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StrictlyRockers
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StrictlyRockers's Journal
February 23, 2017
https://twitter.com/christoq/status/834605095538946048
Aaron Rupar
Journalist, ThinkProgress.
GOP senator wants Mike Flynn to testify before Congress about his Russia connections
Sen. Susan Collins says she’s also open to subpoenaing Trump’s tax returns.
Despite many unanswered questions about connections between President Donald Trump, his inner circle, and Russian officials, Republican members of Congress have so far been reluctant to pursue a robust investigation.
But during an interview with Maine Public Radio on Wednesday, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) expressed confidence that Congress will conduct a thorough, bipartisan investigation.
“I am confident that since this is a completely bipartisan investigation with full-time staff, that we’ll get to the bottom of this,” she said, adding that she anticipates the investigation will culminate in a public report.
Collins, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she and other members want former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to testify before them. Flynn lost his job last Monday after it was revealed he had lied about discussing Russian sanctions during his pre-inauguration communications with the Russian ambassador. The next day, news broke that the Trump campaign was in “constant contact” with Russian intelligence before the election. The U.S. intelligence community has made public its findings that Russia used cyberattacks and other methods to meddle in the presidential election on behalf of Trump.
“I am going to request, and many of the members will, that we call Mike Flynn to come testify — the former national security adviser — to testify before us, so we’re not going to exclude anyone from our review,” Collins said. “It will be thorough, accurate, bipartisan, and in depth.”
Sen. Susan Collins wants Mike Flynn to testify before Congress about his Russia connections
https://thinkprogress.org/susan-collins-russia-investigation-michael-flynn-e38f7a927c16#.ghfcrosezhttps://twitter.com/christoq/status/834605095538946048
Aaron Rupar
Journalist, ThinkProgress.
GOP senator wants Mike Flynn to testify before Congress about his Russia connections
Sen. Susan Collins says she’s also open to subpoenaing Trump’s tax returns.
Despite many unanswered questions about connections between President Donald Trump, his inner circle, and Russian officials, Republican members of Congress have so far been reluctant to pursue a robust investigation.
But during an interview with Maine Public Radio on Wednesday, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) expressed confidence that Congress will conduct a thorough, bipartisan investigation.
“I am confident that since this is a completely bipartisan investigation with full-time staff, that we’ll get to the bottom of this,” she said, adding that she anticipates the investigation will culminate in a public report.
Collins, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she and other members want former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to testify before them. Flynn lost his job last Monday after it was revealed he had lied about discussing Russian sanctions during his pre-inauguration communications with the Russian ambassador. The next day, news broke that the Trump campaign was in “constant contact” with Russian intelligence before the election. The U.S. intelligence community has made public its findings that Russia used cyberattacks and other methods to meddle in the presidential election on behalf of Trump.
“I am going to request, and many of the members will, that we call Mike Flynn to come testify — the former national security adviser — to testify before us, so we’re not going to exclude anyone from our review,” Collins said. “It will be thorough, accurate, bipartisan, and in depth.”
February 22, 2017
On August 25, 2009, Democratic Congressman Bart Gordon held a town hall meeting in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. A local news report called it “a discussion about the nation's health care” that “led to loud boos and heckling” from the crowd. On February 9, 2017, Republican Congresswoman Diane Black — elected to Gordon’s seat in the fall of 2010 — held a town hall meeting in the same city. A local news report headline proclaimed, “Diane Black, GOP lawmakers faced defenders of Obamacare at lively town hall.” Sounds similar, right?
The zeitgeist is quickly setting in: Republicans right now face a backlash akin to what Democrats faced from the Tea Party in 2009 and 2010. Some have gone so far as to call this resistance the Democratic Tea Party. It’s a convenient comparison: Democrats like it because the Republican Tea Party was successful in 2010, and the media appreciates it as a simple and straightforward story. I've been guilty of leaning on it myself.
But the Democratic resistance and the Tea Party actually differ in a number of important ways, each of which tells a different story about where our country is and where our politics may be headed.
For starters, the Tea Party was forged as an opposition to a societal reality in our country, while today’s resistance is opposed to a political reality. The Tea Party began before the election of President Obama, as a reaction to President Bush and the bank bailouts of 2008. Tea Partiers believed that society and the economy had all left them behind. The movement’s anger was stoked by the realization that the country had changed to the extent that it would elect someone like Barack Obama and support his “liberal” policies like the Economic Recovery Act (the so-called stimulus) and the Affordable Care Act (scornfully dubbed “Obamacare”). These members wanted the entire country to revert to a set of values that more closely resembled what they saw on Leave It to Beaver.
The Resistance Is the Majority of Americans - Not a New Tea Party (Time)
http://time.com/4676825/democratic-resistance-tea-party/On August 25, 2009, Democratic Congressman Bart Gordon held a town hall meeting in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. A local news report called it “a discussion about the nation's health care” that “led to loud boos and heckling” from the crowd. On February 9, 2017, Republican Congresswoman Diane Black — elected to Gordon’s seat in the fall of 2010 — held a town hall meeting in the same city. A local news report headline proclaimed, “Diane Black, GOP lawmakers faced defenders of Obamacare at lively town hall.” Sounds similar, right?
The zeitgeist is quickly setting in: Republicans right now face a backlash akin to what Democrats faced from the Tea Party in 2009 and 2010. Some have gone so far as to call this resistance the Democratic Tea Party. It’s a convenient comparison: Democrats like it because the Republican Tea Party was successful in 2010, and the media appreciates it as a simple and straightforward story. I've been guilty of leaning on it myself.
But the Democratic resistance and the Tea Party actually differ in a number of important ways, each of which tells a different story about where our country is and where our politics may be headed.
For starters, the Tea Party was forged as an opposition to a societal reality in our country, while today’s resistance is opposed to a political reality. The Tea Party began before the election of President Obama, as a reaction to President Bush and the bank bailouts of 2008. Tea Partiers believed that society and the economy had all left them behind. The movement’s anger was stoked by the realization that the country had changed to the extent that it would elect someone like Barack Obama and support his “liberal” policies like the Economic Recovery Act (the so-called stimulus) and the Affordable Care Act (scornfully dubbed “Obamacare”). These members wanted the entire country to revert to a set of values that more closely resembled what they saw on Leave It to Beaver.
February 13, 2017
Trump Tried & Failed to Pull His Strange Trademark Handshake on Justin Trudeau.
Trump has deployed his strange handshake—which involves him yanking the other person’s arm and shaking it for a several beats longer than expected—in public meetings with Vice President Mike Pence, Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch and, most recently, on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Which is to say Trudeau was warned.
In video of their meeting, you can see Trump attempt the move on Trudeau and Trudeau resist the pull by pulling back until their handshake is stabilized.
https://twitter.com/christoq/status/831273559498428417
February 12, 2017
OMG, Melissa McCarthy is so good! I'm dying! I laughed so hard!
SNL - Daily White House Press Briefing with Sean Spicer 02/11/2017
OMG, Melissa McCarthy is so good! I'm dying! I laughed so hard!
February 11, 2017
1000 volunteers showed up this morning to form this RESIST!! sign at Ocean Beach in SF
https://twitter.com/christoq/status/830532591409258496
February 11, 2017
I'm not a strong believer in voodoo, but I figured what the heck.
https://twitter.com/christoq/status/830206324768022529
January 28, 2017
President Trump’s executive order barring nearly all refugees from entering the United States has been in effect for less than 24 hours. But it has already upended the lives of real people. It’s keeping families apart and destroying their plans to continue — or rebuild — their lives.
In New York, two Iraqi refugees, Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, were detained overnight at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Both of these men worked with the US military and contractors in Iraq. Their lives were threatened as a result. According to the legal complaint filed on behalf of the two men, Darweesh had his home raided by militia-affiliated police, while two of his coworkers were killed “as soon as they arrived at work”; he had to move twice during his time working with the US for his safety. Alshawi’s brother-in-law (who worked with Alshawi) was killed by an IED placed on a family car.
These horrible events were the direct result of helping the United States. And America turned its back on them in return. (Darweesh was released from detention Saturday afternoon, though it’s not yet clear whether he’ll be allowed to stay in the US.)
These men are just two examples of many that began to come into focus within a day of the order’s signing. A Syrian refugee family was scheduled to fly to Cleveland from a Turkish refugee camp on Tuesday, only to have their travel — and their plan to rebuild their lives — scrapped. An Iranian genomics researcher tweeted Saturday morning that she was excited to start her new job in a Boston lab, but hadn’t been allowed to get on the plane.
These are just the examples we know of. We do not know the full extent to which this policy is already wrecking lives. But we do know that it will continue to do real damage.
Donald Trump has broken America's promise to the world. And people are already suffering for it.
http://www.vox.com/2017/1/28/14424528/trump-refugee-ban-impactPresident Trump’s executive order barring nearly all refugees from entering the United States has been in effect for less than 24 hours. But it has already upended the lives of real people. It’s keeping families apart and destroying their plans to continue — or rebuild — their lives.
In New York, two Iraqi refugees, Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, were detained overnight at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Both of these men worked with the US military and contractors in Iraq. Their lives were threatened as a result. According to the legal complaint filed on behalf of the two men, Darweesh had his home raided by militia-affiliated police, while two of his coworkers were killed “as soon as they arrived at work”; he had to move twice during his time working with the US for his safety. Alshawi’s brother-in-law (who worked with Alshawi) was killed by an IED placed on a family car.
These horrible events were the direct result of helping the United States. And America turned its back on them in return. (Darweesh was released from detention Saturday afternoon, though it’s not yet clear whether he’ll be allowed to stay in the US.)
These men are just two examples of many that began to come into focus within a day of the order’s signing. A Syrian refugee family was scheduled to fly to Cleveland from a Turkish refugee camp on Tuesday, only to have their travel — and their plan to rebuild their lives — scrapped. An Iranian genomics researcher tweeted Saturday morning that she was excited to start her new job in a Boston lab, but hadn’t been allowed to get on the plane.
These are just the examples we know of. We do not know the full extent to which this policy is already wrecking lives. But we do know that it will continue to do real damage.
January 8, 2017
Dear Trump supporters, you lost, too. It just hasn't hit you yet.
It will, though. It will.
January 7, 2017
Leon Panetta, the former CIA director, aired concerns with Donald Trump’s public resistance to the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia sought to disrupt the election through cyberattacks, calling it “unheard of and unprecedented.”
“I've never seen anything like this in my lifetime,” Panetta told NBC’s Matt Lauer in an interview taped Thursday and aired Friday on the "Today" show. “The fact that the president-elect is tweeting on this issue and taking it to the public, and in many ways undermining the credibility of the very intelligence agencies that have to provide information to him in order for him to be president of the United States, this is just unheard of and unprecedented, and I think we all have to be concerned about this.”
“This is not the kind of bickering that ought to be going on in public,” he concluded.
Panetta, a Democrat who led the CIA and later the Defense Department during the Obama administration, was blunt in his interview with Lauer. He sounded dismayed that Trump has taken to Twitter to question intelligence officials’ conclusion from October that Russia was behind cyberattacks on top Democratic Party officials during the presidential campaign.
Ex-CIA chief Panetta on Trump's distrust in intel: 'I've never seen anything like this'
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-intelligence-briefing-leon-panetta-233282Leon Panetta, the former CIA director, aired concerns with Donald Trump’s public resistance to the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia sought to disrupt the election through cyberattacks, calling it “unheard of and unprecedented.”
“I've never seen anything like this in my lifetime,” Panetta told NBC’s Matt Lauer in an interview taped Thursday and aired Friday on the "Today" show. “The fact that the president-elect is tweeting on this issue and taking it to the public, and in many ways undermining the credibility of the very intelligence agencies that have to provide information to him in order for him to be president of the United States, this is just unheard of and unprecedented, and I think we all have to be concerned about this.”
“This is not the kind of bickering that ought to be going on in public,” he concluded.
Panetta, a Democrat who led the CIA and later the Defense Department during the Obama administration, was blunt in his interview with Lauer. He sounded dismayed that Trump has taken to Twitter to question intelligence officials’ conclusion from October that Russia was behind cyberattacks on top Democratic Party officials during the presidential campaign.
Profile Information
Name: ChristoGender: Male
Hometown: Santa Cruz, CA, USA
Home country: USA
Current location: Santa Cruz, CA
Member since: Thu Aug 31, 2006, 04:14 AM
Number of posts: 3,855
