monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

A member of the US military has been killed in Somalia, the first confirmed US combat death there since the 1993 disastrous Black Hawk Down incident.

This happened on Thursday during operations against al-Shabab militants about 64km (40 miles) west of the capital Mogadishu, near the town of Barii, the US military says.

Two other US service members were hurt.

US forces were on an "advise and assist" mission with the Somali National Army, the US military says.

American presidents have been wary of intervention in Somalia since 18 special forces soldiers died fighting militias in Mogadishu in 1993, a battle dramatised in the film Black Hawk Down.

However, President Donald Trump has expanded military action against the al-Qaeda affiliate in the Horn of Africa nation.

US Africa Command spokeswoman Robyn Mack said the American "service member" had been struck by small arms fire.

Two other members of the US military wounded in the same incident were receiving "proper medical attention", she added.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a US Navy Seal had been killed, Reuters news agency reports.

In Thursday's mission, US troops were hunting an al-Shabab commander near the Shabelle river, the news agency reports.

In March, Mr Trump approved a Pentagon plan to escalate operations against al-Shabab, including additional air strikes.

Last month, dozens of American soldiers were deployed to Mogadishu to train and equip Somali and African Union troops.

It was the first time regular US troops had been sent to Somalia since 1994, though some counter-terrorism advisers were already there.

Analysts say the soldier killed on Thursday would not have been one of the soldiers recently sent to Somalia.

‘I would do it again’: Stephen Colbert stands by his vulgar comments about Donald Trump

Colbert criticized the president during Monday’s monologue and said, “Sir,... you talk like a sign language gorilla who got hit in the head. In fact, the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s cock holster.”

Addressing Monday’s monologue during Wednesday’s broadcast of his late-night show, Colbert admitted that he didn’t regret of the comments he made about the president. “I don’t regret that,” he said, to uproarious cheers from the studio audience."

Trump praises Australia's universal health care after Obamacare repeal(CNN)

"The framework for a deal began when Pence doggedly worked the phones and scheduled meetings to explain the provision [allowing states to opt out of Obamacare rules] to outside groups," said Tim Phillips, who leads Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers-backed group. "It needed to be someone really credible since there was no language, and that was him."

Trump did not want to talk about the merits of the legislation — he didn’t care much about those specifics, senior officials said. What mattered to him was how a failed vote would hobble his presidency and the ability to get other legislation through Congress. He wanted a win.

President Trump's now-former pick for Army secretary once said government-assisted healthcare is an "injustice" because it hampers church-affiliated providers from converting people to Christianity.

Mark Green, a state senator in Tennessee, told a church group in 2015 that sickness is one of the main avenues that bring people to religion, but that citizens in the United States now instead rely on the government to help them, limiting the Christian church's role.

In 2015, Green spoke at a church in Tennessee and gave some advice to attendees about how to avoid the “downward spiral” away from God that Hussein fell victim to: stop looking at Victoria’s Secret catalogues.

“In 1st Timothy, Paul tells Timothy, ‘Guard your conscience, because if you don’t, it will result in the destruction of your faith.’ ... It will take you down that spiral of Romans 1. It will take you down the spiral that Saddam Hussein wound up thinking he was God,” Green said.

“That’s the process of how you get to Saddam Hussein, is you take one little step away from the truth,” he continued. “You break your conscience just a little bit. You walk away and you look at that Victoria’s Secrets [sic] catalogue when you know you probably shouldn’t. And it’s one step away from God, and it’s one step closer to Saddam Hussein.”

Trump is like a gorilla.

When one points it out, there are far too few on the left who will acknowledge because don't you know, Trump is like a gorilla.

GOP Arizona Radio Host: ‘Obama Is The First Monkey President’

Dan Johnson, the bishop of Heart of Fire Church in Louisville, posted an edited image of the President and first lady Michelle Obama with ape-like features. He also labeled a photo of a chimpanzee a baby picture of Obama.

Last week, right-wing radio host Barbara Espinosa of Arizona took to the airwaves and declared that she won't call Barack Obama "the first black president," explaining: "I voted for the white guy myself. I call him a monkey."

ABC News' Tahman Bradley Reports: Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh issued an on-air apology to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., today after a caller said her daughter thought the Democratic presidential frontrunner looked like the cartoon character Curious George, a monkey.

Limbaugh, who laughed at the caller's comments, later apologized explaining he didn't know anything about Curious George.

"I think that Barack Hussein Obama should be put in jail. It is clear that Barack Hussein Obama is a communist. Mao Tse Tung lives and his name is Barack Hussein Obama. This country should be ashamed. I wanna throw up.... Obama, he's a piece of ****. I told him to suck on my machine gun."

layman wrote:

Suppose someone in the media said Obama talked like a gorilla and called him a **********?

To answer my own question, I have no doubt that there would be extreme MORAL OUTRAGE immediately streaming from the left, with charges of racism, homophobia, and moral degeneracy. The streets would be full of crowds demanding that the speaker be fired, and that his network be boycotted.

There would be no "uproarious cheering," for some damn reason, eh?

Quote:

Trump praises Australia's universal health care after Obamacare repeal(CNN)

That was absolutely ******* hilarious.

On Wednesday, a customer service representative from the FDA’s Office of Facilities sent an email to staff informing them that TVs in a Silver Spring, Maryland office will now be exclusively turned to Fox News.
The email — a screencap of which was initially obtained and shared to Twitter by journalist Paul Thacker and later by BuzzFeed’s Julia Reinstein — was sent to “let everyone know” why TVs had been changed “from CNN to FOX.” It was sent to researchers at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, the FDA branch that oversees medical products.

Sorry but you would never make the cut.

It really is absurd that you are having so much difficulty with me expressing a belief which I admit I can't prove.