacement, said Republicans in the House fear an all-out internal war could hurt them as they face the 2018 midterms where they are already looking at an uphill battle to maintain their majority.
According to the report, a battle may already be brewing between the mainstream Republicans and the hard-right Freedom Caucus which has been a thorn in Ryan’s side.
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April 12, 2018
The man the rich asshole tried to hire as his attorney is now instead his hitman on Fox News.
Just weeks after the rich asshole tried to hire him as his defense attorney, profoundly unserious Joe DiGenova told Fox News viewers that not only should the rich asshole stop cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, even if that meant pleading the fifth. But DiGenova denounced the Republican prosecutor by claiming he had surrounded himself with “legal terrorists.”
“It is now clear that Mueller is acting in bad faith, that he has surrounded himself with, literally, a bunch of legal terrorists,” DiGenova warned Fox News viewers Wednesday night.
Comparing U.S. federal prosecutors to members of ISIS is the latest pathetic swipe in a seemingly never-ending string of attacks as the rich asshole and his radical allies wage a relentless, ugly and desperate war against law enforcement, all in the name of defending their corrupt leader.
For Republican operatives like DiGenova to go after Mueller, who is not only a lifelong Republican but a former Marine and the former director of the FBI, illustrates just how panicked and unhinged the White House has become as it wages its scorched earth campaign and tries to turn Mueller’s federal prosecutors into symbols of corruption and evil in America.
DiGenova also said the rich asshole should utterly stiff-arm the legal process because investigators were trying to catch him in a “perjury trap.”
“The president should refuse to cooperate with them completely — not more documents, no testimony and if necessary he should also take the Fifth Amendment,” DiGenova said.
It’s astonishing to think that someone as unmoored as DiGenova was almost hired to represent the president of the United States. Plus, if hired, DiGenova would have been in charge of negotiating with Mueller and his team with regards to a sit-down interview with the rich asshole.
DiGenova was supposed to have replaced John Dowd, who last month abruptly resigned as the rich asshole’s chief defense attorney out of frustration with the rich asshole’s refusal to heed legal advice. Dowd is a well-known and respected figure within in the elite circles of Washington, D.C. law, and kept a relatively low profile during his time defending the rich asshole.
DiGenova, on the other hand, is seen as a partisan hack and Fox News publicity hound. He’s also someone who traffics in constant lies and misinformation.
During the 2016 campaign, DiGenova loudly announced that Hillary Clinton wouldn’t be able to complete the race because she’d be indicted before Election Day for the “numerous federal crimes” she committed while using a private email server as secretary of state.
Now it’s the rich asshole allies who are trying to dodge possible indictments.
Paul Ryan’s cruel vision for American health care will haunt Congress after his retirement
Let's take stock of Ryan's "entitlement reform" record.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) is on his way out the door.
But while he’s largely failed to implement his vision before retirement — that is, to repeal Obamacare and privatize every safety-net program there is — Republicans aren’t going to stop trying to do so anytime soon. In fact, they’ll likely take cues from his record.
Throughout his time in Washington, Ryan built a career on portraying himself as a deficit hawk, somehow convincing people he’s some great work. In 2012, The New York Times’s James Stewart praised Ryan, calling his approach to tax reform “eminently sensible.” Former Clinton administration budget chief, Alice Rivlin, called Ryan “smart and knowledgeable” and decided to partner with him on his quest to privatize Medicare, which failed.
But in reality, there’s nothing genius about a career spent trying to cut “entitlement reforms” — code for popular health programs like Medicare and Medicaid — to validate the notion that you’re a deficit hawk. Ryan has worked to scrap nearly every safety net program in existence, while ignoring the deficit.
His most ambitious proposal — to privatize Social Security — demonstrated he was too radical for even the Bush administration.
But that didn’t stop him. While you can’t call Ryan a moderate, you can call him ambitious, even tenacious.
When midterms gave Republicans control of the House, he released in 2012 a budget proposal, the “Path to Prosperity” — in which he called for more state flexibility and “entitlement” cuts. The Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, David Stockman, called it a “fairy-tale budget plan” and it ultimately never did pass Congress.
Finally, in 2017, with Republicans leading all three branches of government, Ryan had the power to do something. He managed to get the House to pass the most unpopular health bill in three decades. The American Health Care Act would have repealed and replaced the Affordable Care Act (ACA), left 23 million more people uninsured, created more expensive health plans, and massively cut Medicaid.
The bill’s ultimate failure in the Senate is Ryan’s biggest regret. But he takes comfort in knowing he got the ball rolling.
“It did pass the House and I’m proud of that fact,” Ryan told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday, after he announced his retirement. “So yeah, we got a lot of work to do, but I do really feel that I’ve helped contribute to advancing the cause of dealing with entitlement and I think we could make it better.”
He’s right. He got the ball rolling for a lot of things, including Medicaid cuts.
Ryan — who said he’s been dreaming of cutting safety-net programs for the country’s most vulnerable since he was “drinking at a keg” in college — has laid much of the groundwork for the rollbacks in Medicaid we’re seeing under the rich asshole administration. As Vox’s Dylan Scott argued, “the rich asshole is carrying on Ryan’s Medicaid-gutting agenda.”
Ryan initially suggested adding work requirements to Medicaid in his 2012 budget proposal. While he wasn’t able to change Medicaid’s funding structure then, the rich asshole administration is now undermining the integrity of Medicaid by allowing states to add their own work rules. Already the White House has given the green-light to three states — with Arkansas rolling out its work rule as soon as June.
Ryan’s not just leaving a path forward on Medicaid. Conservatives are also continuing to promise constituents that they’ll repeal the Affordable Care Act. Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) promised his base this just last week.
And even though Republicans haven’t been able to repeal it yet, they’ve been actively working to undermine the health care law in other ways. Over the course of his presidency so far, the rich asshole has drastically cut outreach and advertisements, repealed the individual mandate, and used his bully pulpit only to say the ACA is repealed or imploding. This all led to 400,000 less people signing up for the ACA marketplace this year. On Monday, the rich asshole administration issued a new regulation, signalling his administration is trying to create a health care marketplace parallel to the Obamacare marketplace, with fewer consumer protections.
Ryan’s reach has even extended into food stamps. While Ryan wasn’t able to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by billions as he suggested in his 2012 proposal — his repeated calls to address fraud have stuck. The rich asshole administration is now considering allowing states to drug test SNAP applicants.
It would be one thing if Ryan actually was a deficit hawk. But instead, he’s leaving office — and a leadership position in a Republican-led government — with the deficit on its way to balloon to more than $1 trillion in 2020, two years earlier than previous estimates. The Congressional Budget Office specifically pointed to the tax bill that Ryan considers a major accomplishment as the reason why.
“My dad died when I was 16, the age my daughter is, and I just don’t want to be one of those people looking back at my life thinking I wish I’d spent more time with my kids,” Ryan said Wednesday, to explain his retirement. “If I spend another term they will only know me as a weekend father.”
Thing is, Ryan has spent his career actively making it harder for low-income parents to do just this — asking them to work more so they can move off public programs. Perhaps he’ll think about this when he’s unemployed and signs up for an ACA health plan.
the rich asshole promotes Sean Hannity Show on Mueller ‘crime family’
Harriet Sinclair
Posted with permission from Newsweek
President Donald Trump promoted a Sean Hannity show on Fox News that compared Special Counsel Robert Mueller to a mob boss and featured lawyer Joe diGenova calling for the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to be fired.
In a tweet on Wednesday (April 11) the president wrote: “Big show tonight on@seanhannity ! 9:00 P.M. on @FoxNews.”
Hannity’s show featured a “Mueller crime family” chart that suggested the special counsel heading the Russia probe was working with the “deep state” to bring down the president.
The Fox News presenter referred to Mueller as a mob boss after sharing a preview of former FBI director James Comey’s interview with CNN, in which host George Stephanopoulos asks Comey “how strange is it for you to sit here and compare the president to a mob boss?”
The promo for Comey’s interview appeared to leave Hannity enraged, as he questioned why the former FBI chief would describe the president as a “mob boss,” calling the comparison as “outrageous.”
“If he’s going to use this sweeping analogy, I’ve decided tonight we’re going to use—the 'Comey standard' I call it—and make some comparisons of our own,” he said, kicking off his mob boss section with what he described as “The Clinton crime family.”
As well as outlining previous allegations of sexual misconduct and rape against Bill Clinton, Hannity said “Hillary Clinton—we know she committed crime,” referencing the investigation into her use of a private email server despite the FBI finding no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
Moving on to the “Mueller crime family,” Hannity described the ongoing investigation as a witch hunt, using language the president has previously touted to describe the Russia probe, also accusing Mueller’s office of “looking the other way” during his time as a federal prosecutor in Boston.
Joining Hannity on the show, former federal prosecutor Joe diGenova slammed Comey and Mueller, also suggesting Attorney General Jeff Sessions should fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein over the raid on Trump’s lawyer.
"Rod Rosenstein is so incompetent, compromised and conflicted that he can no longer serve as the deputy attorney general," diGenova said.
It is the second day in a row that Hannity has slammed Mueller, referring to a “deep state” plan to dismantle the presidency, following the April 9 raid on Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen by the FBI, a move that has reportedly left the president fuming.
Hannity’s comments came as part of Wednesday's push back against Mueller from Trump allies, including former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
In a tweet on Wednesday (April 11) the president wrote: “Big show tonight on@seanhannity ! 9:00 P.M. on @FoxNews.”
Hannity’s show featured a “Mueller crime family” chart that suggested the special counsel heading the Russia probe was working with the “deep state” to bring down the president.
The Fox News presenter referred to Mueller as a mob boss after sharing a preview of former FBI director James Comey’s interview with CNN, in which host George Stephanopoulos asks Comey “how strange is it for you to sit here and compare the president to a mob boss?”
The promo for Comey’s interview appeared to leave Hannity enraged, as he questioned why the former FBI chief would describe the president as a “mob boss,” calling the comparison as “outrageous.”
“If he’s going to use this sweeping analogy, I’ve decided tonight we’re going to use—the 'Comey standard' I call it—and make some comparisons of our own,” he said, kicking off his mob boss section with what he described as “The Clinton crime family.”
As well as outlining previous allegations of sexual misconduct and rape against Bill Clinton, Hannity said “Hillary Clinton—we know she committed crime,” referencing the investigation into her use of a private email server despite the FBI finding no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
Moving on to the “Mueller crime family,” Hannity described the ongoing investigation as a witch hunt, using language the president has previously touted to describe the Russia probe, also accusing Mueller’s office of “looking the other way” during his time as a federal prosecutor in Boston.
Joining Hannity on the show, former federal prosecutor Joe diGenova slammed Comey and Mueller, also suggesting Attorney General Jeff Sessions should fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein over the raid on Trump’s lawyer.
"Rod Rosenstein is so incompetent, compromised and conflicted that he can no longer serve as the deputy attorney general," diGenova said.
It is the second day in a row that Hannity has slammed Mueller, referring to a “deep state” plan to dismantle the presidency, following the April 9 raid on Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen by the FBI, a move that has reportedly left the president fuming.
Hannity’s comments came as part of Wednesday's push back against Mueller from Trump allies, including former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
WATCH: Reporter hints on CNN that we’ve only scratched the surface of the rich asshole’s sleazy hush payouts
President some rich asshole touring border wall prototypes in San Diego with then-acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan. CBP photo by Ralph Desio.
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Reporter Ronan Farrow appeared on CNN Thursday morning to talk about his latest story in the New Yorker about how the National Enquirer had paid off a rich asshole Tower doorman to keep quiet about a rumor he’d heard about President some rich asshole fathering an out-of-wedlock child.
During an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, Farrow pointed out that the Enquirer’s$30,000 payoff to doorman Dino Sajudin in late 2015 means that we now know of multiple payouts that were made during the presidential election to squash damaging information about the rich asshole.
“This is significant, every legal expert tells us, because it establishes a pattern now,” Farrow said. “This is potentially the third illicit payment during the election cycle. Stormy Daniels, which was a direct deal with that one to silence the story that she had, and then the Karen McDougal story, which she first talked to us as well, and another example, through this same company that owns the National Enquirer, of a story being caught and killed.”
Later in the segment, Farrow compared the work he was doing now reporting on the rich asshole NDAs with the work he’d done reporting sexual harassment allegations against disgraced former film mogul Harvey Weinstein — and he said he’s found the Enquirer played a vital role in protecting both men by blocking damaging information from becoming public.
“[Weinstein] was a big donor and Hillary Clinton supporter, and what we see in what’s being exposed about this pattern of payments, allegedly on behalf of the president, is the same actors are involved,” he said. “Dylan Howard, the National Enquirer — these were all individuals working to suppress stories on behalf of Harvey Weinstein.”
Watch the video below.
CNN’s Cuomo slaps down GOP lawmaker for claiming Steele dossier is bogus because British spy is a leaker
CNN's Chris Cuomo, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) -- screenshots
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A combative Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), on Thursday morning, attempted to undercut that FBI’s investigation into the Russian involvement in President some rich asshole’s presidential campaign only to have CNN host Chris Cuomo slap down his specious reasoning.
Jordan, who is part of a group of Republicans on the House Intel committee who have been trying to shut down special counsel Robert Mueller’s the rich asshole inquiry, used his appearance on CNN’s New Day to once again smear the FBI by stating the FISA warrant that was the impetus of the inquiry was granted for bogus reasons.
According to the Republican, the so-called “Steele dossier” that helped lead to the investigation should be dismissed because British spy Christopher Steele has a history of leaking.
Calling the dossier — which included information about the much discussed “pee tape” that allegedly showed the rich asshole’s involvement with Russian prostitutes — “salacious and unproven,” Jordan attempted to make the case for shutting the whole investigation down.
“The author [Steele] of the work product was terminated by the FBI,” Jordan asserted. “For what reason? He leaked said information. They tell us you can’t get this, Congress, because you’re going to leak information for whatever reason. But the very guy who wrote the document they took to the FISA had his relationship terminated.”
“Hold on a second,” Cuomo protested. “The reporting is that they did reveal the source of the information. I haven’t seen the FISA app and neither have you. But they say they did expose that to the judge. It was a number of judges that kept re-certifying this. If Steele was dismissed for leaking, that doesn’t mean the information isn’t true. And to undermine the FISA process–.”
“It colors the source, if you break a cardinal rule,” Jordan interrupted.
“I would argue it’s irrelevant,” Cuomo lectured. “Leaking the information may be bad practice, but decorum I don’t even know if he did it, but that is what happened, that is what it is, but you need to have more than that to legitimacy of the FISA court.”
Watch the video below via CNN:
Rick Wilson begged reporters and GOP to dig into the rich asshole hush payouts in 2016 — but they ignored him
Rick Wilson (Photo: Screen capture)
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News organizations are starting to dig deeply into nondisclosure agreements signed by people who had knowledge of scandalous information about President some rich asshole.
However, two anti-the rich asshole Republican operatives were aggressively pitching reporters to look into the rich asshole’s NDAs during the 2016 presidential election — and when they got no takers, they started talking about the rich asshole’s hush money deals openly on Twitter.
On November 1 2016, nearly a week before the election, GOP operative Liz Mair went public with her pleas to look into agreements the rich asshole had signed with multiple women.
“F*ck it, I’ll just say it,” she wrote. “Someone should be digging harder into NDAs that certain women have allegedly signed benefiting the rich asshole.”
Fellow anti-the rich asshole operative Rick Wilson, meanwhile, spelled out questions reporters should be asking the rich asshole just one day before the election. Wilson, like Mair, had tried getting reporters to dig into the NDAs during the 2016 Republican primary, before the rich asshole got the nomination.
“Tell us about the NDAS and any payments made to women with whom you’ve been involved,” Wilson wrote, assuming the voice of a reporter asking the rich asshole questions. “Have you ever had your legal other staff issue cease and desist/NDA warning letters to women?”
Wilson also hinted that certain NDAs would show that the rich asshole had in the past paid for abortions.
“Have you ever paid for an abortion or caused someone to do so?” he wrote, again assuming a reporter’s voice. “How many? Who administers these requests if not you?”
1. You've also seen story 2 outlined by @lizmair, but I'll do this in the form of questions a journalist COULD ask Trump.
2. Have you ever paid for an abortion or caused someone to do so? How many? Who administers these requests if not you?
3. Tell us about the NDAS and any payments made to women with whom you've been involved.
5. To whom did you say 'The last call they get to me is 'Donald, I'm late.'"
Republicans wrote down their plot to smear James Comey as a liar — and of course it leaked
Former FBI director James Comey testifies during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Mar 20, 2017 (Screenshot)
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CNN has gotten a look at the Republican Party’s plans to discredit former FBI Director James Comey, who next week will be embarking on a media blitz to promote his book, “A Higher Loyalty.”
According to CNN, the GOP has already launched a website called “Lyin’ Comey,” and the party’s campaign centers on the way that Comey treated former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election. Among other things, the GOP is producing digital ads with titles such as “Comey isn’t credible — just ask Democrats.”
CNN’s sources say that the White House has signed off on the campaign, which will kick into full gear next week once Comey’s book is released.
“Comey is a liar and a leaker and his misconduct led both Republicans and Democrats to call for his firing,” RNC chair Ronna McDaniel told CNN in response to the leaked plan. “If Comey wants the spotlight back on him, we’ll make sure the American people understand why he has no one but himself to blame for his complete lack of credibility.”
Comey’s media tour is set to start on Sunday night during an interview with ABC News
Cruelty toward the poor trails Paul Ryan’s tenure in Washington
The curtain comes down on a career spent in the service of making life harder for ordinary Americans.
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wisc.) announced this week that he will not run for re-election later this year, bringing down the curtain on his long career of antagonism toward the plight of the nation’s poor and disadvantaged people.
Though Ryan’s public persona has been characterized, off-and-on, as something of a serious and deep thinker on issues related to poverty, taxation, and welfare policy, his record — and now legacy — in public life is one of consistent cruelty. For the entirety of his nearly 20-year career in the House and, especially, since holding the Speaker’s gavel since 2016, Ryan’s single-minded purpose in governance has been to seek and destroy federal support for the poor.
Ryan came to Congress in 1998, pledging to bring discipline and reform to Social Security and other federal welfare programs that he’s hated since his college days.
Ironically, Ryan owes, in great part, his personal and political success to the Social Security payment he and his family received following his 55-year-old father’s death, when Ryan was 16 years old. In other words, the welfare-cutting Speaker got his start in life by earning a B.A. in economics and political science at the Miami University of Ohio, with money provided by his late father’s welfare payments.
That was just the start of Ryan’s hypocrisy.
In 2014, Ryan displayed his callous disregard for the suffering of poor and hungry Americans when he argued against progressive budget proposals that urged giving low-income students free lunches. “The left is making a big mistake here,” Ryan said in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “What they’re offering people is a full stomach and an empty soul.”
Indeed, such mean-spirited remarks are a Ryan trademark, reflecting his affection for the rugged, selfish individualism popularized by novelist Ayn Rand in works like The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Ryan said as much in a 2005 Atlas Society speech, in which he noted that he demands his staff read the book, citing it as an inspiration for his political career.
“But the reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,” Ryan said. “And the fight we are in here, make no mistake about it, is a fight of individualism versus collectivism.”
Ryan partially accomplished his mission last year with the passage of a draconian tax bill, pushed by GOP congressional leaders and the rich asshole administration, that largely benefits the nation’s wealthiest people while heaping new suffering on low- and middle-income Americans.
“In terms of cuts, the bill essentially repeals the Affordable Care Act, which will leave 13 million more U.S. residents without health insurance after a decade, and raises premiums by 10 percent for those who depend on the Affordable Care Act exchanges for health care,” Bishop Dwayne D. Royster, political director PICO National Network, a faith-based and grassroots organization, said in a statement after the legislation was signed into law in December. “The tax proposal also adds a trillion dollars to the federal deficit, which will trigger automatic cuts in Medicare funding that amounts to $25 billion annually.”
Royster placed the lion’s share of the blame for the law’s passage at Ryan’s feet. “House Speaker Paul Ryan has chosen to eliminate the safety net that Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security provide in an effort to fund the tax plan, which benefits the rich,” he said at the time.
Paul Ryan styled himself a fiscal hawk throughout his 20-year career, but the federal budget had a surplus when he got to Congress in '98 and now has a large -- and growing -- deficit pic.twitter.com/I8u9dkzKju
With the exception of his legion of dedicated defenders, few will remember Ryan’s legacy on Capitol Hill with much fondness. As Vox’s Matthew Yglesias noted, his tenure as House Speaker “did not amount to much,” as many of his big ideas about reforming the welfare state stalled in a gridlocked Congress. He writes:
The dream of Social Security privatization that launched his policy relevance is dead. The Medicare privatization plan that relaunched his policy relevance is also dead. His reputation as a deficit hawk has been exposed as a sham. He didn’t repeal the Affordable Care Act, and he didn’t undo the Obama administration’s financial regulations. The year isn’t over yet, but Congress has basically abandoned hope of doing anything else.
Ryan’s tenure as Speaker is akin to the old “Leave it to Beaver” character, Eddie Haskell, a weaselly sneak who repeatedly hid his devious deeds behind polite palaver. How better to describe a politician who poses as a leader for racial inclusivity, yet apologizes for President the rich asshole’s racism by suggesting his unending litany of insensitive and offensive comments and actions were merely a part of the president’s on-the-job learning curve?
Indeed, in defense of the rich asshole’s support for the white nationalists who led violent attacks in Charlottesville, Virginia — melees that resulted in the death of Heather Heyer — Ryan famously said: “I know his heart is in the right place.”
Enough said. Without question, Ryan’s legacy will be remembered by poor Americans and people of color with the same brutality and ill will that Ryan aimed at them.
MSNBC’s Morning Joe crushes ‘desperate the rich asshole stooge’ Sean Hannity for ‘beneath contempt’ Mueller report
Sean Hannity, Joe Scarborough -- screenshots
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MSNBC Joe Scarborough launched into a lengthy diatribe against Sean Hannity over a bonkers and bizarre Wednesday night report that detailed what the Fox New personality called a conspiracy within the “Mueller crime family.”
With co-host Mika Brzezinski calling Hannity a ‘the rich asshole stooge” before the segment, the Morning Joe host shared outrageous portions of the report, before ripping into Hannity.
“It’s beneath contempt,” Scarborough fumed. “Sean Hannity is a desperate, desperate man, desperately defending a desperate, desperate president. Sean Hannity has a show that Shep Smith and the rest of the news people at Fox News consider to be a joke. They call it fake news, they call it entertainment and that’s fine if people want to be entertained that way at night.”
“People watch the Kardashians, too. But when you have people at Fox News saying, ‘that’s not really news, that’s entertainment,’ it is,” Scarborough continued, before turning to Hannity’s attack on special counsel Robert Mueller. “It’s trash, though, the fact that he is entertained and the fact that other people are entertained, by trashing a hero in Vietnam, by trashing a man that guided America through 9/11, a man that’s dedicated his entire life to protecting Americans at home and abroad, is beneath contempt. and it shows how desperate they all are.”
“I don’t know how stupid he thinks Americans are,” Scarborough stated. “But it’s very insulting to Fox viewers that Joe diGenova thinks viewers are such idiots that they think that James Comey helped Hillary Clinton. James Comey wrote the letter ten days before the election that elected some rich asshole.”
You can watch the video below via MSNBC:
the rich asshole fathered a child with an employee — according to ex-doorman paid off by National Enquirer: report
some rich asshole greets supporters and tourists at the rich asshole Tower on July 22, 2015 in New York City
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President some rich asshole may have fathered a child with an employee and then paid to keep the situation under wraps, according to newly revealed documents.
The Associated Press confirmed the National Enquirer paid $30,000 to a former doorman at the rich asshole World Tower in exchange with the perpetual rights to a story he’d heard about the child.
The payment came eight months before the tabloid paid $150,000 to former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, and it raises new questions about how the National Enquirer and attorney Michael Cohen fought to protect the rich asshole’s reputation during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The tabloid’s deal with ex-doorman Dino Sajudin effectively prohibited him from going public with rumors he had heard about the rich asshole’s relationship with a woman who worked at the rich asshole Organization property near the United Nations.
The contract subjected Sajudin to a $1 million penalty if he revealed the rumor or terms of the hush agreement to anyone.
Federal investigators raided Cohen’s home, hotel and office on Monday seeking, among other evidence, communications between Cohen, publisher American Media’s chief executive and the Enquirer’s top editor.
RadarOnline, which is also published by American Media, published a story on the rumor Wednesday and said the Enquirer spent four weeks pursuing the story but ultimately decided it wasn’t true.
But four longtime staffers told the AP they were ordered by top editors to stop reporting on the story — which they described as promising.
The former the rich asshole World Tower employee denied having an affair with the rich asshole and said she had no idea the tabloid had paid Sajudin or pursued the information he claimed to have.
The AP has not been able to confirm the rumor and did not name the woman, who said the story was “all fake.”
Sajudin told the AP he would only tell his story in exchange for money.
‘The president is a fool’: MSNBC’s Joe and Mika bash the rich asshole for ‘humiliating America’ with his angry tweets
Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough (MSNBC)
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MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski reacted in shock and dismay after President some rich asshole complained that he wasn’t receiving enough credit for military gains.
The president griped about news coverage in a series of early morning tweets, and insisted he had not tipped off Syria and Russia to a planned missile attack, and the “Morning Joe” hosts were embarrassed for him.
“This is a guy who responds to cable news, who responds to hearing that he’s made the same mistake that Barack Obama made,” Scarborough said. “He immediately tweets something out, and the commander-in-chief is saying, ‘Where is our thank you, America?’ Instead of the commander-in-chief thanking the men and the women who put their lives on the line every day across the world, who have done an extraordinary job with the help of commanders in the field and generals, helping fight ISIS.”
Scarborough said the president’s tweet was shameful, and his premise was ridiculous.
“The president is a fool if he believes that ISIS has been cleared out of that region,” he said. “And the president is a fool if he believes ISIS won’t come right back if he keeps announcing future military troop movements.”
Scarborough said the president’s recent comments were “deplorable” — and Brzezinski said the rich asshole was an international embarrassment and a national security risk
“On the world stage, this president is humiliating America — no question,” Brzezinski said. “He’s been doing it for months, but we’re headed into a situation where he has humiliated this country on the world stage and he’s going to hurt us.”
‘Where is our thank you America?’ the rich asshole whines that he’s not getting enough credit for military gains
U.S. President some rich asshole gets a briefing before he tours the pre-commissioned U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford at Huntington Ingalls Newport News Shipbuilding facilities in Newport News, Virginia, U.S. on March 2, 2017. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo)
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President some rich asshole whined that he wasn’t receiving enough credit for military victories in a sullen morning tweet.
the rich asshole logged on to Twitter early Thursday morning to complain about news coverage, and he groused that he deserved more credit for military gains against the Islamic State.
“Never said when an attack on Syria would take place,” the rich asshole insisted. “Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our ‘Thank you America?'”
The president tweeted what appeared to be a warning Wednesday to Russia that the U.S. planned a military strike in Syria using “nice and new and ‘smart'” missiles.
He had previously attacked former President Barack Obama on Twitter for revealing military plans in Syria.
the rich asshole denies NYT report on firing Mueller in angry morning tweet — but also threatens to do it
the rich asshole's planned tariffs on steel and aluminium have triggered fears of a trade war. (AFP / MANDEL NGAN)
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President some rich asshole denied a New York Times report but confirmed its premise in an angry morning tweet.
The president logged into Twitter on Thursday morning to refute a Tuesday night report that he sought to fire special counsel Robert Mueller in December.
“If I wanted to fire Robert Mueller in December, as reported by the Failing New York Times, I would have fired him,” the president tweeted. “Just more Fake News from a biased newspaper!”
Republicans have said firing Mueller could trigger serious consequences, but they have refused to pass any legislative measures to protect the special counsel.
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