ET Williams

The Doctor of Common Sense

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Chicago Gangs Want to Work With Trump To Fight Crime

 

CHICAGO (CBS) — The founder and pastor of a megachurch in Ohio told President Donald Trump he has spoken to gang leaders in Chicago who want to work with the White House to reduce violent crime.

Dr. Darrell Scott, senior pastor of New Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, was a guest of Trump’s at an African-American History Month meeting at the White House. He said he is a “black Trump supporter,” and claimed he was “contacted by some of the top gang thugs in Chicago for a sit-down.”

Taking a swipe at former President Obama, who began his political career as a community organizer in Chicago, Scott said the gangs “want to work with the administration … they believe in this administration; they didn’t believe in the prior administration. They told me this outta their mouths.”

“They reached out to me, because they’re associating me with you. They respect you. They believe in what you’re doing, and they want to have a sit-down about lowering that body count. So in a couple weeks, I’m going into Chicago,” Scott said. “I said we’ve got to lower that body count. We don’t want to talk about anything else; get that body count down, and they agreed that the principals that can do it – these are guys straight from the streets, no politicians, straight street guys – but they’re going to commit that if they lower that body count, we’ll come in and we’ll do some social programs.”

Trump said, “I think that’s a great idea, because Chicago is totally out of control.”

“If they’re not going to solve the problem — and what you’re doing is the right thing — then we’re going to solve the problem for them, because we’re going to have to do something about Chicago, because what’s happening in Chicago should not be happening in this country,” Trump added.

Chicago had more than 760 murders in 2016, the highest number in 19 years. The first month of 2017 saw that trend continue, with 51 homicides in January, one more than January 2016.

Scott said the gang members who reached out to him want to work with Trump.

“They see hope with you,” he said.

Trump said, “I think that’s great.”

Last week, Trump threatened in a Tweet that he would “send in the feds” if Chicago couldn’t get a grip on its violent crime issues.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said if Trump really wants to help Chicago address violent crime, he should stop talking about it, and actually provide federal resources — including increased federal prosecutions of gun crimes, more money for youth mentoring and jobs programs, and additional federal agents to assist Chicago police in fighting gangs and gun violence.

“Send more FBI, DEA, ATF agents. We don’t have to talk about it anymore. Just send them,” the mayor said Wednesday while meeting with young men taking part in the Becoming A Man mentoring program. “Invest in law enforcement with our Police Department. Every major city has to do more. Move more FBI, DEA, ATF. They do a great job. Use the ability to prosecute gun crimes at the federal level, and maximize that potential.”

The mayor said he has spoken repeatedly with the president, vice president, and the president’s chief of staff about getting more federal resources to address crime in Chicago — such as youth mentoring and summer jobs initiatives.

“In that sense, they are aware of what our requests are, and we will look forward to working with them on that,” he said. “Supporting our police officers, supporting our kids, investing in our neighborhoods and communities are key.”

Emanuel said he would like to see more federal funding for youth mentoring so the city can expand the BAM program from three years to five years. He said the program is currently open to young men in grades 8-10, and he wants it opened to students in 7th and 11th grades as well.

“I’m a father of three. It takes you 18 years, and sometimes longer, to be a role model, guidance; somebody that pushes, pulls, nurtures. These young men need all of that and more,” he said.

The mayor also said, while the city’s summer jobs program has expanded from 14,000 to 31,000 kids in recent years, federal support for the program has been reduced.

“Give these kids a summer job. Help give them not only a paycheck, but a résumé that goes with it, so the next time they apply for a job they can prove that they actually had. You know how hard it is yourselves, that first job,” he said.

Emanuel said he does not know why Trump seems so fixated on Chicago violence.

“He’s an investor in Chicago, so obviously he believes in it,” he said.

The mayor called Chicago a “fabulous city” and pointed to recent accomplishments like Major League Soccer choosing Soldier Field to host its 2017 All-Star Game, and Peoria-based Caterpillar choosing Chicago for its new global headquarters. Emanuel said the federal government needs to invest more in economic development in Chicago, and to in programs that will help its youth take advantage of that progress.

“We will never be the city we can be unless also these young men not only believe in themselves, but all that potential investment – that is happening, that does make Chicago a great city – that they also can participate,” he said.

Scott’s comments about violence in Chicago prompted an angry response from community activist Jedidiah Brown, who has taken part in anti-Trump protests, but also has been a frequent critic of the Chicago Police Department and the Emanuel administration. In a series of Tweets on Wednesday, he accused Scott of exaggerating his claims about speaking to top gang members in Chicago.

Brown said the people Scott spoke to are “no longer in streets” and don’t have any control over gangs that would allow them to decrease violent crime in Chicago.

 http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2017/02/01/donald-trump-ohio-pastor-chicago-gangs-violent-crime/

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Choir Teacher Arrested for Doing Cartwheels Without Panties

How graceful

Cartwheeling choir teacher arrested for indecent exposure…

Yeah, I bet they wanted a look at that nasty crotch.

 

PAWHUSKA, Okla. (KTUL) — Pawhuska police say a substitute teacher has been arrested after she allegedly exposed herself to students.

Lacey Sponslor, 34, was subbing a junior high choir class when she allegedly did a cartwheel, according to police. She was reportedly not wearing undergarments and exposed herself to the class.

One of the students recorded the act on a cell phone, according to police. Another student told police Sponslor had been talking about doing drugs and mentioned she was not wearing underwear, according to police documents.

Sponslor reportedly told police she was “just dancing” with the students, according to the documents.

http://www.news9.com/story/34399056/cartwheeling-choir-teacher-arrested-for-indecent-exposure

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Trump Tells McConnell to Go Nuclear if Dems Fight Gorsuch Nomination

Trump: I will tell McConnell to ‘go nuclear’ if Democrats hold up Gorsuch nomination

McConnell is too much of a pussy to go nuclear, but Trump put him on the spot

 

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he will urge Senate Republicans to scrap filibuster rules, or take the “nuclear option,” if Democrats in the increasingly tense chamber use them to block his nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

After Trump nominated the 49-year-old conservative appellate judge to the top U.S. court Tuesday night, Democrats signaled they could delay the process. If they filibuster, Republicans, who have 52 Senate seats, would need 60 votes to confirm him unless they change the rule on the maneuver.

Trump told reporters at the White House he would encourage Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to take that route, which would require only a simple majority.

“Yes, if we end up with the same gridlock that they’ve had in Washington, … if we end up with that gridlock, I’d say, ‘If you can, Mitch, go nuclear.’ Because that would be an absolute shame if a man of this quality was caught up in this web.”

Trump’s choice sets up a second straight year of bitter partisanship over the court seat, which was left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia nearly a year ago. Then-President Barack Obama nominated Washington appellate Judge Merrick Garland for the spot, but the Republican-controlled Senate never held a vote on him.

At his age, Gorsuch could help to tip the ideological balance of the court for decades. Democrats, already combative about the seat because of Garland, criticized Trump’s pick due to Gorsuch’s rulings such issues as gun rights and religious objections to a birth control coverage provision in the Affordable Care Act.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday night the Senate “must insist upon 60 votes for any Supreme Court nominee.” He repeated that on the Senate floor Wednesday.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., among other Democrats, pledged to oppose Gorsuch’s nomination.

McConnell has not explicitly endorsed scrapping the filibuster rule, but has urged Democrats to hear Gorsuch out fairly.

The 60 vote rules applies to Supreme Court justices. Other federal judges only need a majority in the 100-seat Senate.

Trump on Wednesday called Gorsuch an “exceptionally qualified person” and said he wants him to go through an “elegant process.”

“I really think he’s a very dignified man and I’d like to see him go through a dignified process,” he said.

Gorsuch is an appeals judge for the 10th Circuit in Colorado. He was nominated to the role in 2006 by then-President George W. Bush and was confirmed by voice vote.

Partisan tensions in the Senate have ramped up in the early days of Trump’s administration. Senate Democrats boycotted the Finance Committee vote on Trump’s nominees to lead the Treasury and Health and Human Services departments, and Republicans advanced them Wednesday without the other party present.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/01/trump-i-will-tell-mcconnell-to-go-nuclear-if-democrats-hold-up-gorsuch-nomination.html

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Trump Puts Iran On Notice

 

WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, said the United States was officially putting Iran on notice on Wednesday over its “destabilizing activity” after it test-fired a ballistic missile over the weekend.

“As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice,” Flynn told a White House briefing, without explaining exactly what that meant.

Flynn said the ballistic missile launch on Sunday was in defiance of a U.N. Security Council resolution that called on Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

 

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/02/01/trump-white-house-puts-iran-on-notice-over-ballistic-missile-tes/21705121/

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Who is Gorsuch? “Eerily” like Scalia

Who Is Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s First Pick For The Supreme Court?

President Trump has selected federal appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill a Supreme Court seat that has sat vacant for nearly a year, setting up a blockbuster confirmation hearing that could put the new White House’s domestic political agenda on trial in the U.S. Senate.

The selection fulfills an early campaign promise by Trump to nominate a solidly conservative judge with a record of strictly interpreting the U.S. Constitution. Gorsuch, 49, sailed through an earlier confirmation process for a spot on the federal appeals court in Denver.

Only weeks after his nomination in 2006, the Senate confirmed him by voice vote. The American Bar Association rated him as “unanimously well qualified” at the time.

Gorsuch has a sterling legal pedigree. He clerked for two Supreme Court justices, Byron White and Anthony Kennedy. He also served as a clerk on the second most important appeals court in the country, in Washington D.C., for conservative Judge David Sentelle.

Like Justice Antonin Scalia, whom he is in line to replace, Gorsuch has cultivated a reputation as a memorable and clear author of legal opinions. He also considers himself to be an originalist. Lawyers who practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, where Gorsuch currently works, said he is a popular and approachable judge.

SCOTUSblog, the leading Supreme Court blog, described some of Gorsuch’s parallels to Scalia as “eerie.”

Trump is true to his word: he picked someone just like Scalia

“He is an ardent textualist (like Scalia); he believes criminal laws should be clear and interpreted in favor of defendants even if that hurts government prosecutions (like Scalia); he is skeptical of efforts to purge religious expression from public spaces (like Scalia); he is highly dubious of legislative history (like Scalia); and he is less than enamored of the dormant commerce clause (like Scalia),” the blog wrote.

Among other rulings that came to national attention, Gorsuch sided in favor of “religious freedom” claims made by the Little Sisters of the Poor and the owners of the craft company Hobby Lobby, who challenged language in the Affordable Care Act that required them to pay for contraceptive coverage for employees. The Supreme Court backed those Hobby Lobby challengers, in a divided vote, in 2014.

In a lecture to the conservative Federalist Society in Washington more than three years ago, Gorsuch elicited laughter from the audience as he quoted from the 1853 Charles Dickens novel Bleak House, referenced the work of the late novelist David Foster Wallace, and discussed irony and the law.

“Like any human enterprise, the law’s crooked timber occasionally produces the opposite of the intended effect,” he said. “We turn to the law earnestly to promote a worthy idea and wind up with a host of unwelcome side effects that do more harm than good. … We depend upon the rule of law to guarantee freedom, but we have to give up freedom to live under the law’s rules.”

Off the bench, Gorsuch in 2006 published a book called The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, criticizing the practice and defending the “intrinsic value” of human life. He also contributed to The Law of Judicial Precedent last year.

http://www.npr.org/2017/01/31/511850519/who-is-neil-gorsuch-trumps-first-pick-for-the-supreme-court

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Gorsuch Nominated to Supreme Court

Trump Nominates Federal Appeals Court Judge Neil Gorsuch to Supreme Court

Trump’s Pick for the Court.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday night that he will nominate Neil Gorsuch, a federal appeals court judge in Denver, to succeed Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court.

Gorsuch, who currently serves on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, was appointed in 2006 by George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate on a voice vote.

A widely respected judge, he had the backing of two conservative legal groups that advised former President Barack Obama and included his name on a list of potential nominees.

The nomination is sure to be hotly contested. Democrats are still seething over the way Senate Republicans treated President Obama’s nominee to succeed Scalia, federal judge Merrick Garland, who wasn’t even given a hearing last year. Scalia died February 13, and there has been a vacancy on the nine-member court ever since. Republicans argued that the next president, not Obama, should get to choose the next justice.

Gorsuch, 49, is a fourth generation Coloradan, born in Denver. His mother, Anne, was appointed by Ronald Reagan as the first woman to head the Environmental Protection Agency, which brought the family to Washington.

He got his first taste of the federal government as a U.S. Senate page while in high school.

Gorsuch graduated from Columbia University, where he co-founded a conservative satirical newspaper, and Harvard Law School. He was a law clerk to fellow Colorado native Byron White on the Supreme Court. White had just retired, so Gorsuch also clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy.

After a decade in private law practice, he spent two years as a senior official at the Justice Department during the George W. Bush administration.

He and his wife, Marie Louise, have two teenage daughters.

Gorsuch has not written or joined decisions on hot button social issues such as abortion, but he has expressed strong support for protecting religious liberty.

In 2013, he joined a 10th Circuit decision in favor of the owners of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores, who said their strong religious convictions would be violated by the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that employers provide contraceptive insurance coverage to their employees. The Supreme Court affirmed the decision.

Two years later, he dissented from his court’s ruling against a group of Catholic nuns, The Little Sisters of the Poor, who said that even telling the government that they were opposed to the contraceptive mandate would violate their religious principles. The Supreme Court, because of a 4-4 tie, was unable to decide the issue.

In an opinion widely praised by conservatives, Gorsuch questioned the doctrine invoked by courts when they defer to a federal agency’s interpretation of ambiguous laws. He suggested that it may “concentrate federal power in a way that seems more than a little difficult to square with the Constitution of the framers’ design.”

As Scalia sometimes did, Gorsuch has shown a willingness to interpret criminal laws in a way that goes against prosecutors when constitutional protections are involved.

Before becoming a judge, he wrote a book about assisted suicide and euthanasia. Laws banning both, he said, are consistent with the idea that “all human beings are intrinsically valuable and the intentional taking of human life by private persons is always wrong.”

Several people familiar with the selection process said Trump seriously considered nominating two other federal judges — Thomas Hardiman of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Pittsburgh and William Pryor from the 11th Circuit in Birmingham, Alabama. Both Hardiman and Pryor were included in Trump’s initial list of possible Supreme Court picks back in May. Gorsuch’s name was added to Trump’s second list released in September.

Pryor was considered the most conservative of the three and thought to be the most difficult to get through the Senate, given his incendiary criticism of the 44-year-old Roe v. Wade ruling that affirmed women have the constitutional right to abortion.

On average, the time between nomination and confirmation to the Supreme Court is about eleven weeks. If Gorsuch’s experience follows the usual course, he could be on the court by late April, in time to hear and vote on the last few cases of the current term, which ends in June.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-nominates-federal-appeals-court-judge-neil-gorsuch-supreme-court-n714551