RandySF
RandySF's JournalBeto O'Rourke to march, speak against border wall during Trump rally in El Paso
Beto O'Rourke is not shying away from the spotlight as President Donald Trump prepares to hold a rally in the El Paso hometown of the former congressman and potential presidential candidate.
On Monday evening, O'Rourke will lead a march through the city and then speak at a "Celebration of El Paso" at 7 p.m. local time — across the street from Trump's rally and at the same time it is set to begin, according to O'Rourke's team. The events, which will feature music and other speakers, are intended to highlight El Paso's strength as a binational community — and push back against Trump's long-sought border wall.
The rally comes as O'Rourke nears a decision on whether to join the Democratic race to challenge Trump in 2020 following a closer-than-expected loss to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in November. On Tuesday, O'Rourke promised a 2020 decision by the end of the month.
Earlier Monday, O'Rourke will join his successor in Congress, Rep. Veronica Escobar, for a conference call to "denounce Trump’s campaign rally in El Paso and his fixation on a racist and useless border wall," organizers said. And on Friday evening, O'Rourke returned to his favorite blogging platform — Medium — to offer a prebuttal to Trump's trip.
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/02/08/beto-orourke-march-trump-rally-el-paso/
Mississippi lieutenant governor was in fraternity that hosted racist party
Mississippi Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves (R) is facing questions about allegations that his college fraternity hosted a racist party, as well as yearbook photos that surfaced Friday showing members dressed as Confederate soldiers.
Reeves was a member of Kappa Alpha at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., when the fraternity hosted a party in 1994 that included Afro wigs and pledges wearing Confederate flags around their necks, according to USA Today.
Fraternity members allegedly shouted the N-word at the party, USA Today reported, citing the school's newspaper, and the school's Black Student Association later requested the fraternity be suspended, according to the student newspaper.
The pictures from the 1995 yearbook were published by American Ledger, a website paid for by Democratic super PAC American Bridge 21st Century.
It was not immediately clear Friday whether Reeves is in any of the photos or attended the party in question, though he was a member of the fraternity at the time.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/429177-mississippi-lieutenant-governors-college-yearbook-shows-fraternity
Candace Owens: Hitler Was 'OK' Until He Tried to Go Global
ro-Trump personality Candace Owens described Adolf Hitler’s plan for Germany as initially “OK” while speaking in the same city that the Nazi dictator relentlessly bombed nearly 80 years ago.
The remarks came in newly resurfaced video, taken in December at a London event launching the British chapter of Turning Point USA, the conservative campus group she helps lead. Owens’s comments were first reported on Friday by BuzzFeed News.
Owens was asked by an audience member for her thoughts on the future of nationalist movements. In her response, Owens said “nationalism” has been given a bad rap before pivoting to the Nazi dictator.
“When we say nationalism, the first thing people think about, at least in America, is Hitler. He was a national socialist.” she said.
“If Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK, fine,” Owens continued, while standing next to Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
“The problem is he wanted, he had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalize, he wanted everybody to be German, everybody to be speaking German, everybody to look a different way. To me, that’s not nationalism. So in thinking about how it could go bad down the line, I don’t really have an issue with nationalism, I really don’t.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/candace-owens-hitler-was-ok-until-he-tried-to-go-global
Netflix acquires the rights to AOC documentary
Netflix Inc. acquired rights to the award-winning documentary “Knock Down the House,” about the election campaigns of U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and three other women from the Democratic Party, reportedly paying the most ever for such a film.
The picture, which originally was funded by a Kickstarter campaign online, won the Festival Favorite Award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The Los Gatos, California-based streaming giant announced the deal in a statement Thursday. Ocasio-Cortez was the only winner among the four underdog candidates portrayed in the film.
Politics is an important source of content for Netflix. Barack and Michelle Obama struck a multiyear deal to create programming for the service. The video service is also home to “Get Me Roger Stone,” about the longtime lobbyist and consultant to Donald Trump in 2016.
“Knock Down the House” follows the grassroots campaigns of Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Paula Jean Swearengin and Cori Bush. Their campaigns focused on income inequality, health care, police violence and the environment.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-07/ocasio-cortez-campaign-film-draws-top-dollar-from-netflix
From Costa Rica to New Jersey, a pipeline of illegal workers for Trump goes back years
SANTA TERESA DE CAJON, COSTA RICA — At his home on the misty slope of Costa Rica’s tallest mountain, Dario Angulo keeps a set of photographs from the years he tended the rolling fairways and clipped greens of a faraway American golf resort.
Angulo learned to drive backhoes and bulldozers, carving water hazards and tee boxes out of former horse pastures in Bedminster, N.J., where a famous New Yorker was building a world-class course. Angulo earned $8 an hour, a fraction of what a state-licensed heavy equipment operator would make, with no benefits or overtime pay. But he stayed seven years on the grounds crew, saving enough for a small piece of land and some cattle back home.
Now the 34-year-old lives with his wife and daughters in a sturdy house built by “Trump money,” as he put it, with a porch to watch the sun go down.
It’s a common story in this small town.
Other former employees of President Trump’s company live nearby: men who once raked the sand traps and pushed mowers through thick heat on Trump’s prized golf property — the “Summer White House,” as aides have called it — where his daughter Ivanka got married and where he wants to build a family cemetery.
“Many of us helped him get what he has today,” Angulo said. “This golf course was built by illegals.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/my-whole-town-practically-lived-there-from-costa-rica-to-new-jersey-a-pipeline-of-illegal-workers-for-trump-goes-back-years/2019/02/08/8cdbc1dc-2971-11e9-97b3-ae59fbae7960_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7c6a253d3462
Bezos investigator believes 'government entity' may have obtained texts
A reporter at the Washington Post says that an investigator hired by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos believes that text messages leaked to the National Enquirer between Bezos and his girlfriend may have been sent to the magazine by someone in government.
In an appearance on MSNBC on Thursday, Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia said that Bezos's security consultant Gavin de Becker believes that National Enquirer obtained text messages from Bezos through inappropriate means.
Bezos on Thursday said in a blog post that the Enquirer was attempting to force him to call off his investigation of the tabloid under the threat of further texts being released.
“They have begun to believe, the Bezos camp, that this publication by the National Enquirer might have been politically motivated,” Roig-Franzia said Thursday.
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/429085-reporter-bezos-investigator-believes-government-entity-may-have-obtained
Ronan Farrow Claims He Also Received Threats From National Enquirer And Its AMI Parent Corp.
In a series of tweets, Farrow said American Media Inc., the National Enquirer parent, had sent him and “one other prominent journalist” a warning: “Stop digging or we’ll ruin you.”
Farrow wrote several stories on the Enquirer for The New Yorker, including some that claimed AMI chairman and CEO David Pecker killed stories that could damage President Donald Trump.
“I and at least one other prominent journalist involved in breaking stories about the National Enquirer’s arrangement with Trump fielded similar ‘stop digging or we’ll ruin you’ blackmail efforts from AMI,” Farrow tweeted. “(I did not engage as I don’t cut deals with subjects of ongoing reporting.)”
Farrow, also noted for his coverage of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, had produced emails in his work on that story that showed that Dylan Howard, chief content officer of American Media Inc.’s Celebrity Group, had dispatched a reporter to uncover derogatory information about an actress who had accused Weinstein of rape, and then shared that information with Weinstein.
Howard claimed he was merely exercising due diligence before entering into a business relationship with Weinstein.
Farrow, also noted for his coverage of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, had produced emails in his work on that story that showed that Dylan Howard, chief content officer of American Media Inc.’s Celebrity Group, had dispatched a reporter to uncover derogatory information about an actress who had accused Weinstein of rape, and then shared that information with Weinstein.
https://deadline.com/2019/02/ronan-farrow-claims-he-also-received-threats-from-national-enquirer-and-its-ami-parent-corp-1202552448/
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