the rich asshole’s DHS wants to ‘protect’ immigrant kids by arresting their parents in ‘cruel public policy experiment’
President of the United States some rich asshole speaking at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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Immigrant rights groups were outraged on Friday as reports surfaced of a new proposal by officials at the rich asshole’s Department of Homeland Security to arrest, detain, and then prosecute adults who attempt to cross the U.S.-Mexico border with their children—a “zero tolerance” policy that critics say would rip apart thousands of families.
The proposal would make “children as young as two and three years old pawns in a cruel public policy experiment,” according to Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Trump administration wants to use kids as young as 2 and 3 years old as pawns in a cruel public policy experiment.
Under @SecNielsen, immigration authorities have already illegally separated hundreds of families — which is why we sued — and now want to do more damage. twitter.com/mariasacchetti…
The department has also floated the idea of separating parents from their children as soon as they are apprehended as another deterrent to families attempting to immigrate
Now, DHS officials are suggesting that parents attempting to accompany their children in border crossings should be treated as potentially dangerous human traffickers, and detained in criminal detention facilities.
Instead of quickly releasing parents who are detained, as DHS does now the majority of the time, the department would threaten parents with criminal charges and jail time—the “most effective” deterrent to immigrating families, according to an internal memo obtained by the Washington Post.
DHS has “a legal obligation to protect the best interests of the child whether that be from human smugglings, drug traffickers, or nefarious actors who knowingly break our immigration laws and put minor children at risk,” department spokesperson Katie Waldman told The Hill on Friday.
Reports of the new potential prosecution policy come as a caravan of about 200 migrants approach the border with plans to request asylum, having traveled through Mexico from Central America. The rich asshole administration and Fox News have denounced the expected arrival of the group as a “disgrace” to national security. Most of the travelers are women and children, making the journey as a large group for safety.
Philip G. Schrag, a Georgetown law professor and asylum expert, called the proposal to charge immigrant parents with crimes “terrible for both the children and the parents.”
“I think it’s absolutely wrenching psychologically…What are we doing to those children psychologically that will haunt us years down the road if they become Americans?” he said to the Post.
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Immigrant rights groups were outraged on Friday as reports surfaced of a new proposal by officials at the rich asshole’s Department of Homeland Security to arrest, detain, and then prosecute adults who attempt to cross the U.S.-Mexico border with their children—a “zero tolerance” policy that critics say would rip apart thousands of families.
The proposal would make “children as young as two and three years old pawns in a cruel public policy experiment,” according to Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.
Under @SecNielsen, immigration authorities have already illegally separated hundreds of families — which is why we sued — and now want to do more damage. twitter.com/mariasacchetti…
The department has also floated the idea of separating parents from their children as soon as they are apprehended as another deterrent to families attempting to immigrate
Now, DHS officials are suggesting that parents attempting to accompany their children in border crossings should be treated as potentially dangerous human traffickers, and detained in criminal detention facilities.
Instead of quickly releasing parents who are detained, as DHS does now the majority of the time, the department would threaten parents with criminal charges and jail time—the “most effective” deterrent to immigrating families, according to an internal memo obtained by the Washington Post.
DHS has “a legal obligation to protect the best interests of the child whether that be from human smugglings, drug traffickers, or nefarious actors who knowingly break our immigration laws and put minor children at risk,” department spokesperson Katie Waldman told The Hill on Friday.
Reports of the new potential prosecution policy come as a caravan of about 200 migrants approach the border with plans to request asylum, having traveled through Mexico from Central America. The rich asshole administration and Fox News have denounced the expected arrival of the group as a “disgrace” to national security. Most of the travelers are women and children, making the journey as a large group for safety.
Philip G. Schrag, a Georgetown law professor and asylum expert, called the proposal to charge immigrant parents with crimes “terrible for both the children and the parents.”
“I think it’s absolutely wrenching psychologically…What are we doing to those children psychologically that will haunt us years down the road if they become Americans?” he said to the Post.
Judge tosses out Manafort’s last-ditch effort to derail Mueller’s Russia probe
Paul Manafort appears on 'Morning Joe' (Photo: Screen cap)
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Former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort has lost his last-ditch bid to derail special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The Associated Press reports that U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has tossed out Manafort’s civil suit that challenged Mueller’s authority to charge him for crimes related to his work as a lobbyist for a Kremlin-connected Ukrainian politician.
Manafort’s attorneys had argued that Mueller did not have the authority to pursue money-laundering charges against their client because those alleged criminal activities had nothing to do with Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
However, the special counsel’s office produced evidence showing that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last year had specifically signed off on granting Mueller additional authority to pursue charges against Manafort.
In dismissing Manafort’s suit, Jackson allowed that the former the rich asshole campaign chairman’s “concerns” about Mueller’s authority to bring charges against him could be addressed during his criminal trial.
Ex-CIA director John Brennan warns the rich asshole that House GOP’s ‘flawed report’ means nothing to Mueller
Former CIA director John Brennan in the Oval Office, official White House photo by Pete Souza
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President some rich asshole claimed House Republicans had cleared him and his campaign of Russia collusion — but former CIA director John Brennan warned him the worst was yet to come.
The House Intelligence Committee’s GOP majority issued a report Friday that found no evidence of collusion, although the panel’s Democrats dissented, and the rich asshole called for the special counsel probe’s end.
“Just Out: House Intelligence Committee Report released,” the rich asshole tweeted. “‘No evidence’ that the rich asshole Campaign ‘colluded, coordinated or conspired with Russia.’ Clinton Campaign paid for Opposition Research obtained from Russia- Wow! A total Witch Hunt! MUST END NOW!”
Brennan replied to the rich asshole’s tweet a short time later, and cautioned the president against prematurely celebrating the GOP findings.
“A highly partisan, incomplete, and deeply flawed report by a broken House Committee means nothing,” Brennan tweeted. “The Special Counsel’s work is being carried out by professional investigators—not political staffers. SC’s findings will be comprehensive & authoritative. Stay tuned, some rich asshole….”
MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle gobsmacked after the rich asshole backer blames Hillary Clinton for WH vetting debacles
Andy Puzder and Stephanie Ruhle (MSNBC)
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MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle on Friday shut down onetime some rich asshole Secretary of Labor nominee Andy Puzder after he hijacked a conversation on the administration’s abysmal vetting record to complain that people who are critical of the president’s picks “approve Hillary Clinton who supported her husband” despite allegations of sexual harassment “and more.”
Puzder—whose own nomination as secretary of labor was derailed after it became clear the Senate did not have enough votes to confirm him—was complaining that the real issue is senators’ unwillingness to approve the rich asshole’s nominees, even as Ruhle noted the rich asshole administration has a less-than-stellar track record of selecting properly-vetted staffer.
“Is it the Democrats and the media’s fault?” Ruhle asked, listing off Rob Porter, the former White House staff secretary who was fired after the media reported multiple allegations of domestic violence from his former partners.
“We have to do our homework,” Ruhle said.
Journalist and MSNBC contributor Elise Jordan argued it’s “insulting to the American public” to expect the Senate to be a “rubber stamp” for the president. Referring to the Senate debate over the rich asshole’s latest secretary of state pick, Mike Pompeo, Jordan said she opposes Pompeo’s appointment because American “deserves better than someone who is retweeting conspiracy theories.”
That’s when Puzder went off, inexplicably, on former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
“But it’s okay to approve Hillary Clinton who supported her husband when he took women—there were very well-founded allegations of sexual harassment, sexual abuse and more—it was okay to approve her when she supported her husband in silencing those women but it’s not okay to support a guy who deleted some tweets?” Puzder asked.
“Andy, we’re going to give Elise a moment to talk, but I really don’t think you want to go down the rabbit hole of who supports a chronic sexual harasser?” Ruhle asked. “Do you?”
“Sure,” Puzder replied, arguing “we changed the rule when Bill Clinton was president.”
“Before Bill Clinton, we never would have let somebody stay in office like that,” he said. “Now there’s a Republican in office and you want to change the rules.”
Watch the panel go off-the-rails below, via MSNBC:
Hannity bought an apartment complex in Georgia — then eviction notices skyrocketed by 400%: report
Sean Hannity (Fox News)
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Yet another blockbuster report on Fox News host Sean Hannity’s shady real estate empire reveals that eviction notices at one of his properties absolutely skyrocketed after he bought it in 2014.
The Guardian reports that eviction notices in the property have ballooned by 400 percent in the past four years, as “county court records say that judgments approving the removal of 61 different residents” from the building since Hannity took over.
Over the previous four years, in contrast, a mere 12 residents were served eviction notices at the apartment complex.
Hannity’s attorney tells the Guardian that his client “is not involved in the management of these properties” and he also claims that “evictions only occur after a material breach of the lease terms.”
After his massive real estate holdings were reported by the Guardian earlier this month, Hannity framed his investments as gifts of charity to poor communities who were desperate for influxes of capital.
“The fact is, these are investments that I do not individually select, control, or know the details about; except that obviously I believe in putting my money to work in communities that otherwise struggle to receive such support,” Hannity said.
The Guardian also reported this month that one of Hannity’s real estate shell companies in 2012 bought 11 foreclosed homes from property dealer Jeff Brock, who four years later would be convicted on charges of bank fraud and conspiracy for his role in rigging foreclosure auctions.
Former SNL cast-member Rob Schneider gripes Alec Baldwin’s the rich asshole impression is ruining the show
Alec Baldwin as some rich asshole, Rob Schneider - screenshots
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In an interview with the New York Daily News, former Saturday Night Live cast-member Rob Schneider criticized perpetual SNL guest Alec Baldwin for his portrayal of President some rich asshole, saying he finds the mocking of the president “hard to watch.”
The conservative comedian who went on to star in the “Deuce Bigelow” movies, admitted that the late night comedy and sketch show has always leaned left politically — but that the continual the rich asshole bashing has made the show uninteresting.
“The fun of ‘Saturday Night Live’ was always you never knew which way they leaned politically,” the star of the Netflix show, ‘Real Rob’ stated. “You kind of assumed they would lean more left and liberal, but now the cat’s out of the bag they are completely against the rich asshole, which I think makes it less interesting because you know the direction the piece is going.”
According to Schneider, Baldwin in particular is “hard to watch,” adding that the film and television star is a “brilliant actor… he’s not a comedian.”
“I don’t find his impression to be comical,” Schneider explained. “Because, like I said, I know the way his politics lean and it spoils any surprise. There’s no possible surprise. He so clearly hates the man he’s playing.”
According to the ex-cast-member, Baldwin should treat the rich asshole more gently like SNL alum Dana Carvey did with his impersonation of the less volatile ex-President George H.W. Bush
“Carvey played it respectfully,” Schneider said. “To me, the genius of Dana Carvey was Dana always had empathy for the people he played, and Alec Baldwin has nothing but a fuming, seething anger toward the person he plays.”
MSNBC’s Mika breaks down lawyer’s tantalizing hint about potential the rich asshole abortion payout
Mika Brzezinski and Micahel Avenatti (MSNBC)
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Attorney Michael Avenatti hinted that a Playboy model may have been paid off on behalf of President some rich asshole, and MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski asked a legal analyst to explain what that means.
The lawyer for porn actress Stormy Daniels said Thursday on “Morning Joe” that statements made in open court appeared to contradict filings by attorneys for Michael Cohen, the president’s longtime personal counsel.
“Judge (Kimba) Wood ordered Michael Cohen’s attorneys to disclose all of his clients for the last three years,” Avenatti said, “and there were three clients listed — three clients listed … some rich asshole, the rich asshole organization and Sean Hannity. (Republican donor Elliott) Broidy was not disclosed in open court as one of Michael Cohen’s clients.”
Brzezinski pointed out that Avenatti also revealed at least one other had come forward with credible claims about the rich asshole, although the attorney declined to offer specifics, and she asked MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos to explain.
“Are we looking at potentially another woman and another payoff?” Brzezinski asked. “One that might be a lot higher? What do you make of Michael Avenatti’s tips that he was putting out on our show?”
Cevallos said he couldn’t be sure what Avenatti meant, saying the attorney was a “master of the tease."
“He’s had these sketch drawings that we’ve sort of ruminated over, but ultimately it’s hard to say what Michael Avenatti really has in his pocket in terms of additional witnesses or possible people complaining against the rich asshole,” Cevallos said.
Brzezinski said the attorney had specifically referenced a $1.5 million payout to a former Playboy model, which has also been reported as $1.6 million, and said statements in open court cast doubt on claims the payment was facilitated by Cohen on behalf of Broidy.
“The last time he specifically mentioned something like Stormy Daniels was threatened, it ended up being the focus of a ’60 Minutes’ piece, so you have to wonder,” she said. “You don’t just drop a number like that as a tease without something to back it up, or do you, perhaps?”
Cevallos agreed, and said the payment could potentially violate campaign finance law.
“Remember (special counsel Robert) Mueller referred this to the Southern District of New York because of the potential payoff issues to Stormy Daniels,” he said. “You may remember Michael Avenatti has raised issues of extortion with these contracts, that these women were forced to enter into these agreements on pain of threat, so the potential criminal charges, we could guess at them all day but there definitely is a large spectrum of potential criminal liability which, by the way, in the Cohen matter, must have been demonstrated to a neutral magistrate in order to get that search warrant in the first place.”
GOP report says Flynn went to infamous Russian spymaster’s house for ‘very productive’ 2015 meeting
Ret. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (Photo: Defense Intelligence Agency)
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The House Republicans’ report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election claims that there was no collusion between the rich asshole campaign and Russia — despite the fact that it also contains a potentially damaging new piece of evidence against former the rich asshole national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Specifically, the report claims that both Flynn and his son, Michael Flynn Jr., met with former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak at his private residence in early December of 2015 — just two months before Flynn would formally join the rich asshole campaign as a foreign policy adviser.
What’s more, the report says that Flynn Jr. sent an email to the Russian embassy after the meeting that described it as “very productive.”
Despite this, the report says that investigators did not reach out to the Flynns to learn the nature of this meeting because both of them had made clear their “intent to assert their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.”
Days after the meeting at Kislyak’s house, Flynn flew to Moscow and attended a dinner commemorating the 10th anniversary of the founding of Russian state media outlet RT.com that was also attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Read the whole excerpt from the GOP’s report below.
Did we already know Flynn and his son met Kislyak at his house before the infamous RT dinner? docs.house.gov/meetings/IG/IG…
the rich asshole is bombarding us with scandals — but his impact on a crucial economic institution could last for decades
President some rich asshole (AFP / NICHOLAS KAMM)
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Warning: What you are about to read is not about Russia, the 2016 election, or the latest person to depart from the White House in a storm of tweets. It’s the Beltway story hiding in plain sight with trillions of dollars in play and an economy to commandeer.
While we’ve been bombarded with a litany of scandals from the Oval Office and the rich asshole family, there’s a crucial institution in Washington that few in the media seem to be paying attention to, even as President the rich asshole quietly makes it his own. More obscure than the chambers of the Supreme Court, it’s a place where he has already made substantial changes. I’m talking about the Federal Reserve.
As the central bank of the United States, the “Fed” sets the financial tone for the global economy by manipulating interest rate levels. This impacts everyone, yet very few grasp the scope of its influence.
During times of relative economic calm, the Fed is regularly forgotten. But what history shows us is that having leaders who are primed to neglect Wall Street’s misdoings often sets the scene for economic dangers to come. That’s why nominees to the Fed are so crucial.
We have entered a landmark moment: no president since Woodrow Wilson (during whose administration the Federal Reserve was established) will have appointed as many board members to the Fed as some rich asshole. His fingerprints will, in other words, not just be on Supreme Court decisions, but no less significantly Fed policy-making for years to come — even though, like that court, it occupies a mandated position of political independence.
The president’s latest two nominees to that institution’s Board of Governors exemplify this. He has nominated Richard Clarida, a former Treasury Department official from the days of President George W. Bush who later became a strategic adviser to investment goliath Pimco, to the Fed’s second most important slot, while giving the nod to Michelle Bowman, a Kansas bank commissioner, to represent community banks on that same board.
Like many other entities in Washington, the Fed’s Board of Governors has been operating with less than a full staff. If Clarida is approved, he will join the rich asshole-appointed Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and incoming New York Federal Reserve Bank head John C. Williams — the New York Fed generally exists in a mind meld with Wall Street — as part of the most powerful trio at that institution.
Williams served as president of the San Francisco Fed. Under his watch, the third largest U.S. bank, Wells Fargo, created about 3.5 million fake accounts, gave its CEO a whopping raise, and copped to a $1 billion fine for bilking its customers on auto and mortgage insurance contracts.
Not surprisingly, Wall Street has embraced the rich asshole’s new Fed line-up because its members are so favorably disposed to loosening restrictions on financial institutions of every sort. Initially, the financial markets reflected concern that Chairman Powell might turn out to be a hawk on interest rates, meaning he’d raise them too quickly, but he’s proved to be anything but.
As the rich asshole stacks the deck in his favor, count on an economic impact that will be felt for years to come and could leave the world devastated. But rest assured, if the Fed can help the rich asshole keep the stock market buoyant for a while by letting money stay cheap for Wall Street speculation and the dollar competitive for a trade war, it will.
History Warns Us
At a time when inequality, economic hardship, and household and personal debt levels are escalating and wages are not, why should any of this matter to the rest of us? The answer is simple enough: because the Fed sets the level of interest rates and so the cost of money. This, in turn, indirectly impacts the value of the dollar, which means everything you buy.
Since the financial crisis, the Fed has kept the cost of borrowing money for banks at near zero percent interest. That allowed those banks to borrow money to buy their own stock (as did many corporations) to inflate their value but not, of course, the value of their service to Main Street.
When money is cheap because interest rates are low or near zero, the beneficiaries are those with the most direct access to it. That means, of course, that the biggest banks, members of the Fed since its inception, get the largest chunks of fabricated money and pay the least amount of interest for it.
Although during the election campaign of 2016 the rich asshole chastised the Fed for its cheap-money policies, he’s since evidently changed his mind (which is, of course, very Trumpian of him). That’s because he knows that the lower the cost of money is, the easier it is for major companies to borrow it. Easy money means easy speculation for Wall Street and its main corporate clients, which sooner or later will be a threat to the rest of us.
The era of trade wars, soaring stock markets, and the rich asshole gaffes may feel like it’s gone on forever. Don’t forget, though, that there was a moment not so long ago when the same banking policies still reigning caused turmoil, ripping through the country and devouring the finances of so many. It’s worth recalling for a moment what happened during the Great Meltdown of 2008, when unrestrained mega-banks ravaged the economy before being bailed out. In the midst of the current market ecstasy, it’s an easy past to ignore. That’s why the rich asshole’s takeover of the Fed and its impact on the financial system matters so much.
Let’s recall that, on September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers crashed. That bank, like Goldman Sachs a former employer of mine, had been around for more than 150 years. Its collapse was a key catalyst in a spiral of disaster that nearly decimated the world financial system. It wasn’t the bankruptcy that did it, however, but the massive amount of money the surviving banks had already lent Lehman to buy the toxic assets they created.
Around the same time, Merrill Lynch, a competitor of Lehman’s, was sold to Bank of America for $50 billion and American International Group (AIG) received $182 billion in government assistance. JPMorgan Chase had already bought Bear Stearns, which had crashed six months earlier, utilizing a $29 billion government and Federal Reserve security blanket in the process.
In the wake of Lehman’s bankruptcy, $16 trillion in bailouts and other subsidies from the Federal Reserve and Congress were offered mostly to Wall Street’s biggest banks. That flow of money allowed them to return from the edge of financial disaster. At the same time, it fueled the stock and bond markets, as untethered from economic realities as the hot air balloon in The Wizard of Oz.
After nearly tripling since the post-financial crisis spring of 2009, last year the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose magically again by nearly 24%. Why? Because despite all of his swamp-draining campaign talk, the rich asshole embraced the exact same bank-coddling behavior as President Obama. He advocated the Fed’s cheap-money policy and hired Steve Mnuchin, an ex-Goldman Sachs partner and Wall Street’s special friend, as his Treasury secretary. He doubled down on rewarding ongoing malfeasance and fraud by promoting the deregulation of the banks, as if Wall Street’s greed and high appetite for risk had vanished.
Impending Signs of Crisis
A quarter of the way into 2018, shadows of 2008 are already emerging. Only two months ago, the Dow logged its worst single-day point decline in history before bouncing back with vigor. In the meantime, the country whose banks caused the last crisis faces record consumer and corporate debt levels and a vulnerable geopolitical global landscape.
True, the unemployment rate is significantly lower than it was at the height of the financial crisis, but for Main Street, growth hasn’t been quite so apparent. About one in five U.S. jobs still pays a median income below the federal poverty line. Median household income is only up 5.3% since 2008 and remains well below where it was in 1998, if you adjust for inflation. Workforce participation remains nearly as low as it’s ever been. Meanwhile, the top 1% of American earners saw their incomes go up by leaps and bounds since the Fed started manufacturing money — to more than 40 times that of the bottom 90%.
Just as before the 2007-2008 financial crisis, there’s a scary level of confidence among politicians and regulators that neither the economy nor the banking sector could possibly go bust. Even the new Federal Reserve chair views the possible need for bailouts as a relic of a bygone time. As he said at his confirmation hearing, “Generally speaking I think the financial system is quite strong.” When asked if there are any U.S. banks that are still too big to fail, he responded, “I would say no to that.”
That’s a pretty decisive statement, and not strikingly different from oneoutgoing Fed Chair Janet Yellen made last year. By extension, it means that the rich asshole’s new chairman supports laxer structures for the big banks and more cheap money, if needed, to help them. So watch out.
When a crisis hits, liquidity dies, and banks close their doors to the public. Ultimately, the same formula for crisis will surely send Wall Street executives crawling back to the government for aid and then some rich asshole will find out what financial negligence truly is.
A Time of Crisis and Financial Collusion
As signs of crisis emerge, few in Washington have delved into how we can ensure that a systemic crash does not happen again. That’s why I’ll never forget the strange message I got one day. It was in the middle of May 2015, about a year after my book, All the Presidents’ Bankers, had been published, when I received an email from the Federal Reserve. Every year, the Fed, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank hold an annual conference where the most elite central bankers from around the globe assemble. To my shock, since I hadn’t exactly written in a kindly fashion about the Fed, I was being invited to speak at the opening session about why Wall Street wasn’t helping Main Street.
Two months later, I found myself sitting in front of a room filled with central bankers from around the world, listening to Fed Chair Janet Yellen proclaim that the worst of the crisis and its causes were behind us. In response, the first thing I asked that distinguished crowd was this: “Do you want to know why big Wall Street banks aren’t helping Main Street as much as they could?” The room was silent. I paused before answering, “Because you never required them to.”
I added, “The biggest six U.S. banks have been rewarded with an endless supply of cheap money in bailouts and loans for their dangerous behavior. They have been given open access to these funds with no major consequences, and no rules on how they should utilize the Fed’s largess to them to help the real economy. Why should you expect their benevolence?”
After I returned home, I became obsessed with uncovering just how the bailouts and loans of that moment were only the tip of an iceberg, the sort of berg that had once taken down the Titanic — how that cheap money fabricated for Wall Street had been no isolated American incident.
What my research for my new book, Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World, revealed was how central bankers and massive financial institutions have worked together to manipulate global markets for the past decade. Major central banks gave themselves a blank check with which to resurrect problematic banks; purchase government, mortgage, and corporate bonds; and in some cases — as in Japan and Switzerland — stocks, too. They have not had to explain to the public where those funds were going or why. Instead, their policies have inflated asset bubbles, while coddling private banks and corporations under the guise of helping the real economy.
The zero-interest-rate and bond-buying central bank policies prevailing in the U.S., Europe, and Japan have been part of a coordinated effort that has plastered over potential financial instability in the largest countries and in private banks. It has, in turn, created asset bubbles that could explode into an even greater crisis the next time around.
So, today, we stand near — how near we don’t yet know — the edge of a dangerous financial precipice. The risks posed by the largest of the private banks still exist, only now they’re even bigger than they were in 2007-2008 and operating in an arena of even more debt. In some rich asshole’s America, what this means is that the same dangerous policies are still being promoted today. The difference now is that the president is appointing members to the Fed who will only increase the danger of those risks for years to come.
A crash could prove to be President the rich asshole’s worst legacy. Not only is he — and the Fed he’s helping to create — not paying attention to the alarm bells (ignored by the last iteration of the Fed as well), but he’s ensured that none of his appointees will either. After campaigning hard against the ills of global finance in the 2016 election campaign and promising a modern era Glass-Steagall Act to separate bank deposits from the more speculative activities on Wall Street, the rich asshole’s policy reversals and appointees leave our economy more exposed than ever.
When politicians and regulators are asleep at the wheel, it’s the rest of us who will suffer sooner or later. Because of the collusion that’s gone on and continues to go on among the world’s main central banks, that problem is now an international one.
Nomi Prins is a TomDispatch regular. Her new book, Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World (Nation Books), has just been published. She is a former Wall Street executive. Special thanks go to researcher Craig Wilson for his superb work on this piece.
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, Alfred McCoy’s In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power, as well as John Dower’s The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II, John Feffer’s dystopian novel Splinterlands, Nick Turse’s Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead, and Tom Engelhardt’s Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.
Kellyanne Conway praises the rich asshole’s Fox & Friends meltdown as ‘delicious’ — and says he’ll call in next month
Kellyanne Conway (Fox News)
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Kellyanne Conway says President some rich asshole wants to make regular appearances on “Fox & Friends” — where he potentially created a mountain of legal problems for himself this week with a rambling interview.
The White House adviser appeared Friday morning to clean up after the president, who undercut some of his own legal arguments and tossed longtime attorney Michael Cohen overboard.
“Tough act to follow with yesterday’s interview,” Conway said.
The interview has dominated coverage since it aired Thursday morning, but Fox News barely mentioned the president’s appearance — which the co-hosts cut short despite the rich asshole’s willingness to continue to generate newsworthy statements.
“By the way, I know our producers were working for a very long time to set that up,” said co-host Steve Doocy. “Thank you very much for making that all happen, it was great.”
Many viewers noted that the “Fox & Friends” hosts seemed to grow increasingly alarmed as the president ranted against the media and his political enemies, and contradict arguments made by attorneys in civil and criminal cases involving his associates.
“The president wanted to do that,” Conway said. “The president had a great time bringing his case to the American people, as he does on social media and these bilateral Q&As and certainly on the South Lawn and press pool sprays and other interviews, and the president said he would like to perhaps come once a month as news breaks.”
Doocy yelped and started applauding, although the best grim-faced co-host Brian Kilmeade could muster was, “that would be great.”
“Pretty much a monthly basis,” Conway said. “Back in the private sector he was on every week, every Monday. At certain times, same time every weekend, he was going through 15 or 20 minutes of his view on policy. Many people went back to listen to the interviews for clues as how he might govern as the president and his issues of the day.”
Conway praised her boss for clearly articulating his views on important issues, although the president spent much of his time singling out his critics on television and then insisting he was too busy to watch.
“You see that consistency, that unbroken thread between some of those interviews and much of the policies today,” she said. “I had to credit him yesterday, I said, ‘You didn’t even put a semicolon in there — you covered so much territory,’ that he leaves the rest of us cold in terms of our analytical and conversational skills. The president was able to cover so much ground with you yesterday and appreciated the platform because it connects him with the American people, not just on Fox News, but at that really was the buzz around the globe yesterday in large part, because everybody had to replay your clips. That must have been delicious.”
the rich asshole: I won't get 'played' by North Korea
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 04/27/18 12:59 PM EDT
President the rich asshole said Friday he will not be “played” in nuclear talks with North Korea, pushing back against critics who say he is walking into a trap by meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The president said peace negotiations on the Korean Peninsula have “never gone this far,” arguing recent developments are a sign Kim is serious about eliminating any nuclear weapons in his country's arsenal.
“We're not going to be played, OK? We’re going to hopefully make a deal, if not that’s fine,” the rich asshole said during a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House.
the rich asshole spoke soon after Kim became the first North Korean leader to cross into South Korea for a historic meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Both leaders declared they would attempt to negotiate an official end to the Korean War by the end of the year and work toward denuclearization.
the rich asshole said the U.S. “has been played beautifully like a fiddle” in the past by North Korea, but this time is different “because you had a different kind of leader.”
But some national security experts are skeptical of the talks, concerned that the rich asshole and Moon might give too much away to Kim in search of an elusive deal with the rogue nation.
Russian lawyer who met with Don Jr at the rich asshole Tower admits she’s an ‘informant’ for the Kremlin: report
Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer some rich asshole, Jr. met with to get "dirt" on Hillary Clinton (image via Twitter).
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According to a report in the New York Times, the Russian lawyer who met with President some rich asshole’s eldest son, Don Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and other campaign officials at the rich asshole Tower before the election has a deeper relationship with the Kremlin than she has previously admitted.
Natalia V. Veselnitskaya has previously stated that she has only a passing acquaintance with the Kremlin but new emails show that she “worked hand in glove with Russia’s chief legal office to thwart a Justice Department civil fraud case against a well-connected Russian firm.”
The reports goes on to state that Veselnitskaya appears to have recanted her earlier denials of Russian government ties.
In an interview to be broadcast Friday by NBC News, she acknowledged that she was not merely a private lawyer but an informant for Kremlin official, Yuri Y. Chaika, the prosecutor general.
“I am a lawyer, and I am an informant,” she said. “Since 2013, I have been actively communicating with the office of the Russian prosecutor general.
You can read the whole report here
Judge tosses Manafort lawsuit challenging Mueller's authority
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 04/27/18 12:41 PM EDT
A federal judge on Friday tossed out former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort's lawsuit challenging the scope of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
In her decision, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote that a civil suit is not the way for Manafort to challenge actions by the prosecutors who are working for Mueller's office.
"A civil case is not the appropriate vehicle for taking issue with what a prosecutor has done in the past or where he might be headed in the future," wrote Berman Jackson, who was appointed by President Obama.
"It is a sound and well-established principle that a court should not exercise its equitable powers to interfere with or enjoin an ongoing criminal investigation when the defendant will have the opportunity to challenge any defect in the prosecution in the trial court or on direct appeal.
"Therefore, the Court finds that this civil complaint must be dismissed."
Manafort filed the lawsuit in January, claiming that Mueller's investigation is overly broad and not permitted under Justice Department regulations.
“By ignoring the boundaries of the jurisdiction granted to the Special Counsel in the Appointment Order, Mr. Mueller acted beyond the scope of his authority. Mr. Mueller’s actions must be set aside,” a January court filing from Manafort's team said.
Manafort's lawyers argued that Mueller's appointment was illegal and that the charges against the former campaign chairman, which surround his lobbying work for pro-Russian political parties in Ukraine, fall outside the scope of Mueller's work.
A Department of Justice spokesman called Manafort's lawsuit "frivolous" after it was filed.
The former the rich asshole aide is charged along with his business associate, Richard Gates, of hiding millions of dollars made from lobbying work in Ukraine from U.S. authorities. Gates pleaded guilty earlier this year.
Manafort has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. His trial is set to begin in September.
CNN’s W Kamau Bell demolishes the rich asshole’s sudden discovery that Lincoln freed the slaves
W. Kamau Bell -- CNN screenshot
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Appearing on CNN’s “New Day” to promote his “United Shades of America” show on the same network, commentator W. Kamau Bell was asked about a little-commented upon portion of President some rich asshole’s rambling phone-call into “Fox & Friends” on Thursday morning where the president blurted that Lincoln freed the slaves as if it was news.
Speaking with co-hosts Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota, Bell was shown a clip of the rich asshole speaking to the stunned “Fox & Friends” hosts, with the president responding to whether Republicans have “ignored” the black community.
“You know I think it was just a custom,” the rich asshole replied. “People don’t realize, if you go back to the Civil War, it was Republicans that did the thing. Lincoln was a Republican. Some how it changed over the years, and I will say I think it is changing back.”
“Remember I was going to get no black folks,” the rich asshole added about his 2016 election. “Well, I got a lot. I got a lot of support.”
Asked to comment, Bell was beside himself with laughter.
“I love when he learned something and he thinks it’s the first person to break the news,” Bell snarked,. “I ‘m surprised Fox News didn’t go: ‘Breaking news — Lincoln freed the slaves.’ Yeah, we all know that. We all took American civic classes in elementary school. The Republican Party freed the enslaved people. We know about the Southern Strategy and the Dixiecrats, and they crossed over and George Wallace. And now we’re here — we all know this."
“So then you get what is a genuine area of concern,” host Cuomo asked. “That the African-American vote that is culturally and customarily bundled with Democrats, right? People will point and say where is the progress in those communities where Democrats are in positions of authority? Why do they get the black vote when the situation for black lives is not better despite their allegiance to that party?”
“Because we have two choices,” Bell explained. “We don’t have a multiparty system. If we had a multiparty system black people might not want to be with the party. But generally the Democrats work better with the black community.”
“It doesn’t mean they get an A-plus,” he added. “The case is we only have two choices.”
You can watch the video below via CNN:
the rich asshole: Russia probe 'MUST END NOW!'
BY JORDAN FABIAN - 04/27/18 10:41 AM EDT
President the rich asshole on Friday declared the Russia investigation “MUST END NOW” after congressional Republicans released a report saying his campaign did not collude with Moscow to influence the 2016 presidential election.
“Wow! A total Witch Hunt! MUST END NOW!” the rich asshole tweeted.
Just Out: House Intelligence Committee Report released. “No evidence” that the Trump Campaign “colluded, coordinated or conspired with Russia.” Clinton Campaign paid for Opposition Research obtained from Russia- Wow! A total Witch Hunt! MUST END NOW!
the rich asshole’s message came just minutes after Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released their final report on Russia’s influence operations in the 2016 election.
It found “no evidence that the rich asshole campaign colluded, coordinated, or conspired with the Russian government.” But the report does criticize the rich asshole and Hillary Clinton campaigns for “poor judgment and ill-considered actions” in their dealings with Russia-related figures.
Democrats on the Intelligence panel refused to endorse the report, calling the committee's investigation a sham that was biased in favor of the rich asshole.
Critics of the president fear he might use the report to stymie the federal probe into Russia’s election interference, including firing the special counsel Robert Mueller or his supervisor, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
The White House has refused to rule out the possibility that the rich asshole could fire either man, but the president has downplayed the chances he will do so.
“They’ve been saying I’m going to get rid of them for the last three months, four months, five months, and they’re still here,” the rich asshole told reporters last week.
Still, during an interview Friday morning, the rich asshole suggested he might someday take a more hands-on approach to the Justice Department.
"Because of the fact that they have this witch hunt going on, with people in the Justice Department that shouldn't be there — they have a witch hunt against the president of the United States going on," the rich asshole said on "Fox & Friends."
the rich asshole’s manic and disjointed Fox and Friends interview was an epic disaster for his legal team
President some rich asshole called in to the popular breakfast show "Fox and Friends" to mark the occasion of First Lady Melania the rich asshole's birthday. (AFP / Nicholas Kamm)
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President the rich asshole started off the week in a beautiful bromance with French President Emmanuel Macron and ended it with his nominee as Veterans Affairs secretary, White House physician Ronny Jackson, forced to withdraw under allegations of illegally dispensing drugs and passing out drunk on the job. In between, the media harangued the rich asshole repeatedly about his growing legal troubles and his Parisian bestie appeared before Congress and declared in so many words that since the U.S. has a buffoon for a president its allies will take up the job of articulating the values of civilized nations. When the pressure builds up like this, the rich asshole simply has to vent. And for some reason he has to do it in public.
This article was originally published at Salon
Since the rich asshole doesn’t give normal press conferences and is refusing to give many interviews, his only outlet in that case was his morning briefing team of Brian Kilmeade, Steve Doocy and Ainsley Earhardt of “Fox & Friends,” who happily accepted his call on Thursday morning. He sounded unusually energized, speaking at twice his normal speed, and was obviously extremely agitated. The president doesn’t drink coffee or I might have suspected he’d had a couple of quad espressos before he picked up the phone. Perhaps he downs a six pack of Diet Cokes upon waking. Whatever the case, he was as manic and disjointed as we’ve ever heard him. And that’s saying something.
He started off by saying it was Melania’s birthday, admitting he had only gotten her a card. Then went on about how much France loves him and then something about Iran and small boats circling and “barrels” full of money. Next he launched into a long diatribe about the supposed Democratic obstructionists who are failing to confirm his appointees, followed by a big shout-out to people he called “warriors,” which included the extremists of the Freedom Caucus, his onetime campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and the pro-the rich asshole performance art duo known as Diamond and Silk. (They happened to be testifying before Congress that morning and it was almost as surreal as the rich asshole’s call.) Then he rambled on about Dr. Jackson and appeared to threaten Sen. Jon Tester, the Democrat who had released damaging allegations about Jackson, warning the senator that his constituents in Montana really love the rich asshole.
Doocy then led the rich asshole into an angry denunciation of James Comey, filled with what are apparently a bunch of Fox News conspiracy theories that only people deeply enmeshed in that cocoon can possibly unravel. the rich asshole didn’t even seem to understand them so he just worked himself up into a frenzy culminating with this:
There’s no collusion with me and the Russians. Nobody’s been tougher to Russia than I am. You can ask President Putin about that. There’s been nobody. Between the military and the oil and all of the other things that I’ve done — the aluminum tax. They send us a lot of aluminum, and I put tariffs on aluminum coming in. The 60 people that we sent out — the 60 so-called diplomats. Nobody’s been tougher. Nobody’s even been close to as tough as me, and we hear this nonsense. So there’s no collusion whatsoever
You have to love the idea that he says they should ask Putin.
He went on a bit more about Comey and then digressed to some old news about CNN having given debate questions to Hillary Clinton, at which point the “Fox & Friends” hosts started to look a bit green around the gills. He was rapidly melting down.
They chatted about Kanye West’s ecstatic support for the rich asshole and the president asserted, on no evidence whatever, that African-Americans had voted for him. “People don’t realize, you know, if you go back to the Civil War it was the Republicans that really did the thing,” he said. “Lincoln was a Republican.” This appears to be one of those historical facts the rich asshole learned only recently.
There was more craziness, most of it just vintage incoherent the rich asshole rambling, escalating in tone and manic energy all the way through. But threading through the entire conversation was a lot of discussion about the Justice Department, the FBI, Michael Cohen and Robert Mueller, all of which are obviously very much on his mind. Some of what the president said immediately got him into trouble, and the rest may have far-reaching ramifications.
First, the rich asshole said that Cohen only did “a tiny, tiny little fraction” of his legal work but that “Michael would represent me and represent me on some things, he represents me — like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal.” There happened to be a hearing in the Cohen case later in the morning and federal prosecutors used that quote in court to undermine the rich asshole’s claim to attorney-client privilege, since he had said Cohen only did a small fraction of his legal work. They weren’t the only lawyers who jumped on it:
Stormy Daniels also used Trump’s Fox & Friends interview against him and Cohen in a court filing — the second same-day adverse filing by my count. documentcloud.org/documents/4448…
the rich asshole also may have stepped in it with his comments maligning the Department of Justice and the FBI. Early in the conversation he said, “I have decided that I won’t be involved. I may change my mind at some point, because what’s going on is a disgrace.” Then he got very wound up and circled back to the topic later:
You look at the corruption at the top of the FBI. It’s a disgrace. And our Justice Department, which I try and stay away from, but at some point I won’t.
Later in the morning the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 14–7 to advance legislation to protect special counsel Robert Mueller from an unjustified firing. In an unprecedented move in this Congress, four Republicans joined with the Democrats to vote for it. Even some who didn’t, like Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, suggested that there could be an impeachment if the rich asshole interfered with the investigation. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska called that possibility “politically suicidal,” and even Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, generally a loyalist, said it would be “disastrous” if the rich asshole tried to shut down the Mueller probe.
the rich asshole’s greatest mistake, however, may have been tossing Michael Cohen to the wolves by saying, “I have nothing to do with his business.” That’s a little hard to believe, since Cohen was an executive vice president of the rich asshole Organization for more than a decade. Cohen certainly had to hear it as his old boss casting him aside. It was also cruel of the rich asshole to destroy Cohen’s claim of attorney-client privilege for his own sake. You can bet that prosecutors will remind Cohen of the rich asshole’s words when they ask him if he might have some information he’d like to share with them.
the rich asshole’s lawyers have to hope that his little venting session relieved some of the pressure and that he’ll keep his mouth shut for a while. They should all send a thank you note to the “Fox & Friends” producers (and maybe even Rupert Murdoch himself) for insisting that their hosts pull the plug on the president, something I’ve never seen happen before. Any other news organization would have kept on going as long as he wanted to talk. But Fox is on the rich asshole’s team so they valiantly tried to save him from himself. Unfortunately for him, it was way too late.
House Intel faults the rich asshole, Clinton campaigns in final report on Russian investigation
BY OLIVIA BEAVERS - 04/27/18 09:47 AM EDT
The House Intelligence Committee on Friday released its final report on the 2016 presidential election, which found "no evidence" of ties between President the rich asshole's campaign and Russia.
The report, written by Republicans on the committee, did criticize "poor judgment and ill-considered actions" by the rich asshole's campaign — as well as the campaign run by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“While the Committee found no evidence that the rich asshole campaign colluded, coordinated, or conspired with the Russian government, the investigation did find poor judgment and ill-considered actions by the rich asshole and Clinton campaigns,” it said.
The committee had already revealed last month in a one-page summary of the report’s findings that it had found no evidence of collusion.
The report said Russia did carry out a “multi-faceted” active measures campaign against the U.S. in an effort to “sow fear and division in American society.”
The committee voted along party lines in March to release its controversial, Republican-authored report, wrapping up a yearlong investigation that was filled with contentious panel infighting.
Democrats were outraged by the unilateral GOP decision to end of the investigation last month, calling the move premature and an attempt to shield the White House from scrutiny.
The report notes two cases where the rich asshole campaign made poor judgment. One was the controversial June 2016 the rich asshole Tower meeting in which some rich asshole Jr. and other top the rich asshole campaign aides met with a Russian lawyer after being promised dirt on Clinton’s campaign.
The other noted incident is the rich asshole campaign's “periodic praise for and communications with Wikileaks — a hostile foreign organization — to be highly objectionable and inconsistent with U.S. national security interests.”
The report says the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) used poor judgment when they hired the opposition firm Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research on the rich asshole. The memo assembled from that research, now known as the controversial “Steele dossier," has become a flashpoint for Republicans.
The dossier, compiled in part by former British spy Christopher Steele, made a series of salacious allegations about the rich asshole’s ties to Russia.
The committee also found that the Clinton campaign and DNC, using a series of cutouts and intermediaries to obscure their roles, paid for opposition research on the rich asshole obtained from Russian sources, including a litany of claims by high-ranking current and former Russian government.”
President the rich asshole was quick to tout the report, writing on Twitter that the Russian investigation "MUST END NOW."
“Wow! A total Witch Hunt! MUST END NOW!” the rich asshole tweeted.
Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), who led the committee's investigation, announced the report’s release while expressing profound disappointment at how much of the report was redacted by the intelligence community.
"Today, [the House Intelligence Committee] is able to release a declassified version of our report on the Russia Investigation. With the public release of this report, the American people will have the opportunity to access the information used to draw the conclusions found in last month's findings and recommendations,” Conaway said in a statement.
"However, I am extremely disappointed with the overzealous redactions made by the [intelligence community]. Many of the redactions include information that is publicly available, such as witness names and information previously declassified,” he added.
Conaway said he would challenge the redactions going forward in the hope of releasing more information.
"When we started this investigation, we set out to give the American people the answers to the questions they've been asking and we promised to be as transparent as possible in our final report," he said.
"I don't believe the information we're releasing today meets that standard, which is why my team and I will continue to challenge the [intelligence community's] many unnecessary redactions with the hopes of releasing more of the report in the coming months."
Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, blasted the conclusions of the GOP report as “superficial.”
“To determine whether this evidence of collusion reaches the level of proof beyond a reasonable doubt of criminal conspiracy, we must await the report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, since the Majority refused to interview the witnesses and obtain the documents necessary to find out,” he said in a statement.
“Throughout the investigation, Committee Republicans chose not to seriously investigate — or even see, when in plain sight — evidence of collusion between the rich asshole campaign and Russia, instead adopting the role of defense counsel for key investigation witnesses.”
Schiff, challenging the Republican findings, said their investigation did find “evidence of collusion.”
“In fact, we found evidence of collusion in the abundant secret meetings and communications between the rich asshole campaign officials and associates such as Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos, some rich asshole Jr., Michael Flynn, Carter Page, and others, with emissaries and officials from, or linked to the Russian government,” he said.
“The rich asshole campaign and Administration’s efforts to deny, conceal and, when discovered, misrepresent what took place in these interactions with the Russians is powerful evidence of a consciousness of wrongdoing.”
the rich asshole’s failed VA pick ran ‘grab and go’ dispensary where staffers could get prescription-free drugs: report
White House physician and VA nominee Ronny Jackson. Image via screengrab.
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Damning new revelations are still dropping about White House doctor Ronny Jackson, even after he withdrew his name from consideration to be secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Five current and former White House medical unit employees tell CNN that Jackson ran what they describe as a “grab-and-go” clinic in the White House where staffers could get access to prescription-free drugs, such as the powerful sleeping aid Ambien, that they were then free to distribute to their children.
One former staffer tells CNN that Jackson presided over a drug distribution system that offered “loose control of the controlled medications” and that would even give some departing staffers drugs that would otherwise require a prescription as “parting gifts.”
“We would just hand them out,” said one former staffer who worked for Jackson. “They’d come in and say, ‘Hey, can I have an Ambien?’ And we would just hand them out. Without having to sign a thing. We all had a huge problem with it.”
“People in the unit can pick it up and hand it out to staffers,” said another source. “Jackson himself is directing people to do that.”
Art Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at the New York University School of Medicine, tells CNN that these accusations against Jackson are profoundly disturbing if true.
“Giving out Ambien or Provigil sleep aids ‘like candy’ as alleged is still dangerous and irresponsible because these drugs have notorious side effects,” he explained.
Russian from the rich asshole Tower meeting: 'I am a lawyer, and I am an informant'
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 04/27/18 09:46 AM EDT
Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with some rich asshole Jr. and others at the rich asshole Tower during the 2016 presidential race, appears to have greater ties to the Russian government than she previously admitted.
The New York Times reports that Veselnitskaya in at least one instance worked for Russia’s chief legal office against the U.S. Justice Department in a fraud case targeting a top Russian firm with government connections.
And in an interview set to be broadcast Friday on "NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” and on MSNBC's "On Assignment with Richard Engel," Veselnitskaya calls herself an "informant" for the Russian government, an admission that goes further than her previous claims of just being a private attorney.
“I am a lawyer, and I am an informant,” she says in the NBC interview. “Since 2013, I have been actively communicating with the office of the Russian prosecutor general.”
The admission also comes despite testimony Veselnitskaya submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee in November, in which she claimed no connection to Russian President Vladimir Putin's government.
“I operate independently of any governmental bodies,” she wrote in November. “I have no relationship with Mr. Chaika, his representatives and his institutions other than those related to my professional functions as a lawyer.”
Veselnitskaya was referring to Yuri Chaika, Russia's prosecutor general, for whom on Friday she admitted to being a regular source of information.
Friday's reports raises new questions about the June 2016 the rich asshole Tower meeting attended by the rich asshole Jr., the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, the rich asshole's son-in-law and now senior adviser, and whether that meeting had connections to Russia's government that were previously unknown.
It was previously reported that Rob Goldstone, a British music producer who set up the meeting between the rich asshole Jr. and Veselnitskaya, told the rich asshole Jr. that the information the lawyer could provide was “part of Russia and its government’s support for some rich asshole.”
“If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer,” the rich asshole Jr. replied to Goldstone in one email.
This story was updated at 12:55 p.m.
Turns out Don Jr.’s meeting at the rich asshole Tower was with a Russian agent
The Russian lawyer some rich asshole Jr. hosted at the rich asshole Tower just admitted she’s an informant.
The Russian lawyer whom some rich asshole Jr. hosted during his infamous meeting at the rich asshole Tower on June 9, 2016 — Natalia Veselnitskaya — has insisted she is not Kremlin spy. The rich asshole campaign’s allies bought this assertion hook, line, and sinker.
But according to newly-released emails from a Russian watchdog group, as well as Veselnitskaya’s own admission in a forthcoming television interview, she has been an informant for the Russian government for years.
“I am a lawyer, and I am an informant,” she said in an interview with NBC News to be broadcast on Friday, according to the New York Times. “Since 2013, I have been actively communicating with the office of the Russian prosecutor general.”
The New York Times also reported that per emails obtained by Dossier, a Russian government watchdog group established by Russian exile and Putin foe Mikhail Khodorkovsky, she “worked hand in glove with Russia’s chief legal office to thwart a Justice Department civil fraud case against a well-connected Russian firm.” Veselnitskaya, asked about the emails in the NBC interview, said she was hacked.
In June, some rich asshole Jr., as well as senior adviser Jared Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort, hosted a group that included Veselnitskaya at the rich asshole Tower, the headquarters of some rich asshole Sr.’s presidential campaign.
the rich asshole Jr. had received an email promising “opposition research” on Hillary Clinton from casual acquaintance Rob Goldstone, a publicist who had traveled to Russia 18 times, including a trip right before the rich asshole Tower meeting. Goldstone said that Veselnitskaya was “the Russian government attorney” and “part of Russia and its Government’s support for some rich asshole,” and she wanted to meet with him. the rich asshole Jr.’s famous response: “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”
the rich asshole Jr. insisted that the meeting was inconsequential and merely about Russian adoption. It’s still unknown what exactly the rich asshole Jr. discussed at the meeting, even though emails later obtained by CNN indicate that it was more than just a simple policy discussion about adoption policy.
Russian court documents reported on by Reuters previously showed that Veselnitskaya represented the FSB, Russia’s official spy agency, as a client for almost a decade. But Friday’s revelation was the first time Veselnitskaya herself admitted she was an informant.
Veselnitskaya has attempted to separate herself from the Kremlin after news of the rich asshole Tower meeting broke. In an interview with NBC News in July 2017, she said she did “not represent anyone other than myself” in the meeting and denied that she had any connection at all to the Kremlin.
In November, she told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a statement, “I operate independently of any governmental bodies.”
“The Democratic block insists that I was some kind of an agent of the Kremlin, spy, and so forth, a Kremlin lawyer,” she later told Fox News in January 2018. Fox News also used that interview to attempt to dismiss the Steele memo.
Conservative media bought those claims as a defense of the rich asshole’s culpability in what could have been evidence of collusion between the rich asshole campaign and the Russian government.
Breitbart said that Veselnitskaya’s claims “[poured] cold water on the latest attempts to tie the rich asshole campaign to an alleged Russia conspiracy.”
Fox News reported that Don Jr.’s lawyer Alan Futerfas said that Veselnitskaya was “not a government official.” He brushed the meeting off as inconsequential, and a simple discussion of U.S. blacklist law. The Russians did bring up a major point of contention between the United States and Russia, the Magnitsky Act which prevented key Russians linked to human rights abuses from acting freely within the United States in response to Russia’s military action in Ukraine, repeal of which was a key demand the of the Putin regime.
“In my view, this is much ado about nothing,” Futerfas said in a separate written statement, according to Fox News.
Gateway Pundit, a conspiracy theory factory that has White House press credentials, dubbed the claims “another nothingburger.”
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the rich asshole Jr. “did not collude with anybody to influence the election.”
some rich asshole Jr., recently back from a media vacation following the headlines he earned from the rich asshole Tower meeting news, has yet to tweet about this new revelation about Veselnitskaya, even though he spent most of Friday morning tweeting and retweeting adulatory things about his father’s foreign policy accomplishments and deriding the media for ignoring them.
‘Hello sailor’: CNN panel baffled and amused by the rich asshole’s bizarre ‘remember sailor’ Twitter outburst
Alisyn Camerota, Chris Cuomo -- CNN screenshot
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Responding immediately to a tweet by President some rich asshole that contained a cryptic comment stating “remember sailor,” CNN’s New Day panel tried to make heads or tails over what the president was talking about while also laughing at the seeming randomness of it.
“Here’s what he just tweeted,” host Alisyn Camerota said before reading the tweet which had just been posted. “‘“Is everybody believing what is going on. James Comey can’t define what a leak is. He illegally leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION but doesn’t understand what he did or how serious it is. He lied all over the place to cover it up. He’s either very sick or very dumb. Remember sailor!'”
“What does ‘remember sailor’ mean?” a baffled Camerota asked.
“It appears the reference to a picture of a submarine mentioned by Mike Pence in a presidential debate,” CNN contributor John Avlon suggested. “The president can’t stop obsessing about petty politics. This is an historic moment in the Korean peninsula today, brought in large part by the president’s own action — his tough talk. Instead of focusing on that, he can’t help but obsess over domestic politics and take swipes at folks and it diminishes the office.”
With co-host Chris Cuomo saying he was surprised by the rich asshole’s tweet, panelist Brian Karem added, “Hellooo sailor,” causing the entire panel laugh.
Cuomo went on to add that the rich asshole’s tweet seemed to indicate that the president was unable to grasp “What is going on” as the leaders of both North Korea and South Korea were reaching an historic accord
Watch the video below via CNN:
House GOP: Michael Flynn didn’t break the law he pleaded guilty to
By
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House Republicans released a new report on Russian election interference and claimed that the rich asshole's former national security adviser Michael Flynn didn't break the law. But Flynn pleaded guilty to doing exactly that.
House Republicans are strangely asserting that the rich asshole’s disgraced former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, is innocent of a crime he already pleaded guilty to.
Flynn admitted to lying to the FBI and is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. the rich asshole has been worried that key insider figures like Flynn, who was a senior adviser to his campaign, may testify against him.
When Flynn worked on the rich asshole campaign, he met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. He later lied to the FBI about the details of that meeting.
Flynn has been a celebrity in conservative circles, and has even gone on the campaign trail for Republican congressional candidates, apparently hoping to make some sort of political comeback, despite his guilty plea and pending sentencing.
In their final report on Russian election interference from the House Intelligence Committee, Republicans bent over backward to make excuses for the rich asshole’s former adviser.
In “Finding #22,” the document notes Flynn’s guilty plea for lying to FBI officials, then states: “Federal Bureau of Investigation agents did not detect any deception during Flynn’s interview.”
But the assertion that someone speaking to federal officials can only be guilty of lying if the deception is detected in real time is absurd.
If that were the case, witnesses who perjure themselves could only be charged in the moment of committing the perjury. If their statements were determined to be untruthful after the fact, they would escape prosecution.
Furthermore, Flynn has readily admitted that he broke the law.
In the legal documents he signed, he stated that he “made materially false statements and omissions during an interview with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on January 24, 2017, in Washington, D.C.”
In an accompanying statement, he said, “I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right.” He added, “I accept full responsibility for my actions.”
Yet his own words and admission of culpability was simply waved away by House Republicans.
Such a blatant rejection of the facts likely explains why House Democrats refused to sign on to the final report.
“The Majority’s report reflects a lack of seriousness and interest in pursuing the truth,” Democrats stated in their “minority view” release.
Republicans refused to call in several key witnesses or request documents that were believed pertinent to the case.
Committee Democrats blasted this behavior.
“The Majority hobbled the Committee’s ability to conduct a credible investigation that could inspire public confidence,” they said.
Proclaiming that Flynn is innocent of the crimes he has already admitted to bolsters the allegation that Republicans never took the investigation seriously and are attempting to whitewash the entire affair to assist the rich asshole’s presidency.
Flynn is guilty. He has admitted it. No biased report from House Republicans can change that.
He doesn’t care about the people he destroys: Art of the Deal ghostwriter reveals terrifying truth about the rich asshole
President some rich asshole (AFP/File / Olivier Douliery)
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Dr. Ronny Jackson withdrew himself from consideration for being appointed Secretary of Veterans Affairs on Thursday as scrutiny of his past revealed dark allegations and the criticism began to mount. But this is a common pattern for people who get close to President some rich asshole, note New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Peter Baker.
Many have noted that the Jackson nomination revealed the White House’s completely absent vetting procedures. Normally, a Cabinet nominee would face exhaustive scrutiny by the White House when his or her name was put forward. the rich asshole’s choice of Jackson, though, seemed to be made entirely on the basis that the president liked him personally for his service as White House physician.
the rich asshole’s disregard for these normal procedures not only hurts his administration; it can hurt the people he mistakenly tries to elevate.
Some who get close to the president find their reputations or even their lives destroyed. And according to people who know the president well, he just doesn’t care that much.
“People are not people to him, they are instruments of his ego,” Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter for the rich asshole’s The Art of the Deal told the Times. “And when they serve his ego, they survive, and when they don’t, they pass into the night.”
He added: “Ultimately, the fate of anyone who casts their lot with the rich asshole is — you are passing through. And I just can’t think of anybody for whom it is not true.”
Jack O’Donnell was the former president of the rich asshole Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. He said to the Times of the president that he has no “compassion and empathy,” adding “the recycling of people, people crashing and burning, it means nothing to him.”
the rich asshole plans to be a regular Fox News contributor — from the Oval Office
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the rich asshole will now use his position of power ... to become a salesman for Fox News. Kellyanne Conway announced he'll become a regular contributor to the right-wing propaganda network.
Kellyanne Conway announced that the rich asshole will become a regular contributor to Fox News, no doubt so he can use the right-wing propaganda network to spread his message unfiltered.
Conway appeared on “Fox & Friends,” the program the rich asshole obsessively watches and live-tweets on a disturbingly regular basis, and told the surprised hosts, “the president has said that he would like to, perhaps, come once a month (to Fox and Friends) and as news breaks.”
According to Conway, the rich asshole “appreciated the platform” given to him on Fox Thursday morning, saying, “everybody had to replay your clips — that must have been delicious to some of them.”
So now when the rich asshole isn’t golfing or engaging in the TV news watching binges he refers to as “executive time,” he will apparently be appearing on Fox. It is a redefinition of his job to effectively become a hype man for a television network, but cheap salesmanship has been the hallmark of the rich asshole’s career.
Conway also referenced the regular call-ins the rich asshole made “every Monday” on Fox News before he became a political figure. She said those interviews offered “some clues” as to how he would govern.
She is correct, but perhaps not in the manner she intended. When the rich asshole was a Fox regular, he used his position to promote the racist birther conspiracy that alleged President Obama was not born in the United States.
He also used those segments to push bigoted comments about Latino immigrants and voiced other conspiracy theories.
Unfortunately, he has taken the hate and discrimination to the White House, along with the paranoid conspiracies. He has pushed for a Muslim ban, yammered on about Latinos as rapists, and repeatedly refers to a “deep state” conspiracy undermining his presidency.
Conway also that the rich asshole enjoys doing interviews, but he has largely avoided the press questioning him in situations he cannot control.
He has only given one formal solo presidential press conference, which is the least for any president in U.S. history.
He occasionally goes to Fox for softball interviews with hosts that are unabashed supporters of his, like Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, and Lou Dobbs, but avoids those who might question the decisions that have contributed to his unpopularity.
the rich asshole would not even sit with NBC for a pre-Super Bowl interview, even though Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush did so on multiple occasions.
the rich asshole needs to be surrounded by sycophants and yes men. Joining Fox News is perfectly in sync with that desire.
Using the presidency to grant legitimacy to right-wing propaganda is not normal behavior, but it is a natural outgrowth of who the rich asshole has always been.
MSNBC’s Mika flabbergasted by the rich asshole ‘going rogue on himself’ on Fox & Friends: ‘He was acting crazy’
Mika Brzezinski (MSNBC)
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MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski was alarmed and disturbed by President some rich asshole’s behavior during a “manic” interview with “Fox & Friends” that undercut some of his own legal positions in civil and criminal probes.
The “Morning Joe” co-host was worried by the president’s “high-pitched” tone as he ranted about the media and spoke freely about the various legal cases that involved him, and MSNBC’s John Heilemann agreed.
“He sounded like a person having a manic episode on national television,” Heilemann said. “The high pitch of the voice, the scratchiness, the palpitating quality of it.”
The panelists agreed that the rich asshole had blown up his claims of attorney-client privileges with Michael Cohen, and host Joe Scarborough said a mutual associate described the lawyer’s reaction to the Fox News interview.
“Michael Cohen was shocked, disappointed and could not believe that some rich asshole was helping the other side on these two legal fights,” Scarborough said.
Brzezinski wondered whether anyone in the White House was invested in saving the rich asshole from himself any longer.
“He was acting crazy,” she said. “I’m talking about the president of the United States. Unless you don’t think that undermining multiple legal cases building against yourself and speaking extemporaneously in a high-pitched tone, without an ability to control yourself and stop talking, unless you don’t think that’s crazy, it really sounded absolutely crazy yesterday.”
“So who in the White House has — is anyone even with him when he’s doing these calls?” Brzezinski continued. “That’s a valid question, because usually when the president of the United States does a media interview, there’s preparation, there’s a circle of people around him — there’s a strategy. There are key words to focus on, there’s a message. This guy was just going rogue on himself.”
the rich asshole won’t clarify what he meant by cryptic promise to get more ‘involved’ in Justice Department
"Our Justice Department -- which I try and stay away from, but at some point, I won't..."
During his remarkable Fox & Friends interview on Thursday, President the rich asshole twice vowed to meddle more aggressively in the FBI going forward.
Alluding to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, the rich asshole said that “because of the fact that they have this witch hunt going on, with people in the Justice Department that shouldn’t be there… I have taken the position — and I don’t have to take this position and maybe I’ll change — that I will not be involved with the Justice Department.”
“I will wait until this is over,” he continued. “It’s a total — it’s all lies and it’s a horrible thing that’s going on.”
Trump accuses Comey of lying in his memos, when he recalls Trump telling him he didn't spend a night in Moscow.thinkprogress.org/trump-moscow-f… pic.twitter.com/kcFOsQEKE6
Trump on him meddling in DOJ: Because of the fact that they have this witch-hunt going on against the president of the United States, I have taken the position, and I don't have to take this position and maybe I'll change, that I will not be involved with the Justice Department." pic.twitter.com/ZRTbTXz9PE
Later, an obviously angry the rich asshole returned to the topic as Fox & Friendshosts tried to end the interview.
“You look at the corruption at the top of the FBI — it’s a disgrace,” the rich asshole said. “And our Justice Department — which I try and stay away from, but at some point, I won’t — our Justice Department should be looking at that kind of stuff, not the nonsense of collusion with Russia.”
TRUMP on his performance as president: "I'm fighting a battle against a horrible group of deep-seeded people -- drain the swamp -- that are coming up with all sorts of phony charges, & they're not bringing up real charges against the other side. So we have a phony deal going on." pic.twitter.com/KeYdG9Ob0y
Trump concludes @foxandfriends interview by screaming about conflicts of interest on Robert Mueller's team, and promising to meddle more aggressively in the Department of Justice going forward. pic.twitter.com/ITak7tEEJJ
It’s unclear exactly what the rich asshole had in mind when he vowed to get more “involved” in the DOJ, though it’s notable that he repeatedly brought it up in the context of his frustration with the Mueller investigation. The White House has said it believes the rich asshole has the power to fire the special counsel, but even if he doesn’t, the rich asshole could seek to curtail Mueller by firing and replacing deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing Mueller following Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recusal.
During a pool spray with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday, a reporter asked the rich asshole to clarify what he meant. But despite the fact that the rich asshole clearly heard the question, he chose to ignore it.
“You said earlier this week that you weren’t interested in intervening in the DOJ, but that might change–” the reporter started to ask, before the rich asshole cut her off and indicated he wanted reporters to leave the room.
Watch:
The notion that the rich asshole hasn’t already meddled in the Justice Department already is laughable, given that he’s publicly admitted he fired then-FBI Director James Comey because of his frustrations with the FBI’s investigation into his campaign. The move didn’t work out well for the rich asshole, as it resulted in Rosenstein appointing Robert Mueller as special counsel.
Firing Mueller also carries risk for the rich asshole. Earlier this week, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed warning the rich asshole that firing Mueller could result in his impeachment.
“Firing Mr. Mueller would be a grave error. It would trigger a crisis, possibly even impeachment,” Hatch wrote. “It would threaten many of the administration’s accomplishments and make continued progress virtually impossible.”
the rich asshole attorney Michael Cohen bragged he was part of the Russian mob: report
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President some rich asshole's personal lawyer Michael Cohen exits a hotel in New York City, U.S., April 11, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
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In a deep dive into the complex relationship between President some rich asshole and his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the brash and controversial lawyer once bragged that he was a part of the Russian mob.
Cohen is currently under investigation by federal authorities for financial crimes, including making a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
According to the Journal, longtime friend Gregory Ehrlich recalled that he had invited Cohen to his wedding and was amused when he he overheard the attorney bragging to another guest that he affiliated with the Russian mob. Ehrlich, who has since broken off ties with Cohen, admitted that he was skeptical of the boast.
On Thursday President the rich asshole seemed to throw Cohen under the bus during a rambling Fox News interview in which he admitted that the attorney was working at his behest on the Stormy Daniels hush money agreement, only to later say that Cohen legal troubles had nothing to do with him or his campaign.
You can read the report here.
Top Democratic representative describes the ‘frustrating’ experience of questioning Scott Pruitt
"The impression was that he is not in charge."
At Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt’s first Congressional hearing on Thursday, Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY), didn’t want to ask about Pruitt’s litany of ethical scandals. The congressman would have preferred talking about the important function that the EPA plays in maintaining clean air and water, or about the rich asshole administration’s proposed 23 percent cut to the agency’s funding.
But faced with the chance to make Pruitt publicly account for his numerous scandals — many of which are the subject of nearly a dozen federal inquiries — Tonko, the ranking Democratic lawmaker on the House Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on the Environment, felt obligated to try and hold the EPA administrator accountable for his actions.
“Everybody should be speaking up to his failed leadership and his unethical behavior,” Tonko told ThinkProgress. “Congress should have an oversight role here and that is very critical to the environment of our nation. We are the stewards of the environment for future generations.”
On Thursday, Pruitt traveled to Capitol Hill for two hearings before the House of Representatives. The hearings were the first time Pruitt would speak before government since news broke of Pruitt’s $50-per-night condo deal with the wife of an energy lobbyist and substantial pay raises for political aides.
The hearings were nominally about the administration’s proposed budget, which calls for a more than $2.5 billion cut to the EPA. But like Tonko, many Democratic representatives took the opportunity to grill Pruitt on his series of ethical missteps, from reports that he reassigned staff who criticized him to his lavish spending habits on travel and office furniture.
“Sadly, we should have been talking about the importance of the EPA and all that it does for clean air and safe water and remediated soils,” Tonko said. “Instead, we dwelled on his mismanagement and abuse of power and unethical behavior. That’s unfortunate.”
Tonko described questioning Pruitt — a notoriously elusive subject — as “frustrating,” noting that he rarely offered lawmakers a straightforward answer, even when presented with a yes or no question (it took one representative three attempts before Pruitt would answer “yes” to the question of whether or not he was the EPA administrator).
Still, Tonko had one of the more successful stretches of questioning Pruitt. In their exchange, Tonko forced the administrator to admit that he had delegated authorityto his chief of staff permitting raises for two political aides — something that he had previously denied in an interview with Fox News in early April. On Thursday, Pruitt maintained that he did not know the amount of the raises given to his two aides — one for $28,000 and another for $56,000, which is just slightly below the median household income for an American family.
“The impression was that he is not in charge and he is not embracing the mission of the agency,” Tonko said of Pruitt’s performance before the committee. “The public is being poorly served by the fact that he does not maintain a passion to make cleaner the air you breathe and safer the water you drink.”
Still, despite his admission that he had been aware of the raises — and therefore lied to Fox News — Pruitt seems likely to have saved his job, at least for the time being, in large part due to his ability to sidestep questioning. the rich asshole, for his part, has not commented on Pruitt’s performance on Thursday, spending the day instead tweeting about hip hop artist Kanye West.
Pruitt’s appearance on Thursday was also boosted by a handful of Republican representatives, who either declined to press Pruitt on his ethical issues or spent their time chastising Democratic lawmakers for asking questions about the administrator’s management and spending history.
“[Republican lawmakers] say we are using these ethical dynamics and mismanagement as a way to destroy the [the rich asshole] agenda,” Tonko said. “I have concern for both. I’m concerned about his unethical agenda and his abuse of power and the misuse of the public tax dollars and misconduct. It’s legitimate and authentic.”
With Pruitt’s job appearing safe — at least for now — Tonko said that Democratic lawmakers are going to continue to try and hold the administrator accountable, both to Congress and the public.
According to Tonko, the minority side of the House Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on the Environment compiled a list of questions from the hearing that Pruitt either did not answer or side-stepped, which they have sent to the EPA with a request for answers. And Tonko says that he wants to try and bring Pruitt back to the Hill to continue to testify in public, both about his actions and the EPA’s agenda writ large.
But Democrats face an uphill battle in holding Pruitt accountable, with Republican lawmakers appearing loathe to press the administrator on his ethical missteps. During Thursday’s first hearing, Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS) accused Democratic lawmakers of participating in “political blood sport” for their questions related to Pruitt’s scandals. Committee leadership, meanwhile, asked softball questions that allowed Pruitt to chalk up the scandals to a “distraction” to the administration’s agenda.
“It’s not a sound agenda so of course we are going to be against it,” Tonko said. But he made clear that for Democratic lawmakers, the focus on Pruitt’s scandals isn’t going away any time soon. “It shouldn’t be a pool of dollars that enables him to travel his routine ways where you have special sound booths established and luxury travel and vehicles that are super equipped. This is a misuse of funds along with a demonized environmental agenda.”
the rich asshole ignores historic Korean accord to rage at Comey with bizarre ‘remember sailor’ tweet
U.S. President some rich asshole gets a briefing before he tours the pre-commissioned U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford at Huntington Ingalls Newport News Shipbuilding facilities in Newport News, Virginia, U.S. on March 2, 2017. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo)
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President some rich asshole issued a cryptic tweet about James Comey just hours after a historic summit between North and South Korea.
The president tweeted early Friday morning about the former FBI director and accused him of illegally “leaking classified information” to a friend, who then shared Comey’s memos with reporters.
“Is everybody believing what is going on,” the rich asshole tweeted. “James Comey can’t define what a leak is. He illegally leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION but doesn’t understand what he did or how serious it is. He lied all over the place to cover it up. He’s either very sick or very dumb. Remember sailor!”
It’s not clear what the president was referring to with his “sailor” comment.
The president issued a second tweet 15 minutes later hailing the historic meeting between the North Korean and South Korean leaders.
“After a furious year of missile launches and Nuclear testing, a historic meeting between North and South Korea is now taking place,” the rich asshole tweeted. “Good things are happening, but only time will tell!”
Some of Team USA’s most prominent Winter Olympians won’t meet with the rich asshole
Chloe Kim, Adam Rippon, Lindsey Vonn and more won't visit the White House Friday.
On Friday morning, the 2018 U.S. Winter Olympic and Paralympic teams are scheduled to meet with President some rich asshole at the White House.
Some of Team USA’s most prominent athletes, however, have announced they will not be in attendance.
Olympic alpine skier Lindsey Vonn won’t be there. Neither will opening ceremony flag bearer and luge athlete Erin Hamlin. Ice skater Adam Rippon and almost all of his figure skating teammates will be missing, too, as will snowboarder Chloe Kim. Olympic skiers like Gus Kenworthy, Jessie Diggins, and David Wise won’t meet with the rich asshole either.
Vonn hasn’t been quiet in the past when it comes to her views on the president.
Vonn commented that when she participates in the Olympics, she views it as representing the United States, not the president. She offered mild criticism of the rich asshole without mentioning him by name.
“I hope to represent the people of the United States, not the president. I take the Olympics very seriously and what they mean and what they represent, what walking under our flag means in the opening ceremony,” Vonn said in an interview with CNN before the Olympics. “I want to represent our country well. I don’t think that there are a lot of people currently in our government that do that.”
She also mentioned she had no interest in meeting the rich asshole at the White House.
Rippon was more outspoken in his criticism of the rich asshole administration in the lead-up to the Winter Olympics.
When it was announced that Vice President Mike Pence would be leading the U.S. delegation at the opening ceremony in South Korea, Rippon, who is openly gay, responded by saying, “You mean Mike Pence, the same Mike Pence that funded gay conversion therapy? I’m not buying it.”
Rippon, however, ironically has a full schedule this week, between Dancing With The Stars practices and being honored at the Time 100 Gala in New York City.
“It’s a convenient out,” he said in a recent interview, “but I was not going or planning on going (to the White House) anyway.”
Diggins and Wise used their platforms to speak out on an issue the rich asshole has repeatedly mocked and dismissed: climate change. The two joined a contingent of U.S. Winter Olympians who appeared on Capitol Hill Wednesday to express their concerns about climate change to Congress.
These Winter Olympians have a message for Congress: Climate change is hurting our sports. @jessdiggs, @mrDavidWise, @arielletgold, @Maddie_Phaneuf & @staceycookusa are about to start their briefing to Congress, and we'll be live tweeting! #OlympiansOnTheHill
“I’m really worried about the future of our sport,” Diggins, a 2018 gold medalist in cross country skiing who won’t be appearing at the White House Friday, told Congress. “When winters warm up and continue to do so, our sport is going to disappear. It’s heartbreaking.”
These Winter Olympians aren’t the first athletes to decline an invitation to the rich asshole White House.
After Golden State Warriors point guard Steph Curry announced that he wouldn’t visit the White House last fall, the rich asshole retaliated on Twitter and withdrew the team’s invitation. Several Philadelphia Eagles players refused to visit the White House after their team won the Super Bowl earlier this year.
Don Lemon unleashes epic takedown of the rich asshole’s White House for constant lies: ‘And they call us fake news’
Don Lemon (Photo: Screen capture)
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After a kooky and ghastly day in President some rich asshole’s White House, CNN host Don Lemon connected the dots on the one consistency since declaring his candidacy in 2015: lies.
The president’s administration began with the first day on the job when former press secretary Sean Spicer proclaimed the largest inauguration in history “period!"
“Well, that was a lie. Period,” Lemon said. “You think they would have learned by now, but people on team the rich asshole just keep getting caught in their own lies they think they can lie and get away with it. Why? Why wouldn’t they? After all, the president does.”
Lemon pivoted to Scott Pruitt’s lies. In a Fox News interview, the EPA administrator said one thing. Before Congress, he said another. Playing the clip of the Pruitt hearing this week, Lemon pointed out the lies, noting “and they call us fake news somehow.”
Even the rich asshole supporters “Diamond and Silk,” who proclaimed they were never paid by the rich asshole were proved to be lying. Documents from the rich asshole campaign itself say otherwise.
the rich asshole even declared that Dr. Ronny Jackson has the experience to run the Department Veterans Affairs. Yet, when his press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about the president’s comment proclaiming Dr. Jackson’s experience, she lied and said that the reporters were taking his words out of context.
Lemon played the video just to be sure.
“And that’s the thing about this truth-challenged administration,” he continued. “It all starts at the very top with a president who says whatever he wants. Whenever he wants. Listen to what he told Fox News today about his fixer and long-time personal attorney Michael Cohen.”
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