Things You May Have Missed …

Posted on by under Free Press Issues, Global Issues, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry

Okay, so you surely did not miss the fact that Trump blew up after finding Melania watching CNN while en route to Brussels two weeks ago.  And you surely did not miss the report that the House Freedom Caucus has begun impeachment proceedings against Rod Rosenstein, while Trump continues to call the Mueller investigation a ‘witch hunt’.  You don’t need me to keep you informed of those things.  But in amidst all the muck, there are a few things you might not have noticed, so here is a brief roundup of three I caught last night.

Another blow to freedom of the press …

kaitlan-collinsKaitlan Collins is a reporter for CNN.  Yesterday morning, Ms. Collins attended an “Oval Office press event”, and planned to attend the subsequent photo op ceremony in the Rose Garden with the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker.  She never made it to the second event.  Why?  Because she asked questions that Donald Trump, Communication Director Bill Shine, and Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders didn’t like.  They were not inappropriate questions.  They were questions about the same things that are on everyone’s mind:  Vladimir Putin’s postponed visit and the Michael Cohen tapes.  Fair game.  But in the Trump administration, there is no sense of fair play.

It is telling that even CNN’s traditional rival and Trump’s favoured network, Fox News, came to Collins’ defense:

“We stand in strong solidarity with CNN for the right to full access for our journalists as part of a free and unfettered press.” – Jay Wallace, President of Fox News

And from the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) …

“We strongly condemn the White House’s misguided and inappropriate decision today to bar one of our members from an open press event after she asked questions they did not like. This type of retaliation is wholly inappropriate, wrong-headed, and weak. It cannot stand. Reporters asking questions of powerful government officials, up to and including the president, helps hold those people accountable. In our republic, the WHCA supports the prerogative of all reporters to do their jobs without fear of reprisal from the government.” – Olivier Knox, President of the WHCA

This is nothing less than a significant blow against a free press and one that we simply cannot tolerate.  Shutting out the press is only the first step.

Whose idea was it?

Trump’s former paramour, Stormy Daniels, was arrested in Columbus, Ohio on July 12th.  This is the woman, you may remember, to whom Trump via his then-attorney Michael Cohen, paid $130,000 shortly before the 2016 election to buy her silence about their affair.  When I read of her arrest, red flags went up and my nose twitched, but I soon forgot about it in light of other news, for Trump had just left behind his trail of detritus at NATO and was now in the UK, prepared to leave more droppings.  But yesterday, the story found its way back onto my radar …

stormy daniels

Stormy Daniels

Police said that Daniels violated an Ohio law by “touching” patrons of the strip club where she was performing.  Hmmm … sound fishy?  Well it is.  Turns out that those ‘patrons’ were actually undercover Vice cops.  The charges against Ms. Daniels were dropped 12 hours later, and Police Chief Kim Jacobs apologized and called it a “mistake.”

A whistleblower from the City of Columbus contacted the Fayette Advocate with numerous emails between several high-ranking Columbus police detectives and VICE officers. Inside the emails are news clippings discussing Daniels’ planned appearance in Columbus, pictures of Daniels with President Donald Trump, videos of her dancing, and even a map to the club where she would be performing, all sent days before her scheduled performance.

The bulk of the emails that the whistleblower provided are from the email account of Detective Shana Keckley. Keckley was one of the lead-arresting officers the night that the “sting” operation went down.

Shana Keckley

Shana Keckley

In an email dated Tuesday, July 10 — two days before Daniels arrived in Columbus — Keckley emails herself a video of Daniels in West Hollywood. Not long after, the VICE detective emails herself a link to an NBC 4 Columbus story promoting Daniels’ planned appearance.   In another email, several hours after Ms. Daniels’ arrest, Keckley writes to another police officer bragging about Daniel’s arrest, saying, “You’re Welcome!!!!!….Thank me in person later.”

Is this just the work of a bunch of local yokels, or did the orders come from ‘higher up’?  Draw your own conclusions.

Today is the deadline …

Today is the court-imposed deadline for the federal government to have re-united the immigrant children who were separated from their parents and held in detention centers around the nation.  Now tell me honestly, do you think they are even close to 100% on this one?  Nah, me neither.immigrant child-2According to the most recent government figures, the administration is on track to reunite most if not all “eligible” parents with their children by the court-mandated deadline. On Tuesday evening, the administration said it has reunited 1,012 parents with their kids between the ages of 5 and 17.  There was a time, say a year-and-a-half ago, that I might have taken this information at face value, but not today.  There is no way for you or I to either prove or disprove the numbers, and frankly, I don’t believe them.  But even if I did believe them, I have concerns about the government determining who is an “eligible” parent.  The parents were with their children when they came here.  They were ‘eligible’ parents on the day HHS took their children from them.  I don’t think it is our place to deem a parent ineligible to get their children back unless it can be proven that the child would be in danger.

One parent was declared ineligible for having received a DUI.  Sorry, I don’t see how that disqualifies him from being reunited with his child.  Perhaps having his child taken from him led to his drinking.  Two others are grandparents instead of parents and thus their grandchildren, who were with them as they crossed the border, are still being withheld from them.  And, of course, there are nearly 500 parents in total that have been deported and HHS claims they are unable to reunite the children.

I will have more about this later, for I want to know just what the plans for the rest of these children are – will HHS continue trying to reunite them, or are they planning to place them in private foster homes, or are they planning to keep them in detention centers indefinitely?  Below is a summary of the results as of yesterday morning.  Please note that there are still 1,584 children who have not yet been reunited with their parents.Separated-Children-7-25-1Let’s keep our eye on this ball, folks, for I’m fairly certain Trump & Co would like nothing better than for it to fade from the news and from our minds & hearts.

It is easy to lose sight of some things with the constant barrage of news facing us each day.  Some things, though, are just too important to lose sight of.

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37 thoughts on “Things You May Have Missed …”

  1. We simply can’t let everyone forget the children. Trump plays that “bait and switch” game too well. But the press issue is really scary. As is his putting together an “enemies” list…

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Fresh from the Whitehouse:
    ‘As from today the 1st January 2017, will be designated the ‘1st $ of the AT’ (The Age of Trump), and each day afterwards given the subsequent number’
    This day 537th $ of the AT.
    ( In the begining was Trump. And the Word was Trump)…proposed opening to the ‘New Truth Bible’

    Liked by 3 people

  5. The plan is, I gather, to make sure there are enough things going on at once to erase the past. We get so caught up in the present that we cannot recall what happened yesterday, much less last Spring. We are thus forced to live in the present whether we like it or not — and it may be a good thing in sports, but it plays havoc in our day-to-day goings and comings. Thanks for helping us hold on to some of the important things we need to remember.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Yes, that seems to be the plan … and to have so many shiny objects in the air at once that we can give none of them our full, undivided attention. Some days I’m sure my brain will simply explode for all the info I keep trying to cram into it. 🙄

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Things that I did not miss, but I find your take on them quite thought provoking. Sarah Huckabee Sanders response to the CNN reporter being barred was her typical rotted tongue rhetoric…”she shouted questions and refused to leave despite repeatedly being asked to do so.” I mean, in the face of such hostility, what else could poor Sarah do but bar Collins? Stormy Daniels! Think that maybe another payoff is warranted by…oh, wait a minute, Trump’s fix-it guy isn’t fixing anymore! The Children should all be reunited with their parents. This travesty that never have happened in the first place is still not resolved. Trump and Co. will most likely blame someone else for this, maybe the children themselves, anywhere but where the blame rightly falls…on his doorstep! Thank-you!

    Liked by 3 people

    • Thanks, Ellen! About those children … just over half, or just under half, depending on who you believe, were reunited by the deadline, and yet the White House said that “most” of the children had been reunited. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

      Liked by 1 person

  7. Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
    The awful ‘creature’ using up all the oxygen in the room takes the spotlight off of these ver important stories … there’s more out there than the Drumpf-Cohen tapes!!
    In case you missed these … take a look!!

    Liked by 2 people

  8. Is Kaitlan Collins the first casualty in the rise of a Dictator ? After all, the number one thing wannabe Dictators are told is to remove the free press or stop their access to information. No this is just pettiness on behalf of the administration and I doubt Trump even knows about this one. Just the revenge of his press corps. What did amaze me in this story was the support from Fox. What’s changed. I thought they relished their position as Presidents Press Pets who were at times the only ones with access to him. Are they undergoing a change of heart ?
    Cwtch

    Liked by 3 people

    • Don’t forget he refused to take a question from Jim Costa. “I don’t take questions from CNN-fake news”. Other reporters came to Kaitlan Collins’ defense saying she was just doing her job – just like everyone else. Cohen is looking for a deal. He is saying DJT knew about the Russian-dirt-on-Hilary meeting and gave the OK to Junior. Doesn’t have proof apparently? Will see.

      Liked by 3 people

    • Actually no, Kaitlan is not the first, but only the most recent. Trump’s continual denigration of the legitimate press is as much a blow to freedom of the press as is the banning of a single reporter. Sanders’ refusal to answer questions from certain reporters is telling. There are many incidents that point to a paring of press freedoms. Trump definitely knew about this one, for it was he who refused to even answer Ms. Collins’ questions, and my guess is he told Shine & Sanders to ‘get her outta here’. More than pettiness, I think … at least it feels more ominous to me.

      I’m not sure on the Fox thing … defending one of their own? They have not been happy with Trump the past 2 weeks, for some of his actions have been hard to defend, even for Fox. Who knows? I was pleased by it, though.

      Cwtch

      Liked by 2 people

  9. I don’t really know what to say. So many terrible things. I don’t know how you cope, thank you for keeping us all informed, it’s a terrible soul-draining task you have taken on. Big hugs Jill X 💐

    Liked by 2 people

  10. From: https://jonathanturley.org/2018/07/26/sirens-emails-appear-to-confirm-that-stormy-daniels-was-selectively-targeted-by-ohio-detective-and-her-uncover-teams/

    The arresting officials insisted that they were at the Sirens strip club on an undercover mission entirely separate from the appearance of Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels. Emails now appear to contradict that account — raising not only the question of selective enforcement but political bias. There is also the question of the false statements allegedly made to investigators.

    According to The Fayette Advocate, Vice Detective Shana Keckley reportedly has emails that show that the team went to Sirens because of the announced appearance of Daniels. Keckley sent herself announcements of Daniels’ appearance. A whistleblower is quoted as saying that the team went to the club to arrest Daniels and relished the prospect.

    The question is whether the sheriff’s department will hold these officers accountable for their alleged selective enforcement and lying to investigators.

    Liked by 4 people

    • Mainly, for the purpose of this post, it matters because it is one of the ones that Trump denigrates the most. Meaning, likely, that they get close to the truth more often than not, and that they don’t pander to him. And it matters because … that free press thing, y’know? Cheers!!!

      Liked by 2 people

  12. You asked a great question, one I have asked others. What were the administration planning to do with all these children? If they deported the parents knowing they would be keeping the kids here in the US, what did they want the kids for? Were they planning to keep him in detention for the rest of their lives making profit for the for profit prison system? Were they planning to use them as indentured servants, a slave labor force? These are kids they did not want here, did not like , were treating like crap because they were brown, so what was the object of makings sure they were stuck here in the US? Hugs

    Liked by 3 people

    • I wish I had an answer to any of those questions, but I am fairly certain that even if they gave us an answer, we wouldn’t like it. As of the deadline, they reunited just under half, or just over half, depending on which media outlet you believe. Sigh. Hugs!!!

      Liked by 1 person

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