demmiblue
demmiblue's Journal"Squiggy Trump" gets a clap back from Jake Tapper:
Squiggy Trump
From the Reliable Sources email thingie, some of the fallout from the Buzzfeed bombshell—and subsequent collateral damage—included this exchange (emphasis theirs):
“When Donald Trump, Jr. called out CNN in a tweet about “The Lead,” Jake Tapper pointed out that he and his guests were quite skeptical of the report, Jr. responded, “If you’re skeptical about the accuracy of a story, how about NOT giving it non-stop, wall to wall coverage on your network? You just can’t help yourselves!!!”
“Tapper’s answer: “Your father, the White House and congressional leaders were talking about it and reacting to it so of course we covered it. Given the many lies you told the American people about the meeting at Trump Tower I don’t really care to be lectured about anything by you.”
https://crooksandliars.com/2019/01/whoa-great-clap-back-jake-tapper-slaps-don?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=9110
Squiggy Trump!
"Start the car... start the car... START THE CAR!! 🐾"
https://twitter.com/The_UnSilent_/status/1087068754788450310Here's the message from the White House, requesting a SOTU walk thru for yesterday
https://twitter.com/seungminkim/status/1087755944602337283
Top diplomat for European affairs resigns from State Department
Source: WaPo
A. Wess Mitchell, the top diplomat in charge of European affairs, will resign from the State Department next month, creating a key vacancy at a time when European leaders are questioning President Trump’s commitment to historic alliances.
Mitchell, 41, cited personal and professional reasons in a Jan. 4 letter of resignation he submitted to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. His last day as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs is Feb. 15.
“As the administration completes its second year in office, I feel that I have completed what I set out to do in taking this position,” he wrote, citing the development of a Europe strategy and helping Pompeo transition into the job after Rex Tillerson was fired in March.
“As such, I believe that the time has come for me to spend more time with my young family, who have endured many days without me over the past several months.”
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/top-diplomat-for-european-affairs-resigns-from-state-department/2019/01/22/ada80048-1e3f-11e9-8b59-0a28f2191131_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.1945b8b4cbf0
"Low Energy": Donald Trump Works Less Than Most Americans - The Beat With Ari Melber - MSNBC
Trump: I told Sanders to stop briefings because press covers her 'rudely'
Source: The Hill
President Trump on Tuesday said he directed White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to stop holding regular briefings, citing unfair treatment by the news media.
“The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the ‘podium’ much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press,” Trump tweeted. “I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway!”
The White House has come under fire from media organizations for the lack of regular press briefings. Sanders has yet to hold a formal briefing in 2019 and the last one took place on Dec. 18, the longest stretch without a briefing during the Trump presidency.
Trump appeared to be reacting to a Fox News interview by White House spokesman Hogan Gidley, who defended Sanders’ handling of the press corps.
Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/426394-trump-i-told-sanders-to-stop-briefings-because-press-covers-her
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1087733867614781446
BREAKING: Supreme Court reinstates Trump's ban on trans servicemembers in the military
Source: Think Progress
The Supreme Court handed down a pair of orders on Tuesday that effectively reinstate the Trump administration’s ban on trans military service.
The cases are Trump v. Karnoski and Trump v. Stockman. In both cases, a lower court halted the ban. Tuesday’s orders temporarily stay those lower court decisions while the cases make their way through the federal courts. The Supreme Court voted along party lines to stay these decisions, with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan in dissent.
While the Republican-controlled Supreme Court was always likely to take up these cases eventually — and always likely to rule in favor of Trump — the Court’s decision to permit the Trump administration to stay these lower court orders suggests that the Court’s majority is especially eager to uphold Trump’s policy.
Even setting aside the fact that the Court’s Republican majority is unlikely to be sympathetic to transgender civil rights under any circumstances, courts are especially likely to defer to the elected branches on questions involving the military or national security.
Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/breaking-supreme-court-reinstates-trumps-ban-on-trans-servicemembers-in-the-military-a5b044d72862/
Mark Meadows, Trump whisperer
When Mark Meadows didn’t get President Donald Trump’s chief of staff gig, he wasn’t losing much.
Just 10 days later, the powerful conservative lawmaker managed to engineer what has since become the longest-running government shutdown — convincing Trump to pull the trigger right as the partial closure was on the brink of being avoided.
Meadows picked up the phone to make his move just after Vice President Mike Pence had told lawmakers over lunch on Dec. 19 — two days before government funding would expire — that Trump was prepared to sign a clean spending bill to keep the government open through early February. The North Carolina Republican, who helped shutter the government in 2013 during a revolt against Obamacare, wasn’t prepared to back away from demanding funds for a border wall. And despite Pence’s clear-as-day comments, he assumed the president wasn’t either.
Meadows was right.
The following day, at Meadows’ urging, Trump said he would veto any short-term funding bill that didn’t include $5.7 billion to build a wall along the southern border, a campaign chant-turned top policy priority. Republican leaders quickly scuttled a press conference planned to announce their agreement to keep the government open. A day later, a quarter of the federal government shutdown. Nearly a month later, little has changed.
Meadows, a North Carolina Republican, was among several prominent conservatives — including Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, and radio personality Rush Limbaugh — who pressured Trump to stick to his border wall promise as congressional negotiations unfolded in December. But while right-wing pundits often make their cases through the airwaves, Meadows’ methods of persuasion are far more direct.
Four sources with knowledge of their relationship said Trump talks to Meadows more than he does with many of his senior aides. They sometimes spend an hour-plus on the phone together or speak more than once per day.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/20/mark-meadows-trump-shutdown-1116057
Watch TV, tweet, talk on the phone... that is the extent of his presidency.
I've No More F***s To Give!
To Save the Sound of a Stradivarius, a Whole City Must Keep Quiet
CREMONA, Italy — Florencia Rastelli was mortified. As an expert barista, she had never spilled a single cup of coffee, she said. But last Monday, as she wiped the counter at Chiave di Bacco, the cafe where she works, she knocked over a glass and it shattered loudly on the floor.
The customers all stood still, petrified, Ms. Rastelli recalled. “I was like: Of all days, this one,” she said. “Even a police officer popped in and asked me to keep it down. I was so embarrassed.”
The people of Cremona are unusually sensitive to noise right now. The police have cordoned off streets in the usually bustling city center and traffic has been diverted. During a recent news conference, the city’s mayor, Gianluca Galimberti, implored Cremona’s citizens to avoid any sudden and unnecessary sounds.
Cremona is home to the workshops of some of the world’s finest instrument makers, including Antonio Stradivari, who in the 17th and 18th centuries produced some of the finest violins and cellos ever made. The city is getting behind an ambitious project to digitally record the sounds of the Stradivarius instruments for posterity, as well as others by Amati and Guarneri del Gesù, two other famous Cremona craftsmen. And that means being quiet.
A Stradivarius violin, viola or cello represents the pinnacle of sound engineering, and nobody has been able to replicate their unique tones.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/arts/music/stradivarius-sound-bank-recording-cremona.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimesarts
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