What goes through my my mind when I read the news with my morning coffee. …Or for the Simon's Rockers in the group, this is my response journal.
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A suicide car bomber detonated near a hotel in Somalia’s capital Monday morning, killing at least six people and injuring four others, police said.
Car bomb blast kills 6 near hotel in Somalia’s capital | World | tucson.com
hmmm
“Always remember to forget the friends that proved untrue. But never forget to remember those that have stuck by you,” said Nigerian poet Albashir Adam Alhassan.
Alhassan was born to Nigerian parents in the Kano State of Nigeria, which, coincidentally, is not Ireland.
Trump Recites an Irish Proverb Written by a Nigerian Poet
sigh….
President Donald Trump says he’s aware the current version of the GOP’s health care bill could hurt the very people who helped put him in the White House.
The president acknowledged the findings of a recent Bloomberg report, which said working- and middle-class counties that voted for him in November would fare far worse under the new bill than affluent counties that supported Hillary Clinton.
“Yeah,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that aired Wednesday. “Oh, I know that.”
Donald Trump Concedes Health Care Bill Could Hurt Many Of His Supporters | The Huffington Post
You buy snake oil, you get taken.
President Trump’s proposed budget takes a cleaver to domestic programs, with many agencies taking percentage spending cuts in the double digits.
The 62 agencies and programs Trump wants to eliminate
hmmm
EXECUTIVE ORDER – – – – – – – COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR REORGANIZING THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH
Oy…
The chief justice of California’s Supreme Court on Thursday asked the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to prevent immigration agents from arresting undocumented immigrants inside the state’s courthouses.
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said she was gravely troubled by recent reports that federal agents were “stalking undocumented immigrants in our courthouses to make arrests,” in a letter addressed to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly.”
Courthouses should not be used as bait in the necessary enforcement of our country’s immigration law,” Cantil-Sakauye wrote.
California judge seeks to prevent immigration arrests inside state courts | Reuters
hmmmm
In an impressively geeky retort, the drivers responded that all the other exempted activities were listed as gerunds, words ending with “-ing”: Canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing. The word “distribution,” they argued, was therefore not intended to be one of the items in the list.
The first court to hear the case ruled in the company’s favor, but the appellate court disagreed. Wrote Barron, since Maine’s overtime laws are meant to have “remedial purpose,” that is, to help the state’s workers, they should be read liberally. He and the appeals court therefore sided with the drivers, ruling that they are still eligible to receive their unpaid overtime.
Heh
The resistance has been expertly resisting everything, including voting.
Every. Single. Word. Of. This.
Anything Donald Trump says may be used against him in a court of law. Take the fight over the White House’s Muslim ban, for example.
As Muslim ban flops again, Team Trump is its own worst enemy | MSNBC
hmmm
The budget would cut a program that reimburses jails for holding undocumented immigrants.
Trump budget cuts immigration aid and local police are stunned
Pssst…. When you buy snake oil, you get taken.
A federal judge in Hawaii issued a nationwide order Wednesday evening blocking President Trump’s ban on travel from parts of the Muslim world, dealing a stinging blow to the White House and signaling that Mr. Trump will have to account in court for his heated rhetoric about Islam.
…in a pointed decision that repeatedly invoked Mr. Trump’s public comments, Judge Derrick K. Watson, of Federal District Court in Honolulu, wrote that a “reasonable, objective observer” would view even the new order as “issued with a purpose to disfavor a particular religion, in spite of its stated, religiously neutral purpose.”
In Maryland, Judge Theodore D. Chuang echoed that conclusion hours later, ruling in a case brought by nonprofit groups that work with refugees and immigrants, that the likely purpose of the executive order was “the effectuation of the proposed Muslim ban” that Mr. Trump pledged to enact as a presidential candidate.
…In addition to the Hawaii and Maryland suits, a federal judge in Washington State heard arguments Wednesday in cases challenging the constitutionality of Mr. Trump’s order, including one brought by a coalition of Democratic attorneys general, and another by nonprofit groups.
…The lawsuits against the ban have extensively cited Mr. Trump’s comments during the presidential campaign. Attorney General Bob Ferguson of Washington, who successfully challenged Mr. Trump’s first order, has indicated that in an extended legal fight, he could seek depositions from administration officials and request documents that would expose the full process by which Trump aides crafted the ban.
As a candidate, Mr. Trump first proposed to bar all Muslims from entering the United States, and then offered an alternative plan to ban travel from a number of Muslim countries, which he described as a politically acceptable way of achieving the same goal.
hmmmm
The leadership of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday flatly refuted President Trump’s claims that his New York offices were wiretapped by the Obama administration in advance of the November election.
…The rebuke comes a day after the House Intelligence Committee offered a similar assessment, leaving the White House virtually alone in asserting the surveillance claim.
The unusually strong, bipartisan statement left little room for the White House to continue its defense of Trump’s extraordinary allegations that implied that former president Barack Obama engaged in a possible criminal act.
…The FBI director had encouraged Justice officials to publicly discredit Trump’s claims shortly after they were issued March 4. Justice did not act on the request. But former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has publicly denied that such surveillance ever occurred.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., also threw cold water on Trump’s theory, telling reporters Thursday: “We’ve cleared that up; we’ve seen no evidence of that.”
hmmm
Trump’s senior counselor Kellyanne Conway …says the “surveillance” may be broader than even Trump suggested.
Conway …suggested that the alleged monitoring of activities at Trump’s campaign headquarters at Trump Tower in Manhattan may have involved far more than wiretapping.
“What I can say is there are many ways to surveil each other,” Conway said as the Trump presidency marked its 50th day in office during the weekend.
“You can surveil someone through their phones, certainly through their television sets — any number of ways.”Conway went on to say that the monitoring could be done with “microwaves that turn into cameras,” adding:
“We know this is a fact of modern life.”
Conway did not offer any evidence to back up her claim.
Kellyanne Conway alludes to even wider surveillance of Trump campaign
Earth to Kellyanne, come in Kellyanne…
A House committee investigating former national security adviser Michael Flynn revealed today that Flynn received tens of thousands of dollars in 2015 from RT, the state-run Russian television network.
On Thursday, Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released checks, emails and invoices that showed Flynn was paid almost $34,000 to attend the event by RT.
The CIA found in a report on Russia’s actions during the 2016 presidential campaign that RT engaged in “a Kremlin-directed campaign to undermine faith in the U.S. government.”
Flynn also received over $11,000 from a Russian cargo airline and $11,000 from Kaspersky Labs, a well-known cyber security company with ties to Russian officials.
Michael Flynn received nearly $34,000 to attend event with Putin – CBS News
You know, Kaspersky Labs , the fine folks who brought you the Russian hack of Yahoo.
Man alive….
The escalating threat from North Korea’s nuclear programme shows a clear need for a “new approach”, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday, although he did not say what the Trump administration planned.
Oy…
Mosque in Aleppo province was full of worshippers at evening prayer when it was hit by fighter jets, monitor says.
Air raid on mosque near Aleppo ‘kills dozens’ | Syria News | Al Jazeera
My gawd…
The Netherlands now faces lengthy haggling before a government based on dozens of compromises can take shape. In other words, Dutch politics as usual—just what Mr Wilders and his followers despise. The anti-immigrant right had hoped the row with Turkey would help them reframe the election as a battle between the Netherlands and Islam. Instead, it handed Mr Rutte control of the agenda.
hmmm
Tillerson reportedly used an email with a pseudonym to talk about climate change risks and other important issues.
The discussions over Exxon Mobil’s climate-change risk-management is the focus of New York’s inquiry into the oil company. Schneiderman’s office uncovered the information as part of its investigation, which found Tillerson allegedly used the email pseudonym “Wayne Tracker” – Wayne is Tillerson’s middle name – for at least 7 years, from 2008 to 2015.
Rex Tillerson email alias Wayne Tracker Exxon climate change risks – Business Insider
hmmmm
Tillerson reportedly wrote a letter saying “the Human Rights Council requires considerable reform.”
Tillerson: UN Human Rights Council must reform or US will leave | TheHill
hmmmmm
In a Thursday letter, OGE director Walter Shaub contradicted what he called the White House’s “extraordinary assertion,” made in a recent letter, that “many regulations promulgated by the Office of Government Ethics (‘OGE’) do not apply to employees of the Executive Office of the President.”
Shaub was having no part of that: “The assertion is incorrect, and the letter cites no legal basis for it.”
U.S. Ethics Official To White House: No, These Rules Definitely Apply To You : The Two-Way : NPR
hmmm
Scott Pruitt used private email to conduct government business, but he didn’t say that when asked by the Senate. If Hillary Clinton was investigated for lying, he should be too.
hmmmm
‘I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see,’ Pruitt said of human-caused pollution.
Ignoramus
With the president officially removed from office South Korea faces a turbulent political future.
South Korea impeachment: What happens now? – BBC News
hmmmm
The BBC has seen a message board where servicemen from all branches have shared hundreds of photos.
US military nude photo sharing scandal widens beyond marines – BBC News
Disorder and dishonor in corps
Pruitt claims there is “tremendous disagreement” about greenhouse gas emissions.
EPA chief doubts carbon dioxide’s role in global warming – BBC News
doublespeaking dinosaur
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