Saturday, July 11, 2015

Sanctuary City Cartoon


All Trump all the time: How The Donald achieved media domination



Donald Trump has gone from dominant to inescapable.
Somewhere between my interview with Trump and Katie Tur’s MSNBC interview with Trump and Anderson Cooper’s interview with Trump and the Washington Post’s front-page story about Trump, I came upon this breaking news: “The Simpsons” have put out a promo making fun of…Trump.
Hillary Clinton granted her first national television interview, to CNN, and even she has been overshadowed by Trump.
Let’s face it, Trump’s presidential candidacy is no longer a political story. It’s a cultural phenomenon. We’re all living in Donald’s world now.
Clicking around the web, I happened on these headlines:
New York Times: “G.O.P. Leaders Struggle to Rein In Donald Trump.”
Politico: “Donald Trump, Clickbait.”
Huffington Post: “Donald Trump Acts Like Total Jerk During Interview”
And: “Jeb Bush Responds to Donald Trump’s Comments About His Mexican-American Wife”
National Review: “Donald Trump: Not Telling It Like It Is.”
Salon: “The Daily Donald: GOP Now in Full Panic Mode As Trump Runs Wilder.”
The Daily Beast: “Donald Trump Makes Me Want to Die.”
Okay, this is getting serious.
To back up a bit, it’s clear the media establishment completely and totally underestimated Trump when he first jumped into the 2016 race. Fox’s Mara Liasson predicted his coverage would plummet after that first day—which she has now admitted was spectacularly wrong.
Next, much of the media treated Trump with great snark—either openly dismissing him or reporting on his exploits with a wink—until he shot up to second place in the Republican polls (and now first place in a survey in North Carolina).
In the next phase, plenty of pundits used the uproar over Trump’s remarks on illegal Mexican immigrants including criminals and rapists to portray him as the epitome of the Republican Party—despite the fact that he’s hardly an establishment figure and given tons of dough to Democrats.
As companies right and left were dropping The Donald, the press asked every Republican candidate what they thought about Trump’s controversial comments. His rivals were tepid at first, but soon divined that they could grab headlines by denouncing Trump—which generally led to him smacking them back in Rick Perry-needs-new-glasses mode, thus producing more media fodder.
By yesterday, it seemed that the Republican Party really had become worried about Trump, not least because he was consuming most of the available media oxygen.
The Washington Post ran a front-page piece headlined “GOP Leaders Fear Damage to Party’s Image As Donald Trump Doubles Down”:
“There is little they can do about the mogul and reality-television star, who draws sustenance from controversy and attention. And some fear that, with assistance from Democrats, Trump could become the face of the GOP.”
The story quoted sources as saying that RNC Chairman Reince Priebus had a 45-minute call with Trump and, on the subject of immigration, repeatedly asked him to “tone it down.”
Which brought this rejoinder from @RealDonaldTrump:
“Totally false reporting on my call with @Reince Priebus. He called me, ten minutes, said I hit a ‘nerve’, doing well, end!”
Although in a subsequent call to the Post’s Robert Costa, Trump backed off the falsehood charge, saying that Priebus told him, “You know, if it would be possible, maybe you could tone it down just a little bit, but you are who are you, and I know you have to do what you have to do. ”
Trump is a media master who knows how keep stoking a story by doubling and tripling and quadrupling down. And the press is now happy to play along for ratings and clicks, turning the campaign coverage into The Daily Donald.

Joint Chiefs nominee appears to side with Romney on Russian threat


The general chosen by President Obama to replace the Pentagon’s top military officer has put the administration in an awkward position after remarks Thursday in which he called Russia "the greatest threat to our national security" -- a stance taken by 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and lambasted by the president during the 2012 campaign.
Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, nominated to replace Gen. Martin Dempsey as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the comments in response to a question by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., at Dunford's confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“My assessment today, Senator, is that Russia presents the greatest threat to our national security,” Dunford told lawmakers.
“So if you want to talk about a nation that could pose an existential threat to the United States, I’d have to point to Russia."
- Gen. Joseph Dunford
“In Russia we have a nuclear power. We have one that not only has the capability to violate the sovereignty of our allies and to do things that are inconsistent with our national interests, but they’re in the process of doing so,” Dunford said.
“So if you want to talk about a nation that could pose an existential threat to the United States, I’d have to point to Russia. And if you look at their behavior, it’s nothing short of alarming,” Dunford said.
Dunford’s views align with Romney's, who during the 2012 presidential campaign labeled Russia “the number one geopolitical foe” of the United States, a remark that Obama mocked during the third presidential debate.
“The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War’s been over for 20 years,” Obama told Romney.
The Obama campaign even used the quote as part of a campaign ad in which Romney’s comments were dismissed by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who said Romney was “showing little understanding of what is going on in the 21st century.”
Dunford’s comments also drew criticism from the White House Thursday, with Press Secretary Josh Earnest calling the nominee’s views out of line with the President’s national security team.
“Certainly, General Dunford is somebody who has spent a lot of time thinking about these issues and has his own view, but I think that he would be the first to admit that that reflects his own view and doesn't necessarily reflect the consensus analysis of the President's national security team,” Earnest said.
However, the Pentagon adopted a more conciliatory tone, without directly endorsing Dunford’s comments.
“Russia certainly represents significant security challenges to not just U.S. national interests but to the national interests of our allies and partners in Europe,” Defense Dept.  press secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters Friday.
“We are mindful of the security challenges that Russia continues to pose on the European continent. Nobody is turning a blind eye to that,” Kirby said.

Walmart to ‘melt’ class rings bearing Confederate flag rather than complete orders ( Nazism at Work.)

Nazism at Work? If you don't like something just do away with it.

An Arkansas woman who went to pick up the class ring she ordered from Walmart left disappointed, after store officials told her the retailer's new policy barred them from turning the item over -- because it bore an image of the Confederate flag.

Elaine Glidewell told KFSM someone from the store in Fort Smith called her to pick up the ring she'd ordered for her nephew, but when she arrived on Tuesday, a clerk told her she couldn’t have it. The ring had been ordered before Walmart stopped selling items bearing images of the flag, in the wake of controversy that stemmed from a racially-charged shooting in South Carolina.
“I wanted to cry,” Glidewell told KFSM, adding that the store clerk said the ring would be "melted."
Glidewell said she paid $320 for the ring and was going to present it to her nephew, who recently graduated. He had expressed interest in a design that bore a Rebel mascot that incorporates the Confederate battle flag. She got her money back, but no ring.
“They wouldn’t let me have the ring. It had a note on it, was in a plastic bag, it said do not sell. It was signed by the store manager,” Glidewell said.
Brian Nick, spokesman for Walmart, told FoxNews.com Glidewell was denied the ring because her transaction came after the retailer made a “business decision” to stop selling items with the Confederate flag on it.
“The decision was made several weeks ago not to sell products promoting the confederate flag and this item fell under that category and the associate made the right choice and did not complete the sale,” Nick said.
Nick said the ring might have slipped through the cracks because a third party manufactured it, and the store did not realize the Confederate flag was on the ring until an associate went to sell it.
“Because there was a little bit of time I think that’s probably the reason it was noticed a few weeks after,” Nick said.
Nick said the store put Glidewell in touch with a manufacturer, who can get her a new ring, but Glidewell says it was that particular piece she wanted.
“I would give anything to have that ring. Anything. Just because it means so much to him,” Glidewell said.

Illegal immigrant nabbed in Calif. cold case killing in homeless camp


An illegal immigrant from Mexico doing time in a federal prison for unlawfully reentering this country is set to appear before a judge next week over his alleged involvement in the killing of a homeless woman 18 years ago in California.
Linda Louise Archer, 43, was beaten to death Aug. 16, 1997, in her campsite off Highway 101 near Castillo Street.
On Thursday, the Santa Barbara Police Department announced that the suspected killer, Manuel Salmeron Manzanares, 36, formerly of Santa Barbara, was arrested on suspicion of murder last month upon his release from federal custody.
The key to cracking what had been classified a cold case was DNA evidence submitted to the California Department of Justice Bureau of Forensic Services laboratory -- and on Feb. 4, 2013, DNA from the Archer case was found to match that of a profile in the FBI's Combined DNA Index System.
"The matched profile was that of Manzanares, a federal inmate in custody for illegally re-entering the United States after previously being deported as a convicted felon," according to a statement from Santa Barbara Police Sgt. Riley Harwood.
The convict was scheduled to be released and deported to Mexico this year.
As part of the investigation, in July 2014, Detective Andy Hill interviewed Manzanares. "The investigation indicates that Manzanares is responsible for the murder of Linda Archer," according to police.
On May 11, Hill obtained a warrant for Manzanares' arrest and, upon his release from federal prison June 12, he was taken into custody in the Archer case and booked at County Jail.
The case grew cold when an inmate at Corcoran State Prison told authorities he killed Archer. That turned out to be false, a story likely intended to make himself appear tough to other inmates.
As for how Manzanares wound up in local custody, Harwood told the News-Press his department works with federal authorities, unlike departments in so-called "sanctuary cities."
"The normal state of affairs is for local, state and federal agencies in the criminal justice system to work with each other. We pick up the phone and talk. In this case, ICE informed us that Manzanares was in custody," he said.
Manzanares is set to appear in Santa Barbara County Superior Court July 16.

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