Tag: Blame

WASHINGTON—Repeatedly attacking the credibility of President Trump’s former lawyer and asking why the House Oversight Committee should believe anything he says, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) spent the bulk of his allotted time during Michael Cohen’s hearing Thursday demanding that he accept blame for covering up the alleged sexual abuse of wrestlers at Ohio State University. “I am not sure how you expect us to just sit here and trust that you’re actually going to tell the truth about your involvement with the president when you’ve said absolutely nothing about these scandalous abuse allegations—what are you hiding?” said Jordan, interrupting another congressperson’s questioning to call attention to the fact that paperwork Cohen submitted ahead of the hearing contained nothing about knowing that hundreds of OSU wrestlers were abused by a team doctor, including during the period from 1986 to 1994 when Jordan served as an assistant coach. “Who are you to accuse the president of crimes given your shady past and connections to Ohio State? You’re obviously only doing this to distance yourself from this disgraceful cover-up, and the fact that you won’t admit to your role in it completely invalidates any shred of decency you might have. Frankly, sir, you are a disgrace to the Buckeyes.” An irate Jordan also informed Cohen in front of the committee that it was particularly galling to hear that someone would turn around and betray those who had trusted him.

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s company is scrapping plans for two new hotel chains announced two years ago, casting blame in part on a hostile political environment. The Trump Organization said Thursday that it will no longer try to open hotels under its Scion and American Idea brands catering to budget and mid-priced travelers, a departure from its focus on luxury hotels. The announcement comes as the company has posted losses at a few of its golf properties and brand experts say it has lost some of its appeal. “We live in a climate where everything will be used against us, whether by the fake news or by Democrats who are only interested in presidential harassment and wasting everyone’s time, barraging us with nonsense letters,” the president’s son, Eric Trump, said in an emailed statement. “We already have the greatest properties in the world and if we have to slow down our growth for the time being, we are happy to do it.” The rollout began with promises of fast success. The company said in March 2017 that nearly two dozen developers had already signed letters of intent to open mid-priced Scion hotels, and was enthusiastic about the future prospects. “It’s full steam ahead,” said Eric Danziger, who oversees the hotel business for the family. The only developer willing to strike a deal was Chawla Hotels of Mississippi. The Trump Organization owns or has licensed its name to 17 golf clubs and more than two dozen hotels and residential buildings around the world. More recently, it is facing blowback from Democrats in Congress for firing long-time workers at several of its U.S. golf clubs for being in the country illegally, raising doubts about its hiring practices amid the president’s vow to crack down on such workers and build a wall to keep more from coming in.

It is the deep unseriousness with which this historically serious issue is being treated by many of the protagonists that illuminates most the irresponsibility of it all. Three years later much of the British political class still seems to have no idea. The wreckers in the Conservative Party are willing to destroy everything in their path – British institutions, diplomacy, their country’s international reputation, the compact between generations – in pursuit of an ideological project with an uncertain outcome. His latest wheeze – refusing to talk to Theresa May until she rules out a no-deal Brexit – ignores the fact that she needs help to achieve that. With Corbyn it didn’t have to test very hard. We need to pay attention to the state of our politics and public debate. Our political and media debate needs to hear all points of view (as Peadar Toibin exhorted in an Irish Times podcast). We need to debate and discuss our national interest – something both Paschal Donohoe and Micheál Martin did in impressive speeches this week. How can we help the British? Ireland should be a persuader for EU concessions that do not damage our national interest.

A day after the treasury department announced the federal budget deficit had reached $779bn, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said popular government programs, not massive tax cuts passed by Republicans last year, were to blame. Citing federal spending on healthcare and retirement benefits such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, McConnell said changes to such programs would require cooperation from Democrats. “It’s a bipartisan problem: unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the demographics of America in the future.” Three weeks remain until the midterm elections, in which the Democrats seem poised to take back the House if not the Senate. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said to suggest cutting Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid was “nothing short of gaslighting”. “Senator Mitch McConnell, President Trump and their fellow Republicans blew a $2tn hole in the federal deficit to fund a tax cut for the rich,” Schumer said in a statement. “As November approaches, it’s clear Democrats stand for expanding affordable healthcare and growing the middle class while Republicans are for stripping away protections for people with pre-existing conditions and cutting Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid to fund their giveaways to corporate executives and the wealthiest few,” he added. Seth Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who focuses on federal budget policy, said: “Senator McConnell confirmed what everybody has known all along: the Republican plan is to pay for tax cuts for their donors and themselves by slashing Medicare and Social Security for working people. Ryan, who is retiring, has said Medicare, the federal healthcare program for those 65 and older, is “the biggest entitlement we’ve got to reform”. As president, he has offered budget proposals that would slash all three programs. “I don’t want to be specific,” Kudlow said.

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Former President Barack Obama said Thursday evening that he was “saddened” and “hurt” that Brett Kavanaugh failed to blame him for his predicament at any point in his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing earlier in the day. “As he was rattling off all of the people who had victimized him, I was sure I was going to make the list,” Obama said. “It was more than a little deflating that I didn’t.” Obama said that as Kavanaugh listed such nemeses as the mainstream media, a vast left-wing conspiracy, and the Clintons, he was “on the edge of my chair expecting my name to come up.” “It’s not a good feeling to be forgotten like that,” he said. “It was a tough thing to watch.” Obama said that it was “a little comforting” to know that he was not the only person Kavanaugh neglected to blame in his remarks. “I just got off the phone with George Soros, and he is bummed as well,” Obama said. In an official statement released after the former President’s remarks, Kavanaugh said that his failure to blame Obama was “a simple omission,” and not a memory lapse due to excessive alcohol consumption.

Her announcement comes on the heels of a variety of harassment claims which led to the removal of both Dale Kirby and Eddie Joyce from caucus and cabinet. These incidents led to a discussion regarding bullying and harassment within the provincial government that included Bennett coming forward in a public interview to discuss her experience with bullying, not only on a public platform but also within the House chambers. However, shouldn’t the question really be why have we accepted politics to be such a hazardous and hostile environment? Bennett’s early retirement is reflective of an unfortunate trend within politics. Women are forced out of positions because of an environment that resists them performing their best, as well as representing their constituents to the full extent. Rather, it becomes a constant focus that not only hinders one’s ability to produce effectively, but is also a disadvantage to their constituents. Unfortunately, women in politics are more likely to step down from politics for numerous reasons, while recently a new and ongoing trend is politicians stepping down due to harassment claims against them. These ongoing harassment and bullying claims are evidence that the system is corrupt, yet, we are turning a blind eye and questioning victimized politicians who choose to step down, stating they “can’t hack it.” But why does one have to tolerate such ongoing behaviour? Forcing women out of politics actually hinders the public. The current toxic political environment is not appreciated by those within it, yet it is accepted and complacent to allow harassment and bullying, and critical of those who speak against it.

While Election Day is still months away in November, early voting in North Dakota begins next month. The campaigns are still trying to make their cases, and besmirch their opponents, before voters begin locking in their ballots in just a few weeks. They're going to get nastier the closer we get to Nov. 6. We voters are the problem. Candidates savage one another on the campaign trail because it works. We complain about negativity in politics, but negativity in politics is a sound strategy because we, the public, buy into it. Voters complain about "the swamp" in Washington D.C. yet also want the feds on the hook to solve their local problems. The truth is that it's really a grassroots thing. A bottom up thing. Campaigns are exercises in character assassination because voters respond to that sort of thing.

While Election Day is still months away in November, early voting in North Dakota begins next month. The campaigns are still trying to make their cases, and besmirch their opponents, before voters begin locking in their ballots in just a few weeks. They're going to get nastier the closer we get to Nov. 6. I'm sure I'm not revealing anything to you folks. We voters are the problem. Candidates savage one another on the campaign trail because it works. We complain about negativity in politics, but negativity in politics is a sound strategy because we, the public, buy into it. Voters complain about "the swamp" in Washington D.C. yet also want the feds on the hook to solve their local problems. The truth is that it's really a grassroots thing. Campaigns are exercises in character assassination because voters respond to that sort of thing.

Chicago just recorded its deadliest weekend of 2018 and the one thing we know is that racial hucksters don't have the answers to stop the violence. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking…

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — With no mention of President Donald Trump, candidates for an open congressional seat along the U.S. border in New Mexico blamed Washington politics for the separation of immigrant children from parents who are caught trying to come to the U.S. illegally. The zero tolerance policy on border security that led to the separations has rocked political campaigns in border states and sent Republicans on Capitol Hill frantically searching Tuesday for ways to end it. Water rights attorney Xochitl Torres Small, the Democratic candidate in New Mexico's sprawling 2nd Congressional District, said Tuesday that separating children from parents is immoral and Washington is to blame. "I won't stand for it." Republican Rep. Steve Pearce is not seeking re-election to the seat and is instead running for governor. Trump won the district in 2016 but lost statewide. State Rep. Yvette Herrell, the Republican candidate, said she supports Trump's zero-tolerance policy but described the separations as an unacceptable consequence of inaction by Congress. Homeland Security Department officials said Tuesday that 2,342 minors had been separated from parents from May 5 to June 9. Pearce has said it is almost never a good idea to separate children from families and that immigrant children need to be treated humanely and reasonably. U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan, his Democratic competitor in the governor's race, accused the Trump administration of willfully creating inhumane consequences for immigrant children and parents.