Conservative Blogger
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Actress Meryl Streep renews harsh criticism of Trump in emotional speech
 |
| Unhinged Left |
In
an emotional speech on Saturday night, actress Meryl Streep doubled
down on her harsh criticism of President Donald Trump, and spoke of
becoming a target at the Golden Globes in January.
At a fundraising gala for the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT group, Streep referred to Trump's tweet after her Globes speech, in which he called the celebrated actress "overrated."
"Yes, I am the most overrated, over-decorated and currently, I am the most over-berated actress ... of my generation," Streep said.
Streep said she wished she could stay at home and "and load the dishwasher" rather than take a podium to speak out adding that "the weight of all these honors" she's received in her career compelled her to speak out.
"It's terrifying to put the target on your forehead," she said. "And it sets you up for all sorts of attacks and armies of brown shirts and bots and worse, and the only way you can do it is if you feel you have to. You have to! You don't have an option. You have to."
Streep was receiving the group's National Ally for Equality Award.
She clarified that she indeed likes football too after previously saying that football and martial arts weren't arts in her Globes speech.
The actress also praised the organization for defending LGBT rights.
Streep then spoke about cultures used to put men at the top, but that women, people of color and other minorities began achieving their deserved rights at some point in the 20th century. "We shouldn't be surprised that fundamentalists, of all stripes, everywhere, are exercised and fuming," she said.
Turning to Trump, she said: "But if we live through this precarious moment — if his catastrophic instinct to retaliate doesn't lead us to nuclear winter — we will have much to thank this president for. Because he will have woken us up to how fragile freedom really is."
Streep said the country has now learned "how the authority of the executive, in the hands of a self-dealer, can be wielded against the people, and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The whip of the executive can, through a Twitter feed, lash and intimidate, punish and humiliate, delegitimize the press and all of the imagined enemies with spasmodic regularity and easily provoked predictability."
"All of us have the human right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," the actress said.
"If you think people were mad," Streep said, "when they thought the government was coming after their guns, wait until you see when they try to take away our happiness."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
At a fundraising gala for the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT group, Streep referred to Trump's tweet after her Globes speech, in which he called the celebrated actress "overrated."
"Yes, I am the most overrated, over-decorated and currently, I am the most over-berated actress ... of my generation," Streep said.
Streep said she wished she could stay at home and "and load the dishwasher" rather than take a podium to speak out adding that "the weight of all these honors" she's received in her career compelled her to speak out.
"It's terrifying to put the target on your forehead," she said. "And it sets you up for all sorts of attacks and armies of brown shirts and bots and worse, and the only way you can do it is if you feel you have to. You have to! You don't have an option. You have to."
Streep was receiving the group's National Ally for Equality Award.
She clarified that she indeed likes football too after previously saying that football and martial arts weren't arts in her Globes speech.
The actress also praised the organization for defending LGBT rights.
Streep then spoke about cultures used to put men at the top, but that women, people of color and other minorities began achieving their deserved rights at some point in the 20th century. "We shouldn't be surprised that fundamentalists, of all stripes, everywhere, are exercised and fuming," she said.
Turning to Trump, she said: "But if we live through this precarious moment — if his catastrophic instinct to retaliate doesn't lead us to nuclear winter — we will have much to thank this president for. Because he will have woken us up to how fragile freedom really is."
Streep said the country has now learned "how the authority of the executive, in the hands of a self-dealer, can be wielded against the people, and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The whip of the executive can, through a Twitter feed, lash and intimidate, punish and humiliate, delegitimize the press and all of the imagined enemies with spasmodic regularity and easily provoked predictability."
"All of us have the human right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," the actress said.
"If you think people were mad," Streep said, "when they thought the government was coming after their guns, wait until you see when they try to take away our happiness."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Several GOP States Move to Block Their Own Funding to Sanctuary Cities
A number of GOP states have moved to introduce legislation to block their own state funding to so-called sanctuary cities.
The moves come in conjunction with President Donald Trump's executive order to block federal funding to cities that refuse to comply with federal immigration authorities.
The states include Idaho, Texas, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Cities nationwide including New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Boston, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., have all adopted sanctuary status.
The moves come in conjunction with President Donald Trump's executive order to block federal funding to cities that refuse to comply with federal immigration authorities.
The states include Idaho, Texas, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Cities nationwide including New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Boston, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., have all adopted sanctuary status.
Amid
protests over President Trump’s executive order aiming to block federal
funding to so-called sanctuary cities, Republican legislators across
the country are moving to deny their own funding to cities that refuse
to comply with federal immigration authorities.
The Texas state Senate on Wednesday passed a measure to block state funding to cities in which law enforcement officials disregard federal immigration laws. The measure would require police agencies to hold anyone in custody until U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement is able to verify their immigration status, or risk losing state funding.
Similar legislation has been introduced in Ohio, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, Iowa, Idaho and Pennsylvania. Other laws are likely to be introduced in the coming weeks. Many are inspired by Trump’s executive orders barring refugees and blocking all immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries.
“What he’s doing is a great idea. We need to protect Americans, we need to protect Tennesseans,” state Sen. Mark Green (R), author of his state’s version of the sanctuary city ban, said in an interview. “We’re going to take it a step further and enhance what the president is doing and take state dollars from cities that decide, because they want to, to ignore ICE detainers.”Civil rights groups that oppose bans on sanctuary cities say the measures are questionable, and many promised to challenge the bills in court if they become law.
Local law enforcement agencies that decline to participate with federal immigration authorities say their approach helps them build trust with immigrant communities. If undocumented immigrants are afraid for their own safety, they are less likely to report crimes or cooperate with local police.
“Many cities and some states and other municipalities have made the decision that they’re not going to use their jails, their police officers, their city resources to do immigration enforcement,” Omar Jadwat, a senior attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants Rights Project, told The Hill last year. “And that is completely within their rights.”
Local law enforcement agencies are not required to enforce immigration statutes or to comply with detention requests from ICE. But the new round of state proposals would use state grant money as leverage to require local compliance.
Some of the new proposals go farther by holding local officials accountable for their city’s actions. In Ohio, a proposal backed by state Treasurer Josh Mandel (R) — who is challenging Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) in 2018 — would charge officials with a fourth-degree felony, punishable by up to 18 months in prison, if an undocumented immigrant is charged with a crime.
A Florida proposal would require government officials to report possible violations to the state attorney general or risk expulsion from office. The Florida bill would fine local governments up to $5,000 a day for maintaining sanctuary policies.
North Carolina’s version would withhold tax revenues from natural gas, telecommunications and beer and wine sales from any locality that maintains a sanctuary policy. State lawmakers banned sanctuary cities in 2015, though that measure has no enforcement mechanism.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has already moved to block about $1.8 million in state grants to Travis County, where the local sheriff has implemented a sanctuary policy.
“I will not tolerate sanctuary city policies that put the citizens of Texas at risk,” Abbott said in a statement Thursday. “Elected officials do not get to pick and choose which laws they will obey.”
Trump’s order has already forced one local government, Miami-Dade County, to drop its sanctuary policy.
Since the day after Trump won election, Democrat-led states have pursued an opposite path in hopes of protecting undocumented residents, setting up likely legal clashes.
California legislators are working on a package of laws that would create legal defense funds for those swept up in immigration raids, while Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) ordered state agencies to avoid asking about immigration statuses of those with whom they come into contact.
“In California, immigrants are an integral part of who we are and what we’ve become,” Gov. Jerry Brown (D) told legislators in his state of the state address last month. “We will defend everybody, every man, woman and child, who has come here for a better life and has contributed to the well-being of our state.”
There is no legal definition of a sanctuary city, county or state. But hundreds of jurisdictions across the country — including the entire states of California, Connecticut, New Mexico and Colorado — label themselves as such.
Washington, D.C.; Arlington, Va.; Philadelphia; New York City; Boston; Baltimore; New Orleans and other major cities have all adopted sanctuary policies.
The Texas state Senate on Wednesday passed a measure to block state funding to cities in which law enforcement officials disregard federal immigration laws. The measure would require police agencies to hold anyone in custody until U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement is able to verify their immigration status, or risk losing state funding.
Similar legislation has been introduced in Ohio, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, Iowa, Idaho and Pennsylvania. Other laws are likely to be introduced in the coming weeks. Many are inspired by Trump’s executive orders barring refugees and blocking all immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries.
“What he’s doing is a great idea. We need to protect Americans, we need to protect Tennesseans,” state Sen. Mark Green (R), author of his state’s version of the sanctuary city ban, said in an interview. “We’re going to take it a step further and enhance what the president is doing and take state dollars from cities that decide, because they want to, to ignore ICE detainers.”Civil rights groups that oppose bans on sanctuary cities say the measures are questionable, and many promised to challenge the bills in court if they become law.
Local law enforcement agencies that decline to participate with federal immigration authorities say their approach helps them build trust with immigrant communities. If undocumented immigrants are afraid for their own safety, they are less likely to report crimes or cooperate with local police.
“Many cities and some states and other municipalities have made the decision that they’re not going to use their jails, their police officers, their city resources to do immigration enforcement,” Omar Jadwat, a senior attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants Rights Project, told The Hill last year. “And that is completely within their rights.”
Local law enforcement agencies are not required to enforce immigration statutes or to comply with detention requests from ICE. But the new round of state proposals would use state grant money as leverage to require local compliance.
Some of the new proposals go farther by holding local officials accountable for their city’s actions. In Ohio, a proposal backed by state Treasurer Josh Mandel (R) — who is challenging Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) in 2018 — would charge officials with a fourth-degree felony, punishable by up to 18 months in prison, if an undocumented immigrant is charged with a crime.
A Florida proposal would require government officials to report possible violations to the state attorney general or risk expulsion from office. The Florida bill would fine local governments up to $5,000 a day for maintaining sanctuary policies.
North Carolina’s version would withhold tax revenues from natural gas, telecommunications and beer and wine sales from any locality that maintains a sanctuary policy. State lawmakers banned sanctuary cities in 2015, though that measure has no enforcement mechanism.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has already moved to block about $1.8 million in state grants to Travis County, where the local sheriff has implemented a sanctuary policy.
“I will not tolerate sanctuary city policies that put the citizens of Texas at risk,” Abbott said in a statement Thursday. “Elected officials do not get to pick and choose which laws they will obey.”
Trump’s order has already forced one local government, Miami-Dade County, to drop its sanctuary policy.
Since the day after Trump won election, Democrat-led states have pursued an opposite path in hopes of protecting undocumented residents, setting up likely legal clashes.
California legislators are working on a package of laws that would create legal defense funds for those swept up in immigration raids, while Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) ordered state agencies to avoid asking about immigration statuses of those with whom they come into contact.
“In California, immigrants are an integral part of who we are and what we’ve become,” Gov. Jerry Brown (D) told legislators in his state of the state address last month. “We will defend everybody, every man, woman and child, who has come here for a better life and has contributed to the well-being of our state.”
There is no legal definition of a sanctuary city, county or state. But hundreds of jurisdictions across the country — including the entire states of California, Connecticut, New Mexico and Colorado — label themselves as such.
Washington, D.C.; Arlington, Va.; Philadelphia; New York City; Boston; Baltimore; New Orleans and other major cities have all adopted sanctuary policies.
Massive crowd protests Trump, anti-LGBT law in North Carolina
 |
| Unhinged Left |
The "Moral March on Raleigh" was led by the North Carolina NAACP for an 11th year.
Officials in Raleigh didn’t provide any information on crowd numbers. Organizers of the event predicted about 20,000 protesters.
The surface area that the crowd covered neared the march's previous peak from 2014.
March participants promoted different issues from gerrymandering and immigration to public education.
The protesters also want a House Bill 2 repeal, which limits LGBT rights and which bathrooms transgender people can use.
Japan, US condemn North Korea's missile launch over the Sea of Japan
 |
| Unhinged |
The United States and Japan held a joint press conference on Saturday night following reports that North Korea fired a ballistic missile in what would be its first such test of the year.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned North Korea's latest missile launch calling it, "absolutely intolerable."
President Donald Trump assured Japan that the U.S. stands behind the country completely.
“The United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent,” Trump said during the conference at Trump’s south Florida estate.
Abe read a brief statement in which he called on North Korea “to fully comply with relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions.” He said Trump has assured him of U.S. support and that Trump's presence showed the president's determination and commitment.
North Korea reportedly fired a ballistic missile early Sunday in what would be its first such test of the year and an implicit challenge to President Donald Trump's new administration.
The missile splashed down into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, according to the U.S. Strategic Command. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters that the missile did not hit Japanese territorial seas.
The appropriate officials “remain vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations and are fully committed to working closely with our Republic of Korea and Japanese allies to maintain security,” the spokesman said in the statement, adding that the launch was from “a medium- or intermediate-range ballistic missile.”
The missile launch reports come as Trump was hosting the Japanese leader and just days before North Korea is to mark the birthday of leader Kim Jong Un's late father, Kim Jong Il.
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