Day: January 18, 2018

GOP Bill Would Actually Cut Number of Highly Skilled Immigrants

Buck Banks

50%

President Trump and his Senate allies “are now presenting their goal for immigration reform as increasing the number of high-skilled immigrants allowed into the United States,” The Atlantic reports. “But by trumpeting high-skilled immigration, Trump, Cotton, and Perdue are also obscuring the most significant impact of their proposal: a 50 percent cut in legal immigration.”

U.S. Leadership at an All-time Low Globally

Buck Banks

30%

A new Gallup poll finds other nations’ approval of U.S. leadership under President Trump hit a historical low of 30% in 2017. “The measure, the lowest since Gallup began tracking it worldwide in 2007, signals an 18-point drop from a year earlier, when 48% approved of the national influence under former President Obama. It is the single largest year-to-year drop in approval of U.S. leadership — or of any country examined — to date. The steep decline, researchers said, can be largely attributed to the shift in leadership in the West Wing.”

One Pound Away from Obesity

Buck Banks

1 lb.

Slate notes one result from President Trump’s medical exam “was conspicuously abnormal: the president’s body mass index. … At 6’3” and 239 pounds, Trump’s BMI is 29.9, exactly 0.1 units shy of one big league distinction: obesity. Remarkably, the president was found to be exactly 1 pound lighter than a weight that would have pushed him over the edge to receive the diagnosis of obesity. Similarly, if he were merely 1/10 of an inch shorter, he would also be considered obese.”

Porn Star Describes Affair with Trump

Buck Banks

Porn star Stormy Daniels tells In Touch that she had sex with Donald Trump in his Lake Tahoe, NV, hotel suite in 2006 — a story that was corroborated by her good friend Randy Spears and supported by her ex-husband. She also took a polygraph test. Said Daniels: “The sex was textbook generic. I actually don’t even know why I did it, but I do remember while we were having sex, I was like, ‘Please, don’t try to pay me.’” After having sex, Daniels said: “We hung out for a little while and he just kept saying, ‘I’m gonna call you, I’m gonna call you. I have to see you again. You’re amazing. We have to get you on The Apprentice.’”

— Daily Beast: “According to a source familiar with the matter, later this week, InTouch is planning to run the entire unedited interview it conducted with Daniels. All 5,500 words of it.”

World Democracy Dropped for 12th Year in a Row

Buck Banks

12 years

A new Freedom House report finds “democracy is in retreat around the world” for the 12th year in a row. Most striking: “The United States retreated from its traditional role as both a champion and an exemplar of democracy amid an accelerating decline in American political rights and civil liberties… The United States experienced its sharpest one-year drop since we began doing the survey more than 40 years ago.”