Best Music of The Decade, Holdstock Interviewed, and Other Holiday Matters
Alexa Kasdan is the patient in question. She went to her primary care doctor, Dr. Roya Fathollahi, in New York City, for a sore throat that hadn't gotten better in a week's time. She was preparing for a vacation and didn't want to have the trip interrupted, so she went to the doctor, had the strep test and a blood test, and was given antibiotics. She got better, went on her trip, and came home to find that her insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, had been billed $28,395.50 for the out-of-network lab work on the throat swab. The insurance company paid $25,865.24. Fathollahi’s office told her that $2,530.26 of the bill was her responsibility.
The House Republican Caucus has expelled Matt Shea after an investigation revealed that he "participated in an act of domestic terrorism against the United States."
Shea represents Washington’s 4th District, which encapsulates the area surrounding Spokane Valley. He has since taken to social media to call the investigation a "sham." He wrote on Facebook the people behind the investigation do not "share the same political views". He also announced on Saturday to "look forward to a couple huge announcements early next week."
On Facebook he wrote:
Like we are seeing with our President this is a sham investigation meant to silence those of us who stand up against attempts to disarm and destroy our great country. I will not back down, I will not give in, I will not resign. Stand strong fellow Patriots. Thank you to everyone for the massive outpouring of support prayers! I will continue to defend the constitution against tyranny and fight to protect our God given unalienable rights to life, liberty, property, and the ability to defend the same.
A Des Moines woman smoked methamphetamine hours before intentionally hitting a 14-year-old central Iowa girl with her SUV this month, according to court documents.
Nicole Poole Franklin, 42, told police she targeted her victim because the girl "is Mexican." Clive Police Chief Michael Venema shared Franklin's admission at a news conference Friday morning.
She now faces an attempted murder charge and a number of other charges from a racially-charged incident that occurred 15 minutes later.
Community members are calling for Franklin, 42, to be charged with a hate crime because she admitted targeting the girl because of race. Authorities aren't ruling that out.
Just in from hate group leader Tony Perkins:
Yesterday, Mark Galli, the outgoing editor-in-chief of Christianity Today published a scathing editorial calling for President Trump to be removed from office. Within hours, the article went viral as the mainstream media rushed to capitalize on what they believed was an opportunity to exploit a divide in President Trump’s evangelical supporters.
But anyone following Christianity Today shouldn’t be surprised by the magazine’s public backing of impeachment. In 2016, CT’s executive editor denigrated Christians who supported then-candidate Trump weeks before the general election, writing: “Enthusiasm for a candidate like Trump gives our neighbors ample reason to doubt that we believe Jesus is Lord.”
Dismissing the genuine concerns of millions of evangelicals and publicly questioning their commitment to Christ signaled an out-of-touch, ivory-tower elitism completely out of step with Jesus’ own command to love one another (John 13:34).(Emphasis added.)
Gwyneth on Chestnuts, Reynard on De Lint, the Ministry of Hades, Live Music by Tull and Other Wintery Matters
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Saturday pledged to help impeachment "die quickly" in the Senate as it becomes increasingly likely that the House will vote to impeach President Trump, leading to a Senate trial.Emphasis added.
"This thing will come to the Senate, and it will die quickly, and I will do everything I can to make it die quickly," he told CNN while at the Doha Forum in Qatar.
"I am trying to give a pretty clear signal I have made up my mind. I'm not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here," Graham added. "What I see coming, happening today is just a partisan nonsense."
“I know many of them don’t want the president to be impeached, but I’ve got a duty far greater than just getting to the next election.” @LindseyGrahamSC pic.twitter.com/mBPmCGFCZ4
— Windsor Mann (@WindsorMann) December 14, 2019
Mitch McConnell: Everything I do during this, I’m coordinating with White House Counsel. There will be no difference between the President’s position and our position as to how to handle this pic.twitter.com/baFaTKWvUl
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) December 13, 2019
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Thursday that there was “no chance” that President Donald Trump would be removed from office in any impeachment trial and that it “wouldn’t surprise” him if some Democrats split from their party and voted in the president’s favor.
“The case is so darn weak coming from the House,” McConnell said in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News Thursday night, as the House Judiciary Committee continued to debate articles of impeachment. “We know how it's going to end. There's no chance the president's going to be removed from office.”
The Senate will acquit the criminal. They are made men in the criminal organization known as the Republican Party. But whether a few go the other way, giving the Democrats a majority for conviction is another story. And yes, for all we know, there could be some defections from the Democrats. There almost always are., unfortunately.
Ristine described the Holy Family as “the most well-known refugee family in the world” in the post on Saturday.
“Shortly after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary were forced to flee with their young son from Nazareth to Egypt to escape King Herod, a tyrant. They feared persecution and death,” she wrote, asking: “What if this family sought refuge in our country today?”
“Imagine Joseph and Mary separated at the border and Jesus no older than two taken from his mother and placed behind the fences of a Border Patrol detention center,” she continued, adding: “In the Claremont United Methodist Church nativity scene this Christmas, the Holy Family takes the place of the thousands of nameless families separated at our borders.”
Scarecrows, A Classic H.G.Wells’ Novel , Metallica in Antarctica, So-so chocolate, Improv Jazz, Steeleye sans Maddy and Other Interesting Matters
When a persistent critic, a lawyer on the public side of the beach access battle, tweeted back with sarcasm and humor, Huckabee tried to silence him by filing a formal complaint with the Florida Bar. The complaint should be tossed out as a sham and an abuse of the system of disciplining lawyers.
In his Bar complaint, Huckabee accuses lawyer Daniel Uhlfelder of “vile and unprofessional attacks” and “repeatedly posting disparaging information about me,” which Huckabee claims violate Bar rules on integrity of the legal profession. Huckabee argues that the Bar is the right forum because the lawyer’s Twitter profile mentions his law practice.
In his bar complaint, Huckabee accuses Uhlfelder, who has a mere 422 Twitter followers, of disparagement. The complaint points to a tweet in which Uhlfelder joked that Huckabee’s Secret Service code name should be “beach thief.” “He accused me of theft, a crime of moral turpitude,” Huckabee’s complaint reads.
As for Huckabee, he’s on Twitter promoting a new documentary entitled No Safe Spaces, which features two conservative radio talk show personalities in an examination of restrictions on free speech on college campuses. Without a hint of irony, Huckabee tweeted: “The 1st Amendment right of Free Speech is precious, but it hangs by a thread.”
“We have a situation where we’re looking very strongly at sinks and showers and other elements of bathrooms, where you turn the faucet on in areas where there’s tremendous amounts of water, where the water rushes out to sea because you could never handle it. And you don’t get any water. You turn on the faucet — you don’t get any water. They take a shower, and water comes dripping out, it’s dripping out very quietly, dripping out.
“People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once. They end up using more water. So EPA is looking at that very strongly, at my suggestion. You go into a new building or a new house or a new home, and they have standards where you don’t get water. You can’t wash your hands, practically, there’s so little water comes out of the faucet. And the end result is you leave the faucet on, and it takes you much longer to wash your hands. You end up using the same amount of water.”
“So we’re looking at, very seriously, at opening up the standard, and there may be some areas where we’ll go the other route. Desert areas. But for the most part, you have many states where they have so much water that it comes down — it’s called rain — that they don’t know what to do with it. So we’re going to be opening up that, I believe. And we’re looking at changing the standards very soon.”
The world according to Trump:
— JRehling (@JRehling) December 6, 2019
• You have to show ID to buy groceries.
• Wind turbine sound causes cancer.
• Millions of illegal votes were cast against him.
• People flush toilets 15 times.
• The Revolutionary War involved airports.
• Climate change is a Chinese hoax.
When you’re black and gay, there are times when you feel that the two identities integral to your whole self are in conflict. Actually, let me rephrase that. There are times when other folks put your two identities in conflict and you feel compelled to respond.
When I thundered against the ugly lie that homophobia among African Americans was the reason Democratic presidential contender Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., wasn’t gaining their support, I had more than a few white gay men lecture me about black people as they hurled studies at me in the worst-ever display of apples meeting oranges. Those folks were blocked. Now, I have to push back against African Americans who are ripping Buttigieg for what they see as his equating his experience being gay with that of being black.
That’s not what happened. That’s not what he said.
Speaking to a roomful of police officers and prosecutors on Tuesday, Attorney General William P. Barr drew a parallel between protests against soldiers during the Vietnam War and demonstrations against law enforcement today. But this time, he suggested, those who don’t show “respect” to authority could lose access to police services.
“Today, the American people have to focus on something else, which is the sacrifice and the service that is given by our law enforcement officers. And they have to start showing, more than they do, the respect and support that law enforcement deserves,” Barr said in pointed remarks delivered at a Justice Department ceremony to honor police officers.
Barr added that “if communities don’t give that support and respect, they might find themselves without the police protection they need.”
Real Life are a Melbourne-based Australian New Wave/synthpop[1] band that had hits with their debut single, "Send Me an Angel" (1983) and with "Catch Me I'm Falling" (1983), both of which were featured on the band's debut album Heartland (1983).
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her Department of Education (DOE) violated a court order which prohibited the agency from collecting student loan payments from defrauded borrowers–and then she drastically under-counted the number of former students who were impacted by that initial illegal decision.
In a 14-page compliance report filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Tuesday, attorneys for the DOE confessed to unlawfully collecting such payments from nearly 46,000 students (45,801 to be exact) who were scammed by for-profit colleges.
Those students attended various campuses owned by the Corinthian Colleges chain and were enrolled in educational programs which DeVos has personally described as “worthless.”
The Trump administration announced a plan Wednesday to end food-stamp benefits for about 700,000 Americans, issuing a new regulation that makes it harder for states to gain waivers from a requirement that beneficiaries work or participate in a vocational training program.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the new rule will move more food-stamp recipients “toward self-sufficiency and into employment.”
The work requirement covers “able-bodied” recipients. A U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman said it doesn’t apply to recipients who are over 50, disabled or pregnant, or anyone with a child under 18.
"The president called out her name as he acted out an orgasm in front of thousands of people at a Minneapolis rally on Oct. 11, 2019"
It was one of the grossest moments at any of his rallies and that's saying something. It was so gross that it prompted Lisa Page, the "Lisa" he was mocking in that depraved speech to speak on the record for the first time. She spoke with Molly Jong Fast for the Daily Beast:
That was the moment Page decided she had to speak up. “I had stayed quiet for years hoping it would fade away, but instead it got worse,” she says. “It had been so hard not to defend myself, to let people who hate me control the narrative. I decided to take my power back.”
It's a long and interesting article about how he's alienated insiders who tried desperately to help him. That, apparently, tracks with what narcissists usually do. But how can we explain his hardcore, unmovable base? That' the strange part. He attempts to explain it:
Those who can’t point to specific achievements may remain loyal supporters because they hear relatively little that is expressly negative about their hero. If the president shot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue, would Fox News even cover it? Trump supporters and Trump detractors live in different worlds. They may not speak to one another about politics, knowing that such a conversation is likely to end badly. They get their news from different sources. They stay faithful to their respective political tribes.
But the crux of the matter—the secret to Trump’s success with the base—may be that if bad news can’t quite pierce the Trumpist bubble, neither, in a way, can Trump. The millions of American voters who adore the president do not have to interact with him directly. Unlike the White House staff, they do not have to endure Trump’s incendiary outbursts or kowtow to his unpredictable whims. As anonymous members of a television audience, they can gaze upon their hero from afar.
If they want to get a little closer, they can attend a Trump rally. In the local sports arena or civic center, they can sit just a few hundred feet away from the president, cheering and chanting. They can express their love for the him in the presence of thousands of others who love him too. They can laugh at his jokes and partake of the anger and disgust he expresses toward his enemies. Excitement fills the arena. What outlandish thing will he do? What will he say to capture the headlines of the next day? A Trump rally is a safe space for Trump supporters. They can sit back and enjoy the performance, because whatever he says cannot directly threaten them. He will be gone tomorrow.
Tattoos, The Tempest, Dr. Who (Again), Peanuts, Reggae, Beethoven, and more
Starting in 2020, the Chick-fil-A Foundation is introducing a more focused giving approach to provide additional clarity and impact with the causes it supports. Staying true to its mission of nourishing the potential in every child, the Chick-fil-A Foundation will deepen its giving to a smaller number of organizations working exclusively in the areas of education, homelessness and hunger.(Emphasis in original.)
What's True
The Chick-fil-A Foundation's November 2019 announcement of a new charitable-donations strategy meant the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, both high-profile groups that have been criticized in the past as anti-LGBT, would no longer receive funding in 2020.
What's False
However, the new donations strategy also meant several dozen other groups — with no anti-LGBT record — would not receive funding in 2020 either, and so the strategy does not appear to have been targeted specifically at the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Further, Chick-fil-A has repeatedly declined to specify that the cut to the controversial groups' funding was linked to their LGBT-rights records, and a company spokesperson would not rule out the possibility that the groups could receive funding again in the future.
“As we gather together for Thanksgiving, you know, some people want to change the name ‘Thanksgiving,'” Trump told supporters at a fake “homecoming” rally in Florida Tuesday night. “They don’t want to use the term ‘Thanksgiving.’ And that was true also with Christmas. But now everybody’s using Christmas again. Remember this?”
Magic Realism, How Trolls See It, Chocolate, Hardanger Fiddles, Mammals, and More
I’m afraid if things keep going the other direction, even Christmas will be outlawed. They tried to outlaw it already. You know that. In fact the stores, a couple of years ago, weren’t allowed to say ‘Merry Christmas.” Did you know that? I’m serious.
One of the greeters at a big store here in Branson, she said, ‘Can’t say Merry Christmas anymore. It’s against the law.’ But we complained! And the people that watch our show called and contacted their stores.
Remember when it was illegal to say "Merry Christmas" just a few years ago? Jim Bakker does. pic.twitter.com/XxaMZtYf6X— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) November 22, 2019
Father, most Americans have little understanding about euphemistic titles like “Equal Rights Amendment” or “Equality Act.” Protect the American people from deliberately ambiguous and contradictory use of words to mislead and manipulate voters, common in politics today.
Protect us from tragically misguided efforts to redefine sacred words like “man,” “woman,” “family,” “marriage,” etc., in an effort to overthrow your created order. May your people arise to teach the nations everything you have commanded us. Restore your moral order to our backslidden nation.
If the last 24 hours have proven anything about Chick-fil-A, it’s this: It was never about the chicken. For millions of Americans, there was a much deeper significance behind every decision to pull in the parking lot and walk through those doors. It wasn’t about the menu. It wasn’t even about the service.
It was that every time someone ate there, they were making a cultural statement. Chick-fil-A was a business, yes. But it was also a giant rebuttal of everything the bullies stood for. Until it wasn’t.
Maybe that’s why people are in such denial. They don’t want to believe that the place where they felt at home, the place they’d put on a pedestal and invested so much personal capital, betrayed them.
In Aug 2012, I coordinated a national @ChickfilA Appreciation Day after they were being bullied by militant hate groups. Millions showed up. Today, @ChickfilA betrayed loyal customers for $$. I regret believing they would stay true to convictions of founder Truett Cathey. Sad.
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) November 18, 2019
Huckabee is lashing out at the company for focusing on — I repeat — education, homelessness, and hunger. He’s angry that they’re helping the poor instead of sticking it to LGBTQ people.
41 Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’
44 “Then they will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’
45 “Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.’ 46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Jurors found humanitarian aid volunteer Scott Warren not guilty Wednesday of intentionally harboring and concealing two undocumented migrants from the Border Patrol in the remote Arizona desert.
Warren, a longtime volunteer with humanitarian aid group No More Deaths, faced up to 20 years in prison. It was his second trial stemming from his January 2018 arrest in Ajo, about 100 miles southwest of Phoenix.
The 12-person jury in Tucson took just more than two hours to reach a not guilty verdict, striking a blow to federal prosecutors who opted to retry Warren after the first trial ended in a hung jury in June.
“The government failed in its attempt to criminalize basic human kindness,” Warren told supporters outside the federal courthouse.
This was not a mistrial. This was not a judge tossing charges. This was a jury saying that the federal prosecutors could not prove that human decency is illegal.
A federal jury found an anti-abortion cohort led by David Daleiden caused substantial harm to Planned Parenthood by infiltrating abortion industry conferences to secretly tape abortion doctors and staff – and awarded punitive damages of $870,000.
David Daleiden, an anti-abortion activist charged with invasion of privacy for filming attendees at National Abortion Federation conferences in California.
Daleiden, who heads the Center for Medical Progress, and his co-defendant Sandra Merritt, posed as human tissue procurers for a fake company called BioMax as part of a hidden-camera investigation into the organization.
The pair attended abortion industry conferences from 2013 to 2015 – posing as exhibitors named Robert Sarkis and Susan Tennenbaum – where they secretly recorded conversations they later posted online. Daleiden also made recordings at Planned Parenthood-affiliated clinics in Texas and Colorado.
At least three congressional committees and law enforcement officials in thirteen states launched investigations into Planned Parenthood after Daleiden and his group released the first video on July 14, 2015. Planned Parenthood was cleared of wrongdoing by the states and so far nothing has come of the federal investigation.
Ohio lawmakers are weighing in on how public schools can teach things like evolution.
The Ohio House on Wednesday passed the "Student Religious Liberties Act." Under the law, students can't be penalized if their work is scientifically wrong as long as the reasoning is because of their religious beliefs.
Instead, students are graded on substance and relevance.
Every Republican in the House supported the bill. It now moves to the Republican-controlled Senate.
Spotted at Midlands Beer Garden in Washington, DC. (Reminder: 4% of this city voted for Trump.) pic.twitter.com/kD3zoIaAfU
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) November 7, 2019
Fairy Tale Feasts, Aaron Copland’s ‘A Fanfare for The Common Man’ , Charles de Lint’s The Wild Wood. The Dubliners Live, A Worm in An Apple puppet and Other Tempting Things
Let’s just take the free lunch program that we have in our schools. It started out being pushed by the unions and their friends for poor children. Well, 28 years ago, I had two students in my class on free lunch. Today almost every single child is on free breakfast and free lunch.
So what the unions are trying to do, they’ve been pushing something called community schools. And in these community schools, we’re giving children free healthcare, we’re are giving them free food, free emotional support, and by the way free political indoctrination for their parents.
If these unions and their friends, their politicians, get their way, they would like our schools to be open 24/7. They want to replace the family and families raising their children with our own virtues, they want to replace that with the state. With union-controlled government-run schools.
That’s dangerous. That’s communism when you think about it.
The Trump administration on Friday proposed hiking a range of fees assessed on those pursuing legal immigration and citizenship, as well as for the first time charging those fleeing persecution for seeking protection in the United States.
The rule, which will be published on Thursday and will have a monthlong comment period, would increase citizenship fees more than 60 percent, to $1,170 from $725, for most applicants. For some, the increase would reach 83 percent. The government would also begin charging asylum seekers $50 for applications and $490 for work permits, a move that would make the United States one of four countries to charge people for asylum.
It would also increase renewal fees for hundreds of thousands of participants of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA. That group, known as “Dreamers,” would need to pay $765, rather than $495, for a renewal request. The fee hike comes days before the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the validity of President Trump’s justification to terminate DACA.
Former agency officials and immigration lawyers, however, said the decision to charge asylum seekers erased a long-held principle of not placing a financial burden on some of the world’s most vulnerable people seeking protection.
“There was a recognition that the likelihood of their ability to pay is really in question,” said Barbara Strack, a former chief of the agency’s refugee affairs division under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. “The only way to understand this is as a part of the administration’s campaign of hostility against the asylum program.”
Could Texas be any more intentional?— Leslie Proll (@LeslieProll) November 8, 2019
Houston voters elect 19 Black women to judgeships.
GOP then introduces bill to replace judicial elections w/governor-appointed judges.
Kicker: Bill would end elections only in counties w/500,000+ people, targeting urban areas like Houston. https://t.co/d3xTwkwQ6A
President Donald Trump's son published on Wednesday the name of the alleged anonymous whistleblower whose complaint fired the impeachment inquiry against Trump, breaking strict conventions for protecting officials who reveal wrongdoing in government.
Amid calls by the president himself to expose the whistleblower, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted the name of a CIA analyst which has circulated online for weeks, and linked to a Breitbart news article implying the person was pro-Democrat and anti-Trump.
AFP could not independently verify the whistleblower's identity and is not publishing the name.
Andrew Bakaj, the whistleblower's lawyer, would not confirm or deny the reported name, but said Trump Jr. and others were endangering the person as well as the system built to protect whistleblowers.
"Identifying any name for the whistleblower will simply place that individual and their family at risk," he told AFP.
"It won't, however, relieve the president of the need to address the substantive allegations, all of which have been substantially proven to be true."
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blocked a resolution Wednesday reaffirming the Senate's support for whistleblower protections and accused Democrats of "fake outrage."
Paul objected to passing the resolution after Democrats refused to drop their resolution and instead pass whistleblower legislation that he introduced earlier that day.
"I support whistleblowers, and I do think they have a role to play in keeping government accountable ... but what we have seen over the last few years is that we have a system that we should continue to refine," Paul said.
He argued that his legislation would "make clear" that President Trump should be able to face his accuser. The measure also would expand current whistleblower protections for contractors.
She added that she was "flabbergasted" by a provision in Paul's legislation that would apply the Sixth Amendment to impeachment proceedings.
"Come forward, but we're going to out you, subject you to threats, intimidation, retaliation," Hirono said, summarizing the impact of the provision.
Alleging "a number of significant irregularities," Gov. Matt Bevin is formally requesting an official recanvass of the results of Kentucky's election for governor.
Bevin came up about 5,000 votes short in Tuesday's race against Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear.
Speaking at a 5 p.m. press conference at the Governor's Mansion in Frankfort, Bevin said he'll be "entirely comfortable" with whatever the recanvass shows as long as he's confident the results are an accurate reflection of Kentuckians' votes.
The Men They Couldn’t Hang’s ‘Homefires’, Mice, Josepha Sherman’s Winter Queen Speech, Mini Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes and Other Matters
[Frank] Luntz graced the soundstage of Ingraham Angle Monday night to declare that (not making this up) the baseball fans at Game 5 of the World Series should be "held accountable" for booing Donald Trump.
FRANK LUNTZ: The fact is, they should hold those fans accountable. Don't boo the president! You may disagree with him, you may say that he's not what you wanted, but you don't boo him, you show respect for him. And I'll tell you something, I think this event is going to have an impact...
LAURA INGRAHAM: It's huge! It's going to be a campaign commercial.
NASA is getting in the celebration of Halloween.
The U.S. space agency shared a 2014 photo that showed what appears to be a jack-o’-lantern face on the sun. The image was seen in ultraviolet light by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite.
NASA explained the image this way:
“The active regions in this image appear brighter because those are areas that emit more light and energy. They are markers of an intense and complex set of magnetic fields hovering in the sun’s atmosphere, the corona. This image blends together two sets of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths…typically colorized in gold and yellow, to create a particularly Halloween-like appearance.”
Love this ❤️ https://t.co/hDV1kpeEIt
— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) October 28, 2019
A stadium of Americans in matching red baseball caps, all watching Trump -- all booing and screaming "Lock Him Up!"
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) October 28, 2019
The Trump rally was just inverted. https://t.co/3cDvfcpfWK
Our Halloween Edition
The Chief Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Friday afternoon ordered the Department of Justice to hand over the unredacted Mueller report and underlying materials requested by the House Judiciary Committee months ago. The 75-page ruling by Judge Beryl Howell (photo) is a being called a “stunning rebuke” to the DOJ that is leaving some experts surprised and even somewhat shocked.
The ruling also destroys the fallacious argument made by President Trump and Republicans that the House impeachment inquiry is not an actual impeachment. Judge Howell says it absolutely is. Republicans, including administration officials, have refused to respond to requests by the House for documents, and even subpoenas commanding testimony, claiming because the full House did not vote on holding the impeachment inquiry it is, as some on the right claim falsely, a “witch hunt” that can be ignored.
They are wrong.
Judge Howell has successfully accomplished several things. She delivers effective explanations deriding the DOJ’s arguments, she effectively certifies the House’s impeachment inquiry, and she shows just how amateur – or inept – the Barr DOJ has become.
Howell goes all School House Rock on DOJ, which apparently needs a basic lesson in American history. pic.twitter.com/gP8KrzEF8U— emptywheel (@emptywheel) October 25, 2019
Kellogg’s has supported the homosexual community for a long time, and now it is obvious they are going after our children. As part of an effort to say “we’re all in this together,” Kellogg’s has combined several of its popular cereals into one package to support an LGBTQ “anti-bullying” campaign called Spirit Day.
Kellogg’s calls it All Together Cereal, an exclusive, limited-time offer in which the cereal brand’s famous mascots are promoting their individual cereals packaged together in a purple box with rainbow colors. Purple is the designated color for Spirit Day, which is described by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) as “the most visible anti-LGBTQ bullying campaign and united show of support for LGBTQ youth.”
[. . . ]
TAKE ACTION: Kellogg’s needs to hear from you. Supporting the homosexual agenda verses [sic] remaining neutral in the cultural war is just bad business. If Christians cannot find corporate neutrality with Kellogg’s, then they will vote with their pocketbook and support companies that are neutral. Sign our petition now!
Pompeo rejected a question about whether the president’s treatment of the Kurds had undercut U.S. credibility.
“The whole predicate of your question is insane,” Pompeo said. “The word of the United States is much more respected today than it was just two and a half years ago.”
“We make clear the things that we will do,” Pompeo continued. “We also make clear the things that we’re not prepared to do. I think it’s important for people to understand that other countries have to step up too. Other countries must share the burden for not just the security of the world, but security for their own countries.”
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul joined ABC News' "Powerhouse Politics" podcast, saying the Kurds are acting like 'ingrates' in disrespecting U.S. troops.
With President Donald Trump facing an eruption of dissatisfaction inside his own party over his military policy regarding Syria, Paul has emerged as a fierce defender of the idea that the U.S. has the right to wind down on “endless wars.”
With images of Kurdish forces seen hurling potatoes at American troops leaving northern Syria, Paul said the Kurds should be more grateful for the opportunities and resources the U.S. troops provided for them.
"We saved the Kurds from being beheaded and massacred by ISIS," Paul told the hosts, ABC News Political Director Rick Klein and Senior Congressional Correspondent Mary Bruce, on Wednesday. "They were able to win with our armament, with our Air Force, and they should be thanking us and throwing rose petals. And so, no, I'm offended by them throwing refuse at our troops. And it shows them to be ingrates."
Withdrawing US forces from Northern Syria is a catastrophic mistake that puts our gains against ISIS at risk and threatens US security.
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) October 7, 2019
This decision ignores lesson of 9/11. Terrorists thousands of miles away can and will use their safe-havens to launch attacks against America.
Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) shared audio of a phone call he made from inside a secure room at the Capitol where Democrats were attempting to interview a witness as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
The interview was delayed for hours after a group of conservative Republican lawmakers, including Mooney, stormed into the room to protest what they say has been an unfair impeachment process.
The protest took place inside what's known as a SCIF — an acronym for sensitive compartmented information facility. Such rooms are used when secure, nationally sensitive information is to be shared or discussed.
BREAKING--> My report from inside the SCIF hearing room where we are exposing Adam Schiff's secret so-called impeachment inquiry. pic.twitter.com/fPcPJ94R9y
— Rep. Alex Mooney (@RepAlexMooney) October 23, 2019
Representative Elijah E. Cummings, a son of sharecroppers who rose to become one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress and a central figure in the impeachment investigation of President Trump, died on Thursday in Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He was 68.
His death was confirmed by a spokeswoman, Trudy Perkins, in a statement that said he died of “complications concerning longstanding health challenges.” No other details were given. Mr. Cummings had been ailing in recent years and used a motorized wheelchair.
