Good Wednesday morning.
Here is what’s on the president’s agenda today:
- The president has lunch with the Secretary of State
Whoohoo! NYC slashed $1 Billion from police budget!
Wow. Stay away from NYC, if you aren’t already, because they are blowing up their police force. On Tuesday, the New York City Council voted on a budget change that would move $1 billion from the police to “programs that assist in youth and community development.”
The City Council said in a statement that the city’s 2021 budget will include $837 million in cuts and transfers to the New York Police Department (NYPD) expense budget, which removes $1 billion from the NYPD’s spending when combined with associated costs.
Some were disappointed with the paltry sum. “Defunding police means defunding police. It does not mean budget tricks or funny math,” she said. One Twitter user wrote, “This is like putting the NYPD budget in Groucho Marx glasses and calling it a day.”
So what’s the big worry? New York City Council Minority Whip Joseph Borelli pointed out that there were “72 shootings last week alone, and not one shot by [a] NYPD officer.” But if the residents of NYC want a crippled police force and are cool with this level of gun violence and crime, let them have it. Good luck, dummies!
“We must always have safety and we will in this city, but we are also going to amplify both safety and fairness by reaching our young people more deeply than ever before,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said speaking from a press conference Tuesday. “And that’s what this budget is all about.”
What about safety and fairness for crime victims? Anyone, Anyone?
Related:
Crowd Gathers For ‘Occupy City Hall’ Protest In New York City
L.A. City Council Passes Motion to Replace Police with ‘Crisis Response’ for ‘Non-violent’ Calls
Kayleigh McEnany responds to the repeated leaks printed in the corporate media tabloids
At a press conference on Tuesday, Press Secretary Kaleigh McEnany made the following statement:
Hello, everyone. The front page of the New York Times is not the venue for discussing classified information. The White House podium is not the venue for discussing classified information. We are here today, having this discussion, because of an irresponsible, anonymous leak to the New York Times. There is no good scenario as a result of this New York Times report.
Who’s going to want to cooperate with the United States intelligence community, who’s going to want to be a source or an asset, if they know that their identity could be disclosed? Which allies will want to share information with us if they know that some rogue intelligence officer can go splash that information on the front page of a major U.S. newspaper?
Specifically, there are two bad scenarios that emerge from this report: Number one, this report makes it more difficult to come to a consensus on this matter, to verify intelligence. And number two, this level of controversy and discord plays directly into the hands of Russia and, unfortunately, serves their interests.
Since before President Trump assumed office, damaging and oftentimes erroneous leaks seeking to undermine or delegitimize the duly elected president have been published. According to the DOJ, classified leaks surged in this administration. There were, under President Obama, just 39, on average, criminal leak referrals. In this administration, we’ve seen 100 criminal leak referrals to the DOJ in 2017, 88 in 2018, and 104 on average per year.
We have seen targeted leaks of classified information against this President, and it is irresponsible: phone calls with foreign leaders, meetings with government officials, and now reports of alleged intelligence. Make no mistake: This damages our ability, as a nation, to collect intelligence.
As the National Security Council noted just yesterday, “To those government officials who betray the trust of the people of the United States by leaking classified information, your actions endanger our national security.”
The ODNI said, “The selective leaking of any classified information disrupts the vital interagency work to collect, assess, and mitigate threats, and places our forces at risk. It is also, simply put, a crime.”
And finally, the CIA said this: that “Leaks compromise and disrupt the critical interagency work to collect, assess, and ascribe culpability.”
To the anonymous sources who leak classified information, you should know this: You may seek to undermine our President, but in fact, you undermine our country’s safety and our country’s security.
And with that, I’ll take questions.
I’d like to add here a great point that Mollie Hemingway makes: “Iran reportedly offered the Taliban $1,000 bounties in 2010 for American soldiers’ deaths in Afghanistan. Not only was no action taken by President Obama at the time, six years later, he authorized the payment of $1.7 billion to the regime.”
It’s almost as if there is a double standard.
Related:
LULZ. Biden says he may request classified briefing on alleged Russian bounties
Other morsels:
Joe Biden Claims, Without Evidence, He’s Taken Cognitive Function Test
Trump-backed five-term Republican lawmaker loses primary to far-right challenger
Terrible. Tim Scott blasts ‘liberal Democrats’ for sending him racist messages: ‘Audacious, repugnant behavior’
Facebook Just Labeled the Boogaloos a ‘Dangerous Organization’ and Banned 500 Groups and Pages
Texas breaks record with nearly 7,000 new coronavirus cases
DeSantis says Florida ‘not going back’ on reopening as COVID-19 cases surge
‘I Think We Should Largely Be Left Free’: Rand Paul Sounds Off On Schools, Lockdowns And Mandatory Masking
Alabama students partied despite knowing they had coronavirus, officials say
Dr. Fauci says drinking at bars should stop ‘right now’ to stem spread of COVID-19
China discovers new swine flu with pandemic potential
Harvard drops policy against single-sex clubs after lawsuit
California bill would shield health officer addresses as death threats rise
Kushner shakes up Trump campaign team
Mississippi drops Confederate-themed flag with new bill
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ car hits BLM protester who ‘intentionally’ blocked it: report
Armed St. Louis homeowner speaks out: ‘When I saw that mob … I thought that we would be overrun in a second’
YouTube suspends monetization on Shane Dawson’s channels indefinitely after his apology for racist actions
Yikes. Kellyanne Conway’s teen daughter hopes to help ‘educate’ with TikToks opposing Trump, supporting Black Lives Matter
Time magazine blasted after writer calls for superheroes to be ‘re-examined’ along with police
Black Lives Matter mural in Cleveland vandalized by black conservative, councilman says
LAPD morale sinks amid ‘vilification,’ ‘constant verbal battering of our profession,’ union boss says
Arizona ammo supplier to Las Vegas massacre gunman gets prison time: reports
NAFTA is officially gone. Here’s what has and hasn’t changed
New Orleans housing leader warns of ‘eviction’ avalanche as end of COVID-19 aid looms
Robert E. Lee’s descendant says taking down Confederate symbols a ‘no-brainer’
And that’s all I’ve got, now go beat back the angry mob!