“Does saint laurent want to send ppl to the hospital or to the damn grave.”
They are only sold in stores, but some lucky celebs, like Steve Harvey's wife Marjorie, have already snagged them.
Trump and Turnbull in New York City in May.
Nathan Edwards/Newspix / Getty Images
President Donald Trump told Malcolm Turnbull that the Australian prime minister was "worse" for refugees than he is, according to a leaked transcript of a heated January phone call between the two leaders in which Trump repeatedly called Australia's offshore immigration detention facilities "prisons."
The Washington Post on Thursday published a leaked transcript of the first phone calls between President Trump and the leaders of Australia and Mexico. The same newspaper in February broke the news of the anger with which Trump spoke to the leader of Australia, a close US ally.
"That is a good idea. We should do that too," Trump told Turnbull after the prime minister explained how Australia holds people who arrive in the country via boat without the required visas in detention facilities in Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island. "You are worse than I am."
Turnbull spent the vast majority of the phone call trying to convince Trump to honor a deal struck under President Obama under which the US agreed to resettle up to 1,250 refugees in exchange for Australia taking refugees from Central America. On Feb. 1, after their phone call, Trump tweeted that the deal was "dumb," but Vice President Mike Pence said definitively in April that the new administration would honor the agreement.
During their phone call, Trump repeatedly appeared to be unfamiliar with the specifics of the deal; he inquired whether it was negotiated by Obama, mistakenly said it would require him to accept 2,000 refugees ("I have also heard like 5,000 as well," Trump said at one point), and at one point asked, "What is the thing with boats? Why do you discriminate against boats?"
"This is going to kill me," Trump said of the deal. "I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country. And now I am agreeing to take 2,000 people and I agree I can vet them, but that puts me in a bad position. It makes me look so bad and I have only been here a week."
"With great respect, that is not right – It is not 2,000," Turnbull responded.
Trump speaks on the phone with Turnbull on Jan. 28.
Drew Angerer / Getty Images
Trump was also concerned that his abiding by the deal after implementing his January travel ban would make him look weak. He also expressed concern that the refugees would bring terrorism to the US:
"I guarantee you they are bad. That is why they are in prison right now. They are not going to be wonderful people who go on to work for the local milk people," Trump said.
"I would not be so sure about that," Turnbull replied. "They are basically —"
"Well, maybe you should let them out of prison," Trump responded.
The conservative Australian government describes the facilities as immigration detention facilities, not prisons. Nonetheless, the harsh conditions and indefinite detention have been denounced by human rights groups.
Trump said that honoring the "rotten" deal would make him look "foolish," complaining that the US would be "a dumping ground". At one point, the president appeared unfamiliar as to the nationalities of the Boston Bombers:
TRUMP: Does anybody know who these people are? Who are they? Where do they come from? Are they going to become the Boston bomber in five years? Or two years? Who are these people?
TURNBULL: Let me explain. We know exactly who they are. They have been on Nauru or Manus for over three years and the only reason we cannot let them into Australia is because of our commitment to not allow people to come by boat. Otherwise we would have let them in. If they had arrived by airplane and with a tourist visa then they would be here.
TRUMP: Malcom [sic], but they are arrived on a boat?
TURNBULL: Correct, we have stopped the boats.
TRUMP: Give them to the United States. We are like a dumping ground for the rest of the world. I have been here for a period of time, I just want this to stop. I look so foolish doing this. It [sic] know it is good for you but it is bad for me. It is horrible for me. This is what I am trying to stop. I do not want to have more San Bernardino’s or World Trade Centers. I could name 30 others, but I do not have enough time.
TURNBULL: These guys are not in that league. They are economic refugees.
TRUMP:Okay, good. Can Australia give me a guarantee that if we have any problems – you know that is what they said about the Boston bombers. They said they were wonderful young men.
TURNBULL: They were Russians. They were not from any of these countries.
TRUMP: They were from wherever they were.
Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Images
Trump told Turnbull he had spoken with the leaders of Russia, Germany, Japan, and France, that same day, "and this was my most unpleasant call because I will be honest with you."
Ultimately, the president told the prime minister he would say he had "no choice" but to honor Obama's deal, before curtly ending the phone call. "Putin was a pleasant call. This is ridiculous," he said:
TRUMP: I do not know where they find these people to make these stupid deals. I am going to get killed on this thing.
TURNBULL: You will not.
TRUMP: Yes, I will be seen as a weak and ineffective leader in my first week by these people. This is a killer.
TURNBULL: You can certainly say that it was not a deal that you would have done, but you are going to stick with it.
TRUMP: I have no choice to say that about it. Malcom [sic], I am going to say that I have no choice but to honor my predecessor’s deal. I think it is a horrible deal, a disgusting deal that I would have never made. It is an embarrassment to the United States of America and you can say it just the way I said it. I will say it just that way. As far as I am concerned that is enough Malcom [sic]. I have had it. I have been making these calls all day and this is the most unpleasant call all day. Putin was a pleasant call. This is ridiculous.
TURNBULL: Do you want to talk about Syria and DPRK?
TRUMP: [inaudible] this is crazy.
TURNBULL: Thank you for your commitment. It is very important to us.
TRUMP: It is important to you and it is embarrassing to me. It is an embarrassment to me, but at least I got you off the hook. So you put me back on the hook.
TURNBULL: You can count on me. I will be there again and again.
TRUMP: I hope so. Okay, thank you Malcolm.
TURNBULL: Okay, thank you.
LINK: Here's Everything That Happened On Turnbull And Trump's Very Spiffy First Date
LINK: People Are Roasting Malcolm Turnbull After Donald Trump Apparently Owned Him In A Phone Call
Glenn C.Silva / AP
Michelle Carter, the young woman convicted of involuntary manslaughter after she sent text messages to her boyfriend urging him to kill himself, is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.
A Massachusetts judge in June found Carter, 20, guilty encouraging her 18-year-old boyfriend, Conrad Roy, to take his own life three years ago.
Roy killed himself on July 12, 2014 by inhaling carbon monoxide produced by a water pump in his truck. The teen — who had a history of mental illness and had previously attempted suicide — got out of the truck because he was "scared," but Carter urged him to "get back in," according to text messages she exchanged with her friends.
Judge Lawrence Moniz
Glenn C. Silva / AP
Carter waived her right to a jury trial, leaving her fate to be decided by Judge Lawrence Moniz, who returned with a guilty verdict.
During Thursday's sentencing hearing, Moniz will decide if Carter should go to prison for her role in Roy's death.
Delivering his verdict in June, Moniz said that Carter's actions constituted "wanton and reckless conduct" when she instructed Roy to get back in his truck despite knowing that it was a toxic environment "inconsistent with human life." He said that her conduct caused Roy's death.
Carter, who was 17 at the time of Roy's death, was charged as a youthful offender which means she is eligible for adult-level sentencing.
She faces up to 20 years in prison, but it is unlikely that she will receive that maximum sentence, according to legal experts.
"I would be shocked if she got the maximum sentence," Daniel Medwed, a professor of law and criminal justice at Northeastern University School of Law, told BuzzFeed News on Wednesday.
Medwed said that he "strongly believed" Moniz would sentence her to prison, because during trial the judge "could barely conceal his disdain for her when he rendered the verdict."
However, he said that Moniz might favor leniency in the prison term, given Carter's relative youth at the time of the incident, her documented history of mental health troubles, and evidence of taking antidepressants as presented by her defense lawyers during the trial.
Conrad Roy
Court exhibits
At the trial, prosecutors showed the court numerous text messages between Carter and Roy to prove that she pressured Roy to kill himself, instructed him as to when and how to do it, assuaged his concerns over killing himself, and chastised him when he delayed doing so.
They argued that Carter used Roy as a "pawn in her sick game of life and death" and wanted to be "the grieving girlfriend" to gain her peers' attention and sympathy, which she always craved.
Carter's defense lawyers argued that Roy's suicide was his own choice and that Carter was neither present when he killed himself, nor did she inflict physical harm on him. A controversial psychiatrist testified that Carter was "involuntary intoxicated" on antidepressants before Roy's suicide, which led her to become "grandiose" and "delusional."
While the judge did not give credence to the psychiatrist's contention in his verdict, it is likely that he will consider Carter's mental health issues and medication as mitigating factors in the sentencing, Medwed said.
He suggested that victim impact statements from the Roy family will also play a role in Moniz's decision.
"It will be very important in what they have to say," Medwed said. "Are they very angry? Do they want her to be punished severely? Are some of them expressing forgiveness?"
Roy's father and sister
Pat Greenhouse / AP
One of Roy's aunts, Kim Bozzi, is expected to ask the judge to send her away for 20 years, according to a statement she plans to read at Thursday's hearing, the Boston Herald reported.
"I believe she should be kept far away from society,” Bozzi wrote in the statement obtained by the Herald.
"Take away the spotlight that she so desperately craves. Twenty years may seem extreme but it is still twenty more than Conrad will ever have," she wrote.
In a letter to Moniz, Carter's father, David Carter, pleaded with the judge for leniency and asked for her to be sentenced to probation and "continued counseling," the Herald reported.
"She will forever live with what she has done and I know will be a better person because of it," David Carter wrote in his letter. "I ask of you to invoke leniency in your decision-making process for my loving child Michelle."
He asked the judge to consider that his daughter was a "troubled, vulnerable teenager in an extremely difficult situation" and "made a tragic mistake."
Carter's lawyers will likely appeal the verdict in higher courts after the sentencing. Joseph Cataldo, her defense lawyer, declined to provide a comment to BuzzFeed News before the sentencing.
Medwed believes there's a "fairly good chance" the conviction could be reversed on appeal "based on causation," in that Carter didn't directly cause Roy's death, he caused his own death. "It was his decision, which broke the connection between her behavior and the result," Medwed said.
"What Carter did was abhorrent and atrocious but I'm not sure it was manslaughter," Medwed added. "The conviction is vulnerable on appeal."
He said the best solution would be for the Massachusetts legislature to create a law that would criminalize coerced suicide in the state.
LINK: The Woman Who Encouraged Her Boyfriend To Kill Himself Is Found Guilty Of Involuntary Manslaughter
LINK: Can You Kill Someone Via Text Message? One Judge Will Now Decide
LINK: Court Releases The Suicide Note A Teen Wrote To The Girlfriend Who Urged Him To Kill Himself
LINK: This Heartbreaking Video From The Teen Whose Girlfriend Demanded He Kill Himself Was Released Today
LINK: Friends Of The Woman Who Urged Her Boyfriend To Kill Himself Read Her Texts Out Loud In Court Today
LINK: Trial Begins For The Woman Accused Of Texting Her Boyfriend Instructions To Kill Himself
The purest form of social media management is accidental.
Josephsen family
Facebook: JosephsenHardwoodFloors
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President Trump stormed into office promising an exhausting number of wins, but he's floundered in his attempts to undo his predecessor’s signature accomplishment. Trump’s White House has frequently stumbled with court delays, public backlash, and spectacular failures in Congress — particularly on health care.
But just a mile away from the White House, the Trump administration is notching a flurry of wins over the Obama administration, as some of the biggest victories of Trump’s presidency are being accomplished by the man Trump has spent much of the last several weeks publicly ridiculing.
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions is winning constantly, as the White House lurches between crises. Hardly a week goes by that Sessions doesn't rescind a policy, reverse a court position, or issue an order that erases another signature step from the previous administration.
Sessions has been surgically dismantling the legacy of Obama’s former attorney generals, Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, on civil rights, criminal justice, and voting access.
And yet, Trump has been whipping Sessions as “very weak,” saying he’s “very disappointed” that his “beleaguered” attorney general recused himself from the Russia investigation and has not taken steps to investigate Hillary Clinton.
But Sessions slogs on in utter deference.
"Sessions is moving rather swiftly to dismantle civil rights progress.”
As a Justice Department official put it to BuzzFeed News this week, “The Attorney General is a workhorse who is committed to fulfilling the president’s agenda as expeditiously as possible.”
Sessions’ success has become dismay for the people who created Obama’s legal legacy.
"For us, when we were leading the Department of Justice, there was a keen sense that some of the most most significant work had a target on it, and this has borne out to be true,” Vanita Gupta, who ran the department’s Civil Rights Division from 2014 to 2017, told BuzzFeed News. “There is no questions that Attorney General Sessions is moving rather swiftly to dismantle civil rights progress.”
As attorney general for most of Obama’s presidency, Holder told every prosecutor under his watch to stop filing charges that mandate multi-year prison terms in certain lower-tier, nonviolent drug cases. He later blocked federal cooperation on many asset seizures that enrich local police departments.
But within months of taking office, Sessions has reinstated those property forfeitures — including seizures from suspects who haven't been convicted of a crime — and enacted a policy to once again seek long mandatory prison terms.
And where Holder was harshly criticized for placing a lower priority on busting noncitizens in the country illegally, Sessions has vowed to step up enforcement against those immigrants and warned so-called sanctuary cities he'd deny them grants.
Sessions has also repealed guidance this year to protect transgender students, and his office sent letters to every state demanding records on how they purge voters from their rolls. The Justice Department is now expected to push against affirmative action policies at American universities that it believes are discriminating against white or Asian-American applicants, the New York Times reported on Tuesday night.
“It seems like their policy announcements are directly contradictory to all the work we did to make justice more fair and more effective over the past eight years," Dena Iverson, a former spokesperson for the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division under Obama, said in an interview with BuzzFeed News.
Part of that work was phasing out private prisons under Lynch, who replaced Holder in 2015. The department issued a memo in August 2016 saying the private facilities lacked adequate services and security to properly handle inmates.
But in February, Sessions reinstated their use, suggesting the inmate population would thrive. In a memo, he said that cutting the for-profit facilities "impaired the...ability to meet the future needs of the federal corrections system."
Iverson reflected, "It’s disheartening to see evidence-based policies that we put in place being undone for what seems like purely ideological reasons.”
Paul Zimmerman / WireImage
Dismantling Obama’s legacy was a goal from the Trump campaign's ideological corners. Stephen Moore, a campaign adviser and senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said in an interview with the New Yorker last year he envisioned a project for Trump’s first day: “Trump spends several hours signing papers — and erases the Obama Presidency.”
The Heritage Foundation’s John Malcolm told BuzzFeed News that Sessions has been essentially doing just that — repairing the past administration's “misguided attempt to bend the law in a political direction.”
"I think Jeff Sessions has been quite aggressive at implementing policies he said he would,” said Malcolm, whose group had key staff advising the Trump transition. Trump has frustrated some Republicans by going too far on issues like asset seizure and sentencing, but still, Malcolm added, “Sessions is moving quickly and decisively."
As much as Trump crafted his presidency around opposition to Obama, Sessions has long nurtured his own distaste for Obama’s AGs. When Sessions sat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, he supported Holder's appointment in 2009 — a time when Democrats controlled Congress and voting against him would have been futile. Still, Sessions said in a floor speech that he worried for "my beloved Department of Justice” and cautioned that Holder “made many serious errors” when he served under former president Clinton. “We do need to eliminate politics from this office,” he said, pointing out that some of Holder’s deputy appointments “disturb me.”
“We don’t need to the Department of Justice to become a liberal bastion,” Sessions warned.
Sessions immediately set to work breaking down that bastion once he arrived at the Justice Department. The day after being sworn in, on Feb. 10, Sessions dropped the Obama Justice Department's court defense of guidelines that protected transgender students and workers from discrimination. He later walked back he government's defense of a rule that said health insurance must cover transgender people and women seeking abortions under Obamacare. Sessions told the court the government would "reconsider” the policy.
“We don’t need to the Department of Justice to become a liberal bastion,” Sessions warned in 2009.
On the LGBT front last week, Sessions filed a brief in federal appeals court to declare a 1964 civil rights law doesn't protect gay workers from discrimination, thereby putting the Justice Department at odds with the other federal agency that handled civil rights law in the workplace.
Holder and Lynch had also made banks pay community groups, such as those assisting with housing, as part of settlements. Reuters reported the Justice Department negotiated $46 billion in settlements with US banks between 2013 and 2016 that in part directed funds those organizations.
But Sessions issued a memo banning the practice on June 5, saying the funds should only go to government and victims.
Sessions "doesn’t have to go through Congress to change policies," Iverson said, contrasting the attorney general’s nimble work with Trump’s. "It's easier for him to make those changes, whether it’s through sentencing guidelines or enforcement priorities."
Trump, however, has spent more time berating Sessions than taking ownership over his successes.
By bullying Sessions, Malcolm said, Trump is facing "blowback, not just from the public but from conservatives, particularly Republican senators."
Gupta also defends Sessions from Trump’s attempts to bully him, saying, “Those type of attacks really attack the Justice Department's independence and the institution's mandate to ensure that nobody is above the law."
Sessions, though, by being slightly removed from Trump’s spotlight, has been able to do his work relatively under the radar.
"What worries me is that there is very little bandwidth in the media to cover much more than the daily cabaret acts of the White House,” said Gupta. “Every one of those rollbacks on civil rights is going to impose significant harm on the most vulnerable communities, and very few people have the bandwidth to pay attention.”
Many of Sessions’ actions simply don't get blasted across cable news, Trump's favorite medium.
Many of Sessions’ actions simply don't get blasted across cable news, Trump's favorite medium, because they're mildly arcane and pale compared to developments like Trump firing his smack-talking, brand-new communications director.
Gupta and Iverson encouraged that some civil rights work remains largely untouchable: police settlements are controlled by federal courts and prisoners remain released on clemency. Hundreds of career staff who worked under Obama continue on in the Civil Rights Division under Trump.
But as long as he can survive Trump’s current frustrations, Sessions is just getting started.
There are still many Obama-era policies that Sessions is actively targeting. Where Holder's deputy stamped a policy to tolerate legal marijuana operations in several states, Sessions has brought that back on the table. He said federal prohibition still applies and commissioned a subcommittee to make recommendations on how and whether to override Holder's mellow pot policy.
Gupta also fears Sessions will soon try to use state voter data to try purging voters rolls.
The Department of Justice may have been a liberal bastion under Holder and Lynch. But as long as Sessions stays lodged in place, his beloved Justice Department can instead be a conservative battering ram.
President Donald Trump after speaking at the National Boy Scout Jamboree.
Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday said that despite what President Trump says, he did not actually get a phone call from the leader of the Boy Scouts complimenting his controversial speech at the annual jamboree.
Trump's speech in late July to a national gathering of thousands of Boy Scouts in West Virginia was criticized by many for being overtly political at an event where prior presidents have focused on subjects like volunteering and giving back. In response to the blowback, the chief executive of Boy Scouts of America later apologized that "politics were inserted into the Scouting program."
But in an interview with the Wall Street Journal last week — the transcript of which was released by Politico on Tuesday — Trump said that he received a call from the head of the Boy Scouts, and was told his speech to the organization and thousands of scouts was the "greatest."
"And I got a call from the head of the Boy Scouts saying it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them, and they were very thankful," Trump was quoted as saying.
However, an official with the Boy Scouts of America told BuzzFeed News on Tuesday that they were unaware of any such phone call to the president.
When asked about the discrepancy at a White House briefing on Wednesday, Sanders acknowledged there was no phone call, saying that the president instead was referring to an in-person conversation.
"Why did the president say that he received a phone call from the leader of the Boy Scouts and the president of Mexico when he did not? Did he lie?" the reporter asked.
(On Monday, Trump claimed the president of Mexico had called him about fewer border crossings into the US, which Mexican officials have denied.)
"No. On Mexico, he was referencing a conversation that they had had at the G20 Summit, where they specifically talked about the issues that he referenced," Sanders responded. "In terms of the Boy Scouts, multiple members of the Boy Scout leadership, following his speech there that day, congratulated him, praised him, and offered quite... I'm looking for the word, quite powerful compliments following his speech."
"But the president specifically said that he received a phone call from the President of Mexico..." the reporter pressed.
"They were direct conversations, not phone calls," Sanders said.
"So he lied, he didn't receive a phone call," the reporter asked.
"I wouldn't say it's a lie. That's a pretty bold accusation," Sanders responded. "It's..the conversations took place, they just simply didn't take place over a phone call. He had them in person."
LINK: These Are The 11 Most WTF Things Trump Actually Said In A Wall Street Journal Interview
LINK: Boy Scouts Of America Chief "Regrets" That Trump Inserted Political Rhetoric At Scouting Event
It’s not even what the museum has it labeled as.
Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago / Via oi.uchicago.edu
