1. Day 872: Possibly Catastrophic

   1/ The Justice Department agreed to provide Congress with “key evidence” collected by Robert Mueller related to obstruction of justice and abuse of power by Trump. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said “Mueller’s most important files” will be available to all committee members, allowing “us to perform our constitutional duties and decide how to respond to the allegations laid out against the President by the Special Counsel.” The House Judiciary Committee, however, moved no closer to securing testimony from Mueller or other figures, such as former White House counsel Donald McGahn, who has declined to testify, citing Trump administration lawyers. (New York Times / CNN / Washington Post)

   2/ Jerry Nadler agreed to delay a vote to hold Barr and McGahn in contempt of Congress after reaching the deal with the Department of Justice for evidence from the Mueller report. The House will still proceed with a vote to authorize the House Judiciary Committee to take Barr to federal court to fully enforce its subpoena, but will not formally vote to hold Barr in contempt. “If the Department proceeds in good faith and we are able to obtain everything that we need, then there will be no need to take further steps,” Nadler said. “If important information is held back, then we will have no choice but to enforce our subpoena in court and consider other remedies.” (ABC News / NBC News / NPR)

   3/ Trump backed off his threat to impose tariffs on all Mexican goods, tweeting that the U.S. reached an agreement with Mexico to reduce the number of migrants at the southern border. According to a joint statement, Mexico agreed to “take unprecedented steps to increase enforcement to curb irregular migration,” including the deployment of thousands of national guard troops to its border with Guatemala to stop migrants from reaching the U.S. Mexico also agreed to an expansion of a Trump administration program to host more migrants seeking asylum while their court proceedings are in progress in the U.S. (New York Times / Washington Post)

   4/ Mexico had already agreed to deploy its National Guard several months ago. The Mexican government agreed to the “deployment of its National Guard throughout Mexico, giving priority to its southern border” during secret talks with Kirstjen Nielsen back in March. And, the agreement to host asylum seekers in Mexico while their cases proceed in the U.S. was reached in December. Trump, however, tweeted on Saturday that he was “very excited about the new deal with Mexico.” (New York Times / Reuters)

   5/ Trump claimed there are “some things….. …..not mentioned” in the deal with Mexico, promising they’ll be revealed “in the not too distant future.” Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard, however, contradicted Trump’s claim that a “fully signed and documented” agreement would be revealed soon, saying there were no undisclosed parts of the U.S.-Mexico deal. Trump also claimed that Mexico agreed to “immediately begin buying large quantities of agricultural product from our great patriot farmers.” There is no evidence, however, that an agreement on agricultural trade was agreed to and three Mexican officials have denied that it exists. (Politico / Associated Press / ABC News / New York Times / CNN / Bloomberg / Business Insider)

   6/ The White House blocked a State Department intelligence agency from submitting written testimony that human-caused climate change is “possibly catastrophic” to national security. The written testimony by the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research for a House Intelligence Committee hearing outlined that “absent extensive mitigating factors or events, we see few plausible future scenarios where significant — possibly catastrophic — harm does not arise from the compounded effects of climate change.” Officials from the White House’s Office of Legislative Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, and National Security Council all objected to parts of the testimony because it did not align with the Trump administration’s official stance. The analyst, Rod Schoonover, was ultimately allowed to speak before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, but the White House refused to approve Schoonover’s written testimony for entry into the permanent Congressional Record. (Washington Post / New York Times)

   Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested that people deal with climate change by “moving to different places.” Pomeo claimed that the climate “always changes,” and so “societies reorganize” and “we will figure out responses to this that address these issues in important and fundamental ways.” (Talking Points Memo)

   Notables

   Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao set up a special liaison to deal with grant applications from her husband Mitch McConnell’s state of Kentucky. The deal allowed at least $78 million for preferred projects to go through while McConnell campaigned for reelection. Chao personally asked Todd Inman to serve as intermediary and help advise McConnell and local officials on specific grants that McConnell designated. One grant for a highway improvement project in a McConnell political stronghold had already been rejected on two separate occasions. (Politico)

   A real estate company part-owned by Jared Kushner received $90 million in foreign funding since 2017. Kushner failed to list the company, Cadre, on his first ethics disclosure, but later adding the company and calling it an inadvertent omission. (The Guardian)

   A bipartisan group of Senators is attempting to block Trump’s sale of arms to Saudi Arabia. Senators are using a provision in the Foreign Assistance Act to request a report from the Trump administration on Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, which could trigger a vote to halt the billions of dollars in arms sales that Mike Pompeo is pushing for despite opposition from Congress. (Politico / NBC News / The Hill)

   The Trump administration rejected requests from U.S. embassies to fly the rainbow pride flag on embassy flagpoles during Pride Month. An advisory cable last year directed diplomats to obtain top-level approval from the State Department’s Office of Management to fly a rainbow flag. Requests by U.S. embassies in Israel, Germany, Brazil and Latvia to fly the pride flag on their flagpoles have been denied. (NBC News / Washington Post)

   The symbolic oak tree Emmanuel Macron gave to Trump last year has died. Macron tweeted at the time that the sapling would be “a reminder … of these ties that bind us” and the “tenacity of the friendship” of the two nations. (The Guardian)

   TRUMP HAS MADE AT LEAST 10,796 FALSE OR MISLEADING CLAIMS SINCE TAKING OFFICE. TRUMP HAS AVERAGED ABOUT 12 FALSE CLAIMS A DAY. (Washington Post)

   http://bit.ly/2ZloTJp

   • Democrats in a race to the bottom, with Biden plagiarizing the Creepy Porn Lawyer and former Democrat Presidential hopeful:
     ………………………………………..

     Michael Avenatti: Joe Biden Using ‘My Slogan And Theme’

     Embattled attorney Michael Avenatti said former Vice President Joe Biden is using his “slogan and theme” with the “make America America again” line Biden used on the campaign trail Thursday.

     Biden unveiled the line during a speech hammering President Donald Trump in Iowa on Thursday.

     “I used it throughout the US when I was exploring a run. Including in Iowa and at the Wing Ding last year. A supporter of mine even made a video centered on the message. It was my slogan and theme,” Avenatti told The Daily Caller News Foundation in a text message.

     Avenatti, who briefly explored a presidential run and now faces a slew of criminal charges, did in fact use the line previously.

     https://dailycaller.com/2019/06/11/michael-avenatti-joe-biden-slogan/

     • Ilhan Omar update:
       …………………………………………….

       Ilhan Omar Filed Joint Tax Returns With Man She Wasn’t Married To

       Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar is under fire once again for filing joint tax returns with a man she hadn’t yet married.

       Omar and her current husband, Ahmed Hirsi, filed joint tax returns in 2014 and 2015 while Omar was married to another man, according to a report published earlier this week by the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board. Omar didn’t divorce her previous husband until 2017 and did not become married to Hirsi until 2018.

       https://dailycaller.com/2019/06/12/ilhan-omar-tax-returns-husband/

       • Poor JethroBodine. His hero Twittler refuses to show tax returns, but honest Democratic lawmakers who do and invite scrutiny are an issue. Of course, the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board has the authority to refer the case to county prosecutors but they DID NOT

         This story is a 💣💣💣

     • What is the all tolerant all inclusive liberal left up to:

       Democrat Reads Letter On House Floor Calling Trump Supporters ‘Racist’ And ‘Dumb’

       https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/06/democrat-reads-letter-on-house-floor-calling-trump-supporters-racist-and-dumb/

       • And your point? Maybe the right-wing can scream “YOU LIE” since they are actually racist and dumb

         🚑🚑🚑 Waaaahmbulance Time 🚑🚑🚑

2. Trumps ICE (Stormtroopers) Has No Idea Exactly How Many Veterans It Has Deported

   How many veterans has Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested and deported after they put their lives on the line in service of their country? The agency has no clue. No, seriously, it has no idea exactly how many have been deported over the past five years because it hasn’t kept track of it.

   “Because ICE does not maintain complete electronic data on potentially removable veterans it encounters, ICE does not know exactly how many veterans have been placed in removal proceedings or removed,” the Government Accountability Office said in a new report. ICE has policies in place that it’s supposed to follow when it decides to take the oh-so-patriotic action to arrest a military veteran, but the GAO found these were not being followed either.

   “When ICE agents and officers learn they have encountered a potentially removable veteran, ICE policies require them to take additional steps to proceed with the case,” the report continues. That includes “a 2015 directive [requiring] ICE to give elevated status to cases surrounding individuals with veteran status,” the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs tweeted. But, “GAO found that ICE did not consistently follow its policies involving veterans who were placed in removal proceedings from fiscal years 2013 through 2018.”

   This negligence goes far beyond affecting immigrant service members. Late last year, ICE tried to deport a U.S.-born Marine veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, after an off-duty Michigan police captain turned federal immigration officials on him. Lance corporal and tank crewman Jilmar Ramos-Gomez was carrying his passport and a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license, yet ICE kept him detained for three days.

   The American Civil Liberties Union has estimated that perhaps 200 veterans have been deported after serving their country. “The GAO found ICE placed at least 250 veterans in deportation procedures over the last five years, based on available data,” NBC News reported. “But, the authors noted, the actual number could be much higher, because the agency does not properly track veterans in its systems.”

   So what’s this out-of-control agency’s excuse for the report’s findings? “Officials with Homeland Security Investigations, a law enforcement arm of ICE, told the GAO that they had not been adhering to the two policies, ‘because they were unaware of the policies prior to [the] review,’” NBC News continued. “Our government is failing our immigrant veterans—men and women who have dutifully served our nation,” said California Rep. Juan Vargas. “The GAO report reveals obvious instances of mismanagement and policy noncompliance that have led to numerous veteran deportations.”

   http://bit.ly/2ZoASWZ

   • Collusion Delusion update, the victims are now threatening Mueller:

     Mueller mania continues as Jerry Nadler threatens Bob Mueller himself

     https://godfatherpolitics.com/mueller-mania-continues-as-jerry-nadler-threatens-bobby-himself/

3. Trump Busted For Telling Aides To Lie About His Lousy Poll Numbers

   Trump is notorious for his well-documented pattern of constantly lying, a habit was caught attempting to pass on to his aides.

   In a story on his 2020 re-election campaign, The New York Times reported how the president reacted to devasting internal polls.

   “After being briefed on a devastating 17-state poll conducted by his campaign pollster, Tony Fabrizio, Mr. Trump told aides to deny that his internal polling showed him trailing Mr. Biden in many of the states he needs to win, even though he is also trailing in public polls from key states like Texas, Michigan and Pennsylvania. And when top-line details of the polling leaked, including numbers showing the president lagging in a cluster of critical Rust Belt states, Mr. Trump instructed aides to say publicly that other data showed him doing well,” The Times noted.

   Poll numbers have been a fixation for Trump, the first president to NEVER average above 50 percent approval.

   “In a recent overarching state-of-the-race briefing in Florida with Brad Parscale, his campaign manager, Mr. Trump was consistently distracted and wanted to discuss other things, according to people familiar with the meeting. When it came to the campaign, his main focus was on his own approval numbers,” The Times reported.

   http://bit.ly/2ZozPGt

   • When Democrats are in charge:
     ………………………………………….

     New York’s Medicaid system paid $60,000 for sex offenders to get erectile dysfunction drugs: audit

     https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ny-paid-60000-for-sex-offenders-erectile-dysfunction

     • Poor frustrated and repressed JethroBodine (🙈🙉🙊) and the Fox crowd always looking at sex articles while ignoring the right-wing have won the Gubernatorial election (that’s Governor) 42% of the time over the last 25 years

       The state Department of Health ripped the audit, saying the drugs are not only prescribed for sexual problems. They can be used for hypertension and enlarged prostates

       So the health department contends only about $8,000 in questionable payments were made over a six-year period through the state’s Medicaid program that totals more than $60 billion a year, the largest in the nation

       “The Department strongly disagrees with the Comptroller’s conclusions” the health department said.

       It said the drugs “can also be used to treat other indications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In these cases, we thoroughly review the sex offender registry to prevent sex offenders from receiving drugs that could treat ED/SD.”

       (for the math challenged that is 1% of the budget, which will be recouped)

4. Right-Wing Tea Party Matt Gaetz Attempts To Corner John Dean — But His Failed Interrogation Results In Nothing But Laughter

   Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) used his time in the House Judiciary hearing Monday to go on a bizarre rant that ultimately got him laughed at by the hearing room.

   The moment came as former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance was finishing her remarks and former White House counsel John Dean was about to answer questions and not even he knew how to respond to Gaetz.

   “I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record a December 30, 2005 essay written by Mr. John Dean entitled ‘George W. Bush as the new Richard Nixon both wiretapped illegally and impeachably,’” Gaetz asked the chair.

   “Mr. Dean, how many American presidents have you accused of being Richard Nixon?” said Gaetz, as Dean laughed.

   “I wrote a book about Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney with the title ‘Worse than Watergate,’” Dean revealed and the audience broke into laughter.

   “So, it’s sort of become a — did you make money on that book?” Gaetz asked.

   “It was a very successful book,” Dean said. Gaetz asked if he made more than one million dollars, to which he said no.

   Another member began to object when Gaetz began asking how much Dean makes from CNN and other commentary positions.

   “Mr. Gaetz, I appreciate you were not born at the time this all happened,” said Dean. “The — it’s not by choice that I have done a lot of this. It’s that I’ve been dragged into it”

   It devolved into a dramatic Gaetz BS monologue from there

   http://bit.ly/2ZdwERI

5. Hearing Erupts In Laughter At Right Winger Jim Jordan After John Dean Humiliates Him With Lesson On Parliamentary Rules

   At a hearing on Monday, former Watergate witness John Dean schooled Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) about the rules of the Judiciary Committee. While appearing before the committee, Jordan suggested Dean was biased against President Donald Trump by reading some of Dean’s tweets

   “There was this. We are witnessing Trump’s massive cover up of his criminal behavior as POTUS. You know who wrote that?” ” Jordan complained

   “I suspect that was me” Dean admitted

   “When you said the president of the United States was incapable of doing anything, were you thinking about the embassy in Jerusalem?” Jordan demanded to know

   “I think that under the parliamentary rules of the house, I’m refrained from addressing a full answer to your question,” Dean replied, prompting the gallery to erupt in laughter

   “You weren’t refrained in your tweets and your comments,” Jordan quipped

   “My tweets are not subject to parliamentary rules” Dean noted

   http://bit.ly/2Zkbema

6. CONSERVATIVE Columnists Pile On Trump And Expose Why His ‘Deal’ With Mexico Is A TOTAL FARCE

   Trump recently threatened to impose a 5% tariff on goods imported to the United States from Mexico, scheduled to go into effect Monday. But on Friday, he abruptly announced an agreement with the Mexican government: he would refrain from imposing the new import taxes, and Mexico’s newly formed national guard would help prevent migrants from reaching the United States.

   If you see things from Trump’s point of view, you might be inclined to see this as a win. But according to conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, Trump’s deal-making skills are largely imaginary — and the Mexico agreement is only the latest example of why this is.

   Rubin’s Monday column could be titled “The Art of the Non-Deal,” because that’s how she views Trump’s agreement with Mexican officials: as a “non-deal.” The Never Trump conservative writes that the president withdrew his “threatened tariffs” and “claimed victory by Friday night, but what had he gotten?” According to Rubin, not much.

   Rubin notes that Mexico’s national guard, “was formed just in March, and there are real questions as to its capabilities.” The Post writer references a recent National Public Radio (NPR) interview with Jorge Castaneda, who served as Mexico’s foreign minister from 2000-2003 and told NPR that Mexico’s national guard “doesn’t really exist” at this point and “hasn’t really been set up yet.”

   Rubin writes that Trump’s “penchant for creating chaos, confrontation and conflict” only to “resolve” the problem later “has become tiresome.” The president, she stresses, has a pattern of “getting nothing and claiming victory” — for example, “falsely suggesting progress on North Korea denuclearization, celebrating a win in the Rose Garden by reopening the government as Democrats demanded.”

   “Trump’s antics threaten to create real economic and/or political turmoil at a time the economy might be going soft,” Rubin warns. Regardless, she says, Trump’s top priority with his “non-deals” is having a “heroic message he can feed to Fox News, which dutifully blasts it out to the Trump cult.”

   Rubin wraps up her column by quoting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as saying that Trump’s “threats and temper tantrums are no way to negotiate foreign policy.” And the columnist adds, “But they are all that Trump knows. One wonders how long Trump’s own advisers, not to mention foreign powers, are going to indulge his playacting.”

   Max Boot, another Washington Post columnist and anti-Trump conservative, also denounces Trump’s Mexico agreement as a glaring example of the art of the non-deal. In his Monday column, Boot asserts, “It was GOP opposition, not Mexican concessions, that made Trump back down from his tariff threats.” And if those Republicans who spoke out against Trump’s proposed tariffs on Mexican imports were honest, Boot writes, they would be taking some credit instead of letting Trump take all the credit.

   “The striking thing is that Trump’s con-artistry continues to find so many willing marks who will remain forever convinced, notwithstanding all that is reported otherwise, that he made Mexico bow before his awesomeness,” Boot stresses. “They are abetted, these Trump dupes, by cynical Republicans on Capitol Hill who know that this achievement is as phony as a degree from Trump University but pretend otherwise to flatter the mercurial and egomaniacal occupant of the Oval Office.”

   Boot cites Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina as two former Trump critics in the GOP who have become Trump sycophants and are jumping through hoops to give him credit for the Mexico agreement.

   “You would think by now that even the president’s supporters might be slightly skeptical when he claims spectacular achievements with details to come,” Boot writes. “But like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football that Lucy always snatches away, they immediately tried to score political points off the nebulous Friday-night announcement.”

   http://bit.ly/2ZlGGjT

   • Truer words have never been spoken:
     ……………………………………………………

     Donald Trump: Mexico Doing More to Stop Migrant Crisis than Democrats

     President Donald Trump ripped Democrats again on Monday for refusing to help solve the migrant crisis on the Southern border.

     “Mexico doing more for the United States now than Congress — specifically the Democrats,” Trump said at the White House. “We have a tremendous problem at the border.”

     The president commented on the issue as he recognized the winner of the Indy 500 race at the White House.

     Trump also responded to Mexico’s denials that there was a border agreement in place after he lifted his tariff threat.

     “We have an agreement on something they will announce very soon,” he said. “It’s all done. It was all done because of the tariffs and the relationship with Mexico.”

     https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/06/10/donald-trump-mexico-doing-more-to-stop-migrant-crisis-than-democrats/

     • President Trump is right, Mexico is now after the Tariff threat doing more to stop illegal immigration than Democrats:
       ……………….

       Democrats Block Emergency Funding for Border Crisis

       https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/06/11/democrats-block-funding-for-border-crisis/

       • Mexico Finally Draws a Line, Slaps Caravan Organizers with Trafficking Charges

         Let’s face it: Donald Trump isn’t exactly popular in Mexico. His rhetoric regarding the border and immigration crisis has made him a bit of a piñata to our southern neighbor, with figures including former Mexican President Vicente Fox lining up to take jabs against Trump since he took office.

         But something may be changing. First, rising frustration within Mexico regarding Central American migrant caravans in their own cities fostered some of the same attitudes among Mexicans that helped Trump win in 2016.

         And now first-year President Andreas Manuel López Obrador of Mexico seems to be actually listening to the U.S. administration, at least in some areas….

         “Cristobal Sanchez and Irineo Mujica were arrested within an hour of each other last week in different parts of Mexico and flown together to the southern town of Tapachula in Chiapas state for the court hearing on charges they illegally transported immigrants for money,” Reuters reported on Monday…. President Trump has a reputation as a shrewd negotiator, and it sure looks like he just cut one of his famous deals with our southern neighbors.

         By employing a carrot-and-stick approach with the Latin American nation and using tariffs as a negotiation chip, he may have just pulled off what his critics claimed was impossible: A deal with Mexico that benefits both neighboring countries.

         Don’t look now, but it seems a lot like winning.

         https://www.westernjournal.com/ct/mexico-draws-line-slaps-caravan-organizers/

         • Somehow, some way, Comrade Reagan will blame this on Collusion with Russians:

           Michigan mosque leader says ‘wife beating’ is a way to remind a woman she ‘misbehaved’

           https://www.foxnews.com/us/michigan-mosque-leader-explains-wife-beating-as-a-means-to-remind-the-woman-that-she-misbehaved

         • Mayor Pete going full left wing crazy train. He must get his talking points from the same blog as Comrade Reagan. Tin foil hat alert! It’s always Trump, white nationalists and climate change that are greater dangers to delusional leftists than radical Islamic terrorists:
           ……………………………………………………………….
           Pete Buttigieg: America Under Donald Trump More Like Russia

           He accused Trump of acting “impulsively, erratically, emotionally” in foreign affairs, and said it was “often delivered by early-morning Tweet.”

           Buttigieg also alleged that rising white nationalism was more dangerous than radical Islamic terrorism….

           He criticized Israel for persecuting Palestinians and said it was not anti-Semitic to oppose the current “right wing” government.

           Buttigieg also asserted that climate change was among the biggest threats facing the United States.

           “Climate disruption is here … it is a clear and present threat,” he warned, before vowing to create a new international effort for “climate diplomacy” to save the planet from global warming.

           “Rejoining Paris is just the beginning,” he said.

           https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/06/11/pete-buttigieg-america-under-donald-trump-more-like-russia/

     • U.S. Cities Overwhelmed With Numbers of Illegal Migrants Arriving From Ebola-Stricken Countries

       Some U.S. cities are becoming overwhelmed with the number of illegal African migrants arriving from Ebola-stricken countries, with Portland Maine complaining that they are beyond capacity.

       Large groups of migrants are arriving from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has been hit by one of the biggest ebola outbreaks in history, with 2,000 recorded cases in the last 10 months.

       Border Patrol officials said that 500 people from African countries had been arrested by Border Patrol’s Del Rio Sector in Texas alone in the six days after May 30….

       Meanwhile, Dr Michael Ryan, the executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies program, told BBC News that the global spread of deadly diseases is becoming “a new normal” thanks to “large and highly mobile populations”.

       https://dcdirtylaundry.com/u-s-cities-overwhelmed-with-numbers-of-illegal-migrants-arriving-from-ebola-stricken-countries/

7. Trump Trade War Wipes Out Tax Cut And Raises Taxes On Every American By $3,000

   The $930 that the average American saved from Trump tax cut has already been wiped out by his trade war, and Americans will pay an additional $3,000 in taxes.

   Trump’s tariffs are a $3,000 tax increase on Americans

   Bloomberg reported Trump’s trade wars have already wiped out all but $100 of the average American household’s windfall from Trump’s 2017 tax law. And that’s just the beginning.

   That last $100 in tax-cut gains also could soon disappear — and then some — because of additional tariffs Trump has announced or is considering. If the president makes good on his threats to impose levies on virtually all imports from China and Mexico, those middle-earning households could pay nearly $4,000 more as they shell out more for a vast range of goods — from avocados to iPhones.

   Subtract the tax cut, and the average household will effectively be paying about $3,000 more a year in additional costs.

   Job growth and wage growth are slowing at a time when Donald Trump has decided to raise taxes on every single American. If you are a consumer of any kind, you will be paying more for goods due to Trump’s pointless trade war. The president can continue to believe and falsely claim that foreign governments pay the tariffs, but the economic reality is that the tariffs are being paid for by American consumers.

   Companies aren’t eating the cost of the tariffs. They are passing them along to consumers.

   The stock market is betting that the US and Mexico reach a deal to avoid the tariffs being imposed on Monday, but political observers and even people inside the Trump administration have been warning that the tariffs are going to happen. Donald Trump wants to look “strong” and he thinks tariffs are good for his political brand.

   Trump is driving the economy into recession. The trade war has backfired, and the American people are paying the price.

   http://bit.ly/2Z7pSNk

   • Looks like Ronnie’s Mom ungrounded him from the internet.

     • Hate it when that happens

       • Guess what chuckles. You can post whatever the hell you want after mommy climbs off you (even when it will be 💩💩💩)

         So if you want to “enlighten” the world, have at it 😝

         • Ohh, Norm scored a direct hit on Ronnie and made his magazine explode! He keeps his intellectual ammunition in there, so, it was a very small explosion, eh?

         • Liberals are the first to resort to personal attacks and name calling:

           House Dem says she’s tired of ‘so many sex-starved males’ opposing abortion

           https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rep-norma-torres-sex-starved-males-abortion

         • Poor widdle Burnie, using his right winger drive-by email crap 💩💩🖕💩💩 Y’all could not score a “direct hit” if you were standing next to someone 🎯

           JethroBodine and his pearl-clutching outrage that civil society has gone to hell in a handbasket with Twittler leading the way is richly ignorant 😱😱😱

           How the Right Wing Convinces Itself That Liberals Are Evil

           Since the 1950s, the conservative movement has justified bad behavior—including supporting Donald Trump—by persuading itself that the left is worse. The paranoid style: From Joe McCarthy to Newt Gingrich to Donald Trump, conservative leaders have long depicted liberals as enemies of the state

           If you spend any time consuming right-wing media in America, you quickly learn the following: Liberals are responsible for racism, slavery, and the Ku Klux Klan. They admire Mussolini and Hitler, and modern liberalism is little different from fascism or, even worse, communism. The mainstream media and academia cannot be trusted because of the pervasive, totalitarian nature of liberal culture

           This belief in a broad liberal conspiracy is standard in the highest echelons of the conservative establishment and right-wing media. The Russia investigation is dismissed, from the president on down, as a politicized witch hunt. George Soros supposedly paid $300 to each participant in the “March for Our Lives” in March. (Disclosure: I marched that day, and I’m still awaiting my check.) What is less well appreciated by liberals is that the language of conspiracy is often used to justify similar behavior on the right. The Russia investigation is not just a witch hunt, it’s the product of the real scandal, which is Hillary-Russia-Obama-FBI collusion, so we must investigate that. Soros funds paid campus protestors, so Turning Point USA needs millions of dollars from Republican donors to win university elections. The liberal academic establishment prevents conservative voices from getting plum faculty jobs, so the Koch Foundation needs to give millions of dollars to universities with strings very much attached

           The rise in prominence of the religious right in the 1970s and ’80s did little to tamp down paranoid political rhetoric. Evangelicals like Jerry Falwell and Francis Schaeffer—as well as Catholics like Paul Weyrich and Mormons like W. Cleon Skousen—conflated liberalism, socialism, and communism under the broader umbrella of “secularism” and built alliances with one another to combat this scourge. Often, this merely meant consolidating preexisting activism: Falwell had been an outspoken opponent of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, and Skousen was a key propagandist for the John Birch Society in the 1960s and early ’70s before penning in 1981 The 5,000 Year Leap, a book that codified many of the shibboleths of the religious right to the present day. The evangelicals and their allies in other denominations were united in their opposition to abortion, gay rights, and feminism—the tangible realities of the nefarious left-liberal agenda

           Conservative pundits repackaged Cold War–era attacks equating liberals with communists during the Bush years. In 2003, Ann Coulter, a frequent Fox News talking head, published Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, which was a full-throated defense of Joseph McCarthy that accused liberals of being, well, traitors who hated America

           Even the racially charged birther myth—that Barack Obama was not a U.S. citizen, and was a covert Muslim, to boot—was a riff on the old John Birch Society charge that liberals, including moderate Republicans like Dwight Eisenhower, were secret members of the international communist conspiracy. The cry that Obama was a Marxist, Maoist, Muslim Kenyan socialist was almost interchangeable with right-wing attacks directed against the civil rights movement in the 1960s. And the idea that a vast left-liberal conspiracy was both undermining the country and using dirty, underhanded tactics to do so rhetorically justified an anything-goes strategy on the part of the right. Shutting down government. Refusing confirmation votes. Supporting Donald Trump for president

           Trump is the ultimate embodiment of this long-standing tendency on the right. His transformation from New York Democrat to Republican Party celebrity began by embracing the birther conspiracy, and he even took credit for Obama’s eventual decision to release his long-form birth certificate. As president, he has wondered aloud why Attorney General Jeff Sessions hasn’t personally defended him from the Russia investigation in the same way that, in Trump’s Fox News–fueled fantasies, Eric Holder once shielded Obama from “scandals” like “Fast and Furious”

           The idea that the left is depraved, corrupt, and ruthless has been an important strain of American conservatism since the movement began. But in the Trump era, it has metastasized. Right-wing policy ideas have been so thoroughly discredited (does anyone even argue anymore that trickle-down economics will ensure mass prosperity) that the only apparent reason for conservatism’s existence is to fight back against evil liberals. This is, of course, not the sign of a healthy political movement. The right’s support for McCarthy has been a long-standing embarrassment for American conservatism. Its embrace of Trump is history repeating itself

           http://bit.ly/2XHfoUL

   • Small Business Optimism Comes Roaring Back

     ptimism among small U.S. businesses soared to a seven-month high in May.

     The National Federation of Independent Business said Tuesday that its optimism index increased 1.5 points to 105 on improved views of the economy, employment, capital outlays and sales.

     “Optimism among small business owners has surged back to historically high levels, thanks to strong hiring, investment, and sales,” said NFIB President and CEO Juanita D. Duggan.

     https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2019/06/11/small-business-optimism-comes-roaring-back/

8. Bad news for sleepy old Joe:
   ………………………………………

   Bad news for Biden: Americans more worried about candidates’ age than sexual identity

   https://godfatherpolitics.com/bad-news-for-biden-americans-more-worried-about-candidates-age-than-sexual-identity/

9. More from the religion of peace:
   ………………………………………….
   Jihadi Immigrant From Bangladesh Arrested for Allegedly Plotting Massacre in Times Square

   https://bigleaguepolitics.com/jihadi-immigrant-from-bangladesh-arrested-for-allegedly-plotting-massacre-in-times-square/

10. Karma is coming to the deep state co-conspirators:
    ………………………………………………………………………

    DOJ Letter Reveals Broad Scope of John Durham’s Spygate Investigation – “Much Larger Than Previously Known”

    A new letter from the Justice Department addressed to Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) reveals John Durham’s investigation into Spygate is much larger than previously known.

    AG Barr’s review of the FISA abuses and surveillance against Trump’s campaign is “broad in scope and multifaceted,” according to the DOJ letter.

    The letter to Nadler, penned by Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd, indicates Fusion GPS, foreign intelligence services and non-governmental organizations and individuals are all a target of US Attorney John Durham’s investigation into the origins of Spygate.

    “The Review is broad in scope and multifaceted, and is intended to illuminate open questions regarding the activities of U.S. and foreign intelligence services as well as non-governmental organizations and individuals,” Boyd wrote.

    Durham’s investigation of the investigations involving both the 2016 presidential campaigns (plural) is so massive that the Justice Department had to clear existing office space to make room for the team of US Attorneys, other personnel and DOJ employees….

    Hillary Clinton paid for the Russia dossier and hid the payments to Steele by funneling the money through the DNC’s law firm, Perkins Coie.

    The phony dossier was then used by the FBI to obtain a FISA warrant and three subsequent renewals on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page.

    Last week it was reported that Christopher Steele was coopering with US investigators, possibly Durham….

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/06/new-doj-letter-reveals-just-how-massive-john-durhams-spygate-investigation-really-is/

11. Transcript Released Of Flynn Voicemail From Trump Lawyer Showing Attempt To Obstruct

    Washington (CNN)The Justice Department on Friday released a transcript of a call from Donald Trump’s attorney John Dowd to Rob Kelner, the lawyer for Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, where he sought information about Flynn’s discussions with the special counsel and how Dowd also wanted to remind Flynn about “the President and his feelings towards Flynn”
    The transcript was submitted to a federal court in Washington following a judge’s order to submit it. The call, which occurred on November 22, 2017, was part of the investigation into potential obstruction by Robert Mueller covered in his lengthy report

    “The government further represents that it is not relying on any other recordings, of any person, for purposes of establishing the defendant’s guilty or determining his sentence, nor are there other recordings that are part of the sentencing record,” the Friday filing says, in the only sentence apparently addressing their response to Sullivan’s order for the Flynn transcripts of calls with Russians

    Separately, the Justice Department hasn’t released any additional parts of the Mueller report that were previously confidential. The judge had told prosecutors they needed to make public redacted sections of the report that pertained to Flynn by today. Prosecutors said Friday that all of the information about Flynn or that Flynn gave to Mueller that made it into the report is already public

    Read the voicemail here:

    Hey, Rob, uhm, this is John again. Uh, maybe, I-I-I’m-I’m sympathetic; I understand your situation, but let me see if I can’t … state it in … starker terms. If you have … and it wouldn’t surprise me if you’ve gone on to make a deal with, and, uh, work with the government, uh … I understand that you can’t join the joint defense; so that’s one thing. If, on the other hand, we have, there’s information that. .. implicates the President, then we’ve got a national security issue, or maybe a national security issue, I don’t know … some issue, we got to-we got to deal with, not only for the President, but for the country. So … uh … you know, then-then, you know, we need some kind of heads up. Um, just for the sake of … protecting all our interests, if we can, without you having to give up any … confidential information. So, uhm, and if it’s the former, then, you know, remember what we’ve always said about the President and his feelings toward Flynn and, that still remains, but-Well, in any event, uhm, let me know, and, uh, I appreciate your listening and taking the time. Thanks, Pal

    The Mango Moron will be going down

    https://cnn.it/2Xjx4Fy

    • Not so fast Sparky. Mueller edited key portions from what was put into his report and that is what has all the Collusion Delusion victims in a tizzy:
      ……………………………………….
      Mueller Report Edited Conversation Between Trump, Flynn Lawyers. The Transcript Was Just Released.

      In Mueller’s report, this voicemail is selectively edited to give the impression that Trump’s attorney was asking Flynn’s attorney for information that might hurt the president while reminding the attorney about what Trump has said about Flynn:

      I understand your situation, but let me see if I can’t state it in starker terms. . . . [I]t wouldn’t surprise me if you’ve gone on to make a deal with … the government. … [I]f . .. there’s information that implicates the President, then we’ve got a national security issue, . . . so, you know, . . . we need some kind of heads up. Um, just for the sake of protecting all our interests if we can …. [R]emember what we’ve always said about the ‘ President and his feelings toward Flynn and, that still remains ….

      The actual transcript of this voicemail has now been released, and shows what Mueller left out:

      Hey, Rob, uhm, this is John again. Uh, maybe, I-I-I-‘m-I’m sympathetic; I understand your situation, but let me see if I can’t … state it in … starker terms. If you have … and it wouldn’t surprise me if you’ve gone on to make a deal with, and, uh, work with the government, uh … I understand that you can’t join the joint defense; so that’s one thing. If, on the other hand, we have, there’s information that … implicates the President, then we’ve got a national security issue, or maybe a national security issue, I don’t know … some issue, we got to-we got to deal with, not only for the President, but for the country. So … uh … you know, then-then, you know, we need some kind of heads up. Um, just for the sake of … protecting all our interests, if we can, without you having to give up any … confidential information. So, uhm, and if it’s the former, then, you know, remember what we’ve always said about the President and his feelings toward Flynn and, that still remains, but — Well, in any event, uhm, let me know, and, uh, I appreciate your listening and taking the time. Thanks, Pal.

      The Mueller report left out the part where Trump’s attorney specifically asked for information that was not confidential. Mueller’s report strings along sections of the voicemail to give one impression.

      This is the second example of selective editing in the Mueller report that we know about so far. The Daily Wire previously reported that important context was left out of a text-message exchange between former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and a Georgian-American businessman. The businessman, Giorgi Rtskhiladze, sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr demanding a footnote be retracted from the Mueller report misrepresenting his conversation.

      https://www.dailywire.com/news/47927/mueller-report-edited-conversation-between-trump-ashe-schow

12. Trump Entire Worldview Left In Tatters After Facing Scientific Scrutiny

    Washington Post opinion writer Greg Sargent explained how “Trumpism” is making America worse. Trump has long promised that his world-view and particular way of handling business and negotiating would make America great. However, everything Trump touches in failing

    “The damage caused by Trump’s trade wars bleeding into an undermining of the tax cut’s minuscule low-end benefits — provides a new occasion to revisit the failures and fraudulence of the superstructure of policies and priorities often described as Trumpism” citing a study from Tankersley of the New York Times that details the impact of Trump’s way of thinking

    “If Trump goes forward with his planned tariffs on Mexico, along with the other ones he has threatened toward China and on automobiles, the studies conclude that it would wipe out all or most of the benefits his 2017 tax cuts delivered to low- and middle-income Americans”

    He went on to rip Trump and broke down how Trump’s way of leading is an odd mix of “impulsive and xenophobic” behaviors explaining “Boiled down, Trumponomics represents a kind of weird fusion between impulsive, xenophobic lurches toward economic nationalism in some areas, and conventional regressive plutocratic GOP policies in others”

    Trump’s failures are only mounting. He said that Trump had lost the fight on immigration, and recently threw aides in a frenzy when he announced he wanted to increase tariffs on Mexico

    “Trump still may well retain an advantage on the economy if it remains good. But it’s also plausible that the unpopularity of all these strands of Trumponomics — the trade wars, the immigration cruelties, the tax cuts — will come together to persuade voters that the economy is good in spite of all the spectacular failures of ‘America First’ Trumpism and that they can have the former without the latter”

    https://wapo.st/2IhAylL

13. There Hasn’t Been An Official Pentagon Briefing IN MORE THAN 300 DAYS

    It’s been more than 300 days since the Pentagon held an on-camera press briefing, a problem that became hugely salient in recent weeks with the announcement from the White House that it was deploying an aircraft carrier and bomber task force to the Middle East. Was this a new deployment, beyond what the Pentagon announced in early April? The Navy called it a “regularly scheduled deployment” so what was going on with the White House announcing it, and doing so on a Sunday?

    As Kate Brannen writes at Just Security, the White House’s bellicose announcement demanded rigorous questioning, but there was nowhere to ask these questions on the record. In fact, at the time of the announcement, there wasn’t even a secretary of Defense nominee. Meanwhile, Trump is deploying troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, rattling sabers in Venezuela, is at sea with North Korea, and has banned transgender recruits, just to name a handful of things. It has become, Brannen says “increasingly difficult for reporters to ask officials about these moves on the record, on camera, and on behalf of the American public”

    So there’s a lot we’re simply in the dark about, like how dangerous is Iraq right now for American troops because of Trump’s belligerence? The Central Command warned against this previously, but there’s no report from the Pentagon on either CENTCOM’s current view of the situation or the threat assessment there. We don’t even know if there have been any recent attacks there on U.S. forces. The Pentagon is apparently no longer keeping track of the territory in Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban versus the government and we don’t know why, or how the Defense Department is making decisions on military operations there

    What about ISIS? Where’s it at and what is it doing? And how many troops are actually in Iraq and Syria to fight ISIS, and what are they doing? Is there any plan for withdrawing them and if so, what’s the timeline? Trump likes to say ISIS is defeated all the time, but what does the Defense Department say? We don’t know. They won’t tell the public. And North Korea? Do we have any contingency plans if Trump’s beautiful relationship with Kim doesn’t work out? Why did the effort to repatriate Americans’ remains from the Korean War end? We don’t know, and the Defense Department isn’t saying

    There’s also been no public assessment of what Trump’s insistence on “getting tough” on the southern border of the U.S. means. What are the forces being deployed there being told about how they work with refugees? What does it mean to force readiness to shift the DoD’s focus there? And what is the transgender ban doing to readiness or morale, considering there are 14,000 transgender military personnel serving?

    Who knows? Until last week, there wasn’t even a permanent Defense secretary nominated. As far as anyone knows there’s still a communications staff in the DoD, but they don’t have much of a job any more. Granted, having to answer for Trump on all these national security issues would be a horrifying job, but somebody’s got to do it

    http://bit.ly/2WGlUu9

14. TRUMP’S BIG LIE COLLAPSES: DATA SHOWS AREAS WITH MORE UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS HAVE LESS CRIME

    Trump has made illegal immigration the centerpiece of his political career, but new data published Monday shows Cheetolini’s signature issue is built on a lie. According to a new analysis published in The New York Times, THERE IS “NO EVIDENCE” TO SUPPORT THE CLAIM MADE BY TRUMP AND HIS SUPPORTERS THAT UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS CAUSE SPIKES IN VIOLENT CRIME

    In fact, according to the report, many of the places with a higher migrant population actually recorded larger drops in crime than other areas. More from The New York Times:

    For the first time, there is an opportunity for a broader analysis of how unauthorized immigration might have affected crime rates since 2007. A large majority of the areas recorded decreases in both violent and property crime between 2007 and 2016, consistent with a quarter-century decline in crime across the United States. The analysis found that crime went down at similar rates regardless of whether the undocumented population rose or fell. Areas with more unauthorized migration appeared to have larger drops in crime, although the difference was small and uncertain.

    The results of the analysis resemble those of other studies on the relationship between undocumented immigration and crime. Last year, a report by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, found that unauthorized immigrants in Texas committed fewer crimes than their native-born counterparts. A state-level analysis in Criminology, an academic journal, found that undocumented immigration did not increase violent crime and was in fact associated with slight decreases in it. Another Cato study found that unauthorized immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated

    At the more local level, an analysis by Governing magazine reported that metropolitan areas with more undocumented residents had similar rates of violent crime, and significantly lower rates of property crime, than areas with smaller numbers of such residents in 2014. After controlling for multiple socioeconomic factors, the author of the analysis, Mike Maciag, found that for every 1 percentage point increase in an area’s population that was undocumented there were 94 fewer property crimes per 100,000 residents

    Trump’s immigration lie keeps his supporters scared and angry. The analysis published in The New York Times on Monday only confirms what other studies have shown for quite some time: Undocumented immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans.

    Of course, by attacking immigrants during his campaign and his presidency, Trump’s goal has never been to tell the truth. It’s always been to keep his base scared and angry by tapping into their pre-existing antipathy toward immigrants. It’s why he launched his campaign by attacking Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists. It’s why, like a broken record, he promises to build a wall on the southern border. It’s why he declared a fake national emergency.

    Trump knows his best bet politically is to play into peoples’ fears and prejudices – even if they’re completely baseless.

    http://bit.ly/2WHM13Z

15. These ACLU types never stop:
    ………………………………………..
    Supreme Court Rejects Case to Remove ‘In God We Trust’ From Currency

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/06/supreme-court-rejects-case-to-remove-in-god-we-trust-from-currency/

16. John Dean Wipes Out the Republican Kiddie Caucus

    Within the first few minutes of his opening statement, John Dean showed us he was ready and able to wipe out the Republican Kiddie Caucus. He knew their objective was to run out the clock and use childish tactics to bash him as if he was a piñata.

    Dean took the air out of their tactic by acknowledging he wasn’t there as a fact witness – only to present a historical perspective. It went downhill for the Republicans before they even started.

    Anyone who watched the House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Mueller report on Monday saw the contrast between those who govern and those who remind us why five-year-olds should never be left unsupervised – not even for a few minutes.

    With their childish conduct, the Republicans admitted they don’t have a solid adult criticism of the Mueller report. Who knows, maybe if they had bothered to read it, they may have had something useful to contribute.

    Instead, we were treated to them childishly taunting John Dean. One example was Matt Gaetz’s childish attempt to paint Dean as someone who says all presidents are like Nixon.

    We saw efforts to smear him with lies, as we saw with Louis Gohmert’s attempt to say that Dean ordered the Watergate break-in. As Think Progress observed, when all else failed, Jimmy Jordan lied when he said Dean served time.

    “An agitated Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) attempted to paint Dean as extremely biased against Trump, choosing to highlight the president’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Dean was far more successful at eliciting laughs from the chamber when he noted his answers would be out of order. Jordan proceeded to claim Dean had gone to prison, which he had not.”

    We even saw the Republican children try to provoke members from the Democratic Party by referring to their party as the “Democrat Party.” Oooh. Shade. Burn.

    I honestly preferred a functioning two-party political system. I remember when the members of both parties came prepared to discuss the important issues with intelligence and maturity, or at least with something that is worthy of the dignity that comes with representing the American people in Congress.

    We don’t have that anymore. One of the parties continues to function – even though there may be differences of opinion on substance. There are some members of the Democratic Party who want impeachment proceedings to begin immediately. Others join with Speaker Pelosi in the belief that since most Americans oppose impeachment, it may be premature. Both sides have solid reasons for their positions and have the ability to discuss them.

    If you disagree with dear leader in the Republican Party, you are taking your political life in your hands. Donald Trump still isn’t over the day John McCain voted to save healthcare for millions of Americans. Trump’s promise of “something wonderful” wasn’t enough for McCain who was battling brain cancer at the time.

    McCain died nearly a year ago, as a war hero, and one of the few Republicans with the integrity to say no to Donald Trump, McCain’s then best friend in the Senate, Lindsey Graham, has since shown his true colors as he gushes over how fun it is to play golf with Donald Trump – even though he may say bad things about the late Senator McCain.

    Republicans used to be worthy of being called the Grand Old Party, but not today. Now it’s a party of petulant ignoramuses for whom all values are secondary to the cult of personality.

    And we live in two different worlds – with completely contradictory information. If you follow “conservative news,” you have been misinformed about the Mueller Report’s contents – unless you read it yourself.

    If you have read it, you know that it amounts to a road map for Congress to proceed with the one constitutional remedy it has when faced with a president who may have committed impeachable offenses. Impeachable offenses that are intermingled with criminal offenses.

    The evidence and witnesses may be helpful to both, and if you’re someone who looks at the long game – like Nancy Pelosi, then you know that your investigation also requires preserving evidence that will hopefully be used at criminal proceedings in the future.

    You know there are two different standards of proof and different methods of proof between an impeachment proceeding and a criminal proceeding. You know that a criminal indictment is far easier to obtain than an impeachment, and both are comparatively easier than the trial phases.

    You know that criminals, if given the opportunity, will destroy all incriminating evidence – thus eliminating the prospect of criminal indictment. Pelosi and the Democrats have the more difficult job in this battle of realities with the Republicans because unlike at any time in American history, this criminal president has a complicit Republican Party and a propaganda machine that’s like Russia Today.

    Republicans can just do their imitations of frat boys, as Matt Gaetz and good old Jimmy Jordan showed us on Monday. They’ll continue to waste time because their game plan is running out the clock. Similarly, Republicans in the Senate are ever so busy corrupting the courts with as many incompetent Trump loyalists as possible.

    Under Speaker Pelosi, House Democrats passed dozens of bills that deal with bread and butter issues and address the breakdown of norms and ethics that we’ve witnessed in real time.

    One may dismiss the value of giving the nation a civics class as Trump continues to burn down every norm that gets in his way. But, when you have a population that doesn’t know Bob Mueller never did exonerate Trump or believes that impeachment will automatically remove Trump from office, we need a primer on the available remedy, how it works and how Trump’s obstructionism actually does impede that process. On one hand, going for impeachment provides leverage, on the other, has anyone been being paying attention to whom we’re dealing with?

    The man is crazy and has, on more than one occasion, proven willing to burn down the house. Given Trump’s disposition, there is wisdom in preserving evidence for a subsequent criminal proceeding that will remove him from society, possibly, for the rest of his life. In the meantime, the House Judiciary Committee is educating the American public, as well it should.

    http://bit.ly/2ZnFgp9

17. Rachel Maddow Named One Of The Moderators For Democratic Debate

    Rachel Maddow was named one of the five moderates for the first two nights of Democratic primary debates on June 26-27.

    NBC News announced, “Savannah Guthrie, Lester Holt, Chuck Todd, Rachel Maddow and José Diaz-Balart will moderate the debate, which will take place at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Miami over two nights on June 26-27….Both debate nights will have the same format. Holt will moderate for both hours, while Guthrie and Diaz-Balart will appear alongside him in the first hour and Todd and Maddow appear alongside him during the second hour, NBC News announced.”

    NBC News deserves credit for breaking away from the traditional white male debate moderators and going with a more diverse group of questioners. Since the majority of the Democratic Party is female, it would have been reflective of the party to have more women moderators than men.

    It makes sense for MSNBC to use so many moderators. Twenty candidates are a ton of candidates. The network needed to come up with something to keep the format and questioners fresh. Todd is NBC News’ political director and moderator of Meet The Press, so he was a lock to be there. Holt is the anchor of NBC Nightly News and a presidential debate veteran. He will be a good lead moderator. Savannah Guthrie is there as a way to promote NBC’s Today, Diaz-Balart is another high profile NBC Newser with debate experience who will be solid.

    The real change is NBC unchaining Maddow from her role as host/anchor for big night coverage and putting her on the second-hour panel each night. The debates air on MSNBC and the second hour will fall into her normal time slot of 9 PM ET.

    Maddow is the ideal choice to question these candidates. She is going to bring more depth and specificity to her questions than the other moderators. Maddow’s place at the top of the cable news ratings has finally forced NBC to let go of the too “partisan” label for mainstream promotion that they hung on her years ago and put her in her rightful place as one of the moderators of what should be a widely watched Democratic debate.

    http://bit.ly/2Zh64an

    • MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow’s Ratings Plummet To Yearly Low

      MSNBC primetime host Rachel Maddow brought in her worst weekly ratings of the year last week.

      Her show last week averaged 2,324,000 viewers, with an average audience of 337,000 in the 25-54 age demographic, both of which mark yearly lows for the liberal television host, according to Nielsen Media Research.

      Maddow first saw a dramatic drop in ratings following the conclusion of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Her previous low for a week in 2019 was the last week in March, the first full week after Mueller submitted his conclusion to Attorney General William Barr, where she averaged 2,458,000 viewers with 392,000 in the demo.

      She spent two years dissecting every aspect of the special counsel’s investigation into whether President Donald Trump conspired with the Russians to win the 2016 presidential election. The night Mueller submitted his findings to Barr, Maddow appeared to hold back tears over the fact that neither the president nor any family members were indicted.

      Compared to Maddow’s low ratings last week, Fox News’ Sean Hannity, whose program is often the most-watched among all cable news shows, averaged 3,108,000 viewers with just under half-a-million viewers in the key demographic. (RELATED: Fake News: Rachel Maddow Falsely Claims White House Edited Putin Tape)

      https://dailycaller.com/2019/05/21/msnbc-rachel-maddow-ratings-low/

18. Christians Who Ignore Racial Injustice Have ‘Lost Touch With The Gospel’ – Southern Baptist Convention President

    Pastor J.D. Greear, who is currently the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, admitted this week that American Christianity has historically had major problems with racism, and he put the blame for this on Christians who have “lost touch with the gospel.”

    Christian Headlines reports that Greear on Sunday talked about the history of racism in America during a talk at the majority-black Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

    “I do not need to tell this church the church of the West has had a horrible history of racism,” he said. “And there’s one primary reason that that happened: Christians lost touch with the gospel.”

    During his talk, Greear said that he would push the Southern Baptist Convention to change its constitution to allow the excommunication of churches that are racially exclusionary.

    “I’m praying that even with our past history on it, that Birmingham for us this year will be a big step forward in the hope and the healing,” he said in an interview with Religion News after his talk at Sixth Avenue Baptist.

    http://bit.ly/2ZcM6xA

19. ‘Banana Republic’: Ethics Experts Slam Elaine (Mrs Turtle) Chao After She Secures Millions For Projects In Mitch Mcconnell State

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his wife, Transportation Department Secretary Elaine Chao, are drawing vehement criticism in response to a Politico report that she helped secure funds for $78 million worth of transportation projects in his state.

    According to Politico, Chao selected Transportation Department aide Todd Inman to serve as an intermediary to McConnell and state officials in Kentucky — the state for which he has been serving as a U.S. senator since the mid-1980s.

    Walter Shaub, former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, has denounced the arrangement as wildly inappropriate. “We are now a full-fledged banana republic,” Shaub posted on Twitter. “We have nothing to teach the rest of the world except what not to be.”

    Shaub also tweeted, “This is the sort of thing that should lead to the impeachment of a corrupt official — that is, if her corrupt husband weren’t in a position to block that impeachment.”

    Silicon Valley techie Adam Rifkin, in response to Shaub’s “banana republic” comment, tweeted, “How many of Mitch McConnell’s favored projects for Kentucky are funded by Russian oligarchs?”

    “This is the sort of thing that should lead to the impeachment of a corrupt official — that is, if her corrupt husband weren’t in a position to block that impeachment. We are now a full-fledged banana republic. We have nothing to teach the rest of the world except what not to be” per Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) June 10, 2019

    John Hudak of the Brookings Institution asserted that while Chao’s actions aren’t illegal, they are a huge conflict of interest. Hudak told Politico, “There’s nothing illegal about her steering those funds to her husband’s home state, and her home state, as long as things are aboveboard. The question, though, is: how do you deal with conflicts of interests? And this is a clear conflict”

    http://bit.ly/2ZpfsZP

20. Pathetic right-wingers that JethroBodine supports IGNORE 9/11 heroes just like Twittler

    Republican Blowhard Jim Jordan Skips 9/11 Responders Hearing A Day After Accusing Democrats Of Having No Priorities

    On Monday Jim Jordan wanted to make perfectly clear that he thought the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing with Richard Nixon’s former White House Counsel John Dean was a complete waste of time

    “I don’t know if they accomplished anything, but this is their pattern,” said Jordan, complaining that all Democrats wanted to do with their committee power was hurt Trump

    So it was a notable when just a day later, when his committee held an emotional hearing about getting health care for 9/11 first responders sickened by their exposure to toxic dust and chemicals at Ground Zero, Jordan was nowhere to be found

    Jon Stewart received a standing ovation from 9/11 first responders after slamming lawmakers for failing to fund programs providing healthcare to the first responders https://abcn.ws/2Tk3IrO

    When it came time to discuss a concrete issue that had nothing to do with Trump investigations, House Democrats were there — and Jordan, for all his bluster, was not

    http://bit.ly/2XHXQI0

21. Yep, JethroBodine and the Mango MOron supports love 9/11 victims when they can be a flag-waving prop, but ignore them when they need the help

    ‘The Hypocrisy Is Stunning’: Jon Stewart Destroys Republicans (On FOX no less) For Opposing 9/11 Victim Fund In Shep Smith Interview

    During an interview with Fox host Shepard Smith on Tuesday, Jon Stewart shamed Republicans in Congress for opposing efforts to reauthorize a measure to provide health care to 9/11 survivors

    Stewart has been pushing Congress to reauthorize the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, which provides financial support to those who have suffered serious medical issues after the 2001 attacks

    “What we’re saying is, just renew the VCF Fund. There’s no fraud. It runs beautifully. It’s an incredible program. Look, this was war. These are the casualties of war. We can’t stop supporting them because they can no longer serve us. That is not an imaginable outcome for this” Stewart said on Fox

    Smith wondered who specifically was opposed to extending the program

    “I would say it’s the so-called fiscal hawks who despite passing a $1.5 trillion corporate tax cut for Exxon now claim that the percentage, which is basically a rounding error off of the deficit, is going to maybe blow up the country ten years from now” Stewart said.

    “It’s irresponsible, it’s disingenuous. If I read you some of the tweets and quotes that these individuals write about these 9-11 first responders and how we owe them such a great debt and how our freedom is based on their character and their struggle and then turn around and vote the bills down, the hypocrisy is stunning” Stewart pointed out

    http://bit.ly/2XAQTIG

22. Wonder where the mouth breakers at “Judical”Watch that JethroBodine thinks are so smart are….

    HHS Being Sued Over Policy Giving Special Religious Rights To Healthcare Professionals Over Lgbt People And Women

    The Trump administration’s Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) is facing two separate lawsuits just filed by the ACLU and by Planned Parenthood. The filings seek to strike down a new policy that would give people of faith special religious rights to discriminate, especially against LGBT people and women

    The new policy would provide “conscience protections” to health care workers and professionals. Those protections would allow, say, a doctor to not perform an abortion, even to save the life of a mother. They would allow, for example, a physician or nurse practitioner to reject a gay man on the grounds his very being violates their religious beliefs

    Courthouse News’ Adam Klasfeld posted a portion of the lawsuit which says the Refusal of Care Rule would “allow almost any health care provider – including hospitals or individual workers in the health care setting … to refuse to provide, assist with, or refer for virtually any health service, based solely on a personal objection”

    The rule would also make it legal to withhold information from patients AND without telling them

    The new HHS rule is merely the extension of a Trump administration plan to decimate the rights of women and minorities, under the guise of religious freedom. It is being enacted by Roger Severino, a far right wing religious extremist who now heads HHS’s Office for Civil Rights

    Severino once served as the CEO and counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a far right wing religious legal organization. He also worked for The Heritage Foundation, and for the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society. The Human Rights Campaign has called him a “radical anti-LGBTQ activist”

    Severino is a defender of the discredited practice of conversion therapy, argued transgender service members ‘dishonors’ the military, and insisted that anti-LGBTQ discrimination is based not on any sort of hatred but, in fact, out of love

    http://bit.ly/2XAjfD2

23. Republicans Admit They Lied: Trump Tax Cuts Won’t Pay For Themselves

    The architect behind the Trump tax cuts for the rich, Rep. Kevin Brady (right-winger from Texass) admitted that the tax cuts aren’t going to pay for themselves

    The Washington Post reported:

    Kevin Brady, a lead architect of the GOP tax bill, suggested Tuesday the tax cuts may not fully pay for themselves, contradicting a promise Republicans made repeatedly while pushing the law in late 2017

    Pressed about what portion of the tax cuts were fully paid for Brady said it was “hard to know”

    “We will know in year 8, 9 or 10 what revenues it brought in to the government over time. So it’s way too early to tell” said Brady at the Peterson Foundation’s annual Fiscal Summit in Washington

    The deficit has exploded at a time when it should be shrinking because tax cuts do not pay for themselves. The tax cut was a giveaway for the wealthy and corporations. Republicans will now wring their hands in worry and concern over the deficit, which they will use as a pretext for their plan to cut social programs, Medicare, Medicaid, and harm the poor

    The American people didn’t want these tax cuts. The bill was drafted with special interest groups behind closed doors. The tax cuts are so unpopular that Republicans won’t run on them. Republicans lied, but rich people and corporations got their tax cut, and the first order of business for the next Democratic president and Congress will be to kill the Trump tax cut once and for all

    http://bit.ly/2Xzswet

24. Trump Delivered A Rage-Filled Rant On The White House South Lawn

    Trump went off on an angry rant on the White House South Lawn Tuesday that included attacks on his political rivals, as well as effusive praise for North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Over the course of 15 or so minutes, Trump attacked former Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the news media, even as he had warm words for authoritarian leaders with well documented histories of human rights abuses on a mass scale

    Here are the five CRAZIEST moments from Trump’s impromptu rant below

    1.) Trump pulls out a single piece of paper and claims it’s his secret agreement with Mexico. Trump insisted that he had a secret, unreported deal with the Mexican government and to prove it, he pulled out a single piece of paper. Trump refused to show reporters the piece of paper and then put it back in his pocket but insisted that it was real saying “I’m going to let Mexico do the announcement at the right time”

    ABC News points out that “Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Minister says there are NO undisclosed parts of US-Mexico deal”

    2.) Trump attacks Biden as “mentally weak” and lashed out at the former vice president and predicted that his more liberal challengers would soon bring down his presidential campaign, as he noted that some of them were drawing larger crowds

    3.) Trump claims that “nobody has treated farmers better” than he has, even as American farmers struggle under the fallout of his trade wars, even though farm bankruptcies in the Midwest have risen sharply over the last year thanks in part to his trade war, but Cheetolini insisted that farmers are doing better than ever thanks to him

    4.) Trump gushes over another “beautiful” letter from Kim Jong-un. In contrast to his attacks on domestic critics, the president couldn’t stop saying nice things about Kim. Trump said that he was happy to receive a “beautiful letter” from the North Korean leader, and then insisted that things were going just fine with his plans to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, even though the North Koreans have still literally done nothing to draw down their nuclear program

    Most strangely, Trump seemed apologetic about reports that the CIA had used Kim’s half-brother as a spy on the regime, saying “I saw the information about the CIA with respect to his half-brother and I would tell him that would not happen under my auspice, that’s for sure”

    5.) Trump lashes out against “fake polls” that show him losing the 2020 presidential race. Trump accused the news media of pushing “fake polls” intended to “suppress” turnout among his supporters that show him losing the 2020 race in key states like Iowa and Pennsylvania, yammering “We’re going to win Texas by a lot, we’re going to win Iowa by a lot. We’re going to win Pennsylvania we’re going to do very well. They’re fake polls, just like the fake media here”

    Maybe JethroBodine can share Twittler some psychoactive meds

    http://bit.ly/2XDgDnK

25. Day 873: Not Off The Table

    1/ The White House will review and decide what evidence from Robert Mueller’s report the House Judiciary Committee gets to see. The Trump administration will work with the Justice Department and is expected to assert executive privilege to limit the documents the committee has access to. (Daily Beast)

    📌 Day 872: The Justice Department agreed to provide Congress with “key evidence” collected by Robert Mueller related to obstruction of justice and abuse of power by Trump. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said “Mueller’s most important files” will be available to all committee members, allowing “us to perform our constitutional duties and decide how to respond to the allegations laid out against the President by the Special Counsel.” The House Judiciary Committee, however, moved no closer to securing testimony from Mueller or other figures, such as former White House counsel Donald McGahn, who has declined to testify, citing Trump administration lawyers. (New York Times / CNN / Washington Post)

    2/ The House authorized committee chairs to sue the Trump administration in federal court to enforce a series of subpoenas. The House Judiciary Committee can now begin legal proceedings to enforce the panel’s subpoenas for Mueller’s evidence and force former White House Counsel Donald McGahn to cooperate with the panels’ probe into whether Trump obstructed justice. The move also empowers other committee chairmen to seek enforcement of their own subpoenas for testimony and documents, such as Trump’s tax returns. The measure, however, stopped short of a criminal contempt citation for Attorney General William Barr and McGahn. (Politico / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg)

    The Justice Department advised Trump to invoke executive privilege to block House Democrats’ access to documents about efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd threatened the blanket assertion of privilege if the House Oversight and Reform Committee proceeds with a scheduled vote on Wednesday to hold Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress. (Politico)

    3/ Trump Jr. will be interviewed by Senate Intelligence Committee behind closed doors on Wednesday. The Republican-led committee subpoenaed Trump Jr last month, angering Trump and his allies. Trump Jr. will testify for two-to-four hours on a half dozen topics, including the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting and the Trump Tower Moscow project. (CNN)

    📌 Day 840: Mick Mulvaney criticized Republicans for not informing him that Trump Jr. would be subpoenaed by the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of its ongoing probe into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. The acting White House chief of staff called it “bad form” to “not at least get a heads-up” from the Republican-led committee. Senator Richard Blumenthal said that “If [Trump Jr.] fails to comply with a lawful subpoena, he has no privilege, prison is the only answer.” Trump Jr. is expected to assert his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination in order to resist testifying about his contacts with Russia. (Washington Post / Politico / CNN / The Hill / Reuters)

    📌 Day 839: The Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenaed Trump Jr. to answer questions about his previous testimony related to the Russia investigation. Trump Jr. testified before the committee in September 2017 that he was only “peripherally aware” of the proposed plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Michael Cohen, however, told a House committee earlier this year that he had met with both Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump “approximately 10” times to brief them about the Trump Tower plan. The Republican-led committee wants Trump Jr. to answer questions about his claim to have limited knowledge of the plan. (Axios / CNBC / New York Times)

    📌 Day 680: Trump Jr.’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee conflicts with Michael Cohen’s version of events regarding negotiations of a prospective Trump Tower in Moscow. In Cohen’s version, he says the discussions with at least one Russian government official continued through June 2016. Trump Jr. testified in September 2017 that talks surrounding a Trump Tower in Moscow concluded without result “at the end” of 2014 and “certainly not [20]16. There was never a definitive end to it. It just died of deal fatigue.” Trump Jr. told the Senate committee that he “wasn’t involved,” knew “very little,” and was only “peripherally aware” of the deal other than a letter of intent was signed by Trump. He also said he didn’t know that Cohen had sent an email to Putin’s aide, Dmitry Peskov. In Cohen’s guilty plea, he said he briefed Trump’s family members about the continued negotiations. (NPR / USA Today)

    4/ Speaker Nancy Pelosi said impeachment is “not off the table,” but that the Democratic caucus is “not even close” to moving forward with impeaching Trump. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, meanwhile, has twice urged Pelosi in private to open a formal impeachment inquiry. (CNN / Axios / Politico)

    Rep. Justin Amash stepped down from the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, which he co-founded, less than a month after becoming the first Republican to admit that Trump committed impeachable offenses. Amash said he “didn’t want to be a further distraction for the group” after tweeting that Mueller’s report contained “multiple examples” of Trump committing obstruction of justice. Trump called Amash “a loser for a long time.” Amash is now facing a primary challenge from a Trump supporter. (CNN / Fox News / Politico / Axios / Washington Post)
    poll/ 70% of American voters say the economy is “excellent” or “good,” but only 41% of voters say Trump deserves credit for it. Another 27% said Trump does not deserve credit and 28% say the economy is “not so good” or “poor.” (Quinnipiac)

    Notables

    Trump ordered his aides to lie about the results of his campaign’s internal polling efforts in key battleground states. After he was briefed on the results of a 17-state poll conducted by his campaign pollster, Tony Fabrizio, Trump told aides to publicly deny that he was trailing Joe Biden in states like Texas, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. When details about the polls leaked, he also told aides to say publicly that other polling data showed him doing well. (New York Times / The Week)

    The Trump campaign is considering putting resources into Oregon – a state where Hillary Clinton beat Trump by 11 percentage points in 2016. (CNN)

    Three Republican former heads of the EPA accused the agency’s current leadership of taking a “catastrophic” approach to climate change by “undermining [the] science.” (ABC News)

    Mike Pence confirmed that American embassies were banned from flying the pride flag on their embassy flagpoles, calling it “the right decision.” Pence added that “when it comes to the American flagpole, and American embassies and capitals around the world, one American flag flies.” (Washington Post / USA Today / NBC News)

    Trump’s former Chief of Staff Reince Preibus joined the Navy. Preibus was sworn in as an entry-level officer by Pence during a commissioning ceremony. (Washington Post)

    Trump appears to be having second thoughts about his next secretary of defense. Last week, Trump asked several confidants about alternative candidates for nominee Patrick Shanahan. (NBC News)

    Trump distinguished between himself and Richard Nixon about the possibility of impeachment. “He left. I don’t leave,” Trump said. “A big difference.” (Politico)

    http://bit.ly/2Zj4ftv

26. Rachel Maddow Reveals New Scandal That Could Sink Mitch McConnell

    Rachel Maddow pointed out that the latest scandal in Trump’s cabinet could be the worst of all because it could impact a key member of the Republican-controlled Senate: Mitch McConnell

    As the MSNBC host pointed out, Transportation Sec. Elaine Chao – wife of McConnell – has been using her office not only to benefit herself and her family but also to help her husband as he runs for reelection

    Maddow noted that Chao is “using taxpayer resources to try to hook up her family’s company in China and maintaining a whole parallel project approval system specifically to benefit her husband who runs the Senate” and summarized the explosive scandal:

    “Her (Chao’s) department is denying that there’s any impropriety whatsoever, but literally this is the transportation secretary of the United States secretly profiting off her job by investing in the country’s biggest road-building company while she’s transportation secretary, and using taxpayer resources to try to hook up her family’s company in China and maintaining a whole parallel project approval system specifically to benefit her husband who runs the U.S. Senate and who oversaw her confirmation there, and who has been given millions of dollars himself by her family. Why do they have millions of dollars? Because they run that company that she has used her office to promote. This is B movie stuff”

    As Maddow pointed out on Tuesday, this scandal alone – a transportation secretary using her position to get rich and help the Senate majority leader win reelection – would end any other administration. It would be the fuel for any potential Democratic nominee looking to unseat the incumbent president

    What makes this scandal particularly egregious is that it’s not isolated to the executive branch. It expands into the Republican-controlled Senate

    Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is literally profiting financially and politically from his wife’s position in the Trump administration. If you’re wondering why the Senate majority leader has sold his soul to protect this corrupt and unfit president, look no further

    http://bit.ly/2ZkEVTW

27. Fox Nation Star Tyrus Accused of Sexual Harassment by Co-Host

    Former pro-wrestler Tyrus was booted off his Fox Nation show after his co-host Britt McHenry filed a sexual harassment complaint against him with Fox News management. Sources confirmed to that McHenry complained the ex-wrestler sent her multiple unsolicited text messages containing lewd, sexual comments

    Last week, The Daily Beast reported that Tyrus was kicked off after an unspecified personal dispute with McHenry. Since then, multiple sources have confirmed to The Daily Beast that the dispute centered around McHenry’s contention that Tyrus had, on multiple occasions, sent her unwanted and unsolicited text messages with lewd, sexual comments

    Fox News brass was aware of the harassment complaint against one of its streaming service’s most high-profile hosts, these sources confirmed, but ultimately decided to move Tyrus, born George Murdoch, off Un-PC and onto his own new show called NUFFSAID

    McHenry’s complaint to management about the eccentric Fox personality wasn’t all that surprising to some of his colleagues. Two sources who have worked at Fox News told The Daily Beast that Tyrus has long had a reputation for regularly making off-color or “politically incorrect” remarks or jokes. “He’s got a wild sense of humor, if we’re being generous,” one current female Fox employee said.

    In early 2017, Bill O’Reilly was fired after The New York Times exposed at least five sexual harassment claims settled by the long-time Fox News star, and a year later, Eric Bolling left the network after multiple colleagues accused him of sending lewd text messages. Both men denied the respective allegations against them.

    The ex-wrestler has continued to regularly appear on Fox News as the face of Fox’s streaming-only service, including an appearance on his pal Greg Gutfeld’s show this past weekend.

    McHenry joined Fox News last year following a multi-year stint as a reporter at ESPN. She was paired up on the show with Tyrus, a former WWE wrestler who has become a frequent commentator on Fox News thanks in part to his friendship with Gutfeld, who calls Tyrus—a former bodyguard for Snoop Dogg—his “massive sidekick”

    In recent months, as McHenry’s complaints became known at Fox, Tyrus himself has occasionally talked about workplace misconduct on-air. Appearing on Fox News host Dana Perino’s daytime news show in mid-April, around the same time as his exit, Tyrus warned viewers against sending text messages to coworkers unless they had a “strong relationship”

    And long before that, while appearing on Gutfeld’s show, Tyrus made a bold declaration about misbehaving men: “If you are found guilty of sexual harassment in the workplace… I think you should have to register as a sex offender”

    http://bit.ly/2ZkGbq8

28. Former US Attorney and Law Professor Explained Mueller Report To GOP Idiots’ Faces, And It Was LOVELY!

    If you missed Joyce White Vance’s opening statement, former US Attorney and law professor, you missed an opportunity to watch a brilliant woman take those morons to school on what’s actually in the Mueller Report. If you’ve been playing hooky on reading the Obstruction of Justice volume of the document, allow Professor Vance to tell you the business:

    She began: “Let me cut to the chase, because I am a law professor, so I’ll start with some basic legal context” because, you know, in case anybody in the room is a Republican who doesn’t know things, OH HEY MATT GAETZ, ANY RUN-INS WITH THE LAW LATELY?

    Vance explained that the rules of the road for prosecutors are that they are only to indict somebody if they can “obtain and sustain a conviction.” In other words, if they’re confident they’ll win the case, and also win on appeal. She explained how the Mueller Report details each and every instance of possible obstruction of justice by Donald Trump, and how they square up with the three necessary elements to prove obstruction: “an obstructive act, a nexus between that act and an official proceeding, and corrupt intent.” She noted the current DOJ policy that says you can’t indict a sitting president, therefore Mueller chose not even to consider whether the extensive evidence he laid out constituted crimes.

    Joyce White Vance, however, is not bound by that DOJ memo, and she can tell you super easy if Trump is a criminal, or in prosecutor-speak, if she would indict this case based on whether she could “obtain and sustain a conviction”

    “Based on my years of experience as a prosecutor, if I was assessing that evidence as to a person other than a sitting president, the facts contained in that report would be sufficient to prove all of the elements necessary to charge multiple accounts of obstruction of justice. The evidence is NOT equivocal, nor is the charging decision a close call. And I would be willing to personally indict the case and try the case. I would have confidence that the evidence would be sufficient to obtain a guilty verdict, and to win on appeal”

    And what is that evidence? What is the crux of this matter, and why do the president’s obvious crimes matter? Take it away, Professor, with the simplest two-sentence explanation of the Mueller Report we’ve seen so far:

    “There was an attack by a foreign country on our country and on our elections. And on multiple occasions the president tried to thwart the investigation, curtail it, or end it completely, by removing Robert Mueller outright, or by interfering with his ability to gather evidence”

    Then she gave examples, like the time Trump ordered his White House counsel Don McGahn to have Robert Mueller fired, and then later — when news reports about that criminal order came out — ordered McGahn to create a false record saying NUH UH the president did not commit that particular crime. Read about it in the Mueller Report!

    And the time when Trump, thwarted by McGahn, decided maybe he could get Corey Lewandowski (a private citizen) to threaten then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s job by leaning on Sessions to un-recuse himself from the investigation — and then to kill with fire all the parts of the investigation that had to do with the 2016 election attack (you know, the election attack that bought Trump’s way into office) and only focus on election attacks of the future. Read about that in the Mueller Report too!

    In other words, Trump said DO NOT INVESTIGATE the actual attack on our nation that happened. And people are pissed off when we say his entire presidency gives aid and comfort to our enemies? And then there were Trump’s personal threats to Jeff Sessions, his dangling of pardons for the criminals who surrounded him like Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, and SO MUCH MORE

    Joyce White Vance has read the Mueller Report, unlike those Republicans on the committee, and we know most Americans won’t have time to read every single word, but that five minute opening statement you see above really tells the bare bones story every American needs to know

    http://bit.ly/2Zo2HhN

29. Ruh-Roh, JethroBodine may need an extra Scooby-Snack (with Xanax) to help get over this…..

    Disastrous Even For Dogcatcher: Twitter Users Taunt Trump Over Brutal New Poll

    New poll numbers show every major 2020 rival beating the president handily, with Joe Biden ahead by 13 points

    Trump received some bad numbers on Tuesday when a new poll showed his top potential 2020 rivals beating him handily. The Quinnipiac poll gave former Vice President Joe Biden a 13-point lead over Trump (53-40) and the rest of the numbers weren’t much better

    The new 2020 head-to-heads national Quinnipiac poll

    Biden 53% Trump 40%
    Sanders 51% Trump 42%
    Harris 49% Trump 41%
    Warren 49%, Trump 42%
    Buttigieg 47% Trump 42%
    Booker 47% Trump 42%

    Conservative attorney George Conway, a frequent Trump critic despite the fact that his wife, Kellyanne Conway, is a White House counselor, noted that Trump’s ceiling in the poll was 42%

    “That’s disastrous for any incumbent, whether he or she is running for dogcatcher or president” Conway wrote on Twitter

    Others were even blunter in their assessment, causing “Trump 41%” to trend on Twitter, where some folks even made jokes about all the things that might beat Trump in 2020:

    Colonoscopy 54% over Trump 39%
    Stepping on Legos 50% over Trump 41%
    Pizza Rat 49% over Trump 41%
    Root Canal 46% over Trump 42%
    Devin Nunes 🐮 Cow 53% even whips Trump 41%

    http://bit.ly/2Zn82Gq

30. Delusion Collusion has made “Comrade” Ronnie manic

    • Deluded 👶 (ab)Norm uses the same drive-by ignorance as his buddy Burnie, which is pretty pathetic. I think he needs some new 🖍

      Need a tissue? 😤😤😤😤😤

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