Peter Strzok Fired
Peter Strzok, the F.B.I. senior counterintelligence agent who disparaged President Trump in inflammatory text messages to his mistress, Lisa Page, and helped oversee the Hillary Clinton email and Russia investigations, has been fired for violating bureau policies, Strzok’s lawyer said Monday. Along with writing the text messages, Strzok was accused of sending a highly sensitive search warrant to his personal email account.
Strzok’s lawyer said the deputy director of the F.B.I., David Bowdich, had overruled the bureau’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which said Strzok should be suspended for 60 days and demoted.
“The decision to fire Special Agent Strzok is not only a departure from typical bureau practice, but also contradicts Director Wray’s testimony to Congress and his assurances that the F.B.I. intended to follow its regular process in this and all personnel matters,” said the lawyer, Aitan Goelman, referring to the F.B.I. director, Christopher Wray.
D.C. and Charlottesville Protests
Approximately two dozen white nationalists rallied in the nation's capital on Sunday. There were thousands of counter protesters waiting for them to arrive at Lafayette Park.
"Unite the Right 2" rally goers were confronted by counter protesters, who had been gathering throughout the day as part of a series of demonstrations led by members of 40 anti-racism groups. The buildup ahead of the planned protest appeared to have led to the counter-protesters far outnumbering those who came to protest in support of white civil rights. The showing from "Unite the Right 2" participants fell far short of the hundreds that organizer Jason Kessler was expecting, based on his event permit application. The actual number of participants was only about 20.
Authorities said that two arrests had been made in connection to Sunday's protests, both on charges of simple assault.
A small stage and speaker system was set up in the park, where attendees stood silently and listened to a slate of impromptu speakers. The speakers chanted, "Nazis go home!" and "Shame! Shame! Shame!" After about 90 minutes, the white nationalists were packed into a pair of vans and driven to safety.
Approximately 400 counter protestors gathered at a Charlottesville city park Sunday for a rally on the anniversary of the clashes in Charlottesville. Fewer than two dozen white nationalists showed up. The protest was billed as a gathering against white supremacy. The event was organized by the Black Lives Matter movement.
NBC News Reporter Cal Perry said the protesters were "almost exclusively Antifa." Demonstrations began on Saturday in Charlottesville where more than 200 protesters, including students and anti-fascists, took to the streets amid heavy police presence. The high security incited anger in many protesters who questioned why they were surrounded by police in riot gear compared to last year’s events.
"Why are you in riot gear? We don't see no riot here," activists chanted Saturday evening.
Four people were arrested for disorderly conduct, a city’s spokesperson said. Two of the arrests included a man and a woman who got into a fistfight after the man saluted the town’s statue of Robert E. Lee.
Chants such as “Old Jim Crow, new Jim Crow, this racist system has got to go” and "cops and Klan go hand in hand" were heard from the group. Don Gathers, part of the local Black Lives Matter Movement in Charlottesville, was a speaker at the rally on Sunday.
“We cannot continue to let hate win,” he said. “We stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the precedence of something great. It is imperative that each one of us get out there and do our part.”
Police officers on motorcycles were seen moving behind the demonstrators, a sign of the increased security in the city to prevent another violent and deadly day.
NBC Ignores Own Reporter and Crew Assaulted by Antifa in Charlottesville
On Saturday, August 11, one year after Charlottesville, Virginia, NBC reporter Cal Perry went to Charlottesville to document protests ahead of Sunday night’s planned “Unite the Right” rally. In spite of the fact that white supremacists had not yet arrived on the scene, approximately 200 Antifa-led protesters soon turned on the police and reporters.
Late Saturday night, Perry and his crew were in the thick of it as Antifa members ganged up on them and attacked. The next morning, NBC’s Sunday Today ignored the attack and suggested the media was simply “heckled” by their assaulters.
On Twitter, Perry was documenting the protesters as they marched through the streets of college town when they started to get “very aggressive with the media” and trying to block their camera shots. “Yeah. We’re getting a lot of this. Protesters trying to grab our camera,” he responded to one Twitter commenter telling him to “f**k off national media vulture.”
Things got heated when one Antifa protestor shouted “F**k you, snitch a** news b**ch. F**k you” and tried to either pull the camera away from the person using it or knock it to the ground. It was unclear in the video.
Despite the video evidence on the ground from their own reporter, NBC went to Garrett Haake, who was at the White House in anticipation of violence there as another white supremacist rally was set to be held.
“Overnight, tense moments in the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, far left protesters heckling the media and chanting anti-police slogans,” he suggested at the top of his report. They actually used footage Perry and his crew shot but didn't show anything from their attack.
Chuck Todd appeared on “Sunday Today” and had nothing to say about the attack or Antifa, which had been declared a domestic terrorism group. Instead of condemning Antifa, Todd lambasted the President for criticizing anthem protesters and targeted his supporters as racists.
“So I don't think, if the President is, quote, ‘learned anything’ I think in his mind, he has seen this is an effective political strategy to keep his base, his base,” he declared about what the President had learned since last year’s violence. “That it is the president's continuation of using to be generous, dog whistles, others say they're not silent. You can hear the whistles pretty loudly.
More Than 100 Newspapers Will Publish Editorials Decrying Trump's Anti-Press Rhetoric
On Thursday August 16, over 100 newspapers will be releasing editorials to defend the media. The editorials are being coordinated by Marjorie Pritchard, deputy editorial page editor at the Boston Globe.
The Boston Globe has been contacting newspaper editorial boards and proposing a “coordinated response” to President Trump’s escalating “enemy of the people” rhetoric.
As of Saturday August 11, the Boston Globe said they have “more than 100 publications signed up, and I expect that number to grow in the coming days," according to Marjorie Pritchard, the Globe's deputy editorial page editor. The American Society of News Editors, the New England Newspaper and Press Association and other groups have helped her spread the word.
The Globe proposes to publish an editorial on Aug. 16 on the dangers of the administration's assault on the press and ask others to commit to publishing their own editorials on the same date.
Instead of printing the exact same message, each publication will write its own editorial.
That was a key part of Marjorie Pritchard’s pitch: "The impact of Trump's assault on journalism looks different in Boise than it does in Boston," she wrote. "Our words will differ. But at least we can agree that such attacks are alarming."
Omarosa recorded chief of staff Kelly in White House situation room, conversation with Trump after
President Donald Trump appeared to be unaware that Omarosa Manigault Newman was fired by White House chief of staff John Kelly, according to an audio recording of a phone conversation aired on NBC's "Today" Monday morning.
"Omarosa, what's going on? I just saw in the news you're thinking about leaving. What happened?" Trump is heard asking. Manigault Newman replied, saying, "General Kelly -- General Kelly came to me and said that you guys wanted me to leave."
"No. Nobody even told me about it," the President replied. "You know, they run a big operation but I didn't know it. I didn't know that. Damn it, I don't love you leaving at all."
NBC News aired the new audio but cautioned that the organization does not know what was said before or after the segment provided.
Manigault Newman secretly taped John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, as he fired her in December in the Situation Room. The recording was played on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press”. On the recording, Mr. Kelly says Ms. Manigault Newman could be facing “pretty significant legal issues” over what he alleged was misuse of a government car. She denied misusing it.
The Situation Room is supposed to be devoid of personal electronic devices, which signs outside the room make clear. Former national security officials said it was not clear whether Manigault Newman had broken any laws, but she certainly violated the rules around what is supposed to be one of the most secure rooms in the capital.
The audio was released as Manigault Newman gears up for the release of her new book, "Unhinged: An Insider Account of the Trump White House," August 14, which contains several unflattering claims against the President and his staff. Omarosa claims to have multiple recordings of her time in the White House, but many of the claims she has made are unverifiable.
Feds Collect Record Individual Income Taxes Through July; Still Run $683.9B Deficit
The federal government collected a record $1,415,150,000,000 in individual income taxes through the first ten months of fiscal 2018 (October 2017 to July 2018).
Despite the record amount in individual income taxes collected in the first ten months of this fiscal year, overall federal tax collections declined in the first ten months of this fiscal year compared to last year. In the October-through-July period of the 2018 fiscal year, the Treasury collected only $2,766,071,000,000 in total taxes.
While individual income taxes collected in the first ten month of the fiscal year increased from 2017 to 2018, corporation income tax collections declined. In the October-through-July period of fiscal 2017, the Treasury collected $239,013,770,000 in corporation income taxes. In the October-through-July period of fiscal 2018, the Treasury collected $166,004,000,000 in corporation income taxes.
Former Ohio State Wrestler Backs Off Claim Jim Jordan Knew About Sexual Abuse
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University during the time the Dr. Richard Strauss was accused of abusing athletes. More than 100 former students have accused Strauss of sexual misconduct. The abuse took place between 1979 and 1997, the university has said. Dr. Strauss died in 2005.
Jordan denies knowing about any improper behavior while he was assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State between 1987 and 1995. Former OSU wrestling coaches showed their support for Jordan in a joint statement, saying they believe his claims that he was not aware of the sex abuse allegations.
Last week, former Ohio State University wrestler Mark Coleman told CNN he wants to clarify his comment, and he stressed he has no direct knowledge that Jordan knew of any sexual abuse by Dr. Richard Strauss, a doctor at Ohio State.
"Maybe I spoke without thinking," Coleman said. "This has absorbed my life. Since I've said that, it's consumed me 24 hours a day, and I didn't like the way it was heading, the direction it was heading."
Florida Police Unions Urge Miami Dolphins Boycott After Anthem Protests
A South Florida police union is urging its members and the local law enforcement community to boycott the Miami Dolphins football team after some players protested the national anthem at a preseason game last Thursday.
Friday morning following the NFL game, the Broward County Police Benevolent Association called on its union members, as well as all police officers in nearby counties, to boycott any ticket sales, merchandise or products from the Miami Dolphins and the National Football League.
"Anybody that disrespects the flag during the national anthem is personally offensive to me, having spent four years of my life -- six months in the Persian Gulf -- and having friends that have died while serving in the military," Rod Skirvin, vice president of the Broward County Police Benevolent Association told ABC News in a telephone interview Sunday. He continued, "That being said, I do not have a problem with peaceful protests, whatsoever, I also served in the military to preserve that right for people. I just feel that the forum that they are using to do that is extremely offensive to a large part of America.”
The Palm Beach County PBA is also withdrawing from a ticket deal arrangement they had with the Miami Dolphins
Reasons why people do not go to church
Americans seemingly place less and less importance on religion in their lives, the Pew Research Center revealed a survey of the top reasons they go to church, along with reasons they do not.
Reasons people do NOT go to church:
- They practice their faith in "other ways." (37 percent)
- They are not believers. (28 percent)
- No reason is "very important." (26 percent)
- They haven't found a house of worship they like. (23 percent)
- They don't like the sermons. (18 percent)
Mail Time!
- Hello Bill,
you reported a Charter School removing the Pledge of Allegiance because they wanted to be more
inclusionary. What is more inclusive than the Pledge? "I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA". See, right there we are UNITED. Including everybody. Liberty and justice for ALL. For all. What is being missed. Total inclusion. What am I missing? How do people not understand this?
- Bill, how come the mass shootings, that occur in Chicago, do not get the same attention as the mass shootings done in the suburban schools or like the shooting that occurred in Las Vegas? It seems they are the same. There is one person using an automatic weapon to gun down mostly innocent people. Thank you and I love the podcast.
- Dear Bill, what can we, as ordinary people, do to force politicians and law enforcement to openly address the massive violence in Chicago? Please give us your concrete guidance. We want to end this ongoing tragedy.
Word of the Day: Capricious |
