Category: Uncategorized

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That Time When Paul Ryan Deleted His $1.50 Tweet

When Speaker of the House Paul Ryan tweeted the news that a woman wrote to him about her $1.50 increase in her weekly paycheck thanks to the Trump Tax Cuts, he immediately tweeted it out as proof of what a wonderful success the new tax law is.

Except, of course, corporations and the wealthy are reaping much, much bigger windfalls.

The tweet showed Ryan being out of touch with middle America and the media could not stop themselves from pointing this up.

Ryan eventually deleted the tweet.

#sad

Watch below.

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Gus Kenworthy: VP Mike Pence “Seems Like A Bad Fit” To Lead Olympic Delegation

Via The Hill:

Freeskier Gus Kenworthy, one of the first two openly gay male athletes to represent the U.S. in the Winter Olympics, told Ellen DeGeneres that he things Vice President Pence is a “bad fit” to lead the U.S. delegation to Pyeongchang, South Korea, this month.

Kenworthy’s comments echoed those of figure skater Adam Rippon, who has harshly criticized Pence and the Trump administration in general over their treatment of LGBTQ rights. Rippon, who is also openly gay, was named to the Olympic team just weeks before Kenworthy.

“[Pence] seems like such a strange choice,” Kenworthy said Monday on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

“To have somebody leading the delegation that’s directly attacked the LGBTQ community, and a Cabinet in general that just sort of stands against us and has tried to do things to set us back, it just seems like a bad fit.”

Pence has a long history of opposing LGBT rights and supporting anti-LGBT legislation. He’s encouraged funding for so-called “conversion therapy,” signed legislation that would allow discrimination against LGBTs into law, opposed allowing gays in the military and same-sex marriage.

Watch his chat with Ellen below.

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Joe Biden: Trump Is “A Joke” And Has “Difficulty With Precision”

In very clear terms, former Vice President Joe Biden told CNN’s Chris Cuomo this afternoon exactly what he thinks about Donald Trump:

“This is the first president to make a full-throated, unvarnished attack on the entirety of the FBI. This is to discredit the FBI and discredit his own Justice Department.

You know, look, I spent a lot of time traveling around the world. What do you think they’re thinking in Moscow? This is doing everything that Putin ever wanted, sowing doubt about whether or not our justice system is fair, sowing doubt about whether or not there is anything that’s remotely consistent with our Constitution.

It’s just — it’s a disaster.”

Biden also suggested that Trump would not fare well in an interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller which could open him up to being caught misleading investigators.

“The President has some difficulty with precision,” Biden told Cuomo.

More from CNN:

Biden said he marvels at some of the comments Trump makes and referenced a line from Trump on Monday that Democrats who did not applaud his State of the Union address were “un-American” and “treasonous.”

The White House has since called the remark tongue-in-cheek, with press secretary Sarah Sanders saying on Tuesday that Trump was “clearly joking.”

“Well let me tell you, he’s a joke,” Biden said in response.

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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Video Supports Bullied NYC Student’s Account Of Self-Defense In Fatal Stabbing

Abel Cedeno

GayCityNews is reporting a video has surfaced capturing the vicious attack on gay student Abel Cedeno by classmate Matthew McCree on September 27, 2017 in a Bronx high school.

The event ended with Cedeno defending himself with a knife fatally wounding McCree.

McCree, in a white T-shirt, can be seen charging across the classroom and pummeling Cedeno, in a pink shirt, with his fists, and Laboy joining in the fray, as well, while students are screaming in horror. As the nine-second video concludes, McCree is still standing and an adult in a red shirt has pulled Cedeno away.

Attorneys for Cedeno, Christopher R. Lynn and Robert J. Feldman, are calling for the manslaughter charges against Cedeno to be dropped in light of this evidence, which backs up what Cedeno told the grand jury as well as what student witnesses told the police.

Cedeno has testified and told Gay City News that he acted in self-defense and thought he was going to die when McCree rushed him since he believed him to be a member of the YGZ 800 gang member who could have had a weapon.

Lynn said, “It is clear to me that McCree is throwing these punches with his right and his left furiously at Abel Cedeno, who is obviously terrified and putting up both his hands in defense of McCree.”

He said that the autopsy report on McCree found that his hands “show he was involved in hitting someone and that whoever he was hitting defended himself. He was punching Abel, and Abel was punching back and he used the knife once.”

The video appears to back up several students accounts of the attack.

Abel told police it was only after years of bullying that he decided to carry a knife to school out of protection.

I previously reported on the attack here.

As one person on the internet noted, had it been a gun you would have heard claims of “stand your ground” which allowed George Zimmerman to walk free after fatally shooting teenager Trayvon Martin.

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FEMA Contracted Company For 30 Million Meals For Puerto Rico, Only 50K Delivered

In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, the Federal Emergency Management Agency turned to an Atlanta-based entrepreneur to deliver 30 million meals to the devastated island of Puerto Rico at a cost of $156 million.

Only 50,000 were ever delivered.

From The New York Times:

For this huge task, FEMA tapped Tiffany Brown, an Atlanta entrepreneur with no experience in large-scale disaster relief and at least five canceled government contracts in her past. FEMA awarded her $156 million for the job, and Ms. Brown, who is the sole owner and employee of her company, Tribute Contracting LLC, set out to find some help.

Ms. Brown, who is adept at navigating the federal contracting system, hired a wedding caterer in Atlanta with a staff of 11 to freeze-dry wild mushrooms and rice, chicken and rice, and vegetable soup. She found a nonprofit in Texas that had shipped food aid overseas and domestically, including to a Houston food bank after Hurricane Harvey.

By the time 18.5 million meals were due, Tribute had delivered only 50,000. And FEMA inspectors discovered a problem: The food had been packaged separately from the pouches used to heat them. FEMA’s solicitation required “self-heating meals.”

“Do not ship another meal. Your contract is terminated,” Carolyn Ward, the FEMA contracting officer who handled Tribute’s agreement, wrote to Ms. Brown in an email dated Oct. 19 that Ms. Brown provided to The New York Times. “This is a logistical nightmare.”

Brown refers to herself as “almost like a broker” working to subcontract out all her work. She has no employees and no specific skill in any one arena.

Brown is disputing the cancelled saying the agency did not specify that the meals and heaters had to be together.

Meanwhile, Puerto Rico continues to struggle.

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Trump: “I’d Love To See A Shutdown”

During a meeting on the MS-13 gang, Donald Trump announced he supports a government shutdown if Democrats won’t agree to tighten immigration laws:

“If we don’t change it, let’s have a shutdown. We’ll do a shutdown and it’s worth it for our country. I’d love to see a shutdown if we don’t get this stuff taken care of.”

Trump’s comments came at 2:33pm today.

At 3:50pm, White House press secretary Sarah Huckbee Sanders walked that back telling the press, “We are not advocating for a shutdown.”

#chaos

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CA Judge: Baker May Continue To Deny Same-Sex Couples Wedding Cakes While Awaiting Trial

Basing his decision on the distinction between selling a product or creating an artistic expression, Kern County Superior Court Judge David Lampe has ruled that baker Cathy Miller of Bakersfield can continue to refuse to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples.

The case began last August when Miller, a conservative Christian, refused to make a wedding cake for Mireya and Eileen Rodriguez-Del Rio.

Miller claimed it violated her deeply held Christian beliefs.

The Rodriguez-Del Rioses filed a complaint to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing alleging Miller had violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act, which prohibits public businesses from denying service to anyone on race, gender, religion or sexual orientation.

Note: This ruling is a motion regarding a preliminary injunction. The case has not been tried yet.

From Bakersfield.com:

“A retail tire shop may not refuse to sell a tire because the owner does not want to sell tires to same sex couples. There is nothing sacred or expressive about a tire. No artist, having placed their work for public sale, may refuse to sell for an unlawful discriminatory purpose. No baker may place their wares in a public display case, open their shop, and then refuse to sell because of race, religion, gender, or gender identification,” Lampe wrote.

His distinction, he said, is between the act of selling a product to a same-sex couple and creating a product for the same couple.

“The difference here is that the cake in question is not yet baked,” Lampe wrote. “The State is not petitioning the court to order defendants to sell a cake. The State asks this court to compel Miller to use her talents to design and create a cake she has not yet conceived with the knowledge that her work will be displayed in celebration of a marital union her religion forbids. For this court to force such compliance would do violence to the essentials of Free Speech guaranteed under the First Amendment.”

The ruling doesn’t end the case. It just allows Miller to continue denying same-sex couples wedding cakes until the trial is resolved sometime this summer.

#ItsNotOver

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After Taking Credit For Rising Stock Market, Trump Silent On Record-Breaking Market Crash

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1,175 points yesterday in the largest drop in terms of points in the history of the Dow.

Coupled with the 666 point loss on Friday, the Dow had lost its gains for the year.

The previous record for losses was 777.68 points on Sept. 29, 2008, as the country slid into the worst economic recession since the Great Depression.

Of course, Donald Trump has hitched his wagon to the rising stock market since his election.

From The New York Times:

No president in modern times has connected his political fortunes to the stock market as much as Mr. Trump, who relentlessly cited its meteoric rise as a sign of his success at restoring confidence in the American economy. But the drastic sell-off on Friday and Monday demonstrated why most presidents scrupulously avoid talking about short-term gyrations in share prices: If you live by the Dow, you may die by the Dow.

Barely a week went by last year when Mr. Trump did not crow about the rising market, making it a major talking point for his case to the country that he had made a difference. He took credit for the market at least 25 times in January alone. Even when the Dow fell 363 points on the day of his State of the Union address last week, Mr. Trump simply ignored the drop and talked about how the market had “smashed one record after another” since his election.

Even as the world markets react to the news, some conservatives looked to find an escape hatch for Trump. Fox News host Sean Hannity even tried to blame President Obama, who’s been out of office over year, for the debacle.

I kid you not.

From Mediaite:

During his radio program yesterday afternoon, Fox News’ Sean Hannity claimed that we are seeing the impact of the previous administration’s economy on today’s market. Referring to a segment he had just seen on Fox News, Hannity said the analysis is that it was largely President Barack Obama’s fault.

“Because the Obama economy was so weak all of these years we had just artificially cheap money,” the Fox News host said. “Now what’s cheap money? Cheap money is when you can borrow at ridiculously low rates.”

He continued, “The era of cheap money at some point has to come to an end. The government has artificially, the Fed has artificially kept the price of money down and the price borrowing down and now that’s going to come to an end.”

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Trump Calls Democrats Treasonous For Not Applauding For Him

Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Ohio yesterday, Donald Trump called Democrats “treasonous” for not applauding when he listed his achievements to Congress during his State of the Union address last Tuesday.

“Can we call that treason? Why not?” Trump said during a speech about the GOP tax. “They certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.”

Here’s the video:

Well, treason is a very serious word to casually throw around. There’s a reason no one has been convicted of the crime in the U.S. since World War II.

So, you can understand why some folks got a bit upset about the comment, including Democratic lawmakers like Sen. Tammy Duckworth and Rep. Tim Walz who spent years and years serving their country in the military. That’s something, by the way, that Trump never did.

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John Mahoney Of “Frasier” Fame Passes Away At 77

(Photo credit: NBC)

Aw, sadness.

From Variety:

John Mahoney, who earned a SAG Award and numerous Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his portrayal of “Martin Crane,” father to Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce’s characters in the hit series Frasier for 11 seasons, died on Sunday. He was 77.

Mahoney played the father of Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce’s characters during the show’s run on NBC from 1993 to 2004. He won a SAG Award and received two Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations for his portrayal. He was also a mainstay of Chicago’s theater community.

From 2011 to 2014, Mahoney had a recurring role on “Hot in Cleveland” as Roy, the love interest of Betty White’s character, Elka. He was much praised for his performance as an anguished CEO in psychological counseling on Season 2 of HBO’s “In Treatment” in 2009.

Mahoney worked in film for more than 35 years, appearing in classics like “The American President,” “Moonstruck,” “In the Line of Fire,” and “Say Anything,” along with voicing animated characters in the “Antz” and “Atlantis” films. He also had guest spots in a number of TV shows including “Cheers,” the forerunner of “Frasier” (although he played a different character), and “3rd Rock from the Sun.”