Fox’s Shep Smith nails the rich asshole’s Amazon lies for falling stocks: ‘When presidential tweets lack truth they still pack juice’
Fox News host Shepard Smith (Screenshot)
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Fox News host Shep Smith on Monday nailed President Donald the rich asshole’s lying tweets attacking Amazon for depressing the stock market.
“Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon,” the president tweeted, continuing his rant against the e-commerce giant. “THEY LOSE A FORTUNE, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country…not a level playing field!”
“Today [the rich asshole] again tweeted that the post office is losing money on Amazon,” the host mused, before fact-checking the president. “That is not true — the post office reports it’s making money on Amazon.”
“And the president again asserting that Amazon does not pay sales taxes,” Smith continued. “That, too, is false.”
Nevertheless, the host concluded, “even when presidential tweets lack truth, they still pack juice.”
“Amazon is on pace for its biggest point loss ever,” Smith said, before discussing with Fox Business host Gerri Willis that “this is about one thing: [Amazon CEO] Jeff Bezos.”
Watch below, via Fox News:
Anchor at Sinclair-owned outlet blasts the rich asshole for attacking independent media: ‘This isn’t funny at all’
KOMO 4 anchor Mary Nam (Screen cap).
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President some rich asshole on Monday praised Sinclair Broadcast Group after a viral video showed how the media conglomerate forced TV news anchors across the country to read the same scripted attacks on mainstream media outlets.
“So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased,” the rich asshole wrote on Twitter. “Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke.”
But Mary Nam, an anchor at the Seattle-based KOMO 4 local news station, blasted the president for finding anything funny about media consolidation.
“Actually, this isn’t funny at all,” wrote Nam, whose station is owned by Sinclair, in response to the rich asshole’s tweet. “None of it. When media giants gobble up local news stations, there are repercussions. And since you brought it up first this morning, will your admin green light the Tribune buyout?”
Actually, this isn't funny at all.
None of it.
When media giants gobble up local news stations, there are repercussions. And since you brought it up first this morning, will your admin green light the Tribune buyout? twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
Criticism of Sinclair has come after Deadspin created a viral video compilation of Sinclair anchors reading the exact same statements attacking the mainstream press for being “extremely dangerous to our democracy” because they published stories that were critical of the rich asshole and his administration.
Sinclair, which owns local news stations across the country that are trusted primarily for their coverage of local issues, has been pushing its employees to inject right-wing political messages into their broadcasts that include attacks on the mainstream press
White House confirms the rich asshole’s invitation to Putin as Russia denies it
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April 2, 2018
There's no end to the ways the rich asshole's White House is willing to embarrass itself.
It turns out the rich asshole’s congratulations to Vladimir Putin for his election “victory” last month, despite explicit instructions from his advisers not to do that, was not the most embarrassing part of their phone call.
Russian media reported Monday that the rich asshole also invited the Russia strongman to the White House for a meeting in the near future.
It’s a striking statement, inviting the man universally blasted by the U.S. intelligence community for interfering in the 2016 election.
After all, the rich asshole wouldn’t even invite Jewish lawmakers to the White House last December for the annual Hanukkah party. But Putin gets a warm invitation?
Or maybe not.
Marshall Cohen, a CNN reporter who covers the rich asshole and Russia, reported that according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, the story about the invitation is not correct.
“Contacts on the issue are yet to start,” he said. “If ever.”
But you know who isn’t denying the story? The White House.
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement confirming that the two leaders “had discussed a bilateral meeting in the ‘not-too-distant future’ at a number of venues, including the White House.”
So did the Kremlin release the story to embarrass the rich asshole, and then further embarrass him by denying it? It wouldn’t be the first time Russia made the rich asshole look like Putin’s chump.
When the two leaders met last July, Russia immediately announced that the rich asshole had agreed to cooperate with Russia on, of all things, cybersecurity.
Then in November, during a summit in Vietnam, the rich asshole claimed he had asked whether Putin interfered in the election, and Putin assured him he hadn’t. the rich asshole was globally mocked for taking the Russian leader at his word. But Putin rubbed salt in the wound and made the rich asshole look like an even bigger fool by then denying the conversation ever took place.
So what’s the truth? Did the rich asshole invite Putin to the White House? Who can say? Neither the White House nor Russian media are reliable news sources.
But it isn’t impossible to imagine such an invitation in the rich asshole’s ongoing efforts to suck up to Putin, even as he tries to look like he’s getting tough on Russia.
It also isn’t impossible to imagine that if the rich asshole does invite Putin to the White House, and he accepts, Putin and his media will have no problem embarrassing the rich asshole yet again. But while the rich asshole is quick to lash out at just about anyone who makes him look foolish, it seems even now, Putin is still the one person in the world who can get away with it.
the rich asshole’s 2020 campaign manager calls to punish CNN’s Jim Acosta for asking president a tough question at Easter event
CNN's Jim Acosta (Photo: Screen capture)
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President some rich asshole’s re-election campaign manager called on CNN to reprimand a reporter who asked a tough question during the White House Easter Egg Roll.
The president spent Monday morning tweeting attacks against Democrats over the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy that he ended in September, and CNN’s Jim Acosta asked the rich asshole to comment.
“Didn’t you kill DACA?” Acosta asked, after the rich asshole told reporters that Democrats had let down DACA recipients facing deportation.
the rich asshole didn’t respond, and 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale urged CNN to punish Acosta for asking the follow-up question.
“Maybe it is time for Jim Acosta to get a suspension for breaking protocol,” Parscale said. “He continues to embarrass himself and @CNN. Pull his credentials for each incident.”
Maybe it is time for Jim Acosta to get a suspension for breaking protocol. He continues to embarrass himself and @CNN. Pull his credentials for each incident. twitter.com/dailycaller/st…
Ted Nugent whines he’s a victim of ‘hate speech’ after his attack on Parkland teens backfires
Ted Nugent speaking at the 2015 Maricopa County Republican Party Lincoln Day dinner in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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NRA board member Ted Nugent isn’t backing down from his attacks on the Parkland high school mass shooting student survivors. “I stand by my words,” the rock star said in a Facebook videoSaturday night. On Good Friday Nugent had declared that the teenaged student survivors who are advocating for gun control so no other children have to die in a school massacre, “have no soul.”
On Saturday, in a rambling rant (below) about the media that was filled with inaccuracies Nugent said that news outlets including CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, and HuffPost, along with organizations including Media Matters, MoveOn.org, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, had “claimed that it’s hate speech to identify the hate of people that call us child murderers, because we don’t believe in banning guns, which won’t save any lives.”
A quick Google search could find no evidence of any major organization labeling Nugent’s attack “hate speech.”
(Also, theoretically, if all guns were banned, approximately 33,000 gun deaths per year would not happen. Some, presumably, might take different forms, but a large percentage would not.)
Nugent also tried to suggest that he did not attack the Parkland students directly. He had said, “These poor children, I’m afraid to say this and it hurts me to say this, but the evidence is irrefutable, they have no soul.”
On Saturday, in a self-recorded video, Nugent told supporters, “I was told, coming out of a firestorm, a firestorm of guitar solo magic, that I was trending on Facebook because somehow, some dishonest, lying idiots claimed that my identifying, accurately and honestly, those in the gun control marches who call people who don’t agree with them child murderers – now if I called you a child murderer without having any evidence, that would be hate speech,” he claimed, as Media Matters reported Monday.
“So they are guilty of hate speech. I merely identified that you have to have mush for brains to accept, blindly accept, the propaganda from the gun-hating, freedom-hating, America-hating, liberal Democrat left media. And who out there believes that so much of the media – who believes CNN, anybody? MSNBC, anybody? ABC, CBS, NBC? Certainly Media Matters, really? Boy, what a hypocritical title that is. Media Matters, MoveOn.Org, Southern Poverty Law Center, the Huffington punks, who believes these people?”
“So they claimed that it’s hate speech to identify the hate of people that call us child murderers, because we don’t believe in banning guns, which won’t save any lives. So they’re so blinded by their hate, and their mushy brains have so robotically accepted the propaganda ministry’s lies and deceit, that they’re hate isn’t hate. My identifying their hate, is hate. What the hell? So I stand by my words.”
Watch:
the rich asshole unleashes 2-day racist rant after Fox News meetup at Mar-a-Lago
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the rich asshole once again leans on clueless Fox News hosts for policy advice.
What’s behind the rich asshole’s recent, two-day Twitter freakout over immigration? Fox News, of course.
Posting a series of incoherent and blatantly false “policy” tweets about Dreamers, Mexico, and the border wall, the rich asshole ended what had been more than a week of relative quiet, where he refrained from name-calling and picking dopey fights.
But he returned to his juvenile tweeting on Easter of all days, even talking trash about Mexico to reporters as he entered church.
What sparked his rage? Turns out he spent his holiday weekend at Mar-a-Lago hanging out with a number of radical, anti-immigration Fox News players, who clearly prompted the rich asshole’s hate storm.
They included chronically wrong Sean Hannity, unsettled Jeanine Pirro, and former Fox News boss Bill Shine.
This is just the latest example of how the rich asshole, when not hiring Fox News employees for his administration, uses talk shows hosts as his de facto policy advisers.
Among the other weekend guests were former boxing promoter Don King; Bernie Kerik, the former NYPD commissioner who has served time in jail; and a loyal the rich asshole supporter, Mike Lindell, the founder of the My Pillow company.
It’s not entirely clear why the rich asshole is now whining so loudly about a missing deal for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (“DACA is dead because the Democrats didn’t care or act”), since he was the one who unilaterally dismantled the popular and successful program in September, with no plan to replace it.
Since then, he’s rejected several bipartisan proposals that would have provided a legislative fix for the plight of the Dreamers.
Also during that time, the rich asshole’s administration has lost a series of court decisions regarding DACA. Most significantly, the U.S. Supreme Court in February refused to hear a DACA case, which means the program continues to remain in place for now.
So the rich asshole’s recent, bitter Twitter pronouncement about there being “NO MORE DACA DEAL” is pure gibberish, since no DACA deal currently exists.
Even a Fox News poll found that 83 percent of voters support allowing “illegal immigrants” working in the United States to become legal immigrants.
Also gibberish is the entire construct of the rich asshole’s hate campaign about a looming, illegal invasion across America’s southern border. It’s simply not happening.
“In 2017, arrests at the southern border hit a 46-year low, the lowest number since 1971, according to the Department of Homeland Security,” notes attorney Paul Reyes.
Oh and by the way, Mexico still isn’t paying for the wall.
Ted Nugent claims he did nothing wrong in attacking Parkland survivors
The NRA board member and far-right activist said the students were "guilty of hate speech."
Musician and National Rifle Association (NRA) board member Ted Nugent refused to issue an apology this weekend, after calling the survivors of a deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida “soulless.”
“I was told, coming out of a firestorm — a firestorm of guitar solo magic, that I was trending on Facebook because somehow, some dishonest, lying idiots claimed that my identifying — accurately and honestly — those in the gun control marches who call people who don’t agree with them child murderers,” Nugent, a far-right activist, said in a Facebook Live video on March 31, which was captured by Media Matters. “Now, if I called you a child murderer without having any evidence, that would be hate speech. So they are guilty of hate speech.”
He continued, “I merely identified that you have to have mush for brains to accept, blindly accept, the propaganda from the gun-hating, freedom-hating, America-hating, liberal Democrat left media… They claimed that it’s hate speech to identify the hate of people that call us child murderers, because we don’t believe in banning guns, which won’t save any lives. They’re so blinded by their hate, and their mushy brains have so robotically accepted the propaganda ministry’s lies and deceit, that [they believe their] hate isn’t hate. My identifying their hate, is hate. What the hell? So I stand by my words.”
NRA board member Ted Nugent: “I stand by my words” that Parkland survivors have no soul mm4a.org/Z2D
Nugent’s comments came one day after the singer-songwriter gave an interview to a nationally syndicated conservative talk show, The Joe Pags Show, and complained about the survivors of the February 14 Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, which left 17 people dead. Since that shooting, many of the young survivors have become activists, using their platform to call for tighter gun control measures, calling out the NRA for preventing meaningful gun reform on Capitol Hill, and organizing the historic March For Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C. on March 24, which drew an estimated crowd of between 200,00 and 800,000 people, and inspired at least 800 sister marches worldwide.
Several of the students have subsequently drawn heavy criticism and threats for speaking out against the gun lobby, and some have found themselves at the center of unfounded “crisis actor” conspiracy theories.
“All you have to do now is not only feel sorry for the liars, but you have to go against them and pray to God that the lies can be crushed and the liars can be silenced so that real measures can be put into place to actually save children’s lives,” Nugent said on Friday. “To attack the good, law-abiding families of America when well-known, predictable murderers commit these horrors is deep in the category of soulless. These poor children — I’m afraid to say and it hurts me to say this, but the evidence is irrefutable — they have no soul.”
Nugent has previously been criticized for his extreme response to the Parkland shooting, much of which has focused on the young survivors themselves. In February, one week after the shooting, Nugent shared an unfounded conspiracy theory article from Natural News that claimed shooting survivor David Hogg was a paid “crisis actor” and not a real Marjory Stoneman Douglas student. “It’s all THEATER,” the article’s headline read. “Florida high school shooting survivor caught on video rehearsing scripted lines, coached by camera man.”
Beneath the article, Nugent “liked” a comment from a Facebook follower, which claimed, “He is NOT a student! He is 26 years old and is a paid crisis actor. News organizations hire him to be a scripted witness or survivor. He has been at multiple shootings as a ‘survivor’. He is also a meth user recently arrested in South Carolina.”
Nugent also appeared to “like” several other similar comments, including one that claimed “something fishy” was going on.
In the wake of the Parkland shooting, criticism of the student survivors has been rampant, with celebrities and right-wing figures coming out in full force against their anti-gun violence stances. In February, former Republican Rep. Jack Kingston (GA) stated in an interview with CNN that the young activists were being manipulated by “left-wing groups who have an agenda.”
“[The students] probably do not have the logistical ability to plan a nationwide rally without it being hijacked by groups that already had a preexisting anti-gun agenda,” he said. “… I just have a hard time believing [otherwise.]”
Over on Fox News this month, controversial right-wing host Tucker Carlson also slammed the students’ efforts, calling them “extremist[s].”
“If you honestly don’t care what the people who disagree with you think, if you believe they want to ‘murder more children’ who are you?” he asked. “You’re definitely not fit to be making policy for the rest of us. You are by definition an extremist.”
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April 2, 2018
Calling for a 'final solution' for Dreamers is particularly ugly, even for the rich asshole team.
the rich asshole spent Easter Weekend on a particularly hateful tear about DACA, the program that protects young immigrants from deportation. On Monday morning, a former adviser to his campaign chose a particularly poor phrase to defend the rich asshole’s ugly rhetoric.
After a weekend of live-tweeting Fox News, the rich asshole woke up early Monday to continue an incoherent tirade in which he declared “DACA is dead,” and demanded funding for his border wall. the rich asshole rescinded the program last September. It is only “dead” because the rich asshole killed it.
On CNN’s “New Day,” host Jim Sciutto asked former the rich asshole adviser Michael Caputo to sum up the rich asshole’s contradictory positions on DACA in one sentence.
“I believe the president wants to, uh create a final solution for the people who are under the DACA ruling,” Caputo said.
Caputo’s choice of the phrase “final solution” — the name of Hitler’s plan to exterminate the Jewish people — was a particularly unfortunate choice during Passover. But it’s not entirely surprising, given the rich asshole’s hostility toward immigrants and people of color.
He has spent years ginning up the same racist hostility he displayed toward immigrants this past weekend. the rich asshole and his administration promote racist stereotypes to evoke fear from nativists, smearing immigrants as murderous drug pushers, rapists, and grifters looking to “take advantage” of America.
Meanwhile, the rich asshole has praised Nazis as “very fine people.”
Despite the rich asshole’s renewed and particularly ugly attack on recipients of the DACA program, known as Dreamers, Caputo dismissed the rich asshole’s ranting as “campaign rhetoric, something that he was saying as he was barnstorming America,” and insisted the rich asshole wants to “fix this for good.”
Americans were not fooled by the rich asshole’s attempts to blame Democrats for DACA, and now that he’s done pretending to care about Dreamers, they’re not interested in any “final solution” from the rich asshole either.
Third woman sues to nullify the rich asshole hush agreement after his campaign demands $1.5 million for speaking out
President some rich asshole is joined by the Congressional leadership and his family before formally signing his cabinet nominations into law, in the President's Room of the Senate, at the Capitol in Washington, January 20, 2017. From left are Vice President Mike Pence, the president's wife Melania the rich asshole, their son Barron the rich asshole, and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis. REUTERS/J. Scott Applewhite/Pool
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A woman who worked for the 2016 the rich asshole campaign is suing to get out of a non-disclosure agreement that she says prevents her from pursuing discrimination claims.
Bloomberg reported on Monday that Jessica Denson alleges she was harrassed by a superior while working phone banks for the rich asshole campaign’s Hispanic outreach effort. Denson, who was an employee of the campaign, also works as an actress in Los Angeles.
According to the report, Denson “had earlier filed a discrimination case against some rich asshole for President Inc. in New York state court, but the campaign sought to enforce the confidentiality deal, filing an arbitration claim asserting $1.5 million in damages.”
In court filings, Denson argued that the non-disclosure agreement was too broadly worded.
Bloomberg notes:
She claims her discrimination lawsuit didn’t disclose any confidential information prohibited by the agreement, and that she was enforcing her legal right to address harassment and the hostile-work environment she endured during the campaign. She claims the campaign is using the agreement to thwart her case and asked a judge to nullify it in a March 26 filing.A supervisor made “derogatory and demeaning comments” about Denson after she was promoted, started a rumor that she was responsible for a leak of the rich asshole’s tax returns and directed another campaign staffer to try to take her personal laptop and files, according to the original lawsuit, filed in November in New York state court.
In recent weeks, two other women have also sought to nullify non-disclosure agreements related to President some rich asshole. Both adult film star Stephanie Clifford — who uses the stage name Stormy Daniels — and former Playboy model Karen McDougal have sued to be able to tell their stories about alleged affairs with the rich asshole.
Democratic strategist laughs in the rich asshole supporter’s face after he blames Hillary Clinton for DACA debacle
Jason Miller vs. Maria Cardona (Photo: Screen capture)
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Given the slew of Republicans on cable news blaming Democrats for the lack of a deal on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), it seems to be the talking point of the day. But when Jason Miller tried to spin for President some rich asshole, it didn’t go well.
“What is he talking about?” host Brianna Keilar asked. “He’s creating this — ‘The country’s being stolen,’ he says. Border crossings in 2017 were down by half. The specifics do not match reality.”
Miller explained that it was the Democrats who “walked away from putting together some sort of DACA deal.”
Democratic strategist Maria Cardona wasn’t taking it.
“The president doesn’t only not care about this issue, he’s completely clueless when it comes to facts regarding immigration policy,” she said. “He doesn’t care about these kids. He never has. He’s only there to use them as pawns, he talked about them during the campaign many times, ‘I agree with you on this,’ ‘has been a priority for this president,’ but he’s talked about deporting them. And building a wall. This was never about having a bill that was full of heart, the way he talked about. He’s always been about using these kids to placate his anti-immigrant base. What he did this weekend was I think just completely heartless, which, again, goes to what his personality really is.”
She noted the rich asshole’s dinner with Fox News host Sean Hannity and listening to Ann Coulter bashing him for immigration, “That’s what he’s responding to. He’s not responding to the facts.”
Miller swore most Americans wanted a secured southern border. Cardona was armed with facts citing surveys and polls noting Americans want an immigration solution that is thoughtful to DACA youth. Miller tried to claim that Democrats wanted a DACA solution now and would only talk about the border wall later.
“That’s not true, Jason,” Cardona cut in. “Why did the president say–”
“They walked away,” Miller said of Democrats.
“Chuck Schumer offered the president $25 billion for his border wall,” Cardona fact-checked Miller.
He refused to agree with her on the facts, which she repeated over and over. The two shouted over each other until ultimately Miller was reduced to somehow blaming Hillary Clinton.
“That line of thinking didn’t work for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and doesn’t work now,” he said.
“What are you talking about? We’re not talking about Hillary Clinton,” Cardona laughed. “I mean, that tells me you have absolutely no argument because you can’t argue about the facts.”
Watch the insanity below:
MSNBC pundit bulldozes Sinclair defender with lesson on free press: ‘Our role is to be a check and balance’
Matt Welch and Jonathan Capehart appear on MSNBC (screen grab)
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MSNBC contributor Jonathan Capehart on Monday schooled libertarian writer Matt Welch about why it is dangerous for a group like right-leaning Sinclair broadcasting to launch an attack on the American media.
MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle noted during a panel segment that Sinclair had recently come under fire for requiring local news anchors across the country to air news reports that are biased and often false. In one recent case, anchors were forced to accuse other news outlets of spreading “false news.”
Welch, who is editor at large for the Koch brothers-backed Reason magazine, argued that the reaction to Sinclair was “overblown.”
“What is dangerous here about those scripts?” he opined. “I think that’s a little overheated. It’s a promo video… People in the news business are given to over-promoting their importance in the democracy.”
Capehart took a deep breath before responding.
“Let’s keep something in mind,” he suggested. “Journalism, reporters, what we do here at MSNBC, what we do at the Washington Post is the only profession that is protected in the Constitution of the United States. Journalists don’t have some ‘overblown’ view of their role in our democracy… Our role is to be a check and balance on power.”
“When The Washington Post says democracy dies in darkness, we’re not being hyperbolic,” the MSNBC contributor continued. “We’re talking about this [Sinclair] story, because if that deal goes through, more than 70 percent of the country is going to be — families are going to be watching ‘news’ from Sinclair Broadcasting.”
Ruhle reminded Welch that most Americans are not aware that Sinclair stations are promoting biased news.
“When my mom and dad tune in to their local news, they’re not thinking there is any sort of agenda,” the MSNBC host explained.
Welch dismissed that point by saying that other sources of news were available on the Internet.
“What happens when you only have one source?” Capehart wondered. “And that one source is perpetuating falsehoods and lies?”
“Go out and find somebody that gets only one sources [of news],” Welch said. “It doesn’t exist anymore.”
“That’s just not true,” Capehart replied.
“There are lots of people who don’t use the Internet,” Ruhle observed. “My mom and dad don’t use it.”
“I would like to see this fact checked,” Welch complained.
Watch the video below from MSNBC.
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April 2, 2018
Secretly deleting resources from the HHS website is just another sneaky way the rich asshole administration is undermining women's health and Obamacare.
The rich asshole administration has found another way to depress the number of people signing up for Obamacare coverage: delete info on how women benefit from the plans.
According to an investigation by the Sunlight Foundation, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has removed information from WomensHealth.gov about breast cancer screenings — including information about how to obtain coverage for those screenings with no out-of-pocket cost using Obamacare.
“The information removed is especially helpful to low-income individuals and people of color, such as important insurance information,” notes Amanda Gomez at ThinkProgress. “The ‘Government in action’ section previously highlighted a government program that connected low-income, uninsured, and underinsured people to breast and cervical cancer screening and diagnostic services. The main breast cancer webpage also linked to a Spanish version.”
Administration officials claim this was simply a cleanup of duplicative information. But the motives are questionable when set against the context of everything else the rich asshole has done to sabotage Obamacare.
Since the rich asshole took office, he has scaled back enrollment periods and advertising for coverage. He’s ended cost-sharing payments to insurers. He signed a tax bill that repeals individual mandate. He issued executive orders making it much easier for insurers to issue junk “short-term” and “association” health plans exempt from consumer regulations. He tried to let businesses end birth control coverage. And he is now letting Republican governors kick people off Medicaid when patients can’t find a job.
This isn’t the first time the rich asshole’s HHS deleted information from government websites that happen to inconvenience the rich asshole’s social agenda.
Immediately after the rich asshole took office, language throughout HHS.gov webpages was tweaked to remove lines that referred to Obamacare favorably.
And earlier this year, watchdogs noted that pages with information on lesbian and bisexual health had also been removed from WomensHealth.org.
Other departments have seen similar ideological revamps of their websites. For instance, under Scott Pruitt, the EPA scrubbed dozens of references to “climate change” from the agency website, along with resources to help local governments with emissions reduction and sustainability.
These changes make the administration’s priorities crystal clear. They are showing that the rich asshole’s government is no longer interested in addressing these issues — and doesn’t care if you are, either.
the rich asshole gets brutally blistered over his Twitter tantrum: ‘You haven’t realized that you’re the joke yet?’
(Photo: stock_photo_world / Shutterstock.com)
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President some rich asshole spent Monday morning on a Twitter-tantrum, blasting everything and everyone from Democrats and the media to immigrants and even Jeff Sessions.
Twitter users couldn’t help but mock the tweets as well as the tweetstorm.
“This is some epic Tweeting this AM. I don’t know what you ate. But I’ve been there, brother. Just push. And breathe,” tweeted Jarrett Bellini.
This is some epic Tweeting this AM.
I don't know what you ate.
But I've been there, brother.
Just push. And breathe.
When it came to DACA and undocumented immigrants the rich asshole says are streaming across the border, some followers couldn’t help but notice it was contrary of what he’s bragged about in the past.
“I thought u [sic] said border crossing was down 61 percent when u [sic] took office …. what happened?” asked @kIsSeSpLuMs.
I thought u said border crossing was down 61% when u took office....what happened
Read the rest of the smackdown below:
How about some unredacted tax returns, Mr. “President?”
Can't you issue an Executive Order of some kind - after all you are the Boss!!
Aren't you supposed to be working right now?
Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon. THEY LOSE A FORTUNE, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country...not a level playing field!
Who do you think you're fooling?
We know you're only going after Amazon because Jeff Bezos has more money than you. Why don't you grow up instead of trying to hurt other people and our economy with your vindictive, jealous filled tweets?!!
Reminder that YOU ended DACA, not the Democrats.
No!!! We dont want this asshole to fuck our country up more....let him tweet like a baby having a tantrum....just ignore it and he'll stop.
Wish my work day would allow me 3 hrs first thing in the morning to rant about things I know nothing about..
Puppet President spinning more lies. Incredible how dishonest & destructive to democracy you are.
DACA is dead because the Democrats didn’t care or act, and now everyone wants to get onto the DACA bandwagon... No longer works. Must build Wall and secure our borders with proper Border legislation. Democrats want No Borders, hence drugs and crime!
There are no DACA applications being accepted from ppl coming over the border. They've had to have continuously resided in the US since June 15, 2007, up to the present time & physically present in the US on June 15, 2012, & at the time of making a request for deferred action
I saw DACA Bandwagon at the Garden. They were awesome.
Yes, Donald we want drugs. Shut the F up. “democrats “ are citizens of this country too. Yet, you attack and belittle. Stop attacking your people you f**king human garbage disposal. Be a leader for once. Btw- read up on how DACA works because you clearly have no idea.
...Congress must immediately pass Border Legislation, use Nuclear Option if necessary, to stop the massive inflow of Drugs and People. Border Patrol Agents (and ICE) are GREAT, but the weak Dem laws don’t allow them to do their job. Act now Congress, our country is being stolen!
Someone should tell Trump that Obama hates elephants, loves Russia, hates LGBTQ, loves FOX News, hates Meryl Streep and loves Roseanne Barr. Just to see what happens
Nice attempt at distraction, trying to get everyone riled up over your fake news tweets. The country, and the world, has overwhelmingly rejected you. You are a liar. You are corrupt. You are a traitor. You are ignorant. Most importantly, you are mentally incapable. Very low IQ.
During Donnie's tenure the arrest of humans crossing our southern border has fallen while the harassment and detainment of law abiding immigrants by the ICE gestapo has risen dramatically. The drugs are already here.
Sarah Sanders: Democrats are tired of all the ‘winning’ by the rich asshole so they killed DACA and are ‘hurting people’
Sarah Sanders appears on Fox News (screen grab)
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White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders argued on Monday that Democrats had forced the rich asshole to end protections for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children because they are tired of all of the “winning” at the White House.
In a Sunday rant on Twitter, the rich asshole railed against “caravans” of people marching to the U.S. from Central America. And declared that “DACA is dead.” The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was designed to protect undocumented immigrants who had no choice about coming to the U.S. illegally because they were children at the time.
During an interview on Fox & Friends on Monday, Sanders asserted that the rich asshole “wanted to see something get done and Democrats refused to actually put something on the table or work with the president to get anything done. They wanted to use DACA recipients as political pawns.”
“I think what’s happened here is incredibly sad,” she added. “Look, the president made two incredibly generous offers… and Democrats still refused to make a deal and I think it’s because we’re getting close to an election, they don’t want to see the president continued to win like he has for the last year and a half and they’re going to do everything they can, even if it means hurting people across this country if they think it takes a hit at the president.”
During the campaign, the rich asshole predicted the Americans would tire of the “winning” after he became president.
“We’re going to win,” the rich asshole said to a crowd in Billings. “We’re going to win so much. We’re going to win at trade, we’re going to win at the border. We’re going to win so much, you’re going to be so sick and tired of winning, you’re going to come to me and go ‘Please, please, we can’t win anymore.’ You’ve heard this one. You’ll say ‘Please, Mr. President, we beg you sir, we don’t want to win anymore. It’s too much. It’s not fair to everybody else.’” the rich asshole said. “And I’m going to say ‘I’m sorry, but we’re going to keep winning, winning, winning, We’re going to make America great again.”
Watch the video below.
The Laura Ingraham boycott was a huge success — and revealed a new economic reality in America
Laura Ingraham speaking at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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Last Wednesday morning, Laura Ingraham, Fox News’s queen of snark, tweeted that David Hogg – a 17-year-old who survived the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, and has been among the eloquent advocates for gun control – “whines about” being rejected by four universities he applied to. She linked to an article from the Daily Wire calling him a “gun rights provocateur.”
For Ingraham and Fox News, such cruel, ad-hominem attacks are typical. Vitriol helps boost ratings. After all, Fox is a central part of some rich asshole’s America. And the rich asshole, like Fox News, has made bullying and humiliating people into an art form.
But television viewers are also consumers, and the ultimate goal of advertisers isn’t getting them to watch a particular television show. It’s getting them to buy the advertiser’s products. Which has caused a problem for Ingraham.
Shortly after Ingraham’s attack on Hogg, he called for Ingraham’s advertisers to boycott the show. Within days, a slew of them did just that.
As advertisers peeled off, Ingraham tried to take back her comment, saying the “spirit of Holy Week” motivated her to apologize for “any upset or hurt” she might have caused Hogg “or any of the brave victims of Parkland.”
Hogg rejected the apology. “She only apologized after we went after advertisers,” he told The New York Times. He then tweeted to Ingraham that he’d accept her apology “if you denounce the way your network has treated my friends and I in this fight. It’s time to love thy neighbor, not mudsling at children.”
Ingraham’s wasn’t the first venal, personal attack directed at the Parkland student survivors who have been advocating gun control, as amplified by Fox News.
Republican Leslie Gibson, who was running unopposed for a seat in the Maine State House, called Hogg a “moron” and “baldfaced liar,” and Emma González, another Parkland survivor, a “skinhead lesbian.” (This was too much for the good citizens of Maine. Gibson soon dropped out of the race.)
But unlike politicians who only have to survive elections every few years, corporations have to keep their consumers content all the time.
Selling satisfactory products and services is necessary but often not sufficient. Customers also want to feel good about the brands they’re buying. At the least, they don’t want to associate themselves with mean-spirited vitriol.
Liberty Mutual, the giant insurer, called Ingraham’s comments “inconsistent with our values as a company, especially when it comes to treating others with dignity and respect.” Nutrish, a pet food brand, said Ingraham’s comments “are not consistent with how we feel people should be treated.” TripAdvisor explained that Ingraham’s comments “cross the line of decency.”
Such explanations sound as if these companies chose to drop Ingraham’s show in order to be socially responsible. In truth, they’re just being smart at doing what they’re set up to do – make money. When it comes to consumer products, cruelty doesn’t sell.
Johnson & Johnson didn’t explain its decision to pull the plug on Ingraham, but it’s easy to see why it did. The company spends billions each year trying to convince consumers that Tylenol, baby powder, band aides, and its other brands will provide soothing comfort, analogous to a nurturing mother. Yet someone who ridicules a 17-year old shooting survivor for not getting into the college he chose is more like an abusive mother.
Behind all this is a new reality. The economy is now centered on intangibles like brand image and intellectual property, whose value can erode if connected with something nefarious. Look at what happened to Facebook.
Social media can speed up this process. Which is why advertisers reacted as quickly as they did to Hogg’s tweet.
It’s also why corporations have quickly ended commercial relationships with famous people accused of sexual harassment and abuse. These companies aren’t being socially responsible, either. They don’t want to sully their brands.
Companies are spending huge amounts seeking to connect their goods to consumers’ values. They know more about those values than anyone. Which suggests that Americans may have had enough cruelty – coming from Laura Ingraham, from Fox News, from some rich asshole, from the Harvey Weinsteins of the land, from whomever.
Meanwhile, the rest of us should help the process along, and continue to vote with our consumer dollars for decency.
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April 2, 2018
Sinclair Broadcasting is being widely condemned for its overtly pro-the rich asshole propaganda, so of course the rich asshole is praising it.
While GOP-friendly Sinclair Broadcasting is being widely ridiculed for its Orwellian move to force local anchors across the country to tape the exact same public service announcement condemning “fake news,” the rich asshole tweeted his support on Monday.
“So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased,” he tweeted. “Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke.”
Think of Fox News as the rich asshole propaganda TV on a national level and Sinclair as the rich asshole propaganda TV on a local news level.
During the 2016 campaign, the network struck a deal with the rich asshole campaign to provide more favorable coverage. And this year, it actually urged staffers in company newsrooms to contribute to the company’s political PAC, which represents a blatant conflict of interest.
Meanwhile, when you work for a news organization that the rich asshole is vouching for, you know you’re in trouble, journalistically.
And right now, Sinclair is getting hammered for its creepy decision to demand anchors attack their local news competitors by suggesting they might be peddling dishonesty: “Unfortunately, some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control ‘exactly what people think.”
On Monday, as the outcry continued to spread — Deadspin’s Twitter clip has been viewed more than six million times — a news producer at Chicago’s famed WGN-TV, which is currently owned by the Tribune Company, tweeted out defiant message of resistance: “Re: Sinclair – There is NO WAY any of our on-air anchors and reporters will read their scripted messages on our show. Chicago’s Very Own, not owned.”
Speaking of Tribune, Sinclair last year made a $3.9 billion bid to acquire the Tribune Company. If allowed by regulators, the deal would put the company in control of 223 TV stations, a previously unheard of number of outlets for a single television broadcast company to own.
Combined, the stations would give Sinclair access to more than 70 percent of American households, including major market stations in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Note that Sinclair has been deplorable for a long time. Back during the 2004 campaign, it ordered all its stations nationwide to preempt regular programming days before Election Day to air “Stolen Honor,” a highly charged documentary that was critical of Sen. John Kerry.
“I’d be shocked if you could find any other broadcast conduct like this” in the history of American television,” former FCC chairman Reed Hundt said at the time.
Six months before that, Sinclair took the extraordinary step of banning its ABC affiliates from showing a special edition of “Nightline” in which anchor Ted Koppel read the names of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq.
“We find it to be contrary to the public interest,” Sinclair’s general counsel said of the tribute to the American fallen.
In Sinclair, the rich asshole has found a willing partner for his authoritarian ways.
‘Sinclair is far superior’: the rich asshole praises right-wing broadcaster amid ‘state media’ criticism
President some rich asshole (AFP Photo/Thomas COEX)
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President some rich asshole on Monday praised the Sinclair Broadcast Group amid criticism that it forces its news anchors across the country to read pro-the rich asshole propaganda on their shows.
“So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased,” the rich asshole wrote. “Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke.”
Criticism of Sinclair has come after Deadspin created a viral video compilation of Sinclair anchors reading the exact same statements attacking the mainstream press for being “extremely dangerous to our democracy” because they published stories that were critical of the rich asshole and his administration.
Sinclair, which owns local news stations across the country that are trusted primarily for their coverage of local issues, has been pushing its employees to inject right-wing political messages into their broadcasts that include attacks on the mainstream press.
Watch Deadspin’s compilation of Sinclair anchors below.
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April 2, 2018
The White House can't get their story straight on Shulkin.
the rich asshole was not only too cowardly to fire VA Secretary David Shulkin in person, he’s also too big a liar for his White House to keep up with.
As has become his habit, the rich asshole fired Shulkin last week via Twitter, and no one in the administration disputed that fact. In fact, deputy press secretary Lindsey Walters acknowledged the firing, according to a press gaggle transcript that has since been deleted from the White House website.
But by Saturday, the incompetent the rich asshole administration apparently realized that by firing Shulkin, the rich asshole may have handcuffed his interim replacement. The White House began to claim that Shulkin had resigned, but on Sunday Shulkin said that was a lie.
On Monday morning’s “Fox & Friends,” White House spokesperson Mercedes Schlapp was asked to respond to Shulkin’s claim that he was fired, and Schlapp fumbled through a modified White House cover story.
“General Kelly called Secretary Shulkin and gave him the opportunity to resign,” Schlapp said. “Obviously the key here is that the president has made a decision. He wanted a change in the Department of Veterans Affairs.”
“So he didn’t resign?” asked co-host Abby Huntsman. “It was more of a decision made by the president. He knew a change needed to be made and he made that change?”
“General Kelly offered him the opportunity to resign,” Schlapp said. “At this point the president said it was time to move on in terms of veterans affairs.”
Another way of saying that is that the rich asshole fired Shulkin, and he did so with the same cowardice and dishonesty he has displayed with several other firings. Both Rex Tillerson and Reince Priebus found out they were fired via Twitter, while then-FBI Director James Comey learned of his firing from news reports.
the rich asshole’s White House has a history of changing stories on firings as well. Comey’s firing was first attributed to a recommendation by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, but then the rich asshole said that he had fired Comey over the Russia investigation, regardless of Rosenstein’s recommendation.
the rich asshole and his administration lied about the firing of disgraced National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, whom they kept on the job long after learning that he was compromised and that he had lied to the FBI.
And the White House tried to deny that the rich asshole had fired then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson via a tweet, and even fired a State Department spokesperson for accurately verifying that.
Shulkin’s firing is just the latest demonstration of the the rich asshole administration’s signature combination of brazen incompetence and dishonesty.
‘Give me a break’: California Rep calls BS on the rich asshole blaming Democrats for DACA mess — ‘he created this crisis’
some rich asshole at school shooting listening session (Photo: Screen capture)
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An angry California Congressman repeated over and over again “give me a break,” as CNN’s Jim Sciutto read President some rich asshole’s tweets about Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
During a Monday morning interview, an incensed Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) asked what the president thinks he’s doing and specifically what does spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders “think she’s doing.”
During a Fox News interview, Sanders alleged that Democrats “refused to actually put anything on the table.” As a fact check, there have been multiple plans presented to the president and Republicans. Indeed, there is a bipartisan agreement in the Senate on that Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) has spent years developing and negotiating. Durbin has said that the rich asshole’s opinion on the legislation seems to change almost daily. Similarly, it was the rich asshole the decided to end the DACA program.
“There are certain facts, certain things that are well-known,” Garamendi began. “The DACA program was in place. There was a question about its legality — that’s a court issue. What did the president do? He promised during his campaign two things, one he would terminate DACA. He did that. He created this crisis. He created this problem all by himself. It wasn’t something that needed to be done. Maybe the court’s would have ruled overtime that it had to be changed. OK, that could have happened. He terminated the program.”
He went on to say that the Democrats have done a lot to try and work with the president, still to no avail.
“Next, with regard to the negotiations, we have been negotiating with this president,” he said. “He’s the one that put the border wall up as leverage on DACA. You won’t get DACA until the president gets his big, beautiful border wall. We actually offered a pile of money for the border wall and he turned it down.”
He went on to say “it’s a problem that he is using these DACA people as leverage to get his border wall. The fact of the matter, his border wall doesn’t make us more secure. Much it wastes a pile of money and now he wants to take the money out of military — this is crazy.”
Watch the full interview below:
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April 2, 2018
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has an appalling record of disrespecting Native Americans, and it just got much worse.
Ryan Zinke’s management of the Department of the Interior has been horrible for Native Americans. Now, it seems Zinke may have a chilling strategy to silence criticism from within his own department: reassigning the Native Americans working there.
According to a report from Talking Points Memo, Zinke transferred more than 30 percent of senior officials with a tribal affiliation, “even though Native Americans make up less than 10 percent of the Department’s workforce.”
Furthermore, former government officials told TPM they viewed such reassignment “as part of an effort to remove internal opposition to Zinke’s plan to open up more tribal and public lands to the fossil fuel industry.”
This revelation comes as congressional Democrats are already demanding an investigation into whether such reassignment practices were discriminatory.
Zinke drew nationwide outrage last year when he reduced the size of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. His decision, spurred largely by the lobbying of a uranium company, could open over one million acres of artifact-strewn ancestral Navajo land to drilling and mining.
He also lifted the moratorium on permits for coal extraction on public lands without consulting local tribes, who promptly sued.
Retaliating against Native Americans who opposed, or might oppose, this decision would not be out of character for Zinke. Last week, Interior officials revealed that he flatly said in a recent speech to his staff, “I don’t care about diversity” and he doesn’t “really think that’s important anymore.”
And in public, he has shown a cynically self-serving attitude toward the welfare of Native people, invoking them for his own ends. He even claimed that we should not remove Confederate white supremacist monuments because Native Americans might get offended.
For Zinke, the approach to Native relations appears to be “out of sight, out of mind.” And if his suspicious pattern of employee reassignments is any indication, that goes for his own people too.
‘Melania rules the roost’: New book reveals first lady’s power over the rich asshole family
President some rich asshole and First Lady Melania the rich asshole.
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A new book claims Melania the rich asshole wields considerable power over her husband in the White House.
Former Washington Post reporter Ronald Kessler’s book, The the rich asshole White House: Changing the Rules of the Game, is due out Tuesday, and includes one telling anecdote about the first lady’s relationship with President some rich asshole, reported Axios.
According to the book, longtime Mar-A-Lago butler Anthony Senecal once opened the door on a Saturday to find Martha Stewart standing outside.
Stewart had bicycled to the Florida resort and asked for a tour, according to Kessler, but the butler asked her to come back the following afternoon.
“the rich asshole lit into the butler, screaming at him and calling him a ‘dumb ass’ for scheduling the tour at 3 p.m. when workers would be shifting furniture around,” Kessler reported. the rich asshole yelled that Senecal instead should have scheduled the tour for lunchtime, when well-heeled club members would be on hand to impress and be impressed.”
Kessler reported that Melania the rich asshole scolded her husband: “I don’t think you should talk to Tony in that tone.”
Senecal told the author that the following day some rich asshole handed him $2,000 in $20 bills without explanation.
“It was his way of apologizing,” the butler said. “Melania rules the roost.”
Daily Caller slams CNN reporter for asking the president a question
But Tucker Carlson, who founded Daily Caller, once called this "what reporters are supposed to do."
At Monday’s White House Easter Egg Roll, CNN reporter Jim Acosta asked President some rich asshole a question about his decision to end negotiations about protections for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. Perhaps forgetting its founders’ mantra, the conservative Daily Caller was outraged.
Since the rich asshole has not held a press conference in more than a year — 409 days, according to the Washington Post — Acosta asked it during the rich asshole’s appearance at Monday’s event.
The Daily Caller’s Benny Johnson, who lost his job at BuzzFeed in 2014 over plagiarism allegations, blasted Acosta in a Monday afternoon column: “Jim Acosta Yelled At the rich asshole While He Was Coloring With Children At White House Easter Egg Roll.”
Beyond the irony of Johnson serving as an arbiter of media ethics, the Daily Caller’s own history flies in the face of this criticism. In 2012, then-Daily Caller reporter Neil Munro received national attention when he repeatedly interruptedPresident Barack Obama during his Rose Garden remarks (coincidentally, he was announcing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy at the time).
Watch the video.
Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson, then the site’s editor-in-chief, defended Munro’s actions. “I don’t remember Diane Sawyer scolding her colleague Sam Donaldson for heckling President Reagan. And she shouldn’t have. A reporter’s job is to ask questions and get answers. Our job is to find out what the federal government is up to. Politicians often don’t want to tell us. A good reporter gets the story. We’re proud of Neil Munro.”
Co-founder and publisher Neil Patel also defended Munro. “The President today announced a very controversial policy and does not want to answer tough questions about it. Neil Munro is a veteran Washington reporter who today tried his best to time his question to be first as the President was wrapping up his remarks.”
Carlson told Huffington Post at the time that asking questions “is what reporters are supposed to do.”
WATCH: the rich asshole bizarrely boasts about the strength of the military to children at White House Easter Egg Roll
President some rich asshole, left, stands next to the Easter Bunny, right (Screen cap).
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President some rich asshole on Monday welcomed children to the White House for the annual Easter Egg Roll with a bizarre rant about the strength of the American military.
In his address to the children at the event, the rich asshole began by referring to the White House as “this house or building or whatever you want to call it because there is no name for it, it is special.” the rich asshole then said that he and his staff keep the White House “in tip-top shape, we call it sometimes tippy-top shape, and it’s a great, great place.”
He then pivoted to talking about the military, which he said would soon be “at a level it’s never been before” and “you see what’s happening with funding” and “just think of $700 billion, because that’s what’s going into our military this year.”
Watch the video below.
‘You are flying your asshat flag’: Stormy Daniels levels Twitter troll for implying sex workers can’t be assaulted
Adult film star Stormy Daniels -- screenshot
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Stephanie Clifford, an adult film star who goes by the name Stormy Daniels, fired back at a Twitter troll over the weekend who implied that sex workers give up their right not to be sexually assaulted.
In a tweet on Sunday, Clifford called out Twitter user Angela Chochi, who claims to be a the rich asshole supporter and member of the NRA. Chochi charged that Clifford gave up her “#MeToo card” when she became an adult entertainer.
Clifford shut down the suggestion with a single tweet.
“You are implying that women with certain jobs cannot be assaulted,” Clifford shot back. “This is a disgusting and terrifying thought process. For the record, I have stated numerous times that I am not claiming a ‘#metoo card’ but I see you are definitely flying your asshat flag.”
Read the tweets below.
You are implying that women with certain jobs cannot be assaulted. This is a disgusting and terrifying thought process. For the record, I have stated numerous times that I am not claiming a "#metoo card" but I see you are definitely flying your asshat flag. twitter.com/Angela_Chochi/…
At Chicago nightclub, George Papadopoulos allegedly makes explosive new claim about Jeff Sessions
A chance encounter with a man at the center of the Russia investigation.
At a London bar in May 2016, after numerous drinks, the rich asshole campaign adviser George Papadopoulos bragged to an Australian diplomat the Russians had obtained damaging information on Hillary Clinton. The diplomat reported the conversation to American officials, which prompted the FBI to launch their investigation of the the rich asshole campaign and its connections to Russia.
On Thursday at a Chicago nightclub, Papadopoulos had some drinks and, in a conversation with a new acquaintance, allegedly made new and explosive claims about Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Papadopoulos, according to this new acquaintance, said that Sessions was well aware of the contact between Papadopoulos and Joseph Mifsud, an academic from Malta with high-level connections in Russia. Papadopoulos’ indictment revealed that Mifsud had told Papadopoulos that the Russians had “‘dirt’ on then-candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of ‘thousands of emails.'”
Jason Wilson, a computer engineer who lives in Chicago, told ThinkProgress that Papadopoulos said during their conversation that “Sessions encouraged me” to find out anything he could about the hacked Hillary Clinton emails that Mifsud had mentioned.
Wilson said he recognized Papadopoulos and his wife Simona Mangiante at Hydrate, a Chicago nightclub, on Thursday night at approximately 11 p.m. Wilson sat down their table and introduced himself. He said the couple, who were drinking vodka, were extremely friendly and a bit flattered that Wilson had recognized them.
After some conversation about the city and their marriage, Wilson turned the topic to the Russia investigation, asking Papadopoulos whether he thought Wilson would be disappointed when all the facts came out. Papadopoulos responded that things were “just getting started” and emphasized Sessions’ role, particularly his connection to Papadopoulos’ contacts with Mifsud.
Wilson provided ThinkProgress with a photo of Papadopoulos, Mangiante, and himself outside of Hydrate. The bar’s address is visible over Papadopoulos’ shoulder.
Simona Mangiante, in an interview with ThinkProgress on Friday night, confirmed that she was at Hydrate with George Papadopoulos on Thursday.
In an interview last December with ABC News, Mangiante said that Papadopoulos was “constantly in touch with high-level officials in the campaign.” Speaking on Friday with ThinkProgress, Mangiante said that Sessions was one of the officials in contact with Papadopoulos. “[Sessions] talked with George,” Mangiante said. She declined to provide further details.
Simona Mangiante, wife of George Papadopoulos: He had a “significant" role in the 2016 campaign and was "constantly in touch" with top Trump officials. on.msnbc.com/2pIPdgs
In a subsequent interview with ThinkProgress on Sunday about the details of Wilson’s account, Mangiante said that Papadopoulos talked with Wilson but insisted that he would not have discussed his interactions with Sessions because he is not allowed to discuss the details of the case. Asked to clarify whether it was Wilson’s account that was untrue or the underlying story about Sessions, Mangiante said the only thing she wanted to say on the record was “no comment.”
Mangiante called back later Sunday to say that she had talked to Papadopoulos and that he denied having shared any new details about the case with Wilson. “Those things also never happened,” she said. She did acknowledge that Papadapolous and Wilson were talking about the Russia investigation, however.
Mangiante also contacted Wilson over Twitter on Sunday evening to discuss this story, chalking up the situation to “a misunderstanding!” She said that “there is nothing George could reveal about the investigation apart from commenting what is already public.”
In his confirmation hearing in January 2017, Sessions claimed that he knew of no one on the campaign, including himself, who had contact with Russian officials. Sessions later acknowledged that he had personally met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak at least three times, but claimed the meetings were in his capacity as a U.S. senator.
In November 2017, Sessions acknowledged he attended a campaign meeting where George Papadopoulos said he had connections to Russian officials and offered to set up a meeting between the rich asshole and Putin. Sessions said he did not mention that meeting earlier because he forgot about it. He emphasized that he still had “no clear recollection” of the meeting.
After his memory was “refreshed,” however, Sessions did recall communicating with Papadopoulos. “[T]o the best of my recollection, I believe that I wanted to make clear to him that he was not authorized to represent the campaign with the Russian government, or any other foreign government, for that matter,” Sessions said.
Reuters reported last month that three people who spoke to Robert Mueller had contradicted Sessions’ testimony about the meeting with Papadopoulos, including Sessions’ claim that “he opposed a proposal for some rich asshole’s 2016 campaign team to meet with Russians.”
Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying about his activities, including his contacts with Mifsud, to the FBI. ThinkProgress was unable to directly contact Papadopoulos for comment. Mangiante said that he was not able to talk with the media.
A spokesman for the Special Counsel’s Office declined to comment. A request for comment from the office of Attorney General Jeff Sessions was not immediately returned.
Casey Michel contributed additional reporting.
MSNBC’s Mika calls on Sinclair anchors to rebel against the rich asshole — like she risked her job over Paris Hilton
Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough (MSNBC)
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A politics professor explained how President some rich asshole was using his regulatory powers to dictate media coverage — but MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski urged journalists to stand strong against the reality TV star-turned-aspiring autocrat.
Daniel Drezner, a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, told “Morning Joe” that the rich asshole had signaled to media companies such as Sinclair Broadcast Group that he would reward them politically for positive coverage — and punish them for criticism.
“Don’t look at Sinclair as a media company, look at Sinclair as a company that wants to curry favor with the federal government,” Drezner said. “Think about when in 2017, when you had companies bragging about opening up factories in the United States — which they were probably going to do anyway, but crediting some rich asshole with doing that, which allowed him to tweet it out, or think about the announcement of bonuses to workers after the tax bill was passed. Primarily that money went to share buybacks, but it was good PR and it was a win-win arrangement because companies could again curry favor with the the rich asshole White House.”
Sinclair is currently seeking FCC and Justice Department approval to complete its $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media, and Drezner said that pending federal regulation helps explain its blatantly pro-the rich asshole coverage.
“This is a similar play, where clearly some rich asshole has personalized all policy made in this administration,” Drezner said, “which is to say that the way you do well until this administration is to flatter the president. And in some ways he has a far more fragile ego than most of his predecessors, so as a result you have people like Sinclair or other companies doing anything possible to essentially extend an olive branch to the White House and therefore won’t stand up for their own principles or the principles of a free press.”
Co-host Mika Brzezinski said she understood that Sinclair anchors might need their jobs too badly to take a stand, but she explained that she once took that risk by refusing to read an on-air script about heiress and reality TV star Paris Hilton.
“I do understand the precarious situation that they are in,” she said. “I remember ripping up the Paris Hilton script on this show 10 years ago, and I almost got fired for that so — and that was about pop culture versus news.”
Brzezinksi famously refused to read a news report on Hilton and shredded the scriptafter failing to set it on fire with a faulty cigarette lighter, and she urged Sinclair anchors to take a similar stand against even higher stakes.
“But this is about everything we’re about,” she said. “Right now everything is on the line, so you want to inspire fellow journalists to step up, and I believe that ones that do will last the longest time.”
some rich asshole’s campaign spent big bucks with Amazon — despite his angry tweets
Image: Screen capture of Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos (Binary Option Evolution)
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President the rich asshole has been increasingly agitated about Amazon over the last few days, speaking angrily about the company on several occasions.
It’s unclear whether this is because he genuinely doesn’t understand that the U.S. Postal Service makes money off the company, or because his friends own failing shopping malls, or because he’s just jealous of the success of the online retail giant owned by the richest man in human history.
But despite what the rich asshole has said, he’s also a very loyal customer of Amazon. In fact, CBS News uncovered documents that show that the rich asshole’s campaign spent $158,498.41 to buy office supplies during his campaign.
The average transaction for the campaign was $418.20. The largest splurge was $3,890 in one order.
And it didn’t end after the 2016 election. The rich asshole J. the rich asshole for President committee still shops with Amazon, spending $2,000 with the company last year, FEC records show.
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