Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 4-30-19

White House And Political News
WH Slammed For Posting 'Sad, Lonely' Photo Of Melania Trump In Birthday Tweet
MELANIA TRUMP
White Nationalists Storm Washington Bookstore Reading: ‘This Land Is Our Land’
A photo tweeted by the White House on First Lady Melania Trump's birthday has raised many an eyebrow on social media.
The tweet that has generated more than 8,000 comments, simply says "Happy Birthday, @FLOTUS!" and is accompa- nied by a photo of Mrs. Trump sitting alone on the far end of a couch and staring into the distance, surrounded by an army of photographers and re- porters in the Oval Office. Mrs. Trump turned 49 on Friday.
The photo has spawned nu- merous memes but also ques- tions from some Twitter users about why the White House
chose to share a photo in which the first lady looks "all alone" on her birthday.
"Where are her child and husband?" one tweet said in re- sponse to the photo.
"I don’t understand why the White House would post such a sad, lonely photo of Melania for her birthday," another Twitter user said. "Regardless what I think of her and her family, this is just weird."
She got to spend her birth- day having a private dinner in the White House with her hus- band and Japan's first couple, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie, who are currently on a visit to the United States.
A small group of white na- tionalists stormed a book- store in Washington, D. C., to protest an event for a book on racial politics and how it’s impacting lower- and mid- dle-class white Americans.
The group stormed the Politics and Prose bookstore on Saturday afternoon, inter- rupting a scheduled talk by Jonathan Metzl, a profes- sor of sociology and psychia- try at Vanderbilt University who released his book “Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resent- ment Is Killing America’s Heartland” this spring.
Videos filmed by those in attendance showed the group standing in a line before the audience chanting, “This land is our land.” At least one man was yelling white na- tionalist propaganda into a megaphone while people in the bookstore booed him.
The man identified the
group as “identitarians,” a far-right white nationalist group which is linked to Identity Evropa, which the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as an extremist group.
Catherine Wigginton, who tweeted a video of the brief chaos, said she was “im- pressed” with how Metzl handled the interruption.
“Does anyone want to process that before I get back to what I was saying,” she tweeted, recalling his reac- tion after the white national-
ists left.
Metzl, who is also the di-
rector for Vanderbilt’s Center for Medicine, Health and So- ciety, was speaking at the bookstore for an Independ- ent Bookstore Day event.
The bookstore protest happened on the same day a 19-year-old white suprema- cist opened fire on a syna- gogue in Poway, California, before a Passover celebra- tion, killing one woman and injuring three others, includ- ing one young girl.
Trump Reportedly Complained
Oliver North Steps Down As NRA President Amid Dispute Over 'Damaging' Information
To Twitter CEO About Having
Less Followers Than Obama
INDIANAPOLIS - Retired U. S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North will step down as president of the National Rifle Association, North said on Saturday, adding he was being forced out due to his allegations that NRA leaders engaged in fi- nancial improprieties.
In a letter read to the or- ganization’s annual meeting in Indianapolis by an NRA board member, North, a conservative commentator best known for his central role in the 1980s Iran-Contra affair, said he had hoped to run for re-election when his term ends on Monday.
“I am now informed that will not happen,” North said in the letter.
His departure came after NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre accused North of trying to oust him by threatening to release “damaging” information about him, according to a let- ter from LaPierre to NRA
telling them to preserve rele- vant financial records.
James’ office confirmed she has launched an investi- gation related to the NRA, and that she has issued sub- poenas as part of the investi- gation, but declined to comment further.
North, 75, who was named by the NRA as its president in May 2018, was a pivotal figure in the Iran- Contra affair involving secret sales of arms to Iran by Re- publican President Ronald Reagan’s administration and the unlawful diversion of the proceeds to Nicaraguan rebels.
The NRA, with more than 5 million members, is by far the most powerful and well- connected gun lobby in the United States. It has worked closely with legislators to protect firearms manufactur- ers from liability for gun vio- lence and pushed a ban on U. S. health officials from pro- moting gun control.
Per The Daily Beast, Don- ald Trump had a meeting with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, where he reportedly complained about having less followers than the 44th Presi- dent, Barack Obama. The re- port reads that 45 spent “an inordinate amount of time” complaining about how he’s lost a sizable amount of Twitter followers, among other things.
Trump’s social media direc- tor Dan Scavino reportedly spent a large portion of the meeting, which took place in the Oval Office, discussing the likely reasons why Trump’s follower count has decreased. A source familiar with the meeting that took place says he believes that “anti-Trump, anti-conservative Twitter purges” are likely to blame.
“Two people close to Trump previously told The Daily Beast that Trump has repeatedly griped to associates about how his predecessor, President Obama, has had more Twitter followers than he has, even though—by Trump’s own assessment—he
BARACK OBAMA
is so much better at Twitter than Obama is,” the report continues.
Meanwhile, Obama re- cently had a street named after him in Los Angeles on Tues- day, April 23.
“Our history is important and this is one way that we will ensure that America’s 44th President’s legacy is shared for generations to come for Ange- lenos and visitors alike,” said Los Angeles City Council Pres- ident Herb Wesson of Obama Boulevard.
OLIVER NORTH
board members that was published by the Wall Street Journal on Friday.
NRA officials did not im- mediately respond to a re- quest for comment.
The New York Times re- ported on Saturday that the New York attorney general, Letitia James, opened an investigation into the group’s tax-exempt status, sending letters on Friday to the NRA and affiliated entities, includ- ing its charitable foundation,
PAGE 6 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2019