demmiblue
demmiblue's Journal3 Chicago Cops Acquitted Of Laquan McDonald Shooting Cover-Up
Source: TPM/AP
CHICAGO (AP) — A judge on Thursday acquitted three Chicago police officers of trying to cover up the 2014 police shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald to try to protect another officer who pulled the trigger.
After a trial that was watched closely by law enforcement and critics of the department that has long had a reputation for condoning police brutality and misconduct, Cook County Judge Domenica Stephenson acquitted former Officer Joseph Walsh, former Detective David March and Officer Thomas Gaffney on charges of conspiracy, official misconduct and obstruction of justice.
The judge said there was no evidence that officers tried to hide or bury evidence. “The evidence shows just the opposite,” she said. She singled out how they had preserved the police dashcam video at the heart of the evidence that convicted Officer Jason Van Dyke, who shot McDonald 16 times.
Van Dyke was convicted in October of second-degree murder and aggravated battery and is due to be sentenced Friday.
Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/chicago-cops-acquitted-laquan-mcdonald-shooting-cover-up
President Trump responds to Speaker Pelosi's letter re SOTU by cancelling her codel to Egypt...
https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1085979602441236480
https://twitter.com/costareports/status/1085979345347317760
'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt' Trailer: The Final Episodes
In the final episodes, Kimmy is as resilient as ever but realizes that being an adult is about more than just putting the past behind her. It’s finally time for her to choose between helping her friends — Titus (Tituss Burgess), Jacqueline (Jane Krakowski) and Lillian (Carol Kane) — and helping someone she’s never put first before: herself.
Guest stars include Jon Hamm (Rev. Richard Wayne Gary Wayne), Zachary Quinto (Eli Rubin), Greg Kinnear (as himself), Busy Philipps (Sheba Goodman), Bobby Moynihan (Fran Dodd), Amy Sedaris (Mimi Kanassis), Fred Armisen (Robert Durst), Jon Bernthal (Ilan), Steve Buscemi (as himself), Kenan Thompson (Roland), Ronan Farrow (as himself) and Lisa Kudrow (Lori-Ann Schmidt), among others.
https://deadline.com/2019/01/unbreakable-kimmy-schmidt-trailer-final-episodes-ellie-kemper-tina-fey-1202536103/
Trump is fraying nerves inside the Pentagon
It's not just Trump's unpredictable decision making that has officials on edge, it's also his penchant for politicizing the military— something that's come into focus in recent months as he's struggled to fulfill his campaign promise to crack down on immigration and build a border wall. His decision to draw down troops in Syria and his claims that ISIS is defeated have also rankled military commanders who felt it wasn't well thought out.
Some of the highest-ranking officers say there is a new atmosphere of unease inside the Pentagon, particularly among some of the most senior ranks, over the President's inclination to use the military to achieve certain partisan policy objectives. Behind the scenes officials are trying to keep it all at bay. "The amount of time we have to spend making sure our statements and what we say is apolitical is astronomically higher than ever before," one senior military officer told CNN.
If commanders order the troops to perform a mission for reasons that are political — rather than based on national security grounds — the fundamental nature of the US military is changed, several officials worry. That line has already been crossed in the minds of some over the issue of sending troops to the border. It could become even more of a problem should the President decide to declare a national emergency to gain access to Defense Department funds to build the wall.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/17/politics/trump-frays-nerves-at-pentagon/index.html
BTW, his is speaking at the Pentagon any moment now (right now Pence is on stage).
Happy Birthday, Betty!
https://twitter.com/jennychristodal/status/1085809887601291265
https://twitter.com/darleneturner53/status/1085838992187318272
Louis C.K. Jokes About Sexually Harassing Women: 'I Like to Jerk Off, and I Don't Like Being Alone'
“I like to jerk off, and I don’t like being alone.”
Simple and without a trace of apology; it got a good laugh.
It’s been a little over a year since C.K.’s star came crashing down, The New York Times published accounts of five women who said he had masturbated in front of them without their consent. C.K. issued a statement, confirming “those stories are true.”
...
Comedy is also like porn, he said. Then he made a joke about a porn star’s asshole, and concluded that the world needs porn because it somehow keeps men from molesting their colleagues at work.
The first half of the show garnered a lot of laughter, especially when C.K. was confronting his serious missteps.
“If you ever need people to forget that you jerked off, what you do is you make a joke about kids that got shot,” he said, referring to the controversy over his Parkland joke, which was dropped from Wednesday night’s set.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/louis-ck-doubles-down-with-jokes-on-on-911-retarded-kids-and-racial-tropes?via=twitter_page
Trump administration separated thousands more migrants than previously known
Source: Politico
The Trump administration separated thousands more migrant kids at the border than it previously acknowledged, and the separations began months before the policy was announced, according to a federal audit released Thursday morning.
"More children over a longer period of time" were separated at the border than commonly known, an investigator with the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general told reporters Thursday morning. "How many more children were separated is unknown, by us and HHS."
The report sheds new light on the Trump administration’s controversial efforts to deter border crossings by separating migrant families. House Democrats who’ve condemned the separations as inhumane have vowed to investigate the administration’s handling of the policy and its health effects on separated children.
The first separations began in 2017 and were seen as a trial balloon for the “zero-tolerance” policy announced by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in May 2018, an HHS official told POLITICO.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/17/report-trump-administration-migrants-1093242
https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1085927207304941568
While the government is shut down, this is what the Senate is working on today:
https://twitter.com/SenateFloor/status/1085919766655758341
Barack Obama: "I knew it way back then and I'm absolutely convinced of it today..."
https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1085915185146150912
'Where's Mitch McConnell?' - The Last Word - MSNBC
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