Let's get Grandpa back to bed

 No, Grandpa, not South Africa, not even South America.  Cuba.  And really not much since the 50s.  

And he LIVES in Miami.  He knows nothing about everything.

Countdown to nasty tweet

He for sure won't now.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

I bet this didn't come up in his evangelical rally

A former Fox News reporter has added her name to the list of nearly two dozen women who have accused Donald Trump of making unwanted sexual advances towards them. In a book published next week, the Fox & Friends fill-in host Courtney Friel claims Trump propositioned her before he became US president.

“You should come up to my office sometime, so we can kiss,” Friel says Trump told her, adding that he considered her “the hottest one at Fox News”.

[...]

Friel, 39, says Trump’s come-on was made during a phone call to her office weeks after she mentioned an interest in working as a judge on his Miss USA beauty pageant.

[...]

“‘Donald,’ I responded, ‘I believe we’re both married.’ I quickly ended the call,” she wrote in her book.

“This proposition made it difficult for me to report with a straight face on Trump running for president. It infuriated me that he would call all the women who shared stories of his bold advances liars. I totally believe them,” she says.

[...]

The White House claims the women are lying, while Trump has suggested some were not attractive enough for him to want to sexually assault.

  Guardian

Not exactly a great defense.

But, what did come up at that rally?

Trump positions himself among believers, against people supposedly opposed to faith and family: "Our traditions and our values are timeless and immortal. They don't know what they're missing. Right? They don't know what they're missing. Our faith is needed now more than ever."

Trump, at a church, says his re-election will be a "monumental victory for faith and family, God and country, flag and freedom." That is a new or almost-new line.

Trump says he kept his promise to "get rid of this horrible Johnson Amendment." He has not repealed the Johnson Amendment, though he has declined to enforce it. Trump did add later that "we're going to put it through and make it permanent, too," at least implicitly conceding that hasn't happened. He suggested he might do this during his 16 or 20 years in office, then said he tells this joke to drive media crazy.

Trump says maybe the media will be more honest because they're in church.

Apparently, the same doesn't apply to himself.

Trump complains about headlines that say he lied. He says that sometimes he's just a little off and other things are subjective -- "most of this I could argue with them."

Trump tells his story about how he's lost all his friends, and now he has no friends, because everyone is so respectful of the office that they call him "sir" and "Mr. President."

Trump tells a sir story about how someone proposed that a 69-year-old be appointed a judge, but he realized that doesn't work well, so he's appointed young judges like a 38-year-old in Texas who went to Harvard and maybe Oxford and will be a judge for 50 years.

Trump makes fun of Buttigieg's name, uses a disparaging nickname about Buttigieg's appearance, and says Buttigieg is "trying to pretend he's very religious," wrongly claiming Buttigieg started talking about his faith about "two weeks ago."

Buttigieg has always stressed his faith, which is one thing I've never appreciated.

Trump is doing a version of his usual complaint about not getting sufficient credit for criminal justice reform. "The only one they didn't thank was me. But that's the way it goes...you're welcome...but that's okay." He adds, "It's so easy to say thank you."

Trump expresses "unwavering solidarity with our Jewish brothers and sisters" over the recent anti-Semitic attacks. He says, "The love by evangelicals, Christians, for Jewish people and for Israel is incredible. It's incredible."

Trump's pitch: "I may not be perfect, but I get things done...and they're good things."

He suggested he might not be perfect?!?

Trump claims that people "hate Jewish people," then says, "I won't name them. I won't bring up the name of -- Omar, Tlaib, AOC. I won't bring that name up. Won't bring it up. I will not bring it up. But where do these people come from?"

Trump repeats his eternal nonsense about the US visa lottery, saying, "Do you think their governments put their best people in the lottery?" Governments do not put people in the lottery. People put themselves in the lottery.

Trump falsely claims, again, that he got "the Bay of Pigs Award." He got an endorsement from a Bay of Pigs veterans' group, not an "award." He habitually turns endorsements and other non-award things into "awards."

I'll gladly give him the Bray of Pigs award if he'd like.

Trump: "America was not built by religion-hating socialists. America was built by church-going, God-worshipping, freedom-loving patriots."

This is a Hispanic church.  How'd that blonde get in there?  Front and center, no less.  You think he asked for her?

He starts by reading.  His reading voice is always so drugged sounding.

Another FBI "sting" for the books

I've lost count.

An immigrant from Honduras who federal investigators say supports ISIS faces charges he attempted to blow up a fake FBI-supplied bomb at a Miami shopping mall.

  HuffPo

Was he mentally ill?

Solano “took issue with foreign and domestic policies and described his feeling of exclusion that stems from his temporary immigration status,” the FBI agent wrote.

[...]

The informant introduced Solano to an undercover agent, who Solano was told could help with an attack. A second undercover agent served as a translator, authorities said. Solano believed both of the agents had traveled to meet with him and were “united in the same cause,” according to the affidavit. Solano later said he believed the two agents were members of ISIS, authorities said.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Miami, Motorcyle Gangs, Money Laundering and Trump

It was always going to be about the money. By sacrificing the credibility of his office to his dread of transparency as regards his business dealings, perhaps because there's a shady Russian winking at you at every turn, the president* practically begged someone to rip his entire organization apart in a hail of writs. Robert Mueller seems only happy to oblige. Even this story, which touches the president*'s business interests only tangentially, nonetheless reeks of money laundering.

[...]

And speaking of such things, the Dauphin, Jared Kushner, having failed to achieve peace in the Middle East in three days, also was in the news as regards a transaction with Deutsche Bank that stretches the definition of coincidence halfway to Neptune.

  Charles P Pierce

Continue reading.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Oh, For Crying Out Loud

Donald Trump will on Friday announce new restrictions on trade and travel to Cuba on Friday, but will not entirely reverse Barack Obama’s 2015 rapprochement with Havana.

Diplomatic relations will remain, and so will commercial flights, but travel to Cuba will be more tightly monitored and business will face restrictions aimed at ensuring that Cuban military and intelligence organisations do not benefit.

[...]

Trump will declare the new policy in Miami, at the heart of the Cuban exile community in Little Havana, fulfilling an election campaign promise.

  Guardian

So that's one. But it's benefiting the American Latin community, so there's that.

Officials briefing journalists about the new policy were asked why human rights concerns had led to punitive measures in Cuba’s case but were not playing a role in the administration’s policy to other notable human rights offenders, like the Philippines and Saudi Arabia. One official said the difference was that Trump had specifically promised to take action on Cuba to a rally of the Cuban diaspora last year in Florida, a state which Trump won.

Bingo. Sometimes they don't realize they're being honest.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Wielding the Hammer

Stong!? How about, No Choice! Or Chicken!

No, wait....Pussy!

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Jesus Christ

Out of control.



Today a North Miami police officer shot an unarmed black man who was trying to assist his autistic friend.

“I thought it was a mosquito bite, and when it hit me I had my hands in the air, and I’m thinking I just got shot!” Kinsey told WSVN. “And I’m saying, ‘Sir, why did you shoot me?’ and his words to me were, ‘I don’t know.’”

According to police, officers were dispatched to the scene of the shooting on Monday after getting a 911 call about a man with a gun threatening suicide.

“Arriving officers attempted to negotiate with two men on the scene, one of whom was later identified as suffering from autism,” said North Miami Police in a statement. “At some point during the on-scene negotiation, one of the responding officers discharged his weapon, striking the employee.”

According to WPLG, police later said the autistic man “had something in his hand.” In the video, Kinsey can be heard identifying the object as a toy truck.

After shooting him, Kinsey says police put him in handcuffs.

  Gawker

Go ahead, justify this. https://t.co/cwjjrloc3Z #CharlesKinseyhttps://t.co/Cn6KV7RT53

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) July 21, 2016

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

More American Justice

In a stunning twist in a long-running Medicare fraud case, both the Miami U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI stand accused of spying on a defendant’s lawyer by illegally and secretly obtaining copies of confidential defense documents.

Court papers filed last week by attorneys for Dr. Salo Schapiro contend the secret practice was not the action of “just one rogue agent or prosecutor.” Rather, it was apparently an “office-wide policy” of both the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI that’s gone on for “at least 10 years.”

[...]

The government’s Thursday night response acknowledged that Imaging Universe did supply the FBI with duplicate CDs of what the company had copied for Schapiro’s defense team, but said the discs “were never requested by any agent, prosecutor or anyone else on the government’s behalf.”

  Florida Bulldog

Seriously? That's your rebuttal? They just, for some reason we can't fathom, gave those copies to us, and as long as we had them, of course we read them.

Prosecutors Hayes and Miller also stated that they were unaware of the duplicate CDs until an FBI agent disclosed their existence in late April. They said that when they found out they immediately told “Montero to stop and began an internal inquiry.”

Oh, excuse me. You didn't know you had them. You never read them, of course, and when you found out they were being given to you, you immediately demanded the gift horse desist.

Arteaga-Gomez phoned Montero on April 25 to ask who had told him to provide copies of the CDs to the government. Montero, the motion says, answered that an “agent” told his office manager to do it. “Mr. Montero then stated that he had been providing to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the past 10 years duplicate copies of the discovery documents selected by defense counsel in other cases.”

[...]

Montero added that both his old company, Xpediacopy, and Imaging Universe had done it.

If so, the alleged government misconduct spanned the administrations of three Miami U.S. Attorneys – Alex Acosta, who served from 2005-2009, Jeffrey Sloman acting U.S. Attorney from 2009-2010 and Wifredo Ferrer, who took over in May 2010.

[...]

Nova Southeastern University constitutional law professor Robert Jarvis was skeptical of the defense’s sensational claims, but said that if the allegations prove true it could upend hundreds of criminal cases, free untold defendants and potentially result in criminal charges against government officials responsible for violating defendants’ rights.

“This opens a huge can of worms,” Jarvis said. “It’s potentially catastrophic for the government and I would think that the [U.S.] Attorney General would be swooping in on this. There are 95 judicial districts. If it happened in this office, you have to wonder if it’s happening in any others.”

Yes, you do, don't you?

I also have to wonder why you're not hiring attorneys capable of winning cases without resorting to illegal activity.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Torture

A shower so scalding, it melted off one man's skin; another man gassed to death in a small room, begging for his life; beatings and torture and threats -- and after all of it, a cover-up. Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article2498455.html#storylink=cpy

  Miami Herald

No, this isn’t Abu Ghraib or anywhere like it. It’s a Miami prison.