Category Archives: Fail!

While He Was Tweeting: The Collusion Edition, Week 25 | Dame Magazine

Donald Trump Jr., who manages to seem even stupider and more callow than his father, which is quite a feat, took a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, after she promised him hot hot anti-Hillary info. All hell broke loose when this news hit, so Junior went on Fox News aka House Organ Hannity to swear that there were no more shoes to drop. And then news dropped that there was another Russian-American in the room, one who had been Kremlin-cozy too. And then it turned out that there were at least 8 people in the room, though we only know the names of five so far. This nothing-burger of a meeting has turned out to be a veritable clown-car of wannabe treasonists.

Source: While He Was Tweeting: The Collusion Edition, Week 25 | Dame Magazine

Statement on Alliance Defending Freedom’s attack on SPLC and ABC News | Southern Poverty Law Center

“The Alliance Defending Freedom spreads demonizing lies about the LGBT community in this country and seeks to criminalize it abroad. If the ADF had its way, gay people would be back in the closet for fear of going to jail.  It was inappropriate for Attorney General Sessions to lend his credibility to the group by appearing before it, and it was ironic that he would suggest that the rights of ADF sympathizers are under attack when the ADF is doing everything in its power to deny the equal protection of the laws to the LGBT community.”

Source: Statement on Alliance Defending Freedom’s attack on SPLC and ABC News | Southern Poverty Law Center

Governors From Both Parties Denounce Senate Obamacare Repeal Bill – The New York Times “Pence proves he does not have a clue about who expanded Medicaid is serving. Working poor who do not earn enough to buy insurance and would either be sick or jamming up ER rooms and driving healthcare up again – Preventive care would be gone and dummy – people get sicker and miss work or cannot work!”

Mr. Pence, who as Indiana’s governor accepted federal funding to expand Medicaid, also acknowledged that the proposal would significantly change the population that receives health care coverage through the program. He insisted that the bill would hold Medicaid to its “original purpose” of covering the most severely vulnerable people and said too many “able-bodied adults” rely on the program.The shift, he said, was aimed at “ensuring for the long run that Medicaid will be there for the neediest.”

Legal experts say Donald Trump Jr has just confessed to a federal crime – Vox

experts on national security and election law say this “defense” is, legally speaking, no defense at all.“The emails are simply put damning as a legal matter,” explains Ryan Goodman, a former Defense Department special counsel and current editor of the legal site Just Security. “The text of the emails provide very clear evidence of participation in a scheme to involve the Russian government in federal election interference, in a form that is prohibited by federal criminal law.”Jens David Ohlin, a law professor at Cornell University, is even blunter: “It’s a shocking admission of a criminal conspiracy.”

Source: Legal experts say Donald Trump Jr has just confessed to a federal crime – Vox

DeVos Says She Will Revisit Obama-Era Sexual Assault Policies – The New York Times

Official female anti-feminist: Ms. Jackson said that “90 percent” of sexual assault accusations on campus “fall into the category of ‘we were both drunk,’ ‘we broke up, and six months later I found myself under a Title IX investigation because she just decided that our last sleeping together was not quite right.’”Ms. Jackson later apologized, called her remarks “flippant” and said they were based on feedback from accused students. That did not mollify victims of sexual assault and their supporters, who staged a protest outside the Education Department headquarters Thursday morning.“Unfortunately those remarks are now out there, and at the highest levels they need to undo that damage by countering those myths about rape,” said Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center, which helped organize the demonstration.

US protectionism: Donald Trump targets Spanish olives in trade dispute | In English | EL PAÍS

The protectionist administration of US President Donald Trump has a new target in its sights: the Spanish olive. On Thursday, the Department of Commerce announced it would investigate imports of ripe olives produced in Spain to determine whether they benefit from unfair subsidies which allow them to be sold below market price on the other side of the Atlantic.

Source: US protectionism: Donald Trump targets Spanish olives in trade dispute | In English | EL PAÍS

Inoreader – Breaking News: A Former Soviet counter-intelligence officer attended meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer

The Russian lawyer who met with the Trump team after a promise of compromising material on Hillary Clinton was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist — a former Soviet counterintelligence officer who is suspected by some U.S. officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, NBC News has learned.The lobbyist, who denies any current ties to Russian spy agencies, accompanied the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by Donald Trump Jr.; Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law; and Paul Manafort, former chairman of the Trump campaign.The Russian-born American lobbyist served in the Soviet military and emigrated to the U.S., where he holds dual citizenship.

Source: Inoreader – Breaking News: A Former Soviet counter-intelligence officer attended meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer

Trump praises Xi Jinping hours after Liu Xiaobo dies in custody: Shanghaiist

At a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron held ahead of Bastille Day, Trump was prompted to call on an American journalist to ask a question. Instead, Trump pointed towards a Chinese reporter who threw him a softball about China, asking Trump what he personally thinks about Xi.Continuing to keep the flames of his bromance alive, Trump responded with gushing praise:”Well, he’s a friend of mine. I have great respect for him. We’ve gotten to know each other very well. A great leader. He’s a very talented man. I think he’s a very good man. He loves China, I can tell you. He loves China. He wants to do what’s right for China.”Commenters online couldn’t help noting that Trump’s words of praise came only hours after the death of Liu Xiaobo, China’s best-known political prisoner, was announced. Despite calls for him to be given the freedom to choose where he wanted to be treated for terminal liver cancer, Liu died in a Shenyang hospital on Thursday evening after spending much of the last decade in prison for calling for democratic reform in China.

Source: Trump praises Xi Jinping hours after Liu Xiaobo dies in custody: Shanghaiist

When Gaza has no power, we all swim in sewage | +972 Magazine

the raw sewage flowing into the sea from Gaza’s incapacitated wastewater treatment plant has become a health hazard for Palestinians and Israelis alike. Unlike Gaza’s sewage treatment plant, which lacks the electricity necessary to function, Israel’s desalination plants have all the power they need. But the sewage flowing north in the Mediterranean from Gaza has become a practical problem for Israel, polluting the sea water meant for desalination.The shot of the two men grinning on the beach was a poetic, tragicomic testament to the extent of Israel’s repression and dream world. Our neighbors are Gazans, not Indians. Our desalination plants are firmly dug into the Mediterranean coast, not attached to four-wheel drive vehicles. And when Gaza has no power, we all swim in refuse. But Netanyahu is banking on Indian support to continue controlling the Palestinians without paying the price internationally. Even if he is successful, will that change the fact that our fates are inseparably entwined with that of the Palestinians?

Source: When Gaza has no power, we all swim in sewage | +972 Magazine

Saudi Arabia boosting extremism in Europe, says former ambassador | World news | The Guardian

Saudi Arabia has been funding mosques throughout Europe that have become hotbeds of extremism, the former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia Sir William Patey has said.His remarks come a day after the government published a brief summary of a Home Office-commissioned report into the funding of extremism in the UK. The full report is not being published for security reasons.

Source: Saudi Arabia boosting extremism in Europe, says former ambassador | World news | The Guardian