https://twitter.com/juliegraceb/status/755227598792355840/video/1

A CODEPINK protester interrupted Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama’s speech to slam presumed GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s running mate Mike Pence during the Republican National Convention Monday.

Holding up a sign that read “We Can Stop Way,” 27-year-old Washington, D.C. native screamed Alli McCracken, “stop Mike Pence’s war on women.

McCracken told reporters after being removed from the Quicken Loans arena she found her credentials allowing her near the politicians on the road.

“I was going to wait until Trump was speaking because I think it’s really, really important to speak out against his rhetoric, but I saw Mike Pence right there near me, and as a woman I am particularly offended by Mike Pence’s war on women and the things he has done to restrict reproductive rights,” she alleged. “He’s even tried to restrict equal pay for women – so I felt compelled the moment that I saw him and so I stood up.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/18/rnc-protester-interrupts-jeff-sessions-to-slam-mike-pence/#ixzz4EuQghLP6

In a devastating early casualty of the Pence-Trump alliance, Indiana First Lady Karen Pence has put “That’s My Towel!” Charm, Inc. “on hold” this weekend shortly following her husband Mike Pence’s formal confirmation as Donald Trump’s running mate.


Karen Pence, Your Future Second Lady, Sells the Least Useful Item In Existence

Karen Pence, wife of GOP VP pick Gov. Mike Pence and soon-to-be Second (or First) Lady of Trump…

Just to refresh your memory, Towel Charms are little decorative silver charms that attach to your towels so you can a) tell your presumably matching towels apart and b) improve the look of your towels. The Towel Charm, much like the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, is a solution to a problem that only exists in the mind of a lunatic.

Although exact timing is unclear, Fusion notes that towelcharm.com went dark less than 24 hours after Trump officially announced Pence as his running mate on Saturday, and less than 48 hours after Jezebel first reported on it.

http://theslot.jezebel.com/karen-pence-has-shuttered-her-towel-charm-business-1783845615

Next came fierce criticism of working mothers.

“Sure, you can have it all,” he wrote in a 1997 letter to the Indianapolis Star. “But your day-care kids get the short end of the emotional stick.”

If Pence's past position is that women should just stay home, that stance has disintegrated over time as female breadwinners now support 40 percent of American households, and most families simply can’t survive on one income.

We don't know if Pence’s views have since changed — Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks didn’t respond to a request for comment. But if they haven't, he's increasingly out of step with his party. Last year, for example, Marco Rubio became the first GOP candidate to release a policy plan to make childcare more affordable, proposing new tax credits for working families.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/07/19/mike-pence-has-mocked-working-moms-sure-you-can-have-it-all/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_2_na

This is pathetic. Trump acts like he's back in the Celebrity Apprentice boardroom playacting a tough guy for the cameras. He declares that he will get "unbelievable intelligence"; he will "get rid of ISIS big league"; and he will "wipe them out." But when Lesley Stahl repeatedly asks him about ground troops, he repeatedly says this isn't in the cards. Maybe NATO will do it. Maybe other Arab countries will do it. Maybe troops will magically appear from a genie's bottle. Even though Trump claims that we're at war and President Obama is too weak and stupid to get it, in the end he basically endorses what Obama is doing right now. Like all the other armchair generals, he doesn't have the backbone to risk taking an unpopular stand, even if it's the only thing that would actually make a significant difference.

And when he's done with this empty blather, what does Mike Pence say? "This is the kind of leadership America needs." Heaven help us.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/07/listen-donald-trumps-pathetic-fakery-isis

Donald Trump, who often says he only likes winners, tells one grand tale of loss: In 1990, he nearly went bankrupt and was forced to ask dozens of banks to whom he owed money to change the terms on their loans and forgive some of his debts.

It was, the real estate developer admits in his 1997 book "The Art of the Comeback," the darkest period of his professional life. In his telling, it's a story of redemption, of resilience, and proof of his exceptional negotiating skills and shrewd thinking.

Six people who participated in the loan workout negotiations have a different recollection, raising questions about a key part of the personal narrative that many of Trump's supporters have found compelling as he campaigns to be the next president of the United States on Nov. 8. On the campaign trail he has portrayed himself as a survivor and a master negotiator.

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The six bankers and lawyers involved in the talks say the bailout wasn't based on any overture Trump initiated with the banks—and the terms of the deal were dictated by what was best for the banks, not Trump.

Three of the participants say Trump didn't acknowledge he had a problem until his lenders reviewed his books, realized he was on the brink of collapse, and summoned him for debt restructuring talks.


http://www.newsweek.com/bankers-dispute-trump-account-financial-comeback-481210

15-year-old boy shot in the abdomen Saturday has died and a 42-year-old homeowner has been arrested in his death.

Jeffery Lovell, 42, 120 Boucher Circle, has been charged with murder. He is being held in the Chicopee Police Department jail without right to bail, Michael Wilk, public information officer for the Chicopee Police Department, said.

Lovell is being accused of shooting the teenager through the door of his house at about 12:56 p.m., Saturday.

Police initially received a call of a breaking and entering into the home in the Fairview section of the city. When they arrived, they found the teenager on the ground suffering from a gunshot wound to his abdomen, Wilk said.

"It was determined that three parties went to the residence believing it to be (the home of) a friend. One party, the victim, was banging on the outside door, when the homeowner shot through the door, striking the male," Wilk said.

Investigators found the victim and a friend were drinking alcohol at a nearby home. The two friends were confused while walking in the neighborhood and believed they had arrived at the home of another friend, said James Leydon, spokesman for Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni, said.

Lovell, the homeowner, tried to communicate with the victim, who was still knocking on the locked door, Leydon said.

"When a pane of glass broke, the suspect fired a single shot, striking the victim," Leydon said.

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/07/chicopee_shooting_leaves_15-ye.html

There's one thing the interns of Capitol Hill have in common, judging by this photo.

On Saturday, House Speaker Paul Ryan snapped a selfie with a large — and largely homogenous — pool of Capitol Hill interns and posted it to Instagram. In light of the picture's racial makeup, his caption struck many users as somewhat tone deaf.

"I think this sets a record for the most number of #CapitolHill interns in a single selfie. #SpeakerSelfie," Ryan captioned the photo.

The highest number of interns in a single frame wasn't the photo's only feat, as commenters were quick to point out.


"And it's a new record for most white people in one photo!" one Instagram user said.




https://mic.com/articles/148947/can-you-spot-the-reason-people-are-pissed-about-paul-ryan-s-latest-instagram-post#.1OywTrBvi

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan probably thought he was being hip and cool when he posted a large panoramic shot of Capitol Hill interns, boasting that it was probably the most interns to ever be featured in one photo.

But when he put the image on Instagram, users of the social media site noticed a certain factor of the photo which Ryan had failed to notice – all of the shiny, smiling faces were white!

The fact that Ryan saw no issue with all of those white faces smiling up at the camera, or that no one had noticed or worked to correct a serious racial diversity issue on Capitol Hill is worrisome.

Now of course white interns are no sin, but the fact that the racial representation was so woefully deficient is just another symptom of racial relations in America. At every level, our government fails to reflect the diversity of the country it is meant to represent.

http://trofire.com/2016/07/17/paul-ryan-posts-photo-capitol-hill-interns-key-factor-common/

For his part, Trump said he and Pence are "different people" and that he will to be more aggressive on the campaign trail.
"I call her 'Crooked Hillary' — she's crooked Hillary," Trump told CBS. "I didn't ask him to do it, but I don't think he should do it because it's different for him."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/07/17/trump-pence-60-minutes-republican-convention-cleveland/87217816/