January 18, 2020

more than 80% 0f Black Americans view trump as racist. 90% disapprove of his job performance

Black Americans deeply pessimistic about country under president who more than 8 in 10 describe as 'a racist,' Post-Ipsos poll finds

President Donald Trump made a stark appeal to black Americans during the 2016 election when he asked, "What have you got to lose?" Three years later, black Americans have rendered their verdict on his presidency with a deeply pessimistic assessment of their place in the United States under a leader seen by an overwhelming majority as racist.

The findings come from a Washington Post-Ipsos poll of African Americans nationwide, which reveals fears about whether their children will have a fair shot to succeed and a belief that white Americans don't fully appreciate the discrimination that black people experience.

While personally optimistic about their own lives, black Americans today offer a bleaker view about their community as a whole. They also express determination to try to limit Trump to a single term in office.


More than 8 in 10 black Americans say they believe Trump is a racist and that he has made racism a bigger problem in the country. Nine in 10 disapprove of his job performance overall.

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Francine Cartwright, a 44-year-old mother of three from Moorestown, New Jersey, said the ascent of Trump has altered the way she thinks about the white people in her life.

"If I'm in a room with white women, I know that 50% of them voted for Trump and they believe in his ideas," said Cartwright, a university researcher. "I look at them and think, 'How do you see me? What is my humanity to you?' "

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Black-Americans-deeply-pessimistic-about-country-14983088.php

January 18, 2020

kitten vs malamute

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January 18, 2020

Trump threatened UK with 25% tariff on its cars unless it agreed to accuse Iran of breaking nuclear

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/trump-tariffs-uk-iran-nuclear-deal-france-germany-eu-a9286496.html

January 18, 2020

Royal carribean proves grandpa knew window was open

The family said the little girl wanted to bang on a window's glass, as she did at the rink at her brother's hockey games. So, grandfather Salvatore Anello lifted her up to a window pane, believing it was closed, the family claims.

Anello is color blind and couldn't have seen that the window, part of a bank of green-tinted windows on the ship’s 11th floor, was open before he lost control of Chloe and she fell onto a deck below, the family said.

But Royal Caribbean counters this claim in its motion, which includes a series of still images that the company said were taken from security video and which it says show that Anello knew the window was open before holding Chloe up to it.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/granddad-toddler-who-died-cruise-ship-fall-knew-window-was-n1117796

January 17, 2020

Televangelist Acton Bowen Sentenced To 1,008 Years For Sexually Abusing Children

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2019/12/televangelist-acton-bowen-sentenced-to-1008-years-for-sexually-abusing-children/

Acton Bowen, the evangelist who served as a youth minister for teenage boys and became a best-selling author was given the maximum sentence for all 28 charges related to sexually abusing six teenagers in Etowah County on Friday. The sentences are to be served consecutively which means Bowen would serve roughly 1,008 years before being released.

Before being arrested for raping and sexually assaulting children, Bowen, founder of Acton Bowen Outreach Ministries, was a wildly popular youth evangelist and the host of xlroads TV, “a worldwide broadcast viewed weekly by millions of teens and adults in every city in America and over 170 countries around the world.”

Reporting on Bowen’s popularity, ABC News notes:

The news of Bowen’s arrest in 2018 shocked many in east Alabama’s Christian community where he was considered a hometown hero. Bowen had served as chaplain for the 2012 Olympics, made appearances on Fox News, and promoted himself as a spiritual adviser to Hollywood Stars including Justin Beiber.



According to reports, Bowen offered his underage victims hundreds of dollars to perform sexual acts, victims he met through his youth ministry.

January 16, 2020

Trump making Puerto Rico dance for aid to make his base feel good

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/15/us/politics/trump-puerto-rico-disaster-aid.html

Trump Attaches Severe Restrictions to Puerto Rico’s Long-Delayed Disaster Aid
Days after the island was hit by a 5.9-magnitude earthquake, the White House released billions in aid but placed limits on how it can be spent.

January 16, 2020

Wendy Williams apologizes for Joaquin Phoenix 'cleft lip' comments

After being slammed for appearing to mock those with cleft lips and palates, Wendy Williams has apologized.

The daytime talk show host ran afoul of some parents and activists after recent comments she made regarding a scar on actor Joaquin Phoenix's lip.
While discussing the Golden Globes during her January 7 show, Williams told her show's audience she finds Phoenix — who won a best actor Golden Globe for his "Joker" performance — "oddly attractive."
"When he shaves off his mustache, he's got a hairline fracture," Williams said. "He's got one of those, what do you call it, cleft lip, cleft palate."

Williams pulled her top lip up over her teeth to demonstrate the look of a cleft.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, both a cleft lip and a cleft palate "are birth defects that occur when a baby's lip or mouth do not form properly during pregnancy. Together, these birth defects commonly are called 'orofacial clefts.'"
Canadian football player Adam Bighill was one of several people who criticized Williams on social media and repeatedly called for Williams to apologize.
On Wednesday he tweeted a photo of him holding his son, Beau.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/16/entertainment/wendy-williams-joaquin-phoenix-cleft-lip/index.html

https://twitter.com/Bighill44/status/1217486149159178240

January 16, 2020

What Donald Trump's unending stream of lies has done to our White House, our country and us.

In all, to date, there have been many thousands of falsehoods, and a significant percentage of them are lies: That is, Trump knows what he saying is not true, but says it anyway. It is not worth trying to list even a small subset of them – other journalists are doing yeoman’s work in that area – but it is nevertheless truly astonishing when you stop and think about it: Whenever the president of the United States opens his mouth, odds are that the words that tumble forth are false. Whenever the erstwhile leader of the free world puts his thumbs to his iPhone keypad, it is more likely than not that the assertions that pop up on social media moments later are an exaggeration. Or a random fabrication. Or a dramatic embellishment. Or a deliberate lie.

And perhaps the most troubling part of all this? That three years into the Donald Trump presidency, these observations lack the capacity to shock or even to raise an eyebrow. It is no longer newsworthy that the person leading the world’s most powerful nation, commanding the most destructive arsenal in human history, is untrustworthy to his core. It is simply where we are today.

If Ronald Reagan is the president who won the Cold War, and Obama will be remembered as the first Black president, Trump’s place in the history books is certain to be considerably less flattering: the impeached president who made up the most stuff, pretty much all day, pretty much every day.

Once upon a time, not terribly long ago, Donald J. Trump’s difficult relationship with the truth was of little actual consequence to anyone

.https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-untruth-lies-false_n_5e0bac46e4b0843d360c94ea

The question Americans need to ask themselves is do we have the right to accurate information from our White House, or not? Would we permit an elected small town mayor to lie this frequently about town business? How about a school board chair?

excellent long article about Trump and his lying mouth

January 16, 2020

Kellyanne Conway on Cuomo last night "I don't know Lev Parnas".

https://twitter.com/roper_93/status/1217797779159994371

January 16, 2020

Couple baited thieves with bicycle left outside, then beat thieves with aluminum bat

A California couple who say they were sick of getting robbed after moving into their new home ended up behind bars when they decided to get revenge. Corey Curnutt, 25, and Savannah Grillot, 29, say that a burglar broke into their car the very first night they spent in their Visalia home, and that another one did the same thing just a few nights later. So they decided to take action, leaving a bicycle outside their home and then, when someone came to nab it, allegedly beating the would-be thief with aluminum baseball bats, ABC 7 reports. Police say they did this to at least four people between July and November of last year, posting videos of the beatings to YouTube, but neighbors say there were many more victims than that, Fox News reports.

Curnutt and Grillot, who never reported any of the alleged bike thieves to police, were ultimately detained themselves and booked on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy. They're currently out on bail. Police say the public YouTube videos, which have since been taken down, helped them make an arrest; neighbors had reported the scheme to police. One neighbor says the suspects are nice people, but "we had mentioned, 'Maybe it's not the best idea, you're kind of bringing them into the neighborhood that might not be here otherwise'. And it was a lot, it was every night, and just a lot of activity." She adds the couple moved away about a month ago. As for the victims, more could come forward, but a Visalia police lieutenant explains, "They're reluctant victims, so they're not wanting to come out and say, 'Yeah, I was stealing a bike and got assaulted.'"

https://www.newser.com/story/285661/couple-gets-robbed-twice-comes-up-with-ill-advised-plan.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_world_img_b