Meghan Markle avoided the rich asshole, biography claims
Gillian Edevane
Posted with permission from Newsweek
A new book claims Prince Harry's soon-to-be wife Meghan Markle gave President Donald Trump the slip sometime between 2006 and 2007, while the 36-year-old was working as a model and Trump was most famous for his reality show and business empire.
The revelations come from Princess Diana's biographer Andrew Morton, who wrote the unofficial biography Meghan: A Hollywood Princess. In an excerpt released to The Cut ahead of the April 17 debut, the author revealed that the Suits actress was one of several girls who avoided Trump while working as a briefcase girl on game show Deal or No Deal. As part of the gig, Markle and fellow models revealed prizes hidden inside suitcases.
According to the author, some girls who appeared on the show described the current president as "creepy."
"One guest caused quite the frisson: Donald Trump, then making a guest appearance to cross-promote The Apprentice," Morton wrote in the book. "He gave girls his card and invited them to play golf at one of his courses. Fellow briefcase girl Tameka Jacobs told me, 'He was super-creepy, but some girls were attracted to money and power and took his number. Meghan was one of the girls who gave him a wide berth.'"
Markle, who is scheduled to marry Prince Harry at Windsor Castle on May 19, has publicly spoken out against Trump. During a May 2016 interview on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, the actress called him "divisive" and "misogynistic."
Trump guest starred on Deal or No Deal around the same time he allegedly had an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels. At the time, Trump had recently married Melania in 2005, and she gave birth to their only son, Barron, in 2006.
Trump has been accused of untoward behavior while in a professional setting in the past. The president was accused of forcing himself upon People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff during a 2005 interview at Mar-a-lago. The reporter wrote a first-person account of the alleged incident shortly after the infamous Access Hollywood tape was released in October 2016, weeks ahead of the general election.
Summer Zervos, a former contestant on The Apprentice, also told reporters in October that she was inappropriately touched and kissed by the president. Zervos is now suing the president for defamation of character.
Trump, meanwhile, has denied all allegations leveled against him.
The revelations come from Princess Diana's biographer Andrew Morton, who wrote the unofficial biography Meghan: A Hollywood Princess. In an excerpt released to The Cut ahead of the April 17 debut, the author revealed that the Suits actress was one of several girls who avoided Trump while working as a briefcase girl on game show Deal or No Deal. As part of the gig, Markle and fellow models revealed prizes hidden inside suitcases.
According to the author, some girls who appeared on the show described the current president as "creepy."
"One guest caused quite the frisson: Donald Trump, then making a guest appearance to cross-promote The Apprentice," Morton wrote in the book. "He gave girls his card and invited them to play golf at one of his courses. Fellow briefcase girl Tameka Jacobs told me, 'He was super-creepy, but some girls were attracted to money and power and took his number. Meghan was one of the girls who gave him a wide berth.'"
Markle, who is scheduled to marry Prince Harry at Windsor Castle on May 19, has publicly spoken out against Trump. During a May 2016 interview on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, the actress called him "divisive" and "misogynistic."
Trump guest starred on Deal or No Deal around the same time he allegedly had an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels. At the time, Trump had recently married Melania in 2005, and she gave birth to their only son, Barron, in 2006.
Trump has been accused of untoward behavior while in a professional setting in the past. The president was accused of forcing himself upon People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff during a 2005 interview at Mar-a-lago. The reporter wrote a first-person account of the alleged incident shortly after the infamous Access Hollywood tape was released in October 2016, weeks ahead of the general election.
Summer Zervos, a former contestant on The Apprentice, also told reporters in October that she was inappropriately touched and kissed by the president. Zervos is now suing the president for defamation of character.
Trump, meanwhile, has denied all allegations leveled against him.
This is the depressing truth about the dangers of untethered the rich asshole
President some rich asshole has pushed ahead with tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, including from allies. (AFP/File / Olivier Douliery)
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The petulant adolescent in the White House – who has replaced most of the adults around him with raging sycophants and has demoted his chief of staff, John Kelly, to lapdog – lacks adequate supervision.
Before, he was merely petty and vindictive. He’d tweet nasty things about people he wanted to humiliate, like former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Now his vindictiveness has turned cruel. After smearing FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe with unfounded allegations that he lied to investigators, the new the rich asshole made sure McCabe was fired just days before he would have been eligible for a pension after more than twenty-one years of service.
Before, he was merely xenophobic. He’d call Mexicans murderers and rapists.
Now his xenophobia has turned belligerent. He’s sending thousands of National Guard troops to the Mexican border, even though illegal border crossings are at a record low.
And he’s starting a trade war against China.
China has been expropriating American intellectual property for years. But the rich asshole isn’t even trying to negotiate a way out of this jam or build a coalition of other trading partners to pressure China. He’s just upping the ante – and, not incidentally, causing the stock market to go nuts.
But the most dangerous thing about the new the rich asshole is his increased attacks on American democracy itself.
Start with a free press. Before, he just threw rhetorical bombshells at the Washington Post, CNN, and other outlets that criticized him.
Now he’s trying to penalize them financially, while bestowing benefits on outlets that praise him.
Last week he demanded that Amazon, the corporation headed by the man who owns the Washington Post, pay higher postal rates and more taxes, and that the Post should register as Amazon’s lobbyist. Amazon stock wilted under the attack.
They’re absurd charges. Amazon collects and pays state sales taxes on its products, and the Postal Service is losing money because of the decline in first-class mail, not package deliveries.
Presumably Amazon can take care of itself. the rich asshole’s attack was intended as a warning to other companies with media connections that they’d better not mess with him
the rich asshole is trying to hurt CNN, too. The day after the Justice Department moved to block AT&T’s purchase of Time-Warner, parent of CNN, he said the deal wasn’t “good for the country.” Few missed the connection.
Meanwhile, he’s praising the rich asshole-adoring Sinclair Broadcasting, signaling to the FCC it should approve Sinclair’s pending $3.9 billion purchase of Tribune Media’s TV stations.
We’re entering a new and more dangerous phase of the rich asshole’s “divide and conquer” strategy, splitting the nation into warring camps – with him as the most divisive issue.
Even the rich asshole’s tweets have become more brazenly divisive. Last week he called his predecessor “Cheatin’ Obama.” When was the last time you heard a president of the United States disparage another president?
He’s more determined than ever to convince supporters that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is in cahoots with Democrats and the FBI to unseat him.
This might give him some protection if the rich asshole decides to fire Mueller, or if Mueller’s investigation turns up evidence that the rich asshole collaborated with Russia to win the election, and Congress moves to impeach him.
“Try to impeach him, just try it,” warned Roger Stone, the rich asshole’s former campaign adviser, last summer. “You will have a spasm of violence in this country, an insurrection like you’ve never seen.”
But the rich asshole’s strategy might just as easily extend beyond Mueller. What happens if in 2020 a rival candidate accumulates more electoral votes, but the rich asshole accuses him or her of cheating, and refuses to step down?
“He’s now president for life,” the rich asshole recently said of Xi Jinping, adding “maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday.” Some thought the rich asshole was joking. I’m not so sure.
Democracies require leaders who understand that their primary responsibility is to protect the institutions and processes democracy depends on. The new the rich asshole seems intent on maintaining his power, whatever it takes.
Democracies also require enough social trust that citizens regard those they disagree with as being worthy of an equal say, so they’ll accept political outcomes they dislike. The new the rich asshole is destroying that trust.
the rich asshole untethered isn’t just a more petty, vindictive, and belligerent version of his former self. He’s also more willing to sacrifice American democracy to his own ends. Which makes him more dangerous than ever.
This article was originally published at RobertReich.org
Jeff Sessions turned to Republican donor convicted for political corruption for advice on US attorney nominees
eff Sessions stumps for presumptive Republican presidential nominee some rich asshole at the Republican National Convention in 2016. (Shutterstock)
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In November 2016, just after the election, President-elect some rich asshole announced Jeff Sessions as his pick for attorney general. His confirmation was still a couple of months away, but the Republican senator from Alabama went quickly to work helping to shape the Justice Department he would soon inherit.
One task was to line up U.S. attorney nominees to potentially replace Obama administration holdovers leading offices across the country. It is a common bit of work for a new administration, and recommendations for posts as federal prosecutors typically come from senators of every state, as well as former Department of Justice officials.
In at least one instance, however, Sessions wound up turning to a more unorthodox source for recommendations — Elliott Broidy. Broidy, a longtime Republican donor, was not a lawyer, and thus had no experience as a prosecutor. Moreover, Broidy had been convicted in 2009 for his role in a major New York state public corruption and bribery case.
Sessions’ request for Broidy’s recommendations was described by two people familiar with the process. One of those people said Broidy and Sessions had become friendly during the campaign, and that Sessions’ request and Broidy’s recommendations unfolded amid a chaotic transition. Broidy was given a private Sessions email address to send his picks.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice would not comment when asked whether Sessions had solicited Broidy’s input.
According to emails and other documents reviewed by ProPublica, Broidy in late November used that email — “hybart@jeffsessions.com,” a reference to the tiny Alabama community Sessions grew up in — to begin to push his selections.
“Dear Senator Sessions,” began an email sent Nov. 25, 2016, with a resume attached. “I have known Nathan J. Hochman for approximately 20 years and I highly recommend him for the position of United States Attorney for the Central District of California.”
Hochman, a former assistant U.S. attorney now in private practice, was at the time defending Lee Baca, the disgraced former Los Angeles sheriff who also happened to be a friend of Broidy’s.
Hochman, according to news reports, made it onto the shortlist of finalists, but ultimately was not selected. According to the Broidy-related documents reviewed by ProPublica, Broidy also put forward Jason Dunn to lead the federal prosecutor’s office in Colorado. Dunn was one of four finalists for the job, according to news reports and was interviewed for the position by Sessions before being passed over. Broidy also recommended his current personal attorney, Christopher Clark, for the top federal prosecutor jobs in Manhattan and Connecticut, neither of which Clark was selected for. It’s unclear whether Broidy recommended other U.S. attorney candidates to Sessions and how they may have fared.
According to the documents reviewed by ProPublica, Broidy also made recommendations for ambassadorships and other administration positions, several of whom the rich asshole administration did nominate — including the current director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. That man, Andrei Iancu, appears to have known Broidy at least in part because he bought Broidy’s Los Angeles home in 2005 for $3.25 million.
ProPublica sent a Justice Department spokesman questions both about whether Sessions had indeed solicited recommendations from Broidy, and how much weight those recommendations had carried. The spokesman declined to respond.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement, Broidy did not directly address whether Sessions had asked him for input, but said, “I gladly recommend good people to serve in important positions in our government. They, like anyone, have to go through the normal vetting and background investigation process. I was honored to make recommendations in the past and would do so again for the right candidates.”
A person familiar with the matter said Broidy would have submitted his recommendations to the rich asshole’s transition team had the rich asshole campaign put together a more organized and traditional operation prior to taking office.
In March 2017, the rich asshole had Sessions remove dozens of Obama-era U.S. attorneys who had not yet resigned. In the months since, the White House has been slow to nominate permanent replacements and get them confirmed by the Senate, forcing Sessions to announce a group of interim picks in January. Some offices are still without confirmed, permanent heads.
ProPublica spoke with several former Justice Department officials about Sessions taking recommendations from Broidy for U.S. attorney positions. The former officials said they found Broidy’s role troubling because of his criminal past: In 2009, Broidy pleaded guilty to a felony, admitting he’d given almost $1 million in gifts to top officials with New York state’s pension fund, who steered $250 million to Broidy’s investment firm. Broidy repaid $18 million to the state and his conviction was later reduced to a misdemeanor because he cooperated in the bribery investigation.
“Recommendations come in from all sorts of people in any administration, but for the attorney general himself to be soliciting any donor for recommendations would be far outside the bounds of how attorneys general operate,” said Matthew Miller, the top spokesman for the Justice Department during the Obama administration. “When you combine that with the fact that Broidy is a convicted felon who paid millions of dollars in fines in a bribery case less than 10 years ago, it shows really poor judgment from Sessions to be communicating with him at all about DOJ appointments.”
Today, Broidy, a defense contractor and investor based in Los Angeles who was vice chairman of the rich asshole campaign and the Republican party’s joint fundraising committee in 2016, has surfaced in a number of possibly problematic episodes involving the rich asshole administration and its Justice Department.
The Wall Street Journal reported in March that Broidy was negotiating to earn tens of millions of dollars from a Malaysian businessman if the Justice Department dropped its investigation into graft allegations involving a Malaysian state investment fund. Broidy’s attorney acknowledged his involvement with the negotiations, but denied that Broidy had ever brought up the investigation with the rich asshole or Justice Department officials. The White House did not respond to questions about whether the rich asshole discussed the Justice Department investigation with Broidy.
In addition, The New York Times reported in March that Broidy worked with a political adviser to the ruler of the United Arab Emirates to steer the White House toward decisions benefiting the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Documents reviewed by the Times showed that the UAE adviser, George Nader, tempted Broidy with the prospect of more than $1 billion in contracts for a private security company owned by Broidy. The communications showed Nader praised Broidy for “how well you handle Chairman” — a reference to the rich asshole.
Ahead of an Oval Office meeting Broidy had with the rich asshole, the Times reported, Nader pushed Broidy to urge the president to meet privately with the leader of the UAE. Broidy later briefed Nader that he had done so. Broidy has said his efforts were “aimed to strengthen the national security of the United States, in full coordination with the U.S. government.” Nader is now a cooperating witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian influence in the 2016 election, according to multiple news reports.
The Times has also reported that Broidy boasted of his the rich asshole connections to prospective clients, including foreign governments and politicians, suggesting he could arrange meetings with the president, his staff and members of Congress. As he sought business contracts, according to the Times, Broidy offered tickets to VIP inauguration events to a Congolese strongman, helped arrange a meeting with Republican senators, offered a trip to Mar-a-Lago to an Angolan politician, and arranged for a Romanian parliamentarian to attend a party at the rich asshole’s Washington hotel — where the Romanian politician reported meeting the president and receiving a commitment for closer ties between Romania and the U.S.
The documents reviewed by ProPublica show Broidy compiled several spreadsheets of recommendations for ambassadorships and other administration roles, totaling a few dozen names, many of them from California. Some of those he suggested were prominent Republican fundraisers, and others had direct ties to Broidy.
Broidy’s ambassador picks who were selected include George Glass, an Oregon businessman and a major the rich asshole donor, who is the ambassador to Portugal; Robert Kohorst, a wealthy donor from Pasadena, California, ambassador to Croatia; real estate magnates “Papa Doug” Manchester (Bahamas) and Carla Sands (Denmark); former LA Dodgers co-owner Jamie McCourt (France); and Bay Area tech entrepreneur Trevor Traina (Austria).
Iancu, a patent law attorney from Los Angeles, was named under secretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It’s unclear what his relationship with Broidy is, aside from the home purchase. Iancu’s wife declined to comment, and Iancu did not respond to questions.
Matthew Lin, an orthopedic surgeon and a local politician from a small city near Los Angeles, was appointed to lead the Office of Minority Health within the Department of Health and Human Services. Lin was a political ally of Baca, the former Los Angeles sheriff and Broidy friend. Lin did not respond to a request for an interview.
Marie Royce, a former Nokia executive and the wife of Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., also showed up on one of Broidy’s spreadsheets, as a potential appointee to be the State Department’s assistant secretary of educational and cultural affairs.
Newsweek previously reported that Broidy may have helped Royce get that nomination, citing several emails she wrote to him.
“Dear Elliott, Thank you for your support for a role in the Administration,” read one. “I would like to be considered in the following roles,” she wrote, listing the State Department position first.
In another email, she mentioned she had discussed administration openings with Vice President Mike Pence: “Would love to see if we can follow-up with members on his team or with WH Personnel,” she wrote Broidy. “Thank you again for your assistance!”
In a statement to Newsweek, Broidy downplayed his role, saying he was happy to serve as a reference for a longtime friend, but believed Royce had others vouching for her as well. Both Broidy and a spokesman for Royce attributed her nomination to her qualifications.
Broidy, who played a leading role on the rich asshole’s inauguration committee, today serves as national deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee. Broidy threw his support behind the rich asshole during the 2016 campaign when many other top Republican donors were still leery.
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Larry Kudlow is still clueless after six days at work: ‘I don’t know if we’ll have tariffs or not’
Larry Kudlow speaks to CNBC (screen grab)
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White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Monday that he is still not sure if President some rich asshole will impose his proposed tariffs on countries like China.
On his sixth day as the rich asshole’s chief economic adviser, Kudlow spoke with his former network, CNBC, about whether the rich asshole will start a trade war that could hurt the U.S. economy.
Kudlow, however, said that countries like China were to blame for creating a trade imbalance and stealing intellectual property.
“Take a look at what China’s responses have been,” Kudlow told CNBC. “You’re just blaming President the rich asshole. China has been tough, ideological, mean. Read their press releases. Part of the reason to consider a second action, China’s response to the first one was completely unsatisfactory. And by the way, it wasn’t very diplomatic either.”
Kudlow accused former presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush of being weak on trade with China.
“We’ve never stayed the course,” he said. “I don’t know whether we’re going to have tariffs or not. I would take the president’s arguments quite seriously. We may. On the other hand, we may be able to settle this with negotiations. We will see how this thing turns out.”
Watch the video below from CNBC.
Judge slaps down the rich asshole’s ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort’s bid to loosen bail terms
Paul Manafort some rich asshole's campaign manager on the floor of the Quicken Arena talking to reporters prior to the start of the Republican National Convention in 2016. (Shutterstock)
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A federal judge on Monday denied President some rich asshole’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort’s latest request to loosen the terms of his bail conditions, saying some of the assets he offered to post as collateral are too tied up and cannot be used to meet a $10 million bond obligation.
The denial by Amy Berman Jackson, a U.S. District Court judge for the District of Columbia, means that Manafort will for now continue to remain on house arrest and be required to wear an electronic monitoring device.
Manafort is facing two indictments in different federal courts brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, as part of Mueller’s wide-ranging probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Manafort is accused of a wide range of offenses, from conspiring to launder money and failing to register as a foreign agent in connection with his lobbying for the pro-Russia Ukrainian government, to bank fraud and filing false tax returns.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
But since Manafort’s arrest last October, he has struggled to come up with $10 million in assets he can post as a bond, in exchange for lifting his house arrest conditions.
That is because some of the homes he offered to pledge are already posted as collateral for other mortgage loans, such as his condo in Alexandria, Virginia.
The judge on Monday said he is no longer able to post one of his New York properties, because it is now tied to pending bank fraud charges against him in the other case in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Those bank fraud charges are “not under the jurisdiction of this court and could give rise to remedies outside of this court’s control,” she wrote.
She also said he was not allowed to post funds from a bank account owned by his daughter and son-in-law, Andrea and Christopher Shand.
She noted that the account has “already been seized” and that a co-owner of it is “neither the defendant nor a blood relative of the defendant.”
Jackson said that Manafort can try once again to resubmit a new package that is valued at $10 million and contains unencumbered assets.
Russia has denied meddling in the U.S. election, although American intelligence agencies have unanimously concluded that was the case. President some rich asshole has repeatedly denied there was any collusion between his election campaign and Russia.
Aides hope the rich asshole leaving the country will distract him from ranting about Comey’s ‘damaging’ book: report
President some rich asshole and former FBI Director James Comey (Photos: Screen captures)
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Former FBI Director James Comey is scheduled to release his new tell-all book next week — and aides to President some rich asshole reportedly have no plan to deal with it other than to keep the rich asshole out of the country and hope for the best.
Politico reports that White House staff are hoping that the president’s scheduled trip to South America next week and a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will offer ample “distraction” that will keep his mind away from what could be wall-to-wall coverage of Comey’s book.
Daily Beast reporter Asawin Suebsaeng similarly says that “aides have told me for weeks that any real WH strategy on this would be shaped in real-time, molding around however publicly mad the rich asshole got at it.”
Aides have told me for weeks that any real WH strategy on this would be shaped in real-time, molding around however publicly mad Trump got at it twitter.com/natashabertran…
Former George W. Bush White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer tells Politico that the White House will be powerless to stop Comey’s book from posting record sales numbers, similar to the way Michael Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury” topped bestseller charts earlier this year.
However, a former White House official tells Politico that Comey’s book is likely going to be even more harmful to the White House than Wolff’s, which effectively ended the career of former White House political strategist and Breitbart editor-in-chief Steve Bannon.
“It’s going to be something more damaging,” said the former the rich asshole White House official. “Jim Comey is someone who is extremely dramatic, and he’s an extremely good storyteller. He’s someone who can drive a narrative and keep the camera’s interest.”
Chris Cuomo torpedoes Pruitt defender over shady condo deal: ‘Fifty bucks a month that he doesn’t even pay’
Chris Cuomo speaks to Michael Caputo (CNN/screen grab)
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Former the rich asshole campaign staffer Michael Caputo on Monday defended embattled EPA Director Scott Pruitt by arguing that a string of ethics violations have been largely invented by “leftists” who are out to get him.
During an interview with Caputo on CNN’s New Day, host Chris Cuomo wondered if President some rich asshole would remove Pruitt after a number of Republicans said that his ethics abuses must stop.
Caputo argued that Republican are “really proud” of the work Pruitt is doing to slash EPA regulations.
“It’s the most difficult work when you are opposing liberal orthodoxy,” Caputo continued. “Probably number two target in this administration after President the rich asshole is Scott Pruitt. Because he’s doing things that are very effective at the EPA. Like for example, cutting the budget by 30 percent — and that triggers the kookiest leftists.”
Cuomo reminded Caputo that “science would be his main opponent when it comes to some of his positions, when it comes to climate change.”
The CNN host, however, put the policy aside to continue talking about Pruitt’s ethics abuses.
Caputo acknowledged that Pruitt may have done something wrong.
“Just like… [Obama Attorney General Eric Holder], he can come forward and apologize and move on,” the former the rich asshole adviser opined. “And that will be enough for the American people. It won’t be enough for the liberals who want to get rid of him because of the effectiveness. But it will be enough for the American people.”
Cuomo interrupted: “I get the whole political currency of pointing the finger at the other side… who in the Obama administration got caught up in this string of arguable ethics violations.”
“I’m not going to go tit for tat,” Caputo complained.
“You just did!” Cuomo remarked.
Caputo asserted that Pruitt’s alleged ethics violations — including a 19-person security detail — were reasonable because the EPA director is under attack by liberals.
“He’s been targeted and even yelled and screamed at and attacked by triggered leftists,” Caputo ranted. “We’re talking about him trying to save a few bucks on the overheated apartment market in Washington.”
“Fifty bucks a month that he doesn’t even pay?” Cuomo pointed out.
“I expect the president to stand by him until something that comes out that really requires him to be replaced,” Caputo said. “I think that he’s doing great work over there. He’s reforming the EPA in a way that conservative want to have done. And that’s the real problem here. He’s effective so the busybody bureaucrats of the EPA want him out.”
“Climate science matters to a lot of people,” Cuomo observed. “That’s not just bureaucracy.”
“I get that,” Caputo stated. “You look at the people who are dragging the EPA chief right now. They’re kind of a familiar cast of characters.”
“At most, he just needs to apologize and move on,” he added. “And continue to cut that agency down to size.
Watch the video below from CNN.
the rich asshole’s Vegas hotel has stronger code of ethics than White House — and bars managers from hiring relatives
Ivanka the rich asshole was made an unpaid adviser to the US President despite having no experience in elected office or public policy (AFP Photo/TIMOTHY A. CLARY)
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It seems that President some rich asshole has not followed one of his own hotel’s guidelines when it comes to hiring family members.
The Daily Beast’s Betsy Woodruff recently got a look at the rich asshole International Hotel Las Vegas employee handbook and found that it had strict guidelines against hiring relatives.
“While TIHLV [the rich asshole International Hotel Las Vegas] does not wish to deprive itself of the services of potentially valuable Associates by establishing a policy excluding the employment of relatives, it must be acknowledged, that such employment can result in the appearance of a conflict of interest, collusion, favoritism, and other undesirable work environment conditions,” the handbook states. “Therefore, management reserves the right to limit the employment of relatives in situations within the company if a conflict of interest is deemed to exist.”
More significantly, the handbook strictly bars employees from working “under the direct or indirect supervision of a relative.”
the rich asshole, of course, famously hired both his daughter Ivanka the rich asshole and son-in-law Jared Kushner to work in top advisory roles in his White House, where they have reportedly clashed frequently with officials such as former top political strategist Steve Bannon and chief of staff John Kelly.
In addition to being against nepotism, the handbook also bars employees from making “unwelcome or offensive sexual jokes, sexual language, sexual epithets, sexual gossip, sexual comments or sexual inquiries,” which is another restriction that the rich asshole himself has allegedly violated multiple times over the years during his time as a private businessman.
US ambassador quit after the rich asshole administration wanted pressure on Vietnam to take back refugees
April 8, 2018
Tatiana Sanchez
San Jose Mercury News
Posted with permission from Tribune Content Agency
Ted Osius, the former U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, said he resigned from his post last year after the Trump administration asked him to pressure the Vietnamese government to receive more than 8,000 Vietnamese refugees marked in the U.S. for deportation.
Most of the people targeted for deportation — sometimes for minor crimes — were war refugees who had established lives in the U.S. after fleeing the Vietnam War more than 40 years ago, Osius wrote in an essay this month for the American Foreign Service Association.
"And they were to be 'returned' decades later to a nation ruled by a communist regime with which they had never reconciled. I feared many would become human rights cases, and our government would be culpable," he wrote.
The State Department declined to comment. The Department of Homeland Security did not reply to a request for comment. Osius, now vice president of Fulbright University Vietnam, a private nonprofit institution in Saigon, described his three-year tour as U.S. ambassador in Hanoi as "the high point of my 30-year career in the Foreign Service and the honor of a lifetime." Efforts to reach him through the university and the Foreign Service Association were unsuccessful.
Osius's essay came months after Vietnamese activists across the country raised concerns that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was rounding up undocumented immigrants from Vietnam in unprecedented numbers that left communities shocked and fearful. They estimated that more than 100 Vietnamese were detained across the country in October alone.
The surge in ICE activity appeared to spring in part from the Trump administration's aggressive efforts to deport immigrants with criminal records, even under circumstances under which their home countries haven't cooperated with U.S. removal orders. In the past, immigrants in that situation have been allowed to stay in the U.S., but the Trump administration has been pressing Cambodia and Vietnam, in particular, to take back their nationals.
Vietnamese and U.S. officials in 2008 signed a repatriation memorandum that said Vietnamese immigrants who arrived in the U.S. before 1995 would not be subject to deportation. Activists, however, say some of the people being detained arrived before 1995, leaving them to wonder whether some of these deportations are illegal. Several organizations filed a lawsuit against the federal government in February for violating its repatriation agreement with Vietnam.
"It falls in line with what we predicted about this administration," said Nate Tan, a member of the Asian Prisoner Support Committee in Oakland. "I'm not shocked. It's disheartening and not surprising that this administration is working so hard to deport people who are refugees."
In his essay, Osius said he feared "this repulsive policy" would destroy any chances Trump had in fulfilling other goals for relations with Vietnam, among them reducing trade deficit, strengthening military relations and coping with regional threats, such as those from North Korea.
"I voiced my objections, was instructed to remain silent, and decided there was an ethical line that I could not cross if I wished to retain my integrity. I concluded that I could better serve my country from outside government, by helping to build a new, innovative university in Vietnam," he wrote.
Phi Nguyen, litigation director at Asian Americans Advancing Justice in Atlanta, said she's happy the former diplomat spoke out.
"A lot of what's been happening has happened behind closed doors," she said. "I'm encouraged to see somebody going public with speaking out against this policy that the Trump administration is implementing, not only with respect to Vietnam but also with Cambodia, Iraq and Somalia and all of the countries that historically have not repatriated people who are ordered deported."
Nguyen said many of the Vietnamese immigrants with deportation orders no longer have ties to their home country.
"They are people who came here as refugees and who don't really recognize the Vietnam that exists today as their country anymore," she said.
‘Like a bad spy novel’: Investigative journalists tell MSNBC what oligarch sanctions mean for Paul Manafort
Michael Isikoff and David Corn (MSNBC)
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Two reporters who investigated President some rich asshole’s extensive ties to Russia explained why the recent sanctions against Kremlin-linked oligarchs further implicate Paul Manafort in the special counsel probe.
Yahoo News chief investigative reporter Michael Isikoff and Mother Jones capitol bureau chief David Corn, authors of “Russian Roulette,” appeared Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to explain the significance of the newly imposed economic sanctions.
“It’s interesting that Manafort seemed to believe that becoming campaign manager of a presidential campaign for the rich asshole was a steppingstone for him in his business endeavors,” Corn said.
The reporters explained that Manafort was in millions of dollars of debt to aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, who was hit last week by U.S. Treasury Department sanctions, and he offered inside campaign information to ingratiate himself with the Russian oligarch.
“Take a step back, it’s almost like a bad spy novel,” Corn said. “The guy running the campaign, while he’s running the campaign, is having private conversations with a former Russian military intelligence officer about the campaign and how to get information to Deripaska. Whatever he’s telling (Konstantin) Kilimnik no doubt could be given on the other people in Moscow — and it’s not insignificant because at the same time Moscow, throughout the summer, is attacking the United States. People call it meddling, I call it an attack.”
“Russians knew how the rich asshole campaign was thinking about this and whether they were upset about the Russian intervention or not, that would help them in how they move forward,” Corn added. “So this is like having a tremendous mole inside the presidential campaign.”
Retired general humiliates Ivanka after she displays total ignorance of federal child health programs
Ivanka the rich asshole appears on Fox New (screen grab)
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On Monday, Ret. Gen. Mark Hertling humiliated first daughter Ivanka the rich asshole after she showed ignorance of federal child nutrition and fitness programs that her own father has short changed.
Ivanka the rich asshole on late Sunday sent out a tweet saying that the United States needs to do a better job of promoting physical activity among American children or else risk raising a generation of unhealthy kids.
“We need to promote healthy lifestyles for America’s youth,” the first daughter wrote. “In a recent survey, 9.5 million U.S. children reported that they did NOT once participate in any of over 100 sports or activities listed.”
We need to promote healthy lifestyles for America’s youth. In a recent survey, 9.5 million U.S. children reported that they did NOT once participate in any of over 100 sports or activities listed. #YouthSports @AspenInstitute
Hertling, who served for 37 years in the U.S. Army before retiring in 2012, proceeded to school Ivanka about ways she could easily help promote child fitness just by having her father do his job and appoint people to important positions within his administration.
“Ummm… there’s this thing called the President’s Council on Fitness, Sport, and Nutrition,” he wrote. “Been around 60 years. Used to have 25 appointees… I was one of them. Michelle Obama helped and generated momentum in this area. No one is on the Council now.”
Ummm...there’s this thing called the President’s Council on Fitness, Sport, and Nutrition. Been around 60 years. Used to have 25 appointees...I was one of them. @MichelleObama helped & generated momentum in this area. No one is on the Council now. @FitnessGov. Check it out. twitter.com/ivankatrump/st…
CNN panel mocks the rich asshole for ‘walking into a trap’ by tweeting about testifying under oath
John Avlon, Alisyn Camerota, Chris Cuomo and Carrie Cordero (Photo: Screen capture)
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A Monday morning CNN “New Day” political panel explained that President some rich asshole’s weekend tweets inadvertently tied him to testifying for special counsel Robert Mueller.
Over the weekend, the rich asshole quoted Fox News host Jesse Watters, “The FBI closed the case on Hillary, which was a rigged investigation. They exonerated her even before they ever interviewed her, they never even put her under oath.”
“And much more. So true Jesse!” the rich asshole commented on the quote.
“The FBI closed the case on Hillary, which was a rigged investigation. They exonerated her even before they ever interviewed her, they never even put her under oath.....” and much more. So true Jesse! @WattersWorld
As a fact check, everyone questioned by the FBI is presumed to be under oath because it’s illegal to lie to the FBI. However, the CNN panel noted, this tweet has significant implications for his own investigation.
“As we know, President the rich asshole believes an investigation is a hoax if the subject of the investigation is never interviewed,” host Alison Camerota said. She went on to quote The Washington Post’s Brian Klaas, who explained that if the rich asshole isn’t interviewed by Mueller, it too would be considered “rigged” under that same logic.
Trump’s lawyers not having a good morning—paves the way for the obvious question: wouldn’t it be “rigged” if Mueller/the FBI ended the Russia investigation without putting Trump under oath? twitter.com/realdonaldtrum…
“I mean, just walking into a trap, Mr. President, is not exactly complicated to figure out,” Daily Beast editor John Avlon said. “How dare we apply logical, consistent standards on the president’s tweets or decision-making process. He set it all up, right there.”
Avlon recalled that the rich asshole has said over and over again that he wants to testify and do so “under oath.”
“He said repeatedly, he wants to testify. Presumably, he feels he has nothing to hide. And I can say from a political perspective, if he doesn’t testify, this all remains open. We’ll forever have questions around it and questions around whether Mueller can change the probe. Obviously, with the president’s allies, allegedly past lawyers have been concerned that he could move from subject to target based on on ambling around and creating contradictions with his testimony as he is want to do.”
Watch the full discussion below:
Porn ‘disruption’ makes Stormy Daniels a rare success in increasingly abusive industry
Posted with permission from The Conversation
By David L Levy, Professor of Management, Director of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise and Regional Competitiveness, University of Massachusetts Boston and Gail Dines, Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies, Wheelock College.
Stormy Daniels is the rare 'porn star' to find success. She was even briefly a Senate contender in 2009. AP Photo/Bill HaberAs a result, Clifford has secured numerous mainstream media appearances, including a recent interview on “60 Minutes.”
Journalists and interviewers universally call her a “porn star.” While it’s true that she was a performer and has now become a successful producer, her story is exceptional. The vast majority of women in the industry suffer abusive working conditions and don’t progress to real careers.
We – a sociologist and a business professor – have been studying the world of porn for years, chronicling how internet-fueled disruptions in the industry are causing conditions to further deteriorate.
‘Corporatization’ of porn
Well before her entanglement with President Donald Trump, Stormy Daniels was a well-known name in the porn industry.Unlike most performers, who rarely last more than six months on the set, Clifford has appeared in more than 250 films since 2000. In 2002, she entered an exclusive contract with Wicked Pictures, a studio that specializes in longer features with a pretense of a storyline. She is also one of the very few women who have transitioned to production, directing more than 90 films.
Yet while she has prospered in the small and struggling feature segment of the business, the mainstream industry that mass-produces short hardcore segments has changed beyond recognition. Industry journalist Steven Yagielowicz calls this transformation the “corporatization of porn.”
“It’s Las Vegas all over again: the independent owners, renegade mobsters and visionary entrepreneurs pushed aside by mega-corporations that saw a better way of doing things and brought the discipline needed to attain a whole new level of success to the remaining players,” he wrote in 2009.
This has generated a monopolistic system of distribution, while production has become more fragmented, with dire consequences for performers.
Pornhub is one of many sites owned by MindGeek. RW/MediaPunch/IPXThe MindGeek monopoly
The early days of the internet enabled rapid market growth and attracted a proliferation of new entrants eager to make easy money.Over time, the porn industry pioneered new business models and innovated new technologies that subsequently permeated the wider economy. Few people realize that porn has driven the development of cross-platform technologies for data compression, file-sharing and micropayments.
It also developed the “free platforms” model that monetize user traffic through sophisticated techniques that cross-link numerous websites and encourage upgrade to “premium” pay-to-play sites. This allowed a few better resourced companies to grow rapidly and swallow up their smaller competitors who lacked the scale and capabilities to compete.
The biggest winner from this process was MindGeek (formerly called Manwin), which gained a monopolistic dominance over the distribution of mainstream porn. As the company rather grandiosely proclaims on its site, it drives “the state of technology forward, developing industry-leading solutions enabling faster, more efficient delivery of content” and “thrives on a sustainable growth trajectory built on innovation and excellence.”
MindGeek owns most of the top free “porn-tube” sites, including Pornhub and RedTube, as well as at least a dozen prominent branded pay-sites, such as Reality Kings and Brazzers, each of which contains thousands of videos organized by genre. Users click through from site to site, without realizing that they are in a highly structured network optimized to maximize revenues. MindGeek is secretive about its finances, but just one of its subsidiaries that processes subscriptions disclosed 2015 revenues of $234 million, or more than $600,000 a day.
Porn sweatshops
This concentration at the distribution end of the value chain gives MindGeek and a few other large companies tremendous market power over producers, who find themselves fragmented and squeezed financially as they supply cheap, usually unbranded commodity videos to the big distributor networks.The business model mirrors that of YouTube, where consumers surf for free, and content providers hope to make some money from popular videos they upload. But it is the platform that makes the lion’s share of profits. Many producers also complain that the porn tubes engage in rampant piracy, further weakening them.
The model is also similar to that of other platforms that connect consumers with service providers, such as Uber and TaskRabbit, where the platform holds a dominant market position and controls the conditions for drivers or other service providers.
With the internet facilitating the globalization of value chains, and a growing movement to regulate health and safety conditions for porn production in California and elsewhere in the U.S., production is increasingly moving offshore. This is giving rise to a sweatshop model resembling that of the clothing industry before anyone had heard of corporate social responsibility.
Studios such as Daniels’ Wicked are now struggling to survive as the industry moves to low-cost production, less regulated “amateur-style” porn. As a result, applications for porn-shoot permits in Los Angeles County fell by 95 percent from 2012 to 2015. Even Wicked’s website is now managed by MindGeek.
The concentration of power with porn distributors and the fragmentation of production has hurt performers, who mostly toil without contracts or benefits in a “gig economy” controlled by the distribution platforms. They are paid per sex act, and wages have declined across the board. In addition, performers need to cover significant out of pocket expenses themselves, including HIV tests.
As a result, performers are under pressure to do more dangerous acts, such as anal sex or double penetration, that pay more but increase risks of disease or physical damage. Many supplement their income with webcam shows and prostitution, which are known in the industry as “privates.”
The Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, a Los Angeles-based organization (now closed) that monitored the health of performers listed on its website the injuries and diseases to which porn performers are prone, including HIV, rectal and throat gonorrhea, chlamydia of the eye, and tearing of the throat, vagina and anus. It’s no surprise, then, that the average performer’s “career” is less than six months.
Former adult entertainment actresses and others campaign in 2011 for a Los Angeles ballot initiative that would have required performers to wear condoms. Phil McCarten/AP Images for AIDS Healthcare FoundationPorn and politics
Despite the industry’s efforts to portray itself as progressive and sexually liberating, it has been especially aggressive in organizing against regulations to protect performers. And MindGeek’s market muscle has translated into political power.This is most evident in its campaign to defeat Measure B in Los Angeles County, which mandates the use of condoms and requires production companies to obtain a health permit. The company poured over $300,000 into this effort, mobilized business allies, and set up fake “astroturf” groups such as the Council of Concerned Women Voters. All of this was to promote the message that Measure B was unwarranted and intrusive government regulation that infringed on the performers’ rights.
At other times MindGeek appears to support “intrusive” regulation. It recently backed U.K. proposals for mandatory age verification for viewers on porn sites and has already established its own platform, AgeID, for this. The motivation isn’t exactly altruistic, however, as industry observers suggest that not only will MindGeek make money by licensing this product, it will also serve a gatekeeper function that will further consolidate its monopoly control.
Ultimately, in our view, the industry is unsalvageable. The porn industry has always been abusive, and the situation has only deteriorated as distribution has been monopolized. Whatever some might say, there is no such thing as “socially responsible” porn.
Stephanie Clifford is now trying to hold accountable the most powerful man in the country for his alleged abuse of power. We argue it is time to do the same for the porn industry.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Gail Dines is founder and president of Culture Reframed, a non-profit that develops research-driven education to prevent, resist, and heal the harms of pornography. Culture Reframed has receive grants from foundations to develop educational materials.
David L Levy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
the rich asshole Tower fire victim was desperate to sell his apartment — but president made building toxic to buyers
April 9, 2018
Shane Croucher
Posted with permission from Newsweek
Todd Brassner, the 67-year-old man who died in a fire at Trump Tower, was an art collector and friend of Andy Warhol, who painted a portrait of him in 1975 that hung in his 50th floor luxury apartment.
The fire in Brassner’s Midtown Manhattan apartment broke out on April 8. The New York Fire Department said the apartment was large and the whole space was on fire, making it “very difficult” for firefighters to tackle. The apartment in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue had no sprinkler system.
Brassner was trying to sell his New York City home after filing for bankruptcy in 2015 but could not find a buyer. In a disclosure statement relating to his bankruptcy, Brassner estimated his property’s value to be $2.5 million. It also said he had been “plagued with debilitating medical problems that have made it difficult for him to function.”
The document described the art dealer as being from a wealthy family that had supported him financially. This support was only limited, the disclosure said, though Brassner's father had recently died and he was due a “substantial inheritance.”
Brassner had fallen heavily into debt: “The limited support of his family coupled with his medical problems, caused the Debtor to fall into arrears on his mortgage, credit card payments and line of credit payments,” the disclosure said.
But he estimated the value of his artwork, jewelry and collectible items to be worth more than $3.4 million. In that collection were vintage electric guitars and amplifiers, and expensive watches. He was also said by those who knew him to love fast cars.
Friends of Brassner told the New York Times that he was struggling to sell his apartment. Stephen Dwire, 67, a musician who had been friends with Brassner since they were both 14, told the Times that "when people heard it was a Trump building, he couldn’t give it away."
Stuart Pivar, an art collector who was friends with Warhol, told the paper that Brassner was born to an art dealer and a lighting manufacturer who introduced their son to the famous pop artist.
Pivar said Brassner struggled with drugs and dealers "snookered him out of masterpieces" in his collection. His apartment was extremely cluttered, Pivar added.
‘I’m very scared’: Russian-American reporter reveals why the rich asshole stands no chance against Putin
some rich asshole and Vladimir Putin (MSNBC)
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Russia-born journalist Julia Ioffe has covered both President some rich asshole and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and when it comes to the developing situation between the two countries, she said, “I’m very scared.”
In a conversation with The Global Politico podcast, Ioffe explained her fear “is because… in the Cold War there were kind of protocols and rules developed and lines of communication, and there were just—the way things were done.”
Today, however, there are merely two people: the rich asshole and Putin, “who are both painted into a corner, strategically, both at home and geopolitically, who are very prideful. Both very kind of emotional knee-jerk decision makers, to an extent. And I worry that they’re both going to start clawing their way out of their respective corners and that that’s going to lead to a lot of collateral damage.”
Up against Putin, the rich asshole will falter simply because he isn’t a smart enough leader on the global stage.
“You know, this isn’t [Putin’s] first rodeo, and this is not his first U.S. president, whereas the rich asshole is still kind of getting his sea legs,” Ioffe explained. “And this is kind of the built-in advantage of an autocratic system, where Putin already knows how to do all this, and he’s kind of a better tactician, and kind of a better strategist. And I worry that in this showdown Putin’s going to outmaneuver the rich asshole and the U.S.”
She further warned that a reason for concern is that the rich asshole isn’t the only ignoring the important threat. Indeed, all of Washington seems ignorant in the way the country is discussed, Ioffe said.
“I think it’s not just about pride of intellect and expertise; it’s about accurately diagnosing the problem and knowing what it is you’re dealing with, right? You don’t want to treat a broken leg with chemotherapy,” she said. “And I think we have to understand that Russia is going to continue throwing sand in the gears, or weightier objects, and that they’re going to be a force that is constantly going to push back—often just to push back.”
She brought up the rich asshole’s congratulatory message to Putin after his “election” and the invitation to the White House. She explained the nots that the rich asshole was given on the call, which specifically told him not to congratulate Putin, in all capital letters.
“The talking points say, please scold him for the poisoning. He doesn’t scold him. In fact, he invites him to a White House visit—not just a visit. And the Russians are very ably playing off of this split,” Ioffe told Politico. “You know, he’s basically given them a big opening to walk right into, and they’re very ably playing the administration off the president that heads it to their own advantage, because the Russians, like the Chinese, love protocol.”
She explained that state visits are important to Russia because optics are critical for them and specifically to Putin.
He “wants to make Russia great again, who wants Russia to be seen as a peer to the U.S., and not as a junior partner in the relationship that is to be punished for things,” Ioffe said. “What better image is there for him, after all of these diplomatic expulsions, after all of these sanctions, after—again—a poisoning on U.K. territory with a crazy nerve agent—that he gets a photo op with the president of the U.S., in the White House that the president of the U.S. invited him to? But there is nothing more legitimizing than that, for the Russians. They’re getting exactly what they want out of it.”
Listen to the full interview at Politico Magazine
Stormy Daniels lawyer files renewed motion to depose the rich asshole, Cohen
BY AVERY ANAPOL - 04/08/18 08:16 PM EDT
Adult-film actress Stormy Daniels's lawyer on Sunday filed a renewed motion to depose President the rich asshole and his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, over a $130,000 payment from Cohen to Daniels before the 2016 election.
Michael Avenatti, the adult-film star's attorney, made the announcement on Twitter.
Here is the renewed motion we just filed seeking to depose Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen, as well as an expedited jury trial. #searchforthetruth #bastadropbox.com/s/qsvft99a1hx5…
A federal judge temporarily blocked Avenatti's attempt to depose the rich asshole on Thursday, ruling that the motion was "premature."
The new motion Avenatti filed states that Daniels’s case “centers on a dispute concerning whether a settlement agreement, containing a mutual release and terms of non-disclosure, was ever formed between the parties.”
The motion calls for a deposition for both the rich asshole and Cohen of no more than two hours and requests various documents concerning the nondisclosure agreement.
Daniels alleges she was paid weeks before the 2016 election to keep quiet about her alleged affair with the rich asshole, which she says took place in 2006.
She argues in the motion that she is “not bound by any of the terms and conditions of the agreement, including the provision of the agreement providing for arbitration.”
Avenatti is also seeking an expedited trial in Daniels's case to void a nondisclosure agreement between her and the rich asshole, claiming that the agreement is null because the rich asshole did not sign it.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, recently spoke on CBS’s “60 Minutes” about her alleged affair with the rich asshole. In her interview, she claimed that someone threatened her to keep quiet about her affair.
Earlier on Sunday, Avenatti tweeted a photo of Daniels with a forensic expert who is believed to be working with Daniels to identify the individual who she claims threatened her.
Last week, the president publicly addressed the controversy for the first time by denying knowledge of Cohen’s $130,000 payment.
Updated: 8:49 p.m.
President called victim of deadly the rich asshole Tower fire a ‘crazy Jew’: report
Todd Brassner who died in his the rich asshole Tower apartment/Screenshots
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The tenant who died in Saturday’s the rich asshole Tower fire was not a favorite of the president, who called him a “crazy Jew,” the New York Daily News reports.
Art dealer Todd Brassner, a friend of Andy Warhol, who lived in the building for two decades, was killed in a blaze on Saturday. the rich asshole Tower does not have sprinklers on its residential floors because the president lobbied to avoid having to install them.
Art dealer Patrick Goldsmith, a friend of Brassner, told the Daily News that he was visiting the building in 1996 and was caught staring at the rich asshole’s tiny hands. According to his story, the rich asshole asked a doorman who he was visiting.
“Oh, that crazy Jew?” the rich asshole asked, in Goldsmith’s telling.
The White House pushed back on the account when approached by the Daily News.
“Basing a front-page story maligning the President solely on a decades-old unverified claim by a critic of the President — whose own family members are Jewish — is absurd,” said one of the president’s spokespersons.
the rich asshole started trade war with China without ‘one single deliberative meeting’: report
some rich asshole takes credit for Mike Pence's debate performance during a rally in Nevada (Screen cap).
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President some rich asshole’s legendary impulsiveness may have reached a new crescendo with his off-the-fly talk of huge new Chinese tariffs, according to new details reported by Axios.
“There wasn’t one single deliberative meeting in which senior officials sat down to debate the pros and cons of this historic threat,” the story says. “the rich asshole didn’t even ask for advice from his new top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, instead presenting the tariffs as a fait accompli.”
John Kelly, the chief of staff who has been reduced to a “virtual White House intern,” and others were left in the dark, the report says. And no one had discussed the possible effect on the market.
Some are hoping that Kudlow, a staunch free trade advocate, will now temper the rich asshole before this escalates into a full-scale trade war. Don’t bet on it, according to the report.
“But with the rich asshole as mercurial as he is, any soothing words from Kudlow should be taken with a very large grain of salt,” Axios writes.
Republicans will double-down on the rich asshole, invoke impeachment talk in 2018 campaigns: report
some rich asshole gives an interview/Screenshot
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Republicans running for U.S. Congress have settled on a strategy that may prove brilliant or disastrous, raising the specter of impeachment to scare moderate voters into supporting them reports The New York Times.
The idea of what ring-wingers call a “coup”—such as impeaching the rich asshole for his misdeeds after revelations that show his campaign colluded with Russia—was the stuff on conspiracy theorists on the far right a year ago, the story points out, but today appears to be part of the mainline party’s talking points.
“The appeals have become a surefire way for candidates to raise small contributions from grass-roots conservatives who are devoted to some rich asshole,” the story says. “But party strategists also believe that floating the possibility of impeachment can also act as a sort of scared-straight motivational tool for turnout.”
One of the candidates employing the strategy is the rich asshole’s old foil Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. He is facing a well-liked and well-funded Democrat. In his election kick-off video, Cruz screened a fake news video featuring an actor reading headlines that would scare his supporters.
“Senate Majority Leader Schumer announced the impeachment trial of President the rich asshole,” one of the actors says.
The danger, of course, is that the strategy risks tying Republicans even more closely to the most unpopular president of all-time.
Read the whole article here
POLITICS
White House Trade Adviser: The Washington Post Is ‘Fake News Most Of The Time’
Peter Navarro echoed the rich asshole’s tweet claiming that the major newspaper is “more fiction than fact.”
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro escalated President some rich asshole’s attacks on the news media Sunday morning, characterizing The Washington Post as “fake news most of the time.”
Speaking with host Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Navarro brushed off a Washington Post story from Saturday that described turmoil in the White House. He specifically denied the newspaper’s report that White House chief of staff John Kelly is threatening to resign.
“Every day of his adult life,” Navarro said, “John Kelly’s gotten up in the morning to serve America. He’s a great man, a courageous man –– he serves the president, he has the president’s ear, he runs the West Wing well. That’s all I know, that’s all I see.”
He added, “When you read stuff in The Washington Post, frankly, that’s fake news most of the time.”
Todd pushed back, calling Navarro’s comment a “cheap shot.”
“I think that expression is a pretty unfair thing to say about a major news organization,” Todd said.
“Mr. Todd, that is not a cheap shot,” Navarro replied. “Because if you look at the newspapers that I read every day across the spectrum, The Washington Post, in my judgment, tends to attack the president more than any other newspaper in its news stories. You can do anything you want in your editorials, sir, but you cannot do that in your news stories.”
Todd interrupted him: “The term ‘fake news’ is not exactly a way to hold up the First Amendment, especially when the Russian government, just this morning, is using that phrase.”
While the rich asshole claims to have coined the term “fake news,” Vox reports that the strategy of using fake news to disorient and manipulate voters was pioneered by the Russian government in the 1990s and 2000s.
A federal grand jury in February indicted 13 Russians and three Russian entities, charging that they interfered in the 2016 election to boost the rich asshole’s candidacy by posing as Americans and creating fake social media accounts to spread propaganda.
the rich asshole has frequently invoked “fake news” to attack mainstream media coverage he doesn’t like. He tweeted Sunday morning that The Washington Post is “garbage” and “more fiction than fact.”
New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet defended the Washington Post on CNN Sunday morning, noting that every deeply reported story about turmoil in the White House by the paper or the Times so far has been “verified.”
“If [the rich asshole] creates a culture where ‘Fox and Friends’ and Jesse Watters are regarded as ‘serious journalism,’ and the New York Times and Washington Post are not, he will have done longstanding, harmful effect on the country,” Baquet said.
He added, “It’s out of control, and his advisers should tell him to stop, because it’s actually affecting the civic life and debate of this country.”
POLITICS
Report: the rich asshole Sons’ Private Trip To Dubai Cost $73,000 Or More Of Taxpayer Money
The costs included hotel rooms and car service for a Secret Service detail, according to CBS.
A private trip to Dubai by President some rich asshole’s sons has so far cost U.S. taxpayers at least $73,000, CBS News reports.
The money covered expenses incurred by members of a Secret Service detail for hotel rooms and car service during the trip from March 26 to April 8, according to purchase orders viewed by CBS.
The trip had nothing to do with government business. some rich asshole Jr. and his brother Eric met with “the team at the rich asshole International Golf Club, Dubai,” a representative told CBS in a statement.
The brothers also spent time with the rich asshole Organization business partner Hussain Sajwani and his family — and attended the wedding of Sajwani’s daughter, Amira, according to a tweet from the father of the bride. He called the Trumps “dear friends and business partners.” Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan, the deputy ruler of Dubai, also attended the wedding.
Sajwani is the founder and chairman of Damac Properties in Dubai, and Amira is the firm’s chief financial officer.
Yesterday, I was delighted to host my dear friends and business partners @donaldjtrumpjr & @erictrump for a very special occasion in my family’s life. We were celebrating my daughter Amira’s wedding.
Eric the rich asshole’s wife, Lara the rich asshole, also posted a picture of herself at the wedding on her Instagram account.
The Secret Service confirmed to CBS that it was conducting a ”protective operation” in the United Arab Emirates, but would offer no other details.
President the rich asshole has retained his ownership of the the rich asshole Organization but announced after being elected president that he would hand over day-to-day operations to his two sons. He also said his company would not be involved in any new overseas developments while he was president. A second the rich asshole-branded golf course in Dubai is now being developed on Damac property. The the rich asshole Organization also last year announced the development of luxury villas near the rich asshole’s current golf club in Dubai.
Delighted to announce the launch of The Trump Estates Park Residences, a collection luxury villas with exclusive access to @TrumpGolfDubai!
the rich asshole national security spokesman to depart White House
BY LUIS SANCHEZ AND NIALL STANAGE - 04/08/18 08:04 PM EDT
National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton is leaving the administration, a senior White House official confirmed to The Hill on Sunday evening.
It is the latest move in a wide-ranging shakeup of President the rich asshole’s national security and foreign policy teams.
The official said that the rich asshole had called Anton on Sunday and thanked him for his service. The president expressed personal regard for Anton and said he would be missed.
The news of Anton’s departure was first reported by Politico, which stated that he would join Hillsdale College’s Kirby Center as a writer and lecturer.
Anton’s exit comes soon after national security adviser H.R. McMaster departed. McMaster is being replaced by John Bolton, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has also been ousted, with CIA director Mike Pompeo nominated by the rich asshole as his replacement. Gina Haspel, currently the deputy director of the CIA, has been nominated to take the top job at the agency.
Anton has been a frequent presence on television defending the administration’s foreign policy stances, occasionally clashing with cable news anchors in trenchant terms.
Anton’s backers, and even some of his detractors, respect his intellectual capabilities. A February 2017 story in the Weekly Standard described him as “a fast-talking 47-year-old intellectual who, unlike most of his colleagues, can readily quote Roman histories and Renaissance thinkers.”
He came to prominence within the rich asshole circles by an unusual route. During the 2016 campaign, he wrote blog posts and essays under a pseudonym — Publius Decius Mus, the name of a fourth-century BC Roman consul — in which he defended the rich asshole’s policies, primarily from the critiques of other conservatives and Republicans.
Some of his praise was baroque even by the standards of the rich asshole loyalists.
"the rich asshole, alone among candidates for high office in this or in the last seven (at least) cycles, has stood up to say: I want to live. I want my party to live. I want my country to live. I want my people to live. I want to end the insanity," he wrote in one essay.
As news broke of his departure from the White House, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders paid tribute.
“Michael is one of the smartest and most talented individuals I’ve ever worked with — not to mention an amazing chef,” she said in a statement.
But such praise was not universal, especially for those who thought Anton was prone to moving with the tides in the tumultuous the rich asshole administration.
He was initially seen as a fervent advocate of the “America First” stances put forth by the rich asshole during the campaign. He was hired to work with the first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, whose tenure was infamously short.
After Flynn’s departure, critics contend Anton aligned himself with the more moderate worldview espoused by McMaster and his allies.
“Anton got the job for one reason — he was the most pro-the rich asshole of anyone associated with the national security area,” said one source close to the White House.
This source insisted, “He completely flipped. He was brought in because of Flynn but he became the biggest cheerleader for the McMaster faction that fought against implementing the president’s policies.”
Whether that is true or not, his departure cleans the slate for Bolton to build his own team. Monday will be Bolton's official first day on the job.
Updated: 8:35 p.m.
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April 8, 2018
News you actually want to know, and what you can do to make a difference.
Welcome to your weekly roundup of good news about good people, how you can help make a difference — and a picture of President Obama to make you smile.
A record number of women are running for the House
Women candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives set a record this week!
As of Thursday, a total of 309 mostly Democratic women are running for the House, topping the previous record of 298 set in 2012. And, with over half of states’ filing periods still open, the number could go even higher!
According to the Associated Press, this year marks “one of the best opportunities for women to make real gains in terms of representation and a change in priorities.”
ACTION ALERT: Boot Pruitt
With EPA chief Scott Pruitt at the center of so many scandals, it can be hard to remember that he has a responsibility to Americans to protect the environment.
And he’s failing us big time. In response, the #BootPruitt campaign is seeking Pruitt’s resignation — not just because he’s an ethics disaster, but because Americans deserve to live the healthiest lives they can live.
Sign the petition here.
100,000 teens are pre-registered to vote in California
California’s push to get 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote has reached 100,000 teenagers, according to California’s secretary of state.
“This is a big milestone,” Alex Padilla, the California secretary of state, told the L.A. Times. “I’m optimistic it’s going to translate into action at the ballot box.”
The numbers showed a surge in teen sign-ups following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and the massive national protests in March.
ACTION ALERT: Tax March is Sunday, April 15
Sunday, April 15, marks the one-year anniversary of the 2017 Tax March, when citizens came together to demand that the rich asshole release his tax forms.
This year, events are planned across the country to demand an end to the GOP tax scam, which will raise taxes for nearly 100 million families and strip health care from 13 million people — all to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations.
Find an event near you to make your voice heard!
5,000 new voters registered at March for Our Lives
The teens leading the #NeverAgain and March for Our Lives movement won’t be stopped. According to the nonprofit Headcount, 4,800 people, mostly under 30, registered to vote on the day of the March for Our Lives — and that’s not including those who went online to register.
“When Emma Gonzalez gave that incredible speech that ended with a call to everybody to register to vote, it was like, ‘Okay, what can we do?’” Aaron Ghitelman, director of communications at Headcount, told Voice of America News.
What they did was shatter their single-day voter registration record. The gun lobby is on notice!
You can register to vote with Headcount or become a volunteer at one of their events here.
ACTION ALERT: Sign the petition to #defenddiplomacy
More than 200 former ambassadors and diplomats have signed a letter urging the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to thoroughly examine Mike Pompeo, the rich asshole’s nominee for secretary of state following his Twitter-firing of Rex Tillerson.
The letter pretty righteously calls on the committee to ask Pompeo how he plans to “restore the power and influence of American diplomacy.” The signatories are demanding better leadership and more resources — we think that’s the bare minimum.
Pompeo’s confirmation hearing is set for April 12. Read the full letter and sign the petition to demand action here.
ACTION ALERT: Stop Pompeo
If you have no patience at all for Pompeo, you’re not alone. The #StopPompeo Twitter campaign allows you to target Senate Democrats who voted to confirm Pompeo as CIA director. You can also join a #StopPompeo Thunderclap organized by MoveOn from now until April 11.
5,000 Florida mayors are suing for their right to protect their cities from gun violence
A group of Florida mayors is suing the state to win back the right to implement gun regulations in their municipalities.
Because of a 2011 statute backed by the gun lobby, elected local officials currently face fines of up to $5,000 or risk losing their jobs for trying to enact local gun control law.
Mayor Raúl Valdés-Fauli of Coral Gables, Florida, told the Sun-Sentinel, “It’s the right thing to do… [Current rules are] unconstitutional because we have the duty to regulate our zoning and public safety. The state is making it impossible for us.”
Gwen Graham’s new ad aims directly at the rich asshole in Florida
Gwen Graham, a boss Democrat running for governor of Florida, knows exactly where to hit the rich asshole — namely, Twitter and Mar-a-Lago.
Graham plans to heavily promote an ad, in which she emphatically states “some rich asshole is an embarrassment,” across social media platforms, including Twitter, in the Palm Beach region of Florida, to make absolutely sure it won’t be missed at the rich asshole’s favorite private getaway.
Governor Kate Brown of Oregon is standing up to the rich asshole
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is not putting up with the rich asshole’s nonsense.
She took to Twitter to confirm she has no plans to dispatch troops to U.S.-Mexico border at the rich asshole’s behest, following a proclamation he signed last week ordering more troops to the border based on truly bogus claims of greater “illegal activity.”
If @realDonaldTrump asks me to deploy Oregon Guard troops to the Mexico border, I’ll say no. As Commander of Oregon’s Guard, I’m deeply troubled by Trump’s plan to militarize our border.
Beloved political portraitist named editor at the Paris Review
Thirty-four-year-old Emily Nemens has just been named editor of the Paris Review, after a long search to replace a male editor who resigned after multiple claims of sexual misconduct made against him by female employees and writers.
Nemens, an editor, writer, and illustrator, made headlines in 2013 and 2014 for her depictions of the gender imbalance in Congress, and illustrations of women such as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Hillary Clinton.
Women of the 113th Congress — Emily NemensU.S. NEWS
the rich asshole Once Lobbied Against NYC Proposal To Put Sprinklers In High-Rise Units
The real estate developer argued they would be too costly to add to buildings like the rich asshole Tower.
some rich asshole fiercely opposed a New York City proposal in the late 1990s that would have mandated fire sprinklers in all high-rise residential units ― including those in the rich asshole Tower, where a resident died Saturday in the building’s second fire in four months.
The apartment of the man who died did not have sprinklers installed, fire officials said.
Back in the ’90s, the rich asshole, then a real estate developer, argued that installing the sprinklers would be too costly. The city council was considering such a mandate in the aftermath of two fatal high-rise fires in Brooklyn and Manhattan, the New York Post wrote at the time.
the rich asshole reportedly worked against the bill by calling a dozen council members and donating money to the city speaker.
A version of the bill became law in 1999 under then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, but the revised language excluded buildings built before its passage. the rich asshole Tower, which opened in 1983, did not have to install sprinklers.
The law did mandate that existing residential properties would have to put in sprinklers if they later underwent renovations that cost 50 percent or more of the building’s value.
At the time the law was signed, Giuliani acknowledged that it didn’t do enough, according to The New York Times.
Jerome Rose, who in 1998 survived a deadly blaze in a Manhattan high-rise that started in an apartment where actor Macaulay Culkin’s family lived, advocated for the sprinklers two decades ago and repeated his concerns again on Sunday.
“It’s criminal,” Rose, now 79, told ABC News, “that people who live in these high-rise buildings without sprinklers do not have any protection.”
In 1999, when asked about the rich asshole’s reluctance to pay for sprinklers, Rose told the New York Post: “I would tell him if there had been a sprinkler in the Culkin apartment, the fire would have been out in 30 seconds, and nobody would have died. I will gladly pay a small rent increase to have sprinklers.”
the rich asshole later said that he had modified his views about sprinklers because they make tenants feel safer. He said he would spend $3 million to install them in another Manhattan building under construction at the time, the rich asshole World Tower, the New York Times reported. That building opened in 2001.
Tweeting on Saturday, the president praised the rich asshole Tower as a “well built building,” but did not mention the one resident’s death or the six firefighters injured.
the rich asshole takes time to congratulate golfer on ‘courageous’ win
some rich asshole playing golf, as he does every weekend/Screenshot
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As the President of the United States, some rich asshole is a very busy man.
But although he has made no mention of the man who burnt to death yesterday at his sprinkler-less apartment building or found time to have a single meeting before starting a trade war with China, he did find time to tweet congratulations to Patrick Reed, a golfer, on his big win in this weekend’s golf contest, The Masters.
the rich asshole called it a “great and courageous” win—at golf.
Donald trump loves golf, and has overcome the odds by spending every weekend at the Florida golf course he feared he’d never see again if he were president. U.S. taxpayers have paid $62 million to fund the rich asshole’s golf games so far.
“I love golf, but if I were in the White House, I don’t think I’d ever see Turnberry again,” he said in February 2016, referring to the famous course he owns in Scotland. “I don’t think I’d ever see Doral again,” he said of the famous course he owns in Miami. “I don’t ever think I’d see anything — I just want to stay in the White House and work my ass off, make great deals, right?”
Right.
POLITICS
the rich asshole Blames Putin, Iran For Backing ‘Animal Assad’ In Wake Of Reported Chemical Attack
He also criticized Obama for not ending Syria’s violent conflict “long ago.”
President some rich asshole lashed out Sunday at Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran for supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad following a reported government chemical attack in Syria that left dozens dead.
“President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad,” the rich asshole tweeted. “Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!”
the rich asshole, often reluctant to criticize Putin, suggested there would be a “big price to pay,” though it’s unclear if he was referring to the Russian and Iranian governments for backing the oppressive Syrian leader or the Syrian government for allegedly carrying out the attack.
A chemical attack in the rebel-held Syrian town of eastern Ghouta on Saturday left at least 49 people dead, including over a dozen children, according to the Syrian American Medical Society, a medical relief organization. Aid groups blamed Assad’s government for the attack, though the Russian-backed regime denied it was behind it.
the rich asshole ordered a military strike against the Assad regime in April 2017 in response to a brutal chemical attack that killed over 70 civilians in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun. the rich asshole has recently said that he would like U.S. military forces to pull out of Syria.
The State Department said Sunday it was working to confirm if the Syrian government was behind the suspected chemical attack.
“These reports, if confirmed, are horrifying and demand an immediate response by the international community,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.
the rich asshole also blamed former President Barack Obama on Sunday for failing to end the bloody conflict in Syria “long ago.” He tweeted that Obama should have followed through on his 2012 pledge to intervene militarily if the Syrian government used chemical weapons against its people.
The U.N. Security Council will hold an emergency meeting Monday to address the suspected chemical attack in Syria, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley announced Sunday.
In a statement Sunday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called on the rich asshole to respond “decisively” to the attack.
“President the rich asshole was quick to call out Assad today, along with the Russian and Iranian governments, on Twitter,” McCain said. “The question now is whether he will do anything about it. The president responded decisively when Assad used chemical weapons last year. He should do so again, and demonstrate that Assad will pay a price for his war crimes.”
This article has been updated with information about the U.N. Security Council and McCain’s comments.
POLITICS
the rich asshole Is Governing Like A Traditional Republican
He may not always sound like one, but his actions are in line with the GOP’s agenda.
WASHINGTON ― some rich asshole was supposed to be a different type of Republican. He’s frequently switched political parties, won over some traditionally Democratic voters and attacked well-regarded members of the GOP. Many establishment Republicans disavowed him, while others hoped his heterodox views ― antithetical to many pro-business elites ― could reshape politics.
But as president, the rich asshole has mostly governed as a traditional Republican leader. His rhetoric may sound different, but his biggest accomplishments and policy initiatives are, at the end of the day, almost completely in line with an orthodox GOP agenda ― with more of an emphasis on nationalist policies.
the rich asshole didn’t execute some hostile takeover of the party; he was readily welcomed by many in the rank and file as its chief, and his administration has already fulfilled many items on its wishlist.
“President the rich asshole has absolutely governed as a Republican,” said Boris Epshteyn, a former the rich asshole aide who is now chief political analyst at Sinclair Broadcast Group. “The president has had success on a wide range of fronts which are key to the Republican and conservative agenda, including deregulation, tax reform, decimating ISIS, repealing [Obamacare’s] individual mandate, reforming immigration, etc.”
“It is also important to note how involved the president has been in supporting Republican candidates throughout the country and working to keep GOP majorities in the House and the Senate,” he added.
The most significant accomplishments under the rich asshole have as much to do with Congress as they do with the president. Legislatively, the rich asshole’s biggest win was the tax cut law that delivered a massive permanent reduction for corporations. While the rich asshole aides helped craft the legislation, it was something that congressional Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) have been preparing for years ― long before the rich asshole ran for president.
In many ways the rich asshole is governing as a traditional Reaganite – less government regulation, less taxes and a stronger military.Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy
the rich asshole also nominated Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, ensuring that conservatives continue to hold the majority on the bench. But the reason the rich asshole was able to choose a justice at all was thanks to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who refused to let the chamber vote on President Barack Obama’s nominee when Antonin Scalia’s death created a vacancy in early 2016.
And in filling the high court vacancy and others in lower federal courts, the rich asshole has leaned heavily on recommendations from the Federalist Society, which has a deep network of conservative legal talent.
While the rich asshole came in promising to “drain the swamp,” his lack of political experience has allowed the swamp to thrive. Lobbyists, special interest groups and even foreign nations have been able to find ways into the administration.
the rich asshole initially appointed a number of outsiders to his cabinet and top staff. Recently, however, he has begun turning to Republican insiders and former GOP officials who are more ideologically aligned with the party establishment. Larry Kudlow, his new top economic adviser, is a long-time free trade and tax cut advocate. John Bolton, his new national security adviser, previously served as United Nations ambassador under President George W. Bush and is one of the most hawkish voices in American foreign policy who has fiercely defended the Iraq War.
A policy area where the rich asshole has most radically broken with Republicans is on trade. the rich asshole’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum, as well as additional steep tariffs on China, has spooked markets and sparked fears of an impending trade war.
While congressional Republicans have warned about the negative effects of the rich asshole’s tariffs, few have indicated they will support legislation to nullify them. China, meanwhile, retaliated against the U.S. on Monday by imposing tariffs on 120 types of commodities, which is expected to primarily affect American farmers.
“In many ways the rich asshole is governing as a traditional Reaganite ― less government regulation, less taxes and a stronger military,” the rich asshole confidante and Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy said. “Even on trade, Reagan was a hawk and the rich asshole tapped his key trade [representative], Bob Lightizer. the rich asshole often stakes out positions more extreme than Reagan, but observers should see this as a negotiating tactic for him. With the rich asshole, always look at results and the bottom line; they tend to be quite reasonable and good.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) agreed with the Reagan comparison, but said the rich asshole put more emphasis on “things that have changed.”
“I think he would approve of the rich asshole’s nationalism about controlling immigration and focusing on merit based immigrants,” Gingrich said. “Reagan had defense, economic growth and the deficit in that order and the recent the rich asshole signature of the spending bill followed the Reagan pattern. the rich asshole’s aggressive trade policy would have been understandable to Reagan because the world has changed. When the director of national intelligence in 2015 said China had stolen $460 billion in intellectual property in one year you clearly have to rethink your trader policies.”
The George W. Bush wing of the party, in contrast, was “more globalist and more anti-deficit.”
the rich asshole often gives members of his party heartburn when he praises Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. But he recently listened to his staff and agreed to expel 60 Russian spies and diplomats, the largest such expulsion in U.S. history. The move drew rare praise from lawmakers of both parties.
“This fits the pattern of our policy toward Russia in the rich asshole administration,” John Herbst, a Russia scholar at the Atlantic Council, told The Washington Post. “If you just look at policy, this administration has taken steps the Obama administration was not willing to, such as supplying antitank missiles to Ukraine. The president’s heart doesn’t seem to be in it, but for whatever reason, he’s willing to go along with his advisers.”
Immigration is perhaps the top issue that animates the rich asshole’s base ― and therefore himself ― but he’s hardly the first GOP politician to use it to appeal to voters. During his 2010 re-election bid, for example, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) starred in a memorable ad in which he walked along the U.S. border with Mexico and urged then-Sheriff Paul Babeu to “complete the danged fence.” In 2012, GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney urged undocumented immigrants to “self-deport.” And just last week, Romney said as a Senate candidate in Utah that undocumented immigrants who came into the country as children shouldn’t be allowed to obtain legal status at all.
the rich asshole recently signed a $1.3 trillion government funding bill into law that will greatly increase the federal deficit by raising spending for domestic and military programs. During the Obama administration, Republicans railed against the federal deficit and called for cutting spending. But the fact that the omnibus sailed through was less a result of the rich asshole being a new type of president then the reality that Republicans no longer need to make the deficit a political issue now that they have a GOP president.
On gun policy, the rich asshole stunned lawmakers earlier this year when he publicly embraced several gun control measures and shot down GOP priorities like concealed carry reciprocity. He even, shockingly, said he would be fine taking away people’s guns without their permission, and told members of Congress that they should be willing to stand up to the National Rifle Association.
Shortly thereafter, however, order in the rich asshole’s Washington was restored: The Republican president had realigned himself with conservative priorities and abandoned talk of pushing lawmakers to pass broader gun control proposals.
And on social policy, the rich asshole has continued to restrict abortion access and block advancements for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, staying in the space where Republicans have traditionally fallen.
“On most of the issues, the policies of this administration have fallen under traditional Republican policy,” GOP strategist and former Republican National Committee spokesman Doug Heye said. “This is seen not only in the measures advanced by the administration ... but also in the personnel that the administration has brought on board.”
“That’s why many who [were] critical of the rich asshole in the campaign are now backing him to the hilt,” Heye added. “It’s also why members of Congress, many of whom are privately critical of the administration, are putting their heads down and focusing on their committee or subcommittee. They know that this may be their best opportunity to fulfill long-held policy goals.”
POLITICS
the rich asshole’s Retail Website Only Pays Sales Taxes In 2 States. Amazon Pays Taxes In 45.
Is TrumpStore.com the real “no tax” company?
President some rich asshole has railed against Amazon, falsely claiming the company fails to pay state and local sales taxes on online shipments. But it turns out the rich asshole Organization retail website collects sales taxes only on goods shipped to two states — while Amazon collects sales taxes in 45 states.
The TrumpStore.com website sells the rich asshole-labeled glassware, baseball caps, luggage tags, spa slippers and key chains, among several other items. It collects sales tax only on orders shipped to buyers in Florida and Louisiana, according to the company’s own website, The Wall Street Journal was the first to point out on Friday.
TrumpStore.com, which touts itself as the “official retail website of the The the rich asshole Organization,” doesn’t even pay sales taxes on its online shipments in New York, according to the information on its site. Its physical store and headquarters are located in the rich asshole Tower in Manhattan.
the rich asshole, who maintains his ownership of the rich asshole Organization even while president, has been slamming Amazon on Twitter for dodging sales taxes. He has called it a “no-tax” company and has blasted Amazon for paying “little or no taxes to state & local governments.”
According to regulatory filings, Amazon paid a combined total of $412 million in federal, state, local and foreign taxes last year. In 2015, it paid $273 million. Amazon currently charges consumers sales taxes in all 45 states where such taxes exist, plus Washington, D.C. All states except Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon collect sales tax.
Amazon doesn’t have to pay all those taxes. A 1992 Supreme Court ruling effectively restricts states from forcing online retailers to pay state and local sales taxes if the company has no physical presence or employees in the state.
Amazon reportedly also supports legislation that would require all online retail operations — such as TrumpStore.com — to pay local taxes so companies operate on a level competitive playing field.
It’s impossible to know what state and local taxes the TrumpStore has paid because it’s a private company and the rich asshole has not released any tax information.
“Trumpstore.com has always, and will continue to collect, report, and remit sales taxes in jurisdictions where it has an obligation to do so,” a spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal.
A “terms and conditions” section of the rich asshole’s online store informs consumers that they’re responsible for paying any applicable tax on merchandise they purchase.
TrumpStore.com could soon be forced to catch up to Amazon on state sales taxes, thanks to the president. The rich asshole administration last month filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court urging it to allow states to require that online retailers collect and pay sales taxes even where they have no physical presence.
Chuck Todd unloads on the rich asshole adviser whining about ‘fake news’: ‘The Russian government uses that phrase’
Chuck Todd and Peter Navarro (NBC/screen grab)
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NBC host Chuck Todd on Sunday called out the rich asshole trade adviser Peter Navarro after he attacked the news media and called The Washington Post “fake news.”
During an interview on Meet the Press, Todd asked Navarro about a Washington Post report which suggests that Chief of Staff John Kelly’s role in the White House has been diminished.
Navarro called Kelly a “great man” who “has the president’s ear.”
“That’s all I know, that’s all I see,” the trade adviser opined. “And when you read stuff in The Washington Post, frankly, that’s fake news most of the time.”
“I think that expression is a pretty unfair thing to say about a major news organization,” Todd replied. “That’s a cheap shot.”
“Mr. Todd, that is not a cheap shot,” Navarro fired back. “Because if you look at the newspapers that I read every day across the spectrum, The Washington Post, in my judgement, tends to attack the president more than any other newspaper in its news stories.”
“You can do anything you want in your editorials, sir, but you cannot do that in your news stories,” he added.
Todd cut him off: “The term ‘fake news’ is not exactly a way to hold up the First Amendment, especially when the Russian government, just this morning, is using that phrase.”
Watch the video below.
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