Category: Uncategorized

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Trump Will Skip White House Correspondents Dinner For 2nd Year In A Row

Donald Trump

For the second year in a row, Donald Trump will skip the annual White House Correspondents Dinner.

The long-standing event, begun in 1921, serves to celebrate the First Amendment, fund scholarships for gifted students in college journalism programs and honor excellence in journalism.

“I sort of feel like the press so bad, it’s so fake, it’s so made up,” Trump said in an interview with WABC radio in New York Friday morning. “So I just think I want to get it straightened out with the press before I do it.”

The dinner has been attended annually by every president for 37 years. The last president to miss the event was Ronald Reagan, who was, understandably, recovering from an assassination attempt in 1981.

The fact is a regular ritual of the dinner is the president standing making several minutes of remarks in jest.

Many say the Trumpster is afraid he would bomb in the humor department. He also, apparently, does not care to spend an evening with those he vilifies on a regular basis on Twitter.

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Maryland Becomes 12th State Plus District Of Columbia In Automatic Voter Registration

(image by Maryland Dexter GF via Flickr)

Maryland has become the 12th state in the U.S. to adopt automatic voter registration.

The new law will automatically register voters when they obtain a driver’s license, use state social services or buy insurance on the health exchange.

Automatic voter registration will go into effect in July 2019.

From The Baltimore Sun:

Voters can decline to be registered. But advocates say the automatic voter registration program’s out-opt structure will end up getting more people registered than the current opt-in one.

Already, the Maryland Vehicle Administration and other state agencies offer residents the option of registering to vote. The new law will have state workers informing residents they will be registered to vote unless they decline. It also requires people who electronically file taxes to be offered an opportunity to register to vote.

Oregon was the first to pass automatic registration in 2016 and the result was 270,000 new voters registered and the highest voter participation of any state in the union in the last presidential election.

Anything that encourages eligible voters to take part in the democratic process is a good thing 🙂

More please.

Currently Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and the District of Columbia have adopted automatic voter registration.

p.s. 4 million teens turn 18 before the 2018 election.
p.s.s. 17-year-olds can register to vote if they will be 18 on or before Election Day.

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Unemployment Remains At 4.1% For Sixth Month In A Row

The March jobs report is out and, according to experts, its something of a disappointment.

The U.S. economy added just 103,000 jobs were added last month. Wall Street economists expected 185,000, according to Bloomberg.

For the 6th straight month the unemployment rate remained at 4.1%.

Average earnings per hour are up 2.7% compared to this time last year.

The January and February reports were revised down which resulted in 50,000 less new jobs than previously reported.

All of that said, the U.S. economy is showing itself to be in solid shape, as it has been now for 8 years.

This isn’t something new, something that Donald Trump has created. With 90 straight months now of positive growth, it’s notable that the first 76 of those months were heavy-lifting under the Obama administration coming out of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

The good news is Trump’s policies haven’t had a negative effect as we continue on the same trajectory of the previous 7 years before him.

The bad news is wage growth is not being reflected in a way that most economists expect.

Republicans will always tell you jobs mean more money. And certainly having a job means having money.

But considering the healthy economic environment we’re seeing, employers are not passing that on to employees in the form of higher wages.

In light of the current employment market, an increase of only 2.7% in hourly wages is on the measly side.

We’ll see if the possible trade war with China has an impact on the U.S. jobs market in the next 6-8 months.

(source)

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Stormy Daniels’ Lawyer: Stormy Can Describe Trump’s Junk In Great Detail

Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti

Megyn Kelly TODAY spoke with Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, who is currently pushing for the case to receive a public hearing rather than be heard behind closed doors, as President Trump’s attorneys are asking.

Avenatti says his position is that the non-disclosure agreement Daniels signed “is null and void and she’s free to speak,” and adds that there’s “a lot more” to her story.

“When she sat for that interview, it actually lasted over two hours in length. The portion that the American public saw was only about 14 or 16 minutes. CBS, they’re a conservative network. There’s a lot of information that was said that did not make it into the final piece. For instance, she can describe the president’s genitalia in great detail. That did not make it into the piece.”

Confident, clear and concise about his points, I find Avenatti to be very compelling.

And then there’s the fact that he’s hot AF.

Watch below.

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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Trump On Stormy Daniels: I Didn’t Know About $130K Payment, Ask My Lawyer

Donald Trump – Liar in Chief

In what appears to be the first direct statement from Donald Trump regarding the ongoing Stormy Daniels “affair” debacle, Donald Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One today that he did not know about the $130,000 payment made to Stormy Daniels by his lawyer, Michael Cohen.

From CNN’s Jeff Zeleny: “President Trump says he did not know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. Asked why Cohen made payment, Trump said: ‘You have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael Cohen is my attorney you’ll have to ask him.’ Trump adds he did not know where Cohen got money.”

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Trump Lies About Voter Fraud Again: In California Millions Vote Many Times

Speaking to a crowd in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, Trump told attendees that in California “the same person votes many times,” reviving his oft-repeated lie about voter fraud.

“In many places, like California, the same person votes many times. You probably heard about that. They always like to say ‘oh that’s a conspiracy theory,’” Trump said. “Not a conspiracy theory, folks. Millions and millions of people. And it’s very hard because the state guards their records. They don’t want to see it.”

Trump went on to congratulate West Virginia’s because “You were with me from Day One.”

It does without saying that there have been many investigations into voter fraud and not one study has found anything close to “massive voter fraud.”

Watch the comments below.

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AMA Slams Trump’s Transgender Military Ban: “There Is No Medically Valid Reason To Exclude Trans Individuals”

In a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis, the largest medical organization in the United States declared “there is no medically valid reason — including a diagnosis of gender dysphoria — to exclude transgender individuals from military service.”

The American Medical Association went on to say that the recent report by the Penatgon evaluating accommodations for transgender soldiers “mischaracterized and rejected the wide body of peer-reviewed research on the effectiveness of transgender medical care.”

AMA CEO James Madara also slammed the idea that medical costs for trans military service members would be prohibitive.

“The financial cost is negligible and a rounding error in the defense budget,” Madara wrote. “It should not be used as a reason to deny patriotic Americans an opportunity to serve their country. We should be honoring their service.”

A government-funded study by the RAND Corporation estimated paying for the transition-related healthcare of transgender troops would cost between $2.4 million and $8.4 million each year, a less-than-1 percent increase in active-duty healthcare costs.

The Trump administration announced plans last month to carryout Donald Trump’s proposed ban on transgender service members.

According to a memo from Mattis delivered to the White House, most trans people who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria — including those who required medical treatment or surgery — will be barred from serving in the military.

The ban is currently on hold thanks to four separate court-ordered injunctions.

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MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Beats Fox News’ Hannity As “Most Watched Cable News Host”

The cable news wars are heating up as MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show beat Fox News’s Hannity with a best-ever 3.058 million viewers compared to Hannity’s 3 million.

Even better news for MSNBC – Maddow scored an average 671K viewers in the much-prized 25-54 demographic in the 9PM ET slot. Hannity averaged only 616K viewers.

Third place CNN garnered only 382K viewers in the 25-54 demo.

MSNBC was the only cable news network to increase viewership over the same period in 2017. MSNBC saw a 30% increase while both CNN and Fox News saw declines in their audience.

MSNBC’s prime lineup was up 8% from March 2017 numbers, while both Fox (down 18%) and CNN (down 16%) saw big drop-offs when accounting for year-over-year.

I think it’s undeniable that “The Resistance” remains strong since Trump’s inauguration and that accounts for much of the increased appetite for MSNBC’s programming.

(source)

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Out Music: MGM Resorts Reimagines Wedding Songs For The LGBTQ Community

Because Las Vegas IS the wedding capitol of the world 🙂

MGM Resorts has produced a new EP of reimagined pop hits with a same-sex twist from artists international recording artists Bob Dylan, Kesha, Benjamin Gibbard, St. Vincent, Valerie June and Kele Okereke.

UNIVERSAL LOVE, a collection of reimagined wedding songs for the LGBTQ community, celebrates the enduring and overwhelming power of love and music to unite.

Via press release:

The album includes boundary-changing songs from some of today’s most-beloved artists. Bob Dylan, one of the most influential and successful recording artists in American history, is among the visionary artists participating in this unprecedented project. Dylan re-recorded “She’s Funny That Way” as “He’s Funny That Way.”

The album features five additional stellar artists whose involvement is a testament to the urgency of equality in entertainment: Kesha (“I Need a Woman to Love Me”), St. Vincent (“And Then She Kissed Me”), Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie (“And I Love Him”), Kele Okereke of Bloc Party (“My Guy”), and Valerie June (“Mad About The Girl”).

Phyllis James, MGM Resorts’ Chief Diversity & Corporate Social Responsibility Officer, said, “We believe projects like this will help all of us reach a point where seeing the world through the lens of people who happen to be different from us becomes natural and commonplace. It is an immense honor for MGM Resorts to spearhead this inspirational project which celebrates LGBTQ dimensions of the universal emotion of love.”

UNIVERSAL LOVE is a natural extension of MGM’s two decades of advocacy work with the LGBTQ community and the company’s desire to advance initiatives that unite humanity. More than a decade before same-sex marriage was legalized, same-sex commitment ceremonies were performed at chapels at MGM Resorts’ properties.

In 2004, MGM Resorts became the first company in the gaming and hospitality industry to offer same-sex health benefits to employees, and MGM was a founding partner of the Las Vegas chapter of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) in 2004.

UNIVERSAL LOVE is now available on iTunes and all streaming platforms beginning today.

UNIVERSAL LOVE Track Listing:

01 “He’s Funny That Way” • Bob Dylan
02 “And Then She Kissed Me” • St Vincent
03 “My Guy” • Kele Okereke
04 “Mad About The Girl” • Valerie June
05 “And I Love Him” • Benjamin Gibbard
06 “I Need A Woman To Love Me” • Kesha

My favorite track would have to be Gibbard’s cover of the Beatles classic, “And I Love Him,” but the full EP is terrific.

It’s important to note that more than a decade before same-sex marriage was legalized, same-sex commitment ceremonies were performed at chapels at MGM Resorts’ properties.

In 2004, MGM Resorts became the first company in the gaming and hospitality industry to offer same-sex health benefits to employees, and MGM was a founding partner of the Las Vegas chapter of the Human Rights Campaign in 2004.

MGM Resorts was named one of the “Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality” for the fifth year in a row earning a perfect score for its LGBT Employee Policies and Benefits.

So, yeah, this is a company we want to support and thank for all they do for the LGBTQ community.

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Breaking: Dr. Evil Fired From Trump Administration

One of my favorite creative processes that happen during political unrest is when comedy writers revisit and repurpose iconic characters of the past for present day hilarity.

And so it was last night when Mike Myers’ “Dr. Evil” made a guest appearance on The Tonight Show for an interview with Jimmy Fallon as the latest Trumper to be fired.

Even Fallon was taken aback by the discovery Evil had been in the White House.

Fallon: “I’ve got to say, I had no idea that you were part of the Trump administration. What exactly did you do there?”

Evil: “Well naturally, I was going to be secretary of evil. But Steve Bannon got that job,” Said Dr. Evil, bringing his pinky to his mouth for punctuation.

Evil admitted he was more of an “ideas man” taking credit for the border wall. “It was all me. But I wanted it to be a moat with spiky blowfish.”

According to Evil, his relationships in the White House were hit and miss.

“I got along swimmingly with Ben Carson. We were both evil doctors who didn’t know why we were there.”

Regarding Don Jr.: “That guy’s creepy AF. He looks like he’s missing a facial feature, you just don’t know which one.”

Great stuff. And great to see the evil Dr. Evil again 🙂

Watch below.