Monthly Archives: September 2019

500,000+ Brits Stranded In Tour Company Bankruptcy

CNN International reports: British tour operator Thomas Cook collapsed Sunday night, stranding hundreds of thousands of travelers and putting 21,000 jobs at risk. The 178-year-old company said in a statement that its board “concluded that it had no choice but to take steps to enter into compulsory liquidation with immediate effect” after talks on a financial rescue failed. All Thomas …

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Trump Warned Vaping Ban Could Cost Him Election

Axios reports: Conservative leaders are circulating data to White House staff that claims adults who vape will turn on President Trump if he follows through with his planned ban on flavored e-cigarettes, Axios has learned. The data reveals that the number of adult vapers in key battleground states greatly outweighs the margins by which Trump won those states in 2016 …

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Out Actor Billy Porter’s Emmy Win Makes History

The New York Times reports: The category is “Groundbreaker.” On Sunday night, Billy Porter became the first openly gay man to win the Emmy for best actor in a drama. “I am so overwhelmed and I am so overjoyed to have lived long enough to see this day,” said Porter, 50, while accepting the award. The actor won for his …

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CHATTER AWAY: Overnight Open Thread

Billboard Magazine reports: Music streaming continues to become an incredibly popular means of consuming music in the U.S., as year-to-date on-demand audio streams of songs have now surpassed the half-trillion mark. In the week ending Sept. 12, there were 14.8 billion on-demand audio streams registered according to Nielsen Music, bringing 2019’s total to 505.5 billion. That’s up 23% compared to …

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Trump: I Might Release Transcript Of Ukraine Call

Bloomberg reports: President Trump told reporters on Sunday that he would consider releasing a transcript of his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which is said to be the subject of an intelligence community whistleblower complaint. “We’ll make a determination about how to release it, releasing it, saying what we said,” Trump said in Houston, defending his conversation with Zelensky …

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Pence Ships Eight “Monster SUVs” For Motorcade On Resort Island That Banned All Motor Vehicles In 1898

The Detroit Free Press reports: Vice President Mike Pence arrived at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in an eight-vehicle motorcade Saturday, prompting cries of “sacrilege” on social media. Cars are generally banned on the island, and that century-old ban is integral to its charm. When President Gerald Ford visited the island in 1975 — the only sitting president to …

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Corey Lewandowski: The Smug Assholery I Displayed During My Testimony Proves I’ll Be A Great US Senator

“I’m very, very seriously thinking about running for the United States Senate. After this week, no American citizen should have to go through what I had to go through, should never have to be disparaged or attacked the way that I was by these committee members because they didn’t like my politics. “When you attack a Trump supporter, it’s okay. …

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Pompeo: Not “Appropriate” To Release Call Transcript

Reuters reports: Joe Biden has called on Trump to disclose the transcript of his conversation with Zelensky so “the American people can judge for themselves.” When asked about releasing the transcript, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told ABC News that “those are private conversations between world leaders and it wouldn’t be appropriate to do so except in the most extreme …

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Mnuchin: Ukraine Call Should Be Kept “Confidential”

Politico reports: Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Sunday that allegations that President Trump elicited dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, a 2020 White House hopeful, during a phone call with Ukraine’s leader are merely speculation. “I think things are being implied that just don’t exist,” Mnuchin said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Tapper on Sunday pressed Mnuchin …

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NBC Poll: Record 69% Don’t Like Trump “Personally”

NBC News reports: A combined 69 percent of registered voters say they don’t like Trump personally, regardless of their feelings about his policy agenda. A record 50 percent say they dislike him personally and dislike his policies, while another 19 percent say that they dislike him but approve of his policies. Just 29 percent say they like Trump personally, with …

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Trump: My Ukraine Call Was A “Perfect Conversation”

Mediaite reports: President Trump on Sunday went on the offensive against Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and the whistleblower who reportedly raised concerns about the president’s interaction with a foreign leader said to be the president of Ukraine. Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump again defended his conduct during the call with Ukraine. He denied that there was …

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AOC Blasts Dems For Dragging Feet On Impeachment

The Hill reports: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called out Democrats late Saturday for what she called their “refusal” to impeach President Trump. The freshman Democrat’s comments came after Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), a Democratic presidential candidate, made similar comments Friday evening, tweeting that “Congress had a duty to begin impeachment” against Trump after former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report …

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Elizabeth Warren +2 Over Biden In New Iowa Poll

The Des Moines Register reports: Elizabeth Warren has surged in Iowa, narrowly overtaking Joe Biden and distancing herself from fellow progressive Bernie Sanders, the latest Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows. Warren, the U.S. senator from Massachusetts, now holds a 2-percentage-point lead, with 22% of likely Democratic caucusgoers saying she is their first choice for president. It is the first …

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ALASKA: State GOP Cancels 2020 Presidential Primary

The Associated Press reports: The Alaska Republican Party has canceled holding a presidential primary in 2020. In a statement Saturday, the party’s State Central Committee passed a rule saying a primary “would serve no useful purpose” because Republican Donald Trump is president. Earlier this month, Republican leaders in Nevada, South Carolina and Kansas voted to scrap their presidential nominating contests …

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CHATTER AWAY: Overnight Open Thread

Billboard Magazine reports: It’s been 30 years this week since Janet Jackson’s iconic Rhythm Nation 1814 LP lit-up the charts with No. 1 hits, including “Miss You Much,” “Black Cat” and “Escapade.” The pop-dance legend was honored this year with an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and she’s giving the love back to the fans with …

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Pentagon Jokes About Bombing Millennials At Area 51

The military blog Task & Purpose reports: On Friday DVIDSHUB tweeted a picture of a B-2 bomber on the flight line with a formation of airmen in front of it along with the caption: “The last thing #Millenials will see if they attempt the #area51raid today.” If death is easy and comedy is hard, jokes about wiping out millennials with …

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Trump: It’s A Ukraine Witch Hunt To Protect Sleepy Joe

The Hill reports: President Trump argued Saturday that Democrats in Congress have launched another “Witch Hunt” against him amid backlash over reports that he urged Ukraine’s president to launch an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden. In a tweet Saturday afternoon, the president asserted that Democrats were attempting to shield Biden from an investigation by going after him on …

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Tony Perkins Rages: House Democrats Want To Strip Tax-Exempt Status From Over 60 Christian Hate Groups

Via email from hate group leader Tony Perkins: Thursday’s hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee wasn’t the first time liberals have tried to use the IRS to do their dirty work — but it might be the most revealing. At a Thursday event that was either unnoticed by the press (or intentionally sidestepped by it), Democrats spent almost …

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George Conway: If Trump Threatened To Withhold Aid From Ukraine, It Would Be “Ultimate Impeachable Act”

From a Washington Post op-ed jointly authored by George Conway and former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal: So it appears that the president might have used his official powers — in particular, perhaps the threat of withholding a quarter-billion dollars in military aid — to leverage a foreign government into helping him defeat a potential political opponent in the United …

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Bernie Calls For Eliminating $81 Billion In Medical Debt

The New York Times reports: Bernie Sanders has long wanted to remake the health care system so no one will have to pay directly for medical care again. Now, he also wants to go back and cancel all the medical debts of people who have been billed under the current system. In a plan released Saturday, Mr. Sanders, the Vermont …

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