Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 9-28-18

White House News
Tickets For Michelle Obama Book Tour Going For Up To $6,000
MICHELLE OBAMA
Right now, “Becoming: An Intimate Conversation with Michelle Obama” book tour is the hottest ticket in town—if you can get one.
We previously reported that the pre-sale tickets for the for- mer First Lady’s Becoming 12- city book tour went on sale last week and no doubt they were Rockstar, Beyonce-level con- cert prices. However, once the general public tickets were re- leased, scalpers got their claws on and jacked up the price to an unheard-of cost, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Raise your hand if you’re willing to cough up $6,700 a piece for a stadium seat.
While we’re sure $6,700 is
just a drop in the bucket for celebrities like Oprah and Diddy, the price point may be out of reach for the average Joe who would want to go. Black market ticket sellers are to blame for the outrageous markup after buying up tickets and then posting them for re- sale.
Before the markup, tickets were already high and ranged from $500, up to $1,795 without a photo op, autographed book, or even a “collectible laminate and lanyard.”
The ticket prices, however are expected to fluctuate based on demand. So if no one grabs the expensive tickets, expect the price to go down. But don’t bet on it since the tickets have been selling like hot cakes.
Just for the scale of its ven- ues, there has never been a roll- out quite like the one for Obama’s memoir “Becoming,” with stops including the Pepsi Center in Denver and American Airlines Center in Dallas. While popular authors have been likened to rock stars for years, Obama is the first to promote her book on a scale common for top musical performers, even using the entertainment com- pany Live Nation.
Diplomats Say They Were Definitely Laughing At Trump At The UN
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s speech to the UN was met by widespread laughter, and diplomats have confirmed that their delegations were laughing at — not with — the US president.
“Sometimes, when we see a behavior or listen to arguments or notions that seem so far-fetched, unreasonable, or insane, there is almost natural reaction of laughing,” one Latin American diplo- mat said, speaking anonymously so he could speak freely.
The diplomat added, “It is not laughing at a good joke, but a nervous laugh, or a bad joke turned laughable precisely because the guy who tells the joke doesn't realize how bad it is.”
Laughter filled the UN General Assembly room on Tuesday after Trump said his adminis- tration “has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.”
On Wednesday, Trump argued during a news conference that "they weren't laughing at me, they were laughing with me."
"We had fun," Trump said. "That was not laughing at me. So the fake news said 'people laughed at President Trump.' They didn't laugh at me, people had a good time with me. We were doing it together, we had a good time."
Trump's comments came after Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Na- tions, said in an interview earlier Wednesday that those in attendance were laughing because they "loved his honesty" and stressed that the diplo- matic community respects the president.
But diplomats themselves described the speech as awkward and out of place.
“His words in the opening part of the speech were clearly addressed to [a] domestic audience,” wrote one European diplomat in a message that noted that other world leaders do the same. “But as he did it in the Trumpian way (bragging ridicu- lously about being one of the best administra- tions in history) people in the audience reacted how they reacted."
“What would resonate well at a political rally in America sounded a little awkward at the UN General Assembly,” the diplomat added.
Trump used the speech on Tuesday to hail the importance of sovereignty over multilateral- ism and to bash those countries that might stand in his way — all while appealing to his own Amer- ican electorate.
“He doesn’t have any concept of diplomacy,” one Asian diplomat said, though the diplomat added that Trump’s undiplomatic diplomacy has “worked well toward North Korea.”
Third Kavanaugh Accuser Submits Allegation
To Senate Panel
In this Sept. 6, 2018 photo, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh reacts as he testi- fies after questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. Of- ficial Washington is scrambling Monday to assess and manage Kavanaugh’s prospects after his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, revealed her identity to The Washington Post and de- scribed an encounter she be- lieves was attempted rape. Kavanaugh reported to the White House amid the up- heaval, but there was no imme- diate word on why or whether he had been summoned. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The Senate Judiciary Com- mittee is reviewing allegations by a third woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual miscon- duct, a panel spokesman said Wednesday, in yet another po- tential blow to his prospects for Senate confirmation.
As in the allegations by his two previous accusers, the lat- est incidents are alleged to have occurred decades ago. In a three-page sworn declaration, Julie Swetnick of Washing-
BRETT KAVANAUGH
ton, D. C., says she witnessed Kavanaugh “consistently en- gage in excessive drinking and inappropriate contact of a sex- ual nature with women in the early 1980s.” Her attorney, Michael Avenatti, posted the declaration on Twitter and pro- vided it to the committee.
Kavanaugh denied her al- legations as he has the others. President Donald Trump tweeted that Avenatti was a “third-rate lawyer” pushing “false accusations.” He has de- scribed the previous allegations as a Democratic “con job.”
The new development came a day before Trump’s nomi- nee and his first accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, are to testify to the Judiciary Com- mittee.
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