LGBTQ news and entertainment
On Saturday Night Live last night, CNN Newsroom got skewered:
Brooke Baldwin (Cecily Strong) breaks down the Germanwings plane crash, the Iran nuclear weapons deal and Indiana’s religious freedom law with animated graphics, puppet stand-ins and a performance art group (Michael Keaton, Kenan Thompson, Aidy Bryant).
President Obama took to the White House Rose Garden to announce a preliminary framework for a nuclear arms deal with Iran had been reached.
“I am convinced that if this framework leads to a final, comprehensive deal, it will make our country, our allies and our world safer,” he said. “This has been a long time coming.”
The actual framework will be announced in the next few days, although the details of the agreement will be hammered out over the next couple of months.
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| Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell |
Newspapers across the country continue to condemn the open letter signed by 47 Republican U.S. Senators to the leaders of Iran meant to sabotage current ongoing sensitive negotiations regarding nuclear weapons.
Just a few samples from at least 22 so far:
The Kansas City Star wondered if it was the Iran letter, or the Republican senators who were treacherous, “Given the Republicans’ pure hatred of Obama, it also seemed extra personal, yet another politically motivated attempt to stop him from doing anything that might be perceived as a victory for his administration.”
The editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette wrote that the senators who signed the letter should be ashamed, “America’s partners in the talks are among the world’s most important nations — China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom. They can only be appalled at seeing Secretary of State John Kerry and the president, who are charged with making the nation’s foreign policy, hit from behind by one house of the federal legislature. The senators who signed the letter should be ashamed.”
The Baltimore Sun pulled no punches, “The poison pen note was a shocking example of just how far President Barack Obama’s GOP critics in Congress are willing to go in an effort to undercut his foreign policy goals…The GOP senators might just as well have put up a big sign over their chamber warning the mullahs in Tehran to prepare for war because that’s the practical import of rejecting any possibility of a negotiated resolution of the two countries’ differences.
More at PoliticusUSA.
Check out GOP strategist John Feehery today on HARDBALL. Bless his heart, trying to justify undercutting a president in the midst of sensitive international negotiations.
As many know by now, 47 GOP Senators sent an “open letter” to the leaders of Iran (Iran!) telling them that any nuclear deal they sign with President Obama won’t last after Obama leaves office.
(Sen. Rand Paul later said the letter was a “message” to the White House. Clearly he doesn’t know the address of the White House….)
Imagine U.S. Senators reaching out to Khrushchev during the Cold War behind the back of the president. SRSLY?
The Logan Act expressly states:
“Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”
I’d be tripping over my tongue like Mr. John Feehery, too.
Outgoing Congresswoman Michele Bachmann found her advice to President Obama at the White House Christmas party on bombing Iran didn’t land exactly how she expected. Via Mediaite:
“I turned to the president and I said, something to the effect of, ‘Mr. President, you need to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities, because if you don’t, Iran will have a nuclear weapon on your watch and the course of world history will change,’” Bachmann said.
“And he got his condescending smile on his face and laughed at me and said, ‘Well Michele, it’s just not that easy.’
And I said to him, ‘No, Mr. President, you’re the president, it will happen on your watch, and you’ll have to answer to the world for this.’
And that was it and then I left. Merry Christmas.”
Watch John King and company discuss on CNN below.
In a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, Texas congressman Louie Gohmert demands that the United State bomb Iran.
From his speech:
“It is time to cut off every dime of American money going to anyone who has any kind of relationship with Hamas or those killing in the Middle East, and especially in Israel,” said Gohmert. “It is time to bomb Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” Gohmert concluded.
“It is time for the United States, if we are not going to stop Iran’s nukes, then let Israel do it. A friend will not put another friend in this kind of jeopardy.”
Who’s ready to go to war again?
After much negotiation, the United States, France, Germany, China, Russia, Great Britain, and the European Union have come to an agreement with Iran to freeze its nuclear program.
From New York Times:
The United States and five other world powers announced a landmark accord Sunday morning that would temporarily freeze Iran’s nuclear program and lay the foundation for a more sweeping agreement. It was the first time in nearly a decade of talks, American officials said, that an international agreement had been reached to halt much of Iran’s nuclear program and roll some elements of it back.
According to the agreement, Iran would agree to stop enriching uranium beyond 5 percent. To make good on that pledge, Iran would dismantle links between networks of centrifuges. All of Iran’s stockpile of uranium that has been enriched to 20 percent, a short hop to weapons-grade fuel, would be diluted or converted into oxide so that it could not be readily used for military purposes. No new centrifuges, neither old models nor newer more efficient ones, could be installed.
Centrifuges that have been installed but which are not currently operating could not be started up. The agreement, however, would not require Iran to stop enriching uranium to a level of 3.5 percent or dismantle any of its existing centrifuges. The accord was a disappointment for Israel, which urged the United States to pursue a stronger agreement that would lead to a complete end to Iran’s enrichment program. But Iran made it clear that continuing enrichment was a prerequisite for any agreement.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been tweeting up a storm about his displeasure over the agreement.
However, global oil prices dropped in early trading Monday, as markets gave a cautious welcome to the weekend’s nuclear deal.