Monday, January 8, 2018
WikiLeaks tweet then deletes link to text of new Trump book
The website WikiLeaks on Sunday tweeted a link to
the text of the new book critical of President Trump that has angered
the president, his staff and his allies.
An electronic image of the text of
author Michael Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White
House” appeared online Sunday, two days after its release.
The post read, “New Trump book “Fire and Fury” by Michael Wolff. Full PDF.” The Daily News reported that the tweet linked to the unnumbered PDF that appeared to be the book.Posting the text of a book without permission would violate copyright restrictions and potentially damage sales. Yet, hours after WikiLeaks tweeted the link, “Fire and Fury” remained No. 1 on Amazon’s lists of hardcover and ebook bestsellers.
The book portrays a president who doesn’t understand the weight of his office and whose own aides question his competence. Trump has called it a “Fake Book” and its author “totally discredited.” Aides have publicly rejected the book’s premise.
Trump retweeted a parody cover of the book that the Republican Party had tweeted earlier Friday, and used it as a springboard for his latest criticisms -- calling Wolff “a total loser” and saying Bannon "cried when he got fired" and has been "dumped like a dog by almost everyone" since leaving the White House in August.
The GOP's parody cover retitles the book "Liar and Phony," and surrounds a photo of Wolff with blurbs from actual reviews of his much-criticized White House exposé.
"He gets basic details wrong," a New York Times writer says about Wolff.
Wolff wrote the book over 18 months, in which he claims to have spoken with more than 200 people. He said he had access to top officials inside the Trump administration, including the president, according to an interview Thursday with the Hollywood Reporter that details the backstory to the book's publishing.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May defends Trump's mental fitness
UK Prime Minister Theresa May shot down concerns
about President Trump’s mental fitness on Sunday, saying he acts in the
best interests of his country.
May was forced to comment on Trump’s
mental state following the release of Michal Wolff’s explosive book
claiming some Trump advisers openly questioned the president’s mental
capacity for the job.
Speaking with the BBC,
the prime minister shot down any accusations against Trump, saying “no”
to question if concerns about Trump’s mental fitness were serious.“When I deal with President Trump what I see is somebody who is committed to ensuring that he is taking decisions in the best interests of the United States,” she added.
May also reiterated that Trump will be coming to Britain for a visit, but come up short of providing exact date and details.
There have been questions whether Trump will visit the country as a full state visit, which would include meeting the Queen, or if he will opt out for a lower-key working trip amid probable mass protests.
Trump has previously come under fire from British lawmakers after they deemed some of his statements might have violated the country’s hate speech laws – prompting country’s members of the Parliament to debate whether he should be granted a full state visit.
In November, May criticized Trump after he retweeted inflammatory videos from a British fringe far-right political group, saying it was “wrong” to have done so.
The president, tweeted in response: “Don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!”
Antifa member ordered to pay legal fees of Berkeley conservative over attempted restraining order
A middle school teacher and prominent
member of an Antifa group has been ordered to pay legal fees for a
failed attempt to get a permanent restraining order against the former
president of the Berkeley College Republicans at the University of
California, Berkeley, according to reports.
Alameda County Superior Court
Commissioner Thomas Rasch ordered Yvette Felarca, the leader of By Any
Means Necessary (BAMN), an Antifa, or anti-fascist, group, to pay
$10,000 in attorney’s fees and $1,100 in court fees, The Berkeleyside reported
Friday. Rasch said that Felarca’s legal actions against Troy Worden,
the former head of the Berkeley College Republicans, were not brought in
good faith.
Felarca’s attorneys dispute that characterization, according to The Berkeleyside, and have vowed to appeal the ruling.“By ruling that Yvette Felarca did not demonstrate good faith in filing the restraining order, the court recognized the frivolous nature of Felarca’s actions,” Mark Meuser, Worden’s attorney, said after the decision, according to The Berkeleyside. “The award of attorney fees should send a strong signal that she cannot abuse the court system to silence speech.”
Meuser testified in court that actual legal expenses were around $178,600, and that he was seeking a higher reimbursement, according to The Berkeleyside.
“This verdict was based on the judge’s decision to support the political views of Troy Worden and the alt-right and that is not acceptable,” Felarca’s attorney Shanta Driver said.
Felarca got a temporary restraining order against Worden in September after alleging he was stalking and harassing her on the Berkeley campus. Worden initially was ordered to stay 100 yards away from Felarca, but that distance later was reduced to 10 yards. Felarca, according to The Berkeleyside, then applied for a permanent restraining order in October but withdrew the order the day of the hearing, making Worden the prevailing party entitled to receive lawyer and court fees.
“Felarca filed a frivolous restraining order that restricted Worden’s First and Second Amendment rights and made it difficult for him to move around the campus to attend classes,” Meuser told Fox News in November.
Worden said he and many other UC Berkeley College Republicans faced months of harassment and violence.
“I have to look behind my shoulder whenever I am on campus and especially when I am engaged in political activism,” Worden said.
“The No. 1 public university in the world and the so-called ‘birthplace of the free speech movement’ is anything but. It is the place where America’s conservative youth are daily under threat of violence, lacking the support of the university administration, police, or city,” he added. “The Free Speech Movement is dead, and the left has killed it.”
Scientologist Elisabeth Moss slammed for 'hypocritical' Golden Globes speech
This image released by NBC shows
Elisabeth Moss accepting the award for best actress in a drama series
for her role in "The Handmaid's Tale," at the 75th Annual Golden Globe
Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2018.
(AP)
Elisabeth Moss marked her Golden Globe win for Best Actress in a TV Drama by putting her own spin on a quote from Margaret Atwood whose novel inspired Moss' show "The Handmaid's Tale."
Moss thanked Atwood and other women
"who were brave enough to speak out against intolerance and injustice"
before slightly altering Atwood's words saying, "We no longer live in
the blank white spaces at the edge of print. We no longer live in the
gaps between the stories. We are the story in print, and we are writing
the story ourselves."
The 35-year-old, who practices Scientology, was
immediately called out on Twitter for her acceptance speech with many
calling Moss a hypocrite for preaching for equality.Moss has had to defend her religion in the past. The former "Mad Men" star is famously hush-hush about her association with the church, responded to a fan's question about "The Handmaid's Tale" and Scientology.
"Question though, does it make you think twice about Scientology? Gilead [the fictional country in the TV show] and Scientology both believe that all outside sources (aka news) are wrong and evil…it’s just very interesting," one fan asked Moss in August.
Moss responded at the time, "That’s actually not true at all about Scientology. Religious freedom and tolerance and understanding the truth and equal rights for every race, religion and creed are extremely important to me. The most important things to me probably. And so Gilead and 'THT' hit me on a very personal level."
The controversial church came under fire late last year when it was revealed that actor Danny Masterson, who is a Scientologist, had been accused of rape by four women and the Church of Scientology was accused of protecting Masterson.
People deeply connected with the church told Fox News members did have knowledge of Masterson's alleged behavior way before the media reports.
Several sources told us that the Church of Scientology systematically covers up misdeeds of its most prominent members — and Masterson, they say, is no exception.
“The church works to protect the church first,” he told Fox News.
DANNY MASTERSON FIRED FROM NETFLIX SERIES AMID RAPE ALLEGATIONS
He said the next most important thing to Scientologists is to protect the members of the church and its public image.
“[The Church of Scientology] considers anyone outside the church to be a ‘wog,’ which is a defamatory word describing non-members... It creates an ‘us versus them’ mentality [and tells] members that ‘wogs’ at law enforcement won’t protect them.”
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