It is time for consequences. A time for the members of the U.S. House of Representatives who voted for this abomination of a health care law to feel the earth shake beneath their feet. It does not matter that they know what just passed does not have a snowball’s chance in hell of passing the Republican-controlled Senate. It does not matter if they intended for it to be a starting block for negotiations. And it does not matter they intended to give President Trump’s fragile ego a win. What matters is intent. What is their intent?
Murder. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at how murder in the first degree is defined by the Colorado Revised Statute (18-3-102): A deliberate, intentional killing of another; or, causing someone’s death by knowingly engaging in conduct that creates a serious risk of death, because of an attitude of malice and extreme indifference to the value of human life.
Under the American Health Care Act (AHCA), for one full year Planned Parenthood would no longer receive federal funding. Planned Parenthood serves approximately 2.5 million people, mainly women, 60 percent of whom are relying on government programs like Medicaid. A Guttmacher report found that, among women who receive care from a family planning center like Planned Parenthood, nearly four in 10 report that it is their only source of health care. Planned Parenthood provides preventive care services such as well-woman exams, breast and cervical cancer screenings, vaccinations and birth control. For many women, removing these screenings will undoubtedly lead to untold numbers of people finding out that they have cancer at far too late of a stage to be treated. People will needlessly die. …
Trump explains how he invented ‘prime the pump’ and how we threw $6 trillion into the Rose Garden
Trumpslator. It’s one of the most demanding jobs in all of journalism. Trumpslators as in the hardworking people who comb through the raw text of interviews with Donald Trump and set out to make it seem as if Trump’s responses to simple questions make sense. It’s not always obvious, because most articles only show the results of their work. But any time the public gets a glimpse behind the scenes, and sees the raw ingredients from which Trumpslators must make their sausage, it’s intimidating. It can also be hilarious, as in this interlude from The Economist.
Reporter: Another part of your overall plan, the tax reform plan. Is it OK if that tax plan increases the deficit? Ronald Reagan’s tax reform didn’t.
Trump: Well, it actually did. But, but it’s called priming the pump. You know, if you don’t do that, you’re never going to bring your taxes down. …
Reporter: But beyond that it’s OK if the tax plan increases the deficit?
Trump: It is OK, because it won’t increase it for long. You may have two years where you’ll…you understand the expression “prime the pump”?
Reporter: Yes.
Trump: We have to prime the pump. … Have you heard that expression before, for this particular type of an event?
Reporter: Priming the pump?
Trump: Yeah, have you heard it?
Reporter: Yes.
Trump: Have you heard that expression used before? Because I haven’t heard it. I mean, I just… I came up with it a couple of days ago and I thought it was good. It’s what you have to do.
Yes. Donald Trump invented the phrase “priming the pump” a couple of days ago. And he claims this after the reporter says he’s heard the phrase before. But it’s not the craziest exchange in the interview.
This being an Economist interview, the primary focus is Donald Trump’s tax plan. Or at least, that’s the focus of the reporter. Because for the other participant in this dialog … focus isn’t a word anyone would use.
Reporter: The politics of this? Do you need to get Democratic support to get this tax plan passed?
Trump: Um. Little bit.
Reporter: And to get Democratic support, they prefer…
Trump: Depending. It depends on which plan, you know, which concept we’ve got to…but it could be. But I think the Democrats are going to like it. We may align it with infrastructure, which they like. They like it as much as the Republicans like it. We need infrastructure in our country. This country has wasted $6 trillion in the Middle East. Wasted. Like taking it and throwing it right out that window. Right in to the Rose Garden. See that beautiful Rose Garden? Look at those very nicely dressed people. It’s religious liberty out there.
Trumpslation?
Trump indicates that he may link his tax plan to an infrastructure package in order to secure Democratic votes. Infrastructure appeals to both parties. The war in Iraq has been an expensive waste of funds. We’ve thrown that money in a garden, but it’s a nice garden full of people whose clothing … oh, $#@% it. …
Someone remind Donald Trump he is not above the law
It’s hard to tell what’s worse: that Trump thinks he can get away with firing Comey, or that he is so nakedly hiding the true reason for the decision
There are so many shocking aspects to Donald Trump’s abrupt firing of the FBI director, James Comey, it’s almost hard to put into words, but one facet sticks out above all else: Trump has essentially declared that the president is above the law, and Americans of all political stripes should be incredibly disturbed by that thought.
I have harshly criticized James Comey in the pages of the Guardian almost too many times to count, but no matter one’s views of Comey’s positions, the fact that the president can suddenly fire the FBI director who is currently investigating him means that the president quite literally considers himself immune from accountability. As John Cassidy of the New Yorker wrote, “It amounts to a premeditated and terrifying attack on the American system of government.”
It’s hard to tell what’s worse: that Trump thinks he can get away with it, or the fact that the justice department and his White House are so nakedly hiding the true reason for Comey’s firing. …
Acting F.B.I. Chief Contradicts White House on Russia and Comey
Andrew G. McCabe, the acting director of the F.B.I., during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday. He called the bureau’s Russia investigation “highly significant,” contradicting White House claims.
The acting director of the F.B.I. contradicted the White House on two major issues on Thursday: the support of rank-and-file agents for the fired F.B.I. chief James B. Comey and the importance of the agency’s investigation into Russian election interference.
In a striking repudiation of official White House statements, the acting director, Andrew G. McCabe, said the inquiry was “highly significant” and pledged to the Senate Intelligence Committee that the F.B.I. would resist any attempt to influence or hobble the investigation.
“Simply put,” he said, “you cannot stop the men and women of the F.B.I. from doing the right thing.”
That Mr. McCabe felt compelled to assert the F.B.I.’s independence was itself remarkable, a byproduct of the unusually public effort by Mr. Trump and his aides to take focus off the investigations into Russia’s election meddling. He also said the F.B.I. investigation had the resources it needed, partly disputing an account that Mr. Comey had sought more aid.
Mr. McCabe did not hesitate to make clear where Mr. Comey stood in the eyes of F.B.I. agents and employees. …
Donald Trump’s Own Words Become ‘Exhibit A’ Against Him
The president’s interview with Lester Holt exposed White House obfuscation, unethical interactions with James Comey, and circumstantial evidence that the FBI director’s termination was improper.
The most widely reported statement from Donald Trump’s NBC News interview with Lester Holt concerns this tidbit about the process of firing FBI Director James Comey: “When I decided to just do it,” Trump explained on camera, “I said to myself, I said, you know, this Russia thing, with Trump and Russia, is a made up story, it’s an excuse for the Democrats to have lost an election that they should have won.”
The moment is clearly newsworthy.
As Kevin Drum put it at Mother Jones, “there’s the president himself, on national TV, telling everyone that the Russia investigation was at the top of his mind when he decided to fire Comey.” Even so, Trump then explicitly stated that trying to thwart the Russia investigation wasn’t his motivation for terminating the FBI director. Trump lies and misleads too much to take his word for anything, especially given that the reasons his memo cited for the firing are not credibly his motivation. Still, this wasn’t the clear admission of guilt some Trump critics want to see. …
‘Buckle up’: Maddow makes the case that ‘the only remedy is impeachment’ for Trump’s obstruction of justice
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow broke fascinating news on her show this evening about Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ supposed recusal from the Russia investigation.
Since James Comey was fired, there has been much public attention to the fact that AG Sessions hasn’t actually recused himself from the Russia investigation if he can still fire the head of the FBI. Maddow has been trying to get the Department of Justice to clarify whether Sessions recusal from the investigation into the Trump campaign extended to investigation into former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
“Is Jeff Sessions involved in any work at the Department of Justice concerning Paul Manafort or is he recused?” Maddow wondered. “We can report tonight department will not say.”
Maddow went on to explain how they started asking yesterday and claimed they, “asked it five times in five different ways” to no avail. The Session’s DOJ simply refuses to answer. …
With video goodness…
We May Be Witnessing the Unraveling of Donald Trump’s Presidency
In his paranoia about his legitimacy as president, Trump is pushing us to the brink of a constitutional crisis.
A peaceful protest march on the White House the day after President Trump unexpectedly fired Director of the FBI, James Comey.
Donald Trump began his presidency in a troubling crisis of legitimacy, given charges that Russia meddled in the election to help him defeat Hillary Clinton, and that Clinton won the popular vote nonetheless. This crisis is now devouring him.
From the moment he and his staff began haranguing the media for accurately reporting the size of his inaugural turnout, compared with Obama’s much larger crowds, we have been watching Trump spiral into paranoia. With the firing of FBI Director James Comey, we may be witnessing Trump’s presidency unraveling.
Trump’s cover story for Comey’s dismissal—that brand-new deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein wanted him gone, ironically due to his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s e-mail practices last year—has completely come undone in 24 hours. On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Comey told congressional leaders that days before his firing he’d submitted to Rosenstein a request for resources to expand the Russia probe. By Thursday morning, a half-dozen major news outlets produced deeply reported pieces, some based on as many as 30 sources, revealing that Trump has been seething over Comey’s handling of the investigation into alleged collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russian government officials—and that his anger hardened into a plan to fire him last week. The Washington Post reported that Rosenstein threatened to resign, angry at being falsely depicted as the person behind Comey’s firing. (The Justice Department is denying that report.) …
Jeff Sessions Reinvigorates the Drug War
The U.S. attorney general is bringing back the harshest sentences for low-level drug offenses, rejecting Obama-era reforms.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions addresses federal, state, and local law enforcement in Central Islip, New York
Democratic and Republican officials alike took up the banner of criminal-justice reform over the past five years, hoping to reduce the nation’s unprecedented prison population and scale back the harshest punishments of the tough-on-crime era. Now Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a major step toward rolling back their efforts.
In a memo released Friday, Sessions instructed federal prosecutors nationwide to seek the strongest possible charges and sentences against defendants they target. “It is a core principle that prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense,” he wrote. “This policy fully utilizes the tools Congress has given us. By definition, the most serious offenses are those that carry the most substantial guidelines sentence, including mandatory-minimum sentences.”
Friday’s policy change effectively rescinds Obama-era guidelines for federal prosecutors that were designed to curtail the harshest sentences for defendants charged with low-level drug offenses. The previous memo, first promulgated by then-Attorney General Eric Holder in 2013, reserved the most severe options in the federal sentencing guidelines for “serious, high-level, or violent drug traffickers” instead of defendants charged with lower-level offenses.
Holder’s changes addressed longstanding criticisms of the federal posture toward drug crimes. “In some cases, mandatory-minimum and recidivist-enhancement statutes have resulted in unduly harsh sentences and perceived or actual disparities that do not reflect our Principles of Federal Prosecution,” he wrote at the time. “Long sentences for low-level, non-violent drug offenses do not promote public safety, deterrence, and rehabilitation.” …
“Democracies don’t go away in a flash”: Trevor Noah’s grim warning after Trump fires Comey
While Stephen Colbert and Samantha Bee raged, The Daily Show got blunt.
THANKS to Comedy Central and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah for making this program available on YouTube.
As if to underline the frankness of his point, Noah then cut to a montage of cable news trying to make sense of what had happened, with anchors throwing around phrases like “whiff of fascism” and “looks more like a banana republic.”
“Just say it!” Noah yelled. “‘This is the kind of thing that only happens in Africa!’ You don’t have to use euphemisms!”
And in contrast to the other late-night hosts — excepting Seth Meyers’s predictably analytical “Closer Look” — Noah took pains to point out how especially notable Comey’s firing truly is in the larger context of political history, Watergate comparisons or no.
“What makes this particularly scary,” the host said, “is that in America, you have checks and balances for this reason: so if a president makes a dubious decision like this, you could trust Congress to step in and do something about it.” And yet, he pointed out, many Republicans currently in Congress are either hedging around the issue or flat out trying to force everyone to move right along past it.
“Democracies don’t go away in a flash,” Noah went on. “You don’t just wake up one morning and tanks are rolling through the streets. It’s a slow burn, with many steps along the way — and this is a big step.” …
6 Things I Learned When The Cops Raided My House By Mistake
You probably believe that if you aren’t breaking any rules, you have nothing to fear from the police. It’s part of what holds society together. Well, that, and the promise of new episodes of Game Of Thrones. But sometimes — only during TV’s off-season, of course — injustices happen. It happened to me. My girlfriend and I had our house raided by the police, and we were nearly arrested for drug possession. Because our downstairs neighbor was a drug dealer. How does that happen? Guilt by osmosis? Listen up …
#6. If Your Lease Is Wonky, You Could Get Caught Up In A Drug Raid
We lived in an old house converted into a duplex on a quiet, suburban street. Our house was the only rental on our block. The basement was one apartment, and the ground floor comprised the other apartment in the duplex. We shared a laundry room. Pretty normal arrangement, as far as sleeping-and-shitting places go, but we later found out that the house was only registered as one rental unit. Our landlord had separate leases for the units and separate everything else, but there was only one address, which means that legally, it’s one house. That becomes really important when the cops decide they aren’t particularly fond of what’s happening in it.
Anyway, my girlfriend and I had originally rented the basement unit, but when the upstairs neighbors moved out, we took over their apartment, because windows are just … super great, you guys. Some new neighbors moved in downstairs, and at first, they seemed like perfectly nice people. They were extremely friendly, asking us if we needed anything when they headed to the store, greeting us whenever we passed — normal neighborly things.
They were just like a couple from a Norman Rockwell painting,
except for the hidden bricks of cocaine.
But soon things started getting strange. I noticed they had lots of visitors.
“Well, of course, they’re so friendly!” I told myself, in my best Barney Fife voice.
But the visitors all drove nice cars, like Escalades and Mercedes.
“How wonderful; their friends are so successful!” I bumbled. …
Master of None‘s Greatest Strength Is Its Curiosity
The Netflix series starring Aziz Ansari frequently strays from its protagonist to dive into the lives of characters on the margins.
This post contains some spoilers for Master of None Season 2.
It’s not an insult to Aziz Ansari to say that the best episodes of his show Master of None, which he co-created and stars in, are often the ones where he fades into the background. Still, it may be a weird conclusion to arrive at when you consider how crucial Ansari’s vision and comedic style—infectiously goofy, pop-culture savvy, and cleverly observational—are to the spirit of the series. When Netflix’s Master of None debuted in 2015, it garnered immediate praise from critics and viewers who admired its humor and keen social commentary. The show also stood out amid a renewed mainstream conversation about Hollywood diversity: Aziz and his co-creator Alan Yang (also a Parks and Recreation alumnus) made a show with people of color both in front of and behind the camera, and that had no qualms about doing entire storylines that probe race or gender.
In a nutshell, Master of None is about Dev Shah (Ansari), a 30-something Indian American actor living in New York and navigating love, work, family, and friends. But the show gets the most mileage out of this simple premise by pairing it with a vignette-y approach to its episodes. Less beholden to a well-plotted, serialized arc about Dev, Master of None has let its attention wander to other characters or big ideas whenever its creators please. In Season 1, this meant viewers got wonderful episodes like “Parents,” a flashback-filled tribute to the sacrifices many immigrants make for their children; “Ladies and Gentlemen,” a candid look at how differently men and women experience the world; and “Old People,” a poignant tale that humanized its elderly characters. These episodes work so well precisely because they decentered Dev’s viewpoint, and earnestly tried to dive into another’s.
If anything, Master of None’s Season 2, which debuts Friday, doubles down on this ethos of curiosity and reveals it to be the show’s greatest strength. TV is filled with episodes dedicated to supporting characters (The Ringer’s Alison Herman calls these “Deep-Benchers”). But with Master of None, such episodes aren’t one-offs; they’re regular extensions of the show’s apparently broader mission of elevating different viewpoints, usually those of people on the margins of society (senior citizens, immigrants, women). It’s no coincidence that the most memorable and powerful episodes of the new season are the ones that, deliberately, have little to do with the joys and troubles of its star. …
Self care: See Melissa McCarthy sing “I Feel Pretty” as Sean Spicer
You need this, you deserve this
THANKS to NBC and Saturday Night Live for making this program available on YouTube.
If you know that President Donald Trump absolutely hates your impression of his press secretary, how would you advertise the fact that you will be reprising that role in a future “Saturday Night Live” skit? With a showstopper from “West Side Story,” of course!
In case you’re at work and thus unable to witness the magic yourself right now, the commercial opens with McCarthy dancing around a studio (presumably where “Saturday Night Live” is taped) while lip syncing to “I Feel Pretty.” The airy lyrics perfectly compliment the scenes of McCarthy’s twirling and make-up artists puttering around her, although viewers may have started scratching their heads as to why this decidedly non-comic Broadway staple was being used to advertise a comedy show.
That is, until nearly thirty seconds in, when the make-up gurus move away to reveal McCarthy dressed up as Spicer.
Although McCarthy/Spicer initially greets the audience with her now-famous scowl, her expression quickly softens into one of joy. She then finishes her dance routine in full Spicer regalia. …
Some people with HIV are starting to live as long as people without it
Progress
Although HIV hasn’t been an immediate death sentence for a long time thanks to medications like antiretroviral therapy, those who are diagnosed still typically died younger than the general population.
This is because even without developing full-blown AIDS—the permanent condition of having a compromised immune system because of the HIV virus—carrying the virus ages, even at manageable levels, ages cells prematurely, and the medication to manage HIV itself is rather toxic. Back in 1996, with three years of antiretroviral therapy, a 20-year-old male HIV patient in Europe or North America could only be expected to live until his mid 60s; a woman would be expected to live until her late 60s.
But now, the prognosis is much better, to the point where people living with HIV are able to live almost as long as folks without it. In a review published in The Lancet HIV, researchers from the Antiretroviral Therapy Cohort Collaboration—a group based out of the University of Bristol in England—found that on average, European and North American men and women living with HIV are living to 73 for men and 76 for women, if they began treatment between 2008 and 2010. The average life expectancy in the US is currently 79 years on average, or just under 77 for men and just over 81 for women. …
At LA airport’s new private terminal, the rich can watch normal people suffer
LAX’s mega-exclusive terminal has beds, massages, and an iPad to watch people slog through the main airport. But the manager denies it’s about inequality.
At the Private Suite, LAX’s private terminal for the mega-rich, a BMW will drive guests directly to their flight.
The guiltiest pleasure at Los Angeles international airport’s (LAX) new private terminal for the mega-rich is not the plush, hushed privacy, or the beds with comforters, or the massages, or the coriander-scented soap, or the Willie Wonka-style array of chocolates and jelly beans, or the Napa Valley cabernet.
It is the iPad that sits on a counter at the entrance, with a typed little note: “Here is a glimpse of what you’re missing over at the main terminal right now.”
The screen shows travellers hauling bags through packed terminals, queuing in long lines, looking harassed and being swallowed into pushing, shoving paparazzi scrums – routine hazards for the 80 million people who pass through LAX each year.
“There they process thousands of people at a time, they’re barking. It’s loud. Here it’s very, very lovely,” said Gavin de Becker, who runs the new terminal, called Private Suite.
He wasn’t wrong. The $22m facility, the first of its kind in the US, opens on Monday, giving the 1% a whole new way to separate themselves from everyone else’s reality. …
HOW LONG WOULD IT TAKE TO COUNT TO A BILLION AND WHAT’S THE HIGHEST ANYONE HAS COUNTED?
Counting is one of life’s most basic skills and something most humans are quite adept at. Despite most of us being experts on the subject, theoretically capable of counting infinitely high with the ceiling bounded only by available time and how good we are at staving off psychosis, few can accurately guess how long it would take to count to a million, let alone a billion. This is largely owing to the fact that our brains have an amazing amount of difficulty conceptualizing such large numbers. This all brings us to the question of the hour- just how long would it take to count to a million or a billion?
Let’s start with a million. The most commonly put forward time it would take to count from one to a million out loud is about 23 days. This time frame is cited in a number of textbooks we consulted and seems to have originated, as far as we can tell, in a children’s book suitably called, How Much is a Million by David Schwartz, which uses various examples to put into perspective how amazingly big numbers like a million really are.
Given the figure being cited in many a textbook and first appearing in a book literally titled How Much is a Million, you might assume it’s reasonably close to correct. This is not the case, however; this number significantly underestimates the actual time needed. …
Video Goodnesses
and not-so-goodnesses
and not-so-goodnesses
It’s time to lay bare what is known about Donald Trump.
Since being established nine years ago, ChurchMilitant.com (then St. Michaels Media) has grown from a tiny media outfit on the fringes of the Catholic world to a 35-person powerhouse reaching an estimated 1.5 million viewers a month. Michael Voris, the founder of Church Militant, is fighting what he sees as the “tyranny” of a liberal America. But, Voris—charismatic, pious, untiring—is grappling with his own complicated past.
When allegations of the systematic abuse of gay men in Chechnya emerged last month, a spokesman for President Ramzan Kadyrov said the stories couldn’t be true, because there were no gay men in Chechnya.
A brutal campaign of homophobia is sweeping the Russian republic, with hundreds of men being detained, disappeared, and in at least three cases, killed.
Independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta first broke the story, uncovering evidence gay men were being rounded up and tortured. VICE News spoke to ‘David,’ a man in his 30s from Grozny. We’ve agreed not to use his real name because he fears what might happen if he’s identified. David was detained by police after they found messages sent to him from the phone of another man who was also suspected of being gay.
LGBT people in the deeply conservative Muslim society are in constant danger of attacks, including those carried out by relatives to protect the “honor” of a family.
Novaya Gazeta’s reporters have also faced threats and religious leaders called for retaliation against the newspaper during a meeting of 15,000 worshippers at Grozny’s main mosque in early April.
Chechnya is part of Russia, but rights group Human Rights Watch says President Kadyrov has installed a “tyranny” there, while Moscow turns a blind eye. Russian President Vladimir Putin finally ordered an investigation into the allegations after coming under pressure from the international community, and most notably, German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Press Secretary Sean Spicer will be away from his podium this week while answering the call of duty. But that hasn’t stopped him from writing home every day.
President Trump finally got around to addressing one of the biggest threats to America: Stephen Colbert.
Someone in Trump’s administration contradicted the White House’s account of why James Comey was fired. It was Trump.
THANKS to CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for making this program available on YouTube.
Seth Meyers’ monologue from Thursday, May 11.
THANKS to NBC and Late Night with Seth Meyers for making this program available on YouTube.
Sick of United and Delta and the rest of the airlines treating you like garbage? Well, hop off that plane because we got the solution for you! Just hop on a boat and pray it isn’t attacked by the Kraken or Megalodon or whatever.
Only one week left to get that invite!
THANKS to Comedy Network and The Beaverton for making this program available on YouTube.
Dom and Adrian have opened the most hipster cafe in the world, serving the most hipster coffees in the world.
It is happening again. TWIN PEAKS, the 18-hour limited event series will debut with a two-hour premiere on Sunday, May 21 at 9PM ET/PT.
Take that, snakes! pic.twitter.com/x7HWUEsend
— ClickHole (@ClickHole) May 11, 2017
FINALLY . . .
Buried in the past?
Health concerns resurface with public opening of Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge
Tossing 20 coins in the air and all of them coming up heads. Getting struck by lightning this year. Making it as a movie star. Each of these events is estimated to have a one in a million chance of happening to you.
Your risk of getting cancer from visiting the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge is “far below” even these odds, according to Carl Spreng, state project manager of Rocky Flats for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE).
The manufacture of nuclear weapon triggers at the Rocky Flats Plant from 1952-1989 dispersed varying levels of radioactive plutonium, uranium and other toxic chemicals into the soil and groundwater. Some of those contaminants have since spread onto the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge — 4,883 acres of open space surrounding the former facility site, which sits 10 miles south of Boulder.
The question isn’t whether pollutants exist on Refuge lands, but whether they’ve accumulated to levels high enough to warrant keeping the public out. And though the Refuge’s public opening in 2019 seems inevitable, some community members and organizations disagree with government agencies that contaminants on the land pose no threat to future visitors. …
Ed. More tomorrow. Maybe?