April 15, 2018

Trump spent Sunday morn in front of tv "dispatching tweet after tweet"

Six days ago, President Donald Trump was planning to spend his Sunday morning in Bogota, conducting breakfast diplomacy across from the leader of Colombia, a burgeoning US ally.

Instead, he spent the morning in front of his White House televisions, dispatching tweet after tweet lambasting the FBI director that he fired and the allegations levied in his still-forthcoming book.

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it was a test page of insults and rebuttals, a see-what-sticks strategy for a President who finds himself under increasing siege amid multiple investigations and legal battles. For White House aides, it was a predictable outcome to a book that alleges not only ethical lapses, but also insults the President's appearance and intelligence.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/15/politics/trump-tweets-comey/index.html

April 14, 2018

"worst hotel guest ever" pardoned after 17 years

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/14/world/canada/sea-gulls-fairmont-empress-victoria-nick-burchill-pepperoni.html

My room was a nice, big, front-facing room on the fourth floor. It was well appointed, but it did not have a refrigerator. It was April, the air was chilly. An easy way to keep all of this food cool would be just to keep it next to an open window. I lifted one of the sashes and spread the packages of pepperoni out on the table and window sill. Then, I went for a walk…..for about 4 or 5 hours.

When I had covered enough ground, I returned to the hotel. I remember walking down the long hall and opening the door to my room to find an entire flock of seagulls in my room. I didn’t have time to count, but there must have been 40 of them and they had been in my room, eating pepperoni for a long time.

In case you were wondering, Brothers’ TNT Pepperoni does NASTY things to a seagull’s digestive system. As you would expect, the room was covered in seagull crap. What I did not realize until then was that Seagulls also drool. Especially when they eat pepperoni.

I’m sure you have an image in your head. Now remember that I have just walked into the room and startled all of these birds. They immediately started flying around and crashing into things as they desperately tried to leave the room through the small opening by which they had entered.

Less composed seagulls are attempting to leave through the other CLOSED windows. The result was a tornado of seagull excrement, feathers, pepperoni chunks and fairly large birds whipping around the room. The lamps were falling. The curtains were trashed. The coffee tray was just disgusting.

I waded through the birds and opened the remaining windows. Most of the gulls left immediately. One tried to re-enter the room to grab another piece of pepperoni and in my agitated state, I took off one of my shoes and threw it at him.


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156523301334739&set=a.10150885243919739.471335.523144738&type=3&theater

April 13, 2018

We are tethered to a buffoon. He rages and veers, spreading ugliness, like an oil slick

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/13/opinion/trump-hitler-europe.html?action=click&contentCollection=U.S.&module=Trending&version=Full®ion=Marginalia&pgtype=article

We are tethered to a buffoon. He rages and veers, spreading ugliness, like an oil slick smothering everything in its viscous mantle. He’s about to bomb Syria. He’s not about to bomb Syria. His attention span is nonexistent. He attacks the foundations of our Republic: an independent judiciary, a free press, truth itself. His cabinet looks terrorized, the way Saddam Hussein’s once did.

President Donald Trump is dangerous. The main things mitigating the danger are his incompetence and cowardice. We live in a time that teaches how outrage can turn to a shrug, how the unthinkable repeated over and over can induce moral numbness, how a madman’s manic certainties can overwhelm reason. He is very busy; people resist; he opens another front; people shake their heads. It’s hard to remember on Friday what happened on Monday. Trump’s is the unbearable lightness of the charlatan.

Disorientation spreads. Trump’s main war, beyond all the military bluster, is on truth. This reflects his instinct for the jugular: Once the distinction between truth and falsehood disappears, anything is possible. There are plenty of examples these days, from Moscow to Budapest, of how “democracies” can be manipulated to the point where they can yield only one result. This is Trump’s objective, and for it he needs a weakened Justice Department, a weakened press and an American public that will believe anything. He has had setbacks but is stubborn.

April 13, 2018

Donald Trump's instability is getting scarier

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.3928847.1523485860!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_1200/lee12e-1-web.jpg

Each passing month has been an unfolding of new dangers in our era, reaching yet another milestone with the appointment of John Bolton as national security adviser and nomination of Mike Pompeo as secretary of state. The ever-accelerating news cycle is stressful and exhausting, but having a deeper understanding of events can help to relieve anxiety as well as to help prepare ourselves for whatever may come.

For nearly a year, a group of mental health professionals has tried to contribute to this understanding by warning about the dangers that are now unfolding. A historically unprecedented number joined together and formed the National Coalition of Concerned Mental Health Experts, to express our concerns about President Trump. In a public service book, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” about two dozen of us expressed our consensus view that Trump is a danger to the nation and to the globe.

Our concern was less about the President’s own mental health and more about the public health implications of his holding the most powerful position on the planet. We now have the data to confirm a spike in hate crimes, widespread schoolyard bullying and a doubling of white supremacist killings in the last year.

As proof of the nation’s ever increasing stress level, the American Psychological Association reported that Americans are experiencing worse levels of stress than during World War II, the Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile Crisis or the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. All this is without mentioning the international effects of alienating allies, emboldening dictators, reigniting nuclear proliferation and launching a trade war.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/donald-trump-instability-scarier-article-1.3928848

April 13, 2018

The public is recoiling at Trumps contempt for the rule of law

But the new Post/ABC poll represents a major public vote of confidence in the investigation — and a major repudiation of Trump’s delegitimization of it as a mere “witch hunt.” It finds that 69 percent of Americans support Mueller’s efforts to investigate possible Russia-Trump campaign collusion, and 64 percent support Mueller’s investigation of Trump’s business activities, which, you may recall, Trump declared as a red line that Mueller mustn’t cross. It even finds that 58 percent support Mueller’s investigation of hush money paid to women who alleged affairs.

What about public attitudes toward Comey? Well, the poll finds that Americans see Comey as more believable than Trump by 48-32 and disapprove of Trump’s firing of Comey by 47-33. Those numbers aren’t that high for Comey, but they are shockingly low for Trump.



The public is recoiling at Trump’s contempt for the rule of law

It’s tempting to see this polling as little more than a reflection of Trump’s deep unpopularity. But numbers this stark suggest something else may be going on: that the depth of Trump’s contempt for our institutions and the rule of law is becoming clear to the public, and Americans are recoiling at it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/04/13/as-trump-rages-at-comey-a-new-poll-shows-his-lies-are-failing/?utm_term=.22d746d5e31c

April 13, 2018

Libby pardon is message to Mueller witnesses

April 13, 2018

Did you ever imagine the "leader of the free world" would be a name calling

Immature a**hole?

He makes bush two look like a statesman

April 13, 2018

Trump administration pauses legal orientation for immigrants

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/trump-administration-pauses-legal-orientation-for-immigrants/

Immigrant advocates are outraged by a U.S. government decision to put on hold a program that helps tens of thousands of immigrants navigate the country’s complex immigration court system.

The $8 million-a-year program that provides legal orientation to immigrants in deportation proceedings is on hold pending review, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, which oversees immigration courts.


This move that came to light this week angered immigrant advocates, who called the assistance a lifeline for asylum seekers and other immigrants fighting deportation without lawyers.

“Every day this program is not in operation puts family unity at risk, harms our communities, and infringes on the right of all people to make informed decisions about their legal claims,” the New York-based Vera Institute of Justice said in a news release.

April 13, 2018

In-N-Out suing Australian restaurant for using the name Down N' Out

https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/In-N-Out-Down-N-Out-copyright-trademark-lawsuit-12829801.php




But even though Down N' Out isn't exactly huge competition for a beloved fast food chain that has more than 300 locations nationwide, In-N-Out is still taking the restaurant to court.

LUCKY DAY: In-N-Out worker goes viral after Raiders QB shows up in the drive-thru

The company filed a lawsuit against Down N' Out's owner, Hashtag Burgers, in an Australian court, claiming its trademark was violated and Down N' Out has been misleading customers by passing off its goods as similar to In-N-Out's, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. In-N-Out claims the Australian restaurant has been unfairly benefiting from the American fast food chain's "substantial reputation and goodwill."

In-N-Out is reportedly asking the court to order Down N' Out to change its similar, albeit slightly sadder name, pay damages, and fork over any money it made from using the name.

April 13, 2018

GOP rep.: 'A lot of the attractive children are not making it to the border'

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/12/politics/john-carter-children-border/index.html

Washington (CNN)A Texas congressman suggested in a Thursday hearing that human smugglers target immigrant children based on attractiveness.

Republican Rep. John Carter made the comment at a hearing about US immigration and border agencies in an exchange with fellow Texas Republican Rep. John Culberson and officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
"Believe me, a lot of the attractive children are not making it to the border," Carter said as an aside. There was a brief pause before the conversation moved on to another line of questioning.
Culberson had been asking a series of questions about asylum laws and other laws designed to protect families and children when they make it to the US and await decisions about whether they can stay.