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demmiblue's JournalISIS bought and sold women on these streets. Now, a #womens council is opened in #Raqqa. Watch...
https://twitter.com/gaylelemmon/status/1030260502578880512Detroit Rep. Bettie Cook Scott apologizes for racist remarks
"I deeply regret the comments I made that have proven hurtful to so many. Those are words I never should have said," Scott said in the statement. "I humbly apologize to Representative (Stephanie) Chang, her husband, Mr. Gray, and to the broader Asian-American community for those disparaging remarks. In the divisive age we find ourselves in, I should not contribute further to that divisiveness."
Scott added that she had "reached out to Representative Chang to meet with her so that I may apologize to her in person. I pray she and the Asian-American community can find it in their hearts to forgive me."
State Rep. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit)
Bill Noakes, Scott's attorney, told the Free Press that he expects Scott and Chang will meet in person on Wednesday or Thursday of next week and that Scott will apologize again then.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2018/08/17/detroit-bettie-cook-scott-racist-chang/1019304002/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
More background:
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Scott is alleged to have referred to Chang as "ching-chang" and "the ching-chong" to multiple voters outside polling precincts during last Tuesday's election. She's also said to have called one of Chang's campaign volunteers an “immigrant,” saying “you don’t belong here” and “I want you out of my country.”
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"These comments are offensive to all Asian-Americans," Chang tells Metro Times. "It isn't about me. It's about an elected official disrespecting entire populations, whether they be Asian-American, immigrant, or residents of Sen. District 1 or [Cook's] own current house district."
The various off-color remarks were heard by multiple people connected with Chang, including Chang's husband, who spoke with Metro Times. Sean Gray says after overhearing Cook disparage Chang outside a precinct on the east side of Detroit, "I ... asked her not to speak about my wife in that manner. At that time she said to the voter that 'these immigrants from China are coming over and taking our community from us.' Further, she said it 'disgusts her seeing black people holding signs for these Asians and not supporting their own people.'"
Gray, who is black, says Scott then went on to call him a "fool" for marrying Chang.
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"As an African-American woman, I've been called the N-word before in my life and you never forget it," says Long. "Each time it's shocking and appalling and disgusting, so when you hear someone that's a minority and a woman using slurs against another minority that's a woman, it's just mind boggling and it just felt dirty."
https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2018/08/16/detroit-rep-bettie-cook-scott-on-asian-opponent-dont-vote-for-the-ching-chong
Last week the Chicago Police set up a bait trap by putting a truck full of tennis shoes in the hood
https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/1030235501117235205https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/1030483775971647488
Taxpayers' bill for Trump Jr.'s business trip to India: $32,000 and counting, documents show
Source: WaPo
NEW DELHI — Government records show that taxpayers spentmore than $32,000 on hotel rooms for the security detail that accompanied Donald Trump Jr. to India earlier this year to promote his family’s luxury real estate projects — with many bills still unaccounted for.
A review of General Services Administration purchase orders shows that the government paid $15,166 for rooms for “Don Jr Visit to Mumbai” and another bill for $3,501, as well as $13,468 for hotels in the western Indian city of Pune, for a total of $32,135.
A third purchase order for the city of Kolkata for the same time frame lists an additional $9,880 for a “VIP visit.” Officials at the U.S. Consulate in Kolkata declined to identify the VIP in question. The costs of the hotel rooms for the entourage’s stay in the capital — likely a hefty portion of the tab — as well as the airfare and transportation expenses remain unclear.
Trump Jr. came to India in February on a whirlwind promotional trip during which he was feted with champagne toasts and met buyers of four Trump luxury residential real estate projects in Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata and outside the capital, New Delhi.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/taxpayers-bill-for-trump-jrs-business-trip-to-india-29000-and-counting-documents-show/2018/08/17/ac018da5-5585-4090-9ff1-ead5a017699c_story.html?utm_term=.49bb241291fd
US interior secretary's school friend crippling climate research, scientists say
Source: The Guardian
Prominent US climate scientists have told the Guardian that the Trump administration is holding up research funding as their projects undergo an unprecedented political review by the high-school football teammate of the US interior secretary.
The US interior department administers over $5.5bn in funding to external organizations, mostly for research, conservation and land acquisition. At the beginning of 2018, interior secretary Ryan Zinke instated a new requirement that scientific funding above $50,000 must undergo an additional review to ensure expenditures “better align with the administration’s priorities”.
Zinke has signaled that climate change is not one of those priorities: this week, he told Breitbart News that “environmental terrorist groups” were responsible for the ongoing wildfires in northern California and, ignoring scientific research on the issue, dismissed the role of climate change.
Don't blame wildfires on climate change – it's environmentalists' fault, says Zinke
Read more
Steve Howke, one of Zinke’s high-school football teammates, oversees this review. Howke’s highest degree is a bachelor’s in business administration. Until Zinke appointed him as an interior department senior adviser to the acting assistant secretary of policy, management and budget, Howke had spent his entire career working in credit unions.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/17/interior-secretarys-school-friend-crippling-climate-research-scientists-say
APNewsBreak: AP Sources: US ends Syria stabilization funding
Source: AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is ending funding for Syria stabilization projects as it moves to extricate itself from the conflict.
U.S. officials said the administration was notifying Congress Friday it would not spend some $200 million that had been planned for Syria programs and would instead shift that money elsewhere.
They said the cut will be more than offset by an additional $300 million pledged by coalition partners, including $100 million from Saudi Arabia. Still, the move is a sign the administration is heeding President Donald Trump’s demand to end U.S. involvement in Syria and reducing its commitment there.
The officials demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the changes publicly before an announcement.
Read more: https://apnews.com/31eaa3ca51ed480f90ef6363156b710e?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter&__twitter_impression=true
WHOA: We found video footage of Donald Trump being super racist
But when you live by the cellophane, you die by the cellophane. For years, reporters have chased a large cache of video footage supposedly featuring Trump engaged in some of the most vile, racist rhetoric imaginable. This week, ThinkProgress obtained conclusive video evidence of that racism.
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-racism-tapes-a2258d2e55ba/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5b76d4f59ebbef00015ae4da&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
Trump cancels military parade, plans to attend parade in Paris
Source: The Hill
President Trump said Friday that he is cancelling his plans for a military parade on Veterans' Day, adding that he will instead attend a planned Armistice Day parade in Paris.
The president tweeted that "ridiculously high" costs quoted by local Washington, D.C. politicians had forced the Trump administration to reconsider its plans for a large-scale military parade honoring current and former service members.
"The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it. When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it. Never let someone hold you up! I will instead attend the big parade already scheduled at Andrews Air Force Base on a different date, & go to the Paris parade, celebrating the end of the War, on November 11th," Trump wrote.
"Maybe we will do something next year in D.C. when the cost comes WAY DOWN," he added. "Now we can buy some more jet fighters!"
Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/defense/402297-trump-cancels-military-parade-plans-to-attend-parade-in-paris
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1030423480725118976
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1030426536871116801
#Resistance Twitter Hero Exposed as Pro-Trump Gamer
In the world of #Resistance Twitter, @GuardianRover was a hero. As a former intelligence operative and Delta Force soldier, the person behind the account used a cartoon secret agent avatar and the alias “Mr. Smith” to share the kind of national security expertise that anxious Democrats crave in the tumultuous Trump era.
When he wasn’t meeting with Chinese freedom fighters, chatting up Ukrainian intel sources or working diplomatic security details, Smith tweeted wild claims on Twitter about collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Maybe, he posited, former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page had a tape of Trump promising to lift Russian sanctions in exchange for help with the 2016 election.
Smith regularly urged his followers to “buckle up,” hinting at some kind of momentous developments in the Russia investigation just over the horizon. He also frequently claimed it would be various Trump allies’ “time in the barrel,” promising what he called “barrel time” for the likes of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner or former Trump confidant Roger Stone (who before the election famously tweeted: “it will soon [be] the Podesta's time in the barrel”).
“Christmas clue: one person in the barrel was on the Apprentice,” Smith tweeted in December 2017.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/resistance-twitter-hero-exposed-as-pro-trump-gamer?via=twitter_page&__twitter_impression=true&__twitter_impression=true
Source: House panel considers subpoena for Twitter CEO
Source: Politico
Staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee raised the possibility of a subpoena to get Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify before the panel, during a tense meeting with representatives of the company Thursday, according to a Republican source familiar with the discussion.
The source said Twitter is "delaying" and "stonewalling" the committee, which has been negotiating over the past few weeks to try to arrange Dorsey's testimony about the company's data and content policies.
House E&C Chairman Greg Walden later tweeted at Dorsey: "I appreciate your willingness to speak publicly on issues facing Twitter and agree complex algorithms must be better communicated to consumers. After many good faith efforts from staff, this is your formal invitation to appear before @HouseCommerce on Sept. 5."
Asked for comment, a Twitter spokesman responded: "We remain in discussions with the Committee and no decisions have been made either way."
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/16/twitter-subpoena-jack-dorsey-house-energy-commerce-782240
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