Colton Underwood (image via Instagram)
Putin’s Accomplishments So Far…
Russian President Vladimir Putin (screen capture)
Russia May Label LGBT Advocacy Groups As ‘Extremist’
The chairman of a powerful Russian government commission has says LGBT, feminist, and “child-free” groups should be recognized as “extremist.” Continue reading “Russia May Label LGBT Advocacy Groups As ‘Extremist’”
News Round-Up: May 12, 2020
Bremen Minelli (via Instagram)
News Round-Up: December 20, 2019
Jim Newman (via Instagram)
• FiveThirtyEight: The four candidates leading the polls nationally and in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg — have qualified for the seventh Democratic debate in January, as well as Sen. Amy Klobuchar who has hit at least 5 percent in just enough polls and her campaign says she has the donors. • Instinct: A woofy bear in the front row of last night’s Democratic debate stole the show for many Twitter gays. • Washington Post: After meeting privately in July 2017 with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin at the G20 summit, Trump grew more insistent that Ukraine worked to defeat him, according to multiple former officials familiar with his assertions. The president’s intense resistance to the assessment of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia systematically interfered in the 2016 campaign led many of his advisers to think that Putin himself helped spur the idea of Ukraine’s culpability. • The Gaily Grind: A 14-year-old girl is in the hospital after an Iowa woman struck her with her SUV in a hit-and-run incident resulting in attempted murder charges after the woman behind the wheel said she did it because the teenager is “a Mexican.” • Lip-Sync This: Billy Porter has had quite the year after slaying on the red carpets throughout the awards season, picking up an Emmy, and now snagging a 2nd Golden Globe nomination for his work on the ground-breaking FX series, POSE. But he ain’t done yet! Check out this celebrity lip-sync of his #1 Billboard Dance Club hit, “Love Yourself.” The celebrity lip-sync features Porter’s POSE co-stars MJ Rodriguez, Ryan Jamal Swain, Dyllon Burnside, Jeremy McClain, and Jason A. Rodriguez; Kinky Boots cast and creatives Cyndi Lauper, Jerry Mitchell, Stark Sands, Annaleigh Ashford, Lena Hall, and the Ogunquit Playhouse cast of the smash hit musical; the Broadway cast of Ain’t Too Proud; along with Kelly Ripa, Debra Messing, Lin Manuel Miranda, Patina Miller, Nathan Lee Graham, Miss J, Peppermint, and designer Christian Siriano.
Trump Smirks As He ‘Warns’ Putin To Not Meddle In US Elections
Enjoying the attention of press and camera crews at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Donald Trump was asked if he was going to warn Russian President Putin against meddling in U.S. elections.
“Yes, of course I will,” replied Trump.
Turning to Putin with a smirk, Trump said, “Don’t meddle in the election, President.” He also gestured to the Russian delegation repeating, “Don’t meddle in the election.”
They all thought it to be quite hilarious.
All U.S. intelligence agencies have agreed that Russian forces worked to influence the 2016 presidential election which delivered a surprise win to Trump.
Trump also joked with the Russian leader about what he calls ‘fake news,’ telling Putin, “Fake news is a great term, isn’t it? You don’t have this problem in Russia, but we do.”
“We also have,” replied Putin. “It’s the same.”
Smirking Trump jokes to Putin: don’t meddle in US election.It’s not a joke.
https://t.co/ZP6AnSetkF pic.twitter.com/r6uhbceD5b— Red T Raccoon (@RedTRaccoon) June 28, 2019
Trump also bonded with Putin over a scorn for journalists.“Get rid of them. Fake news is a great term, isn’t it? You don’t have this problem in Russia, but we do.”
“We also have,” Putin answered, in English. “It’s the same.”
They shared a chuckle. pic.twitter.com/atGGYxnwfc
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) June 28, 2019
Trump Reverses Course (Again) On Putin Proposal
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| Donald Trump (L) and Russian President Putin (R) |
During the Donald Trump/Vladimir Putin press conference on Monday, Trump praised Putin’s ‘offer’ to allow Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team to travel to Russia to ‘observe’ interrogations of the 12 indicted Russian military officers as ‘incredible.’
In exchange, however, Putin wants to question Americans including our former Ambassador to Russia who was critical of the Russian president.
Danger Will Robinson, danger.
Via Politico:
Trump called the idea an “incredible offer” during the news conference. And on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the president would “meet with his team” on Putin’s proposal, setting off a Russia-related backlash against the Trump administration for the third straight day.
By Thursday, as the Senate prepared to formally rebuke Trump, the White House reversed course.
“It is a proposal that was made in sincerity by President Putin, but President Trump disagrees with it,” Sanders said in a statement. “Hopefully President Putin will have the 12 identified Russians come to the United States to prove their innocence or guilt.”
The Senate voted 98-0 for a resolution denouncing the idea that we would hand over our foreign diplomats, past or present, to Russian agents for interrogation.
By the way, a new poll by SurveyMonkey shows 79% of Republicans approve of how Trump handled the Monday press conference.
Compare that with 91% of Democrats who disapproved and 62% of Independents who disapproved.
Overall, the numbers fell pretty much in line with Trump’s usually polling – 58% disapproved and 40% approved.
With Fox News Turning On Him, Trump Attempts To Walk Back Statements At Putin Summit
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| Donald Trump |
In a very awkwardly delivered statement, Donald Trump (reading from prepared remarks) attempted to walk back some of his disastrous comments made in Helsinki yesterday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Calling his Helsinki summit with Putin the “most successful visit” about “the most pressing issues facing humanity,” Trump falsely claimed that the U.S. relationship with Russia is now “substantially better” after the summit.
The Trumpster also asserted that he has faith in the U.S. intelligence establishment’s conclusion that Russia interfered, and then swerved back into the underbrush saying it could also be somebody else.
“I have a full faith in our intelligence agencies. Always have. I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling took place (though) it could be other people also.”
And just for good measure, or out of habit, he threw in another “There was no collusion at all.”
Trump tried to explain that at the summit he ‘misspoke’ and said “I don’t see any reason why it would be Russia” rather than “I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.”
Here’s the word salad explanation: “The sentence should have been ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia,’ sort of a double negative. So you can put that in and I think that probably clarifies things pretty good by itself. I have on numerous occasions noted our intelligence findings that Russians attempted to interfere in our elections.”
Watch below.
To be clear, Trump still seemed to waffle in his acceptance of U.S. intelligence: “I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place. Could be other people also. A lot of people out there.” (via ABC) pic.twitter.com/Gp4hzEbZBc— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 17, 2018
Donald just fixed everything by retroactively amending the transcript of his televised statement about election meddling to read, “I don’t see any reason why it WOULDN’T be Russia,” instead of “WOULD be Russia.” He also clarified that he likes to grab women by their puppies.— Randy Rainbow (@RandyRainbow) July 17, 2018
The would-wouldn’t defense is preposterous. Trump undermined IC’s Russia assessment multiple times yesterday, citing Putin’s “strong” denial, raising DNC server conspiracy theory. In fact, he has expressed same doubts for >2yrs. A missing contraction is a grammatical red herring.— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) July 17, 2018
Trump didn’t misspeak. But if he did, wouldn’t he have corrected himself earlier? Wouldn’t one of his press secretaries have urgently issued a statement? Wouldn’t Dan Coats have said as much? Instead, none of that happened. Officials were speechless.— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) July 17, 2018
And for the Game of Thrones fans:
— Greg Hogben (@MyDaughtersArmy) July 17, 2018
Jimmy Kimmel: We Now Know Beyond A “Treasonable Doubt” Putin Has Blackmail Evidence On Trump
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| Jimmy Kimmel |
In his opening monologue last night, Jimmy Kimmel could not hold back when it came to the news of the day, Donald Trump’s disastrous meeting and press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Well, I guess that settles it. There you go. If you’re wondering whether or not Vladimir Putin has an incriminating video of Donald Trump, we now know beyond a treasonable doubt he does.
“This wasn’t a good day for Donald Trump. We haven’t seen an American so owned by a Russian since Rocky IV.
“Putin’s just having fun with this now. He actually offered to have his intelligence agents investigate the hacking of our election. That’s like Papa John offering to investigate who’s been saying all the racist stuff at the company.”
As Trump exited the presser, he brought up Hillary Clinton’s emails yet again. Says Kimmel, “Always close with your biggest hits – that’s the way to go.”
Watch the segment below.
Trump Celebrates His Summit Meeting With His Boss
Over on Earth Two, Donald Trump celebrated his (widely-panned) performance at his press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
While I had a great meeting with NATO, raising vast amounts of money, I had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia. Sadly, it is not being reported that way – the Fake News is going Crazy!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 17, 2018
Meanwhile, former CIA director John Brennan had a different take on Trump’s performance in Helsinki:
“What Mr. Trump did yesterday was to betray the women and men of the FBI, the CIA, the NSA and others and to betray the American public. And that’s why I use the term that this was nothing short of treasonous. Because it is a betrayal of the nation.” — @JohnBrennan pic.twitter.com/qckQn71DMB— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) July 17, 2018