the rich asshole suggests Korean truce village for Kim summit
U.S. President some rich asshole speaks during an interview with Reuters at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 17, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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US President some rich asshole suggested Monday that his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un be held in the truce village that straddles the border separating the two Koreas.
“Numerous countries are being considered for the MEETING, but would Peace House/Freedom House, on the Border of North & South Korea, be a more Representative, Important and Lasting site than a third party country? Just asking!” the rich asshole tweeted.
The Peace House in Panmunjom, the truce village in the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas, was where Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met Friday for a historic summit.
Kim, the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War, walked with Moon to the Peace House on the southern side of the border.
Preparations for a the rich asshole-Kim summit have gathered momentum with North Korea’s promise to pursue the complete denuclearization of the peninsula.
Seoul says North Korea has promised to shut down its nuclear test site within weeks and invite American weapons experts to verify its closure.
Kim also told Moon the North would have no need for nuclear weapons if the United States promised not to invade it, South Korean officials said.
Scholar Reza Aslan explains why it’s time to treat the rich asshole as an enemy of the state — before it’s too late
President some rich asshole called in to the popular breakfast show "Fox and Friends" to mark the occasion of First Lady Melania the rich asshole's birthday. (AFP / Nicholas Kamm)
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As we now understand, white evangelical Christians form the core of some rich asshole’s support, despite the president’s abundant and well-publicized personal failings. A recent poll by PRRI revealed that 75 percent of white evangelicals support the rich asshole, apparently an all-time high. This group that has long insisted that a president’s “moral character” was of primary importance has evidently and abruptly changed its collective mind.
This article was originally published at Salon
It is hardly breaking news that the rich asshole would fail the moral and ethical standards of all the world’s major religions. One much-discussed question in political science and religious studies is how the rich asshole’s evangelical supporters reconcile the rich asshole’s behavior with their supposed Christian values. Is their support for the rich asshole purely transactional, because he and the Republican Party are willing to advance certain public policy goals? What role do racial animus and social-dominance behavior play in the relationship between evangelical Christianity and some rich asshole? Is there literally nothing the president could do that would cost him their support?
In an effort to answer these questions I recently spoke with Reza Aslan. He is the author of three books on religion, including the bestseller “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.” He holds a divinity degree from Harvard and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is now a professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside. He is perhaps best known to the public as host of the CNN documentary series “Believer,” which was canceled last summer as a direct result of Aslan’s profane tweets attacking President the rich asshole.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. A longer version of this conversation can also be heard on my podcast.
How do you think this moment with some rich asshole came to pass? How was this man able to win the White House?
The United States has been undergoing a profound identity crisis over the last decade or so. In many ways, the election of Barack Obama was a clear indication of what that crisis looks like. Partly, this has to do with the changing racial and religious landscape in the United States. Demographers tell us that the United States of America will sometime, in the next couple of decades, become the first nation on Earth to be majority minority. For many of us that is a cause for celebration. It is in part what makes this country so unique and miraculous.
For many Americans — particularly those white Americans who have in one way or another benefited from the privileges that come with their particular skin tone — this is a very scary thing. It’s becoming more and more difficult to say with certainty what it means to be “American.” As everyone knows, the easiest way to identify yourself is an opposition to another. Thus, a large swath of Americans feel as though their very identity is under attack. They are desperately looking for scapegoats, for opposing forces to help them define who they are.
Now here comes this racist, sexist, lecherous, pathologically lying fascist who very clearly outlines for them who they can scapegoat and blame. In many ways, what the rich asshole has done is to tap into an existential crisis of a foreboding lack of self-identity that is eating away the heart of American culture. He galvanized that support in order to launch himself into this disastrous presidency. The real issue here, the real shame of it all, isn’t those who agree with the rich asshole’s racism and sexism, xenophobia and fear-mongering. No, the real shame of it all is those who disagree with the rich asshole but for whom his many horrible traits were not disqualifying and ultimately those voters also felt the same way.
The villain in this story as far as history is concerned is not some rich asshole. The real villains are Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell.
History will be the hardest on the “never-Trumpers” and “mainstream Republicans.” Trumpism took decades to come to fruition. The Republican Party and the conservative movement did not become this extreme overnight. They run away from this fact because they may not like the rich asshole personally, but he is enacting the policies most Republicans want.
Well, this is the funny thing. He is not actually giving them what they want. Right? I mean certainly they can say, “OK, after a year of desperate trying, they put together a tax bill that is now profoundly unpopular.” Nevertheless, it would have been much easier for them to get what they want with literally any other Republican as president except for some rich asshole.
He is actually making the Republican goals much more difficult to achieve because of his rank incompetence. If you ask me why people like Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are kowtowing to the rich asshole, it is because they are scared shitless. That’s why. It’s because when we speak of the rich asshole’s base, what we are talking about is a rabid, radicalized, violent group of white nationalists and extremists who are going to make anyone who in any way disappoints their dear leader pay with their careers.
America is also suffering from a profound lack of moral leadership. Where are the leaders, either on the left or right who are willing to stand up in the public square and say what the rich asshole and the Republican Party are doing is wrong and unacceptable?
This failure of moral leadership has created a permanent stain on the United States, and certainly on our government. I don’t think we recover from this. I know that’s an extraordinary statement. I think that there’s still an opportunity to remove this man from office, if not in the next year and a half, certainly in the next election.
I think there is an opportunity to reverse some of the moral rot that has become a fixture of our political process as a result of his election. But I don’t think, as a country, we actually get over this. This goes to what we were saying a little bit earlier. Partly, this timid behavior of the GOP has to do with fear. But there’s something else going on here too. To be honest, it’s something that only an immigrant like myself can truly give voice to. You see, I come from a country that was one country one day and a completely different country the next. [Aslan was born in Iran.]
Most people around the world have that kind of experience. Look at Turkey: Six years ago, Turkey was a thriving pluralistic democracy with freedom of thought and religion, freedom for minorities. Yes, it had certain problems. All countries have problems. But by no means was it the totalitarian, authoritarian country that it is today. That happened almost overnight. I think there’s this mentality among a lot of Americans that our political system here is permanent: Well, hell, we’ve survived 200-plus years. So, that means forever, right? Our democratic norms and our institutions are forever and nothing could ever affect them. OK, so we have a fascist for president, but eventually he’ll be removed from office and we don’t really need to worry about it because the system corrects itself.
No it doesn’t. There is nothing extraordinary or unique or permanent about the American system. It is hanging by a thread right now. For instance, a refusal to even consider the possibility of protecting the special counsel investigation from interference by a president who has openly said that he is going to interfere with it is a sign of how perilous the country’s democratic norms are right now.
Those little decisions create the possibility of a permanent crack in the system. I think most Americans just think that it’s inconceivable, that it’s impossible that the system itself can be fundamentally broken because they don’t live in that kind of world. But ask any immigrants to the United States and we will all tell you the same thing. Nothing is permanent. Everything can fall apart overnight if you are not willing to do whatever it takes to fight for it.
The country is one 9/11-style terror attack from the end of the American experiment as we know it. That’s not an exaggeration. That’s the reality that we face under this government.
Some of the rich asshole’s most slavish devotees are white evangelical right-wing Christians. How do you make sense of their loyalty given that the rich asshole violates almost every rule and norm of moral living as dictated by the world’s major religions?
First of all, you are right in the sense that this is a movement among white evangelicals. Let’s just make that absolutely clear. Eighty-one percent of white evangelicals voted for some rich asshole. That is a record. That’s more white evangelicals than voted for George W. Bush — who is a white evangelical by the way. But 67 percent of evangelicals of color voted for Hillary Clinton. These are people who ostensibly share the same theology, the same beliefs, right? The same core ideas about scripture, but just have a different skin tone. That was the dividing line of whether you supported some rich asshole or not.
First and foremost, let’s not beat around the bush. Race had a huge role to play in the support of white evangelicals for some rich asshole. Let’s not pretend otherwise. I mean that’s the only way that you can make sense of how evangelicals flipped in the course of a single election cycle. In other words, from Barack Obama to some rich asshole, white evangelicals went from being the group in America that was most likely to say that a politician’s public morality matters to being literally the group in America least likely to say that a politician’s public morality matters.
These are people who like to call themselves “values voters.” How did that happen? We cannot pretend that race wasn’t a huge role in that dramatic transformation. That, as many, many people have written about, is a process that started long before some rich asshole, with the insidious racism at the heart of white evangelical Christianity.
But I think, more than that, there is the pernicious influence of the “prosperity gospel” in white evangelical Christianity that charlatans like Joel Osteen have been preaching, where material prosperity is a sign of God’s blessings and favor. This is the single most anti-scriptural version of Christianity you could ever come up with. Nothing could be further from what Jesus actually preached than “God wants you to be rich.” There’s literally nothing that can get you any further from Jesus’ preaching than that statement.
And yet this prosperity-gospel narrative has so thoroughly infiltrated American evangelical Christianity, to the point where — when confronted with some rich asshole, a man who is the incarnation of everything Jesus preached against, a man who is the living embodiment of every “whoa” that came out of Jesus’ mouth, a man who couldn’t be further from the teachings of Jesus and the values of Christianity than any politician that I can imagine. And yet the rich asshole got this enormous support not just because of the racism, but primarily because these white evangelicals have been prepped to think that if you’re rich, it’s because God loves you.
Therefore, the rich asshole never had to prove his spiritual bonafides the way every other Republican nominee for president has had to before, because all he had to do is say, “I’m rich,” and that’s the end of it.
What is the thought process involved in reconciling this distorted and bizarre set of beliefs?
You have to begin with one very important postulate about religion that I think most people, religious or not, do not understand or cannot really fathom because it seems counterintuitive. But it’s just a fact that people do not so much derive their values from their religion as they insert their values in their religion. I think many people, particularly non-religious people, believe that religious people are almost like automatons. , The scripture tells them X, Y and Z and then they go and do X, Y and Z. That’s not how it works.
Scripture without interpretation is just words on a page. It requires someone to interact with that scripture for it to have any meaning whatsoever. As I always remind people, in our own history in the United States, 200 years ago, both slave owners and abolitionists not only use the same scripture to justify their different viewpoints, they use the exact same verses to do so. That is the power of scripture: It’s infinitely malleable. You go into it with your own values and prejudices and biases and then you can withdraw from scripture anything you need in order to justify those views.
It’s not extraordinary to think, “How in the world can someone read the Bible and walk away from it saying that we should take wealth away from poor people or we shouldn’t allow health care to those who need it.” Well, it’s not extraordinary, actually, because again you are bringing your own values and inserting them into your scripture. You’re not necessarily deriving your values from scripture.
You are one of the few people who is willing to speak plainly and directly about some rich asshole and the threat he poses to American democracy. Why do you think so many pundits and other prominent voices are afraid to speak truth to power in this moment?
I lost my show because I spoke the truth about this man. There are unquestionably very real consequences and a very real price to pay for speaking truthfully about some rich asshole. Again this goes back to what I was saying regarding American views about our system. There’s this notion — and this is part of the reason why my CNN show was taken away from me — that you have to respect the office even if you don’t respect the man. This is part of American political culture. And yet we’re talking about a man in the rich asshole who is shitting on the office on a regular basis. Right? But we have to respect the office.
I think what happens, in this attempt to maintain political norms in the face of someone who has overturned all of those norms so disastrously, are, for example, these arguments about whether we should refer to the rich asshole’s lies as actually being what they are — which is lies — and not as “untruths,” “mistakes,” “alternative facts” or some other verbiage. A wise man once said that the only reason our system in America works is that it’s based on the notion of shame. A lot of what we think are legal restrictions on the office of the presidency are not actually legal restrictions. They’re actually moral restrictions that the founders didn’t bother to put in writing because they simply assumed that shame would keep a person from abusing the powers of the presidency. They did not recognize the possibility of an absolutely and utterly shameless man being in this position.
But some rich asshole’s power comes from the fact that he has no shame whatsoever, and yet we in the media continue to treat him with a level of respect that his office deserves, all the while watching him overturn all those moral norms. It’s time to stop pretending that this man and situation are normal. It’s time to treat some rich asshole as an enemy of the state, which is what he is.
There has literally not been a single major crisis that our country has faced in the last year and a half. What happens when this government is confronted with a real crisis? We are on the precipice right now. If we are not willing to do whatever it takes to overturn this moment, then we deserve what’s coming to us.
A thought experiment: If this right-wing Christian fundamentalist or fascist movement were to get its way, how would America be different on a day-to-day basis for the average person?
It would be a country that looked enormously like a Christian version of Saudi Arabia or a Christian version of Iran. Nearly one-third of Americans can be defined as Christian nationalists. That is, by the way, more than 100 million people. Let’s just keep that in mind for a minute. More than 100 million Americans believe the country is a Christian nation that should be predicated on Christian values and where religious minorities have rights — but rights determined under Christian law. That is the country we are moving towards. That is not the United States that our forefathers thought to create.
GOP stunned by own failed record: ‘We can’t just talk about Neil Gorsuch’
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Saddled with their wildly unpopular tax bill, GOP leadership is scrambling to point to any achievements.
Panicked about a looming midterm lashing, the GOP’s do-nothing Congress suddenly wants to get something done — literally anything to show voters there’s a reason they should be sent back to Washington, D.C., in November.
“We need some more wins,” Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker told Axios. “We can’t just talk about Neil Gorsuch and tax cuts from here to November.”
The scramble comes after reports have already noted Republicans look like they’ve given up defending the House, and have desperately shifted time and resources toward hanging on to the Senate.
Of course, backslapping Republicans last December thought they had mapped out their re-election strategy by passing a tax giveaway bill to billionaires and corporations. But it turns out there are a lot of non-billionaires who vote, and they don’t think much of the Republican legislation.
The bill remains wildly unpopular with voters, most of whom don’t think they’ll ever see any dividends.
“We need to be delivering on the promises we made to the voters. We need to continue to deliver on tax reform, on regulatory reform, on Obamacare, on judges, and we need to be focusing on jobs, jobs, jobs,” says Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) who is locked in a re-election dog fight.
The harsh reality for Republicans is there’s virtually no chance any significant legislation will be passed between now and November. Republicans enjoy no Democratic support for its agenda in either the House or the Senate, as the GOP’s utterly failed attempts to repeal Obamacare illustrated.
Plus, the rich asshole’s record of scatterbrained reactions to policy means there’s little chance he’ll remain committed to any legislation over the coming weeks that could help Republicans get things done.
Republican leaders say they’ll be stressing that members helped put Gorsuch on the Supreme Court. But a Republican president and a Republican-led Congress appointing and confirming a conservative judge to the Supreme Court is just about the absolutely minimum Republicans ought to be able to achieve.
In the House, Democrats have to flip 24 seats to take control next year.
Last Tuesday’s special election in Arizona’s 8th District was just the latest warning sign for the GOP. The contest was held in a deeply conservative enclave, but Republicans squeaked out just a five-point victory in a district that voted for the rich asshole by 21 points a year-and-a-half ago. Indeed, Democrats hadn’t even bothered fielding a House candidate there since 2012.
And it’s not just the House that’s leaking oil. Senate Democratic candidates in deeply red states such as Missouri, Indiana, and Montana currently enjoy large fundraising advantages over local Republicans.
It’s probably too late for today’s do-nothing Congress to fix its reputation. And voters get to decide on that in November.
GOP senators are freaking out about midterms because they realize they’ve done almost nothing for two years
Ted Cruz speaks to Fox New (screen grab)
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Congress hasn’t accomplished much since being sworn into office in 2017. It’s enough to make Republican senators nervous about being tied to a party that hasn’t managed to pass any of the things promised during the 2016 campaigns.
An Axios report Monday noted that the party can’t manage to agree on what any of the legislation should be. It warns that if they aren’t able to pass anything that leaves conservatives inspired, their voters might not come out for the 2018 midterm elections. Given the results of the recent special elections, that could spell disaster for the House and Senate Republicans up for election in November.
“We need some more wins, first of all because that’s the right thing to do,” said Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker. “Second of all, because it’s politically expedient to our base to turn out in the fall, to make sure they see us being active and following through on this stuff.”
The special election in Arizona last week was for a district President some rich asshole won by 20 percentage points. The GOP candidate in that race won by just five points. There were over 140 Republicans in Congress where the rich asshole won their districts by less than 20 percent.
“I think we need to do much more,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said about his party’s legislative accomplishments. “Democratic turnout is going to be very, very high. The good news is, [in] the states that are up in ’18, there are many more conservatives than there are liberals. If we turn conservatives out, we’ll have a very good election. If they stay home, it could be a terrible election.”
Walker went on to explain that when talking with the GOP leadership, “they understand and seem to agree that we can’t just talk about Neil Gorsuch and tax cuts from here to November.”
Their problem, however, is that the GOP’s tax cuts aren’t polling very well. In fact, the Republican Party was forced to pull independent expenditure ads for a Pennsylvania candidate in the special election because it was making things worse for him.
“People want to know what you will do; they don’t want you constantly saying ‘You’re welcome’ for being functional long enough to pass tax reform,” one senior GOP aide told Axios. “Especially when tax reform isn’t overwhelmingly popular.”
Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) said that he thinks the GOP has “accomplished a lot.” However, he confesses that it isn’t enough.
“The more we can get done, the better, and there’s still a major opportunity to find a compromise on immigration here,” he said.
Republicans had promised to do things like overturn Obamacare, a massive infrastructure overhaul and pass border security funding that would build the rich asshole’s wall. Despite holding the majority in the House, Senate and having a Republican in the White House, the GOP failed in every attempt.
Freedom Caucus chair Mark Meadows (R-NC) conceded that they need to pass another piece of landmark legislation prior to the election.
“To not focus on significant legislative issues and more importantly our promises to the America people, will not only impact midterm elections but will erode any belief that DC will ever change,” Meadows said.
The anonymous House aide said that even a small infrastructure bill could help the desperate GOP.
“All the stories people read is that it is a do nothing Congress and the WH [sic] is chaotic,” the aide said via text message. “Showing good governing, on a non-controversial issue, willing to work with Dems helps our narrative.”
One problem for a GOP that has claimed “fiscal responsibility,” is a $1.3 trillion budget that added to a deficit the Republican Party has spent decades criticizing. One source close to House leadership noted that there’s “no taking that back.”
the rich asshole: White House correspondents’ dinner 'dead as we know it'
BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 04/30/18 08:25 AM EDT
President the rich asshole on Monday slammed the annual White House correspondents’ dinner, calling the event “dead as we know it.”
“The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is DEAD as we know it. This was a total disaster and an embarrassment to our great Country and all that it stands for,” the rich asshole wrote on Twitter.
“FAKE NEWS is alive and well and beautifully represented on Saturday night!”
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is DEAD as we know it. This was a total disaster and an embarrassment to our great Country and all that it stands for. FAKE NEWS is alive and well and beautifully represented on Saturday night!
The tweet comes amid the fallout from comedian Michelle Wolf’s hosting of the event, where she made several jokes about White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
the rich asshole officials and journalists alike have criticized Wolf’s performance, saying her jokes — in particular, the ones about Sanders — went too far.
the rich asshole did not attend the dinner this year or last year, opting instead to host his own counterprogramming with a rally, in Michigan and Pennsylvania, respectively.
The president has railed against both the dinner and Wolff since Saturday evening.
“The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a failure last year, but this year was an embarrassment to everyone associated with it,” the rich asshole tweeted Sunday night.
‘Give me a damn break’: Ana Navarro shreds the rich asshole supporter’s blatant hypocrisy on Michelle Wolf
Ana Navarro (Photo: Screen capture)
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Republican strategist Ana Navarro on Monday shredded the rich asshole supporter Jason Miller for attacking comedian Michelle Wolf while brushing off past controversial statements made by President some rich asshole.
When asked by CNN’s Alisyn Camerota for her take on Wolf’s performance, Navarro gave it an enthusiastic thumbs up.
“I say to Michelle Wolf, ‘Hallelujah, girl, you should be the one getting the Nobel Peace Prize,'” she said. “She has been able to get the rich asshole supporters to go on TV and defend women from being skewered and offended for their looks.”
Navarro then pointed out all the times the rich asshole supporters have told women to not be so offended when the president attacked women’s appearances — and she marveled at how outraged they were on behalf of White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
“It’s not supposed to be serious when President the rich asshole does it,” she said. “But it’s supposed to be dead serious — let’s all clutch our pearls! — when a comedian does it. Give me a damn break.”
the rich asshole supporter Jason Miller tried to claim that it was different when the rich asshole insulted women because he was just speaking “bluntly” and telling people what was really on his mind.
“Sometimes I have disagreed with what the president has said and wished he would have phrased things differently,” he said. “I think it is two completely different things. I think the president speaks very bluntly. He voices his opinion.”
Navarro would not let this fly, however, as she pointed out that the rich asshole was making disparaging comments about people during the White House press dinner while hosting a campaign rally in Michigan.
“Hispanics were getting booed at his rally!” she said. “People were going after the media and calling them ‘filth’ and saying ‘Get out of our country!'”
Watch the video below.
POLITICS
Journalists Push Back On Correspondents’ Association’s Response To Michelle Wolf
Some say the White House Correspondents’ Association president’s criticism of the comedian failed to recognize what the First Amendment is all about.
The president of the White House Correspondents’ Association released a statement criticizing dinner headliner Michelle Wolf that has some journalists wondering whether the group actually backs its own press-freedom mission.
As Wolf’s comedy set at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ dinner continues to incite condemnation for its unvarnished criticism of the rich asshole administration officials, association president Margaret Talev said in a statement to members that Wolf’s performance was not “unifying” and “not in the spirit” of the group’s mission.
“Last night’s program was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners, not to divide people,” Talev said. “Unfortunately, the entertainer’s monologue was not in the spirit of that mission.”
The annual dinner is “billed as a celebration of freedom of the press and the First Amendment” and usually features a comedian, hired to roast Washington figures from both sides of the aisle.
Many in the media complained that Talev’s statement contradicts press freedom, and pointed out that Wolf’s performance took equal-opportunity jabs at White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, among others. They also noted that Talev’s disassociation from the comedian she said she picked herself for the performance ― who arguably did what she was hired to do ― questions the whole point of the White House Correspondents’ dinner:
Every year, I see @whca attendees tweeting about how the dinner is about celebrating the First Amendment. That is sanctimonious enough. But this statement reveals anew what nonsense that is. This is performative rubbish, and I hope that next year’s comedian ridicules them for it.
WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THAT "THE 1ST AMENDMENT IS SOOOOOOO IMPORTANT" TALK I HEARD BEFORE YOU BROUGHT MICHELLE UP??? #WHCD
This horrendous statement should be a good call for a recommitment to not playing footsie with this administration—instead valuing reporters who do deep dives on its members and their effect on us, then asking fearless questions, relationships be damned.twitter.com/whca/status/99…
Uh... This statement is as cringeworthy as any joke ever told at a #WHCD.
The First Amendment is cool to celebrate and embrace, except when it’s not, I guess.
No wonder Americans don’t trust the media.
This is pathetic. Trump and his flying monkeys rail against the media and the First Amendment, @whca. For god's sake, PUSH BACK.
Talev, in an interview on Sunday with CNN’s Brian Stelter, hammered the dinner’s goal of press unity, and called it a “night of free speech.” She said her “only regret” was that “those 15 minutes are now defining four hours of what was really a wonderful, unifying night.” Talev said she hired Wolf because the comedian was “provocative” and had a message to deliver.
Ex-federal prosecutor lays out why the rich asshole’s ‘vast government conspiracy’ is ridiculously impossible
Mimi Rocah (MSNBC)
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A former federal prosecutor explained why President some rich asshole’s claim of a “vast government conspiracy” against him is so ridiculous.
Former assistant U.S. Attorney Mimi Rocah appeared Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” where she showed why the rich asshole’s claims were impossibly far-fetched.
“You really have to buy into this entire conspiracy theory,” Rocah said. “It’s not just Michael Cohen is a liar, it’s the prosecutors are evil and planting evidence.”
Law professor Alan Dershowitz has helped the rich asshole advance that theory after the president’s personal lawyer was raided by the FBI, and host Joe Scarborough pointed out that he’d done the same thing to help O.J. Simpson beat a murder charge.
“We’re not saying prosecutorial overreach or misconduct never happens. that would be extremely naïve and contrary to what’s happened in the world, but they’re here saying it’s happening already with no indication it’s happening and every indication to the contrary, and it’s not something that happens regularly,” Roach said.
She laid out how many actors would have to be involved to pull off a conspiracy like the rich asshole and his supporters have claimed.
“The prosecutors would have to be in on, the judge, the agents,” Rocah said.
The federal prosecutor-turned-Pace Law School professor pointed out that prosecutors are not responsible for sentencing, and that the legal system is built to prevent the type of misconduct the rich asshole has described.
“There are so many safety checks built into the system, and that’s the point,” Rocah said. “They’re ignoring all of those, so the judge decides the sentence, the prosecutors don’t decide.”
She said the conspiracy would have to be plotted years ago in a complicated white-collar case like the one against Cohen.
“The idea that you could manufacture a story like this, you’d have to have started it pretty much like 10 years ago,” Rocah said. “You would have to have started planting the seeds for this so it doesn’t make sense.”
“To take their theory to its logical conclusion,” she added, “it means really what they’re saying is this happens in every case, or many cases, so we should basically let drug dealers, violent gang members, rapists — we should let them all out of jail because clearly there’s prosecutorial overreach everywhere.”
the rich asshole crowdsources suggestions for North Korea meeting location in bizarre morning tweet
Asked why years ago he obtained a concealed weapons permit, the rich asshole told the CBS program "Face the Nation": "Because I like to have myself protected." (AFP Photo/Dominick Reuter)
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President some rich asshole is still trying to figure out where to hold his high-profile meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and now he’s trying to ask his Twitter followers for help.
“Numerous countries are being considered for the MEETING, but would Peace House/Freedom House, on the Border of North & South Korea, be a more Representative, Important and Lasting site than a third party country?” he asked on Monday morning. “Just asking!”
the rich asshole’s tweet asking the internet for help picking a North Korea meeting location came just minutes after he once again angrily attacked the White House press dinner for hosting comedian Michelle Wolf, who made pointed jokes against the rich asshole, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and adviser Kellyanne Conway.
“The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is DEAD as we know it,” the rich asshole fumed.
POLITICS
Ronny Jackson Not Returning As the rich asshole’s Personal Doctor, Reports Say
The news comes just days after Jackson withdrew his name from consideration to lead the VA.
Dr. Ronny Jackson, the president’s former personal physician and the short-lived nominee for Veterans Affairs secretary, will not return to his old job, media outlets reported on Sunday.
Jackson, a rear admiral in the Navy, withdrew his name from consideration to lead the VA last week amid a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee investigation into allegations that he created a “hostile work environment” and improperly distributed medication. He was also accused of “excessive drinking on the job” and crashing a government vehicle.
On Sunday, Politico reported that Jackson would not return to his old role as President some rich asshole’s personal physician, citing two White House officials. The news was later confirmed by The Washington Post and The New York Times.
It’s unclear if Jackson will remain on staff at the White House medical unit or if he’ll depart the administration.
Dr. Sean Conley, a veteran of the Navy who took over as the rich asshole’s personal physician as Jackson pursued the VA nomination, will continue in the role.
Jackson has been a White House physician since 2006. He has denied the charges first made public by the office of Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), calling them “completely false and fabricated.”
“If they had any merit, I would not have been selected, promoted and entrusted to serve in such a sensitive and important role as physician to three presidents over the past 12 years,” Jackson said in a statement last week.
But the nomination had already drawn skepticism from some lawmakers who worried that Jackson’s lack of experience would imperil the government’s second-largest federal agency.
Tester’s office has yet to release any documents supporting the accusations against the doctor. Last Friday, the Secret Service said it had uncovered no evidence related to a specific charge that agents had intervened when Jackson allegedly tried to bother then-President Barack Obama during a 2015 overseas trip.
the rich asshole pounced on that news during a rally on Saturday, warning Tester that he knew “things” about the senator that he “could say, too ... and if I said them, he’d never be elected again.” In a post on Twitter, the rich asshole also called on Tester to resign:
Jackson is still up for a promotion to become a 2-star admiral. Senators will consider the allegations before awarding it, The Times reported.
some rich asshole rants against Michelle Wolf in angry morning tweet
President some rich asshole called in to the popular breakfast show "Fox and Friends" to mark the occasion of First Lady Melania the rich asshole's birthday. (AFP / Nicholas Kamm)
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President some rich asshole kept comedian Michelle Wolf’s insults against White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders alive for another news cycle with a Monday morning tweet.
The president declared the White House Correspondents’ Dinner “DEAD as we know it” after the hosting organization disavowed Wolf’s remarks during Saturday’s event.
“The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is DEAD as we know it,” the rich asshole tweeted. “This was a total disaster and an embarrassment to our great Country and all that it stands for. FAKE NEWS is alive and well and beautifully represented on Saturday night!”
the rich asshole shill demands journalists stop calling out White House lies
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Thing we learned from the last White House Correspondents' Association Dinner: telling the truth is offensive to the rich asshole's shills.
While a silly debate rages about the jokes that were told at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, the rich asshole backer and CPAC head Matt Schlapp was offended by the truth.
On Monday morning, Schlapp appeared on CNN’s “New Day” to talk about the dinner, which he and wife — White House spokesperson Mercedes Schlapp — walked out of “in protest.”
Schlapp repeated the lie that comedian Michelle Wolf mocked Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ looks, but said he was also offended by another issue.
“We have big political disagreements in this country,” Schlapp said. “And I think it’s wrong for journalists to take that next step.”
“Granted, [Michelle Wolf]’s a comedian, but plenty of journalists do it as well,” he said. “They take the next step. Just present the facts, let the American people decide if they think someone is lying. The journalist shouldn’t be the one to say that the president or his spokesperson is lying.”
Schlapp’s declaration that journalists shouldn’t call out lies might have sounded shocking in another era, but it has been a long-term project of the rich asshole and his enablers to render facts meaningless.
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s first official act on the job was to scream lies at the press, lies which Kellyanne Conway then rebranded as “alternative facts.” And on that first weekend of the the rich asshole administration, both Spicer and Conway threatened the press over calling them out.
And just this month, Mercedes Schlapp had to make an appearance on Fox News in order to clean up a string of the rich asshole lies about the firing of VA Secretary David Shulkin. It’s little wonder that the rich asshole’s minions would like to reduce matters of truth to mere “disagreements.”
But journalists who are doing their jobs know the difference between “disagreements” and lies. And unfortunately for the rich asshole and many of his associates, so does Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
POLITICS
Eric the rich asshole ‘Liked’ Michelle Wolf’s Blistering Cracks About Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Whoops!
Someone didn’t get the memo.
President some rich asshole and many of those around him slammed comedian Michelle Wolf’s routine at the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner on Saturday night. Eric the rich asshole, however, “liked” a tweet that said Wolf “destroyed” Sarah Huckabee Sanders and included a video with her jokes about the White House press secretary:
the rich asshole also liked a tweet calling Sanders a “class act” and sent a tweet of his own praising his father for ”#KillingIt” by skipping the press event in favor of a campaign rally in Michigan.
It’s not clear if the “like” about the Sanders jokes was in error, but as of late Sunday, it remained.
(h/t Raw Story)
Conservative Matt Schlapp melts down on CNN after Chris Cuomo nails his hypocrisy on White House press dinner
CNN's Chris Cuomo, Matt Schlapp -- screenshots
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Conservative Matt Schlapp melted down on CNN Monday after host Chris Cuomo called out his massive hypocrisy for holding a White House press dinner comedian to a higher standard than the President of the United States.
In particular, Cuomo was incredulous that Schlapp was angry enough to walk out of the room during comedian Michelle Wolf’s routine despite the fact that he still won’t admit that President some rich asshole mocked a reporter’s disability while on the campaign trail in 2016.
Schlapp said that he still didn’t know whether the rich asshole was really trying to make fun of someone’s disability — and he then whined that Cuomo was once again bringing it up since it happened two years ago.
“You’re not as upset about what the President of the United States says on a regular basis — and he’s not joking!” Cuomo charged. “So if you’re going to care about a comedian and be so offended by what jokes failed or didn’t fail, then where is it there?”
Schlapp contended that he had, at times, mildly rebuked the rich asshole for mocking a woman’s appearance — but host Alisyn Camerota nailed him for having a double standard on what he thinks is out of bounds.
“You’re not walking out on the president,” she said.
“You never say anything about the president like you say about this comedian!” Cuomo said.
“That’s not true!” Schlapp complained. “I’ve been on your show, watch the tapes!”
Watch the full video below.
President the rich asshole Calls for the White House Correspondents' Dinner to be 'Put to Rest'
President some rich asshole has heaped more criticism on comedian Michelle Wolf for her divisive performance at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, calling her “filthy” and suggesting the annual event be canceled.
“The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a failure last year, but this year was an embarrassment to everyone associated with it,” the President tweeted on Sunday night. “The filthy ‘comedian’ totally bombed (couldn’t even deliver her lines-much like the Seth Meyers weak performance). Put Dinner to rest, or start over!” the rich asshole made a reference to late-night host Seth Meyer’s 2011 performance at the dinner, in which the comedian roasted the rich asshole.
In her scathing, 20-minute address, Wolf ripped into the the rich asshole administration and took particular aim at White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She also threw barbs at Ivanka the rich asshole, “as helpful to women as an empty box of tampons,” and Kellyanne Conway, “the perfect last name for what she does.”
the rich asshole tweeted about the dinner again Monday morning, calling it “a total disaster and an embarrassment to our great Country and all that it stands for” [sic].
The caustic routine earned criticism from many attendees and viewers, including journalists and lawmakers. Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer called the event “disgusting.”
In an earlier tweet, the rich asshole called the evening, “a very big, boring bust.”
Wolf was praised for her performance by fellow comedians and writers, including The Big Sick‘s Kumail Nanjiani and The New Yorker’s Emily Nassbaum.
But the White House Correspondents’ Association lamented the entertainer’s monologue.
“Last night’s program was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners, not to divide people,” association president Margaret Talev said in a statement on Sunday. “Unfortunately, the entertainer’s monologue was not in the spirit of that mission.”
#WHCA Statement to Members on Annual Dinner
the rich asshole has sat out both dinners held while he has been in office, a break from precedent. Since its founding in 1921, the joke-filled dinner has hosted every president at least once.
“I could not possibly be more thrilled than to be more than 100 miles away from Washington swamp…with a much, much larger crowd,” the rich asshole said at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania during last year’s dinner, according to the Washington Post.
At the time, he said he might make 2018’s dinner “more exciting” by showing up. But he again skipped out in favor of another campaign-style rally, this time in Michigan, which he called “a big success.”
CNN’s Chris Cuomo calls BS on the rich asshole’s ‘innuendo’ attacks on Democratic Sen. Jon Tester at Michigan rally
CNN "New Day" host Alisyn Camerota and Chris Cuomo (Photo: Screen capture)
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President some rich asshole spent Saturday evening ranting and railing against a vast array topics. One, however, was a vague attempt at an attack on Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), who the rich asshole is blaming for the scandals surrounding Dr. Ronny Jackson.
“Tester started throwing out things that he’s heard. Well, I know things about Tester that I could say, too,” the rich asshole threatened during the rally in Michigan. “And if I said them, he’d never be elected again.”
“What Jon Tester did to this man is a disgrace,” the rich asshole added.
the rich asshole, however, never said what exactly those things were.
Simply as a fact check, Tester’s comments were the findings handed to Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA), the chair of the Senate veterans’ affairs committee. Despite Isakson speaking out on these allegations as well, Tester remains the only target of the rich asshole’s wrath.
“So, let’s just use [Mike] Pompeo’s expression: eyes wide open,” host Chris Cuomo began. “People will blame the media ask say they were false allegations, it was trumped up. Here’s what we know, one, the FBI never finished their background check. Second, absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence. We don’t know whether the record-keeping is right, which goes to your your point about process. You should have had these things more vetted. But if they’re all untrue, if you had the ability to rebut them in a way — I wouldn’t use the word exonerate, but to show we don’t have any proof of what you’re suggesting, why didn’t they stick by Jackson? It would have been a great opportunity to rub it in the face of their perceived enemies to say this is false, just like we say everything else is false.”
Political analyst Alex Burns called it a “bogus narrative.”
“You have, yes, a bunch of allegations, anonymously sourced allegations that Sen. Tester and the Democrats have pushed out there,” he continued. And some of those are unproven. You also have a subset of those allegations that media, including CNN, that have independently verified. These questions of loosely dispensing pills, giving out pills without prescriptions in the White House medical office. That stuff is serious stuff. So, you have seen the White House hone in on that one allegation about the car incident and say ‘We have no record of that.'”
Cuomo noted that the rich asshole easily stands before a friendly audience making a series of convoluted arguments and attempting to play it to his advantage.
“He stands up on stage and says, ‘I know things about Jon Tester that if I said them he would never get re-elected,'” Cuomo recalled. “Doesn’t he have to say what those things are now? Don’t you have to put up or shut up in that kind of situation?”
Daily Beast editor John Avlon explained that those rules don’t apply to the rich asshole, “because this is an obvious and outright threat that doesn’t need to be based in anything because it’s about innuendo.”
Avlon went on to explain that Isakson had the same concerns and was just as interested in getting to the bottom of the allegations against Jackson.
“Look, Tester has won tough elections before,” he continued. “He’s won them before in presidential years when Mitt Romney won the state by 51 points, he was re-elected. So, let’s have this fight.”
“So, the man who is comfortable saying that they were dancing on the roofs after 9/11 and that Ted Cruz’s father was involved in the Kennedy assassination — he doesn’t want to talk about Jon Tester’s allegations though because they’d be too damaging,” Cuomo mocked.
“Wait a minute!” host Alisyn Camerota cut in. “Haven’t we just found the first contradiction in the rich asshole administration?”
Cuomo noted the tally is high.
Watch the full commentary below:
Pruitt is facing at least 10 ethics investigations as EPA watchdog announces new probe
Members of Congress want answers about Pruitt's spending habits.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt is now the subject of at least 10 federal investigations. The agency’s internal watchdog said Friday that it had opened yet another line of inquiry into Pruitt’s spending habits.
In a letter shared with ThinkProgress and other news outlets, EPA Inspector General Arthur A. Elkins Jr. told Reps. Don Beyer (D-VA) and Ted Lieu (D-CA) that an investigation is being opened into Pruitt’s $50-a-night rental of a Capitol Hill condoowned by a lobbyist couple.
Elkins wrote that the EPA OIG has received “multiple requests from multiple members of Congress” as well as from calls received by the OIG Hotline asking that Pruitt’s spending habits be investigated.
The U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) also asked in early April that Pruitt be investigated for “housing arrangements”, “expenses for his travel”, “use of staff and expenditures for security measures”, “approvals of hiring and salaries for certain employees”, and “use of the Administrator’s subordinates’ time”, in addition to “reassignment or demotion of staff who were attempting to ensure that expenses and other actions were in accordance with the law.”
Elkins’ letter coupled with numerous requests from lawmakers have prompted further inspection of Pruitt’s spending habits in addition to those probes already ongoing.
“Some of these matters will be reviewed as part of previously announced and still ongoing OIG reviews,” Elkins wrote. “Some will be the impetus for new reviews.”
For much of last year the EPA head rented a condo from Vicki and J. Steven Hart, a health care and energy lobbyist respectively. The agreement was unusual and allowed Pruitt to pay a small amount despite the expensive rental market in Washington, D.C. — only $50 per night and only on the nights the EPA administrator actually used the condo. Pruitt paid approximately $6,100 for around six months’ worth of usage in 2017, according to Bloomberg.
The arrangement has drawn fire from lawmakers. J. Steven Hart had clients with matters pending before the EPA at the time that Pruitt used the condo. Last week Hart said he met with Pruitt last July at EPA headquarters in an official capacity. Hart previously denied any lobbying in either 2018 or 2017. He left his firm, Williams & Jensen, on Friday, April 20, the day that Hart’s 2017 lobbying was disclosed.
Clients connected to Hart’s firm include fossil fuel companies such as Enbridge Inc., an Alberta, Canada-based multinational energy transportation company. Enbridge’s proposed expansion of the Alberta Clipper line — allowing for the transportation of 890,000 barrels of oil per day over the border from Canada into North Dakota — received EPA approval in March 2017.
Questions about Pruitt’s misuse of funds have circled for months. The EPA administrator has approved substantial pay raises for aides, in addition to racking up travel expenditures. Security expenses and requests for around-the-clock protection have cost nearly $3 million. A soundproof phone booth in Pruitt’s office also cost upwards of $43,000. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said two weeks that spending was a violation of the law after the EPA failed to inform the House and Senate appropriations committees respectively.
During his first congressional hearing last Thursday — meant to address the the rich asshole administration’s proposed $2.5 billion cut to the EPA — Democratic lawmakers hounded Pruitt for answers on the agency’s spending. But the administrator deflected blame, arguing he was unaware of the $43,000 phone booth expense and leveling blame for various expenditures at other members of his staff.
Republicans have reportedly cautioned President the rich asshole to distance himself from Pruitt but the rich asshole has consistently defended the EPA head, tweeting his support for the embattled official and publicly praising him.
“Scott is doing a great job!” the president wrote on April 7 as concerns over Pruitt’s condo usage began to swell.
Following receipt of the EPA OIG letter from Elkins on Friday, Democratic lawmakers expressed optimism over accountability for Pruitt.
“He obviously hopes that the bad headlines generated by his bad behavior will go away, and that he won’t be held accountable for his actions,” said Beyer, one of the recipients, in a statement. “The Inspector General’s letter announcing new reviews assures us that this will not happen.”
Probes into Pruitt’s spending habits are likely to take some time. In his letter, Elkins said the EPA watchdog would release each of the reviews separately as they are completed.
‘What a joke’: Morning Joe calls out the rich asshole supporters for holding president to a lower standard than comic Michelle Wolf
Joe Scarborough (MSNBC)
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MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough called out President some rich asshole’s supporters for suddenly deciding they didn’t like personal insults, after comedian Michelle Wolf needled Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the White House Correspondents Dinner.
The “Morning Joe” host said the reaction to Saturday’s event turned Twitter into a “dumpster fire” the following day, but he was flabbergasted by the rich asshole supporters who were upset by the comedian’s jokes.
“The New York Times compiled a list of 446 people, places and things that some rich asshole has insulted just on Twitter, just since he took office 15 months ago,” Scarborough said. “So really, the criticism from the rich asshole supporters is rich.”
The show’s producers played a montage of the rich asshole insulting various people on TV — especially Rosie O’Donnell — and Scarborough recalled when the president had targeted him specifically for personal attacks.
“I must say, there were quite a few people that I’ve known and I’ve considered friends for some time saying they were shocked and stunned and deeply saddened and they were so shocked by the personal insults that they left early,” he said. “Then they went to afterparties and had a great time there, but these friends of mine for 20 years certainly didn’t call me up and say, ‘Hey, Joe, we’re thinking about you, so sorry he attacked your fiancée’s appearance. Hey, Joe, we’re sorry that some rich asshole said you’re a murderer and you had to explain to your 9- or 14-year-old boy.'”
He hammered the rich asshole supporters for holding the president of the United States to a lower standard of personal conduct than a stand-up comic.
“I understand it, I’m a big boy, I didn’t bitch about it at the time,” he added. “But these people so shocked and stunned and deeply saddened that a comedian did what comedians do, and yet they just apologized for some rich asshole over and over again and kept their mouths shut, what a joke.”
Prominent Republican says it’s ‘wrong’ for journalists to call out the rich asshole’s lies
Holding power accountable? Matt Schlapp thinks it's more important to make sure the rich asshole supporters are comfortable.
During an interview on CNN on Monday, frequent Fox News guest and American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp made a case that it is not the job of journalists to inform the public when the president or his spokespeople are lying.
Instead, Schlapp suggested journalists should just provide stenography of what government officials are saying, and let the American people do their best to sort out who is telling the truth — because otherwise the feelings of the rich asshole supporters might get hurt.
“We have political disagreements in this country, and I think it’s wrong for journalists to take that next step,” Schlapp said. “Just present the facts. Let the American people decide if they think someone is lying. The journalist shouldn’t be the one to say the president or his spokesperson is lying, because what that does is to 50 percent of the country, is it makes them feel like they aren’t credible to listen to anymore.”
Schlapp, who is married to White House director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp, was responding to comedian Michelle Wolf’s routine at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday evening. At one point, Wolf addressed Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ propensity to lie, saying, “I actually really like Sarah. I think she’s very resourceful. She burns facts, and then she uses the ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s lies. It’s probably lies.”
Schlapp made a show of being offended by Wolf’s jokes, tweeting after the event ended that he and his wife “walked out early” because they had “[e]nough of elites mocking all of us.”
My wife @mercedesschlapp and I walked out early from the wh correspondents dinner. Enough of elites mocking all of us
They were not too offended to refrain from attending a WHCD afterparty at the Art Museum of the Americas, however.
While Schlapp’s position about it being “wrong” for journalists to call out the president’s lies might seem strange, Aaron Blake of the Washington Post notes that “[h]owever you feel about this policy, it is [how] most newsrooms operate. Saying ‘lie’ means ascertaining intent.”
Even by that standard, however, the rich asshole and his spokespeople lie. For instance, during a press briefing earlier this month, Sanders defended a claim the rich asshole has repeatedly made about rampant voter fraud purportedly costing him the popular vote in 2016, despite the fact there isn’t a shred of evidence to support it. That certainly seems to be an untruth that the administration is spreading intentionally.
the rich asshole has also ignored easy to access evidence to push claims that are widely known to be false about immigrant crime, crime in American cities, and about less significant things like the size of crowd at his inauguration ceremony.
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