You've mastered the technique so you've moved onto the calluses at this point, eh?

I imagine Bill might file for divorce after Hillary's sentencing.

I imagine Bill might file for divorce after Hillary's sentencing.

For those of you keeping tabs. To recap:

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the DOJ’s Violence Against Women programs.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Minority Business Development Agency.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Economic Development Administration.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the International Trade Administration.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Legal Services Corporation.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the DOJ.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Fossil Energy.
* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered all regulatory powers of all federal agencies frozen.
* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered the National Parks Service to stop using social media after RTing factual, side by side photos of the crowds for the 2009 and 2017 inaugurations.
* On January 20th, 2017, roughly 230 protestors were arrested in DC and face unprecedented felony riot charges. Among them were legal observers, journalists, and medics.
* On January 20th, 2017, a member of the International Workers of the World was shot in the stomach at an anti-fascist protest in Seattle. He remains in critical condition.
* On January 21st, 2017, DT brought a group of 40 cheerleaders to a meeting with the CIA to cheer for him during a speech that consisted almost entirely of framing himself as the victim of dishonest press.
* On January 21st, 2017, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a press conference largely to attack the press for accurately reporting the size of attendance at the inaugural festivities, saying that the inauguration had the largest audience of any in history, “period.”
* On January 22nd, 2017, White House advisor Kellyann Conway defended Spicer’s lies as “alternative facts” on national television news.
* On January 22nd, 2017, DT appeared to blow a kiss to director James Comey during a meeting with the FBI, and then opened his arms in a gesture of strange, paternal affection, before hugging him with a pat on the back.
* On January 23rd, 2017, DT reinstated the global gag order, which defunds international organizations that even mention abortion as a medical option.
* On January 23rd, 2017, Spicer said that the US will not tolerate China’s expansion onto islands in the South China Sea, essentially threatening war with China.
* On January 23rd, 2017, DT repeated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing him the popular vote.
* On January 23rd, 2017, it was announced that the man who shot the anti-fascist protester in Seattle was released without charges, despite turning himself in.
* On January 24th, 2017, Spicer reiterated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing DT the popular vote.
* On January 24th, 2017, DT tweeted a picture from his personal Twitter account of a photo he says depicts the crowd at his inauguration and will hang in the White House press room. The photo is curiously dated January 21st, 2017, the day AFTER the inauguration and the day of the Women’s March, the largest inauguration related protest in history.
* On January 24th, 2017, the EPA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to freeze all grants and contracts.
* On January 24th, 2017, the USDA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to stop publishing any papers or research. All communication with the press would also have to be authorized and vetted by the White House.
* On January 24th, 2017, HR7, a bill that would prohibit federal funding not only to abortion service providers, but to any insurance coverage, including Medicaid, that provides abortion coverage, went to the floor of the House for a vote.
* On January 24th, 2017, Director of the Department of Health and Human Service nominee Tom Price characterized federal guidelines on transgender equality as “absurd.”
* On January 24th, 2017, DT ordered the resumption of construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, while the North Dakota state congress considers a bill that would legalize hitting and killing protestors with cars if they are on roadways.
* On January 24th, 2017, it was discovered that police officers had used confiscated cell phones to search the emails and messages of the 230 demonstrators now facing felony riot charges for protesting on January 20th, including lawyers and journalists whose email accounts contain privileged information of clients and sources.
And today: the wall and a Muslim ban.

President Trump is poised to sign an executive order that would suspend all entry to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East, according to a draft proposal obtained by Bloomberg News. His proposed list doesn’t include Muslim-majority countries where his Trump Organization has done business or pursued potential deals. Properties include golf courses in the United Arab Emirates and two luxury towers operating in Turkey.

New Jersey prosecutors on Friday said they would not pursue criminal misconduct charges against Governor Chris Christie in connection with the “Bridgegate” scandal.

The Office of the Bergen County Prosecutor said in a letter to a local judge it did not have sufficient evidence to prove allegations that Christie knew about a plot to close lanes at the George Washington Bridge in 2013 in order to punish a local mayor for failing to endorse Christie’s re-election bid.

“The reason is simple, but compelling – that charge cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” the letter said.

Bill Brennan, a retired firefighter and activist who announced he would run for governor this year, filed the citizen complaint against Christie last September.

Two former Christie allies were convicted last year of orchestrating the lane closure plot, and U.S. prosecutors introduced evidence at trial suggesting the governor was at least aware of the scheme. Christie has steadfastly denied that he knew about the closures at the time.

Fat evil crooked GOP sack of shit bastard off the hook in Bridgegate scandal:

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/prosecu ... -governor/

Why Fake News Targeted Trump Supporters


Multiple studies suggest social conservatives are more attuned to threats—even when they are not real

OLGA KHAZAN
12:01 PM ET SCIENCE

One of the few comforts liberals had in the aftermath of the election was the anecdotal reporting that fake-news purveyors found it easier to get conservatives to believe their baloney.

As one such fake-news entrepreneur, responsible for articles with headlines like, “FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide,” told NPR: "We’ve tried to do [fake news with] liberals. It just has never worked, it never takes off. You'll get debunked within the first two comments and then the whole thing just kind of fizzles out."

No doubt this served as a signal, to some, that if fake news works better on Trump supporters, it must be because liberals are smarter than conservatives. “I can safely binge-drink the next four years away,” some liberals might have thought, “since I have all these extra brain cells to burn.”

Well, not quite. According to a study slated to be published in the journal Psychological Science, it might be true that conservatives are more likely to fall for false, threatening-seeming information, but it’s not because they’re dumb. It’s because they’re hyper-attuned to hazards in their world. If they spot a sign of danger, they figure trusting it is better than ignoring it.

Daniel Fessler, an anthropology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, led a study in which two sets of subjects read a series of 16 statements, most of which were false, but all of which sounded like they could be true. Some of them focused more on the (fake) benefits of doing something, such as “Exercising on an empty stomach burns more calories,” while others focused on risks, such as, “terrorist attacks in the U.S. have increased since Sept 11, 2001.”

The researchers had the subjects rate how true they believed the statements were. Then, he assessed how “liberal” or “conservative” they were, asking them whether they believed “society works better when people live according to traditional values,” for example, or whether they “agree” with topics like pornography or school prayer, and of course, whether they actually identify as a Republican or Democrat.

There was no difference when it came to the “beneficial” statements—conservatives and liberals were equally likely to believe those. But the researchers found that compared to the liberals, conservative participants were more likely to believe the statements about hazards. And surprisingly, this difference was driven by their views on social issues, such as abortion or same-sex marriage. Economic issues, such as a fondness for tax cuts, didn’t make a difference. “Fiscal conservatism is not about traditionalism,” Fessler said. “It’s an accident of American politics that [social and fiscal conservatism] happen to be stuck together” in the same party.

....,,,

State Rep. Beth Fukumoto has been the house minority leader in Hawaii since 2012 and is looking to possibly switch to the other side after her colleagues voted to remove her from her as minority leader for participating in the women’s march in protest of Donald Trump.

According to NPR member station Hawaii Public Radio, Fukumoto’s colleagues reportedly ousted her from her position “because she participated in the women’s march protesting the Trump presidency.” Fukumoto has made clear her dislike of the president and his behavior towards women. NPR reports that at Hawaii’s Women’s March, she shared a story about how her own colleagues “booed and insulted” her at the Republican Convention for her refusal to endorse Trump’s candidacy.

President Donald Trump’s son Eric traveled to Uruguay for part of a Trump Organization promotional trip that resulted in almost $100,000 in hotel rooms for Secret Service and embassy staff.

The Washington Post reported Friday that Trump was in the country to “mingle with real estate brokers” while he was enjoying the beach and attending “ultra exclusive” parties.

It’s just the latest example of the financial concerns for the Trump family using government influence and perks for non-government purposes. Government agencies are forced to foot the bill for business operations for the Trump Organization that help “enrich” the president, his family and the Trump brand. The Emoluments Clause specifically prohibits any leader from using government services for that purpose.

At Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, the price for joining ‘Winter White House’ just doubled

President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in south Florida has doubled its new-member fees to $200,000 due to growing interest since the election, a major spike that is already drawing criticism that the president is profiting off his rise to the White House.

The increase, first reported by CNBC and confirmed by club managing director Bernd Lembcke in a Bloomberg interview, could boost the revenues of the Palm Beach club Trump has called the “Winter White House.” It could also directly benefit his private fortune, because he has refused to divest his business holdings while in the Oval Office.

The increase restores the Mar-a-Lago price to its pre-recession level, before economic troubles made it harder for the club to attract new members.

....The club’s deep-pocketed clientele are offered the unique opportunity to encounter the president when he’s relaxing at his vacation home.

Trump, his family, major donors and other supporters gathered at the club for a glitzy celebration on New Year’s Eve. Club membership, its website says, offers “the highest privileges and an elite lifestyle reserved for a select few.”...

The new price jump was slammed by ethics watchdogs, who have criticized Trump’s lack of separation between his private finances and public power. Norm Eisen, a former chief White House ethics adviser to former President Barack Obama’s administration who is part of a lawsuit accusing Trump of violating a constitutional provision barring presidents from taking payments from foreign governments, called the Mar-a-Lago move “naked profiteering that is more like something out of the era of Louis XVI.”

......
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