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demmiblue
demmiblue's Journal
demmiblue's Journal
July 23, 2019
Connie Schultz: I don't always agree, but I love their insistence on being heard.
In the last days of Mom's life, I blubbered an apology for being so full of opinions. She took my hand & said, "Honey, you're who I wanted to be."
I often think of that in reading views of so many younger women. I don't always agree, but I love their insistence on being heard.
https://twitter.com/ConnieSchultz/status/1153640584751583232
I often think of that in reading views of so many younger women. I don't always agree, but I love their insistence on being heard.
https://twitter.com/ConnieSchultz/status/1153640584751583232
July 22, 2019
Imagine moshing with Shaq at an EDM festival 😂
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1153407618536235008
July 22, 2019
https://twitter.com/IvePetThatDog/status/1153382600821661696
https://twitter.com/dog_rates/status/1153396969844305920
Aww, Gideon (I've Pet That Dog) has lost his Walter:
https://twitter.com/IvePetThatDog/status/1153382600821661696
https://twitter.com/dog_rates/status/1153396969844305920
July 22, 2019
This Animal Shelter Asks People To Raid Them Instead Of Area 51
Youve probably already heard about the infamous Facebook event called Storm Area 51, They Cant Stop All of Us. Scheduled for September 20th, the event now has almost 2 million attendees and even attracted the attention of U.S. military. An Air Force spokeswoman has already discouraged people from trying to come into the area. However, what happens on the Internet usually stays there, meaning that the event was created only as a joke. Nevertheless, this joke inspired one animal welfare center in Oklahoma City to find an ingenious way of attracting potential adopters.
Come storm our shelter
We have great animals ready to protect you from the Area 51 aliens
Adoption isnt that far out of this world!
https://www.boredpanda.com/area-51-raid-animal-shelter-oklahoma-city/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=BPTwitter
Come storm our shelter
We have great animals ready to protect you from the Area 51 aliens
Adoption isnt that far out of this world!
https://www.boredpanda.com/area-51-raid-animal-shelter-oklahoma-city/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=BPTwitter
July 22, 2019
Want to Meet With the Trump Administration? Donald Trump Jr.'s Hunting Buddy Can Help
Tommy Hicks Jr. isnt in government, but hes a longtime pal of the presidents son. That has put him in the room when the administration talks China and 5G policy, and it lets him help others including one friend who had $143 million riding on the outcome.
Over the past two years, the Trump administration has been grappling with how to handle the transition to the next generation of mobile broadband technology. With spending expected to run into hundreds of billions of dollars, the administration views it as an ultra-high-stakes competition between U.S. and Chinese companies, with enormous implications both for technology and for national security. Top officials from a raft of departments have been meeting to hash out the best approach.
But theres been one person at some of the discussions who has a different background: Hes Donald Trump Jr.s hunting buddy. Over the past two decades, the two have trained their sights on duck, pheasant and white-tailed deer on multiple continents. (An email from another Trump Jr. pal characterized one of their joint duck-hunting trips to Mexico years ago as muy aggresivo.)
Tommy Hicks Jr., 41, isnt a government official; hes a wealthy private investor. And he has been a part of discussions related to China and technology with top officials from the Treasury Department, National Security Council, Commerce Department and others, according to emails and documents obtained by ProPublica. In one email, Hicks refers to a meeting at Langley, an apparent reference to the CIAs headquarters.
Hicks financial interests, if any, in the matters he has discussed arent clear. The interests are much more apparent when it comes to at least one of his associates. Hicks used his connections to arrange for a hedge fund manager friend, Kyle Bass who has $143 million in investments that will pay off if Chinas economy tanks to present his views on the Chinese economy to high-level government officials at an interagency meeting at the Treasury Department, according to the documents.
Hicks is hardly the first private-sector power broker to emerge in a presidential administration, but he may represent a new subspecies: The Friend of the Presidents Kid.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-tommy-hicks-jr-donald-trump-jr-hunting-buddy
Over the past two years, the Trump administration has been grappling with how to handle the transition to the next generation of mobile broadband technology. With spending expected to run into hundreds of billions of dollars, the administration views it as an ultra-high-stakes competition between U.S. and Chinese companies, with enormous implications both for technology and for national security. Top officials from a raft of departments have been meeting to hash out the best approach.
But theres been one person at some of the discussions who has a different background: Hes Donald Trump Jr.s hunting buddy. Over the past two decades, the two have trained their sights on duck, pheasant and white-tailed deer on multiple continents. (An email from another Trump Jr. pal characterized one of their joint duck-hunting trips to Mexico years ago as muy aggresivo.)
Tommy Hicks Jr., 41, isnt a government official; hes a wealthy private investor. And he has been a part of discussions related to China and technology with top officials from the Treasury Department, National Security Council, Commerce Department and others, according to emails and documents obtained by ProPublica. In one email, Hicks refers to a meeting at Langley, an apparent reference to the CIAs headquarters.
Hicks financial interests, if any, in the matters he has discussed arent clear. The interests are much more apparent when it comes to at least one of his associates. Hicks used his connections to arrange for a hedge fund manager friend, Kyle Bass who has $143 million in investments that will pay off if Chinas economy tanks to present his views on the Chinese economy to high-level government officials at an interagency meeting at the Treasury Department, according to the documents.
Hicks is hardly the first private-sector power broker to emerge in a presidential administration, but he may represent a new subspecies: The Friend of the Presidents Kid.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-tommy-hicks-jr-donald-trump-jr-hunting-buddy
July 22, 2019
The Case of Al Franken
A close look at the accusations against the former senator.
Last month, in Minneapolis, I climbed the stairs of a row house to find Al Franken, Minnesotas disgraced former senator, wandering around in jeans and stocking feet. It was a sunny day, but the shades were mostly drawn. Takeout containers of hummus and carrot sticks were set out on the kitchen table. His wife, Franni Bryson, was stuck in their apartment in Washington, D.C., with a cold, and he had evidently done the best he could to be hospitable. But the place felt like the kind of man cave where someone hides out from the world, which is more or less what Franken has been doing since he resigned, in December, 2017, amid accusations of sexual impropriety.
There had been occasional sightings of him: in Washington, people mentioned having glimpsed him riding the Metro or browsing alone in a bookstore; there was gossip that he had fallen into a depression, and had been seen in a fetal position on a friends couch. But Franken had experienced one of the most abrupt downfalls in recent political memory. He had been perhaps the most recognizable figure in the Senate, in part because hed entered it as a celebrity: a best-selling author and a former writer and performer on Saturday Night Live. Now Franken was just one more face in a gallery of previously powerful men who had been brought down by the #MeToo movement, and whom no one wanted to hear from again. America had ghosted him.
Only two years ago, Franken was being talked up as a possible challenger to President Donald Trump in 2020. In Senate hearings, Franken had proved himself to be one of the most effective critics of the Trump Administration. His tough questioning of Jeff Sessions, Trumps nominee for Attorney General, had led Sessions to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election, and prompted the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel.
As it turns out, Frankens only role in the 2020 Presidential campaign has been as a figure of controversy. On June 4th, Pete Buttigieg was widely criticized on social media for saying that he would not have pressured Franken to resignas had virtually all his Democratic rivals who were then in the Senatewithout first learning more about the alleged incidents. At the same time, the Presidential candidacy of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has been plagued by questions about her role as the first of three dozen Democratic senators to demand Frankens resignation. Gillibrand has cast herself as a feminist champion of zero tolerance toward sexual impropriety, but Democratic donors sympathetic to Franken have stunted her fund-raising and, Gillibrand says, tried to intimidate her into silence.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/29/the-case-of-al-franken
Last month, in Minneapolis, I climbed the stairs of a row house to find Al Franken, Minnesotas disgraced former senator, wandering around in jeans and stocking feet. It was a sunny day, but the shades were mostly drawn. Takeout containers of hummus and carrot sticks were set out on the kitchen table. His wife, Franni Bryson, was stuck in their apartment in Washington, D.C., with a cold, and he had evidently done the best he could to be hospitable. But the place felt like the kind of man cave where someone hides out from the world, which is more or less what Franken has been doing since he resigned, in December, 2017, amid accusations of sexual impropriety.
There had been occasional sightings of him: in Washington, people mentioned having glimpsed him riding the Metro or browsing alone in a bookstore; there was gossip that he had fallen into a depression, and had been seen in a fetal position on a friends couch. But Franken had experienced one of the most abrupt downfalls in recent political memory. He had been perhaps the most recognizable figure in the Senate, in part because hed entered it as a celebrity: a best-selling author and a former writer and performer on Saturday Night Live. Now Franken was just one more face in a gallery of previously powerful men who had been brought down by the #MeToo movement, and whom no one wanted to hear from again. America had ghosted him.
Only two years ago, Franken was being talked up as a possible challenger to President Donald Trump in 2020. In Senate hearings, Franken had proved himself to be one of the most effective critics of the Trump Administration. His tough questioning of Jeff Sessions, Trumps nominee for Attorney General, had led Sessions to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election, and prompted the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel.
As it turns out, Frankens only role in the 2020 Presidential campaign has been as a figure of controversy. On June 4th, Pete Buttigieg was widely criticized on social media for saying that he would not have pressured Franken to resignas had virtually all his Democratic rivals who were then in the Senatewithout first learning more about the alleged incidents. At the same time, the Presidential candidacy of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has been plagued by questions about her role as the first of three dozen Democratic senators to demand Frankens resignation. Gillibrand has cast herself as a feminist champion of zero tolerance toward sexual impropriety, but Democratic donors sympathetic to Franken have stunted her fund-raising and, Gillibrand says, tried to intimidate her into silence.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/29/the-case-of-al-franken
July 22, 2019
Scoop: Trump resort in mix to host G7
Source: Axios
The Trump administration, which next year will host the leaders of the world's most powerful economies for the G7 summit, is down to its final few choices after completing site surveys of possible locations and Trump National Doral, President Trump's 800-acre golf club in Miami, is among the finalists.
Why it matters: Trump loves showing off and promoting his properties, with no qualms about criticism for mixing state and personal business. He has hosted both China's Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago.
Read more: https://www.axios.com/trump-national-doral-g7-site-2020-252ae9ee-aafc-444a-a8e7-fa041a30f0aa.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic
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Member since: Thu Feb 14, 2008, 11:58 AMNumber of posts: 36,841