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April 3, 2018
the rich asshole also refused to call Putin a foe.
the rich asshole continued to demonstrate his weakness for Vladimir Putin by slamming Americans who don’t think it’s wise to be friends with the dictator.
During a photo op with the heads of Baltic states, the rich asshole gave remarks for several minutes, rehashing his recent tantrums about immigration for the benefit of President Kersti Kaljulaid of Estonia, President Raimonds Vejonis of Latvia, and President Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania. the rich asshole also complained about trade, and slammed Hillary Clinton in front of the world leaders.
After thanking the press, the rich asshole answered several more minutes worth of questions, including a lengthy digression about Russia that concluded with the rich asshole saying “If we got along with Russia, that would be a good thing, not a bad thing.”
“And just about everybody agrees with that, except very stupid people,” the rich asshole added.
Asked whether Vladimir Putin is a “friend or foe,” the rich asshole refused to renounce the dictator’s friendship.
“We’ll find out. I’ll let you know,” the rich asshole replied.
Aside from his many offenses, Vladimir Putin has most recently carried out a chemical attack on the soil of United States’ closest ally, Great Britain. That the rich asshole refuses to denounce Putin as a foe — while surrounded by other allies — sends a terrible signal to the world.
But for the rich asshole to call Americans who recognize Putin as a foe is outrageous.
the rich asshole’s coziness with Putin has begun to sink in even with his sycophants at Fox News, who recently called his praise of Putin’s sham electoral victory “horrifying,” but tens of millions of Americans have been rightly disgusted for a long time.
Tiffany the rich asshole feels ‘awkward’ and ‘not totally welcome’ around her father, the president: report
Tiffany the rich asshole and some rich asshole (Instagram)
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Tiffany the rich asshole, the youngest daughter of some rich asshole, feels “awkward” and “not totally welcome” around her father, the president, People reports.
“Since the inauguration, Tiffany and her father have sometimes gone for months without speaking and she went a very long time without seeing him,” a friend of Tiffany the rich asshole’s told People. “The last time she was at a family function with him, it was awkward for her and she didn’t feel totally welcome.”
“They always had a strained relationship her whole life, and it got exacerbated by the presidency,” the source added, noting it’s “gotten much worse now.”
Tiffany the rich asshole is the daughter of Marla Maples, some rich asshole’s second wife. A second source told People the youngest daughter “is not as much in the mix as [the rich asshole’s] other children because he didn’t have a good relationship at the end with Marla.”
“So Tiffany didn’t get to be as intimately involved with the family dynamic as Ivanka, Eric and Donnie Jr.,” the source said. “She doesn’t really talk about her dad a lot. She’s always been somewhat independent of the whole family.”
The source told People that Tiffany the rich asshole “didn’t have all the same privileges” as her half-siblings because she “did not really get to grow up in the the rich asshole household.”
Still, another person said Tiffany—who attended the White House Easter Egg Roll—has a “bad” but “not easy” relationship with her father.
“They do see each other and Tiffany goes to the White House for holidays.”
Tiffany the rich asshole is currently attending Georgetown Law School, located in Washington D.C.
Conservative Charlie Sykes: the rich asshole’s only option in Mueller probe is to ‘fire investigators or come up with pardons’
some rich asshole during CNN debate (Photo: Screen capture via video)
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Conservative commentator Charlie Sykes warned that President some rich asshole may take extraordinary action to obstruct special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation as the probe closes in on the White House.
“People are going to jail for lying for — and about — the president’s associates,” Wallace reminded.
“Yeah, and the noose seems to be tightening around this inner circle,” Sykes observed. “I think the president’s penchant for surrounding himself with misfit toys and creating a climate of dishonesty, I think is coming back to haunt him.”
“I’m really fascinated thinking about what a history of this period is going to look back on,” he said. “You know, when we finally figure out all the pieces of this puzzle, all of the denials, you know, all of the attempts to cover this up, and to obstruct it, how that will look.”
“The comments from the White House, denial from the various sycophants in the media, the obstruction by House Republicans in all of this,” he continued. “We’re getting a sense, this is getting very, very close to this campaign.”
“If this was true that, that in fact, you had a conspiracy to undermine and interfere in the American democratic process that might have compromised the President of the United States,” Sykes concluded. “I mean, this is stuff out of Homeland, this is stuff out of The Americans.”
The the conservative, who hosts The Daily Standard podcast, said there may be a couple of aces in the hole.
“He has two trump cards, he can fire the investigator or he can come up with those pardons,” he continued. “And I think, may be unconventional opinion, the closer it gets, the more likely this guy who is unchained might do one of those two things.”
Watch:
Fox’s Shep Smith and John Roberts destroy the rich asshole’s lies about Amazon hurting the Post Office
Fox News host Shepard Smith (Screenshot)
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While fact-checking President Donald the rich asshole’s continued lies about Amazon hurting the Post Office, Fox News’ Shep Smith and correspondent John Roberts took the president himself to task.
“The Postal Service’s own numbers show it makes money by delivering packages for Amazon and other companies,” Smith said, refuting the rich asshole’s assertion that the agency loses money by delivering the e-commerce giant’s packages. “As for taxpayers, the Post Office’s own website points out and I quote: the Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating the space. None. And that reference to $1.47 that the president came up with there, a Citigroup study showed last year on average the Postal Service was charging $1.46 below market rates for package delivery. But our researchers point out if that discount exists, it’s not just for amazon — it’s a bulk rate discount.”
“There’s a great deal of confusion or something here regarding Amazon and the Post Office,” the host noted to Roberts, “because none of that — none of that was true.”
“This can be boiled into very simple terms,” Roberts said. “This is personal, and it’s between the president and Jeff Bezos, the guy who created Amazon who also now owns The Washington Post.”
The Post, Roberts continued, has a unit “dedicated to reporting on the the rich asshole administration.”
“The president looks at The Washington Post everyday,” the correspondent noted, “and by and large doesn’t like what he sees.”
Watch below, via Fox News:
the rich asshole is still the least popular president of all time according to Nate Silver
The man who would go on to become least popular president of all-time, some rich asshole, on NBC/Screenshot
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Allies of some rich asshole have increasingly been pushing back on stories of his intense unpopularity.
the rich asshole is falsely claiming that his approval rating is higher than Obama’s and Fox is thumping his seven-point increase in the past month. Even liberal outlets like New York magazine are reporting that the rich asshole’s numbers are “on the rise.”
But the rich asshole is benefitting from low expectations. Because he’s still the least popular president of all-time according to numbers tracked by data maven Nate Silver.
On Silver’s site FiveThirtyEight, you can see interactive graphs which track the rich asshole’s approval rating against every president who’s served since the advent of modern polling. Currently, 53% of Americans disapprove of the rich asshole, compared to just 40% who approve.
Those stats are drawn from several weighted polls and show that the rich asshole has had a lower approval than any president, ever.
The only times the rich asshole has been more popular than past presidents are during the first week of the George W. Bush presidency, 13 days in the middle of Bill Clinton’s first term and several months of Ford’s term in which the two anti-intellectual and scandal-ridden Republican’s numbers cross-cross often. In fact, the rich asshole’s numbers track very closely to Ford’s numbers in the middle of his term.
Richard Nixon was never as unpopular as the rich asshole is right now.
‘We don’t have laws’: some rich asshole claims he must send military to border because there’s no laws to stop migrants
some rich asshole holds press conference (CNN/screen grab)
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President some rich asshole on Tuesday suggested that the U.S. had no laws to prevent migrants from entering the U.S. without permission.
During a joint press conference with the leaders of the Baltic States, the rich asshole was asked about his plan to secure the U.S.-Mexico border with military troops.
“The Mexican border is very unprotected by our laws,” the president insisted. “We have horrible and very unsafe laws in the United States. And we’re going to be able to do something about that hopefully soon, Congress will get their act together and create some very powerful laws like Mexico has and like Canada has and almost all countries have.”
“We don’t have laws,” the rich asshole complained. “We have catch and release. Catch and then you immediately release and people come back years later for a court case, except they almost never come back. So we are preparing for the military to secure our border between Mexico and the United States.”
the rich asshole also referenced a so-called “caravan” of migrants marching to the U.S. from Honduras.
“We have to have strong borders, we need to wall,” he said.
Watch the video below from CNN.
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April 3, 2018
the rich asshole embarrassed America in front of the world — again — instructing Baltic leaders not to call on American reporters and accusing them of being 'fake news.'
the rich asshole used an appearance with world leaders as yet another opportunity to push his “fake news” propaganda and conspiracy, and told them not to call on American journalists.
Instead, he derided U.S. reporters for creating what he termed as “fake news.”
Standing next to leaders of the Baltic states, the rich asshole told Latvian President Raimonds Vējonis to call on a reporter.
“Pick a reporter, please. You can pick a reporter — a Baltic reporter, ideally. Real news, not fake news,” he said.
The moment, as the international press was assembled for a serious exchange broadcast around the world, was another sign of the rich asshole’s true anti-speech inclination.
After the press conference, retired Rear Admiral John Kirby blasted the outburst on CNN.
“It really is very disappointing,” he said. “These are vibrant democracies, these three countries. And they are living at the doorstep of Russia. So the concerns that they brought with them to Washington are real. And I think it is disconcerting, and frankly disappointing, that our commander in chief would insult the media there in front of them like that.”
“Fake news” has been the rich asshole’s go-to phrase in his attacks on the press. He has promoted the untrue idea that mainstream news outlets have invented stories about him and his failing administration and refused to report on his supposed successes.
In reality, the “fake news” claims have been the rich asshole’s limp attempt to squelch journalism exposing his presidency.
Reporters have revealed the chaos and dysfunction that infect the White House and multiple Cabinet secretaries, how unprepared the rich asshole and his team have been to govern America or lead the world, and his own instability in the office.
That is why he dismisses it all as “fake news” and has even publicly considered using the government to punish outlets that don’t kiss up to him like Fox News and Sinclair Broadcasting.
American journalism isn’t perfect, and the rich asshole’s own success — despite a history of lies, bigotry, and incompetence — proves that.
But it is far outside the norm of acceptable presidential behavior for the American president to attack the press the way he so often does, and the way he did again Tuesday.
Like the rich asshole’s other actions and words, the broadside against the free press has more in common with dictators and autocrats. Historically such behavior was condemned and vilified from within the White House.
Under the rich asshole, the moral authority has been thrown into the trash as he screeches “fake news.”
Lewandowski goes on MSNBC to defend the rich asshole humiliating his own cabinet by firing them on Twitter
Corey Lewandowski on MSNBC_ screenshot
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Appearing on MSNBC on Tuesday afternoon, fast-talking former some rich asshole campaign manager Corey Lewandowski brushed aside the appropriateness of the president firing high level cabinet members via Twitter, saying anyone ousted knew they were on thin ice before being dumped.
Speaking with host Andrea Mitchell, the rich asshole confidante — who currently heads up a conservative political PAC — explained that the jury was still out on whether Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt would weather the storm over his extravagant travel expenditures pending an investigation by the department’s inspector general.
‘”What do you think of all of the cabinet issues and the challenges that the president has had?” Mitchell began after some chit chat about the White House Easter Egg Roll. “Clearly in some of the ethical problems for [HUD Secretary] Ben Carson, Scott Pruitt, now the ouster of [Veterans Administration Head] David Shulkin, it is a year and some months in and they’re still not settled.”
“What I believe General [John] Kelly has said he’s waiting for the IG reports to come out from a number of these respective agencies,” Lewandowsky responded. “We’ve seen that the president wasn’t happy with the VA administrator, so he’s been removed. Now we have an admiral going in to take over that if he is confirmed by the Senate.”
“But the IG reports that are being looked at by not just the EPA, but also HUD and others are going to be a telltale sign,” he continued. “These are investigative opportunities that fall outside the political sphere and this is going to present the administration a true and full understanding of were any laws broken, was there anything that was inappropriate.”
With the possibility that the rich asshole may be forced by Kelly to fire Pruitt, Mitchell pressed Lewandowsky about the rich asshole’s habit of announcing firings on Twitter without informing the ousted official personally.
“What about the habit of letting people know that they’re fired on Twitter?” the MSNBC host asked. “It’s happened now with [ex-Secretary of State] Rex Tillerson. It happened with Shulkin. They’ve gotten a heads-up to watch the president’s tweets from John Kelly. But the actual firing took place on Twitter, the announcement of the firing. ”
“Well, I do believe that in the case of the VA secretary, he had a conversation with the chief of staff prior to it going out,” Lewandowsky shot back, blowing by the rich asshole’s Twitter habit. “I believe, as it related to Rex Tillerson, it was also reported that General Kelly had a conversation with Secretary Tillerson, asked him to return from his overseas trip early because they knew that this was in the works.”
“I don’t think in either of those cases this was a surprise to either of the individuals,” Lewandoski protested. “They both knew that there was some significant problems with the agency that they were running.”
Lewandowsky later added that he didn’t think the president should issue pardons to former the rich asshole associates Paul Manafort and Micheal Flynn, but added that he thought former FBI Assistant Director Andrew McCabe should be investigated and charged with lying to the FBI and Congress.
You can watch the video below via MSNBC:
Muellersends White House a message: Lie to me, go to jail
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Who says presidents can't be indicted?
Special counsel Robert Mueller is sending his first target, the former attorney to the rich asshole campaign manager Paul Manafort, to jail in connection with the ever-expanding Russia probe. And the reason that person’s about to serve time — for lying to prosecutors — could send chills up the spine of the rich asshole advisers.
It’s been widely reported that Mueller and his team are insisting they interview the rich asshole. It’s also been widely reported that the rich asshole is a pathological liar, even when he’s under oath. Those two facts appear to be on a collision course, as Mueller wraps up his first successful sentencing.
On Tuesday, Alex van der Zwaan was sentenced to one month in jail and forced to pay a $20,000 fine.
van der Zwaan had previously served as an attorney for Paul Manafort, the rich asshole’s former campaign manager who is set to go on trial later this year on money-laundering charges.
Last year, when van der Zwaan was interviewed by Mueller’s investigators, he misled them about his previous work with Manafort, as well as Manafort’s associate, Rick Gates.
From BuzzFeed:
According to the sentencing memos filed by van der Zwaan’s lawyers, he lied in order to shield the fact that he secretly recorded conversations with Gates, Person A, and another lawyer at his law firm, as well as the fact that he had been exploring the possibility of leaving his law firm to work for Manafort and Gates. Van der Zwaan later returned to the special counsel’s office on Dec. 1 to “correct the record,” his lawyers wrote.
Note that van der Zwaan represents a minor player in the larger, unfolding Russia scandal. Also, he volunteered the fact that he had misled prosecutors. Yet even a bit player like van der Zwaan is now heading to jail for not being honest with Mueller’s investigators.
Now imagine the fate the rich asshole could be facing, considering he’s likely the central target of the Mueller probe and the rich asshole would likely tell an avalanche of lies during his sit-down with investigators.
That’s because the rich asshole has a long history of lying under oath. the rich asshole for the last year has shown no hesitation about lying or simply changing his stories about his campaign’s interactions with Russian operatives in 2016.
Yet over the weekend, the Washington Post reported that the rich asshole “is clamoring to reject the counsel of his attorneys and sit for an interview with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, whom he has maligned by name.”
the rich asshole’s chief defense attorney, John Dowd, who was in charge of negotiating a possible sit-down with Mueller, recently resigned out of frustration that the rich asshole wasn’t listening to the legal advice being offered.
Unlike the rich asshole, Dowd certainly understands that whoever lies to Mueller’s team could be facing jail time.
the rich asshole himself admitted that Ivanka and Jared ‘screwed up’ by coming to Washington: new book
Jared Kushner and Ivanka the rich asshole, photo by North Charleston from North Charleston, SC, United States (Boeing 787-10 rollout with President the rich asshole) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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President the rich asshole admitted that his daughter Ivanka the rich asshole and her husband Jared Kushner made a mistake by coming to Washington to work in the White House, according to a new book.
In The the rich asshole White House: Changing the Rules of the Game Ronald Kessler, a former reporter for the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal uses information from disgraced former White House aide Steve Bannon to explain that the president was regretful about bringing his child and son-in-law to Washington.
the rich asshole went so far as to call Ja-vanka as a “problem,” the book says.
Bannon’s comments in Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury cost him his job at Breitbart. Bannon’s patrons, the Mercers, are unlikely to be pleased by this round.
“They’re nice people, but they don’t know anything,” Bannon says in the book. “If their name wasn’t the rich asshole, they would be midlevel marketing managers somewhere… They are so opposed to his [the rich asshole’s] program that they’re there to destroy him.”
Other aides echoes the rich asshole and Bannon in saying that Jared “had no real idea what he was doing.”
“Jared is the kind of guy who likes to go to meetings and say, ‘We need to solve this problem’ or ‘We need peace in the Middle East,'” Sean Spicer says.
‘It’s hard to follow’: CNN host utterly baffled by the rich asshole’s incoherent rant on immigrant ‘caravan’
CNN's John King (Screen cap).
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An angry President some rich asshole said on Tuesday that he would be sending the American military to the U.S.-Mexico border to deal with a “caravan” of immigrants headed toward the United States — and a CNN panel afterward had a tough time figuring out what he was talking about.
CNN host John King tried to parse out all of the president’s statements about immigration on Tuesday to try to find a coherent policy approach.
“It’s hard to follow sometimes,” King said. “He started off by criticizing this caravan… the president at the beginning talked as if they’d already crossed into the United States, then he gave the Mexican government credit for breaking it up and dissuading them from moving forward, and then he says he’s going to send the military to the border. It’s hard to follow.”
Bloomberg reporter Sahil Kapur said that the rich asshole seemed to be calling for a change to American asylum laws, although he couldn’t be absolutely sure what changes, if any, the president was actually proposing.
King then pointed out that it didn’t make sense for the rich asshole and the Republicans to keep railing against former President Barack Obama over immigration issues when they’re the ones who are actually running the federal government.
“Republicans have controlled the House since 2011, they’ve controlled the Senate since 2015, the president was railing against Democratic laws — we’ve had an all-Republican Washington for quite some time,” he said.
Watch the video below.
‘The caravan makes me very sad’: the rich asshole says he’s sending US military troops to the Mexico border
some rich asshole speaks from White House Cabinet room (CNN/screen grab)
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President some rich asshole on Tuesday revealed that he would send troops to the U.S. border and said that a so-called “caravan” of migrants made him “very sad.”
During remarks from the Cabinet Room, the rich asshole spoke about his plan to secure the border in lieu of a sprawling border wall.
“We are going to be guarding our border with our military. That’s a big step,” he told reporters before accusing President Barack Obama making “changes that basically created no border.”
According to the rich asshole, Mexico broke up a “caravan” of migrants who were heading to the United States because he told them too.
“The caravan makes me very sad,” he said.
the rich asshole also spoke about his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Probably nobody’s been tougher to Russia than some rich asshole,” he insisted. “If we got along with Russia, that would be a good thing not a bad thing… “And just about everybody agrees with that, except very stupid people.”
A political scientist explains exactly why the rich asshole is tweet raging this week — and it’s not for the reason you think
some rich asshole speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at the Prescott Valley Event Center in Prescott Valley, Arizona (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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President some rich asshole has been lashing out on Twitter even more than usual, and one political expert thinks he’s trying to strengthen his personal brand with voters ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
Daniel Drezner, a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, wrote for the Washington Post that the rich asshole has been reduced to tweeting impotently despite the Republican Party controlling the House, Senate and White House.
“The president’s behavior this past month or so can best be understood as him trying to return to his brand as an angry outsider,” Drezner wrote. “He needs to ensure that his loyal base supporters are sufficiently energized to come out and vote GOP in the midterms. An easy way for him to do that is through Twitter rants.”
the rich asshole and the GOP are unlikely to score any major legislative achievements in a gridlocked Congress, and Drezner argued that the rich asshole lacked the “patience and the stamina to see policy implementation through.”
“Given his political constraints, the rich asshole will do what he did in the private sector when his real estate empire was floundering: switch to branding,” Drezner wrote. “When the rich asshole actually tried to build things like hotels, his track record was mediocre. As a brand, however, the rich asshole pocketed millions with far less skin in the game.”
Drezner argued that Democrats hold an enthusiasm gap over Republicans, but he said the president could try to “keep his voters in a sustained frenzy until November” by focusing on foreign affairs and attacking domestic enemies.
“Will this strategy work? Probably not,” Drezner wrote. “Eight months of Twitter frenzy might bore even his loyal base.”
But crazed rants cost the rich asshole nothing, and they helped carry him into the White House — so Drezner argued the president was left with few choices in a divided Washington.
“Is the rich asshole unhinged? Yes, absolutely,” Drezner wrote. “Is that on brand for him? With no political option left to him, yes, absolutely.”
‘Grifters gonna grift’: Scott Pruitt gets annihilated by Stephanie Ruhle’s MSBNC panel for corruption at the EPA
Stephanie Ruhle's MSNBC panel discusses Scott Pruitt (screen grab)
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An MSNBC panel on Tuesday called out EPA Director Scott Pruitt for corruption and defying the White House by giving raises to his favorite aides.
After it was reported on Monday that Pruitt might be the next the rich asshole administration official to be fired, President some rich asshole and Chief of Staff John Kelly made a point of publicly defending the EPA director.
The turmoil surrounding Pruitt’s job came after reports said that he went against White House wishes to give his closest staffers a pay raise. The shady raises are just one controversy in a series of corruption scandals swirling around Pruitt.
During an MSNBC panel discussion on Tuesday, New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters noted that the rich asshole had not kept his promise to “drain the swamp” in Washington, D.C.
“What we see here is a pattern that you see with other new officials to Washington who have flown a bit too close to the sun, have come from outside of the beltway, outside of national prominence, and decided that they are entitled to a lifestyle that they see others — especially in the the rich asshole administration with its excessive wealth — living,” Peters explained. “And that appears to be what happened here.”
“It gets to the heart of the drain the swamp promise,” he added. “And obviously the swamp has captured this administration, not the other way around.”
Financial analyst Dan Nathan worried that the rich asshole could replace Pruitt with someone even more corrupt.
“Think about the last month and a half of so,” Nathan recalled. “Every single major cabinet member who’s been replaced, we’ve gotten something worse. And that’s the really scary aspect. When you think about how bad Pruitt has been — he’s a science denier for all intents and purposes.”
“These guys… they always shoot the hostage in their negotiations. They’re horrible at it,” he said. “This is the donor class that’s speaking in the stock market [selloff] right now. They do not like this sort of chaos in Washington. And I think the Pruitt thing, it’s just — you know, grifters gonna grift. There’s just another grifter there. What comes next is really the scary part of it.”
“Grifters gonna grift,” host Stephanie Ruhle repeated for impact.
Watch the video below from MSNBC.
Native American the rich asshole voter blasts his attacks on sacred lands and racist slurs against Elizabeth Warren
some rich asshole speaks to Navajo Code Talkers (screen grab)
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President some rich asshole has angered many moderate tribal members with his racist attacks on Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). But now, it seems, even his own supporters with Native American ancestry find the insult unacceptable.
During the 2016 campaign, the rich asshole happily ranted about his political foe by calling her “Pocahontas,” mocking her for claims of Native American ancestry. But the rich asshole took it to a whole new level when he used the slur while standing in the Oval Office with the last two living Navajo Code Talkers from World War II.
“I just want to thank you because you’re very, very special people,” the rich asshole said, a painting of former President Andrew Jackson over his shoulder. Jackson was the president who signed into law the Indian Removal Act. “You were here long before any of us were here. Although we have a representative in Congress who, they say, was here a long time ago. They call her ‘Pocahontas.’”
In an interview with the Norman Transcript, one Cherokee Nation tribal councilor said the rich asshole “hit a sour note” over use of the slur.
David Walkingstick of Tahlequah, Oklahoma said that he doesn’t vote along party lines, but the rich asshole won the Republican’s vote in 2016.
“You kind of knew what you were getting with the rich asshole,” he said. “Everyone knew the rich asshole was a loudmouth, but he is a successful businessman. We need people trying to get our country out of debt and (promoting) job growth, and he was the one who was willing to make enemies to make that happen.”
The Cherokee nation was promised funding over 20 years for a medical clinic from former President Barack Obama’s administration. When the new the rich asshole administration came into office, they honored the promise, for which Walkingstick gives the rich asshole major props.
“As far as the nuts and bolts of it, putting the numbers together, I think he’s probably done a pretty good job, but he’s probably offended some people along the way,” Walkingstick said of the rich asshole’s racist slurs.
He also noted that the rich asshole’s decision to downsize Utah’s Bears Ear National Monument and plow through sacred grounds of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe with the Dakota Access Pipeline are all things that earned him animosity.
“For a president to understand our sovereignty as tribes is crucial,” Walkingstick said. “I would say that he hasn’t been the most sensitive president to our tribal sovereignty.”
Attorney Alex van der Zwaan sentenced to 30 days in Mueller probe of the rich asshole-Russia campaign ties
Alex Van der Zwaan (Skadden)
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A Dutch attorney was sentenced to 30 days in prison as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the rich asshole campaign ties to Russia.
Alex van der Zwaan, who pleaded guilty in February to lying to investigators, became the first person sentenced in the sprawling probe of Russian attempts to influence the U.S. election.
“What I did was wrong,” van der Zwaan told the court. “I apologize to my wife and to my family.”
Van der Zwaan was also ordered to pay $20,000 in fines and serve two months of supervised release after he gets out of prison, and he will likely be deported to London before his wife is due to give birth in August.
His attorneys asked for a lenient sentence so van der Zwaan could be with his wife during a difficult pregnancy, and Mueller’s team offered no recommendations on a sentence.
“We count on people to tell us the truth,” said prosecutor Andrew Weissman. “We count on people to turn over documents that are called for and responsive”
The London-based attorney has no known ties to the rich asshole campaign, but he held discussions with the rich asshole campaign associate Rick Gates and a business associate identified in court documents as a former Russian intelligence officer.
The 33-year-old Van der Zwaan admitted to lying about his last contact with Gates and the Russian identified by prosecutors only as “Person A” — but whose biographical details match up with Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime associate of the rich asshole campaign manager Paul Manafort.
Van der Zwaan’s father-in-law German Khan is a co-founder of Alfa Bank, which fell under FBI investigation for attempting repeatedly to link up to a computer server in the rich asshole Tower during the presidential campaign.
FBI investigators concluded the rich asshole Organization server appeared to be controlled by the marketing firm Cendyn, which was blasting out emails promoting the rich asshole-branded hotel properties.
Khan and Alfa Bank showed up repeatedly in the dossier produced by former British spy Christopher Steele, who misspelled the bank as “Alpha Bank.”
The billionaire Khan, who showed up in a recent list of Russian oligarchs with ties to Vladimir Putin, has sued Steele for libel.
‘Playing with dynamite’: CNN Money editor says the rich asshole’s trade war is sending market into a panic spiral
CNN Money editor Richard Quest (Screen cap).
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CNN Money editor Richard Quest on Tuesday started sounding the alarms about the problems that President some rich asshole’s trade war with China is causing for global financial markets.
Even though the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been trading higher on Tuesday, Quest nonetheless said that traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange were deeply worried about the president’s recent actions.
“The whole market, this whole place is terrified of the prospect of a trade war!” he exclaimed while pointing back at the NYSE. “Just look at the components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average — Catepillar, you’ve got McDonald’s, you’ve got Boeing… these are large-cap stocks that have predicated their future growth on China.”
Quest then noted that some of the tariffs placed by China on American goods would hurt these companies — and could lead to a broader economic war if the United States and China kept ratcheting up tariffs.
“This is not picking a fight with Luxembourg,” he said. “The reality is that what the president is doing, and what the administration is doing, no matter how justified they are in their complaints against China, they are now playing with dynamite. And at some point, one of these sticks of dynamite is going to explode.”
Watch the video below.
Rosenstein expanded Mueller’s authority less than two weeks after the rich asshole drew ‘red line’ on probing family finances
Special counsel Bob Mueller (left) and President some rich asshole (right). Images via screengrab.
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Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein gave special counsel Robert Mueller the authority to expand his investigation less than two weeks after President some rich asshole said that probing his finances would be a “red line.”
In July 2017 interview with The New York Times, the rich asshole was asked if an investigation into his personal and company finances would cross a “red line” for the president.
“I would say yes,” the rich asshole replied. “I don’t make money from Russia. In fact, I put out a letter saying that I don’t make — from one of the most highly respected law firms, accounting firms. I don’t have buildings in Russia.”
“Over the years, I’ve looked at maybe doing a deal in Russia, but I never did one. Other than I held the Miss Universe pageant there,” the president added.
A court filing obtained on Monday shows that Rosenstein granted Mueller additional authorities in the Russia inquiry less than two weeks after the rich asshole made the remarks.
The document, dated August 17, 2017, is entitled “The Scope of Investigation and Declaration of Authority.” It provides Mueller with a “specific description of authority.”
An unredacted portion of the document revealed that Mueller has the authority to look into Paul Manafort’s ties to Russian intelligence during his time running the rich asshole campaign.
And while other specific authorities have been redacted from the Rosenstein document, it has since been reported that Mueller’s investigators have subpoenaed financial records from the rich asshole Organization.
the rich asshole has declined to say whether there will be consequence for crossing his “red line.”
(h/t: Allegra Kirkland
Alabama graffiti shows the rich asshole shooting schoolchildren — and people are freaking out
The graffiti of some rich asshole shooting children/Screenshot
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A wall in the town of Florence, Alabama which depicts President the rich asshole shooting school children with a pistol in graphic detail has stirred the ire of neighbors.
The graffiti showed up overnight on a graffiti wall that’s located on private property in the middle of the tiny downtown, reports Huntsville’s WHNT News.
The graphic image shows a giant the rich asshole with a gun and a line of small children splattered in blood.
the rich asshole shoots children in the Alabama graffiti/Gif from video
Among those complaining were the owners of the very Instragrammable hipster coffee shop Turbo Coffee, which is across from the wall.
“It’s not something that we want to have to see every day,” says Turbo Coffee owner Sarah Shirey. “My husband and I were looking at it, trying to figure it out, and then we realized all of the red coming out of the bodies was blood; and then I was assuming it was a school shooting.”
Tiny Florence, a college town in the northwest corner of the state near the famed Muscle Schoals recording studio, apparently has an active graffiti scene. In 2014, people there freaked out about a depiction of Ron Swanson in a parking deck.
“Since it is destroying public property, I would consider it vandalism,” said one resident at the time. “But I kind of like to think of it in the way that now that it’s already done, it can’t be fixed. So, we might as well enjoy it.”
Does the same go for the the rich asshole graffiti?
Watch the local news segment below.
Mueller has broad authority to investigate the rich asshole’s former campaign boss Paul Manafort
Paul Manafort (Youtube)
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Robert Mueller, the U.S. Justice Department’s special counsel, is specifically authorized to investigate allegations that Paul Manafort, President some rich asshole’s former campaign chairman, colluded with Russia to interfere with the 2016 presidential election, a court filing showed late on Monday.
They court documents also show that Mueller is specifically authorized to investigate Manafort’s ties to Ukraine’s former pro-Russia government.
The documents were filed in response to a motion by Manafort challenging Mueller’s authority to prosecute him.
Manafort does not currently face charges related to the 2016 presidential election or Russian interference. But he is charged with bank fraud, filing false tax returns, conspiring against the United States by plotting to launder money and failing to register as a foreign agent when he lobbied for the former Ukraine government.
His court action sought to have those charges dismissed, arguing that Mueller lacked the authority to investigate his dealings with Ukraine.
No one on either side of the case was available for comment early Tuesday.
the rich asshole has frequently declared no collusion occurred between his campaign and Russia.
Chinese billionaire wallops Roger Stone with $100 million defamation suit over his InfoWars screeds
Roger Stone (Photo: Screen capture)
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Roger Stone, a former advisor to President some rich asshole, is now being sued for defamation by a Chinese billionaire.
The Miami New Times noted Stone has had problems in the past “keeping his mouth shut,” and the most recent consequence is a hefty $100 million lawsuit. Guo Wengui, known in America as “Miles Kwok,” is suing in Miami federal court after Stone slammed him on InfoWars.
Stone alleged that Guo was laundering money to Hillary Clinton and Steve Bannon.
“Stone has publicly stated that Plaintiff Guo has been ‘found guilty’ and ‘convicted’ of financial crimes in the United States — this is not true,” the lawsuit states. “Stone has publicly accused Plaintiff Guo of violating U.S. election law by making political donations to Hillary Clinton and financing a presidential run by Steven Bannon — this is not true. Mr. Stone should be held to account for these and other falsehoods about Mr. Guo.”
When asked about the allegations, Stone called them “a crock of sh*t.”
“This is essentially a political lawsuit and is a Kwok of Schiff,” Stone told The New Times. “None of my reporting rises to the level of defamation. Mr. Kwok tweeted himself about his support for Steve Bannon’s projects, and now he’s suing me for reporting on it?… While I doubt this meritless suit will ever get to trial, my attorneys are very anxious to question Mr. Kwok about his relationship with both Chinese and American intelligence agencies.”
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of defamation suits against InfoWars. The family of murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich is suing Fox News for continuously alleging that Rich was killed by the Clintons for political reasons. The conspiracy theory came from InfoWars and Rush Limbaugh. A Massachusetts man is suing InfoWars after the site incorrectly claimed that he was the Parkland shooter. Another man is also suing after he was accused of staging the Unite the Right car attack for the “deep State” Chobani yogurt is also suing the site for falsly alleging the company is linked to a sexual assault case.
While the report conceded that Gua is a “mysterious figure” and came to the U.S. fleeing corruption charges in China. Guo, however, claimed that the charges against him are false and retaliation for calling out corruption in the Chinese government.
Guo has begun live-streaming online to troll high-ranking Chinese officials he accuses of corruption.
‘Is anyone paying attention?’: Wall Street Journal blisters the rich asshole for ignoring trade war he started with China
the rich asshole's planned tariffs on steel and aluminium have triggered fears of a trade war. (AFP / MANDEL NGAN)
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The editorial board of the conservative Wall Street Journal took President some rich asshole out to the woodshed on Tuesday morning for his ill-considered tariffs on China that have rocked the U.S. stock market and have the potential to devastate American farmers.
According to the Journal, the rich asshole has talked about everything else in the world but is avoiding talking about the stock market which has taken a precipitous drop over the past few weeks.
“some rich asshole hasn’t been talking about the rising stock market lately, and no wonder,” the editors wrote. “”Stocks have given up their earlier gains since the President unveiled his protectionist trade agenda, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell another 1.9% on Monday. Tech stocks took a particular beating as Nasdaq fell 2.74%, but the main policy concern is the new uncertainty from rising trade tension.”
The Journal went on to note that the rich asshole’s previous announcement on tariffs of Chinese steel have boomeranged as the Chinese fired back by slapping “punitive tariffs on 128 categories of American goods on Monday,” including pork producers and fruits and nuts growers who will be hit hard by the Chinese actions.
“Greater damage may come from China’s 15% tariff on American fruits, nuts and sparkling wine,” the editorial explained. “Apple growers in Washington state only gained full access to the Chinese market in 2015 and have seen rapid growth in exports from zero three years ago. Sales of American wine to China, almost all from California, grew 10% last year to $197 million, still a small percentage of total production. Such industries now face headwinds to building market share.”
“China’s retaliation is best understood as an economic and political demonstration, hitting a small number of products to signal where future blows could fall if the rich asshole Administration imposes punitive tariffs on $60 billion in Chinese goods to punish the theft of intellectual property,” the editors warned. “It’s notable that both Republican-leaning and Democratic states were hit. Tariffs on America’s biggest exports to China, such as soybeans and Boeing aircraft, were held in reserve. But don’t be surprised if they’re on the list if the President imposes Section 301 tariffs as he has vowed to do.”
The op-ed goes on to concede that the rich asshole is using his bully pulpit steel proclamations as a “bargaining chip,” but said that other industries are now being hurt as China ramps up the trade war in retaliation.
“At least U.S. and Chinese officials are now talking about a new trade understanding,” the Journal piece states. “But in the meantime there will be significant collateral damage to innocent business bystanders, American consumers, and the overall U.S. economy.”
“some rich asshole risks undermining the policy gains from tax reform and deregulation that have teed up the economy for faster growth. That’s the anxiety investors are showing as they sell stocks. Is anyone in the White House paying attention?” the editorial board concluded.
You can read the whole piece here — subscription required.
‘I am right’: the rich asshole insists Amazon hurts the Post Office but fails to offer any proof in latest Twitter rant
some rich asshole/Screenshot
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some rich asshole is not backing away from his lie about Amazon costing the postal service money.
“I am right about Amazon costing the United States Post Office massive amounts of money for being their Delivery Boy,” he tweeted Tuesday morning. “Amazon should pay these costs (plus) and not have them bourne by the American Taxpayer. Many billions of dollars. P.O. leaders don’t have a clue (or do they?)!”
According to Politifact, Amazon actually helps the postal service stay afloat by helping its bottom line on package delivery. In 2017, packages the USPS $19.5 billion, the site reports, which is or 28 percent of the total annual revenue. That was the largest increase.
The real problem the USPS faces is pensions for retired workers, which are increasing quickly as Baby Boomers retire.
Preet Bharara makes tempting offer to Jeff Bezos: ‘Buy Twitter with change in your pocket and shut the rich asshole’s account’
Preet Bharara on CNN -- screeenshot
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Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara made what must have been a tempting suggestion to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos: Buy Twitter and shut down President some rich asshole’s account.
Amazon lost $53 billion in market capital recently after Axios reported that the president wanted to “go after” the company. the rich asshole has had a long-running beef with Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post.
In a tweet on Monday, Bharara offered a suggestion that could mitigate Bezos’ problems and possibly improve the level of discourse in the U.S.
While Twitter’s $53 billion in market capitalization is not pocket change for Bezos, he could certainly afford to purchase the company. Bezos is said to have a net worth of $114 billion, down from the $130 billion he was said to have before the rich asshole’s recent assault on Amazon.
Bezos, however, could take control of Twitter for far less by simply purchasing more than 50 percent of the company’s stock.
the rich asshole threatens aid for Honduras, other nations over ‘caravan’
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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President some rich asshole said on Tuesday U.S. foreign aid to Honduras and other countries was at risk unless they stop a so-called caravan of more than 1,200 Central American migrants headed to the U.S. border with Mexico.
the rich asshole’s latest salvo against the migrants’ journey comes as the president has stepped up his immigration rhetoric in recent days and his administration has moved to further crack down on people who are in the United States illegally.
The migrants’ 2,000-mile (3,200-km) journey from the Mexico-Guatemalan border is expected to end at the U.S. border. Mexico’s government has said such caravans of mostly Central Americans, including many escaping violence in Honduras, have occurred since 2010.
the rich asshole has already blasted Mexico and threatened to upend the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) over the caravan, and on Tuesday also raised the prospect of withholding U.S. assistance. The current trip has also put pressure on Mexican authorities ahead of the July 1 presidential election there.
“The big Caravan of People from Honduras, now coming across Mexico and heading to our ‘Weak Laws’ Border, had better be stopped before it gets there. Cash cow NAFTA is in play, as is foreign aid to Honduras and the countries that allow this to happen. Congress MUST ACT NOW!” the rich asshole wrote in an early morning post on Twitter.
On Monday, the Republican president railed against Democrats over immigration and again pressed U.S. lawmakers to pass legislation to build his long-promised border wall between the United States and Mexico.
On Monday, the Republican president railed against Democrats over immigration and again pressed U.S. lawmakers to pass legislation to build his long-promised border wall between the United States and Mexico.
Despite months of efforts, no immigration deal has emerged in the Republican-led Congress, where lawmakers are not expected to pass much major legislation ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections.
‘Drip, drip, drip’: CNN panel explains how Mueller is methodically forcing Manafort to flip on the rich asshole
A CNN panel discusses Paul Manafort and the Mueller probe (Screen cap).
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A CNN panel on Tuesday broke down the latest revelations about the scope of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election — and the conclusion was more bad news for former the rich asshole campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
CNN political director David Chalian said that Mueller’s specific mention of possible collusion-related charges in a Monday evening court filing shows that Mueller is ramping up pressure on Manafort to cooperate with his probe — or else risk spending the rest of his life in prison.
“To me, I feel like this is now part of a ‘drip, drip, drip’ out of Mueller that seems to be a direct message to Paul Manafort, and trying to apply greater pressure to Manafort to consider, perhaps, flipping in this investigation,” Chalian said. “Because everything that is coming out of the Mueller operation right now, every filing, you can read in there as if it’s, like, a not-so-hidden message from Bob Mueller to Paul Manafort, ‘I’m coming for you.'”
Legal analyst Paul Callan similarly said that the new revelations seemed to spell fresh trouble for Manafort, who has already been indicted on multiple charges related to foreign money laundering. Callan said that because the Department of Justice had specifically authorized Mueller to investigate Manafort’s alleged money laundering activities, it means that his defense team doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on when it comes to getting the charges thrown out.
“The money laundering, the connection to Ukraine, is highly relevant because the road to Russia leads through Ukraine,” he said. “That’s where Manafort had connections. Those were the early the rich asshole administration connections.”
Watch the video below.
Thomas Friedman says it’s time to impeach the rich asshole: ‘The biggest threat to democracy is sitting in the Oval Office’
John Heilemann and Thomas Friedman appear on MSNBC (screen grab)
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New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman on Tuesday warned that American democracy is in danger because President some rich asshole “is a disturbed person.”
While appearing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, co-host John Heilemann reminded Friedman that he had recently written a column which declared that the rich asshole’s presidency is a “code red” threat to democracy.
“I feel more strongly than ever in everything that’s happened in the last six weeks that the biggest threat to our democracy is sitting in the Oval Office,” Friedman said. “We have a president who is a disturbed person. This kind of tweeting, this kind of throwing overboard all these cabinet secretaries at once, this is not normal behavior.”
“If this man were running a Fortune 500 company,” he continued, “the board of directors would have thrown him out long ago. The board of directors in this case is the Republican Party. And I find it deeply disturbing, in the face of all of this aberrant behavior and truly destabilizing behavior, that you don’t hear a peep out of the Republican Party. And there’s nothing that unnerves me more.”
Friedman observed that the Republican Party has done nothing to stop the rich asshole from attacking companies and media organizations.
“These are deeply disturbing trends,” the Times columnist lamented. “If you’re not afraid, you’re not paying attention.”
Watch the video below from MSNBC.
‘Fox & Friends’ freaks out over Roger Stone getting the rich asshole ‘in trouble’ by boasting about Assange dinner
Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade (Fox News)
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“Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade on Tuesday knocked longtime the rich asshole ally Roger Stone for boasting in an email that he had dinner with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the 2016 presidential campaign.
During an interview with Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano, Kilmeade asked what he made of a newly leaked email showing that Stone had bragged to former the rich asshole campaign aide Sam Nunberg in August 2016 that he “dined with Julian Assange last night,” despite the fact that Stone has insisted for the past two years that he has never met with Assange.
Napolitano tried to politely suggest that we shouldn’t take Stone’s boast at face value because Stone is a notorious liar.
“If you know Roger, you know that, sometimes like the president, he doesn’t always use an economy of words,” he said. “But he means well.”
“He gets himself in trouble,” Kilmeade fumed. “[He gets] the president in trouble!”
Earlier in the segment, Napolitano also shot down suggestions made by host Steve Doocy that the Mueller probe was taking too long by noting that these kinds of investigations are incredibly complex and take a lot of time to do properly.
Watch the video below.
MyPillow pitchman Mike Lindell cozies up to the rich asshole as company battered by lawsuits and ‘F’ ratings
Mike Lindell (YouTube)
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Pillow entrepreneur Mike Lindell is cozying up to President some rich asshole and his media allies in an apparent effort to save his failing company.
The TV pitchman and founder of the Minnesota-based MyPillow joined the president Saturday for dinner at Mar-A-Lago, where the two men praised one another, and Lindell tweeted out a defense of Fox News host Laura Ingraham as she faces backlash for her feud with a teenage gun violence survivor, reported the Star Tribune.
The Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota revoked MyPillow’s accreditation in December 2016 and slapped the company with an “F” rating over a series of customer complaints about the company’s products, advertising and warranties.
MyPillow also paid around $1 million in civil penalties in California after the district attorney of Alameda County accused the company of making false claims about the pillow’s ability to treat insomnia, sleep apnea and fibromyalgia.
Lindell became an outspoken rich asshole supporter during the 2016 campaign, and he continues to seek favor from the reality TV star-turned-president at his Florida private club.
“The president shook my hand and told me, ‘You are doing a great job, Michael,'” Lindell told the Star Tribune. “He also said he is sleeping great on his MyPillow. I told him, ‘People come up to me all the time to tell me what a great job you are doing and that you are in their prayers.’ It was an honor to be at Mar-a-Lago on Easter weekend.”
the rich asshole publicly praised Lindell and his company last year at a White House event for manufacturers, despite a string of lawsuit, layoffs and failing grades filed against MyPillow.
“Michael was a supporter of ours right from the beginning, which I really appreciate,” the rich asshole said in July. “It’s good to see you here. It’s fantastic, and I actually bought a couple of pillows, and they’re very good.”
Lindell announced this week on his Twitter account that he would not join other advertisers and pull his sponsorship of Ingraham’s Fox News program after she personally attacked Parkland teen David Hogg for his gun safety activisim.
“I did not take my advertising down from @IngrahamAngle and @FoxNews, nor do I intend to,” Lindell tweeted, and tagged fellow Mar-A-Lago guest Sean Hannity.
I did not take my advertising down from @IngrahamAngle and @FoxNews, nor do I intend to. @seanhannity
The pillow pitchman said he visited Mar-A-Lago with his girlfriend, and he praised the food as “awesome.”
the rich asshole thanks right-wing pollster for giving him 50 percent approval — but all other polls show him much lower
some rich asshole at the NBCUNIVERSAL 2015 Winter TCA Press Tour at The Langham Huntington Hotel (Shutterstock)
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President some rich asshole on Tuesday sent out a personal “thank you” to right-leaning pollster Rasmussen Reports, whose daily tracking poll gave him a 50 percent approval rating on Monday — despite the fact that every other pollster in the United States has pegged his approval significantly lower.
“Thank you to Rasmussen for the honest polling,” the president wrote. “Just hit 50%, which is higher than Cheatin’ Obama at the same time in his Administration.”
However, Rasmussen is the only pollster to regularly give the rich asshole such high ratings. According to Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight polling aggregation, the rich asshole’s average approval rating sits at just 40.6 percent, while his disapproval rating sits at 53.5 percent.
In fact, the last four non-Rasmussen polls included in FiveThirtyEight’s average have the rich asshole’s approval ranging from 38 percent at the low end to 44 percent at the high end.
Additionally, Silver’s website shows that the rich asshole’s 40.6 percent average approval rating is the lowest of any president at this point in his presidency in recent history. For comparison, the only president at this point in his first term who had comparably low approval ratings was President Harry Truman, who was averaging a 43 percent approval rating on the 436th day of his presidency’s first term.
Jeff Sessions assigned a US Attorney to investigate the rich asshole’s enemies — and no one seemed to notice
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia probe for his role on the rich asshole campaign and undisclosed contacts with the Russian ambassador, appears under threat of losing his job (AFP Photo/CHIP SOMODEVILLA)
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Last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that he would not appoint a second special counsel to investigate former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the FBI for actions taken in 2016. However, buried in the statement released just before the Easter/Passover weekend, Sessions did assign a U.S. attorney to investigate the FBI.
A Daily Beast report noted that the media has been almost mum on the revelation, which came during the never-ending flood of information and tweets coming from the White House. Those that did report the appointment, did so far down the page of the stories.
President Donald the rich asshole frequently obsessed over deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe’s wife, who received a campaign contribution from an ally of Hillary Clinton.
Last fall, Sessions appointed a U.S. Attorney from Utah, John Huber, to work with the Justice Department’s inspector general on an internal investigation about concerns Republicans in Congress had about FBI agents being against the rich asshole.
Ethics expert Norm Eisen told the Daily Beast it wasn’t anything to be too concerned about.
“It is not unusual to task U.S. attorneys outside Washington with things like this because they’re outside the bubble,” said the former White House Special Counsel for Ethics and Government Reform. “Huber has a good and non-partisan reputation.”
Huber was appointed by Obama, but the appointment was demanded by Republicans and the former administration acquiesced to avoid a fight with the U.S. Senate. Huber hosted a press conference at the White House last year touting the rich asshole’s immigration agenda. Something unheard of for U.S. Attorneys.
While there is a precedent for U.S. Attorneys to investigate internal concerns, never before has one been ordered to investigate on behalf of a political battle manifested by presidential paranoia.
some rich asshole melts down over media ‘Fakers’ after watching Morning Joe bash Sinclair Broadcast
some rich asshole (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
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President some rich asshole began his Tuesday Twitterstorm with an attack on the mainstream media for the attention given to Sinclair Broadcast Group.
“The Fake News Networks, those that knowingly have a sick and biased AGENDA, are worried about the competition and quality of Sinclair Broadcast,” the rich asshole ranted. “The ‘Fakers’ at CNN, NBC, ABC & CBS have done so much dishonest reporting that they should only be allowed to get awards for fiction!”
The conservative company has been under fire for forcing news anchors to read a statement for promotions that claims they’re fighting “fake news.” Sinclair retaliated against accusations of “propaganda” and “state run media.”
“There is a lot of noise out there about our company right now, and what is lacking in that analysis is something we constantly preach; context and perspective,” the company said in a memo. “The critics are now upset about our well-researched journalistic initiative focused on fair and objective reporting.”
The corporation has demanded that anchors, on-air personalities and staff not speak to the media or answer questions about the recent coverage. However, at least one anchor hit back against the rich asshole.
“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 Monday. “Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke.”
“Actually, this isn’t funny at all,” wrote Seattle anchor Mary Nam of KOMO, whose station is owned by Sinclair. “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?”
the rich asshole’s angry tweets about Mexico? More fiction than fact
April 2, 2018
Kate Linthicum
Los Angeles Times
Posted with permission from Tribune Content Agency
MEXICO CITY — President Donald Trump unleashed a flurry of tweets Sunday and Monday attacking Mexico on several fronts, including immigration and the North America Free Trade Agreement.
Trump tweeted on those topics seven times, complaining about a "massive inflow of drugs and people" at the border and claiming Mexico wasn't doing enough to halt the flow of migrants heading to the United States. We fact-checked those and other Trump claims to see what was true and what was false.
———
Claim: Mexico is doing 'nothing' to stop migrants from crossing Mexico's southern border
False. While he was in office, former President Barack Obama quietly pressured Mexico to step up immigration enforcement along its southern border. In response, in 2014 the Mexican government announced a new "Southern Border Program" aimed at increasing apprehensions and deportations of migrants from Central America and other parts of the world destined for the U.S.
The U.S. trained Mexican immigration agents and donated surveillance towers and biometric data equipment. Today, Mexico's Mexican southern border states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Tabasco resemble border communities of Arizona and South Texas, with swarms of Mexican federal agents, militarized highway checkpoints and raids on hotels frequented by migrants.
Mexican authorities said they apprehended more than 82,000 Central Americans last year. Between October 2014 and May 2015, Mexico detained more Central American migrants than the U.S. Border Patrol.
Human rights observers say increased immigration enforcement in Mexico has pushed migrants to take riskier routes and do business with powerful drug cartels that have entered the business of human trafficking. Migrant rights organizations in southern Mexico have also documented rights abuses by Mexican police and immigration agents, including incidents of agents, who are supposed to be unarmed, using pellet guns and electroshock weapons on migrants.
In response to Trump's tweets, Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray fired off his own Twitter missive Sunday.
"Every day Mexico and the U.S. work together on migration throughout the region," Videgaray said. "Facts clearly reflect this."
———
Claim: 'Caravans' of migrants are heading to the U.S. border, 'trying to take advantage of DACA'
Partly true.
There is indeed a large caravan of more than 1,000 Central American migrants currently crossing Mexico, headed for the U.S. border. The march was organized by a migrant advocacy group called Pueblos Sin Fronteras (People Without Borders) and was designed to draw awareness to the plight of migrants fleeing violent countries, and the dangers they face on the journey north.
Conservative groups and media outlets are angry about the caravan, saying it flouts Mexican and U.S. immigration laws. They point to reports that border patrol agents on Mexico's southern border, apparently overwhelmed by the size of the caravan, let it enter Mexico without questions.
But Trump is wrong in stating that "these big flows of people are all trying to take advantage of DACA."
For one, a large number of the migrants traveling in the caravan are fleeing violence and plan to ask for asylum at the U.S. border. One migrant traveling with the caravan, a Honduran mother named Karen, told BuzzFeed News that she and her children were forced to leave.
"The crime rate is horrible; you can't live there," she said. "There were deaths, mobs, robbed homes. Adults and kids were beaten up."
Migrant advocates say many of those traveling with the caravan are legally protected asylum seekers and could ultimately win legal status in the U.S. They point out that none of those in the caravan would be eligible for DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program that extended deportation protections to a small number of immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children.
Migrants had to meet strict criteria to qualify for DACA; among other requirements, they had to prove that they had resided in the U.S. for at least five years.
In another tweet about DACA on Monday, Trump claimed that the program "is dead because the Democrats didn't care or act." That's questionable, at best. Trump ordered an end to DACA in September, calling on Congress to pass a replacement. He has since rejected at least four bipartisan immigration bills that would have protected DACA recipients.
———
Claim: 'Mexico is making a fortune on NAFTA'
This claim is ... complicated. The North American Free Trade Agreement, which took effect in 1994, eliminated most tariffs across the continent and resulted in an exodus of manufacturing jobs south of the border.
In Trump's view, NAFTA enriched Mexico at the expense of Middle America. Many economists have a much more nuanced view.
None of them dispute that the loss of factory jobs hurt parts of the U.S., especially the Rust Belt. But many experts say rapidly evolving technology, along with competition with China, is more to blame than NAFTA.
South of the border, free trade has helped modernize Mexico by creating millions of jobs, boosting investment flow and helping to diversify the country's manufacturing sector. Mexican workers now help build a range of products that include Whirlpool washing machines and Bombardier jets.
But the Mexican government has kept minimum wages extremely low, so that Mexico remains attractive to manufacturers who might otherwise be tempted to locate in China or elsewhere in Asia. Since NAFTA went into effect, there has been no change in the number of Mexicans living below the poverty line — more than half.
———
Claim: A border wall will stem a 'massive inflow of drugs and people'
This claim is disputable.
Trump has frequently claimed in the past that historic numbers of migrants are crossing into the U.S. illegally, but that's not true.
Overall, migration across the U.S. southern border is down from peak levels, and the number of immigrants living in the U.S. without legal status is falling.
What is changing is the demographics of those illegally crossing the border. Central Americans are increasingly making the trek, fleeing violence and political instability in countries such as Honduras and El Salvador. Meanwhile, the number of Mexicans making the trek has fallen sharply. These days, so few Mexicans are making the journey and such large numbers of them are returning home, that net migration from Mexico is at zero.
Trump thinks a border wall is the best way to stop illegal migration and the flow of drugs — especially opioids — that have created an epidemic of addiction in parts of the country. But some studies have shown that border enforcement doesn't actually stop migration, it just encourages migrants to take riskier routes. The cost of being smuggled into the U.S. was about $500 in the 1990s. Now, cartels charge up to $8,000. After the construction of a barrier along about 650 miles of the border, migrant deaths rose.
Whether or not a longer border wall would reduce the flow of illicit drugs into the U.S. is also debatable. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the majority of drugs enter the U.S. through legal ports of entry, with traffickers hiding them in passenger cars or tractor trailers. Even drug tunnels might not be stopped by a border wall, since they are built up to 70 feet underground, and the foundation of the border wall would likely be less than 10 feet deep.
Organized crime expert Vanda Felbab-Brown wrote in a Brookings Institution report that the high costs of a wall greatly outweigh any potential benefits. "No matter how tall and thick a wall will be," she wrote, "illicit flows will cross."
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