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- NBC’s Welker Grills Trump’s AG Todd Blanche On Comey Indictment in Showdown ...
NBC’s Kristen Welker confronted acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey — and whether it was an act of retribution against a perceived political enemy of President Donald Trump. In a thorough interrogation on Sunday’s Meet the Press, Welker noted that the burden is on Blanche’s Department of Justice to prove that Comey intended to threaten the president’s life with an image he posted to social media which depicted seashells arranged to read “86 47.” “How do you prove intent, Mr. Blanche, when Mr. Comey himself said he didn’t understand that some people would look at that and think about violence?” Welker said. “You prove intent like you always prove intent,” Blanche replied. “You prove intent with witnesses, you prove intent with documents, with materials. So again, this is not just about a single Instagram post. This is about a body of evidence that the grand jury collected over the series of about 11 months. That evidence was presented to the grand jury. And it’s not the government. It’s not the Department of Justice. It’s not Todd Blanche that returns an indictment against James Comey. It’s the grand jury.” Welker noted the criticism from Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley — who called the indictment “facially unconstitutional, absent some unknown new facts.” “Are there, are you in fact saying that there are facts beyond this Instagram post that clearly establish an intent to threaten the president’s life?” Welker asked. “I’ve said repeatedly this was an investigation that lasted 11 months,” Blanche said. “If the only facts that existed was the posting of the Instagram, obviously that wouldn’t have taken 11 months. And so when Mr. Turley talks about whether it’s facially unconstitutional absent unknown facts or circumstances, we will necessarily have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, at trial, every element of this crime — which we’re prepared to do.” “Can you and will you let the public know what any of those other facts are?” Welker asked. “Absolutely,” Blanche replied. “It’s called a trial. That’s what happens at every single case. We indict thousands of cases every year. Every one of those cases, there’s an indictment and then eventually there is a trial or some sort of disposition. At the trial, a public trial, that will be open to the public, everybody in this country will know exactly… [TheTopNews] Read More.54 mins ago - Jeeves and Ask.com Shut Down After Almost 30 Years
The pioneering search engine shut down on May 1, after nearly 30 years in operation. [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago - Jake Tapper Confronts Jeanine Pirro With Clip of Tucker Carlson Suggesting Trump...Jake Tapper, in a CNN interview Sunday, confronted U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro about Tucker Carlson suggesting President Donald Trump could be the “antichrist” “There’s obviously a lot of incendiary language out there, horrific language out there,” Tapper said during the interview on CNN’s State of the Union. “I just quoted from some of it from the from the alleged [White House Correspondents’ Dinner] shooter, who didn’t get that from nowhere. That’s a lot crazy people saying a lot of horrific things. I want to play Tucker Carlson, your former colleague at Fox, last month talking about the president.” Tapper threw to the clip — in which Carlson said, “here’s a leader who’s mocking the gods of his ancestors, mocking the god of gods, and exalting himself above them. Could this be the antichrist?” “That seems incendiary too, no?” Tapper asked Pirro. Pirro dodged the question. “You know, whatever Tucker Carlson says is not relevant to me right now,” Pirro said. “I really don’t care about what he says. All I care about are the facts, the evidence, and what I can prove. All of this other stuff is noise.” Moments later, Tapper followed up by comparing Carlson’s comments to the social media post from former FBI Director James Comey — in which Comey posted an image of seashells arranged to depict the numbers “86 47.” Comey, on Tuesday, was indicted over that post. “Another former colleague of yours, Jonah Goldberg, says that to him — and I’m paraphrasing here — what Tucker said about the Antichrist is more incendiary than what James Comey posted on Instagram,” Tapper told Pirro. “And while not defending what James Comey did post on Instagram, do you see Jonah’s point?” “You know, I’m really not here as a political pundit anymore,” Pirro replied — again sidestepping the query. “I’m here as prosecutor. My job is to decide whether or not I have evidence and whether — I’ve got 30 years in this, a prosecutor, a DA, a judge, and now the United States attorney. My job to not talk about talking heads and what they say. My job is to come here and offer to you, CNN, any evidence that we have that will answer the questions you have.” Watch above, via CNN. The post Jake Tapper Confronts Jeanine Pirro With Clip of Tucker Carlson Suggesting Trump Could Be… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago
- Trump Hits New Low in WaPo/ABC Poll — Whopping 76% Disapprove of His Handling ...
(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) President Donald Trump hit an all-time low in disapproval in the latest Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll — notching a particularly dismal score on one major issue that seems certain to spell trouble for his party if it holds through November’s midterm elections. According to the poll published Sunday morning, Trump came in at 37 percent overall approval — a number very much in line with other recent surveys which show him languishing in the mid-30s. His disapproval in the poll was 62 percent, and that represents an all-time low for him in the Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll. At no point in either his first or second terms has he hit 62 percent disapproval in that survey. And a big part of the reason why seems to be the economy. The poll found that just 34 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the economy overall. And the numbers get even worse on several adjacent issues. Only 27 percent of respondents approve of the president’s handling of inflation. And a paltry 23 percent approve of how Trump has dealt with cost of living — with a massive 76 percent giving him a thumbs down on cost of living issues. Trump is underwater by at least 9 points uon every single issue polled by the Post, ABC and Ipsos. His handling of immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border is approved by 45 percent of Americans, compared to 54 percent who disapprove. But on most of the major issues on which the poll asked respondents to weigh in, the president was underwater by 20, 30 and even 50+ points. RealClearPolitics, which averages all major polls, currently shows Trump at 40.9 percent overall approval. That number will drop once the Post/ABC/Ipsos poll is factored in. As concerning as the poll might be for Trump, his approval rating remains higher than that of his vice president and other major figures in his cabinet. The Post/ABC/Ipsos poll found only 35 percent of Americans approve of Vice President JD Vance’s job performance, while 29 percent approve of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and 27 percent approve of FBI Director Kash Patel. ——The post Trump Hits New Low in WaPo/ABC Poll — Whopping 76% Disapprove of His Handling of Cost of Living first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.3 hours ago - The Rise of Emotional Surveillance
The good news, for me at least, is that the computer thinks I have a nice personality. According to an app called MorphCast, I was, in a recent meeting with my boss, generally “amused,” “determined,” and “interested,” though—sue me—occasionally “impatient.” MorphCast, you see, purports to glean insights into the depths and vagaries of human emotion using AI. It found that my affect was “positive” and “active,” as opposed to negative and/or passive. My attention was reasonably high. Also, the AI informed me that I wear glasses—revelatory!The bad news is that software now purports to glean insights into the depths and vagaries of human emotion using AI, and it is coming to watch you. If it isn’t already: Morphcast, for example, has licensed its technology to a mental-health app, a program that monitors schoolchildren’s attention, and McDonald’s, which launched a promotional campaign in Portugal that scanned app users’ faces and offered them personalized coupons based on their (supposed) mood. It is one of many, many such companies doing similar work—the industry term is emotion AI or sometimes affective computing.Some products analyze video of meetings or job interviews or focus groups; others listen to audio for pitch, tone, and word choice; still others can scan chat transcripts or emails and spit out a report about worker sentiment. Sometimes, the emotion AI is baked in as a feature in multiuse software, or sold as part of an expensive analytics package marketed to businesses. But it’s also available as a stand-alone product, and the barrier to entry is shin-high: I used MorphCast at no cost, taking advantage of a free trial, and with no special software. At no point was I compelled to ask my interlocutors if they consented to being analyzed in this way (though I did ask, because of my good personality).Every successful technology needs to find a problem that people are willing to pay money to solve. In the case of emotion AI, that problem appears largely, so far, to be worker performance and productivity, especially in customer service and blue-collar labor. If you’ve ever been warned that your call “is being monitored for quality-assurance purposes,” chances are good that the person on the other end is being assessed by emotion AI: The insurance giant MetLife, like many other businesses, uses software to monitor call-center agents’ pitch and tone of voice. Trucking companies use eyeball trackers, high-sensitivity recording equipment, and brain-wave… [TheTopNews] Read More.4 hours ago - Kash Patel Gets Absolutely Smoked in Punishing SNL Sendup By Aziz Ansari: ‘Iâ€...FBI Director Kash Patel got the SNL cold open treatment Saturday night — in a portrayal by actor/comedian Aziz Ansari that was nothing short of devastating. Ansari dropped into the sketch about halfway through — introduced at a White House briefing by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (played by Colin Jost). And the former Parks and Recreation star proceeded to lampoon Patel — calling him out for overall incompetence and reported excessive drinking. (Patel has vehemently denied that report from The Atlantic and has sued them for defamation.) “You guys should not be reporting the lies and the gossip, you should be reporting on the historic nature of my appointment,” Ansari’s Patel said. “I’m a trailblazer. I’m the first Indian person to suck at their job! Everyone says Indian people are smart, hard-working, incredibly intelligent. I’ve proved without a shadow of a doubt that we can be just as incapable and incompetent as the whites!” A reporter in the faux briefing asked Patel if he’d been locked out of his email account — based on an incident in which The Atlantic reported Patel was temporarily locked out of his accounts and thus believed he had been fired. “That’s just more lies,” Patel said. “I’ve always been able to log into my email except for a brief 36-hour period of time when I forgot I had changed my password to KashMeOutside69.” But Ansari’s rollicking sendup hit another gear when he got to the issue of alcohol. “Let me be clear, this FBI director has never been drunk or hungover on the job,” Ansari’s Patel said. “This FBI director never filled a 40 ounce travel mug with ice cold gin and a swirl of dry vermouth and six lemon peels and called it a Kashtini. This FBI director has never used taxpayer dollars to take a private jet to fly him and his girlfriend to three different Buffalo Wild Wings locations across the country to see if they could taste the difference. And this FBI director has definitely not stood on top of a couch at the VIP room of Tao Nightclub and Asian Bistro and shouted, ‘Who wants the nuclear codes?! JK, I ain’t got them!” Watch above, via NBC. The post Kash Patel Gets Absolutely Smoked in Punishing SNL Sendup By Aziz Ansari: ‘I’m the First Indian Person to Suck at Their Job!’ first appeared on… [TheTopNews] Read More.4 hours ago
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