‘Count me on the skeptical side’: Watch CNN’s Phil Mudd pours cold water on the rich asshole’s North Korea deal
CNN's Phil Mudd (Screengrab)
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Appearing on CNN early Saturday morning, Philip Mudd, the former deputy director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center, was skeptical of President some rich asshole’s late Friday boast that there North Korea would “stop nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles,” and “shut down a nuclear test site,” saying the devil is in the details.
Speaking with host Victor Blackwell, Mudd was asked,”What’s your degree of confidence? What’s your reaction to this announcement from the north?”
“Well, obviously, it’s a good step but count me more on the skeptical side than on the confident side,” Mudd admitted before getting in the heart of the matter. “Two basic questions — probably 30 questions, but let me give you a couple. Number one: it looks to me like Kim Jong is not saying that he wants to remove his ballistic missile and nuclear capability, he said we accomplished what we wanted.”
“Is this him trying to be accepted by the globe as a nuclear power?” he continued. “Or is this him saying — which I didn’t read in the statement — that he’s going to reverse what North Koreans have accomplished. I think there’s too much optimism on this one.”
“Second question: if we believe that the North Koreans are serious, I don’t see anything that gets into things like what the verification measures are,” he expounded. “Would they let inspectors on site? What would those inspectors do? The big question is, is this is reversing what the North Koreans have done or acknowledging they are a global nuclear power for the future?”
Watch the video below via CNN:
the rich asshole casts doubt on legality of special counsel Mueller
BY ALICIA COHN - 04/21/18 06:28 AM EDT
President the rich asshole on Friday night renewed doubts about the security of the special counsel’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election by musing in a tweet that the special counsel “was established based on an illegal act.”
“James Comey illegally leaked classified documents to the press in order to generate a Special Council? Therefore, the Special Council was established based on an illegal act? Really, does everybody know what that means?” he tweeted late Friday evening.
James Comey illegally leaked classified documents to the press in order to generate a Special Council? Therefore, the Special Council was established based on an illegal act? Really, does everybody know what that means?
the rich asshole is referring to the former FBI director who the president fired last year and gave to a friend at least one and possibly four memos that were based on notes of his interaction with the president. The Justice Department is investigating whether the memos were classified.
Daniel Richman, a law professor at Columbia University, then gave the contents of some of the memos to a reporter at The New York Times last May.
Comey has said he intended to trigger the appointment of a special counsel to take over the investigation, which he was leading, due to his concerns about the rich asshole’s actions.
Comey has said the memo was unclassified, but the rich asshole maintains that the act of leaking the memo was illegal.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to the job last May, saying “public interest requires me to place this investigation under the authority of a person who exercises a degree of independence.”
the rich asshole has long railed against the Russia investigation, calling it a “hoax” and a “witch hunt,” as well as indicating he wants it to be over quickly. Democrats have at times feared that the rich asshole could fire Mueller, but the rich asshole recently noted that despite speculation over the past few months, Mueller — and Rosenstein, the official who appointed him — are “still here.”
the rich asshole manic tweets at NYT’s ‘Habbermann’ for using a ‘drunk/drugged up loser’ to destroy Michael Cohen
The New York Times' Maggie Habermann, President some rich asshole
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President some rich asshole fired off a series of Tweets early Saturday morning, attacking the New York Times’ Maggie Habermann and accusing her of trying to poison his relationship with his attorney, Michael Cohen.
NYT’s Habermann fires back at the rich asshole Twitter attack with accusation he’s ‘abusive’
NYT’s Habermann fires back at the rich asshole Twitter attack with accusation he’s ‘abusive’
“The New York Times and a third rate reporter named Maggie Habberman [sic], known as a Crooked H flunkie who I don’t speak to and have nothing to do with, are going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will ‘flip,'” the rich asshole tweeted. “They use non-existent ‘sources’ and a drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael, a fine person with a wonderful family. Michael is a businessman for his own account/lawyer who I have always liked & respected.”
He then added, “Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don’t see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!”
The Times’ Habermann then fired back, with a link to the story that “touched a nerve” with the rich asshole. Her Tweet can be seen below.
You can see the tweets below, including a screenshot of the initial one with Habermann’s name spelled incorrectly:
....non-existent “sources” and a drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael, a fine person with a wonderful family. Michael is a businessman for his own account/lawyer who I have always liked & respected. Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if....
....it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don’t see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!
One B, sir (or Dan?). Here’s the story that seems to have touched a nerve. nyti.ms/2vuwhYZ twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
Sessions threatened to quit if the rich asshole fires Rod Rosenstein, news report says
But don't believe for a second that his stance was based on principle.
According to a report in the Washington Post, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has threatened that he might resign his post if President some rich asshole orders the firing of Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein.
The revelation came during a phone call between Sessions and White House counsel Donald McGahn after the rich asshole met privately with Rosenstein on April 12, days after Rosenstein approved the raid on the rich asshole lawyer Michael Cohen’s office and residence.
Sessions feared the meeting would be confrontational and might lead to Rosenstein’s dismissal, but according to McGahn the conversation remained cordial, the Post reported on Saturday.
the rich asshole allies in the White House and Fox News have been calling for the firing of Rod Rosenstein for months, incensed that he is allowing the probe into Russian meddling in the US election to continue. Those calls have only intensified, as Robert Mueller’s investigation has tightened around several key officials within the rich asshole orbit.
Firing Rod Rosenstein would be a major step towards sabotaging the Russia investigation. Because Jeff Sessions recused himself from all Russia-related matters after his own ties to Russian officials during the 2016 campaign were revealed, the authority to fire Mueller falls to Rosenstein.
Sessions himself was thought to be a target of the rich asshole last summer. The Attorney General was attacked by the president on Twitter for his decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, and when asked whether he would consider firing Sessions, the rich asshole responded, “We’ll see what happens.”
Of course, Sessions is hardly a portrait of principled stances. Should he end up resigning, it won’t be over some moral objection to presidential overreach. Sessions repeatedly lied to Congress during his confirmation hearing, first telling his Senate colleagues, “I did not have communications with the Russians,” only to admit weeks later that he had multiple meetings with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. He then lied again, claiming that those meetings were related to his work in the Senate, only to be outed by intelligence intercepts that show Sessions met with Kislyak to discuss campaign matters.
His possible resignation would likely have more to do with his complete lack of relevance should the rich asshole move behind his back to fire Rosenstein.
POLITICS
Twitter Perplexed As the rich asshole Spouts Off Again About ‘Illegal Special Council’
Tweets: Go to bed.
The Twitterverse was transfixed Friday night by the sound of millions of Americans scratching their heads over President some rich asshole’s tweet from Mar-a-Lago, accusing his former FBI director in a convoluted conspiracy theory.
“Really, does everybody know what that means?” the president asked. Based on an avalanche of responses on Twitter, it appeared many people didn’t.
The president claimed former FBI boss James Comey leaked “classified documents” to the press in order to “generate” a “special council,” so the probe was illegal to begin with.
Tweets pointed out — repeatedly — that it’s special “counsel” — not “council.” And that special counsel Robert Mueller was named by the Department of Justice, not Comey, after the president said on national TV that he fired his FBI director because of “this Russian thing.”
But several on Twitter had a pretty good idea about what it all means:
You know your lawyer sucks, because the first thing any lawyer tells you is to shut the hell up.
You just can't seem to spell counsel correctly. Is that a Wharton thing?
Earlier in the day, the rich asshole blasted “Wendy Wasserman Schultz” in a slam tweet about the Democratic National Committee’s new lawsuit against the rich asshole campaign. He later changed it to Rep. “Debbie” Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the former chair of the party. People on Twitter guessed he might have confused her with the late New York playwright Wendy Wasserstein — or with Wendy from Peter Pan because he’s a lost boy.
Wendy Wasserman Shultz is the perpetrator of the Bowling Green Massacre. Jeez!
WATCH: HBO’s Maher tears into the rich asshole’s ‘cult of personality’ who are paving the way to a dictatorship
HBO host Bill Maher -- screenshot
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At the tail end of the ‘Overtime segment” of HBO’s Real Time, host Bill Maher grew agitated with the fanatical conservative base who see no problem with how President some rich asshole acts.
According to the HBO host, they are the type of “cult” who could pave the way for a dictatorship.
In a contentious back-and-forth with controversial psychologist Jordan Peterson, Maher explained where we are and where we could be going.
With Peterson calling the atmosphere around the rich asshole a “circus,” Maher jumped in to say, “Without the circus he’s just a lonely clown.”
“He has these people in Congress who are enablers,” Maher continued. “And his base — it is a cult of personality, not unlike dictatorships you see in the past.”
“I mean, he said once, famously, ‘I could shoot some on 5th Avenue and not lose any fans,'” the HBO host recalled. “He has proved that to almost true. We cannot imagine what he would do that would make them turn on him. I don’t know what that would be, I don’t think it is anything. Because whatever it was, he would say, ‘well, it’s fake news.'”
Watch the video below via HBO:
By
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April 21, 2018
the rich asshole launched into his latest public meltdown about the likelihood that his personal fixer Michael Cohen is exposing his secrets to federal investigators.
In a panicked Twitter tirade Saturday morning, the rich asshole publicly admitted his fear that his personal fixer Michael Cohen is revealing his secrets to federal investigators.
the rich asshole could’ve asserted that he had done nothing wrong that would be of interest to the investigation of his presidential campaign. Instead, he attacked New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.
He whined that the Times and Haberman are “going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will ‘flip.'” He added, “Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if it means lying or making up stories.”
Finishing his tirade, the rich asshole wrote, “I don’t see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!”
With this tantrum, the rich asshole essentially conceded there is something that Cohen knows as a result of his relationship with the rich asshole that is of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller. the rich asshole then asserted in his tweet, which will be seen around the world, that if Cohen does speak he’s simply lying.
The entire thread effectively embraces guilt.
The recent FBI raid on Cohen’s offices and residence is weighing heavily on the minds of the rich asshole’s inner circle. They’ve voiced their concerns to the press that Cohen could expose the rich asshole’s innermost secrets if he believes he could be subject to criminal charges.
The Times story that appeared to launch the rich asshole’s latest round of tweets notes: “some rich asshole’s lawyers and advisers have become resigned to the strong possibility that Mr. Cohen, who has a wife and two children and faces the prospect of devastating legal fees, if not criminal charges, could end up cooperating with federal officials who are investigating him for activity that could relate, at least in part, to work he did for some rich asshole.”
Former the rich asshole aide Sam Nunberg told the Times, “Michael now holds the leverage over the rich asshole.”
Cohen arranged the pre-election payoff that bought the silence of porn star Stormy Daniels, who had an affair with the rich asshole. He has been at the rich asshole’s side for years and has bullied and intimidated those who sought to reveal unsavory stories about the rich asshole.
the rich asshole recently pardoned perjurer Scooter Libby, which sent a signal to his henchman facing federal prosecution that he could do the same for them. In exchange, they simply would have to continue covering for them.
The latest in what has now becoming a rolling disaster of social media meltdowns shows the rich asshole worried that those closest to him are speaking up and revealing his secrets to prosecutors. the rich asshole does not even bother to deny that there is nothing to reveal, but instead is furiously lashing out at The Times.
But even that avenue of attack is phony. the rich asshole has a long and well-documented history of interaction with Haberman and The Times.
The artificial world he has created is crashing down around him. And his instinct is to spew lies and panic while everyone is watching.
the rich asshole distances himself from Cohen, openly discusses possibility of longtime lawyer ‘flipping’
"Sorry, I don’t see Michael doing that," he tweeted.
President the rich asshole both defended and simultaneously distanced himself from attorney Michael Cohen on Saturday, insisting his longtime associate, who is currently under federal investigation and faces possible criminal charges related to work he did for the rich asshole, would never “flip” on the president to save his own skin.
“The New York Times and a third rate reporter named Maggie Haberman, known as a Crooked H flunkie who I don’t speak to and have nothing to do with, are going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will ‘flip’,” the rich asshole tweeted.
The tweet cited an article published by the Times on Friday, which claimed the president had long treated Cohen with contempt, and that Cohen’s longstanding devotion to the rich asshole may have begun to wane in the wake of recent controversies.
“They use non-existent ‘sources’ and a drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael, a fine person with a wonderful family,” the rich asshole continued. Suggesting Cohen mostly worked for himself, and not for the rich asshole family, he added, “Michael is a businessman for his own account/lawyer who I have always liked & respected. Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don’t see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!”
the rich asshole did not identify the “drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael” referenced in his tweet, although some have suggested he may have been referring to longtime adviser Roger Stone, who spoke to the Times for its report and claimed that the rich asshole often treated Cohen “like garbage,” or the rich asshole biographer Tim O’Brien, who claimed the rich asshole viewed Cohen as “inadequate.”
The New York Times and a third rate reporter named Maggie Haberman, known as a Crooked H flunkie who I don’t speak to and have nothing to do with, are going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will “flip.” They use....
....non-existent “sources” and a drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael, a fine person with a wonderful family. Michael is a businessman for his own account/lawyer who I have always liked & respected. Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if....
....non-existent “sources” and a drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael, a fine person with a wonderful family. Michael is a businessman for his own account/lawyer who I have always liked & respected. Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if....
....it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don’t see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!
Aside from the fact that the rich asshole himself admitted “most people will flip” if it means authorities will let them off the hook, the rich asshole’s decision to speak out so aggressively in support of Cohen is curious, if only because his tweets are the first time he’s defended Cohen by name since the FBI raided Cohen’s home, office, and hotel room on April 9, on a referral from Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller is investigating possible collusion between the rich asshole campaign and Russian officials, as well as potential obstruction of justice by the president.
Despite Cohen’s dedication to the president over the past two decades, the Times report claims that the rich asshole generally dislikes Cohen and views him with contempt. Such a sudden, public outpouring of support suggests that the rich asshole, indeed, believes Cohen may flip on him and provide FBI officials with damaging information.
The tweets also echo the rich asshole’s divorce lawyer, Jay Goldberg, who suggested in a CNN interview on Thursday night that Cohen would likely turn on the president to save himself from being assaulted in prison.
“He’s of a type that I have recognized in the past as one not suited to stand up to the rigors of jail life,” Goldberg said. “…History has shown that people under the threat of heavy litigation glean what the prosecutor is interested in hearing, and they can form their conduct so that they can get what’s known as a 5K1 letter.”
A 5K1 letter is typically written by a U.S. attorney to a judge, and requests a lighter sentence based on a defendant’s willingness to cooperate with authorities.
The FBI agents who raided Cohen’s home on April 9 were reportedly searching for documents related to a $130,000 hush payment Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had a sexual relationship with the rich asshole in 2006.
They are also said to have been searching for documents or emails related to a $150,000 payment The National Enquirer made to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, for exclusive rights to her account of a 10-month affair she claims to have had with the rich asshole between 2006 and 2007.
Although Cohen claims he had no part in the negotiations for McDougal’s AMI payment — which prevented her from taking her story elsewhere — her lawyer at the time, Keith Davidson, kept Cohen in the loop throughout the process.
Both payments were made during the 2016 presidential election and kept the women from speaking out, which could have damaged the rich asshole’s chances at the presidency. Davidson has since been contacted by federal authoritiesregarding the Cohen probe, and was “asked to provide certain limited electronic information” relevant to the FBI’s investigation, a spokesman told the Times.
The day after the FBI raid, on April 10, the rich asshole expressed his frustrations on Twitter, claiming that “attorney-client privilege [was] dead.”
“A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!” he tweeted a short while later.
Aside from his involvement in the Daniels and McDougal payments, Cohen has also carried out various other tasks for the president over the years, including reaching out to the Kremlin in January 2016 to request assistance for the rich asshole Organization, which was trying to build a rich asshole Tower in Moscow. Cohen is also alleged to have traveled to Prague in late summer 2016, in an attempt to cover up damaging information regarding the rich asshole’s relationship with Russian officials.
The allegation was included in the now-famous “Steele dossier,” which was compiled by former MI-6 officer Christopher Steele between June and December 2016. Cohen has claimed he never went to Prague and has slammed the dossier as “fake,” filing lawsuits against BuzzFeed, which published the dossier online, and Fusion GPS, the research firm with which Steele was contracted.
Cohen and his lawyers dropped the lawsuits this week, claiming the attorney had too many other things to deal with at the moment.
the rich asshole may be the end of the world as we know it — but for some evangelicals that’s just fine
President some rich asshole meets with religious leaders in the Oval Office on the National Day of Prayer. (Screenshot)
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In the flurry of coverage surrounding the evangelical Christian voting bloc that overwhelmingly supported some rich asshole, I’ve seen many images of happy people holding “Thank God for the rich asshole” signs and commentary about conservative Christians who are deliriously happy about new protections for Christian liberty and proposed “pro-life” legislation.
The thing is: some rich asshole as the savior of Christian America is far from the whole story behind his evangelical support. A distinct subset of evangelical Christians know that some rich asshole is bad news for the entire world—and they’re really, really excited about it.
I know this because I used to be one of them.
This article is reprinted with permission from Religion Dispatches. Follow RD on Facebookor Twitter for daily updates.
Back in the ’90s, I was bright-eyed, home-schooled, and evangelical on a farm in rural Ohio. Although my family’s church attendance was spotty—we didn’t really trust the church system—we were very Christian and the Bible was the last word in science, education and morality.
We also had a proclivity for prophecy chasers and “end times” preachers. We owned a copy of The Late Great Planet Earth and watched “Jack Van Impe Presents” every week on our local Christian station, gathering around the TV to discuss biblical perspectives of the news from around the globe. In 1997, the rapture was nigh. Every news story fit the prophecy. After one weekend viewing of Mr. and Mrs. Van Impe, I heard my parents speculating that we’d probably be raptured within the next few years, tops.
As a pre-teen homeschooled kid, my takeaway from that statement was that I would likely never make it to college and was therefore off the hook for learning algebra.
Fifteen years, a college degree, and several remedial math classes later, I left the apocalypse bunker for good and fell in love with a world that might have a chance of surviving after all—if we could just take care of it.
But many people still live in the bunker. Recently, I was disheartened to discover that a close relative is reposting material from the personal Facebook page of Scottie Clarke, a self-proclaimed biblical prophecy expert and sole proprietor of Eternal Rhythm Flow Ministries. ERF follows the reliably profitable cosmology-meets-Revelation-
To peruse his universe—and against my own better judgment, I did—is to fall down a rabbit hole into a reality that is both chilling and, for me, as familiar as my own childhood. Clarke and his followers talk enthusiastically about events they clearly perceive as eventualities: signs in the heavens, the bloodshed of nations at Armageddon, the final destruction of non-believers in the winepress of God’s wrath.
And here’s the thing: they’re excited about all this. Opinions on the rich asshole’s purpose vary, but the overriding plot point is that the rich asshole was ordained by God, and if he brings chaos, terrific! Bring on the end days! The tone is jovial, even smug, as if they’re discussing the plot of a popcorn flick that doesn’t affect them.
Because in their world, it doesn’t—they’re going to be raptured, just like my family was supposed to be back in ’97. I know this story well.
It’s easy to dismiss Clarke, his followers, and all the other prophecy gurus as anecdotal evidence of wack theology and extremism. And, on the surface, it is. The majority of evangelicals probably don’t spend their free time discussing the effect of a rogue planet on the state of Israel. But every extreme idea gets its DNA from a more legitimate idea—usually from one that is innocuous on the surface—and even mainstream evangelicalism is saturated with ideas and narratives that enable a certain apathy toward the human consequences of political action.
Consider the refrain “in the world, but not of it,” the insistence that earth is just a place of trial and suffering before the final destination of heaven. Consider the popularity of Left Behind, the wildly popular book series that paints the destruction of human life as regrettable but necessary collateral damage in Christian victory. Or consider a milder form: “God is in control,” the ubiquitous phrase used all over social media to comfort those scared for their lives after the election of some rich asshole.
“God is in control.”
Was there ever such a whitewashed sepulcher of a phrase? Was there ever a slogan so beautifully engineered as to simulate theological uprightness while simultaneously exempting the wielder from any hint of personal responsibility?
I can speak of this cup because I have drunk deeply of it. For the first sixteen years of my life, I, too, was a practical nihilist. I was convinced that the end times were upon us, that the planet would end—sooner or later—in blood and fire. What’s worse, I believed that this was all somehow a good thing.
So I know: overcoming differences of opinion with many evangelical voters is not merely a matter of untangling social, political, economic, or even moral disagreements. The problems lie deeper, in the theological narrative that undergirds the entire movement. It is one thing to scuffle about how to save the world, but it is quite another to disagree whether the world should be saved at all.
And if you’re eager to get Armageddon over with and move on to heaven? Well, some rich asshole seems as good a choice as any.
Real Time panel nails how ‘scary’ it is to hear the rich asshole’s first call on major issues is Fox News’ Sean Hannity
Frank Bruni, Alex Wagner and Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) (Photo: Screen capture)
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It was revealed this week that Fox News host Sean Hannity was the third mystery client of President some rich asshole’s attorney Michael Cohen. To make matters worse, Hannity is also helping craft tweets and discuss strategy with the president while still working for Fox News.
“Real Time” host Bill Maher couldn’t help but note that the Fourth Estate isn’t supposed to be colluding with the First Estate.
“Obviously he carries the rich asshole’s water every day,” Maher said on Friday’s show. “We didn’t know that he was talking to the rich asshole every day. I mean, this is such a violation of what the Fourth Estate is supposed to be! It’s not supposed to be a branch of the First Estate! Can you imagine if they found out if Obama was talking to Rachel Maddow every day? And they were like sharing information and, ‘Now you say this and then I’ll say this. And then we’ll do that and come have dinner tonight.’ I feel like that didn’t get enough coverage.”
New York Times columnist Frank Bruni told Maher that in the past Hannity has tried to claim he wasn’t really a journalist he was an entertainer. Then he flipped back to being a journalist. Now, after this week’s revelation, Hannity is back to being an entertainer again.
Bruni called it “more than a little scary” to think that “on major issues, the President’s first call is to Sean Hannity.”
“On a red phone!” Alex Wagner, host of Showtime’s “The Circus,” said laughing.
Bruni noted that Hannity isn’t likely to counsel anything tempered and sensible because he wants it to be entertainment as much as the rich asshole wants to provide him with entertainment.
“The more melodrama, the more Sean Hannity has to cover and talk about,” Bruni continued. “So this is a very toxic relationship.”
Wagner also said, “Fox News is on the hook here” because, while Hannity is trying to spin himself, the network actually has the word “news” in the name.
“Depending on the hour,” Bruni cut in. “There’s that whole big chunk of Fox & Friends.”
“The fact that they have not answered for this is shocking,” Wagner continued.
Bruni explained that due to Hannity’s ratings, Fox isn’t likely to get rid of his highest rated host.
Watch their full discussion below:
‘Need a lawyer? Me too!’: Bill Maher hilariously trolls Michael Cohen with billboards advertising his legal practices
Bill Maher hilariously mocks Michael Cohen (Photo: Screen capture)
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Michael Cohen was forced to reveal all of his clients this week by a judge handling the case in the Manhattan court. In addition to the rich asshole, Cohen was working for a former Republican Party fundraiser who impregnated a Playboy model and Fox News host Sean Hannity.
While Cohen may have shelled out cash for his clients, Hannity has said that he paid Cohen no more than $10. With so few clients, “Real Time” host Bill Maher noted that Cohen looks as if “he takes his meetings on a park bench. And every consultation ends with the words, ‘this never happened.'”
Maher said that Cohen once famously said that he would take a bullet for some rich asshole, however, now that he’s looking at prison time the host wondered if that means “he’s willing to take a d*ck.”
At the mid-show break, Maher returned to Cohen, explaining that the rich asshole legal expert “is a pretty bad lawyer.” In fact, Maher said that Cohen “might be the worst lawyer since Ted Bundy represented himself.”
The type of lawyer that Cohen is reminded Maher of those attorneys who advertise on billboards. Maher attributed Cohen’s lack of clients to what might be poorly written billboards.
“Need a lawyer? Me too!” one billboard said, according to Maher.
“Michel Cohen: Your $10 attorney. And worth it!” said another ad on a bus stop.
“Because legal zoom doesn’t keep a baseball bat in the truck,” Maher joked.
See the rest below:
Mueller team said to be amused as Giuliani pledges to end Russia probe
Mueller team skeptical of Giuliani claims probe will end in weeks: Gasparino
FBN's Charlie Gasparino on reports Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told President the rich asshole he was not a target of the Mueller investigation and Rudy Giuliani's claims the probe will end in a matter of weeks.
Investigators inside the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller reacted with a mixture of skepticism and laughter at Rudy Giuliani’s claim that he will negotiate a swift end to Mueller’s probe of President some rich asshole and his alleged involvement in possible Russian election meddling and obstruction of justice, FOX Business has learned.
Giuliani, the latest addition to the president’s legal team, has stated both to associates and to reporters in recent days that he will be reaching out to Mueller with the intention of ending the probe into the rich asshole’s conduct and that he will achieve this goal in a matter of weeks, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.
As the former New York City mayor’s remarks made their way to Mueller’s investigators, they were said to be “amused,” according to one person with direct knowledge of the matter. Mueller’s team has signaled that its probe of Russia’s possible meddling in the 2016 presidential election is exploring new avenues presented by at least two cooperating witnesses and that there is little Giuliani can do to force Mueller’s hand, these people add.
“If Rudy comes to Mueller trying to negotiate anything short of a presidential guilty plea, he will likely be met by deaf ears,” said a lawyer who follows the case from Washington.
A spokeswoman for Giuliani hadn’t return calls and email messages requesting comment. A spokesman for the special prosecutor declined to comment.
“Giuliani’s great, but I don’t think he’s going to move the dial one way or another,” Chris Swecker, a white-collar criminal attorney and former assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said in an interview with Neil Cavuto on FOX Business. “I know how Mueller operates. He’s not going to let anyone stampede him into it early or bring this case to an early conclusion.”
Swecker, however, did say he believes the Mueller investigation is coming to a conclusion.
“I do think something’s going to happen in the next month or two,” Swecker said.
Mueller has put off the sentencing until later this month of two former the rich asshole aides charged in the Mueller probe: Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign aide George Papadopoulos.
“This leads me to believe he is keeping his witnesses on ice until the next indictment,” Swecker added. “Working your way up the food chain to the next level … related to Russia collusion … I don’t think the president is going to get brought into this, but I do think there is something else coming.”
Swecker cited as possible targets of criminal prosecution some rich asshole Jr., the president’s son who met with Russian operatives promising compromising information on Hillary Clinton, his father’s Democratic opponent during the 2016 campaign, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and currently a White House adviser, who also appeared at that meeting.
Both some rich asshole Jr. and Kushner have said they’ve done nothing wrong; the president has repeatedly called the probe a “witch hunt.”
If members of the rich asshole inner circle conspired with Russian operatives to sway the election – even if the conspiracy was fruitless – that would form the basis for a federal indictment of them and could lead to the impeachment of the president himself. Mueller was appointed special prosecutor after the rich asshole fired James Comey as FBI director last year; Comey had been heading the inquiry into Russian collusion.
The year-long investigation has produced several indictments of the rich asshole aides, but for crimes that have little to do with possible Russian meddling, or even obstruction of justice, another area Mueller is investigating as an outgrowth of the Comey firing. the rich asshole’s legal team, meanwhile, is in turmoil. His lead attorney, John Dowd, recently resigned after finding it difficult to work for the volatile president, who didn’t heed his advice. Dowd is the only lawyer on the rich asshole team who examined every document the White House surrendered to Mueller, according to a personal familiar with the situation. the rich asshole has faced rejections by a number of high-powered litigators to join the team.
But with the addition of Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and famed prosecutor of mob and Wall Street transgressions when he was U.S. attorney for the Southern District in the 1980s, the rich asshole may be able to regain momentum. Giuliani is well known in legal circles and has become a staunch supporter of the president. He is also said to have a good relationship with Mueller, with whom he worked at the Justice Department. He will be joined by two other former prosecutors to help with ending the probe: Jane and Marty Raskin.
Still, legal experts were skeptical about Giuliani’s immediate impact.
“He hasn’t seen a courtroom in 30 years, except for his divorces and a stint as juror,” one white-collar attorney said.
It’s difficult to gauge just where Mueller is going in his probe. Bloomberg reported on Thursday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein alerted the president that he wasn’t a target of the investigation – a positive sign for the rich asshole that caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to pare its decline for the day. the rich asshole had been threatening to fire Rosenstein, the Justice Department’s point man on the Mueller inquiry, for giving the special prosecutor too much leeway in prosecuting crimes that fall outside of possible Russian meddling.
But legal experts said such classifications mean little because the rich asshole is already a subject of a probe and could immediately become a target based on new evidence. Recently, the offices of Michael Cohen, the rich asshole’s personal lawyer, were raided after a referral from the Mueller team to New York federal prosecutors, a move that angered the president. Cohen hasn’t been charged but was under surveillance while representing the rich asshole and remains under investigation by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District.
Cohen's attorney declined to comment.
the rich asshole Divorce Lawyer: Cohen Will Flip So He Doesn’t Get Raped By Black Guys In Prison
Republicans’ greatest fear (aside from logic and facts) is black men — and according to a the rich asshole legal advisor and divorce lawyer Jay Goldberg, that fear will help ensure Michael Cohen will flip on The rich asshole.
During an appearance on CNN, Goldberg said that Cohen is deeply afraid of getting forcibly railed by huge black penises.
“He’s of a type that I have recognized in the past as one not suited to stand up to the rigors of jail life,” he explained to CNN’s Erin Burnett, emphasizing the “racial overtone” of prison — just in case anyone missed that he was talking about black dudes raping the rich asshole’s former personal lawyer, who is under criminal investigation:
“I think, in many ways — and it’s difficult to say this — prison has a racial overtone, and a person like Michael doesn’t see himself walking down Broadway while people are clamoring, ‘you’re going to be my wife.’ And so he’s under pressure from his family to try to figure out what it would take to bring the government aboard as his sponsor.”
“He called me on April 13,” Goldberg said, “about a person who is facing a lengthy prison term [being] likely to say those things which in the witness’s mind would best position himself for a 5K1 letter, which would enable the government to recommend that he be shown leniency.”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean that he tells the truth,” Goldberg said, explaining that Cohen will lie through his teeth to prevent the horror of unwanted interracial sex:
“History has shown that people under the threat of heavy litigation glean what the prosecutor is interested in hearing, and they can form their conduct so that they can get what’s known as a 5K1 letter.”
We can only hope that the rich asshole himself breaks out the “Michael Cohen is lying because he doesn’t want black men to rape him” defense on Twitter after his co-conspirator spills the beans to Mueller. That will be the cherry on top of all the other horrific things happening to The rich asshole in recent and upcoming days.
Watch it below:
the rich asshole continues digital war against James Comey with absurd legal conspiracy theory
some rich asshole during CNN debate (Photo: Screen capture via video)
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President some rich asshole was up late Friday night expressing his anger at former FBI director James Comey.
“James Comey illegally leaked classified documents to the press in order to generate a Special Council [sic]? Therefore, the Special Council was established based on an illegal act? Really, does everybody know what that means?” the rich asshole asked his followers.
The argument, of course, is nonsensical as the special counsel was ordered by the Justice Department. Thus, whether it’s a council or a counsel, the rich asshole isn’t the keen legal mind that he thinks he is.
The Democratic governor of Washington state has finally found one thing that is good about some rich asshole
Alex Wagner and Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) (Photo: Screen capture)
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During Friday’s episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher,” “The Circus” host Alex Wagner sounded the alarm about what the GOP’s new census question is really about. However, there might be something good that could come from it.
It was announced recently that a question will be added to the census that asks how many people in the house hold are not citizens. It was quickly denounced as a racist way to scared people of color, immigrants, both legal and undocumented, and communities with immigrants. However, Wagner noted there’s a more sinister point to make.
“Let us be very clear,” she began. “The addition of a citizenship question is to keep immigrants and their families in the shadows. It is to disenfranchise cities with large immigrant and minority populations. It is to skew Congressional redistricting that happens in 2020 to disenfranchise largely Democratic states and cities that have large minority populations. That is what they’re doing with this question.”
She noted this is the first time that the citizenship question has been asked since 1950, ironically the year the GOP seems to want to return America to.
Thus far 14 states are suing to get the question off of the questionnaire. Wager also explained that the process through which the officials have gone to add this question has been “so transparently nefarious it’s almost laughable — except that it’s incredibly serious.”
Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) explained that there is a very good chance that the 14 states will win in court. He attributed this to the one good thing about President some rich asshole.
“some rich asshole is one of the least effective violators of law in American history,” the Washington governor said. “Every time we have sued him we’ve won and the reason is he’s so transparent. You know? He’s just absolutely transparent. It’s clear what’s going on and any judge that’s been on the bench for four hours knows what he’s doing, which is trying to suppress the vote. And it’s akin to the venal efforts of the Republican Party to suppress the vote in the United States. This is consistent with that effort. Stop people from being counted. Stop them from voting.”
Watch the full commentary below:
Maher mocks Giuliani for joining the rich asshole legal team: ‘Rudy got famous attaching himself to a pile of rubble — could work again’
Bill Maher (Photo: Screen capture)
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HBO host Bill Maher couldn’t help but note that New York City is working hard to take care of it’s rat problem by shipping both some rich asshole and Rudy Giuliani off to Washington.
During his Monday night opener, Maher knocked the man once known as America’s mayor as someone who became “famous by attaching himself to a pile of rubble.” Thus, Maher assume it could work for the rich asshole’s new lawyer.
Maher also said that he paid his taxes this week, implying that he wrote a hefty check. He explained that typically it’s a painful check to write, but it’s even worse when you know that the rich asshole’s government is going to spend it on fancy office furniture.
“I wrote on the memo line on my check: dinning room table for Ben Carson,” he quipped.
Pivoting to EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, who Maher called “this f*cking guy,” the host brought up the coin that Puritt wants to change for the agency. The former coin had a plant with people holding hands and a hopeful message. Pruitt wants to put a buffalo with a bible verse on it.
“Because nothing says ‘the environment’ more than a picture of an animal we almost drove to extension and a book that doesn’t believe in science,” Maher mocked.
He went on to call Pruitt “maybe the most corrupt official ever in a cabinet.”
Maher also talked about former FBI Director James Comey’s press tour promoting his book. The host said that Comey has done so many shows that he’s even doing Dr. Oz, where he points out on the doll where the rich asshole touched him.
Watch the full opener below:
‘Maybe they’ll send out the US Marshals for him’: Stormy Daniels attorney tells Bill Maher the rich asshole must show his face in court
Michael Avenatti and Bill Maher (Photo: RealTime/Twitter)
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Michael Avenatti, attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels is eager to see President some rich asshole be dragged into a Los Angeles court room as their lawsuit continues to move forward.
“The problem is, he’s trusted a moron with his inner-most secrets,” Avenatti said of the rich asshole’s attorney Michael Cohen. “And the problem is that he has surrounded himself in his adult life with people that are incompetent and the chickens are going to come home to roost.”
HBO host Bill Maher, however, doesn’t think the rich asshole will even show up in court.
“Well, that’s going to set off what’s called a Constitutional crisis,” Avenatti warned.
“You think he gives a f*cke?” Maher asked.
“Well, I think he should,” Avenatti noted.
“He — should? some rich asshole should? Hello! He should do a lot of things,” Maher said. “And then what happens if he doesn’t show up?”
Avenatti explained that they might even sent out the U.S. Marshals for the rich asshole if he doesn’t show up in court. “But I look forward to that if it happened. I think it’d be fantastic.”
Maher made the case that the rich asshole is above the law. Avenatti said that the rich asshole thinks that he is above the law. Maher explained that the way that Congress would have to go through impeachment is overwhelming.
“I would agree with that, Bill, but I think that Michael Cohen knows where all of the bodies are buried,” Avenatti said. “And I think he’s going to sing like a canary. Like you cannot — Bill, here’s the problem — no I know he’s going to fold. Because, here’s the problem: when you have a fixer you need two things at least, you need a guy that’s tough and you need a guy that’s smart. This guy is neither tough nor smart.”
He went on to call Cohen “a zero.”
Avenatti was quick on the quips, noting that Sean Hannity said that he gave Cohen $10 once. “By the way, I think he paid $9 too much.”
Watch the full interview below:
the rich asshole lawyer reportedly apologized to Melania the rich asshole for Stormy Daniels payment
According to longtime the rich asshole adviser Roger Stone, the rich asshole reportedly treats attorney Michael Cohen like "garbage."
Michael Cohen, the rich asshole’s longtime lawyer and alleged “fixer,” reportedly tried to apologize to Melania the rich asshole “for the pain he said he had caused [the first lady]” with his well-publicized payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, according to a Friday report from The New York Times.
Cohen, who is fiercely loyal to the rich asshole family and previously said he “would take a bullet for the president,” reportedly approached the first lady at a Republican fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago in early 2018, asking forgiveness for any hurt the $130,000 payment — made weeks before the presidential election — may have caused. It’s unclear whether the first lady accepted was receptive of that apology or, like so many other displays of devotion Cohen has reportedly showered on the family, ignored it.
The report also claims that the rich asshole has nothing but contempt for Cohen, who is currently under federal investigation — despite the lawyer saying that he’d “jump out of a building” rather then turn on his client. “Donald goes out of his way to treat him like garbage,” longtime the rich asshole adviser Roger Stone told the Times.
Tim O’Brien, a rich asshole biographer, added to that sentiment. “I think his abusive behavior to Michael is animated by his feeling that Michael is inadequate,” O’Brien said.
Cohen also reportedly owns some of the rich asshole’s best real-estate — but was made to pay “top dollar for it,” according to Stone. The fact that the rich asshole would offer no discounts or favors to Cohen would seem to corroborate the idea that the president has hesitated to show the same loyalty to the attorney as Cohen has showed him.
Nonetheless, Cohen still has undertaken a significant portfolio of work for the rich asshole. In addition to helping him out with legal issues, he also helped with the media and laid the groundwork for several business deals, including plans to build the rich asshole Tower in Moscow, which was abandoned in January 2016, according to the Washington Post — just ahead of the Republican presidential primaries.
Cohen has had an eventful two weeks since the FBI raided his law offices, home, and hotel room on April 9, in search of payment records, documents related to the $130,000 he paid to Daniels, and documents related to a $150,000 payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also claims to have had an affair with the rich asshole in 2006. In court on Monday, he was forced to reveal the name of a confidential client, Fox News host Sean Hannity, and evidence has since surfaced that Cohen was in Prague during the 2016 election campaign — corroborating a key claim of the Steele dossier, which Cohen previously claimed was “fake.”
Meanwhile the right wing has been doing its utmost to discredit the Cohen investigation. On Wednesday the judge presiding over his case, Kimba Wood, was accused of being part of the “Deep State,” because she was previously second choice to become Bill Clinton’s attorney general before she withdrew her name, and officiated the wedding of George Soros in 2013. All this is despite the fact that Wood was appointed by Ronald Reagan — on the recommendation of former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-NY).
Comey memo fallout is mostly fizzle
BY KATIE BO WILLIAMS - 04/20/18 06:48 PM EDT
The public release of seven memos written by former FBI Director James Comey documenting his interactions with President the rich asshole has divided Washington down political lines.
The president swiftly tweeted that the fifteen partially-redacted pages show the Comey leaked classified information. Some of his supporters have called for prosecution.
But outside of the rich asshole’s core allies, the verdict is less certain.
Even some Republicans on Capitol Hill have privately acknowledged that the release of the memo might have been an unforced error, thrusting scrutiny back onto the rich asshole’s alleged interactions with Russian prostitutes and off of Comey himself. Up until Thursday, the former director had been taking some heat for the personal shots he takes at the president’s appearance in his new book, which was released on Tuesday.
“I think there have been persuasive analyses done on both sides,” said GOP strategist Matt Mackowiak. “All that matters is, does the release of the memo affect [special counsel Robert Mueller’s] inquiry?”
Democrats have speculated that the three House GOP chairman who forced the release of the memos to Capitol Hill—Reps. Bob Goodlatte(Va.), Trey Gowdy (S.C.) and Devin Nunes (Calif.)—are trying to set a predicate on which the president can fire either Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein or Mueller himself. the rich asshole has repeatedly characterized the probe into his campaign’s alleged ties to Russia a “witch hunt” launched by his political enemies.
Allies of the president have been swift to say that the memos expose Comey as a leaker who was “blind” to biases with the FBI.
But much of the media attention has been concentrated on some of the more salacious details about the rich asshole in Comey’s meticulously detailed notes.
In one, Comey says that the rich asshole told him that Russian President Vladimir Putin bragged that Russia has "some of the most beautiful hookers in the world."
In another, he says that the president told him that he had “serious reservations” about then-national security adviser Michael Flynn’s judgment. According to the memos, Flynn failed to inform the rich asshole that a redacted foreign leader was the first to call him to congratulate him on his election victory — until he was in the midst of a lunch with British Prime Minister Theresa May and thanked her for being the first.
That foreign leader was Putin, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Much of the contents of Comey’s memos had already been made public by the time they leaked to the press Thursday night—either through Comey’s own testimony, public press accounts or his tell-all book — and close watchers of the former director’s feud with the rich asshole were swift to dismiss characterizations of the report as a bombshell.
“If nothing else, all the excited tweets are definitely making it clear how few of you read Comey’s book,” tweeted a spokesman for Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has probed the rich asshole’s dismissal of Comey last spring.
It is far from clear that Comey disclosed classified information when he shared four of his seven memos with a personal friend, with the intention that the friend would reveal some of the contents to the press.
All seven memos were made public, with some redactions, but it is not self-evident from their release if Comey shared any of the blacked-out information with his friend.
According to the Journal, of the four memos he shared, two contained information now considered by the government to be classified. Of those two, according to the Journal, Comey redacted the classified elements of the one that at the time was considered classified, before providing the document to his friend.
The second memo was not considered classified at the time, but FBI officials have since upgraded it to “confidential” since his departure, according to the Journal.
The Justice Department inspector general is investigating the matter, the paper reports.
The release of the memos to Congress came under threat of subpoena from Goodlatte, who along with Gowdy and Nunes have been investigating what they say is evidence of bias and potential wrongdoing at the Justice Department during the 2016 election.
Democrats have described the GOP investigations as a partisan exercise designed to undercut Mueller.
This spring, Nunes forced the release of a classified memo his staff drafted alleging that the Obama-era Justice Department abused powerful surveillance authorities in order to obtain a politically-motivated warrant to spy on the rich asshole campaign aide Carter Page.
That document, wildly hyped in the run-up to its release, has largely faded from the political landscape since.
Some onlookers speculate that the Comey memos could meet the same fate—an entrenched part of doctrine on one side and dismissed as partisan conspiracy theories on the other.
“Seems like a little bit of a wash to me,” Mackowiak said. “It’s hard to tell right now whether this ultimately matters or not.”
“What matters is, what does the Mueller inquiry have?”
NRATV host blames Obama for Parkland shooting, demands apology
Grant Stinchfield claimed the president put students in danger by implementing school discipline guidelines and refusing to arm teachers.
NRATV host Grant Stinchfield claimed in a segment on his show Friday that President Obama owes an apology to the survivors of the February 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 people dead.
“The left can rejoice — yes, the savior took some time away from his Hollywood friends to write an op-ed for the Time 100 [Most Influential] publication, and of course, just like the old days, he used the opportunity to slam gun owners, in his ultimate quest to destroy the Second [Amendment],” Stinchfield lamented, citing the former president’s heartfelt tribute to Parkland survivors Cameron Kasky, Jaclyn Coryn, David Hogg, Emma Gonzalez, and Alex Wind.
In the op-ed, the president slammed the gun lobby, praising the Parkland students for “see[ing] the NRA and its allies…as mere shills for those who make money selling weapons of war to whoever can pay.”
After singling out Obama’s school discipline guidelines — which Stinchfield claimed prevented Stoneman Douglas educators from calling the police about the gunman, who was a former student — and blaming him for supposedly not allowing the NRA to arm teachers, the host continued, “Barack Obama, you owe the Parkland students an apology…. Had every child been given the same armed security [your children] were protected by there never would’ve been a Parkland massacre for you to weaponize in your Time 100 hit piece attacking the NRA.”
"@BarackObama you owe the Parkland students an apology…Had every child been given the same armed security yours were protected by there never would've been a Parkland massacre for you to weaponize in your #TIME100 hit piece attacking #NRA" @stinchfield1776 #NationalSchoolWalkout
The lofty claims that Stinchfield laid out in his tirade on Friday are hardly new. Republican legislators like Marco Rubio have previously attempted to pass blame to the Obama administration for implementing a civil rights policy in 2014 aimed at cracking down on the disproportionately high number of suspensions and expulsions of minority students face in schools across the country, which often serves as a “school-to-prison pipeline.”
As The New York Times notes, “When the guidance was issued, federal data found that African-American students without disabilities were more than three times as likely as their white peers without disabilities to be expelled or suspended, and that more than 50 percent of students who were involved in school-related arrests or who were referred to law enforcement were Hispanic or African-American.”
NRA advocates like Stinchfield and Rubio, looking to side-step any talk of gun control, have latched on to this policy, claiming it prevents teachers from reporting dangerous students to police.
“Disturbing reports have indicated that federal guidance may have contributed to systemic failures to report [Parkland gunman] Nikolas Cruz’s dangerous behaviors to local law enforcement,” Rubio wrote in a letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on March 5. “…I strongly urge you to immediately revise the 2014 [Obama-era] directive and associated guidance to ensure that schools appropriately report violence and dangerous actions to local law enforcement.”
Stinchfield also blamed Obama on Friday for not allowing teachers to be armed — a criticism that’s been echoed by other NRA hosts, like Colion Noir, as well as by President the rich asshole himself.
Last month, in an attack ad against Parkland survivor David Hogg — a frequent target of the NRA and gun advocates — Noir blamed the Obama administration for ignoring a 225-page proposal drafted by the NRA in 2013, in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre, which suggested putting armed guards, police officers, or armed staffers in every school to protect students.
“What if we had put armed guards in every school in America five years ago when the NRA first pushed for it?” Noir said in the ad. Referencing Stoneman Douglas football coach Aaron Feis, who died protecting students during the Parkland shooting, Noir added, “What if the football coach who heroically sacrificed his life had an AR-15 instead of empty hands?”
Earlier in February, at a listening session with Parkland survivors and families of other shooting victims, the rich asshole pushed the idea of arming teachers as well, saying, “We have to harden our schools, not soften them up. A gun free zone to a killer or somebody that wants to be a killer, that is like going in for ice cream.”
As countless studies have shown, the NRA’s theory that a “good guy with a gun” can stop potential mass shootings is actually a myth. According to analysis of FBI data by the Violence Policy Center in June 2015, guns are “rarely used to kill criminals or stop crimes.” That analysis also found that, counter to popular gun lobby claims, during a five year span from 2007 to 2011, “the total number of self protective behaviors involving a firearm by victims of attempted or completed violent crimes…totaled only 338,700.” By contrast, researchers noted, “the gun lobby claims that during the same five-year period guns were used 12.5 million times in self defense.”
Likewise, a 2009 study by the University of Pennsylvania found that a person carrying a gun is approximately “4.46 times more likely to be shot in an assault” than someone not carrying a weapon. “Among gun assaults where the victim had at least some chance to resist, this adjusted odds ratio increased to 5.45,” researchers added.
NRA Demands ‘Gun-Hating Socialist’ Obama Apologize For Florida School Massacre
The NRA’s propaganda network has been in a frenzy since the shooting in Parkland, Florida, but host Grant Stinchfield really went off the deep end with the NRA’s latest attempt to take blame away from the easy availability of guns to people who would use them to kill and instead toss it at…President Obama.
Sure, Obama was out of office for more than a year before the shooting that stole the lives of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. And sure, he spent much of his presidency doing all he could to prevent attacks like we saw that horrible day. But to the NRA, he will always be Emmanuel Goldstein.
Recently, Obama wrote an essay highlighting the importance of the gun control movement high school students are leading — something that infuriates the Stinchfield, who thinks (like the rest of the NRA) that guns belong everywhere and should be used to solve even the most petty of problems.
“If Barack Obama is writing anything that deals with the Parkland students, it should be an apology,” he said. “His liberal no-discipline-for-rule-breakers policy was a contributing factor that enabled the shooter to wreak the havoc that he did… It was Obama’s school discipline policies that prevented faculty members from having students arrested, even for severe and repeated discipline issues.”
It’s true that the Obama administration encouraged alternatives to expulsion or arrest over discipline issues, but nothing would have stopped school employees from contacting police if they thought a student (or former student) was going to drop by to shoot the place up.
Naturally, the Obama hate didn’t end there. Stinchfield also attacked the former President (and “typical gun-hating socialist”) for his support of civil rights groups.
“NRA members don’t burn down cities and we don’t incite riots against our police!” he screeched. “The leaders of Black Lives Matters Do!”
Black Lives Matter, as you are well aware, did not “burn down cities” or “incite riots against our police.” There have been a multitude of peaceful protests with limited isolated violence perpetrated by outside groups (and many focused on cops’ love of beating, killing, and maiming black people), but as usual the NRA mouthpiece lied.
Watch this jackass in action below:
“If @BarackObama is writing anything that deals with the Parkland students it should be an apology. His liberal no-discipline-for-rule-breakers policy was a contributing factor that enabled the shooter to wreak the havoc that he did.” –@stinchfield1776 #NRA #NationalSchoolWalkout
Power plant developer boosts spending on the rich asshole insider to lobby for controversial project
Former the rich asshole energy transition team leader lobbied federal regulators, report says.
As a bribery scandal was brewing in New York, a top energy lobbyist with ties to the rich asshole administration received $180,000 in payments in 2017 from a company behind a controversial natural gas-fired power plant in New York. The money was for lobbying federal regulators in Washington.
Mike McKenna, a Republican energy lobbyist who served on President the rich asshole’s Department of Energy (DOE) transition team in late 2016, has worked as a lobbyist for Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) since 2013. Last year was his most lucrative year lobbying for the company, according to a new report from the watchdog group Public Accountability Initiative (PAI).
CPV paid McKenna $60,000 more than its previous high in 2015, and the sole focus of its lobbying efforts was the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which is tasked with overseeing the nation’s energy projects, including natural gas pipelines. This is compared to other years when McKenna would also lobby members of Congress, the report said.
Scrutiny of the CPV power plant project intensified when Joseph Percoco, a former top aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), was indicted in 2016 for soliciting and accepting bribes in return for taking official state action to benefit CPV.
CPV is nearing completion of the major power plant, the CPV Valley Energy Center, in Orange County, New York. While the power plant falls under state jurisdiction, a pipeline proposed by Millennium Pipeline Co. to feed natural gas to the power plant comes under FERC’s authority.
The increased payments to McKenna, president of lobbying firm MWR Strategies, “indicates that CPV is seizing the moment of having a powerful lobbyist who is well-connected to the rich asshole presidency and a fossil-fuel friendly FERC commission to push its agenda around CPV and other projects,” the report said.
“McKenna is a rich asshole insider who may have helped shape the current makeup of FERC,” Derek Seidman, a research analyst at PAI and author of the report, said Friday in a statement. “It’s a big problem — especially since we now know that McKenna was lobbying FERC at the same time that FERC overrode New York’s rejection of the Millennium Pipeline that the CPV plant needs approved.”
The $900 million power plant project has faced significant opposition from nearby towns and environmental groups since it was announced more than a decade ago. Many residents are concerned about the potential health and environmental impacts of the power plant.
In a statement CPV described PAI’s report as “the latest political stunt by those who want to ignore the facts and the law.”
“CPV has met and exceeded every state and federal standard to operate this plant and build the pipeline needed to supply it with natural gas, winning hard-fought battles against the Cuomo administration in court as a result,” Tom Rumsey, senior vice president of external affairs for CPV, said in a statement emailed to ThinkProgress.
McKenna could not be reached for comment on the report.
Millennium Pipeline’s proposed Valley Lateral Project, a 7.8-mile natural gas pipeline that will transport natural gas produced in the Marcellus Shale, is inextricably linked to the power plant. The power plant needs the pipeline to feed it the natural gas that will run the power plant.
After the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation denied key permits for the pipeline in August 2017, FERC overturned those denials in September 2017 at a time when McKenna was lobbying the agency, according to federal lobbying filings.
“The timing of FERC’s overruling of New York’s decision to reject the Millennium Pipeline, along with the vital importance of the pipeline to the CPV Valley plant, raises the question of whether McKenna was pressing FERC to force through the pipeline during his tenure on the rich asshole’s transition team and as CPV’s lobbyist,” the report said.
Even though FERC has strict rules against “ex parte” communications — commissioners and staff members cannot have a non-public meeting or conference calls with individuals about ongoing proceedings or open dockets — lobbyists are permitted to meet with commissioners or staff member to have general discussions about issues that may impact their clients.
Commissioners are generally vigilant about ensuring they do not discuss ongoing proceedings in the meetings they have on a regular basis with stakeholders.
Connection to New York bribery scandal
Last month, a federal jury found Percoco, the former Cuomo aide, guilty of three charges tied to political corruption. The jury “appeared to find fault” with his dealings on behalf of CPV, the New York Times reported.
In 2017, as the indictment of Percoco loomed over Albany, New York, CPV — worried about increased scrutiny of its CPV Valley Energy Center tied to the Percoco investigation — “massively increased” its spending on lobbyists, hiring a firm close to Cuomo, according to the report.
“The Percoco scandal placed major scrutiny on the process that went into approving the Valley Energy Center,” Seidman said. “It’s pretty clear that CPV felt the heat and, in response, drastically ramped up its efforts to buy influence in Albany to protect its controversial power plant.”
PAI manages a database called LittleSis that tracks relationships between politicians, business leaders, and lobbyists.
NEW: As the Percoco scandal loomed over Albany, CPV more than quadrupled its lobbying spending on Cuomo- and Trump-tied lobbyists to protect its controversial power plant: public-accountability.org/2018/04/the-pe… @foodandwater @joshfoxfilm
In the report, PAI noted that CPV Valley LLC — a CPV subsidiary that oversees the power plant project — recently began its own federal lobbying efforts. In the third and fourth quarters of 2017, CPV Valley paid lobbying firm Akin Gump $100,000 to lobby the U.S. House on the issue of “natural gas infrastructure development,” the report said.
McKenna’s lobbying for CPV in Washington in 2017 occurred at the same time CPV was trying to control fallout from the Percoco scandal, according to the report. McKenna personally lobbied FERC every quarter of 2016 and 2017, except for the fourth quarter of 2016, when he briefly served as the head of the rich asshole’s DOE transition.
In addition to CPV, McKenna has lobbied for several energy companies and trade groups over the past 13 years, including Southern Co., Teco Energy, and the National Petrochemical Refiners Association.
McKenna was selected by the rich asshole to head his energy transition in late September 2016, prior to the election. The lobbyist was put in a position to potentially shape — pending a the rich asshole victory — a department with crucial regulatory oversight over the clients he had long served, according to the report.
“Perhaps most importantly, McKenna would have a role in shaping the composition of FERC, which has a major regulatory role over the business of companies like CPV and other McKenna clients,” the report said.
McKenna resigned his position on November 18, 2016, due to the rich asshole’s new rule that transition team members would have to de-register as lobbyists. He was replaced by climate change denier Thomas Pyle, who heads up the Koch-funded Institute for Energy Research and its advocacy wing, the American Energy Alliance.
Sessions warned White House he could quit if the rich asshole fired Rosenstein: report
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 04/20/18 06:40 PM EDT
Attorney General Jeff Sessions warned the White House recently that he could resign if President the rich asshole were to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
The Washington Post reported Friday that Sessions told White House counsel Don McGahn in a phone call last weekend that he could leave the Justice Department in the event of Rosenstein's ouster.
The phone call came amid a series of attacks on Rosenstein and special counsel Robert Mueller by the rich asshole, following the FBI raid of the home and office of his personal attorney Michael Cohen.
His attacks have led to speculation that the rich asshole may fire Rosenstein or Mueller.
Rosenstein oversees the law enforcement investigation into possible collusion between the rich asshole campaign and Russia. Mueller is carrying out that probe.
In the phone call with McGahn, Sessions also asked for details of a meeting between the rich asshole and Rosenstein that took place on April 12, and was reportedly relieved when he was told that the encounter was cordial, according to the Post.
One person familiar with the phone call told the Post that Sessions did not intend to threaten his resignation, but simply wanted to express his concern that Rosenstein’s ouster would put him in a difficult position.
the rich asshole’s anger with Rosenstein and Mueller flared last week after news of the raid on Cohen’s home and office emerged. That raid was carried out after federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained a search warrant, based, in part, on a referral from Mueller.
But the president reportedly backed away from the idea of firing Rosenstein and Mueller after the deputy attorney general told him in the White House meeting that he was not a target of Mueller’s investigation. The details of that meeting were reported Thursday by Bloomberg News.
the rich asshole has long bristled at the Russia investigation, insisting that there was no collusion between his campaign and Moscow, and that the probe is a “witch hunt.”
Updated 7:17 p.m.
Kim Jong-un promised to release jailed Americans during his meeting with the rich asshole: report
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un delivers a speech at the 4th national conference of war veterans in Pyongyang on July 25, 2015 (AFP Photo/)
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During a clandestine meeting earlier this month in Pyongyang, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un told CIA director and secretary of state nominee Mike Pompeo that the country would release three detained American citizens during the upcoming summit with President some rich asshole.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday night that people briefed on the meeting said the meeting is currently slated for mid-June and is likely to happen “somewhere outside northeast Asia.”
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April 20, 2018
Stumbling after an advertiser exodus, Fox News host Ingraham is now accused of firing her assistant for becoming pregnant.
Even after finding out her personal assistant was on her way to the hospital to give birth to her first child, Fox News host Laura Ingraham kept peppering the woman with text requests.
“Pls just have someone take over the nanny interviews which are critical. Just make sure [the nanny] has everything. Need that exercise equip person to come fix etc.”, read one missive.
The former assistant, Karolina Wilson, who helped schedule the host’s chaotic daily life, is now suing Ingraham and her media company, alleging pregnancy discrimination under the District’s Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and its Family and Medical Leave Act.
“Wilson alleges that the conservative talk show host became hostile toward her once she became pregnant and then fired her on her first day back from maternity leave,” the Washington Post reports.
Indeed, the lawsuit claims that when Wilson returned to work following her pregnancy, the chief executive of Ingraham’s company called Wilson into his office and told her that she was fired. She was replaced by the person who had filled in for her during the maternity leave.
Ingraham denies the claims in the suit. But news that the supposedly pro-family, conservative talk show host badgered her assistant as she went into labor, and then summarily fired her the day after she came back from maternity leave, certainly makes Ingraham look like a hypocrite.
The news comes at a difficult time for Ingraham, who recently lost more than two dozen advertisers after she took a cheap shot at David Hogg, a Parkland, Florida, high school activist who survived a gun massacre in February.
The Fox host, a mother of three, actually belittled the high school senior Hogg on Twitter for not getting accepted into a number of colleges and universities.
That began a cavalcade of advertisers who dropped her show, including Madison Ave. heavy hitters such as Nutrish, TripAdvisor, Wayfair, Expedia, Nestlé, Hulu, Johnson & Johnson, Jenny Craig, Office Depot, Liberty Mutual, Ruby Tuesday, Principal Investment, Miracle Ear, Honda, and Subaru.
“Saturday Night Live” last weekend made fun of her plight.
After returning from a weeklong “vacation” amidst the boycott controversy on April 9, Ingraham was still losing advertisers. And this week, Ingraham had to awkwardly cut off one of her television guests after he mocked her for losing so many advertisers as part of a nationwide exodus.
Now, as she tries to save her show, she also has to defend herself against serious allegations in a lawsuit that paints her as hostile to working moms. It’s not a great time to be Laura Ingraham.
the rich asshole biographer reveals the rich asshole has been lying his whole life: ‘He was named the ladies man at a school that had no women’
Mike D'Antonio (CNN)
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A biographer of some rich asshole said the president deserves credit for the “audacity” of the lies that he has been telling his entire life during a Friday appearance with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
The segment began by focusing on credible reports that the rich asshole has used the aliases John Miller and John Barron in efforts to deceive reporters. For analysis, Cooper brought on Michael D’Antonio, the Pulitzer prize winning author who wrote the 2016 book The Truth About the rich asshole.
“This is just kind of bizarre that he would have done this,” Cooper noted. “It shows the extent to which he wanted to be seen as being incredibly rich and getting his name in the paper and bragging about women he had been with.”
“The blatant lying from citizen the rich asshole, to where some of the buildings were located, goes beyond simply embellishment to outright fabrications,” Cooper concluded.
“I guess this is how we get to a president who now told 2,000 lies during his time in office,” the rich asshole biographer suggested.
“People will present him with the audio recordings and he will deny that it’s him — even after he admitted it’s him,” D’Antonio explained. “It’s really impossible to follow and kind of crazy-making.”
Cooper, for his part, had his own hypothesis concerning the intended audience of the rich asshole’s misrepresentations.
“It’s interesting, though, because a lot of the lies he told in the past, and even nowadays, they require you to be an idiot,” the “AC360” host observed. “They’re sort of based on the idea that the person listening is just dumb and doesn’t put the pieces together.”
“You got to give the guy credit for audacity,” D’Antonio argued. “He has incredible amounts of chutzpah — and he is not even Jewish.”
“As long as you’re been profiling him, has he always been like this?” Cooper asked.
“Oh yes,” the biographer answered. “This is Donald, really going back to his school days when he was a boy, he insisted to others that he had hit home runs he had never hit in ball games.”
“He left the New York Military Academy declaring himself the greatest baseball player in New York state,” he added. “And it went on and on and on. He was named the ladies man at a school that had no young women at it.”
Watch:
Impeaching Rosenstein? Some Republicans are talking about it
BY MELANIE ZANONA - 04/20/18 06:12 PM EDT
GOP leaders have been silent on the calls from key House conservatives to censure or impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — a move that would fire up the GOP base, but that could also turn off moderate and independent voters in the midterm elections.
In recent weeks, leading conservatives have been aggressively ramping up their threats to impeach or hold Rosenstein in contempt of Congress over a stalled request for documents — and the release of the former FBI Director James Comey’s memos seems unlikely to quiet them.
“Rosenstein has a number of other issues, and that’s really getting documents to Congress that we’ve asked for,” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Thursday. “He needs to get serious about that.”
Meadows said he doesn’t think Mueller’s job is in jeopardy, but “Rod Rosenstein is a little bit more ambiguous, in terms of his future with this administration.”
The effort to take aim at Justice officials could put Republican leaders in a tough spot, especially as they seek to protect vulnerable House members in the midterms.
Democrats are painting the conservative attacks on Rosenstein as an effort to lay the groundwork for President the rich asshole to fire top Justice officials or special counsel Robert Mueller.
“We now live in a time when the administration appears to be actively coordinating with members of the majority to stymie Congressional and DOJ investigations,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. “We need to do everything in our power to protect the integrity and independence of the Department of Justice.”
Speaker Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) office declined to comment, while Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) office did not return a request for comment
Ryan, who is retiring, has said in the past that Mueller’s job is not in jeopardy and that the special counsel should be allowed to carry out its mission.
“I think they should be allowed to do their jobs,” Ryan told reporters at a news conference last week, referring to Mueller and Rosenstein.
On the one hand, Congress taking aim at Rosenstein would throw some red meat to the conservative base and please critics of the department’s Russia investigation. That could help close an expected enthusiasm gap between Republicans and Democrats in the midterm elections.
But moderate and vulnerable GOP lawmakers may be wary to take any action that could be construed as an attempt to undermine the special counsel.
Leaders of the far-right House Freedom Caucus have been blanketing the cable airwaves in recent weeks with their attacks on the Justice Department and FBI, which they claim have been biased and politically motivated in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
They are infuriated that the Justice Department has slow-walked a request from Congress to produce a tranche of documents that touch on a range of issues, including the investigation surrounding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server and how the department has used the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) slapped a subpoena on the Justice Department to force officials to turn over 1.2 million pages of documents by April 5.
But the department failed to comply with that deadline, and has so far only turned over a few thousand documents, some of which have been heavily redacted.
The department has since taken steps to help speed up its response to the congressional request, including appointing a United States attorney to help produce more documents.
Meadows and Jordan reportedly met with Rosenstein on Monday, a few days before the Justice Department ended up releasing memos written by Comey, which the rich asshole and his GOP allies were also seeking.
If the DOJ doesn’t move more quickly or continues to hand over heavily redacted documents, Rosenstein could face impeachment proceedings or attempts to hold him in contempt of Congress, Meadows and others warn.
“Rod Rosenstein’s real problem right now is more with Congress than the president,” said Meadows, who ticked off a list of grievances. “He needs to get serious about responding to congressional requests in days, not in weeks or months.”
“We will have a plan to hold in contempt and impeach,” Rep. Devin Nunes(R-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News last week.
Either motion would require the support of GOP leaders, who decide what comes to the House floor.
It’s unclear, however, whether there’s much appetite in the wider GOP conference for targeting Justice officials — especially as speculation swirls about whether the rich asshole will shake up DOJ leadership after the FBI’s raid on the rich asshole’s personal lawyer earlier this month, which Rosenstein reportedly signed off on.
Some Republicans fear that the firing of Mueller, Rosenstein or Attorney General Jeff Sessions would cause chaos in Washington, spark a constitutional crisis and dim Republican hopes of holding their congressional majorities.
Over half of Republicans, or 55 percent, believe that the rich asshole should not fire Mueller, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted earlier this month. Meanwhile, 69 percent of independents and 82 percent of Democrats feel the same way.
In a sign that some Republicans may be worried how the issue will play out in November, two of the GOP’s most vulnerable members — Reps. Leonard Lance (N.J.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) — have both signed on to House legislation designed to protect the special counsel.
“I am a supporter of the Mueller investigation... It's important that the Mueller [probe] continue,” Lance told CNN’s Don Lemon this week. “I hold town hall meetings regularly, and my constituents want to get to the bottom of how the Russians were involved in tampering with our elective process.”
But, Lance added, Rosenstein’s ouster wouldn’t necessarily spell doom for the special counsel.
“The Mueller investigation would continue, and if someone were to be nominated to be deputy attorney general, that position requires Senate confirmation,” he said.
Lawyer who represented two the rich asshole mistresses cooperating with FBI in Michael Cohen probe
Michael Cohen (CNN)
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A lawyer who formerly represented two women who allegedly had affairs with some rich asshole is cooperating with the FBI in their investigation of the president’s longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen.
The Washington Post reported Friday evening that attorney Keith Davidson, who previously represented adult actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, cooperated with federal prosecutors’ requests to provide “certain limited electronic information” regarding payments allegedly made to the women to keep quiet about their affairs with the rich asshole.
Davidson, along with Daniels, signed a confidentiality agreement shortly before the 2016 election after Cohen paid her $130,000 to allegedly not go public with her story.
The Post noted that the attorney also represented McDougal when she was paid $150,000 in August 2016 by American Media Inc., the National Inquirer‘s parent company, for the rights to her account. The Inquirer never ran the story, and earlier this week, the Playmate was released from the non-disclosure agreement she signed with AMI.
These White House protesters each added 12 words to a beautiful poem on gun violence
“What is it worth? Building graveyards on the backs of our children?”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — “My country ’tis a quivering child’s breath, held in a closet.”
The White House sidewalk is no stranger to protest. But where you might normally find signs, flags, and hearty chanting, Friday’s activist lineup featured something a bit different: poetry.
A few dozen people closely gathered around a makeshift stage in Lafayette Square as the nation’s capital buzzed to life on a cool spring morning. Sarah Browning took the stand. She’s a poet and activist who co-founded Split This Rock, a collective of socially engaged poets on a mission to promote poetic form that, according to its website, “bears witness to injustice and provokes social change.”
In just under an hour, they’d join hundreds of Washington, D.C. students leaving class outside the White House in the second mass walkout against gun violence in recent weeks, held on the anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, which resulted in the deaths of 12 students and one teacher. Exactly 19 years later, a form of ruthless mass murder once unimaginable in a school or place of work is growing deadlier by the year.
A few dozen people closely gathered around a makeshift stage in Lafayette Square as the nation’s capital buzzed to life on a cool spring morning. Sarah Browning took the stand. She’s a poet and activist who co-founded Split This Rock, a collective of socially engaged poets on a mission to promote poetic form that, according to its website, “bears witness to injustice and provokes social change.”
In just under an hour, they’d join hundreds of Washington, D.C. students leaving class outside the White House in the second mass walkout against gun violence in recent weeks, held on the anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, which resulted in the deaths of 12 students and one teacher. Exactly 19 years later, a form of ruthless mass murder once unimaginable in a school or place of work is growing deadlier by the year.
“Today we join with young people who have walked out from school to say, enough is enough — no more guns,” Browning said, as others began quietly forming a line below the mic. “Today the poets join their voice to the young people who are saying ‘no more’ to the threat of guns.”
About two dozen people took to the stage, one a time, each adding no more than 12 words to a single piece titled “Longer than a Gun.” Forming what Browning later described as a “tapestry of voices,” it told a story of heartbreak, despair, and a struggle to come to terms with a national tragedy stuck on repeat.
“Our hearts are less fragile than the nothingness that pulls the trigger,” read one line. Another: “What is it worth? Building graveyards on the backs of our children?”
“Our hearts are less fragile than the nothingness that pulls the trigger,” read one line. Another: “What is it worth? Building graveyards on the backs of our children?”
By gathering socially active poets directly before the National School Walkout, Browning said she hoped to “add voices of witness and imagination” to the conversation for gun control. With roots in the anti-Iraq War movement, she described Split This Rock as a creative force injecting a human perspective into a national push against war, greed, and violence.
“Poets have a way of cutting through the rhetoric, the propaganda that just sells us the same dead language over and over again,” Browning told ThinkProgress. “Poetry can inject a kind of imaginative language back into public life, so that we are reminded that we’re not talking about policy, we’re talking about people who get up every morning and treasure one another.”
Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, Browning said her group proved popular for poets eager to be given a platform for their words, and activists empowered by their messages of hope and action. Split This Rock is hosting a three-day festival this week, the group’s cornerstone gathering which brings socially active poets to Washington, D.C. for workshops and readings.
Among those who gave their voice to the group poem was Joanne Rocky, an area activist and poet with a history of protest stretching back decades, from the fight against the Vietnam War to the desegregation of Glen Echo Park in the early 1960s. “They will beat their guns into poems, and sing out love,” read her line.
Rocky described the push for gun reform as a “family issue,” and lamented a mounting death toll from gun violence as something fixable, yet allowed to persist. “I think it’s critical that we pass laws and get them out of the hands of everyone,” she said.
After their work was completed, Split This Rock joined about 400 D.C.-area students who were gathered nearby outside the White House’s north lawn. Starting at 10 a.m., they sat in silence for exactly 19 minutes while a speaker read out the names of those killed at Columbine, over and over again. Students then set out for a two-mile march down Pennsylvania Avenue, shutting down traffic through the heart of the Washington while chanting against the National Rifle Association and the politicians they support.
Friday’s National School Walkout — separately organized, but with a similar purpose to the nationwide Women’s March event on March 14 — was the third major student-led action since the Parkland shooting on February 14. Coming weeks after hundreds of thousands flooded downtown D.C. in the March for Our Lives, the National School Walkout marked the Columbine anniversary by boosting the same call that students across the country have shouted for months — “never again,” and “enough is enough.”
“The NRA has got to go,” chanted students as they marched to the Capitol Building. “Vote them out,” they declared, embracing the goal of Parkland students to transform their movement into a surge on the polls against politicians blocking action on gun reform. Some marchers carried plastic boxes packed with letters to Congress.
#NationalSchoolWalkout: DC students have taken Penn. Ave for a march to the Capitol. “The NRA has got to go!”
Another emerging thread that students at the National School Walkout shared with actions before it: a fear of being next.
“We’re addicted to guns because we’re a country founded on the seizure of land, and the bringing of people in chains that was enforced by violence,” Browning said. “Until we address those root causes, we can’t address the result that we’re addicted to killing and death.”
“We’re addicted to guns because we’re a country founded on the seizure of land, and the bringing of people in chains that was enforced by violence,” Browning said. “Until we address those root causes, we can’t address the result that we’re addicted to killing and death.”
the rich asshole ambassador’s office tracking primary news stories of Nikki Haley’s chances in 2020
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks during an emergency Security Council meeting over North Korea's latest nuclear test (AFP Photo/KENA BETANCUR)
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This week, a New York Times report revealed President some rich asshole is paranoid that Vice President Mike Pence or United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley might run against him in 2020. Now it seems he might have a reason to be afraid.
According to the Associated Press, Haley’s office accidentally sent press clippings meant for the ambassador to their press list. Among those were the comments “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough said about Haley’s strength as a candidate. The clipping meant for Haley read: “Scarborough: Nikki Haley would beat some rich asshole if she ran in 2020 GOP primary.”
“She has an incredibly bright future and will be a major player for the Republican party in the years ahead,” the AP cited former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, an informal the rich asshole ally. “I think she’s a future secretary of state and vice president. And remember: this president learns a lot from television. She is a remarkably effective presence for the United States of America on television and the president likes that.”
Haley has repeatedly said that she is focused on her work at the U.N
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April 20, 2018
The billionaire Koch Brothers are some of the worst polluters in U.S. history. Now they're celebrating how they got the rich asshole administration to let them run wild.
Billionaire conservatives Charles and David Koch were caught taking a victory lap to celebrate their own success in getting the rich asshole administration to deliver on their wildest dreams.
The Kochs have profited handsomely from businesses that are massive polluters. Their companies produce more climate pollution than even major oil companies like Chevron and Shell.
Previously their company was forced to pay $30 million in what was the largest civil fine for environmental pollution in U.S. history.
But thanks to the rich asshole handing the Koch’s wide network free reign in the American government, the right-wing brothers will be able to pollute and profit at an increased rate.
And they aren’t being shy about it.
The Koch’s political operation recently disseminated a report in which the group “takes credit for more than a dozen new policies” put in place by the rich asshole administration, according to McClatchy reporting.
There are at least 44 the rich asshole administration officials with close ties to the Kochs and their affiliated groups. Notable figures like Kellyanne Conway and White House Counsel Don McGahn worked for the Koch network.
Others, like Mike Pence and OMB Director Mick Mulvaney have benefitted from donations from Koch groups.
During the Obama administration, many of the tea party groups were funded and organized by the Kochs. These groups were a nationwide network that helped to elect many Republicans currently in Congress.
The Koch’s recent “accomplishments” include gutting the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, which cut greenhouse emissions from power plants; the efforts to revoke monument designations in favor of companies who want to drill; efforts to sabotage insurance coverage; and the tax cuts targeted at the super-wealthy (the Kochs are worth at least $96 billion).
Stephen Spaulding, chief of strategy at the government watchdog Common Cause, told McClatchy, “It’s clear they are doing whatever they can to take advantage of the political dynamics to ram their agenda through.”
The rich asshole-led EPA is currently working to change the rules governing polluters in the oil and gas industry. If they get their way, those massive polluters will be given the ability to self-audit their emissions, rather than have them checked by an independent body.
It would be yet another green light for even more pollution, and just the sort of things the Kochs want.
Democratic senators are currently pushing to uncover just how much the rich asshole has allowed the tentacles of the Koch network to burrow inside the government.
In a letter the senators note, “Americans have a right to know if special interests are unduly influencing public policy decisions that have profound implications for public health, the environment, and the economy.”
The rich asshole administration has utter disdain for common sense environmental regulation and policy, and the Koch Brothers network loves it. They’re working to undermine safe air and water in exchange for their personal profit.
With such a close affiliation, it is practically impossible to see any serious differences between the Koch team and the rich asshole. They are effectively one entity, working towards a common pollution-filled vision of the world.
WORLD NEWS
North Korea Suspends Nuclear And Missile Tests: State Media
Pyongyang also plans to close down a site from where it conducted nuclear tests in the past.
North Korea will suspend its nuclear and missile tests, North Korean state media reported Saturday morning local time.
The Korean Central News Agency said that the country was halting nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile launches as of that day, according to The Associated Press. It also plans to close down a nuclear test site in the country’s northern region.
In a statement published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un promised to “never use nuclear weapons” unless there is a nuclear “threat or provocation” to the country.
“North Korea’s nuclear test center will be discarded in order to ensure the transparency of the suspension of the nuclear test,” the statement said.
“The suspension of nuclear testing is an important process for global nuclear disarmament, and the DPRK will join international efforts and efforts to halt the nuclear test altogether.”
President some rich asshole commended North Korea’s suspension of the tests in a tweet about 7 p.m. Friday EDT, calling it “very good news.”
“North Korea has agreed to suspend all Nuclear Tests and close up a major test site,” the rich asshole wrote.
This article has been updated with Kim Jong Un’s official statement and President some rich asshole’s response on Twitter.
the rich asshole admin announces abstinence-focused overhaul of teen pregnancy program
BY JESSIE HELLMANN - 04/20/18 05:43 PM EDT
The rich asshole administration will shift federal funding aimed at reducing teen pregnancy rates to programs that teach abstinence.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Friday the availability of grants through the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, (TPPP) a grant program created under former President Obama that funds organizations and programs working to reduce teen pregnancy rates.
the rich asshole's HHS announced, however, that unlike under the Obama administration, grants will be geared toward organizations that teach abstinence education to teens instead of the comprehensive sex ed approach the previous administration supported.
In a funding announcement released Friday, the administration announced two tiers of funds for the TPP program.
In the first, grantees would have to follow one of two abstinence programs to receive funding.
One of the programs uses a "sexual risk reduction model," which is designed to reduce sexual risk behaviors.
The other program uses a "sexual risk avoidance model," which teaches teens to avoid sex completely.
"Projects will clearly communicate that teen sex is a risk behavior for both the physical consequences of pregnancy and sexual transmitted infections; as well as sociological, economic and other related risks," the funding announcement reads. "Both risk avoidance and risk reduction approaches can and should include skills associated with helping youth delay sex as well as skills to help those youth already engaged in sexual risk to return toward risk-free choices in the future."
In total, tier one will award up to $61 million in funds, ranging from $200,000 to $500,000 per year.
The second tier solicits applications to develop and test "new and innovative strategies" to prevent teen pregnancy while improving adolescent health and addressing "youth sexual risk holistically by focusing on protective factors."
The changes represent a major change to the way the federal government treats teen pregnancy.
The Obama administration mostly awarded TPP grants to organizations that taught comprehensive sex education, which can include teaching teens about contraception and abstinence.
But the rich asshole administration has been shifting toward abstinence programs since hiring several HHS employees who support the approach, including Valerie Huber, the chief of staff for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health, which oversees the TPP program.
Prior to coming to HHS, Huber led Ascend, a national abstinence education advocacy group.
The administration cut short grants for 81 TPP grantees last summer, arguing the programs, which focused mostly on comprehensive sex ed, were ineffective at curbing teen pregnancy rates.
Those grantees would be able to receive funding if they shifted the focus of their programs toward abstinence.
Democrats argue the changes are ideological and will jeopardize record-low teen pregnancy rates in the U.S.
“Both Democrats and Republicans have supported investing in evidence-based approaches to preventing teen pregnancy, so it is disappointing — and deeply concerning — that the rich asshole-Pence Administration is doing everything it can to undermine these investments in ways that take us in the absolutely wrong direction on this issue," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Senate Health Committee. "These changes show yet again that the rich asshole-Pence Administration’s priority is imposing its extreme, backwards ideology, no matter what that means for women, families, and communities.”
Politics-driven ‘secret science’ initiative isn’t going over well with EPA staff
One EPA member with industry ties said the anti-science measures would hinder the agency's own work.
Internal efforts to introduce a “secret science” initiative requiring all data used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) be made public has been met with concern not only from scientists and environmentalists but from members of EPA head Scott Pruitt’s own staff.
Plans to adopt anti-science rules pushed by longtime climate denier and House Science, Space, and Technology Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) have seen resistance from employees within the EPA, Politico first reported Friday. Smith has pushed for restricting the EPA’s use of scientific evidence, arguing the agency should only use scientific studies based on public data.
As critics have pointed out in the past, the impact would be to impose a dramatic burden on EPA officials effectively limiting their ability to introduce new protections for health and the environment.
And now, according to internal emails obtained by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and shared with ThinkProgress, even members of the EPA with deep industry ties are concerned about the initiative’s implications.
In the emails, Nancy Beck, deputy assistant administrator at the EPA chemicals office, expressed worry over that approach. Prior to working at the EPA, Beck worked at the American Chemistry Council, a powerful lobby group whose members include Dow Chemical, DuPont, Monsanto, ExxonMobil Chemical, and Chevron Phillips Chemical.
Writing to Richard Yamada, who works for the EPA’s Office of Research and Development and previously had a role working with Rep. Smith in drafting legislation restricting scientific studies to public data, Beck highlighted the staggering costs associated with requiring data be published, as well as concern over the restrictions on using chemical industry data.
“Making data available is very different than requiring a publication requirement. Such a requirement would be incredibly burdensome, not practical, and you would need to create a whole new arm of the publishing industry to publish these types of studies that nobody is interested in,” she wrote in one January email.
Beck’s criticisms echo a previous report by the Congressional Budget Office that found it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and a lot of time by administrators, to create such a database.
“These data will be extremely valuable, extremely high quality, and NOT published,” Beck continued, nodding to the fact that the new rule would not just impact climate science but industry information pesticide companies do not want to make public. “The directive needs to be revised.”
Beck also noted in a later March email that courts have determined underlying raw data is not necessary for the EPA to make policy decisions.
While they come from an industry perspective, Beck’s emails reflect the wider sentiments shared by scientists and environmental experts. Creating a database of scientific data used by the EPA would be a costly, overwhelming endeavor, one further hindered by the need to redact confidential information such as patient information included in health-related data or sensitive corporate information. More broadly, making such data public could put scientists at risk, to say nothing of breaching confidentiality rules.
Smith has long advocated for such measures regardless and sponsored the Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment (HONEST) Act, essentially a congressional version of the approach currently under consideration by the EPA. The HONEST Act passed the House in March 2017 but it has stalled ever since, with slim chances of proceeding.
Additional emails obtained by UCS confirm that Smith met with Pruitt in early January to discuss implementing the HONEST Act administratively in order to bypass Congress. The documents indicate the current initiative is driven largely by politics, the UCS says, rather than concern for data integrity and the work the EPA does more broadly.
“The biggest takeaway was the policy to restrict the use of science that has been floated around, but not officially confirmed — hatched by political appointees doing their best to make sure independent scientific analysis does not get in their way,” said Yogin Kothari, senior representative at UCS, told The Hill.
Under Pruitt’s leadership, the agency has repeatedly touted work authored by deniers of climate science, in addition to elevating writing from conservative publications like the Daily Caller. A review of Pruitt’s public calendar by ThinkProgress indicates the EPA administrator also prioritized giving speeches to right-wing think tanks funded by the Kochs and Mercers during his first year with the agency, in addition to meeting frequently with industry groups (and none with environmental or public health groups).
Pruitt is under fire for more than partisan politics. The EPA head’s spending habits have drawn the ire of Congress, including the installation of a $43,000 sound-proof privacy booth. Questions over Pruitt’s alleged misuse of funds led 170 lawmakers to sign a resolution calling for his resignation on Wednesday. The internal watchdog at the EPA has launched half a dozen investigations into the issue.
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April 20, 2018
Instead of the rich asshole getting 'tough' on Russia, the Kremlin claims it dictated the perimeters of the U.S. missile strikes in Syria.
Never passing up a chance to make the rich asshole look weak on the world stage, the Kremlin on Friday stressed that when it came to last week’s U.S.-led missile strikes on Syria, Russia dictated what bombing sights were off limits.
If true, the revelation makes a mockery of the rich asshole’s attempt at get-tough rhetoric about Russia in the days leading up to the strikes.
It’s also just the latest example of an American president who seems to habitually bow down to Moscow.
Discussing the attacks on Syria, Russia’s Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the Kremlin was very much in the loop and helped set the perimeters.
“There were military leadership contacts, between generals, between our representatives and the coalition leadership” he said. “They were informed about where our red lines are, including red lines on the ground, geographically. And the results show that they did not cross these red lines.”
That boastful explanation completely undercuts the premise of the attack, which should have been to punish Russia. A key ally of Syria, Russia has denied that any chemical attack took place on April 7 in the Syrian city of Douma. The attack killed more than 40.
Earlier this month, the rich asshole was trash-talking about the planned strikes and warning Russia to butt out:
That gambit seemed designed to bolster the rich asshole’s hollow mantra about how “tough” he’s been on Russia, even after Russian operatives helped him win the 2016 election.
In the week since the U.S. joined France and the U.K. in launching missiles strikes against the Syrian government in response to its use of chemical weapons, the foray has devolved into yet another political headache for the rich asshole.
And as usual, the problem has been Russia.
On Sunday, the rich asshole’s U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley announced to the world that the U.S. would be rolling out more sanctions against Russia for its support of the murderous Syrian regime. The sanctions were to target Russian companies that helped Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s government in making and deploying chemical weapons.
Haley’s declaration reportedly sent the rich asshole into a rage, as he yelled at his television.
Then, the White House quickly contradicted Haley. When a rich asshole adviser tried to blame her for the “confusion,” she hit back. “With all due respect,” Haley said, “I don’t get confused.”
By Thursday, it was reported that the rich asshole’s team informed Russian officials there would be no sanctions before the rich asshole even told his own U.S. ambassador.
Bottom line: There will be no additional U.S. penalties against Russia in the wake of the chemical attacks. Once again, the rich asshole caved to the Kremlin.
MSNBC panel: Giuliani hired to ‘give the rich asshole the cover to fire Rosenstein’ and kill special counsel investigation
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Photo by Gage Skidmore.
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Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is attempting to create a narrative for President some rich asshole to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, as long-time counselor Michael Cohen is laying the groundwork to turn on his long-time patron, a panel on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House explained on Friday.
“In addition to the conventional wisdom that Cohen poses great jeopardy to some rich asshole, that’s built on another conventional wisdom, which is Michael Cohen is guilty of a lot of things and he is almost certainly going to flip on some rich asshole,” guest host John Heilemann analyzed.
“And this story that points to, hey, maybe I wouldn’t take a bullet for some rich asshole, maybe some rich asshole is kind of a bad boss,” he continued. “This is part of the narrative that is going to get us to the moment Michael Cohen turns on some rich asshole.”
“How many times do you know people to say, ‘I’ll take a bullet’ until somebody points a gun at them?” the Rev. Al Sharpton asked. “And now you’re really looking at a real bullet.”
“If The Times writes about how he was poorly treated, that’s only the icing on the cake,” Rev. Sharpton continued. “The cake is that he knows he can go to jail now — for real.”
“The Cohen raid was a huge moment that signified the entire forces of the Justice Department, Mueller’s team and SDNY is being brought to bear on this case,” conservative pundit Bill Kristol argued. “That’s why I do think the possibility of firing Rosenstein soon is high, the possibility of pardons is high, and the possibility of all of this coming to a head is high.”
The panel suggested that Giuliani joining the rich asshole’s legal team was part of an effort to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, to ultimately fire special counsel Mueller.
“And Giuliani, I totally agree with Al, Giuliani is setting up a narrative here where he is going to be the guy — who with some credibility…” he trailed off as Rev. Sharpton interrupted.
“Giuliani will be the one that can come in and say, ‘I tried to negotiate, Rosenstein is the problem.’ He can give the rich asshole the cover to fire Rosenstein,” he predicted.
“Here’s a guy that worked in the Justice Department,” Rev. Sharpton continued. “I can hear the rich asshole now saying, ‘this guy knows the department and he knows Rosenstein was doing something that was inappropriate or something that was wrong, he knows it better than i do, I’ve got to listen to Rudy Giuliani’s advice.'”
“I think this New York Times story, Bill, I think you’re onto something,” Heilemann suggested. “This story is a plant, I’m sure, I’m not demeaning The New York Times in reporting it, but this is Michael Cohen starting to lay the groundwork for why the ultimate loyalist might try to have to turn on his boss.”
Watch:
Michael Cohen tried to apologize to Melania for payment
Melania the rich asshole (Screen Capture)
April 20, 2018
Jessica Kwong
Posted with permission from Newsweek
Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen reportedly attempted to apologize to the president’s wife Melania Trump over the $130,000 hush payment he made to cover up his client’s alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels.
Related: Michael Cohen Drops Trump Dossier Lawsuit Because He Has Too Many Other Legal Cases to Fight
Cohen—who is under a federal investigation related to such payments and documents who many now suspect may flip on the president—approached and tried to say sorry to the first lady earlier this year at a GOP fundraiser held at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort, The New York Times reported Friday.
The alleged affair between Donald Trump and Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is said by Daniels to have taken place a year after he married Melania and four months after she gave birth to their son Barron.
The Times’ story does not detail what, if any response, the first lady had to Cohen at the time.
The first lady has been silent on the alleged affair, even as further details have emerged. However, the first lady has appeared to distance herself from her husband on multiple occasions, canceling her appearances to his events or arriving on her own.
A spokeswoman for Melania Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Newsweek on Friday.
Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation for the watchdog Common Cause, told Business Insider earlier this month that Cohen could argue that the payments were made to prevent the first lady from being embarrassed.
“Further investigation may ... undercut any argument by Michael Cohen that this payment wasn't about keeping the information from voters but to keep the information from Melania,” Ryan said.
"I think to the extent that Cohen argues this was about keeping the information from Melania, then what Melania knew and when she knew it will certainly be relevant," Ryan said, explaining that she, too, could help the FBI’s investigation on Cohen.
Cohen is faced with legal jeopardy on multiple fronts after his office, home and hotel room was raided by the FBI last week.
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