Trump has spent over 1/4 of his presidency at Mar a Lago

Trump visits Mar-a-Lago resort for 23rd day as president

President Trump’s Friday trip to his Mar-a-Lago resort marks the 23rd day he’s visited the Palm Beach club over the first 84 days of his presidency.

Trump will spend the full three-day Easter weekend at the resort. No senior staff took the Air Force One flight to Florida, according to a report.

Donald Trump. Jr appeared to be in Florida to welcome his father, tweeting a photo of Trump deboarding the plane.

more
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/328817-trump-visits-mar-a-lago-resort-for-23rd-days-as-president

'Fox & Friends' cheers Afghan bomb video

"Fox & Friends" on Friday admiringly aired a government video showing a massive bomb being dropped in Afghanistan, with one host touting it as "what freedom looks like."

The U.S. military on Thursday dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb — GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), commonly called the "mother of all bombs" — onto a terrorist tunnel network in Afghanistan.

Fox News's morning show on Friday aired the video of the bombing to the sounds of Toby Keith's “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.” The country song, written in 2002 amid calls for military action after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, famously contains the line “We’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way.”

Host Ainsley Earhardt referenced the song's lyrics, saying that even though the video is in black and white, “That’s what freedom looks like, that’s the red, white, and blue."

more
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/328820-fox-friends-cheers-afghan-bomb-video

Friday TOON Roundup 4 - The Rest

Spicer







Devos


Sessions



Aliens



Garland


Taxes


The Issue




War

Friday TOON Roundup 3 - Fly the stupid skies

Friday TOON Roundup 2 - Spinning Sleeze

Friday TOON Roundup 1 - White Liar

Why the Hell Did the New York Times Just Hire a Climate Denier?

In late March, the New York Times’ editorial board called President Trump’s move to dismantle Obama-era climate protections “deeply dismaying,” citing “the rock-solid scientific consensus that without swift action the consequences of climate change—rising seas, more devastating droughts, widespread species extinction—are likely to get steadily worse.” Today the paper announced it has hired a climate denier as an op-ed columnist.

Bret Stephens, currently the Wall Street Journal’s deputy editorial page editor, has won a Pulitzer Prize. He has also written multiple pieces casting doubt on what in 2014 he called “the purported threat of global warming.” In 2010, following a hyped-up pseudo-controversy over a climate researcher’s emails, he cheerfully announced that the “secular panic” of “global warming is dead, nailed into its coffin one devastating disclosure, defection and re-evaluation at a time.”

“Herewith, then, I propose a readers' contest to invent the next panic,” he urged. “It must involve something ubiquitous, invisible to the naked eye and preferably mass-produced.”

To be fair, the New York Times opinion page could use a few fresh voices. And while it may have been nice not to go with yet another Gen X, middle-aged and/or old white man, contrarian (read: conservative) views do have a place in the national debate.

But whether climate change exists is no longer a debate. False equivalence has been a fatal flaw in much mainstream climate coverage: Offering equal space to two sides of a controversy that doesn’t exist, and has been fueled to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars by fossil fuel-funded disinformation campaigns.

more
http://inthesetimes.com/article/20062/why-the-hell-did-the-new-york-times-just-hire-climate-denier-bret-stephens

Scorpion Falls From Overhead Bin, Stings Passenger on United Flight

After spending two weeks on vacation in Mexico, Richard and Linda Bell were on a United Airlines flight home from Houston to Calgary on Sunday. They thought their adventure was over — until a scorpion fell from the overhead compartment and on to Richard.

They didn’t immediately recognize the honey-colored, 1.5-inch animal until a passenger sitting next to them pointed out that it was probably a scorpion.

Richard took the scorpion from his hair and dropped it onto his tray. When he picked it up again, the animal stung him. Bell told Global News Canada that it “felt like a wasp sting.”

Another passenger took the scorpion, stomped it on the ground and then threw the remains in the toilet.

more
http://www.travelandleisure.com/airlines-airports/scorpion-bites-passenger-on-plane

United staff 'forced frail grandma, 94, out of 2,800 Business seat into Economy for 16-hour flight

United Airlines staff forced a frail 94-year-old grandma to leave her £2,800 Business Class seat and sit in discomfort in Economy, her family have claimed.

Paz Orquiza was travelling from Los Angeles back to Melbourne, Australia, after visiting relatives.

Her granddaughter Marianne Santos Aguilar said Mrs Orquiza has a number of disabilities including severe arthritis .

Her relatives had all chipped in to buy her a Business class seat with United in the hope of making the 16-hour journey more comfortable.

more

EPA regulation cuts likely to hurt children most, experts say

(CNN)Many things a child does -- from playing outside to sprawling out on carpets and lawns -- puts them at greater risk for exposure to environmental hazards such as pollution in the air, pesticides on grass and treatments on rugs.


President Donald Trump's proposed budget cuts include reducing the Environmental Protection Agency's budget by 31%, eliminating many of the regulatory programs that have helped improve air quality and standards that protect kids from pollutants and toxic substances. The new EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, who has sued the agency over regulations numerous times, has also taken steps in recent weeks to dismantle key environmental and health protection programs.

Researchers say that if implemented, these cuts will have long-term and costly health impacts on children.


more
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/13/health/epa-cuts-children-health/index.html