Liberty In Peril

                                                                                              formerly,

                                                                                       The Llano Ledger

12-7-18

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 the jackbooted bastards in ICE are not egregiously out of control?  CBS News reports:

"A transgender migrant woman who died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in May was beaten and denied proper medical treatment, according to the results of an independent autopsy and lawyers for her family. The private forensic pathologist who conducted the second autopsy at the behest of the family of Roxsana Hernandez Rodriguez concluded the 33-year-old from Honduras likely died May 25 of "severe complications of dehydration," complicated by HIV, after she was transferred to the hospital from ICE's Cibola County Correctional Center in New Mexico. The Transgender Law Center, a civil rights legal group representing Hernandez's family, says Hernandez was repeatedly denied access to medical care when she complained of vomiting and diarrhea, and was only able to see a doctor after suffering the symptoms for days. "According to observations of other detainees who were with Ms. Hernandez Rodriguez, the diarrhea and vomiting episodes persisted over multiple days with no medical evaluation or treatment, until she was gravely ill," the autopsy says."

Gets worse.  Get this:

"The independent autopsy also uncovered "evidence of physical abuse," with deep bruising on the left and right sides of her chest, extending to her back, "indicative of blows, and/or kicks, and possible strikes with [a] blunt object." Her body also had deep soft tissue bruising on her wrists "typical of handcuff injuries." The autopsy says the bruising wasn't visible externally. "She came to the U.S. seeking protection, and instead was met with torture," Egyes said."

Not surprisingly, the jackbooted bastards in ICE deny all:

"ICE denies that Hernandez was abused while in their custody.  In a statement, the agency said Hernandez was admitted on May 17 to Cibola General Hospital with symptoms of pneumonia, dehydration and complications associated with untreated HIV before her death. "ICE takes very seriously the health, safety and welfare of those in our care, including those who come into ICE custody with prior medical conditions or who have never before received appropriate medical care," an ICE spokesperson said in a statement. "Any death that happens in ICE custody is a cause for concern, and the agency will continue its full review of this case according to standard protocols."

Jesus Christ.  Congenital liars.  ... Just like their fuhrer in the Oval Office.

"The Transgender Law Center says Hernandez was an asylum seeker fleeing persecution in Honduras and hoped to help her family build a better life. Lynly Egyes, the Transgender Law Center's director of litigation, called Hernandez's death "preventable." In a statement released through the Transgender Law Center, Hernandez's sisters in Honduras said her death has been "extremely painful" for her family. They said Hernandez had dreams of opening up a beauty salon in the U.S. to help them. They said she fled Honduras because transgender people there face discrimination. "It's difficult to accept that she was taken from us because of negligence, because of not giving her support and medication that she needed, because they treated her like an animal," the statement said. "It's not fair. It's not fair that she fled Honduras looking for a better life and instead she was murdered. Now all we have left with is the hope that we can see justice for her."

There is no justice in a de facto fascist police-state, quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.  ... Right, Sheriff?

"Many questions remain about what happened to Hernandez in the days leading up to her death, according to attorney R. Andrew Free, who is also representing her family. ICE hasn't released what's known as a detainee death review — an internal investigation required anytime someone dies in ICE custody — nor the results of the official autopsy conducted by the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator. A request from CBS News for a copy of that autopsy report is pending, and Free said he also has yet to see the initial autopsy."

Incredible, isn't it.  Raw nazism.

"But Free said he's been able to piece together some of what apparently happened in Hernandez's last days based on interviews with more than a dozen other transgender migrant women with whom Hernandez traveled to the U.S. Free said Hernandez arrived with a migrant caravan at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego on May 9, where ICE said she applied for admission to the U.S. She was held in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody for several days and spent time in the "hieleras," which migrants have described as unsafe and overcrowded "ice boxes." Hernandez was apparently already ill because she was admitted briefly to a hospital, Free said, before she was transferred back into CBP custody. On May 13, Hernandez entered ICE custody in San Diego, and she was transferred two days later to an ICE facility in El Paso, according to ICE. She arrived May 16 at the Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, New Mexico, which houses a specialized unit for transgender women."

Gets worse:

"Before she arrived at Cibola, Hernandez apparently traveled through several states via bus and plane with other detained transgender women who were being transferred to the facility, said Free, citing interviews with those women. The women said Hernandez's condition deteriorated and she became weaker while in transit. They said she was vomiting and having diarrhea, but she was denied medical care, handcuffed, wasn't allowed to go to the bathroom and wasn't given enough water. Other detainees asked for water for her, Free said. CoreCivic, which operates the facility for ICE, said in a statement that Hernandez was only at the Cibola facility for about 12 hours before she was transferred to a hospital. ICE said she was admitted to Cibola General Hospital and later airlifted to Lovelace Medical Center, where she remained in intensive care until she died on May 25. Staff there listed her preliminary cause of death as cardiac arrest, according to ICE."

Most interesting, get this:

"Though the timeline remains unclear, Free said he believes Hernandez was beaten while she was at Cibola, because the women interviewed said they believed they would have seen it had she been abused while they were all detained together, and there was no indication she was abused while in the hospital.

"Free and the Transgender Law Center this week filed a notice of wrongful death tort claim in New  Mexico, the first step in filing a lawsuit in the case."

No end to it.

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.

12-7-18

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.

ICE poses an existential threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  CNN News reports:

"A coalition of immigrant rights groups Monday sued on behalf of a US citizen they allege was illegally detained and almost deported because of an ICE request. The federal complaint says authorities in Monroe County, Florida ignored Peter Brown's repeated statements that he was a US citizen and continued to hold him in response to a detention request from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement even after a judge had ordered his release. "Despite his repeated protests to multiple jail officers, his offer to produce proof, and the jail's own records, the Sheriff's Office held Mr. Brown so that ICE could deport him to Jamaica — a country where he has never lived and knows no one," the lawsuit says."

Get this:

"The Sheriff's Office ignored all the indications that it was illegally detaining Mr. Brown. It did nothing to investigate his citizenship. It did not contact ICE to pass along this urgent information, or ask for a review of Mr. Brown's files. It did not seek any further information from Mr. Brown or anyone else. It simply held Mr. Brown, in violation of his constitutional rights and after he was entitled to release under state law, so that he could be picked up by ICE and deported from the country." Brown, according to the lawsuit, was born in Philadelphia and had only visited Jamaica once for a day on a cruise. The Monroe County Sheriff's Office and ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment."

What the f--k could these criminal jackbooted bastards say?  ... Right, Sheriff?

"It's shocking and not right that somebody can lose their human rights and have all dignity stripped away simply because someone delivers a piece of paper or signs a form," Brown said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the organizations representing him."

Nazi America.  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.

"Brown was detained in April after turning himself in for a probation violation, then eventually transferred from a local jail to the Krome immigrant detention center in Miami, the lawsuit says. He was released from ICE custody after a friend sent a copy of his birth certificate to ICE, according to the suit. "After confirming that Mr. Brown was a U.S. citizen, ICE hastily arranged for his release from Krome. Before he left, they confiscated all the documents they had given him regarding his impending deportation," the lawsuit says."

ICE remains determinedly, egregiously out of control.  No hope, no chance of desperately needed change.  Too jackbooted nazi.  Consequently, needs to be abolished.

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.

12-7-18

Trump stonewalls the Senate.  NPR reports:

"Angry senators on Wednesday [11-28-18] accused the Trump administration of stonewalling in an effort to avoid linking Saudi Arabia's crown prince to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In a rare rebuke of the White House, even Republicans complained they weren't getting the full story. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., threatened to withhold key votes until he gets the answers he is looking for. Lawmakers also vented their frustration during a procedural vote on Yemen. The complaints started with the personnel involved. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis delivered a closed-door briefing to senators on Wednesday, but CIA Director Gina Haspel was conspicuously absent on Capitol Hill. Haspel traveled to Turkey as part of the information-gathering process and is said to have heard an audio recording that depicts Khashoggi's death. Her absence from the Senate left Pompeo and Mattis to echo the more skeptical interpretation Trump has taken of the CIA's assessment."

No more than a goddamned whitewash:

"There is no direct reporting connecting the crown prince to the order to murder Jamal Khashoggi," Pompeo told reporters. "That's all I can say in an unclassified setting." Mattis agreed there is no "smoking gun" to link the crown prince, who is also known as MBS, to Khashoggi's Oct. 2 killing at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul."

The Senators would have none of it.

"Several senators were not convinced. "I don't think there's anybody in that room that doesn't believe he was responsible for it," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."

A Republican.  LOL.

"It's outrageous that the Senate can be stonewalled from hearing from the CIA director," added Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the committee's top Democrat."

No kidding.  Even rattled the cage of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham:

"Graham, typically a reliable supporter of the president's, said he would have trouble voting for a must-pass spending bill or other legislation until he hears from the CIA director. "Anything you need me for, to get out of town, I ain't doing it," Graham threatened. "I'm not going to be denied the ability to be briefed by the CIA, that we have oversight of, about whether or not their assessment supports my belief that this could not have happened without MBS knowing."

You think?

"The senators' frustration spilled over into a procedural vote Wednesday on a resolution to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. Senators voted 63-37 to advance the measure. A final vote on the resolution is not expected before next week. Pompeo warned that withdrawing American support from the war could undermine U.S. efforts to broker a cease-fire.

"But senators were in no mood to back down. "The Khashoggi incident has also gotten a lot of people's attention," said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a co-sponsor of the resolution to end support for the war. He wondered why, after the killing, the U.S. should "so blindly and so willingly" join the Saudis in their war in Yemen. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., agreed with that sentiment. "We are not going to be continuing to be part of that humanitarian disaster," Sanders said. "We are ending our participation in that horrific war."

If Congress fails to cut off funding, that will likely not happen.

The Washington Post reports:

"The Senate on Wednesday [11-28-18] advanced a resolution seeking to end U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, delivering a sharp rebuke of the Saudi crown prince and President Trump’s decision to defend him amid the fallout over journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s killing. The 63-to-37 vote means the resolution can be considered by the full Senate, but it does not officially launch debate on the matter. That will happen next week, provided the Senate passes a second procedural vote — which seems likely, senators said, unless the Trump administration takes definitive steps to hold Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman accountable for Khashoggi’s murder.

"Wednesday’s vote marks the first time a majority of senators have ignored the warnings of both party’s leaders and the president to formally endorse calls for limiting U.S. military aid to Saudi Arabia. It is a signal that Republicans and Democrats are done making excuses for the kingdom’s human rights abuses, lawmakers said."

The Washington Post reports:

"CIA Director Gina Haspel appeared on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to brief key senators on the agency’s assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman probably ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Haspel had faced mounting pressure to speak to lawmakers and more fully explain the CIA’s findings, which President Trump has said don’t conclusively show that Mohammed was involved in the assassination. Haspel was noticeably absent last week from an all-senators briefing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Lawmakers complained that the Trump administration was depriving Congress of key information about the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist, by refusing to order Haspel to go to the Hill and explain the CIA’s assessment. The CIA has concluded that Mohammed probably ordered the killing, based in part on intercepted communications involving him and a key aide, who is alleged to have overseen the team that killed the journalist inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October, according to people familiar with the matter. The spy agency also analyzed other intercepted communications, listened to audio provided by Turkey from inside the consulate, and assessed that an audacious operation that involved killing a Saudi citizen in a foreign country could not have been executed without the crown prince’s knowledge, people familiar with the CIA’s conclusions said."

Senators are not happy campers.  Get this:

"Haspel will speak only to Senate leaders and the heads of national security committees with an interest in Saudi policy regarding Yemen and the intelligence surrounding Khashoggi’s killing, according to multiple people familiar with the plans. Bipartisan leaders from the Foreign Relations Committee, the Armed Services Committee, the Intelligence Committee, and the Appropriations subcommittees that fund the State and Defense departments are expected to be included. Some rank-and-file senators were furious that they were excluded from the briefing. “I can’t even ask to be included in it because I didn’t know it was going to happen, except for reading about it in the media. That’s not the way it should be. She should have come and testified in front of all senators,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said. “If you have some senators who are more equal than others, that is not democratic representation.”

That's right.  No question.  You bastards do have a solution, however.  Cut off all funding and support for the Saudi war in Yemen.  Stick it to your nazi fuhrer in the Oval Office.  No matter what, it's an outrageously unjust war where Saudis are deliberately targeting civilians:

"Haspel’s briefing may placate some of those senators. But it is not expected to deter Senate Democrats — or the handful of Republicans who say Saudi Arabia should be rebuked — from supporting the Yemen resolution beyond its next step, a vote expected to take place in the next few days."

What the hell are you waiting for?  Hell to freeze over?

CBS News reports:

"After CIA director Gina Haspel briefed a handful of senators on Tuesday about U.S. intelligence related to the murder of dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi, lawmakers said they were even more confident that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was directly involved in the brutal assassination. "There's not a smoking gun — there's a smoking saw," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters after the classified meeting. "I went into the briefing believing it was virtually impossible for an operation like this to be carried out without the crown prince's knowledge," Graham added. "I left the briefing with high confidence that my initial assessment of the situation was correct." Sen. Bob Corker, an outspoken Republican critic of President Trump and his response to Khashoggi's killing, stressed, "If the crown prince went in front of a jury, he would be convicted in 30 minutes." Asked by a reporter if it would be a murder conviction, Corker replied "yes."

"Mr. Trump has repeatedly defended the Saudi government in the wake of the Khashoggi killing in October. In November, the president said that bin Salman may have had no knowledge of the killing, and in any event the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia should not be jeopardized.

"All evidence leads back to the crown prince" Republican Sen. Richard Shelby told reporters as he left the briefing on Tuesday. Two senators present told CBS News that Haspel did not share with lawmakers the audio tapes from the day Khashoggi was killed and reportedly dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Secretary of Defense James Mattis has said the U.S. does not have any such tapes in its possession."

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.

12-7-18

Think Republicans don't have a problem with racism?  Remain clean as the driven snow? The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump’s nominee to be a federal judge in North Carolina cleared a key hurdle Wednesday when the Senate voted narrowly to advance him toward confirmation amid a racially charged controversy over his record as a lawyer. But it was unclear whether Thomas Farr would have the necessary support to win confirmation. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the chamber’s only African American Republican, would not commit to supporting him, even as he voted to move the nomination forward. Vice President Pence cast a tie-breaking vote to help Senate Republicans move Farr, who defended voting laws that a court ruled were designed to disenfranchise minority voters, to a final roll call expected later this week. The vote was 51 to 50. After a nearly hour-long wait Wednesday, Scott cast a procedural vote to move ahead with Farr’s nomination, dashing Democratic hopes that he would join them to defeat it. Scott did not reveal his intentions publicly until he cast his vote Wednesday afternoon."

Gutless.  Epitome of aggressive stupidity.  What could he possibly been thinking?  Clearly, partisanship over principle.

"All 49 members of the Democratic Caucus opposed the nomination, as did Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who is opposing all judicial nominees until he gets a vote on legislation to protect the probe into Russian election interference by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. All of the other Republican senators voted for Farr. The tense vote came at a moment when racial tensions have risen to the forefront of the national political debate. Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) won a runoff Tuesday after a contentious campaign in which her comments about being willing to join a supporter in the front row of a public hanging stoked controversy. Her critics said the remark evoked Mississippi’s long history of lynching African Americans."

Anyone who supports this shit, aids and abets it, is a goddamned racist.  ... Or, simply, hopelessly clueless, achingly, aggressively stupid.  ... Right, Senator?

"After the tally, Scott did not indicate how he would vote on final confirmation. He said he spoke with the author of a 1991 Justice Department memo obtained by The Washington Post that sheds some light on the 1990 campaign of Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), on which Farr worked. The campaign received scrutiny for distributing postcards that the Justice Department later said were sent to intimidate black voters from heading to the polls. Scott said he had to speak to the author again “and continue to look at what role [Farr] did play at every facet of the process.” Scott said he has spoken to Farr. Farr has denied playing any role in drafting the postcards."

Scott's head remains securely lodged up his ass.  Again, what could he possibly been thinking?  Think his constituents who elected him will continue to support him?

Here's the kicker and proof positive the Senate no longer truly works for the public good, based on the highest principles:

"The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Farr’s confirmation with a party-line vote in January. Trump nominated Farr to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina that has been vacant longer than any other current opening across the country. President Barack Obama’s nominees — both African American women — did not receive hearings in the Senate."

Guess who blocked them?

"Before his nomination, Republicans in control of the North Carolina General Assembly had hired Farr and others in his law firm to defend congressional boundaries approved in 2011. In 2016, a federal court struck down the map as racial gerrymandering. Farr also helped defend a 2013 voter ID law that was considered one of the strictest in the nation. In addition to requiring residents to show identification before they could cast a ballot, the law also eliminated same-day voter registration, got rid of seven days of early voting and ended out-of-precinct voting."

All to deny the right to vote to voters Republican nazis did not believe would vote for GOP national socialists, fascists.

"A federal court ruled in 2016 that the primary purpose of North Carolina’s law wasn’t to stop voter fraud but rather to disenfranchise minority voters. The judges wrote that the law targeted African Americans “with almost surgical precision,” in part because the only acceptable forms of voter identification were ones disproportionately used by white people. In addition to opposition from Senate Democrats, Farr’s nomination drew public rebukes from Andrew Gillum and Stacey Abrams, high-profile African American gubernatorial nominees in Florida and Georgia who lost close races in the midterms. “When it comes to the trifecta of voter disenfranchisement — voter suppression, racial gerrymandering, and restriction of voting rights — Thomas Farr is, sadly, one of the most experienced election lawyers in the country,” they said Tuesday in a joint statement."

Wake up.  Racism is alive and well.  So is nazism.  ... Hear the rumble?

NPR reports:

"The controversial judicial nomination of Thomas Farr has been derailed in the Senate. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott — the lone African-American Republican in the Senate — sealed Farr's fate by saying on Thursday that he opposed the nomination. His opposition, along with Arizona GOP Sen. Jeff Flake and all Senate Democrats, means there is not enough support for the nomination to go forward."

How about that?  At least, Scott finally rose to the occasion.

"In a statement Scott said, "Confirming judicial nominees is one of the most important responsibilities of a United States Senator. I take my role in that process very seriously, as we want to ensure the judicial branch remains honest, fair, and impartial." The statement continued, "This week, a Department of Justice memo written under President George H.W. Bush was released that shed new light on Mr. Farr's activities. This, in turn, created more concerns. Weighing these important factors, this afternoon I concluded that I could not support Mr. Farr's nomination."

What took so long?  Why did you gutlessly, initially place partisanship over principle?

"A final vote on Farr's nomination scheduled for Thursday was delayed by Senate Republicans to next week, but there was no immediate indication of whether the nomination would be withdrawn."

Fascinating, isn't it?

"Civil rights advocates had opposed Farr's nomination, pointing out a person of color had not sat on that court for more than 140 years. During the Obama administration, Senate Republicans blocked two African-American women from filling the seat, leaving it for Trump to fill. Experts say it's the longest unfilled vacancy on the federal bench, which Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have been able to fill with scores of new conservative appointees over the last two years. Democrats had zeroed in on Farr's defense of a controversial North Carolina voter ID law, which a court struck down for finding it had targeted African-Americans with "almost surgical precision." They also criticized his relationship with Helms, who vocally opposed civil rights and integration. It's not the first time that Scott has sunk a Trump nominee that's come under scrutiny over racial issues. Earlier this year, the South Carolina senator opposed the nomination of Ryan Bounds to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit amid allegations of racist writings. His nomination was eventually pulled."

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.

12-7-18

Cohen rattles Trump's cage with new plea deal.  The Washington Post reports:

"Michael Cohen, a former personal attorney to President Trump, pleaded guilty Thursday in New York to lying to Congress about a Moscow real estate project that Trump and his company pursued during the months he was running for president. In a nine-page filing, prosecutors laid out a litany of lies that Cohen admitted he told to congressional lawmakers about the Moscow project — an attempt, Cohen said, to minimize links between the proposed development and Trump as his presidential bid was taking off. Cohen falsely said efforts to build a Trump-branded tower in Moscow ended in January 2016, when in fact discussions continued through that year, the filing said. Among the people Cohen briefed on the status of the project was Trump himself, on more than three occasions, according to the document. Trump has repeatedly said that he had no business dealings in Russia, tweeting in July 2016, “For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia” and telling reporters in January 2017 that he had no deals there because he had “stayed away.” Cohen’s new guilty plea is the latest development in a wide-ranging investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 election."

Fascinating, isn't it?  Think Trump's not soiling his pants?

"According to the criminal information filed by prosecutors, Cohen sent a two-page letter to the committee in which he “knowingly and deliberately” made false statements, including that the Moscow project “ended in January 2016 and was not discussed extensively with others in the company,” that Cohen “never agreed to travel to Russia in connection with the Moscow project and ‘never considered’ asking Individual 1 to travel for the project,” and that Cohen “did not recall any Russian government response or contact about the Moscow Project.” The document does not identify “Individual 1,” but according to people familiar with the case, that person is President Trump. “Cohen discussed the status and progress of the Moscow Project with Individual 1 on more than the three occasions Cohen claimed to the committee, and he briefed family members of Individual 1 within the Company about the project,” according to the information. The document goes on to say Cohen made those statements attempting to conceal or minimize a number of facts, including that the project “was discussed multiple times within the company and did not end in January 2016,” but rather Cohen and “Individual 2” discussed the efforts as late as June 2016. The document does not identify Individual 2, but people familiar with the investigation said it is Sater. The document also says that Cohen discussed in May of 2016 the possibility that he might travel to Russia before the Republican National Convention and that Individual 1 might travel there after the convention, but a month later, told “Individual 2” - Sater - that he would not be making such a trip."

What webs we weave.

The Washington Post reports:

"Michael Cohen reached a new plea deal Thursday [11-29-18] with the team of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, in which he admitted to lying to Congress about an effort to build a Trump Tower in Moscow."

Why is that important?  Here is the take of The Post's Aaron Blake:

"1. There are conspicuous mentions of Trump and his family. In written testimony to both the House and Senate intelligence committees last year, Cohen said the Trump Tower Moscow deal was abandoned in January 2016. “By the end of January 2016, I determined that the proposal was not feasible for a variety of business reasons and should not be pursued further,” Cohen said. The plea deal, though, says that not only did Cohen continue to pursue the project through June 2016, but also that he briefed Trump on it more than the three times he had originally claimed, and also that he briefed Trump’s family members."

Someone's lying.  Guess who.

"2. Putin’s spokesman appears to have helped cover this up. It has been reported that Cohen emailed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press office in January 2016 seeking to grease the skids for the deal. But Cohen had said he never heard back. Turns out, that was a lie. An assistant to Putin’s top spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, emailed him back, according to the plea deal, and then Cohen spoke with the assistant on the phone for 20 minutes. But Cohen wasn’t the only one who lied about it. So, too, apparently, did Peskov. Here’s what Peskov said of the matter in August 2017: “ . . . Since, I repeat again, we do not react to such business topics — this is not our work — we left it unanswered.”

Fascinating, isn't it?

"3. This ties the Trump family’s efforts to the Russian government. As Cohen was planning to travel to Russia, his Russian associate Felix Sater relayed a message that Cohen might even get an audience with Putin or Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Sater told Cohen that Peskov “would like to invite you as his guest to the St. Petersburg Forum which is Russia’s Davos it’s June 16- 19. He wants to meet there with you and possibly introduce you to either [the President of Russia] or [the Prime Minister of Russia], as they are not sure if 1 or both will be there.” So Cohen not only received a reply from Peskov’s office but also that office was making high-level arrangements for him — the lawyer and fixer for an American presidential candidate. The question from here is how much Trump knew and when. If Putin’s office was helping him with a business proposal during the 2016 election, that casts his Russia commentary in whole new light. And Trump is already having to retreat from his previous claims of not having business in Russia."

Think Trump doesn't have a problem?

"4. The deal apparently died the day The Post broke a story about Russian hacking. The plea deal indicates that the last known discussion about the deal was “on or about June 14,” 2016, when Cohen told Sater that he was canceling plans to travel to Russia. Why is that date significant? It happens to be the day The Washington Post broke a big story that Russia had hacked the Democratic National Committee."

The noose is clearly figuratively tightening.  Mueller has been methodically, carefully conducting this investigation.  Precisely, why Trump continues to scream bloody murder as the indictments, pleas, convictions move closer and closer to the kingpin.

The Washington Post reports:

"Acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker was notified in advance that President Trump’s former personal attorney would plead guilty Thursday to lying to Congress about a Moscow real estate project that Trump and his company pursued while he was running for president, a person familiar with the matter said. The notification could strain relations between Whitaker and Trump, who reacted to the plea by accusing his former attorney, Michael Cohen, of lying to spare himself prison time. As acting attorney general, Whitaker is the nominal supervisor of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who has been investigating Cohen and signed his plea Thursday. That is important because as a legal commentator before he came to the Justice Department, Whitaker was highly critical of Mueller’s work, even suggesting an acting attorney general could stifle Mueller’s budget to shut down his probe. Democrats and others have called unsuccessfully for Whitaker to recuse himself from the case, in part because of his past comments, fearing he might take steps to interfere with the ongoing investigation."

Think he won't?  Already hasn't?  Here's why this is a problem:

"Justice Department policies and special-counsel regulations call for Whitaker to be notified of significant events, including “major developments in significant investigations” and “events affecting the Department that are likely to generate national media or Congressional attention.” Importantly, though, the regulations do not require the attorney general to approve such steps. The attorney general can request that the special counsel explain a step that is being taken and can conclude that an action is “so unwarranted under established Departmental practices that it should not be pursued.” The attorney general is supposed to give “great weight” to the special counsel’s views, and at the end of the case Congress is supposed to be notified of any proposed action that was vetoed. It was not immediately clear when the special counsel’s office notified Whitaker of Cohen’s plea, or how Whitaker reacted. Cohen’s appearance Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, at which he admitted lying about the Moscow project, surprised many in the media. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment."

Appearance alone is not good.  Lack of transparency, even worse.

"Cohen admitted as a part of his plea that he lied in part to “minimize links” between the Moscow project and Trump, and in hopes of limiting ongoing probes into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. Prosecutors said in court documents that he discussed efforts to obtain Russian government funding for the project as late as June 2016 and discussed the status and progress with Trump more than he had previously told congressional investigators. Trump said his former attorney was “lying, and he’s trying to get a reduced sentence for things that have nothing to do with me.” The president also stressed that the project never came to fruition."

So what?  Moreover, have everything to do with you.

Paul Waldman of The Washington Post put it best:

"When he spoke to reporters about this Thursday, Trump stressed over and over that it would have been perfectly fine for him to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, as he had long sought to do. Legally speaking, that’s true. But given the controversy around Trump’s solicitousness toward Vladimir Putin and the growing realization that Russia was intervening in the campaign on his behalf, through 2016 it was important for him to distance himself publicly from Russia, which he did many times by stressing that he had no investments there. That provides the explanation for why Cohen would have lied to Congress about the Moscow deal, claiming that by the time the campaign heated up it was no longer being considered. In the document filed Thursday with Cohen’s guilty plea, the Mueller team explains that while Cohen testified and said publicly that the Moscow project was abandoned before the Iowa caucus in early 2016, that was in fact false:

   "COHEN made the false statements to (1) minimize links between the Moscow Project and [Trump] and (2) give the false impression that the Moscow Project ended before ‘the Iowa caucus and . . . the very first primary,’ in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations."

Appears to be an extremely complicated investigation of a highly convoluted fiasco.  Called obstruction.

NPR reports:

"Donald Trump Jr.'s testimony to Congress about his family's real estate negotiations with powerful Russians does not comport with the new version laid out by Donald Trump's ex-attorney Michael Cohen, official transcripts show."

Imagine that.  Couldn't be, could it.  Someone's lying.  Guess who.

"Trump Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2017 that although there had been negotiations surrounding a prospective Trump Tower in Moscow, they concluded without result "at the end" of 2014. "But not in 2015 or 2016?" Trump Jr. was asked. "Certainly not '16," he said. "There was never a definitive end to it. It just died of deal fatigue." Trump's account contrasts with the new version of events given by Cohen on Thursday in a guilty plea in federal court. In that new version, Cohen says the discussions with at least one Russian government official and others in Moscow continued through June 2016, well into Trump's presidential campaign."

Couldn't be Junior is following in the footsteps of dear old Dad, could it?

"Cohen initially told Congress he reached out to a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin and didn't hear back. On Thursday, his guilty plea acknowledged that he had heard back and that other negotiations with other Russians went forward.

"The shift in understanding of the events of 2016 provided by Cohen is important for a few reasons: First, it called into question the Trump family's denials about having business dealings with Russians. Second, it confirmed the Trumps had a channel open with powerful Russians at the same time the Russian government was waging a widespread campaign of "active measures" against the United States."

In follow up to the above, NPR reports:

"Editor's note: An earlier version of this report mischaracterized an answer Donald Trump Jr. gave to Senate investigators in 2017 about the prospective projects his family was negotiating with people in Moscow. The story reported that Trump Jr.'s response — that negotiations on one project concluded by the end of 2014 — contrasted with the version of events as laid out in the guilty plea by Michael Cohen on Thursday. In fact, Trump Jr. and investigators were alluding to a different set of negotiations — not to a deal that Cohen was reportedly pursuing. Trump Jr. did acknowledge in his testimony that Cohen and another man were exploring a possible deal in Moscow in 2015 or 2016. Trump Jr. did not address what Cohen has now admitted — that talks about such a deal continued at least into June 2016, longer than previously known and well into the presidential campaign.

"This week's guilty plea by Donald Trump's ex-attorney Michael Cohen has raised questions about Donald Trump Jr.'s testimony to Congress regarding his family's real estate negotiations with powerful Russians. Trump Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2017 that he was only "peripherally aware" of negotiations that Cohen has admitted to carrying on through June 2016. Cohen said in his guilty plea that he had briefed Trump's family members about his talks, although the court documents don't specify who. Trump Jr. also told Senate investigators that he wasn't aware that Cohen had reached out to the press secretary for Vladimir Putin as part of his talks with Moscow about a putative new Trump Tower project there. Cohen had previously told Congress that although he emailed Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, he hadn't heard back, and the discussions with people in Moscow concluded by January 2016. Cohen then acknowledged in his guilty plea that, in fact, Peskov had responded to him and he and others had continued negotiations about the project until after Trump had become the presumptive GOP nominee. Trump Jr.'s answers allude to a number of prospective projects; he was asked by Senate investigators about news reports about a Trump Tower Moscow negotiation that took place in 2015 and 2016, which he acknowledged but did not detail."

Still believe the president isn't shitting in his pants as Mueller closes in on the kingpin? The Washington Post reports:

"Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III on Tuesday recommended that former national security adviser Michael Flynn serve no prison time, citing his “substantial assistance” with several ongoing investigations, according to a new court filing."

Imagine that.  Couldn't be, could it?

"Flynn was forced out of his post as national security adviser in February 2017 after the White House said he misled administration officials, including Vice President Pence, about his contacts with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States at the time. Since then, Flynn has been cooperating with Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, and his full account of events has been one of the best-kept secrets in Washington. He is one of five Trump aides who have pleaded guilty in the special counsel probe. The special counsel’s filing Tuesday is the first time prosecutors have described Flynn’s assistance since the former national security adviser’s guilty plea last year. But Tuesday’s sentencing memo was heavily redacted, continuing to shroud in secrecy the details of what Flynn has told Mueller’s team and other prosecutors."

Think Trump isn't concerned?  Hasn't a care in the world?

"The special counsel wrote that Flynn has provided information for several ongoing investigations — participating in 19 interviews with federal prosecutors and turning over documents and communications. The filing indicated that Flynn has provided extensive assistance to Mueller, including about matters that were redacted and hidden from public view. It also indicated that he has cooperated with a separate unidentified criminal investigation, the details of which were completely redacted."

How about that?  Mueller is clearly zeroing in.

"Mueller wrote that Flynn had provided “firsthand information about the content and context of interactions between the transition team and Russian government officials,” though the details were largely redacted."

Still no collusion, Mr. 'President?'

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.

12-7-18

Think election officials are not partisans?  Wake up.  NPR reports:

"When Ohio State elections law professor Daniel Tokaji tells colleagues from other parts of the world about how the United States picks election officials, he says they're stunned. "And not in the good way," says Tokaji. That's because in a large portion of the U.S., elections are supervised by an official who is openly aligned with a political party. It's a system of election administration that's routinely come under scrutiny over the past two decades, and did again in this year's midterms especially in Georgia, Florida and Kansas. "Just about everyone recognizes that it's inherently unfair for the umpire in our elections to be also a player on one of the two teams, Democrat or Republican," Tokaji says. Still, that's how election administration works in much of the country, according to University of North Carolina Charlotte political science professor Martha Kropf, who studies the topic."

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.

12-7-18

Endless lies.  Deception.  ABC News reports:

    "General Motors is very counter to what other auto, and other, companies are doing. Big Steel is opening and renovating plants all over the country. Auto companies are pouring into the U.S., including BMW, which just announced a major new plant. The U.S.A. is booming!
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2018

"In doing so, though, the president repeated his frequent false claim that steel plants are opening all over the country. The claim was repeatedly debunked by fact-checkers from ABC News and other news organizations during his time on the campaign trail, and the White House has declined to elaborate on what the president is actually referring to, although U.S. Steel has said it has restarted some blast furnaces that were previously dormant prior to Trump’s steel tariffs."

A congenital liar.

"BMW offered its own response to the president's tweet, confirming only that they “are considering building an engine plant in the U.S.” But it did not go as far as the president, who said the car company has “just announced a major new plant.” “We can confirm that we are considering building an engine plant in the U.S. to supply BMW vehicles manufactured in the U.S. and Mexico," Domonic Stoiber with BMW’s Corporate and Governmental Affairs said in a statement. "We have talked for the past few years about an engine plant to support our North American production and sales and we are now again investigating this option."

Trump has no credibility.

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.

12-7-18

Think privacy is not under ferocious attack?  CBS News reports:

"Some Delta Air Lines passengers will soon go through airport check-in and security just by showing their faces. The nation's first biometric airport terminal launches Saturday in Atlanta. The system will allow passengers to go from curb to gate and onto the plane without showing their passports.

"The technology is about saving time but it's not without some controversy. Republican Sen. Mike Lee and Democrat Ed Markey have called on Customs and Border Protection to stop expanding the biometric program, partially mandated by Congress, until the agency implements privacy regulations and provides a report to Congress on the viability of biometrics. "It's a massive threat and I don't say that lightly. What the program is doing is making it commonplace to use your face as a digital ID," said Jeramie Scott, an attorney at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. John Wagner, deputy executive assistant commissioner at CBP, is the architect of the system. He said U.S. citizens can opt out of having the airline collect their photograph and transmit to CBP. He also said they see a 98 to 99 percent match rate."

How soon before it becomes mandatory?  Forget?  We already live in a de facto fascist police-state since 9/11, quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.  ... Hear the rumble?

Aggressive stupidity reigns:

"As Flight 185 to Shanghai boarded we watched most passengers opt to use the facial recognition system to board. Passenger Alicia Graham said she's not worried about it. "This is the world we live in…TSA already has it so what's the difference?" Graham said."

You're a clueless idiot, ma'am.  Head securely lodged where the sun seldom shines.  Morons like you, lady, enable these nazi f--kers to continue to eviscerate all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  You're proof positive of the old adage, 'can fix ignorant, can't fix stupid.'

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.

12-7-18

The following speaks for itself.  NPR reports:

"A federal ethics agency is telling civil servants to avoid workplace talk about impeachment and #resistance for the next 705 days — until the day after Election Day 2020. The memo from the Office of Special Counsel also warns federal employees not to engage in "strong criticism or praise of a presidential administration's policies and actions." The only presidential administration right now is President Trump's. The document was circulated to ethics officials across the government this week. The 79-year-old Hatch Act is mainly aimed at keeping partisan politics out of executive-branch bureaucracy. The small Office of Special Counsel, or OSC, enforces the act, periodically publishing guidance as new issues arise. (OSC isn't to be confused with special counsel Robert Mueller, who leads the investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.) The new guidance is all about Trump. He's the only major candidate who has announced he's running in 2020 (he did it a few weeks after taking office), the only candidate whom some critics want to impeach and the object of the social media hashtag #resistance that liberals coined as he took office in 2017."

The Hatch Act can certainly be abused by a nazi dictator and his henchmen.

"Ana Galindo-Marrone, chief of the OSC Hatch Act unit, said the guidance was written in response to questions from federal workers and agencies' ethics officers, and that it wasn't intended to be sharply different from existing standards. She said the phrase "strong criticism or praise" didn't draw a stricter line than other regulatory limits, such as to "support or oppose" a specific candidate. "To me, it's no different from the language we've used before," she told NPR."

Think so?

"But Debra Katz, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who handles employment and whistleblower cases, said the new language in the guidance "can't be inadvertent." She described the guidance as bringing a partisan taint to OSC, which oversees Hatch Act coverage of more than 2 million workers in the executive branch. "I think we need to look no further than this act to say this office has become politicized," she said. Ward Morrow, assistant general counsel of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the guidance "would seem to have a real chilling effect," inhibiting employees' discussion of policies and legislative proposals."

Direct threat to the First Amendment Freedom of Speech.

"The Hatch Act guidance comes at a time when the administration is under scrutiny for trying to stifle discourse in other ways. This month, the White House unsuccessfully attempted to permanently pull the press credentials of a CNN reporter who's an aggressive questioner of the president. The Trump administration also has pulled security clearances from retired intelligence officials who oppose his policies."

Mark of a despot.  Fascist dictator.

"Since the administration took office, many government scientists, particularly those in the field of climate research, report political interference in their work. This month, Trump and high-level officials have sought to discredit a major climate change report issued by a range of scientists across the government."

An abusive tyrant doing his best to discredit legitimate science.

Yet, when the Hatch Act is deliberately violated by idiots in the Trump regime, nothing is done:

"Several Trump administration officials have run afoul of the Hatch Act. In March, presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway violated the act when she endorsed a Senate candidate during interviews in front of the White House. There was no punishment. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is being investigated for possible Hatch Act violations related to appearances he made with candidates this year. And the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed Hatch Act complaints against several other Trump appointees."

A double standard imposed by a national socialist, fascist despot.

"American Oversight, a liberal watchdog group, is urging OSC to rescind the new guidance. Austin Evers, the group's director, said the agency should enforce the Hatch Act, but the guidance "opens a dangerous door for the Trump administration to crack down on dissent."

Precisely, the intention of the Trump nazi and his henchmen.

NBC News reports:

"A government watchdog agency on Friday ruled that six Trump administration officials violated the Hatch Act after they tweeted support for Republicans or President Donald Trump on their government Twitter accounts, but declined to take disciplinary action. The Office of Special Counsel found that deputy press secretary Raj Shah and five other administration officials violated that act, which prohibits government employees from engaging in political activity, after Citizens for Responsible Ethics, or Crew, filed a complaint this past August. The independent government agency, which enforces the Hatch Act, determined that Shad violated the law when he tweeted on June 4 linking to research from the Republican National Committee promoting Trump's first 500 days in office. The now-deleted tweeted said, "Fantastic @RNCResearch release #Winning: 500 Days Of American Greatness" and linked to an RNC webpage outlining the Trump administration accomplishments and included a button to make political contributions to the RNC. Shah, who is press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders' second-in-command, was one of the most senior people the watchdog agency said had violated the law. The agency said although it concluded Shah and other communication staffers violated the act it declined to pursue disciplinary action and closed their files."

Why weren't they held legally accountable?  Why not?  Someone paid off?  Someone desperate to gutlessly placate the Trump nazi?  Remain in his good graces.  At the very least, a goddamned double standard.

"They all have been advised that if in the future they engage in prohibited political activity while employed in a position covered by the Hatch Act, we will consider such activity to be a willful and knowing violation of the law, which could result in further action," the agency said in a letter to CREW."

Crock of shit.  They knew precisely what they were doing.  Yet, you failed to hold them legally accountable.  No justice.

Think that's all? Wake up.  Get this:

"Other staffers include: Deputy director of communications Jessica Ditto; Madeleine Westerhout, an executive assistant to the president; former director of media affairs Helen Aguirre Ferré; Alyssa Farah, the press secretary for Vice President Mike Pence; and Jacob Wood, the Office of Management and Budget deputy communications director. The agency ruled that Ditto violated the law when she used her account to retweet Shah's June tweet. Westerhout, Ferré, Wood, Farah violated the rule by using their official account to tweet or display the president's "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan, which is prohibited because the president is still a political candidate. The staffers later deleted the tweets. Complaints were also filed against Sanders, the press secretary, deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters and OMB director Mick Mulvaney, however, the agency determined that their tweets did not break the law. The OSC ruled this past March that White House counselor Kellyanne Conway violated the Hatch Act in 2017 when she expressed support for GOP candidate Roy Moore, and against Democratic candidate Doug Jones, in Alabama's special Senate election."

Why weren't these pieces of human excrement held legally accountable for this criminal activity?  Forget?  If you're a peasant, spit on the street, jay walk, commit some other chicken shit offense, your sorry ass gets promptly ticketed or hauled to jail.  Why aren't people at the top of the food chain accorded similar treatment?

Why the f--k not?  Instead, this goddamned government is desperately trying to gag low level staff from criticizing the Trump nazi.  An egregious crock of shit.  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.

"CREW's executive director Noah Bookbinder applauded the ruling in a statement but said there needs to be more done to deter Hatch Act violations."

You think?

"While we are glad to see the OSC confirm CREW’s findings of Hatch Act violations, warnings have not been enough to deter Trump Administration officials from using their official positions to engage in partisan political activity in direct violation of the law," said Bookbinder. "Since the time that these violations were committed, CREW has filed 11 additional Hatch Act complaints against Trump officials. Simply put, OSC must consider additional measures to prevent these rampant abuses." The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment."

What the f--k could the assholes say?

The Washington Post reports:

"Six White House officials violated a federal law that prohibits public employees from conducting political activity in their official roles when they used their official Twitter accounts to send or display political messages supporting President Trump, according to the federal agency that enforces the law. The announcement came the same day the Office of Special Counsel sought to clarify when federal employees could use words like “impeachment” or “resist” without running afoul of the 1939 Hatch Act — underscoring how political polarization in the Trump era has made the federal bureaucracy an increasingly fraught workplace. The six White house employees, who included members of the press office, deleted their social media posts once they were told they had violated the Hatch Act, the Office of Special Counsel said. As a result, federal investigators issued warning letters rather than taking disciplinary action and advised that similar social media activity in the future would be considered a willful violation of the law that could result in further action, according to Erica S. Hamrick, deputy chief of the Hatch Act unit. The White House officials who were reprimanded were principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah; deputy director of communications Jessica Ditto; Madeleine Westerhout, executive assistant to the president; Helen Aguirre Ferré, former director of media affairs; Alyssa Farah, press secretary for Vice President Pence; and Jacob Wood, deputy communications director for the Office of Management and Budget."

Slap on the wrist to all six who knew precisely what they were doing, but thought they'd get a free pass under the Trump nazi.  Certainly, did.

"The White House did not respond to a request for comment."

What the f--k could they say?  LOL.

"All six had tweets or Twitter profiles that contained political messages, including the Trump campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” or the abbreviated hashtag #MAGA. Because Trump is running for reelection, the Office of Special Counsel — a separate agency from the Justice Department special counsel’s office, which is leading the Russia investigation — prohibits federal employees from displaying Trump’s 2016 campaign images or using his slogan.

"Earlier this week, the office drew criticism from some government watchdog groups when it issued guidance stating that advocating for or against the impeachment of federal officials is prohibited under the Hatch Act, whose purpose is to make sure the government is run in a nonpartisan fashion and to protect federal employees from political coercion."

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.

12-7-18

Incompetence.  Egregious invasion of privacy.  To say nothing of the hassle, cost, and ongoing waste of time for victims.  NPR reports:

"In one of the largest cybersecurity breaches in history, Marriott International said Friday that information on up to about 500 million of its customers worldwide was exposed in a breach of its Starwood guest reservation database dating as far back as 2014. The world's largest hotel chain said it learned of the breach on Sept. 8."

Where the hell have they been all these years?  Out to lunch?

"For 327 million of the affected guests, the compromised data includes "some combination of name, mailing address, phone number, email address, passport number, Starwood Preferred Guest ("SPG") account information, date of birth, gender, arrival and departure information, reservation date, and communication preferences," the company said. For some customers, the information "also includes payment card numbers and payment card expiration dates, but the payment card numbers were encrypted," Marriott added. But the company said it could not rule out the possibility that the hackers were able to decrypt those details. Marriott said it reported the data breach to law enforcement officials and has begun to notify "regulatory authorities." The attorneys general of New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts said they've opened investigations into the breach.

    "We’ve opened an investigation into the Marriott data breach. New Yorkers deserve to know that their personal information will be protected.
    — NY AG Underwood (@NewYorkStateAG) November 30, 2018"

Clearly, not possible.  This crap occurs over and over and over again.  If guests are willing to pay cash, put down a cash security deposit, why the hell is that not sufficient?  Why do they need all this goddamned personal information they clearly cannot protect?

"Arne Sorenson, Marriott's president and chief executive officer, said: "We deeply regret this incident happened. We fell short of what our guests deserve and what we expect of ourselves. We are doing everything we can to support our guests, and using lessons learned to be better moving forward."

Horse shit.  Meaningless rhetoric ludicrously designed to placate, not solve the problem.  Symbolism over substance.  Blatant bullshit.

"The data breach is one of the largest in history. It's not as massive as the 2013 hack of Yahoo, which hit 3 billion users, and exposed data including names, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates and passwords. But the Marriott breach includes sensitive data such as passport numbers, mailing addresses and credit card information. Equifax said about 148 million people were impacted by a massive cybersecurity breach of the credit-reporting agency last year. That data included names, Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses and, in some cases, driver's license numbers and credit card information."

Delusionally believe this is not a massive, continuing issue?  Wake up.

"The Marriott hack is "one of the most significant data breaches in history given the size ... and the sensitivity of the personal information that was stolen," Ted Rossman, an analyst with CreditCards.com, said in an email. Given the sensitive personal information involved, he said, people "should be concerned that criminals could use this info to open fraudulent accounts in their names." Rossman recommends that affected people freeze their credit by contacting credit agencies Experian, Equifax and TransUnion."

Until you finally, courageously stand up to the corporate management suite, this shit will not end.  Think these clueless bastards truly give a shit?  Consider it a cost of doing business.  As they laugh their corpulent asses off all the way to the bank.  You're being shamelessly f--ked.  Too stupid to understand?

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.

12-7-18

Trump loses another one.  ABC News reports:

"A federal judge in New York ruled Friday that the Trump administration cannot withhold public safety grants to six states and the City of New York based on the fact that they’re so-called sanctuary cities. “Consistent with every other court that has considered these issues, the court concludes that defendants did not have lawful authority to impose these conditions,” the decision said."

How about that?  The Trump nazi still thinks he's a 'law' unto himself.  So do his henchmen.  Clearly, not.  Certainly, not in what is supposed to be a democratic republic based on the United States Constitution and rule of law.

"The city, six states – New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Virginia – and the District of Columbia sued the administration over the threats to withhold money for criminal justice programs under what’s known as the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, named for a New York City cop killed in the line of duty. “The courts have spoken: President Trump’s attempt to bully our city into enforcing his draconian immigration policies is unconstitutional,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “Unlike Trump’s fact-free claims to the contrary, by welcoming immigrant communities we have helped make this the safest big city in the country. This is a great victory, and we will never stop fighting on behalf of immigrant New Yorkers.”

"The Justice Department attempted to put immigration-related conditions on the grants, which total in the millions. The states said it was a matter of separation of powers and challenged the administration’s authority to compel them to adopt President Trump’s preferred immigration policies. The judge cited the administration’s “lack of authority to impose the three conditions on federal funding” and noted “the separation of powers acts as a check on tyranny and the concentration of power.”

Indeed.  No question.

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.

12-7-18

Ongoing insanity.  NPR reports:

"The Department of Homeland Security has asked several federal agencies to send civilian law enforcement officers to the border, according to a DHS official. These agencies include the Departments of State, Justice, Energy, Transportation, Labor and Interior, the DHS official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "The President has made it clear that border security is a top administration priority," DHS spokeswoman Katie Waldman said in a statement. "In line with the President's direction and given the very real threat we face at the border from potential mass migration actions – of course, DHS has reached out for assistance from partners across the federal government to defend our sovereignty, protect our frontline men and women, and secure our border. We appreciate all of the support we have received to date."

Ongoing stunt by the Trump nazi.  To keep his sick sycophants in line and goose stepping.

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.

12-7-18

Outrageous infringement on the First Amendment.  NBC News reports:

"CNN on Thursday parted ways with contributor Marc Lamont Hill after a speech the college professor made on Israel and Palestine at the United Nations."

Gutless, mindless muzzling of free speech.  Capitulation to the Nazi Right by the gutless bastards at CNN.

"A CNN spokesperson confirmed Hill is no longer under contract. The network did not give a reason, but the move comes amid objections to Hill's speech by the Anti-Defamation League and other groups. Hill, a professor of media studies at Temple University who had been a recurring political commentator on CNN, called for countries to boycott and divest from Israel in the Wednesday speech given for the U.N.'s International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People." "We have an opportunity to not just offer solidarity in words but to commit to political action, grass-roots action, local action and international action that will give us what justice requires and that is a free Palestine from the river to the sea," Hill said in the speech.

    "Yesterday, I gave a speech at the UN in which I critiqued Israel’s polices and practices toward Palestinians. It’s baffling how people are not responding to the critique, but instead responding to things I didn’t actually say.
    — Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) November 29, 2018"

Political correctness run amok:

"The ADL and others said the "river to the sea" phrase is code for the destruction of Israel often used by Hamas and groups bent on its destruction. "Those calling for 'from the river to the sea' are calling for an end to the State of Israel," ADL's Senior Vice President for International Affairs Sharon Nazarian, said in a statement, adding that the annual event at the U.N. "promotes divisiveness and hate." Hill sent a series of tweets responding to his firing and defending his speech."

Why should he have had to do this?  He is entitled to his opinion and the right to state it.  Did not do so while on the CNN dime.  So what the f--k is their problem?

"My reference to 'river to the sea' was not a call to destroy anything or anyone," Hill said on Twitter. "It was a call for justice, both in Israel and in the West Bank/Gaza. The speech very clearly and specifically said those things." "I support Palestinian freedom. I support Palestinian self-determination," Hill tweeted, adding, "I do not support anti-Semitism, killing Jewish people, or any of the other things attributed to my speech. I have spent my life fighting these things."

No longer matters in Nazi America, a goddamned fascist police-state, quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.  CNN is achingly gutless.  Hopelessly, out to lunch.  Has caved in to the Nazi 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.

12-7-18

Nothing quite like aggressive stupidity, is there?  The following would be laughable any other time other than current circumstances under the Trump nazi.  NPR reports:

"A New Mexico man applying for a marriage license in Washington, D.C., this month had his state driver's license rejected as a form of identification because a clerk and her supervisor believed New Mexico was a foreign country. Gavin Clarkson, a Las Cruces, N.M., resident, said he was at the District of Columbia Marriage Bureau on Nov. 20 applying for a license to wed his then-fiancée when their nuptial plans hit a brief snag. The clerk told him he would need an international passport on the apparent belief that he wasn't a U.S. citizen. "She thought New Mexico was a foreign country," he said of the clerk as quoted by the Las Cruces Sun-News. "All the couples behind us waiting in line were laughing." Clarkson was a recent candidate for New Mexico secretary of state and is a member of the Choctaw Nation. He said he protested the clerk's decision to her supervisor, who also failed to recognize New Mexico as a state.

"A spokeswoman for the District of Columbia Courts acknowledged the error. "We understand that a clerk in our Marriage Bureau made a mistake regarding New Mexico's 106-year history as a state," said Leah H. Gurowitz, director of media and public relations for D.C. Courts, in an email to the Sun-News. "We very much regret the error and the slight delay it caused a New Mexico resident in applying for a DC marriage license."

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.

12-7-18

Think the following a portend of things to come?  Something to look forward to?  LOL.  NPR reports:

"How will the Trump administration get along with Democrats when the opposition party holds subpoena, investigation and budget-setting power come January?"

Apparently, not particularly well.  LOL.

"Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke offered a preview Friday afternoon, responding to criticism from the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee by insinuating on Twitter that Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva is a drunk."

Imagine that?  Think so?

"Grijalva is likely to chair the committee, which oversees Interior, when Democrats take control of the House at the beginning of next year's congressional session. Earlier Friday, Grijalva had published an opinion piece in USA Today calling attention to various ethics scandals that have swirled around Zinke, urging the Montana Republican to resign. "It's hard for him to think straight from the bottom of the bottle," Zinke responded in a statement posted on Twitter, including a hashtag referencing a bar near the U.S. Capitol where lawmakers and political operatives drink after work. He also called him "hostile" and suggested the Democratic congressman should step down. Grijalva ignored the attack, issuing a statement saying "the American people know who I'm here to serve, and they know in whose interests I'm acting. They don't know the same about Secretary 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.

12-7-18

Imagine what life must be like in the home of Trump presidential advisor Kellyanne Conway, -- particularly lately?  LOL.  Pillow talk?  Must be devilishly riveting.  LOL.  The Washington Times reports:

"George Conway, husband to Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, accused President Trump Monday of violating witness tampering laws. During a Twitter tear on the Mueller investigation, Mr. Trump cheered on former campaign adviser Roger Stone for resisting to work with the special counsel’s team. ” ‘I will never testify against Trump.’ This statement was recently made by Roger Stone, essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about ‘President Trump,’ ” the president tweeted, “Nice to know that some people still have ‘guts!’ “

Think so?  LOL.  Get this:

"Mr. Conway, a vocal critic of his wife’s boss, shared the tweet and added, “File under ‘18 U.S.C. §§ 1503, 1512.’ “

Think it didn't piss the living shit out of his wife?  LOL.  Imagine being a fly on the wall?  LOL.

"The two laws Mr. Conway referred to regarded influencing jurors and witness tampering, respectively."

Can't confuse an idiot with the truth.  LOL.

"Sen. Mark Warner, the vice-chairman of the Intelligence Committee, condemned Mr. Trump’s tweets as a misuse of the bully pulpit. “The President of the United States should not be using his platform to influence potential witnesses in a federal investigation involving his campaign,” the Virginia Democrat tweeted. In addition to potential collusion with Russia, the special counsel’s team is reportedly looking into a possible obstruction of justice case against Mr. Trump, part of which would focus on his Twitter feed."

Proof positive: 'Stupid is as stupid does.'

Gets 'better.'  LOL. Far more convoluted.  LOL.  Get this.  NBC News reports:

"Eric Trump and George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, traded barbs on Twitter after the president's son accused Conway of "utter disrespect" toward his wife because he frequently criticizes the administration."

Jesus Christ.  Give me a break.  The comic relief simply never ever ends.  LOL.

    "Of all the ugliness in politics, the utter disrespect George Conway shows toward his wife, her career, place of work, and everything she has fought SO hard to achieve, might top them all. @KellyannePolls is great person and frankly his actions are horrible.
    — Eric Trump (@EricTrump) December 4, 2018"

Grow up, Eric.  You're behaving like a child.  ... Just like dear old Dad.  LOL.

Conway would have none of it.  LOL.  Stuck it to the young 'whippersnapper' in a way that might have gone way above the 'kid's' achingly clueless head.  LOL.

"Conway responded to Eric Trump's criticism by retweeting pointed bon mots by Ian Bassin, the former associate White House counsel to President Barack Obama, and former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti.

"Bassin, mimicking the younger Trump, wrote: "Of all the ugliness in politics, the utter disrespect the Trumps show toward the rule of law, the presidency and its place of work, and everything this nation has fought SO hard to achieve might top them all. Donald Trump is [a] terrible person and frankly his actions are horrible."

    Of all the ugliness in politics, the utter disrespect the Trumps show toward the rule of law, the presidency and its place of work, and everything this nation has fought SO hard to achieve might top them all. Donald Trump is terrible person and frankly his actions are horrible. https://t.co/fEtH3MLcyN
    — Ian Bassin (@ianbassin) December 4, 2018"

The former federal prosecutor added his two cents:

"Mariotti wrote in response to Eric Trump, "How does noting that your father engaged in witness tampering today disrespect Kellyanne Conway?"

    "How does noting that your father engaged in witness tampering today disrespect Kellyanne Conway? https://t.co/kvwvVB4hcp
    — Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) December 4, 2018"

It doesn't.  Apparently, the younger Trump feels quite compelled to defend the indefensible, however.  LOL.

"Conway formed a group of conservative lawyers last month to speak out against the Trump administration called “Checks and Balances,” and has blasted the president in opinion articles in The New York Times and The Washington Post in recent months. He told Yahoo News last month that the administration is like “a s***show in a dumpster fire.” In the same interview, however, he praised his wife for steering Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. “Look, my wife did an amazing thing,” he said. “She basically got this guy elected. She steadied that boat.”

LOL.  Think so?  Joking aside, they must have quite a secure relationship to weather the Trump nazi. Equally to the point and in all seriousness, the president's antics have to be causing his loved ones enormous angst and pain.

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.

12-7-18

Another egregious attack on privacy by the de facto fascist police-state we now live in, quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.  NBC News reports:

"The U.S. Secret Service on Nov. 19 started testing a facial recognition system that uses security cameras to capture images of people outside the White House and then tries to match them to “people of interest.” The move has heightened concerns of the government using high-tech tools to expand its monitoring of the public. In this case, the “people of interest” at least for now are Secret Service workers who have volunteered to take part in the test. But the security cameras take video of people on the sidewalk and street, and there is no way for them to avoid having the system run their faces against the facial recognition program. Those who don’t want that to happen “may choose to avoid the area,” the Secret Service said in a document published last week."

Aryan arrogant jackbooted bastards.

"All images captured during the pilot will be limited to the White House security system and will be deleted once the test ends next August, the Secret Service said."

Think so?

"The test seems to be limited enough to avoid immediate privacy concerns, but it “crosses an important line by opening the door to the mass, suspicionless scrutiny of Americans on public sidewalks,” Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote in a blog post published Tuesday."

Here's the problem:

"Most adult Americans are already in a facial recognition database of some kind, the result of governments formatting driver’s license and passport photos for such use, according to the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown University Law Center."

Precisely who gave them the authority?  The individuals responsible over all the years?

"Real-time facial recognition systems are also being designed for use by local police departments. Amazon, for example, is testing its facial recognition product, called Rekognition, with the police in Orlando, Florida. The Orlando pilot is similar to the White House pilot in that it appears to be limited to volunteer officers. Ultimately, the Secret Service wants to identify "people of interest" outside the White House more quickly than the current system, which relies on static images from surveillance cameras that agents and officers compare against lists. The lists contain images of "people of interest" who may pose a threat based on their contact with law enforcement officers, social media posts, tips from the public and media reports, the agency says."

A goddamned fascist police-state, quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.  ... Right, Sheriff?

"The Secret Service has not said what company it hired to provide the facial recognition system or where exactly the cameras are placed. The agency declined to comment on Tuesday."

Goddamned f--king nazi storm troopers.  No foreign power, no terrorist organization, not even the criminal element presents a greater threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties than all levels and branches of government, -- including law enforcement.  ... Right, Sheriff?

"There are few regulations at any level of government outlining how law enforcement can use facial recognition, leaving it to individual agencies to decide what’s best."

Lawmakers across our formerly great country serve only their corporate masters and law enforcement.  Certainly, not the people who elected them to office.  ... Right, Sheriff?

"That worries privacy and civil-rights advocates, who say there is little keeping the government from targeting particular groups, such as immigrants or participants in political protests. They also point out that facial recognition is run by algorithms that have been shown to misidentify people of certain races -- black women in particular."

Particularly pitiful?  Outrageously inadequate?  Egregiously lacking?  Get this:

"A group of Democratic lawmakers last week demanded more information from Amazon about its Rekognition program."

... Hear the rumble?  An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming.  -- As the revolution doomsday 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.

12-7-18

Wells Fargo continues to egregiously f--k over its customers.  ... Right, Amanda?  CBS News reports:

"Wells Fargo says a computer glitch is partly to blame for an error affecting an estimated 545 customers who lost their homes. The giant bank filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission last month, revealing it incorrectly denied 870 loan modification requests. About 60 percent of those homeowners went into foreclosure.

"Legislators, housing advocates, regulators and most importantly, the people who lost their homes – people like Jose Aguilar – are asking how this happened. "It's been very hard for me. It's something I wouldn't wish upon anybody," Aguilar told CBS News correspondent Anna Werner.

"He said the problems began when he and his ex-wife found mold in the house. He tried to remediate it himself but fell a few months behind on the mortgage payments. So the couple asked their lender Wells Fargo to modify their loan to lower their monthly payment. "At first they told me, 'OK, you know, you might be able to qualify for a loan modification,'" Aguilar said. But he said then came the delays – weeks, then months – waiting for a decision. "Then the whole process just started all over again. And then it got to the point we were a year behind," Aguilar said. Finally, Wells Fargo turned them down."

Imagine that.  Couldn't be, could it?  ... Right, Amanda?

"He and his wife split up. The house went into foreclosure. With the hit to his credit, Aguilar said he found no one would rent to him. "At that point my son and I had to move to the basement of a friend's house and we stayed there for three months, and we had nothing. We had a couch and my son had a bed," Aguilar said, choking up with emotion. "I felt worthless. I felt like I had let my family down." Then in September this year, nearly three years later, he got a letter from Wells Fargo. "Dear Jose Aguilar," it read, "We made a mistake… we're sorry." It said the decision on his loan modification was based "on a faulty calculation" and his loan "should have been" approved. "It's just like, 'Are you serious? Are you kidding me?' Like they destroyed my kid's life and my life, and now you want me to – 'We're sorry?'" Aguilar said."

The Wells Fargo Way.  ... Right, Amanda?

"Wells Fargo now said that "calculation error" on loan modifications affected 870 customers over an eight year period, customers who either were denied loan modifications or "were not offered a modification in cases where they would have otherwise qualified." About 545 of those customers ultimately lost their homes to foreclosure. At least some of those people got a check from Wells Fargo along with the letter. In Aguilar's case, it was for $25,000. But his attorney Marc Dann said that doesn't begin to cover his total losses. "So how do you think they came up with the amounts of money that they handed out to people?" Werner asked. "That's what we want to find out. We want to find out what went wrong, how it went wrong," Dann said. Alys Cohen is with the National Consumer Law Center. "The question is, how did this happen? Aren't they supposed to check their computer programs regularly to make sure they're accurate?" Cohen said. "This is clearly more than just a simple computer mistake."

The only way this issue and others at the bank will be resolved and rectified is by asset forfeiture, criminal prosecution of all those involved.  ... Right, Amanda?

"Wells Fargo declined to do an on-camera interview."

Gutless bastards.  ... Right, Amanda?  Isn't that how you pieces of human excrement routinely operate?

"The company could not say how much money it expects to pay out in remediation to customers."

No matter what, nowhere near enough.  ... Right, Amanda?

"I want Wells Fargo to know that there's people out there with feelings and families that try hard to pay their bills and survive. We're real people, we're not just money," Aguilar said."

Wells Fargo doesn't give a flying f--k.  It's how the bastards routinely do business.  ... Right, Amanda?

"Wells Fargo said it plans to work with each of those customers to reach a resolution. The bank is also offering no-cost mediation. Meanwhile, non-profit groups and some legislators are pushing for more answers."

Nowhere near enough.  Mediation does NOT work.  Favors only the greedy, corrupt, abusive, criminal corporate management suite.  ... Right, Amanda? "Answers" are not the solution.  Criminal prosecution resulting in asset forfeiture and prison time certainly is.  ... Right, Amanda?

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.

12-7-18

Trump lost another one in court.  NPR reports:

"The Department of Defense will begin assigning thousands of immigrants holding green cards to basic training, reversing a Trump administration policy that delayed their service as they were subjected to enhanced background checks. The policy change, first reported by the Washington Post, follows a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar in the Northern District of California in mid-November. He sided with two lawful permanent residents who argued that they were discriminated against by the Pentagon policy that delayed their service for more than a year and left them in limbo between a military and civilian career. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Jiahao Kuang of San Leandro, Calif., who came to the U.S. from China in 2004 at the age of 8 and Deron Cooke of Trenton, N.J., who had emigrated from Jamaica in 2015.

"The two immigrant recruits were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union which had issued this statement in November.

    "Tigar's ruling finds that the Defense Department provided no rational justification for the policy change, stating that it provided no evidence indicating that lawful permanent resident enlistees posed more of a risk than U.S. citizens.

    " 'The ruling serves yet another blow to the administration's anti-immigrant agenda,' said Sameer Ahmed, an attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. 'This decision affirms that there is no justification for discriminating against individuals who want to risk their lives for this country simply because of their immigration status.' "

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.

12-7-18

Treasonous, treacherous, traitorous Republican fascists remain intolerant of elections when their fellow henchmen don't get elected.  Think not?  Wake up.  NPR reports:

"The Republican-controlled state Legislature in Wisconsin has approved new limits on the power of Democratic Gov.-elect Tony Evers in a lame-duck session. Following overnight debate, lawmakers voted Wednesday to restrict Evers from following through on a campaign promise to remove Wisconsin from a multi-state lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act. The bill would also limit early voting in Wisconsin and give state lawmakers more power over the state's economic development agency, which Evers has said he would like to eliminate. In the wee hours of the morning, the plan narrowly passed the state Senate, later the Assembly and now the bill moves to Gov. Scott Walker's desk for his signature. During debate, Democrats decried the plan as an abuse of power. "The seeds you're planting may grow into something you will regret," said Sen. Fred Risser, a Democrat from Madison. "Be fair. Give the voters the right to choose their governor and attorney general."

Clearly, no longer possible in Nazi Wisconsin.  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.

12-7-18

Think the Israeli aggressor does not have serious problems of its own making?  NPR reports:

"Protesters across Israel on Tuesday criticized what they say is the government's failure to address violence against women. Activists carried signs bearing the names of women killed this year, lit candles and blocked city streets. Some demonstrators lay in the roads, with fake blood splattered across their clothes, and clutching stuffed animals. In Tel Aviv, protesters displayed shoes that had been dyed red. In Jerusalem, a fountain spouted red fluid, resembling blood. Media outlets reported that people chanted for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "wake up, our blood is not cheap."

Ferociously pointedly, not like the blood of Palestinians?

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.

12-7-18

Amazing how U.S. jurisdiction extends across the universe, isn't it?  NBC News reports:

"China on Thursday demanded the release of Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies' chief financial officer after she was detained in Canada on extradition charges to the United States. Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of the company's founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Dec. 1. This came after President Donald Trump met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and agreed to hold fire on the trade war between the two countries. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said officials have been contacted both in the U.S. and Canada to demand Meng's release. Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Ministry, said her detention needed to be explained, and both countries had to "effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of the person concerned." The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that U.S. authorities are investigating whether Huawei violated sanctions on Iran. When asked about the Iran reports, a spokesperson for privately held Huawei told NBC News in a statement that it "complies with all applicable laws and regulations where it operates, including applicable export control and sanction laws and regulations." The news spooked investors with U.S. stocks tumbling on fears of a flare-up in Chinese-U.S. tensions. On Wednesday, China's Commerce Ministry said the weekend's Trump-Xi talks had been "very successful," but the statement was vague on a 90-day deadline for negotiations touted by Washington."

Clearly, aggressive stupidity reigns supreme.

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.

11-30-18

A little comic relief goes a long, long, long way.  LOL.  The Washington Post reports:

"An unidentified turkey about to be pardoned by President Trump appeared in the White House press briefing room on Tuesday, surprising the assembled media. The bird quickly put the members of the press at ease, though, by treating them as they’d come to expect in that room: eyeing them skeptically, answering no questions and leaving after only a few minutes."

No kidding.  LOL.

"ABC News’s Alex Mallin made an interesting observation about the bird’s appearance. By stopping by briefly, the turkey had spent more time on the room’s podium in front of the media this month than has White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. Curious about how the two compared, I emailed Post photographer Jabin Botsford, who was in the room for the appearance. The bird, he said, was there for about five minutes. We can compare that with the total time Sanders has spent at the podium this month in her daily press briefings: zero minutes.

"Like many of Sanders’s, the turkey’s visit to the briefing room included another person who answered the bulk of the questions. After those five minutes, the turkey, no doubt frustrated by the press of reporters, was quickly ushered out of the room. We haven’t confirmed this yet, but it appears not to have seized any reporters' press credentials on its way out."

NPR reports:

"President Trump and televised spectacle go together like peas and carrots. And those just happen to be the names of the unflappable turkeys that Trump pardoned — on camera — Tuesday afternoon."

Jesus Christ.  Give me a break.  LOL.  ... With all the tweeting, continual campaigning where does this nazi find time to do his job?  Almost forgot, he doesn't.

"The two hefty toms (Peas weighs 39 pounds and Carrots 41) arrived in Washington, D.C., on Sunday from South Dakota, where they were raised. After a luxurious but possibly confusing two-night stay in the Willard Hotel, they crossed the street to the White House for the pardon ceremony."

Lucky birds.  Certainly, spent two nights far better than the homeless in Washington.

"That turkey is so lucky," Trump said upon pardoning Peas. "I've never seen such a beautiful turkey."

Look in the mirror.

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.

11-30-18

On a far more serious note, ABC News reports:

"Over the weekend, President Donald Trump said that the U.S. government would complete a "full report" on the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Tuesday while denying reports that the CIA has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing. "They haven’t accessed anything yet -- it’s too early,” Trump said. “That was a very premature report. But that’s possible. We’re gonna see.”

Trump remains a congenital liar:

"But a State Department official who has seen a version of the CIA's assessment on the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi told ABC News it's "blindingly obvious" that the crown prince, known as MBS, ordered Khashoggi's death. "The idea that it goes all the way to the top is blindingly obvious," said the State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "There's overwhelming consensus that the leadership is involved -- no one is debating it within the government," the official said. While saying no doubts are expressed in the report, the official acknowledged that the words "probably" and "likely" are used when attributing the death to the crown prince. The source noted that CIA analysis reports rarely include explicit conclusions."

Trump can't, won't be confused with the truth.  Especially, when it conflicts with his agenda.

"Among the evidence cited in the report, the official said, is the relationship between members of the kill team and the crown prince, and the hierarchy of the Saudi system. The official said the report is based on communication intercepts -- including prior phone calls between the kill team and aides for the crown prince -- and on the ground reporting and analysis. The official said the government's reporting was being updated daily.

"Trump, in an interview with Fox News that aired Sunday, made clear that an audio recording of Khashoggi's killing, supplied by the Turkish government, would not affect his response to the Oct. 2 killing of Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post who had been critical of the Saudi royal family. "It's a suffering tape, it's a terrible tape. I've been fully briefed on it, there's no reason for me to hear it," Trump said in the interview with "Fox News Sunday." ''I know everything that went on in the tape without having to hear it." Trump also noted that the crown prince has repeatedly denied being involved in the killing inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. "Will anybody really know?" Trump asked. "At the same time, we do have an ally, and I want to stick with an ally that in many ways has been very good."

To whom?  Big Oil?  No question.  At expense of drivers since January 1973 when the price of gasoline virtually doubled overnight as a result of the Saudi oil embargo.  Readers are reminded at least some of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis.  Also, that other Saudis in this country at the time of the attack were allowed to leave despite the fact air travel had been suspended.

... To say nothing of war profiteers in the corporate management suite and shareholders who immensely financially benefit off weapons sold to the Saudis.  Trump has again demonstrated he and his henchmen are hopelessly amoral, that is, without morals.  Money reigns.  Trumps all.  Clearly, the Trump nazi has disgraced himself and our formerly great country.

Think Trump's head isn't securely lodged where the sun seldom shines?  ABC News reports:

"In an extraordinary statement, President Trump on Tuesday defended Saudi Arabia in the face of mounting pressure over the slaying of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. “Representatives of Saudi Arabia say that Jamal Khashoggi was an “enemy of the state” and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but my decision is in no way based on that – this is an unacceptable and horrible crime,” Trump said in his statement. “King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder of Mr. Khashoggi,” Trump said in the statement. He went on: “Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” Trump issued the statement without referencing any conclusions in the latest CIA assessment on Khashoggi's murder, which he had said would be completed Tuesday."

Comfortable with this lunatic figuratively having his finger on the nuclear button?

"Trump made clear the US-Saudi relationship is one he refuses to diminish. This, despite outrage among members of his own party on Capitol Hill, who have vowed to seek justice in Khashoggi's killing. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo echoed the president's position at a briefing Tuesday. "So it's a mean, nasty world out there," Pompeo said. "It is the president's obligation and indeed the State Department's duty as well to ensure we adopt policies that further America's national security."

Unadulterated horse shit.  Direct opposite remains, sadly, the case.  Big Oil and corporate war profiteers are the ones that benefit.  Off looted drivers and taxpayers. Treason.

"He went on: "So as the president said today, the United States will continue to have a relationship with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, they are an important partner of ours."

A 'partner' that's lining the pockets of the corporate management suite off looted drivers and taxpayers.  Not all GOP nazis are fully on board, however:

“They’re an important ally, but when it comes to the Crown Prince, he’s irrational, he’s unhinged, and I think he’s done a lot of damage to the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and I have no intention of working with him ever again,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on Sunday."

Imagine that.  Couldn't be, could it?  LOL.  Finally, some sanity from the Graham nazi?

"The Saudis have denied the crown prince ordered Khashoggi's killing."

Lying bastards.

“The United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region. It is our paramount goal to fully eliminate the threat of terrorism throughout the world!” Trump said in his statement."

Egregious non-sequitur.  The Saudis finance and promulgate terrorism.  Trump doesn't know that?  ... Or, is it the fact money always comes first to the amoral nazi element in our formerly great country?

NBC News reports:

"Former CIA director John Brennan responded to Trump's statement by saying that Congress should obtain and make public the CIA's findings about Khashoggi's death. "Since Mr. Trump excels in dishonesty, it is now up to members of Congress to obtain & declassify the CIA findings on Jamal Khashoggi's death," said Brennan, a scathing critic of Trump. "No one in Saudi Arabia most especially the Crown Prince — should escape accountability for such a heinous act." Democrats also reacted critically. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calf., said that "to allow this to happen with no consequences is offensive to every value the United States holds dear." "Human rights is more than just a phrase, it has to mean something. And that means standing up and condemning a brazen murder by a foreign government," added Feinstein, who said she would vote against all future arms deals with the Saudis and urged sanctions against the country's rulers. "Everyone who played a role in this killing must be held accountable."

Trump couldn't care less.

The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump issued an exclamation-mark packed statement Tuesday that defended Saudi Arabia, continued to question the CIA’s conclusion that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was responsible for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and effectively declared the issue closed. “King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder of Mr. Khashoggi. Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” the statement read.

"In the eight-paragraph statement, the president lauded Saudi Arabia’s economic ties with the United States and emphasized the country’s opposition to Iran. He noted that Saudi Arabia considered Khashoggi an “enemy of the state” and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood but insisted that “my decision was in no way based on that.” He dismissed suggestions that he slash arms deals with Saudi Arabia, saying Russia and China would benefit instead.

"The president seemed to preempt likely criticism from Congress, where a number of pending bills seek to punish Saudi Arabia. Some of Trump’s allies, including Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), have said Mohammed has no credibility and they will not deal with him in the future. “I understand there are members of Congress who, for political or other reasons, would like to go in a different direction — and they are free to do so. I will consider whatever ideas are presented to me, but only if they are consistent with the absolute security and safety of America,” Trump said."

The president is hopelessly delusional.  Our country has lost itself.

Here's the regime the Trump nazi is shamelessly supporting.  CBS News reports:

"Several activists imprisoned in Saudi Arabia since May, including a number of women who campaigned for the right to drive, have been beaten and tortured during interrogation, Amnesty International said Tuesday.  Saudi Arabia has detained at least 10 women and seven men on vague national security allegations related to their human rights work. Those detained include Loujain al-Hathloul, Eman al-Nafjan and Aziza al-Yousef, who had campaigned for the right to drive before the decades-long ban was lifted in June. Amnesty said that according to three testimonies it obtained, some of the activists were repeatedly tortured by electrocution and flogging, leaving some unable to walk or stand properly. In one instance, an activist was hung from the ceiling. Another testimony said one of the detained women was subjected to sexual harassment by interrogators wearing face masks."

Goddamned savages.

"The kingdom is at the center of an international firestorm after the brutal killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who had written critically about Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's crackdown on dissent, including the arrests of the women activists. Khashoggi was killed and then dismembered by Saudi agents in the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. "Only a few weeks after the ruthless killing of Jamal Khashoggi, these shocking reports of torture, sexual harassment and other forms of ill-treatment, if verified, expose further outrageous human rights violations by the Saudi authorities," said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty's Middle East research director."

Here's the regime the Trump nazi continues to support:

"Some of the imprisoned activists were unable to walk or stand properly, had uncontrolled shaking of the hands and marks on their bodies. One of the activists reportedly attempted to take her own life repeatedly inside the prison, Amnesty said.  Al-Hathloul, an activist in her late 20s, was held in solitary confinement for around three months after her May arrest, a person close to her told The Associated Press. She was forcibly returned to Saudi Arabia earlier this year from the United Arab Emirates, where she was pursuing a master's degree in Abu Dhabi. Her husband was pressured into divorcing her after he too was forcibly returned to Saudi Arabia from Jordan, where he was working, according to the individual, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions."

Goes on and on. Wake up.

Trouble in 'paradise.'  NBC News reports:

"Amid international uproar over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, some members of Saudi Arabia's ruling family are agitating to prevent Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from becoming king, three sources close to the royal court said. Dozens of princes and cousins from powerful branches of the Al Saud family want to see a change in the line of succession but would not act while King Salman — the crown prince’s 82-year-old father — is still alive, the sources said. They recognize that the king is unlikely to turn against his favorite son, known in the West as MBS. Rather, they are discussing the possibility with other family members that after the king's death, Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, 76, a younger full brother of King Salman and uncle of the crown prince, could take the throne, according to the sources. Prince Ahmed, King Salman’s only surviving full brother, would have the support of family members, the security apparatus and some Western powers, one of the Saudi sources said."

ABC News reports:

"The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., sent a letter to the White House Tuesday evening to officially trigger an investigation into whether the young crown prince ordered the plot. The move sets up a showdown between Capitol Hill and the White House as members of both parties in Congress call on Trump to be tougher on Saudi Arabia. "It is a delicate situation when we have a longtime ally that we've had for decades, but we have a crown prince that I believe ordered the killing of a journalist," Corker told ABC Chattanooga, Tennessee, affiliate WTVC.

"Still, Corker and Menendez's letter requests the administration conduct an investigation of MBS's role under the Global Magnitsky Act, a 2016 law the authorizes U.S. sanctions for human rights abuses or corruption. The law grants Congress the authority to order the administration to investigate an individual and make a determination within 120 days, although it doesn't obligate the administration to then sanction the person. "In light of recent developments, including the Saudi government's acknowledgment that Saudi officials killed Mr. Khashoggi in its Istanbul consulate, we request that your determination specifically address whether Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman is responsible for Mr. Khashoggi's murder," the senators wrote."

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.

11-30-18

Amazing how aggressive stupidity, political correctness can go on and on, decade after decade.  NBC News reports:

"Newly empowered Democrats plan to let lawmakers wear religious head coverings on the House floor by creating an exception to a hat ban that has existed since 1837 — when there was reportedly very little debate before the enactment of a rule prohibiting what one member then described as the “really harmless but apparently indecorous practice” of indoor hat-wearing. In recent years, the rule hasn't been enforced to preclude members, staff or religious leaders from wearing head coverings on the floor, but the victory of Minnesota Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar, a Muslim who wears a headscarf, has put a spotlight on its continued existence. Democrats say they will add an exemption for religious headwear under their new package of rules changes for the next Congress, which begins in January, so that the protection of religious expression is explicit. The language will also cover someone wearing a head covering due to illness and loss of hair."

No question, a good change in rules that should have occurred quite some time ago.  Then, this:

"Democrats know that our strength lies in our diversity, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or religion,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in a statement to NBC News. “After voters elected the most diverse Congress in history, clarifying the antiquated rule banning headwear will further show the remarkable progress we have made as a nation."

Give me a break.  Democrats have been hopelessly out to lunch since November 22, 1963, the Kennedy assassination.  Time for Pelosi to retire.  Not to neglect to mention ole Mitch "The Bitch" McConnell and all the old wood in both major political parties.  Been there way too long.  Whatever happen to term limits championed by the Tea Party?  One of the few things these GOP fascists got right during their short run.

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.

11-30-18

DOJ Acting AG struggle continues unabated.  NPR reports:

"Critics intensified their pressure on the acting attorney general on Tuesday, but the Justice Department — including the office of special counsel Robert Mueller — says it's carrying out business as usual. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked the Justice Department's watchdog to investigate whether there have been any "unlawful or improper communications" between the White House and acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. Democrats say they worry Trump is using Whitaker to lean on Mueller, who is investigating whether anyone on Trump's campaign may have conspired with the Russians who attacked the 2016 election. Whitaker publicly criticized the Mueller investigation before joining the Trump administration."

Clearly, this remains a democratic republic in name only.  No one's effectively minding the store.  Democrats continue to blow hot air while Republican national socialists, fascists, nazis continue to do as they please.  Will go on until at least January when the House changes hands.

"Recent reports regarding Mr. Whitaker's unusual history of contacts with the White House give rise to serious concerns about whether he has engaged in communications intended to undermine or obstruct special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, or that otherwise may have been in violation of law or policy," Schumer wrote."

Yet, you and your fellow hopelessly useless, gutless Democrats won't even walk off the Senate floor in protest of these goddamned nazis?

"He was the latest Democrat to go on the offensive against Whitaker over what critics call his "unconstitutional" appointment. Trump put him in place over the Justice Department's already-serving and Senate-confirmed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein."

Empty rhetoric.  No action.

"A group of Democrats earlier sued the Justice Department in federal court over that appointment, arguing that Whitaker's installation amounts to a bid by Trump to constrain Mueller's work." "The idea that Matthew Whitaker will control this investigation is absolutely abhorrent. He should at the very least recuse himself," Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal told NPR. "He's already stated that he thinks that the investigation is in effect a hoax. He has provided a blueprint for how to stifle and strangle it by cutting funds, cutting authority, declining subpoenas."

All you got?  Empty rhetoric?  Hot air?  Where's action on the Senate floor?  You gutless pieces of human excrement couldn't even get your sorry asses in attendance of recent ongoing judicial nomination hearings conducted by the Republicans during the recess.  To load the judiciary with GOP nazis intent on legislating their outrageously perverse ideological and religious views from the bench.  Pitiful.  Goddamned pitiful.

CBS News reports:

"Before joining the Justice Department, acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker earned nearly $1 million from a right-leaning nonprofit that doesn't disclose its donors, according to newly released financial disclosure forms. The documents show Whitaker received $904,000 in income from the Foundation for Accountability & Civic Trust from 2016 through nearly the end of 2017. He also received $15,000 from CNN as a legal commentator, according to the documents released Tuesday by the Justice Department. The nonprofit group, known as FACT, styles itself as a nonpartisan government watchdog promoting ethics and transparency. The tax-exempt group is supposed to serve the public interest without supporting or opposing specific candidates for office. However, its challenges and its website have focused largely, though not exclusively, on Democrats and their party. The group does not disclose its donors."

How convenient.  Nazi justice.  Delusionally believe either party is better than the other?

"Whitaker used his role as president and executive director of FACT in 2016 as a platform to question the ethics of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. The documents show that Whitaker began revising his public disclosures the day he was appointed acting attorney general. He revised the forms four more times, including on Tuesday. In a disclosure form Whitaker completed when he joined the Justice Department in September 2017, he reported receiving $1,875 in legal fees from a company called World Patent Marketing. Whitaker has come under scrutiny for his involvement with the company, which was accused of misleading consumers and is under investigation by the FBI. Whitaker also disclosed his partial interest in a family farm in Ely, Iowa, that he valued at between $100,000 and $250,000. The forms also included disclosures of $20,000 to $30,000 in credit card debt in 2017."

What webs we weave:

"FACT drew its funds from 2014-2016 mainly from Donor's Trust, another nonprofit designed to provide anonymity to conservative and libertarian donors. Though such tax-exempt groups can legally withhold the identity of their contributors and generally do so, there may be a distinct irony when a group dedicated to transparency keeps its funding sources in the shadows."

You think?

"Whitaker's appointment has been criticized by Democrats who have challenged its constitutionality and are concerned that he will interfere with special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Earlier Tuesday, the Senate's top Democrat asked the Justice Department's watchdog to investigate communications between Whitaker and the White House. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked the inspector general to look into whether Whitaker had access to confidential grand jury information in Mueller's probe. Schumer also wants investigators to examine whether Whitaker shared information with Trump or others in the administration. John Lavinsky, a spokesman for the DOJ inspector general, declined to comment on Schumer's request."

Fascinating, isn't it?

The Washington Post reports:

"Raeanna Woody’s crimes hardly seemed like they would add up to a life sentence in prison. She had two nonviolent drug convictions, for possessing marijuana and delivering 12 grams of methamphetamine. But when she was arrested in a third drug case, she said, the office of U.S. Attorney Matthew G. Whitaker decided to make an example of her. Under Whitaker, who is now acting attorney general, Woody was given a choice: spend the rest of her life in jail, or accept a plea bargain sentence of 21 to 27 years, according to court records. She took the deal. Federal Judge Robert W. Pratt in the Southern District of Iowa later accused prosecutors of having “misused” their authority in her nonviolent case. He urged President Barack Obama to commute her sentence — and Obama did shorten her term , after she had served 11 years."

Nazi justice in a goddamned fascist police-state quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.

"Woody’s case highlights one of the most controversial if little-known aspects of Whitaker’s career: his efforts to obtain unusually stiff sentences for people accused of drug crimes."

What law and order Republican nazi wouldn't?  Forget?  Goes with the territory.

"Whitaker spent nearly five years as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa. His office was more likely than all but one other district in the United States to use its authority to impose the harshest sentences on drug offenders, according to a finding by a different Iowa federal judge, Mark W. Bennett, who it called a “deeply troubling disparity.” “If the president can look at my case and he can see that what I had done wasn’t severe enough to warrant that many years, then why was I given that many years to begin with, why was that much of my life taken from me?” Woody, a 57-year-old mother of five, said in an interview. “I blame Whitaker’s office and everybody underneath him.”

Called nazi justice.

"The Justice Department declined to comment for this article."

What the f--k could it say?  There is no excuse for this shit.  None.  None at all.  No more than egregious abuse of power.

"Whitaker’s record on drug sentencing is newly relevant after President Trump ousted Jeff Sessions as attorney general this month and replaced him with Whitaker, who was Sessions’s chief of staff. Trump last week announced his support for legislation that would give judges more discretion in sentencing nonviolent drug offenders and reducing prison terms. Sessions had opposed the bill. Now Whitaker, as acting head of the Justice Department, is in a powerful position to try to influence the outcome."

God help us all.  Blind leading the blind.  Stupid leading the stupid.  Incompetent leading the incompetent.  All a sad, sick ruse presided over by a charlatan.

"Whitaker has come under intense scrutiny since Trump appointed him on Nov. 7. His unorthodox selection, with no Senate confirmation, has drawn attention because of concerns that he would interfere with or shut down special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. He has also drawn scrutiny for saying that judges should have a “biblical view” of the law and that courts should be an “inferior branch” of government. In addition, he worked as a board member for an invention-marketing company that shut down in May and agreed to pay nearly $26 million to resolve a complaint from the Federal Trade Commission, which accused it of bilking customers."

This achingly clueless fascist bastard presents an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  Precisely, why the Trump nazi chose him.

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.

11-30-18

Think the Trump nazi and his henchmen can be trusted?  ... Can any nazi?  NPR reports:

"The Justice Department has discussed the possibility that federal law protecting the confidentiality of responses to the U.S. census may eventually be reconsidered, an internal Trump administration email shows."

That's a problem.  A big problem.

"Sharing individuals' census information with law enforcement and national security officers may "come up later for renewed debate," a former Justice Department official suggested in a June 12 email discussing an Obama-era memo issued by the department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC)."

De facto fascist police-state since 9/11 quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.

"The email, first reported by NPR on Nov. 17, was submitted last Friday to the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California in a court filing by Andrew Case, an attorney with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. The law firm, along with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Public Counsel, is representing the plaintiffs in one of the six lawsuits over the citizenship question the Trump administration added to the 2020 census."

None of this traitorous, treasonous, treacherous nazi government's goddamned business.

"Last week, the Supreme Court decided to weigh in on the legal battle, and the justices are set to hear arguments over an evidence dispute in February.

"In an email, spokesperson Kelly Laco said the Justice Department declined to comment on NPR's questions about Aguiñaga's email, including whether the department still agrees with the 2010 memo and if the issues addressed in the memo have come up for discussion under the Trump administration. The department also did not comment on whether there are any laws that could force the Census Bureau to release information for law enforcement or national security purposes. Aguiñaga, who has left the Justice Department and currently serves as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, has not responded to requests for comment."

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.

11-30-18

More Trump lies debunked.  NBC News reports:

"Former top members of the intelligence community rebuked President Donald Trump on Monday for deriding the retired Navy SEAL who oversaw the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden as a "Hillary Clinton backer" and suggesting that he should have caught the al Qaeda leader sooner. Responses to Trump's comments about retired Adm. Bill McRaven, who has criticized the president's attacks on the press, poured in Monday from former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who said Trump should apologize. "This president owes Admiral McRaven and all of the SEALS involved in that operation an apology for what he's saying. He's undermining his position as commander-in-chief. Not only with those that conducted the operation, but with the entire military," Panetta, who served as the U.S. Secretary of Defense under President Barack Obama at the time of the 2011 raid that killed bin Laden, said on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" Monday. In a public statement issued later in the day, Panetta said Trump's "statement criticizing McRaven for not getting Bin Laden sooner is patently ridiculous" and "demonstrates a profound lack of understanding of how our military and intelligence agencies operate."

No question.  That's true.  Fair enough.  Trump demonstrates that on a daily basis.  The unanswered question, however, remains the same since the raid.  That is, since bin Laden offered no resistance, why wasn't he taken alive and returned to Manhattan for trial?  Instead of summarily executed during the raid.

"Earlier in the day, Brennan, who was Obama's homeland security adviser at the time of the bin Laden raid and served as CIA director from 2013 to 2017, tweeted to Trump that "you constantly remind us how substantively shallow & dishonest you are on so many fronts, which is why we are in such dangerous times." “You would need an extremely tall ladder to get anywhere near the level of intellect, competence & integrity of Bill McRaven & your predecessors,” Brennan, a prominent Trump critic, said on Twitter.

    "You constantly remind us how substantively shallow & dishonest you are on so many fronts, which is why we are in such dangerous times. You would need an extremely tall ladder to get anywhere near the level of intellect, competence & integrity of Bill McRaven & your predecessors. https://t.co/uW95ZALUZ7
    — John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) November 19, 2018"

Points well made.  Figuratively, right on target.

"Meanwhile, Robert O’Neill, a former Navy SEAL who claims to have fired the shots that killed bin Laden, told NBC News' Hallie Jackson Monday that "what the president said about McRaven" was "a little inaccurate" "The raid to get Osama bin Laden was not only bipartisan, it was non-partisan. Everybody involved wanted to get him as soon as we could get him," O'Neill said. "Admiral McRaven is the reason that my SEAL team got it and Obama approved it. That's just as simple as it gets," he added."

Is it?  Did the former President order the SEALs to capture him alive if possible and return him to New York for trial?  After all these years, certainly, does not remain precisely clear what the directive truly was.

"In an interview with Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday,” Trump blasted McRaven, who oversaw the raid, as a "Hillary Clinton fan" and said bin Laden should have been captured much sooner, though he did not explain how the Obama administration should have done so. The president made the comments after Wallace asked him about McRaven's criticism of Trump's attacks on the press. Last year, McRaven, who did not make an endorsement in the 2016 presidential election, called Trump's lambasting of the news media possibly "the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime" during a speech at the University of Texas.

    "Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Center. President Clinton famously missed his shot. We paid Pakistan Billions of Dollars & they never told us he was living there. Fools!..
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2018"

Trump continues to talk out the ass.  Clearly, has no clue what he's talking about.

"McRaven responded on Sunday, telling CNN that he did not support Clinton or anyone else in the 2016 election. He emphasized that partisanship did not play a role in his career. On Monday morning, however, Trump doubled down on his remarks, tweeting that, "Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did."

They did not capture bin Laden, summarily executed him.

NPR reports:

"President Trump tried to sidestep criticism from a former top military commander by insisting that retired Adm. William McRaven is simply a political player from the camp of his former opponent Hillary Clinton. That's not so. Trump sought to undermine McRaven's words by denying them the imprimatur of a decorated former four-star special operations commander. Instead, as the president said in a Fox News Sunday interview, they were just more carping from a "Hillary Clinton fan." But McRaven told CNN he did not back Clinton "or anyone else" in the 2016 presidential contest. And he stood by his earlier claim that Trump's attacks on the news media represent a threat to democracy. McRaven denied the occasional trial-balloon reports that he was being vetted to serve as a potential running mate for Clinton or in some other top administration post if she had been elected. While both Clinton and Trump sought to line up military endorsements during the 2016 contest, McRaven — who was serving as chancellor of the University of Texas system — said he did not want to take sides. He told CNN he supported both Presidents Obama and George W. Bush when he served under them. "I admire all presidents, regardless of their political party, who uphold the dignity of the office and who use that office to bring the nation together in challenging times," McRaven said."

Trump is the exception:

"That admiration did not, however, extend to Trump. In an op-ed for the Washington Post addressed to Trump this summer, McRaven wrote that he had hoped the president would rise to the occasion after being elected, but that he had been disappointed. "Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation," McRaven wrote. "If you think for a moment that your McCarthy-era tactics will suppress the voices of criticism, you are sadly mistaken. The criticism will continue until you become the leader we prayed you would be." McRaven also joined a group of former top national security leaders who asked Trump to take away their security clearances after Trump pulled the one that belonged to another critic, former CIA Director John Brennan."

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.

11-30-18

Trump border stunt continues.  Texas Standard reports:

"Tara Copp is Pentagon bureau chief for Military Times and says criticism of the border deployment is growing, and its actual purpose and duration is still unclear. Copp says incoming House Committee on Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington state, said the troop deployment is a political stunt, and racially motivated. He wants the troops brought home quickly."

Why are we wasting taxpayer dollars on this fiasco?  There is no 'invasion.'  There is no threat.

"Copp says Defense Secretary James Mattis denied that the deployment was a stunt, but didn’t explain what the military's mission on the border actually entails."

If there is no reasonable explanation, then this is nothing more than a stunt.  By definition.

"The approaching holiday season, and the troops’ proximity to restaurants and other symbols of American holiday life and culture, are making the deployment challenging for officials to explain."

Why?  Non-sequitur.  The military always has a reason for what it does or doesn't do.  Top-down.  Certainly, not bottom-up.  Doesn't have to be smart, warranted, or reasonable, moreover.  Only that they salute and promptly execute all orders.  There is no explanation in this particular example, however, for one reason and one reason only.  The Trump nazi is doing this for political purposes.  To keep his sick sycophants on board and in line.

“I think that there’s a general awareness in the Pentagon that this is just not great optics,” Copp says."

You think?  Forget?  'Stupid is as stupid does.'  ... Right, Mr. 'President?'

NBC News reports:

"U.S. troops on the border with Mexico are expected to get authority from President Donald Trump to protect Customs and Border Protection personnel if they come under assault by migrants, two defense officials said."

There is no 'invasion.'  There is no threat.  Trump remains a lunatic.

"The force protection mandate, which didn't exist before, was requested by the Department of Homeland Security and could go into effect Tuesday, the officials told NBC News."

Why?  You gutless bastards murder innocent unarmed Mexican protesters on the other side of the border by shooting them in the back when they throw stones at your jackbooted thugs.  Instead, of moving back from the fence.  You're achingly gutless pieces of shit.

“As Secretary Nielsen has said, we will not allow our frontline personnel to be in harm’s way. We will do everything we can to protect those who defend our nation’s sovereignty and secure our border. We appreciate the Department of Defense stepping in to assist the Department of Homeland Security as needed," said DHS spokeswoman Katie Waldman."

Crock of shit.  Careful, Madam Secretary.  Posse Commitatus laws remain on the books that outlaw military personnel from engaging in law enforcement.  This is nothing more than a trumped up crisis by the Trump nazi to keep his sick sycophants on board and in line.

"About 5,800 troops have been deployed to the border to join the 2,000 already stationed there. They are a mix of active duty, reserve and National Guard forces and in addition to thousands of border patrol agents already deployed to the area. The operation, renamed earlier this month from "Operation Faithful Patriot" to "border support," will cost at minimum $200 million, estimates say."

A stunt by the Trump nazi middle class taxpayers will be mercilessly looted to pay for.  While corporate war profiteers and bribed legislators line their pockets.

CBS News reports:

"The busiest U.S. border crossing is open again this morning, after a confrontation forced it to close temporarily Sunday, as frustration among thousands of migrants upset by the slow pace of the U.S. asylum process boiled over. Yesterday, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents fired tear gas at hundreds of people, including women and children, after some of them tried to force their way across the border between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. Reporting from Tijuana, correspondent Mireya Villarreal said that the official port of entry was closed for about five hours yesterday. Violence erupted as Mexican police attempted to break up the protesters, and some made a run for the border between Tijuana and San Diego, California."

Readers are reminded this fiasco has its roots dating back to the Reagan Iran-Contra era.  When Reagan and his henchmen put their noses where they didn't belong.  Engaged in dirty tactics designed to combat communism in Latin America which similarly was already failing in the former Soviet Union at the time.

Without question, Reagan's tactics gave rise to far more abusive right wing regimes which subsequently abused their citizens, led to formation of the gangs.  To say nothing of the current resultant refugee crisis.  Now, the Trump nazi incomprehensibly ignores a crisis of our own making.

"One migrant from Honduras said, "They started throwing tear gas at us. There were many children who fainted." Video from a Mexican news channel appears to show an American border patrol agent yelling at migrants nearing the border to get back. He then fires rubber bullets, and people scatter. "It was like something out of a movie," one woman said. "Everyone started running."

"On Monday morning President Trump tweeted that many of the migrants are "stone cold criminals," and threatened to close the border permanently.

    "Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries. Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A. We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2018"

Trump remains nothing more than a congenital liar.  Has no proof of his assertions.  Continues to talk out his ass.  Show us the proof, Donny boy.  Show us the proof.

"On Thursday, the Mexican government issued a statement saying it was requesting help from the United Nations's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in dealing with the crisis in Tijuana. However, OCHA spokesman Russell Geekie told CBS News on Sunday that neither OCHA nor the U.N.'s Resident Coordinator in Mexico had received any requests for help."

Apparently, the Mexicans are lying.  Don't know what to do to please the Trump nazi.

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.

11-30-18

The military has another pressing issue it's going to have to address sooner rather than later.  NBC News reports:

"At the foot of the Chesapeake Bay in southeast Virginia lies a Naval shipyard older than the nation itself. One of the country’s first warships was built here in 1799. So was the first battleship, and decades later the first aircraft carrier. Over the past three centuries, Norfolk Naval Shipyard has been blockaded and burned to the ground, only to be rebuilt again and again. Today, it’s one of four Navy shipyards that maintain the nation’s nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers, which enable the Pentagon to respond quickly to military and humanitarian crises across the globe."

A resource this country cannot afford to lose:

"But the shipyard now faces its greatest existential threat: rising seas and extreme weather driven by climate change. In the past 10 years, Norfolk Naval Shipyard has suffered nine major floods that have damaged equipment used to repair ships, and the flooding is worsening, according to the Navy. In 2016, rain from Hurricane Matthew left 2 feet of water in one building, requiring nearly $1.2 million in repairs. And that wasn’t even a direct hit — the most immediate worry, former military leaders say, is a strong storm that blows right through the area. “It would have the potential for serious, if not catastrophic damage, and it would certainly put the shipyard out of business for some amount of time,” said Ray Mabus, who was the Navy secretary under President Barack Obama. “That has implications not just for the shipyard, but for us, for the Navy.” Among the shipyard’s greatest vulnerabilities are its five dry docks, which are waterside basins that can be sealed and pumped dry to expose a ship’s hull for repairs. Once inside, vessels are often cut open, leaving expensive mechanical systems vulnerable to damage from storms and flooding. The dry docks “were not designed to accommodate the threats” of rising seas and stronger storms, according to a 2017 report by the Government Accountability Office. Navy officials warned the government watchdog agency that flooding in a dry dock could cause “catastrophic damage to the ships.”

Time to wake up.  Before 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.

11-30-18

Judiciary again stands tall against Trump and his henchmen.  The Washington Post reports:

"A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from denying asylum to migrants who crossed the southern border illegally, saying the president violated a “clear command” from Congress to allow them to apply. In a ruling late Monday, U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar of San Francisco issued a nationwide restraining order barring enforcement of the policy President Trump announced Nov. 8, which he billed as an urgent attempt to stop the flow of thousands of asylum-seeking families across the border each month. The government had said it would allow only people who cross at legal checkpoints to request asylum. Those entering elsewhere could seek a temporary form of protection that is harder to win and doesn’t yield full citizenship. The changes would amount to a transformation of long-established asylum procedures, codified both at the international level and by Congress. “Whatever the scope of the President’s authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden,” wrote the judge, whom President Barack Obama nominated to the federal bench in 2012. Tigar reasoned that the “failure to comply with entry requirements such as arriving at a designated port of entry should bear little, if any, weight in the asylum process.”

Judicial check on presidential abuse of power:

"Tigar said the president could not shift asylum policy on his own. His order will remain in effect until Dec. 19, at which point the court will consider arguments for a permanent order."

Be interesting to see how this is finally resolved.  Likely, in the U.S. Supreme Court.  Think Trump's five Republican nazis on the Court will goose step in unison?

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.

11-30-18

Walmart steps up.  Had no choice.  CBS News reports:

"Walmart, the nation's largest retail chain, has asked the campaign of Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., to refund a total of $4,000 in campaign donations after actress Debra Messing flagged the contribution and complained to her more than 530,000 Twitter followers. The most recent donation from a Walmart PAC was reported on Nov. 18, according to a Federal Election Commission report. The contribution was reported several days after Hyde-Smith was caught on camera joking alongside one of her longtime supporters that if he ever invited her to attend a public hanging, she'd sit in the front row. Hyde-Smith and her campaign later clarified that the comment was a bad joke. But talk of public hangings in a state with a deep history of them earned a strong rebuke from her Democratic opponent, Mike Espy, who is African-American, other Mississippi Democrats and national civil rights groups."

NBC News reports:

"Walmart on Tuesday said it was "requesting a refund" from the campaign of Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith after the company came under pressure to distance itself from the Mississippi lawmaker's "public hanging" remark. Campaign finance records show that the company made a $2,000 donation on Nov. 18, nearly a week after a video of Hyde-Smith saying she would be "on the front row" if a supporter invited her to "a public hanging" went viral. Records also show the company gave a $1,000 contribution to her campaign this past June. The retail giant announced its decision to withdraw its support from Hyde-Smith in response to actress Debra Messing, who tweeted about the issue on Monday.

"Hi Debra. Completely understand your concern. Sen. Hyde-Smith’s recent comments clearly do not reflect the values of our company and associates. As a result, we are withdrawing our support and requesting a refund of all campaign donations.
    — Walmart (@Walmart) November 20, 2018"

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.

11-30-18

Think the Israelis aren't behaving like out of control savages?  ABC News reports:

"A senior Israeli Cabinet minister on Wednesday threatened to kill the leader of the militant Hamas movement ruling Gaza, vowing that another "large campaign" looms in which Israel will hit the militants hard. Housing Minister Yoav Gallant, a former military general who commanded the Gaza region, said Hamas leader Yehiyeh Sinwar should "recalculate his route" before the next engagement. "Yehiyeh Sinwar's time is limited. He will not end his life in an old folks' home," he said, at the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference. "He has to behave himself."

'Kettle calling the pot black.'  LOL.

"We are now close to a no-choice war against Hamas in Gaza. We must strike hard to restore deterrence," Intelligence Minister Israel Katz told the conference. "Any attack on Israeli soil must be met with a tough response ... if Sinwar or (Hamas political chief Ismail) Haniyeh were to fire a bullet or a rocket at a soldier or Israeli citizens they will pay with their heads."

Wake up.  Remove your head from your ass.  Deterrence?  What deterrence?  The unmitigated brutality of the Israeli aggressor has done nothing more than increase determination of the Palestinians and others in the region since 1948.

"Israel assassinated Hamas leaders Ahmad Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi in 2004, and tried to kill another leader, Khaled Mashaal, in 1997. The killing of senior members of the group has had no discernible impact on its operations or ideology."

You bastards so clueless, so hopelessly arrogant you cannot, will not understand what you've done to date has had the exact opposite effect intended?

"Hamas has staged near-weekly border protests since March in an effort to lift the Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after the Islamic militant group seized control of the coastal strip in 2007. The blockade has ravaged Gaza's economy, and Israel refuses to lift it unless Hamas disarms, a demand rejected by militant group, which is pledged to Israel's destruction. Demonstrators each week have approached the border fence, throwing firebombs, grenades and burning tires at Israeli troops. Israeli snipers have killed about 170 people, most of them unarmed. Israel says it is defending its border against attackers, but it has come under heavy international criticism for shooting unarmed people."

Holocaust survivors stole land from its Palestinian inhabitants in 1948 with the blessing of the United States, Europe, and the United Nations.  Did so without consulting the Palestinians.  Made no effort to come to an understanding or agreement.  Occupied land your ancestors lost centuries ago due to their excesses. Wake up.

"Nobody wants war in Gaza now. It will be very damaging for everyone," said Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. "I hope we can step back from this terrible cycle where every Friday we are wondering if we will go to war or not."

Our country, the United States, is the ongoing problem.  An impediment to peace.  Continues to mindlessly support the Israeli aggressor no matter what it does or doesn't do.  Won't rein in the aggressor.  Someday that will change when Americans finally wake up.  When that happens, so will the unthinkable.  That is, Israel, horrendously outnumbered by its enemies, will be destroyed as US support dries up and finally ends.  Time to resolve this issue now.  Before 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.

11-30-18

Trump's an idiot.  Losing ground.  CBS News reports:

"President Donald Trump on Wednesday cheered the fall in oil prices, saying in a tweet that it amounts to "a big Tax Cut for America and the World. Enjoy! $54, was just $82. Thank you to Saudi Arabia, but let's go lower!" While the fall in oil prices doesn't yet match the 2014-2016 slump to $26 per barrel, the current slump should soon make itself felt through the global economy. The international crude benchmark, Brent, has fallen under $65 per barrel from a four-year high in early October over $86, and U.S. crude has dropped below $55 a barrel."

Wake up.  We now export more oil than we import.  Other than to line the pockets of domestic Big Oil and its international operations, why are we importing any oil?  Why aren't we totally energy independent?  Should and could have been for decades.  Time to rethink how and why we do things.  Alternative energy is the long-term future. Not fossil fuels.  Time to transition.  No matter the pain.  If the Trump nazi truly placed 'America First,' he'd buck Big Oil and call for total energy independence.

Truly believe Trump's not an idiot?  Here's a clue.  The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump on Tuesday dismissed a landmark report compiled by 13 federal agencies detailing how damage from global warming is intensifying throughout the country, saying he is not among the “believers” who see climate change as a pressing problem. The comments were the president’s most extensive yet on why he disagrees with his own government’s analysis, which found that climate change poses a severe threat to the health of Americans, as well as to the country’s infrastructure, economy and natural resources. The findings — unequivocal, urgent and alarming — are at odds with the Trump administration’s rollback of environmental regulations and absence of any climate action policy."

'Stupid is as stupid does.'  LOL.  Here's the proof:

“One of the problems that a lot of people like myself, we have very high levels of intelligence but we’re not necessarily such believers,” Trump said during a freewheeling 20-minute Oval Office interview with The Washington Post in which he was asked why he was skeptical of the dire National Climate Assessment his administration released Friday. “As to whether or not it’s man-made and whether or not the effects that you’re talking about are there, I don’t see it,” he added."

Stupidly, talks out the ass.  No proof, no evidence to back up his phony claims.  Claims, based no more than on his clueless agenda.

"Trump did not address the fundamental cause of climate change. The president riffed on pollution in other parts of the world. He talked about trash in the oceans. He opined on forest management practices. But he said little about what scientists say is actually driving the warming of the planet — emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. “You look at our air and our water and it’s right now at a record clean. But when you look at China and you look at parts of Asia and you look at South America, and when you look at many other places in this world, including Russia, including many other places, the air is incredibly dirty, and when you’re talking about an atmosphere, oceans are very small,” Trump said in an apparent reference to pollution around the globe. “And it blows over and it sails over. I mean we take thousands of tons of garbage off our beaches all the time that comes over from Asia. It just flows right down the Pacific. It flows and we say, ‘Where does this come from?’ And it takes many people, to start off with.”

Stupid-ass rambling of an incompetent out of touch boob.  Ignores the facts, consensus of the scientific community:

"Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, said in an email Tuesday that the president’s comments risk leaving the nation vulnerable to the ever-growing impacts of a warming planet. “Facts aren’t something we need to believe to make them true — we treat them as optional at our peril,” Hayhoe said. “And if we’re the president of the United States, we do so at the peril of not just ourselves but the hundreds of millions of people we’re responsible for.” Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, struggled to find a response to the president’s comments. “How can one possibly respond to this?” Dessler said when reached by email, calling the president’s comments “idiotic” and saying Trump’s main motivation seemed to be attacking the environmental policies of the Obama administration and criticizing political adversaries."

Again, comes solely down to the agenda of the achingly clueless nazi currently occupying the Oval Office.

"On Tuesday, a U.N. report underscored again how the world is far off course on its promises to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. The report found that, with global emissions still increasing as of 2017, it is unlikely they will peak by 2020. Scientists have said carbon emissions must fall sharply in coming years if the world is to have a chance of avoiding the worst consequences of climate change. Trump also made reference to recent devastating wildfires in California, which scientists say have been made more intense and deadly by climate change. But the president instead focused on how the forests that burned have been managed. Previously, he has praised Finland for spending “a lot of time on raking and cleaning” its forest floors — a notion that left the Finnish president flummoxed."

Proof positive: 'can fix ignorant, can't fix stupid.'  The president clearly does not know what he's talking about.  Remains grossly unfit for office.

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.

11-30-18

A step in the right direction.  Personal freedom.  NPR reports:

"A federal judge in Mississippi has permanently blocked one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country — a ban on the procedure after 15 weeks of gestation. The law was signed by Republican Gov. Phil Bryant in March, but a court quickly imposed a temporary block, which was extended several times. The order was set to expire Monday. "The ban's lawfulness hinges on a single question: whether the 15-week mark is before or after viability," District Judge Carlton W. Reeves wrote in his Tuesday ruling. "The record is clear: States may not ban abortions prior to viability; 15 weeks [since a woman's last menstrual period] is prior to viability," he wrote.

"Reuters reports the ruling effectively blocks a similar ban on abortions after 15 weeks gestation in Louisiana, which was set to take effect if the Mississippi law survived. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat, said he knew the law would be difficult to defend in court. "We know that bans below 20 weeks have been struck down," he said in March. "We expect an immediate and expensive legal challenge." "The State chose to pass a law it knew was unconstitutional to endorse a decades-long campaign, fueled by national interest groups, to ask the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade," Reeves wrote. "This Court follows the commands of the Supreme Court and the dictates of the United States Constitution, rather than the disingenuous calculations of the Mississippi Legislature." "The Mississippi Legislature's professed interest in 'women's health' is pure gaslighting," he wrote in a citation. "Its leaders are proud to challenge Roe but choose not to lift a finger to address the tragedies lurking on the other side of the delivery room: our alarming infant and maternal mortality rate."

"Our victory today means that women in Mississippi will maintain the ability to make their own decisions about whether and when to terminate a pregnancy," said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of Jackson Women's Health Organization, the last remaining abortion clinic in the state. "Today's decision should be a wake-up call for state lawmakers who are continuously trying to chip away at abortion access. Such bans will not stand in a court of law," she said in a news statement."

If there is no reproductive freedom, there is no freedom at all.  Who the hell are Republican national socialists, fascists, nazis to impose their outrageously perverse religious and ideological views on all?  These goddamned nazi sons of bitches remain too clueless to understand reproductive freedom is far more than a man keeping it in his pants, a woman with panties up and legs crossed.

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.

11-30-18

Finally, some sanity in the Trump community?  ABC News reports:

"Alan Dershowitz, a frequent defender of President Donald Trump, said special counsel Robert Mueller’s report will be “devastating” for the president. The Harvard Law professor emeritus told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos that he believes the president will have to navigate the political impact of a potentially damning final report from the special counsel. “I think the report is going to be devastating to the president and I know that the president's team is already working on a response to the report,” Dershowitz said on "This Week" Sunday. Dershowitz added that he believes the report, although it will have a strong political impact, is unlikely to result in criminal charges. “When I say devastating, I mean it's going to paint a picture that's going to be politically very devastating. I still don't think it's going to make a criminal case,” Dershowitz said."

Could likely provoke an impeachment investigation with Democrats retaking the House.  Mueller, to date, has certainly been productive:

"Since the probe started in May of last year, Mueller’s team secured indictments against 32 individuals and three Russian businesses on charges ranging from computer hacking to financial crimes. Of those indictments, six people have pleaded guilty and three have been sentenced to prison."

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.

11-30-18

Here's the end result when the power of despot dictators goes unchecked.  NPR reports:

"Russian warships seized three Ukrainian naval vessels on Sunday in a narrow waterway that provides access from the Black Sea to the much smaller Sea of Azov near Crimea, ramping up already bitter tensions between the two countries. On Sunday, Russia dispatched warplanes to patrol the area after the Ukrainian navy tried to send the ships through the Kerch Strait, a waterway with strategic significance for both countries that passes under a newly built Russian bridge. In May, President Vladimir Putin personally opened the bridge over the Kerch Strait, connecting the Crimea peninsula — which Moscow seized in 2014 — to Russia's mainland. The 12-mile-long span has been touted by Russia as a claim to Crimea. Ukraine, along with nearly every other country in the world, refuses to recognize that claim. Russian vessels rammed one of the Ukrainian boats and opened fire on the other two before seizing all three, along with their crews. Ukrainian officials have said six of its sailors were injured; Russia has said three. The boats were towed to a nearby port. Video from a Russian ship, including strong language from the bridge crew, shows it ramming a Ukrainian tug boat — one of the three vessels that was reportedly seized."

This is going nowhere good:

"In response, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called a late-night meeting with top security officials in the capital city of Kiev. Poroshenko described the incident as open Russian aggression and said he planned to ask parliament to approve the imposition of martial law. Doing so would restrict Ukrainians' civil liberties and increase state power and give the unpopular president a free hand to postpone elections in March, where he faces an uphill battle to hold onto power. Russian state media said Poroshenko provoked the maritime incident as a means of delaying the election — and potentially to raise the stakes between President Trump and Putin, who are due to meet later this week."

Question to be asked is quite simple.  Why wasn't Russia held accountable at the time it seized Crimea?  Why didn't the world break off diplomatic relations at the time?  End all trade?  Isolate the aggressor?  Instead, did nothing.  Give a dictator an inch, the bastard takes a light-year.

"The incident sparked an international response and concern mainly for Ukraine over its more powerful nemesis. The European Union issued a statement "urging all sides to act with utmost restraint." NATO called for "restraint and deescalation." "NATO fully supports Ukraine's sovereignty and its territorial waters," NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said in a statement. "We call on Russia to ensure unhindered access to Ukrainian posts in the Azov Sea, in accordance with international law." The United Nations Security Council is expected to hold an emergency meeting on the incident Monday. Russia blocked off the strait before the incident and reopened it to commercial shipping early 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.

11-30-18

Google lines its pockets off your personal data.  Worse?  Aids and abets dictators, -- to line its pockets.  Think not?  Wake up.  Profit comes first.  Principle?  What's that?  NPR reports:

"Several Google employees have gone public with their opposition to the tech giant's plans for building a search engine tailored to China's censorship demands. The project, code-named Dragonfly, would block certain websites and search terms determined by the Chinese government — a move that, according to a growing number of workers at Google, is tantamount to enabling "state surveillance." "We are among thousands of employees who have raised our voices for months. International human rights organizations and investigative reporters have also sounded the alarm, emphasizing serious human rights concerns and repeatedly calling on Google to cancel the project," said the letter's signatories, whose group initially numbered nine employees but has ballooned since its publication on Medium.

"News of the program first surfaced in the website The Intercept, which reported in August that the customized search engine would "blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest." As NPR's Jasmine Garsd explained, those terms would likely include such words as "repression," "Nobel Prize" and "Tiananmen Square," the Beijing landmark where Chinese authorities brutally subdued mass protests nearly three decades ago. "And this is really important," she told NPR's Morning Edition: "The search platform would also reportedly make Chinese users' search records accessible to the government."

Raises the question is Google turning over search records in the United States to government goons without a warrant?

"Other news outlets, such as The New York Times, backed up the Intercept's reporting, noting Google's desire to tap the huge Chinese market — though adding that work on the project does not necessarily mean its release is imminent. Google once ran a similarly censored version of its search engine in China, but it officially pulled out of the country in 2010 after friction with Beijing and significant backlash in the U.S. The employees are not alone in expressing their dismay at reports of the new project's development. In fact, they released their letter the same day that Amnesty International launched a protest of its own. The human rights organization announced it would be reaching out to Google staff to add their names to a petition calling on CEO Sundar Pichai to kill the project before it can even get off the ground."

Snowball's chance that will happen.  Forget?  Profit comes first to the corporate management suite.

"This is a watershed moment for Google," Joe Westby, Amnesty's researcher on technology and human rights, said in a statement Tuesday. "As the world's number one search engine, it should be fighting for an internet where information is freely accessible to everyone, not backing the Chinese government's dystopian alternative."

Use Google?  You're a fool.  While there is no question its search engine is indeed powerful, they track.  Sell and share user information.  DuckDuckGo and Startpage do not.  Both are excellent, particularly, DuckDuckGo.  There are alternatives to Google.  Wake up.

"This is also not the first time Google's leadership has gotten pushback from within its own ranks over company policies. The tech giant decided not to renew a contract with the Pentagon after employees revolted over a controversial project involving artificial intelligence for drone footage analysis. "Many of us accepted employment at Google with the company's values in mind, including its previous position on Chinese censorship and surveillance, and an understanding that Google was a company willing to place its values above its profits," the employees said in their letter Tuesday. "After a year of disappointments including Project Maven, Dragonfly, and Google's support for abusers, we no longer believe this is the case," they wrote. "This is why we're taking a stand."

Wake up.  Time for the public to hold these bastards accountable.  Not just cave in.

The Washington Post reports:

"More than 90 Google employees have joined a petition protesting the company’s plans to build a search engine that complies with China’s online censorship regime. An employee-led backlash against the project has been churning for months at the company, but Tuesday’s petition marks the first time workers at Google have used their names in a public document objecting to the plans.

“Our opposition to Dragonfly is not about China: we object to technologies that aid the powerful in oppressing the vulnerable, wherever they may be,” stated the petition, published on Medium. “The Chinese government certainly isn’t alone in its readiness to stifle freedom of expression, and to use surveillance to repress dissent. Dragonfly in China would establish a dangerous precedent at a volatile political moment, one that would make it harder for Google to deny other countries similar concessions.”

Need to be equally concerned about what Google is doing with personal information of users right here in the United States.

"Amnesty International, which launched a “day of action” Tuesday protesting Dragonfly, has pushed Pichai to drop the program and issued an open call for people to sign a petition. “This is a watershed moment for Google,” Joe Westby, Amnesty International’s researcher on technology and human rights, said in a news release. “As the world’s number one search engine, it should be fighting for an Internet where information is freely accessible to everyone, not backing the Chinese government’s dystopian alternative.”

Again, need to be equally concerned about what Google is doing with the data of American users.

"Earlier this year, more than 1,400 Google employees signed an internal letter demanding more transparency and accountability on the ethics of company projects, citing Dragonfly as an initiative that was developed without employee input. “Currently we do not have the information required to make ethically-informed decisions about our work, our projects, and our employment,” the letter read. Pichai has said that Google’s China-compliant search engine is not a done deal. “I take a long-term view of this,” he said during an event hosted by Wired in October. “And I think it’s important for us — given how important the market is, and how many users there are — we feel obliged to think hard about this problem and take a long-term view.”

Called bullshit.  Unadulterated.  Forget?  Pichai is far more concerned with profit than privacy.  To say nothing of top management's apparent willingness to cooperate with dictators to line corporate coffers.

"If Google moves forward with Dragonfly, it could allow the company to reenter China’s online search market after nearly a decade. But Google’s plans in China have drawn the scrutiny of U.S. lawmakers who have accused the company of being evasive about the prototype search engine. More broadly, the tech industry is facing an intense backlash over its data privacy practices, with some members of Congress proposing legislation that would place new restrictions on how tech companies collect and use customer data."

Hopefully, when Democrats retake the House in January something will come of this.  Then again, think Democrats aren't also lining their pockets off the corporate management suite?

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.

11-30-18

The following is likely highly indicative of what's to come in January when the House change's hands.  LOL.  CBS News reports:

"Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham urged congresswoman-elect and progressive firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum after she compared the Central American migrants seeking asylum at the southern border to different groups of refugees, including Jewish families fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany."

Mighty Aryan arrogant of the Republican national socialist, fascist, no?  LOL.  Then again, the Ocasio-Cortez 'democratic socialist' would have none of it.  LOL.  The following exchange is highly indicative of why both extremes leave the political middle holding the bag, -- figuratively speaking.

"Reacting to news of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents using tear gas to repel and disperse migrants, including women and children, who rushed towards the border fence between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, on Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that applying for refugee status in America is not a crime."

That's right.  Certainly, sanctioned not only by federal statutes, but international law as well.  The Trump nazi and his henchmen seem to have conveniently forgotten this.

"It wasn't for Jewish families fleeing Germany. It wasn't for targeted families fleeing Rwanda. It wasn't for communities fleeing war-torn Syria," the New York City Democrat wrote. "And it isn't for those fleeing violence in Central America."

All true, but certainly drew the ire of the achingly patronizing, condescending Graham nazi.  LOL.

"Responding to her post on Monday, Graham, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, said his future colleague should "take a tour" of the Holocaust Museum in Washington to "better understand the differences between the Holocaust and the caravan in Tijuana." The congresswoman-elect, known for her use of social media to rebuke many of her detractors in politics and the media, fired back later in the day. Replying to Graham's tweet, Ocasio-Cortez wrote that "the point of such a treasured museum is to bring its lessons to present day." "This administration has jailed children and violated human rights," she added. "Perhaps we should stop pretending that authoritarianism + violence is a historical event instead of a growing force."

A problem on the Left as well as the Right.  Both extremes result in abject subjugation, abuse of power, evisceration of liberty.

Then Ocasio-Cortez, figuratively speaking, opened fire.  Guns blazing.  Exposed the hypocrisy of the Graham nazi:

"And the self-described "democratic socialist" didn't stop there. Ocasio-Cortez offered Graham a museum recommendation of her own. "While we're recommending museums @LindseyGrahamSC, I heard your 'joke' about ethnic DNA preferences last month," she wrote, referring to remarks the senator made on Fox News in October in which he said it would "terrible" if a DNA test revealed he was Iranian. "Perhaps you would enjoy a visit (or revisit) to the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture (@NMAAHC)," she wrote. "It's a great educational experience."

Indeed.  You go girl!  LOL.  Stick it to the fascist bastard, madam.  ... Just remember, Marxist communism miserably failed in the former Soviet Union some 25 years ago.

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.

11-30-18

Plot thickens.  NPR reports:

"Lawyers working for special counsel Robert Mueller told a federal judge Monday that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had "breached the plea agreement" he reached with the government and that the judge should prepare to sentence him. Government attorneys said Manafort committed new federal crimes "by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsel's Office on a variety of subject matters." The special counsel team's court filing provided no details about the prevarication."

The Washington Post reports:

"Prosecutors with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III said Monday that Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement, accusing President Trump’s former campaign chairman of lying repeatedly to them in their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Manafort denied doing so intentionally, but both sides agreed in a court filing that U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District should set sentencing immediately. The apparent collapse of Manafort’s cooperation agreement is the latest stunning turnaround in his case, exposing the longtime Republican consultant to at least a decade behind bars after he pleaded guilty in September to charges of cheating the Internal Revenue Service, violating foreign-lobbying laws and attempting to obstruct justice."

ABC News reports:

"Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort have briefed President Donald Trump's legal team on what Manafort has told special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors, the president's lead attorney told ABC News Wednesday. "They share with me the things that pertain to our part of the case," Rudy Giuliani said."

So you and the Trump nazi can obstruct the investigation?

NBC News reports:

"Special counsel Robert Mueller is treating former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort "like a terrorist," the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told NBC News on Wednesday. The New York Times reported Tuesday that one of Manafort's attorneys briefed Trump's lawyers on his client’s conversations and details of his cooperation with the special counsel. Responding to that story by text, Giuliani accused the special counsel's office of treating "Manafort like he's a terrorist, incarcerating him before trial, solitary incarceration and repeated questioning."

Here's the truth as reported by NBC:

"Manafort's treatment amid prosecution was hardly draconian: In his first Virginia jail, he had a private bathroom in his private jail cell thanks to his high-profile status and was reportedly allowed to have a laptop to review evidence. An alleged terrorist would have far fewer privileges and even limited attorney visits. What's more, he was initially released on bail but was returned to jail to await trial after violating his bail agreement for witness tampering."

In another article, NBC reports:

"President Donald Trump's lawyer has acknowledged that he received briefings from attorneys for Paul Manafort while Manafort was cooperating with Robert Mueller, an unusual development that legal experts say raises the specter of witness tampering and obstruction of justice. Trump's chief defense lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told the Associated Press that Manafort's attorneys had been briefing him, a fact first reported by The New York Times, to whom Giuliani also confirmed the briefings. "They share with me the things that pertain to our part of the case," Giuliani told the AP. He declined to make the same acknowledgment to NBC News, but he did not dispute the reporting. Some legal experts believe that the feeding of information by Manafort's lawyers to the Trump legal team could amount to obstruction of justice or witness tampering, if Manafort disclosed confidential information or the president's side discussed the possibility of a pardon. But that would depend on exactly what was said. If Mueller decides to investigate, the Trump team could be in for an unpleasant surprise. Legal experts told NBC News the conversations among the lawyers would not be covered by attorney-client privilege — meaning Mueller in theory could haul Giuliani before the grand jury and force him to testify under oath about them. "If you are trying to corruptly influence his testimony by dangling a pardon, that could be witness tampering," Daniel Goldman, a former federal prosecutor who is now an NBC News and MSNBC legal analyst, said on Andrea Mitchell Reports."

What webs we weave.

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.

11-30-18

A racist nazi will take her seat in the Senate.  NPR reports:

"Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is the projected winner of the Senate runoff in Mississippi, according to The Associated Press, overcoming a series of missteps that brought the state's dark history of racism and violence to the forefront. Hyde-Smith, who was appointed to the Senate earlier this year after GOP Sen. Thad Cochran stepped down due to health reasons, defeated former congressman and Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy. Neither candidate had won the requisite 50 percent in the first round of the special election on Election Day. She's the first woman elected to the Senate from Mississippi. Hyde-Smith was the favorite in the solidly red state, and the final Senate election of 2018 was long seen as an afterthought. But when video surfaced earlier this month of the senator telling a supporter, "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row," the state's racial wounds were re-opened."

Delusionally believe this woman is not a racist?  Wake up.  Remove your head from your ass.

"Mississippi is a state with a past rife with violence — and lynchings — through the Jim Crow era, and racial tensions still persist today in many places. The comments from Hyde-Smith, who is white, were quickly seized upon by Espy, who was vying to become not only the first Democrat the state had elected to the Senate in nearly four decades, but also the first African-American senator from the state since Reconstruction. Republicans even privately acknowledged that Hyde-Smith mangled her response to the video, and it wasn't until a debate last week that she offered a qualified apology. She said she was sorry to anyone who was offended by her remarks, but then blamed Espy for twisting her words for political gain."

Excuses for the inexcusable.  By a lying, disingenuous piece of crap.

"Other questions about Hyde-Smith's past also arose — photos of her touring the home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis with a caption that said, "Mississippi history at its best!"; a measure she'd once pushed in the state Senate for revisionist view of the Civil War as "The War Between the States"; and news that she'd attended an all-white private school like those founded in the South to circumvent integration decrees."

A racist nazi.

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.

11-30-18

What's Trump hiding?  CBS News reports:

"CIA Director Gina Haspel was conspicuously absent from a Capitol Hill briefing on military aid to Saudi Arabia Wednesday, a decision Democratic Whip Dick Durbin said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told senators was at the White House's direction.  "We asked why Gina Haspel wasn't there and the two that were there said that was a decision by the White House," Durbin told reporters following the briefing. Trump ally Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham threatened he wouldn't vote for a spending bill until he hears from the CIA directly, and said he already told the president that. "If that briefing is not given soon, it's going to be hard for me to vote for any spending bill," Graham told reporters, adding when asked for clarification, "I'm talking about any key vote anything you need me for to get out of town, I ain't doing it until we hear from the CIA."

Think this administration is not in disarray?  Get this:

"The explanation offered Wednesday for Haspel's absence flatly contradicted national security adviser John Bolton on Tuesday — Bolton claimed the White House was not blocking Haspel from testifying. Haspel is the sole official of the three reported to have listened to the audio that allegedly depicts the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist was killed by Saudi operatives in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month. The briefing with Pompeo, Mattis and senators on Capitol Hill Wednesday comes ahead of a vote they're expected to take on cutting off military aid to Saudi Arabia for a war in Yemen. Pompeo and Mattis argued Wednesday that U.S. involvement there is critical — but both Republican and Democratic senators who spoke with reporters after the briefing seemed less convinced of that.

"Senators were visibly frustrated with Haspel's absence. "I wish she would have been there, a lot of us were frustrated that she wasn't," Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said, adding, "Nobody was happy that she wasn't there, put it that way." Sen. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey, called it "outrageous" that the Senate would be stonewalled from hearing from the CIA director. "It tells me volumes about what's really going on here," Menendez said. Pressed twice by reporters on why Haspel didn't appear, Pompeo responded twice: "I was asked to be here, and I'm here."

Jesus Christ.  Doesn't look good, does it?

Gets worse.  Get this.  ABC News reports:

"President Trump on Wednesday used his Twitter account to promote a false claim on immigration, and retweeted a post from a pro-Trump account that calls for deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, former law enforcement officials and other political opponents of the president to be put on trial for 'treason.' Minutes after tweeting, without evidence, that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators are "viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts," the president began a series of retweets of the account '@The_Trump_Train.' Among the retweets was a graphic showing multiple individuals the president has targeted in his comments against the Russia investigation, including Mueller, former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and former FBI director James Comey. The graphic suggests that all should be investigated for "treason," but it also includes a picture of current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

    "pic.twitter.com/FWJRNzBUB3
    — The Trump Train ?????? (@The_Trump_Train) November 28, 2018"

Frightening, isn't it?  Think this guy's playing with a full deck?  Comfortable with his finger figuratively on the nuclear button?

"The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the president believes Rosenstein or the others should truly be put on trial for treason. Trump in the past has suggested his desire to fire Rosenstein who oversaw the special counsel investigation prior to the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, but more recently he has indicated their relationship has improved. Immediately after sharing the graphic, the president continued retweeting the account, including a tweet that spread a false claim that "Illegals can get up to $3,874 a month under Federal Assistance program."

    "Illegals can get up to $3,874 a month under Federal Assistance program. Our social security checks are on average $1200 a month.

    "RT if you agree: If you weren't born in the United States, you should receive $0 assistance.
    — The Trump Train ?????? (@The_Trump_Train) November 28, 2018"

Get this:

"The claim in the tweet appears to originate from a post that gained notoriety on Facebook in 2017, that showed a document of a $3,874 payment not to an undocumented immigrant -- but a family of five refugees who applied for residency through a resettlement program. But the alleged payment was part of a resettlement request made in Canada, not the United States. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the president was made aware of the error."

Imagine being a member of the White House staff and having to deal with this?  This man is not rational.  Seems to be sadly losing ground.

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.

11-30-18

Think we don't have a world-wide problem with plastic that's not affecting the environment, wildlife?  CBS News reports:

"A dead whale that washed ashore in eastern Indonesia had a large lump of plastic waste in its stomach, including drinking 115 plastic cups and two flip-flops, a park official said Tuesday. The discovery caused concern among environmentalists and government officials in one of the world's largest plastic polluting countries. Rescuers from Wakatobi National Park found the rotting carcass of the 31-foot sperm whale late Monday near the park in Southeast Sulawesi province. They had received a report from environmentalists that villagers surrounded the dead whale and were beginning to butcher the rotting carcass, park chief Heri Santoso said. Santoso said researchers from wildlife conservation group WWF and the park's conservation academy found about 13 pounds of plastic waste in the animal's stomach, including four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags, a nylon sack and more than 1,000 other assorted pieces of plastic. "Although we have not been able to deduce the cause of death, the facts that we see are truly awful," said Dwi Suprapti, a marine species conservation coordinator at WWF Indonesia. She said it was not possible to determine if the plastic had caused the whale's death because of the animal's advanced state of decay. Indonesia, an archipelago of 260 million people, is the world's second-largest plastic polluter after China, according to a study published in the journal Science in January. It produces 3.2 million tons of mismanaged plastic waste a year, of which 1.29 million tons ends up in the ocean, the study said."

Need to smarten up.  Before 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.

11-30-18

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.

No justice in a fascist police-state, -- quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.  NBC News reports:

"An Arizona jury on Wednesday acquitted a U.S. Border Patrol agent of manslaughter in the shooting of a Mexican teen through a border fence, another loss for federal prosecutors after the second trial in the 2012 killing. Jurors in Tucson found Lonnie Swartz not guilty of involuntary manslaughter. It comes months after he was acquitted of second-degree murder by another jury that had deadlocked on manslaughter charges, allowing prosecutors to pursue the case again."

The public is achingly stupid.  Exponentially losing ground during the Trump regime.  Forget?  'Stupid is as stupid does.'

"Border Patrol agents are rarely criminally charged for using force. But the killing of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez sparked outrage on both sides of the border and came at a time when the agency was increasingly scrutinized for its use of force. Prosecutors said Swartz was frustrated over repeated encounters with people on the Mexico side of the border fence who throw rocks at agents to distract them from smugglers. They say he lost his cool and fatally shot Elena Rodriguez. Swartz fired some 16 rounds, and the boy was hit at least 10 times in the back and head."

Goddamned gutless jackbooted murderer the jury was too clueless to convict.

"Swartz has said he was following his training and defending himself and other law enforcement officers from rocks, which he said could be deadly. Prosecutors acknowledge that Elena Rodriguez was throwing rocks at agents while two smugglers made their way back to Mexico, but they said that wasn't justification for taking his life. Swartz's attorney, Sean Chapman, said Elena Rodriguez endangered the lives of the agents and a police officer who was on scene."

All the bastard and his henchmen had to do was move further away from the fence.  Instead, this gutless piece of shit chose to murder.

"In addition to the criminal charges, Swartz is facing a civil rights lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the teen's mother."

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.

11-23-18

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 yet another blow to the Trump nazi and the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue, NPR reports:

"An appellate court in Brooklyn ruled Wednesday that local police officers in New York state can't hold immigrants in custody beyond their release date solely to turn them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement without a judicial warrant."

Exactly, right.  Fourth Amendment.  Fifth Amendment.  Fourteenth Amendment.

"The case involved Susai Francis, an Indian national living on Long Island who overstayed a visa in the 1990s. After an arrest in Nassau County in June 2017, for driving under the influence, he was transferred to Suffolk County to complete a different proceeding there involving a criminal charge. In December, he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was sentence to time served. But instead of letting him leave court, Suffolk police rearrested him at the request of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He was taken to a jail cell in Riverhead, rented by ICE. On Wednesday, a three-judge appellate court panel found this violated state law because the Suffolk police went beyond their authority. ICE detainers ask police to hold someone already in custody for 48 hours, to facilitate a transfer. By putting Francis back in jail, the court found Suffolk went too far. "[L]ocal law enforcement officers are not authorized to effectuate arrests for civil law immigration violations," the ruling said. The court found they could, however, if ICE showed them a warrant signed by a judge."

Fascinating, isn't it?

"The case was brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union, which says ICE issued about 800 detainer requests to the Nassau and Suffolk county sheriffs last year. Associate Legal Director Chris Dunn said the ruling set a precedent because it applies to all local police, statewide.

"No New York state law enforcement official has any authority to arrest and detain an immigrant to deliver to ICE merely upon the request of ICE," he said. "That practice has to end not only in Suffolk County but in Nassau County and all around the state."

If there is no due process afforded this individual, there is no due process for any of us. Wake up.  Out of control law enforcement presents an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  ... Right, Sheriff?  "Sonny Boy?  Madam County Attorney?

"He estimated that hundreds of immigrants have been arrested this way in Suffolk in the past year."

Goddamned fascist police-state.  ... Right, Sheriff? "Sonny Boy?  Madam County Attorney?

"New York City does not honor requests from ICE to detain immigrants for 48 hours if they're in jail or police custody, unless they've been convicted of a serious crime or there's a judicial warrant. Detainer requests shot up in New York City last year but most were not honored. According to Newsday, Suffolk County began letting police arrest and detain people for ICE under the previous sheriff, after President Trump was elected, but the current sheriff announced he would end the policy after the ruling on Wednesday. The ruling does not affect Francis, who is now in ICE detention in New Jersey. The Department of Justice had filed a friend of the court brief supporting Suffolk in the lawsuit. It said it is harder for ICE to detain removable immigrants without local cooperation."

Tough shit.  Follow the rule of law, United States Constitution.  Don't like the law?  Change it.  Don't like the Constitution?  Amend it.  Don't jackbooted nazi make it up as you go along.  Called treason.  ... 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.

11-23-18

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 the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue are doing their job?  Wake up.  You've been bamboozled.  Sold a phony bill of goods.  Drank the Kool Aide.  NPR reports:

"It sounds like a simple question for a police department. How many Native American women have gone missing or been murdered in a given city? In Seattle, say. Or Albuquerque. Or Salt Lake City. Or Baltimore.  But when researchers Abigail Echo-Hawk and Annita Lucchesi asked 71 cities across the U.S. for the answer, they found more silence and confusion than answers. In a report released Wednesday, Echo-Hawk and Lucchesi say nearly 60 percent of police departments either did not respond to the request, or returned partial or compromised data — with some cities reporting an inability to identify Native victims, and others relying exclusively on human memory. Searching news outlets to fill in the gaps was no solution: Of the 506 disappearances and murders they were able to document, the majority were never covered by any news outlet. As a result, the missing and murdered indigenous women have disappeared "not once, but three times," the researchers write: "in life, in the media, and in the data."

Fascinating, isn't it?  Achingly, catastrophic as well.

"Echo-Hawk, an enrolled citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, is the director of the Urban Indian Health Institute at the Seattle Indian Health Board. Lucchesi, a descendent of the Cheyenne people, is a doctoral intern at the UIHI, which researches public health issues among Native American populations nationwide."

Both highly qualified to do this research.

"Lucchesi has been working for years to document the deaths and disappearances of Native American women. A previous project of hers — a database of missing and murdered indigenous women in both Canada and the U.S. — was profiled for NPR this summer by Yellowstone Public Radio's Nate Hegyi. Native women living on tribal lands are murdered at an extremely high rate — in some communities, more than 10 times the national average, according to research funded by the Department of Justice. And in part because of jurisdictional challenges, the disappearances can be hard to track and prosecute. But the new project is unique because of its focus on cities. The UIHI notes that more than 70 percent of Native Americans in the U.S. live in urban areas. "So much of the conversation on this issue has been focused on reservations," Lucchesi says. "This is happening to our urban women too. It isn't just a matter of jurisdiction — it's a matter of racism."

No question.  Forget?  The American Way.  Certainly, now, in Nazi America.

"As Hegyi wrote this summer, "spend time in Indian Country and you'll hear this story over and over: A niece, a daughter or a cousin who was taken quickly and violently from this world." But no federal agency has comprehensive data on how many indigenous women are murdered or missing. A spokesman for the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services division declined to comment to NPR on the issue."

Imagine that.  Surprised? Why?

"In the U.S., Echo-Hawk and Lucchesi are calling for resources to be dedicated to the issue (their study was conducted without federal funding) and for local law enforcement agencies to carry out better data collection. "Record-keeping protocols must be updated and implemented immediately," they concluded. "No agency can adequately respond to violence it does not track."

Problem throughout all law enforcement.  Across the board.  Includes all races.

"On Wednesday, a bill designed to help address the problem passed through the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and is heading to the full Senate for consideration. The measure, called Savanna's Act, calls for new protocols on reporting crimes against Native Americans, among other improvements."

Good start, but nowhere near enough.

"To augment the partial police data, Echo-Hawk and Lucchesi searched media reports and spoke with local indigenous communities — in the process, finding more than 150 missing and murdered women that police did not identify. They ultimately identified 506 missing and murdered indigenous women in those 71 cities. But they caution, given the significant limitations of the data, that it's far short of the true total. "The 506 are just the ones we know about ... it's just the beginning. It's barely scratched the surface," Echo-Hawk says. "I know that there are hundreds, thousands and more that aren't in this data and haven't been captured."

"Lucchesi — who herself survived rapes and violent attacks in four of the cities featured in the report — says this work is both frustrating and empowering. "It's heartbreaking to spend an entire year trying to convince 72 police departments that your dead are worth counting," she says. "But this work has also been healing for me as a survivor of violence." "Constantly reaffirming that the lives of your sisters and your relatives do mean something — it also reaffirms to me, myself, that my life does mean something," Lucchesi says."

The Trump nazi, his henchmen, fellow GOP national socialists, fascists, to say nothing of his deluded sick sycophants are ferociously reminded our UNDOCUMENTED European forebears came to this continent some six centuries ago, STOLE this land from its native inhabitants, then proceeded to BREAK every goddamned treaty ever signed.

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.

11-23-18

Finally, some desperately needed sanity from the Trump nazi.  NPR reports:

"President Trump is throwing his support behind legislation that could shorten sentences for some drug offenders and help prisoners adjust to life after incarceration."

Enlightenment?  Couldn't be, could it?  LOL.

"Details of the measure have not been officially released, but Trump said Wednesday the bill will provide incentives for prisoners to participate in training or rehabilitation programs with a goal of reducing recidivism. It will also include measures to address sentencing disparities and inequities. "Americans across the political spectrum can unite around prison reform legislation that will reduce crime, while giving our fellow citizens a chance at redemption," the president said. Trump added that he is ready to sign the bill into law whenever it reaches his desk."

Believe it when I see it.  Then again, if Trump is indeed telling the truth, will certainly give credit when credit is due.

"Legislation that passed the House of Representatives in May included measures targeting recidivism after incarceration, but did not include sentencing provisions. That was a sticking point for Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who helms the Senate Judiciary Committee. Grassley, of Iowa, had previously backed more comprehensive measures. Grassley, who joined Trump at the White House for Wednesday's announcement, has been working with Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and others to put forward legislation that addresses sentencing and changes prison policies. "We are grateful for the White House's ongoing engagement to make these long overdue reforms a reality," Grassley and Durbin said in a statement."

Republican national socialists have been mindless, clueless proponents of draconian law and order since the Nixon nazi nearly a half-century ago.  Seem to have conveniently forgotten prison should be reserved for those who remain habitual offenders, and/or present a continuing, ongoing, exigent threat to society.  -- Far better ways to handle the criminal element such as now being considered by both major political parties.  Bipartisanship possible?  Hard to believe, isn't it?  We'll see.

"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday he told supporters of the criminal justice package that he can't start counting votes for any legislation until they finalize the details of an agreement. A vote count is key to any decision by McConnell to allow a bill to come up on the Senate floor. "We don't have a whole lot of time left," McConnell said. "But the first step is to finalize what proponents are actually for."

The impediment to desperately needed change is seasoned old farts like McConnell, Pelosi, and many, many others in both parties.

"Trump's support is a big win for activists who have been pushing for criminal justice measures to roll back the stiff penalties imposed as a part of America's decades-long "war on drugs."

Use drugs?  You're achingly stupid.  Hopelessly, dysfunctional.  Ferociously to the point, however?  Drug prohibition, as alcohol prohibition, has been a massive failure.  Forget?  Alcohol prohibition gave us the Mafia.  Drug prohibition gave us gangs, worse, corrupted to at least some extent every law enforcement agency in our formerly great country.

Enforcement should be reserved for the underaged.  Sufficient laws are already on the books to handle ancillary effects of adult drug use such as DWI, public intoxication, assault, etc..  Time to finally smarten up.  Take the enormous money out of drug trafficking.  Find better, more creative ways of handling this scourge.

"Supporters of changing the sentencing provisions argue that mandatory minimum sentences and other policies have disproportionately affected African-American and Hispanic communities, while doing little to curb crime."

Republican racist nazis are finally beginning to understand this.  Imagine that.  Can we stand it?  LOL.

"Trump's endorsement is critical for getting the Republican support necessary to get a bill passed during the lame-duck session, said Mark Holden, general counsel to Koch Industries, which has been pushing for the changes. "It always matters if the president is on board ... but this president, in particular, it's important that he gets behind it," Holden said. "This is an issue that some Republicans haven't always been focused on."

Indeed.  Too damned aggressively stupid, hopelessly shortsighted the last fifty years.

"Trump himself has made being "tough on crime" a major part of his pitch to voters. In response to the opioid crisis, Trump even called for the death penalty for some drug dealers."

Precisely, why it's hard to believe this will indeed go anywhere.  Then again, we'll see.

"During his announcement about the criminal justice bill, Trump said his administration will work to keep dangerous criminals off the streets. But, he said, sometimes people get caught up in bad circumstances. He talked about the case of Alice Marie Johnson, who was sentenced to life in prison for a nonviolent drug charge. Trump commuted her sentence after reality TV star Kim Kardashian lobbied for her release. "I'll never forget the scene of her coming out of prison after 21 years and greeting her family and everyone was crying," Trump said. "It was a beautiful thing to see, it was a very tough situation."

Hard to believe coming from the Trump nazi, isn't it?  LOL.

"In a tweet after the announcement, the president said members of the House and Senate "have poured their time, heart and energy into the crucial issue."

    "I am grateful to be here today w/ Members of the House & Senate who have poured their time, heart and energy into the crucial issue of Prison Reform. Working together w/ my Admin over the last two years, these members have reached a bipartisan agreement...https://t.co/wflidv2cZr
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 14, 2018"

Hopefully, that's true.  Hard to believe, however, Trump is finally making some effort to act presidential.  LOL.

"Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and a top adviser, has been a driving force in the White House pushing for changes to the criminal justice system. Kushner, whose father served time in federal prison, spearheaded the White House effort to get legislation passed on the issue. The criminal justice effort also got a boost with the departure of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, an adamant opponent of changing existing rules and principles governing sentencing."

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.

11-23-18

Once again, Trump has disgraced himself and our formerly great country.  The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump on Thursday lashed out anew at the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, calling his team of lawyers “a disgrace to our Nation” and accusing them, without evidence, of threatening witnesses to get answers they want."

Trump remains a congenital liar.  How do you know he's lying?  Lips move.

"Trump’s rant, in a pair of morning tweets, came a week after the installation of Matthew G. Whitaker as acting attorney general, a move many Democrats have said appears designed to curtail Mueller’s investigation into possible coordination between Russia and Trump’s campaign during the 2016 election."

If Mueller gets fired, would be the beginning of the end of the Trump Administration.  Obstruction of justice would not be tolerated.  Would immediately trigger a constitutional crisis.

    "The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess. They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want. They are a disgrace to our Nation and don’t...
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2018

    ....care how many lives the[y] ruin. These are Angry People, including the highly conflicted Bob Mueller, who worked for Obama for 8 years. They won’t even look at all of the bad acts and crimes on the other side. A TOTAL WITCH HUNT LIKE NO OTHER IN AMERICAN HISTORY!
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2018"

Trump's delusional continual rants have no basis in reality.  Certainly demonstrate, however, his increasing desperation.  Unfitness for office.

"In his tweets, Trump misstated Mueller’s background. A registered Republican, he was nominated to be FBI director in 2001 by President George W. Bush. In 2011, President Barack Obama gave his original 10-year term a two-year extension. Mueller was tapped to be special counsel last year by Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who started overseeing the Russia investigation after Sessions recused himself, citing his role in Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign."

Trump has no credibility.  None.  Worse?  Losing ground.

"During an appearance Thursday morning on CNN, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said he is concerned that Trump’s description of the “inner workings” of the Mueller investigation could signal that Whitaker is inappropriately sharing details about it with the president. “Of course with this president, we don’t know. He may have simply made that up because he lies all the time,” said Nadler, who is in line to become chairman of the Judiciary Committee when Democrats take control of the House in January. Nadler said it appears to him that Whitaker was appointed with the “express purpose of being a hatchet man to sabotage this investigation.”

Certainly, appears so.

"More than two hours after his initial tweets Wednesday about the Mueller investigation, Trump returned to the subject later, accusing Mueller of protecting 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, several former FBI officials and “all of his friends on the other side.”

    "Universities will someday study what highly conflicted (and NOT Senate approved) Bob Mueller and his gang of Democrat thugs have done to destroy people. Why is he protecting Crooked Hillary, Comey, McCabe, Lisa Page & her lover, Peter S, and all of his friends on the other side?
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2018

“Mueller’s job is not one that requires Senate approval. Trump did not spell out why he thinks Mueller is “highly conflicted.”

How could he?  No substance to the allegation.  Trump continues to talk out the ass.  A congenital liar.

    "The only “Collusion” is that of the Democrats with Russia and many others. Why didn’t the FBI take the Server from the DNC? They still don’t have it. Check out how biased Facebook, Google and Twitter are in favor of the Democrats. That’s the real Collusion!
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2018"

No substance.  No element of truth to it.  Trump continues to lie out the ass.  Show us the proof, Donny boy.  Show us the proof.  Do so now.

"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been blocking a bipartisan effort to protect Mueller’s investigation through legislation, saying he has seen no evidence that the White House will shut it down. The bill would give any fired special counsel the ability to swiftly challenge their termination before a panel of three federal judges."

Ole Mitch "The Bitch"  is protecting his fuhrer.  No other reasonable explanation for his refusal to take action to protect Mueller.  None 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.

11-23-18

Without question, Trump is nazifying the judiciary.  No question.  None at all.  NPR reports:

"In partnership with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Trump White House has secured lifetime appointments for 29 appeals court judges and 53 district court judges. That's not to mention two Supreme Court nominees. "He came into office with a mandate to nominate judges in the mold of Justice [Antonin] Scalia and Justice [Clarence] Thomas," said Carrie Severino, chief counsel at the Judicial Crisis Network, which advocates for conservative judges. "That was a key reason he won the presidency." Supporters will celebrate that record this week at the annual convention of the Federalist Society, whose primary mission is to place conservatives on the courts."

Simply, not true.  They're not conservatives.  They're GOP national socialists, fascists, nazis.  Fascism, nazism, national socialism defined as the pernicious blend of government, business, and religion. 'Justified' by perversion and bastardization of the latter.

"The effort is so important to the Republican legal community and the party's voting base that lawmakers have been holding hearings for nominees while the Senate was in recess, aiming to confirm those candidates in the lame-duck session scheduled before the end of the year."

No more than a deliberate concerted effort to place GOP nazis on the bench to legislate their outrageously perverse ideological and religious beliefs on the rest of us.  These clueless, achingly fascist bastards present an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  Yet, Democrats continue to traitorously allow this shit to continue unabated.

"Critics call this an abuse of the system and point out that all the Trump picks for the appeals courts and the Supreme Court tend to have something in common: most of them are white men. "Of his 43 appellate nominations, none are African-American," said Vanita Gupta of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. "None are Latino. Only nine are women. Our nation's great diversity should be reflected in its government institutions, especially the federal judiciary, which serves as the guardian of our rights and liberties."

Surprised?  Why?  To be expected of the nazi element.  Trump is certainly doing all he can to resurrect Hitler's Third Reich to Trump's Fourth.  Forget?  We already live in a de facto fascist police-state since 9/11.  USA 'Patriot' Act, 'Real' ID Act, Homeland 'Security' Act, etc..  List can go on and on.

-- Despite the fact the Bush nazi could have prevented the 9/11 catastrophe had the State Department done full background checks on the 19 terrorists.  Heeded warnings of the flight schools the bastards wished to only learn how to fly straight and level, not take off and land.  Instead, nazis in both major political parties took the opportunity to take a raucous hard dump on the Bill of Rights.  Traitors.  Gutless traitors.  Both major political parties.

"Also notable, said Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, is that the Republican-controlled Senate limited President Barack Obama to two circuit court judge confirmations and 22 district court nominations during his final two years in office. Obama's choice for the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland, never got a hearing."

Indeed.  Nazi element, however, remains incapable of being confused by the truth.  ... 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.

11-23-18

The First Amendment is abundantly clear.  So is the Fifth.  NPR reports:

"A federal judge in Washington ruled Friday in favor of CNN in a decision that represents the first legal blows between Trump and the news media. Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, ordered the White House to restore correspondent Jim Acosta's press credentials. "Each day he [Acosta] is deprived ... suffers a harm that cannot be remedied in retrospect," Kelly said."

Indeed.  No question.  Public's right to know suffers as well.

"This is not the end of the road in this fight. The judge told attorneys for the Trump administration that the White House has to establish standardized rules to justify taking away a pass to cover the White House and wants to hear from both sides again Tuesday. This was also granted on a limited basis and was not on First Amendment ground, but the Fifth Amendment's right to due process. The judge said the White House denied Acosta's right to due process under the law. Whatever process occurred is "shrouded in mystery," Kelly said. "I want to thank all of my colleagues in the press who supported us this week," Acosta said outside the DC courthouse. He thanked the judge for the decision he made. "Let's get back to work." CNN attorney Ted Boutrous called it a "great day for the First Amendment and for journalism" (although the First Amendment was not applied here).

"The lawsuit follows the Trump administration's decision last week to withdraw White House press credentials from Acosta after he and President Trump had a testy exchange during a news conference on Nov. 7. The suit sought the immediate restoration of Acosta's press pass, arguing on First Amendment grounds that the White House action was aimed at silencing the journalist. CNN was joined by other news media organizations, who saw high stakes in the case that could cede a degree of editorial control to the White House and threaten the ability of a free press to be a check on presidential power. The Trump administration argued that the president has broad discretion to strip any reporter of White House press credentials if he wishes. It argued that the standard should be whether the reporter was "disorderly," "rude" or "grandstanding." CNN's lawyers argued that sometimes democracy is "unpleasant" but having a free press is one of the ways democracies hold governments accountable."

Precise intent of the Founders.

"Boutrous argued that the Trump administration's views on the First Amendment are "warped," and that there's no First Amendment doctrine that says, "Because there are lots of other reporters you can ban one." President Trump has gone so far as to call journalists the "enemy of the people" and, at his rallies, crowds frequently break into chants of "CNN Sucks" as he routinely brands as "fake news" any coverage he deems unflattering. In particular, he has been enraged at the media for not giving him more positive coverage after winning the 2016 presidential election. "The press treats me terribly," he told Lesley Stahl on CBS's 60 Minutes. "I thought very strongly that, you know, the one great thing will happen is the press will start treating me great [once he won the presidency]. Lesley, they treat me worse. They got worse instead of better. Very dishonest. ... I regret that the press treats me so badly."

They report the truth.  ... Truth, the Trump nazi cannot withstand or tolerate.

The Washington Post reports:

"CNN sued President Trump and other White House officials on Tuesday over the revocation. Kelly’s ruling was the first legal skirmish in that lawsuit. It has the immediate effect of sending Acosta back to the White House, pending further arguments and a possible trial. The litigation is in its early stages, and a trial could be months in the future. Kelly, whom Trump appointed to the federal bench last year, handed down his ruling two days after the network and government lawyers argued over whether the president had the power to exclude a reporter from the White House."

Think Trump isn't insanely pissed a judge he nominated ruled against him?  LOL.  Clearly, fortunately, they don't all goose step in line.  LOL.

"In his decision, Kelly ruled that Acosta’s First Amendment rights overruled the White House’s right to have orderly news conferences. Kelly said he agreed with the government’s argument that there was no First Amendment right to come onto the White House grounds. But, he said, once the White House opened up the grounds to reporters, the First Amendment applied."

No question.  Forget?  This is supposed to be a democratic republic under the United States Constitution.  ... No matter what our nazi fuhrer thinks or doesn't think.

"He also agreed with CNN’s argument that the White House did not provide due process. He said the White House’s decision-making was “so shrouded in mystery that the government could not tell me ... who made the decision.” The White House’s later written arguments for banning Acosta were belated and weren’t sufficient to satisfy due process, Kelly said."

No one is above the law and/or the United States Constitution including the Bill of Rights.  No one.  Not even our fuhrer, the Trump nazi.

"CNN issued a statement after the ruling saying, “We are gratified with this result and we look forward to a full resolution in the coming days. Our sincere thanks to all who have supported not just CNN, but a free, strong and independent American press.” Acosta added: “I just want to thank all my colleagues in the press who supported me this week. I want to thank the judge [for this ruling]. And let’s go back to work.”

We have no king, queen, nazi despot sanctioned by the United States Constitution, rule of law.  Forget?

"Acosta watched Friday’s proceedings from the courtroom in Washington, joined by a team of attorneys including Ted Olson, a former solicitor general in George W. Bush’s administration, and Ted Boutrous, a star litigator and media-law specialist. CNN has argued that the ban on Acosta violated his First Amendment rights because it amounts to “viewpoint discrimination” — that is, the president is punishing him for statements and coverage he didn’t like. The network has also said the action violates Acosta’s Fifth Amendment right to due process because his exclusion follows no written guidelines or rules and has no appeal or review procedures."

Proof positive the United States Constitution, rule of law apply to all.  ... Including our fuhrer, the Trump nazi.

"CNN had requested “emergency” relief from the judge, arguing that Acosta’s rights were being violated with each passing hour. Until the White House’s action last week, no reporter credentialed to cover the president had ever had a press pass revoked."

Imagine that.  Gratifying, however, to see a Trump-appointed judge uphold the United States Constitution, rule of law.  Clearly, not all goose step in unison with their masters in the Oval Office, GOP, and the corporate management suite.

A government bought and paid for shyster, however, did his level best to take a raucous hard dump on the Constitution, rule of law:

"A government lawyer, James Burnham, argued in a hearing before Kelly on Wednesday that the president was within his rights to ban any reporter from the White House at any time, just as he excludes reporters from interviews in the Oval Office. He said Acosta could report on the president “just as effectively” by watching the president on TV or by calling sources within the White House. He also said CNN wouldn’t be injured by Acosta’s exclusion since CNN has dozens of other journalists credentialed for the White House. Burnham also explained that Trump’s rationale for Acosta’s ban was his “rudeness” at last week’s news conference, in effect arguing that Acosta’s conduct, not his right to free speech, was the relevant issue."

Crock of shit.  The insufferable, narcissistic Trump nazi clearly remains incapable of withstanding, answering, effectively responding to sharp, ferociously pointed, incisive, 'take-no-prisoners' hard questioning.  Tough shit.  Grow up, Mr. 'President.'  Stop acting like a goddamned spoiled, achingly juvenile adolescent.  Unbecoming the president of the United States.

"The assertions drew a rebuttal from CNN’s lawyer, Boutrous, who described the ban on the reporter as arbitrary, capricious and unprecedented. He said White House reporters need access to the premises to meet with sources and to report on untelevised “gaggles,” impromptu discussions with press aides and other officials, so that banning a reporter from the grounds harms his or her ability to do their job."

Wouldn't want to confuse a government bought and paid for shyster with the truth, would we?  LOL.

"Media organizations have been alarmed by the White House’s treatment of Acosta, saying that revoking his “hard pass” to enter the White House is a threat to other journalists who might be similarly banned. Trump has suggested other reporters could face a similar fate if they displease him in some unspecified way. Thirteen news organizations, including The Washington Post and Fox News, said Wednesday they would jointly file a friend-of-the-court brief supporting CNN’s position."

Who gives a flying f--k what our nazi fuhrer thinks or doesn't think?  Who gives a shit whether or not this nazi dictator is offended?  Matters not in a supposedly democratic republic under the United States Constitution.

"The White House Correspondents' Association, which represents journalists in negotiations over access to the president, filed its own brief on Thursday that urged the court “to roundly reject the president’s dangerous legal position.” It disputed the government’s claim that the president has “absolute, unbridled discretion to decide who can report from inside the White House.”

Goddamned right.  Forget?  The Constitution allows not for kings, queens, special treatment for nazi despots.

"During the presidential campaign in 2015 and 2016, Trump banned more than a dozen news organizations from his rallies and public events, including The Washington Post. But he said he wouldn’t do something similar as president. Last week, he went back on that statement."

Our gutless 'president' can indeed do as he pleases vis a vis political rallies, private events.  Not so in the White House to the press corps covering the fascist son of a bitch.

"Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign has used the CNN lawsuit to drum up contributions, portraying the suit as evidence of “liberal bias” — an assertion Boutrous brought up on Wednesday to demonstrate that Trump had political reasons for banning Acosta."

Indeed, he did.  Clearly.

“CNN is SUING President Trump, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Secret Service agent, and other White House officials ... ” the fundraising email says. “... All because they REVOKED Jim Acosta’s press badge after his continuous grandstanding and inappropriate refusal to yield to other reporters."

-- Achingly false, phony propaganda not-so-cleverly designed to line campaign coffers, rally rabid sick sycophant supporters of our nazi fuhrer.

“President Trump will NOT put up with the media’s liberal bias and utter disrespect for this Administration and the hardworking Americans who stand with us.”

Direct opposite is the case in reality.  With the exception of Fox News which became an infomercial for the Trump nazi after he took office, the media is reporting the truth.  Amusingly, now, including CNN.  Imagine that.  All the whining and complaining of the Trump nazi, his henchmen, and his rabid sick sycophants have had the clearly not intended effect of improving news reporting by this allegedly liberal media outlet.  Who'd 'a 'thunk' it, no?  LOL.

The Washington Post reports:

"CNN and the network’s chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta have asked a federal judge for an emergency hearing after the White House sent Acosta a letter saying it planned to suspend Acosta’s press pass again, just hours after the same judge ordered the White House to temporarily restore Acosta’s credentials Friday. Unless the judge extends that 14-day order, it will expire at the end of the month. In light of the White House’s unexpected action, the network’s lawyer requested an expedited schedule which would allow the judge to enter a more lasting preliminary injunction against the White House. The renewed confrontation represents an unusual escalation in the court battle between Trump, on the one hand, and CNN and Acosta, both regular targets of the president’s wrath for reporting on his administration. In the letter, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders and Bill Shine, assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for communications, told Acosta that his behavior at a Nov. 7 news conference “violated the basic standards governing [news conferences], and is, in our preliminary judgment, sufficient factual basis to revoke your hard pass."

CBS News reports:

"The White House has restored the press credentials of CNN's chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta, and as a result, CNN will drop its lawsuit against the Trump administration, the network announced. A White House official tells CBS News' Fin Gomez the White House will not attempt to revoke Acosta's credentials again over the Nov. 7 exchange between the president and Acosta.

"Today the @WhiteHouse fully restored @Acosta's press pass. As a result, our lawsuit is no longer necessary. We look forward to continuing to cover the White House," CNN tweeted.

"But the White House also instituted new rules for journalists at press conferences, claiming it has the right to suspend or revoke a journalist's credentials if they fail to follow any of the rules. Those three rules include: a journalist called upon to ask a question will ask a single question and then yield the floor; a follow-up question will be permitted at the discretion of the president or the White House and then the journalist must yield the floor; and "yielding the floor" includes if necessary physically surrendering the microphone, according to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders."

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.

11-23-18

The following is inexplicable.  At the very least, total break down of discipline.  At worst, proof positive vetting of our best and brightest to serve in the military is severely challenged.  Not talking about low level military personnel, however, but the most elite.  CBS News reports:

"Two U.S. Navy SEALs and two Marines have been charged in the strangulation death of an Army Green Beret while the service members were stationed in the African country of Mali last year, the Navy said on Thursday. Charging documents describe a situation in which some of the nation's most elite military personnel - including two members of the famed SEAL Team Six - broke into a Green Beret's bedroom while he was sleeping, bound him with duct tape and put him into a choke hold. The charges do not allege a specific motive. But the counts filed against the four men range from felony murder to involuntary manslaughter. They also have been charged with hazing. The Navy has also accused them of obstructing justice after the Green Beret's death: Officials said the men disposed of alcohol that was kept in quarters shared by sailors and Marines and also lied to Navy commanders and investigators."

Consider the following:

"The man who died was Army Staff Sergeant Logan Melgar, a native of Lubbock, Texas. He had deployed to Afghanistan twice before his death in Bamako, Mali, in June 2017, Army officials said. Melgar was a member of the same special forces group as the four Americans who were killed while on patrol in Niger last year, CBS News correspondent David Martin reported. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters who ambushed and killed the four soldiers were based in Mali and escaped back across the border."

Long-term readers will recall this ambush was covered here in this publication and elsewhere at the time.

"The names of the service members who have been charged are redacted in the charging documents. Beth Baker, a Navy spokeswoman, said the Navy is prohibited at this time from releasing the names of the accused as well as their civilian lawyers. The service members are not in confinement, Baker said."

Inexplicable, isn't it?

"The two Marines are listed as being part of Special Operations Command. The SEALs belong to the Navy Special Warfare Development Group. The unit is better known as SEAL Team 6, which participated in the May 2011 raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden at his compound. The two SEALs are based in Virginia Beach. A preliminary hearing to review the case against all four service members is scheduled for Dec. 10 at a Navy base in nearby Norfolk. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service conducted the investigation."

Needless to say, this case will be closely followed here and elsewhere.

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.

11-23-18

As clearly illustrated by the above, the military certainly has its problems.  Following?  Achingly, inexplicable.  Certainly, indicative of systemic failure of adequate oversight by Congress.  ... To say the very least.  NBC News reports:

"The Defense Department has failed an audit almost three decades in the making, the Pentagon's No. 2 official said Thursday. But the results were expected and showed what the agency already knew — that "more work lies ahead of us."

No kidding.  You think?  LOL.

"Congress first required the Defense Department to undertake a comprehensive audit in 1990, but the agency didn't manage to get around to it until late last year."

Gross failure of Congress since 1776.  No excuse.  Worse?  More outrageous?  Get this:

"Everyone was betting against us that we would even do the audit," Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters, adding: "It was an audit on a $2.7 trillion organization. The fact we did the audit is substantial."

Jesus Christ.  Who the f--k is minding the store?  Near trillion-dollar yearly gross mismanagement of taxpayer dollars.

More inexplicable?  Get this:

"The announcement came a day after the National Defense Strategy Commission, an independent agency appointed by Congress, reported that the Defense Department isn't financially or strategically set up to wage two wars at once and could even lose a war against China or Russia individually. "The U.S. military could suffer unacceptably high casualties and loss of major capital assets in its next conflict," it said."

We've lost ourselves.

"The audit itself and an inspector general's report on it aren't expected to be released until later Thursday at the earliest. But in a preview for reporters, Shanahan said: "We failed the audit, but we never expected to pass it." After the briefing, a Defense Department spokesman, Army Lt. Col. Joseph Buccino, clarified in an email to Reuters that "the audit is not a 'pass-fail' process." "We did not receive an 'adverse' finding — the lowest possible category — in any area," Buccino told Reuters. "We did receive findings of 'disclaimer' in multiple areas. Clearly more work lies ahead of us." Shanahan said the Defense Department had been getting preliminary findings since the massive audit began — involving 1,200 auditors counting and assessing equipment, property, accounts and spending across 21 Pentagon agencies — and was already at work on taking corrective action."

Massive failure of congressional oversight.  At the very least, decades in the making.  Where's all the loot?  In the pockets of traitorous corporate war profiteers?  Who in turn lined the pockets of traitorous, treasonous members of Congress?

"Major issues the audits highlight include compliance with cybersecurity policies and improving inventory accuracy, Shanahan said. He didn't say how much money was unaccounted for."

Why not?  Taxpayers are entitled to know.

"Some of the compliance issues are irritating to me," he said. "Some of those things frustrated me because we have a job to do; we just need to follow our procedures."

Pitiful.  F--king pitiful.  Treasonous.  Traitorous.  Gross incompetence at the very least.

"Asked whether the audit could undermine public confidence in the Defense Department, Shanahan said, "We count ships right." He said he hoped taxpayers would conclude: "'Good. I’m glad you guys are putting in the discipline.'"

Jesus Christ.  We've lost our country.

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.

11-23-18

Think anything will come of it?  The Washington Post reports:

"The CIA has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month, contradicting the Saudi government’s claims that he was not involved in the killing, according to people familiar with the matter. The CIA’s assessment, in which officials have said they have high confidence, is the most definitive to date linking Mohammed to the operation and complicates the Trump administration’s efforts to preserve its relationship with a close ally. A team of 15 Saudi agents flew to Istanbul on government aircraft in October and killed Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate, where he had gone to pick up documents that he needed for his planned marriage to a Turkish woman. In reaching its conclusions, the CIA examined multiple sources of intelligence, including a phone call that the prince’s brother Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, had with Khashoggi, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence. Khalid told Khashoggi, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post, that he should go to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to retrieve the documents and gave him assurances that it would be safe to do so. It is not clear if Khalid knew that Khashoggi would be killed, but he made the call at his brother’s direction, according to the people familiar with the call, which was intercepted by U.S. intelligence."

NPR reports:

"Speaking on Saturday, President Trump emphasized that Saudi Arabia was "a truly spectacular ally" in terms of business and economic development."

Think so?  They've been f--king American drivers since January 1973 when gasoline prices doubled overnight.  Wake up.  Worse?  Forget?  At least some of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis.  Other Saudis in this country at the time of the attack were allowed to leave even though air traffic had been suspended.  Wake up.  You've been bamboozled.

"Regarding the crown prince, who has a close relationship with his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, Trump said, "As of this moment, we were told that he did not play a role, we're gonna have to find out what they say." He said the CIA will be speaking with him as he travels on Saturday. That contradicts what Harris told NPR. "We should note too that the president has been briefed on the CIA's findings and what we understand is that he keeps resisting them because he doesn't have, I guess, the smoking gun. He keeps asking, 'Well where is the body?' Or, show the me definitive proof that Mohammed bin Salman ordered this."

So what else is new?  Forget?  Trump's a congenital liar.  Has his own agenda.

"NPR has not independently confirmed the Post's reporting, which cites unnamed sources. The CIA declined to comment to NPR."

The Saudis continue to deny all:

"The crown prince's brother Khalid bin Salman took to Twitter on Friday to deny the phone call between him and the slain journalist, saying the only communication the two men had was "via text on Oct. 26, 2017." "I never talked to him by phone and certainly never suggested he go to Turkey for any reason. I ask the U.S. government to release any information regarding this claim," Khalid bin Salman said in a tweet.

    "As we told the Washington Post the last contact I had with Mr. Khashoggi was via text on Oct 26 2017. I never talked to him by phone and certainly never suggested he go to Turkey for any reason. I ask the US government to release any information regarding this claim.
    — Khalid bin Salman  (@kbsalsaud) November 16, 2018

"Saudi officials have denied that the crown prince had any role in  Khashoggi's death."

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.

11-23-18

Supreme Court to step up?  The Washington Post reports:

"Lawyers challenging the appointment of Matthew G. Whitaker as acting attorney general asked the Supreme Court on Friday to step in and declare that someone else should serve in the role. The filing by lawyer Thomas C. Goldstein, who earlier this week filed a motion in federal court on behalf of Maryland’s attorney general challenging Whitaker’s appointment, is a novel attempt to undo President Trump’s choice to lead the Justice Department after Jeff Sessions was forced out as attorney general on Nov. 7. Whitaker was serving as Sessions’s chief of staff, and Goldstein and other critics argue it is illegal for a government official to run the agency — even temporarily — if he is not Senate-confirmed. It is unclear when the Supreme Court could consider Goldstein’s motion."

CBS News reports:

"Three Democratic senators have filed a lawsuit challenging President Trump's appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general. The complaint was filed Monday by Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. All three senators sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee and are arguing that Whitaker's appointment violates the Constitution's Appointment Clause "advice and consent" role. They believe that Whitaker's appointment violates the Constitution because he has not been confirmed by the Senate. On a conference call, Blumenthal said that with Whitaker's appointment, "the president has made an end run around the Constitution," and that this appointment "so flagrantly defies" the Constitution that any viewer of "Schoolhouse Rock" would recognize it.  The complaint asks a judge to declare the appointment unconstitutional and to prevent him from serving as head of the Justice Department."

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.

11-23-18

Trump nazi challenged in court.  NPR reports:

"President Trump's effort to limit the number of people seeking asylum in the United States will face legal challenges in two different federal courts on Monday. A federal judge in California will hear a challenge to the president's recent proclamation that requires asylum-seekers to present themselves at official ports of entry. The language of the proclamation makes clear that the administration is primarily concerned with the migrant caravan moving north through Mexico. But a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) argues that the president's proclamation violates federal law in two ways: first, it bypasses rules requiring at least 30 days for "notice and comment" on changes in government regulations; and second, it limits asylum seekers to ports of entry. Under current federal law, migrants may apply for asylum inside the U.S. even if they entered the country illegally. In a statement, the advocacy groups also say that the administration has been discouraging asylum-seekers who do present themselves at ports of entry:"As documented in our case Al Otro Lado v. Nielsen, the Department of Homeland Security has a documented pattern, practice, and policy of turning asylum-seekers away from official ports of entry at the U.S. border with Mexico, thus pushing many asylum-seekers to cross the border without authorization in order to reach relative safety." The migrant advocates are asking U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar for a temporary restraining order to stop the administration from implementing the asylum restrictions nationwide."

CBS News reports:

"A federal judge barred the Trump administration Monday from refusing asylum to immigrants who cross the southern border illegally. U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar issued a temporary restraining order after hearing arguments in San Francisco. He acted on a request made by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights, which quickly sued after President Trump issued the ban this month in response to the caravans of migrants that have started to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border."

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.

11-23-18

Height of disingenuous bullshit by the Trump nazi and his henchmen?  Get this.  CBS News reports:

"President Trump said he will not stop his acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker if he decides to limit Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. In a weekend interview with "Fox News Sunday," the president also said he's spent "enough time" answering Mueller's questions. "I would not get involved," he said. "It's going to be up to him," Mr. Trump said in the interview. "He's going to do what's 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.

11-23-18

Hypocrisy run amok. The Washington Post reports:

"Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of emails last year to White House aides, Cabinet officials and her assistants using a personal account, many of them in violation of federal records rules, according to people familiar with a White House examination of her correspondence."

Amazing, isn't it?

"White House ethics officials learned of Trump’s repeated use of personal email when reviewing emails gathered last fall by five Cabinet agencies to respond to a public records lawsuit. That review revealed that throughout much of 2017, she often discussed or relayed official White House business using a private email account with a domain that she shares with her husband, Jared Kushner. The discovery alarmed some advisers to President Trump, who feared that his daughter’s practices bore similarities to the personal email use of Hillary Clinton, an issue he made a focus of his 2016 campaign. He attacked his Democratic challenger as untrustworthy and dubbed her “Crooked Hillary” for using a personal email account as secretary of state."

Think he'll say the same about the First Daughter?  LOL.

"Some aides were startled by the volume of Ivanka Trump’s personal emails — and taken aback by her response when questioned about the practice. She said she was not familiar with some details of the rules, according to people with knowledge of her reaction."

Jesus Christ.  No question, 'stupid is as stupid does.'  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.

11-16-18

Once again, Republican national socialists, fascists are determined to dictate what women can and cannot do with THEIR uterus.  CBS News reports:

"Two states voted Tuesday to add anti-abortion language to their constitutions in what some opponents say is preparation for a potential overturn of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court."

These goddamned nazis are hell-bent, determined to force their outrageously perverse ideological and religious views on all.  Direct violation of the First Amendment Establishment Clause, that is, freedom from religion.

"Voters in Alabama and West Virginia approved state ballot measures that addressed the question of abortion and sought to ban public Medicaid funding of the procedure. Both measures stated their state's constitution did not protect a woman's right to an abortion and their state would not provide funding for the procedure, except in the case of rape, incest and medical emergency, as is required by federal law."

National socialism, fascism, raw nazism.  Hundreds of thousands of U.S. military personnel died fighting this scourge.  Second World War European Theater.

"It basically paves the way to ban abortion in all instances," Shante Wolfe-Sisson, the campaign manager for Alabama for Healthy Families, a group that opposed the initiative, said Wednesday in an interview with CBS News. "In practice, it will sit in the Alabama constitution as a standing law so in the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned, it will automatically become law."

Raw nazism.  Who the hell are these fascist bastards to force their outrageously perverse ideological and religious views on all?

"In Alabama, voters agreed to amend the state constitution to include that its policy was to protect "the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life" and its official stance on abortion was to "ensure the protection of the rights of the unborn child in all manners and measures lawful and appropriate." Wolfe-Sisson says these changes would effectively outlaw pregnancy-ending procedures in the event Roe v. Wade gets overturned. Alabama State Rep. Mike Fridy, who sponsored the amendment, did not immediately return a call and email seeking comment."

Goddamned nazi.  Again and ferociously pointedly, hundreds of thousands U.S. military personnel died fighting this outrageous cancer in Europe.  Second World War.  Hitler's Third Reich now resurrected by the Trump nazi, his henchmen, and nazis in the Republican Party.  Trump's Fourth.  Traitors.  Direct assault on liberty.  All civil and constitutional rights and liberties.

"In 1973, the Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade prohibited states from banning abortion prior to fetus viability, securing a woman's right to access the procedure throughout the U.S. In recent years, a number of states have enacted measures such as waiting periods and restrictions on clinics that effectively reduce access to abortion without explicitly outlawing it."

All in an outrageously shameless effort to force their outrageously perverse ideological and religious views on all.  Nazis.  Traitors.  Goddamned un-American.

"However, with a Republican White House and increasingly conservative Supreme Court, some believe that the days of Roe v. Wade may be numbered. During a 2016 presidential debate, then-candidate Donald Trump said he foresaw the ruling being overturned if he were elected because he planned to appoint pro-life judges. He stressed the issue again in a speech before the 2018 midterm elections."

A nazi Court dominated by five Republican national socialists, fascists, nazis.  If there is no reproductive freedom, there is no freedom at all.  The nazi element remains too goddamned stupid, hopelessly ignorant to understand this.  'Can fix ignorant, can't fix stupid.'  ... Right, Mr. 'President?'

"So far, the Supreme Court has not agreed to hear a direct challenge to Roe. But if it eventually does so, and if a majority of the justices vote to overturn that precedent, it would be up to individual states to determine whether to restrict or outlaw abortion within its borders. Measures like the ones seen in Alabama and West Virginia are essentially preemptive, said Wolfe-Sisson; in the event that Roe v. Wade is dismantled, abortion will automatically become illegal in Alabama."

Nazi Alabama.  Nazi America.  Revolution doomsday clock strikes ever closer to midnight. Hear the rumble?  An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming.  Direct assault on all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  Fascist police-state quickly transitioning to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.

"West Virginians voted for language that said the state constitution does not "secure or protect" a woman's right to abortion. The state ballot measure also outlawed the use of Medicaid dollars to pay for abortion except in the case of rape, incest and life endangerment, said Patricia Puertas Rucker, a Republican state senator in West Virginia and lead sponsor of the amendment."

Another Republican nazi.  These clueless national socialists present an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  Traitors.  Blatant, direct, concerted attack on liberty. Un-American.  Right Wing and nazi.

"I believe that that's something that people who have conscious objection shouldn't have to pay for," Rucker told CBS News. Medicaid is jointly funded by states and the federal government. Federal law doesn't allow states to bar Medicaid funding for abortions in cases of rape, incest or if the mother's life is in danger."

If by the above reasoning taxpayers should not be forced to fund abortions, then why the hell should they be forced to line the pockets of corporate war profiteers?  Every goddamned war since Korea was waged to line the pockets of the corporate management suite.  Blood money.

Even Afghanistan could have been avoided had the State Department conducted full background checks on the 9/11 terrorists and heeded warnings of the flight schools the bastards wished only to learn how to fly straight and level, not take off and land.  Ferociously pointedly, why should those of us who object to this bullshit be forced to fund it, required to finance these very same war profiteers who line their pockets off the blood of our troops? Why?  Goddamned blood money.  Nazi America.  Yet, it's okay for religious fascists to use the very same bogus excuse to deny women the right to do with THEIR uterus as they damn well please?  Unadulterated horse shit.  Bogus double standard.

"In a written statement, Dawn Laguens, the executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, called the latest state efforts an "unprecedented effort to insert politics into health care."

Far, far worse than that.  No more than a blatant, deliberate, concerted, naked attempt by the nazi element in our formerly great country to force their outrageously perverse ideological and religious views on the rest of us who strongly object to their goddamned traitorous nazism.

"West Virginia currently has laws on the books criminalizing abortion, attaching a penalty of three to 10 years of  jail time for either performing or receiving the procedure. However, the laws are not in effect because both federal and state courts have found the state code to be unconstitutional."

Goddamned right.  Worse?  Treasonous.  Direct concerted assault on all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  Raw nazism.

Yet, not all in our formerly great country are goose stepping along with the nazi element:

"Meanwhile in Oregon, voters on Tuesday went the other direction, rejecting a proposal that would have cut state insurance funding for low-income women seeking abortions."

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.

11-16-18

Be interesting to see if Trump uses the replacement of Sessions to engineer the firing of Mueller.  Should that happen, would immediately trigger a constitutional crisis.  NPR reports:

"Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker could make life quite difficult for Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller if he wanted."

Should that happen, would be hell to pay.  Likely beginning of the end of the Trump regime.

"It is a true honor that the President has confidence in my ability to lead the Department of Justice as Acting Attorney General," Whitaker said in a statement Wednesday evening. "I am committed to leading a fair Department with the highest ethical standards, that upholds the rule of law, and seeks justice for all Americans."

None of that's true.  None of it.  Readers are reminded Whitaker previously contemplated defunding the Mueller investigation.  Called obstruction of justice.  No more complicated than that.

"Of Sessions, Whitaker added he "has been a dedicated public servant for over 40 years. It has been a privilege to work under his leadership. He is a man of integrity who has served this nation well."

Certainly, highly indicative of the values and ideology of Whitaker himself.  Sessions is, and was, a racist nazi.  Presented an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties as Attorney General.  Shamelessly lied when he swore his oath of office to uphold the United States Constitution.

"Now, though, Sessions is gone and the Justice Department says that means Whitaker's purview includes the special counsel's investigation. Whitaker has not been a fan."

Gross understatement.

"Mueller has come up to a red line in the Russia 2016 election-meddling investigation that he is dangerously close to crossing," Whitaker wrote in an op-ed last year before he came to work for the government. He called for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller and who has been supervising his work, to curb the investigation."

Shameless, blatant obstruction of justice by a Republican nazi in the pocket of Trump.  Loyal partisan.  Forget? Partisanship trumps country.  The Republican nazi way.  Conveniently, forget?  ... Not that the Democrats are any better, or more enlightened.

"Now Whitaker is in charge of the Justice Department and Rosenstein reports to him, putting Whitaker in a position to constrain the special counsel if he wishes or if he's directed to do so by the president."

Should that happen, would immediately trigger a constitutional crisis.  Would not be tolerated.

"Trump has made clear that he believes he has the power to fire Mueller altogether, through the leadership of the Justice Department or outside it. The president's lawyers have argued he has vast privilege under the Constitution to hire or dismiss nearly anyone within the executive branch. Trump asserted that again on Wednesday in a press conference at the White House in which he suggested the only reason he hasn't already ousted Mueller is because it might make him look bad."

What it would do is immediately trigger a constitutional crisis.  No question.  Be viewed as no more than obstruction of justice.  -- A nazi fuhrer more than willing to place himself above the best interests of our formerly great country.

"Whitaker so far hasn't said much about his outlook for the Justice Department or the special counsel investigation; Rosenstein hasn't spoken publicly either since Sessions' dismissal."

Both need to immediately do so.  Assure the nation they will not engage in or tolerate obstruction of justice.

"Critics, however, are calling on Whitaker not to take the reins. Democrats cited his past comments about Mueller as evidence that he too must recuse."

No question.  Even as despicable as the racist Sessions nazi truly was, has to be given great credit for doing the right thing and recusing himself.  -- One of the few things he did right as Attorney General.

"Given his record of threats to undermine & weaken the Russia investigation, Matthew Whitaker should recuse himself from any involvement in Mueller's investigation," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said on Twitter. "Congress must take immediate action to protect the rule of law and integrity of the investigation"

How can that happen when congressional Republican nazis continue to protect and defend their fuhrer in the Oval Office?

"Whitaker's views as an outside commentator before joining the government have been music to the ears of Trump and Republicans. He's been an advocate for sharply restricting the avenues down which Mueller's investigators can travel, as when he responded to reports that Mueller might be looking into Trump's financial relationships with Russians."

Called blatant obstruction of justice.  To protect his fuhrer.

"Experts say, however, that any investigation into the role foreign countries play in domestic politics must delve down financial rabbit holes."

Indeed.  No question.  Have to follow all leads to their conclusion.  Thorough investigation.

"And separately, two years ago, after then-FBI Director James Comey announced he would not recommend charges against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server, Whitaker penned an opinion piece for USA Today headlined "I would indict Hillary Clinton." "Director Comey's judgment was that "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring the case. I disagree," Whitaker wrote. "I believe myself to have been a reasonable prosecutor, and when the facts and evidence show a criminal violation has been committed, the individuals involved should not dictate whether the case is prosecuted."

Shouldn't the same be applied to the Trump nazi?  Whitaker is either lying or deluded.  Clearly, he's a Republican partisan in the camp of Trump Inc.  Precisely, why the fuhrer appointed him interim Attorney General.  No more complicated than that.  Grossly unfit for office.  Exactly, why Trump dumped Sessions and appointed him.

The Washington Post reports:

"Within hours of his appointment, there were mounting calls by congressional Democrats and government watchdog groups for Whitaker to recuse himself, citing critical comments he made about Mueller’s investigation."

For damned good reason.  This man is unfit.  No more than a staunch Republican partisan in the pocket of Trump.

"Furious Democrats, emboldened by winning control of the House in Tuesday’s elections, also promised to investigate Sessions’s forced resignation and suggested Trump’s actions could amount to obstruction of justice if he intended to disrupt the criminal probe. “There is no mistaking what this means, and what is at stake: this is a constitutionally perilous moment for our country and for the President,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.) said in a statement. He is set to take over in January as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, the panel that would oversee any impeachment proceedings."

To date, all talk no action.  Hopefully, that will change in January.  If not, no better than Republican national socialists who egregiously failed to provide congressional oversight.  To protect their nazi fuhrer.

"Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut called Wednesday’s events “a break-the-glass moment” and said he would be introducing legislation to protect Mueller’s work."

Where have we heard this before?  Where?  To date, no action.  Empty talk.

“Any attempt to limit his resources or the scope of his investigation is unacceptable,” he said. “The world, and history, are watching.”

Indeed.

Trouble in paradise.  Unanswered questions.  The Washington Post reports:

"When federal investigators were digging into an invention-promotion company accused of fraud by customers, they sought information in 2017 from a prominent member of the company’s advisory board, according to two people familiar with the probe: Matthew G. Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney in Iowa. It is unclear how Whitaker — who was appointed acting attorney general by President Trump on Wednesday — responded to a Federal Trade Commission subpoena to his law firm. In the end, the FTC filed a complaint against Miami-based World Patent Marketing, accusing it of misleading investors and falsely promising that it would help them patent and profit from their inventions, according to court filings. In May of this year, a federal court in Florida ordered the company to pay a settlement of more than $25 million and close up shop, records show. The company did not admit or deny wrongdoing. Whitaker’s sudden elevation this week to replace fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions has put new scrutiny on his involvement with the shuttered company, whose advisory board he joined in 2014, shortly after making a failed run for U.S. Senate in Iowa."

Fascinating, isn't it?  Plot thickens:

"At the time, he was also running a conservative watchdog group with ties to other powerful nonprofits on the right and was beginning to develop a career as a Trump-friendly cable television commentator. World Patent Marketing — founded by Miami businessman Scott J. Cooper, who had donated $2,600 to Whitaker’s Senate campaign — prominently highlighted Whitaker’s résumé as a former U.S. attorney, which helped lend the company credibility. But Whitaker seems to have been more than a figurehead. He spoke about inventions of the company’s clients in online videos — including a special hot-tub seat for people with mobility issues. He also penned a response to at least one complaint — writing a threatening email in which he cited his role as a former U.S. attorney, according to court filings."

Now, he's Trump's interim Attorney General.

“It’s really upsetting to know that guy will be attorney general,” said Ryan Masti, 26, who lost $77,000 after paying World Patent Marketing to help him bring to market his idea for a social media app to help the disabled. “It’s so offensive. It’s like a stab in the back.” Whitaker did not respond to requests for comment about World Patent Marketing or the investigation. “We’ll decline,” Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in an email to The Washington Post."

If there's nothing to hide and all is on the up and up, why isn't the Justice Department willing to comment?

"A partner at Whitaker’s former Iowa law firm declined to comment. A spokesman for the FTC also declined to comment."

Fascinating, isn't it?  Silence golden?

"There was no evidence that Whitaker knew company salespeople were making false promises to inventors, court receiver Jonathan Perlman said in an interview."

That right?  If so, why no comment and/or further information from DOJ?

“I have no reason to believe that he knew of any of the wrongdoing,” Perlman said. Whitaker was paid at least $10,000 by the company, according to court filings."

Certainly, lined his pockets.

Get this:

"At the conclusion of the FTC investigation, Perlman sent a demand letter to Whitaker — along with other advisory board members — seeking repayment of the fees they received. Whitaker did not respond, Perlman said."

Why not?

"When Whitaker was appointed to the board of World Patent Marketing in October 2014, a company spokesman said in a press release that he would provide “vision and direction.” Later, the company touted Whitaker’s legal background and said he was working with the company to help investors avoid patent marketing fraud. “As a former U.S. Attorney, I would only align myself with a first class organization,” Whitaker said in a 2014 company news release. “World Patent Marketing goes beyond making statements about doing business ‘ethically’ and translate those words into action.” According to the FTC, however, the company falsely promised clients it would patent and market their ideas in exchange for hefty fees — and then pocketed the money. “For the last three years, Defendants have operated an invention-promotion scam that has bilked thousands of consumers out of millions of dollars,” the agency alleged in a recently unsealed court filing. “In truth and in fact, Defendants fail to fulfill almost every promise they make to consumers.”

No one prosecuted?  If the allegations were indeed true, why not?  Someone paid off?

"Neither Cooper nor his current attorney responded to requests for comment."

Imagine that.

"In court documents, Cooper told the court that the company did provide some services and said the company’s website warned customers that most inventions are not commercially successful, according to the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Sun-Sentinel. World Patent Marketing salespeople would persuade prospective clients to sign a confidentiality agreement and then ask them to explain their idea, according to court documents. Whatever the concept, no matter how banal or improbable, investigators found, the salesperson would pronounce the idea fantastic and encourage the customer to pay for a package to market and patent the idea, documents show. Many people ended up in debt or lost their life savings, according to the FTC."

Anyone prosecuted?  Anyone at all?  If not, why not?

A scam.  Get this:

"Promotional material highlighted the meaty résumés of board members like Whitaker, which seemed to be a key component of the business operation. The company said the board would help review inventors’ ideas to maximize their ability to get rich. “Innovators are today’s revolutionaries — forward-thinking visionaries that have come together to form the powerful and influential World Patent Marketing advisory board,” the narrator of one promotional video intoned, as photos of Whitaker and other board members filled the screen. Masti, who said he struggled with ADHD as a child and hoped his invention would help others like him, said in an interview that he trusted the company in part because he was told that advisory board members, including Whitaker, had reviewed his idea and thought it would be successful. “They said he’s very high up. He’s a professional. He’s got a lot of power,” said Masti, a resident of Cameron, N.Y., who said he voted for Trump in 2016. “That’s how they sold you.”

Sounds like a scam, doesn't it?  Gets worse.  Get this:

"Now, Masti said he is living with his parents and facing crushing debt from loans he took out to pay the company. Another former customer, Penn Mason, an airline employee from Nashville, said he paid World Patent Marketing $21,000 to help him patent and market a real estate app he had invented. The company failed to patent his product and quickly stopped returning his phone calls, he said. Mason said he believes that paid advisory board members like Whitaker essentially pocketed money from unsuspecting victims. “That was our money,” said Mason, 52. Of Whitaker’s selection as acting attorney general, he said, “It makes me sick to my stomach ... It’s like a punch in the gut.” When investors began to complain that they had paid the company large sums with little to show for it, they were threatened, according to interviews and court documents."

Goes on and on.

"Mason said that after he began to complain, he got a call from Cooper, the CEO, who threatened to sue him for slander. “He really scared me,” Mason said. “You feel like you’re dealing with all these bigwigs.” The Miami New Times, which published in an in-depth investigation of the company last year, reported that Cooper would sometimes tell people who had posted negative reviews of the company that he had security with specialized training in the Israeli martial art Krav Maga. In an August 2015 email included in court documents, Whitaker wrote to a complainant who threatened to go to the Better Business Bureau, “I am assuming you understand that there could be serious civil and criminal consequences for you.” He noted he was a former U.S. attorney."

Now, he's interim Attorney General in the Trump Administration.  Fascinating, isn't it?

CBS News reports:

"The nation's new acting attorney general served as a paid adviser to a Florida company shut down by a federal judge earlier this year and fined almost $26 million for allegedly running an invention-promotion scam. Matthew G. Whitaker, the acting attorney general and a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, joined the advisory board of World Patent Marketing in the fall of 2014. His involvement with the now-defunct company is attracting attention after President Trump picked him to fill in for Jeff Sessions, forced out as attorney general earlier this week. Indeed, the FBI's Miami office has been conducting a criminal investigation of World Patent Marketing during the period it paid Whitaker as an adviser while it allegedly scammed millions of dollars from customers, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Whitaker oversees the FBI in his newly elevated role as acting attorney general. Closed down by a federal judge in May, World Patent Marketing "bilked thousands of consumers out of millions of dollars" by promising inventors lucrative patent agreements, according to a complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission in March 2017. The company did not admit or deny wrongdoing in the settlement."

Quite a lucrative scam:

"Consumers were told by World Patent Marketing that they had to spend about $3,000 for a "Global Invention Royalty Analysis" to start the process of obtaining a patent. After the initial payment, customers were then offered varying packages that ran from $8,000 to about $65,000, the FTC complaint said. Once consumers paid the company money, they were typically ignored, then threatened or scolded when they requested information or asked for their money back, according to the agency. "Defendants and their lawyers have threatened consumers with lawsuits and even criminal charges and imprisonment for making any kind of complaint," the FTC 's complaint said. In at least one court documented case, the company used Whitaker's prior role as a federal prosecutor to rebuke customers. "World Patent Marketing has become a trusted partner to many inventors that believe in the American Dream," Whitaker stated in a news release touting his new role. "I have always admired World Patent Marketing and its innovative products and dynamic leadership team.  It's an honor to join the World Patent Marketing board." "As a former U.S. attorney, I would only align myself with a first class organization," Whitaker stated in another news release issued two months later by the company."

Charlatan?  Snake oil salesman?  You decide.  -- One thing for sure.  He's now Trump's acting attorney general.

NPR reports:

"President Trump defended his selection of acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker on Friday as new questions arose about Whitaker's fitness for the post and whether his appointment is legal. Trump named Whitaker to the acting position on Wednesday after abruptly forcing out Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In doing so, the president passed over Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, installing a political appointee with a record of criticizing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump, who has frequently dismissed that probe as a "witch hunt," feigned ignorance of Whitaker's background. "I don't know Matt Whitaker," Trump told reporters on Friday as he left the White House for a trip to Paris. "Matt Whitaker worked for Jeff Sessions. And he was always extremely highly thought of and he still is. But I didn't know Matt Whitaker." In fact, Trump has met with his hand-picked appointee more than a dozen times. As Sessions' chief of staff, Whitaker reportedly accompanied his boss to the Oval Office on multiple occasions."

The president is clearly a liar.

The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump distanced himself Friday from acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker amid intensifying scrutiny of the controversial legal views and business entanglements of the president’s pick to run the Justice Department and assume control of the Russia investigation. With the White House scrambling to manage public examination of Whitaker’s background and resistance to his leadership within the Justice Department, Trump sought to douse speculation that he had installed the partisan loyalist to curtail the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign."

Bet he did.  Think effectively?  Delusionally, believe so?

"Trump insisted that he had not spoken with Whitaker about the investigation being led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III — and the president upbraided a reporter when she asked whether he wanted Whitaker to rein in Mueller. “What a stupid question,” he said. Defiant and testy as he departed the White House on Friday morning for a weekend visit to Paris, Trump claimed four separate times that he did not personally know Whitaker, who had been serving as chief of staff at the Justice Department. “I don’t know Matt Whitaker,” Trump told reporters, adding that he knew him only by reputation. That claim is false, according to the president’s past statements as well as the accounts of White House officials — one of whom laughed Friday at Trump’s suggestion that he did not know Whitaker. Trump and Whitaker have met in the Oval Office several times, and Whitaker briefed Trump when the president preferred not to talk to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom he had disparaged publicly, according to White House officials. As Trump said last month on Fox News Channel, “I know Matt Whitaker.” In addition, Trump was aware that Whitaker was a skeptic of the Mueller probe before appointing him, which factored into his decision to tap him over Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, according to two White House advisers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid."

Obstruction of justice.

"Meanwhile, Whitaker’s public record is drawing fresh scrutiny. That includes comments during his unsuccessful 2014 campaign in Iowa for U.S. Senate that judges should have a “biblical view,” that he could not support judicial nominees who are “secular” and that he thinks federal courts are supposed to be the “inferior branch” of the government. Whitaker has criticized the Supreme Court’s landmark 1803 ruling in Marbury v. Madison, which serves as the foundation for judicial review of public policy. Federal investigators last year also looked into whether Whitaker, as an advisory-board member of a Miami patent company accused of fraud by customers, played a role in trying to help the company silence critics by threatening legal action. But it is Whitaker’s outspoken criticism of the Mueller investigation that has led Democrats to allege bias and spurred bipartisan efforts on Capitol Hill to pass legislation designed to protect the special counsel and prohibit Trump from firing him.

"Meanwhile, an audio recording has circulated online in which Whitaker expresses doubt about any Russian inference in elections at all. “The left is trying to sow this theory that essentially Russians interfered with the U.S. election, which has been proven false,” Whitaker said. “They did not have any impact in the election.” That statement directly conflicts with the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the election to help elect Trump and the Justice Department’s indictments of more than two dozen alleged Russian agents for interference. Inside the Justice Department, there is considerable resistance to Whitaker, and some officials there say they think he is wholly unqualified to be acting attorney general. Many in the building are concerned about infighting, noting that while Whitaker was serving as chief of staff to Sessions he spoke privately with Trump about taking over as attorney general and did not disclose the conversation to Sessions. A person familiar with the matter said Sessions was surprised when The Washington Post first reported on Whitaker and Trump’s discussion. Whitaker also had been seen as gunning for Rosenstein’s job, which created awkwardness among the department leadership, officials said."

Apparently, not all of the Trump nazi's aides are on board:

"At the White House as well as the Justice Department, senior aides were taken aback by news accounts of Whitaker’s work on the advisory board of Miami-based World Patent Marketing, which was accused of defrauding its customers. Officials said they were particularly stunned by emails showing Whitaker invoked his former job as a U.S. attorney to threaten a man who had complained about the company. Whitaker also rebuffed an October 2017 subpoena from the Federal Trade Commission seeking his records related to the company, according to two people with knowledge of the case. Also under scrutiny is Whitaker’s work as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa. In one of its most publicized cases, Whitaker’s office brought charges against an openly gay Democratic state senator, Matt McCoy, for allegedly using his office to extort about $2,000 from a local company that installed motion sensors in the homes of senior citizens to monitor their health. McCoy said he believed the case was motivated because of his politics and sexual orientation, and a jury found him not guilty. A Justice Department spokesman said the case was brought on its merits, not because of politics. Still, for Whitaker, the case ended in defeat and harsh criticism in the local press."

Trump and his henchmen present an exigent threat to our democratic republic.  To say nothing of life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.

Even Rosenstein has not turned out to be the protector of the Constitution he earlier appeared to be:

"Seeking to quell the internal concerns and public doubts that have been raised about Whitaker, Rosenstein praised his new boss in brief remarks to reporters Friday in Alexandria, Va. “I think he’s a superb choice for attorney general,” Rosenstein said. “He certainly understands the work, understands the priorities of the department. I think he’s going to do a superb job as attorney general.” He added that he delivered the same message Thursday in a conference call with prosecutors across the country."

Rosenstein has lost all credibility.  Is not fit for the job.

"Justice Department lawyers are bracing for the likelihood that they will face lawsuits over the constitutionality of Whitaker’s appointment. A Justice Department official said lawyers feared that challengers would be able to find a judge, at least at the district-court level, who would be friendly to challenges over Whitaker’s authority — whether they had merit or not — and stir further anxiety at the department. Lawyers Neal K. Katyal and George T. Conway III, who have emerged as prominent critics of the Trump administration, argued in a New York Times column this week that Whitaker’s appointment was unconstitutional because the appointments clause of the Constitution requires “principal officers” who report to the president be confirmed by the Senate. Some other legal scholars dispute that argument.

"Speaking with reporters Friday, Trump distanced himself from Whitaker, just as he has done with other close associates — including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former personal lawyer Michael Cohen — once they become embroiled in controversy. “Well, Matt Whitaker — I don’t know Matt Whitaker,” Trump said. “Matt Whitaker worked for Jeff Sessions, and he was always extremely highly thought of, and he still is. But I didn’t know Matt Whitaker.” Trump went on to praise Whitaker as “a very smart man,” “very respected” and “at the top of the line” — and claimed his selection to succeed Sessions “was greeted with raves.” Administration officials and outside advisers said later Friday that they were struggling to divine the meaning of Trump’s assertion he did not know Whitaker. “Could he be running from him? I guess it’s possible,” said one person close to Trump and the Justice Department. “I think he’s just trying to kick the can and not deal with the situation.”

Think the shit's finally about to hit the fan?

Trump has again demonstrated he's a rabid jackass.  ABC News reports:

"President Donald Trump on Friday mocked "Mr. Kellyanne Conway", George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, and his concerns that Matthew Whitaker's appointment as acting attorney general is unconstitutional. "You mean Mr. Kellyanne Conway?" Trump responded when asked by a reporter about the criticism. "He’s just trying to get publicity for himself. Why don't you do this, why don't you ask Kellyanne that question, all right? She might know him better than me. I really don't know the guy."

Then, why talk out both sides your ass, Mr. 'President?'

"George Conway co-wrote an op-ed in the New York Times published Thursday arguing that President Trump's appointment of Whitaker as acting attorney general is unconstitutional because he wasn't confirmed by the Senate. "It’s illegal. And it means that anything Mr. Whitaker does, or tries to do, in that position is invalid," Conway, a lawyer, and Neal Katyal, also a Washington lawyer and former acting solicitor general under President Barack Obama, wrote in the New York Times. "Because Mr. Whitaker has not undergone the process of Senate confirmation, there has been no mechanism for scrutinizing whether he has the character and ability to evenhandedly enforce the law in a position of such grave responsibility. The public is entitled to that assurance, especially since Mr. Whitaker’s only supervisor is Mr. Trump himself, and the president is hopelessly compromised by the Mueller investigation," Conway and Katyal wrote. It's not the first time Conway has publicly shared views opposing those of his wife's boss. Conway and Katyal recently wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post arguing that Trump's proposal to end birthright citizenship is unconstitutional."

Shit continues to hit the fan.  The Washington Post reports:

"Maryland’s top lawyer is asking a federal judge to block Matthew G. Whitaker from serving as acting U.S. attorney general contending the appointment is illegal. Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) says in a planned court filing Tuesday that President Trump’s appointment of Whitaker is unconstitutional and that he should be replaced by Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who was confirmed by the Senate. “The Constitution and Congress have established vitally important processes for filling high-level vacancies in the federal government,” Frosh said in a statement. “Few positions are more critical than that of U.S. Attorney General, an office that wields enormous enforcement power and authority over the lives of all Americans.” The challenge to Whitaker’s appointment would come as part of Maryland’s ongoing federal lawsuit that is trying to force the Trump administration to uphold a key provision of the Affordable Care Act. “Who the attorney general is is at the core of this lawsuit,” Frosh said in an interview Tuesday morning. “Aside from the constitutional issue, this guy, Mr. Whitaker, has extreme views and that’s dangerous in itself,” said Frosh, adding he also expects any ruling in the state challenge to Whitaker’s role would be appealed. The planned legal action over Whitaker, first reported by NPR, says his appointment violates the Constitution’s Appointments Clause that requires “principal” senior officials, like the attorney general, to be confirmed by the Senate. Maryland also contends it violates a federal statute that gives authority to the deputy attorney general when the top job is vacant."

Be interesting to see where this goes, -- if anywhere.

CBS News reports:

"The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel on Wednesday released the legal advice it gave the White House as to whether a senior Justice Department official like Matt Whitaker could be appointed acting attorney general, CBS News' Paula Reid reports. In short, the Justice Department's lawyers, in the memo dated Wednesday, argued an appointment Whitaker's is lawful. A senior Justice Department official who worked on the memo and spoke to reporters on a conference call Wednesday morning confirmed the Justice Department gave the White House verbal advice, then codified that advice in a memo."

Be interesting to see if that flies, no?  Sounds like they were 'winging' it, doesn't it?  ... To appease the Trump nazi.

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.

11-16-18

In follow up to a recent edition here and elsewhere, NPR reports:

"Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman acquitted days ago of blasphemy, has been freed from jail after spending more than eight years in solitary confinement awaiting execution. The acquittal of Bibi, who is Catholic, was announced just over a week ago by Pakistan's Supreme Court, which said her accusers had not definitively proved her guilt. She was permitted to leave jail immediately after the verdict, but her release was delayed after protests from an extremist religious group, demanding she be killed. Citing officials, the BBC reports that Bibi left her detention facility in Punjab province under heavy security on Wednesday and was flown to a secure location in Islamabad.

"The Italian government said earlier this week it would help Bibi and her family relocate. Several other Western countries have also offered her asylum. In the past, both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis have advocated for her."

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.

11-16-18

More of the same.  A congenital liar.  NPR reports:

"Days after midterm voting, as ballots are still being counted, Republican lawmakers holding onto tight leads in midterm states are alleging foul play and voter fraud. The claims were amplified by President Trump, without evidence, on Friday morning. "You mean they are just now finding votes in Florida and Georgia — but the Election was on Tuesday?" he wrote in a tweet. "Let's blame the Russians and demand an immediate apology from President Putin!"

    "You mean they are just now finding votes in Florida and Georgia – but the Election was on Tuesday? Let’s blame the Russians and demand an immediate apology from President Putin!
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2018"

A congenital liar.  No proof.  No evidence.  Abject bullshit.  Forget?  The Trump way.

"Current Florida Gov. Rick Scott, locked in a tight Senate race, said in a press conference Thursday night that "the people of Florida deserve fairness and transparency and the supervisors are failing to give it to us."

Lying because you're losing the race?

"Every Floridian should be concerned there may be rampant voter fraud in Palm Beach and Broward Counties," he said. "I will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election from the great people of Florida."

Another congenital liar in the mold of the Trump nazi.

In update, NPR reports:

"Two top elections in Florida are heading for recounts, with voters almost evenly divided on candidates in the state's races for governor and the U.S. Senate. Unofficial vote tallies from all of Florida's 67 counties were turned in at noon on Saturday, and the narrow vote margins triggered machine recounts, which must be completed by Thursday. The most acrimonious of the elections may be the U.S. Senate race between Republican Gov. Rick Scott and incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson, which will have national consequences. If Scott is able to retain his lead, it would expand the Republican majority in the Senate, which currently stands at 51 seats. Scott's lead had narrowed to .15 percentage points, or about 12,500 votes, by Saturday afternoon. Florida law requires a machine recount when the leading candidate's margin is 0.5 percentage points or less. Nelson has filed a federal lawsuit asking to postpone the deadline for submitting election results and a motion over the process of validating signatures on provisional and absentee ballots. Scott also filed lawsuits in both Broward and Palm Beach counties demanding election supervisors there reveal how many votes are left to count, and judges ruled Friday that those election supervisors had to release that information. President Trump weighed in with support for Scott, calling the potential for a recount a "fraud," and referring to one of Nelson's attorneys, Marc Elias, in a tweet on Saturday.

    "As soon as Democrats sent their best Election stealing lawyer, Marc Elias, to Broward County they miraculously started finding Democrat votes. Don’t worry, Florida - I am sending much better lawyers to expose the FRAUD!
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2018"

The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump on Monday called for stopping the recounts in Florida’s votes for Senate and governor, alleging without evidence that many ballots are missing and forged and that a valid tally is not possible. In a morning tweet, Trump suggested that the results from the night of the Nov. 6 election should stand, handing victories to fellow Republicans Rick Scott, the governor, in the Senate race and Ron DeSantis, a former congressman, in the gubernatorial contest.

“The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged,” the president said in a tweet that misstated what Florida officials have concluded. “An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!”

Midterm election results are not final in Florida and elsewhere, enraging the Trump nazi, his henchmen, and GOP national socialists.  The Washington Post reports:

"As heavily Democratic counties in South Florida scrambled to meet a Saturday deadline to report election returns, Republican Rick Scott’s lead over Democrat Bill Nelson in the U.S. Senate race shrunk to just 12,562 votes out of nearly 8.2 million votes cast, ensuring a recount. Vote totals posted Saturday showed the margin in the marquee race in the nation’s biggest battleground state at .015 percent, close enough to trigger a recount by machine. Also hitting that threshold was the race for governor between Democrat Andrew Gillum and Republican Ron DeSantis, who is sitting on slightly bigger cushion of 33,684 votes over Gillum.

"Scott, who has also raised allegations of fraud, used his bully pulpit Saturday to encourage Florida sheriffs to keep an eye out for any violations of election laws. But the claims by the president and the governor were undercut Saturday by the Florida Department of State, which said in a statement it found “no evidence of criminal activity at this time. ” The department, which oversees elections, had sent two monitors to observe Tuesday’s vote in Broward County as result of a lawsuit over the mishandling of ballots in a 2016 congressional race."

Scott and the Trump nazi allege voter fraud with no evidence to back it up.  Law enforcement has also claimed to have found no credible allegations.

"A spokeswoman for the state department, Sarah Revell, said the observers were sent to “monitor the administration of the election, including visiting polling locations throughout the day as needed and observing preparation of the voting equipment and procedures for the election.” The monitors have continued to monitor the vote-counting this week.

"Nelson has accused Scott of using the power of his office to try to secure his Senate victory. Earlier this week, the governor called for state law enforcement to investigate the voting in South Florida — a probe that the state agency has so far declined to begin because the state department has not presented any allegations of fraud.

"Under Florida law, a statewide machine recount is conducted when the margin of victory is less than 0.5 percent, and a manual recount is ordered if the margin is less than 0.25 percent. The governor’s race does not appear to meet the manual recount standard, according to Saturday’s tally.

A manual recount is defined as “a hand recount of overvotes and undervotes set aside from the machine recount,” centering on ballots in which voters skipped a race or voted for two candidates in one race."

The Washington Post reports:

"Lawsuits and accusations flew Monday in the recount battle in Florida, with Sen. Bill Nelson (D) calling on Republican Gov. Rick Scott, his opponent, to recuse himself from overseeing the process and a judge ruling there was no evidence of voter fraud even as President Trump alleged without evidence that ballots were missing and forged. Recounts in Florida’s races for governor, Senate and agriculture commissioner were ordered Saturday due to tight margins in the votes and immediately became the focus of lawsuits by candidates. On Monday, state Judge Jack Tuter ruled against a request by Scott that ballots and machines in closely watched Broward County not in use in the recount be impounded. Tuter said that there was no evidence of voter fraud and that Brenda Snipes, the county election supervisor, needs to be allowed to do her job and finish the count. Tuter also appeared to admonish the Scott team for suggesting voter fraud without offering evidence of it. “Everything the lawyers are saying out there at the elections office is being beamed out across the country. We should be careful what we say,” Tuter said. “These words mean things these days, as everybody in the room knows.”

Not only is Scott a liar, so is the Trump nazi:

"Earlier Monday, Trump tweeted that the results from the night of the Nov. 6 election should stand, handing victories to Scott and to Republican former congressman Ron DeSantis in the gubernatorial contest. “The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged,” the president said in a tweet that misstated what Florida officials have concluded. “An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!”

    "The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2018"

No proof.  No evidence.  Blatant lies.

"Also Monday, a new suit was filed on behalf of VoteVets, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee asked that all mail-in ballots postmarked by last Tuesday be counted. Under current rules, ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day. Nelson also called on Scott to recuse himself from the recount, charging Monday that the governor can’t oversee the recount “in a fair and impartial way.” “He’s thrown around words like voter fraud without any proof,” Nelson said."

A congenital liar.  Just like the Trump nazi:

"In a Fox News television appearance earlier, Scott called Nelson a “sore loser” and alleged that “he’s just here to steal this election.” In the Senate contest, Scott’s lead over Nelson has narrowed to 12,562 votes out of more than 8 million ballots cast, a margin of 0.15 percent, according to an unofficial tally Saturday from the state. State law mandates a machine recount if the margin is half a percentage point or less. The governor’s race also has tightened, with DeSantis, a staunch ally of Trump, ahead of Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D) by 0.41 percent. If that margin holds, it would fall short of the 0.25 percent threshold for a more involved manual recount. If the margin in the Senate race holds, however, it would be slim enough to require a hand recount. In that scenario, officials would have three days to inspect ballots with over votes or under votes — ballots on which the voter selected no candidate or more than one candidate in the race — provided there are enough to change the outcome. That could spark disputes about whether the voter intended to mark it that way."

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.

11-16-18

Although the results are not yet final, the LGBTQ community did extremely well in the election.  NPR reports:

"As the electoral landscape took shape earlier this year, at least one thing became clear: 2018 was set to become a year of firsts. Election Day promised to usher in a group of barrier-breaking candidates, blazing trails for diverse communities that have long gone unrepresented in Congress and other halls of power — and nowhere was that promise more evident than in its record-smashing class of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer nominees. More than 400 such candidates were on the ballot Tuesday, according to the Victory Fund, an advocacy group that supports viable LGBTQ politicians. The sizable crop of candidates had some people even speaking of a "rainbow wave." So, now that Election Day has drawn to a close, how has that record class actually fared at the ballot box? The final answer to that question will need to wait until all of the races are called, of course, but already some candidates have made history."

NBC News reports:

"As the sun set on Washington on Tuesday evening, a rainbow appeared over the Capitol. LGBTQ candidates and advocates hoped it was an early sign that a figurative “rainbow wave” would sweep a historic number of lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer candidates into office. Their hopes were arguably fulfilled. With many races still too close to call, more than 100 LGBTQ candidates emerged victorious in the midterms as of Wednesday afternoon. For perspective, there are currently less than 600 openly LGBTQ elected officials in the U.S. — just 0.1 percent of elected officials nationwide, according to the Victory Institute. “This election is shaping up to be truly historic for LGBTQ candidates," Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the national LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD, said in a statement shared with NBC News."

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.

11-16-18

The Trump nazi certainly does not believe in a free press.  The Washington Post reports:

"The White House suspended the press credentials of CNN reporter Jim Acosta on Wednesday, hours after President Trump took issue with questions Acosta asked at a news conference."

Can't pointedly question a Republican national socialist, fascist, nazi.

"The move to punish Acosta by removing his access to the White House is believed to be unprecedented. The Trump administration barred another CNN reporter from attending an open media event in July but until now has not gone as far as removing a credential, known as a “hard pass,” which enables a journalist to enter the White House grounds. Press secretary Sarah Sanders cited Acosta’s brief confrontation with a White House press aide during Trump’s midday news conference as the reason for suspending his press pass “until further notice.”

The nazi has spoken.

"During the 90-minute session at the White House, Trump snapped at Acosta after the reporter asked whether the president had “demonized immigrants” by calling a caravan of Central American migrants “an invasion.” After a long and tense back-and-forth, a female White House intern tried to take the microphone from Acosta."

Anything to obstruct free speech.  Questioning of our nazi fuhrer.  The intern certainly did her fuhrer's bidding.

"Acosta held onto it and raised an arm to shield it, in the process making contact with the aide. “Pardon me, ma’am,” he said to her. After their exchange, Trump told Acosta: “CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN. You’re a very rude person. The way you treat Sarah Huckabee is horrible. And the way you treat other people are horrible. You shouldn’t treat people that way.”

Jesus Christ.  Kettle calling the pot black.  Hypocrisy of our nazi fuhrer? Stunning.

"On Wednesday night, Sanders accused Acosta of “placing his hands on a young woman” and said it was on those grounds that Acosta’s press pass was being suspended."

Horse shit.  Unadulterated.

“President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration,” Sanders said in a statement. “We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporter’s colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question.”

Again, no more than unadulterated horse shit:

"Video of the exchange showed otherwise. On Twitter, Acosta responded to the press secretary’s statement with, simply: “This is a lie.”

    "This is a lie. https://t.co/FastFfWych
    — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 8, 2018

"The White House Correspondents' Association called the White House’s reaction “out of line to the purported offense” and urged that Acosta’s press pass be restored."

Trump remains no more than a gutless coward.  No ability to withstand and/or answer pointed questioning.

"Appearing on CNN on Wednesday evening, Acosta told host Anderson Cooper that he was “just trying to ask a question of the president.” He added: “I didn’t put my hands on her or touch her, as the White House is alleging. I do think, Anderson, that this is a test for all of us. I think they’re trying to shut us down. I think they’re trying to send a message to my colleagues.”

No question.  Trump again proved he remains unfit for office.  Lacks temperament, judgment.

"Acosta said he learned that his access was denied from a text message he received on his phone. When he went to the White House for “one last live shot,” he said a security officer prevented him from passing through an entrance he has used for the past five years. “I never thought that in this country I wouldn’t be able to cover the president of the United States just for asking a question,” he said. In a statement Wednesday night, CNN accused the White House of retaliating against Acosta because of his questions. “In an explanation, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders lied,” the network stated. “She provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened. This unprecedented decision is a threat to our democracy and the country deserves better. Jim Acosta has our full support.” The network also tweeted a video of the interaction “for the world to see.”

Sanders, like her fuhrer, has again disgraced herself.

"Sanders later tweeted a short clip of the interaction, writing: “We stand by our decision.”

No honor.  No principles.  No guts.  Just like her fuhrer.

"Matt Dornic, CNN’s vice president of communications, responded by sharing a fuller video clip, writing: “You manipulated this video. The lies never end.”

    "You manipulated this video. The lies never end. Here’s the actual video. pic.twitter.com/pdVWbDOKTI
    — Matt Dornic (@mdornic) November 8, 2018

    "Don’t believe the lies coming from the WH. Believe in our freedoms. Thank you all for your support. We won’t back down. #1A
    — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 8, 2018"

Truth?  What's that?  Trump and his henchmen have no clue.

The Washington Post reports:

"The Trump administration is plainly upset with the behavior of a certain CNN reporter. But how far is it willing to go to make its case that the reporter acted improperly during a news conference with President Trump? One answer emerged Wednesday night when White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted a video of the episode, involving CNN’s Jim Acosta, the network’s chief White House correspondent. Experts said the video, in which Acosta is seen rebuffing a press aide’s attempt to take a microphone out of his hands, was altered to exaggerate the aggressiveness of Acosta’s actions. If that is the case, the video may belong in a category rarely employed by democratic governments: visual propaganda. The White House video, apparently made by a contributor to the conspiracy-peddling website Infowars , speeds up the movement of Acosta’s arms as the unidentified aide grabs at the mic during a heated conversation between the reporter and Trump. The video tweeted by Sanders also eliminated Acosta’s comment to the young woman — “Pardon me, ma’am” — as he sought to continue questioning the president."

Here's the problem:

“As visual journalists, we know that manipulating images is manipulating truth,” said the group’s president, Whitney Shefte, a Washington Post videographer. “It’s deceptive, dangerous and unethical. Knowingly sharing manipulated images is equally problematic, particularly when the person sharing them is a representative of our country’s highest office with vast influence over public opinion.”

"Totalitarian governments have long recognized the value of altering photos and videos to manipulate public opinion and perception. Officials were regularly airbrushed out of state photos in the Soviet Union as dictators such as Joseph Stalin purged internal enemies. Wartime governments regularly censor images or release them selectively to maintain popular order and morale. Modern-day regimes vigorously employ digital techniques to fool viewers; North Korea’s propaganda ministry routinely alters images emanating from the isolated nation, from photos of leader Kim Jong Un’s ears to state-issued pictures of the country’s military prowess."

ABC News reports:

"President Donald Trump claimed on Friday that a White House-released video depicting contact between a staffer and a CNN reporter wasn't altered, and he seemingly threatened to revoke the White House press credentials of more reporters. Trump insisted that the video distributed by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was simply a "close-up" and "was not doctored." "Nobody manipulated it. All that is is a close-up," said the president, who then attacked the reporter for asking the question and called him "dishonest." A frame-by-frame comparison with an Associated Press video of the same incident from Trump's postelection news conference Wednesday shows that the video tweeted by Sanders appears to speed up CNN reporter Jim Acosta's arm movement when he makes contact with a White House intern who was trying to take away Acosta's microphone. The speedup appears to make the gesture more threatening."

Trump is a liar.  A congenital liar.  Has no ability to withstand criticism.  Remains egregiously unfit for office.

NPR reports:

"CNN has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration after the White House suspended CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta's press credentials.

"CNN's complaint, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, calls the move "an unabashed attempt to censor the press and exclude reporters from the White House who challenge and dispute the President's point of view." "While the suit is specific to CNN and Acosta, this could have happened to anyone," CNN said in a statement to NPR. "If left unchallenged, the actions of the White House would create a dangerous chilling effect for any journalist who covers our elected officials." The lawsuit against Trump, senior White House officials and the Secret Service argues that suspending Acosta's press credentials violates his First Amendment rights to free speech and his Fifth Amendment right to due process. It demands that his credentials be immediately restored or, if not, that the matter be heard by a neutral arbiter. It's also seeking a declaration that the decision to suspend the credentials was unconstitutional."

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.

11-16-18

Trump and his henchmen are traitors.  Have concertedly, determinedly betrayed USS Cole survivors.  NPR reports:

"Eighteen years ago, Lorrie Triplett's husband, Ensign Andrew Triplett, rode off on his bike to board the destroyer USS Cole, heading for the Persian Gulf. It was the last time she would see him. On Wednesday, she sat in the U.S. Supreme Court, and she "really wanted to scream." Her husband was among 17 killed in 2000 when al-Qaida suicide bombers in a small boat attacked the Cole while it was refueling in a harbor in Yemen. Dozens more men and women were injured. They and the families of the dead sued the government of Sudan for allegedly providing material support for the attack. Their path for this and similar suits has been long and difficult, and now, to the consternation of the victims and veterans groups, the Trump administration is siding with Sudan, long designated a state sponsor of terrorism and now on the Trump travel ban list."

Blatant betrayal.  Of our best and brightest.  Raw nazism.

"The administration argues that the $315 million in damages awarded to the victims in the case cannot stand. The legal question is one that only a lawyer could love, but not the people whose lives have been affected. The question is whether the notification of the lawsuit was sent to the wrong address. The notice was sent by registered mail to the Embassy of Sudan in Washington, D.C., addressed to the nation's foreign minister and signed for by someone at the embassy. Sudan contends that under U.S. law and international treaty, the notice should have been sent to the foreign ministry in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. That position is supported not just by the Trump administration, but also by Saudi Arabia, which faces similar lawsuits over the Sept. 11 attacks."

Goddamned traitors.  Nazi America.  Where day is night, night is day, and shit smells perversely sweet.  All ass backwards.

"The argument is that to allow such notifications to be made at an embassy would breach the "inviolability" of embassies and consulates that is guaranteed under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The Trump administration argues as well that if Sudan and other countries can be served notice of lawsuits at embassies, the U.S. could suffer a similar fate at its embassies. But lawyers for the Cole victims counter that the U.S. has a firm policy of never accepting such legal service at its embassies and that the U.S. has not had any difficulty enforcing that policy over a period of more than four decades."

Trump and his henchmen are traitors.  Have determinedly, concertedly betrayed U.S. military personnel and their survivors.

Here are the consequences of Trump's intransigence:

"On Wednesday, when the case was argued, a grim group of Cole survivors and relatives of the dead sat in the chamber. Lorrie Triplett, the widow of Ensign Triplett, was shaking when she emerged. Tears poured down her face as she talked about her loss and that of her daughters. Even today, she said, she cannot believe "how drastic" the effect has been on her life. "Never got his body back," she said softly. "Never. Never seen him ever again." The men who stood next to Triplett were angry. "Our own country, siding with the country that harbors terrorists," said David Matthew Morales, who was injured on the Cole. "It was very hurtful," he added, pulling a small piece of metal out of his pocket. It was from the hull of the Cole, and he carries it [with] him everywhere. "We came here for accountability, and we wouldn't expect our government to oppose its citizens receiving justice and holding those accountable for a terrorist attack," said Jamal Gunn, whose brother was killed on the Cole. "Our country should stand behind their soldiers and sailors that's out there every day putting their life on the line for the country," said Rick Harrison, a firefighter and machinist injured on the Cole. "You can look at 9/11. They got justice. ... So why can't the U.S.S. Cole get justice," said David Francis, whose sister was killed on the Cole."

Clearly, no longer possible in Nazi America.  Trump's Fourth Reich.  We've lost ourselves.  Our country.  We're no longer what we used to be.

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.

11-16-18

Trouble in Trump-Macron 'bromance.'  The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron met here Saturday amid tensions over Macron’s call for a “true European army” — remarks the U.S. president deemed “very insulting” moments after he landed here for World War I commemoration ceremonies this weekend. There were some visible signs of strain between the two men Saturday even as they exchanged warm words at the start of their bilateral meeting at Elysee Palace. Appealing to Trump’s “America First” agenda, Macron stressed publicly that European nations in the NATO alliance should pay more in defense — an attempt to soothe Trump over one of his constant irritations. “I do share President Trump’s views that we need a much better burden-sharing with NATO,” Macron said at the start of their meeting, as Trump sat on the edge of his chair with a tight smile on his face. “My proposals for European defense are totally consistent with that.” Calling Trump “my good friend,” Macron proclaimed “great solidarity” between the two nations and said the leaders will discuss a litany of issues during their one-on-one meeting, including Iran, Syria, Yemen, trade and climate change."

Give me a break.

CBS News reports:

"Mr. Trump's visit to France opened on a testy note after he unleashed an angry Twitter jab at his host as he arrived for the celebration. Just as Air Force One touched down in Paris Friday night, Mr. Trump tweeted that Macron "has just suggested that Europe build its own military in order to protect itself from the U.S., China and Russia. Very insulting, but perhaps Europe should first pay its fair share of NATO, which the U.S. subsidizes greatly!" Macron's office said Mr. Trump misunderstood Macron's comments about sharing the defense burden and the two men struck a more friendly tone as they opened their meeting at the grand presidential residence. "We want to help Europe but it has to be fair. Right now, the burden-sharing has been largely on the United States," Mr. Trump said, adding that Macron "understands that and he understands the United States can only do so much, in fairness to the United States."

Think Trump truly cares about veterans?  Their sacrifice?  The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump flew 3,800 miles to this French capital city for ceremonies to honor the military sacrifice in World War I, hoping to take part in the kind of powerful ode to the bravery of the armed forces that he was unable to hold in Washington. But on his first full day here, it rained on his substitute parade weekend. Early Saturday, the White House announced Trump and the first lady had scuttled plans, due to bad weather, for their first stop in the weekend’s remembrance activities — a visit to the solemn Aisne Marne American Cemetery, marking the ferocious Battle of Belleau Wood. It was not completely clear why the Trumps were unable to attend. The cemetery is 50 miles from Paris. Perhaps the president was planning to travel on Marine One, which is occasionally grounded by the Secret Service. But the sight of dignitaries arriving at other sites outside Paris, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, led some foreign policy analysts to speculate the U.S. commander in chief just wasn’t up for it."

Apparently, wasn't.  Get this:

“It’s incredible that a president would travel to France for this significant anniversary — and then remain in his hotel room watching TV rather than pay in person his respects to the Americans who gave their lives in France for the victory gained 100 years ago tomorrow,” David Frum, who served as a speechwriter to former president George W. Bush, wrote in tweets. Trump is actually staying at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Paris. So began a weekend in which Trump — battling on a number of political fronts in Washington — seemed distracted and disengaged. Trump left Washington as the list of White House worries piled up: newly empowered Democrats, criticism of his pick for acting attorney general and backlash over his personal attacks against journalists. Trump was in France in body but appeared unenthusiastic in spirit."

The pressure is apparently beginning to get to our nazi fuhrer:

"The White House said Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would attend the Belleau ceremony in the Trumps’ absence, but Frum suggested Trump could have tried to scramble a motorcade to keep his schedule. The cemetery has 2,288 gravesites honoring those who died, including many Americans. The names of 1,060 more Americans who went missing and whose bodies were not recovered are engraved on the walls of the site. Trump held a bilateral meeting with Macron, but the U.S. president appeared subdued, almost sullen, as Macron tried to mask growing tensions between them. When Macron tried to pat Trump’s thigh, the president ignored him and didn’t acknowledge the touch or reciprocate it — a marked difference from their demonstrative power-grip handshakes and back slaps during previous meetings."

NBC News reports:

"The White House’s bad-weather call for Trump is not sitting well with some observers. Francois Heisbourg, a political analyst and former campaign adviser to Macron, posted a photograph on Twitter of someone bicycling in Paris and wrote the weather that kept Trump from the cemetery is: “Nothing a cyclist can't handle, let alone a presidential helo.” A member of the British Parliament and grandson of legendary British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Nicholas Soames, was even more critical, calling Trump “pathetic” and “inadequate” on Twitter because he “couldn’t even defy the weather to pay his respects to The Fallen” who “died with their face to the foe.” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also participated in armistice events outside the city today, at a battle site about two hours north of Paris by car.

        "Today, I joined our delegation of Canadian veterans at Vimy Ridge — to thank them for their service and to pay tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of our freedom.

    "We will never forget.#CanadaRemembers pic.twitter.com/txn66KcnDM
    — Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) November 10, 2018"

Yet, our nazi fuhrer couldn't get his sorry ass there?

The Washington Post reports:

"A century and some change after bugle calls for cease-fire drifted over European trench lines, the French launched a salvo. “There is rain, but it does not matter,” the French army said Monday on Twitter, alongside a photo of a rain-soaked recruit crawling through an obstacle. “We remain motivated.”  The French were almost certainly trolling President Trump two days after inclement weather led him to cancel a planned visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery — a verdant hillside shrine of arcing headstones that mark the final resting place for 2,289 U.S. troops, many of whom were killed in the Battle of Belleau Wood. The names of 1,060 more who were never found are inscribed on a wall there."

Apparently, Trump couldn't have cared less.  Think the following credible?

"The White House canceled the visit, which would have been aboard the presidential helicopter Marine One, after it was determined that the conditions offered “near-zero visibility,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said, amid criticism and speculation that Trump was not motivated to join other world leaders there by car instead. “President Trump did not want to cause that kind of unexpected disruption to the city and its people,” Sanders said. The cemetery is 50 miles outside Paris, and it was not clear why alternative routes — commonly planned for high-profile events — were not used in this case. The weather did not prevent Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron from visits to other sites around Paris."

Trump disgraced himself:

"Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly visited the cemetery on Saturday — a day and a place layered with deep significance to U.S. military history. Saturday was the Marine Corps’s 243rd birthday, and the men — both Marines — walked the cemetery on the edge of Belleau Wood, which quickly became central to Marine lore after the 1918 battle. A brigade of Marines joined two Army divisions in the closing months of the war and fought brutal hand-to-hand combat in the wood, occasionally contending with swirling poison gas. The Germans sent numerous waves in a failed attempt to dislodge the Marines during the battle, which lasted nearly a month."

Trump's sorry ass should have accompanied both generals as they toured the cemetery.  -- The least this fascist bastard could have done to honor our war dead.

"And in April, Macron gave the White House an oak sapling from Belleau Wood, where, he said, “the blood [of Americans] was spilled to defend France.” German troops nicknamed Marines “Teufel hunden” — devil dogs. The name stuck. Bulldogs have become the mascot of the Corps. Now Marines who visit the cemetery and battlefield are drawn to the village of Belleau right outside, where a moss-flecked bulldog fountain spurts water from its mouth. It is customary for Marines to drink from it, in homage to the Americans who never left the wood."

The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump likes to throw Twitter bombs that explode in concentric circles of offensiveness. He delivers speeches that contain insults and falsehoods. He announces policies on a whim, some constitutionally questionable. But on a trip to Europe, the president hardly said a word — and he still managed to outrage at almost every turn.

"He looked uncomfortable and listless in a bilateral meeting with Macron, whose sinewy energy stood in stark contrast to Trump’s downbeat expression as the French leader patted him on the thigh. He was a no-show at a scheduled tour of a military cemetery for Americans, while other world leaders publicly paid homage to those who died on the battlefield. Instead, the president holed up at the U.S. ambassador’s residence, announcing hours later that he had spent a few hours making calls and attending meetings — but not offering to whom or about what. And on Sunday, Trump arrived separately from the 60 other leaders at a World War I remembrance at the Arc de Triomphe. He had no speaking role, sitting stone-faced as Macron railed against the rise of nationalism — a rebuke of Trump’s professed worldview. The overall takeaway to many was a president turning away from the world, a man occupying the office of the leader of the free world who appeared withdrawn and unenthusiastic on the global stage."

Trump remains unfit.  Glaringly, apparent.

“Watching the event from France I cannot recall a time when America seemed so isolated,” David Axelrod, who was a senior political adviser to President Barack Obama, wrote on Twitter late Sunday. “America First feels like America Alone.”

Failed presidency not even two years in.

NPR reports:

"At a ceremony in Paris on Sunday to commemorate the end of World War I, world leaders made impassioned pleas for global cooperation, with several making forceful denouncements against rising forces of nationalism."

For damned good reason.  Rising nazism not only overseas, but right here in our formerly great country.

"In a speech at the Arc de Triomphe, French President Emmanuel Macron took aim at the style of nationalism that has been embraced by President Trump, warning a crowd of dignitaries and heads of state about how the splintering of multilateral institutions led to the first World War and now threaten to divide the world once again. "The traces of this war never went away," Macron said. "The old demons are rising again."

Indeed.  They are.  Resurrection of Hitler's Third Reich to Trump's Fourth.

"Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism," Macron continued. "Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. In saying, 'Our interests first, whatever happens to the others,' you erase the most precious thing a nation can have, that which makes it live, that which causes it to be great and that which is most important: its moral values."

Point well made.

"Among the dozens of world leaders in attendance were Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Most of the world leaders attending the Armistice Day event were transported to the ceremony site in buses, and they then marched together down the Champs-Élysées toward the Arc de Triomphe. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived to the commemoration separately, citing security reasons. Putin greeted Trump with a thumbs-up at the ceremony. According to The Associated Press, Putin told Russian broadcaster RT that he didn't speak with Trump in Paris but said the two will meet on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Argentina later this month.

"Later Sunday, Macron convened a Paris Peace Forum, which he said would give world leaders an opportunity to discuss the miscalculations that led to World War I and promote concrete actions toward peace.

"France — and Macron — are taking the lead to empower a global "resistance" of multilateralists hoping to salvage, or rebuild, a dwindling rules-based order. The question remains open whether the multilateralists can do that without U.S. leadership. At the forum, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned against taking peace for granted, saying, "We have to work for it."

"Trump did not attend the forum, instead visiting the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial outside of Paris before returning to Washington."

The Washington Post reports:

"As he jetted to Paris last Friday, President Trump received a congratulatory phone call aboard Air Force One. British Prime Minister Theresa May was calling to celebrate the Republican Party’s wins in the midterm elections — never mind that Democrats seized control of the House — but her appeal to the American president’s vanity was met with an ornery outburst. Trump berated May for Britain not doing enough, in his assessment, to contain Iran. He questioned her over Brexit and complained about the trade deals he sees as unfair with European countries. May has endured Trump’s churlish temper before, but still her aides were shaken by his especially foul mood, according to U.S. and European officials briefed on the conversation."

Think this president in full control of his faculties?

"For Trump, that testy call set the tone for five days of fury — evident in Trump’s splenetic tweets and described in interviews with 14 senior administration officials, outside Trump confidants and foreign diplomats, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. “He was frustrated with the trip. And he’s itching to make some changes,” said one senior White House official. “This is a week where things could get really dicey.”

Think the nazi fit for office?

"During his 43-hour stay in Paris, Trump brooded over the Florida recounts and sulked over key races being called for Democrats in the midterm elections that he had claimed as a “big victory.” He erupted at his staff over media coverage of his decision to skip a ceremony honoring the military sacrifice of World War I. The president also was angry and resentful over French President Emmanuel Macron’s public rebuke of rising nationalism, which Trump considered a personal attack. And that was after his difficult meeting with Macron, where officials said little progress was made as Trump again brought up his frustrations over trade and Iran. “He’s just a bull carrying his own china shop with him when­ever he travels the world,” presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said."

Comfortable with Trump and his finger figuratively on the nuclear button?

The Washington Post reports:

"Responding to President Trump’s attacks on his French counterpart, France’s government struck back Wednesday, accusing Trump of lacking “common decency” by spewing invective on the same day the country was commemorating the victims of a major 2015 terrorist attack. Benjamin Griveaux, France’s government spokesman, offered the response a day after Trump unleashed a string of Twitter attacks on President Emmanuel Macron. “Yesterday was November 13,” Griveaux said, according to the minutes of a meeting of France’s Council of Ministers -- remarks that were widely reported in French media. “We were commemorating the murder of 130 of our people.” The Nov. 13, 2015, attacks, perpetrated by a network of Islamic State-affiliated gunmen on a number of sites across the French capital, including the Bataclan concert hall, were the bloodiest on French soil since World War II. “So I’ll reply in English: ‘Common decency’ would have been appropriate,” Griveaux said."

Clearly, not possible for the Trump nazi.

"On Tuesday -- two days after flying home from a two-day visit to France -- Trump took to Twitter to post multiple blistering attacks on Macron, France’s performance in both world wars and France in general. He was responding in part to an address Macron gave Sunday in Paris, where the French president used the 100th anniversary of the 1918 World War I armistice to condemn nationalism as the “exact opposite of patriotism.” The remarks were seen by many as a direct challenge to Trump, who has openly identified as a nationalist. In his Tuesday tweets, Trump personally criticized Macron, who had previously sought to curry favor with Washington. “The problem is that Emmanuel suffers from a very low Approval Rating in France, 26%, and an unemployment rate of almost 10%,” Trump wrote, attempting to explain Macron’s remarks. The French unemployment rate is actually closer to 9 percent. This, for Trump, was the reason Macron defended multilateralism beneath the Arc de Triomphe in a solemn remembrance ceremony: “He was just trying to get onto another subject.” “By the way, there is no country more Nationalist than France,” Trump noted, “very proud people-and rightfully so!........”

Insufferable jackass.  ... Only two years in, yet, a failed presidency.

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.

11-16-18

Trump loses another one.  NPR reports:

"A federal appeals court in California has blocked the Trump administration from immediately terminating an Obama-era program protecting from deportation young immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, ruled unanimously in favor of a lower court's preliminary injunction against the administration's attempt to phase out Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The program allows about 700,000 young immigrants to stay and work in the United States. In January, U.S. District Judge William Alsup granted a request to keep DACA operational while its future was being litigated. The ruling is the latest legal setback for the Trump administration over DACA."

Doesn't your heart bleed?

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.

11-16-18

Trump loses yet another one.  NPR reports:

"A U.S. district judge has issued an order blocking construction of the controversial transnational Keystone XL Pipeline until the State Department conducts further study of its impact on the environment. Judge Brian Morris' 54-page order, issued late Thursday, overturns the Trump administrations's approval last year of the proposed 1,179-mile pipeline and at least temporarily prevents it from being built. Although the decision does not permanently halt the pipeline's construction, it nevertheless comes as TransCanada, the Canadian company that owns Keystone, is preparing to start construction in Montana, shipping pipe to various locations throughout the state, the Great Falls Tribune reports. The order stems from a lawsuit filed by the Indigenous Environmental Network and North Coast Rivers Alliance, which alleges that the State Department and TransCanada violated National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, the environmental law described in the order as "the basic national charter for protection of the environment."

The Washington Post reports:

"A federal judge temporarily blocked construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, ruling late Thursday that the Trump administration had failed to justify its decision granting a permit for the 1,200-mile long project designed to connect Canada’s oil sands fields with Texas’s Gulf Coast refineries. The judge, Brian Morris of the U.S. District Court in Montana, said the State Department ignored crucial issues of climate change to further the president’s goal of letting the pipeline be built. In doing so, the administration ran afoul of the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires “reasoned” explanations for government decisions, particularly when they represent reversals of well-studied actions. It was a major defeat for President Trump, who attacked the Obama administration for stopping the project in the face of protests and an environmental impact study. Trump signed an executive order two days into his presidency setting in motion a course reversal on the Keystone XL pipeline, as well as another major pipeline, Dakota Access."

More importantly?

"The ruling highlights a broader legal vulnerability in the Trump administration’s push to roll back Obama-era environmental protections. Since Trump took office, federal courts have found repeatedly that his agencies have short-circuited the regulatory process in areas ranging from water protections to chemical plant safety operations. Robust environmental and administrative procedure laws, many dating back to the 1970s, have given the administration’s opponents plenty of legal ammunition."

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.

11-16-18

Once again, Trump is following in the footsteps of his fascist mentors.  NPR reports:

"The Trump administration is taking steps to stem the flow of Central American migrants crossing the U.S. border from Mexico. The administration issued a new rule Thursday designed to prohibit migrants who cross the border outside of designated entry points from seeking asylum in the United States. The measure is almost certain to face legal challenges. Advocates say federal law allows anyone on U.S. soil to petition for asylum, even if that person crossed the border illegally. The administration wants to get around that provision by using the president's broad authority to exclude any immigrant — or class of immigrants — deemed "detrimental to the interests of the United States." That's the same authority the president used when he issued his travel ban on a variety of mostly Muslim countries. That ban was initially blocked by the courts but after several revisions was ultimately upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Judges may face a similar test, weighing the president's broad authority to exclude migrants against the right to apply for asylum. "The question becomes, if these two provisions conflict, which one wins?" said Stephen Legomsky, former chief counsel for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He suspects the right to apply for asylum would carry the day."

Adolf and Benito would have been proud.  A raucous boot clicking, goose stepping, treasonous, treacherous, traitorous Sieg Heil!, Mr. 'President?'

NBC News reports:

"President Donald Trump fulfilled his midterm promise to crack down on undocumented immigrants crossing the Southwest border on Friday by signing a proclamation that will make it harder for immigrants to claim asylum if they are caught crossing the border between designated ports of entry. Starting just after midnight on Saturday morning, asylum-seekers who do not go through ports of entry will be apprehended, detained and deported unless they can meet a higher bar, such as proving they would be tortured if they were sent home. Within hours, the American Civil Liberties Union sued to block the new restrictions, calling it "the asylum ban." "The asylum ban is not just unlawful but will put families in real danger. We hope that the courts will step in to remedy this injustice," said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project.

"The new restrictions will apply for 90 days, but could end earlier, officials said. Under international law, however, asylum-seekers are permitted to make a claim regardless of where they enter. The administration was expecting lawsuits to be filed, which could keep the new policy from going into effect, but officials told NBC News that they expect the Supreme Court will eventually uphold their right to block asylum seekers with Justice Brett Kavanaugh now on the bench."

Should that happen, time in January for the Democratic House to impeach the Kavanaugh nazi.  Tie up the GOP Senate indefinitely with the trial.

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.

11-16-18

Think Republican judges are fit to sit on the bench in Texas?  Believe they have the temperament necessary for the job?  NBC News reports:

"A Houston district court judge who lost a re-election bid on Tuesday is facing criticism for releasing a majority of the juvenile defendants who appeared before him Wednesday after allegedly asking them whether they planned to kill anyone. District Court Judge Glenn Devlin, a Republican, lost his seat Tuesday to Democratic opponent Natalia Oakes — in a wave of 59 conservative jurists who had been ousted by Harris County voters, NBC Houston affiliate KPRC reported. And on Wednesday morning, Devlin had made a decision that shocked Steve Halpert, juvenile division chief for Harris County's Public Defender's Office. "The juveniles were asked whether they were going to, if released, whether they would kill somebody," Halpert told KPRC. "It was a little bit shocking because that's not a question Judge Devlin would ever ask. Or any judge."

We've got a problem.  Consider the following:

"The judge’s actions were especially incongruous given his track record of incarcerating juvenile defendants, according to local media. A Houston Chronicle investigation in October revealed that Devlin and Judge John Phillips accounted for more than one-fifth of all children sent to Texas juvenile prisons last year, sending them “younger and for less-serious offenses than the county’s third juvenile court." And even the people who are tasked with helping young men and women fight their charges were alarmed."

For damned good reason.

"I am baffled by why he did it," Harris County Chief Public Defender Alex Bunin told NBC News on Thursday. "It's definitely not good for the kids in that they are being released without any conditions." Bunin said he was worried about the kids released Wednesday, claiming that some of them had no parents or guardians to take them home at the time of their release and that others need support services like mental health treatment. The public defender also said he is sympathetic to the district attorney's concerns saying the judge’s move could “endanger the public," according to a statement by Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg."

You think?

"Neither side is happy," Bunin said. "This is different in that it’s across the board. It's just never been done without any consideration of the effect of the release of the child and the community."

"The ACLU condemned the judge’s actions Wednesday calling it "improper" and saying it was "motivated by partisan interests" or the "result of his political loss." The organization has since called on the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct to launch an investigation. "Judge Devlin’s mass release of children today, without any apparent concern for the children's safety or for ensuring that they are released to their parents, proves his detachment from the needs of each child,” the ACLU said in a statement. “I mean, the day after the election when he wasn't re-elected, he changed his policy,” Bunin said. “There doesn't seem to be any intellectual reasoning for it rather than to make a statement.” Texas’ State Commission on Judicial Conduct told NBC News Thursday that they cannot “confirm or deny” the existence of a complaint against the judge due to confidentiality rules in the state, according to Eric Vinson, executive director of the commission."

No question.  We've got a problem.

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.

11-16-18

Think Trump's not a male chauvinist pig?  LOL.  NBC News reports:

"President Donald Trump personally asked the publisher of the National Enquirer, his longtime friend David Pecker, to help his presidential campaign by silencing women who might come forward with details of his sexual relationships with them, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday."

No question, the bastard's a 'pecker.'  LOL.

"According to the Journal, then-candidate Trump asked Pecker during an August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower what he could do to help Trump's campaign."

Imagine that.  LOL.

"Pecker responded by offering to use his tabloid to buy off women who might attempt to go public with their past sexual experiences with Trump by acquiring the exclusive rights to the stories but never publishing them, a practice known as "catch and kill." At more than 3,000 words, the Journal's article is the most detailed account to date of Trump's alleged involvement in the payoffs that were made to ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult-film star Stormy Daniels. The Journal said it based its reporting on interviews with three dozen people with "direct knowledge of the events or who have been briefed on them, as well as court papers, corporate records and other documents." In mid-2016, Trump requested that Pecker kill a story from McDougal, who'd said she had an affair with Trump more than a decade ago, by buying her silence, the Journal said."

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.

11-16-18

Think the Trump nazi's not a goddamned racist?  The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump’s verbal assaults against black reporters, candidates and lawmakers have renewed criticism that the president employs insults rooted in racist tropes aimed at making his African American targets appear unintelligent, untrustworthy and unqualified."

Par for the course for an ignorant racist, bigoted nazi.

"Over the past several days, including before he left Washington for an Armistice Day ceremony here this weekend, Trump has launched personal attacks against a trio of black female journalists. He accused one of asking “a lot of stupid questions.” He demanded another “sit down” at a news conference and followed up later by calling her a “loser.” He lambasted a third for asking, in his view, a “racist question.”

"Trump recently called Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D), a gubernatorial candidate in Florida, a “thief,” and declared that Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader of the state House in Georgia and the Democratic candidate for governor there, was “not qualified” for the job. A feature of his campaign rallies ahead of Tuesday’s elections was mocking Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), a black lawmaker who has been highly critical of him, and calling her a “low-IQ person.”

The truth in reality is Trump is perfectly describing himself as he casts these baseless aspersions.

"Trump’s supporters say he fights all opponents with equal gusto, and he has gone after other reporters in an escalation of his war against the media since emerging from the bruising midterm elections — most notably stripping the White House pass of CNN’s Jim Acosta. But the president’s rhetoric toward prominent African Americans is being singled out as far more offensive."

Intentionally, designedly so.  No way for a racist nazi to effectively hide his bigotry, however.  There for all to see in all its 'glory.'

“His supporters are right, he does attack everyone. That’s clearly true,” said Adia Harvey Wingfield, a sociology professor at Washington University in St. Louis who writes frequently about race and gender. “But there’s also a clear commonality in the attacks he levels against people of color and black professionals. These are straight out of historic playbooks about black workers and professionals in particular — not being qualified, not being intelligent or having what it takes to succeed in a predominantly white environment.”

When he does this, truly betrays his profound boundless ignorance for all to see.

"The latest example came Friday when the president stopped on the South Lawn of the White House on his way to Marine One to field shouted questions from the assembled media. He was asked several questions about the role of Matthew G. Whitaker, who he appointed as acting attorney general Wednesday, as well as about several other topics. But when Abby Phillip, a CNN correspondent, asked whether Trump wanted Whitaker to rein in the special counsel’s ongoing Russia investigation, he snapped. “What a stupid question that is,” Trump replied to Phillip, who is black. “What a stupid question,” he repeated, pointing his finger at her. “But I watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions.”

Aren't you talking about yourself, Mr. 'President?'

"The attack prompted an outpouring of support from fellow journalists, Democrats and others for Phillip, who previously covered the White House for The Washington Post. Many praised her for asking the most important and pertinent question of the day."

She did.  Trump's sick sycophants remained too hopelessly stupid, achingly ignorant, Aryan arrogant to understand the obvious:

"But Trump’s supporters reveled in the exchange, holding it up as an example of Trump showing his tormentors who is the boss. “If you ask stupid questions, be prepared for @realDonaldTrump to call you out. #MAGA,” Harlan Z. Hill, a Republican operative and commentator, wrote on Twitter to his 171,000 followers, linking to a video clip of the exchange. The tweet had racked up more than 1,800 retweets and 5,000 “likes” within a few hours."

Proof positive 'can fix ignorant, can't fix stupid.'  LOL.

"CNN’s communications department defended Phillip, saying that “she asked the most pertinent question of the day. The @realDonaldTrump’s personal insults are nothing new. And never surprising.” Several White House officials did not respond to a request for comment for this report."

Proof positive they're not all clueless idiots.

"More recently, Michael Cohen, who served for years as Trump’s personal lawyer before they severed ties after Cohen was indicted, said he had heard Trump use racist language in the past. Asked about the allegations at the White House on Wednesday, Trump flatly denied it. “I would never do that and I don’t use racist remarks,” he said."

Someone's lying.  Guess who.

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.

11-16-18

The United States to date has certainly been helping Saudi Arabia commit war crimes in Yemen.  Think that's about to change?  NBC News reports:

"The United States will soon suspend its mission to re-fuel Saudi Arabia’s military aircraft flying in Yemen, according to two U.S. officials and one Senate staffer. A Senate staffer said the decision is a means to pre-empt a potentially damaging debate and vote in Congress. The political climate on the Hill has turned hostile to Saudi Arabia over the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the war in Yemen, the staffer said, adding that some Republican lawmakers who opposed suspending refueling now favor the move."

The fascist bastards now fear the political damage.  Imagine that.

"Saudi Arabia said later Friday, in a statement carried by state-run media, that “in consultation with the United States” it has requested the end of in-flight refueling — placing the decision for the change on Riyadh rather than Washington."

Believe it?

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the member countries of the Coalition to Support legitimacy in Yemen, continually pursue improvements to military professionalism and self-sufficiency," the Saudi statement said. The U.S. military was re-fueling about 20 percent of all Saudi aircraft that fly as part of the operation in Yemen."

Aiding and abetting the Saudis in their concerted, determined effort to kill innocent civilians and other non-combatants.

Clearly, nonetheless, the United States will continue aiding the Saudis to commit these war crimes:

"But the U.S. will not curtail intelligence sharing with the coalition, and will continue “limited intelligence support in defense of Saudi Arabia,” a defense official said."

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.

11-16-18

The national socialists, fascists, nazis at Fox News remain hopelessly clueless.  Out of touch with reality.  NBC News reports:

"Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., ripped Fox News on Friday for mocking "working-class people" after the news channel did a segment on her struggle to rent an apartment in Washington, D.C. "As I mentioned, we’ve been preparing and will be fine. However, it's been very revealing to see how gleefully Fox News hosts crack jokes about working-class people. It reveals what they actually think about us," she tweeted.

"Ocasio-Cortez, 29, became the youngest woman ever elected to the House on Tuesday when she won her race in New York's 14th congressional district of Queens and the Bronx. She was thrust into the national spotlight after she beat longtime Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley in an unexpected primary upset earlier this year. She revealed to The New York Times on Thursday that she will not start receiving her salary until she assumes office in January. "I have three months without a salary before I'm a member of Congress. So, how do I get an apartment? Those little things are very real," she told the paper. Representatives are paid $174,000 annually."

Not paid until they take office.

"During a Fox News panel Friday morning, the hosts and guests derided Ocasio-Cortez's comments, suggesting it was a possible political ploy from the self-identified Democratic Socialist.  Fox News contributor Judy Miller called it "a brilliant political line" that will play well with her base, but also admitted that the cost of living in Washington, D.C., is expensive. "I think what she's talking about is all of the money in Washington, all of the wealth in Washington, all of the power and a little, simple person like her from New York can't find a place to live,” Miller said. Fox News correspondent Ed Henry slammed Ocasio-Cortez on the panel, suggesting that she could have been saving her money rather than embracing her newfound celebrity. "Some of those (photo) shoots she had during the campaign, she had these multi-thousand dollar outfits that could pay a month's rent in Washington, D.C.," he said."

This young woman figuratively came out swinging, took no shit from the nazi element at Fox:

"Ocasio-Cortez then slammed their remarks in several tweets. "It is bizarre to see 1%-salaried anchors laugh at the US housing crisis," she said. "There is no reason to be ashamed or embarrassed. Mocking lower incomes is exactly how those who benefit from + promote wealth inequality the most keep everyday people silent about 1 of the worst threats to American society: that the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer."

    1. @FoxNews, why can’t any of your anchors say my name correctly? It’s been 5 months.

    2. It is bizarre to see 1%-salaried anchors laugh at the US housing crisis.

    3. Never purchased pricey clothes + always told my story. But repeating lies until they are believed is your thing. https://t.co/Py5aXFi3Z4
    — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 9, 2018

"She also responded to Henry's claim directly. "Never purchased pricey clothes + always told my story. But repeating lies until they are believed is your thing," she said."

Goes on and on.  Ocasio-Cortez seems to have clearly forgotten Marxist socialism failed a quarter-century ago.  Had been failing for decades.  -- Five year program after five-year program massive failures in the former Soviet Union.  National socialists, fascists, nazis at Fox News seem to have similarly forgotten laissez-faire capitalism, that is unregulated or poorly regulated capitalism, is failing right here in Nazi America.  -- Middle class and bottom suffering extinction due to zero-sum, winner-take-all approach of the nazi element.  Then again, the idiots on the Far Right cannot, will not be confused with the handwriting on the wall.  To say nothing of the truth.

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.

11-16-18

Trump and his henchmen remain out to lunch vis a vis Iran.  NBC News reports:

"Senior officials in the Trump administration are convinced the Iranian regime is vulnerable to collapse and that tough U.S. economic sanctions could hasten its demise, foreign diplomats and former U.S. officials told NBC News. President Donald Trump himself has questioned if the regime can last. "When I came in here, it was a question of when would they take over the Middle East," Trump said in an August interview with Bloomberg News. "Now it's a question of will they survive. It's a big difference in one and a half years." But European allies and intelligence experts disagree, and see Washington's forecast as a case of wishful thinking. While acknowledging the regime's growing economic and political troubles, European governments believe the Iranian leadership remains firmly entrenched and that any attempt to topple the government could produce a worse outcome, the diplomats said."

Wishful thinking compounded by gross inexperience, -- to say nothing of aggressive stupidity.

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.

11-16-18

Once again, the Israeli aggressor has struck.  CBS News reports:

"Israel carried out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Monday after dozens of rockets were fired from the Palestinian territory into Israel. Clashes which erupted during an Israeli special forces operation in Gaza late Sunday had threatened to derail efforts to restore calm to the Palestinian enclave after months of unrest. Seven Palestinians were killed in the overnight clashes, one of whom was a local commander for Hamas's armed wing. One Israeli army officer was also killed. At least six Israelis were injured later on Monday when dozens of rockets were fired from Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a trip to Paris to commemorate the end of World War I to rush home as tensions rose. Israel stressed its operation was an intelligence-gathering mission and "not an assassination or abduction." The statement from Israeli military spokesman Ronen Manelis signaled that the mission did not go as planned and resulted in the clash, which Palestinian security sources said included Israeli air strikes. An Israeli ground operation to kill or abduct militants inside the Gaza Strip would be rare. Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the blockaded enclave, and its armed wing, spoke of a "cowardly Israeli attack" and an "assassination", vowing revenge. Hamas's armed wing said an Israeli special forces team had infiltrated near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip in a civilian car. Israeli air strikes followed when the operation failed, it said in a statement. Israel's military had not confirmed those details. Gaza's health ministry said seven Palestinians were killed.

The Washington Post reports:

"Israel’s hawkish Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced his resignation Wednesday, citing his opposition to a cease-fire with Hamas following the worst outbreak of violence in Gaza since a 50-day war in the summer of 2014. In a televised news conference, Liberman, who became defense minister in 2016, said that agreeing to a cease-fire was “surrendering to terror.” He has been a proponent of firm military action against Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, even if it risked a wider conflict. “There is no other definition, no other significance, but a surrender to terror,” Liberman said. “What we are doing now as a country is buying short-term quiet at the cost of our long-term security.” The withdrawal of his party from government leaves Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a thin one-seat majority in Israel’s parliament, known as the Knesset — controlling just 61 of 120 seats. As he resigned, Liberman called for elections to be held as soon as possible."

Growing political trouble in Israeli aggressor 'paradise':

"All eyes are now on Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of Israel’s Jewish Home party, another right-wing politician who has called for a stronger military response to Gaza. Bennett, who has a fractious relationship with Netanyahu, is demanding to take Liberman’s place or his party will leave the coalition, according to senior officials in his party."

Hopefully, will quickly occur.  Anything to destabilize the Israeli aggressor.

"Palestinian armed factions in Gaza announced the cease-fire on Tuesday night after a bout of fighting triggered by a botched Israeli operation into the Hamas-controlled strip. Seven militants, including a Hamas commander, were killed in the incident, which also claimed the life of an Israeli officer. Militants fired more than 460 rockets toward Israeli communities near Gaza in what they said was a response to the deaths, as Israeli jets pounded 160 targets in Gaza, destroying several buildings. The cease-fire announced by Hamas Tuesday night was still holding Wednesday even though there was no official Israeli confirmation it had been accepted. Residents of the southern Israeli communities have protested what they called the government’s capitulation."

Sadly, the Israeli aggressor has it ass backwards.  Been so since 1948.

"Demonstrations celebrating the cease-fire as a victory against Israel were held in Gaza on Tuesday night. Hamas then described Liberman’s announcement as another win. “The resignation of Liberman is a political victory for Gaza,” said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. He said it was an admission of defeat and showed Hamas had succeeded in “creating a political shake-up in the occupation.” Liberman said his resignation comes after weeks of disagreement with Netanyahu over a course of action on how to handle ongoing tensions with the coastal Palestinian enclave, whose rulers have called for Israel’s destruction. Last week Israel facilitated the transfer of $15 million in cash from Qatar to Gaza to pay salaries of civil servants and employees of the Hamas-run government, as part of a wider deal aimed at alleviating the growing humanitarian crisis in the territory."

None of this is sustainable.  Has not been since 1948 when the United States, Europe, and the United Nations bequeathed Palestine to survivors of the Holocaust, -- without consulting the Palestinians.

"It was part of an understanding that would have entailed economic aid for Gaza, including a cash injection and international reconstruction projects, in return for Hamas clamping down on border demonstrations and preventing the use of incendiary kites that have been launched across the border fence into Israel. Netanyahu said on Sunday that the process was to maintain Israel’s security by preventing a collapse in the humanitarian situation for the 2 million civilians “held hostage” by Hamas. Liberman said the transfer of the money was a “turning point” for him. “Everyone saying the money will be regulated after entering Gaza, is wrong — to put it mildly,” he said. “The money went first of all to the terrorists’ families.” The Moldovan-born minister said it was no secret that he and the prime minister held differences of opinion. “I did not agree to allow Qatari money to enter [into Gaza],” he said. “I had to allow it only after the prime minister announced it.”

Goes on and on.  None of this is going to end well.  None of it.

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.

11-16-18

Think racism isn't alive and well in Nazi America?  NBC News reports:

"A video of Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., who faces a runoff this month against an African-American Democrat, joking about attending "a public hanging" went viral Sunday as she insisted there was nothing negative about her remark. "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row," Hyde-Smith said during a campaign stop in Tupelo, Mississippi. The man she was referring to was identified as a local rancher.

"The video was posted by Lamar White Jr., the publisher of The Bayou Brief, a nonprofit newssite in Louisiana. White told Mississippi Today that he did not take the video, and it was recorded on Nov. 2, before the election. Mississippi has a difficult racial history that includes 581 lynchings from 1882 to 1968, the most of any state in that period, according to the NAACP."

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.

11-16-18

Think the following 'funny?'  A 'joke?'  CBS News reports:

"Police in Wisconsin are investigating a prom photo that's led to growing international outrage. The photo, posted to Twitter Sunday, appears to show more than 30 male students from Baraboo High School's class of 2019 making a Nazi salute. "As soon as I heard the photographer say, 'Raise your hand,' I knew what was going to happen," senior Jordan Blue told CBS News correspondent Adriana Diaz. Blue, who is in the photo, refused to participate.  "Did he say anything to make it clear that it was raise your hand in this way as in this Nazi symbol?" Diaz asked. "He did not say raise your hand in a Nazi symbol way. And I'm pretty sure my classmates just interpreted as raise your hand, let's do this as a joke," Blue said, adding that he thinks the others knew what the symbol represented. "It did not represent my morals, and I could not do something that I didn't believe in," Blue said. The photo surfaced in a now-deleted tweet on Sunday with the caption: "We even got the black kid to throw it up." At least one student is seen making the OK gesture, which some associate with white supremacists."

Think the photographer didn't know precisely what he was doing?

"The photographer, Peter Gust, defended the students in an interview with a local TV station, saying the gestures are being taken out of context."

Think so?

"I said, 'OK boys, you're going to say goodbye to your parents. So wave,'" Gust said. "For society to now turn it around and now blame these kids is absolutely wrong."

Jesus Christ.  A crock of shit.  Hundreds of thousands of American troops fought and died fighting this goddamned Nazi scourge.  Second World War European Theater.

"Baraboo school board members demanded action Monday night. "They seriously need to do some major apologizing when this is settled, and they need to be educated," one school board member said. The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks anti-Semitic behavior, found the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. rose from 1,267 in 2016 to 1,986 in 2017 – a 57 percent increase and the largest single-year increase on record. Asked whether the students are regretful, Blue said, "I think so." "Some of these people have bright futures ahead of them. ... So why did they do it?" Blue said. Blue said at least one parent yelled for the students to stop while the photo was being taken. The Baraboo school district condemned the gestures and said it's investigating. The Auschwitz Memorial in Poland responded to the photo on Twitter warning of the "danger of hateful ideology."

Photographer's head?  Securely lodged up his ass.

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.

11-16-18

Additional follow up on yet another Republican national socialist who is no more than a congenital liar and racist in the mold of the Trump nazi.  NPR reports:

"Rep. Steve King, the Iowa Republican known for hard-line stances on immigration and racist remarks, challenged a conservative magazine to release audio to prove that he had compared immigrants to "dirt." So The Weekly Standard did."

Did it ever.  LOL.  To its great credit.  Hat's off.

"The magazine reported last week that King, who won reelection earlier this month despite being called out for his white nationalists views, made the incendiary comment. On Friday, King tweeted in response that the magazine had joined the Huffington Post "at the bottom of the lying journalistic gutter." He claimed the article's reporter was lying: "Just release the full tape. Leftists lies exist without original sources because they are false and manufactured accusations," he tweeted.

    "Rachael @RachaelBL Just release the full tape. Leftists lies exist without original sources because they are false and manufactured accusations. Weekly Standard is transitioning into “Antifa News”. https://t.co/oeoQ0c2QJ2
    — Steve King (@SteveKingIA) November 10, 2018"

The magazine stuck it hard to the lying nazi:

"The Standard on Saturday published a YouTube video containing the audio to the article. "We stand by the story," the magazine's editor-in-chief Stephen Hayes said. The tape was reportedly recorded during a campaign stop on Nov. 5 while King bantered with supporters in a restaurant. King discussed his "patented pheasant noodle soup" that includes a sprinkle of homegrown jalapeño peppers. Talking about those peppers, he said:

    "KING: I raised a bunch this year and they didn't have enough bite. So I guess I'm going to have to go get some dirt from Mexico to grow the next batch.

    "UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Trust me, it's on its way.

    "KING: Well, yeah, there's plenty of dirt. It's coming from West Coast, too, and a lot of other places, besides. This is the most dirt we've ever seen.

"The unidentified woman's comments are seemingly about the caravan of Central American migrants currently headed to the U.S. to seek asylum. As the conservative magazine said (emphasis theirs), "Iowa does have a topsoil depletion problem, but it's hard to imagine that the audience and King were discussing the shipment of soil from out of country or from California." King's chief of staff, Sarah Stevens, told The Washington Post that King thought the woman was referring to the "leftist media" when she mentioned dirt — not immigrants. "We quoted Representative King at length, on purpose, to provide readers with all of the context for his remarks," reads an editor's note on the article. "Steve King never mentions the media in his remarks. To claim he was referring to the media when he worried about 'dirt' coming from Mexico is absurd."

    "The Weekly Standard remains, proudly, a reporting-driven, conservative journal of opinion. @RubensteinAdam is a great reporter. There are no lies, willful or otherwise. The story is accurate and very well told. Our reporting wouldn't focus on your bigotry if you weren't a bigot. https://t.co/5K7Ace22Eq
    — Stephen Hayes (@stephenfhayes) November 10, 2018"

Way to go.  Let it rip.  Expose this piece of human excrement for precisely whom and what he is.

"King's views aren't exactly a secret — on immigration, he said on Twitter last year, "We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies." In August, King did an interview with Austria's Freedom Party — which was founded by a former Nazi officer — in which he talked about the apparent decline of Western civilization and claimed immigrants are replacing white Europeans. Some top Republicans including Steve Stivers, the chairman of the House Republican Campaign Committee, have distanced themselves from King after the Pittsburgh shooting in a synagogue that saw 11 dead brought more attention to the lawmaker."

The only way this racist nazi shit will end is for it to see the light of day.  No better disinfectant than full sunlight.

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.

11-9-18

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 the following justice?  Sufficient?  NPR reports:

"The hotel chain Motel 6 has agreed to pay $7.6 million dollars to settle a class-action lawsuit after multiple Motel 6 locations gave guest lists to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Sharing those lists led to arrests and deportations of an as-yet-unknown number of hotel guests. The settlement deal was tentatively reached in July but details were not public until this week. The agreement, which still needs to be approved by a federal judge, calls for Motel 6 to pay money directly to affected guests and also impose tighter controls over private information. Motel 6 has acknowledged the guest lists were given to authorities but denied that senior management was aware of the practice. As of last fall, the company said it had called for all locations to stop sharing guest lists with ICE."

Too little, too late.  Damage already done.

"News of the practice first broke last September when the Phoenix New Times investigated two corporate-owned Motel 6 locations in Phoenix. One anonymous hotel clerk told the alt weekly, "We send a report every morning to ICE — all the names of everybody that comes in ... we do the audit and we push a button and it sends it to ICE."

Goddamned fascist police-state.

"With all of these cases we looked at, the person didn't have any outstanding warrant," Antonia Farzan, one of the New Times reporters, told NPR. "There weren't any complaints. There was no sign that they were violating other laws while they were staying at the motel. "In other words, they weren't bothering anybody. They had paid to rent a room. So it's hard to see what problem it was causing for the motel to have them as a customer."

No question.  F--king right.  No excuse for forwarding private information to the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue.

"A few months later, officials in Washington State said that six Motel 6 locations in the Puget Sound region admitted to the same guest-list sharing practice, which violates consumer protection laws. "The hotel turned over the guest list of everybody staying at the hotel. So thousands of individuals had their names turned over to ICE," Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson told NPR in January. "And according to our interviews with employees at Motel 6, ICE agents would circle the names that looked Latino sounding and ran those names through a database and then would detain individuals based on those random checks."

F--king racists.

"Washington State filed a lawsuit against Motel 6 that is still pending."

Imagine that.

"The new settlement deal would resolve a separate class-action lawsuit, filed in Phoenix in January on behalf of affected guests. The lawsuit alleges that disclosing guests' personal information to immigration authorities was a "corporate policy" that violated customers' rights to privacy (as well as Motel 6's own privacy policy) and discriminated on the basis of race, by targeting Latinos. The settlement agreement doesn't include any admission of wrongdoing, and Motel 6 continues to deny that it had any illegal policies."

Why weren't these Motel 6 criminal bastards prosecuted?  To say nothing of jackbooted ICE bastards trafficking in illegally provided customer information?

"Motel 6 has said the sharing of the guest lists was "implemented at the local level" without senior management's knowledge. Ferguson, the Washington state attorney general, was skeptical of that local-practice claim when he spoke to NPR in January. "I asked my team to investigate. And we now know what ... Motel 6 said back in September [2017] was not true," he said. "It's far more widespread than they allowed the public to believe."

Then, why the hell didn't you criminally prosecute them?  Why not?

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.

11-9-18

In follow up to the last edition, NBC News reports:

"Jacob Wohl, a former hedge fund manager turned pro-Trump conspiracy peddler, was a small-time but persistent figure on the far-right for the past two years. Then came the revelation of his apparent involvement as a central character in a bizarre plot to smear special counsel Robert Mueller. Now the FBI has been asked to investigate the alleged scheme, and Wohl may achieve the notoriety he’s been chasing for years."

How about a prison cell?

"The details of that plot to discredit Mueller were revealed on Tuesday, when journalists reported receiving suspicious emails from a woman claiming she had been offered money to fabricate accusations of sexual misconduct against the special prosecutor investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. NBC News traced a document outlining the Mueller allegations to a company whose website and telephone were registered to Wohl and his family."

Couldn't be, could it?  LOL.

"Wohl, a self-described “Trumpenomics expert,” was perhaps best known on the internet for his dispatches from “hipster coffee shops” where Democrats supposedly secretly disclosed their love for the president. But as a writer on conspiracy sites, with 178,000 Twitter followers along for the ride, Wohl also earned a place among President Donald Trump’s most ardent and trolly online defenders. He was the first to tease that allegations were coming against Mueller, tweeting early Tuesday: “Several media sources tell me that a scandalous story about Mueller is breaking tomorrow. Should be interesting. Stay tuned!"

This idiot has his head securely lodged up his ass.  None of this adds up, but did get the attention of Mueller who passed it on to the FBI.

"Those allegations, called “very credible,” by Wohl, were dropped hours later in a dossier on Gateway Pundit, a far-right, often inaccurate website for which Wohl writes. That dossier seems to have been written by Surefire Intelligence — the company tagline for the self-described “private intel agency” appears on the header of each page, and at least one woman has come forward with an email signed by an agent of Surefire, asking her for allegations against Mueller in exchange for money. Wohl denied any connection to Surefire Intelligence, telling NBC News: “I don't have any involvement in any investigations of any kind. I'm not quite that cool.” But Surefire Intelligence is linked to Wohl in numerous ways, including domain records and a company phone that redirects to a number registered to Wohl’s mother."

Fascinating, isn't it?

"Wohl, 20, has a history of schemes. He was once billed as a teenage financial guru, but his penchant for lying — about his success and credentials — cut his investment career short and attracted investigations by government and industry regulators."

Apparently, precisely why Mueller passed on what he had on this latest alleged scheme to the FBI.  ... Would fit right in with the Trump nazi though, wouldn't he?  LOL.

"Now, faced with allegations that he created a fake intelligence company to fabricate harassment accusations against Mueller, Wohl seems to be digging in with a new conspiracy theory, invented just for him. “Someone inside Mueller’s office likely sent out the hoax email claiming to be a woman offered payment to make an accusation against Mueller!” Wohl tweeted Wednesday. “They know that Mueller’s real victims are coming forward! Tick tock…”

Think this young charlatan won't wind up with his ass in prison?  Be interesting to see how the FBI handles this.  Stay tuned.

NBC News reports:

"Jacob Wohl, a pro-Trump fan of conspiracy theories, and Jack Burkman, a conservative lobbyist and radio host, stood in front of a half-full room of reporters and activists at a D.C.-area Holiday Inn Thursday to detail their allegations of sexual misconduct against Robert Mueller, the special counsel probing Russian interference in the 2016 election. The woman who they said has made those allegations, a Los Angeles native in her 30s, was slated to attend the news conference and give her own account. But, Wohl said, she feared for her life and on arriving in Washington, "panicked and boarded a flight to another location." Burkman promised she would appear at another news conference in the near future."

Think so?  LOL.

"Wohl and Burkman took turns speaking at the podium, detailing the allegations, complimenting each other, and defending their professional records against charges of conspiracy peddling and political bias."

Jesus Christ.  Give me a break.  LOL.

"The conference was streamed by several reporters in the room. A pickup truck parked in the lot outside by one of the activists in attendance carried a giant inflatable rat wearing a blond Trump toupee."

LOL.  ... Comic relief.  These f--kers are idiots.

"Earlier this week, several journalists reported on Twitter that they had received suspicious emails from a woman claiming someone had offered to pay her for making sexual misconduct allegations against Mueller. The journalists said those offers had come from SureFire Intelligence, a company NBC News connected to Jacob Wohl through telephone and domain records. Their claims were later bolstered by a second woman who came forward with an email offering similar payments in exchange for smearing Mueller, signed by a SureFire agent. Burkman opened the news conference by addressing the controversy. "None of this is true," Burkman said of the allegations he and Wohl had been involved in a plot. "There were no offers of payment, there was no wrongdoing, there was no bribery, there was nothing illegal or untoward or unethical that took place here," Wohl said."

That right?  LOL.

"The special counsel's office asked the FBI to investigate the matter last week, after learning of the alleged plot to smear Mueller."

Precisely, why it's covered here and elsewhere, -- despite strong ongoing reservations.

"When Wohl and Burkman opened the floor to questions, the assembled reporters were unrestrained. Wohl was asked about his political bias, specifically for his tweets attacking Mueller, including one where he wrote the special counsel should be sent to Guantanamo Bay. Wohl said his personal opinion had no effect on his professional handling of the investigation. Other reporters questioned 20-year-old Wohl's experience in the intelligence gathering business and why he had lied to reporters days earlier when he denied having any part in the investigation. Burkman responded, calling Wohl "a child prodigy who has eclipsed Mozart." At one point, Will Sommer from The Daily Beast said, "No one is discounting [the woman's] account. We didn't know her name until 20 minutes ago. We're questioning both you two very un-credible people."

You think?  LOL.

"NBC News has elected not to publish the woman's name because she has not gone public, and because of concerns about Wohl and Burkman's credibility."

You think?  Yet, this matter was referred to the FBI by Mueller, precisely why there is continued interest.

"As the hour they had booked was almost up, Burkman announced he would take one more question. Someone from the back shouted, "Are you both prepared for federal prison?"

"No we are not," Burkman answered."

Need to be.

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.

11-9-18

Saudi debacle continues. The Washington Post reports:

"Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman described slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi as a dangerous Islamist days after his disappearance in a phone call with President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and national security adviser John Bolton, according to people familiar with the discussion. In the call, which occurred before the kingdom publicly acknowledged killing Khashoggi, the crown prince urged Kushner and Bolton to preserve the U.S.-Saudi alliance and said the journalist was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a group long opposed by Bolton and other senior Trump officials."

The Saudi Crown Prince is a liar.  Not only that, a disingenuous hypocrite:

"The attempt to criticize Khashoggi in private stands in contrast to the Saudi government’s later public statements decrying the journalist’s death as a “terrible mistake” and a “terrible tragedy.” “The incident that happened is very painful, for all Saudis,” the crown prince, the kingdom’s de facto leader, said during a panel discussion last week. “The incident is not justifiable.” The Saudi ambassador to the United States, Khalid bin Salman, described Khashoggi last month as a “friend” who dedicated “a great portion of his life to serve his country.”

Saudis certainly don't speak with one voice, do they?

"In a statement released to The Washington Post, Khashoggi’s family called the characterization of the columnist as dangerous Islamist inaccurate. “Jamal Khashoggi was not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. He denied such claims repeatedly over the past several years,” the family said. “Jamal Khashoggi was not a dangerous person in any way possible. To claim otherwise would be ridiculous.” A person familiar with the discussion said Bolton did not signal he endorsed the crown prince’s characterization of Khashoggi during the call."

Imagine that.

"A Saudi official on Wednesday denied that the crown prince made the allegations, saying “routine calls do exist from time to time” with the young leader and top U.S. officials, but “no such commentary was conveyed.”

Someone's lying.  Guess who.

"Saudi Arabia has faced international condemnation for its shifting accounts of Khashoggi’s Oct. 2 disappearance at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The kingdom initially said Khashoggi walked out of the consulate unharmed, then announced Saudi agents accidentally killed him in a fistfight and more recently said it had evidence his killing was “premeditated.” Analysts said the crown prince’s efforts to discredit Khashoggi in private suggested a two-faced attempt at damage control. “This is character assassination added to premeditated murder,” said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official and scholar at the Brookings Institution."

Not surprisingly, Trump and his henchmen are not forthcoming with information:

"The White House declined to discuss sensitive conversations with the Saudis or to say how many phone calls the crown prince and Kushner have had since Khashoggi’s disappearance. The two men have had multiple discussions, according to people familiar with the matter, but the most recent call with Bolton and Kushner happened on Oct. 9. Officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic."

Think so?  Or, did they do so to insulate themselves from the wrath of the Trump nazi?

"Khashoggi’s family said Jamal’s views were much more nuanced than those described by Saudi officials. “Although he sympathized with certain objectives of the Muslim Brotherhood, he also sharply disagreed with many of their positions, especially toward Saudi Arabia,” the family said in its statement. Saudi Arabia severed relations with Qatar last year, charging among other things it harbored Muslim Brotherhood “terrorists.” Although the Saudis maintained a cordial relationship with the Brotherhood for decades after its founding in Egypt as an Islamist political and social movement, Riyadh declared it a terrorist organization after the upheavals of the Arab Spring."

Nothing is ever simple, -- or easy.

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.

11-9-18

Corporate greed run amok.  NPR reports:

"The pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Inc. is ending a six-year agreement to supply a lifesaving vaccine for children in West Africa. At the same time, the company has started sending the vaccine to China, where it will likely be sold for a much higher price. The vaccine is for a deadly form of diarrhea, called rotavirus, which kills about 200,000 young children and babies each year. Merck's decision means it will fall short of its commitment to supply its rotavirus vaccine, RotaTeq, to four low-income countries in 2018 and 2019, according to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. By 2020, the company will completely stop delivering its vaccine."

Unbridled corporate greed:

"In April, Merck's agent in China received approval to start selling the vaccine there, where the price per dose will likely be more than 10 times the amount Gavi pays for the vaccine for low-income countries. As a result of Merck's decision, more than a half-million children in West Africa may not receive the vaccine in 2018 and 2019, Gavi told NPR in an email. And more than 2 million may go without the vaccination in 2020."

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.

11-9-18

Trump nazi distortion of reality and lies continue unabated.  ABC News reports:

"President Donald Trump's latest campaign ad featuring an immigrant who was convicted of killing police officers is being criticized as racist and drawing parallels to another controversial commercial that seemed to play on the same fears 30 years ago. Luis Bracamontes is a Mexican immigrant who was sentenced to the death penalty in April after being convicted of killing two California sheriff's deputies in 2014. Bracamontes' penchant for curse-laden rants about killing cops got him expelled from the courtroom and earned him a place in one of Trump's campaign ads in January. Trump's latest ad featuring Bracamontes uses video of him in court with text overlays that say he “killed our people!” and claims that “Democrats let him into our country” and “Democrats let him stay.” That's followed by footage of people who appear to be part of a migrant caravan pushing down gates, along with another immigrant’s interview and his alleged history of attempted murder. Text then appears asking: “Who else would Democrats let in?” The ad offers no evidence for claims that Democrats let Bracamontes, who was deported twice, into the country. The ad was released on Oct. 31, just six days before the midterms. It was also released on the same day that the Trump administration announced it would be increasing the number of U.S. troops at the southern border from just over 5,000 to 10,000 or 15,000 to deal with the migrant caravan Trump has repeatedly claimed qualifies as an invasion."

There is no invasion.  Trump remains no more than a congenital liar in the mold of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini.

"Kim Fridkin, a political science professor at Arizona State University who specializes in negative ads, said Trump's latest offering "is playing to racial fears of 'the other.'" "He's portraying immigrants as criminals basically, so in that way, I think it has racial undertones or overtones," Fridkin said. Mo Elleithee, the executive director of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service, was more frank. “I think it is one of the most racist ads we've seen in a long time,” said Elleithee, who worked as a campaign strategist for Hillary Clinton and was a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. “It is preying on people's fear of immigrants, and to the extent that anyone’s motivated by racism, that clearly taps into that.”

Raw nazism:

"Trump has pinned the ad to the top of his Twitter timeline, writing: "It is outrageous what the Democrats are doing to our Country. Vote Republican now!"

"Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, who has also been critical of Trump, tweeted Thursday that “This is a sickening ad. Republicans everywhere should denounce it.” Both Elleithee and Fridkin compared Trump’s ad to the one that featured felon Willie Horton during the 1988 presidential election and was produced by a group that supported George H.W. Bush’s bid. At the time, the Horton ad was widely seen as one of the most controversial political ads in modern American history. “I think that when people, political scientists, hear the word ‘Willie Horton,’ what they remember is the ad that was trying to illicit race as an issue and try to play to people's fears of blacks as perpetrators of a crime,” Fridkin said, adding that she sees this Trump ad as having a similar message but applying it to immigrants. “I think it is on the same level as that ad,” she said of the Horton ad."

Nothing ever truly changes in Nazi America, does it?

CBS News reports:

"Cop-killing illegal immigrant Luis Bracamontes stars in a web video from January that President Trump tweeted Thursday. The expletive-laced courtroom footage shows a laughing Bracamontes admitting he killed two police officers and promising to break out of jail soon. "Democrats let him into the country," the video says in all caps. As he says he wishes he had "killed more" cops, "Democrats let him stay" flashes over the screen. Neither the video nor the president cite any evidence to support the allegation that Democrats let him into the U.S. and let him stay. Is the accusation accurate? THE FACTS: No. This is akin to blaming Republicans for criminals who entered the country illegally under Presidents Trump or George W. Bush.

"Bracamontes was deported four times before he killed Sacramento County sheriff's Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer County sheriff's Detective Michael Davis Jr., according to Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones.  There is no evidence that any Democrat — or anyone, for that matter — allowed Bracamontes to stay."

Trump is a liar.

CBS News reports:

"NBC and Fox News Channel both said Monday that they will stop airing President Trump's campaign advertisement that featured an immigrant convicted of murder. CNN had rejected the same ad, declaring it racist. Fox pulled the ad Sunday "upon further review," said Marianne Gambelli, president of the network's ad sales department. Fox did not immediately say how many times it aired on either Fox News Channel or the Fox Business Network."

Imagine that.  Too racist and nazi even for Fox.  ... Who'd 'a 'thunk' it, no?  LOL.

"The advertisement aired on NBC's "Sunday Night Football" and MSNBC's "Morning Joe," and drew a heated online response. After reviewing the ad, NBC said it recognizes its insensitive nature."

Why didn't they 'review' it first?

"A source familiar with the matter told CBS News the ad was produced by the Trump campaign, with an ad buy of $1.5 million across TV and digital platforms. The ad includes footage of Luis Bracamontes, a twice-deported immigrant from Mexico sentenced to death in California for killing two police officers. It blames Democrats for allowing him into the country. The ad, however, is not factual. It is akin to blaming Republicans for criminals who entered the country illegally under Presidents Trump or George W. Bush. There is no evidence that any Democrat — or anyone, for that matter — allowed Bracamontes to stay. Democratic and Republican administrations alike have deported hundreds of thousands of people a year. Former President Barack Obama focused during his second term on recent arrivals and people with criminal histories, but Mr. Trump quickly directed that anyone in the country illegally could be targeted."

Consider the psychotic, irrational insanity of the following:

"Facebook also announced Monday that the ad violated its advertising policy. "While the video is allowed to be posted on Facebook, it cannot receive paid distribution," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. Mr. Trump's campaign manager, Brad Parscale, tweeted that NBC News, CNN and Facebook had chosen "to stand with those ILLEGALLY IN THIS COUNTRY." He said the media was trying to control what you see and think. Parscale made no mention of Fox's decision. The president's son, Donald Trump Jr., tweeted over the weekend, noting CNN's refusal to air the advertisement, saying, "I guess they only run fake news and won't talk about real threats that don't suit their agenda."

There is no threat.

Donny, Jr. is as much a liar as dear old dad.  Chip off the old block.

"CNN said it was made "abundantly clear" through its coverage that the ad was racist and declined to air it when the campaign sought to buy airtime."

Can't confuse a Trump with the truth.

NPR reports:

"With days to go before the midterm elections, President Trump continues to ratchet up his rhetoric on immigration. The president's latest target is asylum-seekers, whom he accuses of exploiting "loopholes" in U.S. immigration laws."

Simply, not true.  The president is a liar.

"In a televised speech from the White House on Thursday, Trump threatened to close the Southwest border to asylum-seekers — including the latest group of Central American migrants making their way through Mexico — unless they present themselves at official ports of entry. But refugee and asylum experts say his plan would violate U.S. law. They say the president's remarks about asylum were riddled with inaccuracies and misleading statements intended to stoke fear of immigrants and drive the president's supporters to the polls. We'll focus here on five statements President Trump made Thursday in the Roosevelt Room."

Trump: "The current influx, if not halted, threatens to overwhelm our immigration system and our communities, and poses unacceptable dangers to the entire nation."

"The total number of migrants apprehended at the Southwest border was actually down slightly last year, to about 521,000, and remains far below the kind of apprehension numbers that were routine in the 1990s and 2000s."

Wouldn't want to confuse his sick sycophants with the truth.  Wake up.  The president is lying.

Trump: "These policies lead to the release of illegal aliens into our communities after they've been apprehended. But we're not releasing anymore. Big change, as of a couple of days ago. We're going to no longer release. We're going to catch; we're not going to release. They're going to stay with us until the deportation hearing or the asylum hearing takes place. So we're not releasing them into the community."

"In fact, under U.S. law, migrant families who have requested asylum are not considered illegal immigrants. And they are being released in large numbers up and down the border. In El Paso, Texas, Ruben Garcia, director of a local shelter called Annunciation House, told reporter Mallory Falk of member station KRWG the shelter had received 332 people Thursday released from immigration custody and are expecting 225 more Friday."

Not only distortion of reality, but an outright lie by our nazi fuhrer.

Trump: "Then they never show up, almost. It's like a level of 3 percent. They never show up for the trial. So by the time their trial comes, they're gone. Nobody knows where they are."

"Actually, the majority of asylum-seekers do show up to court. According to the Department of Justice statistics for the 2016 fiscal year, only about 2 in 5 cases were decided in absentia."

Once again, Trump's a liar.  Has an agenda highly reminiscent of Hitler's treatment of Jews, Gypsies, gays, etc., at the beginning of the Third Reich.

Trump: "This endemic abuse of the asylum system makes a mockery of our immigration system, displacing legitimate asylum-seekers — and there are legitimate asylum-seekers — while rewarding those who abuse or defraud our system, which is almost everybody. Everybody is abusing it."

"Immigration lawyers say this is a wild exaggeration. It's true that only a fraction of all asylum claims are actually successful. Last year, immigration courts rejected more than 60 percent of asylum claims, a number that has been steadily rising since 2012."

Once again, the president is a liar.  Has no credibility.

Trump: "Some people call it an invasion. It's like an invasion. ... These are tough people, in many cases. A lot of young men, strong men."

"The president has claimed repeatedly, without evidence, that the migrants include dangerous criminals and "unknown Middle Easterners." But reporters on the ground say the migrants comprise mainly women and children who are fleeing from violence and extreme poverty in Central America. Refugee and asylum experts accuse the president of fearmongering to rally his political base for the midterm elections."

Despite the five criticisms above, here's the very worst of it, greatest distortion of reality, achingly blatant lie, most highly reminiscent of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini:

"There's a "tragic irony" in portraying the asylum-seekers as a marauding army, said Karen Musalo, director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at U.C. Hastings College of the Law. "Individuals have come together to walk north in a caravan because the journey north for asylum-seekers has been so dangerous," Musalo said in an interview. "These are very vulnerable individuals, desperately fleeing violence, who have come together as a group to have the protection and solidarity of each other."

Wake up.  You've been bamboozled.  Hoodwinked by Trump and his fellow nazis.

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.

11-9-18

Lying, distortion of reality by the Trump nazi continues unabated.  NBC News reports:

"Hours before Election Day, President Donald Trump on Monday continued to warn, without evidence, about the prospect of "illegal voting." "All you've got to do is go around, take a look what's happened over the years and you'll see," Trump told reporters before departing from Joint Base Andrews for the first of three campaign rallies Monday. "There are a lot of people ... that try and get in illegally and actually vote illegally, so we just want to let them know that there will be prosecution at the highest level."

The president is a liar.  No factual basis for his assertion.  There is no widespread voter fraud.  Has not been.

"Trump has repeatedly, as a candidate and as president, said that voter fraud is a significant problem. However, experts have repeatedly concluded that voter fraud is extremely rare. Even the president's own defunct voter fraud commission uncovered no evidence to back up his claim that millions voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election, according to an analysis of commission documents released in August by a former member."

In fact, Republican national socialists, fascists, nazis have done all they could to suppress voting rights of those they consider unlikely to vote for GOP candidates.  Doing so through gerrymandering, voter suppression, voter id laws, etc..  Not-so-cleverly, perniciously designed by the nazi element in our formerly great country to suppress the vote.

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.

11-9-18

In follow up to the last edition, more of the same from the King nazi.  NBC News reports:

"Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, erupted in anger and kicked a man out of an event on Thursday after the man questioned King's connection to white supremacist ideology and linked it to the recent Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. Kaleb Van Fossen, who was identified by The Des Moines Register as the questioner, asked King about his past controversial comments, which prompted a fiery response from the lawmaker.

"You, Steve King, have been quoted as saying, 'We can't restore our civilization with other people's babies.' You and the shooter both share an ideology that is anti-immigration," Van Fossen said. King, who is running for re-election, quickly shouted down Van Fossen. "No! Don't you do that!" King yelled. "Do not associate me with that shooter. I knew you were an ambusher when you walked in the room, but there is no basis for that and you get no question and you get no answer."

Van Fossen certainly took it to the nazi:

"Van Fossen continued to press King, asking him what "distinguishes" his past comments with that of the Pittsburgh suspect, who has expressed anti-Semitic views, and whether the lawmaker identifies himself as a white supremacist. "No, you’re done! We don’t play these games here in Iowa," said King, who insisted the protester be removed. King was speaking at a candidate forum in Des Moines. Van Fossen is a member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, which also held a protest against King outside the event, according to The Des Moines Register."

Resistance.

"King, an anti-immigration hard-liner, has come under intense scrutiny for his sharp opposition to diversity in America, which he said is "not a strength." He also praised Austria's Freedom Party, which was founded by a former Nazi SS officer, for its anti-immigration platform and endorsed a candidate running for mayor in Toronto who has espoused white supremacist views."

A nazi.

"Rep. Steve Stivers, an Ohio Republican and chairman of the House GOP campaign arm, excoriated King on Tuesday for espousing white supremacist viewpoints online and in public remarks, saying the lawmaker's behavior is "completely inappropriate" and "we must stand up against white supremacy and hate in all forms." King pushed back on the accusation Tuesday in a statement, saying he valued the country's diversity and "legal immigrants."

A national socialist, fascist, nazi liar.

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.

11-9-18

More of the same.  Additional fuel to the fire.  CBS News reports:

"Four alleged members of a white supremacist group were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of inciting violence at California political rallies last year, officials said. The defendants planned and carried out assaults at gatherings in Huntington Beach, Berkeley and San Bernardino, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles said in a statement. The four participated in hand-to-hand combat training and then traveled to rallies to attack demonstrators and others, prosecutors said. Afterward they disseminated photographs and videos of the violent acts to recruit other members for future events, according to prosecutors. Attorney information couldn't immediately be found for Aaron Eason, Robert Rundo, Robert Boman and Tyler Laube. All were arrested last week and charged with one count each of conspiracy. Rundo, Boman and Eason were additionally charged with one count of rioting."

Highly reminiscent of Hitler's Brownshirts.

"Arraignments were scheduled beginning next week. According to prosecutors, the conspiracy and riots charges in the indictment carry statutory maximum sentences of five years in federal prison. Prosecutors said the four are members of the militant Rise Above Movement, a group described in the indictment as "a combat-ready, militant group of a new nationalist white supremacy and identity movement." The indictments come weeks after four other California members of the group were indicted for allegedly inciting last year's deadly riot in Charlottesville, Virginia."

These groups present an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.

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.

11-9-18

Bought and paid for.  NPR reports:

"For months, farmers from Mississippi to Minnesota have been waiting for the Environmental Protection Agency to make up its mind about a controversial weedkiller called dicamba. Some farmers love the chemical; other farmers, along with some environmentalists, consider it a menace, because it's prone to drifting in the wind, damaging nearby crops and wild vegetation. This week, on Halloween evening, the EPA finally announced its decision. Calling dicamba "a valuable pest control tool," it gave farmers a green light to keep spraying the chemical on new varieties of soybeans and cotton that have been genetically modified to tolerate dicamba. A coalition of environmental groups that had filed a lawsuit against the EPA's original approval of dicamba blasted the decision to keep it on the market. Paul Achitoff from Earthjustice said in a statement that "EPA's disregard of both the law and the welfare of ... species at risk of extinction is unconscionable."

Surprised?  Why?  Money comes first.  Before all.  Principle?  What's that?  Monsanto will certainly line its pockets courtesy of the Trump nazi and his henchmen.

"Meanwhile, a federal court still has not ruled on the lawsuit that seeks to overturn the EPA's original approval of dicamba."

Be interesting to see what, if anything, comes of that.  Forget?  The judiciary is now run and owned by Republican national socialists. Republicans now sit en masse on the courts legislating their perverse ideological and religious views, lining the pockets of their corporate masters.

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.

11-9-18

Think Trump, despite close family ties, is not anti-Semitic?  The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump suggested Wednesday that there might be truth to an unfounded conspiracy theory that philanthropist and Democratic megadonor George Soros is funding a caravan of Central American migrants, telling reporters that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if that is the case. As he left the White House, Trump was asked whether he thinks somebody is funding the migrant caravan that is slowly making its way through Mexico toward the U.S. border. “I wouldn’t be surprised, yeah. I wouldn’t be surprised,” Trump responded. Asked whether the funder could be Soros, Trump said: “I don’t know who, but I wouldn’t be surprised. A lot of people say yes.”

Trump is a congenital liar.  Incapable of telling the truth.

"Trump’s comments came in the wake of Soros being targeted with a pipe bomb last week and the fatal shootings this weekend at Pittsburgh synagogue by a suspect who posted frequently about the migrant caravan. The White House did not immediately respond Thursday to a question about what evidence Trump has that points to the possibility that Soros, a wealthy Jewish donor, has funded a caravan that originated in Honduras."

Has none.  -- That simple.  Congenital liar.

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.

11-9-18

Trump under increased emoluments pressure.  The Washington Post reports:

"A federal judge on Friday denied President Trump’s request to stay a lawsuit alleging he is in violation of the Constitution by doing business with foreign governments, a decision that paves the way for plaintiffs to seek information from his business as it relates to his D.C. hotel. U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte in Greenbelt, Md., denied the Justice Department’s request that he pause the case in order to allow a higher court to intervene. And he sharply questioned the president’s position that his business does not improperly accept gifts or payments — called emoluments — as defined by the Constitution. By Trump’s analysis, Messitte wrote, the term emoluments is the subject of such “substantial grounds of disagreement” that payments his business received from foreign governments could not qualify. The judge did not agree: “The Court finds this a dubious proposition.” Messitte ordered the plaintiffs, the attorneys general for D.C. and Maryland, to submit a schedule for discovery — the process of producing evidence for the case — within 20 days. That decision is subject to appeal. The judge previously limited discovery to information related to the president’s D.C. hotel."

Certainly, a step in the right direction.  Emoluments Clause is quite clear.

The Washington Post reports:

"Ivanka Trump-branded semiconductors and voting machines? In China? That’s an odd, if remote, possibility after Chinese trademark regulators awarded preliminary approval for 16 trademark applications from the president’s daughter and White House senior adviser, online Chinese government filings show. The approvals by Beijing on Oct. 13 were notable for their timing, coming just as Chinese and U.S. officials were seeking to restart trade talks that had collapsed amid acrimony. They also raised eyebrows for covering a grab-bag of products, including electoral hardware in a country not exactly known for its elections. Ethics watchdogs have long warned about the possibility of foreign governments seeking to curry favor with President Trump through his family’s extensive business interests, and Ivanka Trump appeared to acknowledge the potential for conflict in her dual roles as White House official and international entrepreneur in July, when she shut down her namesake fashion line. But the recent approvals are a reminder of the Chinese government’s knack for making uncannily timed decisions when it comes to Trump family businesses — even if it’s just coincidence, as Chinese experts say."

Here's the problem:

"The October decisions were the largest batch of approvals for Ivanka Trump since her father entered the White House, and they came as he was locked in a trade standoff with China, according to Caroline Zhang of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) in Washington, who first pointed out the updated filings. “Since she has retained her foreign trademarks, the public will continue to have to ask whether President Trump has made foreign policy decisions in the interest of his and his family’s businesses,” Zhang wrote."

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11-9-18

In yet another judicial blow to the Trump nazi, CBS News reports:

"A federal judge has denied a U.S. government motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed on behalf of thousands of immigrant children by attorneys who say the kids have unconstitutionally been denied the ability to challenge their detention or obtain counsel. Judge Dolly Gee, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, said Friday she will grant class status for children in the case, Lucas R. v. Alex Azar.  The lawsuit was filed in June, initially on behalf of seven children who were separated from relatives after entering the United States. Attorneys said the government has violated the children's constitutional right to due process."

Indeed, it has.

"In a phone call with CBS News, attorney Leecia Welch, who is senior director for legal advocacy and child welfare at the National Center for Youth Law, lauded the decision. "It's a great ruling, we're really excited about it," Welch said. The class of plaintiffs in the case could ultimately include all of the approximately 13,000 unaccompanied children under federal supervision, Welch said."

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11-9-18

Those doing the work don't share in the wealth.  The Washington Post reports:

"The big news Friday is that wages are growing above 3 percent for the first time since 2009. It’s a significant milestone after years of sluggish wage growth, and most economists say workers will probably see strong gains for the foreseeable future. The good news comes with two caveats. The first is the 3.1 percent annual wage growth figure the Labor Department reported Friday is slightly inflated because of some hurricane effects. Remember the really bad hurricanes in the fall of 2017? Those ended up depressing wages in October 2017, so when the Labor Department calculated the year over year change for wages this October, it looked like a bigger jump than normal because last year’s number was low. That said, economists still think we’re likely to see more months of three-plus wage growth, so this isn’t a total blip. The second caveat is that while wage growth is getting better, it’s still well below the norm and coming at a time when U.S. companies are earning record profits."

They are.  Have been.  Not sharing the wealth, however.  Surprised?  Why?  Forget?  Unbridled greed.

"In the 1990s dot-com boom wage growth was regularly at 3.5 percent to 4 percent a month. Those numbers seem dreamy today. (And after adjusting for rising costs, workers are getting only about a 0.8 percent rise based on Friday’s numbers). Corporate profits, meanwhile, are at an all-time high, according to Howard Silverblatt of S&P Dow Jones Indices and government data. Corporate tax cuts have enabled companies to boost profitability, many analysts and executives say. But companies are spending a lot of their extra cash on stock buybacks and dividends, leaving only a little extra for workers."

Imagine that.  Couldn't be, could it?  Unbridled greed.

"This is part of a long-term trend. Workers no longer get the same “piece of the pie” as they did from the 1950s up to the 1990s. Labor’s share of business income has declined steadily since 2001 and fell sharply during the Great Recession. While corporate profits have rebounded since then and hit new highs, labor’s share isn’t even back to where it was pre-crisis, according to Labor Department data. The bottom line is workers are seeing a nine-year high in wages at a time when corporate profits are off the charts. The latest data on this phenomenon is from the quarter that just ended in September, and it shows more of the same: Workers are still getting a small share of income. “Never have corporate profits outgrown employee compensation so clearly and for so long,” noted a recent Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis blog post."

Above quotes are courtesy of a most gifted, insightful writer, Heather Long.

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.

11-9-18

Trump and his fellow Republican nazis lose another one.  The Washington Post reports:

"Georgia must change its procedures to make it easier for some people flagged under the state’s restrictive “exact match” law to vote, a federal judge ruled Friday, dealing a blow to Republican gubernatorial candidate and Secretary of State Brian Kemp."

Doesn't your heart bleed?

"The “exact match” law flags voter registrations that are found to have discrepancies, such as a dropped hyphen, with other official identifications. Potential voters are allowed to settle the discrepancy by providing proof of identity. But the state’s procedures under Kemp, whose office oversees elections, stipulated that those who had been flagged as potential noncitizens be cleared first by a deputy registrar when seeking to vote. In October, a coalition of civil rights groups sued him."

For damned good reason.  Deliberate abrogation of the right to vote.

"U.S. District Judge Eleanor L. Ross ruled Friday that the procedures were likely to result in the violation of voting rights for a large group of people and needed to be halted immediately. She said Kemp’s restrictions raised “grave concerns for the Court about the differential treatment inflicted on a group of individuals who are predominantly minorities." The preliminary injunction she issued required the state to change its procedures immediately to allow those flagged, some 3,100 individuals, to prove their citizenship more easily, with a U.S. passport or similar documentation, and only to a poll manager. It also signaled that the coalition of civil rights groups that brought the case against Kemp would probably succeed should the lawsuit continue. “With respect to Tuesday’s election, we deem this a total victory in our fight against Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s exact match scheme,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “Our goal in filing this lawsuit was to ensure that no eligible voter was unfairly denied the right to vote because of this discriminatory voter suppression effort." Kemp was also ordered to issue a news release explaining how those flagged for potential citizenship issues could still vote by proving their citizenship, as well as offering a phone number for them to call with any questions."

No less than treason perpetrated by Republican fascists, national socialists, nazis.

"The American Civil Liberties Union announced Friday that another court had sided against Kemp in a different voting rights case. It said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit had denied his request to block a court order that required him to exercise due process before rejecting ballots for handwriting issues. The state attorney general’s office did not say whether it planned to appeal the ruling, with spokeswoman Katie Byrd declining to comment."

... Hear the rumble?  An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming.  Raw nazism.

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.

11-9-18

Trump and his fellow henchmen lose yet another one.  The Washington Post reports:

"The Supreme Court refused Friday to delay an upcoming trial in which a number of states and civil rights organizations allege there was an improper political motive in Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. The trial is scheduled to begin Monday in New York. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch said they would have granted the Trump administration’s request to delay the trial. It is unclear how the other six voted — including new Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh — because justices are not required to publish their votes in such procedures. But at least five of the six were unwilling to block the trial."

Amazing, isn't it?

"Later Friday night, the justices refused a Trump administration request to halt a novel lawsuit filed by young Americans that attempts to force the federal government to take action on climate change. Thomas and Gorsuch would have granted the request, but the court said the administration should make its appeal to a lower court first. In the Commerce Department case, the administration has been to the high court several times in an attempt to keep the challengers from questioning Ross and other administration officials about their motivations in adding the question. Department of Justice lawyers finally asked the court to delay the proceedings. Challengers to the citizenship question cheered the court’s refusal to do so. “DOJ has tried every trick in the book (and then some) to block this case — and failed every time,” Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood (D), said in a statement. “You really have to wonder what they’re trying to hide.”

Indeed.  Should Democrats retake the House, think they won't launch an investigation into this and many other highly questionable matters?

"Democratic lawmakers and immigrant rights groups have blasted the idea of adding the citizenship question. They contend that it will make immigrants and their families less likely to fill out the form, leading to a more costly and less accurate census."

No question.  Republican national socialists too clueless to understand?  ... Or, is it the fact they're too goddamned stupid to give a shit?  That is, are these GOP fascists more concerned with removing the undocumented from this country than ensuring an accurate census count?

"Six former census directors and a Census Bureau internal analyst also have said the question would harm the count. That, in turn, could cost states with large immigrant populations representation in Congress and federal funds distributed on the basis of population."

-- One of the reasons why a census is conducted every ten years.

"In an unsigned opinion Oct. 22, the Supreme Court blocked a deposition of Ross authorized by lower federal courts in New York. But it said other discovery could go forward, including the deposition of a top Justice Department official. There are six legal challenges to the inclusion of a question about a census respondent’s citizenship. The states and organizations that brought the lawsuits say probing the intentions of officials is crucial. Ross has “offered shifting and inaccurate explanations in his decisional memo and in testimony before Congress” as well as in new documents filed in the case, said a brief filed by the New York Immigration Coalition, the American Civil Liberties Union and others. Ross first said he added the citizenship question at the behest of the Justice Department, which said it was needed to help enforce voting rights. But emails showed that he had been pushing for the inclusion of the citizenship question earlier than that, and the groups and states contend that the Justice Department request was a pretext."

Once again, the government is lying.

"In a document filed in response to questions sent by Underwood, Ross acknowledged that he had discussed the issue with former White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon and a Republican secretary of state who has been a leader in anti-immigration efforts."

Imagine that.  Couldn't be, could it?

"In the document, Ross said he recalled Bannon calling him in spring 2017 to ask whether Ross would speak to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach about ideas for a possible citizenship question on the census. That appears to contradict Ross’s testimony to Congress this year. When asked at a hearing March 20 by Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) whether the president or anyone in the White House had discussed the citizenship question with him, Ross said, “I am not aware of any such.”

Lying under oath?

"The trial is scheduled to start next week before U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in New York. He has denied the Trump administration’s motions for delay, and has been backed up by panels of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. In asking the Supreme Court for a delay, Francisco said “the most efficient path forward is to stay the trial and resolve the question whether the district court must confine its review of the Secretary’s decision to the administrative record, while leaving sufficient time for the district court to conduct its review followed by prompt appellate review.” Otherwise, Francisco said, there will be a full trial that includes “whether the Secretary harbored secret racial animus in reinstating a citizenship question to the decennial census.” If the judge made such a finding, Francisco said, “that harm would not be fully (or even largely) remedied if [the Supreme Court] subsequently confined the district court’s review to the administrative record.”

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.

11-9-18

Another judicial loss for Trump.  The Washington Post reports:

"The Supreme Court on Friday night refused to halt a novel lawsuit filed by young Americans that attempts to force the federal government to take action on climate change, turning down a request from the Trump administration to stop it before trial. The suit, filed in 2015 by 21 young people who argue that the failure of government leaders to combat climate change violates their constitutional right to a clean environment, is before a federal judge in Oregon. It had been delayed while the Supreme Court considered the emergency request from the government. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch would have stopped the suit. The other justices did not indicate how they voted on the government’s request."

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.

11-9-18

Aggressive stupidity knows no bounds in the Trump regime.  NBC News reports:

"The Trump administration is rolling back a child labor rule for thousands of teenagers working in nursing homes and hospitals, eliciting a backlash from worker safety advocates. The regulation targeted by the Labor Department, which was first implemented by the Obama administration, prohibits 16- and 17-year-olds from independently operating power-driven patient lifts, which are commonly used in nursing homes and hospitals to move patients with mobility challenges. The administration took its first formal step toward undoing the regulation in late September, releasing a proposed rollback that cites an employer survey and letters from industry groups as evidence that the regulation is hurting job opportunities for young people in a field already facing major labor shortages."

Far more important issue at stake:

"But worker safety advocates and several Congressional Democrats contend that the Labor Department is relying on flimsy evidence, which they say undermines the legal basis for the department’s deregulatory push. They say that the some of the administration’s justifications for the plan — revealed through a public records request and obtained by NBC News — do not support the administration’s own arguments. And they warn that the rollback will endanger young workers in an industry that already has a high injury rate, pointing to government research concluding that many 16- and 17-year olds “cannot safely operate power-driven hoists to lift and transfer patients by themselves.”

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.

11-9-18

Delusionally believe racism and bigotry aren't alive and well in Nazi America?  That Trump's not at the heart and center of it?  Wake up.  CBS News reports:

"Pence spoke before Mr. Trump, as sort of a warm-up act for the president, amping up the crowd by discussing administration accomplishments. "I'm here today because I stand with President Trump," Pence said. "We're here because President Trump and I stand shoulder to shoulder with the next great senator of Indiana, Mike Braun." He added that "the time has come to vote 'no' on Joe," referring to Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly. Mr. Trump also attacked Donnelly, resurrecting a moniker he had given the senator in earlier rallies: "Sleepin' Joe." "It's no surprise Joe Donnelly is holding a rally this weekend with Barack H. Obama," Mr. Trump said, writing out with his fingers Mr. Obama's middle initial, which stands for "Hussein." Mr. Trump was the chief promoter of the birther conspiracy theory, which posited that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States."

Nothing ever changes with a racist nazi who is bigoted against not only blacks and latinos, but those from the Middle East as well.

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.

11-9-18

Think Trump's latest political stunt won't cost taxpayers dearly?  The Washington Post reports:

"The total price of President Trump’s military deployment to the border, including the cost of National Guard forces that have been there since April, could climb well above $200 million by the end of 2018 and grow significantly if the deployments continue into next year, according to analyst estimates and Pentagon figures. The deployment of as many as 15,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border — potentially equal in size to the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan — occurs as the budgetary largesse the military has enjoyed since Trump took office looks set to come to an end."

Total waste of taxpayer dollars for a non-threat at the border.  Trump nazi is doing this to placate his sick sycophants, ensure their support in the midterm election.

"Although the costs of the border deployments will be a tiny slice of a $716 billion annual defense budget, they arrive as the Trump administration is calling on the Pentagon to cut unnecessary expenditures. The White House recently ordered the Pentagon to slash next year’s budget for the military by about $33 billion in response to the largest increase in the federal deficit in six years."

Readers are reminded the deficit ballooned due to Trump's recent unfunded tax cut, -- most of which went to the top of the food chain.

"Veterans and Democratic lawmakers have complained that Trump is wasting military dollars in a politically motivated stunt ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections, at a time when the Pentagon budget is under pressure."

Exactly, right.  No question.  A traitorous act.

“Instead of working in a bipartisan manner to make comprehensive, common-sense, and humane reforms to our immigration system, the President continues to turn to politically-motivated fear mongering and uses [Department of Defense] resources and personnel as a means to drive his troubling anti-immigration agenda,” more than 100 House Democrats wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Nov. 1. Retired Gen. Martin Dempsey, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the deployment as “wasteful” in a message on Twitter and said Marines and soldiers were already overstretched."

That's right.  Goddamned disgrace.

"Administration officials have defended the deployment. Mattis said this week that the military doesn’t do stunts. The commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Kevin McAleenan, argued that the deployment is necessary to “effectively and safely” handle the possible arrival of as many as 7,000 migrants walking toward the border in caravans from Central America."

Horse shit.  The numbers have already dwindled to half that.  They're still some 900 miles away.  There is no threat.  Most of these people are women and children seeking asylum from violence, gang activity, grinding poverty.  The president and his henchmen are liars.

"But military planning documents, dated Oct. 27 and published by Newsweek, predicted that only 20 percent of the migrants, or about 1,400 at the higher end of estimates, were likely to complete the journey to the border, raising questions about the size of the deployment."

Political stunt by our nazi fuhrer, -- fearing Republicans are going to lose the House.

“The military has a lot of things that it needs to be doing these days,” said Susanna Blume, a former Pentagon official and senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. “Looking at estimates of the size of the caravan, you could ask the question as to whether this is the most appropriate use of U.S. active-duty forces.”

No kidding.

"The cost of the National Guard deployment from April 10 through Sept. 30 amounted to $103 million, according to Pentagon figures. The Defense Department expects the Guard deployment to cost an additional $308 million through the end of next September, including the last quarter of 2018, so long as the operations continue at pace.

"Travis Sharp, a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budget Assessments, estimated that the cost of deploying 8,000 active-duty troops through mid-December in addition to the Guard would amount to $40 million to $50 million. Should the administration deploy 15,000 active-duty troops, as Trump suggested, the estimated cost would rise to as much as $110 million, Sharp said."

Egregious waste of money by our nazi fuhrer, -- desperate he's going to lose the House.

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.

11-9-18

Even in an environment where discipline is ramrod stiff, iron fisted, there are occasionally serious lapses in cadet judgment.  NBC News reports:

"An Air Force falcon injured at West Point during a prank Saturday before the annual rivalry football game between the service academies is back home and showing signs of improvement. The 22-year-old bird named Aurora "was able to fly around in her pen" on Sunday, said Air Force Academy spokesperson Lt. Col. Tracy A. Bunko. The development is "an extremely good sign," Bunko said, adding that the academy is "grateful for the outpouring of support and optimistic for Aurora's recovery." The falcon will continue to be evaluated and will get antibiotics to prevent infection, Bunko said."

Quite an embarrassment to the Army:

"Army officials at West Point apologized Sunday for the injuries to the falcon and promised a full investigation. "We are taking this situation very seriously, and this occurrence does not reflect the Army or USMA core values of dignity and respect," the academy said in a statement."

Here's what happened:

"Sam Dollas, Air Force's falconry team adviser, told The New York Times on Sunday that two West Point cadets took the birds, threw sweaters over them and stuffed them into dog crates. Dollas said the cadets turned over the birds Saturday morning, with Aurora's wings bloodied — likely from thrashing inside the crate. "I think they had them for a couple hours and then they realized it was a bad mistake," Dollar told the newspaper. "When Aurora started thrashing around in the crate, they decided that wasn't a good thing."

... Youthful indiscretion?  -- You decide.  Certainly, aggressive stupidity.

"Aurora is the Air Force Academy's official and oldest mascot. On the school's falconry page, the bird is described as a white phase gyrfalcon, which is a "falcon species that is extremely rare in the wild and whose beauty will take your breath away." "Unless you are federally licensed, you can't even touch them," Dollas said, adding the Air Force cadets who work with the birds spend two months in training and are tested before they can handle them. Three percent of all falcons are gyrfalcons, and 1 percent of those are white, according to the website. The school acquired Aurora 22 years ago as a gift from the association of graduates."

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.

11-9-18

Yet another judicial blow to the Trump nazi and his corporate cronies.  NPR reports:

"The Supreme Court has rejected telecom companies' attempts to quash a lower court's decision that upheld net neutrality rules set during the Obama administration. AT&T and other telecoms had asked the high court to void the ruling; the Federal Communications Commission repealed net neutrality last year. The FCC itself also was in favor of voiding the decision that upheld its 2015-era rules, according to Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat on the commission. "It wasn't enough for this FCC to roll back #NetNeutrality," Rosenworcel said in a tweet. "It actually petitioned the Supreme Court to erase history and wipe out an earlier court decision upholding open internet policies. But today the Supreme Court refused to do so."

Fascinating, isn't it?

"The legal moves reflected a desire by conservatives and industry players to cement the FCC's repeal of net neutrality rules, which were designed to restrict Internet service providers' ability to manipulate loading speeds for specific websites or apps."

Unbridled corporate greed.  Further proof positive there is no such thing as a 'free' market.  Clearly, the market is owned and manipulated by those with the financial wherewithal to do so.

Here's where it gets most interesting:

"The rejection came after two conservative justices — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh — "took no part in the consideration or decision of these petitions," the court announced on Monday. With those justices removing themselves from the process, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch were outnumbered. The court's notice says the three justices wanted to "grant the petitions, vacate the judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and remand to that court with instructions to dismiss the cases as moot." As for why Roberts and Kavanaugh recused themselves, Amy Howe of SCOTUSBlog reports:
"The court's newest justice, Brett Kavanaugh, was expected to recuse himself from voting on the petitions because he had participated in the cases while on the D.C. Circuit, and he did. But Chief Justice John Roberts also recused himself – presumably (although there is no way to know for sure) because he owns stock in one of the companies challenging the rules."

Stunning, isn't it, justices are not required to disclose this information?

"Several of the plaintiffs in the case said the rejection wasn't surprising, given that the FCC has already repealed net neutrality. "Today's decision is not an indication of the Court's views on the merits but simply reflects the fact that there was nothing left for the Court to rule on," the Internet and Television Association said. Still, the high court's rejection preserves the appeals court's decision as a possible precedent and makes it even more likely that the issue will resurface if the FCC shifts its makeup — something that would happen if Democrats are able to win back the White House in 2020. The FCC's repeal of net neutrality is also the subject of separate legal battles, after it was challenged by tech companies and advocacy groups, in addition to more than 20 U.S. states."

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.

11-9-18

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was certainly roughed up during his recent confirmation process.  Deservedly, so.  Nowhere near enough, however.  Apparently, the fascist bastard is nonetheless still smarting from the verbal trashing he endured.  So much so, he's apparently doing all he can to appear less national socialist, fascist, nazi than he truly is. The Washington Post reports:

"The Supreme Court spent a gruesome hour Tuesday debating a constitutional way to execute a Missouri man who has a rare medical condition, with the likely decider, new Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, joining the court’s liberals with tough questions for the state."

Imagine that.  This fascist son of a bitch is no progressive.  No liberal.  No open-minded independent.  Remains what he is, a national socialist.

"Modern and ancient execution methods — a firing squad, electrocution, hanging, lethal gas, being burned at the stake — all made appearances during the court’s sober assessment of ways to kill Russell Bucklew without violating the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Missouri plans to use an injection of a single drug, pentobarbital, to carry out the long-delayed execution of Bucklew. But he suffers from a congenital and rare disease called cavernous hemangioma. It causes blood-filled tumors to grow in his head, neck and throat, which his lawyers say could rupture during the state’s lethal injection process. The result, they contend, would be that he could choke to death on his own blood."

Why would a nazi give a crap about any undue suffering endured by a convicted murderer?  His fellow Republican fascists on the Court certainly couldn't care less.  In fact, for decades Republican nazis have delusionally viewed capital punishment as justice.  Not revenge.

Here's what's so interesting about this case:

"The state’s lawyers say that Bucklew cannot prove his condition would cause him an abnormal amount of suffering, and that his legal fight is a ploy to further delay his punishment and open a new line of legal challenges."

Can these lawyers prove what Bucklew is claiming is not the truth?  LOL.

"Justice Anthony M. Kennedy was a member of the majority last spring. He has been replaced by Kavanaugh, who is considered more conservative, but who was never called upon to rule on an execution as a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit."

Fascinating, isn't it?  Gets better.  Get this:

"Kavanaugh directed all of his questions to Missouri State Solicitor D. John Sauer, pressing him on the outer bounds of the state’s arguments. “Are you saying even if the method creates gruesome and brutal pain you can still do it because there’s no alternative?” Kavanaugh asked. Sauer replied that under the court’s previous rulings, Bucklew would have to come up with an alternative manner of execution acceptable to the state. Kavanaugh pressed: “Is that a yes?” Sauer replied: “Yes, it is, your honor.”

Jesus Christ.  LOL.  Sauer clearly doesn't live on the same planet as the rest of us.

"Later, Kavanaugh asked whether the state had planned to make any special accommodations for Bucklew’s condition, such as whether he would be lying supine on a gurney, or with his head elevated. “Your opposing counsel said, even if everything goes according to plan, there will still be significant suffering. Can you respond to that?” Kavanaugh asked. “I absolutely, absolutely disagree with that,” Sauer said. The court’s attention to such details about the execution was warranted because of the specific nature of Bucklew’s case. He is not contesting his guilt or his sentence of death."

No question, this piece of human excrement is just that:

"In 1996, Bucklew, now 50, stalked his former girlfriend Stephanie Ray to another man’s trailer. He shot and killed the man, Michael Sanders, tried to shoot Ray’s fleeing child and then captured Ray. He handcuffed and raped her, then wounded a police officer in a subsequent gunfight. Bucklew later escaped from jail and attacked Ray’s mother with a hammer before he was recaptured."

Question to be asked here is quite simple.  Does the state wish to stoop to the level of this piece of human excrement?

"He also is not challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty, or even of Missouri’s lethal injection procedure. His claim is that applied to his specific condition, the protocol would result in the kind of tortured death the Constitution forbids."

Of course, most of you Republican nazis out there couldn't care less whether or not this son of a bitch is tortured.  In fact, strongly suspect many of you would revel in it.

"A divided court has upheld lethal injection against a series of challenges. And it has indicated that an inmate who makes a specific challenge specific to his condition must propose an alternative manner of execution. Justice Sonia Sotomayor has been the court’s most outspoken critic of that decision, and said Tuesday that her colleagues had “made up” that requirement without constitutional justification. Nonetheless, she tried to narrow the impact of ruling for Bucklew. It “is not going to abolish the death penalty with respect to everybody,” she said. “It’s going to tell the state: If you have an individual with a unique circumstance in which a method of execution is going to cause that person excruciating pain, cruel and unusual pain, you better find a different way.”

Can't have that, can we?  After all, the nazi element in our formerly great country revels in revenge.  Fervently embraces vengeance.  Forget?

"Justice Stephen G. Breyer pressed Kavanaugh’s point. He said all would agree that burning someone at the stake would violate the Constitution, so why wouldn’t an inmate be able to challenge a method of death that had the same physical sensation for the condemned?"

Indeed.

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.

11-9-18

Trump is again demonstrating his racist ideology.  NPR reports:

"The Department of Justice has once again petitioned the Supreme Court to intervene in pending cases over the future of DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program that protects immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. The program is keeping about 700,000 young people from being deported, NPR's Joel Rose notes. At the moment, DACA is accepting renewals but not new applicants. If the program is ended, currently protected individuals could be deported, though it's not clear how quickly that might happen. More than a year ago, the Trump administration announced it was ending the program. Multiple judges have blocked that change, and three cases have worked their way to the federal appellate level. But the Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to skip ahead in the process — and step in before the lower courts are finished."

Trump is certainly in a rush, determined to keep his equally sick sycophants under his thumb, -- and happy.

"Meanwhile, it's worth noting that the status of DACA recipients also could be resolved through an act of Congress — but in recent years, Congress has had a notoriously difficult time taking action on immigration issues."

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.

11-9-18

As of January, the House will finally do what the Founders intended it to do.  That is, provide congressional investigative oversight of the president and his regime.  A most unhappy situation that will continue until either the end of Trump's term, -- or Mueller's pending report that may very well end it for him.

Either way, we're in for rough times.  Tough times.  An unsustainable status quo.  Quickly deteriorating.  Certainly, don't look forward to what's coming as our formerly great country continues to decline under this insane fascist abomination in the Oval Office.  Intend to continue exposing him for whom and what he is no matter what.

NPR reports:

"In an extraordinarily combative news conference Wednesday after voters delivered him a rebuke by giving control of the House to Democrats, President Trump went after Republicans, Democrats and the media. He mocked Republican candidates who distanced themselves from him, chided a reporter for asking a "racist question," and walked away from the lectern at one point, as an aide tried to wrest a microphone out of a reporter's hands. Trump said that if Democrats try to use their majority to issue subpoenas, it would be a "war-like posture."

Has he lost his mind?  Delusionally, believe he has the temperament required for the job?

"He said that he could work with Democrats on issues such as infrastructure and health care, but that if they conduct investigations into his administration, "then we're going to do the same thing, then government comes to a halt and I blame them."

This man is, and remains, unfit for the presidency.  This is a democratic republic.  Has three co-equal federal branches of government.  Clearly, Trump does not understand this.  Delusionally, believes he's nazi fuhrer.

"He named checked several GOP candidates who lost Tuesday. He said that Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, "gave me no love, and she lost. Too bad, sorry about that Mia." He said Barbara Comstock, who lost her suburban Virginia district, "didn't want to have any embrace."

Think this man's not nuts?  Out of his mind?

"Trump said Tuesday's results were "very close to a complete victory," despite Republicans losing control of the House. The GOP did add to its majority in the Senate."

This man is delusional.  There is no 'complete victory.'  Nowhere near.  Quite the opposite.  The House in January will begin to execute one of its constitutional duties, -- investigative oversight of the Trump Administration.  Republicans, when they held the House, deliberately failed to execute this constitutional function as intended by the Founders.  Instead, treasonously protected their fuhrer.  Placed party ahead of country.

Should the House during its investigation of Trump discover any impeachable malfeasance, think it won't impeach?  Matters not whether the Senate ultimately convicts and removes him from office.  Would wind up being a useless, dysfunctional lame duck for the rest of his term.  The pressure to resign would be enormous.

Should Mueller release his final report containing any criminal malfeasance of Trump and/or his regime, the pressure on the Senate to convict would be overwhelming.  ... Just as it was decades ago during the Nixon Watergate fiasco.  Never got that far.  Didn't have to.  The Nixon nazi resigned in disgrace.  Was then pardoned by the successor he nominated to replace Spiro Agnew.  Yet, another Republican felon.  No matter what, if this latest fiasco is not resolved quickly, would ultimately tear this country apart.

Think this man isn't insane?  Get this:

"Of Pelosi, who with her party capturing the majority of seats Tuesday stands to become the next speaker of the House, Trump tweeted that she "deserves to be chosen Speaker of the House by Democrats," that "she has earned this great honor," and even suggested some Republicans could vote for her, if Democrats "give her a hard time."

    "In all fairness, Nancy Pelosi deserves to be chosen Speaker of the House by the Democrats. If they give her a hard time, perhaps we will add some Republican votes. She has earned this great honor!
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018"

Jesus Christ.  He's not fit.  Remains an embarrassment to himself and the country.

"Trump again denounced special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into ties between Trump's 2016 campaign and the Russian government, claiming he could have shut it down. Trump said he "could fire everybody right now, but I don't want to stop it because politically I don't like stopping it." Trump called the investigation "a disgrace," saying it "should never have been started, because there is no crime."

Insane.  Non-sequitur.

"Trump has frequently been combative with reporters, and painted the news media as "enemies of the people," but Wednesday's press conference raised the level of his hostility. He called CNN's Jim Acosta, with whom he has frequently spared, "a rude, terrible person." And when PBS Newshour correspondent Yamiche Alcindor asked him if he thought his rhetoric emboldened white nationalists he called it "such a racist question." "I love our country," he said, "you have nationalists, you have globalists," adding "I also love the world." He called himself "a great moral leader," and in answer to another question said he has never used racist remarks."

This man is a sick, congenital liar.

Gets worse:

    "If the Democrats think they are going to waste Taxpayer Money investigating us at the House level, then we will likewise be forced to consider investigating them for all of the leaks of Classified Information, and much else, at the Senate level. Two can play that game!
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018

"Democrats have promised to hold oversight hearings on the Trump administration when they take control in January. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who is set to become chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said Wednesday that he intends to: "shine a light on waste, fraud, and abuse in the Trump Administration. I want to probe senior Administration officials across the government who have abused their positions of power and wasted taxpayer money, as well as President Trump's decisions to act in his own financial self-interest rather than the best interests of the American people."

Certainly, a constitutional function of Congress as wisely intended by the Founders.

"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also issued a warning for Democrats on Wednesday morning. They must think carefully about whether to proceed with a "presidential harassment" strategy that exploits their new majority in the House to afflict Trump, he said."

Time for ole Mitch "The Bitch" to do the right thing, resign in disgrace.  Been in office way too long.  Oversight is a constitutional duty of Congress.  Mitch and his fellow nazis in the Senate have certainly and intentionally failed to do theirs.  To protect their fuhrer.

The first shoe has dropped. Hard. The Washington Post reports:

"Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned on Wednesday at President Trump’s request, ending the tenure of a beleaguered loyalist whose relationship with the president was ruined when Sessions recused himself from control of the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign."

One of the few things Sessions did right during his tenure.  For that, he gets fired.  LOL.

"In a letter to Trump, Sessions wrote he had been “honored to serve as Attorney General” and had “worked to implement the law enforcement agenda based on the rule of law that formed a central part of your campaign for the presidency.” Trump tweeted that Sessions would be replaced on an acting basis by Matthew G. Whitaker, who had been serving as Sessions’s chief of staff."

Whitaker had earlier entertained thoughts of defunding the Mueller probe.

“We thank Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his service, and wish him well!” Trump tweeted. “A permanent replacement will be nominated at a later date.”

Here's the problem:

"A Justice Department official said Whitaker would assume authority over the special counsel probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election — though his role could be reviewed by ethics officials. Because Sessions was recused, the special counsel probe had been overseen by Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who also has had strained relations with Trump, but is considered safe in his position for the moment. A legal commentator before he came into the Justice Department, Whitaker has mused publicly about how a Sessions replacement might reduce Mueller’s budget “so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt.” He also wrote in a September 2017 column that Mueller had “come up to a red line in the Russia 2016 election-meddling investigation that he is dangerously close to crossing,” after CNN reported that the special counsel could be looking into Trump and his associates’ financial ties to Russia."

Should the Trump nazi fire Mueller, would immediately trigger a constitutional crisis.  At a time when our formerly great country is far from stable.

"Mueller is looking into Trump’s statements seeking to fire Sessions or force his resignation in an effort to determine whether those acts are part of a pattern of attempted obstruction of justice, according to people close to the investigation. Earlier this year, Mueller’s team questioned witnesses about Trump’s private comments and state of mind in late July and early August of last year, around the time he belittled his “beleaguered” attorney general on Twitter, these people said. The questions sought to determine whether the president’s goal was to oust Sessions so he could replace him with someone who would take control of the investigation, these people said."

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.

11-2-18

Insanity?  Never ends.  NBC News reports:

"Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Thursday that there is no "intention right now to shoot at people" from a Central American migrant caravan if they cross the United States border."

'Considerate' of her, -- and her nazi fuhrer, isn't it?  Forget?  These are civilian migrants desperately seeking asylum.

"In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Nielsen appeared to confirm reports the Trump administration is considering sending 800 active-duty troops to the southern border."

Posse Commitatus precludes the military from engaging in law enforcement.

"NBC News reported Thursday that the Trump administration is drafting an executive action that would make it exceedingly difficult for Central American migrants seeking asylum to gain entry, according to three sources familiar with the proposed measures."

If they attempt to cross at a legal border checkpoint, port of entry, U.S. law allows them to seek asylum.

"In the interview, Nielsen was asked whether U.S. personnel would ever open fire if people "force their way" through. "We do not have any intention right now to shoot at people. They will be apprehended, however," she said. "But I also take my officer and agents, their own personal safety, extraordinarily seriously. They do have the ability of course to defend themselves."

If unarmed, non-violent migrants are gunned down in cold blood by the jackbooted bastards in the Border Patrol, it is cold-blooded murder.

"Asked whether officials would return fire if shot at, she said, "No," before adding, "I think we'd have to work through that. But I want to make it very clear we will absolutely not tolerate violence against border patrol in this situation."

Our lunatic nazi fuhrer needs to be very, very careful how he handles this.  Needs to be very, very carefully thought out.

"The Associated Press cited a U.S. official as saying Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is expected to sign an order sending some 800 troops to the border, bolstering the 2,000 National Guard forces already there under a previous Pentagon arrangement. Asked whether she could confirm the 800 figure, Nielsen told Fox News, "Sure ... We've asked for some air support, for some logistics, some planning, vehicle barriers, engineering, ways in which I can protect my officers and agents as well as the ports of entry themselves."

Air support?  What kind of 'air support,' madam?  Up to and including fighter jets?

Think this couldn't quickly escalate to the unthinkable?

"Nielsen said it would be up to Mattis whether the personnel were armed." "The rules of engagement for us are the same as they've always been," she said. "For DoD, we're still in discussions and we're working them out. We're waiting to see what the caravan's going to do, what numbers are looking like, where they're headed."

Sound comforting?  ... Or, one goddamned idiot trying to lead another?

"President Donald Trump made immigration a central issue ahead of next month's midterm elections, and tweeted about the caravan Thursday.

    "To those in the Caravan, turnaround, we are not letting people into the United States illegally. Go back to your Country and if you want, apply for citizenship like millions of others are doing!
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 25, 2018"

At a legal border crossing, port of entry, migrants have a legal right to seek asylum, by U.S. statute.  Aren't we supposedly governed by the rule of law, not men?  Don't like the law?  Change it.  In a democratic republic, the president does not get to be dictator.

NPR reports:

"The U.S. military will be sending 5,000 support troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, the Pentagon announced on Monday. The exact number could be slightly higher or lower, a Pentagon official told NPR. The official said the deployment is being done to support the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection. The uniformed troops will likely be active-duty Army personnel, with perhaps some members of the Army Reserve and Marines. There are already 2,100 National Guard members deployed to the border.

"President Trump has been warning against the caravan for weeks. On Monday morning, he tweeted: "Many Gang Members and some very bad people are mixed into the Caravan heading to our Southern Border. Please go back, you will not be admitted into the United States unless you go through the legal process. This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!" Because the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the U.S. military from performing law enforcement activities within the United States, these troops will be in support roles only. They will not have arresting power and won't interact with migrants."

The true threat, most dire threat, is from the Trump nazi, his abrogation of law and the United States Constitution.

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.

11-2-18

Clearly, Trump has lost his mind.  Hypocrisy?  Unfathomable.  NPR reports:

"The list of prominent people, eight and counting, who were sent suspicious packages reads like a Trump enemies list, politicians and Trump critics who are often targeted in his rally speeches and tweets."

Imagine that.  Couldn't be, could it?  ... Not courtesy of one of his sick sycophants, is it?  -- Or, is it?

"Just Monday night at a rally in Texas, Trump's criticism of Hillary Clinton prompted the now-familiar chants of "lock her up." He told the crowd Congresswoman Maxine Waters, is a "low-IQ individual."

... While certainly no fan of Maxine Waters, couldn't the very same be said of the Trump nazi himself?  LOL.  ... At least, Ms. Waters takes no shit from Trump.  Gives as good as she gets.  -- Most unlike Republican nazis like Sen. Ted "Screw's Loose" Cruz.  Who gutlessly failed to stand up for his wife when she was criticized by Trump, then accepted Trump's endorsement at a campaign rally recently.

"A week ago, at a rally in Montana, Trump imagined a fight with former Vice President Joe Biden. "He'd be down so fast," Trump said to laughter as part of a riff in which he praised a Republican congressman for body slamming a reporter. Suspected pipe bombs have been sent to all three of them, and at least five others, all of whom have criticized Trump and been criticized by him."

Couldn't be coincidence, could it?

"None of the devices have exploded."

Thankfully, not yet.

"At a campaign rally Wednesday night, Trump started by delivering a statement about the ongoing investigation, "any acts or threats of political violence are an attack on our democracy itself," Trump said, calling for people on "all sides" to come together in peace and harmony.'

... Mean goose step in line with you and your sick sycophants, Mr. 'President?'  Your hypocrisy, breathtaking, sir.

"The references to Clinton, Waters, Biden and others were gone from Trump's speech."

Imagine that.  Apparently, the Trump nazi is now exceptionally careful not to encourage violence against those excoriating him.  'Comforting,' isn't it?  LOL.  Clearly, covering his sorry ass.

"Those engaged in the political arena must stop treating political opponents as being morally defective," Trump said, possibly referring to his critics rather than himself."

Wake up, Mr. 'President.' You are morally defective, sir.  Evidence?  Overwhelming.  As repeatedly covered in this publication and elsewhere.

"The tone was subdued by the standards of a Trump rally. He mostly stuck to the script and delivered a speech that could just as easily have been in the East Room of the White House rather than an aircraft hangar in a part of Wisconsin that is Trump county. And the president was transparent about what he was trying to do. "Do you see how nice I'm behaving tonight," Trump said. "We're all behaving very well, and hopefully we can keep it that way, right?"

Sickening, isn't it?  Trump not only embraces, revels in incivility, now wants to turn a new leaf?  Give me a break.

Not to last, however.  Get this:

"Not even 24 hours later, Trump was back to his old self on twitter, seeming to blame the media for what is happening. "A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News," he wrote."

Trump remains a congenital liar.

    "A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 25, 2018"

The 'president' is achingly, hopelessly delusional.  Major news sources do the very best they can to get at the truth, then report it.  -- Despite the fact truth remains a moving target, courtesy of continual lying by all politicians.  Both parties.  Conveniently forget?  For decades, truth has indeed been ruthlessly obliterated by the nazis running our formerly great country.

Became a way of life as our formerly great country lost its way.  For the phony, ersatz sake of political expediency.  Exponentially exacerbated by the congenital liar now ensconced in the Oval Office, his henchmen, particularly, his clueless Press Secretary.  ... How do you know Trump's aides are lying?  Their lips move.  No more than a chip off the old block.  Forget?  In a nazi state, day is night, night is day, and shit smells perversely sweet.  All ass backwards.

"Holding court on the driveway outside the West Wing, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders elaborated, saying media coverage of Trump is 90 percent negative and while he condemns violence he feels "everyone has a role to play."

Called the truth, Ms. Sanders.  Wake up.  Negative due to the psychotic behavior of your fuhrer, madam.  -- That very same behavior encourages aberrant behavior in sick supporters.  ... Including you, madam.  Have you no honor, no principles?  How can you lie for this lunatic son of a bitch on a continuing basis?

"Sanders specifically called out CNN, which had to evacuate its New York studios yesterday after one of the specific packages showed up in the network's mail room. It was addressed to former CIA director John Brennan, who has been a vocal Trump critic. Brennan responded to Trump's tweet telling him to stop blaming others and look in the mirror."

The Trump nazi cannot withstand criticism.  None.  What psychotic bully can?

"Your inflammatory rhetoric, insults, lies, & encouragement of physical violence are disgraceful," Brennan wrote. "Clean up your act....try to act Presidential. The American people deserve much better. BTW, your critics will not be intimidated into silence."

    "Stop blaming others. Look in the mirror. Your inflammatory rhetoric, insults, lies, & encouragement of physical violence are disgraceful. Clean up your act....try to act Presidential. The American people deserve much better. BTW, your critics will not be intimidated into silence. https://t.co/cS5qNiuU7o
    — John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) October 25, 2018"

No one's said it better, Mr. Brennan.  Hat's off.

"It is not yet known who is behind the packages or what their political leanings may be."

Not yet.

"Sanders told reporters there's a big difference between insulting his critics and taking action. Trump is no more responsible for the suspicious packages, she said, than Bernie Sanders was for a supporter of his opening fire on the congressional baseball practice last year."

Horse shit.  Apples and oranges.  Your fuhrer is a miserable failure.  Has disgraced himself and our formerly great country.  Desperate, aren't you, Ms. Sanders?  Like the Trump nazi, no honor, principles, moral code, madam?  What planet do you and your fuhrer live on?

The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump doubled down Thursday on blaming the media for the nation’s incivility, as suspicious packages sent by a suspected serial bomber continued to target Trump’s outspoken critics."

Our out of control nazi fuhrer needs to look in the mirror.  Assess blame where it truly belongs.

“A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News,” the president said in a morning tweet. “It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!”

Our nazi fuhrer needs to do precisely what he delusionally preaches.  Conveniently, ignores the fact the media is indeed publishing the truth.  Backed by the facts.  Precisely, exactly what this lunatic narcissist cannot withstand.  Nor can his equally psychotic sick sycophants.

"The president has long made the media a target of his ire, denouncing reporters as the “enemy of the people.”

Next to the Second Amendment, the media is the last best defense of liberty.  A national socialist, fascist, nazi cannot understand, grasp this.  Worse?  Couldn't care less.  Precisely, why Trump presents an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  So do his sick sycophants.

"The targets of suspicious packages in recent days have all been derided by Trump as well. After De Niro attacked him in June, Trump fired back on Twitter, calling him a “very Low IQ individual” who had taken “too many shots to the head by real boxers in movies.” One of the undetonated devices was found Wednesday at CNN’s New York headquarters. It was addressed to former CIA director John O. Brennan. Since leaving the government, he has been an outspoken critic of Trump; he is an on-air analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, rather than CNN."

To his credit, did not take Trump's latest bullshit lying down:

"On Thursday, Brennan responded to Trump’s tweet with a scathing tweet of his own. “Stop blaming others,” Brennan said. “Look in the mirror. Your inflammatory rhetoric, insults, lies, & encouragement of physical violence are disgraceful. Clean up your act. ... try to act Presidential. The American people deserve much better. BTW, your critics will not be intimidated into silence.”

Won't be.  None of us.  Certainly, not this writer.

"Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) also condemned the president’s tweet. “Rise up, America,” he said on Twitter. “The President of the United States is now blaming the attempted murder of Democrats on press criticism of him. I didn’t think his narcissism could sink to this ugly of a place. But it has.”

Called nazism.  From a lunatic, unbalanced, narcissistic nazi.  The public cannot, will not be silent.

"Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) credited Trump for calling for unity during remarks about the pipe bombs made at the White House on Wednesday afternoon. But Van Hollen said that moment was “fleeting.” By Wednesday night, “he was at a rally blaming everybody but himself for this toxic political environment we find ourselves in,” Van Hollen said in a CNN interview. “Everybody needs to do their part here,” Van Hollen said. “When the president went to the rally last night, he didn’t do his part.”

More than that?  Far worse than that?  Treasonously betrayed his country, oath of office to protect and defend the United States Constitution, rule of law.  Done so since taking office.  Repeatedly.

"Sanders also pushed back on a stinging statement by CNN World President Jeff Zucker hours after the package sent to Brennan led to the evacuation of the network’s staff from the Time Warner Center in Manhattan. “There is a total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media,” Zucker said. “The President, and especially the White House Press Secretary, should understand their words matter. Thus far, they have shown no comprehension of that.”

Quite the opposite.

"On Thursday, Sanders said she found it “absolutely disgraceful that one of the first public statements we heard from CNN yesterday was to put the blame and the responsibility of this despicable act on the president and on me personally when the person who is responsible for this is the person who made and created and put these suspicious packages in the hands and in the arms of innocent American citizens.”

The Press Secretary and her psychotic fuhrer seem to have disingenuously, deceptively, conveniently forgotten their rhetoric elicits this aberrant behavior in their sick sycophants.  Yet, don't seem to understand this, can't grasp the impact of their psychotic rhetoric.  ... Or, worse yet, are deliberately, deceptively doing so to elicit this reaction in their sick sycophants.

Either way, the damage is horrendous.  An exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  Un-American.  Right Wing nazi.  ... As the revolution doomsday clock strikes ever closer to midnight.  Hear the rumble?  An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming.  ... As Trump's sick sycophants remain out to lunch.  Delusional.

CBS News reports:

"President Trump took to Twitter in the very wee hours Friday to continue his run-in with his critics over  the series of suspicious devices sent to prominent Democrats this week."

Raw, rampant insanity:

"At 3:14 a.m., he tweeted, "Funny how lowly rated CNN, and others, can criticize me at will, even blaming me for the current spate of Bombs and ridiculously comparing this to September 11th and the Oklahoma City bombing, yet when I criticize them they go wild and scream, 'it's just not Presidential!'"

Poor deluded sick nazi.  Achingly, out to lunch.

"Many media members and politicians have blamed him for setting a harsh tone and not taking responsibility for contributing to the ongoing poisonous political atmosphere."

For damned good reason.  Remains root cause.

"Nobody else is being as divisive and inciteful as Donald Trump and so to suggest otherwise is completely wrong," said former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, who is considering a 2020 Democratic presidential campaign. "We wouldn't even be having this conversation with any other president, Republican or Democrat, because they would be big enough to avoid this kind of hateful and inciteful rhetoric."

Forget? Our out of control fuhrer is a lunatic, achingly out of touch with reality.  Dangerously, so.  The true threat is not the poisonous political atmosphere.  Remains the exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties posed by the nazi element in our formerly great country.

NBC News reports:

"A man in Florida was taken into custody Friday and will be charged in connection with the series of bombs found this week addressed to critics of President Donald Trump, law enforcement officials said shortly after the latest two devices were found. Cesar Sayoc, Jr., 56, who has been previously arrested on unspecified charges, is currently in custody, law enforcement officials said. DNA evidence played a role in the arrest, law enforcement told NBC News. Investigators in the Plantation, Florida, parking lot where Sayoc was arrested could be seen placing a tarp over a van with windows covered with dozens of pictures of Trump and decals, one of which appeared to be a version of a presidential seal."

Good they made a quick arrest.  Appears to be great police work.  Hopefully, he's the one and only perpetrator.

"On CNN, where [former U.S. Director of National Intelligence James] Clapper works as a contributor, he called the series of mailed explosives "domestic terrorism." "I think anyone who has in any way been a critic, publicly been a critic of President Trump needs to be on extra alert and take some cautions, precautions, particularly with respect to mail," he said. Clapper stressed that he wasn't "suggesting a direct cause-and-effect relationship" between anything the president has said or done and the sending of the packages, but "I do think he bears some responsibility for the coarseness and un-civility of the dialogue in this country, and that he needs to remember that his words count." After Friday's bombs were discovered, Trump tweeted, "Republicans are doing so well in early voting, and at the polls, and now this 'Bomb' stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows - news not talking politics. Very unfortunate, what is going on. Republicans, go out and vote!."

Sadly clueless, isn't he?

"At least some of the devices sent were flawed in varying ways and would not have exploded, investigators said Thursday. But it's unclear whether the deficiencies were intentional or the result of faulty construction, and officials urged the public to remain vigilant."

Indeed.  ... Won't silence critics of the 'president,' however.  Never, ever.

NPR reports:

"The Justice Department charged a Florida man on Friday in connection with a wave of improvised explosive devices sent to political critics of President Trump. Cesar Altieri Sayoc, 56, is facing five federal charges after he was arrested in Plantation, Fla., following a national investigation. He faces a potential total of 48 years in prison. (Earlier Friday, a Justice Department spokesperson had erroneously said Sayoc could face up to 58 years in prison.) The homemade bombs intercepted or discovered this week "are not hoax devices," said FBI Director Christopher Wray during a press conference with law enforcement officials Friday. They contained "energetic materials" packed into PVC pipes and could have been dangerous, he said, although none of them exploded and no one was hurt. Asked at the same press conference why it appeared that Sayoc only allegedly targeted liberal political figures, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said "he may have been a partisan ... appears to be partisan, but that will be determined as the case goes forward."

CBS News reports:

"Just before Mr. Trump was scheduled to deliver remarks for Turning Point USA's black leadership summit at the White House Friday, law enforcement officials arrested 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc in Florida. "These terrorizing acts are despicable and have no place in our country," the president said. We must never allow political violence to take root in America. I'm committed to doing everything in my power to stop it," Mr. Trump vowed. He also praised U.S. law enforcement for doing "an incredible, incredible job" and called it the "best in the world." And he called on Americans to unify and "show the world we are united in peace and love and harmony."

Raw insanity.

The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump began his first public appearance after Friday’s arrest of a mail bomb suspect on a seemingly inclusive note, declaring as he read a script from teleprompters that “we must never allow political violence to take root in America” and pledging to “stop it and stop it now.”

Seems to have conveniently, delusionally forgotten he's root cause.

"But then he kept going. Standing in the White House’s ornate East Wing, the president expressed annoyance that numerous bombs sent to Democrats and a news organization that Trump had long demonized had taken the spotlight from his Medicare drug prices announcement the day before. He told the audience of young black leaders he was addressing that the Democratic Party has betrayed them. He laughed along as some in the crowd chanted “Fake News!” And he echoed a chant of “Lock him up!” about liberal philanthropist George Soros, one of this week’s bomb targets."

Isn't it riveting that it is indeed a Right Wing nazi, one of his own, a sick sycophant, a fellow Republican that sent these goddamned bombs to those who had the courage, audacity to rhetorically challenge the Trump nazi and his henchmen?  Would you believe a number of these whackos initially blamed the Left for doing so?  LOL.

"Ten days before the Nov. 6 elections and facing a host of controversies and crises, Trump has not merely struggled to unify the country — he has shown little interest in trying. Time and again, the former reality television impresario has sought to sow discord, betting that most Americans prefer his pugilistic, divisive style over the sanitized mold of his predecessors."

Precisely, why his fellow, sick nazi sycophants continue to emulate this sad piece of human excrement.

"The midterm elections are increasingly becoming a test of the enduring power of Trumpiness: A brand of anything-goes, combative politics focused on personal attacks and demagogic rhetoric, with little consideration for the presidential tradition of providing moral clarity and unity at moments of tragedy or danger."

This sick nazi in the Oval Office presents an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  Appears to be an evil reincarnation of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini.  Our formerly great country is precisely, politically where Nazi Germany was in 1933 when Hitler became Chancellor.  The worst, then, was yet to come.  So too today, decades later.  His opposition will not remain cowardly silent.

“These are the times when words really matter,” said historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of a new book on the subject, “Leadership: In Turbulent Times.”

Indeed, they do.  Precisely, why his opposition will not remain silent.

"Throughout history, Goodwin explained: “There are moments when the president’s ambition for self becomes an ambition for the greater good, to become a leader rather than simply a holder of power. The president is in a unique position during moments of crisis for the nation to mobilize the people around common ideals that should bind us together.”

Not so, any longer.  Trump dangerously emulates his German Nazi mentor.

"This week offered a fresh example of Trump’s alternative approach: As pipe bombs were discovered addressed to prominent Democrats and a news network that have been subjects of Trump’s caustic campaign-trail attacks, the president sounded a call for national unity."

There is no way in Hell or on earth there will be 'national unity' under a nazi fuhrer.  Some eight decades ago, the horror of national socialism, fascism, nazism screams otherwise.  All the dead spinning in their graves.  Wake up.

"But the words rang hollow throughout the week as Trump assailed the “Fake News” media, shirked any personal responsibility for his incendiary rhetoric and, on Friday morning, used his bully pulpit to advance a baseless conspiracy theory that the bombs were both fake and orchestrated by the left. Roughly an hour later, authorities arrested 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc, a man in Florida with a lengthy criminal record whose white van was covered in pro-Trump and anti-Democratic images."

Credit to the FBI for quickly solving this crime.  Making a fool of the Trump nazi, his sick sycophants, and other whackos in the Republican Party.  Clearly, at least this time, the FBI put country first.

"Later Friday afternoon, as he departed Washington for a rally in Charlotte, Trump told reporters he has no plans to tone down his rhetoric — “I could really tone it up,” he said — and noted that the suspect “was a person that preferred me over others.” He also rejected the notion of responsibility: “There’s no blame. There’s no anything.”

This clueless nazi remains hopelessly delusional.  Psychotic.

"His supporters often argue there is no clear connection between the president’s impolitic remarks and violent acts or threats. In the case of the pipe bombs, which his own FBI director said were “not hoax devices,” many Trump backers emphasized Friday that no one had been injured."

His supporters remain as psychotic, hopelessly delusional as their achingly sick 'hero.'

"With many in the Republican Party following his lead, the president has repeatedly cast Democrats as an out-of-control “angry mob” that is “too dangerous to govern.” Last week, with no evidence, he claimed that unknown “Middle Easterners” had infiltrated the caravans of Central American migrants snaking their way north toward the nation’s southern border before ultimately admitting he had “no proof” for the claim."

Phony propaganda.  Raw nazism.  Congenital liar.

"And on Thursday, news broke that the administration is weighing a plan that would seek to close the U.S. border to Central Americans entirely and deny them the chance to seek asylum."

Should that happen, would be in direct violation of federal statutes.  As long as refugees present themselves at legal border crossings, ports of entry, federal law states requests for asylum must be considered.

"More recently, after frequent targets of Trump’s criticism became the actual targets of at least 14 attempted pipe bombs — including former president Barack Obama, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. and CNN — the president decried “the threat of violence as a method of political intimidation, coercion or control.” But Trump has disputed that he contributes to a divisive political climate and has continued his attacks, calling the media “so bad and hateful that it is beyond description.”

Called the truth.  -- Truth the Trump nazi, any dictator,  any despot cannot, will not accept.  Hitler lied like hell.  So did Mussolini.  So did Stalin.  So did Mao.  Wake up.

"Former CIA director John O. Brennan, the addressed target of an explosive mailed to CNN’s New York headquarters, chastised Trump and urged him to “stop blaming others.” “Your inflammatory rhetoric, insults, lies, & encouragement of physical violence are disgraceful,” Brennan wrote in a Thursday tweet. “Clean up your act....try to act Presidential. The American people deserve much better.” Responding to Brennan’s criticism on Fox News, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders defended her boss. “The president, I think, could not have been more presidential yesterday when he spoke directly to the American people,” she said Thursday."

Delusional horse shit, highly indicative of the fact the Press Secretary herself has cowardly, delusionally succumbed to this great evil in the Oval Office.

"For several days, some prominent Trump allies on the right, including talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh, fanned a “false-flag” conspiracy theory that the bombs were not real and directed by liberals as a way to reverse Trump’s campaign-trail argument that Democrats are “the party of mobs” and show that conservatives, too, favor mob tactics."

Rush "The Lush" Limbaugh lost all credibility decades ago.  Remains as delusional as Alex Jones.  Mental illness runs rampant in the Extreme Right.  Forget?

"Later Friday morning, Trump edged toward an endorsement of that theory. “Republicans are doing so well in early voting, and at the polls, and now this ‘Bomb’ stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows,” the president tweeted."

Surprised?  Why?  The abomination in the Oval Office remains as hopelessly psychotic as his sick sycophants.  Great evil personified.  History perniciously repeating itself.

"In a least one high-profile moment — the deadly violence last year at a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville — Trump wavered. After coming under criticism for blaming the violence on “both sides,” Trump gave a speech condemning racist hate groups as “repugnant to all that we hold dear as Americans.” But he almost immediately told aides that his lofty remarks were among his biggest mistakes, describing it as the “worst speech I’ve ever given,” according to Bob Woodward’s new book, “Fear.”

Mark of a nazi dictator.  Our best and brightest died fighting this scourge, abominable evil decades ago, Second World War European Theater.  We cannot remain gutlessly silent.

“It’s very hard to think of a president in American history who has been as aggressively divisive as this one and who has shown essentially no moral leadership,” said James K. Glassman, a former ambassador and undersecretary of state who is the founding executive director of the George W. Bush Institute. “Presidents set the tone, and certainly you can’t say President Trump is responsible for somebody sending bombs to Democratic leaders across the country, but there is a climate in this country that’s being encouraged by the president.”

Quite right.  Great evil.

"Trump has long exhibited disinterest in expected norms of the presidency, arguing that his freewheeling style is more exciting. “It’s so easy to be presidential, but instead of having 10,000 people outside trying to get into this packed arena, we’d have about 200 people,” Trump said during a recent campaign rally in Wheeling, W.Va., exaggerating the size of the crowd."

Lying.  Insanity run amok.

"Then, he held up a sheet of paper and began impersonating his version of a more conventional commander in chief, rattling off a list of buzzwords — “ladies and gentlemen,” “great Americans,” and “thousand points of light.” “Which,” Trump said, continuing to ad-lib, “nobody has really figured out.”

This man is psychotic.  An exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  Wake up.  Before too late.

Above quotes courtesy of two most gifted, insightful writers, Ashley Parker and
Philip Rucker.

NPR reports:

"Authorities say they found Sayoc's fingerprint on one of the suspicious packages and possibly his DNA inside two others. "These people have worked so hard and to have done it so quickly," Trump exclaimed. "It's a needle in a haystack." Speaking to a group of young African-Americans in the White House East Room, Trump delivered a conventional call for the nation to come together. "We must show the world we are united together in peace and love and harmony as fellow American citizens," the president said. "There is no country like our country. Hours later, though, Trump was back on the partisan warpath, campaigning against "extreme" and "radical" Democrats, and denouncing the news media for suggesting he's contributed to a hostile climate in the country. "We have seen an effort by the media in recent hours to use the sinister actions of one individual to score political points against me" and the Republican party, Trump told supporters in Charlotte, N.C."

Where along the way did you lose yourself, Mr. 'President?'  Where?

The Washington Post reports:

“We need all hands on deck, we need to stay vigilant,” said FBI Director Christopher A. Wray. He characterized the 13 explosive devices recovered so far as “IEDs,” an abbreviation for improvised explosive devices. Wray said that investigators were able to pinpoint Sayoc after finding a fingerprint on an envelope containing a bomb sent to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and that DNA found on two of the devices was a possible match to a sample previously taken from Sayoc during an earlier arrest in Florida. One law enforcement official said the fingerprint discovery was a major breakthrough. With that, authorities began zeroing in on Sayoc on Thursday, gathering cellphone records to track his past movements and conducting real-time surveillance of his location and activities, the official said."

Good work.  No question.

The Washington Post reports:

"Cesar Sayoc stood in the throng of shouting, teeth-gnashing Trump supporters and joined a chant directed at news cameras. “CNN sucks! CNN sucks!” they screamed. “Tell the truth! Tell the truth!” Sayoc had seemingly found his tribe at the Trump rally in February 2017. In previously unreleased video captured by the crew of filmmaker Michael Moore, the sleeveless shirt Sayoc wore that day in Melbourne, Fla., featured a collage of pro-Trump imagery, and his sign, like his chants, derided CNN — perhaps the most frequent target of Trump’s anti-media rage. In that way, Sayoc — now known as the mail-bomb suspect — had already transformed into the human avatar of his van’s rolling fever dream of political paranoia. The image emblazoned on his shirt could also be seen on a large decal on the white van found during Sayoc’s arrest, near other images of prominent Democrats, including Moore. Also on that van: a large decal that read “CNN sucks.”

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.

11-2-18

Delusionally believe nazism isn't alive and well in our formerly great country?  NPR reports:

"Four Southern California men, allegedly part of a white supremacist group, have been charged by federal prosecutors for violent attacks on counterprotesters, journalists and a police officer at political rallies across the state. Three of the four are in custody. The New York Times reports that Robert Rundo, 28 was taken into custody on Sunday at the Los Angeles International Airport after fleeing to Central America earlier this month. Robert Boman, 25, and Tyler Laube, 22, were arrested Wednesday morning. Authorities are searching for the fourth man — Aaron Eason, 38."

History dangerously repeating itself.  Reincarnation of Hitler's Third Reich to the Trump nazi's Fourth.  Wake up.

"The criminal complaint, filed by the FBI out of Los Angeles on Saturday and unsealed on Wednesday, alleges the four are part of the white supremacist Rise Above Movement. RAM subscribes to a racist, anti-Semitic ideology and trains its members in combat. The group "represents itself publicly as a combat-ready, militant group of a new nationalist white supremacy/identity movement," the complaint says."

Good to see the FBI is standing up to this scourge.  Does not embrace the view of the Trump nazi vis a vis outrageously fascist white nationalist groups.

"The allegations describe an orchestrated effort to squelch free speech as members of the conspiracy traveled to multiple locations to attack those who hold different views," said U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna in a news release."

Many in our formerly great country seem to have forgotten the scourge of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini.  Time to smarten up.

"Videos recorded by journalists, bystanders and surveillance cameras, as well as posts on the Internet from the group's members and private social media communications between them, helped the Department of Justice build its case."

Good to see at least some citizens are courageously standing up to this scourge straight out of Hell.

"The DOJ alleges the four men violated federal conspiracy and riot statutes in a series of incidents from March to June of 2017."

With the Sessions nazi at the helm of the DOJ, surprising to see the 'Justice' Department taking action.  Pressure had to have been enormous.

"At a Make America Great Again rally in Huntington Beach in March, the DOJ said in its criminal complaint, members of RAM attacked two journalists and a number of counterprotesters."

Repeat of history.  Hitler's Brownshirts did precisely the same in 1933 as the Nazi son of a bitch rose to power.

"Video footage shows Laube punched one journalist three times in the face, after the reporter was jostled by other rally attendees and stumbled backwards."

Gutless pieces of shit.  Exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  Wake up, friends.  Far worse is yet to come.

"The Daily Stormer — a neo-Nazi website and online community — praised the violence. "Front page of the stormer we did it fam," one RAM member texted another. In the weeks after the attacks, members allegedly gleefully celebrated the attacks and recruited others to attend an upcoming rally in Berkeley, as well as a training session in hand-to-hand combat before the gathering."

Wake up, friends.

"At that April rally, Rundo, Boman and Easaon assaulted people at the rally. Videos show group members with taped hands — like boxers — punching counterprotesters. In one attack, a RAM member held down a counterprotester while another landed punches. Rundo was arrested for punching a "defenseless person" and a police officer. "Total Aryan victory," a RAM member texted another member the next day."

This is precisely what happened at the birth of Nazi Germany.  Wake up.  Hitler's Brownshirts.

"RAM members again celebrated their assaults, according to the complaint. They posted photos of members holding up a banner celebrating they stole from counterprotesters. On social media, Boman posted several photos of himself attacking others and of RAM members engaged in combat training. Wednesday's charges follows the arrests earlier this month of another four RAM members — Benjamin Daley, Michael Miselis, Thomas Gillen and Cole White — who were charged on conspiracy to riot charges for attacking counterprotesters during last year's Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Va."

Forget?  Trump supports these bastards.  Excused their actions in Charlottesville.  Compared them to those protesting.  Raw nazism.

"The California charges describe connections between both sets of defendants. Between April and August of 2017, the complaint alleges, RAM members "engaged in regular combat training sessions" before attending the Unite the Right rally. They also "used the internet to coordinate combat training in preparation for the events, to arrange travel to the events, to coordinate attendance at the events, and to celebrate their acts of violence in order to recruit members for future events," the complaint said."

Wake up.  These nazis present an exigent threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.

"Members documented their extremist ideology in public Internet posts, including their affinity of the "14 words" — "a mantra known and used by white supremacy extremists and neo-Nazis," FBI Special Agent Scott Bierwirth said in the complaint. Also according to the California affidavit, Rundo and two men charged in the Charlottesville case flew to Europe last spring to celebrate Adolf Hitler's birthday. There, they met with other white supremacy groups."

Reincarnation of horrendous evil.  Time to wake up.

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.

11-2-18

Saudis can't seem to get their story straight.  -- The problem with lying.  The Washington Post reports:

"Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor said Thursday that Jamal Khashoggi was killed in a planned operation, citing information received from Turkish investigators in Istanbul, according to a statement from the kingdom’s Foreign Ministry. It is the latest reversal by Saudi authorities, who last week said Khashoggi was killed accidentally in a fistfight at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul by “rogue” agents. President Trump had initially said that explanation was credible but in recent days expressed doubts, calling it “the worst coverup ever.” According to the statement, a joint Saudi-Turkish investigative team “indicates that the suspects in the incident had committed their act with a premeditated intention.”

Which time were they lying?  Then or now?

"The announcement underscored the rapidly mounting pressures on Saudi Arabia to fully illuminate Khashoggi’s killing, after its previous explanations were contradicted by Turkey and met with skepticism by the United States, a close Saudi ally."