DonViejo
DonViejo's JournalSuspect in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting is charged in 44-count hate-crime indictment
By Matt Zapotosky, Devlin Barrett and Mark Berman October 31 at 2:51 PM
The suspect in a grisly shooting that left 11 people dead at a Pittsburgh synagogue was charged Wednesday in a 44-count indictment accusing him of federal hate crimes.
Officials say Robert Bowers, 46, of Baldwin, Pa., drove to Tree of Life synagogue armed with Glock .357 handguns and a Colt AR-15 rifle. The indictment charges that while inside the synagogue, Bowers made statements indicating his desire to “kill Jews.”
In a statement announcing the indictment, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the alleged crimes “are incomprehensibly evil and utterly repugnant to the values of this nation. Therefore this case is not only important to the victims and their loved ones, but to the city of Pittsburgh and the entire nation.”
[Read the indictment: Robert Bowers charged in connection with shooting at Tree of Life synagogue]
The indictment charges Bowers, a truck driver, with killing 11 people, and for each of those victims he faces separate counts of obstruction of free exercise of religion resulting in death and of using a firearm to commit murder during a crime of violence.
He also faces charges of attempting to kill people exercising their religious beliefs and civil rights charges related to injuring several police officers who responded to the attack.
more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/suspect-in-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting-charged-in-44-count-hate-crime-indictment/2018/10/31/bf2be61c-dd36-11e8-b3f0-62607289efee_story.html
Trump's hate and lies are failing. Two new studies show why.
By Greg Sargent
Opinion writer
October 31 at 9:43 AM
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It is widely observed that Democrats are favored to take back the House because of a backlash against Trump’s ugly personal characteristics and verbal displays of racism and misogyny. But it is already discernible in Trump and Republican messaging that the public has turned on the Trump-era GOP’s agenda — that is, its peculiar fusion of xenophobic ethno-nationalism with orthodox GOP regressive and plutocratic economic priorities.
Two new studies help us make sense of all these dynamics. The first one, by the Economic Innovation Group, asks a simple question: Why isn’t the good economy saving GOP incumbents in the suburbs?
As the New York Times reports, this study looks at long-term economic trends in 70 of the most competitive House districts, which are represented almost entirely by Republicans. It finds that most of them are relatively prosperous, which should buoy GOP incumbents. But here’s the rub (emphasis added):
As a group, the 70 most competitive districts have not seen their incomes grow more, or their unemployment rates drop faster, than the rest of the country since Mr. Trump took office. But they began the Trump era in better shape than the rest of the country.
In 2017, the median household income in a typical competitive district was just over $66,000, according to the Census Bureau. For the typical noncompetitive district, it was just under $57,000.
The economic well-being of these districts represents a continuation of trends that predated Trump. What’s more, a number of these districts have more immigrants in them and/or are woven into the globalized economy. As the study’s author notes, these are “dynamic places where the status quo is working rather well,” and where “globalization and immigration aren’t things to be feared.”
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more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/10/31/trumps-hate-and-lies-are-failing-two-new-studies-show-why/
Reporter overhears court clerk's conversation suggesting Mueller has subpoenaed Trump to testify
Reporter overhears courthouse clerk’s conversation suggesting Mueller has subpoenaed Trump to testifyDavid Edwards
31 OCT 2018 AT 10:34 ET
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office may have already subpoenaed President Donald Trump to testify in the ongoing investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
A Wednesday Politico report offers informed speculation that the two parties are duking it out in court over the suspected attempt to force Trump to testify before a grand jury.
According to the report, at least some of the evidence comes from conversations overheard by reporters at the courthouse.
The report notes:
The evidence lies in obscure docket entries at the clerk’s office for the D.C. Circuit. Thanks to Politico’s Josh Gerstein and Darren Samuelsohn, we know that on August 16th (the day after Giuliani said he was almost finished with his memorandum, remember), a sealed grand jury case was initiated in the D.C. federal district court before Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell. We know that on September 19, Chief Judge Howell issued a ruling and 5 days later one of the parties appealed to the D.C. Circuit. And thanks to Politico’s reporting, we know that the special counsel’s office is involved (because the reporter overheard a conversation in the clerk’s office). We can further deduce that the special counsel prevailed in the district court below, and that the presumptive grand jury witness has frantically appealed that order and sought special treatment from the judges of the D.C. Circuit—often referred to as the “second-most important court in the land.”
Politico points out that Trump attorneys have denied knowing the identity of the witness, but adds: “What, of course, would we expect a lawyer to say when asked about a proceeding the court has ordered sealed?”
more
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/10/reporter-overhears-courthouse-clerks-conversation-suggesting-mueller-subpoenaed-trump-testify/
Trump Condemned For Using Pittsburgh Synagogue Visit to Attack Media on Twitter: 'Disgusting'
by Caleb Ecarma | Oct 31st, 2018, 10:26 am
President Donald Trump was condemned on Wednesday after he used his visit to the Pittsburgh synagogue that was the site of a mass shooting to attack the media, tweeting a somber video of his visit along with a caption praising the “great respect” he received and lashing out at the “fake news.”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1057620518751428608
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The president’s tweet about his visit was fiercely denounced and criticized by reporters, with many accusing Trump of making everything — even a hate-fueled mass shooting — about himself:
https://twitter.com/NoahShachtman/status/1057622867876216832
https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1057625160990277632
https://twitter.com/AsteadWesley/status/1057623758519832576
https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1057622177170837506
https://twitter.com/brianbeutler/status/1057623718724333568
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1057626991833333760
more
https://www.mediaite.com/online/trump-condemned-for-using-pittsburgh-synagogue-visit-to-attack-media-on-twitter-disgusting/
Woman Contacted By Mueller Scammers: People Behind This 'Not Very Smart'
By Nicole Lafond
October 31, 2018 10:55 am
Jennifer Taub, a Vermont Law School professor who was contacted by the fake intelligence group seeking damaging information on special counsel Robert Mueller, called the people behind the scam “not very smart.”
https://twitter.com/TPMLiveWire/status/1057644022813130753
Taub said she was contacted by a group called “Surefire Intelligence,” which offered to pay her to speak with them about her interactions with Mueller. The group is reportedly part of far-right conspiracy to drum up fake sexual misconduct allegations against the special counsel.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/mueller-scammers-not-smart
John Warner, Former GOP Senator And Navy Secretary, Endorses Dem For Congress
By Matt Shuham
October 31, 2018 10:49 am
John Warner, the Republican former Navy secretary who served as a U.S. senator for three decades, endorsed a Democrat running for Congress in Virginia, the Fauquier Times reported Wednesday.
Warner endorsed Democratic investigative journalist Leslie Cockburn over Republican Denver Riggleman to fill outgoing Rep. Tom Garrett’s (R-VA) seat. Warner said he’s “still a Republican,” but that “you’ve got to have the courage to do what’s right for the country and what’s right for your state.” He’s also endorsed Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) for reelection against Republican challenger Corey Stewart.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/john-warner-leslie-cockburn-endorsement
At Event For Black Civil War Soldiers, Zinke Likens Robert E. Lee To MLK Jr.
Source: Talking Points Memo
By Kate Riga
October 31, 2018 10:55 am
In a discordant choice of words, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke honored Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and confederate general Robert E. Lee in the same breath at an event honoring black Civil War soldiers, according to a Wednesday Huffington Post report.
“I like to think that Lincoln doesn’t have his back to General Lee. He’s in front of him,” Zinke said. “There’s a difference. Similar to Martin Luther King doesn’t have his back to Lincoln. He’s in front of Lincoln as we march together to form a more perfect union.”
Zinke made the comments at a ceremony during which a recruitment center for black Civil War soldiers was named a national monument.
“To attempt to link Lee’s achievements for the Confederacy which embraced White Supremacy to that of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is not a slight oversight but a huge historical misappropriation that the descendants of enslaved Africans cannot accept or tolerate,” NAACP spokesperson Malik Russell told HuffPost. “Dr. King’s work united our nation and bent the moral arc toward justice, while General Lee acquiesced to the ignoble norms of his time.”
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Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/event-black-civil-war-soldiers-robert-e-lee-mlk
Video at the Talking Points Memo link, above
The Bizarre Mueller Allegations Were Too Sketchy Even For Gateway Pundit
By Tierney Sneed
October 31, 2018 10:28 am
Salacious and unfounded accusations that special counsel Robert Mueller engaged in sexual misconduct were even a bridge too far for the far-right conspiracy website Gateway Pundit, which had posted “exclusive documents” Tuesday alleging a 2010 rape, only to take them down a few hours later as scrutiny of the other conservative activists hyping the allegations grew.
The website’s founder Jim Hoft (pictured above) took down the documents Tuesday evening, after they had been posted for about five hours. Hoft updated the post with a note saying the site was investigating the allegations.
“There are also very serious allegations against Jacob Wohl. We are also looking into this,” the post said.
Jacob Wohl is a pro-Trump Twitter personality who appears tied to a supposed private intel firm, Surefire Intelligence, that was revealed to be bogus as reporters began looking into sketchy allegations of a payoff scheme for Mueller accusers.
more
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/the-bizarre-mueller-allegations-were-too-sketchy-even-for-gateway-pundit
Rupert Murdoch Is Funding a Feminist Ad Campaign. Seriously.
At Lizzy Jagger’s urging, the tycoon has spent tens of thousands of dollars of his own money to fund pro-ERA newspaper ads in states that have yet to ratify the amendment.
Lloyd Grove
10.31.18 5:11 AM ET
During a sociopolitical moment in which things that were previously considered shocking have become commonplace—Donald Trump’s presidency, for instance—Rupert Murdoch remains full of surprises.
The 87-year-old Australian-born media mogul has been quietly bankrolling a newspaper advertising campaign to make the Equal Rights Amendment, popularly known as the ERA, part of the United States Constitution.
“Mr. Murdoch has two teenage daughters”—the youngest of four daughters from three previous marriages, namely 16-year-old Grace and 15-year-old Chloe by his third ex-wife Wendi Deng—“and men that become aware of the basic inequity in our system are appalled,” said ERA activist Kamala Lopez, an actress and filmmaker who founded Equal Means Equal, a non-profit that supports passage of the amendment.
Murdoch and his fourth wife, Jerry Hall, recently invited Lopez and her actor-husband Joel Marshall to dinner at their Beverly Hills estate to discuss the ERA campaign. Murdoch retains the curiosity of a lifelong newspaper proprietor, so he peppered Lopez with questions, although he had already been funding the full-page newspaper ads for the better part of q year—actually at the behest of impassioned ERA activist Lizzy Jagger, at 34 the eldest child of Jerry and Mick.
“Lizzy became very, very involved [with Equal Means Equal] and did a lot of work,” Lopez said. “She asked for a birthday present from her mom. Her mom said, ‘What do you want for your birthday?’ And she said, ‘I want you to pay for an ad.’ And so her mom looked into it, and her mom… told Rupert. And Rupert was like, ‘What are you even talking about?’ And then I guess they watched the movie, and then he was like, ‘This is ridiculous.’ And then he did his own research, and then… they gave her the birthday present.”
more
https://www.thedailybeast.com/rupert-murdoch-is-funding-a-feminist-ad-campaign-seriously?ref=home
Trump Visits Site of the Deadliest Attack on Jews in U.S. History, Says Nothing & Takes No...
Trump Visits Site of the Deadliest Attack on Jews in U.S. History, Says Nothing and Takes No ResponsibilityAmerican Jews need to hear from the president that we are not crazy, that anti-Semitism has gotten worse, and that he bears some responsibility for it. Instead he blamed the media.
Jay Michaelson
10.30.18 8:29 PM ET
No human being is perfect. We all make mistakes, and look back on our actions, occasionally, with remorse.
From this ineluctable fact of human life, arguably, springs one of the sources of religion itself: the knowledge that we cause harm, deliberately or inadvertently, and we feel sorry, and we don’t know what to do. Elaborate theologies of sin and forgiveness, reward and punishment, issue from this brute reality of the human condition. But not Donald Trump.
What I, and I think many Jews, wanted to hear from President Trump, as he visited the site of the worst massacre of Jews in American history, was, if not an outright apology, at least some taking of responsibility, some expression of remorse.
What we got, publicly least, was bupkes: nothing.
Remorse for what? For not condemning white supremacy except when pushed to do so. For occasionally supporting it outright, through retweets and race-baiting. For exaggerating the dangers of immigration to win votes. For stirring up hatred and rage at a series of otherwise pointless rallies and in thousands of incendiary tweets. For tolerating among his supporters both overt and covert anti-Semites, and occasionally dog-whistling to them with ads targeting George Soros or Michael Bloomberg. For spinning baseless conspiracy theories, attacking the media, and attacking Hollywood—all of which are fodder for the worst of anti-Semitic imagination. For allowing anti-Semitic attacks to rise 60 percent between 2016 and 2017 and failing to take a single action to counteract them.
more
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-visits-pittsburgh-site-of-the-deadliest-attack-on-jews-in-us-history-says-nothing-and-takes-no-responsibility?ref=home
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Name: DonGender: Male
Hometown: Massachusetts
Home country: United States
Member since: Sat Sep 1, 2012, 03:28 PM
Number of posts: 60,536
