Brandon Gonzalez, 16, leads fellow students in protest during a class walkout from the Richard R. Green High School of Teaching while participating in the National School Walkout in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly – RC1DB7F23690
Students gather on their soccer field during a 17-minute walkout protest at the Stivers School for the Arts in Dayton, Ohio, on March 14, 2018.
Students from Douglas Freeman High School walk out of school to protest gun violence in Richmond, Va., Wednesday, March 14, 2018. Young people in the U.S. walked out of school to demand action on gun violence Wednesday in what activists hoped would be the biggest demonstration of student activism yet in response to last month’s massacre in Florida. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Students participate in a march in support of the National School Walkout in the Queens borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton – RC1FD192C4E0
Students from Miami County Day School walk out of their school to protest gun violence in Miami Shores, Fla., Wednesday, March 14, 2018. Students from all over the country rallied to continue to put pressure on state and federal lawmakers to enact gun control and school safety legislation. The day marks one month since a gunman killed 17 students and faculty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
Students fill the grounds outside Montclair High School, 12 miles from midtown Manhattan, during a walkout one month after 17 Florida students were shot dead, in Montclair, New Jersey, U.S. March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Bernadette Baum – RC1181C045C0
Thousands of local students march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the US Capitol during a nationwide student walkout for gun control in Washington, DC, March 14, 2018. Students across the US walked out of classes on March 14, in a nationwide call for action against gun violence following the shooting deaths last month at a Florida high school. The nationwide protest is being held one month to the day after Nikolas Cruz, a troubled 19-year-old former student at Stoneman Douglas, unleashed a hail of gunfire on his former classmates. / AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
Thousands of local students sit for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 students killed last month in a high school shooting in Florida, during a nationwide student walkout for gun control in front the White House in Washington, DC, March 14, 2018. Students across the US walked out of classes on March 14, in a nationwide call for action against gun violence following the shooting deaths last month at a Florida high school. The nationwide protest is being held one month to the day after Nikolas Cruz, a troubled 19-year-old former student at Stoneman Douglas, unleashed a hail of gunfire on his former classmates. / AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
Thousands of local students sit for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 students killed last month in a high school shooting in Florida, during a nationwide student walkout for gun control in front the White House in Washington, DC, March 14, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
Bethesda Chevy Chase students Alia Berry-Drobnick and Sam Blank gather with other students outside the White House as they join thousands of students across the country who walked out of classes to call for for stricter gun laws on March 14, 2018.
Amanda Welch, 18, from New Jersey, and co-president of the school’s Social Justice Council, poses for a portrait outside the front of The American School in London. She took part in a 17-minute walkout on the school playground, which was attended by approximately 300 students, aged 14 through 18, on March 14, 2018.
Students participate in a march in support of the National School Walkout in the Queens borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton – RC17FD9C1390
A student from Fiorello H. Laguardia High School wears a “Stop Shooting” message on his face during the national school walkout in the Manhattan borough of New York City on March 14, 2018. Mike Segar / Reuters
A Henrico County motorcycle officer looks over students from Douglas Freeman High School as they walk out of school to protest gun violence in Richmond, Va., Wednesday, March 14, 2018. Young people in the U.S. walked out of school to demand action on gun violence Wednesday in what activists hoped would be the biggest demonstration of student activism yet in response to last month’s massacre in Florida. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Diamond Bryant, center, a freshman at James Ferris High School walks with classmates during a student walkout, Wednesday, March 14, 2018, in Jersey City, N.J. Students across the country planned to participate in walkouts Wednesday to protest gun violence, one month after the deadly shooting inside a high school in Parkland, Fla. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Students from Harvest Collegiate High School form a circle around the fountain in Washington Square Park on March 14, 2018 in New York to take part in a national walkout to protest gun violence, one month after the shooting in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people were killed. Students across the US walked out of classes on March 14, in a nationwide call for action against gun violence following the shooting deaths last month at a Florida high school. The nationwide protest is being held one month to the day after Nikolas Cruz, a troubled 19-year-old former student at Stoneman Douglas, unleashed a hail of gunfire on his former classmates. / AFP PHOTO / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)
Students from Fiorello H. Laguardia High School lie down on West 62nd street in support of the National School Walkout in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Segar – RC1F52991260
Students walk out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, as part of a nationwide protest against gun violence, Wednesday, March 14, 2018, in Parkland, Fla. Organizers say nearly 3,000 walkouts are set in the biggest demonstration yet of the student activism that has emerged following the massacre of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Pat Gibson holds a drawing of Meadow Pollack, a victim of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, as she stands outside of the school as part of a nationwide protest against gun violence, Wednesday, March 14, 2018, in Parkland, Fla. Organizers say nearly 3,000 walkouts are set in the biggest demonstration yet of the student activism that has emerged following the massacre of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Students wear #ENOUGH pins as they gather on their soccer field during a 17-minute walkout protest at the Stivers School for the Arts in Dayton, Ohio, on March 14, 2018. # John Minchillo / AP
Students from Westglades Middle School walk out of their school as part of a nationwide protest against gun violence, Wednesday, March 14, 2018, in Parkland, Fla. Students across the country participate in walkouts Wednesday to protest gun violence, one month after the deadly shooting inside a high school in Parkland, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Students hold a sign during a student walkout outside Perry Hall High School in Perry Hall, Md., Wednesday, March 14, 2018. Students across the country planned to participate in walkouts Wednesday to protest gun violence, one month after the deadly shooting inside a high school in Parkland, Fla. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
PHILADELPHIA, PA – MARCH 14: Students at Philadelphia High School of Creative And Performing Arts participate in a walkout to address school safety and gun violence on March 14, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Students across the country are walking out of classes for 17 minutes to honor the lives of the 17 people killed at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida this past February. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images)
Students from Fiorello H. Laguardia High School hold hands as they sit down on West 62nd street in support of the National School Walkout in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Segar – RC171AC0A9A0
Students hold signs at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, on March 14, 2018 during a national walkout to protest gun violence, one month after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people were killed. Students across the United States walked out of classes on Wednesday in a nationwide call for action against gun violence following the shooting deaths last month at a Florida high school. Hundreds of students from Washington area schools gathered outside the White House chanting “Never again!” and “Enough is enough!” and holding signs reading “Protect People Not Guns.” / AFP PHOTO / NICHOLAS KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
Yarmouth High School student Sage Watterson reads a poem she wrote titled “Never Again,” during a walkout to protest gun violence, Wednesday, March 14, 2018, in Yarmouth, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Students at Yarmouth High School participate in a walkout to protest gun violence, Wednesday, March 14, 2018, in Yarmouth, Maine. Leaders of the rally address the crowd from the back of a pick-up truck in front of the school. Yarmouth is one of the few schools in Maine that did not cancel school on Wednesday as the state digs out from the third major winter storm in two weeks. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Students wear #ENOUGH pins as they gather on their soccer field during a 17-minute walkout protest at the Stivers School for the Arts, Wednesday, March 14, 2018, in Dayton, Ohio. Students across the country planned to participate in walkouts Wednesday to protest gun violence, one month after the deadly shooting inside a high school in Parkland, Fla. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Students from Fiorello H. Laguardia High School sit down on West 62nd street in support of the National School Walkout in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Segar – RC1DA90879E0
Washington, DC High School student Sara Durbin joins with other students walking out of classes to demand stricter gun laws outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Jim Bourg – HP1EE3E16AB6K
Students walk out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, as part of a nationwide protest against gun violence, Wednesday, March 14, 2018, in Parkland, Fla. Organizers say nearly 3,000 walkouts are set in the biggest demonstration yet of the student activism that has emerged following the massacre of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
A student from Fiorello H. Laguardia High School holds a sign in support of the National School Walkout in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Segar – RC1D1EA73360
Students rally in front of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, March 14, 2018. Students walked out of school to protest gun violence in the biggest demonstration yet of the student activism that has emerged in response to last month’s massacre of 17 people at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
“As a black boy, I hope one I day I have as many rights as a gun.”
Students across Rep Frederica Wilson district are taking a stand to demand action on gun violence.
Students sat in silence for 17 minutes with their backs turned to the White House to show support for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting victims and to protest gun violence. #ParklandShooting
#NationalWalkoutDay
Elementary school walkout in Alexandria, Virginia. More than 65 kids participated
Elementary school walkout in Alexandria, Virginia. More than 65 kids participated. Every student at this walkout suddenly lay down and totally silent
Well, well. Mr. Garland speaks…
https://twitter.com/MerrickGarland_/status/974101433690808320
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/973907142649397251
Breaking News
Jeff Sessions fires FMR FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/974829544363393026
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/974824695051751425
https://twitter.com/axios/status/974825419995336705
KUNTA! 👊🏽
https://twitter.com/DVNJr/status/974725512831549440
https://twitter.com/MiamiHerald/status/974808753202716672
https://twitter.com/usblm/status/974817380684713985
https://twitter.com/LeftSentThis/status/974784508556754945
He’s handsome.
https://twitter.com/TheRoot/status/974809359455834113
Georgia GOP pushes elimination of Sunday voting to suppress black turnout
The proposal would also shorten voting hours in Atlanta.
KIRA LERNER
MAR 16, 2018, 1:56 PM
Georgia Republicans are advancing a bill through the state legislature that would suppress African-American turnout by eliminating Sunday voting and cutting the hours that polls are open in Atlanta.
The bill, SB 363, would force polls in the majority African American city of Atlanta to close an hour earlier — 7 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. — and would eliminate early voting on the Sunday before Election Day. That Sunday is often a high-turnout day for African American voters because of Souls to the Polls events that encourage people to cast ballots early after attending church.
The proposal passed the state House Governmental Affairs Committee Wednesday with the majority Republicans voting in favor and all five Democrats, who have said the legislation is designed to suppress voter turnout, in opposition.
The text of the bill limits voting to just one weekend day before an election, but under current state law, any election with state or federal candidates must allow voting on a Saturday, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Georgia Republicans have opposed Sunday voting since at least 2014, when DeKalb County (home to Atlanta) extended early voting to include the Sunday before Election Day. One polling location that year was at a popular local shopping mall.
https://twitter.com/ANTITRUMPMVMT/status/974746548214022144
Bow Chicka Bow Wow!
https://twitter.com/Lupita_Nyongo/status/974305821197713409
https://twitter.com/iSmashFizzle/status/974652784447492097
LOL The comments are hilarious, ALSO TOO
Mueller is peeling back the layers of Trump’s finances
There’s so much shady stuff in his history it’s hard to grasp it all.
https://s2.washingtonpost.com/4c9a35/5aac1b3cfe1ff62bafaaf357/YXdhcmVvZjQxMUBnbWFpbC5jb20%3D/9/66/3a569220054ddfca9b49a25bb24a75b5
UGH!
https://twitter.com/splcenter/status/974707223153795072
Yes, racist POS, Sessions, and there’s a space for your pasty, bama, CaC ASS.
Well he’s griping because when he goes to prison he wants a room to himself! (smirk)
Today’s photo gallery is simply STELLAR, SG2.
Thank you!
Yes, it is. Excellent work, SG2.
My pleasure. March 24th is going to be massive.
You are on point, SG2. Thank you
#tdih 1960 College students marched to protest segregation in Orangeburg, SC. Police beat & tear-gas them; fire dep’t attacks w/freezing water from high-pressure hoses; 400 protesters & others who offered food & blankets are arrested. Read: https://t.co/LhpcxBhXdX pic.twitter.com/adoEE2lujK
— Zinn Ed Project (@ZinnEdProject) March 16, 2018
Hey young world! Are you a girl between the ages of 13-17 on a mission to lead, innovate, and serve? Submit your application for the annual BLACK GIRLS LEAD! Summer Leadership Intensive being held in NYC from July 29-August 4, 2018. Visit https://t.co/s0dxCveWx6 on 3/19 for info. pic.twitter.com/nS61pJxArC
— BLACK GIRLS ROCK! (@BLACKGIRLSROCK) March 16, 2018
ICYMI:
Mueller subpoenas Trump Org, Democrats point to Russian bank deal
Rep. Eric Swalwell talks with Rachel Maddow about evidence House Intel Democrats say they’ve seen that shows the Trump Organization negotiating a deal with a sanctioned Russian bank during the election season.
New sanctions reveal Russian hacking of US energy infrastructure
Nicole Perlroth, cybersecurity reporter for The New York Times, talks with Rachel Maddow about new details of Russia’s efforts to hack vital U.S. infrastructure accompanying new sanctions on Russia
Trump skips Russian sanctions law, meekly echoes Mueller instead
Rachel Maddow reports on new U.S. sanctions on Russia, the first action against Russia by the Trump administration, but instead of implementing the sanctions passed into law by Congress, the Trump administration instead copied Robert Mueller’s list of indicted Russian hackers.
Mueller demands Russia documents from Trump Organization: NYT
Rachel Maddow relays a report by The New York Times that Robert Mueller has sent a subpoena to the Trump Organization for Russia-related documents over a time that extends to before Donald Trump declared his candidacy.
Mar.15.2018
Carson, Mnuchin give Trump reasons to keep firing cabinet members
Rachel Maddow looks at how Donald Trump secretaries Ben Carson and Steven Mnuchin are garnering the kind of embarrassing scandal headlines that seem likely to draw the ax-wielding attention of Donald Trump.
Mar.15.2018
Yeah, but the next wave will be worse than the first. Who would work for Trump now?
LIKE ATTRACTS LIKE.
The END
BREAKING: House Democrats say a whistle blower has come forward with claims the State Dept. was targeting career employees who aren’t “supportive” of Trump’s agenda
https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/974316651192692736
But..her..emails..
They were the same, remember?
That’s what they told us…
……………..
How Jeff Sessions Is Sneaking Trump Allies Into Key DOJ Positions That Normally Require Senate Confirmation
By JEFF HAUSER
MARCH 14, 201811:02 AM
From investigating money laundering to enforcing America’s drug laws, U.S. attorneys possess a considerable amount of discretion in how to allocate the Department of Justice’s scarce law enforcement resources. Each of the 93 U.S. attorneys has the ability to make prosecutions of various federal statutes more or less likely and sentencing for any violations more or less draconian.
Because U.S. attorneys hold so much power, it makes sense that the Senate has the role of confirming or rejecting presidential appointments to the position. Without that check, the U.S. attorney offices could just become another arm of the executive branch.
That nearly happened during the Bush administration when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales attempted to purge attorneys seen as not sufficiently loyal to the president.
Like so much today, what ailed the rule of law under Bush is returning in even more virulent fashion under Donald J. Trump. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is abusing a little-used statute in an unprecedented way that is leading to an end run around the Senate’s advice and consent authority with respect to U.S. attorneys. Given what we know about the ongoing investigations into the president and Trump’s authoritarian instincts, this is a frightening and dangerous development.
In 2007, Congress responded the U.S. attorney scandal by amending the statute governing U.S. attorney appointments to clarify that there were limits on the appointment of interim U.S. attorneys. But under that amended statute (28 U.S.C. Section 546), the attorney general still has nearly unlimited discretion in selecting interim U.S. attorneys to serve for up to 120 days.
There are other Trump-related entanglements that prosecutors in these districts have been dealing with as well.
That level of discretion is at odds with the problem of executive branch overreach the statute sought to limit and a series of actions on this front by Sessions require vastly more scrutiny and skepticism than they have received thus far. On March 10, 2017, Sessions summarily fired 46 U.S. attorneys, including most dramatically U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara. Under the Vacancies Act, the career figures who took over those offices could serve for 300 days on that acting basis. Flash forward the start of this year, when on Jan. 3, the Justice Department announced the appointment of 17 interim U.S. attorneys to replace acting officials whose time had run out.
The 17 interim appointments were nearly exclusively from states with at least one Democratic senator. This is notable because, historically, senators are accorded the ability to block Senate Judiciary Committee votes for U.S. attorney nominees from their home states as part of the “blue slip” process.
Due to the potential legal exposure of Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, Jared Kushner, and the Kushner family business in the Southern District of New York, the Eastern District of New York, and New Jersey, those interim appointments are the most obviously troubling.
Lips pursed
https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/974684921573924864
Vanessa ready to make like Tom & CRUISE.
Make like Tom and cruise! I like it.
Vannesa ready to make like horseshit and HIT THE TRAIL
Vannesa ready to makeLike Michael Jason and BEAT IT
Vannesa ready to make like a bannana and SPLIT
The new cover of the New Yorker: “Exposed” pic.twitter.com/v9FsIdmT9p
— Axios (@axios) March 16, 2018
SCOOP: US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is creating a new internal oversight division to more closely monitor the adjudicators who process immigration applictions, internal documents show https://t.co/bY0o163nIQ
— Nick Miroff (@NickMiroff) March 16, 2018
New race ratings changes in 10 districts.
Subscribers can read the full overview here: https://t.co/m4Q55C4aA0 pic.twitter.com/vgOSW2iJtr
— CookPoliticalReport (@CookPolitical) March 16, 2018
The Koch Brothers Tried to Spread Fake News in Black Churches. It Did Not Go Well.
“God didn’t put me on this earth to pimp death for profit.”
KENYA DOWNSMAR. 16, 2018 6:00 AM
LOOK, Y’ALL
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/974677862958628864
https://twitter.com/theGrio/status/974374860242726913
https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/974657088147292160
https://twitter.com/jdawsey1/status/974644773368803328
Yeah, Friday is a good day for the reality show presidency to drop a bomb. Then msm can fret over it all weekend.
F*** these clowns.
IMPEACHMENT NOW!
I love this, Chicas!
https://www.facebook.com/Catchy.video/videos/675836686139302/?hc_ref=ARSj4T8qxOz-Y2uKGR_az6o6AKD6oUp5O12ABZ71-nyswHCL-9xfMhHW76Z6_quOYRo
Wow. That is impressive.
If this had happened during 44’s Administration, there’d be all sorts of think pieces asking why didn’t he do something?
But, now? Crickets.
THE CURVE FOR UNQUALIFIED WHITE MEN IS REAL.
…………………………
31,000 Toys ‘R’ Us employees: No job and no severance
CNN
Chris Isidore
The news that Toys “R” Us is closing might conjure up wistful childhood memories for shoppers. But for the chain’s 31,000 U.S. employees, it means they’re out of a job.
Many employees told CNN the shutdown caught them by surprise, even though the chain filed for bankruptcy back in September, and said in January that it would close nearly 200 locations.
“When they announced 182 stores closing and my store wasn’t on the list, I thought I’d be OK,” said one Florida employee who spoke to CNN.
That employee, a 39-year old mother of three boys, said she’s worked at the store for 12 years and hoped to remain there until her youngest, now 8 years old, was grown.
“They loved it,” she said. “Whenever they came to the store, they never wanted to leave.”
Mass layoffs are usually softened with a severance package, but Toys “R” Us employees won’t get any because of bankruptcy laws. They will get benefits such as health insurance and matching 401(k) payments from the company.
https://twitter.com/KPRC2/status/974646931229151232
I’m looking at this and thinking that this should never happen in this country. We’ve been building these overhead crosswalks for decades and we are world class builders and engineers.
So I read the article linked in the tweet…
“Robert Bea, a professor of engineering and construction management at the University of California, Berkeley, said it was too early to know exactly what happened, but the decision to use what the bridge builders called an “innovative installation” was risky, especially because the bridge spanned a heavily traveled thoroughfare.”
“”Innovations take a design firm into an area where they don’t have applicable experience, and then we have another unexpected failure on our hands,” Bea said after reviewing the bridge’s design and photos of the collapse.”
And this…
The main companies behind the $14.2 million construction project have faced questions about their past work, and one was fined in 2012 when a 90-ton (80-metric ton) section of a bridge collapsed in Virginia.
Munilla Construction Management, or MCM, the Miami-based construction management firm that won the bridge contract, took its website down Thursday. But an archived version featured a news release touting the project with FIGG Bridge Engineers, a Tallahassee firm.
…
But FIGG was fined in 2012 after a 90-ton (80-metric ton) section of a bridge it was building in Virginia crashed onto railroad tracks below, causing minor injuries to several workers. The citation from the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry said FIGG did not properly inspect a girder and had not obtained written consent from its manufacturer before modifying it, according to a story in The Virginian-Pilot.
Court documents show that MCM was accused of substandard work in a lawsuit filed earlier this month. The suit said a worker at Fort Lauderdale International Airport, where the company is working on an expansion, was injured when a makeshift MCM-built bridge collapsed under his weight.
The suit accused the company of employing “incompetent, inexperienced, unskilled or careless employees” at the job site.
Those poor people. I’m so sorry. Prayers to their families.
And all of the above makes me wonder who “Munilla Construction Management” is buddies with to be awarded this contract despite their record. Or was it just the lowest bid?
https://twitter.com/BillyCorben/status/974372505954803712
https://twitter.com/kelly2277/status/974363468030758913
https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/974356392239861760
Good Lord!
UH UH UH
https://twitter.com/AP/status/974585443336454145
WHOA!
https://twitter.com/AJENews/status/974646196479328256
https://twitter.com/politvidchannel/status/974640668101373952
https://twitter.com/TPM/status/974644222669348865
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/974626367185870849
Well, why not? The reality show presidency is in full swing.
Friday- FAKE NEWS DUMP DAY
https://twitter.com/politvidchannel/status/974636320608759808
Definitely not surprising.
https://twitter.com/CNN/status/974636428268396545
Good Morning Everyone 😄😄😄
Good Morning, Rikyrah.
SG2’s great post today on the student walkout has a photo of a student with a sign that asks a question that needs an answer NOW: