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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#248301: Jul 3rd 2018 at 4:06:33 PM

Has Pruitt even got any experience in the law? What can this job provide him that he doesn't already have, and does he think that he won't still be plagued by bizarrely petty scandals? Like, genuinely I want to know these things.

Also I want to know if having been a lawyer or some other legal official is a requirement of the job, because it feels like one of those things that should be a requirement for this kind of job.

Deadbeatloser22 from Disappeared by Space Magic (Great Old One) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
#248302: Jul 3rd 2018 at 4:10:01 PM

Trump doesn't care about experience and often prefers a lack of it. Ability to kiss ass on a massive scale is preferred.

"Yup. That tasted purple."
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#248303: Jul 3rd 2018 at 4:54:18 PM

The Senate Intelligence Committee finally did what the House was completely unable to do, and came to the screamingly obvious conclusion that

  1. Russia Interfeared in our election
  2. Putin Approved it
  3. their goal was to spread chaos and help get trump elected

Took them long enough.

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#248304: Jul 3rd 2018 at 4:56:49 PM

Sessions was going to be fired the moment he recused himself.

That was the moment I knew Trump would never make a pretense of following the law but would break it openly and without remorse.

That was the moment I think people needed to impeach him.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#248305: Jul 3rd 2018 at 5:04:08 PM

I do wonder of the Dems should try for an impeachment of Pruitt before Trump, Pruitt has been so blatant in his corruption and pocket lining that something does need to be done. Plus with Trump’s temper being what it is I’d half expect him to pardon Pruitt and hopefully tank his poll numbers.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Steven (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#248307: Jul 3rd 2018 at 5:15:18 PM

Don't think that the administration "can't/couldn't" get worse, think "how" can they get worse.

Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#248308: Jul 3rd 2018 at 5:18:41 PM

While it's almost so unsurprising as to not bear mentioning, this means Trump lied about his order not to separate more families.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
tclittle Professional Forum Ninja from Somewhere Down in Texas Since: Apr, 2010
Professional Forum Ninja
#248309: Jul 3rd 2018 at 5:24:05 PM

Nick Loeb is creating a "secret" pro-life film about Roe v. Wade in New Orleans starring conservative stars such as Jon Voight, Robert Davi and Stacey Dash.

    Article 
As Nick Loeb walked to his car with a production assistant during a day of shooting his upcoming feature film, Roe v. Wade, outside Tulane University last week, a woman wearing a headset approached and asked: “Are you the director?”

“When I told her I was, she told me to go fuck myself," Loeb recalls. "Then she threw her headset on the ground and walked off. I found out later she was our electrician."

Anecdotes such as this have become fairly common since Loeb and his production partner, Cathy Allyn, began shooting their pro-life feature film June 15 in and around New Orleans. While Loeb has been in the news in recent years because of his ongoing custody battle over frozen embryos with former girlfriend Sofia Vergara of Modern Family, there’s been little information about the filmmaker's new project, save for a flurry of articles five weeks ago alleging that Facebook wasn’t allowing him to use its platform to raise money for the story of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that guaranteed a woman's right to an abortion.

The radio silence — until now — has been by design, both for the security of the cast and crew and in order to obtain shooting locations. To accomplish the latter, Loeb and Allyn have been shooting the film, which will wrap principal photography around July 15, under a fake title that the pair will not disclose.

The film has been under such tight wraps that even the major cast members had not been revealed; Two Supreme Court justices are played by a couple of Hollywood’s more outspoken conservatives, Jon Voight and Robert Davi, and other justices are played by Corbin Bernsen, John Schneider, Steve Guttenberg, William Forsythe, Wade Williams and Richard Portnow.

Stacey Dash, the Clueless star and former Fox News commentator who withdrew from a congressional race as a Republican three months ago, claiming the campaign had become “detrimental to the health and well-being of my family,” plays Mildred Jefferson, the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School and the former president of National Right to Life.

Even with the secrecy, it’s been a challenging shoot. At Louisiana State University, Loeb says, “we were told we were rejected due to our content, even though it will be a PG-rated film. They refused to put it in writing, but they told us on the phone it was due to content.” At Tulane, where Loeb is an alum, the filim shot one day, but after the school newspaper reported on the nature of the project, producers were denied a second day of shooting, according to Loeb. (Both Tulane and LSU say logistics were the problem, not the content of the movie.)

And then there was a synagogue in New Orleans that producers rented for catering and as a place for extras to hang out. “Once they found out what the film was about, they locked us out. We had to call the police so that the extras and caterers could retrieve their possessions,“ Loeb says.

Casting has been a problem throughout, as actors have walked away once they realized there was a pro-life tilt to the film. “We had to replace three local actors, including one who was to play Norma Mc Corvey, even after she begged for the role,” says Loeb. Mc Corvey was known as Jane Roe in the landmark legal case.

Also touched on in the film is that Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade also prosecuted Jack Ruby for killing Lee Harvey Oswald. Mc Corvey’s attorneys, Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington are played, respectively, by Justine Wachsberger and Greer Grammer, Kelsey Grammer’s daughter, while Lucy Davenport plays famed Feminine Mystique author Betty Friedan.

Among the crew members who quit in protest was a costumer who left after two weeks “because of the subject matter and pressure from her peers,” says Allyn. Even the director, also a woman, quit on the first day of shooting, so Loeb and Allyn are co-directing. They are also producers, and they co-wrote the script.

When they shot in Washington, D.C., their location manager there sent an email that read: "I have been doing research on the movie trying to figure out who is producing and what the gist of the story is, and I finally found it, and so I am withdrawing from this project. I am a staunch pro-abortion feminist activist, and I will not be party to such horrible propaganda.”

Loeb and Allyn say that the timing is perfect for their film, since the Roe v. Wade decision has been in the news due to Justice Anthony Kennedy announcing on June 27 he will retire from the Supreme Court, giving President Trump the opportunity to potentially appoint a judge who will tilt the court toward overturning the case.

“But even without that news, it’s one of the most controversial political decisions in history. It divides us and makes us uncomfortable,” says Loeb, adding that his own battle with Vergara over access to embryos they created has informed the film. "I have my own pro-life issue going on with my fight over embryos, but no one has really told the whole truth about Roe v. Wade in a film. When I delved into this, I discovered conspiracy theories, fake news, made-up statistics and a whole lot of people involved who switched their positions from pro-choice to pro-life, including Norma.”

The filmmakers say there are some notable investors behind the project, though they won't reveal them. They’re negotiating a distribution deal now and are aiming for a January release date, while Republicans are hoping to confirm Justice Kennedy’s replacement this fall.

The movie is executive produced by Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and she also has a cameo in the picture.

“There are lots of surprising cameos from controversial people in the news that I can’t tell you about — or more people might walk off the set,” quips Loeb.

Edited by tclittle on Jul 3rd 2018 at 7:24:15 AM

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#248310: Jul 3rd 2018 at 5:49:14 PM

Fun fact

There was a club of Hollywood conservatives which had donated hundreds of millions of dollars every year to conservative causes.

It collapsed in 2016 as half were disgusted by Trump and left rather than support him.

Davi was one of the ones who left, Voight stayed.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Ominae Since: Jul, 2010
#248311: Jul 3rd 2018 at 5:57:08 PM

Saw recently some of the (conservative) comments asking if the Pruitt incident was being manipulated by the liberal camp.

AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#248312: Jul 3rd 2018 at 6:15:29 PM

Presumably because that's easier to believe than that someone is genuinely fucking fed up with Pruitt.

TheWanderer Student of Story from Somewhere in New England (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
Student of Story
#248313: Jul 3rd 2018 at 6:45:51 PM

What a week for judicial decisions.

A judge turned multiple requests to protect a woman from her abusive ex-husband and to take his guns away after years of stalking and harassment. This week he killed her, her new husband, their roommate, and himself

Before she and two others were shot dead near Ardmore on Sunday, Debra Ann Rivera twice had asked a judge to order her ex-husband to surrender his guns because of alleged abuse.

The request was denied both times.

According to the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office, Darwin Brazier, 43, used a semi-automatic SKS rifle with a high-capacity magazine to shoot his ex-wife and two other victims multiple times and then shot himself to death near his home in Madison County.

In addition to 41-year-old Rivera, the Sheriff’s Office said Brazier killed her husband Radex Rivera, 41; and their roommate, Timothy James Hayward-Boger, 59.

Deputies responded to a call at 27774 Pinedale Road near Ardmore at 1:44 p.m. Sunday, according to a statement by the Sheriff's Office. The caller "advised dispatchers she had received a text from Brazier saying he had just killed his ex-wife, her husband and a man named Tim and he was going to kill himself," according to the statement.

Brazier fired 30 high-powered rounds at the scene, the Sheriff's Office said, then headed to Madison County.

...

About 30 to 45 minutes into the search, "They thought they were receiving gunshots from an unknown person," Shaw said. "They set up a tactical approach to where the gunshots had come from and were actually moving toward the area where the gunshots were."

That's when the deputies found Brazier's body with a self-inflicted gunshot wound about 30 feet into the woods off Cook Road near his home, Shaw said.

Debra Rivera most recently petitioned Limestone County Circuit Judge Chad Wise for a protection-from-abuse order March 1. Wise granted it on a temporary basis, but on April 10 terminated the temporary order and denied her request for a permanent order.

“He calls my husband threatening to hurt both of us,” Rivera wrote in the court filing. “(He) drives by my house all hours of day to check where I am. He is upset I am now married and don’t want to be with him. He has been physical in the past, pulled a gun on me. … I know he has anger toward me and in past has caused physical pain to me.”

Rivera said in the petition that Brazier was stalking her and that he called her so frequently that she had to change her phone number.

...

Rivera's death is not the only time, according to police, an area woman was killed by an ex-husband after being denied a protection-from-abuse order.

Kay Letson Stevens requested a protection from abuse order on Oct. 15, 2014, after filing for divorce that May. She was shot dead at a bakery she owned in Decatur in November 2015.

Her petition asked the court to prevent Roger Stevens from contacting her at home or at work. It also asked that he be ordered to surrender all firearms.

Morgan County Circuit Judge Jennifer Howell denied the request from Kay Stevens on Oct. 20, 2014, stating Roger Stevens’ alleged actions were “not a definition of abuse in accordance with Alabama Law for Protection from Abuse,” according to court documents.

Roger Stevens was charged with capital murder and remains in the Morgan County Jail.

As a friend of mine said on facebook, once again white men and their guns have far more rights than anyone else in the country.

Posting this one again for anyone who might have missed it:

A Michigan judge essentially ruled that there is no need for public education systems to actually educate kids and no way to hold politicians responsible for not doing so, as literacy is not a right

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit focused on the poor reading skills of students at several Detroit schools, concluding in part that there’s no constitutional right to literacy— and drawing vows of an appeal.

Judge Stephen Murphy III agreed in his 40-page ruling that “when a child who could be taught to read goes untaught, the child suffers a lasting injury — and so does society.” But he also asserted that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee a fundamental right to literacy.

The lawsuit was filed in 2016, arguing the schools were in “slum-like conditions” and “functionally incapable of delivering access to literacy.” The lawsuit accused Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, the state school board and others of violating the civil rights of low-income students.

The district at the time had been under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager.

The plaintiffs said Monday they planned to appeal Murphy’s ruling, which was posted late Friday in U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan.

“Friday’s decision is as deeply disappointing as having to file a lawsuit in the first place to ensure that the state of Michigan denies no child the opportunity to thrive in schools worthy of their desire to learn,” attorney Mark Rosenbaum of Los Angeles-based Public Counsel said in a statement.

In an interview with the Detroit Free Press, he added that he was in a Detroit school recently and “looked at books that were dated 1998” and “saw classrooms with mice running around.”

“That’s the sort of system when you don’t care about children, when you treat children as disposable, when you believe they can’t and shouldn’t learn,” Rosenbaum said.

Make America Illiterate Again! Yay for conservative judges from the Federalist Society appointed by Republican presidents! [/sarcasm]

Edited by TheWanderer on Jul 3rd 2018 at 9:49:30 AM

| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#248314: Jul 4th 2018 at 12:41:22 AM

Random Insanity:

Trump doesn't recognize the annexation of Crimea.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-crimea/u-s-does-not-recognize-russias-annexation-of-crimea-white-house-idUSKBN1JT2WV?il=0&utm_source=reddit.com

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Deadbeatloser22 from Disappeared by Space Magic (Great Old One) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
#248315: Jul 4th 2018 at 12:42:52 AM

Make up your bloody mind. It wasn't that long ago that you said Russia was perfectly justified in doing it.

"Yup. That tasted purple."
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#248316: Jul 4th 2018 at 12:45:34 AM

Trump is Chaotic Evil.

I thought that alignment was a joke but he actually just follows whatever impulse hits him, including Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
TerminusEst from the Land of Winter and Stars Since: Feb, 2010
#248317: Jul 4th 2018 at 2:21:01 AM

Intelligence and military relations are often far more durable than the political ones. So Trump will probably give some form of private concessions to Putin while they are alone, while the IC and Pentagon will not do anything of the sort.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
#248318: Jul 4th 2018 at 4:14:33 AM

I didn't always know what axe Angelina Jolie had to grind against her father. Then I learned that he is a Trumpist and it all fell into place.

Do not obey in advance.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#248319: Jul 4th 2018 at 4:28:47 AM

Famously, John and she reconciled after Tomb Raider then he told the media she was mentally ill and she needed his fatherly guidance.

It got him some media attention at the cost of his daughter's love (again).

So, yes, he and Trump probably exchange father tips.

Edit:

Trans woman is 6th person to die in ICE Custody since October.

https://thinkprogress.org/a-transgender-woman-has-died-in-ice-custody-ef65b2eb0853/

That we know of.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jul 4th 2018 at 6:14:19 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#248320: Jul 4th 2018 at 7:13:48 AM

Pruitt's job may be in danger, as his scandals and ammo for Democrats begin to outweigh his deregulation campaign.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/04/politics/scott-pruitt-trump-administration-ethics/index.html

Edited by Rationalinsanity on Jul 4th 2018 at 11:13:37 AM

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
TerminusEst from the Land of Winter and Stars Since: Feb, 2010
#248321: Jul 4th 2018 at 7:38:18 AM

Donald Trump 'considered invading Venezuela', reports say

Donald Trump considered invading Venezuela, a senior US administration official has said.

In a meeting last August to discuss sanctions on Venezuela in the Oval Office, Mr Trump asked why he could not just invade the country.

Months later, Mr Trump was briefed not to mention the topic at a private dinner with leaders from four Latin American allies, but the first thing the president said was “my staff told me not to say this” – stunning his advisers at the time.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#248322: Jul 4th 2018 at 7:39:27 AM

Which is true here?

Trump: They're fucked up, right? We'll win easy!

Or

Trump: We can take their oil and make a profit from it!

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#248323: Jul 4th 2018 at 7:40:28 AM

I'd put that in the Believe It When I See It file. Pruitt has been so openly corrupt and Trump's been consistently supportive it makes me doubt anything will happen to him.

kkhohoho (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#248325: Jul 4th 2018 at 7:42:12 AM

[up][up][up]Yes.

Edited by sgamer82 on Jul 4th 2018 at 8:41:51 AM


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