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lk2fireone (0)
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| 06-07-18 09:09am - 2391 days | #813 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User  Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Time Magazine Cover Imagines Donald Trump As King HuffPost Jenna Amatulli,HuffPost 2 hours 13 minutes ago The latest Time magazine cover features President Donald Trump looking at his The latest Time magazine cover features President Donald Trump looking at his reflection in a mirror and seeing himself as “King Me” in a royal robe and crown. The image for the magazine’s June 18 edition aims to capture the first 500 days of Trump’s presidency, especially his approach to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible campaign collusion, the artist said. The illustration accompanies the cover story titled: “Donald Trump’s Campaign to Discredit the Russia Investigation May Be Working. It’s Also Damaging American Democracy.” “This portrait of Trump gazing into a mirror and seeing a king gets to the heart of how he and his legal team have approached this past week and the past 500 days, actually,” artist Tim O’Brien was quoted by Time as saying. “Besides the usual challenge of the short deadline and making the image work, whether or not to have him looking at himself or looking at us was the thing I pondered most. His eye contact with each reader, each American fits the situation best.” Trump this week boasted about his “absolute right” to pardon himself in the Russia probe. His lawyer told HuffPost Trump could have shot former FBI Director James Comey in the Oval Office and not be prosecuted. Many on Twitter had thoughts about the cover: Trump has taken issue with Time in the past. Last year, Trump claimed the magazine had informed him that he would “probably” be selected as its Person of the Year. He later tweeted: “Time Magazine called to say that I was PROBABLY going to be named ‘Man (Person) of the Year,’ like last year, but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!” Fake Time covers showing a portrait of Trump with headlines proclaiming his reality TV show ratings were hanging in five of his resorts as recently as a year ago. | |
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| 06-07-18 08:57am - 2391 days | #812 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Associated Press Analysis: HUD plan would raise rents for poor by 20 percent Associated Press Juliet Linderman and Larry Fenn, Associated Press,Associated Press 3 hours ago In this May 14, 2018, photo, two young boys walk across the grass of the Bridgeview Village Apartments in Charleston, S.C. A new data analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities shows that tenants in Charleston receiving housing assistance could see the second-highest average annual increase in the United States under a new proposal by HUD Secretary Ben Carson to raise rents for millions of low-income households. (AP Photo/Robert Ray) CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- Housing Secretary Ben Carson says his latest proposal to raise rents would mean a path toward self-sufficiency for millions of low-income households across the United States by pushing more people to find work. For Ebony Morris and her four small children, it could mean homelessness. Morris lives in Charleston, South Carolina, where most households receiving federal housing assistance would see rents rise an average 26 percent, according to an analysis done by Center on Budget and Policy Priorities for The Associated Press. Her increase would be nearly double that. Overall, the analysis shows that in the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, low-income tenants — many of whom have jobs — would have to pay roughly 20 percent more each year for rent under the plan. That's about six times greater than the growth in average hourly earnings, putting poor workers at an increased risk of homelessness because wages haven't kept pace with housing expenses. "I saw public housing as an option to get on my feet, to pay 30 percent of my income and get myself out of debt and eventually become a homeowner," said Morris, whose rent would jump from $403 to $600. "But this would put us in a homeless state." Roughly 4 million low-income households receiving HUD assistance would be affected by the proposal. HUD estimates that about 2 million would be affected immediately, while the other 2 million would see rent increases phased in after six years. The proposal, which needs congressional approval, is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to scale back the social safety net, under the belief that being less generous will prompt those receiving federal assistance to enter the workforce. "It's our attempt to give poor people a way out of poverty," Carson said in a recent interview with Fox News. The analysis shows families would be disproportionately impacted. Of the 8.3 million people affected, more than 3 million are children. Morris, a pediatric assistant, said she sometimes works 50 hours a week just to get by. Her four young children would be hit hard if her rent increases, she said. "Food, electricity bills, school uniforms," she said. "Internet for homework assignments and report cards. All of their reading modules at school require the internet, without it they'll be behind their classmates. The kids are in extracurriculars, those would be scrapped. I would struggle just to pay my bills." The impact of the plan would be felt everywhere. Rent for the poorest tenants in Baltimore, where Carson was a neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and where his own story of overcoming poverty inspired generations of children, could go up by 19 percent or $800 a year. In Detroit, where Carson's mother, a single parent, raised him by working two jobs, rents could increase by $710, or 21 percent. Households in Washington, D.C., one of the richest regions in the country, would see the largest increases: $980 per year on average, a 20 percent hike. "This proposal to raise rents on low-income people doesn't magically create well-paying jobs needed to lift people out of poverty," said Diane Yentel, CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. "Instead it just makes it harder for struggling families to get ahead by potentially cutting them off from the very stability that makes it possible for them to find and keep jobs." While the Department of Housing and Urban Development says elderly or disabled households would be exempt, about 314,000 households could lose their elderly or disabled status and see higher rents, according to the analysis by the policy center, which advocates for the poor. Carson's "Make Affordable Housing Work Act," announced April 25, would allow housing authorities to impose work requirements, would increase the percentage of income that tenants are required to pay from 30 percent to 35 percent, and would raise the minimum rent from $50 to $150. It would eliminate deductions, for medical care and child care, and for each child in a home: Currently, families can deduct $480 per child, significantly lowering rent. Donald Cameron, president and CEO of the Charleston Housing Authority, calls the proposal catastrophic. "We'd lose a lot of people within a very short time: the ones with the smallest pocket books, the least discretionary income," he said. Not all recipients of housing assistance think the plan is unfair. "I'm in favor of it," said Shalonda Skinner, 29, who lives in public housing with her five children. "Housing helps a lot of people. It will probably put a good amount of people out because some people don't like to work, they're not independent. But it's fair." If her rent were to go up, she said, "I'd work more," taking on more hair clients. Melissa Maddox Evans, general counsel for the Charleston Housing Authority, said she believes the proposal is based on a faulty premise — that most public housing residents don't have jobs and that rent increases will incentivize work. "Most tenants here work two or three job," she said. "When they are going out and finding work, are they going to make enough to accommodate that increase?" The policy center conducted its analysis based on 2016 HUD data. It includes tenants living in public housing and receiving Section 8 and project-based vouchers. It excludes housing authorities participating in the Moving to Work program, which allows districts to determine their own distinct rent policies. ___ Fenn reported from New York. | |
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| 06-07-18 08:50am - 2391 days | #811 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Giuliani insists that Stormy Daniels has no credibility because she's a porn star Dylan Stableford 1 hour 12 minutes ago Rudy Giuliani, Stormy Daniels (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Win McNamee/Getty Images, ingo H.W. Chiu/AP, Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images) President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani doubled down Thursday on his assertion that adult film actress Stormy Daniels has no credibility because of her profession. “If you’re involved in a sort of slimy business, [that] says something about you,” Giuliani told CNN. “Says something about how far you’ll go to make money.” The former New York City mayor said that if you’re a feminist and you support the porn industry, “you should turn in your credentials.” “Our real point about her is that she’s not just generally un-credible, she’s un-credible from the point of view of wanting to get money,” Giuliani said. “She’s a con artist.” During a panel discussion in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Wednesday, Giuliani was asked for his thoughts about Daniels, who received a $130,000 “hush money” payment from Trump’s longtime personal attorney in October 2016 in exchange for her silence about the sexual relationship she said she had with Trump in 2006. The president has denied the affair. Giuliani said he believes Trump, citing Daniels’s appearance as evidence. “When you look at Stormy Daniels — I know Donald Trump. Look at his three wives — beautiful women, classy women, women of great substance,” Giuliani said. “Stormy Daniels?” Giuliani continued: “Trump is a real gentleman who respects his wife and loves his daughter and has a warm relationship with his ex-wives — that’s not something I can say about everybody. I haven’t heard a bad word about him from his ex-wives.” In a 1993 book that detailed Trump’s divorce case with his first wife, Ivana Trump, she used the word “rape” to describe a violent sexual encounter she said she had with Trump. When the allegation resurfaced during the 2016 Republican primary, Cohen told the Daily Beast that Trump “never raped anybody” and added that, by definition, “you can’t rape your spouse.” “I respect all human beings. I even have to respect, you know, criminals,” he added. “But, I’m sorry, I don’t respect a porn star the way I respect a career woman or a woman of substance or a woman who has great respect for herself as a woman and as a person and isn’t going to sell her body for sexual exploitation.” Daniels is suing the president and Cohen for defamation. “So Stormy, you want to bring a case, let me cross examine you,” Giuliani said in Israel. “Because the business you’re in entitles you to no degree of giving your credibility any weight. And secondly, explain to me how she could be damaged. I mean, she has no reputation. If you’re going to sell your body for money, you just don’t have a reputation. Maybe old-fashioned, I don’t know.” Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti responded in a statement: “Mr. Giuliani is a misogynist. His most recent comments regarding my client, who passed a lie detector test and who the American people believe, are disgusting and a disgrace. His client Mr. Trump didn’t seem to have any ‘moral’ issues with her and others back in 2006 and beyond.” Avenatti added Thursday: “If any [attorney] for any Fortune 500 co. made the public comments that Giuliani did yesterday (which he affirmed this morning), they would be immediately fired. Giuliani must be fired by Mr. Trump NOW. Otherwise, it sends a message to the world that the comments are acceptable.” | |
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| 06-06-18 08:34am - 2392 days | #5 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I saw both of Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider movies and enjoyed them. Like qvtta, part of the reason was Angeline Jolie. She's a babe you can look at and dream about. Alicia Vikander is attractive, but not as hot as Jolie. At least from a schoolboy mindset. I still remember Jolie coming out of a shower and walking partially naked to get dressed. All you saw, really, was the sides of her swaying breasts, but it was a definite turn-on. I enjoyed the comic-book feel of the Jolie movies, her sassy attitude. Even though the Vikander movie was good, it was nowhere near as enjoyable as the 2 Jolie movies, in my opinion. But--movies often reflect the time and attitudes of when they are made. So Vikander's Tomb Raider movie is trying to reflect, not a schoolboy's fantasy, but the "ideal young woman" of the MeToo movement, which is a lot less fun. I actually own the 2 Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider movies in DVD. I don't plan on buying the Alicia Vikander Tomb Raider movie. Seeing it once was enough, for me. | |
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| 06-06-18 08:11am - 2392 days | #2 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
A lot of porn sites have gone out of business since the financial crisis of 2008. Some sites going out of business is normal, but the trend accelerated due to the financial crisis, and the rise of tube sites, which hurt the finances of pay porn sites. The thinking of many people seems to be: why pay for porn when you can get it for free? They don't realize or care that porn sites need paying members to stay in business if they are going to produce porn. I assume the reason some porn sites are reducing the number of photos in a photo set, or reducing the update rate of new videos, is because of financial reasons. It takes money to run a porn site. If the money goes down, the site either goes out of business, or reduces the amount of new content. That's my take. I don't think the porn industry has ever recovered from the financial crisis of 2008, and the competition of tube sites. Actually, it's not the same situation, but take a look at the decline of newspapers and magazines. They have taken a massive hit in revenues, and many newspapers are either losing money or going out of business. Edited on Jun 06, 2018, 08:39am | |
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| 06-05-18 08:09pm - 2392 days | #810 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Never give a sucker an even break. Cop who was fired after ramming a suspect with his police car was hired by nearby sheriff's department. My guess is that the new sheriff's department thinks ramming a suspect with a car can be a good idea. So what about a suspect's rights? What rights? The right to be shot and killed? The right to be beaten until the cop has worked off his anger? The right to go to jail if the cops, after beating him, stops before the suspect is dead? Actually, there is a reason why the sheriff hired the fired cop: The sheriff thinks that the fired cop did not deliberately use his car to hit the suspect: instead, the suspect rammed the police car (even though the suspect was on foot and trying to run away, the sheriff thinks the suspect deliberately rammed the police car. In which case, the former police department can sue the suspect for damages to public property (the police car), in addition to any other charges the suspect is facing. ------------ ------------ Cop Who Was Fired After Ramming Suspect With Car Hired By Nearby County HuffPost Nina Golgowski,HuffPost 5 hours ago A Georgia police officer fired a day after video captured him hitting a suspect with his patrol car during a chase has been hired by a nearby sheriff’s department. Taylor Saulters, who was a rookie in the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, was picked up by the Oglethorpe County Sheriff’s Office on Monday, its sheriff announced on Facebook. “I have known him since he was a baby and I know he will be a great asset to our county,” Sheriff David Gabriel said. Taylor Saulters, formerly of the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, is now employed by the Oglethorpe County Sheriff's Office. Saulters, who was fired on Saturday, remains the subject of a probe by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations for the June 1 incident, the GBI confirmed to HuffPost. Gabriel, in announcing Saulters’ hiring in a statement, put his own spin on the action that got Saulter fired. The sheriff said Saulters’ name may sound familiar because of the incident “where a fleeing felon struck his patrol car while he was attempting to apprehend him.” Video taken from inside Saulters’ patrol car shows him driving after Timmy Patmon, 23, who was fleeing on foot through a neighborhood while wanted on a felony probation warrant. During the chase, Saulters drove over a curb and blew out a tire. After unsuccessfully attempting to use his vehicle as a roadblock he drove his car into Patmon, knocking him to the ground. Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Scott Freeman told WSBTV that Saulters was “very adamant that it wasn’t his intention to strike Mr. Patmon,” though an investigation found that he accelerated his vehicle and appears to have turned his steering wheel to hit him. Philip Holloway, an attorney representing Saulters, told the station that his client’s firing was an injustice but that he had received multiple job offers. According to the Athens Banner-Herald, Saulters graduated from the police academy less than a year ago. His father, police Capt. Jerry Saulters, heads the Athens-Clarke County Police Department’s criminal investigative division, WSBTV reported. The Oglethorpe County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. ----------------------- BBC News Officer fired for hitting suspect with car BBC News Mon, Jun 4 12:39 PM PDT Bodycam footage shows moment a man fleeing police is hit and sent flying into the windscreen of the patrol car. Officer Taylor Saulters has been fired by the Athens-Clarke County Police Department in the US state of Georgia. Police Officer Fired After Video Shows Him Hitting Fleeing Suspect With His Patrol Car Kara Warner,People Mon, Jun 4 9:13 AM PDT Georgia Police Officer Fired After Hitting Suspect with Car A police officer in Georgia has been fired after hitting a fleeing suspect with his patrol car late last week, PEOPLE confirms. In a statement obtained by PEOPLE, the Athens-Clarke County Police Department said the incident occurred Friday night while Officers Hunter Blackmon and Taylor Saulters were on patrol. Blackmon spotted a man, Timmy Patmon, whom he knew had a felony probation warrant, authorities said in the statement. The officers confirmed the validity of the warrant and attempted to make contact with Patmon, but he ran away. Saulters pursued the suspect with his patrol car and attempted to block Patmon’s path twice — all of which was captured on video and released publicly by Athens-Clarke County PD. “During Saulter’s first attempt to block Patmon, Saulters struck a curb and flattened his driver’s side front tire,” the department said in a statement. “On Saulter’s second attempt to block Patmon’s path with his patrol car, and during the maneuvering of the patrol car, Patmon impacted the right front quarter panel of Saulters’ car as Saulters was attempting to accelerate past Patmon.” A subsequent internal affairs investigation into Saulters’ conduct found he used excessive force in arresting Patmon. “Saulters did not have any information that would justify using a patrol vehicle to affect an arrest,” the investigation’s summary report states. At the scene on Friday, officers called for an ambulance to evaluate Patmon, who sustained minor injuries, after which he was turned over to the Clarke County Jail, authorities said. The extent of Patmon’s injuries “were scrapes and bruises,” police said. He has been charged with violating his probation and obstructing a law enforcement officer. Patmon remains in custody, and court officials said Monday he has not entered a plea and is scheduled to return to court on July 12. Records did not list an attorney who could comment on his behalf. • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. In the wake of the incident, Officer Saulters was initially placed on administrative leave by Chief Scott Freeman and an internal affairs investigation was opened. The Georgia State Patrol and Georgia Bureau of Investigation were also brought in to conduct independent investigations of the incident. The GBI will find if criminal charges are appropriate against Saulters, according to the Athens Banner-Herald. “After reviewing the officers’ body camera footage, and all the other facts and circumstances of this case Chief Scott Freeman terminated the employment of Officer Taylor Saulters,” the department said in its statement. Saulters reportedly graduated from the police academy in the last year and was a rookie on the force. While Saulters said he did not meant to hit Patmon with his car, the summary report of the internal affairs probe, which was obtained by PEOPLE, says he “used poor judgement in using his patrol vehicle as a means to apprehend a fleeing suspect.” Officer Blackmon was not cited for any “policy violations or areas of concern.” “There are no facts that were uncovered that would have led to the justification for this level of use of force in this incident,” the report continues, noting that Patmon was clearly visible along the right side of Saulters’ car when the officer turned it in his direction. For his part, Saulters told investigators that he had trouble controlling his car after the driver’s side tire went flat and that Patmon “ran into his vehicle,” according to the report. He said he only wanted to block the suspect from further escape. (Efforts to reach Saulters for comment on Monday were unsuccessful.) Once in custody, according to the IA report, Patmon talked to Saulters about being hit by his car, to which Saulters responded: “I know, I know what I did. Why did you run?” After Patmon was struck, an onlooker said, “You didn’t have to hit that man like that.” | |
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| 06-05-18 07:48pm - 2392 days | #809 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Pruitt needs a raise. Or else he needs a PAC to pay his personal bills. --------- --------- Scott Pruitt enlisted an EPA aide to help his wife find a job — at Chick-fil-A Scott Pruitt EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 16, 2018. (Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post) Juliet Eilperin, Brady Dennis and Josh DawseyWashington Post Three months after Scott Pruitt was sworn in as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, his executive scheduler emailed Dan Cathy, chairman and president of the fast food company Chick-fil-A, with an unusual request: Would Cathy meet with Pruitt to discuss "a potential business opportunity"? A call was arranged, then canceled, and Pruitt eventually spoke with someone from the company's legal department. Only then did he reveal the "opportunity" on his mind was a job for his wife, Marlyn. "The subject of that phone call was an expression of interest in his wife becoming a Chick-fil-A franchisee," company representative Carrie Kurlander told The Washington Post via email. Marlyn Pruitt never opened a restaurant. "Administrator Pruitt's wife started, but did not complete, the Chick-fil-A franchisee application," Kurlander said. But the revelation that Pruitt used his official position and EPA staff to try to line up work for his wife appears to open a new chapter in the ongoing saga of his questionable spending and management decisions, which so far have spawned a dozen federal probes. Paid Post Learn more Moving into downtown Chicago, companies find a perfect fit at WeWork Moving into downtown Chicago, companies find a perfect fit at WeWork Sponsored Content by WeWork Pruitt's efforts on his wife's behalf - revealed in emails recently released under a Freedom of Information Act request by the Sierra Club - did not end with Chick-fil-A. Pruitt also approached the chief executive of Concordia, a New York nonprofit organization. The executive, Matthew Swift, said he ultimately paid Marlyn Pruitt $2,000 plus travel expenses to help organize the group's annual conference last September. Multiple current and former EPA aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations, said Pruitt told them he was eager for his wife to start receiving a salary. Two said Pruitt was frustrated in part by the high cost of maintaining homes in both Washington and Oklahoma. EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox declined to comment on Pruitt's overtures on his wife's behalf to Concordia and Chick-fil-A. Federal ethics laws bar public officials from using their position or staff for private gain. A Cabinet-level official using his perch to contact a company CEO about a job for his wife "raises the specter of misuse of public office," said Don Fox, who was head of the federal Office of Government Ethics during the Obama administration. "It's not much different [from] if he [had] asked the aide to facilitate getting a franchise for himself." Asking a government scheduler, Sydney Hupp, to plan the meeting also marks a violation of federal rules barring officials from asking subordinates to perform personal tasks, Fox said. "It is a misuse of the aide's time to ask the aide to do something like this that is really for personal financial benefit." Hupp left the EPA last year; she did not respond to a request for comment. Hupp was not the only EPA employee enlisted to perform nonofficial tasks. Last month, Pruitt acknowledged Hupp's sister, Millan, helped him search for housing in Washington. She later told congressional staffers she made inquiries at the Trump International Hotel about buying him a used mattress while she was on the EPA payroll. The Georgia-based Chick-fil-A receives about 40,000 "expressions of interest" each year from people hoping to operate one of its restaurants, Kurlander said. "The process of becoming a franchisee is very thorough and results in approximately 100 people being selected each year," she wrote. "We are very proud of the fact that those who are selected demonstrate the leadership ability and business acumen needed to own and operate Chick-fil-A restaurants." Pruitt's expression of interest began on May 16, 2017, according to the emails released under FOIA, when Hupp emailed Cathy that her boss "asked me to reach out to you and see if you might be willing to get a time set up for the two of you to have a meeting." Cathy, who has championed socially conservative causes and had met Pruitt during his tenure as Oklahoma attorney general, replied within an hour, connecting Hupp with one of his own aides, Evan Karanovich. Karanovich asked whether "an initial phone call would be sufficient" and asked what the EPA chief wanted to talk about. "The Administrator did not mention a specific topic, but I will touch base with him to see if there is one," Hupp replied. The two sides arranged a conference call for June 23, with Cathy scheduled to be joined by a senior attorney in his legal department. That call did not happen, company officials said, adding "a call took place later between Administrator Pruitt and a Chick-fil-A staff member." The effort ultimately did not lead to a franchise for Marlyn Pruitt. Kurlander noted that "Mrs. Pruitt is not and has never been a Chick-fil-A franchisee." Around the same time, Pruitt contacted Swift, CEO of Concordia, a nonprofit organization that brings together leaders from the private and public sector. Pruitt asked Swift to call Marlyn Pruitt, Swift said in an email, which he did. "We discussed her interest in event planning for nonprofits and events that take place in Washington," Swift said. "Mrs. Pruitt was interested in meeting people in the nonprofit sector, and I offered to introduce her to some of Concordia's attendees based in Washington and for her to become involved with Concordia's events." Swift's group had invited Pruitt to speak at its 2017 conference in Manhattan, the same event where Marlyn Pruitt was paid $2,000 for three days' work. At the event, Pruitt was accompanied by at least three aides. EPA travel records show his first-class plane ticket cost $1,201.80, and his overnight stay came to $669. Swift defended Pruitt's handling of the matter. "Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Pruitt ever solicited a position for Mrs. Pruitt at Concordia, nor was it a condition of the agreement for the administrator to speak," he said. The Pruitts' focus on augmenting their household income appears to have come after the administrator moved to Washington and began paying for two full-time residences. Pruitt attracted widespread criticism for renting a $50-a-night condo from a Washington lobbyist in the early months of his tenure. Since then, his housing costs appear to have increased substantially. According to public records, Pruitt and his wife hold an $850,000 mortgage on their home in an upscale Tulsa, Oklahoma neighborhood, requiring monthly payments of approximately $5,500 - including $17,793 in property taxes the couple paid last year. The mortgage has an adjustable rate, records show, so those payments eventually could rise. In addition, the Pruitts lease an apartment in a modern development on Capitol Hill in Washington where one-bedroom units start at around $3,000 per month. As EPA head, Pruitt currently makes $189,600 a year, according to federal records. In a federal financial form filed after he was nominated to lead the EPA, Pruitt listed his only income as his attorney general's salary, about $133,000 per year. Under the entry for spouse's income and retirement accounts, he wrote, "None." Pruitt's most recent financial disclosure was due in May, but like many Trump administration officials, he has requested a filing extension. The Washington Post's Alice Crites and Andrew Tran contributed to this report. | |
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| 06-05-18 07:16pm - 2392 days | #808 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
You have to admire White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. Either she honestly believes in Donald Trump the President as a man of honor, or she is a fabulous liar who can lie as well as her hero, Donald Trump. Either way, I do admire Sarah Sanders. I personally could not last more than a week, if that long, when giving out information that soon proves to be false or misleading. Somehow, Sanders is able to ignore that the statements of information she gives out often turn out to be misleading or false. Her position is that she is giving out the best information available to her, at the time she gives it out. And if the information changes, she appears to be comfortable with that. Because she is now giving out the most current information (and somehow ignoring the past information that does not agree with the current information). -------------- -------------- Sarah Sanders won't amend Trump Tower story, blasts reporters instead Dylan Stableford 5 hours ago For the second day in a row, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders refused to explain why she denied a report that President Trump helped draft a misleading statement for Donald Trump Jr. about his son’s infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer. At Tuesday’s press briefing, Sanders was again asked if she cared to revise her earlier remarks on the meeting given that Trump’s attorneys admitted this week that the president had, in fact, “dictated” his son’s response. “I’m not going to go into detail and get into a back and forth,” Sanders responded. “I know that you guys would love to engage on matters of conversations between the special counsel and the outside counsel, but we’ve purposely walled off and I’m not going to comment.” Last August, Sanders said that Trump “certainly didn’t dictate” the statement about the purpose of the Trump Tower meeting, which falsely asserted it was convened to discuss Russian adoption policy. The New York Times revealed that Trump Jr. arranged the sit-down with the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, because he was told she had political dirt on Hillary Clinton. For months, Trump’s lawyer, Jay Sekulow, insisted that the president had nothing to do with crafting Trump Jr.’s statement. But in a letter to special counsel Robert Mueller revealed this week, Trump’s legal team said that the president “dictated a short” response to the Times report. Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said on Monday night that it was a “mistake” by Sekulow and Sanders to say otherwise. During another exchange at Tuesday’s briefing, Sanders was asked whether she she thinks her statement from August was accurate. “I think you all know I’m an honest person,” she replied. Sarah Sanders White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP) The press secretary was then asked why the American people should trust the information coming from behind the White House briefing room podium. “I work every single day to give you accurate and up-to-date information, and I’m going to continue to do that,” Sanders said, before launching into a lecture about press coverage. “Frankly, I think my credibility is probably higher than the media’s. I think in large part that’s because you guys spend more of your time focusing on attacking the president instead of reporting the news.” She added: “I think that if you spent a little bit more time reporting the news instead of trying to tear me down, you might actually see that we’re working hard trying to provide you good information and trying to provide that same good information to the American people.” Later in the briefing, Sanders clashed with CNN’s April Ryan, who asked whether Trump is aware that NFL players protesting during the national anthem are trying to raise awareness about police-involved shootings. “The president has made his position crystal clear,” Sanders said, before interjecting as Ryan tried to asked a followup. “I let you rudely interrupt me,” Sanders said. “I’m going to ask that you allow me to finish my answer. I would be happy to answer if you stopped talking long enough to let me do that.” | |
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| 06-05-18 06:31pm - 2392 days | #807 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: The mystery of Melania Trump's non-appearance. This is only a guess: Melania Trump asked for a divorce, and billions of dollars in a divorce settlement. Trump went ballistic. Instead of paying out billions of dollars, Trump spoke with his lawyers, and asked what was the cheapest he could get away with in a divorce settlement. His lawyers said Trump was the President, he is above the law. He could shoot Comey in the White House, and get away with it because he is the President, the most powerful man in the world (forgetting about Putin). So Trump had a brain storm: instead of shooting Comey, why not shoot Melania. Of course, Trump would have to pretend that Melania was having a snit and not making public appearances to support Trump. But Trump has his daughter, Ivanka, who will willingly stand in for Melania (even though Ivanka is married with children). This is why you will only see Melania in distant photos. Trump has hired a stand-in. The real Melania has gone missing. Trump needs time to find a reason why Melania is missing. Until then, the stand-in will have to do. But if Trump can bribe a coroner to issue a death certificate for Melania, then Trump is in the clear. Remember, he has the power to pardon himself. So Melania has to disappear from federal property, not state property, so Trump can avoid prosecution by a state. --------- --------- U.S. Melania Trump makes first appearance in nearly a month and no one is buying it Marcus Gilmer,Mashable 10 hours ago Among all of the many important news stories happening in the world right now, nothing has captivated us quite like the unexplained disappearance of First Lady Melania Trump. She finally made a brief public appearance on Monday night, but Twitter is still, well, sort of skeptical. After being out of the public eye for 24 days, which included recovery time for a kidney procedure on May 14, the First Lady made an appearance at an event for military Gold Star families on Monday night. (Not in attendance: the the Khan family, a Gold Star family who Trump beefed with during the 2016 campaign.) But if you thought this would put the mystery to rest, well, you'd be wrong. Yes, Melania shared photos of her appearance, but the photos were all taken from a distance and the event was closed to the press, so this is as good a look as we'll get for now. A video also showed the First Lady escorting her husband, the president, into the ceremony but, again, it was from a distance, and has become something of a Zapruder film for 2018. Still, plenty of evidence that Melania Trump is alive and, most importantly, well and not on some far flung island counting hundred dollar bills and hanging out with Elvis and Tupac. Even Trump himself got in on the jokes, making mention of the buzz around Melania's disappearance during his speech to the Gold Star families. And the news that the First Lady is skipping Trump's bizarre "AMERICA IS THE BEST" ceremony on Tuesday (in lieu of hosting the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles) surely will fuel more of the conspiracy fire. And, so, here we go again, another spin around the circle, waiting to see what Melania is up to. If you read this, Melania, blink once for "I'm fine" and twice for "I'll meet you in Zihuatanejo." | |
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| 06-04-18 06:52pm - 2393 days | #806 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Donald Trump, one of the world's greatest legal minds, lays out 2 reasons why he could pardon himself. -------- -------- Christina Wilkie | @christinawilkie Published 9 Hours Ago Updated 7 Hours Ago CNBC.com Trump: 'I have the absolute right to pardon myself' 10 Hours Ago | 01:00 President Donald Trump on Monday laid out two rationales that he could use to justify granting himself a pardon in the event that he is ever charged with a federal crime. The arguments, made on Twitter, were accompanied by Trump's assertion that he has "the absolute right to PARDON myself." They were the latest signs that Trump is considering drastic action in order to protect himself from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Disguised as a hypothetical situation, Trump's first rationale for pardoning himself was simply that he didn't do anything wrong. Trump's lawyers have told media outlets that the president is convinced that neither he nor anyone on his campaign ever colluded with Russia. Trump's lawyers also say he does not believe he has obstructed justice while in office. Trump himself has repeatedly denied that he colluded with Russia or obstructed an investigation of Moscow's meddling. The question of whether or not either of these assertions is true, however, is immaterial to the president's arguments about pardons. By Trump's logic, if he didn't do anything wrong, then any accusation that he did is, by definition, a false accusation. Moreover, the accusations Trump is talking about would almost certainly stem from the special counsel, which Trump regularly accuses of acting as an arm of the so-called deep state, a conspiracy orchestrated by his political enemies. This means that any accusation would not only be false, it would also have been concocted by Trump's enemies in the Justice Department — bureaucrats willing to use the power of the state not to advance justice, but to destroy Trump. By this reasoning, Trump's situation would be similar to that of conservative author Dinesh D'Souza, who pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance violations. Trump granted D'Souza a pardon just last week. In addition to the D'Souza model of using his presidential pardon powers to remedy an "unfair" prosecution of himself, Trump on Monday suggested a second rationale by which he would be justified in granting himself a pardon in the Mueller probe. A variation on Trump's first argument, his second claim went further, arguing that the special counsel's office was not merely corrupted by politics, it was out-and-out unconstitutional. (Trump's second tweet was originally posted at 9:07 a.m. Monday. It was later deleted and reposted at 10:01 a.m., this time with the correct spelling of "counsel.") It's unclear precisely why Trump believes the probe violates the Constitution, but on Sunday, he tweeted snippets of an interview on Fox News Channel with Mark Penn, a former Hillary Clinton campaign strategist who has argued that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Mueller had conflicts of interest that should have precluded their involvement in an investigation of the Trump campaign. Penn has also publicly questioned whether the broad investigative authority granted to the special counsel by the Justice Department is in keeping with what the framers of the Constitution intended. Setting aside Trump's widely debunked claim that the Clinton campaign conspired with Russia, the president's argument that the special counsel is unconstitutional is a relatively new one for Trump. More often, he has claimed that the probe is a hoax, a witch hunt or a conspiracy. Yet by aping Penn's argument in his tweet, the president appeared to be trying to bring a new level of legal gravitas to his tirades against the Mueller investigation. If the special counsel's probe were indeed unconstitutional, Trump could easily argue that this means any evidence uncovered during the probe, and any charges based on that evidence, would be unconstitutional, too. If the entire Mueller investigation is the equivalent of one, big unconstitutional search, as Trump appeared to claim on Monday, then pardoning individuals targeted by the probe, including himself, would be tantamount to righting a wrong and to protecting constitutional rights. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's arguments. Christina WilkiePolitical Reporter for CNBC.com | |
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| 06-04-18 06:20pm - 2393 days | #805 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Does Robert Mueller listen to the White House press briefings? If he did, he would soon realize that his investigation is going nowhere. Sarah Sanders, the White House Press Secretary, declared, again and again, that President Trump has done nothing wrong. And that Trump does not plan on giving himself a pardon. Why is Mueller wasting his time, the taxpayers' money, and the resources of the US government investigating possible criminal activity, when the President himself, has said the investigation is worthless, less than worthless, a crime against the United States, because it is trying to hurt young men the President knows are good people? ------- ------- Politics Memo shows lawyers' inconsistencies on Trump Tower meeting Associated Press MARY CLARE JALONICK,Associated Press 3 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) — For months, President Donald Trump's legal team, the White House press secretary and others in Trump's orbit said he did not dictate or help draft a June 2017 statement trying to explain the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his eldest son and a Russian lawyer. Turns out, that wasn't true. In a January letter to special counsel Robert Mueller, Trump's lawyers said the president "dictated a short but accurate response" to the first report that his son, Donald Trump Jr., and others had met with the Russian lawyer during the 2016 presidential election. The New York Times revealed the existence of the letter on Saturday. The Trump Tower meeting — and the White House's initial response to the first reports of the meeting — has been a key moment in Mueller's investigation into whether anyone on the campaign colluded with Russia and whether Trump obstructed justice. The lawyers' statement is buried near the end of the 20-page memo, which asserts that Trump cannot be forced to testify and argues that he could not have legally committed obstruction of justice. In the initial written statement from Trump Jr. on June 8, 2017, he said the Trump Tower gathering was a "short introductory meeting" focused on a disbanded program that had allowed American adoptions of Russian children. Moscow ended the adoptions in response to Magnitsky Act sanctions created in response to alleged human rights violations in Russia. While the Magnitsky Act was discussed, it was later revealed that the meeting was held on the promise of damaging information about his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr. did not mention the promise of dirt on Clinton until a statement the next day. A look at the evolving explanations from the administration on how the statement was drafted: — JULY 16, 2017: In one of a series of interviews in June, Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said on NBC's "Meet The Press," that "the president was not, did not, draft the response. The response came from Donald Trump Jr. and, I'm sure, in consultation with his lawyer." He added: "The president was not involved in the drafting of the statement and did not issue the statement. It came from Donald Trump Jr. So that's what I can tell you because that's what we know." — JULY 31, 2017: In response to a Washington Post report that Trump had dictated the statement, Sekulow issued a statement: "Apart from being of no consequence, the characterizations are misinformed, inaccurate, and not pertinent." — AUGUST 1, 2017: White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Trump "certainly didn't dictate, but he — like I said, he weighed in, offered suggestion like any father would do." Sanders argued there was "no inaccuracy" in the statement. — SEPTEMBER 7, 2017: In a closed-door interview with Senate Judiciary Committee staff, Trump Jr. was asked by investigators whether his father was involved in drafting the statement. He said he didn't know, and that he had never spoken to his father about it. Asked again, Trump Jr. said his father "may have commented through Hope Hicks," who was Trump's longtime aide. Investigators then asked if Trump Jr. knew if any of Trump's comments were incorporated into the final statement. "I believe some may have been, but this was an effort through lots of people, mostly counsel," Trump Jr. responded. Trump Jr. said he was asked if he wanted to speak to his father as the statement was drafted, but he said he "chose not to because I didn't want to bring him into something that he had nothing to do with." — JANUARY 29, 2018: In the letter to Mueller, Trump's then-lawyers wrote: "You have received all of the notes, communications and testimony indicating that the President dictated a short but accurate response to the New York Times article on behalf of his son, Donald Trump, Jr. His son then followed up by making a full public disclosure regarding the meeting, including his public testimony that there was nothing to the meeting and certainly no evidence of collusion." — JUNE 4, 2018: Asked about the discrepancies on Monday, Sanders repeatedly declined to answer and referred reporters to Trump's personal lawyers. "This is from a letter from the outside counsel and I direct you to them to answer that question," she said. ___ Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report. | |
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| 06-04-18 04:51pm - 2393 days | #804 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fox News 7:44 PM Former Navy sailor reacts after receiving pardon from Trump A former Navy sailor who is one of five people to receive a pardon from President Donald Trump is planning to file a lawsuit against Obama administration officials, alleging that he was subject to unequal protection of the law. Specifically, Kristian Saucier, who served a year in federal prison for taking photos of classified sections of the submarine on which he worked, argues that the same officials who meted out punishment to him for his actions chose to be lenient with Hillary Clinton in her use of a private email server and handling of classified information. His lawyer, Ronald Daigle, told Fox News on Monday that the lawsuit, which he expects to file soon in Manhattan, will name the U.S. Department of Justice, former FBI Director James Comey and former President Barack Obama as defendants, among others. “They interpreted the law in my case to say it was criminal,” Saucier told Fox News, referring to prosecuting authorities in his case, “but they didn’t prosecute Hillary Clinton. Hillary is still walking free. Two guys on my ship did the same thing and weren’t treated as criminals. We want them to correct the wrong.” Daigle said that a notice about the pending lawsuit was sent to the Department of Justice and others included in it in December. There is usually a six-month period that must lapse before the lawsuit actually is filed. “We’ll highlight the differences in the way Hillary Clinton was prosecuted and how my client was prosecuted,” Daigle said. “We’re seeking to cast a light on this to show that there’s a two-tier justice system and we want it to be corrected.” While campaigning, and after taking office, Trump frequently voiced support for Saucier, who in March became the second person he pardoned. Trump often compared the Obama administration’s handling of Saucier’s case with that of Clinton. Saucier, who lives in Vermont, pleaded guilty in 2016 to taking photos inside the USS Alexandria while it was stationed in Groton, Connecticut, in 2009. He said he only wanted service mementos, but federal prosecutors argued he was a disgruntled sailor who had put national security at risk by taking photos showing the submarine's propulsion system and reactor compartment and then obstructed justice by destroying a laptop and camera. Saucier said that he recognized he had erred in taking the photos, which he said he wanted to show only to his family to show them where he worked. But he lashed out at Obama officials, saying that his prosecution was politically motivated, prompted by sensitivity about classified information amid the scandal involving Clinton's emails. “My case was usually something handled by military courts,” he said. “They used me as an example because of [the backlash over] Hillary Clinton.” Saucier, 31, said that the pardon has enabled him to pick up the pieces and rebuild his life with his wife and young daughter. A felony conviction left him scrambling to find work; he finally landed a job collecting garbage. Now, he works on design and engineering projects for an industrial boiler company. “Things are starting to go in the right direction,” Saucier said. “I work with a group of really great people, I get to use my skills set.” Because of the loss of income during his imprisonment, as well as earning below his potential when he collected garbage, he and his wife Sadie lost their home to foreclosure. Debt collectors called and his cars were repossessed. “With a pardon there’s no magic wand that that gets waved and makes everything right,” he said, “But I try to stay positive and look forward.” He praises the pardons that Trump has granted after his, and takes exception at the criticism. “The Obama administration singled out Dinesh for things most people don’t even get charged for,” Saucier said. “President Trump noticed that my career was exemplary and that I didn’t deserve what happened to me. Conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza, who was pardoned by Trump last week, had pleaded guilty to campaign finance fraud. Trump tweeted Thursday: "Will be giving a Full Pardon to Dinesh D'Souza today. He was treated very unfairly by our government!" D'Souza was sentenced in 2014 to five years of probation after he pleaded guilty to violating federal election law by making illegal contributions to a U.S. Senate campaign in the names of others. The Associated Press contributed to this report. | |
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| 06-04-18 07:03am - 2394 days | #803 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump says he has the "Absolute Right" to pardon himself. Which might not be absolute power, but he feels (or at least says) he can break any federal law and get away with it. Even if that were true, which is doubtful, Trump would still be liable for breaking state laws. But Trump needs to be taken down. The guy is a menace to the American justice system. Either arrest him, or impeach him. Anything else is dangerous. A two-pronged approach is better: slap him with federal crimes. Then slap him with state crimes. A federal pardon does not cover state crimes. Trump needs tough love. He is begging for it. Tell him to bend over, then shove the American federal and state judicial system up his fat ass. --------------- --------------- Politics Trump Says He Has The 'Absolute Right' To Pardon Himself HuffPost Willa Frej,HuffPost 37 minutes ago President Donald Trump boasted about his “absolute right” to pardon himself in the Russia probe on Monday one day after Rudy Giuliani, one of his lawyers, raised the prospect. “Numerous legal scholars” have pointed out that Trump holds the constitutional authority to a self-pardon, he tweeted. “But why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong?” He also lambasted the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller as unconstitutional. His comments echoed Giuliani’s, who said Sunday that a self-pardon was out of the cards and could lead to impeachment — but Trump could do it if he wanted to. “He has no intention of pardoning himself, but he probably — not to say he can’t,” Giuliani told ABC’s “This Week.” It’s the first time Trump has suggested pardoning himself, though he did tweet last year that “all agree the U.S. President has the complete power to pardon.” His legal team first pushed the notion of a self-pardon in a 20-page letter that they sent to Mueller in January, stating that Trump “could if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired.” Trump and his legal advisers continue to advocate for an end to the investigation into whether his campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 election. Asked if Trump has decided whether he will voluntarily be interviewed by Mueller, Giuliani said the answer is most likely no. “But look, if they can convince us that it will be brief, it would be to the point, there were five or six points they have to clarify, and with that, we can get this — this long nightmare for the ― for the American public over,” Giuliani told ABC. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 06-03-18 11:38pm - 2394 days | #802 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Democrats are evil scum. All Republicans are the salt of the earth, even though many Republicans are extremely wealthy, and Republicans love people, unlike the evil Democrats who want to enslave the white majority and stop Trump from making America great again. Praise the Lord. Praise Donald Trump. Praise the Republican party. Hallelujah. ----------- ----------- Rick Santorum says Barack Obama 'exacerbated racism' in the U.S. Michael Walsh 11 hours ago Former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said former President Barack Obama had the power to bring the nation together but wound up increasing racism in part by the way he handled police shootings. Santorum, a conservative political commentator for CNN, made the accusation during a heated “State of the Union” panel discussion Sunday about racism in the United States. Karine Jean-Pierre, a senior adviser and national spokeswoman for MoveOn.org, a political action committee that raises money for progressive politicians, said it was “pretty horrific” to see voters sway toward Donald Trump’s campaign after electing the first African-American president. “There was an uproar. You saw the Tea Party. You saw obstruction by Republicans time and time again,” Jean-Pierre said. “It is kind of problematic. It says a lot about this country, and Donald Trump tapped into it.” Jean-Pierre, who worked on both of Obama’s presidential election campaigns and served in his administration, said it’s important to remember that Trump’s political career started in earnest by promoting birtherism, the false conspiracy theory that Obama wasn’t born in the United States and was therefore ineligible for the presidency. She also criticized Trump for saying “you also had some very fine people on both sides” after white supremacists and counter-protesters clashed in Charlottesville, Va. Santorum, who was seated beside Jean-Pierre, appeared eager to speak after she said Trump “tapped into that racism” that’s been seen in the United States since 2008 — when Obama was elected. “What’s being ignored here is the role that Barack Obama played in all this,” Santorum said. “You can’t just go from ‘well, we elected out first black president’ and ‘all of a sudden we get Donald Trump.’ There was something in between those two things.” According to Santorum, “many, many, many people” saw Obama being racist himself and “doing more to exacerbate racism” in the United States. “Every time there was a controversy with someone of color involved, he took the side, many times, against the police,” Santorum said. “He did it over and over and over again. President Obama was to many people out there someone who could’ve brought this country together.” Jean-Pierre expressed disbelief at what she was hearing and said that in those instances Obama was standing up for people who had been unjustifiably treated. She asked if Santorum was referring to the times Obama addressed the shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2012, but the panel’s time was running out so the conversation came to an abrupt end. “This president could’ve [brought us] together. He didn’t,” Santorum said. “He divided us.” | |
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| 06-03-18 11:18pm - 2394 days | #801 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
What did I tell you? That the President of the US, Donald Trump, has absolute power. Here is Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, saying Trump could shoot the FBI director in the Oval Office and not be prosecuted for it. Why? Because he's the President, dummy. The Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the entire country. (I'm wondering if Rudy Giuliani in on drugs or what. Because this is the first President I've heard about who is above the law. But if Trump truly is above the law, then why doesn't he do as I suggested: Order the secret service and the Armed Forces to capture all Democrats, and all members of the Mueller probe, line them up, and execute them as traitors? Or just execute them for interfering with the President of the United States? If Donald Trump, as President, has absolute power. Except I think a lot of people don't believe Trump has absolute power. And that Giuliani is spouting a lot of nonsense. --------- --------- HuffPost Giuliani: Trump Could Have Shot Comey And Still Couldn’t Be Indicted For It HuffPost S.V. Date,HuffPost 7 hours ago President Donald Trump greets then-FBI Director James Comey in the Blue Room of the White House on Jan. 22, 2017. (Joshua Roberts / Reuters) WASHINGTON ― Candidate Donald Trump bragged that he could shoot someone on New York’s Fifth Avenue and not lose any support, and now President Donald Trump’s lawyer says Trump could shoot the FBI director in the Oval Office and still not be prosecuted for it. “In no case can he be subpoenaed or indicted,” Rudy Giuliani told HuffPost Sunday, claiming a president’s constitutional powers are that broad. “I don’t know how you can indict while he’s in office. No matter what it is.” Giuliani said impeachment was the initial remedy for a president’s illegal behavior ― even in the extreme hypothetical case of Trump having shot former FBI Director James Comey to end the Russia investigation rather than just firing him. “If he shot James Comey, he’d be impeached the next day,” Giuliani said. “Impeach him, and then you can do whatever you want to do to him.” Norm Eisen, the White House ethics lawyer under President Barack Obama and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the silliness of Giuliani’s claim illustrates how mistaken Trump’s lawyers are about presidential power. “A president could not be prosecuted for murder? Really?” he said. “It is one of many absurd positions that follow from their argument. It is self-evidently wrong.” Eisen and other legal scholars have concluded that the constitution offers no blanket protection for a president from criminal prosecution. “The foundation of America is that no person is above the law,” he said. “A president can under extreme circumstances be indicted, but we’re facing extreme circumstances.” A president could not be prosecuted for murder? Really? It is one of many absurd positions that follow from their argument. It is self-evidently wrong. Norm Eisen, former White House ethics lawyer under President Barack Obama Giuliani’s comments came a day after The New York Times revealed that Trump’s lawyers in January made their case to special counsel Robert Mueller that Trump could not possibly have obstructed justice because he has the ability to shut down any investigation at any time. “He could, if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired,” Jay Sekulow and John Dowd wrote in a 20-page letter. Dowd has since left Trump’s legal team, replaced by Giuliani. The letter also admits that Trump “dictated” a statement that was then released by his son, Donald Trump Jr., regarding a meeting held at Trump Tower in June 2016 between top Trump campaign officials and Russians with links to that country’s spy agencies. That meeting was scheduled after the Russians said they had damaging information about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton that would be of use to the Trump campaign. The Trump-dictated statement falsely claimed the meeting was primarily about the adoption of Russian children by American families ― the same topic that Trump claimed had been the substance of a conversation he had had with Russian leader Vladimir Putin the previous evening in Germany. The U.S. intelligence community concluded during the 2016 campaign that not only was Russia interfering in the U.S. election, but was actively trying to help Trump win. Both Sekulow and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders claimed, falsely, that Trump had not dictated the statement, but had merely offered his son suggestions. Sanders on Sunday referred questions about the matter to Trump’s outside legal team. Giuliani said Sekulow was misinformed about the Trump Tower meeting, which in any case was not that significant. “In this investigation, the crimes are really silly,” he said, arguing that the firing of Comey last year could not be construed as obstruction of justice because Trump had the right to fire him at any time and for any reason. “This is pure harassment, engineered by the Democrats.” Comey had been leading the FBI probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence until his dismissal, which led to the appointment of Mueller to take it over. Within two days of the firing, Trump told both NBC News and Russian officials visiting him in the Oval Office that he had done it because of the investigation. Eisen said Giuliani’s assertion, taken to its logical conclusion, would mean that a mob boss under investigation by the FBI could give Trump a bribe to fire the FBI director, Trump could explain on television that he had done so “because of this Mafia thing,” and then not face criminal charges. “Well, of course it would be appropriate to initiate a prosecution,” he said. “I think the legally correct answer is, as usual, the opposite of Giuliani’s answer.” Giuliani, once the mayor of New York City and prior to that the U.S. attorney there, took charge of Trump’s outside legal team in April, saying then that he planned to wrap the whole thing up within a few weeks. Now he said he is not sure when it will end because Mueller is taking too long and not turning over material to Giuliani ― such as a report of what was learned from an FBI informant who made contact with several members of the Trump campaign with links to Russia. Giuliani said he has so far met with Trump about 10 times and spoken to him on the phone another 40 or so times, totaling at least 75 hours of conversation. “I’m not billing by the hour, otherwise I could tell you exactly,” he joked about the case he has taken on for free. Mueller’s investigation has so far resulted in the guilty pleas of five people, including three former Trump campaign staffers, and the indictment of 14 other people and three companies. That total includes 13 Russians, Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and the Internet Research Agency, a “troll farm” that was used to create and disseminate propaganda to help Trump win. A related investigation by Giuliani’s former U.S. attorney’s office is examining the dealings of longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. A former business partner has agreed to cooperate in that probe and plead to New York state charges. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 06-03-18 01:32pm - 2394 days | #800 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump: I'm totally innocent. Innocent. There was no Russian collusion. And if there was Russian collusion, it was the fault of my aides. And the fault of the FBI. And any other traitors to the United States of America. But don't blame me. I'm innocent. But don't worry, fans of people who are being investigated by the Mueller probe: Trump stands willing and able to hand out pardons for these fine, young men who are being persecuted by Dirty Democrats. God save Donald Trump, who will make America great again (while lining his pockets and the pockets of his children with the fruits of his labors as President of the United States. Unethical, certainly. Illegal, probably. But Trump believes he can get away with it.) ------------ ------------ Trump asks why FBI didn't tell him about Paul Manafort investigation Michael Walsh 5 hours ago President Trump complained Sunday morning that the Federal Bureau of Investigation never warned him about its investigation into Paul Manafort before he joined Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign team. In a handful of tweets, Trump asked why the FBI did not tell Democrat Hillary Clinton and him about a secret investigation into Manafort after they had won their respective party’s nominations. He scoffed at the Department of Justice’s commitment to fairness by placing “justice” in quotes. Manafort, a veteran conservative political consultant, joined Trump’s campaign as convention manager in March 2016 and was responsible for transitioning the campaign’s activities toward the Republican National Committee in Cleveland. He was promoted to campaign manager on May 19 and resigned that August amid scrutiny into his pro-Russian work in Ukraine. On Sunday, Trump continued to distance himself from Manafort by pointing out that he came to his team late in the process, only stayed for a few months and had contributed to several other Republican presidential bids in the past. These included campaigns for Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, as well as Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole. Trump insisted he should have been informed that former FBI director James Comey and the bureau’s investigators — whom the president called “Comey and the boys” — were “doing a number” on Manafort. With this knowledge, he continued, Manafort would have never been hired. This is a continuation of Trump’s efforts to rationalize his ties to Manafort that kicked into high gear after Robert Mueller, the special counsel for the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s interference with the U.S. presidential election, indicted him and his former business partner Rick Gates in October 2017. Despite Trump’s claims to the contrary, CNN reported that U.S. intelligence officials warned Trump in August 2016 that Russia would likely try to infiltrate his campaign and interfere with the election. Manafort faces charges of acting as an unregistered foreign agent, conspiring to launder money and making false statements to the Justice Department about his political work in Ukraine. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has rejected several of Manafort’s attempts to get certain charges dismissed. He had unsuccessfully filed motions challenging Mueller’s authority, insisting some charges amounted to double jeopardy (being charged twice for the same offense) and arguing that piling up charges could prejudice jurors against him. Manafort, who has pleaded not guilty, is expected to stand trial in July. | |
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| 06-03-18 08:51am - 2395 days | #799 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
1. OH, OKAY an hour ago Giuliani: Our ‘Recollection Keeps Changing’ on Trump Tower Meeting [Giuliani: Our Memory of Trump Tower Meeting ‘Keeps Changing’] Leah Millis/Reuters Rudy Giuliani on Sunday said President Trump’s explanation for a statement on the controversial 2016 Trump Tower meeting has repeatedly changed because “our recollection keeps changing.” “This is the reason you don't let the president testify. Our recollection keeps changing, or we're not even asked a question and somebody makes an assumption,” Giuliani told ABC News’ This Week. Giuliani’s comments came after it was revealed that a statement released by Donald Trump Jr. to explain his and other Trump aides’ meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer ahead of the election was actually dictated by Trump—something the president had earlier denied. The Trump Tower statement is now a central focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into whether the president obstructed justice, as it deceptively claimed the meeting focused on U.S. adoptions of Russian children. In fact, the meeting was arranged on the assumption Trump Jr. and other members of the Trump team would receive damaging information on Hillary Clinton. | |
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| 06-03-18 08:44am - 2395 days | #798 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Rudy Giuliani says the president probably has the power to pardon himself but does not plan to do so. So if the president is impeached, he can pardon himself. And the impeachment process would be thwarted, concerning the president. However, not everyone agrees with the president's lawyer. The law is what is written, except it has to be interpreted and enforced. Which means, lawyers can argue the moon is made of yellow cheese, but that does not necessarily make it true. What is more true, is that the constitution is made of yellow cheese, and the lawyers can argue over the meaning of the constitution, which is the law of the land. Trump's lawyers argued in a letter to the special counsel that the president could not have obstructed the probe given the powers granted to him by the Constitution, the New York Times reported on Saturday. So why did Nixon resign? Because he was stupid. He did not have the lawyers Trump has, who realize that the president can do no legal wrong. And as for lying to the public, which Nixon did, so what? Trump has lied to the public continuously, even more than Nixon did. Again, why did Nixon resign? Because his lawyers did not realize the president has the legal right to stop any investigation, and to pardon anyone. So none of Nixon's aides needed to go to prison, or even be convicted, because Nixon had the power to pardon. And Nixon had the right to stop any investigation into Nixon's own conduct, even conduct which might or might not be illegal. So, basically, the president has absolute power. Except a lot of people might not agree that the power of the president is absolute. Actually, there's a flaw in the argument. The president has the power to pardon on federal matters. But some people believe that states can prosecute on the state level, which would need a state governor's pardon to avoid. Has Trump or his aides broken any state laws? Can they be prosecuted at the state level. It seems like they might have. When will this corruption/graft/influence scandal be finished? Drain the swamp in Washington. Put Trump, Giuliani, and their cronies and allies in prison: Federal and state prison, if there isn't enough room for them in the federal prisons. -------- -------- Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani says president probably can pardon himself Thomson Reuters Jun 3rd 2018 10:06AM WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani said on Sunday the president probably has the power to pardon himself but does not plan to do so. Asked whether Trump has the power to give himself a pardon, Giuliani said, "He's not, but he probably does." Giuliani added that Trump has no intention of pardoning himself," but that the U.S. Constitution, which gives a president the authority to issue pardons, "doesn't say he can't." Giuliani said on ABC's "This Week" program, "It would be an open question. I think it would probably get answered by, gosh, that's what the Constitution says." Giuliani also said it is an "open question" whether Trump would sit for an interview with Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating potential collusion between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia, but that the president's lawyers were leaning against having him testify. Mueller is also looking into whether Trump unlawfully sought to obstruct the Russia investigation. House Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on CNN on Sunday that no president should pardon himself. Trump's lawyers argued in a letter to the special counsel that the president could not have obstructed the probe given the powers granted to him by the Constitution, the New York Times reported on Saturday. In the Jan. 29 letter, Trump's lawyers contended that the Constitution gives the president the power to "terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon," the Times reported. (Reporting by Yasmeen Abutaleb and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Will Dunham) | |
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| 06-03-18 04:15am - 2395 days | #797 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Law enforcement under Trump is full of flaws. We need to impeach Trump, and get a President who will give us the kind of police force our citizens need. We must support our local police force. Here is an officer who was fired after using his car to run down a suspect. Did the officer kill the suspect? No. So why was the officer fired from his job? My guess is the Police Chief, after reviewing the camera footage and all other facts and circumstances of the case, decided that the fired officer was not being effective in his use of police equipment. The suspect who was hit by the police car was taken by ambulance to a hospital, but only had scrapes and bruises. Scrapes and bruises? After being hit by a police car? A gun would have been more effective: 5 or 6 bullets to the head and body would have put the suspect down more strongly. Or running over the suspect with the police car's tires would have taught the suspect that police are not to be trifled with. So, yes, maybe the officer should have been fired for not dealing with the suspect in an effective manner. Or--the officer could have been given training in how to use police equiment in the best, most effective way. -------- -------- Officer fired after intentionally hitting fleeing suspect with his police car By Mark Osborne Jun 3, 2018, 1:55 AM ET Athens-Clarke County Police Department WATCH Police officer fired after hitting suspect with car The Athens-Clarke County Police Department has fired one of its officers after an investigation showed he intentionally ran down and hit a fleeing suspect with his police cruiser. Officer Taylor Saulters, who was driving the car, was initially suspended, but he was fired by the police department on Saturday. "After reviewing the officers’ body camera footage, and all the other facts and circumstances of this case, Chief Scott Freeman terminated the employment of Officer Taylor Saulters," the Athens-Clarke County Police Department said in a statement. The department released video of the June 1 incident, in which Saulters can be seen driving after a suspect fleeing on foot from he and his partner. Saulters initially turns left to try to block the suspect, but the man dodges the car. The suspect then continues running down the street, at which point Saulters drives to the right and hits the suspect with the front right of his police car. The man who was hit, identified as Timmy Patmon, rolls up on the hood of the car and falls to the pavement. Saulters and his partner, officer Hunter Blackmon, who had been chasing the suspect on foot, arrest Patmon as a group of angry onlookers gather around the arresting officers. A woman bystander can be heard saying, "You didn't have to hit that man like that." Saulters also threatened to use a stun gun on Patmon while he is face down on the pavement being restrained by Blackmon. "Give us your hands now, or you're gonna get Tased," the officer can be heard saying on the video. "Do you understand me? Make the right decision." Patmon was wanted on a felony probation warrant, according to Athens-Clarke County police. Patmon was taken to the hospital by ambulance, but suffered just "scrapes and bruises" when being struck by the car, police said. He was taken into custody after being released from the hospital. Saulters was immediately placed on administrative leave, but was fired the next day following an independent investigation. "Athens police Chief Scott Freeman initially placed Saulters on administrative leave, initiated an internal affairs investigation, and requested that the Georgia State Patrol and Georgia Bureau of Investigation conduct independent investigations of the incident," police said in a statement. | |
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| 06-03-18 03:54am - 2395 days | #796 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Donald Trump is a great businessman. He is able to make extra money for himself and his family while serving as President of the United States. Is it legal? Who cares? As long as Trump can get away with it. -------- -------- Lawyer suing Trump over emoluments expects to see hotel records Michael Isikoff Fri, Jun 1 9:36 AM PDT Norm Eisen; Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Paul Morigi/ Brookings Institution, AP) In what could presage a new legal headache for the Trump White House, the lawyer leading a suit against President Trump over his ownership of a Washington hotel says he is “confident” that a federal judge will require the Trump Organization to begin turning over evidence about the hotel’s internal operations — a key step that could reveal details about the president’s finances. The suit charges that the president is profiting from foreign governments doing business with Trump International Hotel, in violation of the Constitution. “I do believe there is going to be accountability for this,” said Norm Eisen, the chief of Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW), in an interview on the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery. “This is the first time in American history that a president has been brazen enough to take emoluments” — referring to the clause in the U.S. Constitution that bars presidents from taking foreign gifts or payments from foreign governments. Eisen, who served as special counsel for ethics and government reform under President Obama, is the chief counsel in a lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia claiming that foreign governments doing business with Trump’s hotel in Washington violate the Emoluments Clause of the constitution. Lawyers for the president recently asked U.S. Judge Peter Messitte, who is presiding over the case, to toss the lawsuit on the grounds that the president can’t be sued in his personal or official capacity. But Eisen, noting that Messitte has already allowed the case to proceed, said he fully expects another favorable ruling after a hearing in the case over the scope of the Emoluments Clause slated for June 11. “We are confident the judge is going to allow us to take discovery,” he said. The president’s decision to maintain ownership of his business while serving in the White House is only one of the ethics issues that has drawn the attention of ethics watchdogs like Eisen. In the interview with Skullduggery hosts Daniel Klaidman and Michael Isikoff, Eisen also pointed to benefits the Trump family businesses have received from the Chinese government. Ivanka Trump’s accessories company was recently granted seven trademarks by the regime, and a Chinese state-owned construction company provided $500 million in financing to Indonesian developers for construction of a theme park venture that will include a Trump-branded hotel and golf course. Download or subscribe on iTunes: “Skullduggery” by Yahoo News “The Chinese are a one-party state, Isikoff,” Eisen said. “Do you believe these [Chinese] officials are not aware they are giving these benefits to the Trump family members and they don’t intend to shape American policy? Of course they do.” While he acknowledged he has no “conclusive” evidence of a “quid pro quo,” Eisen noted that these moves came around the same time that Trump tweeted, on May 13, his intention to provide relief for China’s telecom giant, ZTE, which was subject to U.S. sanctions for doing business with Iran and North Korea. “Look at the proximity,” Eisen said. ZTE is a “threat to American national security and Trump says we are going to save ZTE. That happens around the same time as this $500 million [Indonesian] financing and these trademarks to Ivanka. It is a lot” to accept that “it’s just a coincidence.” | |
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| 06-03-18 03:46am - 2395 days | #795 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump just sent a clear signal to associates in Mueller's crosshairs to 'stay the course and he will protect them' Sonam Sheth Jun. 1, 2018, 1:34 PM President Donald Trump announced this week that he had pardoned the conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza, and was considering pardoning Martha Stewart and commuting the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. D'Souza, Stewart, and Blagojevich were all convicted on charges that Trump and his associates are currently being investigated for or have been charged with. Experts say people in Trump's orbit who are being investigated should find the developments "quite comforting." One Justice Department veteran pointed out that Trump's comments strike at two levels: "One, he's targeting the crimes that are the subject of the investigation of his associates, and two, he's punching back at some of those in law enforcement that he thinks are arrayed against him." Sign up for the latest Russia investigation updates here » President Donald Trump sent a not-so-subtle signal on Thursday when he pardoned the conservative political commentator Dinesh D'Souza and openly mused about pardoning the television personality Martha Stewart and commuting the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. D'Souza was convicted of violating campaign finance laws. Stewart was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements to investigators. Blagojevich was convicted, among other things, of making false statements. And Trump's recent actions come as the Justice Department probes whether some of Trump's associates committed those same crimes. Michael Cohen, Trump's longtime personal lawyer and closest confidant, is under investigation for violating campaign finance laws. Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, and George Papadopoulos — all of whom worked on Trump's campaign in some capacity — have pleaded guilty to lying to investigators, and Gates has additionally pleaded guilty to conspiracy. Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, has been charged with lying to the FBI. Jens David Ohlin, a vice dean at Cornell Law School who is an expert in criminal law, put it bluntly: "If I were Cohen, Flynn, or Manafort, I would find these recent developments quite comforting." 'What a gamble' Donald TrumpDonald Trump. Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images The power to pardon people convicted of federal crimes is perhaps the one tool in Trump's box that is entirely up to his discretion, and the president has not shied away from reminding the public — and his embattled associates — of that. "I've always felt [D'Souza] was very unfairly treated," Trump told reporters on Air Force One this week after announcing the conservative commentator's pardon. "And a lot of people did, a lot of people did. What should have been a quick, minor fine, like everybody else with the election stuff. ... What they did to him was horrible." The president's comments likely resonated with Cohen, who is being investigated by the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York for possibly violating campaign finance law when he paid the porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 shortly before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about an affair she claims to have had with Trump. He is also a subject of interest to the special counsel Robert Mueller, stemming from his involvement in several key events Mueller is scrutinizing as part of the probe into Russian election interference. "There is no question in my mind that this is a signal to people who are caught up in the Mueller investigation to stay the course and [Trump] will protect them," said Alex Whiting, a longtime former federal prosecutor in Boston and Washington, DC. Cohen has been described at different times as Trump's fixer, pit bull, and consigliere, and he has a long history of going to bat for the president to quash negative stories and protect his reputation. In addition to serving as Trump's personal lawyer, Cohen also worked for over a decade as the Trump Organization's lead counsel and is likely privy to the innermost workings of Trump's business and financial dealings. "The critical question for someone like Cohen is, can he take it to the bank?" said Harry Litman, a former deputy assistant attorney general. "Is he going to completely trust in Trump's words? Boy, what a gamble." Trump also expressed sympathy toward Stewart and Blagojevich, both of whom he said did not deserve to go to jail for their actions. His comments could be a good sign for Flynn, who has already pleaded guilty in the Russia investigation and is cooperating with prosecutors. "Right now, Mueller's biggest leverage over Flynn is that he can sharply reduce his sentence if Flynn cooperates," Litman said. "If Flynn thinks he'll get pardoned, he'll start speaking in mono-syllables." Paul ManafortPaul Manafort leaves Federal District Court in Washington, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. AP Photo/Alex Brandon Manafort, meanwhile, has been hit with dozens of charges related to his lobbying work for the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian interests, but he has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers have mounted an aggressive defense that rests on the claim that Mueller was not authorized to indict Manafort on charges unrelated to Russian collusion. Last month, a federal judge in Virginia delivered a massive setback to Manafort's lawyers when he ruled that Manafort's indictment falls within the scope of Mueller's mandate. But before making his final decision, US District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III laid into prosecutors, questioning whether they had only charged Manafort to get him "to sing." For that reason, despite the final ruling, Trump's defense team sees the case as somewhat of a win for the president, who accuses Mueller of embarking on a politically motivated "witch hunt" against him and his associates. "The fact that a federal judge even questioned Mueller's motives here is a big deal for us," said Rudy Giuliani, Trump's outside lawyer, who is a former Justice Department veteran. "It means there's something there." Asked Friday whether Trump's comments about D'Souza, Stewart, and Blagojevich were intended as a signal to Manafort and others ensnared in the Russia probe, Giuliani replied: "No, only independent situations." Trump's comments strike at two different levels Even so, Justice Department veterans emphasize that there are other, deeper consequences to Trump's haphazard approach to granting pardons, particularly as it relates to Thursday's comments. Former FBI Director James Comey was leading the Manhattan US attorney's office when it prosecuted the Martha Stewart case. Former US attorney Preet Bharara led the office when it tried D'Souza. And Patrick Fitzgerald, a close associate of Comey's, led the US attorney's office for the Northern District of Illinois, which handled the Blagojevich case. Trump's statements strike at two different levels, Whiting said. "One, he's targeting the crimes that are the subject of the investigation of his associates, and two, he's punching back at some of those in law enforcement that he thinks are arrayed against him," Whiting said. Litman agreed. "The pardon power defines the border between mercy and justice," he said. "And Trump's actions are completely disconnected from any of the sorts of considerations that presidents traditionally have." He added: "This might be the most purely corrupt or abusive of all his exercises of executive power, because it's not simply that he's ignoring the norms, but he's almost gleefully undermining the core principles of justice and law enforcement." | |
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| 06-02-18 06:10pm - 2395 days | #794 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
My God. I can't believe it. Roseanne Barr is the female copy of Donald Trump. Barr "I love all people." Trump "I love all people." Even people from shithole countries? Of course. ------- ------- Celebrity Roseanne Barr surfaces, speaks publicly for 1st time since tweetstorm: 'I love all people' Good Morning America MICHAEL ROTHMAN,Good Morning America Fri, Jun 1 2:52 PM PDT Roseanne Barr spoke publicly for the first time since her ABC show was canceled on Tuesday, telling a reporter that despite what's happened in the past few days, "I love all people." Barr, 65, was approached in Utah by a reporter from The Daily Mail. "I believe in one law for all people. I love all people. Thank you," she told the reporter, who recorded the exchange on camera. Earlier this week she compared former Obama administration adviser Valerie Jarrett to a character from "Planet of the Apes" on Twitter. The fallout was immediate for Barr, whose hit sitcom on ABC was canceled just a few hours later. PHOTO: Roseanne Barr and John Goodman appear in a scene from 'Roseanne.' (Adam Rose/ABC) Barr initially said she would quit the social media platform after tweeting an apology to Jarrett. Instead, she fired off a barrage of messages to her 860,000 followers. She wrote late Thursday night, "I end by offering everyone involved one more apology and prayers for healing of our divided nation. Tomorrow is Shabbat and I will continue to pray that everything for everyone goes forward & ends well for all. signing off twitter for a while. love u guys!" In another tweet she said she would "not forgive" herself for the Jarrett comment. Barr was scheduled to appear on the "Joe Rogan Experience" podcast Friday, but Rogan said this is not happening anymore. "The Roseanne podcast is not happening today. She’s not doing well and doesn’t want to travel, and she’s gone radio silent on me, so I’m just going to step away. The whole thing has been pretty brutal on her, and I hope she can find some peace," he wrote on Twitter. PHOTO: Roseanne Barr waves on her arrival to the 75th Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., Jan. 7, 2018. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters, FILE) In his Thursday broadcast, Rogan told director Kevin Smith that he's spoken to the comedian by phone. “She told me that she was taking Ambien and that she was drunk on Memorial Day weekend and she tweeted a bunch of stupid s---,” he told Smith. “In her words, she said, 'I need to adjust my meds. I’m not thinking straight.'” Rogan said Barr also told him that she didn't know Jarrett was black. "Only she knows for sure," Rogan said of these claims. Yahoo Entertainment 'No one threw Roseanne under the bus but Roseanne': Tweet controversy sparks heated comments Yahoo Entertainment Arjuna Ramgopal,Yahoo Entertainment Fri, Jun 1 2:30 PM PDT “It’s always a ‘joke’ after the backlash.” “Sometimes SORRY just doesn’t cut it.” The fallout has been swift and severe for Roseanne Barr’s racist comment on Twitter. The “Roseanne” reboot has been canceled, the scandal has dominated the news for days, and fans remain outraged. That includes thousands of Yahoo commenters. To take us back to the beginning: On May 28, in a now-deleted post, the comedian referred to Valerie Jarret, a former adviser to President Barack Obama as the “offspring of the Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes.’” Facing immediate backlash, Barr apologized, saying: “I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me — my joke was in bad taste.” But it was too little too late. Thousands of Yahoo readers have been expressing their outrage, including one who wrote: “She just crossed the line again. I’M DONE.” Another commenter said, “Is anyone really surprised that Roseanne said something offensive?” And another added: “No one threw Roseanne under the bus but Roseanne.” Barr, 65, has maintained that she did not know that Jarrett, 61, is black when she compared her to an ape. One of the first signs of serious trouble came when Wanda Sykes, a consulting producer on the ABC sitcom, quit in protest. Co-star and co-producer Sara Gilbert quickly condemned the comments. And then, on May 29, the network lowered the boom: “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” said ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey. Barr blamed the sleep medicine Ambien for her outburst. “It was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting,” she posted. “I made a mistake I wish I hadn’t but … don’t defend it please.” In the wake of the show’s cancellation, the controversy has featured a diverse cast of characters. Barr’s ex-husband and onetime “Roseanne” writer Tom Arnold said he always had a bad feeling about the TV series reboot. (“I knew it would not end well.”) Jimmy Kimmel riled some fans with a measured show of support: “The Roseanne I know could probably use some compassion.” Barr’s son Jake Pentland has also come to his mother’s defense, saying: “It’s insensitive, we get it. … Me and Mom are completely out of touch, that we would think that it’s okay for a white person to call a non-white person and compare them to a monkey. Like, you got it. You won. You took the show off. She’s apologized. It’s over. War’s over.” On Thursday, Barr sent a series of tweets, which have now been deleted, begging ABC to save her show. “I begged Ben Sherwood at ABC 2 let me apologize & make amends,” Barr tweeted. “I begged 4 my crews jobs. Will I ever recover from this pain? omg.” The sudden cancellation of Roseanne because of Roseanne Barr's racist tweets may have come as a shock to fans, the cast, and crew of the show, but according to People there was a certain awareness that things could take a turn for the worst. "Everyone is upset for the cast and the crew, but there was always a feeling that something was going to happen," an ABC source told People. "There was always a heightened awareness with her, and we were always on edge about her going off track." Well, Barr's racist tweets about former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett certainly were the final "off track" straw for ABC, as the network canceled the show hours after she pressed send. The ABC source revealed they were holding their breath for Barr to eventually slip up, but her offensive and inappropriate tweets were entirely unexpected. "Did we think she would say something like that? No. But then it all fell apart," the source reportedly said. While the cast and crew are, sadly, left to deal with the repercussions of Barr's actions, many fans (and even Jimmy Kimmel!) have solutions to share that could revive the show without Barr herself. Hopefully, one of these ideas can help put back together the pieces that fell apart for the rest of the Conner family. | |
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| 06-02-18 02:01pm - 2395 days | #793 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Old news: Trump's lawyers have argued that Trump has the legal power to end the Mueller probe. Also the legal power to pardon anyone that the Mueller probe can indict, including President Trump himself. The President is apparently, according to Trump's lawyers, above the law, because of his powers (including the power to pardon). Do these claims of Trump's lawyers hold water? Let's get the show on the road, already: Subpoena Trump. Force him to testify under oath. See what happens. Then, based on what Trump says, charge him with crimes if there is evidence of wrong-doing. Is the President above the law? According to his lawyers, yes. According to common sense, not if the country or prosecutors can stand up to him. The president is not King for life. Even though Trump wants to be King for life. Let Trump declare martial law and arrest and execute the Mueller probe agents. That would be legal, according to Trump's lawyers. Bullshit. --------------- --------------- Trump's lawyers to Mueller in letter: President can end probe, use pardon power Christal Hayes, USA TODAY Published 3:33 p.m. ET June 2, 2018 | Updated 4:39 p.m. ET June 2, 2018 A confidential memo issued by President Trump’s lawyers to Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been obtained by the New York Times. Susana Victoria Perez (@susana_vp) Lawyers for President Trump told special counsel Robert Mueller in a confidential letter that the president would not comply with requests for an interview, could end the special counsel's investigation and could use his executive powers to pardon if needed. The January 2018 letter, along with a second letter sent in June 2017, was obtained by The New York Times and provide the clearest view yet of Trump's legal strategy in Mueller's wide-ranging investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible obstruction of justice. Ahead of The Times' report, Trump tweeted about the leaked letters, saying "there was No Collusion with Russia (except by the Democrats). When will this very expensive Witch Hunt Hoax ever end?" He continued: "So bad for our Country. Is the Special Counsel/Justice Department leaking my lawyers letters to the Fake News Media? Should be looking at Dems corruption instead?" There was No Collusion with Russia (except by the Democrats). When will this very expensive Witch Hunt Hoax ever end? So bad for our Country. Is the Special Counsel/Justice Department leaking my lawyers letters to the Fake News Media? Should be looking at Dems corruption instead? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2018 The more recent letter, dated Jan. 29, was written by two of the president’s lawyers at the time, John Dowd and Jay Sekulow and responded to a request to interview the president. The letter lists 16 subject areas Mueller's team intended to question Trump about, including his firing of FBI Director James Comey. Dowd later resigned from the case. In April, Trump hired former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and two other former federal prosecutors to join his legal team. Multiple times throughout the letter, Trump's lawyers appear trying to discredit Comey as a witness. They also contend that Trump has the power to shut down any investigation by the FBI or Justice Department "at any time and for any reason." "He could, if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired," the letter says. The inclusion of pardoning and ending the probe could serve as both a defense that if Trump was indeed obstructing the investigation, he would have ended it long ago. It could also leave open a pardon for his former national security adviser Michael Flynn or, himself if charged. The Times notes no president has ever pardoned himself. The letter goes on to say that if the president did order the termination of an investigation, even though he contends he did not, "this could not constitute obstruction of justice." Dowd and Sekulow deny the request for a presidential interview and argue that Mueller has been granted access to a slew of documents and other witnesses, and already the same information that Trump would tell them in an interview. "In light of these voluntary offerings, your office clearly lacks the requisite need to personally interview the President," the letter argues. "The information you seek is 'practically available from another source,' and your office, in fact, has already been given that other source." In the June 23, 2017 letter from Marc Kasowitz, one of Trump’s longtime personal attorneys, he makes many of the same points, arguing there was no basis for an obstruction charge and the president, as Comey said, has the power to fire anyone when he so chooses. It again makes the case that Trump did not order the closure of the investigation but a president can close an investigation if he so chooses. “President Clinton fired FBI Director [William] Sessions in July 1993 at a time when the FBI had multiple open investigations implicating the Clintons, including the Whitewater and the Travel Office investigations, yet there were no claims and certainly no investigations into whether President Clinton’s exercise of his Constitutional power constituted obstruction,” the letter states. But Clinton's decision varied in many ways. Ahead of Clinton's inauguration, allegations were made against then FBI Director William Sessions, no relation to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, that he'd used an FBI plane for personal use and used tax dollars to install a security system at his home. He was under intense pressure to resign but did not and Clinton was later forced to dismiss him. Kasowitz also said an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt was taken out of context when Trump said, “I was going to fire Comey knowing there was no good time to do it. And in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself - I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.” He said Trump’s thoughts were diverted and he later finished his point on Comey’s firing, saying he wanted the investigation to proceed but Comey needed to be fired because he was “the wrong man for that position.” The letter also questions why there wasn’t a special counsel investigation into President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton amid the email server debacle. Kasowitz details several of Obama’s comments that there wouldn’t be an indictment and Clinton wasn’t a target before the investigation was completed. “Yet, no special counsel was appointed and no obstruction investigation was launched,” he argued. Contributing: Richard Wolf Edited on Jun 02, 2018, 02:06pm | |
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| 06-02-18 07:55am - 2396 days | #5 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The fizz has gone out of The Force. “Solo: A Star Wars Story” is heading for a disappointing $28 million in its second weekend in North America, early estimates showed on Friday. If the forecasts hold, the anthology movie will post a 67% decline from its Friday to Sunday opening of $84.4 million. At $28 million, “Solo: A Star Wars Story” will win the weekend — but it’s a hollow victory with the third frame of “Deadpool 2” a relatively close second with $20 million (for a $251 million domestic total). The debut of Shailene Woodley’s survival drama “Adrift” is battling for third with the fifth frame of “Avengers: Infinity War” at about $10 million each. But the lack of traction for the Han Solo origin story signals that Disney erred in bringing out another “Star Wars” title a mere five months after launching “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” which took in $71 million in its second weekend on the way to a $620 million domestic haul. The first anthology film, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” made $64 million in its sophomore frame in 2016, declining 59%, on its way to a $532 million domestic total. The results for “Solo: A Star Wars Story” also pale in comparison to the same weekend a year ago when “Wonder Woman” set the record for the first weekend in June, grossing $103 million in its debut. Disney’s first “Star Wars” movie, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” was a smash hit in late 2015 with a record-setting $936 million in domestic grosses. “Solo: A Star Wars Story” will finish the weekend with about $147 million and may not make it to $200 million by the end of its run. “Solo” follows Alden Ehrenreich as a young Han Solo, who befriends his future co-pilot and Wookiee companion Chewbacca, and meets the gambler Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover). “Solo” is the second of the “Star Wars” anthology films, which are being spun off as origin stories, following “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” which launched domestically with $155 million in December 2016, on its way to $532 million in North America and $1 billion globally. Disney and Lucasfilm are also developing spinoffs for Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Disney is in pre-production J.J. Abrams’ “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” sequel “Star Wars: Episode IX.” It’s set for a Dec. 19, 2019, release date. STX is expanding “Adrift” to 3,015 sites on Friday with forecasts in the $7 million to $11 million range for its opening weekend. Woodley and Sam Claflin star as a couple that sets sail across the ocean in 1983. The two get stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean during a hurricane and attempt to navigate to Hawaii without communication or tools. Johnny Knoxville’s “Action Point” is tracking below estimates for a dismal opening between $2 million and $3 million at 2,032 venues. The R-rated comedy, set at a New Jersey theme park, features bizarre stunts in the vein of Knoxville’s earlier films. BH Tilt’s horror sci-fier “Upgrade” should take in as much as $4 million from 1,457 locations. “Saw” and “Insidious” helmer Leigh Whannell wrote and directed “Upgrade,” which premiered at this year’s South by Southwest. Logan Marshall-Green plays a man who gets an experimental computer chip implanted in his spinal cord after he’s left paralyzed following a mugging. | |
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| 06-02-18 07:49am - 2396 days | #792 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
NEWS FLASH: Trump's policies favor the wealthy while hurting the poor. Which was already known. But Trump supporters believe in Trump. That is the way it's supposed to be: Take from the undeserving and give to your wealthy friends. And maybe you will become one of the wealthy, who deserve more tax breaks and other programs to make you even wealthier. ----------- ----------- America's poor becoming more destitute under Trump - U.N. expert Thomson Reuters Jun 2nd 2018 7:28AM * U.N. rights expert issues report on extreme poverty in U.S. * Says Trump policies remove safety net for the poor, reward rich * Urges U.S. authorities to provide health care, social protection * 41 million live in poverty in America, one third are children By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA, June 2 (Reuters) - Poverty in the United States is extensive and is deepening under the Trump administration whose policies seem aimed at removing the safety net from millions of poor, while rewarding the rich, a U.N. human rights investigator has found. Philip Alston, U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty, called on U.S. authorities to provide solid social protection and address underlying problems, rather than "punishing and imprisoning the poor." While welfare benefits and access to health insurance are being slashed, President Donald Trump's tax reform has awarded "financial windfalls" to the mega-rich and large companies, further increasing inequality, he said in a report. U.S. policies since President Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty in the 1960s have been "neglectful at best," he said. "But the policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned rather than a right of citizenship," Alston said. Almost 41 million people live in poverty, 18.5 million of them in extreme poverty, and children account for one in three poor, he said. The United States has the highest youth poverty rate among industrialized countries, he added. "Its citizens live shorter and sicker lives compared to those living in all other rich democracies, eradicable tropical diseases are increasingly prevalent and it has the world's highest incarceration rate...and the highest obesity levels in the developed world," Alston said. However, the data from the U.S. Census Bureau he cited covers only the period through 2016, and he gave no comparative figures on the extent of poverty before and after Trump came into office in January 2017. The Australian, a veteran U.N. rights expert and New York University law professor, will present his report to the United Nations Human Rights Council later this month. It is based on his mission in December to several U.S. states, including rural Alabama, a slum in downtown Los Angeles, California, and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. U.S. officials in Geneva were not immediately available for comment. "SHAMEFUL STATISTICS" Citing "shameful statistics" linked to entrenched racial discrimination, Alston said that African Americans are 2.5 times more likely than whites to live in poverty and their unemployment rate is more than double. Women, Hispanics, immigrants, and indigenous people also suffer high rates. At least 550,000 people are homeless in America, he said. "The tax reform will worsen this situation and ensure that the United States remains the most unequal society in the developed world," Alston said. "The planned dramatic cuts in welfare will essentially shred crucial dimensions of a safety net that is already full of holes." The tax overhaul, which sailed through the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress in December, permanently cut the top corporate rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. Tax cuts for individuals, however, are temporary and expire after 2025. Trump has said they will lead to more take-home pay for workers and have touted bonuses some workers received from their employers as evidence the law is working. Alston dismissed allegations of widespread fraud in the welfare system and criticized the U.S. criminal justice system. It sets large bail bonds for a defendant seeking to go free pending trial, meaning wealthy suspects can afford bail while the poor remain in custody, often losing their jobs, he said. "There is no magic recipe for eliminating extreme poverty and each level of government must make its own good-faith decisions. At the end of the day, however, particularly in a rich country like the United States, the persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power," he said. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by David Stamp) | |
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| 06-01-18 11:21pm - 2396 days | #791 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Can you believe what the EPA chief (Scott Pruit) says? Yes, if you have God Himself giving Mr. Pruitt a lie detector test and certifying that Pruitt is telling the truth. Otherwise, you have to take what Pruitt says with a grain of salt. (Which means Pruitt lies a lot, even when making official statements.) -------- -------- Lobbyist tied to EPA chief's condo tried to influence agency By MICHAEL BIESECKER Associated Press 2 hrs ago (…) Lobbyist tied to EPA chief's condo tried to influence agency FILE - In this Wednesday, May 16, 2018 file photo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt appears before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies on budget on Capitol Hill in Washington. Newly filed disclosure reports show the Washington lobbyist whose wife rented a bargain-priced Capitol Hill condo to Pruitt had far more contact with the agency than previously disclosed, despite repeated denials by both men. Pruitt has denied that lobbying firm Williams & Jensen's former chairman J. Steven Hart lobbied his agency in 2017, most recently during Congressional testimony in May. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) WASHINGTON (AP) — Newly filed reports show the Washington lobbyist whose wife rented a bargain-priced Capitol Hill condo to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt had far more contact with the agency than previously disclosed, despite repeated denials by both men. Powerhouse lobbying firm Williams & Jensen amended its 2017 disclosure filings to show that former chairman J. Steven Hart contacted EPA on behalf of the Coca-Cola Company, pork producer Smithfield Foods and a board overseeing the finances of hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. Pruitt has denied that Hart lobbied his agency in 2017, most recently during congressional testimony last month. The firm amended its required federal lobbying disclosures after an extensive review of Hart's emails, calendar entries and other materials. Hart was forced to retire early as a result of the scandal that erupted following public disclosure of the EPA chief's unusual living arrangements. Pruitt has denied wrongdoing, describing Hart as a personal friend from his home state of Oklahoma. In a statement, Williams & Jensen said Hart had failed to fully disclose his lobbying activities to his own firm, resulting in prior reports omitting information. Federal law requires lobbyists to file quarterly reports detailing their contacts with government officials, including the clients they were representing, what topics were discussed and how much they were paid. "Following press reports of a former member of our firm engaging in lobbying activity that had not been disclosed, we engaged outside counsel to conduct a review of relevant filings," the firm's statement said. "Following the completion of that review and the advice of counsel, today the firm filed amendments to several disclosure reports that include information that was not previously disclosed to our firm and therefore not included in the original filings." Both Pruitt and Hart have publicly denied the lobbyist had conducted any business with EPA in 2017. At a May 16 hearing before a Senate appropriations subcommittee, the embattled EPA chief erroneously insisted that Hart had not lobbied the government last year. "Steve Hart is someone that was not registered as a lobbyist in 2017," Pruitt testified. "He's a longtime associate and friend." Records showed that Hart was in fact a registered lobbyist in 2017, though at the time it had not yet been formally disclosed that he directly lobbied Pruitt's agency. Federal law makes it a crime to "knowingly and willfully" give materially false statements to Congress. EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox did not respond to requests for comment Friday night about whether Pruitt still stood by his testimony. A spokesman for Hart did not respond to phone or email Friday. Pruitt's connections to Hart have been under intense scrutiny since March, when media reports first revealed that the EPA chief had rented a luxury Capitol Hill condo from a corporation co-owned by Hart's wife for just $50 a night. Pruitt's daughter, then a White House summer intern, stayed in a second bedroom at the condo at no additional cost. On Pruitt's 2017 condo lease, a copy of which was reviewed by The Associated Press, Steven Hart's name was originally typed in as "landlord" but was scratched out. The name of his wife, health care lobbyist Vicki Hart, was scribbled in. The AP and other media outlets reported in April that Pruitt had met in his office last year with Hart on behalf of the philanthropic arm of Smithfield Foods to discuss efforts to preserve the Chesapeake Bay. The world's largest pork producer, Smithfield has been involved with efforts to clean up the bay since EPA fined the company $12.6 million in 1997 for illegally dumping hog waste into a tributary. The amended disclosure report filed Friday by Williams & Jensen acknowledges the meeting between Hart and Pruitt constituted lobbying, as did additional communications by the lobbyist with Pruitt's staff to recommend potential candidates for a science advisory board and other positions appointed by the EPA administrator. A spokeswoman for Smithfield did not respond to a request for comment Friday. The new disclosure report says Hart also lobbied EPA in 2017 on behalf of the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico about water quality and infrastructure in the wake of Hurricane Maria. A spokesman for the oversight board did not immediately respond Friday to an email seeking comment. The firm also disclosed for the first time that Hart had contact with EPA on behalf of Coca-Cola. According to the reports, Hart lobbied the agency about clean water supplies, water conservation and "environmental issues impacting the beverage industry, including hydrofluorocarbon replacement." Hydrofluorocarbons are potent greenhouse gases commonly used for refrigeration. Under the Obama administration, EPA had sought to phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons because they contribute to global warming, but the effort was stymied after industries challenged the proposed ban in court. In a statement issued Friday, Coca-Cola said the company has severed ties with Williams & Jensen. "The Coca-Cola Company is committed to the highest level of integrity in all aspects of our business, and we expect our lobbying firms to uphold that same commitment," the statement said. ——— Follow Associated Press investigative reporter Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck | |
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| 06-01-18 10:42pm - 2396 days | #790 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump can see what no one else can see. He gave a recent interview in which he says of his wife, “She’s doing great. Right there,” while gesturing toward a White House window. “She’s doing great. She’s looking at us, right there.” However, there was no one at the window. Now, Trump is showing a "Very Nice Letter" to reporters from Kim Jon Un. The letter is supposed to be inside a very large envelope that was hand-delivered by a senior North Korean official. Trump said "“That letter was a very nice letter". However, a few minutes later, Trump said: “I haven’t seen the letter yet. I purposely didn’t open the letter. I haven’t opened it. I didn’t open it in front of the director. I said, ‘Would you want me to open it?’ He said, ‘You can read it later.’” My guess is that Trump is a fine actor who seems to blur the distinction between reality and fantasy, or whatever is going through his mind. Which is why he has a problem with fake news: Fake news is whatever news Trump hears or reads, that he does not like: So it must be fake. His own news is so much better than fake news. Because it comes from his head. ------- ------- World Watch Trump Tout 'Very Nice Letter' From Kim Jong Un, Then Say He Hasn't Opened It HuffPost Mary Papenfuss,HuffPost 2 hours 27 minutes ago President Donald Trump on Friday talked warmly to reporters about the “very nice” and “very interesting” letter he received earlier in the day from North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un. “That letter was a very nice letter,” Trump said at a White House news conference. “Oh, would you like to see what was in that letter? How much? How much?” he quipped with the press. The letter was hand-delivered to the president by senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol. The two men posed with the very large envelope in the Oval Office. After Trump received the letter, he announced that the June 12 summit with North Korea was on again in Singapore. When asked if he could offer a “flavor of what the letter said,” Trump said: “It was a very interesting letter. At some point, it may be appropriate and maybe I’ll be able to give it to you, maybe.” But mere minutes later, in response to another question, the president responded: “I haven’t seen the letter yet. I purposely didn’t open the letter. I haven’t opened it. I didn’t open it in front of the director. I said, ‘Would you want me to open it?’ He said, ‘You can read it later.’” He added: “I may be in for a big surprise, folks.” Check out the president’s letter versions in the video above. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 06-01-18 05:35pm - 2396 days | #789 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Roger Stone gives up the game on Trump’s pardons It's all right out in the open. Aaron Rupar Jun 1, 2018, 3:29 pm On Thursday, President Trump issued his sixth pardon. Each of them bypassed the standard vetting process, and a number of the underlying convictions stemmed from prosecutions conducted by his perceived political enemies, such as James Comey and Preet Bharara. Trump’s most recent pardon was granted to Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative commentator and bigot who pleaded guilty in May 2014 to a campaign finance felony. In comments made to reporters and on Twitter, Trump indicated that he has little to no familiarity with the details of D’Souza’s case, but nonetheless believes he was “treated very unfairly.” Trump’s pardons are widely interpreted as signals to former aides ensnared in investigations related to his campaign who are not known to be cooperating with investigators, such as Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen. Advertisement It wouldn’t be wise for Trump — currently under investigation for obstruction of justice — to admit as much publicly. But in an interview with The Washington Post, his longtime adviser, Roger Stone, said the quiet part very loudly. “It has to be a signal to Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort and even Robert S. Mueller III: Indict people for crimes that don’t pertain to Russian collusion and this is what could happen,” Stone said. “The special counsel has awesome powers, as you know, but the president has even more awesome powers.” Trump’s pardons also serve as a signal to Stone himself. As ThinkProgress detailed last week, emails recently obtained by The Wall Street Journal indicate that Stone withheld key documents from the House Intelligence Committee pertaining to his campaign communications about WikiLeaks. CNN recently reported that Mueller is investigating Stone’s finances. Stone responded to the report with a defiant statement that vows, “I have no intention of being silenced or turning my back on President Trump.” In the wake of D’Souza’s pardon, Stone has more reason than ever to think he’ll be rewarded by Trump if he doesn’t. | |
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| 06-01-18 05:14pm - 2396 days | #788 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: Michael Cohen, man of mystery. Is Michael Cohen still the president's lawyer? Rudy Guiliani, one of Trump's lawyers, said that Cohen is no longer Trump's personal lawyer. However, Guiliani has been known to flip-flop on his statements. Sarah Sanders, White House Press Secretary, is willing to answer the question: On May 17, she said that the question had already been asked — and not answered – several times before. And until she knows more, or is authorized to speak on the matter, her position is that she's answered the question by not answering the question. That's what the President of the United States has a tendency to do: give out statements that are hard to read: Is the sky blue? Maybe yes. Maybe no. But what counts is that I am giving you an honest opinion. Go, Trump!!! --------- --------- Is Michael Cohen still the president's lawyer? Hunter Walker 8 hours ago WASHINGTON — While the FBI raid on President Trump’s longtime attorney Michael Cohen and subsequent court proceedings have received extensive press coverage, the public still doesn’t have a straight answer to a very basic question about the case. Is Cohen still the president’s lawyer? In the many media appearances he’s made since joining Trump’s legal team, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has given conflicting accounts of Cohen’s status. In an appearance on “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” on May 6, Giuliani flatly said Cohen was no longer Trump’s personal lawyer. “Of course not,” Giuliani said. He went on to suggest it would be inappropriate for Cohen to remain Trump’s attorney amid his own legal drama. “It would be a conflict right now for him to be the president’s attorney,” Giuliani said of Cohen. But Giuliani was less definitive on May 11 when he told Politico that Cohen isn’t the president’s lawyer anymore “as far as we know.” “And there’d be nothing for him to do right now,” he added. Though he’s not normally press shy, Giuliani hasn’t responded to multiple questions about Cohen from Yahoo News. Given the confusion, Bloomberg White House Correspondent Shannon Pettypiece tried to ask about the matter at press secretary Sarah Sanders’s briefing on May 17. She began by noting that the question had already been asked — and not answered – several times before. “I know we’ve asked this a few times, but …” Pettypiece began. Sanders cut her off. “That’s OK,” Sanders said. “That’s kind of what we do here, ask the same question over and over and over again. But Sanders still didn’t answer. “Can you say yet when Michael Cohen stopped being the president’s personal lawyer?” Pettypiece asked. “I’m not going to get into anything on that matter. You’d have to reach out to the president’s outside counsel,” Sanders responded. Pettypiece was incredulous. “But you still haven’t been able to answer that,” Pettypiece said. Sanders ignored her and moved on to another questioner. Since then, Yahoo News has tried to ask multiple members of Trump’s legal team whether Cohen remains the president’s attorney. Like Giuliani, they have not responded. Cohen and his lawyers also haven’t answered the question despite multiple attempts to press them on it. Cohen has been spending almost all his time dealing with his own legal situation, as a target of an investigation by federal prosecutors in New York. The president’s legal team for the special counsel investigation into the 2016 campaign includes Jay Sekulow, Emmet Flood and White House counsel Don McGahn. Giuliani appears to function primarily as a sounding board and confidante for the president and a defender in the media. Cohen spent more than a decade working for Trump. In that time, he earned a reputation as one of the president’s fiercest loyalists. During the 2016 campaign, Cohen had no official role on the campaign, but he served as an outside adviser and television surrogate who took a special interest in Trump’s minority outreach. The FBI search of Cohen’s office and home was part of a criminal investigation into the lawyer’s personal businesses, payments to two women who alleged having affairs with Trump, and his efforts to build a Trump-branded skyscraper in Moscow. Cohen was working to build a Trump Tower in the Russian capital up until at least May 2016, just as Trump was clinching the Republican nomination and far later than Cohen initially acknowledged to congressional investigators. Cohen has not been charged with a crime. The material seized in the FBI raid is being reviewed by lawyers for Cohen, Trump and Trump’s business to flag items that may fall under attorney-client privilege. A court-appointed special master is overseeing the process. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood, who is presiding over the case, held a hearing at a federal courthouse in New York City to discuss the progress. While the lawyer representing adult film actress Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels) was the focus of much of the hearing, discussions of the documents showed the enormous scope of the materials the FBI took from Cohen. Cohen’s attorneys said they have gone through about 1.3 million of the 3.7 million files they received from the government. Cohen attorney Todd Harrison said this included information taken from “13 separate mobile devices” that belonged to Cohen and 19 different “digital devices” including thumb drives and hard drives. Cohen’s team asked to have until mid-July to go through the items. Wood said she wanted the review concluded by June 15. Harrison pleaded for more time, saying Cohen’s team was “moving heaven and earth” to complete the process as quickly as possible. He claimed to have people working around the clock, sleeping in his office, and even one associate who developed “a tremor” while going through the documents and went back to work the next day. Wood was unmoved, noting it was Cohen’s representatives who requested a special master in place of the standard procedure in these cases: authorizing a government “taint team” to review possibly privileged documents in isolation from the prosecutors actually working on the case. She said Cohen’s lawyers would have until June 15 and that the “balance” of any material not reviewed by then would be given to a taint team. At the hearing, prosecutors also revealed they still have “three items” from the raid to hand over to Cohen’s team. The remaining materials include two BlackBerries the government hasn’t been able to open and the contents of a paper shredder that investigators are working to piece together. | |
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| 06-01-18 04:53pm - 2396 days | #787 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: President Trump needs to give this teacher a presidential pardon. And give the man a Presidential Medal of Honor for teaching kids life lessons, while risking his career for the sake of his students. The man fed a puppy to a snapping turtle in class. If any students were horrified, it taught the students that life can be cruel. Trump understands this. He practices tough love on immigrants and their children. --------- --------- News Teacher charged after feeding puppy to turtle in class By Associated Press June 1, 2018 | 5:41pm Modal Trigger Teacher charged after feeding puppy to turtle in class Robert Crosland Preston School District 201 PRESTON, Idaho — An eastern Idaho teacher accused of feeding a sick puppy to a snapping turtle in front of several students has been charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty. Preston Junior High School science teacher Robert Crosland was charged Friday in Franklin County Court. He faces up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine if convicted. The Idaho attorney general’s office handled the investigation after Franklin County Prosecutor Vic Pearson cited a conflict of interest. Several parents came forward to say Crosland fed the puppy to the turtle on March 7. Several weeks later, state officials seized the turtle and euthanized it as a non-native species. | |
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| 06-01-18 04:46pm - 2396 days | #786 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: EPA chief spends $1,560 for 12 customized fountain pens. His office says this is merely following protocol, as gifts for dignitaries. If true, no big thing. But--since many statements made by the EPA regarding its EPA chief have turned out to be false, it would be nice to see what past EPA chiefs have spent on customized fountain pens. Was the average amount close to $130 per pen? Or did the office even give out customized pens as gifts? Enquiring minds want to know. Especially since EPA statements need to be fact-checked, under the current administration. ------- ------- News Pruitt spent over $1,500 on customized fountain pens By Chris Perez June 1, 2018 | 5:48pm Pruitt spent over $1,500 on customized fountain pens EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt spent $1,560 on a set of customized fountain pens — each of which cost taxpayers $130, according to agency documents. The order was processed by a shop in Washington called Tiny Jewel Box, which describes itself as the capital’s “premier destination for fine jewelry and watches.” Documents obtained by the Sierra Club outline the request and feature an exchange between staffers who helped push it through. “The cost of the Qty. 12 Fountain Pens will be around $1,560.00,” one staffer wrote an email on Aug. 14 to Millan Hupp, Pruitt’s scheduling director. “All the other items total cost is around $1,670.00 which these items are in process,” they said. “Please advise.” Hupp responded in an email later that day, according to the documents, which were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. “Yes, please order,” he said. “Thank you.” The purchase is just the latest in a long line of controversial expenditures reported about Pruitt this year. The EPA chief has come under fire for using taxpayer money to fund first-class travel, among other things. His office defended the pen order in a statement Friday to the Washington Post, saying it had been done in the past. “[The purchases] were made for the purpose of serving as gifts to the Administrator’s foreign counterparts and dignitaries upon his meeting with them,” said EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox. “This adheres to the same protocol of former EPA Administrators and were purchased using funds budgeted for such a purpose.” | |
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| 06-01-18 08:17am - 2397 days | #785 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The man who called police was in the right. He knows that black people don't know how to play golf. So what were they doing on the golf course? Holding up play, that's what. And the man was brave enough, honest enough, to tell the cops that the black people didn't have any weapons, except for the mouth of one of the black women. ---------- ---------- CBS/AP June 1, 2018, 6:56 AM Man who called police on black golfers: No weapons involved "other than her mouth" YORK, Pa. -- A man who called police on a group of black women golfers accused of playing too slowly at a Pennsylvania golf club denied to dispatchers that he was acting out of racism. Grandview Golf Club in York issued an apology following the April 21 incident. The women were club members and have described the experience, which began at the second hole, as demeaning and discriminatory. In one of two recordings of 911 calls to police posted by the York Daily Record, the caller says the group was "holding everybody up" and one of the women accused the golf club of racism. The caller told a dispatcher, "We have a tough situation here with a group of golfers that decides they don't want to abide by the rules." Asked if the gofers had any weapons, Chronister said: "It's even worse than that, but anyway I can't ..." He then said no weapons were involved "other than her mouth." Normally clubs don't allow groups larger than four. Sandra Thompson previously told the York Daily Record she was the last member to arrive, and checked with a clerk to see if it was OK to join the four others, knowing a fifth member might be an issue. The clerk said it was fine, said Thompson, an attorney and president of the York branch of the NAACP. The York Daily Record reports that Chronister told the 911 dispatcher that he knew Thompson. "She ran for judge. She's an attorney. She knows it all," Chronister said. "She totally thinks we're being racist. We're not being racist. We're being golf course management that has to have play moving a certain way." But Thompson disputed that, the newspaper reported. "He saw a group of black women and told them to get off the course," she said. "He racially profiled us. Would he have called the cops on a white group of golfers? Would he have done that to a white lawyer and judge candidate he knew? No." No charges were filed, but the confrontation came amid two other similar incidents. A Starbucks employee called police on two black men in Philadelphia because they hadn't bought anything in the store. Police handcuffed and arrested them. And employees of an LA Fitness in New Jersey wrongly accused a black member and his guest of not paying to work out and called police.  2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. | |
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| 06-01-18 07:27am - 2397 days | #784 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Once Trump leaves the White House, he can move to Doraville, GA, where he can fix the city's finances. Maybe he can come up with a better plan than arresting the citizens for unsightly properties. And he could even build a Trump Tower of Heaven in the center of the town, to celebrate both Trump and the Spirit of Democracy in GA. --------- --------- REGULATION 21 hours ago Georgia city sued by fed-up residents over 'ridiculous' fines for chipped paint, driveway cracks By Kaitlyn Schallhorn | Fox News Hilda Brucker has signed onto a lawsuit with other Doraville, Georgia, residents to challenge the city's fines and fees system. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of Doraville “using its law enforcement and municipal court system for revenue generation.” Hilda Brucker has signed onto a lawsuit with other Doraville, Georgia, residents to challenge the city's fines and fees system. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of Doraville “using its law enforcement and municipal court system for revenue generation.” (Institute for Justice) Hilda Brucker went down to the municipal court in October 2016 after receiving a phone call. She hadn’t received a formal summons or known of any wrongdoing; instead, she thought she needed to clear a ticket. But when she arrived at the Doraville, Georgia, courthouse, Brucker said she was placed before a judge and prosecutor who accused her of violating city code -- because of cracks in her driveway. She was fined $100 and sentenced to six months criminal probation, even though this was the first time she was made aware her driveway was considered a problem. Eventually the charges were dropped, but Brucker said Doraville “went too far” in going after her for the driveway’s appearance. hilda Hilda Brucker said her experience in court over cracks in her driveway was "horrifying." (Institute for Justice) “It was just absolutely horrifying for someone like me who never even had a detention in high school,” Brucker told Fox News on Wednesday. Brucker is part of an Institute for Justice (IJ) lawsuit against Doraville, a town of about 10,000 people just northeast of Atlanta. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of Doraville “using its law enforcement and municipal court system for revenue generation.” The suit takes aim at the government's rampant fines over seemingly minor code infractions. About 25 percent of Doraville’s operating budget is reliant on fees and fines, according to IJ, a nonprofit law firm. From August 2016 to August 2017, it raked in about $3.8 million in fines, according to IJ's lawsuit. “It’s unconstitutional because it creates a financial incentive for the city government … to ticket people,” Josh House, an IJ attorney on the case, told Fox News. He said people in the town were being “punished” for the condition of their property by having to “fund the Doraville city government.” The lawsuit also contends that "prosecutors and law enforcement have a financial interest in convicting the defendant," as they have an "incentive" to ticket and prosecute because they are paid from Doraville's revenue. jeffrey Jeff Thornton was fined $1,000 and threatened with an arrest warrant because he had a "disorganized" pile of wood in his backyard. (Institute for Justice) Brucker isn’t the only Doraville citizen to fall “victim” to its fees. Jeff Thornton, a neighbor, was fined $1,000 and threatened with an arrest warrant because he had a “disorganized” pile of wood in his backyard, according to IJ. Thornton told the nonprofit that he used the wood for cooking or building birdhouses. CITY’S ‘NITPICKY’ FINES FOR TREE STUMPS, BLINDS TRIGGER CIVIL RIGHTS LAWSUIT The fine and charges against Thornton were also eventually dropped. But, the lawsuit said, he "lives under the threat of being ticketed again by Doraville code enforcement and law enforcement and convicted by Doraville's municipal court personnel." Aside from residents, drivers passing through Doraville -- many on their way to or from Atlanta -- have also faced excessive ticketing, according to IJ. Janice Craig was given a $215 ticket for holding up traffic when she attempted to switch lanes while driving through town. A 2014 Atlanta Journal-Constitution report called Doraville one of the "most aggressive police forces" in Georgia when it comes to traffic tickets. The newspaper reported the city collects more fines per capita than anywhere else in the metro Atlanta area. “Every city is unique,” Shawn Gillen, then the city manager, told the Journal-Constitution. “It’s probably very difficult to do comparisons. But we feel our level of traffic enforcement is extremely reasonable relative to the traffic counts that we have.” A spokesperson for Doraville did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. “Am I going to cross the border into this town and be subject to a rapacious law enforcement? Is driving through Doraville something I can afford today?” - Institute for Justice Attorney Josh House Doraville’s policies “place a huge burden on not only the homeowners but those who are in the area driving and have to think about, ‘Am I going to cross the border into this town and be subject to a rapacious law enforcement?’” House said. “Is driving through Doraville something I can afford today?” Doraville ranks sixth in the nation for the amount of revenue it brings in from fines and fees as a proportion of its total revenue, according to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. That study also said, as of 2012, the median income was $43,311 and more than 30 percent of the population lived in poverty. Brucker, a freelance writer, said most of the citizens in the town are working-class or single women, such as herself. House said he hopes the town of Doraville will change its policy, but said a lawsuit may be necessary for that to happen. BIKINI BARISTAS HIT WITH COURT BRIEF DEMANDING THEY COVER UP “I didn’t want it to happen to me again, and I didn’t want it to happen to anyone else either,” Brucker said of the lawsuit. Aside from her driveway, Brucker also said the prosecutor tried to nail her for some chipped paint near a water drain on her house and a small patch of what appeared to be weeds in her yard. The prosecutor brought photos of the supposed neglect to her house to the judge, but those complaints were dismissed, she said. In a video for IJ, Brucker called the actions taken against her "ridiculous and ludicrous." "No one ever asked me to fix the driveway. This is a very old driveway," she said. "Who does that?" Nearly two years after she was brought before a judge for the condition of her driveway, Brucker said it remains unchanged. Kaitlyn Schallhorn is a Reporter for Fox News. Follow her on Twitter @K_Schallhorn. | |
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| 06-01-18 07:14am - 2397 days | #783 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump calls for comedian Samantha Bee to be fired for her vulgar comments about Trump's daughter. But Trump has made many more vulgar comments about most of his enemies. So why shouldn't Trump be fired, as well? Except that Trump has such a big ego, he feels he is above the law. And he can always lie his way out of any situation. Except maybe Trump will be impeached, for graft and other crimes. ------- ------- Trump calls for Samantha Bee to be fired Dylan Stableford 21 minutes ago President Trump on Friday called for the firing of Samantha Bee, the host of TBS’ “Full Frontal,” over her vulgar comments about his daughter, Ivanka Trump. “Why aren’t they firing no talent Samantha Bee for the horrible language used on her low ratings show?” the president tweeted. “A total double standard but that’s O.K., we are Winning, and will be doing so for a long time to come!” Bee called Ivanka Trump a “feckless c***” for refusing to speak out against her father’s immigration policies. The remark drew widespread criticism from both sides of the political aisle, something the White House, which called Bee’s language “vile and vicious,” apparently did not notice. “The collective silence by the left and its media allies is appalling,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. “Her disgusting comments and show are not fit for broadcast, and executives at Time Warner and TBS must demonstrate that such explicit profanity about female members of this administration will not be condoned on its network.” Bee apologized on Thursday afternoon. “I would like to sincerely apologize to Ivanka Trump and to my viewers for using an expletive on my show to describe her last night,” Bee said. “It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it.” TBS issued a statement in support of Bee’s apology. “Samantha Bee has taken the right action in apologizing for the vile and inappropriate language she used about Ivanka Trump last night,” the network said. “Those words should not have been aired. It was our mistake too, and we regret it.” The controversy came a day after Roseanne Barr was fired by ABC for making a racist comment about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. Samantha Bee accepts an award at the Television Academy Honors on Thursday in Los Angeles. (Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images) Bee further addressed the controversy in a speech at while accepting an award at the Television Academy Honors in Hollywood on Thursday night. “Every week I strive to show the world as I see it, unfiltered. Sometimes I should probably have a filter. I accept that. I take it seriously when I get it right and I do take responsibility when I get it wrong,” Bee said, according to IndieWire. “Stories about 1,500 missing unaccompanied migrant children flooded the news cycle over the weekend. So last night we aired a segment on the atrocious treatment of migrant children by this administration and past administrations. Sometimes even the ones who look best in swim trunks do bad jobs with things. Our piece attracted controversy of the worst kind.” She continued: “We spent the day wrestling with the repercussions of one bad word, when we all should have spent the day incensed that as a nation we are wrenching children from their parents and treating people legally seeking asylum as criminals. If we are okay with that then really, who are we?” Trump responded to ABC’s firing of Barr by twice noting he never received an apology from the head of ABC’s parent company, Disney chief executive Bob Iger. “Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that ‘ABC does not tolerate comments like those’ made by Roseanne Barr,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday. “Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC. Maybe I just didn’t get the call?” The president repeated his call on Thursday morning. “Iger, where is my call of apology?” Trump tweeted. He did not denounce Barr’s slur. At the White House, Sanders told reporters that Trump was “pointing out the hypocrisy in the media” before reading a lengthy statement citing examples of alleged bias. “Where was Bob Iger’s apology to White House staff for Jemele Hill calling the president and anyone associated with him a white supremacist, to Christians around the world for Joy Behar calling Christianity a mental illness?” Sanders said. “Where was the apology for Kathy Griffin going on a profane rant on ‘The View’ after a photo showed her holding the president’s decapitated head? And where was the apology from Bob Iger for ESPN hiring Keith Olbermann after his numerous expletive-laced tweets attacking the president as a Nazi and even expanding Olbermann’s role after that attack against the president’s family? This is a double standard.” Trump, himself, has a long history of using vulgar and offensive language, both in public and private. But he has rarely apologized. After Trump was caught on the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape bragging about forcing himself on women, he issued a videotaped statement. “I’ve said some things that I regret and the words released today on this more-than-a-decade-old video are one of them,” Trump said. “I was wrong and I apologize.” | |
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| 06-01-18 04:45am - 2397 days | #782 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
This guy running for Congress is making a mistake. Instead of running as an independent, he should be a proud member of the Republican party, which is the current home of Donald Trump. The guy seems like he would be comfortable supporting Donald Trump's policies: The guy is a pedophile. He also bragged he repeatedly raped his late ex-wife. According to Larson’s campaign manifesto, his platform as a “quasi-neoreactionary libertarian” candidate includes protecting gun ownership rights, establishing free trade and protecting “benevolent white supremacy,” as well as legalizing incestuous marriage and child pornography. In the manifesto, Larson called Nazi leader Adolf Hitler a “white supremacist hero.” He urged Congress to repeal the Violence Against Women Act, adding, “We need to switch to a system that classifies women as property, initially of their fathers and later of their husbands.” He also showed sympathy for men who identify as involuntary celibates, or incels, suggesting it is unfair that they “are forced to pay taxes for schools, welfare, and other support for other men’s children.” ------------- ------------- Congressional Candidate In Virginia Admits He’s A Pedophile HuffPost Jesselyn Cook,HuffPost 10 hours ago Nathan Larson is running for Congress as an independent in Virginia. In an interview with HuffPost, he was open about his pedophilia. Nathan Larson, a 37-year-old accountant from Charlottesville, Virginia, is running for Congress as an independent candidate in his native state. He is also a pedophile, as he admitted to HuffPost on Thursday, who has bragged in website posts about raping his late ex-wife. In a phone call, Larson confirmed that he created the now-defunct websites suiped.org and incelocalypse.today ― chat rooms that served as gathering places for pedophiles and violence-minded misogynists like himself. HuffPost contacted Larson after confirming that his campaign website shared an IP address with these forums, among others. His sites were terminated by their domain host on Tuesday. On the phone, he was open about his pedophilia and seemingly unfazed about his long odds of attaining government office. “A lot of people are tired of political correctness and being constrained by it,” he said. “People prefer when there’s an outsider who doesn’t have anything to lose and is willing to say what’s on a lot of people’s minds.” When asked whether he’s a pedophile or just writes about pedophilia, he said, “It’s a mix of both. When people go over the top there’s a grain of truth to what they say.” Asked whether there was a “grain of truth” in his essay about father-daughter incest and another about raping his ex-wife repeatedly, he said yes, offering that plenty of women have rape fantasies. According to Larson’s campaign manifesto, his platform as a “quasi-neoreactionary libertarian” candidate includes protecting gun ownership rights, establishing free trade and protecting “benevolent white supremacy,” as well as legalizing incestuous marriage and child pornography. In the manifesto, Larson called Nazi leader Adolf Hitler a “white supremacist hero.” He urged Congress to repeal the Violence Against Women Act, adding, “We need to switch to a system that classifies women as property, initially of their fathers and later of their husbands.” He also showed sympathy for men who identify as involuntary celibates, or incels, suggesting it is unfair that they “are forced to pay taxes for schools, welfare, and other support for other men’s children.” Using the pseudonyms Leucosticte and Lysander, Larson frequently participated in conversations on his own message boards, he confirmed to HuffPost. Larson posted as As Lysander on suiped.org, a forum for “suicidal pedophiles,” Larson wrote numerous posts endorsing child rape and other forms of sexual abuse. “Why doesn’t every pedo just focus on making money so they can get a pedo-wife and then either impregnate her with some fucktoys or adopt some fucktoys?” he wrote on the platform in October. “That would accommodate both those who are and aren’t into incest. And of course, the adoption process lets you pick a boy or a girl.” Larson has a 3-year-old daughter who lives with relatives. He told HuffPost that he relinquished his parental rights during a custody battle. His ex-wife got a court-ordered restraining order against him in 2015 before committing suicide. He has since remarried, he says, and is now living in Catlett, Virginia. Larson used the moniker “Leucosticte” on incelocalypse.today ― a forum for incels who are pedophiles that was removed this week after the website Babe contacted the domain host. There, he identified as a “hebephilic rapist,” noting that he’s not a typical incel because he’d had sex by raping his ex-wife. According to the site, which HuffPost viewed before it was taken down, “incelocalypse” refers to “the day we make the jailbaits our rape-slaves.” (The term “jailbait” is slang for a person who is under the legal age of consent for sex.) Larson posted as HuffPost did not view any posts explicitly stating that he has engaged in sexual activity with minors, although he repeatedly expressed a desire to have sex with infants and children, including his own daughter. In the phone call, Larson said that the word “pedophile” is “vague” and “just a label,” adding that it’s “normal” for men to be attracted to underage women. He said he did not commit any crimes. In a 3,300-word essay on incelocalypse.today, titled “Here’s How to Psyche Yourself Up to Feel Entitled to Rape,” Larson tells other members: “Don’t forget: feminism is the problem, and rape is the solution.” On the platform, he also advocated for father-daughter marriage, killing women and raping virgins. Larson is less worried about his run for Congress than about his sites coming down. He told HuffPost that the termination of his websites is an affront to his freedom of speech and that he’s going to try to get them hosted elsewhere. Not that it’ll matter ― there are still plenty of forums where incels and other such communities can congregate. The removal of Larson’s sites caused an uproar on incels.me, a separate, much larger forum for incels. Larson’s political ambitions span more than a decade. He first ran for Congress in Virginia’s 1st District in 2008 on what he described as an “anarcho-capitalist” platform. That same year, he sent a letter to the Secret Service threatening to kill the president, which landed him in federal prison for 14 months and barred him from seeking public office. But in 2016, then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) restored voting and other civil rights to thousands of felons, allowing Larson to campaign yet again. In 2017 he ran in Virginia’s House of Delegates District 31 and secured less than 2 percent of the vote. Now he is gunning for a seat in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District. On websites, Nathan Larson, 37, has advocated for rape, pedophilia, incest and kidnapping. Until it was pulled down, Larson’s site Nathania.org, a wiki page with details about his latest candidacy, featured posts titled “A Man Should Be Allowed to Choke His Wife to Death as Punishment for Cutting Her Hair Short Without Permission, or Other Acts of Gross Insubordination,” “Advantages of Father-Daughter Incest” and “The Justifiability of an Incel’s Kidnapping a Girl and Keeping Her as His Rape-Slave for Sex and Babymaking.” Wiki pages can be edited by other people, but Larson confirmed he wrote these posts as well as several other disturbing entries. In “Let’s Define What Rape Is,” a 3,000-word essay posted on Nathania.org as well as other incel sites, Larson wrote: “Women are objects, to be taken care of by men like any other property, and for powerful men to insert themselves into as it pleases them, and as they believe will be in women’s own interests. In most cases, their interests are aligned, as long as the man is strong. Female sex-slaves actually get a much better deal than animals, because in most cases, they are allowed to reproduce, unlike animals raised for meat or companionship.” When asked what his constituents would think about his pedophiliac writings, he said, “People are open-minded.” He continued, “A lot of people who disagreed with someone like Trump … might vote for them anyway just because the establishment doesn’t like them.” This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 06-01-18 01:46am - 2397 days | #781 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Do cops have the right to shoot to kill? Of course they do. Which is why it's better to be safe than sorry. A cop gives you an order, even if he is beating on you or is fucking unreasonable, your best course of action is to stand there or lie there and take it. Here is a case where a cop shoots and kills a man in his own garage. The man had an unloaded gun in his back pocket. But the man did not try to draw the gun. Instead, it's unclear what reason the cop had for shooting the man. Self-defense? Nothing is explained in how the cop was being threatened. However, the jury awarded the man's family $4. $1 for each child the man had. $1 for funeral expenses for the man. That is just an insult to the man's family. First, the cop shoots and kills a man for no explained reason. Then the jury gives the cop a big cheer for doing his duty. -------- -------- Jury Awards $4 to Family of Man Fatally Shot by Sheriff's Deputy in His Own Garage Newsweek Chantal Da Silva,Newsweek 19 hours ago A federal court jury has awarded the family of a man who was fatally shot by a Sheriff's Deputy in the garage of his own home $4 in a wrongful death suit. Gregory Hill Jr, a 30-year-old black man, was fatally shot by Christopher Newman, a white deputy with the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office, at his home in Fort Pierce, Florida ,in January 2014 after Newman responded to a noise complaint about loud music, TCPalm.com reported. st lucie St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara said he was 'pleased' to see a 'difficult and tragic incident come to a conclusion.' St Lucie County Sheriff's Office Newman and his partner, Deputy Edward Lopez, had reportedly knocked on Hill's garage door to investigate the noise complaint. When the garage door eventually opened, Hill was standing by it with his left hand on the door and his right hand by his side. It is still unclear what exactly happened in the seconds that unfolded, as Newman drew his gun and fired four times toward Hill as the garage door started to go down. However, when a SWAT team arrived, they found Hill dead. He had been shot three times, including once in the head. Toxicology reports had shown Hill had been intoxicated at the time of the incident and the SWAT team found a gun in the 30-year-old's back pocket, but it was not loaded, TCPalm reported. On the second anniversary of Hill's death, the 30-year-old's mother, Viola Bryant, launched a lawsuit for wrongful death. Her battle for justice ended last Thursday, when the jury came to the conclusion that Newman had not used excessive force in the incident following 10 hours of deliberation. The jury did find that St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara had been negligent in his role, but determined him to be liable by just 1 percent, the New York Times reported. Hill, the jury said, was responsible for 99 percent of the negligence in the case. As a result, the jury awarded $4 in damages to Hill's family, with $1 going towards funeral expenses and $1 going towards each of Hill's three children for their loss. The family's lawyer, John M. Philips told the Times he would have preferred the jury to have found no negligence than award such insignificant damages, calling the award "hurtful." "I think they were trying to insult the case," Philips said. "Why go there with the $1? That was the hurtful part." Mascara said that his office was "pleased to see this difficult and tragic incident come to a conclusion," in a statement posted on Facebook. "Deputy Newman was placed in a very difficult situation and like so many fellow law enforcement officers must do every day, he made the best decision he could for the safety of his partner, himself and the public given the circumstances he faced," Mascara said, adding: "We appreciate the jury's time and understanding." This article was first written by Newsweek --------------------- HuffPost Bodycam Video Released Of New Jersey Cop Punching Woman At The Beach HuffPost Hayley Miller,HuffPost 17 hours ago New Jersey police released bodycam video Wednesday that shows an officer pinning a beachgoer to the ground and punching her in the head, days after cellphone footage of her arrest went viral over the weekend. The nine-minute clip features graphic footage of Wildwood police apprehending Emily Weinman, 20, while she sat on the beach with her daughter, her daughter’s father and a friend. Police officers asked Weinman to breathe into a breath analysis device after they found alcohol near her beach blankets. She apparently passed the test and said the booze belonged to her aunt. Weinman was apprehended after she refused to provide her last name to the officers. “You thought we were drinking so now you’re mad because your Breathalyzer came up negative,” Weinman told the two cops as they attempted to write her a ticket. “You don’t need my last name.” “OK, that’s it ― I’m done with you,” one police officer can be heard saying in the video before asking his partner for handcuffs. “You’re about to get dropped,” the officer tells Weinman when she walks away and tells him to leave her alone. Weinman puts her hands up and moves forward as the cop approaches her, but it’s unclear from the video who initiates the contact. The video cuts out momentarily, then shows Weinman screaming as the police officer pulls her to the ground and grabs her hair. “They’re choking me!” Weinman yells while trying to free herself from the officer. “That’s it,” the cop says before punching her in the head several times. The officers involved in the arrest were patrolmen Thomas Cannon, John Hillman and Robert Jordan, according to NJ.com. It is not clear which officer hit Weinman. Weinman was handcuffed, put into a police vehicle, and charged with two counts of aggravated assault on an officer and possession of alcohol as a minor. In the video, the arresting officer can be heard explaining the situation to his colleagues: I go to stop her for ... underage drinking. She says she’s 20. She had Twisted Teas. She wouldn’t give me her last name, so I said, ‘Hey, if you’re not going to give me your information, you’re going to be locked up.’ She tried walking away from me. Once she tried walking away from me, I tried grabbing her. She tried kicking at us so I slammed her on the ground. She kicked him and then I hit her a couple times. And then I put her in cuffs and locked her up. Wildwood Police Chief Robert Regalbuto defended the officers’ actions. “From what I see on the video and only on the video, from not even talking to the officers, I think they did a decent job,” Regalbuto told NJ.com. “I think we could have done a better job at trying to explain to her, but it didn’t appear Ms. Weinman wanted to hear what we had to say.” The officers have been placed on administrative duty while Wildwood and county prosecutors investigate the incident, reported The New York Post. A representative for the Wildwood Police Department did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment. An onlooker captured cellphone footage of the arrest and tweeted it on Saturday. It had been viewed more than 6 million times as of Thursday morning. This story has been updated to include more detail about the actions seen in the video. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Edited on Jun 01, 2018, 01:49am | |
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| 05-31-18 07:49am - 2398 days | #780 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump is giving out pardons. Is there a limit on how many pardons a president can issue? My guess is that Trump is holding back pardons for his ex-aides who will be convicted of crimes under the Meuller probe. And maybe pardon(s) for Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, and Trump's own children, if they are convicted of any crimes. -------- -------- Trump announces pardon for provocateur Dinesh D’Souza Laina Yost 15 minutes ago Donald Trump, Dinesh D’Souza. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images, Evan Vucci/AP) President Trump announced Thursday on Twitter that he plans to pardon Dinesh D’Souza today, a controversial conservative pundit and provocateur who was convicted of violating federal campaign finance laws. “Will be giving a Full Pardon to Dinesh D’Souza today. He was treated very unfairly by our government!” Trump tweeted. D’Souza told Yahoo News he appreciated the move. “Obama and his stooges tried to destroy my American dream and faith in America. Trump has fully restored both. I’m very grateful,” he said. In 2014, D’Souza was sentenced to five years’ probation after he was convicted for illegal campaign donations to Republican candidate Wendy Long in 2012. D’Souza served the first eight months of his sentence in a community confinement center. Long lost her race against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. D’Souza has a long history of inflammatory remarks. Recently, he mocked the student survivors of the Parkland, Fla., mass shooting after Tallahassee lawmakers voted down a bill to ban assault weapons. “Worst news since their parents told them to get summer jobs,” he tweeted. (He apologized for the tweet but didn’t delete it.) Among other things, D’Souza also falsely claimed that Adolf Hitler was not anti-gay. He has also propagated a false conspiracy theory accusing George Soros of being “collection boy for Hitler.” The comment is similar to tweets made recently by Roseanne Barr, whose TV show was cancelled as a result. “Could it be that the organizer of the #Charlottesville rally is a left-wing fascist pretending to be a right-winger?” he said on Twitter. Trump has also issued controversial pardons to former Arizona Sheriff Joe Apaio, who defied a court order to stop detaining people suspected to have immigrated illegally to the U.S., and to Scooter Libby, who was convicted of leaking a CIA officer’s identity. Additional reporting by Alexander Nazaryan. | |
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| 05-30-18 04:11pm - 2398 days | #779 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: President Trump has the keen eyes of an eagle. He can see things no reporter can see. ----------- ----------- Melania Trump dismisses conspiracy theories, says she's 'feeling great' Yahoo Lifestyle Elise Solé,Yahoo Lifestyle 1 hour 11 minutes ago Melania Trump is squashing conspiracy theories that have swirled in the three weeks that she’s been absent from the public eye. “I see the media is working overtime speculating where I am & what I’m doing,” Trump, 48, tweeted Wednesday. “Rest assured, I’m here at the @Whitehouse w my family, feeling great, & working hard on behalf of children & the American people!” Trump hasn’t been seen in public since May 10 in Maryland, when she and the president welcomed home three American detainees from their captivity in North Korea. Four days later, she underwent an embolization procedure for a benign kidney condition, spending that week recuperating at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Still, Trump hasn’t been completely absent — in a now-deleted May 19 tweet, President Trump wrote that his wife “Melanie” was doing “really well” and had returned home. On Tuesday, a White House representative told NBC News, “She has had several meetings … and will continue to do so this week. We are focusing on her initiatives, and also some longer-term planning for events.” And Melania Trump’s spokesperson Stephanie Grisham told CNN that all the public speculation was “just more silly nonsense.” Plus, Trump herself has been active on Twitter — praising the hospital, thanking a Navy SEAL who received the Medal of Honor at the White House, acknowledging the victims of the deadly Santa Fe school shooting, and noting Memorial Day. Still, suspicion was stirred on social media. Some wondered whether the first lady had been hospitalized in the first place, due to procedure logistics that typically allow patients to return home that same day. Many were convinced that Trump had moved back to New York City to prep for divorce after long-time rumors of a split, fueled by the first lady’s seemingly cold body language toward her husband. And some chalked up her absence as another example of her private tendencies. On Friday, the president told White House reporters of his wife, “She’s doing great. Right there,” while gesturing toward a White House window. “She’s doing great. She’s looking at us, right there.” However, there was no one at the window. | |
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| 05-30-18 03:25pm - 2398 days | #289 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
cosmid.net I think it a softcore amateur site. | |
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| 05-30-18 12:15pm - 2398 days | #778 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders says Trump too busy to comment on Roseanne Barr's firing. Trump has bigger issues that are taking his time. But Trump proves Sarah Sanders wrong, by taking the time to tweet that ABC (who fired Barr) was unfair to Trump, and never apologized to Trump. So ABC (by implication) has no right to fire Barr. --------- --------- Trump weighs in on Roseanne: Where's my apology from ABC? Dylan Stableford 1 hour 31 minutes ago President Trump on Wednesday responded to ABC’s firing of Roseanne Barr over a tweet that made a racist slur against former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. And, true to form, the president made it about him. “Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that ‘ABC does not tolerate comments like those’ made by Roseanne Barr,” Trump tweeted, referring to Disney chief Iger. “Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC. Maybe I just didn’t get the call?” It’s unclear what statements Trump was referring to. His tweet came less than a day after White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the president was too busy to comment on Barr. ABC Entertainment canceled “Roseanne” on Tuesday after Barr, in a now-deleted tweet, referred to Jarrett, who is African-American, as the offspring of the “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes.” In another tweet, Barr called billionaire Democratic donor and a Holocaust survivor George Soros “a Nazi” who “turned in his fellow Jews 2 be murdered in concentration camps & stole their wealth.” Discredited conspiracy theories portraying Soros — who is Jewish and was 9 years old when World War II began — as a Nazi collaborator have become right-wing internet staples. Barr later apologized for her tweet about Jarrett, suggesting the sleep aid Ambien was to blame. The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., retweeted two of Barr’s tweets about Soros, including the false “Nazi” claim. ABC had been praised by critics for bringing back “Roseanne” — a show that featured a Trump supporter as its lead character. The president, who took credit for the successful reboot and even called Barr to congratulate her, did not mention her firing at his rally in Nashville Tuesday night. On Air Force One en route to the speech, Sanders told reporters that Trump was too focused on his upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to comment on the show’s cancellation. “That’s not what the president is looking at,” Sanders said. “That’s not what he’s spending his time on. And I think that we have a lot bigger things going on in the country right now, certainly, that the president is spending his time on.” | |
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| 05-30-18 08:31am - 2399 days | #777 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: Why are the police investigating this? The cop and his opponent pulled into the parking lot of a gentleman's sports club. Which proves they are both gentleman. So if they want to have a duel, the police should have the good manners to stay away from what does not concern them. Instead, the police say the cop who was shot, was only defending himself by shooting the other man. And if a bystander was also shot, they have to investigate who shot her. If she was shot by the other man, that other man will almost certainly face additional charges. But the other man, instead of being presumed innocent (as the cop is presumed innocent), is facing charges. By the way: if the female bystander was shot by the cop, it was only the cop defending himself. So even if the cop shot the female bystander, it would be almost impossible for the cop to be charged and convicted of attempted murder, because cops are shielded from personal liability in shootings (in the real world). ------------- ------------- Police and Law Enforcement 5 hours ago Off-duty Texas police officer shot 6 times after road rage incident, officials say Travis Fedschun By Travis Fedschun | Fox News An off-duty San Antonio police officer was shot 6 times during a road rage incident, officials said. An off-duty San Antonio Police Office was shot six times after a road rage incident turned into a shootout in the parking lot of a gentleman's sports club on Tuesday, according to the city's police chief. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said at a news conference the off-duty officer and a 25-year-old driver pulled into the parking lot of the Allstars Gentleman's Sportsclub off Interstate 10 after the motorist accused the officer of cutting him off. The driver then pulled out a gun and started shooting, hitting the officer six times in the lower-torso. "Altercations and arguments on the roadway happen all the time, so that doesn't surprise me, unfortunately it does happen enough, too often," he said. McManus said the officer retreated back to his car to grab his weapon and returned fire, striking the 25-year-old at least twice. A woman who was sitting in the driver's car was also grazed in the head by gunfire. The off-duty officer, an 11-year veteran of the force, returned fire after he was shot 6 times by a motorist during a road rage incident. (FOX San Antonio) The chief added that authorities were still investigating whose bullet grazed the woman. The officer, whose name was not release, is an 11-year veteran of the force, and was transported to the hospital in critical, but stable condition. Police told FOX San Antonio he was expected to survive his injuries, and underwent surgery early Wednesday morning. Authorities are investigating how the incident began, but said nothing happened inside the gentleman's club. The shootout in the parking lot of a gentlemen's club came after a road rage incident nearby, police said. (FOX San Antonio) "I don’t know why they pulled into this lot," McManus said at an evening press conference. The suspect, whose name has also not been released by police, also underwent surgery and is listed in stable condition. The 25-year-old is expected to face charges in connection with the shootout, according to police. Fox News' Madeline Farber contributed to this report. Travis Fedschun is a reporter for FoxNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @travfed | |
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| 05-30-18 08:12am - 2399 days | #776 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news/real news If Trump has nothing to hide, why is he so concerned with a possible spy in his campaign? Is Trump a secret spy for Russia, and is afraid that being outed will force him to either resign or be impeached? What is the Truth about Trump? A Russian spy? A communist agent working to destroy America? A pervert who romps with Russian prostitutes? A pervert who romps with American porn stars? Enquiring minds want to know. --------- --------- HuffPost GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy Contradicts Trump On 'Informant' Claim HuffPost Igor Bobic,HuffPost 10 hours ago Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said the FBI acted appropriately when it used an informant to gather information about Donald Trump campaign advisers who allegedly had suspicious contacts linked to Russia prior to the 2016 election. “I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got, and that it has nothing to do with Donald Trump,” Gowdy said Tuesday during an interview on Fox News. Gowdy last week attended a classified DOJ briefing alongside other top lawmakers regarding the informant and the tactics the FBI had used during the 2016 campaign. The South Carolina congressman, who is retiring this year, is the first GOP lawmaker briefed on the informant to directly rebut Trump and his allies regarding the surveillance claims. Trump has ratcheted up his attacks against the Russia investigation, the Justice Department and the FBI in response to the revelation. He claimed the agency “infiltrated” and “spied” on his campaign under the orders of President Barack Obama, and he demanded that the Justice Department investigate the accusations and turn over any relevant documents to Congress. Trump again tore into the FBI during a rally in Nashville on Tuesday evening, insisting that his campaign had been “infiltrated” by his political opponents. “Can you imagine?” he said, to boos in the audience. But Gowdy maintained the FBI was simply following Trump’s orders when it investigated his campaign’s ties to Russia. “President Trump himself in the [former FBI Director James] Comey memos said, ‘If anyone connected with my campaign was working with Russia, I want you to investigate it,’” Gowdy said Tuesday on Fox News. “Sounds to me like that was exactly what the FBI did.” Gowdy faulted Democrats, however, for not specifying that Trump isn’t the target of the investigation. “This had nothing to do with Donald Trump.” | |
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| 05-30-18 07:43am - 2399 days | #775 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: President Trump states that blacks have been voting for Democrats for over a hundred years. If they haven't learned any better (by starting to vote Republican), maybe the vote should be taken away from these stupid black people. Trump loves all people. Even the blacks that vote Democratic. But maybe they would be better off in shithole Africa, where they come from. God bless America. Home of the free white men. (And get rid of the rapist Mexicans, as well.) (And the terrorist Muslims.) (Did I leave out any other groups that are anti-Trump?) -------- -------- Trump argues black Americans have been voting for Democrats 'for over a hundred years' but that's incorrect Business Insider Bryan Logan May 30th 2018 5:18AM President Donald Trump, during a rally in Nashville, claimed African-Americans have been voting for Democrats "for over a hundred years." Trump made that comment during a long-winded missive on Tuesday about his dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party. The point was tied into remarks he gave about the November midterm elections. Though the 15th Amendment, codified in 1870, gave the right to vote to all men regardless of their "race, color, or previous condition of servitude," state and local governments implemented policies meant to discourage and prevent African-Americans from exercising that right. It wasn't until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law, just 53 years ago this year, that some of those barriers were addressed. During a rally in Nashville on Tuesday night, President Donald Trump claimed that African-American voters have been choosing Democrats almost exclusively "for over a hundred years." That comment was couched in a long-winded missive about the upcoming midterm elections in November, in which Trump aired some of his familiar grievances about the Democratic Party and some of its highest-profile lawmakers. "African-Americans vote for Democrats, for the most part," Trump said. "Vast majority. They've been doing it for over a hundred years," he added. While the 15th Amendment in the US Constitution (1870) allowed for all men to vote regardless of their "race, color, or previous condition of servitude," black people, particularly in the South, have faced certain barriers that prevented them from exercising that right. History teaches of the literacy tests, poll taxes, and other measures instituted at the state and local levels that sought to make voting far more difficult for African-Americans. In many cases, people simply resorted to violence. Perhaps the most memorable example was the protest march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, on March 7, 1965. It is known as "Bloody Sunday," because police confronted demonstrators on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where the lawmen attacked the marchers with billy clubs and tear gas. It wasn't until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law five months later that some of those institutional barriers were addressed. Voter registrations in the South rose dramatically as a result. So, African-American voters have only enjoyed sufficient freedom to vote for just over 50 years. Trying to exercise that right before 1965 was a potentially life-threatening proposition. | |
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| 05-29-18 02:14pm - 2399 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Porn Leads To School Shootings, GOP Congresswoman Says HuffPost Jennifer Bendery,HuffPost 4 hours ago Rep. Diane Black must be watching some crazy violent porn, it seems. (Aaron Bernstein / Reuters) Does anyone know what kind of porn Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) is watching? Whatever it is, the 67-year-old Black, who is running for governor of Tennessee, said it’s a “big part” of what is driving the spike in school shootings. During a meeting last week with local pastors, Black raised the issue of gun violence in schools and why it keeps happening. “Pornography,” she said. “It’s available on the shelf when you walk in the grocery store. Yeah, you have to reach up to get it, but there’s pornography there,” she continued. “All of this is available without parental guidance. I think that is a big part of the root cause.” Here’s an audio of her remarks, which she made during a listening session with ministers at Safe Harbor of Clarksville, Tennessee. Black didn’t clarify what it is about porn that she thinks is leading to school massacres. Her congressional spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. Beyond naughty movies, Black said school shootings are on the rise because of the “deterioration of the family,” mental illness and violent movies. There have been 23 shootings of some type on school grounds this year. Of those, nine involved a gun being discharged and people being injured or killed, including Friday’s shooting at an Indiana school that left a teacher and a student injured. Contrary to Black’s take, experts say poor social, economic and cultural conditions are primary drivers of gun violence. Enacting policies to improve those conditions for people, along with reducing access to firearms, would go a long way in stemming mass shootings, they say. These actions are “far more effective than all the police, doctors and hospitals combined, and intervening only after tragedies have struck,” said professors James Gilligan of New York University and Bandy Lee of Yale University, both experts on violence. Clarification: This story has been updated to give a more precise breakdown of and details about the number of school shootings this year. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 05-29-18 12:24pm - 2399 days | #774 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
This minister deserves to serve as Donald Trump's spiritual advisor. Hopefully, the minister will guide Trump's path onto greater goodness and wealth. ------------- ------------- Christianity 6 hours ago Evangelist wants $54M jet: 'Jesus wouldn't be riding donkey' Associated Press DESTREHAN, La. – A prosperity gospel televangelist is asking disciples to "pray about becoming a partner" to his mission of obtaining a $54 million private jet. The Louisiana-based ministry of Jesse Duplantis has already paid cash for three other private planes, but he says God told him "I want you to believe in me for a Falcon 7X." NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune reports that Duplantis made the pitch to his followers in the May 21 edition of his weekly video address. Duplantis says the three-engine plane would allow the ministry to fly "anywhere in the world in one stop," reducing fuel costs while maintaining a global reach. Duplantis says Jesus Christ "wouldn't be riding a donkey" today -- "he'd be in an airplane flying all over the world." | |
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| 05-29-18 06:16am - 2400 days | #773 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
If Mueller is doing anything illegal, let Trump have Mueller arrested. If Mueller is not doing anything illegal, let Mueller have Trump arrested, or be impeached. Trump is famous for throwing out all kinds of slurs, most of which are either false or lies. Let Trump prove his accusations against Mueller, or have Trump removed from office. ----------- ----------- Trump: Mueller's team is 'meddling' in midterm elections Associated Press Associated Press 54 minutes ago WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is accusing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigative team of "MEDDLING" in the upcoming midterm elections and blames Democrats for "Collusion." Mueller is leading the probe into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election with help from Trump campaign aides. So far, four Trump associates have been charged in Mueller's investigation; three have pleaded guilty to lying to the authorities. Trump has repeatedly referred to Mueller's team as "13 angry Democrats," although Mueller is a Republican. Mueller was appointed by Trump's deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein. On Tuesday, Trump tweeted: "The 13 Angry Democrats (plus people who worked 8 years for Obama) working on the rigged Russia Witch Hunt, will be MEDDLING with the mid-term elections, especially now that Republicans (stay tough!) are taking the lead in Polls. There was no Collusion, except by the Democrats." Later Tuesday morning, Trump appeared to be taking guidance from some of his advisers and supporters to heart, saying he needed to focus more of his attention on issues important to Americans and less on the Russia investigation. "Sorry, I've got to start focusing my energy on North Korea Nuclear, bad Trade Deals, VA Choice, the Economy, rebuilding the Military, and so much more, and not on the Rigged Russia Witch Hunt that should be investigating Clinton/Russia/FBI/Justice/Obama/Comey/Lynch etc.," he tweeted. | |
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| 05-28-18 08:09pm - 2400 days | #772 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Breaking Bad The Giuliani of 1989 Would Try to Lock Up the Giuliani of 2018 Once upon a time, he grilled crooked pols on their relationships with Donald Trump and Roy Cohn. Now he’s acting like Trump’s new Cohn. Michael Tomasky 05.28.18 6:53 PM ET Once upon a time, Rudy Giuliani, as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, put crooked politicians in jail. This is 30 years ago now, which is a long time, and time, well, it does things to people. In fact, Giuliani himself delivered a pretty observant remark about time Sunday on CNN, speaking to Dana Bash: “Hey, there are a lot of people with decades of service,” Giuliani said. “Some are good, some bad, and some men get consumed with power, and some begin to lie.” Advertisement You can say that again, bub. Since becoming Donald Trump’s lead lawyer and defender, Giuliani has piled lie on top of lie— statements the Giuliani of the 1980s would have assembled into a devastating dossier that he would have presented with glee to a grand jury. That Giuliani of 1988—so zealous in pursuit of wrongdoing that he had a daughter wear a wire to record a conversation with her mother, a judge accused by Giuliani of a corrupt act (and acquitted!)—would have been scouring the law books looking for a way to indict the Giuliani of 2018. I’ve been writing about these people for 30 years now, and this person specifically, Giuliani, for 29—I met him in 1989. I’ve seen a lot of principles tossed out a lot of windows in these three decades, and a number of politicians who became the very thing they once ran against when they were young. But I have never seen a transformation as thorough and as chilling as Rudy’s. We were never on the same side of the ideological parking lot, and like a lot of people I objected to the gratuitous way he picked fights with political opponents who, funnily enough, were quite often black. But unlike a lot of liberals I had a grudging respect for him. New York City was a mess when he became mayor in 1994, after running and losing in 1989, and he definitely made the place more livable. For the most part, he hired serious people. Most of the time, I had decent to good relationships with a lot of them—Randy Mastro, Randy Levine, and especially his top aide Peter Powers, who was a terrific public servant and a total gentleman (putting out Rudy’s fires, he had to be). Then he started to run against Hillary for Senate. This was 1999. The mayor who had very carefully and sometimes showily distanced himself from the national GOP started to embrace it. He needed to raise millions from Republicans all over the country, so he picked some culture-war fights that were out of character or at least his character as mayor of New York City. Then he dropped out of that race after getting a prostate cancer diagnosis, and in the midst of a high profile divorce his then-wife found about from newspaper reports. . Then, after 9-11, he became America’s mayor. He deserved most of that good press, stupid placement of his bunker notwithstanding, because he did something very surprising. He expressed New Yorkers’ collective grief. You would have expected Rudy to do anger. But he did grief. It was surprising and, apparently, honest. Even an ill-conceived and executed 2008 campaign for presidential didn’t entirely dim his star. But now? Really—he wants to be out there calling men like James Clapper and John Brennan hacks? (That’s who he was speaking of in the quote to Bash above.) He’s really playing along with this ludicrous and cynical lie of Trump’s about his campaign being spied on? He’s become a complete caricature of the man he was 30 years ago. But don’t take that to mean he’s a joke. He’s not. As long as he’s out there lying for the lyingest president in the history of the country, he’s a threat to the Constitution. He said Sunday, also on CNN, that the Mueller investigation is “rigged.” It’s a horribly irresponsible thing for a lawyer to say. The discrediting of the Mueller investigation is also a discrediting of our laws and processes and institutions. Trump has proven repeatedly that he doesn’t care about any long-term damage he does to those, as long as he wins. Hack Republicans like Florida Congressman Matt Graetz don’t care either. I still might have thought that Giuliani would care, a little, and would be more sober and circumspect in his language. But no. He’s parroting the Trump line all the way. That’s another strange thing about this, too. Giuliani was always certainly his own man. He had a coterie of “Rudy men” around him. Now, for these past two years of his life and seemingly to his last days, Giuliani appears content to be a mere bagman—for a president almost certain to go down in history as one of our worst and perhaps our most lawless. Why would he do this? Well, one reason might be that Giuliani has his own motivations for discrediting Mueller, since Mueller may well be snooping around into how Giuliani apparently knew that James Comey was going to reopen the Hillary Clinton probe in late October (read Wayne Barrett’s Beast piece from last fall for the background on this). There may be other reasons we know nothing about. But whatever such facts may be, Giuliani has succumbed to the old adage that he has become what he once beheld. In 1986, when he was putting crooked pols behind bars, he grilled Bronx Borough President Stanley Friedman on his relationships with Roy Cohn—and Donald Trump. Now, he is acting as Trump’s new Cohn. Except that there’s more at stake now than New York City Parking Violations Bureau contracts. | |
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| 05-28-18 09:28am - 2401 days | #771 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Ivanka Trump photo with son sparks backlash over border separations AFP AFP 16 hours ago Washington (AFP) - Ivanka Trump is facing an online backlash for tweeting what one critic called a "tone deaf" photo of herself cuddling her son as outrage grows over a federal government policy to separate the children of undocumented migrants from their parents. The eldest daughter of President Donald Trump, who serves as an advisor to her father, posted the picture of her with her son on Sunday, with the caption: "My <3! #SundayMorning." Critics were quick to point to a "zero tolerance" policy announced earlier this month by Attorney General Jeff Sessions that authorizes border security agents to take away the children of people who enter the United States unlawfully. The government places such children in foster homes, but Steven Wagner, a senior official in the Department of Health and Human Services told a congressional committee last month the government was "unable to determine with certainty the whereabouts of 1,475" minors after attempting to contact their sponsors in the last three months of 2017. "Isn't it the just the best to snuggle your little one -- knowing exactly where they are, safe in your arms? It's the best. The BEST. Right, Ivanka? Right?" tweeted comedian Patton Oswalt. "This is so unbelievably tone deaf, given that public outrage is growing over young kids being forcibly ripped from the arms of their parents at the border — a barbaric policy that Ivanka Trump is complicit in supporting," added Brian Klaas, a political scientist at the London School of Economics. Many others tweeted using the #WhereAreTheChildren hashtag. Donald Trump, for his part, blamed opposition Democrats for the "horrible law" in a tweet on Saturday -- though there is no law mandating the policy and it was not immediately clear what he may have meant. | |
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| 05-27-18 10:53pm - 2401 days | #770 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
And if any Republicans try to protect Trump, they must also be eliminated. America must be made clean again. Of all spies and agents working for Putin. That includes all Republicans who are hiding behind the American Constitution. Put them in prison. Then line them up for a firing squad. Desperate times require desperate measures. | |
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| 05-27-18 10:50pm - 2401 days | #769 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Impeach Trump now! Trump has threatened another shutdown of the Federal government. The man is obviously working as an agent of Putin, who threatens the workings of the US Government. Impeach him, throw him in an off-shore, secret prison, and waterboard him until he confesses he is a spy and agent working for his master, Putin. Putin must be stopped, before Trump can destroy America. --------- --------- Trump threatens another shutdown as budget battle heats up Andrew Taylor, Associated Press Andrew Taylor, Associated Press 1 hour 30 minutes ago WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump has warned Congress that he will never sign another foot-tall, $1 trillion-plus government-wide spending bill like the one he did in March. His message to lawmakers in both parties: Get your act together before the next budget lands on my desk. After a brief government shutdown earlier this year, Democrats and Republicans now agree on the need for budgeting day-to-day operations of government the old-fashioned way. That means weeks of open debate and amendments that empower rank-and-file lawmakers, rather than concentrating power in the hands of a few leaders meeting in secret. But Capitol Hill's dysfunction is so pervasive that even the most optimistic predictions are for only a handful of the 12 annual spending bills to make it into law by Oct. 1, the start of the new budget year. The rest may get bundled together into a single, massive measure yet again. The worst-case scenario? A government shutdown just a month before Election Day, Nov. 6, as Republicans and Democrats fight for control of the House and possibly the Senate. Trump is agitating for more money for his long-promised border wall with Mexico. So far, he has been frustrated by limited success on that front. "We need the wall. We're going to have it all. And again, that wall has started. We got $1.6 billion. We come up again (in) September," Trump said in a campaign-style event in Michigan last month. "If we don't get border security, we'll have no choice. We'll close down the country because we need border security." At stake is the funding for daily operations of government agencies. A budget deal this year reversed spending cuts that affected military readiness and put a crimp on domestic agencies. A $1.3 trillion spending bill swept through Congress in March, though Trump entertained last-minute second thoughts about the measure and promised he would not sign a repeat. The demise of the annual appropriations process took root after Republicans took over the House in 2011 and is part of a broader breakdown on Capitol Hill. The yearly bills need bipartisan support to advance, which has grated on tea party lawmakers. GOP leaders such as House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and his predecessor as speaker, Ohio Republican John Boehner, have preferred to focus on other priorities. Ryan did throw his weight behind a two-year budget agreement this year that set an overall spending limit of $1.3 trillion for both 2018 and 2019, citing a need to boost the Pentagon. That, in theory, makes it easier to get the appropriations process back on track. But in the GOP-controlled House, where Democratic votes are generally needed to pass the bills, Democrats are complaining that Republicans have shortchanged domestic agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency. That's not the case in the Senate, where the new chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Alabama Republican Richard Shelby, is determined to get the system working again. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York is on board, as is Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., himself a decades-long veteran of that powerful committee. "We want this to work," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who criticized the GOP-controlled House for continuing to pack legislation with "poison pills." Obstacles remain, however. For starters, floor debates could lead to votes on contentious issues such as immigration, the border wall, gun control and others that some lawmakers might hope to avoid. Democrats are wary of Republicans trying to jam through the Pentagon spending bill before dealing with some agencies. And Trump could blow up the whole effort at any time. Trump is prone to threatening government shutdowns on Twitter or when he riffs in public, and then backing off when bills are delivered to him. In the House, a familiar problem awaits. Many conservative Republicans won't vote for some bills because they think they spend too much money. That means Democratic votes are a must. But many Democrats are upset over unrelated policy add-ons pushed by the GOP, and they won't vote for the spending bills unless those provisions are removed, which usually doesn't happen until end-stage talks. At the same time, House GOP leaders are distracted by disputes over immigration, and they haven't made the appropriations bills a priority. An effort led by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to cut or "rescind" $15 billion in unspent money has run into greater opposition than anticipated. Meantime, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., is unpopular with some House conservatives, who cite his votes against a recent farm bill and against last year's tax cut measure, and that may hamper his effectiveness. | |
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