Page 1 Roundup (10/12)

The Daily News: Brooklyn man, 91, dies after home invaders tie up him and his 100-year-old wife

The New York Post: Teen allegedly raped neighbor, offered ‘yard work’ to make up for it

The New York Times: Trump makes yet another fascist threat

The Wall Street Journal: Stretching Is the Hot New Workout—and Some Say That’s a Reach

Hair Apparent

Twitter Pulls Lawsuit After Trump Drops Attempt to Unmask User Critical of Him

With so many unsettling things going on -- Gorsuch confirmation, Russiagate, Nunes, Muslim ban 2.0, nepotism, Bannon's position on the National Security Council, etc. -- Trump's attempt to unmask the owner of a Twitter account critical of him has all but gotten lost in the shuffle. Congrats to Twitter for standing up to this fascist move, and to whomever got Trump to let it go. Might this rumored shakeup in the White House be a step in the right direction? If Bannon is further marginalized, then the answer clearly is yes. P.S. As tired as I am of hearing about Jared and Ivanka, news that Bannon and Jared are butting heads because Bannon thinks Trump/s son-in-law is "a Democrat!" has me rethinking things. If the Kushners really are our only hope, then I guess it's better their unqualified asses run things than some other hateful unqualified ass(hol)es.

New York Times, CNN, Others Barred From Briefings After Trump Threatens to 'Do Something' About the Media

Want to try to distract from your suspect policies? Try this:

NYT reports:

Journalists from The New York Times and several ther news organizations were prohibited from attending a briefing by President Trump’s press secretary on Friday, a highly unusual breach of relations between the White House and its press corps. Reporters from The Times, CNN, BuzzFeed News, The Los Angeles Times and Politico were not allowed to enter the West Wing office of the press secretary, Sean M. Spicer, for the scheduled briefing. Aides to Mr. Spicer allowed in reporters from only a handpicked group of news organizations that, the White House said, had been previously confirmed to attend. Organizations allowed in included Breitbart News, the One America News Network and The Washington Times, all news outlets with conservative leanings. Journalists from ABC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Fox News also attended. Reporters from Time magazine and The Associated Press, who were set to be allowed in to the briefing, chose not to attend as a form of protest of the White House’s actions.  

The White House Correspondents’ Association, which represents the press corps, issued a quick rebuke of the White House’s actions. “The W.H.C.A. board is protesting strongly against how today’s gaggle is being handled by the White House,” the association president, Jeff Mason, said in a statement. “We encourage the organizations that were allowed in to share the material with others in the press corps who were not. The board will be discussing this further with White House staff.”
The development came hours after Mr. Trump delivered a slashing broadside against the news media during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

These people have no respect for anything and are truly awful.

Media Says No to Trump's Fascist Ploy

Watch HERE.

I think you can imagine how I feel about Donald trying to discredit news reporters and editors. (Do you have any idea how hard we worked to find out what happened Friday night in Sweden?) I don't wake in time for the Sunday news shows, but I wanted to give a shoutout to Chris Wallace and Jonathan Karl for telling the administration where they can go.

Watch HERE.

If you think you've seen this before, it's because you have ...

Nixon was the worst, but at least he knew how to govern AND created the Environmental Protection Agency.

Rosie O'Donnell Was Born to Play Steve Bannon on 'SNL'

I haven't seen an actor campaign this hard for a role since Sean Young didn't get to play Catwoman -- do the alt-right thing, Lorne Michaels! 

The Miseducation of 'Real' America

I hope the first thing that Amway lady does is teach these people's kids about the THREE branches of government.

P.S. This screen-shot is from "The Rachael Maddow Show," which Damian and I turned on for the first time since Election Day because we wanted to see what analysts were saying about the Ninth Circuit ruling. It was the first good night in a very long time.

Matt Baume explains the immediate danger Betsy DeVos poses to LGBT students HERE.

Page 1 Roundup (02/10)

Judges see "no evidence" of terror threat -- Trump tells court: "SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE! Meanwhile, more than half of Trump's supporters said the "Bowling Green Massacre" justified the attempt to ban Muslims from entering the U.S.

From HERE.

Upper East Side doorman dies after he slip on snow, crashes through glass window / Read HERE.

If you haven't read just how badly the Ninth Circuit ripped the Trump administration for its arrogant claim that the judiciary has no authority to adjudicate constitutional challenges to executive action, then you must read it now HERE.

I actually put my suitcase in some random woman's car, so I can totally relate to this Uber story! Read HERE.

This Week in Fascism

How's this for fear-mongering? My mom's best friend (who I'm pretty sure took a beating outside of Detroit for expressing any support for Hillary Clinton) wrote an impassioned post on Facebook (which my parents agreed with) letting people know that she and her husband would no longer engage in any political discussions whatsoever. (Apparently they had to walk out of an event that got heated in the days leading up to this.) While I'm certainly not criticizing a 70-something woman for doing what she has to do to keep sane -- she ended with your typical "Trump is president now so all we can do is hope he succeeds" adding that "When you love someone you respect their choices whether you agree or not!" -- it was all I could do not to chime in that it must be nice to be able to disconnect and just hope for the best. Our new president hasn't explicitly said he's coming after her. Our new president isn't shopping around an executive order to rob her of her rights and dignity. Our new president isn't making it harder for her to travel overseas to visit loved ones. Our new president isn't upending her years-long journey to get away from an abusive regime threatening to kill her children and her. (And specifically to my parents: you have a deathly ill son who desperately needs his health insurance to not have a payment ceiling, a gay son and two grandchildren of Mexican descent -- how much closer does it have to get before you become a Rob Portman?!) I was 48 years old before my country finally recognized that I was a fully equal citizen, and it was my belief that day in June 2015 that no other child would grow up believing he was less-than in the eyes of the law. To go back now is quite literally more than I can bear. I know a lot of us sound like broken records, but we're not "playing politics" here -- but they are playing with people's lives. 

This botched Yemen raid -- in which an 8-year-old girl who is a U.S. citizen was killed (that I'm sure no one cares about because of who her father is) -- would have been the end of any Democrat. Trump's branded it a "success."

Miss Merkel Regrets

The German chancellor does not approve of Trump's Muslim ban -- and she's not alone.

Previously:

Page 1 Roundup (01/30)

Not only has this "plan" proven to be completely unworkable and almost certainly illegal, it doesn't even make sense using the "logic" that inspired it. The post-9/11 terrorist attacks that have happened in the U.S. were carried out by homegrown extremists, not refugees. And 9/11 was carried out by nearly all Saudis, a country not included on the list and one in which Trump just happens to have business interests. Kudos to the U.S. for ripping this un-American order to shreds.

Massacre in Quebec is horrifying on so many levels -- but why did I know it was going to turn out if was carried out by one person despite reports that there were at least two?

Trump travel order sows chaos ...

My friend Yogi explains how an antacid is the secret ingredient for making a fluffy cake! Read HERE.