Category: Uncategorized

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Trump Calls Haiti And African Countries “Shithole Countries” In Oval Office Meeting

How very presidential.

From The Washington Post:

President Trump grew frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office when they floated restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, according to two people briefed on the meeting.

“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump said, according to these people, referring to African countries and Haiti. He then suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met Wednesday.

The comments left lawmakers taken aback, according to people familiar with their reactions. Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) proposed cutting the visa lottery program by 50 percent and prioritizing countries already in the system, a White House official said.

Now, let’s think: what’s the difference between folks from Norway and folks from Africa?

#RacistMuch?

The White House issued a statement which does not deny Trump’s statement.

The president will only accept an immigration deal that adequately addresses the visa lottery system and chain migration — two programs that hurt our economy and allow terrorists into our country.

Like other nations that have merit-based immigration, President Trump is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy, and assimilate into our great nation.

He will always reject temporary, weak, and dangerous stopgap measures that threaten the lives of hardworking Americans, and undercut immigrants who seek a better life in the United States through a legal pathway.

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Once-A-Week HIV Medication Shows Promise In Early Testing

A new delivery system could make a once-a-week HIV medication a reality in the next few years.

The research, published in Nature Communications, was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Patients would take a capsule that, once it reaches the stomach, would unfold into a star-shaped structure that would release medicine over the course of seven days.

The star-structure would eventually dissolve and pass through the body.

While at present some slow release drugs are available to be delivered via injection, most HIV meds are taken on a daily basis.

After testing on pigs, the next step will be to try the approach on larger mammals and then hopefully human testing within two years.

Convenience is a big factor in the new technology.

Giovanni Traverso, a researcher from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says “Changing a medication so it only needs to be taken once a week rather than once a day should be more convenient and improve compliance.”

More at the BBC.

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White House Takes Credit For Walmart Bonuses As 63 Sam’s Club Stores To Be Shuttered

Team Trump is taking credit today for announced bonuses (which average $190 per employee) and starting wage increases for Walmart employees.

Not part of the White House credit grab is the news that Walmart is also closing 63 Sam’s Club stores, laying off thousands.

Some folks showed up to work today to find their stores closed with no notice.

Now, which would you rather have – a job or $190?

Comcast pulled a similar bait and switch last month.

So. Much. Winning.

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Song Of The Day: Holly Cole “I Can See Clearly Now”

I wore this track out when I first heard it back in 1993.

From the album Don’t Smoke In Bed, Canadian jazz singer Holly Cole reinvents the Johnny Nash classic, “I Can See Clearly Now.”

I couldn’t find the original music video, but watch Holly and company knock this out in the live video below:

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Kellyanne Conway: “Nobody” In White House Is Talking About Hillary

During a news conference at the White House yesterday, Donald Trump was asked by Fox News‘ John Roberts as to whether he will agree to a sit down interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is currently investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

This was Trump’s answer:

“Well, again John, there has been no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians or Trump and Russians. No collusion. When I watch you interviewing all the people leaving their committees, I mean, the Democrats are all running for office, trying to say this that — but bottom line, they all say there’s no collusion. And there is no collusion.

“And when you talk about interviews, Hillary Clinton had an interview, where she wasn’t sworn in, she wasn’t given the oath, they didn’t take notes, they didn’t record and it was done on the 4th of July weekend. That’s perhaps ridiculous and a lot of people looked upon that as being a very serious breach and it really was.

“But again I’ll speak to attorneys — I can only say this, there was absolutely no collusion. Everybody knows it. Every committee — I’ve been in office now for 11 months. For 11 months, they’ve had this phony cloud over this administration, over our government. And it has hurt our government. It does hurt our government. It’s a Democrat hoax that was brought up as an excuse for losing an election that frankly the Democrats should have won because they have such a tremendous advantage in the electoral college.

“So it was brought up for that reason. But it has been determined that there is no collusion and by virtually everybody. So we’ll see what happens. We’ll see what happens. I mean certainly we’ll see what happens — when they have no collusion and nobody’s found any collusion at any level it seems unlikely that you’d even have an interview.”

Now, aside from the 8 times that Trump made a point to say there was no collusion, what was odd in his response was dragging Hillary Clinton’s name out of nowhere.

By the way, he says Hillary wasn’t “sworn in” during her interview in July 2016 with the FBI as if that gave her some escape or “out” in terms of telling the truth. The fact of the matter is, whether you are under oath or not, it’s legal jeopardy to lie to the FBI. 

Anyway…

Later, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway strangely asserted to CNN’s Chris Cuomo that “nobody” in the White House “talks about Hillary Clinton.”

Wait. Wha… Umm.

Watch the video below.

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Fox News’ Shep Smith: Trump’s Attack On Libel Laws Is “A Word Salad Of Nothingness”


 Fox News host Shep Smith was not having Donald Trump’s not-even-thinly-veiled attack on author Michael Wolff when the Trumpster announced he wants his administration to explore a possible overhaul of “very unfair” libel laws.

“For clarity, because we’re in the position to report facts here, all of that about libel laws––that was just a word salad of nothingness, because none of that means anything, except ‘look over here’. He couldn’t change the libel laws if he wanted to change the libel laws, he couldn’t change ’em if he got the Congress in there. These are state laws.

“He’s not a dictator. He’s not a king. He can’t change the libel laws. That’s preposterous.”

As Shep rightfully points out, the president can’t change laws. Only Congress can.

And Congress can only change federal laws. Libel laws vary state to state.

Lord, can someone inform Trump about such issues before he goes off half-cocked and says these stupid things?

Watch below.

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Donald Trump Attacks His Own Administration’s Position On FISA, Then Flip-Flops Back

This morning, during Donald Trump’s “Executive Time,” the man who says he has no time to watch TV because he’s reading “documents” was clearly watching a report on Fox News about a Congressional vote to reauthorize FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

In a kneejerk reaction, Trump let the world know that he doesn’t understand what the law does.

Note – FISA is used for the collection of foreign intelligence against a non-U.S. person overseas.

Moments after Fox’s report aired, Trump shared this tweet:

The dossier he’s referring to is the series of memos compiled by former MI6 British spy Christopher Steele, a Russian expert, for Fusion GPS.

It’s important to note that, despite the Donald’s protestations, much of it has been corroborated, and none of it has been officially debunked.

In any case, the problem with Trump’s tweet is his administration actually SUPPORTS the reauthorization of the FISA Act.

So, flippity-flop, a short time later, Trump tried to get back on the right side of his own policy:

Remember folks, this is a self-proclaimed “very stable genius.”

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Trump Touts “Great Reviews,” Says He’s “Unlikely” To Grant Interview With Special Counsel Robert Mueller

Check out that body language

Donald Trump, who claims he has no time to watch cable TV, says he got rave reviews for his “performance” yesterday during the televised 54-minute meeting with Congressional leaders.

During the first cabinet meeting of 2018, Trump told the press the “reviews” were so good, he says he got “letters” from news anchors congratulating him on his “performance.”

Later, when asked about “letters” of praise, the White House released a list of links to video clips showing positive feedback on the bipartisan meeting.

By the way, I’ll mention that as I watched the televised meeting, I was completely aware that the reason Trump allowed the press to stay and view the meeting was specifically meant to GIVE a performance. After the new explosive expose by Michael Wolff where Trump’s mental faculties have been questioned, I had no doubt that the Donald was trying to show Americans how stable he can try to be.

Later, at a press event with the Prime Minister of Norway, Trump was asked if he would be willing to sit down with Special Counsel Robert Mueller for a face to face interview regarding the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Last June, Trump said he was “100 percent” willing to give testimony under oath. Additionally, his legal team has stressed that he would cooperate with the investigation.

Wellllll, it’s a New Year and the Trumpster doesn’t seem so inclined to sit down with Mueller now. In fact, he said it was “not likely” since there was “no collusion” with Russia.

In fact, Trump completely dodged giving a direct answer instead repeating the phrase “no collusion” 8 times in the span of a minute and a half.

Watch the video below, and check out that body language with his arms crossed. Just saying…