Venting about press, Trump has repeatedly sought to ban reporters over questions

Source: WaPo

President Trump has sought repeatedly to punish journalists for the way they ask him questions, directing White House staff to ban those reporters from covering official events or to revoke their press credentials, according to several current and former administration officials.

At various moments throughout his presidency, Trump has vented angrily to aides about what he considers disrespectful behavior and impertinent questions from reporters in the Oval Office and in other venues. He has also asked that retaliatory action be taken against them.

“These people shouting questions are the worst,” Trump has said, according to a current official. “Why do we have them in here?”

Until this week, the officials said, Trump’s senior aides have resisted carrying out his directives. They convinced him that moves to restrict media access could backfire and further strain the White House’s fraught relationship with the press corps, whose members the president routinely derides as “fake news” and “dishonest people.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/venting-about-press-trump-has-repeatedly-sought-to-ban-reporters-over-questions/2018/07/27/0e73a068-91a9-11e8-8322-b5482bf5e0f5_story.html?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.996c5cdccafc&noredirect=on

A Six-Year Old Girl Was Sexually Abused in an Immigrant Detention Center

Source: The Nation

According to immigrant rights advocates, a six-year-old girl separated from her mother under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy was sexually abused while at an Arizona detention facility run by Southwest Key Programs. The child was then made to sign a form acknowledging that she was told to maintain her distance from her alleged abuser, who is an older child being held at the same detention facility.

The girl, who is only identified by the initials D.L., and her mother had been fleeing gang violence in their native Guatemala. According to the family, the pair entered the United States at a point of entry in El Paso, Texas, on May 24, where they presented border patrol authorities with paperwork claiming that they had “credible fear” that returning to Guatemala would result in harm. On May 26, government officials separated D.L. from her mother and sent her to Casa Glendale, a shelter outside of Phoenix operated by Southwest Key Programs. It was there that the alleged abuse occurred.

Before D.L. was taken away, her mother provided authorities with the phone number of D.L.’s father, an undocumented immigrant living in California. On June 11, D.L.’s father received a phone call from Southwest Key explaining that a boy had fondled his daughter and other girls. According to family spokesperson Mark Lane, D.L.’s father was told not to worry because Southwest Key was changing some of its protocols and that such abuse would not happen again. (Lane was connected with D.L.’s family through Families Belong Together, a coalition of civil rights advocacy groups formed in response to the recent border crackdown.) Lane says that D.L.’s father asked to speak with a social worker, but despite promises from the facility, he never heard from one.

A Southwest Key Programs document obtained by The Nation confirms that D.L. was reported to have been sexually abused on June 4, 2018. On June 12, one day after D.L.’s father was contacted, the six-year old girl was presented with the form stating that, as part of the facility’s intervention protocol, she had been instructed to “maintain my distance from the other youth involved” and had been provided “psychoeducation,” described in the document as “reporting abuse” and “good touch bad touch.” The form, posted below, shows D.L’s “signature”—a single letter “D,” next to the characterization of her as “tender age”—which supposedly confirms that D.L understands “that it is my responsibility to follow the safety plan” reviewed with her.

Read more: https://www.thenation.com/article/six-year-old-girl-sexually-abused-immigrant-detention-center/

Political junkie pre 2016 vs. Political junkie post 2016

Disneyland agrees to pay its workers $15 an hour

Source: WXYZ Detroit

Disneyland workers in California are getting a pay raise.

Unions representing nearly 10,000 Disneyland workers accepted Disney's three-year contract to raise starting hourly wages to $15 an hour beginning next year. The agreement ends a lengthy labor battle over pay at Disney's Anaheim resort.

Minimum wage employees at Disneyland made $11 an hour. The deal immediately raises their pay 20% to $13.25 an hour. The $15 starting rate will go into effect on January 1, 2019. It will go up to $15.45 in June of 2020.

Disney said an employee making $11 today would earn an additional $8,000 a year.

Read more: https://www.wxyz.com/news/national/disneyland-agrees-to-pay-its-workers-15-an-hour

Who better to wrestle the Dems to the ground? #JimJordan4Speaker !

Ken Cuccinelli
‏Verified account @KenCuccinelli

2 time National, Division I wrestling champion. 4 time (that's every year folks...) Ohio State High School champion wrestler...

Who better to wrestle the Dems to the ground?

#JimJordan4Speaker !



9:58 AM - 27 Jul 2018

Trump accuses Michael Cohen of lying about Trump Tower meeting

Source: Axios

President Trump unleashed a series of tweets Friday morning, accusing his former lawyer Michael Cohen of lying "in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam" and denying that he had any knowledge of Don Jr’s 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer.

"I did NOT know of the meeting with my son, Don jr. Sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam (Taxi cabs maybe?). He even retained Bill and Crooked Hillary’s lawyer. Gee, I wonder if they helped him make the choice!"

— One of President Trump's morning tweets

Read more: https://www.axios.com/trump-tweets-michael-cohen-lying-don-jr-mueller-b1e9deb7-845c-477c-bcf6-3e381217877f.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic&utm_content=1100

This Abdul El-Sayed campaign commercial is damn inspiring:

Amazon just announced that they made $2.5 billion in profits last quarter. Why does Jeff Bezos...

I am happy to see that MSNBC didn't air Trump's speech.

Perhaps this is the start of something new.

I have been occasionally viewing Daniel Dale's tweets (that guy is tireless):

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1022576131927691265
...

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1022587305738088448
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1022588822406787074
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1022576131927691265.html

Pence Warns U.S. Will Sanction Turkey Unless American Pastor Freed: AP

Source: Bloomberg/AP

Washington (AP) -- Vice President Mike Pence is threatening NATO ally Turkey with economic sanctions over a detained American pastor held on terror and espionage charges.

Pence said Thursday that if Turkey does not take immediate action to free Andrew Craig Brunson, "the United States of America will impose severe economic sanctions on Turkey." He spoke at the close of a three-day conference on religious freedom.

Brunson, 50, an evangelical Christian pastor originally from North Carolina, was let out of jail Wednesday, after 1 1/2 years, to serve house arrest because of "health problems," according to Turkey's official Anadolu news agency.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded Brunson's release and said on Twitter last week that the pastor's detention was "a total disgrace."

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-26/pence-us-will-sanction-turkey-unless-american-pastor-freed?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_content=business