6-29-18
Highly reminiscent of our outrageously bought and paid for judiciary, Llano County prosecutors, Sheriff Bill Blackburn and his criminal SS jackbooted bastards in black who continue to egregiously disgrace themselves and the badge, do as they please regardless of the law and Constitution, carefully consider the following. It's appalling. Runs against the grain of everything our formerly great country once stood for. No longer.
More jackbooted bullshit in direct violation of a bastardized United States Constitution. Closely read the following material. Delusionally believe as a United States citizen your rights are not in jeopardy courtesy of the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue? NBC reports:
"A random U.S. Customs and Border Protection checkpoint set up on a Maine highway this week resulted in the arrest of a fugitive Haitian immigrant who had been ordered deported over a decade ago, officials said Friday. The checkpoint was marked by cones blocking an 18-mile stretch of Interstate 95 in Penobscot County, forcing anyone in the southbound lanes between the towns of Howland and Lincoln, about 72 miles from the Canadian border, to stop and speak with agents, said Steve Sapp, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection. The 11-hour checkpoint led to the Haitian man’s arrest, a formal warning issued to a lawful resident who was not carrying required paperwork, and 10 drug seizures, he said. Sapp said drivers who pass through such checkpoints are subject to questions about residency and citizenship. A dog is present to detect concealed humans or drugs, and agents may also look through the windows of the car. If someone does not comply with questioning, the driver is moved to the side of the road for further questions, he said."
The Fourth Amendment guaranties the right against unreasonable search and seizure. Applies to all no matter citizenship status. The Fifth Amendment guaranties the right to remain silent. Not incriminate oneself. Guaranties due process along with the Fourteenth Amendment. Applies to anyone within jurisdiction of the United States. Citizen or not. Sixth Amendment guaranties right to counsel. Citizen or not.
These goddamned jackbooted sons of bitches are shamelessly shitting on the Bill of Rights. ... Right, Sheriff? Think not, readers? You're achingly, hopelessly, aggressively stupid. Deserve what you get. Too bad the rest of us suffer for your stupidity and abject cowardice. You've been stripped of liberty. Remain too clueless to understand what you've lost.
"Controversy has followed these types of checkpoints in Maine and around the country. Emma Bond, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, told NBC News that several constitutional rights are implicated in these scenarios, including the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent and the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure. Additionally, Bond said, Customs and Border Protection has consistently refused to release more information about these checkpoints, specifically about ones that take place at bus stops throughout the state."
The criminal jackbooted bastards in blue do this to effectively continue violating all civil and constitutional rights with impunity. ... Right, Sheriff?
"The Maine ACLU has filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act following the refusal of the border agency and the Department of Homeland Security to release details about random immigrant checkpoints. The Maine ACLU has also partnered with its New Hampshire and Vermont affiliates to sue the border agency, Homeland Security and the immigration agency for more information about the enforcement of immigration law in the Northeast. Bond also argued that the Supreme Court decision that the border agency most frequently cites as affirming its authority to conduct these searches, United States v. Martinez-Fuerte — which Sapp also pointed to in an email to NBC News — is not so clear."
Give a criminal jackbooted bastard in blue an inch, the corrupt, abusive, violent piece of shit takes a mile. These uniformed criminals remain an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties. No foreign power, no terrorist organization, not even the criminal element present a greater threat than current law enforcement goons. ... Right, Sheriff?
“We don’t have the statistics or specific info from CBP, that is a concern,” Bond said. “The case that CBP references involves a regularized, fixed and permanent checkpoint, whereas this was orange cones on the highway. So this random checkpoint poses all the risk of bias and subjective enforcement.”
Precisely, the intention of these criminal jackbooted bastards, right, Sheriff. It's how you and the boys get your cookies off, right, Bill?
"The government responded to the ACLU’s lawsuit last week, and Bond said that ACLU and government attorneys will meet soon to discuss whether the records will be released or if legal proceedings will begin."
Don't take no for an answer. Drag the jackbooted bastards into court. Liberty depends on it. ... Right, Sheriff?
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
Immigration fiasco continues. NPR reports:
"First lady Melania Trump made an unannounced trip to the Southern U.S. border Thursday to visit children who entered the country illegally and see the centers where they are being detained. The trip comes a day after President Trump signed an executive order ending his controversial policy of family separation for migrant families detained as they're crossing into the U.S. illegally at the Southern border. "She wanted to see everything for herself," said Stephanie Grisham, the first lady's communications director. "She supports family reunification. She thinks that it's important that children stay with their families."
You think?
"She, along with first daughter Ivanka Trump, lobbied the president to reverse his administration's family separation policy, NPR reported on Wednesday."
What took so long?
"The first lady planned to visit two facilities, both in McAllen, Texas. Mrs. Trump arrives at McAllen Miller International Airport in Texas Thursday. Her first visit, according to the White House pool reporters traveling with the first lady, was to Upbring New Hope Children's Shelter and lasted about 75 minutes. The shelter is a Health and Human Services Department grantee facility run by Lutheran Social Services of the South, and it's part of a network of 32 state-licensed facilities in Texas, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting. CIR says the center had 12 health and safety violations over the past three years. The kids the first lady visited there were ages 12-17, and most crossed into the U.S. as unaccompanied minors, but six of the children were separated from their families upon being detained."
Symbolism over substance? Certainly, hope not. Photo op? You decide.
"Her second scheduled stop, at the Ursula Border Patrol Processing Center, a Customs and Border Protection intake center, was canceled because of flooding in McAllen. A Department of Homeland Security official told NBC News that the Ursula facility was the "epicenter" of the Trump administration's policy that separated more than 2,000 kids from their parents over the past few months."
Consider the following. CBS News reports:
"While everyone was speculating whether Melania Trump was trying to send a message by wearing a provocative Zara jacket when departing for a trip to the border, she doubled-down by wearing it on her return trip too. President Trump weighed in as well, saying on Twitter that it was a message aimed squarely at the media. The text on the back of the jacket -- "I REALLY DON'T CARE, DO U?" -- was an odd choice for a visit to a Texas detention center housing immigrant children.
"Her spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham, told CBS News in a statement that the writing on Trump's jacket was not intended to send a message. "It's a jacket. There was no hidden message," Grisham said. "After today's important visit to Texas, I hope the media isn't going to choose to focus on her wardrobe." But then Melania Trump wore it back home too. And soon after, the president tweeted that it "refers to the Fake News Media. Melania has learned how dishonest they are, and she truly no longer cares!"
Think so? Think that's the message the First Lady was sending? The jacket cost $39. Chump change for her and well below the cost of her wardrobe. Walked back into the White House with it on. LOL.
The Washington Post reports:
"Whether the first lady anticipated — or was warned — that her outerwear would divert attention from what her staff described as a humanitarian mission, her choice to wear it in public seems to be deliberate. Her small staff has described her as a decisive first lady who values loyalty and privacy.Melania Trump’s East Wing team includes only 10 aides, compared with the 25 or so who worked under Michelle Obama and Laura Bush. She also a eschews a “body person,” a personal aide who typically travels with a president or first lady and acts as an assistant. In an interview in April, the first lady’s chief of staff, Lindsay Reynolds, said Mrs. Trump determined that she didn’t need to fill that role. “She is so low-maintenance, so efficient, that she does everything herself,” Reynolds said. “So in the very beginning, I started interviewing people for the role. I said, ‘Okay I have people for you to meet.’ And she said, ‘I don’t need one.’”
Impressive, isn't it?
"And she often selects her clothing without assistance, relying less on stylists and personal shoppers than on her own taste. Her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, told The Washington Post’s fashion critic, Robin Givhan, in December that the first lady “chooses what she likes and what is appropriate for the occasion. She does not worry about her critics.”
Imagine that.
"But Mrs. Trump’s declaration was, perhaps, more intentional. One former White House aide who worked with top officials in both the Obama and Clinton administrations noted that the fact that cameras captured Mrs. Trump boarding the plane at all was unusual. When the first lady travels alone from Washington, her tarmac arrival is traditionally closed to the media, so the decision to allow Mrs. Trump to be photographed seemed deliberate."
Question to be asked, was she sticking it to the president? Or, the media as claimed by her husband. LOL.
NPR reports:
"The Pentagon is being asked by the Department of Health and Human Services to provide temporary beds for up to 20,000 undocumented children. That bed space would be needed beginning in July and running through the end of the year. Officials tell NPR that four bases are expected to provide space, including the Army's Fort Bliss base in El Paso, Texas. It's uncertain if there would be enough barracks space, so officials say that tents likely would have to be put up."
The Washington Post reports:
"Each of the mothers had a different memory of the moment she was separated from her child. For some, it was outside a Border Patrol station just north of the Rio Grande, shortly after being apprehended. For others, it was after an interrogation by federal authorities in a bitterly cold air-conditioned office."
Raw nazism imposed by Trump and his henchmen.
"Jodi Goodwin, an attorney in Harlingen, Tex., has heard more than two dozen variations of those stories from Central American mothers who have been detained for days or weeks without their children. So far, she has not been able to locate a single one of their offspring. “It’s just a total labyrinth,” she said. Even though the Trump administration has halted its policy of separating illegal border crossers from their children, many of the over 2,300 youths removed from migrant parents since May 5 remain in shelters and foster homes across the country. The U.S. government has done little to help with the reunifications, attorneys say, prompting them to launch a frantic, improvised effort to find the children — some of them toddlers."
Nazi America ala Donald Trump and his henchmen.
"One legal aid organization, the Texas Civil Rights Project, is representing more than 300 parents and has been able to track down only two children.“Either the government wasn’t thinking at all about how they were going to put these families back together, or they decided they just didn’t care,” said Natalia Cornelio, with the organization."
Both. Forget? They're nazis.
"Government officials say they have given detained parents a flier with a toll-free number for the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the U.S. agency that is usually in charge of providing shelter for unaccompanied immigrant children. But not a single one of Goodwin’s clients had received one, she said. Lawyers maintain that when they have called the number, often no one answered. In some cases, when someone did pick up, that person refused to offer details of where children had been taken, the lawyers said. “You wait and wait for no information,” said Jerry Wesevich, an attorney at Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid who is suing the government over the family separations."
The courts need to step up. Rein in our psychotically delusional 'president.'
"Further complicating matters are bureaucratic errors that could leave government officials unaware that a child’s parent is detained in the United States. Attorneys also worry that some toddlers, or children who speak indigenous languages, might not have been able to give officials their parents’ complete names. Because of such complications, attorneys and former U.S. officials have begun speaking about the possibility of “permanent separations.”
Unacceptable. Raw nazism. Time for Republicans to step up. Find some backbone.
"In the case of one Guatemalan family, the Border Patrol failed to note in its apprehension report that a mother and daughter crossed the border together, according to Wesevich. Without that information, government officials might not be aware that the child’s parent is detained in the United States. In other cases, Cornelio said, children arrive at shelters without the facility knowing that they have been separated from their parents, meaning they could be considered unaccompanied minors rather than children in need of reunification."
Clearly, these jackbooted bastards don't know what they're doing. Worse? Couldn't care less.
"The U.S. government spent months developing the family-separation system, but authorities were struggling on Thursday to figure out how to reunite detained parents with children. There was no system for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which handled the parents’ cases, to work on the issue with the refugee resettlement office, which is responsible for the children."
Trump and his henchmen clearly don't have a clue. Unparalleled, unbridled, gross incompetence.
"Attorneys have described heart-wrenching meetings with their clients, who ask again and again for information about their children, often weeping in South Texas detention centers. “We have to say, ‘We don’t know where your child is. The government is responsible for keeping your child safe,’” Wesevich said. “No parent would be satisfied with that.” Goodwin said: “I tell them, ‘I’m not going to lie to you if I don’t know where your child is.’” Some attorneys have been able to confirm with the government that their client’s child is in custody, but even in those cases, government authorities have often been unwilling to arrange phone calls between the two, or provide details about where the child is held, lawyers said. “Reunification is obviously the goal, but they won’t even set up a phone call, so a parent can know that a child is safe,” said Rochelle Garza, an attorney in Brownsville, Tex."
Remain silent? Refuse to stand up? You're gutless. Unqualified to consider yourself an American.
CBS News reports:
"President Trump threw a wrench in Republicans' efforts to pass sweeping immigration legislation soon. He tweeted Friday that Republicans should "stop wasting their time" on immigration and wait until after November's midterm elections to pass anything."
Exceptionally stupid move since the clock is ticking on a related court matter:
"House Republicans on Thursday delayed a vote on their compromise immigration bill until next week. They had hoped to pass legislation that would not only fund border security, but provide legislative solutions to Mr. Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and to family separations at the border. As CBS News' Paula Reid has reported, Mr. Trump's executive order to halt the separation of children from their parents at the southern border is a temporary fix — it effectively only prevents family separations for 20 days. The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to remove a 20-day legal limit on detaining families together."
Trump shoots from the hip. Clearly, doesn't think things through.
"Early Friday, however, the president seemed to suggest he has no confidence in Republicans' ability to pass legislation ahead of the midterms, claiming Democrats are obstructing and Republicans need more members in both the House and Senate. But Republicans are expected to lose seats in November, and some fear they might lose control of the House."
Furthermore, consider the following:
"Asked on CNN what Mr. Trump's Friday morning tweets mean for the GOP immigration push, Rep. Mark Sanford, R-South Carolina, gave a simple response — "Game over."
Fascinating, isn't it?
"Immigration is a fraught issue for Republicans, with some members in competitive districts this November looking for more moderate legislation, while others look to appease the hardline stance taken by many of Mr. Trump's most ardent supporters."
Trouble in GOP nazi 'paradise?' LOL.
NPR reports:
"The controversy over President Trump's executive order to end the policy of separating migrant families who cross into the U.S. illegally is shifting to the courts. On Thursday, the Department of Justice asked a federal judge in California to relax certain limitations on how long and under what conditions the government can detain migrant children. In another courtroom in California, a different federal judge will hear arguments on Friday in a case about family separations and the status of the more than 2,000 minors who are still detained."
Just the beginning:
"There's no reason to expect that court battles against the administration's family separation policy will subside soon. The attorney general of the state of Washington, Bob Ferguson, announced that his state and eight others are filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration. The suit alleges that the government violated constitutional due process rights and equal protection guarantees by separating migrant families."
The Washington Post reports:
"The White House’s hastily crafted executive order to end child separations spurred confusion and fights within the federal government, and second-guessing from the president who had demanded the order in the first place."
Can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit, right, Mr. 'President?'
"Amid continuing fallout from the Trump administration’s family separation policy, and a disjointed retreat earlier this week, senior officials met Friday to craft a plan for reuniting immigrant children with their parents or guardians, though it remained unclear how long that work will take."
How about thousands of kids, -- attorneys can't locate?
"The midday meeting was designed for officials to hash out exactly how they would reunite the more than 2,500 migrant children who have been separated from their parents since the practice went into effect in early May, according to officials involved in the discussions, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer candid insights into internal deliberations. Roughly 500 children have already been reunited with a parent or guardian, officials have said."
Tip of the iceberg.
"The Friday meeting capped a tumultuous week in which administration officials rushed through an executive order that relieved the political pressure on President Trump but intensified friction between the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. By Wednesday morning, the president had become convinced that he needed a way to calm the criticism, according to people familiar with the discussions, and he felt confident that Republicans in Congress would push through immigration legislation ending the family separation practice — so he might as well get ahead of it. A vote on the measure was eventually postponed until next week, but it does not appear to have enough votes to pass."
This is a massive failure of the Republican Party which can't seem to agree on anything. Will certainly get no relief from united Democrats who have been rightfully, at least for once, opposed to this entire fiasco.
"In private conversations with aides, Trump said he wanted to sign a full immigration bill as part of an executive order, which one administration official described as “a pretty insane idea.” The president was told by government lawyers that he could not change immigration law by fiat, said a person familiar with the discussions."
The Trump nazi still cannot grasp the fact the president in a democratic republic is not a dictator.
"Trump then demanded that an executive order be written that would end child detentions in cages, and said he wanted it on his desk for signing by that afternoon, according to people involved in the discussions."
Jesus Christ. The damage to these kids will likely be life-long. Democrats didn't even have the guts to walk out of Congress in protest.
"Given hours to produce a complex legal document, government lawyers crafted one that met the moment’s political demands but only added to confusion within the agencies tasked with implementing it."
Chaos. All caused by the ineptness and insanity of the Trump nazi.
"At Customs and Border Protection (CBP), officials viewed Trump’s order as instructing them to no longer refer to the Justice Department for prosecution the cases of adults illegally entering the United States with children, according to people familiar with the discussions. That interpretation was relayed to CBP personnel along the southern border, and dozens of people who had been apprehended and sent to federal court for processing were suddenly removed from courthouses without criminal charges being filed against them."
Obviously, can't have it both ways. Certainly, none of this has been thought out by Trump and his equally inept henchmen.
"Within the Justice Department, which prosecutes such cases, officials believed the executive order paved the way for parents to be held with their children for as long as necessary to resolve their cases, these people said."
After 20 days, that violates a long-standing court order. LOL.
"After CBP officials said there would be no referrals to the Justice Department of adults with children caught crossing the border, Justice Department officials became irate because that was not how they understood the policy, according to people familiar with the matter."
No coordination. No guidance. No leadership. Chaos. Failed presidency.
"On Thursday evening, officials from Homeland Security and the Justice Department gathered at the White House to discuss the issues, and over the course of the 90-minute meeting it became clear that CBP and Justice had wildly different understandings of what they were supposed to be doing, according to people familiar with the talks."
Imagine that. All caused by the insanity and ineptness of the Trump nazi.
"Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller, an outspoken proponent of tougher immigration policy, was unhappy that CBP had decided to halt referrals for prosecution of parents illegally crossing the border with children, according to people familiar with the meeting. Homeland Security officials complained they had been given no guidance and had done the best they could with vague language."
Jesus Christ. This government is hopelessly dysfunctional.
"Trump, for his part, has ruminated to aides that he should not have signed the order in the first place, according to people familiar with the conversations. The president seemed to be fed up with the topic Friday, as he publicly discouraged Republican lawmakers from trying to pass any new immigration laws before the midterm elections in November."
Clearly, there is no leadership. None. None at all.
ABC News reports:
"An administration official said on Friday evening that U.S. Customs and Border Protection "expects that all unaccompanied children in their custody who were separated from adults who were being prosecuted will have been reunited with their families." But the news comes with a large caveat. The statement only applied to children in CBP custody, those who had not yet been turned over to the care of the Department of Health and Human Services. The majority of children separated from parents are in the care of HHS -- and there's no real plan as for how to reunite them."
Imagine that. Couldn't be, could it? Massive failure of the system.
"Of the about 2,300 separations since May 5 -- when the Trump administration's "zero-tolerence" policy went into place -- about 500 were reunited by CBP before going into HHS custody. Thousands more remain in custody and HHS has not released information as to how many, if any, have been reunited with parents. Attorneys who represent clients currently separated from their children remain in limbo."
Egregious incompetence.
"It's devastating because I already know when I meet them for the first time and they start telling me that they are this parent that I'm not gonna have the answers that they want in any time that they should have," said attorney Erik A. Henshaw, who works in the Western District of Texas in El Paso. "I'm not gonna be able to tell them right then and there, 'Don't worry, we'll find your little boy, we'll find your little girl.' I have to tell them honestly I don't know if and when we're going to find them."
How can that be? How does this happen?
"I don't know if I'll find them during their case. I don't know if it'll happen when you get to immigration proceedings. I don't know if you're going to be deported or removed and have never actually found and/or had contact with your child," Henshaw added."
Massive incompetence. Failed system.
"Earlier this week, HHS requested that the Pentagon be prepared to house up to 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children at U.S. military bases. An internal memo obtained by Time Magazine, showed the Navy was planning to use remote facilities to house thousands of migrants in California, Alabama and Arizona."
Can't competently handle what they've already got.
Instead of resolving the issue, Trump is desperately trying to change the narrative. NPR reports:
"After days of damaging news stories about an administration policy that separated immigrant families at the Southern border, President Trump tried to change the narrative Friday. He spoke up for grieving family members who have lost loved ones at the hands of people in the country illegally. Trump has frequently pointed to sympathetic crime victims to justify his get-tough policies at the Southern border. But experts say the president's rhetoric overstates the threat posed by immigrants, who tend to commit crime at lower rates than people who are born in the United States. "These are the families the media ignores," Trump said of crime victims. "These are the stories that Democrats and people that are weak on immigration, they don't want to discuss, they don't want to hear, they don't want to see, they don't want to talk about."
Exactly the tactics of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini circa 1933.
Here's one reason why it's bullshit:
"While any death is tragic, a February 2018 study by the Cato Institute using 2015 crime statistics from Texas found immigrants in the country illegally were 25 percent less likely to be convicted of homicide than native-born Americans. (Legal immigrants were 87 percent less likely.)"
Wouldn't want to confuse the Trump nazi, his henchmen, and ignorant supporters with the truth.
"In the past, the president has exaggerated threats facing the U.S. to justify his travel ban, tough-on-crime measures and a now-folded commission on voter fraud."
Can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit.
The Washington Post reports:
"The president blamed Democrats for what he called weak immigration laws and policies that treat those in the country illegally too leniently, even though Republicans control Congress and failed this week to pass an immigration bill out of the House because of opposition from GOP members. Trump railed against the MS-13 gang, heroin from outside the United States, and so-called “catch and release” immigration enforcement. Trump also said he does not believe research that shows undocumented immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born citizens, but did not specify how he came to that conclusion."
Because there's no truth to what he's falsely claiming:
“I always hear that, ‘Oh, no, the population’s safer than the people that live in the country,’” Trump said. “You’ve heard that, fellas, right? You’ve heard that. I hear it so much, and I say, ‘Is that possible?’ The answer is it’s not true. You hear it’s like they’re better people than what we have, than our citizens. It’s not true.”
Pitiful. Pathetic.
Trump is a liar:
"The president also falsely claimed that 63,000 Americans have been killed by illegal immigrants since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The number appears to come from a 2006 blog post from Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who advocates limiting immigration, that was based on conjecture, not statistical evidence."
Wake up. Supporters are being bamboozled:
"Elect more Republicans in November and we will pass the finest, fairest
and most comprehensive Immigration Bills anywhere in the world. Right now
we have the dumbest and the worst. Dems are doing nothing but Obstructing.
Remember their motto, RESIST! Ours is PRODUCE!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2018"
You've been hoodwinked. Wool pulled over your eyes. Even Republicans are beginning to understand this. Precisely, why they, themselves, can't agree as to how to proceed.
NBC reports:
"Usually, officers — who are prohibited from crossing into Mexico — wait at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspection station at the bottom of the bridge on the U.S. side and process border crossers and asylum seekers as they come through the official port of entry. But now, CBP officers, wearing dark blue uniforms and armed, are standing just behind the boundary line on the U.S. side at about the halfway point on the bridge, checking identification as pedestrians cross into the United States. Migrants and advocates have reported being told by officers at U.S.-Mexican boundaries on the border that facilities had no more room and they had to wait to the side while the pedestrian traffic crosses or return another time."
This violates U.S. asylum law.
"A month ago, the Trump administration set a goal of prosecuting 100 percent of people who cross the border outside of ports of entry, including asylum seekers. All the while, the administration has been urging people seeking asylum to do so at ports of entry. “The reason is, they do not want to allow them to put their foot on U.S. territory,” said Ruben García, director of a nonprofit called Annunciation House that offers shelter and services for immigrants and has been escorting migrants, including Angélica. Once a person steps onto U.S. soil, they must be allowed to make an asylum claim under U.S. and international law. García said he has accompanied 10 to 12 families up the bridge in the last four weeks. There are many that are unable to make their asylum claims, he said. In more than 40 years of advocacy, he had never seen border officers keep asylum seekers from making claims at ports of entry, he said."
The president and his henchmen are breaking federal law.
CBS News reports:
"The detention centers holding undocumented immigrant children have gained attention recently over concern of conditions inside as well as the limited access to them for journalists and lawmakers. CBS News recently toured a detention center in Homestead, Florida, where lawmakers were previously denied access. CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann went on an escorted tour of the facility for nearly an hour but said there were some restrictions: They were not allowed to walk off on their own or speak to children being held at the facility. There were 1,200 kids -- with boys outnumbering girls at a ratio of two to one. Most of the kids were sent there within 72 hours if they were caught crossing the border."
The restrictions were and are outrageous. What are the keepers afraid of? Why were legislators previously denied access? Give the bastards time to get their shit together? Give me a break. Reeks.
"Democratic lawmakers were refused entry on Tuesday. Protesters have gathered outside, accusing the Trump administration of trying to cover up mistreatment amid an outcry over images recorded elsewhere of crying children and minors locked up in what appear to be cage-like cells."
Unless lawmakers and media have full access, question remains what are they hiding? This government has no credibility. Cannot be trusted. Especially, under the Trump nazi and his henchmen. Congenital liars.
Trump nazi still has not smartened up. CBS News reports:
"The Trump administration is calling for the expanded use of family detention for immigrant parents and children who are stopped along the U.S.-Mexico border -- a move decried by advocates as a cruel and ineffective attempt to deter families from coming to the United States. Immigration authorities on Friday issued a notice that they may seek up to 15,000 beds to detain families. The Justice Department has also asked a federal court in California to allow children to be detained longer and in facilities that don't require state licensing while they await immigration court proceedings. "The current situation is untenable," August Flentje, special counsel to the assistant attorney general, wrote in court filings seeking to change a longstanding court settlement that governs the detention of immigrant children. The more constrained the Homeland Security Department is in detaining families together during immigration proceedings, "the more likely it is that families will attempt illegal border crossing."
Horse shit. Ruse. Boldfaced lie.
"The proposed expansion comes days after a public outcry moved the administration to cease the practice of separating children from their migrant parents on the border.
"In all, about 9,000 immigrants traveling in family groups have been caught on the border in each of the last three months, according to federal authorities. Immigrant advocates contend detention is no place for children and insist there are other alternatives to ensure they and their parents attend immigration court hearings, such as ankle bracelets or community-based programs. The federal court ruled several years ago that children must be released as quickly as possible from family detention. "It is definitely not a solution under any circumstances," said Manoj Govindaiah, director of family detention services at the RAICES advocacy group in Texas. "At no point should a child be incarcerated, and children need to be with their parents."
Matters not to the Trump nazi and his henchmen. Where are all these incarcerated kids? Where?
CBS News reports:
"The Trump administration says it is still separating a small number of immigrant children from adults. The action is reportedly taken when parental relationships cannot be confirmed, or if the adult is deemed to pose a threat to the child's safety."
Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? ... If that's how policy is actually executed. It's not:
"CBS News correspondent Mireya Villarreal, reporting from Tornillo, Texas, spoke to a Mexican grandmother who says her granddaughter was taken away, even though she is her legal guardian. Last week Villarreal interviewed Angelica and three-year-old Sophia, just before they crossed the border seeking asylum. Angelica was worried Sophia might be taken away, even though she is the only mother the little girl has ever known. On Friday, her worst fear came true. "Sophia was pleading with her not to leave to leave her alone, not to let her go, not to leave her with the police," Villarreal reports. Angelica told "CBS This Morning" she does not know where her three-year-old granddaughter Sophia is, ever since they were separated by immigration officials on Friday – this despite having papers proving that she is Sophia's legal guardian. Angelica said she was told the documents don't matter."
They don't? Why not?
"Ruben Garcia, who runs the Annunciation House in El Paso, which provides shelter and legal assistance to immigrants, is helping Angelica and other separated families. On Sunday, Annunciation House took in 32 immigrant parents after federal authorities withdrew criminal charges for illegal entry. The parents were separated from their children, and do not know where they are."
Why not? Why haven't the Trump nazi and his henchmen been forthcoming?
"When this policy was implemented in the beginning, it was implemented without any plan," Garcia said at a press conference."
Surprised? Why? Like everything else executed by the Trump nazi and his henchmen, -- ass backwards.
"The Department of Homeland Security says there is a process to "ensure family members know the location of their children." There is a 1-800 number, and an email providing information. Homeland Security also says the reunification process is "well-coordinated." But Garcia says it is not: "The system is set up that, once you take the child from the parent, the parent then is presumed to potentially not be adequate to regain their child."
Clever Catch-22 for Trump and his fellow nazis, isn't it?
"Angelica says immigration officials removed her three-year-old granddaughter at border despite having documents proving her to be the child's legal guardian."
How is that possible? How does that happen? This is 2018. Digital age.
"Garcia also says immigrants at the Annunciation House have not found the 1-800 number to be helpful. It's also unclear if parents detained by the government have access to e-mail or the ability to call the 1-800 number for information about their child."
Surprised? Why? Consider the incompetent boob ensconced in the Oval Office. ... To say nothing of his incompetent henchmen.
NPR reports:
"The Pentagon will build tent camps at two U.S. military bases to house people who cross the southern border illegally, Defense Secretary James Mattis said Monday. The expanded role in immigration enforcement is part of the armed services' logistics and support mission, he noted. The defense chief did not give details about the locations of the bases that would contain the camps. As for how the process began, he said other government agencies had asked the Pentagon for help in housing detained migrants. The news comes one week after President Trump said, "The United States will not be a migrant camp, and it will not be a refugee holding facility." He added, "Not on my watch."
Think not?
"Over the weekend, Trump said via Twitter, "We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came. Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order."
Direct violation of the United States Constitution. Due process denied. It is you, Mr. Trump, who is an egregious mockery to a democratic republic based on a Constitution you determinedly ignore. Take a raucous hard dump on.
CBS News reports:
"Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, says that the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy that forced many families to be separated at the U.S border was implemented in a "ready, fire, aim way" and is not a "realistic" way to enforce immigration laws. "It obviously is not something that's realistic. It's not something that appreciates these young children. It certainly was done in a ready, fire, aim way, obviously," Corker told "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "There was no preparation for it. I can't imagine any American's heart not going out to these families, knowing these children are being separated and then, where were they going?" Corker said he's glad President Trump signed an executive order to reunite families who are awaiting prosecution at the border, but said "that's led to another crisis" due to the 20-day limit on how long children can be detained with their parents while they are prosecuted."
Clearly, not all Republicans are nazis:
"As for the president's rhetoric on immigration issues, Corker, a vocal Trump critic, said that he's "never been part of a group that hated someone for wishing something better for their life." "Maybe they have a little different color of their skin and they speak differently -- I just have never hated someone who traveled through tough conditions to try to come to a place where they could realize their dreams," he said. "I'm just not part of that group that wants to punish."
The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump on Sunday explicitly advocated for depriving undocumented immigrants of their due-process rights, arguing that people who cross the border into the United States illegally are invaders and must immediately be deported without trial or an appearance before a judge."
This piece of crap has again abrogated his falsely sworn oath of office to uphold the United States Constitution.
"Trump’s attack on the judicial system sowed more confusion as lawmakers struggle to reach consensus on immigration legislation and as federal agencies scramble to reunite thousands of migrant children and their parents who were separated at the border under an administration policy that the president abruptly reversed last week."
Think this leadership?
"The House is preparing to vote this week on a broad Republican immigration bill. Although the White House supports the proposed legislation, prospects for its passage appeared dim Sunday, both because Democrats oppose the measure and because Republicans have long been divided over how restrictive immigration laws should be."
Our country continues to rip apart at the seams.
"Meanwhile, some GOP lawmakers were preparing a more narrow bill that would solely address one of the flaws in Trump’s executive order, which mandates that migrant children and parents not be separated during their detention. The 1997 “Flores settlement” requires that children be released after 20 days, but the GOP proposal would allow for children and their parents to stay together in detention facilities past 20 days."
Think the courts will acquiesce?
"At the center of the negotiations is a president who has kept up his hard-line rhetoric even as he gives contradictory directives to Republican allies. In a pair of tweets sent late Sunday morning during his drive from the White House to his Virginia golf course, Trump described immigrants as invaders, called U.S. immigration laws “a mockery” and wrote that they must be changed to take away legal rights from undocumented migrants."
Raw nazism. Lunatic, who has no clue.
“We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country,” Trump wrote. “When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came. Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order. Most children come without parents.”
Spoken as the evil progeny of his Nazi mentor, Adolf Hitler.
"Trump also exhorted congressional Democrats to “fix the laws,” arguing that “we need strength and security at the Border! Cannot accept all of the people trying to break into our Country.” Trump reiterated his call to turn people away in tweets on Monday, writing that immigrants should “simply be stopped at the Border and told they cannot come into the U.S. illegally.”
What does he think the Border Patrol is already doing? LOL. In direct violation of federal statutes stating those seeking asylum at border checkpoints must be afforded due process, that is, claims investigated, granted a hearing to determine veracity of their claims. The Constitution has been so bastardized over the decades for sake of political and executive expediency, however, nazi government does as it damn well pleases.
NPR reports:
"Despite pressure from President Trump for the U.S. to arrest and prosecute anyone caught crossing the border illegally, U.S. Customs and Border Protection says its agents will temporarily suspend the practice of detaining adults who arrive with children — something that had been a tenet of Trump's "zero tolerance" policy. CBP agents will no longer refer migrant parents and children for prosecution when they're caught at the U.S. southern border, Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said, telling reporters that the system — which was widely criticized for separating families, until Trump eased his policy somewhat last week — hasn't worked out."
Imagine that. Think the lunatic will finally smarten up?
"A much better system would be to keep families together through their immigration proceedings," McAleenan said. "That's what the Obama administration did in 2014. That's what the president has asked Congress to help us do now."
Unless a long-standing court order is changed, the jackbooted bastards cannot hold the kids longer than twenty days. Pending problem for the Trump nazi and his henchmen.
The Washington Post reports:
"A federal judge in San Diego on Tuesday barred the separation of migrant children from their parents and required immigration officials to reunify within 30 days families that have been divided as a result of a zero-tolerance policy enforced by the Trump administration. Judge Dana M. Sabraw of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California granted a preliminary injunction sought by the American Civil Liberties Union. He said all children must be reunited with their families within 30 days, allowing just 14 days for the return of children under 5 to their parents. He also ordered that parents be allowed to speak by phone with their children within 10 days."
Will certainly create problems for the Trump nazi and his henchmen:
"The ruling is the latest complication in a controversy that has already proved politically perilous for President Trump, who last week issued an executive order ending the policy of forced separation, replacing it with indefinite family detention. Still, about 2,000 children remain split from their parents. The government had urged Sabraw not to grant the nationwide injunction, saying the president’s order, which followed days of bipartisan outcry, had resolved the concerns animating the suit. The court said it did not. Instead it found that the zero-tolerance policy, begun in early May, along with the executive order and a subsequent fact sheet issued by the Department of Homeland Security outlining the process of removal, marked a sharp departure from “measured and ordered governance, which is central to the concept of due process enshrined in our Constitution.” It faulted the Trump administration for “a chaotic circumstance of the Government’s own making.” The judge stated bluntly: “The unfortunate reality is that under the present system, migrant children are not accounted for with the same efficiency and accuracy as property.”
Good to see at least a few members of the judiciary are willing to stand up to this nazi and his henchmen. Even more impressive when the judge is appointed by a Republican president.
"In his 24-page order, Sabraw rules children could be separated at the border only if adults with them were found to pose a danger to the children. He also said adults could not be deported from the country without their children. Sabraw, 59, was nominated to the federal bench by President George W. Bush in 2003. The judge’s mother was a Japanese immigrant; his father served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Japan during the Korean War. The couple married in Yokohama, Japan, before moving to San Rafael, Calif."
The racist AG Sessions nazi certainly had his say in front of a most sympathetic audience. LOL. CBS News reports:
"Attorney General Jeff Sessions made light of the Trump administration's controversial policy on separating migrant families at the U.S. border, with a joke at an event in Los Angeles Tuesday. "The rhetoric we hear from the other side on this issue—as on so many others—has become radicalized. We hear views on television today that are on the lunatic fringe. And what is perhaps more galling is the hypocrisy. These same people live in gated communities many of them and are featured at events where you have to have an ID even to even come in and hear them speak -- they like a little security around themselves. And if you try to scale the fence, believe me, they'll be only too happy to have you arrested and separated from your children, I would like to see that," Sessions said at the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation. The joke went over well with the audience, which could be heard laughing and applauding the allusion in video from the event. "They want borders in their lives but not yours and not the American people's," Sessions added. "This is why the American people are sick of the lip service and the hypocrisy."
Well, well, well. This achingly haughty, delusional racist nazi has his head figuratively lodged so far up his clueless ass his eyeballs are turning inside out. LOL. What planet does this piece of human excrement live on? Does he truly believe his opposition are merely elites in Hollywood and in the highest echelons of the Democratic Party?
Wake up, Counselor. Opposition to your pernicious, evil embrace of nazism is ubiquitous, exponentially growing, expanding. Across the board. All strata of the food chain. From those of us living under survival conditions right up to and including the rapidly vanishing middle class. Your appalling ignorance is truly stunning.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
Waffling on North Korea? The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump cited an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security as he acted Friday to maintain long-standing economic restrictions on North Korea, including the freezing of any assets in the United States. The official declaration, contained in a notice to Congress, came despite Trump’s assertion earlier this month that his historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended the North’s nuclear weapons threat. “Sleep well tonight!” Trump tweeted on June 13, the day after he and Kim met in Singapore.
“The existence and risk of proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material on the Korean Peninsula and the actions and policies of the Government of North Korea continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” Trump wrote Friday."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
Major Supreme Court ruling on privacy. NPR reports:
"In a major win for privacy rights, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that police must obtain a search warrant in order to get access to cellphone location information. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the 5-to-4 decision, joining the court's four liberals. The majority declared that the Fourth Amendment guarantees an expectation of privacy and that allowing police to obtain moment-by-moment tracking of an individual's cellphone location is a kind of surveillance that the framers of the Constitution did not want to occur without a search warrant."
That's right. What took so long?
"The chief justice said that this sort of tracking information is akin to wearing an electronic ankle-bracelet monitoring device and that the citizens of the country are protected from that kind of monitoring unless police can show a judge that there is probable cause of a crime that justifies it."
Here's the caveat:
"He stressed, however, that this is a narrowly focused opinion that leaves intact other precedents when it comes to dealing with financial information, banking and office records."
These precedents also present severe problems desperately needing redress.
"Roberts noted that the decision also allows for warrantless cell-tower location information searches in emergencies and for national-security purposes."
The latter leaves the door wide open for continued abuse by the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue, right, Sheriff?
"The four dissenters were led by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was joined by the court's three most conservative members, justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch. In a rare move, they each filed separate dissents.
"At oral arguments in November, the justices seemed torn about whether to break with the so-called third party doctrine. Adopted decades ago, that doctrine says that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy when an individual shares information with a third party — for example, the phone company, which knows what telephone numbers the individual calls and receives. Therefore, police do not have to get a search warrant to gain access to those numbers. But in recent years, the justices have expressed discomfort with that rule of law as applied to the modern digital age, when cellphones carried in a person's pocket can track locations day and night, and when email and text addresses tell a huge amount about an individual's contacts and lifestyle."
CBS News reports:
"The Supreme Court says police generally need a search warrant if they want to track criminal suspects' movements by collecting information about where they've used their cellphones. The justices' 5-4 decision Friday is a victory for privacy in the digital age. Police collection of cellphone tower information has become an important tool in criminal investigations. The outcome marks a big change in how police can obtain phone records. Authorities can go to the phone company and obtain information about the numbers dialed from a home telephone without presenting a warrant."
The latter was one of the earliest bastardizations of privacy by the judiciary. Give the jackbooted bastards in law enforcement an inch, they take a mile. Took it as carte blanche to track vis a vis cellphones.
"Roberts said the court's decision is limited to cellphone tracking information and does not affect other business records, including those held by banks. He also wrote that police still can respond to an emergency and obtain records without a warrant."
This leaves the door ajar for police to continue doing precisely what they've done to date, just a bit more cautiously, careful not to get caught. ... Right, Sheriff? Remains exceptional abuse of power that is nowhere near resolved.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
Clearly, the Supreme Court remains determinedly Republican, -- and nazi. Consider the following. NPR reports:
"In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court said that Texas' legislative and congressional maps are not a racial gerrymander and that all districts are OK, except for one, which it determined is a racial gerrymander — House District 90. "Except with respect to one Texas House district, we hold that the court below erred in effectively enjoining the use of the districting maps adopted by the Legislature in 2013," conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion. In a one-page concurrence, joined by Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, one of the most conservative (in philosophy and use of words) justices, reiterated his view that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act "does not apply to redistricting," per SCOTUSBlog."
In contrast, get this:
"Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by the court's liberals, wrote a scathing 46-page dissent. (That is five pages longer than the majority opinion.) "The Court today goes out of its way to permit the State of Texas to use maps that the three-judge District Court unanimously found were adopted for the purpose of preserving the racial discrimination that tainted its previous maps," she wrote."
Day is night, night is day, and shit smells perversely sweet in the world of the Republican national socialist. LOL. These fascist bastards consistently 'legislate' their outrageous ideological and religious views from the bench. Hear the rumble? An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
Two more national socialist Republican-based U.S. Supreme Court rulings. Both, dire threat to a democratic republic, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties. NPR reports:
"In a 5-4 ruling that gave broad leeway to presidential authority, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Trump's travel ban, which barred nearly all travelers from five mainly Muslim countries."
Raw nazism from a deeply divided, pathetically fascist U.S. Supreme Court. Not a good day for liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties. What this ruling does is rubber stamp actions of an out of control nazi dictator following in the footsteps of his mentors, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini. Sadly, just the beginning.
"The president's proclamation was "squarely within the scope of Presidential authority under the INA,'" the court wrote in its majority opinion, referring to the Immigration and Nationality Act."
Appalling rubber stamp of Trump's Fourth Reich.
"Today's Supreme Court ruling is a tremendous victory for the American People and the Constitution," President Trump said in a statement."
The hell it is. Quite the opposite. A victory for a nazi dictator quickly transitioning the de facto fascist police-state we already live in to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich. ... As the revolution doomsday clock strikes ever closer to midnight. Hear the rumble? An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming.
As our formerly great country continues to deteriorate, comes apart at the seams. As all civil and constitutional rights and liberties come under ferocious, vicious attack by the increasingly insidious cancer overtaking this nation. Nazism ala Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, circa 1933. Worst yet to come as this cancer continues to insinuate itself.
"The Supreme Court has upheld the clear authority of the President to defend the national security of the United States. In this era of worldwide terrorism and extremist movements bent on harming innocent civilians, we must properly vet those coming into our country."
The words of this lunatic nazi remain chillingly reminiscent of Adolf Hitler shortly before and after he took power in Germany. Far worse is yet to come. Wake up. Just the beginning. Great evil unleashed.
"This ruling is also a moment of profound vindication following months of hysterical commentary from the media and Democratic politicians who refuse to do what it takes to secure our border and our country."
More horse shit coming from a lunatic unfit for office. This country is under no dire threat from immigrants. They enter this country and engage in less criminal activity than American citizens. Trump remains a congenital liar. What he says is simply not true.
"As long as I am President, I will defend the sovereignty, safety, and security of the American People, and fight for an immigration system that serves the national interests of the United States and its citizens. Our country will always be safe, secure, and protected on my watch."
Wake up, readers. Direct opposite has occurred. Greatest threat to this country is no foreign power, no terrorist organization, not even the criminal element. It is all branches and levels of government. Out of control government that's bastardized the Constitution, eviscerated all civil and constitutional rights and liberties. You're no longer free. Free to do what you're told.
Looted to line the pockets of your corporate masters who in turn line the pockets of their bought and paid for government lackeys. Egregiously f--ked hard in the ass without the Vaseline, K-Y. Yet, remain too stupid to understand profound depth of this concerted, determined ass f--king.
Your ignorance, profound cowardice is appalling.
"Sonia Sotomayor wrote a scathing dissent, and reaction to the ruling was swift. "This ruling will go down in history as one of the Supreme Court's great failures," said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, in a statement. "It repeats the mistakes of the Korematsu decision upholding Japanese-American imprisonment and swallows wholesale government lawyers' flimsy national security excuse for the ban instead of taking seriously the president's own explanation for his actions. "It is ultimately the people of this country who will determine its character and future. The court failed today, and so the public is needed more than ever. We must make it crystal clear to our elected representatives: If you are not taking action to rescind and dismantle Trump's Muslim ban, you are not upholding this country's most basic principles of freedom and equality."
The Washington Post reports:
"Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a stinging rebuttal, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And she read part of it in a dramatic moment on the bench. She highlighted the president’s campaign statements calling for a “complete and total shutdown” of entry into the United States by Muslims. She noted the anti-Muslim videos the president shared on Twitter, including one titled “Muslim destroys a statue of Virgin Mary!” “Take a brief moment and let the gravity of those statements sink in,” she said. “And then remember,” Sotomayor added, that the statements and tweets were spoken or written “by the current president of the United States.”
A nazi following in the footsteps of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini. Exigent threat to a democratic republic. All civil and constitutional rights and liberties.
"Sotomayor repeatedly called out the president by name in her lengthy statement and said the majority’s decision “repeats the tragic mistakes of the past” and “tells members of minority religions” in the United States that “they are outsiders.” The court, she said, “blindly accepts the government’s invitation to sanction an openly discriminatory policy” and is essentially “replacing one gravely wrong decision with another.”
Raw nazism.
"Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Elena Kagan also dissented. In her passionate dissent, Sotomayor compared the decision to Korematsu v. United States, in which the Supreme Court in 1944 upheld the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II."
Great evil.
In a second ruling, the Supreme Court again shit on the right of women to do with their uterus as they damn well please. NPR reports:
"The U.S. Supreme Court has reversed a lower court decision upholding a California law requiring anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers to more fully disclose what they are."
Nazis on the Court clearly have no issue with deception practiced by religious zealots desperate to force their perverse ideological and religious views on others.
"The case pitted the right to know against the right of free speech. On one side are self-identified "crisis pregnancy centers" that seek to prevent abortions and on the other side is the state of California, which enacted a 2015 law to ensure that these centers do not intentionally or unintentionally mislead the women who walk through their doors."
Nazis on the Court desperate to impose their perverse religious views on all clearly value lies over truth when it comes to 'truth in advertising' vis a vis "crisis pregnancy centers."
"In a 5-4 ruling, the court said the centers are likely to succeed in their claim that the law violates the First Amendment. That overturns an earlier decision by the Ninth Circuit upholding the law and sends the case back for further consideration."
What this Court has effectively done is affirm the right of religious nazis to lie like hell, determinedly manipulate and deceive those entering "crisis pregnancy centers."
"Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas said the law "targets speakers, not speech, and imposes an unduly burdensome disclosure requirement that will chill their protected speech."
That is, the right to lie like hell to those entering "crisis pregnancy centers." No more than legalized 'deceptive trade practices.' LOL.
"Supporters of the California law called the state's effort nothing more than seeking "truth in advertising." But anti-abortion pregnancy centers saw the law as unconstitutional, compelling speech that turns them into mouthpieces for a government message they disagree with."
That is, they now have the right, courtesy of the nazi Supreme Court, to lie like hell to those who are pregnant and enter one of their facilities. Nazi justice in a de facto fascist police-state quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.
"Reacting to the high court ruling, NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue said in a statement that the court "turned its back on women" and highlighted the high stakes for future decisions. "One vote made all the difference today, and it could also be the only thing between upholding Roe or outlawing legal abortion in America," Hogue said. "Fake women's health centers, with the rest of the well-funded and well-connected anti-choice movement, have been working towards this moment for decades. They have carefully put the pieces together — passing radical and unconstitutional abortion bans, stacking the lower courts — because they are counting on Trump's Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade. Roe is at greater risk than ever before."
It is. So is an unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming. ... Hear the rumble? If there is no reproductive freedom, there is no freedom at all. The nazi element in our formerly great country cannot understand reproductive freedom is far more than a lady keeping her panties on, legs crossed. A man keeping it in his pants. What we're seeing coming from this Court is raw nazism.
Coup de grace? LOL. Get this:
"Abortion-rights opponents praised the decision as a victory for free speech."
Appalling, galling horse shit. What it is is the freedom to lie like hell to someone pregnant, seeking an abortion. Nazi America. A Supreme Court infested with Republican nazis. Too bad Democrats have lost themselves since November 22, 1963. Liberty? What's that?
The Washington Post reports:
"Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote the dissent for the court’s liberals, and read parts of it from the bench. He said the court has repeatedly upheld state laws that provide a script for doctors when they are counseling women who seek abortion. “If a state can lawfully require a doctor to tell a woman seeking an abortion about adoption services, why should it not be able, as here, to require a medical counselor to tell a woman seeking prenatal care or other reproductive healthcare about childbirth and abortion services?” Breyer wrote. “As the question suggests, there is no convincing reason to distinguish between information about adoption and information about abortion in this context,” Breyer wrote. He was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. The California legislature said some centers trick women into thinking they provide contraceptive services, including abortion, and sometimes delay a woman until it is too late to schedule an abortion."
Nazi Right continues to take over our formerly great country. All civil and constitutional rights and liberties in dire jeopardy. ... Hear the rumble? An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
Yet, another appalling nazi U.S. Supreme Court decision. NPR reports:
"In a blow to organized labor, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that government workers who choose not to join a union cannot be charged for the cost of collective bargaining. The vote was a predictable 5-to-4 margin. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion with the court's conservatives joining him. "Under Illinois law, public employees are forced to subsidize a union, even if they choose not to join and strongly object to the positions the union takes in collective bargaining and related activities," Alito wrote. "We conclude that this arrangement violates the free speech rights of nonmembers by compelling them to subsidize private speech on matters of substantial public concern."
Yet, these very same employees who refuse to pay union fees enjoy the very same pay and benefits fought for and won by their fellow union workers. Called stealing. One of the most important reasons why the corporate management suite is so out of control has been the decimation of unions across our formerly great nation.
Not only that, lack of unionization is certainly partially responsible for egregious skewing of wealth to the very top of the food chain. Zero-sum game. Winner-take-all mentality that is one of the reasons why an unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looms. Too deaf to hear the rumble?
CBS reports:
"The ruling Wednesday fulfills a longtime wish of conservatives to get rid of the so-called fair share fees that non-members pay to unions in roughly two dozen states. President Donald Trump tweeted immediately after the decision that "non-union workers...are now, as an example, able to support a candidate of his or her choice without having those who control the Union deciding for them."
Another outrageous lie by the Trump nazi.
"His tweet is wrong: Unions were already not permitted to use funding from non-members for political activity, an arrangement that was in place for 41 years. However, the plaintiff in the case, Mark Janus, argued that paying any money to the union that represents him constituted political speech. That's because the union's bargaining for higher wages and benefits on behalf of its members directly affects issues like government spending by his home state of Illinois. This mirrors an increasingly common conservative argument that sees the very existence of unions as inherently political. The decision, which was widely expected, is likely to devastate funding for public sector unions, including those representing teachers, police officers and municipal workers."
Doomsday revolution clock strikes ever closer to midnight.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
Trump will soon have a nazi five justice majority on the Supreme Court. NPR reports:
"Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement Wednesday, setting the stage for what promises to be an epic political battle over his replacement. A Trump nominee is likely to be far more conservative than Kennedy, who, though appointed by President Reagan, voted with the court's liberals in some key cases. Kennedy, who will turn 82 next month, made the announcement the same day the court handed down its last pending opinion for the 2017-18 term. He said he would continue to serve through July 31 of this year. Speaking from the Oval Office soon after Kennedy's announcement, President Trump said Kennedy has "been a great justice of the Supreme Court." Trump also said the process to replace Kennedy will "begin immediately." The president pointed to a list of potential nominees he put together and made public previously. "It will be somebody from that list," Trump said, adding "hopefully we will pick someone who is just as outstanding [as Kennedy]."
... Hear the rumble?
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
Amazing, isn't it? Pharmacists and other healthcare professionals seem to think practicing their profession is a right, not a privilege. NPR reports:
"When 35-year-old Nicole Arteaga walked into a Walgreens in Peoria, Ariz., last Wednesday, she was nine weeks pregnant. But, she says, her doctor had told her that her baby's development had stopped. She wrote in a detailed Facebook post that her doctor said she "ultimately [would] have a miscarriage." Arteaga says the doctor gave her two options: a surgical procedure or a prescription medication, misoprostol. Misoprostol is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for what is called a medical abortion. Misoprostol, according to PubMed, prevents stomach ulcers and can cause miscarriages. Arteaga opted for the medication. But she says that when she went to pick up the pills, the pharmacist refused to give them to her, citing his own ethical reasons. Arizona is one of six states that allow pharmacies or pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions on religious or moral grounds, according to the National Women's Law Center."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
Think Trump and his henchmen are 'emptying the swamp?' ... Or, filling it? NPR reports:
"Ranking U.S. House Democrats are calling for an ethics investigation into Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. They want to know more about a land deal between Zinke's family foundation and a real estate project with ties to the oil and gas giant Halliburton. Earlier this week, Politico first broke the story on a possibly unethical relationship between Zinke's family foundation and a proposed real estate development in his hometown of Whitefish, Montana."
Never ends, does it?
"Whether or not this relationship was unethical may hinge on whether Zinke was still involved in the deal after his resignation from the family foundation and while he was serving as Secretary of the Interior. The Mountain West News Bureau unearthed emails suggesting he was still involved."
Couldn't be, could it?
"Craig Holman with public watchdog group Private Citizen says a real estate deal that involves an oil man and a public servant who oversees millions of acres of oil-rich federal land raises serious ethical questions. "This is just unseemly for a government official — a cabinet official, no less — to enter into a business relationship with those that he is regulating," he says. Halliburton is a one of the world's largest oil field service companies. The Department of the Interior regulates on oil and gas drilling on hundreds of millions of acres of public land in the U.S."
Think this will go anywhere? ... Grow legs, -- so to speak? Get this:
"But here's where timing is everything. Zinke said he resigned from the foundation after becoming interior secretary and now it's managed by his wife, Lola Zinke. Newly-surfaced emails are raising questions about that timing. They show Zinke was still in touch with 95 Karrow's chief project developer, Casey Malmquist, six months after becoming interior secretary and six months after he resigned from the foundation. In those emails to Zinke from Malmquist, the developer told Zinke, "our development project and your park plan are an absolute grand slam." The emails from Malmquist also include detailed maps of the proposed development. According to Holman, that's a smoking gun: "What this email suggests is that Ryan Zinke was not removed from negotiations of the project," he says. "Instead we are seeing the 95 Karrow project developers negotiating directly with Ryan Zinke."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
Think poverty isn't a problem in this country? The Washington Post reports:
"A United Nations report condemning entrenched poverty in the United States is a “misleading and politically motivated” document about “the wealthiest and freest country in the world,” according to the Trump administration's ambassador to the world body."
Think so? Madam Ambassador doesn't live at the bottom of the food chain. Clearly, doesn't have a clue what she's whining about:
"U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley criticized the report for critiquing the United States' treatment of its poor, arguing that the United Nations should instead focus on poverty in developing countries such as Burundi and Congo. The U.N. report also faulted the Trump administration for pursuing policies it said would exacerbate U.S. poverty."
At least on this issue, the UN remains spot on. Haley and her fuhrer, the Trump nazi, are well aware of the truth. Simply, don't care. Not their problem. As long as they get theirs, no problem. Anyone else? Tough luck. Go find your own. Forget? The rich in a capitalistic economy line their pockets by concertedly not paying a livable wage, create shoddy projects that don't last, need to be constantly replaced. Services rendered? No better. Make money the old fashioned way, -- steal it.
“It is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America,” Haley wrote in a letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday. “In our country, the President, Members of Congress, Governors, Mayors, and City Council members actively engage on poverty issues every day. Compare that to the many countries around the world, whose governments knowingly abuse human rights and cause pain and suffering.”
Your fuhrer, the Trump nazi, and his henchmen are not doing precisely the same, Madam Ambassador? Wake up. Your profound ignorance, unbecoming, inexcusable. Bottom line? Until a livable wage is mandated by law, an impoverished work force remains in indentured servitude.
"In May, U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Philip Alston released a report saying the United States has the highest rates of youth poverty, infant mortality, incarceration, income inequality and obesity among all countries in the developed world, as well as 40 million people living in poverty. Alston accused President Trump and the Republican Congress of deepening poverty and inequality in the country, citing the Republican tax law passed last fall."
Unvarnished truth the Trump nazi, his henchmen, Republicans and Democrats clearly do not understand. Remain oblivious. Won't be confused with reality.
“The policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege,” Alston wrote in the report."
All true. To further line the pockets of the top of the food chain. Madam Ambassador and her fuhrer, the Trump nazi, can't, won't be confused with the truth. Precisely, why an unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looms. ... Hear the rumble?
The more Madam Ambassador is confronted with reality, the harder she whines:
"Haley pushed back in Thursday's letter, arguing that the administration has created a strong economy that would lift people out of poverty and that Alston's report was premised on misleading statistics. Haley said the U.N. special rapporteur had “categorically misstated” the progress America has made in reducing poverty, but she gave no examples."
She couldn't, can't. We're going backwards. Quite some time. At least, last fifty years. Now witnessing ravages of ineffectively regulated capitalism, no more than laissez-faire capitalism, eviscerating the middle class. To argue otherwise is to ignore reality.
“I am deeply disappointed that the Special Rapporteur used his platform to make misleading and politically motivated statements about American domestic policy issues,” Haley said. “Regrettably, his report is an all too common example of the misplaced priorities” of the United Nations."
Respectfully, remove your head from your bottom, Madam Ambassador. Your ignorance, appalling. Where did you lose yourself? Status quo, unsustainable. Can and will ultimately lead to an unwanted dreaded revolution. Time to wake up. Before too late.
"Sanders, who initially requested Haley's comments on the U.N. report, asked Haley to respond to statistics showing more than 30 million Americans lack health insurance, more than half of older workers have no retirement savings and 140 million Americans struggle to meet basic living expenses."
Madam Ambassador can't, won't be confused with the truth.
“You are certainly right in suggesting that poverty in many countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi is far worse than it is in the United States,” Sanders said. “But ... as it happens, I personally believe that it is totally appropriate for the U.N. Special Rapporteur to focus on poverty in the United States.”
Especially, since the middle class is being eviscerated to enrich the top of the food chain.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
Once again, Trump caught in a lie. ABC News reports:
"President Donald Trump Monday jumped to the defense of his press secretary after a Virginia restaurant kicked her out this weekend, saying the "filthy" restaurant should focus more on cleanliness."
Clearly, the 'president' had no clue what he was talking about. Didn't stop him, however, from lying like hell. LOL.
"The Red Hen Restaurant
should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly
needs a paint job) rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah
Huckabee Sanders. I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the
outside, it is dirty on the inside!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2018"
No truth to the nazi's claim. None at all. LOL. Think his sick sycophants, however, still won't believe the lying bastard? LOL.
"Trump provided no evidence to support his description of the Red Hen in Lexington, and a photo taken of the restaurant this weekend appears to show a clean, well-maintained building. The barn-red establishment passed its most recent health inspection Feb. 6 of this year, according to the state's health inspection database. The Red Hen had no violations."
Couldn't be, could it? The Trump nazi wouldn't lie, would he? LOL.
"Sanders explained on Twitter Saturday that she "was told by the owner" of the restaurant to leave because she worked for the president. "Her actions say far more about her than about me," she added. "I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so."
Wake up, Ms. Sanders. You dishonorably defend a congenital liar. What does that say about you, Madam?
"The White House spokeswoman's father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, also defended his daughter, calling the Friday night incident "bigotry." "Bigotry. On the menu at Red Hen Restaurant in Lexington VA. Or you can ask for the 'Hate Plate'. And appetizers are 'small plates for small minds,'" he tweeted Saturday."
Talking about yourself, Mikey? Don't you claim to be a Christian, Governor? Aren't you taught by the Head Honcho of your religion not to lie, sir? Failed to teach your daughter the same, Governor?
"The restaurant's owner, Stephanie Wilkinson, said she told Sanders, "The restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation." "I said, 'I'd like to ask you to leave,'" she added in an interview with The Washington Post Saturday."
It is her business. What she did, however, was stupid. Counter productive. Should have challenged the Press Secretary vis a vis her lies on behalf of her fuhrer, the Trump nazi. Should have then challenged the 'president's' nearly continuous lies. Had Sanders chosen to remain under the circumstances, should have provided the Press Secretary the best meal she had ever eaten. On the house. LOL.
"Initially worried about Sanders' possible reaction, according to the Post's report, Wilkinson said the press secretary didn't make a scene. "That's fine. I'll go," Sanders responded, according to Wilkinson's account to the newspaper. Wilkinson did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. The restaurant's Yelp page has since been engulfed by comments of praise and outrage. But despite the repercussions of asking arguably the White House's most visible face, other than the president, to leave, the owner told the Post she "would have done the same thing again." "We just felt there are moments in time when people need to live their convictions," she said. "This appeared to be one."
While the restaurant owner would have been well-advised to handle the matter differently, she was within her rights. No racism involved. Just bigotry against a goddamned clueless fascist and her rabid fuhrer, the Trump nazi. LOL.
CBS News reports:
"When it comes to the story of Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the Red Hen restaurant, you can't blame conservatives for being confused."
That's right. LOL. Hypocrisy? Stunning.
"A few weeks ago, the owner of Colorado's Masterpiece Cakeshop was a national villain for refusing to bake a custom cake to celebrate a same-sex marriage. American liberals were outraged when the U.S. Supreme Court—by a 7-2 margin —refused to force the owner, Jack Phillips, to either set aside his moral objections to gay marriages and make the cake or else shut down. "The Court today has offered dangerous encouragement to those who would deny civil rights to LGBT people and people living with HIV, Lambda Legal CEO Rachel B. Tiven said at the time. "Bigotry Baked In" was the headline from the National Center for Transgender Equality."
Okay then, but not now? LOL. Give me a break. Granted the Red Hen fiasco could have been better handled, but the Right has to be able to handle pointed criticism no matter where on the ferocity scale. Why are these nazis afraid of peaceful but extremely ferocious criticism?
Plot thickens. Get this. NPR reports:
"A senior California Democratic lawmaker added some fresh fuel to the raging debate over civility in politics with a call for public confrontations with Trump administration officials. "If you think we're rallying now you ain't seen nothing yet," Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif, told supporters at a rally in Los Angeles over the weekend. "If you see anybody from that (Trump) Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere." A video of her remarks was posted on Twitter on Sunday.Her remarks drew a response from President Trump, who called her "an extraordinarily low IQ person" in a tweet on Monday, and warned, "Be careful what you wish for Max!"
"Congresswoman
Maxine Waters, an extraordinarily low IQ person, has become, together with
Nancy Pelosi, the Face of the Democrat Party. She has just called for harm
to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again
movement. Be careful what you wish for Max!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2018"
Aren't you talking about yourself, Donny Boy? LOL.
"Waters' comments come as at least three Trump administration officials — Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, adviser Stephen Miller and spokeswoman Sarah Sanders — have been forced out or denied service in restaurants. Protesters have also targeted Nielsen at home in recent days over the Trump administration's immigration policies."
As long as protest remains peaceful, non-violent, the public has a right to ferociously pointedly confront officials. Certainly, rattling the cages of GOP nazis, -- with gusto. LOL.
The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump warned Rep. Maxine Waters on Monday to “be careful what you wish for,” offering a provocative rebuke to the California Democrat who has called for the continuing public harassment of Trump administration officials. Taking to Twitter, Trump called Waters “an extraordinarily low IQ person” — a moniker he has bestowed on her before — and cautioned he has a massive movement behind him. “She has just called for harm to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again movement,” Trump wrote. “Be careful what you wish for Max!”
"Congresswoman
Maxine Waters, an extraordinarily low IQ person, has become, together with
Nancy Pelosi, the Face of the Democrat Party. She has just called for harm
to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again
movement. Be careful what you wish for Max!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2018"
Again, Trump is a liar. Where and when had she "called for harm to supporters?" How does peacefully, none violently, rhetorically challenging a nazi inflict "harm" on that nazi? Clearly, these fascist bastards have no capability of being ferociously pointedly challenged intellectually. No tolerance for it. Their way or the highway. Not to be in what remains of a democratic republic, based on the United States Constitution. No way in hell.
In follow up to the above ongoing saga, get this. NPR reports:
"White House press secretary Sarah Sanders will reportedly receive temporary Secret Service protection days after she was asked to leave a Virginia restaurant. NBC first reported that Sanders would receive the high-level protection, which is normally reserved for the president, vice president and their families. CNN subsequently quoted sources it said corroborated the report. NPR was not immediately able to independently confirm the reports.
"NEW:
The Secret Service will begin providing security at the home of Press Secretary
Sarah Sanders, on a temporary basis, a law enforcement official tells @PeteWilliamsNBC
—
Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) June 26, 2018"
Fascinating, isn't it?
"In a press briefing on Monday, Sanders said she was asked to leave The Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Va., "Because I work for President Trump." "We are allowed to disagree, but we should be allowed to do so freely and without fear of harm," Sanders said. "This goes for all people, regardless of politics."
Aren't you overreacting, Ms. Sanders? Who threatened you during the rhetorical confrontation, Madam? Can't withstand withering criticism?
"She said that "A Hollywood actor publicly encouraged people to kidnap my children" — an apparent reference to actor Peter Fonda. In response to the Trump policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the southern border, Fonda wrote in a tweet, since deleted, that maybe Sanders' children should be taken away from her. Fonda later apologized for a similar tweet in which he said that Barron Trump should be taken from his mother, first lady Melania Trump."
Had it been a terroristic threat or incitement of the criminal element to kidnap someone, wouldn't law enforcement had immediately investigated, arrested the perpetrator?
"The restaurant incident has sparked a debate about civility in politics. However, many people on social media have condemned what they see as administration's hypocrisy for praising a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding a Colorado baker's right to deny service to a same-sex couple. They say denying Sanders service because of her political beliefs is no different."
That's right. It's not.
"The Washington Post reports that according to the American Civil Liberties Union, "only the District [of Columbia], Seattle and the Virgin Islands specifically protect people from being refused service because of their political affiliation or ideology." Even so, the Post quotes the ACLU's national legal director, David Cole, as saying he doesn't support the Red Hen's actions. "I think it's wrong, but under most jurisdictions' laws, it has not been made illegal," he said."
Appears to be the case. Still better to have respectfully, peacefully, but ferociously pointedly, rhetorically confronted her, then provided the best meal she ever got, -- on the house. Republican nazis seem to have no conception of the difference between harassment and pointed debate. Consider any opposition harassment.
Kicker? Get this. LOL. Unadulterated bullshit:
"Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer was among those who sought to quell the controversy. We all have to remember to treat our fellow Americans – all our fellow Americans — with the kind of civility and respect we expect will be afforded to us," Schumer said on the floor of the House [Senate]. "I strongly disagree with those who advocate harassing folks if they don't agree with you."
Chucky? You're pitiful. Precisely, why the Democratic Party no longer wins very many elections. Been out to lunch since November 22,1963.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
Exemplifying the above, consider the following. CBS News reports:
"Protesters confronted Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi at a showing of a documentary about children's TV host Fred Rogers, and they questioned the Republican's stands on immigration and health care. The Tampa Bay Times reports Bondi received a police escort Friday when several members of Organize Florida confronted her as she left a Tampa theater after seeing "Won't You Be My Neighbor" about Mr. Rogers."
The Nazi Right has to expect peaceful but ferocious criticism of its national socialistic, fascist principles every step of the way. The public will not remain silent as the Trump nazi and his henchmen turn the de facto fascist police-state we already live in to the Fourth Reich. Protest will remain ferocious, but non-violent, peaceful. -- Only effective way to get the message across to the achingly clueless, hopelessly ignorant Nazi Right.
Why shouldn't these fascist bastards feel most uncomfortable when ferociously pointedly questioned about their nazism? Win rhetorically. Make sure they lose the debate. Point out how empty, hollow, meaningless their rhetoric and philosophy truly is. How easy it is to overcome rhetorically, argument that makes no sense, has no substance, remains highly flawed since the days of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini.
"The demonstrators questioned Florida joining a lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act and Bondi's general support of President Donald Trump's immigration policies. This is at least the third time a Republican official has been confronted at a public place in recent days over the president's immigration policy that separated parents entering the country illegally at the Mexican border from their children. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders left restaurants in the Washington, D.C., area after facing friction there."
Does the nazi element truly believe the public will remain silent in the presence of such great evil? Nazi history repeating itself?
"Bondi protester Maria Jose Chapa said was an impromptu demonstration after someone spotted the attorney general, who has a national following as a guest on Fox News and as a friend of Trump. Video shows that as Bondi and her companion left the theater surrounded by officers, Chapa followed her yelling. A video of the incident was posted to Twitter."
The public has every constitutional right to peacefully protest these fascist bastards.
"What would Mr. Rogers think about you and your legacy in Florida? Taking away health insurance from people with pre-existing conditions, Pam Bondi!" Chapa hollered. Another person shouted at Bondi, "You're a horrible person!" Onlookers stared agape as the procession moved past. "Would Mr. Rogers take children away from their parents?" one woman asked. Bondi told the paper in a phone interview Saturday that the demonstrators' actions didn't comport with the lessons taught by Mr. Rogers."
Wake up, Ms. Bondi. You and your fellow nazis don't comport with the constitutional values embraced by the Founders. ... Can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit, Counselor?
"We were in a movie about anti-bullying and practicing peace and love and tolerance and accepting of people for their differences," Bondi said in interview. "That's what Mr. Rogers is all about. We all believe in free speech, but there's a big difference there."
Jesus Christ. What you and your fellow nazis are now doing across our formerly great country is not bullying, denial of constitutional rights highly reminiscent of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini circa 1933? The public indeed has the right to peacefully challenge your nazism, Counselor. Take the time to read the First Amendment, Madam.
"When the Times asked Chapa if the documentary's star would have handled the situation the same, she replied, "I'm not Mr. Rogers. I don't have the poise or temperament of Mr. Rogers."
Neither do Bondi, the Trump nazi, his equally fascist henchmen, to say nothing of other rabid nazis in the GOP.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
The f--king has begun. NPR reports:
"More than $3 billion worth of U.S. goods — from bourbon and corn to Harley-Davidson motorcycles — are now subject to a 25 percent tariff in the European Union, in retaliation for the Trump administration's tariffs that hit the EU, Mexico and Canada this month. "The trade that we believe in is built on rules, trust and reliable partnership," Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the EU Commission, said in a speech in Dublin on Thursday night. "The United States' decision to impose tariffs on Europe goes against that. In fact, it goes against all logic and history."
This is one of the stupidest things a U.S. president can do. Congress needs to remove this authority from the president. Why it ever delegated this authority to the president is beyond comprehension. Ordinarily, with a sane president, would not have been an issue. With a lunatic in office, quite a different story.
"The steepest taxes — 50 percent — were imposed on shirts, pants and bedding, made from both cotton and synthetic fibers. Suntanning equipment — sunbeds and lamps — was hit with the same rate, as were washing machines and some electronic devices. The U.S. tariffs hit some $7.5 billion of European products; the EU says that today's measures target nearly half that figure, and that it plans to impose a slightly larger block of tariffs later — either in three years, or if/when the WTO rules in its favor. "The rules of international trade, which we have developed ... with our American partners, cannot be violated without a reaction from our side," Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström said. "Our response is measured, proportionate and fully in line with WTO rules." Malmström added that if the U.S. removes its tariffs, the European taxes would also be lifted."
What this remains is the beginning of a trade war. There is no winner. Everyone loses. Trump is too ignorant to understand.
"As for what the effects of those tariffs could be, here's what former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez — and current chair of the National Foreign Trade Council — told The Financial Times this week: "The parties that will be most impacted are US companies," he said. "They are going to report bad earnings. It is going to hurt the stock market. Even worse we are going to put people out of work and it is going to spark inflation in our country ... The logic of that is what companies throughout the country are feeling."
The former Commerce Secretary neglected to mention consumers, particularly the bottom and middle class, will take it hard in the ass, -- without the K-Y or Vaseline. Wake up.
NPR reports:
"Harley-Davidson says it plans to move production of motorcycles it sells in Europe overseas in response to growing trade friction between the United States and Europe. European officials last week imposed stiff tariffs on a wide range of U.S.-made goods sold within the European Union. The response came to President Trump's recent decision to slap tariffs on European imports. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday, Harley-Davidson said the tariffs imposed by the EU "would have an immediate and lasting detrimental impact to its business in the region." The company reported $5.65 billion in revenues last year and Europe is its largest overseas market, with almost 40,000 customers buying motorcycles there in 2017. The European tariffs have jumped from 6 percent to 31 percent, the company said. That increase will add on average $2,200 to the cost of each motorcycle sold in the EU, and would cost the company $90 million to $100 million a year, the filing said. "Increasing international production to alleviate the EU tariff burden is not the company's preference, but represents the only sustainable option to make its motorcycles accessible to customers in the EU and maintain a viable business in Europe," the filing said."
Think the American workforce won't be affected?
"The company did not say where production would be shifted, or how many jobs might be affected, but said the move would take nine to 18 months to complete. It also did not say which U.S. factories would be affected. The company's U.S. factories are in York, Pa.; Kansas City, Mo., and Menomonee Falls, Wis. It also has manufacturing operations in Australia, Brazil, India and Thailand."
CBS/AP reports:
"President Donald Trump is denying that his trade policy is responsible for Harley-Davidson's (HOG) decision to shift some motorcycle production overseas. The company says it's doing so because of tariffs it's facing in a trade dispute between the U.S. and the European Union. EU tariffs on Harley's motorcycles exported from the U.S. have surged from 6 percent to 31 percent, as the EU retaliates for tariffs the U.S. has imposed on European steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. But Mr. Trump says Harley is using the tariff tiff as an excuse. The president said in tweets Tuesday that the company had already announced it was closing a Kansas City plant. Union officials have said those jobs are going to Thailand. Harley-Davidson has denied that.
"Early
this year Harley-Davidson said they would move much of their plant operations
in Kansas City to Thailand. That was long before Tariffs were announced.
Hence, they were just using Tariffs/Trade War as an excuse. Shows how unbalanced
& unfair trade is, but we will fix it.....
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2018"
How will you fix it, Donny Boy? The out of control corporate management suite owns its bought and paid for government lackeys. Your vast business empire has certainly been no exception over the decades. Certainly, how you generated enormous corporate income for yourself and family.
Why would Harley-Davidson not transfer operations overseas? In search of cheap labor and relief from tariffs you are directly responsible for:
"In the near-term, the company will bear the significant impact resulting from these tariffs, and the company estimates the incremental cost for the remainder of 2018 to be approximately $30 to $45 million," Harley said in a regulatory filing. But Mr. Trump responded that Harley had decided to relocate some production "long before Tariffs were announced. Hence, they were just using Tariffs/Trade War as an excuse. Shows how unbalanced & unfair trade is, but we will fix it ...."
How? By starting a trade war?
"Mr. Trump said he's getting other countries to reduce and eliminate tariffs and trade barriers, and open up closed markets."
You're talking out your ass, Mr. 'President.' Direct opposite is reality.
Raging non-sequitur:
"On Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders complained during a press briefing that the European Union "is trying to punish U.S. workers" by increasing tariffs on American-made products. She accused the EU of repeatedly engaging "in unfair trade practices" and that Trump is saying "enough is enough."
Jesus Christ. They're imposing tariffs to counteract tariff's your nazi fuhrer has imposed on them. What planet do you and the lunatic Trump nazi live on? LOL.
More lunacy:
"The president also tweeted on Tuesday morning: "A Harley-Davidson should never be built in another country-never!"
Too late. Already are, fool. LOL.
"Their employees and customers are already very angry at them. If they move, watch, it will be the beginning of the end - they surrendered, they quit! The Aura will be gone and they will be taxed like never before!"
Think so?
The Washington Post reports:
"It was also unclear what he was referring to in this post:
"....We
are getting other countries to reduce and eliminate tariffs and trade barriers
that have been unfairly used for years against our farmers, workers and
companies. We are opening up closed markets and expanding our footprint.
They must play fair or they will pay tariffs!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2018
"In fact, Trump has tried to threaten numerous countries with tariffs if they do not reduce their own tariffs and other trade barriers, but so far most of those discussions have ended in acrimony and frustration. Numerous countries are moving forward with retaliatory tariffs against the United States, such as the ones European leaders have leveled at Harley-Davidson, to try to exert political pressure on Trump to back down."
Trump has been frustrated every step of the way. Has accomplished nothing other than alienate allies. Won't be confused by the truth.
"Trump also suggested Tuesday morning that his adversarial approach to trade policy had only begun.
"....We
are finishing our study of Tariffs on cars from the E.U. in that they have
long taken advantage of the U.S. in the form of Trade Barriers and Tariffs.
In the end it will all even out - and it won’t take very long!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 26, 2018"
This lunatic nazi continues to talk out his ass.
Trump is certainly being pressured. Get this. The Washington Post reports:
"The Trump administration said it would rely on an existing Treasury Department-led committee to restrict new Chinese investments in American technology companies, backing away from a more aggressive approach that would have declared a national economic emergency and dramatically limited China’s ability to invest in the United States. President Trump opted instead to rely on legislation to enhance the powers of the committee known as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, which reviews proposed acquisitions of U.S. assets by foreign investors. At the end of its review, the president can block proposed investments."
NPR reports:
"The Trump administration will not impose blanket restrictions on Chinese investment in the U.S. but will instead rely on enhancements to an existing review process in an effort to protect the country's sensitive technology know-how. The decision follows a lengthy debate within the administration over how to deal with China's aggressive push into industries of the future and what the White House considers China's unfair treatment of U.S. firms' intellectual property. The president had called for wide-ranging restrictions on Chinese investment in U.S. companies, along with tariffs, as a way to prevent China from acquiring American-made technology. But after months of deliberation, the administration has opted to rely on a case-by-case review instead."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
Think statutes across our formerly great country aren't growing increasingly repressive? Intolerably oppressive? CBS News reports:
"Eight-year-old Jordan Rodgers was selling bottled water on a San Francisco sidewalk for about 15 minutes when she was confronted by Alison Ettel for not having a permit. "She asked me where's my permit? And I didn't know what a permit was," Jordan told CBS News. There has been a growing backlash online against Ettel, who is white, who allegedly called police on the little girl, who is black, since Jordan's mother, Erin Austin, intervened and recorded the interaction on video. Why call the police, Ettel was asked? "Um, illegally selling water without a permit," she replied.
"So
my little cousin was selling water and didn't have a permit so this lady
decided to call the cops on an 8 year old. #PermitPatty pic.twitter.com/SiL61pnAgl
—
Raj ?? (@_ethiopiangold) June 23, 2018"
Ever have a lemonade stand as a kid? Go door to door selling potato chips or candy for the Scouts?
"Austin says she is not sure if race was a factor for the woman who reported it, but said that woman was filled with hate for calling the police on such a young girl. DeMarco Morgan reports Jordan was selling water because she wanted to go on her first-ever trip to Disneyland."
Can't have that in a fascist police-state, can we?
"Recently I lost my job and we were planning a trip to Disneyland before that happened," Austin said. "And so it kind of sidelined us a little bit. And my daughter just wanted to help." In this latest instance of black people being reported to authorities for seemingly normal things, Ettel – now nicknamed by critics "Permit Patty" – has drawn comparisons to Jennifer Schulte. In April, Schulte (mocked online as "Barbecue Becky") called the police on a group of black people having a barbecue in a park."
Hear the rumble? An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming.
Think karma 'ain't' a bitch? LOL. Get this. CBS News reports:
"The woman dubbed "Permit Patty" for threatening to call police on an 8-year-old black girl selling water on the street has stepped down as CEO of her cannabis company. CBS Los Angeles reports the move follows a massive online backlash that resulted in her products getting dropped by other marijuana sellers."
Breaks your heart? LOL.
"Several Bay Area dispensaries are now refusing to sell products made by Alison Ettel's company TreatWell Health, The San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday. "It is Ms. Ettel's belief that TreatWell, its employees and patients should not have to suffer because of a situation that occurred in an escalated moment," company spokeswoman Cynthia Gonzalez is quoted as saying in the paper."
LOL.
"At least three marijuana dispensaries stated publicly they would stop selling TreatWell products. "I forgot to mention that we had pulled [TreatWell's] product line as soon as we saw the video," said the manager of one San Francisco store. "We do not support that type of behavior!"
LOLOLOLOL.
"TreatWell sells pain-easing "cannabis-based tinctures in different ratios for humans and pets," The Los Angeles Times reported last year. The producer of "Lady Buds," an upcoming documentary on women in the legal cannabis industry, said Ettel would no longer be part of the project. Some have pointed out the irony of Ettel selling marijuana products for dogs despite the fact that cannabis is not regulated or approved for use on animals. She told the Chronicle in 2015 that the company's practice was "kind of like 'don't ask, don't tell.'"
Once in awhile, there is justice. This is one of those times.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
Why is Turkey, now a repressive dictatorship, still in NATO? NPR reports:
"President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a second five-year term on Sunday in an election granting the Turkish leader unprecedented executive powers."
A tyrant.
"Addressing supporters from the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, headquarters in the nation's capital hours after his victory, Erdogan claimed Turkey's 81 million residents were the winners of the hotly contested election, state run media Anadolu reported. "Winners of June 24 elections are Turkey, Turkish nation, sufferers of our region and all oppressed in the world," he said to cheering crowds, adding that the country "will look at its future with so much more trust than it did this morning."
Day is night, night is day, and shit smells perversely sweet in the world of a tyrant.
"Erdogan's victory ensures he'll stay in office for 20 years — until 2023 — and ushers in a powerful new executive presidency that eliminates the prime minister's role. The current prime minister, Binali Yildirim, said he expects he'll be appointed vice president. The expanded authority of the office is the result of constitutional changes narrowly approved in a referendum last year, which will afford Erdogan autonomy to directly appoint top public officials. He'll also have the ability to rule by decree, intervene in the country's legal system and dissolve parliament."
A dictator.
"Additionally, as NPR's Peter Kenyon reported, the new system grants Erdogan the possibility of running for a third term "should parliament call snap elections in his final term."
Most convenient, isn't it?
"The AKP says the changes are intended to make Erdogan's government more efficient and workable while he enacts rapid reforms that are fundamental to his agenda. Critics say it is a blatant power grab and pushes Turkey closer to authoritarian rule."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
When will Pruitt finally be held criminally accountable? The Washington Post reports:
"The U.S. Office of Special Counsel is investigating whether Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt retaliated against staffers who questioned his spending and management decisions, according to three individuals familiar with the probe. During Pruitt’s tenure, the EPA has reassigned or taken administrative action against several career officials and one political appointee who had objected to the way he was spending taxpayer funds or using the perks of his office, these individuals said."
Why is it thieving government officials are not accorded same treatment allotted other common thieves?
"Attorneys from the Office of Special Counsel, which responds to whistleblower complaints from federal employees and can choose to prosecute cases, is in the process of speaking to a half-dozen current and former employees as part of the case, according to Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt’s former deputy chief of staff operations. The office is taking the matter “extremely seriously,” Chmielewski said in an interview Monday."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
Sexual assault in the United States continues to be a horrendous problem. For both genders. ABC News reports:
"Actor Terry Crews recounted his story of sexual assault — telling lawmakers Tuesday that even as a former NFL linebacker and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" star, "I sit here as an example" of survivors. Appearing before a Senate committee hearing to advocate for the "Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill of Rights," Crews said, "This happened to me, too." "A lot of people believe a person like me can’t be victimized, but what happened to me has happened to many, many others." After seeing survivors come forward only to be met with persecution and backlash, Crews said he revealed his own story to say "I believed them, I supported them, and that this happened to me, too."
The following is a step in the right direction:
"The "Survivors' Bill of Rights" would create special protections for sexual assault survivors, including not charging survivors for an examination, preserving rape kits for 20 years or the maximum applicable statute of limitations, and providing survivors with written notification before a rape kit is disposed of."
The fact all this is finally seeing the light of day is good, but not sufficient. Need to do much, much more.
"He explained that inside the world of Hollywood, behind the bright lights, is a groundswell of this kind of behavior as a result of what he refers to as "toxic masculinity." "Hollywood has definitely, definitely been a problem area simply because so many people view this as a dream," he explained. "But what happens is someone has power over these dreams." "What happens is that you think this harassment is part of your job description," he asserted. Identifying himself as an actor, and former athlete, among other things at the beginning of the hearing, the starkest label he took on was that of "survivor of sexual assault."
Can happen to him, can certainly happen to anyone.
"The assault lasted only minutes, but what he was effectively telling me while he held my genitals in his hand was that he held the power," he told senators of his assailant. "That he was in control." Crews says the assault happened during a 2016 party he attended with his wife. "I was sexually assaulted by a successful Hollywood agent," he said candidly. He previously has identified the perpetrator as Adam Venit, who at the time headed the motion picture department at William Morris Endeavor. "He did it twice in front of my wife," he added."
Insult to injury?
"Crews said he received a call from Venit after the alleged assault, saying Venit apologized, claiming he was "drunk."
Appalling excuse. Gets worse. Far worse.
"An investigation was launched immediately after management was made aware of the situation in October of this year," WME said in a statement to ABC News Tuesday. "The investigation has resulted in Adam Venit being suspended without pay and demoted from his position as head of the motion picture department."
That enough?
"Crews filed a lawsuit again[st] Venit in December. Venit denied all of Crews' allegations in a court filing from January. Los Angeles authorities announced in March that they will not move forward with Crews' case against Venit. The agent was still employed by WME as of March."
No justice.
"A tearful Crews detailed his reaction to the alleged assault during the hearing — conceding that his first instinct was to get violent. But instead, he resisted that urge. "As a black man in America, you only have a few shots at success. You only have a few chances to make yourself a viable member of a community," he told Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, who asked about his response to the assault. "I am from Flint, Michigan. I have seen many, many young black men provoked into violence and they were in prison or killed."
Our country continues to come apart at the seams.
"He confessed that it was the "strength" of his wife that got him through the moment. "I didn’t go into my first reaction," he said. They left the party instead. A humble Crews delivered a passionate and emotional monologue at the onset of the hearing, detailing how his childhood shaped his outlook of the world before the assault. "As a child I watched as my father violently abused my mother, using his power and authority to dominate her," he began. "As I grew up, this thought transformed the type of man I became. I swore I would never be like my father and yet I believed, to my core, that as a man, I was more valuable in this world. As a protector and symbol of strength, I was more worthy. That women were beneath me." "As a man, I was taught my entire life that I must control the world. So, I used power, influence and control to dominate every situation: from the football field to the film set, even in my own home with my wife and children." Now, he said he aims to give "power and control back to survivors."
The following is quite extraordinary considering the current partisan divide:
"Both the committee's chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley, and ranking member, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, shared their support for Crews, thanking him for his "bravery" and "perseverance." After the actor admitted he has faced setbacks in his career since coming forward, including being asked to drop his lawsuit against Venit in order to star in the fourth installment of the film "The Expendables," they said they would like to help him fight back to overcome the retaliation. "If there is anything I can do, I hope you'll tell me because I'd like to be helpful," Grassley told Crews. "Mr. Chairman, this should be for both sides of the aisle," Feinstein chimed in."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-29-18
Incumbent Democrats are certainly paying the price for the decades-long failure of the Democratic Party. ABC News reports:
"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old former Bernie Sanders organizer, has defeated Democratic incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley, the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House. Crowley, a lawmaker whose name is often mentioned as a replacement for Nancy Pelosi and the next Speaker of the House if the Democrats take back the majority in that chamber, is the first Democratic incumbent to lose a primary this cycle. Ocasio-Cortez won the race for New York’s 14th Congressional District with a substantial margin over Crowley. The Bronx native, who has not previously run for elected office, is the first primary challenge Crowley has seen in 14 years. We triggered the first primary election in 14 years. OUR supporters, collecting signatures in the bitter snow for 5 weeks, did that.
"No
matter who the vote is for, every single vote cast to day is ours - because
we made this election happen.
—
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) June 27, 2018"
The problem with this remains stark and simple. At a time when our formerly great country has been taken over by a national socialist, achingly fascist Trump nazi, his henchmen, supporters, and fellow GOP nazis, truly believe a Marxist socialist has a snowball's chance? LOL.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-22-18
Corruption within the Trump regime worsens. So much so, it now attracts increasing attention, concern of 'conservatives.' NPR reports:
"Amid an unceasing series of revelations about alleged ethical misconduct, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is rapidly losing support with influential Republican lawmakers and conservatives who, until now, have strongly backed Pruitt and the pro-fossil fuel deregulatory agenda he's implemented. In recent days, new reports have emerged showing that Pruitt repeatedly used his position to seek employment and business opportunities for his wife, and had agency staffers doing personal errands on his behalf — both allegations that could run afoul of federal ethics laws. At least a dozen investigations are underway into various aspects of Pruitt's conduct."
Been going on quite some time. Why have Republicans continued to ignore it? Think sweeping it under the carpet makes it go away? Blatant corruption never ends well.
"PRUITT BAD JUDGMENT HURTING @POTUS, GOTTA GO," tweeted influential conservative talk radio host and Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham on Wednesday. "It just doesn't look good. If you want to drain the swamp, you got to have people in it who forego personal benefits and don't send your aides around doing personal errands on the taxpayer dime, otherwise you make everyone else look bad," said Ingraham on her radio show on Wednesday."
Amusingly, misses the point. It's criminal behavior. Called stealing. Shoplift in a store and the offender rightfully goes to jail. Do the same on a much grander scale in high office, guess what? Republicans, to date, excuse it. LOL.
"All these things that are coming are really not good things," said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. in an interview with Ingraham. "I've kind of taken the position that if that doesn't stop, I'm going to be forced to be in a position where I'm going to say, 'Scott you're not doing your job.'"
Jesus Christ. Give me a break. This Senator is a dolt. LOL. Out to lunch. Pruitt is stealing, you achingly clueless, worthless, piece of human excrement. Had it been the unwashed, this piece of shit would have called for his immediate jailing. When it's someone in high office doing the stealing, same standard does not apply.
"Inhofe is one of Pruitt's political mentors and allies from his home state of Oklahoma and said the Senate should hold hearings into Pruitt's scandals. "I support Sen. Inhofe's call for a hearing on EPA Administrator Pruitt's scandals; and I continue to urge the President to take a hard look at Mr. Pruitt's actions — as I do not feel that Mr. Pruitt is serving President Trump's best interests," tweeted Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa later in the day. Ernst and fellow Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley have particularly clashed with Pruitt over rules around the use of ethanol."
Like Democrats, Republicans dance around the truth, indulge political expediency. Precisely, why both major political parties are not worth a shit.
"Conservative condemnation of Pruitt's behavior has stepped up as Pruitt's ethical problems have deepened. The American Future Fund, a political nonprofit, is running a campaign-style television ad calling Pruitt a "swamp monster" and using a clip of President Trump when he hosted "The Apprentice" saying "You're fired."
Trump and his henchmen are filling the swamp, not draining it. Wake up. Neither party is worth a shit. For the same, as well as, different reasons.
The following is stunning, especially considering the source. LOL. Get this:
"A scathing editorial published by the National Review said, "we are now at a point where a good week for Pruitt sees only one report of behavior that is bizarre or venal." "This is no way for any public official to treat taxpayers," the influential conservative magazine continued. "It also makes it practically impossible for Pruitt to make the case for the Trump administration's environmental policies — a case that we continue to believe deserves to be made."
Yet, Republicans at the highest levels of office remain determinedly clueless:
"During a regular press conference, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., deflected questions about Pruitt's controversies. "Frankly, I haven't paid that close attention to them." So far, Pruitt's ethical lapses have not crimped President Trump's support for his top environmental regulator. "Scott Pruitt is doing a great job within the walls of the EPA. I mean, we're setting records," said Trump last week. "Outside, he's being attacked very viciously by the press. And I'm not saying that he's blameless, but we'll see what happens."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-22-18
Trump's family separation policy is certainly drawing widespread ire. CBS News reports:
"More than 300 Catholic bishops from across the U.S. gathered Wednesday for their Spring Assembly in Fort Lauderdale, where they made a strong political statement against several immigration policies of the Trump administration, CBS Miami reports. A statement, read by Msgr. J. Brian Bransfield on behalf of Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, said the bishops take issue with Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision to limit asylum seekers who are fleeing domestic abuse or gang violence from trying to stay in the U.S."
Trump and Sessions are breaking the law, asylum statutes.
"These vulnerable women will now face return to the extreme dangers of domestic violence in their home country. This decision negates decades of precedence that have provided protection to women fleeing domestic violence," Blandsfield read. The bishops also said the Trump administration's policy of separating parents from their children at the U.S.-Mexico border needs to stop. "Our government has the discretion in our laws to ensure that young children are not separated from their parents and exposed to irreparable harm and trauma," he said. "Families are the foundational element of our society and they must be able to stay together. "Separating babies from their mothers is not the answer and is immoral," Blansfield said."
The racist AG Sessions nazi, and his fuhrer, the Trump nazi have no clue what the concept of 'immoral' means. None. Both amoral, that is, without morals.
"Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in an interview several days ago that it's a matter of law."
Immoral, amoral, egregiously unconstitutional bastardization of the law and Constitution by the Trump nazi and his equally fascist henchmen.
"That's why they're separated," she said. "They're breaking the law. They're coming across the border and they're breaking the law. In the United States, if you break the law, you go to jail and you're separated from your family."
You and your fellow nazis continue to shamelessly bastardize the law and Constitution. Do the right thing. Resign in disgrace. Do it now. No question, you and your fellow nazis remain an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.
"One U.S. bishop from Arizona, Edward Weisenburger, had an even stronger suggestion. He suggested any Catholics involved in separating children from their parents might be stripped of their ability to receive the sacraments or possibly be excommunicated from the church."
For Catholics, indeed, the kiss of death.
"CBS Miami reached out to a number of South Florida legislators for comment on the bishops' statement. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz responded, saying, "The Catholic Bishops gathered in Fort Lauderdale speak for the vast majority of Americans who are horrified by President Trump's cruel and immoral immigration policies. Separating children from their parents, and refusing asylum to women seeking refuge from domestic violence is not just dangerous, it is monstrous and inhumane."
It's nazi. Follows in the footsteps of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini.
Republicans are clearly beginning to understand they have a serious problem. CBS News reports:
"A new Republican proposal to revamp the nation's immigration policy would bar the Trump administration from separating families that illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border and provide $25 billion for new border security measures sought by the White House while restructuring the visa system to favor employment and education. CBS News has obtained a draft "for discussion only" of a potential compromise that seeks to merge the ideas of conservative and moderate House Republicans, who have been sparring for months over how to settle an issue that has roiled the GOP and remains a top-of-mind concern for President Trump."
Forget? Trump is out of his mind. LOL.
"On Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) said he isn't comfortable with separating families that cross the border. Responding to questions from CBS News's Nancy Cordes at his weekly press briefing, Ryan avoided directly criticizing the White House's "zero tolerance" policy, which allows border security agents to separate the families and instead blamed the practice on a court decision."
The Speaker has no guts. Knows full well the problem is the insane Trump nazi.
"It was not immediately clear what specific court ruling Ryan was referring to, but the case Flores v. Meese, a 1997 class-action lawsuit filed against the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) over its handling of unaccompanied illegal minors, appears to be a sticking point among Republicans."
Should they lose at midterms, think that won't be one hell of a belated wake up call?
"At the White House, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders blamed Democrats for the administration's decision to separate families. "The separation of illegal alien families is the product of the same legal loopholes that Democrats refuse to close," Sanders said. "These laws are the same that have been on the books for over a decade and the president is simply enforcing them."
Sanders remains out to lunch. Continues to disgrace herself defending the indefensible.
"A reporter continually asked Sanders if she has any empathy because she is a parent of young children, but Sanders ignored the reporter and moved on."
What empathy? What heart? Forget? Clearly, lacks both.
The Washington Post reports:
"For more than a year, the old Walmart along the Mexican border here has been a mystery to those driving by on the highway. In place of the supercenter’s trademark logo hangs a curious sign: “Casa Padre.” But behind the sliding doors is a bustling city unto itself, equipped with classrooms, recreation centers and medical examination rooms. Casa Padre now houses more than 1,400 immigrant boys, dozens of them forcibly separated from their parents at the border by a new Trump administration “zero-tolerance” policy. On Wednesday, for the first time since that policy was announced, and amid intense national interest after a U.S. senator was turned away, federal authorities allowed a small group of reporters to tour the secretive shelter, the largest of its kind in the nation."
Any one of all 535 U.S. Senators and Representatives, upon proper identification, should be granted immediate spot access to any of these facilities at any time of the day or night. Called check and balance of one branch of government on the other. As intended by the Founders.
"Texas-based Southwest Key has grown quickly in recent years, fueled by surges of young Central Americans seeking refuge in the north. The organization now houses 5,129 immigrant children in three states — approaching half the approximately 11,200 currently in federal custody — in facilities that are being strained to capacity, according to Juan Sanchez, the founder and chief executive."
These kids belong with their parents, not in custody of this company that's lining its bottomless pockets off egregiously looted taxpayers.
"The policy of criminally prosecuting all who cross the border illegally is creating a new category of residents at these holding centers, young boys and girls who are grappling with the trauma of being unexpectedly separated from their mothers and fathers. To accommodate them, Sanchez said, Southwest Key is retrofitting some facilities with smaller bathrooms, smaller sinks, smaller everything."
You're lining your pockets off the misery of these kids and their parents on behalf of the Trump nazi and his henchmen.
“We’re trying to do the best that we can taking care of these children. Our goal ultimately is to reunite kids with their families,” he said. “We’re not a detention center. … What we operate are shelters that take care of kids. It’s a big, big difference.”
The hell it is. The Trump nazi and his henchmen are forcing this issue. You're lining your pockets. Makes you complicit in this ongoing atrocity.
"There are so many children that they attend school in two shifts: one in the morning, the other in the afternoon. They sit in small, numbered classrooms with yellow walls covered in posters of planets. On Wednesday, through tiny windows they waved to the reporters outside. “You might want to smile,” Southwest Key executive Alexia Rodriguez told the journalists at one point. “The kids feel a little like animals in a cage, being looked at.”
What is there for reporters to smile at? These kids are caged. For no reason other than the Trump nazi's insanity.
"The unusually high number of unaccompanied immigrant children crossing the southern border in recent years has been good for Southwest Key’s business. The organization has received more than $1.1 billion to shelter unaccompanied minors since 2014, including $310 million in the current fiscal year, federal spending records show."
Certainly, lining their pockets, aren't they? Securely planted on the taxpayer tit.
"Business briefly slumped a year ago, when the spring surge of unaccompanied teen immigrants failed to materialize. Southwest Key laid off nearly 1,000 employees, according to media reports at the time."
Tough, isn't it?
"But the flood of teens soon resumed, and then the Trump administration began separating families, shunting adults into jails and their children into shelters. The number of children in federal custody spiked by more than 20 percent between April and May of this year. Casa Padre doubled its population over that period, from 542 to 1006, according to a monthly census by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the agency that licenses such shelters."
Precisely, why our Senators and Representatives must be granted unfettered, surprise inspection access to ensure the Trump nazi and his henchmen don't turn these detention centers into concentration camps.
Oversight is critical. Here's why:
"Federal officials declined a request to interview children and employees at Casa Padre."
Why not? If everything is truly on the up and up, why no access to the press?
"But a Washington Post reporter recently interviewed a teenager who spent about three months in Casa Padre, from February until early May of this year. Jairom, 17, had fled an abusive home in Honduras and traveled through Mexico for a month, mostly by train, before he was detained crossing the Rio Grande. His family asked that only his first name be used. Casa Padre wasn’t perfect, he said. The two dirt soccer fields behind the big-box store weren’t enough space for all the boys who wanted to play. And the food was terrible. “They gave us a bit of bread, a nasty egg and some beans and an apple and some milk,” he said, describing breakfast. “Everyone complained about the food.” But after a month sleeping in the open and surviving on coconuts, it was a relief to have three meals a day and a mattress of his own."
Certainly, sounds like he's eating better than this writer. LOL.
The Speaker knows immigration is an ongoing, unresolved issue that's not going well for Republicans. NPR reports:
"House Speaker Paul Ryan said Congress needs to pass legislation to stop the practice of separating children from their parents at the southwest border, a "zero tolerance" policy put in place by the Trump Administration, which cites a court decision. Ryan told reporters Thursday that he wants the issue to be included in immigration legislation but stopped short of committing that it would be included in a pair of bills scheduled for a vote next week. "This I do think ought to be addressed, we believe it should be addressed in immigration legislation," Ryan said. "What's happening at the border with the separation of parents and their children is because of a court ruling, that's why I think legislation is necessary." Ryan agreed earlier this week to hold votes on two immigration bills, each aimed at satisfying one ideological wing of the party. Ryan has said any GOP immigration bill must address the four pillars outlined by President Trump: legal protections for immigrants who are in the country illegally after arriving in the U.S. as children; border security; ending the diversity visa lottery; and adding new restrictions for family-based legal immigration."
Doesn't appear this will be resolved any time soon with Republicans in such blatant disarray.
The public isn't happy with this ongoing, unresolved issue either. NBC reports:
"Thousands of people are expected to join rallies in dozens of cities across the country Thursday calling attention to the plight of children being separated from their parents at the southern border. Over a dozen states, including California, Texas, Michigan and New York, have planned marches and other demonstrations against the Trump administration's "cruel and inhumane treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers,” according to a statement from Families Belong Together, a citizen group opposed [from] about 60 cities and towns across the country are expected to participate, said Anna Tarkov, communications director for Families Belong Together. “It is unconscionable that the U.S. government is actively tearing apart immigrant families,” the statement said. “This is violent abuse and as concerned citizens and voters we state, unequivocally, that this is not in line with American values."
What this is is raw nazism.
"Activist Melissa Byrne posted photos and video to Twitter showing protesters at Philadelphia’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office Thursday afternoon. Many held signs, some saying, “Separating Families Is Cruel Torture” and “Keep Families Together.”
Don't Republicans claim to be the party of the family?
Think the racist AG Sessions nazi isn't one sad, sick, achingly convoluted puppy? The Washington Post reports:
"Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday used a Bible verse to defend his department’s policy of prosecuting everyone who crosses the border from Mexico, suggesting that God supports the government in separating immigrant parents from their children."
This is one sad, sick, racist nazi. Bastardizes the Bible to justify his insanity.
“I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes,” Sessions said during a speech to law enforcement officers in Fort Wayne, Ind. “Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves. Consistent and fair application of the law is in itself a good and moral thing, and that protects the weak and protects the lawful.”
Horse shit. Direct opposite is the case. Last five decades in our formerly great country scream otherwise.
"Government officials occasionally refer to the Bible as a line of argument — take, for instance, the Republicans who have quoted 2 Thessalonians (“if a man will not work, he shall not eat”) to justify more stringent food stamps requirements."
More bastardized horse shit by shameless GOP nazis far more interested in lining their bottomless pockets than mandating a livable wage. Zero-sum game. Winner takes all. The rest? F--ked.
"But the verse that Sessions cited, Romans 13, is an unusual choice. “There are two dominant places in American history when Romans 13 is invoked,” said John Fea, a professor of American history at Messiah College in Pennsylvania. “One is during the American Revolution [when] it was invoked by loyalists, those who opposed the American Revolution.”
Fascinating, isn't it? No more than deliberate bastardization of the Bible for a political purpose.
"The other, Fea said, “is in the 1840s and 1850s, when Romans 13 is invoked by defenders of the South or defenders of slavery to ward off abolitionists who believed that slavery is wrong. I mean, this is the same argument that Southern slaveholders and the advocates of a Southern way of life made.”
Why would anyone expect anything different from the racist AG Sessions nazi?
"On the same issue, other religious groups and individuals have cited the Bible as well, to take the opposite side. “Overwhelmingly, Scripture causes families to be kept together,” said Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition. “Overwhelmingly Scripture causes us to defend families. As Evangelicals, we have a doctrine to be a pro-family-values people, you know. The Bible calls us to be pro-family, and I personally find it deeply lamentable that we are separating children from their parents at the border or anywhere.” Likewise, on Thursday afternoon, the Migrants and Refugees Section at the Vatican tweeted a verse of Deuteronomy: “The Bible teaches that God ‘loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt’ (Deuteronomy 10:18-19).” Pope Francis pic.twitter.com/Yt8i7b39VN"
Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also professes to be a biblical expert:
"White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during a briefing Thursday that she hadn’t seen Sessions’s comments, but she backed his line of thinking. “I can say that it is very biblical to enforce the law. That is actually repeated a number of times throughout the Bible,” she said. “It’s a moral policy to follow and enforce the law.”
Nothing quite like bastardizing the Bible to support one's viewpoint, is there? ... To say nothing of keeping the peasants in line and subservient.
"Fea, the American history professor, said that after the Civil War, historians don’t see many references to Romans 13 because the essence of the passage — submission to authority — is regarded as un-American. “America was built and born on rebellion and a sort of radical resistance to authority,” Fea said. “Whenever Romans 13 was used in the 18th and the 19th century — and Sessions seems to be doing the same thing, so in this sense there is some continuity — it’s a way of manipulating the scriptures to justify your own political agenda.”
Think not? Wake up.
“Romans 13 says that the purpose of government is to pursue what is good, and it says that the government should not be a terror for those who are doing good,” said Matthew Soerens, U.S. director of church mobilization for World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals. “You cannot read Romans 13 without reading Romans 12,” Salguero said, pointing to the prior chapter, which in part suggests that love must be the guide instead of evil. “Laws are good, and order is good, but that doesn’t mean that separating families from each other is a good law,” he said. “There are good laws, and there are bad laws, and separating families from each other is a bad policy. We’re not against the law, we’re against bad laws and bad policies.” Besides, as Soerens points out, the person in the Bible whom Sessions referenced ran afoul of the law. “The fact that the Apostle Paul, who wrote Romans, wrote several epistles from jail suggests that he was occasionally on the wrong side of an unjust law,” Soerens said."
Wouldn't want to confuse the Nazi Right with the truth, would we?
Think Trump's on the ball? The Washington Post reports:
"The White House said Friday that President Trump supports House legislation that closely tracks his priorities on border security and limiting legal immigration, walking back comments he made on national television rejecting the GOP bill. The reversal came after hours of confusion on Capitol Hill, where Trump’s words roiled an already fragile internal debate between conservative and moderate House Republicans who have been trying to find an immigration compromise after months of false starts. “The president fully supports both the Goodlatte bill and the House leadership bill,” White House spokesman Raj Shah said, referring to legislation drafted by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and a separate compromise measure. Shah said Trump, during his “Fox and Friends” interview, was referring to an effort led by moderate House Republicans to force a series of immigration votes over the objections of the GOP leadership. Another senior White House official said Trump misunderstood the question that was posed to him, which prompted the president to say that he “certainly wouldn’t sign the more moderate one.”
Think Trump's got a clue?
CBS News reports:
"Several prominent members of the black clergy on Friday criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for using the Bible to justify separating immigrant children from parents. The Council of Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, along with the Revs. Jesse Jackson and William Barber, in separate statements, called Sessions' use of biblical scripture incorrect. "The Bible does not justify discrimination masked as racism, sexism, economic inequality, oppression or the abuse of children," said the council, leaders of the denomination."
Racist AG Sessions nazi and his fuhrer, the Trump nazi clearly believe otherwise.
"The bishops called for House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republican lawmakers to reprimand Sessions. "Why are Black and Brown immigrants living in America with fear that the American dream has become a nightmare for the least, the last, and left out?" the AME clergy said in a statement. "Twisting the word of God in defense of immoral practices was a tactic used to justify keeping Black people in chattel slavery, committing genocide against Native Americans and segregating people under Jim Crow," said Barber and Liz Theoharis, co-chairs of the Poor People's Campaign, in a separate statement. Jackson was also critical of Sessions, saying in the past, Bible verses have been used to justify various atrocities. "The government tolerated lynching just like they tolerated slavery," said Jackson."
Racism remains alive and well in Nazi America.
NPR reports:
"The Department Homeland Security says 1,995 minors were separated from their "alleged adult guardians" at the southern border in just over a month-long period."
Nazi America. Chillingly reminiscent, Nazi Germany, circa 1933.
"A DHS spokesman said the separations occurred between April 19 and the end of May under the administration's relatively new "zero tolerance" policy, in which parents have also been arrested."
De facto fascist police-state, quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.
"The Trump administration's practice of separating migrant children from their parents at the southern border has brought attention to a little-known government agency. The Office of Refugee Resettlement is responsible for finding homes for unaccompanied migrant children, the ones who attempt to enter the country without their parents. Now the agency also has to shelter the ones the government has separated from their families. The government says more than 10,000 children are in shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The ORR is part of the Department of Health and Human Services."
Un-American. Right Wing Nazi. So is the following:
"Another new policy will make it even more difficult to reunite children with their families. The Trump administration is now fingerprinting family members wishing to take in the unaccompanied children, and it wants to share other information it has about the children's families with the Department of Homeland Security."
The 'president' and his henchmen present an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.
"Sharing information with DHS, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, will likely mean parents and family members in the U.S. illegally will not come forward for their children, fearing they'll be arrested — leading to longer stays for the children in the ORR shelters. Michele Brane, director of migrant rights and justice at the Women's Refugee Commission, says sharing information with DHS is "going to discourage people from coming forward to pick children up and take them into their care." Brane says that may also discourage children from giving all the information that they are aware of to the social workers and the employees who are trying to reunify them. "Ultimately," she says, "what that means is that children will be put into riskier situations or they may remain in custody for much longer." Some clergy and civic groups agree. The American Civil Liberties Union has called on DHS to reverse its plan to adopt the new information-sharing rules and to do what the group says "is truly in the best interest of children.""
Nazi America. Fascist police-state.
Consider the rabid unbridled callousness of the Trump nazi. The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump has calculated that he will gain political leverage in congressional negotiations by continuing to enforce a policy he claims to hate — separating immigrant parents from their young children at the southern border, according to White House officials."
The 'president' remains a congenital liar. Continuing disgrace to himself and the office of the presidency.
"On Friday, Trump suggested he would not change the policy unless Democrats agreed to his other immigration demands, which include funding a border wall, tightening the rules for border enforcement and curbing legal entry. He also is intent on pushing members of his party to vote for a compromise measure that would achieve those long-standing priorities."
F--k the nazi. Republicans and Democrats need to find themselves, and more importantly, backbone.
"Trump’s public acknowledgment that he was willing to let the policy continue as he pursued his political goals came as the president once again blamed Democrats for a policy enacted and touted by his own administration. “The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families at the Border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda,” he tweeted. After listing his demands in any immigration bill, he added, “Go for it! WIN!”
Trump has no character, no principles other than self-aggrandizement, bottomless greed.
"The attempt to gain advantage from a practice the American Academy of Pediatrics describes as causing children “irreparable harm” sets up a high-stakes gambit for Trump, whose political career has long benefited from harsh rhetoric on immigration."
As did Hitler and Mussolini. This unabashed, shameless fascist is, and remains, unfit for office.
"Democrats have latched onto the issue and vowed to fight in the court of public opinion, with leaders planning trips to the border to highlight the stories of separated families, already the focus of news media attention. Democratic candidates running for vulnerable Republican seats also have begun to make the harsh treatment of children a centerpiece of their campaigns."
No more than symbolism over substance. Why aren't they walking out of Congress in protest? Denying Republican nazis a quorum. Being as much a pain in the ass as possible? Dragging their feet every step of the way. Instead, they remain out to lunch since November 22, 1963. Clueless.
"The policy has cracked Trump’s usually united conservative base, with a wide array of religious leaders and groups denouncing it. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Southern Baptist Convention issued statements critical of the practice. The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, who delivered a prayer at Trump’s inauguration, signed a letter calling the practice “horrible.” Pastor Franklin Graham of Samaritan’s Purse, a vocal supporter of the president’s who has brushed aside past Trump controversies, called it “terrible” and “disgraceful.”
Amazing, isn't it? Even Trump's heretofore 'Christian' base is beginning to question this erratic nazi.
"Besides increasing the odds of a broader immigration bill, senior Trump strategists believe that the child separation policy will deter the flow of migrant families across the border. Nearly 2,000 immigrant children were separated from parents during six weeks in April and May, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The figure is the only one released by the goverment. “The president has told folks that in lieu of the laws being fixed, he wants to use the enforcement mechanisms that we have,” a White House official said. “The thinking in the building is to force people to the table.” Trump reinforced that notion Friday morning at the White House when he suggested Democrats alone had the power to alter the policy. “I hate the children being taken away,” Trump said."
Lying nazi. This fascist bastard is using the these kids and their parents as pawns. To get his way. Raw nazism.
"Some senior officials think Democrats will be pressured by the policy to cut an immigration deal. “If they aren’t going to cooperate, we are going to look to utilize the laws as hard as we can,” said a second White House official."
That 'thinking' could likely spark the unthinkable. An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming. Hear the rumble?
NPR reports:
"In South Texas, pediatricians started sounding the alarm weeks ago as migrant shelters began filling up with younger children separated from their parents after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The concerned pediatricians contacted Colleen Kraft, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and she flew to Texas and visited a shelter for migrant children in the Rio Grande Valley. There, she saw a young girl in tears. "She couldn't have been more than 2 years old," Kraft says. "Just crying and pounding and having a huge, huge temper tantrum. This child was just screaming, and nobody could help her. And we know why she was crying. She didn't have her mother. She didn't have her parent who could soothe her and take care of her."
Not in Nazi America. Can't have that, can we?
"The number of migrant children in U.S. government custody is soaring — partly the result of a policy decision by the Trump administration to separate children from their parents who are being prosecuted for unlawful entry. Hundreds of the children being held in shelters are under age 13. Medical professionals, members of Congress and religious leaders are calling on the Trump administration to stop separating migrant families. They question whether these shelter facilities are appropriate for younger children."
CBS News reports:
"Several prominent members of the black clergy on Friday criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for using the Bible to justify separating immigrant children from parents. The Council of Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, along with the Revs. Jesse Jackson and William Barber, in separate statements, called Sessions' use of biblical scripture incorrect. "The Bible does not justify discrimination masked as racism, sexism, economic inequality, oppression or the abuse of children," said the council, leaders of the denomination."
The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump has calculated that he will gain political leverage in congressional negotiations by continuing to enforce a policy he claims to hate — separating immigrant parents from their young children at the southern border, according to White House officials. On Friday, Trump suggested he would not change the policy unless Democrats agreed to his other immigration demands, which include funding a border wall, tightening the rules for border enforcement and curbing legal entry. He also is intent on pushing members of his party to vote for a compromise measure that would achieve those long-standing priorities."
Think Trump fit for office?
"Trump’s public acknowledgment that he was willing to let the policy continue as he pursued his political goals came as the president once again blamed Democrats for a policy enacted and touted by his own administration. “The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families at the Border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda,” he tweeted. After listing his demands in any immigration bill, he added, “Go for it! WIN!”
The 'president' is a liar. The Democrats are not responsible for this latest fiasco. The lunatic Trump nazi is.
"The attempt to gain advantage from a practice the American Academy of Pediatrics describes as causing children “irreparable harm” sets up a high-stakes gambit for Trump, whose political career has long benefited from harsh rhetoric on immigration. Democrats have latched onto the issue and vowed to fight in the court of public opinion, with leaders planning trips to the border to highlight the stories of separated families, already the focus of news media attention. Democratic candidates running for vulnerable Republican seats also have begun to make the harsh treatment of children a centerpiece of their campaigns."
While the above is certainly true, even his base has problems with this nazi tactic:
"The policy has cracked Trump’s usually united conservative base, with a wide array of religious leaders and groups denouncing it. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Southern Baptist Convention issued statements critical of the practice. The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, who delivered a prayer at Trump’s inauguration, signed a letter calling the practice “horrible.” Pastor Franklin Graham of Samaritan’s Purse, a vocal supporter of the president’s who has brushed aside past Trump controversies, called it “terrible” and “disgraceful.”
What it remains is jackbooted nazi. Un-American.
"Sessions and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders have defended the policy as a sound, and biblical, decision to enforce the law. “The previous administration wouldn’t prosecute illegal aliens who entered the country with children,” Sessions said Thursday in Fort Wayne, Ind., citing biblical advice to follow laws. “It was de facto open borders.”
Absolute horse shit. Simply, not so. Sessions, like his fuhrer the Trump nazi, remains a congenital liar.
"The biblical underpinnings have been challenged by religious leaders. “There’s definitely a groundswell of opposition from virtually every corner of the Christian community,” said Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. “People are able to understand immediately the drive of parents to protect their child and to understand the horror of splitting up vulnerable children from their parents.” Yet several key Trump administration officials support the family separation policy, including Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and senior adviser Stephen Miller, a vocal supporter of stricter immigration laws."
Think these gutless assholes won't goose step in unison with the Trump nazi?
"Some senior officials think Democrats will be pressured by the policy to cut an immigration deal. “If they aren’t going to cooperate, we are going to look to utilize the laws as hard as we can,” said a second White House official."
Hear the rumble? An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming.
CBS News reports:
"The U.N. human rights chief is blasting the Trump administration over its new policies separating migrant children from their parents after entering the United States from Mexico, saying they've affected nearly 2,000 kids in the last six weeks and put them at risk of "serious health consequences." The High Commissioner for Human Rights is calling for an immediate end to the practice. Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the high commissioner, says it's "unconscionable" that any country would seek to deter parents from migrating "by inflicting such abuse on children."
In another article, CBS reports:
"Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is defending the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy of separating children from parents who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, tweeting a series of messages on Sunday that disputed the existence of the policy.
"We
do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period.
—
Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen (@SecNielsen) June 17, 2018"
This woman is a liar. What she claims is not true.
"President Trump meanwhile has repeatedly blamed congressional Democrats for the policy and has falsely claimed that federal law requires the separation of families trying to cross the border."
Expect less from congenital liars?
NPR reports:
"Over Memorial Day weekend, President Trump tweeted that people should "put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there parents once they cross the Border into the U.S."
"Put
pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children
from there parents once they cross the Border into the U.S. Catch and Release,
Lottery and Chain must also go with it and we MUST continue building the
WALL! DEMOCRATS ARE PROTECTING MS-13 THUGS.
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2018
"The president implied that children were being separated from their parents at the border because of a law enacted by Democrats. Actually, the policy in question was enacted by his own administration."
That's right. There is no law mandating the nazi president do what he and his henchmen are doing.
NPR reports:
"In her first interview since resigning in May, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Roberta Jacobson, gives a blistering critique of the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" immigration agenda. Jacobson tells NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro enforcement actions that result in children being separated from their parents, as well as a recent decision to narrow the definition of what qualifies someone for asylum, are "draconian" and "un-American."
They are.
Former First Lady Laura Bush opined in The Washington Post:
"On Sunday, a day we as a nation set aside to honor fathers and the bonds of family, I was among the millions of Americans who watched images of children who have been torn from their parents. In the six weeks between April 19 and May 31, the Department of Homeland Security has sent nearly 2,000 children to mass detention centers or foster care. More than 100 of these children are younger than 4 years old. The reason for these separations is a zero-tolerance policy for their parents, who are accused of illegally crossing our borders. I live in a border state. I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart."
Indeed. ... The piece goes on to present a most forceful argument against this policy. Hat's off, to the former First Lady.
Here's what's happening in one immigrant gulag in Nazi America. NBC reports:
"NBC News was part of a group that went behind Ursula's highly secured doors Sunday to see firsthand what migrants go through before separations occur.
"U.S. policy dictates that no one of any age should be kept in one of these processing centers longer than 72 hours. But because of the backlog at HHS centers for children, hundreds of minors are forced to stay past that limit. As of Monday, the HHS had 11,785 minors in its custody, a department official told NBC News. That number includes "all minors at all shelters and facilities in the unaccompanied alien children program," the official said. Cameras were not permitted on the Father's Day tour, but the Border Patrol provided handout images of the stark situation: 1,129 migrants were detained in the 77,000-square-foot facility, nearly all of them behind the metal wire."
Why no cameras? The public has a right to see for itself.
"Mylar blankets, the type marathon runners wrap themselves in after finishing a race, covered the bodies of migrants throughout as they lay on mattresses atop concrete floors. In the 55,000-square-feet of the facility dedicated to families and unaccompanied minors, detainees were sorted based on age, gender and family status into what the Border Patrol called four pods: one for girls 17 and under, another for boys 17 and under, mothers with children and fathers with children. Agents are overwhelmed. John Lopez, the deputy patrol agent in charge, told NBC News they lack manpower and the system is strained — and here, they’re only separating less than half of the families so far. Parents who are separated from their children aren’t taken away until they are brought into processing to leave the facility — only at that moment do they find out if they’ll be prosecuted, instead of taken to an ICE detention center with their children. They receive what is called a “tear sheet” informing them of their fate and how they might find their children again."
What's next? Concentration camps ala Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany?
"Only four social workers were on hand to care for the hundreds of children, a backup system when Border Patrol agents are not prepared or qualified to deal with the challenges that come with caring for a child. Some children who arrived with parents now find themselves alone in the facility before they are picked up and taken into the custody of the HHS, which cares for unaccompanied migrant children. Others arrived on their own."
No problem with this? None at all?
"An advocate who spent several hours in the facility Friday told The Associated Press she was deeply troubled by what she found. Michelle Brané, director of migrant rights at the Women’s Refugee Commission, met with a 16-year-old girl who had been taking care of a young girl for three days. “She had to teach other kids in the cell to change her diaper,” the AP quoted Brané as saying. “She was so traumatized that she wasn’t talking. She was just curled up in a little ball."
No problem with this? None at all?
"Trump has repeatedly blamed Democrats opposed to his immigration reform proposal, falsely crediting an anti-trafficking law that passed unanimously in 2008 under President George W. Bush for the separations. The detention of children apart from their parents is a result of the policy mandated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and there is no law that requires family separation. As such, congressional action is not necessary to stop it. Sessions has said the intent is to eventually prosecute everyone who crosses the border illegally."
Even the First Lady has problems with this. ABC News reports:
"Melania Trump, who typically shies away from the political spotlight, waded into the controversial immigration debate when her office released a statement Sunday saying she “hates to see children separated from their families.” The first lady issued the unusual statement in response to the growing outrage over the separation of children from their parents who illegally crossed the southern border into the United States. “Mrs. Trump hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform,” the first lady’s spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a statement. “She believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart.”
CBS News reports:
"The battle over the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy on immigration is intensifying, as U.S. Border Patrol separates undocumented children from parents after the families cross into the country. The Department of Homeland Security confirms 1,995 children were separated from their parents between April 19 and May 31. "It is a form of child abuse," Dr. Colleen Kraft, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King. Kraft visited a Texas facility where children 12 years and younger are being held. Kraft described seeing "very quiet" toddlers and one young girl under 2 years old "who was just sobbing and wailing and beating her little fists on the mat." "I was told that you couldn't comfort or hold a crying child," Kraft said. "And we all knew that this child was crying because she wanted her mother, and we couldn't give that to her."
Nazi America.
ABC News reports:
"As the outcry over the nearly 2,000 child separations caused as a result of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy on illegal border crossings grows, President Donald Trump doubled down on Monday down on his controversial policies and blamed them on Democrats. He also tried to divest himself of any responsibility for the practice, heartbreaking photos of which are becoming more and more readily available. "The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility," he said during an event on space policy. Earlier in the day, he issued a series of tweets and claimed that crime has risen in Germany as a result of migration."
Trump is a lunatic and losing ground. What he claims is simply not true.
NBC reports:
"President Donald Trump took a swipe at German leader Angela Merkel over border controls Monday by wrongly stating that crime was rising in her country because of mass migration. "We don’t want what is happening with immigration in Europe to happen with us!" he wrote in a string of tweets defending White House policies regarding the U.S.-Mexico border."
The president of the United States is a liar. What he claims is not true:
"But according to official figures released last month, Germany last year recorded its lowest number of criminal offenses since 1992, with figures showing the crime rate is falling more quickly among non-German suspects. On its website, German mass-circulation Bild newspaper ran the headline, "Trump meddles in asylum dispute” and wrote, "That a U.S. president so massively weighs in on the domestic debate of a western ally is highly unusual.”
Once again, the Ice Princess has disgraced herself. The Washington Times reports:
"Conservative author and pundit Ann Coulter claimed Sunday that the crying immigrant children shown across cable news channels are “child actors” who are “given scripts to read by liberals.” “I would also say one other thing, these child actors weeping and crying on all the other networks 24/7 right now: do not fall for it, Mr. President. I get very nervous about the president getting his news from TV,” Ms. Coulter said on the set of Fox News’ “The Next Revolution.” “A New Yorker article — the New Yorker is not a conservative publication — they describe how these kids, these kids are being coached. They’re given scripts to read by liberals, according to the New Yorker. Don’t fall for the actor children,” she added."
This lady is no 'conservative.' A fascist. Divorced from reality. Presents an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties. ... As do all who follow in her footsteps, blindly goose step in unison to her egregious, sick, convoluted, distortion of reality. Where did you lose yourself, Ann? -- To think there are those who buy your insanity, embrace it as truth. Can't see it for the sickness it truly is.
ABC News reports:
"Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who announced the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" policy in April, buckled down on the policy of separating children from their parents when they illegally cross the border in an interview on Fox News Monday night. In a departure from President Donald Trump, he did not place blame on Democrats in Congress."
Clearly, the racist nazi AG knows the Democrats are not responsible for this fiasco. That the country is not buying this lunatic bullshit from the Trump nazi.
"Sessions spoke to host Laura Ingraham on her show, "The Ingraham Angle," and said the administration is "doing the right thing."
... Like Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, right, Mr. Sessions?
"We're doing the right thing. We're taking care of these children," Sessions told Ingraham. "They are not being abused. The [Department of] Health and Human Services holds them in good conditions. They work hard at it."
You're a goddamned racist liar, Mr. Attorney General. Disgrace to yourself, to say nothing of our formerly great country. Where is your swastika armband and that of your fuhrer, you nazi son of a bitch?
"In the interview, Sessions did not once specifically assert that the Democrats are the ones to blame for this policy, which was a talking point the White House was pushing Monday to GOP members. Trump has repeated the claim, despite evidence to the contrary, that Democrats in Congress could end the separation policy if they wished."
Horse shit promulgated by our lunatic 'president.'
"The president has claimed Democrats are blocking his immigration reform legislation that he says would end family separation. On Monday, he tweeted, "It is the Democrats fault for being weak and ineffective with Boarder Security and Crime."
The 'president' is a liar. A congenital liar.
"Instead, all 49 Democrats in the Congress signed on to a piece of legislation that would oppose the separation on Monday. Ingraham played a sound bite of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying, “Separating families is not mandated by law at all. That is an outright lie.”
It is. There is no truth to it. None at all.
"You heard what Mrs. Clinton said," Ingraham said. "The president could pick up the phone tonight and stop this policy of separating children from their parents." "Well I guess what she's saying is the president could just issue a directive that everybody that enters the country unlawfully be released into the country and never be apprehended or stopped or prosecuted for the illegal entry," Session responded."
Jesus Christ. You didn't answer her question, you racist, clueless piece of human excrement. No more than another example of 'all or nothing' thinking fervently embraced by out of touch Republican nazis. Black or white. No shades of gray. No hues of brilliant color. The nazi element in our formerly great country is incapable of rational thinking. No one in the Center and Left is calling for determined ignorance of illegal entry, you clueless piece of shit. Far from it. Like Trump, you're a congenital liar, a nazi. Incapable of embracing reality, just egregious convoluted distortion of it.
More of the same:
"Sessions also pushed back against claims that the policy has echoes of Nazi Germany. Former CIA and NSA Director Michael Hayden, who served mostly under George W. Bush, tweeted a picture of a Nazi concentration camp on Saturday with the line "Other governments have separated mothers and children." "Well, it's a real exaggeration,” Sessions said of the comparison. "Of course, in Nazi Germany, they were keeping the Jews from leaving the country."
Jesus Christ. This clueless asshole has lost himself. All semblance of humanity, to say nothing of reality. This piece of shit ignores the fact this is precisely how Hitler's Third Reich, Mussolini's Fascist Italy had their start. Wake up, Mr. Sessions. Your head remains figuratively stuffed up your ass. You, your fuhrer the Trump nazi, and all who think like you, present an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties. -- Just like Hitler's Nazis and Mussolini's Fascists did some eight decades ago.
"A bipartisan group of former U.S. attorneys is added its collective voice to the calls to end the family separations caused by the administration's "zero-tolerance" policy. In a letter addressed to Sessions, and published on Medium, the group says they are "appalled" by the outcome of the policy and say it represents a "radical departure" from standard Department of Justice policy. Former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, a frequent opponent of the Trump administration, was first to sign the letter."
Raw nazism.
"As former United States Attorneys, we also emphasize that the Zero Tolerance policy is a radical departure from previous Justice Department policy, and that it is dangerous, expensive, and inconsistent with the values of the institution in which we served," they write. "It is time for you to announce that this policy was ill-conceived and that its consequences and cost are too drastic, too inhumane, and flatly inconsistent with the mission and values of the United States Department of Justice."
The Founders? Spinning in their graves. So too are all the soldiers who gave their lives fighting this shit in the Second World War European Theater.
NBC reports:
"At least 10 Democratic senators and members of Congress have called on Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to resign as of Tuesday morning, after the embattled agency chief blamed lawmakers for the separation of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. "The government should be in the business of keeping families together, not tearing them apart. And the government should have a commitment to transparency and accountability. Under Secretary Nielsen's tenure, the Department of Homeland Security has a track record of neither," Harris said in a statement on Monday. "As a result, she must resign."
There's more:
"Republicans have called on the administration to end its policy of separating children from their parents, although they have stopped short of demanding Nielsen's resignation."
Gutless cowards. Won't step up, do the right thing.
"I respectfully ask that you move immediately to rescind the policy that General Sessions announced in April and any other policies that have led to an increase in family separations at the border," Joe Straus, the Republican Speaker of the Texas state House, wrote in a letter to Trump on Tuesday. "None of us want to imagine the fear that overcomes young children who are forced out of their parents' arms, which adds to the trauma that they have often faced in their countries of origin," he added. "It is wrong to use the these scared, vulnerable children as a negotiating tool."
Even the business community realizes this is a colossal mistake:
"The U.S. Chamber of Commerce called for an end to the policy, as well. "Thousands of children are being forcibly removed from their parents by our government. There is no other way to say it, this is not who we are and it must end now," Thomas Donohue, the group's CEO, said in a statement on Tuesday. "Surely a nation as big, generous, and compassionate as the United States can find a way to prevent separating children from their parents at the border. If we can’t agree on that, then we can’t agree on anything."
Ours is a country that's coming apart at the seams. Time to wake up.
"The mounting calls for Nielsen's ouster, meanwhile, came after she, in two media appearances on Monday — first at the National Sheriff's Association annual conference and then at a White House press briefing — refused to apologize for separating children from their parents and even blamed Congress for the actions."
This nazi has disgraced herself and our formerly great country.
"There has been much outcry, consternation and frankly misinformation for many in the press … that we at DHS are intentionally doing things that are unhumanitarian, cruel, immoral and disgraceful. We are doing none of those things," Nielsen said at the conference. "We are enforcing the laws passed by Congress and we are doing all that we can in the executive branch to protect our communities. It is now time that Congress acts to fix our broken immigration system."
You remain no more than a boldfaced liar, Ms. Nielsen. A clueless nazi.
"We have to do our job, we will not apologize for doing for our job, we have sworn to do this job. This administration has a simple message: If you cross the border illegally, we will prosecute you. If you make a false immigration claim, we will prosecute you. If you smuggle illegal aliens across an extraordinarily dangerous journey, we will prosecute you.'"
You didn't swear an oath to be a nazi, Ms. Nielsen, did you?
"All four living former first ladies — Rosalynn Carter, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama — have also stepped out of political retirement in recent days to condemn the Trump administration's practice of separating parents and children at the border."
Indeed, they did. Too bad their husbands didn't quickly follow suit.
"Later Monday, the outcry of Nielsen's response to the situation grew after an audio recording emerged, featuring the heart-wrenching cries of children inside a border processing center where the Trump administration is separating children from parents and guardians. Young children wail and cry out "Papá" and "Mami" in the audio, which was first reported by ProPublica from inside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility; a copy was provided to NBC News by civil rights attorney Jennifer Harbury. The recording has not been independently verified by NBC News."
Wake up, people. We're losing our country. This is unsustainable.
"On Tuesday morning, over 70 former U.S. attorneys signed a letter addressed to Attorney General Jeff Sessions condemning the breaking up of migrant families. "Traumatizing children by separating them from their parents as a deterrent for adult conduct is, in our view, sufficient reason to halt your policy," they wrote."
Not to be outdone:
"Also on Tuesday, 21 Democratic attorneys general, lead by New Mexico's Hector Balderas, sent a letter to Sessions and Nielsen urging the Trump administration to end its "zero tolerance policy." "The Justice Department is ignoring its legal and moral obligations for the sake of a political agenda at the expense of children and the efforts of state law enforcement officials combating crimes like human trafficking, drug trafficking and gang violence which operate across international borders," Balderas said. Balderas was joined by the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington."
Wake up, readers. We're losing our country.
NBC reports:
"The former head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told NBC News that migrant parents separated from their children at the border are sometimes unable to relocate their child and remain permanently separated. "Permanent separation. It happens," said John Sandweg, who served as acting director of ICE under the Obama administration from 2013-2014. Sandweg's warning contradicts White House messaging that the separation of women and children migrants under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy is only temporary. While a parent can quickly move from detention to deportation, a child's case for asylum or deportation may not be heard by a judge for several years because deporting a child is a lower priority for the courts, Sandweg explained."
While it is good this guy is finally speaking out, where was he during the Obama Regime? Where?
"You could easily end up in a situation where the gap between a parent's deportation and a child's deportation is years," Sandweg said. As a result, parents may find themselves back in their home countries struggling to find their children. Many do not have access to legal counsel or understand the U.S. immigration or judicial systems. Children who stay in the foster system for lengthy periods of time may become wards of the state and finally adopted. "You could be creating thousands of immigrant orphans in the U.S. that one day could become eligible for citizenship when they are adopted," Sandweg explained."
Again, where has this guy been all these years? Where?
"Sandweg says he has seen permanent separation happen when a parent is deported without his or her child."
Why didn't you speak out at the time? ... At the top of your lungs? Why didn't you honorably, courageously resign in protest? No honor?
"This is why family unity was critical for us. With the numbers of families crossing ticking up, [the] Obama administration was concerned about children being left behind," said Sandweg."
You didn't do enough. Neither did Obama.
"Speaking on Fox News on Tuesday, White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp insisted the separations were short term."
Like her fuhrer, Schlapp is a liar.
"We have come to understand that these families who are separated, it is for a limited period of time between five to ten days," Schlapp said."
A liar.
"But already, immigration lawyers in the U.S. and Central America say many parent immigrants who have been deported are having a hard time locating their children. The Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy was announced in April."
Trump and his henchmen are congenital liars. Any questions?
CBS News reports:
"Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, lashed out against the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy which has sparked widespread outcry over the treatment of children of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. McCain, who is at his home in Arizona where he is receiving treatment related to his brain cancer diagnosis, tweeted that the administration's policy should be rescinded immediately.
"The
administration’s current family separation policy is an affront to the
decency of the American people, and contrary to principles and values upon
which our nation was founded. The administration has the power to rescind
this policy. It should do so now.
—
John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) June 18, 2018"
Have to admire his courage. Hat's off, Senator.
The Washington Times reports:
"Congressional Republicans beat a full-scale retreat Monday from the administration’s zero-tolerance border policy, joining Democrats to demand that President Trump stop jailing parents and find ways to keep families together while trying to stop a new surge of illegal immigration. High-profile Republicans said they are writing bills that would end family separations, and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, said he will no longer allow his National Guard troops to assist with border security as a protest against Mr. Trump’s policies. Former first lady Laura Bush also weighed in, comparing family separations to internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II."
CNN reports:
"President Donald Trump amplified his heated immigration rhetoric on Tuesday, accusing Democrats of wanting "illegal immigrants ... to pour into and infest our country," language evoking images of pests, not human beings. "Democrats are the problem. They don't care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13. They can't win on their terrible policies, so they view them as potential voters!" he wrote.
"Democrats
are the problem. They don't care about crime and want illegal immigrants,
no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like
MS-13. They can't win on their terrible policies, so they view them as
potential voters!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2018
"The President's Twitter language further escalated his dehumanizing rhetoric amid a developing humanitarian -- and political -- crisis on the United States' border with Mexico, where at least 2,000 children have been separated from their parents as a result of the administration's policy."
Raw nazism.
Apparently, enormous pressure brought to bear on the Trump nazi is reportedly about to force change. NBC reports:
"President Donald Trump, under pressure from angry members of his own party, said Wednesday that he would be "signing something in a little while" that would keep families together at the border, halting a policy he instituted earlier this year. "I'll be doing something that's somewhat pre-emptive and ultimately will be matched by legislation I’m sure," Trump told reporters when asked if he wants to try to keep to families together at the U.S. border. "I'll be signing something in a little while that’s going to do that," he said. "We want to solve this immigration problem." The signing was expected to take place later Wednesday afternoon."
May not be all it's cracked up to be:
"Trump did not disclose exactly what he would be signing, but an administration official confirmed to NBC News that an executive order had been drafted by the departments of Justice and Homeland Security to temporarily stop separating children from the parents of people detained at the border. Government officials familiar with early drafts of the executive order also told NBC News it would allow families to be detained together but would not stop the "zero tolerance" policy of charging people with a misdemeanor for entering illegally. Several administration officials say the executive order would allow families to be held in immigration detention together. That will run up against a longstanding federal court decree that prohibits the government from holding children in detention for long periods — generally around 20 days. The order will also move up hearings for families in detention, putting them at the head of the line, to speed up that processing, officials said."
Good luck. With numbers so massive, hard to believe processing won't continue at a snail's pace.
"It remains unclear how the government will get around the immediate separations that occur when the parents are charged with a crime and taken to court for entering illegally. But officials say they believe they have found a way to continue those charges without separating the children. The president, nonetheless, doubled down on his hard-line stance on immigration, saying that he "like to be strong" and that migrants were "using the children as a ticket to get into" the U.S."
Appears at least, the insane nazi is beginning to get the message. His power is not without limits.
Trump signed the executive order. What it means, how it will be implemented is not yet clear.
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6-22-18
Trump nazi has clearly lost his mind. Disgraced himself, his office, to say nothing of our formerly great country. The Washington Times reports:
"During Tuesday’s unprecedented summit between Mr. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the U.S. president was introduced to various members of Mr. Kim’s delegation. According to the video, Mr. Trump went down the line shaking hands until he reached North Korean Gen. No Kwang-chol, who gave a salute. Mr. Trump returned the salute and then the two shook hands."
Jesus Christ. Hand shake one thing, salute quite another.
"CNN called it “an extraordinary display of respect from a US president to a top officer of a hostile regime.” “They can see a propaganda value here and this is basically them showing the level of deference and respect that Trump has paid to them and to their military leaders,” retired Rear Adm. John Kirby, a military and diplomatic analyst for CNN, told the network’s Poppy Harlow. “It was inappropriate for him to do from a protocol perspective, but now he’s played right into the North’s propaganda about their legitimacy on the world stage.” Commentators pointed out that conservatives and Mr. Trump himself have repeatedly criticized former President Barack Obama for apparently bowing to the then-king of Saudi Arabia in 2009."
Nothing quite like hypocrisy, is there?
"The White House has not commented on the matter."
What could they say?
NBC reports:
"North Korean state television aired video on Thursday from the historic summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un that included a surprising moment when the American president saluted a North Korean general. Trump reached out to shake the general's hand, and the general responded with a salute. Trump reciprocated, saluting the general back before the men shook hands. The video is now running over and over on North Korean state television with an enthusiastic anchor track."
Imagine that. Trump has again demonstrated profound aggressive stupidity.
"Social media exploded with outrage about Trump's salute."
For damned good reason.
"Retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, a senior adviser to the advocacy group VoteVets.org, said, "It is wholly inappropriate for the commander in chief of our armed forces to salute the military of our adversary, especially one which is responsible for a regime of terror, murder and unspeakable horror against its own people."
You think?
"Col. Jack Jacobs, a Medal of Honor recipient and an NBC News analyst, said that the North Korean general's salute was a sign of respect but Trump's salute "seemed like a reflexive action." "If I had been his military aide I would have told him, 'They're going to salute you, but don't return the salute, just move smartly down the line.'" Presidential historian Michael Beschloss told NBC News that "one test of a leader is that he knows what message a public gesture sends. In this case, either he made a mistake or he was trying to send the message that he doesn't take the human rights abuses by the North Korean military as seriously as many other Americans do."
Could be both? LOL.
"In the military a salute is a sign of respect, with a junior officer or junior enlisted service member always saluting first. While civilians do not return a salute from a military member, the President is the Commander in Chief and will generally return a salute from U.S. military service members but not military from other nations."
That's right. Think Trump's head doesn't remain figuratively up his ass?
ABC News reports:
"President Donald Trump was effusive in his praise of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the summit in Singapore, but the kind words didn't stop there. In an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier that was conducted on the flight back from Singapore and aired Wednesday night in the U.S., Trump didn't seem concerned by the dictator's well-established history of abusing human rights."
Surprised? Why?
"When Baier noted that Kim is "a killer, he's clearly executing people," Trump responded by calling Kim "a tough guy."
Jesus Christ. This nazi is clueless:
"Hey, when you take over a country, tough country, with tough people, and you take it over from your father, I don’t care who you are, what you are, how much of an advantage you have. If you can do that at 27 years old, I mean that’s one in 10,000 that could do that. So he’s a very smart guy. He’s a great negotiator. But I think we understand each other," Trump said in the Fox News clip."
Jesus Christ. Think this guy fit for office?
"Baier followed up, saying "But he's still done some really bad things." "Yeah, but so have a lot of other people done some really bad things. I mean, I could go through a lot of nations where a lot of bad things were done," Trump said. The president went on to say that he's going "from today" in terms of dealing with Kim. "
Trump continues to justify a murderous dictator. What does that say about him?
"This is far from the first time that Trump has shared positive views of strongmen and dictatorial rulers: he gave Syria's Bashar al-Assad "an A" in terms of leadership in 2015; said the U.S. would be "so much better off" if Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi was still in charge in 2016; and last year, he defended Russian President Vladimir Putin by saying "there are a lot of killers" in the world, adding, "You think our country's so innocent?"
Think this clueless bastard fit for office?
"As for Kim's horrid history, the United Nation released a report in 2014, three years after he took control of North Korea. The report said "crimes against humanity have been committed in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, pursuant to policies established at the highest level of the State." "These crimes against humanity entail extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation," the report stated."
Trump cannot, will not, be confused with the truth.
"ABC News chief White House correspondent Jon Karl asked if Trump believes Kim needs to change his approach to human rights. "Jon, I believe it's a rough situation over there. There's no question about it and we did discuss it today pretty strongly. I mean knowing what the main purpose of what we were doing is -- de-nuking -- but discussed it in pretty good length. We'll be doing something on it. It’s rough, it's rough in a lot of places, by the way, not just there but it's rough and we will continue that and I think ultimately we will agree to something. But it was discussed at length. Outside of the nuclear situation, one of the primary topics," Trump said."
Think he answered the question?
The Washington Post reports:
"Some of the most intense drama surrounding President Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un came not across the negotiating table, but in the days and hours leading up to Tuesday’s historic meeting — a behind-the-scenes flurry of commotion prompted by Trump himself. After arriving in Singapore on Sunday, an antsy and bored Trump urged his aides to demand that the meeting with Kim be pushed up by a day — to Monday — and had to be talked out of altering the long-planned and carefully negotiated summit date on the fly, according to two people familiar with preparations for the event. “We’re here now,” the president said, according to the people. “Why can’t we just do it?” Trump’s impatience, coupled with a tense staff-level meeting between the two sides on Sunday, left some aides fearful that the entire summit might be in peril."
Think the president stable? Mentally balanced?
"Ultimately, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders persuaded Trump to stick with the original plan, arguing that the president and his team could use the time to prepare, people familiar with the talks said. They also warned him that he might sacrifice wall-to-wall television coverage of his summit if he abruptly moved the long-planned date to Monday in Singapore, which would be Sunday night in the United States. The debate, which has not previously been reported, underscores the ad hoc nature of the summit, which was abruptly announced, called off and then reinstated all before either leader had touched down in Singapore."
Think this guy fit to be in control of our nuclear arsenal?
"The pageantry and spectacle surrounding the first meeting between a U.S. president and a leader of North Korea’s autocratic regime also obscured the fact that the North Koreans agreed to little in the way of specific or tangible concessions. Although Kim signed a statement committing to the “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” the joint statement between the two leaders included no timetable for when or how North Korea would reveal, destroy and allow verification of its nuclear arsenal."
Symbolism over substance.
"Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest, described the Singapore extravaganza as “21st-century diplomacy” with a Trumpian twist. “It felt more reality TV than it did an old school 1980s, Cold War summit,” Kazianis said. “Trump is going to do it differently. He’s going to do it in a media-savvy way. The very long handshakes, the long corridor walks — it’s all his distinct way.”
Phony, substanceless bullshit.
"At one point, after watching North Korean television, which is entirely state-run, the president talked about how positive the female North Korean news anchor was toward Kim, according to two people familiar with his remarks. He joked that even the administration-friendly Fox News was not as lavish in its praise as the state TV anchor, one of the people added, and that maybe she should get a job on U.S. television, instead."
Appalling.
"At another point, Trump marveled at how “tough” the North Korean guards seemed, noting that they were always stone-faced and refused to shake hands, the two people said. One recalled the president joking that they could probably take on White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general. A second did not remember the president specifically mentioning Kelly, but just noting more generally that Kim’s guards seemed formidable."
Think this guy fit for office? Presidential material?
In another article, The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump’s praise Friday for Kim Jong Un’s authoritarian rule in North Korea — and his apparent envy that people there “sit up at attention” when the 35-year-old dictator speaks — marked an escalation of the American president’s open embrace of totalitarian leaders around the world. Reflecting on his impressions of Kim following their Singapore summit, Trump told Fox News: “He’s the head of a country, and I mean he’s the strong head. Don’t let anyone think anything different. He speaks, and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.” It was unclear whether Trump was referring to Americans generally or only to his staff. His interview took place along the West Wing driveway, and as the president talked about “my people,” he gestured toward the White House. Later, when pressed by a CNN reporter about the comment, Trump claimed it had been a joke. “I’m kidding,” he said. “You don’t understand sarcasm.”
Think the 'president' credible?
"Whether jesting or not, no U.S. president has been as free in his admiration of dictators and absolute power as the 45th, historians say. And Trump’s interest in the subject seems to be growing as he becomes better acquainted with some of the world’s authoritarian leaders, including Kim, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Trump said he may try to meet one-on-one this summer."
Trump is dangerous. Presents an exigent threat to all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.
NPR reports:
"Dr. Jeffrey Lewis (@ArmsControlWonk) is a scholar at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and author of a novel about how a nuclear war with North Korea might begin, The 2020 Commission Report."
The following is his assessment of the 'agreement':
"It is now clear that there is no deal with North Korea — at least not yet. Whatever agreement exists lives only in the imaginations of President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. This is a problem. Yes, there was a piece of paper that Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed in Singapore, a roughly 400-word statement, just long enough to run onto a second page. For something that purports to record an "epochal event of great significance," it says remarkably little. On the subject of North Korea's nuclear weapons, Kim Jong Un simply "reaffirmed" a previous commitment made earlier in the year, pledging to work toward the denuclearization of the peninsula."
Here is the problem:
"In contrast to this skimpy document, U.S. and North Korean officials have provided much longer, more detailed interpretations of the meeting. President Trump gave a press conference, as well as a long, rambling interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos. A testy Pompeo also took questions from reporters. And, of course, North Korea's state media released its own summary. But the U.S. and North Korean accounts tell a different story from that offered at the summit — of two sides that appear as far apart as ever. In fact, the official readouts seem to be about different meetings. The most fundamental difference appears to relate to the basic premise of the deal: Does North Korea give up nuclear weapons first, in exchange for a better relationship? Or is this a process that will play out step by step?"
Indeed, unanswered crux of the matter, isn't it?
"So which is it? When reporters tried to ask Pompeo about discrepancies, such as the lack of any reference to verification, he turned churlish, refusing to answer questions about specifics and calling the questions "insulting." When directly asked about the obvious difference between the U.S. and North Korean readouts on phasing — "Was the North['s] account of the meeting accurate when they said that President Trump had agreed to a phased approach?" — Pompeo responded with a statement that should be a huge red flag: "I'm going to leave the content of our discussions as between the two parties, but one should heavily discount some things that are written in other places."
Unadulterated bullshit.
"The problem is that one cannot "heavily discount" how one of the two parties interprets an agreement. Pompeo himself admitted that the two parties "couldn't reduce... to writing" the "understandings" he nonetheless remains confident had been reached. But if we know one thing about negotiations in general, and negotiations with North Korea, it is this: If you can't write it down, you don't have a deal."
Yet, the Trump nazi and his henchmen ludicrously claim the nuclear threat is gone.
The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump’s praise Friday for Kim Jong Un’s authoritarian rule in North Korea — and his apparent envy that people there “sit up at attention” when the 35-year-old dictator speaks — marked an escalation of the American president’s open embrace of totalitarian leaders around the world. Reflecting on his impressions of Kim following their Singapore summit, Trump told Fox News: “He’s the head of a country, and I mean he’s the strong head. Don’t let anyone think anything different. He speaks, and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.” It was unclear whether Trump was referring to Americans generally or only to his staff. His interview took place along the West Wing driveway, and as the president talked about “my people,” he gestured toward the White House. Later, when pressed by a CNN reporter about the comment, Trump claimed it had been a joke. “I’m kidding,” he said. “You don’t understand sarcasm.”
You don't understand insanity, Mr. 'President.'
"Whether jesting or not, no U.S. president has been as free in his admiration of dictators and absolute power as the 45th, historians say. And Trump’s interest in the subject seems to be growing as he becomes better acquainted with some of the world’s authoritarian leaders, including Kim, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Trump said he may try to meet one-on-one this summer."
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, guess what? It's a duck.
“Trump has dictator envy,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. “You start being more attracted to people like Kim and Putin because they look like they could be presidents for life. And if they have enemies, they don’t have to resort to [former president Richard M.] Nixon keeping an enemies list. You just destroy your enemies’ lives with a phone call. That’s attractive to Trump.”
Think it ends there?
"Trump earlier this week declared the media to be “our country’s biggest enemy,” and he has repeatedly voiced his desire to punish journalists who air criticisms of him. Trump remarked during his Singapore trip about how positive a female news anchor was toward Kim on state-run North Korean television, and he joked that even Trump-friendly Fox News was not as lavish in its praise."
Chilling, isn't it?
"Trump condoned violence against protesters during his campaign rallies and as president has encouraged jailing his political opponents and perceived enemies, including former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and former FBI director James B. Comey. Trump also has embraced his presidential clemency powers as a mechanism to help some loyalists, personally undoing judgments of the judicial system that he considers unfair."
Mark of a nazi. Repeat of history.
“Trump has been remarkably consistent as long as he’s been on the public stage in exhibiting authoritarian instincts,” said Steven Levitsky, a Harvard University professor who recently co-authored a book on the subject, “How Democracies Die.” He added, “Any time any society elects a leader with authoritarian impulses, it’s a risk for democracy, but the second half of the story is society’s and our institutions’ abilities to constrain him.”
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6-22-18
Pruitt losing Republican support. NPR reports:
"Amid an unceasing series of revelations about alleged ethical misconduct, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is rapidly losing support with influential Republican lawmakers and conservatives who, until now, have strongly backed Pruitt and the pro-fossil fuel deregulatory agenda he's implemented. In recent days, new reports have emerged showing that Pruitt repeatedly used his position to seek employment and business opportunities for his wife, and had agency staffers doing personal errands on his behalf — both allegations that could run afoul of federal ethics laws. At least a dozen investigations are underway into various aspects of Pruitt's conduct."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-22-18
Trump Foundation sued. CBS News reports:
"President Trump's foundation served as a personal piggy bank for his businesses, legal bills and presidential campaign, New York's attorney general said Thursday as she sued the charity, Mr. Trump and three of his children. The Donald J. Trump Foundation "was little more than a checkbook for payments from Mr. Trump or his businesses to nonprofits, regardless of their purpose or legality," Democratic attorney general Barbara Underwood said as she sued to dissolve the foundation and seek $2.8 million in restitution."
Why haven't the nazi and his children been criminally prosecuted?
"The lawsuit says the foundation illegally helped support the Republican's campaign by raising money at a nationally televised fundraiser in January 2016, then allowing campaign staffers to dictate how the money was spent in grants. Foundation attorney Sheri Dillon and a Trump Organization spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to messages seeking comment. She still represents the foundation. Mr. Trump defended himself on Twitter, calling the suit "ridiculous."
"The
sleazy New York Democrats, and their now disgraced (and run out of town)
A.G. Eric Schneiderman, are doing everything they can to sue me on a foundation
that took in $18,800,000 and gave out to charity more money than it took
in, $19,200,000. I won’t settle this case!...
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2018
"....Schneiderman,
who ran the Clinton campaign in New York, never had the guts to bring this
ridiculous case, which lingered in their office for almost 2 years. Now
he resigned his office in disgrace, and his disciples brought it when we
would not settle.
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2018"
Why weren't this bastard and his children criminally prosecuted first? Then, sued.
"Underwood's predecessor, Democrat Eric Schneiderman, began investigating the foundation in 2016 following Washington Post reports that foundation spending personally benefited the presidential candidate. Schneiderman ordered the foundation to stop fundraising in New York. The Trump campaign, at the time, said the foundation intended to cooperate with the investigation. The campaign had previously called Schneiderman "a partisan hack" who backed Trump's 2016 Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Schneiderman resigned from office last month after The New Yorker reported that multiple women had accused him of sexual assault and harassment."
Irrelevant to the current issue. ... Can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit. ... Right, Mr. 'President?'
"An unnamed spokesperson for the foundation pointed out that the former New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, "was recently forced to resign from office in disgrace" and "made it his statement mission" to advance his own political goals."
Irrelevant to the present issue. ... Can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit. ... Right, Mr. 'President?'
"This is politics at its very worst," the spokesperson for the foundation said in a statement. "The foundation has donated over $19 million to worthy charitable causes – more than it even received. The president himself – or through his companies - has contributed more than $8 million. The reason the foundation was able to donate more than it took in is because it had little to no expenses. This is unheard of for a charitable foundation. The foundation currently has $1.7 million remaining which the NYAG has been holding hostage for political gain. This is unconscionable – particularly because the foundation previously announced its intention to dissolve more than a year and a half ago."
Criminally prosecute Trump and his family. Resolve it in criminal court.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-22-18
Cohen could be a problem for Trump. CBS News reports:
"CBS News has learned that Michael Cohen, President Trump's longtime personal attorney, believes the president and his allies are turning against him. Sources familiar with Cohen's legal problems say that he is increasingly feeling isolated from Mr. Trump and his allies, and Cohen appears to be moving closer to a legal strategy of cooperating with investigators given the gulf that now exists between him and Mr. Trump."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-22-18
Think the GOP doesn't remain racist? CBS News reports:
"A Republican lawmaker is being criticized for saying "there aren't enough white kids to go around" when discussing integration in schools at an event in northern Arizona. Rep. David Stringer, a Republican from Prescott, spoke Monday at the Yavapai County Republican Men's Forum. Stringer's speech was livestreamed on Facebook and saved to his campaign page. It was later removed. But a clip widely circulated on social media by a Democrat showed Stringer talking about how immigration is changing the demographic makeup of the country. "Sixty percent of public school children in the state of Arizona today are minorities. That complicates racial integration because there aren't enough white kids to go around," Stringer said in part of the video. The clip also shows Stringer saying "immigration is politically destabilizing" and "immigration today represents an existential threat to the United States." "If we don't do something about immigration very, very soon, the demographics of our country will be irrevocably changed and we will be a very different country and we will not be the country you were born into," he said."
Reincarnation of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini. Circa 1933.
"Stringer, speaking to CBS Phoenix affiliate KPHO, said, "I wasn't denigrating anybody." "I wasn't making a value judgment," he said. "I was illustrating the impact of rapid demographic change on a vital institution in our society."
Horse shit. Blatant racism. Bigotry by definition.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-22-18
Think Republican nazism isn't preventing women from obtaining an abortion? ABC News reports:
"The legal restrictions for getting an abortion in certain states are getting tighter and tighter, but new laws aren’t the only obstacle women face when they are looking to end a pregnancy. Across the country, there are simply fewer places for them to go."
Thanks to Republican nazis who are more than willing to dictate to women what they can and cannot do with their uterus.
"Seven states now have only one abortion clinic: West Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Arkansas, thanks to the Supreme Court's decision not to reverse the lower court’s ruling there. That means women seeking abortions may need to drive hours to be able to access care."
Nazi America. Where Republican fascists dictate to the 'little lady' what she can and cannot do with HER uterus.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-22-18
CBS News reports:
"The long-awaited Department of Justice Inspector General report on the handling of the Clinton email investigation by the Justice Department and FBI has been released. The report, more than 500 pages long, focuses on former FBI chief James Comey and the decisions he made during the course of the Clinton investigation. It describes Comey as "insubordinate" while also criticizing then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch for weak leadership. It also criticizes FBI official Peter Strzok for his priorities and communications in the Clinton email probe. However, the report found that political bias did not affect the investigation and it gave support to the decision not to prosecute Clinton."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-22-18
Think Southern Baptists aren't moderating? NPR reports:
"The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the country, wrapped up its annual meeting Wednesday on a partisan tone. The featured speaker was Vice President Pence, who spoke of the day he accepted Jesus Christ as his savior and of the importance of prayer, but mostly delivered a speech fit for a campaign rally.
"But for some meeting attendees, Pence's speech was a little too political. J.D. Greear, the group's newly elected president, tweeted minutes later that it "sent a terribly mixed signal ... commissioned missionaries, not political platforms, are what we do."
"I
know that sent a terribly mixed signal. We are grateful for civic leaders
who want to speak to our ... https://t.co/BT1SgUXWgj
—
J.D. Greear (@jdgreear) June 13, 2018
"One could call the somewhat mixed reaction foreordained: On Tuesday, a resolution calling to replace Pence as speaker in the interests of showing a more nonpartisan face was defeated, but 3 in 10 attendees favored it."
Amazing, isn't it?
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6-22-18
Trouble in Trump paradise? The Washington Post reports:
"Heated confrontations erupted inside a Senate Republican luncheon on Wednesday as lawmakers traded unusually personal and sometimes profane attacks on one another. At the center of the ruckus was Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who argued separately with Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), according to a person who attended the lunch and another who was briefed on it. Graham, a traditional Republican hawk, took issue with an amendment Lee was pushing to the annual defense bill. His measure was designed to protect Americans from detention without charge or trial. According to the person who attended the lunch, Graham accused Lee of pressing for the amendment to raise money, prompting the normally polite and low-key senator to snap back at him. “Like hell I’m doing that!” Lee responded. Graham later apologized to Lee, and Lee accepted. The Mormon senator told Graham that if he drank beer, he would take him out for one."
Think Trump's not at the center of all this? LOL.
"But the fireworks didn’t end there. Later, Graham and Corker got into an expletive-laced exchange, the people familiar with the lunch discussion said. Graham pointed out that Corker was on his way out, a reference to his coming retirement from the Senate, and he argued that Corker was not helping the Republican Party."
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6-22-18
Trump continues to defend the indefensible. The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump said Friday that the jailing of his former campaign manager in advance of his trial was “a tough sentence,” charging that a federal judge’s decision to respond to allegations of witness tampering was “very unfair.”
Think so? The bastard tampered with witnesses. Forget?
"Trump shared his thoughts on Twitter less than two hours after a judge ordered Manafort sent to jail in response to allegations of witness tampering while awaiting trial on conspiracy and money-laundering charges brought by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III."
Mueller is zeroing in. Noose, figuratively tightening.
“Wow, what a tough sentence for Paul Manafort, who has represented Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other top political people and campaigns,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Didn’t know Manafort was the head of the Mob.”
Jesus Christ. Trump's lost his mind. Continues to lie like hell:
"The order to jail Manafort was issued Friday by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District of Columbia. Shortly before, Trump, who has embraced his power to pardon federal convicts in recent weeks, sought to distance himself from Manafort as he talked to reporters at the White House. “Manafort has nothing to do with our campaign,” Trump said, adding that he felt “a little badly” that prosecutors were targeting the longtime Republican operative for actions taken more than a decade ago. “You know, Paul Manafort worked for me for a very short period of time,” Trump said, before ticking off other Republican presidential nominees with whom Manafort has been affiliated. “He worked for Ronald Reagan, he worked for Bob Dole, he worked for John McCain or his firm did. He worked for many other Republicans. He worked for me for what? For 49 days or something? A very short period of time.” In fact, Manafort served 144 days as Trump’s campaign chairman. He was hired in late March 2016 and resigned in mid-August of that year — a stretch that included the Republican convention where Trump was formally nominated."
Trump can't, won't be confused with the truth. Creates his own. Here's the truth, how it went down:
"At the hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District of Columbia ordered Manafort jailed after he was accused of witness tampering while awaiting trial on federal conspiracy and money-laundering charges brought by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Prosecutors alleged that by committing a new crime while on release, Manafort violated terms of his home confinement in Alexandria, Va., and they asked the judge to revoke or revise it."
For damned good reason.
"In his remarks to reporters — part of a freewheeling gaggle on an array of subjects — Trump suggested he felt bad not only for Manafort but for others with ties to his presidency who are now facing legal action."
For breaking the law.
“I feel badly for some people because they’ve gone back 12 years to find things about somebody, and I don’t think it’s right that they burst into a lawyer’s office on a weekend and early in the morning,” Trump said, in an apparent reference to his personal attorney Michael Cohen, who is facing two federal investigations."
What the hell do you think the jackbooted bastards in blue do to the bottom of the food chain and middle class, Mr. 'President?' Top of the food chain deserves no less?
"FBI agents raided Cohen’s home and office in Manhattan in April. “I’ve never heard of that before,” Trump said. “I mean, could you imagine if they burst into Barack Obama’s lawyer’s office. It would not be acceptable. I mean, that’s really a terrible thing.”
Jesus Christ. This guy is out to lunch.
Gets worse:
“I feel badly for a lot of those people. I feel badly for General Flynn,” the president continued, referring to his short-lived national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty in December to lying to the FBI about his contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. “He’s lost his house,” Trump said. “He’s lost his life, and some people say he’s lied. Some people say he didn’t lie. I mean, really it turned out maybe he didn’t lie.”
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6-22-18
Think Pence not part of the problem? The Washington Post reports:
"Vice President Pence has transformed his office into a new entry point for lobbyists seeking to influence the Trump administration across federal agencies, according to federal records and interviews. About twice as many companies and other interests hired lobbyists to contact the vice president’s office in Pence’s first year than in any single year during the tenures of Vice Presidents Joe Biden and Richard B. Cheney, filings show. Among those lobbying Pence and his staff were representatives of major drug companies and energy firms, as well as businesses seeking favorable tax treatment. Many others have contacted his office on more obscure regulatory matters such as a Medicare billing dispute, technology regulations at the Department of Education and regulations at the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the records show. The approach has allowed Pence, a former congressman and Indiana governor, to emerge as a key ally for corporations inside the Trump White House even as the president vows to “drain the swamp.”
Wake up. They're filling the swamp.
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6-22-18
More of the same. What else is new? NPR reports:
"The Justice Department's internal watchdog agency unveiled a doorstop-sized report Thursday that provides an inflection point — but no closure — in the never-ending war over the 2016 presidential campaign and its aftermath. The nearly 600-page opus by Inspector General Michael Horowitz offers political ammunition for both Republicans and Democrats and resolves a few key questions about what happened behind the scenes during some critical moments of the last presidential election year."
The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump claimed Friday that he had been “totally exonerated” by a new Justice Department report that is highly critical of several key FBI figures in the Hillary Clinton email probe, including former FBI director James B. Comey. The report by the department’s inspector general offered no findings regarding the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into possible coordination between Russia and Trump’s campaign in the 2016 election. But the president seemed to suggest that he had been cleared because of the criticism in the report directed at top FBI officials — whom he referred to as “scum” — who had expressed animus toward him or otherwise used poor judgment during the investigation of Clinton. Several of those officials have also played key roles in the Russia investigation."
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6-22-18
More damage done. NPR reports:
"President Trump is enacting a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of Chinese goods "that contain industrially significant technologies," after months of exchanging threats amid concerns over a potential trade war.
"Trump announced Friday: "My great friendship with President Xi of China and our country's relationship with China are both very important to me. Trade between our nations, however, has been very unfair, for a very long time. This situation is no longer sustainable. China has, for example, long been engaging in several unfair practices related to the acquisition of American intellectual property and technology."
China won't take it lying down:
"China has threatened to retaliate forcefully for any tariffs, listing U.S. products that range from sorghum, soybeans, meat and whiskey to airplanes and cars. China buys some $14 billion in U.S.-produced soybeans every year — nearly a third of the American crop. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China will act quickly to "take necessary measures to defend our legitimate rights and interests." The Chinese commerce ministry issued a statement on Friday accusing the U.S. of being fickle and shortsighted and warning that a trade war between the two economic giants would have global repercussions."
'Stupid is as stupid does.' No end to the insanity.
The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump followed through Friday on his threat to crack down on China for its “very unfair” trade practices, imposing a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion in Chinese imports and drawing an immediate threat of retaliation from Beijing. In a late-night statement, China’s Ministry of Commerce said it would impose trade barriers of the “same scale and the same strength,” and that Trump’s tariffs were “damaging” relations and “undermining the world trade order.” U.S. and Chinese officials in recent weeks had made progress on a deal that involved up to $70 billion in additional purchases of American products. But the Chinese offer was now “invalid,” the statement said."
Why wouldn't the Chinese retaliate?
"Chinese officials, who had signaled their intention to retaliate if Trump went through with his tariff threats, are targeting the president’s supporters in farm states and the industrial Midwest. Anticipating the Chinese response, the president said the United States would “pursue additional tariffs,” raising the specter of the tit-for-tat trade war that business leaders and many congressional Republicans fear."
No question, indeed, 'stupid is as stupid does.' Guess who ultimately pays the price for Trump's insanity?
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6-22-18
NPR reports:
"The U.S. Senate is set to vote as early as next week on whether to reinstate crippling trade sanctions against Chinese telecommunications company ZTE. With that move in sight, a number of U.S. senators are taking aim at a much bigger Chinese target: Huawei — the world's third-largest seller of smartphones, behind Samsung and Apple. Top U.S. security officials have warned for years that Huawei could pose a security risk to America by using its technology to spy on behalf of the Chinese government. Huawei has consistently denied that it gives intelligence to Chinese authorities, though many U.S. senators remain unconvinced."
Can't confuse a jackass with the truth, can we? Are all of them out to lunch? Do any of them believe China is not a threat to U.S. national security? Why did our government ever allow American corporations to share trade secrets with the Chinese as a condition of doing business there?
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6-22-18
Good news. Texas Standard reports:
"A group of women’s clinics called Whole Woman’s Health Alliance and six nonprofits providing abortion-related services says that Texas’ restrictions on abortion availability violate women’s due process rights under the Constitution. They filed suit in federal court on Thursday against state officials, citing Texas’ licensing, parental notification, waiting period, ultrasound and other requirements. Amy Hagstrom Miller is the founder and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, which is leading this court challenge. She says a 2016 case her group won at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 paved the way for the new suit. “In the majority decision…a new standard was set, where the Supreme Court says that the government needs to be able to prove any restrictions that they put on women’s access to abortion are backed up by scientific fact and medical evidence,” Hagstrom Miller says."
About time. Stick it to the nazi bastards.
"Attorney General Ken Paxton said the restrictions Whole Woman’s Health is challenging are “common sense measures that protect women’s lives and reproductive health.”
The AG is no more than a disingenuous liar. Pointed question. When the hell is this indicted piece of human excrement finally going to trial?
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6-22-18
Republican nazis clearly don't understand presidential pardon power is designed to correct injustice, not perpetrate it. NPR reports:
"On the same day that that President Trump's former campaign chairman was sent to jail, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani floated the idea that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation could be "cleaned up" with presidential pardons. "When the whole thing is over, things might get cleaned up with some presidential pardons," Giuliani told the New York Daily News on Friday."
Raw nazism.
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6-22-18
Think some doctors aren't clueless jackasses? CBS News reports:
"A Northern California emergency room doctor has been suspended after mocking a man who said he had an anxiety attack. CBS San Francisco station KPIX-TV reports that Dr. Beth Keegstra, a contract doctor with El Camino Hospital in Los Gatos, was suspended after she was recorded on June 11 questioning whether 20-year-old Samuel Bardwell was sick or just looking for drugs. Bardwell's father, Donald, told the San Jose Mercury News his son suffers anxiety attacks and takes the drug Klonopin. But the college student hadn't picked up a prescription for two days before suffering an attack during basketball practice. Donald Bardwell told KPIX-TV that this was the worst attack he's seen his son experience. "It's just heartbreaking, you know, because I've seen him go in and out of consciousness," Donald Bardwell told the station."
Sue.
"The father recorded Keegstra scoffing when Samuel Bardwell says he can't inhale. In the video, she laughs and tells someone off-camera, "He must be dead." Then she turned to Samuel Bardwell and asks, "Are you dead, sir?" She told him he was "the least sick of all the people who are here, who are dying." Keegstra hadn't responded to CBS News' request for comment as of Monday morning. A spokesperson for El Camino Hospital told KPIX-TV in a statement, "We are saddened and disappointed by the physician's unprofessional interaction with the patient in the video. The physician is a contracted provider and has been removed from our ER schedule."
For the most part, it's male physicians who behave like this. Usually, women are far more compassionate.
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6-22-18
Think Attorneys General across the country may not be a little too cozy with those they prosecute? CBS News reports:
"State attorneys general, who are the top law enforcement officials in each state, have the final say on which cases to pursue or not. That power has not gone unnoticed by lobbyists. CBS News got an inside look at one lavish retreat at Kiawah Island, South Carolina, where businesses and trade groups paid for access. Some of the companies are under investigation by state attorneys general, but still give large donations so they can get one-on-one access to AGs to state their case. It's perfectly legal for a company under investigation by a state attorney general to give money to the political associations for attorneys general that fund AG campaigns. In return, it's legal for those associations to give access to company lobbyists. Rubbing shoulders with a state attorney general doesn't come cheap. To get an invite to a four-day retreat, lobbyists had to fork over $125,000. The dress code? "Resort casual." On a hidden camera, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr can be heard saying, "We can't do what we do without your help."
Ever wonder why there is no justice? Wake up. Two systems of justice. One for the top of the food chain. The other for the rest of us.
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6-22-18
Finally, some small semblance of justice. CBS News reports:
"A federal judge ruled Monday that Kansas cannot require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote, finding such laws violate the constitutional right to vote in a ruling with national implications. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson is the latest setback for Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has championed such laws and led President Donald Trump's now-defunct voter fraud commission. The 118-page decision came in two consolidated cases challenging a Kansas voter registration law requiring people to provide documents such as a birth certificate, U.S. passport or naturalization papers. The decision strikes down the Kansas proof-of-citizenship registration law and makes permanent an earlier injunction that had temporarily blocked it."
Gets better:
"In an extraordinary rebuke, the judge also ordered Kobach on Monday to complete an additional six hours of legal education on top of other requirements before he can renew his law license for the upcoming year. She imposed the sanction for his numerous disclosure violations. Kobach said his office would appeal the judge's "extreme conclusion," which he said was unlikely to survive scrutiny by a higher court. "Her conclusion is incorrect, and it is inconsistent with precedents of the U.S. Supreme Court," Kobach said in a statement."
Spoken like the nazi he clearly, truly is.
"No other state has been as aggressive as Kansas in imposing proof-of-citizenship voter registration requirements. Alabama and Georgia have proof-of-citizenship laws that are not currently being enforced, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Arizona is the only other state with a similar law in effect, but that law is far more lenient and allows people to satisfy it by writing their driver's license number on the voter registration form.
"The lead case filed by the ACLU on behalf of several named voters and the League of Women Voters is centered on the National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as the Motor Voter Law, which allows people to register to vote when applying for a driver's license. The case required Kobach to prove that Kansas has a significant problem with noncitizens registering to vote."
About time.
Here's the problem:
"Robinson found the Kansas law disproportionately impacts qualified voters, while only nominally preventing noncitizen voter registration."
... As clearly intended by the Republican nazi.
"It also may have the inadvertent effect of eroding, instead of maintaining confidence in the electoral system given the confusing, evolving, and inconsistent enforcement of (documentary proof of citizenship) laws since 2013," she wrote. Her ruling also encompassed a less publicized legal challenge filed by Kansas voter Parker Bednasek, which is not limited to motor-voter applicants cited in the ACLU and therefore affects all Kansas voters. Kobach, a conservative Republican who is running for governor, was a leading source for Trump's unsubstantiated claim that millions of immigrants in the country illegally may have voted in the 2016 election."
'Stupid is as stupid does.' Any questions?
"This decision is a stinging rebuke of Kris Kobach, and the centerpiece of his voter suppression efforts: a show-me-your-papers law that has disenfranchised tens of thousands of Kansans," Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, said in news release. "That law was based on a xenophobic lie that noncitizens are engaged in rampant election fraud."
The Nazi Way. Forget?
"The cases have drawn national attention because of its implications for voting rights as Republicans pursue laws they say are aimed at preventing voter fraud but critics contend target Democratic-leaning minorities and college students who may not have such documentation."
Anything necessary to elect Republicans. Nazism rules, forget? LOL.
"Kris Kobach's mission to disenfranchise eligible Kansas voters has again been revealed as the unconstitutional crusade it has always been," Kansas Democratic Party Executive Director Ethan Corson said in an emailed statement."
You think?
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6-22-18
Finally, some semblance of justice. ABC News reports:
"The U.S. Marine who marched with neo-Nazis in last summer's "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been found guilty in a summary court-martial after he reportedly bragged online about participating in the violence that day. Lance Cpl. Vasillios Pistolis was convicted Monday of failing to obey an order or regulation and making a false official statement under Articles 92 and 107 in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to the 2nd Marine Logistics Group."
Disgrace to himself and the Flag of the United States. Will he ultimately be discharged?
"ProPublica first reported in May that Pistolis belonged to a white supremacist group and was found bragging online about the violence he carried out during the August rally, at which one demonstrator died. He has been sentenced to 28 days of confinement, a reduction of two ranks to E-1, and the forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay for a month. Vasillios has seven days to submit a request for clemency to the convening officer, the Marines said. Two other Marines were arrested in May 2017 for flying a white supremacist banner at a pro-confederate rally in North Carolina, according to veterans news site Task & Purpose. Marine Corps officials told Task & Purpose that one of those Marines, Sgt. Michael Chesny, has been administratively separated from the service, while the other, Staff Sgt. Joseph Manning, was discharged in December."
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6-22-18
Think the 'space cadet' in the Oval Office hasn't truly lost his mind? NPR reports:
"President Trump Monday announced his intention to create a "space force" that would oversee the military's activities off-world. "When it comes to defending America, it is not enough to merely have an American presence in space," Trump said at a meeting of the National Space Council, which oversees the nation's space policy. "We must have American dominance in space. So important."
This guy's an idiot. A lunatic.
"I'm hereby directing the Department of Defense and Pentagon to immediately begin the process necessary to establish a space force as the sixth branch of the armed forces. That's a big statement," the president continued."
Besides the outright lunacy, doesn't have the authority:
"Experts were quick to point out that President Trump cannot actually create a space force. A new branch of the military can only be established by an act of Congress — something that hasn't happened since the Air Force was split from the Army in 1947.
"2)
The president can't just create a new military service on his own. It requires
congressional authorization.
—
Todd Harrison (@ToddHarrisonDC) June 18, 2018
"Last year the House passed a bill that would have created a space corps," says Todd Harrison, director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But the plan died in the Senate."
Wiser minds prevailed. LOL.
"Harrison adds that a space force would not involve actual military personnel in space. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty states that no nation can claim territory in space, nixing the usual rationale for a troop presence. It also prevents the placement of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in orbit. "There's no space marines; there's no people flying around with jetpacks," Harrison says.Rather, a space force would consolidate command of the military's existing satellite systems into a single command. Those include reconnaissance satellites, GPS, missile-warning systems and communications platforms."
Wouldn't want to confuse the lunatic nazi with the truth, would we?
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6-22-18
Think Trump hasn't lost his mind? The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump threatened Monday to levy tariffs on nearly all of China’s products shipped to the United States unless Beijing agrees to a host of sweeping trade concessions, a dramatic escalation that would enlist American consumers in the brewing U.S.-China commercial conflict."
Guess who ultimately gets looted?
"In a statement, Trump said he had ordered his chief negotiator, U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer, to draw up a list of $200 billion in Chinese products that will be hit with tariffs of 10 percent if China refuses his demands to narrow the yawning U.S. trade deficit and change its industrial policies. The president warned that he was prepared to hit China with an additional $200 billion in import taxes unless Beijing capitulates. Such a step would be virtually unprecedented in U.S. history and would put nearly all of the $505 billion in products that the United States imports from China under tariffs."
Believe the Chinese will roll over? Capitulate? Think so?
"In a statement published shortly after Monday’s announcement, China’s Ministry of Commerce called the move “blackmail.” “If the U.S. loses its senses and publishes a new list, China will be forced to take comprehensive measures that are both strong in quantity and gravity and will fight back,” it read. The vow of retaliation was reiterated by a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Geng Shuang, at a daily press briefing. “We don’t want a trade war, yet we are not afraid of a trade war,” he said."
The bottom and middle class in our formerly great country will pay the price:
"Trump’s latest threat — if implemented — would dramatically expand the goods facing trade measures to a range of consumer items, forcing Americans to pay more for smartphones, computers, toys, televisions and just about every other middle-class staple. None of the tariffs announced Monday will take effect until industries and consumers have a chance to make their views known in a 60-day public comment period."
Think that'll matter to the Trump nazi? LOL.
"Zhu said China would be unable to match the measures in terms of quantity because China imports less than $200 billion of U.S. goods. He predicted other measures such as raising tariffs further. “The trade dispute is heating up,” he said."
Why would the Chinese roll over? Capitulate?
"Administration officials believe they have the upper hand in any trade dispute with China, thanks to the larger $20 trillion U.S. economy. Since almost every American who wants work can find it, officials such as Kevin Hassett, head of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, say that the United States is positioned to withstand any trade war costs. Others warned that the president could stumble into a costly economic debacle. “I think Trump is completely misreading the Chinese,” said Phil Levy, an economist who served in the George W. Bush White House. “No one who followed China closely thought a direct public threat was going to get them to change. China is fixated on appearing strong.”
Think otherwise?
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6-22-18
Disgraceful fiasco continues. So do the lies. The Washington Post reports:
"The Trump administration withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday in protest of what it perceives as an entrenched bias against Israel and a willingness to allow notorious human rights abusers as members."
Jesus Christ. Precisely, what the Israeli aggressor is doing to the Palestinians. Exactly, what the Trump nazi and his henchmen are doing to undocumented immigrants. Hypocrisy? Stunning. Nazi.
"U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who has sought major changes on the council throughout her tenure, issued a blistering critique of the panel, saying it had grown more callous over the past year and become a “protector of human rights abusers, and a cesspool of political bias.” She cited the admission of Congo as a member even as mass graves were being discovered there, and the failure to address human rights abuses in Venezuela and Iran."
Aren't you talking about your nazi fuhrer, Madam Ambassador? Precisely, what the lunatic bastard is doing here. That is, abusing all civil and constitutional rights and liberties of citizens. Depriving, denying undocumented immigrants humanitarian rights. Give me a break. Your hypocrisy reeks.
“I want to make it crystal clear that this step is not a retreat from our human rights commitments,” she said during a joint appearance with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the department. “On the contrary. We take this step because our commitment does not allow us to remain a part of a hypocritical and self-serving organization that makes a mockery of human rights.”
Night is day, day is night, and shit smells perversely sweet in the world of the Trump nazi and his henchmen, including you, Madam Ambassador.
"The United States is midway through a three-year term on the council, whose purpose is to denounce and investigate human rights abuses. A U.S. departure deprives Israel of its chief defender at a forum where Israel’s human rights record comes up for discussion at every single meeting, a standing “Item 7” on the agenda."
For damned good reason. The Israeli aggressor continues to trample on the Palestinians, steal their land, murder them when they resist their oppressor. Been going on since 1948 when the bastards invaded with the blessing of the United States, Europe, and the UN.
“By withdrawing from the council, we lose our leverage and allow the council’s bad actors to follow their worst impulses unchecked — including running roughshod over Israel,” said Eliot L. Engel (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House committee that oversees the State Department."
More bullshit coming from a clueless Democrat who has no clue he's talking out both sides his achingly ignorant ass.
“However, this Administration’s approach when it sees a problem is to take the United States off the field,” he added. “That undermines our standing in the world and allows our adversaries to fill the void.”
Trump nazi and his henchmen are indeed doing that all on their own.
"The decision comes a day after the U.N. human rights chief slammed the administration’s policy of separating migrant parents from their children after they enter the United States at the Mexican border, calling it “unconscionable” and akin to child abuse."
Jesus Christ. It's the goddamned truth.
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6-15-18
Highly reminiscent of our outrageously bought and paid for judiciary, Llano County prosecutors, Sheriff Bill Blackburn and his criminal SS jackbooted bastards in black who continue to egregiously disgrace themselves and the badge, do as they please regardless of the law and Constitution, carefully consider the following. It's appalling. Runs against the grain of everything our formerly great country once stood for. No longer.
In follow up to an incredibly strange case covered here and elsewhere, CBS News reports:
"An FBI agent whose gun appeared to accidentally fire in a video showing him dancing at a Denver nightclub and doing a back flip before dropping the weapon has been booked into jail. Chase Bishop, who is based in the bureau's Washington Field Office, was charged Tuesday with one count of second-degree assault, the Denver District Attorney's office said. Bishop turned himself in to the Denver Sheriff Department on Tuesday morning after a warrant was issued for his arrest, according to Denver police."
Imagine that. Couldn't be, could it? Has to be quite an embarrassment to the FBI, wouldn't you think?
"Denver Police had previously said they were awaiting the results of alcohol and drug tests before making an arrest. The district attorney's office said in a statement investigators are still awaiting the tests to determine Bishop's blood alcohol content at the time of the incident, and additional charges may be pending. "We are filing this charge now rather than waiting until the [blood alcohol content] report is received, which we understand could take another week, because sufficient evidence has been presented to file it," Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said in the statement. "If an additional charge needs to be filed after further evidence is received, we can file those charges then."
Not clear yet precisely what is going on here, but apparently they've got something on this guy. Could it be they've determined he was under the influence of some other drug? Nothing more than pure speculation at this point, however.
"Video from the June 3 incident shows Bishop landing a backflip at the Mile High Spirits bar, and reaching down to pick up the weapon that had fallen from his pants. As he grabs the gun, it can be seen firing."
Luckily, no one got killed.
"A man who identified himself in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" as Thomas Reddington was shot in the leg. His attorney tells CBS Denver that Reddington suffered a serious injury. Bishop, 29, was off-duty and on vacation when the shooting happened. He was taken to the Denver Police Department headquarters and later released to an FBI supervisor. The FBI is conducting an internal investigation into the incident. Among the options are termination, suspension or reprimand."
Strange, strange case. More to come.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-15-18
Highly reminiscent of our outrageously bought and paid for judiciary, Llano County prosecutors, Sheriff Bill Blackburn and his criminal SS jackbooted bastards in black who continue to egregiously disgrace themselves and the badge, do as they please regardless of the law and Constitution, carefully consider the following. It's appalling. Runs against the grain of everything our formerly great country once stood for. No longer.
In follow up to the last edition, CBS News reports:
"Days after he was denied access to a federal shelter for child migrants, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, is demanding answers from the Office of Refugee Resettlement about the roughly 11,000 children under the care of the federal agency."
He and his fellow Senators, as well as the House of Representatives, need to demand immediate access to these kids. Called congressional oversight.
"Under U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' 'zero tolerance' policy on immigration prosecutions, children must be forcibly separated from their families, falsely labeled 'unaccompanied alien children,' and transferred to your agency's custody," Merkley said in his letter to Office of Refugee Resettlement Director Scott Lloyd."
This government is dysfunctional. Founders intended each branch to be check and balance on the other. Clearly, this is not happening.
"According to press reports, more than 600 children have already been separated from their families since the implementation of this policy at the beginning of May, bringing the total under your care to a staggering 11,200."
Raw nazism, ala Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini. What's next? Concentration camps?
"Merkley drew headlines Sunday when he posted a Facebook live video of his attempt to access a migrant children's shelter in Brownsville, Texas. He was first denied entry, and then ultimately confronted by police. Federal officials said Merkley hadn't given enough notice."
Horse shit. Notice for what? Time to clean up their act? Move kids? Improve chances of passing inspection? What the hell is going on here? Why shouldn't members of Congress be granted immediate access to execute spot checks?
"Merkley's letter comes two days after similar demands were made by Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, whose staff were barred from reviewing immigrant processing facilities near San Diego. Menendez called Sessions' immigration policies "cruel and un-American."
What they are is Right Wing Nazi. Republican fascists have clearly proven the GOP is not the party of the family. Quite the opposite.
"Merkley's letter lays out 19 questions and requests a response by June 15. Merkley wants information about the age of the children, the condition of the facilities, and more."
What Congress needs is immediate access for spot inspections. Both parties need to put aside all partisan differences to rein in the Trump nazi and his henchmen. Pass legislation with sufficient backing to override veto by the nazi in the Oval Office. Who the hell am I kidding? Republican nazis will back their clueless fuhrer no matter what. Remain incapable of doing what's best for the public they no longer serve.
"Similar questions posed by CBS News to the Office of Refugee Resettlement and the United States Department of Homeland Security have not yet been answered."
What can they say? How do you credibly defend the indefensible?
"In a statement to CBS News Wednesday, before Merkley's letter was sent, Southwest Key Programs, the non-profit contracted to manage the Brownsville facility, described in broad terms the services it provides to children housed there."
Carefully consider the outrageous Aryan arrogance of this group:
"We provide round-the-clock services including: food, shelter, medical and mental health care, clothing, educational support, supervision, and reunification support," the organization said. "We regret having to turn away Senator Merkley at our Casa Padre shelter. The U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement prohibits any facility from allowing visits that have not been approved by them, even if it is a U.S. Senator."
Jesus Christ. Achingly disingenuous bullshit. Hypocrisy reeks. These goddamned nazis have taken another raucous hard dump on the United States Constitution. Conveniently forget? It is the function of all three branches of government to be check and balance on the other. Time for Congress and the Judiciary to act. Before too late. ... Hear the rumble? An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming.
Here are the Senator's 19 questions courtesy of CBS News:
1. Since the "zero tolerance" policy officially went into effect on May 7, 2018, how many children have been transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) or its contracting agencies' custody? How many of these children were separated from their parents and how many entered the United States as unaccompanied minors?
2.
How many children in the following age groups is the ORR or its contracting
agencies currently holding in detention?
a.
Newborns to 1 years old?
b.
Between the ages of 2 to 4 years old?
c.
Between the ages of 5 and 8 years old?
d.
Between the ages of 9 and 13 years old?
e.
Between the ages of 14 and 18 years old?
3. What is the average and median length of stay for these children? How does this figure compare with 2017 and 2016?
4. How many ORR facilities are currently operational for children and what is the capacity for each of them?
5. How many organizations and companies contract with ORR to house children separated from their parents and unaccompanied minors? What are their names?
6. What bathroom facilities and accommodations do these shelters have and are the conditions sanitary? For instance, are there bathrooms, showers, and towels? Are there rooms for the children that have beds with bedding? If so, how many beds per room?
7. What are ORR's mandated facility standards for shelter contractors?
8. What are the required staffing ratios, broken down by age groups?
9.
What categories of staff require credentials to work in these facilities?
a.
Which credential requirements are ORR imposed and which are state required?
10. How many facilities have state monitors? How often are facilities monitored?
11. What is the process for providing education and schooling to children? How many days a week is schooling provided and how many hours per day?
12. Are these children permitted to leave the premise to go outside? Is there recreational time available for physical exercise?
13. What is the process for providing health care services to children? In order to receive medical care, are health care providers on-site or are ill children transported to hospitals or other health care providers?
14. What services are provided to children for trauma support and mental health care? Are mental health care professionals providers on site?
15. Are children informed, in writing or verbally, that any information they provide to medical professionals or facility staff will be added to their immigration record and can be used against them in immigration court?
16. Please provide
a current breakdown by category of children's approved sponsors.
a.
Category 1 – Parents
b.
Category 2 – Family members
c.
Category 3 – Non-relative
17. How do detained children communicate with their parents? How often are they allowed to communicate with their parents, through what method, and for what duration?
18. Are in-person visits between the children and their parents permitted? If so, what are the procedures and policies surrounding visitation and how often do they occur?
19. Are in-person visits between the children and their lawyers permitted? If so, what are the procedures and policies surrounding visitation and how often do they occur? Under what circumstances, if any, would a lawyer be denied entry to visit with a child?
Why are the Trump nazi and his henchmen stonewalling? The public is entitled to this information. To know precisely how our nazi government is or isn't acting in our name.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-15-18
Highly reminiscent of our outrageously bought and paid for judiciary, Llano County prosecutors, Sheriff Bill Blackburn and his criminal SS jackbooted bastards in black who continue to egregiously disgrace themselves and the badge, do as they please regardless of the law and Constitution, carefully consider the following. It's appalling. Runs against the grain of everything our formerly great country once stood for. No longer.
The Border Patrol is breaking the law. Texas Standard reports:
"Under federal law, anyone who reaches a U.S. port of entry may make a claim for asylum. But now it appears U.S. Customs and Border Protection is adopting a new tactic to keep out immigrants – telling border agents to stop would-be asylum seekers before they reach a border checkpoint. Veteran journalist Robert Moore, former editor of the El Paso Times, covers border issues for Texas Monthly. At a border crossing between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, he observed the new approach. “We saw officers from Customs and Border Protection stopping people at the top of the bridge, which is where the boundary is, which is very unusual,” Moore says. “Usually when you cross into El Paso the inspection is down at the bottom of the bridge, at the port of entry itself. But they were intercepting people, and if they found that they were Central Americans intending to apply for asylum, they were telling the Central Americans that they were at capacity and they couldn’t process them at this time, and to come back later. Although they would never say what ‘later’ meant.”
Think this policy doesn't originate top-down, that is, from the racist AG Sessions nazi, and his fuhrer, the Trump nazi?
"It’s unclear what consequences, if any, these individuals would face if they went ahead anyway."
Duplicitous, isn't it?
“The law requires that anyone seeking asylum, regardless of status, must be allowed to make that claim,” Moore says. He says the law is very clear on this issue – but many of those who are crossing don’t know that. “If you’re coming from Central America and not familiar with asylum laws or anything, and a law enforcement agent tells you, ‘Sorry, we’re closed today,’ you’re probably not going to challenge them,” he says. “It’s a rare case that what happened on Saturday was able to happen.” That day he saw two representatives from Annunciation House, an El Paso organization that accompanies migrants across the border, defend asylum seekers. “Somebody who did know the law was there with a migrant to be able to make that case and tell CBP, ‘You have to take them in,’” Moore says."
Sad, isn't it? The 'president' and his henchmen falsely took an oath to uphold the law and Constitution. Clearly, are not.
"In California, a lawsuit is underway to challenge CBP officers who allegedly told migrants that the U.S. no longer takes in asylum seekers. “And then when you ask CBP, ‘Okay, how many people are you handling and what is capacity?’ you can’t get an answer,” he says. Moore says one thing that gets lost in the immigration debate is that seeking asylum at port of entry is a legal means of entry – and for many people, it’s their only option."
The quotes are courtesy of a most gifted, insightful writer, Jen Rice.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-15-18
Highly reminiscent of our outrageously bought and paid for judiciary, Llano County prosecutors, Sheriff Bill Blackburn and his criminal SS jackbooted bastards in black who continue to egregiously disgrace themselves and the badge, do as they please regardless of the law and Constitution, carefully consider the following. It's appalling. Runs against the grain of everything our formerly great country once stood for. No longer.
In follow up to a case recently covered here and elsewhere, NPR reports:
"A federal judge in New York City has halted, for now, the deportation of a pizza delivery man at least until a hearing on July 20. Judge Alison J. Nathan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Saturday evening for the government to show why a temporary preliminary injunction should not be granted in the case of Pablo Villavicencio Calderon, an Ecuadorean immigrant, according to Villavicencio's lawyers. The 35-year-old was detained on June 1 while delivering food to the U.S. Army Garrison Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn. He's being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a facility in New Jersey. "Although we are disappointed that Pablo will remain detained, today's stay is a victory for him and his family, and also for due process and the fair administration of justice," one of his lawyers, Gregory Copeland of the Legal Aid Society's Immigration Law Unit said, according to the group's Twitter account."
Who says nazi Republicans are the party of the family? Why have the Democrats been out to lunch since November 22, 1963?
"Prominent Democrats have spoken out against Villavicencio's detention, including New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo."
Nowhere near good enough. Talk? Meaningless. Insufficient.
"There's compelling evidence that Pablo Villavicencio was improperly detained," Cuomo wrote on Twitter Saturday. "He should be immediately released from ICE custody and an investigation should be launched into the circumstances of his arrest." New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand called the incident "shameful," and said the Trump administration's immigration policies are "inhumane, plain and simple" and do "not make our country safer."
Too little. Much too late.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-15-18
Highly reminiscent of our outrageously bought and paid for judiciary, Llano County prosecutors, Sheriff Bill Blackburn and his criminal SS jackbooted bastards in black who continue to egregiously disgrace themselves and the badge, do as they please regardless of the law and Constitution, carefully consider the following. It's appalling. Runs against the grain of everything our formerly great country once stood for. No longer.
Think justice isn't under assault in our formerly great country? Wake up. CNN reports:
"She was kidnapped by Salvadoran guerillas three decades ago, watched her husband be killed and forced to cook and clean for the militants. Now she can't stay in the US — because that was supporting terrorists, a court says. The main appellate body of the immigration courts issued a divided opinion Wednesday with broad implications, finding that a woman from El Salvador is ineligible for status in the US because her 1990 abduction and forced labor amount to "material support" of a terrorist organization. According to the court documents, the woman was kidnapped by the guerrillas in El Salvador and made to do the cooking and cleaning "under threat of death." She was also "forced to witness her husband, a sergeant in the Salvadoran Army, dig his own grave before being killed."
"Nevertheless, the 2-1 opinion holds that the woman's coerced duties for the group constituted "material support" for a terrorist organization, and thus made her ineligible to be granted asylum or have her deportation order canceled in the US -- though a lower court judge had ruled she would otherwise be eligible for such relief."
Nazi justice in a de facto fascist police-state, quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-15-18
Here is precisely how our nazi government conducts itself. NBC reports:
"The United States plans to release an American citizen detained as an enemy combatant in Syria — a move the man's attorney said amounts to a "death warrant."
Now, clearly, the American Way. Forget? We are no longer a democratic republic. In name only. Certainly, live in a de facto fascist police-state quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich. No longer a country ruled by law and under the United States Constitution. A country ruled by a nazi dictator and his henchmen.
"The unidentified man was picked up on a Syrian battlefield in September and accused of fighting for the terror group Islamic State. He's been held overseas while the Trump administration has waged a court battle with the American Civil Liberties Union over his fate."
Why? This guy is an American citizen. If he has indeed fought for these bastards, haul his sorry ass back to the United States and prosecute him.
"Last month, in a victory for the detainee, a federal appeals court ruled that the U.S. could not "forcibly transfer" him to a third-party country such as Saudi Arabia, where he has dual citizenship, without proving to a court that he had fought for the enemy."
Why allow such a transfer under any circumstances? How the hell is that right? Forget? He's an American citizen. The Trump nazi and his henchmen don't get to be judge, jury, and executioner in a supposed democratic republic. Precisely why we have police, prosecutors, and the judiciary.
"Then on Wednesday, Department of Justice attorneys filed a notice with federal judge in Washington that the Defense Department will release the man, referred to as John Doe in court papers, in an unnamed Syrian town in three or more days."
Jesus Christ. Nazi justice. Goddamned un-American.
"That move would render moot John Doe's habeas corpus petition challenging the right of the U.S. to continue holding him without charges. ACLU attorney Jonathan Hafetz said it would also endanger his client. Syria is in the midst of a civil war. "What the government is offering our client is no release — it's a death warrant. This is a disgraceful way to treat an American citizen," Hafetz said in a statement."
No more than an exigent threat to all of us. Clearly, indicates the law and Constitution no longer work in our de facto fascist police-state. ... Quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.
"Now, our fight for our client's right to due process has also become a fight for his right to life. We'll be asking the court to immediately intervene and ensure the safe release of our client."
Good luck. Hopefully, the court will stand tall. Isn't bought and paid for.
"In court papers, the U.S. has said the man joined the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, in 2014 in Syria, and that the man attended a training camp, pledged allegiance to its leader and was listed in an ISIS document as a "fighter."
Then, why won't you haul his ass back here and prosecute? No evidence? Bullshit taking the place of principle and honor?
"He claimed he entered Syria as a freelance journalist and was kidnapped and forced to work for ISIS until he fled on a water truck and turned himself in to the Kurds, who handed him over to the U.S. military, according to court documents. Without enough evidence to try the man on terrorism charges, the U.S. faced a dilemma over what to do with him. In the Wednesday filing, the U.S. said it told the ACLU it could release him in a Syrian town or outside a refugee camp but that his lawyers refused to state a preference."
He's an American citizen. Enjoys civil and constitutional rights and liberties under the United States Constitution. Has been found guilty of nothing. Haul his ass home. Work further on making a case against him, -- if in fact this government is telling the truth about his background. If not, ensure his return to the U.S., and then leave him the hell alone. An American citizen. If not, who's next?
"The court filing by the government says the man "would not agree to the release as Respondent described it."
Why the hell would he? No one in their right mind would.
"Hafetz said he will challenge the government's plan to release the man, who has been described in court papers as an electrical engineer with a wife and young child who has sporadically visited the U.S.."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-15-18
Racist AG Sessions nazi again shows his true colors. NPR reports:
"Attorney General Jeff Sessions is imposing sharp new limits on who can get asylum in the United States, ruling in a closely-watched case that most migrants fleeing domestic violence or gang violence will not qualify."
What racist nazi wouldn't?
"Asylum was never meant to alleviate all problems — even all serious problems — that people face every day all over the world," Sessions said this morning in a speech before immigration judges in Virginia."
Sessions remains remarkably reminiscent of his national socialist mentors, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini.
"Sessions announced his decision this afternoon. As attorney general, Sessions has broad powers over the nation's immigration courts. He has long complained that asylum seekers are "gaming" the U.S. system."
Indicative of the problem. How is it the 'Justice' Department has power over the immigration courts? Why aren't these courts under jurisdiction of the judiciary? Goddamned fox guarding the chicken coop. Allows a nazi bastard like Sessions to impose his racist, fascist ideology.
"Immigrant rights advocates say Sessions' decision runs counter to decades of established precedent. They fear the lives of thousands of legitimate asylum-seekers will be in danger when they are returned to their countries of origin."
Clearly, the racist Sessions nazi couldn't care less. This piece of human excrement and his fuhrer, the Trump nazi present an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties. Sadly, this country is no longer a democratic republic. In name only.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-15-18
Sessions isn't the only nazi in this government to egregiously abuse power. The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump unilaterally levied new steel and aluminum tariffs on U.S. allies, including the European Union, Canada and Mexico. He granted clemency to convicted felons while touting the view that he also has the ability to pardon himself. He reinstated the coming summit with North Korea in Singapore as abruptly as he canceled it. And he upended a cornerstone of the existing world order via Twitter tantrum as he departed the Group of 7 summit in Canada. And that was just in the past two weeks."
Clearly, mark of a nazi dictator. Impressed with himself, gleefully abusing power.
"Nearly a year-and-a-half into his presidency, Trump is hitting his stride on the part of the job that he seems to love the most: going it alone. That he is often doing so in defiance of his own advisers, longtime U.S. allies and Congress — including members of his own party — seems to only heighten his pleasure."
Mark of a fascist dictator, ala Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini. Unbridled narcissism, increasingly pernicious insanity run amok. History repeating itself.
"From tariffs to pardons to immigration roundups, the president is increasingly charting his own strategy on unilateral actions — and there is evidence the approach may be working for him. Trump’s approval numbers have ticked up in recent polls from his previous low points. Gallup’s most recent weekly poll numbers have Trump at 41 percent approving and 55 percent disapproving, up from 35 percent approving in December and 38 percent approving in April."
Same happened in Nazi Germany upon Hitler's rise to power in 1933.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-15-18
Think Trump won't get more than bargained for in Canada? LOL. The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump is planning to fly to Canada on Friday. He is not exactly happy about it."
Poor baby. Doesn't your heart bleed?
"The president has vented privately about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as their trade tensions have spilled into public view. He has mused about finding new ways to punish the United States’ northern neighbor in recent days, frustrated with the country’s retaliatory trade moves."
How dare the Prime Minister stand up to the Trump nazi? LOL.
"And Trump has complained to aides about spending two days in Canada for a summit of world leaders, believing the trip is a distraction from his upcoming Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to three people familiar with Trump’s views."
What he's truly gutlessly afraid of is the anticipated dressing down he'll likely receive from our allies:
"In particular, the president said Tuesday to several advisers that he fears attending the Group of Seven summit in rural Charlevoix, Quebec, may not be a good use of his time because he is diametrically opposed on many key issues with his counterparts — and does not want to be lectured by them."
There it is! Cold, unvarnished truth. LOL.
"Additionally, Trump has griped periodically both about German Chancellor Angela Merkel — largely because they disagree on many issues and have had an uneasy rapport — as well as British Prime Minister Theresa May, whom he sees as too politically correct, advisers say."
Tough shit. -- Truth at the bottom of all of it? ... What bothers Trump most? Both women are willing to stand up to this achingly clueless, nazi son of a bitch. LOL.
"There also is concern inside the administration about what may happen once Trump arrives in Canada. Aides fear Trump may not sign onto the joint communiqué that is prepared by participating countries for release at the end of the summit."
Likely, they'll figuratively kick his ass rhetorically. LOL. Can't have that, can we? Might offend his nazi 'sensibilities.' LOL.
"Trump is a homebody president, preferring to sleep in the White House — or at one of his signature properties — than in hotels, so he is generally reluctant to take long journeys. Furthermore, he prefers visiting places where he is feted — such as on his trips last year to Beijing, Paris and the Saudi capital — over attending summits where the attending leaders are treated as equals."
What nazi dictator resplendent in the mold of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini wouldn't?
"In Quebec, Trump is expected to have tense discussions with the leaders of key Western allies over trade and other issues. Some of them — most especially Trudeau, the summit’s host — have publicly criticized Trump’s new tariffs and characterized the United States as increasingly isolationist. The other six countries signed a sharp condemnation of the president’s tariffs last week. Trump is planning to be in Quebec and has scheduled bilateral meetings with Trudeau as well as with French President Emmanuel Macron. Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, previewed the trip to reporters on Wednesday and dismissed the notion that Trump is reluctant to go to Canada."
Think Trump will have an easy time of it? Not make a jackass of himself?
His own party is not happy with the tariffs. NBC reports:
"President Donald Trump is working to head off a confrontation with members of his own party on trade, personally reaching out to senators to express his opposition to legislation that would tie his hands on tariffs. On Wednesday morning, Trump called Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., to say he opposed the senator's introduction of legislation that would give Congress oversight of tariffs. Corker said that he listened, but declined to drop the push. "I’ve got a job to do," he said. "I’m a United States senator, and this is our responsibility."
It is. Has been. Why have you and your fellow Republicans been out to lunch so long?
"The legislation was crafted after Trump announced tariffs on U.S. allies Mexico, Canada and the European Union. Trump cited national security, also known as section 232, for his reason for imposing the tax on goods."
Ferociously enraged allies who indeed fought and died on the battlefield alongside our troops. War after war.
"Corker’s bill would require congressional approval for any tariffs that are imposed for national security purposes. He’s hoping to offer it as an amendment to a must-pass defense authorization bill that is expected to come to the Senate floor this week."
Trump's henchmen, as well as the not-so-grand old nazi himself, remain achingly clueless:
"Trump's top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, defended the president’s trade tactics against Canada and other allies, telling reporters at the White House press briefing Wednesday that the president is determined to equalize the playing field and not start trade wars."
Too late. Already begun. What did you expect? Our allies and others to roll over? Accept the f--king without retaliating?
The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump said Friday that Russia should be readmitted to the Group of Seven club of industrial economies four years after its expulsion over the annexation of Crimea, further provoking U.S. allies outraged or unnerved by Trump’s swerve to trade protectionism."
Think Trump hasn't lost his mind?
"Trump lobbed what amounted to a diplomatic stink bomb as he left the White House for the annual two-day G-7 summit, where he arrived late and planned to leave early. Trump said he knows such outreach to Russia may not be “politically correct,” and he appeared to dismiss G-7 members’ anger and hurt feelings over what they call unfair trade barriers and ingratitude from Washington."
There's more:
"Trump did appear to get along with the other leaders when he finally arrived in this sparkling resort town on the St. Lawrence River. He arrived too late for a scheduled sit-down meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been one of Trump’s toughest critics on trade over the past few weeks. Trump’s comments on Russia, however, were a repudiation of the position the G-7 took in 2014 to exclude Russia because of what the remaining members called the illegitimate annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. “Now, I love our country. I have been Russia’s worst nightmare,” Trump said in Washington. “But with that being said, Russia should be in this meeting. “Whether you like it or not, and it may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run . ... They should let Russia come back in.”
Non-sequitur.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-15-18
Think the Trump summit with North Korea will be successful? NBC reports:
"President Donald Trump said Thursday that he doesn't need to study for his upcoming nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un."
Imagine that.
"I think I'm very well prepared. I don’t think I have to prepare very much," Trump told reporters at the White House Thursday as he posed for photos with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. "This isn’t a question of preparation. It's a question of whether or not people want it to happen, and we'll know that very quickly."
Think so?
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-15-18
Trump has again disgraced himself. NPR reports:
"Leaving the Group of Seven Summit for Singapore, President Trump tweeted that he has instructed U.S. representatives to not endorse a joint communique issued by the G-7 leaders."
'Stupid is as stupid does.' LOL.
"Based
on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that
Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies,
I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look
at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2018
"Trump said his statement was in response to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's comment following the summit that Canada "would not be pushed around."
"PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @G7 meetings only to give a news conference after I left saying that 'US Tariffs were kind of insulting' ... Very dishonest & weak," the president tweeted."
Just like you, Mr. 'President.' Disingenuously pleasant in person. Should have let it rip in your presence, sir.
"Trump posted his comments from Air Force One as Canada was releasing the official communique that had been endorsed by all seven leaders."
Once again, Mr. 'President,' you've made an absolute jackass of yourself, sir. Par for the course for a nazi dictator. May be able to wing it on the boob tube. Not so as president. Precisely, why you've been, to date, an abject failure as president.
"It said that the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Japan had agreed on the need for "free, fair, and mutually beneficial trade."
No substance, anyway. Same old disingenuous bullshit.
"Trudeau's office responded to Trump's tweet saying "We are focused on everything we accomplished here at the #G7 summit. The Prime Minister said nothing he hasn't said before — both in public, and in private conversations with the President."
Bet you are. Yet, you apparently didn't pressure the Trump nazi sufficiently in person. LOL. Should have let it rip. Precisely, what the jackass desperately needs. LOL. Humble the idiot.
"Earlier on Saturday, President Trump concluded his visit to the Group of Seven summit with warnings to U.S. allies, saying if they don't eliminate barriers to trade, they could lose access to the U.S. economy."
What the hell are you doing, Mr. 'President?' Exactly, the same? Stupidly, igniting a trade war. Think we, the people, won't financially pay the price, you jackass?
"Speaking in a solo press conference from the resort town of La Malbaie in Quebec, the president said that for too long, U.S. trade has suffered from "bad" trade deals agreed to by past U.S. presidents."
Magically, through your 'magnificent' personality and 'drive' will somehow force the issue? Wake up, jackass. Forget? Aggressive stupidity is unbecoming, sir.
"The United States has been taken advantage of for decades and decades," Trump said. "I don't blame other leaders for that, I blame our past leaders. There was no reason that this should have happened."
Snap your fingers, sir, and expect all others to goose step in line? Truly believe that will happen?
"Trump said he pushed for the elimination of trade barriers, including subsidies and tariffs, at the G-7 meeting. Trump had already roiled G-7 members ahead of the summit and raised fears of a trade war when he placed tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada, the European Union and Mexico. All three trading partners have threatened to retaliate with their own levies against U.S. imports."
A trade war, jackass.
"If they retaliate, they're making a mistake," Trump said."
How so? Guess what? The poor and middle class will take it hard up the ass, right here, in our formerly great country. Clearly, not you, you piece of human excrement.
"While talking tough with U.S. allies such as Canada and the EU, Trump repeated his call for Russia to be allowed back into the elite club, which includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the U.S. and Japan. Russia joined the G-7 in the 1990s, making it the Group of Eight, but was expelled after its annexation of Crimea in 2014. "They should let Russia come back in, because we should have Russia at the negotiating table," Trump said. Readmitting Russia to the group would be an "asset," according to the president."
Think the Trump nazi not beholden to Putin? For whatever the reason. Mueller needs to get a move on. Expose this fascist son of a bitch for precisely whom and what he is.
"He left the summit four hours earlier than originally planned and will miss key talks on the environment, including working sessions on climate change, clean energy and the health of the oceans."
Doesn't matter to an ignorant national socialist Republican who does not believe in climate change. Too busy lining his bottomless pockets. Off the trappings of office. Forget? Emoluments Clause. For which he has yet to be held accountable.
"Trump is heading to Singapore, where he is scheduled to meet on Tuesday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump called the summit a "one time shot" for Kim, but expressed optimism at the beginning of talks with the North Korean regime. "I think within the first minute I'll know," Trump said. "Just my touch, my feel. That's what I do."
Jesus Christ. He's nuts. Not how things work in diplomacy. Trump confuses his 'touch' with determined prior legwork by diplomats well before a summit. -- One reason this achingly clueless nazi has been an abject failure as president.
"The U.S. wants North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program, a demand North Korea has rejected without concessions from the U.S. Trump has previously threatened North Korea with military action if it "acts unwisely." Roughly 28,000 American service members and civilian military personnel are currently stationed in South Korea."
Mr. Trump is hopelessly, aggressively stupid, uninformed, ignorant of reality. First, there are millions of South Koreans close to the border who would be killed in the first days of conventional shelling by the North. Second, there is reportedly a one-million strong North Korean force that would likely quickly over run the Americans and South Koreans. Likely, why the conflict would quickly turn tactically nuclear.
"This is unknown territory in the truest sense. But I feel really confident," Trump said of Monday's meeting, which is the first between a North Korean leader and sitting U.S. president, "It's never been done, It's never been tested. So we are going in with a really positive spirit."
Wish Trump the best. Hope he's successful. Likely will not get what he's looking for, however.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-15-18
The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump feuded with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and threatened to impose penalties on foreign automobile imports Saturday, capping an acrimonious meeting of the Group of Seven industrial nations that further frayed ties between the United States and its closest allies. Trump said Saturday evening that he had instructed U.S. officials to withdraw support for a joint statement with other member nations he had backed just hours earlier, saying the United States would not join after Trudeau publicly criticized Trump’s trade policy. “Based on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!,” Trump wrote on Twitter after leaving the summit."
Trump, apparently, delusionally expects other countries to take his shit, not fight back. Not how things work in the real world. Clearly, this nazi believes he's in charge of the universe.
"Trump, who did not specify which of Trudeau’s statements he considered false, said U.S. trade policies were a response to unfair Canadian practices and characterized the Canadian leader as “weak.”
Forget? "The Donald" sorely lacks substance. To say nothing of judgment. LOL.
"Earlier Saturday, Trudeau criticized Trump’s recent decision to place tariffs on steel and aluminum from the European Union, Canada and Mexico, saying it was “insulting” that Trump cited U.S. national security as his reason for doing so. “Canadians, we’re polite, we’re reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around,” Trudeau said at his own, separate news conference at the meeting’s end."
Take no shit, Mr. Prime Minister. Why should you? Trump needs to smarten up. Can certainly contribute to his desperately needed education, sir. LOL.
“I highlighted directly to the president that Canadians did not take it lightly that the United States has moved forward with significant tariffs on our steel and aluminum industry,” Trudeau said. “Particularly, [they] did not take lightly that it’s for a national security reason that for Canadians ... who stood shoulder to shoulder with American soldiers in far off lands in conflicts from the First World War onward, it’s kind of insulting.”
You think? LOL. Forget? Only Trump knows best. Every one else? Hopelessly, stupid. Achingly, ignorant. LOL.
"G-7 leaders had hoped the annual summit here would strengthen ties that had been tested by trade disputes. Instead, it ended in a war of words between Trump and the leader of one of the United States’ largest trading partners that threatened to escalate into a full-blown trade war."
Precisely, as intended by the achingly out of touch Trump nazi. LOL.
"Earlier Saturday, Trump said he had floated the idea of countries dropping all import barriers, saying he would do the same in return. But he warned he could cut off U.S. trade entirely with countries that kept current rules in place, arguing they had taken advantage of previous administrations to take advantage of the United States."
Non-sequitur. Abject bullshit. Double talk. Meaningless. Unbeholden of a seventy-year-old achingly clueless nazi. LOL.
“We’re like the piggy bank that everybody is robbing,” Trump said here at a news conference. “And that ends.”
Does it? Think so? The nazi delusionally believes he snaps his fingers and all goose step in unison. May happen in the business community dictated by those with the wealth. Doesn't, however, extend to international diplomacy. Trump, apparently, remains too ignorant to understand this.
"Saturday’s clashes ended a summit that was marked by repeated disagreements between the United States and its closest allies. The G-7, in its current form, consists of the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Japan."
What may ultimately happen is the United States winds up getting the boot, -- despite all our economic power. Should Trump continue, what would they ultimately have to lose? Forget? He's determinedly f--king them anyway.
"Trump on Friday called for Russia to be readmitted to the G-7 after it was expelled in 2014 for annexing Ukraine’s Crimea. And he departed the gathering early — skipping a discussion of global climate change — to fly to Singapore for a nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un."
Why is Trump so beholden to the Russians? What do they have on him? Or, is the president simply insane?
"Now, leaders from the G-7 and elsewhere face a string of trade decisions that will either preserve the existing global economic system or reshape it, with millions of jobs and trillions of dollars hanging in the balance. Trump cautioned other nations — those in the G-7 and around the world — that the size of the U.S. economy means other nations can’t win a trade war. “We win that war a thousand times out of a thousand,” Trump said."
That's insane. Everyone loses. Particularly, the American consumer. Then again, the top of the food chain couldn't care less. They've got theirs. All that matters to these hopelessly greedy pieces of shit. ... Right, Mr. 'President?'
"Trump would almost certainly need help from Congress to completely cut off trade with a U.S. ally. But he has already made significant changes to trade policy — working around bipartisan opposition from Congress — through invoking a previously seldom-used provision that allows presidents to make trade decisions if they deem it necessary to protect national security. His Saturday actions faced bipartisan criticism in Congress."
For damned good reason. There is, however, a solution to this insanity. Impeach the insane, nazi son of a bitch. Would likely tie him up remainder of his term. Make him effectively a lame duck until expiration of office.
"GOP Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) rebuked Trump’s position in a Twitter post. “To our allies: bipartisan majorities of Americans remain pro-free trade, pro-globalization & supportive of alliances based on 70 years of shared values. Americans stand with you, even if our president doesn’t,” he wrote."
Hat's off, Senator. Continue to heroically stand up to this insane son of a bitch.
"Democrats Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) also posted their opposition to Trump on Twitter. “Are we executing Putin’s diplomatic and national security strategy or AMERICA’s diplomatic and national security strategy? After the last few days, it’s hard to tell,” Schumer wrote."
Amazing, isn't it? Nowhere near good enough. Clearly, Democrats still remain out to lunch since November 22, 1963. Egregiously, ineffective.
"German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office released a photo of multiple leaders appearing to confront a displeased Trump. Trump national security adviser John Bolton, who was featured in the photo Merkel’s office released, used the image in his own Twitter post and criticized foreign leaders. “Just another #G7 where other countries expect America will always be their bank. The President made it clear today. No more,” he wrote."
A raucous, boot clicking, goose stepping, treasonous, treacherous, traitorous Sieg Heil!, Mr. Bolton? Where is your swastika armband, you achingly fascist son of a bitch?
"A Reuters photographer, meanwhile, captured a photograph Friday of the imprint that French President Emmanuel Macron left on Trump’s right hand after a handshake, suggesting the French leader used a forceful grip. After the summit, Macron wrote on Twitter Saturday evening that Trump had come up against a united front from the other G-7 members, added that the isolation marked a break from American tradition. It was part of a broader, more confrontational approach by foreign leaders to the second G-7 meeting of Trump’s presidency. Representatives from other G-7 countries said they felt as though they had made progress in conveying their positions to Trump, something many of them felt pressured to do by voters at home. Despite the tension, the member states’ leaders were cordial in person, Trump included. He made first-name references to “Angela” and “Justin,” and he repeatedly insisted he blamed previous U.S. leaders, not foreign ones, for what he sees as the global trade imbalance."
Called hypocrisy. Cowardice. Should have let it rip.
“It was not contentious,” Trump said. “What was strong was the language that this cannot go on, but the relationships are very good.” “The European Union is brutal to the United States, and they know it,” Trump said, adding that other leaders acknowledge as much in private. “It’s like the gig is up,” he said. “They can’t believe they got away with it.”
Think Trump's not delusional? Get this:
"European officials described things much differently. Their leaders confronted Trump about how his protectionist policies had given them no choice but to retaliate with tariffs of their own, a person familiar with the encounter said. These tariffs, they told Trump, would hurt everyone. Trump had tried to essentially splinter the European leaders by negotiating some changes with Germany and different ones with France, but those leaders appeared locked together."
Clearly, did a good job rattling the president's cage. Otherwise, his reaction after leaving the meeting wouldn't have been anywhere near as insanely irritated, nonplused.
"They had been careful not to reveal their approach before meeting with Trump, although it appeared very calculated. “If you have a strategy, do not explain your strategy before the meeting — because if you are explaining your strategy before the meeting, you are losing your strategy,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters."
The above quotes are courtesy of two exceptionally gifted, insightful writers, Damian Paletta and Anne Gearan.
NPR reports:
"After one White House adviser said there was "a special place in hell" for foreign leaders like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and another said Trudeau "stabbed us in the back," Canadian leaders offered a measured — even polite — response."
Certainly, nowhere near as rabid as the Trump nazi and his henchmen. LOL.
"Canada does not believe that ad hominem attacks are a particularly appropriate or useful way to conduct our relations with other countries," said Canadian foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland, according to the Toronto Star.
"Foreign
Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland: "Canada does not believe that ad hominem
attacks are a particularly appropriate or useful way to conduct our relations
with other countries."
—
Daniel Dale (@ddale8) June 10, 2018
"The foreign affairs minister spoke to reporters in Ottawa and offered a markedly different tone from the attacks lobbed at Canada, one of the United States' closest allies, this weekend by President Trump and other members of his administration."
Is it ever. LOL. Stark contrast.
"Tensions have been building between the two countries for months, as President Trump has targeted Canada as one of the many countries he sees as giving America the short end of the stick in trade deals."
Trump has indeed lost his mind.
"Trump announced yesterday he was backing out of a joint statement made by the countries that attended this weekend's G-7 Summit in Canada, after Trudeau gave a press conference in which he said Canada planned to retaliate against the Trump administration's recently-announced tariffs that will commence July 1. "I have made it clear to [President Trump] that it is not something we relish doing, but it is something that we absolutely will do," Trudeau said. "Canadians — we're polite, we're reasonable — but we also will not be pushed around."
Trump expects our allies to capitulate to his will. When they won't, behaves like a spoiled kid.
The bullshit never ends:
"White House economic
adviser Larry Kudlow says Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “stabbed
us in the back” #CNNSOTU https://t.co/ASsMQJXmjn https://t.co/cpPfpwfzpz
—
CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 10, 2018
"[Trudeau] really kind of stabbed us in the back," Kudlow said. "He did a whole disservice to the whole G-7."
Load of crap. Expressed by someone who demands his way, -- or the highway. ... Just like his fuhrer, the Trump nazi.
"In a tweet posted Saturday evening, Trump said his decision to rescind support for the statement was based on "false statements" made by Trudeau during a press conference he gave, as well as "the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs" on U.S. companies.
"Based
on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that
Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies,
I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look
at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2018"
Spoiled brat who failed to get his way.
"On Fox News Sunday, White House Director of Trade Policy Peter Navarro also defended the president with adversarial language. "There's a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door," Navarro said. "And that's what bad faith Justin Trudeau did with that stunt press conference. That's what weak, dishonest Justin Trudeau did. And that comes right from Air Force One."
Sounds precisely like his fuhrer, the Trump nazi, doesn't he? LOL. Like Trump, needs to grow up. Truly believe our allies are willing to put up with this petulant bullshit?
CBS News reports:
"President Trump's break with American allies at the G-7 Summit was the worst foreign policy outing of his presidency, and the worst summit since they started back in 1975, according to Ian Bremmer, president and founder of the Eurasia Group. Bremmer called Mr. Trump's performance "the geopolitical equivalent of the Comey firing." The tension between the president and America's closest allies unfolded at the end of a weekend that looked promising, as Mr. Trump gave indications that he would sign onto the summit's final declaration. But en route to his meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un, Mr. Trump angrily tweeted about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, accusing him of making "false statements" at a news conference, and declared that he was rescinding his agreement.
"Based on Justin’s false
statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging
massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed
our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles
flooding the U.S. Market!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2018"
Spoiled petulant child who failed to get his way. LOL. The president f--ks the Canadians, then doesn't expect to get the same in return? Give me a break. This disgrace behaves like a 2-year-old, not the president of the United States.
Sen. McCain got it quite right:
"The decision to break from the agreement drew criticism from lawmakers at home as well. Republican Senator John McCain tweeted: "To our allies ... Americans stand with you, even if our president doesn't."
Indeed.
"On "CBS This Morning" Monday, Bremmer, said, "It was Trump unable to control his emotional impulses in doing something that I am sure felt very satisfying at the time. He was forced to go, he didn't want to attend the summit, his advisors all said, 'You have to be there.' He shows up late, he leaves early, he cancels his direct meeting with [French President] Macron. The entire time he's seething, bristling and petulant, but he's on good behavior. Finally he leaves, and he says, 'That's it, I'm going to blow it up.'" "I'm sure that sending that [tweet] out against Trudeau, America's closest ally, felt really good at the time," Bremmer said. But the result is, "It really damages an important long-term relationship."
Long-term damage done due to the impulsivity of the Trump nazi. Figuratively, stupidly, inexplicably shooting himself in the ass. To say nothing of our failing country.
"CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King asked, "What did Trudeau say that was so egregious?" "Nothing that he hadn't said already," Bremmer replied. "Trudeau was careful not to insult the president personally. He did say that the Canadians were not going to just sit and take it, in terms of the American tariffs, that there would be retaliation. [That's] exactly what he had said on 'Meet the Press' the week before and in other public statements. "This was not about what Trudeau said. This is about Trump's feelings. And when Trump feels a certain way, he is not to be told otherwise by his handlers. I think he showed very clearly, 'You can't tell me to do whatever you want – I'm my own man, I'm my own president.' And again, at the time it felt great, but this is pretty grave damage to the most important allies around the world."
Long-term consequences to our formerly great country imposed by this clueless, out of touch, egregiously failed 'Chief Executive.'
Gets worse. Get this. ABC News reports:
"President Donald Trump said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau "learned" from the mistake of criticizing him and it's going to cost Canada "a lot of money."
An Aryan arrogant nazi dictator ensconced in the Oval Office in what is now no longer a democratic republic. In name only.
"Trump adviser Peter Navarro, meanwhile, said Tuesday he made a mistake when he said "there's a special place in hell" for Trudeau. At a news conference Tuesday after his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump recounted his recent tough exchanges with Trudeau. He said the Canadian leader must not have realized that Trump had televisions on Air Force One, allowing him to monitor Trudeau's news conference at the end of the G-7 summit. "That's going to cost a lot of money for the people of Canada. He learned," Trump said wagging his finger. "You can't do that. You can't do that."
Petulant nazi dictator who once again disgraced himself and our formerly great country.
"The president said he was annoyed by Trudeau's comments about not letting Canada get pushed around."
Tough shit. Called the truth.
"He's giving a news conference about how he will not be pushed around by the United States. And I say, push him around? We just shook hands. It was very friendly," Trump said."
Wake up, Donald. Your ignorance, stunning. Un-presidential. Worse? Un-American.
"Trump called Trudeau "dishonest" and "weak" in tweets following the summit on Saturday."
Once again, Trump disgraced himself and our formerly great country.
"Trump advisers also took up the attack in appearances on Sunday's news shows, leveling more withering and unprecedented criticism against Trudeau, branding him a back-stabber unworthy of Trump's time. "There's a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door," Navarro said on "Fox News Sunday." Navarro seemed to apologize for the remarks on Tuesday. "Let me correct a mistake I made," Navarro said at a Wall Street Journal conference Tuesday, according to video provided by the newspaper's CFO Network. "In conveying that message I used language that was inappropriate."
You think? Disgraced yourself just like your fuhrer, the Trump nazi. At least, you had the sense to realize and understand the hopelessly ignorant faux pas.
Unlike our nazi president, the Prime Minister remains a class act:
"When asked about Trump's remarks in Parliament on Tuesday, Trudeau said he supports Trump's efforts on North Korea and looks forward to the details of that agreement. "On his comments, I'm going to stay focused on defending jobs for Canadians and supporting Canadian interests," Trudeau said before walking away from reporters."
Think Trump doesn't act like a spoiled two-year-old? Get this:
"A Trump adviser had suggested Sunday that Trump saw Trudeau as trying to weaken his hand before the meeting with Kim."
Jesus Christ. Give me a break. These clueless bastards remain hopelessly insecure, self-aborbed.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-15-18
Apparently, Trump plans to wing it with the North Korean dictator. NBC reports:
"President Donald Trump says his approach to the high-stakes summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — which begins Tuesday on a secluded island resort in Singapore — is not about preparation. "It's about attitude," he said last week."
Think so? Think that's how diplomacy works?
"He'll know in the "first minute" if the North Koreans are serious about negotiating, he boasted on Saturday. "Just my touch, my feel," he said. "It's what I do."
Jesus Christ. That may work in a business setting where the perpetrator has all the wealth, holds all the cards, can dictate terms as he pleases. Think that works in diplomacy?
"But former U.S. officials who've negotiated with the North Koreans say Trump will need a lot more than self-confidence in his own deal-making to avoid what could become dangerous mistakes. And even if Trump doesn't, there's no doubt that Kim Jong Un will be studying hard for a meeting the North Koreans have sought for 45 years."
Fascinating, isn't it?
"The scary thing is that the president may come out of the meeting thinking he's got a victory and not realizing that he has just fallen into all of North Korea's traps," said NBC News Korean affairs analyst Victor Cha, who led the Asia division of former President George W. Bush's National Security Council. The first challenge, if the meetings on Singapore's luxurious Sentosa Island are to be more than a glorified photo opportunity, is to define the terms of engagement, and demand commitments. As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the highest-ranking American to meet the young North Korean leader, assured reporters Thursday, "He has indicated to me personally that he is prepared to denuclearize, that he understands that the current model doesn't work, that he's prepared to denuclearize." But what does Kim mean by "denuclearizing?" For any agreement to be lasting, the North Koreans would have to formally declare the full extent of their massive, multilayered weapons complex, including a plutonium program, a parallel uranium program, weapons precursors, facilities, missiles, and missile launchers, all to be verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency."
Devil is indeed in the details.
Success, if to be, is determined through careful, painstaking negotiation:
"According to U.S. officials, Kim is eager to modernize his nation's economy and is looking for agricultural support. They say he believes the prestige of the summit validates his power, and that the meeting itself signifies North Korea is being recognized as a nuclear state, securing stability and legitimacy for his regime. But that is precisely why few outside experts believe that Kim would fully dismantle his weapons in exchange for sanctions relief. And in practical terms, he probably believes he has already weakened the international resolve for sanctions with his conciliatory gestures toward China, South Korea, and the release of the American prisoners."
Complicating matters, get this:
"Despite Trump's threat to revert to his policy of "maximum pressure," again tightening the economic noose around North Korea, it is unlikely that China and Russia would sign on to a new sanctions regime. And after exiting the Iran deal, and breaking with European allies on trade and tariffs, it is unclear how much global support the Trump White House would have in a multilateral negotiation for a global crackdown on Pyongyang."
There's more:
"Trump is also hampered in follow-on talks by a vacuum of technical expertise in the State Department, despite Pompeo's efforts to replace the veteran diplomats forced out by his predecessor, Rex Tillerson. And despite denials, there is plenty of evidence that National Security Advisor John Bolton and Pompeo are not in sync on the approach to Kim Jong Un. Notably, Bolton has not led the traditional inter-agency meetings that would normally be held to prepare for high-level arms negotiations. There were also the disruptive comments from the sidelines by the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who insulted Kim Jong Un this past week by saying the North Korean leader had "got back on his hands and knees and begged for it," after the Trump abruptly canceled the summit on May 24. (He reversed the decision a week later following the White House visit with Kim's envoy, Kim Yong Chol.) Asked at a White House briefing about Giuliani's venture into foreign policy, Pompeo said tartly, "Rudy doesn't speak for the administration when it comes to this negotiation and this set of issues."
All the above scratches the surface.
Think Kim hasn't done his homework? Get this:
"None of this will be lost on the North Korean leader. According to some reports, his diplomats have been peppering South Koreans with detailed questions about Trump and American politics, even asking about that unusual recent Alabama Senate race. Kim Jong Un may represent the so-called "hermit kingdom," but he is viewed by U.S. officials as a clever and well-prepared, indeed ruthless, adversary. He will be relying on much more than "attitude" as he gets ready to meet the American president."
Above quotes are courtesy of a most gifted, insightful writer, Andrea Mitchell.
ABC News reports:
"North Korea will denuclearize, President Trump declared in an exclusive interview with ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos just hours after intense and historic negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Stephanopoulos asked how Trump could trust the brutal dictator. "I do trust him, yeah," Trump said. "Maybe in a year you’ll be interviewing and I'll say I made a mistake. It's possible. We’re dealing at a high level, a lot of things can change a lot of things are possible." He pressed the president on his previous criticism of North Korea's human rights abuses including starving his people, running labor camps and assassinating members of his own family."
Wouldn't want to confuse Trump with the truth, would he?
"George, I'm given what I'm given," Trump said. "This is what we have, this is where we are, and I can only tell you from my experience, and I’ve met him, I've spoken with him. I’ve met him. And this is, this has started early and it's been very intense. I think that he really wants to do a great job for North Korea. I think he wants to de-nuke, without that, there's nothing to discuss. It was on the table from the beginning, and you see a total denuclearization of North Korea – so important."
Think so? That why the dictator is grossly overweight and his people starving? -- While expending money and effort to assemble a nuclear arsenal?
"Trump talked about the agreements that were reached at the summit in Singapore today, saying that he believes the North Korean leader "wants to do the right thing."
That why North Korea continues to hold on to the USS Pueblo the last fifty years? That why no justice for the American military officer slain in the dimilitarized zone all those decades ago, cruelly slashed to death?
"We have the framework for getting ready to denuclearize," Trump said. "He's de-nuking the whole place. I think he's going to start now."
Hopefully, that will happen. Not just another failed promise from a young communist dictator.
"Trump seemed to hold an optimistic take on Kim's intentions, saying that the dictator "really wants to do something I think terrific for their country."
Deluded wishful thinking? Hopefully, not.
"When asked if there was talk of pulling U.S. troops out of South Korea, Trump said the topic didn't come up. "We didn't discuss that, no. We're not going to play the war games... I thought they were very provocative. I also they're also very expensive," Trump said."
That came as news to our military and allies. Trump had neglected to inform them.
"Trump pointed to the international partners that he plans to work with in the pursuit of a denuclearized North Korea, pointing to South Korea, Japan, and China as countries that he plans to work with moving forward. An underlying strain of Trump's takeaways from the interview was Kim's perceived willingness to do the right thing."
Fascinating, isn't it?
"Over my lifetime I've done a lot of deals with a lot of people and sometimes the people you most distrust turn out to be the most honorable ones and the people that you do trust turn out to be not the honorable ones," Trump said. "I believe he wants to get it done."
We'll see.
Courtesy of NBC, here is the text of the agreement signed by Trump and Kim:
"President Donald J Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) held first historic summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018.
"President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un conducted a comprehensive in-depth and sincere exchange of opinions on the issues related to the establishment of new US-DPRK relations and the building of a lasting and robust peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the DPRK, and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
"Convinced that the establishment of new US-DPRK relations will contribute to the peace and prosperity of the Korean peninsula and of the world, and recognizing that mutual confidence building can promote the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un state the following:
1 The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new US-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity
2 The United States and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula
3 Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula
4 The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.
"Having acknowledged that the US-DPRK summit — the first in history — was an epochal event of great significance in overcoming decades of tensions and hostilities between the two countries and for the opening up of a new future, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un commit to implement the stipulation in this joint statement fully and expeditiously. The United States and the DPRK commit to hold follow-on negotiations, led by the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and a relevant high-level DPRK official, at the earliest possible date, to implement the outcomes of the US-DPRK summit.
"President Donald J Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have committed to cooperate for the development of new US-DPRK relations and for the promotion of peace, prosperity, and security of the Korean Peninsula and of the world."
Sorely lacks detail, substance, particulars. Already being criticized here in the United States by members of both parties.
CBS News reports:
"President Trump is declaring success after a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that resulted in an understanding that Pyongyang would work toward denuclearization and the U.S. would end joint military exercises with South Korea. Mr. Trump and Kim signed a document agreeing to a handful of key provisions. But the future remains unclear -- the U.S. and North Korea did not reach any agreement on the details of how to achieve or verify that denuclearization, Mr. Trump said. "We'll be verifying," the president remarked in a rare, extended news conference after the summit. Mr. Trump also claimed Kim told him North Korea has destroyed a "major" missile testing site, although he didn't expand on that."
Clearly, Trump was winging it. Be interesting to see how this ultimately gets resolved. ... If, in fact, it does.
"Mr. Trump said the U.S. will be continuing sanctions until denuclearization occurs -- but suggested sanctions might be lifted earlier than many experts thought possible."
Fascinating, isn't it? Before it was 'all or nothing,' now that seems to have changed. ... We'll see.
"Earlier in the day, the president claimed the summit went "better than anybody could have expected." The president also claimed Kim has a great personality, and said he will "absolutely" invite Kim to the White House."
Amazing, isn't it? A brutal dictator more than willing to murder family members. Quite a turn of events from just a few months ago. Think Trump's being cleverly played? Duped? We'll see.
The Statesman got it pointedly right during one particular local time log of the summit:
"11:55 p.m.
"President Donald Trump says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "loves his people, not that I'm surprised by that, but he loves his people."
"Trump made his comments during an interview with VOA that followed his historic meeting with Kim, looking beyond Kim's international reputation for having one of the worst human rights records in the world.
"Political prisoners in the country number in the tens of thousands and systematic torture and assassinations, including of his own brother, are not unheard of.
"In the past, Trump has spoken of the "horror" of life in North Korea and met in February with eight defectors from that country at the White House."
Nothing quite like talking out both sides the ass, is there?
NBC reports:
"Over the past week, President Donald Trump alienated allies and cut a deal with a brutal dictator. He praised North Korea’s Kim Jong Un as “honest, direct and productive” and lambasted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “dishonest.” For critics, Trump’s moves are confounding and perilous evidence of incoherence. For his allies, they’re a reminder of his no-apologies approach to foreign policy. For everyone, it's a reminder that the Trump Doctrine, as one senior White House official told the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, is "We're America, Bitch."
Expect anything less from a deranged, narcissist, lunatic nazi?
NPR reports:
"North Korean state media have reported that President Trump made a raft of concessions to Kim Jong Un that were not stated in the two countries' joint statement, following a first-ever meeting of the leaders in Singapore. While the U.S. has yet to confirm the contents of the reports, they suggest that the two leaders reached more verbal agreements than they put on paper, and made public."
Fascinating, isn't it? Clearly, the Trump nazi was winging it.
"The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Kim and Trump agreed that "it is important to abide by the principle of step-by-step and simultaneous action in achieving peace, stability and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." That would go against what the Trump administration has said so far. Last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that "the model that we have laid forth is a rapid denuclearization, total and complete, that won't be extended over time."
Which is it, Mr. 'President?'
"The administration's argument is that the incremental approach used by past administrations has allowed North Korea to extract rewards and incentives from the U.S., only to ultimately renege and refuse to give up its nukes. The KCNA report — which was also carried by the Rodong Sinmun, official newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party — also claimed that the president pledged to suspend military drills with South Korea, and lift sanctions on the North."
Jesus Christ. Has the Trump nazi again executed a 180? That is, again summarily reversed course?
"Trump's comment on suspending joint exercises with Seoul have caught South Korea's Defense Ministry and U.S. forces in Korea off guard."
... To say nothing of here in Congress as well as the Pentagon.
"Neither the issue of military drills nor lifting sanctions was mentioned in the statement. In his media briefing in Singapore on Tuesday, Trump mentioned ending the drills, which he described — in language similar to that used by North Korea — as "provocative," saying it would save the the U.S. money.
"The sanctions will come off when we are sure that the nukes are no longer a factor," Trump said at the briefing, adding, "I hope it's going to be soon."
"Before
taking office people were assuming that we were going to War with North
Korea. President Obama said that North Korea was our biggest and most dangerous
problem. No longer - sleep well tonight!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018"
Delusionally, believe the Trump nazi hasn't lost his mind?
"The KCNA report, as well as the joint statement after the summit, also mentioned that the president had offered North Korea unspecified security guarantees, which Pyongyang considers an indispensable precondition for nuclear disarmament. Neither side has spelled out exactly what those guarantees might be. But Lu Chao, an expert on North Korea at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences in northeast China's Shenyang city, says the guarantees are probably "a repeat of previous U.S. statements that it does not seek to overthrow the current regime in North Korea." As far back as August, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made similar statements."
Comfortable with all this? Consider the following:
"All of the concessions KCNA claims Trump made are also things China has said publicly it wants. At a routine media briefing on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang welcomed the summit's achievements. He also suggested that the United Nations should consider easing sanctions on Pyongyang to reward it for progress towards giving up its nuclear program. "Sanctions are not an end in themselves," he said, "the Security Council, through its actions, should support the current diplomatic negotiations." Shi Yinhong, an international relations expert at People's University in Beijing, said Trump's pledge to halt military maneuvers is, from China's perspective, almost "too good to be true." Shi predicts that such a move could face stiff domestic opposition. If U.S. troops in South Korea were to really halt military exercises, he says, it could cause allies to lose confidence in Washington and undermine the entire U.S. military presence in Asia."
Congress needs to carefully consider all the above and far, far more.
Think South Koreans aren't also 'scratching their heads?' The Washington Post reports:
"At a place of reflection — a Buddhist temple with a centuries-old tree — a 70-year-old woman walked the perfectly swept grounds Wednesday and thought about what possible peace with North Korea would mean for her children and their children. “It’s everything,” said Kim Ji-hye. “Does it matter what deals are done? Peace and reunification are everything.” “Wait a minute,” interrupted her husband, Park Byung-hun, 74. “At any cost? Peace at any cost? That is wrong. This process with North Korea is wrong.”
Fascinating, isn't it? Chilling, as well.
"Multiply this conversation by millions at kitchen tables, rail stations, parks and just about anywhere across South Korea as a conflicted country tries to digest everything thrown at it from the Singapore summit. No place has more at stake with the outreach to North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un. Yet so much has happened so quickly that arguments and viewpoints of just last week suddenly seem old. Now, South Koreans are trying to decide how they feel about once-unimaginable changes, among them the apparent halt of U.S.-South Korean military exercises and the direct line to the White House that Kim now possibly enjoys."
Consider the dichotomy. North? Dirt poor and threatening. South? Rich and prospering.
CBS News reports:
"President Donald Trump has arrived back in Washington from his historic nuclear summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un in Singapore. On Wednesday morning, he took to Twitter to claim there was "no longer" a nuclear threat posed by the North Korean regime.
"Just
landed - a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day
I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting
with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North
Korea has great potential for the future!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018"
"Before
taking office people were assuming that we were going to War with North
Korea. President Obama said that North Korea was our biggest and most dangerous
problem. No longer - sleep well tonight!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018"
Full of himself, isn't he? Full of shit, as well. Sad, isn't it? Think he's playing with a full deck?
"But the future remains uncertain -- the U.S. and North Korea did not reach any agreement on the details of how to achieve or verify that denuclearization. "We'll be verifying," the president remarked in a rare, extended news conference after the summit. Mr. Trump also claimed Kim told him North Korea has destroyed a "major" missile testing site, although he didn't expand on that."
So far? Symbolism over substance.
ABC News reports:
"President Donald Trump took to Twitter to encourage Americans to "sleep well tonight" upon landing in Washington, D.C., early Wednesday morning after the landmark summit in Singapore between the United States and North Korea. He also tweeted a few congratulatory comments to Republican candidates running in primary races Tuesday, in addition to taking a victory lap for his summit with Kim Jong Un. The "most dangerous problem" outlined by former President Barack Obama was no longer a threat, he added."
Think so?
"After wrapping a day full of high-stakes meetings with Kim, Trump called the summit a success for ultimately coming to an agreement with the supreme leader on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. But before he landed back home, both opponents and allies raised concerns about any peace agreement with such a longtime enemy of the United States. "I read the statement and it's difficult for me to see if something was actually agreed to or not," Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said, adding that the Trump-Kim agreement is nothing more than a "few sentences on a sheet of paper" that were "very aspirational." Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeted, "One more thing about KJU. While I know @potus is trying to butter him up to get a good deal, #KJU is NOT a talented guy. He inherited the family business from his dad & grandfather. He is a total weirdo who would not be elected assistant dog catcher in any democracy."
Gets worse:
"Trump was also criticized for giving too many concessions to North Korea, including failing to acknowledge the human rights crimes alleged against Kim, and pledging to end the "war games," or the joint military exercises conducted with a long-standing ally of the United States, South Korea. "It is worrisome, very worrisome that this joint statement is so imprecise," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said. "What the US has gained is vague and unverifiable at best. What North Korea has gained is tangible and lasting. We've legitimized a brutal dictator who's starved his own people."
No one wants war. Trump, however, may have increased the chances through his erstwhile narcissism, profound naïveté.
The take of The Washington Post perhaps said it best:
"President Trump declared Wednesday that there is “no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea” as he returned to Washington, offering a rosy assessment of a summit with the leader of a nation that still possesses nuclear weapons. “Just landed - a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea,” the president said on Twitter. He later lashed out at media coverage of his meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jon Un, some of which has raised questions about how much was gained during the meeting in Singapore. “Our Country’s biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!” Trump wrote, claiming that television networks “are fighting hard to downplay the deal with North Korea.”
The 'deal' has no substance, lacks detail, Mr. 'President.'
"Trump’s tweets followed a high-profile summit which yielded a renewed promise by Kim to “denuclearize” the Korean Peninsula but was scant on details. Lawmakers, analysts and allies have hailed the effort but questioned the substance of what was achieved. The president’s tweets began shortly after Air Force One landed at Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington and continued once he reached the White House."
Trump ignores the fact, next to the Second Amendment, last best defense to outrageously corrupt, abusive, murderous government is the First Amendment, that is, a free press. Precisely, why Trump is so opposed to media. Mark of a tyrant.
"In one tweet, Trump said that North Korea is no longer the United States’ most dangerous problem, as President Barack Obama had characterized it upon leaving office — and he said Americans could “sleep well tonight!” His assessment was ridiculed by Democratic lawmakers and some analysts, who suggested that North Korea remains a serious threat. “This is truly delusional,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) wrote on Twitter. “It has same arsenal today as 48 hours ago. Does he really think his big photo-op ended the DPRK’s nuclear program? Hope does not equal reality.”
That's right. Does not. Far from it. What's so incredibly sad and frightening is the fact Trump is the first sitting president in the last 68 years to do so vis a vis Korea.
"Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) also mocked Trump, writing: “One trip and it’s ‘mission accomplished,’ Mr. President?” “North Korea is a real and present threat,” Schiff said in a tweet. “So is a dangerously naive president.” Richard N. Haas, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said “the summit changed nothing.” “Worse yet, overselling the summit makes it harder to keep sanctions in place, further reducing pressure on NK to reduce (much less give up) its nuclear weapons and missiles,” Haas wrote on Twitter. A brief document signed by Trump and Kim provided virtually no detail beyond the stated commitment to “denuclearize,” a promise that Pyongyang has made and ignored many times."
That's right. Republicans have a problem. Can either continue to go along with a mentally-challenged Oval Office incumbent, -- or find some semblance of courage as did their forebears during the Nixon fiasco.
All the above barely scratches the surface of this rapidly developing issue. Needless to say, far more to come as this story quickly grows legs.
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6-15-18
The 'president' continues to ignore the Emoluments Clause. NPR reports:
"The Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution will be rendered meaningless if Democrats in Congress aren't allowed to sue President Trump for violating it, a lawyer for nearly 200 Democratic senators and representatives told a federal judge today. "There's simply nothing Congress can do to stop the president's actions, no matter who's in control of the body," said Brianne Gorod, chief counsel of the Constitution Accountability Center, representing the Democratic lawmakers."
Any citizen should have standing to sue. Up to a judge to throw out a frivolous suit. The Constitution has indeed been so bastardized it has become nearly impossible to sue the federal government.
"The lawsuit seeks an injunction compelling Trump to comply with the Foreign Emoluments Clause, which requires federal officials to get congressional consent before they accept gifts or rewards — emoluments — from foreign governments or officials. Trump has never sought that consent; he and his lawyers maintain the clause doesn't apply to his business holdings."
The 'president' is lining his pockets off the trappings of high office. The Constitution is quite clear. This matter should have been long since settled shortly after he took office. This crap takes way too long to litigate.
"Without court-ordered enforcement, Gorod said, Washington "would essentially write the Foreign Emoluments Clause out of existence."
That's right. Precisely, what Trump and his henchmen want.
"This is the third emoluments case against Trump to reach the courtroom, but its magnitude may be the greatest. The first emoluments suit was filed on Trump's first day in the Oval Office. Initially, the suits focused on Trump's hotel near the White House, which was drawing business from domestic political groups and foreign governments."
The 'president' has been lining his pockets since taking office. Doing so with impunity.
"But last month, a Chinese state-owned company has become a partner in a huge resort development in Indonesia, where the Trump Organization is developing a hotel and golf course. And meanwhile, the president has imposed new tariffs on some Chinese exports to the United States, while also saying that he's looking for ways to help a Chinese telecommunications company the U.S. had previously sanctioned."
This Chinese company is spying on Americans. Yet, the Trump nazi continues to support these bastards. Grants them special treatment. Why?
"It "kind of epitomizes why the founders put that [foreign] emoluments clause into the Constitution," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told reporters in a conference call Tuesday. "They wanted judgments by the president to be made independent of any sort of benefit to him unless the Congress approved, and we cannot approve, we cannot consent to what we do not know." Blumenthal is among the leaders of the plaintiffs' group."
Trump is lining his pockets off the trappings of the Oval Office. A continuing problem.
The Washington Post reports:
“Emoluments” is just an elegant word for corruption, at least in our Constitution. The framers were particularly worried about foreign powers bribing or trying to influence the infant republic. Their solution was to allow gifts, money and the like to be accepted by members of the executive branch only if Congress approved. Put differently, one of the constitutional duties elected lawmakers take on is the responsibility to prevent the corruption, or appearance of corruption, by foreign powers of the executive branch.
"Every president until this one has voluntarily complied, jettisoning foreign businesses and assets and/or asking permission to receive foreign gifts. Not President Trump. He and his children who work in the executive branch retained businesses that operate overseas; they frequently receive all sorts of monetary benefits from foreign governments. Ivanka Trump just got a batch of trademarks from China. Trump hotels are filled with foreign dignitaries, paying handsomely so the president can see that they are filling his coffers."
No problem with this?
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6-15-18
ZTE receives special treatment. NPR reports:
"Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Thursday announced a deal with Chinese telecommunications company ZTE that includes a $1 billion fine — a move that may indicate progress in high-stakes trade talks between the U.S. and China. "This is a pretty strict settlement, the strictest and largest fine that has ever been brought by the Commerce Department against any violator of export controls ," Ross said in an interview with CNBC."
Think so?
"The agreement was immediately criticized by senators of both parties. "The Trump administration is giving ZTE and China the green light to spy on Americans and sell our technology to North Korea and Iran, as long as it pays a fine that amounts to a tiny fraction of its revenue," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in a statement.
"Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeted: "I assure you with 100% confidence that #ZTE is a much greater national security threat than steel from Argentina or Europe. #VeryBadDeal"
No problem with the above or the following?
"The U.S. had imposed sanctions on ZTE for illegal sales to Iran and North Korea, but the Chinese company agreed to take corrective action. When U.S. regulators found that ZTE had not complied with the terms of the agreement, they cut off the firm from its U.S. parts suppliers. The move was described as a "death sentence" by the company, which employs 70,000 people in China. But last month, President Trump tweeted that "too many jobs in China" were being lost because of the U.S. action and that he had instructed the Commerce Department to find a solution."
In another article, NPR reports:
"Days after the Trump administration agreed to restore Chinese telecom firm ZTE's access to its U.S. parts suppliers, a bipartisan group of senators moved to block the deal. An amendment sponsored by Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., added language to the National Defense Authorization Act to reinstate a ban on ZTE buying U.S. components. That sanction was put in place after the Chinese company violated the terms of an earlier agreement to punish it for illegal sales to Iran and North Korea."
Finally, bipartisan agreement to stand up to the nazi fuhrer. About time.
"Late Monday, the senators announced they had written language into the defense package that keeps the penalties against ZTE in place. The amendment also bans U.S. government agencies from buying or leasing equipment from ZTE and its Chinese rival, Huawei, and bars U.S. loans to the companies. Sen. Cotton explained on Twitter that ZTE has extensive ties with the Chinese Communist Party and a record of doing business with North Korean and Iran. He said the threat posed by the mobile phone giant and its rival, Huawei, "is too great to ignore."
"Pleased
the amendment I introduced with @ChrisVanHollen & @SenSchumer is included
in the NDAA. The threat Huawei & ZTE pose to our national security
is too great to ignore. This amendment will help keep Americans' private
info out of the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.
—
Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) June 11, 2018
"Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio added that the amendment was "Great news!"
"Great
news! Our bipartisan amendment restoring penalties on #ZTE is included
in the #NDAA bill the Senate will be advancing to later this evening.
—
Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) June 11, 2018"
This bipartisan action was desperately needed. Timely.
"The NDAA is considered a must-pass defense package; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced on Monday that it is "the top item on our to-do list. And we'll tackle it this week." The authorization must pass both houses of Congress."
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6-15-18
Facebook continues to have problems. CBS News reports:
"As many as 14 million Facebook (FB) users had their posts shared with a broader audience than they intended. The social-media giant says a software glitch for 10 days last month switched privacy settings to "public" for millions even if they had wanted only friends to see their posts. "We have fixed this issue and starting today we are letting everyone affected know and asking them to review any posts they made during that time," Erin Egan, Facebook's chief privacy officer, said in an emailed statement. "We'd like to apologize for this mistake."
Think that's good enough?
"The disclosure is the most recent in a long-running bout of privacy blunders by Facebook, still reeling from March revelations that political consultancy Cambridge Analytica had accessed information on some 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge. More recently, Facebook is facing scrutiny from lawmakers for its deals with Chinese companies."
Wake up.
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6-15-18
Giuliani continues to make a jackass of himself. Shows his true colors. NBC reports:
"Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Donald Trump, slammed Stormy Daniels on Wednesday as someone he doesn't respect because of her career as an adult film star."
One reason, why most lawyers have no credibility. LOL.
"I respect all human beings. I even have to respect criminals. But I'm sorry, I don't respect a porn star the way I respect a career women or a women of substance or a woman who has great respect for herself as a women and as a person and isn't going to sell her body for sexual exploitation," Giuliani said at an event in Tel Aviv. "So, Stormy, you want to bring a case, let me cross-examine you," he added."
Who the hell is this piece of crap to pass judgment on anyone? This is a guy who has repeatedly proven truth is indeed a moving target when it comes to Trump.
"In response, Michael Avenatti, who is representing Daniels, called Giuliani an "absolute, disgusting pig" and demanded Trump fire him "immediately." Avenatti told MSNBC on Thursday that Giuliani's comments "show how ... out of touch he is with today's society, show what a pig he truly is, shows that he thinks he's above the law and above rebuke, and it shows that he must believe that this president will support him and back him for these outrageous comments against women and my client."
Giuliani, to say nothing of the Trump nazi, has certainly demonstrated his true colors.
"We cannot have men in positions of power basically making these statements against women," Avenatti added. "It doesn't matter what a women’s profession is. It has nothing to do with their credibility or whether they should be respected."
That's right. Moreover, Giuliani and his clueless client, have more than their share of credibility issues.
"Giuliani stood by his comments Thursday."
What hopelessly ignorant jackass wouldn't?
"Why would I withdraw them?" he told NBC News. "You're going to tell me being involved in pornography isn't demeaning to women? I don't know, do you have a daughter?"
Who the hell are you, Rudy, to pass judgment on anyone? Sadly, truth is a moving target with an attorney who, figuratively, has his head securely lodged up his clueless ass.
"Pressed on whether his comments were an effort to undermine Daniels' credibility, Giuliani responded: "I don't have to undermine her credibility. She's done it by lying."
That right, Rudy? You and your client haven't repeatedly done the same? Think either of you has any credibility at all?
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6-15-18
Think Trump doesn't have serious issues remaining on topic? The Washington Post reports:
"The meeting was supposed to be about hurricane preparedness, as disaster officials gathered at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters days after the start of the 2018 season. But President Trump had a lot else on his mind, turning the closed-door discussion into soliloquies on his prowess in negotiating airplane deals, his popularity, the effectiveness of his political endorsements, the Republican Party’s fortunes, the vagaries of Defense Department purchasing guidelines, his dislike of magnetized launch equipment on aircraft carriers, his unending love of coal and his breezy optimism about his planned Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “It’s an interesting journey. It’s called the land of the unknown — who knows? We’ll maybe make a deal. Maybe not. As I say to everybody, are you going to make a deal?” Trump said, according to audio of the FEMA meeting obtained by The Washington Post. “Maybe and maybe not. Who knows?”
Think this guy doesn't have serious mental issues?
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6-15-18
Consider the following. Think resistance to the Trump nazi isn't growing? NBC reports:
"A federal judge has allowed a lawsuit challenging U.S. immigration authorities for separating parents from their children to go forward, but said he would decide later whether to order a nationwide halt to the policy. Judge Dana Sabraw of the Southern District of California in San Diego said on Wednesday that the lawsuit, involving a 7-year-old girl who was separated from her Congolese mother and a 14-year-old boy who was separated from his Brazilian mother, could proceed on a claim that their constitutional rights to a fair hearing were denied. Both women were seeking asylum and were detained after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border."
Especially encouraging since the judge is a Republican appointee:
"Sabraw said he would issue separate rulings on the American Civil Liberties Union's request for a nationwide injunction and to expand the lawsuit to apply to all parents and children who are split up by border authorities. Sabraw, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said the allegations "describe government conduct that arbitrarily tears at the sacred bond between parent and child." "Such conduct, if true, as it is assumed to be on the present motion, is brutal, offensive, and fails to comport with traditional notions of fair play and decency," he wrote."
Doesn't the Republican Party claim to be the party of the family?
"Splitting families has emerged as a high-profile and highly controversial practice since Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a "zero tolerance" policy at the U.S.-Mexico border in early May. Adults charged with improper entry — a misdemeanor on the first infraction — are jailed and separated from their children. Previously, most parents had been allowed to remain with their children in family shelters while awaiting the outcome of asylum cases or deportation proceedings."
Trump and his fellow nazis are certainly demonstrating their true colors.
"The zero-tolerance policy has thrust family separation to the forefront of a national divide over illegal immigration. Critics call it cruel and inhumane, while administration officials argue that it is an unwanted but necessary step to end what they describe as a border crisis."
What it is remains raw nazism.
"The policy targets people with few or no previous offenses for illegally entering the country. First-time offenders face up to six months in prison, though they often spend only a few days in custody after pleading guilty and exposing themselves to more serious charges if they are caught again."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-15-18
Pruitt fiasco continues. The Washington Post reports:
"Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt asked members of his 24/7 security detail to run errands for him on occasion, including picking up his dry cleaning and taking him in search of a favorite moisturizing lotion, according to two individuals familiar with those trips who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly."
Sad, isn't it?
"Pruitt, who also has enlisted agency staffers in tasks including apartment hunting and securing a mattress for his personal use, faces congressional scrutiny over an expanding number of spending and management decisions. Federal rules bar public officials from receiving gifts from subordinates, including unpaid services, and from using their office for private gain."
Brazen, isn't he?
"Asked about the specific errands his security detail ran on his behalf, the EPA issued only a brief statement Thursday. “Administrator Pruitt follows the same security protocol whether he’s in his personal or official capacity,” spokeswoman Kelsi Daniell said."
Think so?
"The top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), reiterated his call that Pruitt step down. “Americans deserve an EPA administrator who will work to carry out the agency’s mission to protect the public’s health and our environment,” Carper said Thursday. “Instead, Mr. Pruitt is using this critical agency to do his personal bidding on the taxpayers’ dime. Americans are fed up. Enough is enough.” Pruitt’s use of his subordinates to perform nonofficial duties has already caused upheaval within the agency. Earlier this week, the EPA’s director of scheduling and advance, Millan Hupp, gave notice of her departure; her last day will be Friday. Hupp helped search for multiple apartments for the administrator over a period of months, booked his private travel and inquired about the availability of a mattress at discounted cost from the Trump International Hotel in Washington."
Imagine that. Couldn't be, could it? LOL.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-15-18
Think opposition to Trump isn't growing? Becoming increasingly vociferous? NPR reports:
"Mazie Hirono used to be known as the "good girl" of Hawaii politics. She was seen as polite, never in-your-face, not a boat-rocker. But now, that view has changed. As one Hawaii columnist put it, she is a "badass." "I always was," Hirono said in an interview with NPR. "I just wasn't very noisy about it. I've been a fighter all my life. I just don't look like that." If that's considered liberal, as opposed to what I call justice and fairness, as I am wont to say, f*** them!"
LOL. Indeed.
"The Senate's only immigrant takes that fight to President Trump, whom she openly calls "xenophobic" and a "liar." "To call the president a liar, that is not good, but it happens to be the truth," the soft-spoken Hawaii senator told Time recently."
At least, one Democrat is willing to stand tall. Doesn't end there:
"That doggedness will be even more important this summer because Republican leader Mitch McConnell has just canceled most of the August recess, mainly to push through more Trump judicial nominees before the midterm elections. McConnell's aggressiveness about judges is galling to Hirono. "The word hypocrisy comes to mind," she said, adding that McConnell just wants to get "more right wing, ideological judges" on to the courts. The Republican-controlled Senate has already confirmed 21 Trump appeals-court appointees, compared to nine Obama appointees when the Democrats controlled the Senate at a comparable time. "As long as we're going to be here," Hirono said with a twinkle, "maybe we should pass something important like DACA or an infrastructure bill."
Get this:
"Despite her often cool affect, she is no stranger to determined bad-assery. She recalls a breakfast in 1994 when the Democratic candidate for governor, Ben Cayetano, tried to talk her out of running for lieutenant governor. He argued she wouldn't help the ticket. After Cayetano finished, Hirono said she looked him in the eye, "and I said, 'Well, that's all fine and good, but it's all bulls***. And I'm running." By the time the primary happens, "people will know who I am," she recalled telling Cayetano. Indeed they did. Hirono actually wound up getting more votes in that election than Cayetano himself."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-15-18
Think national security isn't a continuing problem? The Washington Post reports:
"Chinese government hackers have compromised the computers of a Navy contractor, stealing massive amounts of highly sensitive data related to undersea warfare — including secret plans to develop a supersonic anti-ship missile for use on U.S. submarines by 2020, according to American officials. The breaches occurred in January and February, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The hackers targeted a contractor who works for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, a military organization headquartered in Newport, R.I., that conducts research and development for submarines and underwater weaponry. The officials did not identify the contractor."
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6-15-18
Think Facebook doesn't have continuing privacy issues? NPR reports:
"Facebook is embroiled in a snafu that exposed users' private postings and made them public, the company admitted Thursday. For four days, between May 18 to 22, Facebook tested a new feature that inadvertently switched the default settings for 14 million users from private to public allowing anyone on the Internet view status updates that were intended only for private audiences. "We recently found a bug that automatically suggested posting publicly when some people were creating their Facebook posts," Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan, said in a statement."
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6-15-18
At least one Democrat is stepping up to the immigration issue. CBS News reports:
"Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced Friday that she has introduced a bill to ensure that immigrant families in the country illegally aren't separated, amid outrage over the Trump administration's practice of separating adults and children. Mr. Trump has repeatedly blamed Democrats for creating a law requiring the separation of children from their parents, but no such specific law exists. The administration has introduced a zero tolerance policy of illegal border crossings. One consequence of that is, when families enter the country together, the parents are referred for prosecution and children are placed with sponsors. On Friday, on his way to the G7 summit in Canada, the president said he would be open to a bill to keep families together. The number of illegal border crossings was more than triple in April compared to the same month last year, an unsettling point for the president."
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6-15-18
Fiasco in Gaza continues. CBS News reports:
"Israeli troops fired live rounds and tear gas as thousands of Palestinians protested near the Gaza border fence Friday, and at least four demonstrators were killed, including a teenage boy, with over 600 wounded, Gaza health officials said. More than 100 of the wounded, including a photographer for the French news agency Agence Press France, were hit by live fire, the officials added, as the demonstrators burned tires, threw stones and flew flaming kites in the latest in a series of mass protests to call attention to a decade-old blockade of Gaza by Israel and Egypt."
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6-15-18
Manafort facing new charges. CBS News reports:
"Special counsel Robert Mueller has brought additional charges against President Donald Trump's campaign chairman and longtime associate Konstantin Kilimnik, accusing them of obstructing justice. The new charges were unsealed Friday against Paul Manafort and Kilimnik, who worked in the Ukraine offices of Manafort's firm, Davis Manafort Partners International (DMI). Mueller is accusing Manafort and Kilimnik of tampering with two witnesses. Manafort is awaiting trial in federal court in Washington and Virginia on felony charges related to his work on behalf of Ukrainian interests."
The Washington Post reports:
"Paul Manafort and his longtime business associate were indicted Friday on new charges that they conspired to obstruct justice — ratcheting up the pressure on President Trump’s former campaign chairman as he tries to stay out of jail while awaiting trial. The indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Washington marked the first such charges for Manafort’s associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, who is believed to be in Moscow — and therefore probably safe from arrest because Russia does not extradite its citizens. Prosecutors have previously said Kilimnik has ties to Russian intelligence, which he denies."
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6-15-18
Think Trump doesn't remain out to lunch? NPR reports:
"The Trump administration is refusing to defend key parts of the Affordable Care Act, essentially arguing that federal courts should find the health law's protections for people with pre-existing conditions unconstitutional."
The Washington Post reports:
"The Trump administration’s startling decision to abandon one of the Affordable Care Act’s most popular provisions — protections for people with preexisting medical conditions — put Republicans on the defensive Friday and handed Democrats a potentially potent political message.
"Democrats had already made health care a major focus in their campaigns heading into November’s midterm elections, with polls consistently showing it as a top issue among voters. Now, the Justice Department’s stance in a federal-court case in Texas will allow Democrats to argue that Republicans want to deny affordable health coverage to some of the people who need it most."
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6-15-18
Think there isn't backlash? NPR reports:
"Dan Moore, a 58-year-old steel mill worker, gives the president an "A+" on everything from tax cuts to foreign policy, but he's not so sure about tariffs. "We need tariffs, but when it starts to impact the company where you work ... you're thinking, well wait a minute, timeout!" he said. Moore is worried the tariffs might cost him his job. The mill where he works, NLMK Pennsylvania, in the town of Farrell, not far from the border with Ohio, employs 750 workers and is a subsidiary of Novolipetsk Steel, or NLMK, Russia's top steelmaker. But even though NLMK is creating American jobs, the company is being hit with a 25 percent tariff on steel because it imports raw steel slabs from Russia before turning them into coils in Pennsylvania and then selling that steel to customers that manufacture cars or pipes, for example."
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6-15-18
Think greed doesn't rule? The Washington Post reports:
"Two weeks after President Trump in May unveiled a plan to lower drug prices for Americans, promising “it will start to take effect very soon,” the drug company Bayer hiked the list prices of two cancer drugs by more than $1,000 per month."
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6-15-18
Think Trump's immigration policies aren't having negative impact? The Washington Post reports:
"A Honduran father separated from his wife and child suffered a breakdown at a Texas jail and killed himself in a padded cell last month, according to Border Patrol agents and an incident report filed by sheriff’s deputies. The death of Marco Antonio Muñoz, 39, has not been publicly disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security, and did not appear in any local news accounts. But according to a copy of a sheriff’s department report obtained by The Washington Post, Muñoz was found on the floor of his cell May 13 in a pool of blood with an item of clothing twisted around his neck. Starr County sheriff’s deputies recorded the incident as a “suicide in custody.” Muñoz’s death occurred not long after the Trump administration began implementing its “zero tolerance” crackdown on illegal migration, measures that include separating parents from their children and the threat of criminal prosecution for anyone who enters the United States unlawfully."
Don't Republicans claim to be the party of the family?
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6-15-18
Think Trump pro-consumer? NPR reports:
"The Trump administration is refusing to defend key parts of the Affordable Care Act, essentially arguing that federal courts should find the health law's protections for people with pre-existing conditions unconstitutional."
Guess what happens to premiums?
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-15-18
More raw nazism from the highest court of the land. The following is pathetic. Another direct attack, frontal assault on the United States Constitution and what used to be a democratic republic. Now, in name only. The Washington Post reports:
"Conservatives on the Supreme Court on Monday upheld Ohio’s method of purging voters from the rolls after they miss elections, a move that challengers of the law said would disproportionately remove poor and minority voters."
Precise intention of the Republican nazis on the Court masquerading as 'conservatives.'
"Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the majority in the 5 to 4 decision, said Ohio’s disputed process met the requirements of the National Voter Registration Act. “We have no authority to second-guess Congress or to decide whether Ohio’s [law] is the ideal method for keeping its voting rolls up to date,” Alito wrote. “The only question before us is whether it violates federal law. It does not.”
The nazi has ruled. Listen to the nazi. A raucous boot clicking, goose stepping, treasonous, treacherous, traitorous Sieg Heil!, 'Justice' Alito?
"The decision came under immediate criticism, not just from dissenters on the court but from liberal groups who said it gave states a green light to impose procedures that studies have shown disproportionately impact the poor and minorities, who tend to move more often. “Communities that are disproportionately affected by unnecessarily harsh registration laws should not tolerate efforts to marginalize their influence in the political process, nor should allies who recognize blatant unfairness stand idly by,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing solely for herself. “Today’s decision forces these communities and their allies to be even more proactive and vigilant in holding their states accountable and working to dismantle the obstacles they face in exercising the fundamental right to vote.” Alito responded: “Justice Sotomayor’s dissent says nothing about what is relevant in this case — namely, the language of the NVRA,” adding that she “has not pointed to any evidence in the record that Ohio instituted or has carried out its program with discriminatory intent.”
Sadly, voting has become an increasingly moot point, regardless. Both major political parties are not worth a crap. Either way, people in the center ideologically have no one to vote for.
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6-15-18
Need a little comic relief? The Washington Post reports:
"Late last week, Robert De Niro walked onto a Tony Awards rehearsal stage at Radio City Music Hall and, with the military efficiency common to such proceedings, read quickly off a teleprompter. The “Taxi Driver” star was scheduled to introduce a performance by Bruce Springsteen at the live show. So he recited the short bit of boilerplate about the Boss, then quickly ceded the stage to another presenter. None of the crew of several dozen in the room thought anything of it."
Profound professionalism as expected.
"On Sunday night, the actor took the same stage. He stood in the same spot and read the same script–then went wildly and laceratingly off it. Amid roars of approval from many of the 6,000 who’d gathered, bowtied and bejeweled, for the annual Broadway rite, the actor spit out “F— Trump,” using an expletive. Then, in case, anyone missed it, he circled back. “It’s no longer down with Trump,” he said, “but F— Trump.” He shook his fists in the air. The crowd came to its feet and roared louder."
Not to worry:
"No U.S. viewer watching at home heard DeNiro’s remarks — an employee of CBS, which had the telecast on a seven-second delay, bleeped them out. But no viewer needed to. Within minutes, the moment had gotten out on social media."
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6-15-18
Think net neutrality hasn't already been infringed quite some time? Now, we've reached the official end of it imposed by the Trump nazi and his henchmen. The Washington Post reports:
"Monday marks the official end of the U.S. government’s net neutrality rules, which had required broadband providers such as AT&T, Charter, Comcast and Verizon to treat all Web traffic equally. The repeal is part of a campaign by Ajit Pai, the Republican chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, to deregulate the telecom industry in a bid to boost its investments — particularly in rural areas. “I think ultimately it’s going to mean better, faster, cheaper Internet access and more competition,” Pai said in an interview. Others disagree and will challenge Pai in court, while many states are fighting back with their own laws, further muddling the situation."
What it truly means is we, as consumers, will be f--ked even further with the blessing of the FCC and its GOP nazi in charge. To line the pockets of his ultimate masters in the corporate management suite. No more complicated than that. Unbridled corporate greed. As 'service' continues to deteriorate and costs rise. The American Way. Nazi America.
Conveniently forget? Bought the bullshit? Wake up. No such thing as a free market. The market is owned and operated, manipulated by those with wealth. ... Yet, another reason why our formerly great country continues to deteriorate as the Trump nazi desperately lines his pockets and those of his corporate cronies. At our expense.
CBS News reports:
"Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai says that as the FCC rolls back the Obama-era net neutrality rules, consumers will be protected under the commission's new "Restoring Internet Freedom" rule which goes into effect today. The new legislation replaces "net neutrality" rules introduced by the Obama administration that aimed to ensure that internet service providers treat all online content, apps and traffic equally. Pai told "CBS This Morning" that the new rules will provide a "light touch approach" that produces "tremendously positive" benefits for consumers."
The Chairman is either delusional, -- or a liar. Both? You decide.
"But critics claim that the FCC's new rules could invite internet service provides an opportunity to slow down its competitors' content. Pai told CBS that the Federal Trade Commission will work to prevent such cases of "bad apples in the internet economy" from taking place."
Already been happening quite some time. The nazi is passing the buck. Question. How much are his pockets being lined?
"We've empowered the FTC to take action against any company that might act in any competitive way," said Pai. "The consumer is going to be protected and we preserve the incentive for companies to build out better, faster, and cheaper internet access."
To date, the Chairman, like his fuhrer the Trump nazi, has been a congenital liar. Consumers have been, and continue to be, f--ked by these GOP nazis. To line the pockets of their corporate masters.
"He added, "consumers need to [be] protected and the FTC is the only one under current law that can do that."
Horse shit. Unadulterated. The Chairman is a liar.
"Pai has said he agrees with the concept of a "free and open" internet, but disagrees that regulating the service like phone networks is the best way to achieve that goal."
There is no other way. Forget? Greed rules. Without concerted regulation, these bastards egregiously gouge consumers. How they line their pockets. Wake up. Only the beginning.
NPR reports:
"The net neutrality rules were approved in 2015. Companies couldn't pay service providers like Verizon or AT&T extra to make their site or app load faster for internet users, and ISPs couldn't block or throttle content and data, as long as it was legal. But Trump's pick to run the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, called those rules "heavy-handed" and vowed to end them. His order, touted as promoting investment and broadband deployment, loosens the FCC's regulation of ISPs, and instead gives the Federal Trade Commission jurisdiction to enforce violations. Pai says this system lets the FTC focus on "the bad apples" and allows other players "thrive in a free market."
How much did the bastards line your pockets, Mr. Pai? Figuratively speaking, your head remains securely lodged up your ass, sir.
"The new order permits ISPs to throttle, block, or be paid to prioritize certain sites or content, as long as they disclose that they are doing so. The Republican-majority FCC voted along party lines in December to repeal the regulations, which expired today. "In the short term, I don't think consumers are going to see any change at all from the Internet experience they've come to cherish," Pai told The Washington Post on Friday. "And in the medium- to long-term, I think we're going to see more investment in high-speed networks, particularly in rural areas that are difficult to serve. ... We were hopeful that that type of the light regulatory approach we're taking will lead to ... better, faster, cheaper Internet access for consumers and more competition particularly."
Horse shit. Alice In Wonderland. Direct opposite is, and has been, occurring. Ever since this policy change was contemplated at the FCC, access has worsened, slowed down. For quite some time, now. End users are being concertedly f--ked. Have been by the ISPs.
"The Senate voted 52-47 last month to overturn the FCC's plan, but the House, which is doesn't intend to take up the issue—making the Senate's move largely symbolic. As we reported last month, Democrats see net neutrality as motivating issue for voters."
Precisely, the problem with Democrats. All talk. No action. Out to lunch since November 22, 1963. Outrageously ineffective.
"Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat on the FCC, said in prepared remarks Saturday that the FCC had puts itself "on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of the American public."
Called a concerted, intentional f--king. To line the pockets of the corporate management suite who in turn line the pockets of the GOP nazis currently in power. ... Think Democrats aren't lining theirs?
"She worries that with the regulations now expired, some websites will be blocked or censored, and service could slow."
Again, wake up. Service has been slowing down quite some time in anticipation of the Republican nazi heading the FCC.
"That is not the open internet we know today and rely on to consume and create. So let's be honest: this is bad," she said. "Now for the good news. This misguided decision awoke a sleeping giant, because the American public is demanding action." Across the country, state officials have moved to keep net neutrality rules in place on their turf. According to the National Council of State Legislatures, governors in six states — New Jersey, New York, Montana, Rhode Island, Vermont and Hawaii — have signed executive orders upholding net neutrality, and three – Washington, Vermont and Oregon — have enacted legislation that does so. In January, attorneys general in 22 states and the District of Columbia filed a protective petition for review of the order."
Nazi Texas has done squat shit. These bastards are too busy lining their bottomless pockets. ... Right, Governor?
"Organizations that fought to preserve net neutrality say the battle isn't over. "The gutting of net neutrality is a symbol of our broken democracy," Fight for the Future Deputy Director Evan Greer said in a statement. "But it has sparked an unprecedented backlash from across the political spectrum, and Internet users are coming out of the woodwork to fight tooth and nail in Congress, in the courts, and at the local and state level. ... The Internet is coming for net neutrality."
Symbolism over substance.
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6-15-18
Delusionally believe the GOP to be the party of the family? NPR reports:
"There are now more than 10,000 migrant children in U.S. government custody. These are teenagers who fled violence in Central America. And children who were separated from their parents after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. How the children should be cared for and what happens to them is part of a growing clash between the Trump administration and advocates."
What this is remains no more than raw nazism, ala Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini.
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6-15-18
Think consumers won't ultimately pay the price, be egregiously looted to line corporate coffers courtesy of a clueless judge clearly in the pocket of the corporate management suite? NPR reports:
"A federal judge on Tuesday gave his blessing to telecom giant AT&T's drive to take over the Time Warner media conglomerate. Judge Richard Leon rejected arguments by Justice Department lawyers that the combined company would be too large and too powerful and that the $85 billion deal would harm competition and hurt consumers. Time Warner owns CNN, HBO, Warner Bros. Entertainment and a passel of cable channels including TNT, TBS and the Cartoon Network."
Think consumers won't ultimately receive poorer 'service' at increased cost? Won't take it hard in the ass without the Vaseline, KY? ... Believe in the Tooth Fairy? The judge may have been more concerned with Trump's displeasure vis a vis CNN than what is truly in the best interest of consumers. Hard to see any good coming as a result of this ruling.
'Justification,' i.e. excuse made, is this is a 'vertical' rather than 'horizontal' acquistion. Result remains the same, however. Less competition, higher prices. Consumers f--ked. Any questions?
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6-8-18
Highly reminiscent of our outrageously bought and paid for judiciary, Llano County prosecutors, Sheriff Bill Blackburn and his criminal SS jackbooted bastards in black who continue to egregiously disgrace themselves and the badge, do as they please regardless of the law and Constitution, carefully consider the following. It's appalling. Runs against the grain of everything our formerly great country once stood for. No longer.
Here is how the jackbooted bastards operate with impunity in the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich. The Washington Post reports:
"As the sun set Sunday night, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) went to a shuttered Walmart in Brownsville, Texas, that has been converted into a detention center for immigrant children who have been separated from their parents. He asked for a tour. Instead, the government contractor that runs the converted store called the cops. An officer filled out a police report, and the senator was asked to leave."
Imagine that. A United States Senator denied access to what amounts to a Trump gulag for kids.
"The half-hour incident at a strip mall near the southern border with Mexico underscores the lack of transparency from President Trump’s administration about its intensifying efforts to break up undocumented families caught crossing the border, the centerpiece of a “zero tolerance” policy announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month to deter illegal immigration. “The administration calls this ‘zero tolerance.' ... It is really a ‘zero humanity’ policy," Merkley said in a telephone interview on Monday. “It does damage to the children, to the parents and to the soul of America.”
Goddamned right. Achingly reminiscent of Nazi Germany circa 1933 at the beginning of the Hitler era.
"The senator said he tried to go through proper channels to arrange a site visit but was rebuffed. Merkley said he’s also sought to figure out just how many kids are being held at the old Walmart, where the parking lot is packed with employee cars, but he still cannot get a straight answer. He sees the new policy as a moral stain on America, and he’s determined not to let it slip from public consciousness. That's why he staged a public confrontation. A staffer live-streamed the whole thing on Facebook."
Jesus Christ. This is no longer a democratic republic. In name only. What we have in the Oval Office is a nazi dictator unbeholden to anyone or anything other than personal whim. Time for Mueller to get a move on.
“I think it’s unacceptable that a member of Congress is not being admitted to see what’s happening to children whose families are applying for asylum,” Merkley said. “Can you imagine? You come to this strange land. … You’re seeking asylum, and the first thing that happens when you get here is you’re torn away from your parents? … America has never done this before! … The intention is to hurt the children, cause the children trauma and discourage people from seeking asylum in the United States of America.”
Raw nazism. Wake up. History is repeating itself.
"Trump’s policy may split up an untold number of families. Minors are not allowed in criminal jails, where adults are held when they’re charged with crimes related to crossing the border. Children are sent to separate facilities, which are overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement. This happens even if their folks present themselves at official ports of entry and declare that they are seeking asylum."
Trump and his henchmen have become a law unto themselves, worse, breaking the law, ignoring the United States Constitution. Doing so with impunity.
"Southwest Key Programs, a nonprofit, administers this facility and 26 other shelters for unaccompanied immigrant children across Texas, Arizona and California. Its website refers all questions to HHS. The press office for the children and families division at HHS, which the resettlement office is part of, did not respond to a call and email seeking comment overnight. “If you don’t want your child separated, then don’t bring them across the border illegally,” Sessions said last month. “It’s not our fault that somebody does that.”
German Nazi war criminals made the same claim during their Nuremberg trials.
Courage within the United States Senate is nearly non-existent, with rare exception. U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley displayed uncommon valor:
"Merkley’s visit to the site was Kabuki theater tailor-made to go viral on social media and feed progressive activists the sort of red meat they are so hungry for in this tumultuous era. Wearing blue jeans and a dress shirt that was half-tucked in with rolled up sleeves, Merkley called a phone number that was posted at the entrance. He put the woman who answered on speaker and asked for a supervisor to come out. He told her his personal cellphone number. He called back a few minutes later when no one had come. Only after two police officers arrived on the scene did the supervisor emerge from a blacked-out sliding door. He gave the senator the phone number for the HHS press office. “So you guys can just call that number,” the supervisor said. “That’s the number we were told to give to you guys.”
Gutlessly passed the buck.
"One of the cops approached Merkley. “I haven’t been asked to leave the property, but I’m guessing that’s about what’s to happen,” the senator said.
“Yes, sir, I think that’s what they’re going towards,” the officer replied. “What was your name again?”
“Senator Jeff Merkley. U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley,” he said.
“How do you spell that? I don’t want to misspell that,” the cop asked.
“M-e-r-k-l-e-y,” the senator said.
"The cop asked for his date of birth.
“It’s October 24, 1956,” Merkley replied. “I’m a U.S. senator.”
"Wearing a lapel microphone, Merkley narrated what was happening. The sound quality is poor because of the wind, and the video quality is poor because of the bright sun. But that made the stunt seem more raw and authentic. As the camera rolled, Merkley spoke about how a picture is worth a thousand words, which is why they don’t want visuals from inside. “I think this is part of a strategy to prevent the public and our decision-makers from seeing what’s really going on,” he said. “These doors are closed right now, which I think is symbolic of what the administration is doing.”
Gratifying to see at least one United States Senator willing to stand up to this horse shit. Hat's off, Senator.
"Earlier in the day, Merkley stopped by the Border Patrol’s processing station in McAllen, Tex., where children are taken away from their parents, and visited with asylum seekers at the Sacred Heart Church Respite Center in McAllen, Tex. He was accompanied by local officials from the American Civil Liberties Union. “For months, stories have abounded of families separated by immigration authorities at the border: Three children were separated from their mother as they fled a gang in El Salvador; a 7-year-old was taken from her Congolese mother who was seeking asylum; and so on, in reportedly hundreds of cases. In almost every case, the families have described heart-wrenching goodbyes and agonizing uncertainty about whether they would be reunited,” Amy B Wang noted last week. Finally, the supervisor at the former Walmart asked Merkley to leave and he complied. As he left, the senator said the contractor should really rethink the work it is doing for the government “with these children being ripped out of their parents’ arms.”
Ferociously pointed question. How is it constitutional for a United States Senator and/or Representative to be denied entrance to a federal detention facility? The Founders clearly intended all three branches of government to be a check and balance on one another.
Incredibly sad only one Senator showed up at the facility. Had it been a delegation think they would have been denied access by the Trump nazi and his henchmen?
The above quotes are courtesy of a most gifted insightful writer, James Hohmann.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
Highly reminiscent of our outrageously bought and paid for judiciary, Llano County prosecutors, Sheriff Bill Blackburn and his criminal SS jackbooted bastards in black who continue to egregiously disgrace themselves and the badge, do as they please regardless of the law and Constitution, carefully consider the following. It's appalling. Runs against the grain of everything our formerly great country once stood for. No longer.
The de facto fascist police-state we already live in quickly transitions to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich. CBS News reports:
"Six counties in Georgia have joined a federal program known as 287(g) that deputizes local law enforcement to effectively act as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. CBS News went to the Gwinnett County Jail to see how the program is working. "Under the Trump administration, right now we're going by all law, immigration laws," one deputy said. "So you come in for jaywalking, we find out that you're illegal, we hand you over to ICE. We work for ICE. We do not deport anybody."
Disingenuous bullshit. Blatant lie. End result? The same.
Just the beginning. Think the Trump nazi and his henchmen won't find other creative ways to deputize state, county, and local law enforcement to do their bidding? Nazi America.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
Highly reminiscent of our outrageously bought and paid for judiciary, Llano County prosecutors, Sheriff Bill Blackburn and his criminal SS jackbooted bastards in black who continue to egregiously disgrace themselves and the badge, do as they please regardless of the law and Constitution, carefully consider the following. It's appalling. Runs against the grain of everything our formerly great country once stood for. No longer.
The racist AG Sessions nazi continues to defend the indefensible. The Washington Post reports:
"Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered a vigorous defense of the hard-line Trump administration policy that has resulted in immigrant children being separated from their parents after crossing the border illegally during a lengthy interview on Tuesday. Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, who admitted he was “disturbed” by the separations, pressed Sessions repeatedly about the morality and necessity of the familial separations. But the attorney general stood his ground. “If people don’t want to be separated from their children, they should not bring them with them,” Sessions said, echoing some of the remarks he made in May when the Justice Department announced that it would begin to prosecuting every person who crossed the border unlawfully, including many seeking asylum. “We’ve got to get this message out. You’re not given immunity.”
This racist nazi bastard has falsely sworn to protect and defend the United States Constitution and rule of law. Needs to resign in disgrace. Presents an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties. A traitor. Our formerly great country remains a democratic republic in name only. We've lost ourselves.
“This is the worst thing I’ve seen in 25-plus years of doing this civil rights work,” Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s immigrants’ rights project, said on MSNBC recently. “I am talking to these mothers and they are describing their kids screaming, ‘Mommy, Mommy, don’t let them take me away!’ … The medical evidence is overwhelming that we may be doing permanent trauma to these kids, and yet the government is finding every way they can to try and justify it.” The ACLU is suing the government on claims that the Trump administration has been illegally locking up asylum seekers."
Adolf and Benito? Grinning ear-to-ear, high-fiving on their fiery perches. ... Again, who really won the Second World War European Theater? Ferociously pointedly, you Republican nazis still consider the GOP the party of the family?
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
Trump continues to disgrace himself and the office of the presidency. NPR reports:
"President Trump has the "absolute" power to pardon himself, he argued on Monday morning, then asked rhetorically why he would use it because he hasn't done anything wrong."
The nazi dictator indeed believes he's above the law.
"Trump made his assertion in a Twitter post following a weekend in which his administration made a sweeping case about executive power.
"As
has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to
PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong?
In the meantime, the never ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and
Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the mid-terms!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2018"
Once again, the nazi is talking out the ass. What "numerous legal scholars?" Who?
"Just because Trump has the relevant powers doesn't mean he will use them, supporters said. All the same, the main check that his legal advisers see is a political one — the threat of backlash, as opposed to any limitation in law."
Called impeachment.
"On NBC, the former mayor of New York said, "Pardoning himself would be unthinkable and probably lead to immediate impeachment." However: "He has no need to do it. He's done nothing wrong," Giuliani added."
That right, Counselor?
"Giuliani's remarks followed reports that the president's legal team sent a letter to Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller in late January outlining a legal justification that as president, Trump cannot be held accountable for obstruction of justice and should not be interviewed by investigators."
Think anyone in this country above the law?
"Trump's attorneys argue that as chief of the executive branch, he has near-complete power over appointees. That means that he could, for example, fire FBI Director James Comey for any reason and the dismissal could not constitute obstruction, they argue, or he could instruct that any investigation be ended for any reason. Giuliani, speaking on NBC, said that it was "pretty clear" that the president has the Constitutional authority to shut down any investigation, but added that terminating a probe where the president is the target might lead to impeachment."
The Nixon nazi thought the same. Was forced out of office, -- facing certain impeachment, wisely decided to resign in disgrace.
"Trump said on Twitter Monday that Mueller's appointment was "unconstitutional" but that he would "play the game" because he had nothing to hide.
"The
appointment of the Special Counsel is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL! Despite
that, we play the game because I, unlike the Democrats, have done nothing
wrong!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2018"
The president has lost himself. Remains increasingly delusional as Mueller zeroes in.
"On ABC, Giuliani also said that the president's recollections about a statement he made about a June 9, 2016 meeting between top Trump campaign aides and a delegation of Russians offering to provide "dirt" on rival Hillary Clinton "keep changing."
Can't keep his lies straight. LOL. Precisely, why it is so much easier to simply tell the truth. Consequences, less drastic, far more palatable in the long run.
"This is the reason you don't let this president testify in the special counsel's Russia investigation," Giuliani told Stephanopoulos. "Our recollection keeps changing, or we're not even asked a question and somebody makes an assumption." "If I say something wrong on this show... if you were the FBI, my goodness, I'd — they could prosecute me for the mistake. They'd say, 'of course it was a lie,'" he said."
Jesus Christ. You are a product of a Jesuit education, Mr. Giuliani. Your former teachers must be appalled at your recently stated belief truth is relative, sir. It's not, Counselor. Called lying. ... Perjury, if under oath.
"Although Giuliani said a decision about whether the president will voluntarily sit for an interview with Mueller's team would not be made until after a planned June 12 summit in Singapore between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, he said "we're leaning toward not" doing it. "But look, if they can convince us that it will be brief, it would be to the point, there were five or six points they have to clarify, and with that, we can get this - this long nightmare for the - for the American public over," Giuliani told ABC."
-- Nightmare for a lunatic nazi dictator apparently feeling the walls rightfully closing in on him. Mueller needs to abandon an interview and subpoena the lying bastard in front of a grand jury. Let it be fully litigated in court as to whether or not the president is indeed above the law. Can, in fact, avoid grand jury testimony without having to plead the Fifth.
Consider the following:
"Trump cited "numerous legal scholars" in claiming the power to pardon himself, but there does not appear to be consensus on that point. No president has ever attempted it. No court has ever tested it."
Fascinating, isn't it?
"One historical view is that a president may have the power, but that it wouldn't grant him or her immunity from prosecution after leaving the presidency. In a legal opinion issued during the administration of President Richard Nixon, the Justice Department argued a president could not give himself a pardon because of the longstanding legal principle that no person could be the judge of his own case."
You think? In a democratic republic no one is above the law. All are subject to it. Trump has begun pardoning others, apparently, to send a message to Trump associates targeted by Mueller that he (Trump) would indeed take good care of them should the need arise. Think it any more than a ploy to buy their silence?
ABC News reports:
"President Trump triggered a national debate about the use and limits of presidential pardon powers, as he has largely bypassed the traditional review process to grant a series of politically-charged pardons, and even raised, through his attorneys, the specter of pardoning himself, if that ever became necessary."
Clearly, the president is under enormous pressure as Mueller zeroes in.
"New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood, a Democrat, immediately responded to the D’Souza pardon by releasing a statement expressing her distaste for Trump’s use of pardon power, saying it “makes crystal clear his willingness to use his pardon power to thwart the cause of justice, rather than advance it.” Sen. Mark Warner, the leading Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, also reacted strongly, tweeting that he was concerned Trump has been “sending a message to witnesses in a criminal investigation into his campaign,” and called the practice “extremely dangerous.”
"The
President’s ad hoc use of the pardon power is concerning enough. But the
possibility that he may also be sending a message to witnesses in a criminal
investigation into his campaign is extremely dangerous. In the United States
of America, no one is above the law.
—
Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) May 31, 2018"
Trump and his henchmen clearly believe they are. To date, Republicans have disgraced themselves, cowardly failed to hold these bastards accountable.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
If LGBTQ business owners are not willing to courageously stand up for their rights, support those who are fighting for these rights, all advances to date will ultimately be lost. The following is appalling. Certainly, not the last word, however, on what is no more than egregious discrimination targeting the LGBTQ community. CBS News reports:
"The Supreme Court is setting aside a Colorado court ruling against a baker who wouldn't make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. But the court is not deciding the big issue in the case, whether a business can refuse to serve gay and lesbian people. The justices' limited ruling Monday turns on what the court described as anti-religious bias on the Colorado Civil Rights Commission when it ruled against baker Jack Phillips. The justices voted 7-2 that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission violated Phillips' rights under the First Amendment. The clash at the high court pitted Phillips' First Amendment claims of artistic freedom against the anti-discrimination arguments of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, and the two men Phillips turned away in 2012. The Denver-area baker cited his Christian faith in refusing to make a cake for their wedding celebration."
As our formerly great country continues to nazify, the above is only a portend of worse to come. Not only against the LGBTQ community, women seeking abortion, but to all who determinedly, stridently exercise civil and constitutional rights and liberties in what has become a de facto fascist police-state, quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich. The Nazi Right is determined to impose its perverse ideological and religious views on all. A nazi Supreme Court is certainly aiding and abetting.
"LGBTQ advocates, including Lambda Legal, quickly condemned the court's ruling, citing critical setbacks in equal rights. Lambda Legal CEO Rachel B. Tiven said in a statement on Monday, "The Court today has offered dangerous encouragement to those who would deny civil rights to LGBT people and people living with HIV. " Tiven added, "This is a deeply disappointing day in American jurisprudence. Today's decision should have been a firm, direct affirmance of longstanding equality law. Instead, the Supreme Court has become an accomplice in the right's strategy to hollow out one of its finest achievements, the right to equal marriage, and create what Justice Ginsberg memorably termed 'skim milk marriages.' We will continue to fight in every arena and in every court until LGBT people and people living with HIV have full equality under the law in every aspect of our lives. We deserve no less."
The ACLU is but a small shell of what it was decades ago. The following is proof positive:
"The ACLU, however argued that Monday's ruling "reaffirmed the core principle that businesses open to the public must be open to all in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The court did not accept arguments that would have turned back the clock on equality by making our basic civil rights protections unenforceable, but reversed this case based on concerns specific to the facts here."
"The American Civil Liberties Union argued the case on behalf of Charlie Craig and David Mullins, who were refused service at the Colorado bakery."
Question to be asked, today, the LGBTQ community, -- tomorrow, who's next?
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
The following is another appalling ruling by a nazi U.S. Supreme Court. CBS News reports:
"The Supreme Court is siding with the Trump administration over the American Civil Liberties Union in the case of a pregnant immigrant teen who was able to obtain an abortion after filing a lawsuit. After months of inaction on the case, the court Monday vacated a lower court decision favoring the teen, who was held in government custody after illegally entering the country. The justices ruled that was the proper course because the case became moot after the teen obtained an abortion. Government lawyers had complained that ACLU lawyers didn't alert them that the teen's abortion would take place earlier than expected. The administration said that deprived its lawyers of the chance to ask the Supreme Court to block the procedure, at least temporarily. The ACLU has defended its attorneys."
A crock. Here's the problem. The Washington Post reports:
"The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a lower court’s decision that allowed an undocumented immigrant teenager to obtain an abortion over the protests of the Trump administration. The action, which came in an unsigned opinion without noted dissents, throws out a precedent that might allow other teenagers in the same circumstance to obtain an abortion. But the court did not agree with a request by the president’s lawyers that American Civil Liberties Union lawyers who represented the girl be disciplined for their actions in the case."
The Court got it half right.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
Trump nazi's plans to impose tariffs will likely start a trade war. ABC News reports:
"China has warned any agreements with Washington in their talks on settling a sprawling trade dispute "will not take effect" if threatened U.S. sanctions including tariff hikes go ahead. The statement Sunday came shortly after delegations led by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and China's top economic official, Vice Premier Liu He, held another round of talks on China's pledge to narrow its trade surplus with the United States by purchasing more American goods. The Chinese statement said the two sides made "positive and concrete progress," but neither side released details. The statement said, "If the United States introduces trade sanctions including increasing tariffs, all the economic and trade achievements negotiated by the two parties will not take effect."
NPR reports:
"The Trump administration's latest move to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the U.S.'s biggest strategic and trade partners has touched off a barrage of criticism and retaliation. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Thursday that the U.S. will impose tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum for imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico just after midnight on Friday. Europe, along with Canada and Mexico had been granted a temporary reprieve since President Trump first announced the tariffs in March. The administration is taking the action under a relatively obscure U.S. trade law intended to protect national security. Many prominent Republicans have criticized the administration's aggressive use of that justification, saying its trade actions will hurt the U.S. economy."
Trump has lost his mind.
"The EU threatened to make good on a threat it issued in March to impose tariffs on imports from the U.S. that is 10 pages long, including everything from corn and tobacco, to T-shirts, Levi's jeans, bourbon, motor boats and various forms of steel. The EU also started the process of filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization. In a statement, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said "this is protectionism, pure and simple." Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom added that the U.S., through months of negotiations, threatened steep tariffs in order to obtain trade concessions from the EU. "This is not the way we do business, and certainly not between longstanding partners, friends and allies," she said in a statement."
Aggressive stupidity at its very worst.
"Mexico's ministry of economy pledged to impose equivalent measures, and included a partial list of U.S. goods that would face tariffs, including pork bellies, cheese, and produce such as grapes and apples."
All for what? To what end? To start a trade war no one can win?
"Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Trump administration's argument that the tariffs were necessary for national security reasons was an "affront" to Canada, which has fought alongside the U.S. in numerous armed conflicts.
"A list of countermeasures would include tariffs on U.S. metals and food products such as yogurt, pizza and cucumbers, as well as household products like mattresses and refrigerators."
Think this won't severely hurt American businesses? Consumers? Laid off American workers?
"Britain issued a statement saying, in part: "We will defend the UK's interests robustly. We continue to work closely with our EU partners and will consider carefully the EU's proposals in response." The UK's Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox told Sky News it, too, is considering retaliatory measures and joining the EU's complaint with the WTO. As for the U.S.'s national security argument, Fox said, "In the case of the UK, we send steel to the US that is vital to their defence industry; it is patently absurd."
The French are none too pleased either:
"Bruno Le Maire, France's minister of the economy and finance, said the U.S. tariffs are "unjustified, unjustifiable and dangerous." He told NPR's Audie Cornish: "We are close allies, we the Europeans, to the United States and we cannot understand that decision. We strongly believe that the decision taken today by the American administration is really an unacceptable one." "[French] President Macron expressed yesterday his willingness to work on the renewal of the trade system with the United States, but we cannot negotiate, we cannot enter into any kind of discussion, under pressure, and being hit by tariffs will not help us to open the door to any kind of negotiation," Le Maire said."
ABC News reports:
"French President Emmanuel Macron has told U.S. President Donald Trump that the new U.S. tariffs on European, Mexican and Canadian goods are illegal and a "mistake." Macron's office said in a statement Friday that the two presidents spoke by phone after Trump's administration announced the decision Thursday to impose 25 percent tariffs on steel and 10 percent tariffs on aluminum. The European Union is planning retaliatory tariffs on U.S. steel and food goods in the coming weeks, once it calculates the exact cost to EU companies of the U.S. tariffs. Macron pledged the riposte would be "firm" and "proportionate" and in line with World Trade Organization rules."
What could the Trump nazi possibly be thinking?
NPR reports:
"EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said of the U.S. tariffs, "This is protectionism, pure and simple. We will defend the union's interests, in full compliance with international trade law."
"France's minister of the economy and finance, Bruno Le Maire, called the tariffs "unjustified, unjustifiable and dangerous," in an interview on NPR's All Things Considered. "We cannot negotiate, we cannot enter into any kind of discussion, under pressure," Le Maire said. "And being hit by tariffs will not help us to open the door to any kind of negotiation."
"In a statement, Mexico's Economic Ministry said it was imposing tariffs on steel imports, lamps and pork products as well as various produce and cheeses. The tariffs will remain in effect, the ministry said, until the U.S. government eliminates the imposed taxes.
"Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that the U.S. tariffs on Canadian aluminum and steel were "unacceptable" and announced retaliatory measures. He also said Canada will take retaliatory measures effective July 1 on products ranging from steel to whiskey.
"Canada
will impose tariffs against imports of steel, aluminum, and other products
from the US – we are imposing dollar for dollar tariffs for every dollar
levied against Canadians by the US.
—
Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) May 31, 2018"
Think this isn't the beginning of a trade war?
The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump plans to confront other world leaders at a summit in Quebec on Friday over what he believes is a global economic system tilted against the United States, several people briefed on the plan said, escalating tensions with U.S. allies who have expressed outrage at his pivot toward protectionism. The summit will put Trump face to face with leaders he has antagonized on a range of issues, including the environment and the U.S. withdrawal last month from the international nuclear accord with Iran. But the two-day meeting of the Group of Seven, which will bring together many of the world’s leading economies in a picturesque Canadian mountain town, has crystallized into a showdown over trade after Trump’s recent insistence on new barriers the other nations see as petty and insulting. Most of the other nations represented have a trade beef with Trump that is unlikely to be resolved at the summit — and for each of them the standoff is one more sign that the United States is pulling back from traditional global leadership roles."
Nothing quite as ludicrous as figuratively shooting yourself in the ass, is there? LOL. ... Then again, 'stupid is as stupid does.'
Gets worse:
“The good news for him is the Mexicans won’t be there, so that is one less country that he has to deal with” over trade complaints, said William Reinsch, a trade specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The others are all mad at him.” In a sign Trump is looking to stoke divisions, White House officials are discussing ways to impose additional economic penalties against Canada — the host nation for the summit — in retaliation for Ottawa’s threat to levy tariffs next month on roughly $13 billion in U.S.-made products. Among Canada’s targets: orange juice, soy sauce, sleeping bags and inflatable boats. But there are divergent views within the White House over how to treat Canada, with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urging both sides to de-escalate, two people close to the discussions said.
"A meeting among G-7 finance ministers last weekend ended in rancor, with economic officials from the other six members issuing a rebuke of Washington. Unable to agree on a joint statement about the agenda ahead of this week’s summit, the other six economic deputies instead asked Mnuchin to relay to Trump their “unanimous concern and disappointment” over tariffs."
Yet, Trump and his henchmen remain oblivious.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
No question, 'stupid is as stupid does.' More of the same. Get this. The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump is preparing to sign a sweeping new law Wednesday aimed at expanding veterans’ access to private-sector health care. But behind the scenes his administration is fighting a bipartisan Senate effort to fund the legislation."
Why not? Called talking out both sides the ass. LOL.
"The VA Mission Act authorizes new health care programs for veterans, but the bill does not reserve federal money to pay for those programs. A group of powerful Senate committee chairmen aims to remedy that by amending a separate measure to pay for the new $50 billion law, saying that adding the funds is the best way to ensure the new programs give veterans access to medical care."
Makes sense?
"But the White House has engaged in a quiet effort to thwart the senators’ plan, encouraging lawmakers to vote it down and instead asking Congress to pay for the veterans programs by cutting spending elsewhere."
Like Medicaid? Medicare? Social Security? Other programs that aid the bottom and middle class? Ferociously pointedly, how about Defense? Do you know the United States spends more on the military than the next seven countries combined?
"White House officials are circulating a memo on Capitol Hill this week that slams the senators’ proposal as “anathema to responsible spending” and that predicts it would lead to ballooning costs and “virtually unlimited increases” in veterans’ spending on private health care."
Why aren't you fascist bastards reining in providers, pharmaceutical houses, and all those lining their pockets off anything labeled 'medical?'
“Without subjecting the program to any budgetary constraint, there is no incentive to continue to serve veterans with innovative, streamlined and efficient quality of care,” the administration says in the memo, which was obtained by The Washington Post."
The above is horse shit. Band Aid on an arterial wound. The ultimate problem is not efficiency. It's unbridled greed leading to unbridled gouging.
"Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), head of the Senate Appropriations Committee, argued that if Congress does not ratify his proposal, the alternative could be to cut $10 billion a year for five years from existing programs, including initiatives within the Veterans Affairs Department. “If we don’t get on it we’re going to have a hole of $10 billion in our approps,” Shelby said Tuesday, predicting “some real trouble.”
Sadly, just tip of the iceberg. Far, far worse yet to come. Across the board. Not only in healthcare, but across the entire economy. Gouging, shoddy products and service remain rampant. Ubiquitous. Unsustainable.
"Shelby is joined in his effort by the top Appropriations Committee Democrat, Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), as well as the leaders of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Chairman Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.). Their coalition reflects a renewed commitment in the Senate to completing spending bills on a bipartisan basis after years of budget dysfunction."
Snowball's chance.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
More Nazi Right bullshit debunked. NBC reports:
"Abortions don’t cause depression, although women who have depression and anxiety may be more likely to have abortions, researchers reported Wednesday."
Forget? There's a stark difference between correlation, -- and cause and effect.
"The study is the latest to show no evidence that abortion causes depression. Policies that cite damage to mental health as a reason to restrict access to abortion are not based in fact, the researchers wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s JAMA Psychiatry. “The repercussions of abortion for mental health have been used to justify state policies that limit access to abortion in the United States,” the team, led by Dr. Julia Steinberg of the Department of Family Science at the University of Maryland, wrote."
Anything at all to dictate to a woman what she can and cannot do with HER uterus.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
A good day for abortion rights. NBC reports:
"A judge agreed Friday to temporarily block the most restrictive abortion law in the country from taking effect in Iowa next month under an agreement between lawyers for the state and abortion rights groups. Attorneys for the state and Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said during a court hearing that they agreed to prevent the law from taking effect on July 1 after discussions with the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, Planned Parenthood Federation of American and the Emma Goldman Clinic. The advocacy groups argue the law is unconstitutional and have filed a lawsuit to block the law, which bans most abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected. An attorney representing the state said the goal now is to quickly get the case before a judge so the state can argue the law is constitutional."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
Think the following becoming? NPR reports:
"Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen is facing legal peril, including an FBI raid of his home and office — and involvement in a civil lawsuit with adult film star Stormy Daniels. But in the past, it was Cohen who sought to put legal pressure on others to solve problems for his boss."
Sure did:
"For Cohen, no target was too big. Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly put tough questions to Trump at a Republican presidential debate. Cohen later retweeted someone who had written, "we can gut her." Kelly discussed the incident nearly two years later on NBC News, with Cohen attorney David Schwartz. "I'm telling you, in response to that allegation, that I received death threats, that I had security guards following me around, and that my old boss called Michael Cohen directly to say, 'If Megyn Kelly gets killed it's not going to help your client Donald Trump get elected,' " Kelly told Schwartz. "And Michael Cohen didn't care."
Consider the following:
"I started writing about a 1993 biography of Trump written by former Newsweek reporter Harry Hurt III. According to the book, The Lost Tycoon, Trump's first wife, Ivana, claimed in a sworn deposition during her divorce proceedings that Trump had raped her. As the book was coming out, she said she didn't mean rape in a criminal or literal sense, and she has since praised the president. Trump has called the claim false. When I reached out to campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks about the claim in the book, I got an angry call from Cohen in return. His first tactic was to try to persuade me not to run the story — but he did so by falsely claiming that spousal rape was not a crime.
"You're talking about Donald Trump, you're talking about the front-runner for the GOP, presidential candidate, as well as private individual, who never raped anybody and of course understand that by the very definition you can't rape your spouse," Cohen said. Spousal rape has been illegal in the state of New York since 1984. Ivana Trump's claim involved an incident in 1989. But Cohen's efforts to prevent the story from being written didn't end with that false claim.
"Mark my words for it, I will make sure that you and I meet one day over in the courthouse and I will take you for every penny you still don't have, and I will come after your Daily Beast and everybody else that you possibly know," Cohen said. "Do not even think about going where I know you're planning on going. And that's my warning for the day."
Trump's fixer.
"Michael, besides the warning, do you have a substantive comment that I can include in the piece that reflects your views on this?" I responded. "I have no views because there's no story," Cohen said. The legal threats continued. "So I'm warning you, tread very f***ing lightly because what I'm going to do to you is going to be f***ing disgusting. Do you understand me? Don't think you can hide behind your pen because it's not going to happen," Cohen said. "I'm more than happy to discuss it with your attorney and with your legal counsel because motherf***** you're going to need it."
No problem with any of the above?
The above quotes are courtesy of a most gifted, insightful writer, Tim Mak. They were originally broadcast on NPR's All Things Considered.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
More legal woes for one of Trump's cronies. The Washington Post reports:
"Federal prosecutors accused former Trump presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort of witness tampering late Monday in his criminal case and asked a federal judge to consider revoking or revising his release. Prosecutors accused Manafort and a longtime associate they linked to Russian intelligence of repeatedly contacting two members of a public relations firm and asking them to falsely testify about secret lobbying they did at Manafort’s behest. The firm of former senior European officials, informally called the “Hapsburg group,” was secretly retained in 2012 by Manafort to advocate for Ukraine, where Manafort had clients, prosecutors charged. In court documents, prosecutors with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III allege that Manafort and his associate — referred to only as Person A — tried to contact the two witnesses by phone and through encrypted messaging apps. The description of Person A matches his longtime business colleague in Ukraine, Konstantin Kilimnik."
Clearly, Mueller isn't playing games:
"FBI agent Brock W. Domin said that one of the public relations firm’s executives identified as Person D1 told the government he “understood Manafort’s outreach to be an effort to ‘suborn perjury’” by encouraging others to lie to federal investigators by concealing the firm’s work in the United States. Spokesmen for Manafort and the special counsel’s office, who are under a court gag order in the case, declined to comment."
Noose figuratively tightens. Think the Trump nazi isn't feeling the heat?
NBC reports:
"A federal judge has scheduled a hearing for June 15 on whether to revoke bail for Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, after federal prosecutors alleged that he tried to tamper with potential witnesses while on pretrial release. Judge Amy Berman is expected to rule at the hearing on whether Manafort will have to go to jail pending his trial in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, or whether the terms of his bail are further restricted. Federal prosecutors asked Judge Berman to revoke bail in a motion filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Monday night. According to an FBI affidavit included with the motion, Manafort used encrypted messaging applications in February to try to reach two unnamed business partners who could be witnesses to his alleged fraud and money laundering. The judge has ordered the FBI agent who filed the declaration regarding the messaging to be in court and available to testify if necessary."
Obstruction.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
NFL players are challenging the veracity of the Trump nazi. Who'd 'a 'thunk' it, no? LOL. CBS News reports:
"Hours after President Trump called off a visit to the White House by the Philadelphia Eagles, one of the team's Super Bowl-winning players issued a fact check of sorts. The invitation was canceled over what Mr. Trump says is a disagreement on standing during the national anthem. But wide receiver Torrey Smith, who said previously that he planned to skip the visit, responded with a series of tweets, disputing the president's rationale. "So many lies," he wrote, adding, "Not many people were going to go."
Think not? LOL.
"Indeed, before and after the Super Bowl in February, several Eagles players discussed skipping the White House ceremony. One of the people set to attend the ceremony told The Associated Press less than half of the team's 53-man roster planned to go. The person spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the decision. Smith, who played on the Philadelphia team before being traded to the Carolina Panthers in March, disputed the president's central argument – that Eagles players took a knee in protest during the season.
"If
someone took a knee during those 16 games I missed it https://t.co/hzMz9VKQC2
—
Torrey Smith (@TorreySmithWR) June 5, 2018"
One thing for sure. LOL. The president remains truth challenged. Apparently, feared being snubbed by a number of players. How would that look? LOL.
"None of the Eagles took a knee during the anthem in 2017. Cornerback Ron Brooks did take a knee in a preseason game, but he was cut by the team, so he never played a regular season game."
Couldn't be, could it? LOL. The president, clearly incapable of being confused by the truth.
"Smith added: "No one refused to go simply because Trump 'insists' folks stand for the anthem. ... The President continues to spread the false narrative that players are anti military."
"So
many lies smh
Here
are some facts
1.
Not many people were going to go
2.
No one refused to go simply because Trump “insists” folks stand for the
anthem
3.
The President continues to spread the false narrative that players are
anti military pic.twitter.com/89GUNhJ4eE
—
Torrey Smith (@TorreySmithWR) June 4, 2018"
Can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit, right, Mr. 'President?'
Goes on and on, then again, more than enough to make the point. Would be laughable if not for the fact Trump and his henchmen remain an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties. ... As the de facto fascist police-state we already live in transitions to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
The above didn't go unnoticed. Lit a fire, -- so to speak. LOL. NPR reports:
"After President Trump cast aspersions on the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles and disinvited them from a White House celebration, the fallout has been wide-ranging and swift — from Philadelphia's mayor questioning Trump's patriotism to Fox News apologizing for implying Eagles players had taken a knee during the national anthem. The acrimony continued Tuesday, when the White House said "the vast majority of the Eagles team decided to abandon their fans." Christopher Wallace, the executive producer of FOX News @ Night with Shannon Bream, said the network erred during a broadcast Monday night when it used footage of Eagles players kneeling during a segment about the cancellation, implying that the players had taken a knee during the anthem last season — an act that players on other NFL teams have said is meant to protest police violence and racial inequality. The players were apparently praying. Wallace said in a statement released by Fox News on Tuesday that "To clarify, no members of the team knelt in protest during the national anthem throughout regular or post-season last year. We apologize for the error." Wallace's apology came hours after Eagles tight end Zach Ertz quoted a Fox News tweet to say via Twitter, "This can't be serious.... Praying before games with my teammates, well before the anthem, is being used for your propaganda?! Just sad, I feel like you guys should have to be better than this."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
Consider the following. The UN certainly understands the humanitarian threat posed by the Trump nazi and his henchmen. CBS News reports:
"The U.N. human rights office is calling on the Trump administration to "immediately halt" its policy of separating children from their parents after crossing U.S. border with Mexico. Rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani scolded the U.S. for its "zero tolerance" policy in which some families have been separated after migration across the border. The rights office said in a statement that "children should never be detained for reasons related to their own or their parents' migration status. Detention is never in the best interests of the child and always constitutes a child rights violation." Shamdasani told a U.N. briefing Tuesday that the practice of separating families amounted to an "arbitrary and unlawful" interference in family life, calling it a "serious violation" of the rights of children."
Called nazism. Repeat of history. Circa 1933, beginning of Hitler's Third Reich.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
More humanitarian rights issues in Syria. CBS News reports:
"An international human rights group on Tuesday accused the U.S. and its allies of showing little regard for civilians' lives while attacking the Syrian city that was once the de-facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) extremist group, an allegation denied by the American military. Amnesty International said the U.S.-led coalition's 2017 assault on Raqqa killed hundreds of civilians and reduced sections of the city to rubble. Researchers for Amnesty interviewed more than 100 residents and visited 42 coalition targets in the city in a two-week period in February. They published their findings in a report titled "War of Annihilation," in a reference to the language used by U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in the lead-up to the campaign. "When so many civilians are killed in attack after attack, something is clearly wrong," said Donatella Rovera, one of the researchers who visited the city."
Matters not to the Trump nazi and his henchmen. To say nothing of the war profiteering corporate management suite which runs and owns the United States government.
"U.S. Army Col. Sean Ryan, spokesman for the coalition, called the assertions "grossly inaccurate." He said the coalition and allied Syrian forces organized safe passages for residents to flee, but ISIS militants trapped them inside to use as human shields. "When you have an enemy that uses noncombatants as collateral damage, it's very difficult when you fight an enemy like that to completely avoid any casualties," Ryan said. Benjamin Walsby, another investigator on the Amnesty team, said the coalition should have adjusted its strategy accordingly. "If you rely on long-range tactics like artillery and airstrikes, then civilians are very likely to pay the price, and that appears to be what happened in Raqqa," he said."
Forget? 'It's the money, stupid.' -- Excuses made by our government ring achingly hollow.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
Our government still has done nothing about the following issue repeatedly covered here and elsewhere. The Washington Post reports:
"A federal study found signs that surveillance devices for intercepting cellphone calls and texts were operating near the White House and other sensitive locations in the Washington area last year. A Department of Homeland Security program discovered evidence of the surveillance devices, called IMSI catchers, as part of federal testing last year, according to a letter from DHS to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on May 22. The letter didn't specify what entity operated the devices and left open the possibility that there could be alternative explanations for the suspicious cellular signals collected by the federal testing program last year."
What does it take to investigate this? Think NSA and the FCC don't know what's going on?
"The discovery bolsters years of independent research suggesting that foreign intelligence agencies use sophisticated interception technology to spy on officials working within the hub of federal power in the nation’s capital. Experts in surveillance technology say that IMSI catchers — sometimes known by one popular brand name, StingRay — are a standard part of the tool kit for many foreign intelligence services, including for such geopolitical rivals as Russia and China."
Also used by the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue right here in Nazi America. Without a warrant. A fascist police-state quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.
"A DHS spokesman confirmed the contents of the letter to Wyden but declined further comment."
Why? The public has a right to know.
"This admission from DHS bolsters my concern about stingrays and other spying devices being used to spy on Americans’ phones," Wyden said in a statement on Thursday. "Given the reports of rogue spying devices being identified near the White House and other government facilities, I fear that foreign intelligence services could target the president and other senior officials."
Not only a foreign threat, but perpetrated as well by our own goddamned government on its citizens.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
The following is sad. NBC reports:
"Seeking to comfort grieving families and shaken survivors, President Donald Trump spent more than an hour privately Thursday with some of those impacted by a Texas mass school shooting that killed 10 and wounded more than a dozen on May 18. The latest spasm of violence in a year marred by assaults on the nation's schools, the shooting at Santa Fe High School was the latest to test the president's role as national comforter-in-chief. Trump met with more than two dozen people affected by the shooting, and did not publicly share his message for the grieving families and local leaders during a meeting at a Coast Guard base outside Houston."
Good reason for that. Trump didn't get the reception, and/or support expected:
"Rhonda Hart, whose 14-year-old daughter, Kimberly Vaughan, was killed at the school, told The Associated Press that Trump repeatedly used the word 'wacky' to describe the shooter and the trench coat he wore. She said she told Trump, "Maybe if everyone had access to mental health care, we wouldn't be in the situation." Hart, an Army veteran, said she also suggested employing veterans as sentinels in schools. She said Trump responded, "And arm them?" She replied, "No," but said Trump "kept mentioning" arming classroom teachers. "It was like talking to a toddler," Hart said."
Ouch. LOL.
"Reporters were not permitted to witness the meeting."
Surprised? Why?
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
Hypocrisy knows no bounds. CBS News reports:
"President Trump responded to a vulgar remark comedienne Samantha Bee made about his daughter, Ivanka Trump, for the first time Friday morning, calling it a "double standard" that Bee hasn't been fired. That comes after the show "Roseanne" was canceled earlier this week, following a racist remark made by the star of that show, Roseanne Barr. Bee apologized to the president's daughter and top aide on Thursday for calling her a "feckless c**t" on her TBS comedy show Wednesday. The comment has lost her advertisers."
-- The 'president' seems to have clearly forgotten earlier boastful comments regarding grabbing women by the pussy. ... What's good for the goose is clearly not good for the gander. LOL.
"Why aren't they firing no talent Samantha Bee for the horrible language used on her low ratings show?" Mr. Trump tweeted Friday morning. A total double standard but that's O.K., we are Winning, and will be doing so for a long time to come!"
"Why
aren’t they firing no talent Samantha Bee for the horrible language used
on her low ratings show? A total double standard but that’s O.K., we are
Winning, and will be doing so for a long time to come!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2018"
Jesus Christ. Keep dreaming, Mr. 'President.' Continue to egregiously disgrace yourself, to say nothing of the Oval Office. ... As Mueller zeroes in.
"On Thursday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders called Bee's comments "vile and vicious" and said executives of her show "must demonstrate that such explicit profanity about female members of this administration will not be condoned."
Jesus Christ. How about all the lies, phony excuses, all the bullshit you generate on behalf of your fuhrer, the Trump nazi? Give me a break. -- Your phony feigned 'outrage' goes well beyond the pale, Ms. Sanders.
"Ivanka Trump has not publicly responded to Bee's remarks."
Smart lady. Say nothing. Don't respond to the comment.
... Calling any woman a c--t remains outrageously unacceptable. Worse? Resulted in the ferocious point made by Samantha Bee being totally lost in the ensuing furor. That point, conveniently for Ivanka, was indeed concertedly ignored, hopelessly missed in the outrage generated. That is, the sad fact Ms. Trump's no more than a rubber stamp for her father. Failed to stand up to him, rein him in.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
In follow up to an earlier edition, The Washington Post reports:
"Leaders of a Southern Baptist seminary dropped a bombshell Friday night about why they two days earlier fired their president, a longtime leader of the huge denomination: He lied about his treatment of an alleged rape victim, according to a new statement, and he tried to isolate another woman from the seminary’s chief of security so he could “break her down.” Paige Patterson, who until a few weeks ago was a towering figure in the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination with about 15 million members, set off a firestorm among conservative evangelicals in recent months after comments were revealed about counseling a woman to go back to her abusive husband. Last week, the 75-year-old was demoted from his position as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, a decision that upset many Southern Baptists who considered the decision too lenient because he would have remained on paid staff as “president emeritus” and been able to retire on campus. Then on Wednesday night, vaguely citing new information, the board’s trustees said he had been fired, removing benefits, rights and privileges as a result of his mishandling of a rape allegation."
What the hell is going on here?
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
The insanity never ends. Consider the following. Think it's anything more than corporate welfare courtesy of the Trump nazi? NPR reports:
"President Trump has ordered Energy Secretary Rick Perry to take immediate steps to help financially troubled coal and nuclear power plants. A draft plan marked "confidential" is being circulated around Washington. No one from the Trump administration has confirmed to NPR that the draft is an official document. Still, the White House issued a statement in response to news reports about the plan, saying the U.S. electric grid is at risk because of coal and nuclear plant shutdowns — called "retirements" in the industry. "Unfortunately, impending retirements of fuel-secure power facilities are leading to a rapid depletion of a critical part of our nation's energy mix, and impacting the resilience of our power grid. President Trump has directed Secretary of Energy Rick Perry to prepare immediate steps to stop the loss of these resources, and looks forward to his recommendations," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders says in the statement."
The deception, striking. Coal and nuclear energy remain passé. An anachronism. Natural gas, far cheaper. Renewable energy, more so.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
The following? Appalling. The Washington Post reports:
"At an island resort off the coast of Singapore, U.S. event planners are working day and night with their North Korean counterparts to set up a summit designed to bring an end to Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. But a particularly awkward logistical issue remains unresolved, according to two people familiar with the talks. Who’s going to pay for Kim Jong Un’s hotel stay?"
Who do you think?
"The prideful but cash-poor pariah state requires that a foreign country foot the bill at its preferred lodging: the Fullerton, a magnificent neoclassical hotel near the mouth of the Singapore River, where just one presidential suite costs more than $6,000 per night.
"When it comes to paying for lodging at North Korea’s preferred five-star luxury hotel, the United States is open to covering the costs, the two people said, but it’s mindful that Pyongyang may view a U.S. payment as insulting. As a result, U.S. planners are considering asking the host country of Singapore to pay for the North Korean delegation’s bill."
Give me a break. We've lost ourselves.
“It is an ironic and telling deviation from North Korea’s insistence on being treated on an ‘equal footing,’” said Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. Still, the heavily sanctioned and isolated regime has a long history of making bold monetary demands."
F--k 'em. Let them pay their own way. Forget? We have homeless, to say nothing of the hungry right here in our formerly great country. People going without healthcare. We, the people, are hopelessly stupid. Consider the following:
"Any payment for North Korea’s accommodations would run afoul of Treasury Department sanctions, said Elizabeth Rosenberg, a former Treasury official. The transaction would require the Office of Foreign Assets Control to “temporarily suspend the applicability of sanctions” through a waiver, she said. The United States is expected to request these waivers from the United Nations and Treasury for a range of payments associated with North Korea’s travel, but a long list of exemptions could draw scrutiny. “There are legitimate mechanisms built in for exemptions depending on the circumstance, but this could run into public and political criticism and send the wrong message to North Korea,” said Duyeon Kim, a visiting fellow at the Korean Peninsula Future Forum, a nonpartisan think tank in Seoul."
The article spends considerable time and effort detailing money spent in the past on the North Koreans and their duplicity. We tolerate this bullshit. The question is why?
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
Never ends. CBS News reports:
"Facebook is pushing back against a media report saying that it provided extensive information about its users and their friends to third parties like phone makers. The New York Times reported Sunday that Facebook struck data-sharing deals with at least 60 device makers, including Apple and Amazon, raising more concerns about what users give up when they use Facebook. Facebook says it disagrees with reporting by the paper regarding software it rolled out 10 years ago that helped get Facebook on to devices like iPhones. Ime Archibong, vice president of product partnerships, said in blog post that Facebook has maintained tight control over the technology, known as application programming interfaces, or APIs, and that it is not aware of any abuse by the companies that it teamed with. The Times report says Facebook allowed the companies access to the data of friends of the user without their explicit consent, a practice that landed the company in the crosshairs of Congress during the Cambridge Analytica scandal."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
Consider the following. ... For what it's worth. CBS News reports:
"Ronald Reagan would be "pretty horrified at where we've come to," his daughter Patti Davis wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece Monday. With the impending anniversary of Reagan's death on June 5, Davis, an author, imagined what he would say if he could see the country now. She never mentions President Trump by name, but the column is a clear rebuke of the president. "He would be appalled and heartbroken at a Congress that refuses to stand up to a president who not only seems ignorant of the Constitution but who also attempts at every turn to dismantle and mock our system of checks and balances," Davis wrote."
Think so? Or, is this just a loving daughter defending the memory of her late father?
"She imagines her father "would plead with Americans to recognize that the caustic, destructive language emanating from our current president is sullying the dream that America once was. And in a time of increased tensions in the world, playing verbal Russian roulette is not leadership, it's madness." Further, Davis says that her father "wouldn't have tolerated" the president's relentless attacks on the press as the enemy, even though he also "didn't always like the press." She said that Reagan believed that a free press "sets us apart from dictatorships and countries ruled by despots."
While many during the Reagan Administration considered the late President our first fascist Chief Executive, Reagan, in all fairness, was not the nazi Trump certainly is.
"Davis suggests Mr. Trump's immigration laws are cruel and in closing quotes the finals words of Reagan's famous "A Time for Choosing" speech in 1964. She thinks he would ask Americans to remember those words: "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness."
Double entendre stunningly haunting, isn't it? ... Forget? Hitler's Third Reich was to last a millennium.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
Once in awhile, there is some justice at the polls. NBC reports:
"California voters on Tuesday backed the recall of the judge who sentenced a former Stanford University swimmer to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a campus dumpster — a sentence blasted by critics as far too lenient.Judge Aaron Persky of State Superior Court has said he was following the rule of law, not the rule of public opinion, when he imposed the six-month jail term on Brock Turner, then 20, in 2016. But in the eyes of many critics, the judge had seemed to discount the seriousness of campus sexual assault and the pain of the victim. With 61 percent of precincts reporting, 59 percent of voters favored removing Persky, and 41 percent were opposed. Turner was convicted of three felonies — two for digitally penetrating an unconscious or intoxicated person, one for assault with intent to commit rape. Prosecutors pushed for a six-year sentence in state prison, but Persky followed the county probation department recommendation of just six months in jail. Turner was released after serving three months for good behavior, and he must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life."
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6-8-18
Ice Princess gets hers. NPR reports:
"White House aide Kelly Sadler is out of a job almost a month after she reportedly mocked a "dying" Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has brain cancer. "Kelly Sadler is no longer employed within the Executive Office of the President," White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah said in a statement Tuesday. CNN first reported Sadler's exit, noting that "the White House had been strategizing an exit for Sadler for the last two weeks," including possibly "relocating her to another agency or department outside of the White House, and it remains unclear if she is going somewhere else or leaving the administration entirely."
As reported earlier, this is an incredibly sad, sad story.
"Sadler came under fire last month after reports surfaced that she had disparaged McCain — who spent over five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam — after he urged his fellow senators to reject Gina Haspel as CIA director because of her history overseeing controversial techniques for interrogating detainees. "It doesn't matter, he's dying anyway," The Hill quoted Sadler as saying in a meeting with about two dozen communications aides."
Certainly, made Ann Coulter look like the Good Fairy, didn't it? Ferocious sarcasm aside, certainly couldn't have been easy for Sadler after the comment went viral.
"McCain's daughter Meghan said Sadler called to apologize and that she promised to make a public apology, though that never happened. McCain's wife, Cindy, also tweeted to Sadler, "May I remind you my husband has a family, 7 children and 5 grandchildren."
While there is redemption in her call to apologize to McCain's daughter, the apology should also been extended to McCain's wife. To say nothing of the Senator himself. The apology should also been made publicly. Still not clear precisely how the outrageous comment was made at the time, that is, jokingly, or worse, viciously. Either way, this man is dying. Served his country well.
Far worse than the above is the fact the Trump nazi and his henchmen couldn't care less the pain needlessly inflicted on the McCain family:
"And following the comment, other sources reportedly said the White House was instead more incensed that the remark had leaked at all rather than being upset about the insensitive comment itself."
One thing for sure, the comment will likely haunt Ms. Sadler the rest of her life. Hard to believe she has no heart at all.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-8-18
Time to wake up. The Washington Post reports:
"A new United Nations report is getting plenty of national media attention for predicting President Trump will exacerbate hardships for America's poor by weakening the nation's safety net. “The policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned rather than a right of citizenship,” says the report, which will be presented to the Human Rights Council of the U.N. General Assembly.
"What is really striking about the report is how dire conditions were for America's poor even before Trump took office."
Comes as no surprise. Poverty has been a severe problem for decades. Largely due to the fact a livable wage is not mandated by law. Consequently, poorly-regulated business makes its money the old fashioned way, effectively steals labor, provides shoddy products and services. Forget? There is no free market. The market is effectively owned, controlled, manipulated by those with unbridled wealth and assets to do so.
"Among countries in the developed world, the report says, America already has the highest rates of youth poverty, infant mortality, incarceration, income inequality and obesity. Americans “live shorter and sicker lives compared to those living in all other rich democracies,” the report says. About 40 million Americans live in poverty, and 18.5 million live in “extreme poverty.” More than 5 million Americans live “in Third World conditions of absolute poverty.” About 11 million Americans cycle through a jail or prison every year, with at least 730,000 people incarcerated “on any given day,” the report says."
Delusionally believe our prisons and jails aren't gulags?
"In 2016, a “shockingly high” number of children were living in poverty — about 13.3 million, or 18 percent of them — the U.N. report states, with government spending on children near the bottom of the international pack. These statistics largely “could not reflect the policies of the Trump administration,” since the best existing poverty data predates his inauguration, said the author of the report, Philip Alston, U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, in an interview. In his report, Alston blames the American political system for these failings, arguing it deprives African Americans of voting rights, unfairly sends the homeless to jail, and has failed to provided health care and housing programs for its citizens. “The persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power,” Alston writes. “With political will, it could readily be eliminated.” Poverty experts say a range of policies enacted by Trump will make poverty both more painful and more prevalent than would have otherwise been the case but say those effects are unlikely to show up in higher overall poverty rates until after the next recession hits."
So what else is new? We've known this for decades. Choose to do nothing about it. ... Other than ludicrously invoke symbolism over substance.
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6-8-18
Think Rudy Giuliani doesn't share the insanity of his fuhrer? CBS News reports:
"Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said that after the president canceled the summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last month, Kim got "on his hands and knees and begged" to restore it. Giuliani's comments came during a Globes capital market conference in Israel. "Well, somehow North Korea, after he cancelled the summit because they insulted the vice-president, they insulted his national security advisor and they also said that they would go to nuclear war against us, they were going to defeat us in a nuclear war. We said, well we're not gonna have a summit under those circumstances. What Kim Jong Un got back on his hands and knees and begged for it, which is exactly the position you wanna put him in," he said. The Wall Street Journal first noted Giuliani's remarks.
"At the same conference, Giuliani accused special counsel Robert Mueller's team of trying to frame Mr. Trump, claiming that Mueller's team includes "13 highly partisan Democrats ... (who) are trying very very hard to frame him to get him in trouble when he hasn't done anything wrong."
Both Rudy baby and his fuhrer, the Trump nazi, seem to have conveniently forgotten the fact Mueller as well as his boss at DOJ, Rosenstein, are both long-term Republicans. LOL.
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6-1-18
Highly reminiscent of our outrageously bought and paid for judiciary, Llano County prosecutors, Sheriff Bill Blackburn and his criminal SS jackbooted bastards in black who continue to egregiously disgrace themselves and the badge, do as they please regardless of the law and Constitution, carefully consider the following. It's appalling. Runs against the grain of everything our formerly great country once stood for. No longer.
The following? Pathetic. Never ends. NPR reports:
"The shooting death of an undocumented woman at the hands of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Rio Bravo, Texas, near Laredo, Wednesday is ratcheting up tensions along the U.S.-Mexico border."
The victim was shot in the head. That, now, standard law enforcement procedure in Nazi America, Sheriff?
"According to a statement released by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a lone agent was responding "to a report of illegal activity by Centeno Lane...where he discovered a group of illegal aliens" just after noon. The statement adds: "Initial reports indicate that as the agent attempted to apprehend the group, he came under attack by multiple subjects using blunt objects. The agent fired at least one round from his service issued firearm, fatally wounding one of the assailants. The rest of the group fled the scene. Border Patrol Agents called for EMS and administered first aid until the Rio Bravo Fire Department arrived."
Where's video of the encounter? Why wasn't it released? ... Not to worry, right, Sheriff? Cops don't lie, do they, Bill?
"Three other migrants were subsequently apprehended. Neither the agent nor the deceased woman, who was shot in the head, have been identified."
Why not? The identity of the officer is certainly known. Why isn't the public entitled to know his or her identity? The public has a right to know who the hell is killing whom, -- and why. ... Right, Sheriff? -- Don't think so, Bill? That why your office has not released the identity of the officers involved in the Jeffrey Gray Wise killing one hundred ten weeks ago, Sheriff?
Think there'll be any justice in this latest killing by the Border Patrol?
"The incident is being investigated by the FBI and the Texas Rangers."
Means shit squat. Neither agency is worth a crap. Not for quite some time. ... Right, Sheriff?
"A female witness who lives next door to the site of the shooting, Marta Martinez, recorded the aftermath of the killing and posted it on Facebook. In the video, Martinez follows from a distance as an agent takes two detained men across a vacant lot and towards a Border Patrol vehicle. "Why do you mistreat them?" Martinez shouts in Spanish. "Why did you shoot the girl? You killed her! They killed the girl! She's dead!" An unidentified Texas Highway Patrol officer approaches and tells Martinez that "you interfere, you're going to be arrested. I'm just telling you."
Can't say anything in protest to a criminal jackbooted bastard on duty and abusing authority? Not in a fascist police-state. First Amendment? Freedom of speech? Under constant threat in a de facto fascist police-state quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.
"Martinez told The New York Times that she heard no sounds before the shooting, despite the fact that the incident occurred several feet away from her house. The victim appeared to be about 20 years old and the left side of her face was covered in blood, she added."
The officer may have gutlessly 'choked' in fear. Over reacted. Where's all video?
"Local immigrant advocates are questioning the need for further militarization of the border. "We don't need any more protection. We're safe," said the founder of Laredo Immigrant Alliance, Karina Alvarez. She said her community is upset and angry over the shooting, and people worry whether the investigation will resolve anything. "Our community really is in fear, we really think there should be accountability over Border Patrol agents," she said."
There is little to no accountability throughout all law enforcement. The problem worsens as we transition from the de facto fascist police-state we already live in to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.
"In 2016, the Homeland Security Advisory Council looked into reports that border agents were not being held accountable for a rash of deadly shootings. The panel concluded, the "disciplinary process takes far too long to be an effective deterrent."
Officers do as they please with virtual impunity. A problem across all law enforcement. ... Right, Sheriff?
"Since then, Customs and Border Protection — the parent agency — has stressed training on agents' use of non-lethal force and de-escalation techniques. Figures on the agency website show that "use of force involving firearms" dropped nearly 70 percent from 2012 to 2017. But it's coming back. Agents used their guns nine times from October to March of this year, more than twice as much as the previous year."
Been emboldened by the racist AG Sessions nazi and his fuhrer, the Trump nazi.
"Administration officials say that's because assaults on border agents have spiked. Yet critics say the agency is playing with the numbers. In one incident in the Rio Grande Valley last year, first reported by the Intercept, six people threw rocks, bottles and branches at seven Border Patrol agents. By the Border Patrol's tally, that added up to 126 separate assaults."
Think so? Wake up. Called bullshit.
"When asked if the agency's math exaggerates the dangers out there, Cary Huffman, CBP's chief of strategic planning, put it this way: "If you had to dodge 126 different projectiles at you, you might think differently, would you not?"
Adolf Hitler. Joseph Goebbels. Nazi distortion of reality, circa 1933. This time, 2018.
The Border Patrol can't apparently get its story straight. abc7news.com reports:
"Border Patrol's initial statement said the agent "attempted to apprehend the group," but "came under attack by multiple subjects using blunt objects." It's unclear why in a subsequent release by Border Patrol, the mention of "blunt objects" used as weapons was omitted. A spokesman for Customs and Border Protection acknowledged both statements, but "outside of that we don't have anything additional to offer as the FBI is in charge if the investigation," he wrote. The FBI, Texas Rangers and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Office of Professional Responsibility are all investigating what led to Gomez's death."
Comforting, isn't it? Think it'll be any more than a whitewash? ... Right, Sheriff?
CBS News reports:
"The U.S. Border Patrol has revised its description of an agent-involved shooting in Texas that killed a woman who was part of a group that illegally entered the country. The agency initially said Wednesday that the lone agent fired his gun after being attacked "by multiple subjects using blunt objects." But Border Patrol said Friday that the group ignored the agent's demands to get on the ground and "rushed him." The first statement describes the woman killed as "one of the assailants," while the second calls her "one member of the group." Agency spokeswoman Sara Melendez says she can't address specific questions about the releases but notes they usually do a follow-up statement after the initial one."
The bastards struggle to get their stories straight. In line with one another.
"Guatemala's foreign ministry identifies the woman killed as Claudia Patricia Gomez Gonzalez."
Why the hell haven't the jackbooted bastards identified the officer responsible for killing her?
ABC News reports:
"The agency initially said Wednesday that the lone agent fired his gun after being attacked "by multiple subjects using blunt objects." But Border Patrol said Friday that the group ignored the agent's demands to get on the ground and "rushed him." The first statement describes the woman killed as "one of the assailants," while the second calls her "one member of the group."
Jesus Christ. How long does it take these bastards to finally get their story straight?
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-1-18
Highly reminiscent of our outrageously bought and paid for judiciary, Llano County prosecutors, Sheriff Bill Blackburn and his criminal SS jackbooted bastards in black who continue to egregiously disgrace themselves and the badge, do as they please regardless of the law and Constitution, carefully consider the following. It's appalling. Runs against the grain of everything our formerly great country once stood for. No longer.
The president does not believe in the First Amendment. Free speech. Certainly, not when it involves criticism of the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue. CBS News reports:
"After a tumultuous season, NFL owners wrapped up their spring meeting in Atlanta by announcing Wednesday that players would be required to stand for the national anthem if they're on the field before a game, but gave them the option of staying in the locker room if they wanted to carry on the Colin Kaepernick-inspired campaign against police brutality and social injustice."
Police brutality and social injustice run rampant in our formerly great country, right, Sheriff?
"Commissioner Roger Goodell called it a compromise that respected the wishes of everyone, from those who consider "The Star-Spangled Banner" a sacred part of the American experience to those who believe the right to protest during the anthem is also in the best tradition of a free but imperfect society."
Trump nazi doesn't think so.
"Yet, it was clear to everyone that the owners wanted to quell a firestorm by moving any further protests away from the public eye - especially if it lured back disgruntled fans while appeasing President Donald Trump and his vocal base of support."
Doesn't matter to the racist AG Sessions nazi and his equally fascist fuhrer, the Trump nazi, to say nothing of his clueless sick sycophants, that the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue are murdering innocent unarmed civilians. Matters not. Certainly, not in a de facto fascist police-state quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich. To the NFL, bottom line trumps principle.
"This is a fear of the diminished bottom line," said defensive end Chris Long of the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles . "It's also fear of a president turning his base against a corporation. This is not patriotism. Don't get it confused. These owners don't love America more than the players demonstrating and taking real action to improve it."
It's the players who kneel in protest that are true patriots. Certainly, not their corporate masters, or the Trump nazi.
"Trump stoked the issue during a political campaign, saying the NFL should fire any players who kneel during the anthem. During an interview that aired Thursday morning on "Fox & Friends," he praised the league for doing "the right thing." "You have to stand proudly for the national anthem," Trump said. Or "you shouldn't be playing, you shouldn't be there. Maybe they shouldn't be in the country."
Speaking about yourself, Mr. 'President?' Forget? You've repeatedly abrogated your falsely sworn oath of office to protect and defend, uphold the United States Constitution. Have no respect, no regard for the Bill of Rights. Why not do the right thing? Resign in disgrace. Leave the country. Forfeit billions looted from your contractors, Trump Foundation, Trump University, those egregiously f--ked by all the bankruptcies, etc.. Take Pence with you. After all and unlike you, sir, the Vice President is not insane, poses a far greater exigent threat to all civil and constitutional rights and liberties:
"Vice President Mike Pence called it "a win for the fans, a win for (the president), and a win for America."
You're a clueless idiot, Mr. Vice President, albeit a sane one.
"In an attempt to quell a potential challenge from the NFL Players Association, the league said any violations of the new rules would result in fines against teams - not individual players. But the league also gave teams the option of developing their own workplace rules, which many players interpreted as a backhanded way of subjecting them to fines - or worse - should they carry on with the protests. "If the team says 'this is what we're doing,' and ownership (does too), you either deal with it or you're probably going to get cut," Pittsburgh Steelers guard Ramon Foster said. The head of the NFLPA, DeMaurice Smith , angrily denounced the NFL's decision and called it a blow against America's most basic rights - freedom of speech."
Forget? You're bought and paid for by your corporate masters. At least, stars and superstars get rich, -- unlike workers elsewhere who no longer get paid a livable wage. Still does not justify anyone being denied the constitutional right to kneel during the National Anthem.
"Since the new policy is a change in the terms and conditions of employment that was not collectively bargained, any attempts to fine individual players would surely be opposed by the union. "History has taught us that both patriotism and protest are like water; if the force is strong enough it cannot be suppressed," Smith wrote on Twitter. "The CEOs of the NFL created a rule that people who hate autocracies should reject."
Why would you expect anything better from a plutocrat, Mr. Smith? Why?
Not all players and owners support this change:
"A handful of outspoken players vowed to carry on the cause, including Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins. "I will not let it silence me or stop me from fighting," he said. "This has never been about taking a knee, raising a fist or anyone's patriotism, but doing what we can to effect real change for real people." While Goodell said the new policy was unanimously approved by the owners, CEO Jed York of the 49ers - Kaepernick's former team - contradicted the commissioner by saying he abstained. York said he didn't feel comfortable making a decision without directly involving the players' union. New York Jets owner Christopher Johnson took a similar approach. He said his team will pay any fines doled out by the league, without passing on punishment to the players. "I will support our players wherever we land as a team," Johnson said. "Our focus is not on imposing any club rules, fines or restrictions."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-1-18
More bogus Trump claims debunked. In follow up to the last edition, NPR reports:
"The White House acknowledged that Chief of Staff John Kelly and a top lawyer for President Trump in the Russia matter had been present for two secret briefings about the investigation on Thursday but hadn't stayed for the substance."
Think it matters? Turned out to be a ruse, anyway. Charade orchestrated by an increasingly desperate, cornered, foundering president.
"Kelly and the White House have been brokering the conversations since President Trump said on Twitter over the weekend that he wanted to learn more about the FBI's use of confidential informants to interview campaign aides in 2016."
Ruse. Charade. No substance.
"Critics charge that Trump has violated the longstanding independence of the Justice Department to pursue investigations without political interference and called it inappropriate for administration officials to join briefings about an investigation that bears so heavily on the president and his aides."
Desperation, -- as Mueller zeroes in.
"Congress already has a process by which members can keep informed about the work of the Justice Department and the FBI, said Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking member on the Senate intelligence committee. So there was no need, he said, for the briefing at the Justice Department for House intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and House Oversight Committee chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., separate from one at the Capitol for the leaders of the House and Senate and the intelligence committees."
Can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit, right, Mr. 'President?'
"The White House's plan to provide a separate briefing for their political allies demonstrates that their interest is not in informing Congress, but in undermining an ongoing criminal investigation," Warner said."
That's right. Precisely.
"If they insist upon carrying out this farce, the White House and its Republican allies in the House will do permanent, longstanding damage to the practice of bipartisan congressional oversight of intelligence."
That's gone. Has been. Quite some time.
"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told NPR separately on Thursday that he wouldn't discuss the classified briefing but that he retains confidence in Mueller and in Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz."
What does that tell you? Anything at all? There's nothing to the Trump nazi's allegations. If there were, think ole Mitch "The Bitch" wouldn't be screaming bloody murder?
Trump, again, made a jackass of himself.
"Trump denounced the FBI's use of a secret informant and said that had been tantamount to government-sponsored political snooping for Democrats.
"SPYGATE
could be one of the biggest political scandals in history!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23, 2018
"A lot of people are saying they had spies in my campaign," Trump told reporters on Tuesday. "If so, that would be a disgrace to this country. I hope there weren't, frankly ... but some man got paid based on what I read in the newspapers."
Absolute bullshit. Coming from an increasingly deranged lunatic. This, what you want in the Oval Office? Then again, Pence is far more dangerous. Forget? He's not insane. LOL.
Trump does not understand the tremendous damage he's doing not only to himself, but our formerly great country:
"House intelligence committee ranking member Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told reporters after the briefing on Capitol Hill that nothing in the session had substantiated Trump's claim about inappropriate spying."
Surprised? Trump's no more than a congenital liar. Has no credibility.
"Former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by the president last year, responded via Twitter, denouncing attacks on the agency and defending its use of confidential informants as "tightly regulated and essential to protecting the country." He said the president's attacks on the FBI "will do lasting damage to our country."
"Facts
matter. The FBI’s use of Confidential Human Sources (the actual term) is
tightly regulated and essential to protecting the country. Attacks on the
FBI and lying about its work will do lasting damage to our country. How
will Republicans explain this to their grandchildren?
—
James Comey (@Comey) May 23, 2018"
Facts do matter. Always have. Always will. Yet, his base remains clueless. Won't be confused by reality. Seem to have forgotten nothing works when there is no truth.
In another article, NPR reports:
"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told NPR in an interview that he continues to support the Mueller Russia investigation — and that nothing in Thursday's hotly anticipated secret briefing on the Russia probe to congressional leaders changed his mind. "The two investigations going on that I think will give us the answers to the questions that you raise — the IG [Inspector General] investigation in the Justice Department and the Mueller investigation," McConnell said. "I support both of them, and I don't really have anything to add to this subject based upon the Gang of 8 briefing that we had today, which was classified."
Here's what happened:
"A group of eight top congressional leaders received a classified briefing Thursday from law enforcement and intelligence officials. It came in the wake of unsubstantiated claims by President Trump that the FBI placed an informant inside his campaign during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. McConnell spoke with NPR right after that meeting. Asked if there was anything from the meeting that changed his mind or lessened his confidence in the Mueller investigation, McConnell said, "I don't have anything new to say on that subject."
Trump lied.
"McConnell's comments come amid a concerted effort by Trump and conservative supporters to discredit the Mueller investigation. The president has accused the investigation of being a partisan "witch hunt" and the investigators as "conflicted." There is a hashtag devoted to what the president and his allies are calling "Spygate" that the president himself is using. Trump boasted that it "could be one of the biggest political scandals in history!"
"SPYGATE
could be one of the biggest political scandals in history!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23, 2018"
Trump lied. His supporters buy his bullshit.
NBC reports:
"President Donald Trump claimed Thursday that former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had admitted that the FBI spied on his presidential campaign, further escalating his attacks on the law enforcement and intelligence communities charged with probing possible collusion with Russia. "Clapper has now admitted that there was Spying in my campaign," Trump tweeted, referring to an interview Clapper did Tuesday on ABC's "The View."
"Clapper
has now admitted that there was Spying in my campaign. Large dollars were
paid to the Spy, far beyond normal. Starting to look like one of the biggest
political scandals in U.S. history. SPYGATE - a terrible thing!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2018"
Trump lied:
"But that's false — Clapper did not say that. Responding to a direct question from one of the hosts, Joy Behar — "Was the FBI spying on Trump's campaign?" — Clapper said, "No, they were not." He went on to explain that the purpose of the FBI's reported use of an informant, which is different from a "spy," was to determine what the Russians were doing."
Truth? Moving target in Nazi America.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-1-18
In follow up to the last edition, CBS News reports:
"Amazon (AMZN) is drawing heat on multiple fronts as a result of its facial-recognition technology. Days after being blasted by civil-liberty advocates for being in the government surveillance business, the retailer found itself at odds with a city pilot-testing the software."
Tough, isn't it? What could Orlando possibly been thinking involved in this shit in the first place? Clearly, privacy, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties mean nothing to these jackasses. When called on it, suddenly get their shorts in a wad? Give me a break.
"Records publicized by the American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday showed the Orlando (Florida) Police Department was trying out Amazon's facial-recognition service, dubbed "Rekognition." Stories, including one by CBS MoneyWatch, included references to a video showing Ranju Das, director of Rekognition at Amazon, describing how Orlando was using the service. "They have cameras all over the city. The authorized cameras are then streaming the data," he said. "We analyze the video in real time, [and] search against the collection of faces they have." The depiction didn't go over so well in Orlando, leading city officials to scramble to contain the damage."
What the hell did these achingly clueless assholes expect? The public is growing increasingly tired of this crap.
"In a statement to the Orlando Sentinel, an Orlando police spokesman said the department's use of Rekognition is limited to eight city-owned cameras and that no images from the public are being used in the pilot."
Believe it? Think so? Only a matter of time. ... How do you know a police spokesman is lying? His lips move.
"To be clear, this partnership with Amazon includes testing to see if the technology even works," the spokesperson told the newspaper. "As it is still very early on in this process, we have no data that supports or does not support that the Rekognition technology works."
Who the hell cares whether or not it works? The problem is the principle. Too damned aggressively stupid to understand? Delusionally believe the public wants to live in a surveillance state? -- Which is exactly what has been happening for quite some time now. -- Cameras nearly ubiquitous. Now this? Facial recognition. F--k this goddamned government.
"The video featuring Das at a recent developer's conference in South Korea now includes the following clarification from Amazon: "Between minutes 31:29 and 32:19 of this video, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) spokesperson got confused and misspoke about the City of Orlando's use of AWS technologies. The City of Orlando is testing Amazon's Rekognition Video and Amazon Kinesis Video Streams internally to find ways to increase public safety and operational efficiency, but it's not correct that they've installed cameras all over the city or are using in production. We apologize for any misunderstanding."
What misunderstanding? Absolutely nothing to do with public safety. Crock of shit. Only a matter of time before this goddamned technology is fully in place, uses drivers license photos and others to track in real time. A de facto fascist police-state quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich. Hear the rumble? An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-1-18
Think facial recognition is the only exigent threat to privacy, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties? NPR reports:
"Among the lawmakers' concerns: How Facebook might make up possible abuses to its users — and whether Zuckerberg himself is telling the truth when he promises to obey Europe's privacy laws. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took questions from members of the European Union Parliament on Tuesday about allegations that personal data of European Facebook users was misused. The testy session ended with several members of Parliament complaining that Zuckerberg had failed to address their most pressing questions."
So what else is new? The crafty son of a bitch earlier failed to do so right here in front of Congress recently. Forget? It's the money, stupid. Privacy means shit squat to the corporate management suite.
"Zuckerberg conceded that Facebook had not been ready [to] fight off fake news that spread quickly on its site. And he apologized for the improper use of millions of users' data to help political campaigns, after an analytics company gained information that had been collected by a quiz app."
Meaningless apology. Rings hollow. It's how the bastard and his corporation line their pockets. Market your private data. Their business model. Wake up. You've been bamboozled. Hoodwinked. F--ked over.
"Whether it's fake news, foreign interference in elections or developers misusing people's information, we didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibilities," Zuckerberg said. "That was a mistake, and I'm sorry."
Sorry doesn't make it. Truly sorry? Resign in disgrace. Donate your stock to charity. Otherwise, your apologies mean shit squat.
Zucherberg embarrassed himself:
"One unanswered question centered on whether Facebook cross-references data from its users and users of WhatsApp. But many others were also passed by, including anti-trust questions and queries about how the company treats its users. "Will you allow users to escape targeting advertising?" Belgian Philippe Lamberts said as the meeting was nearly over. A leader of the Greens party, Lamberts added, "I mean, I asked you six yes or no questions — I got not a single answer. And of course, well, you asked for this format for a reason."
Certainly, did. For damned good reason. Make it easier to obfuscate. LOL.
"I'll make sure we follow up and get you answers for those," Zuckerberg said."
Think so? LOL.
One thing for sure. The Europeans are no push over. Didn't tolerate his bullshit like our bought and paid for politicians recently did:
"Britain's Syed Kamall of the European Conservative Group asked Zuckerberg, "How can non-users stop Facebook collecting their data?" He also asked how Facebook commercializes that data. Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian leader of the centrist Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, opened his remarks by comparing Zuckerberg to the CEO of an "out of control" big data company in novelist Dave Eggers' book The Circle."
No question.
"It seems to me, very near to reality," Verhofstadt said, noting that the fictional company's data was also used to affect elections. He added, "also the fact that maybe you have less control, or no control, about your own company for the moment, because you have to apologize now – I think in total you apologized now 15 or 16 times" in the last decade."
Meaningless talk. Empty rhetoric. Disingenuous phony bullshit.
"Are you capable to fix it?" Verhofstadt asked Zuckerberg. Before mentioning the way public regulations cover banks – which often say they will fix their own problems. He then moved on to equally pointed questions. "Are you telling the truth, in fact, to us?" he asked the Facebook CEO about the company's pledge to adhere to Europe's privacy laws."Since the outbreak of Cambridge Analytica, you have massively transferred European data of non-European citizens out from Europe, away from European servers," Verhofstadt said. "I have to tell you, that's against the regulations," Verhofstadt said, wagging his finger. He added that the company had taken the same step with data it has collected about Europeans who are not Facebook users. He then asked, "Will you compensate the European Facebook users?"
Clearly, the Europeans are asking the right questions, ferociously pointed questions, proverbially holding this lying bastard's feet to the fire. Unlike our own goddamned useless, worthless politicians, both parties.
Coup de grace? Get this:
"Verhofstadt asked Zuckerberg whether Facebook will open its books to show whether the company is a monopoly – and how it might resolve that question." "I really think we have a big problem here," Verhofstadt said. "You have to ask yourself how you will be remembered," he said, looking at Zuckerberg: "As one of the three big Internet giants, together with Steve Jobs ... and Bill Gates, who have enriched our world and our societies – or at the other hand, in fact, [as] a genius who created a digital monster, that is destroying our democracies and our societies."
No kidding. These improperly regulated corporations remain out of control top-down, bottom-up. Have become a systemic cancer tearing at the very root of what is supposed to be a democratic republic. A democratic republic, now, in name only.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-1-18
Things are indeed changing in Europe vis a vis protection of privacy. NPR reports:
"The U.S. takes credit for creating the Internet, and the European Union seems determined to govern it. On Friday, a sweeping new directive goes into effect called the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. Taken together, its 99 articles represent the biggest ever change to data privacy laws. The new rules have implications for U.S. Internet users too."
Eventually, will likely be implemented here, to at least some extent, since will be extremely difficult for the corporate management suite to maintain different standards for Europe and the rest of the world community including the U.S..
"It's a new law that protects residents of the EU — people living there, including Americans. (If you're a European and live in the U.S., you're not protected.) Under GDPR, all companies that have an Internet presence — including large American companies like Google, Microsoft and Facebook — have to comply. At the most basic level, GDPR expands what counts as personal data and your rights over that data."
Desperately needed here as well. Again, will likely eventually happen since it will be exceptionally difficult for world-wide corporations to maintain and implement two different standards. Should they make a mistake, European fines imposed will be enormous. ... Doesn't your heart bleed?
"The directive says people have to give permission for a company to collect their data. A company can't just sign you up without explicitly asking. And the more personal the data — say, biometrics, which is considered a special category under the law — the ask must be even more clear. Europeans have a right to have their data deleted if they don't want a company to keep it. Companies have to delete the data without undue delay, or face a penalty."
Desperately needed here as well:
"If you're American, you're probably getting a lot of emails and push notifications from your apps and maybe even newsletters you forgot you signed up for. For example, new privacy notices from Spotify and eBay say you can request to delete personal data they've stored. "But there's nothing binding about it," says attorney Michael R. Cohen, who is based in Minneapolis. "In the U.S., the business model is pretty much, companies can do what they want, so long as there isn't a specific law prohibiting it." The U.S. has laws protecting data privacy for health and financial records, and and for children. "Other than that, we're pretty much the Wild West," Cohen says."
It's how these bastards make money. They sell your personal data. -- Don't agree to their terms and conditions? Get denied access to their 'services.' These greedy sons of bitches truly believe they own your data, you don't. This needs to change.
"That's how as many as 87 million Facebook users had their profiles land in the hands of a political operative. Last month, in testimony before Congress, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he'd give Americans all the same controls Europeans have."
He lied. The following is bullshit:
"We believe that everyone around the world deserves good privacy controls. We've had a lot of these controls in place for years. The GDPR requires us to do a few more things, and we're going to extend that to the world," he said."
Not so.
"In reality, Zuckerberg isn't offering the same protections. For Facebook users, there is a big difference between Europe and the U.S. when it comes to what is collected by default. In Europe, Facebook has to get permission to do facial recognition — and it's not the default setting. But in the U.S., it is. American users have to click through screens to opt out."
Can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit. ... Right, Mr. Zuckerberg?
"One side argues that GDPR will be terrible for competition, giving big businesses a leg up over small ones. Small companies won't be able to afford the millions of dollars in expenses that come with managing and protecting data. So they won't survive."
Did it ever occur to the business community they truly don't need this data? That a different business model is desperately called for?
"Another camp argues that consumers don't trust businesses on the Internet anymore anyway (as evidenced by the rise of ad blockers). If that's the real problem, the laws will make a difference by making businesses think more deeply about what data they collect and why, and GDPR may improve the quality of the Internet."
The public is clearly tired of endless, relentless marketing, -- and more importantly, methods used. Including invasion of privacy.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-1-18
Think the following bodes well for national security? NPR reports:
"More than a dozen U.S. Air Force airmen were linked to a drug ring at a base that controls America's nuclear missiles and have faced disciplinary actions – including courts martial, according to an investigation by The Associated Press."
What could they possibly been thinking?
"Military investigators cracked the ring in 2016, after one of the service members made the mistake of posting drug-related material to social media."
Feel comfortable with someone like this involved with our nuclear arsenal?
"Nearly half of the airmen were convicted of using or distributing LSD — which the Pentagon has stopped screening for in drug tests, the AP reported Thursday. Citing records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the news service reports that the drug ring operated at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, just outside of Cheyenne, Wyo."
Wasn't limited to LSD, however:
"The airmen took the drugs — which also included ecstasy, cocaine and marijuana — during their off-duty time, but at least one airman acknowledged that while under the influence of LSD, he wouldn't have been able to respond properly if he had been suddenly called to duty."
Frightening, isn't it?
"Evidence in the airmen's cases showed that they did the drugs at state parks or at parties in Denver, where a group went longboarding on the streets after taking LSD, according to the AP. It also includes quotes from some service members who recalled having "bad trips," and others who said their experiences had been positive. "Minutes felt like hours, colors seemed more vibrant and clear," Airman Kyle S. Morrison is quoted as saying. "In general, I felt more alive."
Think so? Comfortable with someone like this involved with nuclear weapons?
"But Air Force prosecutors had a different view, saying that taking the hallucinogenic drug can produce "paranoia, fear and panic, unwanted and overwhelming feelings, unwanted life-changing spiritual experiences, and flashbacks."
That's right. Weaponry and hallucinogenics simply don't mix. Here's why:
"Warren is the headquarters of the 20th Air Force, which oversees three missile wings and is responsible for more than 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles that are each capable of delivering devastating nuclear blows. While the personnel there are held to a high standard because of their work securing the ICBMs, the AP notes that the assignments are sometimes seen as a "backwater."
Think that's not a problem? Get this:
"Those recent incidents include the reported use of narcotics by officers with launch authority, and rampant cheating on proficiency exams, which has been seen as both manipulating the promotion process and masking security lapses."
What's happened to our country? The problem is apparently top-down:
"Revelations about drug use at Warren also come less than five years after the Air Force's No. 2 missile commander, Maj. Gen. Michael Carey — who led the 20th Air Force — was relieved of command over "drunken and inappropriate behavior while leading a security delegation to Moscow," according to Reuters."
CBS News reports:
"A slipup on social media by one airman enabled investigators to crack the drug ring at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in March 2016, details of which are reported here for the first time. Fourteen airmen were disciplined. Six of them were convicted in courts martial of LSD use or distribution or both. None of the airmen was accused of using drugs on duty. Yet it's another blow to the reputation of the Air Force's nuclear missile corps, which is capable of unleashing hell in the form of Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. The corps has struggled at times with misbehavior, mismanagement and low morale."
This needs to change.
"In response to AP inquiries, an Air Force spokesman, Lt. Col. Uriah L. Orland, said the drug activity took place during off-duty hours. "There are multiple checks to ensure airmen who report for duty are not under the influence of alcohol or drugs and are able to execute the mission safely, securely and effectively," he said."
Satisfied? Secure? Mollified?
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-1-18
Think the following unbecoming? ABC News reports:
"Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos set off a furor over comments she made to members of Congress suggesting that schools should decide whether or not to report undocumented students and their families to federal immigration authorities."
De facto fascist police-state quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich. Clearly, Ms. DeVos has not read the United States Constitution. Has no clue immigration is a federal responsibility, not a state, county, or local issue.
"The head of the Education Department shifted the responsibility of reporting undocumented students to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to principals and teachers when she said on Tuesday, "it's a local community decision." "I think that is — that is a school decision," DeVos said during her testimony before the House Education and Workforce Committee after Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., pressed her on the issue of undocumented students. "It's a local community decision and again I refer to the fact that we have laws and we also are compassionate and I urge this body to do its job and address and clarify where there is confusion around this." Espaillat immediately rebuked the secretary's statement, stressing that immigration policies are defined and executed by the federal government, not by communities. "Let me just remind Madam Chair that immigration law is federal law," he said. "It's not a local law. It's not governed by a municipality." "You cannot have immigration law for one state be different for another state and it applies to everybody across the country," he added."
The ignorance of this woman is unparalleled, -- with two exceptions. The racist AG Sessions nazi and his fuhrer, the Trump nazi.
"Her most recent comments are drawing considerable backlash from civil rights groups. "Let’s be clear: Any school that reports a child to ICE would violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court has made clear that every child in America has a right to a basic education, regardless of immigration status. Secretary DeVos is once again wrong," Lorella Praeli, director of immigration policy and campaigns at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-1-18
Seems Congress has conveniently forgotten the 2008 bank fiasco, to say nothing of the much earlier savings & loan debacle. NBC reports:
"President Donald Trump on Thursday signed legislation to scale back parts of the Dodd-Frank Act, calling the deregulatory move "a great day for America." The banking reform bill, which resulted from the economic collapse of the late 2000s, had long been the object of complaint by the financial services industry. However, the "big changes" to the legislation that Trump highlighted are really just modest alterations, some experts say. Banks and opponents of regulation didn't get close to all they wanted from the new law."
While smaller banks reportedly need regulatory relief, certainly didn't get what they wanted. Banks 'too big to fail' still have not been reined in. So what else is new? LOL.
"Anyone who expected Dodd-Frank to be gutted was bound for disappointment. "This bill enshrines Dodd-Frank into law," said Aaron Klein, policy director of the Center on Regulation and Markets at the Brookings Institute. "The core elements of Dodd-Frank, stricter regulatory scrutiny and higher financial requirements, [remain in place.]"
Both political extremes can no longer agree on virtually anything. Precisely, why this country continues to regress.
"More extensive goals like a complete repeal of the Volcker Rule, which reduced the ability of banks to use consumer and business deposits for speculative investments, an end to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or the replacement of bankruptcy code additions for regulatory powers to unwind insolvent banks "were never going to attract moderate Democrats" necessary for passage, said Michael Silva, chair of the financial services regulatory practice at DLA Piper."
What's incredibly ironic about this is the fact we seem to have learned virtually nothing from both banking debacles. Banks at the top of the food chain have not been reined in. Smaller banks continue to be over regulated. Precisely, why banks like Wells Fargo continue to do as they please, buy their way out of regulatory issues. Smaller banks, which are for more conservative in how they handle risk, wind up suffering the consequences of over regulation. Long-suffering public ultimately winds up paying the price, footing the bill.
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
6-1-18
Think privacy isn't egregiously abrogated? Believe it's not intentional? NPR reports:
"As secret recordings go, the Portland couple's conversation was pretty mundane: They were talking about hardwood floors. But their Amazon Echo was listening and recording their discussion. The device then sent the recording to someone in their contacts — without the couple's knowledge. The wife, identified only as Danielle, told Seattle TV station KIRO 7 that they learned something was amiss when they received a phone call from the husband's employee who lived in Seattle, telling them what he had inadvertently received. He told them to unplug their Alexa devices right away. Danielle says she and her husband went around the house unplugging their devices — which they had in each room, controlling their home's temperature, lights and security. The employee sent the couple the sound file that the Echo had sent to him, and they were shocked to realize they had essentially been bugged."
Surprised?
"I felt invaded," Danielle told KIRO. "A total privacy invasion. Immediately, I said, 'I'm never plugging that device in again, because I can't trust it.' "How did this happen? Here's Amazon's explanation of the unsettling episode: "Echo woke up due to a word in background conversation sounding like 'Alexa.' Then, the subsequent conversation was heard as a 'send message' request. At which point, Alexa said out loud 'To whom?' At which point, the background conversation was interpreted as a name in the customers contact list. Alexa then asked out loud, '[contact name], right?' Alexa then interpreted background conversation as 'right'. As unlikely as this string of events is, we are evaluating options to make this case even less likely." That's right — at least five times in a row, Alexa heard background conversation and misconstrued it as very specific directives. And it all happened without the people in the room knowing that the device was listening, much less recording their conversation and shipping it out, supposedly on their behalf."
Unintentional? Think so? Wake up. Get this:
"Last year, a North Carolina man said the same thing had happened to him: His Echo recorded 20 seconds of his conversation and sent it to his insurance agent without his knowledge. Why was the Echo recording the conversation in the first place? "Amazon's Echo uses seven microphones and noise-canceling tech to listen out for its wake word," Washington Post technology columnist Geoffrey Fowler explains. "Doing so, it records about a second of ambient sound on the device, which it constantly discards and replaces. But once it thinks it hears its wake word, the Echo's blue light ring activates and it begins sending a recording of what it hears to Amazon's computers."
Convenient, isn't it?
"While "home assistants" such as the Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod have been big sellers in the past few years, they've brought with them a litany of privacy and practical concerns. There was the time an Echo ordered a $170 dollhouse for a 6-year-old who asked Alexa for one."
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6-1-18
California, despite home to Silicon Valley, is considering standing up for digital privacy. NPR reports:
"As Europe's sweeping new privacy law went into effect on Friday, California voters may get to decide on strict privacy laws for their state. An initiative likely headed for November's ballot in California would be one of the broadest online privacy regulations in the U.S. and could impact standards throughout the country. One of the initiative's biggest backers is Alastair Mactaggart, a San Francisco real estate developer. Mactaggart has put more than $2 million of his own money into getting the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 on the ballot. The initiative hasn't been officially certified by the state, but it has gotten more than 600,000 signatures, nearly twice what it needs to qualify."
Step in the right direction.
"Mactaggart recalls the moment about four years ago that turned him into a privacy advocate. He asked a Google engineer at a cocktail party whether he should be worried about his privacy. "He said, 'Oh if you just knew how much we knew about you, you'd be really worried,' " recalls Mactaggart. Mactaggart says he and a small group of his neighbors consulted with academics, lawyers and technologists to write a bill they hope will curb privacy abuses. "What people are concerned about is misuse of their data," Mactaggart says, "and so we give people the right to say, 'Stop selling my information.' " If voters approve the measure, businesses will be required to have a "clear and conspicuous link" on their website's homepage titled "Do Not Sell My Personal Information." The link would take users to a page where they can opt out of having their data sold or shared."
Has to send a chill up the gutless spine of the hopelessly greedy corporate management suite.
"Mactaggart says the proposed law would not prevent Facebook, Google or a local newspaper from collecting users' data and using it to target ads to them. But users will have a right to stop companies from sharing or selling their data. And businesses would be required to disclose the categories of information they have on users — including home addresses, employment information and characteristics such as race and gender."
Certainly, nowhere good enough, but indeed a step in the right direction:
"The measure has the backing of consumer advocacy groups, such as Consumers Union. Justin Brookman, Consumers Union's director of privacy and technology policy, says Europe's new law is stricter. "This ballot initiative is actually pretty modest," he says. "In some ways, I wish it would go further." Still, if the California act passes, it will be one of the broadest privacy laws in the U.S. because it will affect anyone who goes on the Internet in California. And because California is the fifth-largest economy in the world, Brookman predicts many companies will implement the same standards nationally."
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6-1-18
Think fruit doesn't fall far from the tree? NBC reports:
"Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said in a letter Thursday that President Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., may have provided “false testimony” to the Senate Judiciary Committee when he was asked last September about the Trump campaign’s involvement with foreign governments and foreign nationals."
Couldn't be, could it?
"In a two-page letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the panel, Coons said that information in recent news reports contradicts Trump Jr.’s September 2017 testimony. "I am writing to you because I am deeply concerned that, based on new information we learned this week, Donald Trump Jr. provided false testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and I would like to renew my request that he be called to return and appear before the full Committee to testify in an open hearing," he wrote."
Here's the problem:
"Trump Jr. told the committee at the time of his testimony that he was not “aware” of foreign governments other than Russia offering or providing assistance to the Trump campaign and that he had not sought such help. His comments are not consistent with a reported meeting he had in August 2016. “This testimony is contradicted by multiple recent news reports that three months before the election, Mr. Trump Jr. and campaign adviser Stephen Miller met with George Nader, an emissary for the crown princes of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia; Joel Zamel, an Israeli social media specialist linked to Israeli intelligence and the Emirati royal court; and Erik Prince, a campaign donor and private security contractor with business in the Middle East,” Coons wrote in the letter."
Think lying might run in the family?
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6-1-18
Drain the swamp? Like this? CBS News reports:
"Taxpayers spent about $3.5 million on security for Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt during his first year in office, according to records released by the agency Friday. That total includes $2.7 million on salary and overtime and more than $750,000 in travel costs."
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6-1-18
Are they kidding? CBS News reports:
"Facebook is expanding its fight against revenge porn with a pilot program that asks users to send their naked photos so Facebook can block the photos before someone else shares them. Facebook's been testing the system in Australia and is extending the trial to the U.S., Britain and Canada, BBC News reports."
Think they won't get sold, passed on, shared, etc.? LOL.
"In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Facebook's Global Head of Safety Antigone Davis said the company was updating its pilot program targeting the non-consensual sharing of images on the platform. Rather than having to report an image after it's already been shared around Facebook (the company already has a system in place for reporting and removing those images), Facebook will let users upload an image before it's been seen by others, CNET reports."
Believe it?
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6-1-18
Mitch "The Bitch" is deliberately, concertedly overloading the judiciary with national socialists. Nazis. NPR reports:
"For Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, 2018 could be defined by one word: judges. More than any other issue or cause in this midterm election year, the Kentucky Republican says he is focusing the chamber's agenda on confirming as many of President Trump's lifetime judicial appointments as possible before the end of the year. "There are over 1,200 executive branch appointments that come to us for confirmation, and among the most important — in fact, I would argue, the most important — confirmations we have are lifetime appointments to the judiciary," McConnell told NPR in an interview in his U.S. Capitol office on Thursday. "Obviously, this is my top priority."
Raw nazification of the judiciary. ... Hear the rumble? An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming. Sadly, we are no longer a democratic republic. In name only.
"McConnell is setting a record pace for confirmation, with a total of 21 circuit court judges confirmed to date in this Congress. In 2017, the Senate confirmed 12 of Trump's circuit court nominees, which McConnell noted was a first-year record for a president since the modern court system was created more than a century ago."
Useless, worthless, powerless Democrats continue to sit on their hands.
"McConnell said his motivation was driven beyond the scope of the 2018 midterm elections. "I don't know whether it will matter to the midterm elections or not," he said. "But my principal reason for doing it is because I think it's important for the country."
Nazi America. Reincarnation of Hitler's Third Reich. Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.
"The long-term impact, McConnell said, is a judicial branch that will have more jurists in the mold of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative icon."
Scalia was no conservative. -- A goddamned nazi who shamelessly imposed his fascist, national socialist agenda and perverse religious views from the bench.
"What the president is sending up and what we are confirming are judges who are similar to what Justice Scalia once said a judge ought to be: He said if you're not occasionally uncomfortable with the outcome you reach, you're not a very good judge." McConnell added: "The president, I think, he's been setting up a consistent group of men and women who believe the job of a judge is to interpret the law."
Unadulterated horse shit. A nazi 'jurist' doesn't interpret the law and Constitution. He bastardizes it to impose his fascist ideology and religious beliefs. As Scalia and others have determinedly done. These bastards consistently present an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties. Precisely, the intention of Mitch "The Bitch" and his fellow GOP nazis. Powerless Democrats do nothing to protect us from this fascist scourge, reincarnation of Hitler's Third Reich. Far worse is yet to come.
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6-1-18
If LGBTQ business people are not willing to courageously stand up for their rights, support those who are fighting for these rights, all advances to date will ultimately be lost. CBS News reports:
"Christian Bales, the valedictorian of Holy Cross High School in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, was barred from delivering his graduation speech on Friday. Instead, he delivered it after the graduation ceremony, outside of the school on a megaphone."
Denied free speech due to the fact he embraced, espoused LGBTQ views. Silenced because he challenged Catholic dogma.
"After reading a copy of Bales' speech, the school determined it was "political and inconsistent with the teachings of the Catholic church." Bales said he found out the day of graduation that the Diocese of Covington cut his speech from the ceremony."
Don't goose step in unison, get the boot. What's the Church so afraid of? Divergent views?
"The diocese took ours and said they were too confrontational, too angry, too personal, and that they weren't appropriate for the setting," Bales said, after both he and his friend's speeches were cut."
Classic early indication, mark of tyranny is denial of free speech. Readers are reminded the Church remained gutlessly silent during the era of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.
"Bales repeated the phrase "the young people will win" in his speech, a phrase coined by Parkland, Florida, students who survived a mass shooting earlier this year. In a statement, a diocese spokesperson said: "School officials and representatives of the Diocese of Covington reserve the right to review and approve all student speeches to be presented in public at high school graduations. The student speeches for the Holy Cross High School graduation were not submitted for review before the deadline. They were found to contain elements that were political and inconsistent with the teachings of the Catholic church."
Tough shit. Called free speech. Why were you cowardly bastards in the Church hierarchy gutlessly silent during the era of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy? Why?
"I know they pointed out that the Parkland teens teach ideologies that apparently go against the Catholic faith, which I don't agree with in my experience," Bales said, according to WKRC."
Can't reasonably defend Church ideology and religious views, do the next best thing, that is, silence those opposed?
"Bales' mother, Gillian Marksberry, believes there was another reason the school did not want her son to speak. Marksberry said she received a call from the school's principal last week. She said he wanted her help to ensure Bales wore men's clothing to graduation and did not wear makeup or bobby pins in his hair. "That was disturbing because in four years, I had never received a phone call from the principal," Marksberry said. "No one ever reached out to me to help learn about my child." Bales is openly gay. He says to date, the school had been supportive."
Think so? As long as he didn't express it publicly, to a massive audience? Gutless. Question to be asked is who's next? Hypocrisy? Stunning. True diversity? Non-existent. Inclusiveness? What's that?
"This incident won't silence him, he says. "I think I'm going to keep fighting for what I believe in," Bales said. "I'm going to keep using my megaphone and intensifying my voice." Bales' mother planned to send his 9-year-old sister to Holy Cross in the future, but said after Friday night, that is not happening."
The Church stupidly, figuratively shot itself again in the ass.
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6-1-18
If LGBTQ business people are not willing to courageously stand up for their rights, support those who are fighting for these rights, all advances to date will ultimately be lost. NBC reports:
"Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., ignited controversy this past week after suggesting that homeowners should be free to refuse to sell homes to LGBTQ people."
Homophobic bigotry. Sick religion.
"Rohrabacher initially made the remarks last week while speaking to a group of National Association of Realtors members who had congregated in his office. Members of the group were there to ask Rohrabacher to support HR 1447, a bill that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of classes protected against discrimination in the Fair Housing Act (FHA) under the Civil Rights Act of 1968. “I presented the Fair Housing Act to him along with [information on HR 1447],” Wayne Woodyard, one of the NAR members in the room, told NBC News. “Almost before I could finish, he let out, ‘I will not support it.’”
Aryan arrogance of a clueless Republican nazi.
“There were about 10 people in his office, and we were all kind of shocked,” he added. Woodyard said after Rohrabacher’s initial response, one of his former staffers interceded and said, “Well, Dana, I don’t think you understand,” to which the Congressman said, according to Woodyard, “No, I do understand.”
Raw nazism. Think Benito and Adolf aren't 'high-fiving' on their fiery perches?
"Woodyard said he and other NAR members “tried to change his opinion” the following evening at a private lobbying dinner, but the Congressman “wouldn’t have it.”
A Republican nazi can't, won't be confused with the truth.
"In an email to NBC News, a spokesperson for Rohrabacher confirmed the lawmaker’s stance on the issue. "Congressman Rohrabacher does not believe the federal government should force those with strong religious convictions into a personal or business relationship that is contrary to their religion,” the spokesperson stated. The NAR has since withdrawn its endorsement of Rohrabacher, who is up for re-election in November."
Think he doesn't embrace similar views regarding racial discrimination? Nazi bastards who think like this piece of shit present an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.
“This is blatantly, explicitly illegal in the state of California,” explained Karen Loewy, senior counsel at Lambda Legal, noting California is among the 20 states.“It is really beyond the pale for an elected official to actively encourage illegal discrimination against LGBT people.” While nothing could prevent an individual from privately choosing not to sell their home to someone else for personal reasons, California’s housing laws make it illegal to explicitly discriminate against someone due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. For example, a home seller in California wouldn’t legally be able to include “Same-sex couples need not apply” on their housing ad. A home seller in Alabama, however, may be able to do so."
Amazing how the Nazi Right remains so willing and able to deny rights to those opposed to its fascist ideology. Yet, screams bloody murder when ferociously criticized.
"Loewy, however, said even in some states that do not explicitly protect LGBTQ people from housing discrimination, a number of courts have ruled discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is illegal “sex” discrimination under the Fair Housing Act, which protects against “discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.” Woodyard added that the Realtor code of ethics also prohibits agents from discriminating against LGBTQ people in home sales. “A realtor can be sanctioned or lose their license for discriminating,” he said."
If the civil and constitutional rights and liberties of all are not vigorously supported and defended, who's next?
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6-1-18
Trump and his clan continue to line their pockets. CBS News reports:
"Ivanka Trump's brand continues to win foreign trademarks in China and the Philippines, adding to questions about conflicts of interest at the White House, The Associated Press has found. On Sunday, China granted the First Daughter's company final approval for its 13th trademark in the last three months, trademark office records show. Over the same period, the Chinese government has granted Ivanka Trump's company provisional approval for another eight trademarks, which can be finalized if no objections are raised during a three-month comment period. Taken together, the trademarks could allow her brand to market a lifetime's worth of products in China, from baby blankets to coffins, and a host of things in between, including perfume, make-up, bowls, mirrors, furniture, books, coffee, chocolate and honey. Ivanka Trump stepped back from management of her brand and placed its assets in a family-run trust, but she continues to profit from the business."
Lining her pockets off the office of 'Daddy Dearest.'
"Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said on Twitter that the recent approvals create "more conflicts of interest and more potential for using the White House for self-enrichment." His government watchdog group was behind one of several lawsuits against President Donald Trump for violations of the emoluments clause of the constitution, which bars officials from accepting gifts from foreign states unless they are approved by Congress."
A nazi dictator has no respect or regard for the rule of law and United States Constitution.
"More approvals are likely to come. Online records from China's trademark office indicate that Ivanka Trump's company last applied for trademarks — 17 of them — on Mar. 28, 2017, the day before she took on a formal role at the White House. Those records on Monday showed at least 25 Ivanka Trump trademarks pending review, 36 active marks and eight with provisional approval. The World Intellectual Property Organization's global brand database also shows that her company, Ivanka Trump Marks LLC, won three trademarks in the Philippines after her father took office. Two of them cover clothing, including lingerie and baby clothes, were filed on Feb. 8, 2017 and registered in June and November. The third, filed on Mar. 1, 2017, covers clothing and footwear and was registered in July."
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6-1-18
Flake continues to stand tall. One of very few Republicans to do so. NBC reports:
"Sen. Jeff Flake on Sunday called on Republicans in Congress to more forcefully push back against President Donald Trump and said there is growing concern behind the scenes that the president could take action against special counsel Robert Mueller. “When the president says things that are just totally wrong, it’s the responsibility of members of Congress, particularly those in the president’s party, to stand up and say, ‘That is not right. Truth is not relative, and there are no alternative facts here,’” Flake, R-Ariz., said in an interview on “Meet the Press.” “And I have seen instances where we haven’t done that well, and we’ve got to do it better.”
In juxtaposition:
"Flake’s comments came in direct contrast to an assertion from Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani to The Washington Post this week that “truth is relative.”
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6-1-18
The president remains achingly delusional. Day is night, night is day, and shit smells perversely sweet in Trump's psychotically convoluted world. The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump’s attempt to blame Democrats for separating migrant families at the border is renewing a political uproar over immigration, an issue that has challenged Trump throughout his presidency and threatens to grow more heated as he imposes more restrictions to stem the flow of illegal immigration. In one of several misleading tweets during the holiday weekend, Trump pushed Democrats to change a “horrible law” that the president said mandated separating children from parents who enter the country illegally. But there is no law specifically requiring the government to take such action, and it’s also the policies of his own administration that have caused the family separation that advocacy groups and Democrats say is a crisis."
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6-1-18
Once again, the Trump nazi disgraced himself. This time, on Memorial Day. NPR reports:
"Hours earlier, the president had used the day's themes to praise the current state of the nation in a comment on Twitter that drew criticism from some.
"Happy
Memorial Day! Those who died for our great country would be very happy
and proud at how well our country is doing today. Best economy in decades,
lowest unemployment numbers for Blacks and Hispanics EVER (& women
in 18years), rebuilding our Military and so much more. Nice!
—
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2018"
Cluelessly, gave himself a pat on the back. A goddamned jackass.
"The tweet struck some as self-serving."
Certainly, did:
"This is one of the most inappropriate, ignorant and tone-deaf things our Commander-in-Chief could have said on a day like today," tweeted John Kirby, a State Department spokesman during the Obama administration. Retired Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Obama, seemed to chastise Trump in a tweet of his own.
"This
day, of all days of the year, should not be about any one of us. No matter
how prestigious or powerful, no matter how successful we perceive ourselves
to be. Rather, this day should be about those who gave their lives so that
we could live ours in freedom. #MemorialDay
—
GEN(R) Marty Dempsey (@Martin_Dempsey) May 28, 2018"
Exactly, right. Precisely, what the day is supposed to be about.
Amazingly, other family members of the Trump nazi managed to stay on message:
"Meanwhile, the president's family members focused on remembrance. "On #MemorialDay we honor the many Americans who laid down their lives for our great country," Melania Trump tweeted. "As one nation under God, we come together to remember that freedom isn't free. Thank you to all the service members & their families who sacrifice so much to keep us safe."
"As
we remember our fallen servicemen and women, our hearts are filled with
gratitude for their sacrifice and awe of their courage. #MemorialDay pic.twitter.com/cO7fZDivoh
—
Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) May 28, 2018"
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6-1-18
U.S. Supreme Court again disgraces itself. CBS News reports:
"The Supreme Court is allowing Arkansas to put in effect restrictions on how abortion pills are administered. Critics of a challenged state law say it could effectively end medication abortions in the state."
Direct violation of the First Amendment Establishment Clause, church-state separation, that is, freedom from religion.
"The justices did not comment Tuesday in rejecting an appeal from the Planned Parenthood affiliate in Arkansas that asked the court to review an appeals court ruling and reinstate a lower court order that had blocked the law from taking effect. The law says doctors who provide abortion pills must hold a contract with another physician who has admitting privileges at a hospital and who would agree to handle complications. The law is similar to a provision in Texas law that the Supreme Court struck down in 2016. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the court order barring enforcement of the law, but put its ruling on hold while Planned Parenthood appealed to the Supreme Court. The legal fight over the law is not over, but the state is now free to enforce the law at least for the time being."
The Court is kowtowing to the Trump nazi, his henchmen, and the goddamned Nazi Right in our formerly great country.
"Planned Parenthood has said that if the law stands, Arkansas would be the only state where women would not have access to a pair of drugs that end pregnancies: mifepristone, which makes it difficult for a fetus to attach to the uterine wall, and misoprostol, which causes the body to expel it, similar to a miscarriage. The organization offers pills to end pregnancies at clinics in Fayetteville and Little Rock but says it cannot find any Arkansas obstetrician willing to handle hospital admissions. Preventing women from obtaining medication abortions would create an undue burden on their right to an abortion, Planned Parenthood says. Undue burden is the standard set by the Supreme Court to measure whether restrictions go too far in limiting women who want an abortion."
NPR reports:
"The Supreme Court rejected an appeal of a restrictive abortion law in Arkansas that puts heavy limits on medication abortions. The Supreme Court sent it back down to a lower court. With no dissenters — and the law being similar to a Texas one the court struck down — NPR's Nina Totenberg points out this is likely not the end of the line for this case. Planned Parenthood brought the case and can still appeal to a federal judge to block the law. "Arkansas is now shamefully responsible for being the first state to ban medication abortion," Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. "This dangerous law also immediately ends access to safe, legal abortion at all but one health center in the state. If that's not an undue burden, what is? This law cannot and must not stand. We will not stop fighting for every person's right to access safe, legal abortion." The law requires providers of medication abortions to have an agreement with a doctor with hospital admitting privileges. Planned Parenthood says doctors in Arkansas who provide medication abortions have been unable to obtain those privileges."
Hear the rumble? An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming. Forget? If there is no reproductive freedom, there is no freedom at all. Nazis on the Right seem to have gutlessly forgotten reproductive freedom is far more than a man keeping it in his pants, women keeping their panties on, legs crossed.
"The law was initially blocked by a federal district court judge in Arkansas, but a three-judge panel at the court of appeals in St. Louis vacated the decision. If the ban permanently goes into effect, two of the state's three facilities that perform abortions would very likely close and surgical abortion would be the only option for women in the state."
Consider the following insanity, abject lie:
"This is very good news for people who care about the safety of women in Arkansas," said Family Council Executive Director Jerry Cox in a statement, adding, "This is a pro-life victory not only for the women of Arkansas, but for women across the nation. I'm sure other states will be looking at Arkansas and considering following our example."
What example? Raw nazism? State ownership of a woman's uterus? A medication abortion is safer than a surgical abortion. A surgical abortion is far safer than undergoing childbirth. Cox is a goddamned deluded liar.
"The group notes that the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has to make the law binding before it goes into effect. "It is my understanding," Cox said, "that opponents of the law can hurry to Federal Court and ask Judge Christine Baker, the federal judge who initially declared the law unconstitutional, to issue some type of injunction barring enforcement of the law. This could delay enforcement, but likely not prevent it."
Are you religious nazis deliberately trying to provoke the unthinkable? An unwanted dreaded second American revolution already catastrophically looming?
The Washington Post reports:
"The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down a challenge to a restrictive Arkansas law that for now will end the use of medication abortions in the state and could close two of the state’s three abortion clinics. The law requires doctors who provide medication abortions to have a contract with a specialist who has hospital admitting privileges. Abortion providers say the requirement is burdensome and unnecessary because complications are extremely rare from the two-pill regimen that is used in the first nine weeks of pregnancy, and any that do arise can be handled by a local emergency room or hospital."
-- Anything to successfully dictate to a woman what she can and cannot do with HER uterus. Raw nazism.
“As attorney general, I have fully defended this law at every turn and applaud the Supreme Court’s decision against Planned Parenthood today,” said Attorney General Leslie Rutledge. “Protecting the health and well-being of women and the unborn will always be a priority. We are a pro-life state and always will be as long as I am attorney general.”
Wake up, Counselor. You have egregiously, traitorously failed to uphold the United States Constitution, First Amendment Establishment Clause. You determinedly place women with unwanted pregnancies in great danger. Remain so deluded, imbued with phony religious zeal, you ignore the fact childbirth is far more dangerous than abortion, either drug-induced or performed surgically. Again, anything to impose your phony religious and ideological views on all. Dictate to the 'little lady' what she can and cannot do with HER uterus.
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6-1-18
Trump again reversed course. The Washington Post reports:
"President Trump said Tuesday that he would proceed with tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese imports and introduce new limits on Chinese investment in U.S. high-tech industries as part of a broad campaign to crack down on Chinese acquisition of U.S. technology. The moves come less than 10 days after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the trade war with China was “on hold” and appear designed to create bargaining leverage for Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who is due to arrive in Beijing on Saturday for talks aimed at cooling trade tensions between the two countries.
“The Trump administration is back in attack mode against China after what had appeared to be a temporary truce in the trade tensions,” said Eswar Prasad, former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division. “China’s unwillingness to agree to a trade deficit reduction target or make other major concessions has probably emboldened those in the administration who have argued for a hard line stance against China on trade issues.”
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6-1-18
Think we haven't lost ourselves? LOL. The Washington Post reports:
"Roseanne Barr’s Twitter saga didn’t end with the cancellation of her show Tuesday. Early Wednesday morning, she was back at it, first blaming Ambien and defensively comparing ABC’s response to her racist and otherwise offensive tweetstorm to those of other celebrities who have made controversial comments. And President Trump, who has personally congratulated Barr on the initial success of “Roseanne,” finally weighed in on the rapidly unfolding controversy Wednesday. Trump questioned why the head of ABC parent company Disney had called Valerie Jarrett — the target of Barr’s racist comments — to apologize, when he hadn’t received similar treatment."
Cowardly fail to financially and/or materially support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties at great personal cost and risk? Get what you truly deserve.
Tim Chorney, Publisher
Liberty In Peril