"Our
Great Larry Kudlow, who has been working so hard on trade and the
economy, has just suffered a heart attack. He is now in Walter Reed
Medical Center," Trump tweeted, 25 minutes before he was set to meet
with Kim for the first time.
Our
Great Larry Kudlow, who has been working so hard on trade and the
economy, has just suffered a heart attack. He is now in Walter Reed
Medical Center.
Kudlow, 70, was
not traveling with the US resident in Singapore, but he had just
returned to the United States from the G7 summit in Canada, where trade
tensions dominated the atmosphere.
The Washington Post reported that Kudlow's wife, Judith Kudlow, told the newspaper, "He's doing fine" and the doctors are "fabulous."
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed the resident's tweet in a statement Monday night.
"Earlier
today National Economic Council Director and Assistant to the resident
Larry Kudlow experienced what his doctors say was a very mild heart
attack," Sanders said.
"Larry is
currently in good condition at Walter Reed National Military Medical
Center and his doctors expect he will make a full and speedy recovery,"
she continued. "The resident and his Administration send their thoughts
and prayers to Larry and his family."
Kudlow's
heart attack came less than three months after Trump tapped the former
CNBC host and commentator to chair the White House's National Economic
Council.
Kudlow has been at the
center of the US resident's trade feuds in recent months, joining US
delegations in Beijing and Canada to address trade disputes. Though he
has long been opposed to tariffs, he has supported Trump's decision to
erect tariffs against both China and key US allies like Canada, Mexico
and the European Union, calling them a useful tool.
Kudlow
was front-and-center in the administration's rebuke of Canadian Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday, accusing Trudeau of having "kind of
stabbed us in the back" during a news conference after Trump had
departed the summit early.
Vice President Mike Pence also tweeted Monday night that he and second lady Karen Pence "are praying for our dear friend @Larry_Kudlow tonight."
Kudlow
suffered a cocaine and alcohol addiction in the 90's, taking leave from
the financial firm Bear Stearns to check himself into rehab.
He told The New York Times in March he has been sober for 23 years, calling it "the center of my life."
The United States government is currently headed by a traitor. We
should mention that before anything else, and keep mentioning it until
it finally dawns on the nation that puttering around on the outskirts of
that conclusion is doing nobody any good, and is doing a great deal of
harm.
All currently available evidence supports this statement. We know
from the emails released by Trump Jr. that the campaign orchestrated a
Trump Tower meeting between themselves and Russian government
go-betweens specifically for the purposes of receiving information about
his opponent, during the midst of a Russian espionage campaign against
that opponent. We know from the text of that email that the meeting was
arranged as "part of" the Russian government's support for Donald Trump,
making certain that Trump and his team knew their collaboration was
with a foreign government. We know that as sitting resident Donald
Trump, when confronted with the imminent public exposure of this
meeting, ordered and orchestrated a statement intentionally designed to
cover up its true purpose.
And we know the meeting was not isolated, but part of an ongoing
effort by numerous members of the Trump campaign to seek out Russian
"channels" during a period of time in which, according to the now-public
determinations of our nation's various intelligence agencies, the
Russian government was conducting both espionage and propaganda
campaigns against the U.S. in order to throw that election to Trump's
team.
So that makes Donald Trump a traitor to his nation, according to
the dictionary definition of the term. What that makes Republican
lawmakers still seeking to sabotage the government investigation of his
acts–from the unsubtle Nunes to his consistent enabler, Paul Ryan–is
open to debate.
At present, however, the traitor is in Singapore, likely getting a
good long preparatory nap before meeting with a North Korean dictator
who he has treated with more respect than he has mustered for the
leaders of most of our nation’s allies. He has just left a summit with
those allies in which he skipped out on some meetings, arrived at others
late, badgered the other leaders about tariffs that appear to exist
primarily in his mind, and scuttled whatever progress the rest of the
group thought they were making with a cowardly statement released only after he had fled the scene because he is a gigantic baby.
Based
on Justin'™s false statements at his news conference, and the fact
that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and
companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the
Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S.
Market!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2018
Take a moment to absorb not how petulant, but how genuinely cowardly
this man is. He had to flee the meetings before taking this bold new
stand of … reversing himself on a largely meaningless diplomatic letter.
He imagines himself a great negotiator, but every negotiation he has
ever had, from his hotel business to international “diplomacy”, seems to
universally consist of Donald Trump pouting, whining, and reversing
himself on whatever he previously agreed to just as soon as the ink has
dried. This is not genius. It is petulant tantruming, but of the sort
that we revile in our children but celebrate in any sociopath with a few
million dollars to play with.
Trump's only notable non-tantruming contribution to the G-7 summit,
however, was to insist that the very nation whose espionage he has
repeatedly publicly dismissed and whose aid he conspired with others to
cover up be re-admitted to the elite group. His argument was that Russia
did not invade Ukraine; past U.S. leaders, in their weakness, made
them invade Ukraine. This logic is so self-evidently stupid that
willful treason is, if anything, the generous interpretation. The
ungenerous interpretation is incompetence, buffoonery, or dementia.
But we have still not come to terms with any of this, as a nation, in
large part because each of Trump's failures is so foundational that the
nation's press cannot grasp—or willfully refuses to grasp—its
implications. His campaign indeed conspired, with full knowledge, with a
Russian government plot against America. He has, as resident, sought
to personally enrich himself and his family using the trappings of
office—openly and repeatedly. He has, as resident, pardoned political
allies and demanded investigations of, and imprisonment of, government
officials investigating crimes committed by other allies. These are
things that happen in other countries, in failing democracies and in
authoritarian-minded kleptocracies; our press, largely dull-minded and
self-captured by a mantra that suggests there is no true good or bad, in
political acts, no truth-telling or lying, and when it comes down to it
no true laws at all, only an infinite murk of partisanship that must be
balanced, word for word and column for column, at all costs, continues
to write about it as if every one of them has joined the celebrity
gossip beat.
And so on the eve of a Trump summit with a North Korean strongman, the press is still full of cartoonishly silly hot takes
on how the buffoonish, self-absorbed hotel magnate and gleeful traitor,
on the heels of a summit with close U.S. allies in which he proved the
clown at every opportunity, might somehow transform his mattress-buying
and contractor-stiffing talents into Churchillian greatness.
When President Trump declared that he did not really need to
prepare for his legacy-defining meeting with North Korea’s leader, he
drew sighs or snickers from veterans of past negotiations. But he had a
point: In his own unorthodox way, Mr. Trump has been preparing for this
encounter his entire adult life.
This, by the way, may be the stupidest thing ever written in the New
York Times, opinion or otherwise, ever. I challenge you to find a worse
one.
We do not know how this new "summit" will go, and that is entirely
because Trump is such a buffoon that any and all outcomes are possible,
from the establishment of friendly ties to a rogue nuclear dictatorship
to the child leaving in a huff because he does not like any given
statement, decoration, or dessert. North Korea has accomplished what
they set out to from the outset; within their nation, they will point to
the summit as the arrival of their dictatorship as true world power, as
the evidence that the rogue nuclear program for which their citizenry
suffered innumerable hardships was indeed the path to national greatness
their leader had promised all along.
Trump's desires are the same, and that should be more alarming than
it is. He has no goal other than recognition of his own legitimacy and
greatness; even the most dull-minded in the press are willing to admit
that his motive for a North Korean summit is simply because he wishes to
be perceived as doing something past American leaders could not, or
would not. His motives are strictly self-promotional, yet again; his
instincts are to coddle those leaders who have something he desires—the
possibility for self-promotion or other personal gain—while dismissing
those leaders who he perceives as being unwilling to offer such. As with
his petulance towards U.S. allies like Canada and his obsequious
toadying to his own personal ally Putin, whether the outcome is good for
the nation or is bad is irrelevant; Donald Trump came into the office
as a traitor to begin with. He does not give a damn what fires he starts
in his quest for supposed personal greatness. But still, we will
persist in pretending at some greater design; we will insist on
pretending the traitor is something better than he is.
He is not, of course. He has never been. Donald Trump has been a
cretin his whole life, a snide racist and a gleeful cheat, a man whose
wee little empire has been built from petty grifts and exists in a fog
of money-launderers and thugs. He is a traitor, but the press, his
party, and his willing allies will still persist in not discussing that
part it until he has either lost power, rendering such criticisms
impotent, or he has done something so immeasurably worse that pointing
it out no longer even rates as controversial.
Why is this traitor still in office? Send this mother fucker a message this November, and vote all of the Republican cocksuckers that support this moron out of office. dlevere.
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they all have cool URL's that are easy to memorize, thus saving you a trip
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file.pizza — peer to peer file transfer over WebRTC without any middleman.
snapdrop.com
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first.
Charles
Krauthammer, the famed conservative columnist, informed readers on
Friday that he is confronting an aggressive form of cancer.
"My doctors tell me their best estimate is that I have only a few weeks left to live," he wrote.
Krauthammer shared the devastating news in a short, matter-of-fact note on the website of the Washington Post, where he has been a columnist since 1984.
"I leave this life with no regrets," he wrote in the farewell
message. "It was a wonderful life -- full and complete with the great
loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave,
but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended."
Krauthammer was also a longtime commentator on Fox News.
He had to step away from both jobs last August for surgery to remove what he called a "a cancerous tumor in my abdomen."
There were numerous complications.
"Special Report" anchor Bret Baier occasionally gave updates to viewers about Krauthammer's recovery.
Last month Baier offered some good news via a message from Krauthammer: "The worst now appears to be behind me."
But then Krauthammer received the worst possible news.
"Recent tests have revealed that the cancer has returned," he
explained Friday. "There was no sign of it as recently as a month ago,
which means it is aggressive and spreading rapidly."
In his note
to readers, he thanked colleagues, readers, and viewers "who have made
my career possible and given consequence to my life's work." He wrote:
"I believe that the pursuit of truth and right ideas through honest
debate and rigorous argument is a noble undertaking. I am grateful to
have played a small role in the conversations that have helped guide
this extraordinary nation's destiny."
To celebrate the launch of the newest game in one of their most beloved franchises, Nintendo
is holding a tournament dubbed the Super Smash Bros. Invitational 2018,
and they’ve invited some of the biggest names in the competitive scene
to face each other in the new “Smash” for Switch, including luminaries like Armada, MkLeo, and ZeRo.
Variety caught up with two of these Smashers to ask them their thoughts on the new
game, the future of the competitive game, and what they hope to get out
of the E3 tournament come Monday.
The anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination
has long served as a stark reminder of all that was lost on that day in
1968, and of what American politics might have become had the New York
senator survived that turbulent year. Wednesday’s 50th anniversary of
the tragedy saw a deluge of tributes remembering a man both haunted by
history and driven by the vision of an America redeemed.
Esquire’s Charles Pierce this week describes Kennedy as a man uniquely capable of standing against the “foul gales” that were then rising in American politics.
Pierce believes, as do I, that Kennedy’s election to the presidency
could have healed a nation pushed to a breaking point by a cacophony of
cultural tremors. Despite campaigning against the bleak backdrop of
Vietnam, torched American cities, heightened racial tensions
and political assassinations, RFK would have stitched together the
shredded fabric of American culture and healed the soul of a country
that remains, as Pierce writes, “perpetually redeemable.”
In a new book, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham reminds
readers of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s belief that for all of this
country’s failings, the trend of American civilization is forever
upward. That is an invaluable reminder during a time when the president
proclaims his power unrestrained by Madisonian checks and balances,
including ignoring federal subpoenas, killing Justice Department
investigations, obstructing justice to protect his personal interests
and even pardoning himself. The resident’s hapless lawyers seem to have
convinced Donald Trump, like Richard M. Nixon before him, that “when the resident does it, that means that it is not illegal.”
But
that twisted interpretation of presidential authority is dead wrong.
Even in resident Trump’s America, no man is above the law.
It
may come as little relief to those unsettled by the commander in
chief’s autocratic impulses that this resident will likely face the
same fate as Nixon if he acts upon his lawyers’ ignorant legal opinions.
But perhaps take comfort from Meacham’s insight in “The Soul of America” that “to know what has come before is to be armed against despair.”
History
does, in fact, show that a president cannot pardon himself. Days before
Nixon resigned in 1974, the Justice Department issued an opinion that
echoed centuries of American and English law by declaring, “Under the fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in his own case, the president cannot pardon himself.“
The history of Bill Clinton’s presidency also undermines recent claims
from Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani that Trump is legally entitled as resident to ignore a subpoena from Robert S. Mueller III.
But do not
take my word for it. Read instead Giuliani’s own words
from 1998. “You gotta do it. I mean, you don’t have a choice,” the
former U.S. attorney said of Clinton’s legal options if he received a
federal subpoena to testify to Whitewater investigators.
Other
claims of unchecked residential authority by Trump and his lawyers are
so preposterous that they warrant little discussion here. What Time
magazine describes as
the White House’s “increasingly broad claims of presidential impunity”
would likely be struck down in a unanimous opinion by the Supreme Court.
And even Trump’s most timid quislings on Capitol Hill would never
suggest (like Giuliani) that Trump could have murdered
former FBI director James B. Comey and escape indictment as long as he
was in office. Perhaps there are constitutional excesses that even Trump
apologists will not yield to in their unending efforts to defend Trump.
On the same day Americans marked a half-century since Kennedy’s death, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) defended
the FBI investigation into Trump’s campaign and told reporters that no
man is above the law. Ryan’s performance may have met only the
bare-minimum standard for political courage. But as one who still sees
America as perpetually redeemable, forgive me for believing this
president’s worst instincts will be checked, our country’s rule of law
will be preserved and the upward arc of American civilization that FDR
once spoke of will again be restored.
Unreal turned 20 years old this month. The extraterrestrial first-person shooter spawned (and showcased) a game engine whose descendants still motor on today.
To commemorate all those screaming prisoners and innocent alien
creatures killed at the hands of jumpy players, Brendan Caldwell got in touch with a
handful of the original team and asked them to share their memories of
making the first Skaarj conflict.
This is how Unreal was made, from the
perspective of the programmers, designers, artists and musicians who
were there.
Let's get this out of the way early here so you can determine if you
want to continue: If you voted for Donald Trump, you are racist. If you
still support Donald Trump, you are racist. You are racist because you
are supporting someone who is not just personally racist but who wants
the nation to have policies and laws that are racist. Even if you are a
rich person who is just a greedy asshole and voted for Trump for the tax
cuts, you are still a racist.
I am making this distinction not because I want to excuse Trump's racism
on a personal level, but as a way of trying to explain to racist Trump
voters why they are racists even if, in their hearts, they believe they
have no issue with people of other races. That part doesn't matter if
you helped put someone in office who regularly says racist things and
regularly, deliberately does things that target non-whites, including
the Muslim travel ban, the savage immigration policies, and the attacks
on African Americans who protest violence against them. You can't say,
"I believe that everything Trump is doing is making America great again"
and then follow that with "But I'm not racist" because that's plainly a
lie.
Are we clear then? I am calling you "racist" because you're racist.
Earlier this week, when I implied that Trump voters are racist because
Roseanne Barr showed how racist they are, someone tweeted at me that
racism is "Taking a group of people and bunching them up in assumptions
and accusations." I've gotten this quite a bit, that because I say Trump
voters are racist, I'm engaging in a type of racism. But that leaves
out a crucial aspect about racism. Can you guess? It's that it's based
on race. It's not simply any random "group of people" who have some
unifying belief. If you take race out of "racism," then you don't even
have the word.
You wouldn't think that would have to be explained, but this is the way we live now.
After Barr said that Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett looked like an ape,
several people responded by pointing out how Bill Maher and many others
have said that Donald Trump looks like an orangutan. Of course, that's
because of his hair and weird tan, both things he chooses. Believe it or
not, he wasn't born orange.
Still, if you don't understand how comparing a black person to any kind
of monkey taps into an entire history of racial bigotry and degradation,
then you're too stupid to understand any of this and should probably
spend your time jacking off on r/The_Donald. The same thing goes if you
don't understand how Samantha Bee calling Ivanka Trump a "feckless cunt"
is different than what Barr said. It's not racism. And you have to
struggle to make it sexist.
Calling you "racist" isn't political correctness run amok. It isn't an
attempt to shut down debate. It isn't even really meant as an insult
(even though, yes, it is one). It's a way of defining your beliefs. If
you think that people should be treated differently because of the color
of their skin or if you voted for leaders who believe that and act on
it, then what else should you be called? I mean, "Republican" works,
too, except that there are still one or two Republicans who aren't
motivated by hatred of non-whites. So "racist" is just a shorthand way
to describe an ideology. And, yeah, I do think racists are bad people
because, well, they're racists. But that's not racism on my part.
You wanna call that prejudice? Fine. You're right. You've nailed me. I
am prejudiced against racists. I don't think those people (yes, "those
people") should have a voice in the public sphere. They should be
treated as pariahs, mocked, and condemned until they are too ashamed to
say those things out loud. You have free speech, sure, and the rest of
us have the free speech to say that you are pathetic and have stopped
the human race from advancing and that you should be accountable for the
horrible things you say and do. Because, see, you're a racist.
The other thing that Trump's racists like to say is "What about Bill
Clinton?" Or, as my tweeter accused, "You're putting people in a group
and saying they all act/think the same? You're are a Democrat, so since
Bill Clinton was as well, then you're a womanizing weasel. See how
ridiculous that is?" Yeah, it is ridiculous, but only because of how
false it is to even begin to equate the two. See, it's not just about
the failings of two flawed men.
Calling out Trump and his supporters for racism is different than
supporting Bill Clinton, who you can accuse of all kinds of things in
his personal life but whose policies did not reflect whatever level of
repugnant you think Clinton is. You might think Clinton is a rapist, but
he did not try to pass laws to make it easier for rapists to rape nor
did he pardon rapists. You might think Clinton was a serial sexual
harasser, but he never tried to get legislation passed that would
legalize sexual harassment. I'm not excusing Clinton. I was very clear
back in the 1990s that Clinton should have resigned or temporarily
stepped aside during the Lewinsky saga because of the massive
distraction that it was and that fooling around with an intern was
pretty fucked up.
But here is the difference, and it's subtle, so see if you can follow along:
When Donald Trump says or does something racist, you cheer. When he
says, "Build the wall," you chant it. When he calls immigrants
"animals," you scream your approval. When he called for a "a total and
complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," you shouted
how much you love him. And when he issues executive orders that break up
immigrant families or threatens to deport DACA recipients or calls
places "shitholes," you say he's just doing what you elected him to do.
That's because you're racist.
On the left, we never cheered for Bill Clinton's affairs or alleged
harassment. At worst, we said it was a personal issue between him and
Hillary. At best, we condemned him. If I recall, my exact quote in 1998
was "If you're gonna be president, keep your dick out of it." So, no,
it's not comparable. Not even vaguely.
My advice, racists? Do like all of the overt racists are doing and own
that shit. Or, if you don't want to be called "racist," if being called a
"racist" makes you feel bad or ashamed, then stop being racist. And
that would mean no longer supporting Donald Trump.
But you won't do that because you're a racist and you're too fucking
dumb to get out of the pit of shit you love wallowing around in.
When it comes to device/console hacking, it is always the same game of
cat and mouse. Obviously, that also applies to the iOS jailbreaking
scene but now the ‘mouse’ has gained some temporary ground as Ian Beer has a tfp0 exploit for iOS 11.3.1!
Roseanne Barr, you are in no position to talk about ANYONE'S looks, your dumb, fat, non-National Anthem singing ass deserves to get fired. dlevere.
Cancellation is ‘the right thing,’ Disney CEO Bob Iger tweets Tuesday
Roseanne Barr waded into racial waters on Monday, suggesting that former
Barack Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett is a product of the Muslim
Brotherhood and the “Planet of the Apes.”
By Ashley Boucher | May 29, 2018 @ 10:47 AM Last Updated: May 29, 2018 @ 11:22 AM
ABC has canceled “Roseanne” after Roseanne Barr’s racially charged
tweet about Valerie Jarrett Tuesday morning, with Disney CEO Robert Iger
tweeting that the decision was “the only thing to do here,” and “the
right thing.”
From Channing Dungey, President of ABC
Entertainment: "Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and
inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show." There was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing.
“muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” Barr said earlier on Tuesday in response to a Twitter thread about Jarrett, a former adviser to Barack Obama.
Special thanks to AgntLuck from the Discord channel. Today we learn how
we can use another software in combination with Cheat Engine to help us find codes
better, easier and more efficient than hunt and peck, trial and error.
Memorial Day was the holiday meant to honor fallen soldiers, but
somewhere along the line it has become a day that also honors all
veterans. Regardless of whether the holiday is Memorial Day or Armistice
Day, resident Donald Trump is likely to mark the day claiming that he
honors veterans who fought for America. It’s an interesting tactic given
his history disparaging veterans, attacking Gold Star families, mocking
prisoners of war, getting into a public battle with the family of a
soldier that had just been killed.
Then there are the broken promises for the Veterans Administration. That alone could make for an even longer list.
However, as the resident celebrates fallen soldiers Monday, here are 10 of the times he did the opposite:
1. The John McCain attacks
“He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured, OK?” Trump said at a 2016 campaign event.
A few days later Trump even doubled down on his remarks.
2. Trump goes after the Khan family for speaking out in support of Hillary Clinton at the Democratic convention.
“Go look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the
United States of America. You will see all faiths, genders, and
ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing — and no one,” Khizr Khan said.
In the days that followed the statement, Trump went into full attack
mode. He did everything from claim Khan’s wife wasn’t allowed to speak
because she is a Muslim wife. He claimed he made sacrifices because he
“created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs,
built great structures.” He even began spreading a conspiracy theory
that came from some right-wing fever dream that Khan was secretly a
“Muslim Brotherhood agent.”
It’s been almost two years and Trump has never apologized.
3. “My personal Vietnam”
Trump got five draft deferments while Vietnam raged for nearly 20
years. Trump had bone spurs, though. While we’ve heard about his
medication list, height, weight and other factors, but the president’s
physician, and former nominee to chair the Veterans Administration,
never gave a status update on the spurs that kept him out of serving his
duty.
He didn’t miss out, however. Trump said that his sex life was like his own personal Vietnam.
“I was dating lots and lots of women,” he said in 2004.
“I just had a great time. They were great years, but that was pre-AIDS,
and you could do things in those days that today you’re at risk doing.
AIDS has changed a lot.”
“It is a dangerous world out there — it’s scary, like Vietnam,” he
continued. “It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very
brave soldier.”
4. Promise the moon but give them pennies.
Twice, Trump promised that he would be donating to veteran causes.
The reality, however, was another story. While campaigning in 2016,
Trump indicated that he has sent nearly $6 million to different veterans
groups nationwide, but when Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold
called every veterans advocacy organizations to uncover who got what
and how much, the donation was a little closer to nothing.
Despite making the claim for months, the money miraculously appeared
to various organizations in the days that followed Fahrenthold’s report
and questions for Trump.
5. The Niger widows.
The families that lost their husbands or sons in the Niger ambush
didn’t get a call from the resident for nearly two weeks. When the call
finally came it was only after the resident was blasted publicly in
the press.
Except, when he called one family, he completely flubbed the call.
Instead of taking the high road, Trump moved on to blast the family and a
local Congresswoman and friend of the family who mentored the Sgt. La
David Johnson.
If that isn’t bad enough, when Trump was blasted for his behavior, he
swore that he had done more for Gold Star families than anyone. He even
went so far as to claim that former President Barack Obama never called
the families. Not only was the claim false, families who had received
that heartbreaking call stepped up to call out the lie.
6. The $25,000 promise.
Chris Baldridge’s son was killed in June 2017 by an Afghan police
officer. Over the phone, the resident told Army Sgt. Dillon Baldridge’s
family how sorry he was. The father lamented how hard the family has
struggled financially.
“He said, ‘I’m going to write you a check out of my personal account for $25,000,’ and I was just floored,” Baldridge told the Washington Postin an interview.
“I could not believe he was saying that, and I wish I had it recorded
because the man did say this. He said, ‘No other resident has ever done
something like this,’ but he said, ‘I’m going to do it.'”
The interview took place five months after the promise. The check
hadn’t arrived. After publicly outcry at another Trump lie, the White
House told The Post “The check has been sent.” Better late than never.
6. Trump’s lie he fixed VA wait times.
Everything was supposed to change. Finally, the White House would
have an advocate for the veterans, Trump claimed in 2016. But, his
promises haven’t proved much in terms of action.
One thing Trump said he would change are the wait times at the VA. During at least two events in 2017, Trump swore he’d fixed it.
“I used to go around and talk about the veterans and they’d stand on
line for nine days, seven days, four days… 15 days. People that could
have been given a prescription and been better right away end up dying
waiting on line,” he said during a July speech. “That’s not happening
anymore.”
It was.
“Now [veterans] go right outside, they go to a doctor in the area, we
pay the bill, and it’s the least expensive thing we can do and we save
everybody’s life and everybody’s happy,” the resident claimed.
Except, they still wait. The Government Accountability Office quotes says that they still wait on average 81 days.
7. The backlog in veteran disability claims
Trump signed the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act
of 2017 in August, saying that they were working to streamline
disability compensation appeal claims for veterans.
It’s great for new vets applying for disability. For those who were
stuck in the system, the wait continues as the legislation did nothing
to reduce or address the current backlog or address appeals after
denials. There are over 470,000 veterans stuck in the backlog. Former VA
Secretary David Shulkin said that it would take $800 million and 10
years to clear the backlog of appeals.
They wait still.
8. VA’s Veterans Choice Program emergency funding ran out before it was supposed to.
Someone didn’t do their math correctly. When Congress passed and
Trump signed the $2.1 billion in emergency funding for the VA’s Veterans
Choice Program, it was supposed to keep the program afloat until
February 2018. It ran out two months early.
9. Trump’s hiring freeze
Like many Republicans, Trump wanted to stop government from hiring
new people, so he placed a freeze on any agencies bringing in new staff.
For veterans looking for jobs at the Pentagon, in the social services
or anywhere in government, they were locked out. While many might think it’s a small number, in 2015 The Hill reported that one-third of those applying for federal government jobs were veterans.
10. Trump’s budget hurts veterans.
The Trump White House lacks a basic understanding for the daily life
of those coming home from war and being discharged face. When Republicans sought to cut food stamps,
they seemed to forget 1.5 million veterans use food stamps. Data on
active-duty soldiers isn’t available because the Pentagon doesn’t share
it. In 2013, however, 23,000 active-duty troops use food stamps.
Trump’s budget would gut Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), by $17 billion for the 2019 budget.
So, if the resident touts his “many successes” that show how he has
“done more for veterans than any president in the history of the world,”
Americans can remind him what he has really done.
Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez, who said just two months ago that the national party shouldn't be "anointing candidates"
in primary races, was widely rebuked by progressives for his decision
this week to endorse New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose reelection bid is
being challenged by longtime activist and actress Cynthia Nixon.
"Regardless
of who you support in this race, can we all agree that the DNC
shouldn't pick winners in a contentious primary in a safely Dem state?" tweetedEzra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible. "Don't be scared of democracy—let the voters decide."
Speaking at the New York state Democratic Convention on Thursday, Perez had said:
"I've not only admired Andrew Cuomo, I have admired the Cuomo family
since my youth. I've admired what they stood for and what they fought
for since I was a kid."
"We often have debates about what
wing of the Democratic Party we belong to," Perez continued. Calling
Cuomo and his running mate, lieutenant governor Kathy Hochul, "charter
members of the accomplishment wing of the Democratic Party," he had
declared, "that's why I'm proud to endorse them."
Journalist Michael Sainato posed that
Perez and the national party "are scared of progressives" like Nixon
because "they know if Cuomo and Hochul go down it'll be a game changer
and the rest of the establishment will start facing even greater
threats."
Perez's move on Thursday strongly contrasts with his refusal to weigh in on the Georgia gubernatorial Democratic primary earlier this week, in which the progressive candidate prevailed. Perez toldNBC News that the DNC had been "scrupulously neutral" in Georgia "because we think the voters should decide that."
DNC Deputy Chairman Keith Ellison, who is known for taking stances left of Perez, had made similar comments about the Georgia race to Democracy Now! on
Wednesday. Ellison, who was reportedly not informed of Perez's decision
on Cuomo before the chairman's public remarks, responded in a statement
to Politico that said: "The Democratic Party should not
intervene in the primary process. It is our role to be fair to all
contestants and let the voters decide."
Although "Cuomo easily
secured the party's nomination with over 95 percent of convention
delegates supporting his bid for reelection," BuzzFeed Newsreports that "Nixon still plans to petition her way onto the ballot ahead of the primary in September."
Nixon has been endorsed by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Working Families Party, Our Revolution, and Democracy for America.
"Cuomo
represents a wing of the Democratic Party that is out of touch with
what voters want right now and that people are veering away from," New
York Working Families Party state director Bill Lipton and New York
Communities for Change director Jonathan Westin told BuzzFeed News.
"For eight years, he's claimed that he's been getting things done and
enacting progressive policies but for eight years he's done nothing that
he promised."
"Perez coming in at this time only further drives a wedge in the Democratic Party," Westin said to CNN.
"What we're seeing play out, in a microcosm here in New York, is that
the party elites are out of touch with where the base of the party is
at."
Cuomo, meanwhile, has secured endorsements
from former Vice President Joe Biden as well as former Secretary of
State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
In a series of tweets,
comedian and writer Gabe Gonzalez said, "Perez has always placed party
loyalty over progress," and concluded, "If the best Cuomo can do is
muster Hillary, Biden, and Perez to endorse him, voters should seriously
ask themselves whether he's the candidate to guide NY into the future."
It is the Republican Party that defends and protects him at the
detriment of the country. They are responsible for what he does now and
what he might do in the future. Although Trump may be a daily threat to
the country and the world, he is where he is at, and where he will be
tomorrow, because of the Republicans. They cannot hide in the shadows
and refuse to take responsibility, or to blame his divisive rhetoric on
the Democrats.
Democrats should wash their hands of this creep. People cannot worry
about matters for which they have no control. The Republicans have all
the control and they own all the responsibility and blame for whatever
the trump might do. They own Donald Trump and the American people need
to be reminded daily about who is responsible for what is happening in
our country. It is not the politicians in Washington. It is not the liberals. It is not the media. It is the Republican Party.
They are the only ones that can do anything about Donald Trump.
A white Pennsylvania man is going to prison and losing his home after he was convicted of harassing his black neighbors over a period of years, reports The Morning Call.
According to the report, 45 year old Robert Kujawa of Easton, was found guilty by a jury of ethnic intimidation, harassment, stalking and is facing two to four years in state prison.
In their case against Kujawa, prosecutors claimed that the man hung Confederate flags in the windows of his home that faced his black neighbor’s home, and used a racial slur against the woman and her son when they were in the backyard — which Kujawa has denied.
According to the family, the man also used a pellet gun to shoot out their outdoor lights and damage their furniture, forcing them purchase a security system, lighting and a fence and forbid their sons from playing in their yard.
Following the announcement of the verdict, Judge Jennifer Sletvold noted that Kujawa was previously convicted of harassment of the family in 2015 and the following year admitted to reckless endangerment, with the judge stating, “Over the course of many years, Mr. Kujawa robbed this family of their peace.”
At his Friday hearing Kujawa apologized, saying he is losing his home to foreclosure and that he plans on leaving state once his 10th grade daughter graduates.
“I’m really remorseful,” Kujawa told the court. “I’m really sorry that it got to this point.”
According to his neighbor, Biafra Baker, “We just wanted to raise our children. We didn’t ask for any of this.”
For an ethnic intimidation conviction in Pennsylvania, authorities must show that a defendant committed a separate offense — in this case, stalking — for bigoted reasons.
You can watch a clip of Kujawa harassing his neighbors below via the Lehigh Valley Live on YouTube:
The FBI on Friday issued a formal warning that a sophisticated Russia-linked hacking campaign is compromising hundreds of thousands of home network devices worldwide and it is advising owners to reboot these devices in an attempt to disrupt the malicious software.
The law enforcement agency said foreign cyber actors are targeting routers in small or home offices with a botnet — or a network of infected devices — known as VPNFilter.
Cybersecurity experts and officials say VPNFilter has infected an estimated 500,000 devices worldwide.
The FBI recommends any owner of small office and home office routers reboot the devices to temporarily disrupt the malware and aid the potential identification of infected devices," the bureau's cyber division wrote in a public alert.
"Owners are advised to consider disabling remote management settings on devices and secure with strong passwords and encryption when enabled. Network devices should be upgraded to the latest available versions of firmware."
Earlier this week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the bureau was working to disrupt the malware, which officials have linked to the cyber espionage group known as APT 28 or Sofacy.
Experts at Cisco’s threat intelligence arm Talos on Wednesday first called attention to VPNFilter, warning that hackers are ramping up malware attacks against Ukraine, infecting thousands of devices ahead of an upcoming national holiday in the country.
"While this isn't definitive by any means, we have also observed VPNFilter, a potentially destructive malware, actively infecting Ukrainian hosts at an alarming rate, utilizing a command and control infrastructure dedicated to that country," Talos wrote in a blog post.
"Both the scale and the capability of this operation are concerning. Working with our partners, we estimate the number of infected devices to be at least 500,000 in at least 54 countries."
The firm warned that VPNFilter could wreak havoc in a number of ways, from stealing website credentials to causing widespread internet disruption.
"The malware has a destructive capability that can render an infected device unusable, which can be triggered on individual victim machines or en masse, and has the potential of cutting off Internet access for hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide."
You see that up there? That's Major General Benedict Arnold's Oath of Allegiance to the United States, signed,
in the middle of the Revolutionary War, on May 30, 1778 at Valley
Forge. By the end of 1779, Arnold was working for the British to defeat
the United States. Lotta fuckin' good that loyalty oath did, huh?
Professing your love of nation doesn't mean shit if you don't act like
you love it.
Every generation or so, we have to go through this ludicrous exercise in
symbol worship. Anti-flag-burning still rears its ugly-ass head every
now and then even though the Supreme Court said in 1989 that it was free
speech. You know who joined
the majority in that case? Motherfuckin' Antonin Scalia who, when asked
about it years later, said he did it because the First Amendment is the
First Amendment. "If it were up to me, I would put in jail every
sandal-wearing, scruffy-bearded weirdo who burns the American flag. But I
am not king," he said in 2015. You got that? Freedom of speech
specifically allows us to say things like "your bullshit symbols are
bullshit."
And it allows us to not have to worship whatever symbols people in power
tell us to worship. During the flag-burning debate, I wrote a comic
piece about a joyful flag maker who is encouraging people to burn flags
because he makes more money that way. The point was that a flag is a
product, often not even made in the United States, that is purchased and
is the property of the person who purchased it. If I bought it, it's
mine. If I wanna wipe my ass with it, I can because capitalism.
You wanna assign each person their own flag that was sanctified with the
blood of George Washington or whatnot, then we can talk about
restrictions. But after 9/11, I saw flags that were flown to show pride
in country that were just left up, on vehicles and homes, in the rain,
in the wind, until they were faded in color, ragged, and worn, which, if
you think about it, was pretty damn symbolic for the nation we became
pretty quickly after 9/11. But no one was screaming that the pick-up
truck driver with an NRA sticker and a "We Support the Troops" magnet
should fuckin' respect the flag by taking that threadbare piece shit off
his antenna, even though he should have.
Which gets us to the National Anthem.
Look, if you think the National Anthem is a good song, you're just
wrong. It sucks. It's a terrible song with warmongering, violent words, a
flag fetish, and a ludicrously bad melody that is only vaguely
interesting to hear sung to see if the poor singer can actually hit the
high note towards the end, at which point the dogs of Pavlovian
patriotism in a crowd applaud for the singer not fucking it up.
Seriously, though, we have one bullshit national anthem.
When the National Football League owners released its new policy that commands
all players on the field to stand during the National Anthem or face
fines, they may as well have wiped their asses with the stars and
stripes. It didn't have to be this way. They could have just let the
protest happen. Colin Kaepernick and the other players who knelt were
protesting the mistreatment of African Americans by the police. Then our
fucking dickhead resident saw a chance to exploit people's racism and
stupidity by condemning players for daring to have an opinion that
wasn't his.
And that savage orange bastard said today that he agreed
with the new policy. "You have to stand proudly for the national anthem
or you shouldn’t be playing, you shouldn’t be there. Maybe you
shouldn’t be in the country," he told pubic lice on Fox and Friends
this morning. You should lose your job and your citizenship if you
don't stand when a shitty song is played before a bunch of millionaires
beat themselves into insanity for our entertainment and line the pockets
of even richer men who would demand that they stand. Oh, they won't
lock the bathrooms and the concession stands during the anthem at
AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. You can be sitting on a toilet and
taking a shit while the Dallas Cowboys are forced to stand.
So now it's not just about protesting police violence. Now the only
patriotic thing to do is to kneel when you're at a public event and they
stupidly play our dumb anthem. At a Little League game? Take a knee. At
a school event? Take a knee. At a football stadium? Take a fuckin'
knee. Because the brutish asshole who leads this country still ain't a
king, even though he wants to be. And enforced patriotism is just a way
to make sure that people fuckin' hate the bullshit symbols.
You don't need to sign an oath or pledge to a flag or stand for a song
to love your country. In fact, a country that makes you do that ain't
worth your love. So show the players that are forced to stand that you
still have a choice. Use it while you can.
