Comey slaps back at the rich asshole’s Sunday Twitter freakout : ‘My book is about ethical leadership’
James Comey (screenshot)
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Former FBI Director James Comey, who was on the receiving end of President some rich asshole’s angry tweets on Sunday morning, hit back at the president by suggesting that he was the antithesis of “ethical leadership.”
Although he didn’t specifically name the rich asshole in his tweet, his implication was clearly that the current president lacks the ethics needed to faithfully execute the duties of his office.
“My book is about ethical leadership and draws on stories from my life and lessons I learned from others,” writes Comey. “Three presidents are in my book: Two help illustrate the values at the heart of ethical leadership; one serves as a counterpoint. I hope folks read the whole thing and find it useful.”
the rich asshole went on an absolute rampage against Comey on Sunday morning, as the president called his former FBI director a “slimeball” who should go to “jail” and who wrote “FAKE” memos aimed at tearing down his presidency.
Comey’s book, “A Higher Loyalty,” is set to release on April 17.
Here’s why firing Rod Rosenstein may not save the rich asshole from the Mueller probe after all
some rich asshole speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 18, 2016 (AFP Photo/Robyn Beck)
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President some rich asshole has publicly attacked his own deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, over his authorization of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
the rich asshole has reportedly been mulling plans to fire Rosenstein and replace him with someone who will presumably do his bidding to shut down the probe.
However, a Daily Beast profile of Noel Francisco — the man who is next in line at the Department of Justice to replace Rosenstein — shows that it might not be that simple.
Although Francisco is an unabashed conservative who once clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, he is also a constitutional law expert who, his friends say, is unlikely to serve as the rich asshole’s personal henchman.
“One of Francisco’s long-time friends, who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Francisco would be nobody’s tool,” the Daily Beast reports. This source also said that Francisco would likely quit his job if the rich asshole ever asked him to do something unlawful.
And Chuck Cooper, a longtime associate of Francisco, tells the Daily Beast that Francisco is “a man of principle and impeccable integrity,” although he wouldn’t say how his former colleague would react if the rich asshole were to order him to fire Mueller.
‘The book is the bombshell’: CNN’s Brian Stelter crushes Fox News for downplaying Comey’s book
Brian Stelter appears on CNN (Screen cap).
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CNN host Brian Stelter on Sunday took a hammer to Fox News hosts who were being dismissive of former FBI Director James Comey’s new book, “A Higher Loyalty.”
After playing a supercut of clips showing Fox hosts putting down Comey’s book for not breaking any real news or dropping new bombshells on the the rich asshole White House, Stelter argued that the fact that a former FBI director is slamming a sitting president publicly is news enough.
“No bombshells?” Stelter asked incredulously. “The book is the bombshell! I mean, have we ever seen a fired former FBI director write a tell-all book only a year or so into a person’s presidency? This entire situation is remarkable.”
Later in a roundtable discussion, Stelter outlined the damning picture that Comey paints of the rich asshole and his presidency, which he said could do significant harm long term. In particular, he quoted Comey’s description of the rich asshole’s White House as having an “us-versus-them worldview” and his accusation that the rich asshole and his associates lie “about all things.”
Guest David Gergen agreed that this might help shape the public narrative against the rich asshole if Comey succeeds in making Americans think of the president as a mob boss.
“The significance of the book is that it may change the narrative of what we’re dealing with,” he said. “When Comey comes up and says, ‘This essentially reminds me of prosecuting the mob, and essentially the mob boss I’m having to deal with’… if that becomes the narrative, that’s going to affect our politics.”
Watch the video below.
Michael Cohen once rented out Ivanka’s Park Avenue apartment to a shady Russian-born businessman: report
Ivanka the rich asshole speaking to Dr. Oz (Photo: Screen capture)
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According to a report on Page Six, the rich asshole family fixer Michael Cohen once sublet out one of White House advisers Ivanka the rich asshole and Jared Kushner’s swanky Park Avenue apartments to a Russian-born taxi magnate.
According to the report, Evgeny “Gene” Freidman was Cohen’s partner in operating 32 taxi medallions that Cohen owned which have become a subject of interest to FBI investigators.
The report notes that Friedman was in need of a place to stay in 2015 after he was ordered to stay away from his estranged wife after he allegedly assaulted her. One month later she sued for divorce.
According to the report, his wife remained in their Upper East Side townhouse while Friednman moved with his dog into the rich asshole Park Avenue — the same building where Cohen lived with his family. Cohen arranged for Friedman to rent one of the multiple apartments owned by Ivanka and Jared.
“When Gene was thrown out of his townhouse, Cohen got him one of Jared and Ivanka’s apartments,” a source told Page Six, adding that Freidman was able to move back to his own home after the divorce was finalized and his wife moved on.
According to the report, Cohen and Friedman had a falling out when allegations emerged that Freidman — his business damaged by Uber and Lyft — stopped paying taxes on the medallions.
Appearing on CNN on Sunday morning, Cohen nemesis Micheal Avenatti — the attorney for Stormy Daniels — accused Cohen of hanging about with friends with Russian ties on Friday as the FBI is investigating the rich asshole’s personal lawyer for a multitude of reasons.
the rich asshole isn’t the real problem
U.S. Republican rich asshole speaks during a campaign rally at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S., May 1, 2016. (REUTERS/Kamil Krzaczynski)
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The country is divided into two hostile camps, a division as much geographic as ideological.
On one side are the big cities, the centers of progressive politics and home to social movements for women, for gay people, for minorities, and to an unprecedented wave of immigrants. Many of the immigrants look and dress very differently from residents of longer standing, marking them as followers of a different religious faith. Many are refugees from an unprecedented wave of war and civil war. Many have entered the country illegally.
Then there are the rural areas. These have always been conservative, but now economic hard times and a pervasive feeling of humiliation are driving their conservatism to a new level of anger. People in rural areas attribute much of this humiliation to urban liberals who seem to care more about refugees and minorities than they do about their country cousins. The country people are statistically much more likely to have served in the armed forces and they feel that their patriotism contrasts with the deracinated, increasingly foreign cities. Religious faith, especially evangelical Christian faith, is central to life in the country. Rural people often see the cities as nothing but cesspits of every conceivable kind of vice.
Into this volatile mixture comes a politician who thrives on the exploitation of anger. He tells the suffering rural people that those urban elites, the religious minorities, and much of the rest of the world are responsible for their troubles. He is willing to say things that no other politicians would dare to utter. The rural people respond by giving their votes overwhelmingly to him. Soon the strange new politician is in power.
But this is not the United States in 2018. It is Germany in the early 1930s.
Germany’s rural areas had been hit above all by major shifts in the global economy: the opening up of farmland in the new world had caused grain prices to fall dramatically. German farmers struggled to compete, and many went bankrupt. In the First World War the German army had drawn more recruits from rural than from urban areas, because city people were likely to have skills that made it essential for them to remain at home. This meant far more farm boys than factory hands had died in combat. The war ended not only in defeat but also with a democratic revolution that replaced the authoritarian regime of Kaiser Wilhelm II. With democracy, new people moved into positions of power. Some of them were working class leaders who would never have gotten near power before, like the first postwar president Friedrich Ebert, a former saddle maker. Some, like the foreign minister Walter Rathenau, were Jewish. Rathenau was murdered by right-wing extremists in 1922.
We are familiar with the images of Berlin in the “golden twenties” – the sexual experimentation and the artistic creativity. Germany was home to the world’s largest gay rights movement, and it had an active feminist movement that succeeded in winning the vote for German women. But Germany’s cities, Berlin above all, were also the home to a new wave of immigrants. Many of them were Jews fleeing revolution and civil war in Eastern Europe. Some Germans reacted to their presence with virulent anti-Semitism. Germany had a new and winding border with Poland, and it lacked the military and police resources to control it. The border, like the immigrants who crossed it, became a bitter political issue. In desperation, some local governments outsourced border security to private militias, including the infamous Nazi Stormtroopers.
Rural German communities were above all permeated by Christian faith and practice, which historically had tended to be nationalist and prone to anti-Semitism. It was in Protestant rural areas in Germany’s north and east that Hitler and his party, once a fringe movement, began to achieve electoral breakthroughs in the late 1920s. By 1932 they were winning the overwhelming share of the vote in these regions. By contrast the Nazis underperformed electorally in cities like Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt.
How worried should we be about these striking similarities and the near future they suggest? History never exactly repeats itself, but as Mark Twain is said to have observed, sometimes it rhymes. some rich asshole is far from being Adolf Hitler 2.0, but he has succeeded by exploiting similar grievances in a similar way. And just like the original, his policies will do nothing to allay the causes of his supporters’ anger, just as Hitler’s dismantling of the rule of law, military buildup, and ultimately war and genocide did not solve the problems of the rural German population.
The real danger may come when a more ruthless and competent politician than the rich asshole realizes he or she can succeed by playing on the same themes.
‘Absurd’: CNN’s Bharara smacks down the rich asshole’s tweet about attorney-client privilege being ‘thing of the past’
Former US attorney Preet Bharara. Image via screengrab.
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Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara poured cold water on President some rich asshole’s early morning tweet that attorney-client privilege is “now a thing of the past,” saying the president has no idea what he is talking about.
Appearing on State of the Union with Jake Tapper, the CNN contributor was asked about the tweet, which said in full, “Attorney Client privilege is now a thing of the past. I have many (too many!) lawyers and they are probably wondering when their offices, and even homes, are going to be raided with everything, including their phones and computers, taken. All lawyers are deflated and concerned!”
A bemused Bharara, had a different opinion.
“I don’t think that some rich asshole has a decent understanding of what the attorney-client privilege is,” Bharara explained.
“Every single time the President makes clear that he doesn’t like an investigation of him or his associates and wants his investigation to stop, that adds to the narrative … that that was intentional and is potential obstruction,” he added.
Before going on CNN, Bharara was more succinct, calling the president’s tweet: “Absurd.”
This is absurd. twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
Watch the video below uploaded to Twitter by CNN:
‘All lawyers are deflated and concerned!’: the rich asshole panic tweets the FBI may come after his other attorneys
Ty Cobb and Don McGahn (composite image)
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As part of an major tweetstorm on Sunday morning, President some rich asshole expressed concern the FBI may come after his other attorneys — adding that he has “too many!”
Following a week in which the FBI seized files and recordings from his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, the rich asshole declared “Attorney Client privilege is now a thing of the past.”
“Attorney Client privilege is now a thing of the past. I have many (too many!) lawyers and they are probably wondering when their offices, and even homes, are going to be raided with everything, including their phones and computers, taken,” the rich asshole tweeted before adding, “All lawyers are deflated and concerned!”
You can see the tweet below:
‘How’d you like that pee pee tape?’ Watch Robert DeNiro and Ben Stiller play Cohen and Mueller to open Saturday Night Live
Mueller and Cohen on Saturday Night Live/Screenshot
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some rich asshole had a wild week, beginning with the raid of the offices and residences of his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen, which the president called “a war on our country.”
It made great fodder for Saturday Night Live‘s opening sketch, which found Ben Stiller playing Michael Cohen and Robert DeNiro playing Robert Mueller. The two men reprised a scene from Meet The Parents in which De Niro gave his would-be son-in-law a lie-detector test.
“You can milk anything with nipples,” Cohen said.
“Really? I have nipples, can you milk me?” De Niro asked.
Reports after the raid indicate that Cohen may have routinely made recordings of phone conversations—including of conversations with Stormy Daniels former lawyer.
Saturday Night Live got it all into the sketch—along with some classic lines. Watch below.
No one in Washington wants to hire former the rich asshole aides: report
Rob Porter and Hope Hicks, two former the rich asshole officials looking for work/SCreenshot
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Veterans of the rich asshole administration are being turned away in droves from Washington jobs that normally go to people with White House experience, BuzzFeed News reports.
The report, sourced to “10 current and former administration officials, top recruiters, and lobbyists” says that people who worked in the rich asshole White House are “toxic” and that companies are worried about legal drama. One public affairs firm that employees both Democrats and Republicans says it will not touch any former the rich asshole aides because of “repetitional risk.”
“It’s going to be more challenging than ever before for folks coming out of the White House,” a recruiter told BuzzFeed. “There seems to be more of a visceral reaction — there’s no question that’s true.”
People who had not worked in politics before working on the rich asshole’s outsider campaign have it harder than Republicans who worked for their party’s leader, the report says. Working for the rich asshole hurts their resume, but if they have previous experience that might get them a job.
“A lot of the people in the White House don’t realize how tight the market is right now for their services,” a former White House official told the site. “Any job they can hope to get on the outside will have to be because of their work before being in the White House.”
More troubling, Republicans who are in the middle of their career say they will not work for the rich asshole because it could hurt their prospects going forward. Which means the rich asshole’s pledge to have “all the best people” is unlikely to ever come true.
Read the full story here.
Stormy Daniels may confront Michael Cohen in court on Monday — and she’s looking into suing him for wiretapping
Michael Avenatti on CNN and Michael Cohen on the street with his cigar-smoking buddies/Screenshot
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Michael Cohen was not in court on Friday, instead hanging out on the sidewalk with cigar-smoking buddies on a sunny New York day.
That was a problem because his lawyers could not answer “the most basic questions,” about the the rich asshole fixer’s practice, according to Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti.
“The judge became fairly frustrated and ultimately ordered Michael Cohen to court Monday at 2 pm,” Avenatti said. “If he’s going to skip court he should not be photographed out on the stoop, if you will, with his buddies.”
That means that Avenatti’s client, Stormy Daniels, has a chance to confront the man who she’s been tangling with. Since the subject is so important to her, she may show up.
“We haven’t decided if she’s going to attend Monday at 2 o’clock,” Avenatti said. “She feels very passionately about this case and wants to make sure that these documents are handed appropriately… it’s a pretty important issue for her.”
Avenatti also said he’s concerned that Cohen’s newly revealed habit of taping people on the phone may give rise to another cause of action.
“We are very, very concerned, with each passing day, with the information that’s coming out,” he said. “If we discover that, in fact, Michael Cohen recorded either our client or her lawyer, Kith Davidson, we are goign to be bringing another claim against Michael Cohen for wiretapping.”
Former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer finally tells the story of infamous ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner
George W. Bush giving a speech during the early days of the war in Iraq with the infamous "Mission Accomplished" banner behind him/Screenshot
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Former George W. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer is generally more sympathetic of some rich asshole than many others from the last Republican administration.
But some rich asshole’s poorly conceived “Mission Accomplished” tweet following Friday’s attack on Syria was an exception.
“I would have recommended ending this tweet with not those two words,” he wrote on Twitter.
In a series of tweets, Fleischer then laid out “the full story” of the infamous banner behind George W. Bush during the attack on Iraq that started the war that the U.S. is still fighting 15 years later.
“I get the symbolism that came back to bite us months later when the war turned and the insurrection grew,” he wrote.
Here’s the story—with an important caveat at the end.
Um...I would have recommended ending this tweet with not those two words. twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
Um...I would have recommended ending this tweet with not those two words. twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
It’s obviously too late and I get the symbolism that came back to bite us months later when the war turned and the insurrection grew, but there is an interesting back story to the “Mission Accomplished” story.
It’s obviously too late and I get the symbolism that came back to bite us months later when the war turned and the insurrection grew, but there is an interesting back story to the “Mission Accomplished” story.
After our advance crew boarded the ship in Hawaii days prior to Bush’s landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln, the Navy crew told us they were returning from the longest deployment of any ship in Naval history. They were proud of what they had done.
After our advance crew boarded the ship in Hawaii days prior to Bush’s landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln, the Navy crew told us they were returning from the longest deployment of any ship in Naval history. They were proud of what they had done.
The crew asked the WH staff if it would be ok to hang a banner saying “Mission Accomplished”. We readily agreed. We hung it in an obviously prominent place that also sent a message as Bush spoke to the nation.
The crew asked the WH staff if it would be ok to hang a banner saying “Mission Accomplished”. We readily agreed. We hung it in an obviously prominent place that also sent a message as Bush spoke to the nation.
In his remarks, Bush stated the danger was not over and that difficult missions lay ahead, particularly in the Sunni triangle. The nuance of his remarks, however, couldn’t compete with the message of this banner.
In his remarks, Bush stated the danger was not over and that difficult missions lay ahead, particularly in the Sunni triangle. The nuance of his remarks, however, couldn’t compete with the message of this banner.
After Bush left the ship and we took with us all the trappings of the presidency, the banner remained up. It was still up when the Abraham Lincoln pulled into its home port in Washington State.
After Bush left the ship and we took with us all the trappings of the presidency, the banner remained up. It was still up when the Abraham Lincoln pulled into its home port in Washington State.
It was the crew’s message from start to finish. It also was the backdrop for Bush’s speech. In May 2003, everyone thought the mission had been accomplished. The insurgency did not fully develop until the Fall of 2003. The WH press corps in May did not criticize the banner.
It was the crew’s message from start to finish. It also was the backdrop for Bush’s speech. In May 2003, everyone thought the mission had been accomplished. The insurgency did not fully develop until the Fall of 2003. The WH press corps in May did not criticize the banner.
By the Fall, the shot of Bush with the banner became a symbol of what went wrong. And now you know the full story.
By the Fall, the shot of Bush with the banner became a symbol of what went wrong. And now you know the full story.
It’s worth mentioning that Fleischer has previously taken responsibility, saying: “We put it up. We made the sign. But I think it accurately summed up where we were at the time, mission accomplished… the mission was to topple Saddam Hussein.
‘We are now in the end stages of the rich asshole Presidency’: Reporter lays out why the Cohen raid is game over
A screenshot from an illustrated video which depicted the arrest of the rich asshole and his closest allies/Screenshot
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Is the raid of the rich asshole lawyer Michael Cohen’s office the beginning of the end?
New Yorker reporter Adam Davidson thinks so. In a new essay titled “Michael Cohen and the End Stage of the rich asshole Presidency,” Davidson draws parallels between the war in Iraq and the financial crisis of 2008. His argument is that people who think that the rich asshole’s dealings won’t change the minds of the people who supported him fail to appreciate the factor momentum plays when the actual facts are laid out—as they can be now that Cohen’s records have been taken by warrant. Davidson says he now feels, “a familiar clarity about what will unfold next in the rich asshole Presidency.”
“Sure, many people have a vague sense of the rich asshole’s shadiness, but once the full details are better known and digested, a fundamentally different narrative about the rich asshole will become commonplace,” he writes. “Remember: we knew a lot about problems in Iraq in May, 2003. Americans saw TV footage of looting and heard reports of U.S. forces struggling to gain control of the entire country. We had plenty of reporting, throughout 2007, about various minor financial problems. Somehow, though, these specific details failed to impress upon most Americans the over-all picture. It took a long time for the nation to accept that these were not minor aberrations but, rather, signs of fundamental crisis.”
Prosecutors are now looking at the core of the rich asshole’s corrupt business dealings, Davidson says, and that will make all the difference.
“Cohen was the key intermediary between the rich asshole family and its partners around the world; he was chief consigliere and dealmaker throughout its period of expansion into global partnerships with sketchy oligarchs. He wasn’t a slick politico who showed up for a few months. He knows everything, he recorded much of it, and now prosecutors will know it, too,” he writes.
“[I]t seems likely that, when we look back on this week, we will see it as a turning point,” he writes.
If Davidson is right, the end game will basically look like the viral video of everyone in the rich asshole orbit being arrested—except, of course, most of the people in that old video are already out.
POLITICS
Cohen Denies Report That Mueller Has Evidence Of Secret Prague Trip
the rich asshole’s lawyer is doubling down after McClatchy DC reported the special counsel can prove a big part of the Steele dossier.
President some rich asshole’s lawyer is doubling down after a new report suggesting that special counsel Robert Mueller can prove a big part of the Steele dossier.
McClatchy DC reported Friday that Mueller has evidence that Michael Cohen, a longtime personal attorney for the rich asshole, traveled to Prague months before the 2016 election.
The outlet cited two unnamed sources familiar with the matter. If the report is indeed true, it would mark a significant development in Mueller’s investigation.
“Bad reporting, bad information and bad story,” Cohen wrote Saturday in a tweet denying the McClatchy article.
Proof of the alleged trip would lend support to the Steele dossier ― the report by former British intelligence official Christopher Steele containing allegations that the the rich asshole campaign conspired with the Russian government to win the election. (The dossier is also how we know about the alleged “golden shower thing.”) It was funded by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
According to the dossier, Cohen played a part in the alleged conspiracy. It says he used a meeting with a Russian nongovernmental organization as cover to meet with Russian officials during a trip to Prague in August or September 2016. They allegedly discussed a “coverup and damage limitation operation in an attempt to prevent the full details of the rich asshole’s relationship with Russia being exposed,” and discussed how to make “deniable cash payments” to “Romanian hackers.”
Cohen, for his part, says he’s never been to Prague. He even shared his passport with BuzzFeed to support his claim.
In his tweet on Saturday, the attorney said he was in Los Angeles with his son at the time in question.
Bad reporting, bad information and bad story by same reporter Peter Stone @McClatchyDC. No matter how many times or ways they write it, I have never been to Prague. I was in LA with my son. Proven! mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-…
“Proven!” he wrote.
However, the lack of a Czech stamp in Cohen’s passport does not necessarily rule out the possibility that he traveled to the Czech Republic.
Sources told McClatchy that Cohen traveled to Prague through Germany and did not require a passport “because both countries are in the so-called Schengen Area in which 26 nations operate with open borders.” The sources did not say whether Cohen would have used a commercial or private plane to fly to Europe, or why there does not appear to be a record of such a trip.
McClatchy notes that “it’s unclear whether Mueller’s investigators also have evidence that Cohen actually met with a prominent Russian ― purportedly Konstantin Kosachev, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin ― in the Czech capital.”
James Comey admits polls were ‘a factor’ in email announcement: ‘I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was going to beat some rich asshole’
James Comey sits down with ABC News/Screenshot
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Former FBI director James Comey has said that his assumption that Hillary Clinton would win the presidency was “a factor” in his decision to make an announcement about her emails which may have turned the election.
Sitting down with ABC news during the promotional tour for his book, Comey said that he worried, “if I hide this from the American people, she’ll be illegitimate the moment she’s elected, the moment this comes out.”
The announcement was immediately controversial, as it was immediately clear it had not been fully thought out.
“I don’t remember consciously thinking about that, but it must have been because I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was going to beat some rich asshole, and so I’m sure that it was a factor,” Comey told ABC News’ chief anchor George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview ahead of the April 17 release of his book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership.”
Watch the clip below.
Hundreds attend first-ever LGBT pride festival in Mike Pence’s hometown
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Mike Pence's hometown turned out to show that his anti-LGBT bigotry is not welcome there.
Hundreds of people took to the streets Saturday for the first-ever LGBT pride festival in Columbus, Indiana — the hometown of Mike Pence, whose political career continues to be defined by his animosity towards the LGBT community.
The festival was organized by Erin Bailey, a high school senior at Columbus Signature Academy, who said she wants the world to know that Pence’s views don’t represent the town as a whole.
“I’m doing this project in order to support the members of the LGBT community in Columbus,” Bailey said. “I’m not doing this for him, it’s for members of the community.”
Less than 20 years ago, a thousand Columbus residents rallied in the streets in opposition to a local company’s decision to offer benefits to same-sex companies.
But a lot has changed since then.
On Saturday, as many as a thousand people attended the town’s first pride festival, which featured“face painting, rainbow S’mores on a stick, and drag performances.”
@HRC is proud to join the inaugural Columbus #LGBT #Pride Festival -- hometown of anti-#LGBTQ @Mike_Pence. Despite his deplorable legacy, Columbus is showing that discrimination has no place in Indiana. hrc.org/blog/hrc-joins…
Among those not in attendance was Pence, who has a long and well documented history of taking extreme anti-LGBT positions.
Over the years, Pence has supported a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, opposed legislation prohibiting discrimination against LGBT people in the workplace, co-sponsored a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as solely between one man and one woman, opposed expanding the definition of hate crimes to include offenses based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and signed a law designed to let businesses discriminate against LGBTQ customers.
Perhaps most controversially, Pence has argued that federal funding for HIV/AIDS treatment should be diverted to unscientific and inhumane conversion “therapy” programs, even displaying his support for the cruel procedure in a statement on his 2000 campaign website.
While the rich asshole may have welcomed Pence’s hate into the White House, his views don’t represent those of most Americans — and on Saturday, his hometown showed that his anti-LGBT bigotry has no place there, either.
‘People are really excited’: Fox News reporter claims Syrians ‘want more’ and US would be greeted as liberators
Shots of Syria and Hollie McKay, who identified herself as being in Syria/Screenshot
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How do Syrians feel about some rich asshole’s “Operation Desert Stormy” missile attack on Syria?
They love it, says Hollie McKay, a Fox News correspondent who said she’s on the scene.
“There’s been so much anticipation all week,” she says. “So many people have expressed excitement, they’re sitting on the edge of their seat waiting to see what happens next.”
Fox’s McKay identified herself as being in the north of the country, and said that people near her are “overwhelmed with excitement that the U.S. was engaged in Syria.”
We would be greeted as liberators, in her telling.
“People have really underestimated how much a lot of the Syrian people really value having the U.S. presence there,” she said.
Syrians want the United States to drop more bombs, McKay claimed.
“People are really excited and waiting to see what happens next,” she said. “They’re hoping for more. They’re hoping for something bigger and larger.”
McKay has also reported that Syrians are circulating fliers professing their love of some rich asshole.
Syrians circulate we love you Trump memes, hope for U.S. intervention fxn.ws/2JBXb44 #FoxNews
Watch her interview on Fox News below.
RNC’s Kayleigh McEnany defends the rich asshole calling Comey a ‘scumbag’ in contentious Fox News interview
Kayleigh McEnany on Fox News -- screenshot
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Republican National Committee spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany was on the receiving end of some push back on Fox News Saturday after a new host suggested President the rich asshole’s comments about fired FBI director James Comey were not befitting of the highest office holder in the land.
McEnany called Comey “rogue, disgruntled employee” and criticized him for such acts as taking memos.
“He’s gone off the rails, really,” she said. “It’s not befitting for an FBI director to spill all of these secrets in a book.”
McEnany was then confronted by the Fox News host, who asked about
“We have no problem with that because it’s counter-punching,” she said. “It’s very different to just go out and unilaterally attack someone.”
McEnany then said that the rich asshole was breaking through “the mainstream media narrative.”
.@kayleighmcenany: "This is a president who fights back. It's what Republicans wanted, and I think it's the only way to break through the mainstream media narrative."
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April 14, 2018
After the GOP's failure to repeal Obamacare, Republicans who were once gung-ho on the issue have quietly scrubbed references to it from their websites.
Republicans have abandoned repeal of Obamacare as part of their electoral arsenal, reflecting the utter failure of their past efforts.
Since its passage, the GOP has told voters that if they took control they would “repeal and replace” the law that has helped millions to gain health insurance.
But now, as Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ) admits to the Washington Post, “We probably can’t talk credibly about repeal and replace anymore.”
The paper notes that the issue has gone missing from the websites of numerous Republican candidates. The change has occurred in swing states as well as Democratic and Republican ones.
the rich asshole easily won Kentucky by 30 points, but repealing Obamacare is nowhere to be found on Rep. Andy Barr’s site. In 2012, Barr listed repeal as one of his top three priorities.
When Virginia Rep. Barbara Comstock ran for her seat in 2014, she promised to push legislation “repealing and replacing Obamacare.” But now she faces a tough re-election in a district rated as a “toss-up.”
And as the Post notes, “She’s not talking about [repeal] anymore.”
Her state recently elected a Democratic governor, and polls have shown that supporting Obamacare repeal hurt the Republican nominee.
In July 2017, the crusade that had consumed the GOP for seven years and was a key topic over multiple election cycles finally came to an end. The resulting humiliation enraged the rich asshole and embarrassed Republican lawmakers.
Obamacare, which passed with only Democratic support, has continued to increase in popularity.
By contrast, the Republican alternative — which would have stripped coverage from millions — was extremely unpopular. It gave Republican senators cover to help kill the bill, which was opposed by all Democrats in Congress.
On the campaign trail, the rich asshole said repealing Obamacare would be “so easy.”
But in the presidency, he and his party have found that it is difficult to get away with hurting so many millions of people.
So Republicans have quietly given up and removed references to repealing the law, likely hoping that no one will notice or remember.
But erasing words from a website doesn’t erase history. The Republicans’ full-court press in 2017 to repeal the health care law got them nowhere.
There’s an energized wave coming, blue voters who have not forgotten the attacks on their health care. And they are ready to make Republicans pay the price at the polls.
Scholar of fascism explains why the rich asshole’s ‘Desert Stormy’ airstrike is a total sham
some rich asshole and people running through the aftermath of the attack/Screenshot
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some rich asshole has declared “mission accomplished” after a “perfectly executed” missile strike which cost $165 million and killed no one.
And, indeed, the mission does seem to have been accomplished—cable news has been flooded with news about the air strike, which means trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen is free to smoke cigars with his buddies in the wake of his office being raided and tapes of conversations with various people in the rich asshole orbit possibly being taken by investigators.
Why was the rich asshole—who loudly opposed bombing Syria during the Obama administration—eager to run this fatality-free attack even as it angered some of his staunchest defenders?
Fascism expert Sarah Kendzior lays it all out in a new column for Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper.
“some rich asshole’s condemnation of Bashar al-Assad is both disingenuous and self-serving,” she writes. “His sudden concern over chemical weapons is as contrived as it was last year, when under a similar firestorm of scandal the rich asshole launched strikes into Syria in an operation that did nothing for Syrians but plenty for some rich asshole, winning him praise from gullible pundits who deemed him ‘presidential’ overnight.”
We must be wary of praising the rich asshole for firing missiles, because “world war a real possibility” now that the rich asshole has tapped warmonger John Bolton as a security adviser, she says.
“[N]one of these actions have anything to do with aiding Syrians or stopping Assad. They are about some rich asshole’s own deadly calculus – self-destruction as he faces legal jeopardy, or world destruction as an attempt at distraction, with Bolton and possibly Putin as his enablers.”
Read the full column here
the rich asshole Orders Attack On Syria – Rachel Maddow Has GOLDEN Response (VIDEO)
some rich asshole, in conjunction with French and British forces, ordered a missile strike on Syriatonight after several days of playing tough guy about it on Twitter. Aside from Syria itself, Russia is an enemy in this conflict, and they may well not let this go quietly, meaning there’s a chance our proxy war against them on Syrian soil may now become a real war with devastating consequences.
In speaking about the attack tonight, Rachel Maddow had some serious and pointed words about how the world—hostile or friendly—will perceive this attack given the scandals that plague the rich asshole’s presidency:
“[the rich asshole’s chaotic and scandal-ridden presidency] has national security consequences. When the president orders missile strikes on Syria on a night like tonight… It will affect other countries’ view of this strike. It will affect their reaction to it. It will therefore affect the utility of this military strike… The perception that the president may have ordered these strikes in part because of scandal, will affect the impact and the effectiveness of these military strikes.”
She’s not wrong, and she gives a dire warning at the end of her commentary. Watch below:
Featured image via video screen capture
The RNC is pulling out all the stops to discredit Comey. It is not going well.
They're doing the rich asshole's bidding and embarrassing themselves in the process.
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal broke the news that RNC deputy finance chair Elliott Broidy paid $1.6 million to a Playboy Playmate in exchange for her silence about an affair. The hush deal was negotiated by another RNC deputy chair — Michael Cohen, President the rich asshole’s longtime personal attorney, who was the target of an FBI raid on Monday.
News of the Broidy payment comes less than three months after the Wall Street Journal broke news that the then-finance chair of the RNC, Steve Wynn, had engaged in serial sexual harassment and assault.
But if you think any of those myriad scandals are preventing the RNC from trying to wage an offensive, think again. Ahead of the release of James Comey’s book next Tuesday — a book that contains a number of unflattering anecdotes about President the rich asshole — the RNC is doing the rich asshole’s bidding by attempting to smear and discredit the former FBI director.
The effort is not going well. On Friday, RNC spokesman Kayleigh McEnany went on Fox News and asserted that while Comey may be a total liar, certain passages of his book nonetheless exonerate the rich asshole of allegations he colluded with Russia.
On Saturday, McEnany was back at it, defending the RNC’s role in the push to discredit Comey on Fox News by asserting that White House officials are too busy to do it themselves.
“The White House is very busy obviously with the Syria strikes and a host of other policies that affect the lives of everyday Americans, but we at the RNC are here to aid and assist the president in all of his efforts,” McEnany said. Her comments came mere hours after the White House spent most of Friday doing everything it could to persuade the public that Comey is a “LEAKER & LIAR” and an “untruthful slime ball,” to use President the rich asshole’s words.
Asked if Trump is worried about Comey -- the White House has spent all day trashing him -- Sanders says, "not at all."
Then @PressSec really goes in: "Comey will forever be known as a disgraced partisan hack that broke his sacred trust with the president of the United States."
McEnany defended the rich asshole’s juvenile smears. She dismissed concerns about the president’s language debasing his office, saying the rich asshole is just “punching back.”
“We have no problem with that because he’s counter-punching,” she said. “[Comey] attacked him first.”
On Friday, RNC chair Ronna McDaniel went on CNN for a segment about Comey’s “salacious” book and a website the RNC has put together to try and discredit it. It also went poorly.
“I think the book is salacious, and when you read it, he discredits himself,” McDaniel said, prompting Jake Tapper to ask her if she’s even read it.
“No, I haven’t read it,” she admitted, as Tapper incredulously shook his head.
.@GOPChairwoman RONNA MCDANIEL: "I think [Comey's] book is salacious, and when you read it, he discredits himself."
TAPPER: "Have you read it?"
MCDANIEL: "No, I haven't read it."
During her interview with Tapper, McDaniel sought to distinguish between the numerous scandals embroiling the RNC’s leadership and the broader Republican Party, saying that “the elected leaders of the Republican Party [are] the party that passed a massive tax cut, that helped the middle class in this country.”
McDaniel went on to suggest that everyday Americans don’t care if their elected officials are supported by money raised by abusive men and criminals.
“When I go to grocery stories, and when I talk to people about this party and this country, they’re worried about what are Republicans putting in place that is going to make my life better,” she said.
Michael Cohen Is Completely F*cked Thanks To New Information Mueller Obtained
“I have never been to Prague in my life” is not a normal thing for someone to say if they have not only been to Prague but went there as an emissary of some rich asshole to discuss corrupting the U.S. election with some Russians. But hey — former the rich asshole personal lawyer Michael Cohen has never exactly been a “normal” person.
McClatchy’s Peter Stone and Greg Gordon reported Friday that Robert Mueller has obtained evidence that Cohen — contrary to the former the rich asshole lawyer’s protestations to the contrary — had visited Prague in 2016 for some pretty nefarious reasons according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation.
The report says that the reason for Cohen’s trip was to strategize “about Russian meddling in the U.S. election.” This evidence would completely ruin the rich asshole’s repeated “NO COLLUSION” all-caps Twitter rages and would also confirm yet another aspect of the Steele Dossier, which says that Cohen visited Prague at that time to “‘clean up the mess’ created by public disclosures of other the rich asshole associates’ reported ties to Russia.”
Cohen, whose office was recently raided as part of a criminal investigation, maintains that he has never ever ever been to Prague. Pinky swear.
Bad reporting, bad information and bad story by same reporter Peter Stone @McClatchyDC. No matter how many times or ways they write it, I have never been to Prague. I was in LA with my son. Proven! mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-…
The report says that Mueller traced Cohen’s entry to the Czech Republic through Germany, where he would not need a passport because of open border laws between some European nations.
Things are heating up, and we can expect the rich asshole to lash out (see Syria for an example) in an effort to distract from his problems more and more as time goes on.
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April 14, 2018
Only 11 Syrian refugees have been allowed into the U.S. this year, a figure that is dwarfed by the number of bombs the rich asshole dropped on Syria in a single night.
The U.S. fired at least 118 missiles in an airstrike on Syria Friday night, in what the rich asshole claimed was a response to the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons against its own people.
Speaking about the chemical attack that killed as many 70 civilians last weekend, the rich asshole called the incident a “heinous attack on innocent Syrians,” adding, “This is about humanity. We’re talking about humanity.”
Indeed, this is about humanity. But the rich asshole wasn’t so concerned about humanity when he slammed the door shut on Syrian refugees and turned his back on the world’s most vulnerable people.
According to the State Department, the U.S. has only allowed 11 Syrian refugees into the country since the start of 2018 — meaning that the number of bombs the rich asshole dropped on Syria in one night is about 10 times greater than the number of Syrian refugees he has allowed into the country all year.
For comparison, during the last year of President Barack Obama’s presidency in 2016, the U.S. let 15,479 Syrian refugees into the country. By mid-April 2016, almost 800 Syrian refugees had already been resettled that year — about 79 times as many as this year.
Almost immediately after taking office, the rich asshole slammed the door on those refugees with his first “travel ban,” which prohibited all refugees and all arrivals from Syria. Despite being put on hold and restricted by the courts, the ban still had its intended effect as refugee admissions plummeted.
When the 120-day refugee ban expired in October, the rich asshole replaced it with a pause on refugee admissions from 11 countries, including Syria. The U.S. started accepting refugees from Syria again in January, but the “vetting” procedures put in place by the the rich asshole administration have effectively barred Syrian refugees from entering the country.
Only 44 Syrians fleeing war have found refuge in the U.S. since October 2017 — a 99 percent drop from the same period the year before.
And the rich asshole didn’t just turn his back on Syrian refugees — he dehumanized them, criminalized them, and cast them as so dangerous that he inspired attacks against them.
Taking his cruel assault even further, the rich asshole publicly condemned the leaders of countries like Germany — which has taken in a huge number of people seeking asylum — for accepting refugees, and urged them to shut their doors, too.
The United Nations has declared the Syrian refugee crisis to be the worst in modern history. Just this week, Defense Secretary James Mattis described the atrocities in Syria, saying, “I’ve seen refugees from Asia to Europe, Kosovo to Africa. I’ve never seen refugees as traumatized as coming out of Syria. It’s got to end.”
But bombing Syria isn’t going to end the refugee crisis — and falsely invoking humanitarianism as a rationale to launch a largely ineffective airstrike isn’t going to help the innocent Syrians the rich asshole spoke of this week.
If the rich asshole cares about humanity, he should stop turning his back on the humanitarian crisis at his doorstep.
WATCH: Fox News host accuses the rich asshole of ‘subservience’ to Russia by delaying attack on Syria
Fox News personality Leland Vittert.
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President some rich asshole appears “subservient” to Russia, Fox News anchor Leland Vittert concluded during a Saturday interview of Milwaukee talk radio host Dan O’Donnell.
The scrutiny came after O’Donnell said America’s top priority in Syria was to not anger Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We have to walk the line, we don’t want to provoke World War III with Russia and its allies and destroying a lot of Russian defense personnel or anything like that,” O’Donnell argued. “The last thing that we want is to get a system of entangling alliance like in World War I.”
“Whoa, but hold on,” Vittert interrupted.
“Is the last thing we want, to send a strong message and actually poke the bear or is the last thing we want to be seen as being subservient to whatever Russia tells us we can and can’t do?” he asked. “Which one is worse?”
“I don’t think this is seen as subservient to Russia, remember we killed how many hundred Russian forces a couple of weeks ago,” O’Donnell answered.
“Hold on, hold on, a Russian general basically said, if you endanger any Russian troops or Russian assets, then we’ll retaliate, otherwise we won’t,” he noted. “So you can read that, essentially, as go ahead and hit anything you want as long as it’s not Russian.”
“That sounds pretty subservient,” Vittert concluded. “That kind of sounds like tip-toeing around the Russians.”
Watch:
Stormy Daniels’ attorney trolls president with picture of pro-the rich asshole protest featuring only four supporters
Photo of the rich asshole supporters uploaded to Twitter by Michael Avenatti
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Stormy Daniels’ Lawyer Trolls ‘Bigly’ the rich asshole Protest
April 14, 2018
Gillian Edevane
Posted with permission from Newsweek
Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stormy Daniels, accused embattled Trump attorney Michael Cohen of organizing a protest against his client. It's the latest development in both a legal battle and a war of words between the two lawyers.
Avenatti tweeted a picture of a small group of pro-Trump protesters in Florida and poked fun at the dismal turnout.
"The “fixer” Mr. Cohen (aka the real Ray Donovan) organized a protest - BIGLY - in Florida last night against my client," Avenatti tweeted. "As usual, his execution was flawless. #impressive."
The picture attached to the tweet showed four protesters. All held pro-Trump signs, some of which featured pointed attacks against Daniels, the adult film star locked in a legal dispute over an alleged affair she had with the president in 2006.
"Stormy Weathered! Full of Silicone," one sign read. "Sold to the highest bidder!" said another.
Avenatti, who has previously come under scrutiny for teasing information without providing supporting evidence, did not provide proof that Cohen was behind the protest.
The “fixer” Mr. Cohen (aka the real Ray Donovan) organized a protest - BIGLY - in Florida last night against my client. As usual, his execution was flawless. #impressive
It's been a long week for Cohen, who once described himself as the president's right-hand man. Avenatti's pithy tweet comes after investigators conducted a far-ranging raid on Cohen's home, his office and his hotel room earlier this week, reportedly looking for tax records, business documents and other information regarding the $130,000 Cohen paid to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
On Friday, federal investigators revealed in court documents that Cohen has been under criminal investigation for months. He is also facing accusations that he organized a $1.6 million payoff to a former Playboy model who said she was impregnated by a top Republican fundraiser. On Tuesday, he admitted that the swirling investigation into his financial dealings has given reason to worry.
"I would be lying to you if I told that I am [worried]," Cohen said on CNN. "Do I need this in my life? No. Do I want to be involved in this? No."
Avenatti, meanwhile, has been continuing to run the talk-show circuit. On Saturday, he claimed that Cohen has hush agreements numbering in the "double-digits" with former Trump paramours. Earlier in the week, on Thursday, he said he believes more raids are imminent, although he failed to provide evidence.
"I will tell you, these raids that occurred on Monday, they're not the last raids," Avenatti told CNN host Anderson Cooper. "I know that for a fact.There are other raids that are contemplated. I anticipate them coming within the next week."
the rich asshole’s personal attorney can’t seem to keep his lies straight
Michael Cohen has made contradictory statements about his travels to Prague.
Michael Cohen has resumed tweeting following the FBI raiding his office, home, and hotel room on Monday.
On Saturday, the rich asshole’s longtime personal attorney took to Twitter to deny a bombshell report that he “secretly made a late-summer trip to Prague during the 2016 presidential campaign” — a development that, if true, would corroborate a key claim in former British spy Christopher Steele’s dossier detailing the the rich asshole campaign’s coordination with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
“Bad reporting, bad information and bad story by same reporter Peter Stone @McClatchyDC,” Cohen, some rich asshole’s longtime personal attorney, tweeted. “No matter how many times or ways they write it, I have never been to Prague. I was in LA with my son. Proven!”
Bad reporting, bad information and bad story by same reporter Peter Stone @McClatchyDC. No matter how many times or ways they write it, I have never been to Prague. I was in LA with my son. Proven! mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-…
But Cohen has presented no evidence that he was in Los Angeles at the time in question, and his claim that he’s “never been to Prague” directly contradicts his previous public statements.
During a January 2017 interview with the Wall Street Journal, Cohen was asked about the Steele dossier’s claim that his work for the rich asshole included traveling to Prague in August or September 2016 to meet with Russian officials and Eastern European hackers who were coordinating with the the rich asshole campaign in an effort to discredit Hillary Clinton. Cohen merely denied that he had traveled to Prague recently.
Mr. Cohen told The Wall Street Journal he hadn’t been to Prague since 2001, but on Twitter Tuesday night he said he had never been there.He declined to answer further questions on Wednesday.
The tweet referred to in the Journal’s report is one Cohen posted of a photo of the front of an American passport — an image that obviously doesn’t constitute evidence of anything at all, much less the dossier’s claims being false.
Even if Cohen were to flip through his passport, it’s possible that inside of it wouldn’t contain any indication that he traveled to Prague. Sources who spoke to McClatchy told the publication that “investigators have traced evidence that Cohen entered the Czech Republic through Germany.” Cohen would not have needed a passport to travel in between the two countries.
Beyond Cohen’s inconsistent statements about his travels to Prague, there are other reasons to be skeptical about his denial of the McClatchy report.
Cohen’s explanation for a $130,000 hush payment he made just before the 2016 election to Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress who claims to have had an affair with the rich asshole, is that he made the payment by himself, without informing the rich asshole and using exclusively his own personal funds.
If that story sounds far-fetched to even a casual observer, the FBI appears to agree: the agency’s raid on Cohen was carried out in part to seize documents related to the Daniels payment. If that payment were meant to benefit the rich asshole’s campaign, it would constitute felony election fraud.
More broadly, people in the rich asshole’s orbit have repeatedly been caught making false claims about the rich asshole campaign’s contacts with Russians.
the rich asshole hides behind tweets, deploys Pence to take heat for Syria
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the rich asshole's only comments about bombing Syria came from Twitter. Instead he made Mike Pence, thousands of miles away in Peru, try to defend the move.
the rich asshole would not go on camera to defend his decision to launch strikes against Syria. Instead, he simply tweeted about the attack. Mike Pence, on foreign soil over 3,500 miles away, was the one tasked with attempting to defend the widely criticized move.
the rich asshole has only held one official solo press conference since assuming the presidency. He didn’t break his embargo even to justify putting American military in harm’s way.
After the bombing, he put out two tweets on the topic, declaring “mission accomplished.”
Almost immediately, others pointed out that the bombing is unlikely to restrict Syria’s use of chemical weapons or Bashar al-Assad’s abuse of civilians. And military veterans have raised concerns about the rich asshole’s instability and its disturbing impact on this situation.
But the rich asshole did not come before reporters to justify his decisions or the underlying policy, or lack thereof.
Pence is representing the United States at the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, after the rich asshole pulled out of the event.
During a press conference, Pence defended the rich asshole’s decision to strike. He backed up the absurd “mission accomplished” claim.
And he declared the United States’ intention to “sustain this effort” — a commitment to further military action.
United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley spoke about the bombings in a meeting of the U.N. Security Council. Echoing Pence, she said the nation is “prepared to sustain this pressure.” She described the U.S. as being “locked and loaded” in order to enforce “a red line.”
the rich asshole administration officials also held an anonymous briefing on background with reporters to speak about the strikes.
By contrast, the White House called a “lid” at 10:52 in the morning, meaning there were no more planned the rich asshole appearances or events for the rest of the day.
the rich asshole wants praise and plaudits for military action. But when it came time to defend his decision and the fallout from it, he decided to cut and run. Or to simply hide out behind his Twitter account.
Instead, Pence’s complicity in the rich asshole’s actions were again on display for all the world to see. And the consequences this time could be more devastating than ever.
the rich asshole order targets wide swath of public assistance programs
BY NATHANIEL WEIXEL - 04/14/18 09:20 PM EDT
The rich asshole administration is seeking to completely revamp the country’s social safety net, targeting recipients of Medicaid, food stamps and housing assistance.
the rich asshole is doing so through a sweeping executive order that was quietly issued earlier this week — and that largely flew under the radar.
It calls on the Departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture and other agencies across the federal government to craft new rules requiring that beneficiaries of a host of programs work or lose their benefits.
the rich asshole argued with the order, which has been in the works since last year, that the programs have grown too large while failing to move needy people out of government help.
“Since its inception, the welfare system has grown into a large bureaucracy that might be susceptible to measuring success by how many people are enrolled in a program rather than by how many have moved from poverty into financial independence,” it states.
The order is directed at “any program that provides means-tested assistance or other assistance that provides benefits to people, households or families that have low incomes.”
Democrats have blasted the effort, arguing the order blends the issues of welfare and broader public assistance programs in a deliberate way they say is intended to lower support for popular initiatives.
“Welfare” has historically been used to describe cash assistance programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Democrats and liberal activists say the rich asshole administration is seeking to expand the definition of welfare to mean food stamps, Medicaid and other programs as a way to demonize them.
“This executive order perpetuates false and racist stereotypes about certain groups supposedly taking advantage of government assistance,” House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said in a joint statement reacting to the order.
President the rich asshole “is trying to erect a smokescreen in the shape of Reagan’s ‘welfare queen’ so people don’t see he’s coming after the entire middle and working class,” said Rebecca Vallas, managing director of the Center for American Progress’s Poverty to Prosperity Program.
Welfare reform has long been a goal of GOP lawmakers, and there’s broad support in the Republican conference for changing the federal safety net to impose stricter work requirements and block grant state funding for programs like Medicaid and food stamps.
While noting that he hadn’t seen the specific text of the executive order, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said he supports the concept.
“For able-bodied, single adults, I certainly favor work requirements,” Cole said.
With Republicans in total control of the government, conservatives have been hoping for a major legislative push to overhaul federal assistance programs.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) late last year said he wanted Republicans to work on entitlement reform, with a focus on promoting work and career-based education.
“We want to smooth the path from welfare to work, pull people out of poverty, pull people out of welfare,” Ryan said in December.
Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Institute, said the executive order is meant to signal support to congressional Republicans.
“[Administration officials] have been talking to Congress, and the executive order is designed to set the table for them,” Rector said. “Do what they can in the executive branch, and give support to similar efforts on the Hill.”
But a short legislative calendar and a slim Republican majority in the Senate mean the administration may be largely on its own.
Agencies are limited in what changes they can make to their programs, so comprehensive welfare reform may be off the table without major legislation.
Republicans have already acknowledged they won’t be able to cut spending on entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
“I think it’s very tough to get this thing through the Senate when it requires 60 votes. I certainly don’t have any problem with the president taking initiative,” Cole said.
The executive order doesn’t set any new policy, but Center for American Progress’s Vallas said the order is important as a messaging document, and it shows that the rich asshole is willing to act without Congress.
“This is more of President the rich asshole not being content to wait for Congress to dismantle these programs. This is him wanting to take matters into his own hands,” Vallas said.
The order follows policy shifts already underway at various agencies.
Health and Human Services officials have encouraged states to pursue work requirements for Medicaid beneficiaries. Arkansas, Indiana and Kentucky have already been granted such waivers, and several other states have waivers pending with the administration.
Earlier this year, the Agriculture Department sought input on “innovative ideas to promote work and self-sufficiency among able-bodied adults” participating in the food stamp program.
In Congress, House Republicans unveiled a provision in the 2018 farm bill to expand mandatory work requirements in the food stamp program. The broader legislation will be marked up later this month, but it faces a long uphill battle.
The administration’s effort could also face legal challenges. Medicaid advocates in Kentucky have already sued over the work requirements, and additional safety net changes could provoke even more lawsuits.
‘Quislings, collaborators and stooges’: MSNBC’s Scarborough rips into the rich asshole’s Fox News ‘apologists’
Joe Scarborough (MSNBC)
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Former Congressman Joe Scarborough (R-FL) believes that defending President some rich asshole will “forever stain” the reputations some leading Fox News conservatives.
Writing in The Washington Post, the co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe slammed the “miserable crew” attacking special counsel Robert Mueller.
“These are desperate times for the quislings of the rich asshole,” Scarborough observed. “The cost of collaborating with President the rich asshole in the continued debasement of American democracy is becoming far too high.”
He observed that “the president must have felt the walls closing in even more tightly around him” following the FBI raid on Michael Cohen, the president’s longtime counselor.
The morning host mentioned Fox News, former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), Fox analyst Joe DiGenova and Fox personality Sean Hannity by name.
“Even the most terrified politician must know that the rich asshole and his stooges have reason to be rattled,” the former congressman suggested.
He concluded that “the steady stream of attacks on Justice Department professionals, FBI agents and all the honorable men and women who daily defend Americans against enemies foreign and domestic will forever stain the reputations of the rich asshole’s most shameless apologists.”
Read the full column.
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