But not to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. To him, crimes only happen in the black and brown communities and only minorities commit crimes.

Speaking to a mostly white audience in 2015, Bloomberg said police throughout the U.S. should focus on minority communities “because that’s where all the crime is.”

Bloomberg who was speaking to members of the Aspen Institute in Colorado on 5 February 2015, said that male minorities are the ones that perpetrate “the real crime.”

He was defending the practice known as “Stop and Frisk” which allows police officers to stop minorities, throw them against the wall and frisk them for illegal drugs and weapons, for no apparent reason.

The audio of Bloomberg’s speech surfaced this week and in it you could clearly hear the Mayor articulate his belief that only minorities commit crimes.

“It’s controversial, but first thing is, all of your – 95% percent of your murders, murderers and murder victims, fit one M.O.

“You can just take the description, Xerox it and pass out to all the cops. They are male minorities, 15 to 25. That’s true in New York.

“It’s true in virtually every city. And that’s where the real crime is. You’ve got to get the guns out of the hands of the people that are getting killed.”

The Mayor said that cities should “put those cops where the crime is, which is in the minority neighborhoods. So this is – one of the unintended consequences is, people say, ‘Oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana that are all minorities.’ Yes, that’s true. Why?

“Because we put all the cops in the minority neighborhoods. Yes, that’s true. Why do we do it? Because that’s where all the crime is.”

He told the nearly all white group that “the way you get the guns out of the kids’ hands is to throw them against the wall and frisk them.”

When confronted with the audio tape this week, Bloomberg, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for President of United States, said he regrets saying these things.

“I regret that and I have apologized – and I have taken responsibility for taking too long to understand the impact it had on black and Latino communities.”

U.S. President Donald Trump, himself a well-known racist, tried to use the controversy to cast Bloomberg as a racist but immediately deleted his tweet when reminded of his past actions and his support for “Stop and Frisk.”

Trump tweeted: “WOW, BLOOMBERG IS A TOTAL RACIST!” He highlighted his tweet with #BloombergIsARacist.

Bloomberg said Trump’s tweet was an attempt to divide Americans.

He said Trump “inherited a country marching towards greater equality and divided us with racist appeals and hateful rhetoric”.

“President Trump’s deleted tweet is the latest example of his endless efforts to divide Americans,” Bloomberg added.

The post Mayor Michael Bloomberg Says Only Minorities Commit Crimes appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.

The actions by the trolls made it impossible for Iowa precinct chairs to report caucus results.

Our sources told us this morning there are indications that someone in the White House or Trump campaign was directing the operations.

“Yes, we are starting to see clues here and there that none of that was an accident. It wasn’t just social media trolls doing their thing. We are seeing clues that it may have come from somewhere in the White House,” our source, who spoke on condition of anonymity said.

The operation began the night of the Iowa caucus when Republican trolls suddenly started posting the reporting hotlines of the Iowa Democratic Party on social media and asking their friends to call and clog up the phone lines.

“Clog the lines,” some of the trolls urged their friends on 4chan, the internet message board frequented by GOP extremists.

On Wednesday, Democratic Party leaders confirmed the phone attacks but declined to speculate on the origin.

By Friday morning however, Democratic Party leaders were saying the attack did not happen on its own. “We think it was coordinated by someone in the White House and GOP offices,” they told us.

On Wednesday Iowa Democratic Party Communications Director Mandy McClure confirmed in a statement that there was an “unusually high volume of inbound phone calls to its caucus hotline, including [by] supporters of President Trump.”

She said the unexplained and at times hostile” calls “made it impossible for Precinct chairs to report the caucus results and contributed to the “delay in the Iowa Democratic Party’s collection of result.”

When confronted about the incident, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said Trump campaign officials “don’t know anything about this,” adding: “It’s laughable that they would try to blame Trump for their own incompetence.”

On 4chan, some of the trolls boasted that their actions may have succeeded adding that there should be better coordination with officials in the future.

The post Iowa Caucus Mess: 4chan Trolls May Have Received Direction from The White House appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.

After months of planning and preparations, the Iowa Democratic Party delivered a whopper last night. More to the point, they failed miserably.

The question is this: Couldn’t they have seen this coming?

If they planned to use an App for reporting, was that App fully tested? Were those directly tasked with using the App fully trained? If not, then why not?

Monday night the Democratic Party in Iowa said there were “inconsistencies” in reporting caucus results and that caused a massive delay and embarrassment for the party.

The delay is frustrating the presidential candidates who had no doubt planned to rally their supporters by proclaiming victory.

The delay also handed Donald Trump something he has waited for a while for: the chance to gloat about the incompetence of the Democrats.

Troy Price, the Iowa Democratic Party Chairman told the various campaigns earlier today thet the state party hopes to have 50 percent of the results in by the end of the day but he wouldn’t commit to a timeline to have all the results in.

Reactions from the various candidates have run from complete silence to claiming victory and then walking it back.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg claimed victory, then attempted to walk it back when he was challenged.

“Looking at what happened last night, looking at all of the data that we’ve got, it was an extraordinary night and we are absolutely victorious coming into New Hampshire,” he told CBS.

“I think it’s safe to say no one in the country is more impatient than I am to hear the official results of the party but we’ve also put out the results that we’ve got from over 1,200 districts. Our precinct organization reported based on a procedure that they were trained to do, and based off that it was a phenomenal night for us.”

He continued that “the improbable hope became an undeniable reality…”

“Tonight, an improbable hope became an undeniable reality,” Buttigieg told supporters in Des Moines on Monday night. “So we don’t know all the results, but we know by the time it’s all said and done — Iowa, you have shocked the nation.”

“We are headed to New Hampshire victorious,” he later said in a video posted on Twitter.

After being challenged for claiming victory even though the results had not been officially announced, Buttigieg demurred, saying that when he declared victory, he didn’t mean to say he won.

“Well, we were looking at the internal numbers that we had and beginning to realize that something extraordinary had happened last night—I mean, here you have a campaign that was really questioned when we first got in, whether we even oughta be here, whether we belonged in this race. And to not only establish that but to reach the position that we did was a clear victory for this campaign,” he said by way of explanation.

Jeff Weaver, a senior adviser for the Bernie Sander’s campaign said the campaign feels like they did very well and the final results will prove that.

“I have a strong feeling that at some point the results will be announced, and when those results are announced I have a good feeling we’re going to be doing very, very well here in Iowa,”

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign called it a “significant failure” while condemning the state party for the failures.

“I think there were some significant failures in the process last night that should give voters concern,” Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager told the media Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s going to be close,” Biden later told supporters in Des Moines. “We’re going to walk out of here with our share of delegates. We don’t know exactly what it is yet, but we feel good about where we are.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren said “I feel good” when asked about Iowa results while businessman Andrew Yang said “I’m going right from here to New Hampshire, where I will be one of the seven candidates on the debate stage on Friday night.”

Senator Amy Klobuchar said her campaign was punching about its weight. “We know one thing: we are punching above our weight. Somehow, some way, I’m going to get on a plane tonight to New Hampshire,” she added.

But the question is: Should the Iowa Democratic Party have anticipated this problem? From all account, the party did not adequately test the App.

The post 2020 Iowa Caucus Mess: Why Didn’t Democrats See This Coming? appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.

Fast forward to 2020, the attorneys for president Donald Trump appear to be resurrecting that line of thinking.

Responding to a question from Texas senator Ted Cruz, Trump lawyer Alan Dershowitz said there is nothing wrong with a president seeking foreign help for his reelection.

His reasoning? Well, the president is above the law, sort of. He said if the president thinks his reelection is in the best interest of the country, then he can rightfully do anything to get reelected.

Huh?

“If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment. Every public official I know believes that his election is in the public interest,” Dershowitz said.

Constitutional scholars were quick to condemn that line of reasoning, arguing that means presidents are free to break any laws as long as they believe that by breaking the laws they are acting in the national interest.

Dean of the University of California, Berkeley, law school Erwin Chemerinsky said he thought Dershowitz’s argument was “absurd and outrageous.”

“It means that a president could break any law or abuse any power and say that it was for the public interest because the public interest would be served by his or her election,” he said.

Meanwhile Sanford Levinson, a University of Texas law professor, said that line of argument was “on its face, preposterous.”

He said that while officials “make a variety of deals that they would prefer not to in behalf of the good cause…we rely on a certain moral compass that will stop at, say, outright bribery” and “suggesting assassinations.”

President Trump’s senate trial continues.

The post Trump’s Lawyer: The President is Above the law appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.

They believe the best way to do that is to refuse to call any witnesses or request additional documents.

Their argument is simple – it is a waste of time.

Last week, The New York Times published that former national security adviser John Bolton, in his upcoming book, wrote that Trump told him that releasing aid to Ukraine hinged on that nation investigating his political opponent, former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

But Republican senators said this week, that notwithstanding, their votes won’t change, their minds are already made up and to hell with the truth.

Pennsylvania Republican senator Pat Toomey said he was “very, very skeptical” that hearing from witnesses would change his mind, even if that witness were to provide proof of quid pro quo.
For Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, president Trump can never be convicted, no matter what he has done.

“For the sake of argument, one could assume everything attributable to John Bolton is accurate and still the House case would fall well below the standards to remove a president from office,” Sen. Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement this week.

Other GOP senators have taken similar position in recent days.

Take for instance Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) who said this week that he does not “believe we need to hear from an 18th witness.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said the House of Representatives had already made its case and “additional witnesses are not necessary” while Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) warned is colleagues that calling witnesses would lead to a lot of people testifying, and that may be beneficial to Democrats.

Missouri senator Roy Blunt, a staunch Trump ally was even more, well blunt. “Unless there’s a witness that’s going to change the outcome, I can’t imagine why we’d want to stretch this out for weeks and months,” he said earlier this week.

The post Republicans Argue Against Witnesses in Trump Trial, Calling it a Waste of Time appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.

The book titled “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir” which is set for release soon, will reportedly detail numerous instances of misconduct by president Donald Trump.

The New York Times reported last week the book will allege that Trump abused his presidential powers by linking the release of Ukraine aid to that country’s investigation of political rival vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

The Trump administration sent a threatening letter to Bolton January 23, 2020 saying the book “appears to contain significant amounts of classified information” and couldn’t be published as written.

But national security experts believe the threat is aimed at silencing Bolton and making sure he does not testify in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump or the book being release before the trial is over.

“This whole thing is aimed at silencing Bolton,” a national security expert based in Washington, D.C., told us Wednesday. “Trump Couldn’t care less except when his presidency is at stake. He just wants to make sure the book does not come out during the trial or John Bolton testifying during the trial.”

See also: Bolton Bombshell Upends Trump Senate Trial, GOP Continues Denial.

The Trump administration letter said “the manuscript may not be published or otherwise disclosed without the deletion of this classified information.”

Asked by reporters if this is an attempt to silence John Bolton, the White House said they had no comment. A spokesperson for book publisher Simon & Schuster declined to comment as well.

Bolton has said he would be willing to testify in the Senate trial if subpoenaed but Trump attorneys and Republican senate leaders are refusing to call witnesses or demand additional documents, as asked for by Democrats.

Trump posted many negative tweets about Bolton on Wednesday.

“For a guy who couldn’t get approved for the Ambassador to the U.N. years ago, couldn’t get approved for anything since, “begged” me for a non Senate approved job, which I gave him despite many saying “Don’t do it, sir,” takes the job, mistakenly says “Libyan Model” on T.V., and many more mistakes of judgement, gets fired because frankly, if I listened to him, we would be in World War Six by now, and goes out and IMMEDIATELY writes a nasty & untrue book. All Classified National Security. Who would do this?” Trump tweeted.

He claimed, without proof that Bolton’s book was “untrue.”

The post Panicked Trump White House Threatens John Bolton to Stop Book Publication appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.

Bolton who was fired by Trump last year after a disagreement is said to be coming out with a book.

New York Times reports that a draft of that book reveals Trump not only knew about the dealings with Ukraine, he linked releasing aid to Ukraine to investigations into former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

Trump’s legal team resume their defense of the president on Tuesday by simply choosing to ignore the new Bolton revelation or simply dismissing it as nothing new.

Republican senate leadership led by Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) downplayed the Bolton bombshell, even going as far as dismissing it altogether.

But a few GOP senators including Mitch Romney (R-Utah) said the new revelations changes the dynamics of the trial.

“I think it’s important for us to hear from John Bolton,” the senator from Utah said.

He said it is increasingly likely that he will vote to subpoena witnesses and documents, including calling John Bolton to testify.

I think it’s important for us to hear from John Bolton for us to be able to make an impartial judgment,” Romney told reporters.

Maine senator Susan Collins also issued a statement saying she was likely to vote for witnesses to be called to testify.

“The reports about John Bolton’s book strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues,” she said.

Meanwhile Republican Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski reiterated her earlier statement that she was “curious” to learn what Bolton has to say.

Other Republican senators like John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) were quick to dismiss the whole development.

“Truly, there’s nothing new here. It does seem to be an effort to sell books,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told reporters on Monday.

“I want to know what’s in the manuscript, yeah, I think that’s important,” said Sen. Graham, adding “It could. I don’t know yet. The White House said there was no direct evidence of communications, maybe this suggests that one person said there might be.”

“What I’ve said all along is if you’re going to add to the record, we’re going to do it in a balanced way. So let’s see what’s in the manuscript, let’s see if it’s relevant, and if it is, then I’ll make a decision about Bolton,” said Graham. “But I promise you this— if we add to the record, then we’re going to call Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, all these other people,” Graham continued.

But Democrats say it is an uphill battle to convince Republicans to vote in favor of calling witnesses and more documents because of the enormous pressure exerted by Trump and GOP leaders.

“We know the pressure they’re under. President Trump does not brook criticism, dissent kindly among Republicans. But we’re hoping in this kind of solemn, serious, historic and constitutional proceeding that the weight of doing what’s right, the weight of getting all of the facts, will weigh heavily on the shoulders of enough Republicans so we can get a fair trial,” Schumer said.

The post Bolton Bombshell Upends Trump Senate Trial, GOP Continues Denial appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.

The current occupant of the White House is so incensed with his predecessor that he would even shamelessly copy him in a tribute to National Basketball Association legend, Kobe Bryant who died over the weekend.

Moments after news of Kobe’s death broke, Trump sent out a nonsensical tweet calling it “terrible news!”

“Reports are that basketball great Kobe Bryant and three others have been killed in a helicopter crash in California. That is terrible news!” Trump wrote.

Moments later, Obama posted a thoughtful tweet honoring Kobe, showing Trump how it is done.

“Kobe was a legend on the court and just getting started in what would have been just as meaningful a second act,” Obama tweeted later Sunday. “To lose Gianna is even more heartbreaking to us as parents,” Obama wrote.

“Michelle and I send love and prayers to Vanessa and the entire Bryant family on an unthinkable day,” Obama continued.

Trump then tweeted a second time, this time shamelessly copying Obama.

“Kobe Bryant, despite being one of the truly great basketball players of all time, was just getting started in life. He loved his family so much, and had such strong passion for the future. The loss of his beautiful daughter, Gianna, makes this moment even more devastating. Melania and I send our warmest condolences to Vanessa and the wonderful Bryant family. May God be with you all!”

The post Trump Shamelessly Copies Obama Tweet About Kobe Bryant appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.

The former Los Angeles Lakers star was flying from his home when the accident happened. The helicopter was said to have crashed into a hillside in Calabasas, California.

His daughter Gianna Maria Onore Bryant, 13, also died in the crash along with her friend and her friend’s family.

His death has been felt the world over.

From presidents Donald Trump to Barack Obama and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, world leaders mourned the passing of the NBA great.

Trump tweeted that Kobe “despite being one of the truly great basketball players of all time, was just getting started in life. He loved his family so much, and had such strong passion for the future. The loss of his beautiful daughter, Gianna, makes this moment even more devastating….”

Former president Obama said Kobe was a legend.

“Kobe was a legend on the court and just getting started in what would have been just as meaningful a second act. To lose Gianna is even more heartbreaking to us as parents. Michelle and I send love and prayers to Vanessa and the entire Bryant family on an unthinkable day,” he wrote on Twitter.

Even the Chinese state media posted tributes to the basketball star, writing that Kobe “evoked the love for basketball” amongst the Chinese youth.

“From primary school to university, he accompanied the youth of countless people, and evoked the love for basketball among many young Chinese people,” the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of China’s ruling Communist Party posted online.

Japanese fans also mourned Kobe with a few reminding the world that the NBA legend was named after the city of Kobe.

“I’ve been always proud that I’m from Kobe because Kobe Bryant was named after my city. I’m totally heartbroken. RIP to a legend from Japan,” said Twitter user Fugu.

The post Kobe, Daughter Die in Helicopter Crash, World Mourns appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.

This week, the Secretary Mnuchin attempted to school teen climate activist Greta Thunberg on Climate change and ended up looking like his idiotic boss, Donald Trump.

At the recently concluded World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thunberg and other young climate activists called on corporate leaders and other world leaders to divest from fossil fuel exploration and extraction in order to help the planet survive.

Bur Steve Mnuchin wouldn’t have any of that.

“Is she the chief economist or who is she? I’m confused,” Mnuchin mocked Thunberg, adding that “after she goes and studies economics in college she can come back and explain that to us.”

But a not so amused Thurnberg thundered back that “it doesn’t take a college degree in economics to realise that our remaining 1,5° carbon budget and ongoing fossil fuel subsidies and investments don’t add up.”

My gap year ends in August, but it doesn’t take a college degree in economics to realise that our remaining 1,5° carbon budget and ongoing fossil fuel subsidies and investments don’t add up. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/1virpuOyYG

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) January 23, 2020

The post Greta Thunberg Schools Steve Mnuchin on Climate Change appeared first on The Liberal Advocate.