Donald Trump, who briefly hired Anthony Scaramucci as his White House communications director for 11 days in 2017, has turned on his former friend and employee after Scaramucci made less-than-praise worthy comments during news show appearances.
After a Twitter attack from the Donald, Mooch responded saying that Trump “eventually turns on everyone” and soon it will be “the entire country.”
Anthony Scaramucci, who was quickly terminated (11 days) from a position that he was totally incapable of handling, now seems to do nothing but television as the all time expert on “President Trump.” Like many other so-called television experts, he knows very little about me…..
…..other than the fact that this Administration has probably done more than any other Administration in its first 2 1/2 years of existence. Anthony, who would do anything to come back in, should remember the only reason he is on TV, and it’s not for being the Mooch!
For the last 3 years I have fully supported this President. Recently he has said things that divide the country in a way that is unacceptable. So I didn’t pass the 100% litmus test. Eventually he turns on everyone and soon it will be you and then the entire country. https://t.co/BUvwujc6LW
Dmitriy Andrechenko (mug shot – Greene County Sheriff’s office)
Just days after two mass shootings that left at least 31 dead and 53 more injured, Dmitriy Andreychenko decided he wanted to try a ‘social experiment’ at his local Walmart in Missouri.
According to the Washington Post, his wife told him it was a bad idea. His sister reminded him that the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, less than a week earlier had occured at a Walmart.
But Andreychenko, 20-years-old, decided to move forward with his plan.
So, with a military-style rifle strapped to his back, a semiautomatic handgun on his hip, and over 100 rounds of ammunition, he headed into his local Walmart clad in body armor this past Thursday.
He began walking around the store with his cell phone held in front of him recording the store’s customers.
Anyone reading this think folks might panic at the sight of all this after a maniac had just killed 22 people at a Walmart?
The manager of the store told an employee to pull the fire alarm to get people out of the store. Andreychenko headed for a side exit but was apparently stopped by a former member of the military who held him at gunpoint until police arrived.
Andreychenko told police he wanted to see if his 2nd Amendment rights “would be honored” in a public place. He told investigators he didn’t anticipate the customers’ reactions.
“This is Missouri,” he reportedly told investigators. “I understand if we were somewhere else like New York or California, people would freak out.”
I refer you back to the top of this story where his wife and sister tried to tell him just that.
Andreychenko has been charged with making a terrorist threat, saying he “recklessly disregarded the risk of causing a building evacuation by knowingly sowing fear in the wake of the El Paso mass shooting at the same retail chain,” according to theWashington Post.
Note – Missouri is an open-carry state. Not only that, but since 2017, people in the Show Me state have been allowed to carry concealed weapons without a permit in most locations.
Those laws, however, don’t entitle individuals to pull the gun equivalent of raising a false fire alarm in a crowded theater.
“Missouri protects the right of people to open carry a firearm, but that does not allow an individual to act in a reckless and criminal manner endangering other citizens,” Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson said in a statement.
Andreychenko’s second-degree felony charge carries up to four years’ imprisonment and a fine of as much as $10,000. He is being held on $10,000 bond with the stipulation that he may not possess a firearm, according to the prosecutor.
The 20-year-old social experimenter didn’t shoot anyone, but a police officer and another driver were seriously injured in a traffic accident as the officer was heading to the Walmart with lights and sirens on. Both the officer and driver had to be taken to the emergency room after suffering “severe injuries.”
On top of possible jail time, Andreychenko is now reportedly banned from Walmart stores.
“This was a reckless act designed to scare people, disrupt our business and it put our associates and customers at risk,” the company said in a statement. “We applaud the quick actions of our associates to evacuate customers from our store, and we’re thankful no one was injured.”
Speaking to CNN, Springfield Police Lt. Mike Lucas said Andreychenko “certainly had…the potential to harm people.”
“His intent was not to cause peace or comfort to anybody that was in the business,” Lucas said. “In fact, he’s lucky to be alive still, to be honest.”
Many folks thought back to November 2014 when 12-year-old Tamir Rice, an African-American boy in Cleveland, Ohio, was shot and killed by police was he was playing in a park with a toy gun.
The black folks are shot dead, the 20-year-old white guy packing all kinds of heat and in body armor is taken into custody without any harm.
America is a place where a white man can walk into a Missouri Walmart with body armor, a loaded rifle and 100 rounds of ammo to scare the shit out of people and he gets arrested without a scratch on him, but a 12-year-old black child was shot and killed for playing with a toy.
An armed white man with body armor walks into a Walmart in Springfield, Missouri. No shots were fired.
An unarmed black man named John Crawford walks into a Walmart in Beavercreek, Ohio, near Dayton, and looks at a BB gun. Police killed him on the spot.https://t.co/kDiJppFk5fpic.twitter.com/BZsfRiwDBy
The Northern California city of Modesto has said “no permit for you” to the organizers of a so-called ‘Straight Pride Parade” event that was planned for August 24.
The National Straight Pride Coalition had hoped to hold their event at Graceada Park.
Organizers say they expected some 500 attendees to show up at their event that was to celebrate “heterosexuality, Christianity and white contributions to Western civilization.”
Sounds like white supremacy to me, but, hey, I just report the news… Dozens of citizens showed up at a recent city council meeting opposing the rally saying it would promote animosity towards LGBTQ people and minorities.
At that meeting, one of the organizers for the event, Don Grundmann, drew big laughs when he told the city council he was the leader of “a totally peaceful, racist group.”
He later claimed it was a slip of the tongue, but you know how truth has a way of coming out. According to ABC News, city spokesman Thomas Reeves says the permit request was denied over safety concerns because the group lost its liability insurance and the parks department determined the event wasn’t consistent with park use.
As a compromise, the city did say it would allow the rally to be held at a downtown plaza should the ‘Straight Pride’ group get its insurance requirements in place by Tuesday.
According to the CDC: ”When taken consistently, PrEP has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV infection in people who are at high risk by up to 92%.”
But some folks might still be confused about PrEP and its usage.
Metrosource recently addressed 7 myths about using PrEP:
• “It’s not covered by insurance.”
PrEP is covered by virtually all insurances. The cost varies, but the medication’s makers offer a payment assistance plan that can make it less expensive or sometimes free.
• “It’s a new drug; we don’t know how it will affect us in the long term.”
Since the drug has been used as part of HIV regimens since 2004, its usage is well documented, and it’s standard to check in with your doctor every three months while on PrEP.
• “I’d just end up having sex with more guys.”
There’s no data that backs this up.
• “People are on PrEP just to bareback.”
Even on PrEP, doctors recommend continuing condom use alongside PrEP to protect against other sexually transmitted infections.
• “PrEP has unpleasant side effects.”
Experts acknowledge there are some known side effects like fatigue or headaches, but for most people, they are generally mild and pass after taking the medication for a few weeks.
• “It’s for people who think they have HIV.”
PrEP is only for people who are HIV negative. To get a prescription, you must first take an HIV test.
• “Once you start PrEP, you can never stop.”
PrEP can be taken for periods, then stopped, and even started again. However, when taking PrEP, you must take the medication consistently for maximum protection.
Dancing with the Stars and America’s Next Top Model champ Nyle DiMarco took part in a segment of What Would You Do?, the hidden camera show, which focused on discrimination faced by the deaf community.
DiMarco explained to host John Quiñones that he and his family, who are all deaf, have experienced discrimination while being served in restaurants before.
“Often, waiters are completely petrified and unsure what to do with us,” said DiMarco. “You can see in their eyes their world kind of collapsing as they try and figure out how to deal with us.”
The hidden camera show set out to see how other diners would react to a waiter being rude and refusing to serve a deaf guest (played by deaf actor J.W.) while the cameras rolled. DiMarco also stepped in as the restaurant guest himself.
J.W. on ‘What Would You Do?’
In one scenario, after the ‘waiter’ gets frustrated with J.W., a diner explains that J.W. is deaf. After the waiter tells the guest J.W. should have an interpreter with him, she suggests he could look at the menu where J.W. is pointing.
“That isn’t my job, though,” says the waiter.
The guest gets up from her table, walks to J.W.’s side and reads aloud what he’s pointing to. There – not so hard, huh?
Both J.W. and DiMarco told Quiñones they were happy with how people stepped in to address the waiter but added that things like that don’t happen very often in daily interactions. When one woman called the manager, Nyle said, “She’s doing everything right – this is what we’d love to see more people do.”
J.W. added, “Usually, when this kind of situation happens, people don’t get up and respond – or, it takes quite some time before somebody gets involved.”
See how diners react in the segment below.
In a post-show interview, J.W. offered this advice to Quiñones for interacting with deaf people, “Accept other people for who they are, and learn how to communicate with everybody. The simplest body language, the simplest gestures, will go a long way and have a big impact.”
A few years ago, Chippendales brought Nyle in to be there celebrity guest host (my husband, Michael, is the publicist for the Chipps). It was heartening to see all the Chippendales make an effort to learn some American Sign Language during his tenure at the show.
As J.W. mentions, even the simplest gestures go a long way.
I do have two suggestions I learned from Nyle to help avoid frustrations and communicate with the deaf community.
One simple fix is to pull your phone out and type out a text message, then show it to the deaf person you may be trying to communicate with. They’re deaf, but they can read. It’s an easy approach to overcoming barriers.
Also, Nyle has helped develop The ASL App for your phone, which teaches simple, everyday phrases. Developed, designed and created by Deaf people, you can pick up basics (even in slow motion if you don’t catch it the first time) to help communicate with those who use ASL.
Twenty-three-year-old Conor Climo has been arrested and accused of plotting to firebomb a Las Vegas synagogue or a bar catering to LGTBQ customers, officials said Friday.
According to the criminal complaint, Climo was communicating with individuals who identified with a white supremacist extremist organization using the National Socialist Movement to promote their ideology.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Koppe on Friday ordered Climo to remain in federal custody pending an Aug. 23 court appearance on a federal firearms charge.
Court documents say Climo communicated by encrypted internet chat with people identified as white supremacists, and told an FBI informant in recent weeks that he was scouting places to attack.
Investigators serving a warrant at his home found hand-drawn schematics and component parts of a destructive device, according to the criminal complaint, including flammable liquids, oxidizing agents and circuit boards. They also confiscated an AR-15 assault-style weapon and a bolt-action rifle.
The charge against Climo accuses him of possessing an unregistered firearm in the form of the component parts of a destructive device.
“Climo would regularly use derogatory racial, anti-Semitic and homosexual slurs,” the U.S. attorney’s office statement said. “He discussed attacking a Las Vegas synagogue and making Molotov Cocktails and improvised explosive devices, and he also discussed conducting surveillance on a bar he believed catered to the LGBTQ community.”
Back in 2016, local news station KTNV-TV reported on Climo, 20-years-old at the time, “patrolling” his neighborhood wearing battle gear and carrying an assault rifle and survival knife.
“I’ll pretty much stay within constitutional bounds when I’d doing this,” he told KTNV.
“Pretty much stay within constitutional bounds???”
He also said he would be looking for ‘suspicious activity,’ which he defined as “people outside when they’re not supposed to be…”
Think on that one.
That was MY neighborhood he was patrolling. In the reports from 2016 (below), he admits he has no formal training in ‘policing’ anything.
He was found unresponsive in his cell at Metropolitan Correctional Center around 6:30 a.m., the Bureau of Prisons said. He transported in cardiac arrest to New York Downtown Hospital at 6:39 a.m., according to sources.
Epstein, 66, was set to stand trial next year for allegedly sexually abusing dozens of minor girls in New York and Florida.
His death came less than three weeks after he was found unresponsive in his cell at the federal prison in Lower Manhattan, with marks on his neck that appeared to be self-inflicted, sources told ABC News. He was placed on suicide watch following the July 23 incident, but was not on suicide watch at this time of his death.
Epstein was arrested in July of this year for alleged sex trafficking of minor girls at his Upper East Side mansion and his home in Palm Beach, Florida. Some of the charges date back to the early 2000s.
Epstein’s death comes just one day after over 2,000 pages of records were unsealed which detail allegations by an alleged victim of Epstein that while working as a teenage locker room attendant at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort nearly two decades ago she was recruited to give Epstein massages that often involved sexual activity.
Epstein is dead less than 24 hours after documents unsealed showing inner workings of his vast sex trafficking operation. What else did Epstein know was going to come out? A lot.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has ruled in favor of transgender student Gavin Grimm, reaffirming that both the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protect transgender students from discrimination.
In 2014, the Gloucester County School Board in Virginia voted 6-1 in favor of a discriminatory bathroom policy that would force transgender students to use a single-stall restroom. Grimm had previously been allowed to use the boy’s restroom.
In 2015, Grimm sued the Gloucester County, Virginia school board.
Initially, Grimm won his case but there were multiple appeals by the school board.
In 2017, the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, but the justices refused to hear the case. Instead, they vacated Grimm’s courtroom victory and sent it back to the lower courts.
Today, U.S. District Court Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen ordered the school board to settle with Grimm, who has since graduated.
Grimm issued this statement:
“I feel an incredible sense of relief. After fighting this policy since I was 15 years old, I finally have a court decision saying that what the Gloucester County School Board did to me was wrong and it was against the law. I was determined not to give up because I didn’t want any other student to have to suffer the same experience that I had to go through.”
Today’s ruling also requires the school district to update Grimm’s transcripts to reflect his gender.
The Human Rights Campaign responded as well.
“Every student should feel safe at school, regardless of gender identity. Transgender students are covered by Title IX and the United States Constitution and are entitled to the same rights and protections as every other student,” said Cathryn Oakley, State Legislative Director and Senior Counsel.
“With the Trump-Pence administration’s barrage of attacks on LGBTQ people in this country, including against students, we are pleased that yet another federal court decision has reaffirmed legal rights and dignity of transgender people,” continued Oakley. “Congratulations to Gavin Grimm and the American Civil Liberties Union on this milestone victory.”
Many federal courts, including the court today, have affirmed that Title IX and other federal nondiscrimination laws prohibit discrimination against transgender people, including with respect to restroom access.
Danny Harrop-Griffiths, a Welsh singer currently living in Berlin, has been in a hospital for ten days due to a painful, medically-induced erection that won’t go away.
Harrop-Griffiths told PinkNews that before attending a party at a club, he took a Viagra.
He ended up going home with someone that night, a nurse, who injected an ‘erection enhancer’ into his penis.
“I thought, what could possibly go wrong?” he explained.
When he awoke the next morning, the erection was still there.
But it was the day of Berlin Pride, so he put off seeking medical attention and instead went to Pride “with my flatmate’s wine cooler wrapped around my penis and shoved down my shorts.”
He awoke the next morning at 5 a.m. screaming in pain. The erection had still not gone away, so he was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.
Doctors diagnosed Harrop-Griffiths with priapism, a condition that results in a painful, prolonged erection of the penis.
He was told that by waiting more than 12 hours with the erection, he made the situation worse. He now admits, “It’s one of the worst decisions of my life.”
Over the next several days, physicians attempted several treatments to reduce the painful erection.
Using a syringe, doctors tried several times to drain the blood. A plastic nail was inserted into his urethra without anesthesia (“ten out of ten on the pain scale”), but the erection continued.
He even underwent surgery as doctors took a vein from his leg to try and reduce the blood flow.
According to PinkNews, he is still hospital-bound receiving a blood thinner via IV.
“Some days I wake up, and I just cry about how stupid I was, about what I’ve lost, about what’s going to happen to me,” he tells PinkNews. “I don’t know if I’ll ever have sex again.”
“Be careful when you take Viagra, and don’t let anyone come near your penis with an injection,” he warns.
With ongoing medical treatments needed, friends have launched a GoFundMe campaign to help with the mounting medical bills.
The statement on the crowdfunding page shares that doctors believe he may have permanent damage, and give Harrop-Griffiths only a 50% chance of ever achieving a natural erection again.
A prospective African-American homebuyer in Michigan was touring a home when he came across Confederate flag placemats on the dining room table.
Taking a look at the NASCAR-inspired garage, he found two more Confederate flags.
According to the Washington Post, Rob Mathis said to himself, “Wouldn’t it be funny if this was a Klansman’s house?”
And just minutes later, he and his wife came across a plaque in one of the bedrooms. Mounted on wood was an application for membership in the Ku Klux Klan.
The home, about an hour outside of Grand Rapids, belongs to Muskegon police officer Charles Anderson, who has served on the police force there for more than 20 years.
Mathis posted a photo of the KKK application as he shared how the experience left him rattled.
“I feel sick to my stomach knowing that I walk to the home of one of the most racist people in Muskegon hiding behind his uniform and possibly harassing people of color and different nationalities,” he wrote in his post late Wednesday.
The city of Muskegon announced in a Facebook post that an investigation had been opened and Anderson is now on administrative leave.
When contacted by MLive.com, Anderson offered only a brief response saying, “They (his police union) said not to talk about it. That’s what they told me. Because it’s under internal investigation they said not to make a statement.”
Complicating things more, Anderson was involved in the shooting death of a black man ten years ago while on duty. At the time, he was acquited of any wrongdoing.
But, the Muskegon chapter of the NAACP is now asking that all cases involving Anderson and people of color be reviewed.
