January 18, 2019

The Caravan - Turning what should be the best of America into a spectacle of hate.

This is about the principles of our country. It is about who we are. The "caravan's" should be viewed as a point of pride and willingness to do right by those in need in the eyes of Americans. The President and his deplorables are taking the best of our foundation and uprooting it toward a path of immoral, unethical, and unbridled hatred. It is destroying the fabric of our society as once these thoughts set in it also turns countryman against countryman. Ideologically and by way of skin color. Citizenship matters little at that point.

Many of the people who come to this county, or try to, are asylum seekers. These "caravan's" are loaded with asylum seekers. People making the trip for very good reason. It should be a point of pride for us that the good old US of A is their final destination. Where they want to bring themselves and their families.

The "caravan's" are not a problem. They are a sign of what is best about us(should be). They are a true testament of humans want and need to survive and to care for families. Donald Trump and his deplorables have done enormous harm to how the average American sees these people. With US rugged individualism winning the day the message of hate seems to have more of an impact across the board than a message of inclusion, compassion, and understanding. The message of hate seems easier to deliver to the masses. It is often a cornerstone of populist rhetoric.

These people deserve to be treated with dignity. Many of them should be let into our country. Without the hate this would actually be a very easy process. A lot of hard work but once structures are put in place, which many currently are, it would truly be pretty easy.

We deserve, at a minimum, to be protected by the Federal Government. I am not naive to the dangers we face and am not a proponent of open borders(I am not for the wall). This isn't a situation where we just turn a blind eye as they come right into the country. Just the opposite of a blind eye. We should embrace them, enhance their chance for achieving a better life in our country, and weed out the shitheads wanting to do us harm.

Honduran refugees await papers in Mexico as new caravan arrives

Tapachula, Mexico - Luis Jose Carbajal was 19 years old when he was shot. It was two months after the June 2009 coup d'etat in Honduras, and people all over the country were taking to the street to protest the removal and expatriation of elected President Manuel Zelaya by the military.

Carbajal was participating in a demonstration against the coup in northwestern Honduras, along a key highway between San Pedro Sula, the country's second largest city, and Puerto Cortes, its main port. Police and soldiers showed up and, before long, opened fire.

"I heard the gunshots and felt something searing," Carbajal told Al Jazeera.

Carbajal was shot in the thigh, but the bullet went straight through his leg and did not hit an artery. He does not have any documentation from the hospital, because he never went, fearing security forces would track him down there.

Aljazeera

January 18, 2019

Kim's envoy arrives in DC as Pentagon states 'extraordinary threat' posed by North Korea

Washington (CNN) — North Korea's lead negotiator in nuclear talks with the US, Kim Yong Chol, arrived in Washington Thursday, just hours after President Donald Trump rolled out a new missile defense strategy that appears to contradict his own claim that Pyongyang is no longer a nuclear threat.

Kim arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport Thursday evening and was spotted leaving the airport with US Special Representative to North Korea Steve Biegun and Pak Chol, a North Korean official who's the chairman of the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee.

Amid signs the two sides are close to agreeing to a second summit the newly unveiled Missile Defense Review, which Trump personally introduced at the Pentagon, explicitly states that North Korea remains an "extraordinary threat" to the US, an assessment that is consistent with previous findings by US military and intelligence agencies but rarely acknowledged by Trump himself.

CNN

January 16, 2019

Russia calls on Japan to recognize outcome of World War Two

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied on Wednesday that Moscow was imposing an ultimatum on Japan in talks to end a decades-long territorial dispute, but called on Tokyo to recognize the results of World War Two.

Japan is seeking a peace deal with Russia it hopes will end a dispute over islands captured by Soviet troops in the last days of World War Two, a disagreement that has long soured bilateral relations.

The islands are known as the Southern Kuriles in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has launched a diplomatic campaign to strike a deal with Moscow.

AP

January 16, 2019

Jailed model who claimed she has dirt on Russian oligarch speaks out

An imprisoned model from Belarus who claimed last year she had evidence of Russian involvement in helping elect Donald Trump president has told Russian media she can't wait to be released. Anastasia Vashukevich, who has been in a Thai prison since February last year, was given a suspended sentenced Tuesday and ordered to be deported after she pleaded guilty to soliciting and conspiracy.

Vashukevich, also known as Nastya Rybka, earlier claimed to have recordings of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska talking about interference in the 2016 U.S. election, but never released them. She has said she provided "escort" services to Deripaska, who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

State-owned news agency RIA Novosti, in Vashukevich's first interview since her arrest, quoted her as saying that she is looking forward to a free life. She made no comment about her allegations about Deripaska.

Deripaska, who also had a working relationship with Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump's former campaign manager who was investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller and convicted last year of tax and bank fraud.

CBS News

January 16, 2019

How the White House is prepping for Democrats' onslaught

Despite President Trump's lack of personal interest in the planning, the White House Counsel’s Office is now moving fast to prepare for the twin threats of Robert Mueller and the new Democratic House majority.

The big picture: These threats dwarf anything that any president has faced since Bill Clinton. There's a surge of internal action after a slow start: Planning for Democratic oversight only began in earnest at the senior level in November.

Much of the mid-level White House staff remains oblivious to what’s going on behind the scenes. But the new White House Counsel, Pat Cipollone, has impressed the officials he's dealt with and Republican legal eminences I have spoken to.

Axios

Democratic hit list: At least 85 Trump investigation targets November 12, 2018

Now that they're set to assume control of the House, there are at least 85 topics that Democrats have said they'd target — or are expected to target — in the forthcoming torrent of investigations and subpoenas to be directed at the Trump White House, according to Axios' reporting and analysis of members' public comments.

Between the lines: Don‘t expect everything all at once. Incoming House Intel Committee Chair Adam Schiff told "Axios on HBO" that each committee plans to prioritize what they view as the most pressing topics, which he says range from Trump's potential business dealings with Russia to where things currently stand with North Korea.

Axios

Scoop: Republicans secretly study their coming hell August 26, 2018

Congressional Republicans are getting ready for hell. Axios has obtained a spreadsheet that's circulated through Republican circles on and off Capitol Hill — including at least one leadership office — that meticulously previews the investigations Democrats will likely launch if they flip the House.

Why this matters: Publicly, House Republicans are putting on a brave face about the midterms. But privately, they are scrambling to prepare for the worst. This document, which catalogs requests Democrats have already made, is part of that effort.

Axios

January 16, 2019

Senator Says Congress Almost Ready for Trump Indictment

A senior Democratic senator has suggested Congress is almost ready to indict President Donald Trump, and is hopeful he may face criminal charges.

Sheldon Whitehouse, the Democratic senator from Rhode Island, spoke to CNN anchor Chris Cuomo on Tuesday and stressed that while Congress is closing in on Trump, more evidence is required for an air-tight case.

“I do not at all subscribe to the [Office of Legal Counsel] theory that a president can’t be indicted,” Whitehouse told Cuomo. “I think that if there are crimes that he has committed he should be indicted.”

“I think that the Office of Legal Counsel [OLC] and the Department of Justice bends over backward to take the most executive branch-friendly position that it possibly can,” he continued, “but I think a court taking a look at this would say, ‘No, no no, no, no.’”

Newsweek by way of MSN

January 16, 2019

Abrams and Gillum target Trump in 2020

The progressive African-American pols have emerged as early kingmakers for Democratic presidential hopefuls.

Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum — two of the Democratic Party’s breakout candidates of 2018, despite losing their elections for governor of Georgia and Florida — are looking to parlay their near-success into the defeat of Donald Trump in 2020.

The pair of young, progressive African-American pols amassed so much political fame that they’re a must-call for the growing roster of likely Democratic presidential contenders. They’re also on some early and unofficial lists as possible vice-presidential running mates.

The White House hopefuls don’t just crave an endorsement from Abrams or Gillum. Each boasts valuable donor and volunteer lists, in the Southeast’s two biggest states that, if won next year, would almost guarantee a Democratic White House.

The attention Abrams and Gillum are receiving from presidential hopefuls is an indication of the growing pull of the party's progressive base and highlights the role each could play as gatekeepers for African-American and liberal voters. In a crowded Democratic primary, that could make them kingmakers for a candidate lucky enough to score an endorsement or, at least, anchors who keep the candidates moored to a liberal agenda.

Politico

Link to Abrams Fair Fight Georgia

Fair Fight Georgia

January 16, 2019

Donald Trump's Pattern of Deference to the Kremlin Is Clear

When Donald Trump gives interviews, it’s usually to Fox News. When he gives interviews to Fox, it’s usually to the channel’s opinion side, not to tougher questioners such as Chris Wallace or Bret Baier. But there he was Saturday night, talking to the normally friendly Jeanine Pirro and receiving what he called the most insulting question in his life.

“Are you now or have you ever worked for Russia, Mr. President?” Pirro asked, citing a New York Times article from over the weekend disclosing that the FBI in May 2017 had opened a counterintelligence inquiry into whether Trump was secretly working for Russia. She delivered the question dismissively, with a chuckle, but she asked it—and received a remarkable answer.

“I think it’s the most insulting thing I’ve ever been asked,” Trump groused. “I think it’s the most insulting article I’ve ever had written. And if you read the article, you’d see that they found absolutely nothing.”

The president then talked for some time, but he never actually denied working for the Russians, and “They found absolutely nothing” doesn’t sound like what you say when there’s nothing to find. On Monday, Trump was asked the question again during a press gaggle, and this time he denied it, while again protesting the question.

The Atlantic

January 15, 2019

Freshman House Member Rep. Ilhan Omar (DFL-MN) Jumps All In On Legislation

WASHINGTON– Rep. Ilhan Omar (DFL-MN) along with more than two dozen of her colleagues in the House and Senate, introduced sweeping reforms Thursday that would reform the U.S. healthcare system and dramatically reduce prescription drug prices in the country.

The plan to reduce the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs includes three bills:

1. The Prescription Drug Price Relief Act, which would stop drug companies from using their monopoly power to prevent more affordable, generic alternatives from coming to the market.

2. The Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act, which would direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs under Medicare Part D;

3. The Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act, which would allow patients, pharmacists and wholesalers to import safe, affordable medicine from Canada and other major countries.

House.gov

January 15, 2019

Police: 51-year-old man assaulted child at Asheville Mall

ASHEVILLE — A Black Mountain man was arrested Saturday after police say he pushed and assaulted a child during a fight at the Asheville Mall.

David Steven Bell, 51, was arrested at about 7 p.m. Saturday by an off-duty officer following the incident at 3 S. Tunnel Road. He is charged with assault on a female under the age of 12 and two counts of assault on a female.

The incident is under further investigation, police spokeswoman Christina Hallingse said Sunday.

https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2019/01/13/police-51-year-old-man-assaulted-child-asheville-mall/2563987002/

Bell can be seen in the video, initially posted to Instagram by an unidentified person, in an argument with a group of young girls outside of the Asheville Mall. You can watch the video above. The incident occurred on Saturday, January 12. Bell is white and most of the girls in the video are black. It is not clear what occurred before the video started.

Video of the incident can be found at this link. This link also describes her as being 11 years old.

https://heavy.com/news/2019/01/david-steven-bell-asheville-mall-full-video/