I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that if a Muslim were suspected of perpetrating this crime everyone would be screaming about terrorism 24/7 right now:
About 180 military personnel have been deployed to Salisbury to help in the investigation into the attempted murder of an ex-Russian spy and his daughter.
The personnel – from the Army, Royal Marines and RAF – are experts in chemical warfare and decontamination.
Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain in a critical condition after being exposed to a nerve agent.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd will chair a meeting of the government’s emergency committee, Cobra, on Saturday.
She has described Sunday’s attack as “outrageous”.
Those deployed include instructors from the Defence Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Centre and the 29 Explosive Ordnance Group, who are experts in bomb disposal.
Eighteen vehicles have also been sent.
Members of the military were seen covering over a police car that has been at Salisbury Hospital since Sunday, before men dressed in white hazardous materials suits examined it.
It was later towed away from the hospital, covered by a tarpaulin, on the back of an Army truck.
Officers are also expected to secure Mr Skripal’s car.
Specialist officers have also put up a tent over the grave of Mr Skripal’s son, who died last year, at Salisbury cemetery.
The Metropolitan Police said the counter-terrorism unit has requested the military’s assistance “to remove a number of vehicles and objects from the scene”, including ambulances that may have been contaminated while assisting the victims.
The public should not be alarmed and there is no evidence to suggest a wide public health risk at this time, the police added.
Valery Morozov, a Russian exile, told BBC News that Mr Skripal was working in cyber security.
The former Russian military security colonel and his daughter remain in a critical condition at Salisbury District Hospital.
The graves of Mr Skripal’s wife and son at a Salisbury cemetery have also been taped off
Det Sgt Nick Bailey – who attended the scene on Sunday – is conscious but “very anxious” about being exposed to a nerve agent.
Director of nursing Lorna Wilkinson said Mr Bailey was in a serious but stable condition.
Specialist investigators wearing protective suits have been seen examining the bench that Mr Skripal and his daughter collapsed on.
Mr Skripal’s house and his car have also been cordoned off.
It is known that Mr Skripal and his daughter had visited the Mill pub and Zizzi restaurant in Salisbury on Sunday afternoon, before they were found near the Maltings shopping centre.
Some of the 180 military personnel who have been sent to help the investigation are specialists in chemical biological radiological and nuclear (CBRN) warfare.
They include Falcon Squadron from the Royal Tank Regiment, which uses specialist Fuchs vehicles – effectively mobile laboratories – to carry out tests and decontamination.
“Sensitive Site Exploitation” will look for any further traces of the nerve agent.
Royal Marines from 40 Commando have also just completed the UK’s biggest chemical warfare exercise – called Toxic Dagger – involving 300 personnel and including scientists from Porton Down.
The existence of these units – some of which had suffered under defence cuts – highlights a growing concern in the military about the use of chemical weapons by individuals, terrorist groups and “rogue states”.
But the public is being told not to be alarmed.
It does remind me of this quote from last year:
Watts encouraged committee members to “follow the trail of dead Russians.”
“There have been more dead Russians in the past three months that are tied to this investigation, who have assets in banks all over world,” he said. “They are dropping dead even in Western countries.”
In an interview with NBC News, Vladimir Putin showed off his little white ethno-nationalst slip:
“So what if they’re Russians?” Putin said of the people named in last month’s indictment. “There are 146 million Russians. So what? … I don’t care. I couldn’t care less. … They do not represent the interests of the Russian state.”
Putin even suggested that Jews or other ethnic groups had been involved in the meddling.
“Maybe they’re not even Russians,” he said. “Maybe they’re Ukrainians, Tatars, Jews, just with Russian citizenship. Even that needs to be checked. Maybe they have dual citizenship. Or maybe a green card. Maybe it was the Americans who paid them for this work. How do you know? I don’t know.”
Trump: Look, he’s proud of his heritage, OK? I’m building a wall. Now, I think I’m going to do very well with Hispanics…because I’m going to bring back jobs. And they are going to get jobs. I think I’m going to do very well with Hispanics.
But we are building a wall. He’s a Mexican. We’re building a wall between here and Mexico.
The answer is, he is giving us very unfair rulings, rulings that people can’t even believe. This case should have ended years ago on summary judgment. The best lawyers — I have spoken to so many lawyers — they said, `This is not a case. This is a case that should have ended.’ This judge is giving us unfair rulings. Now, I say. `Why?’ Well, I’m building a wall, OK? And it’s a wall between Mexico. Not another country.
Tapper: But he’s not from Mexico. He’s from Indiana.
This may be one of the most disturbing things I’ve heard about the Trump administration yet, something out of a dystopian science fiction novel. Staging entertainment spectacles to challenge scientific finding strikes me as a fundamentally Trumpian exercise,something he could easily decide he wants to do in the future.
John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, has killed an effort by the head of the Environmental Protection Agency to stage public debates challenging climate change science, according to three people familiar with the deliberations, thwarting a plan that had intrigued President Trump even as it set off alarm bells among his top advisers.
The idea of publicly critiquing climate change on the national stage has been a notable theme for Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the E.P.A. For nearly a year he has championed the notion of holding military-style exercises known as red team, blue team debates, possibly to be broadcast live, to question the validity of climate change.
Mr. Pruitt has spoken personally with Mr. Trump about the idea, and the president expressed enthusiasm for it, according to people familiar with the conversations.
But the plan encountered widespread resistance within the administration from Mr. Kelly and other top officials, who regarded it as ill-conceived and politically risky, and when Mr. Pruitt sought to announce it last fall, they weighed in to stop him. At a mid-December meeting set up by Mr. Kelly’s deputy, Rick Dearborn, to discuss the plan, Mr. Dearborn made it clear that his boss considered the idea “dead,” and not to be discussed further, according to people familiar with the meeting. All spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to describe internal White House deliberations and meetings.
During that meeting, according to two attendees and a third person briefed on the discussion, administration officials and White House aides were in agreement that Mr. Pruitt’s idea was unwise. Their main concern was that a public debate on science — particularly on an issue as politically charged as the warming of the planet — could become a damaging spectacle, creating an unnecessary distraction from the steps the administration has taken to slash environmental regulations enacted by former President Barack Obama.
Asked about the meeting and the administration’s internal deliberations, Raj Shah, the deputy press secretary, said: “The Trump Administration will ensure that any climate science review will be conducted through a robust, interagency process, consistent with federal law.”
Challenging the climate change finding is a major objective of right wing groups like The Heartland Institute and they have been pushing for Pruitt to do it. This creepy idea was actually proposed by a former Obama energy department official who says he “doesn’t have dog in this fight” (he did, but it drowned…)
It came very close to happening:
Mr. Pruitt planned to announce his red team, blue team debate in early November, according to a news release that was written but never issued. According to four people who have read the draft news release, the debates were to be organized by the E.P.A.’s science advisory board and not include other agencies.
The announcement of the debates would have coincided with the release of an exhaustive scientific report from 13 United States government agencies that definitively found human activity to be responsible for almost all of the warming that has occurred in the past half-century. It would have also coincided with the start of a United Nations meeting in Germany to discuss the Paris agreement, the global climate accord from which Mr. Trump intends to withdraw the United States’ participation.
When Mr. Trump’s chief of staff learned about the news release, he demanded the debates be delayed until cabinet secretaries and top White House officials could discuss it, according to three people familiar with the discussions. That initial meeting never occurred, but on Dec. 13, the White House convened senior officials to discuss the matter.
According to two people who attended, the meeting included a presentation of the red team, blue team plan by two E.P.A. officials — Mr. Pruitt’s chief of staff and the head of the agency’s air office. Other attendees included senior officials from the Department of Energy, the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the National Economic Council.
The meeting was run by Mr. Dearborn and Michael Catanzaro, who is a member of the economic council and the president’s domestic energy and environment policy director.
The takeaway, according to people in the room, was that every office within the White House was opposed to the idea. At one point, Mr. Dearborn said the notion of red team, blue team debates was “dead” and should not be mentioned again. “The chief doesn’t want it,” Mr. Dearborn said, referring to the White House chief of staff, according to one person who attended.
E.P.A. officials were taken aback, the person said.
In the weeks since that meeting, however, Mr. Pruitt said the red team, blue team debates were still under consideration. In January, he told Congress that a report in E & E News, a news organization focusing on energy and the environment that first reported that the White House had killed the plan, was false. White House opposition to the debates was “untrue,” he said under questioning by a senator.
Oh, by the way, this is the headline of Gabriel Sherman’s latest for Vanity Fair:
The president’s planned Veterans Day military parade will “include wheeled vehicles only, no tanks,” says a Pentagon planning memo, adding “to minimize damage to local infrastructure.” The memo obtained by CNN was sent to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Thursday as part of planning for the November 11 event.
Contrary to CNN’s reporting, the event was not inspired by Donald Trump witnessing France’s Bastille Day celebration in Paris. As Digby reminded Twitter, Trump wanted a military parade for his inauguration. Stephen Kerrigan worked on Barack Obama’s two inaugural committees and described Trump’s request in January 2017 as “very Red Square.”
It will, however, involve “a heavy air component” with military aircraft flying overhead at the end of parade, including older aircraft “as available,” the memo said.
The parade will also feature period uniforms from the Old Guard Fife and Drum, a unit that parades in period uniform.
The T-Party will be pissed they weren’t invited.
The parade route will run from the White House to the Capitol, with the memo saying that veterans and Medal of Honor recipients will surround Trump in the reviewing area of the Capitol during the event.
He’s going to need a colorful sash. Trump is a throwback to another era.
Trump claimed in the 1980s that other countries were ripping off America. Japan was the trade enemy du jour, Tim O’Brien, executive editor of Bloomberg View and author of “Trump Nation,” told NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly:
TIMOTHY O’BRIEN: That’s right. Donald Trump was a real estate guy, and Japan in that period of course was buying iconic properties – the Rockefeller Center, the Pebble Beach golf course. Trump’s all, this is menacing and decided to portray Japan as the embodiment of U.S. weakness and an inability to get with the program, toughen up and begin to lap countries like Japan.
Thirty years later, Trump issues orders for aluminum and steel tariffs to show the world who’s boss.
O’BRIEN: …And went on to say how for decades, Japan and other countries have been taking advantage of the United States, and we shouldn’t be laughed at anymore.
KELLY: So that’s all unfolding in the ’80s, but I suppose the roots of Trump’s beliefs on trade, on tariffs – they go way back to his childhood.
O’BRIEN: So in the mid-1950s, he’s a little boy with his face pressed up against the glass of the American dream. And I think in a lot of ways, those are the visions that dance around in his head when he’s trying to recall an America that he thinks we’ve lost.
Next he’ll recommend the signs go back up on the bathrooms and water fountains. That’s how things used to be when he was a child and America was “great.”
[The photographer Ben Hines] told BuzzFeed News the little girl and her family were standing in front of them in line to view the portrait.
He said the unidentified girl was excited and full of energy. As her mom tried to get her to turn around to face her for a picture, he said the girl would not cooperate and just wanted to stare at the painting.
“It was so touching and uplifting for me to see this beautiful child looking at a beautiful portrait of a powerful woman,” Ben told BuzzFeed News. “I was so delighted to have been in the right place at the right time.”
Her mom, Jessica, a small business owner in DC, said she took Parker and her 1-year-old sister, Ava, to the gallery on Thursday just to see the Obama portraits.
Jessica confirmed the Hines’ version of events: “I was trying to get her to turn around so I could take a picture, but she wouldn’t cooperate. She just wanted to stare at it. She was fascinated.”
“As a little person looking at a portrait that large, I can imagine it’s fascinating,” she said. “She had a little moment.”
Jessica said Parker knows that Michelle Obama is a former first lady who used to live in the White House.
“I didn’t realize it would be so moving to so many people,” she said of the incredible response to the images.
“In the world we live in today, I’m just trying to raise a little girl who has opportunities to see women who look like her doing great things,” Jessica said.
The image of little Jessica staring at the portrait went viral.
And then guess what happened:
Parker, I’m so glad I had the chance to meet you today (and for the dance party)! Keep on dreaming big for yourself…and maybe one day I’ll proudly look up at a portrait of you! pic.twitter.com/faUVTsYWun
“This is the president’s vision,” said Peter Navarro, Trump’s ascendant trade adviser. “My function, really, as an economist is to try to provide the underlying analytics that confirm his intuition. And his intuition is always right in these matters”
Can I just ask one question to anyone who thinks that Trump is going to “prevail” in a North Korea nuclear deal? What exactly does that mean? Nobody on any side of the political divide in this country can possibly believe that North Korea is a “good” regime we should just leave alone to do as it wants within its own borders and if it wants to use nuclear weapons well, doesn’t the US have nuclear weapons too? That’s totally, 100% insane. North Korea is a dystopian authoritarian dictatorship out of science fiction. The US may not be able to stop them from getting nuclear weapons — unfortunately, I would imagine that ship has sailed. And Donald Trump is not going to change Kim’s regime or change his basic character. So what’s likely to happen? Trump will normalize Kim as another one of his favorite strongmen because he “wants to meet him” and he’ll go around talking about how he’s a good guy at heart with whom we can deal. Just like Xi. Just like Putin. Just like Duterte. He is telling people everywhere that the strongmen are the good guys — because they play him like a fiddle.
The right wing Daily Caller is now running apologias by Russian oligarchs with strong ties to Vladimir Putin. They are being portrayed as good guys who are being persecuted by the left.
Trump is an imbecile who has no knowledge of the complexities of the situation so that is actually the best case scenario if they do actually meet. And he’s not going to have much help figuring them out. The Post reports:
President Trump’s high-wire gambit to accept a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sets off a scramble among U.S. officials to assemble a team capable of supporting a historic summit of longtime adversaries and determine a viable engagement strategy.
State Department officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, were downplaying the immediacy of talks in the hours before the White House rolled out the South Korean national security adviser, who made the surprise announcement that Trump would meet with Kim.
The apparent lack of coordination marked a pattern of mixed messaging that has characterized the Trump administration’s North Korea diplomacy since Pyongyang launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile last year, sparking the Trump White House’s biggest national security crisis to date.
The U.S. point person on North Korea, special envoy Joseph Yun, announced his retirement in late February and has not been replaced. More than a year in, the administration has yet to nominate an ambassador to South Korea. And the Senate has not confirmed the top U.S. diplomat to eastern Asia.
Talks can be good, but a summit should be a carrot for the end of a satisfactory process, not the beginning,” cautions Richard Fontaine, president of the Center for a New American Security. He thinks that there is a “high chance Kim will pocket the optics, show his people and the world he is received as a legitimate head of state, and in the end keep his programs intact.”
Fontaine is not alone in his thinking. “The risk is that Trump has little knowledge of the history of negotiations with North Korea,” says Gary Schmitt of the American Enterprise Institute. “There is some chance he will think that he has a unique opportunity to make progress on North Korea’s nuclear program, when in fact he’s going down the same road that the Clinton and Bush administration’s have.” He says bluntly, “North Korea is not giving up its nuclear weapons. Period.”
And can you blame Kim, really? Saddam and Khaddafi both gave up theirs and look what happened. He can hear that Trump and the Republicans want to tear up the Iran deal. So, why would he trust any US president, much less Donald Trump not to overthrow him if he gives up his leverage?
Unless Trump blunders into some kind of secret Kim and Xi grand strategy to denuclearize North Korea, it ain’t happening. And things could go very sideways very fast.
I’m going to guess that this meeting will fall apart because North Korea didn’t fulfill it’s side of the bargain in some obscure way.
Sarah Sanders doesn’t commit to the Trump-Kim Jong Un meeting happening by May, or at all, really.— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) March 9, 2018
Trump thought he got Stormy off the front page. But he didn’t:
President Donald Trump’s personal attorney used his Trump Organization email while arranging to transfer money into an account at a Manhattan bank before he wired $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence.
The lawyer, Michael Cohen, also regularly used the same email account during 2016 negotiations with the actress — whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford — before she signed a nondisclosure agreement, a source familiar with the discussions told NBC News.
And Clifford’s attorney at the time addressed correspondence to Cohen in his capacity at the Trump Organization and as “Special Counsel to Donald J. Trump,” the source said.
Cohen has tried to put distance between the president and the payout, which has been the subject of campaign finance complaints.
In a statement last month, Cohen said he used his “personal funds to facilitate a payment” to Clifford, who says she had an intimate relationship with Trump a decade ago.
“Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” Cohen said in that statement.
But an email uncovered in the last 24 hours and provided to NBC News by Clifford’s current attorney, Michael Avenatti, shows First Republic Bank and Cohen communicated about the money using his Trump company email address, not his personal gmail account.
“I think this document seriously calls into question the prior representation of Mr. Cohen and the White House relating to the source of the monies paid to Ms. Clifford in an effort to silence her,” said Avenatti, who is representing Clifford in a lawsuit against Trump.
“We smell smoke.”
Yeah, and it’s getting hot too.
Apparently, Cohen got a large transfer of funds from somewhere into that bank account shortly before he sent the money to Daniels’ lawyer. I wonder where?
Yes, Florida passed some minor gun restrictions, but follow the money and you’ll see the slaughter lobby and its allies will actually make millions on new guns in the schools programs Programs that would actually cut into their revenue streams, like the assault weapon ban, were blocked.
New Florida Laws: Teachers Will Be Armed
These type of Assault Weapons Still Not Banned in Florida.
A story in USA Today shows where the money is going in this “comprehensive gun safety bill.”
How did the NRA-politicians get armed teachers and avoid an assault weapon ban? Money, pulled from taxpayers, used as leverage for other programs. From James Call, Tallahassee Democrat Link
…when leaders responded with nearly a half billion dollars for school hardening and mental health programs, lawmakers were forced to wrestle with the proposal’s accounting – money in exchange for guns in the classroom.
The NRA legislative hypnosis is still working on Democrats. What should have been a serious poison pill–arming teachers–became a taxpayer-funded program. One Representative pointed out that the bill didn’t do either of the things the parents and students demanded. Assault weapons were not banned and teachers will be armed. What the what?
Instead of just accepting this is the best that can be done, it is possible to play hardball against the NRA. Here were some options:
Demand a special session to ban assault weapons, taxes on guns and ammo and no taxpayer money for arming teachers training programs. But by the time you read this the governor might have signed the bill, crowing he’s “We did something!” However there are still many things to keep pushing on.
No AR-15 Ban, No spring Break Money
Remember David Hogg’s tweet asking students not to come to Florida for spring break if they didn’t get the AR-15 ban? Time to cancel reservations!
Ask Budweiser execs and tourist businesses to make a few calls to legislators and say, “Don’t mess with my projected earnings! Give the parents students what they want!”
Ask the teacher’s union to walk out if armed teachers are put in place.
Everyone is excited about the Parkland students because they aren’t paying the same game this time, neither should we. There are other venues and methods to use in addition to legislative.
Remind Companies That NRA’s Tainted Brand Drags Down Brands
I love economic actions that convince corporations to disengage from the tainted NRA brand. Seek out, develop and support other actions that cut into the revenue streams for the gun makers and their allies. Remember, companies can be counted on to look out for their PR and financial best interests, use that force against the gun lobby and their allies.
Bring The Big Money Payback Pain To Georgia Politicians
Georgia politicians punished Delta. Remind Delta execs and their institutional shareholders that they can get even, financially and politically with Georgia politicians.
Now Delta has a perfect response for their board and shareholders for a $38 million dollar shortfall,
“These politicians told us to embrace a toxic-brand and punished us when we didn’t. Therefore we will be cutting off money to those politicians. GOP lawmakers who were “business friendly” chose guns over business. We will now choose their opponents over them.”
Remember, it’s not quid pro quo if you don’t give money. If fund managers and rich execs really want to punish these politicians, they can make the dark money dry up too.
When corporation don’t want customers to know they still like what politicians are doing they use dark money and Super PAC. But the people giving that dark money can stop. With a note why. You hurt my investment and you chose death merchants over live kids. Big mistake. Huge.
Dear Fund Managers for Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Vanguard Group Inc, Blackrock Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co, Primecap Management Co.:
Leave the gun lovers, take the cannoli. It’s nothing personal, it’s just business.
LLAP,
Spocko
Push amendments demanding a tax on all guns and ammunition sales statewide
Come ON people, get Chris Rock to do his Tax Bullets bit for the legislators!
Make Arming Teachers a Financially Untenable Position Why wasn’t this program tied to a massive gun and ammo tax? Whatever happened to the idea that new bills should be revenue neutral? This could have been an unfunded mandate from the state to local communities, instead it became a state-funded program. Also, how much you want to bet that these programs will be subcontracted out to an NRA-approved tactical weapons training firms? There could have been a provisions blocking that from happening. Once again the NRA lobbyists got money for their allies, for their guns everywhere programs from taxpayers.
The NRA anticipated this, so maybe they did what I saw them do in Tennessee, gave lawmakers and school districts immunity, avoiding liability. My suggestion? Challenge the law, now. Will immunity hold up in court? Probably not, so challenge it right now. Look closer at insurance policies. What don’t they cover? Who is liable for gun accidents? No insurance, no program!
How Florida Got The Armed Teachers They Didn’t Want: “Free” Taxpayer Money
In an NRP Morning Edition story a Parkland parent talks about how Representative José R. Oliva (R) (93% Rating from the NRA) added an amendment that would provide funds for sheriffs to train armed teachers.
“They are willing to accept it in order to get the rest, especially because they don’t think it will ever happen. The bill gives both the sheriff and the school board the power to block it.” Rep. José R. Oliva added an amendment that would required sheriffs to develop training programs for teachers who want to carry guns.
Oliva assured them during dinner the night before that the bill would “more or less stay the same”
“They literally left that room and changed everything in the middle of the night. So we feel distrust, confused and terrified. We’re entrusting the system to save our children and they’re playing games. ” Parkland MSD parent Elise Claproot and her daughter Annabelle
So now everyone who opposes this will need to go to each sheriff’s department and tell them to not offer it. “But we want to offer it and we have the money!” School boards will hear from gun-loving parents who think it’s a good thing to do, and they will demand it. Especially after the next mass shooting.
BTW, once a program is in place there are always excuses to keep it in place, even if it fails.
Yes, We Can Beat Slaughter Lobby
Prior to the activism following the Parkland shooting the idea that “The NRA always wins.” had paralyzed and depressed everyone. This new round of student activists have opened up possibilities for people.
The NRA is a sophisticated and experienced foe. It likes to activate its members to overwhelm and control the battle grounds it chooses to fight on. It works on multiple levels: economically, technologically. culturally, and politically–and so should we.
I’ve talked to a number of people about how to fight them. One of things I learned is that many groups end up fight holding actions. I heard the deputy director of Moms Demand Action talk about the 100’s of bills they knocked down in multiple states That’s great, but now is the time to put the NRA on the defensive. It’s possible. In Nebraska I assisted blocking the NRA and their allies on a gun preemption bill.
The NRA first tied up the Washington lawmakers, then they went to the states. State politicians are cheap dates. They can expect 20 call an hour from gun lobby supporters for Every. Single. Bill. This happens in all 50 states. But that level of passionate mobilization against the gun lobby is happening now.
The next move from the NRA in Florida (and other states) will be to pressure the local school boards for more armed police and armed teachers.
Pike County citizens gathered at a town hall meeting at Pike County
Central High School on Monday to discuss whether school staff should carry concealed firearms.
Photo credit Will Wright Kentucky Lexington Herald Leader.
Don’t assume your local school district will do the right thing or that other parents agree with you about not arming teachers! In Kentucky, they want to arm teachers. Here’s a great eye-opening story by Will Wright in the Lexington Herald Leader.
School boards and teachers need information and leverage to block crazy guns everywhere policies and attitudes. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard guns-everywhere people throwing out misleading and unsupported data and nobody was there to challenge them.
I’ve seen them start talking about how with more guns everywhere “crime rates went down.” But crime rates ALSO went down in places where the more guns weren’t available. And they NEVER talk about the gun “accidents” that come with more guns everywhere.
For the next school board come armed with information, in context, to challenge bumper sticker arguments. (Here’s a quick video tutorial of the Gun Violence Archive to find gun accidents in your state, city or school district.)
Keep Pushing!
I’m not a paid strategist fighting the gun lobby. I wish I was. I tried to be, but apparently my pointy ears got in the way of my credentials fighting right-wing media. Vulcan discrimination! However, I encourage people who are working on this to keep pushing hard and think 4th dimensionally – develop actions that work together over time.
As a friend pointed out to me, change is inevitable, predictable, beneficial. We need to keep pushing until we get what we want.
The students say, “Never again.” I hear them. Let’s make sure everyone does.
Even paying off porn stars with whom he’s had an affair is fine. Just fine:
A member of President Trump’s evangelical advisory board defended Trump over the controversy surrounding his alleged relationship with adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, saying the allegations were “totally irrelevant” to evangelicals who support Trump.
“Evangelicals know they’re not compromising their beliefs in order to support this great president,” Pastor Robert Jeffress said on Fox News Thursday. “And let’s be clear, evangelicals still believe in the commandment ‘thou shalt not have sex with a porn star.’”
“However, whether this president violated that commandment or not is totally irrelevant to our support of him,” he continued.
Jeffress said evangelicals knew they “weren’t voting for an altar boy” when they voted for Trump and maintained they supported Trump for his “policies and strong leadership.”
The pastor, who oversees the First Baptist Church in Dallas, said evangelicals understand “the concept of sin and forgiveness.”
“We are all sinners, we all need forgiveness, [and] that forgiveness is available through Christ for anyone who asks,” he said. “And whether the president needs that forgiveness for this particular allegation, whether he’s asked for it, is between him, his family and his god.”
They have a point:
In the past few months, the Department of Health and Human Services has steadily picked away at the Obama administration’s carefully constructed family planning policy.
Incrementally, the Trump administration is cutting Obama-era grant specifications and replacing them with language that benefits “faith-based organizations,” abstinence-oriented programs, and “natural” family planning methods that don’t involve hormonal or chemical contraceptives.
These changes themselves are subtle, but could end up having massive funding implications for health care organizations across the country.
It is no secret that the Trump administration is stacked with advocates of socially conservative family planning beliefs. Just last week, at an event celebrating the anti-abortion advocacy group Susan B. Anthony List, Vice President Mike Pence told attendees that Trump was the “most pro-life president in American history” and he believes there have been more anti-abortion measures taken “in the last year … than I have seen in public policy in all of my years.”
But because many of these policy changes were accomplished through small language tweaks, the aggregate effect has gone largely unnoticed by the public.
And if you think this means that they can never attack their political rivals on personal or sexual indiscretions, think again. They will shake their fists at the depraved infidel proclaiming that his (or her’s) sexual dalliance means they have no moral authority to lead the nation. And we will rend our garments about what hypocrites they are and they will look at us through dead eyes and continue on without missing a beat.
There is literally nothing their Dear Leader can do that isn’t fine — except lose.
