Latino Trump Supporter Warns of ‘Taco Trucks on Every Corner'

A taco truck. (photo: KALW)

By teleSUR

03 September 16
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Apparently more taco trucks would be a scary, not a tasty, prospect.

he founding member of the “Latinos for Trump” group made a strange argument to support U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying that a loose U.S. immigration policy would lead to “taco trucks on every corner.”

"My culture is a very dominant culture. And it's imposing, and it's causing problems. If you don't do something about it, you're gonna have taco trucks on every corner," said Marco Gutierrez during an interview with MSNBC on Thursday. "We have a lot of good things that we bring to the United States, but we also have a lot problems."

Interviewer Joy Reid seemed taken aback by the comments, replying “I don't even know what that means, and I'm almost too afraid to ask.”

The group says on its website that it is “empowered to bring about change in the status quo narrative of Latino society and voice our concerns of Illegal immigration.”

The group supports Trump’s hard-line approach to immigration and his plan to build a wall across the Mexico-U.S. border, a proposal that has unsurprisingly offended many Latin people. Trump has previously made racist, unfounded comments regarding Mexicans in the U.S., associating them with drugs, crime and rape.

The comments come on the back of Trump’s meeting with unpopular Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico City on Wednesday.

While Trump has remained steadfast in his plan to build the wall, and build it on Mexico's dime, Peña Nieto rejected the proposal and said after the meeting with Trump that Mexico will not pay for the wall.

Users took to social media mocking the comments, with many welcoming the more Mexican food under the hashtag #TacoTrucksOnEveryCorner. Surely there could be worse things to happen out the of US election.

Comments

+11 # backwards_cinderella 2016-09-03 09:21

I don't understand why a taco truck on every corner is a bad thing. I'm eating a taco right now as a matter of fact.

+4 # RMDC 2016-09-04 06:47

I could sure as hell use a taco truck on my corner. Send the McDonalds over somewhere else.

+9 # ktony 2016-09-03 09:58

When you are selling yourself on bigotry, you risk getting so caught up in it that you wander way off in the weeds. You forget that not everyone is stuck in your negative mode of thinking.

+9 # guomashi 2016-09-03 10:04

Better tacos on the corner than dead black men.

+7 # tedrey 2016-09-03 10:12

Counter it with a barbecue on every lawn.

By the way, whatever happened to a chicken in every pot?

Or a sandwich in every kid's hand all over the whole damned world?

The world has enough tacos, chickens and sandwiches if they were distributed evenly, damn it!

End of random rant . . . for now.

+9 # zagnut 2016-09-03 10:24

Tacos are my favorite food. When I was in college and watching some sporting event and drinking and partying, while everyone else was eating Pizza, I was eating tacos.

+8 # runningtab 2016-09-03 10:51

Gosh, that vision sets a higher bar for us Jews -- a pastrami sandwich truck on every corner. Why didn't we think of that?

Fox News Just Showed How Little It Cares About Sexual Harassment Allegations

Former Fox News chairman and CEO, Roger Ailes. (photo: Fox News)

By Samantha Page, ThinkProgress

02 September 16
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fter Fox News chief Roger Ailes was accused of sexual harassment, questions immediately arose over how seriously the network would take the issue. Reports quickly surfaced that Ailes was getting a $40 million golden parachute and would be retained as a “consultant.”

Fox News personalities, including a number of male hosts, spoke up, saying they had never seen the executive harass women privately in his office, as he is accused of doing.

Now, there is another sign that Fox News’ parent company, 21st Century Fox, and its owner Rupert Murdoch, are not taking the investigation seriously.

At least one of Ailes’ replacements at the head of the company allegedly knew about the sexual harassment accusations before they publicly surfaced.

Fox announced Friday that Bill Shine will now serve as one of two co-presidents of the channel, managing the forward-facing elements: talent, programming, and newsgathering. But according to former Fox host Andrea Tantaros, Shine was well aware of the Ailes problem before it came to light.

Tarantos, through her lawyer, told New York Magazine that she complained to Shine and other executives “multiple” times about Ailes’ harassment, beginning in 2014.

“She made multiple harassment and hostile-workplace complaints,” the lawyer said. According to the lawyer, her complaints were not followed up on and she was urged to back down.

“Roger is a very powerful man,” Shine allegedly told Tarantos, and added that she “should not fight this.”

Shine has denied that Tarantos made any complaints to him.

Tarantos herself was suspended from the network, which still pays her, in April after a year of complaints, she says. The network says she was suspended for not giving it a chance to vet her book.

Ailes was ousted after Gretchen Carlson, a longtime host of Fox and Friends, sued the executive for sexual harassment at the beginning of July. Ailes resigned two weeks later. Before he left, he allegedly campaigned internally to get high-profile Fox News personalities to publicly support him and question his accusers.

According to Carlson’s attorney, at least a dozen women came forward after the suit was announced, alleging that they, too, had been sexually harassed by the former executive. Among the accusations are that Ailes demanded sexual favors in exchange for advancement at the company.

CNN Money reported that Fox News simultaneously announced that its chief financial officer, Mark Kranz, is retiring, which will raise questions about whether there have been monetary settlements with any previous sexual harassment victims.

Is Trump in cahoots with Kremlin?

The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey. (photo: Melissa Golden/Redux)

Congressional Democrats Call on FBI to Investigate Their Political Adversaries' Kremlin Ties

By Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept

01 September 16
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eading House Democrats on Tuesday sent a letter to FBI Director James Comey, which they promptly published, asking the agency to investigate whether the Trump campaign and the Russian government have entered into a joint plot “to interfere with the U.S. presidential election.” Although the House Democrats say they do not know whether such a conspiracy with Moscow exists, they say that “serious questions have been raised” — specifically about whether Trump supporters worked in tandem with Kremlin agents to hack Democratic Party computer systems, and “about overt and covert actions by Trump campaign officials on behalf of Russian interests.”

As grounds for their suspicions, these top Democrats cite certain associations between Trump advisers and various Russians, suspicious visits by them to Moscow, and statements Trump supporters made that are critical of the United States of America or advocate better relations with Moscow. These statements and policy views, these top Democrats suggest, demonstrate possible disloyalty to the United States, which should be investigated.

For instance, “one of Donald Trump’s foreign policy advisers, Carter Page, traveled to Moscow to give a speech that was harshly critical of the United States and its ‘hypocritical focus on ideas such as democratization, inequality, corruption, and regime change.’” The top Democrats also note that another Trump adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, “traveled to Moscow in December 2015 and joined Vladimir Putin at the head table during a dinner honoring the Kremlin-backed media network RT,” and then “gave a speech that was highly critical of the United States” (the House Democrats do not mention that Gen. Flynn was appointed by President Obama in 2012 to head the Defense Intelligence Agency, and they are cryptic about whether they believe the general is a full-scale Russian operative or merely an unwitting Useful Idiot).

This letter was clearly part of a coordinated plan by Democrats to call for an FBI investigation into their domestic political adversaries for possible Russia links. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid sent a similar letter to Comey yesterday asking him to investigate “evidence of a direct connection between the Russian government and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.” Reid explicitly harkened back to the era of American politics when this type of rhetoric was common, saying that “the prospect of a hostile government [Russia] seeking to undermine our free and fair elections represents one of the gravest threats to our democracy since the Cold War.”

The calls by congressional Democrats for an FBI investigation into possible Moscow-engineered subversiveness on American soil come as various Clinton supporters are calling for increased confrontation with Russia. President Obama’s former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul yesterday said “the Obama administration will need to respond” if Russians were involved in hacking state election centers, while the managing editor of a popular liberal blog announced that once the election is over, “let’s kick some ass on that front” — meaning Russia. Meanwhile, Democratic pundits are increasingly signaling to Americans that they should distrust the legitimacy and reliability of their democratic elections if Hillary loses because it will likely mean that Putin manipulated the votes by hacking to help Trump.

While possible Kremlin allegiances on American soil are certainly a major source of concern — that goes without saying for all Patriotic Americans — it’s unclear why congressional Democrats are seemingly abdicating their solemn duties by failing to conduct their own investigation. It’s true that the FBI has an extensive and well-known history of conducting aggressive investigations into suspicions that American citizens are covertly working in tandem with Moscow (indeed, the longtime director after whom the FBI’s headquarters is named pioneered many new investigative techniques in the course of doing so, and when publishing their letter, these leading House Democrats notably featured a picture showing his honored name on the front of the FBI building).

Good riddance to the Kenny Evans era

Kenny the Who is now Kenny the Gone.



If you read the Payson Roundup's recent eulogy to ousted local politician Kenny Evans, you probably couldn't believe your eyes.  Besides doing virtually nothing as Payson mayor, including his infamous four year university, Evans also took credit for bringing Blue Ridge/Cragin water to Payson - an accomplishment of the preceding administration of Bob Edwards.  Yet the Roundup lavishly praised his administration and questioned the intelligence of the voters who wisely ousted him and his lackey Michael Hughes.


Here, in the interest of balanced coverage, are some responses from local residents to the Roundup piece:

Mary Kastner 4 hours, 9 minutes ago

You have got to be kidding me....Kenny Evans on the RCEA (SLE) ?? His negotiating skills remain to be seen - no university partner after all these years and a hurry up scheme to build some infrastructure to show progress. His agenda was decidedly renounced in this primary election - neither he nor Hughes were chosen by the people to continue to serve Payson and the Rim Country. It's time for Evans to hang it up.

Mike White 3 hours, 22 minutes ago

I have to wonder whether the recent election results were a referendum on the unpopularity of the not-very transparent and continually changing university project, with which Mr. Evans has been closely involved, according to all reports and discussion I have read. If my interpretation that the election was in fact a public rejection of how the project has been handled is true, then perhaps the MHA/RCEA/RCEF/SLE should instead bring in community members who have NOT been involved in the project.

Paul Frommelt 1 hour, 37 minutes ago

The will of the people has been expressed. It is now time for The Roundup to stop beating the drum for Evans and realize that many of his actions as mayor were TERRIBLY unpopular, secretive, and unasked for. Let's look forward to a 'new vision' that focuses on Payson, and not a university from the valley of the sun!

Dolores Dailey 1 hour, 16 minutes ago

I literally had to laugh out loud at this ridiculous article touting the virtues of Kenny Evans and how the voters were not educated enough on his magnificent mayoral style. Really? How educated does one have to be to see that after 6 years of promises of a full campus university, we have none. More importantly, we have no commitment from any university to come to Payson. During his tenure have we been blessed with any light industry in Payson? The answer to that is 'no'. After 8 years of Evans, are the streets in Payson in good shape? The answer to that is also no. What happened to the charter school Evans said was coming? Haven't heard anything about that in a long while.
To say Evans lost the campaign because the voters were not educated is disingenuous. He lost because folks saw through him and his endless promises and voted him out.

jeffrey Aal 26 minutes ago

Voters made a grievous mistake? Seriously, that is the most condescending statement a paper could make to its readers. Are we just not enlightened enough? Too short sighted? STUPID? Please explain how everybody got it so wrong?

Donald, When This Is Over, You Will Have Nothing That You Want

Donald Trump. (photo: AP)

"You are in the old tradition of locker room ranting and big honkers in the steam room, sitting naked, talking man talk, griping about the goons and ginks and lousy workmanship and the uppity broads and the great lays and how you vanquished your enemies at the bank." 

By Garrison Keillor, The Chicago Tribune

02 September 16

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he cap does not look good on you, it's a duffer's cap, and when you come to the microphone, you look like the warm-up guy, the guy who announces the license number of the car left in the parking lot, doors locked, lights on, motor running. The brim shadows your face, which gives a sinister look, as if you'd come to town to announce the closing of the pulp factory. Your eyes look dead and your scowl does not suggest American greatness so much as American indigestion. Your hair is the wrong color: People don't want a president to be that shade of blond. You know that now.

Why doesn't someone in your entourage dare to say these things? So sad. The fans in the arenas are wild about you, and Sean Hannity is as loyal as they come, but Rudy and Christie and Newt are reassuring in that stilted way of hospital visitors. And The New York Times treats you like the village idiot. This is painful for a Queens boy trying to win respect in Manhattan where the Times is the Supreme Liberal Jewish Anglican Arbiter of Who Has The Smarts and What Goes Where. When you came to Manhattan 40 years ago, you discovered that in entertainment, the press, politics, finance, everywhere you went, you ran into Jews, and they are not like you: Jews didn't go in for big yachts and a fleet of aircraft — they showed off by way of philanthropy or by raising brilliant offspring. They sympathized with the civil rights movement. In Queens, blacks were a threat to property values — they belonged in the Bronx, not down the street. To the Times, Queens is Cleveland. Bush league. You are Queens. The casinos were totally Queens, the gold faucets in your triplex, the bragging, the insults, but you wanted to be liked by Those People. You wanted Mike Bloomberg to invite you to dinner at his townhouse. You wanted the Times to run a three-part story about you, that you meditate and are a passionate kayaker and collect 14th-century Islamic mosaics. You wish you were that person but you didn't have the time.

Running for president is your last bid for the respect of Manhattan. If you were to win election, they couldn't ridicule you anymore. They could be horrified, but there is nothing ridiculous about being Leader of the Free World. You have B-52 bombers at your command. When you go places, a battalion of security guys comb the environs. You attract really really good speechwriters who give you Churchillian cadences and toss in quotes from Emerson and Aeschylus and Ecclesiastes.

Labor Day and it is not going well. You had a very bad month. You tossed out those wisecracks on Twitter and the Earth shook and your ratings among white suburban women with French cookware declined. The teleprompter is not your friend. You are in the old tradition of locker room ranting and big honkers in the steam room, sitting naked, talking man talk, griping about the goons and ginks and lousy workmanship and the uppity broads and the great lays and how you vanquished your enemies at the bank. Profanity is your natural language and vulgar words so as not to offend the Christers but the fans can still hear it and that's something they love about you. You are their guy. You are losing and so are they but they love you for it.

So what do you do this winter? Hang around one of your mansions? Hit some golf balls? Hire a ghostwriter to do a new autobiography?

What the fans don't know is that it's not much fun being a billionaire. You own a lot of big houses and you wander around in them, followed by a waiter, a bartender, a masseuse, three housekeepers, and a concierge, and they probably gossip about you behind your back. Just like nine-tenths of your campaign staff. You're losing and they know it and they're telling mean stories about you to everybody and his brother.

Meanwhile, you keep plugging away. It's the hardest work you've ever done. You walk out in the white cap and you rant for an hour about stuff that means nothing and the fans scream and wave their signs and you wish you could level with them for once and say one true thing: I love you to death and when this is over I will have nothing that I want.

Pence Recaptured After Fleeing Trump Campaign Bus

Mike Pence. (photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

By Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker

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alling it a “scary moment” and a “close call,” Donald Trump’s campaign officials confirmed that they had recaptured Mike Pence after the Indiana governor attempted to flee the campaign bus in the early hours of Friday morning.

According to the campaign, Pence had asked to stop at a McDonald’s in rural Virginia so that he could use the bathroom, but aides grew concerned when the governor failed to reappear after twenty minutes.

After determining that Pence had given them the slip, Trump staffers fanned out across the Virginia backcountry, where the governor was believed to have fled.

News that Pence had vanished touched off a panic in Indiana, where residents feared that he might return to resume his political career.After forty-five minutes of searching, however, campaign officials located a bedraggled and dazed Pence walking along Virginia State Route 287, where the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee was attempting unsuccessfully to hitch a ride.

A confrontation that Trump aides characterized as “tense” ensued, after which a sobbing Pence returned to the bus.

In the aftermath of Pence’s disappearance, Hope Hicks, Trump’s press secretary, attempted to downplay the severity of the incident. “This is the kind of thing that happens in the course of a long and demanding campaign,” she said. “Having said that, we’re grateful to have Mike Pence back with us, and we won’t let him get away again.”

Reportedly, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie offered to fill in for Pence in the event that he became unable to fulfill his duties. That offer was declined.

Insulting Colin Kaepernick Says More About Our Patriotism Than His

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. (photo: Unknown)

By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, The Washington Post

30 August 16
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uring the Olympics in Rio a couple of weeks ago, Army Reserve 2nd Lt. Sam Kendricks was sprinting intently in the middle of his pole vaulting attempt when he heard the national anthem playing. He immediately dropped his pole and stood at attention, a spontaneous expression of heartfelt patriotism that elicited more praise than his eventual bronze medal. Last Thursday, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick chose not to stand with his teammates during the national anthem.

To some, Kendricks embodies traditional all-American Forrest Gump values of patriotism, while Kaepernick represents the entitled brattish behavior of a wealthy athlete ungrateful to a country that has given him so much.

In truth, both men, in their own ways, behaved in a highly patriotic manner that should make all Americans proud.

The discussion of the nuances of patriotism is especially important right now, with Trump and Clinton supporters each righteously claiming ownership of the “most patriotic” label. Patriotism isn’t just getting teary-eyed on the Fourth of July or choked up at war memorials. It’s supporting what the Fourth of July celebrates and what those war memorials commemorate: the U.S. Constitution’s insistence that all people should have the same rights and opportunities and that it is the obligation of the government to make that happen. When the government fails in those obligations, it is the responsibility of patriots to speak up and remind them of their duty.

One of the ironies of the way some people express their patriotism is to brag about our freedoms, especially freedom of speech, but then brand as unpatriotic those who exercise this freedom to express dissatisfaction with the government’s record in upholding the Constitution. Colin Kaepernick explained why he will not stand during the national anthem: “There are a lot of things that are going on that are unjust [that] people aren’t being held accountable for. And that’s something that needs to change. That’s something that this country stands for — freedom, liberty, justice for all. And it’s not happening for all right now.”

What makes an act truly patriotic and not just lip-service is when it involves personal risk or sacrifice. Both Kendricks and Kaepernick chose to express their patriotism publicly because they felt that inspiring others was more important than the personal cost. Yes, Kendricks is a world-record pole-vaulter, but every athlete knows that breaking focus and concentration during a high-pressure competition can be devastating to the athlete’s performance. The Olympics was filled with favorites who faltered because of loss of focus. Halting his run in order to honor the national anthem could have cost Kendricks his medal. He was willing to take that chance.

Likewise, Kaepernick’s choice not to stand during the national anthem could create a public backlash that might cost him millions in future endorsements and affect his value as a player on his team, reducing salary earnings or even jeopardizing his job. If team ticket sales seriously dipped as a result, he would pay for his stance.

We should admire those who risk personal gain in the service of promoting the values of their country. Both athletes are in fine company of others who have shown their patriotism in unconventional ways. In 1989, when a federal law prohibiting flag desecration went into effect, Vietnam Veterans burned the American flag as a protest to a law curbing the First Amendment. Their argument was that they fought for the freedoms in the Constitution, not a piece of cloth, and to curtail those freedoms was an insult to their sacrifice. Ironically, the original purpose of flag desecration laws between 1897 and 1932 wasn’t to prevent political dissent, but to prevent the use of flag imagery for political campaigns and in advertising.

One sign of the maturation of American society is the willingness of those in the public eye, especially athletes, to openly take a political stand, even if it could harm their careers. The modern era of athletes speaking out began in 1966 with Muhammad Ali refusing to be drafted to fight other people of color. In 1967, I joined with football great Jim Brown, basketball legend Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali and other prominent athletes for what was dubbed “The Cleveland Summit.” Together we tried to find ways to help Ali fight for his right of political expression. I don’t know how much we were able to accomplish on a practical level, but seeing black athletes in support of Ali inspired others to speak out. The following year at the 1968 Olympics, African Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists during the medal ceremony as a protest to the treatment of people of color in the United States. In 2014, NBA players LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Jarrett Jack, Alan Anderson, Deron Williams and Kevin Garnett and NFL players from the Rams and Browns wore “I Can’t Breathe” shirts during warm-ups for a game to protest police killings of unarmed blacks.

What should horrify Americans is not Kaepernick’s choice to remain seated during the national anthem, but that nearly 50 years after Ali was banned from boxing for his stance and Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s raised fists caused public ostracization and numerous death threats, we still need to call attention to the same racial inequities. Failure to fix this problem is what’s really un-American here.