White House offers unapologetic defense of Trump tweets

The White House offered an unapologetic defense Thursday of President Trump’s tweets attacking MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski during a contentious televised press briefing.

Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders was grilled over whether Trump’s inflammatory tweet was beneath the dignity of the presidency, fueled a hostile political environment and set a bad example of how women should be treated by powerful men.

She responded by defending Trump and berating reporters for ignoring the president’s policy agenda on taxes, healthcare and infrastructure.

“The only person I see a war on is this president and everybody that works for him,” she said. “I don’t think you can expect someone to be personally attacked, day after day, minute by minute, and sit back. The American people elected a fighter.”

Sanders said Trump shows the dignity of his office “every day in the decisions he’s making, the focus and the priorities he’s laid out in his agenda.

“He’s not going to sit back and be attacked by the liberal media, Hollywood elites — and when they hit him, he’s going to hit back,” she said.

Trump’s outburst at Brzezinski escalated his long-running feud with the news media, a fight in which he appeared to gain the upper hand this week after CNN was forced to retract a story about the Russia probe.

But Trump’s decision to take aim at her looks, saying that the “Morning Joe” co-host had been “bleeding badly” from a “face-lift,” sparked bipartisan outrage in Washington.

“Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America,” GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) tweeted.

Critics on both side of the aisle took specific issue with Trump’s attack on a female reporter — Trump faced repeated allegations of sexism and harassment that bubbled up during his presidential campaign.

Kansas Republican Rep. Lynn Jenkins tweeted Thursday that Trump’s comments were “not okay,” adding that “we should be working to empower women.”

But Sanders pushed aside the notion that Trump’s tweets were sexist or a bad example for how to treat women.

“Everybody wants to make this an attack on a woman — what about the constant attacks that he receives or the rest of us?” she said.

“I’m a woman, I’ve been attacked by that show multiple times, but I don’t cry foul because of it.”

When another reporter followed up by asking if Sanders felt that the tweet set a good example for her children, she deflected by saying that God is the “one perfect role model.”

The spokesperson chided reporters for not focusing more on policy questions and the White House’s legislative agenda, saying that reporters are more consumed by investigations related to Russia election interference and possible collusion between Trump campaign aides and Moscow.

“The media’s focus on priorities don’t line up with the rest of America,” she said. “America is winning, and that is what we like to talk about, but you guys constantly ignore that narrative.”

But critics say Trump’s Twitter broadsides against the media and the Russia investigation are distractions from his policy message.

In addition to the healthcare debate on Capitol Hill, Trump’s staff planned out a series of messaging events called “Energy Week,” featuring a presidential speech about energy development later Thursday. Those events have been overshadowed by the president’s attack.

It also undercut his call for unity after this month’s shooting at a congressional baseball practice that left House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and others injured.

“We may have our differences, but we do well in times like these to remember everyone who serves in our nation’s capital is here because, above all, they love our country,” Trump said at the White House on June 14, the day of the shooting.

In: thehill 

Trump Mocks Mika Brzezinski; Says She Was ‘Bleeding Badly From a Face-Lift’

WASHINGTON — President Trump lashed out Thursday at the appearance and intellect of Mika Brzezinski, a co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” drawing condemnation from his fellow Republicans and reigniting the controversy over his attitudes toward women that nearly derailed his candidacy last year.

Mika Brzezinski in Trump Tower in November. Credit Evan Vucci/Associated Press. Image: https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/06/30/business/30trumpmedia1/30trumpmedia1-master768-v2.jpg

Mr. Trump’s invective threatened to further erode his support from Republican women and independents, both among voters and on Capitol Hill, where he needs negotiating leverage for the stalled Senate health care bill.

The president described Ms. Brzezinski as “low I.Q. Crazy Mika” and claimed in a series of Twitter posts that she had been “bleeding badly from a face-lift” during a social gathering at Mr. Trump’s resort in Florida around New Year’s Eve. The White House did not explain what had prompted the outburst, but a spokeswoman said Ms. Brzezinski deserved a rebuke because of her show’s harsh stance on Mr. Trump.

The tweets ended five months of relative silence from the president on the volatile subject of gender, reintroducing a political vulnerability: his history of demeaning women for their age, appearance and mental capacity.

“My first reaction was that this just has to stop, and I was disheartened because I had hoped the personal, ad hominem attacks had been left behind, that we were past that,” Senator Susan Collins, a moderate Republican from Maine who is a crucial holdout on the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, said in an interview.

“I don’t think it directly affects the negotiation on the health care bill, but it is undignified — it’s beneath a president of the United States and just so contrary to the way we expect a president to act,” she said. “People may say things during a campaign, but it’s different when you become a public servant. I don’t see it as undermining his ability to negotiate legislation, necessarily, but I see it as embarrassing to our country.”

A slew of Republicans echoed her sentiments. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who, like Ms. Collins, holds a pivotal and undecided vote on the health care bill, tweeted: “Stop it! The presidential platform should be used for more than bringing people down.”

Senator Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican who opposed Mr. Trump’s nomination during the presidential primaries, also implored him to stop, writing on Twitter that making such comments “isn’t normal and it’s beneath the dignity of your office.”

Senator James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma, added, “The president’s tweets today don’t help our political or national discourse and do not provide a positive role model for our national dialogue.”

Ms. Brzezinski responded by posting on Twitter a photograph of a box of Cheerios with the words “Made for Little Hands,” a reference to a longstanding insult about the size of the president’s hands. MSNBC said in a statement, “It’s a sad day for America when the president spends his time bullying, lying and spewing petty personal attacks instead of doing his job.”

Mr. Trump’s attack injected even more negativity into a capital marinating in partisanship and reminded weary Republicans of a political fact they would rather forget: Mr. Trump has a problem with the half of the population more likely to vote.

Representative Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas and others in the House criticized President Trump’s remarks on Thursday. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times. Image: https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/06/30/us/30dc-trumpwomen-3/30dc-trumpwomen-3-master675.jpg

Christine Matthews, a Republican pollster who specializes in the views of female voters, said the president’s use of Twitter to target a prominent woman was particularly striking, noting that he had used only one derogatory word — “psycho” — to describe the show’s other co-host, Joe Scarborough, and the remainder of his limited characters to hit upon damaging stereotypes of women.

“He included dumb, crazy, old, unattractive and desperate,” Ms. Matthews said.

“The continued tweeting, the fact that he is so outrageous, so unpresidential, is becoming a huge problem for him,” she added. “And it is particularly unhelpful in terms of building relationships with female Republican members of Congress, whose votes he needs for health care, tax reform and infrastructure.”

But it was unclear whether the vehemence of the president’s latest attack would embolden members of his party to turn disdain into defiance.

Senior Republicans, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, cycled through what has become a familiar series of emotions and calculations after the Twitter posts, according to staff members: a flash of anger, reckoning of possible damage and, finally, a determination to push past the controversy to pursue their agenda.

“Obviously, I don’t see that as an appropriate comment,” the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, said during a Capitol Hill news conference. Then he told reporters he wanted to talk about something else.

Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, demanded an apology, calling the president’s Twitter posts “sexist, an assault on the freedom of the press and an insult to all women.”

A spokeswoman for the president, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, urged the news media to move on, arguing during the daily White House briefing that Mr. Trump was “fighting fire with fire” by attacking a longtime critic.

Ms. Brzezinski had called the president “a liar” and suggested he was “mentally ill,” added Ms. Sanders, who defended Mr. Trump’s tweets as appropriate for a president.

Melania Trump, the president’s wife — who has said that, as first lady, she will embark on a campaign against cyberbullying — also rejected claims that her husband had done what she is charged with undoing.

“As the first lady has stated publicly in the past, when her husband gets attacked, he will punch back 10 times harder,” Mrs. Trump’s spokeswoman wrote in a statement, referring to the first lady’s remarks during the campaign.

Current and former aides say that Mr. Trump was chastened by the furor over the “Access Hollywood” tape that emerged in October, which showed him bragging about forcing himself on women, and that he had exhibited self-restraint during the first few months of his administration. But in the past week, the sense that he had become the victim of a liberal media conspiracy against him loosened those tethers.

Moreover, Mr. Trump’s oldest friends say it is difficult for him to distinguish between large and small slights — or to recognize that his office comes with the expectation that he moderate his behavior.

And his fiercest, most savage responses have almost always been to what he has seen on television.

”Morning Joe,” once a friendly bastion on left-leaning MSNBC, has become a forum for fiery criticism of Mr. Trump. One adviser to the president accused the hosts of trying to “destroy” the administration over several months.

After lashing out at Mr. Scarborough and Ms. Brzezinski at one point last summer, Mr. Trump told an adviser, “It felt good.”

Even before he began his campaign two years ago, Mr. Trump showed a disregard for civility when he made critical remarks on television and on social media, particularly about women.

He took aim at the actress Kim Novak, a star of 1950s cinema, as she presented during the 2014 Academy Awards, taking note of her plastic surgeries. Chagrined, Ms. Novak later said she had gone home to Oregon and not left her house for days. She accused Mr. Trump of bullying her, and he later apologized.

As a candidate, Mr. Trump was insensitive to perceptions that he was making sexist statements, arguing that he had a right to defend himself, an assertion Ms. Sanders echoed on Thursday.

After the first primary debate, hosted by Fox News in August 2015, Mr. Trump trained his focus on the only female moderator, Megyn Kelly, who pressed him on his history of making derogatory comments about women.

He told a CNN host that Ms. Kelly had “blood coming out of her wherever,” leaving Republicans squeamish and many thinking he was suggesting that Ms. Kelly had been menstruating. He refused to apologize and kept up the attacks.

Later, he urged his millions of Twitter followers to watch a nonexistent graphic video of a former Miss Universe contestant, Alicia Machado, whose weight gain he had parlayed into a media spectacle while he was promoting the pageant.

Mr. Trump went on to describe female journalists as “crazy” and “neurotic” on his Twitter feed at various points during the race. He derided reporters covering his campaign, Katy Tur of NBC and Sara Murray of CNN, in terms he rarely used about men.

His tweets on Thursday added strain to the already combative daily briefing, as reporters interrupted Ms. Sanders’s defense of the president to ask how she felt about them as a woman and a mother.

She responded that she had only “one perfect role model”: God.

“None of us are perfect,” she said.

 —

One of the reporters on this story, Glenn Thrush, has a contract for regular appearances on MSNBC.

Indicadores de Gobernanza Mundial, Perú comparado con el promedio de la OCDE y LAC, 2014

Cuadro elaborado por el Banco Mundial donde se muestra la ventajosa situación de la Calidad Regulatoria en el Perú frente a otros sub-indicadores importantes para una buena gobernanza. Nótese como el puntaje es mejor que el promedio de Latino América y el Caribe (LAC), aunque menor que el promedio de la OCDE. Mas datos en: http://can.pcm.gob.pe/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/oecd-integrity-review-peru-en.pdf

 

Cajera de banco desvió más de 5 millones de soles usando solo un USB

Katherine Morales La Cruz reveló ante la Policía que iba a recibir 50 mil soles por efectuar la transferencia fraudulenta.

https://youtu.be/rfWuRwh4c0Q

Las investigaciones de la Policía Nacional revelaron que la cajera del Banco de Crédito del Perú (BCP) Katherine Flor Morales La Cruz (33) utilizó una memoria USB para desviar más de 5 millones de soles a otras cuentas, según indicó ATV+.

Morales La Cruz contó a los agentes de la División de Investigación de Alta Tecnología (Divindat) de la Dirincri que iba a recibir 50 mil soles por efectuar las transferencias fraudulentas desde una ventanilla de la agencia ubicada en el Centro Comercial Mega Plaza (Independencia).

ATV+ señaló que la mujer insertó el USB en la computadora de su compañera de la ventanilla N°6, identificada como Flor Mery Melgarejo, aprovechando que esta última ingresaba en el turno tarde. El dispositivo contenía un sofisticado virus que permitió hacer la transferencia.

El dinero fue transferido a dos cuentas, una de Lima y otra de provincia, y fue retirado a los pocos minutos por 13 personas en Lima, Callao e Iquitos. La Policía estableció que toda la operación estaba debidamente coordinada.

Fue la gerente de la agencia del BCP en Mega Plaza la que se percató del dinero faltante. De inmediato dio aviso a la Policía Nacional, que descubrió a Morales La Cruz a través de las cámaras de seguridad.

La detenida fue puesta a disposición del Ministerio Público y será denunciada por el delito de acceso ilícito y fraude electrónico. El Banco de Crédito del Perú aclaró que las cuentas de sus clientes no se han visto afectadas y remarcó que colabora con las investigaciones.

Este hecho hizo recordar el caso de Cromwell Gálvez, quien se apropió de unos 2.5 millones de dólares, entre los años 1998 y 2003, cuando fue empleado de una agencia del Banco Continental. Él dilapidó el dinero en fiestas y orgías con las vedettes de la época.

En: elcomercio 

La Guerra de las Galaxias, de la ficción a la realidad

Al inicio de la conquista del espacio, las grandes potencias acordaron en la ONU que no habría armas en el espacio. A pesar de ello, sin que se sepa si ese país ha violado o no ese principio, Estados Unidos ha desplegado toda una gama de armamento destinado a destruir los satélites “enemigos”, supuestamente desde la Tierra.

La nueva secretaria adjunta a cargo de la US Air Force, Heather Wilson, junto a su jefe, el secretario de Defensa James Mattis. Imagen: http://www.voltairenet.org/local/cache-vignettes/L400xH300/Voltairenet-org_-_1-19-2-0c686.jpg

En el imaginario colectivo, las armas espaciales son las que hemos visto en las películas de ciencia ficción de la saga La Guerra de las Galaxias. Pero, sin que nos diésemos cuenta, porque de eso no se habla en los medios de comunicación, ese tipo de armas se ha hecho realidad.

La carrera armamentista, incluyendo el armamento nuclear, hace tiempo que se ha extendido al espacio. La encabeza Estados Unidos, que apunta cada vez con más empeño al control militar del espacio. El 16 de junio de 2017, inmediatamente después de asumir su cargo, la nueva secretaria adjunta a cargo de la fuerza aérea de Estados Unidos, la señora Heather Wilson, anunció una reorganización general destinada a reforzar las operaciones espaciales integrándolas más y más a las de la US Air Force. Objetivo declarado: «Organizar y entrenar fuerzas capaces de vencer en cualquier futuro conflicto que pueda extenderse al espacio».

El responsable de los sistemas militares espaciales es el Mando Estratégico (StratCom), que es también responsable del armamento nuclear y de las ciberarmas. «Tenemos fuerzas espaciales y ciberespaciales superiores que son fundamentales para el estilo de guerra estadounidense en cada teatro de operaciones en el mundo entero», escribió en febrero pasado el comandante del StratCom, general John Hyten, subrayando que «nuestras fuerzas nucleares son seguras y están listas en todo momento» y que «si fallara la disuasión, estamos dispuestos a utilizarlas».

Para los estrategas del Pentágono, tener la superioridad en el espacio significa ser capaces de atacar a un adversario militarmente fuerte, paralizar sus defensas, golpearlo con armas nucleares y, si fuese un adversario dotado también de armamento nuclear, neutralizar su respuesta. Para lograr ese objetivo, el Pentágono está incorporando armas nucleares, sistemas espaciales y ciberarmas a la «gama completa de las capacidades globales de ataque», tanto en la Tierra como en el espacio.

El 7 de mayo, después de 718 días en órbita alrededor de la Tierra, aterrizó en Cabo Cañaveral el transbordador espacial robot X-37B de la US Air Force, capaz de maniobrar en el espacio y de regresar a su base de forma autónoma. Los más grandes expertos estiman que el transbordador espacial robot X-37B –que acaba de realizar en el espacio su cuarta misión «top secret»– sirve probablemente para experimentar con armas destinadas a destruir los satélites enemigos y «cegar» así al enemigo en el momento de atacarlo.

Al mismo tiempo, están en fase de desarrollo varias armas laser, ya sometidas a ensayos por el navío USS Ponce en el Golfo Pérsico. La firma Lockheed Martin anunció el 16 de marzo que ha fabricado un potente sistema de laser que será instalado en un vehículo especial de las fuerzas terrestres estadounidenses para la realización de una serie de pruebas. También en marzo, el general Brad Webb declaró que este mismo año un avión AC-130 recibirá un arma de laser para la realización de ataques contra objetivos terrestres. El 3 de abril, científicos de la universidad Macquaries dijeron haber creado en laboratorio un súper laser similar al de la «Estrella de la Muerte» de La Guerra de las Galaxias, destinado a futuras aplicaciones espaciales.

Estados Unidos lleva ventaja en ese sector. Pero, como sucede con todos los sistemas de armas, otros países, principalmente Rusia y China, están desarrollando tecnologías militares similares. En 2008, Moscú y Pekín propusieron un acuerdo internacional para impedir el despliegue de armas en el espacio. Pero la administración Bush y más tarde la administración Obama se negaron a abrir negociaciones en ese sentido.

O sea, mientras que en la sede de la ONU se desarrolla una negociación para lograr la prohibición jurídica de las armas nucleares –negociación en la que no participan las potencias nucleares, ni los países miembros de la OTAN– por otro lado sigue acelerándose, impulsada por Estados Unidos, la carrera para la militarización del espacio, que forma parte de la preparación de la guerra nuclear.

Servidores de confianza y requisitos mínimos: El Caso de Lynne Patton

Blogger’s opinion: Personnel’s appointments based on trust MUST fulfill the minimun requirements in order to hold a public position in government as the knowledge in the field of the agency or secretary assigned, and a clean-successful experience in public management and public policy.

Opinión del Blogger: Las designaciones de personal basados en la confianza deben cumplir el mínimo de requisitos con el objetivo de ocupar una posición o cargo en el gobierno, tal y como el conocimiento en el área o campo del Organismo Público o Ministerio asignado, y una limpia y exitosa experiencia en gestión pública y políticas públicas.

Lynne Patton. Imagen: https://www.earnthenecklace.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Who-is-Lynne-Patton.jpg

Se llama Lynne Patton y es la “wedding planner” de la familia Trump. Ella ahora es directora del Departamento Estatal de Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano (HUD) de New York y Nueva Jersey. Así, ella manejará billones de dólares de los contribuyentes para viviendas estatales en la oficina regional mas grande del HUD. He aquí 4 detalles que debemos conocer sobre ella:

1. No cuenta con experiencia en el área de vivienda o desarrollo urbano. Patton ha sido la organizadora de eventos de la familia Trump desde el año 2009 y se ha referido a ellos como “familia”.

2. Patton presume un título en Derecho de la Universidad de Quinnipiac y, a secas, que asistió a la Universidad de Yale. Pero solo asistió a la U. de Quinnipiac por dos semestres y no hay evidencia de que alguna vez haya asistido a Yale.

3. Ha apoyado al Secretario de Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano (HUD), Ben Carson, cuando este dijo que “la pobreza es un estado mental”.

4. Como Vicepresidenta, ella supervisó la distribución de fondos benéficos  para la Fundación de Eric Trump. Dicha Fundación se encuentra actualmente bajo investigación por desviar donaciones para los niños con cáncer a la Trump Organization.

Con todo esto, ¿consideraría usted que ella está calificada para el puesto?

Texto: AJ+ 

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