Showing posts with label cnn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cnn. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Trump the Dysfunctional President

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We've never had a President like Trump in the past 240 years since America was founded. There have been good and bad presidents, and certainly a few corrupt presidents, but Trump combines too many bad traits to list, among them arrogance, dishonesty, greed, lack of curiosity, and hotheadedness.

He also suffers from diarrhea of the mouth and of his Twitter account - he cannot keep his fingers off the buttons of his phone long enough for his aides, family or anyone else to get him to temper his language. Anyone who offends him gets a CAPSLOCK rant on Twitter the next day.

Since the FBI investigation began to heat up a few weeks ago, Trump's behavior and tweets are increasingly bizarre and inappropriate. Whether this is just a symptom of fear, his chronic Narcissism, or the early warning signs of Alzheimers, is anyone's guess. However, some have begun to call for Congress to use the 25th Amendment to remove him from office because he seems unfit to serve.



Some are calling for a panel of doctors to evaluate Trump:

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin is urging his colleagues to get behind a bill that could potentially oust President Donald Trump if he was mentally or physically unfit to lead, and the Maryland Democrat is citing the 25th Amendment of the Constitution as his legal backup.
. . . Raskin has proposed creating an 11-member commission made up of mostly physicians and psychiatrists -- more formally called the "Oversight Commission on Presidential Capacity." The panel would carry out a medical examination and determine whether the President was physically or mentally able to do the job.

However some legal scholars feel it is an unlikely solution:

From CNN
(Constitutional scholar Gloria) Browne-Marshall, a professor of constitutional law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told CNN Monday, "That area of medicine is already ambiguous to begin with, so I think it would be even more difficult to apply it to an unwilling patient."
She added that even if such a commission was established and even if it came to the conclusion that a president was mentally unstable, legally, all the president would have to do is "deny" the findings of the commission and those findings would be kicked back to Congress.
In that event, according to section four of the 25th Amendment, Congress would have to take a vote within 21 days "after receipt of the latter written declaration," and a "two-thirds vote of both Houses" is required to transfer power from a president to a vice-president

And since the Mueller investigation is moving at a glacial pace (considering Trump and company have been on the radar for 25 years) and the GOP-led Congress has no will to impeach a President from their own party, no matter how horrible, we are stuck with a Dysfunctional President, which rightly terrifies half of the country and most of the rest of the world.

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The Lost President can't find his own Limo



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Trump flirting with an Irish reporter





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Attacking the Press on a Daily Basis














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Attacking and even admitting that he blackmailed his old pals
 Joe and Mika from Morning Joe




















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Sunday, January 15, 2017

Countdown to #Trump Inauguration

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The last week of our great nation before Donald Trump is inaugurated has been kind of a train wreck - for him.

Meryl Streep at the Golden Globe Awards:















President Obama's Last Speech



Michelle Obama's Last Speech



Trump's Press Conference

















Alec Baldwin as Trump


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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Baltimore Burning Over Death of Freddie Gray

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Here we go again. On April 19, 2015, a group of policemen in Baltimore, Maryland, took custody of a man named Freddie Gray and after he was injured during the scuffle, they dragged him to an ambulance where later he died a mysterious death. Somehow he was killed inside an ambulance, completely severing his spinal cord. You cannot make up a horror story worse than the plight of African Americans in the hands of white cops these days.

From The Atlantic: The Mysterious Death of Freddie Gray
According to the city, an officer made eye contact with Gray, and he took off running, so they pursued him. Though he'd had scrapes with the law before, there's no indication he was wanted at the time. And though he was found with a switchblade, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said, “We know that having a knife is not necessarily a crime.”

The police say Gray didn't resist arrest and that officers didn't use force, which seems to be mostly corroborated by video shot by bystanders. Gray seems to shout in pain, and his leg seems injured as officers drag him to a police van. (Someone off camera shouts, "His leg broke and y'all dragging him like that!") Gray also had asthma and requested his inhaler, but didn't get it. Yet it's not the leg or the asthma that killed him. Instead, it was a grave injury to his spinal cord. Gray's family said he was treated for three fractured vertebrae and a crushed voice box, the sorts of injuries that doctors say are usually caused by serious car accidents. The van made at least two stops before reaching the police station, but there's no footage to say what happened during the journey or at those stops.

It's a baffling conundrum. "None of the officers describe any use of force," Deputy Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said. "None of the officers describe using any force against Mr. Gray." And yet somehow Gray was fatally hurt while in police custody.

Baffling conundrum, indeed.

So what has happened since Gray's death? Protest marches have sometimes turned into riots, with looting and fires, and the Governor called in the National Guard. Hashtag Baltimore is turning into another Ferguson, Missouri. Or maybe EVERYWHERE is Ferguson these days, and the country has got to get this under control! The good news is that recently sworn-in Attorney General Loretta Lynch has already sent a team to Baltimore to investigate the circumstances. Which is fine, but at some point there has to be justice for black Americans who are scared for their lives and for their children.















































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Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Don Lemon Tells Rape Victims to Just Bite and Run Away

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Previous Related Posts:
Don Lemon Gets Shoved By Cop in #Ferguson
Don Lemon Enters Black Hole of Missing Plane Coverage
Don Lemon: Shoe Shines, Litterbugs, and Belts
Don Lemon Blames Black Community for Trayvon Martin Shooting

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Don Lemon of CNN a woman who says actor Bill Cosby forced her to have oral sex. And Lemon, as only Lemon can, decided to go all "Blame the Victim" on her, suggesting she should have just "used her teeth" to escape. Once again he is in the Vortex of the Twilight Zone.

This is the real interview transcript via Media Matters


LEMON: Can I ask you this, because -- and please, I don't mean to be crude, OK?

TARSHIS: Yeah.

LEMON: Because I know some of you -- and you said this last night, that he -- you lied to him and said "I have an infection, and if you rape me, or if you do -- if you have intercourse with me, then you will probably get it and give it to your wife."

TARSHIS: Right.

LEMON: And you said he made you perform oral sex.

TARSHIS: Right.

LEMON: You -- you know, there are ways not to perform oral sex if you didn't want to do it.

TARSHIS: Oh. Um, I was kind of stoned at the time, and quite honestly, that didn't even enter my mind. Now I wish it would have.

LEMON: Right. Meaning the using of the teeth, right?

TARSHIS: Yes, that's what I'm thinking you're --

LEMON: As a weapon.

TARSHIS: Yeah, I didn't even think of it.

LEMON: Biting. So, um --

TARSHIS: Ouch.

LEMON: Yes. I had to ask. I mean, it is, yeah.

TARSHIS: Yes. No, it didn't cross my mind.

And thus the hashtag #DonLemonReporting came to Twitter:

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Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Monday Night Mayhem in Ferguson

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Cover Photo by David Carson @PDPJ

Previous Related Posts:
Heading to #Fergustan ~ Gov. Calls Out National Guard
Ferguson Update: Shooter Identified, Tanks Return
Journalists Attacked and Arrested in Ferguson
Ferguson Missouri Uses Militarized Police on Protestors

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Another bad night in Ferguson, Missouri. The Governor announced yesterday that the official curfew was lifted. But just before midnight the tanks and heavily armed police rolled onto the scene out of nowhere. Suddenly shots were being fired, rocks were thrown, and tear gas filled the air. A few more journalists were roughed up or arrested, but hey - they are keeping the peace, right? Are we Russia now? No - eventually this mayhem has to end. The President is sending Eric Holder to Ferguson today, and hopefully the murderer of Michael Brown will be arrested, or they will at least explain WHY he hasn't been arrested yet. Is Darren Wilson even in Missouri at this time?

Stunning Scenes from Yesterday:














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President Obama Made a Statement Yesterday









This morning Tamron Hall Grilled the Mayor of Ferguson
on his BS statement "There's no Racial Divide Here"



The Press had another Hard Day's Night








Jake Tapper of CNN Denounced the Police Overkill

Via Mediaite
“I want to show you this, okay? To give you an idea of what’s going on. The protesters have moved all the way down there… they’re all the way down there. Nobody is threatening anything. Nobody is doing anything. None of the stores here that I can see are being looted. There is no violence.
Now I want you to look at what is going on in Ferguson, Missouri, in downtown America, okay? These are armed police, with — not machine guns — semi-automatic rifles, with batons, with shields, many of them dressed for combat. Now why they’re doing this? I don’t know. Because there is no threat going on here. None that merits this. There is none, okay? Absolutely there have been looters, absolutely over the last nine days there’s been violence, but there is nothing going on on this street right now that merits this scene out of Bagram. Nothing.
So if people wonder why the people of Ferguson, Missouri are so upset, this is part of the reason. What is this? This doesn’t make any sense.”


CNN's Jake Tapper Going In by 3030fm

And There Was Don Lemon




Don Lemon getting pushed around which caused some levity on Twitter. Not because the situation with police in Ferguson is funny, but because in the past Lemon made speeches that seemed to blame innocent kids like Trayvon Martin for attracting the ire of white people by wearing baggy pants and using Black slang. He had even mocked the protesters the night before as "these people." It somehow seemed poetic justice that the clueless Lemon got a taste of police brutality.

















Meanwhile on MSNBC - Rocks Were Thrown



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Great reporting by Yamiche Alcindor:

















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Thursday, March 20, 2014

Don Lemon Enters Black Hole of CNN Missing Plane Coverage

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Previous Related Posts:
Don Lemon: Shoe Shines, Litterbugs and Belts
CNN's Don Lemon Blames Black Community for Trayvon Martin Incident

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A lot of people have been asking about Black Holes and on and on and on and all of these conspiracy theories....Bermuda Triangle ...What about the movie "Lost"? Also referencing the Twilight Zone which has a very similar plot. That's what people are saying. I know it's preposterous but is it preposterous, you think...?
~ Don Lemon on CNN with panel discussing Malaysian Flight 370





















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Thursday, January 2, 2014

Best Political Moments of 2013


Some of my favorite political videos from the past year.



Marco Rubio: A Thirst for Glory


Jim Carrey Sings "Cold Dead Hand" to #NRA



Reporter Dana Bash Tries to Catch Michele Bachmann
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Michele Bachmann: Repeal Obamacare or it will Kill Us


CNN anchors Feel Sorry for Steubenville Rapists



Grover Norquist at CPAC: GOP traitors are "Rat Heads in a Coke Bottle"



Tennessee State Senator Stacey Campfield Calls Child a "Prop"



Rand Paul Offers to Fire Hillary Over Benghazi



President Obama Calls Benghazi Flap a "Sideshow"



Glenn Beck: "Today I declare Myself a Rodeo Clown"



Ted Cruz Mis-Explains Green Eggs and Ham During Filibuster



Saturday Night Live Mocks Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and
60 Minutes Benghazi Reporter Lara Logan



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Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Media False Equivalence Fails During Shutdown

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The American people think they're a bunch of kids playing in a sand box and neither side is covering itself in glory. I must say this whole business of "I won't negotiate with a gun to your head" is - actually, I'd rather negotiate with a gun to my head than to have somebody shoot me, and I think that's where they could end up if they don't sit down and talk. So both sides really do need it.
~ Cokie Roberts on ABC This Week, via Sam Seder on YouTube

Let's parse what Cokie Roberts said . . . who is the "they" in that analogy? Who is the "they?" It's the Republican Party. She has conceded they are holding a weapon to the head. And who is the person who has the gun to their head? It's not President Obama in this scenario. It's not the Democrats. The Democrats don't lose particularly if the Republicans refuse to stop the government shutdown. They don't lose particularly if the debt ceiling is not raised. It's the American people who lose! They are the ones with a gun to their head! Not the Democrats, not the President.
Under her analogy, the people with the gun to their heads is the American public. And they're not in a position to negotiate with the Republicans. If this is just about winning for Cokie Roberts, then the Democrats and the White House have absolutely no incentive to do this. Because if the Republicans "shoot" the American people in the head, I imagine to the extent that there are benefits, it's going to acrue to the Democrats. Because Americans don't like to be shot in the head. It hurts when you get shot in the head.
. . . We should all remember Green Eggs and Ham (read by Ted Cruz during his filibuster). Maybe if you get shot in the head, you'll like it!
~ Sam Seder, Majority Report



Legendary journalist Carl Bernstein on MSNBC's Morning Joe
This is about the Republican Party and what it's going to be. Is it going to conduct a fact-based, philosophical argument in our political system or is it going to be a nihilistic, hateful, asymmetrical in terms of facts and the truth part of the party, as in Joe McCarthy.
This is about media as well. These poll numbers are about a totally different media culture than we've had in the past.
. . . we need to start covering this story not 50/50 — this much on this side, that on the other — we need to cover it factually. Because there are facts here that will show what this event is about. And where, in fact, is this anger, hatred of Obama coming from? What is the root of this?
. . . It's about truth. It's about fact. It's about a wing in [the GOP] that has no interest in truth or governing or fact and it's bringing the country down. It might not bring the party down. Like McCarthy, it might work. That's the terrible thing.



From Eric Boehlert on Media Matters
CNN often rallied around the GOP talking point that Obama ought to "negotiate" with Republicans because give-and-take is what politics (and compromise) is all about. "Why won't the president come to the negotiating table?" Candy Crowley wondered, while CNN's Carol Costello asked "Why doesn't the president pick up the phone and call John Boehner?"
On the surface that sounds like a reasonable question, and no doubt it represented the centrist position CNN felt comfortable championing, as it hyped its watchdog role of holding both parties accountable. But the query only worked if CNN anchors and reporters completely disregarded the facts of the unfolding shutdown and flushed all the context down the memory hole.
. . . Viewed in full context, the Republican demand was utterly extremist and without precedent in modern Congressional history. Too often though, CNN ignored that defining fact. Instead, CNN offered up a more simplistic, blame-both-sides version where Obama starred as an obstinate protagonist who arrogantly refused to deal with his Republican counterparts.

. . . journalists have been suckered into embracing "balance" and "neutrality" at all costs, and the consequences of their choice in an era of political extremism will only get worse and worse.
. . . Blaming everyone — Congress, both sides, Washington — is simply the path of least resistance for today's political reporters. It's a way of avoiding conflict rather than taking the risk that the public — or their editors — will accuse them of being unprofessionally partisan.
. . . So, no, the shutdown is not generalized dysfunction or gridlock or stalemate. It is aberrational behavior by a political party that is willing to take extreme and potentially damaging action to get its way. And by not calling it what it is, the political press is enabling it.
~ Dan Froomkin on Al-Jazeera

As a matter of journalism, any story that presents the disagreements as a "standoff," a "showdown," a "failure of leadership," a sign of "partisan gridlock," or any of the other usual terms for political disagreement, represents a failure of journalism*** and an inability to see or describe what is going on....
. . . This isn't "gridlock." It is a ferocious struggle within one party, between its traditionalists and its radical factions, with results that unfortunately can harm all the rest of us -- and, should there be a debt default, could harm the rest of the world too.
~ James Fallows, The Atlantic

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Friday, August 23, 2013

Was Miranda a "Mule" or a Journalist?

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Previous Related Posts:
Guardian Editor Alan Rusbridger Spins Away
Smashing Hard Drives: the Miranda - Snowden - Guardian Saga Continues
Glenn Greenwald Threatens to spill UK Secrets
UK Detains Greenwald's Partner, Twitter Wars Erupt

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I was just taking materials back to Glenn.
~ David Miranda, spouse of journalist Glenn Greenwald, on CNN after being stopped and held for nine hours at Heathrow Airport while possibly carrying material from fugitive Edward Snowden





What is the Guardian's Position over David Miranda's Legal Action?
Alan Rusbridger, Editor, Guardian UK: The Guardian is supporting that action and we are supporting it in terms of financing it because David Miranda was acting on behalf of Glenn Greenwald at the time he was detained. So we support that action and I think it's a good thing to challenge that law and see why Terror and Journalism are being elided in this disturbing way.
David Miranda wasn't really "on assignment." He is Glenn Greenwald's partner. Glenn Greenwald's a very busy man and he assists Glenn in his journalistic work, and he was acting as a messenger or intermediary in a way that's difficult for Glenn at the moment because he's got a lot of work to be doing in Brazil, and I think he's also a bit nervous about traveling at the moment.
Was it wrong for the Guardian to pay a non-journalist to act as a courier this way, especially if he didn't know what he was carrying?
Rusbridger: Glenn Greenwald trusts David - he obviously does as his partner, and it was Glenn's decision and David's -- he's a grown-up adult. He wanted somebody he could trust and ... it was important that Glenn had somebody he could trust.
~ Complete Interview Transcript with Alan Rusbridger of Guardian Here

It sounds a lot like he’s being used by Greenwald and doesn’t fully understand the seriousness of what he’s wrapped up in. Now, like any other adult Miranda has agency and did not have the make the trip. And it’s possible he’s downplaying his role to sound innocent.
~ Joshua Foust

In short, the Brazilian was acting as a sort of ‘mule’, though Guardian reports have ignored or under-played this. The Tory MP David Davis, who has bravely campaigned against state surveillance, pointed out yesterday that whatever material was taken from Mr Miranda probably exists elsewhere.
But can you blame the British police for wishing to seize it?
By the way, Mr Miranda acted idiotically in coming via London on his way to Rio de Janeiro, as it is the one place in the world other than America where police were likely to take an interest in him.
~ Stephen Glover on The Daily Mail

Greenwald himself has previously told journalists that his partner assists him in his work. That present ‘work’ consists of engineering the leak of massive amounts of classified intelligence from a source – Edward Snowden – currently granted asylum in Moscow. Greenwald’s partner was travelling through London from a meeting using plane-tickets paid for by the Guardian and – it now transpires – appears to have been carrying files from Snowden. So all those ‘this could happen to any of us’ pieces are only really relevant if you happen to use your partner as a mule for industrial-scale sabotage against states you’re planning to travel to.
~ Douglas Murray on The Spectator

CNN Transcript: Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees, Aired August 20, 2013 - 20:00 ET
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: I sure do. Let's be clear about what Mr. Miranda's role was here. I don't want to be unkind but he was a mule. He was given something, he didn't know what it was, from one person to pass to another at the other end of an airport. Our prisons are full of drug mules.
Glenn's view is, as long as one of the two people on either end of that transaction was a journalist, he can take anything he wants. He could take the nuclear launch codes, he could take the names of our undercover agents --

COOPER: His flight was paid for by "The Guardian," though, so wasn't it in effect he acting in a journalistic capacity?

TOOBIN: No. I don't think that matters a bit who pays for your ticket. I mean, he's on a plane with stuff that is highly classified. You know -- anything he wants, it turns out it wasn't the names of our undercover agents, it was the extremely classified presumably NSA material. That is not the law.

COOPER: But does it -- I mean, he is being detained under a British -- UK Terrorism Act which is -- only supposed to be used to detect and find people who are connected to terrorist. There is no indication that David Miranda -- they knew who he was, they knew he's not connected to some terrorist group.

TOOBIN: Great Britain has its own laws that are similar to ours but then are somewhat different. Their terrorism law takes it one step farther. They say, it's not just the material -- this person is a terrorist, but can be used by terrorist. And frankly, if terrorist know how we surveil their cell phone calls, how we surveil their texts, that could be used for terrorism.
. . . Mr. Miranda was lucky that they used the terrorism law because he wasn't even delayed. He wasn't even stopped overnight. I mean, you know, I'm sure it was inconvenient to be stopped for nine hours at the airport, but, you know, when it -- but you know, when it happens to you on JetBlue they don't even offer you a lawyer.

So, I mean, I just don't think he was sent to the gulag. He was -- he was delayed for a while and they took what appears to be stolen classified information. I think Mr. Miranda actually did pretty well, considering what he was carrying.

. . . The word journalism is not magical immunity sauce that you can put on anything --
 COOPER: Immunity sauce --
 (LAUGHTER)
 TOOBIN: That you can put on anything and make -- eliminate any sort of liability. You know what? If he had the nuclear launch codes on there, he could -- you know, they can take that. If he had the names of undercover operatives, they can take that.

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Miranda states (if you believe him, and I don’t) that he had no idea what he was carrying. Greenwald states that he was transporting Snowden’s stolen, top secret CIA intelligence data on encrypted thumb drives. So basically, you have Greenwald using his spouse as a mule to actively assist Edward Snowden, and you have Miranda apparently lying at the airport when he answers that damned basic security question… “Has anyone given you anything to carry on board?”
Did you lie to airport security, then, David?
~ Louise Mensch on The Telegraph



Ask yourselves if Glenn Greenwald, and Laura Poitras, are actively assisting Edward Snowden in his treacherous dissemination of classified, incredibly sensitive US and UK intelligence? From where I’m sitting, it looks like an attempt to fight charges in advance – by claiming that they are journalists and everything they do is covered by the First Amendment. Hence the New York Times putting Poitras on the cover of its magazine supplement this week and Greenwald’s repeated lies about the role of his husband and the events and aftermath of the detention to British journalists, unchallenged anywhere in the UK press, until I started tweeting about it & wrote my last blog on the topic.
They hope that claiming a journalistic role will protect them when they are stealing, storing and disseminating classified intel about not just NSA snooping but America’s intelligence programmes against China, Russia and so forth. They are, in doing so, risking countless lives. So are the Guardian newspaper.
Louise Mensch on Unfashionista




































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