|
|
BY PRIYANKA ARIBINDI, BRIAN BEUTLER & CROOKED MEDIA Thursday, February 14, 2019 |
|
| — Michelle Tanner Sen. Chuck Grassley yelling after Mitch McConnell interrupted him on the Senate floor (McConnell later apologized). |
|
| ART OF THE STEAL |
| The government isn’t going to shut down again, but we are going to have to deal with a big crisis anyhow.
President Trump will sign a government funding bill Congress will send him tonight, according to the White House, but he will do so in tandem with a national emergency declaration—a pretext for stealing public funds from government agencies and using them to build a border wall on seized private lands.
The deal itself is a loser for Trump. It includes no money for building a wall along the southern border, and gives him less money for fencing and other border-security measures than Democrats offered him before he shut down the government for more than 30 days. (Art of the deal.)
But Trump, along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who until now has tried to ward Trump off of declaring a fake state of emergency, has essentially announced that they don’t intend to honor the deal at all.
“I had an opportunity to speak with President Trump and he, I would say to all my colleagues, has indicated he’s prepared to sign the bill,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “He’ll also be issuing a national emergency declaration at the same time. I indicated to him I’m going to support the national emergency declaration.”
House Democrats don’t intend to walk away from the deal because it also contains funding increases for the Census, housing programs, and other priorities. But Democrats are likely to take steps to stop or limit the reach of the emergency declaration.
From Brian: At her weekly press conference, Pelosi effectively warned the Supreme Court justices that if they allow Trump to get away with this, a future Democratic president will use the precedent to advance a different set of objectives. The plan appears to be to hope that the judiciary will serve as an ultimate check against Trump. But there is an argument to be made that Pelosi should alter the deal—pass a bill funding the government at current levels through the end of the fiscal year, give Trump $0 for border security, and advance legislation specifically prohibiting him from abusing his emergency declaration power. It would risk another shutdown, but it would also establish that Democrats won’t negotiate with people who deal in bad faith, let alone reward them with over a billion dollars that they neither need nor deserve. |
|
| SINCE PARKLAND |
| |
| |
| It’s been one year since 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were killed with an assault-style weapon. In that time, many of the survivors have become prominent advocates for gun control.
Last summer, 200 teenage journalists across the country began documenting the lives of all the children who died in shootings over the course of a year. The result is “Since Parkland”—a moving compilation of these young lives and dreams cut short. Read →
|
|
| Justice Department officials really did become so alarmed by President Trump’s decision to fire James Comey that they discussed pressuring cabinet members to invoke the 25th amendment in order to remove him from office. The New York Times first reported that story last year, but former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, whose new book comes out this weekend, has now confirmed the story, and he has receipts. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein responded with a non-denial: “There is no basis...nor was the DAG in a position to consider invoking the 25th Amendment.” Yeah, Rod, that’s not what’s been alleged.
Amazon has officially nixed its plan to build a second headquarters in New York City amid blowback from the local community and their elected representatives over both the development plan and the $1.7 billion in tax incentives New York offered the company.
The Senate has confirmed William Barr to be Trump’s third attorney general. Barr has notably not committed to making Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s findings public.
Prosecutors in Illinois plan to indict R. Kelly after a new video of the singer sexually assaulting an underage girl surfaced. A similar tape previously got Kelly indicted on child pornography charges in Illinois in 2002, but he was later acquitted.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler claims to have evidence that acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker lied under oath multiple times, including when he told the committee that Trump never contacted him to complain about a criminal investigation in which he has been named as a co-conspirator. Nadler has warned Whitaker that he must revise his testimony, or he will be formally deposed.
Infowars conspiracy theorist sleazebag Alex Jones will have to submit to a sworn deposition in a lawsuit filed against him by the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims. Jones has profited handsomely from deceiving his audience by calling the massacre a ‘false-flag operation.’ Twenty-seven people (20 of whom were children) were murdered.
The students from Covington Catholic High School who mocked and intimidated a Native American elder in Washington, DC, last month, will not be punished after a third-party investigation found no evidence the students made offensive or racist statements. The tomahawk chops were cool, apparently.
The trailer for Disney’s Frozen 2 is here and honestly this movie seems dark as hell, are we sure this is cool for kids?? |
|
| Amazon will owe $0 in federal taxes on the $11.2 billion in profits it made last year, thanks to the Trump administration’s corporate tax cut, which lowered Amazon’s tax rate, but left open loopholes that profitable companies routinely use to avoid paying their fair share—or in this case, anything. |
|
| Last year more than 21,000 Americans fell for romance-related scams, a figure that has almost tripled in the past three years, and has cheated people out of $143 million total, with median losses that are seven times greater than other types of fraud. Happy Valentine’s Day! |
|
| The Senate has passed legislation to make lynching a federal hate crime. Introduced by Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Tim Scott (R-SC), the bill is Congress’s 200th-ish attempt since 1918 to pass anti-lynching legislation. It will now go to the House. |
|
|
|
