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Post History:
lk2fireone (0)
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| 01-27-18 02:19pm - 2521 days | #134 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User  Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake victims beware: Donald Trump and his administration will not back your claims. Be warned! --- --- Betsy DeVos Sued for Rolling Back Campus Sexual Assault Protections [The Cut] The CutJanuary 27, 2018 Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who reportedly consulted men’s-rights groups before rescinding Title IX guidance on campus sexual assault last fall, is being sued for violating federal law and discriminating against accusers, the New York Times reports. Equal Rights Advocates, SurvJustice, and the Victim Rights Law Center filed the lawsuit in the Northern District of California against DeVos, the Department of Education, and Candice Jackson, the acting secretary for civil rights at the department who once referred to Donald Trump’s accusers as “fake victims.” In September 2017, DeVos issued a number of new rules to college campuses regarding the management of sexual assault complaints, including one especially dangerous directive related to the standard of evidence used in the investigation of rape cases. While the Obama administration ordered colleges to look for a “preponderance of evidence,” meaning that campus officials were more than 50 percent certain of someone’s guilt, DeVos announced colleges can now use the harder-to-meet “clear and convincing evidence” standard. According to the new lawsuit, DeVos’s guidance has had a “chilling effect” on assault reporting. Per the Times: In the complaint, SurvJustice said that the group had not only seen “a decrease in the number of sexual violence survivors seeking its services,” but also observed a trend in educational institutions not responding at all, or not responding as promptly to its clients’ complaints. The group also wrote of “students who have questioned whether they should continue with their plans to report sexual violence given the uncertainty regarding their legal protections and an anticipated lowered likelihood of success created by the policy change.” | |
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| 01-27-18 02:09pm - 2521 days | #133 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Stand by your man. Melania Trump (President Donald Trump's latest wife) stands by her man. Her spokesperson says Melania is sick of the lies and rumors and fake news about her husband. She supports her husband, the President of the United States, and Commander in Chief. He is the strong, proud leader of her family. --- --- Melania Trump’s Spokesperson Is Sick of Rumors About Marital Strife in the White House [The Cut] The CutJanuary 27, 2018 After Melania Trump cancelled her plans to mingle with the rich and powerful in Davos with Donald Trump this week, rumors started circulating that the growing Stormy Daniels-Trump scandal had caused marital strife between the President and First Lady. But according to Melania’s spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham, the First Lady is simply “focused on her family and role as FLOTUS.” Grisham responded to the recent rumors of Melania having recently spent multiple nights at a D.C. hotel, calling the claims “flat-out false” in a dramatic tweet. “BREAKING: The laundry list of salacious & flat-out false reporting about Mrs. Trump by tabloid publications & TV shows has seeped into ‘main stream media’ reporting. She is focused on her family & role as FLOTUS - not the unrealistic scenarios being peddled daily by the fake news,” she wrote. | |
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| 01-27-18 02:00pm - 2521 days | #132 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The Washington Post Opinions Republicans redefine morality as whatever Trump does By Dana Milbank Opinion writer January 26 at 6:35 PM Someday, likely three years from now, perhaps sooner, perhaps — gulp — later, President Trump will depart the stage. But what will be left of us? New evidence suggests that the damage he is doing to the culture is bigger than the man. A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday found that two-thirds of Americans say Trump is not a good role model for children. Every component of society feels that way — men and women, old and young, black and white, highly educated or not — except for one: Republicans. By 72 to 22 percent, they say Trump is a good role model. In marked contrast to the rest of the country, Republicans also say that Trump shares their values (82 percent) and that — get this — he “provides the United States with moral leadership” (80 percent). And what moral leadership this role model has been providing! Soon after the release of this poll, we learned that Trump, in an effort to halt the Russia probe, planned to fire special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, backing off only because his own White House counsel threatened to resign. So Trump obviously didn’t speak the truth when he said that he had never contemplated such a firing. And, at this writing, he is in Switzerland, responding by renewing his denunciations of the “fake news” media — an attack on the free press now emulated by despots the world over. In fairness, we learned of the proposed Mueller firing after the poll was conducted, so let’s see what else might have led 72 percent of Republicans to conclude Trump is a good role model: His lawyer arranged to make payment to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, a month before the election for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal. He used a vulgar word to describe African countries during a racist rant to lawmakers at the White House. He was mounting a campaign to discredit the “corrupt” FBI, the Justice Department and the special prosecutor, just as he previously sought to disqualify courts and judges. He backed a credibly accused child molester for the Senate from Alabama. And so on. Yet so strong is the pull of tribalism that we’ve reached a point where partisanship outweighs morality. Republicans aren’t approving of Trump despite his behavior; in calling him a role model, they’re approving his behavior. No doubt some of those Republicans now condoning Trump’s behavior will give the standard rebuttal: What about the Clintons? Well, Quinnipiac didn’t poll nationally during the Clinton presidency, but Gallup, during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial in January 1999, asked a similar question. The number of Republicans back then saying Clinton did not provide good moral leadership, 91 percent, was similar to the 96 percent of Democrats who say Trump does not provide moral leadership today. The difference: Democrats disapproved of Clinton’s morality by 2 to 1 (65 to 33 percent), even as they overwhelmingly approved of his job performance. Only 16 percent of Republicans today say Trump does not provide moral leadership. The triumph of partisanship over morality starts at the top. Franklin Graham excused Trump’s alleged sexual encounter, and Tony Perkins, the president of the conservative Family Research Council, declared that Trump gets a “mulligan” — a do-over — for his behavior. Such normalizing of Trump’s behavior makes the seediest elements feel safe to crawl out from under their rocks. The FBI reported in November that hate crimes were up again in 2016 after rising in 2015. And the Anti-Defamation League reported that anti-Semitic incidents were “significantly higher” through the first nine months of 2017 — a time in which Trump said there were “very fine people” among a march of neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville. (This month, as Trump was whipping up loathing of the “fake news” media, a young man was arrested for threatening to gun down CNN journalists.) Even public officials feel emboldened to give voice to the basest impulses. In recent days: A town manager in Maine was ousted for promoting racial segregation and “pro-white” views. A pro-Trump Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Missouri posted a statement saying he expects his wife to have dinner waiting for him each night and denouncing “nail-biting manophobic hell-bent feminist she devils who shriek” and have “nasty, snake-filled heads.” A Republican state representative in Kansas alleged that marijuana was illegal because “the African Americans, they were basically users and they responded the worst off to those drugs.” A Trump appointee to AmeriCorps resigned after CNN uncovered his past remarks saying “I just don’t like Muslim people” and similar statements. Politicians have always behaved badly. What’s new is the willingness of so many not just to look the other way but to call bad behavior good. Twitter: @Milbank Dana Milbank writes about political theater in the nation’s capital. He joined the Post as a political reporter in 2000. | |
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| 01-27-18 03:11am - 2522 days | #131 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump needs to clear the swamp in Washington. That's what he campaigned on. That's what he needs to do. So, fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, put the Russian investigation behind him, and all the other legal problems Trump might be facing, and start to the lead the country like only Trump can do. Trump is the man. He has balls of steel. Fire Mueller, and anyone else who is not loyal to President Trump, our Commander in Chief. And then, Happy Days will be here again! Sieg Heil, America. The land of the brave and strong! | |
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| 01-27-18 02:55am - 2522 days | #130 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Donald Trump, the man of a 1,000 promises. As president-elect, Trump trashed Boeing’s stock by attacking on Twitter the high-priced Air Force One program. “Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion,” Trump tweeted. “Cancel order!” It’s not clear where Trump got the $4bn figure; at the time Boeing had a $170m contract to begin work on the next Air Force One. Now that Trump is president, his administration just signed a $24 million contract to replace 2 food chilling systems aboard Air Force One. The same thing with Trump attacking President Obama for wasting time playing golf. As President, Trump vowed, he would be on the job: no golf for Trump. Once he became President, Trump has spent far more time on the golf course than Obama ever did (in the comparable time in office). Trump is the man. His word is law. His word is shit. ======== ======== The Guardian Donald Trump's refrigerator upgrade for Air Force One set to cost $24m The Guardian Tom McCarthy,The Guardian 15 minutes ago Officials sign deal with Boeing to replace two food chilling systems Plane’s fridges must be equipped to handle 3,000 meals per day Trump on his way to Mar-a-Lago in April. The term ‘Air Force One’ refers not to any particular aircraft but to any plane carrying the president. What hums, flies above 30,000ft, and costs about as much as Donald Trump’s upstate New York manor? Trump’s new airplane refrigerators. The Trump administration has signed a $24m contract with Boeing to replace two food chilling systems aboard Air Force One, the president’s plane, according to reports. The systems are two of five such “chillers” aboard Air Force One, which must be equipped with a refrigeration capacity to handle 3,000 meals, according to military specifications. That’s enough to feed the president and 50 of his closest friends three meals a day for three weeks. And that’s assuming the president never indulged in his favorite plane fare: fast food. The $24m price tag, upon which Boeing declined to comment, amounts to enough taxpayer money to fund an estimated eight weekends for the president at Mar-a-Lago, which Trump visited 11 times in his first year as president. Or the cash could be used to provide security at Trump Tower in New York City, where the president no longer lives, for about two months. As president-elect, Trump trashed Boeing’s stock by attacking on Twitter the high-priced Air Force One program. “Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion,” Trump tweeted. “Cancel order!” It’s not clear where Trump got the $4bn figure; at the time Boeing had a $170m contract to begin work on the next Air Force One. The term “Air Force One” refers not to any particular aircraft but to any plane carrying the president. The list price for the 747 airplanes outfitted as Air Force One is about $350m, but customizing the planes costs much more. A consultant told Defense One that the plane was expensive not because Boeing was gouging the government but because military requirements for the craft are expensive to fulfill. “It’s not a contractor issue, it is a requirements issue,” said Richard Aboulafia, vice-president of analysis at the Teal Group consulting firm. “It’s not getting people rich.” | |
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| 01-26-18 10:21pm - 2522 days | #129 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump State of the Union Risks Being Upstaged by Stormy Daniels Interview on Jimmy Kimmel Newsweek Maria Perez,Newsweek 15 hours ago Trump State of the Union Risks Being Upstaged by Stormy Daniels Interview on Jimmy Kimmel President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address will not be the only thing the world will be watching come January 30. Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel announced on Thursday that he will be interviewing adult film star Stormy Daniels right after Trump’s speech. “I am pleased to announce that the very gifted @StormyDaniels will be on #Kimmel Tuesday 1/30 after the #StateOfTheUnion. I have MANY QUESTIONS! #MAGA,” Kimmel tweeted Thursday night. Daniels made the news earlier this month amid a wave of reports about Trump’s personal life before he entered the White House, including allegations that the two had a relationship. In a 2011 interview with In Touch Weekly that was not published until January 19, Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said she was invited to Trump’s hotel room where they had sex. The alleged encounter happened four months after his wife, Melania, gave birth to their son, Barron. The story first came to light in a report in The Wall Street Journal that Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, gave Daniels a $130,000 payment to keep quiet about the 2006 sexual encounter less than a month before the 2016 election. On the one-year anniversary of Trump’s inauguration, Daniels kicked off her “Make America Horny Again” tour at a South Carolina strip club. She posted the event on Instagram, but the social media site suspended her account two days after the tour took place. Trump will deliver his first State of the Union address on Tuesday. The annual speech is formally given to Congress to outline the administration's agenda for the upcoming year. While it’s unclear what Trump will say during his address, he is likely to tout the Republican tax reform bill, passed in December, and the state of the U.S. economy and stock market. The president’s address will air live on Tuesday, January 30 at 9 p.m. ET. | |
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| 01-26-18 10:08pm - 2522 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
FBI shoots and kills kidnapping victim. The victim was kidnapped, his hands were bound in duct-tape. But the FBI shot him anyway. The shooting is being investigated. Why shoot the victim of a kidnapping? Especially since his hands were bound in duct tape? However, I understand that if you are a law enforcement officer, you are in fear of your life, especially in a crime scene. So it's better to start blazing away, to defend yourself against the bad guys. And if someone gets in the way of a bullet, well, that's life. The victim shouldn't have been there, associating with criminals. End of story. -------- -------- FBI agent fatally shot kidnapping victim during botched raid in Houston NBC News ERIK ORTIZ Jan 26th 2018 10:34PM An FBI agent fatally shot a kidnapping victim during a botched raid early Thursday inside a Houston home, leading Texas authorities to say "the system failed." As the circumstances surrounding the man's death remain under investigation, three suspects in the kidnapping were in court Friday morning on charges of taking part in a chaotic plot that police say involved a home invasion, the escape of a child and a ransom demand. "The system failed," Philip Dupuis, the police chief in Conroe, said at a news conference Thursday about the victim's killing. "We do this job to help people and it doesn't always go our way." The Houston raid, which occurred before 4 a.m. CT (5 a.m. ET), jolted neighbors — one of whom told NBC affiliate KPRC they awoke to bullets flying: "We just heard gunshots. It was like four pop, pop, pops." What led the FBI agent to open fire was not clear. Police said the incident began Wednesday morning when officers responded to a disturbance call at a home in Conroe, a suburb north of Houston, that belonged to a man later identified as Ulises Valladares, 47. As Valladares' 12-year-old son was getting ready for school, two men burst into the home and held the pair up at gunpoint. The men demanded money, bound the father and son with duct-tape, and ransacked the home for valuables, police said. They grabbed a PlayStation, an Xbox, a sword and hat. The armed men then put a black sweater over Valladares' head and led him from the home. They instructed the boy, who was still bound, to stay behind and not contact police, Dupuis said. Once the men left, the boy was able to free himself with scissors and run to a neighbor to call police when he couldn't find his father outside. Meanwhile, an uncle arrived at the house and got a phone call from a man demanding money in exchange for Valladares' return, police said. According to court documents, the man on the phone said in Spanish that he was part of the Mexican drug and crime syndicate known as the Gulf Cartel and that he wanted $20,000 as ransom. The caller added that they were watching the house and if police became involved in the ransom exchange, Valladares would be killed. Court documents said the boy had overheard the two suspects saying that the father's brother owed them $8,000. The uncle denied knowing anyone matching the suspects' description or that he owed anyone money, court documents said. Meanwhile, Conroe police contacted the FBI, and agents using a federal warrant traced the caller's phone to the area of a Best Western hotel about an hour away. Valladares was not at the hotel, but agents on surveillance of the location found two suspects matching a description given by the son. Agents also located the cellphone used to call the brother, according the court documents. Nicholas Chase Cunningham, 42, and Jimmy Tony Sanchez, 38, were arrested Wednesday night and were charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery. Police said Cunningham's wife is the niece of Valladares' brother. In addition, a third suspect — Sophia Perez Heath, 35 — was arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping. Cunningham told investigators that Valladares was being held at Heath's home in northeast Houston, according to court documents. Heath is described as Cunningham's girlfriend, and she was allegedly ordered by Cunningham to watch and feed Valladares at her home. During a court hearing Friday, Cunningham and Sanchez were denied bond. A judge set Heath's bond to $1 million, and must wear an ankle bracelet if she makes bail. The reason for the gunfire during the raid was not detailed during Thursday's news conference with the FBI in Houston. Valladares' hands had still been bound in duct-tape when agents arrived. He later died at the hospital. In addition, other people were inside the home at the time of the operation, including children. The FBI said the shooting was being investigated by an internal incident review team and results will be shared with the Department of Justice and local police. "The FBI takes very seriously any shooting incidents involving our agents and as such have an effective, time-tested process for addressing them," the agency said in a statement. The agent who shot Valladares has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. "We've got the bad guys," Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon told reporters Thursday. "Even though it's good work on behalf of Conroe Police Department, it's still a tragedy." by Taboola Edited on Jan 26, 2018, 10:14pm | |
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| 01-26-18 09:36pm - 2522 days | #268 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
If you have an active pass to the site, or can get one, I'd appreciate if TBP would do an updated review for mynakeddolls.com. Basically, I'm curious whether they are updating the site. If the site is not updating, it would be a mistake to pay for a membership beyond one month. | |
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| 01-26-18 02:44pm - 2522 days | #11 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Many years ago, I was a member of some website. One day, I opened my computer and found a text message on my desktop that came from a website I was a member of. I never knowingly gave the website any control or access to my computer, desktop, whatever. It scared me that a website I was using was able to send me a text message on my desktop. This was not an email sent to my email account. The message appeared on my desktop. I never realized a website had that ability, that control. I was thinking, that maybe they could examine my computer's contents. I have no idea whether that was true or not. This was years ago. It only happened once. But I would assume that websites can do many things, that most of us never know about. And that is only about the legal things. Hackers can do more, I believer. And NASA and other spy agencies can also do more. Anything on your computer or any other electronic device is fair game to spy agencies, law enforcement, and hackers. (The FBI believes in strong encryption, but also believes it has the moral and legal right to access any device it wants to examine. My take is that the FBI is speaking out both sides of its mouth. You have the right of privacy, until the FBI or any law enforcement agency wants to examine your history and files. At which time it becomes the property of the FBI.) Edited on Jan 26, 2018, 02:47pm | |
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| 01-26-18 04:37am - 2523 days | #128 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump calls report he ordered Mueller's firing 'fake news' Associated Press Tom Lobianco, Associated Press,Associated Press 2 hours 1 minute ago WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Friday dismissed as "fake news" a New York Times report that he ordered the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller last June, but backed down after White House lawyer Don McGahn threatened to resign. The newspaper reported Thursday that Trump demanded Mueller's firing just weeks after the special counsel was first appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Trump pushed back against the report, without addressing the specific allegation, as he arrived Friday at the site of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "Fake news, folks. Fake news. Typical New York Times fake stories," Trump told reporters. McGahn said he would not deliver the order to the Justice Department, according to The Times, which cites four people familiar with the request by the president. Trump argued at the time that Mueller could not be fair because of a dispute over golf club fees that he said Mueller owed at a Trump golf club in Sterling, Virginia. The president also believed Mueller had a conflict of interest because he worked for the same law firm that was representing Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner. Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, did not immediately return a call for comment Thursday night. Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer working on the response to the Russia probe, declined comment Thursday night. The response from Democrats was nearly immediate. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said that if the report in The Times is true, Trump has crossed a "red line." "Any attempt to remove the Special Counsel, pardon key witnesses or otherwise interfere in the investigation would be a gross abuse of power, and all members of Congress, from both parties, have a responsibility to our Constitution and to our country to make that clear immediately," Warner said. The report comes as Mueller moves ever closer to interviewing Trump himself. The president said Wednesday that he would gladly testify under oath — although a White House official quickly said afterward that Trump did not mean he was volunteering to testify. Last June, when Trump was considering how to fire Mueller, the special counsel's probe had not progressed far, at least not in public. At that time he had yet to call on any major witnesses to testify and had not yet issued any charges or signed any plea deals. But that would change just a few months later, when federal agents would arrest former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and ultimately turn him into a cooperating witness. Since then, Trump has largely stopped talking about explicitly trying to fire Mueller, but has instead shifted to accusing Mueller and his team of being biased and unable to complete a fair investigation. The latest evidence the president has cited was a string of text messages from a former agent on Mueller's probe, which show that agent vociferously opposing the president. But Mueller swiftly removed the agent, Peter Strzok, from his probe after learning about his texts. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump adviser Rick Gates were charged by Mueller with criminal conspiracy related to millions of dollars they earned while working for a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian political party. And former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn agreed to cooperate with investigators in a plea deal revealed two months ago. Flynn was charged with lying to the FBI. Mueller's investigators have been focusing their inquiry on questions surrounding Trump's firing of Flynn and also his firing of former FBI Director James Comey. They have slowly been calling in more witnesses closer to the president himself and, recently, began negotiating the terms of a possible interview with the president. On Thursday, Trump's lawyer said that more than 20 White House employees have given interviews to the special counsel in his probe of possible obstruction of justice and Trump campaign ties to Russian election interference. John Dowd, Trump's attorney, said the White House, in an unprecedented display of cooperation with Mueller's investigation, has turned over more than 20,000 pages of records. The president's 2016 campaign has turned over more than 1.4 million pages. The number of voluntary interviews included eight people from the White House counsel's office. An additional 28 people affiliated with the Trump campaign have also been interviewed by either the special counsel or congressional committees probing Russian election meddling. Dowd's disclosure did only not name the people nor provide a breakdown of how many were interviewed only by Mueller's team. | |
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| 01-26-18 01:18am - 2523 days | #266 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
http://mynakeddolls.com I think this is a site from Tony Murano, a photographer who used to contribute to MetArt. | |
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| 01-26-18 12:41am - 2523 days | #127 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Guggenheim offered Trumps a gold toilet in lieu of a Van Gogh AFP AFP 7 hours ago A fully functioning solid gold toilet, made by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, was offered to the Trumps in lieu of a requested Van Gogh (AFP Photo/William EDWARDS) New York (AFP) - The request was for a Van Gogh to adorn the walls of the president and first lady's private residence in the White House. The answer? No -- but how about a fully functioning, 18-karat gold toilet instead? While it's customary for US presidents to borrow works of art during their time in office, the Guggenheim in Donald Trump's hometown of New York was polite, but firm in its refusal, The Washington Post reported. When the White House requested the renowned Dutch painter's "Landscape With Snow," the museum's chief curator -- an outspoken Trump critic -- countered that the 19th century painting was "prohibited from travel except for the rarest of occasions." "We are sorry not to be able to accommodate your original request," wrote Nancy Spector in an email obtained by the Post, "but remain hopeful that this special offer may be of interest." Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's "America" -- a gleaming gold toilet -- was on display at the Guggenheim for nearly a year, installed in a restroom for the private use of members of the public with a guard posted outside. Now that the exhibition was over, the artist would "like to offer it to the White House for a long-term loan," the Post quoted Spector as emailing. "It is, of course, extremely valuable and somewhat fragile, but we would provide all the instructions for its installation and care." Asked to explain the meaning of the installation and why he offered it to the Trumps, 57-year-old Cattelan told the Post: "What's the point of our life? Everything seems absurd until we die and then it makes sense." The Guggenheim, asked by AFP, said it had "no further information to provide." The White House did not immediately respond to an AFP query. In a blog last August, Spector called the toilet "a cipher for the excesses of affluence" and said more than 100,000 people had queued "for the opportunity to commune with art and with nature." "Though crafted from millions of dollars' worth of gold, the sculpture is actually a great leveler. As Cattelan has said, "Whatever you eat, a $200 lunch or a $2 hot dog, the results are the same, toilet-wise." Neither is it the first association between Trump, whose Manhattan home is famous for its lavish gold color scheme, and a golden toilet. Last June, Trevor Noah's "The Daily Show" hosted a free exhibition in New York lampooning the president, inviting the public to soak up his tweets and fire off one or two of their own from a golden toilet. Dan Howley Dan Howley Daniel Howley,Dan Howley 11 hours ago | |
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| 01-25-18 03:54pm - 2523 days | #126 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Happy news. Trump's war of words with North Korea leads many to wonder if US will fight a war with North Korea. Go, Trump. You are the man. Balls of steel. (A man who missed out enlisting in the military because of draft deferments and a doctor's note that stated he had pre-conditions). ---- ---- U.S. War With North Korea Would Be ‘Really Tough’ to Win, Says Top Marine Newsweek Tom O’Connor,Newsweek 1 hour 15 minutes ago The commander of the U.S. Marine Corps has warned about the realities of getting into a war with North Korea, a militarized state that vowed to continue developing nuclear and ballistic weapons despite international pressure. Addressing the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, four-star Marine Corps General Robert Neller said Thursday that the U.S. military was already preparing for a potential conflict with the armed forces of Kim Jong Un, who last year successfully launched intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and declared his country a nuclear state. Neller emphasized that such a fight would likely be the most daunting challenge his troops have ever faced. Related: North Korea sets up first military parade of 2018, and new weapons are likely to be on show Trending: U.S. War With North Korea Would Be ‘Really Tough’ to Win, Says Top Marine “It will be a very, very kinetic, physical, violent fight over some really, really tough ground, and everybody is going to have to be mentally prepared,” Neller said, according to CNN. “When they train, they have to keep in the back of their mind, they have to be [ready] physically, mentally, and always their spirit has to be steeled and ready for serious conflict that’s going to test them beyond anything they have ever done in their lives, that was my only intent. And I’ll say that as long as I’m in this office because that’s my job,” Neller added. GettyImages-884030122 North Korean soldiers and Pyongyang residents hold a rally to celebrate the North’s declaration on November 29 it had achieved full nuclear statehood, according to North Korea’s official Central News Agency (KCNA), on December 2, 2017. The commander of the U.S. Marine Corps has warned about the realities of getting into a war with North Korea, a militarized state that vowed to continue developing nuclear and ballistic weapons despite international pressure. KCNA/KNS/AFP/Getty Images The U.S. and North Korea have traded harsh rhetoric since the Cold War proxy conflict they fought in the early 1950s, but tensions rose particularly high last year as Kim defied the hardline administration of President Donald Trump by testing ICBMs capable of striking the U.S., as well as a hydrogen bomb. Following in his father and grandfather’s footsteps, Kim sought to establish a nuclear deterrent to a potential U.S. invasion intended to overthrow his government. Don't miss: Date Rape-Linked Drugs Could Be Detected Better Than Ever Before Thanks to This Student’s Invention The U.S. has responded by enhancing its naval assets in the Pacific and increasing joint military drills with Japan and North Korea’s neighboring, pro-West rival South Korea. Trump and Kim themselves have also exchanged personal insults and nuclear threats, raising concern among the international community. The verbal barrages between the nuclear-armed heads of state have slowed as the two Koreas independently sought peace, but Kim’s state-run media condemned a recent meeting of nations that supported South Korea during the Korean War, saying it was intended to sabotage ongoing negotiations. “The U.S. had better awake from a foolish daydream, properly facing up to the strategic position and entity of the DPRK as a world-level military power,” official ruling Korean Workers’ Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun wrote Thursday. “We are strong enough to snub war hysteria of the U.S. and defend peace on the Peninsula.” “It is the unshakable will of our service personnel and people to resolutely make tough counteractions against the acts of wrecking peace and security on the Peninsula,” it added. Most popular: Missouri GOP Senate Candidate Calls Feminists ‘Career-Obsessed Banshees’ With 'Snake-Filled Heads' RTX3V3JO South Korean and U.S. Marines take part in a winter military drill in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on December 19, 2017. The U.S. enjoyed a substantial advantage over North Korea in terms of overall military strength, but North Korea’s massive army and other nuclear, chemical and conventional weapons would prove a formidable adversary. Kim Hong-ji/Reuters The U.S. has been widely considered the foremost military power on Earth, and though North Korea has devoted much of its resources toward its defense industry, these developments remain far behind the U.S. military’s. Aside from North Korea’s arsenal of nuclear weapons and ICBMs, the secretive state is also believed to possess a massive stockpile of conventional and chemical weapons, the latter of which Pyongyang has denied. These factors have led a number of analysts to warn about an enormous death toll and even a potential loss for invading U.S. forces. Neller has previously addressed the prospect of a war with North Korea, telling soldiers that it would be “Game of Thrones–like,” referring to the popular HBO fantasy series involving warring clans in a fictional, mystical universe, Military.com reported earlier this month. He urged troops to prepare because “the fight never goes the way you think it’s going to go,” even though the U.S. had “certain capabilities” that North Korean forces lacked. Last month, Neller told U.S. Marines stationed in Norway to be ready for a “big-ass fight,” but did not specify who the enemy would be. This article was first written by Newsweek | |
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| 01-25-18 07:04am - 2524 days | #2 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I suggest waiting a day or two. If the problems persist, contact CCBill and describe your problem (lack of service from Website you paid to access) and ask for a refund. You've tried to solve the problem, and got no help from the website. So you should be able to get a refund from CCBill. I hope you will let us know the outcome of your situation. with a reply to this comment. | |
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| 01-24-18 11:16pm - 2524 days | #125 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump making small talk. Being friendly with the acting head of the FBI. Doesn't Trump have the right, as President of the United States, to know if an employee voted for Trump? And shouldn't Trump have right (and duty) to fire anyone disloyal to the President? In addition, in small talk, shouldn't the employee have the right, in small talk, to ask if Trump masturbates daily? To get the know the personal habits of the President? Also, the Republicans are smearing McCabe, because McCabe's wife ran as a Democrat for Virginia state Senate and she received political donations from a super PAC. The donations were investigated, no charges were filed, but Republicans consider it suspicious that McCabe's wife is a Democrat. So McCabe should be fired from the FBI, because that will weaken the probe into President Trump. Power to the people. Power to Trump, for making small talk. -------- -------- RNC Chair: Trump Was Just Making Small Talk When He Asked FBI Head How He Voted HuffPost Marina Fang,HuffPost 16 hours ago WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s defenders are brushing off reports that he asked his acting FBI director how he voted in the presidential election as simply Trump’s way of “getting to know people.” WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s defenders are brushing off reports that he asked his acting FBI director how he voted in the presidential election as simply Trump’s way of “getting to know people.” Trump, who has taken repeated steps to undermine the independence of the FBI, asked the bureau’s acting head, Andrew McCabe, whom he voted for in the 2016 election, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. The question, which Trump reportedly posed shortly after firing FBI Director James Comey in May, would put a non-political law enforcement leader in an awkward position. McCabe responded that he did not vote, the paper reported, citing unnamed current and former administration officials, and later said he found the conversation “disturbing.” Asked whether Trump acted inappropriately, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel on Wednesday dismissed the conversation as normal small talk that came up during an introductory meeting. “I think it is just a conversation. I don’t think it intends of, you know, all of these terrible things that people are trying to put forward,” McDaniel said on CNN’s “New Day.” “I ask people who they vote for sometimes. I think it’s trying to get to know somebody. This is a president who is just getting to know people, and that’s part of those conversations.” A White House official told The New York Times that Trump’s question “was in the context of first asking about Mr. McCabe’s family.” McCabe, who stepped into the FBI acting director job after Trump abruptly fired Comey amid the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, has long been a target of Republican attempts to undermine the probe. Trump and his allies have alleged McCabe is biased because in 2015, his wife, Dr. Jill McCabe, was a candidate for Virginia state Senate and received campaign donations from a super PAC of then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), a friend of Trump’s 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton. Jill McCabe, a Democrat, was defeated in the election. Andrew McCabe later faced scrutiny, as Comey’s deputy, for his role in the FBI investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server. He didn’t assume that position until well after his wife’s campaign had ended, and, under pressure, he recused himself from matters involving Clinton. Nevertheless, Trump has repeatedly attacked McCabe, who is now the FBI deputy director. In December, Trump falsely stated that McCabe was “given $700,000 for wife’s campaign by Clinton Puppets during investigation.” Trump has frequently blasted his FBI and Justice Department, and claims he has the “absolute right” to direct the Department of Justice as he sees fit. Comey testified to congressional investigators that Trump asked for his loyalty and requested that he end the FBI’s investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who has since been indicted in the Russia probe. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 01-24-18 10:39pm - 2524 days | #124 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Should the special prosecutors who are investigating the possible Russian ties of Donald Trump include Trump's sex life? President Clinton was investigated for his sex life. And was impeached while President. Of course, Clinton was a Democrat. And all Democrats are scum. Trump is a Republican. And the leader of our great nation. So it's not right that he should be investigated for any sex activities Trump might have had. Because Trump is the Man. And the Republicans control both houses of Congress. So you expect them to impeach their own President? Not likely. But maybe the special prosecutor could ask Trump about his sex life. As well as any connections to Russia. Get Trump on the record. So that would open Trump to perjury charges, unlike his public utterances and tweets and fake promises. | |
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| 01-24-18 10:31pm - 2524 days | #123 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump is the man. So what if he wants to play with whores? A man is a man. And Donald is The Man! ==== ==== 2018-01-24 In scandal's wake, Melania keeps her distance from Donald. Do we care? Lisa Belkin 9 hours ago Melania Trump is not in Davos today. She was planning to go — her office had already announced that she would be there to “support the president” as he hobnobs with the global elites at the World Economic Forum. But the first lady is staying in Washington for what her office opaquely calls “scheduling and logistical reasons.” What happened? Well, one thing that happened was the disclosure that Donald Trump’s lawyer arranged a $130,000 payment to a porn star, reportedly to keep quiet about her decade-ago affair with Trump. In the swirl of news over the last week, Melania’s defection — which was announced on the couple’s 13th wedding anniversary — didn’t get much public attention. (Yahoo News White House correspondent Hunter Walker asked the White House how the Trumps celebrated, but got no answer.) To the many rules that Mrs. Trump’s husband has rewritten in the past two years, add one more — that the public will always care how a politician’s wife reacts to news of his infidelities. Until Trump changed everything, the public was insatiably interested in what the wronged spouse thinks. When Bill Clinton was accused of Oval Office dalliances, for instance, Hillary Clinton at first became his fiercest defender, blaming the charges on a “vast right wing conspiracy.” She also became the subject of endless speculation about whether she would stay in the marriage or leave. The photo of the couple walking forlornly toward the presidential helicopter, with Chelsea between them holding each of their hands, ran with countless stories about the tense state of their marriage. When John Edwards was found to have fathered a child out of wedlock, attention also focused on his wife. Some publications were reluctant to cover the story at first, in part out of respect for Elizabeth Edwards, who was fighting cancer at the time. At first Elizabeth defended her husband, but then she announced she was separating from him. Ditto for Eliot Spitzer’s payments to prostitutes, when much of the coverage centered on why we expect wronged women, like his wife, Silda, to stand publicly — and clearly miserably — by their husband’s side. Or Anthony Weiner’s lewd texting, when as much ink and energy was dedicated to why his wife, Huma Abedin, stayed with him (eventually they divorced) and what price she would pay in her own career for his behavior. The meme of the wronged wife, and the public’s outrage on her behalf, became an entrenched part of popular culture. The TV show “The Good Wife” rode it for seven seasons. In the musical “Hamilton,” the title character’s admission that he had an affair leads to brief glee from his political opponents, which abruptly ends with the words “his poor wife.” That segues into a wrenching solo, and the rest of the show focuses more on her anger and eventual forgiveness than it does on the political price he paid. There has been, to be sure, much speculation about the Trump marriage: The way he left her behind when the couple arrived at the White House on Inauguration Day; how her smile turned to a frown during the ceremony; how she didn’t move to the White House for months, and swatted his hand away when he reached for hers on a tarmac; and, most recently, how the photo she chose to tweet on the first anniversary of his taking office was of herself not with her husband but with the military escort who accompanied her to her seat. Melania Trump posted this photo on the first anniversary of Trump’s inauguration, Jan. 20, 2018. (Photo: Melania Trump via Twitter) But the public reaction to the news that weeks before Election Day Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, set up a shell corporation to pay Daniels shows the fundamental rulebook for public reaction to sex scandals no longer applies. (Cohen has denied that Trump and Daniels had an affair but has not denied the payment nor said what it was for.) There was no “stand by your man” statement, no public display of support. While Melania did travel to Florida with her husband immediately after the allegations were first published in the Wall Street Journal, she did not attend any events with him there that weekend. The closest she came to signaling her feelings was canceling her trip to Davos, and while it appeared to speak volumes it was not accompanied by the headlines and speculation that would previously have been de rigueur in such circumstances. Perhaps it’s because this is the second time the Trumps have been through this particular type of news cycle. In October 2016, when the “Access Hollywood” tape surfaced, Melania did a version of the traditional public wife walk, telling Anderson Cooper that Trump’s boasting about grabbing women was “boy talk, and he was led on — like, egged on — from the host to say dirty and bad stuff.” Or perhaps it’s because this first lady is so opaque, and those who might be inclined to speculate or empathize have been given no window into how she might be feeling. Other wives weathering scandals had friends who would dish. Articles about the Clinton and Weiner marriages, for instance, were filled with anonymous quotes from friends of the couple, who served as conduits for their pain. But Melania Trump’s public-facing world seems to be only herself, her parents and her son, Barron. Who are her close friends? Perhaps because the man who is accused of cheating on her does not seem to pay a political price for his actions and because his actions do not “stick” to him, the usual public embrace does not envelop her. Yes, polls show she is the most popular member of the Trump family, but still her approval numbers are lower than her disapproval numbers. And so, one of the many lessons of this presidency may be this: When every day brings an accusation or misstep that might have brought down a previous president, it leads to a numbing lack of surprise that translates into lack of sympathy for his wife. With a news cycle in hyperdrive, there is neither time nor inclination to wonder what Melania is thinking. | |
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| 01-24-18 10:12pm - 2524 days | #122 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
It's great we have a President who tweets what he thinks. Are we going to have to fight North Korea? Stay tuned, for further developments. I've read elsewhere that Trump predicts that he will become great friends with the leader of North Korea (after Trump calls North Korean's Kim Jong Un "Little Rocket Man". The way to make friends is to call them names. Trump is the man. He knows how to make friends and influence people. That's why the war of words between the two leads is a smokescreen. And that any tensions are only the start of a great friendship. In the meantime, Hawaii called a fake alert on a missile attack from North Korea. (A mistake.) And the US said we might not attend the Winter Olympics in South Korea. "We don't fear anything in our lives," the U.S. ambassador states. And that's why the US might not attend the Olympics in South Korea. (In case there's security concerns about a war or fighting breaking out with North Korea, which will soon be our friend, because Trump has a winning personality and can solve problems as no else can). On Dec 7, 2017 the US was warning it might not attend the Winter Olympics. On Jan 19, 2018, the US said Vice President Mike Pence and wife Karen Pence will attend the Opening Ceremonies. That will be great. If North Korea decides to bomb South Korea, Trump will then have a chance to select a new Vice President, one who can represent all the American people. Let's hope that Trump will prevail. That he can make America great again. ------ ------ U.S. athletes may not attend Olympics as threat of nuclear war with North Korea rises, Haley warns Aol.com Editors Dec 7th 2017 8:38AM Nikki Haley says it’s an “open question” whether the U.S. will participate in the Winter Olympics. “I think those are conversations we’re going to have to have. But what have we always said? We don’t ever fear anything. We live our lives," Haley, who serves as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said in an interview with FOX News on Wednesday. PyeongChang, in South Korea, is set to host the Winter Olympics in less than two months, but the city's location -- less than 50 miles from the border of North Korea -- has sparked some security fears, especially after the North Korean officials reported the successful launch of its largest and most powerful ballistic missile yet. Haley insisted that no final decision had been made, but noted that safety of American athletes would be a number one concern. “What we will do is we’ll make sure that we’re taking every precaution possible to make sure that they’re safe, and to know everything that’s going on around them," she said in an interview with FOX News. The comments came on the heels of North Korea warning that nuclear war had become inevitable -- a matter of when, not if -- thanks to U.S. rhetoric and joint drills with South Korea. "The remaining question now is: when will the war break out?" a spokesman for the North's foreign ministry said late on Wednesday in a statement carried by North Korea's official KCNA news agency. "We do not wish for a war but shall not hide from it." When asked if Haley would send family to the area if they were going to compete she hesitated. “I think it depends on what’s going on at the time. We have to watch this closely and it’s changing by the day," she said. breaking-news logo Two American B-1B heavy bombers joined large-scale combat drills over South Korea on Thursday amid warnings from North Korea that the exercises and U.S. threats have made the outbreak of war "an established fact." | |
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| 01-23-18 03:07pm - 2525 days | #6 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Drunk man kills neighbor by mistake. Drunk man faces up to 10 years in prison. But in previous story, where a man finds his wife in bed with a different man, with no injuries reported (except the "fear" the cheating man claimed he felt), the husband faces up to 15 years in prison. Because the husband is facing two different charges. ---- ---- Man mistakes neighbor’s home for own, kills ‘intruder’ By Jackie Salo January 23, 2018 A Missouri man is accused of choking his neighbor to death after mistaking the man’s home for his own and thinking he was an intruder. Michael Augustine, 43, was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of 60-year-old Clifton King, news station WDAF reported. Police said Augustine entered King’s Raytown residence on Friday and called 911 to report an intruder after he encountered King. When authorities arrived, they found no one at Augustine’s home, which is a block away from King’s. Officers searched the area and found Augustine, who appeared to be intoxicated, on top of the victim on the neighbor’s front lawn, the Kansas City Star reported. “That’s right. I f—ed him up!” Augustine said when police couldn’t find King’s pulse, according to court records, the Kansas City Star reported. King was rushed to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. If convicted, Augustine faces up to 10 years in prison. | |
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| 01-23-18 02:02pm - 2525 days | #121 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump respects the FBI and all hardworking Americans. But he wants to clean house at the FBI of all disloyal, treasonous traitors who want to investigate him. That sound fair. It's treason to investigate a Republican President. But it was right and proper to investigate Clinton, who was a poisonous Democrat. Because Democrats are scum. So why hasn't Trump put jailbait Hilary Clinton and non-USA-born fake President Obama in prison? Because the FBI is weak on crime. Unlike our beloved President, who has the balls and determination to keep out people from shithole countries, as well as all other undesirables. But let's be clear: President Trump is the least racist person you will ever meet. And he loves everyone. (Even the people from shithole countries, I assume.) ---- ---- Good Morning America Attorney General Jeff Sessions is pushing FBI director to clean house at top of agency Good Morning America PIERRE THOMAS AND MIKE LEVINE,Good Morning America 4 hours ago Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been pushing FBI Director Chris Wray to replace his deputy, Andrew McCabe, and install new leadership within the FBI, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The attorney general’s push comes as many Republicans, including President Donald Trump, continue to hammer McCabe and others at the FBI for what they allege is political bias in their law enforcement work. “The president has enormous respect for the thousands of rank-and-file FBI agents who make up the world’s most professional and talented law enforcement agency,” a White House spokesman said in a statement. “He believes politically motivated senior leaders … have tainted the agency’s reputation for unbiased pursuit of justice.” But Wray has made clear that – as long as he’s in the top job at the FBI – he is going to make personnel decisions on his own time, the sources told ABC News. And according to Axios, which first reported the pressure from Sessions, Wray even threatened to resign if McCabe was removed. Wray became director in August, after Trump fired James Comey, an ally of McCabe’s who rose through the FBI ranks to become Comey’s deputy. PHOTO: Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Christopher A. Wray speaks during an event at the Martin Luther King Memorial on the National Mall, Jan. 15, 2018, in Washington, DC. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images) Comey had come under fire for his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, which ultimately exonerated Clinton of criminal wrongdoing. More recently, McCabe has been under fire himself for alleged conflicts of interest because his wife ran for state-wide office as a Democrat in 2015 while the Clinton email probe was underway. FBI director says Twitter is 'on my radar' after Trump criticism Senior FBI agent removed from Mueller's team repeatedly called Trump 'an idiot' However, emails and correspondence released by the FBI show McCabe recused himself from any public corruption cases ties to Virginia. According to the FBI documents, McCabe had no oversight of the Clinton matter until he became deputy director in February 2016, three months after his wife lost her election bid. Last month, Trump singled out McCabe in a tweet, writing, "How can FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, the man in charge, along with leakin' James Comey, of the Phony Hillary Clinton investigation (including her 33,000 illegally deleted emails) be given $700,000 for wife's campaign by Clinton Puppets during investigation?" PHOTO: In this May 11, 2017 file photo, acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe listens on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP, FILE) Meanwhile, the FBI is under intense pressure as Republicans use a cache of text messages between two FBI employees to push allegations of political bias within the FBI and the sprawling probe by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is looking at whether Trump associates tried to help Russia influence last year's presidential election and whether White House officials may have sought to obstruct the investigation. Senior FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page had been part of Mueller’s team when, last summer, the Justice Department's inspector general, looking into an array of FBI actions tied to last year’s election, discovered the FBI officials' text messages and notified senior department officials. Mueller immediately removed Strzok, and by then Page had already left the team. Last month, the Justice Department released about 375 of the messages from last year, including repeated references to Trump as an “idiot.” Then on Monday, the department disclosed that five months’ worth of messages are missing. “The Inspector General discovered the FBI’s system failed to retain text messages for approximately 5 months between December 14, 2016 to May 17, 2017,” Sessions said in a statement. “We will leave no stone unturned to confirm with certainty why these text messages are not now available to be produced and will use every technology available to determine whether the missing messages are recoverable from another source.” In a tweet this morning, Trump called it “one of the biggest stories in a long time.” Last month, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein dismissed suggestions that Mueller or his probe were tainted, insisting there is nobody "better qualified for this job" and noting "political affiliation" is not the same as political "bias." "I've discussed this with Director Mueller and ... we recognize we have employees with political opinions. It's our responsibility to make sure those opinions do not influence their actions," Rosenstein told a House panel. "He is running that office appropriately, recognizing that people have political views but ensuring that those views are not in any way a factor in how they conduct themselves in office." Former FBI officials agree, with one agency veteran saying that those going after FBI officials “seem to have forgotten we are a free country, that you can have your own opinions and still uphold the Rule of Law.” “You should be able to support the candidates of your choice in an election without being called corrupt, or disloyal (to the Republic), or biased in your ability to live up to your oath to support and defend the Constitution,” Frank Montoya, who spent more than two decades with the FBI, recently told ABC News in an email. “In the Russia investigation—just like in the Clinton investigation that preceded it—investigators and prosecutors know that what they think or who they voted for doesn’t matter. What does is upholding the law. Period.” As for Wray, the White House spokesman said, “The president appointed Chris Wray because he is a man of true character and integrity, and the right choice to clean up the misconduct at the highest levels of the F.B.I. and give the rank and file confidence in their leadership.” ABC News' John Santucci contributed to this report. | |
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| 01-23-18 01:49pm - 2525 days | #5 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Lopez, the guy in bed with the other man's wife, says he (Lopez) was so desperate to get the husband out of the house he asked him "if he wanted to die". Does that sound right? The guy in bed asking if the husband wants to die? Because the guy in bed is afraid? Twist the words however you want, it sounds like the guy in bed was threatening the husband. And what does the husband answer? “Kill me. I don’t care,” the husband responded. So even though the guy in bed claims he was in fear, it was guy in bed making threats: "Do you want to die?" The guy in bed is a great bull-shitter. He twists the facts to make his story sound great. The husband is not able to build his case anywhere near as well. He can't make up stories like the guy in bed can. So the husband is the one on trial. The husband needs a lawyer who can talk as well as the guy in bed. That would be the best defense: a war of words. The article does not say the husband threatened the man in bed. The man in bed threatened the husband. Attempted murder (verified by the man asking if the husband wanted to die). | |
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| 01-22-18 05:48pm - 2526 days | #120 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The laws are different for US Congressmen and peons who are ordinary citizens. A dispute between two neighbors, one of whom is a US Senator, leads prosecutors to seek a 21-month prison sentence for the man. The federal charge against Boucher carries a punishment of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. This was not a fight to the death. This was a neighbor who was pissed off by a US Senator, because the first man thought the Senator was keeping a sloppy yard. But the man was charged with a federal crime. Everyone is equal under the law. Bullshit. Cops and politicians are given special laws and special treatment under the law. ========================== Prosecutors to seek 21-month sentence for Paul's neighbor Associated Press BRUCE SCHREINER,Associated Press 3 hours ago In this Sept. 25, 2017, file photo, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Rene Boucher, the man accused of tackling U.S. Sen. Rand Paul in the Kentucky lawmaker's yard has been charged with assaulting a member of Congress as part of a federal plea agreement. And his lawyer confirmed what has long been suggested by neighbors: The attack stemmed from a dispute about yard maintenance. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Federal prosecutors will seek a 21-month prison sentence for the man accused of tackling U.S. Sen. Rand Paul in the Kentucky lawmaker's yard, according to a court document that says the man "had enough" when he saw the Republican stacking more brush onto an existing pile. The court document filed by federal prosecutors underscored that the motive behind the attack stemmed from a dispute about yard maintenance between the two Kentucky neighbors. In comments to police, neighbor Rene Boucher indicated the attack was not politically motivated, the court document said. Instead, it had to do with a property dispute that boiled over, it said. Boucher has been charged with assaulting a member of Congress as part of a federal plea agreement that surfaced last Friday. Boucher has signed the plea agreement but no date has been set for his guilty plea for the attack on the Republican senator, according to Josh J. Minkler, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. Paul suffered several broken ribs in the attack and later developed pneumonia. Paul has since said he's recovering well from the attack. Minkler has said the charge is one "we take very seriously. Those who choose to commit such an act will be held accountable." The audio of Paul's 911 call to report the attack was released Monday. In it, Paul said he had been assaulted by a neighbor while he was mowing his yard and requested that police come by to investigate. Paul's breathing seemed a bit labored but he otherwise sounded calm. While federal prosecutors will recommend a nearly two-year prison sentence, Boucher's attorney said Monday he will argue that his client should not serve any jail time. Attorney Matt Baker said his client is "a good and a decent person" who made a "big mistake." "Everyone needs to remember, first and foremost, that this is a dispute between two neighbors," Baker said in a phone interview. "It was not and has never been politically motivated. And if this very same incident had occurred between two private persons, neither of whom were a congressman or a senator, we wouldn't be in federal court." Boucher is "very meticulous" about how he maintains his yard, while Paul takes "a much different approach" to the upkeep of his property, Baker said last week. The federal charge against Boucher carries a punishment of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The plea deal also raises the prospect that Boucher — a retired anesthesiologist in his late 50s — will pay restitution to Paul. According to the court document, Boucher said he saw Paul stacking more brush onto an existing pile and had "had enough." Boucher made a "running tackle" of Paul in the lawmaker's yard, it said. The document said Paul "did not see the attack coming until the last second, and was unable to brace for the impact." Paul, a former presidential candidate, was attacked Nov. 3 while mowing his lawn at his home in Bowling Green. A close friend of Paul's said the senator had gotten off his riding lawn mower to remove a limb when he was tackled from behind. Paul has said he never saw the attacker because he was facing downhill and wearing ear protection from the noise of his lawn mower. In a statement given to Kentucky State Police, Boucher admitted running onto Paul's property and tackling him, the court document said. In a later interview with the FBI, Boucher again confessed to tackling Paul, the document said. Minkler's office was assigned the case after a U.S. attorney in Kentucky recused himself. The case was investigated by the FBI's Louisville office. Boucher also faces a misdemeanor assault charge in state court in Kentucky. He has pleaded not guilty to that charge. ___ Adam Beam contributed reporting. | |
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| 01-22-18 05:30pm - 2526 days | #119 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump should declare martial law in Pennsylvania and make the Republican-authored Congressional Map legal. That would allow more Republicans to be elected to Congress, instead of criminal Democrats who would be opposed to Trump's leadership. End of statement. Trump is the man! ====== ====== Pennsylvania Supreme Court Strikes Down State's Congressional Map, Saying It Illegally Benefits GOP HuffPost Sam Levine,HuffPost 3 hours ago The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the state’s congressional map went so far to benefit Republicans that it violated the state constitution. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the state’s congressional map went so far to benefit Republicans that it “clearly, plainly and palpably” violated the state constitution. The court, where Democrats have a 5-2 majority, blocked the use of the map in the 2018 midterm elections, ordered state lawmakers to begin to draw a new map. The suit against the congressional map, which only challenged it under Pennsylvania’s state constitution, was one of the most watched voting rights cases in the country. The ruling could encourage groups to bring similar challenges against congressional gerrymandering cases in other states and bypass a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, which is currently considering two cases dealing with partisan gerrymandering. Pennsylvania has been described as one of the worst gerrymandered states in the country, and analyses have found the map is responsible for at least three additional GOP seats in Congress. Republicans controlled the redistricting process in 2010 and drew the map to give them a considerable advantage. In the 2012, 2014 and 2016 elections they won 13 of the state’s 18 congressional seats, despite just winning about 50 percent of the vote. The suit, brought by the League of Women Voters on behalf of 18 voters in each of the state’s congressional districts, said that GOP lawmakers had retaliated against Democratic voters for supporting Democratic candidates, violating the equal protection and free expression guarantees in the state constitution. The justices gave GOP lawmakers until Feb. 9 to submit a new map and gave Gov. Tom Wolf (D) until Feb. 15 to approve it. Should the parties fail to reach an agreement on the plan, the justices said the court would move quickly on its own to develop a constitutional congressional map. The court said the new map could be expected by Feb. 19. “Pennsylvania voters will finally be able to cast their ballots in districts that were fairly and constitutionally drawn,” David Gersch, one of the lawyers who argued the case on behalf of the plaintiffs, said in a call with reporters on Monday. “This is a tremendous day for Pennsylvania, tremendous day for the voters and it’s also a tremendous step by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.The current map is the worst map in Pennsylvania’s history.” The justices indicated the state’s congressional primary on May 15 would proceed as scheduled. The court only issued an order on Monday and said a full opinion would follow. In a dissenting statement, the court’s two Republicans, Chief Justice Thomas Saylor and Sallie Updyke Mundy, said they would not have issued a ruling until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on its partisan gerrymandering cases. They agreed with a lower court’s finding, however, that the map raised “substantial concerns” about constitutional viability. In a separate dissenting opinion, Mundy expressed concern with the vagueness of the court’s order, arguing it had instructed the legislature to redraw the state’s congressional map without giving it any guidance on how to do so. Justice Max Baer (D) wrote an opinion joining the majority in part and dissenting in part. He said he would have held off on redrawing the congressional map until 2020 so it didn’t throw the state’s 2018 midterm elections into chaos and confusion. At oral arguments in Harrisburg last week, lawyers for House Speaker Michael Turzai (R) and Senate President Tempore Joseph Scarnati (R) defended the map, saying that courts had never articulated a standard for when partisan gerrymandering was so egregious that it could be unconstitutional. E. Mark Braden, a lawyer for Turzai, said it was inconceivable that a political body like a legislature, which is constitutionally tasked with drawing lines for Congress, would not take partisan considerations into account. Scarnati and Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R) criticized the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision on Monday, saying they intended to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block the order to redraw the map. “Today’s ruling by the State Supreme Court is a partisan action showing a distinct lack of respect for the Constitution and the legislative process. The PA Supreme Court has overstepped its legal authority and set up an impossible deadline that will only introduce chaos in the upcoming Congressional election. The Court had this case since Nov. 9, 2017 ― giving it over 10 weeks to reach this decision,” they said in a joint statement. “Yet, it has elected to give the legislature 19 days to redraw and adopt the Congressional Districts. With matters the Supreme Court found unconstitutional in the past, it afforded the General Assembly four months to make corrections.” The statement continued, saying: “It is clear that with this ruling the Court is attempting to bypass the Constitution and the legislative process and legislate themselves, directly from the bench.” R. Stanton Jones, another lawyer for the plaintiffs, told reporters that any appeal would be unsuccessful because the challenge to the congressional map was only brought under the state constitution, not the federal one. “It’s well established that the United States Supreme Court does not review decisions of state court that exclusively construe state law, which is the exact situation you have here,” Jones said. “When people talk about federalism, the concept of federalism, this is an important part of it. The United States Supreme Court doesn’t get to tell a state’s highest court what is state law, in this case Pennsylvania law.” Democrats praised the court’s verdict. “This ruling is one more example of the courts telling Republican legislatures that drawing district lines for partisan purposes violates our democratic principles,” said former Attorney General Eric Holder, now head of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, in a statement. “What the Republican party has been doing diminishes the voting power of Americans and contributes to the polarization of our political system. This year, Pennsylvania voters can finally look forward to casting ballots under a fair and legal congressional map.” This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 01-21-18 10:07am - 2527 days | #118 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump is the man! Read the article below, and see how well Trump is doing as President.... === === Politics Trump's Biggest Con May Be The One He Has Played On American Workers HuffPost Jonathan Cohn,HuffPost Sat, Jan 20 5:00 AM PST The Donald Trump presidency is now one year old and in many respects ― the unhinged tweeting, the contempt for democratic norms, the potential collusion with a hostile foreign power ― it has been unlike any presidency in history. But there is one respect in which Trump’s tenure in office has been rather ordinary: his administration’s year-long effort to push familiar Republican initiatives that shift money and power towards corporations and the rich, and away from everybody else. No, this is not the kind of presidency that Trump promised. As a candidate, he portrayed himself as a different sort of Republican, one who would attack the financial industry, govern independently of wealthy special interests, and protect public programs on which poor and middle-class Americans depend. On Inauguration Day, speaking from the steps of the Capitol building, Trump reaffirmed those allegiances and priorities: “We are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington D.C., and giving it back to you, the people.” Of course, when Trump vowed to protect “the forgotten men and women of our country,” he likely had a specific subset of men and women in mind ― working-class Americans and, in particular, white working-class Americans. Stoking their racial resentment has been a theme of his presidency, just as it was a theme of his candidacy. In public, Trump has assailed African-American football players for protesting during the national anthem. In private, he has said he wants to stop letting in immigrants from “shithole” (or, in some versions, “shithouse”) countries. In that sense, he has been exactly the kind of president he promised to be. But the attacks on people of color, both abroad and home, look less and less like an effort to protect his supporters and more and more like a smokescreen for policies that will leave them ― along with most poor and middle-class Americans ― worse off than they were before. In a presidency that already has a reputation for dishonesty and graft, what Trump policies are doing to America’s workers may be the biggest con of all. Giving Big Tax Breaks For The Wealthy By far the clearest example of this is the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, which the Republican Congress passed and Trump signed in December. The legislation showers the vast majority of its benefits on businesses, investors and the wealthy ― by permanently reducing taxes for corporations, the owners of “pass-through” businesses, and holders of large estates. And although it also lowers some taxes for lower- and middle-income households, those cuts are smaller and temporary. Ten years out, once the law takes full effect, more than half of all taxpayers will be paying more and most of the rest will see no change, according to analysis by the Tax Policy Center. (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) Trump and his allies say those numbers don’t matter, because the tax cut will mean higher wages and more jobs ― both of which will benefit American workers. And lately Trump has been touting news of one-time bonuses that companies are offering, supposedly because of the tax cut, as vindication of the GOP argument. But many of those same companies are laying off workers. And, in any event, the test of the tax cut’s impact will be what it mean over the long term. In a survey of 42 top economists by the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, just one ― one! ― thought Republican tax cuts would significantly improve growth. The tax cut is Trump’s only major legislative accomplishment, but it wasn’t supposed to be. He and his congressional partners spent more of the year focusing on health care, as they tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The effort fell short, in no small part because GOP repeal proposals looked nothing like what Trump had promised. Instead of providing better, cheaper health care to all Americans ― a vow Trump made repeatedly in his campaign, sometimes using it to distinguish himself from rival GOP candidates ― repeal would have meant millions of poor and middle-class Americans losing their coverage. Some younger and healthier people would have ended up saving money, but only because older, sicker people would have ended up spending more ― or going without insurance altogether. Stymied on the legislative front, Trump has carried on his war against “Obamacare” by using his executive authority. And here he has been more successful. He cut funding for advertising for HealthCare.gov and for the groups that assist people with enrollment. He cut off a key set of payments to insurers, prompting some to raise rates and others to abandon markets altogether. And he’s given states a green light to change their Medicaid programs in ways that will make it harder for poor people, especially those with chronic physical and mental health problems, to get and keep coverage. Undoing Rules To Protect Workers And Consumers Trump’s tax cut and health care efforts have gotten a ton of attention. But they by no means capture the full extent of his governing agenda ― or the different ways his policies break his promise to American workers. In March, Trump signed a Republican bill rescinding the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Act, an Obama-era law that required federal contractors to disclose and then address violations of labor law and worker safety regulations. In August, the Trump administration announced it was postponing implementation of the so-called fiduciary rule ― another Obama-era legacy ― that requires investment managers to act in the best interests of their clients. It’s widely understood that the administration is merely buying time for a more formal rewrite or outright repeal of the regulation. They’re just pandering to big corporations, They don’t care about family farms. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) on a Trump administration regulatory change In October, the Trump administration confirmed that it intended to rewrite Obama’s rewrite of overtime rules, which would have extended overtime pay to more than 12 million workers. The Trump administration intends to scale that back, although not completely. And just last week, the Trump administration announced it was putting the brakes on new regulations for payday lenders, designed to stop them from exploiting low-wage workers by loading them up with unpayable debts. Another major thrust of Trump’s agenda is protecting businesses from lawsuits, even when they act in ways that exploit or harm consumers ― helping to foster what Mike Konczal, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, has called a “Grifter Economy.” An example of this was the reversal of yet another Obama-era rule that, for the first time, exposed banks and credit card companies to class action lawsuits by consumers who believed they were victims of fraud. The Trump administration and its allies claimed this was an effort to help consumers, because class action lawsuits merely enrich trial lawyers. But, as consumer advocates point out, fear of class action suits and their potentially big awards are precisely what it takes to keep large financial institutions in line. Weakening Protections For Factory Workers And Farmers In some ways, though, the most revealing policy changes of Trump’s first year are the ones that affect the very groups he always claims to champion. Trump frequently talks about factory workers, and just this week he was in western Pennsylvania pledging to fight for them. But in the past year he has delayed implementation of rules designed to protect workers from inhaling toxic substances, including beryllium (a major hazard for steelworkers) and silica dust (a major hazard in construction). The plan, once again, is to scale back the rules in ways that expose many more workers to the hazards. Yet another group that Trump loves to champion is farmers. But Trump this year overturned a regulation that made it easier for independent farmers to sue food companies and large agricultural conglomerates. And now the Environmental Protection Agency is talking about rescinding regulations that prohibit underage workers from handling toxic pesticides. When defending the change in farmer lawsuits, Trump administration officials made the same basic argument they did for most of their regulatory changes: that they were merely reducing frivolous lawsuits and eliminating paperwork, so that businesses can create more jobs. The idea that regulation stifles the economy, ultimately hurting consumers or workers more than they help, is one that conservatives believe sincerely ― and that, in any given case, is a reasonable subject for debate. But on the rule change for farmers, even some of the president’s allies thought it was more about helping powerful friends. “They’re just pandering to big corporations,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said. “They don’t care about family farms.” In public, Trump always suggests otherwise. Whether he’s talking about rules for farmers or bankers, or changes to taxes or health care, he always says what he did at the Capitol a year ago ― that he’s fighting powerful interests and protecting the “forgotten American.” But in private, Trump has been known to present his accomplishments in a different light. In December, just hours after signing the tax cut, Trump was back in Florida at his exclusive Mar-o-Lago club, where initiation fees are $200,000. While dining with some friends and supporters, CBS News later reported, Trump told them what they probably knew already: “You all just got a lot richer.” | |
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| 01-21-18 09:40am - 2527 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Man catches his wife cheating on him in bed, and is facing 15 years jail. Man should have shot his wife and the asshole in bed with her. The man could have claimed the asshole had stolen his iPad and threatened him. Instead, the asshole is complaining he was terrified because the man found him in bed with the other man's wife. ------- ------- Why this man who barged in on his cheating wife could go to jail for 15 years Cindy Arboleda 20 hours ago Sean Donis is facing charges of felony burglary and unlawful surveillance after catching his then-wife in bed with her boss. (Photo: Facebook) A husband caught his wife cheating, and now he’s facing up to 15 years in jail. Sean Donis’s wife, Nancy Donis, 38, said she was going to dinner. Donis stayed behind to watch their 5-year-old son. When he couldn’t find his iPad, he turned on the Find My iPhone app to locate it. The software showed the electronic device moving toward an unknown location; he had a hunch that his wife had taken it, and he decided to follow. He arrived at a house and opened the unlocked door. On the second floor, he found his wife in bed with her boss, Albert Lopez, 58. With his iPhone, he recorded two brief videos of them in bed. The New Jersey man got a letter last July informing him that a grand jury had indicted him on charges of felony burglary and unlawful surveillance for the April 2016 incident. “I feel like it’s unjust what they’re doing to me,” said Donis, 37, to the New York Post in September. “It’s like I’m being punished twice.” He appeared in court in September, where he pleaded not guilty. His second appearance happened on Friday. “I was in fear,” Lopez testified of the moment when Donis caught him in bed with his wife. “I kept telling him, you need to get out of here,” Lopez told the jury hearing Donis’s felony burglary case. Donis’s wife worked for Lopez as the billing manager for his orthopedics practice. Lopez said he was so desperate to get the enraged husband out of his home that he asked Donis “if he wanted to die.” “Kill me. I don’t care,” he said the desperate husband responded. The incident left Lopez traumatized. “I couldn’t go to sleep. I had repeated memories of what occurred. I started to go through the house and check all the doors and make sure they were locked,” he said. Lopez also noted that Donis’s wife said they were separated, and he thought Donis was out of the picture. The husband’s lawyer, Howard Greenberg, told jurors that the husband actually “deserves a medal,” not a prison sentence, for uncovering his wife’s unfaithfulness without physically harming his rival. “The defendant should be given a medal for the amount of restraint he showed when he entered that scene,” Greenberg told the jury. However, despite the fact that Lopez slept with Donis’s wife, prosecutor Nabeela Mcleod asserted that Lopez was a victim — a victim of Donis’s breaking and entering his home and recording him and Donis’s wife without their consent (Donis shared the videos with his wife’s relatives). He now faces a possible maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. | |
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| 01-21-18 05:30am - 2528 days | #117 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
You need to use the URL to see a photo of a Tump-loving woman dressed like Wonder Woman. This is what makes America great! To see Wonder Woman, supporting President Donald Trump, against the pussy feminists who are trying to destroy America. Edit: I enjoyed the recent Wonder Woman film. But if I had seen this photo first, I don't know if I would have enjoyed, or even seen, the movie. Because this woman is not my idea of Wonder Woman. LOL. ---- ---- https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/trump-lo...teful-013147198.html Trump-loving conservative women protest the Women's March: 'A feminist is someone who is kind of hateful' Yahoo Lifestyle Beth Greenfield,Yahoo Lifestyle 11 hours ago Laura Zulema of Sacramento, Calif. at the Conservative Women for America counter-protest in Las Vegas on Saturday. (Photo: RONDA CHURCHILL for YAHOO) With any major protest march come counter-protesters. And on Saturday Jan. 20, when hundreds of Women’s March anniversary events flooded the streets in cities and towns across the country, handfuls of dissenters were reportedly there to yell back, from Seattle and Los Angeles to Dallas and Boston (and in Knoxville, Tenn., where a women’s march event is slated for Sunday, a neo-Nazis group has promised to disrupt it). In Las Vegas, where the main national Women’s March event — a rally called Power to the Polls — is set for Sunday morning, a minor counter protest got a jump on the action. Conservative Women for America, an event mobilized through Facebook and hosted by the Make California Great PAC, brought a small but passionate bunch of about 100 Trump supporters (split about evenly between men and women, despite the name) to the grounds of the Grant Sawyer State Office Building on Saturday. Wayne Allyn Root, USA Radio Network host, takes the podium next to life-size cut-outs of Donald and Melania Trump. (Photo: RONDA CHURCHILL for YAHOO) Dubbed “a day of celebration, community, and hope,” it kicked off Friday night with a meet-and-greet on the Las Vegas Strip at Trump International Hotel, and continued with a four-hour lineup of speakers — Conservative radio hosts, bloggers, anti-abortion activists, and aspiring politicians among them. Those present came mostly from California and Nevada, but from as far away as Ohio and South Carolina. Some wore red Make America Great Again caps or “Fight Sanctuary State America” T-shirts, while a few waved large American flags. A life-size cardboard cutout of Donald and Melania Trump stood just next to the speakers’ podium, blowing over at one point in the afternoon’s fierce wind. Victoria Muñoz came from California on Saturday. (Photo: RONDA CHURCHILL for YAHOO) “This is to counter their narrative,” event co-organizer Lisa Collins told Yahoo Lifestyle, referring to the Women’s March activists. When fellow organizer Carrie Fleming learned of the Power to the Polls event in Las Vegas a month ago, Collins said, “It was offensive to her… To wear pussyhats on your head is really offensive. Plus they take a lot of liberty in saying they represent all women.” She, like many who voiced their opinions at the event, did not hesitate to denounce feminism. “I think being a feminist means pro-abortion, emasculating your men, and no room for any common ground or dialogue,” Collins, of Crestline, Calif., said. She praised Donald Trump for his stances on illegal immigration, terrorism, and the media. Laura Zulema had come from Sacramento for the counter-protest, and she brought plenty of spirit — wearing a Wonder Woman costume and waving a massive black-white-and-blue American flag (originally meant to symbolize the sacrifices of law enforcers but appearing en masse in August during the white supremacist protests in Charlottesville). A small Conservative Women for America counter-protest took place in Las Vegas ahead of the Women’s March event. (Photo: RONDA CHURCHILL for YAHOO) “I feel like Wonder Woman represents everyone, but she is now misconstrued as a feminist,” Zulema said. “And a feminist is someone who is kind of hateful — they make themselves into victims instead of strengthening themselves. They are extreme, and they talk down about men.” Still, Zulema said she also planned to attend the Power to the Polls event on Sunday, and had hope that it would be more “all-inclusive” than she felt it was last year. Victoria Muñoz of Northern California, who made the trip with a friend, agreed. “I’m not a feminist. Never have been,” she said. “I love Trump,” she added, because she wants “the wall,” and because “I pay too much taxes and I’m still poor.” Regarding Linda Sarsour, Muñoz said, referring to one the Women’s March co-chair, she gave a hearty thumbs-down signal. Lisa Collins, of Crestline, Calif., was a co-organizer of the Conservative Women for America rally in Las Vegas. (PHOTO: RONDA CHURCHILL for YAHOO) Sarsour, the hijab-wearing feminist who formerly headed the Arab American Association of New York, was a favorite target of criticism among many of the day’s speakers — although feminism (which one male speaker dubbed “a cancer”), pussyhats, pro-choice women, and sanctuary cities were also jabbed and booed. Jessica Martinez is running for office in California. (Photo: RONDA CHURCHILL for YAHOO) Jessica Martinez of La Habra, Calif., who is running for a seat in the state’s 57th Assembly District, said she made the trip on Saturday because she is “pro-life, pro- the Second Amendment, pro-jobs, and pro-working families.” Erin Sith, of San Francisco, addressed the Las Vegas counter-protestors on Saturday. (Photo: RONDA CHURCHILL for YAHOO) The Second Amendment held a particularly important place in the heart of another speaker, Erin Sith of San Francisco, who is rare in that she is an outspoken Conservative woman and gun enthusiast who is also transgender. “My opinions don’t fall within a narrow range,” she said, noting that she had also come to Las Vegas to attend the Shot Show later this week. And on Saturday, she appeared happy to be among like-minded individuals, noting, “As I like to say, it’s easier to come out as LGBT than it is to come out as Conservative.” | |
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| 01-21-18 04:30am - 2528 days | #116 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Republicans are the leaders of our moral country. Can a Republican attack another Republican, since both are automatically the good guys? Never. Republicans can only attack Democrats. Democrats are the cause of all evils in the US. So it's only right for Republicans to expose and attack Democrats. But here is a case where a Republican seems to question the moral authority of a fellow Republican. Is this right? Is this allowed? ----- ----- Congressman denies misconduct claim; ethics probe may follow Associated Press MARC LEVY,Associated Press 11 hours ago Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the Capitol on June 21, 2017. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images) HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — House Speaker Paul Ryan called for an Ethics Committee investigation Saturday after the New York Times reported that U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan used taxpayer money to settle a complaint that stemmed from his hostility toward a former aide who rejected his romantic overtures. The story, published online Saturday, cited unnamed people who said the Republican Pennsylvania representative used thousands of dollars from his congressional office fund to settle the sexual harassment complaint the ex-aide filed last summer to the congressional Office of Compliance. In a statement, Ryan's spokeswoman said the allegations must be investigated "fully and immediately" by the House Ethics Committee and that Meehan would immediately submit himself to the committee's review. Meehan is being removed from his position on the committee, and Ryan told Meehan that he should repay any taxpayer funds that were used to settle the case, Ryan's spokeswoman said. The Times did not identify the accuser and said she did not speak to the newspaper. In a statement, the four-term congressman's office denied that Meehan sexually harassed or mistreated the ex-aide. It also said Meehan, the former U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, had asked congressional lawyers who handled the case to ask the ex-aide's lawyer to dissolve the settlement's confidentiality requirements "to ensure a full and open airing of all the facts." "Throughout his career he has always treated his colleagues, male and female, with the utmost respect and professionalism," Meehan's office said. The accuser's lawyer, Alexis Ronickher, called the allegations "well-grounded" and rejected the idea of doing away with confidentiality. Meehan is trying to victimize her client twice by revealing the woman's identity and litigating the case in the media, Ronickher said. Ronickher called it a "dirty political maneuver" by Meehan and an effort to save his political career by making it look like he's being transparent. "Mr. Meehan demanded confidentiality to resolve the matter, presumably so that the public would never know that he entered into a settlement of a serious sexual harassment claim," Ronickher said. Ronickher said the Ethics Committee investigation must include the fact that Meehan, in his Saturday statement responding to the Times article, "knowingly breached confidentiality in his agreement by discussing the case and the terms of any potential settlement agreement." Meehan's office did not respond to questions about whether he used taxpayer money to settle the case or whether he would submit to the Ethics Committee investigation. However, his office said Meehan would only act with advice of House lawyers and in line with House Ethics Committee guidance to resolve any allegation. "Every step of the process was handled ethically and appropriately," Meehan's office said. Meehan represents a closely divided district that Democrat Hillary Clinton narrowly won in the 2016 presidential election. Calls from Democrats for Meehan to resign were immediate, including one from Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who said the U.S. House should investigate "how this matter was handled from top to bottom." | |
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| 01-20-18 07:52pm - 2528 days | #115 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump states Democrats are complicit in murders committed by illegal immigrants. Will he put all Democrats in jail? Will he have to execute these enemies of the US? Stay tuned, for further developments, as Trump explains how he will cleanse America of illegal immigrants and complicit Democrats. Will Trump allow Democrats to hold lawful US citizens hostage, while he is fighting to clean our political system of traitors and bigots and criminals. Paid for by the committee to re-elect Donald Trump, the greatest American since Abraham Lincoln. ---- ---- Thomson Reuters Jan 20th 2018 7:18PM WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's presidential campaign on Saturday issued a new video ad calling Democrats "complicit" in murders committed by illegal immigrants, during a government shutdown partly triggered by an impasse over immigration. The Trump campaign released the ad, titled "Complicit," on the anniversary of the Republican president's inauguration. It focuses on an undocumented immigrant, Luis Bracamontes, charged in the 2014 killings of two police officers in Sacramento, California. The man's lawyers had questioned his sanity but a judge found him mentally competent to stand trial, according to a report last week in the Sacramento Bee. "Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants," the ad says. The new ad is likely to anger Democrats and immigration advocates and could inflame tensions over the issue on Capitol Hill, where Democrats and Republicans were working through the weekend to reach an agreement that would reopen the government. A news release announcing the ad blamed Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer for the shutdown, accusing him and Democrats of "holding lawful citizens hostage over their demands for amnesty for illegal immigrants." Schumer's spokesman said in an email, "This is a shameless attempt by the president to distract from the Trump shutdown. Rather than campaigning, he should do his job and negotiate a deal to open the government address the needs of the American people." "It's a campaign ad, which tend to be extreme, but this is completely divorced from reality and full of fear and hate," said Melanie Nezer, vice president of the refugee agency HIAS. Trump filed for re-election the day he took office, an unusual move that has allowed him to begin campaigning long before the November 2020 election. Historically, incumbent presidents have waited two years, until after the midterm elections, to file formally. On Friday, most Senate Democrats opposed a bill that would have avoided the shutdown, because their efforts to include protections for hundreds of thousands of mostly young immigrants, known as Dreamers, were rejected by Trump and Republican leaders. The Dreamers were brought illegally into the United States as children, and given temporary legal status under a program started by former President Barack Obama. (Reporting by Ginger Gibson and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Alistair Bell) More from Aol.com: | |
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| 01-20-18 09:21am - 2528 days | #114 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Celebrity Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose Gets Woke Over Devin Nunes; Twitter Roars HuffPost Mary Papenfuss,HuffPost 9 hours ago Guns N’ Roses’ frontman Axl Rose had an incredibly pithy take Friday on Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and his role in the latest assault on special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. “Fuck Nunes,” he tweeted. And Twitter exploded. Fans were beside themselves that their man finally got woke. There were lots of “welcome to the jungles” in honor of the Guns N’ Roses hit song. All it took for Axl’s tweet was a story floated by the Republicans that the Obama administration spied on Donald Trump’s campaign team by allegedly abusing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It’s all there in a secret four-page memo viewed by members of Congress. The problem? It’s written by Republicans, orchestrated by Nunes and, Democrats complain, designed to try to cut Mueller’s probe off at the knees. Whatever it takes to get Axl going. One of his fans even managed to unearth an ancient photo of the congressman long before he was head of the House Intelligence Committee. To be fair, the singer has been plenty woke for a while about current political events. He has slammed Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the “disgraceful” White House. Back in October he criticized Mike Pence for his estimated $200,000 trip to an Indianapolis Colts game just so the vice president could storm out when some members of the visiting San Francisco 49ers predictably took a knee in protest of racial injustice. In 2016, Rose invited fans to the stage at a Mexico City concert to beat a pinata that looked like Trump. Many of his 1.2 million followers on Twitter seem to want the musician speak up more often. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 01-20-18 08:49am - 2528 days | #113 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Now is the time to attack China and Russia and North Korea. Before our military advantage erodes, and we start to live in fear of our foreign enemies. Nuke them NOW! Before it's too late. Trump-fan, for a stronger and greater America. ----- ----- China rebukes U.S. military for alleged close encounter in South China Sea By Sam Howard | Jan. 20, 2018 at 8:44 AM China says the USS Hopper, center in this 2009 file photo, was involved in a close encounter near a Chinese island in the South China Sea this week. File photo by Michael A. Lantron/U.S. Navy/UPI | License Photo Jan. 20 (UPI) -- The Chinese Ministry of Defense said the United States violated their nation's sovereignty when the USS Hopper reportedly maneuvered near a Chinese island in the South China Sea this week. While speaking Saturday, ministry spokesman Wu Qian warned the U.S. against causing "trouble out of nothing." Wu said a Chinese missile destroyer had to drive off the USS Hopper, a U.S. guided missile destroyer, after the ship ventured near Huangyan Island, which is near the western coast of the Philippines. The South China Morning Post reported another ministry spokesman said the Hopper was within 12 nautical miles of the island on Wednesday. "China is strongly dissatisfied with the [U.S. action] and will take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its sovereignty," the second spokesman, Lu Kang, said. A Southeast Asia affairs specialist at the Chinese Academy of Social Science told the Post that the encounter this week would mark the closest a U.S. destroyer has ever sailed to Chinese-claimed islands in the South China Sea. "The South China Sea will be the ground on which the two powers will wrestle for military power," Zhang Jie said. "It has become a long-term conflict." This week, the U.S. Defense Department issued a new National Defense Strategy, which maintained that the U.S. military advantage over China is "eroding." | |
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| 01-20-18 07:46am - 2529 days | #112 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Why has President Trump let criminals like Crooked Hilary and Fake Obama (who does not possess a valid US birth certificate) stay out of jail? Throw the criminals in jail for their crimes. Is there collusion between Trump and the Clinton and Obama families? Shame on Trump, for not draining Washington of the Clinton-Obama swamp of lies and deceits, as Trump promised repeatedly during his campaign for President. On a side note, Jared Kushner has had "suspicious transactions" at Deutsche Bank. No one is above the law. Throw Jared Kushner in jail NOw!!! What if Kushner is blackmailing President Trump, so Kushner can take the President's daughter to bed and do all kinds of dirty things to her? Free Ivanka Trump, an angel from heaven, from the clutches of that suspicious figure Jared Kushner. ------- ------- Politics Deutsche Bank Willing To Report Jared Kushner’s ‘Suspicious Transactions’ To Robert Mueller: Report Newsweek Jessica Kwong,Newsweek 15 hours ago A German bank reportedly has evidence of “suspicious transactions” related to Jared Kushner’s family accounts and is willing to hand the information over to Russia probe special counsel Robert Mueller. The board chairman of the banking giant Deutsche Bank, Paul Achleitner, called for an internal investigation and found troubling results, German business magazine Manager Magazin reported in its print edition released on Friday. Deutsche Bank—a major lender to President Donald Trump and his son-in-law and senior White House advisor Kushner, according to Mother Jones—provided the results to the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, which is Germany’s bank regulatory agency and referred to as BaFin. Trending: Tourists Warned Not to Leave Resorts in Jamaica After Murder Spike 01_19_18_KushnerBank U.S. president's senior advisor Jared Kushner is seen during a welcome ceremony at the presidential palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on May 23, 2017. THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images “Achleitner’s internal detectives were embarrassed to deliver their interim report regarding real estate tycoon Kushner to the financial regulator BaFin,” states the Manager Magazin story translated from German to English. “Their finding: There are indications that Donald Trump’s son-in-law or persons or companies close to him could have channeled suspicious monies through Deutsche Bank as part of their business dealings.” No details on the suspicious money transfer were reported. The bank is worried about what the results will mean for its image, according to Manager Magazin. Don't miss: Is the President Making Money Off the White House? Trump Properties Made $1.2 Million From Political Groups Last Year “What BaFin will do about [the bank’s findings] is not the bank’s greatest concern,” the German magazine reported. “Rather, it’s the noise that U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller … will make in his pursuit of Trump. For he will likely obtain this information—a giant risk to [the bank’s] reputation.” | |
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| 01-20-18 01:48am - 2529 days | #111 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Is Trump merely human, or is he the greatest President we've ever had? Sexwise, he seems to prefer plain vanilla. At least, according to Stormy Daniels. ----- ----- All the dirty details of Trump’s alleged porn star affair By Natalie Musumeci January 19, 2018 | 10:12am | Updated Modal Trigger Donald Trump gloated about how good he looked on the cover of a magazine before having unprotected sex with porn star Stormy Daniels — who mocked his famed mane before doing the deed with the future president, according to the much-anticipated full interview about the alleged encounter. Daniels — whose real name is Stephanie Clifford — claimed to In Touch, which published the full transcript of the explosive 2011 interview Friday, how she and Trump had “textbook generic” sex followed by Trump calling her from a blocked number “about every 10 days” after their alleged 2006 tryst. After the buxom blonde met the then 60-year-old real-estate mogul at a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada in July 2006 – while Trump was married to Melania and when their son Barron was three-months-old – he invited her to the penthouse room where he was staying at Harrah’s hotel, Daniels dished to the mag. “I went in and I was all dressed up because I had just assumed that we were going to go to dinner, but he meant to have dinner in his room. Like he wasn’t dressed to go out at all, just lounging,” she told In Touch reporter Jordi Lippe-McGraw. Daniels said she remembered “taking a jab at him,” because Trump was “all sprawled out on the couch, watching television or something. He was wearing pajama pants. And I was like, ‘Ha, does Mr. Hefner know that you stole his outfit?’” Trump and Daniels chatted for hours over dinner in his hotel room, where he bragged about himself and how he could get Daniels on his NBC television series, “The Apprentice,” before he asked her to sit on the bed with him, she claimed. “He kept showing me he was on the cover of a magazine that had just come out and it was some sort of money magazine,” she said. “[H]e had it in the room and he kept showing it to me and I was like, ‘Dude, I know who you are.’” “[H]e was very full of himself, like he was trying to impress me or something. But I do remember he just kept talking about this magazine that he was on the cover of, like, ‘Look at this magazine, don’t I look great on the cover?’” Daniels told In Touch. During the conversation, Daniels said, she teased Trump about his hair. “I was like, ‘Dude, what’s up with that?’ and he laughed and he said, ‘You know, everybody wants to give me a makeover and I’ve been offered all this money and all these free treatments.’” She added: “And I was like, ‘What is the deal? Don’t you want to upgrade that? Come on, man.’ He said that he thought that if he cut his hair or changed it, that he would lose his power and his wealth. And I laughed hysterically at him.” During the encounter, Daniels said she briefly mentioned Melania and Trump replied, “Oh, don’t worry about her,” she said. At one point, Daniels said, she went to the bathroom and when she came out, Trump was sitting on the bed. “[He] was like, ‘Come here.’ And I was like, ‘Ugh, here we go.’ And we started kissing. I actually don’t even know why I did it but I do remember while we were having sex, I was like, ‘Please don’t try to pay me.’ And then I remember thinking, ‘But I bet if he did, it would be a lot.’” The porn star said the “sex was nothing crazy.” “He wasn’t like, chain me to the bed or anything. It was one position. I can definitely describe his junk perfectly, if I ever have to. He definitely seemed smitten after that. He was like, ‘I wanna see you again, when can I see you again?’” she said. Daniels, who revealed that the two did not use a condom when asked by Lippe-McGraw, said, “It was textbook generic. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh my God, I love you.’ He wasn’t like Fabio or anything. He wasn’t trying to have, like, porn sex.” The next night, Daniels said, Trump had Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger walk her to her hotel room after she hung out with them both during a party. “It was in the downstairs of the hotel I was in and he [Trump] was hanging out with Ben Roethlisberger. When I got there, he [Trump] was already with him,” Daniels told the magazine. She said Trump had his bodyguard, “Keith,” call her and ask whether she was coming to the party. “When I got there, I called Keith and he told me where he was sitting and he brought me over. And he was hanging out with Ben for a long time,” she said. “A couple other people around, nobody famous. Mostly people trying to hang on to them. Ben had just won the Super Bowl that year. Donald excused himself.” She added that when Trump left, “he made Ben promise to take care of me. I stayed another 15-20 minutes and Ben Roethlisberger actually walked me up to my room that night because Donald told him to. Yeah, he walked me all the way to my hotel room.” Daniels said that after she slept with Trump, he called her from a blocked number “about every 10 days,” asking when he could see her again, according to the interview. “He never was like, ‘Let’s f–k.’ But come on,” Daniels said. Following the tryst, Trump proceeded to call Daniels repeatedly from a blocked number, asking when he could see her again, she said. During another encounter with Daniels, she said in the interview, Trump commented on her looks, saying she was beautiful and “I love your little nose, it’s like a beet.” “I go, ‘Did you say a beet? Like, what the f—?’ I started giving him a hard time about it. And he goes, ‘No, no, no, no! It’s majestic. It’s a very smart nose, like an eagle.’ I was like, ‘Just keep digging, dude. Keep digging that hole,’” Daniels told the outlet. Daniels admitted to the magazine that she had remorse following her affair with the married Trump. “At the time, I didn’t think that much about it. But now that I have a baby that’s the same age that his was at the time, I’m like, ‘Wow, what a d—.’” She added: “[I]f I was his wife and I found out that my husband stuck his d— in a hundred girls, I would be less mad about that than the fact that he went to dinner and had like this ongoing relationship.” The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Trump’s lawyer paid Daniels $130,000 weeks before the presidential election to keep quiet about the 2006 affair. Both Daniels and Trump have denied the tryst. | |
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| 01-20-18 01:34am - 2529 days | #110 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Thank God the US government is shutting down. There's no funding for the goverment to operate. So, if they can't pay their bills, they are shutting down. This means the US government won't be piling up bills we can't pay. Trump, the greatest President we ever had. "If the shutdown were to continue, scores of federal agencies across the country would be unable to continue operating, and hundreds of thousands of "non-essential" federal workers would be put on temporary unpaid leave." My solution: fire the "non-essential" workers. Convert the temporary unpaid leave to firing those workers who are draining the US government of moneys needed to build the Great Wall to keep out the unwashed masses threatening our great country. My country tis of thee. Go, Trump! --- --- U.S. government shuts down as Senate short of votes for spending bill Thomson Reuters Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell Jan 20th 2018 12:28AM WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government shut down on Friday night at midnight after the Senate failed to come up with the votes needed to approve a bill to keep the federal government running, although high-level negotiations continued. In a dramatic late-night session, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell left voting open despite appearing to fall well short of the 60 votes needed to keep alive a stopgap bill that would fund the government through Feb. 16. As the clock ticked toward midnight, McConnell and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer huddled in negotiations in a room just off the Senate floor, with an early vote Saturday morning on the table. But the two sides could not come to an agreement before the government technically ran out of money at midnight on the first anniversary of President Donald Trump's inauguration. If the shutdown were to continue, scores of federal agencies across the country would be unable to continue operating, and hundreds of thousands of "non-essential" federal workers would be put on temporary unpaid leave. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a stopgap funding measure on Thursday. But Republicans then needed the support of at least 10 Democrats to pass the bill in the Senate. Democratic leaders demanded that the measure include protections for hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants known as "Dreamers" who arrived in the United States as children with their parents. Republicans refused and neither side has been willing to back down. Trump last week rejected a bipartisan proposal, saying he wanted to include any deal for Dreamers in a bigger legislative package that also boosts funding for a border wall and tighter security at the U.S. border with Mexico. In a shutdown, "essential" employees who deal with public safety and national security would keep working. That includes more than 1.3 million people on active duty in the military who would be required to work and would not be paid until funding is renewed. Although past government shutdowns have done little lasting damage to the U.S. economy, they can rattle financial markets. A political battle between Democrats and Republicans over who is to blame immediately ensued with the White House releasing a statement calling Dems "obstructionist losers" just moments after the clock struck midnight. This week's showdown follows a months-long struggle in Congress to agree on government funding levels and the immigration issue. Democrats have demanded the bill include protections from deportation for about 700,000 Dreamers, who are predominantly from Mexico and Central America and were given temporary legal status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program started by former President Barack Obama. In September, Trump announced he was ending the program and giving Congress until March 5 to come up with a legislative replacement. Democrats say the search for a deal has been hurt by Trump sending contradictory messages about what kind of bipartisan immigration proposal he would accept. (Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton and Jim Oliphant; Editing by Kieran Murray and Leslie Adler) From Our Partners | |
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| 01-20-18 01:22am - 2529 days | #109 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump demands that babies not be born in the ninth month. Will he pass laws denying those babies US citizenship? Will he force those babies to emigrate to another country? Stay tuned, for further developments. ==== ==== Health Trump Demands Babies Not Be Born After Nine Months: No, Really, He Said This The Wrap Tim Molloy,The Wrap 13 hours ago Trump Demands Babies Not Be Born After Nine Months: No, Really, He Said This President Trump made one of his more confusing slips on Friday, appearing to defy the laws of nature by insisting: “Right now, in a number of states, the laws allow a baby to be born from his or her mother’s womb in the ninth month. It is wrong. It has to change.” What he meant to say, apparently, was that the laws in a number of states allow a baby to be aborted in the ninth month. He’s wrong about that, too. Trump spoke at an anti-abortion rally, and his words quickly ricocheted around social media. We can assume he meant to say that several states allow babies to be aborted in the ninth month because he’s said that before. During an Oct. 19, 2016, presidential debate, he said of his opponent, Hillary Clinton: “If you go with what Hillary is saying, in the ninth month, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby … Now, you can say that that’s OK and Hillary can say that that’s OK. But it’s not OK with me, because based on what she’s saying, and based on where she’s going, and where she’s been, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month on the final day. And that’s not acceptable.” Clinton replied: “Well, that is not what happens in these cases. And using that kind of scare rhetoric is just terribly unfortunate.” Doctors interviewed by The New York Times after the debate said Trump was inventing things. “That is not happening in the United States,” said Dr. Aaron B. Caughey, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Health and Science University. “It is, of course, such an absurd thing to say.” If you want to take a deep dive on the subject, San Francisco obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Jen Gunter wrote a lengthy blog post on the matter. As the Times reported, “Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case legalizing abortion, essentially established abortion as legal up until a fetus would be viable outside the womb (about 24 weeks into pregnancy) but also said later abortion is permissible under certain conditions, including to protect the life or health of the mother.” But don’t worry: As of now, the Supreme Court still allows babies to be born after nine months. It is not wrong and doesn’t have to change. | |
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| 01-20-18 01:15am - 2529 days | #108 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Pentagon strategy drops climate change as a security threat AFP AFP 15 hours ago Washington (AFP) - Climate change and the impact it has on national and international security was not included in the US national defense strategy, unveiled by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Friday. The move is perhaps not surprising given that President Donald Trump has called climate change a hoax, and last June announced that he would pull the United States out of the historic Paris climate pact unless there were changes to the US side of the deal. In 2016 President Barack Obama labeled climate change a threat to national security, and for years experts and scientists have pointed to the impacts of natural disasters, famines and rising sea levels as prompting refugee flows that threaten global stability. After his confirmation hearing almost a year ago, Mattis had said climate change can drive instability and threaten US military bases around the world. "The effects of a changing climate -- such as increased maritime access to the Arctic, rising sea levels, desertification, among others -- impact our security situation," Mattis told senators in written testimony after a January 2017 confirmation hearing, according to documents obtained by ProPublica. Mattis's deputy, Patrick Shanahan, last month told Pentagon reporters that the exclusion of climate change from the national defense strategy does not necessarily mean the Pentagon does not see it as a threat. "It doesn't mean that it is not a priority or that it is a priority. What it says is in the national defense strategy, we don't address it," Shanahan said. | |
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| 01-19-18 07:14pm - 2529 days | #106 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump is a man of high moral stature. He's willing to pay for services rendered. Witness his $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. What a man. What a philanthropist. === === Tabloid held porn star's 2011 interview after Trump threat Associated Press JAKE PEARSON, Associated Press 4 hours ago FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2007 file photo, Stormy Daniels arrives for the 49th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. A tabloid magazine held back from publishing an adult film star’s 2011 account of an alleged affair with Donald Trump after the future president’s personal lawyer threatened to sue, four former employees of tabloid’s publisher told The Associated Press. In Touch magazine published its 5,000-word interview with the pornographic actor Stormy Daniels on Friday. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles) NEW YORK (AP) — A tabloid magazine held back from publishing an adult film star's 2011 account of an alleged affair with Donald Trump after the future president's personal lawyer threatened to sue, four former employees of the tabloid's publisher told The Associated Press. In Touch magazine published its 5,000-word interview with the pornographic actor Stormy Daniels on Friday — more than six years after Trump's long-time attorney, Michael Cohen, sent an email to In Touch's general counsel saying Trump would aggressively pursue legal action if the story was printed, according to emails described to the AP by the former employees. At the time, Trump was a reality TV star on the NBC show "The Apprentice." The ex-employees spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to discuss their former employer's editorial policies. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, signed a source contract with the magazine, which said a friend and Clifford's ex-husband corroborated her account of a 2006 tryst. She also passed a lie detector test, the magazine said. In the interview, Daniels claims she and Trump had a sexual encounter after meeting at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, a year after Trump's marriage to his third wife, Melania. Cohen has denied Trump had any relationship with Clifford. He didn't immediately return a message seeking comment Friday. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen brokered a $130,000 payment to Daniels in October 2016 to prohibit her from publicly discussing the alleged affair before the presidential election. Other news organizations have since reported Clifford was in discussions with them about telling her story. Cohen hasn't addressed his role negotiating the supposed payment, but provided the Journal a statement from "Stormy Daniels" in which she denied receiving any "hush money" from Trump. A lawyer for Clifford, Keith Davidson, didn't return an email message seeking comment. In the statement provided by Cohen, Clifford called allegations of a sexual relationship with Trump "completely false." It wasn't immediately clear why the magazine didn't publish its interview during the 2016 presidential campaign despite reminders from former employees that the transcript was still available in the company's networks, two former employees said. A spokeswoman for In Touch, which is published by Bauer Media Group, claimed it only learned of its earlier interview after the Journal's report last week. She wouldn't comment on the magazine's decision not to publish in 2011. Despite Clifford's first-person details on Trump, former employees said the decision not to run the story in 2011 was a justifiable business decision because at the time because Trump didn't have the same star appeal as more famous celebrities. Cohen emailed In Touch's general counsel, Greg Welch, threatening to sue over the story in October 2011 — the same day Clifford's attorney sent a similar letter to Los Angeles-based blogger Nik Richie, who first posted Clifford's allegations to his website, The Dirty, according to emails provided by Richie. Associated Press reporter Jeff Horwitz contributed to this story from Washington. | |
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| 01-19-18 07:01pm - 2529 days | #105 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Russia helping the GOP to examine possible wrong-doing by the Obama administration. That's what friends are for: to help us against our enemies. And Trump frequently labels ex-President Obama (and Hilary Clinton) as enemies. However, what the article below makes clear: Republicans are men of high moral stature. Devin Nunes, a respected Republican, who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, called unmaskings "violations of Americans' civil liberties." (Unmasking is revealing the actual name of a source or person under investigation) This was days after Nunes, who would have had to sign off on any committee requests to reveal the identities of US persons mentioned in intelligence reports, made at least five unmasking requests to US spy agencies related to Russia's election meddling between June 2016 and January 2017, The Washington Post reported last year. So if a Republican makes an unmasking request, it's OK. But if a Democrat makes an unmasking request, it's a violation of America's civil liberties. Politics as usual. ---- ---- Russia-linked Twitter accounts are working overtime to help Devin Nunes and WikiLeaks Business Insider Natasha Bertrand Business Insider 19 hours ago Russia-linked Twitter accounts are working overtime to help Devin Nunes and WikiLeaks Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence operations have begun promoting the hashtag #ReleaseTheMemo. It's a reference to a document written by Rep. Devin Nunes that purports to show abuse by the Obama administration of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The frequency with which the accounts have been promoting the hashtag has spiked by 233,000% over the past 48 hours, according to an analysis. The most-shared URL has been a link to WikiLeaks' "submit" page. Republican lawmakers are pushing for the House Intelligence Committee to release a memo written by the panel's chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, that outlines purported surveillance against then President-elect Donald Trump by former President Barack Obama's administration during the transition period. And Russia-linked Twitter bots have jumped on the bandwagon. #ReleaseTheMemo is the top-trending hashtag among Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence operations, according to Hamilton 68, a website launched last yearthat claims to track Russian propaganda in near-real time. The frequency with which the accounts have been promoting the hashtag has spiked by 233,000% over the past 48 hours, according to the site. The accounts' references to the "memo," meanwhile, have increased by 68,000%. The most-shared domain among the accounts has been WikiLeaks, and the most-shared URL has been a link to WikiLeaks' "submit" page. WikiLeaks said on Thursday that it would reward anyone with access to the "FISA abuse memo" who chooses to submit it to the site. The Russia-linked accounts have evidently been sharing the submit page in an effort to push the memo's release. https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/954...?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Hamilton 68 has been working to expose trolls - as well as automated bots and human accounts - whose main use for Twitter appears to be an amplification of pro-Russia themes. The site's mission is to monitor and illustrate the themes that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Americans to be thinking and talking about, including "the failure of democratic governance in the United States." Mueller's top critics want the memo out. Several GOP congressmen - many of whom have been highly critical of special counsel Robert Mueller, the FBI, and its investigation into Trump's Russia ties - have released statements calling on the House Intelligence Committee to declassify and release Nunes' four-page memo. The executive branch would have to review the document before it was released to the public, but "this could happen real quick," GOP Rep. Jim Jordan told Fox News on Thursday. "Chairman Nunes is committed to getting this information to the public." The document purportedly describes classified information Nunes obtained from the FBI and DOJ as part of his investigation into whether the Obama administration misused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to spy on Trump and his associates during the transition period. "The House must immediately make public the memo prepared by the Intelligence Committee regarding the FBI and the Department of Justice," said Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican who has called on Mueller to resign. "The facts contained in this memo are jaw-dropping and demand full transparency. There is no higher priority than the release of this information to preserve our democracy." Rep. Ron DeSantis, who has introduced legislation that would curtail Mueller's mandate and budget, said on Thursday that "the classified report compiled by the House Intelligence is deeply troubling and raises serious questions about the upper echelon of the Obama DOJ and Comey FBI as it relates to the so-called collusion investigation." 'A profoundly misleading set of talking points' Democrats, meanwhile, have called the Nunes memo grossly exaggerated and "misleading." "The Majority voted today on a party-line basis to grant House Members access to a profoundly misleading set of talking points drafted by Republican staff attacking the FBI and its handling of the investigation," Rep. Adam Schiff, the panel's top Democrat, said in a statement on Thursday. "Rife with factual inaccuracies and referencing highly classified materials that most of Republican Intelligence Committee members were forced to acknowledge they had never read, this is meant only to give Republican House members a distorted view of the FBI," Schiff continued. A source with knowledge of the memo told Business Insider that the memo is "a level of irresponsible stupidity that I cannot fathom. Purposefully misconstrues facts and leaves out important details." Schiff said the document "mayhelp carry White House water, but it is a deep disservice to our law enforcement professionals." Nunes, who chairs the intelligence committee, began investigating the "Obama DOJ and Comey FBI" after he travelled to the White House to view classified information in March 2017, without telling his committee colleagues. There, he viewed classified information that he said showed FISA abuse by Obama administration officials. When asked whether he had gotten his information from the White House, Nunes would neither confirm nor deny. "We have to keep our sources and methods here very, very quiet," he told reporters at the time. He told Bloomberg later that the information had come from a "network of whistleblowers." Nunes briefed Trump on the intelligence, which he said showed the president and his advisers may have had their communications "incidentally collected" - and their identities "unmasked" in intelligence reports - by the intelligence community after the election. A source of concern has been why some of Trump's associates who had been caught up in the surveillance and later unmasked, such as former national security adviser Michael Flynn, had their names leaked to the press. But Republican and Democratic congressional aides told reporters in early April - after being briefed on the classified reports - that Obama administration officials did not act inappropriately. Indeed, the committee under Nunes' leadership made at least five unmasking requests to US spy agencies related to Russia's election meddling between June 2016 and January 2017, The Washington Post reported last year. The report came days after Nunes, who would have had to sign off on any committee requests to reveal the identities of US persons mentioned in intelligence reports, called unmaskings "violations of Americans' civil liberties." | |
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| 01-19-18 01:44am - 2530 days | #2 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Teens having fun. I was never into hunting when I was a kid. But some teens are serious hunters. One question: why don't they shoot each other, instead of deer or birds that can't can't shoot back? Wouldn't that be more of a thrill? ---- ---- Miami Herald | MiamiHerald.com Washington teens killed deer to bait and shoot eagles, police say | Miami Herald Four Washington teens were detained for killing deer, gathering their carcasses and using them to bait and hunt eagles, police say. By Jared Gilmour jgilmour@mcclatchy.com January 18, 2018 09:01 PM Updated 7 hours 33 minutes ago The teens had killed five deer, police said. But deer weren’t what they were really hunting. When a sheriff’s deputy in Klickitat County, Wash., detained three teenagers for having a loaded rifle in their vehicle on Jan. 15, the deputy at first had planned to let them off with a warning, police said. But then the deputy realized none of the teens were licensed to drive the vehicle they were in, according to state fish and wildlife police. The loaded rifle wasn’t the only suspicious thing in the car, either: There was deer hair and fresh blood as well, police said. Once police saw the blood and hair, the deputy and fish and wildlife police started searching the surrounding area. What they found was a doe, recently killed, on a nearby hillside. One of the teens had shot the deer the night before, police said. The carcass wasn’t far from where the car had been parked. Near the doe were four other deer carcasses, police said, all older and in varying states of decomposition. Deer, however, weren’t the teens’ target. They were after eagles, and had arranged the decomposing carcasses in a cluster hoping “to bait in and shoot eagles,” according to fish and wildlife police. After police noticed the cluster of dead deer, they discovered a fourth juvenile, 17, on a hill above them. The teenager told police he had shot an eagle and then had been looking for it, police said. Authorities seized two rifles during the encounter, but were unable to recover the eagle. Any criminal charges will be handled by the county prosecutor's office, police said. Two of the teens were 17 years old, and two were 15, according to police. The teens could be charged for killing the eagle, which is a legally protected bird in the state, as well as for closed season harvest of deer, according to Jeff Wickersham, a captain with the state’s fish and wildlife police. They could also face firearms-related charges, he said. It’s not the first time police have encountered a situation like this, either. “This particular area has been used in this way in the past, in 2012 and 2014,” Wickersham said. “Deer were being used as bait, killed and left on hillsides. There were charges filed by another agency in those cases.” Bald eagles and golden eagles are the two types of eagles found in Washington state, according to the Audubon Society. Western Washington is home to a large concentration of bald eagles, while golden eagles are commonly found in the eastern part of the state. Klickitat County is in south central Washington, on the border with Oregon. Both types of eagle are safeguarded by federal law, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For a first conviction, illegally killing an eagle can carry a maximum fine of $5,000 or one year in prison under the federal Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Police are still looking for the dead eagle, Wickersham said. | |
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| 01-19-18 01:07am - 2530 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
What is life worth living for if you can't have a little fun? A couple of kids kill 500,000 honey bees for kicks. Since they are kids, what can you do to them? ----- ----- 2 Boys Arrested After Vandalism That Killed 500,000 Bees On Iowa Honey Farm HuffPost Mary Papenfuss,HuffPost 2 hours 46 minutes ago Two boys are facing felony charges after vandalism at an Iowa honey farm killed 500,000 bees, according to police. Two boys are facing felony charges after vandalism at an Iowa honey farm killed 500,000 bees, according to police. Police say the boys, ages 12 and 13, wrecked equipment and knocked over 50 hives at the Wild Hill Honey farm in Sioux City last month. All of the bees — at least half a million — died in the snow. Owners Justin and Tori Englehardt found the dead bees when they went to clear snow off the hives on their 18-acre property. “We found complete destruction of our hives and supply shed,” they wrote on their Facebook page. “They knocked over every single hive, killing all the bees. They wiped us out completely,” Justin Engelhardt told The Sioux City Journal. “They broke into our shed, they took all our equipment out and threw it out in the snow, smashed what they could. Doesn’t look like anything was stolen; everything was just vandalized or destroyed. He called the crime “completely senseless.” The loss was estimated at $60,000. The devastation was so complete that the couple feared they couldn’t afford to revive the six-year-old operation. The business wasn’t insured; bee operations usually can’t get insurance, according to Engelhardt. But a friend of the Engelhardts started a GoFundMe page that quickly raised more than $30,000 in donations. They now plan to rebuild. “We cannot adequately express how grateful we are to everyone who has sent kind words and to those willing to help us out. It’s been overwhelming,” the couple wrote on their Facebook page. “We had no idea our plea for help with identifying the vandals was going to travel so far and wide. People have been so generous, we will definitely be able to bring our bee sanctuary back to its former glory. Thank you to everyone for your support and understanding.” Engelhardt believes the response was so overwhelming because people care about honeybees and their struggle for survival. “Bees are critical and people are conscious of the fact that bees are having a hard time right now and facing some real challenges,” Englehardt told The Sioux City Journal. The boys face three felony charges for criminal mischief, agricultural animal facilities offenses and burglary, according to a news release by the Sioux City Police Department. The boys are not being named because they are minors. Police thanked the public for tips that helped in the investigation. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 01-17-18 06:22pm - 2531 days | #104 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump officials are experts at smearing the reputations of anyone they don't like. Most often, the smear is based on false allegations. But that doesn't stop them (or President Trump) from smearing. In the instance below, members who resigned from a board on national parks (because they were being ignored by the leaders they were supposed to advise), are called quitters and sexually and morally ambivalent. ---- ---- Interior official blasts resignation of parks advisory board Associated Press DAN JOLING,Associated Press 1 hour 6 minutes ago ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A U.S. Interior Department official on Wednesday blasted the resignation of most members of a board that advises it on national parks, suggesting the move was politically motivated and their work was flawed. Todd Willens, associate deputy secretary of the department, brought up investigations that uncovered sexual harassment at national parks such as the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone and an internal investigative report of a guidebook written by former National Park Service leader Jonathan Jarvis. "We welcome their resignations and would expect nothing less than quitting from members who found it convenient to turn a blind eye to women being sexually harassed at national parks and praise a man as 'inspiring' who had been blasted by the inspector general for ethics and management failures," Willens said. Nine members of the 12-member National Park System Advisory Board, including chairman Tony Knowles, a Democratic former Alaska governor, resigned Monday in a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, saying their requests to meet were ignored. The Washington Post, which first reported the resignations, said a 10th member stepped down Wednesday. It's the latest hit to committees that advise the Trump administration. Half the expert members of a board that advises the Environmental Protection Agency on the integrity of its science were not reappointed last May. At the same time, the Interior Department said it launched a wide-ranging review of more than 200 boards and advisory committees, including some that had not met in years. The congressionally authorized National Park System Advisory Board must meet twice per year by law but has not been called into session by the Interior Department since President Donald Trump took office. "Our requests to engage have been ignored and the matters on which we wanted to brief the new department team are clearly not part of its agenda," Knowles wrote in the letter. Willens said that was "patently false" and that department officials were working to renew the board's charter, schedule a meeting and fill vacancies as recently as last week. "Their hollow and dishonest political stunt should be a clear indicator of the intention of the group," he said. Knowles, the board chairman, said no one at the department contacted him or other board members this month about future meetings. The idea of a political statement by board members, made up of national experts in natural resources, financial management, geography and other fields, was disingenuous, he said. Most of the board had worked together for seven years. "We're all a bunch of wonks," Knowles said. "There's absolutely nothing political about any person on it. We have a lot of different backgrounds and were all brought together because we want to do something really important for the national park system of America and build it for the 21st century." The board has collected comment from more than 100 experts, including Nobel Prize winners, to offer advice on challenges the system faces, including climate change, attracting more diverse visitors and employees, and protecting natural diversity of wildlife. As for sexual harassment within the parks, Knowles said, "We had complete confidence that Jon Jarvis, a person of integrity and strong control of the park system, was taking care of it." Jarvis is now executive director of the Institute for Parks, People, and Biodiversity at the University of California, Berkeley. He said by email he had no comment. Knowles said he had no knowledge of a report on Jarvis by the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General. It investigated a guidebook that Jarvis wrote without consulting the department's ethics office. The book was published by a nonprofit group that operates stores and sells merchandise in national parks. The report determined that Jarvis worked on the book outside office hours and directed royalties to the National Park Foundation, which raises money for the National Park Service. | |
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| 01-17-18 08:33am - 2531 days | #103 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Director James Gunn Offers $100,000 If Trump Will Step On A Scale HuffPost Ed Mazza,HuffPost 6 hours ago James Gunn, director of the two “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, is offering $100,000 if President Donald Trump will step on a scale. Gunn’s unusual proposition came hours after White House doctor Ronny Jackson said on Tuesday that the president was 6′3″ and weighed 239 pounds, or one pound shy of the level that would be considered obese. The filmmaker and other Trump critics didn’t buy it. Mocking Trump’s involvement in the debunked “birther” conspiracy theory that claimed President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States, Twitter users created the #Girther hashtag to question Jackson’s claims. Some even demanded to see Trump’s #GirthCertificate. Gunn’s bounty echoed Trump’s 2012 offer of $5 million to charity if Obama would release his college transcripts. When asked what charity Trump might pick, Gunn replied: "I would be afraid that it's the Ku Klux Klan but there's no way in hell he's 239 pounds, so I don't have to worry about it." Gunn made it clear that his offer wasn’t about body-shaming the president: Not surprisingly, the #Girther hashtag began to trend on Twitter: This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 01-16-18 11:06pm - 2532 days | #29 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I believe one reason porn networks create more sites within a single network is to get more subscribers to join. Fine. I have no problem with that. TBP (The Best Porn) review section for each site does include a section called "Bonus Sites". That tries to show how many sites are included with a membership of the site in review. If you click on the hot link for the number of bonus sites, it brings up a listing of the bonus sites. The listing of bonus sites might not be 100% accurate, because bonus sites at networks change over time. But TBP does try to show you the bonus sites that are included with a membership. If TBP did not care about the PU and TBP members, it would not include the Bonus Sites material, on the theory that people would often not realize they had been a member of the network before. | |
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| 01-15-18 02:35pm - 2533 days | #102 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump denies he is a racist. Evil Democrats (the party from Hell that is opposed to our righteous Republican party of good, God-fearing politicians) have lied and said Trump said African countries are shitholes. Trump has admitted he used strong language, trying to broker a deal on immigration. And has admitted that he would prefer immigrants from a country like Norway (which has mainly white people). But evil Democrats are causing problems for all immigrants. Trump loves all people (maybe even blacks, rapists, and people from Mexico). Trump is the man. ==== ==== The Washington Post PowerPost Follow @powerpost Get The Daily 202 Newsletter PowerPost Trump says that he is ‘not a racist,’ denies souring chances for immigration overhaul by using vulgarity Trump: 'I am not a racist' President Trump on Jan. 14, said "I am not a racist" and blamed Democrats for the delay in passing deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. (The Washington Post) By Mike DeBonis and Anne Gearan January 14 at 10:13 PM President Trump said Sunday that he is “not a racist” and denied that he had spoiled chances for an immigration overhaul in Congress by using a vulgarity to describe poor countries. His remarks came as relations between key GOP and Democratic lawmakers turned poisonous as they debated whether Trump had referred to “shithole countries” in an Oval Office meeting last week with the fate of hundreds of thousands of young immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children hanging in the balance. Trump blamed Democrats for fouling chances for a deal and, in an extraordinary statement, called himself “the least racist person.” Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.), who attended the meeting Thursday at which Trump reportedly used the vulgar term, had previously said they could not recall whether Trump said it, but on Sunday they denied outright that he had. They suggested that a Democrat who publicly confirmed the remarks, Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin (Ill.), could not be trusted. “This is a gross misrepresentation. It’s not the first time Senator Durbin has done it, and it is not productive to solving the problem we’re having,” Perdue said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” The accusations prompted Democrats to blast the GOP senators for impugning a colleague’s integrity, while also slamming Trump and his remarks as unabashedly racist. 2:01 Lawmakers refute accounts of Trump's “shithole” comments Some lawmakers denied President Trump called Haiti, El Salvador and African nations "shithole countries" in a bipartisan meeting on Jan. 11. (Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post) The only administration official to speak publicly this weekend about the meeting was Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who attended the session. She said in an interview with “Fox News Sunday” that she did not “recall him using that exact phrase” but acknowledged that Trump “did use and will continue to use strong language.” Vacationing in Florida, Trump spoke to reporters before a dinner in West Palm Beach at his Trump International Golf Club with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif). The question of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was on the agenda, Trump said. He denied making the “shithole countries” remark and said he is not a racist. “Nah, I’m not a racist,” he said. “I’m the least racist person you have ever interviewed, that I can tell you.” Trump accused Democrats of spoiling chances for a deal on immigration legislation and DACA. “Honestly, I don’t think the Democrats want to make a deal,” he said. “I think they talk about DACA, but they don’t want to help the DACA people.” Asked what was standing in the way of a deal, Trump again blamed Democrats. McCarthy said nothing. “I think we have a lot of sticking points, but they are all Democrat sticking points,” Trump said. “Because we are ready, willing and able to make a deal, but they don’t want to. They don’t want security at the border, there are people pouring in. They don’t want security at the border, they don’t want to stop the drugs. And they want to take money away from our military, which we will not do.” The White House did not dispute Trump’s use of the vulgarity when The Washington Post first reported it Thursday. Trump offered a vague denial in a tweet Friday, and not until Cotton and Perdue spoke Sunday did another participant challenge whether Trump had used the word “shithole.” Scenes from Trump’s second six months in office View Photos A look at the second half, so far, of the president’s first year in the White House. International reaction to Trump’s comments was strong, and U.S. diplomats in Haiti and other nations have been called to host government offices to hear the complaints directly. “One of the great things about being president is that you can say whatever you want,” Undersecretary of State Steven Goldstein said in an interview. “We have advised our ambassadors . . . to indicate that our commitment to those countries remains strong.” The developments together stand to undermine bipartisan talks aimed at shielding from deportation immigrants brought illegally to the United States as children, including the roughly 800,000 who secured work permits under the DACA program, created under President Barack Obama. Democrats have suggested that they could force a government shutdown Saturday unless an agreement protecting those “dreamers” is reached. “I don’t know if there will be a shutdown,” Trump said Sunday. “There shouldn’t be, because if there is our military gets hurt very badly. We cannot let our military be hurt.” Conservative hard-liners who want tighter immigration policies and the pro-immigrant and business groups opposing them have long mistrusted one another, but the sniping in recent days has been unusually fierce. “Both sides now are destroying the setting in which anything meaningful can happen,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a conservative, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” A tentative deal worked out Thursday by a small bipartisan group of senators crumbled in an Oval Office meeting in which, according to multiple people involved, an angry Trump asked why the United States should accept immigrants from “shithole countries” such as Haiti, El Salvador and African nations over those from European countries such as Norway. [Trump, condemned for ‘shithole’ countries remark, denies comment but acknowledges ‘tough’ language] In a Sunday morning tweet, Trump declared the immigration talks to be failing: “DACA is probably dead because the Democrats don’t really want it, they just want to talk and take desperately needed money away from our Military.” Democrats have tied the immigration talks to spending negotiations being held ahead of a shutdown deadline at midnight Friday. Republicans are seeking a military spending increase; Democrats want a DACA deal and a matching increase in nondefense funding. Durbin, the sole Democrat to attend the Oval Office meeting, told reporters Friday that Trump had used the vulgar word “not just once but repeatedly.” A Republican attendee, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), issued a statement that did not specifically confirm the words used but backed up Durbin’s account. Cotton and Perdue issued a joint statement Friday saying that they did “not recall the President saying these comments specifically.” But Perdue told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos definitively Sunday that Trump did not refer to “shithole” countries: “I’m telling you he did not use that word, George,” he said on “This Week.” Cotton said much the same in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation”: “I didn’t hear it, and I was sitting no further away from Donald Trump than Dick Durbin was.” Both senators pointed to a statement Durbin had made in 2013 about comments allegedly made by an unnamed GOP leader during a private White House meeting that were later denied by an Obama administration spokesman. “Senator Durbin has a history of misrepresenting what happens in White House meetings,” Cotton said. Ben Marter, a Durbin spokesman, tweeted a rebuke early Sunday: “Credibility is something that’s built by being consistently honest over time,” he said. “Senator Durbin has it. Senator Perdue does not. Ask anyone who’s dealt with both.” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) forcefully backed Durbin, who has written a bill to grant young illegal immigrants a citizenship path and is the leading Democratic negotiator on the DACA issue. “To impugn [Durbin’s] integrity is disgraceful,” Schumer said on Twitter. Accounts of the meeting have not fallen neatly along party lines. Besides Graham’s endorsement of Durbin’s account, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said Sunday on “This Week” that he had spoken to meeting participants immediately afterward — before The Post reported Trump’s use of the vulgar term. “They said those words were used before those words went public,” Flake said. Nielsen is scheduled to testify under oath Tuesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing. Both Durbin and Graham sit on the panel and could press her for details of the Oval Office session. The “shithole countries” remark has vexed Republicans, compelling many to make statements critical of Trump. “I can’t defend the indefensible,” Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah), whose parents are Haitian immigrants, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Democrats see the comment as evidence of malicious intent in Trump’s policymaking. “I think he is a racist,” Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said on “This Week.” “We have to stand out; we have to speak up and not try to sweep it under the rug.” | |
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| 01-15-18 02:15pm - 2533 days | #101 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Donald Trump, the greatest President the United States ever had, celebrates MLK day at his golf course. Trump knows he does not have to waste his precious time playing nice to MLK memories. Instead, he re-charges his batteries, so he can work to help all the American people. Note: Trump has criticized Obama, the black president who wasted time on the golf course while Obama was president. But Trump is different: Trump uses his time on the golf course to become a better, more powerful leader. And that's part of the difference in the two men: Trump is a leader of men. Obama was a loser, who became President with a fake birth certificate. Go, Trump. You are the man! === === Past Presidents Volunteered On MLK Day. Donald Trump Is Spending It At His Golf Club. HuffPost Hayley Miller,HuffPost 5 hours ago President Donald Trump is spending Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday meant to honor the United States’ most iconic civil rights leader, at his golf club in Florida. Trump arrived at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach around 9 a.m. Monday, the White House press pool reported. His next public event was scheduled for 4:20 p.m., when he and first lady Melania Trump would depart Palm Beach International Airport for Washington. A White House spokeswoman confirmed Trump was not participating in any public events related to MLK Day, but did not return requests for comment about why. Monday is the 95th day Trump has spent at one of his golf clubs since becoming president, according to CNN’s Manu Raju. Trump has been deeply critical of the time former President Barack Obama spent hitting the links during his presidency. Trump’s seemingly wide-open schedule offered a stark contrast with past presidents, such as Obama and George W. Bush, who spent MLK Day volunteering or visiting memorials in the civil rights leader’s honor during their respective presidencies. Despite his proclivity for firing off tweets, Trump’s Twitter account remained noticeably silent on King Jr.’s legacy until late Monday morning. A few hours after using his platform to rail against Democrats, Trump retweeted a video posted to the White House’s official Twitter account, which featured his weekly address. “On this cherished day, we honor the memory of Reverend King,” Trump said in the video. “And we rededicate ourselves to a glorious future, where every American from every walk of life can live free from fear, liberated from hatred and uplifted by boundless love for their fellow citizens.” Trump’s apparent decision not to partake in any MLK-related events comes amid rising tensions over his reported remarks calling Haiti and other African nations “shithole countries.” Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil rights activist who marched in Selma, Alabama, alongside King Jr. in 1965, called Trump “a racist” in response to the comments. “It’s unreal,” Lewis said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “It makes me sad. It makes me cry. As a nation and as a people, we’ve come so far. We’ve made so much progress. And I think this man, this president, is taking us back to another place.” On Monday, Lewis called on Americans to give back to their communities instead of using the holiday to relax. “The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is a day on, not a day off,” Lewis tweeted. “It is a day of service to our communities, to our brothers and sisters.” Last week, Trump signed into law an act that redesignates a historic site honoring MLK in Georgia as a national park. He also signed a proclamation declaring Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Still, his seeming day of relaxation did not go unnoticed on Twitter: | |
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| 01-15-18 04:49am - 2534 days | #100 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump says 'I'm not a racist.' Maybe that's why this Christian school teaches pupils that slavery is the way to go. School homework asks kids to give 3 'good' reasons for slavery HuffPost US Taryn Finley Jan 11th 2018 3:28PM A private Christian school in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, is under fire after asking fourth-graders to lay out three “good” reasons for slavery as part of a homework assignment. On Monday, the students at Our Redeemer Lutheran School were handed a social studies worksheet that told them to “give 3 ‘good’ reasons for slavery and 3 bad reasons.” Trameka Brown-Berry, who has a 9-year-old son in the class, told Fox 6 that she was in “shock” over the “highly offensive and insensitive” assignment. “I couldn’t believe they sent something like that home,” Brown-Berry said. “Not only was my son in an awful position, but the students who weren’t black ― that’s what keeps racism going.” She posted a photo of the homework on Facebook. “I feel there is no good reason for slavery that’s why I did not write,” her son answered, as shown in the post. Principal Jim Van Dellen sent a letter to parents with an apology and said that the teacher didn’t properly describe the task to students, according to the station WISN. “We understand that, as presented, the words used showed a lack of sensitivity and were offensive,” Van Dellen wrote. “The purpose of the assignment was not, in any way, to have students argue that ANY slavery is acceptable ― a concept that goes against our core values and beliefs about the equality and worth of people of all races.” The assignment was intended to spark debate in the class, he told Fox 6, adding that it has been pulled from the curriculum. Brown-Berry shared an update on Facebook stating that she met with the principal and that he agreed to mandate “cultural diversity/cultural competency inservice [training for faculty] to prevent this from happening again.” | |
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| 01-15-18 01:39am - 2534 days | #99 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump Presidency good for Trump family business ------ ------ http://www.newsweek.com U.S. Edition Mon, Jan 15, 2018 'Ivanka Suite' At Trump International Hotel Cost $2,134 Per Night, More Than Doubling in Price in a Year By Lauren Gill On 1/14/18 at 5:09 PM The price of the “Ivanka suite” at the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. has more than doubled since Donald Trump became president, and a watchdog group says this is just the latest evidence of the first family cashing in on its time in the White House. The suite, named after Trump’s oldest daughter and adviser, now goes for $2,134 per night, compared to just $914 at the same time in 2017, according to a new post by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which is led by former Obama ethics attorney Norm Eisen. A Newsweek review of the hotel’s listings on Sunday showed the room going for $2,054 for a one-night stay. It used to be one of the hotel’s cheapest suites and now it is the most expensive, a chart detailing the prices of each of the swanky lodge’s multi-room offerings shows. During the same period of time, the price of an executive one-bedroom suite has been almost sliced in half. But the reason behind the sharp increase is unclear. A year later, the suite hasn’t been upgraded and still has a similar description. “At 860 sq. ft., this luxurious two level suite, with an internal staircase, has an upstairs private sitting area. Sophisticated and classically furnished decor with signature blues complement the rich wood and fabrics. The ground floor features a king size bed, custom luxurious bed and bath linens including plush robes, 55” high definition television with enhanced sound system, complimentary VOIP phone calls, refreshment center, bedside charging for all smartphones, executive desk, dressing closet, and spacious marble bath with separate deep soaking tub and shower and luxurious toiletries,” reads the description currently on the hotel’s website. In fact, the only thing that really seems to have changed with the price jumped was the removal of a Nespresso machine, CREW said. “So other than an attempt to profit off of Ivanka’s raised profile, what reason could they possibly have for drastically raising the price of the room while changing nothing about it?” the group wrote. Critics have accused the Trump family of using its role in the White House for financial gain. Some experts have argued that the president’s retention of his business empire violates the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution that prohibits the federal government from receiving gifts from foreign states. Since becoming president, business at the Trump International Hotel has been booming and there have been several reports of foreign dignitaries choosing to stay there in a bid to curry favor with the president. Ivanka’s name has also been at the center of these arguments. She was found to be wearing items her Ivanka brand sells in more than two-thirds of her social media postings about official appearances, The Wall Street Journal found. And last year, adviser Kellyanne Conway urged television viewers to go buy the first daughter’s clothing from Nordstrom— a move that drew fierce criticism for using an official stage to promote Trump. Trump International Hotel did not immediately return a request for comment. | |
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| 01-15-18 01:21am - 2534 days | #98 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump praises Hawaii for admitting responsibility in fake missile warning. However, as the Donald is an expert on fake news, the federal government will help in examining the issue. Trump is the man. Some federal officials stated Hawaii did not have reasonable safeguards to prevent fake news from happening. Trump is an expert in fake news, he tweets about it all the time, and hopefully, he will send in a team of experts to dig out the truth and put the offenders in jail. Our borders must be safe. That is why Trump wants to build a wall to keep out rapists and criminals from shithole countries. And if Trump labels a fake news warning in Hawaii as a states-right issue, he is right: because only residents of Hawaii were affected. And that is a state outside of mainland U.S. Hawaii is not part of Trump's responsibility. Let the state handle the problem. (Maybe Hawaii should declare war on North Korea, to help solve the Korean problem.) ---- ---- The Washington Post As panic subsides, Trump officials call Hawaii missile scare a state issue 0:56 Trump on North Korea: 'We have great talks going on' President Trump spoke about Hawaii's false missile alert, talks with North Korea and his disputed quote in a Wall Street Journal article on Jan. 14. (Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM/The Washington Post) By Todd C. Frankel and Amy B Wang January 14 at 8:15 PM The Trump administration Sunday pointed to the state of Hawaii for answers about a panic-inducing false alert of an incoming missile attack but said it would now get involved after an incident that raised broader questions about the national state of nuclear preparedness at a time of escalating tensions with North Korea. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen called the Saturday panic an “unfortunate incident” during her appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” indicating the problem must be handled by Hawaii state officials. And Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai reported that a full investigation was “well underway,” adding that “it appears the government of Hawaii did not have reasonable safeguards or process controls in place to prevent the transmission of a false alert.” President Trump, off for a golf weekend at Mar-a-Lago, told reporters that he was pleased that Hawaii officials “took responsibility.” Although he said the federal government would now “get involved,” he did not say how. “That was a state thing, but we are going to now get involved with them. I love that they took responsibility. They took total responsibility. But we are going to get involved. Their attitude and their — I think it is terrific. They took responsibility. They made a mistake.” Tensions have been high in Hawaii over the president’s charged exchanges with Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, as it builds and tests its nuclear capabilities. Vern Miyagi, administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, left, and Gov. David Ige address the media Saturday following the false alarm of a missile launch. (George F. Lee/AP) A North Korean missile launch would pose dire threats to Hawaii and take about 30 minutes to reach the islands, experts have predicted. Regarding the North Korea threat, Trump said: “Well, we’ll see what happens. They have got a couple of meetings scheduled, couple of additional meetings scheduled, we’re going to see what happens. Hopefully, it’s all going to work out.” Hawaii Emergency Management System officials said the incident was caused by human error — an employee pressing the wrong button during a training exercise. Hawaii officials said the problem occurred about 8:05 a.m. Saturday when a worker faced two options from a drop-down computer menu: “Test missile alert” and “Missile alert.” “In this case, the operator selected the wrong menu option,” agency spokesman Richard Rapoza said. The result was a terse warning of a “missile threat” sent to mobile phones, televisions and radios across Hawaii. Reports from the scene suggested that many residents panicked, scrambling to seek shelter. A White House official said Trump was quickly briefed by deputy national security adviser Ricky L. Waddell, who accompanied Trump from Washington to the president’s Palm Beach club. He later discussed the episode with national security adviser H.R. McMaster and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, the official said. The federal government tracks North Korean missile launches through several means, including satellite surveillance, and officials around Trump would have known that no missile was detected. Trump issued no statements about the incident Saturday. The only public mention came from deputy White House press secretary Lindsay Walters, who was with Trump in Florida and made clear that the federal government was not involved. “The president has been briefed on the state of Hawaii’s emergency management exercise. This was purely a state exercise,” Walters said. While there is no protocol that applies directly to such a mistake, past presidents have often weighed in to reassure the public at times of stress or threat. The situation in Hawaii was made worse by the 38-minute gap between the initial alert and a follow-up message stating that the missile warning was a mistake. Wireless emergency alerts are dispatched during critical situations — to warn the public of dangerous weather, missing children and security threats — and are a partnership of the FCC, Federal Emergency Management Agency and the wireless industry. Responsibility for sending those messages typically falls to emergency management officials. Part of what worsened the situation Saturday was that there was no system for correcting the error, Rapoza said. The state agency has standing permission through FEMA to use civil warning systems to send out the missile alert — but not to send out a subsequent false-alarm alert, he said. The state agency posted a follow-up tweet at 8:20 a.m. saying there was “NO missile threat.” But it was not until 8:45 a.m. that a cellphone alert was sent telling people to stand down. “We had to double back and work with FEMA [to craft and approve the false-alarm alert], and that’s what took time,” Rapoza said. The agency said it has also suspended all internal drills until the investigation is completed. It will issue a preliminary report and corrective actions next week. The employee in question has been temporarily reassigned, Rapoza said, but there are no plans to fire him. Mistakes with the emergency alert system are not uncommon. In May, a training exercise in New Jersey led to a dire “NUCLEAR POWER PLANT WARNING” being broadcast to two counties near the Hope Creek nuclear power plant in Salem County. State officials blamed “a coding error” for that mishap. In August, Guam residents were shocked by an alert of a “civil danger warning” broadcast by radio stations late at night. Guam is the closest U.S. territory to North Korea, and the country has explicitly threatened to attack Guam with missiles. But Guam Homeland Security said the alert was a mistake and blamed human error. Brian Fung and Anne Gearan contributed to this report. | |
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| 01-14-18 08:02pm - 2534 days | #97 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The Washington Post For the second time in three days, Trump plays catch-up with what his White House is doing By Philip Bump January 11, 2018 President Trump is not a policy wonk. And if there’s a Hall of Fame for understatement, that sentence is a first-ballot entrant. On the campaign trail, Trump waved away detailed policy proposals as something the “press wants” and about which voters don’t care — an attitude that, frankly, was pretty on-the-money. But there is a reason that the media like detailed policy proposals: They illustrate that candidates have detailed policies that they hope to enact, and knowing what those policies are both helps to inform the public and serves as a touchstone after elections. Trump entered office unburdened by past policy positions because he was elected without having to reveal any, just like his tax returns. But that meant that he was also elected without having to do much homework on the issues that he would certainly face as president. And twice this week — a week during which the White House has been desperate to rebut suggestions that Trump has only a loose grasp on his presidency — he has been publicly revealed as not knowing what he’s talking about. The most recent example was on Thursday morning. During his “executive time” — those times when he’s sitting around watching Fox News and tweeting — he likely watched a negative report about an impending reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Why “likely watched”? Because as Media Matters’s Matthew Gertz notes, he tweeted the actual chyron from Fox when he decided to publicly state his opposition to the measure. There was just one problem with this: The Trump administration supports the FISA renewal. It sent out a statement from the press secretary to that effect on Wednesday night, less than 12 hours before Trump’s tweet. And so, a few minutes later, the White House got Trump to do a little cleanup. Again, this is the second time in three days that Trump has publicly demonstrated an unfamiliarity with a critical policy issue. The first time came on Tuesday, when, during a televised meeting with congressional leaders, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked Trump if he would support a “clean DACA bill” — that is, a renewal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Admissions program that didn’t include any ancillary funding or policy components. It was a proposal that ran counter to Trump’s rhetoric, which has centered on getting money for a border wall as part of any deal. Trump’s reply didn’t reflect that. “Yeah, I would like to do it,” he said — forcing House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to intervene and clarify his position. When the White House first released a transcript of the day’s conversation, Trump’s initial agreement with Feinstein was excluded. Earlier that morning, the New York Times’s David Brooks had written a much-discussed column arguing that critics of Trump should separate out the president’s own behavior and comments from the hard work that his team was doing on conservative principles. Brooks drew a bright line between the two, but never implied that Trump himself was not part of the White House team that was getting things done. The meeting later that day and Trump’s tweets on Thursday suggest that he might not be — or, perhaps, that he is to his White House what the Queen of England is to decision-making in Britain: He’s there, and he weighs in on it, but it happens largely outside of his grasp. It’s not like this is an emergent trend this week. There have been two major policy pushes undertaken by the White House that bore no resemblance to what Trump said he wanted to see from those policies during the campaign. The first was the health-care fight in the spring and summer, during which Republicans in Congress advocated a policy that would dump millions from the ranks of the insured — after Trump pledged to cover everyone. It would also have raised costs over the short term (until the more expensive patients dropped coverage because they couldn’t afford it). This, too, ran counter to what Trump had said. Yet he championed it, fervently. It was only after the House bill passed that he disparaged it as “mean.” The second effort was his push for a tax overhaul. This, too, was driven on a policy level by Republicans on Capitol Hill. Trump pledged repeatedly to bolster the middle class and to infuriate his rich friends. Instead, he signed into law a bill that made temporary and modest reductions in middle-class income tax rates and permanent cuts to the rates paid by businesses. On top of that, the bill included a number of other reductions that benefited business, including businesses like the ones that still benefit Trump in the private sector. Trump assured everyone repeatedly that the bill would hurt him when it came time to pay his taxes, but no expert analysis reinforces that. Was Trump lying? Or did he not know what the bill does? Even in the earliest days of his administration, this divide between what was happening in the White House policy machine and what Trump knew was happening was apparent. Two weeks after he took office, the Times reported that Trump was angry to learn that he’d signed an executive order putting then-adviser Stephen K. Bannon on the National Security Council. That same month, his State Department (not for the last time) publicly disagreed with Trump’s opposition to an agreement with Australia to resettle a number of refugees. For the Republican establishment, a president who goes along with what’s presented to him isn’t the worst thing in the world. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seem to have learned quickly that Trump wasn’t likely to pick out a sub-bullet of their policy proposals for clarification or amendment. This indifference to policy and general acquiescence was one reason that the establishment found him more palatable than Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) early in the primary process. The problem is that having the most powerful person in the world only vaguely aware of how he’s wielding that power is, for lack of a better word, embarrassing. It’s also confusing. The Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes reports that House leaders reacted to Trump’s initial tweet on FISA by considering pulling the vote. Again, it’s important to remember the context of the week. The release of the book “Fire and Fury” last week left Trump and his team scrambling to rebut the insinuation that his ability to lead was compromised. That was a central reason for the meeting on Tuesday: Show the media and the American people a dealmaking president who was in command of what was going on. The meeting didn’t necessarily show that. And Trump, left to his own devices — meaning his own phone and its Twitter app — showed again on Thursday morning that he is still the guy he was in 2015: More interested in reacting angrily to what he sees on TV than understanding the nuances of policies his administration is erecting like scaffolding around him. Philip Bump is a correspondent for The Post based in New York. | |
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| 01-14-18 06:09am - 2535 days | #96 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Protesters Try To Arrest London's Mayor For Disrespecting Donald Trump HuffPost Mary Papenfuss,HuffPost 6 hours ago A group of right-wing protesters wheeled a home-made gallows outside a hall where London’s Muslim mayor was about to speak and tried to arrest him for disrespecting Donald Trump, The Washington Post reported. Mayor Sadiq Khan laughed it it off, calling the protesters “very stable geniuses.” The crack was a dig at Trump, who said earlier this month in a tweet amid concerns about his mental fitness that he is a “very stable genius.” The half-dozen protesters calling themselves the White Pendragons managed to delay Khan’s planned speech on gender equality before members of the liberal Fabian Society for several minutes, The Guardian reported. They accused the mayor of “treachery” and “treason,” though it wasn’t entirely clear why. The gallows was decorated with a white dragon and the words: “Take Back Control.” The men waved an American flag and shouted pro-Brexit slogans. One of the protesters, David Russell, was identified by the British press as a member of the far-right British Defense League and the host of an anti-Islam radio program. The group failed to make a citizen’s arrest of the mayor and were escorted from the venue by security guards. As for disrespecting Trump, Sadiq has long butted heads with the president and declared himself “no fan.” Trump in turn has mocked Khan on Twitter because of terror attacks in his city. After Trump announced Thursday he was cancelling his trip to Britain, Khan said that the president “got the message” that Londoners don’t agree with his policies and that he would have been met with “mass protests.” Trump claimed he was cancelling his trip because he could not support an Obama administration deal to sell the US Embassy there. The decision to sell the real estate was actually made by Bush administration officials. | |
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| 01-14-18 05:45am - 2535 days | #95 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I love the way that the US government says that by increasing our nuclear weapons we can drive down the threat of nuclear war. Just like the FBI says it wants strong encryption while demanding at the same time methods to disable the encryption of all devices (for the good of everyone, of course). Of course, the US states that North Korea and Iran are criminals for trying to develop nuclear weapons. I thought that Russia and China were supposed to be our allies. Why are we increasing our nuclear weapons to use against our allies? Allies. Threats. What is the difference? --- --- Administration plan sees deterrence in new nuclear firepower Associated Press ROBERT BURNS,Associated Press 8 hours ago FILE - In this July 20, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump stops to answer a reporter's question after greeting military personnel during a visit to the Pentagon. Watching is Vice President Mike Pence. With Russia in mind, the Trump administration is aiming to develop new nuclear firepower that it says will make it easier to deter threats to European allies. The plan, not yet approved by President Donald Trump, is intended to make nuclear conflict less likely, but critics argue it would do the opposite. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) WASHINGTON (AP) — With Russia in mind, the Trump administration is aiming to develop new nuclear firepower that it says will make it easier to deter threats to European allies. The plan, not yet approved by President Donald Trump, is intended to make nuclear conflict less likely. Critics argue it would do the opposite. The proposal is spelled out in a policy document, known officially as a "nuclear posture review," that puts the U.S. in a generally more aggressive nuclear stance. It is the first review of its kind since 2010 and is among several studies of security strategy undertaken since Trump took office. In many ways it reaffirms the nuclear policy of President Barack Obama, including his commitment to replace all key elements of the nuclear arsenal with new, more modern weapons over the coming two decades. It says the U.S. will adhere to existing arms control agreements, while expressing doubt about prospects for any new such pacts. The Trump nuclear doctrine is expected to be published in early February, followed by a related policy on the role and development of U.S. defenses against ballistic missiles. Where the Trump doctrine splits from Obama's approach is in ending his push to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. defense policy. Like Obama, Trump would consider using nuclear weapons only in "extreme circumstances," while maintaining a degree of ambiguity about what that means. But Trump sees a fuller deterrent role for these weapons, as reflected in the plan to develop new capabilities to counter Russia in Europe. The Huffington Post published online a draft of the nuclear policy report Thursday, and The Associated Press independently obtained a copy Friday. Asked for comment, the Pentagon called it a "pre-decisional," unfinished document yet to be reviewed and approved by Trump, who ordered it a year ago. Russia, and to a degree China, are outlined as nuclear policy problems that demand a tougher approach. The administration's view is that Russian policies and actions are fraught with potential for miscalculation leading to an uncontrolled escalation of conflict in Europe. It specifically points to a Russian doctrine known as "escalate to de-escalate," in which Moscow would use or threaten to use smaller-yield nuclear weapons in a limited, conventional conflict in Europe in the belief that doing so would compel the U.S. and NATO to back down. The administration proposes a two-step solution. First, it would modify "a small number" of existing long-range ballistic missiles carried by Trident strategic submarines to fit them with smaller-yield nuclear warheads. Secondly, "in the longer term," it would develop a nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile — re-establishing a weapon that existed during the Cold War but was retired in 2011 by the Obama administration. Together, these steps are meant to further dissuade "regional aggression," which means giving Russia greater pause in using limited nuclear strikes. Interest in the condition and role of U.S. nuclear weapons has grown as North Korea develops its own nuclear arsenal it says is aimed at the U.S. The Trump administration views the North Korean threats, along with what it sees as provocative nuclear rhetoric from Russia, as evidence that security conditions no longer support the idea that the U.S. can rely less on nuclear weapons or further limit their role in national defense. The nuclear report also makes rare mention of a newer Russian weapon: a nuclear-armed drone torpedo that could travel undersea to far-off targets. Hans Kristensen, a nuclear weapons specialist at the Federation of American Scientists, questions whether the administration is overstating the Russian threat and responding with the right solution. But he said it is clear that Moscow has raised fears in the West by its aggression in Ukraine. "Clearly, the Russia situation is much more of a direct confrontational situation," he said. "The gloves are off." Bruce Blair, a former nuclear missile launch officer who co-founded Global Zero, which advocates the elimination of nuclear weapons, called the report "basically a status quo document" except for the plan to develop new nuclear options for countering Russia. He worries these could lead the U.S. into "blundering into a nuclear war with Russia." Blair based his comments partly on knowledge of the report's content before it appeared online. "The Pentagon's underlying motivation," Blair said, "is fear of Russia's new option for striking U.S. and Western European civilian infrastructure — financial, energy, transportation and communications — with cyber and conventional forces." Moscow developed this doctrine in recent years to exploit vulnerabilities in vital Western infrastructure, such as communications networks, he said. This falls into a category of threat the Trump administration calls "non-nuclear strategic," meaning it could inflict unacceptably high numbers of casualties or costs. Authors of the Trump nuclear doctrine argue that adding new U.S. nuclear capabilities to deter Russia in Europe will lessen, not increase, the risk of war. They worry the nuclear-capable aircraft that are currently the only Europe-based nuclear force to counter Russia have become less credible, in part because they may be vulnerable to Russian air defenses. Thus, the focus on adding sea-launched U.S. nuclear weapons to the mix. "This is not intended to, nor does it, enable 'nuclear war-fighting,'" the draft report said. Instead, the goal is to make nuclear conflict less likely by ensuring that "potential adversaries" see no possible advantage in escalating a conventional conflict to the nuclear level. | |
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