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After hours of idly scrolling through the perfectly symmetrical unblemished butts of Instagram in search of content, the slideshow of World’s Ugliest Dog 2018 contestants revives the spirit and fills the heart with joy. Tonight the tastemakers of the Sonoma-Marin Fair in California will crown a winner, but really, all dogs are champions. Happy Saturday! … [Read more...] about Saturday Night Social: Competition Is Fierce for This Year’s ‘World’s Ugliest Dog’ Pageant

A protest movement to disrupt the activities of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border authorities in response to the Trump administration’s family separation crisis is spreading from coast to coast. From Portland, OR, to McAllen, TX, to New York City, protesters are increasingly mobilizing to block immigration vans and buses as they transport migrant children rounded up in the Trump administration’s widened dragnet. So far, protests have been measured, with authorities managing to circumvent the demonstrators and continuing about their callous business. But pressure is building. In Manhattan, participants in the #OccupyICE movement are in their third day of protests at a local ICE processing center believed to be handling separated children. On Friday, over a dozen of the demonstrators linked arms and temporarily blocked an ICE van from exiting the facility with detained migrants. One protester was thrown to the ground before the van’s driver managed … [Read more...] about ICE Protests Aim to Block Buses Transporting Migrant Children

Lest you hoped that Trump experienced a fleeting brush with emotions this week when he admitted that family separation was terrible and blamed it on the Democrats and then put his jumbo-size president signature on an executive order halting the practice, saying he “didn’t like the sight or the feeling of families being separated,” and that he was coming to a “tough dilemma”–whether being strong means you don’t have any heart... NO! On Friday, he tweeted that the “We cannot allow our Country to be overrun by illegal immigrants as the Democrats tell their phony stories of sadness and grief, hoping it will help them in the elections.” According to a Quinnipiac poll, his voter base supports family separation by 55 percent. He then posted a video of stories from “Angel Families,” people who are grieving the loss of relatives killed by illegal aliens. The stories are horrible. The presentation as the truth about immigration … [Read more...] about The Week’s Shittiest Tweet Goes to Mike Huckabee

The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy ordering prosecutors to file charges on every single person who crosses the U.S. border without documents is draining resources used to combat illicit drug smuggling in southern California, a new report says. USA Today looked at over 2,500 written judgments in border cases from federal courts dating back to mid-May. The newspaper also described an email sent by a Justice Department supervisor in San Diego to border authorities warning that the “zero tolerance” policy would “occupy substantially more of our resources” and that the local U.S. Attorney’s Office was “diverting staff, both support and attorneys, accordingly.” The result is tighter deadlines for prosecutors to file drug smuggling cases in southern California. According to the report: The email, sent by the lawyer who runs the office’s major crimes unit, said prosecutors needed to streamline their work on … [Read more...] about Immigration Prosecutions Diverting Resources from Drug Cases: Report

Oh, sweet justice for the party which would like confectioners and employers and medical practitioners to be allowed to refuse wedding cakes and jobs and healthcare on “moral grounds”; yesterday farm-to-table Virginia eatery The Red Hen reportedly asked Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family to leave, supposedly out of “moral conviction.” One can reasonably assume that the qualms have to do with Sanders’s Biblical defense of the government’s practice of taking children from their parents at the US-Mexico border. This comes one week after White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, who’s thought to be the driver of the family separation policy, was reportedly called a “fascist” at a Mexican restaurant and days after protestors shamed Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who outright lied that there is no family separation policy, out of another Mexican restaurant. It seems the Red Hen management simply jotted down … [Read more...] about Sarah Huckabee Sanders Asked to Leave Restaurant Because She ‘Works for POTUS’

It’s not difficult to know what our nation’s projector-in-chief worries about every day, because he conveys his anxiety through Twitter. And judging by the frequency with which he has been tweeting about the special counsel’s Russia probe lately, things are likely heating up on that front. Among Donald Trump’s habitual Saturday morning Twitter rants is yet another reference to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of election tampering by Russia, potential collusion by the Trump campaign, and obstruction of justice by several members of Trump’s team and some Republican lawmakers. Trump has tweeted twice already today about the “Russian Witch Hunt.” “Poll numbers plummet on the Democrat inspired and paid for Russian Witch Hunt. With all of the bias, lying and hate by the investigators, people want the investigators investigated. Much more will come out. A total scam and excuse for the Dems losing the Election!” Trump … [Read more...] about President Donald Trump Tweeted ‘Witch Hunt’ 22 Times in June

CALL ME LONG DONG SILVER JUST LOOK AT THIS HOTNESS ARIANA GRANDE WAS PUT ON EARTH AS GIFT TO MAN, AKA PETE DAVIDSON GET BACK 2 ME WHEN U BAGGED THE HOTTEST GIRL BRAH THE HUMAN BODY TYPICALLY STOPS PRODUCING COLLAGEN IN ITS LATE TWENTIES, AND THE SLOW MARCH OF GRAVITY AND CELLULAR DECAY STOPS FOR NO MAN THIS WILL NEVER GET OLD Nick Jonas announces he’s dating Priyanka Chopra like this: Shakira’s touring company Live Nation apologized for selling a sun pendant which bears close resemblance to a Himmler symbol, explaining that it was based on “Pre-Columbian [sic]” imagery. Double shit. Ygritte of the North (Jon Snow’s love interest, spearwife (lady archer??), Game of Thrones seasons 2-4) and Jon Snow are getting married today in REAL LIFE Ygritte’s family castle in REAL LIFE because she is of noble blood in REAL LIFE!!! [Daily Mail] Pregnancy saved Cardi B from depression. [Twitter] Kardashians keep saying that becoming moms has made them more … [Read more...] about It’s Pete Davidson’s World, We’re Just Living in It

In light of the Trump administration’s despicable policy of separating poor children from their parents and locking them in cages, an increasing number of people are fighting back by making it extremely uncomfortable for officials to enjoy their private lives in peace while babies cry without their mothers. In one of the latest “not in my name” protests, a Virginia restaurant owner reportedly kicked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and seven members of her family out of the establishment. Jaike Foley-Schultz, a waiter at The Red Hen in Lexington, VA, posted on social media Friday night that he had “just served Sarah huckabee sanders for a total of 2 minutes before my owner kicked her out along with 7 of her other family members...” Clean Virginia director Brennan Gilmore then tweeted a photo of a to-do list apparently from the restaurant that, in addition to everyday restaurant activities like restocking booze and S.Pellegrino water, … [Read more...] about Sarah Huckabee Sanders Got Booted from a Virginia Restaurant

Last Call is The Takeout’s online watering hole where you can chat, share recipes, and use the comment section as an open thread. Here’s what we’ve been reading/watching/listening around the office today. Patti Smith on “Because The Night” Regular readers of Last Call will know that The Takeout collectively shares a great affection for Bruce Springsteen, but we all know it’s Patti Smith who rules their collaborative hit, “Because The Night,” turning 40 this year. This Billboard oral history of the song is pretty great. My favorite gem: Smith at first put off listening to a cassette demo of the Springsteen song, preferring to write her own songs. Finally, after much cajoling from producer Jimmy Iovine, she played it: “It’s in the key of A, my key; anthemic; great beat. I listen to it, and I remember it, all by myself, standing there. There are certain things in my past I can’t remember, but this I can remember second by … [Read more...] about Last Call: Patti Smith on “Because The Night,” 40 years later

Welcome to Barf Bag, a daily politics roundup to help you sort through the chaotic Trumpian news cycle. It’s Friday. That’s... something? Here’s all the shit we couldn’t cover today: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte’s very bad immigration bill did not pass the House on Thursday. Though the House is planning to vote on another, more moderate (but still not good!) bill next week, now Donald Trump is saying to hell with it all, saying the GOP should wait until after November’s midterm elections. Meanwhile, he has already enforced a very extreme immigration policy at the border that detains families indefinitely. [Politico] Twenty-five diplomats in Cuba’s U.S. Embassy have fallen mysteriously ill since late 2016. The State Department is investigating who might be who or what might be behind the suspected attacks. [New York Times] Internet media company IAC has withdrawn advertising from Laura Ingraham’s Fox News program … [Read more...] about Republicans Can’t Seem to Agree on How Terrible to Make Their Immigration Bill