THIS is what’s happening to American Citizens who ‘fit the profile’:
This is outrageous.
CBP detained the former police chief of Greenville, NC for 90 minutes
Hassan Aden
Yesterday at 3:27pm ·Details of my CBP Detention at JFK Int. Airport:
After spending a lovely weekend in Paris celebrating my mom’s 80th birthday, I happily boarded my flight to return to the United States-something I have done countless times for 42 years after becoming a U.S. citizen. I had an enjoyable flight to New York’s JFK International Airport. On all of my prior trips, I was greeted by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers with a warm smile and the usual, “Welcome home sir”. Not this time. I approached CBP Officer Chow who didn’t say anything when I handed him my passport and looked at me with a gruff expression and simply stated, “are you traveling alone?”, I knew this was a sign of trouble, I answered “yes”, he then said, “Let’s take a walk”.
I was taken to a back office which looked to be a re-purposed storage facility with three desks and signs stating, “Remain seated at all times” and “Use of telephones strictly prohibited” – my first sign that this was not a voluntary situation and, in fact, a detention. By this point I had informed CBP Officer Chow, the one that initially detained me, that I was a retired police chief and a career police officer AND a US citizen-he stated that he had no control over the circumstance and that it didn’t matter what my occupation was. He handed my passport off to another CBP officer who was working at one of the desks. The second CBP officer was indeed kind and appreciated the fact that I was a career police officer and tried to be helpful. He explained that my name was used as an alias by someone on some watch list. He stated that he sent my information to another agency to de-conflict and clear me, so that I could gain passage into the United States….my own country!!!
As I sat in the CBP detention center, numerous, at least 25, foreign nationals were also brought in and quickly released, their detentions were reasonable and appropriate, maybe 5 or so minutes while their passports were checked. I pointed out the irony of this fact to the CBP officer that was attempting to “clear me for entry”. I told him, as he avoided eye contact, how wrong this scenario was that the only US citizen, career US police officer and chief of police, out of the group of detainees, was the one with the longest unreasonable detention- I was held for an hour and a half. I asked several times, “how long of a detention do you consider to be reasonable?”, the answer I was given by CBP Officer Chow was that I was not being detained-he said that with a straight face. I then replied, “But I’m not free to leave-how is that not a detention?” I was in a room with no access to my mobile phone to communicate with my wife and family about what was happening, my movements were restricted to a chair and they had my passport………and he had the audacity to tell me I was not being detained. His ignorance of the law and the Fourth Amendment should disqualify him from being able to wear a CBP badge – but maybe fear and detention is the new mission of the CBP and the Constitution is a mere suggestion. I certainly was not free to leave. As former law enforcement, believe me, I agree that if certain criteria is met, a reasonable investigative detention is not inappropriate-the key here being “reasonable”.
As I continued to sit in the CBP makeshift Detention Center, watching numerous foreign nationals enter my country while I couldn’t, I began thinking about my numerous trips abroad -including five in the past year (all prior to inauguration) – with no problems upon my return and complete with the warm greeting of “Welcome home”.
Fortunately, a CBP officer that had just started her shift took interest in my situation and began to inquire with the “other agency” that was reviewing my information-she aggressively asked them for status updates and eventually called me over to tell me that I was cleared to enter the United States of America. I promptly thanked her and filled her in on how impactful this situation was-she apologized and I was on my way after an hour and a half detention.
I spent nearly 30 years serving the public in law enforcement. Since I retired as the Chief of Police in Greenville, NC, I founded a successful consulting firm that is involved in virtually every aspect of police and criminal justice reform. I interface with high level U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Court officials almost daily. Prior to this administration, I frequently attended meetings at the White House and advised on national police policy reforms-all that to say that If this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone with attributes that can be “profiled”. No one is safe from this type of unlawful government intrusion.
As I left the CBP makeshift detention center, I had to go back through security to catch my next flight back to DC, ironically, due to my weekly air travel, I have TSA Pre-check and was whisked through security without a hitch and made my flight by minutes.
This experience has left me feeling vulnerable and unsure of the future of a country that was once great and that I proudly called my own. This experience makes me question if this is indeed home. My freedoms were restricted, and I cannot be sure it won’t happen again, and that it won’t happen to my family, my children, the next time we travel abroad. This country now feels cold, unwelcoming, and in the beginning stages of a country that is isolating itself from the rest of the world – and its own people – in an unprecedented fashion. High levels of hate and injustice have been felt in vulnerable communities for decades-it is now hitting the rest of America.
I have contacted my US senators, and my contacts at the NYT and other media sources to continue to tell the story of what is happening in the United States of America.
13 Memories from Having A Black Grandma😅😅😅😅
https://blavity.com/13-memories-you-have-being-raised-by-a-black-grandma?utm_content=buffer2d7eb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/844343635462311936
Oh Lord….Oh my Lord. Horrific…My heart cries out
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/844348923288457216
The horror!
Hey Chicas! My little cousin showing his animal again….
This kid works so hard in caring for his animals. He deserves to be rewarded. God bless him!
Fantastic! Wonderful! Great showing! Great job!
Thank you all.
Great going😄😄
David FrumVerified account @davidfrum
Trump margin in PA in 2016: 44,000. Pennsylvanians who’d lose Medicaid if ACA repealed: 670,000.
About time somebody put out these numbers …Even if it’s David ‘axis of evil’ Frum…Incredible who’s turned out to be the most vocal against the treasonous buffoon and the ignorant white supremacists he gets his guidance and directives from…and who’s kept silent and who’s gone along…
But, seriously so sick and tired of the ooooh, we must treat him with kids gloves…ooooh…he ‘won’ and he has all these diehard supporters…and we better not have him ‘tweet and trigger’ his ‘base’ …we better not cross him and them…even when he’s acting a complete fool and maniacally driving this country over the edge and into the gully… breaking every rule and being treasonous…and even as his so-called base amounts to barely 35% of the country …if that..
Folks acting all cowardly and mealy-mouthed …including those who claim to abhor the corrupt buffoon and his inept handlers and all they stand for, but who still refuse to actually do anything about it …
And only because they themselves stand to gain they think…from the impending sinful tax ‘overhaul’ and the shortsighted destruction of important policies, protections and the unraveling of much needed regulations and programs …all just so that greedy, unethical businesses and politicians can shortchange citizens, workers and consumers …poison, kill, impoverish everyone and destroy our environment, country and world… all while they fake ‘thrive’ and amass wealth for themselves and the unscrupulous puppeteers who own them…
https://twitter.com/donmoyn/status/844267392536580096
Meg KinnardVerified account @MegKinnardAP
BREAKING: (AP) — Friend of Dylann Roof gets 27 months in prison for failing to report church shooting plot, then lying about it to FBI.
===
Father Guido SarDShK @ZeddRebel
Why so quickly dismissing white supremacist attackers as ‘lone wolves’ is a lethal impulse.
Tom PerezVerified account @TomPerez
A few thoughts after watching Gorsuch’s hearing so far:
…
First, it’s entirely unacceptable for Donald Trump to place a justice on SCOTUS with his presidency under the cloud of an FBI investigation.
…
The Senate should hold off on any action on this lifetime appointment until the FBI investigation into Trump’s Russia connections concludes.
…
We’ve watched as Donald Trump assaults the Constitution on a daily basis & his nominee has convinced no one he would check Trump’s behavior.
Plus it’s a stolen nomination. Stolen from PBO and the Democrats and the American people who do not support a right wing dominated SCOTUS.
I’ll say it again:
NOT.ENOUGH.COINCIDENCES.IN.THE.WESTERN.WORLD.
Daniel SandfordVerified account @BBCDanielS
Lawyer for Sergei Magnitsky’s family Nikolai Gorokhov has been “thrown from the 4th floor of his apartment building” in Moscow.
Lord, these people are evil.
And just as the U.K effectively instituted the bill named for Magnitsky…no more easy money laundering via property purchases etc. in the U.K..
“…A bill inspired by the case of a Russian whistleblower will turn the UK into a “hostile environment” for organised criminals and kleptocrats.
The Criminal Finances Bill, which cleared the Commons on Tuesday, is meant to freeze the assets of foreign officials who abuse anti-corruption and human rights activists.
The law was prompted by the case of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
He died in prison after revealing alleged fraud by state officials.
Mr Magnitsky, legal adviser for London-based Hermitage Capital Management (HCM), had been jailed after he was accused of committing fraud himself.
Since his death, HCM’s founder William Browder has been campaigning to bring to justice those he believes are responsible for what happened to Mr Magnitsky.
On Tuesday, he welcomed the third reading of the UK bill in the Commons as a “huge triumph” that would “cause perceptible fear for kleptocrats in Russia and other authoritarian regimes”.
“They all have expensive properties in London and think they are untouchable,” he said in a statement.
Speaking during the bill’s reading, Security Minister Ben Wallace said: “We need to make the UK a hostile environment for those seeking to move, hide and use the proceeds of crime and corruption. In an increasingly competitive international marketplace, the UK simply cannot afford to be seen as a haven for dirty money.”
He added: “This measure would send a clear statement that the UK will not stand by and allow those who have committed gross abuse or violations around the world to launder their money here.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39047321
Ari Berman
✔
@AriBerman
Gorsuch is a lot like John Roberts, smooth guy who pretends to be umpire calling balls & strikes but has deeply reactionary ideology
He’s much worse than Roberts…
I Binged Watched ‘This Is Us’ And My Feelings Are In Shambles. I May Never Recover. ZOMG!
Panama Jackson, 3/20/17
On February 23, 2017, I wrote the following status update on Facebook:
……………………………………………..
This was after it seems like my entire FB timeline was an emotional wreck after watching the latest episode of “This Is Us,” an episode that upon watching last night put me so far into my feelings at midnight that I retreated up to my room to tell my girlfriend about how much of a wreck I was and after trying to explain to her what I’d just seen, she looked at me and said, “are you about to start crying now?”
I literally had to excuse myself because, yes, I was about to start bawling. Again. Everybody who watches this show knows this episode. It’s titled, “Memphis” and I don’t think I’ve boohooed that much – literal tears streaming down my face – since the episode of “Dawson’s Creek” where his father dies and Dawson breaks down in the car while James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” played. We’re talking “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” “how come he don’t want me, man?” tears.
I was not prepared.
Basically, the way I felt by the end of that episode – which was SO masterfully done and executed (Sterling Brown deserves awards for this show) even though I knew what was coming – was like taking Ricky’s death, with Will’s daddy leaving again, while watching Mufasa fall, while watching the end of Beaches. I was done. Plain and simple
The comments are hilarious!!!
https://twitter.com/TheeSouthside/status/843874461254369280/photo/1
Trump Business Partners Look to Cash In
March 21, 2017
excerpt:
Never has an American president taken office with such immense and complicated assets. Nor has one brought along a busload of rich partners who, by dint of previous deals and brand association, stand to reap profits in real time, as the president serves.
To better understand this global network, Forbes looked into each of these 36 partners, traveling to five countries to interview more than a dozen of them… But perhaps the most interesting tidbit comes in the aggregate. Trump’s network extends to at least 19 countries. And these guys (yes, they’re all men) share a set of consistent traits, even as property developers go. This group is uniformly rich–seven are members of the Forbes Billionaires list; many more claim centimillionaire status. They reflect their partner–a mélange of bombastic marketing, over-the-top style and political connections.
And all of them are trying to figure out, to various degrees, how to cash in on the 45th president.
https://twitter.com/Chernynkaya/status/844329446958030848
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/844305126173032448
Why confirm Gorsuch at all? Demand a hearing for Merrick Garland.
https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/844321493265928193
https://twitter.com/RichardRubinDC/status/756327165130600448
https://twitter.com/RichardRubinDC/status/844235788829294593
https://twitter.com/RichardRubinDC/status/844269915624427521
Steve Harvey Is The St. Peter Of The Sunken Place
Damon Young, 3/21/17
Imagine, if you can, the sheer terror of watching yourself descend into The Sunken Place. Your body suspended in a perpetual state of hypnagogia. Your mind lucid enough to be conscious of the fright and the dread of what’s happening to your soul but too subdued — too horrifyingly and devastatingly paralytic — do to anything about it. The creep of knowing your being will soon be a portal, a wormhole, an exoskeleton, a theme park virtual reality exhibition, where you’ll be controlled by an infestation of peak White appropriation, free to do whatever it wants to do with the spirit and shape that was once yours. The sadness of enough brain function existing to know — to remember — how you were lured and lied to and fooled. The agony of the recollection of shaking the hand of the man who’ll now, for the rest of your days, be your masturbatory Geppetto.
https://twitter.com/TraceeEllisRoss/status/843142068801228800
https://twitter.com/repjohnlewis/status/844233204345327616
A Last Chance for Resistance
Posted on Mar 19, 2017
By Chris Hedges
The crawl toward despotism within a failed democracy is always incremental. No regime planning to utterly extinguish civil liberties advertises its intentions in advance. It pays lip service to liberty and justice while obliterating the institutions and laws that make them possible. Its opponents, including those within the establishment, make sporadic attempts to resist, but week by week, month by month, the despot and his reactionary allies methodically consolidate power. Those inside the machinery of government and the courts who assert the rule of law are purged. Critics, including the press, are attacked, ridiculed and silenced. The state is reconfigured until the edifice of tyranny is unassailable.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn in “The Gulag Archipelago” noted that the consolidation of Soviet tyranny “was stretched out over many years because it was of primary importance that it be stealthy and unnoticed.” He called the process “a grandiose silent game of solitaire, whose rules were totally incomprehensible to its contemporaries, and whose outlines we can appreciate only now.”
Czeslaw Milosz in “The Captive Mind” also chronicles the incremental expansion of tyranny, noting that it steadily progresses until intellectuals are not only forced to repeat the regime’s self-praising slogans but to advance its absurdist dogmas. Few ever see the tyranny coming. Those who do and speak out are treated by the authorities, and often the wider society, as alarmists or traitors.
The current administration’s budget proposes to give the war industry, the domestic policing agencies, the fossil fuel industry, Wall Street, billionaires and the national security and surveillance agencies more than they could have imagined possible before the election. These forces, as in all fascist states, will be the pillars of the Trump regime. They will tolerate Donald Trump’s idiocy, ineptitude and unbridled narcissism in exchange for increased profits and power. Despots are often buffoons. Appealing to their vanity and ego is an effective form of manipulation. Skilled sycophants can play despots like musical instruments for personal advancement.
Trump, like all despots, has no real ideology. His crusade against Wall Street, including Goldman Sachs, and the billionaire class during the presidential election campaign vanished the moment he took office. He has appointed five former Goldman Sachs employees to high posts in his administration. His budget will bleed the poor, the working class and the middle class and swell the bank accounts of the oligarchs. He is calling for abolishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts and the cutting of programs that provide legal service to low-income people and grants to libraries and museums. If Trump’s budget is approved by Congress, there will not even be a pretense of civil society. Trump and his family will profit from his presidency. Corporations will profit from his presidency. Wall Street will profit from his presidency. And the people will be made to pay.
Despots demand absolute loyalty. This is why they place family members in the inner circles. The Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, whose vanity rivaled that of Trump, and Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein filled their governments with their children, siblings, nephews, nieces and in-laws and rounded out their inner courts with racists, opportunists and thugs of the kind that now populate the White House.
…
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_last_chance_for_resistance_20170319
I used to think of Chris Hedges as a worst case scenario thinker, but also an excellent writer. Now I’m not so sure about his worst case scenario being too far fetched.
Why the Intelligence Community Was Focused on Michael Flynn
by Martin Longman March 20, 2017 4:17 PM
Back in November, when President-elect Trump announced his intention to make Michael Flynn his national security adviser, I called it a catastrophic pick and, citing a May/June article by Michael Crowley in Politico Magazine, I noted that a senior Obama administration had said about Flynn that “It’s not usually to America’s benefit when our intelligence officers—current or former—seek refuge in Moscow.” In the same article, Crowley referred to Flynn’s attendance at the December 10, 2015 10-year anniversary gala for RT, the Russians’ state-propaganda news network (and his subsequent employment at RT), as “perhaps the most intriguing example of how the Russians have gone about recruiting disaffected members of that establishment…”
The idea that Michael Flynn, who had recently served as the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, may have been “recruited” by the Russians was certainly of keen interest to the intelligence community. This was clear from anonymous quotes that came out at the time: “He was that close to a despot, an enemy to the U.S., at an event for the Russian government’s propaganda arm,” a senior U.S. intelligence official said at the time about Flynn’s attendance at the RT celebration.” Even what Michael Flynn was doing in the open was considered a potential crime, due to Flynn’s security clearances and his responsibilities as a retired officer of the U.S. military.
Why are Republicans Spending Time Defending Michael Flynn?
by Martin Longman March 20, 2017 12:29 PM
……………………………….
So, I just want to provide a bit of a casual observation right now. The Republicans are keen to distract from the Russian angle to this investigation by complaining that Michael Flynn’s name was divulged to the public as someone who was in contact with the Russian ambassador. The way they are arguing this is that the identity of U.S. citizens who are incidentally captured by electronic surveillance on foreign targets is supposed to be masked or protected from dissemination.
There’s no doubt that the fact that Flynn was in contact with the Russian ambassador was widely disseminated within the Obama administration and that it leaked fairly quickly to the press. Both could be crimes, it’s true. But this is predicated on two things. The first is that Flynn was not the target of surveillance. That is not assured since he clearly was a subject of a counterintelligence investigation that began in the early summer of 2016. The second assumption is that the fact the incoming National Security Advisor was colluding with the Soviet ambassador to undercut current U.S. national security policy was not something of the utmost concern to our intelligence agencies and policy makers.
Under the circumstances, and given Flynn’s subsequent firing and the disclosure that he was richly compensated by Russian entities for relatively little work, and the fact he was working at the time as an agent of a foreign power (Turkey) and did not disclose that, it’s curious that the Republicans want to put so much focus on defending him.
Republicans can’t defend their health care bill on the merits
03/21/17 03:39 PM—UPDATED 03/21/17 03:52 PM
By Steve Benen
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) issued a warning to his Republican colleagues today, arguing that GOP lawmakers must support the party’s health care plan because Republicans made a “commitment” to voters to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
He didn’t talk about the bill’s merits, or what he believes it would do to help Americans, but rather, McConnell’s focus was on the political calculus. It’s a classic example of a logical fallacy:
1. We have to do something.
2. This bill is something.
3. We therefore have to pass this bill.
Similarly, Donald Trump was in Louisville last night, headlining a campaign-style rally, where he touted his party’s health care bill, again without actually describing any of its effects of purported benefits. Politico reported that the president is “increasingly talking about health care like the vegetables of his agenda – the thing he must begrudgingly finish in order to get to what he really wants: tax cuts, trade deals and infrastructure.”
NBC News reported that Trump took a similar message to congressional Republicans this morning on Capitol Hill.
I suppose this is an antiquated, perhaps even naive, way of looking at legislation, but Republicans have effectively abandoned the pretense that the merits of their ideas are important. Note that GOP leaders aren’t even bothering to say anything like, “We have to pass this bill because of the wonderful results it will produce for American families.”
Instead the arguments are explicitly political/electoral: Republicans have to pass this so that they can pass tax cuts; they have to pass this to avoid looking bad; they have to pass this to save face; they have to pass this to honor amorphous “commitments” made on the campaign trail.
It is, in other words, a post-policy posture, treating the substance of an idea as an afterthought, falling short of GOP leaders’ list of priorities.
Gorsuch nomination creates important test for Senate Democrats
03/21/17 12:55 PM
By Steve Benen
When Judge Neil Gorsuch arrived in the Senate yesterday to begin his Supreme Court confirmation process, there was a little news before the nominee even sat down. Sen. Michael Bennet (D) of Gorsuch’s home state of Colorado joined the nominee and graciously introduced him to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
It’s the sort of thing a senator ordinarily does when he or she supports a nomination, which meant Bennet was already undermining Democratic opposition to Donald Trump’s high court nominee before the process had even begun in earnest. Roll Call reported:
But I have a few straightforward follow-up questions for the Democratic senator: two wrongs may not make a right, but what does? Given the circumstances, what’s just in this situation? How will rewarding Republican maximalist tactics move us any closer to what’s “right”?
As we discussed when Gorsuch was first nominated, part of this fight has to do with the jurist’s record and ideology, but just as important – perhaps more so – is the broader context.
Over a year ago, President Obama chose a compromise nominee, Merrick Garland, to fill the Supreme Court’s vacancy. The Senate Republican majority responded by launching a blockade without modern precedent: Garland, GOP senators declared, would not be considered in any way. No hearing, no debate, no floor vote, no consideration.
TRUTH! Why in the blazing hell are they getting away with this? So much bad Sh!t is going down that it’s difficult to keep track of half of it. But THIS has consequences that are so long term they may as well be considered permanent.
This is a stolen SCOTUS nomination. There should be NO HEARING. Democrats should be raising hell.
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https://twitter.com/Hatewatch/status/844220813528223745
https://twitter.com/AP/status/844231439856164864
Lone wolf…don’t ya know
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/844201855496474630
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/844212253528227841
Each republican seems to know these days, to bring along their very own ‘African American’ who as inGorsuch’s case, they carefully place right behind him to be caught in every frame ..
‘African American’ for republican hire has to be the hottest gig of the moment for the shameless ..
http://static.lakana.com/nxsglobal/feedsite/photo/2017/03/21/Gorsuch%20hearing%20day%202_1490104807803_18648727_ver1.0_640_360.JPG
http://video.newsserve.net/v/20170320/1162060186-Gorsuch-speaks-at-confirmation-hearing-while-Dems-focus.jpg
Gorsuch is such a terrible actor…and worse, an over-rehearsed one dripping insincerity and false modesty…
So slimy, so impossibly phony, so desperate…so inauthentic..
Talks way too much …trying too hard with his transparently phony act..
Nothing honorable about this person …the only true thing about him is that he wants the Supreme Court promotion so badly he’d probably sacrifice his firstborn for it…he reeks desperation in the worst and most unsettling of ways…
And worse still, he’s hardly the ‘intellectual’ they insist he is…and certainly not even nearly as intectually impressive as they’d purported …
More like a poor imitation of a wannabe mediocre copy-cat pseudo- ‘intellectual’…
In the end, just an amalgam of every slimy, dishonest, entitled, suppressed tantrum, phony low-life right-winger …with an easily peelable thin veneer of average refinement and faux-rectitude..
Equal parts Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, with dashes of Beaureugard Sessions, Mick Mulvaney…etc..
P.s-
Orin Hatch is long overdue for retirement…
And much kudos to Patrick Leahy for wiping the smug off Gorsuch’s face – even if temporarily…by letting him know he wasn’t impressed by him and his phony act…and essentially calling him what he is, a cheap, slimy, right-wing quid quo pro pick from the list generated by those the buffoon outsourced it to..
QUESTION:
WHY THE FUCK IS ROGER STONE ALLOWED TO GO ON CBS and deny Russian ties? He needs to be questioned by House Intelligence Committee .
why is this crook and liar being questioned by these amateurs?
That includes you too, Gail King
Whose Monopoly Man Come to Life is This? Oh. Roger Stone Jr.
Come to find out, he ain’t shit. As in, he’s a sexist and racist walking cartoon villain.
And I’m pretty sure this man owns slaves. Not owned but OWNS. As in, today. There’s probably a plantation with his name on it and humans he considers property.
This dude is still mad at Abraham Lincoln for the Gettysburg address.
This man is still surly that Ben Franklin stole his kite that day he got electrocuted.
This chap’s social security number is nil.
How many times has this man died? Whose mind will he send to the sunken place so he can use their body?
This guy will NEVER give up Park Place now that he built hotels on it.
This is the dude behind the #FuckPaulReveresSnitchingAss tea party.
This is the person they modeled Michigan J. Frog after. WB face ass.
This chap still uses phrases like “that colored gal…” especially when he wants to show respect.
Bruh still stocks his own homemade liquor, because he doesn’t remember the times of Prohibition fondly.
This fellow owns a bag made of old carpet. Reconstruction #TBT.
This man strategized with Scar to kill Mufasa. He suggested the stampede.
This dude remembers fondly, the cartoons that featured the crow named Jim. He wonders when the world got so… sensitive.
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2017/03/monopoly-man-roger-stone.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Luvvie+%28Awesomely+Luvvie%29
America is becoming UNRECOGNIZABLE. How LONG is the farce of a presidency going to permitted to LAST?
Until they can get their permanent (and preferably irreversible) tax breaks…and can install a replacement white stooge that’s less erratic, more articulate and slightly less ignorant ..
I have no idea how this ends. My gut feeling is that what we hear about is just the tip of the ‘berg.
Republicans hope the ‘Buffalo Bribe’ can make a difference
03/21/17 11:09 AM
By Steve Benen
How concerned are congressional Republican leaders about dragging their health care bill across the finish line? Enough to start adding last-minute sweeteners intended to buy off specific on-the-fence members. The New York Times reported overnight:
So why add it? Because many upstate Republicans believe New York’s existing Medicaid policy adds a significant tax burden in their area. GOP leaders on Capitol Hill inserted language into the American Health Care Act last night that’s likely to make Reps. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), Claudia Tierney (R-N.Y.), Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), John Faso (R-N.Y.), and John Katko (R-N.Y.) happy – or at least happier – and given how narrow the margins are likely to be on Thursday, every vote counts.
Reince Priebus’ FBI contacts suddenly look even worse
03/21/17 10:19 AM—UPDATED 03/21/17 11:03 AM
By Steve Benen
When there’s a major development in an ongoing controversy, it’s important to consider the news at face value, but it’s also important to reconsider previous details in light of new evidence.
Take White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus’ communications with the FBI, for example.
We learned about a month ago that Priebus spoke with FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe about Team Trump’s Russia scandal, and by some accounts, the White House chief of staff hoped to persuade FBI officials to reach out to journalists to downplay the significance of the controversy.
As we discussed at the time, there are rules in place that severely limit the communications between the FBI and the White House, though in this case, Reince Priebus either didn’t know or didn’t care about those restrictions. Politico had a report over the weekend – before yesterday’s testimony from FBI Director James Comey, obviously – about the communications.
In other words, Priebus’ chats with the deputy director of the FBI – communications that the White House has already acknowledged – were problematic on their face.
But in light of yesterday’s news, they seem quite a bit worse.
Just unbelievable
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/843965249741111297
The new co-president because Donald can’t handle what is happening to him and he trusts no one but her.
It’s a NIGHTMARE, the GLARING WHITENESS-PRIVILEGE of this fuckery!
https://twitter.com/jbendery/status/844192202804858880
https://twitter.com/MEPFuller/status/844190655358423040
BREAKING NEWS: COMEY Confirms That DNI JAMES CLAPPER Was _Not_ Briefed on #Russiagate; GOP Talking Point Disappears: https://t.co/Utu0BkOlvV
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) March 20, 2017
Folks, _this_ (see thread) is a big deal. The GOP has been using James Clapper as a shield and Comey just shattered that shield permanently.
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) March 20, 2017
Ivanka Trump set to get West Wing office as role expands https://t.co/Sw3O8vKB9h
— Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) March 20, 2017
Claiming Ivanka not govt employee yet she attends top level meetings & will now have a West Wing office is blatant corrupt BS#Illegitimate https://t.co/b85VKISfUi
— meta (@metaquest) March 20, 2017
“For an NSA director to publicly state that the President is straining key relationships…that’s extraordinary.” https://t.co/c7jI1FiwJT
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) March 20, 2017
Trump picks the wrong slogan: ‘Promises made, promises kept’
03/21/17 09:20 AM—UPDATED 03/21/17 09:31 AM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump held the latest in a series of presidential rallies last night in Louisville, where he pretended the FBI director hadn’t just told the world that Trump campaign operation is under investigation for its ties to Russia. The New York Times noted that the event included the unveiling of a new slogan.
For Mr. Trump, who is enduring one of the most difficult stretches of his young presidency, the rally was a chance to bathe in the adulation of a campaign crowd, a sea of people waving placards that said: “Buy American. Hire American” and “Promises Made. Promises Kept.”
Those placards weren’t the result of organic, grassroots enthusiasm; they were part of a specific push from Team Trump, which apparently finds the phrase compelling.
And at a certain level, it’s easy to understand the motivation. The more the White House struggles and Trump’s approval rating sinks, the more the president and his aides stick to the idea that they’re simply following through on the platform presented to voters during the 2016 campaign. Love Trump or hate him, the argument goes, he’s simply keeping the promises he made before he was elected.
The problem, of course, is that this isn’t even close to being true.
https://twitter.com/abc13houston/status/844192293443788801
wait wait wait….they were in a foreign country with this bullshyt? Unless there’s a Cancun in America that I don’t know about.
My jaw dropped. They went there with that effing bullshit.
Republicans scramble to rescue flailing health care bill
03/21/17 08:45 AM—UPDATED 03/21/17 09:18 AM
By Steve Benen
The quote may be apocryphal, but when Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House, she came to be associated with a simple phrase: “First you get the votes, then you take the vote.”
It seems like a strategy so obvious that it’s hardly worth articulating – along the lines of, “First you put on the shoes, then you tie the laces.” And yet, the Pelosi Principle of passing bills is routinely overlooked by her Republican successors.
Take, for example, the ongoing GOP plan to pass the Republican health care legislation. Instead of “First you get the votes, then you take the vote,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is moving forward with a different tack: “First you schedule the vote, then you search for votes, then you significantly change the bill two days before the vote, and then you take the vote without any certainty about the outcome or the CBO score.”
Politico reported last night on the latest developments.
There are quite a few tweaks: more tax breaks for the wealthy, more punishments for the poor, some regional provisions targeted at specific GOP lawmakers, and a weird anti-abortion provision. Vox’s Ezra Klein explained that none of the new provisions “meaningfully change the underlying legislation,” nor do they “fix the old bill’s problems.”
But for Republican leaders, improving the legislation isn’t the point; passing the legislation is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVeX0u0DjNY
Ametia,
That article of interest will be Wednesday’s Open Thread.
WHITE SOCIALISM
Good Morning, Everyone 😐😐😐
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone.