Last Call For Trump Cards, Con't

So the Washington Post dropped this story about Con Man Don Man this morning, it turns out he's been calling reporters and pretending to be a "Trump spokesman" for, oh, I dunno, 25 years or so.

A recording obtained by The Washington Post captures what New York reporters and editors who covered Trump’s early career experienced in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s: calls from Trump’s Manhattan office that resulted in conversations with “John Miller” or “John Barron” — public-relations men who sound precisely like Trump himself — who indeed are Trump, masquerading as an unusually helpful and boastful advocate for himself, according to the journalists and several of Trump’s top aides. 

In 1991, Sue Carswell, a reporter at People magazine, called Trump’s office seeking an interview with the developer. She had just been assigned to cover the soap opera surrounding the end of Trump’s 12-year marriage to Ivana, his budding relationship with the model Marla Maples and his rumored affairs with any number of celebrities who regularly appeared on the gossip pages of the New York newspapers. 

Within five minutes, Carswell got a return call from Trump’s publicist, a man named John Miller, who immediately jumped into a startlingly frank and detailed explanation of why Trump dumped Maples for the Italian model Carla Bruni. “He really didn’t want to make a commitment,” Miller said. “He’s coming out of a marriage, and he’s starting to do tremendously well financially.” 

Miller turned out to be a remarkably forthcoming source — a spokesman with rare insight into the private thoughts and feelings of his client. “Have you met him?” Miller asked the reporter. “He’s a good guy, and he’s not going to hurt anybody. . . . He treated his wife well and . . . he will treat Marla well.” 

Some reporters found the calls from Miller or Barron disturbing or even creepy; others thought they were just examples of Trump being playful. Today, as the presumptive Republican nominee for president faces questions about his attitudes toward women, what stands out to some who received those calls is Trump’s characterization of women who he portrayed as drawn to him sexually.

Two things: One, yes, the Post is right here, this is empirically relevant to Trump's presidential campaign, and  two, you've been sitting on this phone sock puppet story for 25 years, guys?  Really?

God our media sucks.  By the way, Trump may have brought this on himself:

Donald Trump on Thursday night lashed out at Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, arguing that Bezos bought the Washington Post to gain political power and keep Trump from cracking down on Amazon as president. 

"Every hour we’re getting calls from reporters from The Washington Post asking ridiculous questions and I will tell you, this is owned as a toy by Jeff Bezos, who controls Amazon. Amazon is getting away with murder tax-wise. He’s using the Washington Post for power so that the politicians in Washington don’t tax Amazon like they should be taxed," Trump said when Fox News' Sean Hannity asked about a comment from Bob Woodward that the Post had assigned 20 reporters to cover Trump.

"He’s worried about me," Trump added. "He thinks I would go after him for antitrust because he’s got a huge antitrust problem because he’s controlling so much." 

Trump said that Bezos bought the Washington Post "for practically nothing and he’s using that as a tool for political power against me and against other people and I’ll tell you what, we can’t let him get away with it."

So Trump says he's going after the press on Thursday, specifically the Washington Post, and the next morning we get the Washington Post going right back at Trump with this fake spokseman story.

It turns out that the only thing that will make our media do its job is assholes like Trump threatening their parent companies.

That's just depressing, really.

NC Goes Straight Into The Crapper, Con't

With the Justice Department making good on their threat to sue the state over HB2's Title IX violations of the Civil Rights Act, NC GOP Gov. Pat McCrory wants Republicans in Congress to maybe, you know, get rid of that part of the law altogether.

Speaking to CNN host Jake Tapper on Wednesday, McCrory accused Democrats of starting a fight over transgender bathroom rights by passing an ordinance in the City of Charlotte that allowed transgender people to visit public restrooms that correspond to their gender identity. 

“I think that this was an argument that we didn’t need to have,” McCrory opined. “But this is an agenda by the far left. And for some reason, the national media is saying the far right brought this up. I had no interest in this subject.” 

“But the Justice Department is basically making a civil rights claim that every private sector employer in the U.S. and every university in the United States must have gender expression or gender identity bathroom choices for individuals,” the governor complained. 

Tapper pointed out that transgender children “have a very difficult time fitting in, they have very high suicide rates.” 

“What are you telling the teachers at schools in North Carolina where, say, a 12-year-old who identifies as a girl, though her birth certificate says boy, what do you tell teachers about her if she’s using the girl’s bathroom?” the CNN host wondered. 

McCrory argued that the solution was to “make special circumstances” by allowing the transgender girl to use a segregated bathroom. 

“But now the Civil Right Division of the U.S. Justice Department has deemed those types of arrangements to be discriminatory,” McCrory remarked.

Right.  Charlotte's bathroom ordinance made it necessary for Republicans to pass a law in 12 hours that dealt with eliminating local minimum wage and ending the right to sue over labor discrimination in state courts.  Yeah,  Sure.  THEY picked that fight.

“But to have the Justice Department come out with a massive interpretation of the Civil Rights Act for every employer in the United States now is something that I think need clarification by the federal courts.” 

In fact, McCrory suggested that Congress should take a look at gutting the entire Civil Rights Act over the issue. 

“I think there’s a time where the Republicans and the Democrats in this Congress need to revisit the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and revisit all this issue,” the first-term governor opined. “Because these are complex issues and North Carolina for whatever reason politically has become the target by the left on this agenda.”

Gosh, we don't know why anyone would pick on us when all we did was make a state law enshrining discrimination against a certain minority class of people.  I can't imagine why the federal government would be upset at a Southern state doing that.

Meanwhile, let's talk about who are the bullies in this scenario.

While Republican state leaders have complained about being "bullied" by the federal government over House Bill 2, lobbyists in Raleigh tell WRAL News they and the businesses they represent are being bullied by state lawmakers seeking to silence business opposition to the new law.

Lobbyists say they've been told – either directly by legislative leaders or by lawmakers' staff – that, if they or the businesses they represent speak out publicly against House Bill 2, they can expect retribution from House and Senate leaders. 

Legislation they want won't move, and other bills could actually target them. 

WRAL News spoke with 11 lobbyists who have experienced or are aware of such actions, but none would speak on the record for fear they would lose business or be targeted for retribution. One has already lost business. 

One long-time lobbyist called the pressure a "gross abuse of power." Another veteran lobbyist labeled it "vicious," adding, "I've never seen anything like it." 

Rep. Chris Sgro, D-Guilford, an outspoken critic of House Bill 2, said he's heard about the problem. 

"It's really disturbing. It's a bullying tactic that potentially leadership is using," Sgro said. "If it’s true that businesses are being threatened that they need to ignore their bottom line in favor of terrible public policy, that’s just irresponsible. That needs to stop immediately.

It's one thing for a private business to say "we don't agree with this law."  It's another thing entirely for a government to punish private businesses for disagreeing with them, and that is literally the definition of the Freedom of Speech clause in the First Amendment.

So yeah, there's yet another civil rights violation that NC can look forward to being sued over.

The Curse Of Zimmerman

Am I the only person who thinks this story should be the start of a Steven King novel?

SALE: One .9-mm pistol — and whatever’s left of George Zimmerman’s bankrupt soul. 

The Florida neighborhood watchman who fatally shot unarmed teen Trayvon Martin in 2012 is putting the killer handgun up for auction — and hoping to fetch at least $5,000.
“I am honored and humbled to announce the sale of an American Firearm Icon,” 

Zimmerman wrote in his online description of the weapon. The perverted auction opens for bids at 11 a.m. Thursday. 

“The firearm for sale is the firearm that was used to defend my life and end the brutal attack from Trayvon Martin on 2/26/2012 ... Many have expressed interest in owning and displaying the firearm including The Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. This is a piece of American History,” Zimmerman wrote.

Understand that the person who purchases this weapon deserves all the bad karma in the universe for doing so, and like I said, that would make for a pretty gripping modern horror novel if you ask me.

Not as gripping however as the real-life horror of lives ended daily by guns in the US.  There's 32,000 or so stories there every year there, and David "KagroX" Waldman over at Daily Kos keeps the diary of those heart-breaking stories on a daily basis.

But to profit directly off your infamy like this?  A bankrupt soul indeed.  Steven King would have a field day.

StupidiNews!

• The Obama administration will issue a guidance letter to school districts across the nation on how to give transgender students access to bathroom facilities.
• Fragments of a 50,000-year-old axe have been dated and confirmed in Australia, showing one of the world's oldest examples of early human tool use.
• A senate hearing on Thursday turned into an opportunity for former Reagan Secretary of State James Baker to say that Donald Trump would make the world a far more dangerous place.
• The world's oldest person and the last remaining known American to have born in the 1800's, Susannah Mushatt Jones, has died at the age of 116.
• It's Walmart versus Visa as the retailer is suing the credit card company over fees and using PINs for using cards with embedded EMV security chips.